Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2018

• Finally Rain
• Fire Updates
• Air Quality
• Little Dog
• Warm Love
• Ed Notes
• Danny Boy
• Thankful Dead
• Fishers v Oil
• Bridge Closures
• False Idols
• Soccer Championship
• PG&E Decision
• He-Man
• Knucklehead Drivers
• Foodshed News
• Yesterday's Catch
• Raw Love
• Planning Agendas
• Not Democracy
• Finnish Ideas
• Crafts Fair
• Climate Deniers
• Short Week
• No Danger
• Museum Event
• Walmart Bennies
• Appraisal Proposal

RAIN'S A'COMIN': "Time to check yer gutters and other drainages, stock up on boot repair, take yer fish to shelter, and mind the sunroof! 2-3 inches set to hit tonight and through Friday at current forecasts. Folks in flood-prone areas need to stay alert, consider sandbags in fire-affected areas to divert water and mud flows. Oh - and get yer go-bags ready, make sure the car's tank is topped off, and put them babushkas on the cats. Stay safe, neighbors." (MCN Comment)

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: "Breezy south winds and frontal rains will continue to impact the area this morning. Thereafter, showers and thunderstorms will occur this afternoon and evening, followed by several rounds of heavy rain and strong winds Thursday and Friday."

CAMP FIRE UPDATES (Wednesday morning): 153,336 acres, 80% contained, 81 fatalities. Structures Destroyed: 13,503 residences, 514 commercial and 4,404 other buildings.

CALFIRE: "Moderate to heavy rain is forecasted over the fire area from this morning into Saturday. Established containment lines are holding and firefighters continue work to construct and reinforce direct and indirect control lines to increase containment. Crews continue to patrol the fire area to extinguish hot spots. Damage inspection teams continue to survey the area. Fire suppression repair continues to rehab the fire area in order to reduce the impacts of the coming rain."

AIR QUALITY ADVISORY 11/20/18

For Mendocino County Air Quality And Public Health

Tuesday through Monday, November 20-26, 2018

November 20, 2018 11:00 a.m.

Firefighters continue to make good progress on the Camp Fire in Butte County, with containment up to 70% from 66%, and emissions remaining in the low range. Overall smoke emissions will likely continue to be in this low range until Wednesday’s rain comes in. The smoke in Mendocino County will likely persist one more day today, improving late afternoon ahead of tomorrow’s rain. Smoke should completely clear out with substantial rain, but could persist at reduced levels if the rainfall is light.

Currently air monitors show particulate matter concentrations in the “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” to “Unhealthy” range in Ukiah and Willits. Other areas of inland Mendocino County are expected to have periods of “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” to “Unhealthy” conditions depending on wind. The Mendocino Coast is currently experiencing “Good” to “Moderate” concentrations. Air quality is expected to improve after Wednesday. Please see the accompanying Public Health Advisory for recommendations of personal protection for sensitive groups, as well as everyone during “Unhealthy” or more severe, air quality conditions.

Mendocino County Air Quality Management District continuously monitors the air quality, reporting particulate matter and ozone concentrations hourly to our website:

www.mendoair.org and AirNow.gov.

In the sidebar on the right of our webpage (scroll down if using a mobile device), under “Air Quality for Mendocino”--Click Here for current conditions, forecast, and email alerts. For additional information, click on an air quality index range, or the colored tabs below the map.

For more air quality information visit: https://airnow.gov the District’s preferred online source of certified, accurate regulatory air quality data. Other networks that provide air quality data are still under evaluation and may provide unverified data.

To sign up for air quality notifications visit: http://www.enviroflash.info/signup.cfm

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Darn right I give thanks on Thanksgiving. I appreciate my home, and no sooner had I said that than Skrag pops up in my face and says, 'You dogs are just Pathetic, with a capital P'."

I’VE GOT MY LOVE TO KEEP ME WARM

The snow is snowing, the wind is blowing

But I can weather the storm!

What do I care how much it may storm?

I've got my love to keep me warm

I can't remember a worse December

Just watch those icicles form!

Oh, what do I care if icicles form?

Oh, I've got my love to keep me warm

Off with my overcoat, off with my glove

I need no overcoat, I'm burning with love!

My heart's on fire, the flame grows higher

So I will weather the storm!

What do I care how much it may storm?

Oh, I've got my love to keep me warm

The snow is snowing, the wind is blowing

But I can weather the storm!

What do I care how much it may storm?

I've got my love to keep me warm

I can't remember a worse December

Just watch those icicles form!

What do I care if icicles form?

I've got my love to keep me warm

Off with my overcoat, off with my glove

I need no overcoat, I'm burning with love!

My heart's on fire, the flame grows higher

So I will weather the storm!

What do I care how much it may storm?

Oh, I've got my love to keep me warm

The snow is snowing, the wind is blowing

But I can weather the storm, storm, storm

What do I care how much it may storm?

Oh, I've got my love to keep me warm

—Irving Berlin & Earl Brown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJdfSXlB_8I

ED NOTES

WHERE'S HAMBURG? Mike Koepf's assessment of the 5th District supervisor, reprinted below, is harsh but there's nothing in it that is untrue. And then some. Dan Hamburg, in my opinion, has always been a scammer and, basically, a more or less functioning mental case, functioning well enough to get over on a majority of his Northcoast constituents, the only area of America where a guy with major nut tendencies could hold elected office. (It's probably no accident that Hamburg lost his congressional seat to Frank Riggs, also a 5150.)

THE HAMBURG QUESTION at this point, and even the somnolent reporters at KZYX are wondering out loud where he went, is this: Has Hamburg lurched all the way into mental catatonia, or is he simply tired of pretending to be a supervisor?

WE UNDERSTAND he's sold his home south of Ukiah, that he's presently married to a County psychologist who offers live-in psycho-lifts, that his previous marriage to a Point Arena woman lasted only long enough for her to get medical assistance through Hamburg's lush County health plan, that he's either moved to Oregon already or will soon, that he's totally wigged out and unable to function even to vote yes with his colleagues on whatever is shoved before them every other Tuesday.

I E-MAILED County CEO, Carmel Angelo: "Dear Ms. Angelo: Can we soon expect an explanation of Supervisor Hamburg's ongoing absence? Can the taxpayers expect his pay to be docked and a cessation or proportionate reduction of his benefits package?"

MS. ANGELO promptly replied: "Mr. Anderson, I am referring your questions to County Counsel for a response. Thank you."

* * *

A FEDERAL JUDGE has temporarily barred the Trump administration from refusing asylum to immigrants who cross the US-Mexico border without papers. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights sued to stop President Trump’s ban on asylum-seekers. Tens of thousands of immigrants request asylum each year at official ports of entry, but Trump sought to end the practice altogether with a November 9th proclamation that anyone who crossed the border illegally would be ineligible for asylum. The judge said the ban violates international law.

* * *

AN OUTBREAK OF once-extinguished chickenpox has broken out among unvaccinated children in the Asheville, North Carolina area. The state allows "religious exemptions" in addition to children exempted for medical reasons. Religious exemptions from vaccination have risen dramatically in the state, from 871 in 2012 to 2,073 in 2016. The outbreak is mostly confined to Asheville Waldorf, a private school opened in 2009. Tuition is a minimum of $8,000 a year, meaning the anti-vaxx movement is no longer confined to NorthCoast retro hippies where the incidence of anti-science credulity is highest.

* * *

SOME MENDO GRAPE GROWERS want a federal handout for what they claim are smoke-tainted grapes. They've addressed their appeal to Congressman Mike Thompson, also a grape grower, asking that state growers be included in “any disaster assistance bill that may move forward because we have experienced substantial economic losses directly attributable to wildfires.” Other grape growers say their crops were unaffected, but seeing as how the wine industry's reps dominate all levels of Northcoast government, we expect the handout to be approved.

* * *

GOOD OL' JER: For years Jerry Brown has talked left, acted right. In a typical Brown move, he's signed a measure allowing utilities to bill their customers for future legal settlements stemming from the devastating 2017 wildfires. Count on him to do the same for the even more devastating fires of 2018. Even the most tentative liberal would be talking about breaking up PG&E and making its pieces the genuinely public public utility it should be.

* * *

EVERY NIGHT I denounce myself for watching the national news on CBS, the least offensive of the big three networks but a nightly adventure in the absurd nevertheless.

The last few nights all three networks ran cutesy stories on Joe Biden's new dog and a clip of Condoleeza Rice positing her as the Cleveland Brown's head football coach.

There is nothing or charmingly cutesy about either of these dreary personalities, but similarly frivolous news dominates the mainstream media, also very big lately on "surprise" visits by soldiers, the officer class anyway, to their children during student assemblies. The repellant Biden is certain to be among the Democrat's top presidential candidates while Ms. Rice, along with the rest of Bush Gang, ought to doing life for her role in kicking off the endless war on the Mohammedans. The only good thing about Biden's dog is that he allegedly adopted it out of a shelter.

* * *

GRATIFYING to see the Mendo College trustees refuse raises to the two (count 'em) college “academic” vice presidents, both of whom wanted $148,767 annually because, you guessed it, the SRJC and Yuba College drones make that much. Why an outback junior college would need more than an el presidente — none of these people are what anybody might describe as intellectually interested — is, well, there they are.

OH DANNY BOY

by Mike Koepf (May 2013)

There’s little to be said about Dan Hamburg’s latest controversy surrounding the burial of his wife in his own back yard. What the hell, he lives in the country and owns 82, oaky acres; so there is room somewhere out there next to the medicine garden. However, as the current president of the county board of supervisors, Dan must have known that once the sheriff found out about his clandestine, backyard cemetery, the sheriff, by duty and the law, would have to spend needless time investigating in a county that’s going broke taking time and money away from more important pursuits. Sure, who isn’t sympathetic to a man who’s lost his wife? However, the grave out past the barbecue also conveniently diverts attention from the fact that Dan was recently fined $9,000 bucks by the California Fair Political Practices Commission for incorrectly reporting campaign finances during his Nov. 2010 election, which—with Dan’s usual aplomb—is water off his waterproof back.

Who is Dan Hamburg? What’s he all about? Over the years, I haven’t paid close attention. Although he’s always championed some cause (too many to even count) he seemed vapid and predictable, a nice guy who hung in Ukiah, far away from my chosen haunts.

Dan appears charming and cordial, and he displays a humble smile tinged with a touch of angst, and he’s still as handsome as a movie star stuck on a magazine rack. However, one thing’s true about Dan: he’s the capo di tutti capi, the “boss of all bosses” of the Mendocino progressives; the liberal- in-chief of all they know. Hamburg helped to cook up the “pot vote” nearly 20 years ago. Tony Craver took the hook, and the rest is green history with county politicians along for the ride; tax-free money for medicine growers; dead guys in the forest and county officials deep in do-do when it comes to zip-ties and the Feds. Hamburg’s out to save the planet; dislikes loggers; wants to cut down on deputies; hates corporations and GMO’s, or anybody else with an R behind their name or Tea Party on the brain. And, Dan Hamburg was happy as a chipmunk with a mouth chock full of nuts when we were all forced to lay our dimes down for simple paper bags.

But, so much for political antics, what makes this capo tick? Could religion be his shtick?

In 2001, Dan published a candid article on a website run by the followers of Adi Da Samraj, “the avataric great sage…who,” according to his devotees, “has appeared like a storm in a spiritual desert.” Adi Da (the short version) was also known as “Bubba Free John; Da Free John; Da Love-Ananda; Da Kalki; Da Avadhoota,” and “Davahhasa,” Goofy Da-Da names aside, Adi Da was, in fact, Frankie Jones, a transcendent hustler from Queens, New York, born in 1939, who died on his private island five years ago.

In the 70s, Adi Da founded a counter-culture religion that was eventually headquartered in his “Mountain of Attention” sanctuary in the meth-besotted hills of Lake County. His followers took an “eternal vow” of devotion while practicing Adi Da’s ego-surrendering, ego-forgetting, ego-transcending ways, or, simply put, his “Divine Self-Realization”— the way of “Adidam.” Okay, so far a boring cult movie with Shirley MacLaine prancing around in a saffron tutu, but at some point in the mid 80’s, Adi Da got down and dirty.

Investigative reports in the San Francisco Chronicle (when it was actually a newspaper) as well as various talk shows, and finally, a two-part series on the Today Show claimed that Adi Da was forcing members of his “religion” to engage in sexually, physically-abusive and humiliating behavior. Allegedly, Adi Da was commanding couples who believed in him (wives and husbands included) to have sex with others while their partners watched. According to named and anonymous bad sports, Adi Da was more often than not in on the acts, which included men on men and women on women. What was Adi Da’s purpose in all this rutting about? Well, it wasn’t just another la-de-dah, California orgy. The purpose was degradation; to bring out the worst jealousies, hatreds, fears and sorrows that a human being can experience; to incite the deepest and darkest emo­tions in his devotees in order to destroy their egos.

Okay, that might work. No ego—no problem.

Was Dan in on this horrid stuff? Rumors aside, and lacking sworn, eyewitness testimony or X rated videos, I say: don’t know; so he wasn’t. However, it’s well known in Mendocino’s neo-progressive community that Dan and his deceased wife were devoted followers of Adi Da. Maybe Dan Hamburg joined after the nasty stuff happened. Maybe he only watched, or like our president, he was there but he really wasn’t there when it came to Reverend Wright.

But, Dan Hamburg appears on Adi Da’s website, where he extols Adi Da’s teachings. To some left-wing loons in Mendocino County, his sojourn with Adi Da is seen as hip and cool. Dan was pushing his spiritual parameters in ways others fear to go. You betcha.

But, does hanging with Adi Da qualify Dan Hamburg as religious? Perhaps not. Frankie Jones, aka, Adi Da, was just a guy form Jersey who wore a shirt with a Nehru collar, which, for some crazy reason, made him see himself as God. Dan Hamburg’s a different type of cat.

So, getting back to the posting on Adi Da’s website, here’s what Dan says about himself. Here’s a humble snippet: “I suppose the understanding that politics must be imbued with spirituality began when I was very young.”

Dan’s fifteen, and this epiphany supposedly takes place when his aunt drove him in “her big, white, Buick Roadmaster through the slums of south St. Louis.” Later, after Dan’s drive-by awakening, he goes to Stanford, a rich kid’s school; majors in “religious studies;” trashes the ROTC building, but when the 60s revolution fails to materialize, Dan feels “devastated and deeply confused,” a common tale of woe for nascent Che Guevaras of those times.

However, according to Dan’s telling, things improve when Dan moves to Mendocino; marries; has children; is elected supervisor; quits; heads off to communist China; returns home; runs and is elected to Congress at a time when his mind is “literally swimming with … ideas” as he wonders: “what would it take to create the critical mass of human energy and consciousness that could transform the world, or at least get that process underway?”

In other words, Dan Hamburg had become a snow-cone socialist with lots of big ideas on how to change the world with some kind of mystical, Einsteinium slurp.

Anyhow, a down-to-earth Republican knocks Dan out of his congressional seat, but Dan Hamburg bounces back. As Dan tells it, he goes to South Africa to help Nelson Mandela jump start a new country, but poverty and crime in South Africa leaves Dan Hamburg depressed, so he returns to America where he becomes the director of an enviro-nonprofit, and later an entrepreneur in organic pharmaceuticals. Heck man, once upon time, who didn’t want a piece of that? If you want to change the world, you still have to make a buck.

But, merely capsulizing Dan’s life doesn’t get to his essence.

Sandwiched between Dan’s article on Adi Da dot com, are varied quotes by Dan’s spiritual leader. Here’s one: “Love is the key to this necessary change. Love is self-surrendering, self-forgetting, and, ultimately, self-transcending participation in the Indivisible Oneness and Wholeness and Singleness That Is Real God, and Real Truth, and Reality Itself.” Avatar Adi Da Samraj. In other less love-dove words: losing yourself in the oneness of everybody else — the ant pile or what Vietnam GI’s used to call the “clusterfuck.”

However, whether Adi Da or Adi Dan realized it or not, what is suggested here is nothing more than Jean-Jacque Rousseau’s concept of the “general will” in which all good (love) flows from the generalized and supposedly benevolent expectations of a society’s mass. Rousseau was the nature-boy pin up of the French revo­lution, and before the heads began to fall, French revolutionaries marched forth in the name of the people, which translates to the “general will.” Stalin operated in the name of the general will. People went off to the gulag to protect the general will. Mao killed millions for the general will, and Castro will lock you up if you oppose the general will. The general will is not for sissies. But there’s a road block in the way of the general will — it’s called the individual. Hence, the nasty methods of Adi Da designed to destroy the ego of an individual to make them silly putty in his dirty hands.

As yet, we’re a nation with a constitution that miracu­lously protects the individual, and the constitu­tion’s laws come first and foremost versus any kind of group-think seeking precedence in our land. This makes me think of Adi-Da; this makes me think of Danny Boy. Behind that aging, pretty face, I sense a zombie crowd. Liberal or progressive, or however they’re known this week; be they self-serving environmentalists or enemies of the plastic bag, the lock-steppers of the general will march forth with an open warrant to do anything that they want. But, all together for one and all, is the sucker’s myth of the general will. Somebody’s got to lead them, be they an elected official or phony guru forcing sex. After all, this is Mendocino from Jim Jones to Adi Da.

“Little by little, the country changes with the men we admire.” Melvin Douglas, HUD, 1963.

Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy.

CRAB FISHERMEN SUE OIL COMPANIES FOR SCREWING UP THE PLANET AND LYING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE

by Ryan Burns

Toxic algae has wreaked havoc on the local Dungeness crab fishery in recent years, as you can see by that list of headlines above. Warmer ocean waters off the coast have led to toxic algal blooms and a buildup of poisonous domoic acid in the tasty crustaceans’ flesh, prompting state regulators to shorten and/or suspend the commercial crabbing season in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Last week, a collection of fishermen associations in California and Oregon filed a lawsuit against 30 fossil fuel companies, including Chevron, Exxon Mobil, BP and Shell, accusing them of warming screwing up the planet by releasing hundreds of gigatons of polluting emissions into the environment while simultaneously trying to manufacture doubt about human-caused global warming.

The suit, which has received coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, Scientific American and elsewhere, attempts to hold these oil companies responsible for the huge economic losses fishermen and -women have suffered in recent years.

“Defendants have known for nearly 50 years that greenhouse gas pollution from their fossil fuel products has a significant impact on Earth’s climate, including a warming of the oceans,” the complaint alleges. And instead of working to reduce the negative effects on the planet, these Big Oil companies championed anti-regulation and anti-science campaigns, making matters worse, the suit says.

The 2018-19 crab season opened this past Thursday from Bodega Bay south to the Oregon border, but it remains closed along the North Coast because, once again, testing from the California Department of Public Health revealed domoic acid in the local Dungeness.

The introduction to the complaint, filed by San Francisco firm Sher Edling, LLP, on behalf of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFA), is pretty scathing and a damn good read, as lawsuits go. We’ve pasted it in its entirety below.

Attorneys want a jury trial, and the plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, and “disgorgement of profits,” which sounds painful but really just means more money.

Could they win? Eh, maybe. There’s been a slew of climate litigation recently, inspired by similar suits against Big Tobacco over the years. But when the cities of San Francisco and Oakland sued oil companies earlier this in an attempt to recover the costs of building seawalls to protect against sea-level rise, a federal judge tossed the suits.

Other cases, however, remain pending. A number of cities in Californiaare taking on Big Oil in court, as is a group of 21 Oregon teenagers who say the federal government’s inactivity on climate change “has violated the youngest generation’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, as well as failed to protect essential public trust resources.”

At least one attorney says this suit from the crab fishermen represents a significant new step. David Bookbinder, chief counsel at the Niskanen Center, is quoted in Scientific American saying, “When a group of commercial fishermen, among the most conservative people in America, sue the fossil fuel industry, the defendants can no longer characterize these cases as being brought by ‘radical politicians.’”

We’ve pasted the entire introduction to the Pacific Coast complaint below. You can find the rest of the lawsuit here.

The world’s oceans are changing, and commercial fishermen and -women, their businesses, their communities, and their families are paying the price.

Climate change is impacting the oceans by increasing average sea temperatures, increasing the frequency and intensity of marine heatwaves, destabilizing and disturbing marine wildlife populations, affecting ocean circulation, and increasing the frequency and severity of harmful algal blooms.

These changes threaten both the productivity of commercial fisheries and safety of commercially harvested seafood products. In so doing, they also threaten those that rely on ocean fisheries and ecosystems for their livelihoods, by rendering it at times impossible to ply their trade.

With this action, the largest commercial fishing industry trade group on the west coast seeks to hold responsible parties accountable for acute changes to the ocean off of California and Oregon that resulted, over the last three years, in prolonged regulatory closures of the Dungeness crab fisheries — the most lucrative and reliable fisheries on the west coast.

Such closures will recur, as the conditions giving rise to them increase in frequency and magnitude as the oceans continue to warm. Accordingly, the crab fishing industry brings this action to force the parties responsible for this severe disruption to fishing opportunity, and the consequent impacts on fishing families, to bear the costs of their conduct.

Defendants, major corporate members of the fossil fuel industry, have known for nearly a half century that unrestricted production and use of their fossil fuel products create greenhouse gas pollution that warms the planet, changes our climate, and disrupts the oceans. They have known for decades that those impacts could be catastrophic and that only a narrow window existed to take action before the consequences would be irreversible.

They have nevertheless engaged in a coordinated, multi-front effort to conceal and deny their own knowledge of those threats, discredit the growing body of publicly available scientific evidence, and persistently create doubt in the minds of customers, consumers, regulators, the media, journalists, teachers, and the public about the reality and consequences of the impacts of their fossil fuel pollution.

At the same time, Defendants have promoted and profited from a massive increase in the extraction and consumption of oil, coal, and natural gas, which has in turn caused an enormous, foreseeable, and avoidable increase in global greenhouse gas pollution and an accompanying increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (“CO2”) and methane, in the atmosphere.

Those disruptions of Earth’s otherwise balanced carbon cycle have substantially contributed to a wide range of dire climate-related effects, including global warming, rising atmospheric and ocean temperatures, ocean acidification, melting polar ice caps and glaciers, more extreme and volatile weather, sea level rise, and marine heatwaves with concomitant harmful algal blooms. Families and businesses that depend on the health and productivity of the Dungeness crab fishery to earn their livings suffer the consequences.

Defendants are vertically integrated extractors, producers, refiners, manufacturers, distributors, promoters, marketers, and sellers of fossil fuel products.

Decades of scientific research show that pollution from the production and use of Defendants’ fossil fuel products plays a direct and substantial role in the unprecedented rise in emissions of greenhouse gas pollution and increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations since the mid-20th century. This dramatic increase in atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases is the main driver of the gravely dangerous changes occurring to the global climate

Anthropogenic (human-caused) greenhouse gas pollution, primarily in the form of CO2, is far and away the dominant cause of global warming and the observed increase in ocean temperatures, including marine heatwaves. The primary source of this pollution is the extraction, production and consumption of coal, oil, and natural gas, referred to collectively in this Complaint as “fossil fuel products.”

The rate at which Defendants have extracted and sold fossil fuel products has exploded since the Second World War, as have emissions from those products. The substantial majority of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in history has occurred since the 1950s, a period known as the “Great Acceleration.”

About three quarters of all industrial CO2 emissions in history have occurred since the 1960s, and more than half have occurred since the late 1980s. The annual rate of carbon dioxide emissions from production, consumption, and use of fossil fuels has increased by more than 60 percent since 1990.

Defendants have known for nearly 50 years that greenhouse gas pollution from their fossil fuel products has a significant impact on Earth’s climate, including a warming of the oceans. Defendants’ awareness of the negative implications of their own behavior corresponds almost exactly with the Great Acceleration, and with skyrocketing greenhouse gas emissions.

With that knowledge, Defendants took steps to protect their own assets from these threats through immense internal investment in research, infrastructure improvements, and plans to exploit new opportunities in a warming world.

Instead of working to reduce the use and combustion of fossil fuel products, lower the rate of greenhouse gas emissions, minimize the damage associated with continued high use and combustion of such products, and ease the transition to a lower carbon economy, Defendants concealed the dangers, sought to undermine public support for greenhouse gas regulation, and engaged in massive campaigns to promote the ever-increasing use of their products at ever greater volumes. Thus, each Defendant’s conduct has contributed substantially to the buildup of CO2 in the environment that drives ocean warming.

As an actual and proximate consequence of Defendants’ conduct, the crab fishing industry has been deprived of valuable fishing opportunities, and consequently suffered severe financial hardships. These injuries derive from rising ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean generally and periodic extreme marine heatwaves — the results of anthropogenic ocean warming caused by the foreseeable and intended use of Defendants’ products.

Recent marine heatwaves along the United States’ west coast created the ideal conditions for the toxic algal group Pseudo-nitzschia to increase in abundance and invade the marine regions that correspond with some of the most productive Dungeness crab fishery grounds.

The massive Pseudo-nitzschia bloom generated unprecedented concentrations of the neurotoxin domoic acid, a compound which, when ingested by humans, causes “amnesic shellfish poisoning” which induces symptoms including vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, and other gastrointestinal upset, permanent short-term memory loss, and, in severe cases, death.

Rising ocean temperatures and the resultant Pseudo-nitzschia blooms allow domoic acid to enter the marine food web and accumulate in crab flesh, rendering it at times dangerous and unfit for human consumption.

In response to this public health crisis, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (“CDFW”), in coordination with the California Department of Public Health (“CDPH”), closed — for the first time ever — significant portions of the California coast to commercial Dungeness crab fishing in the 2015–16 fishing season, and again in 2016–17.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (“ODFW”) and the Oregon Department of Agriculture (“ODA”) similarly closed large areas of the Oregon coast to commercial crabbing during the 2015–16, 2016– 17, and 2017–18 commercial crab seasons because of domoic acid toxicity.

Because of those closures, hundreds of commercial fishermen and -women holding Dungeness crab permits could not untie their boats or deploy their crab traps until crabs became safe to consume.

Additional precautionary measures and stigma from negative publicity related to domoic acid contamination have deprived the crab industry of the full value of its harvests these last three seasons by depressing the market demand for crab products.

Plaintiff represents commercial Dungeness crab harvesters and onshore crab processors and wholesalers that have suffered, and continue to suffer, substantial economic losses due to those lost fishing opportunities.

The severe curtailment of the crab fishery, which is among the most productive, lucrative, and reliable fisheries on the west coast, had damaging ripple effects throughout California’s and Oregon’s fishing families and communities, creating severe hardships that many fishermen and fishing businesses, including Plaintiff’s members, have struggled to overcome.

The severity of the economic loss endured by the crabbing community prompted the federal government to declare the 2015–16 California crab season a federal fishery disaster under the Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Management and Conservation Act.

Domoic acid incidents on the west coast, and consequent injuries to the fishing industry and west coast fishing communities generally, are the new normal. These phenomena will increase in severity and frequency as the oceans continue to change with anthropogenic global warming. Indeed, California’s 2018–19 crab season — set to begin on November 15, 2018 — will be delayed in parts of the fishery because of domoic acid toxicity.

Additional crab fishery closures will occur in the future, with increasing frequency and severity, with concomitant impacts on the fishing families, fishing communities, and the west coast fishing industry at large.

Defendants are directly responsible for a large and substantial portion of total CO2 emissions between 1965 and 2015. For example, based on Defendants’ direct extractions of fossil fuels, they are responsible for more than two hundred gigatons of emissions representing over 15 percent of total emissions of that potent greenhouse gas during that period.

Defendants are responsible for significantly larger shares of emissions based on their production, wholesale and retail sales of their products. Accordingly, Defendants are directly responsible for a substantial portion of elevated ocean temperatures that caused the domoic acid contamination on the west coast, which in turn caused the substantial and material economic injuries described herein.

Defendants’ production, promotion, marketing, and use of fossil fuel products, simultaneous concealment of the known hazards of those products, and their championing of anti-regulation and anti-science campaigns, actually and proximately caused Plaintiff’s injuries.

Accordingly, Plaintiff in its own name, in a representative capacity on behalf of its members and the west coast fishing community, and as the assignee of claims arising from domoic acid impacts on the crab fishery, brings this action against Defendants for Nuisance, Strict Liability for Failure to Warn, Strict Liability for Design Defect, Negligence, and Negligent Failure to Warn

By this action, the Plaintiff seeks to ensure that the parties responsible for the fishery closures bear the costs of its impacts, rather than Plaintiff and the men, women, families and businesses of the west coast crab industry.

TRAFFIC ADVISORY

Intermittent Full Road Closures at Albion River Bridge on State Route 1 in Mendocino County. Beginning Monday, December 3 and continuing over the next two weeks. 8am to 5pm, weekdays. Motorists should expect 20 minute delays. Full road closures are required due to helicopter flights over the work zone. The helicopter is helping to stage equipment for geotechnical studies for the Albion River Bridge. The helicopter flights are weather dependent so the exact schedule is unknown at this time. The Coastal Development Permit issued by the California Coastal Commission allows helicopter flights for a time period of up to four weeks, however the actual days of helicopter flights will be no more than 6.

DIVISION 3 BOYS SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP SLATED GAME TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27 IN BOONVILLE 2:00 PM

The #1 seed Anderson Valley boys soccer team will finally get to play for the Division 3 championship - 20 day after winning the Semifinal Playoff game over #5 seed San Francisco Waldorf on penalty kicks (5-4).

The combination of unhealthy air from the Butte County Fire that started November 8 - as well as their opponent (#2 seed Jewish Community) refusing to play on the Sabbath - has pushed the game to the end of the month.

The Division 2 soccer Championship has also been up in the air - they'll decide the Championship (hopefully) on November 27th too. That game will be between defending champ #1 seed Head-Royce vs #3 seed Making Waves Academy. Head-Royce beat Making Waves last year 2-1 to win the championship.

(via MendocinoSportsPlus)

WHY DIDN’T PG&E SHUT DOWN POWER in advance of deadly Camp Fire? Here’s the data.

chicoer.com/why-didnt-pge-shut-down-power-in-advance-of-deadly-camp-fire-heres-the-data

LIGHT ‘EM UP!

To the Editor

In the "Online Comments of the Week" in last week's edition a writer asked what can be done about drivers who are distracted by using various on-line devices in their cars. Here's one idea: We adopt a law requiring all new cars to be equipped with a light on the top of the car. I think a pink light would be a good color. Whenever the driver uses any device in the car, the pink light goes on, alerting all others that the driver is probably not paying full attention to the road. This would not only make other drivers aware of these road hazards, it may actually deter knucklehead drivers from being distracted by these devices while driving.

Steve Krieg

Yorkville

"OLIO NUOVO" FROM YORKVILLE OLIVE RANCH

The "Olio Nuovo" or "New Oil" from the 2018 olive harvest at the Yorkville Olive Ranch is now available in 375 ml bottles. The Tuscan olives were harvested on November 3rd, 4th, and 5th and milled each day using the stone wheels at the Olivino mill in Hopland, and bottled on the 8th of November. It is unfiltered, pale green and hazy in color and translucency. Although olive oil enthusiasts in Italy and Spain gather at the olive mills early in the harvest season to get their first tastes of that year's "Olio Nuovo", the vivid, brilliant flavor and pungency may be too much for the typical American pallet. "Olio Nuovo" may be an acquired taste yet to be acquired. So if that astrigent, bitter taste at the beginning and the robust, peppery finish of a decanted Tuscan olive oil is pushing your taste buds too far, the "New Oil' will probably be too much. But the taste of olives will be bright and fresh, sparkling and alive!

The "Olio Nuovo" is not labeled as Extra Virgin as the lab tests are not complete, nor has the California Olive Oil Council's Tasters Panel certified it as being "Extra Virgin".

The "Olio Nuovo" will only be available at the Yorkville Olive Ranch House at $ 20.00 for a 375 ml bottle until December 23rd. Call 894-0530 to reserve a bottle and arrange a time for picking up the oil.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!.

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LOCAL HANDMADE GIFTS FROM PETIT TETON FARM

Do your gifting with unique locally grown and made products. At Petit Teton Farm we grow the fruits and vegetables that go into our hand-made jams, relishes, pickles and drink mixers. We're happy to ship anywhere in the United States and will even gift wrap. Contact us, Nikki and Steve, at farmer@petitteton.com, 707.684.4146, or stop by the farm at 18601 Hwy 128 any day between 8:30-4:30 except Sunday, noon to 4:30.

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GOOD FARM FUND CELEBRATES LOCAL FOOD AT 5TH ANNUAL WINTER FEAST

Good Farm Fund is pleased to announce its Fifth Annual Good Farm Fund Winter Feast at Barra Winery (7051 N State St) on Tuesday, December 4 from 5-9 pm. This always-popular event includes a family-style farm-to-table dinner from Black Dog Farm Catering and many friends, featuring locally raised meat, fruits, vegetables, wild mushrooms, artisan cheeses and grains; local beer and wine available for purchase; a silent auction perfect for holiday shopping; and live music from the Gibson Creek Band.

This year's event will also feature the announcement of Good Farm Fund grant award selections for 2018. Come help the winners celebrate!

Good Farm Fund, fiscally sponsored by North Coast Opportunities, Inc., is a volunteer driven organization supporting local food & agriculture. Founded in 2015, the Good Farm Fund provides funding to support Market Match, a program that provides funds for EBT/CalFresh customer to increases their purchases of local fruits and vegetables at certified farmers' markets. Good Farm Fund also provides economic development support to small farmers in Mendocino and Lake Counties in the form of small, capacity-building grants. This is the fourth year the Good Farm Fund is awarding grants, which are made possible by farm-to-table dinners like this one, as well as from the generous support of this year’s foundation sponsors, Frey Winery & Sonoma Clean Power, and Harvest Sponsors, Ukiah Adventist Health and Flow Kana.

“These grants have a real, tangible impact for local farms,” says Good Farm Fund Co-Founder Caroline Radice, a farmer herself. “As a kid, I used to go berry-picking with my mom and then she’d come home and make jam, which is how I learned about food preservation. My parents would stop at the farmers market or a roadside farm stand to pick up fresh green beans or corn for dinner. So many of us have wonderful memories like that, and Good Farm Fund is about honoring and continuing those traditions, about creating a community with economic opportunities for small farmers, with thriving farmers markets, and lots of delicious, nutritious food easily available to people who live here.”

Tickets to the Winter Feast are available on a sliding scale from $35-$50 in advance, $45 at the door, $15 for kids 12 and under. This event always sells out. Tickets are available on line at https://gffwinterfeast.brownpapertickets.com/, at the Westside Renaissance Market, Mendocino Book Company and the Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op.

Proceeds will support the Good Farm Fund’s Farm Grant Program & Market Match Program. The event is sponsored by Sonoma Clean Power, Frey Winery, Flow Kana, Adventist Health, North Coast Opportunities, The MendoLake Food Hub, Black Dog Farm Catering, the Mendocino College Culinary Arts Management Program, Patrona Restaurant, Visit Mendocino, Ukiah Brewing Company, Ukiah Natural Foods, Cold Creek Compost, and Community First Credit Union.

Through fundraising events like the Winter Feast, Good Farm Fund and everyone who supports it can continue to help local farms thrive.

For more information, visit www.goodfarmfund.org.

CATCH OF THE DAY, November 20, 2018

DEBORAH ANDERSON, Ukiah. Domestic battery, under influence, probation revocation.

ANTONIO BECERRA JR., Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun.

AMANDA DAVIS, Willits. DUI-drugs.

PAUL OREY, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alochol.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Just to take the opportunity to jump into the conversation as a 68 year old Caucasian “nationalist” female who finds interest in the old times moments when the men would remove themselves to their smoking parlors after dinner to talk “business” etc. and the women would go off to their little areas to do what ever it was that they did.

Obviously I was never there back in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s, but I can only imagine that the women were not just chitty-chatting about their latest discovery on how to make the best rhubarb pie. With strawberries or without? Their latest nifty knitting/crochet stitches? Well, maybe. Best ways to solve colic in the babies? Best ways to breastfeed? Sleeping with the baby or not? What fashions they fancied and could afford and that were not too outlandish for the times. (Women generally like to push the envelope on fashion cause it’s…FUN!)

Or perhaps these women were more hip than we give them credit for? They might have been discussing their husbands’ interesting ways of how they lie to them and try to get away with it? The most interesting ways they have found to make love?

“I got on top one night because he was just too heavy for me, and it was…dare I say…VERY pleasant! Very pleasant indeed! And he seemed to be VERY satisfied with the results! Now, I wouldn’t want to promote this to anyone as a NORMAL way to make love, but, I thought it would be prudent to share my experience here… Another small port? Thank you, so long as they are so involved in their little talks…why not?”

In my experience over the past 50 years, I have discovered that the vast majority of men have had the same basic needs: affection, being listened to intently and understood, passion: when he is in the mood for a sexual encounter he can easily and quickly GET a woman in the mood (if he is truly passionate and there is an equal and opposite attraction in existence), and good food and drink.

Generally men love great, tasty food and good things to drink whether a tall glass of sweet water from a well, or a nice port or a clean Scotch. Followed by a vigorous walk down the road and perhaps a cool dip in the lake late at night. That has probably been more of a pleasurable pastime than many a couple would admit to!

Good, worthy, intelligent and sensitive men are, by and large, easy to love and easy to please. Dare I say FUN to love and FUN to please!

Women in the 1800’s whether in Europe or the United States, I would guess, found their feminism (if true and raw) to easily assimilate to their worthy partners.

The only thing that has changed as of this decade is that women are now confused about their true desires as to love, companionship, careers, children, how much time they have left to pursue their desires and balancing these things in order to find happiness for both partners (and the children, should they occur).

Love, when it happens organically, is still raw love. Whether a man and woman want to ADMIT that they are experiencing this love is another matter.

Just my two cents.

PLANNING COMMISSION MEETINGS

An Amended - November 27, 2018 Planning Commission Agenda has been posted on our website at: https://www.mendocinocounty.org/government/planning-building-services/meeting-agendas/planning-commission

Please note that the start time of the meeting is the normal 9:00 AM time; no other information was updated on the Agenda.

* * *

The December 6, 2018 Planning Commission Agenda is available on the departments web page at: https://www.mendocinocounty.org/government/planning-building-services/meeting-agendas/planning-commission

Please contact staff if you have any questions. Thank you.

Adrienne Thompson
Administrative Services Manager
Mendocino County Planning & Building Services
860 North Bush Street, Ukiah, CA 95482
707-234-6650

RULES: SCHMOOLS; laws: hogs’ paws; there needs to be somebody to say ENOUGH to all this messing around. The world has serious work to do, and all this “democracy” is holding up the end of it (the world) or the saving of it.

It never was a democracy anyway. Washington was the richest man in the colonies, mega-farmer, land speculator, and one hell of a guy, a regular Gatsby. This was a richocracy, then and now, designed to have classes of workers, well kept and content, to serve big landowners, a tradesman class, industry (obviously the ogre that would eventually overtake agriculture as humanity’s main job), and the rest of the New World’s as-yet mostly undeveloped but clearly fantastic riches.

No way this enterprise would be entrusted to the common man. You raise and train an ownership class to run the show. When common men and women rose above their station, in the New World you accorded them all the privileges of the high-born. In that sense, this was a land of opportunity history’s dreamers had never dreamed. A rough-cut man could wear silk if he had intelligence, canniness, a capacity for striving and good luck. That was freedom! That was miraculous!

But it was not democracy. It was not majority rule. As happened on the sixth of this month, only certain citizens could vote, a smaller percentage then than now. When they voted, they seldom settled public questions. That would be “direct” democracy, and the Founders had no plans for “mob rule,” as they considered it. Instead they voted for others to represent them.

George Washington won his first political job when he took a seat in the Virginia House of Burgesses, the center of power of that day. He won the seat by far outspending his rival on election-day liquor for voters. He didn’t campaign, and he didn’t attend the party he lubricated so nicely. There was refreshment for every taste, no idealistic speeches, and the launch of Col. Washington as a politician.

So we have this ingenius government that seems to let everybody participate, but the rich are more equal than their inferiors. That naturally produces conflict. The conflict can retard the making and applying of contracts and rules. It can bring things to a near halt. It’s doing it now.

Now we have an oaf for a president who has trouble grasping the concept of rules, and he is stopping efforts that need to proceed—in every quarter of life. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it, why or if there’s no one with authority to say, “This period of disorder is over. Everybody go to your desks and do your work. Vice President Pence will serve as chief executive until a President is chosen. Mr. Trump, leave the premises immediately. Your stuff will be piled on the sidewalk. Leave your passport on the mantelpiece.”

I’ve said, time and again, that Robert Mueller is a valued member of the Establishment. The investigation he did of 9/11 has not been released yet. I think his task is to drag his expensively shod feet to cause as much loss of interest as possible to protect the ruling class. Trump is hardly the only magnate on the block that doesn’t want any major breach in the Class’s perquisites, its perks.

I’ve said this, in this space, several times, AND I HOPE I’M WRONG, because, effectively, Robert Mueller, at this moment in time is the only person on earth with authority to rid us of this fool.

[Marine Lieutenant Robert Mueller was decorated for bravery and leadership from his service in the mud and jungles of Vietnam.]

(Mitch Clogg)

THANKSGIVING ARTS & CRAFT FAIR

Friday & Saturday, November 23-24, 10am-5pm; Free Admission; Indoors at the Mendocino Art Center

Shop a wide array of unique, high quality artwork by more than 30 talented juried artists and craftspeople from the Mendocino Coast and Northern California. Choose from handmade jewelry, original paintings, photography, functional and decorative ceramics, fiber art and clothing, furniture, wood accessories, leather goods, baskets, handcrafted herbal skin care products, and more. Also savor a delicious assortment of festive food items.

More information and a list of participating artists http://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/level2/Thanksgiving_Fair.html

The Mendocino Art Center's Gallery Shop is also open during the Art Fair and offers great gift ideas created by member artists.

Mendocino Art Center
45200 Little Lake Street at Kasten Street, Mendocino
707.937.5818
http://www.MendocinoArtCenter.org

THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS LYING about the California fires acting like each year’s fires are a fluke that will never happen again—that in and of itself is denying climate change. It is lying to the American people in order to cover up that we are promoting a system based on big oil, big factory farming and big environmental destruction. A new Media Matters report found the mainstream media only say “climate change” in reports about these recent fires 4 percent of the time. Now, some of you may be thinking, “You can’t prove these fires were caused by climate change.” And you’re right. I can’t. But the Union of Concerned Scientists can. They said, “The effects of global warming on temperature, precipitation levels, and soil moisture are turning many of our forests into kindling during wildfire season.” The scientists also pointed out that wildfires are increasing and that the wildfire season is getting longer in the U.S. In terms of forest fires over 1,000 acres in size, in the 1980s, there were 140. In the 1990s, there were 160. And from 2000 to 2012, there were 250. And as mentioned before, 2017 was California’s worst wildfire season.

… Until 2018.

truthdig.com/articles/the-mainstream-media-is-lying-about-the-california-fires/

“The more you say, ‘It’s a short week,’ the less it feels like it.”

A COMMON DENOMINATOR, in every single nuclear accident is that before the specialists even know what has happened, they rush to the media saying, “There’s no danger to the public.” They do this before they themselves know what has happened.

— Jacque Cousteau

THE GRACE HUDSON MUSEUM will hold its Annual Holiday Open House & Craft Fair on Friday, Nov. 30 from 5 to 8 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 1 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Visitors will find an array of local vendors selling arts, crafts, food treats and artisanal holiday wreaths, along with Christmas music and refreshments. The Sun House will be decorated for the season and tours will be available. In addition, the Gift Shop will offer a discount to all shoppers. All proceeds benefit the Museum.

The Grace Hudson Museum is at 431 S. Main St. in Ukiah. For more information please visit www.gracehudsonmuseum.org or call 467-2836.

KATHY WYLIE ALERTS US TO.... FDIC May relax appraisal requirememt for residential dwellings under $400k

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) today issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to raise the threshold for residential real estate transactions requiring an appraisal to $400,000. This proposal is in response to concerns raised about the time and cost associated with completing residential real estate transactions.

The FDIC believes raising this threshold for residential real estate transactions from the current level of $250,000, last increased in 1994, could provide meaningful burden relief from the appraisal requirements, without posing a threat to the safety and soundness of financial institutions.

Rather than requiring an appraisal, the proposal would require that residential real estate transactions exempted by the threshold obtain an evaluation consistent with safe and sound banking practices. Evaluations provide an estimate of the market value of real estate but could be less burdensome than appraisals because the FDIC's appraisal regulations do not require evaluations to be prepared by state licensed or certified appraisers. In addition, evaluations are typically less detailed and costly than appraisals. Evaluations have been required for transactions exempted from the appraisal requirement by the current residential threshold since the 1990s.

This proposal responds, in part, to comments that the current exemption level for residential transactions had not kept pace with price appreciation in the residential real estate market. These comments were received during the recent Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act review process and during the rulemaking process that led to a final rule, issued in April 2018, which raised the appraisal threshold for commercial real estate transactions from $250,000 to $500,000.

The proposal also would incorporate the rural residential appraisal exemption in the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act to the list of exempt transactions and require evaluations for these exempt transactions. In addition, the proposal would require institutions to appropriately review appraisals for compliance with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, as mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Comments will be accepted for 60 days from publication in the Federal Register.

https://www.fdic.gov/news/board/2018/2018-11-20-notice-sum-c-fr.pdf