Mendocino County Today: Saturday, Dec. 31, 2016

• Frigid Air
• Parvo Dog
• Senior Care
• Be Specific
• Let RCS
• Weather Deciders
• Little Dog
• Weed Newshour
• Body Found
• Crabbers Strike
• Yesterday's Catch
• Legalization Fallout
• Trump Journalism
• 20 Groups
• Bicycle Ode
• Audition Workshop
• Milou Trio
• Chamber Concert

LOW ELEVATION SNOWFALL will impact travel Sunday through Monday. One to three inches of snow will likely accumulate on or nearby routes 199, 299 and 36 Sunday through Monday. Lighter amounts of snow may fall as low as 1000 feet on or nearby Highway 101. If you are planning travel this weekend, be ready for occasional snow showers and slick roads. Check road conditions and be ready for wintery driving conditions. A dry and frigid air mass will settle over Northwest California next week. (National Weather Service)

THE COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER is temporarily closed again for a few days, another parvo dog. A reader explains: "The county needs to build a separate space for incoming dogs, especially puppies. From what I can see, parvo is on the rise big time. I blame all the morons out there who won’t neuter their dogs or cats, and don’t give a rat's ass about their health. The animal control folks bring in litter after litter."

LETTER CENSORSHIP AT THE ADVOCATE-NEWS, AN MCN ON-LINE EXCHANGE:

Christine Stone:

The Advocate decided not to print my mother’s letter to the editor but rather take bits of it for the "news" story. So in the spirit of transparency I posted the letter on the Fort Bragg Wellness page on Facebook and Paul McCarthy of "Mendocinosportsplus" also was kind enough to post it. But for people in the greater Mendonesia interested in a take on the death of a neighbor in her own words and not censored down to the advocates level, here it is...

Dear Editor,

For the past week this community has been reacting with horror about the story of the 'mummified woman', and the arrest of her caregiver. This woman, Arlene Potts, was my neighbor. I never knew her as I had only moved into my apartment 5 months ago. There were notes on the door not to knock or disturb her. I heard she was bedridden and had an in-home caregiver. I became concerned about her when, early on, I could smell the 'odors of neglect' wafting through the corridor between her door and mine. Sure, I complained to the manager repeatedly, and even phoned Adult Protective Services, twice, as I was sure this poor lady must be suffering some major neglect. How many nights did I lay snug in my bed, with soft sheets and a full belly, while she lay in her own filth, hungry, thirsty, and crying out for care, and crying to God for help, and I didn't know. It was only after the odor of death pervaded the hall, that the manager with the police checked on her. WAY TOO LATE!!! Well, the responsible party has been arrested, who IS responsible? ALL of US from the manager to Adult Protective Services, to the neighbors, to me. How many were indifferent to her suffering? The other neighbors besides me must have known. May God forgive me for not trying harder to get help for her. And please forgive me, Arlene, and may the Lord bless you forever."

Liz:

Dear Joe,

Thank you for posting your mother's eloquent letter on MCN listserv. A clear wake-up call to awareness & compassion. Shame on our out-of-touch local rag! If I were a subscriber, I would cancel ASAP. IMHO, the Advocate's best & highest use is for firestarter anyhow.

Mark Slafkes:

As touching as this letter is, you have no idea how many elders are being neglected and housed in disgusting hovels called "apartments" and "homes" here on the coast. I spent a week delivering meals to elders as part of the "Meals on Wheels" program of the Senior Center and the level of neglect and terrible living conditions I found was just overwhelming to me.

I couldn't take it as my eyes filled with tears every single day I participated in this program. I had to choose other ways of helping and have continued to donate many weeks, each year, to the Senior Center. The wholesale neglect of our elders is unbelievable.

Our Seniors are hungry, housed in awful living conditions, and are being abandoned to God only knows what. To me, these are the shameful acts and not the failure of the Advocate to publish a letter, unedited.

Folks, please focus on the real tragedies that are taking place every day.

This one woman's experience of the death of an elder is only scratching the surface of what we are doing to elders on the coast.

Rather than focus on the Advocate's failure to provide a desired forum for someone's distress, how about actually helping the Senior Center to support our elders? How about forcing the Mendocino County Health Department to enforce landlords to make their rentals healthy, dry and free of things like black mold?

By the way, I'm a landlord (not in this county), an elder, and I spend significant sums of money in my older property to do exactly what I'm advocating.

People should stop complaining and start stepping up and doing things to help feed, clothe, and safely house people in our own community.

Linda Leitner:

Mark,

Thank you for a truthful, sincere letter. As another Redwood Coast Senior Center volunteer I encourage all readers to be a part of "helping the Senior Center to support our elders." All our work supports quality of life for local seniors: your neighbors, friends and family.

The Redwood Coast Senior Center (a 501c non profit) is at 490 North Harold Street, Fort Bragg. 964-0443

http://rcscenter.org/

The Center is open weekdays. Lunch is served from 11:30 to 1:00 and persons of all ages are welcome. Seniors may call the center for rides on the Senior Bus.

The RCSC runs on volunteers, local financial support and fund raisers. There are many ways to volunteer. We constantly need help in the dining room and kitchen, The Circle of Elders day room, the office, and the Attic Thrift Store. And, of course, packing and delivering Meals On Wheels. For more information please read the article "Beyond Volunteering" by Charles Bush, RCSC Executive Director, on page 10 of today's Advocate News.

I am the Kitchen Garden Coordinator. Gardeners meet each Monday afternoon at 1:00 to work in our front yard garden, where we grow over a ton of food each year for senior lunch and Meals On Wheels.

Please join us a the Redwood Coast Senior Center. Lunch, Dine, Volunteer and Give. The senior center is an active, lively place.

FEEDBACK. We used to get a lot more, but now that everyone has his own newspaper on FaceBook or his own blog, we're just one more tiny voice in the daily, indiscriminate din, but still the only voice in Mendocino County that covers local matters in depth. Or tries to.

CHECK THE PRECEDING CLAIM: The Ukiah Daily Journal and the new-ish Willits Weekly roll on the big issues in their communities, and the Ukiah Daily Journal, for instance, would definitely have printed the full letter from Fort Bragg about the mummified remains at Duncan Place that its sister paper, the Advocate-Beacon, refused to print whole. A free press lives in Mendocino County, but only clings to life.

WE ALSO THINK MendocinoSportsPlus comes up with a lot of information otherwise unavailable from local media. But in all immodesty, I think the AVA is the go-to rag for lots of stories that would otherwise go untold. Which is why we are so often asked to look into issues far from downtown Boonville.

SO, when someone pops up and says we lied or simply repeated rumors or otherwise did a poor job of newspapering, we demand that the critic gives us the specifics. This Chuck Peavy guy? At first I thought he was the Giants pitcher. “Why would Peavy be complaining about us?” I wondered. But nope this is a Fort Bragg Peavey who says we did not write the truth about him or something he was involved in. He says we did it more than once. But I can't place the guy, and he simply libels us and moves on without providing any evidence that we did any such thing.

“Charles Peavey: The Ava is just as biased and speed [sic - ?] just as much misinformation as any other news source! They've done pieces on me that were so far South of any truth as to be totally fiction.”

DITTO FOR JUNICE GLEASON. She says we botched some story 15 years ago. Which story, Junice? At least give me a clue so I can get the key to the crypt and look it up. Group sex on the pool table at the Fort Bragg Fire Department? A couple of firemen and former girlfriends of firemen alerted us to that one, as did a person who works at Coast Hospital.

Junice Gleason: I remember about 15 years ago when the AVA ran a series of stories (That were JUST THAT!!! STORIES) on people here in Fort Bragg going on the author's hunches and opinions without even granting the subjects interviews. They just wrote what they heard from the rumor mill and printed it as the truth. Knowing the subjects of the article I found it very "National Enquirer" like.

THE FORT BRAGG FIRES of '87? Lots of people helped us with specific information, but the closer we got to the perps the more terrified (literally) people were to talk. One guy begged us to go away, that he would be killed if it got out that he'd given us information. DA Vroman advised me to carry a gun whenever I went to Fort Bragg!

TYPICALLY, what happens is this: The reader sees an opinion he doesn't like and writes off the whole as untrue because he or she can't tell the diff between fact and fancy.

BUT REALLY, if you're going to claim the AVA got you wrong or, worse, did you wrong, either tell us how or shut it. If you don't, you're lying.

WHO IS CHARLES PEAVEY?

Charles Peavey Fort Bragg, CA

Professions & Specialties

Notary, Lawyer, Agent, Sales Representative, Property Manager, Licensed

Real Estate Broker, Real Estate Manager

[There's no Charles Peavey in the CA Bar Association membership list, active or inactive.]

Specialties: Listing Agent, Commercial R.E., Notary, Purchase Loan

Work: Peavey Insurance Solutions/Windsor

200 East Oak Street, Fort Bragg, CA 95437

(707) 964-5221 (Office), (949) 463-2333 (Cell)

Experience: 31 years

* * *

From the UDJ: In 1991 Charles Peavey was Chairman of Coast Economic Development Committee of Coast Chamber of Commerce.

* * *

PEAVEY shows up in an FB city council minutes item as a commenter at one of the Old Coast Hotel meetings back in Feb. 2015. Minutes don't show what he said. If he's a realtor he might even be connected to the deal which might explain his comment.

WE HAVE NO RECORD of ever mentioning Charles or Chuck Peavey in our searchable archive going back to 1996. Yet he says "pieces" — plural. If so, he's still carrying a grudge from more than 20 years ago for things that he can't or won't cite, much less remember.

FROM HERE, though, the guy just looks like a combined cry baby and windbag.

LET REDWOOD CHILDREN'S DO IT

To the Editor:

The failure of Measures AG/AH is a good thing for Mendocino County. AG was written by good hearted people but deeply flawed. It missed one basic fact — the County has proven decade after decade that it can’t properly manage mental health services.

Mendocino County needs an inpatient psychiatric facility for adults and juveniles. It needs to be in Ukiah. And it needs to be owned and operated by a health care company with a long and respected history of offering psychiatric care. At the same time mental health services need to be handled by a non-profit with a long history of comprehensive quality care. There is no reason for the County to be involved in any way.

To me the best way to get mental health services finally back on track is for the County, as soon as possible, to turn everything over to RCS. RCS has proven that they can offer quality children’s services. It’s time to allow them the opportunity to do the same with adult services. They already have part of the contract. It’s time to give them the entire thing.

Let RCS work with Adventist Health when it comes to opening an inpatient facility. Let RCS handle psychiatrist services. Let RCS handle everything. Get the County out of it.

I’ve had the extreme pleasure of working with RCS’s crisis team. Their dedication is inspiring. Mendocino County hasn’t seen this level of caring and dedication in over a decade. They have significantly improved crisis response times and services. This is an area I am well versed in having helped develop the County’s former, highly successful Crisis Service Center.

The people of Mendocino County deserve high quality mental health services. RCS has the capability of offering what is needed. Measure AG would have continued the mess we have been in for far too many years. It’s time to turn over all mental health services to RCS. They have proven they can do it.

Thank you,

William French, Ukiah

FORT BRAGG'S MAYOR, Lindy Peters, clarifies the arbitrary process of extreme weather sheltering:

"Several people have contacted me in regards to the Extreme Weather Shelter. As you may know, the City of Fort Bragg does not have a Social Services Department. The County of Mendocino is ultimately responsible for making sure that the EWS is open during times of bad or cold weather. However, it is under the auspices of the Hospitality Center to determine when it is warranted. I went there today and asked who it was exactly that made the call. I was told either Anna Shaw and/or Paul Morgan make that decision. They check with NOAA in Eureka for the forecast on a daily basis, then make a determination based on that. The EWS rotates between local churches and the homeless need to check-in first at the Hospitality House on McPherson Street. They are transported to the shelter and a county employee acts as an overnight "chaperone" for lack of a better term. This paid employee ends up with several hours overtime which eats in to the set aside funds to keep the operation going. The more bad weather, the more it stays open, the quicker the funding is eroded. As to why it wasn't open lately when the overnight low dipped below 40 degrees I cannot tell you. At least now you know who is responsible. The EWS will be open every night through January 2nd. I suspect it will go beyond that date because more very cold weather lies ahead next week. Be thankful you have a roof over your head. I know I am."

LITTLE DOG SAYS: “A Boonville guy drops off a bottle of unlabeled booze, mystery booze. Be careful, he says, this stuff will knock you down! The Major has a degree in chemistry. He's always monkeying around (excuse the species-ism) with stuff. So he pours some of this white lightning hooch into a tablespoon and lights it on fire! It burns for like thirty seconds. The Major even ran his hand through the flame to try to show me it was not very hot. ‘That's how you tell if it's a hundred proof,’ he says. ‘If it won’t light, it’s not 100 proof.’ Then he asks me if I want a shot! Hell no, I say, and I'm going to report you to my pal Molinari over at the Animal Shelter for trying this stuff out on me, a household pet!”

PBS NEWSHOUR REPORTS ON HUMBOLDT’S WEED REGULATIONS

by Ryan Burns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZdCxnpTbv8

Thursday night’s PBS NewsHour includes this seven-minute report on Humboldt County’s Medical Marijuana Land Use Ordinance, a “bold new experiment” that made ours the first county in the state to regulate and tax commercial production.

Some highlights:

Undersheriff William Honsal predicts that with full legalization, “the price per pound is gonna become so low that the industry is gonna be driven out of Humboldt County.”

The never-camera-shy Patrick Murphy of Emerald Family Farms gets his branding message out there, claiming Humboldt County is “by far and away the largest production zone of high-quality cannabis in the world.”

Humboldt County Senior Planner Steve Lazar shows correspondent Sheraz Sadiq the Google satellite perspective on our local green rush and says, “One could easily estimate that there is over 10,000 cultivation sites in the county at this point.”

Sheriff Mike Downey estimates that 95 percent (or more) of the weed grown countywide is going to the black market.

(Courtesy, LostCoastOutpost.com)

FROM THE HUMBOLDT COUNTY SHERIFF:

"An autopsy was conducted on Thursday, December 29, for the decedent found on the Ma-le’l Dunes in Manila on the 26th. The cause of death was determined to be drowning.

Coroners have been unable to make positive identification of the decedent due to the condition of the body.

The decedent is described as a Caucasian male in his early 20’s, with red/brown hair, about 5’7” tall, weighing 120-130 lbs, and wearing navy sneakers with socks. He also had two tattoos, one on each arm near the shoulder. Both tattoos are only partially visible due to the poor condition of the body. The tattoo on the right arm appears to be either an outline of a woman’s face and breast or possibly a dog. The tattoo on the left arm is colored red and blue, and looks like a face of a woman with flowing hair.

The Coroner’s Office is requesting the public’s assistance in making positive identification of the decedent.

If anyone has information in regards to this investigation, please contact the Coroner’s Office at 707-445-7242.

Original Press Release

"On Monday, December 26, 2016 at around 9:35 a.m., the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Communications Center received a phone call from a hiker who stated she had located a deceased person on the wave slope about a 30-minute walk north of Ma-le’l Dunes in Manila. Deputies arrived on scene and determined that due to the decedent’s location, special equipment would be needed. The H.C.S.O. Beach Deputy was called to respond with the needed equipment.

Upon arrival at the location, deputies located a deceased male on the wave slope. The decedent is a male who appeared to be possibly 25-30 years of age, 120-140 pounds, with red or brown hair, and a tattoo on his right arm. Deputies investigated the decedent and the area around, and did not locate anything that indicated foul play. The Coroner was called and took possession of the decedent. The case is currently under investigation by the Coroner’s Office."

PHOTO--Shoes and socks of the unidentified victim courtesy of the Humboldt County Sheriff.

COAST CRABBERS STRIKE OVER WHOLESALE PRICES

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/6488982-181/north-coast-crab-fishing-strike

CATCH OF THE DAY, December 29, 2016

JENNY BENNETT, Laytonville. Domestic assault, assault with deadly weapon not a gun, resisting.

CATHERINE DUTRA, Ukiah. Controlled substance.

STEVEN FREITAS, Ukiah. Vandalism, conspiracy.

TEVIN HOAGLEN, Covelo. Burglary.

JIMMIE ISENHART JR., Ukiah. Drunk in public. (Frequent flyer.)

JACOB MCGREW, Redwood Valley. Suspended license, probation revocation.J

JAMES NEWCOMB JR., Chino Valley, Arizona/Ukiah. Fugitive from justice.

SIERRA SIMARRO, Wilitts. Burglary, receiving stolen property, conspiracy.

MICHAEL TRAVIS, Willits. DUI, probation revocation.

SHAWN WILSON, Discovery Bay/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

DUSTIN WOOD, Ukiah. Under influence, probation revocation.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

“As the weed business slowly dies from legalization across the US, the rats will start eating each other as they fight for a smaller and smaller pie. I suspect it will get worse until the pie is gone and the rats jump ship. And yes, there is corruption in your elected county positions.”

THE PRESS UNDER TRUMP

http://pressthink.org/2016/12/winter-coming-prospects-american-press-trump/

THIN GREEN LINE: 20 GROUPS STANDING BETWEEN YOU & DOOM

by Jeffrey St. Clair

Last January during one of the early skirmishes in the Democratic Primaries, Bernie Sanders took a rare direct shot at Hillary Clinton and her political support group, the DC cabal of liberal NGOs. Sanders had been badgered for weeks by the media for his failure to attract more endorsements from public interest groups, like Planned Parenthood, NARAL and the Human Rights Campaign, even though his record on many of their core issues was much less blemished than Clinton’s.

Finally, Sanders snapped back: “You know what? Hillary Clinton has been around there for a very, very long time. Some of these groups are, in fact, part of the establishment.”

“These groups” responded with mock outrage, clustering before the cameras of MSDNC to denounce Bernie. How could Sanders possibly call us part of the “Establishment”! It’s ridiculous! He should be ashamed of himself!! He must apologize!!!

But Sanders was absolutely right, of course. The Beltway network of liberal NGOS–from the Sierra Club to NOW–have become little more than dutiful subsidiaries of the Democratic Party. Many of them have enabled and abetted the party’s wholesale lurch toward neoliberalism without so much as a bleat, while howling against almost every minor infraction made by a Republican politician.

Sanders deserved credit for pointing out the obvious, but he almost immediately backed away from his comments, which pretty much symbolizes the entire course of his advance-and-retreat campaign. Again and again, Sanders won on the issues, but his campaign seems to have changed nothing about the Democratic Party or its labor and NGO allies. This is in part true because both the Democratic Party and the liberal public interest community are dependent on and beholden to the same sources of corporate and philanthropic funding. Money talks and it gags.

So the question is: What do we do now? Here at CounterPunch we are getting lots of calls from readers asking: Where are the groups who will stand up to Trump? Where can I send a year-end check and know that the money will be well spent, not recycled into a fat executive salary or a bait-and-switch direct mail campaign?

There are many such groups out there; indeed, there is a vibrant and thriving grassroots movement across a whole range of issues. As a general rule, groups that didn’t challenge the policies of Obama and Clinton can’t be counted on to confront Trump.

Here, however, are 20 fearless groups fighting on the frontlines who aren’t crippled or muted by their allegiance to favorite politicians, political parties or big politically-connected donors and foundations. When the chips are down and the odds are long, they’ve got your back. Once a year, you should have theirs. They all deserve your support and, if you can spare it, your money.

Alliance for the Wild Rockies
Box 505
Helena, MT 59624
https://allianceforthewildrockies.org/

From the grizzly to the bull trout, the grey wolf to the lynx, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies is the last line of defense for the largest swath of unprotected wild lands in North America.

Anti-Police Terror Project
Oakland, California
http://www.antipoliceterrorproject.org

Beatings, taserings, illegal arrests, chokeholds, and shootings are a daily occurrence in urban America. The police won’t police themselves. With Trump in power, the Justice Department will probably stop doing even cursory investigations of such brutal actions. The Anti Police-Terror Project is building a replicable and sustainable model to end state-sanctioned murder and violence against Black, Brown, and poor people.

Beyond Nuclear
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 400
Takoma Park, MD 20912
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/

Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abandon both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic.

Buffalo Field Campaign
PO Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
1-406-646-0070
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/

The annual slaughter of buffalo that migrate out of Yellowstone Park is one of the more horrific traditions in practice in the West today. Buffalo Field Campaign is perhaps the only group working tirelessly to defend the right of bison to wander to lower elevations during winter, without the threat of being killed by Montana bureaucrats.

Campaign to End the Death Penalty
PO Box 25730
Chicago, IL 60625
http://www.nodeathpenalty.org

The Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP) is the premier national grassroots organization dedicated to the abolition of capital punishment with active chapters and members across the United States—including California, Texas, Delaware, New York, and Chicago. The campaign has placed those who have experienced the horrors of death row first hand–death row prisoners themselves and their family members–should be at the forefront of their movement, arguing that those experiences help to shape their political strategies.

Civil Liberties Defense Center
259 E 5th Ave, Ste 300 A
Eugene, OR 97401
(541)687-9180
http://cldc.org/

Increasingly the Civil Liberties Defense Center, a small, non-profit law firm based in Eugene, Oregon, has become the last line of defense for radical activists in America during this age of government repression and prosecutorial crack-downs on dissent. CLDC has led the legal fight against the McCarthy-like Green Scare attack on the constitutional rights of environmental and animal rights activists. They have defended the rights of Rastafarians to practice their religious rituals in prison. They successfully defended a mosque against the FBI’s first-ever attempt to subpoena religious records. CLDC has also developed and distributed much-needed “Know Your Rights” outreach material, and presented more than 150 “Know Your Rights” trainings.

Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
P.O. Box 360
Mercersburg, PA 17236
http://celdf.org

Communities facing fracking, pipelines, factory farms, and other threats are recognizing that these seemingly “single” issue threats share something in common – the community doesn’t have the legal authority to say “No” to them. The existing structure of law ensures that people cannot govern their own communities and act as stewards of the environment, while protecting corporate “rights” and interests over those of communities and nature.

Family Farm Defenders
P.O Box 1772
Madison, Wisconsin 53701
http://familyfarmers.org

Family Farm Defenders mission is to create a farmer-controlled and consumer-oriented food and fiber system, based upon democratically controlled institutions that empower farmers to speak for and respect themselves in their quest for social and economic justice. To this end, FFD supports sustainable agriculture, farm worker rights, animal welfare, consumer safety, fair trade, and food sovereignty. FFD has also worked to create opportunities for farmers to join together in new cooperative marketing endeavors and to bridge the socioeconomic gap that often exists between rural and urban communities.

Fatal Encounters
3375 San Mateo Ave.
Reno, NV 89509-5046
http://www.fatalencounters.org

Fatal Encounters is an incredibly vital project by D. Brian Burghart, the editor/publisher of the Reno News & Review, to create a national database of out how many people are killed by law enforcement, why they were killed, and whether training and policies can be modified to decrease the number of officer-involved deaths. Fatal Encounters’ efforts to collect information about officer-involved homicides going back to January 1, 2000, is completely funded by donations.

Guardians of Our Ancestors Legacy (GOAL)
P.O. Box 30000 #360
Jackson, Wy, 83002
http://www.goaltribal.org

GOAL, the Tribal Coalition to Protect the Grizzly, may be the last best hope to save the grizzly. This fierce, small, grossly underfunded outfit has pulled together over 40 tribal nations in an effort to keep the Interior Department from removing the grizzly from the Endangered Species list. With many of the big green groups missing-in-action, GOAL has mounted a powerful legal and cultural defense of the bear, arguing that allowing trophy hunting of the grizzly infringes on tribal sovereignty and violates the federal trust responsibility by disregarding tribal interests and pursuing a policy that benefits three states over a coalition of tribes from Montana to Arizona.

Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions (USA)
PO Box 8118
New York, New York 10116
http://icahdusa.org

Since 1967 and the beginning of the Occupation, the Israeli government has demolished over 28,000 houses belonging to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. These demolitions are part of a web of policies designed to force Palestinians off their own land to make room for expanding Israeli settlements, construct a 26-foot high “separation barrier” that cuts deep into Palestinian territory, create a network of Israeli-only bypass roads, and generally “thin” Jerusalem of its Palestinian inhabitants. Largely obscured in U.S. politics and the media. ICAHD-USA works to educate the U.S. public about the realities of the Israeli Occupation.

Living Rivers
PO Box 466
Moab UT 84532
http://livingrivers.org

From the Rocky Mountains through seven states and Mexico, the Colorado River is the artery of the desert southwest. Its canyons, ecology and heritage render an international treasure. However, ignorance, greed and complacency are robbing the Colorado of its ability to sustain life. Living Rivers empowers a movement to instill a new ethic of achieving ecological restoration, balanced with meeting human needs. They work to: restore inundated river canyons, wetlands and the delta and repeal the antiquated laws which represent the river’s death sentence.

Los Alamos Study Group
2901 Summit Pl. NE
Albuquerque, NM 87106
http://www.lasg.org/contact.htm

Since 1989, the Los Alamos Study Group community—our staff and board, volunteers, interns, and supporters—has consistently provided vital leadership on nuclear disarmament and related issues. Their work includes research and scholarship , education of decisionmakers, providing an information clearinghouse for journalists, organizing, litigating, and advertising, with particular emphasis on the education and training of young activists and scholars.

Middle East Children’s Alliance
1101 Eighth Street, Suite 100
Berkeley, CA 94710 US
https://www.mecaforpeace.org

The Middle East Children’s Alliance is a non-profit organization working for the rights of children in the Middle East by sending humanitarian aid, supporting projects for children and educating North American and international communities about the effects of the US foreign policy on children in the region.

Migrant Justice
294 N. Winooski Ave, Ste. 130,
Burlington, VT, 05401
http://migrantjustice.net

The seeds of Migrant Justice were planted in 2009 after young dairy worker José Obeth Santiz Cruz was pulled into a mechanized gutter scraper and was strangled to death by his own clothing. This tragedy inspired the production of the documentary film Silenced Voices and led to the formation of a solidarity collective organizing to partner with farmworkers to gather the community to share food, discuss community problems, envision solutions and take collective action.

Nevada Desert Experience
1420 W Bartlett Ave
Las Vegas, Nevada 89106-2226
http://www.nevadadesertexperience.org

Fighting drones at Creech Air Base, nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site and radioactive waste disposal at Yucca Mountain, Nevada Desert Experience is trying to keep the Great Basin from becoming a national sacrifice zone for the Nuclear-Military-Industrial Complex.

Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign
174 W. Diamond St.
Philadelphia, PA 19122
http://economichumanrights.org/

The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign is building a movement that unites the poor across color lines. Poverty afflicts Americans of all colors. Daily more and more of us are downsized and impoverished. We share a common interest in uniting against the prevailing conditions and around our vision of a society where we all have the right to health care, housing, living wage jobs, and access to quality primary, secondary, and higher education.

Solitary Watch
Community Futures Collective: Attn. Solitary Watch
221 Idora Ave., Vallejo, CA 94591.
http://solitarywatch.com

While polls show that a decisive majority of Americans oppose the use of torture under any circumstances, even on foreign terrorism suspects, the conditions in U.S. prisons and jails, which at times transgress the boundaries of humane treatment, have produced little outcry. The widespread practice of solitary confinement, in particular, has received scant media attention, and has yet to find a firm place in the public discourse or on political platforms. Solitary Watch is a web-based project that brings the widespread use of solitary confinement out of the shadows and into the light of the public square. Their mission is to provide the public—as well as practicing attorneys, legal scholars, law enforcement and corrections officers, policymakers, educators, advocates, people in prison and their families—with the first centralized source of unfolding news, original reporting, firsthand accounts, and background research on solitary confinement in the United States.

Stand With Standing Rock
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
#1 N. Standing Rock Avenue
Fort Yates, ND 58538
http://standwithstandingrock.net/donate/

The battle at Standing Rock isn’t over. In fact, it’s just beginning.

Voices For Creative Nonviolence
1249 W. Argyle St. #2
Chicago, Illinois 60640
773-878-3815
http://vcnv.org/

Since Obama’s election, the anti-war movement in the United States has withered away, even as the wars and interventions have expanded with rising body counts. Yet one group has never wavered. You’ll find activists with Voices for Creative Nonviolence leading protests at the White House, blocking the entry to Drone Operational Centers, occupying nuclear missile silos, educating inside US prisons, and organizing for peace inside war zones, from Afghanistan to Syria. Most crucially, Voices for Creative Nonviolence recognizes that war is waged by many means. Almost alone among US anti-war groups, Voices For Creative Nonviolence is mounting a resistance to the economic war machine.

(Jeffrey St. Clair is editor of CounterPunch. His new book is Killing Trayvons: an Anthology of American Violence (with JoAnn Wypijewski and Kevin Alexander Gray). He can be reached at: sitka@comcast.net. Courtesy, CounterPunch.org)

ODE TO THE BICYCLE

by Pablo Neruda (translated by Louis S. Bedrock)

I was moving along

the sizzling

road:

the sun was shedding itself

like the burning corn stalks

and the hot

earth

was

an infinite circle

with a blue vacant sky

overhead.

 

The bicycles

passed

by me,

the only

insects

of that

dry moment

of summer,

stealthy,

swift,

discreet,

transparent,

They seemed to me

mere

movements of air.

 

Working men and young women

were going

to the factories

surrendering

their eyes

to the summer,

their heads to the sky,

seated

on the elytra

of their vertiginous

bicycles

that whistled

as they crossed

bridges, rose and blackberry bushes,

and noon.

I thought about the evening when the young people

bathed,

sang, ate, raised

a glass

of wine

in honor

of love,

and of life,

and by the door

waiting

the motionless

bicycle

because

its soul

awakens only through motion

and here, fallen

it’s not

a transparent insect

that flies across

the summer

but merely

a

cold skeleton

that will only

retrieve

its

errant essence

with urgency

and light,

in other words,

with

the

resurrection

of each day.

AUDITION WORKSHOP

To help actors prepare for the MTC General Auditions, acting teacher Dan Kozloff will conduct an audition workshop on Saturday, January 7, 2017 from 1pm to 4pm on the Mendocino Theatre Company stage. Open to all actors ages 12 and up. $10 suggested donation. For information, or to sign up, go to mendocinotheatre.org/2017-general-auditions/ or phone 707-937-2718.

MILOU TRIO PLAYS SHOSTAKOVICH AND RAVEL'S WARTIME TRIBUTES

SF Symphony players featured

by Roberta Werdinger

The Milou Trio, featuring Bay Area musicians David Michael Goldblatt (cello), Diane Nicholeris (violin), and Gwendolyn Mok (piano), will grace the Ukiah area on Sunday, January 29, at 2 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church in a fundraiser for the Ukiah Symphony Orchestra. On the program are Maurice Ravel's Piano Trio in A Minor and Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Trio in E Minor. Written in 1914 and 1944 respectively, both pieces are powerful responses to the individual and collective tragedies of war.

An accomplished musician, Gwendolyn Mok formed the Milou Trio with her friends and San Francisco Symphony performers David Goldblatt and Diane Nicholeris in order to play chamber music pieces. She states that "being a musician is a very powerful profession for me" because musicians are able to channel emotions in a universal language that may otherwise feel inexpressible.

Tickets for the Milou Trio concert are available at ukiahsymphony.org and at Mendocino Book Company in Ukiah. Prices are $30 for adults and $5 for students with ASB card and those under 18. All funds raised benefit the Ukiah Symphony. For further information please call the Ukiah Symphony hotline at 707 462-0236.

The First Presbyterian Church is at 514 W. Church Street, corner of Perkins and Dora, in Ukiah.

CAROLYN STEINBUCK!

On January 15, the FBCA Coast Chamber Concert Series presents pianist Carolyn Steinbuck performing the Schubert B flat Sonata. She will be joined by cellist Marcia Sloane and clarinetist Eric Kritz for two trios: Fantasy Trio by Muczynski and the Brahms Trio in A minor. The concert is at Preston Hall, Main Street, Mendocino, on Sunday January 15 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance at Harvest Market, Fort Bragg, and at Out of this World, Mendocino. They are also available at the door for $25. For additional information call 937-1018, or e-mail suegood@mcn.org.