Mendocino County Today: Monday, Sep. 10, 2018

• Ranch Fire
• Disaster Optimism
• Toilet Mountain
• Ed Notes
• McGuire's Bill
• No Laughing
• Little Dog
• Community Support
• Water Tax
• Fay Lanphier
• Yesterday's Catch
• Abortion Issue
• Checks & Balances
• Kaepernick Case
• Marco Radio
• Iago NYT
• Steinbeck's Charley
• Boo Bezos
• Italian Reaction

MENDOCINO FIRE COMPLEX UPDATE — SEPTEMBER 9, 2018

US Forest Service

Firefighters on the Ranch Fire are working to contain the last section of the fire, patrolling firelines and doing suppression repair. There are 672 miles of fireline that required suppression repair work. To date, crews have completed suppression repair work on 443 miles or 66% of the fireline. Fire suppression repair work consists of cutting hazard trees to ensure firefighters are working in safe areas, reducing dirt berms, spreading cut vegetation and building water bars to minimize soil erosion. The Ranch Fire area is closed as described in Forest Order 08-18-15. The purpose of the closure is to provide for public safety, and for the firefighters who are engaged in fire suppression and repair efforts within the Ranch Fire closure area. The closure area applies to all public use, including hunting, the use of firearms and off-highway vehicles. US Forest Service Law Enforcement is strictly enforcing the forest order. The northern half of the forest is open for outdoor activities. Forest visitors can contact the ranger station nearest their destination for current information. The Mendocino Complex: The Mendocino Complex is being managed by Southern California Interagency Incident Management Team 3. The Ranch Fire is 98% contained and the River Fire is 100% contained.

Smoke: Westerly winds will transport haze from the Mendocino Complex to the east. Light to moderate impacts are expected near and to the west of the Complex. To the east and into the Sacramento Valley, smoke drifting in from other fires may degrade air quality.

wildlandfiresmoke.net/outlooks/MendocinoNationalForest-SacramentoValleyArea

For detailed Mendocino Complex information visit: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6073/

IN THE LINE OF FIRE

In my travels recently I was rumbling south on Interstate 4 in my truck, 387,000 miles now, in the Upper Sacramento River Canyon near Shasta Lake when a giant plume of smoke rose in the sky in front of me. It was the start of the Delta fire. Before the CHP and Calfire could get there, southbound traffic stopped at LaMoine, and we watched the sudden firestorm engulf the canyon and trees explode along the road, right in front of us. Seeing this was as frightening as living through the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake in the Bay Area where you felt helpless and trapped. We escaped when a CHP patrol car nudged an opening in the concrete center-divide barrier and we were able to get through into the northbound lanes. In my video, I originally called it the “LaMoine Fire” after I heard a first responder call it that and it made sense, from our view, it was just south of the LaMoine exit. While I processed my video I found out later that the fire was named the Delta Fire. I left my video title intact as original, though it confused a few people, to capture an unrepeatable moment in time.

Tom Stienstra

* * *

MARK SCARAMELLA ADDS: I have no doubt that Mr. Stienstra’s right in comparing his reaction to the inferno he almost drove into with the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989. I happened to be living in San Jose at the time, just a few miles north of the epicenter. I had just come home from work (less than a block away from the apartment complex where I was living at the time). It was a little after 5pm. The building suffered a major jolt followed by almost a minute of rumbling and bouncing. In those few seconds it was definitely “frightening.” You knew something very bad had happened. The difference was in the general attitude. As bad as it was, we knew we’d recover over time from the damage the earthquake inflicted on the entire Bay Area. Hell, even the World Series between the As and the Giants was soon back on track. While I was in the Air Force at Keesler AFB in 1969 we were hit by Hurricane Camille, still one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the US mainland. It was also “frightening.” I was a minor player in that recovery effort, organizing work crews to do clean up which took weeks. I could rattle off several other disasters I happened to have experienced before returning to Mendo. (Massive Missouri River flooding where I participated in frantic efforts to fill and place sandbags to prevent overflow, partially successful; three major ice-storms followed by near zero-degree weather for weeks causing absolute paralysis of all traffic (in St. Louis, Long Island and Boston); a days-long white-out level blizzard (outside of Rantoul, Illinois); a couple of major military aircraft crashes…) In all those cases, everybody knew the difficult recovery effort would pay off and there was a sense of optimism about it in the face of the destruction. But with these “frightening” fires now, I don’t sense any expectation that things are going recover or improve. In fact, it’s seems to be getting worse. It’s only a question of how much and how fast. It’s much easier to get through a disaster if you believe that things will somehow eventually return to something like pre-disaster. I hope I’m wrong, maybe we’ll dodge this slo-mo bullet somehow. But I just don’t see things moving in that direction these days. Bigger disasters are on the way and we as a country are not well prepared to deal with them.

AT THE UKIAH DUMP

ED NOTES

A READER COMMENTS: "Liked your Bari piece, btw. Appalling news about the PD "losing" the Avenger letter. Another wrinkle to this, of course, is Glenda Anderson, being girlfriend to suspect and employee at said paper. If Mike was the bomber (and the Lord's Avenger), disappearing that particular piece of evidence would be a key to securing one's future, and having a girlfriend inside the PD would be uniquely advantageous toward that end."

SWEENEY was (and is) a great one for covering all his bases. He hooked up with Glenda before the bombing and, from the outset of their romance, Glenda, then working at the Ukiah Daily Journal, saw to it that Sweeney's press releases about what a great job he was doing as a recycler regularly got published as news. She was also a convenient person for him to have in place at the Press Democrat, although that paper regarded the bombing as journalo-kryptonite, and what a sad commentary on what passes for journalism on the Northcoast that it's largest paper has never pursued the story. As a PD staffer Glenda would certainly have unquestioned access to the paper's archive, but assuming the paper has in fact lost the Lord's Avenger Letter, a loss occurring, I believe, after Glenda had retired and, according to the paper, before the letter made it into the paper's archive, it is probably the one crime associated with the case unattributable to Sweeney. What's always been distressing about the so-called mystery of the bombing is the lack of curiosity it has aroused in the great world outside the Northcoast's media desert. Television is rife with cold case shows where current and retired cops, including federal cops, investigate unresolved crimes, but there's no interest in this one, although Susan Faludi has spent huge amounts of time on it and may yet produce a book. It will take someone with her abilities, I'd say, and even she must find it daunting given that it remains (I hope) a work years in progress. (My feeling is that Sweeney is federally protected, hence his unique exemption, from the very day of the bombing, as the obvious, primary suspect. And he's an ex-husband with bombs in his history all the way back to the 1960s when he was a member of a Maoist cult that murdered people, including a cop, and placed bombs all over the Bay Area. With a pedigree like that the guy was a natural for Mendocino County. And now, please join me for the Mendo Mantra: Mendocino County is the only place in America where history starts all over again every day, and you are whatever you say you are.)

* * *

THE ON-LINE COMMENTS about County dysfunction at the Supervisor level include speculation about MIA Supervisor Gjerde, especially given his lonely, brave and tenacious pursuit of corruption in Fort Bragg when he was a City councilman. We've wondered the same thing, but now think Gjerde may be biding his time, waiting for firm allies. As presently constituted, Gjerde's only possible ally on the Supes is McCowen, and it takes three votes to compel the ruling, unelected gynarchy in the direction of reputable local government, in this case fiscal transparency (and prudence), and regular reporting from department heads, including the County Counsel's office. In the present County government context these amount to radical demands.

WE'RE HOPING Ted Williams as 5th District supervisor will be the needed third vote on the board of supervisors for serious reform. And if Pinches is reinstalled as 3rd District Supervisor he will arrive with a long history of holding admin's pudgy little tootsies to some serious explanatory fire. Pinches will make four votes for good government. The only remaining auto-yes vote for the present unaccountability and general fiscal profligacy will be Carre Brown, whose political mission has always consisted solely of virtually free water forever for Potter Valley "ranchers."

STATE SENATOR MIKE MCGUIRE is getting some positive press, the only press he ever gets from this area's supine media, for his recent introduction of a bill that “targets pot growers who illegally clear forestland, a practice that pollutes water and threatens wildlife…” McGuire is apparently worried about “storm water runoff that no longer has an ocean-bound path safe from pollutants.” And, “the area’s animal life finds itself under threat.”

HOW would the bill "go after" those “rogue growers”? It would “extend the statute of limitations for illegal timberland conversions from one to three years, giving Calfire investigators more time to investigate…”

THAT’S ALL IT DOES. Nothing else. And even that is after the fact. Nothing about before the fact.

TO READ the press surrounding McGuire’s proposal you’d think it would lead to a dramatic improvement in local environments. McGuire’s press release also talks about “poisonous rodenticides” that pot growers use which “endanger the pacific fisher, a small mammal that was nearly listed under the endangered species act,” and of course the spotted owl.

BURIED in a recent story about the proposal by Eureka Times-Standard reporter Shomik Mukherjee is this note: “Although the bill targets primarily unlicensed cannabis growers, most growers in compliance still clear forestland to produce cannabis — except they do so with a permit.”

HEZEKIAH ALLEN, Director of the California Growers Association, commented, “The difference between illegal and legal timberland conversion is really just doing paperwork. There’s nothing about cutting down trees that’s really going to be different.”

THAT COMMENT also applies to grapes and on a much larger scale, of course. And if you include oak woodlands and rangeland, you don’t even need a permit to legally scrape the land clear of all vegetation down to two feet, dose it with insecticide, and densely plant grapevines on every available square foot, then water them with diverted run-off and apply as much poison and sulfur as you like (which do not require permits, just use of licensed applicators and notices to the Ag Department).

BUT MCGUIRE’S CONCERN about forestlands being cleared, and pollution and runoff and poisons and endangered species mysteriously doesn’t extend to the grapes that cover much more acreage than pot.

SOMETHING TELLS US that McGuire’s bill is meant more to improve his image than the environment. (— ms)

NO LAUGHING ALLOWED

Editor,

Rex Gressett’s hearty condemnation of the Ft. Bragg City Council’s outrageous civic censorship reminded me to write to you about the ongoing local battle for our so-called “freedom of speech” so few defend (let alone know how to use — what good is free speech if you don’t have anything meaningful to say?):

In July of this year, a new “Program Director” (who has since resigned the position) at KPFZ issued a set of rules for programmers, including this one:

To which I replied:

"I do not find, with one exception,* your guidelines to be difficult or unreasonable.  A modicum of programmer etiquette is a reasonable request.”

"*Even that one exception is subject to interpretation, since I believe that respect is a fundamental requisite to professionality and credibility for any person.  The issue is “public officials” — for which the law is clear:

"https://www.freedomforuminstitute.org/2016/05/10/federal-judge-right-to-criticize-public-officials-clearly-established/

"That right does not extend to the personal attack on individuals, which I agree is a bad practice.  Obviously, the conflict between criticizing “public officials” may be in conflict with internal policies of the station, when such individuals are part of the restricting body, but the ability of our diverse membership and volunteers (including the Board of Directors) to engage in the civic process is one of the cornerstones of KPFZ’s importance in Lake County.

"Of course, the really difficult “prohibition” about criticizing the “station” limits the ability of all of the volunteers (members, programmers, guests and hosts) to inform the public about the direction of the station management that is so vital to our purpose as a collective body of educators.  I would really welcome the opportunity to debate this issue, if not on the air then privately (with anyone else who is interested in this extremely sensitive issue).  In the meantime, we can all celebrate the fact that KPFZ is fulfilling its mission, so profoundly important to our civic survival — whatever our philosophical differences.”

The very complicated politics that rule the station involve the fact that the Board “President” is married to the District 3 Supervisor, and features him frequently in his attempts to whitewash the county’s policies and purvey his fantastic notions about how to fix the lake, for example.  Another programmer is running for District Attorney, and is our perpetually unlearned Treasurer (who thinks that comingling grant funds with the general fund is perfectly alright).  When asked if she would relinquish her broadcast time (a strictly music program, but still), she declined.  We’ll see if and when the issue becomes a problem, this November.

Apparently, the Board of Directors either hasn’t read or doesn’t “agree with" the FCC’s guidelines:

https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/public-and-broadcasting

A few programmers are openly derisive of individual elected officials, as is their wont.  On a couple of occasions I have chastized only one of our Supervisors, Rob Brown — but such criticisms are easily made based on recorded snippets of Supervisors’ hearings, or (in the case of Brown’s self-proclaimed leadership in responding to the 2015 Valley Fire) an interview by KALW’s Liza Veale:

http://www.kalw.org/post/almost-two-years-later-valley-fire-forces-lake-county-transform#stream/0

Brown’s elitist attitude isn’t quite accurately described in the highly edited print version (although the story is nicely done); listen to the 12+minute recording, his statement occurs in the last couple of minutes.  Of course, as a professional bail bondsman, his view of the underclass is naturally jaundiced, but as a top elected official, his blatant discrimination extends to derision of any public comment offered in true sincerity by concerned citizens in the meager “public comment” period at BoS meetings.  Heaven help you if you challenge an agendized action — the “staff” is ALWAYS defended, no matter how ridiculous their proposals are.

I am a constant critic of county policies, as manifested by various agenda items and enactments of badly conceived “public outreach” (such as the early 2018 “Visioning” forums, which were blatantly — baldly — designed to result in a sales tax proposal that failed, further justifying the Administration’s excuse for poor performance during and after all of our recent wildfire disasters.  Engaging the “public” in “participating” in county policy-making — to “update” the 1996 Emergency Operations Plan, for example — is the primary purpose of my two hour Sunday sermons focused on disaster response/relief/recovery/mitigation that began on November 8, 2015.

Our Grand Jury rather beautifully described the lousy job the County did in response to the Valley Fire, and our shiny new motherhood-and-apple-pie Emergency Operations Plan

(http://www.lakecountyca.gov/Assets/County+Site/Grand+Jury/Final+Reports/17-18final.pdf?method=1)

Supervisor Brown called the GJ report “garbage” and was rebuked soundly by the Lake County Record-Bee on August 23 in a first-time-ever editorial board essay, which sharply criticized the Board of Supervisors' typical non-response — after which the Chief Administrative Officer promised that the BoS would reply more fully in the near future.  Uh huh.

P.S. — Rex, great job eviscerating the fascist attitudes of the Ft. Bragg City Council; our Board of Supervisors Chairman, Jeff Smith, a couple of years ago, prohibited LAUGHING in the hallowed chambers.  We do it on the radio, but clearly at the risk of losing our broadcast freedoms.

KPFZ’s “motto”:  “SPEAK YOUR TRUTH."

Betsy Cawn, Upper Lake

PPS. Well, I’m fit to be tied (NFP, por favor — this is a request, please).

Sunday’s Press Demo has a “Sunday Review” story on the persecution of Uighur Muslims that — sorry I haven’t been paying attention to the world much lately — is over the top in my psyche.  Despite trying amateurishly to “search” the PD on line stuff (for which I have almost zero patience) three times, the only related article I could come up with (with a halfway credible reputation) was this one.

https://apnews.com/6e151296fb194f85ba69a8babd972e4b

The story I want to comment on — maybe even go there for — is in the Sunday Review section, titled “A fierce, mass effort to re-educate Muslims” on page B1.

You seem to have some kind of connection (like maybe a paid subscription, but I’m on a limited budget) that lets you put links that work in the AVA, to the PD (and others, which is why I think it’s not a paid hookup, but who knows).  Could you possibly find that article so that we can comment on it tomorrow.

I’m so beside myself with this totally horrific government abuse that, as my spiritual counselor would say, there are two of me.  He’s a real wiseacre, but I feel like it.  My whole life occupies one of us, the other is nothing but an objectionist to this human insult that there is no stopping her.

Anyway, you probably will have some strong feelings about this, even if it is not related to our country, state, county, or homelands.  I’m going to puke now.

Yours truly, and thank you.

PPPS. Here’s the only one of many examples I chose to snag off the google search (ineffective three times) “search” for the specific article in today’s PD.

Still just as sickeningly wrong.

Subject: Muslims forced to drink alcohol and eat pork in China’s ‘re-education’ camps, former inmate claims | The Independent

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-re-education-muslims-ramadan-xinjiang-eat-pork-alcohol-communist-xi-jinping-a8357966.html

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “The Boss has entered a floral arrangement in the Boonville Fair this week. I don't want to discourage him, but him and his geraniums aren't going to cut it. Dogwood would bring home the blue, but try and tell this guy anything.”

THE FORCE THAT BINDS

To the Editor:

In reference to an article published in the Daily Journal September 2, 2018 regarding the Mendocino County Behavioral Health System Program Gap Analysis I once more will suggest the following:

1. Probably with grant money, we should create teams of mental health workers. Perhaps we should start with just three teams. Each team would consist of a BA level counselor and a licensed psychiatric technician or a licensed vocational nurse with a mental health background. A licensed social worker should be the team leader. Each team would have 60 clients, 30 for each team member. The BA level worker would use the LVN or psych-tech to assist with medication issues and shot clinics. Their primary responsibility would be to visit clients in their homes, or places where they reside. Weekly visits would be made during the intake period and continue until the client was stable.
2. The licensed certified social worker supervisor would only have a caseload of 15 clients. The primary duty of the supervisor would be to assist the teams with professional decisions regarding care and policy. Periodic meetings should take place where each team presents a case for discussion. Not only would this assist with helping the client, but it would also be a teaching tool for the team members. From a financial point of view, this would give the Community Support Teams the strength of seven licensed social workers in essence, while only having one.
3. A psychiatrist would be involved in all care. Each client would be seen according to a schedule. It would be the duty of the support team psych-tech or LVN to schedule the appointments with the psychiatrist. The LVN or psych-tech would sit in on the meeting with the psychiatrist unless the client objected.
4. Home visits and assistance with daily living is what is necessary to keep a client stable. If one monitors each client on a weekly basis, fewer chances for decompensation occur. Assistance with daily activities can almost take any form of help: shopping for groceries, clothes, looking for a place to live et cetera.
5. Advocacy for the client is also necessary in care. If we do nothing else, we should be an advocate. Our community needs to know about mental illness. Our community needs to know what it can do to help.

I would suggest Community Support Teams in Mendocino County with:

1. A primary clinic housed in Ukiah consisting of three teams of a BA level worker with an LVN and one team leader with an advanced degree. Each team member would have at least 15 clients (maximum 20) and the team leader 5 clients. There would be weekly meetings for all team members to present their most recent admission to all the teams so that each would have some knowledge of the patient condition.
2. A satellite clinic in Fort Bragg with two teams consisting of a BA level worker and one LVN.
3. One psychiatrist would be assigned as the Clinical Support Team doctor to advise and prescribe medication for Ukiah and possibly one for Fort Bragg. Each LVN team member would administer the medication to the clients of his/her team as well as making sure that the client had the proper medication and was taking as prescribed.

How it would work: A client would be referred to the CST Team Leader from a concerned citizen, clinic, emergency room or hospital et cetera. The team leader would then assign the client to one of the two person teams (LVN or BA level counselor). The person assigned would then attempt to contact the client to perform a possible intake. If the client is in crisis, the team member would work with the appropriate people involved and the client would eventually be evaluated for CST follow-up. The counselor would establish a chart that would be kept by the CST in a locked room or if in a building of mental health, a special section that would always be available to CST team members; especially the team member who would be on-call during afterhours, holidays and weekends.

Once a client is established, there would be weekly visits by the assigned team member and the client would become part of that team member’s case load. Ongoing visits would depend on the client’s stability and/or medical condition. At any time that the client becomes unstable and in need of CST help a counselor would make a visit to determine if the client needed to be hospitalized. With five teams having the capacity for 30 clients each, 150 clients could have care in the community. Extending the team case load to 20 would increase the coverage to 200 clients. Having an existing Community Support Team can be a Binding Force that creates better communication between Behavioral Programs so that no client is lost to wander the streets in a helpless vacuum. I challenge the County workers to come up with a better way for now. It has been years of verbal quandaries.

William J. Russell, Ukiah

WATER TAX DEAD, FOR NOW

by Jim Shields

Last week we discussed a proposed statewide water tax that was on the verge of being passed in the closing hours of the state legislative year.

The pending bill went through several revisions as the Brown administration and legislative backers sought creative ways to make the first-in-state-history tax on public drinking water somehow palatable to a majority of hesitant lawmakers who were up for re-election this November. None of them wanted to be tagged supporting what has been from its inception a volatile and widely unpopular tax.

A quick look at its chronology finds state Sen. Bill Monning, of Monteray, introduced SB 623 to create a “Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund” that would primarily be funded by: 1) a statewide water tax for retail residential and business customers; and 2) taxes on the sale of fertilizers and the operations of dairies. The primary purpose of the bill was to fund solutions in some disadvantaged communities without access to safe drinking water, which are primarily located in rural areas in the Central Valley. The proposal would have generated roughly $110 million per year through a 95-cent monthly fee on home water bills as well as taxes on businesses of up to $10 per month. Another $30 million would come from higher fees on agricultural and dairy businesses, industries whose chemicals contribute to the problem of contaminated groundwater. That incarnation of the proposed tax was moved to the committee parking lot due to fierce opposition from water ratepayers and water districts.

In early 2018, the Brown Administration proposed a budget trailer bill based on SB 623’s framework. On June 8, the Legislature’s Budget Conference Committee rejected the budget trailer bill that proposed the statewide water tax and instead set aside $23.5 million for safe drinking water.

Then in mid-August, Monning with Gov. Brown’s go-ahead, submitted a last-minute twist on the water tax proposals. The bill would have required more than 3,000 community water systems to add a voluntary remittance with an opt-out feature to local water bills in order to generate funding for infrastructure improvements. At the same time, Monning also proposed an updated version of the agricultural taxes from his previous proposal.

The new pair of bills would apply a “voluntary levy” on ratepayers of less than $1 per month would also establish a required tax on dairies and fertilizer manufacturers. The change also allowed customers to opt out of the tax, but it would have a nightmare for water districts to administer. Altogether, the newly-minted bills were expected to generate as much as $100 million per year.

As pointed out here before, there’s money available from other sources — such as the state’s general fund and various water bonds already issued — that could be used for contaminated groundwater remediation, which was exactly what Brown and the Budget Conference Committee did back in June when they deep-sixed the water tax. The answer to this problem is that the people who caused the contamination are the ones who should be at the head of the line to pay for its remediation.

Anyway, on Friday, Aug. 31, in the closing hours before the California legislative year ended, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon announced that the proposed water tax bill was dead.

Rendon explained the reasons in a statement that said in part, “The Assembly is committed to identifying a sustainable funding source to ensure safe drinking water for all Californians. That’s why we put Proposition 68 on the (June primary) ballot, which included $540 million for water projects. In the budget this year, we also included over $25 million for emergency drinking water projects, lead testing and remediation, and other water projects.

“But much more needs to be done, and a piecemeal funding approach won’t work …”

Of course, those are all the same arguments that many of us made as to why the tax wasn’t needed in the first place, but almost certainly the Sacramento gang will resurrect it again in 2019. Rendon, demonstrating he has not given up on implementing a public drinking water tax, said he plans on “building on the hard work of Senator Bill Monning and others in this area, Assemblymembers Eduardo Garcia and Heath Flora have agreed to lead our house’s safe water efforts.”

Sounds like a promise to me. Seems like the only time politicians are serious about keeping their promises is when it comes to taxes.

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

FAY LANPHIER: AN AMERICAN VENUS

by Sarah Nathe

As the Miss America pageant prepares for its annual show this Sunday in the wake of the #MeToo movement, it is trying to remake itself. Among its changes, Miss America 2.0, as it calls itself, has gotten rid of the swimsuit competition!

That made me think back to 1925, when the pageant didn’t pretend to be anything but a beauty contest (notwithstanding those ugly gabardine swimming suits), when a woman was a woman and a good cigar was a smoke, when Fay Lanphier, a 19-year-old “fair-skinned statuesque blonde” born on the Mendocino Coast, won the coveted title in Atlantic City and rode in Calvin Coolidge’s private railroad car to her ticker tape parade in New York City.

It’s a long way from Lansing Street to Fifth Avenue, and Fay didn’t get there on her good looks alone. She had ambition and an agent! Materials in the Kelley House Museum archives confirm her Mendocino pedigree.

Her maternal grandparents, Sven and Marie Olsen, lived in Caspar in the late 1880s; Sven worked in the mill and Marie ran a boarding house. Their youngest daughter, Emily, married one of the boarders, Percival C. Lanphier, about whom little is documented.

The couple moved to Elk, where their first child, Fay Elinora, was born in 1905; then they relocated to Mendocino, where Fay attended grammar school, and three or four more children were born.

At some point, the family left for Oakland; there, in 1920, Percival Lanphier died five days before the birth of his seventh child.

Fay attended Oakland High School with the goal of becoming a stenographer and contributing to the support of her family. During her high school years, however, the attractive Lanphier saw an opportunity for fame (and some prize money) in a titillating new phenomenon in the United States: beauty contests.

In 1921, the first “Atlantic City Pageant” was invented by the Chamber of Commerce there as a way to extend the tourist season past Labor Day. In 1924, hotel proprietors in Santa Cruz got into the beauty contest racket in order to kick off their tourist season; in early June the city hosted the first Miss California competition.

By then, Lanphier had managed to become Miss Alameda, and in Santa Cruz she triumphed over the other California girls. In Atlantic City that year she placed third, but she promised to return the following year. Serial attempts at coronation were permissible then, and Lanphier had begun to see that the Miss America title could launch her career in motion pictures, which she actually wanted more than a secretary’s job.

In June of 1925, true to her word, she won again in Santa Cruz and, having hired an agent, prepared to go to the East Coast for the pageant. Her agent had secured some sponsorships for her travel on a steamship through the Panama Canal and up to New Jersey. He published the schedule of her arrival in various ports, hoping to ensure that she’d arrive in Atlantic City already a celebrity. The publicity worked, and Lanphier the won the crown on a 12-3 vote.

Almost immediately, her agent arranged for her to be cast by Paramount Pictures in “The American Venus,” opposite Esther Ralston, Louise Brooks and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. The 1926 silent movie told the ostensibly gripping story of the keen competition between Miss Alabama (Lanphier) and Miss New Jersey (Ralston) for the title of Miss America, but unfortunately critics found it “a hit and miss story” that “slumps into the veriest buffoonery” and is “resolved most unsatisfactorily” by a car race.

Early proof that even great actors and world-class bathing beauties can’t transcend a lousy script.

Paramount did not renew her contract, and Lanphier’s film career was over, but she was always a Miss America, even as she labored for a number of years in a Hollywood studio as a secretary.

If you’d like to learn more about Fay Lanphier’s illustrious career(s), visit the Kelley House Museum archives weekdays between 1 and 4 p.m. Appointments are recommended. Please call 707-937-5791 or email info@kelleyhousemuseum.org.

(Sarah Nathe is the Kelley House Museum board secretary. Courtesy, the Kelley House Museum.)

CATCH OF THE DAY, September 9, 2018

CHRISTIAN ALFARO-REYES, Ukiah. DUI.

MICHELLE BRAZENEC, Redwood Valley. Embezzlement, petty theft.

ISAAC ISLAS, Covelo. Battery, street gang member, ammo possession by prohibited person.

GERARD LARVIE, Fort Bragg. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, controlled substance, paraphernalia.

TIFFANY LANGENDERFER, Laytonville. DUI.

JESUS LUGO, Ukiah. Domestic abuse, protective order violation.

DANIEL NELSON, Hartville, Ohio/Ukiah. Petty theft, saps or similar weapons, controlled substance, failure to appear, probation revocation.

DAVID NICKS, Fort Bragg. Trespassing, failure to appear, probation revocation.

JESSE NOVOA, Gerber/Redwood Valley. DUI, no license, operation of vehicle without license, probation revocation.

ROBERT NUTT III, Fort Bragg. Trespassing/refusing to leave.

WESTON RILEY*, Covelo. Attempted murder, felon with firearm, probation revocation.

SELAH WAKEFIELD, Willits. DUI, probation revocation.

PAULA WRIGHT, Sebastopol/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

SILAS YOUNG, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

* https://www.theava.com/archives/72825

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Virtue signaling about the abortion issue is merely that. They are using a psychologically traumatic situation to advance dubious causes. Truth be told, the morning after pill eliminates most but not all abortion issues. And once this becomes common knowledge and practice it will take care of the situation. Abortions take a very hard toll on women who’ve undergone the procedure. It never failed to happen when I counseled women on other matters entirely that at some point the long ago incident was brought up. There are a number of explanations for this, one of which I think merits attention is the instinctual role played in this destruction of life, one is going against species survival instincts.

COLIN KAEPERNICK WILL NOT BE SILENCED

by Dave Zirin

With a new ad by Nike, and new recriminations from the amoral White House, Colin Kaepernick has been the leading topic of conversation as the NFL season gets underway. But lost in the debates about his Nike campaign—and people setting fire to their own sneakers—is what is new about his collusion case against the NFL.

On Thursday of last week, NFL franchise owners were dealt a serious blow when their efforts to dismiss Kaepernick’s collusion case were denied by independent arbitrator Stephen Burbank. In his statement, released by Kaepernick’s attorney Mark Geragos, Burbank wrote, “On August 28, 2018, the System Arbitrator denied the NFL’s request that he dismiss Colin Kaepernick’s complaint alleging that his inability to secure a player contract since becoming a free agent in March 2017 has been due to an agreement among team owners and the NFL that violates Article 17, Section 1 of the collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and the NFLPA [union].”

The significance of the ruling is not only that the NFL’s efforts were stymied. The collective-bargaining agreement is central to the labor question in the arbitrator’s ruling. As NFL veteran Russell Okung tweeted, “What started as a protest to highlight systemic injustice, continues to evolve & now encompass a legit labor dispute. Encouraged by the System Arbitrator’s level headed interpretation of the CBA & decision to deny the NFL’s request to dismiss @Kaepernick7’s case. Huge! #ImWithKap”

If NFL owners were savvy, rather than mostly legacy billionaires who live in fear of Donald Trump’s tweets, they would make every effort at this point to settle with Kaepernick. Geragos and his investigators have now been sanctioned to dig even deeper, to depose owners and executives and excavate the shadowy corners of the league that NFL owners seem to think is their birthright to keep hidden — that means e-mails, phone records, text messages. In addition, if found guilty of collusion — if Geragos can summon smoking-gun evidence, a whistle-blower or some tangible proof — the verdict could invalidate the league’s collective-bargaining agreement with the players’ union two and a half years before it is due to expire in 2021. With the season about to get underway, the NFL Players Association would have the ownership over the proverbial barrel.

But NFL owners’ settling this case would be more surprising than a Cleveland Browns Super Bowl run. This is a predominantly conservative ownership fraternity that has a reservoir of cultural capital invested in making an example out of Colin Kaepernick. They need him to be a ghost story, a cautionary tale that can be used against any player who even dreams of using the NFL as a political platform to speak out against racism.

Already, this strategy has proven to be disastrous. Kaepernick has instead become first a martyr, someone whose memory inspired players to keep protesting last season, and then an icon of resistance, the kind of person who gets standing ovations at the US Open.

Even if NFL owners come to their senses and offer a settlement, Colin Kaepernick is not going to settle. He clearly believes that this is about more than money. It is about police violence and being vocal for those who don’t have a voice. It is about standing up to this idea that billionaires seem to have that they can silence whomever they want without repercussions. This is so much bigger than the NFL. We are about to witness a case that will determine whether the powerful can treat free speech as a privilege. Colin Kaepernick is determined to define it as a right.

MEMO OF THE AIR

La très belle femme qui ne dit jamais merci.  

The recording of last night's (2018-09-07) KNYO Fort Bragg and KMEC  Ukiah Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show is available by one or two  clicks, depending on whether you want to listen to it now or download it  and keep it for later and, speaking of which, it's right here: https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0297

I read almost everything I had to read, and then played an episode of  The Black Museum, narrated by Orson Welles, and brought it in just under  eight hours. Couple of calls. Visits from Molly and Jon, and Lucky Otis,  who's playing tonight 7pm to 9pm at Icons in Mendocino, and for a change  I can actually go this time, so I'm going there as soon as I press send.  Maybe I'll see you. I'll be the guy in the clothes I slept in all this  week between jobs, with the Christopher Walken thousand-yard stare,  calling out for more cowbell.

In other news: Also at http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you cam find a  fresh batch of dozens of links to not necessarily radio-useful but  nonetheless worthwhile items I set aside for you while gathering the  show together, things where just hearing about it wouldn't be enough.

Such as:

CRISPER-Cas9.

https://tinyurl.com/CRISPER-Cas9-acapella

Seas of abandoned Chinese bicycles.

http://www.faithistorment.com/2018/06/the-beauty-of-chinas-bicycle-graveyards.html

The bridge tongues.

https://theawesomer.com/the-bridge-tongues/492304/

And photographs of famous people down through the ages eating hotdogs.

https://tinyurl.com/CelebrityEatsHotDog

Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org

FROM THE UNZ REVIEW...

"The purpose of this is stunningly obvious. The New York Times has already done yeoman service in rounding up liberal Democrats and left-leaning independents in the anti-Trump lynch mob. But now the ploy is to rally conservative Republicans to the same cause of overthrowing the elected President. The letter amounts to an endorsement of future President Pence. Just get rid of Trump and you’ll have a nice, neat, ultra-right-wing Republican as President."

"The New York Times as Iago" by Diana Johnstone: unz.com/article/the-new-york-times-as-iago/

Steinbeck’s “Charley” (LordHarris/Creative Commons)

AMAZON: BOO

Editor,

I give two big thumbs down to the news that retail giant Amazon will now be subcontracting its delivery service to private drivers using vans with its ubiquitous A to Z logo. In turning away from organized drivers of the US Postal Service, UPS and FedEx, the world’s richest person, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, is continuing to show his animus toward labor unions that negotiate decent wages and benefits for their workers. Now, both Amazon warehouse employees and drivers will be given lower pay and inadequate workplace protections. This proud union member says: “Boo To Bezos.”

Fred Van Vliet

Petaluma

SEPTEMBER 9, 1943 — The reactions of San Francisco’s Italians to the surrender of Italy boil down to “the greatest thing that has happened to Italy.” In “Little Italy” they expected this to happen and wondered why it had taken so long, but feared for the future of their father’s or grandfather’s native land. “Main Street of Little Italy” was bare of any midday observance of the collapse of Italy. It seemed that North Beach was too busy working for the war effort and its younger members were away in distant army camps or on foreign shores fighting the battle against Fascism. Papa DiMaggio, father of three major league baseball players, a native of Italy, proudly wore twin service stars for two sons, Joe and Dominic. Tom DiMaggio paused at the family restaurant long enough to express their feelings about the surrender. “It is the finest thing that has happened to Italy,” said Tom DiMaggio. “There is not an Italian in all of North Beach who isn’t in favor of Italy’s final withdrawal. We who are Americans have felt that Italy was tricked into certain defeat by the politicians who ruled the country at the time. The defeat of Italy began when Mussolini joined Germany in the war.”

SF Chronicle