Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, Sep. 13, 2017

• Warm Rain
• Permit Process
• GJ Details
• Boondoggle Approved
• Corporate Mentality
• Annotated PR
• Hammer Guilty
• Asha Search
• Bluebird
• McCowen Exception
• Houseboats
• County Fair
• Weed Limit
• Propane Shots
• Little Dog
• Yesterday’s Catch
• Lucille
• Catamount Sightings
• Established Order
• Religious Tyranny
• Warring Tribes
• Floodgate Farm
• Benefit Concert
• Whose Economy
• Digging Dog
• Survivors
• Doug Dowd
• Planning Agenda
• Burn Bird
• Jimmy Jive

ISOLATED THUNDER & LIGHTNING around the County on Tuesday. Highs in the 90s. Trace of rain. Partly cloudy Tuesday evening becoming mostly cloudy with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the evening. Lows Tuesday night from 52 to 62. West wind around 5 mph. Cloudy and cooler on Wednesday with highs in the high 70s. Pattern continues for the next few days.

THE PRICE OF A PERMIT

Is it worth it?

Pathway to the future or “extortion”?

by Jane Futcher

Of the thousands of cannabis farmers in Mendocino County, 716 have applied this year for a medical cultivation permit under Chapter 10A.17 of the county code. The ordinance went into effect May 4.

The county Department of Agriculture reported Sept. 12 that the county has issued 15 permits and denied 16. One applicant has been shut down by California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Several other farmers still in the county application process have voluntarily eradicated their plants and may relocate or replant.

Is getting a permit worth it?

Without a county permit, cultivators won't be eligible for a state permit in 2018.

But has Mendocino County provided a promising pathway to the future for cannabis farmers? Their crops, after all, bring in an estimated $1.5 billion annually, more than all other Mendocino County economic activities combined.

Or do the new regulations amount to “extortion,” as Grace, a grower who has opted not to apply for a permit this year, describes the county’s ever-changing, often conflicting morass of rules, codes and fees.

Johanna Mortz, 30, and Micah Flause, 29, have taken the leap. They’re waiting to hear if the county has accepted their application to cultivate a 2,500-square-foot garden on their five-acre property off Black Bart Road in the southern outskirts of Willits.

A “roller coaster ride” is how Johanna describes the permit application process. Micah, her husband, says it feels like “jumping off a building.”

Mortz and Flause, idealistic organic gardeners committed to low-impact, environmentally sound farming methods, moved to Mendocino County three years ago.

Flause grew up on a now-defunct New Hampshire farm dating back to the 1700s. A prep school soccer and lacrosse star, he left college in Rhode Island after three years, moving to South Lake Tahoe, where he snow boarded and made friends in the cannabis industry. After a stint building greenhouses and managing a large cannabis farm in Sonoma County, he bought land in Butte County, which is where he met his wife.

Johanna’s childhood home was San Pedro, a suburb of Los Angeles. A hairstylist in Manhattan Beach, she had worked in two cannabis dispensaries when she headed north five years ago to help her cousin on his weed farm in Butte County.

“I have always considered cannabis as a medicine,” Mortz says. “Because of my job picking out medicine for patients that came in.”

When Johanna met Micah in Butte County, they decided they wanted to be life partners as well as cultivation partners, got married and began looking for land of their own in a community of supportive organic cultivators closer to the Bay Area than the remote parcels they’d been farming. They chose Mendocino County.

“We picked Mendocino because they were thinking logically about regulations,” Flause reflects. Humboldt at the time, he says, had more of “an outlaw mentality and was not as committed to smaller scale, organic farms.” He liked the idea that farmers in Mendocino weren’t “going for broke all the time and trying to produce as much material as possible as opposed to the highest quality as possible.”

In 2014, the couple bought a permitted home on five acres zoned rural residential, or RR-5. They wanted a place to grow vegetables and cannabis and would retain its resale value if they decided to move.

Johanna and Micah created Polykulture farms, combining organic food farming with cannabis growing, using their permitted well to irrigate their garden.

For had always wanted to be legal farmers, and in 2016, they enrolled in the the county’s Sheriff-run 9.31 program.

The hurdles they’ve had to jump to qualify for a permit have been challenging. So have the costs.

Over the past two years the couple has spent more than $15,000 on legal fees, inspections, tax advice and application fees related to getting a permit for their 2,500-square-foot garden of 40 plants. They doubt they’ll break even this year.

The county fees add up quickly. The basic application fee for a farm of their size is $1,240. The county’s annual permit and compliance inspection fee is $675. The Mendocino Sustainably Grown certificate, which the couple was eager to have, was $970. The fee for Track and Trace, a computerized tracking system that allows the county to follow every plant through its life cycle to final sale, is $90 per month, but that program is not yet up and running. Planning and Building Department charged $230 for property profile and records management because they applied before July 1. After July 1 they would have paid $555. For Live Scan fingerprinting, required of all applicants, the Sheriff’s Dept. charges $79 per person.

There are state fees on top of county fees. The couple paid the California Water Resources Control Board $750 for their Tier 2-Star water discharge waiver, which was less than the $1,000 they would have paid had they not hired a state-approved, third party inspector — to the tune of $2,500 — who submitted their application himself.

None of the money the couple has spent on administrative costs, fees and consultants can be deducted from their cannabis earnings. The state only allows tax deductions for cannabis cultivation expenses that are directly related to farming, such as fencing, seeds, soil, and fertilizer.

Micah and Johanna’s biggest worry related to their permit began when two different consultants told them that they’d placed their garden too close to a stream on their property, violating the state water board setback requirement that cultivation occur at least 50 feet from creeks.

Fearing they might have to re-engineer their hillside, they hired an engineer who walked their property and discovered that the water was actually a spring that began and ended on their land. Thus, the garden’s proximity to the water did not disqualify them for obtaining a state water discharge waiver.

Another hurdle that the couple still faces, as do hundreds of other permit-bound farmers, is the legality of their drying shed, a Class K structure which was OK with the county last year but does not meet this year’s Mendocino County Planning and Building Department’s requirement that all farm buildings be constructed to commercial codes.

Building and Planning code issues have become such a crucial part of the cultivation permitting process that in August the Board of Supervisors designated Building and Planning, not the Ag Dept., as the “first stop” in the cultivation application process. If Building and Planning deems a property ineligible based on building code violations, the application is not passed on to the Ag Dept.

In August, the Board of Supervisors agreed, in principle, to allow agricultural exemptions for existing drying sheds, at least this year. But can the same sheds be legally used for trimming? And what happens next year?

Most farmers plan to use existing sheds and hope for the best, But the drying and trimming shed issues, as well as many others, are still unresolved.

County officials have assigned to their new “working groups,” the drying shed problem, along with some other changes that would make compliance for a permit more attractive to farmers. But it’s not likely such groups can resolve such complex issues before harvest. Without provisional permits or an immediate county declaration, drying and trimming in buildings that do not meet commercial standards violate county codes.

“We’ve had ups and downs,” Mortz says. "We waver a lot, but because we have other jobs we can continue.”

The couple’s other jobs are with Flow Kana, a statewide cannabis distributor that markets craft, “boutique,” sun-grown cannabis from farmer cooperatives in Mendocino and Southern Humboldt to dispensaries and other legal outlets. The company has recently moved its headquarters from Oakland to the former Fetzer family estate in Redwood Valley.

Mortz and Flause are committed to Flow Kana’s vision and business model, inspired, in part, by South American coffee and flower cooperatives that have helped small farms there compete with large, well-funded corporate agribusinesses.

This fall, Flow Kana will provide trimming services for organic farmers who belong to member co-ops. They’ll add drying next year. Administrative and bookkeeping support are also in the works. If all goes as Flow Kana plans, Mendocino cannabis farmers in participating cooperatives won’t need to build costly commercial grade drying and trimming facilities; they can use Flow Kana’s.

Micah compares Flow Kana to the Bible’s David and Goliath, with Flow Kana the David going up against such large corporate cannabis Goliaths as AbsoluteXtracts and Harborside.

“Flow Kana is committed to helping the small farmer succeed in the newly regulated market,” says Amanda Reiman, Vice President of Community Relations for Flow Kana. “We recognize that there are a lot of expenses associated with running a small business, and by creating a centralized facility, we can provide support services to farmers at a much lower cost. This extends beyond processing, marketing and distribution services to human resources, legal and accounting services.

“Flow Kana aims to create a space for local farmers to come together and scale their operations to compete with the big players, all while maintaining their small, heritage farming practices. Flow Kana does not cultivate, we exist purely to support the system of small farmers in Mendocino County.”

Up in Laytonville, Grace, who is uncomfortable using her real name, is not as sanguine about Flow Kana’s ability to save Mendocino’s small farmers from the competition. After all, she says, Flow Kana only takes product from a few member cooperatives, and those cooperatives don’t have space for all the farmers who’d like to join. What happens to other small farmers? Also, Grace says, Flow Kana did not take all the cannabis their member farmers grew last year, forcing some seek other buyers, often on the black market.

Raised in Sonoma County, Grace, who is 65, suntanned, youthful and petite, moved to Mendocino in 2009 to get away from Bay Area traffic and congestion. She never intended to grow pot on her 10-acre, rural residential parcel near Cahto Creek.

When several women she met told her they grew between six and 25 plants to supplement their income, she planted a cannabis garden with the help of a friend, who continues to work with her. She enjoys the challenge and the economic rewards and is a very good gardener. She sells most of her trimmed buds to dispensaries in San Jose.

“I’ve always wanted to be legal,” Grace says. That’s why, in 2010 and 2011, she enrolled in the county’s original 9.31, 99-plant program, growing 60 plants. After the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency raided one of the participating farms, Northstone Organics in Ukiah, Grace’s documents were among those subpoenaed by the Federal Attorney General’s office. The DEA took no action against her.

Last year, Grace enrolled once again in the county’s 9.31 cultivation program, run by the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department. She wishes Mendocino had stuck with that more flexible program, at least until the supervisors had worked out the kinks in the new ordinance.

“The rules keep changing, and it’s frustrating.” Grace says. “I can’t trust what they say. I can’t trust the county; I can’t trust the water board; I don’t trust Building and Planning. There is no clear set of regulations.”

Grace says she is one of many older people she knows who is growing cannabis to supplement their Social Security. None of them are tearing down forests or polluting the water or squatting on public lands, a complaint she often hears about cultivators. The farmers she knows are hard-working people who don’t pollute and would love an affordable path to compliance.

“It’s not local people that are going into the forests; it’s not my neighbors that are out there in the forests growing these mega grows. It’s outsiders that come in; they take their money and leave. We spend our money here.”

Although Grace had planned to apply for a permit in 2017, she changed her mind as the potential costs soared.

One of her biggest shocks came last year when North Coast Regional Water Board inspectors told her that she would have to move her hoop houses, in which she grows most of her 40 plants this year, because they are less than 50 feet from the property line. Now, Grace says, the setback has increased to 100 feet.

Grace says she can’t comply with the new 100-foot setback rule because her lot is narrow. Because a seasonal creek runs through her property, for the hoop houses and her farm sheds to be sufficiently far from both the property and creek lines, she’d have no room on her land to grow in the sun.

Another cost from last year’s application that still irks Grace is the $2,500 she paid the state Water Resource Control Board for her Tier II discharge waiver. When state inspectors toured her property, they told her she had to replace a culvert on her road so that it would hold up in a 100-year flood. In fact, she says, the old culvert, which works well and which she has not yet replaced, held up perfectly during last winter’s record rains. Still, she’s stuck with the replacement now that she’s on the Water Board’s radar.

“For $2,500, you get nothing,” Grace says. ”It’s extortion. They didn’t help me. They didn’t do anything. They didn't show me anything in writing that said I had to have an updated culvert to be part of the program. I never even got a copy of the report they supposedly did when they came out and approved the site. I doubt they even did a report for the $2,500 they charged. I still don't know how big the culvert has to be to pass, and I have asked more than once.”

Another new county requirement that bothers Grace is the requirement that cultivators provide Americans With Disabilities Act-compliant bathrooms, even if farmers are in remote locations, are not open to the public and do not have employees. Such facilities could add tens of thousands of dollars to farmers’ costs, which they might never recover.

“The only thing that seems clear is that the rules keep changing, and the cost keeps getting higher and the price dropping,” Grace says. “We had our biggest permitted grow last year and made less than we have all the other years.”

Grace would reconsider applying for a cultivation permit if the Board would create a streamlined, less onerous process for small cottage cultivators growing 25 plants or less. The Board has assigned the development of a scaled-down cottage permit to one of their new working groups. But such a plan could take months to create.

Although the Board of Supervisors has extended the cultivation application deadline to June 30, 2017, Grace is still gun shy.

“I don’t want to have them out here and get dinged if tomorrow they will change the rules and there will have to be something else.”

Grace sighs. “It’s been how many years we’ve been doing this and the Board are still acting like they don’t know anything. They should know something. What are they doing to get more knowledge? It’s not rocket science.”

Supervisor John McCowen understands why farmers like Grace are upset by the changes in the cultivation ordinance and the slow pace of the process.

“I completely understand the frustration level that people are experiencing, and they’re not alone,” McCowen says. “It’s been, I think, a very frustrating experience for staff and for the Board of Supervisors."

“One thing we all need to understand: This is a completely new dynamic where you have a very robust industry that has been operating almost completely outside of any regulatory system, and now we’re trying to come up with a set of regulations to apply to an industry that already exists. That’s a lot different than setting the rules for some new industry or use where everyone can know in advance — here’s what I’m going to need to do to comply. And in this case, people have already been doing a wide variety of activities for decades using existing buildings without any consideration for the Americans With Disabilities Act or any of the state building codes, so it’s really uncharted territory for everyone.”

McCowen warns ominously that the State of California’s cannabis cultivation regulations, which are still being drafted, will be far more “onerous” than the county’s. He says the proof of the county program works will be the number of farmers who apply for a permit.

County cannabis activists have argued frequently at Board meetings that by making the process easier and cheaper, the program would attract more applicants.

Improvements to the process, they say, would include: allowing “transferability” of parcels in Rangeland, Timber Protected Zones and Forest Land: letting farmers to take a year off without losing their permits; waiving the requirement that all cultivators, including those in remote locations, provide commercial drying and trim spaces as well ADA bathrooms and parking; permitting the use of existing sheds and trimming areas that don’t meet commercial building codes, and postponing the track-and-trace program until next year, when the state will require use of a different contractor.

McCowen and the Board have assigned these issues to working groups, combining county officials with community cannabis leaders. But how quickly can they come up with major policy revisions? Certainly not in time for this harvest season.

Grace blames the board’s “shortsighted” and ambivalent approach to cannabis farming on falling property values in Mendocino County. In Humboldt, she says, where elected officials have been more welcoming, property values are skyrocketing.

She also thinks their “crazy” approach has its roots in long-standing laws that criminalized cannabis famers. Grape growers, she says, are treated very differently.

“A wine grower could buy up all this and they could clear cut everything,” she says. “I was down looking at some new wineries in Sonoma County. They are all on the side of hills. They are all terraced, you know, and they all use pesticides that we don’t even use on our pot, but there’s nothing being said about that. And they’ve got acres and acres and acres. We don’t even have an acre of pot growing, but we’re the demons. Something’s got to go. It’s just so unfair.”

Micah, Johanna and Grace have much in common. They care about the county; they are passionate about what they do; they run small farms; they want to be legal, and they are committed to organic farming that minimizes impacts on the environment.

They share something else in common: They are worried about the plummeting wholesale price of cannabis.

Grace says she made $3,000 per pound on the black market when she started growing nine years ago. Now she can only get $600 to $1,000 per pound on the black market. This year, she’s been able to sell her buds to dispensaries for $1,600 per pound. But next year, without a permit, she’ll have to go underground with her product.

In July, Hezekiah Allen, Executive Director of Emerald Growers Association, noted the glut of cannabis on the market today in a speech to the Sacramento Press Club. He told the group that the state’s cannabis cultivators are producing eight times more cannabis than residents are consuming and suggested growers scale back.

Grace is worried about her future as a small farmer, with or without a permit.

“In 25 years,” she says, “there will probably be 25 families that own every pot thing in the state, and the small farmers and everybody will be gone.”

Micah and Johanna hang on to the dream that their small farm, with the help of Flow Kana, will survive falling prices and rising costs as well competition from neighboring counties and large corporations.

“It’s a gamble,” Johanna says. “We are putting a lot of faith in the county.”

(Jane Futcher, host of The Cannabis Hour on KZYX, lives in Longvale.)

IN DEFENSE OF PETER KEEGAN (repost from yesterday)

To the Editor:

I am writing to defend my friend, Peter Keegan, against the rumors and hearsay that have been floating around for years since the death of my friend, Susan Keegan. I have been a close family friend of the Keegans since they moved to Ukiah. We were next door neighbors for years. We were partners on a land purchase; we took vacations together and did all the things one does with close friends. I know Peter and I know that he would never kill his wife. For years I and many others have been silent at Peter’s request. Now we will speak.

I’d like to correct two details that were printed in the UDJ cover story of Aug. 12, 2017. First, the report says that Susan’s “Family and friends” pressured the DA to arrest Peter. I am one of many, many friends of Susan who did not participate in this witch hunt. Peter and Susan’s two sons are certainly family and they did not participate in this witch hunt nor do they seek “justice.”

Secondly, at the end of the UDJ story it says that Peter’s two sons were with him for his court appearance, “in the audience.” Peter’s two sons were by his side, not sitting back in the audience. Some people might interpret that wording to mean that Peter’s sons were distancing themselves from their father; in fact, in Simon Keegan’s words, their support for their father is steadfast. Luke Keegan writes to his father’s accusers on Facebook, “ Your belief that this (prosecution) will bring us relief is, for lack of a better word, ignorant.”

A grand jury was called by the DA. Since 2010, the DA has been unable to find any evidence of Peter’s alleged guilt that could serve to initiate a preliminary hearing. A preliminary hearing before a judge determines whether there is enough evidence to require a trial. In a grand jury hearing, people are free to repeat and embellish all manner of accusation. Hearsay is permitted. There is no cross-examination of witnesses nor any defense of the accused. A judge is not present.

The people who say that Peter killed his wife have spread the rumor that Peter behaved “suspiciously;” for example, that he didn’t sit with Susan’s parents at the memorial service for Susan. That is a lie. I was sitting in the pew behind the family. Peter sat with Susan’s mother and father. In front of the grand jury there would be no one to refute this lie.

It is not surprising that Peter was indicted by this grand jury since hearsay and rumor were considered and voted on. The vote did not have to be unanimous; just 66 percent of jurors must agree to send it to trial. Indictment is not guilt, but a directive to send the case to a real court. A preliminary hearing, where a judge would determine if there is sufficient evidence to proceed, is not held. Hearsay appears to be the only basis for bringing Peter to a criminal court proceeding; otherwise DA Eyster would have brought this case to trial long ago.

There are many people in this community who support Peter’s innocence of this charge of second-degree murder. This charge is the result of the rare use, or abuse, of the grand jury. It is a sad thing to let rumors and hearsay and a small group of people use our justice system in such a misguided way, with no judge or defense.

Elaine Richard, Ukiah

* * *

ED NOTE: Keegan partisan Elaine Richard has it all wrong.  Neither hearsay nor rumor is sought from or admissible from witnesses testifying before a criminal grand jury considering an indictment. All necessary witnesses had to appear and testify because, again, the relaxed evidentiary rules allowing hearsay testimony through law enforcement witnesses at a preliminary hearing do not apply during a grand jury proceeding.  Finally, witnesses, including Keegan in this instance, were cross-examined … it just was done by the prosecutor.

BOONDOGGLE ALERT!

That’s what we posted last night after reading Agenda Item 4w on Tuesday’s Supe’s agenda:

Approval of Agreement with Mendocino County Office of Education in the Amount of $175,000 to Provide CalFresh Outreach Services to School Children in Mendocino County for Fiscal Year 2017-18 …

On Tuesday the boondoggle was unanimously approved.

IF THE SUPERVISORS, none of whom are known to be profligate with their own funds but indeed jealously guard their lush pay and perks down to the penny, were asked to pay $175,000 of their own money for the simple task of placing telephone calls to the admin offices of Mendo school districts for the purposes of getting eligible people to sign up for Cal Fresh, would they spend $175,000 of their own money to do it?

NO, they wouldn’t. But today, they agreed with Welfare chief-tess, Anne Molgaard, that if Mendo didn’t spend the money some other county would, so by all means let’s route it through the County Office of Education to do what our schools already do as a matter of routine.

TO BE CLEARER than clear, the Supes are squandering $175,000 to duplicate what’s already being done by the individual school districts of Mendocino County via the sign-up forms in the packets sent home with all children at the beginning of the school year.

EVEN IF MOLGAARD’S hard-hitting team at Health and Human Services, formerly the Welfare Office, had to place the phone calls themselves to make sure that Mendo families were aware they could get food help, it’s a task that could be done in a couple of hours. Instead, the Supes and Molgaard are routing the $175,000 through MCOE, itself a redundant agency that does not perform a single task that the individual school districts of Mendocino County could not do better and cheaper.

THE LITTLE SCAM that played out to today with the Supervisors can serve as metaphor for government at all levels.

KZYX: THAT EXPLAINS IT.

To the manager of Mendocino County Public Broadcasting Corp.

I read this cartoon and immediately thought, one or the other of these people is everybody who ever worked in the office at KZYX. Including, of course, the managers.

It explains so much. Really, $600,000+ a year. Since 1989, almost $30 million 2017-corrected dollars, enough money to buy five acres, build a hospital on it and pave the visitors' parking lot. And everything on the air is so fucking dumb and harmless it makes anyone with a brain in his head want to tear his hair out. It's the radio equivalent of a fluffy hamster video. I applied to schedule my excellent, time-proven show on KZYX in February of 2012 and I'm still waiting for you to get off your thumb and put the five minutes of work in to switch me in. Remove from automation the idiotic reruns of recorded shows from thousands of miles away, shove a couple of local shows this way or that, and do it, already.

And pay the airpeople before you cash your own check. That's what a real manager of a real radio station does.

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

MCOE HOSTS MULTI-COUNTY EDUCATION CONFERENCE —

An Annotated Press Release from the Mendocino County Office of Education

Little River, CA – This summer, not last summer or the summer before or next summer, the Mendocino County Office of Education (MCOE) hosted a retreat from reality, always a short journey for educational professionals, for several county offices of education — God's teeth! There's more than one? — to discuss educational trends and share best practices. We all have lots of time to dick off, of course, because no one knows what we do anyway, or cares, besides which the funding units, aka "the kids," to whom we are totally dedicated and just love to pieces so long as each one comes with a fat check from the state in attendance money which continues to fund our "retreats," we'll of course keep right on retreating.

Participants included county offices from Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Sonoma, Santa Cruz, and Napa, whose collective education efforts have placed their graduates just behind Sierra Leone in international academic rankings.

MCOE Superintendent Warren Galletti, hosting the bogus event at the Little River spa was, for him, positively giddy. We will note that any number of Ukiah motels were available for the gathering, while we concede State Street lacks the cachet of the Little River Inn. “We were pleased to bring people together here in Mendocino County. It can be really valuable to connect with colleagues and work through issues together.” This blandly mendacious bullshit is typical of the primitive communication typical of this guy and his otherwise unemployable predecessors at MCOE and his comparably impaired peers.

To address the teacher shortage in California, participants discussed ways to support teachers with provisional intern permits and short-term staff permits, as well as creating online intern programs to attract and train more teachers. As we all know, classroom management, as contemporary edu-chaos is euphemized, is nearly impossible in a deteriorating social context like the one we have going here in America. Imagine yourself locked in a room all day with 30-40 hormonal 14-year-olds raised by pornographic television sets on diets of sugar-coated grease sticks! The job will be outsourced as soon as county offices of education can still get paid while doing it.

In Ukiah, people interested in becoming teachers can pursue a teaching credential locally from Sonoma State University. In partnership with the Sonoma County Office of Education, MCOE serves as an extension for Sonoma’s North Coast Teaching Program, all of them combining to guarantee a credential to any person at least plausibly above straight-up drooling imbecility.

Participants also discussed how to support local school districts as they navigate the challenges of ever-changing funding structures — always the literal bottom line of the edu-establishment's commitment to America's Future — and the politics of providing education to diverse populations, ranging from recent immigrants to transgendered kindergartners.

Mike Fine of the California Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT, pronounced “Fukmat”) provided participants with an update on their fiscal monitoring duties as required by AB1200, including specific methods of carrying out oversight responsibilities. In other words, Fine cautioned, be careful how you lie about the daily attendance stats upon which your state reimbursements depend. Some of us will recall the Boonville tenure of Superintendent Wobbling Eagle who marked every child present for an entire school year! The state compelled Boonville to pay back 10 cents on the dollar.

Del Norte County Office of Education shared information about its Equity and Diversity Conference on October 2017, where speakers will address reducing implicit bias, intergenerational trauma, the migrant experience, LGBTQ voices, and all manner of fashionable nonsense utterly irrelevant to instilling a plausible literacy in the little savages.

The group also reviewed ideas on how to help school districts implement state academic standards — not seen in California since 1960 — and establish a strengths-based approach to learning. Like push-ups? Dr. Paul Porter of UC Davis presented information on the importance of focusing on people’s strengths, suggesting that both students and staff are more likely to realize their greatest growth when they try to improve on their innate talents rather than focusing their energy on improving their weaknesses. Exactly wrong, Doctor, and please pardon us if we run a quick check on your bona fides.

Galletti, reaching deep into his cliche bag, declared, “Overall, we learned a lot. It was great to build relationships with other county offices and to learn from the experts. We’re all in this to provide students with the best educations we can. We'll pause here to repeat the Jesus Prayer for Mendocino County children. As our country and our culture evolve and priorities shift, we want to stay ahead of the curve and give our students the tools they’ll need to be successful in the decades to come.” Translation: We need to keep coming up with new ways to get paid.

After gathering for a final group bum nuzzle, the Northcoast's educational leadership waddled out into the evening fog of Little River at least as smart and committed to Our Nation's Youth as they were when they arrived.

Pictured: MCOE Table with IT Director Dave Smith, Superintendent Warren Galletti, Associate Superintendent Paul Joens-Poulton, Human Resources Manager Donna Walter

UKIAH, Tues., Sept. 12. -- A Superior Court jury returned from its deliberations at noon today with a guilty verdict against Adam Michael Kendall, age 28, of Harrison, New Jersey, for attempted murder.

Kendall was found guilty of a murder he attempted in Covelo back on May 16, 2015. The jury found true a special finding that Kendall personally used a hammer in this attempt to kill a marijuana business associate. The jury also found true a special finding that Kendall personally inflicted great bodily injury on the victim with the hammer. Kendall will appear in court on Thursday, Sept. 14, at 9 o'clock in the morning for the setting of a future date for pronouncement of the judgment and sentence and the referral to probation for a social study and sentencing recommendation. Meanwhile, the judge ordered the defendant's bail status changed to a no bail hold.

The prosecutor who presented the People's evidence to the jury was District Attorney David Eyster. The investigating law enforcement agencies were the Round Valley Tribal Police, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, and the District Attorney's own investigators. Mendocino County Superior Court Presiding Judge John Behnke presided over the five-day trial.

Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office

THE GIRL WITH THE RED TRIANGLE TATTOO

Asha Kreimer is still missing.

Today, Jeannie Kreimer is driving north from Laytonville to Arcata. With each poster she puts up in the small town post offices and stores along the way, she is hoping someone will stop, look, and watch for her daughter. She is here from Australia looking for “bread crumbs” as she calls them–clues to where her daughter, Asha Kreimer, might be and what might have happened to her.

Almost exactly, two years ago, Asha went missing in Point Arena. She is in her late twenties. When last seen she had long, brown curly hair and weighed about 145 pounds. She has brown eyes, is 5’10” and has an  Australian accent. She has a red triangle tattoo on her right wrist.

As reported here last year, Asha had some sort of a mental breakdown just before she disappeared and was taken to the hospital. She was released and went with friends to a restaurant in Point Arena where she disappeared. (See the earlier article for a more in depth description of what occurred.)

Jeannie Kreimer is beginning to fear she might never see her daughter again. But, still, she said in a phone call this morning, “I have to keep looking.”

If you have any information for Jeannie, contact the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department at (707) 961-2661 or call (707) 513-9138. You can also stay up with what Jeannie is doing trying to find her daughter by liking a Facebook page dedicated to Asha. (Click here.)

–RedheadedBlackBelt (Courtesy Kymkemp.com)

CORRECTION (Repost of yesterday’s item with corrected intro/summary):

SUPERVISOR McCOWEN wants to exempt newly constructured dwelling units of any description except for Accessory Dwelling Units (aka granny units) from the vacation home rental moratorium.

TO: Board of Supervisors, September 12, 2017

From Supervisor John McCowen

Subject: Proposed Exception to the Urgency Ordinance Extending Interim Restrictions on the Establishment of Short-Term/Vacation Rentals of Residential Property Pending Study and Consideration of Land Use and Other Regulations Pertaining to Such Rentals

The purpose of this memorandum is to propose an exception to the recently adopted moratorium on new short term or vacation rentals. If the Board agrees, the proposed exception can be incorporated into the ordinance under consideration today which would extend the moratorium.

The third Whereas of the ordinance states “…a substantial and increasing share of the County’s existing housing stock is being used as Vacation Rentals, thereby reducing the share of the County’s housing stock that is available for either purchase or lease by persons desiring to work and reside within Mendocino County….” The eighth Whereas states “…such rentals will continue to increase in number and continue to impact the number and affordability of housing units available for purchase or rental by persons desiring to reside within Mendocino County.”

Based on Board of Supervisors discussion, and the above statements from the ordinance, it seems clear that the intent of the moratorium is to prevent the further conversion of existing housing stock to short term rentals prior to the development and adoption of permanent regulations.

Creating a limited exception for newly constructed dwelling units appears to be consistent with the intent to preserve the status quo for existing housing stock. This limited exception may result in the construction of additional dwelling units. Even if some new dwelling units are utilized as short term rentals, this will not result in the conversion of any existing units which will still be available for rental or sale for purposes of long term occupancy.

I believe it is reasonable to exclude Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) from this exception because such units are a primary source of affordable housing. Further, given that ADUs are frequently constructed within an existing structure, it can be difficult to determine if they are truly “newly constructed” or not.

YESTERDAY WE ASKED if this house was the old one anchored for years way up Big River.

ERIC WILCOX CLARIFIED: That’s Dory Dan’s house up the Albion, been up there since the day Captain Fathom became sane.

YEARS AGO, kayaking up Big River, I paddled past a house boat structure hidden in a side channel that resembled a Chinese junk. I was told the guy who lived in it worked as a dishwasher some place in Mendocino. Anybody share my vague recall?

FAIR TIME

Hi Folks,

The Mendocino County Fair and Apple Show is this weekend!

There are lots of fun activities, with the Apple Bowl on Friday evening, the rodeo and rodeo dance on Saturday, and Sunday are the sheepdog trials, the parade and rodeo. The exhibits at this Ole Time Fair are something you don't want to miss!

If you signed up to bring in items here are the days they need to be checked in:

Home and Fine Arts were due last week on Weds and Thursday. Hope you got them in!

Ag and Horticulture, Livestock, Scarecrows, Floriculture, Fiber Arts and CA National Wool Show exhibits in place by 10 PM Thursday 9/14.

CARNIVAL: Daily! Pay-One-Price for Unlimited Rides – valid for use until 6 PM. $25 Pre-Sale available at the Fair Office, Lemons Market, AV Elementary School & Home Town Shopper and the revenue goes to the fair! $30 purchased at the fair

Good luck to you all and see you at the fair!

(Donna Pierson-Pugh)

POSTED!

Deb Silva writes:

I snapped the attached picture on Little Lake Rd. in Mendocino this morning. Someone has too much time on their hands!

KENDALL JACKSON IS A BAD NEIGHBOR

I live on the adjoining property to Maggy Hawk Vineyard (which is actually owned by Kendall Jackson) near Floodgate and they have been using propane noise cannons as a bird deterrent for a while but today was the worst I've heard. I have been subjected to it in years past.

There were two very loud bangs timed to go off every minute or so starting around 8am and going until around 3pm. That is 7 hours of what can be described as gunshots. If you break that down into each individual cannon shooting once a minute for 7 hours you get a combined total of around 800 shots. Does that sound like something a respectful, good neighbor would do? What is more ridiculous is that it doesn't work as a bird deterrent!

I called the only number I could find for Maggy Hawk Vineyards but it was a salesperson in Calistoga. He said he'd "pass word along" but it sounded like an empty promise. So I emailed the general information email address I found on their website. No reply yet. I have video of these pops and have taken to Instagram (only after my failed attempt at contacting them). I will lodge a noise complaint with the county but other than that I don't know what else to do. Someone I talked to mentioned sending an email to the AVA and Cc'ing Mark Scaramella but couldn't find his contact info. So here I am. Not sure what you can do with this but thought I'd give it a shot.

Thank you,

Beau Wiley

Philo

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Skrag comes sauntering by this morning and says, ‘I hear you got written up for barking too much. 'Bout time. I can hardly get a nap in without you going Yap Yap Yap.’ The nerve of this deadbeat, a total non-contributor criticizing a hard working dog like me, doing my job!”

CATCH OF THE DAY, September 12, 2017

WILLIAM BARRY, Ukiah. Failure to appear. (Frequent flyer.)

HEATHER DEWOLF, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

ERIC FRANCE, Willits. Community Supervision violation.

CANDICE HAWKINS, Covelo. DUI, stolen vehicle, controlled substance, failure to appear.

JOEL KIMBALL, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

JOSE LAGUNAS, Boonville. Controlled substance, paraphernalia.

SHERRI LUALLIN, Whitethorn/Redwood Valley. DUI.

MICHAEL MCGEE, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

KRISTA MITCHUM, Lucerne/Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

MIGUEL PLACENCIA-BARAJAS, Ukiah. Failure to appear, false ID, resisting.

FAITH VASCO, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery.

FOR LUCILLE ESTES:

Lucille, you won't do your sister's will?

Oh, Lucille, you won't do your sister's will?

You ran off and married, but I love you still

Lucille, please, come back where you belong

Lucille, please, come back where you belong

I been good to you, baby, please, don't leave me alone

I woke up this morning, Lucille was not in sight

I asked my friends about her but all their lips were tight

Lucille, please, come back where you belong

I been good to you, baby, please, don't leave me alone, whoa

I woke up this morning, Lucille was not in sight

I asked my friends about her but all their lips were tight

Lucille, please, come back where you belong

I been good to you, baby, please, don't leave me alone

Lucille, baby, satisfy my heart

Lucille, baby, satisfy my heart

I played for it, baby, and gave you such a wonderful start

–Little Richard

TRACKING THE BIG CATS

Mountain lion sightings and update

Woodlands Wildlife is creating a map of MOUNTAIN LION sightings here on the coast.  Please post them on the list or email them to WoodlandsWildlife@mcn.org.   Include location, date, time of day--so far it appears there is one hanging around the upper (east end) of Little River Airport Rd.   They spend their time patrolling their territories every few weeks, which can be 8-10 miles, but we've had 4 sightings over the last few weeks up Airport Road as well as reports of house cats going missing in that vicinity. There is also a cluster of sightings in the neighborhood of Gurley Lane in Mendocino.

Ronnie James

“OBSESSED WITH MERE SIZE and number we have been deprived of the feeling for the immense significance of the tiny, tentative first movements in the individual hearts and imagination.  Although our neglect of these impulses is destroying one system after another around us, we go on ardently giving our allegiance to the great established order, as if its continuance were assured.”

Laurens van der Post, The Heart of the Hunter 

VANISHING VASECTOMIES

We have a major public health problem here on the North Coast and it just got worse.  Several years ago Eureka’s Urology Associates, Humboldt County’s only urologists, joined what is now called the St. Joseph Health Medical Group (SJHMG). As demanded by the ethical directives of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and enforced by Santa Rosa’s Bishop Vasa, the urologists forfeited their ability to provide vasectomies. This responsibility then fell upon our general surgeons and family practitioners. Physicians at Eureka Family Practice (EFP) have provided this procedure for years but recently joined SJHMG. Its physicians have also been denied the freedom to perform vasectomies. The current WebMD site “Physicians Who Perform Vasectomy Near Eureka CA,” lists eight physicians. Six no longer provide this service.

How is this a public health problem? Because of all the permanent methods of birth control, vasectomy is by far the safest, most reliable and least expensive. According to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG) in the UK there is a 1 in 2,000 chance of a pregnancy resulting from vasectomy failure. This figure is based on men having been cleared by follow-up semen samples. One study put the rate at 1 in 4,000 when DNA proven paternity of post-vasectomy babies was taken into account. Approximately 13% of married men get vasectomies at an average age of 38 having sired 2.5 children.

Tubal ligation for women is considerably more invasive than vasectomy and the RCOG study concluded that it is ten times more likely to result in an unplanned pregnancy than vasectomy.

At this moment we have only three public vasectomy providers in Humboldt County: a general surgeon and two family physicians. Most other clinics refer their patients to Eureka’s Planned Parenthood. They have been covering the remainder of Humboldt’s vasectomy needs by scheduling twenty-eight cases per month with a two-month backlog, but as of this past month one of their two providers recently became a SJHMG physician and will no longer be providing these services.  Subsequently Planned Parenthood’s capacity to provide vasectomies has been reduced to 14 cases per month, pushing its backlog to a four-month delay of service.

Incidentally, in all of Trinity, Lake and Mendocino counties I could find only two vasectomy providers, both family physicians.

When you add the fact that neither St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka nor Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna allows contraceptive tubal ligation due to the USCCB directives, you begin to see the broad public health impact of losing access to vasectomy services. Pregnancy is one of the riskiest aspects of women’s health.  Access to permanent contraception must remain an option for those men and women whose conscience and/or health demands them to take such action.

The USCCB’s ability to deny those in need the right to control their own reproductive life regardless of the individual’s personal spiritual path or lack thereof clearly leads to increased suffering, morbidity and maternal mortality.  As a society we have allowed a religion to force unwilling physicians and patients to submit to its dogma to a degree that significantly compromises the medical standard of care.  We would never allow a religion-based hospital to deny giving whole blood, platelets or white blood cells to patients in need because their religion considered it evil, yet even as a spiritually eclectic society founded on the separation of church and state we have somehow allowed the USCCB to act precisely in this fashion. The USCCB’s spiritual intolerance significantly compromises reproductive health care not only in our county but also nationwide, especially in rural regions, for now one in six admissions to a hospital falls under their command and control.

This situation must be addressed and corrected.  All patients have the right to receive treatment reflecting the current medical standard of care. No religion or hospital should be able to deny care contained within these standards.  The USCCB’s efforts to do so under the guise of ‘freedom of religion’ (interpreted as a religion’s freedom to impose its dogma on all comers) would be more accurately described as tyranny of religion.  True freedom of religion is based on the element of individual spiritual liberty.  Every person must be allowed the freedom to follow their inner voice of wisdom and conscience, especially with respect to personal health decisions.  There is no place for coercion on the spiritual path and it should not continue to be passively tolerated by our society.

—Scott L. Sattler MD

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The American people aren’t “a people” in any sense of the past; identity politics, victim class growth industry and PC has destroyed any commonly held sense of nationhood known in the past — we’ve been Balkanized into warring tribes. Trump gets the focus now because the effectiveness of the other “equal” parts of government have been neutralized and “citizen” has been cancelled as a relevant distinction.

FLOODGATE FARM WORK PARTIES, JAYE'S SEPT. 29 ART OPENING "POLITIC-OH!", OCT. 13 MUSIC

3 items that may be of interest:

1. In its continued work recovering from the fire, Floodgate Farm is holding a work party on Tuesday, September 19th anytime between 8 AM and 6 PM. Volunteers will be fed and have a tour of the farm. The focus will be getting orchard areas ready for replanting, creating water bars and mulching on the steep fire breaks.  volunteers may scour the area for native seed too.  Anyone who has or can gather native grass (annual or perennial but native) and perennial seed for those fire breaks, especially ones that would do well in our mountain environment, is welcome to bring it.  Planting of that seed will wait until the rains get started (so it sprouts rather than getting eaten), but it is best to have seed on hand as timing is not predictable.

Anyone coming to the work party is asked to contact the farm for directions at 707-272-1688 or edibleland@earthlink.net (use phone closer to the date).  The farm is up a mountain road 5 miles from the West Road exit 557 off of US 101).

The farm can also arrange for volunteers on other days via phone at 707-272-1688.  There will also be a planting work party on Saturday October 21st.

2. Jaye Alison Moscariello is exhibiting her new post-2016-election work, POLITIC-OH!, from September 29-November 17th, 2017 at the Willits Center for the Arts, 71 East Commercial St. in Willits. The opening is 7-9 PM on Friday, September 29th. There is a members' preview starting at 6 PM; for info on that, www.willitscenterforthearts.org.  Beautiful landscapes with disturbing superpositions is a husband's take on these works-still-in-progress.  Her work can be seen at jayesite.com.
3. A music and dance tribute to Laura Nyro, an amazing songwriter of the 60's and 70's, is taking place Friday, October 13th from 7-10 PM. There will also be original music by Bill Taylor, and a few other songs. Bill Taylor on piano, George Husaruk on flute, Yanahay Hooper on bass, and Jaye Alison Moscariello on vocals plus some dancers yet to be announced.  This will be in the Great Room at the Willits Center for the Arts, 71 E. Commercial St., Willits.  Suggested donation of $15 at the door or to ensure a seat, you can buy in advance via paypal.me/JMoscariello and memo: Laura Nyro.

Thanks for helping get the word out!

Bill and Jaye  707-272-1688 (Bill) and Jaye's email is artisall@earthlink.net, phone 310-970-4517

FALL PLEASURES: GARDEN CONCERT BENEFITS UKIAH SYMPHONY

Benefit for Ukiah Symphony--Oct. 1 in Ukiah

by Roberta Werdinger

Pianist and Ukiah resident Sam Ocampo will perform a concert to benefit the Ukiah Symphony on Sunday, October 1, from 4 to 7 p.m., on the grounds of the home of Margie Salcedo Rice and Dr. Geoffrey Rice, 1351 Rafello Drive in Ukiah. The event will include a delicious light supper and desserts with vegetarian and gluten-free options. This eclectic and enjoyable concert will include classical and pop tunes, along with tango and jazz. Ocampo will be accompanied by an array of talented musicians including Nino Ocampo on upright bass and Margie Salcedo Rice, concertmistress, violinist and assistant conductor for the Ukiah Symphony, on vocals.

Born in Peru, Sam Ocampo migrated with his parents and three siblings to the United States when he was a teenager. He studied classical music at Stanford University and subsequently graduated from Andrews University with a degree in Music and Chemistry. He later obtained a MBA from Andrews University. He has interwoven his flourishing musical career, which has included performances at the Lincoln Center in New York City and various international venues, with executive roles in healthcare, including at Adventist Health and Sutter Health in California. Ocampo has also recorded over a dozen albums as pianist, arranger and producer, collaborating with legendary musicians such as Tommy Tedesco (founding member of the Wrecking Crew), Lee Holdridge, Michael Omartian, Tom Scott, and many others.

The Ukiah Symphony, now in its 38th season, continues to provide superlative music and programming to an appreciative small town. Every concert that is produced costs between $10,000 and $18,000, only a quarter of which is derived from ticket sales. The remaining funds and labor are raised via sponsors, volunteer work, and the support of the public. Symphony players are paid on a semi-professional basis. (Les Pfutzenreuter, the Symphony's inimitable conductor, emphasizes that the orchestra members are fully professional; the designation is given because they are paid as members of a part-time ensemble.) Each concert--and there will be four this season--is a tiny miracle of love, labor, and cooperation--an undertaking well worth celebrating, and supporting.

The suggested donation for "Concert in the Garden" is $75-100. All donations are tax deductible and can be brought to the event or mailed to: Ukiah Symphony Association, P.O. Box 892, Ukiah, CA 95482. Checks may be written out to "USA." RSVP by Monday, September 25 by calling Jean Stirling at 707-272-0313 or sending an email to: info@ukiahsymphony.org. A map to the event location will be mailed to each respondent. Please plan on arriving at least 15-20 minutes early to allow for time for the parking area shuttle. Handicapped parking is available. If it rains on October 1, the concert will be held indoors at the Rice's home.

FLORIDA AND "HOW THE WORLD BREAKS"

STAN COX, (785) 823-5376 ext 253, (785) 577-9561, cox@landinstitute.org, @CoxStan

Cox is co-author of the 2016 book How the World Breaks: Life in Catastrophe's Path, from the Caribbean to Siberia. He is research coordinator at The Land Institute.

He co-wrote the piece "A Rising Tide: Miami is sinking beneath the sea -- but not without a fight" for The New Republic.

In addition to writing extensively about Miami, he has also written in depth about Naples: "My parents retired in Naples at an RV park, so I spent a lot of time there. It's a playground of the rich, who snatch up all the waterfront property and have the yachts, so you'll see property damage for them, but there are also loads of low-income people and immigrants there to serve the construction, landscape, and service industries (and further inland, agriculture). They will suffer badly, and will have poorer recovery prospects than the affluent Neopolitans. I expect my parents' former neighbors at the RV park are having quite a hard time right now."

He just wrote the piece "100 Percent Wishful Thinking: The Green-Energy Cornucopia" and noted the new Wall Street Journal piece on the perils of maldevelopment: "Building Boom Puts Millions in Irma’s Path."

He said today: "The way we 'develop' a place is part of the problem. Some economic stimulus is adding fuel to the fire, this is true for Miami because of its extraordinary vulnerability to sea level rise, as well as other parts of Florida. For decades, we've been building in places that should have remained as ecological buffers. Irma is showing that with the intensity of hurricanes being pumped up by greenhouse warming, threats are not just to places like Tampa, but to inland areas many thought were safe, like Orlando.

"In the immediate aftermath of such disasters, economists and Goldman Sachs types always tell us not to worry, that our economy is so big and resilient that the city or state that endured the disaster will quickly recover and return to its growth trajectory. In fact, we're told, disasters provide economic stimulus: the construction and remodeling industries boom; car sales rise.

"We are already hearing this about Harvey, and will hear it even about Irma and the devastation it wreaked on an entire state.

"This idea -- that in large economies, disasters of any size or ferocity can easily be folded into the cost of doing business -- is a dangerous one.

"It ignores the toll in human misery that can never be undone by economic growth.

"It can lead people, including policymakers, to conclude that climate change won't be such a big deal, that if we fail to rein in greenhouse emissions, we can just ride out the disasters that ensue.

"It fails to consider whose economy is going to recover and be just fine. The benefits of the economic stimulus will go to the top of the economy, where they always go. People and communities who were barely making ends meet before the disaster will find it difficult or impossible to recover.

"The way we 'develop' an area is critical. The real estate boom economy has always ignored the possibility of such disasters. But a disaster doesn't befall a city, a city befalls a disaster."

Cox wrote about the impacts of development in Naples in a previous book, Losing Our Cool.

–John Sakowicz

EVENT:  Digging Dog Nursery's Free Saturday Strolls & Plant Chats

DATES: September 16 and October 7

HOURS:  10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.  (Saturday tour at 2:00.)

THEME: Beautiful coastal garden; free tour on Saturday.

COST:  FREE admission.

LOCATION: 31101 Middle Ridge Rd., Albion CA 95410. (Wheelchair accessible.)

CONTACT:  Deborah Whigham/ Digging Dog Nursery

PHONE: (707) 937-1130

EMAIL:  business@diggingdog.com

WEB: (full catalog) www.diggingdog.com

DESCRIPTION: Stroll Digging Dog Nursery's beautiful gardens in the redwood forest near the Mendocino coast. Learn about water-wise, pollinator friendly plants and how to add late season oomph to your garden! Take hame great gardening tips & tricks! Sip iced tea & nibble on tasty snacks. Questions welcome! For further details and full mail order catalog,  Digging Dog Nursery has been featured in The Garden Conservancy's "Outstanding American Gardens", "Martha Stewart Living," "House and Garden," "Vista" and other publications.

(Generic anonymous email circulating in cyberspace)

NO MATTER WHAT OUR KIDS AND THE NEW GENERATION THINK ABOUT US

"We are awesome!"

Our Lives are living proof!

To Those of Us Born 1925 - 1970 :

At the end Of this email is a quote of the month by Jay Leno. If you don't read anything else, Please Read what he Said.

Very well stated, Mr. Leno.

To all the kids who survived the 1930s, '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s!

First, we survived Being born to mothers who may have smoked and/or drank While they were Pregnant.

They took aspirin, Ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then, after that Trauma, we were Put to sleep On our tummies In baby cribs Covered With bright colored Lead-based paints.

We had no Childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets, And, when we Rode our bikes, We had baseball Caps, Not helmets, on Our heads.

As infants and Children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, No air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes..

Riding in the Back of a pick- up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water From the garden hose and not from a bottle.

We shared one Soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, White bread, real butter, and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And we weren't overweight. WHY?

Because we were Always outside playing...that's why!

We would leave Home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights Came on. No one was Able to reach us all day. --And, we were OKAY.

We would spend Hours building Our go-carts out Of scraps And then ride Them down the hill, Only to find Out we forgot the brakes.. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned To solve the problem..

We did not Have Play Stations, Nintendos and X-boxes. There were No video games, No 150 channels on cable, No video movies Or DVDs, No surround-sound or CDs, No cell phones, No personal computers, No Internet and No chat rooms.

WE HAD FRIENDS And we went Outside and found them!

We fell out Of trees, got cut, Broke bones and Teeth, And there were No lawsuits From those accidents.

We would get Spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles, or just a bare hand, And no one would call child services to report abuse.

We ate worms, And mud pies Made from dirt, And The worms did Not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, 22 rifles for our 12th, rode horses, made up games with sticks and tennis balls, and - although we were Told it would happen - we did not put out anyone's eyes.

We rode bikes Or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just Walked in and talked to them.

Little League had Tryouts And not everyone Made the team. Those who didn't Had to learn To deal with Disappointment.

Imagine that!

The idea of a parent bailing Us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have Produced some of the best risk-takers, Problem solvers, and Inventors ever.

The past 50 To 85 years have seen an explosion of innovation and new ideas..

We had freedom, Failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

If YOU are One of those born Between 1925-1970, CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want To share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.

While you are at it, forward it to your kids, so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it ?

The quote of the month by Jay Leno:

"With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?" For those that prefer to think that God is not in control...go ahead and delete this.

For the rest of us.....

ICONIC PROFESSOR & RADICAL ECONOMIST DOUG DOWD HAS DIED.

Author and former professor of International Economics at the Johns Hopkins University SAIS Bologna Center 1966-1967 and 1986-1995.

Doug Dowd was a national figure in the movement to end the Vietnam War and was Chair of the Economics Department at Cornell University in the 1960s. He has taught at the University of California, Berkeley and Santa Cruz; San Jose State and San Francisco Universities. He was a recipient of Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships.

Doug Dowd specialized in books critical of capitalism, including:

At the Cliff's Edge: World Problems and U.S. Power (2007)

The Broken Promises of America - At Home and Abroad, Past and Present, An Encyclopedia for Our Times (2 Volumes)

Understanding Capitalism: Critical Analyses, from Karl Marx to Amartya Sen (2002)

And It's Each for Himself and God for All: Once More, U.S. Capitalism on a Rampage (2001)

Capitalism and its Economics: A Critical History (2000)

Against the Conventional Wisdom: A Primer for Current Economic Controversies and Proposals (1997)

Blues for "America": A Critique, A Lament and Some Memories, 1919-1997 (1997)

U.S. Capitalist Development Since 1776: Of, By, and For Which People? (1993)

The Waste of Nations: Dysfunction in the World Economy (1989)

The Twisted Dream: Capitalist Development in the United States Since 1776 (1974/1977)

Storia del Capitalismo Americano dal 1776 (1976). Italian translation of first edition of The Twisted Dream.

Editor and contributor, America's Role in the World Economy (1966)

With Mary Nichols, Step by Step (1965)

Thorstein Veblen (1964/2000)

Modern Economic Problems in Historical Perspective (1962/1965)

http://www.dougdowd.org/

PLANNING COMMISSION AGENDA for September 21, 2017 is posted on the department website at:

https://www.mendocinocounty.org/government/planning-building-services/meeting-agendas/planning-commission

Victoria Davis

Commission Services Supervisor

707-234-6664

(Ed note: The only item on the agenda is the Mendocino Town Plan — The Plan the Planners cannot kill.)

BURNING MAN 2017

FROM THE OFFICE OF ASSEMBLYMEMBER JIM ‘JIVE’ WOOD:

Assemblymember Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) is aware that advocates of SB 562, the bill proposing a single payer health care system, are planning a “die in” at each of his district offices on Wednesday, September 13.

“I recognize the passion of these advocates and will always advocate for their right to voice their opinions,” said Wood. “Although SB 562 was held in the Assembly this year, solutions to move toward universal health care are in the works, and I hope these advocates are not stuck on this one solution to achieve health care for all.”

In February, prior to the introduction of SB 562, Wood, a dentist, and Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, an emergency room physician, requested Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon create a select committee to address this complex issue. This committee, the Select Committee on Health Care Delivery Systems and Universal Coverage, will hold meetings this fall to hear from experts and address some significant details that were not included in SB 562, such as funding mechanisms, quality control and the possible impact of federal action on the Affordable Care Act.

“The legislative sessions ends this Friday and time will not allow SB 562 to be heard,” said Wood. “I hope I will have these advocates’ support as we try to find a quality and sustainable solution to health care for all in California.”