WHO PUT UP CASH MONEY FOR WHOM
FIFTH DISTRICT SUPERVISOR
Skyhawk Contributors:
Contributors: George Russell (Retired), Wendy Roberts, Even Horizon Technologies, North Bay Labor Council, Larry Knowles, Annie Lee, Steven Gray (Retired), Joe Ayres (Retired), Randy Burke, Leonard Lottau (Retired), Francesca and Arky Ciancotti (MD, substitue teacher), Bill Zimmer (Retired), Trevor Thomas (self-employed real estate investor), Judy Frank (Retired), Rita Quelette (self-employed landscaper), David Daly, Joe Wildman (Business Rep, Operating Engineers Local #3), Cheryl Mitover (Owner, Pacific School Massage Healing Arts), Chris Bennett (CB Tree), Ron Nadeau (Spiritual Advisor, Shaman’s Intention), Jeanne Jackson (Retired), Vince Taylor (Retired), Zoe Batchelor (Events Coordinator, MacCallum House), Scott Ephrain (Owner, Frankie’s Pizza), John Comiskey (Retired), Tim Lum (Owner, 215 Main St., Point Arena). (Contributions range from $100 to $500; minimum required to report: $100.)
Roderick Contributors:
Paul Dolan (farmer), Bob Demple (farmer), Cox Vineyard, Joe Ayres, Megan Schmitt, Larry Tunzi, Karen Calvert, Bonnie Carter, Kent Porter, Richard Selzer, Charlie Reed, Christa Roderick, Colin Wilson, Alfred Lawrence, Tara Larwood. (Contributions range from $50 to $500; minimum required to report: $100.)
Williams Contributors:
Lee Edmundson, Jim & Diane Larson, Diana Wiedman, Karen Bowers, Midicel Issel, Ted Williams, Mark Funke Esq., Anthony Wade, Charlene McAllister, Charles Acker. (Contributions range from $100 to $500 except for Campaign Manager Lee Edmundson who contributed $1352; minimum required to report: $100.)
COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS
James Barrett Contributors:
James Richard Barrett (JR Barrett Planning, Development and real estate consultant), Kathy Barrett, Jim Graybeal, Jason Iversen, Amanda & Bradley Holstine (Husch Winery), G.A. Young (CTA Field Rep), James-John Ronco (Land use consultant), Robert & Donna Frassinello (Retired Educator UUSD). (Most of the several thousands of dollars in contributions came from people named Barrett; the rest were from $100 to $200.)
Hutchins Contributors:
Monique Leigh (Retired Teacher), Sabrina Donahue (Present Moment Practice LLC), Beverly Dutra, Todd Donahue (Homestead Helicopters), Rick Wiley (Wiley Grocery Store), Laurie Schaecher (Fundraising consultant), Dennis Schaecher (Principal BOS Acquisitions), Bernie Beaudoin (Retired), Damara Moore (Attorney, School and College Legal Services), Suzanne Cormier-Livesay (USN), Ed Cormier (USN retired) Daniel Reed (Wine salesman, Lula Cellars), Leslie Lind (Retired teacher). (Amounts were from $100 to $250. By far the most money was from Sabrina Donahue who donated $10,000, and Monique Leigh, $2000.
THE FOREST CLUB VOTER SURVEY
Just asked some regs at the pub who they liked for supervisor, and it was like... huh?
So I said, are you going to vote?
And they like said, like duh, dude. Voting is like all we have, dude.
So: who are you going to vote for for Fifth District Supervisor?
Whadda ya mean?
I mean the supervisors.
You mean it has nothing to do with the president?
No, sorry. Only locals.
Who are they?
Well, there’s Williams, Roderick, Juhl, and Skyhawk… for Fifth District – Who do you like?
Whoah, dude, Skyhawk sounds like the real schiznack, dude!
What about Roderick?
Who’s Rhoderick?
He’s the guy the retiring supervisor endorsed.
Who’s the retiring supervisor?
Dan Hamburg.
Never heard of him.
(— Bruce McEwen)
MORE THAN ONE 5th District liberal was startled to hear a commercial radio advertisement for candidate Roderick read by retiring Supervisor, Dan Hamburg, the ad paid for by inland businessman, Ross Liberty.
ABC CANCELED its hit reboot of "Roseanne" on Tuesday following star Roseanne Barr's racist tweet that referred to former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett as a product of the Muslim Brotherhood and the "Planet of the Apes."
PREDICTION: The Fox Network will pick up her show. This is America after all, where money meets principle, bet on money, and Roseanne generates a lot of money. Myself, I think all tv comedy is painfully unfunny, but I also think in this case of Roseanne’s spectacular unfunny, if she has apologized she shouldn't be denied her livelihood. And she has apologized. Put any and all of us non-celebs on tape and we'd all have a lot of explaining to do. But still, blurting out something like she did is certainly a mental indicator of psychic viciousness. Then again, maybe the old girl is merely 5150.
ARIEL CARMONA, the excellent reporter for The Willits News and the Ukiah Daily Journal, has been promoted to Managing Editor at the Lake County Record Bee, moving east to assume his new responsibilities.
BET YA don't know that Fiona Ma, candidate for State Treasurer, is an ex-Trotskyite, in this case the Socialist Workers Party. Kinda sad to see the old girl revert to political mindlessness as a Democrat, but her political history as a communists at least means she knows how money works. Or doesn't work in the public interest.
A READER WRITES: "The Platinum Horse. The enclosed article appears in the May 2018 issue of Architectural Record, the premier architecture magazine in the USA. The featured house, a grossly discordant “mountain retreat” near Willits is a harbinger of things to come — an ugly invasion by wealthy high-tech executives and entrepreneurs buying up cheap land vacated by the stoner exodus and building ‘extra houses’ while conducting business over the internet. Here they come — The Broadbandidos.”
BY THE TIME you read this in the paper-paper version of the mighty ava, the election will have been over for a couple of days or so. The following are pre-election comments that appeared in the electronic version of the Boonville weekly but, we think, should appear in print if for no other reason than they round out the crumb bum story of the dirtiest Mendocino County election race in years — the election for County Superintendent of Schools:
TERRY VAUGHAN, the producer for Mendocino TV, had hoped to interview both candidates for County Superintendent of Schools, but only Boonville’s superintendent showed up. Barrett, the other candidate for the job, as he had before during the campaign, was a no show. Vaughan describes what happened:
“In our continuing series of election coverage we interviewed Michelle Hutchins about her job, her opinions and her candidacy for Mendocino County Superintendent of Schools. I invited Bryan Barrett to participate in our series of interviews via telephone and e-mail which he later denied receiving. I made them and could hear little children screaming in the background, so I assumed that I contacted his home number, the proper number to call a candidate. Instead of replying to our invitation, I received several calls about Michelle from members of Bryan Barrett’s campaign staff telling me negative information about Michelle Hutchins.
"I find this behavior disturbing. In this tiny county, campaigning by rumor and innuendo may have been effective in the past, but Mendocino TV strives to rise above that with sticking to the issues. How does the candidate perform in real life experiences? What issues are important to them? Do they know and understand what is important to their constituency? We couldn’t care less who has endorsements or not. Like having PAC support, endorsements tell us nothing about the candidate, so we were eager to explore her candidacy. What resulted was refreshing, honest and somewhat raw. I learned that a Superintendent of County Schools is quite a task. I hope you find this interview informative."
ORDINARILY, the election race for Mendocino County Superintendent of Schools is between a couple of human chloroform gags. Before restive audiences they say stuff like, "I love kids," which the other candidate rebuts with, "I love kids more better." And everyone goes home thinking to themselves, "No wonder the schools aren't teaching the little savages much of anything."
THIS ELECTION has been different, way different. We have a Ukiah-based guy, Brian Barrett, whose campaign signs say, "Integrity," causing this reader an immediate flashback of Nixon saying, "I am not a crook." Really? Anybody who advertises his integrity, well, make sure your wallet is still in your back pocket when you and Mr. Integrity part company.
INTEGRITY? BARRETT is the guy who accused a union rep of racism because the teacher's rep described the Ukiah School District's pay offer to teachers as "niggardly." Then-Superintendent of Schools Paul Tichinin agreed that niggardly was a particularly foul ethnic insult.
SO we have this Barrett character, again backed up by Tichinin, via private facebook pages, passing along untrue slams against his opponent, Michelle Hutchins, the first woman since the 19th century to have a serious shot at becoming the county's Superintendent of Schools. At a recent candidate's night Tichinin even appeared for Barrett, reciting Barrett's sonorous positions, including the dynamic promise, "I will lead from the middle."
THE ANTI-HUTCHINS libels are the work of a handful of retired Boonville teachers, one of whom is clearly inspired by a personal landlord-tenant dispute with Mrs. Hutchins. The others seem motivated by pure malice, vaguely charging Mrs. Hutchins with such crimes as "Does not work well with others," i.e., them, and "bad leadership skills,” i.e., she won’t follow us. None of the complaints are backed up with specifics.
THE UNFAIRLY MALIGNED HUTCHINS has demonstrated real leadership by apologizing for errant decisions she made in her first years in the Boonville's edu-hothouse, and still enjoys majority support from the Boonville school board.
WHAT'S most disturbing about the anti-Hutchins crusade is its unreasoning vehemence, and it's all coming from "educators." I know these people, and I can tell you I'm surprised that they could go as low as they have, and almost all of it in secret slanders, private cyber-communications, the kind of slimy tactics one would not expect from the people entrusted with the education of children. From her critics we get vague accusations like, "Lacks people skills," always a dependable Rorschach for fuzzy warms unable to come up with real beefs, but boiling down to, "She wasn't at my feet so I'm at her throat."
THE ONE SPECIFIC Mrs. Hutchins' critics did come up with was listed as "Gun Control." Had to laugh at that one, but Hutchins' enemies claimed she hadn't properly handled a gun incident at Boonville High School. This is what happened. A gang-influenced delinquent brought a handgun to school. When it was made known he had the weapon in his backpack the cops were called. They took the gun from the kid and placed him in Juvenile Hall where he will enjoy meals and supervision valued by Mendocino County at $450 a day. I guess the Superintendent could have lurched into full panic mode like we see on TV, scaring students and parents unnecessarily, but from here it looks like the episode was handled exactly as it should have been — no fuss, no muss.
I'VE ALWAYS WONDERED how effective political advertising is. The logic of yard signs seems to be the more you see the candidate's name the likelier you are to vote for him or her. Which may be true of many voters overwhelmed by their ballots. "Darn. I forget. But I remember Hutchins. I saw that name in the front yard of the Boonville newspaper." But Cyber-world has changed everything. For the worse. Now the most vile libels are privately circulated with the candidate unaware of them, let alone given an opportunity to respond. Character assassins never had it so good.
SPECIAL THANKS to Cathy Wood and Kathy Wylie for their work on the facebook page devoted to the 5th District Supe's race. It was steadily informative to read candidate responses to the specific issues they are likely to meet as Supervisor. However the election turns out, no one can plausibly claim that the candidates and their positions were invisible.
CHRIS SKYHAWK may live to wish he were a little less visible as the choice of the Northcoast's peripheral, bordering-on-irrelevant Democratic Party apparatus. As most of us learned in the last election, Democrats, including the Hillary-devoted Democrats of the Northcoast — Binah, McGuire, Wood, Huffman et al — did not represent the large majority of Northcoast Democrats, who went heavily for Bernie. A mailer for The Hawk from these people never fails to propel me to the Jesus Prayer.
THE ICO is not given to irony, but we loved the unintentional type displayed in this front page headline on last week's issue: "Mendocino Supes take another slow step in formulating marijuana regs."
DEAN WITTER'S 26,600-Acre Ranch In Heart of Emerald Triangle On Market for $31 Million (The Frisco-Marin tycoon traveled in his own rail car on the old Northwest Pacific line deep into the Eel River Canyon where the train would pause at Witter's siding while his private car was de-coupled then, a few days later, re-coupled for Witter's return trip to either San Rafael or San Francisco. Witter's ranch is not far from former Supervisor Pinches' above the Eel.
AFTER MENDOCINOSPORTSPLUS posted some dramatic video of the immediate aftermath of a SMART train accidentally ramming a moving van in Santa Rosa Thursday afternoon, a commenter named Charles Peavey noted: “Everyone complained about SMART trains blowing their horn at crossings so they decided not to allow use of the trains horn at crossings in Santa Rosa. There is a little sign at the crossing warning traffic that the train does not signal. Now we can see how well that works.” The truck was badly damaged, the 65-year-old driver shaken but unhurt, and the “SMART” train (which MSP said had its view blocked by a side panel on the train) wasn’t badly damaged.
A FRIEND of the late Alexandra Hunter Russell writes: "I was wondering if there was any more information about her drowning death in the Noyo Harbor? Your paper reported that it was suspicious and I agree. We were good friends back in college and I last spoke with her on the phone a few weeks before she died.
(AVA, Feb 10, 2018) — SOME NOYO HARBOR RESIDENTS are wondering about the recent drowning death of Alexandra Hunter Russell, found dead floating in Noyo Harbor on January 24, 2018. According to an initial Sheriff’s press release, a missing person’s report for Ms. Russell was filed about 8am that Wednesday morning by her boyfriend, Garrett Fenrich. Ms. Russell's body was found by Fenrich and a friend that same afternoon around 3pm. Sheriff’s Coroner, Lt. Shannon Barney, announced that Ms. Russell “may have had a medical issue.” Her neighbors say the "medical issue" was a reference to speculation by Fenrich that it may have been a seizure that caused Ms. Russell to fall into the harbor.
Fenrich told deputies and neighbors that Russell left their harbor side home — its deck is directly over the water — at 3am after the couple had argued. Fenrich said that was the last time he saw her until some seven hours later when he saw her lifeless body in the water.
It's not known if Fenrich began looking for Russell when she allegedly went missing at 3am.
According to Ms. Russell’s Facebook page, she was an accomplished competitive swimmer, making her an unlikely drowning victim.
Persons close to Ms. Russell are highly skeptical of the accidental drowning version of Ms. Russell's death. They assume the police and the DA are pursuing a fuller investigation.
Fenrich was arrested and booked into the Mendocino County Jail on domestic abuse charges on March 21, 2017, although charges were later dropped when Ms. Russell decided not to pursue the case against him.
On January 25, 2018 Sheriff’s Captain Gregory Van Patten told the media, “At this time her death is suspected to be accidental, but an official determination is pending an autopsy with blood alcohol and toxicology analysis."
No obituary has been filed beyond this death notice in the Advocate-Beacon: “Alexandra Hunter Russell of Fort Bragg, California died January 24, 2018 in Fort Bragg. Born October 7, 1971 in California to Sheila and Richard Hunter, she was 47 years old.”
Ms. Russell left behind three teenage children in the Bay Area where she'd lived much of her life.
AUTHOR MALCOLM TERENCE, a pioneer hippie, 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. ‘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.)
WE'RE LOSING so many otherwise-worthwhile men in this #TimesUp dragnet, I wonder if anybody's giving any thought to redemption for some of these guys. I don't mean Cosby-and-Weinstein types or the monster sports doctors—men with innumerable offenses, but Louis CK, Kevin Spacey, Garrison Keillor and crowds of others, accused and yet to be accused, are people who have added much to society, and they are products of 1) the sex drive, which is, inevitably, forever and ineradicably, a lunatic obsession that has the power to obliterate reason; 2) the times, extending to the dawn of humanity, when a man forced himself thoughtlessly on his selected female target, before #TimesUp was ready to blast onto the social scene; 3) the birth-control pill and the “sexual revolution” that followed and still lacks any coherent ideology and 3) the equally ancient practice of girls and women to make themselves sexually alluring.
My dog and I passed a couple of young women lounging on a sunny beach a couple of days ago. One glanced at me, and I said, without breaking stride, "Hi, there." My dog won't come within arm's reach of you. He won't stick his nose in your crotch, but he's interested in people and makes a close pass, as he did with these two young women. My greeting (while not oblivious to young women in small bathing suits), was mostly to defang any concerns they had over the dog (as well as to say, collegially, "gorgeous late-spring day, huh?")
Shall I turn myself in? Ain't gonna.
In one of my first days in San Francisco, looking for a place to rent and a job, a black girl came striding down the sidewalk in SF's Financial District, wearing clothes then stylish: a maxi-coat, which was unbuttoned and aflap in the cold, windy autumn drizzle to reveal underneath barely legal hot pants and high leather boots. She was a spectacle! I was tongue-tied, said nothing as we passed, but my eyes surely gave me away, and she did this: locked eyes with me for the tiniest fraction of an instant and flashed a blinding smile. We passed; the moment passed, but I've always loved recalling it — fifty years, now.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to this. Females, though, need to be aware of their own malice. A million years of victimization can make you mean, and while that’s totally understandable, it doesn’t make “mean” acceptable. “Payback’s a bitch,” said machine gunners in the open doors of American helicopters as they killed peasants and cattle indiscriminately in Vietnam. Payback has its place (like sex). I’ll enjoy watching Trump get his, but it’s something that needs tight control.
Females like to interest males. From that hoary and indisputable fact flows a vigorous species. Men who abuse the whole game must be stopped and—what?—punished, castrated? Sometimes, yes. At other times, reparations, re-education and rehabilitation are a better idea.
(Mitch Clogg)
ALL OVER but the shouting, and given the unwritten Mendo Code of Conduct there won't be any shouting over the election. Argument is, you see, bad form. Passion worse. Shouting unthinkable. To get along, hop a long, which is what happens when everyone at the power levers is unacquainted with give and take, un-equipped for argument, which is why the Supervisors, to take the most egregious local example of 5-0-ism, not only seem offended by criticism, they are offended by it. But name an elected body anywhere in the County where you don't have unanimity on every vote. And if there happens to be dissent, the dissenter apologizes before he or she casts his daring nay.
IF, BY SOME FLUKE, Art Juhl, an old fashioned Good Government kinda dude, is elected 5th District Supervisor, he'll be cordoned off by his colleagues. As Pinches was when he was a Supervisor, and will be again if he's re-elected to the Board. Of the rest of the candidates from both districts, we haven't heard a single statement from any of them indicating that they have the slightest awareness of how badly Mendocino County is managed. And if they do get it, we predict they'll simply assume their seats and the big pay (by Mendo standards) that comes with the job for part-time "work," and go on pretending that this is local government.
THE PRESENT Supervisors have screwed up every pressing issue they've touched — marijuana, mental health, homelessness, fiscal management. The tail in the form of CEO Angelo, wags the mangy, flea-bitten dog. She and her sub-drones set the agenda, the Supervisors sign off on it. If any issue before the Supervisors is a true crisis requiring clarity and purpose, well, look elsewhere.
HOWEVER if, as is likely, either Roderick or Williams is elected in the 5th, and Pinches or Horger is elected in the 3rd, conceivably we might expect the new people to join McCowen and Gjerde to begin cutting through the managerial fog prevalent all these years.
GJERDE needs to step up his game, and he's got game to step up, assuming he hasn't lost it since his reform years on the Fort Bragg City Council. McCowen? He needs allies to do the right thing but hasn't had them, which assumes he recognizes the right thing when he sees it.
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE WEEK
“The drug and healthcare titans are intent on making it about ability to pay…” The predatory healthcare system, and all the predators involved, is designed to wring out every last dollar of net worth from individuals. A 40 year old patient with no ability to pay – “Sorry, we can’t help you.” A 90 year old patient with ability to pay – “How can we help you?” Economically perverse, in that I am 56 years old, perfectly healthy, don’t see a doctor, and don’t take any medications, therefore, I’m not nearly as economically “valuable” as someone on dialysis. Regardless, we are all meant to die poor, it just depends, as you say, on when “ability to pay” runs out. That’s the end game. Go figure.
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