Mendocino County Today: Friday, Nov. 30, 2018

• Election Results
• Redwood Classic
• Cold Front
• Little Dog
• BOS Agenda
• SMART Bombs
• Sunset
• Eros Unleashed
• Big Band
• Immigration Nation
• Unauthorized Immigrants
• Cardiac Arrest
• Bird List
• Yesterday's Catch
• Queenies Roadhouse
• Latin Music
• Corporate Fictions
• Inland Dems
• Mokelumne Salmon
• Black Eye
• Community Dinner
• Trashed
• Khashoggi 911
• Radiation Testing
• Book Facts
• Woodman Creek
• No Prob
• How Screwed
• Heroes/Patriots
• Cat Videos
• Bad Choices
• Found Object

MENDO FINALLY FINALS NOV. 6 VOTES

Highlights:

Supervisor Third District

John Haschak 3744 57.72%

John Pinches 2705 41.70%

* * *

Fort Bragg City Council [elect 3]

Ruben Alcala 755 11.62%

Tess Albin-Smith  1202 18.50%

Dana Jess 778 11.98%

Lindy Peters  1306 20.10%

Mary Rose Kaczorowsk 841 12.95%

Jessica Morsell-Haye  1282 19.74%

Bobby Burns 306 4.71%

* * *

Ukiah City Council [elect 3]

Matt Froneberger 1230 10.69%

Edward Haynes 1392 12.10%

Chon Travis 1848 16.06%

Maureen Mulheren  2722 23.66%

Juan V. Orozco  2173 18.89%

Jim O. Brown  2078 18.06%

* * *

Coast Hospital – Long-term [elect 3]

John Redding 3642 18.04%

Jade Tippett 3303 16.36%

Amy Beth McColley 4518 22.38%

Kevin B. Miller 3356 16.62%

Jessica Grinberg 5261 26.06%

(Incumbent Dr. Kevin Miller, not re-elected)

Mendo Hlthcare – Short Term [1]

Karen S. Arnold 6790 87.31%

Rex Gressett 958 12.32%

* * *

Final Official Results

FIRST DAY REDWOOD CLASSIC RESULTS

Boonville and Point Arena have been blown out already. It looks like Laytonville has the strongest small school team in Mendo. On Wednesday Laytonville beat Valley Christian 89-61. Fort Bragg beat Round Valley 72-46. Cloverdale beat Anderson Valley 73-23. Hoopa beat Bradshaw Christian 96-90. Pinewood beat Forest Lake 69-55. And Stuart Hall beat Point Arena 76-16. Play continues Friday starting at 9:30am with the last Friday game starting at 8pm.

A COLD FRONT will [bring] another round of rain this evening through Saturday, in addition to high elevation snow and a few coastal thunderstorms with small hail. Cool and dry conditions are expected Sunday and Monday, but another storm system may bring some rain Tuesday through the middle of the week. (National Weather Service)

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “The Chuckle Buddies always say 'storm' when they mean rain. This storm? Light rain, no wind. Ho bleeping hum.”

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MEETING AGENDA for the December 4, 2018, meeting is now available on the County website:

https://mendocino.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

WE GOT A NICE LAUGH out of the PD’s recent report of the Santa Rosa City Council’s decision “to end free downtown SMART shuttle service amid low ridership, high cost.”

Even at zero cost the “free” shuttle service from downtown was averaging just 20 riders per day, and few if any of those 20 were actually getting on the SMART train it was intended to connect to.

The free shuttle was supposed to connect the downtown SMART station in Railroad Square with Santa Rosa's parking garages and other central city locations such as Old Courthouse Square about a half-mile walk to the east.

PD reporter Will Schmitt went to great lengths to pretend that the process of setting up and then canceling the shuttle was somehow reasonable, reporting preposterous statements of the obvious as if they were noteworthy.

At one point Schmitt said, “The service struggled to attract substantial ridership.” And he quoted City transit planner Yuri Koslen saying, "Based on the stop-level data, we can see that very few people are using the service for circulation downtown."

The actual cost of the “free” shuttle service was a whopping $13,000 per month. So they racked up a bill of at least $156k going back to last December to carry what would have been a total of 240 people a half a mile at $650 per trip before they finally concluded that the “free” service wasn’t working out too well.

The Santa Rosa City Council also strained to explain the startling waste of time and money. One councilman said that the problem was that it started “mere weeks after the October 2017 wildfires devastated the city.” “[Chris] Rogers [the Councilman] also highlighted the cost of riding SMART … as a possible obstacle for the city shuttle's success.”

A ticket to ride SMART after your $650 free half-mile shuttle trip to SMART averaged almost $50 to get from Santa Rosa to Nowherevsille a few miles away.

The sagacious Rogers also said that, “The average person who would benefit from the shuttle is not actually taking the SMART train because it's too expensive."

Another problem the transportation planner Mr. Koslen noted was that the shuttle was redundant: “Koslen also noted that Santa Rosa's own public buses make numerous hourly trips between the SMART station and downtown transit mall, and that SMART passengers using Clipper Cards receive free transfers to CityBus, making the ParkSMART shuttle ‘slightly redundant’." (Just slightly redundant?)

He left off the more redundant option of actually walking the half-mile.

Schmitt ended his unintentionally hilarious report with, “Steve Birdlebough, chairman of the Friends of SMART group, expressed optimism that any public discussion of the ParkSMART shuttle — even a conversation about its potential demise — might boost ridership in the coming weeks. However, his own experience pointed to the scarcity of passengers on the free SMART bus. ‘I've ridden ParkSMART about four times,’ he said at Tuesday's council meeting. ‘I've been embarrassed by being the only rider along with the driver most of those times, but it is a nice service’."

And that from the “chairman” of the “friends” of SMART!

(Mark Scaramella)

* * *

SMART TRAIN FALLING SHORT OF ITS PROMISES

by Mike Arnold

Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane, a member of the SMART board, recently said she was “happy to see the ridership is high.”

Zane’s statement should be called what it is: an alternative fact.

By any reasonable standard, SMART’s ridership is paltry, not high. There are 26 commuter rail systems reporting ridership monthly to the Federal Transit Administration. SMART’s ridership ranks 23rd.

The Press Democrat reported that SMART took 723,000 riders in its first year of operation. That sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? It isn’t. By comparison, average annual ridership for the 25 other commuter rail transit systems was more than 19 million riders in 2017. CalTrain, serving the Peninsula, reported taking 17 million riders in 2017 — 23 times SMART’s ridership.

According to published data, SMART is taking fewer than 2,400 riders on an average weekday, or about 1,100 in the morning and afternoon peak commute hours. Since trains operate in both directions, this becomes about 550 in each direction during the peak hours. No wonder the train is having no impact on traffic; that is, except in downtown San Rafael where it is causing congestion.

Most people taking the train are using it for round trips. This means the number of Sonoma County residents riding the train on the average weekday is trivial when compared to a population of more than 500,000.

Has anyone noticed that SMART is operating 34 trains a day? Given the low daily ridership, if peak hour trains are crowded, very few are taking the off-peak trains. SMART staff hasn’t disclosed ridership by train. They apparently don’t want the board or public to know most trains are carrying a small number of passengers.

Voters were promised 70 miles of rail line with service beginning in fall 2014. What voters got was 43 miles with service beginning in August 2017.

SMART’s current general manager has repeatedly blamed the Great Recession for the shorter line, claiming it explains why northern Sonoma County residents aren’t being served by the train as promised in 2008. Like the statement that ridership is high, this is another example of an alternative fact.

As reported by Dick Spotswood in the Marin Independent Journal years ago, SMART’s then-General Manager Lillian Hames and board members were told by consultants long before 2008 that a half-cent sales tax was necessary to construct the line to Cloverdale. Polls indicated that a half-cent tax wouldn’t pass, so the agency just “made up the numbers.”

For example, in 2008 the SMART board adopted an expenditure plan that claimed the cost of constructing 70 miles of rail line was $455 million. Based on SMART’s financial audit reports, this figure understated the true cost by about 50 percent. The underestimate had nothing to do with the Great Recession.

From April 2009 through June 2018, $183 million in sales taxes have been collected in Sonoma County to fund SMART. Since Measure Q was passed in 2008, the average Sonoma County household has paid more than $800 in sales taxes to fund SMART...

PUDDING CREEK SUNSET

(Photo by Dick Whetstone)

EROS UNLEASHED (in the Walmart Parking Lot?)

Dear AVA:

This is a crazy story but it is true. Two years ago I met a young man outside a Wal-Mart in the parking lot. He was a dirty homeless man. He asked me for money for food. Feeling bad for the less fortunate, I agreed to give the kid about six dollars. The man smelled like urine and feces and was hard to bear. He said his name was Jack. Jack thanked me for the money. Then I watched him scurry off towards the gas station. Interested in what he might buy, I followed Jack. He came out of the store with a four locos and a couple single cigars. "What a dirt bag," I thought to myself. “I thought he was going to buy food.” So I approached Jack and asked him, I thought you were hungry? Jack looked at me with a smile on his face and said, "I'm sorry, bro! I'm an alcoholic and if you give me another $10 I will be willing to perform oral copulation on you for at least an hour or so.” I quickly denied him and stated that I was not a homosexual. Jack became angry and violently reached for my genitals and jumped to his knees, tugging at my zipper and begging me to let him pleasure me for orally. I broke away from Jack but he gave chase. I jumped into my car and locked the door quickly. Then I pulled out my cellphone and called the Ukiah police. I told the cops that a dirt bag homeless man was attempting to rob me in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I did not want to say rape because I felt embarrassed. I guess he was trying to rob me of my manhood.

When the police arrived Jack had climbed into a silver pickup truck. I think it was a Dodge. It occurred to me at this time that Jack was not homeless. What the heck? I said to myself. The cops walked up to his truck and yelled, "Get out of the truck, Woida." I don't know why they called them Woida. Maybe he lied about his name too. Jack exited his truck and was arrested for drunk in public. The police said he was a regular sex offender pretending to be homeless to solicit himself on the streets. They said they had caught him several times engaging in oral copulation behind Wal-Mart. I'm just glad I got away from him in time. God knows what he would have done next. And that's my story. Thanks for listening.

Sincerely,

Michael Overholt,

Mendocino County Jail

Ukiah

BIG BAND IN BOONVILLE AT LAUREN’S

The Swingin’ Boonville Big Band will perform at Lauren’s Cafe in Boonville on Saturday December 8th from 9-11pm.

Tickets are $15.

This performance is a benefit for the Adult Education Department of the Anderson Valley Unified School District.

Lauren’s beer and wine bar open late.

Last dinner order 8pm, band starts promptly at 9.

LET THEM IN

Editor:

Immigration In Perspective—

I am seeing letters and comments from people who seem to be afraid of allowing immigrants into the US, especially the 6000 or so who are part of a “caravan” that is just now on our border. If these folks are like past immigrants, both legal and illegal, they will work hard and contribute mightily to our nation — just as most of our own ancestors have.

We are a nation built of immigrants, and I see no reason to change that. It is who we are and what we are.

A search for US Immigration on Wikipedia tells me that 31 million people immigrated to the US between 1830 and 2000.  Divided out that means that for 170 years an average of 182,353 people immigrated to our Nation each year. That is over 30 “caravans” the size of the one on our border now - every year - for 170 years!

Exactly what is anybody afraid of here? Let them in, process their applications, and in the meantime let them get to work.  That is what they are asking for, they want a job, a home and a safe place to live with their family. We are all immigrants, we are surrounded by immigrants, and America is Great because of that.

Tom McFadden

Philo

REALITY-CHECK ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

UKIAH-AREA MAN SURVIVES CARDIAC ARREST Thanks To Paramedics Who Were Near His Home

by Chris Smith

Daulton Abernathy might well have died last week. Died cursing heartburn.

But as he sat at home south of Ukiah, rubbing his chest and terrifying his wife Linda — on their 35th wedding anniversary — there happened to be a firetruck rolling up his road. With two paramedics aboard.

When Abernathy's breathing and heartbeat stopped, the four-legged stool he sat on tipped forward but didn't topple and fling him onto the floor. Under even slightly different circumstances, this would likely be an obituary for the 66-year-old Umpqua Bank loan officer.

"He's been reborn," Linda Abernathy said.

The evening of Nov. 19 the two of them were at their place on Old River Road, preparing to bag and freeze Costco tamales. A pained look came over Daulton's face.

"I have really bad heartburn," he told Linda. She quickly feared it was something worse.

She told him to sit on one of the stools a few feet away. Moments later, his head dropped back. His wife saw two or three jolts undulate his chest.

Linda dialed 911.

She watched her husband's face turn gray, felt his hands go cold. He exhaled through his mouth; she learned later it was the involuntary discharge of the last breath.

Unable to tell if he was dead or alive, Linda said, "I kept telling him that I love him."

She couldn't believe how fast firefighters arrived at their rural home — only about two minutes after she'd dialed 911.

A Ukiah Valley Fire Authority engine already was on the Abernathy's road when Linda made that call. Captain and paramedic Skip Williams and his crew happened to be returning from a small fire nearby.

The firefighters rushed into the Abernathy house to find Daulton seated on the tipped-forward stool, its back two legs in the air, Daulton's left arm resting on the counter. He showed no signs of life.

Firefighters moved him to the floor and Williams and engineer-paramedic Ricky Dean administered CPR and a defibrillator. Daulton took a breath.

His revival was highly unusual. About 90 percent of people who suffer full cardiac arrest outside a hospital die.

Williams said that had his crew been at their station when the call from Linda Abernathy came in, "it would have taken us, we're thinking, eight to nine minutes to get to the house."

For Daulton Abernathy, that would likely have been too long.

He's back home now, wearing an implanted defibrillator. He and Linda are grateful for so much and to so many — the firefighters, certainly, and friend and retired fire captain Pete Bushby and neighbors John and Inger Mattern, who all rushed over to assist.

Daulton's happy, too, that he can't remember most of what happened the night of his and Linda's anniversary.

(Courtesy, Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

BIRDS SEEN CLOSE TO THE OCEAN in the Albion and Navarro Ridge area? I am looking for someone who would like to keep track of the birds seen close to the ocean in the Albion and Navarro Ridge area. It would be interesting to collect information about the # of birds and the different bird species that frequent this area. Years ago the Albion Field Station kept track, but not anymore: https://www.puc.edu/v/puc-life/albion/home [click on "Albion Bird List": A comprehensive list of birds seen around Albion from 1995 to 2011].

Annemarie Weibel, <aweibel@mcn.org>, Albion

CATCH OF THE DAY, November 29, 2018

BENJAMIN AGUILAR, Covelo. DUI.

PROCOPI ALVARADO, Ukiah. Conspiracy.

MANUAL AMADOR, Willits. Failure to appear.

SEAN BUTLER, Mendocino. Vandalism.

CRYSTAL CRADDOCK, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

ADAM HIGGINS, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

TATE MADSON, Willits. Domestic abuse.

PEDRO MARTINEZ-ROSALES, Ukiah. Conspiracy, failure to appear, illegal entry.

RICHARD MCCORMICK JR., Ukiah. Probation revocation.

MIGUEL PINEDA, San Diego/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

SHAWNNA WESTFALL, Clearlake/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

QUEENIES ROADHOUSE CAFE

Queenies Roadhouse cafe is on count down for the season. Our last day is Monday December 3. We reopen Friday February 15. Our 18 anniversary. You still have a week. SPECIAL 10% discount on Queenies gift certificate all week. Give the gift of great food. You can call and we will mail them to you. 707-877-3285. Open 8am till 3pm.

PURA VIDA AT CBG FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS THIS SAT 12-1

Join PURA VIDA at jolly-est venue on the coast, the cozy pop-up Gardens Holiday Cafe this SATURDAY December 1 at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens. Only $10 for adults and children free for 2 hours of unbeat, danceable Latin music, along with local wines, hot chocolate, and other treats, plus an ever expanding array of dazzling light sculptures twinkling along magical garden paths. It's an all-ages fundraiser for our very own Coast Botanical Gardens, 5-7pm.

WE'RE SAYING IT IS ILLEGITIMATE for corporate fictions to divide and conquer us; to define our labor; control our wealth; demarcate the commons; write our laws; elect our officials; poison our food; indoctrinate our children; use job blackmail and control of information, the press and money to run our local, state and federal governments... We're not suggesting that folks work harder to resist each chemical one at a time; each clearcut one at a time; each mass layoff one at a time; each toxic dump one at a time; each corporate purchase of a law or of an election one at a time. We're advocating citizen authority over the subordinate entity that is the modern, giant corporation... We are not about bestowing new rewards and incentives upon corporate leaders in order for them to cause a little less harm.

— Richard Grossman

LET'S

Next Meeting of the Inland Mendocino Democratic Club on December 13th at 5:30. Let’s all join together to make our county an oasis of Justice and Peace. Together, in coalition, we can take progressive action and protect our county from the Conservative nightmare. Come lend a hand. All are welcome. Meeting Location: Slam Dunk Pizza, Pro Room, 720 North State Street, Ukiah, Dec. 13th, 5:30. See us on Facebook and at http://inlandmendodems.org

SALMON SURGE: Habitat improvements paying off on one California river

sfgate.com/science/article/Salmon-surge-Habitat-improvements-paying-off-on-13426484.php

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

What I said was that we’ve been dealing with border crossers for quite a long time and that previous to this admin we’ve been able to deal with them without firing pepper spray into a foreign country, threats of violence, and swaggering machismo.  That our current admin with access massive amounts of manpower and other resources resorts to ineffective displays of fragile masculinity and can’t deal effectively with a small group of unarmed folks with a large number of kids in tow (your average county sheriffs department could do a better job than the border patrol has done) is a good measure of where we’re at as a country right now. Previously, when these sorts of things happened, people were lined up, processed, and most of them were sent home on busses or planes. It seems to me a better solution than spending weeks whipping up fear and race hate, spending millions of $ that we don’t have and don’t need to spend, and then giving ourselves a black eye over poor treatment of other human beings.

HOLIDAY COMMUNITY DINNER AT THE GRANGE

Be sure to save the date for the Holiday Community Dinner at the Grange on Sunday, December 9th at 5:30 pm.  We need help putting on the feast. To see how you can help, please call Captain Rainbow at 895-3807 or email him at captnrainbow@pacific.net.

“Let’s keep moving. This is just a bunch of papers about climate change.”

OMISSIONS IN MY EVENING NEWS

The countless reports on the death of Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi rarely make the connection between his murder and the murder of 3,000 Americans on 9/11/01.

Both atrocities were committed by our close friends and allies, the Saudis--the Saud family of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the top half of the "Saudi Bin Laden Group," the dominant construction company of the Arabian Peninsula. The Ladens were tight with the Saudis. One of Mohammed bin Laden's 54 (yes, fifty-four) kids was Osama.

When his guys flew airliners into the WTC, the U.S. stopped all but military flights in the USA for several days after 9/11 except for some FBI-sanctioned passenger planes that flew all over the U.S. gathering Laden family members--160 of them (the biggest group in Las Vegas)--to get them safely out of a justly aroused America.

Now, reports speak of fifteen Saudis arriving in Istanbul, Turkey to kill and fillet Jamal at the Saudi embassy. Reports from 17 years ago tell of fifteen Saudis coming to America to murder people in several east-coast locations. They did their jobs, those Saudis, on both occasions.

This is not a rhetorical question: Why is this convergence not mentioned daily by Rachel or Wolf or Don Lemon or Anderson Cooper or any of them? Why do they not mention (or seldom, if ever) that we have intimate experience with Saudi Arabian hitmen? They killed our 3,000 New Yorkers, etc. one day and another four or five thousand in the Middle East in the years to come. They're still doing it, as well as destroying the ancient land of Yemen.

The answer to my non-rhetorical question is, as always, money. Since oil became vital in the 1800s, as the industrial revolution acquired unquenchable thirst for it, its sources became equally vital. Oil was discovered in Arabia in 1938.

The Persian-Gulf region and the Arabian Peninsula were gradually found to have incalculable pools of it under the gulf and under the sand. The U.S. had its own gigantic supply too, thank you very much, but we liked to use up other people's as well as ours so our resources wouldn't run out, and Saudi Arabia became a center of cash, oil and pre-Renaissance, pre-Enlightenment society. They were inclined to quarrel with and kill opposing members of their own group and members of neighboring countries.

We had their backs. We paid them unspeakable sums for their oil and got much of our investment back in the sale to them of weapons--costs be damned! They buy the best.

That was and is the partnership. They have lots of money, we have lots of money and we dance together, awkwardly but enthusiastically.

That we are to them disgusting, unclean, benighted infidels who should be exterminated root & branch is a small inconvenience. It makes our dance awkward and sometimes deadly, but the partnership survives.

One reason for the meagerness of association between Khashoggi and 9/11 is that our media are a leading part of America's Big Business. Our media are owned by the rich, and they understand, respect, and defend the rich in other places, like Arabia. It's a small world. We don't need Rachel and Anderson and Wolf harping endlessly on the crimes against us by Saudi Arabians. THERE'S TOO MUCH MONEY AT STAKE.

So Honesty is excluded in much of the information we are fed about Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Saudi death squads, 9/11 suicide Saudis, or murdering journalists (one homely guy, fer Pete sake). The Saudis consider butchery to be everyday stuff, whether it's the World Trade Center in Manhattan or their embassy in Istanbul. Our ruling class agrees. There are too many people. There's never too much money.

[In the pictures below, they're tucking Jamal Khashoggi into plastic bags for disposal, and the supervising doctor acknowledges the camera, in his scrubs.]

Mitch Clogg

MORE ABOUT THE WOOLSEY FIRE Possible Radiation (Beyond Nuclear)

Citizens search for truth about radiation as CA wildfire ends.

The Woolsey fire in California was 100% contained as of November 21 after burning for nearly two weeks. In the wake of the Woolsey fire, people in areas surrounding the contaminated Santa Susanna Field Laboratory site (SSFL) -- just north of Los Angeles -- are worried that chemical and radioactive pollution may have been carried offsite by fire currents and smoke.

During the fire, the California Department of Toxic Substance Control (DTSC) did not warn the public and fire fighters that smoke from the fire could be carrying radioactive particles from the site. The DTSC "believed" there was no danger but refused to make public the methods used, and results of, any testing they have done. Now the public is seeking the truth from more trustworthy sources.

Fairewinds Energy Education has released protocols (download here) for collecting environmental specimens to be analyzed for radionuclide content. They are asking that samples be gathered within 100 miles of SSFL and/or the Woolsey fire and its smoke. At present, we do not know whether the Woolsey fire carried radionuclides offsite, or what the current contents of dusts and soils are. Instructions for collecting, cataloging and shipping specimens are included as well as how to get additional information or answers to your sampling questions.

Please sign the petition to clean up SSFL if you haven't already.

WOODMAN CREEK FISH PASSAGE PROJECT Completed from California Trout on Vimeo.

Press release from CalTrout:

For the first time in over a hundred years, winter steelhead and Chinook salmon can make their way up Woodman Creek, where they will find up to 14 miles of healthy spawning and rearing habitat. California Trout and several partners oversaw the restoration project that made it possible for fish to return to this high-priority area of the Eel River watershed. With winter rains now active in the region, these fish are finally able to take advantage of the work done to restore access to the creek.

Woodman Creek feeds into the mainstem of the Eel River near Dos Rios. When a now-defunct North Coast Railroad Authority (NCRA) line was built more than 100 years ago, the migration pathway for salmon and steelhead into Woodman Creek was permanently blocked. Due to high levels of geologic activity in the area, a portion of a train tunnel collapsed into the river, making the site impassable for fish and trains alike.

“Reopening access to historical creeks and streams like Woodman Creek provides tremendous benefits to migratory fish,” said Darren Mierau, Arcata-based North Coast Regional Director for California Trout, who oversaw the project. “It’s really satisfying to see this project finally come to fruition, after years of work went into making it happen.”

Fish and watershed activists, including CalTrout, have long identified restoring access into Woodman Creek as the #1 priority fish passage project in the North Coast region in terms of its value to imperiled migratory fish populations. More than $2 million in state and federal grants supported the project. Local contractors performed the work, including Pacific Earthscapes, Pacific Watershed Associates and Mike Love & Associates.

“The Woodman Creek project is unique in its scale and in the amount of fish habitat it’s opening up,” said Trevor Tollefson, CDFW Fisheries Restoration Grants Program North Coast Senior Environmental Scientist. “The project is the culmination of several years of effort and partnerships. We’re excited to see what happens this winter when the fish return – that’s going to be the fun part.”

California’s native salmon and steelhead populations are declining precipitously. If present trends continue, 74 percent of California’s native salmon, steelhead and trout species are likely to be extinct in 100 years, according to the 2017 CalTrout and UC Davis report, State of the Salmonids II: Fish in Hot Water. The Eel River is one of California’s most significant salmon and steelhead strongholds. The Eel and its tributaries, including Woodman Creek, have strong potential to support abundant wild fisheries for generations to come.

The funding for this project was provided by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Fisheries Restoration Grants Program and The Steelhead Report and Restoration Card. Landowners Mickey Bailey and Ron and Jeff Christensen have generously supported the project and provide access to the site.

NOT A PROB

Editor:

I’m a boomer who has absolutely no problem with someone saying “no problem” in response to my “thank you.” What a recent letter writer fails to understand is that “no problem” means the same thing as “you’re welcome.”

Both utterances belong to the same class of exchanged social niceties as “how-are-you-fine.” The words themselves have no particular meaning; they serve the purpose of conveying goodwill. And since the writer yearns for improved communications, she should know that accepting a well-intentioned response with grace and a heartfelt smile is a terrific way to do just that.

Ann Clark

Sonoma

“A joint-defense agreement is a common legal maneuver that may give us insight into how screwed we are.”

HEROES AND PATRIOTS, AT KMUD RADIO,

Live this Thursday, December 6th, 9-10 a.m. hosts John Sakowicz and Mary Massey will speak with two guests:

Adam Hochschild, author

And activist, Kathy Kelly

Listener call ins are welcome and encouraged.

Heroes and Patriots is a program about national security, intelligence and foreign policy.  The show is streamed live the first thursday of each month, 9-10 a.m. At kmud.org

Like us on facebook and youtube at heroes and patriots, kmud community radio.

Follow on: facebook, youtube and twitter @heroesandpatri2

BAD CHOICES

Editor,

My utmost respect to the solid homeboys out there who are true. In thoughts and deeds. Loyal, honest and honorable to frankly be faithful and talk. I hope this letter will enlighten and educate certain individuals who have no place in my world, and even those who do. We all make our choices in life and adapt or don't. I've never once in my life not backed up words with action. I've always been a man of my word. That's maybe the reason I've been locked up my whole life. On day one I didn't take it from no one and don't intend to start now or ever. Drugs of course are always a root problem and don't help one's discretion. I hope my father and real homeboys get my love and respect along with my fellow comrades. My sentencing was of course pointless drivel with the same old song and dance bullshit from the District Attorney Jon Hopkins and the probation department. They denied me Jericho Project, a year-long program for favor of a few more months in prison. See, pointless and ineffectual. Prison is always fun though. It went won't take me longer than two weeks to get a good long SHU term and turn my few months into a nice long stay with a district attorney referral. And the cycle continues ladies and gentlemen, especially with my little brother getting arrested for concealed weapons and extortion. The little shithead wants to follow me. Not good! This stay in county jail is very entertaining. While serving in Mendocino County Jail indeterminate SHU-term, certain cowardly individuals who certainly have imbibed too many drugs in their life for their own good and safety have taken it upon themselves to make ridiculous rumors about me and sully my good name entirely on lies. Rumors get sorted out like a laundry just like the people who make them up. Can’t wait to see one or even two such individuals face to face. Good times, looking forward to it a lot and have been waiting for it for 16 months. Not to be proud but I have been to quite a few county jails and have never seen anything like a things here. Classification has completely turned this jail upside down. I just watched a "rapist" get out of the hole today and go over to general population. That's not the first sex offender blatently put in general population. They also integrate SNY into all the GP modules. I’ve been sitting here for 16 months watching this shit. Inmates here in GP also house with other races. Classification has no care about inmates prison policies that could get prisoners in trouble should they go to prison. And the inmates know better. They don't want to lose their TV. I say fuck that TV and fuck anybody who's two-faced and full of shit. I'm right here and my cell door’s open along with my shower group.

I recently read a letter in the good old AVA, "Represent." I had to laugh very hard. It's been a while since a level one killer tried to puff up on paper! So let's hope you're not referring to me. You should take your own advice before you get yourself in a no-win policy, Class A1 wreck. And if you're talking about me then grow a pair and don't beat around the bush like a bitch and say it straight like a man big B. My cases are public record and have been from day one. So whatever you’re trying to imply, you better fall back.

Anyrage, I am really saddened by the condition of this jail. There is no more real respect for basic principles left here. By the way Big B, last time I saw him was in the SHU on group 1 yard number 48 CCC which was deemed a “funny” prison.

On a completely different note, to respond to Charles Slater in his letter "I can relate," thank you Charles, and it is the same exact Jonathan Hopkins that got voted out in Lake County for his corrupt and careless "professional" conduct. Crazy stuff I've heard from Hopkins. Every court date made it obvious that he is an overzealous corrupt asshole and it was very obvious to me and lawyer’s standpoint at the second trial that Mr. Hopkins coached the witness to be better. Her testimony was completely different from her testimony in the first trial. And my new girlfriend was in front of the courthouse for the trial and watched the district attorney whispering into the witnesses ear. And she changed her story about phone calls she received the night before I was arrested. The first story she said there was no phone call in the first trial. The second trial she blatantly lied and hearsay and violated motions in limine. She said that in the phone call I told her I stabbed somebody. In limine motions were granted. She was not allowed to make any mention of any stabbings, not the ones in prison, not the one in Lake County, nor the Ukiah one last year. But the jury was tainted intentionally. I'm not at all surprised that you know about Jon Hopkins. Might have been you’re not the only person to say that about him, Charles. There's two more people who told me that same exact thing, one of them an-ex cop. Essentially I'm not worried about it. Karma gets its payback on us all. And I'm answering for my karma now.

New Lesson: Don't date psycho jealous women. I'm going to take this time to study more psychology. And study more case law. I believe my appeal should be granted and I don't believe there will be too much of a battle, at the least I will get a new trial. But I have studied a half dozen cases similar to mine and there was no imminent fear in my case. If she had called the cops within 15 minutes of alleged threats there would be imminent fear but there wasn't because she didn't call the cops until five days later when I didn't come home. Not only that, she admitted to the erasing messages. "Finally." Which is tampering with evidence. Great to go to trial with cut and paste "evidence." Might as well go plant a murder weapon in my house while you're at it, Jonathan. This trial says a lot about the standard of Mendocino County justice system. Already knew they had a hard on for me. For 10 months Mr. Hopkins was gunning for me to try to give me 21 years to life on an April fools stabbing on Laws Avenue. His detectives were alleging crazy conspiracies to kill a witness and cut and pasting different phone calls to make even more crazy allegations on paper. Like I was born yesterday. None of these things alleged was on the recordings of course, but maybe they thought it would intimidate me or my lawyer in their report. Like we weren't going to check the recordings. I have to say this county went to the nut house and it never came back. And ever since Walter Miller (May Odin give him strength) shot that police car to stop the pursuit, this county is hunting any and all skinheads and Odinists and using any and all means necessary to destroy good family and folks lives. I worked hard and supported myself and my family and never thought I would find myself going back to prison since I made that promise when I paroled from Kern Valley State Prison and that's because I know myself and know what I'm capable of.

I knew that placed in an environment like prison it would make me a time bomb. Last time in prison on a six-month violation it turned into me doing four years with two SHU terms for District Attorney referrals. Life in prison is always around the corner.

So for you gentlemen out there mind pour Ps & Qs and don't come to prison. Everybody's a killer in the big house and most people who come in never leave except in a body bag. It's no joke. There's nothing funny about this life. Once you choose this life there's only two ways out. All my respect and loyalty to those who actually know me. Anybody else, keep my fucking name out of your mouth.

Respect,

Michael ‘Nemesis’ France

‘Death before Dishonor’

Mendocino County Jail,

Ukiah

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