MCT: Monday, February 25, 2019

• Rain/Floods
• Ed Notes
• Sleep Study
• Tai's Case
• Cox Book
• Trade Schooling
• Big River
• County Chaos
• Nose Biter
• Emergency Planning
• HumCo Discussion
• Boonville Singalong
• Cockroach Man
• Year Vitriol
• Yesterday's Catch
• Bad Choices
• Cosell Sandwich
• Political Parties
• NorCal Adventure
• Writing Process
• Mister Humboldt
• Whale Movie
• Odd Sense
• Himalayas
• Hey Jere

UP TO EIGHT MORE INCHES OF RAIN

From the Mendocino County Office of Emergency Services:

The National Weather Service (NWS) has updated their forecast for Mendocino County, and now forecasts a higher rainfall amount than previously forecast. Between today and early Wednesday morning the following rainfall totals are forecast for Mendocino County:

• Laytonville: 6-8"
• Willits: 6-8"
• Fort Bragg: 4-6"
• Ukiah: 4-6"
• Gualala: 4-6"

Additionally, both the Russian and Navarro Rivers are forecast to reach flood stage on Tuesday.

The Russian River is forecast to reach minor flood stage and the Navarro River is forecast to reach moderate flood stage.

Closure of Highways 128 and 175 is likely. The NWS has issued a Flood Watch for the Navarro River starting Monday evening.

ED NOTES

AN ANON SOMEONE sent me an article from the New York Review of Books to which I subscribe and which I happened to have read. Not that I don't appreciate readers concerned with my continuing education, but this person also noted that he/she was an anti-vaxxer which, to my mind, is like saying you believe the earth is flat and ought to be grounds for arrest. But the enclosed story was not about the great crusade to return the globe to mass death by disease, it's called, "Our Twisted DNA" and is a review by Tim Flannery of "She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity," a book by Carl Zimmer unrelated to vaccination. My correspondent, I guess, is the same person who wrote me not long ago about gender bending after I said I didn't think little kids, or even big ones under the age of 18, ought to be encouraged to become the gender of the opposite sex, the opposite sex being opposite the reproductive organs you're born with. It's not a burning issue with me, but ironically Flannery's article about DNA simply confirms "the multifariousness of inheritance," that a tiny minority of people are born with both sets of repro gear, that humans, like the occasional two-headed calves of the animal kingdom, can lose at genetic roulette. This article does not bolster the case for that relative handful of sexually obsessed screwballs who foist their obsessions onto their children, convincing 8-year-old Tommy that he really wants to be Tomasina. 

---

SO, we're sitting around discussing Big Picture stuff like, Are Cats Smarter Than Dogs?  and Does Kevin Durant Hurt the Warriors More Than He Helps Them? when a guy says, "How come there are so many nuts in Mendocino County?" After an hour's debate the consensus was that there aren't more nuts it just seems like there is because we come into contact with a lot of them, seeing as how the county population is relatively small and the nuts in any population draw attention to themselves. Of course most places don't elect crazy people so Mendo departs from the national norm that way, but Mendo does seem unique in its toleration for aberrant behavior and unfounded opinions on subjects like vaccination, to take one opinion that can kill people and is ominously widespread in Mendocino County. It's not surprising that internet quacks have convinced the credulous to imperil not only their own children but  the wider community. Even prior to the internet, wackos sought each other for delusional comfort — Republicans, for instance — but the internet has made dangerous ignorance much more dangerous because there are millions of people out there educated beyond their ability, their innate decoding device to make basic distinctions, to do the simple math which, say, an understanding of the basic principles of immunology that makes you understand that vaccination prevents illness and death from communicable disease. If you keep dangerously stupid opinions to yourself, who cares? Hell, I already had a college diploma before I figured out I'd wasted four years getting it! But it's the militantly misinformed like the anti-vaxxers who are dangerous because they can harm the rest of us. PS. Children should not be encouraged, let alone permitted, to change the gender they were born to. Jeez, it's hard to believe that this stuff is even being debated, but things are coming apart so fast and furiously it's not really surprising.

---

IF THERE'S an old, old timer in the house who remembers Hannah Piggott nee Hori, we would like to know more about this most intriguing Fort Bragg mystery woman which, in broad and contradictory outline, verifies that she was Japanese married an American jockey named Harry Piggott. What we can find of the record says the couple married either in Mendocino County in April 1912 or in Seattle in 1914. Mr. Piggott died in Fort Bragg in 1934. Mrs. Hori-Piggott lived on alone in the home she owned at 121 Harrison Street. She rented the rear of the house to a family of three, unnamed, and is also listed as having lived on McPherson Street.

HOW THE COUPLE eluded the anti-miscegenation laws prevalent at the time, and how they came to live in Fort Bragg after some years in the more cosmopolitan city of Seattle is, like much about the Piggotts, not known, but it is more likely that Mr. Piggott had some previous association with Fort Bragg.

ALTHOUGH she had voted in Fort Bragg since 1920, at the age of 57, in March of 1942, Mrs. Hori-Piggott was ordered into custody and subsequently interned at Camp Amanche, Colorado, one of nearly 50 Mendocino County persons of Japanese descent forcibly relocated in the spring of 1942 as an enemy alien. She left Fort Bragg with the one authorized suitcase. Released in January of 1945, the widow returned to her Fort Bragg home, this time identified only as McPherson Lane and no numbered address.

THE LATE SUPERVISOR, Joe Scaramella, recalled in an interview in the 90s, "I can add a little something to observations from the World War Two period. My uncle worked for a while for a Japanese family who was native born.

AVA: Native to America?

Joe: Yes, Japanese-Americans. Anyway, before the war I was involved in radio stuff. I sold them a radio that was pretty advanced for that time. It received short-wave and other things. So, somehow the word got out that they were going to be shipped out to a camp, see. There were prominent people out here at the Grange that were ready to go up there and wipe them out.

AVA: They thought they were spies?

Joe: Yes. They had that radio and they must be cooperating with the Japanese. That was the thinking. I was a member of the Grange then. I went out there and the Methodist minister was out there. And, by God, the resoulution came up to do something about them. Boy, the Methodist minister and I just fought that tooth and nail and by God we beat that down. I thought that was one of the best things I have ever done. This was an American citizen, he hasn't been charged with anything, he hasn't done anything, except that he bought a goddamn radio that was commercially available. Later, they voluntarily left. They probably felt it would be better to get out of this area."

JODY MARTINEZ, ace archivist and researcher with the Ukiah Daily Journal, unearthed a more comprehensive picture of the Japanese experience in Mendocino County during World War Two: "In the spring of 1942, the local draft board was instructed to register all men between the ages of 45 and 65. Ukiah draft registration was conducted on April 26 and 27, and among those who registered was 62-year-old Buichi Onomiya, who was known to many as “Joe.”

"A month later, Buichi Onomiya would be one of 47 Mendocino County residents, many of them American citizens by birth, taken from Ukiah during the World War II internment of those of Japanese descent.

The May 25, 1942 edition of The Redwood Journal had this to say about the Onomiya family: “Joe Onomiya came to America when he was 21. He is past 60 now and has lived the years intervening in Ukiah valley, the greater number of them on the Arthur Stipp ranch on the Boonville road. There are five children, two boys and three girls, all born and educated here, making brilliant school records, all well known.”

"Daughter Holly was a speaker at the 1940 commencement of Ukiah Union high school, where she was one of three members of the graduating class to receive life membership in the California Scholastic Federation. She had also represented Ukiah in the 1940 Lions Club public speaking contest, winning a regional award.

"The following news stories are from the 1942 Ukiah Daily Journal archives, and provide a glimpse into this tragic chapter of American history, when by order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt America interned some of its most loyal citizens.

Feb. 2, 1942. The Redwood Journal: Enemy Aliens Prompt To Register

German, Italian and Japanese aliens responded promptly to the call of Uncle Sam to register. When registration opened at the Ukiah post office Monday morning there were approximately 30 enemy aliens in line and registration continued briskly through the day.

Aliens of the nationalities mentioned must place on file three pictures of passport size taken within 30 days prior to the registration period. Registration continues thru February 7. The requirement applies to all enemy nationalities 14 years of age or over who have not taken the oath of allegiance before a federal judge, the final step in acquiring American citizenship.

Feb. 16, 1942, The Redwood Journal: Prohibited Area In County Is Changed

The “prohibited area” to enemy aliens in this county has been changed to include only that section between the Shoreline highway and the Pacific ocean. It was at first announced that the cities of Fort Bragg, Mendocino and Point Arena would be included in the prohibited area, while the remainder of the prohibited area would embrace only that section from the highway west.

The new ruling simplifies the matter for enemy aliens living and working in coast towns. The prohibited area stretches from Ten Mile to the Navarro river and from Alder creek to Point Arena. Alien enemies will be strictly prohibited from entering these designated areas.

The restricted area includes all of Mendocino county from Redwood Valley south, and north of Redwood Valley the area restricted is on a line from a little south of Willits and north taking in Willits and extending in about that eastern line to the Oregon line.

Enemy aliens must be out of the prohibited area around Point Arena, the date margin being February 16. In restricted areas aliens are required to be in their homes from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. and during the remainder of the 24 hours of each day will not be allowed to travel farther away than five miles from their homes.

Feb. 23, 1942, The Redwood Journal: Japanese File Deed For Land Near Airport

Considerable consternation was aroused in Ukiah valley over the recording of a deed by local Japanese to property adjoining the Ukiah airport. The legal facts in the case are that the contract to purchase the property was signed five years ago and the owners have paid a certain sum each year. The contract was completed in January and the deed went on file in this county.

The property in question lies across the railroad track south of what is known as the McGarvey ranch. It was formerly owned by Leonia Hofheinz who sold the land to the Japanese, payments to be made over a period of five years. The deal was made through local real estate agents and handled by local attorneys and no ulterior motive is attributed to the purchase by those concerned with the transaction. The Japanese who purchased the property have lived there for the past seven years.

March 2, 1942, The Redwood Journal: Social Agent To Handle All Alien Enemy Problems

The Federal Security Agency which up to this time has been in charge of all matters arising from the evacuation of enemy aliens from the Pacific coast has requested the county social agency to take over this matter. All problems arising from evacuation will now be referred to W. G. Golden, social agent of Mendocino county. The Federal Security Agency “borrowed” one of the social workers early in the work and Miss Elizabeth Lewton was assigned to the work, opening an office in Fort Bragg.

March 23, 1942, The Redwood Journal: Service Center In Ukiah For Japanese

Speeding the job of preparing Japanese and Japanese-Americans for early evacuation from western Oregon, Washington and California and southern Arizona, the Wartime Civil Control Administration has opened a secondary services center in Ukiah to “streamline” handling the property, crop, personal effects and personal problems of persons of this race being moved out of designated critical areas. The services station is open at the U.S. Employment Service office, 181 Smith street. It is manned by representatives of government agencies selected to assist the evacuees. This is one of 64 such offices opened in the four states.

The agent will give advice and assistance in sub-leasing crop land, selling property, clearing permits to move, and other vital factors. “The Army is bringing its facilities to the affected people, and they are urged to immediately take advantage of this opportunity, prior to the evacuation orders,” Tom Clark, chief of the WCCA civilian staff declared.

“The deadline approaches. The government wants to give fullest protection to the rights of the Japanese, and arrange for the early departure of those voluntarily leaving the restricted areas. Whether they have representatives or not, Japanese must call at these stations while they are open. And they are urged not to make hasty sale of property or property rights, at financial loss. The government is ready to protect and advise them, and to prosecute any attempt to defraud these people, many of whom are confused and frightened by conflicting rumors.”

April 20, 1942, The Redwood Journal: F.B.I. Raids Alien Homes In District; No Contraband Found In Homes Of Japanese

Seven members of the FBI raided the homes of every Japanese in the Ukiah and Willits area Saturday and also the homes of two Italian aliens, one in Willits and one in Coyote Valley.

To the credit of the Japanese there was not one single article of contraband found by the FBI, who thoroughly searched the homes and premises of the Japanese aliens who will be leaving the prohibited areas in the very near future. A complete search for guns, ammunition, radios, etc., was made.

Five guns were confiscated in the home of Louis Acconero in Coyote Valley, an Italian alien.

A group of seven FBI men came into the territory late Friday night and Saturday spread over the area raiding every home in the district. According to Sheriff E.L. Williams, the Japanese aliens and citizens of this country have conformed strictly with every requirement of the government.

On investigation it has been found, according to Sheriff Williams, that V. Menichetti of Hopland, who was turned over to the U.S. Immigration for infringement of the curfew law, did not register as an alien at the last alien registration ordered by the government.

May 18, 1942, The Redwood Journal: Japanese To Evacuate Saturday; Registration To Take Place In Ukiah Tuesday

All persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien who reside within Mendocino county, will be evacuated not later than noon Saturday, May 23, by orders of the Western Defense Command, Civil Affairs Division Wartime Civil Control Administration. Counties included in the latest evacuation order, No. 82, are Mendocino, Del Norte, Humboldt, Trinity and Lake.

Registration of all Japanese in the county is required between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 19. Processing will continue from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 20 to Friday, May 22. Movement will be carried out Saturday, May 23, destination to be announced later.

May 25, 1942, The Redwood Journal: U.S. Army Directs Cavalcade Of Japanese Bound For Camp

Mendocino county’s Japanese caravan, formed by the emergency of war, pulled out from Smith and School streets Saturday morning at 9 o’clock. Forty-seven people of Japanese ancestry, the majority of them citizens of the United States by right of birth, were carried in two Greyhound buses. There was an army escort in the buses and a physician of the Federal Department of Public Health preceded in the caravan the army trucks loaded with baggage.

Probably best known of all the Japanese families leaving Ukiah Saturday are the Sam Wadas and the Joe Onomiyas. Sam Wada has worked for 40 years on the Alex Thomas ranch. It is the former Cunningham ranch and Wada worked first for the Cunninghams and then for the Thomases. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Wada, four boys and three girls. A grammar school teacher who was on hand Saturday morning to say farewell stated that each one of the seven was “brilliant.”

Joe Onomiya came to America when he was 21. He is past 60 now and has lived the years intervening in Ukiah valley, the greater number of them on the Arthur Stipp ranch on the Boonville road. There are five children, two boys and three girls, all born and educated here, making brilliant school records, all well known.”

A few footnotes—

While only about a third of the more than 110,000 American residents interned in the United States during World War II returned to their original communities after release, most of the 47 Mendocino County residents forcibly removed on May 23, 1942 did come back, quietly picking up the pieces of their lives and continuing to live in the Ukiah Valley, Hopland and elsewhere in the county.

Two-thirds of the American residents interned were born in the United States.

To prove their loyalty, many Japanese-Americans enlisted in the military. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was composed entirely of Japanese-Americans and became one of the most decorated units in history. In one incident, the unit rescued a surrounded battalion, suffering 800 casualties to save 211 American soldiers. They were honored by President Truman, who said “You fought not only the enemy but you fought prejudice — and you have won.” – Southern California News Group

MY CASE

Editor:

As my name is being heavily bandied about, it feels appropriate that my own voice should be included in the fracas.

As the editor has made known through the Off the Record column, I am in the process of petitioning for a sentence modification under the authority of Senate Bill (SB) 1437. I will avoid discussing specifics of the case, but Mr. Anderson is doing a more than adequate job of presenting the facts.

On issues of procedure the rules are cut and dried. SB 1437 allows a person who is not the actual killer who did not have the intent to kill or who was not a major participant in the underlying felony who acted with reckless indifference to human life to petition for a sentence modification vacating the murder and upholding the underlying felony (robbery, in my case). Once this petition is filed the prosecution has 60 days to file a response attempting to show that I don't qualify. Finally, I have an additional 30 days to rebut, then a hearing is held.

We will see how it plays out.

I have spent the last 17 years incarcerated. Through a multitude of hurdles I have educated myself, obtaining a test of adult basic education (TABE) up 12.9, a certificate of accomplishment in business administration, I am 17 units from obtaining an AST in business administration (which was interrupted by my filing of the petition). I have picked up advanced computer literacy, developed a multitude of life skills, drafted numerous, viable business plans, and many other accomplishments.

Were this petition to succeed I will  have  nothing but positive prospects for myself and the community which I have loved.

I detest the stereotypical criminal culture and will not participate in it. I am not a druggie and I will be a productive member of society.

I can be contacted at the address below.

Sincerely,

Tai Abreu, A#92781

951 Low Gap Road

Ukiah, CA 95482

SHAMROCKS & SALSA. Mark your calendars for St. Patrick’s Day, Sunday, March 17 at 3:00 at Lauren’s if you want to join a celebration of the publication of Jerry Cox’s book “Shamrocks and Salsa.” There will be brief readings from the book by Jerry’s family and time to share stories about Jerry. Light refreshments will be served and the bar will be open. The book will be available for purchase for $15. If you are celebrating St Patrick’s Day in a different way and can’t come to Lauren’s, you can order the book at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble on line, the Apple Store or Xulonpress.com The e-version is $9 and the paperback is $21 if you order it on line.

SCHOOL-CHAMBER PARTNERSHIP COULD BE A GAME CHANGER

The ongoing program of giving local high school students the opportunity to use their evenings learning the construction trades is a great idea, one we think will be a transforming one for some of them.

Mendocino and Lake counties are still battling critical housing shortages, not only because all of California has a housing problem, but also because the wildfires in our area over the past two years have devastated local housing. Rebuilding is a long enough process without the added handicap of not having workers ready to swing a hammer.

Local contractors say workforce is one of their biggest problems and so the Ukiah Unified School District and the Ukiah Chamber of Commerce got together to host a program that trains high schoolers in things like electrical wiring, roofing, plumbing, and use of power tools. The students agree to go to trade school in the evenings for six months at the end of which they are prepared to be hired on for summer jobs in construction.

It’s a wonderful idea and some of these students are going to find that this kind of work is what they love, they will realize that you can make a good living at it, and that there’s plenty of work out there for them. And even those who have college goals will also find that working construction during the summer is a good way to earn college funds.

As we create these kinds of opportunities for our young people it is important to remember that not all kids want a four year college education. The world needs all kinds of workers. Getting the training in the basics of construction with this program, students could also move on to construction specialties in green building, solar installation, alternative materials projects and much more. They could go on to become building, plumbing or electrical contractors themselves.

And it allows our young people to make a good living and stay in their own communities if they wish.

That, to us, is a win all around.

(K.C. Meadows, Editor, Ukiah Daily Journal. Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)

BIG RIVER

TROUBLE ON THE NEAR HORIZON

by Jim Shields

Dithering, equivocating, finger-pointing, casting blame outward, and off-loading responsibility and accountability to all and everyone but themselves, county officials and their staff have created unequivocal chaos out of what should be an orderly process to construct a local regulatory framework for legalized cannabis.

For two years now the county has spent more time and taxpayer money on this single issue than any other endeavor in recent history. It’s an unbroken record of endless meetings of little substance where frenetic activity is equated with productivity.

Meanwhile, the small farmers who built the emerging marijuana industry are shoved ever so slowly but surely to extinction.

These farmers are not comprised solely of old hippies and 1960s back-to-landers. Their ranks were swelled beginning in the mid-1990s when mill workers and loggers read the writing on the wall that Big Timber was soon to exit the county. So they learned how to grow pot to make ends meet.

Consequently, rural areas throughout the county and unincorporated towns like Laytonville, Covelo, Leggett, and incorporated cities like Willits soon realized they were essentially mono-economies dependent on pot dollars.

You all know the story of what’s occurred in the wake of statewide legalization. Pot prices steadily declined to the point where small growers are now operating on a very thin margin.

Because rural areas historically have depended on the mom and pops spending their money at local businesses, the sales of goods and services have declined along with the growers’ incomes.

This is a fact that county officials have not quite grasped yet. They don’t seem to comprehend that the consequences of their actions extend beyond their dealings with cannabis farmers.

I’ve always said there is no one in this county in either the private or public sector who doesn’t benefit directly or indirectly from pot. I’m a good example of that dictum.

I own a private sector business, a newspaper, the Mendocino County Observer. A certain percentage of Observer revenues are pot dollars. That’s undeniable.

I’m also the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District, which is a local governmental water utility, clearly part of the public sector.

A significant portion of District income is derived from the pot industry given that approximately 65 to 70 percent of our customers grow marijuana.

So people like me also have a lot at stake in seeing this county succeed in formulating a viable cannabis ordinance. But that hasn’t happened.

And the question is why hasn’t it happened?

Recently the county’s former Agriculture Commissioner, Diane Curry, posted a statement in response to a report by Mark Scaramella, of the Anderson Valley Advertiser, that sheds some light on the issue.

According to Curry, “I don’t understand why the Board of Supervisors keeps asking the same old question about speeding up the cannabis permitting process. If the Board members would take the opportunity to read the state laws regarding cannabis permitting, they would understand that the process is complicated. Unfortunately, the cultivators in resource lands are required to comply with Fish and Wildlife requirements, which can cost many thousands of dollars, not to mention that Fish and Wildlife has specific rules just for cannabis production.

“When the State representatives proposed legislation for cannabis, they didn’t bring all the agencies together and come up with a complete well thought out plan.

“As for the late crop reports: When I took the Interim Agricultural Commissioner position, I had no idea that my work life and personal life would be consumed by cannabis. The CEO’s office was micromanaging my Department, because Ms. Angelo “is an all knowing magical being from another planet, able to run the county all by herself.” It was a total train wreck. The crop report is about agriculture in the county and according to the State cannabis rules, cannabis is not agriculture. California State Department of Agriculture dictates what is allowed to be reported in the crop report and as of now cannabis is still not allowed to be reported. That doesn’t mean that the counties couldn’t produce a separate report, but getting accurate data will be a challenge.

“The Department of Agriculture is still suffering the effects of executive office micro managing. What used to be a warm and welcoming office has now become a cold bureaucratic institution, with no laughing, singing, or whistling allowed. Asking why is not allowed, either.

“One last comment. I was not fired from the county, but forcefully shoved into retirement.”

More insights into the problematical local process were gained when Scaramella reported on a BOS meeting two weeks ago where new 5th District Supervisor Ted Williams attempted to get answers on the stalled pot permit program:

Supervisor Williams asked, “If an applicant does everything right and turns everything in, how long will it be before they get the state permit? Mr. Schafer [nodding to the audience] applied last July.”

Here we go!

Chevon Holmes, cannabis program coordinator: “It depends. Turning everything in may just be you starting your process. For example, certain cultivation sites also require an administrative permit. Sometimes the processing time for the administrative permit is long. So I couldn’t tell you how long it will take unless I know every single thing about the location.” (And guess how long that takes?)

Williams: “But assuming the applicant has done everything right and works through your process at our level, is it true there is a hold up getting the state permit because they can’t process them quick enough? I’m hearing mixed messages. We hear from cultivators that they are doing everything right but they can’t get the permit and they’re going out of business. Then we hear from staff that we are missing application details at the local level. What’s the truth?”

This precipitated more bureaucratic obfuscation from Deputy CEO Sarah Dukett, backed up by pot permit program guru Supervisor John McCowen and CEO Angelo, all of whom minimized Mendocino County’s role in the process and tried to put as much blame as possible on the applicants and the state. Ms. Dukett concluded by saying, “It’s going to be a couple of rocky months.”

Those responses from county staffers are what’s known as non-responses.

After nearly two years of the cannabis ordinance being on the books, the folks responsible for it can’t answer a simple question about the application process, a process they control in its entirety.

That probably explains why 90 percent of the estimated 10,000 growers in this county refuse to make application for a permit.

But it doesn’t explain why the people responsible for creating this chaos, don’t realize that they’ve got a big problem on their hands.

Forecasted revenues for pot taxes and fees are way off the mark.

Economies in the outlying rural areas are currently stressed and moving into distress.

Where’s their concern or even awareness that there’s trouble on the near horizon?

They need to understand that they are not going to be able to solve these problems by using the same sort of thinking that created them in the first place.

If they don’t change their thinking, it’s going to be a hell of a lot longer than just “a couple of rocky months” before it gets better, a lot longer.

(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)

CRIME OF THE WEEK: LOVE HURTS

On February 22, 2019 at approximately 8:55 p.m., Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies received a radio call for service regarding a domestic related disturbance that occurred at a location in the 6000 block of North Highway 1 in Little River. After Deputies arrived they contacted and spoke to the involved parties. During their investigation, Deputies learned the 22 year old adult male from Sparks, Nevada, and Sonya Savoy, 21, also from Sparks, were involved in a romantic dating relationship and visiting the Mendocino Coast from Nevada.

Deputies determined the adult male and Savoy were engaged in an ongoing verbal argument that started earlier in the evening and escalated when she bit the adult male’s nose. Deputies observed the adult male had a visible injury consistent with the reported assault. Deputies arrested Savoy without incident for felony domestic violence battery. Savoy was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where she was to be held in lieu of $25,000 bail.

THE AV VILLAGE is supporting Emergency Response Planning in neighborhoods in Anderson Valley. Come hear Fire Chief Andres Avila, Sheriff Tom Allman and other speakers to talk about how to organize your neighborhood to be ready for an EMERGENCY. 

ON LINE COMMENTS Regarding this event:

[1]:  I lived on Rancho and worked in the industry a decade. Murder Mountain was on point and people who don’t agree have only seen a sheltered version of the industry. I worked with zero tweakers and still saw an industry full of sexism, greed and people with God complexes and click mentality. So Hum is full of the most self absorbed people and it is no surprise they are so self absorbed they can’t see the flaws in the industry that their own shitty personalities created. Lots of holier than though hippies that lack the awareness it takes to be decent humans, always pointing the finger instead if realizing they raised a bunch of spoiled brats and created a greedy, cut throat county full of irresponsible lazy people. Now I have to listen to people who used to go to Costa Rica every winter instead of investing in a savings account or their own kids schools, and now they’re complaining about how they can’t afford to become legal. Most businesses have to deal with those kind of expenses just to start and these people are so spoiled they had the ability to start with much less expenses and be able to save up for whenever legalization came around and they didn’t and they are sitting there crying about how they’re losing their properties, not taking one ounce of responsibility for the fact they never saved. Pathetic, take responsibility for your poor choices. It’s really sad to see an entire county that claims to be proud Farmers but very few of them are willing to live off of an actual Farmer’s wage, which isn’t ballin out buying a new tundra every year and going on fancy vacations and blowing all your money on festivals and concerts and getting drunk every night. County full of whiny spoiled egotists. I’m one of many people that Jason Dookie ripped off and he may be a transplant but I know many second and third generation people that are just as awful and souless as him.

[2]: It’s an accurate portrayal of many blown out grow areas of the counties:

• Clearlake
• Covelo
• Ap
• Blocksburgh
• Weitchapec
• Trinity Pines
• Ketompom

To mention a few.

The bad actors are still a tiny minority of the growers in the emerald triangle.

POP-UP CHORUS AT LAUREN’S

CROOKS WITH HONOR

Dear Editor and Mr. McEwen,

Respects and salutations to all of you at the AVA and your loyal readers.

I appreciate the solid coverage of my case. The trial was very short, ridiculous and lacking in any actual facts presented in the suppression motion which I would be glad to send a copy of to you. It has lying cops and blatant illegal searches. I don't see Charles David Eyster has anything on Don Corleone. Vito and Michael Corleone were men of principle (crooks, but crooks with honor) who lived by a code and stood by their word.

Eyster reminds me and other defendants of the cockroach man from "Men in Black." The Attorney General is unhappy with Eyster for clogging their courtrooms up with cases that should have been dismissed or handled better. The cockroach humanoid has zero regard for the Constitution or anybody's innocence. That's why he keeps withholding evidence in my case. He's just another prime example of the corruption and abuse of power within our system and lack of accountability.

Eyster sees himself as above the law. Remember when he instructed law enforcement to take "cash only" untraceable "donations" (bribes) to reduce felony cultivation to misdemeanors? He did that all illegally.

Anyway, the cops in my case (all fishy task force dropouts) did what's called an illegal pretext search. They possessed no warrant, nor reasonable nor probable cause. So they made one up. For example, the cops want into your house but know they can't get a search warrant and have no cause to enter. So they put it in the report that they "thought" a "John Doe" who was on probation “maybe" was there, so they kick in the door to not look for “John Doe” who they know isn’t there, doesn't live there, but to look for your friend “Tony” or his associates. It is severely illegal.

But it doesn't matter when you have a judge in suppression motions in collusion with the whole thing which is the only reasonable explanation and deduction in my case. I surely don't believe her reasoning in using an absolutely irrelevant case law for vehicles to deny my motion which all case law and statutes state my case should have been tossed as a matter of law. Nor does a “hidden memo" satisfy the Brady rule for the District Attorney withholding evidence.

When the dust settles federal lawsuits will prevail because I will hold you accountable.

“Power without accountability leads to corruption.” — Thomas Jefferson.

My respects to the AVA.

The one and only Michael Ray France

Mendocino County Jail, # 6601

951 Low Gap Road

Ukiah CA 95482

FORMER White House counselor, and free range fascist, Steve Bannon, predicted this year will be “the most vitriolic year in American politics since the Civil War” because of the investigations into President Trump. Bannon cited the upcoming release of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, the investigation of Trump's businesses from the Southern District of New York attorney's office, and House Democrats' plans for probes of the administration as the reason for the forthcoming chaos. “I think that 2019 is going to be the most vitriolic year in American politics since before the Civil War,” Bannon told CBS News in an interview that aired Sunday. “And I include Vietnam in that. I think we're in, I think we're in for a very nasty 2019.”

CATCH OF THE DAY, February 24, 2019

KARLY CRAMER, Scottsdale, Arizona/Ukiah. DUI, no license, pot for sale, pot sales.

SCOTT FABER, Ukiah. Probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

JEREMY JENKINS, Willits. DUI, misdemeanor hit&run.

DYLAN STECKTER, Ukiah. DUI.

EDWARD STEELE, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, concealed dirk-dagger, community supervision violation. (Frequent flyer.)

ELIZABETH WINTERS, Laytonville. DUI-alcohol&drugs. Child endangerment.

WATCH IT

Editor,

Bad Choices: Smoking cigarettes, using meth or conjugating with potentially syphilitic people are choices made by folks who are aware these things may be hazardous (“Syphilis cases spike in county,” Tuesday). Nobody is forced to engage in these practices. Most people are informed to some degree and aware of the dangers.

We can justify, make excuses, claim we were coerced or we were seeking acceptance by our peers, but the bottom line is we consider what we’re about to do and we take it or leave it.

Apparently, even though we can get a heart or liver replaced, we’re still subject to the laws of natural selection. Only now, it’s each of us who is doing the deselecting.

Stephen D. Gross

Monte Rio

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Now, I’ve heard it said that political parties are private organizations so they can run their internal affairs as they see fit. So, if they saw fit to undermine Bernie’s campaign, well, they can have at it. If they want to promote a candidate as obviously compromised as Hillary, they can fill their boots.

But they do a wider disservice when their own crookedness and idiocy trips up the process of winnowing out the unworthy in favor of the worthy and then embroils the energies and attention of the country in a corrupt process of dislodging a sitting president.

There’s no measuring how full of shit the Republican Party is and was and how beholden they were and are to moneyed interests whose interest it was and is to plunge the USA into wrack and ruin. But that does not in the slightest excuse the howling malfeasance on the Democrat side of the political ledger. In any event, it should be clear that as vile as the Republicans are, the Democrats are in the service of the same pockets as their opponents. Both are parties of Wall Street and Davos and set themselves in direct opposition to the well-being of the great mass of the American electorate.

THEOUTBOUND.COM

Mendocino Magic: 72 Hours of Northern California Adventure

FROM SPY ROCK ROAD TO FAME AND FORTUNE

April May Be The Cruelest Month, But February Probably Isn’t Your Friend Either

by Larry Livermore

When I started my website 15 years ago, it was a casual thing. I’d jot down whatever came to mind and stick it up here, sometimes posting several times a day.

It was similar to the way I used to run Lookout magazine when it was a handful of typewritten, stapled-together sheets. Editing and proofreading were not things I gave much thought to, partly because finding a mistake often meant having to type a whole page over, partly because I thought sloppy spontaneity made my work more “creative” and “punk.”

Computers put an end to that sort of lazy fun. Being able to cut, paste, and delete with a couple of keystrokes made it harder to come up with excuses for embarrassing typos or tragically constructed paragraphs. My writing got noticeably better, but there was an unanticipated side effect.

Once I began sounding like someone who might know what he was talking about rather than a nihilistic clown or an angry, ranting sociopath, readers started to take me more seriously. That in turn caused me to take myself more seriously. In moderation that’s not a bad thing. Unfortunately, moderation had never been my strong suit. Or any suit at all, to be honest.

During those same years I re-enrolled at Berkeley to finish my degree, and in addition to publishing Lookout, had to churn out academic assignments at the rate of one or two a week. That, combined with a larger-than-average vocabulary that I seldom hesitated to show off, soon had me sounding like a bomb-throwing professor on a skateboard.

“Why don’t you write for the New York Times instead of that silly little magazine of yours,” family members asked in apparent seriousness. I’d smilingly remind them that it wasn’t that simple, while smugly assuring myself that I was morally if not professionally superior to publications of that ilk. Delusional? Sure, but it beat having to contend with a stream of rejection letters.

Since that time, I’ve written a couple million words (I could use computer technology to come up with a more precise figure, but I don’t care that much, and doubt you do either), including four books (two published), a couple hundred columns for Maximum Rocknroll, Punk Planet, and several other magazines, and, of course, Lookout.

Much of that happened before the internet made it not just possible but downright inviting for any idiot to spew limitless amounts of verbiage into the ether. Whether this marked, as some maintain, an epoch-changing event equivalent to Gutenberg’s printing press, or, as others hold, the death of intellect and decency, I was quick to embrace the new technology.

Strangely enough, though, the easier it became to communicate my views, the harder it was to actually do so. Once again it goes back to the notion of people taking what you say seriously. Online comment sections fill up rapidly because everyone expects them to contain a boundless barrage of garbled gobbledygook.

But when there’s a possibility – even if only an imaginary one – that what you say might have an actual impact, you start weighing your words more carefully. So carefully that it often dissolves into an exasperated, “What do I know anyway?” followed by a flick through the channels to see if there’s anything new on Netflix.

It’s an interesting time to be alive – to put it mildly – and not always in a bad way. But it feels like the more that’s going on, the less – if you don’t count the occasional Facebook and Twitter outbursts – I have to say about it. 

I blame my friend Joshua. When larrylivermore.com was the aesthetic equivalent of a blank sheet, I wrote far more. Then Joshua generously volunteered to create a fancier, more attractive website for me, and I fell victim to the illusion that because my articles looked more impressive, they must be more important. That meant they needed far more in-depth consideration before I could dream of displaying them to the public.

So I now have in my files 50 or 100 half-completed or barely started stories on topics like China, health care, religion, Greenland, Hawaii, space exploration, Brexit, crime, individualism vs. collectivism, energy use and climate change, and … ok, I can see your eyes glazing over from here, so I’ll stop.

I have another excuse: one of the features Joshua added to my website was the ability to adorn each article with a “featured image” that set the tone for what I was writing about. Looks great, but now that it’s no longer feasible or wise to “borrow” random art off the internet, I often wind up convincing myself there’s no point in finishing an article until I have an appropriate picture to illustrate it.

But at last, perhaps, a breakthrough: while engaging in one of my rare bouts of dish-washing, it popped into my head that I didn’t have to write only about important things, and that since I graduated from school a long time ago, I didn’t have to worry about being graded, either. What’s more, I’ve accumulated about 16,000 photos in my various wanderings, and many of them are rather good, whether or not they have anything to do with anything.

So my new plan, one which has taken only a week to put into effect, is to write as much as I can about anything that comes to mind. I even have a photo, taken from the window next to the sink where I achieved this insight, that’s at least semi-pertinent. 

Writing is one of the few things I know how to do well, and it feels weird when I don’t do it. It’s also one of the main ways I have of communicating with the world now that my plans for becoming a rock star or football player have been put on more or less permanent hold.

Not to be morbid – it really isn’t; just realistic – I’ve reached an age where it’s wise to say what I have to say sooner rather than later. I try not to harbor illusions that the world will suffer grievously if it doesn’t get a few more books, articles, or polemics out of me, but by the same token, my mind and my fingers still work well enough that it seems a shame not to put them to use.

I’m currently several years behind schedule on my next memoir, the third and final in the series that started with Spy Rock Memories, and even more so on the novel that’s meant to follow it. Whether they will ever materialize… well, I have a feeling they will, but no guarantees. I’m a similar number of years behind on some long-promised stories about my travels around the world and what, if anything, I’ve learned from them. 

I’ve also got a ton of stories – as anyone who regularly spends time with me will attest – about the bizarre and hair-raising situations I’ve managed to find myself in during more than half a century of bumping around the margins of society. 

Will any of this happen? Talk is cheap, and internet posts only slightly less so, but just in case it doesn’t, I have some other news: I have somehow managed to become part of a Ph.D. dissertation, and a young Italian grad student has been digitizing nearly everything I’ve ever written and published, along with a lot of photos and rare recordings. Unless he comes to his senses, most of this material will be online and available to the public sometime in the coming year. 

I just had an evil thought: knowing that my past work will soon be widely available could serve as yet another excuse for not doing anything now. But hopefully not. 

Oh, and one more fact you may not have known about my life in the present tense: for the past three and a half years I’ve been assiduously studying Chinese. I’ve now reached the point where I can hold actual conversations with pre-schoolers (I know, because I discussed the ducks on the lake with a four-year-old in Nanjing). Progress, not perfection, right?

WIDELY READ in his lifetime, Humboldt remained famous for at least a generation after his death.

His contemporaries Goethe and Darwin admired him; so would Thoreau and John Muir. Many places and things in the natural world now bear his name: a current in the Pacific Ocean, towns in Kansas, Nebraska and Saskatchewan, a county in California, a university in Berlin, not to mention a penguin, a bat, a cactus, an orchid, a mushroom and a big, big squid.

Joyce Chaplin on the prescience of Alexander Von Humboldt.

WHALE MOVIE AT FORT BRAGG LIBRARY

The Ocean Protection Coalition (OPC) will be showing the movie, Soul Migration at the Fort Bragg Library on Friday March 8 at 5:30 p.m. Then movie is the story of a descendant of a whaler trying to connect with the Gray Whales in Baja California.

Ed Oberweiser, OPC Chair, elained@mcn.org

WHAT IT'S LIKE FROM HERE, I THINK. HAVE I WRITTEN THIS BEFORE? I'M CONFUSED.

I have been to the hospital for the second time. Emergency room this time for a few hours and then sent home. All vitals were normal. Asymptomatic is the medical term. Steady state. The new normal. Etc. I will not be slogging through that muck here yet again.

My purpose is rather to surf. Way more fun and feeding. Insurance actuaries say I probably have maybe six or seven more years. My purpose is to look back at my life and remember the diamonds. I have done this before, I think, but here we go again. I'm confused. And I am getting tired of using confusion as my excuse. This is now my life, and some version of this most probably will be yours. Stay tuned. You know you can't avoid it. So enjoy and live it when you can.

The Great Spirit graced me with with a family of which I am hugely proud. I love all of them. I would qualify that love for the mothers of my children but I will not go there here. This is surfing. Not slogging. None of them is into heavy drugs, so far as I know. None of them is avoiding the law. Those are muck, too.

Grace was working overtime to give me all this. He made me a teacher. And I have been gifted with more thanks and gratitude and lasting positives from that than almost anyone who ever worked. Which is every one of us forever. He put me at Wild River, and brought me Thoreau and Melville and David James Duncan and the most likeable and appreciative students. Even Socrates couldn't top them.

My three stepchildren, now scattered across the country, got my love even though they were not, in a sense, mine. I was with them for a decade or so through adolescence. All of them were students of mine. One of them is a teacher, and a fine one, I think. I talked to one of them on the phone just a few days ago. Saying goodbye.

My next door neighbor gave me another joint yesterday. Except for my constant confusion, I don't hurt. That's in my head, so it doesn't have the same reality as a broken arm to the medical cobra which has me tightly enwrapped. They'd just give me more meds or psychotherapy, which might even be worse. Although if they told me that with surgery they could guarantee I'd get my life back, I probably get back into that damned gown.

As I write on my Kindle, the world makes a kind of odd sense, but as I look up and around the room it all darkens. Confusion. I am afraid of pushing the wrong button and erasing this all. Confusion. Why anyone might bother reading what may by now has been heard before. I don't want to finish. I want to stay in this place of writing. And inhale deeply. While I still can.

(Bruce Brady)

IGNORE-ANCE

Dear Mr. Philbrick,

I will agree with you that I do at times have my head up my ass. Alas, doing so seems to be another human proclivity closely associated with the Seven Deadly Sins. What’s interesting to me is that in knowing and accepting where I am sometimes, often brings to light others like yourself that join me in that state of confusion. Most of what you say puts you squarely in that dark yet warm and cozy round hole. Welcome Brother.

Your letter addressed to me does have a subtle edge, a degree softer — even ending with a postscripted and slackered apology to those of us offended by your stance. I will admit that I am. Not personally so much, but for my grandchildren who will be living and dealing with the detritus of ongoing ignorance and ignore-ance from our leaders, especially the current one.

Rather than die for my beliefs as you avow, I would choose to find a way to rally those of similar mind, into the streets if necessary. I will admit that I’m not exactly sure how to do that but I do have a couple dozen yellow bandanas to hand out that could be worn on the head or around the neck, arm or waist to show solidarity with the working class, Yellow Vest movement in France against the self-interest capitalist, elitist status quo.

That you “love and defend” Trump certainly is your right and definitely places you politically on the right, yet to most people of the world you are dead wrong in doing so — a sad but poetic counterpoint to your proclaimed willingness to “fight to my death to believe that.”

Climate change is real to the point of being an true emergency — our southern border is not. Most Americans perceive MAGA as a logo for white supremacy — even those that wear it — that’s why they do.

Democracy is about people not money — all people — and about equality for all people and respect and opportunity and fair treatment and especially for a hopeful future for the young. Democracy, if we’ve ever truly had it in this country, is eroding. Big time under Trump. And as the Democratic Party manipulates access to candidacy and morphs into what might be called neoliberalism by embracing a good portion of conservative economic values we’ve found ourselves twice now in recent years electing conservative presidents who did not win the popular vote. Even our beloved Barack Obama promoted “meritocracy” which marginalizes, even disenfranchises those without “merit” — a seemingly increasing demographic globally.

So it is with and for these classic ideals that I so vehemently beg to differ with the Donald and you and your ilk.

But hey Jere!

Peace,

David Severn

Philo