Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017

• Fiorentino Prelim
• Carl Shapiro
• Ryan Prelim
• Progressive Mendo
• Yorkville Rain
• Boar Roadkill
• Trivia Sweep
• Irrational Regulations
• Snowcat Vote
• Fjord'n Out
• Little Dog
• Albion School
• Tycoon World
• SoHum Prices
• Yesterday's Catch
• Trump Resistance
• Billy Club
• Huff Puffs
• Grant Program
• Enough People
• Wrong Countries
• Furor Time
• American Pickers
• Speech Permit
• Brutal Exploitation
• Useful Obscenities
• Hippy Pence
• Art Appreciation
• Planning Agenda
• Supermarket Food
• My President
• Big Boy
• Jock Politics
• DiFi Protest
• Mokelumne Steelhead

AT A PRELIMINARY HEARING in Ten Mile Superior Court on Monday, January 30^th, caregiver Lori Fiorentino was bound over for trial by visiting Judge Eric Labowitz on a single count of violating California Penal Code 368 (b) (1). Fiorentino stands accused in the death of sixty-six year-old Arlene Potts who was discovered deceased inside her Duncan Place Apartments rental unit (301 Cypress St.) in Fort Bragg during the afternoon of December 14, 2016.

PC 368 (b) (1) states, “Any person who knows or reasonably should know that a person is an elder or dependent adult and who, under circumstances or conditions likely to produce great bodily harm or death, willfully causes or permits any elder or dependent adult to suffer, or inflicts thereon unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering, or having the care or custody of any elder or dependent adult, willfully causes or permits the person or health of the elder or dependent adult to be injured, or willfully causes or permits the elder or dependent adult to be placed in a situation in which his or her person or health is endangered, is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by a fine not to exceed six thousand dollars ($6,000), or by both that fine and imprisonment, or by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years.”

Assistant District Attorney (ADA) Kevin Davenport called just one witness to the stand during the preliminary hearing, Fort Bragg Police Department (FBPD) Officer Joseph Breyer, who has two and a half years on the job locally and another eleven years of service with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Breyer apparently followed FBPD Chief Fabian Lizarraga from Los Angeles to the coast.

At approximately 2:30 on the afternoon of December 14^th Breyer arrived at Duncan Place Apartments (full disclosure: one of my grandmothers resided there nearly a quarter century ago). Breyer was responding to a welfare check for Ms. Potts, requested by the manager of the apartment complex, Cindy Ancona, who reported that she smelled an odor she thought was urine emanating from Apt. 216, rented by Ms. Potts.

Upon nearing the door Breyer realized the smell was more likely something stronger, deadlier. He knocked several times on Arlene Potts's apartment door, called her name, but got no response. Ancona used her management key to unlock the apartment. Entrance into the interior was greatly impeded, Breyer stated on the stand, by as many as nine full sized shopping carts, six from Safeway, two-three more from either Rite-Aid or CVS Pharmacy.

After breaching part of the shopping cart barrier Breyer made his way into a hallway leading to a bedroom. In the hallway the officer observed numerous wreath-like objects hanging from hooks on the wall. Tied to the wreaths were plastic bags filled with what officers later identified as coffee grounds.

Breyer did not discover Ms. Potts in the bedroom, instead he found a lot of belongings apparently owned by the caregiver, Lori Fiorentino, who had been hired by Ms. Potts in December, 2013, after Ms. Potts, suffering with a hip injury, refused further treatment at Mendocino Coast District Hospital (MCDH) and also refused to be placed in a senior nursing facility. Ms. Fiorentino's employment was facilitated through In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS).

At this point the squeamish may want to skip ahead a paragraph.

Returning to the living room area, Breyer, a man of medium height, stood on the shopping carts in order to ascertain that Arlene Potts's decomposed body lay on a couch slightly to the side of a sliding glass door. Later, through introduction of the autopsy report, the courtroom gallery learned that Ms. Potts's body was naked under a pile of blankets and towels upon discovery, except for five layers of fecal encrusted diapers, weighing a total of six and a half pounds.

According to Breyer's testimony concerning conversations with the apartment manager, throughout 2014 and 2015 there had apparently been no problems with regard to Fiorentino's care of Ms. Potts, who had also suffered injury in a Bay Area auto accident prior to her 2013 hip problems. However, Ms. Potts had limited the manager's visits to  apartment #216 to once a year each for checks on the smoke alarm system and annual renewals of the rental agreement. In the manager's last visit during January, 2016, Ms. Potts ordered the manager to venture no farther inside Apt. 216 than the area of the smoke alarm, presumably in the entrance hall. Through Breyer the courtroom audience also learned that Ms. Potts had already been pretty much a recluse prior to her 2013 health maladies and that the reclusiveness only increased after the hip injury. Despite the condition of the apartment on December 14, 2016, the manager told Officer Breyer that it was clean prior to 2016.

Public Defender Frank McGowan's cross examination of Breyer elicited from the officer the information that Arlene Potts's automobile was inoperable, implying that Ms. Fiorentino would need to use shopping carts to bring groceries and other supplies to the apartment. Breyer responded that posession of the various store shopping carts was nevertheless a crime itself.

In additional testimony Breyer pointed out that Potts's final resting place on the couch was surrounded by a bevy of water bottles, including one as yet unused on December 14^th. The presumption there being that caregiver Fiorentino had at the least been providing Ms. Potts with drinking water to the very last.

Davenport's counter to this included Breyer's testimony about the condition of the body itself, through the autopsy report, and Breyer's observations of tar like dark substances on the couch behind the body and the fact that FBPD officers found significant amounts of baking soda scattered throughout the apartment. The prosecution implication being that Fiorentino was deliberately trying to dull the smells and that these odors were coming from a body dead and decomposing for quite some time. At the opening of the hearing Davenport amended the complaint against the caregiver, Lori Fiorentino, to include the dates from June 1, 2016 through December 14, 2016, the unsubtle hint therein: Ms. Potts may have been deceased for many months, given that her nearest neighbor had complained about the odors coming out of Apt. 216 since the neighbor moved in at the beginning of August, 2016. That neighbor continued to complain to Duncan Place management, more or less up until Ms. Potts's decayed body was discovered by Officer Breyer.

Public Defender McGowan painted a picture of Ms. Potts's known refusal of medical service at the local hospital, saying that Fiorentino could not render assistance to a patient who continued to resist all help, thus the defendant was not responsible for Ms. Potts's death or the manner in which her body was found. Mr. McGowan seemed inclined to blame the system as a whole, rather than his client, stating at one point near the conclusion of the hearing, “Everyone passed the buck.”

At another point Davenport made clear the prosecution theory, “Arlene Potts was neglected to death.”

Judge Labowitz, who has been retired from regular duty for ten years, but occasionally fills in for those who are ill or on vacation, essentially rejected McGowan's stated claim, “A patient has the right to refuse care, even if it results in death.”

At the end of the hour and a half session, Labowitz simply stated, “There is sufficient evidence that the defendant be held to account.”

The defendant, only ten years younger than Ms. Potts, sat stoically in her county issued red jumpsuit, displaying no outward emotion, before and during the preliminary hearing. Despite Mr. McGowan's request, bail for the defendant was not reduced. Lori Fiorentino's next court appearance is set for Valentine's Day, February 14^th. Presumably Judge Clayton Brennan will return to his usual post on the Ten Mile Court bench at that time.

–Malcolm Macdonald

CARL SHAPIRO, the ultimate public defender, has died at his home in Fairfax. Carl was 100, and lucid to the very end, lucid enough to laugh at being sent home from Kaiser Hospital because “We’re not a terminal care facility.” Tony Serra, a famed criminal defense attorney himself, told me once, “I want to be Carl Shapiro when I grow up.” Nobody is likely to be the kind of people's lawyer that Carl was. Born on Bastille Day appropriately enough, Carl could have parlayed his brains into piles of money but instead spent his life defending the otherwise undefended and, some would say, the indefensible. A veteran of World War Two’s little known Alaska Front, Carl, a Harvard graduate at the time that institution maintained quotas for Jews, landed in Marin when persons of ordinary means could still afford to buy in. An associate of the Hallinan law firm in his youth, Carl has never been able to say no to a defendant, and he's had some doozies, including yours truly, and the guy who burglarized Daniel Ellsberg's house in Mill Valley and was still wearing Ellsberg's shoes when the cops picked him up. And a rapist who was caught running down a highway with his pants down, to name the kind of defendants Carl was likely to be seen with at the defense table with. Without Carl and his late wife Helen, both of whom always went all-out for defendants even public defenders tried to run from, the truly hopeless would be that much more hopeless. When Carl appeared in Mendocino County’s Superior Court, lawyers packed the room to watch him work and, in his late 80s, he worked without a net, admitting to me, “I’m so old judges are afraid to crack down on me.” (Local connection: Carl is step-grandfather to Kevin Davenport, prosecutor at Ten Mile Court, Fort Bragg.)

STEVEN PATRICK RYAN was held to answer on first degree murder charges at the close of his prelim last Friday. He will have to convince a jury he shot and killed DeShaun Davis, a former Mendocino college student and football player, in self defense. Ryan is white, Davis black.

The questions his defense attorney posed to homicide Detective Clint Wyant failed to convince Judge John Behnke that the shooting was self-defense; and, in fact, showed Mr. Ryan to be something of a gun-nut who indulges himself in vivid fantasies about shooting people. Ryan demonstrated that he is thoroughly versed in the all jargon of police officers and hit men, and seemed to be showing off his firearm knowledge repertoire when interviewed by Detective Wyant.

Assistant Public Defender Carly Dolan asked the detective if her client had mentioned his knowledge of how important it is not to shoot an attacker before he comes within 20 feet, for instance. Wyant answered Yes, he had said that; and, Yes, it was considered crucial to do something when a suspect came that close. But the detective stopped short of saying he would have shot her — the hypothetical Q&A had somehow been framed in the second person, so Wyant was saying, “I wouldn’t have shot you in those same or similar circumstances.”

Ryan had also used phrases like, “a double tap to the chest and head,” and other crime novel language in the interview with Detective Wyant, making it plain he was well read in the genre, as well as lots of terminology from gun magazines. It seemed clear to this reporter that the guy had an itchy trigger finger and was eager to act out some of his fantasies.

Ryan told the detective that the late Mr. Davis had threatened his life before throwing down his bicycle and charging Ryan, that he was grabbing at his baggy clothing like he was going for a gun; that Davis had claimed to have been in the Marines; that he was coming within the danger zone of 20 feet; that he had no choice but to shoot.

Yes, Ryan had told the detective all this, but there was an eyewitness, Elvia Valencia, and she heard none of the threats — supposedly shouted by Davis in anger — and said that Davis merely laid his bike down and was walking toward Ryan when Ryan shot three times, the first two in rapid succession (the “double tap”), then a third shot. Davis’s body was 63 feet — three times the danger zone — from where Ryan was standing.

There had been some commotion the day before when the police had chased a fugitive through the neighborhood just off Vichy Springs Road, Ukiah, and on November 21st, the next day, Ryan was on his back porch drinking coffee when he heard someone shouting out front. As he went through his house to the front he picked up a .45 automatic and stuck it in the back of his waistband. He then went out on the front porch and said to Davis, “Can I help you?”

Ms. Valeria told the detective she was getting her children out of her car at her mother’s house, next door to Ryan’s, when Davis and Ryan began arguing. She heard Ryan accuse Davis of trespassing before Davis began walking toward Ryan and she heard two shots. She looked up and saw Davis on his knees. Then Ryan fired again.

This third shot would have been a mistake even if Davis had broken into Ryan’s house — invaded his castle, as the saying goes — but Valencia said that at no time did Davis come on to Ryan’s property.

A jury will have to decide now, and it doesn’t look good for Ryan. Ms. Valencia considered herself a friend of Ryan’s and Ryan himself attested that her testimony could be believed.

No trial date has been set as yet, but Ryan will be back in two weeks for arraignment.

Given the presentation, Ryan will be lucky to get a plea bargain for less than life-without.

(Bruce McEwen)

YES, we’re among the intrepid 25 Mendolanders who watch the entire Supe’s videos whenever they meet. 25 viewers is the largest viewing audience we’ve yet seen. The average seems around 7 viewers at any one time.

WE WATCH PROFESSIONALLY, we can say, because we’re most interested in and write about local matters. Sure, these meetings are boring, unleavened by so much as a hint of wit, but reporting on them is the same as not reporting on them. Nobody cares one way or the other. We’re continually struck by how almost all the on-line and public discussion generally is focused on events over the hill and far away, and we’re doubly struck at how much of that discussion is uninformed, redundant, poorly written and reasoned, also witless except for the occasional bracing exchange of insults, and boring as hell. Whatever happened to think globally, act locally? Yes, we also keep a close watch on the Big Picture — who doesn’t in these fraught times? But we live here in a small place where we can influence events.

MENDOCINO COUNTY is not well managed, and it certainly isn’t “progressive” in any essential political way. Important decisions affecting the way we live here are often made by transient, self-interested authority, people who grab what they can in the way of inflated salaries and disappear, as a quick look at the occupants of the Supervisor’s positions over the past quarter century instructs us, and we won’t even get into city councils, school boards and the rest of local authority. If, as is obvious, life in this country is deteriorating for most people the deterioration we see here is only the microcosm of everywhere else.

IF ALL THE ATTENTION currently focused on Orange Man was focused on, say, why the one publicly-owned hospital in the County is just about to go glub, glub, glub while a church-owned, for-profit hospital chain provides the bulk of the County’s health care at much greater cost to its patients than the public hospital in Fort Bragg, or why the wine industry gets a pass from the enviro brigades who keep such a critical eye on what’s left of the timber industry, we might at least begin to discuss the realities of the way we live here in “progressive” Mendocino County.

APOLOGIES for screeching at you pwoggies like this, but jeez you’re annoying. The unregulated wine industry in Mendocino County does more lasting damage to the natural world of our imagined but celebrated rural paradise than the cumulative damage done by the timber industry at its most destructive. And here come mega-marijuana grows worse in overall negative impact than industrial booze production, a dystopian future as presently lived in Southern Humboldt County. (Note: Remember how after a big rain the roads would be alive with millions of baby frogs? Pesticide and herbicide vineyard runoff, along with pot grow residue, has finished them off. The only frogs left are in locations unaffected by chemo-runoff, mass murdered by Pinot.)

YORKVILLE collected nine inches of rain over the six-day stretch of January 18-24, the wettest day being Wednesday, January 18, at 3.32 inches. The High Rollers’ season total is now a whopping 51.96 inches.

MARSHALL NEWMAN WRITES: Traveling to Anderson Valley Sunday morning, I passed a very large (best guess, 250-300 pounds), very dead wild boar on the side of Highway 128 perhaps a mile south of Yorkville. I stopped in Yorkville and was informed the dead boar was IN the road at 6am — apparently good Samarians dragged it to the shoulder. I’ve been traveling to and through Anderson Valley for nearly 60 years, and this was the first wild boar roadkill I’ve seen. The carcass was gone when I passed the same spot Sunday afternoon.”

AT THURSDAY NIGHT’S Trivia quiz at Lauren’s Restaurant in Boonville, the teacher’s table not only won the general knowledge contest, they won for best team name — “Alternative Facts.” (Yes, we have a lot of fun of Boonville, Mendocino County’s most happening community.)

I’M PONDERING the relationship between the renting of our social and environmental fabric and the seemingly mindless regulatory manipulation by those whose job it is to serve us. Pet peeves: The "Don't drink and drive" mantra coupled with 30 wine tasting rooms along the Highway 128 corridor. And the State Water Resources Control Board mandating the many vineyards to appropriate water only during the low flow months of spring and summer when the fish need it the most.

AN INSULT to human intelligence is being dished out by Caltrans in the form of a speed limit increase through Philo, predicated on a regulation that dictates that if traffic routinely passes by at a significantly higher speed the speed limit must be increased. Supposedly, it’s an anti-speed trap rule, but given that nobody is ever ticketed how can it be a speed trap? Tuesday, a week ago, a handful of Valley residents spoke up against this nonsense at the Board of Supervisors meeting. Supervisors agreed. But its not their decision - all they could do was vote to send a letter to Caltrans. Elsewhere in the paper is a full report of that meeting and I implore you to write to Caltrans with your concerns.

Darren Hill
Caltrans District 1
PO. Box 3700
Eureka, CA 95502-3700

ANOTHER ASSAULT on the rational is the discovery that California Health and Safety Code exempts State Building and Labor laws for "Organized Camps". According to Danielle French-Jun of Blackbird Farm, a Mendocino Building Inspector named Swearington allows Blackbird to house children in yurts because Blackbird is an "Organized" educational camp. Yes, Blackbird’s website does claim that "Blackbird Farm is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating youth and adults about sustainable living, farming and healthy eating."

BUT HOW MANY FARMERS do you know who live in yurts in the middle of a stand of trees? Especially after one of those trees has fallen and completely demolished one of your abodes? Would you rebuild there? Blackbird Farm has.

IN CALIFORNIA, new-age back-to-the-landers, in the middle of treeless meadows, and under minimal Class K regulations, are not allowed to bed down in a yurt. A young adult couple I know has been Red Tagged and made to move out of their yurt placed securely beyond trees. The powers that be determined this yurt wasn't safe.

I GIVE BLACKBIRD’S Danielle French-Jun a gold star for returning my call to inform me that Yes Blackbird is housing the kids in yurts among redwood groves because the state and the County says they can.

ON A LIGHTER and more and hopeful local development, I met this afternoon with one of the new owners of the former Shenoa property (Philo) now known as The Land. I found them to be real people wanting to create a unique outdoor experience for their future guests. I am told that while there is a peripheral connection to One Taste, a better living through enhanced orgasms group, the focus and scope of The Land is along the lines of Esalen in Big Sur. Esalen promotes "Cultivating a Deep Change in Self and Society" so we might hope to see mellow and friendly visitors chugging along the country lane of Ray's Road in Philo. Best of what I heard from The Land people was an emphatic desire to develop a strong and open relationship with the Anderson Valley community by making their facilities available free to us when they are not in use.

–David Severn

AGREE COMPLETELY with Sheriff Allman, whose request to the Supervisors last Tuesday for a $35,000 (roughly) used Snow Cat was nitpicked all the way to formal budget hearings i.e., death. The snow-track-tractor would be paid for mostly out of asset forfeiture funds, with some of the purchase price coming from other agencies. None of the purchase would come from the County's general fund.

WE EXPECT the Sheriff's Department to be prepared for all eventualities, and those eventualities include cold weather emergencies. The Sheriff quite convincingly described his frantic efforts two weeks ago to replace a borrowed a Snow Cat for a sudden rescue effort above the North County snow line after another borrowed one broke down (or ran out of gas, we’re not sure). None were available.

IN ANOTHER episode where a Snow Cat was definitely needed occurred last week, eight miles east of Black Butte, way, way, wayyyyyyyy off 162 east of Covelo. The call for help came in on Sunday evening. A man working in three feet of snow had fallen off a tractor and broken his ribs. Anyone who has cracked ribs, let alone broken them, knows how immobilizing an injury it is. It took a total of five hours to reach him and bring him out. The fire department had nothing that could get to him in those conditions. Two or three private volunteer rescuers in four wheel drive pick ups finally got to the injured man, and they kept getting stuck and had to tow each other via trees and cables and winches to get over the bad stretches in leapfrog fashion. A snow cat could have reached the scene in an hour, gotten him out even faster.

NEIGHBORING counties did not have a functioning Snow Cat. Although the three stranded persons in the emergency described by the Sheriff were successfully extracted, there are many areas of the County where that extraction, without a Snow Cat, might not be successful. Allman also explained that the Snow Cat would allow the County to do winter repairs at the remote mountaintops where the County’s microwave repeaters are positioned. It just seems like commonsense to enlarge the Sheriff's emergency capacity to include a Snow Cat given our mountainous and occasionally snowy terrain.

I DON'T KNOW if there's some kind of residual Blue Meanie hostility for cops at work among the Supes — Supervisor Carre Brown voted Yes, McCowen, Gjerde and Hamburg voted No (i.e., postponement to budget preparations) — but if the Supes applied the same intense fiscal scrutiny to all the County's departments that they apply to Sheriff Allman, the County's budget would be a lot healthier than it is.

IN 'N OUT BURGER opened in Ukiah last week. Located on North State where the famous landmark Fjord's stood for many years, fast food gourmets flooded the latest chain restaurant to put down in our chain-heavy County seat, creating unprecedented traffic jams at the north end of Ukiah.

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “This is my world, my yard, right in the center of town. And that's me taking a break on a bench handmade by Boonville guy, Brian Schreiner.”

ALBION SCHOOL: WILL IT SURVIVE?

Report on Jan 24 Albion School meeting & follow-ups

(Annemarie Weibel <aweibel@mcn.org> wrote and Tom Wodetzki (tw@mcn.org) rearranged this report on last Tuesday’s Albion community & school district meeting at the Albion School about its declining enrollment:

from Paul McCarthy facebook page:

Alarming Decrease In Albion School Students Prompts Meeting

About 35 concerned residents & educators, as well as Mendocino school board members, met at the Albion School Jan 24th to discuss dropping enrollment. Last year there were 19 students at the school, there are 9 this year, and next year it is projected to have just three students. The audience talked of possibly operating a pre-school - there are many, many pre-schoolers in Albion according to those present.

MUSD Superintendent Jason Morse made it clear the school was NOT closing. But the message was it may (possibly) be "repurposed.” There was also talk of possibly utilizing the school for an "after-school" program as well as having more community "public" uses for the school. This initial meeting to discuss possibilities for the school lasted 1.5 hours - and you can bet there will be quite a bit more discussion in the next couple months. In the near future it is expected there will be a parent survey as well as perhaps a school trustee ad-hoc committee to address this issue. One curious note, the average age of those in attendance at the meeting, to be kind, was about 55 - there were only a handful of parents with school-age children. And one couple added they were leaving for Oregon. If the school is to continue in some form, Albion parents will have to be more actively involved.

From: https://www.facebook.com/mendocinosportsplus

* * *

Jason Morse, the Superintendent of the Mendocino Unified School District <jmorse@mcn.org>, sent out an e-mail to the people who wanted to keep informed. He wrote:

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for attending the meeting at Albion School this past week and thank you for signing up to stay involved. I thought the meeting this week was a good initial introduction and discussion. There were a lot of ideas presented from many points of view. I plan to form an Ad Hoc Committee to continue this discussion. If you would like to serve on this committee, please let me know. I look forward to working with you.

Jason Morse, Superintendent, Mendocino Unified School District

Annemarie Weibel <aweibel@mcn.org> wrote:

If you want to serve on the Albion School Ad Hoc Committee you can e-mail Jason Morse at <jmorse@mcn.org>

If community members want to contact the representative for Albion on the school board they can contact Kathy Wylie. Her e-mail is <kathy@mcn.org> or connect with the people who will be on the Albion School Ad Hoc Committee.

Paul McCarthy who is in charge of the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mendocinosportsplus/ took a group shot and posted about 7 min. of video clips from the meeting on 1-24. The Anderson Valley Advertiser copied his article. I don't know if it is in the actual newspaper or only the online version. Paul copied part of the handout that Jason Morse, the Mendocino Unified School District Superintendent, handed out. The meeting on January 24th at the Albion School was planned to discuss the declining enrollment at the school.

Jason Morse's handout covered how many students were enrolled in Albion between 2010/11 and 2016-17, what educational options, ideas could be possible (purely brainstorming): independent study or homeschool cooperative space, after school program/childcare and preschool/Transitional Kindergarten (TK). A TK is an exciting educational opportunity for children who turn five between Sept. 2 and Dec. 2. It is the first phase of a two-year Kindergarten program that uses age-appropriate curriculum aligned to the Common Core State Standards.

A temporary closure of the Albion School is not believed to be a good idea.

The handout also listed facility options (purely brainstorming) a collaborative space with the Albion Little River Fire Department, a community meeting space and community classes, activities.

If people want to address the school board it is helpful to call the district office at 937-5868 and ask to have the school board agendas sent to them electronically or look them up online. The next school board function is a school board workshop on January 31 starting at 9 am at the Stanford Inn Conference Room. For more info see: http://www.mendocinousd.org/District/1219-2016-17-Board-Meeting-Agendas.html

Under the requirements of the Brown Act open meeting laws, members of the community wishing to address an item on the agenda may do so at 9 am or when the item comes before the Board. Items not on the agenda cannot be addressed at this time. A three-minute limit is set for each speaker on all items. The total time for public input on each item is limited to 20 minutes. Item 6, one of the topics on the board's agenda, is dealing with a possible future facilities bond. This is an information/discussion item.

In 1998 the district put a bond measure on the ballot. It passed and $500,000 was provided towards the building of the Albion School. It will be interesting to find out what the school district is intending to fund with the new bond money.

The dates of any future school board meetings are listed here: http://www.mendocinousd.org/view/273.pdf

Some attendees of the meeting at the Albion School on 1-24 signed up to be kept abreast. If anyone wants to be added to the list let me know. It is helpful to have a full name, e-mail and phone #.

THE RICHEST 8 tycoons on the planet are worth as much as the poorest 3.6 billion people — half of the world’s population. The richest 1% continues to own more than the other 99% combined.

AS GARBERVILLE creeps inexorably south, it's already happening here, an on-line comment: "Witness the outrageous prices in real estate in Southern Humboldt right now. Take a 40 acre parcel with a decent home, good water, southern exposure, decent access. Worth probably around 400,000 -- last year. Add a grow permit and asking price is now 1,500,000. WTF folks. Get real folks, the Central Valley and southern counties are going to kill the Humboldt grow scene and anyone buying at those prices is an idiot. The sooner the grow scene died here the better. Along with the hard drug dealers, users and the green rush, Humboldt is one fucked up place."

CATCH OF THE DAY, January 30, 2017

MONICA CABRAL, Gualala. Domestic assault, vandalism.

SETH COLE, Fort Bragg. Vehicle theft, receipt of stolen property, controlled substance, smoking-injecting device, probation revocation.

NESTOR ESCARENO, Covelo. DUI.

JODY FERRILL, Ukiah. Controlled substance.

CHAD GLANDERS, Willits. Probation revocation.

NICOLE LABELLE, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

NICHOLAS LANZIT, Ukiah. Domestic assault, probation revocation.

ROBERT MANSFIELD, Fort Bragg. Domestic assault.

WILLIAM OWENS, Ukiah. Under influence, resisting, probation revocation.

TYLER ROW, Willits. Paraphernalia.

BRAQUEL RUIZ, Ukiah. Under influence, controlled substance, county parole violation.

NATHAN SOTELO, Eureka/Ukiah. Under influence, false ID.

MICHAEL VORIS, Roseville/Willits. Billy club.

MENDOLIB, GROUND ZERO

Coast Democratic Club Meeting Feb 15 on Resisting the Trumplicans
Moving Forward 2017
Indivisible! All are welcome to join us
Wednesday, February 15th
Harbor Lite Meeting Room
120 N. Harbor Dr, Fort Bragg
5:30 pm

Join the Coast Democratic Club for a planning session to resist the Trump agenda threatening our country and community.

Bring appetizers and ideas to share about these concerns and others:

• Ocean Protection/ Environment
• Equal Pay/Minimum wage
• Protection for our undocumented citizens/Citizenship/Human

Rights

• Free and Fair Public Education
• Rural Community Healthcare Access
• Voting Rights/Voting Procedures

(Tom Wodetzki)

FELONY STUPIDITY

On 01-28-2017 at approximately 8:15am, Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Officer were on uniformed patrol in the area of the Sherwood Valley Casino parking lot in Willits. When patrolling the area, Deputies observed two subjects rummaging through a vehicle that was parked at the location. The Deputies contacted the subjects who advised they were searching for their personal property in the vehicle. One of the subjects, Michael Voris, 23, of Roseville, stated he was the owner of the vehicle but could not provide satisfactory evidence of ownership. During the investigation, Deputies searched the vehicle associated with the two subjects. The Deputies located what appeared to be a home-made "billy club" in the front passenger area of the vehicle. Voris was placed under arrest for Possession of a Billy Club. Voris was subsequently booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held on $15,000 bail.

HUFF PUFFS, ORANGE MAN TREMBLES

“The Trump White House’s actions to deny entry to all refugees and to travelers from certain Muslim countries, including people with visas and lawful permanent residents of the United States, are discriminatory and un-American. We will be fighting these unconstitutional actions in every venue, and I’ll be joining many of my House and Senate colleagues to make our voices heard at the Supreme Court today. The judicial and legislative branches have a responsibility to defend and uphold the Constitution, especially when the White House does not. President Trump must withdraw this executive order, and those in Congress who are tacitly allowing this injustice to happen will be remembered for their complicity in this disgraceful episode.”

2017 FIELD OF INTEREST GRANT PROGRAM

Guidelines & Application Deadline January 31, 2017

The Community Foundation of Mendocino County is pleased to announce $38,000 in available funding from its Field of Interest grant program. Field-of-Interest Funds are established to make grants in specified areas of interest (e.g., the environment or human services), or specified geographical areas, or both. This is the second year the Community Foundation has run this competitive grant program and includes two new funds (The Fund for Trails and Open Space and the Tilley Fund for Sustainable Forestry). Non-profit organizations from throughout Mendocino County are invited to submit proposals online by January 31, 2017 by 12:00 p.m. (NOON).

Field-of-Interest funds are created with a specific area of interest in mind, but anyone can contribute to these funds. You can join with others who have a shared passion to help your giving go further together. In addition to the eight funds accepting applications now, there are many more Field-of-Interest funds to choose from, representing diverse areas of interest such as the arts, providing basic needs, and promoting animal welfare.

Grants will be available from 8 different Field-of-Interest Funds thanks to the Jane Anderson Developmental Disability Fund, the Blood Bank of the Redwoods Legacy Fund,the Haigh-Scatena Youth Leadership, Empowerment, and Advocacy Fund, the John and Sandra Mayfield Family Economic Development Fund, the Judy Pruden Historical Preservation Fund, the Tilley Fund for Sustainable Forestry, the Fund for Trails and Open Space, and the Saturday Afternoon Club Endowment Fund.

More information and a link to an online grant application can be found by clicking on one of the individual funds below:

Blood Bank of the Redwoods Legacy Fund

(High School Youth Grant Program)

Fund for Trails and Open Space

Haigh-Scatena Youth Leadership, Empowerment & Advocacy Fund

Jane Anderson Developmental Disability Fund

John and Sandra Mayfield Family Economic Development Fund

(Small business, entrepreneurship and workforce development)

Judy Pruden Historical Preservation Fund

(Historical publications, marketing materials for historical tours, etc)

Tilley Fund for Sustainable Forestry

(maintaining and enhancing the economic, social, and environmental values of Mendocino County's working forests and range lands)

Ukiah Saturday Afternoon Club Endowment Fund

(supporting the economic advancement of women and girls in inland Mendocino County)

Application deadline is: January 31, 2017 by 12:00 p.m. (NOON)

For more information about applying to the Field-of Interest grant program or about how you can make a gift to any of the Field-of-Interest funds, visit www.communityfound.org.

Questions? Contact Michelle Rich at (707) 468-9882 or via email at michelle@communityfound.org.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

We are a nation of immigrants, that’s true. But it’s also true that times change.

When my father came to America, in 1938, our population was about 130 million. Today we number over 300 million. And each of us has a larger footprint on the land than 75 years ago. In 1938 we were a nation of compact cities and towns and small farms. We had a superb transportation system consisting of railroads and streetcars. Urban sprawl had not been invented–we would have to wait until after 1945 for that catastrophe.

Now we have too many people. We do not need more.

AND NOW TRUMP HAS BLOCKED IMMIGRANTS — even those who have already been vetted for several years by up to eight US agencies and approved for immigration at long last — from seven Muslim nations that he said are hotbeds of terrorists. Never mind that conspicuously missing from that list is the nation that supplied the overwhelming majority of the 9.11.01 hijackers who flew into the twin towers in New York and the Pentagon, and that country would be Saudi Arabia, of course. Indeed, of the 19 attackers, 15 were Saudis, two were from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon — and none of those countries made Trump’s list. No other immigrant has attacked civilians on American soil except the Pakistani-born wife of the San Bernardino shooting — and that country is not on Trump’s list either (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — none of which have sent refugees, asylees, or immigrants that have committed acts of terror in the US).

— Tom Hastings

FUROR TIME

by James Kunstler

It’s only taken a week for President Trump to give the body politic an immigration enema. The aim, perhaps, was to flush out a set of bad ideas that Barack Obama had managed over eight years to instate as “normal.” Namely, that it’s unnecessary to enforce the immigration laws, or cruel and unusual to do so, or that national borders are a barbarous anachronism, or that federal laws are optional in certain self-selected jurisdictions.

But Trump’s staff sure fucked up the details carrying out his refugee and immigration ban, most particularly detaining people with green cards, and those already granted visas. The blunder provoked an impressive blowback of airport protests, and finally a stay from a federal judge, which muddied the legality of Trump’s executive order — all in all, a tactical stumble for Prez DT, who apparently omitted to consult with an array of government agencies and their lawyers before issuing the decree at close-of-business Friday. For the record, I’m down with the complaint that Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, and Afghanistan were left off the no-come list, since those lands produce more radical Islamic maniacs than anywhere else.

The reader by now probably detects my ambivalent feelings in this bundle of issues and grievances, so let me try to clarify my basic positions: I think borders matter and they need to be protected. I think our immigration law enforcement under Obama has been deeply dishonest and damaging to our politics in ways that go far beyond the question of who gets to come here. I believe we are under no obligation to take in everybody and anybody who wants to move here. I believe we need an official time out from the high-volume immigration of recent decades. I believe we have good reasons to be picky about who we let in.

The most dishonest and damaging trope of recent years is the widely-accepted idea on the Left that illegal immigrants are merely “undocumented” — as if they were the hapless victims of some clerical error made by the government and therefore deserving of a pass. Language matters. The acceptance and repetition of this lie has in effect given permission to the Left to lie whenever it suits their purposes about all kinds of things, for instance the delusion that Russia stole the election from Hillary Clinton and that Radical Islam doesn’t pose a threat to western values (or even exist). And it is certainly true that they are assisted by legacy media giants such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR. The Times, especially is keen to provoke a national crisis that might unseat Trump, by simply declaring it so in a three-column headline:

The furor seemed rather out of proportion to the people inconvenienced by Trump’s administrative blundering: about 300 green card holders out of 300,000 travelers admitted over the weekend — even after the White House walked back its green card miscue on Sunday. And it gives the impression even to someone who is allergic to conspiracy theory (yours truly) that some organizing principle is behind it. That principle may be the deep neurosis of the Dem/Prog Left reduced to virtue-signaling in their out-of-power echo chamber. Having no coherent ideas about the immigration issue besides resistance to it, they offer only sentimental narratives: tears on the statue of liberty, “dreamers,” sanctuary cities, nation-of-open-arms, we’re-all-children-of-immigrants, and anyway North America was stolen from the Indians. The hysteria is impressive, as if the Left has come down with ergot poisoning, seeing witches (racists, homophobes, misogynists, white privilege villains, and Russians) behind every juniper shrub in the land.

I’d go as far to say that this neurosis derives from the general psychological boundary problems of the current Dem/Prog ethos. Their zeal to erase categories has resulted in lost categories of thinking — it’s all one big soup of victimization out there now and everybody better rush to cash in their victim brownie points while they still can — or as long as Senator Chuck Schumer can keep the crocodile tears flowing. From my vantage, this country would actually benefit from having firmer categories of thinking and certainly firmer categories of behavior.

What really irks the Left is any defense of Western civilization, especially in something so concrete as demographics. This defensive impulse has been deeply suppressed in the recent political life of Europe and America. On the university campuses, it’s become the equivalent of original sin. Donald Trump turned out to be a peculiar choice to lead a turnaround from all this, and his oafishness may eventually deter an effort to restore something like a self-respecting common culture. But the turnaround is coming to Europe, too, this year in a set of national elections. Expect more civil strife as the battle is joined.

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

ATTENTION PACK RATS!

American Pickers in California

Hello,

My name is Cat Raynor and I work with History’s American Pickers.

The American Pickers, Mike and Frank, are heading to California this spring and we're looking for leads throughout the region, specifically interesting people with interesting items and lots of them! We'd love to spread the word in your area.

We contacted you a few weeks back, and are hoping you were able to help get this information out to the community, but wanted to check back in. We are very much looking forward to our visit and want to make sure we are able to get in touch with any collectors in your county who might be interested.

We would still appreciate your help spreading the word, so I have again attached a press release and flyer. Sharing these with your community through a newsletter, website, or other social media would be greatly appreciated. We are trying to get in touch with people as soon as possible, so the sooner people with collections reach out to us the better. Please make sure people who are interested contact us on our phone number 1-855-OLD-RUST (653-7878), or our email, which is AmericanPickers@cineflix.com<mailto:AmericanPickers@cineflix.com>.

My contact info is below, so please don't hesitate to call me with any questions. Thank you so much for your time and help, I am looking forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Cat Raynor, Casting Associate

American Pickers on History

Email: craynor@cineflix.com<mailto:craynor@cineflix.com>

Phone: 646-561-3617

DENVER POLICE TO PROTESTERS: ‘Stop Doing Anything That Could Be Construed As Free Speech’

by David Edwards

Protesters at the Denver airport over the weekend were told by police that it was illegal to exercise “free speech without a permit.”

Denverite reported that over 200 people gathered at the Denver International Airport on Friday to protest President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travel from seven majority-Muslim countries.

In video posted to YouTube, Police Commander Tony Lopez can be seen advising demonstrators that they are in violation of the law.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eqdcaeX3j0

“Stop doing anything that could be construed as free speech without a permit,” he explains.

Lopez warns in the video, which lacks context, that even carrying a copy of the US Constitution was prohibited in the airport.

“I cannot carry the Constitution without a permit?” one protester asks.

“Correct,” the officer replies.

IT HAS DROWNED the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of Philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, it has set up that single, unconscionable freedom — free trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.

— Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto

THE VERY SOUND OF OBSCENITIES — forget their sense — seems to ring a bell in us, as is clear from the fact that many of them sound alike. In English, at least, one third of the so-called four-letter words are indeed made up of four letters, forming one syllable, and in nine out of ten cases, Bergen writes, the syllable is “closed” — that is, it ends in a consonant or two consonants. Why? Probably because consonants sound sharper, more absolute, than vowels. (Compare piss with pee, cunt with pussy.) It may be this tough-talk quality that accounts for certain widely recognized benefits of swearwords. For example, they help us endure pain. In one widely cited experiment, subjects were instructed to plunge a hand into ice-cold water and keep it there as long as they could. Half were told that they could utter a swearword while doing this, if they wanted to; the other half were told to say some harmless word, such as wood. The swearing subjects were able to keep their hands in the water significantly longer than the pure-mouthed group.

Related to this analgesic function is swearing’s well-known cathartic power. When you drop your grocery bag into a puddle or close the window on your finger, geez Louise is not going to help you much. Fuck is what you need, the more so, Adams says, because it doesn’t just express an emotion; it states a philosophical truth. By its very extremeness, it is saying that “one has found the end of language and can go no further. Profanity is no parochial gesture, then. It strikes a complaint against the human condition.” And in allowing us to do so verbally, it prevents more serious damage. “Take away swearwords,” writes Melissa Mohr, “and we are left with fists and guns.” The same is no doubt true of obscene gestures. According to Bergen, people have been giving each other the finger for over 2,000 years, and that must certainly be due in part to its usefulness in forestalling stronger action.

Joan Acocella

HIPPY MIKE PENCE

by Spec MacQuayde

Balmy weather has persisted in the Ohio Valley throughout January, almost to an alarming extent. Lawns are growing. Mosquitoes are buzzing. Our chickens are enjoying the freshly sprouted clover leaves, as well as gleaning the leftover, non-GMO corn from the fields that surround the Hoosier farmhouse. The fields are full of weeds again after our former governor, Michael Pence, signed a bill outlawing genetically-modified crops. No Roundup-Ready corn in Indiana means that hoes and manual labor have come back into fashion.

The ex-stripper, Jacque Dawn, and her one-eyed chauffeur, Beez, have been inhabiting the guest bedrooms and more or less taking care of the livestock while I slave away, hacking out my farming memoir, 101 Ways to Use a Hoe. They've been cleaning out the greenhouse, getting it ready for spring. It's already time to start tomatoes and bell peppers, broccoli, onions, and cabbage.

Thanks to Michael Pence, medical marijuana is now legal to cultivate and sell at the local farmers' markets all across Indiana, making the state labeled after a series of misnomers a leader in the cannabis rights movement, so another crop added to the early spring list happens to include varieties like Berry White, Tahoe Diesel, and Green Crack. The sativas tend to do better in such a humid climate, though ever since 2014, when Pence signed the bill allowing Hoosier farmers to cultivate six plants for each medical patient brandishing a script, I have applied peach growing techniques to the various strains, allowing more air movement, fighting off the mold. The same qualities that made the soils of Verona, Indiana, famous for watermelons also apply to peaches, grapes, and various strains of cannabis--especially the latter few. Perusing old newspapers from the region, also getting to know local orchardists, I learned that the zeniths of the sand hills were best for nearly all fruit crops, both for frost evasion and catching the breezes. The sand around here is so high in phosphorus that it glows at night, and never gets wet no matter how much it rains.

We've been propagating vegetable and flower starts in the spring, along with the flats of Berry White, etc. Basically, thanks to Pence, weed is just another crop like the rest, not special. Last year's first attempt at planting flowers in the greenhouse and selling them on the wagon out front turned out to be a bunch of fun, meeting new farmstand customers. We started petunias, begonias, sunflowers, and a bunch of species that I'd never heard of before.

"We've got to do more perennials this year," says Jacque Dawn in her exaggerated Cajun twang that gets annoying after more than two hours. "I'm getting the greenhouse ready."

"Perennials, perrenials. That's all I hear about. Perrenials. Easy to manage. Let's Google 'perrenials!'"

"Well you got a smart phone."

By now weed's worth no more than tomatoes, which are already a difficult sell at the farmers' markets. The Amish have totally dominated the Indiana cannabis scene, naturally, in the last two years, the way they do with tomatoes, onions, and every other vegetable you can hoe in a climate that is increasingly nudging like a continuing retreat of the Ice Ages towards the wall of Mexico, it seems. Mountain lions, wild pigs, and bears are returning to the scene. Crazy tweakers are swimming naked up the river, against the current, like salmon spawning. I blame the whole ordeal on Governor (now Vice President) Pence for legalizing medical. The plan backfired. Now everybody's broke. You can't make a dime off sweet corn, tomatoes, weed, or an hour's wages stacking ironing boards in a factory. It's all nearly free. And why are they manufacturing ironing boards in Seymour? Truckloads! Who uses ironing boards? Or, who purchases them? I don't know anyone who has commuted to town and slapped cash on the barrelhead for an ironing board since 1984.

"My ex-husband made me iron all our clothes when we were still together," said my most recent lover, Tracy, who officially resides with a nearby surgeon and has been surreptitiously seeing me for the perfect relationship. Both of us love each other but don't need anything except enough strange to keep us from becoming horny wrecks. As long as Tracy returns home in time to make coffee for the Man, he doesn't give a fuck about me. Doesn't want to know my name, or who I am. "Jeff thinks I'm fucking Hippie Mike."

"But Hippie Mike's in Indianapolis after Pence liberated all the inmates who'd been charged with minor marijuana offences! He's covering the Hoosier cannabis industry for the Indianapolis Star!"

"How would Jeff know? He doesn't read the newspapers ever since Donald Trump told him the press were all a bunch of liars. We argue about this shit every morning! It's awful!"

"The only thing I like about this whole Donald Trump thing is that all his supporters put signs up in their front yards, so now we know who they are. Nobody reads newspapers, anyway."

"There's somebody at the front door!"

Mack was barking.

"Probably some tweaker kid wants a joint," I said, and tugged her blue jeans off. "Jacque Dawn and Beez can deal with it."

"Sometimes I get scared out here."

We heard more pounding from the front door, like somebody was trying to kick it. They seemed to be momentarilly unsuccessful. Fortunately the porch would never have been up to code anywhere but lawless Jackson County, named after our new president's hero. Because of the short, sloped strip of concrete, the kicker was unable to generate enough of a punch via boot to the door, though the methamphetamine lifestyle might have been another chronic, indirect source of his inibility to accomplish his intention. Pretty sure the kicker of the front door who screamed, "GIVE US EVERYTHING YOU GOT AND WE WON'T HURT YOU!" had weighed about forty pounds more, maybe eight months prior, so his attempt to boot stomp the deadbolted door might have been ungrounded. The skeletal remains of years of crank might also have saved dude from bullet nicks, though, because Jacque Dawn's one-eyed chauffeur, Beez, went straight Clint Eastwood on the front door, firing a 38 about chest level through the thin veneer.

"Holy shit!" we heard somebody yell.

"Holy fucking shit!" I yelled. "What's going on out there?"

Two vehicles sped off, almost getting stuck in the front yard, blasting through our perennials as I ventured out from the bedroom, zipping up my jeans.

Both redneck trucks received a few rounds in the tailgate, license plate, and side panels as they destroyed our flowerbeds. Beez stood on the porch and emptied the 38 before they hit the road, tires squealing on the asphalt.

"Wow, dude, you might have saved our lives!"

"Those kids ain't coming back."

Tracy emerged from the bedroom, fully dressed, and informed me that she'd decided to go back to the surgeon's house. I couldn't sleep much the rest of the night, and pounded away at the keyboard, writing this piece.

DISCOVERING ART

Art Appreciation Class

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 7:00-9:00pm, at the Cloverdale Arts Alliance, 204 N. Cloverdale Blvd

Masterpieces from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia

This 18-part series on the Hermitage Museum will be shown in 9 classes, starting on December 7 until March 29, 2017. It is the most complete historical overview of art ever produced, according to its producers. Since many of us will never go to St. Petersburg, this is a great opportunity to see this incredible museum, its architecture and contents in a very up-close and personal way. The palace was originally built in 1754 for Empress Catherine II, but now is a state museum of 6 huge buildings, and the home of more than 3 million works of art collected over the past 250 years. Somehow these treasures survived the Napoleonic wars and other wars of the 19th century, the Russian Revolution, and World War 1 and 11. We will see that some parts of the buildings were bombed, but subsequently rebuilt, and treasures looted and some returned.

The camera will take us over the 9 sessions to view the collections, from ancient cultures like Mesopotamia, Greece, Egypt, China, as well as the art of the Middle Ages and the European Renaissance. Raphael, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rubens, van Dyck, Rembrandt, Velazquez, El Greco, Impressionist artists, Picasso, Matisse are just a few of the many artists whose works we will see. Get ready for a fascinating trip through time with splendid close-ups and analyses.

Besides, attending these classes is much cheaper than flying to Russia!

* * *

The Art of the Middle Ages & the Early Italian Renaissance

February 1

The first session focuses on the art collection that represents works from the 5th to the 15th centuries, Christian icons, crucifixes, reliquaries, paintings and sculptures, as well as armor and weapons throughout this time period.

The second session highlights Early Italian Renaissance art, altarpieces of religious themes with a more naturalistic perspective, Russian Byzantine icons and numerous depictions of the Virgin Mary.

Please join us! The crowd is friendly, the illustrated lectures are superb, and the discussions are always stimulating. You don't have to be an art expert, as everyone's opinion is valid and often entertaining. A glass of wine and a sweet treat always enhance the experience. We look forward to seeing you

A nominal donation ($5 per class for CAA members, $7 for non-members) will be requested. Seating is limited to the first 40 participants. Call 894-4410, or visit cloverdaleartsalliance.org, for more information about this program.

Visit www.cloverdaleartsalliance.org -

for the full schedule and further information regarding this or the

many other fine Cloverdale Art Alliance programs.

PLANNING? YES WE HAVE PLANNING. (LOOK AT UKIAH!) WHY DO YOU ASK?

Dear Interested Parties,

The February 2, 2017 Planning Commission Meeting agenda has been posted to the department website at:

http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/planning/meetings.htm

Please contact staff if you have any questions. Thank you.

Danielle Fitts
Staff Assistant III
Mendocino County Planning & Building Department
(707) 234-6650
www.buildingmendocino.org

TRUE LIFE ANECDOTE:

I worked in a supermarket deli a long time ago. At the end of the day about 6 large garbage cans of perfectly good food, cooked that day, were thrown away. The employees couldn't take any of it home. It was to simply be thrown away. When I worked the closing shift the manager was not there. I started selling big bags of fried chicken and whatever else was wanted to people for only a dollar. Homeless and poor people caught on and started coming in a few minutes before closing so they could get a huge bag of cooked food for a dollar. The store checkers never said a word and the manager never knew. I would have been fired if she knew. I would have given it all away if I thought I could get away with it.

— Rachel Towne

GET OVER IT

Editor,

For months and months I prayed Donald J. Trump would become our President, and what I sent over to you I explained what I thought needed to happen, and now it's happening! He straightening out the economy, he's straightening out the teacher's union and overall doing exactly what I prayed for. All these protesters, all these so-called celebrities, they should load them all into C-4 Transport planes and land them in Syria and let them out. Everything that Trump is fixing has been going wrong for the last eight years, and if these people don't like it they should leave.

They have a right to protest, but at some point, when they interfere with our security, something should be done about it. They can't accept the fact that they lost.

Putin came over and stayed for a couple of weeks at Bush's ranch in Texas, but Mr. Trump talks to him on the phone once and everyone goes crazy. I like Trump talking to Putin, making friends with Russia. It's a good thing. Putin's a hardcore S.O.B. but his people like him, and he does a good job for them.

One more thing: that guy who opened fire on the people at the Florida airport? That guy should be executed at half-time at the Super Bowl by the relatives of the people whose lives he ruined!

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche

JOCKS DO POLITICS

Former Giant's first baseman Aubrey Huff:

"We have a president who is finally fulfilling his promises he made in the campaign trail. I for one find it refreshing. He's trying to keep our country safe, and put America first. What's the problem with that? I saw a protester with a sign that says 'welcome all refugees.’ Are you kidding? Now granted I'm sure 98% are good people, but is it worth letting those 98% in to let the other 2% in and blowing up a nuclear plant killing half of a city? I'm all for immigrants coming to America that's what makes this country great. The land of opportunity for all. But there has got to be a bigger background check on everyone, and it has to be done legally! I don't know call me stupid, but I call it common sense."

When he got negative blowback to that comment, Huff responded:

"Your comment has nothing to do with my post. But since your a liberal snowflake I don't expect you to stay on point. But hey I'll play along. The Sox may have beat up on us but I still got paid millions regardless. Now I'm retired at 40 living in San Diego in a big house, hot wife, no job, and not a care in the world! How's that for caring about your opinion BOI!"

Huff was part of the San Francisco Giants championship teams in 2010 and 2012 and was a fan favorite known for his "rally thong." After retiring in 2014 he briefly hosted a Bay Area sports-talk radio show and more recently co-authored the memoir "Baseball Junkie: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of a World Series Champion." The book is set to be released Wednesday.

200 DEMONSTRATORS DESCENDED ON DIANNE FEINSTEIN’S HOUSE TO PROTEST HER SUPPORT FOR TRUMP’S NOMINEES

They want DiFi to fall in line with Californians’ overwhelming rejection of Trump. And answer her phone.

by Lamar Anderson

On Sunday afternoon, as about 2,000 protesters were picketing at SFO against President Trump's sudden ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, about 200 demonstrators headed in the opposite direction, to Senator Dianne Feinstein's mansion in Pacific Heights. They were there to express their displeasure at the senator's unexpectedly pro-Trump voting record. So far, she has voted in support of four of the president's cabinent nominees: James Mattis for Secretary of Defense, Mike Pompeo for CIA director, John Kelly for Secretary of Homeland Security, and Nikki Haley for U.N. ambassador. By FiveThirtyEight's calculation, Feinstein has fallen in line with the president's positions and cabinet nominees 100 percent of the time, earning DiFi a pro-Trump score higher than some Republicans, including Texas senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz. "It's disgusting," says organizer Ben Becker, who is a Democratic Party assembly delegate for District 17. "It's completely inexcusable."

The protest began at 3 p.m., as marchers filed into the public park abutting Feinstein's property, chanting "Hey hey, ho ho, Jeff Sessions—just say no!" The proceedings were structured as an impromptu citizens' town hall, with demonstrators taking turns speaking to the crowd for about two minutes each. Addressing Senator Feinstein—who did not appear to be home—a protester named Julie took the floor. "If you keep following this agenda, I will register as an Independent," she vowed, holding a sign reading "Stop collaborating with fascists." She added: "If you don't know what people want, you haven't been watching the news; you haven't been to the airport; you haven't been to the women's march. You are ingoring everyone that is trying to talk to you."

Becker and fellow organizer Michael Petrelis decided to rally in response to what they see as Feinstein's unresponsiveness to voters. "We attempted to get through to her through her office lines in California and D.C.," says Becker. "I tried to call about 50 times over this past week, and I wasn't able to get through. I wasn't able to leave a message because her machine was full and wasn't being emptied. We got the impression that the opinions of her constituency were not important to Senator Feinstein."

Feinstein's office hasn't yet responded to emailed questions about the protesters' concerns.

San Francisco recently included Feinstein in a photo feature on the local resistance to Trump, though she rejected the term "resistance" with interviewer Randy Shandobil, host of the podcast This Golden State. "My view is you work with him where you can and you oppose where you can't," Feinstein told Shandobil in December.

Petrelis, who emceed yesterday's unofficial town hall, wants to see regular forums with Feinstein—or at least her staffers—and her constituents. "It was great that we practiced town hall methods," says Petrelis. "It was wonderful—about 200 people showed up on a Sunday at her home." The organizers have set up a Facebook page, People's Town Hall, to promote more unsanctioned town halls in the future.

(San Francisco Magazine)

MOKELUMNE RIVER HATCHERY SEES RECORD RETURN OF STEELHEAD

by Dan Bacher

A record run of adult steelhead, 707 so far, has returned to Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery this year, but most of these fish appear to be fish that stayed in the river than going to sea.

“Ninety percent of the fish are adult steelhead in the 18 to 22 inch range averaging 3 pounds each,” said William Smith, hatchery manager. “Most of the fish have summered over in the river, due to the favorable cold water conditions over the past couple of years. We’ve also seen a few larger fish in the 5 to 6 lb. range that have apparently been to the ocean.”

While the flows haven’t been high in the river over the past couple of years, as they are now, the water temperatures have been favorable, due to the EMBUD’s management of cold water releases from Lake Pardee into Lake Camanche in recent years. “

“Regardless of whether these fish have been to the ocean or not, any of the offspring of these fish have the potential to go to sea,” noted Smith.

The numbers of steelhead returning to the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery don’t compare to those at Nimbus, Feather and Coleman fish hatcheries in good years, where the fish number in the thousands, but they are a vast improvement over many years when no adult steelhead returned to the facility.

No steelhead came back to the hatchery, located on the river right below Camanche Dam, for 10 years from 1976 through 1986. Again in 1998-1999, no adult steelhead returned to the facility.

That doesn’t mean that there weren’t any rainbows in the river during these years. The river hosted a popular resident trout fishery for fly, bait and lure anglers, but relatively few of the 100,000 steelhead yearlings released every year went to saltwater and returned.

The river, before the listing of the Central Valley steelhead under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), was managed as a catchable trout fishery, rather than as a wild steelhead or trout river. The CDFW regularly stocked the river with catchable size steelhead in the 10 to 15 inch range, hatched from steelhead eggs obtained from the Mokelumne and Nimbus Fish hatcheries.

The river is now managed as a steelhead fishery. Prior to this year, the record for adult steelhead trapped at the facility was 245 fish in 2012. In contrast with this year, 64 adults returned to the facility last year.

Two years ago when I visited the hatchery, the steelhead averaged 4 pounds each and went up to 11 pounds.

This year is the first one hatchery staff are spawning the fish according to a new spawning technique.

“We to maximize the genetic pool, so we take genetic samples of the males and females,” said Smith. “The samples are sent to Santa Cruz for testing. After 3 or four days, we spawn according to the genetics of the fish to insure genetic diversity. We want to avoid spawning related fish to avoid inbreeding.”

Smith attributes the increase in steelhead numbers in recent years to a number of changes in hatchery management that were made possible by the $12.5 million hatchery renovation that was completed in 2002.

First, the hatchery has increased its output of fish from 100,000 yearlings to 250,000 yearlings annually. If you put more fish in the system, more fish are likely to return.

Second, the hatchery has changed the timing of its releases from November and December to February and March, which appears to improve the amount of fish returning.

Third, the hatchery has been releasing the fish at different times and locations based on water conditions in the river. Release locations have included the river below the hatchery, Lake Lodi, the Feist Ranch and New Hope Landing.

“We have been releasing the steelhead on a new moon or during a storm event,” said Smith. “The cover of darkness or highly turbid water helps to reduce predation on the fish.”

Fourth, the hatchery has experimented with releasing steelhead at different sizes, ranging from 4.3 per pound up to 3.5 pounds each, to see which ensure the best survival.

Other factors in the upswing in the steelhead run include the longer time the hatchery staff spends sorting the eggs and the leaving of the ladder open for a longer period of time than before.

Besides hatchery improvements, the construction of new fish passage facilities on the new Woodbridge Dam in the summer of 2006 and the completion of the FERC relicensing process for Camanche Dam in 1999 that provides for increased river flows are responsible for the upswing in the steelhead run.

The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and Save the Mokelumne River Association played a key role in securing more water for the river from the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), increasing the allotment from only 13,000 acre feet in wet years to 85,000 acre feet.

Finally, the “Speece Cone” operated by EBUD at Lake Camanche, a device that distributes oxygen to the lower lake waters at the dam, has also boosted the river’s steelhead and resident rainbow fishery. The device, constructed to improve the quality of water released into the fish hatchery and river in order to stop the fish kills that periodically plagued the river, usually operates from August until mid-to-late October.

While steelhead numbers have increased, the lower Mokelumne continues to offer a quality fishery for resident rainbows. The tail water fishery below Camanche Dam offers good habitat, abundant food and cold water temperatures that keep the fish in the river rather than going to sea.

Fly fishermen, bait fishermen and lure tossers find top-notch trout action during the open season from January 1 through March 31 and the Fourth Saturday in May through October 15. As on other Central Valley steelhead rivers, anglers can only keep one hatchery steelhead and must purchase a steelhead card to fish the river.

The Mokelumne salmon run, as it has on most Central Valley rivers, has ranged from excellent to dismal over the past two decades. A record number of salmon, 16,128, returned to the Mokelumne in 2005.

The total run declined to only 235 fish in 2008/2009, the result of increased water exports from the California Delta to subsidized agribusiness and southern California, low flows below Woodbridge Dam, poor ocean conditions and other factors.

Fortunately the run rebounded over the past several falls. “We saw a close-to-average run in the fall of 2016,” said Smith. “We trapped a total of 6887 fish, including 3,314 adults and 3,573 jacks. That compares to the previous fall’s count of 8,298 salmon, including 5,170 adults and 3,198 grilse.”

Smith noted that a lot of Mokelumne fish went to the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers in the fall of 2016, rather than the Mokelumne, as evidenced by coded wire tag returns from carcass surveys. Twenty-five percent of the hatchery salmon are implanted with coded wire tags.

For more information, call the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery, (209) 759-3383.