Mendocino County Today: Saturday, July 14, 2018

• Grewal Standup
• Summer Rain
• Outsider Hutchins
• Silver Sentenced
• Pomo Bluff
• Peach Response
• Skyhawk Out
• Ruoff Guilty
• Little Dog
• FB March
• Porn Ransom
• Huff's Score
• Eel Restoration
• Carjackers Plea
• Privacy First
• Yesterday's Catch
• Cultural Degradation
• Warrior Spirit
• Gardens Hours
• Tax Code
• Peach Auditions
• President Kardashian
• Wool-Processing Workshop
• De-Energize Notification
• Metadata Collection
• Russian Indictments
• County Vacancies
• Job Fair
• Meme-ish
• Marco Radio

WE WERE MILDLY SURPRISED to see Mendo’s newly hired Ag Commissioner, Harindar Grewal, giving the pot permit status report at last Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. Deja vu. The pot program started in the Ag Department last year, and has now gone through Diane Curry, Joe Moreo and Kelly Overton in a matter of months. Mr. Grewal is now in the pot dock.

MR. GREWAL'S CONTRIBUTIONS Tuesday were limited to reading off a bunch of pot permit numbers, so it may be a while before he realizes how difficult the pot part of his job will be.

THE GUY may have a bit of a sense of humor. Or maybe not. We’re not sure how to interpret his opening statement:

Grewal: "Today we have the cannabis program statistics update. [Long pause, computers examined.] These numbers I'm going to present are through July 6. Until July 6 the total applications we have received are 952. We have issued 175. 44 are approved. So if we add both issued an approved we have 219, almost getting there. [Laughter.]"

If he was saying “we’re almost getting there” when we’re obviously not, it’s the kind of humor we don’t see often in the Supes chambers. On the other hand, there were some techno glitches in getting his statistical presentation up on the Board’s big board, so maybe he was referring to the presentation itself “almost getting there.” We hope the former.

CHEVON HOLMES, previously identified as Kelly Overton’s Assistant Pot Czar, was back in the Ag Department and introduced herself as “cannabis program administrator.” Ms. Holmes told the Board that the problems with the permit program are not really the County’s fault; oh no, it’s the applicants’ fault for the sorry state of permit processing.

HOLMES: "We have been reviewing the application process for two and a half months now. And the application materials. I am happy to announce that we are very close to completing our overhaul of the application process. We anticipate releasing the new documents at the beginning of August, probably August 6. And during the next cannabis update I will have more specifics as far as what that means, primarily we are seeking better information from applicants as a mechanism to process them better. We have learned a lot from 2017 and we are looking forward.”

THE BOARD giggled in response to Ms. Holmes remark; even the insensate seem at least dimly aware that the County’s pot rules are the real problem with their jive program. Applicants having trouble navigating them is hardly the applicants’ fault.

THERE’S BEEN very little permit program progress, of course. Permit processing proceeds at less than a snail’s pace and no amount of “overhaul” will help.

BUT instead of discussing ways to streamline or simplify the process, the Board went the other way:

Supervisor John “It’s not complicated enough” McCowen: “I would like to offer a suggestion: obviously we have been fine-tuning our ordinance as we go along. There are continually more issues that I think need to be dealt with. I'm sure we are going to hear from the public about some of them today. I think it would be beneficial at this point if we were to appoint an ad hoc to work with staff to review potential modifications to the county ordinance. I would be happy to serve on that committee. I think any other supervisor would be a good addition to that.”

RON EDWARDS of Willits pointed out that the County’s eight — eight! — pot working groups are still “working.” CEO Carmel Angelo was worried that adding an ad hoc committee to the working groups would make it hard to provide staff support. A little later Edwards said the working groups weren’t working very well because attendance was poor. Edwards also asked, “How do we as the public get our questions answered? We are watching our cannabis program but we really don't know what the state of it is and we don't know what's going on. We have a director that left. Are we supposed to get all our information through public requests? How do we get the information out of you?”

CORRINE POWELL, Ukiah, reminded the board that there “already was” an ad hoc last year and look where that got them. She wanted the public to be involved in the ad hoc process. “Have the working groups have a voice,” she urged, because so far “the public” involvement is entirely overridden by the Board and staff’s endless complications, against the better judgment of the few members of the public who have tried to participate.

FARM BUREAU rep Devon Jones said there were too many meetings: “We are suffering from meeting fatigue and it’s hard to attend them all.” Jones suggested fewer meetings, to no avail.

RON EDWARDS came forward again and tried to remind the Board that some of the working groups “have some conclusions. But what do we do with them?” No answer, of course.

IN THE END, the Supervisors left the working groups to work things out for themselves and appointed Supervisors Hamburg and McCowen, dual obfuscators, to another ad hoc committee. But it was close: Supervisors Carre Brown and Georgeanne Croskey voted against further complication without comment or explanation.

(Mark Scaramella)

FRIDAY WEATHER NOTE from Katy Tahja: "It looks like rain, it sounds like rain, it certainly smells like rain… Mother Nature is giving us a mid-summer treat WITHOUT lightning (which starts wildfires)...for all you back East folks this happens like one time a summer, usually in August...plants will be loving it even if they only get their leaves washed...if we get a couple hundredths of an inch we'll be happy..."

Ed note: The Boonville Weather Station said Boonville got 0.03 inches Friday morning.

DESPITE AN UNSEEMLY campaign to derail her by a determined cadre of female Boonville school employees supported by several behind-the-scenes men, Michelle Hutchins won election as County Superintendent of Schools. According to the County’s individual precinct data for the four Anderson Valley precincts —Boonville, Navarro, Philo and Yorkville — Mrs. Hutchins beat Ukiah Assistant Superintendent Bryan Barrett in Boonville by 49 to 46; in Navarro by 28 to 19, and Yorkville by 18 to 17. Hutchins, for some obscure and unknown reason, lost big in Philo, 37 to 88. So overall in Anderson Valley where her opposition exhausted itself slandering her, Hutchins garnered 132 votes while her slo-mo opponent, Assistant Superintendent of the Ukiah Schools, Bryan Barrett managed an underwhelming 170 votes.

IN THE REST of the County, however, while some random precincts were up and down for Barrett and Hutchins, Hutchins won 52% of the vote to about 47.5% overall for Barrett. Hutchins’ biggest margins of victory were in: Comptche, Laytonville, Cleone, Covelo, Orr Springs, and Point Arena.

BARRETT predictably won in his home town of Ukiah and its ancillary bastion of Potter Valley, but Hutchins won everywhere else.

SO IT SEEMS many voters perceived the election for County Schools Superintendent as an insider vs. outsider race, since most of Hutchins’ votes were — with the exception of Philo — from areas far from Ukiah.

NOW it will be up to Superintendent elect Hutchins to show those outlying districts if she can steer the good ship MCOE into some tangible benefits for all the students of the County.

CALEB SILVER SENTENCED

UKIAH – July 13 - The man convicted of the Christmas 2015 murder of Denis Lee Boardman in Fort Bragg received a life sentence this afternoon in the Mendocino County Superior Court.

Convicted by jury this past April of murder in the first degree, Caleb Dain Silver, age 28, was sentenced to 404 months (33 years, 8 months) to life in state prison on a series of crimes, the most serious of which being the murder conviction.

Before the sentencing hearing could take place, proceedings were held during today's morning session on the defendant's bid to set aside the verdicts and have a new trial. After reading the defendant's motion and the District Attorney's opposition papers, as well as hearing arguments from the attorneys for both sides, the Court ruled that the defense motion lacked merit and denied same.

During the afternoon court session, the Court, having reviewed the Adult Probation Department's background study and sentencing recommendation, accepted further arguments from the defense and prosecution as to what should be the appropriate sentence. The Court heard from the victim's daughter who presented a moving impact statement. In a final move reminiscent of the O.J. Simpson playbook, the defendant also personally addressed the Court, in part expressing his regret that Mr. Boardman's real killer was still on the loose.

The attorney who has handled the prosecution of this defendant from the original arraignment through today's sentencing hearing is Deputy DA Tim Stoen.

The law enforcement agencies that thoroughly investigated this case so that persuasive evidence could be presented to the jury were the Fort Bragg Police Department, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force, the California Highway Patrol, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office, the California Department of Justice forensic crime laboratories, and the District Attorney's own investigators.

The judge who presided over the three trials leading up to the convictions and who presided over today's sentencing proceedings was Mendocino County Superior Court Judge John Behnke.

POMO BLUFF

(Photo by Judy Valadao)

A PEACH OF A FIRE

by Thom Elkjer

Antoinette and I were about to leave Boonville for Ukiah on Thursday July 5 when our pagers went off. We immediately checked if they signaled an ambulance emergency. They did not, so we didn’t have to run to the truck. Instead we walked down the driveway. The 911 caller had reported “black smoke in the area of Hwy 128 / Peachland.” That’s not far from our house on Anderson Valley Way. We wanted to see for ourselves.

Sure enough, there was smoke billowing up east of the highway, and it was a lot closer than Peachland. It seemed to be right across the highway behind what is officially known as County Road 150B East. The west side of that intersection takes you to the elementary school. In local emergency response lingo, the junction is known as “AV2.”

We hustled out to AV2 in time to see Anderson Valley Fire Department Chief Andres Avila in his command vehicle. But he wasn’t going into the fire area. He was coming out of 150B East and turning southwest on 128 toward Boonville. How could he have gotten to AV2 from the firehouse so soon after the page? Even more confusing, why was he leaving the scene of the fire? As the first responder, Avila was what we call “IC” (for incident commander). Watching IC leave a fire so soon after it started was a head-scratcher.

Then it wasn’t. As the smoke began to billow closer, I realized that Avila was leaving the “foot” of the fire (where it started) and racing to get between the fire and Boonville. It was not hard to figure out his logic. If the fire went east up Octopus Mountain, it would burn no structures and be easy to attack from the air with fire retardant. But the wind direction was to the southeast, toward Boonville only a mile away, and there was plenty of dry fuel in between to sustain a growing wildfire. A line of cleared earth, free of fuel, would have to be cut between the fire and the town. And because many of Cal-Fire’s Mendocino engines and firefighters were in Lake County on another fire, the Anderson Valley Fire Department would have to shoulder much of that burden.

Sure enough, Avila went up Deer Meadow Road to reconnoiter the terrain between the fire and the town. He also directed another arriving engine to set up staging for all incoming units at the base of Deer Meadow Road. These actions proved critical to the events that unfolded.

A successful fire attack is a well-oiled machine. Each arriving crew checks in with IC, gets an assignment, and moves out with their vehicle to execute it. The ground attack on the fire is apportioned into “divisions,” each with its own commander. Engines, crews, water tenders and bulldozers are applied to the divisions according to need and timing. The chain of command expands and evolves to fit the incident, so that no one is managing more than a few other people or units. Information flows to where it’s needed, so that crews on the fireline can concentrate on the demanding physical tasks required to safely encircle a fire, deprive it of fuel to expand, and lay thousands of feet of firehose for putting it out.

One of the most critical early decisions is where to stage all incoming resources, so they can be dispatched most effectively. That’s why Avila quickly designated the beginning stretch of Deer Meadow Road for this purpose: close to the fire, but a safe distance from it with plenty of room for vehicles and logistics.

Another decisive concern is how to divide up the fire. Avila established divisions for the right and left flanks, and a third division based well up Deer Meadow Road with responsibility for protecting residences if necessary. He then transferred overall command of the fire to Jake Serrano, a Mendocino-based Cal-Fire Battalion Chief.

In California, Cal-Fire manages all wildland fires, regardless of how many other agencies contribute resources. So handing the reins to Serrano was a normal step for Avila, as chief of a local volunteer fire department. But in this case there were some additional factors in play.

One is the strong relationship that Chief Avila and his predecessor, Colin Wilson, have built with Cal-Fire over many years. The trust and cooperation are mutual. Just as important is AVFD’s ability to rapidly field a sizeable force of well-equipped, well-trained firefighters. Finally, by handing off the IC role Avila could take responsibility for operations: a deceptively simple title which actually means directing the ground attack on the fire. He could bring his local knowledge to bear, and he could delegate operations to his most experienced people, including battalion chiefs Clay Eubank and Roy Laird and long-time Philo fire captain Don Gowan.

Avila certainly got a fast start. Rhett Pardini, son of AVFD firefighter Ed Pardini, pointed out the fire to his dad shortly after 3:00. Ed called the firehouse to ask if someone had a permit for a controlled burn that afternoon. No one did, which meant the fire was wild.

Avila left the firehouse before the 911 system was activated at 3:12 pm, which is why I saw him leaving the foot of the fire before most other units had even mobilized. In the intervening moments, he had assessed the fire’s size (four acres), determined its direction (toward Boonville), and calmly extinguished the flames on two barn-like structures at the fire’s northwestern edge.

Cal-Fire’s air attack also began fast, with an overhead spotting plane directing retardant drops by lower-flying planes. Soon a Cal-Fire helicopter was pulling water from a nearby vineyard pond and dropping it onto hotspots. The air squadron confirmed Avila’s strategy that the best way to attack the Peach Fire was to “go for the head and then flank it,” as Serrano put it.

To understand this, it’s helpful to know the classic approach to fighting a small wildland fire. The basic idea is to encircle it by sending fire crews around both flanks. Engines, equipment and firefighters on each flank constitute a division – in this case division Alpha on the left flank and division Zulu on the right. Each division moves parallel to the fire but outside it, scraping the earth clean of fuel so the fire cannot spread side to side. The crews also aim to move forward faster than the fire, so that they meet up ahead of the fire’s front edge.

In hot summer conditions, however, fires can outrace containment, jump firelines, and defeat the attack strategy. That’s why Cal-Fire’s air attack focused on bombing hotspots near the head of the fire: to slow its progress, lower its temperature, and prevent flying embers. The retardant planes also laid down precision drops to help fire crews with their encirclement strategy. The importance of this soon became obvious.

On the Peach Fire – so called because the initial dispatch mentioned Peachland Road – Avila had initially assigned division Alpha to Don Gowan. When Cal-Fire crews began arriving in force, they took over on the left flank. According to Serrano, a typical “initial high dispatch” by Cal-Fire would include 8 or 9 engines staffed with firefighters, 3 dozers, and 5 crews of inmate firefighters from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). But due to commitments to the County Fire, Cal-Fire came to the Peach Fire with only 5 engines and 3 inmate crews (from the Chamberlain Creek and Parlin Fork CDCR facilities in Fort Bragg).

That meant there was another flank to cover, and Avila, anticipating the situation, had assigned that flank to his own firefighters, led by Eubank. A single dozer and hand crews in division Zulu had to fight their way through scrubby brush along the fire’s right flank to Witherell Creek, which comes down from the hills to cross under Highway 128 at the Little Red Schoolhouse museum. Once they reached Witherell Creek, Zulu would bushwhack up the creek to get to the southeastern corner of Octopus Mountain, and finally turn left again to climb the mountain and meet division Alpha. In other words, they had to beat the fire south toward Boonville, then beat the fire east to the base of the hills, and then beat the fire up the mountain. Not exactly a walk in the park on an 85-degree afternoon with steep slopes.

Both Avila and Serrano recall numerous conversations with the air attack squadron, particularly to support Zulu division’s progress on the first leg of its march along the right flank, parallel to 128. Still, the land that Zulu traversed was heavily dotted with chemise, a scrubby brush that can quickly ignite in the right conditions. It’s also scratchy and hard to move through. While a dozer pushed slowly through the brush to scrape a fireline, firefighters dragged large-diameter firehouse with them, connecting long lengths together to maintain a continuous line that would become thousands of feet long. To remove plants or scrape terrain the dozer couldn’t, they used big hoes known as McLeods (pronounced “MickLOUD”), and combination axe/hoes called Pulaskis.

Up on Deer Meadow Road, some residents of the subdivision were advised by emergency services of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office that they might need to evacuate. But due to the fast response by AVFD and Cal-Fire, no actual evacuation was ever required or ordered.

The sun was low in the west when the initial attack began to slow. Division Zulu had progressed to the point where it would turn north toward the mountain to meet Alpha, but hours of heavy labor had taken a toll. The firefighters’ initial adrenaline had worn off, the sprint becoming a marathon. And now they literally had a mountain to climb. Fortunately, fresh Cal-Fire crews arrived from Laytonville around 7:00 pm, so operations could ask IC for reinforcements for division Zulu. The request was granted, and both the fireline and the hose lay began to accelerate upward on the right flank. “That’s when we started to see the possibility of victory,” Avila remembers.

Meanwhile, division Alpha had succeeded in cutting a line up the left flank of the fire, but the slope was so steep that fire engines could not pump water all the way to the top of Octopus Mountain. Cal-Fire then resorted to the oldest known form of water delivery to a fire: humans. CDCR firefighters filled backpacks with water and humped them up the last 50 feet of vertical elevation to reach the top of Octopus Mountain and snuff the flames at the crest.

It was dusk when Zulu could see Alpha coming around the back crest of the mountain, and fully dark when initial containment was achieved at a little over 90 acres. The firefighters’ work was far from over, however. While the earliest responding Anderson Valley units were released beginning after 10:00 pm, later arrivals continued working to ensure full containment which came long past midnight. The department’s two water tenders stayed out all night to keep the engines supplied, finally coming off the fire the next morning around 8:00 am. Their relief stayed on scene until well into Friday afternoon.

When I talked separately with Avila and Serrano afterward, their comments were remarkably similar. Both praised the excellent coordination between Cal-Fire and AVFD. Both acknowledged the hard, physical work their crews had performed, and both noted that the most important thing of all is what did not happen: no one was hurt, no structures were destroyed, and the fire was contained before it had any chance of reaching Boonville. “A really good stop,” Serrano said. In the understated language of fire service officers, that’s almost a jump for joy.

Avila had a moment of true pleasure when he recalled the reaction of his Cal-Fire counterparts to something they were not used to seeing: a local volunteer department fielding 11 vehicles and 26 firefighters, all supported by yet more volunteers. One Cal-Fire captain asked Avila, “Where are you getting all these people?” The answer, of course, is that he’s getting them from our amazing Anderson Valley community, which thrives on people helping people.

If you have read this far, I hope you’ll entertain a few reminders. Please clear that defensible space around your buildings if you have not already done so. Make sure your address is clearly posted where emergency responders can see it from the road. Enroll in the ambulance/helicopter membership discount program offered to local residents. Sign up online for Mendocino County’s Emergency Notification and Alert System (known as “ENS” or “reverse 911”).

You can also join the fire department, and not just as a firefighter. The ambulance crew includes diverse people of all ages, and always warmly welcomes new members to the team. So consider becoming an EMT or a driver and seeing those medical emergencies from the inside!

Finally, if you meet any AV firefighters, let them know what their volunteer work means to you and your loved ones. They have a pretty good idea, because they live here, too. But it never hurts to hear it from you.

(Photos by Kate McEwen)

SKYHAWK OUT

Chris Skyhawk Drops Bid For 5th District Supervisor

"Chris Skyhawk has officially ended his campaign for Mendocino County Supervisor. Given the severity of the stroke and the level of effort that will be necessary to heal, there is no chance Chris will re-join the race..." Skyhawk's name, however, will still be on the November ballot.

The following was posted by Samantha, Chris Skyhawk’s partner, on his public page on Facebook - I’m sure that all of us in our community wish him and his family the best and will do all we can to help them any way we can:

As many of you know, late last month Chris Skyhawk suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke. On behalf of Chris, and our whole family, we would like to thank everyone for the tremendous outpouring of support and love over the last few weeks. It has really meant a lot to us.

The good news is that Chris is out of critical danger. We are, however, looking at a long recovery road. At this point, our sole priority is to come together as a family and focus on Chris’ healing. We know that there is a lot of concern, but it is still too early to tell what that might look like and what full recovery might mean.

In all cases, the process will be all-encompassing for the foreseeable future. During this time we continue to ask for the community’s patience, and to respect our privacy so that we can focus on healing and family.

Chris Skyhawk has officially ended his campaign for Mendocino County Supervisor. Given the severity of the stroke and the level of effort that will be necessary to heal, there is no chance Chris will re-join the race.

Chris loves this community. He feels very honored to have had so much support as a first-time candidate and encourages everyone to remain active and vigilant in protecting this amazing place we are blessed to call home.

For anyone who would like to be updated as the recovery continues, we have set up a Caring Bridge page (Updates on Chris Skyhawk) as well as a Go Fund Me campaign to help with the financial burden (Chris Skyhawk Recovery Fund).

Again — thank you for the love and support. It has really meant the world to us.

Samantha

JOSHUA RUOFF GUILTY OF MURDERING TIMOTHY SWEETING

A New Hampshire man has been found guilty of beating to death with a baseball bat a fellow pot grower at a remote Mendocino County property where they were both paid laborers.

pressdemocrat.com/news/8520058-181/new-hampshire-man-convicted-in

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Thunder this morning, lightning strikes way off over Covelo somewhere. Skrag ran past scared as hell. ‘What was that, LD?’ (I forget how young the punk is.) ‘That's God announcing no more cat food. Have a nice day, feline’."

COULD IT HAPPEN HERE?

Yes, they will neither confirm nor deny, but at least two Mendocino County Superior Court judges carry handguns under those funereal black robes.

* * *

CHICAGO/WGN —- WGN Investigates obtained a video Tuesday that appeared to show a Cook County judge dropping a gun inside a courthouse lobby.

Judge Joseph Claps was walking through the lobby of the Leighton Criminal Courthouse at 26th Street and California Avenue when a gun appears to drop to the ground.

The judge nonchalantly picked it up, put it in his front pocket and kept on walking.

A Cook County sheriff’s deputy who witnessed the incident notified superiors, who reviewed videotape. The sheriff’s office says Judge Claps has a concealed-carry permit but is not authorized to carry a gun at the courthouse.

He’s now been charged with possessing a weapon on a prohibited location, a misdemeanor. The sheriff's office says the judge was very cooperative in its investigation. The judge was placed on non-judicial duties pending an executive committee meeting.

(Ben Bradley, WGN)

THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE, FORT BRAGG

by Rex Gressett

Last week's well-attended march from Town Hall to Bainbridge Park paid local witness to the inhumane treatment of immigrant children at the hands of the infamous and infinitely compromised and discredited federal agency, ICE. It was a day of national marching for an issue that unites almost all Americans, almost uniquely. Taking children from parents is an assault on what used to be called in another political era, with infinite respect and profound fear, the sanctity of Motherhood. Messing with Mom was widely acknowledged to be the worst possible political mistake.

For a small town like ours, the turnout for the march was impressive. The crowd filled Bainbridge Park and was I think larger than the Martian Luther King Day march, which was conducted on the same path, starting at Town Hall and ending at the park.

I do not mean to deprecate the poignancy of the issue, and the grave harm done to the affected children and their parents and families, not to mention the disgrace most of us feel now that the issue is before us. Certainly, the thing that brought people that day was a noble sentiment but you have to admit (no harm, no foul) that most of the folks who came to the march really enjoyed the experience. They like to march. The signs that they get to carry are funny and defiant. I bet most of them would carry around a sign in their daily life if they conveniently could. There is relief in expression and this was the day for it.

I don’t think you could call it a protest march. They were in a sense protesting, but in Fort Bragg, "marching" is not really about conflict in the sense that Americans understand a protest march. There wasn't even a remote chance of clubs and teargas.

The march was conducted without a permit but the cops were careful to keep a respectful distance. The marchers were also very nice, stopping for traffic at each intersection. It was colorful, there were charming dogs and wonderful kids and everyone was smiling and laughing.

The organizers in charge of the chanting and what discrete and abbreviated shouting there was, were pushing the audio meme “this is what democracy looks like.” I thought that a bit ill-chosen. It seemed self consciously ironic since it was a very small minority of people marching, and they were not in any sense imposing. This march was a manifestation of niceness. I would like to think that Democracy with a big D marching is a bit more formidable somehow, more serious.

On the other hand, there were more than enough people to be serious if they showed up at Town Hall.

If as many people as were at the sunny demonstration had shown up at a City Council meeting on any issue, that issue would have been passed. A group this large would carry any proposal. Don’t think the City Council is immune to mass attendance. I suggest that it might be formal City Council meetings which are what democracy actually does look like, not the frolic in the park. Sorry. If that many people in support of a Sanctuary City over the timorous objections of Mayor Lindy, who prevailed to keep us from being one, a few hundred would have changed that mayoral mind in a hurry.

Not that the march was without value, and not that the folks present don’t deserve credit, but it occurred to me that if this is what democracy really does look like we might be in serious trouble. The chanters and the marchers are an imaginative and creatively fun bunch, but I don’t know if they are serious citizens. I see some at the Council meetings but the focus and the energy and the passion seem to be reserved for the big picture marches and demonstrations. I guess simple attendance at City Council meetings is just not effective enough for some people. I am given to understand that they rely on more transcendental forms of influence to achieve results.

NEW (TO US) ON-LINE SCAM:

"I'm aware, _________ [name of person known to us], is your pass word. You do not know me and you're most likely thinking why you're getting this e mail, correct?

actually, I installed a malware on the adult videos (sexually graphic) web-site and there's more, you visited this website to have fun (you know what I mean). While you were watching videos, your internet browser initiated functioning as a RDP (Remote control Desktop) that has a key logger which provided me with accessibility to your display screen and also web camera. after that, my software program collected all of your contacts from your Messenger, FB, as well as email.

What exactly did I do?

I made a double-screen video. 1st part displays the video you were viewing (you have a nice taste haha . . .), and next part shows the recording of your cam.

exactly what should you do?

Well, in my opinion, $2900 is a reasonable price tag for our little secret. You will make the payment through Bitcoin (if you don't know this, search "how to buy bitcoin" in Google).

BTC Address: 1AxqmQchcpxFjavFn5mL4m9c45yM73Wz4V (It is cAsE sensitive, so copy and paste it)

Important: You have one day in order to make the payment. (I've a specific pixel in this mail, and at this moment I know that you have read through this email message). If I don't receive the BitCoins, I definitely will send out your video to all of your contacts including close relatives, co-workers, and so on. However, if I receive the payment, I'll erase the video immidiately. If you need proof, reply with "Yes!" and I will certainly send your video to your 15 contacts. It is a non-negotiable offer, and thus do not waste my time and yours by responding to this e-mail."

— Arin Hauser <gpekrystleyu@outlook.com>

* * *

OUT OF A POPULATION of what? 330 million, millions of them spending hours every day on line in perv-oriented voyeurism, if it weren't for the misspelled words, foreign diction of the prose and the odd demand to be paid in bitcoin, this one might have sent a quiver of apprehension through a large swathe of on-line fantasists. The every day perv is unlikely to deal in bitcoin but who knows.

WHY CRITICIZE HUFFMAN?

AVA,

The ACLU produced a scorecard on how our federal reps have voted on issues in accordance with the ACLU’s positions since the Liar-in-Chief took office. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has voted with the ACLU to defend and advance civil rights and civil liberties 73% of the time; Sen. Kamala Harris, 86% of the time; and House Rep. Jared Huffman, 93% of the time.

I know you bash Huffman regularly, even tho he seems to score similarly high with environmental, labor and other progressive organizations. I know he’s a Democrat but other than Bernie that’s all we have in Congress to fight the GOP onslaught. Yes, criticize the sclerotic corporate Democrats, but why bash the most progressive ones?

Tom Wodetzki, Albion

ED REPLY: Surprised an old pwog like you takes this more of the same position. On the big issues, and on their best days, entrenched Democrats are soft Republicans. When there was a clear choice between Bernie and Hillary, the great civil libertarians went for Hillary. And a blank check for the multiple wars in the Middle East, and no questions asked of the Israeli fascists, and signed on to an unrestained Wall Street, and on and on and on.

EEL RIVER SALMON, steelhead habitat to be restored after being blocked by railroad for 104 years

The early 20th century wrought significant damage and changes to the Eel River and its fish populations through zealous overfishing and blockage of key tributaries by railroads and dams, which limited salmon and steelhead’s ability to recover.

times-standard.com/article/NJ/20180712/NEWS/180719945

MARCH CARJACKING UPDATE

The two defendants involved in a carjacking from the parking lot of Retech Systems (south of Ukiah at Highway 101 and Henry Station Road) this past March resolved their cases yesterday in the Mendocino County Superior Court.

David Lee Bonino, age 34, of Alameda, was convicted by plea of carjacking, being a felon in the unlawful possession of a firearm, and recklessly evading a peace officer, all felonies. Defendant Bonino also admitted three sentencing enhancements relating to his having served three prior prison commitments.

Bonino's accomplice, Margarita Sobalvarro, age 26, of San Pablo, was convicted by plea of vehicle theft and also being a felon in the unlawful possession of a firearm, each as a felony.

The two defendants were referred to Adult Probation for a background study and prison packet. The sentencing hearing for both is now scheduled for August 8th at 9 o'clock in the morning in Department H in the Ukiah courthouse. Anyone interested in this matter or these defendants is welcome to attend court on the 8th.

By stipulation, defendant Bonino will receive a state prison sentence of 112 months, of which he will be required to serve 85% of that prison commitment.

By stipulation, defendant Sobalvarro will receive a state prison sentence of 32 months, of which she may serve up to 50% of that sentence (though likely less due to the passage of Prop 57).

The attorney handling the prosecution of these defendants is Deputy District Attorney Scott McMenomey. The law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation and capture of the defendants were the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, the California Highway Patrol, and the Oakland Police Department.

The sentencing judge on the 8th will be Mendocino County Superior Court Judge John Behnke.

(District Attorney Press Release)

CONTEMPORARY PRIVACY IN ACTION!

YOUR PRIVACY COMES FIRST?

AT&T Privacy Update

June 25, 2018

Hello,

WarnerMedia (formerly Time Warner) has joined our family! The AT&T companies share your information with each other. With our merger, WarnerMedia is now included. This will mean great deals, relevant offers and new ways for you to enjoy premium content from Turner, HBO and Warner Bros. Your privacy comes first, as always.

Thanks for choosing us.

AT&T

CATCH OF THE DAY, July 13, 2018

BRADLEY DANAHY, Willits. Parole violation.

BO EDER, Fort Bragg. Burglary of inhabited dwelling, burglary tools, obstruction of justice, probation revocation.

KARL GAGE, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

LISA HODGES, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

JOSE LOPEZ-GALVEZ, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

TINA NELSON, Ukiah. Battery on peace officer, resisting.

JUSTIN PEACOCK, Cedar Hills, Utah/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

ERIK PRESLEY, Laytonville. DUI.

ELIJAH SWITHENBANK, Fort Bragg. Burglary, burglary tools, conspiracy.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Old guys like you and I may have always understood that huge paychecks and giant piles of fiat currency (along with all of the glitz it can buy) does not really aid one in a real “pursuit of happiness”. It is all really more of a distraction from what really matters. Just as fiat currency has no actual real value, the shit that it is able to “buy” has none either, not really. This deception has spread into the mainstream American psyche as well for the search for real value has changed from looking for it on the inside to tattooing it on the outside. It may have all started out as a pursuit of income, but it has decayed into the degradation of an entire culture and is spreading to all of the inhabitants of this hamster cage of existence. If there is indeed a higher order of being out there as some of us believe, one can only wonder what the heck is going through the mind of this superior entity. Surely this being has infinite patience, or at least we had better hope it does.

I DESPISE RELIGION for the childish bullshit it foists off on us. I love it for the astounding art it inspires. I welcome it for the (unfortunately too little) goodness it sometimes instills in us.

Ditto wealth. Rich people are seldom worthy people, but sometimes they break with the norm. Those are the philanthropists. God love 'em!

Ditto aristocrats. Almost--"almost"--all of them are arrogant and ignorant, but sometimes they are elegant, educated, refined, gracious, humble about their good luck and determined to use it for the common good. Such aristocrats have made huge contributions to human welfare and progress, forever.

My position notwithstanding, these are powerful cohorts--the religious, the rich and the high-born. We're in a moment when the whole world needs them. If they do not rise up, put aside their privacy and security, and shout out the truth from their separate and unique towers, they are cowards and parasites.

Earth has not yet lost its place in the universe. However many earth-like places there are, the qualities that make this marble such a jewel are proportionately rare. Liquid water and livable temperatures produce--well, look out the window at high summer. I'm out every day, regardless of season, weather or time of day. I am helplessly in love with this planet. I'm sort of in love with Homo sapiens, too. We are still too much animals. Our development as beneficiaries of wonderful brains is still too slow. Watch any day's "news." How much of what you see springs from the higher functions of our minds, how much from the lower?

But consider the good stuff people do. Good stuff doesn't "move product" (serve the advertising biz) as well as the violent, tragic and scary, so the daily tally of excellence is one that no one keeps or sees. It's seldom on the news. You just have to take it on faith. The human race is perennially frustrating, but fascinating, too.

My cat is worth fighting for. Both my cats are, and so's the dog and the hens. Those old birds don't earn their feed every day anymore, but we're friends, and I go out of my way to keep the local wildlife off them, and so does Surely the Dog.

In spite of this catastrophic decline we're all in, many are too busy creating wonders to even take notice. AS I WRITE, Spike Jones is harmonizing with the Music of the Spheres. Love is still perfuming the air.

Cynicism, fear and hopelessness are self-realizing conditions. All those and worse drag at my feet. I'm getting old and brittle, but goddamn it, I'm still here, and rage simmers in me like heartburn. I hate it, but it's a sort of power. It animates me. It keeps me dangerous. When decrepitude takes it all away or enfeebles me beyond renewal, I will vanish. Until then, my pen is at the service of survival, common sense and decency. I'm writing a book I expect to make tsunamis happen. I know a lot of old people who are as motivated as I. Don't sell us short.

I don't see a lot of young folks these days. Is the "Occupy" impulse exhausted because it didn't change the world? Is the Battle in Seattle, the Free Speech movement a one-off moment? Are the will, guts and brains we need still maturing around me?

You visitors to this page who are a generation or two younger than me are so-o-o welcome!

Mitch Clogg

BOTANICAL GARDENS OPEN UNTIL 7PM!

Happy Friday! Give yourself something to look forward to and kick off your weekend with an evening stroll at the Gardens. The Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens is extending hours through the summer. Come and experience the magic of this 47-acre garden by the sea in the warm filtered evening light. The Gardens will be open until 7:00pm each Thursday, Friday, and Saturday through September 29. Regular Gardens admissions applies. Free for members of the Gardens, sign up for a membership today (online www.gardenbythesea.org <http://www.gardenbythesea.org/> or at The Garden Store)!

SUMMER HOURS - Jul through Sep: 9:00AM to 7:00PM - Thursday, Friday, Saturday; 9:00AM to 5:00PM - Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday

AUDITIONS FOR JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH are this Saturday!

How To Sign Up: Please fill out a form at: http://www.gloriana.org/james-auditions

Auditions: Auditions will be held July 14th from 10am - 2pm. You will be assigned a 5 minute audition slot when you sign up. You may choose a preferred time, but they will be given on a first come, first serve basis. Please prepare a song and a monologue or funny story. Piano accompaniment will be provided.

Audition Location: Eagles Hall, 210 N Corry, Fort Bragg, CA

HOPE & CHANGE ARE AT HAND

by James Kunstler

It seems unfair that the earnest polymath Elon Musk should go broke in the electric car business while Kylie Jenner becomes a billionaire at age 20 hawking lip gloss on Snapchat, but that’s how the American Dream rolls these late days of empire. Perhaps the lesson here, for all you MBA wannabes, is that Mr. Musk could switch his production facilities from cars to lip gloss. Of course, to successfully market his new line of cosmetics on social media, Elon might have to consider sexual “reassignment” surgery — unless he could persuade American men via Facebook and Twitter, that lip enhancement boosts male self-esteem almost as much as the purchase of a Ford F-450 pickup truck at a laughable fraction of the cost.

Which raises an interesting question: if President Donald Trump’s most winning personal feature is that magnificent golden hair-do, why doesn’t he (or his family) get out of the pain-in-the-ass hotel business, with all its construction and maintenance issues and dirty sheets, and just put out shampoo? He is obviously adept at Twitter marketing and surely scores high in global brand recognition.

Which raises any number of other major questions about the proper functioning of the US economy. For instance, millions of Americans, especially of Kylie J’s gen, are wasting their lives working dead-end minimum wage jobs manning (personing?) the nation’s fry-o-lator stations when they could start billion dollar cosmetic companies. After all, if you really want to be successful in this land of success stories, don’t you have to first look and feel successful? Perhaps that’s all you really need… forget all those pain-in-the-ass products with their vexing assembly-line, packing, and shipping problems. Just get America feeling great about itself, starting with the most important person in the room: YOU!

Only two things stand in the way: tattoos and blubber. At the rate our fellow citizens are adorning themselves with inky autobiographies, ever fewer will want to cover up their personal messaging with icky makeup. And the remorseless increase in body size implies a concomitant increase in available epidermal sites for said personal messaging — so maybe the tattoo industry ought to be the basis of the next American economy, not electric cars and journeys to Mars, or even lip gloss. Just think of all those empty brick-and-mortar retail spaces out there begging to become Ink Spots! I may be wrong about this, but I haven’t heard of any tattoo billionaires…yet. Who will dare to be first? (Yet another Kardashian?)

With oldest sibling Kim Kardashian-West considering a run for the White House in 2024 the nation can finally cast aside the bygone business model of a pain-in-the-ass manufacturing altogether and concentrate on the more important matters of personal grooming, branding, networking, and leveraging the unfulfilled wishes of the countless under-tattooed into an economy once again on-the-move! Imagine the effect that a President Kim K-W will have on the by-then ancient monster-of-the-east, Vladimir Putin, in their first summit meeting. We’ll have no more election trouble from those meddlesome Kremlin thugs. Maybe the pair will ride horses shirtless together in an amazing display of glasnost and international cooperation.

Don’t despair, readers, fellow Americans, and whoever else might be looking at this in the NSA back office. Hope and change are finally in the wind for real. Two hundred years of swinging pickaxes in the coal mines, sweating on the assembly line, and toiling on the loading dock are coming to an end. The singularity is almost at hand — and surprisingly not the one that Ray Kurzweil ordered. Who needs orgasmic polymorphic super-intelligence in all the parallel universes beyond the end of time when you can reach for brand supremacy here in this best of all possible worlds. Kylie J., you go girl!

(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page.)

LEARN HOW…

Wool-processing workshop in late September. Interested? Wool-processing workshop to be held locally in late September. If you’re interested contact Rachael Hawkwind at TheHawkWind@gmail.com or 323.466.3743.

UTILITIES MUST NOTIFY BEFORE CUTTING POWER

Regulators set new rules during extreme weather

by Kevin Fixler

California’s utility companies, including PG& E, now must notify customers and follow other set procedures when switching off power lines to prevent fires. State utility regulators unanimously approved Thursday new rules for power companies that de-energize lines in extreme weather conditions to safeguard against fire risk. Utilities must try to reach individual customers ahead of shutting down the grid.

Prior to Thursday’s decision, the rules applied only to San Diego Gas & Electric, as it was the only publicly traded utility to establish the practice to date. Now, the rules extend to the state’s other dominant utilities.

“De-energization can be very helpful during an emergency situation where having electricity flowing is potentially harmful, but it must be done with great thought and with consideration of customers,” Liane Randolph, of the California Public Utilities Commission, said in a statement.

“Our decision today helps ensure that utilities communicate early and consistently with communities that will be potentially affected by de-energization.”

After October’s devastating Northern California fires, PG& E adopted the practice of de-energizing its lines in high fire-risk conditions, including hot and windy weather that can spark blazes by toppling lines into nearby brush. In May, the company also opened a new wildfire safety operations center in San Francisco to monitor dangerous weather and avoid a repeat fire event.

PG&E faces dozens of lawsuits from hundreds of plaintiffs who lost family members or homes in the October fires. Cal Fire last month announced the company’s equipment started 12 of the region’s major fires. In eight of those fires, state investigators found evidence the company violated state codes.

PG&E has disputed some of Cal Fire’s findings regarding the deadly Atlas fire in Napa County, but executives at the San Francisco-based company last month warned investors of at least $2.5 billion in liabilities tied to the fires.

Overall, insured losses in the Northern California fires have been estimated at $10 billion.

A Cal Fire determination on the cause of the Tubbs fire, the most destructive blaze, is still pending. The fires killed 24 people in Sonoma County and destroyed about 5,300 homes.

Under the state’s new guidelines, a utility company must submit within 30 days a report to the Public Utilities Commission outlining its plans for customer outreach, notification and limiting impacts from preemptive blackouts.

Utilities also must notify the commission as soon as possible after deciding to turn off power and report back within 12 hours after restoring it.

PG&E spokeswoman Deanna Contreras said the company’s highest priority remains customer safety, and it welcomed the new regulations. “We know how much our customers rely on electric service and would only consider temporarily turning off power in the interest of safety, and as a last resort during extreme weather conditions,” Contreras said.

“We want our customers to know that PG& E has a plan to deal with these types of events and we want them and their families to have plans, too.”

(Courtesy, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

“IN MY VIEW, the Government’s metadata collection program is entirely consistent with the Fourth Amendment.”

— new Supreme Court Judge Kavanaugh

US INDICTS 12 RUSSIANS FOR HACKING DNC EMAILS DURING THE 2016 ELECTION

Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein announces that 12 individuals have been charged as part of the investigation into Russian interference

by John Swaine & Andrew Roth

A dozen Russians were criminally charged on Friday with hacking and leaking the emails of senior Democrats during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

Grand jury indictments against the 12 alleged Russian intelligence officials were announced by Rod Rosenstein, the deputy US attorney general, at a press conference in Washington.FBI agent rejects allegations of anti-Trump bias as a 'notch in Putin's belt'

“The internet allows foreign adversaries to attack America in new and unexpected ways,” said Rosenstein. Lamenting what he called “partisan warfare” in the US around the ongoing Russia inquiry, Rosenstein said: “The blame for election interference belongs to the criminals who committed election interference.”

The charges were filed in Washington by Robert Mueller, the special counsel, who is investigating Russian interference in the election and possible collusion with members of Donald Trump’s campaign team.

They were announced just as Trump arrived at Windsor Castle to meet the Queen, and as he prepared to meet Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, on Monday. Rosenstein said he had briefed Trump on the developments.

Rosenstein said those charged were operatives of the GRU, a Russian military intelligence agency. He said they had “corresponded with several Americans through the internet”, including an associate of the Trump campaign.

Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to Trump, previously acknowledged that he had exchanged messages with one of the online personas accused on Friday of being a front for Russian intelligence, but he denied knowing that true identity.

Stone told the Guardian on Friday that his correspondence about the hacked documents was “benign based on its content, context and timing” and “provides evidence no of collaboration or collusion”. He confirmed to ABC News that he believed he was referenced in the indictment.

Thousands of emails taken from the accounts of staff at the the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, were published by outlets including WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign.

The indictment says Clinton’s personal office was targeted for the first time on 27 July 2016 – hours after Trump called on Russian hackers to find her emails.

The leaks threw the Democratic party into turmoil. The disclosure of embarrassing internal memos prompted the resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the DNC chairwoman, on the eve of the party’s convention in July 2016.

US intelligence agencies concluded that the accounts were hacked as part of a wide-ranging operation ordered by Putin to damage Clinton’s bid for the presidency and assist Trump’s campaign.

Trump has consistently tried to cast doubt over the conclusions of the intelligence agencies that he now controls, and highlighted denials from Putin about the election interference. He continued on Friday to dismiss Mueller’s inquiry as a “witch-hunt”.

The indicted Russians were on Friday also accused of hacking into the computer systems of American state election authorities and of companies that produced software used by states for running elections. Rosenstein said there was no evidence of any vote tallies being affected.

The Russians used techniques including “spearphishing” and spying software, before publishing the emails through well-known online accounts including Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks, which purported to be independent American and Romanian hackers. Rosenstein said both personas were in fact operated by the GRU.

In February this year, Mueller’s team filed criminal charges against 13 Russians and three Russian companies for interfering in the presidential campaign, using social media and coordinating with low-level Trump campaign activists.

Rosenstein said at the time that the Russians had waged “information warfare” against the US during the 2016 campaign, with the aim of “spreading distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general”.

Mueller’s team has also charged Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, with financial crimes. Three other Trump campaign aides have pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

The Kremlin did not immediately respond to questions about the US indictment, which was released just as an aide to the Russian president was briefing reporters on Monday’s summit between Putin and Trump.

The two leaders will hold a closed tête-à-tête on Monday morning, followed by a larger meeting between the two delegations. Yuri Ushakov, the aide to Putin, did not bring up the hacking accusations while discussing a list of likely topics for Monday’s talks.

The indictment targeted 12 Russian military officers in two cyberwarfare units in the Military Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, up to the rank of colonel. The Russians are charged with conspiracies against the US, aggravated identity theft and money laundering.

Both GRU units are based in Moscow and traditionally charged with deciphering foreign military communications. Publicly available documents and contracts confirm that one of those indicted, Viktor Netyshko, heads the 85th Main Center for special service.

The GRU has been accused of standing behind Fancy Bear, one of two hacking groups accused of infiltrating US political parties during the 2016 elections.

The United States has already sanctioned six officers from the GRU leadership, including Igor Korobov, the directorate’s head. None of those officers were included in Friday’s criminal indictment.

YOU, TOO, CAN BE SYSTEMATICALLY IGNORED

Boards and Commissions Vacancies

Supervisors, Community Partners, and Interested Parties: The list of vacancies, due to term expirations and/or resignations, for County Boards and Commissions has been updated. A list of all new and existing vacancies is available on the County Website at: mendocinocounty.org/government/board-of-supervisors/boards-and-commissions. The attached document contains a list of the vacancies that are new.

Vacancies exist on the following Board(s) and/or Commission(s):

Air Quality Management District – Hearing Board (1)

Public Member Cemetery District of the Redwoods. (2)

Various Health and Human Services Agency Advisory Board (1)

Community Health Representative

Museum Advisory Board. (1)

City of Willits Representative

If you are interested in serving on this Board, contact your Supervisor, or the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors, at 501 Low Gap Road, Room 1010, Ukiah, CA 95482 (707) 463-4441.

LAST DATE FOR FILING: July 23, 2018, or until filled.

CARMEL J. ANGELO Clerk of the Board of Supervisors

MENDOCINO CANNABIS JOB FAIR (MCJF) — SUMMER 2018

Mendocino Cannabis Resource (MCR) is is excited to host a countywide cannabis job fair to help connect emerging cannabusinesses and prospective employees alike.

The Job Fair will be held in Willits at the Little Lake Grange, 291 School St. on Saturday, July 28, 2018. Early Entry is from 11a-1p and costs $10. Free Entry between 1-4p. Resume Writing Information Packet to be provided for Job Seekers -- Spruce up that resume and get Job Fair ready!

Last Sept. MCR held the first Mendocino Cannabis Job Fair (MCJF) - Fall 2017 with over 500 registered attendees! One of MCR’s goals was to highlight to the county that cannabis jobs would strengthen our community and local economy. Over 70% of registered Job Seekers were from Mendocino County zip codes. And they want to work in the cannabis market!

Early Entry benefits include

- Two additional hours before the rush -- Over 500 people attended last year!

- Better opportunity to connect one-on-one with potential employers

- Once paid & registered, send your resume to MCR. We will share them directly (in advance) with Exhibitors & Companies looking to hire.

There is also an opportunity to sign-up to be a Community Sponsor of the Job Fair. Not a cannabis or ancillary business, or just not looking to hire now, you can still participate in making the MCJF-Summer 2018 the best it can be by becoming a community sponsor. Your company logo will be printed in the MCJF—Summer 2018 program & listed as a supporting Community Sponsor.

MCJF - Summer 2018 Employer Exhibitors & sponsors include; the Emerald Law Group, Flow Kana, Emerald Cup Products, Mendocino County Growers Alliance, KB Cannabusiness Consulting & Staffing, Emerald City Distributions, Mendocino Management Group, Nurturing Seed & Mendocino Group.

If you’re a local professional looking for a career in the cannabis market, already in the cannabis market looking for something new, or a business owner that is looking to add talent to your team, the Mendocino Cannabis Job Fair is the place to be!

For more information, or to sign up to be an Employer Exhibitor or Community Sponsor, or if you are interested in a career in the rapidly developing legal cannabis market, visit MCR’s website at www.medocinocannabisresource.com or call MCR @ 707-223-4367

“Now get out there and do something fans can turn into a meme!”

MEMO OF THE AIR: Good Night Radio Friday night!

They got their new equipment hooked up and running at KMEC, and I'm assured by Sid Cooperrider that when I go on the air on KNYO tonight, and jump through the various procedural hoops, or rather press the shiny buttons in the proper order, MOTA will also be on KMEC, after three weeks of not having that available because a guy who for years loaned the on-air computers to them had a falling out with somebody on the board there and harrumphed and took his basketball and went home, basketball in this case meaning router and automated equipment and laboriously configured software, and so on. But every door that shuts opens a window, and God bless the child (and radio station) who's got his own, so, yay! because it has, now.

Tonight, 9pm to about 5am, I'm doing Memo of the Air from the KNYO performance space at 325 N. Franklin, next door to the Tip Top bar, so consider this an open invitation for you to waltz in like the king of the world, head for the lighted room at the back, and show-and-tell, or do your act, or talk about your project, or read your own work, or really whatever. And I have to stay in town another week to finish a theater project, among other things, so next week (July 20) will also work for a visitation by the Royal You, Your Majesty.

BESIDES ALL THAT, right now you still have a little time to email your writing to be read on MOTA (deadline is generally around five or six p.m. the night of the show), and lots more time for next week. Paste your poem or material desire or essay or kvetch or conspiracy theory or obsessive coded blatt into the body of an email, check that it's going to me and not also to the whole group, unless that's what you want it to do, and press send. I'll get it, I'll print it as-is and read it on the air.

Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio: Every Friday, 9pm to 5am on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg, and 105.1fm KMEC-LP Ukiah*. Also there and anywhere else via http://knyo.org

Marco McClean