Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, April 18, 2017

• 101 Closed
• Congaree THP
• Photo Exhibit
• Rainbow
• Blackbird Permit
• Housing Needed
• Jack's Store
• Desire Retreat
• Goats/Wildflowers
• Little Dog
• Plant Sale
• AV Library
• Open Studio
• Updates
• Kitten Fostering
• Huffshow
• ADA Lawsuit
• LRAD Uses
• Poetry Celebration
• PG&E Costs
• Memo
• Knifeman
• Yesterday's Catch
• Expired Executions
• Coming Attractions
• Leaf
• Anemic Economy
• Trumpbaffle
• Wayback News
• Warbiz
• Penile Dysfunction
• McDonald Tickets
• Proposed Act
• Life Secrets
• Exit Interview
• Prez (left)

101 CLOSED IN NORTH COUNTY BOTH DIRECTIONS UNTIL WEDNESDAY

A slide closed Highway 101 near Leggett last night, and Caltrans is still working to clean it up this morning. They’re not sure when they’ll have the road open again.

No through traffic to/from Mendocino County as of right now.

According to the CHP incident logs, workers are also putting up signs on Bell Springs Road warning big rigs and would-be through travelers not to attempt a detour that way.

We’ll update when we know more.

Alternative Route. Go through Covelo to the Mina Rd. Mina Rd to Zenia, to Garberville. Takes a few hours, but it works.

CONGAREE RIVER, a timber company with large holdings in the Anderson Valley, has filed a timber harvest plan for the area west of Boonville from Ham Canyon rambling on to west of Philo, abutting a few inhabited areas but not close-abutting. Neighbors aren’t alarmed at the logging as they are the prospect of the company’s certificates of compliance, basically a subdivision process. And neighbors aren’t alarmed at all that local guy, the personable and much experienced Ed Slotte, will do the logging.

CHRISTOPHER ESPINOZA, a student at Anderson Valley High School reminds us that this weekend, Saturday April 22nd from 10am-3pm “I am hosting a photo exhibit/sale as part of my Senior Project. The event will be at Navarro Vineyards. All proceeds from the sale will benefit the Photo Club at the High School. I hope that everyone can come enjoy the beauty of Navarro Vineyards as well as my pictures.”

ANYONE looking to the East on Sunday at 7:10pm couldn’t help but see that gloriously vivid rainbow against the fading evening green of the Boonville hills. We count our blessings.

DAVE SEVERN WRITES: “I was just asked at the post office if the Blackbird Farm Hearing was still on for the 20th. The answer verified moments ago by the Planning Dept. is "no". The whole Blackbird Farm Use Permit application is on hold pending an acceptable response to Planning Dept. concerns. I believe that many if not most of those concerns were issues brought up by Anderson Valley community members. John, Joan and Jamie Hall the owners of Blackbird Farm currently owe the people of California $57 million for over charges in the past and it would seem appropriate to not allow them the ability to gouge Mendocino and Anderson Valley for the funds to pay the State back.”

SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT Michelle Hutchins and family are desperately seeking temporary housing — 3-4 bedrooms — for June and maybe July. Please call Jim 707-496-8725 if you have something.

THIRTY YEARS? No way it was three decades ago that Bill Boger and Jack Moyer bought the busy Philo lumber yard and parts store from the late Jack Clow, but it was. Bill and I reminisced about the history of the enterprise — he has a wonderful old photo of the first Clows into the Valley given to him by Lindsay Clow — and how the late Mike Shapiro had not only made the store sale happen he sold Bill a homestead into the bargain. I told Bill my favorite story about Jack Clow’s encounter with a notorious Valley deadbeat who demanded he break a package of cookies in half because “I only want a few.” Jack seemed shocked at the pure unreason of the demand, but coming quickly to his senses, thundered, “Get out of my store and never come back!” Bill told me a story about an old stoner who’d lingered for a suspiciously long time in front of the spray paints, finally arriving at the checkout counter to pay for an armload of the containers. Slowly extracting a collection of stones from a well-worn pocket, the man said, “Is this enough?”

YOU PROBABLY didn’t attend, but at the former Shenoa property on Ray’s Road, Philo, last weekend a large number of people attended the “Alchemy of Desire Retreat,” a bargain at $3,999 for the weekend, meals presumably included. Two busloads of desiring alchemists came and went.

GOTTA TWO-FER this weekend at the Boonville Fairgrounds with the annual Wildflower Show and the third annual Goats Galore, everything you ever wanted to know about the versatile critters and then some.

* * *

THE WILDFLOWER SHOW brings together specimens of over 300 mostly native flowers, grasses and trees collected along the spring meadows, forests and roadways leading through Anderson Valley. Specimens are displayed in family groups and are identified. Plant experts are available to help identify plants that visitors bring in.

Anderson Valley High School students submit artwork and photos with nature themes which are displayed along one wall. Three winners receive $50. Many club propagated locally grown plants are for sale and Larner Seeds will sell Native wildflower seeds. Members of the California Native Plant Society will sell plant books and posters. Plant talks will be given on a variety of topics, such as native bees, oak woodlands and restoring native plants. A raffle helps fund scholarships for an Anderson Valley HS graduate planning a career working with nature. Lunch and snacks are available at our tearoom.

Saturday:

• 11am: Mary Pat Palmer: Wild Medicinal Plants
• noon: Jade Paget-Seekins: Native Bees/Pollination
• 1pm: Kate Marianchild: Oak Woodlands
• 2pm: Lee Serrie: Butterflies/Butterfly Food Plants

Sunday:

• 11am: Jade Paget-Seekins: Plant Identification; 8 Common Families
• 1pm: Linda MacElwee: Invasive Plant Removal/Native Restoration

* * *

THE 3RD Annual AV Goat Festival has added the Joe Blow Band “to keep the energy flowing.” As in years past, there will be the Goat Parade; Celebrity Goat Milking; Birria Cook-off; workshops on Goat Care and making Goat Milk Yogurt, Kefir & Soap; a tour of Pennyroyal Farm and more.

“AV Foodshed hosts this event, not as a fundraiser, but as a community fun-raiser. Since we do not charge admission, we hope to recoup the cost of the event with donations from local businesses, vendor stall fees and donations at the gate.

As in years past, we are sharing the Mendocino County Fairgrounds with The Unity Club's Spring Wildflower Show. This is a great event that we are happy to support.

This year we are also partnering with the Fringe Art folks that are putting on events around the valley that weekend. There will be artwork in the Home Arts building where the workshops are being held this year. This is an Earth Day Weekend Celebration of Springtime — Community — And Country Living.”

— Barbara Goodell

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “I was real happy to read about a bunch of my friends finding new homes during the County Animal Shelter's Spring Adoption drive. My mom was an orphan, and I never knew my dad. But mom always told me, ‘He was a no good dirty dawg, is what he was, Little Dog, and your life has been a lot better without him.’ One time I asked her, ‘Gee, mom, if he was that bad, uh, how did I get here?’ ‘Well,’ she said, ‘it was late one night at the Boonville Lodge. I'd been drinking, and…’ And, Dad? Is that you?”

SATURDAY, May 6th is the official grand opening and plant sale for the Boonville Farmers' Market! The BFM is a part of the Mendocino County Farmers' Market Association that organizes local produce and value added products' sales May-October. Ours in Boonville is located in the Boonville Hotel parking lot from 9:30 to noon on Saturdays. Amanda Bontecou is the market manager. You will find a huge plant sale including a wide variety of spring and summer garden starts, excellent music, and vegetables, sweets, meats, savories, mushrooms, soaps, crafts, preserves, kids activities, and camaraderie. It is an opportunity not to be missed!

LIBRARY LINES: The Unity Club’s AV Community Library will be open Saturday April 22 from 10-4, during the Wild Flower Show. We have a nice selection of books for sale. The Library will be closed Saturday April 29 during the Beer Festival.

REBECCA JOHNSON’S OPEN STUDIO, part of this weekend’s “Almost Fringe Festival,” is Saturday, April 22, 11am-5pm — “in process, seven new barns.” The studio is at 1200 Highway 128 near milemarker 15.08 in Navarro. The studio is also open by appointment: 895-9205 (Rebecca@rebeccajohnsonart.com) and will also be open Memorial Day weekend in May.

CALTRANS continues to work on storm repairs on 128 near Yorkville and at several locations on the Ukiah Road. The puzzling message came from Caltrans, Eureka. Like, people plan their trips according to ten minute highway delays? And KZYX continues its bizarre practice of reading out weather reports for most of the communities of Lake and Mendo counties. News Flash: If it’s kinda wet and blowzy in Philo it’s the same everywhere. How about, “A little rain, a little sunshine” followed by a few lines from Spring poetry? Something fun, something interesting for a change.

MEOW! Wanna Kitten? The Ukiah Shelter at 298 Plant Rd, is holding a Kitten Fostering Workshop on Saturday April 22nd from noon to 2 pm. This workshop will be assist the community in knowing what to do if they find a litter of kittens as well as how they can help by fostering kittens that come into the Ukiah Shelter. For more information please call the shelter at 467-6453

LOCALLY, Democrats of the Cargo Cult type will assemble at Cotton Auditorium to hear Congressman Huffman…. talk….. about….. nice people … … Sorry, I got dizzy there for a minute, blanked out. The mere mention of the Congressman’s name induces a kind of narcoleptic seizure. I think I'm ok now. Where were we? O yes, Congressman Huffman. He appears this week for one of his monarchical visits to Mendocino County. You sign up on-line to see him answer pre-written lob ball questions prepared for him by either his staff or some automaton from the local Democratic Party.

HUFF, looking earnest as all heck, will rattle off a series of Party talking points — the Russians cost "us" the election; the mega-bomb dropped on ISIS in Afghanistan was wonderful because it didn't kill any civilians, which we know because our intelligence community is the best in the world; ditto for the Tomahawks on Syria; "I co-sponsored Bernie's phony single-payer bill but, heh heh, like, you know, we hadda modify it to insurance industry specs" etc.

ADA LAWSUIT NAMES WILLITS COUNCILWOMAN’S BUSINESS

http://www.willitsnews.com/general-news/20170413/latest-ada-lawsuit-names-councilwomans-business

THIS THING, LRAD, WILL SAVE LIVES

Lt. Shannon Barney Writes:

The Sheriff has contacted me about some concerns that have been coming in from the public about the request to purchase the LRAD 100X long range communication system. I understand that things can be confusing to the public without a more detailed explanation so I thought I would give you some background on how we came to the point where we were requesting to make this purchase.

After the 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami event the North Coast Counties, along with the State OES (then CAL EMA) agency, and Humboldt State University started a large planning effort related to the Cascadia Subduction Zone Fault in North America. Later on FEMA became a big player in this planning effort as well and we now have a State and Federal Cascadia quake plan. This Cascadia plan includes a "Near Shore Tsunami Event" scenario, which arrives in 20 to 30 minutes after the initial quake. Of major concern to us here in Mendocino County and most of the local counties (Northern California) was how to warn beach goers, with no other "in county" warning systems available. Recent Tsunami's in Chile show most persons who lost their lives were inland vacationers who camped out on or near beaches whom they were not able to warn in time.

At the time the Civil Air Patrol, based out of Oregon, with additional resources available from the Sacramento Valley, had just changed their public address systems from the old technology similar to the new waveguide technology of the LRAD system. Civil Air Patrol was an active participant in the annual Tsunami test on the North Coast every March. This test revealed this new technology made public address systems much more clear for people to hear from the air and over long distances than the older systems. I also learned during this time that one county (I believe it was Marin County) had purchased several long range hailing devices, similar to this LRAD system, that could be easily transported and used to warn their beach goers about possible dangerous situation such as Tsunami's, rip tides, sharks or whatever else they might have. At the time the systems were newer and more expensive than they are now but the idea to purchase one for warning beach goers was presented.

We decided to try and apply the same technology to Search and Rescue events, mainly in the dense coastal forests and the Mendocino National Forest, after learning from debriefing lost persons, that they could often hear our sirens but not the PA systems. We often use sirens to try to show lost persons where roads are in dense forest when they cannot see long distances. The sirens often gave them hope that people were still looking for them, sometimes days into an event. Our hope was, with this advanced technology, we might be able to actually make one way communication with lost persons to help guide them out to an area were they could be rescued or encourage them to signal their location in some manner.

Our third area where deployment might be made but is much less likely is the event of critical incident negotiations where person to person, land line phone or cell phone negotiations are not an option. The technology in this LRAD system makes the voice communications very clear and can be heard for a long distance, up to 600 meters on this system. In crisis communication being able to clearly hear the negotiator is essential to a peaceful resolution.

To address the concerns about using this system for crowd control. There are 4 different models of the LRAD system, the 100X, the 300X-RE, the 450 XL, and the 500X-RE. They range in power from small to large in the same order. The sales representatives do try to point out LRADS capacity to use such devices to assist with crowd control scenarios but state the larger models are the ones with this capability, with the smallest model having an ability to effectively be used for such being the 300X-RE. The 100X is not designed for this and is not an effective tool for this deployment.

Our thought process is this, we currently do not have a riot/crowd control issue in Mendocino County and have not had one since the early 90's when Redwood Summer was occurring. We have had smaller protests but the protesters have all exhibited themselves to be very reasonable and interact well with both the public and law enforcement. As such we did not think the LRAD system would be deployed in this manner and elected to purchase the smallest model, which is also the most portable and applicable, in the long range communication scenarios I have described above.

If the Supervisors approve the purchase we would then have three warning systems during Tsunami events (Civil Air Patrol, IPAWS, and the portable hailing device from LRAD). This device as noted has the two other applications that we can see, SAR events and Crisis negotiations, crowd control not being an option.

I plan on being at the meeting tomorrow and would be more than happy to meet with you earlier if you'd like to answer any additional questions, please call me.

Thanks, Shannon Barney for Sheriff Allman

MENDOCINO SPRING POETRY, Sunday May 14

42nd Anniversary, Mendocino Spring Poetry Celebration at the Hill House in Mendocino town on the coast.

This event draws some 40 poets from northern California and beyond. Two open readings: afternoon and evening. Noon: sign up and mixer up; afternoon reading at 1:00. Break: enjoy the town, the sea and the headlands. 5:00 PM: sign up and mixer up; evening reading at 6:00. Choice comestibles. Open book displays. Contributions welcome. All poems considered for broadcast by Dan Roberts on KZYX&Z. Info: Gordon Black, (707) 937-4107, gblack@mcn.org

WHAT THE HECK?

PG&E costs doubled last year; did yours? My PG&E costs went up from $762 in 2015 to $1773 in 2016. That’s a 133% increase! And I have solar panels and no new electrical additions that would explain this huge jump. Is this usual for our area? Can I do anything about it? Like complain to Huffman or the PUC or ??? What was your % increase last year?

Tom Wodetzki, Albion

Ron Hock:

Did you ask PG&E for an audit? I'd start there before going for the big  guns. PG&E didn't raise rates much, or at all, last year, I don't think.  Certainly not that much. They did change their billing categories but  even that shouldn't have that much impact. Did you notice the increase  on the monthly bills? Was there a sudden jump?   We have solar panels, too, and some years ago the inverter cooked an  internal component. I just happened to walk by the inverter one day and  noticed the error message. You might want to check that, too. Good luck!

Frank Hartzell 

Mine doubled too. We had $1100 bill for one month. Mom has an 24/7 oxygen machine and PGE offers a pitiful medical discount. In reality they put you in tier 3 and your rates go through the roof when you have medical machine. Everyone I know has seen their rates skyrocket, and most did not have big changes.

* * *

Here in Boonville, the few people I asked about it, haven't noticed in dramatic increases in their PG&E bills. Flat at the AVA compound, too.

MEMO OF THE WEEK

(from an Anderson Valley Pot Raid in 2010)

KNIFE MAN

On April 15, 2017 at approximately 7:45 p.m., Mendocino County Sheriff Deputies contacted 44-year old male Jesse Peters in the 32000 block of North Mitchell Creek Drive in Fort Bragg, Ca.  Deputies knew Peters had an outstanding felony arrest warrant relating to unlawful weapons possession. Deputies contacted Peters and arrested him without incident. Deputies conducted a search of Peter's person incident to that arrest and located a concealed fixed blade knife.  Peters was transported to the Mendocino County Jail where he was booked on the no bail warrant and an open charge of possession of a dirk or dagger.

CATCH OF THE DAY, April 17, 2017

DANIELLE BRAY, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery.

JOSHUA DAVIS, Ukiah. Battery.

THOMAS GALINDO, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Drunk in public, dirk-dagger, probation revocation.

HANNAH NELSON, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

JOSE OBANDO, Gualala. DUI, probation revocation.

JESSE PETERS, Little River. Dirk-dagger, failure to appear.

GEOFFREY RITTER, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

MARIO SALAS, Oakland. Failure to appear.

JONATHAN SHILLINGS, Covelo. Drunk in public.

MATTHEW STURGES, Talmage. DUI-drugs.

KENNETH TORRES, Willits. Controlled substance, dirk-dagger, false personation of another, evidence tampering, evasion.

ERIN VANZANTE, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

VICTORIA VASQUEZ, Ukiah. Domestic battery, failure to appear.

TINY WHIPPLE, Covelo. DUI causing injury, child endangerment, no license.

ZACHARY ZUYDWEGT, Willits. Drunk in public.

EXPIRED DRUGS = STAY OF EXECUTION

The Arkansas Supreme Court on Monday afternoon ordered a stay of execution for Don Davis and Bruce Ward, two inmates scheduled to be executed on Monday evening. Davis and Ward were two of six Arkansas inmates scheduled to be executed over a brief span of 11 days before the state’s execution drug supply expires. On Sunday night, a US district court judge denied Davis's motion for a stay of execution. But on Monday evening, the Arkansas Supreme Court issued a different ruling, approving Davis's and Ward's motions for a stay. The motion for a stay of execution is based on an ongoing U.S. Supreme Court case regarding inmates' access to mental health services. Davis's and Ward's attorneys say the inmates were denied proper mental health evaluations, the outcomes of which might have spared the men the death penalty.

* * *

WHAT THEY DID

Bruce Earl Ward — Ward, 60, has been on death row since 1990 for the death of a clerk found strangled in the men’s room of the Little Rock convenience store where she worked.

Rebecca Lynn Doss was 18. A police officer noticed no one was in the store and pulled up to find Ward walking out of the men’s room. Surveillance video later revealed that Ward asked Doss for help to open the men’s room door.

Ward’s initial death sentence was overturned because a judge let jurors consider documents related to Ward’s 1977 murder conviction in Pennsylvania. A second death sentence was overturned because a court transcript was filled with errors. A third jury imposed a death sentence in 1997.

Ward had been scheduled for execution Monday but the state Supreme Court granted a stay on Friday so courts could consider his mental health.

Don William Davis — Davis, 54, came within six hours of execution in 2010 for the 1990 death of Jane Daniel in Rogers. The woman was killed in her home after Davis broke in and shot her with a .44-caliber revolver he found there.

The Arkansas Supreme Court halted Davis’ execution seven years ago as it addressed whether legislators had improperly left key details to the prison staff. Justices ultimately tossed out the state’s death-row policies, which contributed to the 12 years that have passed since the last Arkansas execution.

Davis did not seek clemency but joined the other inmates’ various lawsuits. His execution had been set for Monday.

BUY THE DIP?

by James Kunstler

The military frolics of spring have distracted the nation’s attention from the economic and financial dynamics that pose the ultimate mortal threat to business as usual. Note the distinction between economic and financial. The first represents real activity in this Land of the Deal: people doing and making. The second, finance, used to be a minor branch — only about five percent — of all the doing in the days of America’s putative bigliest greatitude. The task of finance then was limited and straightforward: to manage the allocation of capital for more doing and making. The profit in that enabled bankers to drive Cadillacs instead of Chevrolets, but not much more.

These days, finance is closer to 40 percent of all the doing in America, and it is not about making anything, but getting more than its share of “money” — whatever that is now — and what “money” mostly is is whatever the people engaged in finance say it is, for instance, Fannie Mae bonds representing millions of sketchy loans for houses of vinyl and strand-board built in places with no future… or stock issued by the Tesla corporation… or the sovereign IOUs of the US Treasury.

The list of things that pretend to be “money” these days would be long and shocking and the sheer churn of these instruments among the banks and markets “produces” the fabled “revenue streams” beloved of The Wall Street Journal. What happens when the world discovers that these instruments (securities and their derivatives) represent falsely? Why, bigly trouble.

And this is the season we’re moving into as the dogwoods blaze: the season of the re-discovery of actual value. For those of you gloating over last week’s demonstrations of US Big Stick-ism, be warned that our military shenanigans have given China and Russia every reason to discipline this country by undermining the international standing of the dollar. They’ve been preparing for this very deliberately for years: constructing an alternative to the US-sponsored SWIFT international payment system, stockpiling thousands of tons of gold, building trade partnerships to circumvent US dominated syndicates. Before the month of April is out, they’ll “pull the trigger” on new voting arrangements in the International Monetary Fund that will reduce the financial power of the US and the Eurozone, especially in the oil trade.

Around the same moment, America will wake up to the awful reality of the debt ceiling. This petard has been ticking the whole time that the political bureaucracy of Washington has wasted its mojo on the quixotic crusade to blame Russia for the 2016 election outcome. Congress will return from the Easter recess to discover that they have a few mere days to debate and resolve the debt ceiling problem — that is, to raise it so the country can borrow more “money” — or else they’ll be faced with a shut-down of government operations, including their own generous emoluments. It’s a good thing (for them) that they have plenty of walking-around money from the mysterious perqs of government service, but the rest of America doesn’t have $500 to pay for a new set of tires or the extraction of an abscessed molar.

Some readers may have long wondered what might happen in this country if the SNAP card refills and social security checks stopped coming. Perhaps we’re about to find out. Congress might find itself in a painfully tight spot. The Democrats would like nothing better than to let this drag on for a while in order to humiliate, and perhaps finish off, their arch-nemesis, the Golden Golem of Greatness. Many Republicans have a religious-strength ideological aversion to increasing the already appalling US debt load. The prospects are not bright for a quick-and-easy resolution to this quandary.

The IMF voting re-set and the debt ceiling quagmire have the power to disrupt many of the arrangements that allow the banks and markets to continue pretending that their stuff has value. When that consensus trance snaps, President Trump may find himself in the unhappy position of having to declare a bank holiday. Unlike the usual holidays in America, there will no Easter Bunny, no Jack-o-lanterns, no Santa Claus. Just empty supermarket shelves and pissed-off people marshaling in the WalMart parking lots with flaming brands and espontoons.

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

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The business of finance (40% as you point out) is a business of deceit, lies, and fraud. It cannot go on indefinitely and has surely reached the end of its rope. Even if the government cuts Social Security in half rather than simply not paying it, those younger folk that will surely believe that this will not affect them, will quickly realize that they are so damned wrong and in even worse shape because of it. How many millions of retired people rely on these payments to buy things at the fast food joints and buffets around the country where the kiddies work? Social Security is indeed the glue that holds the anemic economy together and when the glue fails, that which is held together by it falls apart.

TRUMP

Miguel Lanigan of Clearlake Oaks writes:

Just what has Trump done for the country, since taking office. He cut Meals on Wheels, then thinks nothing about spending $3,300,000 almost every weekend to go golfing down at his Florida golf course. His motto:"Screw you, I got mine." I find it hard to imagine why anyone would be an apologist for this supremely selfish man and his clan.

* * *

Terry Adcock:

It baffles me as much as it does you, Miguel. I found it unimaginable that nearly 63 million voters (62,984,825, to be exact) would vote for him. Sadly, nothing he’s done since taking office is a “surprise.” It was painfully clear to me, and many others (including the 63 million?), that he would do exactly what he’s done. But the 63 million voted for him, and, for reasons I can’t fathom, are sticking with him, even though our worst fears have come to past. It would dishearten me about what has happened to the American electorate, but then I think back to Nixon. It was clear to almost everyone I knew, that he was a scoundrel. But folks voted for him, nonetheless. Discouraging.

WAYBACK NEWS

April 22, 1992 — I don’t have much good to say about Robert Alton Harris. He was a cruel multiple killer, a monster who earned his way into San Quentin’s gas chamber where I watched him choke to death yesterday four minutes before a beautiful sunrise. I knew it wouldn’t be pretty. I just didn’t know it would be that ugly. They toyed with Harris before they killed him, the way Harris toyed with the two boys before he killed them. The way a mean cat toys with a bird. They strapped him into the chair and made him sit there for 12 minutes. Then they unstrapped him and made him think he was going to live. Then two hours later, they strapped him in again and dropped the cyanide. Whatever your feelings about the death penalty — and I don’t oppose it, or didn’t — the brutal, clumsy way Harris was snuffed was an obscene business. The way he died gnaws at me. Harris was first strapped in Chair B, one of two in the chamber, at 3:49 a.m. Two minutes after the door had been closed there was a single telephone ring. It was a call from Appeals Judge Harry Pregerson with the fourth stay of the night. Harris was hauled from the chamber and escorted back to the deathwatch cell. It was almost as if Harris was forced to endure the ordeal of his execution twice; once when he was strapped into the chair at 3:49 a.m. only to get a brief reprieve, and then again when the big, airtight steel door slammed shut on him for good. Maybe it was true justice for the cold-blooded murders of two 16-year-old San Diego boys, John Mayeski and Michael Baker. But somehow the execution and close calls seemed closer to torture. It was a sloppy, mean and inept procedure that stained everyone involved. — Kevin Leary

* * *

April 17, 1942 — Hashish, a powerful Indian narcotic, was found for the first time in this country when Federal agents yesterday arrested Fred Shirar, 30, a seaman, who arrived here from Bombay six weeks ago. The story of Shirar’s arrest starts in a Turk Street tavern, runs to the Mexican border and involves undercover agents, B-girls, white slavers and marijuana smokers. According to Federal authorities, agents had been watching the tavern at 301 Turk Street for some time. They said the proprietor was Eugene Ginaola, 39, who maintained a “smoking room” in the basement where marijuana cigarettes were sold to customers. At this tavern, Federal agents said, they encountered James Littell, white slave probationer from San Diego, and Howard McGavick, a seaman. The two men were trailed to San Diego. There the agents said the pair met Shirar. Agents said Shirar came to San Francisco, met Ginaola, and arranged to have the hashish rolled into marijuana cigarettes. The two men were arrested and bail for Shirar set at $5000 and for Ginaola at $2500. Shirar is now being held in the City Prison. Shirar said the hashish cost him $250 in Bombay, but that he had been unable to buy the special pipes needed for its consumption.

(SF Chronicle)

THERE MUST BE a lot of penile dysfunction in Asia. There’s no other explanation for it. Just about every damn thing you can think of must have been thoroughly investigated for its potential wood-raising properties. If your Asian waiter or a friend urges you to put something in your mouth that a few weeks ago you NEVER would have thought of eating, chances are it is believed to “make you strong.” Only desperation can account for what the Chinese, for instance, do in the name of “medicine.” That’s something you might remind your new age friends who have gone ga-ga over holistic medicine and alternative Chinese cures. They say there are sunbears in China hooked up to kidney drips like ketchup dispensers leaching bear bile into tiny bottles. Rhino horn, bear claw, bird’s nest, duck embryo… You gotta be pretty anxious about your penis to contemplate hurting a cute little sunbear.

— Anthony Bourdain

MICHAEL MCDONALD PERFORMS IN FT BRAGG in Two Weeks April 29 - Handfull of Tickets Left

In less than two weeks on Saturday April 29th, Fowler Subaru, in cooperation with Rural Health Rocks, presents Grammy award winner Michael McDonald and friends at Cotton Auditorium, 500 N Harold Street in Fort Bragg. There are a couple dozen tickets left, so don’t wait to purchase! Joining Michael on stage will be Grammy nominee singer/songwriter Amy Holland, Nashville musician Gary Cirimelli, as well as local luminaries Gene Parsons & David Hayes, acoustic guitarist Alex de Grassi, and singer/songwriter and sax player John Mattern. All proceeds from this star-studded, rockin' event will go towards establishing the first ever Family Medicine Residency program for Mendocino and Lake counties. Tickets will go on sale March 1 at www.ruralhealthrocks.com. The show begins at 7pm, a few reserved seats are left, with the premiere seating sold out.

Michael McDonald’s music has been a part of the soundtrack of our lives since the 1970s when his stunning vocals and keyboard artistry launched the Doobie Brothers and eventually his own solo career to stardom with songs like “What a Fool Believes,” “Minute by Minute,” and “Takin’ it to the Streets”. Collaborations with Ray Charles, Kenny Loggins, and the #1 hit single “On My Home” with Patti LaBelle have secured his fame as an icon with one of the most recognizable voices in popular music. Those lucky enough to hear his house-shaking performance at the first Rural Health Rocks event at Mendocino College in Ukiah in April 2016, also learned that he is a gentle, compassionate soul who often donates his time and talent to a variety of worthy causes.

Amy Holland has garnered a Grammy nomination for her debut recording Amy Holland and a top 20 hit with “How Do I Survive.” Her most recent recording is Light on the Path. The brilliant multi-instrumentalist Gene Parsons, best known for his work with The Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, currently performs in a duo with world-class bassist David Hayes who has toured and recorded with Van Morrison for over 40 years. Grammy nominated guitarist Alex de Grassi is often cited as a leading innovator in the solo acoustic guitar genre since his early Windham Hill Records debut Turning: Turning Back. Mendocino County native John Mattern joins the group as both a jazz saxophonist and a singer songwriter whose latest album is Fire Girl. Gary Cirimelli is a producer, recording engineer, and studio musician who has worked with Mariah Carey, Michael Bolton and many other pop musicians.

Rural Health Rocks is a fundraising arm for Family Medicine Education Mendocino County (FMEMC), a non-profit organization with its origins in our rural community's medical crisis and with a vision for a more robust, healthier future for our region. FMEMC is working with Adventist Health to establish a medical residency program at Ukiah Valley Medical Center, which will begin training medical school graduates in cooperation with UC Davis in 2019. Statistics show that most residents establish their practice in the community of their residency, and this program will provide a much needed and sustainable source of young physicians into our rural communities for years to come.

Additional support for this event comes from Friedman's Home Improvement, C&S Waste Solutions, Harvest Market, Handley Cellars, Savings Bank of Mendocino County, Frey Vineyards, and many more generous sponsors.

THE DEATH OF PROP 215

The proposed Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act will:

1)  Preclude medicinal decision-making by the physician (Section 11362.7 (h) (A), (B).

2)  Preclude the patient's chose of physician 11362.715 (a) (1).

3)  Criminalize a patient carrying medicine as a passenger in a car.

4)  Disqualify and dis-enroll most current medicine cannabis patients.

The time to inform your representatives in the California legislature if you disagree is now.

Milan L. Hopkins M.D.
Sandra Vielma, Office Manager
P.O. Box 638
Upper Lake, CA 95485
(707) 275-2366

SECRET TO A LONG (SHORT) LIFE

THE EXIT INTERVIEW

by Steve Heilig

(Scene: The White House. Three white men in black suits sit with the "President")

OK sir, here we are, and thanks for agreeing to have this little sit-down so soon. It's certainly time. Do you understand why we are here?

(silence)

Sir, please put down your phone for just a bit, we really need to talk.

Wait, what? I'm tweeting here.

Yes we know. Stop it, or we'll take your toy phone away.

Aww... (types a few more letters). OK, what?

Things are not going as planned. It's not all your fault but too much of it is. You gotta pay attention or everything will go to hell.

Whaddya mean, I almost shot par at Mar-A-Lago last weekend, it was great...

Right, that's part of what we mean. Too many people are catching on. You go to your own places every weekend, make citizens pay for it now, and are making the scam too obvious. You gave Obama a whole raft of crap for doing the same thing, when you weren't calling him a Kenyan. The immigration setbacks, personnel screwups and that big healthcare collapse are adding up too fast. You're into what looks like the worst first 100 days in history and have the lowest ratings of any President ever at this point.

(silence)

Did you hear me?

Huh? Yah, I was just thinking - Damn stupid corrupt media. I gave an interview to TIME and they didn't even put me on the cover. I wanted the cover. Nixon got more covers than me. They just put words on there saying "Is Truth Dead"? What does that even mean?

(Sighs) It means nobody believes you anymore, other than fools who have little grasp on reality anyway. There's even a name for them now - "low-information voters." But even they are catching on, what with us trying to cut taxes for the richest, take away their healthcare, ruin our scientific leadership, make them pay for your stupid wall, ruin the environment, chop out women's rights, and all that.

(silence)

Sir? You still listening?

Breitbart wouldn't do that to me. Or, Hannity, or even Fox. I was right not to talk to any other of them.

STOP it. You have to stop with Breitbart and those people now. They're pathetic and disgusting and nobody believes anything there other than those who don't know any better - the deplorables, even. There's a reason even the Wall Street Journal called Breitbart the gutter of journalism.

The Wall Street Journal called me a drunk... I don't drink.

No, they said you were acting like one, clinging to lies and mistakes like those were your vodka bottle. And their Reagan-worshiping columnist Peggy Noonan, of all people, just got a Pulitzer for saying you scare her with your lack of any character or values and since you might blow us all up. But right, since you don't drink, you have no excuse. You have to step it up, act like a grownup, and remember who put you here. And the media does matter. Even the Koch guys are getting wiggly.

Hmm.... speaking of media, did you see my daughter's get-up on TV the other night? Damn. I'd grab that. If only she weren't my daughter...

Sir! It's just that kind of thing that has to stop. If you only seemed to be an intelligent, charming, caring, charismatic man of integrity - or even one or two of those things - then maybe we could get away with the things we want.

You mean that Making America Great brand isn't enough anymore?

Nobody seems to really know what that means, and they are figuring out that you don't either.

But I'm still selling the hats and stuff, so, good enough. What about my Great Wall?

That's only worked for a relative few racist rubes, and you know it won't really work anyway. More of your "bad hombres" are leaving than coming here already anyway. Anyway, NOBODY wants to pay for it and you lying about that isn't helping either.

Maybe we can build a wall against Russia to put them off that scent?

(Sighs) Ahem. We have no border with Russia. And Russia is part of why you're sitting here. It's looking bad in that respect too. Our mafioso pals warned us to not let more than a couple inner people know anything too damaging and just keep everybody else on our team ignorant and armed. But you blew that one, too many know, and they are getting really sloppy and even starting to roll over to the Feds to save their own asses. It really is starting to look like Watergate, not that you really understand what that meant when you tweeted it.

That Obama. He bugged me, to listen in. Just because he was mad that my inauguration was gonna be bigger than his.

(silence)

And what about Hillary? Haw haw, we had even the Bernie people saying she was too close to Goldman Sachs. Now my cabinet looks like a goddam Goldman board meeting, right? Only the best - ha!. Plus I got more votes than her.

(Silence) Ahem. OK listen, you have to let all that go and focus on reality, meaning tax cuts, not to mention politics. Nobody really likes those head Repubs in Washington, and nobody likes y - well, a lot of people don't like you. Everybody's just toadying.

Toads? I thought the toxic stuff I'm deregulating was getting rid of all of those. I haven't seen any.... Oh so what. Losers. Who cares? I don't give a damn about healthcare or immigration or foreign policy or the environment or Chinese climate change or any of that crap, unless it means I can't hire cheap workers to stiff. Turns out all that stuff is complicated. Who knew?

Ahem. Pretty much anybody but you. Even scientists are starting to march in the streets against what you are doing and those smart folks avoid politics like the plague.

Whatever. Anyway, I got Exxon in my cabinet now too, haw haw. Yeah, I'm with ya, I just want Congress to get me those tax cuts. I didn't ask for all this grief and guff. Do you realize there are people who here who will not do whatever I tell them to do? It's maddening... Maybe we should bomb somebody again to divert attention and look tough. I mean, if the tweets stop working. Shooting those rockets into Iraq sure seemed to shut up some of the losers, even if it did nothing else.

It wasn't Iraq, sir, it was Syria. And you've already bombed people in Yemen and Iraq and Syria and the wrong people too, one of our Navy Seals and many civilians, double what was happening before. Then you said Syria could do whatever they want and Assad did, horribly. It's the worst way to wage any war on terror and will only make us even more enemies. Even the Generals have told you that. And the way you talk about North Korea and even our allies has the whole world worried that you're nuts. Again, you don't drink like Nixon did at the end, so you have no excuse. Especially since he was much smarter than you.

What?

Never mind that. Of course nobody is smarter. But you just settled your Trump U. suits for $25 million and are now a certified fraud. We have to divert attention from all this terrible embarrassing stuff, and all your conflicts of interest.

If the President does it, it's not a conflict.

That's what Nixon said, and it didn't work out too well for him, you might recall....

Whatever. Hey, speaking of settlements, how about my buddy O'Reilly over at Fox? He paid out five women he harassed, and for only $15 million. I paid much more than him. What a wimp.

(silence) That's not... Ok, this isn't working out. You have to get some control here. Another few missteps on the Russian thing and you're gonna have to release your taxes.

Whoa, no way, then people will see I'm not as rich as I say.

That's not the issue, nobody really cares about that. But if all those links go public, it would all be over for too many of us. (pause and significant glances among the three suits). So look, you gotta go, off to golf every day instead of just every weekend. We've got others waiting in the wings to do our work for us.

You mean my kids? Great! They know nothing, were all born with silver spoons, have no experience in anything relevant and care only for cash. Chips off the ol' block, right? They're perfect.

Hmm, you may finally have something right there. So listen, you can go peacefully, or... well, think JFK.

Who? Oh, OK, whatever, I'm outta here. Just so long as nobody thinks I'm a loser. This job is boring and a pain in the butt anyway... So how to best do this? Maybe I can just act so completely crazy even the toady Repubs can't defend me anymore?

Perfect.