MCT: Thursday, January 3, 2019

• GoFund Pebbles
• Noyo
• Claudia Smith
• CordovaCann Coming
• Swearing In
• Hollow OpenGov
• Ed Notes
• Big Canyon
• Housing Needed
• Contortionist Escapes
• Bond Discussion
• Too White
• Yesterday's Catch
• Shasta Dam
• Facebook Principle
• Federal Shutdowns
• Pelosi Favors
• Hating New Year's
• Brexit Cowardice
• Beware Banks/Corporations
• Political Backbone
• Ag Alert
• Fearful Ninnies
• Ocean Reflections
• Theatre Audition

PEBBLES TRIPPET FUNDRAISER

Pebbles Trippet has been a long time Mendocino Coast resident and a pioneer, Medical Cannabis Advocate. In 1996 she fought and won People v. Trippet in the Supreme Court for all the people of California, driving Cannabis laws forward in California and on a National scale. To this day, Lawyers use her case and refer to her win as the "Trippet Standard" and Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman always recognizes her when he enters a room she is in, giving her the highest respect and praise. In 2009 she received a lifetime achievement award for her activism and legal work.

Pebbles has been a huge mentor and friend to many. We have seen her generosity in this community, from lending her car, a dollar or a bud to those in need, to volunteering her time picking up trash on HWY 128 in Philo with the Adopt-a-Highway program she has maintained for over 10 years (Medical Marijuana Patients Union). Pebbles is always shopping local first, as it is a priority for her, and we too have experienced her kindness and generosity ourselves first hand.

Pebbles is always outspoken on what she believes in, but very humble.

A few years ago we came to find out that she had suffered a tragedy a few years earlier, and was alone to deal with it. She didn't ask anyone for help, and those that offered, never showed up. When we heard this, we felt obliged to help a woman that has done so much for so many yet has asked for nothing in return.

Residing alongside the Navarro river, several years ago her home and property was devastated to the river cresting and flooding her entire property and home. Highway patrol came to rescue her by boat, as all exits were blocked or flooded out. Her home and truck sat under several feet of water for many days. There was no flood insurance.

We started cleanup about five years ago. Five years after the flood.

The cleanup over the years has been time consuming and costly. Thousands of dollars have been spent just in dump fees slowly dumping the thousands of precious memories, books, magazine, archives and other property that was ruined in the flood. Vehicles had to be towed and scrapped, tools and appliances too.

We have now come to a turning point. All the while we have been helping Pebbles, and living our own life, we had been looking for land to purchase here on the coast. In 2016 Pebbles referred us to an acquaintance she had heard was in need of renters, with a possible land purchase. We moved onto the property as renters and about a year later we entered into a lease purchase owner finance agreement with the property owner. We gave her our down payment and were told she would return with the contract. Several months into the agreement (keeping all our receipts) and many times hearing "I'll get the contract to you Friday" we received an "eviction" notice instead, and a hand scribbled note that she had sold the property to someone else. We spoke with Pebbles, whereby she attempted to contact her acquaintance to find out what was going on and resolve the issue.

Pebbles watched in dismay as the acquaintance of hers that she thought so highly of, hired several lawyers in an attempt to swindle thousands of dollars from the people she had recommended to her.

When the acquaintance refused contact with Pebbles, this is when Pebbles put her foot down, dug into her life savings and offered to pay a lawyer’s retainer fee to respond to the eviction, knowing the law would be served and her money would be returned upon the win of the case. It was truth in justice she wanted. Pebbles was not going to allow this woman to take advantage of her only "family" and try to use the law to do it.

After a year in court, testimony from Pebbles and others with financial interest in the property, we won against the swindler. The Mendocino County judge ordered the "Land owner" to repay us and all lawyer fees, which we paid out of pocket, up front, as all lawyers require.

One year after the $25,000 judgement, we haven't seen a dime from this fraud and as of today January 1, 2019, someone here on the coast has helped her progress a GoFundMe and raise $2000 for her pack up and disappear without paying her debts. We don't understand why she needed to use GoFundMe, she eventually sold the property worth $850,000 that had more equity in it than the value of Pebbles land. Our family lost more than $25,000 because of this shyster, but that is not the purpose of this GoFundMe.

Our goal with this GoFundMe is to raise the money to immediately repay Pebbles limited life savings that she invested in a cause she believed in, and to continue to help restore her habitat to a condition of living that most of us are accustomed.

There are still many, many hours of cleanup to be done and truckloads of garbage to be removed. Appliances need to be replaced, demolitions and remodels need to be done.

$15,000 is a starting point. The damages and losses could never be covered by this number nor could the rebuilding and repairs. Its a number we can get back to work with.

We put every spare second and penny of our own into helping a woman who has so little, yet deserves so much.

In the future, when we have more cleanup done, we will accept donations of construction materials such as tile, sheet rock, insulation, paint and lumber as well.

Please help us help Pebbles.

https://www.gofundme.com/imwithpebbles?member=1418174

LOW TIDE ON THE NOYO

(Photos by Dick Whetstone)

CLAUDIA A SMITH-HILL

Claudia Smith, long time member of the Willits community, died Thursday December 19th. With her son, daughters in law and cat at her side she passed away peacefully in the house she had built with her husband nearly 70 years ago.

Born April 28, 1921 in Alameda and raised in Oakland she was an adventurous young woman who was equally at home in the city and at her father's fishing lodge in eastern Shasta County. She was accepted to UC Berkeley and started classes in the fall of 1939 "to spite my father" she often said. As a summer job she waited tables at Forest Lodge in Plumas County and there, in 1940, she met Ken "Bijey" Smith. For the next few years they carried on a long distance relationship while she finished her degree at Cal and Bijey served in the Army Air Corps in the Philippines and Japan. They were married on September 1st 1946 and quickly moved to New Haven Connecticut where Bijey completed his master's degree in forestry at Yale.

Returning to California they camped for nine months on the remote lost coast near the mouth of Jackass Creek at the site that would become the sawmill and town of Wheeler. Bijey with another forester cruised timber and experimented with transporting logs using surplus landing craft while Claudia cooked meals and hiked the canyons and hills. This became a defining adventure that would provide stories and fond memories for the rest of her life.

In 1948 they moved to Willits, built their house on Sherwood Road and began to raise their family.

Claudia was always a journalist at heart and as soon as her youngest child entered school she started as a "stringer" for The Willits News. For the next twenty years she maintained an ever increasing association with the paper until in 1973 when she and Bijey and three other local couples bought it. She had a natural curiosity and interest in people that made her the perfect reporter and editor for a small town paper. The twenty-one years she spent editing and publishing The Willits News were the happiest and most fulfilling of her life. She felt honored to chronicle the times of the community she loved.

After Bijey's death in 1985 she married Richard Hill and retired. Together she and Dick traveled in Europe and spent winters playing golf in Arizona.

Claudia lead an enviable life: fulfilled and loved.

She was preceded by her husband Kenneth, husband Richard, daughter Margaret and son Mark. She is survived by her son Ken and daughter-in-law Rose, grandchildren Seth Smith, Gina Anderson, Sabrina Grillo, and Chris Grillo, stepchildren Steve Hill, Chris Hanzel, Joe Hill, and Cameron Hill.

The family is grateful for the loving care given to Claudia by several care givers especially the tireless attention and love from Catherine Hill.

A celebration of her life will be held on what would have been her 98th birthday, April 28th 2019.

CORDOVACANN MAY CHANGE COVELO

by Alyson Bailey

Since the spring of 2018, local residents have been discussing an impending change for this small agrarian community. CordovaCann, a globally traded corporation based in Toronto Canada, is planning on bringing big business to small town Covelo; a Mendocino County farming community with a population of 1,200. This move is inspired by cannabis legalization in the State of California, and Mendocino County’s widely-known reputation for providing a trustworthy, premium product.

Beau Milner acted as the CordovaCann spokesperson, fielding many questions during an emotional, multi-hour community meeting Nov. 18, 2018 located at Round Valley Public Library, a common venue in Covelo. A known local, Milner believes in what CordovaCann could do for his hometown and Mendocino County, but others are skeptical.

When asked where CordovaCann planned to locate within Covelo, Milner explained, “There will be several locations. They’re looking at about 300 acres total. That’ll be cultivation, testing, distribution, and processing.” He later added that the cost of the properties came to just over $6 million. Concerning processing and distribution, Milner stated the facilities will be able to accept “wet, dry, fresh, and frozen” product, and is estimated to prepare 1,500 to 2,000 pounds of product a day. It can also provide extractions if desired, and generic branding or custom (if supplied). Regardless of branding, however, “all flower will be sold at fair market value.”

On the topic of custom brands, another primary concern is proprietary rights. Many Mendocino County farmers have been working on creating a stand-alone product for decades, maybe even generations, and there is worry their efforts will be taken advantage of through the processing or distribution phase. “CordovaCann does not own the tissue culture lab, so that ensures that growers keep their intellectual property anonymous. We never see it.” That information engendered some goodwill, as Milner went on to express the intentions of CordovaCann towards the community. “They are bringing jobs with them. We want to hire local people.” They say they have a hiring plan in place and are looking to onboard 45 people in 2019 and up to 60 in 2020. Job training in extraction as well as other roles will be available.

When asked about current local employees, Milner explained that there are already farmers in CordovaCann’s employment. In order for the company to operate the 10 cultivation parcels they require to meet demand, they have employed Mendocino County farmers who have cultivation permits in good standing to grow under their own individual county permit, but for the company. This explanation followed repeated assurances that CordovaCann was not “purchasing permits.” Attendees voiced their unhappiness with this technicality.

Confused about the cultivation aspect of the company, attendees wanted to clarify what the employed farmers would be growing and how they would be growing it if they planned on using their permits for CordovaCann. The question of whether or not the product was organic or a GMO (genetically modified organism) was raised by many. “The nutrient is chemical free but not organic. We use a synthetic, but it’s not harmful,” said Milner. The group pushed for more information, learning that the synthetic nutrient was Heavy 16, which has been known to create heavy metal pollution in both water and soil. Milner assured the group the indoor grow structures would be built to avoid any runoff reaching the soil, and that “there is almost no water leftover. There’s very little water use.”

The question as to whether the plants are genetically modified may be even more confusing.

Milner was emphatic about the CordovaCann product being non-GMO, however it is still up for debate. According to the company’s website, “CordovaCann is utilizing disruptive technologies and new intellectual property to genetically edit the cannabis plant which will provide us with a significant advantage in producing flower and marketing products that cannot be matched in terms of formulation or price.”

This description can be hard to parse, but the genetic editing they refer to creates a robust, disease resistant plant using CRISPR. The process involves CRISPR DNA sequences, which is defined as a segment of DNA containing short repetitions of base sequences, involved in the defense mechanisms of prokaryotic organisms to viruses. And, there are dissenting arguments as to whether the gene edit makes something a GMO: Europe says that it does, and the United States says it does not.

According to the responses during and after the meeting, along with comments on social media, it appears that many Covelo stakeholders are not looking forward to having a new corporate neighbor. Much of the trepidation seems to be fear of the unknown, while some want to protect their culture and livelihood.

(CordovaCann currently has sites in Humboldt County, Las Vegas, Denver and Portland. To find out more about CordovaCann, visit cordovacann.com, or contact them directly: CEO Taz Turner, (917) 843-2169, info@cordovacann.com. Courtesy, the Willits News)

CAPTION/TITLE CONTEST (Pick your favorite or suggest your own):

• PREMATURE HONORS
• HIT THE GROUND CRAWLING?
• MORE OF THE SAME?
• LATERAL MOVES?

The Mendocino County Executive Office Announces Swearing-In Ceremony For Newly Elected And Re-Elected Mendocino County Officials

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors will conduct a swearing-in ceremony for newly elected and re-elected Mendocino County officials on Tuesday, January 8, 2019. The ceremony will take place at 9:00 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors Chambers, Room 1070, 501 Low Gap Road, in Ukiah.

Those to be honored are: John Haschak, newly elected as the Third District Supervisor; Ted Williams, newly elected as the Fifth District Supervisor; Tom Allman, re-elected as Sheriff-Coroner; C. David Eyster, re-elected as District Attorney; Lloyd B. Weer, re- elected as Auditor-Controller; Katrina Bartolomie, newly elected as Assessor-Clerk-Recorder; Shari L. Schapmire, re-elected as Treasurer-Tax Collector; and Michelle Hutchins, newly elected as Superintendent of Schools.

“With the start of the new year, we are excited to honor new and returning elected officials. The constituents of Mendocino County are fortunate to have such respected, experienced, and dedicated elected representatives,” stated Carmel J. Angelo, Chief Executive Officer. “As the CEO and Clerk of the Board, I look forward to administering the oaths of office to the honorees at Tuesday’s ceremony.”

Immediately following the swearing-in ceremony, a brief reception will be held in the Administration Center foyer. The public is welcome to attend.

For more information, please contact the Mendocino County Executive Office at (707) 463-4441.

FAKE OPEN GOVERNMENT

(Nice charts, absolutely useless information, nothing about why the budgets are what they are, nothing about why they go up or down, and particularly nothing about whether individual departments are on, below or over budget — the so-called “financial performance” — the only bit of budget info that would be useful is conspicuously missing. —ms)

Mendocino County FY2018-19 Update to the OpenGov Interactive Financial Transparency Platform

The County of Mendocino is announcing an update to our financial transparency platform powered by OpenGov. The platform provides the public, elected officials, and staff unprecedented access to the County’s budgets and financial performance information by transforming complex financial data into interactive, intuitive visual formats. The OpenGov tool will be regularly updated with new financial data and performance metrics. The platform may be accessed at www.mendocinocounty.org/opengov or by visiting www.mendocinocounty.org/budget and clicking the link for the “County Budget Portal”.

The County’s OpenGov Budget Transparency Portal currently contains annual data for the past 10 years of government spending and revenue detail as well as the current fiscal year budget in a single user-friendly portal. Users can view historical revenue and expenditure trends over time and explore multiple views of financial data, including by fund, department, expense, or revenue type. For example, citizens viewing the budget portal will be able to answer questions such as:

• “How much Tax revenue does the county collect each year?”

• “How much did the county spend on Public Safety over the past 10 years?”

• “What revenues has the county collected for Cannabis related activities?”

Using the built in “share” feature, graphs, charts, and data tables can be easily shared directly from the platform via email or on social media like Facebook and Twitter. Data can also be exported and downloaded from the system to allow for offline review or analysis. By making our financial data easily accessible in an intuitive, digital format, the county is demonstrating its commitment to support efficient, data-driven and publicly transparent government.

For more information, please contact the Mendocino County Executive Office at (707) 463 4441 or CEO@mendocinocounty.org.

https://www.mendocinocounty.org/home/showdocument?id=26235

ED NOTES

ON-LINE COMMENT RE THE PARADISE FIRE: "The many towns along highway 49 that have the same setup. All you have to do is drive through them. Twain Harte, Sonora, Placerville, Auburn, Grass Valley/Nevada City, some towns around Lake Tahoe, and others. People thinking about moving to these areas should do some research on the risk of living in a wildland with highly flammable trees and brush and grass and narrow roads. When I moved out of Redwood City, I thought for about five minutes about the Sierra foothills and Lake Tahoe (Nevada side) but then I saw the millions of dead and dying trees in the forests and remembered the Oakland hills fire which I watched from the west side of the bay. People need to look at where they want to live and it shouldn't be based just on price. I moved to an urban area because I wanted fire protection, access to health care. It's pretty to live among the trees in a forest, but there has to be a way out. Politicians can be blamed, but so can people building in these areas and not funding better infrastructure. Shouldn't have to tell them not to rebuild there… insurance companies should just not insure or set the rates high enough to cover the losses that they are now having to finance. Fires used to burn the forest but few people were there to lose their cabins or recreation homes. Now, hundreds of thousands live in these areas. Too many people."

JERRY PHILBRICK is right to point out that many areas of Mendocino County are not prepared for a fire storm, an event that was all but inconceivable until recently. The LA Times story analyzing the Paradise Fire makes it obvious that whole Mendo neighborhoods and subdivisions are smaller versions of Paradise, and even Paradise had a disaster plan in place, albeit inadequate to the unimaginable catastrophe that actually happened. Planners simply couldn't imagine the fire storm that destroyed Paradise, although there were people, as you can read in the LA Times piece, who tracked occasional summer winds of up to 200 miles an hour (!) roaring up out of the Feather River Canyon below Paradise, and the town had only one street outta there etc. and etc. Right here in Anderson Valley hundreds of people live in bone dry, heavily forested hills with one road out, and in some cases that one road could become quickly impassable with stalled vehicles, down trees and power lines. I'm a siren guy — five of those industrial typhoon warning sirens like many of the small towns in the Middle West and South maintain ought to be strategically placed from Yorkville to Navarro. Sirens would likely work a lot better than the reverse phone systems that failed so miserably in Paradise. Our Supervisors really ought to make emergency plans for the next big fire that kicks off here to keep casualties to a minimum. They've been talking for what seems like years about emergency exits from the Brooktrails subdivision northwest of Willits. Brooktrails, as presently constituted with one narrow road out, is one more local disaster waiting to happen.

---

MEGA MILLIONS was worth about $450,000,000 this week when I invested my dollar, which I do every week regardless of the huge payout. It's a national lottery so even the minimum is huge. And a couple of times a month I get the lottery lecture. Boiled down, it's "Your odds of winning are the same as not playing." And "Don't you understand that gambling exploits the poor?" I do know that. Probably most people who plunk down their dollar twice a week know that, but we enjoy the Big Win fantasy, and I'm sure most of us are happy when a person who truly needs the money has magically selected the correct numbers. A few weeks ago, a young single mom working two jobs hit the jackpot. She said she thought she might buy a new car. She'd won something like 200 million. I'm happy for her and hope the wolves don't get her. Every week I think about what I'd do with Big Money. Apart from having a few people killed and laying in a supply of Planter's Mixed Nuts without the peanuts, I'd turn the ava into a daily paper with headquarters at the refurbished Palace Hotel, Ukiah, a mammoth neon sign on the roof reading, "Who's Laughing Now?"

---

A READER sends along a clipping from a HumCo paper featuring the "Rev. Papa Bruce Anderson." A small photo of The Rev. depicts him as a portly, bald guy propping himself up with a cane who says he's a "Reiki Master/Teacher; a Holistic Health Practioner; a State Certified Massage Therapist; a Umbanda Spiritualist, Orno Ogun; and Founder of the American Holistic Umbanda House."

THE READER ASKS, "Is this you, Bruce?"

HAR DE HAR, dear reader, I forgive your impertinence. An obese old guy wouldn't seem to offer much in the way of "holistic health" advice given the visual he presents, but I doubt his "practice" is heavy on critical thinkers.

---

THE LATE RICHARD JOHNSON, aka The One True Green, used to publish something called "The Confluence Directory" in newspaper format, one issue of which appeared the same week ol' One True was busted in Ukiah for riding his bike drunk. A brown rice, macrobiotic dude, he was another guy who never quite connected all his dots.

I used to marvel at the sheer number of quacks Johnson gulled into advertising in his Confluence Directory, but always admired Johnson's ability to get these charlatans to pay for expensive displays heralding their dubious services. There must have been a couple of hundred of these non-scheduled "healers" in Mendocino County alone, population 90,000. How could their potential customer base be that large in such a small population? Maybe, I thought, it's like some kind of oracular musical chairs, with all of them taking turns buying re-birthing each other. Then you read stats like 80 percent of Americans down with astrology, 50 percent believing the moon landings were faked, 15 percent knowing in their bones the earth is flat, when you realize that The One True Green knew his Mendo.

GRAND CANYON

LONG-TIME LOCALS SEEKING NEW HOME

Dear Community,

We are losing our home of twenty-two years and need to find a new rental quickly. Hoping for a two-bedroom or larger house in Mendocino — in town, or within walking distance. We’re non-smokers, and don’t need to have pets. Currently ourselves and one son living in our home, with a second son away at college in Oregon.

We're interested in hearing about availabilities of any size, type, and price as there are various configurations our family, extended family, and our two long-standing local businesses could possibly work with. Will consider short-term as well as long-term.

A bit more about us: We’ve lived here in town for twenty-seven years. We’ve owned Zo Office Supply, the copy shop, for twenty-five years and the Village Toy Store for thirteen. We have three grown children, two of whom were born here and all three graduates of Mendocino High & Community High Schools. Our daughter works at the toy store with us, along with her own daughter and two other local moms, and she’s been very active with the Mendocino Theatre Company for the past several years. Wanda’s mother lives here in town, as well, teaching with our Community Center’s After-School Program.

Thank you for your help,

Wanda Traber & Ian Mayeno
Village Toy Store 937-4633
Zo Office Supply 937-2200
Home 937-2560
wtraber@mcn.org

THIS GUY DID WHAT?

Abraham Burns, of High Point, North Carolina, was handcuffed by officers and placed in a seated position in the rear of a marked police vehicle. He was able to move the handcuffs from behind his back to the front of his body.

Burns then allegedly managed to unsecure the shield that separates the front cabin of the vehicle from the rear transport area and climbed into the driver’s seat of the police vehicle and drove away from the parking lot in the police vehicle.

NEW MENDO SCHOOL BOND DISCUSSION

Mendocino Unified School District Agenda

Board Study Session

January 8, 2019

Community Center Of Mendocino

998 School Street

Mendocino, CA 95460

The Community Room

9:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M

http://www.mendocinousd.org

Agenda Item 3. Information/Discussion/Action Items

3.1. Greg Isom from Isom Advisors, will present the process, procedures, and recommended timeline for the financial aspects of a bond election. (information/discussion)

AMID RAMPANT OPINIONS ABOUT THE PHRASE ‘OVERWHELMINGLY WHITE,’ EUREKA WOMEN’S MARCH ORGANIZERS ISSUE FOLLOW-UP STATEMENT

by Ryan Burns (Lost Coast Outpost)

Well, that escalated quickly.

The cancellation of Eureka’s Women’s March — on grounds that the organizing committee found itself “overwhelmingly white” — has been picked up by dozens of media outlets across the country and beyond, often to be held aloft as an example of political correctness run amok. (Most outlets misinterpreted the original statement as referring to the racial makeup of march participants, rather than organizers, for whatever that’s worth.)

On Monday the local organizers issued a follow-up statement that further articulates their reasoning, includes an approving quote from the president of the Eureka chapter of the NAACP, and offers links for further reading.

Here’s the statement:

The organizers of the Eureka Women’s March in Humboldt County, California, are moving the focus towards an event date on March 9th, in conjunction with International Women’s Day, to ensure that the people most impacted by systems of oppression have an opportunity to participate in planning. We failed to have the type of collaboration needed to be inclusive of some of the most underrepresented voices in our community, namely, women of color and people who are gender non-conforming.

Our intention with this march is to affect real social change by raising the voices of all women within our community. We recognize the majority of our current leadership team is white, and planning for this event has been centered around our experiences. In recognizing our failure to put enough effort into being more inclusive, we are attempting to make things right by taking this time to create a more balanced leadership team. Our goal moving forward is to ensure the voices of women of color are heard and centered when we come together for the furtherance of the rights and protection of women.

Throughout history, women of color have been proven over and over again to be some of the most vulnerable populations. From the suffering of enslaved Black women in early gynecological experiments, to the current epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women across the nation and beyond. Having their voices go unheard can be a matter of life and death, and it is imperative that a safe community is created for everyone.

In response to this decision, President of the Eureka NAACP Chapter, Sharrone Blanck said, “I think it was a great decision to postpone the march because it did not reflect the community the way the organizers see the community. They want to do it right. That means the organizers want to build relationships with the larger community of women so that the march actually reflects the diversity of experiences of women in Humboldt County. The organizers checked themselves. They want to do it right, not just have a march.”

We, in Humboldt County, have had many positive changes occur over the last year when we have followed the lead of our Indigenous communities.

2018 started off with the documented lineal descendants of the Tsurai Village in Trinidad, and their supporters, removing a Memorial Lighthouse from an unstable bluff that negatively impacted their village.

The City of Eureka took steps toward their goal of transferring ownership of Tuluwat, a traditional Wiyot village site, back to the Wiyot Tribe. This transfer will be the first in U.S. history that was not prompted by litigation.

In November, the citizens of Humboldt stood with the immigrant community and voted to make our county a sanctuary county. While other counties have become sanctuaries, Humboldt was the first to be voted in by the people and not by council.

Also in November, the citizens of Arcata, a town in Wiyot territory, voted to remove a statue of U.S. President McKinley, who was most notably known for his imperialistic ideals and furtherance of manifest destiny against Indigenous Peoples. We are more powerful when everyone is involved, and that is why we are taking time to reach out to everyone and be more inclusive in our community.

While there have been reasons to celebrate, there is also much work to be done. That includes supporting women like Charmaine Lawson. She is the embodiment of strength. Her son, “DJ” David Josiah Lawson, was murdered during his sophomore year at Humboldt State University 20 months ago, and his murder is still unsolved. Despite these tragic and unjust circumstances, Ms. Lawson has worked to bring tangible resources and hope to those in need within our community in honor of her son and the values he cherished. Coat drives, a scholarship, feeding the houseless, and bringing attention to the safety of students of color in Humboldt County are just a few of her endeavors. The unsolved murder case has been sitting in the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office for nearly two months with no updates on progress to the family. Justice for Josiah!

To learn more about the development of the March 9th event or to join the conversation, go to the [WOMEN’S MARCH EUREKA CAL] Facebook group or email humboldtwomensmarch@gmail.com.

CATCH OF THE DAY, January 2, 2019

ALBERTO ACOSTA, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

ASHLEY AZEVEDO, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

GUADALUPE GARCIA JR., Ukiah. Parole violation.

DAVID GIUSTI, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, drinking in public, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

JOSHUA GUEVARA, Talmage. Trespassing, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

PATRICK HANOVER, Covelo. Controlled substance, failure to appear, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

RAMON MACIEL, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

JOSHUA NEESE, Ukiah. (Repost with charges). Attempted Murder, DUI-alcohol&drugs, failure to appear.

JUSTIN POTTER, Eureka/Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia.

CHRISTOPHER VANDERPLOEG, Flint, Michigan/Ukiah. Under influence.

DEBRA WEBB, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun.

MICHAEL WILLIAMS, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

JAN 7 @ FB LIBRARY: RAISE AWARENESS, NOT THE DAM!

The Winnemem Wintu, the people most directly affected by the proposed Shasta Dam raise, have asked others to get involved and speak up.

Stop by the Fort Bragg Library Community Room @ 499 Laurel Street in Fort Bragg Monday, January 7th, between 3:30pm and 5:30pm. Get informed about the Shasta dam raise project. Write out your issues and concerns. The period for public comment ends January 14th!

Go to shastadamraise.com to learn more

MORE THE RULE

Editor,

We have had 19 federal shutdowns, including shutdowns during the Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama administrations.

Shutdowns are more the rule than the exception — probably not because of the president in power, but because members of Congress want it that way and love the drama and theatrics to further their political careers.

The us-vs.-them philosophy has been created by the two-party system and politicians interested only in their next election. They will continue with shutdowns regardless of who is president until we have a third equal party — a party of compromise with public servants interested in running the country rather than the next election.

Roger Delgado

Sebastopol

NANCY PELOSI, representing San Francisco’s congressional district, spent an astronomical $5,111,387 for her virtually uncontested House seat. Her Republican opponent spent a paltry $12,443, barely enough to place a campaign statement on the ballot and pay for the postage to mail it. Had Pelosi sat out the campaign as did her opponent, Pelosi still would have coasted to victory on party and name recognition.

There is a reason why Pelosi, running in an absolutely safe district, outspent her opponent 410 to 1. Pelosi doled out her millions to other candidates running for the House who will then repay the favor by electing her majority leader of the new Congress. In other words, she served as the bag lady for her corporate donors to gain that position, which is not insignificant. Were Trump to become any more puffed up with ego and explode, taking Pence with him, Pelosi would be the next POTUS paid for by Facebook, Amazon, and the American Hospital Association.

— Roger Harris

WHY I HATE NEW YEAR'S DAY

by Antonio Gramsci

Every morning, when I wake again under the pall of the sky, I feel that for me it is New Year’s Day.

That’s why I hate these New Year’s that fall like fixed maturities, which turn life and human spirit into a commercial concern with its neat final balance, its outstanding amounts, its budget for the new management. They make us lose the continuity of life and spirit. You end up seriously thinking that between one year and the next there is a break, that a new history is beginning; you make resolutions, and you regret your irresolution, and so on, and so forth. This is generally what’s wrong with dates.

They say that chronology is the backbone of history. Fine. But we also need to accept that there are four or five fundamental dates that every good person keeps lodged in their brain, which have played bad tricks on history. They too are New Year’s. The New Year’s of Roman history, or of the Middle Ages, or of the modern age.

And they have become so invasive and fossilizing that we sometimes catch ourselves thinking that life in Italy began in 752, and that 1490 or 1492 are like mountains that humanity vaulted over, suddenly finding itself in a new world, coming into a new life. So the date becomes an obstacle, a parapet that stops us from seeing that history continues to unfold along the same fundamental unchanging line, without abrupt stops, like when at the cinema the film rips and there is an interval of dazzling light.

That’s why I hate New Year’s. I want every morning to be a new year’s for me. Every day I want to reckon with myself, and every day I want to renew myself. No day set aside for rest. I choose my pauses myself, when I feel drunk with the intensity of life and I want to plunge into animality to draw from it new vigor.

No spiritual time-serving. I would like every hour of my life to be new, though connected to the ones that have passed. No day of celebration with its mandatory collective rhythms, to share with all the strangers I don’t care about. Because our grandfathers’ grandfathers, and so on, celebrated, we too should feel the urge to celebrate. That is nauseating.

I await socialism for this reason too. Because it will hurl into the trash all of these dates which have no resonance in our spirit and, if it creates others, they will at least be our own, and not the ones we have to accept without reservations from our silly ancestors.

(First published in Avanti! on January 1, 1916 and translated by Alberto Toscano for Viewpoint Magazine.)

NOW THAT BREXIT IS UPON US I don’t find my views have changed at all since the referendum or been modified by anything that has happened or been said since. It’s nothing to do with the economic consequences of the pull-out, which are debatable to say the least. But all across Europe the forces of the far right are gathering strength. This is so in Italy, Hungary, Poland, Germany and France and even in what one had always thought of as the sensible countries of Europe, Holland and Denmark. They are bringing with them intolerance, xenophobia and antisemitism, as often as not disguised as common sense. With all our shortcomings we are still a liberal society and if there is to be a struggle with the far right our place is alongside the liberal and social democratic parties in Europe. The flight into Brexit is still being presented as courageous. It isn’t. It’s cowardice.

— Alan Bennett

AIN’T IT FUNNY how many hundreds of thousands of soldiers we can recruit with nerve. But we just can’t find one politician in a million with backbone.

— Will Rogers

SHORTHAND, AND DIMWITTED

"When you read news stories, opinion articles or blogs about California agriculture, you'll see recurring terms such as Big Ag (it's almost always capital "B," capital "A"), corporate agriculture, factory farm, industrial agriculture."

http://www.agalert.com/story/?id=12410

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

How long have you been such a fearful ninny?

The ones who will want to harm us will be the ones who we give the most cause to fear us. A succession of incompetent leaders have worked their hardest to transform what used to be respect for America into fear of America at the behest of an armaments industry that uses that fear to sap our strength by sucking up the resources we should be putting into vitalizing our infrastructure and sharing our help to improve conditions for every living person on this planet.

We’ve become a pathetic nation of fat people, incapable of mowing our own lawns, repairing our own broken door knobs, and useless to our children for instilling wisdom.

All, absolutely all great civilizations in the history of man have grown plump, soft, and weak because of a greatness achieved in the peak of their development and then collapsed. Wake up to the fact you are witnessing the self evident truth of it happening again.

The worst enemy set against us in the world resides within.

Have another piece of cheesecake while you contemplate these things while you try to figure out a way to rid yourself of fear.

OCEAN REFLECTIONS SHOW AT PARTNERS GALLERY

Partners Gallery

Ocean Reflections

January 3 — 28, 2019

First Friday Reception Jan 4, 5-8pm

Partners Gallery and five other Mendocino County coastal galleries are exhibiting artwork about the ocean during the month of January. Paintings, sculpture and mixed media “Ocean Reflections” will be shown, in Fort Bragg at Partners Gallery, Northcoast Artists’ Gallery and Fire Glass Gallery. In Mendocino, featured ocean-themed work will be a part of the Mendocino Art Center and Artists' Coop of Mendocino exhibitions. The Artists’ Collective in Elk will also participate in this community effort. Our coast and ocean is a source of inspiration and creativity for artists in all mediums. Evocative work will be presented through a wide range of drawings, paintings, sculpture, ceramics, blown glass, light fixtures, vessels, jewelry, photography, paper & fabric constructions. Constantly reminded by its extraordinary beauty —yet wary of the risks and threats to our coast and ocean by repeated attempts to industrialize it—coastal residents have an emotional, sometimes spiritual, relationship with the ocean. Existential environmental considerations are crucial to our very existence. Most know the importance of a clean and healthy marine environment for our planet home to survive. Others focus on its magnificence. Since everything we do is in proximity to the ocean, we are constantly aware of its significance — both personally and collectively. The timing of the art exhibits calls attention to the expectation that the Trump Administration’s new Outer Continental Shelf 5-Year-Leasing-Plan will be unveiled in January or February. Trump has opened the prospect of oil, gas and mineral exploitation in all public lands, including submerged lands offshore. People are urged to write about their concerns when the time for public comments on the Outer Continental Shelf 5-Year-Plan is announced by the federal government. Everyone is encouraged to view the art on display in our galleries during the month of January. Partners Gallery is located at 335 N. Franklin Street in Fort Bragg. HOURS: Wednesday through Monday, 11 am to 5 pm and Sundays, 11 am to 4 pm., or by appointment. 707 964-6448 or 707 962-0655.

partners@mcn.org; www.partnersgallery.com; 707 962-0233

AUDITIONS FOR DARIO FO'S ‘THEY DON'T PAY? WE WON'T PAY’

Auditions for the first show of the Mendocino Theatre Company's 2019 season will be held on January 7th at 6:30 pm in the theatre. For more information and to sign up, please go to our website: mendocinotheatre.org/auditions/.