Mendocino County Today: Monday, May 21, 2018

• Hare Creek Deadline
• Author Appearance
• Ukiah's Homeless
• Secret Meetings
• Ed Notes
• Facepaint
• Frisco Solution
• Pot Tax
• Personally Sued
• PHF Location
• Little Dog
• Housing Crisis
• Parenting Style
• GJ Service
• Mailing Party
• School Supes
• Old Timers
• Fire Sirens
• Yesterday's Catch
• Oligarchy
• Tick Chart
• Engineer Types
• Collapsing
• Rotten Liberals
• Narcotic Bust
• Against Torture
• Hitman

HARE CREEK DEADLINE

Deadline for comments about Hare Creek Center Project DEIR is this Tuesday May 22 by 5pm

Greetings,

Some of you have already sent in comments to Fort Bragg City Hall about the Hare Creek Center Project. If you are still interested in submitting comments you can access all the relevant documents on the City’s active permit application page: city.fortbragg.com/486/Active-Permit-Applications

If you would like a list of pertinent issues, we can e-mail you a two-page document with a list of major concerns. You can send us an e-mail request to <caclu@mcn.org>

An environmental consultant told us, "my advice is that people address, with as much specificity as possible, the issues about which they have factual information, and not worry too much about putting their comments in technical terms. It’s the job of the City and the EIR preparer/s to analyze the comments and fit them into the CEQA pigeon holes."

Please drop off your comments to Scott Perkins, Special Project Manager at Fort Bragg City Hall 416 North Franklin Street or send via email to: <sperkins@fortbragg.com> by Tuesday May 22 5pm.

Subject: Hare Creek Center DEIR or Draft EIR(EIR=Environmental Impact Report), City Hall is open Monday-Friday 9:00AM-12:30PM & 1:30PM-5:00PM, closed for lunch from 12:30PM-1:30PM.

We also recommend that you keep a copy and cc the following people: Bob Merrill, Coastal Commission <bob.merrill@coastal.ca.gov>& Cristin Kenyon, Coastal Commission <cristin.kenyon@coastal.ca.gov>or mail to both of them at: PO Box 4908, Eureka, CA 95501-1865 and send a copy to: Citizens for Appropriate Coastal Land Use <caclu@mcn.org>,or mail to CACLU P.O. Box 2150, Fort Bragg, CA 95437

Annemarie, aweibel@mcn.org, Citizens for Appropriate Coastal Land Use

AUTHOR MALCOLM TERENCE will appear at the Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino at 6pm June 9 to discuss his new book “Beginner’s Luck: Dispatches from the Klamath Mountains.

Malcolm Terence left his job as a reporter at the Los Angeles Times in the late 1960s and helped found a large hippie commune in the Klamath Mountains. He followed that with logging (and reforestation) work, setting up (and opposing) timber sales, and fighting wildfires. Along the way, he married a local schoolteacher, and raised a family. He still writes for regional papers, teaches school, and cultivates a large garden. Beginner’s Luck is his first book.

In the late 1960s, Malcolm Terence left his job at as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times to look for adventure and may have found more than he bargained for. The era had triggered unprecedented social and political changes in America, tectonic shifts that challenged war and the social order that oppressed people along lines of class, gender, and race. One branch was a back-to-the-land movement, and Terence, who had just traveled for a year managing a rock band, strayed into Black Bear Ranch, a commune just starting in a remote corner of the Klamath Mountains near the California-Oregon border.

Black Bear Ranch still exists, but many of its early residents eventually returned to urban civilization. A few, Terence among them, stayed on in neighboring river towns. Some tried logging, others gold mining, and some tried growing marijuana, all with mixed success. The local mining and timber communities had a checkered opinion of their new hippie neighbors, as did the Native tribes, but it was the kind of place where people helped each other out, even if they didn’t always agree.

When wildfires grew large, Terence and other veterans of the commune joined the fire crews run by the US Forest Service. In between, the Black Bear expats built homesteads, planted gardens, delivered babies, and raised their children. They gradually overcame the skepticism of the locals and joined them in political battles against the use of herbicides in the forest and the Forest Service’s campaign to close all the mining claims. As in the best of organizing efforts, the organizers learned as much as they led.

’Beginner’s Luck’ will appeal to anyone who experienced life on a commune in the 1960s–1970s or who wants to learn about this chapter in modern American history. Terence offers insight into environmental activism and the long history of conflict between resource exploitation and Native American rights without lecturing or pontification. With wit, humor, and humility, his anecdotal essays chronicle a time and place where disparate people came together to form an unlikely community.

Paperback, $19.95.

* * *

Ch. 2-The Recipe For Chimichangas

or How I Saved the Commune

by Malcolm Terence

I promised more about the commune. First thing to understand: As a crowd of people intent on building a utopian community in the wilderness, we didn’t bring much baggage. I mean physical baggage, like tools and working trucks. There was no shortage of what we call psychic baggage and some fraction of it was useful. For instance, Michael Tierra, the same guy who was singing in that jail cell, had seemed crazy in LA, but he brought incredible music to the Black Bear commune. Myeba Mindlin and Susan Keese, had both lived in the Willard Street Victorian awash in patchouli and tie-dye. They brought links to the San Francisco Diggers with all their Byzantine and poetic grace. Calvin Donely and the other Black militants brought Chairman Mao. Most all of us brought great notions of freedom and fantasy. I personally never brought much, but I brought the recipe for chimichangas.

Some people look back and say those early commune years were about art or style, about politics or spiritual growth, but I was there the winters of ‘68, ‘69 and more. We all knew that Black Bear was about food. We would sit there in the wintry evenings fingering a copy of Julia Childs’ first French cookbook, lusting over dishes that took ingredients we knew we would never see. “Divide ten eggs and set aside the whites,” they’d all begin. “Add a gill of thick cream,” we’d continue, reading to our companions, with the breathy hushed voices of people reading good pornography aloud.

I admit I was tricked. At first I thought the food was good, but maybe because I spent my first two weeks at Black Bear in that jail cell in Yreka, an overgrown truck stop in Northern California. Even lentils tasted good for a while when I got out. That’s a whole other story, but let me brush on it. I’d met Roselee Solow Patron at the Digger base camp in Dunsmuir. Still years ahead of the women’s movement, Rose was tall, confident and assertive--a regal woman. I was especially impressed that she had a huge, warm flannel sleeping bag, big enough for two by contemporary standards.

Anyway, Roselee and I were hitch-hiking up to Black Bear along what is now Interstate 5 when a young, well-scrubbed hippie couple picked us up in a new model van, the perfect ride. They were easy to talk into a side trip to Black Bear, where we’d never been yet. On the way, we stopped for gas in Etna. (In the sound track, ominous foreshadowing music should swell at this point.) While the kid was pumping gas, I went exploring in an old Victorian house that was getting demolished next door to Corrigan’s Bar. The place had been stripped but good. All that was left was an old kitchen sink tossed in the corner and some broken pipes. I remembered that John Albion had sent word that the main house plumbing wasn’t too good so I asked the gas pump kid if I could do some salvage. “Why not?” he said. “Everyone else does.”

We threw the sink in the truck and headed up to Black Bear where only a few people were living so far. They were delighted to see us. “We brought groceries,” we boasted.

“Did you bring any weed?”

We trudged up to the house with barely a hug when they heard we were herb-free and Martín dredged out an old box of stems and seeds, to try one more time to winnow out enough green for a welcome-to-the-commune smoke. (Martín was originally called “Marty”, as befit his New York roots, but he switched to “Martín”, pronounced Spanish style as “Mar-Teen.” It may have sounded more California cosmopolitan.) Just then one of the women said, “Jeez, here comes a cop car! How did they know?”

Martín told me to stall out front while he slipped out the back with the shoebox. I confidently walked out to distract these simple rural constables. “How are you fellows?” I said. Big smiles all around.

“Doing fine.” they said in unison. These guys are really dumb, I thought to myself.

“Were you in Etna today?” one of them asked.

“Yeah?”

“Did you do anything while you were there?” he asked.

“What’s there to do in Etna?” I said. They didn’t get the joke. “No, I didn’t do anything.”

“Didn’t you do anything?” he tried again. “You know, like take anything?”

“You mean the sink? You want it back?” These cops had to be the biggest hicks I’d ever met.

One of the hicks pulled a card out of his pocket and read in monotone, ”I’d like to advise you of your right to counsel, your right to remain silent and your right not to be questioned without an attorney.”

Maybe they weren’t the jerks I’d thought. While I was revising my opinion, my hands were behind my back in hick handcuffs and I was being ushered into a hick squad car. I spent the night (and the next 14 nights) in Yreka jail. “Whatchya in for?” asked the inmates, who’d never seen a hippie up close. “Possession of hair,” I grumbled.

But this is the story of how I saved the commune with the recipe for chimichangas and I’m getting lost in self-pity. I hardly heard from the Ranch in lockup. One night the jailor we called Turkeyneck yelled back to us, “Hey, Terence. Your friend Michael called and said his girlfriend had a baby girl. He also said he can’t make your bail.” Everybody in the cell block laughed for a while. That was the daughter they named Shasta Free. Welcome to this world, Shasta.

It was a lousy time to have long hair. I’d already been in jail twice that year on trumped up this or that and it wasn’t even September. I was starting to compare the cuisine of the different jails. Yreka was way better than either San Francisco’s Hall of Justice or L.A. But two weeks of corn meal mush and peanut-butter-jelly sandwiches on white bread took their toll. Every morning, just before I woke, I’d have a dream that I was in jail. They’d wake us by clicking on very bright lights. As I woke, I’d think, it was all just a dream. Then I’d wake some more and be in jail. Suffice it to say that the days in jail flew by like years. The public defender couldn’t remember my name. The trial got put off until the following spring.

I finally got released on O.R., short hand for “Own Recognizance” which is itself jailhouse lingo for “No Bail Required.” After all that, I decided the ranch was the safest place to wait for my trial. Fresh air, Roselee’s sleeping bag and no more white bread. I thought I was in heaven. That was early September. By mid-October there were 30 of us living together out in the middle of nowhere and some of the romance was disappearing. So was the food. One afternoon a handful of us came in for lunch and it was brown rice served on white rice. And winter had barely started. This was a crisis. We decided to take the Coors truck, all I had left to show for that year in show business, and head out shopping in Eureka. (I know you want to hear more about the year in show business, but this is really a short instructional chapter on making chimichangas so it isn’t the place. It is true, though, that story that I once danced with Tina Turner.)

“We,” in this case anyway, was John Albion, Richard Marley and me. We had the truck. We had the need. We didn’t have any money. I kept asking John and Richard how we were gonna fill the truck with food or even the gas tank with fuel to get home when we didn’t have a cent. I guess they couldn’t hear me very good over the roar of the truck. We spent the night at the house of Mike Mullen, a longshoreman friend of Richard’s. The next day we ran around meeting local bohemian artists who wanted all the stories about the new Black Bear adventure. And then that afternoon we met a man named Merlin. Merlin had done well in the chemistry business—psychedelic chemistry—and was impressed by our plans. He sized us up, to see if urban hippies could survive in the woods, and I think we passed the test when we crawled under the truck in the Humboldt County mud to readjust the baling wire that held up the muffler. He passed more than a $1,000 to Richard, a huge sum at that time, and asked if we were interested in a backhoe. I didn’t know what one was and thought he said “some tobacco” so I couldn’t understand why Richard and John got so excited.

We hit every food wholesaler in town and two days later returned to the ranch with a full load of provisions. That was the first food run, a theatrical event that was eventually elevated to a fine art. This is important because the ingredients for chimichangas for a commune winter are the following:

4,000 lbs Tule Lake Wheat.

1,000 lbs pinto beans.

55 gal. Vegetable oil.

300 lbs onions.

20 pounds garlic.

5 pounds chili powder.

1 pound cheddar cheese. (Optional)

This also happened to be the contents of the larder.

Start by dividing the wheat. Feed half to the chickens. Grind the rest into flour.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Not much happened at Black Bear for those first couple of years. It was not until 1970 or so that I remembered chimichangas. The food had gotten better than brown and white rice but only a little. Sometimes Glenn Lyons and John Salter got a deer but that would be gone in two days. Glenn and John were both university academics who came to the commune as researchers, and, like researchers the world over, had “gone native,” as they say. Willis Conrad, one of our first friends on the river, was one of the traditional Karuk fishermen and he’d sometimes bring up sacks of fresh-caught salmon. But mostly it was beans and rice. For variety, some nights the beans would be undercooked. We tried cooking things by substitution. Maybe corn starch would substitute for eggs? So Zoë Leader tried baking brownies with a recipe from the nutritionist Adelle Davis, but without eggs, an ingredient we only dreamed of. They came out of the oven smoking, black, with a texture like some roofing material. She’d just used up the last chocolate and took off for the woods in disgust. Redwood Kardon came by and tried one. “Not bad. Tastes like really good burnt chocolate.” Efrem Korngold tried some too and nodded with approval. Not bad at all. Word spread. By the time Zoe returned, the burnt pan was licked clean.

So it was, anyway, our day to cook. Doug Hamilton. Mark Gabriel. Me. We reviewed our choices. White beans and brown rice. Brown beans and white rice. We were artists in our souls, but without much palette. Then I remembered chimichangas. They were in those days only found in Sonora and in southern Arizona where I’d grown up. Now days you find them in the frozen grease section of every 7-11 in the world. Right next to the microwave. They were just deep-fried burritos, really, but in those days they were a well-kept secret.

So we hauled 20 pounds of wheat up to the Corona Mill hand-grinder in the attic and Doug started grinding. Mark started a long painstaking round of guitar tuning. I started telling a story about when Linda Ronstadt was my house guest. After about a pound of wheat, Doug rebelled. “Howkum you azzholes are just standing around and I’m getting stuck with all the work?” So I started trading off with him and also held the small table steady, which made it go faster. In guilt, Mark started actually playing guitar and also took turns at the mill.

At that point, Gail Ericson came through, looking for her daughter Shasta. She gave us an uncharitable look and asked how many grown men it took to grind wheat. We all tried to look as busy as possible. Gail could be awfully ungenerous in those days. I remembered months earlier, when there was some wine and everybody was in a frisky mood, I came over to Gail and quietly asked if she wanted to slip off and make love. “Oh, you mean fuck?” she said in a voice that carried across the room, and walked away laughing. People turned to me with smirks and then turned away.

When the flour was done, we fired the great US Army stove, started the beans and started making flour tortillas for 60 hungry communards. The beans were already soaked and we started early. I hated them undercooked. Cover them barely with water. Add onions, garlic and chili powder. Are you writing this down? When the skins of the beans wrinkle, pour in some oil. Never add salt until they’re done. Don’t add too much water and don’t cover the pot. As the stack of tortillas grew, a sense of excitement spread through the main house and then across the ranch. Something new for dinner. We began rolling the beans into the tortillas and dipping them into the hot oil where they sizzled the same way I remembered at the little place across from the Greyhound station in Tucson. Carol Hamilton and Geba Greenberg began helping us. Michael Tierra slipped away to get elderberry wine that he’d already aged for a week. Then he started playing music with Kenoli Oleari and John Cedar, who were visiting from the Free Bakery collective in Oakland.

Some nights there just wasn’t enough food cooked. On nights like that, the big eaters like Redwood or Martín would sit near the children in case one of them fell asleep with their food unfinished. Every one of us would have starved before we shorted the food to a child. But it’s also a sin to waste food and they wanted to be first in line to head off any sinful moment. Everybody in those days was so thin it was a little scary. We’re much less scary now.

It was a culinary triumph. We’d cooked way too much and every morsel was eaten. Some were a little burnt, most were perfect and not one was undercooked. They made a crunchy, resistant noise as you bit them: hot and dry on the outside; spicy and juicy in the center. “These chingyjamas are great,” Elsa Marley said and she gave me an affectionate kiss. More music. More wine. Tommy Drury, best of the Black Bear cooks, praised my invention. Praise from Tom was praise indeed. Smokers slipped outside to light up and tell much better stories than the non-smokers ever told. I watched Catherine Thompson Guerra whisper something to Danny Guyer and they slipped away. Another couple left, arm in arm. Buoyed by my new celebrity, I edged over next to Rhoda Bagno, a beautiful friend of Elsa Marley’s, and in my most suave voice asked her if she wanted to fuck. She turned and stared at me. “I don’t fuck. I make love,” she said, and so there could be no doubt, she turned and walked away.

GLAD TO SEE UKIAH EMBRACING MARBUT REPORT

We are glad to see that the Ukiah City Council appears to be moving toward the recommendations of the report on homelessness in our valley issued by Dr. Robert Marbut earlier this year.

The city is where the majority of the homeless in our inland area are concentrated and it is the place where making changes could have the greatest impact.

The City Council last week decided to create an ad hoc committee to bring solid recommendations back to the council based on Marbut’s ideas and we hope they do that quickly.

We sense varying amounts of enthusiasm among the council members, with, for instance Councilman Steve Scalmanini saying wanted to be careful about blanket agreement to the Marbut recommendations, noting he disagreed with Marbut’s recommendation to limit the number of homeless service centers, and conversely, Councilwoman Maureen Mulheren making sure that the ad hoc comes back with specific actions to take on a report she said has been largely embraced already.

Mulheren also had some astute comments to make on the need for the city to be less reactive and more proactive about homelessness. She pointed out that the city had zoned an entire area in the north along Brush Street for homeless services on the insistence of the homeless ‘experts’ when the winter shelter was there and the ‘tiny houses’ project was on the drawing boards. Now, she reminded the council, neither of those things still exist and yet the city has this useless zone out there.

Mulheren also suggested the city begin a serious conversation in the community about its public spaces and what rules we want to have around them concerning loitering, smoking, drinking, drugging, etc.

She also pointed out that it is imperative that the city do more to convince its citizens that handing a panhandler $5 only makes the situation worse.

The Ukiah Police Department, represented by Capt. Justin Wyatt, has been at the forefront of dealing with homelessness in our community simply because they get the calls. Kudos to them and Chief Chris Dewey, who recognized the need to take action last year, appointing Wyatt as the department’s leader on homelessness and liaison with the county. Wyatt has become a real expert on homelessness and our specific problems and so the city’s actions can be directed based on real time information from someone who has been on the ground for months dealing with this issue.

The priority now is timeliness. While some conversations need to get started, others have been going on too long. Marbut’s report is clear and full of common sense, and it should not take a long drawn out process to decide to use it or not.

(K.C. Meadows, Editor, Ukiah Daily Journal. Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)

HUMCO SUPE ESTELLE FENNELL Denies ‘Secret Plan’ Allegations

by Daniel Mintz

Humboldt County Supervisor Estelle Fennell is calling for unity after denouncing accusations that she’s secretly supporting an alleged plan to skirt Eel River fish protection.

The uncertain fate of the Potter Valley Project (PVP) water diversion and hydroelectric facility has led to division that was on full display at the May 15 Board of Supervisors meeting.

Supervisors considered appointing Fennell and Supervisor Rex Bohn as an ad hoc committee to consider the project’s future. It’s in question because the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, which owns and operates the PVP, has indicated that it will put the entire facility up for auction this fall.

But the company is alternatively proposing a transfer of the facility to a local or regional public entity.

The Friends of the Eel River (FOER) advocacy group has long opposed the diversion of Eel River water to counties south of Humboldt and in a May 14 press release, the group alleged that Fennell has secretly met with county supervisors from Mendocino and Sonoma counties in an effort to preserve the project’s water diversion facilities.

Fennell chairs the Eel Russian River Commission, which is made up of representatives of Humboldt, Mendocino, Sonoma and Lake counties. Responding to blog reports on FOER’s press release, Fennell said FOER’s accusations are “nothing short of dishonest fabrications and it does a disservice to the community, the county and even your organization’s own members.”

She added that her work with a variety of people is based on the goal of returning more water to the Eel. “We have a golden opportunity right now – right now – to accomplish that and we will and we can with a united front working together.”

But during a public comment period, Scott Greacen of FOER said a recent Public Records Act request produced a series of meeting notes handwritten by the Sonoma County Water Agency’s general manager.

Eel River water is diverted to Sonoma and Mendocino counties via the Potter Valley Project and Greacen said the meeting notes relate to “the plan that Supervisor Fennell attempts to bring forward here, which she has not discussed.”

Greacen described the alleged plan as one that will “use the Eel Russian River Commission as a new governmental entity” to take over the PVP. Doing so will “short circuit” the federal energy re-licensing that hinges on installation of expensive fish passage mechanisms at Scott Dam, one of the Eel’s diversion points.

“Supervisor Fennell, you are being duplicitous when you deny knowledge of this plan and when you deny to us that the Eel Russian River Commission was meeting in order advance an end run around both the (federal re-licensing) process and Congressman Huffman’s ad hoc process,” Greacen said.

The mention of Congressman Jared Huffman refers to his meetings with stakeholders on the future of the PVP.

Greacen described Fennell’s actions as being contrary to what Humboldt residents want, saying the alleged plan “would undermine our hope for fish recovery in the Eel and across the region.”

He added, “We can draw the obvious inferences from your defensiveness and secrecy – you know it’s wrong but you’re doing it anyway.”

Greacen’s accusations prompted a stern response.

“I am going to set the record straight – you do not know, at all, what my plan is because I don’t know what my plan is,” Fennell told him. “My plan is to listen to the people of Humboldt County and to represent them.”

“I don’t trust you,” Greacen said.

“Well that’s fine, I don’t feel so great about you, either,” said Fennell.

Stephanie Tidwell, FOER’s executive director, said the public records obtained by the group do indeed show an attempt by the Eel Russian River Commission to keep Eel River dams in place. She said, “The fact of the matter is, the record shows that this entity in particular has been by and large controlled by the water interests in Sonoma County.”

Friends of the Eel isn’t the only group that’s concerned. Darren Mierau of California Trout supported Greacen’s comments on the allegedly secretive meetings. He said Fennell should be more forthcoming about them and “make sure that you’re advocating for all of our interests and not private interests.”

Fennell said her goal is only to convene a diverse committee whose recommendations would be presented to the commission. She added, “Sometimes it’s hard to hear your friends say, ‘You did this and you did that’ when you know darned well you didn’t but that’s what you’ve got to live with when you’re in this kind of a position.”

After Supervisor Mike Wilson noted that the county hasn’t developed a policy on Eel River management, the board voted to have Fennell and Bohn form a “policy group” that will develop Humboldt County’s stance on the Potter Valley Project.

The policy committee will likely include members of environmental groups, tribes and commercial fishing associations, whose representatives urged Eel River restoration during public comment.

The committee will have to work quickly, as the goal is to develop a policy stance for presentation to the Eel Russian River Commission at its June 8 meeting in Ukiah.

* * *

CARRE BROWN'S SECRET MEETINGS

On Tuesday's Mendocino Board of Supervisors meeting agenda

"Discussion and Possible Action to Form a Board of Supervisors Ad Hoc Committee to Meet with PG&E and Other Government Entities Regarding the Potter Valley Project (Sponsor: Water Agency)"

What Mendocino residents are not being told is that Supervisor Carre Brown has already been secretly meeting with PG&E and other government entities regarding the Potter Valley Project. Humboldt County residents have been all over this. In this morning's Redheaded Blackbelt publication I found the following story which may be of interest to Mendocino County residents.

kymkemp.com/2018/05/20/letter-writer-concerned-over-alleged-secret-meetings-taking-place-over-the-future-of-pges-diversion-of-the-eel-river/

* * *

Letter Writer Concerned Over Alleged Secret Meetings Taking Place Over The Future Of PG&E’s Diversion Of The Eel River

"Dear Editor;

As someone who grew up, lived, owned property in the Second District of Humboldt County and also advocates protection for the Eel River watershed, its tributaries and wildlife habitat; I too have questions in regards to the assertions made by Friends of the Eel River (FOER), in reference to allegations of Supervisor Estelle Fennell possibly involved in “secret meetings”, what’s referred to as Ex Parte Communication.

Here is the quote from Lost Coast Outpost:

“Friends of the Eel River is sounding the alarm about ‘secret meetings’ that have been taking place over the future of the Potter Valley Project, which has diverted Eel River water into the Russian River for over a century.”

https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2018/may/14/friends-eel-decries-secret-meetings-over-eel-dams/

Here is the KMUD News report (Daniel Mintz) that includes an heated exchange between Supervisor Fennell and Scott Greacen of the FOER during the Board of Supervisors meeting:

https://soundcloud.com/kmudnews/fennell-responds-to-secret-plan-allegation

What is Ex parte Communication? An ex parte communication is a written or oral communication between a decisionmaker and an interested person concerning any issue in a formal proceeding, other than procedural matters that does not occur in a public forum established in the proceeding or on the record of the proceeding. Ex parte communications include communications that are one-way from a decisionmaker to an interested person, outside of a publicly noticed meeting.

And in this allegation by FOER, one of the decisionmakers in question is an elected Humboldt County Supervisor (Estelle Fennell), among others [Carre Brown].

But yet, none of this information was made available on Redheaded Blackbelt and that’s why I am submitting this Letter to the Editor.

As uncomfortable and ugly as this may seem, the public needs to know and hold their elected officials accountable, especially when it comes to who or what private corporation is in control behind the curtain, that affects so many different species, including humans."

Thank you,

Ed Voice & Voice Family

formerly from Garberville/Redway (1961-2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzjZ486-RFQ

* * *

Get ready for a very long and expensive legal battle over all this. Carre Brown may have really hurt Mendocino County by getting her cart before the horse.

James Marmon MSW
Disgruntled Former Mendocino County Employee

ED NOTES

AS THE SUPERVISORS belatedly discuss incompetent management of Juvenile Hall, not to mention the entire Probation Department, we think the kid prison in Ukiah should stay in Ukiah.  But the Supe candidates, the less grounded of them anyway, are saying stuff like, "They're our children. We've got to keep them close to home and their families." First off, although technically children by the fuzzy standards of indulgent America, some of them are as dangerous as any adult you'll meet, especially the ganged up ones. The families? Depends, but on the off chance there is a family in any known sense of the term, they're a big part of the prob. That said, it's not helpful to intelligent resolution of Hall management to talk of the issue like you're talking about a 4-H Club. And it's dumb to sub-lease our delinquents to Lake County for their care and feeding when what we need is capable management of the Probation Department. It's probably asking too much of their majesties at the Superior Court who are in charge of the Probation Department and Juvenile Hall to step up here…

* * *

TROUBLE SLEEPING? Repeat the following headline from the front page of last week’s Independent Coast Observer: "PA Schools Board approves NTN contract amid price debate." You'll be in Dreamland half way through.

* * *

WE ABSOLUTELY LOVE the interchangeable supporter rosters mailed out by 5th District candidates Williams and Skyhawk. We enjoy them so much we've developed a card game called Trades. I'll trade Williams' Beth Bosk for The Hawk's Sherry Glaser; Steve Scalmanini (Skyhawk) straight across for Kendall Smith (Williams); Both Ackers (Williams) for Dave Severn (Skyhawk).

* * *

EYES ONLY, ANDERSON VALLEY: Power was out in Navarro last week for much of that Wednesday for PG&E work. Dave Evans at the Navarro Store was offering flashlights to his customers as he cursed the dark.

* * *

IN BOONVILLE, a guy so suspicious of government he's often untethered to our shared reality — uh, check that — reality as shared by some of us — said a spy drone was cruising Robinson Creek at night lately. Fire Chief Avila had a more prosaic explanation, speculating the drone was perhaps mapping the stream as part of the planning for a Boonville sewage and water system. Or scanning the bridge replacement zone on Lambert Lane. (These are tough times for paranoids.)

* * *

ALL DAY AT THE BALLPARK on Saturday. Well, it's all day by the time I leave the sepulchral confines of San Anselmo and return to those sepulchral confines, eight hours has past. (Stuff happens in Boonville. Nothing happens in San Anselmo.) I park in North Beach next to the police station on Vallejo where, I'm sad to see, the man in the ticket kiosk has been replaced by a machine. The man in the kiosk was a native of Somalia, a friendly, older fellow who it was enjoyable to chat with if nobody was behind me in the outgoing lane. And now he's gone. Add up all the losses that make for a basic human experience and we are where we are, inhumanity. On this busy Saturday, the lot was pretty much empty, and I'll bet lots of people miss the man in the kiosk, and simply refuse to deal with a machine, a machine which took me roughly ten minutes to figure out. You won't be surprised that the lot is owned by the City.

THEN, by foot down Broadway to the bay, south on the Embarcadero to the jewel of a ballpark, which I refuse to call by its corporate name, the old commie sniffed, as if anyone could possibly care. I passed roughly forty street people, half of them mental hospital quality, the other half old fashioned bums lately upgraded to "homeless." (Frisco's marginal citizens used to live in blocks and blocks of SRO's south of Market. Lived happily in one myself at 5th and Brannan as a student, bathroom down the hall, clean sheets once a week. Paid about $25 a week for a room overlooking the street. Lots of interesting stories in that building, I can tell you.)

THE STREET NUTS I passed varied a lot but they all belonged in a mental hospital of the type we had in this country before America lost its way. One woman held a sign, "Starving Vegan" as she screamed, "Can't you people see that I'm hungry?" Aren't all vegans under-nourished? But this one looked pretty carb-loaded-fleshy to me. A less amusing man was heaping indiscriminate curses on passersby, aiming this one at me. "Bleep you, too, Pops," an age-ist crime I promised myself I'd report to the Appropriate Police as soon as I got back to Boonville.

STEVE ROSENTHAL is unlikely to agree, but I think the Giants are pretty good, and will be a lot stronger when Panik, Cueto and Bumgarner are back. McCutcheon and Longoria are starting to hit, even Belt's been looking more consistent than ever, and the bench seems strong. That replacement kid at second, Gomez, looks like a keeper, and with Pablo playing all over the place and hitting well, the Giants are looking better than a .500 team. Bochy remains a minor prob, but the team seems strong enough even with his predictable blunders. (I wonder if we'll see a squeeze from him this season? Was there one last year?)

* * *

JULIE BEARDSLEY WRITES: As a county employee, I think the people of Mendocino County would be better served if the structure of the county government went back to a department model. Some years ago the county went to a "super-agency" model. This model combined all the Health and Human Services departments into one super agency which was supposed to save money. I'm not sure that has been the case, as there are now more upper level managers than there were previously, and these individuals will be drawing from our pension system at commensurate rates when they retire. I would like to see the county return to model where there is a Chief Administrative Officer (instead of a CEO), who would handle the county's internal workings, such as HR, budgets, etc., and have the department heads report directly to the Board of Supervisors. We are a small rural county, and I believe this would save money, and make for a more responsive organization. Any thoughts candidates? (via Kathy Wylie & Cathy Woods Fifth District Supervisors Race facebook page)

MARK SCARAMELLA NOTES: Ms. Beardsley is correct about the “not sure that has been the case” in reference to saving money via consolidation. In fact it has cost a lot more money. When the county consolidated Mental Health, Social Services and Public Health into “HHSA” (Health and Human Services Agency) there should have been a two-thirds reduction in department managers and staff. Instead, we got an additional top management HHSA Director (Carmel Angelo) with her own staff of assistants and analysts on top of the existing department managers and their redundant sub-manager staffs. Angelo was then promoted to CEO when the County needed someone to layoff a bunch of people in 2008/2009 while her management pals in HHSA magically avoided the layoffs. In effect, the “consolidation” resulted in four top manager-directors, all with their own separate staffs, doing what one person should be doing with one staff, and all four ended up being paid more individually and collectively than the three department heads were paid pre-consolidation.

THE FRISCO SOLUTION

Editor:

There is only one immediate solution to the housing crisis: an amnesty program for pre-existing, unpermitted granny units, guest apartments, garage units, etc., as San Francisco did over the past few years to help alleviate its housing crisis.

It is quite simple. Existing “illegal” units, of which there are a significant number, create supply and should be allowed to stay (not banned, which reduces supply), subject to safety inspections by the building department and approval by planning, possibly involving a minimal fee.

This is the best and most logical approach in the near term and would result in a dramatic increase in housing stock, helping families and lower-income folks who cannot afford the McMansion budget required for most new builds in Sonoma County.

The building and planning departments need to get on this ASAP if we are to have any chance of alleviating the housing crisis.

This is a brief look at San Francisco’s approach, which was highly successful: sfdbi.org/unitlegalization.

And here’s a state proposal: caanet.org/lawmaker-seeks-easier-cheaper-path-to-granny-flat-construction.

At this point in our housing crisis, reducing supply would be an irresponsible thing for our officials to consider, let alone enforce.

Daniel Barnes

San Francisco

SUPERVISOR JOHN MCCOWEN informs us of an of an error in Marilyn Davin's recent article, "Legalization: A View from the Ground Floor."

"There is a major inaccuracy. It quotes Mendocino County Treasurer/Tax Collector Shari Schapmire as saying that there is a 2.5% tax on gross receipts, not just for cultivators which there is, but for pot processors and distributors. That is not true. For dispensaries it is 5% of gross receipts. Cultivators, 2.5% of gross receipts. All the other business types it's a flat $2500 per year, nothing about gross receipts. That makes a big difference if you are extracting $1 million worth of dope byproducts at your manufacturing plant. Again, there is no gross receipts tax on cultivators or processors. It's a flat $2500.”

MENDO LOSES IN FEDERAL COURT

On my last day of work as a Social Worker V for Mendocino County Family and Children's Services (CPS) I refused to follow a directive from Bryan Lowery and A.J. Barrett that I lie and exclude exculpatory evidence in a case where 4 children were unlawfully taken from their mother, I argued not only did the act violate the mother’s constitutional rights, but I could be personally sued. A.J. Barrett informed me that in all his years as a child welfare worker, he had never heard of social worker being personally sued. They even argued that issue at my State Personnel Board hearing, but the board suspended judgment on the matter and gave no ruling claiming in was a moot point due to another allegation. They testified that I had an angry outburst regarding the situation and scared them.

Last month, Mendocino County social workers found out the hard way, yes, two of them were sued personally, and Mendocino County is on the hook for $350,000.00 in attorney fees on top of the $250,000.00 they paid their attorney to fight it.

James Marmon

* * *

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

LINDA MORALES, et al.,

Plaintiffs,

v.

JANNEE DALE, et al.,

Defendants.

Case No. 16-cv-02429-EMC

ORDER APPORTIONING DAMAGES

In this § 1983 case, the jury found for Plaintiffs Linda Morales and K.B. and against Defendants Jannee Dale and Lisa Allison. The jury awarded Morales $59,000 and awarded K.B. $29,500. The question of apportionment of these damages between the two Defendants is now before the Court. See Docket No. 184.

1. LEGAL BACKGROUND

Apportionment is guided by “common law principles of torts in general, and the Restatement in particular.” United States v. Burlington, 520 F.3d 918, 935 (9th Cir. 2008), rev’d on other grounds, 556 U.S. 599 (2009). Under the principles set forth in the Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 433A, “harm may be apportioned when „there exists a reasonable basis for divisibility‟ of a single harm or when several „distinct harms‟ are present.” Id.n at 936 (quoting United States v. Hercules, 247 F.3d 706, 717 (8th Cir. 2001)). The “reasonable basis” must be “founded in record evidence.” Id. at 936-37. Where “the concurrent actions of all defendants” was necessary to inflict the harm, the harm is “clearly indivisible,” and damages should not be apportioned. Hazle v. Crofoot, 727 F.3d 983, 995 (9th Cir. 2013) (citing Rudelson v. United States, 602 F.2d 1326, 1332 (9th Cir. 1979) (an injury is indivisible when, “[h]ad any one of the defendants exercised due care, none of the injuries would have occurred”)).

1. APPLICATION

The jury found that Dale violated Morales and K.B.‟s rights on August 4 by keeping them separated. The jury further found that Allison violated Morales and K.B.‟s rights by failing to return K.B. to Morales when Morales requested that she do so. The verdict did not specify when Morales made that request. However, Morales testified that she spoke with Allison on August 13, 2015, and demanded K.B. back. Given this testimony and given that the jury appears to have credited Morales‟s testimony regarding her interactions with Allison, there is a “reasonable basis” to apportion damages based on the August 13 date.

K.B.‟s detention from August 4 to August 13 was caused purely by Dale. Therefore, Dale is individually liable for the proportion of the damages represented by that time period. But damages from August 13 to the end of the detention on September 28 are indivisible, because the unlawful behavior of both Dale and Allison was required to inflict the harm. If Dale had not coerced Morales, or if Allison had heeded Morales‟s request, K.B. and Morales would not have suffered that period of harm.

August 4 to September 28 was 56 days. Dale is individually liable for August 4 to August 12, which was 9 days, or 16.07% of the detention. Dale and Allison are jointly and severally liable for the remaining 47 days, or 83.93% of the detention.

Morales was awarded $59,000. Dale is therefore individually liable for $9,481.30 of that amount. Dale and Allison are jointly and severally liable for the remaining $49,518.70. K.B. was awarded $29,500. Dale is individually liable for $4,740.65 of that amount. Dale and Allison are jointly and severally liable for the remaining $24,759.35.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

EDWARD M. CHEN United States District Judge

LISTEN TO WILLITS, MARGE, TOM

The Willits City Council, upset about what they see as an attempt by Sheriff Allman’s Mental Health Facilities Advisory Committee to end-run their local rules and regs, has asked their city attorney Jim Lance to prepare an ordinance specifically to apply to any new mental health facility. According to Willits Weekly reporter Forrest Glyer last week, the City Council and a number of prominent Willits residents don’t want what Willits physician Mills Matheson said was a proposed 32-bed psychiatric facility in downtown Willits. Nobody but Matheson has mentioned anything about a 32-bed facility, although 16-beds has been tossed around casually in early discussions by a few people.

BUT WHATEVER the number of beds, the more there are, the bigger the facility, the harder it will be to staff, and the greater the likelihood of pushback from locals no matter where it’s proposed to be sited. Also, the more the beds, the greater the budgetary pressure to bring in outside patients to stabilize funding.

ADVOCATES of a new PHF need to prioritize distributed smaller facilities, although there’s certainly a near consensus on some kind of PHF somewhere.

LITTLE DOG SAYS, "I heard I could get a photo with Stormy for $20. Wow! Lemme know when she hits Boonville. Stormy Daniels! History! Yes!”

DO SOMETHING ABOUT HOUSING

To the Editor:

To the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors:

In 2008 I invested a substantial amount of my retirement funds to help Mendocino County develop new residential housing for the future of its citizens and future growth.

Now ten years later and following a tragic fire season that burned away thousands of family homes, I am scratching my head wandering why our elected officials aren’t working overtime assisting and promoting new housing for its citizens and fire victims.

How do you go home at night in your own safety of your own homes and relax and enjoy your evening, when thousands of your local county neighbors are moving away, living in motels, campsites and with friends and relatives while you play politics and delay local developments.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this part of your elected duty to serve and protect your local fellow citizens? I wonder how you can justify your lack of action and sleep at night. Thank you for a fresh look at what serving your community should really be about.

Tim Salyer

Ukiah

DEFECTIVE PARENTING

Editor,

I am going to go against the grain here and say this: our world is a direct reflection of how we parent our children. When we look out and see what is happening in the world today we are safe to assume that something has gone very wrong. Anxiety and depression diagnoses in teenagers have increased by 70 percent in the past 25 years. The number of children and young people with a psychiatric condition has more than doubled since 2009. But what can we really expect? We live in a society that values distractions such as television, social media, recreational alcohol use, food, prescription drugs etc. from the real problems that we dare address. A society that spends more energy masking the problem with bandaids instead of getting to the root and ameliorating it.

Pam Leo, author of Connection Parenting has a famous line, “How we treat the child, the child will treat the world.” Conventional, age-old discipline such as punishment, shaming, yelling, spanking, and threatening have steered us in the wrong direction and in turn have created a mass consciousness driven by fear, shame, doubt, and all of the problems that have manifested because of them. Why are we still relying on discipline tactics that are clearly outdated and ineffective? You can’t visit the store or the park without witnessing a parent yell, criticize, threaten, or hit their child. Somehow we are not connecting this to the problems we are experiencing in our world such as school shootings, overloaded prisons, drug use, suicide, and bullies. According to a recent study, children who were spanked are more likely to be violent in later relationships, commit suicide, and have substance abuse problems. How can we not see that how we are raising our children is directly affecting the world at large?

I challenge you to imagine what our world might look like if every parent raised their child through understanding, respect, and gentle guidance. If we want to see a more loving, peaceful world we must stop disciplining our children through fear and shame; punishing, spanking, and yelling. According to Pam Leo …“How can we teach children to behave better by feeling worse?” When did we decide that putting children in time-outs, threatening to take away their most prized possessions, and hitting them on the rear was a good approach to teaching them appropriate behavior? Sure, those tactics may work in the moment ..but ultimately they condition children to behave well only to avoid punishment not because it is the right thing the do. Most often, parents resort to these reactionary quick fix discipline tactics because they lack the skills to control their emotions and the strategies to effectively deal with their children’s behavior. Since a universal guidebook to teach parents how to effectively discipline their child does not exist they most likely, by default, raise their children as they were raised. It doesn’t help that now more than ever parents are more stressed and overwhelmed with very little support. The saying, “It takes a village” is still true but not currently valued anymore. Individualism has taken over and has taken our sanity along with it. According to the National Institute of Mental Health the United States is the most anxious nation in the world. This is true for a few reasons, two of the major ones being the prevalence of social media and what researchers call the “Bowling Alone” affect. In our culture, reliance on social media, our new virtual community, is triumphing the “real” in person community our ancestors once had. Michael Davis of Emory University states, “If you’ve lost the extended family and lost the sense of community, you’re going to have fewer people you can depend on, and therefore you’ll be more anxious. Other cultures have much more social support and are better off psychologically because of it.” We must begin to put emphasis on taking care of ourselves and developing positive self-care habits such as exercise, becoming active in our communities, meditating/self-reflecting, and pursuing hobbies that we enjoy. If we don’t, we will never have enough energy and positivity to be the presence our children need in order to thrive.

We have to come to a very important time that is calling us to elevate parenting and to elevate our values as a society. A peaceful world starts with peaceful parents who show the next generation of children how to be mindful of their actions through modeling. We need parents to respond to their child’s undesirable behavior with understanding and love instead of shame and punishment so they can create an unshakable connection with their children that lasts a lifetime. We, as parents, truly do have the most important job in the world. One that does not require a degree or any prior knowledge of, one that most parents just “wing” and hope for the best, one that typically is greatly influenced by the emotional baggage we carry from our childhood. By becoming more purposeful and peaceful parents we have an opportunity to change the world, one child at a time. As Marianne Williamson says, “There is no single effort more radical in its potential for saving the world than a transformation of the way we raise our children.”

Lauren Skinner

Ukiah

"WHY WE'RE HAVING TROUBLE RECRUITING GRAND JURORS"

I have noticed that the Court has extended, once again, the deadline for accepting applications for next year's county civil grand jury. It's no wonder why — the Mendocino County Grand Jury has become a joke.

The county’s civil grand jury system is pathetically weak, It's inconsequential. Nobody cares.

It's a waste of time and money.

I can say from personal experience that grand juries are now given direction in the beginning of their term — direction by both the presiding judge and the foreman — that a grand jury’s first charge is “to do no harm.”

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times: Do no harm. And I’ve served on three different county civil grand juries.

But what does do no harm mean, exactly?

It means the following:

* Play nice. (You don’t want to be the only kid thrown out of the sandbox.)

* Investigate, but don’t really investigate.

* Don’t step on anyone’s toes, especially the County CEO. (They don’t call the current CEO the “Tony Soprano of Mendocino County” for nothing.)

* Don’t hurt anyone’s feelings. (All the kids get along in the sandbox, remember?)

* Be putty in the hands of the government official who you are investigating. (Yuck it up with witnesses. Laugh at stupid jokes. Make small talk. Lob softball questions. Believe everything you’re told.)

* Be led by County Counsel. (Remember, County Counsel works for the Board of Supervisors and the County CEO, not the grand jury.)

* Make no accusations. (Dear no!)

* Refer nothing to the District Attorney, the California Attorney General, or the US Attorney, even if the grand jury stumbles on a criminal matter.

* Never ask the presiding judge for a subpoena, even if witnesses refuse to show up.

* In complex fraud cases or those involving corruption in public office, never ask the presiding judge for help. (Outside auditors or experts cost money, and regardless, getting to the truth would only hurt someone’s feelings.)

* Keep the average age of the grand juror at 70-years old or older. (Grand jurors who are old, weak, feeble-minded, low-energy, inattentive, and passive, are ideal. The operative word is “passive.” Remember, the grand jury is more like a coffee club than an investigative body. The time when the civil grand jury possessed broad investigative or accusatory powers is long gone.)

* Limit the number of jurors that the presiding judge is willing to name as foremen to a total of two or three. (Never recruit or train people willing to serve as a new foreman. Keeping the selection of foremen always the same ensures a consistent mediocracy in grand juries.)

* Never question or challenge the non-responses to grand jury reports given by county or city officials. (One-word or two-word respones, like “agree” or “diasgree” or “partially agree” should be enough for any over-worked county or city official.)

In the alternative, what should an effective civil grand jury be?

It should be dangerous.

Dangerous.

The county’s civil grand jury should strike fear into the hearts of county and city officials (and those of special districts) who are guilty of waste, fraud, corruption, or mismanagement—or even guilty of under-performing in their jobs.

In perhaps its most important role, the grand jury is considered the watchdog over county government by virtue of its extensive powers to inquire into the activities of county officers.

The most important of these duties is to inquire into the handling of county finances and the needs of county officers to improve the performance of county functions.

The jury is authorized to employ auditors and/or experts to aid in its examination of county financial records, although it never does so. That should change, given the increasing complexity and sophistication of modern business and administrative methods of governance.

The grand jury can, and should, initiate investigations into official indiscretion. It can also investigate and make recommendations, if the investigation grows out of a legitimate inquiry into any misconduct that hints of waste, fraud, corruption, or mismanagement.

The means by which the grand jury can communicate its recommendations is the report, and the power to report is one of the most potent — and most controversial — of the grand jury’s powers.

So be it.

I can live with being controversial.

John Sakowicz

Ukiah

* * *

KATHY WYLIE, former foreperson of the County Grand Jury, commented: “Don’t get me started on your view of your 'service' on the Grand Jury John...”

THE INVALUABLE...

Woodlands Wildlife newsletter mailing party

Woodlands Wildlife is looking for a 4-5 volunteers to help stuff the newsletter into envelopes and put stamps on. I'll have everything ready to go on Thursday May 24th at 1 p.m. at the Little River Improvement Club and Museum, 8185 Hwy 1 in Little River. Located on the east side of the highway at the top of the S-curve above Van Damme Beach. Parking across the street on Peterson Lane if our spaces are full. It will takeabout 1 hour, tea and cookies will be served. Please email WoodlandsWildlife@mcn.org to RSVP.

STARK DIFF between the two candidates for County Superintendent of Schools. Ms. Hutchins is right on point, Barrett will just wuv and collabo the heck out of everyone:

From the Willits Weekly May 17, 2018 Summary of the debate between Anderson Valley School Superintendent Michelle Hutchins and Ukiah Assistant Superintendent Brian Barrett.

Barrett: "My style is very collaborative. I am not a top-down person. I work with people — leading from the middle where you're getting information from the people that are actually working with folks and including them in the process and then making sure that process is collaborative. I believe in giving employees the support to be successful, to make sure they're included in goals and improvements."

Hutchins: “Leading from the middle" in her opinion, is not the best approach for a County school superintendent. In a Facebook post, she cited the conclusion of a nonprofit organization — RP Group — that "leading from the middle is appropriate for practitioners with little organizational responsibilities."

She points out: "Observant readers will note the position of school superintendent or CEO is not a middle leader. As I stated in all forums, the transition from principle to superintendent is significant. Principals manage the day-to-day operations of the school, staff and student body and report to the superintendent. The superintendent is the CEO of the district, implements the board's vision for education by making day-to-day decisions about programs, spending, staff, and facilities, and reports to a board elected by the people the superintendent leads."

Hutchins told the forum audience: "School superintendent is a position of wide influence, ever-changing, demanding and key to the success of a district. When I was promoted to superintendent I learned there was much more complexity to the position. The job requires the courage to make and enforce unpopular decisions, and in a small town you can become the subject of personal agendas."

"When I moved into being a school district superintendent I realized there are times when you have to be courageous enough to make unpopular decisions. Oftentimes those unpopular decisions are keeping the best interests of the students and the taxpayer in mind. It's not easy to convince people that change is necessary when ‘good enough’ it is institutionalized. What I do with my employees is that I work with the evaluative process. We set and establish goals at the beginning of the year and we work together toward meeting those goals by the end of the year."

A FEW MORE ‘YOU KNOW YOU’RE AN AV OLD TIMER’ THOUGHTS

You’re an old timer if…

• You dined at the Philo Café.
• You remember a barber shop next to the Philo Post Office, when the Philo Post Office was located on the southwest side of Highway 128.
• You had Leo Sanders or Edna Sanders as a teacher.
• You drank at the Last Resort in Philo.
• You remember vineyards flanking Manchester (now Mountain View) Road where the high school is now.
• You displayed an AVTV flag on your house, showing you’d paid the fee that year for the translator that beamed television signals into the valley.

(Marshall Newman)

PD: MOST OF THOSE WARNED OF THE FIRESTORM FOUND OUT FROM FRIENDS, FAMILY MEMBERS AND NEIGHBORS, according to The Press Democrat Poll.

pressdemocrat.com/news/8333525-181/poll-most-sonoma-county-residents

COMMENT: So Sonoma County is investing our $$$ to research effective ways of notification which will result in a bunch of directives, additional staff, while another disaster could be looming out there. For starters I still vote for the "air raid sirens" that SR had back in the 60-70's, that were on fire houses, and in various locations in SR, example: one was by cemetery on Franklin Avenue, tested last Friday of every month. These alerts would wake up a lot of people, who could then decide whether to go or stay. In the meantime we sit here waiting for months of meetings, and then a 50 page directive, then what???? See where we are today and where we were on Oct 8^th…

CATCH OF THE DAY, May 20, 2018

HUGO BARRERA, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

FRANK CABRAL, Laytonville. Burglary, controlled substance, paraphernalia, vandalism.

JOSE CEJA-LOPEZ, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, suspended license, probation revocation.

RICARDO CONTRERAS, Calpella. Domestic battery, criminal threats, probation revocation.

SANDRA ESPINOZA, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

MICHAEL FERGUSON, Laytonville. Controlled substance, paraphernalia.

WALKER FERREIRA, Fort Bragg. DUI.

LESLIE GOODIRON, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

LAMAR MANUEL, Ukiah. Parole violation.

LAWRENCE MARSH, Covelo. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

ROBERT MILLER, Carmichael/Redwood Valley. Controlled substance, paraphernalia.

JOSHUA NELSON-DEAN, Ukiah/Santa Rosa. Parole violation.

ANTHONY PRUITT, Ocoee, Florida/Ukiah. DUI-drugs&alcohol.

JESSICA SPEERS, Redwood Valley. DUI.

KEVIN STARNES, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, interference with police communications.

STEVEN TEMPLE SR., Ukiah. Fighting in public.

JOSHUA WEBB, Laytonville. Probation revocation.

WE'RE BEING LOOTED

Editor:

A Credit Suisse report issued in February said US wealth grew by $8.5 trillion over the previous 12 months, the most since 2012. That report was after Donald Trump’s greatest heist — the transfer of money from the treasury to the rich (Trump included), disguised as a tax cut for the wealthiest to stimulate the economy.

The economy for the rich is fine. Ours sucks, will continue to suck and will always suck until the general populace realizes how we are controlled by the rich through the very government that, by the Constitution, is to protect the general welfare, that being you and me, not a select few. How is it that the richest country in the entire world can’t take care of all of its own?

A democracy is not of the rich, by the rich and for the rich; it’s about you and me. Until you send that message to Washington, you’re nothing.

J.W. Hale

Petaluma

UNDERSTANDING ENGINEERS

What is the difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers? Mechanical engineers build weapons. Civil engineers build targets.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Someone above asked why teens kill others. Here’s why: youtube.com/watch?v=ZwMVMbmQBug

We are in a collapse. Morally, intellectually, economically, certainly politically and every institution we have held dear is affected. Fake news is real and you all know it. Our politicians are corrupt but then they always have been. We are now amoral. If you do not know what morality is, I can give you a list which you will hate me for but I know right from wrong, trash from treasure. I bet you do as well. The gilded age is back. Ostentatious behaviors by celebrities and because they are recognized and rich, they get the platform to speak on issues they have precious little knowledge about. Our cultural focus is on the pubic area of the body. That’s it.

The only surprise to me is that more people are not slaughtered by some wacko who cannot take it anymore or won’t. They are striking back in the manner which Hollywood permits. That is, guns, lots of shooting and gore. We are buried in our own crap and we are told it is perfume.

YO! FAT MAN!

Dear Editor,

Michael Moore is a piece of whale blubber with eyes and a mouth. He is talking about the NRA and calling them a terrorist organization. What a joke. What a fat, inhuman, rotten bastard he is. That's all he does; he goes around causing trouble like that. Just like George Soros, a billionaire, trying to buy off the voters of California. He buys everything he wants. He's a billionaire. And they don't do anything about it. It's sickening. That Moore guy is trying to find a way to get after Donald Trump because of the so-called Russian probe. What a joke! It's a witch hunt. Even grade school kids know all about it. But it goes on. The Liberal Democrats are digging in anything. They will dig in a pile of cow manure to try to find something against President Trump. Look what he's done. And look what he is going to do. It's just sad. Never in my life have I seen a group of people as rotten and stinking as the Liberal Democrats right now. And it's all because they lost an election and they lost fair and square and they're going to lose the next one because the whole country is thinking about what a stinking bunch of people they are. You'll see. Look at Jerry Brown. He just passed another law protecting the illegal aliens, the criminal ones who need to go to court. Sure, that Jerry Brown.

California is a beautiful state. It's got water, trees, sagebrush, canyons, everything! But it has the biggest, rottenest sons of bitches I ever saw running it. God only knows it has to change. I am so sick of it I could just scream.

God bless Donald Trump.

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche

PS. The citizens of Mendocino County owe Sheriff Tom Allman kudos for doing such a great job keeping everybody in the county safe with all the different kinds of people flooding in on the county after Governor Brown’s rulings and stuff. It’s just hair-raising to think what could happen. Sheriff Allman and his deputies have been doing a great job. A couple of them are my good friends and I know what they are going through. So we should show them some respect.

MAY 22, 1943: Six zoot-suited Negro youths were jailed yesterday and a large amount of marijuana seized by narcotic officers at 1717 Scott Street. The arrests and seizure were said by F.J. O’Farrell, chief of the State narcotic bureau, to have closed one of many sources of the drug catering to soldiers and sailors. “Use of marijuana by Negro troops has been responsible for many of the fracases we have had lately,” Chief O’Farrell said. “Only recently, two soldiers smoked marijuana in their dormitory and started a free-for-all. There are many places where thrill-seekers go for Harlem atmosphere that are the sources for this dangerous drug. It is my warning that people stay away from these places for safety’s sake.”

(Johnny Miller, SF Chronicle)

AGAIN I AM SPEAKING OUT AGAINST TORTURE, AGAIN I AM UNDER ATTACK

by John Kiriakou

Most of you probably know that I was a former CIA officer, that I blew the whistle on the CIA’s torture program, and that I spent 23 months in a federal prison for my troubles. I’ve never second-guessed myself. I know I did the right thing, even if the cost was high. I lost my federal pension, my job, my security clearance, my life’s savings, even my wife. Still, I would do it over again.

In the interim, I’ve become something of a “spokesman” on the issues of torture and human rights. And I’m frequently sought out by media outlets in the U.S. and abroad. As you might imagine, President Trump’s nomination of Gina Haspel supercharged those media requests. The first one after the nomination was made public was from the Washington Post. They asked me to write an op-ed for the Sunday edition. It got more than 2.8 million hits. They also recorded a 30-minute video to promote the piece online. That was followed by three columns about Haspel at Reader Supported News, two appearances on Democracy Now, a panel at CNN, NPR, and dozens of other radio shows. I was very public in my opposition to Gina Haspel. I believe that her deep involvement in the CIA’s torture program is disqualifying, no matter how many of the CIA’s rank-and-file employees love her, as Senator Mark Warner said in rationalizing his flip-flop on her nomination.

In the midst of all of these interviews, I received a call from freelance journalist Caroline Lester, who said she was writing a story about me for The New Republic, and she asked for an interview. I demurred, saying that I was tired of being the “story.” The real news here was Gina Haspel, what she did, what she stands for, and why she shouldn’t be the CIA director. Lester was persistent. She said that she had her assignment, the article was going to be written, and I could either cooperate or not. I know a hit piece when I see one, but I agreed to meet with her, if only to take the edge off of what I thought would be a negative portrayal of me, even if it was in the fake-progressive, neo-liberal New Republic.

I was right, of course. The article’s headline blared, “The CIA Spy Who Became a Russian Propagandist.” It was exactly what I had expected.

As I mentioned above, one of the costs of whistleblowing is financial ruin. A major national security whistleblower once told me that he’s been broke since for 45 years. He never recovered financially after blowing the whistle on government illegality.

I was similarly broke until last August, when I received a call from the Sputnik News Network, a Russian government-owned outlet in Washington, with an offer of a two-hour daily radio show. I told the general manager that I would only take the job if I had complete editorial freedom to talk about and to criticize anything and anyone I wanted, including Vladimir Putin. He agreed without hesitation. When I asked if he would put it in writing, he did so immediately. I’ve been co-host of the show Loud & Clear since September 2017.

The journalist challenged me only once during our conversation. How could I work for a Russian propaganda outlet? I told her that she obviously had never listened to the show. Besides, I said, “Are you going to put food on my table? Are you going to put my kids through college? Nobody else is beating a path to my door to offer me work.” I thought we had left it at that.

The article was published a few weeks later and, just as I had expected, was a hit piece. I didn’t think it was a big deal, though. Nobody reads The New Republic anyway. But the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if the CIA had put The New Republic up to it.

Almost nobody in America has been as vocal in opposition to the Haspel nomination as I have. I’ve been a thorn in the CIA’s butt for a long time. And certainly this is one of the things that the CIA does. When they don’t like the message, they attack the messenger. When former CIA chief interrogator Glenn Carle published a memoir saying that the torture program was immoral, unethical, and illegal, the CIA put out the word that nobody should review the book. Almost nobody did and sales flopped. The same thing happened when NSA whistleblower Tom Drake published his book and when Justice Department whistleblower Jesselyn Radack published hers. The message is meant to discredit and silence the messenger.

That brings me back to The New Republic. They approached Caroline Lester with the story. They commissioned it. So who is Caroline Lester? I have no idea. If you click on her name on the New Republic website, this is her only article. Even a google search doesn’t tell you much. She has a website showing that she’s a freelancer and podcaster, and the site proudly features her articles in such outlets as the Yale University alumni magazine, a publication called “Roads & Kingdoms,” and a magazine called “Off Assignment.” Is she in the pay of the CIA? I don’t know. Maybe she is. Is The New Republic doing the CIA’s dirty work? I believe it is.

The purpose of this column is not to bash Caroline Lester or The New Republic. They’re not important enough to bash. The purpose is to tell the CIA that we know what they’re doing. It’s petty. It’s sad. But it’s also motivating. My whistleblower colleagues and I will keep up the fight.

John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act - a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration’s torture program.

Courtesy, Reader Supported News

readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/50185-again-i-am-speaking-out-against-torture-again-i-am-under-attack

MANO NEGRA

The Unbelievable Story Of One Of America's Bloodiest Hitmen

buzzfeed.com/jessicagarrison/martinez-hitman-cartel-black-hand-mano-negra-contract-killer