Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, April 12, 2017

• Home Invasion
• Going Legal
• HBO Extras
• Little Dog
• Last Grow
• Yesterday's Catch
• Two Virgins
• Tweetstorms
• Fox Experience
• Extension Ladder
• How Screwed
• Huff FB
• Theatre Auditions
• Three Stanzas
• Library Week
• Mental Illness
• Gardens Volunteering
• Fishery Restrictions
• Salmon Season
• Transmission Meditation

HOME INVASION, LAYTONVILLE

On April 11, 2017 at approximately 7:00 AM Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies responded to a 911 call of a gunshot victim at a residence in the 100 block of Mill Road / Woodruff Road (which parallels Highway 101 north of Laytonville) in Laytonville. Deputies and medical personnel arrived and met with a victim who was a 63 year-old adult male. The victim reported that earlier in the morning, at approximately 6:00 A.M. three to five unknown African American adults males entered into his residence by smashing a sliding glass door. The male suspects were armed with handguns and they held the victim at gunpoint while demanding money and marijuana. The male suspects ransacked the residence searching for the sought after items and at some point pistol whipped the victim and shot him in the arm while trying to determine the whereabouts of the money and marijuana. The male suspects ultimately disabled the victim's vehicle and left in an unknown direction in an unknown vehicle. Taken during the robbery was approximately $7,000 and several firearms. After the adult suspects fled, the victim was able to get to a nearby residence to request assistance as the suspects had also disabled his phone line. The male suspects were described to be African American adult males, slim build with unknown height. They were described as being between the ages of 18 and 30 and were not known to the victim. The victim was transported to an undisclosed hospital where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries from the gunshot wound and the pistol whipping. Anybody with information related to this case or who observed persons fitting the suspect's description in the area around the time of the robbery are encouraged to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office by calling (707) 463-4086, or the Tip Line at (707) 234-2100.

LOCAL CANNABIS GROWERS OVERWHELMED BY REGS, WEIGHING COSTS OF GOING LEGAL

(And this doesn’t even mention the requirements that former black market outback pot growers suddenly need to prepare business plans and tax forms, and pay employee taxes and workers comp and comply with OSHA requirements and buy various forms of insurance…)

http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/article/NP/20170410/NEWS/170419988

UKIAH HOSTS CASTING CALL FOR HBO PRODUCTION IN REDWOOD VALLEY

by Justine Frederiksen

The Ukiah Valley Conference Center Saturday was packed with people hoping to be chosen for five days worth of a minimum-wage job.

“You will either love it or you will hate it,” said Rich King, who was in Ukiah to find 500 extras for filming set to start in Redwood Valley next month.

“We will be here for about two weeks starting May 17,” said King, explaining that he did not know why Redwood Valley was chosen or which areas specifically would be filmed for “exterior shots.”

What he could tell the crowd is that the show is an HBO production starring Amy Adams, who plays a woman returning to the small Missouri town she grew up in, the fictional Wind Gap, in the aftermath of murders.

“You will be our Wind Gap,” he said, adding that many of the extras would be needed for a large town gathering that included re-enacting Civil War battles. “So if any of you are Civil War re-enactors and have outfits already, let us know.”

King said he also wanted to know if anyone had special skills or hobbies, no matter how random.

“You never know what the director might want,” he said. “He might suddenly decide, ‘you know, it would be great if we had a fire juggler here.’ And then I can say, ‘well, I know of one right here.’”

Anyone chosen would not only need to be prepared to spend all day on set, he said, but also to “wear the same shirt and the same pair of pants every day. So choose something you like that first day.”

King told the crowd he would pay them, but not much.

“Amy Adams gets most of the money,” he said, explaining that the extras would get $84 a day for a five-day stint. “But be sure and write down what kind of car you have, because we might have you pull up somewhere, and then we would pay you a little more for that.”

Many high school students came to the casting call, including sisters Emilie and Megan Turchin, along with friend Zoe More.

“I always wanted to see what it would be like to be part of a film, and I think it’s a really cool opportunity that I didn’t want to pass up,” said More, who will be 18 by the time filming starts, which meant she got a yellow, or adult, card.

Those younger than 18 got a pink card if they were girls and blue cards if they were boys. King said he could not hire any minors without a work permit, and also could not hire anyone younger than 6 years old.

“If you’re under 6, you can only be on the set for four hours. And babies are even worse. They can only be on the set for two hours,” he said, explaining that dolls will stand in for any babies needed in the background.

Emilie, 17, said she wanted to be an extra “to cross one more thing off my Bucket List,” while sister Megan, 15, said she had come because her English teacher “told me I should come. She thought it would be a cool experience.”

Eighty-five year-old Dorothy “Dory” Lennon had driven over from Lake County for the day to try and break into show business, and asked one of the men helping King if it was possible that any extras could get speaking parts.

“You never know, they might really like someone and give them a few lines,” he said. “But that’s really rare.”

Others who came Saturday said they were there for the novelty, not to be discovered.

“I’m here to get out of my ‘honey-do list,’” said a man named Ian who drove up from San Rafael, giving his age only as 60-something.

“I’m here just for the heck of it,” announced Jaye Moscariello, co-owner of Floodgate Farm in Redwood Valley. “Because I can.”

King encouraged anyone who could not make it to the casting call Saturday to email a recent photo and phone number to: sharpcastingrichking@gmail.com

(Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal.)

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “They call this art, but I think it's pretty darn offensive, and I'm pretty sure I speak for little dogs everywhere.”

MY LAST GROW

by HumCo Old Timer

Late last Summer Uncle Huck called me up looking for big marijuana starts for his ramshackle Weott backyard plantation, and I told him I had no idea where to find big plants for sale this late in the season.

Typical Uncle Huck, trying to finally get his scene in the ground in late August. Then I remembered that I'd gotten a call from a clone farm a couple weeks before. The flunky running the scene for his out-of-town owner had asked me if I wanted any, all sizes available, but I had said no and forgotten about it. In the Spring I had ordered mostly OG and Cookie clones from them, but when I went to pick them up there were mainly just a bunch of root-bound, yellowy, stunted varieties of Sour D in old, depleted dirt. It was already late May so I took all that I could get, the attraction was that they had already been stepped up into 4 by 4's from the cubes and ready to go into the ground, or into bigger containers. (In fairness those yellowy girls did recover within a week or two, turning healthy verdant green.)

It was the lazy man's way to grow. If I wanted to put out more energy and expense I could've built a hoop house and used mixed light for the babies; or set up a grow room with a couple of lights for a month or so. But the last hoop house I'd built collapsed in the rain, and the last time I'd used PG&E I'd killed most of the Cookies and ended up spraying the OG for powdery mildew all Spring, and that was annoying and disheartening. Miss the old days when we just started some seeds and grew some nice weed.

So I'm done with that ranch. This year I'm reactivating the old grow room, the clones are on order and I've been researching lights and fans and supplements and trying to figure out how I fucked it up the last time. It could be that I didn't water the Cookie enough at the beginning. I'd always been told not to over-water in grow rooms, and I'm adding two cheap oscillating fans for the corners of the 10 by 12 room to help with ventilation. But what the hell, it's April 1st. I still have all that Sour D from last year, and there seems to be more uncertainty in the market and industry than ever—it will be a challenge to see if I can successfully harden up the clones and have some nice one to two footers in three gallon containers by the end of May. Maybe then I'll step 'em up into fives, but if I don't sell my weed by the end of June I don't see any point to putting more in the ground; got to unload before I reload. No, I'm not set up for Dep so it'll be thank you and good night. It's been a nice forty year run, and I'll try to offload the OG, Cookie, and Blue Dream plants to some depster, and if I do get rid of all that Sour D I'll put the new ones in the ground, find someone to water, and head out of town for the Summer. Don't we all just need a fucking break?

Uncle Huck is one of those strange guys, very understated, hard to figure out so why even try? The other day I ran into him at Murrishes and he gave me a hug! Huh? Trump get to him too? I guess it all worked out last August at the clone ranch, and he found what he was looking for, because soon after I made the introduction I got a wrong number from someone working out there who was going to come in from the hills and help him put his plants in should they actually find room amongst all the other crap cluttering up his backyard. She had this really sexy voice, and being somewhat of a packrat I saved the number.

Then a month ago I was so bored and lonely with this endless Winter that I called her and reminded her about the introduction of Uncle Huck. We got to talking and she said she had been recruited from Craiglist by the owner sight unseen and things were going well at first when the clones were moving but then, as often happens in these casual partnerships, things started to unravel.

There were too many unsold clones, and the money had stopped coming in. She didn't like the way the owner, on his occasional visits, treated his long-term flunky. She called him a slave, and she was encouraging him to ask for more money out of the operation, but he was too stoned and lazy to care. She was counting on her full-term crop to go along with her dep share, but then she said the owner came in and cut it all down when it was still immature. She said the same thing had happened with the ranch hand the year before; he had to leave before the crop was in, and he had pulled this shit with other sharecroppers over the years as well. She was an aspiring lawyer and wanted to sue the owner for her wages and investment. Without a lump of cash to live on she was driving an hour a day out to the coast in her unregistered Honda, doing office work in an old barn for one of the new compliance engineers guiding the clueless ex-hippies and other wannabes through the thickets of legalization.

“There is just enough rat poop dust and talk of cannabis to make me feel right at home,” she said.

This all seemed odd to me because the owner, Jack, was the only buyer I knew who I trusted enough to front to; a couple years before I gave him 30 pounds of OG, went to Mexico, then got paid when I returned. I had first met him about five years earlier when he stopped to give me a lift when I was walking home up the hill. I wasn't even hitch-hiking, but I got into his truck even though I was just a few hundred yards from home. He stopped at my road and we started talking about weed and the weed market. I got us calculating how many pounds a day leave Southern Humboldt down 101.

After a while I asked him, “Do you buy weed?” as I desperately needed a new connection. He hesitated and then alluded to a little dealing back in high school. I looked into the bed of his little green pickup and said, “Are those clone boxes?”

I got his number, and a few years later he did buy some weed from me, and then I started going out to the ranch to score clones. He seemed like an upright citizen, but when I checked him out with one of his neighbors on the mountain he told me, “Jack cuts corners,” and I never followed up on what he meant by that.

The year before last Jack found a guy on Craiglist to run his show, and the guy seemed really cool. He had a nice girlfriend, and had gotten experience working for some big growers out Highway 36, typical greenrush trash. That year I kept annoying him making and canceling my order, being on the edge of retirement and completely confused, and when I finally went out there and got a mess of clones and stepped 'em up into fives I changed my mind again and sold most of them to a friend down the hill. Jack's sharecropper ended up strung out on narcotics, his hot girlfriend left him, and when I ran into his stoned-out flunky in town he told me the guy was so immobilized on the couch that Jack had to literally tie a rope to his ankle and drag him off the property.

So I'm not going back there. The problem with getting clones instead of starting seeds is that you're dependent on someone else at a crucial stage of the operation. This year, a month or so ago, I ordered some OG clones (the adult thing to do), some Cookie (the fun thing to do), and some Blue Dream, (just because). When the guy showed up with the delivery last week he had only OG!

“Yeah, there was some mixup with the order so this is all there is,” he said.

“Oh, that's okay, no problem,” I said.

“Oh, I thought you might be upset or something.”

“No. In fact if you had said the whole order was deleted and there were none, I would have said great! Now I don't have to grow!”

The clone guys know best, what's best for me: OG, the adult thing to do.

(All names and locations have been changed)

CATCH OF THE DAY, April 11, 2017

JONA CHAPMAN, Point Arena. Probation revocation.

JENNIFER CRAM, Ukiah. Receiving stolen property, probation revocation.

SHERRIE JONES, Ukiah. Domestic assault, assault with deadly weapon not a gun.

ANTHONY MAHAN, Ukiah. Drunk in public.

DAVID MONTHEI, Willits. Parole violation.

ROLANDO RUIZ, Ukiah. No license.

MICHAEL SAHL*, Gualala. Assault with deadly weapon with great bodily injury.

CLINTON SALLEE, Fort Bragg. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

SEQUOYAH VAUGHN, Ukiah. Drunk in public, probation revocation.

KELLY WADE, Ukiah. Petty theft, probation revocation.

* * *

(*Prior: On October 19, 2013, at about 10:26pm Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to a domestic disturbance at a residence in the 46000 block of Fish Rock Road in Gualala. A witness had reported seeing fifty-one year-old Michael J. Sahl, 51, of Gualala, grab his 44-year-old cohabitant girlfriend by the neck and choke her. He also punched her in the head one time with a closed fist according to the witness. Sheriff's Deputies made entry into the residence to check the welfare of the female victim. When they failed to find her in the home, they searched outside and found her in an apartment above the garage where she had gone to escape the suspect. The frightened woman climbed out onto the roof to get to the deputies. The victim denied that Sahl had punched or choked her, despite visible swelling and small lacerations above her left eye consistent with a blow from a fist as described by the witness. She stated that Sahl grabbed her by her arm, forcing her to walk into the house and telling her that he would have killed her if the witness had not been present. Deputies sought, and were granted, an Emergency Protective Order for the victim. Sahl was arrested for domestic violence, criminal threats and false imprisonment, along with two misdemeanor arrest warrants. He was transported to the Mendocino County Jail where he was lodged with bail set at $30,000. (Sheriff’s Press Release)

VIRGINS & STD-ES

Ellen Rosser:

Strange, I've never heard of two healthy virgins marrying and remaining faithful to one another who subsequently contracted either syphilis or AIDS. Have you?

Peace and blessings, Ellen

Marco McClean:

What a ridiculous, limited choice.

Here: Atheists who never go on a religious crusade are at zero risk of being stabbed in self-defense with a scimitar. And avoiding Midwestern church functions guarantees you'll never get salmonella from warm mayonnaise. Wear a helmet with a face shield at all times and your chance of getting poked in the eye with a pencil goes down as low as our species' chance of ever discovering anything useful about ourselves and the universe by limiting knowledge to haphazardly recorded Bronze Age hallucinations. Here, just for a single example: Based on the best information available from a million years of tree spirits and sun gods and virgin sacrifices (there's your virgin) and wars over which direction to pray to and what days to eat fish and not dog, Saturn is an unknowable dot in the night. A blink of the eye after adoption of science as a way of understanding the world, and it's this:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saturn_diagram.svg

And for years we have had a robot spaceship that's been whirling around Saturn, passing by all of its moons, measuring everything in all frequencies from D.C. to daylight and beyond, and sending all data, ultimately, to anyone who wants it, via a worldwide network of literally billions of computers.

Today we're curing hereditary diseases with gene therapy. Bringing sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, motion to the paralyzed. The real-world analog of your destructive disinformation-disseminating bogeyman Satan, Ellen, is the whole of religious superstition itself, which gives nothing but a warm fuzzy self-righteous feeling in the pit of the stomach of brainwashed loons.

CONFESSIONS FROM A FREQUENT GUEST ON FOX NEWS

by Ted Rall

“Report the news. Don’t become the news.” Not that Fox News has ever adhered strictly to boilerplate advice from Journalism 101, but the craziness on Sixth Avenue has come to a serious boil lately.

TV news elder statesman Ted Koppel called Sean Hannity “bad for America.” Sean freaked out and attacked Ted. Sean reportedly pulled a gun on fellow Foxer Juan Williams. Fox peeps reported it to management, who did nothing.

Bill O’Reilly and Fox paid $13 million to settle sexual harassment complaints filed by five women. Again, management knew — but stood by Bill. Advertisers are pulling out.

Last year Fox boss Roger Ailes was forced out in the aftermath of a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Gretchen Carlson, who is now at MSNBC. Fox paid her $20 million and apologized. Julie Roginskyrecently filed another suit against Ailes.

I’ve never worked at Fox. But I used to spend enough time there to gain insight into a dysfunctional organization.

This was during the years immediately following 9/11. George W. Bush and his wars were popular, especially with Fox viewers. And I went after Bush more aggressively than anyone else. So they were constantly begging me to come on as a liberal punching bag.

It became routine: Fox News popped up on caller ID. Would you like to come on The O’Reilly Factor/Hannity and Colmes/later just Hannity to talk about it? Why yes, I would. Bill or Sean would yell at me (as Alan silently cowered). I’d shoot back a volley of snark in hope that some of it would get through my deliberately tamped-down mic.

Going on Fox felt like going to war. These were the darkest days of the War on Terror: 2002, 2003 and 2004. Republicans were right-wing Republicans and so were Democrats. Someone had to stand up against wars of choice and legalized torture. Someone had to fight for the Bill of Rights. I was insulted (Hannity: “you have no soul”) and lied to (O’Reilly in response to my argument that the U.S. couldn’t win in Afghanistan: “I’ll bring you back to follow up”). But it was worth it. I’d take any opportunity to represent for the Left.

Lord knows the Democrats weren’t doing it.

Some of their tactics were risible. They were so extreme that, over time, no one to the left of Reagan would agree to appear on the network unless they’d never heard of it.

Ergonomic warfare, for example. My teetering armless guest seat was placed several inches lower so that, at 6’2″, I was forced to gaze up as O’Reilly lorded over his desk (which I couldn’t reach so as to rest my hands) from his comfy Aeron chair. A minute into O’Reilly’s oral arguments-style volley of hostile questions, it took most of my concentration not to roll backwards off the set.

Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but isn’t someone who takes the time to come to your studio, slap on pancake makeup and suck up a barrage of nasty questions and comments entitled to hospitality?

That said, I kind of liked Bill. He was cordial during breaks. Once, while one of my cartoons was provoking death threats (granted, mostly from Fox fans), he expressed genuine concern for my personal safety. Off-camera, he didn’t come off as an ideologue. I got the impression that he was in it for the money.

Hannity was a classic Long Island mook.

Unlike O’Reilly, the thick-necked Hannity followed me around the studio, trashtalking me with right-wing talking points while I searched for the restroom. “Save it for the show,” I advised him. What’s wrongwith this guy? I thought. Give this to him: he’s for real. Hannity is a rabid culture warrior, a Goebbels for an America in free fall.

One episode turned me off Fox for good. Hannity’s producer invited me on to discuss a controversial “Doonesbury” cartoon. I was going to deliver my opinion and analysis as a political cartoonist, not talking about my own stuff. On the air, however, Hannity ambushed me instead with insults over a controversial cartoon I’d done months earlier about Pat Tillman, and which I’d already appeared on his program to defend.

I held up OK and kept my cool. But I was pissed. These appearances are discussed and agreed upon in detail: you’ll show the cover of my book at the beginning, you’ll identify me as “Syndicated Editorial Cartoonist,” you’ll be questioned about this and that. Switching to an entirely different subject violates the rules. At a well-run cable news network, punking a guest could lead to a warning or dismissal. Hannity’s crew just laughed.

Not long afterward, Sean’s producer called to apologize and begged me to return. I said I would if Sean would apologize on the air, the same medium where he’d tried to humiliate me. “He’s not likely to agree to that,” the producer said. I stayed home.

Two of my Foxiest memories took place in make-up.

A rushed make-up assistant accidently scraped my open eye. Years later, my left eye tears up in windy weather. Riding a bike, it runs full on. Stuff happens.

More startlingly, Sean entered the room while I was in the make-up chair. He didn’t trashtalk me or acknowledge my presence. My make-up artist was an undocumented worker. Sean knew. He told her that Fox was trying to determine how to pay her off the books and reassured her that they would figure it out.

As tempting as it would have been to expose the hypocrisy of a network and a personality who have raked in millions by spreading nativism and xenophobia, I didn’t go public for a simple reason. I didn’t want to strip an innocent hard-working person of her livelihood or, worse, subject her to possible deportation.

It was a confusing episode. Here was Sean Hannity, mega-mook, taking a risk by breaking the law to help an illegal immigrant. He almost seemed human. On the other hand, Fox News could easily afford to hire a U.S. citizen at a reasonable salary. There was more nuance in that minute-long conversation than in a year of Fox News broadcasts.

It was also revealing. Why would the top-rated channel in cable news break federal immigration law? The answer, it seems, is that Fox management didn’t think rules applied to them.

I’m still waiting to come back on O’Reilly to talk about Afghanistan.

(Ted Rall, syndicated writer and the cartoonist for ANewDomain.net, is the author of the book “Snowden,” the biography of the NSA whistleblower.)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I have some hope that maybe, possibly there is a sizable, though not a majority, contingent of Americans who really do realize how screwed we are.

My brother lived in Damascus in the early 80’s and he found the Syrian people, and society, to be quiet livable and normal. The Christian population of Damascus, at that time, was well over the widely stated 10% figure, and was totally integrated into the society as a whole. The women were emancipated and had public roles. The Assad family was indeed brutal to its enemies but the society functioned. Ask anyone left in Syria today if they really want the Assad family to be forced out and have ISIS take over.

I really don’t understand why the US government feels it has to intervene everywhere in the world while whole parts of the US rot away into third world decay.

MENDOLIB ON PINS & DOPE-FREE NEEDLES

Please join me for a Town Hall at the Fort Bragg Veterans Memorial Building on Wednesday, April 19th. I look forward to answering your questions and sharing my priorities for representing California’s North Coast in the 115^th Congress.

When: Wednesday, April 19, 2017, 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Where: Fort Bragg Veterans Memorial Building, 360 N. Harrison Street, Fort Bragg, CA 95437

Please click here to register. This event is free and open to the public, however seating is limited and available on a first come, first served basis.

If you have questions, or need language or ASL interpretation please contact my Fort Bragg District Office at (707) 962-0933. For interpretation services please contact my office no later than April 14, 2017.

Carpools are encouraged!

Hope to see you there,

Jared Huffman, Congressman, 1st District

AUDITIONS FOR ‘CHICAGO’ ARE SATURDAY!

From: "Gloriana Musical Theatre" <info@gloriana.org>

Date: Tue, April 11, 2017 11:49 am

Gloriana Musical Theatre announces auditions for Chicago! A dazzling and satirical look at fame, justice, and the media machine by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse.

Directed by David Strock

Music Director: Marie Claire Dizin

Where: Eagles Hall - 210 N Corry, Fort Bragg, CA

When: Saturday, April 15 - 11:00 am

Sign up at http://www.gloriana.org/chicago-auditions

Call: Please arrive at 11:00 am. There will be no individual scheduled audition times. Auditions will consist of singing, reading from the script and dancing.

Please prepare a song that shows off your vocal range. Pianist will be provided. Everyone will be asked to dance and should bring character shoes for the dance portion of the audition. All parts are open and everyone auditioning will be considered.

If you cannot attend auditions please send an email to the director at darnfinedave@gmail.com to arrange a different date or video audition. Show dates: Performances will run July 27 - August 13. Thur, Friday, Saturday at 7:30 and Sundays at 3:00 (must be available for all performance dates)

Sign up at http://www.gloriana.org/chicago-auditions

THREE STANZAS TO DUST

by Jorge Carrera Andrade

(Translated by Louis S. Bedrock)

Your ashen caress is wearing down shapes,

O brother of night and the tide.

You wrap everything in some nameless death

That is merely a return to its earthly womb.

 

You scale walls and hallways unseen,

Blanch the suits

Dangling from hangers in the dark,

And clocks stop dead at your approach.

 

Clandestine emissary of ruin,

You impose your earthy mask upon all things.

Nothing can escape your amber imperialism,

O indispensable ally of death.

HAPPY NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK!

While it's Spring Break for many families out there, we're celebrating National Library Week in here - and there are always plenty of events going on! Whether you join us for a special double LEGO hour on Tuesday (2-4pm), Poetry crafts for teens on Wednesday (2-5pm), Just-Before-Bedtime Stories on Thursday (6-7pm), any of our other weekly events, or just stop by to turn in your Library Bingo card (deadline is Saturday!), make sure to say hi and share how libraries have transformed your world. We're also making a photo collage this week, and would love you to be in it! Are you an expert in something, or think your librarian's an expert at stuff (poetry, baby storytimes, local history, plants, RPGs, etc)? Ask staff for an 'expert' sign, write your answer, and we'll take a snapshot to be featured in the collage! In celebration of National Poetry Month teens will discover how to make poems from a variety of sources, including dictionaries, newspapers, rocks, the mind, & music. We'll have fun exploring language & syntax through play, as well as cut & paste fragments from other poems in honor of National Poetry Month.

http://mendolibrary.us11.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=3696d38b68efac10f9e33fa9a&id=f2c41d6965&e=a3c5eb703b

On Thursday, April 13th at 6:00pm the Mendocino County Library, Ukiah Branch is hosting Just-Before-Bedtime Stories. Storyteller Barbara Last returns to share stories about Spring! Children are invited to wear their pajamas and come to the library for an hour of folktales, a Waldorf-style puppet play, and a craft before they head off to bed. This event is free and family-friendly. Mendocino County Library, Ukiah Branch, is hosting a Music and Sound Coding Club for kids in grades 4-8. Our clubs use instructional videos from Google's CS First and practice "drag and drop" coding on MIT's Scratch website. The Music and Sound Club will begin on Saturday, April 8th, from 10-11:15 am and continue every Saturday for eight weeks. This spring we will be learning how programming is used to create music. Students will use the computer to play musical notes, create a music video, and build an interactive music display. CS-First is a free program that increases student access and exposure to computer science (CS) education through after-school, in-school, and summer programs. -Ending this week!- Mendocino County Library presents:Spring Reading Challenge for Adults and Teens! Pick up a game card at your local library. Cross off the items in any row and in any direction. Return the card to the library by April 15th for your chance to win a Kindle Fire! Bingo cards are available in English & Spanish.

MENTAL ILLNESS: No One Is Prepared, NAMI Can Help

No one is ever prepared when a loved one or family member begins showing signs of mental illness. Whether the illness blindsides you, someone you love, a friend or loved one of a friend, mental illness is a traumatic event that affects everyone in numerous/different ways. Even if you are acclimated to the mental health world, when you or someone you love has a first break or relapse one can feel helplessness, despair and fear. There are over 200 classified forms of mental illnesses with the 5 major categories being: Anxiety Disorders, Mood Disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychotic Disorders, Dementias and Eating Disorders.

WARNING SIGNS: Adults:

Excessive worrying or fear; Feeling excessively sad or low; Confused thinking or problems concentrating and learning; Extreme mood changes, including uncontrollable “highs” or feelings of euphoria; Prolonged or strong feelings of irritability or anger; Avoiding friends and social activities; Difficulties understanding or relating to other people; Changes in sleeping habits or feeling tired and low energy; Changes in eating habits such as increased hunger or lack of appetite; Changes in sex drive; Difficulty perceiving reality (delusions, hallucinations, experiencing things that don’t exist in object reality); Lack of insight into one’s feelings, behavior or personality/anosognosia; Abuse of substances like alcohol or drugs; Multiple physical ailments without obvious causes (headaches, stomach aches etc.); Thinking about suicide; Inability to carry out daily activities or handle daily problems and stress; An intense fear of weight gain or concern with appearance (mostly in adolescents).

Preadolescents:

Substance abuse; Inability to cope with problems and daily activities; Changes in sleeping and/or eating habits; Excessive complaints of physical ailments; Defiance of authority, truancy, theft, and/or vandalism; Intense fear of weight gain; Prolonged negative mood, often accompanied by poor appetite or thoughts of death; Frequent outbursts of anger.

Younger Children:

Changes in school performance; Excessive worry or anxiety, trying to avoid bed or school; Hyperactive behavior; Frequent nightmares; Frequent disobedience or aggression; Frequent temper tantrums.

Although there are similarities in the different types of illnesses, such as Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder, the behavioral differences are as individual as fingerprints. This creates problems when treating the illness by seeing which treatment will best benefit the individual. It can be an extremely long journey to stabilization.

NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. What started as a small group of families gathered around a kitchen table in 1979 has blossomed into the nation's leading voice on mental health. Today, we are an association of hundreds of local affiliates, state organizations and volunteers who work in your community to raise awareness and provide support and education that was not previously available to those in need.

NAMI California provides leadership in advocacy, legislation, policy development, education and support.

NAMI Mendocino County offers numerous NAMI programs:

SUPPORT: NAMI Family Support Group for family members, caregivers and loved ones of individuals living with mental illness. Family support groups are held in Ukiah, Fort Bragg and Laytonville;

NAMI Connection Recovery Support Group, peer-led for adults living with mental illness. Connection support groups are available inland and coast.

EDUCATION: NAMI Family to Family, a life-changing 12-session educational program for family, significant others and friends of people living with mental illness;

NAMI Peer to Peer, a 10-session educational program for adults living with mental illness who are looking to better understand their condition and journey toward recovery. Both are taught at least once a year.

NAMI In Our Own Voice presentations that change attitudes, assumptions and stereotypes by describing the reality of living with mental illness. All NAMI programs are free of charge.

In upcoming articles we will be covering mental health history, specific illnesses including addictions, medications and local resources.

NAMI Mendocino P.O. Box 1945 Ukiah, CA 95482 www.namimendocino.org

SPRING VOLUNTEER ORIENTATION

We invite you to join Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden's Volunteer Team!

Wednesday, April 19, 10am to 12pm

Have you always wanted to get your hands dirty at our botanical paradise by the sea? Would you like to spend your days under the sunshine, listening to birds and the crashing waves while learning a thing or two about native plants, pruning, or dahlia care to name a few? Then consider joining our family of volunteers! The dedication, cooperation, hard work, and creative energies of our volunteers are the heartbeat of our non-profit organization. We are opening a Spring Volunteer Orientation for prospective volunteers to learn about the Gardens and the various opportunities we offer. From answering questions in the store, propagating plants from seed and cuttings, and harvesting fruits and vegetables -- we have something for any time commitment, skill, and interest! The orientation will include an overview in the MCBG Meeting Room where you will hear from some of our friendly staff, followed by a walkabout in the Gardens.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN? Please RSVP to administration@gardenbythesea.org with your name and little bit about yourself.

DRAMATIC WEST COAST FISHERY RESTRICTIONS

Feds Adopt West Coast Salmon Seasons

by Dan Bacher

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) at its meeting in Sacramento today adopted ocean salmon season recommendations that offer some recreational and commercial opportunities for most of the West Coast.

Due to low ocean abundance forecasts, the Klamath Management Zone (KMZ) from Cape Falcon, Oregon, to Horse Mountain, California, will be completely closed to the take of Chinook salmon this season.

The recommendations will be forwarded to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for approval by May 1, 2017.

This year’s run of Klamath River fall Chinook salmon is projected to be the smallest in history - 11,000 fish, about 10% of average for the last 3 decades. "Before colonization, scientists estimated that over 1.2 million salmon returned to the Klamath annually," according to Craig Tucker, Natural Resources Policy Advocate for the Karuk Tribe.

Other areas, including sections of the coast from Horse Mountain to the U.S./Mexico border, offer restricted recreational and commercial fishing seasons.

While allowing for some fishing opportunities, the PFMC pointed out that the adopted salmon fisheries off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington do achieve the conservation goals set for the numerous West Coast salmon stocks.

“The Council has recommended commercial and recreational ocean salmon seasons in Washington, Oregon, and California this year that provide important protections for stocks of concern including Klamath River fall Chinook, Washington coastal coho, and Puget Sound Chinook," said Council Executive Director Chuck Tracy.

Before the adoption of the measure, Brett Kormos, the CDFW's representative on the PFMC, told the Council, "This has been a challenging fishery planning process due to our continued concerns over winter run and the depressed status of the Klamath stock."

"We have all spent a great deal of time and effort attempting to develop appropriate regulations given these considerations and the added likelihood that the Klamath stock will face similar levels of risk under all of the scenarios we examined, including total closure of the fishery. These regulations are a reflection of the deliberative process we have undergone, including concern for the future of our salmon stocks and our stakeholders and the Tribes up and down our coast," Kormos explained.

Commercial and recreational fishing families in the Klamath Management Zone on the ocean and tribal and recreational fishermen on the Klamath and Trinity rivers will be hurt particularly hard by the closures this season.

“This announcement means we’re going to have to fish for other species in order to make a living; that’s a fact,” said Tim Klassen, captain of the charter fishing vessel Reel Steel, fishing out of Eureka. “The long term health of salmon is more important than just one season. We’ve been through this before and it hurts, but if we don’t do something soon to improve our salmon runs, we will be the last generation of salmon fishermen in California.”

Recreational salmon fishing further south below Horse Mountain opened on April 1, with surprisingly good fishing at times in the Half Moon Bay and Monterey Bay areas.

The fisheries south of Point Arena are also affected by the need to protect Sacramento River winter Chinook, a listed species under the federal and state Endangered Species that has been hammered by decades of water diversions throughout the river system and in particular by massive water exports out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

In the Fort Bragg area from Horse Mountain to Point Arena, the season will close during June, July, and half of August, then reopen through November 12.

In the San Francisco area from Point Arena to Pigeon Point, the season will close during the first half of May and reopen through October 31.

Salmon fishing will remain open through July 15 in the Monterey Bay area and through May 31 for areas south of Monterey Bay.

After hearing the announcement, Noah Oppenheim, Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA), said thousands of West Coast commercial salmon fishing families are going to be impacted by "another significantly curtailed salmon season" this year.

"For California fishermen the drought is far from over, and its lasting effects are sending a shudder through coastal communities today," he emphasized. "The effects of climate change and a five year drought, exacerbated by unnecessary dams and unsustainable water diversions, have resulted in this disastrous situation. Preventable declines in salmon populations will cost commercial fishermen millions of dollars this year and have already severely reduced the public's access to the natural resources that they rightfully own."

"We know that these closures are caused by the same flawed projects and policies that closed the fishery nine years ago. Salmon need cold water, good habitat, and adequate flows now and into the future, and salmon fishing families and seafood consumers need sustainable, locally caught salmon. If deadbeat dams remain standing and exorbitant water exports continue apace, threatened and endangered salmon runs won't have much of a future in California," he concluded.

Oppenheim noted that the commercial non-tribal salmon fishery in the Klamath Management Zone, a 200 mile stretch of coast from Humbug Mountain in Oregon to Horse Mountain in California, will be closed this year.

There will be a limited fishery (up to 3,000 fish) with a limit of 60 fish per week per boat) in the Fort Bragg area in September.

The area surrounding San Francisco will open for a limited time in August, September, and parts of October, according to Oppenheim. The commercial salmon fishery will be open in May and June solely in areas south of Pigeon Point.

Tribal fisheries are also greatly impacted by the Klamath River salmon collapse. The Yurok Tribe will have no commercial salmon fishing season this year. The subsistence allocation is 650 fish, the lowest allocation ever.

"This is the worst year in history for Klamath salmon,” said Amy Cordalis, the Tribe’s General Counsel, a Yurok Tribe member and fisherwoman. "There is no mystery as to why. The effects of an unprecedented drought were exacerbated by dams and diversions."

"This year, Yurok, Karuk and Hupa people will have little to no salmon for the first time in history. Although the fish are important economically, they are more important as an irreplaceable part of our identity as people who care for the river," she stated.

The Hoopa Valley Tribe will be greatly impacted by the looming salmon season restrictions, particularly during their biannual white deer skin dance and world renewal ceremonies that will begin in August, according to Mike Orcutt, the Tribe’s Fisheries Director.

“Approximately 130 fish will available for the 3400 members of the Tribe,” said Orcutt. “Not to have salmon for people participating in our ceremonies will be unfathomable.”

On April 10, the Karuk Tribal Council took the "unprecedented step "of placing restrictions on subsistence fishing by Tribal Members for the first time in history.

“It’s my saddest day as Chairman,” said Karuk Tribal Chairman Russell ‘Buster’ Attebery, “this is the first time in our history that we have imposed limits on traditional dip net fishermen working to feed their extended families and tribal elders.”

The Tribe will allow the harvest of 200 Chinook salmon for substance and ceremonial purposes, according to Attebery. Typically, Karuk fishing requires little in the way of regulation due to the fishing method. Karuk fishermen use a traditional dip net about 12 feet long to scoop out salmon from behind rocks in the rapids below Ishi Pishi Falls.

“You can only catch a very small percentage of the fish that are moving through the falls with dip-nets. Our fishing method limits our take so as to ensure plenty of fish make it up- stream to spawn,” explains Attebery.

For more information about the salmon seasons, go to: Pacific Fishery Management Council: http://www.pcouncil.org·

Description of 2017 salmon management process: http://www.pcouncil.org/salmon/current-season-management/

WEST COAST SALMON SEASON DATES SET

Major Restrictions Imposed

Sacramento, Ca. – The Pacific Fishery Management Council today adopted ocean salmon season recommendations that provide recreational and commercial opportunities for most of the Pacific coast. However, due to low forecasts, several areas are closed this year, and the open areas are significantly constrained. The adopted salmon fisheries off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington do achieve conservation goals for the numerous individual salmon stocks on the West Coast.

The recommendation will be forwarded to the National Marine Fisheries Service for approval by May 1, 2017.

“It has been another challenging year for the Council, its advisors, fishery stakeholders and the public as we strive to balance fishing opportunities on harvestable stocks of Chinook and coho with the severe conservation needs we are facing on salmon stocks, both north and south of Cape Falcon,” said Council Executive Director Chuck Tracy. “The Council has recommended commercial and recreational ocean salmon seasons in Washington, Oregon, and California this year that provide important protections for stocks of concern including Klamath River fall Chinook, Washington coastal coho, and Puget Sound Chinook.”

“We have made the tough decisions and implemented fishery restrictions to protect salmon stocks while providing at least some opportunity for commercial recreational, and tribal ocean salmon fishing along much of the west coast,” said Council Chair Herb Pollard.

Washington and Northern Oregon (North of Cape Falcon)

Fisheries north of Cape Falcon (near Nehalem in northern Oregon) depend largely on Columbia River Chinook and coho stocks. Columbia River fall Chinook returns are expected to be healthy in 2017, and Columbia River coho are expected to return at reduced but moderate levels in 2017. However, some coastal Washington and Puget Sound coho abundance is reduced from recent years, and some wild coho stocks are expected to return at very low levels. In response, the Council has been challenged with shaping fisheries to provide access to relatively abundant Chinook stocks while protecting natural coho populations.

North of Cape Falcon, there is an overall non-Indian total allowable catch of 90,000 Chinook coastwide (compared to 70,000 last year) and 42,000 marked hatchery coho in (compared to 18,900 last year).

Recreational Fisheries

The recreational fishery north of Cape Falcon does not include a mark-selective Chinook season this year, but opens to all salmon on June 24 in most areas (July 1in Westport) and ends September 4 or when Chinook or coho quotas are reached. Recreational fisheries in all port areas will have access to 45,000 Chinook (compared to 35,000 Chinook last year), and a marked coho quota of 42,000 (compared to 18,900 last year). For details, please see the season descriptions on the Council website at www.pcouncil.org.

Commercial Fisheries

Tribal and non-Indian ocean commercial fisheries are designed to provide harvest opportunity on strong Chinook returns primarily destined for the Columbia River while avoiding coho stocks of concern. Coho retention is allowed in commercial fisheries north of Cape Falcon this year, which is an improvement over the non-retention regulations from last year; however, the coho quotas are very low in 2017.

Non-Indian ocean commercial fisheries north of Cape Falcon include traditional, but reduced, Chinook seasons in the spring (May-June) and summer season (intermittent openings during July through September). The Chinook quota of 27,000 in the spring is greater than the 2016 quota of 19,100. The summer season quotas include 18,000 Chinook and 5,600 coho.

Tribal ocean fisheries north of Cape Falcon are similar in structure to past years, with quotas that include 40,000 Chinook and 12,500 coho.

California and Oregon South of Cape Falcon, Oregon

Fisheries south of Cape Falcon (in northern Oregon) are limited by the need to protect Klamath River fall Chinook, and south of Point Arena (in northern California), they are also affected by the need to protect Sacramento River winter Chinook. Returns of spawning Klamath River fall Chinook are projected to be the lowest on record in 2017 due to drought, disease, poor ocean conditions, and other issues. At the same time, the Council must protect Sacramento River winter Chinook, which are listed under the Endangered Species Act. Because both of these fish intermix with other stocks in the ocean, fisheries targeting more abundant stocks must be constrained.

Recreational Fisheries

Recreational fisheries off the central Oregon coast will allow Chinook retention from March 15 through October 31. Coho fisheries consist of a mark-selective quota fishery of 18,000 in mid-summer (compared to 26,000 last year) and a non-mark-selective quota fishery of 6,000 in September (compared to 7,500 last year), both open from Cape Falcon to Humbug Mountain.

The Brookings/Crescent City/Eureka areas are closed for the entire season to conserve Klamath River fall Chinook, which are most abundant in these areas. Fisheries further south all opened on April 1. In the Fort Bragg area, the season will close during June, July, and half of August, then reopen through November 12. In the San Francisco area, the season will close during the first half of May and reopen through October 31. Salmon fishing will remain open through July 15 in the Monterey Bay area and through May 31 for areas south of Monterey Bay.

Commercial Fisheries

Commercial fisheries from Cape Falcon to the Florence South Jetty, Oregon open on April 15 and will run through July 31 with intermittent closures to reduce impacts on Klamath fall Chinook. This area will also be open in September and October. Fisheries from the Florence South Jetty to Horse Mountain, California will be closed for the entire season to reduce impacts on Klamath River fall Chinook.

Between Horse Mountain and Point Arena (in the Fort Bragg area), there will be a 3,000 Chinook quota ocean fishery during the month of September, after 2017 Klamath River fall Chinook spawners have entered the Klamath River.

In the area from Point Arena to Pigeon Point (San Francisco), the season will be open for most of August and all of September. From Pigeon Point to the Mexico border (Monterey), the Chinook season will be open in May and June. There will also be a season from Point Reyes to Point San Pedro (subset of the San Francisco area), open October 2 to 6 and October 9 to 13.

Management Process

The Council developed the management measures after several weeks spent reviewing three season alternatives. The review process included input by Federal state, and tribal fishery scientists and fishing industry members; public testimony, and three public hearings in coastal communities. The Council received additional scientific information and took public testimony at its April Council meeting before taking final action. The decision will be forwarded to the National Marine Fisheries Service for approval and implementation.

In addition, the coastal states will decide on compatible state waters fishery regulations at their respective Commission hearings.

Council Role

The Pacific Fishery Management Council is one of eight regional fishery management councils established by the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 for the purpose of managing fisheries 3-200 miles offshore of the United States of America coastline. The Pacific Council recommends management measures for fisheries off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington.

JOIN US

Introduction to Transmission Meditation

Join us to experience a simple form of meditation that helps the planet and builds a stronger connection with your own spiritual nature. Transmission Meditation is a non-denominational group meditation that does not conflict with other meditations or spiritual practices, but can actually enhance them. Transmission Meditation is a potent form of world service that anyone, even those with busy lives, can easily do. It can be a mode of service for life, if you so choose. Do you want to help the world and strengthen the connection to your Higher Self? Transmission Meditation is the simplest way to do both.

Friday, April 14 7:00 PM, at the Center for Spiritual Living Gathering Place

Fort Bragg Company Store

Main & Redwood Streets, Fort Bragg

Information: 877-1800, or 895-3134