Mendocino County Today: Friday, Oct. 26, 2018

• Mild Dry
• 128 Collision
• Psych Unit
• Little Dog
• Ed Notes
• Haunted Hall
• Sheriff Haney
• Old Voices
• Ribald Fun
• Pumpkin Party
• Manager Miller
• Yesterday's Catch
• Trump Uninformed
• Permenatly
• Ballot Guide
• Creepy Gavin
• Yaz Reblocked
• Rethinking Wildfires
• Soros Cockroaches
• Hackers
• Haircut
• Foodshed Events
• Radio Shows
• Careful Reading
• Colorado Springs
• Oregon Fir
• Marjorie Prime
• Jack o'plenty
• Assessment Appeals
• Human Voice

TEMPERATURES WILL WARM slightly Friday and Saturday across the interior, with highs expected to be in the mid 70s to low 80s. Cooler conditions will then follow, along with increasing rain chances as a cold front moves across the region late Saturday night into Sunday. Mild and dry conditions will then develop over the area Tuesday and Wednesday. (National Weather Service)

TWO VEHICLE 'HEAD-ON' CRASH ON HWY 128 NEAR GOWAN'S STAND THURSDAY MORNING

From scanner chatter it seems two patients will be transported by ambulance from the scene - one by air ambulance CalStar 4 and the other by ground ambulance.

There is fog at the accident scene so CalStar 4 will look for an area to land. They should be in the area @ 7:53 am.

At 7:47 am, a first responder said, "per ambulance #7420, you can cancel the air ambulance." The Anderson Valley ambulance will transport "two plus two" to the Boonville Fairgrounds to meet the Advanced Life Support ambulance from Ukiah. They asked permission to "mark & move" the vehicles as CHP was still en route to the scene. They received permission.

The vehicles were described as a black Chevy pickup truck and a silver Chevy Tahoe.

The Anderson Valley Fire Department “terminated” the “Fruit IC” and we’re clear of the scene & available @ 8:18 am.

(MendocinoSportsPlus)

WHERE TO PUT THE PSYCH UNIT

“Faced with meeting state-mandated seismic requirements, Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital and its operating company, Adventist Health, have opted to rebuild rather than retrofit, a project of significant scope for health care in rural Mendocino County, officials said. The 25-bed critical care hospital, built in 1928 by the owner of famed racing horse Seabiscuit, is currently about 30,000 square feet.” (Santa Rosa Press Democrat, June 2011)

IT’S LOOKING LIKE SEISMIC requirements will be a pivotal issue in the Measure B/Psychiatric Health Facility (PHF) process. As best we can tell from piecing together a few on-line fragments, the old Howard Hospital had received at least two specific state-sponsored extensions of the deadline to meet the seismic requirements of SB-1953 passed in 1994 after the big SoCal Northridge earthquake.

THE BILL created the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) in 1995 which proceeded to evaluate every health facility in the state for seismic safety. The old Howard Hospital was rated a “2,” (out of five) which meant it had to be retrofitted or abandoned by 2020 (or later with extensions).

CONGRESSMAN Mike Thompson even succeeded in getting a half-million dollar subsidy to help finance Old Howard Hospital’s seismic retrofit. But the Adventists declined that grant and decided that they needed a larger facility in Willits — more than double the old hospital’s size.

THE ADVENTISTS ended up building a new hospital that was cheaper than retrofitting and expanding the old one.

THEN WE LOOKED at the state’s list of health facilities and their 1-5 ratings.

https://oshpd.ca.gov/ml/v1/resources/document?rs:path=/Construction-And-Finance/Documents/Seismic-Compliance/SPC-NPC-Ratings-List.pdf

Interestingly, the acute psych facilities in the list show that they have seismic ratings of N/A, not applicable.

EARLY in the Measure B meetings we learned that a construction consultant for Margie Handley’s Hospital Foundation had irked Willits planners by asking questions about how to get around Willits building codes and requirements, and there was some implication that one of the requirements they wanted to get around was the seismic standards.

THEN WILLITS wrote a strongly worded memo to the County saying that they expected any construction or remodel within Willits City Limits would comply with Willits codes and standards.

THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, at the request of Supervisor John McCowen, decided that Willits deserved a formal answer to their memo and asked County Counsel Katherine Elliott to prepare one. A couple of weeks later Elliott came back with “no answer,” saying that there was as yet no proposal on the table concerning Willits or old Howard Hospital. Instead of replying to Willits with, “Of course we will comply with all applicable standards,” the Supes decided to leave the question open, giving Willits the impression that the County might still try to evade the Willits/seismic requirements.

NEXT WAS CONSULTANT LEE KEMPER’S construction cost estimate for a new 16-bed Psychiatric Health Facility. It showed that a new facility would be several million dollars cheaper than remodeling Old Howard Hospital. Kemper also suggested that the County put out a Request For Proposals for bids on a new PHF to validate Kemper’s estimates. No action on that so far, nor is any action expected in the near future.

SUPPORTERS of remodeling the Old Howard Hospital, including Sheriff/Measure B Committee Chair Tom Allman, say that because it already exists old Howard would be a good choice for a County PHF since reconfiguring an existing structure could be done sooner than building a new facility.

BUT IF OLD HOWARD has to meeting seismic requirements Allman's presumption becomes invalid and new construction at another location would be faster and cheaper.

ON THE OTHER HAND, if, as the OSHPD list of facilities indicates, acute psych facilities do not have to meet SB-1953 OSHPD seismic requirements, then old Howard Hospital would remain a good option (excluding other factors that remain unknown so far).

SO PRETTY SOON the Measure B committee needs to find out if Old Howard Hospital really needs to meet SB-1953 seismic requirements if it is converted into a PHF. If it does, it will probably have to be taken off the table as a PHF option. If not, the questions of cost and schedule need to be independently established.

IF THE MEASURE B COMMITTEE could so easily and casually spend $68k on Kemper’s Needs Assessment, it would seem that the logical next step would be to hire a construction planning consultant and get some of these construction questions answered. If it’s left up to the Measure B committee itself, or the County bureaucracy, we’re going to be groping in the dark without a PHF for years.

PS. If it’s really so important that a PHF is up and running soon, there’s what we call “The McGourty Option,” a leased or purchased mobile PHF unit available from existing commercial sources, sized, presumably, to handle Mendo’s existing 5150 caseload at about 8 beds. Buy it, install it in Ukiah or Willits, get Ms. Schrader to staff it (if that’s the idea) and find out what’s involved with the operation of a PHF now so that when the construction or remodel and location decisions have to be made, there’s some current experience to base them on.

(Mark Scaramella)

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “"Yo, Skrag! What would you do if you won the lottery?" He says, ‘First thing I'd have you disappeared, shorty.’ This is what I live with, my friends. You should know if something happens to me.”

ED NOTES

CUI BONO SWEEPSTAKES. Trumpians benefit from the hysteria about the march of Central Americans to the Mex-America border, while Democrats benefit from the pipe bombs mailed to their herd bulls. I pronounce it a wash.

* * *

DAVID THOMAS, a senior official at the VA in Washington, has removed the portrait of Nathan Bedford Forrest after staff started a petition demanding he take it down. Thomas said he had no idea who Forrest was. I do, though. Widely credited with founding the Klan, Forrest was a Civil War general and slave trader who died a liberal, lamenting the racist crimes of his youth. He should be celebrated as an example of how some people can grow and change.

* * *

BILLIONAIRE Salesforce's Marc Benioff has pledged $2 million in support of Proposition C, San Francisco's ballot measure that would tax the biggest businesses in San Francisco for roughly an annual $300 million for homeless programs. But the city's Chamber of Commerce says millions of dollars suddenly plunged into the city's existing homeless programs would attract more homeless people to the city, but the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness insists their community-based organizations claim the money would clear the streets of the thousands of wandering wounded. (And pay them.)

THE ONLY THING that will get the houseless off the streets is a crash program to shelter the thousands of utterly lost free range drunks and dope casualties while simultaneously re-opening hospital programs for the hopelessly deranged. Simply shoveling money into the present-day Industrial Homeless Complex will not get a single doomed soul off the streets.

DITTO for Mendocino County where a consultant, Mr. Marbut, was handsomely paid by our Supervisors to draft a plan to reduce the number of people living out of doors here. Basically, Marbut advised charity for our homegrown cripples while providing a meal or two for professional mooches prior to sending them down the road. Mendo's helping pros, fearing a loss of control over their funding units, quickly organized a mass meeting to denounce Marbut, and here we are with no changes in homeless policy and none specifically planned.

LESS SCARY TO VERY SCARY

There are only 3 more days of the amazing Haunted Hall of Horrors! Tonight (Friday, Oct. 26) and tomorrow (Saturday, Oct. 27) from 7 to 10 pm and on Halloween (Wednesday, Oct. 31) from 6 to 7 pm (less scary) and very scary from 7 to 10 pm. This is a very scary attraction and not meant for young children. Kids under 10 must be accompanied by an adult.

For kids under 10 - the first 100 who attend the C.V. Starr Community Center's Halloween party on Saturday, Oct. 27 (from 1 to 4 pm) - will get a FREE ticket to enjoy the not-so-scary haunted house on Halloween from 6 to 7 PM. They must be accompanied by an adult (1 adult per 2 children) - and can enjoy the wonderful special effects, without the pop scares!

Cost: Adults $13/Advance $15 at door - Youth (under 16) $8/Advance $10 at door. Advance tickets available at Harvest Market/Boatyard or online squareup.com/store/fort-bragg-lions-and-leo-club

Our newest addition to the Haunted Hall of Horrors is our Escape Room! For an additional $8 per person ($40 for full team) teams of up to 5 that go through the Haunted House are then trapped in a room for up to 10 minutes and must solve clues to escape. Each night, the team that escapes the fastest will win a prize! Escape room reservations required and can be purchased online https://squareup.com/store/fort-bragg-lions-and-leo-club/. You can also reserve your time slot, the night of the event, but they are going fast, so reserving online is highly recommended. Friday prizes (and thank you to our generous donors!) Gift cards from Coast Cinemas and Cowlicks. Saturday prizes: Gift cards from All Aboard Adventures (towards whale watching or fishing trips) Halloween prizes: Gift cards from Fort Bragg Feed and Pet plus a few more surprises!

Proceeds from this event benefit Footlighters, Three Rivers Charter School and the Fort Bragg Leo Club's projects: Free Easter Egg Hunt, vocational scholarships, gifts for patients at Shriners Hospital for Children and youth projects on the Mendocino Coast.

More info: hauntedhallofhorrors.com

WHAT’S UP WITH THE TRINITY COUNTY SHERIFF?

Mad over marijuana and money, this Northern California sheriff may have walked off the job – but is still being paid…

sacbee.com/news/investigations/article220551160.html

THOSE WERE THE DAYS

Dear Mr. Anderson:

Thank you so much for the continual effort in putting out a local paper that is entertaining, informative and keeps alive the “old voices” of the coast. It was a delight to see Crawdad Nelson in print. I knew him well for a number of years. The last news I had of him was that he was living with a teacher in Sacramento, a suitable profession for a poet.

I was also close to Leonard Cirino, Theresa Whitehill, and the great poetry wars of HSU. Like the sexual revolution, I never got off a shot. I was introduced to Beth Bosk and subscribed to her New Settler Interview until the interview with Sharon Doubiago, “The Blond Arcane.” Then the world went to hell and I cried when Alexander Cockburn died. Crawdad started a novel under the name of Dale Nelson. Leonard died and the only poetry written these days is digital nightmares of on and off switches and the disassociations of adolescent minds. More people write it than read it.

Keep shining the lantern in the dark to find that “honest man.” Hopefully he will not be armed.

Dave McCain

Richmond

BARS, BORDELLOS, MUSHROOMS & ALE, 5-7PM

Discover the aphrodisiac properties of mushrooms while sipping limited edition Frolic Ale – Scottish Wee Heavy at the Kelley House Museum on Saturday, November 3, from 5-7 p.m. Join Madame Kate for an evening of ribald fun and go back in time to the wild days of the 1800s when Mendocino was a rough and ready logging town with twenty bars — ten were on Main Street alone! Most doubled as bordellos, offering “sporting women” for hire in the upstairs rooms. Mendocino was so wild that the city fathers voted Local Option in 1909, making Mendocino a dry town ten years before Prohibition.

The evening begins with complimentary artisan mushroom appetizers and a glass of wine when the doors open at five o’clock. At 5:15 p.m., Alison Gardner and Fern Tahja will introduce you to the pleasures of wild mushrooms found in the area, including the Candy Cap properties that incited carnal appetites. The two locals will also discuss cooking with mushrooms and their medicinal use.

Next up is the exclusive opportunity to taste the new Frolic Ale – Scottish Wee Heavy, custom crafted by Drew’s Brews. Yeast sediment from the 1996 Frolic Shipwreck Ale, created by the now defunct Mendocino Brewing Company, was included in the making of this beer. The clipper ship Frolic wrecked off the Mendocino Coast in 1850 just north of today’s Point Cabrillo Light Station, which did not exist until 1909. A salvage party from San Francisco, led by Mendocino founding pioneer Jerome Ford, failed in its quest to find cargo from the Frolic, which went down with 6,000 cases of Edinburgh ale aboard. Instead, the men discovered a far more lucrative treasure: the vast and mighty redwood forest. The Frolic Ale – Scottish Wee Heavy will also be available in very limited quantities via a Silent Auction, along with one premium package containing both the original rare Frolic Shipwreck Ale and the tribute Frolic Ale 2018.

Then, sit back and prepare to laugh until you cry as Madame Kate escorts you into the bawdy world of “soiled doves” and saloons where “companionship for a price” was a way of life in 19th century Mendocino.

Admission for adults only is $25 and advance tickets are urged. Last year’s show sold out. For more information or to order tickets, call 707-937-5791.

https://www.kelleyhousemuseum.org/mushrooms

(Ed note: “Madame Kate” is AVA history contributor Katy Tahja.)

TABATHA TO THE RESCUE

by Rex Gressett

The Fort Bragg City Council met Monday night for the last time in its current incarnation. A new City Council will be elected in two weeks and one day.

It was an extremely low key meeting as Council meetings go. It was as if everyone was taking a breath and waiting for the new Councilpeople to arrive with new ideas or take the blame for things gone wrong.

The candidates were all in attendance, as were the Fort Bragg High School visitors from our Japanese sister city of Otsuchi who filled most of the seats in the audience. They were dressed in fetching purple kimono jackets that radiated the incandescence of youth. After an expression of appreciation, and possibly before the Mayor could react, the kids spontaneously offered their appreciation for their hosts.

Mayor Peters, who has banned clapping at Council meetings, declined to gavel down the youthful exuberance. Other than the kids, the officials on the dais were almost numerically balanced with the Candidates in the audience, supplemented only by a few random attendees.

When the Mayor's appreciation for the visitors had ended, Town Hall quickly emptied. (I'm sure much of Fort Bragg watches local government meetings on the internet.) There was almost nothing on the agenda that inspired passion — the Starr Center made a preliminary pitch for swimming pool funding, and there was a zoning change.

You had to wait for the end of the meeting to hear the performance evaluation of our new City Manager. It was actually the evening's main event, but not wasn’t until almost everyone had left. Although the evaluation was absent superlatives, it's clear the new City Manager deserves a trophy.

The new City Manager, Tabatha Miller, received only a bland acknowledgment from the Council that she has already racked up several major successes.

Taken in order of magnitude, City Manager Miller faced down the most aggressive assault on local sovereignty and the worst financial threat to the city in our history, the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA) — a bit of a joke in Fort Bragg from its announcement to its ignominious resolution. The only consequence of the lawsuit was to hire an expert demographer to tell us we had no identifiable Hispanic neighborhood. That statement of the obvious cost Fort Bragg $35,000 and to pay attorney Jacob Patterson to go away.

The last time I saw the fortunate attorney at Headlands Coffee, he bought the coffee. There is a committee in formation which will somberly assess the demographic facts that Patterson's opportunistic invocation of state law required and then do nothing.

Fort Bragg got off easy. 200 cities school boards and agencies have coughed up big bucks, far in excess of the paltry extortion we endured in our little village. $3 million, $5 million, $2 million — the hits on California cities were considerable. Every one of them was forced to change the fundamental structure of their election process. The CVRA has been a body blow to democracy in California. Every city that fought back lost in court; every city that resisted was court ordered to dumb down their electoral system. Every city but one.

Tabatha Miller 1. The whole thing passed through the public consciousness with only a ripple of indignation. The CRVA lawsuit was irrational on the face of it, preposterous in its substance and wicked in its intention. Before the City could get its collective head around the inevitability of state coercion, and impending financial ruin, City Manager Tabatha Miller negotiated us out of it. That has never happened in California before.

True, she had the advantage of defending a city noted for its respect and inclusion of its Hispanic minority as a secret committee of the self-certified righteous falsely alleged that bigotry was pervasive in Fort Bragg. The Committee for Responsive Representation that foisted attorney Patterson upon us was from the outset so insecure, hesitant and generally embarrassed that they never revealed their names.

Ms. Miller spent I don’t know how many tedious hours in patient discussion with Patterson and, by his own admission, won him over, and ducked the bullet aimed at the heart of local democracy. The cost was extremely minimal in consideration of the magnitude of the threat.

Mayor Peters seems to think he did it. He dropped out of the safe harbor provision that would have forced districting and saved the City from financial collapse. The mayor was apparently unaware that 200 cities with excellent attorneys, public support and millions of dollars to spend had all fallen like bowling pins. The Mayor was not deterred. He forthrightly committed the city to the likelihood of bankruptcy like a tipsy sailor walking the plank. Ms. Miller saved him from himself and she saved us.

The other achievement of the City Manager that stands out is the novelty of financial solvency. To briefly recap: During the administration of previous City Manager Linda Ruffing, the City of Fort Bragg suffered a persistent deficit. The last ten years of the financial administration of Fort Bragg were written in red ink. The striking irony of the red ink era was the reputation of Ms. Ruffing for brilliant financial management. The fact that she kept the lights turned on when all hope of solvent survival was lost after the GP mill shutdown was taken as evidence of her fiscal wizardry.

The City was systematically misled. Ms. Ruffing's personal friendship with the apparently endless tenure of the Fort Bragg Advocate’s editor Sharon DiMuro was extremely useful in the creation of the Ruffing myth.

In addition to a budget deficit protracted for a decade, $3 million was misallocated in a supposed “bookkeeping error” while personnel at City Hall were acquired by Ms. Ruffing's personal invitation at a brisk and jolly rate. Fort Bragg acquired an inspiring array of electronic cars, and toys of various kinds all bought with an eye towards fun, little consideration, and no common sense. By the time Ruffing was finally fired, (voluntarily terminated) the City Council was forced to openly acknowledge the ominous impending State CalPers (government employees pension fund ) contribution that would force the City into bankruptcy. Mayor Peters handled that inevitability like the captain of the Titanic.

Enter Tabatha Miller. The City now has a balanced budget, the CalPers contribution has been thriftily absorbed in the budget and the City Council has been permitted to go back to sleep. There have, however, been costs. The Fort Bragg Police department is in crisis with the cops working 50 or 60 hour weeks. And every department in the City is still laboring to pay off Ruffing's $3 million misallocation. But the budget is balanced and survival is assured.

Hiring Tabatha Miler was possibly the all-time best decision not only of this City Council but of any City Council. They have been gratified and proud to take the credit for all of her achievements which I guess is fair since they had the gumption or the desperation to dump the Ruffing and the wit to perceive Ms. Miller's talent. Other than Tabitha's relentless progress I am unaware of any substantive policy, initiative or proposal that has actually come out of the City Council. They hired Tabatha Miller. Job done.

CATCH OF THE DAY, October 25, 2018

DANIEL ALONSO, Fort Bragg. Rape by force, violence, duress, menace, fear of bodily injury; unlawful sexual intercourse with minor.

FERAS ASFOUR, Talmage, Controlled substance, failure to appear, offenses while on bail.

CHRISTINE BRUNNER, Redwood Valley. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

TRISHA BURRIS, Eureka/Ukiah. Polluting state waters, appropriation of someone else’s property without trying to return it, trespassing.

SAMAYA CLEARWATER, Willits. DUI, DUI with blood-alcohol over .15%, domestic battery, protective order violation, resisting, probation revocation.

KEVIN DAHLUND, Martinez/Redwood Valley. County parole violation.

STEVEN KING, Ukiah. Polluting state waters, controlled substance, trespassing.

EVERARDO OLVERA JR., Albion. Failure to appear.

ARLIE ORTIZ, Ukiah. Trespassing/Refusing to leave, probation revocation.

HEATHER SILVEY, San Jose/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

KRISTINE TUPPER, Ukiah. Controlled substance, trespassing/refusing to leave, probation revocation.

CLARENCE WRIGHT, Willits. Failure to appear.

CAL FIRE Chief calls President Trump’s wildfire claims “uninformed.”

wildfiretoday.com/2018/10/20/cal-fire-chief-calls-president-trumps-wildfire-claims-uninformed/

GONE, BUT NOT FORGETIN.

ROD'S PURDYGUD 2018 BALLOT GUIDE

Friends,

Every two years, I’m asked by a handful of folks for an opinion on the ballot props. As usual, the density and number of this year’s makes for difficult reading. So I did my study work on things this past week and, after completing this Guide for those who asked for one, I decided to circulate it to a broader circles of friends. All of whom have a handy-dandy “del” key on the keyboard, usually upper right, that can be freely used if you have no interest and I’ll never know. On the other hand, maybe it will help you plow through it all.

Rodney R. Jones
P.O. Box 189
Mendocino, CA 95460
707.937.0549

Rod's Nov Prop Guide

IMMEDIATELY!

Letter to J. Parker and kzyx/z

(If you agree that this censorship is not right, please contact the station and say so. I thank you.)

Dear Jeffrey Parker,

You have once again blocked my phone number from our radio station, of which I was a founding member, ten year plus programmer, great fund raiser (do you know how many benefits I put together for kzyx/z?), constant financial supporter, and intelligent and informative participant in your talk shows, until you banned me.

I am requesting a MEDIATION with you and Alice, to solve whatever problems and issues you have with me. I am more than willing to agree to your rules, whatever they might be. I want to be able to add my voice and my knowledge to your call in programs, especially at this most critical time in our county, with this upcoming election.

It seems unconscionable for you to silence me, period, for whatever "crimes" against you and Alice and our station, especially at this crucial juncture in our nation's and the world's history, when we need as many intelligent, informed voices on our airwaves as possible.

I beg you Jeffrey Parker for a MEDIATION with you, Alice, and anyone else you wish to participate, so that my voice may return to our airwaves immediately. The election is in less than 2 weeks! I beg you to please UNBLOCK my telephone immediately!

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

DJ Sister Yasmin, 707-884-4703

WE MUST CHANGE OUR MEDIEVAL APPROACH TO WILDFIRES

by George Wuerthner

In medieval societies, if someone were sick, the common solution was to bleed the patient to rid the body of “bad” blood. If the patient recovered, then obviously bleeding was the cure. If the patient died, it was because not enough of the “bad” blood had been removed.

In many ways, our approach to wildfire and smoke is like medieval blood-letting.

People are desperate to curtail the smoke, fires, and inconvenient created by wildfire so they grasp at anything that promises a “cure.”

The common refrain we hear over and over is that we only “actively managed” forests to reduce fuels than we would “cure” the perceived smoke and fire problem.

Yet despite the millions of acres we have already treated thinning/logging and “active” management like prescribed burns we continue to see large wildfires across the West.

Most “active” management proponents believe the failure of the logging cure is mostly due to insufficient treatment—just like the medieval doctors whose patients died because they didn’t remove enough of the “bad” blood.

But just as medieval doctors had little understanding of the disease and how to treat it, most “active” management advocates fail to appreciate the cause of our large fires.

What drives large wildfires is climate/weather, not fuels. When you have extreme fire weather conditions of drought, high temperatures, low humidity and high winds, almost nothing short of a change in weather will stop a blaze. With climate change, all of these factors are exacerbated.

When we have fires that regularly jump across major rivers (like the Eagle Fire in Oregon that jumped the Columbia River) or the Thomas Fire by Santa Barbara, California that was only halted when it reached the Pacific Ocean (the only firebreak that held), one recognizes that fuel treatments are a placebo at best. They may make us feel good, but they don’t do much to halt large conflagrations across the landscape.

Not only do we spend tax money on inefficient and ineffective treatments, but there is also collateral damage that results from the thinning/logging. Essentially, we lose native forests, and the biodiversity they support and replace them with domesticated human-created landscapes.

Logging/thinning removes nutrients, biomass, carbon, can harm forest stand genetics, and disrupts watersheds, disturbs wildlife, helps to spread weeds, and compact soils. Not to mention that wildfire is critical to many plants and animals which depend on episodic mixed to high severity fires.

Furthermore, most federal timber sales lose money as well, so we are spending tax dollars on a “cure” that at best is questionable, if not futile.

Thus, there is really only two workable solutions. The first is learning to live with fire by making our homes and communities less vulnerable to blazes. This has been shown repeatedly to be the most cost-effective and efficient means of coping with wildfire.

The second part of the solution is more long-term. Since warming climate is contributing to increased fire on the landscape, reducing human-caused CO2 inputs will significantly reduce wildfire over time.

(George Wuerthner has published 36 books including Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy. He serves on the board of the Western Watersheds Project. Courtesy, CounterPunch.org.)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Here they come! Yes, by the time they get here… maybe tomorrow since they are being personally chauffeured to the border by Soros… by tomorrow there will be millions of them, maybe over one billion. All seven billion people on Earth want to come to the USA. Remember that.

Be afraid, very afraid, of these short poor brown women. They are probably just the vanguard mob and even bigger mobs will follow if Trump doesn’t stop them cold at the border. Setting up machine guns seems inefficient. Just nuke ’em all right there at the border.

No, wait, that would leave a big hole in the wall for succeeding waves of lawless mobs to come swarming over the border like cockroaches… I don’t know if I will be able to sleep tonight just knowing how the mobs are growing by the minute, all the while being fed and transported in luxury by Soros.

“His burger was undercooked, he’s playing golf this weekend… Now he’s back to complaining about the New York Times article on his cell phone.”

A PRATING BARBER asked Archelaus how he would be trimmed. He answered, “In silence.”

— Plutarch

PLANTING THE SEEDS

Seeds that are adapted to a local area and can be collected and re-planted each year are likely to be healthier plants, produce more vegetables, and have strong roots that dig deeper into the soil to fortify their fruits with more vitamins and minerals. Without having to be stored, transported, and displayed at grocery stores the produce retains that nutrition for your eating pleasure and helps support our local economy.

AV Foodshed’s C’mon Home To Eat month in October has centered on local food from local venues, emphasizing Anderson Valley products but stretching out to source from other parts of Mendocino County as well. We’ve had a whole month’s calendar of what’s happening in AV around home meals, restaurant/store offerings, a Health Center Harvest Fair, bringing extra produce to the Food Bank, pertinent radio broadcasts, gleaning, farm stands are encouragement for a connection with local food and its myriad advantages.

The fourth and final week continues the celebrations and camaraderie:

10/24 Mosswood’s and Pilar’s weekly local soup and salad special

10/25 The Anderson Valley Foodshed invites you to a special, cozy evening celebrating local food, farmers, and community at the Boonville Hotel/Table 128. The proceeds will go to the Fresh Food in the Schools program and towards reprinting the local food guide. Please make reservations at 895-2210.

10/26 The Boonville General Store will be serving pizza (or you can take it out)with the crust made from Mendocino Grain Project’s heritage wheat flour. There will also be pumpkin carving for all ages.

10/27 37th Annual Chestnut Gathering at the Zeni Ranch from 10:30-4. Bring a local food potluck item for the lunch, gloves to de-burr chestnuts, walking shoes for the ranch tour, and an appetite for chestnuts roasted on an open fire.

10/27 Blue Meadow Gleaning Party from 9:00 a.m. Come help pull out the veggies and flowers, and reap the bounty. 895-2071

10/27 20% off on seeds and plants at AV Farm Supply

Daily specials at the Boonville General Store

All month at Boont Berry—apple desserts with local flour

Hot apple cider at Paysanne all month

Local salad bar and fruit at the high school cafeteria lunches

AV Foodshed apple press available for use 895-2949 or avfoodshed@gmail.com

You’ll find more information about all these activities at www.avfoodshed.com. And remember to fill out a raffle ticket when you attend events for a drawing with dinners at the Boonville Hotel and Bewildered Pig, plus gift certificates at local farm stands.

A MARTIAL INTERLUDE. THE RECORDING.

Here’s the with-studio-audience live recording of Mervin Gilbert’s War of the Worlds! 7pm Wednesday 2018-10-24 in Mendocino Theater Company’s Helen Schoeni Theater. It was meant to go out live on KNYO-LP Fort Bragg, but the web connection at the theater went south, as they say. Dang it, Marco, breathe, let go of it, it’s in the past now, whew.

https://tinyurl.com/MervinGilbertWOTW

The next live radio show from MTC, and another try at doing live radio drama on KNYO from the theater, might be November 14, when MTC presents Destry Rides Again. It would be great if Joe Wagner will again let us step on the heart of his Wednesday night airtime to do this, but if you know any radio people you know that’s a great deal to ask, so. In any case, you can put your cowboy butt in a fancy theater seat for Destry Rides Again, Helen Schoeni Theater, Mendocino Art Center, 7pm 2018-11-14. Box office number: 707 937-4477.

Marco McClean
memo@mcn.org
https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

THE TWO-HEADED RIGHT

by Jeff Costello

I was going to say "extreme" right but that would have implied nazi salutes and torch marches. This is the mainstream right, which isn't that far from extreme any more. It was interesting to read about Marilyn Davin's visit to Jerry Philbrick, and to note that politics were not really discussed. Philbrick came off as a nice guy, a "regular Joe," even pleasant.

It reminded me of a recent visit we made to Colorado Springs, according to Yahoo the 4th most conservative city in the U.S. Previously, the only thing I knew about "The Springs" was that the great guitarist Johnny Smith had a music store there, sometime back when. Musicians are not generally thought of as political, but run the gamut from Joan Baez on the reasonable left to Ted Nugent on the extreme right, so much so that Trump had him over to the White House for a visit.

Colorado Springs has a huge evangelical population and a military base. It is 78 per cent white. True to form, it was, in the Jimmy Swaggart mode, the place where a preacher named Ted Haggard was caught with a male prostitute and a stash of methamphetamine. This reminded me - again - of the billboards on Interstate 30 in Arkansas, every other one for Jesus or a porn shop. The Springs is home to "Focus on the Family," whatever that may mean - but it looks like an overgrown business complex, and Haggard operated from there. One can often assume a layer of filth not far beneath the surface of out-front religious enterprises. "Do as I say, not as I do."

Interstate 25 runs north/south and basically divides Colorado in two. To the west, the mountains. To the east it's basically Kansas, geographically and culturally. Back to Philbrick, the article suggested a man with two heads. Not a split personality but two separate heads, one for day-to-day living and another to express political thoughts. The nice guy and the killer of liberals. Do the heads talk to each other?

The invitation to Colorado Springs came from a woman I had known in Hawaii, in the early 80's. She was having a housewarming party and wanted to temporarily revive the musical relationship we'd had back then. We would entertain the guests, most of whom they knew from the nearby country club where she and her second husband play golf. Golf and country club - it was a long way from life in the Big Island rural subdivision where growing marijuana was the major source of income. She and her first husband sold off the Big Island property and moved to Honolulu where he would be a computer professor.

Between that and the Colorado Springs location, with a second (ex-military) husband and a country club, where they play golf and from which their new friendships as newcomers to town were based, it was no surprise that the guests were all white and winging on the right. Comments overheard included something about "liberals who drink the Kool-aid." The only political thing heard all night. Which kool-aid was that, I wondered. Of course I knew politics would not be discussed. We slept in one of the three extra bedrooms, and in the morning, I went downstairs and hubby number two was glued to the TV watching Fox News.

My old friend had crossed over into another world, into which I would never fit. Lucky, I would not have to deal with the God Bless Trump head on these people. Just the Nice Person head. We had a nice breakfast and hit the road.

A SINGLE OREGON FIR cut in sections for transportation. Postcard from 1910.

THE MENDOCINO THEATRE COMPANY'S PRODUCTION OF MARJORIE PRIME, MUST CLOSE THIS WEEKEND!

It’s 2062, the age of artificial intelligence, and 85-year-old Marjorie (Ruby Bell Sherpa) — a jumble of disparate, fading memories — has a handsome new companion (Jesse Bevan) who is programmed to feed the story of her life back to her. What would we remember, and what would we forget, if given the chance? This richly spare and wondrous play by Jordan Harrison explores the mysteries of human identity and the limits of what technology can replace.

Marjorie Prime plays this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm. Tickets are available at mendocinotheatre.org, or by calling 707-937-4477. Don't miss your chance to see this thought-provoking drama!

ASSESSMENT APPEALS BOARD AGENDA - October 29, 2018

The Assessment Appeals Board Meeting Agenda for the October 29, 2018, Meeting is now available on the County website: https://mendocino.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

Please contact the Executive Office at (707) 463-4441 if you have any questions regarding this message. Mendocino County Board of Supervisors and Executive Office, 501 Low Gap Road, Room 1010, Phone: (707) 463-4441

LA VOX HUMAINE

My father, in his nineties
grew older and older,
till he became
so ailing a mortal
he was unable
even to button his own fly.

I had to do it for him,
while he stood above me
on his tottering legs.
Don’t worry, he told me,
in a voice exasperated
cranky, and kind.

Don’t worry, Billy, he said,
it won’t last much longer
— a voice, as I remember,
that had buried deep within it
more than the sound of one lifetime
including my own.

— Robert Mazola