Mendo’s Final Budget for 2017-2018 (July 2017-June 2018) assumes they’ll get something like $1.7 million in pot taxes and permit fees. According to the anonymous budget notes, “The new discretionary source [of revenue] is the…
Posts published by “Mark Scaramella”
Major Contributor
We first encountered Point Arena School Counselor Holly Rawlins back in 2010 when she was a called as a witness at the civil trial when Point Arena Elementary School Principal Matt Murray sued PA Superintendent…
It’s a given among local law enforcement that at the time of his death, Mendo DA Norm Vroman, the accidental anarchist, was being investigated by federal authorities for marijuana and gun-related crimes. The allegations certainly…
The first meeting of the Board of the Ukiah Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency Board was Wednesday, May 10. This is a state-mandated “Joint Powers Agency” formed in response to the California Sustainable Groundwater Management…
Yes, marijuana inns furrowed the burdened brows of County leadership last week: “Mendocino County Board of Supervisors Cannabis Workshop, Tuesday, May 2, 2017.” Er, what’s a marijuana inn? It’s a B&B but instead of ceramic…
When Williams Communications first proposed to bury miles of "wholesale" fiber optic cable under two of Mendo's rural County roads back in 2000, Governor Gray Davis's PUC over-ruled the state Attorney General who had strongly…
(This is the final segment of our interview with Mendocino County’s only and probably last black deputy, Orell Massey.) AVA: What’s your experience with domestic violence cases and the current state of the domestic violence…
AVA: What's your experience testifying in court? I gather that most deputies try to avoid it. It seems like sometimes the officer is on trial to prove that all the correct steps were taken rather than the suspect for the alleged crime.
AVA: How much prostitution have you encountered in your duties? Massey: I've only run across a few cases. I don't think it's that widespread. But there is some occurring in the hotels and motels around…