Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2016

• Ingram Cemetery
• Bruce Campbell
• Little Dog
• PA Sex Crimes
• Kit Carson Book
• ICO Wildlife
• Local Water News
• Yesterday's Catch
• British Welfare
• Moducks
• American Pathologies
• Gun Sales
• Water Workshop
• DAPL Resolution

ANDERSON VALLEY'S NEWEST CEMETERY lies on the Hill Ranch, Yorkville, and is the final resting place of its creator, Ruth Hill, descendant of an old Valley family. Mrs. Hill, however, graciously remembered the Ingram family, who first homesteaded the Hill Ranch, by memorializing the Ingrams in Ingram Cemetery.

THE BEAUTIFULLY rendered wrought iron entrance arch is the work of Ramon Avila, brother of Anderson Valley fire chief, Andres Avila.

THE ENTRANCE ARCH was erected last week and has already become a Valley landmark.

OUR NEWEST CEMETERY is managed by Clyde Doggett, the efficient manager of all The Valley's public cemeteries.

ANY RESIDENT of the Anderson Valley, or any person who claims veteran's status, is welcome to spend eternity on the little hill overlooking the Hill Ranch.

THE LAST CAMPBELL

by Bob Dempel

Just south of Healdsburg on the east side of Highway 101 was the Campbell Ranch. Almost every resident of Healdsburg and many on the North Coast knew the ranch with the friendly two-story house sitting up on a slight knoll. Today the house is surrounded by grapevines. A “For Sale” sign has been removed, leading me to believe there are new owners. It will always be the Campbell Ranch to me. Bruce Campbell — the last child of Charles Campbell, DVM and Ruth Campbell — died at just 64 years old. I watched Bruce and his two sisters grow up. Bruce outlived his sisters Suzie and Linda who both died at a young age.

In Sonoma County agriculture Bruce was an icon. Bruce loved agriculture and its people. Shortly after graduating from high school and college, he ran unsuccessfully for county supervisor.

Besides sheep, people and women, Bruce loved his sheep dogs. I needed a dog some 40 years ago and Bruce’s bitch had just had a litter. Bruce, at that time was working at the Hot Springs Ranch outside of Cloverdale. I grabbed my friend Jonnie Edgar (JET Trucking) and we drove out to the ranch one afternoon to get a pick of the litter. Bruce invited us in to pick out a puppy and have a little hit. The mother and all of the puppies were housed in a corner of the front room. Three or four chairs surrounded a wooden table piled high with dirty dishes. Bruce just shoved some of the dishes aside and, found some partially used glasses. He proceeded to pour us a small hit.

Bruce owned a three-legged Border Collie dog named Archie, who competed at sheep dog trials. In the 70s and 80s, as it is today, it is very competitive. I speak as someone who tried sheepdog trials and failed. Dogs, at the command of their owner/trainer, direct four sheep through a set course. The first thing is to have the dog complete the course which consists of a chute, wide panels and then work three sheep into a pen. The next thing is to complete the course in the shortest time. Archie completed the course with only the use of his three legs. Archie won many blue ribbons.

The next thing I knew Bruce had become an auctioneer. He auctioned at fairs, fundraisers and anything else that contributed funds for the support of 4-H and FFA members. Along this time Bruce married a wonderful lady from Cloverdale. All of this time he continued to raise sheep at the Healdsburg ranch. Within a few years he lost the wonderful Cloverdale wife. Shortly thereafter, he married another wonderful lady, Nancy, and built a small house on the Healdsburg ranch.

Somewhere in the 1980s Bruce started a lamb meat marketing company called CK Lamb. CK stood for Campbell Kids, the mantra used by Bruce and his two sisters while growing up showing at fairs and other competitions. Bruce’s company sold lamb meat directly to local restaurants and Bay Area meat markets. Bruce selectively purchased lambs from Sonoma County producers paying a decent price for grass-fed lambs that were never treated with antibiotics or hormones.

Lady number two worked alongside Bruce, who by this time had a well-known brand. The local press would cover the progress of CK Lamb at stores and restaurants. I would see his pickup and sheep trailer come and go. Bruce was everywhere, when not selling lamb he would be auctioneering. He truly was a great ambassador for Sonoma County.

Besides his lamb business and auctioneering, Bruce served on the Sonoma County Harvest Fair Board of Directors. I saw him at a function there in a full suit and tie with tennis shoes. That signaled to me that his body was telling him something.

Sonoma County is truly a social county. Especially in wine country. Everyone knows about everything here that happens in agriculture. I knew that from a young age Bruce chewed tobacco. I also shared a few hits with Bruce. Somewhere Bruce made a statement that if he knew he was going to live so long, he would have taken better care of his body. The hits were more often. Then he lost lovely lady number two. He tried, I know he did. With his mom and two sisters gone, but his dad still living in the house, he knew he had to stay strong. It was time to sell the CK Lamb business. Just take care of dad and raise a few sheep on the ranch. He could still help at the fair auction. But the hits finally won the game.

A memorial service was held at the 4-H Center for Bruce Campbell. People came from all around the state. Both lovely wives attended as well as some stepchildren. Rex Williams, who bought the CK Lamb business, put the program together. It was like old home week for anyone connected with Sonoma County Agriculture.

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “I'm starting to think back over 2016, but all I've got so far is Bochy going to the bullpen against the Cubs instead of sticking with Moore. I just couldn’t watch. I knew what was going to happen. I knew it! I had to turn away. We coulda, shoulda, woulda won it all!”

FEDERAL SEX CRIMES FOR POINT ARENA PAIR ACCUSED OF EXPLOITING UNDERAGE GIRL

by Julie Johnson

Federal prosecutors said two Point Arena residents sexually abused and prostituted a 16-year-old girl during a weeklong ordeal in Santa Rosa and Oakland.

Tion Makeise Foster, 21, and Monica Merlin Morales, 25, picked the girl up at a park in the community of Olivehurst near Yuba City for what was supposed to be an afternoon encounter but then took her to the Bay Area where they prostituted her, knowing she was only 16 years old, according to a two-count federal indictment filed Dec. 22 by U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert in the Eastern District of California.

Foster and Morales are suspected of exploiting the girl through social media and Backpage.com, an embattled advertising website under fire for money laundering and conspiracy to commit pimping.

They face a mandatory minimum of 10 years or a maximum life sentence in federal prison if convicted of sex trafficking a minor and conspiracy.

Morales met the girl through a social media site called MocoSpace, where the girl had advertised herself for prostitution, and “told the victim that she could make money by working with her,” according to an FBI agent’s report in support of an arrest warrant.

They arranged to meet Aug. 8 at a park in Olivehurst, a community near Yuba City, for what was supposed to be the afternoon. Instead, Morales and Foster picked her up in a vehicle and left the area.

They stopped at a gas station with a McDonald’s restaurant where Foster took her into a bathroom and had sex with her, according to the FBI report. They then took her to Santa Rosa where they bought her lingerie and took photos of her, which the victim believes were later posted on Backpage.com, the FBI said.

That day, the girl’s mother reported her missing with the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office.

Over the next week, the girl endured death threats and had sex with Foster and Morales as well as men who paid to have sex with her in their vehicles, according to the indictment.

“In return, Foster would either give the victim $20 or food,” the investigator said in the report.

They took her back to Olivehurst about a week later, and the sheriff’s office closed the missing person case after the girl was reported to be home Aug. 16.

The investigation began Nov. 4 when the girl told a high school counselor she had been sexually abused, and the counselor notified police. She had kept in touch with Foster through Facebook, and cooperated with law enforcement who conducted surveillance on their conversations, which demonstrated his apparent intent to sexually exploit her again and also have her trim marijuana, according to the report.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

WHEN MEMORY FAILS — a boring anecdote about a non-boring book by Hampton Sides called, "Blood and Thunder, the Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West."

AS TRUE A BOOK TITLE as I know about the annexation of California from Mexico, an annexation poised to be reversed, Trump suggests, if we don't get The Wall up, pronto. (Right, Don. Whatever you say.)

WITHOUT KIT CARSON'S ferocious gifts as a multi-lingual guide to Mexican California, the golden state's adoption by the greater United States may have been significantly delayed. This book, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in the history of our fair state, weaves Carson's astonishing life into the huge events that eventually led to California rounding off the continental United States.

COMMENCING the boring anecdote: Many books about early California history are so poorly written the facts get confused. This book clarifies much of the confusion while at the same time, thanks to its skillful author, reads right along like a good novel. Most histories of California are so boring it's hard to focus on the info being imparted. Or maybe it's just my deteriorating cognitive abilities, but this one book as disabused me of many mistaken ideas.

FOR YEARS, I've thought an important incident — check "incident" — what happened was a straight-up double murder committed by Carson on the order of Manifest Destiny himself, John Fremont. And not the first one. The two men weren't good for each other.

WITHOUT Carson's vigilance, the Klamath Indians would have killed Fremont in Oregon, before his most famous third trip down into California. As it was, the Fremont party suffered heavy losses in the midnight attack on their camp. True to form, Fremont and Carson commenced a revenge expedition around the lake during which they slaughtered lots of Indians but not the Indians who'd attacked them.

I'D GOTTEN the mistaken idea that the infamous California murder of the de Haro twins and their old uncle by Fremont and Carson happened just east of Highway 101 in Northern Marin near Olompali State Park. I'd have sworn I'd read that geographic placement of the episode in at least two histories. And for years, every time I've driven that stretch of highway I've thought about that awful crime.

BUT THREE DAYS AGO, thanks to "Blood and Thunder," I learned that the brothers were shot in the area where San Quentin now stands, not where the Bay used to reach Olompali. Worse, or more embarrassing, I confidently wrote just last week to the AVA subscriber who sent me "Blood and Thunder" relaying my geographically misplaced anecdote in my thanks to her.

HERE'S WHAT REALLY HAPPENED: "Then Fremont learned of a tragedy that had befallen a pair of Bear Flag insurrectionists. A few days earlier an American named Fowler and another named Cowie secretly ventured north from Sonoma to secure gunpowder at a small coastal outpost called Bodega. But a band of Mexican guerrillas captured and brutally lynched the two Americans. The two men were tied to trees and slashed with knives, their limbs pulled apart with lariats.

"IT WAS AN OUTRAGEOUS crime, and the worst bloodshed in what had been thus far a placid and uneventful revolt. But now the Bear Flaggers cried out for retribution, as did Fremont and Carson.

"ON SUNDAY, June 28, Fremont spotted a small boat crossing the Bay and ordered Carson to intercept it. The boat landed near San Quentin and three men stepped ashore. [My emphasis] They were twenty-year-old twins, Ramon and Francisco de Haro, and their elderly uncle, Jose de los Berryessa. They were prominent citizens — the two young men were the sons of the mayor of Sonoma.

"WHAT HAPPENED NEXT is subject to some debate, and different accounts stress different points. But Carson apparently arrested the three men and demanded they hand over any dispatches they might be carrying. They appeared nervous and uncooperative, but insisted they harbored no messages. Though it was obvious these three men were not soldiers, Carson was suspicious. He called to Fremont and asked him what he wanted to do with them. 'Captain, should I take these men prisoner?' he yelled from a distance.

"FREMONT waved his hand dismissively. 'No,' he replied. 'I have no use for prisoners.' Then he added, cryptically, 'Do your duty…'

"NEITHER CARSON NOR FREMONT mentioned anything about this little atrocity in his memoirs. It remains one of the more unfathomable episodes in Carson's life. One cannot easily attribute his actions to the sort of ignorant racism that animated so many jingoistic soldiers who would fight in the Mexican War: Carson was married to an Hispanic, was a Catholic, spoke Spanish, and had for two decades enjoyed wide circles of Mexican friends. People who otherwise loved Carson had trouble accepting his role in this incident. Years later one of his close friends, W.M. Boggs, would condemn it as 'a cold hearted crime'."

THE INDEPENDENT COAST OBSERVER, Gualala, is always an adventure of the low intensity type. According to the front page of its December 23rd edition, the South Coast is besieged by its wildlife. The lead story is called "Fifth wild fox attack on South Coast," and another front pager by editor Steve McLaughlin himself, "Hungry bear hits Gualala garbage cans, beehives."

BUT MOST DISTURBING of all the ICO's lead animal stories is an account of rampaging two-legged beasts — Homo Greedus-Ripofficus. "PA City Council again back to full strength." But they remain under-brained, given that they're blithely paying career officeholder Richard Shoemaker $50,000 a year to "work" part-time, to "manage" the town of 449 persons.

THE PHOTO accompanying the swearing-in story depicts an unsuspecting Sheriff Allman administering the oath of office to the new Council, which includes a long-time drug dealer. A grinning Shoemaker has remained seated for the photo. The story contains long quotes from different luminaries, including County supervisor Dan Hamburg, praising each other. Attention Point Arena! The foxes long ago got into your hen house. The foxes have grown so fat on your tiny tax base that a lot of fog eaters mistake them for grizzlies.

THE GOOD NEWS: Lake Sonoma is at 100.3% of its water supply capacity for this point in the year, while Lake Mendocino is at 120.1%.

THE BAD NEWS: Sonoma County owns almost all the water in Lake Mendocino.

CATCH OF THE DAY, December 27, 2016

MATTHEW DAVEY, Ukiah. Trespassing, probation revocation.

AMANDA DAVIS, Ukiah. Drunk in public.

APOLINAR GARCIA*, Fresno/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

JESUS GARCIA JR., Eureka/Redwood Valley. Disobeying a traffic officer.

ALBERTO GARCIA-LOPEZ, Talmage. Under influence, controlled substance, unauthorized entry into dwelling.

RANDALL GENSAW, Ukiah. Resisting, probation revocation.

GEORGE GETZ, Gualala. DUI.

ALEJANDRO PALOMAR-NAVA, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery, criminal threats, court order violation, probation revocation.

DANIEL SCIUCCHETTI, Ukiah. Domestic assault.

TARA SHEPARD, Willits. Under influence, probation revocation.

MICHELLE WELLS**, Uniontown, Ohio/Ukiah. Vehicle theft, receiving stolen property, fugitive from justice.

(*ON JULY 10, 2015 Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office COMMET unit (County of Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team) assisted by law enforcement officers of BLM, US Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife and Lake County Sheriff's Office, conducted an investigation of a marijuana garden located in the area of the Red Mountain Campground on Cow Mountain BLM Recreation Area, which is located just East of Ukiah in Mendocino County. Law Enforcement personnel were able to locate the marijuana garden and camp. The three listed suspects were located in the camp and attempted to flee and resist arrest and were apprehended by a US Forest Service police K-9 unit. Located in the camp was a loaded, "sawed off" shotgun, a loaded pistol, as well as over 3200 marijuana plants, scales, packaging material, and processed marijuana. There was trash and litter strewn about, human waste, water diversions, and a recently killed deer which appeared to have been harvested for food. The three suspects — David Borja 27 of Valencia, Apolinar Garcia, 41, of Fresno, and Jose Ramirez-Hinojosa, 38, no fixed address — were taken to a local hospital and treated for the injuries sustained while they attempted to escape arrest, then booked into the Mendocino County jail for Possession of marijuana for sale, Cultivation of marijuana, Armed during felony, and Possession of sawed off shotgun, with bail set at $50,000.

(**Investigators identified two suspects after an elderly woman’s purse was stolen from a church in Green, Ohio. It happened at the Queen of Heaven Church on Dec. 8, 2016, at about 8:30 a.m. The Summit County Sheriff’s Office said the 79-year-old victim left her purse unattended in the pew while she waited for communion. Surveillance video showed a man and a woman taking the purse. They used the woman’s credit cards at Acme and Dollar General, spending more than $1,000. The Summit County Sheriff’s Detective Bureau identified the suspects as Raymond B. Jarvis, 53, and Michelle L. Wells, 38, both of Uniontown. They are charged with theft, and breaking and entering. Warrants were issued for their arrest. According to the sheriff’s office, Jarvis and Wells committed similar crimes at other churches, including one in Iowa. Anyone with information on their whereabouts should contact the Summit County Sheriff’s Office at 330-643-8637. Fox8News, Cleveland.)

WE FORGET

by Clancy Sigal

Bad regimes are in the business of making us forget. More than anything they want to cancel our feeling for the impossible that twists some of us into impractical romantics. Teenagers tend to pass through this phase before buckling down to the hard business of living, with grocery bills and mortgages, the stuff parents lecture us about.

Idealism, fair play, “how it should be” rather than “what is” usually passes, like growing pains.

I was lucky to go live where a little of the “how it should be” actually existed. Not in Shangri La or Gauguin’s Polynesia or E.T.’s home planet but grubby, damp, tight-little-island Britain.

My luck was in the timing, after a deadly war and before Mrs. Thatcher and Tony Blair. Before fatigue set in.

Nothing worked very well – O those primitive Press Button B phones and exploding Ascot heaters! – yet things seem to run incredibly smoothly without the Internet or Starbucks. The post delivered letters twice and sometimes thrice a day, and the district nurse came on her bike when called…free of charge.

True, hardly anyone had money, but a good fattening, hearty heart-attack breakfast could be had for practically tuppence.

Then as now the political election cycle strictly lasted only six short weeks.

Even illegal aliens (like me) got single payer medical care. Government-run utilities.

Strong trade unions. Gunless cops. A ‘fair shares for all’ social bargain left over from the war.

It was real, unromantic, rain-sodden, pull-together Bernie Sanders “socialism” – and it worked.

Call us drab and dismal, if you like. And tell us we don’t know how to cook our food or wear our clothes – but, for heaven’s sake, recognize that we’re trying to do something…extraordinary and difficult – to have a revolution for once without the Terror…– J.B. Priestley, his play The Linden Tree

It wasn’t easy. Unlike Sweden’s welfare state, which grew war-rich by selling to the Nazis, the Brits came out of six years of bombing broke and nearly bankrupt. Imagine having no money and inventing an efficient free for all National Health Service over the fierce opposition of the nation’s doctors won over by the bullying of a “red” South Wales miners’ leader, the Health Minister Aneuran Bevan.

The British welfare state was not a sudden “revolution” but built on a solid base of previous slow and steady, bit by bit reforms, a fascinating mix of Methodism, Marxism, Victorian liberalism and from-below mass protest. Just like our own welfare system – Social Security and Medicare – about to be Trump-dismantled, didn’t come out of thin air.

At the moment, while we’re still dazed and hoarding obsolete allegiances, it doesn’t seem possible not only to rescue but improve upon the best of what we have. But then it wasn’t long ago when landing on the moon and electing a black president didn’t seem possible.

The incoming president’s mission is to help us forget.

(Clancy Sigal is a screenwriter and novelist. His latest book is Black Sunset.)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Know Your Ducks

The Moduck [ moeducus judicus ]

Known subspecies: moeducks, larryducks & curleyducks

Habitat: The Bible Belt

Characteristics: Moducks are best known for their habit of raising one wing and sailing around their pond or lake. They love to feel the wind upon their wing. They often sail in groups in formation with the Moduck having the tallest wing (known as the quacker) at point.

Occasionally a Moduck who has overextended his wing will be blown over by the wind and will begin quaking in an an unusual manner. This is known as quaking in tounges.

Moducks are born with a peculiar face covering which limits their forward and upward eyesight. They have good vision to the left, right and rear which allows them to sail in formation. Once in while a moduck will be seen canting his head oddly to see better. If this is done often enough the face-cover is loosened and falls off. This can happen at any time in a moducks life.

The inevitable outcome of losing the blinder is to begin noticing what is going on around the pond. The moduck may begin noticing v formations overheard or other ducks using both wings and would Der what they are doing. He will go to the quacker and ask about them.

The quacker will usually call them “hereducks” and caution the moduck to avoid thinking about them. Quakers are notorious for avoiding change.

If he takes the quacker advice he will remain a moduck. However, oftentimes he will become a curleyduck or a larryduck. Larryducks keep asking questions and seeking the truth about these things. They eventually learn about flying and spread both wings and fly away. If this happens when they are young they will leap directly out of the water, but if older they will run along the water flapping their wings until airborne. They often return to the pond and try to tell the others about flying.

Curleyducks lose heart and quit sailing altogether. They are content to paddle around the pond or lake and feed off the bottom. They are sometimes referred to as stay-at-home-ducks. They still preen their feathers and could use them if they were not so concerned with catching minnows. They still desire to use their wings and will sometimes visit a formation. They have mixed feelings about quackers.

Predators: Sharks and Alligators. Although not native to these ponds and lakes these predators have been unlawfully introduced. It is thought that moducks originally earned about sailing by watching g sharks. Some sneaky sharks learned to quack and convinced the moducks that sailing was the main thing. This way more moducks would stay home and nobody would miss one now and then. Alligators rarely approach a group of moducks but will pose a threat if they get to close to the shore alone.

MILITANT HOPE IN THE AGE OF THE POLITICS OF THE DISCONNECT

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/23/militant-hope-in-the-age-of-the-politics-of-the-disconnect/

CALIFORNIA GUN SALES SURGE TO BEAT NEW GUN CONTROL LIMITS

by Julie Johnson

With a little extra money on hand after holiday shopping, Steven Serna came into Pacific Outfitters sporting goods store in Ukiah on Dec. 21 to buy a semiautomatic rifle before new gun control legislation limits the gun’s features in California.

He was out of luck.

Rifles with bullet buttons for the quick swap of ammunition magazines and other soon-to-be banned features have been flying off the shelves, driving statewide sales up 40 percent by early December.

Serna said he went straight to the North State Street outdoor gear store and firearm dealer after he learned Dec. 21 was the last day to purchase a gun with bullet buttons, because of the 10-day wait for a background check. He said he’d shot his first deer several months ago, and wanted to expand his arsenal.

“So where can you buy an AK?” Serna said, referring to an AK-47 rifle.

“You probably can’t,” hunting sales employee Amy Taglio said.

“Shoot, I knew I should have bought one earlier this year,” Serna said.

The new gun control legislation, six bills signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in July, was a boon to 2016 gun sales already on an upward trend. Nearly one million firearms were purchased in California as of Dec. 9, the most recent state data available, compared to just over 700,000 guns sold in all of 2015. Sales have likely soared beyond one million guns since then.

Semiautomatic rifle sales have more than doubled. The California Department of Justice reported 364,643 semiautomatic rifles had been sold by Dec. 9. Only 153,931 rifles were sold last year.

Pacific Outfitters managing partner Chris Ostrom said they haven’t had any semiautomatic rifles in stock for weeks, and before that they’d sell out the day a shipment came in.

“Compared to a normal year, sales are up one thousand percent, it’s ridiculous,” said Petaluma firearms dealer Gabe Vaughn, who owns Sportsman’s Arms on Bodega Avenue. “Pretty much the second we got them they were gone. A lot of them were pre-sold before they arrived to the store.”

Vaughn said he sold 60 semiautomatic rifles just on Dec. 21.

California lawmakers pushed for the new gun controls after a mass shooting in San Bernardino last year. Armed with AR-15 rifles and 9mm pistols, a married couple inspired by foreign terrorist groups shot and killed 14 people and wounded 22 others at a county health department holiday party.

The new gun controls reclassified semiautomatic rifles that have what are called “evil features” as assault weapons, which have been banned in California since 1989. The features added to the prohibited list include a protruding or forward pistol grip, a thumbhole stock, a folding stock or a flash suppressor.

The law was meant to address what’s often called the “bullet button” loophole developed as a workaround to an earlier ban of detachable magazines. The bullet button enables a shooter to use a bullet or small tool to depress a button to eject spent magazines. There’s a way gun owners can keep their so-called “evil features,” but it’s an unpopular one, according to Ostrom and others.

California residents can register the assault weapon with the state, which costs $15. Ostrom said the gun cannot be sold or gifted and must be destroyed if a person no longer wishes to have it or when the owner dies.

“They theory is the state is building a list so they can someday take people’s guns away,” said Ostrom, echoing a common concern among gun owners protective of their Second Amendment right to own guns.

There are two ways to modify a rifle to make it lawful under the new regulations and avoid the registration requirement, Ostrom said.

The first method uses what’s called an AR Mag Lock, a fixed magazine lock-and-release kit that makes the bullet button inoperable and forces the shooter to partly disassemble the gun — by opening the receiver — to reload a magazine.

Another option is to replace the pistol grip with a fixed stock, which so far has been the more popular option, said Ostrom. He outfitted his AR-10 with a fixed stock and uses it as a display in the store to show customers what to do. The change does impact comfort and accuracy, he said.

“What the state calls an ‘evil feature’ is nothing more than ergonomics,” Ostrom said.

Todd Lyly, who owns Lyly’s Radiators and Mufflers on Ukiah’s North State Street, came into Pacific Outfitters that same morning during a break to talk with his friends behind the gun sales counter about the new laws.

Lyly said he will convert his weapons so they are complaint with the new regulations, most likely by installing a fixed stock. But he said it’s a superficial change that he expects will mostly impact law-abiding people and not violent criminals already disinclined to follow the law.

“It’s frustrating,” Lyly said.

The impact of a federal assault weapon ban aimed at limiting military-style features and large ammunition capacities enacted in 1994 that expired in 2003 were mixed, according to a 2004 study conducted for the National Institute of Justice, part of the U.S. Department of Justice..

The share of gun crimes involving assault weapons declined by between 17 and 72 percent in six large cities studied during the ban, researchers said.

But researchers reported that change was offset by an increase in the use of large-capacity magazines in gun crimes during that time period, a finding possibly due to exemptions in the law.

Vaughn said while he has doubts whether gun control deters criminals, he might support gun legislation “if there was a correlation between public safety and gun laws, but we never see any change.”

The state gives a year grace period for gun owners to either register the weapons or convert them before 2018. Other new laws include a requirement starting July 2019 for people buying ammunition to undergo background checks and more stringent rules for loaning firearms outside a family.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

BEST THING SACRAMENTO CITY COUNCIL DID IN 2016: PASS STANDING ROCK RESOLUTION

by Dan Bacher

On December 6, the Sacramento City Council voted 5 to 2 to approve a resolution backing the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The City Council joins Davis, Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle and many other cities across the nation in opposing the environmentally destructive project. In my opinion, it was the best thing that the Sacramento Council did in 2016.

The resolution had been originally scheduled for the consent calendar after Councilmember Angelique Ashy and others were moved by the testimony of those who had been to Standing Rock to support the water protectors at the previous council meeting.

However, questions about the resolution from Councilmembers Jeff Harris and Larry Carr arose about whether it was in the council’s jurisdiction to oppose the pipeline, so the Council removed the item for a separate discussion and vote.

Harris opposed the resolution, saying, “It’s out of our purview. We’re all going to be using oil, every one of us in this room. We have to be very realistic about what form of oil we are going to use and how it is transported.”

Likewise, Carr said, “I’m not against Indigenous People or anybody. It isn’t about the oil. It's whether it’s the City of Sacramento’s job to make a resolution on how a pipeline in North Dakota is done.”

During the public comment period, supporters of the resolution, including Cody Elliott and his dad, Wes, of Native Protectors for Environmental Justice urged the council to vote on the measure rather than to delay a vote.

“The Sacramento City Council will be only doing what other cities such as Davis have already done,” said Cody Elliott (Haudenosaunee). “The Energy Transfer Partners that are building the pipeline said they are fully committed to completing this project. The council needs to support the resolution.”

Others who spoke on behalf of the resolution included James Quaundah, Susan Reece, Dana Meza, Kevin Carter and Bill Cerruti.

The hour long discussion of the resolution included the Council’s introduction and withdrawal of a substitute motion to move the item to January,

Finally, Councilmember Eric Guerra made the motion to vote on the resolution, Resolution No. 2016-0418, seconded by Ashby.

Guerra, Ashby, Jay Schenirer, Rick Jennings, and Allen Warren voted yes, while Jeff Harris and Larry Carr opposed the resolution. Steve Hansen, a supporter of the measure, and retiring Mayor Kevin Johnson were absent.

The resolution reads:

Section 1. The City of Sacramento supports the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s opposition to construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline 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 before taking any action regarding the Dakota Access Pipeline that would harm or destroy the Tribe’s ancestral lands, waters, or sacred sites.

In a conference call between members of the Italian Cultural Society of Sacramento and Latino and Native American groups arranged by Guerra before the meeting, they agreed to remove Section 3, which referred to establishing Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Sacramento. The removed section read:

Section 3. To commemorate and support the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline, the second Monday in October is hereby proclaimed to be Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the City of Sacramento

The Council directed staff to return with individual resolutions recognizing Indigenous People’s Day and Italian Heritage Day .

“I'm proud of a city that within a week’s time can turn around and support people in a different part of the country," said Ashby about her reason for voting yes.

You can read the resolution and watch or listen to the hour-long discussion (about an hour in).

After the meeting, Bill Cerrutti of the Italian Cultural Society, said, “This was a victory today. I think that Italian Americans and Native Americans reached an agreement where we can support each others’ communities.”

Steve Payan of the Native Protectors for Environmental Justice said, “I’m surprised — the resolution almost didn’t pass. But it eventually passed because the Standing Rock Sioux’s battle against the pipeline is such a noble cause.”

Lilliana Mendoza (Maya) of Davis said the passage of the resolution “really touched on the ability of humanity to connect, to understand the connections between one another.”

“This connection is what I think moved Councilmember Warren to change his vote from no to yes on the resolution. Being a human being and being connected is what Standing with Standing Rock and the Water Protectors is all about,” explained Mendoza.

In the previous council meeting on November 29, Councilmember 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 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.”

Before the meeting, Tina Marie, a mother of two boys who had 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.”

Thanks go to the Councilmembers for standing with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their many thousands of allies across the country. The Native Protectors for Environmental Justice wrote the resolution and organized support for it.

Two days before the meeting, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that it will not be granting the easement to cross Lake Oahe for the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline. Instead, the Corps will be undertaking an environmental impact statement to look at possible alternative routes.

While this is a big victory for the Tribe and their backers, the Energy Transfer Partners, the corporation constructing the pipeline, vows to complete the pipeline as planned. The struggle to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline won't be over until the pipeline is rejected once and for all.

For more information, go to: www.dailykos.com/…

For an interesting analysis of the Standing Rock struggle’s significance, read Mark Trahant’s “What Does Our Nation’s Standing Rock Moment Look Like?” at: www.ecowatch.com/...