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Posts published by “Malcolm Macdonald”

Kilroy Was There

Snow speckled Middle Street in the North End during the last week of February. Near Mr. Pemberton's meeting house boys were pelting the dry goods shop of Theophilus Lillie, pelting it with stones, snowballs and…

Coast Copwatch

So I'm sitting in my parked car in Fort Bragg a month ago. I've just finished checking the voicemail messages on my cell phone when someone steps up beside my vehicle and hands me a…

Who’s Your Doctor?

As of last week more than 3.3 million Americans have signed up for private health insurance through online marketplaces under the auspices of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). California leads the nation with nearly 730,000…

Unfulfilled Pleas

Woe be unto the weary minded who live on the Mendocino Coast and need mental health care help. When Ortner took over adult mental health services last summer and made it be known that its coastal subcontract would go to those who run Hospitality House in Fort Bragg

World’s Top Nabobs

Oxfam recently noted that a mere 85 individuals possess as much wealth as the poorest half of the world’s population! Why do we, the masses, tolerate this? Probably for the same sort of reason that more people can name the members of the Baseball Hall of Fame or the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame than any living rich person beyond Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and a Koch brother.

‘At No Cost To You’ (Part 2)

Two weeks ago I wrote about my experiences with the Mendocino Coast District Hospital (MCDH) billing department after having had a colonoscopy at that institution on November 25th of last year. Here’s the background for…

When The Well Runs Dry

Charles Mallory Hatfield was certainly the most successful person to practice the art of pluviculture, or artificial rainmaking. Born in Kansas but raised in southern California, Hatfield first gained broad public acclaim when, in 1904, he climbed to the top of Mt. Lowe and released a secret mixture of chemicals into the air.

‘At No Cost To You’?

Exactly one week before Christmas I received a bill in the mail from the Mendocino Coast District Hospital for $2,635.47. Immediately after arriving home from the post office, I called the hospital’s billing department. I spoke at some length to two women who worked there.

Affinito Denied; Ortner’s Mendo Man

A week before Christmas the Fort Bragg Planning Commission denied Robert Affinito a use permit to convert his property at the corner of Franklin and South Streets into a Dollar Store. That’s been reported in…

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