Mendocino County Today: Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016

• Big Band
• Little Dog
• L'affaire Woodhouse
• Planning Backlog
• DA's Statement
• Native Lives
• Tanoak Blocks
• Stoned Drunk
• Sheriff's Statement
• Art Walking
• Yesterday's Catch
• Swamp Filling
• Strange Artifact
• Marijuana IPO
• Toy Drive
• DAPL Benefit
• Yeah Pelosi
• DAPL Resolution
• Dear Obama

BIG BAND MUSIC IN BOONVILLE THIS SATURDAY

Reminder: The popular Swingin Boonville Big Band is performing at Lauren's in Boonville this Saturday from 9 - 11 PM. Beer and wine bar open late. Good food, dinner from 5 - 9.

LITTLE DOG SAYS, "Got me one of those big dog pillows right in front of the fire, but I plan to pop out for a look at tonight's crescent moon. Brrrrrrr. It's cold."

THE ABILITY OF CARLYN WOODHOUSE to resign for her husband, Third District Supervisor Tom Woodhouse, was struck from the court order extending the temporary conservatorship of Supervisor Woodhouse by Judge Richard Henderson at a court hearing in Ukiah Superior Court on Friday morning. 
Henderson ordered that Provision 6 of Attachment 12 of the court order be deleted. Provision 6 gave Carlyn Woodhouse authorization “to resign Conservatee’s (i.e., Supervisor Woodhouse’s) position as a Mendocino County supervisor pursuant to Government Code 1750 (d).”

Henderson also ordered that the power to resign on behalf of Tom Woodhouse be struck from Provision 5, which stated (prior to its being modified): “Conservator is specifically authorized to make all necessary decisions related to Conservatee’s employment and disability, including but not limited to arranging for leave(s) of absence, resignation, retirement, or other such action as Conservator may determine to be in the best interest of Conservatee.” 
Henderson ordered that the words “resignation, retirement” be deleted from Provision 5. 
Henderson told Jennifer O’Brien, a Willits attorney with the office of Neary and O’Brien who was representing Carlyn Woodhouse in court that he (Henderson) wanted any move by Carlyn Woodhouse to resign the position of third district county supervisor on behalf of her husband, Tom Woodhouse, to be heard and approved by a Mendocino County Superior Court judge. Neither Carlyn or Tom Woodhouse were present at the Friday morning hearing. Exactly who that future judge will be is unknown at this time. Judge Henderson is retiring at the end of the year. Judge Jeanine Nadel, former Mendocino County Counsel, has already recused herself from hearing the case. Henderson said it would be up to Presiding Judge John Behnke to determine who will adjudicate the case.

Judge Henderson also ordered the financial information contained in the court files on Tom Woodhouse and his family be reclassified as confidential. 
Henderson scheduled the next hearing on a conservatorship for Tom Woodhouse, by which his wife could be granted permanent conservatorship of the Third District supervisor, for either January 5 or 6 of next year. Henderson agreed to extend the temporary conservatorship of Woodhouse until that time. He also said Judge Behnke would determine which judge will hear the case and exactly when the hearing will take place. Woodhouse has been suffering from the effects of a bipolar disorder, and has been absent from Supervisors meetings for three months. He has been detained by law enforcement three times, and has been hospitalized three times. On October 28, Woodhouse was arrested by Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office deputies at his Willits home on that Friday evening on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic battery and resisting arrest. A document signed by a Willits physician on November 9 stated that Woodhouse has a bipolar disorder and is “in denial about his diagnosis and his need for treatment.”

On November 30, Willits attorney Chris Neary said that Woodhouse was “doing better and would likely be released soon.”

— Mike A’Dair, reporter, Willits Weekly

(Courtesy, Willits Weekly)

* * *

L'AFFAIRE WOODHOUSE is now entering its fourth month and seems no closer to resolution than ever following another court hearing Friday morning. The temporary conservatorship of the troubled Supervisor was extended until January, but his wife's power to resign his elected position on the Board of Supervisors was rescinded. Carlyn Woodhouse was granted a temporary conservatorship over her husband two weeks ago, including the power to resign his position as elected Supervisor. Woodhouse last attended a Board of Supervisors meeting on August 30. He has been detained by the police three times since then and has spent the last month confined to a mental hospital in the Sacramento area.

CHRIS NEARY, the Willits-based Woodhouse family attorney, previously stated that the job is responsible for supervisor Woodhouse’s mental condition. Neary said he was negotiating a settlement with the county as a condition of resignation. County CEO Carmel Angelo previously said there was nothing to negotiate. If Supervisor Woodhouse thinks he has a job-related medical condition he can apply for Workers Compensation or a disability retirement like any other County employee.

WILLITS SOURCES CONFIRM that Woodhouse has been released from the mental hospital and is now back in Willits. Woodhouse was not present for the Friday hearing. Neary is the Woodhouse family attorney who sought the conservatorship on the behalf of Mrs. Woodhouse who retains control over the Supervisor's finances and healthcare. Mrs. Woodhouse is also the alleged victim of a domestic assault that led to the supervisor’s recent arrest and confinement to the mental hospital. Cynics note that Neary and the family appear more interested in a financial settlement then in the mental and physical well being of Supervisor Woodhouse. With Woodhouse under a conservatorship, can he attend a Board of Supervisors meeting and vote on issues that come before them? With his wife relieved of the power to resign his office could Woodhouse resign on his own behalf? Logically, the answer would be no, since the Court has stripped Supervisor Woodhouse of the power to manage his own finances and healthcare. If he cannot write a check to pay the satellite TV bill, how can he be allowed to conduct County business involving complicated policy decisions and millions of dollars in expenditures?

STILL UNRESOLVED are the pending criminal charges for domestic assault and resisting arrest. An effort also appears to have been made to hush up the first two encounters with law enforcement, apparently in an effort to protect the Supervisor and what remains of his pride. Written records of those encounters are either nonexistent or unavailable, but details have emerged including that two deputies suffered bite wounds in the first encounter. The position of the District Attorney is unknown at this time, but an elegant solution would appear to be some sort of plea agreement contingent on the Supervisor getting the help he needs and quietly stepping down from the job he appears incapable of performing.

WORD TRICKLING out from the Mendocino Planning Department has it that the Planning Department has received so many new marijuana related permit applications a backlog is developing. It’s not clear whether the recently passed county and state pot laws are behind the increase, but the Planning Department is understaffed and under-experienced these days (as are several other departments with roles in the pot permit business) and the County may be forced to look at creative ways to deal with the applications.

MEANWHILE, DISTRICT ATTORNEY David Eyster issued this statement Friday:

While the implementation of Proposition 64 is ongoing and the court hearings reducing previous-obtained felony convictions to misdemeanors have commenced, a common misunderstanding underlying Proposition 64 continues to surface and be discussed.

Marijuana defendants sentenced to state prison were rarely, if ever, committed to the Department of Corrections for the evidence and facts underlying a marijuana conviction. Rather, such defendants overwhelmingly received state prison commitments because of their body of criminal misconduct committed often over many years. For example, a current state prison inmate's Prop 64 petition was heard this morning in the Mendocino County Superior Court. As approved by the voters, the state prison inmate was asking that his felony conviction be reduced to a misdemeanor, that he be given time served, and that he be ordered released immediately without any post-release supervision. The relief he was seeking was granted because that is what Prop 64 required.

Were the facts underlying the conviction aggravated? No. The man conspired with a friend to travel to the North Coast to purchase black market marijuana at a better price than that available where they each lived. Once back in Southern California, the marijuana would be sold for a tidy, tax-free profit. Caught red-handed with the purchased marijuana on the southbound leg of this business venture, the inmate was ultimately convicted of possession of marijuana for purposes of sale.

So what caused a local judge to send this man to state prison? His rap sheet. The man has two prior felony convictions for robbery and one prior felony conviction for attempted robbery. He also has a prior felony conviction for voluntary manslaughter where he used a knife to commit the homicide. In the manslaughter case, the man was originally given a chance to rehabilitate on supervised probation but he failed on that probation within two years. He was then sentenced to state prison for seven years. When he was eventually released on parole, he violated the terms of his parole and was returned to prison for an additional year. Overall, this inmate has four Strike convictions on his record, so he also greatly benefited from the voters amending the Three Strikes Law in 2012.

The scope of Proposition 64 is more far-reaching than some voters may have understood. Despite the passage of Prop 64, there will continue to be violent criminals who are attracted to the money associated with the marijuana culture and businesses of Mendocino County. Please be careful about doing "business" with out-of-area strangers, especially if you have no way of knowing their background. As shown by the one example above, some of these traveling entrepreneurs have pretty violent backgrounds that could place you and those around you at risk.

* * *

Voting results that impact the Mendocino County criminal justice system:

Prop 57 — Early Parole Release of State Prison Inmates: PASSED.
Comment: Legislative changes need to be undertaken to ensure that future laws proposed to the voters outside the deliberative legislative process — through the initiative process — are presented with ballot titles and summaries that are truthful and accurate.

Prop 62 — Repeal the death penalty: FAILED.
Comment: Mendocino County has only one inmate on death row — Richard Dean Clark. He brutally raped and murdered teenager Rosie Grover in 1985, yet remains pending execution of the sentence ordered by the jury and judge over 30 years ago.

Prop 64 — Marijuana decriminalization: PASSED.
Comment: The Mendocino County DA's Office has been working on process and procedure changes to incorporate the new marijuana laws seamlessly into the local criminal justice system.

Prop 66 — Death penalty reform: PASSED.
Comment: It is hoped the changes these reforms will bring will make the death penalty process more just and efficient, as well as provide an end to the interminable wait experienced by families of victims.

NOT TOO MUCH ENTHUSIASM for the Mendo Stands With Standing Rock demonstration at the Ukiah Courthouse Friday afternoon. Liberals, it seems, are in a quandary about how to react to racist violence against Native Americans — even though the adjacent KMEC has flown a banner for Black Lives Matter over their facade all summer for the handful of blacks who live in Mendo — yet never a word, let alone a banner, on the importance of Native lives.

The good people of Bismarck, North Dakota, if you came in late, protested the humungous pipeline snaking down out of Alberta to carry tar sands to Illinois refineries, and the considerate corporations and contractors obligingly moved it, with NoDak Guv. Jack Dalrymple’s blessing, away from Bismarck and on over to the nearby Standing Rock Indian reservation, home of some of America's most celebrated Lakota Sioux chiefs, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Russell Means.

The protestors made a circle late in the demonstration and took turns testifying to the brutality of the political climate, not to mention the water cannon, nightsticks, pepper-spray, flash bombs and rubber bullets on top of freezing temps. Several of the speakers noted that this kind of treatment from non-Native peoples was not uncommon. One woman said she was glad, in a depressing way, that at least it was finally being revealed how common callous treatment of Native Americans really is.

I remember interviewing Russell Means for the Missoula Muse (now the Missoula Independent — now that it’s become acceptable mainstream!) back during the ReaganTime, and the Iran Contra was such a lively topic. American Indian Movement founders Russell Means and Dennis Banks were touring the country in defense Nicaragua’s indigenous Mosquito Indians.

Russell Means died in 2012, at 70. Remarkably he’d been shot several times, stabbed at least once, and jailed for over a year, in one instance, for protesting abuse to Native peoples.

Dennis Banks, another founding member of AIM (American Indian Movement), came home from Japan just one year ago this week, to find his granddaughter had been murdered, drenched in gasoline and burnt.

At the time of my interview, Mr. Means had been filming a movie, Last of the Mohicans, in which he played a starring role. In Missoula (the scene was some evangelical denomination church basement, as I recall; no other venue in town would let this Republican-led entourage under their roof), the flamboyant Russell Means was dressed for the set, in my book, wearing more silver and turquoise than a Santa Fe coke dealer, and he had a gorgeous new wife hanging round his neck. None this glitz and glamour was new, as I had encountered the director of Heaven’s Gate Michael Cimino, the summer before (when I was a reporter for The Flathead Valley Leisure Review, Kalispell, Montana) just after Mr. Coppola’s Academy Award for directing Apocalypse Now.*

We were used to Hollywood pretensions up in Montana.

“Mr. Means,” I said. “You are traveling in company with a bunch of Reaganite apologists!” (the now-commonly applied admonishment — WTF? — wasn’t available in those primitive counsels, and so we had to struggle to communicate such emojis in sign language, if you will).

He readily assessed me as a lefty do-gooder, I suppose, and gave me the AIM party line: “We’re here for the Mosquito people, not any political party.”

No excuses for the Republican company he was keeping, and I suspect this has something to do with why President Obama won’t pardon Leonard Peltier or interfere with the “Black Snake” as the natives call the pipeline.

It’s been 30 years and I could be mistaken on the precise diction, but what Russell Means said to me and repeated elsewhere was something very much to the blasé effect mentioned above. I hardly knew what to say to the readership, in response to such a let-down — politics makes strange bedfellows, my girlfriend suggested — and as best I recall, my editor and I cut the AIM involvement short, and hit the former Golden Gloves welterweight champ Ollie North with a left hook.

Back to the scene at the courthouse this afternoon: I asked Jason Rodriquez the one AIM member — the one with the AIM patches on his vest, that is (there may have been others present) — if he’d been in AIM for a long time, and he said he had. I wanted to ask more, but the man was busy briefing six young warriors who had committed to go to Standing Rock right away, and bowed out of the way.

The AVA’s heroic environmental correspondent Will Parrish was there, along with Anderson Valley’s Denver Read and, remarkably, an Australian activist whose American father decamped Downunder after the Vietnam War with the likes of Colonel David Hackworth (who died mysteriously for criticizing the policies, at the time, of the newly appointed Sec. of Def. USMC — well it’s a Deep State secret (not very well kept), so let’s not dig up too much do-do all at once.

The long and short of the protest was to garner support for these six new warriors, on their way to face the worst of it. Anybody out there with any resources to spare, be sure to contact the Coyote Valley leadership and contribute to this plucky action.

PS. *Francis Ford Coppola wore English riding boots with Jodhpurs and snapped a riding crop like a metronome on his calf. He dined in the back of a downtown Kalispell bar and didn’t mind if locals drifted in and out to admire him. Kris Kristofferson would at least go to the Stockman’s Bar and stand the locals a round. No mention of Native Americans in that True Western. It was like watching Dukes of Hazzard and wondering where are all the black people who live in the South went.

(— Bruce McEwen)

A GREAT IDEA! — Local "Toys for Tots"?

There are some of us woodworkers who can and would make wooden toys. Clearly, they are not "commercially available" toys. How might they fulfill the requirement of new, unwrapped toys and how would they be handled? An example would be wooden blocks (young children really love to play with blocks) or small wooden vehicles (young children love to just push these around). Also, young children love to have their own "treasure boxes" to keep little items that are precious to them. These are projects that many retired people, like myself, could use to fill our time and allow us to contribute of our skills. If this took place, there would also be a need for wood suppliers to donate wood to make the blocks and other toys. For example, the oak trees that are being killed by timber companies could be cut by them and slabbed up in relatively small, non-commercial pieces. This wood makes really fine sets of blocks for young children. Thoughts, anyone? I can be contacted off-list and I will publish the results of this possible project.

Mark Slafkes, Mendocino

NEW PAIRING? WINE AND CANNABIS

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/business/6376893-181/sonoma-county-wineries-ponder-possibility

SHERIFF ALLMAN NOTES:

"As the significance of the loss sinks in, I am deeply concerned that 34% of our voters may not realize the crisis upon us. Our Mental health system needs infrastructure. The fact the we, Mendocino County, are outsourcing care is very concerning. As a tax payer, it is ridiculous to me that we will continue to send millions of dollars to several other counties so they can treat our citizens.

Well, here is my response. Please read it, understand it and believe it. "Our Mental Health Crisis is not going away, and neither am I."

* * *

We certainly were able to draw attention to a possible solution. Over 4,500 good folks signed the petition to get it in the ballot. At this point, I’m anxious to see if anyone on the BOS understands that over 66% of the voters view our mental health situation as needing help (understatement of the year).

I would like to say thanks to the thousands of people whom I have spoken with on this subject. To the detractors, I would love to hear your solution, and see you act towards getting it accomplished. It’s pretty damn easy to criticize, so let’s see you start doing something other than being critical. If you are not part of the solution, you are certainly part of the problem.

Deputy Sheriffs should not have to be the defacto mental health technicians. It’s time the county understood that the mental health crisis is not going away without a viable solution. Enough politics, let’s see some action.

Tom Allman, Sheriff

THE FRIDAY UKIAH ART WALK WAS A FLOP, sad to say.

Why?

Because of Prop 64.

For years you had all these “artsy-fartsy” pot growers who had no life, as they say, only lots of ready cash, and they would buy anything represented as “art.”

Honest to god, they would strew the sidewalks with C-notes, $100 bills, and buy whatever struck their fancy — but Prop. 64 has changed all that.

Now the Art Walk is getting quite desperate.

I went out for the Art Walk and found it was over hyped, and desperately lacking.

Two places, both commercial insurance companies, were all there was.

At seven o’clock, which I consider a “respectable” hour, I arrived at (Ukiah City Councilmember) Maureen “Mo” Mulhern’s insurance shop on State street, where I saw some pictures, only three of ‘em, by “Jen,” a nice person who will copy a photo in acrylics of your late pet, be it a cat or dog.

Some eager advocates of the Art Walk hustled me away from that place and referred me to the new insurance store on the corner of Perkins and State (the old bank building) freshly painted and the home of a business called Insurance Mommy.

Here I discovered the nature photos of Molly Huddlestone, who, after confronting a battery of obstreperous gentlemen, I was at last able to meet. She told me she described her photos as, yes, nature, but not limited to that — and look ye here, see this one?

Somehow, I escaped and wandered down the dark, empty streets to the Corner Gallery, the only other place open where Ester Siegal and Spencer Brewer were displaying their 3-D collages, what they call “assembly art” much of which I’d seen already at Mosswood Market in Boonville.

Hmmm. There you have it.

Every time I asked about prices, things were negotiable.

When I asked about sales, owsom’ever, mumm! was the word.

I went to Villa Del Mar for a tostada and enjoyed the art there, the off-the-Art-Walk art work of Gene Avery North featuring the figure of Sitting Bull at Standing Rock, and pipelines exploding in the backdrop — the only real art on the “art walk.”

(— Bruce McEwen)

CATCH OF THE DAY, December 2, 2016

JULIAN BATTERSEBY, Fort Bragg. DUI, probation revocation.

ERIN BLACKWELL, Ukiah. Drunk in public, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

HOMERO CARMEN, Ukiah. DUI-drugs.

LUCAS CASE, Covelo. Domestic assault, false imprisonment.

VINCENT COLVER, Philo. DUI, suspended license, probation revocation.

ROMAN GARCIA, Fort Bragg. Domestic assault, assault with deadly weapon not a gun, stalking and threatening bodily injury.

JOHN GORAJ, Potter Valley. False imprisonment, criminal threats, vandalism.

AUSTIN KISTLER, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

STEVEN LIANG, Fort Bragg. Conspiracy, probation revocation.

AUGUSTINE MOTA JR., Santa Rosa. Failure to appear.

MARLIN PETERSEN, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

JOSE PLATA, Ukiah. Meth sales.

BUCK SILVA, Willits. Drunk in public, probation revocation.

JEFFREY SPIVEY, Willits. Domestic battery.

JUSTIN THORNHILL, Ukiah. Controlled substance, evidence tampering, failure to appear.

WILLIAM WILLIAMS JR., Willits. Drunk in public, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Trump is choosing billionaires and ex-Goldman Sachs executives for his cabinet. For Secretary of Treasury Trump has chosen a second-generation Goldman Sachs partner who worked for George Soros before starting a hedge fund and buying IndyMac, a failing California bank that made billions while foreclosing on homeowners after the financial crisis.

So far it looks like the swamp is winning. Meet the new corrupt cabinet, just as Goldman Sachs and just as corrupt as the old cabinet.

And the guy Trump chose for Health and Human Services! Look out veterans! By picking Tom Price, Trump seems to indicate he is on a rampage against entitlement programs like TRICARE, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc.

TRICARE’s benefits are established by law, and so TRICARE is an entitlement program, and not insurance. All entitlement programs are at risk. The new swamp is dangerous, but I imagine so are pissed-off veterans. Good luck everyone!

ENDANGERED SPECIES?

POT INVESTMENTS

"A company named Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR), a real estate investment trust that plans to buy buildings and lease them to growers of medical marijuana, went public on the venerable NYSE Thursday morning."

http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/01/investing/innovative-industrial-properties-marijuana-ipo/

TOY TRAIN SYSTEM SPONSORS A TOY DRIVE!

Come tour the inside of our SMART Holiday Express Train, and join us in sharing the spirit of the season.

On Saturday, December 10, bring an unwrapped toy or gift card to our Cotati, Petaluma or Novato San Marin stations during the times listed below.

Come check out the inside of the SMART train, and help make the holidays special for children in need. Donations will be distributed to Toys For Tots and other non-profit organizations serving children in need in Sonoma and Marin counties.

Saturday, December 10

Cotati Station:
980 East Cotati Avenue
9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

Petaluma Downtown Station:
220 Lakeville Street
11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Novato San Marin Station:
7700 Redwood Boulevard
1 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

For more information, please contact us at: info@SonomaMarinTrain.org or (707) 794-3077

STANDING ROCK AT EAGLES HALL, FORT BRAGG

From: "Kathleen Bowman" <kathleenbow@msn.com>

Please come to the benefit for Standing Rock at Eagles Hall on Saturday December 3! We are collecting zero-degree sleeping bags and horse blankets to send to Standing Rock. There is a full day and night of music and movement scheduled:

• 9:30 Doors Open with music by Nancyjoy Evans
• 10:00 Opening Circle and Sacred Water Ceremony
• 10:30 Devotional Five Rhythms Dance with Justine Battersby
• 11:00 Yoga with Justine Lemos
• 11:45 Bellydance with Nicole Fish
• 12:30 Zumba with Tabitha Korhummel
• 2:00 Samba with Carmen Day
• 4:00 DJ Embe
• 5:30 DJ DLT
• 7:30 AfroFunk Experience
• 10:00 Selector Science
• 11:00 Syrius
• 12:00 Mountain Man & Yoga with Delphine Davidson

Cost: $10 for a one dance class/ $20 for half day/ $40 all day

Activism Alley:

• Educational Talk by Charlie Acker about the dangers of fracking and it's effect on drinking water at Noon
• Sierra Rose will speak about her experiences visiting Standing Rock
• Letter writing station to contact government officials and financial institutions
• Banner making station with sheets and art supplies to make banners to send to Standing Rock

Each participant will receive a raffle ticket with their admission. Plus extra raffle tickets for:

• donating a zero-degree sleeping bag or horse blanket;
• Writing a letter to a government official/financial institution
• Making a phone call to a government official/financial institution
• Making a banner
• Participating in a Dance Workshop

We hope to see you there!!!

Kathleen Bowman, Fort Bragg

SACRAMENTO CITY COUNCIL PUTS STANDING ROCK RESOLUTION ON DEC. 6 CONSENT CALENDAR

by Dan Bacher

In a surprisingly quick action, the Sacramento City Council on Tuesday night voted to put a resolution in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline on the consent calendar for the next council meeting on December 6 starting at 6 pm.

Councilmember Angelique Ashby made the motion to put the resolution on the consent calendar, noting the urgency of the situation at Standing Rock. The consent calendar allows the council to approve a number of items together without discussion or individual motions.

The council made the unanimous decision after a dozen people, including local water protectors who recently traveled to North Dakota to join the Tribe and their allies on the front lines, passionately spoke before the council about the urgent need to back the movement to stop the pipeline.

“While I was in North Dakota, the police arrested me and other water protectors,” said Liljana Adams, a member of the United Auburn Indian Community. “They strip searched us and put us in dog kennels. I’m a mother of three children, but I left them at home because I knew they wouldn’t be safe there. I hope my community supports this resolution.”

Anamaria Ragland-Munoz, local social justice and homeless advocate, urged the council to “be on the right side of history. Stand with us Sacramentans who believe that the pipeline is wrong on so many levels.”

“It violates treaty law,” she said. “It desecrates sacred sites. Please protect the Missouri River, the primary water source for the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. No DAPL! Respect Native Lives!”

Wes Elliott (Haudenosaunee) of Native Protectors for Environmental Justice, who joined the water protectors in North Dakota four times over the past several months, brought the resolution before the council during the public comment period at the end of the meeting.

“We looked at different resolutions passed by different cities, communities and Tribes to develop our resolution,” explained Elliott.

He described the police brutality that he personally witnessed at Standing Rock as “atrocious,” noting that Sophia Wilansky, the woman who had her arm blown apart by a concussion grenade, had also been been shot by rubber bullets 14 times.

The resolution states:

Section 1. The City of Sacramento stands in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s opposition to construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) across the Tribe’s ancestral lands, waters and sacred sites.

Section 2. The City of Sacramento calls upon the United States and the Army Corps of Engineers to obtain the free, prior and informed consent of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, prior to taking any federal action regarding the DAPL that would harm or destroy the Tribe’s ancestral lands, waters and sacred sites.

Section 3. The City of Sacramento proclaims the second Monday of October, Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the City of Sacramento, will commemorate and support the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s opposition to the DAPL.

Before the meeting, Tina Marie of the Brown Berets De SacrAztlán, who just returned from a trip to Standing Rock, told me, “I have never witnessed racism, sexism and violence by the state like I witnessed while at Standing Rock. It was literally like walking back into the 1960s. Law enforcement was brutalizing unarmed, peaceful people for protecting their land, legally theirs under an 1851 treaty with the U.S. government.”

“I was there for 3 days in the main camp,” she said. “Eighty percent of the people in the camp were women and the police shot rubber bullets at them at point blank range.”

Ruth Ibarra noted that Councilmember Eric Guerra helped the local Standing Rock supporters through the process of getting the resolution before the council.

Organizers are urging people to contact their City Council member before the next council meeting. The contact information is available below the text of the resolution.

"It appears the resolution will pass, but let them know you support a yes vote," according to the Native Protectors for Environmental Justice: www.facebook.com/…

They will also “rally media attention to cover Standing Rock and for support” in front of Sacramento City Hall, 915 I Street, at 5:00 pm before the 6 pm council meeting.

On Monday, November 28, North Dakota Governor Gov. Jack Dalrymple issued an evacuation order citing “anticipated harsh weather conditions” at the Oceti Sakowin Camp before a storm dumped six inches of snow in the area, but the water protectors don’t intend to leave. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has also told them to leave by December 5 or face criminal charges.

Up to 2,000 U.S. veterans plan to gather next week at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to serve as “human shields” for the water defenders. The “deployment” effort, called Veterans Stand for Standing Rock, is planned as a “nonviolent intervention to defend the demonstrators from what the group calls ‘assault and intimidation at the hands of the militarized police force,’" the New York Times reported. (www.nytimes.com/...)

The Oceti Sakowin Camp is “a historic gathering of tribes, allies and people from all walks of life standing in solidarity to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline, according to standwithstandingrock.net, an officlal site of standingrock.org.

Below is the complete text of the resolution before the City Council next Tuesday:

WHEREAS, the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is a 1,168-mile, 30-inch diameter pipeline being developed by Energy Transfer Partners and its affiliates, which would carry as much as 570,000 barrels per day of Bakken crude from western North Dakota to Illinois; and

WHEREAS, the DAPL would run across or beneath 209 rivers, creeks and tributaries, including the Missouri River, which provides drinking water and irrigates agricultural land in communities across the Midwest, serving nearly 10 million people; and

WHEREAS, any spill of oil into the Missouri River would irreparably harm the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s Treaty reserved lands, territories, waters and other resources; burial grounds, gravesites and other sacred sites of cultural, religious, and historical significance; and spiritual relationships and indigenous ways of life; and

WHEREAS, the DAPL would also run through the ancestral lands and waters reserved for the traditional use of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe by the Treaty of Ft. Laramie, including the Missouri River, burial grounds and gravesites, and other sacred sites of cultural, religious, and historical significance; and

WHEREAS, Articles, 11, 12, and 25 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP), as endorsed by the United States in 2010, affirms that indigenous peoples like the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe possess the right to maintain and protect their culture, religion, practices, and relationship with their “traditionally owned or otherwise occupied and used lands, territories [and] waters”; and

WHEREAS, the UNDRIP Article 32 further provides that governments shall consult with indigenous peoples “in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources”; and

WHEREAS, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to consult with or obtain the free, prior and informed consent of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe as required by the Treaty of Fort Laramie, Executive Order 13175, the UNDRIP Article 10, and other federal and international laws, before issuing a “Mitigated Finding of No Significant Impact” that would result in an easement for horizontal directional drilling for the DAPL; and

WHEREAS, Indian Treaties such as the Treaty of Ft. Laramie are recognized by the U.S. Constitution as “the supreme law of the land,” and require consultation and cooperation by the United States with its Indian Treaty partner before any federal action is taken that affects Treaty lands, territories, waters or other resources; and

WHEREAS, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 affirms the need to “protect and preserve for American Indians their inherent right of freedom to believe, express, and exercise the traditional religions,” particularly in American Indian sacred places; and

WHEREAS, the State of California recognizes that “Native American prehistoric, historic, archaeological, cultural, and sacred places are essential elements in tribal cultural traditions, heritages, and identities.” (Chapter 532, Statutes of 2014 (AB 52, Gatto)

WHEREAS, the State of California recognizes that “As California Native Americans have used, and continue to use, natural settings in the conduct of religious observances, ceremonies, and cultural practices and beliefs, these resources reflect the tribes’ continuing cultural ties to the land and their traditional heritages.” (Chapter 532, Statutes of 2014 (AB 52, Gatto)

WHEREAS, the State of California recognizes that “Native American burial sites and Native American cultural resources have always been, and will continue to be, considered sacred to California Native Americans. (CA PRC 5097.995) (Chapter 1155, Statutes of 2002) (Chesbro, SB 1816))

WHEREAS, the City of Sacramento has worked diligently for many years to secure and protect its own sustainable clean water supply and supports the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in opposing the construction of the DAPL that passes under the Missouri River and other water sources with the recognized threat of contamination of existing water supplies with potential future oil spills.

WHEREAS, City Councils of Los Angeles and Davis, California, Portland, Oregon, St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians comprised of 59 Indian Nations in the Northwest, and nearly 200 Indian Nations, are among the governmental bodies that have taken formal action to support the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and oppose the DAPL;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SACRAMENTO, THAT:

Section 1. The City of Sacramento stands in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s opposition to construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) across the Tribe’s ancestral lands, waters and sacred sites.

Section 2. The City of Sacramento calls upon the United States and the Army Corps of Engineers to obtain the free, prior and informed consent of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, prior to taking any federal action regarding the DAPL that would harm or destroy the Tribe’s ancestral lands, waters and sacred sites.

Section 3. The City of Sacramento proclaims the second Monday of October, Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the City of Sacramento, will commemorate and support the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s opposition to the DAPL.

WRITE TO OBAMA (and while you're at it, drop a line to the tree in your backyard)

Posting from Rachel Binah
Subject: Ocean Protection: Call to Action
She asks that we write in our own words

Big Oil and Our Coast

Because you care about protecting our coast and oceans from being despoiled by offshore drilling and industrialization, here is the most effective action you can take.

RIGHT NOW, write now, to President Obama at whitehouse.gov <http://whitehouse.gov/>

Ask him to invoke Section 12 (a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (which controls submerged lands focusing only on oil & gas activity) Section 12 (a) Withdrawal of Unleased Lands by the President "The President of the United States may, from time to time, withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the outer Continental shelf." Background: In the current Interior Department 5 Year Plan for drilling, Obama has already excluded any lease sales for drilling in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans. If he were to also exclude those areas in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, it would solidify that intent. Then it would be a more difficult process for the next president and congress to enact legislation to explore or drill.

In short, simple sentences, ask President Obama to "invoke section 12a of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to eliminate leasing in the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans".

Tell him why ocean protection means so much to YOU. Your own words are best, however, here's my message as a sample:

Dear President Obama,

Please invoke Section 12 (a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to solidify your environmental legacy. Withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the outer Continental shelf in the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.(just as you did in the Interior 5 Year Plan) We must move away from fossil fuels by developing alternative clean energies. We must protect our oceans for Economic (fishing, food, tourism), Environmental (marine life habitat, clean air), Spiritual & Emotional (beauty, comfort, inspirational, recreational) needs.

Rachel Binah
Chair Emeritus, Environmental Caucus
California Democratic Party