Mendocino County Today: Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016

• Lisa Peoples
• Train Fight
• Emerald Cup
• Talbot Hire
• Little Dog
• FB Election
• Gull
• Trimmigration Issues
• Pianist Injured
• New Deputies
• Holiday Bazaar
• Yesterday's Catch
• Inauguration Anticipation
• No Tunnels

IN LOVING MEMORY: LISA PEOPLES

Lisa Peoples was a loving mother, thoughtful daughter, beloved fiancée, inspiring sister, awesome auntie, and loyal friend. Lisa passed away on Sunday, November 20, 2016 in Houston, Texas. Her cause of death is yet to be determined.

Lisa was born January 31, 1966 in St. Louis, MO. When Lisa was six months old, she and her family moved to Southern California. In June 1973 they moved to Redwood Valley. Lisa graduated from Ukiah High the class of 1984. Lisa worked in retail management for 30 years, in Ukiah, the Bay Area, Long Beach and Texas, where she was well respected and valued for her work ethic, competency, sense of humor, and for the way she treated others which was with dignity and respect.

Lisa was preceded in death by her father, General Washington Peoples. Lisa is survived by her sons Curtis E. Burns Jr. and Jalil A. Burns, who spoke with their mother almost on a daily bases; by her fiancé William (Gerald) Tate, who reunited with Lisa a little over a year ago after losing contact with her 25 years ago; her beloved mother Jeanette Haddox, her sisters Linda Matthews (Don Early); LaCretia Peoples (Fred Marshall); her brothers, Lionell Peoples (Vivian Peoples); LaMark Peoples, Larry Peoples (Anna Peoples). her nieces, Nitosha Tubbs, Nikeisha Peterson, Jeanetta Gray, LaCretia Matthews, Destinee Peoples; her nephews, Dennis A. Aseltyne, Shawn Peoples, Jesse Peoples, Dominic Peoples, DaLar Peoples and many, many grand nephews and nieces; aunts, uncles and cousins

A memorial service will be held on Friday, December 2nd at 2 p.m. at Long Beach Colonial Mortuary, 638 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach, CA 90802. The family asks that those who are unable to attend and would like to offer their condolences and/or eulogies (remembrances) can do so via email to kra3mal@yahoo.com or Facebook to LaMark Peoples. These will be shared at the memorial service unless otherwise indicated. Floral arrangements can be sent to Long Beach Colonial Mortuary. We love you and will miss you dearly our Lisa.

NORTH COAST RAILROAD AUTHORITY & BOSCO: High-Handed Again

by Mark Scaramella

A controversy has developed between our two railroads. Didn't know we had two? You've got lots of company.

The North Coast Railroad Authority or NCRA, operated by North Coast Democrats and its subcontracted operator, John Williams who calls his sub-contract the Northwestern Pacific Railroad (NWP) is in a beef with the SMART commuter train. Both, of course, run on the same tracks when they run, which is seldom.

SMART, still in the test stage of its long delayed opening, will operate a “self-propelled” commuter line along the ancient section of track between South Sonoma County and Northern Marin. Funny thing is, the "commuter line" does not serve the most densely populated areas it will some day serve.

The controversy between the two laughably dysfunctional rail lines began when a SMART maintenance employee discovered 18 rail cars, including 12 filled with liquid propane gas (LPG) and six loaded with grains on a little used rail spur of dead-end track in American Canyon near Vallejo. Neighbors started noticing the cars too. They’d been there for months and seemed abandoned.

The LPG tanker cars were supposed to be moved to Schellville, about half-way between American Canyon and Petaluma where they would be stored for another indeterminate period with 80 other LPG tankers destined, the NCRA says, for unidentified processing facilities in the East Bay.

The NCRA had “stored” the first 80 LPG tankers in Schellville without telling anybody they were doing it or what was in the tankers. Then, out of what they describe as “courtesy,” the NCRA decided they better tell the SMART authorities that they were shipping hazardous material.

At which point SMART said, “Wait a minute. You want to move hazardous cargo on our commuter rail line through residential neighborhoods?”

SMART said no to the NCRA.

Initial negotiations about what to do about the rolling time bombs were held between SMART management and the NCRA, the latter represented by former Democratic Congressman Doug Bosco who chairs the NCRA board and now co-owns the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

But Bosco and the NCRA’s position was: We can ship whatever the hell we want over these tracks according to our prior agreement to share the tracks with the commuter line and we don’t have to tell you what we’re shipping.

Predictably, these negotiations broke down without resolution.

Additionally, and without further ado, Bosco's and the Democrat's NCRA filed suit with the federal Surface Transportation Board, claiming that SMART had no right to prevent the NCRA from shipping whatever.

At this point — late last October — several Bay Area news machines picked up the story, including the Press Democrat, the San Francisco Chronicle, CBS News and ABC News.

The PD story — predictably, considering that Bosco is a co-owner of the paper — painted the SMART people — already under fire for cost overruns, endless delays and overpriced plans for a constantly delayed commuter service — as unreasonable obstructionists who were not abiding by their agreement with the NCRA.

The PD quoted Bosco et al about the alleged federally inspected safety of the LPG tankers. The PD also included a statement from SMART board member Deb Fudge (a former hazardous materials manager for PG&E who helped negotiate a 2011 agreement between SMART and Northwestern Pacific governing shared use of the rail line) saying, “It gives me pause to have all that hazardous material stored on the track.”

But the PD failed to mention that SMART spokeswoman Jeanne Mariani-Belding had said, “Because we believe that this is a public-safety issue, a health-and-safety issue, we have told [Northwestern Pacific/NCRA] that they are not to move anything on our tracks without the proper safety plan — without the proper hazardous-materials plan. Until we have that documentation and until we know exactly how they plan to transport this, they are not permitted to use our track.”

In other words, NCRA/Bosco took the case to the feds — along with all the lawyers and expense — demanding they have the right to ship whatever they hell they want on the tracks without pesky planning demands from SMART — rather than comply with SMART’s reasonable request that the explosive LPG contents be shipped in accordance with a safety plan, complete with times, dates, speeds, weight-factors, public safety measures, crossing protections, and public notifications.

The dispute is in hands of the feds and nobody knows how long resolution will take while the hazardous cargo sits in American Canyon.

The PD also didn’t bother to mention that many people whose homes and neighborhoods abut the tracks are concerned about large amounts of flammable propane rolling through their backyards. Like everyone else in the country, they've read the horrifying stories of train accidents and derailments across the land.

Bosco told the Chronicle that the NCRA “is not planning to ship petroleum products along the shared passenger line skirting Highway 101.” But Bosco’s handpicked NCRA President and the former Congressman's Chief of Staff when Bosco was in Washington, Mitch Stogner, said the freight operator “might entertain bringing propane to a customer in Ukiah if the track from there to Windsor is ever refurbished.”

(The track “refurbishment” idea is another scam. See my extensive coverage of that arrangement as uncovered by former dissident NCRA Board member Bernie Meyers: “The Corruption Behind The Non-News At The NCRA”)

There’s also the seemingly endless LPG “storage” question.

“Residents in Schellville [where the first 80 cars of LPG sit] do not like liquefied petroleum gas being stored in their backyard,” reported KGO-radio in San Francisco. “As neighbor Saira Lopez sees it, the view from outside her home could definitely be better. The cows don't bother her, but these parked railroad cars containing two million gallons of liquefied petroleum gas do. They've been there for two weeks. ‘It's kind of scary because one time I thought I saw smoke coming out of them,’ said Lopez.”

We have not seen the response from the SMART staffers to the NCRA’s recent Surface Transportation Board filing. But we expect it will be along the lines that Ms. Mariani-Belding mentioned regarding a hazardous material shipping plan.

Remember, a couple years ago, NCRA's highhanded management similarly declared that they didn’t need to bother with Environmental Impact Review requirements as a government agency even though, Williams, their sub-contractor, proposed what would in all other contexts require compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

PS. In researching this controversy we looked up the NWP railroad yard in American Canyon on Google Earth. We’re not sure exactly when this satellite image was taken, but the result would indicate that environmental factors and hazards are not exactly a priority for the NCRA or the NWP.

THE EMERALD CUP — OUT OF THE SHADOWS

Santa Rosa event may draw 30,000 Dec. 10 & 11

by Jane Futcher

California Assemblymember Jim Wood and State Board of Equalization Chair Fiona Ma will participate in the 13th Annual Emerald Cup, Dec. 10 and 11 at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa.

The Cup’s "Government Agencies" panel will provide a picture of the current regulatory climate, not only for the end-consumer, but also for cultivators and workers within the industry. Sharing the stage at the Dec.10 panel with Ma and Wood, who has authored nine bills into law, including AB 243, the environmental cornerstone in California’s Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, are: moderator Jamie Kerr of Roots Consulting; Lori Ajax, chief of the Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation; organic farmer Brian Lehay, who is director of California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation, and John Nores of California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Emerald Cup founder Tim Blake of Laytonville says he’s amazed that the event has grown from a small local harvest party and contest into a massive gathering that will bring approximately 30,000 people to the Santa Rosa later this month.

“It’s been a blur it happened so quick,” Blake said. ”Thirteen years ago we only had a couple dozen entries and less than two hundred people at Area 101, and most people were afraid to show up, and a lot of people came in masks or disguises.

“It’s gone from what had been a completely illegal event to where it’s going to be a completely legal event.”

Performer Damian Marley, who is converting the old Coalinga State Prison into a cannabis farming business, will be the music headliner Saturday night.

Other entertainers are: Dirty Heads, Stick Figure, Tribal Seeds, California Honeydrop, Kabaka Pyramid, HIRIE, Raging Fyah, Nattali Rize, Vokab Kompany, Thrive, and Arden Park Roots.

Along with exhibits of cannabis-related products, a large 215 area will allow patients with medical prescriptions to buy and sometimes sample medicine offered by participating farmers, dispensaries, cooperatives and distributors.

Workshops and panels run all day. Scientists will address plant genetics and genome mapping as well as terpenes (key chemicals creating a plant’s odor and taste). Making concentrates organically will be one of several panels on cannabis manufacturing.

Hezekiah Allen, a third-generation Humboldt cannabis farmer who is now executive director of the California Growers Association, will participate in several panels, possibly “County Organizations Making a Difference” and “AUMA and MCRSA.” Drug Policy Alliance’s marijuana guru Amanda Reiman will also speak on several panels.

Blake said the Cup will present a new honorary “Regenerative Growers Award” and host a four-part series on regenerative farming.

“Regenerative farming is becoming a big word around here,” Blake said. “We’ve taken all our farmland and destroyed the topsoil all across the country, starting with the East Coast all the way out to the West. We have to stop putting in guano and amendments and fertilizers and get them out of our own back yards and farms and create living soil with worms and teaming with microbes and no pesticides.”

Blake said he used to be worried about the panels at the Cup because he wasn’t sure anyone would attend them. But he was wrong. “We received two standing ovations last year,” he said. “We’ll have almost 100 speakers going late at night on different stages we have so many speakers and topics.”

For more information about tickets, exhibitions, music, panels and speakers as they are rolled out, go to http://theemeraldcup.com <http://theemeraldcup.com/>. Doors to the Fairgrounds open at 11 a.m. Sat., Dec. 10 and Sunday, Dec. 11. The Sonoma County Fairgrounds are at 1350 Bennett Valley Rd, Santa Rosa, CA.

There is an age restriction of 18 or older for the event, and 21 or older for the 215 Area.

(Jane Futcher lives in Willits and hosts The Cannabis Hour on KZYX.)

THE SF CHRON hasn't hired an interesting columnist since Willie Brown, the ultimate middle of the road Democrat with no journalo-credentials. No diploma from a J-school is always a plus, or at least can be, if the person can write, but lively prose in a newspaper anymore is rare-to-non-existent. Brown, a mega-insider, does do some interesting reporting, especially on The City.

BUT PRESENTLY at the Chron, there's a whole staff of people writing about how gosh darn nice they are, and how correct their opinions are, and about all the fun they have with their pets. They read like the prose version of the Chuckle Buddies on TV's Live At Five.

NEVIUS, just retired, was always interesting and especially good on the homeless issue as a constant critic of the unworkable "programs" devised by San Francisco's plethora of well-funded but ineffective non-profits. (Imagine Mendocino County's Hospitality House and Plowshares times a thousand.)

AT LAST the Chron has made a good hire of a guy who can write and also has something to say — David Talbot. He's lived in the City for many years, knows it and its history as well as anybody since Herb Caen. Talbot's "Season of the Witch" ought to be required reading, especially for NorCal people who retreated north circa 1970. (Mendo's very own Tim Stoen, in relation to his work for the People's Temple, is featured prominently.)

TALBOT'S “Season of the Witch” was on The Chronicle’s bestseller list for four years, and his “The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA and the Rise of America’s Secret Government” was a New York Times bestseller. He also founded the online news site Salon. The Talbot hire means that the Chron is not quite dead — on life support, like all print papers — but breathing.

TALBOT'S BROTHER, Steve, also a fine writer, produced the definitive Mendo movie called "Who Bombed Judi Bari?" (Bari's ex did it.) The Bari Cult has always been terrified of Steve Talbot, so terrified the Cult produced their own hagiographic epic called, "Who Bombed Judi Bari?" Combine stupidity and shamelessness and what do you get? Darryl Cherney's "Who Bombed Judi Bari?" featuring himself with a few martyr-ish clips of Bari singing about her martyrdom. KPFA loved it, of course, but always ignored Talbot's film, which made it clear that the Bari bombing was really just a fancy case of domestic violence.

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “"All summer I shared my place with doves. They could be kind of aggressive, so I kept my distance. Never did understand why they're a peace symbol, but I liked their singing. Wonder where they went?

NOVUSORDO SECLORUM

From the great seal of the United States; translation: “It's a new ballgame”

by Rex Gressett

The Fort Bragg City Council election is effectively over. The preliminary returns show margins in favor of Bernie Norvell and Will Lee that in practical terms are decisive. The people of Fort Bragg defeated the machine and won the election.

The election had its surprises and it certainly had many amusing moments. I probably enjoyed it more than anybody since I had contrived to participate in all the fun parts without either fear of the depression that inevitably comes with losing or the more acute depression that results from winning.

The best moment was looking out into that packed town hall at the election forum.

I cannot express adequately my admiration for the people who came to the forum, listened and watched and ultimately voted. One of the finest things I have seen in a long life was the quiet, patriotic confidence and root deep ownership of what everyone of them knew was precious. You could see it in every eye. These were Americans being Americans. That the various candidates for the council were wholly and visibly amateurs, clearly unprepared, and basically stunned by the hideous exposure to which they had in all good intention subjected themselves was only incidental. To the audience that night it did not matter.

All of the pomp and ceremony of kings through long ages, all of the posturing of dictators, all of the crap in which power and authority always wraps itself in that it might awe the governed was reduced to nothing but the presence of five common people asking for a vote. There was no one present that was not proud to be a part of it. The questions that the candidates were asked were excellent.

Clearly, all the candidates were less than conversant with the policies with which they proposed to be permitted to wrestle, but the differences between them were nonetheless stark and significant.

Scott Menzies ran as an incumbent. Of course he has never held public or private office except, according to him, in organizations that he founded himself, the existence of which can't be verified and whose purposes were at best ambiguous and stank of self-promotion. However, the unexpected defection of Dietz and Hammerstrom (I love to think under the duress of exposure in the AVA) had created a vacuum which not only nature but the city manger had a damn good reason to deplore.

Into this vacuum Scott Menzies proudly strode bearing the mantel of progressivism which is vital to the national interest and has exactly no relevance to the issues that we face locally. The long years of payoffs in CDBG (Community Development Block Grants) grants to a reliable voting constituency have always been packaged locally as progressivism but amount to a coalition having more in common with Tammany Hall than Bernie Sanders.

This crafted and polished machine in small, remote Fort Bragg was the inheritance to which Scott Menzies laid a confident claim. He was pretty sure of himself.

They, the machine, were certain that the propaganda rag that passes for a newspaper would clinch it. But the Advocate is held in mortal disdain by the same margins that voted for Lee and Norvell.

Bernie Norvell was brave. The slanderous attacks that the incumbency had launched against him for being anti-immigrant backfired with considerable force since he is married to a Latina and is in everyone's experience very far from the caricature that they apparently expected people to buy without evidence.

Will Lee was polished and fast on his feet. He already seemed worried and won hearts by declining to be afraid. But nobody voted for Will or Bernie because of their public appearances. They were elected less because of what they were but because of what they were not: Unlike the City Council to date, always excepting Cueball. They just said they were in nobody's pocket. That was enough. Now they are the City Council.

The very lame duck, Dave Turner, who I think can now be called, though it is technically two weeks premature, our former mayor, and who won his final election by a somewhat questionable forty votes, and then subsequently battled fiercely to hold his seat in defiance of any crap about mandates has passed into history — but what history will say about him depends on of course on what the new City Council is able to achieve.

Being the majority means that you have the power to act. The problem is that you are expected to.

The old majority solved that and all their other problems by declining to do what the law of California requires of a city council. A city council is a general law city in California. It is tasked, as they say, with providing the vision and expressing the intention of the people. The city manager is by law the operating agent of the city council. In Fort Bragg, not to belabor the obvious, the city manger for long years controlled and bullied a supine rubber stamp city council and hid fundamental facts from the people as if that were her job. Pretending prettily that her pretense was reality and getting a great deal of thanks for doing it. Of course everyone in town knew what they were not being told. She is quite unpopular.

But the problems of being a majority are greater than the problem of surviving one. If they show any weakness, any sign of independence, City Manger Linda will move like the predator that she is. And when/if she gets them on the ropes she will show no mercy.

The complexity of modern government exceeds the capacity of an amateur city council to deal with it. The city council is composed essentially of volunteers who all have other jobs. No one thinks that the $300 a month that they are given is enough to live on even with healthcare and many cushy perks. The urban planning professionals under the command of City Manager Linda have millions of dollars, plenty of slush fund access and no effective oversight. They don't need other jobs. The physical document which represents their budget is a cryptic nod to disclosure that holds within it so many inexplicable transfers of and disappearances of cash that no one on earth can or ever has penetrated its mysteries. The City Council, as a matter of longstanding policy, does not try. They give it one marathon session a year and then never look at it again. Excepting Cueball who knows more than he can reasonably say.

If the new Fort Bragg City Council is to survive they must either toe the line as the old Council has done for decades, giving the machine the room it needs to fool the people and manipulate the process, or it must face the facts that have always been hidden from it. Facing the facts does not solve the problems but without the basic courage to know what we are up against after 17 years of being spoon-fed a myth of competence that was — to put it mildly — inaccurate, solutions will not be possible.

MARIJUANA’S ‘TRIMMIGRANT’ LABOR FORCE POSES CONFLICTS FOR SOME NORTH COAST TOWNS

by Glenda Anderson

Every fall, waves of transient pot trimmers descend on the rural North Coast looking for work during the lucrative marijuana harvest season, and that annual influx — unorganized and sometimes unruly — is fueling widening tensions with residents just as the state’s pot industry is poised for a legalized boom.

Garberville has been particularly hard hit by the flood of seasonal pot trimmers — known as trimmigrants — who converge on the Emerald Triangle from September to December but often find themselves without a job or a place to live, straining the community’s resources and goodwill.

Problems range from loitering and littering to blatant drug use, theft, illegal camping, trespassing and defecating in public areas, said Beth Allen, a Garberville restaurateur and marijuana farmer.

Most concerning, people working in the business also have been killed and abused, while others have disappeared, never to be found, according to police.

Allen said she’s witnessed men fighting with machetes, people injecting drugs in the street, verbal assaults and strange burglaries, like one during which a burglar urinated on the victim’s bed.

“There’s crazy, crazy stuff going on here,” said Allen, who carries a Taser weapon for safety and began confronting the transients several years ago.

Some Humboldt and Mendocino county residents this year began circulating fliers — claiming to be from an “Office of Trimmigration” — that set out codes of conduct for would-be trimmers. They include keeping dogs on leashes, putting trash in receptacles and not using streets as toilets.

In Garberville, fed-up residents last year began to patrol the streets. They ask people to move along and tell them when their behavior is unacceptable. They also advise them on how to find medical and substance abuse assistance.

The problem primarily is with people who are drawn to the area by marijuana but then either can’t find work or decide not to work, she said. The town’s reputation for being permissive is attractive to transients and drug addicts, Allen said.

The Nov. 11 slaying of a Mendocino County marijuana grower has underscored the danger of working within the state’s marijuana industry, which remains largely underground despite the legalization of medical marijuana in 1996 and voters’ approval of recreational pot earlier this month.

Jeffrey Settler, 35, was beaten and stabbed at his rural property near Laytonville, an area known for wide-scale cannabis cultivation. More than 100 pounds of illegally grown processed marijuana was taken, sheriff’s officials said. Two of the people Settler had hired to trim the pot have been arrested on suspicion of murder and robbery, and detectives are seeking five others in the crime. The outstanding suspects are all in their 20s or 30s and hail from states as far away as Illinois, New York and New Jersey.

The use of migrant labor in the marijuana trade is not new. Trimmigrants have been employed for the industry’s seasonal harvest and processing rush for decades.

Hiring strangers, often from the side of a road or a parking lot, is a risk some people take when they can’t find enough people they know to help harvest and trim their pot crops, said Tim Blake, a Laytonville-based medical marijuana farmer, advocate and founder of the Emerald Cup. Settler’s family said he made a habit of picking up strangers and helping them find jobs and a place to live.

That is not safe, Blake said.

“You’re bringing people in you don’t know,” he said. “You’re bringing them into your house. You just don’t do that.”

It also can be dicey for the workers. Over the years, some have been killed while working in pot gardens. Women have reported being sexually assaulted by their employers.

Vero, a 26-year-old woman from Spain who was strumming a guitar outside a Laytonville grocery store on a sunny day last month, said this is her fourth season trimming bud in Northern California to earn travel money. Her destinations include Central America and Cuba.

She has heard stories about sexual assaults on trimmers and had a couple of scary events while hitchhiking in California. She once overheard two men with whom she was riding discuss kidnapping her when they thought she was asleep. She said she jumped out of the car and ran when they stopped at a gas station.

“It was scary,” said Vero, who declined to give her full name. She said she’s very careful now and tries to work only for people she met on prior visits.

Blake expects underground, risky jobs in the pot business to largely disappear with the recent voter-approved legalization for personal use and pending regulations aimed at regulating and taxing the industry. He said it will make it safer for all concerned by bringing marijuana-related employment into the mainstream.

“It will completely change the way trimming is done,” Blake said.

He predicted much of the trimming work will be shipped to cities where there’s a larger pool of laborers. Distributors will likely purchase harvested pot and process it in large facilities in places like Santa Rosa, he said. Growers already are moving toward mechanization to reduce their reliance on laborers, he said.

The allure of the North Coast’s marijuana jobs also will diminish if pay levels decline as large-scale growers enter the business and pot prices drop, Blake said. Wholesale prices for California cannabis have fallen from a high of about $5,000 a pound two decades ago and now are closer to $1,000 a pound, he said. National wholesale prices have been reported at about $1,600 a pound.

Cannabis costs almost $400 a pound to produce, including water, rent and fertilizers, Blake said, and trimmers take a big chunk of growers’ profits on top of that.

Trimmers are currently paid about $150 for each pound of bud they trim, Blake said. Depending on how fast they work, they make between $20 and $40 an hour, he said. He predicted trimmers will be converted to hourly wages of $15 to $20 as the marijuana industry emerges from the shadows and operates as a fully legal and regulated business.

Others are skeptical that legalization and regulation will bring many positive changes. Colorado, which legalized marijuana for personal use four years ago, still has people who import marijuana illegally from Humboldt County, Allen said.

“No matter what, there will always be a black market,” she said.

(The Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

THE SHOW WILL GO ON

Another change in program for Ukiah Symphony concert: Dec. 3-4

by Roberta Werdinger

The Ukiah Symphony orchestra was saddened to hear on Monday morning that our piano soloist for this weekend's concert had badly injured both hands (Lawrence Holmefjord-Sarabi). However, Les, our conductor was able to secure Bay Area pianist, Roy Bogas, who is also well liked by Ukiah Symphony fans. He will play Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Opus 15 and the Symphony will perform the previously scheduled Dvorak piece.

Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major and The New World will be presented Saturday and Sunday, December 3-4, at Mendocino College Center Theatre. Performances will be on Saturday, December 3rd at 8 p.m. and Sunday, December 4th at 3 p.m. Tickets are available at www.ukiahsymphony.org; Mendocino Book Company in Ukiah; and Mail Center, Etc. in Cloverdale. Prices are $25 for adults; $20 for seniors; and free for children under 18 or those with ASB card. For further information please call the Ukiah Symphony hotline at 707 462-0236. The concert is sponsored by Lisbeth and Shari, Baci Cafe & Wine Bar, Healdsburg; Dr. Larry Falk and Dr. Margaret Arner; and Monte and Kay Hill.

MEET THE NEW COASTAL DEPUTIES

Sheriff Tom Allman will introduce our new South Coast Deputies David Harston and Rob Julian to residents of Point Arena this Thursday December 1 from 5:00 to 5:30 pm sharp at City Hall. Please stop by!

WHAT: Introduction of New Sheriff's Deputies

WHEN: Thursday December 1; 5:00-5:30 pm Sharp

WHERE: Point Arena City Hall/Veteran's Building, 451 School Street

AV UNITY CLUB HOLIDAY BAZAAR! YOU'RE INVITED TO COME!

Dear Wonderful Friends & Community!

I hope this finds you well and in good spirits! Happy Holidays! It is that time of year again!

You are invited to see my work at the AV Unity Club Holiday Bazaar this coming Saturday, December 3, 2016, from 10 am until 4 pm. It is held in the main hall at the Fairgrounds in Boonville. If there is something in particular that you would like me to bring, kindly let me know, and I will do my best to accommodate you.

I accept checks, cash, layaway and if you have a smart phone you can even pay via paypal.me/JMoscariello I'll be showing some framed original art, others will be unframed, and I will have prints, and cards too, and my new book, speaking of which...

Thanks to so many of you for supporting my Kickstarter campaign! Your rewards will be arriving by mail any day now! Very happily I will have copies of my new book "Capture the Moon" available for sale and will sign them any way that folks would like:) I'll also have new paintings and cards.

Thank you so much for your continued support and support for the AV Unity Club. Did you know that the "The purpose of ANDERSON VALLEY UNITY CLUB is to provide meaningful volunteer community service; encourage local youth through scholarships and grants; promote literacy by supporting the lending library; and support community beautification with the help of the Garden Section."? -from the website:) It is a pretty wonderful organization!

Much love!

Jaye Alison Moscariello

CATCH OF THE DAY, November 30, 2016

MICHAEL BEERS, Ukiah. Probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

MARIA CABEZA-LAMEIRO, Vigo, Spain*/Willits. Drunk in public.

CHRISTOPHER CORTINA, Ukiah. Drug possession for sale, prohibited person with ammo, large capacity magazine, county parole violation.

BILLY ELKIN, Ukiah. Drunk in public.

DAKOTA GONZALES-BETTEGA, Ukiah. Domestic assault, failure to appear.

BOBBI MAKI, Willits. Shoplifting, petty theft, county parole violation.

ANAMARIA MEJIA, Willits. Controlled substance, child endangerment, resisting, evidence tampering, probation revocation.

RICHARD OLSTAD, Fort Bragg. Burglary, controlled substance, suspended license.

NATHAN RIOS JR., Ukiah. Meth possession for sale, switchblade in vehicle, no lieense, resisting.

HARRY WINELANDER, Willits. Controlled substance, failure to appear, probation revocation.

ANDREA WRIGHT, Ukiah. Drunk in public.

(* Vigo is a large port city on the western coast of Spain, just north of the border with Portugal.)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Not many may think of Donald Trump as a man, but at least he played one on TV. The dozen plus other Republican “hopefuls” stood there like cigar store Indians spewing lines of garbage, signifying nothing. They were all perfect examples of the political mantra of “say nothing, do nothing and no one can pin anything bad on you”. Americans have been spoon fed this kind of useless crap for decades now and have reaped the rewards of nothing-speak, which is nothing. Donald Trump, whether he is actually a man or not, actually played one by shouting out from the bully pulpit the facts that we who fight in the trenches every day have known for decades. That open borders, blatant corruption both political and financial, and that small, unproductive splinter groups should NOT be allowed to wag the dog. Draining the swamp may not be what he does if he is ever sworn in but it is something that all of us out here have known was necessary since the murder of JFK. Bernie Sanders was a nice old guy with a lot of wise things to say, but as was witnessed by his cowering down before the HRC Beast, he was just another pussy too.

There is a lot that can happen between now and 20 Jan 17 and while people like me that voice such fears are laughed at and ignored, in the final analysis, the system is still as corrupt as the that run by Nero and money talks while BS walks. Or more properly, just lies their and stinks. January 21st cannot arrive soon enough, at least right now that is. Let’s hope it stays that way.

COALITION ASKS OBAMA TO TERMINATE JERRY BROWN'S DELTA TUNNELS PLAN

by Dan Bacher

On November 28, a coalition of California conservation, fishing and public interest organizations urged the Obama Administration to terminate Governor Jerry Brown’s Delta Tunnels plan, the California WaterFix, before Donald Trump is inaugurated in January.

“It is time now to make the right decision,” the groups said in a letter to federal officials. “ The California Water Fix -- Delta Water Tunnels -- represent a financial as well as an environmental nightmare. This administration should terminate this project. Otherwise, down the road, when the obvious financial and environmental catastrophe is recognized by all, the blame will be placed on this administration.”

The organizations addressed the letter to Sally Jewell, the Secretary of Interior; Gina McCarthy, the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Christina Goldfuss, Managing Director of the Council on Environmental Quality; David Murillo, Regional Director of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and other officials.

Groups signing the letter include Friends of the River, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Restore the Delta, Environmental Water Caucus, Center for Biological Diversity, California Water Impact Network, AqAlliance, Sierra Club California, Environmental Justice Coalition for Water and Planning and Conservation League.

The groups call the Delta Tunnels plan a “classic corporate welfare public subsidy,” stating, “Every day people would be forking over their hard-earned tax dollars to very wealthy special interests to subsidize the Water Tunnels. And, there will be a disparate impact on low-income communities, both rural and urban, that will bear a disproportional burden through higher water costs for this project.”

The coalition documents how the costs exceed the benefits by 4 to 1 — and how the $17 billion projected budget is “absurdly low.”

“A far greater public subsidy would be required for the project than is admitted in DWR’s secret Economic Analysis,” the letter states. “The first comprehensive benefit-cost analysis of the Water Fix shows that the project would only provide $.23 of benefits for each dollar of cost.”

The Benefit-Cost Analysis of the California WaterFix, written by Dr. Jeffrey Michael, Executive Director, Center for Business and Policy Research, Eberhardt School of Business and McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific (August 2016), states:

“This analysis is based on data and assumptions in the revised environmental documents produced by DWR to support the proposal’s environmental review. The results show the WaterFix costs are four times larger than its benefits, and thus the project is not economically justified.”

The letter concludes:

“President Obama has established a legacy of honesty, scientific integrity and commitment to conservation and protection of our natural resources. The Water Fix project needs to be terminated at this time. It is neither right nor fair that President Obama’s legacy and administration be tarnished in the future with blame for fraudulently inflicting this financial and environmental nightmare on the honest and hard-working taxpayers and ratepayers of America and California.”

Delta advocates worry that if the Obama administration doesn’t terminate the California Water Fix before President Obama leaves office, that Governor Jerry Brown may make a deal with incoming President Donald Trump to weaken the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act in order to fast-track the construction of the Delta Tunnels.

Since the election, President-elect Donald Trump's has appointed corporate agribusiness advocates, oil industry shills and other anti-environmental politicians to his transition team.

On November 11, Trump appointed Representative Devin Nunes (CA-22), one of the most aggressive Congressional proponents of increasing Delta water exports to agribusiness and opponents of fish and wildlife restoration in California and the West, to the 16-member executive committee of the transition team.

On November 21, Trump named Doug Domenech, the director of a pro-Big-Oil think tank, to lead his Interior Department advisory group. Domenech is director of the Fueling Freedom Project, a subsidiary of the right wing Texas Public Policy Foundation, an organization heavily funded by the billionaire Koch brothers and ExxonMobil.

The project advocates and celebrates the continued burning of fossil fuels — and its goals include ending “the regulation of CO2 as a pollutant.” Its prime directive is to defend “the forgotten moral case for fossil fuels.”

Domenech replaced David Bernhardt, a lawyer and Westlands Water District lobbyist who co-chaired the natural resources department at the firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and served as a George W. Bush Interior Department official, as the head of the Interior Department team. Bernhart represented the Westlands Water District on litigation involving the Delta and the Endangered Species Act. (www.politico.com/...)

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Tom Pyle, the president of the American Energy Alliance (AEA) heads the Trump Energy Department transition team. The AEA is the political arm of the Institute for Energy Research, a Washington, D.C.-based “non-profit” organization that “conducts research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets.”

If people think that the capture of the regulatory apparatus by the regulated has been bad under Obama, it will undoubtedly become even worse under the Trump administration.

The Water Fix is based on the absurd contention that taking up to 9,000 cubic feet per second of water from the Sacramento River at the new points of diversion, as requested in the petition by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to the State Water Resources Control Board, will somehow “restore” the Delta ecosystem.

I am not aware of a single project in US or world history where the construction of a project that takes more water out of a river or estuary has resulted in the restoration of that river or estuary.

Read the full letter here.