Mendocino County Today: Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017

• Decision Makers
• Boonville Lights
• The Farrers
• 1880 Schools
• Navarro Rising
• Gun Incident
• Albion Bridges
• Little Dog
• Outlaw Mentality
• Weed Tweaks
• Holy Abortion
• Tree
• No Quiz
• Jobs
• The Browns
• Oligarch's Plan
• Fainbow
• Dangerous Driving
• CannaStress
• Yesterday's Catch
• Stein Haters
• Auto Cad
• Public Health
• Workshop
• Tax Scam

IT'S PROBABLY TOO LATE to dispute the ridiculously high salary increases the Board gave themselves on Monday, gifting themselves raises nearly as large as the average Mendo wage worker earns in a year without so much as a Grand Jury or citizen’s panel fig leaf justifying the money.

CEO Carmel Angelo’s justifications for the whopper pay jumps — she got one, too, of course, just not this week — are simply laughable.

ANGELO said the County needs the “highest quality decision makers for our County to make good policy.” (Socrates Hamburg? Aristotle Gjerde?) The Board has not written major policies for years; they rubberstamp whatever is put in front of them by Angelo. We’ve watched the Supervisors for many years, and if there’s ever been a “high-quality decision maker” among them that luminary has escaped our notice.

LET’S LOOK AT A FEW candidates for possible "high quality decision making":

FAIR DISTRIBUTION of Prop 172 funds, for example, was raised by the Grand Jury and demanded by the DA and the Fire Districts; the Board merely reacted to public demand and legal requirements. The unnecessarily complicated re-calculation of Promotion money, a highly dubious expenditure in the first place, was necessary because of internal arguments among the disparate recipients of the money, although there is zero evidence that expenditure does anything at all to increase tourism. Pot policy, such as it is, is a bad joke, so complicated a majority of growers are refusing to have anything to do with it. The temporary moratorium on vacation rentals meant well, but has had no effect other than irritating a few small local rental people. The fact that the Board worked on them proves nothing because none of that “work” has produced any desirable results.

ANGELO cited “the finances of the County,” tenuously improved is more like it and another example of High Quality Gang’s savvy decision-making; that the Board somehow “avoided a financial disaster,” is a claim so dubious that Angelo had to add, “I don’t know if people know how close we came to disaster, but I believe it.” The County had hired too many people at too high salaries and with too high pensions when the Great Recession hit in 2008, Angelo was assigned the task of firing a bunch of people, the decision makers then rubberstamped those firings, and the budget was magically balanced and the auditors and rating agencies were thrilled that the County had used a meat ax to get out of the fiscal hole the previous five high quality decision-makers had dug for Mendo County.

THE MOST OUTRAGEOUS “great accomplishment” cited by Angelo was the double-privatization of the County’s Mental Health services. Angelo referred to, “the courage of this board to make a major change in the model and providers. Look at where we are today. We are way ahead of where we were.”

WOW! That fantasy took us all the way through the looking glass. First the board privatized Mental Health without even the slightest attempt to reform the department first, simply handing the privatization process over to a weasley hustler called Tom Pinizzotto who, as the Grand Jury quickly pointed out, was a former employee of the for-profit Yuba City outfit that got the contract that Pinizzotto arranged for them. The Board then weasled out of that one by saying that Pinizzotto didn’t personally pocket any of the money they gave Ortner.

THE MIGHTY AVA, ahem, pointed out when Pinozzotto was hired that it seemed to us that the deal bordered on the criminal and would lead to a slo-mo mess which predictably built up to where the Sheriff and all inland doctors demanded that Ortner of Yuba City be dumped. Mendo was paying this Yuba City guy annual millions for services not rendered. (Outside of Mendocino County people go to jail for stuff like this.)

THE SUPERVISORS then proceeded to pay big bucks to a consultant who pointed out what everybody (but the Board apparently) already knew: Yuba City Ortner had to go. So the Board let Ortner limp along to the end of their three year contract and turned the contract over to Camille Schrader Inc., an in-County privateer. At no time in any of the Ortner disaster did a single board member ask for status reporting, even though such privatization is novel and expensive and needs to be carefully tracked.

PERHAPS EXHAUSTED by her account of her captive’s leadership triumphs, Angelo wrapped up her list of Great Accomplishments with the improvements at the County Animal Shelter which, she said, had had “continual problems for years.” Whose fault was that?! And the credit for stabilizing the shelter goes to mainly to the County lucking into a capable hire named Rich Molinari who brought some long overdue attention to the Shelter and, more notably, tamed the gaggle of hyper-critical cat ladies who had besieged the kennels.

LAST, Angelo cited something she called “The Leadership Initiative,” adding “the whole direction around leadership has been extremely successful.” No one outside the County has even heard of whatever the Leadership Initiative is, of course, but we can put it in the same discarded box as Angelo’s call for “metrics,” i.e., ordinary departmental reporting, a couple of years ago that has gone exactly nowhere.

THE ENTIRE SALARY increase process was essentially like asking a teenager to grade her own homework after telling her that the higher the grade the bigger her allowance. (—ms)

BOONVILLE LIGHTS UP IN LATE DECEMBER 2017

 

(all photos copyright Blurry McFuzzy)

LOCAL HISTORY: FILLING IN THE BLANKS

Velma and Buster Farrer, sorting some facts out

Hello AVA,

I just read something from Aug 2016 about Velma's Farm Stand.

Buster and Velma were my great aunt and uncle and I spent almost as much time on the ranch (which was a homestead from my great-grandfather and great-grandmother's days) than I did with my mom or dad. They pretty much raised me. And yes I speak a tiny bit of Boont. Velma was raised in Philo. Yes she went to Cuba when it was open to visitors from the USA but didn't live there.

The apartment behind the garage. I stayed in that! And I am not a Spaniard. There was a native guy, Henry, who lived across the road in a cabin, helped with the ranch-work and may have moved to the little apartment in his old age. He had come out of a mental care facility in Ukiah if memory serves.

As a side note Buster and Velma were married for over 50 years, she was a teacher and historian who did things like cataloging the wild flowers of Anderson Valley. She was in charge of the Hall of Flowers for the County fair. She also worked for the Charles Lumber Company (I may have the name off a bit but it should be close enough to verify) in their offices in Boonville proper. We had a big veggie garden across the creek, an apple orchard, livestock, mainly sheep, for most of my childhood as well as doing some harvesting of native herbs etc. The stand that we ran out of the garage was for apples. I do not remember one veggie being sold from that spot. Buster kept his gallons of Vin Rose there as it was cool and shaded in the summer. Was Buster "crusty"? Not really, but he did have a wicked sense of humor which could come off at times as crusty.

Here is a photo of Buster and myself back when.

I have some pics of Velma somewhere but not many as she was the one taking the pictures 99% of the time. I keep reading things now and then, mainly posted by the newer folks in Anderson Valley about my relatives and it's nearly always a huge leap from who and what went on back then so this is just a little sorting of the facts from someone who was there and is still alive. :-)

Thanks,

Tony Brown

Boonville

MENDOCINO COUNTY SCHOOLS IN 1880

by Katy Tahja

As an author in the midst of researching a new book on Mendocino County history I found myself perusing the “History of Mendocino County, California.” Written in 1880 by Allen, Bowen & Co. it’s an 800-page tome with 300 pages given to “Early & Prominent Settlers and Representative Men.”

My sarcastic and feminine mind thinks…representative of what? The ability to buy your way into the book? That’s what you had to do to be included…pay for having your biographical story included. I counted over 460 contributions from men, and a half dozen from women.

Anyway, I was looking at statistics about education in 1880. The volume does have hundreds of pages of real history. The section starts with a report of a traveler through the county in 1865 that described county schoolhouses. “They are generally too small for barns, to deficient in proportion for dwellings, and too nondescript and repulsive for anything but school houses.”

The 1880 writer assures us that schools had become neat, tidy & comfortable. At that time male teachers earned $74.90 a month and female teachers $63.90. There were 48 schools in the county in session six months a year and nine had longer school years. They estimated there were 3,274 white children in the county and 2,640 attended public school,

Money from the state educated those white kids, between the ages of five and seventeen, 1,225 Indians and five Negro. Under the guardianship of white persons 275 Indians attended schools and I’d assume the rest were on the Round Valley Reservation. There were reported to be 1,539 kids under the age of five in the county. There were 782 children not attending any school and four Mongolian and one blind child being educated. Gathering this kind of information must have been a daunting task.

Why? The folks gathering these statistics visited 57 schools throughout the county. There were schools in towns you’d expect like Albion, Anderson (Valley), Bridgeport, Calpella, Caspar, Comptche, Cuffey’s Cove, Hopland, Little River, Noyo, (Fort Bragg), Potter Valley, Round Valley, Ukiah, Willitsville and Yorkville.

But then there were the place names of schools in Mendocino County I’d never heard of…some I could find with reference books and good old google but some had such common names they could have been anywhere. Where was the Big Rock School, or the Ocean School, or the Oriental School, or the Willow School? I couldn’t find them with the reference tools and time I had but I did find the following…

Buchanan School was near Point Arena and Carroll School was near Ukiah. Coyote School is now under Lake Mendocino and Farley School was four miles south of Laytonville. Galloway School was down by Point Arena and Gaskill School was near Hermitage…you know where that is…right? (Seven miles southeast of Yorkville.) Indian Creek in Anderson Valley had a school, as did Sawyer’s, which is a few miles west of Hearst. Sylvan School was out Sherwood in Willits and Whitcomb School was two miles south of town. William’s Valley School was up by Covelo and had the smallest class in the county with 12 students.

The biggest schools in 1880 were around Ukiah with 350 kids followed by Big River (Mendocino) with 156 kids. Round Valley's schools had 148 kids and Cuffey’s Cove had 117. The town of Greenwood/Elk didn’t exist yet but Cuffey’s Cove did.

So now I know a whole lot of information on one year and that’s a start. Schools started in the 1860s and tiny schools faded away with the advent of school buses and consolidated school districts. Now we have public schools, charter schools, pre-schools, schools within the City of 10,000 Buddhas, alternative schools and colleges. More work awaits this author.

HIGHWAY 128 is poised to be closed. Caltrans has its electronic sign board set up and ready to switch on the minute the water is judged to be too deep on the road bed near the junction of Highway One and 128 at the Coast to safely drive through it. As of 3pm Wednesday afternoon 128 was still passable. As usual, MendocinoSportsPlus has the most timely information:

YES, HIGHWAY 128 IS OPEN - FOR NOW

NAVARRO RIVER INCHING UPWARD @ 5:30 PM...

Highway 128 is still open as of 5:30 pm - but the river is slowly rising. At 5:15 pm, the upstream USGS river gauge pegged the level at 3.74', the closer it edges to 4.0', and if the sandbar doesn't breach, the more likely CalTrans will close Highway 128 due to flooding just east of the Highway 1 bridge.

The Navarro River drainage Basin received about a half-inch of rain from the last system and it is slowly making its way into the river.

The river gauge "discharge rate," or the amount of water headed to the damned up mouth of the river, was 46.4 cubic feet per second (it was 44.3 this morning) - or in understandable terms - 343 gallons per second, 120,580 gallons per minute or 1,234,860 gallons per hour.

Highway 128 was closed for 36 hours November 20 -22nd this year due to sandbar flooding and in 2016 (November 14 - 19th) CalTrans closed the roadway for, ironically, 128 hours.

A GUN INCIDENT at Anderson Valley High School two weeks ago has reminded us that even a rural crossroads like Boonville is not immune to the frightening episodes that now occur regularly everywhere in the country. A gang-influenced youth had apparently been carrying a pistol on to the high school campus for at least several days prior to being disarmed by the Sheriff's Department. There's a video of him brandishing it in a joking manner at other students. The boy had been bringing a gun to school became known to school authorities when another kid wrote on the bathroom wall of the boy's bathroom, "Watch out on Monday. School shooter." This boy is now assumed to have written his ominous message to alert school authorities of the potential for serious harm that could result if the gun kid was not disarmed and suppressed. As he duly was, and transported to juvenile hall where he awaits a hearing. Presumably, he will also be expelled.

BIG ORANGE has a battle on its hands. A determined, and savvy group of Albion-area residents are struggling with CalTrans to preserve the Salmon Creek Bridge and the Albion River Bridge. CalTrans says the two spans are antiquated, the preservationists and their lawyer and environmental consultants say both are perfectly serviceable, and point out that the Albion Bridge is protected as historically significant.

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “I was arguing with these people about who's phonier, Scott Simon on NPR or David Muir of ABC News, when Skrag walks by outside and does one of his showboat back-flips, which he never does unless someone is watching. So I say, ‘That cat right there is phonier than Simon and Muir put together’!"

COMPTCHE OUTLAWS & THE UNWRITTEN RULE

by George A. Hollister

Every once in a while it’s important to remind people in Comptche that we are outlaws. And we have been that way for quite a while. It is not just hippies growing pot either. Hippies? Well there are factions in the community, there always have been. My guess is this is the way it is in most of rural Mendocino County as well; outlaws and factions.

Why do I need to remind? There is an unwritten rule in Comptche; don’t turn your neighbor into the law for doing something illegal, unless there is a threat of or a crime of violence, a crime against property, theft, fraud, etc. Well you get what I mean, something serious. It is not in the best interest of an outlaw to turn in his or her neighbor. At best your neighbor could turn you in as well, and at worst you are empowering the government agency trolls that will come after you and your friends for their pound of flesh at some point in the future. And who in Comptche is not an outlaw?

When I came to Comptche in 1961, “Robin Hood and his merry men” would best describe it; work hard, drink, fight, and poach the State’s deer. Not only did the deer get poached, so did the fish and abalone. To some extent or another, “everyone” did it. Driving drunk was a skill some considered a necessity to learn, and a drivers license was optional. Robin Hood was a redneck, we don’t see him much anymore, but that does not mean much has changed in Comptche.

Since 1970 we have had new factions of outlaws; displaced urbanites. Yea, hippies, but also retirees, weekenders, future retirees, etc. Some actually try to play it straight with the law. But costs, lifestyle, and inconvenience seem to always intercede, along with changes in the law. Of course with ever increasing government rules come ever increasing violations to those rules. And everyone becomes more and more an outlaw.

On occasion we all have a tendency to forget, and express the refrain, “This is different.” We drape ourselves in the cloak of the virtue of the law that everyone is supposed to abide by. And we turn our neighbors in. For what? Yea growing pot, but also for moving dirt, for logging, for doing what people like to do with their land and at times need to do with their land, or need to do to make a living. And as we cloak ourselves in the virtue of the law there is some terrible sin someone else has committed, a sin that exists mostly in our imaginations. The neighbor committing this terrible sin is always someone we are feuding with, or someone we view as just being different. Maybe they are newcomers, or old-timers, or dumb, or greedy, from out of town, or anything. They are not one of us. How about they are a corporation? That seems to always be a “good” reason to turn someone in. They really are not people after all. So the law becomes a weapon, not to protect, but to be used against those or get back at those who are not us.

But we are all outlaws folks. At least in Comptche we are. Look around your house, and your property. If you do not think you are an outlaw; it is likely you are, and don’t know it. And if you are actually not an outlaw now, my bet is you will be one soon. Thus the reminder of the unwritten rule; don’t turn your neighbor into the law unless a pretty serious crime has been committed.

REPORT FROM THE TRENCHES

by Hannah Nelson

Tuesday’s BoS meeting... there were some very positive and significant things that happened today, yet many of them will not be finalized for quite some time. The trick will be asking the Board to be sure that these things are finalized before 120 day temp state licenses expire. Here are some of the highlights:

1. Board gave direction to Staff to allow folks in sunset zone that cannot necessary meet setbacks (and therefore would not normally be eligible for a permit until after an overlay zone is developed) to apply for a permit anyway as long as they understand that they are taking a chance that if an overlay zone is not developed in their area, they will be unable to ultimately get a permit (so the application fee would be lost). The significance of this is that if someone who was unable to apply up till now can go ahead and apply, they can then get an embossed receipt and therefore be eligible for a state license. This is huge. We tried to push that for others that might be waiting for an exceptions policy, but that issue was not finalized... sent to working groups.
2. After two full years of asking, I FINALLY got them to agree to allow for “mix & match” styles of cultivation under one permit!!! So long as the cultivator grows only up to the max for their size parcel, they will not have to use up separate permits for different grow styles. They will still have to comply with the rules for each style of growing. This issue was approved in concept but I am not exactly sure when it will be implemented (I was unclear if it has to go to Working Group or has to be done in an ordinance amendment or what, so this needs follow up). But this is huge! Yes, you will still need separate state licenses, but at least you now won’t have to pay separate local permit application and annual fees. Also, if you won’t be using up more than 1 of your 2 allowable permits. Nurseries would still be a separate permit.
3. I finally got them to agree to not forcing people with more than 1 legal parcel but have more than one garden site, have to get two separate permits. They decided they need this to go to the Working Group to work out the details because they did not want to decide on the spot whether parcels have to be contiguous or owned by the same person (or if it could just be the same family that are growing together), so this will take some time to get final, but I am optimistic this wrong will be righted finally.
4. A retail or nursery or other cannabis business in Proper zoning for that type of activity, can add a distributor license even though the zoning might not be proper for distribution. The Planning staff came up with a way to have it be an ancillary activity and therefore, so long as there is a licensed biz with proper zoning for the other biz activity (such as retail or processing), it’s ok that there is no industrial zoning.
5. The Board was interested in developing a way to have exceptions to the 1000 ft from sensitive receptor requirement for cannabis business facilities. They are not talking about reducing that 1000’ to the state level which is 600ft, but rather coming up with a process for folks to apply for a reduction of there are sufficient other barriers/not easy to see/get to from the sensitive receptor (like a school) and the proposed cannabis business. The discussion focused on Orr Springs Rd industrial property, but the eventual process will likely apply to other situations.
6. The environmental health ordinal was changed to allow porta-potties, with two important changes that we beat back: they agreed with Scott Ward’s suggestion to not require pumping every two weeks (they changed it to every 4 weeks or as needed) and they agreed with my request to strike the provision that would not allow it to be all year round (staff inserted a provision that required folks to sign something saying they would not use it all year, that was struck).
7. Working groups are allegedly starting in January and will be on a regular schedule, but we still don’t know when. It is getting very hard to not know when, so maybe folks want to politely ask the CEO’s office to give us sufficient advance scheduling. Most of us can not rearrange our schedule a week in advance.
8. Dan Gjerde again asked and the Board directed staff to specifically look into, the Coastal Zone issues. It was mentioned that other jurisdictions have had success moving forward with ordinances governing cannabis businesses even in the coastal zone.
9. Staff announced that the Ag Exempt policy is being “refined” and finalized and will be ready January 1st. That was a shock to all of us since it was understood that it would go back to the Board first. While I applaud the idea of having it finalized soon, I am very concerned that staff might be changing what the Working Group came up with. We will have to be vigilant to see if they changed anything from what the Working Group agreed upon and if so, immediately tell the BoS, since it was our understanding that our proposals would be presented to the BoS. In fact, I was counting on it because I had come up with 3 more suggested changes but since there were no more meetings, there was no place to ask for them (though I did send a letter to Mike Oliphant).

I am frustrated that we still don’t have things calendars for amendments or working groups, but I am so pleased that some of the issues are finally moving forward. I will be sending an email to Chair McCowen for really insisting on pushing particular issues even when some of the other members didn’t necessarily want to. Also, he continually reminded one board member who was worried about changing too many things that they always knew they would have to continually change things. I thank him for his leadership in that regard.

Ok, it’s late, I have to wake up early and do it all again.

That’s it from the trenches.

Hannah L. Nelson, Attorney At Law

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS

Editor,

Press Democrat letter-writer Dean Davis says, “the God of the Bible thunders against things like abortion.”

Many fundamentalist Christians unfortunately believe that the Bible condemns abortion. Not so, perhaps because abortion was so widely practiced and accepted in Biblical times.

There are many extremely vague Biblical passages which pro-lifers infer to be God’s position on abortion. Ironically in the Bible’s 1,700-plus pages, with slews of common human practices like eating pork getting condemned, abortion is never mentioned. Not once.

In one noteworthy passage (Numbers 5: 11-28), God sanctions and literally causes an abortion (for a woman who’s been unfaithful to her husband).

The Southern Baptists originally applauded Roe v Wade back in the 1970s. Unfortunately some in the Republican Christian right disapproved of this and turned abortion into a political rallying cry.

A majority of Americans and religions believe God has no “position” on abortion but rather gives us “free will” and his love for making the best decision possible when these difficult and frequently “no-win” situations arrive in our lives. Those who think they know what God wants and try to dissuade and/or thwart women from freely making their own private, spiritual decisions do them — and society — a grave harm.

Rick Childs

Mendocino

FORT BRAGG CHRISTMAS TREE

NO BOONVILLE QUIZ THIS WEEK: TOO BUSY WORKING ON THE SLEIGH…

We are on the 2nd and 4th Thursday schedule so this being the 3rd Thursday of the month, the General Knowledge and Trivia Quiz will not take place this Thursday at Lauren's Restaurant in Boonville. This is good because I have lots to do before next Monday evening and into the early hours of Tuesday morning when undoubtedly I will be very busy. It’s just my side job — the Quiz on the 4th Thursday, December 28th will also not be affected in any way. In fact it will be a splendidly festive Quiz, very relevant to the time of year.

Hope to see you there,

Stephen Sparksanta, Quizmaster

“We thought of how to get rid of Mueller—say that it will be great for the little guy and create jobs!”

GENEALOGY

RE: Carre Brown and wolves being at her door.

I don’t think too many wolves would be visiting Ms. Brown’s door, Lew Brown, her husband wouldn’t put up with that, at 69 years old he is still quite muscular and a hard worker tending to his family’s farm in Potter Valley. The Brown family have been taking care of themselves for a long time, believe me. They were hardly poor.

Ms. Brown’s friend who commented above needs to get her facts right. It was Webb Brown, Lew’s father who owned the gas station, and who became a very prominent figure in Mendo land for many many years. Carre is still riding Webb’s shirttails. She married good.

Webb Brown.

“In his long career Brown was owner of a gas station, he then spent several years in the dairy business and in 1955 through 1977 he was elected and served as the Mendocino County Assessor. As President of the California Assessors Association from 1963-64 he was responsible for 12 major bills dealing with tax assessment. His many public services included several terms on Mendocino Air Management District Board, and as a member of the Ukiah Unified School Board as well as serving as a Potter Valley School Board Member. He was Chairman of the Save the College Committee for Mendocino College and was named Distinguished Citizen by the college for his support in establishing the college and helping it move to its current location.”

http://www.eversolefs.com/218/Wilburn-Webb-Brown-Memorial

— James Marmon

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

“There are those who believe that if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous their prosperity will find its way up through every class which rests upon them.”
–William Jennings Bryan (Cross of Gold speech, 1896)

This Republican tax plan will add $3.1 trillion to the federal deficit initially and $9 trillion or so over the longer term. The Republicans will then use this to argue for more cuts to programs they don’t like – essentially so they can spend more on programs they do like. In their rush to help their benefactors they will shrink the middle class to almost nothing by extracting wealth and moving most of them to the poverty level. Republicans don’t want the poor to go away. They want them to die because they are a hindrance to their plan to reduce the size of government and eliminate every government program which provides individual benefits. It will be replaced by a corporate welfare plan. This has been the plan since FDR. A handful of them realize that this is just plain stealing so they have manufactured other issues to distract us like war, class, sex, religious and race politics.

Neo-liberals (not classic liberals) like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the Clintons have joined the fray and are as complicit as neo-cons like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. They just disguise their motives differently.

FAINT FORT BRAGG RAINBOW

WHAT’S THE HURRY?

Editor,

I am seeing more and more drivers who, while trying to rush to someplace, pass cars using the middle turning lane. This is not only illegal but highly dangerous. Is it that important to get to your destination two to three minutes earlier? No one wants to cause an accident that could kill or maim innocent adults and children that is so preventable. Please. Take a breath, relax and you will get to your destination. It isn’t worth it.

Alan Murakami

Santa Rosa

STRESS! and the permitting process! Cannabis Hour, Dec. 28, 9a.m. on KZYX

How are you handling stress and the cannabis permitting process? That's the topic of the next Cannabis Hour, Thursday, Dec. 28, at 9 a.m. on KZYX. Nursery owner Ron Edwards and cultivator Corinne Powell will join host Jane Futcher and social worker and Flow Kana VP Amanda Reiman <https://www.facebook.com/amanda.reiman.5?fref=mentions> to share strategies for dealing with the feelings and forces creating stress in the cannabis community and beyond. Please join us and call in with your stresses or strategies at 707 895-2448 at 9:40 a.m.

* * *

A READER WRITES: I'm trying to reach Jane Futcher at the Cannabis Hour program, but I couldn't find an email address for her.

I would like to send in a comment about her upcoming show regarding stress issues in the cannabis industry. Specifically, I'd like to provide a perspective from a non-grower about the stress surrounding commercial cannabis of late.

My family and I live in a rural residential subdivision in Mendocino County. My family does not derive any of its income directly from cannabis. We have lived in our subdivision for about 10 years now. Over that time we have seen the weed farms grow in size and density, mostly from people outside the area moving in.

Our subdivision has homeowners codes, covenants and regulations dictating land use activities. Long story short, it has become very stressful of late reconciling the desire of many residents within this community to keep it as a residential only subdivision in the face of ever-growing commercial cannabis. It has been very stressful on both sides of the issue. Committees have been formed, meetings held and many folks have reached out to the County, but the County doesn't seem to want to get involved with our specific set of issues.

My contention is that I think the County made a huge error in ignoring the desire of subdivisions to maintain a residential first priority. This County is saturated with weed grows. On top of this, most of these so-called "mom and pop" grows are not owner occupied and just have transient workers and water truck traffic constantly throughout the grow season.

I'd prefer to remain anonymous in this discussion because of the tension within our community, but I did want to communicate that there is stress on both sides.

Thanks for your time...

NAME WITHHELD (Mendo County resident non-grower)

* * *

JANE REPLIES: Hi Name Withheld. I will definitely bring up some of the stresses felt by residents who think there is too much cannabis growing in their neighborhoods or residential subdivisions where a number of people don’t want it, as well as grows that may be bothering neighbors. Thanks for your email. KZYX forwarded your email to me as well as the AVA. You can always call in, too, at 895-2448, although I can’t guarantee you’ll get through to us. Best, Jane Futcher

CATCH OF THE DAY, December 20, 2017

DEBORA CANVARI, Potter Valley. DUI.

JONNATAN ESQUIVEL, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

JEFFREY GRITTEN, Sacramento/Ukiah. Driving with license suspended for reckless driving.

ROBERT MCKISSICK, Ukiah. First degree robbery, parole violation.

MICHAEL PARKER, Ukiah. Resisting, probation revocation.

ABBY SARGENT, Willits. DUI.

CHRISTINE SHARP, Ukiah. Controlled substance.

ASPEN THOMPSON, Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs.

HATING JILL STEIN

Editor,

So the Podestas are using Power Post to get even with Jill Stein for attending a peace conference in Russia. Actually, they’re getting even with her for taking a million votes away from Hillary Clinton. That’s the same Hillary Clinton who facilitated the sale of Uranium One to Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear agency. I can understand why Trump people and Hillary people hate Jill Stein. She graduated Harvard magna cum laude, graduated Harvard medical school, and had a successful career as a doctor while successfully raising two suns. She’s received awards for her advocacy on behalf of the environment and health.

Hillary failed the bar exam for the District of Columbia—and hid that fact for about 30 years. She spent a good part of her early working life serving as Governor Bill Clinton’s bag lady at The Rose Law Firm in Arkansas where she accepted bribes and billing hours from Monsanto, Tyson Chicken, and the Waltons in exchange for legislation effected by the Governor that revised zoning restrictions, relaxed pollution laws, and shielded favored business from consumer protection agencies.

…

“Twenty-Seven psychiatrists and mental health experts have produced a book called The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, which I think, despite stating that the fate of the world is in the hands of an evil madman, understates the danger.

The case that these authors make is one that I believe would strike most readers not loyal to Trump as common sense. The evidence that they compile, and with which we’re mostly already familiar, strongly supports their diagnosis of Trump as hedonistic, narcissistic, bullying, dehumanizing, lying, misogynistic, paranoid, racist, self-aggrandizing, entitled, exploiting, empathy-impaired, unable to trust, free of guilt, manipulative, delusional, likely senile, and overtly sadist.”

The same diagnosis could be applied to most Trump supporters—who are often society’s losers. They tend to be the underachievers—the marginalized, the resentful, the intellectually non-endowed, and the ignorant. They sat in back of the classroom and glowered resentfully at the Jill Steins who sat in the first row and answered the teachers’ questions. They wound up with dead end jobs—or no jobs at all because they are psychopaths and are convinced they know more than anyone else.

Ignorant, stupid, resentful, dead end jobs, and convinced they know more that anyone else—including their former supervisors. Remind you of any Trump supporters you know?

Louis Bedrock

Roselle, New Jersey

THE ACCOUNTS OF WEINSTEIN’S ACCUSERS — over a hundred have been compiled online — reveal that at times he used physical force to subdue women. But more often his tactic of choice was intimidation; he rode the aura of power. He was also a practiced manipulator, and manipulators know their audience: he played on women’s fear of making scenes or standing up to men. Those who didn’t buy into it seem to have fared better. The actress Lupita Nyong’o recalled several encounters with Weinstein in an essay for The New York Times. When he trotted out his familiar moves, she refused to play the expected role: when he asked to give her a massage, she turned the tables and gave him one instead, consciously putting herself in control of the situation. When he tried taking off his pants, she walked to the door, not giving him the satisfaction of seeming intimidated. And he backed down. She seems to have understood that Weinstein may have had power over her career, but he didn’t have power over her, and making that distinction gave her more options for negotiating a bad situation. There are thousands of stories circulating, and a lot to process. What’s been particularly horrifying to learn is the seriality of the harassment enterprise, the enormous numbers of victims so many of the sexual exploiters racked up. It’s like they’re on autopilot, programmed to extract sex — or recompense, or humiliation, or something — from unwilling women. Whatever they’re after, clearly no quantity of it ever suffices. Learning about other humans acting so robotically presents a conceptual difficulty. We wish to emphasize the moral agency of the predators, their supposed gains — sadistic pleasure, the glee of getting away with it — which enlarges their monstrosity and distinguishes them from the rest of us. But who would “choose” to be a robot?

— Laura Kipnis

“ACCIDENTS” ARE NO ACCIDENT.

In the rush for profits workers lives are sacrificed.

Editor,

Today, December 19, 2017, the US Congress voted for A Trillion dollars in tax cuts for corporations and the rich, but no money for train safety.

Yesterday, six people were killed, scores injured as a train jumps tracks and crashes in Washington state, December 18^th, 2017. The train had no positive train control system.

Remember the Metro-North Railroad Hudson Line passengers train derailed December 1, 2013 - killing 115 passengers, and injuring another 61. It was caused by a Lack of safety controls.

Remember the Amtrak Northeast Regional train that derailed in Philadelphia May 12, 2015 - killing 8 and injury over 200, 11 injured critically. It was caused by a Lack of safety controls

There is a positive train control system that automatically slows or stops a train but they were not installed due to Congressional inactivity, euphemistically know as “budgetary shortfalls”.

Other obvious protections would be to have a minimum of 2 engineers in the control room of all trains at all time. Installation of Dead man’s switches in all trains, Speed controls on tracks and trains and a reduction of the work day could all be instituted

What about the crash that critically injured Tracy Morgan, TV actor on “30 Rock Star” show. It was caused by Wal Mart’s employee’s Truck Driver Fatigue, a preventable condition that is responsible for killing over 5,000 people a year.

These deaths can be prevented by Legalizing, Regulating and Enforcing shorter working hours, adequate sleep, time for commuting, time for family and time for meals as well as adjustments for work shift affects on Circadian Rhythms.

It was recently reported in the AP, August 11, 2015, that a report showing air controllers work schedules were causing them to miss sleep chronically and thus contributing to 50% of the errors made by air controllers. Instead of immediately insuring that air controllers get 8 hours sleep The US Government kept the report secret for years.

The Government in general works to maintain the profits of the bosses, their finance and industry, not the health of the working class as the above adequately demonstrates. Public health refers to all the organized methods used to prevent disease, promote health and prolong life among the population as a whole. The US Government’s Public Health Activities receives only 3% of the over Two Trillion dollars spent for health related services.

Only when workers have total control of their working conditions will we have the possibility of making the safety of working people one of the highest priorities of our society.

Dr. Nayvin Gordon

Oakland

gordonnayvin@yahoo.com

REP. HUFFMAN BLASTS PASSAGE OF FINAL GOP TAX SCAM

Washington, D.C.- Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA) today voted against the final Republican tax scam, which will harm families across the North Coast, drive up the deficit, lavish a huge tax windfall on the wealthiest Americans, corporations, and special interests, all while threatening the economic health of our country. The Republican tax scam passed the House today on a party-line vote and will be voted on today in the United States Senate.

“I’m deeply saddened that this reckless and unfair Republican tax scam may soon be the law of the land,” said Rep. Huffman. “Many Californians and middle-class families will see higher tax bills while President Donald Trump and Senator Bob Corker will enrich themselves through tax loopholes and windfalls. Seniors in particular are going to end up paying for this scheme, which explodes the deficit and will lead to billions in cuts from Medicare and other safety net programs.”

The bill especially harms California families by slashing their state and local tax deductions, while allowing those deductions to remain for corporations. Under the bill approved by Congress today, more than half a million California households that make less than $76,530 will be facing an average tax increase of $620, while almost two million California households with an average income of $116,500 will face an average tax increase of $1,890.

In addition, the Republican tax scam:

• Raises taxes on 86 million middle class families across the nation;
• Gives 83 percent of the tax cuts to the wealthiest 1 percent;
• Makes tax cuts for families and individuals temporary, while making corporate tax cuts permanent; and
• Opens the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to dangerous oil drilling.

CA Rep. Jared Huffman