Mendocino County Today: Thursday, June 21, 2018

• Jason Abbott
• Overton Out
• Little Dog
• Solstice Weather
• Boont Berry
• School 1900
• Transient Cleanup
• Evening
• America Today
• Strauss/Gregory
• Pot Dependence
• Purdy 1940
• Lake County
• Party Fourth
• Skateboard Scuffle
• Yesterday's Catch
• Porn Pippert
• Totalitarian
• Texas Liberals
• Olden Days
• Kokopelli Boysenberries
• Power Couple
• Cruel World
• Housing Costs
• Offshore Drilling
• Mr Dirt
• Lakeport Speedway

THE ANDERSON VALLEY is shocked at the sad news that Jason Abbott has died of complications following surgery in San Francisco. A graduate of Anderson Valley High School, Jason, a logger, was injured in a fall from logging equipment. He is the son of Gary Abbott of the Anderson Valley and the grandson of Gloria Abbott, also of the Anderson Valley

FOR WHOM THE BONG TOLLS

Cannabis Czar Out — Kelly Overton Quits

Mendo musical chairs is what we could call this county’s search for a competent administrator. And now the seat is once more empty — cannabis czar Kelly Overton has resigned.

mendovoice.com/2018/06/cannabis-czar-overton-resigns/

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Jah! One world, baby! I love the Rasta Fest. I gotta work, but I can hear da riddems from here. Boonville's always happening!”

MIDSUMMER DAY FORECAST: "Summer is arriving right on time, as temperatures will heat up across inland northern California for the end of the week and the weekend, accompanied by widespread sunshine. Northerly breezes and marine air will keep most coastal areas seasonably cool." (National Weather Service)

WHAT’S HIPPIE FOOD?

A Culinary Quest for the Real Deal

by Jonah Raskin

Last April, I emailed the editor of the Anderson Valley Advertiser (AVA) and asked if he knew of a place “that makes and serves hippie food.” He replied, “The mother of all ‘hippie food’ emporiums just happens to be directly across the street from our office. Boont Berry Farm is a wonderful little store in business here for about forty years.”

But what exactly is “hippie food”? I wasn’t sure when I sent my email. The editor of the AVA didn’t define the term, either, though he put it in quotation marks.

Fifty-plus years after the advent of the hippies, many ex-hippies, as well as students and aficionados of hippie culture are asking pertinent questions about the cooking and eating habits of “the drop-outs” and “the back-to-the-landers” who lived in communes, formed “food conspiracies,” as they were called, and aimed to exist outside the boundaries of the corporate food world.

That was no easy feat in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when hippie culture, and the counterculture to which it belonged, spread from New York and San Francisco to Boulder, Colorado, Taos, New Mexico, Boonville, California and elsewhere. Eating outside the fast food industry is no easy task today, either, though organic foods are more readily available than they were in 1976 when Burt Cohen, an ex-New Yorker who had attended graduate school at UC Davis, arrived in Boonville and started to grow vegetables.

Not long afterward, he opened Boont Berry Farm Store at 13981 California Route 128, the long, windy highway that runs from the Pacific Ocean to the Sacramento Valley.

“The store hasn’t really changed over the past thirty-six-years,” Cohen told me. “People who return after a long or a short absence are happy to see that it’s basically the same.” He added, “It might have been hippie at the beginning, but not anymore.” The sign outside the store reads, “Natural Food & Deli, Smoothies, Juices, Ice Cream, and Organic Local Produce.” The ceiling is low, there’s a wood floor and the place hasn’t expanded, though there’s more variety now than there was at the beginning.

The hippies of 1967 and 1968—those who have survived—don’t eat the same foods today as they did back then, though some still aim to shop at stores like Boont Berry Farm and not at Whole Food and Safeway, which have expropriated and adulterated some of the basics of hippie cuisine. While Cohen doesn’t care for the hippie label, he’s comfortable calling his place “a community-based store.”

He points out that some people have worked at Boont Berry Farm Store for decades. Julianne is one of them.

“I was raised by a hippie grandmother,” Julianne said. “She also made cheeseburgers.” Julianne doesn’t mind calling Cohen’s emporium a “hippie food place.” She explains that it offers gluten-free and dairy-free foods and that it also “takes and fills special orders for hippie things like nutritional yeast and tahini.”

On a recent morning on the cusp of summer, I visited the store and bought a four-pound package of gluten-free and whole grain baking and pancake mix. I also enjoyed a Caesar salad. The refrigerated display-case offered two specials: a curried shrimp dish; and vegan lasagna. There was an array of local cheeses and local wines and there was fresh, local, organic produce, too. What more could any reasonable person ask for? Not much!

Burt Cohen said that he originally started the store as a venue for the vegetables he was growing at Boont Berry Farm. He’s no longer growing crops for sale, though the Anderson Valley Community Farm uses about half the property he owns. Some of that produces is sold at Boont Berry Farm Store. These days, Cohen says, he does more cooking than ever before. He also travels widely and eats wherever he goes.

“In Italy I ate tiramisu everywhere I went,” he said. “Now I make my own at home.”

Cohen’s tiramisu and his curried chicken, vegan lasagna and Caesar salad are good reasons to return to his emporium.

Earlier this year, I threw a dinner party at my house to talk about hippie food. I invited a dozen friends, many of them ex-hippies and countercultural types. I also persuaded my friend, Isa Jacoby—a spunky, whimsical ex-New Yorker who loves to feed people and who sometimes cooks for hundreds—to make her version of hippie food. She prepared a feast that included miso soup, “beetnik salad,” “Russian vegetable pie,” ”Tassajara bread,” “Diet for a Small Planet Bread spread,” and “Free Love Desert.”

Jonathan Kauffman, the author of a new book titled Hippie Food would have been scandalized by Jacoby’s menu. After all, he says that two of his favorite hippie foods are lentil stews and whole-wheat bread. In Hippie Food, Kauffman tries very hard to be cutesy, as for example when he writes, “The revolution failed. The revolution succeeded.”

Curiously, he down plays the role of food in the counterculture. “Food wasn’t much on peoples’ minds” in the Haight Ashbury he says. “The revolution was and so were music and drugs.” Memories of and books about that era say otherwise.

The Hippie Cookbook—which was written by Gordon and Phyllis Grabe and published in Forestville, in Sonoma County in 1970— shows that food was pivotal for hippies and that it was inextricably connected to protest and rebellion. The Grabes offer recipes for “Disarmament Day Dinner,” ”Moratorium March Muffins,” and “Peace Symbol Pie Crust.”

They also suggest that hippies grow their own marijuana. Sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, rebellion and food mixed in the great American counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. They’re still mixing in the era of Donald Trump.

Wendy Krupnick teaches organic farming and gardening at Santa Rosa Junior College. She also calls herself “a life-long hippie.” Born and raised in Los Angeles by bohemian parents, she has lived the hippie life in Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Bolinas in Marin County, and Sonoma County.

“I was moving like crazy,” she said. These days she’s less mobile.

Krupnick remembers food co-ops, macrobiotic diets, influential books by the likes of the nutritionist Adelle Davis, loads of fun with hippies, and restaurants like “Late for the Train” and “Flea Street. Café” which were owned and operated in Menlo Park and Palo Alto by a woman named Jesse Cool. How cool is that!

Krupnick hasn’t forgotten that hippies were often described as “dirty and flakey,” that they were often “disheveled” and that some of them “hung out and listened to the Grateful Dead all day.” None of that has prevented her from accepting the best of hippie culture. Today, she’s an advocate for real, not corporate food.

In New York, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I called myself a “freak” and then a "Yippie.” We staged guerilla theater actions like running a pig for president in 1968. Abbie Hoffman once defined a “Yippie as a hippie who had been hit on the head by a policeman’s truncheon.”

I didn’t embrace hippie ways until I arrived in California in 1974. While I didn’t care for brown rice and tofu, I liked the sex, the drugs, the rock ‘n’ roll and the protests. Many of the hippies I knew in San Francisco worked in “natural food stores” such as “Seeds of Life.” Some of them thought that “natural foods” were the way to make the revolution, though they also ate in Mexican restaurants in the Mission and Chinese restaurants in Chinatown. They had eclectic tastes in food and they liked to share food with one another whether they were in communes or not.

Hippies were almost always drawn to cultures other than their own. Anything but white, middle class suburbia. They brought the spices and the condiments of Indian, Chinese and Japanese food into their kitchens and they often fed street people and the homeless. Hippies who went to the American South learned about the cooking of poor whites and poor blacks. They came home, grew and cooked collard greens and made grits from corn meal.

At the 1969 Woodstock festival that was billed as “3 Days of Peace & Music,” Wavy Gravy and the Hog Farm, made granola— perhaps the quintessential hippie food—for hundreds of thousands of people who would otherwise have gone hungry.

At Boont Berry Farm, Burt Cohen and his crew have been feeding tens of thousands of locals and tourists, too, ever since 1982, though they haven’t been giving food away as the Hog Farm did at Woodstock. The anarchist Diggers of San Francisco also made food and fed many of the runaway kids from suburbia who landed in the Haight and needed something to eat and a place to stay.

A new book by Malcolm Terence called Beginner’s Luck describes hippie foods and lots more at Black Bear Ranch, a commune in the Klamath Mountains. An old book by Elia Katz titled Armed Love, which was published in 1971, offers the most honest account of hippie culture I have ever read. In 1971 and 1972 signs in many restaurants read “No dogs and no hippies,” though there were notable exceptions to that rule. At one point in his narrative, Katz writes that he often escaped from the commune where he was living “to buy large breakfasts in a local luncheonette, because health food makes me sick.”

Burt Cohen may not like the hippie label, but he has never turned away a hungry hippie.

“It's been fun,” he said when he looked back at his time at Boont Berry Farm Store. The AVA’s editor calls it “a boon to the community.” Legendary northern California marijuana grower, “Smokey” Joe Munson, who shops there whenever he’s in town, calls it “the best kept food secret in northern California.” Hopefully, this article won’t prompt a deluge that overruns the store. Hopefully, too, Burt Cohen and friends like Julianne keep on keeping on.

(Jonah Raskin is the author of Field Days: A Year of Farming, Eating and Drinking Wine in California.)

COMPARE TO TODAY'S SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE

Pine Street School, built circa 1900, was located in the rear lot of where the Little Lake Grange stands today. The handsome three story building was built of redwood siding with a decorative cupola which held the school bell. It was the pride of the community. (Willits News)

TRANSIENT ENCAMPMENT CLEANUP SCHEDULED

The City has scheduled the cleanup of a transient encampment at the end of Cypress Street for June 28th. The undeveloped parcel on the Noyo River has been very heavily impacted by solid waste, piles of trash, human waste, and other debris and damage to the natural environment. This day-long effort will include a six-person crew, two 15-foot trucks and an 18-foot trailer from MendoRecycle; a City excavator and operator; several police officers; a number of volunteers and a bunch of large dumpsters from Waste Management. The hope is that this multi-departmental effort will clean up that property in one or two days. The City is also working with the property owner to fence the property.

Tabatha Miller, Fort Bragg City Manager

MITCH CLOGG LOOKS BACK

There are words I used to hear when I was growing up. I heard them from the pulpit, and Sunday School, the classroom, Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts; you heard them from historians, philosophers and great writers, in the speeches of politicians and, not too seldomly, around the dinner table. I heard them a lot when I was in the army, the last three years of the Fifties. They were good words that have fallen into disuse. Now they are faintly awkward, sort of embarrassing, old timey and irrelevant — almost obsolete. The words are honor, right, decency, compassion, honesty, generosity, integrity, graciousness, fidelity and many more. Put them in whatever order you want. It doesn’t matter.

After World War 2, during which time you heard those words a lot, they were spoken less often. The United States was in a state of exuberance. We had “won the war” (we had missed most of it, coming in fresh when everybody else was exhausted and bleeding and running low on bullets). We had dodged the economic depression we feared would come back when all the wartime jobs ended. We had passed through the bloodiest conflict ever, the Depression that happened before it, the dust storms, losses of farms, displacement of a million farm families and the widespread suffering that accompanied the Depression, and we were, by a country mile, Number One in the world. Those lofty words in our creeds and pledges were mostly blanketed by: “FUN.”

There was the niggling concern about atomic bombs, but it didn’t affect your vacation or Christmas. It didn’t affect the every-couple-years purchase of a new car by your dad or whether you might let your boyfriend get to third base tonight. There was fun to be had, fun stuff to buy and a future so bright you had to wear shades.

All that heavy stuff about responsibility and progress could wait. The Democratic Party was by far the biggest, most people were registered Democrats, a third of all workers were in unions, and the unions told their members who to vote for to keep their pay going up and working conditions always improving. Under Old Glory and sunny skies, the United States of America basked in prosperity. In 1954, President Eisenhower’s first mid-term election, Democrats took the House of Representatives and the Senate. They held the House for forty straight years after that and the Senate for twenty-six.

World War 2, which put millions of men and women in uniform, and the unexpected acceleration of the economy, here and abroad (we helped the whole world get back on its financial feet) when they came home, caused a labor shortage. My generation (which never got a name that stuck) found getting jobs as easy as pie. My personal experience was: showing up and filling out an application was all that was needed. I was hired.

* * *

I celebrated an upbeat visit with a cardiologist today (the old ticker is ticking fine), with a burger, shake and coffee, a Big Mac, medium chocolate shake and small coffee for nine dollars and change. On the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland, when I was halfway through my teens, the tab would have been a daunting seventy-five cents. As I sat I looked at a big cardboard floor display showing The Incredibles, “a typical suburban family” with secret superhuman powers. This sequel to their 2004 movie (the new one is “Incredibles 2”) is just now in release.

I wondered why they all looked mad. All members of the family wear Lone-Ranger-style masks. I take it this is so people won’t recognize them as the Parr family. (“Parr” is their regular, off-duty name.) They are a bright-eyed, attractive family, almost blasting off the floor display in their rush to right the wrongs that mobilize them. But the angry expression, the scowls showing in their expressions, these stirred my curiosity. Because they are “incredible,” they are superior to average people, and the depiction of them suggests that they are about to use their superiority against their opponents. There’s no question of the outcome.

They remind me of the U.S. military, of the U.S. president, of our super-dominant commercial class, of our fat, oversized, heavily armed cops, of the goons who celebrate all this wholesale adoption of bullyism and brutality, of the American servicemen who ogled a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, got drunk, gang-raped her and then murdered her and her family, botching their efforts to burn the evidence. The dominance and anger of The Incredibles now stirs these reactions in me. These are the heroes of American kids as envisioned by the Disney Corporation. Tonight, reporters are ranged along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, trying to get permission to see and report on the detention centers for Hispanic children the Border Patrol has been kidnapping from their illegally entering parents. The disconnect between our admiration for the overwhelming Incredibles and the shock of our psychic murder of desperate kids trying to come here knocks me flat.

This is the America we have now. In lieu of the principles implied by the string of words I wrote at the top of this column starting with “honor,” we are a society that permits its bosses and ruling class to commit atrocities right before our eyes with the passivity of German society watching itself turn Nazi in the 1930s.

I’m old. The people who, like me, remember when all those high-sounding words had real meanings and real actions behind them, are also old, and following generations, numbed by FUN and all the distractions if brings, are not equipped to cope with the degeneration of humankind everywhere, not even equipped to conceptualize it, much less do anything about it. “Fun” has gradually given way to realization that we’ve been had, that dad has to do a demeaning job moonlighting as a night watchman or a burger king, that sis turns an occasional trick to help with the money needs of trying to pay for college, and mom has landed a job driving a school bus. We are pretty goddamn ignorant now, after a couple of generations of downgrading and under-funding education, but we’re not too stupid to realize we’ve been had. When you get good and mad, Trump starts to look like your representative, a guy crazy enough to put “all those people,” whoever they are, in their place. Goddamn illegal immigrants! His approval ratings grow.

I am afflicted with a disposition that stays hopeful in the face of indisputable evidence of rot. My pathetic, innate, child’s heart says, “it’ll be okay, Mitchell,” but my sad old mind wrote this blog. It is not okay. I see no restoration of goodness in the June sun and flowers; I see none coming.

IDENTIFICATIONS

Donald Strauss dead and Tim Gregory arrested again.

AVA,

I just read in TheAVA.com: "The kayaker found dead Monday night near Van Damme Beach has been identified as 65-year-old Donald Paul Strauss of Fort Bragg. Strauss, whose body was recovered by the Coast Guard, was said to be an experienced kayaker and familiar with that area of the Mendocino Coast."

I hope that's not the Don Strauss of dozens of Gloriana Opera Company and Mendocino Theater Company shows, who went away to New York and had a fabulous career in theater performance and tech there, and then who I saw a short while ago in Mendocino. Of course it's just as much of a tragedy no matter which Don Strauss it turns out to be, but I want to know.

Update: It turns out it is the theatrical Don Strauss. Several people who worked with him in theater responded to my question on MCN Announce listserv. I'm told Harry Rothman wrote a Facebook post about it yesterday, but I don't know anything about Facebook and I can't find Harry's post.

Marco McClean

ED NOTE: ROTHMAN POSTED on Facebook: “Just received word that the inimitable, irrepressible and most magnificent friend Donald Strauss left this mortal coil late yesterday. Shattered, stunned, barely able to type. Love you Donald. Your presence in this crazy world will be missed by multitudes.”

* * *

McClean’s PS. Also, while I'm here, I see in the general police log that Tim Gregory of Willits has been arrested yet again for violating a protection order.

It seems to happen a lot. And I wonder if that's the same Tim Gregory of Willits who sleepwalks though his medicated-sounding lousy two-hour Wednesday night shift on KZYX, or if it's not and two Tims are just giving each other a bad name. If you can shed some light on that, please do.

Marco McClean

http://kzyx.org/programs/cardboard-prison-radio#stream/0

http://kzyx.mymcn.org/index.php/music/rock-rab-groove-alt-indie/cardboard-prison-radio

GONE TO POT

Editor,

Pebbles Trippet's latest whining pot rant was a bit over the top. Ms. Trippet says: "Back in the day we hippies dropped out of the television trap, shunned normal jobs, withdrew our skills from the mainstream and set out on our own, unimpressed by money and finery - fortunately - so we could put our energy elsewhere. By taking on the cause of marijuana/hemp we added significant risk and ridicule. Still it's worth it."

Fer sure, fer sure. While non-violent, non-cooperation is a noble cause, dedicating one's life entirely to pot is a self-indulgent waste of talent. Withdrawing from a clinically insane society is not an act of courage, it's an act of necessity. So why, then, is pot dependence the standard for dropping out? To be truly free is to be drug-free. Tune out, Turn off, Drop trow, And Moon your Masters.

Cheers,

Don Morris

Skunktown/Willits

RETURN TO LAKE COUNTY, a reader writes:

“I went on a drive to Lake County with my mother on Saturday.  I hadn't been up there since 2005. We went through Middletown to the Cobb Mountain area which had a huge fire in 2015.  The populated areas along the main highways were okay, but the surrounding landscape on the mountainsides was very burned out. Out of Middletown we were looking head on at Cobb Mountain and 90% of the conifers on it were burned.

We drove through the city of Clearlake on the southeast shore, which seemed kind of depressed economically, but it seems it's always been that way every time I've been there. I know that several decades ago the city of Clearlake was an active vacation home community.

We drove along the south shore of the lake and stopped in downtowns Kelseyville and Lakeport. Lakeport is pretty nice. We ate dinner at a restaurant very close to the lake, and beforehand we walked around downtown.

It was nice to be in a bonafide rural area for several hours, e.g. hardly any traffic!”

KELLEY HOUSE JULY FOURTH BBQ & LAWN PARTY

The annual Kelley House Museum July Fourth BBQ & Lawn Party offers the best parade viewing spot in Mendocino, plus live music, hot dogs, burgers, veggie burgers, margaritas, beer, wine, dancing and more! Located directly across from the Main Street judges' stand, this is the top spot to put down your blankets, set up your chairs, watch the parade and enjoy an old-fashioned small town Independence Day celebration. There is no charge for admission.

The party begins at 10:30 a.m. so come early to eat and enjoy the music of The Mixed Nuts, sponsored by Old Gold. Dance to the band's unique blend of Latin, calypso, jazz and swing before and after the parade. Feast on traditional Fourth of July barbecue fare while enjoying ice cold beer from North Coast Brewing Company with help from Noyo Ice, red and white wine, soft drinks and water. New this year -- MARGARITAS! Sponsors include Safeway and Harvest Market. All proceeds benefit the non-profit Kelley House Museum. For more information, call 937-5791 or visit kelleyhousemuseum.org.

Volunteer Garnish Daly flipping dogs on the Fourth

Kelley House Museum
PO Box 922
45007 Albion Street
Mendocino, CA 95460
707-937-5791
kelleyhousemuseum.org

FORT BRAGG FAMILY FEUD ENDS IN DAD’S ARREST

On Tuesday, June 19th, at approximately 10:54 am, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies were detailed to the 17900 block of North Highway 1, Fort Bragg, to a reported incident of domestic violence.

Sheriff’s Deputies arrived and learned a domestic argument had occurred. The suspect, Kevin Turpin, age 52, engaged in a verbal argument with his 19-year-old son regarding a skateboard.

Turpin (L: November 2015; R: June 2018)

The son's 55-year-old mother interjected into the argument, triggering Turpin to throw a metal animal food dish at her. Turpin and his son began punching each other and the adult female again interjected, subsequently getting struck in the face several times by Turpin, causing minor injury.

Turpin was placed under arrest for a violation of 273.5PC [Felony Domestic Violence]. Additionally, Turpin had two misdemeanor warrants for his arrest for traffic and probation violations.

Turpin was transported to the Mendocino County Jail where he is being held in lieu of $35,000 bail.

(Sheriff's Office Press Release)

CATCH OF THE DAY, June 20, 2018

MARCO DAVILA, Point Arena. Controlled substance, probation revocation.

SAUL ESPINOZA SR., Ukiah. Domestic battery.

RUDOLPH ESQUIVEL Jr., Willits. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, domestic abuse, kidnapping, parole violation.

KYLE GILLESPIE, Ukiah. Communty supervision violation.

TONY KETCHUM, Clearlake/Ukiah. Parole violation.

JOSHUA MOORE, Willits. Community supervision violation.

KAMARA PAGE, Ukiah. Mandatory supervision sentencing.

DEAN STEVENS, Ukiah. Parole violation.

KEVIN TURPIN, Fort Bragg. Domestic abuse, failure to appear, probation revocation.

MONTANA RESIDENT PLEADS GUILTY TO PRODUCTION IN CALIFORNIA OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

WWW.USDOJ.GOV/USAO/CAN

SAN FRANCISCO - Douglas Pippert pleaded guilty today to production of child pornography announced Acting United States Attorney Alex G. Tse and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett.  The Honorable Vince Chhabria, U.S. District Judge, accepted the guilty plea.

According to his plea agreement, in March of 2016, Pippert, 48, formerly of Montana, used a minor to take part in sexually explicit conduct.  The minor was between 12 and 16 years old, and would often stay at Pippert's California residence.  While at his residence, Pippert would engage in sexually explicit conduct with the minor while the minor was both conscious and unconscious.  Pippert made visual images of his sexual conduct with the minor and kept those images on numerous electronic devices.  He also admitted to possessing over 600 images and video of children, including minors younger than twelve years old, engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

On November 2, 2017, a federal grand jury indicted Pippert, charging him with one count of production of child exploitation, in violation of 18 U.S.C.  § 2251(a), and one count of possession of child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C.  § 2252(a)(4)(B).  Pursuant to Wednesday's agreement, Pippert pleaded guilty to the production charge and the possession charge was dismissed.

Judge Chhabria scheduled a sentencing hearing for September 4, 2018, at 10:30 a.m. The minimum statutory sentence for violating 18 U.S.C.  § 2251(a) is 15 years of imprisonment and a term of supervised release upon release from prison for a minimum of 5 years.  The maximum statutory sentence is 30 years of imprisonment and a term of supervised release for the remainder of his life.  As part of any sentence, Judge Chhabria also may order Pippert to pay restitution and pay a fine of up to $250,000.  However, any sentence following conviction will be imposed by the court only after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C.  § 3553.

Assistant United States Attorneys Neal C. Hong and Meredith B. Osborn are prosecuting the case with the assistance of Kimberly Richardson.  The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the FBI and the Fort Bragg Police Department.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may also be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, via its toll-free 24-hour hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST.

Department of Justice
Acting United States Attorney Alex G. Tse
Northern District of California

Previously:

https://www.theava.com/archives/53986#9

IT’S HAPPENING HERE

Editor:

Watching the separation of children from families by the Trump administration brings memories from my childhood.

In 1938 and ’39, Saturday afternoon newsreels at San Francisco’s Irving Theater showed adults and children being taken to camps where they were separated.

Seated in the back of my parents’ car in 1942, I shall never forget seeing helmeted American soldiers standing guard at Tanforan Racetrack on El Camino Real (now a shopping center) with fixed bayonets that reflected in the sun. They were guarding American citizens of Japanese ancestry, who had been involuntarily removed from their homes and herded into the stables. They were waiting to be transported to camps for the duration of World War II.

Those images have never left me. Later, a program titled “It Can’t Happen Here” raised questions about whether the U.S. could become a totalitarian nation. Well, yes, it is happening here.

What are we going to do about it?

Tom Martin

Sonoma

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I was fortunate to have lived when I did because in the olden days, if you could convince an employer or a potential client that you could deliver on what you promised them you could do, you got the job or the work. Once everyone (or even too many) is/are required to have doctorate degrees in order to even be considered for a job, the degree become meaningless (except for the debt incurred getting it) and the next determining factor becomes who you know, not talent or ability. One of the most damning problems in our pigeon-holed society is that ability is not even a factor for the most part anymore and so those most able to do the best work are often not even in the ballpark. And then there is also the handing down of positions to incompetent relatives, right George Bush?

BOYSENBERRIES RIPE!

Kokopelli Gardens' first pick of boysenberries for the season finally starts today. They have been grown with artisan, holistic, permacultural, regenerative, organic, and sustainable practices. We are now accepting orders starting next Tuesday, 6/26 and into mid-July.

Current prices vary from $41 to $52 for a 12-basket flat, depending on whether we pick or U-Pick and how many flats you order. We also sell by the half flat, but not by the basket. The prices may change.

The best way to make an order is to call us at 707-829-8185 after 7 a.m. and before 9 p.m. Please leave a detailed message regarding when you want to pick them up or U-Pick and how many you want. We start picking at dawn and prefer that people pick their orders up during the morning or early afternoon. We are located slightly south of Sebastopol, up from Hard Core Coffee.

Please spread the word. The harvest only lasts about 5-6 weeks.

Shepherd Bliss

PS. Kokopelli has one remaining flat from our pick this morning. If you want to pick it up today, please call my land line at 829-8185 and indicate what time you want to pick it up. Please leave your phone number. I will be leaving soon and returning about 1:30. I will be busy from about 2:50 to 4:30. First come, first served. If no one calls today, you could get it tomorrow. More details when to get other berries follows.

FAMOUS (AND A FEW UNEXPECTED) BAY AREA POWER COUPLES

by Katie Dowd

Nicola Miner is the daughter of Oracle Corporation co-founder Bob Miner. Her husband, SFJazz board trustee Robert Mailer Anderson, is a novelist and screenwriter and is also a fifth-generation native of Marin County. Together, they are a fixture on the San Francisco social scene. They've even hosted Barack Obama during a fundraising visit.

(SF Chronicle)

WHY SO SAD?

Editor:

Why are so many of us sad? Why are Americans committing suicide in such large numbers (“Suicide is more common than you may realize,” Editorial, Friday)? I will tell you why.

Life can be ugly and hopeless. It is hard to make a decent living in America. It is hard to provide for a family and save money. Our schools are lousy. Our leaders include uneducated, unqualified, despicable and corrupt, mean-spirited people.

While the average U.S. citizen is kind and warmhearted, the people with all the money and power just want to keep it for themselves. Leaders ignore the rule of law.

There are so few birds and butterflies anymore. Every summer it is hotter and hotter. Lake Tahoe is getting cloudier. Our Earth is filthy. Nothing seems to change for the better. Thus life has become bleak. And some of us may not want to be part of this cruel world anymore.

Pat Dietz

Healdsburg

(California Budget & Policy Center)

CALIFORNIA LACKS REAL MARINE PROTECTION AS OFFSHORE DRILLING EXPANDS IN STATE WATERS

by Dan Bacher

One of the big news stories neglected by both the mainstream and “alternative” media is the capture of California politics and the regulatory apparatus by Big Oil and other corporate interests in recent years – and the massive expansion of offshore drilling that has occurred in state waters under the helm of Governor Jerry Brown as a consequence of this regulatory capture.

The enormous power that Big Oil exerts over California regulators was inadvertently revealed in a March 10, 2012 article in the Santa Barbara Independent that discussed a so-called “marine protected area” created under the privately funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative that went into effect on January 2 of that year.

The official language for the marine protected area in the Isla Vista area of Santa Barbara County, the Campus Point State Marine Conservation Area, reads, “Take of all living marine resources is prohibited, except for take pursuant to operation and maintenance of artificial structures inside the conservation area … ”

“The caveat, allowing marine resources to be taken near artificial structures, exists to allow oil production representatives the ability to maintain equipment, including pipelines, located in this area,” the article by Cat Heushul stated.

Unfortunately, the reporter failed to mention the even bigger story — that Catherine Reheis-Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum Association, actually served as the Chair of the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative to create this “marine protected area” and others like it in Southern California.

She also served on the task forces to create “marine protected areas” on the Central Coast, North Central Coast and North Coast. If that is not a huge, glaring conflict of interest, I do not know what is.

In yet another conflict of interest typical of California politics, Reheis-Boyd’s husband, James D. Boyd, first appointed by Governor Davis, sat on the California Energy Commission from 2002 to 2012, including serving as Vice-Chair of the Commission from 2/2007 to 1/2012.

I realize that the oil industry needs to maintain its equipment near “artificial structures.” However,  I find it ironic and disturbing that anglers are prevented from fishing in this so-called “Yosemite of the Sea” and “underwater park” off Isla Vista while the oil industry is allowed to “take” living marine resources — in a so-called “marine protected area” created under the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.

But it gets even worse — it turns out that the so-called “marine protected areas” created under the MLPA Initiative in Southern California are not specifically protected from the impacts of offshore drilling operations and oil spills, creating a network of oil industry-friendly faux “marine protected areas” in the offshore drilling region of California.

This failure of the state’s regulators to comprehensively protect the ocean from offshore drilling is further exposed by the massive expansion of offshore drilling in Southern California waters that began the very year that the glorious “Yosemites of the Sea” went into effect.

In February 2017, an analysis of Department of Conservation data by the Fracktracker Alliance revealed that Governor Jerry Brown’s oil and gas regulators approved 238 new offshore oil wells in state waters under existing leases off Los Angeles and Ventura counties from 2012 to 2016, an increase of 17 percent. Roughly 171 of them were still active as of a year ago. To read the complete report, go to: www.fractracker.org/…

This expansion of offshore drilling occurs within the context of the bigger picture of the expansion onshore drilling for oil and gas in California. A report published on May 22 by Oil Change International, in collaboration with California-based and national environmental justice and climate groups, reveals how California’s climate leadership requires a managed ramp-down of oil production. A review of state permitting records in the report “The Sky’s The Limit: California,” shows that more than 20,000 drilling permits have been issued during the Brown administration.

Bills to protect marine protected areas from offshore drilling defeated by oil industry

Legislative efforts to protect California “marine protected areas” from offshore drilling have been countered by intense lobbying efforts by the oil industry.

In 2014, I called Zeke Grader, the longtime executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations who passed away in September 2015, about a bill sponsored by Senator Hannah Beth Jackson to protect a marine protected area, the Vandenberg State Marine Reserve, from oil drilling, due to loopholes in both the California Coastal Sanctuary Act and the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative.

Grader, who supported the bill, pointed out how the very need for the bill “highlights what a failure the MLPA Initiative was.”

“If these are true marine protected areas, they why are we allowing drilling and other insults to the ocean in them?” asked Grader. “The whole MLPA Initiative was a phony process that provided an opportunity for Big Green and government bureaucrats to write press releases claiming these were ‘protected areas’ when in reality the fishermen and Tribes got screwed. We should have bans on oil drilling in all of the marine protected areas.”

And guess who led the charge to defeat this bill and a similar bill to it, SB 788, sponsored by Senator Mike McGuire in 2015? Yes, the very same oil lobbyist, Reheis-Boyd, who oversaw the marine protection process on the South Coast led the opposition to both bills to protect “marine protected areas” from oil drilling.

State officials and MLPA Initiative advocates, including NRDC, the League of Conservation Voters and the Ocean Conservancy and other NGOs, continually hailed the MLPA Initiative process chaired by the WSPA president as “open, transparent and inclusive” when it was anything but.

In fact, the MLPA Initiative failed to protect the ocean from fracking, offshore oil drilling, pollution, military testing and all human impacts on the ocean other than sustainable fishing and gathering. Meanwhile, the oil industry fracked federal ocean waters off the Southern California coast (over 3 miles from shore) off the Southern California at least 203 times over a 20 year period, according to an Associated Press investigation in 2013.

The positive news is that two bills to block the Trump administration’s plans to open new federal offshore drilling leases off the California Coast, Senate 834 and Assembly Bill 1775, passed off the Senate and Assembly floors last week.

This legislation is specifically designed to counter the threat to the marine ecosystem posed by the Trump plan to open up new federal offshore drilling leases, although it could also help efforts by environmentalists, Tribes and fishermen to stop new offshore drilling in state and federal waters under existing leases.

“The passage of these bills will provide political leverage to begin to address the dangers of new development associated with currently existing leases in both state and federal waters off the coast of California — but it is narrowly and explicitly designed to address the immediate offshore drilling expansion threat from the Trump-Zinke plan,” said Gary Hughes of Friends of the Earth US. “This is a step worth celebrating as an important step to protect our oceans, and we need to keep working hard to challenge extreme fossil fuel energy extraction and processing in California.”

Big Oil dominates California lobbying expenses

In spite of California’s “green” image, the state is the third largest oil producer in the nation, right behind North Dakota (second) and Texas (first).  Big Oil, Big Ag and other corporate interests have captured the state’s regulatory apparatus by effectively buying off the regulators by spending many millions of dollars on lobbying every year and campaign contributions every election season.

During the 2015-2016 Legislative Session, the oil industry spent a historic $36.1 million to lobby California lawmakers and officials. During the last 6 years, the industry has spent $122 million in Sacramento, more than any other interest group.

Reheis-Boyd’s Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) was the top overall oil industry spender during the 2015-16 session, spending $18.7 million. Chevron, the second overall oil industry spender, spent $7 million in the 2015-16 session.

Big Oil also dominated three out of the four top spots of expenditures by all lobbying organizations in 2017, the year that the oil industry-written AB 398 passed through the Legislature and Jackson’s bill blocking new federal offshore drilling went into the suspense file.

Outspending all of their competition, Chevron placed first with $8.2 million and the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) placed second with $6.2 million. Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company finished fourth with $3.2 million.

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

WSPA and Big Oil use their money and power in 5 ways: through (1) lobbying; (2) campaign spending; (3) getting appointed to positions on and influencing regulatory panels; (4) creating Astroturf groups: and (5) working in collaboration with media.

On this World Oceans Day 2018, it’s important that we work hard to get Big Oil money out of California politics and make California’s faux “marine protected areas” into real ones that actually protect the ocean, as the Marine Life Protection Act of 1999 mandates.

(Dan Bacher is an environmental journalist in Sacramento. He can be reached at: Dan Bacher danielbacher@fishsniffer.com.)

HILLSIDE POWERSPORTS LADIES NIGHT

It was a fun filled night at Lakeport Speedway featuring the Bandoleros, Bombers, Jammers, Jalopies, Lakeport Modifieds, and Pro 4’s.

In the Junior Jammer division, the #57K Kylei Keown was able to clean sweep the night as she was able to take home both the heat and main event win. Christian Sanchez came home following behind her in 2nd in both the heat race and main event.

In the Pro Jammer division, #88J Justin Moran also was able to continue the night with a clean sweep. Moran was able to take home the trophy dash, heat, and main event win. In the trophy dash, #4 Raymond Taylor Jr finished 2nd with #20 Danney Helm in 3rd and #2T Raymond Taylor in 4th. In the heat race, you seen #4 Raymond Taylor Jr in 2nd with his father Raymond Taylor in 3rd, #20 Danney Helm in 4th and #48 Gene Odell Sr in 5th. In the main event, #20 Danney Helm finished 2nd behind #88J Justin Moran, and #48 Gene Odell Sr in 3rd.

In the Bandolero division, #44 Lane Anderson also was able to take home a clean sweep. In the trophy dash, #5 Charles French finishing behind Anderson with #3 Trey Daniels in 3rd and #04 TJ Sorrels in 4th. In the heat race, Anderson was able to pull off the win with French, Daniels, and Sorrels following behind. In the main event, you seen Anderson once again jump out front with French, Sorrels, and Daniels rounding out the field.

In the Jalopy division, you seen a lot mudd flying with a field of 8 cars. In the trophy dash, #81 Valicia Catching was able to use girl power to take home the win followed by #1 Wayne Hunt, #39 Jack Schleif, and #96 Robert Potluck Jr. In heat race 1, #81 Valicia Catching was able to stay out front again with #96 Robert Portluck Jr, #23 William Byrne, #7 Laura Hunt and #911 Kyle Sepulveda following behind. In heat race 2, #39 Jack Schleif was able to take home the win with #1 Wayne Hunt, #19 Adam Drishell, and #77 Robert Portluck Sr rounding out the field. In the main event, Schleif in the #39 was able to continue his winning night by taking home the win with Hunt closely following behind. #23 William Byrne, #81 Valicia Catching and #19 Adam Drishell rounding out the top 5.

In the Pro 4 division, #29 Mike Peterson took home the trophy for the trophy dash with #14 Johnny Barker, #8 Andy Leuzinger, and #01 Jimmy Sorrels racing hard behind him. In heat race, #8 Andy Leuzinger was able to hold off #89 Marty Lewis for the win with #14 Barker, #01 Sorrels, and #29 Peterson rounding out the top 5. In the main event, #29 Mike Peterson took his machine into victory lane with #8 Andy Leuzinger, #01 Jimmy Sorrels, #14 Johnny Barker, and #87 Marty Lewis following behind to round out the top 5.

In the Modified division, you seen the #17 Tyler Shipley back out on the track and Charlie Collins in the #37 who was racing for Sierra Furia. In the trophy dash, the #04 Cole Brown won the trophy dash in front of #89 Kevin Coburn, #37 Charlie Collins, and #15 Richard Knight. In the heat race #37 Charlie Collins was able to hold off #15 Richard Knight for the win. #19 Shelby Helm, #04 Cole Brown and #89 Kevin Coburn rounded out the top 5. In the main event, Collins was able to put the #37 in victory lane in front of #19 Shelby Helm, #04 Cole Brown, #89 Kevin Coburn, and #88 Gene Odell.

In the Bomber division, you seen the #83 Wade Coleman and #63 David Jones make an appearance. #14 Mike Sullivan held off #6K Lauren Snider for the trophy dash win with #83 Wade Coleman and #63 David Jones finishing behind. In the heat race, Sullivan was able to hold off #6K Snider again with #83 Coleman in 3rd, #51 Abella in 4th, and #63 Jones in 5th. In the main event, #6K Lauren Snider was able to get out front to take home the trophy with #83 Wade Coleman in 2nd, #63 David Jones in 3rd, #29 Evan Smith in 4th and #51 Trevor Abella in 5th.

This coming weekend we will be at Ukiah Speedway for the Budweiser Blast featuring the Bandoleros, Bombers, Legends, Pro 4’s and the North State Modified Series. General admission is $12, Senior/Students are $9, Children 6-11 are $6, and 5&Under are free. Visit our website for more information or follow us on Facebook! We would like to thank our ongoing sponsors at Lakeport Speedway; Clearlake Redi Mix, Kelseyville Lumber, O’Reillys, and Twin Pine Casino Press Release; Sierra Furia

Photo 1; #29 Mike Peterson from Ukiah, CA celebrating his trophy dash win

Photo 2; #04 Cole Brown from Ukiah, CA taking home his trophy dash win

Photo 3; #44 Lane Anderson from Fort Bragg, CA taking home his trophy dash win

Photo 4; #37 Charlie Collins from Upper Lake, CA celebrating his main event win with flagman Johnny Miskill