Mendocino County Today: Monday, April 9, 2018

• Sako and the Judge
• April Showers
• Trash Plans
• Marbut Report
• Abreu Sentence
• Noyo Homeless
• Little Dog
• 3rd District Forum
• Troubled Harts
• Mendocino Climates
• Yesterday's Catch
• Voter Confusion
• Left Coast
• Wealth Inequality
• Comment Line
• Andy Warhol
• Pop Quiz

THE PERPETUALLY RE-INVENTED MR. SAKOWICZ

There are lightning rods and then there’s John Sakowicz. Sako, as the ubiquitous County gadfly is widely known, regularly pops up in the local media and he has been the subject of national news stories. He is synonymous with controversy, the latest in Colorado. A March 30th letter to the editor of the Denver Post tells us that Sako has initiated a high profile case of kiss and tell.

“Let’s get this straight: John Sakowicz (of City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, Calif.) and Colorado Appeals Court Judge Laurie A. Booras had an alleged consensual, adulterous, long-term sexual affair despite Sakowicz’s apparently long marriage. Yet, it appears that Sakowicz only placed his complaint of “adultery” (and public sex, etc.) against Booras after his wife found out about their decade-long complicit affair and filed for divorce. Many of Judge Booras’ alleged actions, including calling a fellow judge a “little Mexican,” are dismaying at a minimum, and unbecoming of a public official. Yet, also dismaying seems Mr. Sakowicz’s timing, a potential usage of this situation for his own personal reasons, which could perhaps be seen as an exacerbation or exploitation of the #MeToo movement. — Karey Christ-Janer; Berthoud, Colorado”

Apparently popping in and out of the closet on a will-call basis, Sakowicz, when he first arrived in Mendocino County, claimed he was gay in a suit he filed against the County of Mendocino. He said he had been subjected to homophobic insults at work as a correctional officer at the Mendocino County Jail. Although the records are sealed, we know that Sako won a small judgement and moved on to a term as a member of the County Grand Jury, and has served as a trustee on the Ukiah Valley Sanitation District.  A skilled interviewer, the versatile Sakowicz has hosted a radio show at both KZYX and KMEC featuring nationally known political intellectuals. He also served a stormy tenure as the sole dissident on the lock-step board of directors for Mendocino County Public Radio. The ubiquitous Sako presently serves on Mendocino County’s Retirement board and recently announced he will be a candidate for Supervisor.

Sakowicz, a graduate of John’s Hopkins University, is a large, imposing, articulate man who has previously and variously claimed 30 years as a Wall Street high flyer and “gay activist and poet living in Colorado Springs” who “had been awarded a grant from Pen Foundation International for writers with HIV or AIDS.”

Sakowicz seems to have reverted to hetero mode in the mountain air of Colorado, going so far as to claim a woman who’d demanded sex from him has ruined his marriage to a Mendocino County woman. And it was not just any woman who had sexually harassed poor Sako, his harasser is a Colorado appellate judge called Laurie Booras. Her honor has now been suspended, with pay, while the Colorado Supreme Court considers Sako’s charges against Her Honor, claims that Sako backs up with embarrassingly salacious e-mails from the judge to him. Ordinarily, charges of judicial impropriety would be a confidential matter, but Sako, never publicity averse, sent his lover’s incriminating e-mails to the Denver Post.

Sako says not only has Booras sexually harassed him, she committed a second sin when she referred to a fellow magistrate as “a little Mexican.”

“Given the national awareness of sexual harassment, as demonstrated by the #MeToo movement, I am enclosing a few examples of unsolicited emails of a sexual nature from Judge Booras,” Sako wrote in the letter to the Denver Post.

The wounded sexual warrior said the judge was “stalking his family,” and had sent steamy e-mails between her and Sako to Sako’s unsuspecting wife after Sako had broken off the ten-year affair with the judge. “This email exchange with my wife hurt her deeply and resulted in my wife filing for divorce last month,” Sakowicz wrote. “For years, Booras threatened me with such exposure of our affair to my wife if I did not leave my wife. Booras’ behavior could be interpreted as coercive and extortionary.”

Implying that Judge Booras was in full Fatal Attraction mode, Sako claims the lovelorn officer of the court had mailed Sako a drawing of Sakowicz’s family, including him, his wife, his two sons and three dogs, which he says she’d mailed to his home.

“Booras was obsessed with me after a failed relationship. She was angry and abusive that I would not have sex with her, nor meet with her. She made the drawing to embarrass me. She made the drawing to intimidate me. …”

Sako, who otherwise seems fearless, said he was afraid of the judge, although they were seemingly co-equal catnip when, Sako says, he and Booras twice had sex in the back seat of her car. “For Booras to deny any such lewd and lascivious behavior under oath in an investigation by the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline would be perjury,” his complaint reads.

Clearly intending to destroy Judge Booras, Sakowicz says the judge gave him private financial information about court clerks and had failed to recuse herself in an oil-and-gas case although her son is a financial analyst in the fracking industry.

We received an e-mail from the beset resident of Ten Thousand Buddhas at Talmage just last week. Sako was writing from Italy, he said, and maybe he was.

* * *

JOHN SAKOWICZ RESPONDS:

Only Two Things Matter: The Facts And The Law

As with any matter before any court, the investigation and evaluation of disgraced judge, Laurie Booras, of the Colorado Court of Appeals, by the Colorado Supreme Court, two things, and only two things, matter: the facts and the law.

If it is determined as a factual matter that Booras called her colleague, Appellate Court Judge Terry Fox, “the little Mexican”, then this is racist speech, and the Commission on Judicial Discipline should recommend that Booras be immediately removed from the bench, per Article VI, Section 23(3)(d). The Commission is authorized to recommend to the Colorado Supreme Court that Booras be removed for any of the following: willful misconduct, willful or persistent failure to perform duties, intemperance, and violations of the ethics principles in the Canons of the Colorado Code of Judicial Conduct

If it is determined as a factual matter that Booras did not recuse herself in a recent fracking case due to a conflict of interest — her son worked in the fracking industry — the Commission should recommend to the Colorado Supreme Court that Booras be immediately removed from the bench, again for the reasons cited above. It is an aggravating factor that Booras recently wrote a dissenting opinion in support of the fracking industry.

If it is determined as a factual matter that Booras harassed, stalked, threatened, intimidated, and/or menaced the complainant, then Booras should be removed for the reasons cited above. This behavior is criminal, if it rises to causing “emotional distress”.

Having sex in public with the complainant — lewd and lascivious behavior — is also a criminal act.

The facts and the law are all that ever matter in court — not personalities.

Finally, I have questions of my own: What else is alleged and substantiated in the complaint that the Post did not report? Will Booras be deposed under oath during the Commission’s investigation? What happens if, during the Commission’s investigation, Booras refuses to answer because answering would incriminate her? And why are the deliberations of the Commission secret? Isn’t the public interest served by an investigation and deliberations that are open and transparent?

The big, big question is: Why was Booras appointed as an appellate court judge in the first place? Booras never served as a district judge. Never. Not one day. Booras never served as a county judge. Never. Not one day. Booras never so much as heard a case involving a traffic ticket or a barking dog before she was appointed to the second-highest court in Colorado.

Why? Why was Booras appointed to the Colorado Court of Appeals without any judicial experience?

As a footnote, and apart from purely legal considerations, the Court’s integrity is everything in a democracy. A judge must act in accordance with the ethics principles in the Canons of the Colorado Code of Judicial Conduct.

Specifically, see: https://www.courts.state.co.us/userfiles/file/Code_of_Judicial_Conduct.pdf

WARM AND DRY conditions will occur across the region today. Thereafter, light rain is expected on Tuesday as a weak front moves across the area. A stronger storm system will impact the region during Wednesday and Thursday, resulting in beneficial rains and light mountain snow. Drier weather is expected Friday and Saturday, followed by additional rain on Sunday. (National Weather Service)

MENDO’S NEW TRASH CZAR, Robert Carlson, aka General Manager of the Mendocino Solid Waste Management Authority, has put his new “three year plan” on the agenda for Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

According to his intro, Carlson, who succeeds agency founder, Mike Sweeney, Mendocino County's infamous ex-husband, the plan will “provide general direction and anticipated program development over the following three years. This document will be used to assist with budget development, grant application writing, infrastructure development, and public outreach efforts.”

Carlson’s plan covers: 1. Pharmaceutical and Sharps Program  2. Reusable 1-pound propane cylinder program  3. Cohesive and comprehensive outreach and education campaign  4. Program compliance and accurate reporting  5. County-wide illegal dump cleanup and litter abatement  6. Modernization of HHW collection and handling  7. Facility siting, upgrades, and efficient material management  8. Recycling and composting market resiliency  9. Construction and demolition diversion  10. Sustainable funding  11. Franchise hauler and transfer station contracts  12. Succession planning

Under “Franchise hauler and transfer station contracts,” MSWMA “will review and evaluate all existing franchise hauler and transfer station contracts to ensure that members of the public are being provided with the appropriate level of service and for a reasonable rate.” According to Carlson, “The current contracts are inconsistent with one another and outdated. Some contracts could be improved while others may require more significant adjustments. MSWMA will review the existing contracts and identify areas that are in need of immediate adjustment as well as those that should be included in future contract negotiations or requests for proposal.” But no schedule is provided in spite of the areas that require “immediate adjustment.”

Predictably, Carlson wants to spend more money and hire more people:

“In order to accomplish the program goals discussed above, MSWMA will require these additional staff:  A) Education and Outreach Specialist (PT)  a. Expect to advertise position Early January 2018  B) Material Management Specialist (FT)  a. Expect to advertise position Mid December 2017  C) Data Management and Reporting Specialist (PT)  a. Incorporated into existing Office Manager job duties  D) Office Assistant (PT)  a. Hired as of December 19, 2017”

Of particular interest, however, is former MSWMA General Manager Mike Sweeney’s pet project, the controversial and wholly redundant  “Central Coast Transfer Station,” which would be sited off Highway 20 near Fort Bragg although a perfect serviceable transfer station exists just north of Fort Bragg at Pudding Creek.

Under “Facility Siting and Upgrades,” Carlson includes a bullet point entitled "Central Coast Transfer Station" but there are no particulars or details in his presentation or plan, just this cartoonish sketch.

Perhaps his Tuesday presentation will illuminate Sweeney's final folly proposed for Fort Bragg as Sweeney himself chuckles to himself in New Zealand as he recalls the crimes, great and small, he got away with on the Northcoast.

The Central Coast Transfer Station’s Final Environmental Impact Report was posted on the MSWMA website in June of 2015. There does not appear to have been much further development on the subject since September of 2016 when Sweeney pushed it through a joint meeting of the Supervisors and the Fort Bragg City Council, with lots of public opposition but only councilmen Lindy Peters and Mike Cimolini voting no.

At that time, it was anticipated that “the County will now begin the steps to acquire the project site and a request for proposals will be issued, followed by the negotiation of a contract with a private industry entity that will design, build and operate the facility.”

Coast garbage customers will be face with raised rates to pay for the "$4-$5 million" facility range, which supposedly included costs for permitting, environmental review, design and engineering, construction and equipment.

But we haven’t heard of any such “steps,” nor of any RFP preparation effort, even though when Mr. Carlson was hired one item in the job posting said, “Strategic planning on solid waste, waste diversion and source reduction issues for member jurisdictions, including development of a new Central Coast Transfer Station. That’s probably because the prime mover of the project, Mike Sweeney, has expatriated himself to New Zealand, and since there was never any need for the project in the first place. Hopefully, it has been pushed to the back burner where Mendo can hope that it linger indefinitely in the same status as the permanently on-hold and unnecessary new County Courthouse.

It's doubtful that newbie Carlson knows any of the thrilling Sweeney back story given that in this unique county, history starts all over again every day and you are whatever you say you are.

HOMELESS REPORT A GOOD GUIDE

We think Mendocino County made a good decision when it hired Dr. Robert Marbut to come to our county to evaluate our homeless problem and recommend things to do that would help alleviate it.

His report is a clear, logical and data driven set of observations, findings and recommendations that we believe should be implemented as soon as possible.

Marbut was able to tell us a number of things – of which many knew but would never say out loud – about the homeless problem in our county, especially in Ukiah.

1. The “Point in Time” counts done each year were inflated and completely unscientific. We have far fewer homeless people than these useless counts told us year after year. While the 2017 Point in Time count said we had some 1,159 homeless people in the county, Marbut’s count - done personally over several days – came up with approximately 336 homeless people in our combined cities of Ukiah, Fort Bragg and Willits.
2. Our county has too many different organizations all trying to serve the homeless. That encourages moochers to come to town.
3. We have too many “day centers” where the homeless are allowed to hang out all day without participating in any kind of programs.
4. We have too many agencies duplicating services.
5. We have no clear definition of what homeless is, thereby granting services to people who should not be getting handouts.
6. The people many of us in Ukiah see and loathe most are the groups hanging around WalMart and Safeway. Turns out they aren’t homeless, just drug dealers and pan handlers.

Marbut makes some very good recommendations about getting county agencies working together, instituting a county-wide homeless data system many communities already have, making sure that local homegrown homeless populations get served first, and getting away from the knee jerk system of handing out sleeping bags and food and calling ourselves compassionate.

One of the things Marbut stresses is that we need a countywide eligibility system. In other words, we need to start turning some people away. Marbut rightly says we do not have the resources to really help every person who shows up in town and says they’re homeless. About two-thirds of the homeless people we have are indeed homegrown or have a local connection. If we aim at helping them with real programs, not handouts, we can start to make a difference. If we also start to turn away people just coming to town for the services, have zero tolerance for encampments, and remove shopping carts as the traveling encampments they are, we will also start to see a difference. For instance, Marbut lauded the Willits Food Bank system of providing a three-day bag of food for people showing up from out of town and that’s it. No more. Incidentally, by Marbut’s count, Willits had a low overall census of homeless people in their streets.

We believe the county and each city needs to quickly come to agreement on how to implement Marbut’s recommendations and get going.

There is no time to waste. We think the city ought to turn down the latest homeless day center being proposed on Luce Street (which will be the fourth in town by Marbut’s count).

Mostly we think it is time for the county (and the cities to the extent that they give out funding) to begin making these new strategies mandatory for all organizations seeking public funding for homeless services.

What we have been doing for a couple of decades clearly has not worked. We have a solid report with logical steps outlined for us. We would be foolish not to give them a try.

(KC Meadows; courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)

SOME HOPE

Dear AVA,

I received a response from the Northern California Innocence Project. They said they had found a potential conflict of interest and had transferred my "case and [my] entire file" to the California Innocence Project in San Diego. They said I should now direct all correspondence to them. Here is the name and contact information so anyone can contact them if needed.

Kimberly Fernandez, California Innocence Project, California Western School of Law, 225 Cedar St., San Diego, CA 92101

In other efforts, I have discovered a case, People v. Banks, in which federal court ruled that you cannot give LWOP to a defendant under the felony murder rule if that defendant did not actually kill anyone. He got his sentence reduced to 25 to life because they had to remove the special circumstance from his conviction. There is a routine filing now that is used for such cases and as soon as I know more about that I can pass it on to you or it might be worth bringing up to Detective Bailey or Deputy District Attorney Davenport in your dealings with them. If they state they do not oppose such a motion (or point us in the right direction, officially or otherwise), they would go a long way in demonstrating their belief in the unjustness of my sentence.

I never took a deal because, as Ms. Thompson presented them, they all were contingent upon giving testimony against Aaron Channel. I want to know if Deputy District Attorney Davenport or the then District Attorney actually had that proviso on each deal they offered. Since none of them were delivered personally, I have only the unreliable word of Linda Thompson that they were so contingent. If the Deputy District Attorney makes a statement that testimony was not proffered for each deal (or any deal), then I can make a case for ineffective assistance of counsel (IAC), and IAC filings are not time-barred by the court and I can put in a motion for retrial on those grounds.

With the various changes in the law over the past five years I only really need a sentence reduction to 25 to life (which I would stipulate to it this point) to qualify for SB 260, SP 261, and the upcoming AB#(?). All that I require is resentencing under any legal grounds that will remove the special circumstance from my conviction. (People v. Banks accomplishes this.) The only real setback is that I need a lawyer to get it done effectively and in the capitalist American system, money buys freedom and the lack of it ensures literal or figurative imprisonment.

Please look over these options and discuss them with anyone who will listen so we can evaluate whether or not I am on the right track here. It won't take much to get off the ground, but I don't want the engines to give out once we’re in the air.

I got the hard copy of the Dr. Doo comic. Much thanks to Fred Sternkopf for his time and effort.

As an aside, I feel that I am a relatively intelligent individual who has thus far spent his time of incarceration in a positive, productive manner. I pursued education, avoided disciplinary infractions, and accomplished more than a few positive programming goals. I find it disheartening that our society, through the laws it has allowed to be enacted, has labeled me irredeemable based on the fact that I essentially had the wrong friends. In light of recent scientific research, society is beginning to understand the nature of brain development through age 25 and is making great leaps and strides to correct the Neanderthalic ideologies of the past. It is exceptionally unfortunate, however, that they have erroneously decided to exclude individuals sentenced with special circumstances from all the recent legislation. One can only hope that this oversight is soon corrected.

Thank you again for taking the time to assist me in the ways that you can.

Sincerely,

Tai Abreu, CDCR# T-61118
High Desert State Prison
Facility A5-215 Upper
P.O. Box 3030
Susanville, CA 96127

LIFE AT NOYO, an MSP commenter:

"Well now that capn flints is closed it regularly is used as a homeless camp. All night free homeless rv parking with all the good stuff that goes along with it. Ya know. Like a giant bathroom for the less fortunate. I can look out my window at any time day or night and see someone pulling out their stuff or squating to take a piss. It’s great. Although I have personally worked for and spent over a $100k in the last decade to have a nice veiw of the bridge and harbor I feel so lucky that now I get to look at the same things that people at the credit union get to see every day. Transients going to the bathroom and getting high and fighting. It’s awesome. At least they get to do this unimpeded every day. City police can’t do anything about capn flints cause it’s county and the Sheriff’s department doesn’t even come down here until called. Oh well. Poor homeless people. I’ll just be nice and smell their urine until Ralph, the owner of the property decides to do something about it. Smh."

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “I see myself on Crime Watch Daily with Elizabeth Smart running after a bad guy. ‘Come outta there, redneck! We're from Crime Watch Daily.’ A dog can dream, can't he?”

MENDOCINO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS 3RD DISTRICT CANDIDATES PARTICIPATE IN FIRST FORUM IN WILLITS

by Ariel Carmona Jr.

For the first time since they started campaigning, all eight candidates for the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors’ 3rd District race gathered at a forum, where they had a chance to introduce themselves to the community, present their platforms and discuss issues like cannabis, housing and other areas of concern to voters.

Thursday’s forum at the Little Lake Grange was hosted by the Mendocino Cannabis Industry Association. The candidates started the forum by introducing themselves and briefly discussed their qualifications, background and experience.

• Cyndee Logan is a former commissioner and founder of the Food Policy Council for the county.
• John Pinches is a former Mendociono County supervisor, who represented the 3rd District over a 20-year period, serving on 15 board committees and commissions during that time.
• Tony Tucker served on the Covelo Community Services District as a member of the sewer board and is the clerk on the Round Valley Education District board.
• Susy Barsotti has produced music festivals, such as the Kate Wolf Festival, with her husband on two rental facilities in the county for more than 20 years.
• John Haschak is a teacher and Willits Teachers Association president for the Willits Unified School District for 15 years. He chaired the statewide Budget Committee for the California Teachers Association for seven years.
• Pam Elizondo’s platform centers around using the taxpayers’ money toward putting people to work restoring the Earth. She worked at a state hospital for 10 years.
• Shawna Jeavons worked for the city of Willits for seven years, and has experience in both the public and private sectors. She started two businesses, including a yoga studio.
• Michael Horger served as business agent for the Teamsters union in Ukiah, volunteered for Little Lake Fire Department for 18 years and is a former president of Fire Fighters Association and Little Lake Fire board of directors.

The candidates spoke about what they believed to be the biggest issues facing the county which are not currently receiving enough attention.

Pinches said for him, one issue was the decrease in the cannabis industry.

“Not much changed, it almost went full circle,” he said. “It started out as a hobby, some people were making their sole living on it and it looks like now it’s trending back where it’s a part-time for income for people.” Pinches added that with the passage of Prop. 64, Mendocino County has to compete with the Central Valley and places beyond.

In terms of regulation and taxation, Pinches said he thought it was beyond the county’s purview because California’s Water Control Board and other agencies are moving into areas of the county they previously did not know existed.

“That seems to be the biggest elephant in the room: the state issue with cannabis,” said Pinches. “As far as local cannabis regulations, I want to keep it very simple for the small growers and not lose that total industry to the Central Valley.”

According to Tucker, the issues not getting enough attention include affordable housing, mental health services and rural transportation.

Regarding cannabis, he said Mendocino County ordinances “should be embracing green tourism, addressing appellations and growing organic, embracing the culture that has been hidden by many years,” adding that his main concern was the lack of services facing the rural areas in the county, such as Laytonville and Covelo.

“Thank goodness we passed Measure B to have something moving forward,” he said, lamenting a lack of productive laws for producing a vital economy.

Barsotti, a resident of the Hog Farm at Black Oak Ranch, said she was also concerned about the local economy and the crash of the cannabis industry.

“I am losing my neighborhood. I am ally with people who are dug in for life,” she said. “I guess I would say I am very concerned about losing the culture and the thread of the neighborhood that I live in. I think we need to diversify in all sectors. I think we need to get really crafty with the way that we are applying our balance; we need to collaborate really hard with each other right now.”

She said she was really concerned that there is so much taxation and regulation and not enough promotion for cannabis. “I think it’s really unfortunate and out of proportion.”

Haschak said, “The way I look at it we have three big issues. We have an economy that’s dealing with this real time of transition with the bypass and with the legalization of marijuana.”

The WTA president and Board of Supervisors candidate said housing, an emergency exit out of the Brooktrails Township, the establishment of broadband, and a need to update the county’s emergency preparedness plans were key priorities for the county.

“We have all these things that we need to be doing and we need to move forward quickly,” he said. “We need to have integrity in our budget process. I don’t think we have it when we have supervisors giving themselves an almost 40 percent raise and then we have a budget deficit. I am the only one who’s saying that I will not take that raise because it’s not right when the workers of our county are not getting that.”

Elizondo said problems center around a lack of jobs, a paucity of housing, dirty air, food and water and terribly mismanaged money from the federal government down to local jurisdictions. She advocates for satellite communication over more broadband connections, abolition and reform of state run jails which she said are over populated with people with non-violent backgrounds.

“I suggest we put everybody to work growing marijuana and put it into everything that we can use. It will solve all of our problems,” she said.

Jeavons stated she agreed with the idea that a well-regulated and easily accessible economy can start addressing some of the issues the county is facing.

In regard to cannabis, she said she feels the old business model was for profit but did not address people and the environment.

“What I have already seen in this community since cannabis has become legal is friends and acquaintances that were trimming in horrible conditions are now trimming for places like Flow Kana and there’s a human resources (department) they can go to,” she said. “They are not being fed strange food, there’s better overall healthy environment in their work.”

However, Jeavons noted lower wages in the industry should be addressed.

Horger said for him, the local economy coupled with a lack of well-paying jobs were among the biggest issues.

“It used to be when you got out of high school and you started in a job, you started sweeping floors,” he said. “You moved up with more responsibility. We are at the point we don’t have that type of job. People start off at minimum wage and they stay at minimum wage. You are getting housing that’s $300,000 to $400,000 for a house; you can’t afford that at a minimum wage job.”

Logan said she thinks the county has let small growers down by approving cautionary principles and then letting big indoor grows take over.

“This is a business, this is an industry and we are killing before it even has a chance to get started,” said Logan, stating that the numbers used by the county for how much tax revenue would trickle into the region from the legalization of cannabis were “pie in the sky numbers.”

“Taxing people on the amount of money that they are supposed to make and they are not making right now, is not helping anything,” said Logan.

During the last half-hour of the 90-minute forum, candidates answered questions from the audience about climate change, how they would deal with substance abuse in the area and suggestions on how to expedite the cannabis permit and compliance process in the county.

Additional candidate forums are planned in Laytonville, Covelo and Willits this month.

(Courtesy, the Willits News)

THE BACKSTORY: Devonte Hart family crash: Deceptions, missed signals preceded deaths

oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2018/04/devonte_hart_family_crash_dece.html

THE CLIMATES OF MENDOCINO COUNTY

by Katy Tahja

As a historian in the midst of writing a 150 year history of Mendocino County I spend a lot of time reading the first county history printed in 1880. In this tome there is nothing in this county that is NOT worth lavish praise, including the weather, no matter how extreme it is.

When this volume was written it was a “Come Settle Here” advertising tool. If you already lived here is was “How Could You Be So Lucky!” Any negativity could be reworded, verbosely, into something positive. Here are some comments from that text.

The climatography section informs readers of the wonderful diversities of climates. While the coast is always moisture laden just inside the first range of mountains the air is shorn of a measure of moisture and the wind is shorn of chilling fog. Inland the sun will pour its unimpeded rays in a merciless manner in proving to mankind it can shine more fervidly today than yesterday. In spring the merry sunshine kisses with loving tenderness the newborn offspring of Mother Earth.

Addressing town sites we read Point Arena has tradewinds that come in off the ocean laden with moisture and seem to penetrate the very marrow of strangers who are unaccustomed to it. You are reassured that you get used to this when you become a settler. Of the Big River (Mendocino) area there is but little variety, but, there are days of unparalleled beauty and brightness are only the more appreciated on account of the contrast with the damp days that are so frequent. The pure unadulterated sea air, full of fog and oxygen, charged with ozone, salubrious, salsuginous, invigorating, and life giving, makes pulses leap and brings roses to the cheeks in Mendocino City. Extremes of both heat and cold are unknown.

In Calpella the climate is ismply delightful and too much cannot be said in commendation of its wonderful salubrity and healthfulness. The summer sun may send its rays down in direct lines raising the temperature above 100 degrees, but the air is pure.

In Sanel (Hopland) the summer heat is robbed of its fierceness but gentle bracing breezes. The fogs that infest the coast do not reach this valley.

The climate of Ukiah cannot be surpassed because again, if the mercury ascends to the 100 degree mark the air is light and not felt to be oppressive. Personally I think this “light” air comment is written by someone from the East Coast who understood what humidity felt like. In the Little Lake section (Willits) the climate was unexcelled in the state as the area was sheltered from heavy fog and strong winds from the coast. But…when you want those breezes, the author states while the elevation causes it to be quite cold in the winter season the climate is tempered by sea breezes laden with warmth absorbed from the ocean and comes over the mountains and through the valley making everyone glad.

Round Valley was mild in the summer time but rather rigorous in winter. Air is so light in the summer season extreme heat is not as bad as it is in the lower valleys. Ten Mile area on the coast got a comment that it is not considered a luxury to revel in the almost eternal fogs of the section.

So there’s your weather prospects from a century ago. No matter where you live or visit in Mendocino County there was something superlative to say about it.

CATCH OF THE DAY, April 8, 2018

CHRISTINA BRITTON, Covelo. False ID, probation revocation.

CATHERINE DUTRA, Ukiah. Resisting, probation revocation.

LAWRENCE FREASE, Covelo. Failure to appear, resisting.

FREDDIE FRED, White River, Arkansas/Ukiah. Battery with serious injury.

JOSE GOMEZ, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

PAUL GONDUSKY, Little River. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

JOSHUA GUEVARA, Ukiah. Talmage. Carjacking, probation revocation.

ALANA JORDAN, Fort Bragg. Under influence, paraphernalia, protective order violation, contempt of court.

MICHAEL LAND, Gainsville, Florida/Ukiah. Harboring wanted felon.

PHILLIP LOPEZ JR., Ukiah. Parole violation.

LAMAR MANUEL, Ukiah. Parole violation.

LUIS OVIN-RIVERA, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

KARLIE SEDER, Ukiah. Getting credit with someone else’s ID, interfering with police communications.

STEPHANIE SERGY, Willits. DUI.

MICHEAL VORIS, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, fighting in public.

AMICA WETZLER, Ukiah. DUI drugs&alcohol.

CONFUSION BENEFITS WHOM?

Editor:

Suggesting that the name of the American Independent Party is the main reason for voter confusion in California is a red herring.

I registered “no party preference” to be able to take part in the open candidate choosing afforded by the Democratic Party’s presidential primary. No-party-preference registered voters are allowed by the Democratic Party to vote in its presidential primary. Republicans do not allow this.

My area had no polling place. I was forced to vote by mail only. When my mail-in ballot arrived, there was no Democratic presidential candidate ballot. No presidential ballot. The no-party-preference registered voters in California who had the right to vote in the Democratic primary were purposefully excluded by party elections officials.

Quiet, underhanded, bureaucratic denials are how elections get skewed and lost or won. I maintain Bernie Sanders would have won California’s Democratic presidential primary. But, no, we had the legacy family of the global corporatist Clintons crammed down our throats, and we see the result.

Joseph Stalin is often quoted as having said some version of “It’s not the people who vote that count, it’s the people who count the votes.”

Ray Morgan

Santa Rosa

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I would like to see the Left Coast break off from the USA and form its own country. It would be a country with a high personal income per capita, progressive in its policies and open to sensible immigration. It would embody the best of liberal democratic principles in contrast to the brutish, boneheaded approach currently advocated by our “leadership”. If in the process we lose the Atlantic blue states, ok. Let them deal with the middle America flyover states and their inordinate representation in Congress and Presidential elections. Which states would be included? Primarily, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado. Idaho-Utah-Arizona-New Mexico-Montana-Wyoming might also be included – as our symbolic conservative states.

RICHEST 1% ON TARGET TO OWN TWO-THIRDS OF ALL WEALTH BY 2030

World leaders urged to act as anger over inequality reaches a ‘tipping point’

by Michael Savage

The world’s richest 1% are on course to control as much as two-thirds of the world’s wealth by 2030, according to a shocking analysis that has lead to a cross-party call for action.

World leaders are being warned that the continued accumulation of wealth at the top will fuel growing distrust and anger over the coming decade unless action is taken to restore the balance.

An alarming projection produced by the House of Commons library suggests that if trends seen since the 2008 financial crash were to continue, then the top 1% will hold 64% of the world’s wealth by 2030. Even taking the financial crash into account, and measuring their assets over a longer period, they would still hold more than half of all wealth.

Since 2008, the wealth of the richest 1% has been growing at an average of 6% a year – much faster than the 3% growth in wealth of the remaining 99% of the world’s population. Should that continue, the top 1% would hold wealth equating to $305tn (£216.5tn) – up from $140tn today.

Analysts suggest wealth has become concentrated at the top because of recent income inequality, higher rates of saving among the wealthy, and the accumulation of assets. The wealthy also invested a large amount of equity in businesses, stocks and other financial assets, which have handed them disproportionate benefits.

New polling by Opinium suggests that voters perceive a major problem with the influence exerted by the very wealthy. Asked to select a group that would have the most power in 2030, most (34%) said the super-rich, while 28% opted for national governments. In a sign of falling levels of trust, those surveyed said they feared the consequences of wealth inequality would be rising levels of corruption (41%) or the “super-rich enjoying unfair influence on government policy” (43%).

The research was commissioned by Liam Byrne, the former Labour cabinet minister, as part of a gathering of MPs, academics, business leaders, trade unions and civil society leaders focused on addressing the problem.

The actor Michael Sheen, who has opted to scale back his Hollywood career to campaign against high-interest credit providers, was among those supporting the calls.

The hope is to create pressure for global action when leaders of the G20 group of nations gather for a summit in Buenos Aires in November. Byrne, who organised the first OECD global parliamentary conference on inclusive growth, said he believed global inequality was “now at a tipping point”.

“If we don’t take steps to rewrite the rules of how our economies work, then we condemn ourselves to a future that remains unequal for good,” he said. “That’s morally bad, and economically disastrous, risking a new explosion in instability, corruption and poverty.”

In a sign of the concern about the accumulation of wealth in the hands of so few, the move has gained support from across the political divide.

George Freeman, the Tory MP and former head of the prime minister’s policy board, said: “While mankind has never seen such income inequality, it is also true that mankind has never experienced such rapid increases in living standards. Around the world billions of people are being lifted out of poverty at a pace never seen before. But the extraordinary concentration of global wealth today – fuelled by the pace of technological innovation and globalisation – poses serious challenges.

“If the system of capitalist liberal democracy which has triumphed in the west is to pass the big test of globalisation – and the assault from radical Islam as well as its own internal pressures from post-crash austerity – we need some new thinking on ways to widen opportunity, share ownership and philanthropy. Fast.”

Demands for action from the group include improving productivity to ensure wages rise and reform of capital markets to promote greater equality.

Danny Dorling, professor of geography at the University of Oxford, said the scenario in which the super-rich accumulated even more wealth by 2030 was a realistic one.

“Even if the income of the wealthiest people in the world stops rising dramatically in the future, their wealth will still grow for some time,” he said. “The last peak of income inequality was in 1913. We are near that again, but even if we reduce inequality now it will continue to grow for one to two more decades.”

(theguardian.com)

COMMENTING ON THE AVA'S COMMENT LINE:

Prohibitions

I don’t normally agree with McEwen; however I do agree that Mike, Mark, and Bruce have been generous in allowing comments.  Every time I’ve been censored, it’s been justified. Often, Mike has been kind enough to notify me of changes and restrictions of my comments -- and these have always been justified.

I have been allowed to express at length criticisms of religions, ideas, and even people. The only time I’ve been spiked has when I’ve sprinkled my comments with condiments like “jerkoff,” “asshole,” and “motherfucker.”

And also one time when I posted a mean-spirited (intentionally mean-spirited) description of Grace for a second time. The first time, the comment was allowed.

I have no complaints. I do regret that at times I’ve abused the generosity of the editors.

Louis Bedrock

A WHISKY IN THE ELECTRIC CHAIR

by Manuel Vicent (translated by Louis S. Bedrock)

I consider it a privilege to have sat in the electric chair that burnt the famous criminals of Alcatraz to a cinder. One of the kids of Andy Warhol’s tribe had acquired it when the prison was dismantled and he took it to the famous Factory on 47th Street, where when it changed its spirit: it became a work of art.

Warhol reproduced it in many paintings and silk screens as an indictment of the death penalty and from time to time would settle back upon it to watch a horror movie. Singer Nico and director Roman Polanski proved its efficacy as a grill by frying a pair of steaks on it as a variety of nouvelle cuisine.

Andy Warhol’s electric chair, which was manufactured in 1930, was auctioned in Madrid in 1999 and a friend of mine, who is an art collector, let me drink a glass of whisky sitting in the chair with my feet on the metal footboard bound by straps to the backrest, with only my hands free to hold the glass. In the golden era of the 1980s, Andy Warhol discovered that frivolity was the deepest meaning of life. For one moment, drinking a glass of whisky while sitting in that infernal machine, I thought I could understand the aesthetic of modernity.

When Andy Warhol was 13 he had Huntington’s Disease (known as Saint Vitus Dance) that caused him to move his four extremities in an uncontrolled way. In fact, he did nothing else for the rest of his life. During the year of convalescence in bed, when he was a little boy, he filled his time with comic book heroes and magazines filled with faces from Hollywood, a mythomania from which he never recovered.

In 1949, settled in New York, he devoted himself to advertising, illustrating magazines, and drawing advertisements for shoes but there came a moment when, in front of a bottle of Coca Cola, a can of soup, and the face of Marilyn Monroe, he had a first revelation. He thought that certain figures and commercial products were true icons of American life and that it was necessary to introduce them into the sacred terrain of art and culture.

The Pop Art that he had just invented needed a fundamental philosophy and with great self assurance, he launched this manifesto to the world: Coca Cola makes all humans equal.

—In America, no millionaire can buy a better Coca Cola than the one that the beggar on the corner drinks. All the Coca Colas in the world are the same and all are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President of the United States knows it, the beggar knows it, and you know it.

It was from advertising that he extracted a large part of the philosophy that still affects us: you are nothing if you are not visible; the essence of things is in the packaging. Warhol never stopped practicing San Vitus Dance amid the frenetic riotous gathering of aristocrats, eccentrics, bohemians, drug-addicts, models, photographers, writers, and other birds of paradise to whom, as guru of modernity from the Factory, he began to surrender the fifteen minutes of fame that belonged to them and for which some of these creatures were inclined to die for or kill for, as in fact happened.

Valerie Solanas, radical feminist, lost soul from the age of 15, who was like a beggar on the streets of Manhattan, had written a screenplay titled Up Your Ass. One June 3rd, run down and worn out, she entered the factory determined that Andy Warhol return to her the script, which she had given to him. It was enough for her to find out that he had lost it for Valerie to take out a revolver, the same one the artist had painted as an icon, and fire six bullets at him.

The surgical tape over his wound converted into an icon as did his silver plated wig which an admirer snatched from his head and ran away. Some time later, it appeared at an auction and was bought for $10,000.

Andy continued adding more icons from American life to art: the electric chair, the revolver, police charges against demonstrators for human rights, cars, cans of Campbell’s soup, the faces of Hollywood celebrities, while a group of strange beings were condensing around him that consisted of half of an actual human body and the rest fiction or decoration.

The only way to exist was to be reflected in the mirror of someone else. If a Coca Cola or a can of Campbells’ soup is an American icon, why can’t I be one? Warhol officially consecrated the La Movida Madrileña (The Madrid Scene) when in 1983, shortly before dying, he came to exhibit in the gallery of Fernando Vijande, the series Guns, Knives, and Crossings. Warhol spent nine days in Madrid like a cardboard doll among the young people of the movement. Now his work is being shown in Caixa Forum. The electric chair isn’t there. That madness continues with another name.

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX

Where did that phrase come from? I’m no expert, but I think it came from the old puzzle with nine dots, 3x3, in a square shape. You’re supposed to connect the dots with four straight lines without lifting up your pencil. Supposedly, figuring out that this puzzle can be solved by drawing the lines “outside the box” is supposed to be an indication that the solver is some kind of clever creative thinker. Trouble is, it’s not. It’s just a little kid’s game.

ON THE OTHER HAND, I still remember one of the questions on Dr. Donaldson’s Heat, Light & Radiation physics class at Fresno State in 1964. It was a pop quiz of ten difficult questions which our class of about 15 science majors was supposed to tackle one day after we arrived in class. All ten of the questions were roughly like this:

A flashlight has fallen into a river at [a certain depth] with [a certain flow rate]. (Dr. Donaldson provided us with the particular numbers.) The flashlight’s beam forms a conical section and is resting on a rock, pointing upstream but wobbling, forming a moving conical section with [a specified oscillation rate] forming [a range of angles] formed by the oscillating and constantly changing conical shape. Question: How much water is illuminated in an hour?

There were ten similarly difficult questions which were to be graded at up to ten points per question. Show your work.

Although the class was small, the class was held in one of those large college lecture halls with hundreds of theater style seats. So my fellow students and I did not sit close to each other. But as I read the impossibly difficult questions, I looked around the room at my fellow students to see that we were looking at each other with flabbergasted expressions.

Another of Dr. Donaldson’s ten questions I vaguely recall had to do with calculating how long it would take for a hot brick to cool off, given its size, density starting temperature, room temperature, etc. (I worked with an engineer in San Jose in the 80s who could calculate the diameter of a spool of rope of a certain length and thickness when spooled up in a cartridge off the top of his head.)

Where was I? Oh, right, Dr. Donaldson’s quiz. Of the 15 people in our class, 14 of us, including me, got a total of 0 (zero) on the pop quiz. One guy, my near genius friend from high school, Norbert Ensslin, got 12 points out of 100 for coming up with partial solutions/set ups for two of the ten questions. Norbert really could “think outside the box.” (Norbert later went on to get his PhD in Physics and became a top nuclear scientist at Los Alamos.)

researchgate.net/publication/252192119_A_New_Neutron-Capture_Detector_for_Coincidence_Counting

Dr. Donaldson later told us the quiz was his idea of a prank, and would not count for anything; it was just a jolting experiment to measure our ability to deal with seemingly impossible problems.

Norbert later told me that the key to solving the flashlight question (and others like it) was simplifying it: breaking it down to a fixed, non-moving cone and figuring out the “simple” cone volume (via a formula), then multiplying the cone volume times the flow rate to get a reasonable approximation of the volume of water illuminated. Dr. Donaldson gave him six points out of ten for getting that far on that one.

(Mark Scaramella)