Mendocino County Today: Friday, May 5, 2017

• Boontling Classic
• Legalization Blues
• ADA Greenhouses
• Lizbby's Special
• PA Report
• Ukiah Pets
• Foolish News
• Grossbeak
• ADA Lawsuits
• Ukiah 1937
• Shelter Closed
• Candelaria Galindo
• FB Segways
• Albion School
• Little Dog
• ADA Compliance
• Yesterday's Catch
• Symbolic Hunger
• DNC Care
• Public Betrayal
• Marijuana Banking
• French Election
• Oil Money
• Offshore Drilling
• Craig's Room
• Two Poems

JANE FUTCHER’S THURSDAY MORNING Cannabis Hour guest on KZYX was Mendo’s Interim Ag Commissioner Diane Curry.

Subject: The new commercial pot cultivation rules.

Ms. Curry is not only well versed on the rules, but from her many ironic chuckles over the course of the hour she clearly understands how onerous-to-preposterous the new rules are, especially for Mendo's hundreds of outlaw pot growers who've operated outside the rule book for years.

As Ms. Futcher rattled off the numerous items on the County’s Cannabis Cultivation Application Checklist —

http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/gs/pdf/Cannabis_Application_Packet_4.24.17.pdf

— it became increasingly clear that the level of regulation (on paper anyway) is laughable to the point that after each checklist item was read for comment by Ms. Futcher, Ms. Curry laughed, and would then try to explain the need for the requirement with something like, “Well, yes. That’s right. (Heh, heh) That’s because…” etc.

Ms. Curry said that the County’s rules and regs are on top of the rules and regs imposed by Fish & Wildlife, the State Water Board and the Regional Water Quality Control Board, which are often more onerous than Mendo’s. She said that although the fees do seem high (higher than proposed comparable state fees) they are subject to change. (But downward?)

By the Mendo Ag Department’s analysis, the typical application will have to be accompanied by about $6,000 in fees, plus hourly rates for special inspections or compliance visits that may apply.  Ms. Curry explained that some of the rules for commercial pot growing are modeled after the Organic Farmers Association’s rules.

A caller wanted to know what happens if there’s a glut of production and the market falters. Ms. Curry said that possibility wasn’t within her purview, but she added she understood that there are some forms of marijuana that require larger amounts of “product,” which have a longer shelf life and which some production might be diverted to. If there is a glut, it’s not likely to come from legalized Mendo pot because, really, how many growers will opt for all these rules?

Another caller wanted to know why there are all these regs and rules for pot but grapes go relatively unregulated. Ms. Curry replied that grapes are regulated, and if you ask grape growers you’ll find out about the problems they have been having.

But 1. The grape growers don’t have to comply with organic-style growing rules unless they want to (a very small percentage of Mendo grape acreage is organic, although about a quarter of growers claim to be), 2. there is almost zero enforcement of the grape regs by any agency, And 3. The grape growers don’t require grading permits or terrain inspections, don’t have to comply with “track & trace” and only once have they had to adjust their plantings to accommodate a Native American archeological site.

Clearly, pot growers are subject to many more rules and inspections than the grape growers. And nobody EVER talks about “abatement” (i.e., yanking) of wine grapes that might be in violation of one rule or another.

ONE IS LEFT TO WONDER if these rules are a thinly disguised way of discouraging pot growing in Mendocino County (and pushing it to Humboldt County which is much more lax) or if the County prefers that most local growers remain in the black market, under the radar and, presumably, selling at a lower (but still high) cost than the Mendo-certified legal pot, especially to out of state customers.

AS AN EXAMPLE of the ridiculousness of the rules, consider the following discussion of the requirement for Americans With Disabilities Act compliant greenhouses. (Greenhouses!)

Scott Ward, Redwood Valley (Retired Mendocino County building inspector): "I've been in communication with Dave Jensen from environmental health regarding sanitary facilities for marijuana greenhouses. Recently your building official made a determination that greenhouses being used for growing medical cannabis must be made available to people with disabilities. I'm mobility-challenged right now [walks with a cane] but I'll be getting better. Being accessible to persons with disabilities for greenhouses includes a paved parking space, travel to the greenhouse, a landing outside the greenhouse door, an accessible greenhouse door, and a path to travel through the greenhouse and an accessible toilet facility. Many of our medical cannabis cultivators are in rural areas with steep terrain, off the beaten path, miles off the roads. To require a septic system, with a wooden floor and a frame restroom for greenhouses made of plastic and aluminum poles is a little bit excessive. I agree with the building official that he has to enforce a law which says that commercial buildings have to be ADA accessible. The building official was gracious enough to sit down with me several times. He is willing to accept the use of a portable accessible toilet in rural areas. I have written a draft policy for Mr. Jensen. He sent me back an e-mail and e-mailed various members of the staff including County Counsel and Planning and Building to start a working group to discuss the problem of accessible porta-potties in rural areas. I encourage you to support that. I think it would work. I think it is within the code and it is fair. For 10 acre or larger parcels out in the woods I think it's a reasonable solution that would minimize the hassle and prevent more environmental degradation."

Petra Buchanan: "I want to piggyback on what Mr. Ward was saying. I don't mind building the ADA accessible bathroom. The botanical gardens has them. I can make a simple 8 x 8 box, no problem no big deal. Wooden ramps. I'm okay with that. But what is really bothering me is all the cement that I need to put in. I want to keep the impact on my property as low as possible. If you go to a lot of campgrounds they have ADA parking but no cement. It just seems excessive. The less cement I can throw down on my property the better. I want to keep it as natural as possible. If there's any way we can kind of loosen things up a little bit because we are in rural areas… Do you really want us throwing more cement out there? How is that going to help the environment? I'm happy to make everything with the right steepness and whatnot. I was at a girlfriend’s property the other day because I seem to know more about the ADA stuff than most people. She's having a really hard time wrapping her head around how is she going to become ADA compliant when it's just not a flat level area. My place is pretty dang flat. And I'm even a little stressed out about it. How are we going to make the path from the parking and the bathroom all the way to the greenhouse? Am I going to have a cement walkway through there? That really bums me out. I don't really want to put all that cement in there because five or ten years from now we might be gone and big guys might come in and you’d have to take all that out and that would cost a lot of money and somebody would have to pay to dump that in a dump. It seems like it that would be environmentally horrible. And it would be difficult for certain people who have even less flat terrain because there is a certain gradient and things have to be fairly level for wheelchair accessibility. If it's going to be hard for me who has a relatively flat field. I can't even imagine what it's going to be like for so many people if these really not flat properties have to be ADA compliant."

Anne Molgaard (Chief Operating Officer for Health and Human Services): "I just wanted to let you know going back to the sanitation issues of accessible toilet facilities that Dave Jensen is on it. He's our Director of Environmental Health for a few more weeks. It is certainly something that no one predicted when they were dealing with the myriad of issues we are dealing with when we get into cannabis. So he's putting together a small working group to formulate a working solution. It's kind of beyond an environmental health issue. So he's forming a quick working group with environmental health, planning and building, the executive office, and county counsel. He has included the discussion from Mr. Ward about the issues. This will all happen in about two weeks and we will have some recommendations for you."

Supervisor John McCowen: "I would think that in the meantime people would not be required to go forward with what might be an onerous condition if we are in the process of reviewing it and seeing if there is an acceptable alternative. I hope the CEO was listening to that. I'm getting a nod of assurance."

Molgaard: "You just want to assure that nobody is -- nobody is, you know, giving fines out or anything at this time? That’s your concerned?"

McCowen: "Well, or being forced to go ahead and put in something we might decide in a month is not actually required. So flexibility."

DEBRA KEIPP REPORTS FROM POINT ARENA:

Fastball:

Have you seen, "Fastball", the DVD/movie?  Very good about who threw the fastest over the history of baseball. A bunch of hitters interviewed about their scariest place at the receiving end of a fastball.

Shoemaker Not Making $50k!

Also, PA's Shoemaker City Manager got a raise from the out-going City Council, which happened last December, when he was making a mere $50K.  He's making about $60K now, but that figure may be a thousand or two high.

I was told this morning that he's also missed an important deadline for grant money available for refurbishing a ramp down to the water for water sports people on foot, diving and surfing.

Coast Guard Boat House At Arena Cove

Remember when the City went after Blake Juntz, formerly one of the Ocean Fresh Fish owners from FB, by trying to devalue his Coast Guard Boat House, which sits in Arena Cove on one small corner of the parking lot, parallel to Arena Cove Boat Launch Facility (informally known as "The Pier)?   The City had its sights on the Coast Guard Boat House, or to devalue it so Richie Wasserman could try to buy it back, once again (he sat on City Council and still does, having been investigated by the RICO Commission after he sold it last time while sitting as Mayor of Point Arena).  His wife, Marita, who commandeered the Public Lands acquisition for the monument, possibly wanted the Coast Guard Boat House for a museum.  The City tried to rule the building uninhabitable and devalue it so it could then be purchased by ...perhaps the City - for peanuts.

Didn't work. In fact, it backfired badly on the City, who was extremely heavy handed in their endeavor of applying pressure to the owner through their lame legal counsel, in an effort to obtain the building.  (Those who don't know history are also prone to repeat it!)

Time marched on, when just recently, one of Arena Cove's Boat Launch Facility gangway pylons "sheered off" in one of the bad storms a few months ago, and bashed into the long concrete deck at the old Coast Guard Boat House, still owned by Juntz.  It bashed the deck of the Coast Guard Boat House so severely, that the end of Juntz's deck was knocked off its joists/pylons, the concrete deck of which is now cracked and sagging from lack of support.  So now, the City's insurance has to pay for new retrofitting, repair, etc., to the old historical landmark, as well as not being able to scam the property from Juntz as they initially tried when Shoemaker sent the City's legal counsel after Juntz and his former "caretaker" in an effort to bogusly take away Juntz's right to USE his own property according to ordinances already in place.  The whole entire schmeer backfired on the City of PA, who had to drop their unfounded issues with Juntz for obvious legalities.

Juntz has filed an insurance claim with the City's insurance carrier.  The tenant, who was originally brought onto the property as "caretaker", is now squatting on the property, having not paid rent nor performed any work trade since 2014, and will have to be evicted by the time the repair work begins, having long overstayed his due under any circumstance.

Talk about killing two or three birds with one stone!  The City will have to also endure the cost of CCD permits, which they initially tried to stick to Blake Juntz on their first effort to devalue the property via the City's legal counsel back in 2014.  

Retrofitting engineers are mui expensivo!

Former Ousted City Council Member Finds New Home, Rent Free:  

Also, if you remember, a Grand Jury Complaint ensued after the City of PA came down heavy-handed on the Coast Guard Boat House, one thing they claim not a part of their future enforcement agenda(!) after hiring an enforcement officer recently.  Complaining in the GJ complaint of tit for tat regarding the City's lack of enforcement for more than one Council /Planning member while trying to stomp on Juntz's ownership rights, one City Council member was required to resign from her elected position, and eventually required to move off her uninhabitable property (presently in process of moving, after she already served one year of her two year probationary period in violation of her probation by continuing to live on the property without sufficient sewer and water).

Apparently, since the City was in error and possibly liable for letting the situation go on so since 2010, "they" felt obligated to find new housing for the former Councilwoman and her partner, and placed them in a cush new job as caretakers with free rent living in the Loran Station houses, which are now surrounded by the Stornetta Public Lands monument.  The Loran Station Houses (3, 3bdm homes), sit vacant mostly, owned by Mendocino College, who horribly under-uses the facility.  Set up with a marine lab in one of the larger facility buildings used by the college students in their marine studies, it's too bad the local educational community can't also take advantage of bringing grade school, elementary and high school students out to the facility, to look at marine microbiology under microscopes located in the ed building, used only by the college.  

The theater also housed much of their props and costuming in another adjacent building.  There are 3 houses, one generator building, the college's ed facility and the other crumbling store room still erect, such as they are.  There used to also be a huge blaupunkt speaker inside a huge redwood water tank which sent sound waves up to the clouds, thus serving as weather station metering the fog bank (otherwise known as "cloud cover") reported from Point Arena; which has long since been removed...

Already In Conflict Of Interest:  

The City of PA, at last month's meeting, discussed the suspension of ordinance of the open beverage (alcohol), within the City of PA on the day of the Point Arena Independence Day Parade, which limits hours of taking your bloody mary from the Whale Bar into the street to watch the parade from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the day of the parade.  It's one of the more civilized suspended states that happens in Point Arena!

Burkey commented self-righteously, "I have a problem with this.  I know it's traditional to drink on the street during the parade but as... a bar manager, I don't allow my customers to do that."

Nonetheless, regardless of her "problem", Burkey voted in favor or it, without recusing herself for her personal interest.

First of all, sitting in conflict of interest, Barbara Burkey should have sat there silently with no comment at all after recusing herself for her own conflict of interest issues, which is being a bar manager where she works at 215 Main, now owned by the DEA agent, who - also doles out swill of the beer, port and wine kind. Regardless of if she voted "for" or "against" it, she must learn to recuse herself when examining her own conflict of interest issues when voting.

THERE'S FAKE NEWS and then there's foolish news. The Press Democrat is a daily example of both.

Here's a lede from today's edition: 'Morning Joe' hosts are getting married

The news confirms rumors of an off-screen romance between Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski that have been swirling since last year.

Valley Grossbeak considers AVA’s caged treat.

(Photo by Ben Anderson)

WILLITS RESIDENT SUING LOCAL BUSINESSES DENIES BEING MOTIVATED BY MONEY

by Ariel Carmona

Jeanette Brown said 10 years ago when she was going to the Little Lake Clinic they didn’t have handicapped accessible toilets. Every year she would write to them in their suggestion box, but her pleas for help fell on deaf ears.

“I would tell them the problem and I would get back a letter saying, ‘Thank you for your letter of concern but we have met code standards and we have budgetary problems,’” Brown said.

The 79-year-old Willits resident said it was the same thing year in and year out, despite the fact she was able to purchase a toilet seat raiser for a friend for $50.

“Right about two years ago I got a letter back and it said new toilets would be installed within the week, and they were,” she said.

She said it took her 10 years to accomplish that and she realized she was not going to live long enough to fix anything else. Brown is the plaintiff in several American Disabilities Act discrimination lawsuits against Willits businesses filed in Northern California District Court, including a case against Willits Councilwoman Saprina Rodriguez.

Brown is represented in lawsuits against at least seven Willits businesses filed since the beginning of the year by controversial Chico-based attorney Thomas Frankovich, including Ace Copy and Shipping operated by Rodriguez and her husband, a popular liquor store, and a strip mall which houses several fast food retailers.

The latest Uruh Civil Rights (the ADA law) complaint filed on April 6 alleges her rights were violated and seeks compliance from the business operated by Rodriguez and her husband. The complaint details Brown is seeking statutory damages of not less than $4,000 for each day after her visit to the business, pursuant to California Civil Code 52(a). She said the potential compensation is not what drove her to file legal complaints.

“My motivation is not monetary,” she said. “I want things fixed and to make things easier for other people. I am not a bashful person, but many people are, especially if they are my age.”

Brown said she found Frankovich through a referral by Disability Rights California, a non-profit with an office in Ukiah, which advocates for disabled people.

Rodriguez said she found out about the lawsuit against her business, Ace Copy, from Victor Hanson, owner of the shopping center which houses her business, but she wished Brown had come to her with her concerns prior to retaining legal counsel. She added her husband routinely opens the double doors to the business, but forgot to do so on one of Brown’s visit to the shop.

According to court records, Brown wrote a letter to the owners of the center last summer detailing how she had been unable to enter the business because the double doors were too narrow.

“I tried to keep the door open with my foot and it got wedged between the door and my wheelchair,” she wrote. “I told the fellow in the store about this. The door pressure is also a problem. I’d like to come into the store but I can’t.”

Although Brown received a letter in response to her concerns by the management of the copy center which stated staff would be instructed to keep both double doors unlocked during business hours, Frankovich writes in the complaint that contrary to this letter, one of the doors remained locked during Brown’s subsequent visits to the store, presenting an architectural barrier to his client.

In a letter dated April 12 addressed to Brown, Hansen wrote he was working closely with Martin Rodriguez to address disability and accessibility issues for the business. He added the building was built in 1986 prior to the existence of ADA regulations.

“We are presently addressing how best to comply with the ADA regulations to ensure the safety and comfort of Ace costumers,” Hanson wrote.

He added the parking lot in the shopping center was designed and built by Safeway and as such, they were responsible for placement of handicap parking spaces. He wrote handicap spots on the south end of the lot were recently resurfaced, striped and relabeled and new front doors had been ordered for Ace and Murphy’s Pizza.

Brown said she had been given a lot of misinformation by the city’s Code Enforcement Officer John Sherman, like saying older buildings were not subject to ADA compliance.

“There is no such thing as grandfathering when it comes to the ADA,” she said. “When I tried to get him to help me with Little Lake clinic, he said the building was older than ADA, so it was grandfathered in. Well that’s not true.”

Sherman has said before that he is not an expert in ADA compliance.

Willits Learning Fast

Following a recent City Council meeting focused on budget projections, City Manager Adrienne Moore said the city estimates it will spend approximately $35,000 on ADA consultants and to upgrade ADA ramps at City Hall.

Gary Waters, a certified access specialist consultant said he has been contacted by several Willits businesses and expects to meet with more local businesses early next week.

After an inspection of a business is completed, Waters said a property owner can request to have a 120-day grace period to fix or remove architectural barriers.

The owners of a popular taco shop being sued by Brown and her attorney have already elected to take advantage of this provision in the law.

According to Brown, on many occasions visiting Ace Copy, they kept one half of the double doors locked. Since the other door was too narrow, she was often left sitting outside until someone would come to the sidewalk and conduct business with her. She said she often sat outside even when it was raining because she could not get through the door with her wheelchair.

Frankovich blasted Rodriguez’s comments earlier this month in response to the latest lawsuit.

“She’s a terrible example of an elected representative,” he said. “She should be held to a higher standard, but she’s a scofflaw. It’s pretty terrible that a person who is a representative of the people can’t follow the law and portrays herself as a victim. She represents the residents so she should be familiar with the ADA. It’s pretty obvious she’s ignorant of the law.”

Although she won a long protracted victory when the Little Lake Clinic installed new toilets, Brown said she still finds a lot of challenges as a disabled person in Willits including the buttons on several city crosswalk poles being too high to reach from a wheelchair, unauthorized people parking in designated disabled parking spots, and the lack of cutaway curbs in some city sidewalks, which she said leaves disabled people with no access to some facilities like the new hospital.

Since filing multiple lawsuits, Brown said she continues to be on the receiving end of harassment from both neighbors and strangers. She said lately she has been besieged by people calling her in the middle of the night and in the early morning hours.

“When I was in school I was the fattest kid, all through college,” she said. “I know all about intimidation and bullying, to the point where I don’t intimidate anymore. If you want to intimidate, I say, have at it.”

(Courtesy, the Willits News)

UKIAH, 1937

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=InKQFExBgLI

EMERGENCY HOMELESS SHELTER CLOSES FOR THE SEASON IN UKIAH

by Justine Frederiksen

The Ukiah Inland Valley Emergency Shelter operating on South State Street for the past few months closed its doors for the season last weekend.

The closure meant that 44 people were sent back to the streets of Ukiah because “almost none of the (shelter’s clients) had another place to go,” said Kael Loftus, who served as operations supervisor for the shelter during many of the weeks it was open, acting as a liaison between the shelter’s staff and the board of the Homeless Services Action Group which ran the shelter.

“We tried to place them, we simply had nowhere to put them,” Loftus said of the shelter’s former residents, many of whom he now sees “wandering the streets aimlessly.”

Though housing vouchers are available for many who need them, Loftus said “(Mendocino County) only utilizes 28 percent of its available housing vouchers because we have no housing, especially for extremely low-income (residents).”

Loftus said the shelter not only gave people a place to sleep, but served another critical function by easing the burden many homeless residents place on the emergency room at Ukiah Valley Medical Center.

“There is no question the emergency winter shelter decreased the number of homeless patients we saw in the E.R. over this past winter,” said Debbie Marks, a physician who works in UVMC’s emergency room. “(The shelter) serves an important role and is an asset to the community.”

The HSAG is made up of the Mendocino County AIDS/Viral Hepatitis Network (MCAVHN), Manzanita Services, Redwood Community Services, UVMC, Plowshares, Project Sanctuary, the Community Development Commission and Northern California Legal Services, as well as individuals concerned about providing care and shelter for homeless residents in the community.

Representatives from the city of Ukiah and the county of Mendocino also regularly attended HSAG planning meetings and contributed significant funding for the shelter. In addition, Loftus said City Council member Steve Scalmanini contributed many hours of labor and materials on his own.

“(Scalmanini) cleaned up the building, patched the wallboards, set up the shelter’s landline phone and loaned equipment to the shelter for the season,” he said.

HSAG will hold its next meeting today, May 4, at the Manzanita Services building at 410 Jones Street at 2 p.m. The group has not yet announced if it plans to host an emergency shelter at the S. State Street building again.

(Courtesy, The Ukiah Daily Journal.)

CANDELARIA GALINDO

Candelaria J. Galindo "Candy" passed away April 29, 2017 in Fall River Mills, California. Candy was born February 2, 1929 in San Antonio, TX. Candy was a homemaker; she is survived by her daughters Diane Galindo, Cecilia Martinez and Mary Alice Jensen, sons Abraham Galindo Jr. and Louis Galindo, grandchildren Candy Slotte, Maria & Henry Arevalo, Ryan & Katrina Galindo, Mario & Frankie Martinez, Abraham & Alexander Galindo, Rhonda, Rodney & Ronnie Jensen, great grandchildren Jacob, Fernando & Michael Chavez, Marco & Jonathan Escareno, Gianna & Ezekial Arevalo, Christopher & Reina Martinez, Jesse & Ryan Slotte, Mercedes & Antonio Martinez, Isaia & Angelina Galindo, Nicolas & Alexandra Galindo and Ivan & Naomi Privado. Candy was preceded in death by her Parents Bruno Jimenez & Catalina Rojas, Husband Abraham Galindo and grandson Michael Arevalo. A Funeral Mass will be held on Friday May 5, 2017 at 2:00 PM at St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Church. A viewing will be held from 10:00 AM 1:00 PM at Eversole Mortuary. Memorial donations in Candelaria's name may be made to St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital . Arrangements are under the direction of the Eversole Mortuary.

SEGWAYS FOR FORT BRAGG

https://cityfortbragg.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=5143028&GUID=CFA431C8-3BA2-4EA2-BF81-C2D905A0C4D4

MENDOCINO UNIFIED SCHOOL BOARD MEETING MONDAY

The school board meeting scheduled to discuss the future of the new Albion School & Community Center will be at the Albion School this coming Monday, May 8 at 6 pm. The school's address is 30400 Albion Ridge Road in Albion (3.3 miles from Hwy 1)

At this meeting the new Albion Trustee gets sworn in. Mendocino Unified School District (MUSD) Board of Trustees is seeking applicants for appointment to fill the open Albion Area Board Trustee seat. The appointment will be in effect from May 2017 until an election in November 2018. If you want to run you have time until this Friday May 5 at 5 pm to turn in the forms that need to be filled out and delivered to the District Office. For more information see http://www.mendocinousd.org/ or call 707-937-5868.

The school has been open as a K-3 elementary school for 16 years. This year the enrollment dropped. Some community members have attended two community meetings, a Montessori parent education workshop, and filled out a survey. An Ad Hoc Committee met several times. Members of that committee shared with MUSD staff a list of 16 preschoolers and 8-9 school age children interested in a Montessori Preschool/K-3 school. Montessori is a method of education that is based on self-directed activity, hands-on learning and collaborative play/work.

Suggestions for those who would like to speak during the MUSD board meeting:

• Keep it short as many people want to speak (3 minutes).
• Have your brief remarks written out or at least outlined, because 3 minutes go by quickly!
• It helps to indicate why you believe that this site should have continuous services, why it needs a preschool, what innovative ideas you have, and why you support that this school will be a school during the 2017/2018 school year.

If for some reason you can not attend the meeting send your thoughts  to the following people:

• Jason  Morse, Superintendent <jmorse@mcn.org>
• Michael Schaeffer, Board President, Comptche <michaelS@mcn.org>
• Jessica Grinberg, Board Clerk, Mendocino <mcop@mcn.org>
• Charlie Acker, Board Member, Elk <cacker@mcn.org>
• Kathy Wylie, Board Member, Albion <kathy@mcn.org>
• Mark Morton, Board Member, Caspar <mark@mcn.org>
• Emily Symonds, Student Trustee <emilysym1@gmail.com>

In case you are wanting to enroll your preschool/school age child for the 2017/2018 school year let Jason Morse, the Superintendent, and the Ad Hoc Committee know. Please spread the word! The Ad Hoc Committee parents thank you.

Annemarie Weibel, Fort Bragg

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “The true boss of this place is coming up for a visit this weekend, and you oughtta see these clowns hustling around, hiding all the bottles and cans, tidying up. They know they're gonna flunk but they want to keep The True Boss's wrath to a minimum. She kinda scares me, too, truth to tell.”

ARE YOU ADA COMPLIANT?

Small business owners please be aware… There have been several lawsuits recently filed against small businesses in Willits regarding ADA compliance. The lawyer filing the suits may make his way to Fort Bragg.

It is always a great idea to comply with ADA; it limits your liability and helps you to serve our community.

You can check to see if your business is in compliance by working your way through the following checklist for existing facilities, which can be downloaded here: https://www.ada.gov/racheck.pdf

(City of Fort Bragg Press Release)

CATCH OF THE DAY, May 4, 2017

DANIEL ANDERSON, Willits. Under influence, failure to appear.

VIOLETE BUENROSTRO, Fort Bragg. Unspecified charges.

ESTABAN CARDENAS, Ukiah. Vandalism, member of criminal street gang.

JONI DEARING, Fort Bragg. Drunk in public, paraphernalia. (Frequent flyer.)

WALKER FERREIRA, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

SAMUEL GIBNEY, Fort Bragg. Drunk in public.

ALAN HOLIDAY, Ukiah. Drunk in public.

NANCY MACIAS, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

GARY MUELRATH, Clearlake Oaks/Ukiah. Grand theft, obtaining credit with someone else’s ID, conspiracy.

ANTHONY PARENTEAU, Clearlake Oaks/Ukiah. Grand theft, use of someone else’s ID, conspiracy.

JOEL RAMOS, Hopland. Controlled substance, community supervision violation, failure to appear.

THOMAS SANDERS, Ukiah. Drunk in public, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

KRISTINA SANTILLANEZ, Sacramento/Ukiah. Shoplifting, counterfeiting, conspiracy.

ANTHONY SELBY, Laytonville. Failure to appear.

WALTER STOUGH, Albion. Suspended license, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

RICHARD SUPER, Ukiah. Drunk in public, probation revocation.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

On a humorous note, down at Yale, in New Haven … graduate students have announced a hunger strike, just like real proletariat. They have formed a union, but Yale refuses to recognize it. They are graduate students who lecture and teach undergrads. I heard their spokesman interviewed on local radio: they are tired of being oppressed, and the main oppressor, beside Yale, is Donald J Trump and his NLRB. The interviewer pointed out for the onerous labor of teaching they receive free tuition ($65,000 per) free housing, free meals, plus a $30,000 yearly stipend. So what? Yale itself is nothing more than a plantation, and its grad students moral duty to break the shackles of servitude just like ‘the enslaved’ did 165 years ago. Nothing less. ‘We’re storming the ramparts’. Also Spartacus was brought up. Thus the hunger strike.

Some people here were concerned about these youngsters health. Not too worry. It turns out this is merely a ‘Symbolic Hunger Strike’ one, when you get hungry, you can break ranks and get something too eat.

This is also an outdoor event for all too see. This morning the Republican club at Yale set up a barbecue next to the hunger strikers, smoke from cooking burgers, hot dogs, steaks, chicken and pork chops wafting over into the Proletariat camp.

NADER RIPS SANDERS & DEMOCRATS FOR PUTTING SINGLE PAYER ON BACK BURNER

One hundred and ten (110) members of the House of Representatives have signed on to HR 676, the single payer bill in the House. But not one of them is from Connecticut.

Last month, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) promised single payer activists that he would introduce his single payer bill in the Senate within the next couple of weeks.

Now, according to Sanders’ staff, it’s not going to happen.

In putting single payer on the back burner, Sanders has reverted to his November 2016 position when his staff told activists that no single payer bill would be introduced in the Senate because the Democrats wanted to focus on defeating the Republicans.

“It’s one thing for Bernie Sanders to lead his followers back into the established Democratic Party,” consumer advocate Ralph Nader said. “But why can’t he pull the Democratic Party to adopt his highly popular agenda, led by single payer, which garnered many millions of voters last year? Those voters must be starting to wonder.”

Kevin Zeese of Health Over Profit said that Sanders decision not to introduce the single payer bill “shows what Sanders’ priorities are.”

“He has always said saving the Affordable Care Act comes before creating single payer,” Zeese said. “But it’s a mistake. Sanders says he wants to fix the problems of the ACA. How do you fix problems like 30,000 people dying every year? Single payer Medicare for all.”

“Sanders is reverting to his original position from last year — I’m not going to introduce single payer because we have to show a united front against Trump,” Zeese said. “But it could be weeks before the Senate does anything.”

One hundred and nine Democrats (109) in the House have already signed onto John Conyers (D-Michigan) single payer bill — HR 676.

Not one of those Democrats is from Connecticut, Nader’s home state.

And Nader today sent a letter to the five of them — Congressmen Joe Courtney, John Larson and Jim Jimes and Congresswomen Rosa DeLauro and Elizabeth Esty.

“Not one of you — members of the Connecticut Congressional delegation — has co-sponsored HR 676,” Nader wrote.

“This despite majoritarian support, with a recent Pew poll showing 85% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents saying the federal government should be responsible for health care insurance.”

“Why are you not representing your constituents on this critical reform that, as demonstrated in other countries, is much more efficient, provides much more choice and has better outcomes?”

“The uniformity of your non-participation in this growing legislative movement sticks out like a sore thumb.”

“Even colleagues of yours from Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee are co-sponsors.”

“It would behoove you in your forthcoming town meetings during the Congressional recess next week to discuss the reasons why for so many years you have avoided endorsing HR 676.”

“I have asked several people in Connecticut, who are your voters, why you have taken your rejectionist stance.”

“Their responses boil down to one word – Aetna.”

“Surely you don’t believe that, do you?”

“Or is it another word — Pelosi. Surely you don’t believe that, do you?”

“Let’s have the explanation come not from third parties or hearsay but straight from each of you — in some detail, please.”

“The uninsured and underinsured people of Connecticut would be interested in your responses. So would I.”

(SinglePayerAction.org)

"THE BETRAYAL OF PUBLIC TRUST is a daily story manipulated by the media within the narrative confines of 'scandal,' when in fact it's all part of the daily routine and everyone knows it. The media makes pornography of the collective guilt of our politicians and business leaders. They make a yummy fetish of betrayed trust. We then consume it, mostly passively, because it is indistinguishable from our 'entertainment' and because we suspect in some dim way that, bad as it surely is, it is working in our interests in the long run. What genius to have a system that allows you to behave badly, be exposed for it, and then have the sin recouped by the system as a sellable commodity! Truth without consequences is a good working definition of corruption."

— Curtis White from “The Middle Mind”

POT BANK QUESTIONS

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/6938743-181/marijuana-banking-to-be-discussed

FRANCE: SULK OR SWIM

by Clancy Sigal

In a few days France’s version of Hillary Clinton, a bland young Rothschild investment banker named Emanuelle Macron faces off in a crucial presidential election against France’s lovely blonde fascist Marie Le Pen the daughter of an outright Nazi lover.

It’s a sexy election, literally.  Unprecedentally, the current socialist president Francois Hollande (Macron was his deputy) is ducking re-election due to a pile of women troubles. His long time mistress and mother of his four kids, Segelene Royal, a formidable politician in her own right, angrily split from pudgy Hollande when he brazenly took a new mistress into his palace while also chasing – on a moped!  – a young actress.  Oh, those hypersexualite French.

Meanwhile, “centrist” Macron – technocratic, pro Europe and indifferent to the immigrant suburbs, deaf like Hillary to blue collar workers – has the most intriguing marital setup.  As a 16 year-old student he fell in love with his 39 year-old drama teacher whose eldest daughter was also in Macron’s class. Despite fierce parental objections and vicious small town gossip, they’ve stayed married for 24 years, he now 39 she 64.  If that doesn’t get him the vote of mature women like Isabelle Huppert and Juliet Binoche then nothing will.

May 7’s spoiler is France’s Bernie, the egoistic, ex-Trotskyist Jean Luc Melanchon who, like Macron, seemed to “come out of nowhere” and in his case excite and galvanize youngsters.  He got a lot of votes, but not enough for the final round.  At the moment he is sulking in his tent by refusing to support either “liberal” Macron or fascist Le Pen.  The practical result is that about 1/5^th of Melanchon’s resentfuls will probably go to the fascist who is angling for their votes, and many once-reliable left voters in the immigrant quarters, disgusted by broken promises, will also abstain.

(The German communists similarly shot themselves in the head – and paved Hitler’s way – by denouncing rival socialists as “social fascists”).

As in our own recent election formerly leftwing miners’ and factory towns voted for Le Pen.

This is the way to defeat fascism?

Sex aside, the 7th May presidential election (voting for the Assembly is in June) is a teaching moment for us here.

The question is, as it was for us in November, do we lay aside political principles – our virtue – to unite with ANYONE – to defeat a fascist?  My dream coalition can include pro-life women, evangelicals, second-thought racists and Limbaugh rednecks – the deplorables temporarily willing to join hands, gingerly, with us adorables if we drop our clannishness to make some sort of opening.

What’s wrong with promiscuous openness?

As we bitterly learned in November there were enough grumbling youth and anti-Hillary abstentions and pro-Bernies paralyzed by rage to conceivably throw the election to Trump. We’ll never know.

Faced with a nightmare in the White House – the NYT keeps calling the little hitlers “right wing populists” – do you throw your biases out the window?  Or have the integrity to  follow that great American labor radical Gene Debs who advised, “It is better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don’t want and get it.”

Welcome, enemy.

(Clancy Sigal is a screenwriter and novelist. His latest book is Black Sunset.)

OIL MONEY OUT, PEOPLE POWER IN RALLY SET FOR MAY 20 IN SACRAMENTO!

by Dan Bacher

California is often portrayed as the nation’s “green leader,” but the reality is much different.

California is in fact the third largest oil producing state in the nation — right behind Texas, the number one state,  and North Dakota, the number two oil producer.

Over the 2015-2016 Legislative Session, the oil industry spent a historic $36.1 million to lobby California lawmakers.  During the last 6 years, the industry has spent $122 million in Sacramento, more than any other interest group.

The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) was the top overall oil industry spender during the 2015-16 session, spending $18.7 million. As is normally the case, WSPA ranked #1 among all lobbying spenders last session.

“This spending spree has paid huge dividends for these companies, allowing them to dismantle and crush any meaningful legislation that might significantly curb their power to drill and pollute in California,” said David Braun, www.rootskeeper.org. “Pay-to-play politics has allowed the dirtiest polluters in the world to legally poison our communities and exacerbate the climate crisis.”

“This is why we are calling on Governor Jerry Brown and our state legislators to stop taking money from the oil industry, and to prioritize the health and safety of their constituents over the oil industry’s profits. And on May 20th, we are taking our message to the streets of Sacramento to demand that our elected officials take a stand with the people of California, and stop taking dirty oil money,” said Braun.   

“As guardians of the public trust, the lack of action from our governor and our legislators our to protect the public is unacceptable,” emphasized Braun. “You can’t take industry money and do their bidding, while saying you are a climate or environmental champion at the same time. We need champions who are looking out for the people, not the oil industry and their profits. Until the flow of money into our elected officials pockets stops or is seriously curtailed, nothing is going to change.”

“Our elected leaders need to make their primary allegiance clear: is it to the oil industry or to the health and safety of their constituents? The days of having it both ways have to come to an end," Braun said.

Braun urged people to join a diverse array of activists on May 20 from 12 PM to 3 PM for the “Oil Money Out, People Power In” March and Rally in Sacramento, beginning and ending at the Governor’s Mansion, 1526 H Street.

“We are marching to the convention center in Sacramento during the California Democratic Party state convention to call on Governor Jerry Brown and members of our state legislature to take the pledge to stop taking money from the oil industry - the most powerful lobbying group in Sacramento,” explained Braun.

For more information about the campaign and the upcoming march and rally, please visit: www.oilmoneyout.com

Background: California oil lobby tops spending in 2015-16 session with $36.1 million 

This is a revised transcript of a speech I gave at the end of the Changefest rally held on the north steps of the State Capitol on January 21 and at a Sacramento Climate Coalition meeting in Sacramento on February 4:

In spite of California's reputation as a "green leader, Big Oil is the largest corporate lobby in the state and exerts enormous influence over the Governor's Office, Legislature and regulatory agencies.

As usual, the California Oil Lobby was the biggest spender in the 2015-16 legislative session, spending an amazing $36.1 million as of December 31, 2016.

The spending amounts to $1.5 million per month — nearly $50,000 per day — over the last two years. The $36.1 million surpassed the $34 million spent in the prior session, according to an  American Lung Association report. “That’s enough money to buy 103,000 goats,” reported Stop Fooling California, stopfoolingca.org.

The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) was the top overall oil industry spender during the 2015-16 session, spending $18.7 million. As is normally the case, WSPA ranked #1 among all lobbying spenders this session.

Chevron, the second overall oil industry spender, spent $7 million in the 2015-16 session. It spent $3 million in 2016, sixth among all lobbyists in the current session.

In the seventh quarter alone, WSPA dumped $2.6 million into lobbying legislators and state officials while billionaire Tom Steyer's Next Generation Climate Action spent an unprecedented $7.3 million, almost 3 times the oil industry group’s expenses.

The spending by Steyer’s group helped propel the passage of Senate Bill 32, legislation that reduces greenhouse gas level to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, in spite of strong opposition by the oil industry.

Since the 2007-08 Session, the oil industry has spent $133 million in lobbying in California.

To read the complete report, go to: www.lung.org/...;

Western States Petroleum Association: Sacramento's most powerful corporate lobbying group 

Although the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) is the largest and most powerful corporate lobbying group in the West and California, its enormous influence appears to be one of our state’s best-kept secrets. It has spent more than other lobbying organization in Sacramento in recent years to exert control over the Governor’s Office, regulatory agencies and the State Legislature.

Big Oil, along with Big Ag, Big Pharma, Big Timber and other corporate interests, dominate politics in California, as well as in Washington, D.C., as evidenced by President's Donald Trump’s nomination of EXXON CEO Rex Tilleson as Secretary of State,  Scott Pruitt as EPA Administrator, and other oil and energy corporation shills to his cabinet. The appointment of oil industry officials and their allies to California regulatory panels has been standard practice in California for many years.

The Western States Petroleum Association is a “non-profit trade association” that represents companies that account for the bulk of petroleum exploration, production, refining, transportation and marketing in the five western states of California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and Nevada.

WSPA’s membership includes a who’s who oil, energy and pipeline corporations including Aera Energy LLC, Chevron, Californian Resources Corporation (formerly Occidental Petroleum), ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Noble Energy, Inc., Phillips 66, Plains All American, Inc. Shell Oil Products US, Tesoro Refining and Marketing and Valero.

From January 1, 2009 to November 8, 2016 alone, the oil industry spent $112,371,214 on lobbying expenses in California, according to a report, “The Chevron Way: Polluting California and Degrading Democracy.” The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) Sydney Office produced the report, in collaboration with a coalition of conservation, consumer and environmental justice groups.

The Western States Petroleum Association led the oil industry lobbying expenses with $49,491,104 during this period, followed by Chevron with $24,035,901 and Phillips 66 with $4,821,144. For more information, go to: www.counterpunch.org/...

The five ways Big Oil exerts its influence

WSPA and Big Oil use their money and power in 5 ways: through (1) lobbying; (2) campaign spending; (3) getting appointed to positions on and influencing regulatory panels; (4) creating Astroturf groups: and (5) working in collaboration with media.

Big Oil and other corporate advocates have dominated appointments to Commissions and regulatory panels in California under Governors Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown, ranging from the Department of Conservation, to the California Public Utilities Commission, to the California Energy Commission, to the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force.

In a classic case of the “fox guarding the hen house, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum Association, chaired the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Forces to create faux “marine protected areas” in Southern California from 2009 to 2012 at the same the oil industry was fracking South Coast ocean waters. Reheis-Boyd, appointed by Schwarzenegger, also served on the task forces for the Central Coast, North Central Coast, and North Coast from 2004 to 2012.

It gets worse. Reheis-Boyd’s husband, James D. Boyd, first appointed by Governor Davis, sat on on the California Energy Commission from 2002 to 2012, including serving as Vice-Chair of the Commission from 2/2007 to 1/2012.

The California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) in September 2016 opened an investigation into the California Democratic Party in response to a report by a prominent consumer group, Consumer Watchdog, claiming that the party acted as a “laundry machine” to funnel donations from oil, energy and utility companies to Brown’s 2014 election campaign.

In the "Brown's Dirty Hands" report, Consumer Watchdog revealed that that twenty-six energy companies including the state’s three major investor-owned utilities, Occidental, Chevron, and NRG—all with business before the state—donated $9.8 million to Jerry Brown’s campaigns, causes, and initiatives, and to the California Democratic Party since he ran for Governor for his third term. Donations were often made within days or weeks of winning favors. The three major investor-owned utilities alone contributed nearly $6 million

"Occidental’s attorney, former Governor Gray Davis, successfully pressured Brown to fire two oil and gas regulators who wouldn’t grant oil waste injection permits without proof that aquifers would not be contaminated," according to the group. "Two months later, when Brown’s new interim oil and gas supervisor granted Occidental a permit without an environmental review, Occidental contributed $250,000 to Prop 30, Brown’s ballot measure to raise taxes, then another $100,000 two weeks later to his favored Oakland Military Institute. Seven months later, Occidental made a second $250,000 donation to Prop 30."

You can download "Brown's Dirty Hands" at: www.consumerwatchdog.org/dirtyhands

More recently on February 6,  twelve public interest groups, led by Consumer Watchdog and Food & Water Watch, unveiled a comprehensive report card on the Brown Administration’s environmental record revealing that he falls short in six out of seven key areas, including fossil fuel generated electricity, oil drilling, and coastal protection.  Read the report “How Green Is Jerry Brown?” at: www.consumerwatchdog.org/isbrowngreen

There is no doubt that Big Oil and other corporate interests dominate politics in California and Washington — and that we must relentlessly work to get Big Oil out of politics by supporting efforts like the Move to Amend, movetoamend.org, and the California Clean Money Campaign, www.caclean.org.

OIL THREAT TO COAST

Is the White House trying to destroy the Sonoma-Mendocino coast?

The Sonoma-Mendocino coastal regional economy suddenly finds itself the target of President Donald Trump as a result of his executive order on offshore drilling that he signed on Friday.

This action began a rushed 120-day "review" of the magnificent conservation victory that led to the 2015 designation of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, a much-heralded accomplishment that expanded protection of our fragile coast from offshore drilling and other pollution threats from Bodega Head north to Point Arena.

With an unprecedented scheme that could reverse the North Coast's most hard-fought ocean conservation achievement, the petroleum lobby has now induced the Trump administration to reconsider previous estimates of offshore oil and gas potential and to question the competency of our local elected officials in this marine sanctuary expansion. Trump ignores the 20-year bipartisan support for protection of every California governor, U.S. senator, congressional representative and state legislator serving us during the relevant period of time. The commercial fishing industry and our local governments, including the boards of supervisors for Sonoma, Marin and Mendocino counties and many others, were fully supportive every step of the way. Literally hundreds of thousands of citizens from all walks of life worked together to accomplish this historic outcome for future generations.

After appointing petroleum industry executives throughout his Cabinet, President Trump is now taking his policy instructions directly from the oil industry as a whole. More difficult to understand is the current fascination by the White House with trashing the valued work of past administrations of both political parties, all the way back through that of President George W. Bush, who protected 10 sensitive islands and magnificent atolls of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands during his term of office. "Forever" apparently translates to "until Trump" within this Oval Office.

As a coastal region in which our livelihoods are absolutely dependent on marine fisheries and vibrant coastal businesses that rely on a clean ocean, we have every right to expect the Trump administration to hold local public hearings before going forward with its effort to derail our coastal economy.

We remember the failed cleanup and persistent economic damage wrought by the Santa Barbara Union Oil platform blowout in 1969, the tragic Gulf of Mexico BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 and the more recent 2015 Refugio oil spill, where a leak from a poorly maintained onshore pipeline caused oil from offshore rigs to reach the ocean and unnecessarily foul Southern California waters, some of the most biologically diverse in the world, for miles.

We can't help but notice that in the very same executive order being used to undermine our Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary here, the Trump White House is also moving to weaken the critical worker safety and blowout protection afforded by the "well control rule," to dismantle air quality protections affecting offshore drilling emissions, to expedite damaging seismic airgun blasts used in offshore oil and gas exploration and to enable undercapitalized smaller companies lacking adequate financial resources to compensate for offshore oil spill damages to go ahead and take risky drilling operations into our coastal waters.

We notice that the same Trump action is also being used to open other long-protected California waters to offshore drilling, along with much of the Atlantic Coast and the fragile Arctic Ocean, while making the creation of any future national marine sanctuary much more difficult, if not impossible. The laws of this nation that protect our coastal waters exist for good reasons, primarily derived from expensive lessons learned during past offshore drilling disasters. We can't survive as a society in the absence of responsible laws - or without a healthy ocean.

We can - and we will - care enough about our ocean to turn around the current misguided Trump attack on our national marine sanctuaries and our coastal economy.

Our grandchildren would expect no less of us, and the awesome natural beauty, marine productivity and economic vitality of our coast will inspire us to act together to counter this miscalculated assault on our region. The Sonoma-Mendocino coast is not going to be Trump's sacrifice zone.

Richard Charter is a senior fellow with the Ocean Foundation and has lived in Bodega Bay for 40 years.

Rixanne Wehren, Fort Bragg

AT HOME WITH CRAIG

Revolutionary Ecological Summer Offensive Launched

A Green Tara environment is being created in my room in downtown San Francisco.  Having purchased an original painting of the Goddess by a Nepalese artist (which is being matted & framed), plus recently made a tourmalated green quartz & golden obsidian wrist mala, and purchased a buckwheat hull filled zafu in black, and am awaiting delivery of a silver plated chain and pendant featuring the Tibetan word "Tam" with the full mantram around it, the heart of all this is the continuous chanting of the Green Tara mantram: Om Tare Tuttare Ture Swaha.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cnGyJqkyk4

Craig Louis Stehr, San Francisco, Email: CraigStehr@inbox.com

THREE QUESTIONS

The question is,

what will it be like

to sleep with you?

 

To be in you?

 

And, how is it

the heart leaps --

joyful --

outside of itself?

* * *

NEW LOVERS

Tomorrow, we

begin again

in another life.

 

You will always

love me.

 

(I have always

loved you.)

 

In the country

of old trees,

the redwoods

love patience

 

— John Sakowicz