- Coup Night
- Television Coverage
- Impotent Tweeting
- Police Reports
- Summer Peril
- Yesterday's Catch
- Bernie Irrelevant
- Aquarelle Restaurant
- Issue Nuts
- Exercise
- Starving People
- Police Dogs
- Babbitt Waterfix
- Dab OD
- Mendocino Theatre
- CPUC Tour
- Dance Party
- Frisco Morning
- Book Chats
LETTER FROM ISTANBUL: The Night of the Coup
by James Tressler
The Bosphorus Bridge was shut down, guarded by soldiers. Military jets were reported flying over Ankara. My wife Ozge noticed these out-of-the-blue, strange developments as we were getting ready for bed Friday night.
“What’s going on?” I asked, thinking maybe it was some routine security precaution following the Nice terror attacks the day before. Like most people, we were still reeling from that horror. Hell, we were still reeling from the attacks at Ataturk Airport the week before that.
“No, it’s not that,” my wife said, with a puzzled expression. “I think it might be a military coup.”
Come on — a military coup? On a Friday night? No way. I mean, I’ve lived in Turkey long enough to know the country has had its history of coups — the big one in 1980, most notably, and others in the Nineties. But that was a long time ago.
A military coup? Seriously?
It was after ten, and my wife had to work in the morning. Instead, we found ourselves getting out of bed and going to our laptops. The social media was all down — well, Facebook worked long enough for me to reassure anxious family back home that we were safe.
We turned on the news. Ozge’s mother called as well. The reports were scattered, conflicting, vague. There were reports of soldiers detaining police, of the bridges shut down, of jets flying over Ankara. Then we heard the jets over Istanbul as well.
Was a military coup happening?
We still couldn’t be sure. News reports initially suggested it was small faction of the military. Then, we got reports that the military had taken over one of the major TV stations, and forced the anchorman to read an announcement.
Even more surreal, on TRT, the anchorwoman managed to get a hold of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan via her mobile. She actually held up the mobile, so that we could see the president of the nation, looking like he was holed up in a bunker somewhere, urging citizens to stand with him, to decry this “illegal action.”
It was really surreal, as I said. Can you imagine your president almost looking like he was in hiding, almost whispering into a phone?
We stayed up — not sure if my wife would be able to go to work in the morning now. By 1 a.m., the coup appeared to be official, with the military announcing a curfew. Citizens were not allowed to go outside, pending further notice. The BBC and CNN also were reporting there had been a coup.
On Turkish TV, Erdogan appeared in public, looking more composed, albeit a bit shaken. That was new — he always projects this image of self-assuredness. He spoke to reporters, reiterating his message that the military’s action was illegal, and calling on the nation to denounce the coup.
My wife just then had a very practical suggestion: “Let’s go and see if any shops are still open,” she said.
Good idea: You didn’t know how long this craziness would last, or where it was all going.
Only one market was still open on our street. Already a long line had formed outside, and people were hastily snapping up food and water. Thankfully, we had just done our big monthly shopping trip a few days before, and were stocked up on food. For now, we just wanted to make sure we had enough cigarettes.
As we waited in line, we could hear people in front of us. They weren’t even talking about the coup, and instead were chatting of other things. “Guess they’re used to coups in Turkey,” I joked.
“I still can’t believe this is happening,” Ozge said. “I refuse to believe it.”
We still wondered if she would have to go to work in the morning, if there were restrictions on travel. Already we’d heard that the main highway down the street from our neighborhood had been ordered closed, and I wondered if the metro and ferries would also be closed.
We got our cigs, and started home. Down the street, groups of youths, men, were shouting something in unison.
“They’re shouting support for the president,” my wife said, nervously. We’re no strangers to unrest in Turkey, but were in no mood now to run into charged up hooligans looking to get their load on, especially with me as a foreigner.
“Come on,” she urged. Holding hands, we ran a bit, crossing the street to our apartment complex. It was a bit nerve-racking, for sure. You felt suddenly like Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Part 2, when he’s in Cuba and all of a sudden the streets are filled with pro-Castro revolutionaries. The ground under you suddenly seems to be spinning.
Back upstairs at the apartment, we checked the news. The former president was talking with reporters, more or less repeating the same message that Erdogan had given earlier, how the military coup was illegal and citizens needed to show their support for the government.
Facebook was working again, and there were lots of messages from concerned friends in America. “What is this I hear?” my former Times-Standard editor messaged. “The president (of Turkey) claims the coup failed and the military claims it didn’t fail.”
We were still trying to figure that out ourselves. By then, it was nearly 2 a.m. You wanted to go to bed, but wanted to stay up too, afraid you’d miss something.
Meanwhile, the military appeared to be clamping down everywhere in the city, at least the key points. Our neighborhood was still quiet as always. Still, you could almost feel the walls closing in. You wondered how long this would go on, this bizarre theater. That’s what it felt like: You kept waiting for some announcement, like: From now on, all citizens will wear their underwear on the outside, and you would just take it in stride, go to the toilet and make the awkward adjustment.
My wife got a message from her work. She had to go in, after all. Damn.
“Why can’t you just call in and say you can’t come?” I protested. “I mean, you’ve got a good excuse!” For the life of me, I couldn’t imagine the palace where she works would actually be open. How many tourists are going to want to take a tour when the country is in the middle of an apparent military coup?
My wife just sighed, and continued watching the news. That’s about all you can do really. This is my first military coup, and I have a lot to learn, evidently.
(James Tressler, a former Lost Coast resident, is a writer and journalist living in Istanbul. Courtesy, LostCoastOutpost.com)
THE TELEVISION COVERAGE of the atrocity in France was repetitive for hours after the event, the only change being the body count, which rose every couple of hours. By this morning's fresh news cycle the gunman had been identified as a naturalized Frenchman born in Tunisia. He was apparently not affiliated with people assumed by French intelligence to be at least suspiciously jihadist, but a petty criminal who'd been to prison several times and mistreated his wife. The father of small children makes his random murders more inexplicable if you assume, like I do, that parents of small children would not drive into a crowd where children were present. The lunatic may be your generic lone nut.
THE TV NEWS runs along familiar tracks. You've got Wolf Blitzer, a wonderfully comic figure, perched in CNN's "situation room," spinning in his chair from one rapid fire graphic to the next interspersed with statements of the obvious from an array of knowledgeable people, all of them gift wrapped within safely liberal parameters. NPR audio coverage consists of experts from the Brookings Institute whose think tankers go back and forth between thinking and cush federal government positions. You won't hear any of them express a single thought outside received opinion. No one, of course, mentions that the origins of international mayhem was ignited by the Bush regime, helped along by Obama and people like Hillary.
THE MOST CORRUPT moment of the evening's news occurs when Anderson Cooper, a donor to and supporter of the Clinton campaign, brings on Hillary who strings out a few platitudes about how terrible it all is, as if she's just happened on the scene of a major accident when most people know she's either supported or initiated all of it.
FINALLY, we got the French president, a droning cliche machine who, it was revealed hours before the mass murder, spends $11,000 a month on his hair. This robotic figure is as far from leadership qualities as it's possible to be.
HERE AT HOME, a parade of fat guys, led by Newt Gingrich, a draft dodger, appear on screen to urge extreme measures. "Anybody who adheres to Sharia Law should be expelled from the country." Maybe Newt and the Fox News team plan on going door-to-door. "Excuse me, ma'am,' do you believe in wearing a tent and walking ten paces behind your husband and his other three wives?"
KATIE HOPKINS: "Mohamed took a truck and drove it into men, women and children celebrating Bastille day in Nice. He killed 84. And who yet knows of the horrors still to spew from hospital wards — lives fractured, crumpled, crushed. One minute they were jubilant, locals and tourists alike celebrating Bastille day together. The next, lying splintered on the floor. And the most sickening thing of all — worse than spilt blood, fractured bodies, children with legs contorted out of human control, the reek of death, is our horribly sanitized response to it all. Pathetic. Predictably impotent. Evil mowed us down in a monster truck. And we tweeted like lethargic birds between Egyptian cotton sheets."
GOTCHA, AMANDA
![Davis](https://i0.wp.com/www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/AmandaDavis.jpg?resize=119%2C188&ssl=1)
On July 7, 2016 at approximately 2pm Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Deputies were dispatched to a residence in the 1000 block of Lake Mendocino Drive in Ukiah for a report of s burglary. During the investigation, Deputies learned that Amanda Davis, 36, of Ukiah, was suspected of forcing entry into the 38 year old female victim's locked bedroom sometime in the early afternoon of July 6, 2016. The victim subsequently discovered that multiple items of jewelry were stolen. On July 7, 2016 at approximately 7pm Deputies contacted Davis in the 120 block of Feedlot Lane in Ukiah. During that contact, Deputies found and recovered the majority of items stolen from the victim's residence. Deputies also developed further evidence that connected Davis to the burglary. Davis was ultimately arrested for the listed violation and transported to Mendocino County Jail where she was to be held in lieu of $50,000 bail.
* * *
YOU TOO, KASSANDRA
![Phillips](https://i0.wp.com/www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/KassandraPhillips.jpg?resize=119%2C192&ssl=1)
On July 6, 2016 at approximately 1:20pm a Mendocino County Sheriff's deputy was on routine patrol in the downtown area of Covelo. The deputy observed a vehicle driving on Highway 162 near the intersection of Greely Street and identified a passenger in the vehicle as Kassandra Phillips, 26, of Covelo. The deputy observed that the vehicle did not have a front license plate and was aware that Phillips had an active felony warrant for her arrest for court operations assessment. The deputy performed a traffic stop on the vehicle and contacted Phillips. She informed the deputy that she was aware of the warrant for her arrest and she was placed under arrest without incident. Phillips was subsequently booked into the Mendocino County Jail where she was to be held on a no-bail status.
* * *
NOT WELL THOUGHT OUT
![Davis](https://i0.wp.com/www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/TimothyDavis.jpg?resize=119%2C180&ssl=1)
On July 10, 2016, at about 05:22am Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies were dispatched to the 23000 block of Refuse Road in Covelo regarding vehicle burglary. Upon arrival deputies learned that a vehicle parked at the location had been broken into and several items removed from the vehicle. While investigating the incident, deputies contacted Timothy Davis, 37, of Covelo, who was in possession of some of the items taken from the burglarized vehicle. Davis was subsequently arrested for burglary, and possession of stolen property. Davis was determined to be on parole for an unrelated incident and was arrested for violating his terms of parole. Davis was transported to the Mendocino County Jail and is being held without bail.
THE ELK CREEK FIRE earlier this week was one more reminder how dry it is out there, and how crucial CalFire's aerial firefighting capacity is to life in Mendocino County. Before, say, 1950, you lived off the pavement and deep in the hills at your annual summer peril.
CATCH OF THE DAY, July 15, 2016
![Avila, Marteeny, Powell, Raye](https://i0.wp.com/www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Bkg15a.jpg?resize=478%2C187&ssl=1)
DYLAN AVILA, Willits. Burglary, receiving stolen property, DUI.
ELLE MARTEENY, Navarro. Probation revocation.
LACEY POWELL, Redwood Valley. Failure to appear.
SIMON RAYE, Fort Bragg. Burglary, vandalism, criminal attempts, false emergency report, receiving stolen property.
(Background: https://www.theava.com/archives/58320#4
![Sanders, VonRembow, Tczap, Wood](https://i0.wp.com/www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Bkg15b.jpg?resize=478%2C182&ssl=1)
THOMAS SANDERS, Willits. Probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)
ANDREW VONREMBOW, Cameron Park (CA)/Ukiah. False impersonation of another.
GREGORY TCZAP, Littleton, Colorado/Fort Bragg. Battery.
BRIAN WOOD, Willits. Domestic battery, probation revocation.
UNLESS SANDERS supporters flock into the Green Party in larger numbers than anyone now expects, or unless large numbers of them resist calls to jump onto the Hillary bandwagon in other ways, it does look like the point of the Sanders campaign was indeed to use peoples’ longing for a better world as a ploy for easing Hillary’s way back into the White House.
What Sanders says is that, by endorsing Clinton, he is saving the world from Donald Trump. Maybe he believes that. Whether he does or not, there is a technical term for that kind of excuse: “bullshit.”
We don’t need Bernie to save the world from Trump; Trump is doing a good enough job of that on his own, aided and abetted by bona fide Republicans even more vile than he. What Bernie does is irrelevant. (Andrew Levine)
UNSOLICITED PLUG: The Aquarelle Restaurant in Boonville, Christine Jones, chef. And a talented chef she is. First, a confession: I'm a food-as-fuel guy, not a three hour dinner in a fancy restaurant guy. I get hungry, I want to eat, not linger. Aquarelle serves really good food in lickety-split fashion. Nothing pretentious about the place. Price? There were three of us. $140 for three with two bottles of an excellent wine called Yorkville Semillon and a shared desert, we spent $140. I'm not a wine drinker either, ordinarily, but that stuff was good.
A LADY walked into the office not long ago, took a look around, and said, "You guys are too fat." She was emaciated and could barely pull the stairs but advised me and my colleague to "go vegan" and, while we were at it, re-think our commitment to gluten. "Who's Gluten?" I asked. Always a mistake to either joke or attempt a give and take discussion with a food nut. Or an animal nut. Or a health nut. Or a conspiracy nut. (Paranoids were arguing on MCN last week this proposition: Is Michelle Obama a woman?) Discussions with plain old fashioned nut-nuts can be fun.
ACCORDING to the latest stats, American women weigh in at 180, men at an average of 230. I weigh exactly 230, although I never weigh myself unless I have to at the doctor's office. While not exactly, ahem, what you'd call svelte, I can easily walk for three or four hours including long uphill stretches and can do about 30 push-ups, especially if some guy says, "I'll bet you a shot and a beer you can't do five." Got the pulse of a kid, no sign of diabetes. I eat meat, potato chips, ice cream, Yorkville cookies, and whatever else is put in front of me. I drink beer and whiskey, occasionally to excess. I'm 77 next week. Not bragging here, but it's the exercise that's the diff. Diets don't work unless you get up off it. If I don't get at least one big sweat a day, I have trouble sleeping. Been doing it for years, and it's movement that seems to have overcome all the rest of my bad habits.
STARVE THEM OUT?
To the Editor, The AVA
Hey, Let's Starve the Homeless
Bruce Anderson raised up in his rant last week about homelessness and the local Lib/Labs to attack the soup kitchens: “Homelessness cannot be solved by funneling millions more public dollars into existing bureaucracies and bumbling apparatuses like Hospitality House in Fort Bragg and Plowshares in Ukiah. These programs have become THE problem,” he lectured. “If you help a person addicted to alcohol and/or drugs by giving him a free meal every day and just enough tangible help to enable him or her to continue to drink and drug, YOU are the problem.” Oh preach to us, Bruce!
I've worked chopping food in the Plowshares kitchen for eight years now and have seen little I would label as bumbling in their operation. I have seen families and children at the dining tables but have not seen drunken or drugged people scarfing down the free food. Plowshares provides no housing, only meals. So why are you attacking the soup kitchens when your concern seems to be housing? Bruce, would you have us merely stop feeding the hungry and let them starve in the underpasses where they could await John McCowen's clean up crew? It might reduce the litter under the Talmage overpass, a problem of paramount concern to our Mendo Lib/Labs. Starving people good / dirty streets bad?
Lighten up Bruce.
Jim Houle, Redwood Valley
ED REPLY: Soup kitchens are necessary in lieu of a real homeless strategy, but to spend millions on existing non-profits, all run by very well paid people, as a real homeless strategy, not only lets the government off the hook is cruel, even by limo lib standards. Of course if you think it's humane to permit the insane and all the many thousands of people dying on the streets from alcoholism and drug addiction just enough help so they can continue to die uncared for and unhoused, we don't have anything more to talk about.
PS. Sheriff Allman's interim psychiatric center is a step in the right direction here in "progressive" Mendocino County. At the state and federal levels we need a revival of state hospitals and a federally-funded housing program, neither of which is likely with the two worst candidates for president we've ever seen in this country.
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
I’m a law abiding citizen, I don’t drink or use drugs anymore, but I can’t get over how badly I hate police dogs. I know, it’s a problem and maybe I shouldn’t hate them. It’s just they are so abused and misused. The police always say “the dog indicated drugs so we searched”. It’s always an option for a warrantless search. The dogs are scary and intimidating too. They have a police dog in the Del Norte County High School. I think it’s pretty f’ed up the kids have to grow up under stress and intimidation by the dogs presence. The dogs are trained to detain you and will bite! We’ve all seen the training video on tv where the dog latches onto a humans arm to take them down. If my dog did that to a police man, it would be shot dead. But if I harm a police dog, it’s prison time. They *are* wild animals and people have natural instincts to defend themselves against attacking animals. I feel nothing for the injured dog. I’m a super nice guy though! It’s just police dogs bug the hell out of me.
BROWN HIRES BRUCE BABBITT AS NEW POINT MAN FOR DELTA TUNNELS
by Dan Bacher
![Babbitt](https://i0.wp.com/www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Babbitt.jpg?resize=220%2C270&ssl=1)
Governor Jerry Brown has enlisted Bruce Babbitt, the former Secretary of Interior under the Clinton administration and former Governor of Arizona, to serve as a “special advisor” to the Brown administration on California WaterFix and other Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta matters.
The hiring of Babbitt was first revealed in an opinion piece by Sacramento Bee Editor Dan Morain published on July 14 entitled, “Brown calls on Bruce Babbitt, as time runs short for water fix.” (www.sacbee.com/...)
The California Natural Resources Agency did not publicly announce Mr. Babbitt's hire, which is very curious for the appointment of such a prominent former federal official.
“We were asked about it by the Sacramento Bee,” said Nancy Vogel, deputy secretary for communications at the California Natural Resources Agency and former reporter for the Sacramento Bee and Los Angeles Times.
“Mr. Babbitt has deep experience addressing complex natural resource issues and his counsel will be helpful as we work to resolve long-standing water supply and ecological challenges in the Delta - and balance human and environmental needs,” Vogel said. “Mr. Babbitt will be paid with state funds through the Department of Water Resources and will be working in both Washington, D.C. and California.”
His salary is approximately $10,000 a month, approximately $120,000 per year, according to Vogel.
Babbitt will be pushing for the completion of Jerry Brown’s Delta Tunnels, a Brown “legacy” project opposed by a coalition of recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Indian Tribes, family farmers, Delta residents, environmental justice advocates and Delta residents.
“We cannot sit on dead center,” Babbitt told Morain in an interview. “We must find a solution that meets all of the co-equal goals. So here I am.”
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta (RTD), responded to the news of his hiring by stating, “The former Interior Secretary has a long and illustrious career and is respected.”
“However, we are concerned that in the work he is doing on behalf of the California Department of Water Resources for Jerry Brown, we have yet another environmental leader clinging to the big water infrastructure projects of the past like the Delta Tunnels that will not solve the challenges posed by a megadrought and climate change.”
Bob Wright, senior counsel of Friends of the River, told Ellen Knickmeyer of the Associated Press that environmental group leaders want to meet with Babbitt to discuss alternatives to the Delta Tunnels.
The Environmental Water Caucus has submitted to state officials “A Sustainable Water Plan for California in May 2014 as a reasonable alternative to the Water Tunnels, but the Brown administration refuses to look at this or other proposals.. The plan is available at: ewccalifornia.org/....
Trinity River ROD signed, temperature control devices built
During his stint as Interior Secretary under President Clinton from 1993 to 2000, environmentalists, the Yurok, Hoopa Valley and Karuk tribes and fishing groups applauded Babbitt for signing the landmark Trinity River Record of Decision (ROD) in December 2000 just before he left office.
The decision, for the first time, allocated 47 percent of the river flows for fish and downstream needs and the other 53 percent for irrigation and hydropower needs.
Some fishing and environmental groups also praised Babbitt’s shepherding of the construction of the temperature control devices on Shasta Dam and Whiskeytown Reservoir to provide colder temperatures to restore winter-run and spring-run Chinook salmon.
In fact, I attended the ceremony for the unveiling of the temperature control device at Shasta Dam in 1998 with Larry Ward, then President of United Anglers of California, who appeared on stage with Babbitt and several other representatives of fishing and environmental groups.
After the event was over, Ward and I went to the only available place to eat, McDonald’s, and grabbed a couple of hamburgers. We saw Babbitt and his aide there and invited them to go fishing with us for rainbow trout on the Upper Sacramento River.
“I’d really love to go fishing with you, but I have to catch a plane in less than an hour,” Babbitt. “Thanks for the invitation.”
Babbitt oversaw controversial CalFed deal
However, Babbitt received much more critical reviews for his role in forging the CalFed deal between the Pete Wilson administration and the Clinton administration. The deal completely excluded recreational and fishing groups, Indian Tribes and most environmental groups, although several groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense and the Bay Institute, signed on.
“Peace has broken out,” claimed Governor Pete Wilson at the time.
In a major insult to fishermen throughout the state, organizers of the press conference to unveil the CalFed agreement in 1994 barred the late Zeke Grader, Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA), from the event. The outrage that Grader and recreational and commercial fishermen expressed to the State Legislature, Clinton Administration and Wilson Administration culminated in a special committee hearing convened by State Senator Tom Hayden challenging the exclusion of fishermen from the event and the process.
Twenty-two years later, Morain, a supporter of the Delta Tunnels, gushed about Babbitt’s new role in pushing conveyance in his article.
“Last week, Brown gave Babbitt a tour at the room where he stores the binders that hold 30,000 pages of science behind the governor’s proposal, twin tunnels, 40-feet in diameter, 30 miles long. Babbitt long ago concluded that a ‘conveyance’ is needed, if not the $15 billion-plug tunnels,” said Morain.
“If we don’t built (sic) the tunnels — sorry, if we don’t build a conveyance facility; I want to stay generic — we’re headed up a blind alley,” Babbitt told him.
Babbitt forecasts “absolutely apocalyptic consequences” if tunnels not built
Babbitt has apparently swallowed Jerry Brown’s false claims that if the tunnels aren’t built, the sea level rise resulting from climate change and an earthquake will destroy the levees holding the saltwater from the bay and ocean back, resulting in the destruction of the Delta as a water supply for cities and irrigators.
“If this impasse continues between Northern and Southern California, it may lead to absolutely apocalyptic consequences,” he told the Bee. “It could result in total victory or total defeat for one side or the other with unpredictable consequences. The impasse won’t go on forever.”
But Babbitt’s position as a promoter of the tunnels, a project that Delta advocates say is the most environmentally destructive public works project in California history, is not surprising when you consider the Babbitt has been mired in controversy since leaving the Department of Interior in 2001.
Interior Secretary joined law firm representing environmental destroyers
After leaving the Department of Interior in 2001, Babbitt took a job as chief counsel of the environmental litigation department of Latham & Watkins, an international law firm. He represented the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort and its effort to expand the resort and use wastewater to make artificial snow, clashing with Native Americans and environmentalists.
“Babbitt has long proclaimed to be a defender of the environment and a friend to Native Americans. But his actions betray his words,” the Save the Peaks Coalition said on its website. (https://web.archive.org/web/20060929110349/http://www.savethepeaks.org/babbitt.html)
But that’s just one of the many controversies that have marred Babbitt’s “environmentalist” image. The late Alexander Cockburn exposed the anti-environmental policies of Babbitt in his July 30, 2001 article, “Bruce Babbitt: Man Without Shame.” (http://www.counterpunch.org/2001/07/30/bruce-babbitt-man-without-shame/
“Within days of landing his new job as a counsel in the firm’s Environmental Litigation shop, Babbitt could be found at the annual gathering of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the $3 billion lobbying arm of the nuclear industry, cheerleading for the planned Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Dump, on Western Shoshone lands in Nevada,” Cockburn wrote.
Babbitt's law firm represented US Ecology, the nation's biggest radioactive waste hauler and a prime candidate to get millions in contracts if Yucca Mountain was approved.
Babbitt’s clients also included two of the biggest developers on the California coast: Washington Mutual, developers of the Ahmanson Ranch in Ventura County and the Hearst ranch at San Simeon below Big Sur. But Babbitt was already promoting the interests of land developers even before he left Interior, Cockburn pointed out.
“During his tenure at Interior, Babbitt ushered through hundreds of complex lands swaps and federal buyouts of private property where potential development plans had been stymied by environmental restrictions,” said Cockburn. “The deals often ended up with the developers getting much more money than their land is worth.”
Cockburn said the most high profile example was the Headwaters Forest bailout, “where corporate raider Charles Hurwitz ran off with more than $480 million for land that an Interior Department land appraiser concluded had a market value of less than $100 million.”
It is clear that Bruce Babbitt, like the Governor that he is now working for, has two faces. One is the “environmentalist” image that he continues to promote.
The other face is a long time cheerleader for environmentally devastating projects like the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Dump and the Arizona Snowbowl fiasco, so it should be no surprise that Babbitt is now receiving a $10,000 a month salary from the Department of Water Resources to promote the most environmentally destructive public works project in California history.
DABS WILL DO YA, ALL RIGHT
A READER WRITES: Thanks to "Dabbing," It Is Possible to Overdose on Marijuana.
I hope you can publish this info. Honey oil, or wax, dabs etc. It is very popular with kids. K2, btw, has nothing to do with pot, it’s died to resemble pot, but is way cheaper.
FINAL WEEKEND for Bob: A Life in Five Acts!
Don't miss your chance to see the wonderfully unique comedy BOB: A LIFE IN FIVE ACTS, directed by Ricci Dedola, at the Mendocino Theatre Company! The show closes this Sunday, July 17th.
"Bob's birth, alone, is worth the price of admission!"
Tickets are available at the box office, 707-937-4477, or online at http://mendocinotheatre.org/single-tickets/
View the trailers HERE and HERE.
THE CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION is holding a number of events today through Monday in your area:
Friday, July 15, 2016, 2:30 p.m., Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, Board Chambers Room 1070, 501 Low Gap Rd., Ukiah: Rural call completion issues, including outages that compromise access to 911 services
Saturday, July 16, 2016, 1 p.m., Karuk Tribe Council Chambers, 64101 Second Ave., Happy Camp: Rural call completion issues, including outages that compromise access to 911 services
Saturday, July 16, 2016, 2 p.m., Karuk Tribe Council Chambers, 64101 Second Ave., Happy Camp: Proceeding on proposed updates to California Lifeline
Monday, July 18, 2016, 5 p.m., Eureka City Hall Council Chambers, 531 K St., 2nd Floor, Eureka: Rural call completion issues, including outages that compromise access to 911 services; and proposed updates to California Lifeline
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Terrie Prosper
Director, News & Outreach Office
California Public Utilities Commission
Press Line: (415) 703-1366
tdp@cpuc.ca.gov
http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/
SUMMER DANCE PARTY!!
Saturday, July 23, 2016, 8:00 pm - 1:00 am
With Dj Sister Yasmin
Angelina's Bar (The Old Tradewinds)
400 South Main Street, Ft. Bragg, Ca 95437
21 And Over; No Cover Charge; Tips Appreciated
Information: 707-964-1700; 884-4703
Dance to the sizzling tropical rhythms of Cumbia, Salsa, Merengue, Banda and Reggae. Shake your Groove Thang to BLUES, Funk, Soul, Hip Hop, R&B, Disco, Oldies, and so much more! See you on the Dance Floor! One Nation Under A Groove!!
DJ Sister Yasmin Solomon
EARLY MORNING FRISCO
What Would You Like to Do?
Swami Sivananda said that one does many things for earning a few rupees, but too often does not find a couple of hours in the early morning for "acquiring the supreme wealth of Atma Jnana", which no dacoit can rob one of. He advises that one not bother oneself looking forward to petty promotions and increments. Rather, devote oneself to the acquisition of Atma Jnana. Six o'clock in the morning at San Francisco's Green Tortoise travel hostel, water being boiled in the hostel kitchen for the communal breakfast, and outside it's still. The Broadway party zone is quiet. I guess everybody is over at Washington Square Park doing headstands and realizing Atma Jnana. Sending out this email to inquire what others collaberatively would like to creatively do now. Lots of time. Lots of space. What would you do in this world if you knew that you could not fail?
Craig Louis Stehr
July 15, 2016
Email: CraigStehr@inbox.com
SNAK & YAK BOOK CHATS FOR TEENS
At the Ukiah Library
WEEKLY on Fridays 3:30-4:30 pm
Teens are invited to drop in to the Ukiah Library for book chats every Friday. Come talk with other teens about any books you want. We also share suggestions for what to read next, & sometimes experiment with various writing exercises like creating erasures or blackout poems. Our next meeting is Friday, July 22nd. Snacks will be provided c/o the Friends of the Ukiah Valley Library.
You can also follow District Teens on Facebook or Snapchat to stay informed about hot new books as well as teen events at the library: https://www.facebook.com/ukiahlibrarydistrictteens
Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/add/districtteens
For more information about the Ukiah Library Summer Reading Program, please contact: Melissa Eleftherion Carr at 707-467-4634 or
This fusion with favored buzz words, notions, and imagery now, in the case of bernie folks, has them turning on their hero. Creepy, but fully predicted.
re: ‘…fully predicted.’…
Predicted parts aren’t as interesting as the surprises, even if the predictions are accurate. Bernie did more than he expected, already. Probably spooked him, if he has vestigial sense enough. The rodeo ain’t over.
The rodeo not being over is the part i hope the bernie folks feeling burned soon recognize. Sanders will create lractical vehicles to elect people at all levels. Includes candidate teaining.
Times of Israel has an article about Jill Stein today http://www.timesofisrael.com/6-things-to-know-about-jill-stein-the-last-jewish-presidential-candidate-standing/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=aedaed6e11-2016_07_16&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-aedaed6e11-54760781
The Secret Government Kennedy’s speech before the American Newspaper Publishers Association.flv
https://youtu.be/-HqgPxshtf8
re: Latest attack in France. Last week a huge bomb was set off in an open air market in Baghdad. More than 250 men, women and children were slaughtered. I didn’t see the White House or the Eiffel Tower lit with the Iraqi colors, or Wolf (“if you will”) Blitzer spinning and yakking in his situation room.
Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia…etc., incur slaughter every day, brought to them chiefly by the US and its EU vassals.
The hypocrisy of Western wailing is stark.
re: ‘the stark hypocrisy of Western wailing,’…
Dear North America: The thing about the wailing is there’s such a filthy amount of profit in it. N. Americans whining about some mystery ‘terrorists’ everywhere, blazing away indiscriminately, GROWING terrorists by the bushel, working indiscriminate terror from Long Distance, and closer, and the Cash Registers roaring away, every round-trip. Wall-to-wall wailing. There’s never been a Big money-maker like it…yet.
You must have noticed how wildly bombing people stirred up North America against Everybody Else Everywhere on 911? Think we can make any real friends or any real headway in the Life business by bombing random beneficiaries back to the stone age? You think it ironic you’re doing this, AGAIN, to your so-called Cradle of Civilization? You need to try thinking, some. You might warm to it.
BBGrace: Yesterday you commented ‘Let’s not forget the Turks and the Armenian genocide’. I would also say remember the genocide should be genocides of 1914-23 since it includes genocides of Assyrian and Pontic and Anatolian Greeks. More than 3.5 million Christians were massacred.
“Assyrian” is a general umbrella term and includes Assyrians, Chaldeans (Catholic), Syriacs, Syrian (Eastern Orthodox), Nestorians, Jacobites, and Arameans. Kurds were militia partners with Ottoman soldiers in the massacres. Men and boys were killed often after extensive torture while the women and girls were sold as sex slaves.
After almost a hundred years the Kurds in atonement for their great grand fathers have been providing refugee for Christians from IS and Christians are fighting along side the Kurds.
Mr. Updegraff, my comment yesterday was in regards to the AVA’s attributing Bush etc for the unrest in the ME, my point being the ME has never known peace.
My issue with Bush etc in the ME are that the actions through alliences with UN/International organizations are unconstitutional. The US has been on a slippery slope since joining the Leaque of Nations.
Meanwhile I wonder what Bernie supporters think of what’s happening in Venezuela?
At 230 Lbs unless you are 6 foot 7 inches your BMI is way too high. Other factors than diabetes 2 come into play with your high BMI. Beer Belly (waist is larger than your chest). Blood pressure should be no higher than 120/80. If you do not pass these marks You could be a candidate for a stroke or a heart attach.
The key factors for Clinton is to get out the African-American and Hispanic vote plus young women. If she can do that she has it made.
The green Party is going nowhere; however, the Libertarian Party is getting 10% of the voters – I would think many of these are Republicans who can’t stomach Deadbeat Donnie.
The other day you talked about what has changed over the years in the African-American lives. I was born in 1930, lived in Alameda, and went through the Colored, Negro, Black and African-American eras. Went to school, ate, and scout camp with Blacks. The one big difference – almost all the Black kids had fathers at home. Not like today with all the fatherless homes.
Good point Jim, the disintegration of the family unit among black families has resulted in out of control offspring with no moral compass
Jerry’s Delta Tunnels. The Atmosphere COS ppm hit 406 in May and June and predicted to hit the tipping point of 450 ppm in 2036, just 20 years from now. At that time the world’s glaciers and ice will have melted and temperatures will have hit new highs. Much of CA will be flooded by rising seas and average temperatures will be at all time high. There will no water to send to Los Angeles. Those areas that are not flooded will return to being a desert.
Mr. Updegraff has given us all a lesson in gentlemanly deportment, this day, and pray let it sustain us and keep us from ungentlemanly epithets on this page in future!
Even modern science has said exercise is the difference. Walking places is so rewarding in the end and if we walk for the fun of it we soon realize that being in a car is no fun at all.