Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, July 19, 2016

• Blackbird Matter
• Cleveland Circus
• Exciting Plowrights
• Family Business
• Moving Sale
• Community Garden
• Hopland Terpestival
• Day Labor
• MCRCD
• Ben Pearson
• Police Reports
• Howard's Corner
• Previous Catch
• Bless Donald
• Library Events
• CPUC Update
• Structural Problems
• Smiling Phases
• Turkey Talk
• Most Immigrants
• Ailes Inquiry

THE BLACKBIRD matter will be heard Thursday, 9am, in the Supe's chambers, Low Gap Road, Ukiah. Opposition to their plans for a large expansion of visitor accommodations, accessed via Ray's Road, seems unanimous. The entire area's residents are opposed.

TO REPEAT, CLASS:

Blackbird Ranch Proposal, Use Permit #U_2013-0008.

Major Use Permit for the expansion of a permitted transient habitation (resort and recreational) facility, previously known as Highland Ranch.

The proposed expansion would increase the number of guests and employees from 36 to a maximum of 292 over a 7 year development time line. (Phase I through VII).

Approximately 2 miles southwest of Philo, lying off of Van Zandt Resort Road (private) which is accessed off of Rays Road. Located at 18601 Van Zandt Resort Road, Philo

Neighbors plan to object to the draft “mitigated negative declaration” for a project expansion as large as the one proposed for Blackbird Ranch which not only has major impact on the Rays Road and Greenwood Road neighborhoods, but sets a bad precedent which would allow subsequent similar applications to be treated inadequately like this one. We know of several significant areas that need much more attention before any permit is granted: Infrastrucure (primarily water and septic), traffic impacts, emergency access and exits, combined impacts from Blackbird and Shenoa expansion, and the near complete lack of mitigation enforcement.

THE CIRCUS IS IN TOWN, AND THAT TOWN IS CLEVELAND

by Neil Steinburg

“There is something about a national convention that makes it as fascinating as a revival or a hanging,” H.L. Mencken wrote in 1924. “It is vulgar, it is ugly, it is stupid, it is tedious, it is hard upon both the higher cerebral centers and the gluteus maximus, and yet it is somehow charming. One sits through long sessions wishing heartily that all the delegates and alternates were dead and in hell — and then suddenly there comes a show so gaudy and hilarious, so melodramatic and obscene, so unimaginably exhilarating and preposterous that one lives a gorgeous year in an hour.”

Take comfort, then, that the spectacle that will unfold this week in Cleveland is not an unprecedented descent into madness, not a radical departure from the stately decorum we like to imagine our forefathers exhibited when conducting political business. Just the same old craziness in a new box.

That said, given Donald Trump’s genius for attracting the carnival fringes of American life, the Republican National Convention, beginning in Cleveland on Monday, promises to be a circus on an epic scale.

Ring One is the candidate himself, whose off-the-cuff pronouncements are — take your pick:

A) a refreshing breeze of candor wafting into our sealed room of political correctness.

B) terrifying blasts of hate and demagoguery that would tear our nation apart if anyone took them seriously.

(Spoiler alert: It’s “B.”)

Trump is the ringmaster, circled by whatever chorus line of failed opponents and B-list celebrities he can lure into showing up. If my hunch is correct, Clint Eastwood’s chat-with-a-chair, the jaw-dropping meltdown of the 2012 convention, should be the norm in 2016. If Ted Nugent tap-dances on a portrait of Barack Obama while singing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” who could pretend to be surprised?

Ring Two is the delegates, officials and media — some 50,000 strong, descending on Cleveland, which, in its genial hospitality has boosted hotel rates between three and 10 times normal. The city is scrubbed and strewn with flowers, ready to be the gilded frame about whatever crude and perhaps bloody tableau unfolds. Ten thousand plastic handcuffs are stockpiled, the jails were emptied in preparation for mass arrests, and Cleveland’s top hospitals have been drilling.

“We’ve considered biologic attacks, bomb blasts, mass shootings, and even radiation exposure,” Dr. Robert Wyllie, chief of medical operations at the Cleveland Clinic, told the Daily Beast. “I think we’re pretty well prepared.”

Ring Three is the protestors, pro and con, from Black Lives Matter to the Westboro Baptist Church. Ever since the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention etched themselves into the public mind, an occupying army of outrage is compelled to show up at every political convention, with causes left, right and center.

New and ominous this year will be the presence of armed men. Ohio has an open carry law that supplants any restrictions Cleveland might set up around the convention site. So while toy guns and water pistols are banned, actual guns are permitted, a policy one police official called “insane,” and expect marchers to demonstrate their constitutional rights to bear arms by doing just that, even though the shooting in Dallas proved how unhelpful these “good guys with guns” are when actual bullets fly.

We’ll all be paying attention. Why? In the same essay, Mencken continues:

“But what does the general public get out of it? The general public gets precisely the same show — a bit diluted, perhaps, by distance, but still incomparably humorous and thrilling. Herein, indeed, lies the chief merit of democracy, when all is said and done: it may be clumsy, it may be swinish, it may be unutterably incompetent and dishonest, but it is never dismal.”

Of course he wrote that after the Ku Klux Klan’s favorite presidential candidate, a Democrat, failed to win the 1924 nomination. In 2016, the Klan’s man has already sewn up the GOP nomination, barring a miracle, and may very well win the presidency. Let the tumult and the shouting start.

(Courtesy, the Chicago Sun-Times)

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LOCKED & LOADED: Open-carry activists defy police calls to keep their guns at home as they parade assault rifles and handguns at Republican National Convention

• Cleveland police union had called for suspension of open carry laws during the Republican National Convention

• Ohio governor John Kasich said he was powerless to act because right is enshrined in state law

• Pro-Republican demonstrators made show of weapons in Settlers Landing Park with AR-15-style weapons among those being openly carried

• They say they are exercising Second Amendment rights and pose no danger to law enforcement

• Security is tight at Cleveland venue for convention which will make Donald Trump party's official White House candidate

• More than 5,000 law enforcement officers are on duty with uniformed Secret Service, FBI and cops from Ohio and beyond called in to help

(Courtesy, the Daily Mail On-Line)

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TUMULT AT GOP CONVENTION OVER EFFORT TO STOP TRUMP

by Julie Pace & Alan Fram

Republicans cast Donald Trump as the right man for turbulent times as they opened their presidential convention Monday against a backdrop of unsettling summer violence and deep discontent within their own party.

Tumult broke out on the convention floor after party officials adopted rules by a shouted voice vote, a move aimed at blunting anti-Trump forces seeking to derail the presumptive nominee. Delegates erupted in competing chants in a televised dispute Republican leaders had hoped to avoid.

"I have no idea what's going on right now. This is surreal," said Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who had helped lead the efforts to force a state-by-state roll call vote on the rules.

Republican leaders hope the convention centers instead on the glue that does unite the party's factions: disdain for Hillary Clinton. Convention speakers planned to relentlessly paint the presumptive Democratic nominee as entrenched in a system that fails to keep Americans safe.

"Hillary Clinton cannot be trusted. Her judgment and character are not suited to be sitting in the most powerful office in the world," said Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, according to excerpts of her speech released in advanced.

While safety and security was the focus of Monday's opening session, Trump was also trying to shore up Republican unity, in part by assuring party leaders and voters alike that there's a kinder, gentler side to what many see as merely a brash businessman. Trump's family is playing a starring role, beginning Monday with an evening speech by his wife, Melania Trump, who has kept a low profile throughout the campaign.

In a surprise, Trump announced he would come to Cleveland and go onstage on opening night to introduce her.

The convention comes amid a wrenching period of violence and unrest, both in the United States and around the world. On the eve of the opening, three police officers were killed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the city where a black man was killed by police two weeks ago.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus welcomed delegates with a brief acknowledgement of the "troubling times" swirling outside. The chairman called for a moment of silence out of respect for "genuine heroes" in law enforcement.

"Our nation grieves when we see these awful killings," he said.

In a matter of weeks, Americans have seen deadly police shootings, a shocking ambush of police in Texas and escalating racial tensions, not to mention a failed coup in Turkey and gruesome Bastille Day attack in Nice, France.

Trump has seized on the instability, casting recent events as a direct result of failed leadership by President Barack Obama and by Clinton, who spent four years in the administration as secretary of state. But Trump has been vague about how he would put the nation on a different course, offering virtually no details of his policy prescriptions despite repeated vows to be tough.

(Courtesy, the Associated Press)

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A DARK PROSPECT

by James Kunstler

I was in the streets of Chicago in 1968 during the Democratic Convention. It was only a few months after Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were shot to death. The “establishment,” as we called it back then, was all set to nominate Vice-president Hubert Humphrey who had started out in Washington as a Midwestern progressive firebrand but was now broadly perceived by America’s hippie youth as a stooge and a sell-out to the evil forces running the Vietnam War.

I wasn’t exactly a protester, more like a proto-journalist, there to witness an epochal event. It was a wild three days with a lot of moiling in Lincoln Park and Grant Park, and finally out on Michigan Avenue the night of Humphrey’s awful apotheosis, where things got especially ugly and the tear gas canisters flew. But that was about it. Nobody got killed by the police, or vice-versa, and then we all went back to college (my SUNY school cost $500-a-year back then, by the bye). Nixon was the consolation prize.

Back then, it was in style to assassinate political leaders. Today it’s in fashion to assassinate police. It’s hard to imagine easier targets. Where trouble is brewing in the streets nowadays, there they stand: right out in front, easily distinguished in their uniforms. That was exactly the picture on the front page of The New York Times today: the thin blue line in Cleveland, where the Republican convention convenes this week to nominate the golden deus ex machina Donald Trump. There are few things in life one can predict with certainty, but given the grave events of recent weeks, it is hard to see how deadly gunplay might be avoided at the 2016 Republican convention.

Maybe the police will just decide to stay indoors and not present themselves as targets. Likelihood of that: not much. Ohio officials are talking about suspending the “open carry” law for the duration of the event. That would probably make for better “optics” than, say, an armed mob brandishing repeating rifles, but even if that law is suspended, it’s not hard to imagine people carrying weapons in a guitar case or a backpack. The killing meme is just on, like the deadly spirits that wafted out of Pandora’s Box.

Maybe it’s time for the Black President, Mr. Obama, to just come out and tell the black population that their grievances against the police are trumped up, shall we say: that Alton Sterling was not an upright citizen doin’ nuttin’ but a convicted felon carrying a gun, and that we still don’t know the facts about what Philando Castile was doing when he got shot in his car, and, well, he might just go back and shake off the fairy dust surrounding the Michael Brown (Ferguson) incident, the Tamir Rice (“toy” gun) incident, and all the other ambiguous situations of the past several years that have sparked the current crisis in race relations.

Otherwise, it’s beginning to look a lot like race war in America. Political and thought leaders have so far failed to conduct that fabled “conversation about race” that is such a phantom presence in the national life. It is apparently too painful to actually undertake. The pretenses about it have become ludicrous — for example Hillary Clinton’s recent utterance that “white people need to recognize our privilege,” and the fatuous calls to “come together.”

Both black and white America (especially “liberal” HRC America) might better ask themselves: why have we promoted the idea that blacks needn’t bother trying to assimilate into the nation’s common culture (such of it that actually remains)? This is what the idiotic “diversity” cult does, accompanied by the even more idiotic idea that “inclusion” is required for those who choose not to be included in that common culture. The damage from fifty years of these shibboleths ought to be obvious now. But emotions are carrying us past the moment of self-examination on any side. Perhaps that “conversation about race” can only take place after a greater convulsion, when people finally get sick of what their dishonesty has wreaked.

(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page https://www.patreon.com/JamesHowardKunstler?ty=h)

NASH MILL'S most exciting resident, Thomas Plowright III, is back in the County Jail. He failed to appear for judgment and sentencing back in November of last year, and was arraigned Tuesday on the bench warrant, as well as a new felony failure to appear case.

THE PLOWRIGHTS were arrested last year by the CHP when they were pulled over at Highway 128 and Peachland Road. Granma Plowright, 70, and her wayward son, Thomas Plowright, 47, were both charged with possession of: methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia, two controlled substances, a forged driver's license, transportation of marijuana for sale. Gran Plowright, one of our more active senior citizens was still walkin' the wild side.

BACK A WAYS, on May 6th (2010), an Obama-size police convoy, reinforced by a hovering helicopter, passed through Boonville on its way to 3500 Little Mill Creek Road, Philo, the home of Thomas Plowright III, then 42, of San Jose, and Thomas's wife Teresa Plowright, then 50, of Manteca.

THE PLOWRIGHTS had come to local attention three weeks earlier when deputies discovered a tractor stuck in Little Mill Creek where Little Mill flows, or attempts to flow, through a neighbor’s property. The creek is a year-round blue line stream in which much local volunteer labor has been invested in a vain effort to bring it back to its once fecund life as a major salmon and steelhead stream. It appeared that the Plowrights had been attempting to build a catchment pond to irrigate an outdoor pot field when their tractor became mired in the streambed.

THE COUPLE was arrested a few weeks later in 2010 “without incident” by that Obama-size task force composed of representatives of an array of police forces and regulatory agencies. The raid team found several pieces of stolen equipment, including a cement truck, apparently taken from a San Jose construction site. These items were valued at approximately $80,000. The raid team said they also found burglary tools, marijuana, methamphetamine, and paraphernalia related to drug manufacture at the property in addition to numerous firearms including a fully automatic assault weapon. Additionally, items and chemicals consistent with the manufacture of methamphetamine were discovered along with an “explosive device.” The Highway Patrol's hazardous devices technicians were summoned from their Sacramento office to render the apparatus harmless “by counter charging the device.”

THE UPSHOT of all these 2010 charges was a few months in the County Jail for Thomas and a period of house arrest at the Plowright headquarters in Campbell, Santa Clara County. It took a long time to sort everything out because David Eyster, then in private practice, had represented the Plowrights; then Eyster became DA, meaning a conflict of interest, meaning that the State Attorney General took control of the case, meaning it all just kinda went away over a period of years.

BUT YOU GOTTA hand it to the Plowrights. They just keep keepin' on, and here Tom is again!

FIFTH DISTRICT SUPERVISOR Dan Hamburg has grown marijuana on his Robinson Creek Road property for many years. He's made many thousands of tax free dollars growing marijuana. A decade or so ago his dope op was raided, but a faulty warrant spared Hamburg jail time, although it's unlikely his pals on the Superior Court would be likely to put him there. The rules that apply to the rest of us have been waived for Hamburg for many years. Why? Beats me, but he's fortunate in his cult-like followers, so numerous in this one odd jurisdiction that just keep on electing him, although his accomplishments in office have been zero. How much actual work the pious "liberal" puts in on his garden won't be known, but his business is so profitable he has hired labor which, according to one estranged worker, is exploited as ruthlessly as any Calcutta sweat shop owner exploits the ten-year-olds indentured to him. Aside from elected office, Hamburg has never had a legitimate job. At a recent meeting of the Supervisors, Hamburg said his scruples, heretofore invisible, would prevent him from participating in the discussion about proposed marijuana guidelines. He said "a family member" is in the business. The family member is, of course, his daughter and the grow is on Hamburg's property. The guy can't even manage honest hypocrisy, so he tosses his daughter over the side and, with a straight face, pretends not to be in the business himself.

THE AVA has moved. We are now ensconced in a trailer next door to the Redwood Drive-In, central Boonville. Although the move is complete, the new premises are a work in progress, so all you aesthetes who challenge us with sneering versions of, "So, Mr. Eyesore, after all your years of complaining about the Ricard property you've managed to out-Ricard, Ricard." Patience, my children. By next July you won't recognize the place.

INCIDENTALLY, our move from the Farrer Building to our present headquarters down the street seems to explain the black arm bands worn by our old neighbors on the Farrer's top floor — Torrey, Gwen, Angela, and Dawn. We'll miss you, too, ladies, but grieve not! No more will you have to endure the raucous male voices resounding through your work stations not far enough down the hall, the ominous visitors demanding to know where our office is after walking right past it and belligerently on into your spaces, arguments so loud you've had to shush us, the clatter of too early beer bottles, the occasional thumps of what sound like bodies hitting the floor, the smell of rancid coffee boiling over in our hazmat-quality microwave, and we don't even dare mention our shared bathroom. Really, ladies, I'm surprised to find you mourning our removal rather than shouting, in chorus, Good bye to all that!

WE'VE GOT miscellaneous items for sale: a whole bunch of plastic tubs with lids that fit and in good condition; a new-in-the-box art-waxer, an engrimed but working office frig; a battered, thrillingly uncomfortable love seat that hasn't seen love in many years, if ever; a retro telephone; the fetid, semi-functioning microwave mentioned above. Of all this stuff, the tubs and the waxer are the most viable. 707/895-3016

RADISHES OR ELDERS?

Editor,

I find myself bewildered at the Elder Home Community garden. But no more elder homes, these Community Garden plots could hold at least six small homes for our elders. We live in Anderson Valley for God sakes. Abundant for growing. Not abundant for our elders to have homes. I thought all these fund raisers were so our elders could have retirement homes, not radishes getting their own beds!!

Beverley Bennett

Philo

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SENIOR HOUSING & RADISHES: NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE

Dear Beverley,

In your "Radishes or Elders?" query you express bewilderment that there is room for a Community Garden on AV Elder Home property that you feel should be devoted to senior housing. Fortunately for the 30 plus community members now enjoying the garden, the site where it is located cannot be used for construction of any kind and is therefore ideally suited to bringing the community together over “radishes.” The garden was constructed above in-place infrastructure that includes buried pipes: no vehicles can be driven there, no buildings can be built there. This is part of the infrastructure that serves the house we rent to AV seniors and will eventually serve the cottages to be built between Highway 128 and the Community Garden.

When interested community members, the AV Foodshed and the Gardens Project of North Coast Opportunities approached the AVEH board last fall to ask if we would be interested in having a community garden on the site, it seemed like an ideal use of the land we couldn’t build on. We received a $9,000 grant from a Mendocino County fund designed specifically for this type of community project, $2,000 from NCO, and donations from several locals; and by late spring the Community Garden was a reality.

In our grant application, we wrote that the garden “will bring diverse community members together in a shared experience, and will offer Elder Home residents an on-going connection with their community.” We think this has already come true, and the garden is proving its worth every day — just ask anyone who has a plot. It serves folks who have too little sun, good soil, water or space to garden where they live — or who just want the experience of gardening with a community. It is overseen by a committee of four community members (chosen by the gardeners) and administered by AVEH.

The AVEH board has begun the process with county agencies that is necessary before we can build six cottages fronting the garden, plus a one-bedroom rental near the duplex. This is a big project and making it a reality will require much help and support from our community. The garden will remain a permanent, integral part of the AVEH complex, and it will keep growing radishes while we grow housing for AV seniors.

For more information about the Elder Home, the Community Garden and/or our plans for future construction, we can be contacted at 895-3889, aveh@pacific.net or found on Facebook. The community is also welcome to attend our AVEH Board meetings the first Tuesday of each month at 5PM in our office (14450 Hwy 128).

Sincerely,

Jill Hannum, for The AVEH Board of Directors

Working to “keep our seniors at home in the valley."

Boonville

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REGARDING THE PLANTER BOXES on the Elder Home property, I think I have a compromise solution likely to please everyone. As our Seniors pass on, the planters could easily be converted to in-place, above-ground caskets. In fact, I'd like to reserve one for myself. I like the thought of reappearing some day as a radish.

RUSSO ET AL IN HOPLAND

You don't have to go to a faraway conference to hear Drs. Ethan Russo, Michelle Sexton, Greg Gerdeman and other experts discussing terpenes —the compounds in cannabis that provide aroma and various medical benefits. They'll be at the "Terpestival" in Hopland Sunday, July 23, a benefit for a think tank called The Center for the Study of Cannabis and Social Policy, sponsored by Emerald Pharms dispensary, which is on the grounds of Real Goods on Hwy 101. Tickets are $30. The program runs from 11:15 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. The press release says, "Cannabis pairings inside Emerald Pharms all day."

— Fred Gardner

DAY GIG ANYONE?

Any leads for day labor appreciated: $20/Hr. Probably several days of work cleaning property of weeds, debris, house and windows.

Norman de Vall, Elk, 877-3551

BEAR WITH ME HERE while I write — "Mendocino County Resource Conservation District.” Commit that to memory. Or not. You'll never hear of it again. But if you think you might need to refer to whatever it is, dip into the big bag of Mendo acronyms. Pick one at random: MSWMA or maybe LAFCO or MCOG or MCAVN. MCOE anyone? There's lots of them. Choose one. Any one of them. Call them up. Nobody ever calls any of them for anything. They'll be very excited. You'll be the first caller in years, maybe ever. Ask them to put you in touch with the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District. They'll say they've never heard of it. Don't be discouraged because they'll look it up. Be patient. It will take a while because there are so many acronyms to paw through, and nobody ever calls and the person on the line is kind of flustered at his or first telephonic office call in a long time because an actual contact with the outside world is so rare it takes him or her a while to get a grip…

ANYHOO, the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District (MCRCD), whatever and whoever it is, has produced a useful, if unintentional and certainly unlikely to be read by anyone, assessment of the pot industry in the county called "Watershed Best Management Practices for Cannabis Growers and other Rural Gardeners." But I'll bet if you call around you can get one for yourself.

HE WENT OUT FOR A WALK…

On Friday, 07-15-2016 Benedet ‘Ben’ Pearson and his wife were staying at a vacation rental in the Mendocino area. At about 6:30 PM Benedet went for a walk on trails in the wooded area on the north side of the 44000 block of Little Lake Rd., with the stated intent of returning within the hour. By about 8:30 PM Benedet had not returned, and he had left his cellular telephone in the room, so his spouse checked the area for area for him. She was unable to locate him and called the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office for assistance. Mendocino County Deputy Sheriff's responded and searched the area until about 3:00 AM, and did not locate Benedet. On Saturday, 07-16-16, at approximately 7:00 AM The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Volunteer Search and Rescue Team responded to the area and resumed the search. At about 9:25 AM Benedet was located deceased, in the wooded area where he had been presumed to have been lost. Foul play is not considered to be a factor in Benedet Pearson's death and an autopsy has been scheduled to determine the cause of death.

(Sheriff’s Press Release)

BEN PEARSON, WINE BUYER FOR BOTTLE BARN, DIES AT 56

Ben Pearson, who helped educate and guide thousands of wine consumers throughout Sonoma County from his perch as the wine buyer at Bottle Barn in Santa Rosa, has died. He was 56.

Pearson’s body was discovered on a trail by Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Volunteer Search and Rescue Team at 9:25 a.m. Saturday, according to Lt. Greg Stefani.

Pearson and his wife were staying at a vacation rental in the county. On Friday, he went for a walk on the trails along the north side of Little Lake Road with the intention of returning within the hour.

By 8:30 p.m., Pearson had not returned and his wife checked the area to look for him, police said. She was unable to locate him and called the sheriff’s office for assistance. Deputies searched the area until 3 a.m. but were unable to locate him.

Foul play is not suspected and an autopsy has been scheduled to determine the cause of death, Stefani said.

BIG CHARGE, LITTLE BAIL

On July 14, 2016 at approximately 9:10 P.M., deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office responded to a residence in the 23600 block of Primrose Avenue to serve a felony bench warrant. MCSO deputies were aware that Van Slagle, 37, of Willits, had a felony warrant for his arrest, stemming from an assault with a deadly weapon charge. Deputies contacted Slagle at the residence and placed him under arrest without incident. Slagle was subsequently booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held in lieu of $30,000 bail.

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IT WAS TAMMY AFTER ALL

On July 15, 2016, a Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputy was on routine patrol driving in the area of Acorn Place and Sherwood Hill Drive in Willits. The deputy noticed a vehicle driving in the area that did not come to a complete stop at a marked stop sign and the driver was not wearing a seat belt, in violation of the California Vehicle Code. The Deputy initiated a traffic enforcement stop on the vehicle and contacted the driver. During the initial contact, the driver advised she did not have her purse and was unable to provide any type of identification. The driver stated her name and birthdate to the deputy. During the investigation, the deputy learned that the driver had her purse in the vehicle and she was identified as Tammy Henderson, 50, of Willits, not the name she had identified herself as. Upon further questioning, Henderson stated she used the identity of another, (the name of a person known to her), because she is on probation and does not want to be arrested. MCSO dispatch confirmed that Henderson is on probation in Mendocino County. When searching Henderson's purse, the deputy found that Henderson was in possession of a controlled substance. Henderson was placed under arrest for 529(a) PC [False Impersonation of Another], 1203.2 PC [Violation of Probation], and 11377(a) HS [Possession of a Controlled Substance]. Henderson was subsequently booked into the Mendocino County Jail where she was to be held without bail.

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JADE. AGAIN. AND AGAIN.

Another guy who's mentally ill and has been for years

On July 18, 2016, at about 2:40 PM, a subject was in his home, located in the 32000 block of North Mitchell Creek Road, Fort Bragg, when he heard a noise at his back door. The homeowner thought that it was his pet cat attempting to get in the house and he went to a window that looked out at the back door. The homeowner saw that it was not his cat at the door but rather a male subject attempting to force the door open. The homeowner challenged the presence of the suspect, and the suspect ran away into the brush to the north. The homeowner called 911 and when the Mendocino County Sheriff Deputies arrived he described to them what had occurred. The Deputies recognized that the suspect description matched that of Jade Bennett, 41, of Fort Bragg, who lives nearby. Deputies contacted Bennett at his residence and developed additional information amounting to probable cause to arrest Bennett for the attempted burglary of the residence. Bennett was subsequently arrested for Attempted Residential Burglary and Violation of Probation. Bennett was lodged at the Mendocino County Jail where he is being held without bail.

HOWARD'S CORNER, MENDOCINO

Appeal regarding stairs at Kasten and Main in Mendocino

To the Board of Supervisors,

In September 2015 without any prior notification, the ramp at the corner of Main and Kasten that allowed access from the Gallery Bookstore to the crosswalk was removed by Howard Dashiell from the county DOT. The work began at about 6AM with a county crew from Ukiah. This action was taken by Howard because he decided that's what needed to be done to prevent further lawsuits.

What he did instead was create a greater danger for everyone at that corner. At least fifty times someone has been nearly hit by cars because of his actions. In addition, many have witnessed children and adults jumping down from the barricade which will surely end in a lawsuit in the future.

The ramp that was removed was in fact put in place about 35 years ago by the county without handrails or barricades. The building has never been lowered, locals who were born here and are in their 80's say that when the roads were paved, the county lowered the street.

The inclusion of stairs is imperative for many reasons. Firstly, the barricade creates a deterrent to visitors that they may not be aware of and therefore causes west Main street businesses financial losses. Secondly, if everyone is diverted to the ramp, there will be heavy congestion at that corner. Lastly, the barricade is not historic and prevents access to the street.

In closing, the county via their representative, has created the current situation and should rectify the situation in a manner that is both historic and acceptable to the residents of Mendocino.

Laura Evans

Mendocino resident and business owner

CATCH OF THE DAY, July 16-17, 2016

SAMUEL BECERRA-ALVAREZ, Boonville. DUI causing injury.

JAMES BROWN JR., Redwood Valley. Drunk in public. (Frequent flyer.)

KYLE BYRNE, Ukiah. Possession of meth for sale, paraphernalia, under influence, suspended license, failure to appear.

HEATHER DEWOLF, Fort Bragg. Loitering, interfering with business, drunk in public, resisting.

JERRY DODD, Seaside/Redwood Valley. DUI with priors.

CHRISTOPHER FILBERT, Ukiah. Controlled substance.

ANTONIA GONZALEZ, Ukiah. Probation violation.

TAMMY HENDERSON, Willits. Controlled substance, false personation of another, probation revocation.

TRACI HERNANDEZ, Ukiah. Resisting.

JENNIFER JUDGE, Ukiah. Drunk in public.

NICHOLAS LANZIT, Ukiah. ID theft.

CHRISTOPHER LELOUP, Willits. Drunk in public, failure to appear, probation revocation.

ERIC LINCOLN, Covelo. Drunk in public.

ALONA LOPEZ-NOTTINGHAM, Ukiah. Failure to appear, fugitive from justice.

MICHAEL MONROE, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

DANIEL NUNEZ-CASTALAN, Ukiah. DUI.

DARRELL OWENS, Redwood Valley. Battery-punishment, criminal threats, false imprisonment, mandatory supervision sentencing.

THOMAS PLOWRIGHT III, Philo. Meth possession for sale, failure to appear, offenses while on bail.

NIGEL RIOS, Point Arena/Fort Bragg. Drunk in public, probation revocation.

BOBBY ROSTON, Ukiah. Parole violation.

RACHAEL SEIVERTSON, Hopland. DUI.

DAVID SIMMONS, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

VAN SLAGLE, Willits. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun.

GERAD STEMKE, San Francisco/Willits. Defrauding innkeeper, trespassing.

JOSHUA STONE, Covelo. Conviction of certain misdemeanors within years owns/possesses/receives.

CHRISTINA TORRES, Hopland. Protective order violation.

JAMES WALKER, Willits. Domestic battery, removing or destroyging communications equipment to prevent help call.

JOSHUA WEBB, Laytonville. Protective order violation.

MICHELL WILLOUGHBY, Talmage. DUI.

GO DONALD

Editor,

To whom it may concern: If the U.S. is allowed to convert over to total liberalism and political correctness and anti-Americanism we are doomed as a country. Where are the Americans who built this country? Hiding under their bedsheets? People are killing our law enforcement demonstrating totally against the law. When are we Americans going to stand up and say enough is enough? If we could get rid of people like Barack Obama, John Kerry, Hillary & Bill Clinton, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Mary Nichols, Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown we would be a lot better off. God Bless Donald Trump.

Jerry Philbrick, Comptche

UPCOMING EVENTS AT THE UKIAH LIBRARY.

www.mendolibrary.org

CPUC HEARING UPDATE

An update on Friday’s CPUC hearing in Ukiah.

It was EXCELLENT! We had a great turnout from both “heavy hitters” like the Sheriff and CalFire Unit Chief, Police departments, Fire departments, EMS, etc and also residents telling their stories. A huge thank-you to the county Executive Office for all their work and for providing a warm welcome to Commissioner Sandoval to Mendocino County. I encourage you to watch the video if you have broadband.

The hearing was scheduled from 2:30-4:30, but with the large turnout it continued well past 6 pm. I am sorry that there were some folks who had to leave before they were called to speak, and I hope that they provide written comments. This Proceeding Is Still Open, and so it’s not too late to share you story. Although I don’t know when the proceeding will close, I’m guessing in a few weeks so don’t delay. Commissioner Sandoval really listened to what the speakers said, and showed deep interest. She asked specific questions about addresses and stressed that the telephone companies had a legal obligation to provide reliable service, and will be following up on these comments. If you have a problem with your phone, Send In Your Comments. Don’t wait for the phone to go out again this winter. I would like to echo Supervisor McCowen’s comment that I too hope that this event is a “watershed” event for our county.

I have updated our website so that it now includes: The link to the video of the hearing A pdf I created of the speakers and their time (I still plan to complete the last column with a summary of comments as I have time) The CPUC address to where people can send written comments to be included in the hearing while it is still open.

All the info is here: http://www.mendocinobroadband.org/topics/special-sessions/

Please feel free to share any of it.

Thanks again, and please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Trish Steel

707-354-3224

Broadband Alliance of Mendocino County

http://www.mendocinobroadband.org/

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The real root cause of the “race problem” in the US is actually the same for most of the other woes of the country. Namely, that every problem or issue is seen as a “revenue opportunity” by the grifter class. Isn’t that the basic cultural problem we now have? We have financialized everything. I’m pretty sure “race relations” has spawned a vibrant “industry”. The last thing such an “industry” would want is an actual solution. Isn’t the “diversity industry” a form of the “race relations” industry. Every major corporation in the country has a diversity office of some sort, replete with staff and a project agenda requiring, more than anything, a steady stream of funds. The narrative of the past 50+ years has been in service to that, not addressing any real structural problems average black people really are facing. Many of these structural problems now face all of us, regardless of race, by the way.

SMILING PHASES

Do yourself a favor, wake up to your mind

Life is what you make it, you see but still you're blind

Get yourself together, give before you take

You'll find out the hard way, soon you're gonna break

Hey, hey, hey

Smiling phases, going places and if they bust you

You just keep on smiling through and through

And you'll be amazed at the gaze

On their faces as they sentence you

You don't need a lawyer when you're in a fix

Someone's got to pay up, your friends are full of tricks

How could you love something that you just can't buy?

Own up to the truth girl, your love has gone on by

Hey, hey, hey

Smiling phases bring you flowers, you can line 'em up

And you can watch them grow for hours

And you'll be amazed at the way that they stare

As they walk by your door

Do yourself a favor, wake up to your mind

Life is what you make it, you see but still you're blind

Get yourself together, give before you take

You'll find out the hard way, soon you're gonna break

Hey, hey, hey

Smiling phases, going places and if they bust you

You just keep on smiling through and through

And you'll be amazed at the gaze

On their faces as they sentence you...

–Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxzPRYCuMm0

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN had it coming. The Turkish army was never going to remain compliant while the man who would recreate the Ottoman Empire turned his neighbours into enemies and his country into a mockery of itself. But it would be a grave mistake to assume two things: that the putting down of a military coup is a momentary matter after which the Turkish army will remain obedient to its sultan; and to regard at least 161 deaths and more than 2,839 detained in isolation from the collapse of the nation-states of the Middle East.

— Robert Fisk

WHICH COUNTRIES HAVE THE MOST IMMIGRANTS?

ADIOS, SLOBBO

Roger Ailes, the CEO and chairman of Fox News, will be fired from his post, New York magazine reported Monday. Rupert Murdoch and sons Lachlan and James have reportedly decided to remove the 76-year-old media maven after sexual-harassment allegations arose about him. Preliminary results from an internal investigation prompted by the complaints were evidently unfavorable. The company will either force Ailes to resign or fire him, sources told the magazine. Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a suit against Ailes claiming that he harassed her over many years, eventually firing her after she spurned his sexual advances. Another nine women, whose accounts were published by New York magazine and The Daily Beast, have made similar claims about Ailes. The internal investigation at 21st Century Fox was expanded into an inquiry about Ailes’s management style in general, the magazine reported, and interviews conducted by the law firm were moved to Paul Weiss’s offices over concerns that Fox’s offices were bugged. “This matter is not yet resolved and the review is not concluded,” 21st Century Fox said in a statement.