Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2018

• Autumn Johnson
• Jerry Cox
• Chinese Banquet
• Class K
• Blossoms
• Sanitation Complaints
• Little Dog
• Ed Notes
• Yesterday's Catch
• Eagles Win
• Pensioneers
• Fracking Ban
• Malebashing
• Cancer Resources
• Market Calming
• Columbia Insurrection
• Resignation
• Paul Opening
• Dick Trumpy
• Ejaculator
• Destinations
• Clarifications
• Atheist Books
• Science Fair
• Harp Duo
• Library Events

SUPPORT FOR AUTUMN JOHNSON'S FAMILY

It is with a heavy heart that our Autumn was tragically taken from us today and two families broken and devastated. We are hoping for support to help cover funeral cost to lay our Autumn to rest. We thank all of you who have extended your love and condolences and appreciate you all more than you know.

gofundme.com/gtwmn-support-for-autumn-johnsons-family

JERRY COX

Dear all friends,

Jerry is home now, as Jerry said, "he hoped to be welcomed by a mexicano at the pearly gates with a big 'Bienvenido'." So it's been a full circle for me; working in the Anderson Valley HS with the students he has mentored, the memorial at the Grange with the next generations of students that he deeply influenced, hearing from his 'compadre' and the network of social activists, and learning about this part of his life. And there we all were, family and friends who have shared all of these years together. Each one of us touched by his big heart. And finally, in the slideshow, a great picture of Jerry and my dad at the river, two Irishmen, on one of those lazy Navarro days. This was a letter I wrote last week to the Cox family.

Dear Jerry and Family,

I am subbing for Nat in the Senior Seminar class. Ernesto Macias did an interview with Jerry, the last months of 2017. When Jerry first went to the hospital, now a week ago, I had just read that interview myself, marveling on the richness of Jerry's life. The next day, I was able to share with the whole Senior class, with Ernesto's permission, and I am sure Jerry's blessings, parts of his interview with the class. 'What would you say to someone my age asking you what they can do to make themselves a better person?'

Jerry's answer: 'Be educated, participate in many organizations, pick good friends, be spiritual, have some form of religion or faith, be a good person, follow your dreams, go to college, save money, keep your family close, and look for chances to make the world a better place. '

Ernesto reflected, 'Hearing everything that Jerry had to say inspired me to try to help out the community a lot more. I've always been motivated to help out the community, but after seeing how much he accomplished in his lifetime, it made me realize that there's a lot more I could be doing to help.'

Mostly, his words of wisdom for the younger generation, how to live a good life, be a good person. We then did a silent meditation with Jerry Cox in our hearts.

For me, it was a true gift, to sit with Jerry, his words, and a lot of young people, in prayer/silence (even if it was only 1 minute). I have also been reflecting, Jerry, how I think you were the best and kindest friend my dad ever had. As we all know, my dad had a way of being such a goofball that he was easy to make fun of. Jerry just never did that. He just accepted my dad for who he was. If I could see you right now, I'd give you a big hug for that. For the true friendship that you gave to so many. I'm glad you are home. I love you all.

Kira Brennan

Navarro

CHINESE NEW YEAR

SUPES DELAY CLASS K DECISION

Editor

Update on Class K Status

The Board of Supervisors changed the date of when they’ll be discussing Class K. Instead of February 6^th, they’ll be addressing it on Tuesday, February 27. Their meetings start at 9am, though where Class K will be on the agenda is anyone’s guess.

With all the talk that’s been going on about Class K, one detail that hasn’t gotten much attention is why changes to Class K have come up at all. According to the California Building Standards Commission in Sacramento, the revision push came from Mendocino’s Planning and Building Department, not from the State. There’s been talk (unverified) that when Sonoma County inspectors find themselves inspecting Mendocino Class K structures, they find the dual system irritating and have been leading the charge to make Class K code as similar as possible to conventional building codes. All of this is hearsay, but it’s interesting that NO ONE seems willing to step forward and take responsibility for proposing these changes.

The other prime point is that none of the changes are in any way required. There is no California State law or mandate that necessitates any changes to the Class K Ordinance. The Board of Supes could, if they chose, leave Class K entirely untouched.

You may wonder what you can do about this, if retaining affordable, alternative housing options is important to you. Top of the list would be to attend the BOS meeting on Feb. 27. You can also call and/or write to your supervisor. The more people who get involved, the more attentive the supervisors will be!

Captain Rainbow

Boonville

FORT BRAGG

(Photo by Susie de Castro)

UKIAH SANITATION DISTRICT COMPLAINS ABOUT UKIAH DAILY JOURNAL EDITORIAL

To the Editor:

The editorial, in my opinion, in the Journal on Jan. 28, 2018, scolding the Ukiah Valley Sanitation District Board, is unfortunately biased as the Journal articles frequently seem to be. The new board members have been in place for a total of eight weeks to date. We have been tasked with assimilating thousands of pages of information that are relevant to the resolution of the lawsuit that has been going on for five years. As far as the lawsuit being baseless, we would encourage the author to study the lawsuit, which is available online, along with the present participation agreement. This may enlighten you as to the complexity of these issues, and the flaws in them, which we are actively involved in correcting.

The bond issue was brought to the District Board less than one month before the deadline for refinance. The indenture agreement, an incomplete form, was presented to the District one week before the deadline. At 60 plus page document with conditions that were not favorable to the District ratepayers, should the District Board blindly agree to a flawed agreement? We believe we were elected to serve the best interests of the District ratepayers. We were unable to retain qualified bond counsel to review this document in the time presented us, to make the appropriate changes necessary. This was stated in a letter to the City, signed by every UVSD Board member, and given to the Ukiah Daily Journal two weeks ago. The bond refinance is an issue that has been discussed since 2016. What made it such an important issue with such a short time frame? To apply pressure to dismiss the lawsuit? For what other reason?

The district chair is prioritizing the most critical items to be on the agenda for our meeting, leaving the less urgent matters to future meetings. This is called management, resolving the most important items first, one critical to a settlement. The new members are not being stymied by anyone.

We are working with District and City attorneys to perfect a new operating agreement and a settlement agreement. This document is complex, with details that would grind their development to a stop if we tried to craft them in a public forum. The board was elected to oversee the crafting of these documents and as soon as they are ready for public comment they will be presented.

It is very disconcerting that our local media has such a biased, misinformed opinion of the process that the District and City boards and staff, have spent countless hours in meetings, some as long as six hours, working towards a resolution. Your opinions are a distraction and a hindrance to this process. Baseless and misinformed, inciting the community and, with no benefit to the process. We will continue to work diligently to resolve the lawsuit and operating agreement issues in spite of the disruptive media coverage.

Theresa McNerlin, Ernie Wipf, Ken Marshall, Ukiah Valley Sanitation District board

* * *

UKIAH DAILY JOURNAL EDITOR K. C. MEADOWS RESPONDS:

There is a difference between our news coverage of the Sanitation District (“articles”) which have simply reported on the board’s activities fairly, and our editorials which have expressed our strong opinions about the lawsuit and urged the election of new board members, including Mr. Wipf. Our latest editorial which has upset these three board members and led them to vote to only speak publicly as a trio, only suggested that they do more of the district’s business out in the open so that the ratepayers could have an opportunity to judge the progress for themselves.

* * *

MARK SCARAMELLA COMMENTS:

THE ABOVE LETTER was drafted by Sanitation District Board member Ernie Wipf and signed on to by two of the other four Board members. During the Board discussion of the situation and the letter on January 31 Board member Ken Marshall said he didn’t appreciate Meadows painting the board as obstinate or having some kind of vendetta against the City of Ukiah and he wanted locals to know that it takes time to work out a settlement of their $30 million lawsuit claiming that Ukiah owes the district for almost four decades of back revenue miscalculated by Ukiah city staff. The original lawsuit was filed in 2014 and goes all the way back to 1954.

TWO DISTRICT BOARD MEMBERS refused sign the above letter to the Journal. At the January 31 board meeting dissenting Board Member Julie Bawcom (as sensible a public official as we’ve seen in Mendo for quite a while) objected that the part of the letter stating the District’s position on the settlement proposal was fine, but the denunciations of Meadows and the Journal “don’t do any good and are unnecessary,” and would only draw more attention to the problem. Bawcom told her fellow board members that they need to develop a “thicker skin” as Board members of a public entity, adding that the letter did not represent her opinion. “I don’t want my name on that letter. Period. End of sentence,” declared Bawcom.

Mr. Wipf wasn’t listening: “Sometimes when you get slammed you have to knock the bully down. … She [Meadows] makes things up.”

Bawcom: “If you take out all the inflammatory stuff and leave the text [of the argument] that’s all I’m asking for.”

Wipf also wanted some kind of a board imposed gag order on his fellow Board members, but Board Chair Theresa McNerlin suggested that they all just sort of agree not to talk about the settlement out of school.

Vice Chair Andrea Reed pointed out however that “The less they [the public] know the more they speculate. We all have our opinions.”

Wipf replied, “I don’t think that’s how boards work,” insisting that they only speak out the dispute as a board, not as individuals.

McNerlin: “Things in paper were 180 degrees different than where we are as a board,” explaining that the Journal at some point said the Board was within “a week or two” from settlement when clearly that wasn’t the case. “It doesn’t help our process to have misinformation out there even if it is just your opinion. Putting out misinformation is harmful to negotiations. We should have a unified message and give it to the media.”

* * *

BACKGROUND: In 2013 the Mendocino Grand Jury actually independently recommended that the Sanitation District sue the City of Ukiah because the terms of the agreement between the two entities “is flawed and unworkable and favors the city.” And because, “The City has shown disrespect for the UVSD by ignoring their requests for basic information.” At that time the GJ also found that “City upper management continues to be unresponsive to official communication from the UVSD.” Concluding, “the UVSD should seek legal counsel regarding capture of lost revenues and options to disassociate from the [agreement with the city]."

SO CLEARLY there were legitimate grounds for a claim and a demand for better relations, better documentation and some amount of money. But now here we are almost five years later and something like $6 million just in legal fees between the two parties down the drain and a new Board which was elected to stop the legal fee bleeding and settle the suit, yet there’s still no path to settlement and no end date in sight.

KC MEADOWS’ frustration seems fueled by the seemingly endless and costly lawsuit and the District’s behind closed doors discussions of a possible settlement which leads to speculation that the ratepayers are going to get screwed if and when the dust, well, settles.

BUT MS. MEADOWS seems to be ignoring the underlying original legitimacy of the suit. From over the hill here in Boonville it appears that Ukiah has been sitting on funds they know they owe the District to cover their ever increasing admin and operations costs.

SO THE REAL CULPRIT, if there is one, is the Mendocino County Court system which should have ordered the disputing parties into mandatory court-overseen settlement discussions soon after it was filed, rather than letting the lawyers run up millions in fees over the ensuing years. Ukiah should have been ordered to fork over whatever documents and financial records would have allowed a split the difference settlement, or, if not, the court should have simply ordered a payback schedule for, say, half the disputed amount.

THEN LAFCO (the Local Area Formation Commission) should have forced the parties to merge and end the one-sided “participation agreement” that has shortchanged the District for lo these many decades.

https://www.mendocinocounty.org/home/showdocument?id=3706

THE CITY’S RECENT ATTEMPT to rush the District into settlement by putting a deadline on an upgrade bond refinancing deal has failed and did indeed appear to put undue pressure on the new San District Board, although the City also probably did think that if they could settle the lawsuit they could get better refinancing interest rates.

FOR NOW SETTLEMENT TALKS are scheduled to continue but the re-fi option seems to have passed. Which means there’s no real deadline pressure to settle from either side.

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Skrag's gone again, just when they were about to take him over the hill to be… He's not as dumb as he looks. Then again, maybe he's found some other sucker to feed him.”

ED NOTES

IT'S A CLICHE by now, but any cop will tell you how much he dreads domestic disputes. Child custody cases are a kindred category of ugly. Some years ago, accusations by one spouse or another often involved sexual abuse of the disputed child. Every single one of these claims that I heard struck me as palpably untrue. Sure, it happens, but to the extent it was appearing in courts across the country? Were large numbers of men suddenly a menace to their daughters?

AMONG the most egregious episodes I witnessed happened at Ten Mile Court in Fort Bragg. Dad was trying to get visitation rights to see his daughter, a pre-schooler. Mom was there with a female County social worker. Mom, backed up by the social worker, claimed Dad had molested his daughter, a claim unsupported by any evidence save Mom's accusation. If Dad was such an extreme pervert that he would violate his own daughter, logically the judge should have ordered him into immediate custody. But the judge merely ordered that the Dad could not see his own daughter even with a social worker present.

* * *

JUST ASKING, but how come the Girl Scouts don't bake their own cookies? I'm an annually reluctant buyer old enough to remember when the Scouts baked their own. The corporate sugar and dough jobs they offer these days are barely edible. And what lesson do the girls take away from having their Moms buy tons of these negative food value items at top dollar then re-selling the things to raise money for what? More inedibles?

* * *

FORT BRAGG hired a headhunting firm to find a city manager from Arizona. School districts and, goodness knows, various agencies of local government, often hire this way as they claim they've embarked on "a national search for excellence." Often the process is rigged for the excellency who just happens to be down the hall or is a pal of the excellencies looking for him. Persons sought by headhunting firms pay the firms to find them a job, and the agency doing the hunting gets paid again by the agency doing the search. To my way of thinking, it's one more way for elected bodies to elude one of their fundamental responsibilities — the hiring of their managers. There were at least two persons already working in Fort Bragg City Hall who were perfectly capable of doing the city manager job. Instead, the City hires out the task for thousands of municipal dollars they didn't need to spend for a person who doesn't know Fort Bragg from Flagstaff who will necessarily have a very long learning curve to traverse before she fully knows what's she's doing.

* * *

ELECTION NEWS. Brian Kunka, a Willits blacksmith, has dropped out of the race for Third District supervisor, announcing that he will support John Pinches.

PROMINENT among candidate Haschak's supporters are former supervisor Hal Wagenet and well-known North County environmentalists, David and Ellen Drell, meaning North County libs are also likely to support the (so far) vacuous Haschak.

WHEN THE VETERAN Third District supervisor Pinches left his Supe's seat to run for the State Senate, leaving the seat to Wagenet, County department heads were so relieved by Pinches' departure they formally welcomed the smarmy and wholly ineffective Wagenet into office. The Supervisors, prior to adopting The Big Mommy CEO model of County government we see today, evaluated department heads themselves. CEO Angelo runs the show now, and a department head who crosses her better hunker down. Pinches took the evaluation process seriously, hence the relief of the County's top bureaucrats when he left and the inert Wagenet succeeded him.

* * *

THE COUNTY'S ACTIVE DEMOCRATS, Coastlib branch, are mostly lining up behind Chris Skyhawk of Albion. Skyhawk's a generic liberal much like retiring supervisor, Dan Hamburg, hence his appeal to local libs, especially the libs heavy on the lab end of the lib-lab continuum.

BUT AT LEAST one prominent Coast Democrat, Lee Edmundson, is all in for Ted Williams, also of Albion where he serves as fire chief. Williams has yet to be heard from, although none of the candidates have moved beyond the platitude stage of the race, and some never will because there's no indication that any of them have previously paid much or any attention to how the County works. Or doesn't work. We await specific strategies from all of them about the County's laughably botched pot licensing process, the state's negative demands on Class K building standards, the ever-larger number of walking wounded on the streets, genuinely low cost housing and so on. We'd also like to hear from all of them on the CEO model of County government. (Hint. We think it's a rolling disaster.)

* * *

CANDY ASS-ISM has gone wayyyyy too far. The news wires today were humming with Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, interrupting a young woman asking him a question to ask her to please substitute 'peoplekind' for 'mankind. ' The PM said 'peoplekind' is "more inclusive."

* * *

A PAIR OF SIGNERS — sign language interpreters — were hard at work at today's Board of Supervisor's meeting during the fire recovery discussion. When I tuned in 15 people were watching with me on YouTube, few of them deaf, presumably. I can't know how many hearing-impaired persons were in the sparse live audience, but both women went strenuously about their difficult task of unraveling some very difficult syntax for phantom auditors. Apparently the federal government pays for them.

CATCH OF THE DAY, February 6, 2018

ROBERT CAMPBELL, Ukiah. Under influence, parole violation.

BEATRIX CERVANTES, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

JOSEPH CLANTON, Ukiah. Burglary tools, failure to appear, probation revocation.

TYLER COLLINS, Philo. DUI.

DEVANTA DERBIGNY, Ukiah. Domestic battery, probation revocation.

FREDRICK FITCH, Ukiah. Ukiah. Petty theft, resisting, failure to appear.

MYLES FOSS, Willits. Domestic abuse.

JAMES LOWE, Clearlake/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

AMBER MORRIS, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

CHERRI ROBERTS, Ukiah. Camping in Ukiah, failure to apepar, probation revocation. (Frequent Flyer)

IAN RODGERS, Fort Bragg. Dometic battery, petty theft.

OCTAVIO SALGUERO-REYES, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

THE EAGLES’ SUPER BOWL WIN SHOWS THAT HAVING A CONSCIENCE DOES NOT DISTRACT FROM WINNING THE GAME

by Dave Zirin

Let’s get the easy part out of the way: that was the greatest Super Bowl I have ever seen in my life. The Philadelphia Eagles beat the almighty New England Patriots 41-33, sending the City of Brotherly Love into a spasm of lusty joy. Instead of the Patriots winning their 6th title in 16 years, the Eagles win their first. Ever.

There are many reasons to feel a tremendous sense of satisfaction about an Eagles triumph, and not just to cheer for a long-suffering sports town. The Super Bowl champs are a team that spent the 2017 season at the heart of the protests and gestures staged during the anthem against police brutality, mass incarceration and this president. They have now shown the world that having a conscience is not a distraction from team success, a vital civics lesson that will trickle down to high schools and sports far from football. The next time a coach tells a player that they are putting themselves ahead of their team by giving a damn about their community, that young athlete can point at these Eagles and stand – or kneel – with confidence.

And what a damn game! According to @NFLResearch, Super Bowl 52 had the most total yards, 1,151 yards of any game in NFL history. Patriots All-World MVP quarterback Tom Brady became the first QB in any game ever to throw for 500 yards and three touchdowns, zero interceptions, and still lose. Hell, the Patriots did not even punt once and still they lost. Brady was somehow out-dueled by Eagles backup quarterback Nick Foles, starting in place of injured star Carson Wentz. For folks who are still football fans – despite the many reasons the league has generated to push us away, from the blackballing of Colin Kaepernick to the horrific effects of head injuries – this game was the goosebump-generator that Roger Goodell desperately needed.

It was also, by design, an aggressively depoliticized contest. Usually the NFL stages the Super Bowl in a way that would have made Mao blush, with military processions to shame Red Square. But this year the military flyovers before the game were more of a “Let’s occupy Grenada” scope instead of “Time to invade Poland. ”

In addition, the NFL didn’t have to deal with the 15-year tradition of a president doing an interview before the game – an interview that surely would have addressed the tired ugliness of Trump’s highly racialized “war with the NFL” and his vulgar attacks on players who protest police violence during anthem. Instead Trump chose to go to another Trump property instead of sitting down with Lester Holt of NBC News, possibly because the last time he sat with Holt, the President kind of, sort of admitted to a felony.

The game’s announcers, Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth, also followed their depoliticization marching orders, providing minimal coverage to the story that animated this season: players protesting racism during the anthem. They also not surprisingly did not address the presence of the hundreds of people protesting throughout the Twin Cities, against the militarization and hyper-commercialism, of the big game. As they gushed about Minneapolis as a host, you would never know that brave people were blocking the light rail to the game, because on this day it was “public transportation” reserved for those with Super Bowl tickets.

All of this depoliticization was symbolized sharply by a Dodge Ram truck commercial that cherry picked a speech from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was gross, although in one of the great ironies in the history of commercial television, as Kate Harloe from Mother Jones pointed out, Dr. King, in that same sermon, actually critiqued car commercials (Harloe recut the commercial with King’s condemnation of commercialism and it’s brilliant). It connected unintentionally with Justin Timberlake’s whole-milk halftime performance, which was complete with a Prince tribute that Prince never would’ve wanted and Janet Jackson nowhere to be found. (Read Chris Richard’s devastating piece about “How Justin Timberlake lost the Super Bowl.“)

Hell, Roger Goodell for the first time in living memory didn’t even get booed when handing over the Lombardi trophy. It was surely a blessed relief for Goodell and the NFL to just be able to turn the politics off at least for the night. Given the number of players on the Eagles who have already announced that they would not be going to the White House, it won’t last long.

IN MENDO IT'S FAKE PTSD AND "BACK" INJURIES

Battling Treacherous Office Chairs And Aching Backs, Aging Cops And Firefighters Miss Years Of Work And Collect Twice The Pay

latimes.com/local/california/la-me-drop-20180203-htmlstory.html

UNLIKE CALIFORNIA, FLORIDA SENATE COMMITTEE UNANIMOUSLY VOTES TO BAN FRACKING

by Dan Bacher

Tallahassee, FL – While Governor Jerry Brown continues to support an expansion of fracking and offshore drilling in California, the Florida Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation committee Monday voted 10-0 to pass SB 462 to prohibit “advanced well stimulation,” commonly known as fracking, throughout the state.

This strong showing of support for a state-level fracking ban by the committee, chaired by Senator Bradley, is “both unprecedented and significant” in the long standing fight to ban the dangerous oil and gas extraction practice in the Sunshine State, said Michelle Allen, Florida organizer for Food & Water Watch, in a statement

Shepherded in by Senator Dana Young and Representative Kathleen Peters, ban bills were introduced in the state Senate and House with bipartisan support.

“Floridians are ready for groundbreaking environmental legislation, and we are thrilled to have such strong leadership in the Florida Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation committee to move our state towards a safer future, ” Allen stated.

“It’s finally time for our elected officials to recognize the overwhelming opposition to fracking in Florida by passing a ban bill. Competing bills have been introduced to regulate the practice, ban it, or allow it, but this is the year Florida finally passes a ban and ends the longstanding controversy once and for all,” she said.

“For the second year in a row, the Senate has shown their commitment to banning fracking because of the real risks it poses to Florida’s water. Just recently, a Duke study on fracking in Pennsylvania found high levels of radium in river and stream sediment located downstream from the discharge areas of oil wastewater treatment facilities. We cannot and should not allow the fracking industry to take our water and then contaminate our waterways. Our hope is that Speaker Richard Corcoran stops listening to special interests and lobbyists and finally acts to ban fracking in the state also,” Allen concluded.

The fracking ban bill will now move to the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Environment and Natural Resources, according to Allen.

Unfortunately, bills to impose a moratorium or ban on fracking on the other side of the country in California have been defeated in the Legislature, due to the enormous power of Big Oil in the golden state. Big Oil led the spending on lobbying in California in 2017, capturing three out the four lobbying expenditure spots, according to documents from the Secretary of State’s Office.

Chevron, based in Dublin, California, placed first with $8.2 million. The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), the trade association for the oil industry in the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Arizona, finished second with $6.2 million. Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company placed fourth with $3.2 million.

That’s a total of $17.6 million dumped into lobbying by the three top oil industry lobbying organizations alone. That figure exceeds the $14,577,314 expended by all 16 oil lobby organizations in 2016.

You can find the information on spending by employers of lobbyists here: cal-access. sos. ca. gov/…

The oil industry dumped their millions into lobbying for Jerry Brown’s “cap-and-trade” (pollution trading) bill, AB 398, “so full of loopholes that it remains cheaper for companies to pay chump change to pollute than invest real money into reducing carbon emissions,” according to Liza Tucker, Consumer Advocate for Consumer Watchdog.

During the same period, Chevron, WSPA, Tesoro and other oil industry interests were able to defeat Senate Bill 188, a bill authored by Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) to prohibit new pipelines or other infrastructure needed to support new federal oil and gas development.

Meanwhile, Jerry Brown’s regulators have expanded offshore oil drilling in state waters by 17 percent, approving 238 new oil wells since 2012.

For more information, go to: http://www. elkgrovenews. net/2018/02/big-oils-top-3-spenders-lavish-176. html

FEBRUARY NEWS FROM THE CANCER RESOURCE CENTER

This Thursday! Free to the public:

"Small Steps to Less Stress and Better Health," a motivational talk by health coach, author and podcaster Sid Garza-Hillman. February 8 at 5 p. m. at The Stanford Inn Conference Room in Mendocino. Come hear how to move closer, by degrees, to a natural design in nutrition, movement, and creativity. RSVP is appreciated to our Mendocino office, 937-3833 or info@crcmendocino.org

Cancer Prevention and Awareness Message:

Let's Prevent Cervical Cancer!

Unlike many types of cancer, we know what causes cervical cancer, we know it takes a long time to develop (20 years or so), and we have an affordable test to detect it early. Given these facts, no one should die of cervical cancer. There is also an HPV vaccine which prevents HPV-related cancers in both women and men. This month, our guest blogger on the CRC website

cts. vresp.com/c/?CancerResourceCenter/2f9a838a54/c8bebd9577/e65b84a337

is Carolyn Wyatt, women's health nurse practitioner at Care for Her, a department of MCHC Health Centers in Ukiah. Read more about preventing cervical and HPV-related cancers on our CRC website.

Valentine's Day is around the corner. Honor your sweetie with a donation to the Cancer Resource Centers of Mendocino County. For a $20 donation, we will personalize your valentine and mail to the address you provide. Call 937-3833 to order over the phone. Cards are available in our Ukiah and Mendocino offices through February 14.

The Big River Walk and Paddle is May 19. This annual event is a major fundraiser for the Cancer Resource Center. It is not too early to register, begin gathering pledges, and tell your friends. For more information, call our Mendocino office at 937-3833. You can register online - http://cts. vresp. com/c/?CancerResourceCenter/2f9a838a54/c8bebd9577/36a2a47b2b or the morning of the walk--$25 for each adult, $10 for teens and children are free.

ON THE MARKET CRASH: CALM DOWN

by Dean Baker

Before anyone starts jumping off buildings, let me give you a few items to think about.

1) The stock market is not the economy. It moves in mysterious ways that often have little or nothing to do with the economy. In October of 1987 it plunged more than 20 percent in a single day. GDP grew 4. 2 percent in 1988 and 3. 7 percent in 1989. The market did recover much of its value over this period, but we don’t know whether or not it will recover the ground lost in the last week either.

2) The market has gone through an enormous run-up over the last nine years. The current level is more than 230 percent above its 2009 lows. That translates into an average nominal return of more than 14.0 percent annually, before taking into account dividends.

The gains have been even more rapid over the last two years. Even with the recent drop the market is more than 40 percent above its February 2016 level. Most people would have considered it crazy to predict the market would rise by 40 percent over the next two years back in February 2016. In other words, people who have invested heavily in the stock market have nothing to complain about. If they didn’t understand that it doesn’t always go up then they should keep their money in a savings account or certificates of deposit.

3) This plunge is not in any obvious way linked to higher interest rates. We can say that because interest rates have not risen that much. The yield on 10-year Treasury bonds stands at 2. 71 percent. (It fell sharply today as the market was plunging.) That compares to about 2.4 percent a year ago. It’s pretty hard to tell a story that a 0.3 percentage point rise in long-term interest rates will sink the stock market and the economy. The yield had been less than 1.8 percent two years ago.

4) The plunge in markets is world wide with markets in Europe and Asia also sinking sharply. This undercuts the blame Trump story unless the theory is that Trump is so bad he is going to sink the whole world economy. Also, the markets are still above the levels they were at when Trump took office, so this is really not a good theory for Trump critics to embrace.

In short, calm down. The economy is not going to collapse. If you have less money in your 401(k) than you did last week, just remember, you have far more than you expected to have last year.

(This column originally appeared on CEPR. Courtesy, CounterPunch.org)

UP AGAINST THE IVY WALL: The Columbia Insurrection at 50

by Jonah Raskin

Eve Rosahn was a seventeen-year Barnard student when the revolt at Columbia University erupted in the spring of 1968. Like hundreds of other undergraduates, and some radicals from off-campus, including Tom Hayden and Abbie Hoffman, she occupied a building, was arrested and experienced a profound personal transformation. “My plan was to major in English and become a professor,” she writes in an essay titled “Stopping the Machine” that’s collected in A Time to Stir: Columbia ’68, a new 438-page book (Columbia, $35) which is edited by filmmaker Paul Cronin. Rosahn explains that at the start of the protests, she was a “leftish Democrat” and that in the course of the rebellion she became “a devoted student radical.”

Indeed, in 1970 she withdrew from Barnard — the undergraduate women’s college at Columbia — rallied white radicals to support the Black Panther Party, came out as a lesbian, later became a lawyer, and served sixteen-months in jail in 1981 for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the botched robbery of a Brinks Armored truck in Nyack, New York that resulted in the death of two police officers. David Gilbert, a Columbia student in 1968, took part in the “Brink’s job.” He’s still serving a prison term; Rosahn still remembers him. He was a legendary organizer.

Rosahn says that her memories of the 1968 protest are “clear as day,” though she also allows that she has “little trust in my memories or in those of others — not from intentional dishonesty but rather emotional necessity.” I remember her from an apartment of West 111th Street in Manhattan where I caroused and conspired.

In many ways, Rosahn is a representative figure from Columbia 1968, though no two of the sixty-three contributors to this volume are cut from the same cloth. Nor do they see the Columbia protest though the same lens. Then, too, no two contributors have ended up in the same place, though many would probably echo Rosahn when she says that has rejected the “dualist dogma” that she embraced for years and that she has adopted a “more nuanced view of society.”

A Time to Stir: Columbia ’68 is an excellent source book and will no doubt be of great value to future historians of the Sixties, though it also suggests that memories are unreliable, and that to understand what happened on the campus that spring one needs a sense of critical detachment and the ability to synthesize competing and even contradictory narratives by the participants themselves.

Nancy Biberman, who was also a Barnard student in 1968, argues in her essay, “Children of the New Age,” that the Columbia protests were “pre-feminist,” that women were excluded from the decision-making process and that their roles were “marginalized.” Of the sixty-three contributors to this volume, only 9 are women. Perhaps women are still marginalized. Tom Hurwitz, a Columbia SDS member, remembers that “women did not chair the meetings, but they spoke at them,” and that while “equality, even as an ideal, was blurry at best…we were in it together.” Blurry indeed.

A Time to Stir is long on personal narratives and personal transformations, and short on analysis and theory. Still, there are some attempts at theory and analysis. Hurwitz writes that “in insurrectionary events, there is a kind of mass personality disorder” and that moods move back and forth from “ecstasy” to “abject fear and despair.” Hurwitz saw both the ups and the downs at Columbia in 1968 and forty-three years later in Tahrir Square in Cairo “during the failed revolution” of 2011.

In the Foreword to the volume, Paul Berman — one of the few genuine intellectuals to emerge from Columbia in 1968 — argues that there’s a basic human “impulse to rebel” and that Columbia was “an explosion of anger.” He adds that, “young people ought to rebel.”

I can certainly understand and appreciate both the impulse to rebel and the explosion of anger. In 1968, I was already a professor of English at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and half-a-decade older than most of the undergraduates. I was also married, with an apartment, a car and a retirement plan. Still, I took part in the protests on campus, and was arrested and jailed. I had a sense of deep-seated anger toward Columbia that had roots in my days as an undergraduate at the college from 1959 to 1963, and later as a graduate student.

I experienced the Columbia faculty as anti-radical and anti-Marxist. It may sound exaggerated, but I felt persecuted because of my own political beliefs and actions, though I also had myself to blame. I protested against nuclear testing and segregation. I also adopted a Marxist perspective in papers and essays I wrote in literature and in history classes. In 1962, during an interview for admission to a seminar on literature and revolution, I was asked if I knew any communists. Daniel Bell, the author of The End of Ideology, asked me the question.

In 1962, the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) was still in operation and the anti-communist crusade was alive and well. I was outraged by Bell’s question. Like many of the Columbia students in 1968, I was an anti-war activist and a supporter of the Black Panther Party, but I also had my own ideological axe to grind. I wanted to thumb my nose at my Columbia professors and at what seems to me to be the institution’s fake intellectualism.

Like Eve Rosahn, I had wanted to “live the life of the mind.” And like her and hundreds of others at Columbia in 1968, I was radicalized. Indeed, my life was turned upside down and inside out. In 1969 and 1970, I became a campus radical at Stony Brook, joined the Yippies and took part in guerrilla theater actions in the streets and on campus, which led to more arrests.

There were some Yippie actions at Columbia in 1968. In March, one protester threw a lemon meringue pie in the face of Colonel Akst, the director of the New York City headquarters of the Selective Service. That action mobilized students.

“It seemed perfect to me,” Rosahn writes. “A humorous challenge to authority and a clear statement that the US military was not welcome at Columbia.” There was something of the Yippie in Mark Rudd, whom the mass media selected and magnified as the leader of the rebellion. Hilton Obenzinger observes in his essay, “Already Dead: Inside Low Library Commune,” that Rudd was “only a schlemiel like the rest of us,” and that “we laughed and played but were on no panty raid.” A Time to Stir acknowledges the presence on campus of Leninists, Stalinists, Maoists and Trotskyists, but it downplays the Yippie elements of the protest and it largely ignores the leading role played by students who were Jews, including Mark Rudd, Obenzinger, Roshan, and Susan Slyomovics, the daughter of Czechoslovakian Jews who fled from the Nazis and then the Communists.

When Susan Slyomovics’s mother asked her lawyer, Bill Kunstler, where she had gone wrong as a parent, Kunstler replied, “Your daughter was a hero. They are all heroes. You should be proud.” Kunstler was not the only one on the far side of the generation gap who supported the students, but he was one of the most outspoken supporters. History Professor James Shenton was one of the rare faculty members who understood the protesters. He also served as a mentor to at least two generations of Columbia students. At Columbia there were always exceptions to the rule.

If Paul Berman’s effusive Foreword reflects the upside of 1968 then Juan Gonzales’s sober Afterword reflects the downside. “We on the left made a terrible mistake: we turned against each other in a mad scramble for political purity,” he writes. He adds, that the left was helped along by "the government’s secret counterintelligence machination.”

Rosahn spent a good chunk of her life educating the public about that secret, ignominious program that poisoned American public life.

Several of the essays by black students are memorable, including J. Plunky Branch who remembers the racism on the Columbia football and basketball teams, and another essay by Bill Sales who writes that when journalist Joanne Grant complained about the “male chauvinism” of the black leadership on campus, “we did not understand what she was talking about.”

Michael Locker, one of the founders of the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), is very good on “the university-military-complex.”

Not all of the contributors have positive memories of 1968. Philip Lopate complains about the student “naivete,” posturing and “play-acting.”

Michael Neumann insists that, “the 1968 Columbia ‘student revolt’ doesn’t rate as history,” but rather serves as “one episode in Leftism’s rush to insignificance.”

If A Time to Stir suggests any one single thing it’s that Columbia 1968 does rate as history, and that as Paul Berman argues it takes its place in a global uprising that spread from Paris, Berlin and Prague to New York, Chicago, Mexico City and Tokyo.

If you want nostalgia you can find it here. If it’s humor, that’s here, too. And if you want to know where the rebels are today there are capsule biographies at the end of each essay that bring the story up-to-date. Not surprisingly, many of the undergraduates became lawyers, teachers and something called “consulting strategists.” With a few notable exceptions, most of them made adjustments and came to terms with the middle class backgrounds from which they had come and aimed to reject. Teddy Gold, a stellar Columbia activist, blew himself up in an explosion that leveled a townhouse in Manhattan in 1970. He and his co-conspirators were making an anti-personnel bomb. His fellow SDS member, David Gilbert, is still serving time for his part in the botched Brinks robbery that left two police officers dead.

Mark Rudd has never forgiven himself or the members of the Weather Underground for what happened to Gold and Gilbert. “All our ultra-radical, ultra-military self-expression—bombings, communiqués, underground infrastructure ‑ came to naught,” he writes in his essay, “What it Takes to Build a Movement.”

Like Rudd, many others who were totally sure of themselves in 1968, now have doubts and questions. “Who gets to decide when to disrupt the institutions and daily lives of others,” Rosahn asks. “Who votes on whether Black Lives Matter or climate change activists get to gum up an institution, or even the traffic?” She ends her essay with lines from a Judy Collins song: “It isn’t nice to block the doorway/It isn’t nice to go to jail/There are nicer ways to do it/But the nice ways always fail.” Well, not always, but all-too often.

Before 1968, I was to a large extent a scholar and a gentleman. Afterwards and I was a troublemaker, a pamphleteer, and, though I went back to academia in 1981 after a long absence and then taught for the next thirty years, I never renounced my role as a protester, or my affiliation with rebels and dissidents. Thanks, Columbia: you gave me two educations, one in the classroom, and the other in the liberated buildings and in the Tombs, the New York jail, where for the first time I understood the meaning of freedom. And thanks, Eve Rosahn for your memories and your candor.

(Jonah Raskin is the author of For The Hell of It: The Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman and American Scream: Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ and the Making of the Beat Generation.)

AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED, I resign from humanity. I no longer want to be, nor can still be, a man. What should I do? Work for a social and political system, make a girl miserable? Hunt for weaknesses in philosophical systems, fight for moral and esthetic ideals? It’s all too little. I renounce my humanity even though I may find myself alone. But am I not already alone in this world from which I no longer expect anything?

— Cioran

BE THERE!

First Friday Featured Artist, Margaret Paul, at Edgewater Gallery

Margaret Paul's opening is on First Friday, March 2, at Edgewater Gallery at 356 N. Main St. in Fort Bragg. Margaret will do a brief presentation about her spoon/fork jewelry and Q & A at 6pm. She is Edgewater Gallery's Featured Artist for the month of March. Light refreshments served.

THE DIFFERENCE between the younger Trump talking in sentences and the older one talking in vocal ejaculations is evidence not of decline but authenticity — he has settled into his normal. Late in life an artless man has learned that he could leave his linguistic fly unzipped and life would go on. It may not be pretty, but it isn't a sign that his pants are going to fall down.

— John McWhorter

TRUMP WATCH: As the Congress nears a budget deal to keep the government open to avoid another shutdown, President Trump told reporters that he would “love to see a shutdown” if Congress cannot get a deal on immigration done. He continued, saying “We’ll do a shutdown. And it’s worth it for our country. . . If we have to shut it down because the Democrats don’t want safety—and unrelated but still related, they don’t want to take care of our military—then shut it down, we’ll go with another shutdown.” Hours later, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders clarified that “The president was not advocating for the shutdown,” despite his own words. This was the second time in as many days that the White House has had to clean up for the president either “joking” (about Democrats being “treasonous”) or advocating for a shutdown he supposedly wasn’t advocating for.

RECOMMENDED READING

Letter to Editor

In your Jan 31 issue you published a letter by Monte Hulbert titled AMEN. I suggest that he read any of the atheist books by Lee Simon.

They are:

• All in the Name of God: What Has Been Done to Themselves and to Others
• Organized Religion: The Greatest Scam of All
• Why Atheists Are Hated: Understand the Psychology of Hate
• The Atheists Handbook: Your Guide to Freedom From Religion
• Dogma: Inside the Mental Box

Each is available at Amazon.com by title.

Thank you,

Lee Simon

Round Hill Farm, Virginia

32ND ANNUAL MENDOCINO COUNTY SCIENCE FAIR SCHEDULED FOR MARCH 10

MCOE IS Currently Seeking EVENT Judges AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS

The Mendocino County Office of Education (MCOE) invites the public to attend the 32nd annual Mendocino County Science Fair on Saturday, March 10 from 1:00 — 3:30 p. m. at the Mendocino College Gym in Ukiah.

Students in grades 3-12 who received top scores for their science projects at school and district science fairs around the county are invited to compete. The top 10 projects in grades 6-12 will be selected to advance to the California state science fair, scheduled for April 23-24 at the California Science Center, Exposition Park in Los Angeles.

"Our goal is to help children develop a love of science through experimentation, and to teach them to apply the scientific method as they do research," said Kimberly Barden, MCOE Manager of Educational Services and Student Events.

Students can submit science fair projects as part of a class project, as a team with two or three members, or as individuals. Projects can cover any number of topics in the following categories: Life Sciences A (Biology, Botany, Zoology, Microbiology, Biochemistry), Life Sciences B (Medicine, Health, Behavior and Social Sciences), Physical Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Aerodynamics, Hydrodynamics, Electronics and Electromagnets, Mathematics, Software and Computer Science), Earth and Space Sciences (Geology, Astronomy, Ecology, Atmospheric Science, Environmental Science), and Engineering.

Barden encourages those interested in participating to download the student science project handbook available online at www. mcoe. us/District/Department/27-curriculum-/Portal/Science-Fair. MCOE also offers a step-by-step guide for science fair coordinators, including forms, rules, submission specifications, judging criteria, and more.

Science fair judges review each project against standard criteria and interview participants about their projects. Those interested in serving as judges or volunteers at this year's science fair should register online. To judge, visit https://goo. gl/f4ojrC. To volunteer, visit https://goo. gl/EFs55A. For additional information, contact Barden at (707) 467-5100 or via email at kbarden@mcoe. us.

CELTIC HARPS, RARE INSTRUMENTS & WONDROUS STORIES WITH LISA LYNNE & ARYEH FRANKFURTER

Ukiah Community Concert Association presents an additional concert featuring two Celtic harps, the rare Swedish Nyckelharpa, Ukrainan Bandura, Cittern and more. Lisa Lynne & Aryeh Frankfurter will play traditional instrumental music from Sweden and Ireland as well as heartwarming original compositions. The concert is at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church at 640 S. Orchard Ave in Ukiah on Friday, March 16 at 7PM.

Lisa Lynne & Aryeh Frankfurter are a Celtic harp and multi-instrumentalist duo. They share backgrounds as progressive rock musicians who later discovered a love for Celtic, Renaissance and Swedish music on unique acoustic instruments. They tour extensively playing in performing arts centers, theaters and intimate venues around the US and Europe.

Lisa is widely acclaimed for composing memorable melodies on the Windham Hill/Sony music labels that have repeatedly placed in the Top 10 & Top 20 on the Billboard New age music charts. Lisa's music is heard throughout the award-winning PBS special "Alone in the Wilderness," amongst many other soundtracks for commercial television and independent films.

Aryeh Frankfurter is a renowned Celtic harper and multi-instrumentalist who went from virtuosic progressive rock violin to intricate Swedish folk and Celtic Music. He began with Classical violin at the age of three, and studied music throughout his life. He has 17 albums to his credit, works on film and television scores as composer and arranger, and continues to teach himself to play a variety of instruments, most recently the rarely seen Swedish Nyckelharpa.

Lisa and Aryeh have performed at the Willits Community Theater in the past, and teach at Lark Camp at Mendocino Woodlands every summer, where Marilyn Simpson has studied under them. She asked UCCA to help bring these two incredibly gifted artists to our community. The Ukiah Concert Association has been presenting nationally acclaimed talent since 1947. This all-volunteer nonprofit's mission is to build and maintain a permanent concert audience and cultivate an interest in fine music among the citizens of the community and surrounding area. It is also their goal to encourage music appreciation in the schools of the community.  A suggested donation of $20 is appreciated at the door. For more info visit ukiahconcerts. org or call (707)463-2738.

VIRTUAL REALITY, QUEEN OF HEARTS, & TLC!

Open to all this Weds, Feb. 7th from 2-4pm, first come, first served. Additional dates available for Virtual Reality Reservations (Reserve a 30 minute session in advance): Fri, Feb. 9th: 2:30-4:30pm. Open to all teens, this Saturday from 3-4pm @ Ukiah Library! Our Toddler Time program has been so successful that we are making it a permanent weekly program, every Friday morning from 10:30-11am! Caregivers with children ages 18 months-3 years are invited for a special half-hour of developmentally appropriate stories, songs, and rhymes to get little wiggles out and develop early literacy skills, socialization, motorskills, singing, and play. For a full list of events, check out our website (http://www. mendocinocounty. org/government/library-/locations/library-calendar/-selcat-63)