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Posts published in December 2015

Pay Raises, Tax Breaks & Firefighter Funding

Comments from last Tuesday’s discussion of proposed big pay raises for the Sheriff and DA. Supervisor Tom Woodhouse, explaining why he supported and sponsored a big raise for the Sheriff and District Attorney: “We are…

Valley People (Dec 23, 2015)

ABOUT HALF AN INCH plus/minus of rain around Mendocino on Sunday. More upwards of four more inches were expected on Monday as a slow moving storm passes overhead. Cold as Christmas approaches with the possibility…

Bird’s Eye View (Dec 23, 2015)

Merry/Happy Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzai/Holidays or whatever. I hope you are coping with all of the razzamatazz, hype, and pressure that this event smothers so many of us with. Every year it seems to get more frantic.

Tate Laiwa Did Not Kill Joe Poe

Martin "Tate" Laiwa remembers the day he was formally accused of the murder of Joe Poe.

"David Eyster saw me in the jury box prior to being arraigned that day back in 1992, and he comes up to me and says, 'Tate, I read the case and they want me to take it. I told them no, and from what I read there is no evidence and I know you did not do it.' I broke down and started to cry, and he says, 'I believe you and you should be home as soon as the investigation is over.' I believed him, and I was surprised to hear that come from his mouth because he didn't like me and I didn't like him much. I was sure that the truth would clear me, and I would be home soon. Even a man who didn't like me could see that I was not the one who killed the man, and he read the reports!"

A Week At The Mendo Pot-Yacht Club

Navigating the pot laws is always exciting and Sara Fraker’s trial last week was even more like a regatta than most. Ms. Fraker claimed she was only house-sitting at the extensive Robinson Creek Road property…

Letters (Dec 23, 2015)

I find that I cannot ignore the groundless remarks by David Severn in his letter to the AVA last week. His featherbrained comments criticized me for what he described as my "degrading and trivializing" of the recent Community Dinner at The Grange in Philo. This is such a misrepresentation of what I wrote that I must address it. I did no such thing.

Off the Record (Dec 23, 2015)

CORRECT ME if I'm wrong, and the odds are… You look at these timber prospectuses that claim the land they're selling can yield something like 21,000 board feet per acre, but isn't that seemingly large…

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