MCT: Monday, December 24, 2018

• Yule Weather
• Navarro Breach
• Sheriff Johnson
• Shelter Reservations
• Flying Home
• Consultancy Menace
• Peace
• Courthouse Awards
• Narcoleptic
• Taunia Party
• The Montanas
• Stevie Stifle
• Private Security
• Sears Pension
• Police Accountability
• Yesterday's Catch
• Congressional Integrity
• Discretion
• Dice Roll
• Super Patriot
• Higher Ground
• Chet Support
• Fairytale Forest
• Old Crohn
• Feeling Abandoned
• High Q
• Found Object

A STRONG WEATHER SYSTEM is expected to bring rain, wind and scattered thunderstorms to the area today. Tuesday is expected to see dry weather. The rest of the week and into the weekend mainly cool and dry weather is expected, but some occasional light rain and snow is possible as some weak systems move through. (National Weather Service)

MSP'S 'EYE ON THE NAVARRO RIVER'

NO HWY 128 FLOODING - SANDBAR BREACHED SATURDAY

Friday evening the Navarro River sandbar was in place - causing some to wonder about flooding of Highway 128.

The "normal" flood level of the river is 23.0' - but with the sandbar in place it's 4.5'. And Highway 128 has already been closed this year for 10 hours due to "sandbar flooding (November 30th 7:30 pm - December 1st 5:30 am).

Well, the "intact" sandbar was breached when we went by Saturday @ 1:00 pm - so there is NO threat of Highway 128 flooding - a Christmas present from Mother Nature.

(MendocinoSportsPlus)

OF LAWMEN & LAWBREAKERS

by Malcolm Macdonald

In the 1800s the Mendocino County Sheriff held a second job, that of tax collector. In the autumn of each year this duty entailed traveling throughout the county, gathering thousands of dollars at each stop along the way. For several months in 1879 a band of outlaws conspired in a plot to rob the sheriff along the coast. Their plan unraveled, two residents of Mendocino City were murdered, and the ensuing manhunt, that crossed much of northern California, made famous a deputy named Jeremiah “Doc” Standley. At the next county election Standley was elected sheriff. He served throughout the 1880s and up until the election of 1892 when James R. Johnson defeated Standley and took over the sheriff and tax collector job in January, 1893.

In December, 1894, the county treasurer's total for taxes collected differed from what the Under Sheriff (assistant tax collector) claimed. Outside auditors could not account for the discrepancy. $3,000 remained missing all the way through an ensuing court case between the county and the treasurer's office. The jury found no fault with the treasurer, the defendant in the case, and the money was assumed to have been lost only on paper.

Even in the 1890s the Sheriff and anyone deputized to collect tax money had to be bonded. Taxes were initially collected at numerous locations around the county. For instance, at the time of the aborted 1879 robbery, all coastal tax money from Kibesillah south to Cuffey's Cove was deposited first at William Kelly's store in Mendocino. The money was secured in a vault there until the sheriff or a deputy collected it in late autumn. In 1897, over twenty men were bonded as tax collectors to handle portions of the tax money before it was submitted to the county treasurer. The values that the 1897 bondsmen were allowed to handle varied from $1,000 to $10,000. Only two of the twenty-some bondsmen were insured up to $10,000. Interestingly, the Under Sheriff whose actions precipitated the 1895 monetary crisis was bonded at just $1,000.

On a Friday in December, 1897, Mendocino County Under Sheriff Philo Handy (the same Under Sheriff from the previous debacle with the treasurer) found that the cash on hand in the tax collector's office was approximately $6,000 short. Sheriff Johnson had not been seen in his office since November 23rd and no one had seen him since a report of a sighting in San Francisco on November 24th.

Under Sheriff Handy reported promptly to the county district attorney regarding the simultaneous absence of the funds and the sheriff. The DA notified the chairman of the Board of Supervisors. Testimony was taken at the supervisors meeting the following Tuesday, resulting in the Board vacating the offices of sheriff and tax collector on the grounds that James R. Johnson had ceased to be an inhabitant of Mendocino County. An application to fill the sheriff's job was submitted on behalf of J.H. “Henry” Smith. The Board of Supervisors motioned and approved that appointment, pending the bonding of Mr. Smith (more on Sheriff Smith's eight year tenure in the July 25, 2018 AVA).

The precise amount of Sheriff Johnson's embezzlement from Mendocino County proved to be $5775. However, the buck did not stop at Mendocino County's borders. About five years prior a Sonoma County widow, Harriet Wiley, died leaving no children. Her will named Sheriff Johnson as one of two executors. The other man declined the position. After a period of reluctance, James R. Johnson set about his duties. Primary among those was finding the legal heirs, whom Mrs. Wiley had simply referred to in her will as the widows and children of her late husband's brothers and sisters. Most of these folks lived on or near the east coast, so Johnson's delay in fulfilling the execution of Harriet Wiley's will for several years might have seemed understandable, except that when news of his absconding with nearly $6,000 of Mendocino County's money became public, officials began investigating the Wiley matter. They found that Johnson had sold Wiley properties to the tune of $2,500, seemingly pocketing all the proceeds for himself. Another $2,500 to $3,000 due to the Wiley relatives in the east had also disappeared with Johnson.

Early surmises as to the ex-Sheriff's whereabouts led toward the Klondike, but when local prospectors trickled back into Northern California, no one reported any Johnson sightings. Wiser money pointed southward after acquaintances told of the lawman often expressing desire to engage in the stock raising business in Mexico.

By 1900, rumors and hearsay put James R. Johnson somewhere in Central America, running a profitable saloon.

(Crime doesn't usually pay at malcolmmacdonaldoutlawford.com)

HEY - WHERE’S THE COAST EMERGENCY SHELTER

The Hospitality House is a little late informing those out in the rain whether the Emergency Weather Shelter will be open or closed. Of course, if they didn't pre-register during their business hours last week they're out of luck to begin with. This is we like to call "Compassion with stringent conditions."

Their web page hasn’t been updated by 9:50 am Sunday - ditto the “hotline” despite pledging: “We are emailing OPEN or CLOSED notifications daily to our distribution list and our notification phone message (707-961-0172 Option 1) will be updated Monday through Friday by 9:30 AM.”

So much for truth in advertising.

The lead sentence on the Hospitality House web page says “…to shelter the homeless, feed the hungry, and provide a path to personal self sufficiency…" Which, of course, is pretty hard to do when you don’t update information for those that are cold, hungry and need of shelter in a Sunday rain storm.

This is par for the course for Hospitality House - the present Board of Directors need to removed - they are clueless.

STILL NO SHELTER UPDATE 10:05 AM…

(via MendocinoSportsPlus)

Update:

YES, COAST EMERGENCY SHELTER IS OPEN SUNDAY NIGHT. Although you'd be out of luck if you just arrived into town. You have to be pre-registered to get out of the elements…

HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

An old man calls his son and says, "Listen, your mother and I are getting divorced. Forty-five years of misery is enough."

"Dad, what are you talking about?" the son screams.

“We can't stand the sight of each other any longer,” he says. "I'm sick of her face, and I'm sick of talking about this, so call your sister and tell her," and he hangs up.

Now, the son is worried. He calls his sister. She says, "Like hell they’re getting divorced!"

She calls their father immediately. "You’re not getting divorced! Don't do another thing. The two of us are flying home tomorrow to talk about this. Until then, don't call a lawyer, don't file a paper. DO YOU HEAR ME?!” She hangs up the phone.

The old man turns to his wife and says, "Okay, they’re both coming home for Christmas and paying their own airfares."

COLFAX’S FINEST HOUR (June 23, 1999)

by Jim Shields

Author’s note: The following is from our archives showing how little has changed in 20 years in local government.

For years it seems I’ve written about the shadow government which as time goes by is exercising more and more power in our governing process. I’m speaking, of course, of government by consultancy.

The consultant sector is one of the fastest growing industries in America. While consultants have been around forever, their influence on the governing process, especially at the local government level, has increased significantly in the past decade. Here in Mendocino County that growth trend has climbed ever upward even though the ranks of upper-level bureaucracy keep getting expanded. Recent Grand Jury reports and independent management audits of departmental operations all attest to that fact. So why is local government so dependent an reliant on consultants? With all the high-priced bureaucrats, departmental heads and assistant directors in harness, one would think these folks must know what they’re doing. Evidently not. Every time you turn around you’re liable to bump into a consultant who’s been brought on board to perform some essential task, conduct a study, create a plan, facilitate a meeting, give advice on mission statements, and a thousand other things.

In my judgment, as a conservative estimate 80 percent of all consultant agreements executed by county officials are a complete waste of taxpayer money. And money is the name of the consultant’s game. The consultancy sector is one of the arrival destinations once government officials exit through the revolving door. Consultants remember that Supervisor Joe Smith, or Department Head Sally Jones hired their services to facilitate team-building in the Auditor’s Department. Once Joe and Sally leave government service they’ve got a soft nest to fall into.

At last Tuesday’s Supes’ meeting (June 15), Dr. David Colfax donned his professorial robes and delivered a real-time lecture on how the governing process is skewed by consultants who are aided and abetted by public servants.

The occasion of Prof. Colfax’s discourse on the consultancy menace was a typical 35-minute presentation by Public Health staffers attempting to give a progress report on a five-year “Population Health Initiative,” funded by grants from the California Wellness Foundation. The Foundation ponied up $20 million for, among other things, to do a study in nine counties, including Mendocino, to, as DPH Director Carol Mordhorst explained, “educate state legislators” on various health matters vital to California citizens. To that end, nationally-known pollster Louis Harris was retained to survey county residents.

Once DMH staffers completed their computer-generated slide show, which was accompanied by non-stop, jargon-larded dialogue (“collaboration”, “cooperation”, “consensus-building”, “mentoring”, etc.), Colfax brought the self-congratulatory “presentation” to an abrupt, unexpected end.

Colfax, a former university professor with a doctorate in statistics, told the DPH crowd, “For 40 years I’ve been involved in data collection and evaluation. I’m a member of the American Institute of Public Opinion Research. I’ve written a manual on research methodology. I’ve looked at the methodology (in the DPH report). If that were a doctoral dissertation as methodology, I’d send it back with a note: ‘Write, re-write, and re-write again.’”

Colfax then asked the bureaucrats, “Has Louis Harris given you what you paid for?”

Dr. Colfax received nothing more than apprehensive looks from the “presenters” of the Harris study.

Pushing on, Colfax said, “Are you misrepresenting, inadvertently perhaps, because you have a particular agenda? Or, are you misrepresenting what Louis Harris gave you?”

At that point, DPH staff began to collectively shuffle their feet and gaze down at their shoes.

“It’s not a methodology,” Colfax informed them about their survey which randomly contacted by phone 500 county residents, and queried them with a hundred or so questions.

“It’s a cover,” is how the 5th District Supe characterized the ersatz survey. “You don’t have the response rates. You don’t tell us how the sampling trend was established, and so forth.”

Colfax then got to the nitty-gritty.

“I’m not going to sit here and bore everyone silly, but when I see data collected as part of, and again, I know this is embarrassing and awkward — I don’t like doing this — but when a study such as this is made part of a centerpiece where you’re talking about what’s been accomplished, I wonder, in fact, if we are not doing ourselves more damage than good, assuming we share the same general objectives.”

He then patiently explained to the slack-jawed “helpers” from DPH that the poll they commissioned was done by a company in the business of churning out surveys which make the firm money. To say Colfax questioned the reliability of the data is an understatement.

Looking directly at the now very unhappy DPHers at the podium, Colfax said, “The people who presented this apparently are not the kind of people who can present this kind of data. Don’t presume that professional polling agencies do this out of the goodness of their hearts. I want to make it clear to you, that I will not support policies based on what I regard as half-baked, profit-driven surveys.”

Dr. Dave next pointed out flaws, errors and questionable data in the Harris survey.

On a question dealing with the level of medical care received by the 500 respondents, Colfax stated, “Eighty-four percent of the people in this population — God knows what this population is because Lou Harris and Associates don’t specify and the methodology doesn’t give it — have total health care. Do you believe that 84 percent of this county’s citizens have total health care. I don’t.”

A query regarding the income status of Mendolanders, Colfax commented, “Do you believe that 52 percent of the people interviewed have incomes of over $25,000 a year? There’s all kinds of questions you can ask about this response in a county where the average income is somewhere around $21,000. I don’t know if you’re talking about household income or what. I simply don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Colfax tackled the actual pool of respondents or the “sampling” used in the survey.

“Of the people who were interviewed, 58 percent of the people had some college or more. I have to say, well, sure. Then I see that a telephone survey has been used. Are you aware that we have towns here in northern California where only 25 percent of the people have their telephone numbers listed? I think for the most part they’re people who happen to be at home, who are retired, who are over-educated, and didn’t have much else to do but to talk on the phone because they don’t have much of a life, and they were very agreeable (with the pollsters).”

Addressing another technical aspect of polling, Colfax said, “I need to know what the completion rate is. It’s not found anywhere. My point is, without hectoring or haranguing, but quite frankly I’d love to sit down with Lou Harris (who Colfax knows) for an hour and say, ‘Let’s knock off the crap!’ Because it’s happened over and over and over again in Mendocino County with non-profits and governmental agencies. Somehow or another we get hooked into consultants who know that some of our people don’t know as much as they do, so they hoodwink them. I’m almost afraid to ask how much this study cost. In fact, I don’t even want to hear how much it cost because you’ll just tell me it’s not local tax dollars but state or some other money. The concern I have here is that we’ve got to do better in collecting data.”

At one juncture DPH Director Carol Mordhorst attempted to head Colfax off at the pass by inviting him to “assist us” in straightening out the confusing data. She told Colfax the Lou Harris had provided them with “three large, loose-leaf notebooks, full of data.” Colfax easily parried the attempt to co-opt him by telling Mordhorst, “No, I won’t do that. That’s not my job. It’s not my job to educate staff or to clean up their mess — that’s the job of staff. My job is to stop it (the mess) right here.”

Mordhorst exclaimed she was “shocked” to hear all the less than nice things said about Lou Harris and Associates. “Most communities would be happy with this data,” Mordhorst claimed.

“We’ve been delivered a junk car and are paying for a Lexus,” Colfax responded.

Hitting the bull’s eye, Colfax zeroed in on policy-making.

“We’ve got to bring the same critical standards to bear when we collect data and make policy decisions. We’re supposed to be making policy decisions based on some of the data collected here.

“But the trouble is, we only increase the cynical notion that ‘you can do anything you want with statistics;’ therefore, statistics aren’t worth a damn.’ And, in this case, I’m saying the statistics aren’t worth a damn.

“But there are statistics that could be collected, and, I bet, for the amount of money we spent, a good study could have been done by an honest polling agency who are not out to make big bucks by getting the opportunity to do a survey across-the-board.”

Colfax then drew a line in the sand: “As long as we use bad data to make policy, we’re going to be making bad policy. I think it’s time to simply say, stop.”

Harry Truman said, “The buck stops here.” Colfax’s updated version as we head for the 21st Century carries the same message of integrity: “The crap stops here.”

Colfax’s comments, in their entirety, should be sent to every elected official in the country. He’s right on the money.

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

WE MUST BE PREPARED to make the same heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war. There is no task that is more important or closer to my heart. Nothing that I can do or say will change the structure of the universe. But maybe, by raising my voice, I can help the greatest of all causes — good will among men and peace on earth.

— Albert Einstein

YEAR END AWARDS FROM THE CRIME BEAT (Part 2)

by Bruce McEwen

THE MEN’S FASHION CONSCIOUS AWARD (a well-worn Carhartt ball-cap, donated by The Major) goes to Patrick Kingsley of the Office of the Public Defender. He is so self-conscious about having to wear a suit in court, that he actually smuggles it from his car to his office in a black plastic garbage bag, so that he may never be seen on the streets wearing a suit and tie. We often hear the tee-shirt and ball-cap brigade pitch a bitch about how pretentious people are who wear formal clothing to work, dismissing them as “fashion conscious,” but it really is quite the other way around. If you think about it: Carhartt is currently the most coveted brand in men’s clothing, not Banana Republic. Go to your favorite charity shop and just try to find a Carhartt coat, even an old worn-out one. On the other hand, I got a brand new Banana Republic blazer the other day for $5 at the Hospice Store. Mr. Kingsley wouldn’t be caught dead in it!

THE WOMEN’S FASHION CONSCIOUS AWARD goes to Superior Court Clerk Julie Lyly, who dresses with such curious study and lavish accessories that a stunned hush sometimes follows her as she walks through the crowded mezzanine and all the excited chatter ceases as people pause to watch her pass. To Ms. Lily we would like to award a Royal Blue Satin Shoulder Sash Ribbon Embroidered With Lilies, just to see what she came up with to wear it with…

THE SPEAKING UP TO POWER AWARD (A five-foot pennant of rippling purple ribbon tapered to a swallow-tail) goes to Angelina Potter, a local private attorney, who was declaiming in the Halls of Justice about the ubiquitous unfairness of big tall men going around enjoying all the advantages over the rest of us. (Ms. Potter is what I believe is called a petite size.) Ms. Potter was cataloguing such masculine traits as gray hair at the temples of men, like grace notes in music, and using their beards and mustaches to impress and oppress women and children, pointing out all the advantages men, and especially big men have, and the things big men use (like the bumptious beer-belly) to “throw their weight around” — by which she explained that down through western culture we are all still governed by our physical stature, wherein men have all the Aces, such Medieval morés as should have gone out of vogue with Le Mort D’Arthur – and (speak of the Devil) at just that moment a great big bear of a man with a full beard, burst into the hall from a nearby courtroom, and sauntered into our midst, his fabulous girth, clad in oxford broadcloth and copious facial hair, causing us to make room, and form a crescent, a kind of amphitheater around him. An alpha male of the species, made to order, well over six-two and at a trim 280, just the man for the job: Daniel Moss of the Office of the Public Defender. When apprised of what Ms. Potter was lecturing on, what we were talking about, that is, Mr. Moss earned some credit for his kind by admitting outright he’d probably been unconscious of all the advantages that his size, pelt and gender had afforded him over the course of his life; but that he was certainly cognizant of how his career benefited from it, and fully appreciated the way he was received by jurors, for example. We would offer Mr. Moss one of those little lapel ribbons in his choice of color for not commenting on the long-suffering object of contemporary racism, but he doesn’t seem to need it.

THE REASONABLE EXPECTATION OF BOURGEOIS RESPECTABILITY MEDAL goes to Deputy DA Tom Geddes for his memorable attempt to pick up a misdemeanor by the bootstraps, as it were, and elevate it to a felony by claiming that pilfering small change from a Coke machine in a classy motel lobby, like the Travel Inn on North State Street, was tantamount to coming right into a person’s home. “My God,” Geddes said (speaking hypothetically), “what if you came out of your room in a bathrobe to get a bedtime snack and found the defendant here jimmying the Coke machine!? If you have a reasonable expectation of privacy, and I would submit that you would have such an expectation under the circumstances…” The “circumstances” being that you’ve paid over a $100 for a room, as opposed to about $60 compared to South State Street motels, where the defendant had also robbed the same vendor’s Coke machines, but in those cases the machine was outdoors on a balcony — “then [by God], it’s a felony!” To which Judge Ann Moorman answered, “It’s a pretty idea, and I like it a lot but I have to go by the law, and legally it’s only a misdemeanor, as counsel [defense attorney Doug Rhoades] has pointed out; and so your motion is denied.” The King of Morocco has a crew of burly fellows who go down the streets of Casablanca and herd the beggars, addicts, drunks, whores and any other unsightly person back into the alleyways behind the souk, so they are safely out of his majesty’s sight whenever he comes along – the same idea as “doing” something about the homeless “problem” in Ukiah, and we therefore expect the Make Ukiah Cute Again people who came up with the smarmy motto “Not Just A Pretty Place” to pay for Mr. Geddes’s medal.

THE EMOTIONAL FRAGILITY TIARA goes to County Counsel Katherine Elliot who daren’t come to the courthouse without a cavalcade of subaltern lawyers, the Undersheriff, and a phalanx of uniformed deputies as was the case recently when she was making an appearance, in an expensive new suit, just after her big gratuitous pay raise, and her voice broke in such a high-pitched squeal it sounded like an out of tune woodwind hitting a C-sharp in the highest register as she greeted with overweening enthusiasm some of the courthouse regulars for the first time since she was elevated to County Counsel.

THE TRITEST MAXIM PLAQUE at the courthouse goes to the Mendocino Defense Bar for confounding themselves with the phrase "It is what it is" with this endorsement from Esquire Magazine's Ross McCammon: "'It is what it is.' Yes, but what is it? If you take this idea to it's natural conclusion, you will end up smoking a cigarette while jumping off a cliff. We must all resolve to stop saying this. It means nothing. It is a mantra for idiots. To which Judge Moorman answered, "It's a pretty idea counsel, and I like it a lot, but I have to go by the law, and legally…"

TROUBLE SLEEPING?

Try this from the PD:

"Healdsburg Democrat Mike McGuire, who represents the North Coast, was selected to serve as assistant majority leader of the California Senate, a newly created leadership post that will put him among California’s top Democrats shaping the majority party’s legislative agenda in 2019.

The position was created by California Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego. McGuire’s selection was announced Friday among five other leadership appointments and 45 committee assignments for the upcoming legislative session that starts in January."

NEW YEAR’S EVE & Taunia Green’s Going Away Party: Lauren’s Café in Boonville. Starts at 9pm. The popular local, Taunia Green’s party will be accompanied by an as yet unidentified Rock’n’Roll band and local favorite Joe Blow.

LOTS OF US REMEMBER LEE & MIKE MONTANA, formerly of Rancho Navarro. They now live in Los Lunas, New Mexico but obviously miss their time in Anderson Valley. Lee writes: “Hello Anderson Valley! It has been more than two and a half years since we have seen the beauty of your home and we sure do miss it. We wish everyone there a Happy Christmas (which I hope you had by the time you read this) and a very good 2019. Love and miss you, Anderson Valley. Sincerely, The Montanas.”

WAY TO GO, STEVE

Editor,

Just a quick letter of congratulations to obstructionist City Council Member Steve Scalmanini for his perseverance in the face of extraordinary competition, determination against long odds, optimism when everyone else has thrown in the towel, and standing up after being knocked down again and again.

Yes Steve, you failed miserably in your convoluted long going attempt to stop the building of a Costco in Ukiah, and yet somehow you were able to pull yourself up by your boot straps and see past your seething anger and utter defeat and continue on in your quest to stifle local development. By turning your attention towards more easily bullied small business adventures in Ukiah, you and your cohort, Doug (Development is only acceptable when Crane Construction is doing the development) Crane, were able to finally succeed, and stop the construction of a 5 stall tractor repair building desperately needed by the local farming community, and keep local Business Garton Tractor from increasing the local tax base by hiring and putting more people to work. I’m sure every farmer and property owner in the area will applaud your efforts to keep them from getting their equipment serviced in a timely manner.

So again, Congratulations Steve, Bravo, Bravo, the community applauds you.

Mike Zeman

Redwood Valley

RE ISLAND MOUNTAIN HOME INVASION, an on-line comment:

“It will stop when we form our own militias, with road stops and ID checks. Since our roads are private, we can pull their ass out of their rigs to check them. And why let them in? Every village, especially along 101, should be protected from these thieves. How many home invasions occur in wine country? Those winery owners have big bucks. Do they get invaded like here? We need village training for invasions, even have drills. It will only take a few punks blown away, and this problem should slow down. or, you can be killed, or severely hurt, and call the sheriff, who is an hour away. The govt is not the answer, private security and lead is. There are private security firms all all over the place, who patrol and can arrest. Just deduct their fee from your property taxes.”

ACCOUNTABILITY

Editor:

To curb police violence, make them accountable to “we the people,” not each other. I should be able to go to my local law enforcement websites and click on any officer for the number of times her or she drew or fired a weapon and see any complaints filed.

If I see a problem, I could petition my City Council for action. The council could review and vote, and if the officer was found to be a menace, the council could decide he or she shouldn’t be on a beat with a murder weapon and a billy club. Then, internal affairs could, if they want to, fire or transfer the officer.

The police aren’t capable of policing each other. It’s a big brotherhood of bullies who confuse silence for integrity, enabling other officers in breaking the law. We the people should be able to hold them accountable, as officers are we the people, too.

“But we’ll be afraid to do our jobs.” They have the power of life and death and should be afraid to do their jobs and held ultra-accountable to the people they’re supposed to serve and protect. If cops served and protected we the people the way they serve and protect each other, I’d certainly feel a lot safer.

Scott Pappas

Fort Bragg

CATCH OF THE DAY, Dec. 23, 2018

JAMES BROWN SR., Redwood Valley. Failure to appear, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

MARCUS DUMAN, Ukiah. Manufacture/sale of leaded cane or similar, controlled substance, paraphernalia, over an ounce of pot. (Frequent flyer.)

SHAWN DUNAKIN, Ukiah. DUI.

CASEY GOODRICK, Ukiah. DUI.

TEYA HERNANDEZ, Hopland. DUI.

JOHN LOGAN JR., Albion. Probation revocation.

SCOTT MAINGI, Ukiah. Disobeying court order.

CHRISTOPHER MANGRUM, Willits. Disobeying court order.

BRYAN MARTIN, Ukiah. Disobeying court order.

EARL MARTIN, San Francisco/Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs.

JARRETT NELSON, Ukiah. DUI, no license, license suspended for DUI.

JACOB PARKER, Ukiah. Disobeying court order, misdemeanor warrant.

DANIEL SANCHEZ, Redwood Valley. Appropriation of someone else’s property without trying to return it, controlled substance, controlled substance where prisoners are kept, paraphernalia, community supervision violation, county parole violation.

EDWARD SANKOVICH, Covelo. DUI-alcohol&drugs.

NATHANIEL SECKER, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

EDWARD STEELE JR. Ukiah. Probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

ROBERT VALADEZ, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

MEGAN VANHORN, Fort Bragg. Controlled substance for sale, transportation of controlled substance, probation revocation.

MALISSA WARNER, Ukiah. Parole violation.

AMICA WETZLER, Ukiah. Concealed dirk-dagger, offenses while on bail.

TWEET FROM ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: “Next time we have a gov shutdown, Congressional salaries should be furloughed as well. It’s completely unacceptable that members of Congress can force a government shutdown on partisan lines and then have Congressional salaries exempt from that decision. Have some integrity.”

I CANNOT, AND DO NOT LIVE in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you! It would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.

— Philip Roth

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I think Trump is giving it one last roll of the dice, winner take all. He has nothing to lose at this point; the swamp is getting ready to throw him and his family, including Barron, in prison.

Pulling the troops out of Syria and also adding Afghanistan is the biggie. Bigger than the wall that’s for sure. The last man to have challenged the Military Industrial Complex was assassinated in Dealey Plaza on a sunny day riding in an open top convertible.

ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE

Editor:

In a recent letter to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Josh Silva proposes a vegetarian diet as the answer to global warming. He claims that animals are responsible for 51 percent of greenhouse gases and animal industry has destroyed 91 percent of the Amazon rainforest. He seems to imply that we should kill all animals. I don’t want to rain on his parade, but humans release methane also. And if they eat a high-fiber and beans diet, they emit more methane. Methane is underground and under the oceans and is being emitted in increasing amounts from the Arctic Ocean. It is released by decomposing plant life.

There go our compost piles. So diet won’t save us. Electric cars must be the answer. But studies show that production, transportation, mining for lithium and manufacture of batteries leave a large carbon footprint. And if you plug into an outlet supplied by a power plant fueled by coal, your E-car has the same carbon footprint as a standard car. And car emissions are only 13 percent of greenhouse gases. Production of almost everything uses carbon-based energy and products. Is there no hope? Prayer? My favorite prayer starts, “God, let me know the things that I can change, and help me accept the things that I can’t change.” There’s the answer: Adapt, and move to high ground.

Roger Delgado

Sebastopol

GIVE CHET SOME CHRISTMAS CHEER

Editor,

Chester Collins arrested for disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

Please know that I have just posted a supportive comment for Chet on the Sunday December 23rd online edition of the Anderson Valley Advertiser/Mendocino County Today section. Chet's picture appears in the "lineup" of those charged with various offenses. Please offer Chet your support at Christmas time. He is on Facebook as "Chet Collins." Thank you!

Craig Louis Stehr
Honolulu, Hawaii
craiglouisstehr@gmail.com

MENDO WINTER

“THE SYMPTOMS DIDN’T START until I was seventeen. I was volunteering at a soup kitchen one day and I got such bad stomach pain that I had to sit down. That’s when I learned about Crohn’s disease, which basically means that I have ulcerations in my intestine. It’s pretty brutal. Constant pain. Sometimes I can’t get out of bed. Other times I throw up blood. Once I got so desperate that I tried to heal myself with a thirty-five day water fast. It didn’t work, and by the end I was down to 95 lbs. I’ve gone through a lot of depression because of the pain. Honestly, if it wasn’t for my wife and kids, I might have ended it by now. It’s heartbreaking for my wife to see me go through it. And it’s heartbreaking for me to put her through it. I feel like I’m holding her back. She’s so adventurous. She loves dancing, and traveling, and going out, and exploring. And I can’t do any of that. We took a three-day trip to the mountains in Seattle and I spent the entire time in tears on the couch. Same thing happened when we took the kids to Disneyland. I just hate being the sick husband. She has to pick up so much of the slack. But we’ve been to marital counseling. And I’ve told her all of this. And she swears that she wouldn’t change a thing. And that she loves me just how I am. And that I’m not a burden. I don’t know, man. We’ve been through so much shit together. I guess she just really loves me.”

(Humans of New York)

TRUMP FEELS 'TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY ABANDONED,' even by Kushner

dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/22/1821083/-NYT-Trump-feels-totally-and-completely-abandoned-even-by-Kushner

TRUMP TWEET FROM 2013

Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest - and you all know it! Please don't feel so stupid or insecure, it's not your fault.

FOUND OBJECT