Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, April 25, 2018

• Asha Search
• Deadbeat Chief
• FB Charm
• Hospital Mismanagement
• Candidate Forum
• Big Weed
• Aimless Committee
• Another Inning
• Ed Notes
• San Francisco
• Golden Hind
• Library Announcements
• Contamination Investigation
• Yesterday's Catch
• Military Amuck
• Walled Compounds
• Little Dog
• Hart History
• May Day
• Hospital Equipment
• Retirement Newsletter
• SNWMF 2018
• Trump Macron
• Honor Killing
• They're Coming
• DC Intervention

MOTHER OF MISSING AUSTRALIAN WOMAN IN THE AREA AGAIN SEARCHING FOR HER DAUGHTER

Jeannie Kreimer won’t give up. Her daughter, Asha Kreimer disappeared in September of 2015 in the Point Arena area. Jeannie, a nurse who lives in Australia, said she goes home long enough to earn money to come back to the area and look.

“I go home for two months and work and then I come back and spend all my money and go back and work again,” she told us in an interview today.

“A year ago in Garberville, someone said they saw her sitting in front of Ray’s [Food Place],” Jeannie said. “They didn’t know she was missing at that point… They recognized her tattoo.” Asha has a red triangle tattooed on her right wrist.

Jeannie explained she has received a number of tips that Asha might be in Humboldt County. “I have also heard she is on a farm in Shelter Cove,” Jeannie explained. “I hear ‘She’s over here…No, she’s over there,'” Jeannie acknowledged ruefully. “I’ve been everywhere. I’ve been in crack houses.”

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

Jeannie thinks Asha is still dealing with the breakdown. “I don’t think she knows I’m looking for her,” Jeannie said. So she keeps coming back to the Emerald Triangle searching for Asha. “I came here because I hadn’t really searched Eureka really well,” she explained. “I am in Eureka at the moment and it seems there is a person matching her description here…I am going to stay here for a week or two.”

A new missing person’s unit in Humboldt County is giving Jeannie Hope. “I think that is amazing,” she said. “It is a tiny bit forward” in helping the families of missing people.

Another glimmer of hope for Jeannie is that a film crew saw her passing out flyers in Garberville last year. She told us, “I serendipitously ran into a Netflix film crew. I was in Garberville handing out flyers. Part of the documentary film is on missing persons.” They interviewed her on film again just recently in Eureka. “Hopefully, I get Asha poster’s poster on there,” she said eagerly. “I want as many people as possible looking for her.”

When last seen, Asha had long, brown curly hair and weighed about 145 pounds. She has brown eyes, is 5’10” and has an Australian accent. She has a red triangle tattoo on her right wrist.

Jeannie wants to remind our readers, “The people on the streets are just regular joes. Sometimes they have people they need to contact,” she said. “Remember, Asha might not be in her right mind. She is very traumatized. She looks unwell. She looks tired.”

Jeannie is continuing to search for her daughter. She hopes that others will keep an eye out, too. If you have any information for Jeannie call (707) 513-9138. You can also stay up with what Jeannie is doing trying to find her daughter by liking a Facebook page dedicated to Asha. (Click here.)

(Courtesy, KymKemp.com)

PAY UP, DADDY!

Freshly retired Undersheriff Randy Johnson was unanimously approved by the Supes today as interim chief of the County’s Deadbeat Dad Office (aka “Child Support Services”). County Human Resources Director Heidi Dunham told the Supervisors that the current chief is out on some kind of unexplained, apparently open-ended leave of absence, paid presumably. There were no questions about who else might have applied, why Johnson was picked (other than he had held a senior position for the County and he has some unspecified contacts with state officials) or what the budget impact will be.

WE DON’T WANT A MAUL OR A MALL

To: Scott Perkins, Special Projects Manager

Fort Bragg City Staff

Greetings:

Please consider my comments on the proposed Hare Creek Maul.

There is nothing more precious to the look and feel of a town than open space. People don't come to an area to see shopping malls and dented canned goods stores. They want the solace and beauty of open spaces. So many of our visitors come from crowded, ugly strip mall infested towns and cities.

Let Fort Bragg be different. We don't have to follow suit with all the other ruined communities that have succumbed to the pressures of developers resulting in cheap commercial development, congestion on the roads, and dead and dying downtown areas.

Please do all you can to preserve Fort Bragg as it is — a pleasant, attractive easy-to-get-around-in town, a place that cherishes its scenic beauty, recreational opportunities in nature’s splendor and open space.

The developers only care about money. We all know that. Tell them that we don't want their project.

Thank you.

Louise Mariana

Mendocino

PARCEL TAX IS NOT ENOUGH

Editor,

At the last hospital planning meeting, Trustee Steve Lund said that no strategic plan would be worked on until December when the new hospital board is in place. This insures eight more months of catastrophic financial chaos, with no real oversight or plan in place to turn things around. We, the community, are asked to fork up 1.7 million if Measure C passes, yet the hospital administration has done nothing to demonstrate a willingness to correct the practices that led to the first bankruptcy. Parigi's four month financial analysis and findings were virtually ignored by the administration and he was promptly fired, even before a new CFO could be transitioned in. Though the firing was a "personnel issue" which the board cannot discuss, I think the community deserves an explanation was to why Parigi's findings are not being acted upon. The Board's pretense of transparency is just that.

I recently learned that the traveling nurses and technicians cost the hospital a small fortune. One technician I spoke with recently said that her company, Trustaff, is paid $150 per hour for the employment of their personnel at MCDH. At a recent Rotary meeting when I asked Steve Lund and the Head of Nursing what the hospital's rationale is for these exhorbitant costs, I was informed by the Head of Nursing that it was only $135 an hour. I was also told that there were no local people to fill these positions. Spread out over a year, it's $65,000 more than the CEO's salary, which itself is exhorbitant. This is just the tip of the iceberg. With no real oversight on spending, I shudder to think of the myriad of wasteful spending that is bringing MCDH to its knees once again.

I cannot in good faith vote Yes on Measure C until the current CEO is fired and real change is initiated. Otherwise, it's just good money after bad.

Margaret Paul

Fort Bragg

HERE COMES BIG WEED

"It's hard to know the exact numbers because the records are so spotty," said attorney Omar Figueroa, referring to the number of small farmers who have gone belly up. "But California's old-school, mom-and-pop businesses are being massacred."

eastbayexpress.com/oakland/growing-pains-part-1-nipped-in-the-bud/Content

RE: NOT THAT I’M SURPRISED

The Homeless Continuum of Care “Strategic Planning Committee” actually admitted Monday that they have never really had a strategy prior to Marbut’s report and Monday’s meeting. They spent most of the day doing an exercise which basically introduced each agency to one another and what each agency actually does. I asked my friend why it was that after three years of existence this group finally just doing the meet and greet phase of group process. He told me that “the players keep changing.” Anyway, the next step is finally creating a mission statement for the group, being that they’ve never had one. Apparently Ann Molgaard is going to grudgingly address the BoS today in regards to what chairperson Maya Stuart expects will be the board’s acceptance of the Marbut Report and most of his recommendations. Molgaard is going to ask the BoS to step back and let the CoC have another shot at moving this rudderless fiasco forward. Should be an interesting meeting.

James Marmon

18 INNINGS

Dear AVA,

As a former jock and still athletic supporter, you, I'm betting, can answer this question. Why does the Giants' play by play guy and former second baseman Duane Kuiper invariably state "And that ends the inning" at the end of the top half of every inning? He often says "and that ends the inning" eighteen times a game. It's confusing me. Shouldn't it be simply "side retired" or "bottom half coming up"?

Please help.

Phil

ED REPLY: You're right, Phil. It is confusing, but you may be the only guy in the world who listens closely enough to notice. I watch with the sound off, myself, but I'll bring it up with Kuip next time I see him.

ED NOTES

THE JUNE 5 BALLOT also includes five state measures. The following are the AVA's hard-hitting analyses of them:

PROP 68: $4.1 billion in general obligation bonds for parks and water quality. General obligation bonds are backed by the state, and this one is not one of those tricky props stuffed with all kinds of pork for connected entities. Prop 68 continues funding for crucial water and parks programs that are expiring. No reason to vote no, really, because it doesn't pile on more state indebtedness. The most important thing it does is protect water, and goodness knows water needs protecting. Vote Yes.

PROP 69: Protects the 12-cent gas tax, which needs protection because anti-taxers are preparing an initiative to repeal it on the grounds that the state legislature diverts the $5 billion annually raised to purposes other than road repair. This prop guarantees that the money all goes for road repair and can't be siphoned off to pay off the sexually harassed, three-hour lunches, fact finding trips to Italy etc. Vote Yes.

PROP 70: Republicans don't think the globe is warming. Science and everyone else believe it's getting kinda stuffy in here. Prop 70 maintains a simple majority vote by the legislature to keep climate cleansing programs in place. The ostriches wanted a two-thirds vote to maintain them so they could get rid of them. Vote Yes, although all of us know in our bones that none of these teensy measures do anything at all to reduce global incineration. Face it, folks. We're doomed as a species.

PROP 71: I guess. So many people vote absentee now that it's taking longer — a lot longer in Mendo — to count and certify the vote as signed, sealed and delivered. Under 71, election results would not be "effective" until the secretary of state says so. For most of us, though, the preliminary results are invariably much the same as the final-final, certified count because the absentee votes typically run along the same percentages as the preliminary results.

PROP 72: If you install water-recovery equipment on your property, assuming you have property, you would be able to deduct this particular improvement on your state taxes, as you can now by going solar and installing fire sprinklers. Solar, fire protection are tax deductible. Strange that this one's even on the ballot, but it probably got there via bribes, er, campaign contributions from the water recovery installers to key solons.

* * *

AMONG THE LOST ARTS, large and small, is the art of the book cover. Paperbacks from the forties and fifties through the 1960s, usually were wrapped in distinctive book jackets, original art that commanded the eye of the browser to have a look. Paperbacks have since disappeared and book jacket art today? Well, these eyes scurry past. It all looks alike — garish and often insulting to the contents between the covers. Shuffling the aisles of a used book store, I can never resist the paperbacks I used to pack around like an emergency first aid kit to beat back the long minutes of trapped tedium in places like high school classrooms and dentist's waiting rooms.

AT AGE 15 the allure of this cover was irresistable. If you somehow didn't understand the implications of the visual, the jacket spells them out for you in all their lurid promise: "Dharma Bums by the man who launched the hippie world, the daddy of the swinging psychedelic generation… Here are the orgiastic sexual sprees, the cool jazz bouts, the poetry. The Love-ins, and the marathon binges of the kids who are hooked on Sensation and looking for the high… The Dharma Bums." Yes! Sign me up, daddy-o!

JACK KEROUAC grabbed me when I was about 16 with "On The Road" and his second book, "Dharma Bums," both of which first made me aware that there were options to the suburban death chamber recommended by the society of the times — job, marriage, mortgage, living death.

THE TWO BOOKS were truly subversive, with lots of passages like: "Colleges being nothing but grooming schools for the middleclass non-identity which usually finds its perfect expression on the outskirts of the campus in rows of well-to-do houses with lawns and television sets in each living room with everybody looking at the same thing and thinking the same thing at the same time while the Japhies of the world go prowling in the wilderness to hear the voice crying in the wilderness, to find the ecstasy of the stars, to find the dark mysterious secret of the origin of faceless wonderless crapulous civilization."

WHICH COMPORTED exactly with my inchoate, youthful impressions of the lives lived around me, lives I knew instinctively were not for me and were to be avoided at all costs. Of course like most people influenced by these books I was totally anchored by age 30, although with some deviations along the way.

THE BUDDHIST references in Dharma Bums flew right on over my head, and even now with some understanding of them they and the faith they represent have no appeal. But I can still remember how reverential those seminal beatnik writers were towards the natural world, with as many references to John Muir as to obscure pre-history Chinese sages.

I'VE NEVER SEEN any other city like this — the homelessness, dirty streets, drug use on the streets, smash-and-grabs.

— Joe D'Alessandro, SF Travel Promotion Bureau

MARCH 9, 1975, Golden Hind II enters San Francisco Bay

(Submitted by Harry Williamson)

THE MENDOCINO COUNTY LIBRARY is pleased to announce another wonderful service for our patrons. At all five of the branches, the Library now offers charging stations for phones and tablets. Patrons can charge their phones and devices free of charge at the charging station as they visit the Library.

Mendocino County Library will once again hold a New Book Festival, on Sunday, May 6, 2018, from 1 - 4 p.m., at the Ukiah Branch. Come to the Library for a chance to check out the latest must read titles, hottest DVDs, CDs and audio books without waiting. There will be over 1,000 new items ready for check out with fun origami crafts, snacks, prizes and music by The Back Porch Project. This is a must-attend, fun event.

LAYTONVILLE RANCHERIA CONTAMINATION INVESTIGATION

by Jim Shields

For the past couple of weeks we’ve been discussing concerns and charges raised by a group of Laytonville folks that the closed Laytonville landfill is the source of alleged contamination that is migrating off-site.

I know most of the people involved with this issue, some of them are friends, others are individuals I’ve worked with on various community projects, events, or politics. Peggy Smith Hoaglin is the leader of what I’ll call a neighborhood organization that is concerned about possible or potential landfill contamination. Peggy and I have worked together on these landfill issues going back 25 years when she led the way to force county officials to close the old dump.

That was the right decision to make back then, and it’s still the right decision. That landfill should never have been sited there in the first place.

I believe the more that landfill and surrounding areas are tested and monitored, the better off we all are. If there’s a problem, we’ll find out, and then we have to fix it. So I welcome Peggy and the group’s current efforts to get to the bottom of this long-standing issue.

But we need hard facts and evidence of the contamination, and so far all the testing and monitoring at the landfill have come up negative.

As I’ve said for the past 25 years since its closure, all landfills by definition are contaminated. There’s no disputing that fact, although I don’t believe the County of Mendocino, which owns the landfill, has ever gone officially on the record and agreed with that fact or made a finding to that effect. But that doesn’t change the clear evidence that there’s lots of unhealthy, and in some instances, downright toxic stuff in that landfill.

To me there’s nothing to argue about on that issue. Landfills contain everything from plain old garbage to flashlight batteries, to household cleaning products, to car batteries, old tires, petroleum products, to some genuinely toxic substances like long-banned pesticides and herbicides, or PCBs and Hexavalent Chromium (“chrome 6”).

As I said, it’s my belief that all landfills by definition are contaminated.

The real question, especially with closed landfills, is are the various nasty constituents found in them remaining confined to the landfill, or are they “leaching” or “migrating” off-site into surrounding areas and causing health risks to humans.

The County of Mendocino owns and maintains the closed landfill here in Laytonville. Under the law, Mendocino County is responsible for monitoring and testing that landfill to ensure that it is not posing a risk to public health. To date, and this could change at any time, there is no evidence that the closed landfill presents a health risk. But the Laytonville County Water District does not accept as fact that just because the landfill may not be a public health risk today, that we have no obligations to ensure that our water remains safe and uncontaminated.

So in order to protect our water supply, the District literally conducts thousands of tests every year. Because the closed landfill is in the District’s boundaries, we assume nothing when it comes to public health risks. That’s why we test our water. We want to actually know beyond any doubt our water is safe.

Specifically because of concerns that certain contaminants may be in the landfill, for example PCBs and Chrome 6, we test for them.

We’ve tested for them for them before the landfill was closed and we have tested for them for the past 25 years since its closure. We tested for them this past October. Again the results were “non-detect.” In fact, we just tested for them again this week, and I’ll let you know the results once we receive them. But to date there have never been positive “hits” for either in our water source, can’t even find a trace of them. We know what’s in our water source: iron, manganese, and a small amount naturally occurring arsenic, which we successfully treat out below the maximum contaminant level set by EPA. There is nothing else in our water and we know that from all the testing we do.

The real issue that people need to pay attention to is, is there anything harmful to human health leaking out of that dump.

The one thing we know for certain is there is no contamination of the Laytonville County Water District’s source of water from that closed dump, or any other source of contamination.

We know that to be a fact because we test our water on a regular basis for hundreds of different contaminants.

Over the years, there have been concerns that neighboring properties of the landfill, including the Laytovnille Rancheria, may be contaminated by landfill off-site migration of contaminants. Without re-plowing old ground, ongoing monitoring operations and a number of investigations by regulatory agencies (local, state, and federal), have resulted in no findings of health risks to humans.

One of the agencies that has investigated the landfill is the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2003, EPA released it investigative report, which closed out 3 years of EPA involvement with the controversial landfill, including the expenditure of several hundred thousand dollars for other grant-funded studies, as well as EPA’s separate investigation. The overall finding of the 2003 EPA report was that the landfill did not qualify for Superfund listing because no evidence was found that the site was contaminated with hazardous substances. Specifically, EPA determined that:

• No contamination attributable to the Laytonville Dump site was detected at significant concentrations in tested private drinking wells in proximity to the landfill. (By the way, it was my idea to test Laytonville Water District customers private wells. I suggested to EPA they could possibly be more reliable for “landfill monitoring” purposes than newly-installed agency monitoring wells because many of them had been in operation 50 or more years. The only contaminants found in some of the wells were barely detectable traces or hits for 1950s-60s era pesticides then being used in the Laytonville area such as Lindane, an agricultural insecticide better known as “cattle dip,” when cattle ranching was king in this area.)
• No PCBs were detected at concentrations significantly above background in the landfill’s sedimentation ponds.
• The sediment and water quality of the landfill’s sedimentation ponds do not pose a risk to environmental health.
• The water quality of Cahto Creek does not pose a risk to human or environmental health.

The most recent investigation was completed in January and a report was released in February regarding health risks and contamination issues on the Laytonville Rancheria.

According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), “The Cahto Tribe of Laytonville Rancheria requested assistance in identifying the presence/absence of hazardous materials/toxins on the Reservation. Through their own testing, the Cahto Tribal members discovered heavy metal contamination in soils around the Tribe’s 264-acre Laytonville Rancheria in Mendocino County, California. The Rancheria consists of forested areas, residential areas and Tribal office facilities.”

BIA then contracted with Tehama, LLC, a to conduct site characterization for the presence/absence of hazardous materials/toxins in soil and drinking water on the Laytonville Rancheria.

Tehama is tribally-owned small business that delivers environmental consulting and engineering services to federal, state and municipal clients nationwide. Tehama is one of eight individual businesses that make up the Tepa Companies, owned by the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians. According to Tepa’s wfebsite, “the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians is a Lower 48 Tribe based in Northern California, east of the Coastal Range in what is now known as Tehama and Glenn counties.”

In coordination with BIA, Tehama completed three phases of soil sampling and analysis and one phase of drinking water sampling and analysis on the Rancheria. According to BIA, “All work was completed in accordance with the approved Work Plan dated August 2017 and two contract modifications provided by the BIA.”

The completed investigation resulted in a nearly 1,500 page report. What follows is the first part of a multi-part series of the actual report itself. This explains who did the investigation, the various protocols and procedures utilized in sample collection, the methodology surrounding sample locations, and other task-related matters. I’m going to let the report speak for itself.

Introduction

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Pacific Regional Office (PRO), Central California Agency (CCA), located in Sacramento, California contracted with Tehama, LLC (Tehama) to conduct site characterization for the presence/absence of hazardous materials/toxins in soil and drinking water on the Laytonville Rancheria in Laytonville, California. In coordination with the CCA, Tehama has completed three phases of soil sampling and analysis and one phase of drinking water sampling and analysis. All work was completed in accordance with the approved Work Plan dated August 2017 and two contract modifications provided by the BIA.

Project Summary

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Pacific Regional Office (PRO), Central California Agency (CCA), located in Sacramento, California contracted with Tehama, LLC (Tehama) to conduct site characterization for the presence/absence of hazardous materials/toxins in soil and drinking water on the Laytonville Rancheria in Laytonville, California.

The CCA contracted with Tehama to complete site characterization of hazardous materials/toxins at the Laytonville Rancheria of northern California. The BIA Statement of Work (SOW) included the number and approximate location of surface soil samples that were to be collected at the Rancheria for Phase I analysis.

The proposed sample locations were selected based on a grid pattern dividing the Rancheria into 20 quadrants. Five surface soil samples were collected at five different aliquot locations within each quadrant and were combined to make one composite sample, representative of each quadrant, for a total of 20 composite samples.

The SOW also provided the number and location of drinking water samples that were to be collected, with 11 samples collected from Housing and Urban Development (HUD) homes and nine samples collected from Housing Improvement Program (HIP) homes during Phase I. Tehama collected drinking water samples from each house, in addition to collecting samples from the tribal office and the water tank which supplies water to the Tribe.

Upon completion of Phase I, the BIA reviewed the analytical results and selected 13 of the 20 quadrants for further characterization in Phase II. The quadrants were selected to be re-sampled for the specific analytes if an elevated concentration was detected or if an analyte exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 9 Regional Screening Level (RSL) during Phase I. For each of the 13 quadrants selected by the BIA, surface soil samples were collected at the same location as the Phase I aliquot samples. However, to provide better definition of contaminant distribution within the quadrants, individual grab samples were collected and submitted for analysis instead of composite samples as in Phase I.

Upon completion of Phase II, the CCA requested that Tehama perform a targeted Phase III surface soil sampling event, returning to the Cahto Tribe’s original sampling locations in Quadrant 1 and Quadrant 20. Two locations were selected by the CCA based off of the information they were given about the Tribe’s previous investigation. The locations and sampling grids were prepared by the CCA and provided to Tehama. The surface soil samples at these locations were analyzed for metals and hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)]. A total of 25 surface soil samples were collected from each quadrant, based on a concentric circular grid with intervals at 10, 20, and 30 feet from the center point.

Phase I Surface Soil Sampling

Upon approval of the project Work Plan, Tehama mobilized to the site on August 14th, 2017 and began Phase I sample collection activities. The CCA and Tehama coordinated with the Cahto Tribe, Environmental Technician, Mr. Fred Simmons. Mr. Simmons coordinated with the local community, scheduled times for water sampling, and escorted the Tehama team during all field events. A total of 20 composite soil samples, two duplicate soil samples, 22 drinking water samples and one duplicate drinking water sample were collected. The composite soil samples were prepared by mixing the surface soil collected from each of the five aliquots collected from each quadrant. Surface soil samples were collected by removing surface gravel or vegetation to expose the soil and collecting a representative sample from the upper three inches of soil using a stainless steel trowel. All surface soil samples were collected as close as possible to the locations identified on the Laytonville Rancheria Grid Map provided by the BIA. Due to the nature of the landscape, reliable global positioning satellite (GPS) signal was not available across the majority of the site. Tehama often had to rely on the Laytonville Rancheria Grid Map, provided by the CCA, to determine location. Tehama recorded individual aliquot sample points using a hand held GPS instrument. A photo log detailing site conditions and sampling activities is located in Appendix D.

Soil Samples

Soil samples were collected at the designated five aliquots per quadrant. Surface soil samples were taken by removing surface gravel to expose the soil and then using a stainless steel trowel to collect a representative sample from the upper three inches of soil. All five soil samples were then combined and mixed to create one representative composite sample of each quadrant. Following homogenization, the soil was placed into laboratory supplied sample containers. A total of 20 representative composite samples from each of the 20 quadrants were prepared in this manner. Duplicate samples were collected at Quadrants 16 and 18 for quality control (QC) purposes. The aliquot location, point identification, and soil collection times can be found on field forms located in Appendix A. The samples were immediately placed on ice and maintained at 4°C during transport to the laboratory. Soil samples were shipped to ALS Laboratories (ALS), located in Houston, Texas. ALS is a California-certified laboratory, which maintains National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (NELAP) accreditation. The samples were analyzed for the following parameters:

• Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) Extractable Petroleum Hydrocarbon C8-40 by EPA 8015;
• TPH - Purgeable Petroleum Hydrocarbon C6-14 by EPA 8015;
• Volatile Organic Compound (VOCs) by EPA 8015, 8260B/5035;
• Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) by EPA 8270 SIM;
• Semi-volatile Organic Compounds (SVOCs) by EPA 8270C;
• Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) by EPA 8082;
• Title 22 Metals (list of 17) by EPA 6020;
• Hexavalent Chromium by EPA 7196A;
• Dioxins by EPA 8220A/1613B;
• Organochloride Pesticides by EPA 8081;
• Herbicides by EPA 8151;
• Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, and Xylene (BTEX) by EPA 8260; and
• Total Hydrocarbon Oil and Grease by SM5520 C & F.

Disposable stainless steel trowels were used to eliminate the possibility of cross contamination; therefore, no equipment decontamination was required.

To be continued next week.

(Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, and is also the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at 12 noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org)

CATCH OF THE DAY, April 22-23

BRET BENGSTON, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, parole violation. (Frequent flyer.)

RICHARD FELIZ JR., Redwood Valley. Domestic battery.

FRANK HARJU, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery, probation revocation.

ANTHONY HOISINGTON, Clearlake Oaks/Ukiah. Community supervision violation.

DANIEL HOLMES JR., Ukiah. DUI, suspended license.

WENDY JOAQUIN, Covelo. DUI, resisting.

GEORGE LAFORCE, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

JOSHUA LEBARRE, Hollister/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, vandalism.

ANDREW MAYNARD, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

MICHAEL MERTLE, Ukiah. Under influence, probation revocation.

WENDY PARDINI, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

UBALDO RAMIREZ, Covelo. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

JUAN SANCHEZ-MONTIEL, Ukiah. Under influence.

HARRISON SEDDON, Eureka/Willits. Burglary.

BRIAN SHEPHERD, Covelo. DUI-alcohol/drugs.

TREVOR SHUSS, Ukiah. DUI, probation revocation.

SHANNON STARRETT, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

CLIFTON THOMPSON, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

LUIS VILLALOBOS, Hopland. Paraphernalia, failure to appear, probation revocation.

DONOVAN WILLIAMS, Ukiah. Controlled substance, vehicle registration forgery, evasion.

AUSTIN WOODEN, Lakeport. Probation revocation.

IF AMERICANS were genuinely committed to supporting the troops, they would pay a great deal more attention to what President Trump and his twenty-first-century predecessors have tasked those troops to accomplish — with what results and at what cost. Of course, that would imply doing more than cheering and waving the flag on cue. Ultimately, the existence of the all-volunteer force obviates any need for such an effort. It provides Americans with an ample excuse for ignoring our endless wars and allowing our flawed military system to escape serious scrutiny. Having outsourced responsibility for defending the country to people few of us actually know, we’ve ended up with a military system that is unfair, undemocratic, hugely expensive, and largely ineffective, not to mention increasingly irrelevant to the threats coming our way. The perpetuation of that system finds us mired in precisely the sort of long, costly, inconclusive wars that sap the collective strength of a nation and may bring about its premature decline.

— Andrew Bacevich

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Tesla along with its temp agency is supposedly being sued for not paying contract workers.

The same folk way high up on the food chain that proclaim the evils of building a wall themselves live in gated communities behind walls. They tell us that government issued ID is racist yet government issued ID is required of workers to enter those walled oases of calm and wealth and privilege.

They’ll ask you with voices of sweet reason, reason and rationality oozing from every pore, isn’t it reasonable to know who it is that works on your property, that walks along your streets? They’ll ask, isn’t it reasonable to know that people that are working here are here legally? Isn’t security a reasonable concern?

Sure it’s reasonable, but isn’t it reasonable that what goes for people living in gated and walled compounds goes for the rest of us? Or is that being unreasonable?

The disassembly of the inland empire that marks out the USA won’t just be characterized by territorial secession, it will be marked by internal disaggregation, or societal secession where the higher and mighty carve themselves off from the rest, where citizenship isn’t just plain citizenship. Walled compounds are the start. Walled compounds with strongholds are next.

Goes without saying that those living in walled compounds will claim Level One Citizenship. The question is how long can they hang onto it.

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Pretty sure Skrag has a family stashed somewhere, not that he's anything like a responsible parent. There was a lady cat here yesterday looking for him. "Find yourself another man," I advised her. "Skrag will never be a homebody."

OREGON KNEW OF ABUSE CASE AGAINST FAMILY THAT WENT OFF CLIFF

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon child welfare officials knew the family in an SUV that plunged off a California cliff had faced a child abuse investigation in another state when it looked into allegations in 2013, according to documents released Monday.

sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Oregon-knew-of-abuse-case-against-family-that-12858520.php

* * *

HART FAMILY CRASH: Alarming details revealed in 2013 Oregon child welfare records

oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index

MAY DAY IN FORT BRAGG, Bainbridge Park, 12 noon, May 1, 2018

March and Rally with us on Tuesday May 1, 2018

Celebrating Workers’ Day and Welcoming Spring

Gather in solidarity for the rights of workers, women, LGBT and immigrants, a livable minimum wage, and against racism and the unfair treatment of immigrants. Keynote speaker Raul Guardia of the Service Employees Union

May Day 2018 in Fort Bragg at 12 noon

Bainbridge Park (Laurel and Harrison)

Program, March, Music Refreshments

Information: 707-937-0334

NEW TELEMETRY SYSTEM at Mendocino Coast District Hospital Ensures High-level of Patient Care

Fort Bragg, CA – April 23, 2018 – Mendocino Coast District Hospital (MCDH) is pleased to announce the launch of a new Nihon Kohden telemetry system in the Emergency Department, Intensive Care Unit, and Medical-Surgical rooms. Telemetry refers to an automated communications process by which patient data is collected and transmitted to receiving equipment for monitoring at a different location, such as a nurses’ station. If there is an issue or irregularity, this system alerts nurses and doctors to take action. Early detection of patient distress results in faster intervention and higher patient safety.

Purchased with a generous donation from the Mendocino Coast District Hospital Foundation, this system allows clinicians the ability to quickly and accurately assess and document their patients’ condition from virtually anywhere in the hospital in real time. The system monitors patient data like heart rate, pulse, respiration, non-invasive blood pressure, CO2, EtCO2, cardiac output, temperature, BIS, EEG, and more. The new system provides data storage and review capabilities, and ensures a complete patient record by facilitating automated data transfer between multiple departments from a variety of locations. This means better and faster assessment of patient information on a large scale.

“We are all very excited to use the new telemetry system; in addition to enhanced patient care, it is uplifting for our staff to know we have the latest equipment for our patients. This system monitors more data on patients than we were able to see before and it helps with diagnosis. Many tests that we once performed have now been replaced by just reading the data from these monitors,” said Rena M. Kinney, RN in the MCDH ICU.

In addition to monitoring patients in the ED, ICU, and Medical-Surgical rooms, the new system addresses the heightened safety challenges of transporting at-risk patients between points of care in the hospital. The unique design of Nihon Kohden’s telemetry system facilitates transport monitoring. Simply disconnect the wireless transport monitor unit from the main monitor and a patient can be transported while all monitoring continues uninterrupted. When the patient is transferred to their new care setting and the wireless transport monitor is reconnected to another main monitor, patient information is uploaded creating one seamless patient record enhancing workflow and care coordination.

“This state-of -the-art system ensures the highest level of patient care for the residents of our community. Many people and groups have worked tirelessly to make this happen. Thank you Mendocino Coast District Hospital Foundation for this essential equipment for our hospital. This needed addition will increase productivity throughout the organization, and at the same time help ensure that our patients are getting the best and latest care possible,” said Bob Edwards, CEO.

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

SPRING INTO RETIREMENT

From: "Norman de Vall" <ndevall@mcn.org>

mailchi.mp/2347c12519fd/spring-into-retirement

SIERRA NEVADA WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL 2018

SNWMF25 Updates!

Artist Additions, Lineup by Day, Single Day Tickets

snwmf.com

HONOR KILLING IS NOT JUST A MUSLIM PROBLEM

Phyllis Chesler

...In the West, batterers and wife killers are not celebrated—they are shunned. If possible, they are also prosecuted. Hindus in India and Muslims worldwide who commit honor killings are viewed as heroes who have saved their family’s honor. Thus, they feel no shame or remorse.

I initially sailed into what was, for me, uncharted territory. Over time, I increasingly made it a point to find and cite all those whose work in this area had preceded mine. Their names are legion and are listed in the bibliographies of my studies. Researchers in the 20th century, (Ginat, Glazer and Abu Ras), others in the 21st century, (Berko, Brandon and Hafez, Ghanim, Feldner, Kulczycki and Windle, Lasson, Pope, Rosen, Saltzman, Storhaug, Weber, Welchman and Hossain, Wikan), studied the phenomenon of honor killing. Without exception, scholars agree that an honor killing is not like Western domestic violence.

Only those who believe that it is shameful to expose anything negative about Muslims, especially if it is true, silence such exposure by “shaming” it as racist and “Islamophobic.”

In the 1990s and into the 21st century, an increasing number of journalists also began to cover honor killing cases, especially if the perpetrators were brought to trial; memoirs and books were written about honor killing and attempted honor killings among immigrants in the West and in developing countries. A number of important films appeared on this subject including: Banaz: A Love Story; Dukhtar; A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness; The Price of Honor, FOX: Honor Killings in America...

The United Nations still continues to insist that there are only 5,000 honor killings, worldwide. However, in 2010, according to two legal researchers in India, there were roughly 900 reported honor killings in the northern Indian states of Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh alone while 100-300 additional, recorded honor killings took place in the rest of the country. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 800 women were killed for honor in Pakistan in 2010.

Both figures likely represent only the tip of the iceberg. According to the Aurat Foundation, a Pakistani human rights organization: “At least 675 Pakistani women and girls were murdered during the first nine months of the calendar year 2011 for allegedly defaming their family’s honor.” Almost 77 percent of such honor cases ended in acquittals.

Although no “true” measure of incidence is possible, I decided to do what was feasible. For my next study, I relied upon the global, English-language coverage of reported honor killings in 29 countries and territories as long as all the variables I wanted to study were known. Given these limitations, it is amazing that I found so many statistically significant differences.

In “Worldwide Trends in Honor Killing,” I studied 230 cases which took place between 1989-2009 in Europe, North America, and in the Muslim world. There were two kinds of honor killings or rather two very different targets. A classic honor killing targeted victims who were an average age of 17; the second, less frequent honor killing targeted victims who were an average age of 36. These age differences were statistically significant.

The younger-age victims were killed by their families-of-origin 81 percent of the time worldwide.

The group of older-age women most closely resembled a Western-style domestic violence dispute turned murderous. They were usually killed by their husbands but even here there were significant differences. Nearly half (44 percent) the time, murderous husbands were assisted either by their own families or by their victim’s family.

Motives were significantly different across continents; in the West, victims were killed for being too “Western”; in the Muslim world, it was mainly for allegedly committing an “inappropriate sexual act.” The rate of torture-murders were at their highest in Europe. Perhaps those who were tempted to assimilate had to serve as human sacrifices and object lessons of what could happen to those who “Westernized”...

My 2012 academic comparison of “Hindu and Muslim honor killings in India, Pakistan and the the West” documented significant differences in terms of motives. Hindus honor kill when caste violations are committed; Muslims for many different reasons; Hindus often kill the men as well as women, whereas Muslims rarely do. Hindus do not bring this custom with them when they come to the West; Muslims, and to a much lesser extent, Sikhs, do.

At the outset, I did not understand the role that women played in honor killings as conspirators, collaborators, and as hands-on perpetrators. As the author of Woman’s Inhumanity to Woman, I should have suspected this, but since maternal filicide is such an unthinkable act, my understanding dawned slowly...

Women are known instigators and collaborators, and are sometimes either the ones who lure their daughters home to certain death or are themselves hands-on perpetrators. Such mothers have rarely been charged in America. I documented this in “When Women Commit Honor Killings” in 2015.

Once I was certain about the probable tribal origin of honor killing, I made a point of stressing that. Surprisingly few Muslim or ex-Muslim dissidents “heard” me; they were too invested in blaming Islam. Some Hindus tried to persuade me that Hindus did not perpetrate such crimes but, even if they did, that they had probably learned it from Muslims. More interesting: Even fewer Islamists understood that my tentative conclusion helped support the argument that honor killings are not necessarily religiously mandated...

Ultimately, I held—and still hold—both the Hindu and Muslim leadership responsible for failing to abolish this barbarous custom.

Although people know that the majority of honor killings in the West are Muslim-on-Muslim crimes, the American mainstream media nevertheless persists in focusing on Hindu honor killings in India and rarely on Muslim honor killings in North America. A recent “Islamically correct” pseudo-academic study on this subject ridiculously suggests that Hindus in America bear watching, that they are the problem...

NOT TO WORRY, JERRY.

CATCHING UP WITH CRAIG

Good Evening from 11th & K Streets in Washington, D.C.

Warmest spiritual greetings to everybody,

Am safely and soundly inside of Hostelling International, where I have a comfy bunk bed and all of the associated amenities until May 4th. Many have asked me why I left Hawaii, to return to this desolate wasteland of concrete and a right wing political administration. That is a very good question. Fortunately, I have a very good answer. The reason is, because it would be a fool's paradise to ignore the extreme weirdness of American postmodernism going off the proverbial edge in a far right wing direction, and not "intervene in history", which we must do. Any more questions? Certainly it will make sense to you, that Lord Sri Krishna and his eternal consort Srimati Radharani are enshrined in my heart center, that the Mahamantram is on my lips, and that witnessing of all three states (past, present, and future) is my condition. Armed thusly, I am looking forward to the vanquishing of demons. Any more questions? Since arriving in the district on March 29th, there has been car camping around the beltway with anarchist friends. There has been associating with the Proposition One anti-nuclear vigil in front of the White House. There has been lots of networking via email. And there has been a visit to the Krishna Temple in Potomac, Maryland. And there is waiting. Waiting for a swell of spiritually grounded radical insurgency, in response to the unravelling social circus which America has become. Hey, how is YOUR mental health holding up?? I invite you to contact me. I am prepared to go where I need to go, and do what I need to do. So where is the spiritually grounded radical insurgency in Washington, D.C.?

Craig Louis Stehr
Washington, D.C.
Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com