Mendocino County Today: Sunday, Feb. 5, 2017

• More Rain
• Ukiah Beautification
• Asphalt Plant Flooded
• In-N-Out Impressions
• Larry Long
• Perpetual Screwing
• Perpetual Penury
• Little Dog
• Milo Quotes
• Yesterday's Catch
• Brain Exchange
• Immigration Reform
• He Said
• Marco Radio
• Caltrans Now
• Poetry Reading
• Teen Leadership
• Brown Not Green

LIGHT RAIN, low accumulations on Saturday. Rain expected to continue all week with Sunday and Tuesday and Thursday bringing higher rainfall totals.

PLANS UNDERWAY FOR NEW MURAL IN UKIAH

JUSTINE FREDERICKSON of the Ukiah Daily Journal wrote a truly frightening story in this Saturday morning's paper about grant-grabbing for public art projects, of which Ukiah already suffers too many that look like they're rendered by children, some of whom were either on drugs or never came all the way down after their last acid trip.

BUT MOVE OVER, NEGATIVITY for a positive suggestion. (That childlike assurance necessarily precedes much adult public comment in Mendocino County, and rather than complain about people thinking like simpletons as we have for 40 years, we belatedly realize that times have changed, that a kind of psychological fragility has taken hold of the lib-lab community we consider our own. Rather than fight for adult give and take, we promise optimism with a preliminary statement that we solemnly swear not to say anything that someone, somewhere, somehow might find offensive. Consider yourselves inoculated!)

HERE IT IS, pure positivity! Why not fully restore the pictured old time advertisement on McNab's rear wall which I, and I'm sure many others, think is beautiful, especially against the old brick and a reminder of a time Ukiah, commercial and artistic, was not the aesthetic wreck it is today. Restoration of the McNab wall is a straight re-illustration job, impossible to screw up with Edenic hippy-dip fantasies of a Mendoland that never was. Get that grant, get the paint and the ladders, and get going!

STORM TOPS GRIST CREEK SITE

by Mike A’Dair

The storm that hit California on January 10 caused Outlet Creek to overtop the embankment at the site of Grist Creek Aggregates, a rock processing and asphalt plant approved by the board of supervisors in April 2015 after a cursory environmental review.

Andrew Watson, field office chief of the Ukiah office of the U.S. Geological Survey, said the January 10 storm was not that rare an event. Flow measurements taken on the Main Fork of the Eel River near Leggett indicate the storm was just under a five-year rainfall event, he said.

Because neither Grist Creek Aggregates nor Mendocino County was required to get a federal permit to site the plant in the 100-year flood plain of Outlet Creek, said Bob Coey, chief of the North Coast Branch of NOAA fisheries, there is no federal nexus connecting the Grist Creek operation to NOAA or to the National Marine Fisheries Service, the alternate name for NOAA Fisheries.

Therefore, he said, NOAA has nothing to say and nothing to do about the flooding.

“There were many businesses, highways and towns that were flooded all over the North Coast,” Coey said. “We certainly don’t have the manpower to go out and investigate all of them.”

Lynn Talkovsky, a member of the community watchdog group Friends of Outlet Creek, reported the water rose two feet above the surface of the plant. Talkovsky, along with other members of FOOC, took photographs showing the water overflowing the sediment ponds and swirling around the base of a small hill of “fines.”

“Grist Creek Aggregates used to have a spoils site on Outlet Creek, but NOAA closed it a long time ago,” Talkovsky said. “So now, they pile up their fines, and that is what you see standing there in the middle of the picture, a small hill of very fine dirt and silt.

“The problem is, with Outlet Creek overflowing the berm and running over into the asphalt plant area, well, where do those fines go? Do you think it could go into the creek? The creek is right there.

“The Eel River already has a sediment-impaired status,” she said. “And it also has several listed species, salmonids, which lay their eggs in clean gravel. So, if the fines go into the creek, then they go into the river, and they settle in the gravel, which basically smothers the spawning beds. So this is removing spawning habitat for several listed species.

“Plus, we know Grist Creek Aggregates has been sloppy,” Talkovsky continued. “We’ve seen reports from Air Quality [the Mendocino County Air Quality Management District] and from the State Air Resources Board that say their people saw things spilling and overflowing onto the ground when they were making asphalt. So this flooding puts toxic substances into the water. It adds to the sediment load. It puts Outlet Creek and the Eel River at risk.”

NOAA Mendocino County Branch Manager Tom Dougherty said he had looked at Talkovsky’s photographs and wasn’t sure he could agree on what she claimed was silt or fines running into Outlet Creek.

“I looked at it with Bob [Coey],” Daugherty said. “We weren’t sure what it was.”

North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Executive Officer Matt St. John downplayed the significance of the event. “What is a misconception is that people are surprised when they see ponding and flooding at gravel extraction sites. There is often water there. They are designed to hold water and to retain water. A lot of people don’t know that.”

St. John had not seen photographs of the flood event at press time.

Asked if Water Quality had any concerns that a rock-processing-asphalt-production plant situated on a 100-year flood plain flooded as a result of a five-year rainfall event, St. John said the question of whether the plant should have been sited where it was, was out of his office’s jurisdiction.

“That the plant was put there and allowed to operate there, that is a land use decision. It’s not in our jurisdiction,” St. John said. “It was the county’s decision to site this plant where they sited it.

“From our assessment to date, the company is in compliance with its storm water permit.”

(Courtesy, the Willits Weekly. Photos below courtesy of Friends of Outlet Creek.)

 

 

 

IMPRESSIONS OF IN-N-OUT BURGER, UKIAH.

by Mark Scaramella

Traffic overloads turn lanes off State street in both directions.

Two employees in parking lot doing nothing but directing traffic.

Two or three more employees with headsets taking orders from people in cars in line for the drive-thru. Walking in: crowded, but fast moving order line. No lib-labs asking whether anything is GMO or gluten free or if there’s lactose in the special sauce…

(COINCIDENCE ALERT! Above is a screenshot taken from MendocinoSportsPlus's video of Rex Gressett taking his recently freed dog Olive to In-N-Out Burger for a treat last Friday. And I just noticed that the guy in the hat, right in front of them in line, as they filmed was me! I ordered right in front of Rex and Paul McCarthy without either of us knowing it.)

The menu is very simple: burgers (1 or 2 patties), cheese option; fries, shakes, drinks. That’s it. Nothing else. As they say on their website: “…when all you serve is burgers, fries and drinks, doing things the old-fashioned way is the freshest idea of all.”

I ordered a basic burger with fries. $4.35. No frills. An unremarkable regular burger. Fries are supposedly fresh cut, but they look and taste like the pre-cut bagged fries that other fast-food chains have.

There’s a small army of 20-somethings in the kitchen, perhaps 25-30, all in white outfits with red aprons. Majority were white kids, with a few Mexicans, a couple of blacks. Almost no chit-chat. The red and while anthill was a blur of focused activity. Everybody seemed to have one simple task and they did it. No one appeared to be supervising. Not much chit-chat at the tables either. One of the cooks was a middle-aged Asian woman who could have been the manager/franchise owner but there was no way to tell.

Efficient indoor layout with built-in counters and stools. “In-n-out.” Pound down your burger and fries and get out. Or back in line for another round of life-abbreviating nutrition.

Throughput is mos def the priority at In-N-Out.

I found out later by visiting their website that there are a few options that are not clear in the overhead menu at the store such as the “animal” (look it up) option and grilled onions instead of the regular sweet onion on the burger.

Overall, a very basic, no-frills, unpretentious, efficient operation producing a decent burger at a low cost. And almost nothing else.

A friend tells me a similar flurry of interest occurred a few years ago when Jack-in-the-Box opened in Ukiah next door to Walmart. “It’s Ukiah. Doesn’t take much to create excitement,” he said. We’ll see if the early crowds continue.

Personally, I much prefer Lauren’s burgers and beef-cut fries right here in Boonville. They cost about twice as much (plus tip), take a little longer to prepare and deliver, but they’re bigger, fresher and much more satisfying. (Nobody who wants to live past 60 wants any kind of burger with fries very often anyway.) And I do not have to navigate the post-industrial wasteland of Ukiah to get one.

LARRY LONG MURDERER DENIED PAROLE.

At the urging of the Mendocino County DA, as argued personally by Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Norman, the application by David Eugene Portlock, now age 39, for release from state prison on community parole was DENIED on Friday, January 27th. Portlock is one of two men responsible for the death of Larry Long in 1996. Larry, once a fixture around town, met a senseless and violent end in 1996 when he was beaten and thrown off the Talmage Road bridge during the course of a robbery. Those responsible - Portlock and Eric Mehtlan – were subsequently convicted in 1997 of the murder of Larry.

Portlock recently petitioned for his release from a Folsom prison, his having served less than 20 years of the 25 years to life sentence ordered by the Mendocino County Superior Court in 1997. "In the current political climate where releasing even violent inmates is seen by some as a good thing and beneficial to the state budget, keeping in prison even an inmate convicted of murder who has been sentenced to a life sentence is difficult. Being released early is now almost the rule instead of the exception," said District Attorney David Eyster. "I take my hat off to DDA Norman for her hard work to get this great result," said Eyster.

According to DDA Norman, at the conclusion of the January 27th hearing held in Folsom, the parole board members said they “weighed heavily” the “gruesome manner” of Long’s death, the prosecutor's arguments, and a letter written Ukiah Police Chief Chris Dewey explaining who the real Larry Long was and his connection to Ukiah. The parole board's denial is for three years, meaning Portlock can renew his request for release in 2020.

* * *

So we all don't forget a good-hearted man, included below is a longer version of Chief Dewey's memories of Larry Long...

"THE MAN WHO LOVED ELVIS”

by Ukiah Police Chief Chris Dewey.

Larry Long grew up and lived his entire life in Ukiah.

He was a gifted athlete who graduated from Ukiah High School, worked at Masonite, and married his high school sweetheart at 17.

But Larry drank alcohol.

His marriage lasted less than a year, and he was run over by a drunk driver in 1973. The accident left Larry with a metal plate in his head and a mental disability. Although he tried to return to Masonite, he soon found himself on disability. Larry took an awful turn for the worse when his girlfriend, Charlotte Verducci, was murdered in the late 1970’s

Amazingly, Larry never complained about the terrible things that happened to him.

Larry Long was one of the nicest people I ever met.

His cousin Michele Pearson once wrote, “Larry was a good, generous man who never hurt anyone. He never hesitated to provide shelter to any of his homeless friends and was not beyond giving money or food to a complete stranger.”

On most days, Larry could be found walking the streets of Ukiah with a portable tape player on his shoulder listening to Elvis songs, including his favorite, “Don’t Be Cruel.”

I first met Larry while I was working as a corrections deputy in the county jail. Larry had been sentenced to time in jail for public intoxication. Surprisingly, Larry would tell young corrections deputies (like me) how the jail operated, and the way things were supposed to be. He would even volunteer at the police department, washing cars and cleaning up, just because. On any given day, Larry loved to talk about country music and playing football, basketball and baseball at Ukiah High School.

As the years went on, Larry and I interacted when, as a young police officer, I often had to take him to jail for being too intoxicated to care for himself. Larry was big and strong – someone you wouldn’t want to fight. He could have made arresting him really tough; yet, he would usually understand why he was going to jail and almost walk himself to the patrol car.

Larry lived on social security income, residing at board and care homes or local motels.

You could always find him in a red bandana and sunglasses with a radio on his shoulder. He walked our streets, ate at Plowshares, flirted innocently with women he saw, and hung out in front of Safeway or Albertsons asking for handouts.

People who knew Larry often bought him something to eat or gave him money. He would often turn around and give that money to his homeless friends – or buy alcohol.

Larry trusted everyone he met.

Tragically, on the night of July 2, 1996, Larry Long was murdered at the age 45. After being robbed and assaulted, Larry was thrown off the Talmage Street – Russian River overcrossing. He died from injuries he sustained from the fall.

Two teenagers, David Portlock and Eric Mehtlan, took Larry to the bridge to rob him. There, Portlock pushed Larry over the bridge railing. The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office later arrested Portlock and Mehtlan, and both are now serving long prison sentences.

Larry contributed to our community and cared for the people who lived here, unlike the transients and travelers who come to Ukiah today. Today’s transients do not care for our community: they pollute the environment and often commit crimes like aggressive panhandling, robberies, violent dog bite attacks, felony assaults, and even murder.

Larry’s murder in 1996 was a tragic and senseless act. But if we can learn anything from Larry and his life, it is that we have a caring community, a community where people like Larry can get help everyday at places like Plowshares and Ford Street.

Instead of giving your money to transients who do not care, give your money to organizations in our community that help people like Larry. Helping people like Larry makes Ukiah a better place.

As always, our mission at UPD is simple: to make Ukiah as safe as possible. If you have any suggestions or comments about how we can improve, please feel free to call me, complete our online survey, or leave a crime tip on our website: www.ukiahpolice.com."

(District Attorney’s Facebook page)

FORT BRAGG NOTES

by Rex Gressett

The Fort Bragg Finance Committee met yesterday with City Manger Linda Ruffing to talk about “hookups.”

Not my phrase, theirs.

The housing crisis is a place not everyone visits, a dark alley. Most of us live where we do because we got lucky or we have scrambled or cooperated or compromised or something to find a house. When you that cannot find a place that quickly becomes the summation and focus of every problem you have, income, status, class, disability formal and informal pets, kids, parents. The housing crisis if it gets its teeth into you, is immediately the central issue of life, if you don’t figure it out it becomes the only issue.

In the halls of state government the understanding that for millions of Californians there is no possibility of affordable housing is a foreboding of intolerable unrest a mushrooming cloud of cascading consequences.

The state of California has no misunderstandings about the emergency nature of available housing and its importance and its intractability.

That which is wanting cannot be numbered.

In a kind of weak but no doubt heartfelt gesture, the California legislature has therefore passed an emergency measure pertaining to second units. In Fort Bragg those would be the little houses in the alleys. In August the state legislature passed SB 1069. The measure intends to add to the state supply of rental housing by making it easier for residential owners to add a second unit or to rent one if they already have one. By addressing a few basic permissions SB 1069 takes aim at a giant resource of housing, far exceeding any group or constellation of billion dollar physical projects. By the simple and grudgingly gracious expedient of getting a couple of proscriptive regulations off our asses the state took concrete and effective steps to address the housing crisis that actually involved statistically significant numbers of units.

This measure is a law that limits the restrictions that our own local government can impose on the owners of second units. The big boys at the state legislature must have been thinking of Fort Bragg when they devised the whole thing because second units, unrented and desperately needed are exactly what we have. With jaded and cynical comprehension, which makes you wonder what else they understand, the legislature in Sacramento acknowledged that the reason that our Fort Braggian abundance of cute houses in cool alleys are not on the market is that the city has their claws into our pocketbooks to the extent that they do.

Now six months after this innovation became law, SB 1069 has trickled down through great densities to the city council’s finance committee having couch surfed on the City Manager’s desk until now.

When the City Manager brought this new bill up with the finance committee she was looking for a minimum of conversation as her first priority. That is normal. Oddly she giggled through the whole thing. (?) Her control of her two councilmen was unimpeded by her good spirits. Restriction of dialogue to the points she prefers is a principle operational requirement of the committees once they figure that out. Committees are intentionally even more remote from the contagion of discussion, debate and dialogue than the council itself. Linda made her presentation to the two members of the committee, Lindy Peters and Will Lee, along with a reporter from the Advocate, the reporter from the Advertiser, and one lady who had come to the wrong meeting but stayed anyway to see what they were doing. The elephant in the room was the unknown number of folks at home who could see it all on-line. But in the absence of background, analytic commentary or public dialogue, and confident of her power of doublespeak, Linda was not too worried about them. She never is. She doesn’t know it but she should be.

Removing restrictions and certainly removing fat fees is not high on the City Manager's list of priorities. Linda wanted to make her case to the finance committee that removing charges by the city was not the high road to civic financial prosperity. Water hookups for a second unit can cost you anywhere between $3,274 and $15,194.

What a strange giggling city manager we had that day. You should go on line and see her. The more she is held to an acknowledgement of her basic function as a tax gathering robot in callous and indifferent opposition to the prosperity of the city, the more she giggles.

Peters and Lee were dismally disappointing. They were first of all utterly dependent in the meeting for a presentation of facts by the City Manager. This is kindergarten. A finance committee meeting involving tough decisions about public welfare is not the place for councilmen to get a first look at the issue and the facts. The city manger with her abundant baggage and hardened commitment to an agenda much broader, deeper, wider and permanent than anything the city council is likely to come up with, is not the right person to be making a remedial presentation to naive councilmen stunned with new information. A written report on all subjects within a committee meeting given to councilmen prior to the meeting might help.

Hello Brown Act.

Will Lee is certainly bringing to the council a new sartorial standard along with an old school courtesy and new school intensity. He took special concern to tell me that he thinks the city manager is a plum. The new council he intoned is now getting treated right. Then before he returned his attention to the city manager and her menu of recommendations he reflected that he had heard about this housing crisis thing in the election. He recalled that folks had thought it then to be important.

The house bill aimed simply at getting local and city regulation out of the way. Unlike the city council, the state understands the magnitude and the hurt of the problem. Unlike the city manager they officially care. They intended incentivization. They expected that city governments would grasp the necessity, use the options the state was giving them, dig deep in their imaginations to work and try to harness this resource of housing. As a first step the state leadership was helping them get their regulations out of the way. The city manger declined to get riled up. The city council trusted her composure and made a few gestures. But they declined to disallow the hookup fees that Linda so very much valued, and that the state leadership wanted us to ditch. But they did let owners off the hook if the apartment was actually in the same house as the owner.

Geeze.

The city of Fort Bragg finance committee in the persons of Will Lee and Lindy Peters, cooperated with the city manager to minimize the effects of a bill on possible city revenues, and declined to entertain the idea that housing might actually be a crisis worthy of taking full advantage of the state’s innovations. They did not kill it. But they lamed it, minimized it and discounted its intention and meaning to the unhoused. The city manger contained her giggles with difficulty and was satisfied.

Lindy, ever conscious of the power of spin, even when it is ploddingly pedestrian, told the city that relieving new regulations on second units would be unfair to the people who had already been charged an arm and a leg by the city.

This is not the first time that Lindy has resorted to this general argument. I suggest to him that he should call it the principle of perpetual screwing. That is once an individual or group is screwed by the city, no other person or entity shall escape that screwing. As he pointed out, it is only fair.

Linda Ruffing greatly and increasingly is being encouraged to know that her relationship with councilmen (who the electorate fully expected to fire her), was all harmony. She mentioned gleefully that heck, the city actually had plans for second units that anyone can have. And these would greatly facilitate development by being preapproved, not requiring an architect. The fees that she loves so much were of course still charged on these hypothetical apartments so everyone would be happy.

The housing crisis as a crisis did not have a place in the discussion. Addressing a fundamental major problem involving the utilization of every tool in our possession was not the approach they took. The reader may recall that recently the old council had realized that there were 29 vacant and unrentable apartments in Fort Bragg simply because they were zoned commercial and industrial. 29 is quite a few in this context. But again not wanting to panic or act precipitously they (this was the previous council) announced that eight of these would be exempted from the prohibition. First come, first serve. We should walk before we run. They said. The other 21 units just sit there.

Don’t sweat the housing crisis, the Fort Bragg city council has your back.

OLIVE

by Rex Gressett

I also have to say a few words about Olive and the many people who helped me to get her back.

I may not be able to do it but I am going to try and forgo the obvious sentiments about how truly good, how generous we are to each other in this county when the chips are down. It is true and we know it, but it seems insufficient for this moment.

One consequence of Olive going to jail was that I had to come out of the particular closet I have. It hurt a lot. It made me understand just a little how hard closets are to come out of and how great the liberation is when you do. The pain does not diminish but pain that is for something or about something is a better pain than the pretense that pain does not exist when it does. In my case my disreputability is economic. I am not rich, ahem. The depth of my disenfranchisement from the American mainstream is a yawning chasm. It is more than just not having money temporarily it is a kind of economic leprosy an entrenched incapacity. Itself this is not explicitly a disgrace and it is hard to understand let alone to explain how I got this way. People dying, the siren song of unread books, an undeniable business and purposefulness about the things that I am doing, that I don’t get paid for and never will. It all adds up. The disreputable part is that I have the presumption to speak out so publicly and so often. Worse that I have the effrontery to think that I am occasionally right.

The most basic precondition of participation in the making of public policy is to have mastered the personal economic puzzle. In Fort Bragg we are pretty lenient. None of us is exactly rich by other places standards but it seems reasonable to ask if a person cannot handle his own affairs how much credibility should he (I) have. I could answer in part that I do handle my affairs, by living carefully and quietly by walking a great deal by doing lunches at the Senior Center and a few at the catholic church by strident economy and careful planning I live a life in which I have no debt and am quite free to read as much as any tenured professor and very much without the politics or the compromise. I know it is very selfish.

And I do get caught. When my father died I could not go home, when they took Olive I could not get her back. I suck.

Talking about how great everyone was to help me does not disguise the facts as they are and the worse fact that I have been living this way in defiance of practical necessity for almost 20 years. I have gotten old doing it, and the stack of books that I have to read is somehow much larger than the stack that I started with. It does not look good. I can’t say anything redemptive or make any excuse. It is all too real.

But I will allow myself the observation that since the first day that I came to this county I have never felt anything except acceptance and even amusement for a very advanced and terminal eccentricity. I have always been grateful for that. Now Olive and I know that not only do the good people let us live in great peace, they bless us.

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Congressman Huffman's gotta have a dog, right? It's against the law to live in Marin without a dog, a blonde wife and exactly 2.2 children.”

ALL I KNEW about this Milo character before the Berkeley event this week was that he's one of the fascisti grouped around Breitbart. I looked him up and found this ho-hum roster of his statements. I see lots to argue with here but not anything to shut him down over. Really, is the "left" so precious, so fearful they can't handle this clown? I think his remark about being banned from San Francisco is actually funny.

It’s easy to mock video gamers as dorky loners in yellowing underpants. Indeed, in previous columns, I’ve done it myself. Occasionally at length. But, the more you learn about the latest scandal in the games industry, the more you start to sympathise with the frustrated male stereotype. Because an army of sociopathic feminist programmers and campaigners, abetted by achingly politically correct American tech bloggers, are terrorizing the entire community – lying, bullying and manipulating their way around the internet for profit and attention.

Feminist Bullies Tearing The Video Game Industry, Breitbart (1 Sep 2014)

* * *

In the course of my Dangerous Faggot tour, I’ve had my fair share of bans… but here’s one I didn’t see coming. I’ve been banned from San Francisco! Me, the gayest person on the planet. Banned. From San Francisco, the queerest city in America. Apparently I’m just too dangerous of a faggot, even for a city that pumps AZT directly into the water.

I’m Gay And I’ve Been Banned From San Francisco! Breitbart (18 March 2016)

* * *

Muslims are allowed to get away with almost anything. They can shut down and intimidate prominent ex-Muslims. They’re allowed to engage in the most brazen anti-semitism, even as they run for office in European left-wing political parties. And, of course, politicians and the media routinely turn a blind eye to the kind of sexism and homophobia that would instantly end the career of a non-Muslim conservative — and perhaps get the latter arrested for hate speech when he dared to object.

The Left chose Islam over Gays, Breitbart (12 Jun 2016)

* * *

With a little effort, we can help fat people help themselves. But first we have to make sure that "fat acceptance," perhaps the most alarming and irresponsible idea to come out of leftist victimhood and grievancean politics, is given the heart attack it deserves.

Science Proves It: Fat-Shaming Works, Breitbart (5 July 2016)

CATCH OF THE DAY, February 4, 2017

BLUE ABREU, Willits. Probation revocation.

DANIEL ARREGUIN, Redwood Valley. DUI-drugs.

JERRY BAILEY, Willits. Suspended license, failure to appear.

MARIAH CENTENO, Rohnert Park/Redwood Valley. DUI-drugs & alcohol, no license.

DOMINIC FABER, Ukiah. Parole re-sentencing.

CAREY GRAHAM, Laytonville. DUI.

MICHAEL KOBBOW, Redwood Valley. DUI-drugs&alcohol.

JEREMIAH LUNA, Ukiah. Drunk in public. (Frequent flyer.)

ERICA RODRIGUEZ, Ukiah. Drunk in public.

ANTHONY ROJAS, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

GABRIEL ROJAS, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun.

JAMES RUSSELL II, Sacramento/Ukiah. Suspended license.

ASHLEY SVENDSEN, Ukiah. ID theft, use of another’s credit card.

STEPHEN WILLIAMSON, Potter Valley. DUI, probation revocation.

KATTIE YOCUM, Ukiah. DUI-drugs. Under influence, suspended license, false/someone else’s ID, paraphernalia, prescribtion meds without prescription.

CREATIVE RESISTANCE!

Friends,

This is the best political sign I have seen in many years. Creativity is exactly what we need at this time. Brainstorming is a way to encourage creativity. It's something that can be done in "Freedom Cells" in small groups of like-minded friends. And the best technique I have found for brainstorming is on the website of the "San Francisco Bay Area Women's Brain Exchange."

Tom Cahill

Cluny, France

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Remember—“Diversity Is A Strength”! {GROAN} “Graduate School Seminar” talk? Diversity is a great concept in theory, but in reality it leads to a loss of consensus. Nobody is “blaming” Mexicans for anything. Most US citizens fully get why Mexicans and Central Americans immigrate to the north. We’re not heartless. The problem is that it is no longer 1887. Or 1987. It is 2017. We have entered the Age of Limits — economic limits and ecological limits. We are running out of water in the U.S. We are running out of inexpensive means to produce fossil fuels and are facing a (very likely permanent) contraction of the economy. I did not vote for Trump, but I must acknowledge that I support his efforts to secure the U.S. border and toughen immigration criteria. I agree with the “Cheeto colored bolus” on at least ONE issue. It would be nice if he could frame the issue in a more delicate and thought-through manner, but in all honesty I don’t think there IS a way to frame immigration reform in a delicate manner. No matter what you do you’re going to offend someone’s identity and burst someone’s dreams. It’s tough having limits, making sacrifices, staying put and living simply….no? I’ve got cauliflower and peas to cut in the garden. I’ll return.

SHE SAID, HE SAID

Consider the violence at the demonstration at UC Berkeley last night as a win for Donald Trump

On 2/4/2017 1:25 PM, Daney Dawson wrote: “I'll repeat: the former special forces agent said that they, not the Iraqis, started the fires. That is first hand, and reliable data, unless of course the guy was lying, like some scientists are prone to do."

MARCO McCLEAN REPLIES: I picked up a hitchhiker in the middle 1980s, going from Willits to Fort Bragg, who said his brother married the Carlos Santana's sister, who was Italian, so he had it as first-hand information that Parmesan cheese is scraped off the walls of special secret caves in Italy. It's not cheese at all; it's a naturally occurring mineral. I said, "Are there other kinds of cheese that are minerals?" He said, "Probably, man, they don't want to lose their monopoly." He also knew a great deal about toy airplanes.

Marco McClean
memo@mcn.org
http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

KIT & KABOODLE. THE WHOLE NINE YARDS.

"The more the world is focused on destroying itself, the less it notices an immortal psychopath in its midst."

The recording of last night's (2017-02-03) KNYO (and, three hours in, also KMEC) Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show is ready to download and enjoy, via http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

Also, at http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find thousands of links to not necessarily radio-useful but certainly worthwhile things to see and/or do and learn about, such as:

All that we share.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD8tjhVO1Tc

Stephen Andrade's portfolio of perfectly plausible pulp covers. http://sandradeillustration.com/section/81653-Illustration.html

A Death-Star-size festering landfill full of elephant-stuffed rooms, with a molecule-thin layer of golf course on top.

http://trump.kimalbrecht.com/network/

And Dog with a Pearl Earring.

This is what people who wear mascara want to look like. It's an attractive and natural look for a dog, but it just repels when it's people, because I can't help but imagine them poking themselves so close to the eye to apply it, and imagining that makes me flinch. Also earrings (and nose rings and lip, tongue, nipple, eyebrow, etc. rings and studs and safety pins and squirrel skulls, and that sad teenage girl in the news last week who appeared at Emergency with an unfortunate fucking fat /pet snake/ hopelessly stuck in the disgusting hole she cut and stretched in her own ear).

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/303/31794401814_213a4eca5f_b.jpg

Marco McClean
memo@mcn.org
http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

HAT IS OFF TO CALTRANS! They’re the ones who keep the roads open during these winter months. And, they’re local people who care about other locals staying safe on the road. They’re just like any other state ran business. The crew know what needs to be done and want to do it, but, desk jockeys get in the way.

It’s sad to see what’s happened with Caltrans in the last 20 years. They used to do everything for our highways. They paved our roads from sun up til sundown during the summer months, prepared the ditches and culverts for the upcoming winters. They also repaired slides during the summer months to prevent bigger problems come winter. They cleaned the slides and sinks during the winter. They also were first responders to traffic accidents.

The people who run Caltrans in Sacramento have destroyed what was once a great thing. Now they auction off all of these jobs to the lowest bidders. It seems like none of these companies can do the job right the first time. Nor do they do quality work. The culverts on the slide just north of the redway exit that had to be replaced. The paving with almost instant potholes by bell springs road. These companies come in, do the work, then move on. Not caring what the roads are like, or the safety of the people driving them. For instance the accident that happened in the fog between laytonville and Leggett. It happened because the company had only applied the primer for the white line on the road. I had first hand experience not being able to see that line while driving at night with headlights in my eyes. I could go on and on. But, what do you expect when they are doing the job as cheap as possible?

It seems like anybody who really runs Caltrans is just looking to climb thier way higher on the ladder by saying ” Hey look, I ran the company we stayed under budget and accomplished what needed to be done. What else could you ask for? Now bump me up to the next position on the ladder.” And this happens as a detriment to our highways and safety of the people driving them.

As far as environmental practices, the people who work for Caltrans locally are the same as you and I. They care about our rivers, animals, our old growth forests, and passing on our great environment to our youth. The good Ole days of good Ole boys caring for our local highways and the people who drive them is gone.

My thanks to all the people who work out of our local Caltrans yards. Great job guys, keep up the good work!

(Comment Line, Redheaded Blackbelt)

DANA GIOIA, POET LAUREATE OF CALIFORNIA;

Ukiah Poets Laureate Emeriti:

Armand Brint, Linda Noel, & Theresa Whitehill;

& the Mendocino County Poetry Out Loud Champion!

Saturday, February 18^th 5 pm

Join California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia at the Ukiah Library on Saturday, Feb. 18^th at 5 pm for a special poetry event. This free event will feature poetry readings from Dana Gioia, Theresa Whitehill, Linda Noel, Armand Brint, and the winner of the Mendocino County Poetry Out Loud championship. This is Dana Gioia's first appearance in Mendocino County as part of his ambitious 58-County California Poet Laureate tour.

Dana Gioia is Poet Laureate of California. Appointed by Governor Jerry Brown in December 2015, Gioia serves as the state advocate for poetry and literature in libraries, classrooms and boardrooms across California.. An internationally recognized poet and critic, he is the author of five collections of poetry, including Interrogations at Noon (2001), which won the American Book Award, and 99 Poems: New & Selected (2016). His critical collections include Can Poetry Matter? (1992), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award. He has written three opera libretti and edited twenty literary anthologies. He served as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 to 2009. He has been awarded 11 honorary doctorates. He is the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California where he teaches each fall semester. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Sonoma County, California. For more information visit www.capoetlaureate.net.

Presented in partnership with the California Arts Council, the California Center for the Book, and the California State Library. Hosted by the Ukiah branch of Mendocino County Library.

Armand Brint has lived in Ukiah for almost 30 years. He was appointed as the City of Ukiah’s first Poet laureate from 2001 to 2003. Armand is the author of three volumes of poetry, Schools of Light, Linwood Publishers, 1995; The League of Slow Cities, Tenacity Press, 2001; and In the Name of Wonder, Haley’s Press, 2014. Armand has recently completed a new collection of poems, The Book of Second Chances and a book on writing poetry, titled, Bringing Poems to Life: Sixteen Keys to Make Your Poems Sing. Armand is the recipient of the 2013 Jane Reichhold International Prize for Haiku. Armand teaches poetry workshops through the Emandal Farm’s residential ArtStay Program.

Linda Noel is of Koyoonk’auwi (Concow) descent and grew up in Mendocino County. She is Poet Laureate Emeritus of Ukiah, Ca. Her work has been included in many anthologies and she has a chapbook titled Where You First Saw the Eyes of Coyote. She resides in Mendocino County.

A California poet, graphic designer, and letterpress printer, Theresa Whitehill served as Poet Laureate for the city of Ukiah from 2009 through 2011 and has been involved her entire career in production of poetry readings and events. Whitehill’s two collections of poetry, A Grammar of Longing (2009) and A Natural History of Mill Towns (1993), were both published by Pygmy Forest Press.

Light refreshments will be served. For more information – please contact Melissa at the Ukiah Library: 467-6434 or carrm@co.mendocino.ca.us

DISTRICT TEENS LEADERSHIP COUNCIL

Saturday, February 11^th

Saturday, March 11^th

3 - 4 pm

Teens are invited to join the library’s Teen Leadership Council (TLC). Teen leaders can volunteer & apply for credit toward community service hours while building their résumés. Teens will have a chance to be heard & make a difference in the community.

District Teens Leaders will gain valued skills & experience:

• Collaborating to design our new teen space
• Planning & organizing events
• Recommending books & other materials for library purchase
• Developing leadership & conflict-resolution skills
• Contributing to the Ukiah community by expanding teen resources

Come and find out if this is the group for you!

Pizza will be provided.

For more information – please contact Melissa at the Ukiah Library: 467-6434

WATCHDOG GROUPS UNVEIL REPORT CARD SHOWING JERRY BROWN'S ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD ISN'T GREEN

by Dan Bacher

Since Jerry Brown began his second two terms as California governor in January 2011, he has continually promoted himself as a “climate leader” and “green governor” at climate conferences and photo opportunities throughout the U.S. and the world.

The mainstream media and some "alternative" media have provided overwhelmingly fawning coverage of Governor Brown's environmental record, usually without conducting any real investigation into Brown's actual record.

Countering this false narrative of the "green" governor, twelve public interest groups, led by Consumer Watchdog and Food & Water Watch, will on Monday, February 6, at 11 am. unveil a comprehensive report card on Jerry Brown Administration’s environmental record showing he falls short in seven key areas, including fossil fuel generated electricity, oil drilling, and coastal protection.

The groups will hold a live press conference at the Consumer Watchdog offices at 2701 Ocean Park Blvd., Suite 112, Santa Monica, CA 90405 on February 6 at 11 am. Visuals will include blowups of Brown’s scores on seven key environmental indicators, graphs on state fossil fuel generating capacity, oil drilling, and polluting oil wastewater.

There were also be conference call-in line available for those not able to attend the conference.

"The groups will call for a moratorium on the building of natural gas powered electricity plants, given the glut of electric capacity and call for an outside audit of state’s energy needs," according to a media advisory from Consumer Watchdog and Food & Water Watch. "The groups will show how California can improve its environmental protections to meet standards set in other states. Residents of Porter Ranch will discuss their deteriorating health due to Brown's push to keep Aliso canyon's gas reserve open."

CONTACT:

Consumer Watchdog Advocate Liza Tucker, (626)-372-1964, Cell
Consumer Watchdog Advocate Cody Rosenfield, 310-345-5564
Food & Water Watch Senior Organizer, Alexandra Nagy, 818-633-0865