Mendocino County Today: Friday, Jan. 5, 2018

• Undeserved Raise
• Sandbar Maintenance
• Fire Response
• Inadequate Warning
• 5th District
• Saul Pacheco
• McCracken Found
• Sebastian 2018
• Ed Notes
• Little Dog
• Police Reports
• Yesterday's Catch
• Heavy Questions
• Copper Mountain
• Federaljuana
• Judicial Assignments
• Homeless Bound
• Teen Bibliotherapy
• Last Call
• Assault Weapons
• Seeking Sculptors
• Getting Dressed

SHERRY GLASER, ALBION, PUBLIC EXPRESSION, Board of Supervisors Meeting, Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Glaser: Carmel Angelo is suggesting that you give yourselves a raise. On what merit, other than time passing? $2000 more per month brings your salary to $7000 a month. All of us who you’ve been representing have had a pay cut because of your ineptitude and your inefficiency in passing ordinances and protections. [The recent bust of a legal pot transportation operation called “Old Kai” with a County permit which has received national attention; see below] is a huge symbol of your failure. I am not rewarded at work for failing. I don’t get a raise for that. I got a raise last month for doing a really good job and bringing in revenue. I got a dollar an hour more. So I am not sure why you are getting a raise or why you would vote yourselves a raise? What have you done? What revenue are you bringing into this county? What have you done to bring in revenue? Ms. Croskey, you are new to the board. I don't know why —

Supervisor Hamburg: Please address yourself to the Chair.

Glaser: I don't know why anyone on this board of supervisors should get a raise. I appreciate your response to the fire victims and that you have discussed it among yourselves. But as far as the loss of these families of their legal product [the nearly one ton of marijuana Old Kai was transporting] you have been silent. So this is a $24,000 a year raise. A 40% raise. Meantime, the county is suffering. So many businesses are going out of business. I work at an Inn right now and we have very little business. Everyone is taking a cut. What you just read [the proposed resolution increasing Supervisor salaries] says “the increase or decrease.” I think it's time for a decrease in your salary. Or it should at least stay the same. $5000 a month seems sufficient. More than enough. Or maybe you could be giving the $100,000 or more per year that you'll be getting to firefighters, teachers, mental health. That $100,000 a year or more could really help people. But that’s not what you're doing. You are going to be seeing letters to the editor, radio ads, interviews, fighting this increase. Meantime, Mendocino County is suffering. I want to thank Mr. Gjerde for being a dissenting voice in this pay raise. None of us got paid to come here today. You are always being paid whenever you talk to us. And you limit our conversation. You are constantly telling us not to be redundant and repetitive. Which you are! Constantly repetitive and redundant. Constantly repetitive and redundant. Let us speak. Don't judge us. Don't silence us. Don't shorten our time. Listen to us and respond to us like you work for us. You do! We are your boss. We pay for this. You don't deserve a raise.

* * *

The Old Kai pot transport bust story (one of many) from AP/WashPo:

washingtonpost.com/business/california-company-has-pot-license-workers-still-arrested/2017/12/27/8e942864-eb62-11e7-956e-baea358f9725_story.html

THE NAVARRO SANDBAR (VIA MSP)

This is an example of what Fish&Game does to screw the people of California. In the past the mouth of this river had been opened using a cat or excavator to stop the flooding. I know for a fact they done it from the sixty's up until the late ninety's and all of a sudden Fish&Game decided it would hurt the fish. The salmon are now going to be forced to spawn in the ocean and die. There wiping out a whole population of salmon for a year. They done the same thing in Pudding Creek a number of years ago and I was told it was because of a little bullhead fish that was endangered. I wonder what happens to that bullhead when mother nature turns loose and floods everything to a point it blows the sand bar out. More water will flow out the mouth and the impact will be twice as bad on the little bullhead. This idea is beyond stupid and I would sure like to know how these idiots justify what they are doing.

(Mike Tubbs, via MendocinoSportsPlus)

TIMELINES

Valley Fire Facts

by Phillip Murphy, Lakeport

The first report of the Valley fire was received at 1:22 pm on September 12, 2015, and according to official dispatch logs. Sheriff Brian Martin was sent to help with evacuations at 2:59 pm, but did not arrive on-scene until 7:12 pm, 4 hours and 13 minutes later. Sheriff Martin later publicly stated he spent the afternoon in Kelseyville at his child’s ballgame, which explains the lengthy response time.

Sheriff Martin remained on-scene until 12:29 am the next morning, after having been on-scene for only 5 hours and 16 minutes, even though 10 of his deputies worked overtime shifts that day.

Sheriff Martin later stated there was no time to activate the emergency broadcast system which consisted of two local AM and two FM radio stations, and could have been used to help keep the 9-1-1 dispatch center from being swamped with frantic calls for evacuation information.

The other reason the dispatch was swamped was that even though the new $3 million dollar facility had 11 work stations, only three were staffed that day because no provisions were made at the sheriff-ran center for rapidly filling those desperately needed extra dispatcher positions in times of emergency.

The sheriff put out the first NIXLE alert at 6:31 pm, though it was only an evacuation advisory and came so late that is it likely that by then the fire had already claimed it’s first victim. The second NIXLE directing a mandatory evacuation came out about an hour later, by which time more had died and hundreds of homes had burned.

The county of Lake maintains a list of elderly and handicapped residents unable to self-evacuate. When later questioned as to why it was not used, the sheriff said he never asked the fire captains for the list as there was no time for that either. Apparently he didn’t know that he was supposed to contact the Social Services Director directly to obtain the confidential documents.

Sheriff Martin knew where the fire began and should have known that 35 mile-per-hour winds were forecast to last until midnight that day. With multiple communities downwind, he should have known any fire would likely be uncontrollable in the first day when coupled with low humidity along with high winds and temperatures, meaning that even at 2:59 pm it should have been clear that thousands were in grave danger.

It is important to have a full understanding of what happened that day, in order to make the response to future incidents as successful as possible. It is also important that the record is correct and has not been distorted or misrepresented, in order that the public can accurately assess the performance of their elected employee, the sheriff.

It is also important to remember some of those who were not invited to ride on a float for public safety “Heroes” in the Rose Bowl parade, like Niko Matteoli, Richard Reiff, Logan Pridmore and captain Pat Ward, the crew members of helicopter 104 based at the Boggs Mountain CalFire station, who were all badly burned when the fire over-ran them and forced them into their survival bags. We should remember that operations base has saved Lake County from many disasters over the years, and that simply climbing aboard an old helicopter on a daily basis is a risky business, let alone jumping into a fire from one.

We should also not forget the five senior citizens who lost their lives (Barbara McWilliams, Robert Fletcher, Leonard Neft, Bruce Burns and Robert Litchman), as while the other fire damage can be repaired, there is no way to bring these folks back, as no amount of tinkering with the public’s perception of that day’s events can do that.

ALARMING FAILURES LEFT MANY IN PATH OF CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES VULNERABLE AND WITHOUT WARNING

(Mendocino County's disaster included)

by Paige St. John

The Sonoma ridgeline was a sunrise of flame as Sgt. Brandon Cutting led deputies up country roads to pound on doors, hollering “Sheriff’s Office!”

Thirty minutes later, with Cutting huffing from exertion and choking in thick smoke, the evacuation of Redwood Hill was still playing out one door at a time. He followed the sound of shouts to an officer struggling to carry a disabled woman. Her house was on fire. Her shoe on the ground. The night around them was orange in every direction.

It was 11 on a Sunday night, the beginning of what would be the most destructive fire siege in California history. Frantic rescues were taking place across wine country as heavy winds ripped down power lines and the dry hills lit up in flames. Modern technology in the form of robocalls and digital alerts would not join the fight to roust sleeping residents for another half an hour.

When the warnings came, they were not received by many of those in the most peril.

Two months after the wine country fires, officials still debate whether more could have been done to give residents earlier warnings before the fires swept in, ultimately killing 44 people and destroying more than 10,000 homes.

The fires highlighted the inadequacies of the emergency warnings officials employed and have prompted a push for new safety protocols. Some of the same problems occurred two months later when the Thomas fire — the largest on record in California — swept through Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

In the end, the warnings that officials did send reached only a fraction of those in the path of the fire, and emergency agencies struggled to target their warnings to the correct geographic areas. The situation left officials frustrated and looking for answers.

“I can use my cellphone to order a pizza and it gets here,” said Rob Lewin, director of the Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management. “Why can’t I have that same system to save people’s lives? To get people out of harm’s way?”

The struggle to warn wine country

Although weather forecasters told fire departments across Northern California to prepare for incendiary conditions, decisions to broadcast evacuation orders did not take place until hours after the fires started and residents were already trapped. Those caught by surprise jumped into swimming pools or water tanks, or ran through vineyards.

Fires flanked tourists and residents alike in Napa from three sides, but Napa County relied on sending cellphone text messages to the small population that had the foresight to register in advance. It uses the same tool to announce parades and water main breaks.

Electronic logs show that not until the following afternoon did the county attempt to broaden its warnings to include some 53,000 landlines gleaned from AT&T — a broad message asking residents to refrain from dialing 911.

The effort made no allowance for the tourists who are the lifeblood of the Napa economy. Hotel staff at a luxury golf resort pulled guests from their rooms in pajamas even as a highway patrol medevac team plucked trapped residents off the ridge above by helicopter. The deputies attempting to knock on doors to spread evacuation orders couldn’t even get up the fire-blocked road.

Sonoma County sent text messages and robocalls, but records obtained under the California Public Records Act show only 50% of the numbers on its call list worked. An analysis of the calls shows the county attempted to reach less than a tenth of those living in the targeted warning area. Fewer than a third of that one-tenth would pick up the phone.

Every county had the capacity for alerts carried on a federal system that would loudly buzz every cellphone within range of a working tower — by sending the messages either on their own or through the state. Of the eight counties hit by 14 fires that night, only one — Lake County — employed the system. A neighboring county that had no fire, Marin, used the system to tell fire evacuees where shelters were open.

In Sonoma, where Cutting was stationed that night, emergency managers said they decided against the federal wireless warning system. County emergency manager Chris Helgren said he was worried the notoriously imprecise system would trigger a countywide panic. Mass evacuations on the single highway through town would have made the emergency even more dire. In the end, dozens died in Sonoma as the Tubbs fire swept from the mountain vale of Calistoga into a suburb of Santa Rosa.

Phone records show fire evacuation warnings in Mendocino were delayed by overwhelmed sheriff’s dispatchers.

Mendocino County was 90 minutes into its wildfire when the first call came from the field for evacuation warnings. The dispatcher wrestled 10 minutes with the wording, then called a lieutenant at home. He encouraged a valley-wide warning “just so we can get people awake.” But she worried about downed power lines, and they agreed to “hold off, because we have to figure out where [residents] are going to go.”

It was 43 minutes before the county launched its phone-dialing system to ring some 4,000 numbers in Redwood Valley, already engulfed in fire. The automated phone messages were limited to incomplete phone lists, and then blacked out when cell towers were lost to the fire.

Nine people died in that valley, in their homes or attempting to leave.

During Thomas fire, ‘throwing horseshoes and hand grenades’

When wildfires hit Southern California in December, officials were more aggressive about using various electronic communications systems, including an unprecedented seven-county alert on the eve of Santa Ana winds telling millions of Californians to keep a watch through the night for fire. But emergency managers say their efforts to warn residents were hampered by its own share of technological faults.

Santa Barbara County used the federal wireless system 13 times over the course of a week to send cellphone alerts. Three times it sought to contain the warnings to small areas drawn on alert maps sent to FEMA, but county officials said they presume even those alerts were cast broadly and confused those not in danger.

“It’s like throwing horseshoes and hand grenades,” said Santa Barbara County Emergency Manager Jeff Gater.

The 5-year-old wireless alert system — the same network used to buzz phones with Amber alerts — falls under the joint control of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Communications Commission. Participation by cellphone carriers is voluntary. The messages are limited to 90 characters and broadcast from cell towers like radio signals, not phone calls, so they consume minimal bandwidth.

Original regulations required only that carriers restrain those broadcasts to the county level. The FCC in September 2016 issued an order requiring better targeting, but this year interpreted that ruling to allow cellphone carriers to define the “best approximate” target of a message as an entire county.

Emergency managers told the FCC that alerts can come close to their intended marks in dense urban areas where there are many towers. But in rural areas — wildfire terrain — so-called “boomer” towers cast warnings 20 miles outside the intended alert area.

Therefore, Santa Barbara stuffed so much geography into 90 characters its emergency evacuation orders looked like this:

“EVAC ORDER: Montecito S. of 192, N. of 101, W. of Toro Cyn, E. of Summit Rd & Country Club”

FEMA staff confirmed that cell carriers can choose which cell towers transmit the emergency warning, and it is up to them whether to even send a warning where the alert area is less than the cell tower coverage area. They are not required to make those policies public, robbing emergency managers of the chance to know in advance how their message will be carried and adjust accordingly.

“Right now if we draw a polygon [to target an alert], we have the potential to do more harm than good,” said Francisco Sanchez, emergency manager for Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston, and a primary champion of new FCC rules to improve wireless alerts.

Sanchez’s concerns are the same ones that Sonoma County’s Helgren raised: Mass alerts can make matters worse, especially in regions with limited routes in and out of a disaster area. Despite handling a disaster roster that included Hurricane Harvey this fall, Sanchez has issued a wireless alert only once — to tell county residents to not call 911 so that emergency calls could get through.

Warnings failed to reach many

When home phones largely ran on copper wire land lines, emergency officials could use their 911 systems as a calling tree to deliver warnings. Private vendors have since stepped in to provide those services as well as the software and servers to call up cellphone owners.

The reach of those systems are limited by the phone lists they use — usually a combination of data bought from private marketers, telephone companies and numbers provided by voluntary subscribers.

Call records provided by Sonoma County show its efforts to warn residents of the deadly Tubbs fire were a success just 50% of the time — counting calls that went straight to answering machines. Numbers provided by residents subscribing to the county’s system had a 90% success rate. But those numbers made up only 15% of the dialing list. For the first warning of the Tubbs fire that meant only 213 numbers in an area with more than 13,000 residents, according to US census data.

Meanwhile the thousands of numbers provided by the county’s vendor failed to be answered 62% of the time.

Shortly after the October fire siege, Sacramento County ran a test of its own emergency dialing system, provided by a different vendor. Data shared with The Times show Sacramento had similarly low call completion rates: Out of more than 34,000 calls, just over 2,000 were answered and 3,000 went to voicemail.

During the December fires, Santa Barbara’s direct dialing system’s call completion rates ranged between 15% and 55%.

Sacramento County pays to update its phone calling list every six months, county officials said, but to reduce error rates the county is considering buying new numbers every quarter. Sonoma County, Helgren said, had not updated its phone list since signing up for the private service in mid-2016.

Technological advances have further eroded the usefulness of other warning tools, managers said, including the emergency broadcast system that once was the backbone of the country’s civil alert muscle.

Television and radio stations, unlike cellphone carriers, are still required to participate in what is now called the Emergency Alert System — the service that begins a public warning with blaring tones. But the network was built to work with analog broadcasting, not the digital technology in use today.

As a result, when Santa Barbara tried to send an EAS broadcast this year to warn residents of flash floods, no message appeared on viewers’ screens. Something else happened: Their channels changed to C-SPAN.

County officials, cable providers and federal officials are still trying to figure out what happened, said Lewin, director of the Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management. In the meantime, even with wildfire forcing evacuations in his backyard, he will not use the system.

Lewin is looking for a technological fix to these gaps in his warning tools.

Hundreds of miles north in Mendocino County, where emergency managers have now discovered steep ridges block even the radio signals of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather alerts, Sheriff Thomas Allman has settled on a different path.

He is buying air sirens.

(LA Times)

SCREENING FOR MENDOCINO COUNTY SUPERVISORS, DISTRICT-BY-DISTRICT

YES OR NO

(More than one NO and your candidacy is doomed)

5TH DISTRICT

• Anti-Vac
• 911 conspiracy
• Vegan
• Gender Flexible
• Trees can talk
• Dope
• Contrails
• Scott Simon
• Serial monogamy
• Meryl Streep for President
• Recycling
• Consensus
• Pay Raise

(4th District tomorrow)

SAUL PACHECO FOUND DEAD

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has identified the victim of the homicide on Alderpoint Rd. on Jan. 1, 2018 as 28-year-old Saul Perez Pacheco.

As Sheriff’s Deputies continue their investigation into Pacheco’s death, they are asking for the public’s help to learn more about Pacheco and his connection to Humboldt County. Pacheco is a Hispanic male adult, 5 foot 4 inches tall and approximately 225 pounds. Pacheco has a tattoo of a cross on his left arm bicep and a tattoo of a grim reaper on his right arm. Anyone with information about Pacheco or this case is asked to contact Sheriff’s Investigator Scott Hicks at (707) 445-7301.

FOUND!

According to the Eureka Police, the 26-year-old Nevada man who was reported missing January 2 has been located.

According to Brittany Powell, a spokesperson for Eureka Police, “Patrick McCracken was cleared from the missing person system. He was found safe in Eureka by family on the evening of January 3, 2018.”

SEBASTIAN!

Sebastian Jimenez Has Arrived, First Mendo Baby of 2018

Fort Bragg, CA - January 3, 2018 - Mendocino Coast District Hospital (MCDH) is excited to announce that the first baby of 2018 has arrived. Sebastian Arthur Jimenez was born on January 2, 2018 at 4:15 p.m. in MCDH's Birthing Unit. Sebastian's parents, Stephanie and Brian Jimenez, are very happy to welcome this beautiful little bundle of joy to the family. Sebastian was 7 pounds 8 ounces at birth and was 19 inches long.

He and his mother are doing well, and Sebastian will soon be joining his 19 month old brother Abraham at home. MCDH's Birthing Unit was one of the first in-house, family-centered maternity care programs in California and was a model for other family-birthing programs throughout the country. Although the department has seen many changes over the years, MCDH's dedication to providing families with happy and rewarding birth experiences remains the same. Sebastian's mother, Stephanie Jimenez commented, "Thank you to Dr. Wright, Dr. Kermen and all the great nurses for making our experience here awesome. They all made me feel very comfortable and made my delivery as pleasant as possible." Congratulations to the parents and family of baby Sebastian Jimenez, our New Year's Baby 2018!

Doug Shald, Director PR & Marketing Communications, Mendocino Coast District Hospital, 707.961.4961

ED NOTES

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THOSE RUMORS that Ten Mile Court's prosecutor, Kevin Davenport, has been suspended from his job for a DUI are trumped by the second round of rumors that Davenport has indeed been sent to the DA's time-out room but for an accident in a County car he failed to fully report, not a DUI. In the meantime, Coast prosecutions rest with the Ancient Mariner, Tim Stoen.

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JOHNNY SCHMITT'S BOONVILLE HOTEL GROUP has bought the property next door with an expansion of the Hotel's capacity as the goal.

Now that Anderson Valley has become a tourist destination in itself, the Boonville Hotel can't keep up with the demand for transient accommodations, hence the next door acquisition.

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I'D BET FRIENDS that Trump would be out by Christmas. I was early by a month. He'll be out by the end of January. He's more erratic by the day. Even the nuts around him concede that he can't focus, has little memory, repeats himself, tantrums, talks back to the tv news and so on. The book out this week, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" by Michael Wolff confirms the chaos at the top. This system needs a blandly complicit character at the helm — Obama was perfect — not a volatile Alzheimer's case. Vice-President Pence, for my money much crazier than Trump, is next up.

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ATTORNEY GENERAL SESSIONS says he's going after the pot brigades regardless of state and local laws enacted to make the brigades legal. The hypocrisy here is breathtaking. When the South, represented by Sessions, wants to screw over black people they claim states rights. Now they claim that federal law trumps laws they don't like. Sessions vs. Pebs Trippett? Pebs by an early knockout.

JUST SAYIN' but the recent pot busts of people in the licensing process shouldn't surprise anyone. Mendo's Drug Task Force has operated independently of local authority for years. An insider told me a couple of years ago that the Sheriff himself does not have prior knowledge of who they're going to hit, let alone who's in charge of them. I suspect a DEA guy or two are the local shot callers, but if people trying to get legal, or think they're already legal because they've paid their fees, keep on getting popped, the County's cockamamie licensing procedures will be mooted. PS. These guys who get stopped while they're transporting many thousands of dollars worth of product? One would think they'd make sure all the lights on their vehicles were in working order before they hit the road. And if you're on felony probation from a prior pot bust, uh, wouldn't it be a good idea to find someone else to drive?

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IF YOU DIDN'T wade through the LA Times story on the failure of warning systems during the Big Fires, the following are the relevant Mendo paragraphs:

"...Phone records show fire evacuation warnings in Mendocino were delayed by overwhelmed sheriff’s dispatchers."

AND

"…Mendocino County was 90 minutes into its wildfire when the first call came from the field for evacuation warnings. The dispatcher wrestled 10 minutes with the wording, then called a lieutenant at home. He encouraged a valley-wide warning 'just so we can get people awake.' But she worried about downed power lines, and they agreed to 'hold off, because we have to figure out where [residents] are going to go'.

It was 43 minutes before the county launched its phone-dialing system to ring some 4,000 numbers in Redwood Valley, already engulfed in fire. The automated phone messages were limited to incomplete phone lists, and then blacked out when cell towers were lost to the fire. Nine people died in that valley, in their homes or attempting to leave."

AND

"…Hundreds of miles north in Mendocino County, where emergency managers have now discovered steep ridges block even the radio signals of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather alerts, Sheriff Thomas Allman has settled on a different path.

He is buying air sirens."

---

TRUMP'S HAIR: As reported by Michael Wolff in his new book about President Trump’s first year in office, Fire and Fury: Inside Trump’s White House, we learn that it is Trump’s beloved daughter who leads the chorus of those who mock the Trump “do” (or “don’t’).

“She treated her father with a degree of detachment, even irony, going so far as to make fun of his comb-over to others,” Wolff writes, as extracted in New York magazine. “She often described the mechanics behind it to friends: an absolutely clean pate—a contained island after scalp-reduction-surgery—surrounded by a furry circle of hair around the sides and front, from which all ends are drawn up to meet in the center and then swept back and secured by a stiffening spray.”

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “A neighbor dog says to me, ‘You let this Skrag get into your head, Little Dog. You gotta learn to Zen the irritants outta yer life or you'll go nuts.’ I thought about it, and I'm gonna try.”

MENDO'S IN-HOME CARE PROGRAM

On Monday, January 1, 2018 at about 5:12 AM, Ukiah CHP Officer J. Irwin and his partner Officer T. Ogden responded to assist the Coyote Valley Tribal Police Department with a possible DUI driver stopped on Coyote Valley Blvd. just east of Highway 101. Officer Irwin conducted a DUI investigation and the driver, Van Allen Hubbard, 57, residing on Tayna Lane, Ukiah, was arrested on suspicion of driving a vehicle under the combined influence of alcohol and drugs.

During a vehicle inventory officers discovered several dangerous and illegal weapons in the vehicle as well as a large amount of rare minted and sealed gold and silver coins. The estimated value of the coins is believed to be between $15,000 and $20,000. A locked safe not belonging to Hubbard was also located in the vehicle. Hubbard could not account for the items located in his vehicle at that time resulting in further investigation by the officers. The following day search warrants were obtained to search Hubbard's storage unit and vehicle which resulted in the seizure of an additional quantity of rare minted sealed gold and silver coins with an estimated value of $10,000-$15,000. Evidence developed in this case indicated that these items belonged to clients of Hubbard's when Hubbard was working as an in-home support services provider. Hubbard was booked into the Mendocino County Jail for driving under the combined influence of alcohol and drugs as well as being in possession of stolen property, possession of dangerous weapons, elder abuse, and additional lesser charges. The exact value of the coins is still under investigation. The case has been submitted to the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office for prosecution. Hubbard was born in January of 1961 making him 57 years old.

* * *

AND THERE HE WAS

On 01-02-2018 at 5:57 AM Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to a burglary in progress at a residence location at 83 Oak Knoll Road in Ukiah. When Deputies arrived on scene, both the 27 year old male victim and suspect were contacted. It was learned the victim was awakened by a noise coming from his garage. When the victim investigated, he observed Ryan William Jackson, 38, of Ukiah in his garage removing property.

The victim confronted Jackson, whom he knew, about attempting to commit the theft and reported the incident to the Sheriff's Office. Jackson was arrested without incident and booked into the Mendocino County Jail for burglary where he was to be held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

* * *

PLAY MISTY FOR ME. ER, ON SECOND THOUGHT, DON'T

On Thursday, December 28, at about 4:30 pm, Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to a reported theft and physical assault in the 76000 block of Highway 162 in Covelo (Keith's Market).

The suspect was described as being a Native American female adult wearing a mini skirt and tall black boots or socks.

While Deputies were responding, dispatch advised that Covelo Tribal Police had detained Misty Lee Hawkins (age 35, of Covelo) at the store.

When Deputies arrived, they made contact with a 61-year-old male employee at the store. The employee stated Hawkins entered the store and took possession of several food items and bottles of alcohol without paying for them before exiting the store.

The employee contacted Hawkins and attempted to stop her and retrieve the items, at which time Hawkins struck him in the face with her hand, causing minor injury to the left of his face.

Hawkins let go of the shopping basket that contained the stolen food items. The store employee grabbed the basket and went back inside of the store.

Hawkins followed the employee back into the store where she was told she had to leave. Hawkins became angry and started screaming and yelling at him. Hawkins then picked up a metal pipe and attempted to strike the employee with the pipe by throwing it at him. The employee had to jump out of the way to keep from being hit with the pipe.

Hawkins was subsequently placed under arrest. Deputies also learned that Hawkins had an outstanding misdemeanor warrant for her arrest out of the Mendocino County Superior Court for failing to appear in court on an unrelated case.

Hawkins was booked into the Mendocino County Jail for assault and failure to appear where she was to be held in lieu of $82,500 bail.

CATCH OF THE DAY, January 4, 2018

EASTON BASSETT, Ukiah. Vandalism.

EVAN FEEN, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, concealed dirk-dagger, probation revocation.

WAYNE GARLAND, Willits. Protective order violation, probation revocation.

SHAWN HORN, Willits. Probation revocation.

BAMBI SHELLY, Covelo. Resisting.

DANNY WILLIAMS, Willits. Under influence, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

CLARENCE WRIGHT, Willits. Failure to appear.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

CNN is using their deep news analysis and ‘experts’ to weigh in on the forecast for the next year with such heavy questions such as; “Who will win the world series?” “What will win the Oscar for best picture in 2018?” and “Which country will win the most gold medals in the winter Olympics?” Seriously, no wonder CNN is the most trusted news source for unfortunate patients stuck unconscious on an ICU somewhere.

"COPPER MOUNTAIN from the South — Central Wyoming"

(Photo by Harvey Reading)

SESSIONS ENDING FEDERAL POLICY THAT LET LEGAL POT FLOURISH

by Sadie Gurman (AP)

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has rescinded an Obama-era policy that paved the way for legalized marijuana to flourish in states across the country, creating new confusion about enforcement and use just three days after a new legalization law went into effect in California.

abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/ap-newsbreak-us-end-policy-legal-pot-flourish-52134725

MENDOCINO COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT

2018-2019 JUDICIAL ASSIGNMENTS

Presiding Judge Ann Moorman (1) announced the judicial assignments for 2018-1019. Primary judicial assignments are reviewed every two years, however adjustments are made as necessary.

Effective January 2, 2018, Departments B and H will continue to manage vertical felony calendars from arraignment through trial. Judge Cindee Mayfield (2) has transferred from the family law department to preside over felony cases in Department B. Judge Mayfield will also remain as Presiding Judge of the court’s appellate division. Judge John Behnke (3) will continue presiding over felony cases in Department H. Judge Keith Faulder (4) will remain in Department A managing the entire misdemeanor calendar from arraignment through trial.

Judge Carly Dolan (5), assigned to Department C, will be handling all family law related matters. Assistant Presiding Judge Jeanine Nadel (6) will continue to sit in Department E presiding over all limited and unlimited civil matters, probate, small claims, unlawful detainers, and conservatorships. Judge Nadel will also preside over the Adult Drug Court.

Judge David Riemenschneider (7) will remain in Department F managing juvenile delinquency and dependency matters. Judge Riemenschneider will also preside over our Family Dependency Drug Court and sit on the court’s appellate division.

Judge Moorman will sit in Department G handling overflow from all other departments and continue to preside over the Adult Behavioral Health Court. She will also sit on the appellate division and execute the daily duties of Presiding Judge.

Judge Clay Brennan (8) will continue to preside over civil, criminal, and family law matters at our Ten Mile Court in Fort Bragg.

The revised calendar plan is now available on the court’s website: www.mendocino.courts.ca.gov

Judge Moorman also announced that the Executive Committee of the court will be comprised of Judges Moorman, Nadel, and Riemenschneider.

For more information contact:

Kim Turner
Court Executive Officer
100 N. State Street, Room 303
Ukiah, CA 95482
(707) 463-4664

HOMEWARD BOUND GETS NO RESPECT 2

The interesting thing about Homeward Bound is how city progressives have always hated it. In fact my first post on the program in 2005 was about that opposition (Bus therapy for the homeless).

The implication of that opposition: instead of giving the homeless a bus ticket out of town — strictly voluntary program — San Francisco should instead provide housing for everyone who ends up homeless on our streets. Even though this is a prosperous city, even San Francisco can't afford to do that.

What those who arrived in the city afterwards need to understand is that the homeless issue roiled city politics for years, ending in the election of Gavin Newsom as mayor over a passionate left wing opposition in a campaign that featured the homeless issue. While still a supervisor, Newsom got Care Not Cash on the ballot and passed in 2002 and was elected a year later over a "progressive" opposition that was clearly oblivious to how upset voters were about the growing squalor on city streets and in city parks.

That left-wing cluelessness still manifests itself in opposition to Homeward Bound, a sensible, cost-effective homeless program (See Homelessness: The silence of the progs).

The recent Examiner story quoted a critic:

Chris Herring, a doctoral candidate of sociology at UC Berkeley who studies homelessness, said The City shouldn’t consider the bus program a solution to housing the homeless. “I think it would be great if all cities offered free transportation both within and from cities to poor people who cannot afford it, especially to poor people wanting to reconnect with friends and family for any period of housing or respite or a break from the streets,” Herring said. “But we should not fool ourselves that this is housing people.”

Of course no one at City Hall claims that Homeward Bound is itself a solution to the problem; it's just one tool that's been effective in dealing with some of the homeless who are willing to participate in the program.

(Rob Anderson, District5Diary)

BIBLIOTHERAPY BOOK CLUB

The Ukiah Branch Library has partnered with Tapestry Family Services and Project Sanctuary to create a new book club for teens: Bibliotherapy Book Club! Starting in January, the Bibliotherapy Book Club for Teens (12-18) will meet monthly &focus on a variety of "tough topics" including anxiety, depression, grief, sexual abuse & rape, racism, bullying, suicide, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bulimia, & issues surrounding gender identity — to name a few. Some titles we will read include:

• The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky (trauma, grief)
• Hyberbole and a Half, Allie Brosh (depression)
• Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher (suicide)
• Say What You Will, Cammie McGovern (OCD)
• Eleanor and Park, Rainbow Rowell (sexual & physical abuse)
• Speak, Laurie Halse Andersen (rape)

Teens will be able to discuss tough topics in a safe environment with trusted librarians and counselors from Tapestry &Project Sanctuary, as well as receive assistance for service referrals if requested.

Advance registration is required. If you are interested in the program or want to find out more about the Bibliotherapy Book Club, please contact Melissa at the Ukiah Library: 467-6434 or carrm@co.mendocino.ca.us

This book club is free and open to all interested teens.

THE PRICE

Editor:

I read how an autistic teenager killed his parents and two others with an assault rifle they had in the home. After raising an autistic son to adulthood, it’s hard for me to imagine allowing any weapon in my house as I understand how autism causes uncontrollable rages.

Beyond this tragedy, I don’t understand why any home needs an assault rifle. As a criminal defense attorney, I have represented about 75 murderers. I don’t pretend to know all there is to know about killings, but I have seen some patterns. Most of my clients used firearms, and most knew their victims. Almost all killings were spontaneous acts of rage, just like that autistic teen.

There are many reasons “normal” people lose control to the point where they will kill — drugs, alcohol, brain trauma, perceived threats. I believe that all human beings are capable of killing under certain conditions. Why do we allow access to assault rifles so they can kill the most people?

I’ve seen autopsy photos of the damage inflicted by assault rifles. They aren’t pretty. Who really needs to have 15-20 rounds of high-powered ammunition for self-defense? The truth is these are offensive rather than defensive weapons, and our society pays a very high price for their accessibility.

Mary Lou Hillberg

Sebastopol

“CALL FOR ARTISTS” for the 2018-2019 Cloverdale Sculpture Trail, a year-round outdoor exhibit of sculptures in the Northern Sonoma County community of Cloverdale, is now available. The producer of the exhibit, Cloverdale Historical Society & History Museum, is seeking sculptors for the next exhibit beginning April 27, 2018 through May 1, 2019. Deadline for entries for the 2018-2019 exhibit is February 25, 2018. There is no entry fee. A $1,000 “Best of Show”, $250 “Honor Mention” and “Peoples’ Choice” gift baskets will be awarded.

In Cloverdale the current exhibit has 14 sculptures. This exhibit will continue until April 26, 2018 when the 2018-2019 sculptures will be installed.

The goal of this successful outdoor exhibit is to increase awareness of public art and the part sculptures play in bringing art to citizens and visitors through the placement of sculptures in publicly assessable spaces, such as the streets of Cloverdale.

Additional information and an entry form with guidelines are available at www.cloverdalesculpturetrail.org or call the Sculpture Trail phone number at 707-894-4929.

Note: Attached is an image of Arizona sculptor, Hector A. Ortega’s sculpture “Constrained Geometrics #2”, located on Cloverdale Blvd. and W. Second St., Cloverdale “Constrained Geometrics #2” is part of the current 2017-2018 exhibit.

“Sorry I’m late—I was getting dressed.”