IT’S HOT AND GETTING HOTTER, with temperatures averaging 102 from Boonville east. Sunday, it reached 97 in Mendocino County’s most happening town, which is Boonville, if you absolutely must be told. It was 99 in Ukiah, 100 in Covelo but a balmy 88 in Willits where our ace eco-reporter, Will “Hawk” Parrish, remains strapped about forty feet up to a piece of road building equipment in protest of the Willits Bypass. Fort Bragg, our county’s coolest town — coolest in every way — was 66 and clear. Temps will be over 100 on Tuesday but won’t cool until next weekend.

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BRUCE McEWEN REPORTS from Willits: When I visited Will Parrish’s crane-sit protest in the wick drain “stitcher” at the north end of the planned bypass on Saturday morning at about 7:30 the cops would not allow me to get close enough to call out to Will. In fact there were four of them and they ordered me to leave the property or face arrest for trespassing. “You need to leave,” one of them said. And you have to call Caltrans and they’ll escort you out here. But you can’t just come out here. And the Caltrans office is closed on weekends.” They let me take a photo, then told me to leave again. So I left.

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A FEW SMALL fires over the last several days, but nothing to speak of except for one oddity in the Hopland area where a few of acres of vineyard were destroyed in a slow-moving blaze.

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LAST FRIDAY, the Ukiah Police Department was called to sort out the folllowing: A man said his child was locked in a dungeon behind the family couch, but soon called back to say the child was asleep in his own bed. A woman screaming from under a bridge was non-existent. A man was asleep under a tree at the WalMart parking lot. An aged cat hadn’t moved from a vacant field until police took it to Animal Control. A raving tweeker was taken into custody. A resident of North Franklin said there was a raccoon or a possum in her bed. It was her cat. Items reported as bombs in a parked car were fishing tackle. A woman selling books door-to-door was advised to dial down her sales pitch. A water balloon accidentally struck a passing vehicle.

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GAY-PRIDE PARADE Sets Mainstream Acceptance Of Gays Back 50 Years

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA–The mainstream acceptance of gays and lesbians, a hard-won civil-rights victory gained through decades of struggle against prejudice and discrimination, was set back at least 50 years Saturday in the wake of the annual Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade.

“I’d always thought gays were regular people, just like you and me, and that the stereotype of homosexuals as hedonistic, sex-crazed deviants was just a destructive myth,” said mother of four Hannah Jarrett, 41, mortified at the sight of 17 tanned and oiled boys cavorting in jock straps to a throbbing techno beat on a float shaped like an enormous phallus. “Boy, oh, boy, was I wrong.”

The parade, organized by the Los Angeles Gay And Lesbian And Bisexual And Transvestite And Transgender Alliance (LAGALABATATA), was intended to “promote acceptance, tolerance, and equality for the city’s gay community.” Just the opposite, however, was accomplished, as the event confirmed the worst fears of thousands of non-gay spectators, cementing in their minds a debauched and distorted image of gay life straight out of the most virulent right-wing hate literature.

Among the parade sights and sounds that did inestimable harm to the gay-rights cause: a group of obese women in leather biker outfits passing out clitoris-shaped lollipops to horrified onlookers; a man in military uniform leading a submissive masochist, clad in diapers and a baby bonnet, around on a dog leash; several Hispanic dancers in rainbow wigs and miniskirts performing “humping” motions on a mannequin dressed as the Pope; and a dozen gyrating drag queens in see-through dresses holding penis-shaped beer bottles that appeared to spurt ejaculation-like foam when shaken and poured onto passersby.

Timothy Orosco, 51, a local Walgreens manager whose store is on the parade route, changed his attitude toward gays as a result of the event.

“They kept chanting things like, ‘We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!’ and ‘Hey, hey, we’re gay, we’re not going to go away!’“ Orosco said. “All I can say is, I was used to it, but now, although I’d never felt this way before, I wish they would go away.”

Allison Weber, 43, an El Segundo marketing consultant, also had her perceptions and assumptions about gays challenged by the parade.

“My understanding was that gay people are just like everybody else–decent, hard-working people who care about their communities and have loving, committed relationships,” Weber said. “But, after this terrifying spectacle, I don’t want them teaching my kids or living in my neighborhood.”

The parade’s influence extended beyond L.A.’s borders, altering the attitudes of straight people across America. Footage of the event was featured on telecasts of The 700 Club as “proof of the sin-steeped world of homosexuality.” A photo spread in Monday’s USA Today chronicled many of the event’s vulgar displays–understood by gays to be tongue-in-cheek “high camp” — which horrified previously tolerant people from coast to coast.

Dr. Henry Thorne, a New York University history professor who has written several books about the gay-rights movement, explained the misunderstanding.

Gay Pride Parade 1970

“After centuries of oppression as an ‘invisible’ segment of society, gays, emboldened by the 1969 Stonewall uprising, took to the streets in the early ’70s with an ‘in-your-face’ attitude. Confronting the worst prejudices of a world that didn’t accept them, they fought back against these prejudices with exaggeration and parody, reclaiming their enemies’ worst stereotypes about them and turning them into symbols of gay pride,” Thorne said.

 “Thirty years later, gays have won far greater acceptance in the world at large, but they keep doing this stuff anyway.”

“Mostly, I think, because it’s really fun,” Thorne added.

The Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade, Thorne noted, is part of a decades-old gay-rights tradition. But, for mainstream heterosexuals unfamiliar with irony and the reclamation of stereotypes for the purpose of exploding them, the parade resembled an invasion of grotesque outer-space mutants, bent on the destruction of the human race.

Gay Pride Parade 2013

“I have a cousin who’s a gay, and he seemed like a decent enough guy to me,” said Iowa City, IA, resident Russ Linder, in Los Angeles for a weekend sales seminar. “Now, thanks to this parade, I realize what a freak he’s been all along. Gays are all sick, immoral perverts.”

Parade organizers vowed to make changes in the wake of the negative reaction among heterosexuals.

“I knew it. I said we needed 100 dancers on the ‘Show Us Your Ass’ float, but everybody insisted that 50 would be enough,” said Lady Labia, spokesperson for LAGALABATATA. “Next year, we’re really going to give those breeders something to look at.” (Courtesy, The Onion)

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JOHN MUIR DEFIES THE FOUL FIEND

Hetch Hetchy Valley, far from being a plain, common, rock-bound meadow, as many who have not seen it seem to suppose, is a grand landscape garden, one of Nature’s rarest and most precious mountain temples. As in Yosemite, the sublime rocks of its walls seem to glow with life, whether leaning back in repose or standing erect in thoughtful attitudes, giving welcome to storms and calms alike, their brows in the sky, their feet set in the groves and gay flowery meadows, while birds, bees, and butterflies help the river and waterfalls to stir all the air into music—things frail and fleeting and types of permanence meeting here and blending, just as they do in Yosemite, to draw her lovers into close and confiding communion with her.

Sad to say, this most precious and sublime feature of the Yosemite National Park, one of the greatest of all our natural resources for the uplifting joy and peace and health of the people, is in danger of being dammed and made into a reservoir to help supply San Francisco with water and light, thus flooding it from wall to wall and burying its gardens and groves one or two hundred feet deep. This grossly destructive commercial scheme has long been planned and urged (though water as pure and abundant can be got from sources outside of the people’s park, in a dozen different places) because of the comparative cheapness of the dam and of the territory which it is sought to divert from the great uses to which it was dedicated in the Act of 1890 establishing the Yosemite National Park.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike. Nevertheless, like anything else worthwhile, from the very beginning, however well-guarded, they have always been subject to attack by despoiling gain-seekers and mischief-makers of every degree from Satan to senators, eagerly trying to make everything immediately and selfishly commercial, with schemes disguised in smug-smiling philanthropy, industriously, shampiously crying, “Conservation, conservation, panutilization,” that man and beast may be fed and the dear nation made great. Thus long ago a few enterprising merchants utilized the Jerusalem temple as a place of business instead of a place of prayer, changing money, buying and selling cattle and sheep and doves; and earlier still, the first forest reservation, including only one tree, was likewise despoiled. Ever since the establishment of the Yosemite National Park, strife has been going on around its borders and I suppose this will go on as part of the universal battle between right and wrong, however much its boundaries may be shorn, or its wild beauty destroyed.

That anyone would try to destroy such a place seems incredible; but sad experience shows that there are people good enough and bad enough for anything. The proponents of the dam scheme bring forward a lot of bad arguments to prove that the only righteous thing to do with the people’s parks is to destroy them bit by bit as they are able. Their arguments are curiously like those of the devil, devised for the destruction of the first garden—so much of the very best Eden fruit going to waste; so much of the best Tuolumne water and Tuolumne scenery going to waste.

These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and, instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar. Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water tanks the people’s cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man.

— John Muir, 1912

WILLITS BYPASS PROTESTER Will Parrish, aka Red Tail Hawk, was arrested Monday morning after being cut out of the metal sleeve by which he’d fastened himself some 60 feet above ground on a piece of construction equipment. More than 40 California Highway Patrol officers assembled at the north end of the Bypass site where Parrish was locked down. They were accompanied by two cherry pickers, and soon several officers were aloft and attempting to saw through Parrish’s lock down device. As a CHP helicopter hovered over the odd scene, the main body of the CHP contingent kept roughly 20 Bypass protesters away from the extraction effort. A metal saw was unable to penetrate the lock down equipment so the CHP deployed a grinder that finally freed Parrish. Prior to sawing away at the metal encasing Parrish’s arm, the extraction team covered him with a protective blanket to protect him from sparks. The extraction took more than an hour before The Hawk was taken into custody along with Amanda Senseman, aka Warbler, who said she was being arrested in solidarity with Parrish. Parrish was taken to Howard Memorial Hospital in Willits for a medical evaluation then driven to the Mendocino County Jail and booked for trespassing. He’d been strapped to the equipment just north of Willits since June 20th. A tree sitter continues to occupy a grove slated for destruction.

AS THE CHP pulled The Hawk from his nest, Caltrans commenced pile driving along the route of the Bypass. Hawk had not been re-supplied in a week until CalTrans, tardily aware that a skeleton of a young man dangling from one of their pieces of equipment would present image probs for Big Orange, had relented in allowing Parrish to receive water and food once a day.

IT HAD OCCURRED to us here at the mothership that our star direct action enviro-reporter, might parlay his good looks to become a male version of Julia Butterfly. Of course he’d have had to stay locked down and to have enlarged his platform to accommodate visiting media and movie stars, but the kid does have Butterfly-quality charisma. And she parlayed two years in a redwood tree into quite a lucrative career for herself, peddling new age platitudes and $500 huggsie-wuggsies on into a new Lexus and a home in the Oakland hills.

NOT TO BE. As of Monday evening, Parrish was again locked down, but this time in the County Jail where he has been booked on trespass and resisting arrest charges.

THE HAWK had been fastened to the equipment at the Willits bypass for a week to protest the Willits Bypass boondoggle before he was finally allowed to be re-supplied with water and food. An agile comrade had earlier scaled nearby equipment to get Parrish another few days of supplies, but Parrish was up there in bad heat with no water for several days.

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THE CLOVERDALE REVEILLE has been sold. Publisher Val H. Hanchett has announced that the ownership of the newspaper is changing hands from one local family to another. Owned by the Hanchett family since 1988, the Reveille will now be owned by Sonoma West Publishers, owners of The Healdsburg Tribune, Windsor Times and Sonoma West Times and News. The new publisher and owner will be Rollie Atkinson and his wife Sarah Bradbury. Atkinson has worked at The Healdsburg Tribune since 1982, assuming ownership in 2000. Neena Hanchett will continue in her various roles for the Cloverdale Reveille under the new ownership, serving as Associate Publisher.

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A BAD THING HAPPENED in central Boonville about 4pm Sunday, but by 9pm a very good thing had happened at the same place. The bad happened when a Subaru, driven by a woman later arrested for driving under the influence of drugs, and containing three teenage girls, rear-ended a pick-up driven by a dad with his wife and their little girl as passengers. The pick-up was struck with so much force it was shoved off the highway and into a Fairgrounds walkway pole, while the Subaru veered and sheered Lauren’s overhang, taking out a combined phone and power line plus the timbers holding up the overhang. No one was seriously hurt, although a total of five people from the two vehicles involved were hauled over the hill by ambulance to be checked out.

LAUREN HERSELF was soon on-scene. At first glance she must have assumed her popular restaurant would be out of business for some time. But The Good Thing had commenced almost immediately when Anderson Valley’s volunteer firefighters went to work on Lauren’s fallen overhang and, by the time night had fully fallen, what had appeared at first glance to have been catastrophic damage to the front of the enterprise had been converted to a spiffy new face lift, complete with new supports.

MONDAY MORNING, the only evidence that a major collision had occurred were Lauren’s crushed planters and the severely bent metal pole at the Fairgrounds. That pole, incidentally, seems to have prevented the careening pick-up from crashing into the Fairgrounds office itself. Any pedestrian in the path of either vehicle as both left the roadway would have been seriously injured. The Subaru had set out from Mountain View for a camping stay near Fort Bragg. An onlooker, commenting on his fellow onlookers, “This is the biggest local crowd I’ve seen since the night the Mannix Building burned down.”

I HAD BEEN ENJOYING the twin delights of a taco and Anel’s radiant smile at Anel’s restaurant when the vehicles collided down the street. There was a pop, a sizzle and the lights went off. People poured out of the bar next door, and we all began to speculate about what had happened. Soon, a large crowd of kibbitzers had assembled behind the yellow crime tape fencing off the two damaged vehicles. Power remained out at Anel’s and several locations in the downtown area until later in the evening, but nearby Anderson Valley Market never did lose power.

RAINA FAIGEN, 20, Mountain View, has been identified as the driver of the 2002 Subaru Outback; Emiliano Soto-Valencia, 28, of Boonville, the driver of the truck. He was driving his Ford pick-up at about 30 mph when the speeding Subaru hit him from behind. Soto-Valencia’s wife and four-year-old daughter were taken to Ukiah Valley Medical Center with minor injuries.

THE SUBARU’S THREE passengers are identified as Kate Robbins, 16, of Watsonville; Alanna Reyes, 18, of Walnut Creek; and Sophie Drukman-Feldstein, 16, of San Francisco. Ms. Faigen was arrested at the Ukiah Valley Medical Center and booked into the Mendocino County Jail on $30,000 bail.

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THESE THREE GUYS are arrested every couple of weeks. Often, they’re not in jail long enough to dry out, long enough to maybe reconsider their options which, at this time, range from immediate death to slow death. The local justice system, presided over by people who make a lot of money, serve as sponsors for what amounts to torture of these three men and about 50 more like them in Mendocino County.

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A MARIN COUNTY judge has dismissed a two-year lawsuit aimed at stopping the North Coast Rail Authority from expanding rail operations from Napa County to Willits. Friends of the Eel River and Californians for Alternatives to Toxics filed a lawsuit July 2011 in state court to block expansion of service by the railroad north to Willits. The two groups contended the NCRA should be forced to conduct an in-depth environmental review along the entire length of rail line from Napa County to Arcata before expanding rail operations along any corridor. The NCRA contended it is not subject to California Environmental Quality Act requirements and had conducted the Environmental Impact Report as part of a private settlement with the City of Novato. Marin County Superior Court Judge Roy Chernus agreed the railroad was specifically exempted from requirements of CEQA. Railroads are mainly regulated by the federal Surface Transportation Board. “The STB [has] exclusive jurisdiction over railroad construction and operations,” ruled Chernus. “As such this court does not need to address the merits of the CEQA challenges alleged in the petitions. The ‘project’ as described in the EIRs… is the resumption of freight rail service, as well as the rehabilitation, construction and repair activities to upgrade the track, along the 142-mile segment of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad from Willits…to Lombard in Napa County.”

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WHY THE SECRECY? Carmel Angelo, Mendocino County’s chief executive officer, will be answering written questions at Fort Bragg Town Hall on Friday, July 12, 2013 beginning at 10:30am from, it seems, invited persons only. Brandon Merritt is screening the questions for Her Majesty. He can be reached at 463-7236, merrittb@co.mendocino.ca.us

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OKAY, WAIT A MINUTE. I was on the sound crew at the SF gay pride parade in ’83 or so. I sat there and watched thousands of people walk (not march) by in all kinds of outrageous outfits, including guys in some kind of black cowboy chaps that showed their hairy asses. It was not a particularly pleasant sight and I didn’t dwell on it. This went on for hours and for all the flamboyant behavior and outfits, I was bored nearly to death. My attitude is live-and-let-live, but none of this interested me, nor did the speeches we were there to amplify. It was a job. Most of the comments in the July 1 column boil down to moral judgment and it seems a lot of people pretending “tolerance” would still rather all the queers go back in the closet and stay there.

By contrast let us consider the typical 4th of July parade. Always the uniformed soldiers flashing their (phallic?) rifles and flag-bearers with their jockstrap-like pole holders. All this to glorify our mighty military and killing. Next come the high school marching bands playing out of tune and wearing ridiculous outfits that lots of homosexuals wouldn’t be caught dead in. And the bagpipers. I’m part Scottish and can’t help loving the sound, but let’s not forget the real purpose of this music, to fire up British soldiers into a murderous patriotic frenzy, the better to mow down the wogs in the imperial colonies. I might also mention the Russians and Chinese and Koreans, for instance, marching their tanks and missiles (speaking of phallic) down the street. But these cultures have a pretty dark view of homosexuality, do they not? It might be instructive to note that all human cultures have two things in common: beer (some kind of fermented alcoholic beverage) and homosexuality. If homosexuality is taught, who might be perverting kids in equatorial African bush tribes?

So the queers celebrate life by showing some skin and the rest of us glorify death and mayhem. It boils down to what we consider obscene, doesn’t it? — Jeff Costello

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FAMILY FUN At The Museum Goes Abstract

Workshop Complements Modern Art Exhibit

by Roberta Werdinger

The Grace Hudson Museum offers its next Family Fun at the Museum workshop, “It’s Abstract!”, on Saturday, July 13^th from 1 to 3:30 pm. Taught by professional illustrator Surya O’Shea, this will be a day of experimentation and exploration in the world of abstract art.

When encountering abstract art, many people comment that it looks like something their child could have painted. On this day, kids and adults can explore the rich and creative relationship between spontaneous expression and the art that hangs on the walls of the world’s museums. Participants will learn about abstract art throughout history and will make their own artworks to take home using a variety of media and techniques. A special musical performance will also be offered demonstrating the art of abstraction in music.

The backdrop to this colorful workshop is the Museum’s current exhibit, “Points of Encounter: Catherine Woskow and Larry Thomas,” paintings by two internationally known Mendocino County artists who both use techniques of abstraction to create portraits and landscapes that weave inner moods with outer elements. “Points of Encounter” will be on display until July 28, 2013.

Enrollment in “It’s Abstract!” is free with Museum admission and includes all materials. Space is limited and pre-registration is strongly encouraged. To register call the Museum at 467-2836. The Family Fun at the Museum program is made possible with a grant from the Rotary Foundation.

The Grace Hudson Museum and Sun House is at 431 S. Main St. in Ukiah. The Museum is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 am to 4:30 pm and from 12 to 4:30 pm on Sunday. General admission is $4, $10 per family, $3 for students and seniors, and free to members or on the first Friday of the month. For more information please go to www.gracehudsonmuseum.org.

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COMMUNITY CARE’S Senior Information & Assistance Program offers a new, free telephone reassurance program for individuals 60+ in inland Mendocino County. “Community Care Connect” is a weekly phone check-in — a friendly voice to see how a senior is doing. It also offers the senior a chance to express new needs as they arise and for the Community Resources Specialist in Ukiah to suggest possible resources to help. Available to residents from Hopland to Leggett, from Anderson Valley to Round and Potter Valleys, and all points between, call 468-5132 or 1-800-510-2020 to learn more. — Kathy Johnson, 
Senior Information & Assistance Program, Community Care
301 S. State Street
Ukiah, CA 95482. Phone: 468-5132.

SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE ANN MOORMAN last week stood up to a brazen attempt by Supervisor Hamburg to rig a court appearance for his troubled son. I know, I know. Fathers and sons, etc. But, as described by Bruce McEwen in this week’s AVA, Hamburg’s efforts to protect his son involved some extremely shady interference in the process by, of all people, County Counsel Tom Parker, who seems to be functioning lately as Hamburg’s free lawyer. Worse, was a quick palsy-walsy sign-off by visiting judge Richard Kossow. Kossow was elected exactly once, back in the middle 1970s when lots of people in Anderson Valley thought it would be funny to elect a hippie judge to the one-day-a-week Anderson Valley Justice Court. The joke’s been on all of us ever since.

THE OCCUPANTS of the part-time justice courts were then elevated to Superior Court status and Kossow has ridden a highly lucrative wave ever since as a visiting judge around the state. But he was a rum character as a hippie, and he’s a rum character now as a judge, as he demonstrated last week by joining Hamburg, Parker and an old Hamburgian from Ukiah, the therapist Kevin Kelly, in an attempted end around the courts on behalf of Hamburg’s son.

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THE ANNUAL SALMON Barbecue is this Saturday down in Noyo Harbor, Fort Bragg. Proceeds support salmon restoration efforts, this year fish counts in the Usal Forest and work on spawning grounds in the Noyo River. 11am to 6pm, $30 at the entrance, $23 in advance from Harvest Market, Fort Bragg. This being a good salmon year, the fish should be right off the boats. Nice event, good cause.

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GOOD TO SEE DAVE EVANS back in the live music business this year with two great shows. On Saturday, July 15th, Dave presents Roy Rogers and the Delta River Kings with Boonville native Guy Kephart on the grill. Music at 6:30, gates open at 6.

LATER THIS SUMMER, the amazing blues man, Charlie Musslewhite, will appear at the amazing Navarro Store venue with his two brothers for a rare family appearance of a genius musical family. Stay tuned for the date.

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WHEN THE NSA spying scandal broke, so did the illusion that President Obama was significantly different than his predecessor, Bush Jr. Obama’s meticulously crafted image was specifically created as an alternative to Bush: Obama campaigned as a peace candidate who loved civil liberties and wanted to work with the UN instead of unilaterally launching wars. But now that the president has been fully exposed as an aspiring Bush III, will he retreat back into the sheep’s clothing he wore as candidate Obama? Or will he shed any remaining pretense and fully adopt Bush’s international recklessness? The answer is that both are likely true: Obama will continue to perform his stale routine as a “pragmatist” while in reality acting out an even more dangerous foreign policy than Bush. (—Shamus Cooke)

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LAST FRIDAY, the Ukiah Police Department was called to sort out the folllowing: A man said his child was locked in a dungeon behind the family couch, but soon called back to say the child was asleep in his own bed. A woman screaming from under a bridge was non-existent. A man was asleep under a tree at the WalMart parking lot. An aged cat hadn’t moved from a vacant field until police took it to Animal Control. A raving tweeker was taken into custody. A resident of North Franklin said there was a raccoon or a possum in her bed. It was her cat. Items reported as bombs in a parked car were fishing tackle. A woman selling books door-to-door was advised to dial down her sales pitch. A water balloon accidentally struck a passing vehicle.

ALL DAY EVERY DAY, this is what the cops do everywhere in Mendocino County, everywhere in this unraveled country.

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WE ARE THE PEA

by James Howard Kunstler

The political air lies thick and heavy upon us, like the subtropical wedge of atmospheric sludge that has bogged down the northeast USA for weeks of soupy gray days when there is nothing to do but wonder when things will become unstuck. If the world is an organism, something is wrong with its blood. That blood is money, which allows the “developed” nations to run their advanced techno-industrial economies. Only the “money” is not exactly what we suppose it is, that is, colored paper coupons representing claims on future work or tangible collateral. The “money” is a matrix of counterparty entanglements so abstruse and impenetrable that all the vicars of Christendom (plus the mullahs of Islam, the monks of Mahayana, and the Op-Ed flunkies at The New York Times) would not avail to describe its metaphysical substance. Rather, a cosmic shell game is being played and we are the pea. Unlike other commentators, I don’t see this as a conspiracy of one-percenters, Rothschilds, Bilderbergers, and United Nations intriguers. Rather, it is just a sticky pass in world history. Things have gone a certain way for us for a long time, and now they can’t, and the inertia from all those decades of doing and being what we were persists in the illusion of motion, like the sound of a truck that still rings in your ears after it has passed by. So we, the pea, sit in the dark under our cosmic walnut shell, waiting to see what happens next. When the Great Bernanke spoke not long ago, an ominous rattling was heard throughout the banking system as of things shaking loose. Even if nobody quite understood exactly what money was anymore, an intimation wafted on the still, muggy air that there was liable to be less of it, at least in the form that The Wall Street Journal pretended to understand — a particular digital carry-trade between the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Markets puked at Bernanke’s mild utterances as though he was Thor flinging a thunderous hammer at them. The gold market, already punch-drunk, went reeling into the roadside weeds, covered indecorously in its own vomit — leading many to suppose that gold would soon be as precious as sheetrock. Then, the Great Bernanke, via subordinates, tapered his tapering talk and a nervous, tentative, march forward resumed into the summer pea soup of events. Here we are, waiting, waiting in the murk, for the sound of shoes dropping. If you listen carefully enough, you can hear a few things in motion distantly. The mobs roistering in surprising places — Sweden, Turkey, Brazil — ought to unnerve even the quants immersed in their charts and auguries. Something wicked this way emanates from Japan. It has the outline of a political death-wish and is being played out with the sharp instruments of capital. The Japanese, I suspect, have at least had enough of uncertainty and have elected to move toward resolution, whatever that may hold. One thing it will mean is that the hands of bankers elsewhere around the world will be forced by what Japan does. Interest rates, for example, do not exist in exquisite isolation but only in relation to other things, most particularly that money earlier alluded to, of which nobody knows the value. The answer to that may lie in the riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma known as derivatives. My own guess is that we’ll discover the value of gold is not equivalent to its weight in sheetrock. The third quarter of 2013 might go down in history as the great moment of price re-discovery in a world that thought — for a while — that the price of things can be whatever you say it is. Historians of the future, squatting in the plastic and silicon midden-heaps of bygone technocracy, may note that FASB Rule 157 provoked a four-year psychotic episode of worldwide accounting fraud in which anything could mean anything. That only goes on so long until civilizations shudder and fall. The pea under the walnut shell can’t see much outside, but it can certainly feel the earth tremble.

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ARGUMENT OF THE DAY: Schizophrenia affects almost three million Americans—more than six times the number of people with multiple sclerosis, two and a half times the number of people with Parkinson’s disease, and more than twice the number of people with HIV/AIDS. Less than one-third of patients with schizophrenia can hold a steady job or live independently. A large portion (about one-third) of homeless people in the U.S. suffer from the disease.

Though they receive little attention in the legalization debate, the scientific studies showing an association between marijuana use and schizophrenia and other disorders are alarming. A 2004 article in the highly respected British Journal of Psychiatry reviewed four large studies, all of which showed a significant and consistent association between consumption of marijuana (mostly during teenage years or early 20s) and the later development of schizophrenia. The review concluded that marijuana is a “causal component,” among others, in the development of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.

A 2007 study in the Lancet, a British medical journal, concludes that using marijuana increases the risk of young people developing a psychotic illness, such as schizophrenia. This risk is greatest—up to a 200% increase—among those who use marijuana heavily and who start using at a younger age.

Those not familiar with epidemiological causation may wonder how cannabis could “cause” schizophrenia if so many people who smoke marijuana or hashish don’t develop the disease. As an example, medical researchers have known for several decades that smoking causes lung cancer, yet over 80% of smokers do not develop lung cancer.

As research accumulates, the emerging picture is that marijuana precipitates schizophrenia or related psychotic disorders in people whose brains are inherently vulnerable to psychosis. All of us who do not regularly experience hallucinations or delusions reside on what may be called a “cliff of sanity.” Some of us, for reasons still unclear (thought possibly to be genetic), are closer to the edge of the cliff than others.

Marijuana may push everyone a few feet closer to that cliff. For those who were already close to the cliff, the drug pushes them over the edge into the chasm of insanity, hence precipitating the development of schizophrenia.

(Samuel T. Wilkinson, The Wall Street Journal)

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CALIFORNIA’S GAS TAX HISTORY

1923: State lawmakers institute first gas excise tax of 2¢ a gallon.

1927: Tax rises 1¢ a gallon to pay for new road construction.

1932: A 1¢ federal gas tax is created.

1947: State raises tax to 4.5¢ a gallon.

1971: State applies sales tax to fuel purchases, with money going into the general fund.

1983: Lawmakers boost excise tax to 9¢ a gallon; federal gas tax also raised from 4¢ to 9¢.

1990: Federal gas tax rises to 14.1 cents.

1990-94: Voters support Proposition 111, which hikes excise tax to 14¢ a gallon, with automatic penny increases each year through 1994, to a total of 18¢ a gallon.

1993: Federal gas tax rises to 18.4¢.

2002: Sales tax moves out of general fund into transportation.

2010: Sales tax on gasoline reduced, and excise tax set at 36¢ a gallon.

2013: Increase of 3.5¢ a gallon begins Monday, making total tax of 71.9¢ a gallon — 39.5¢ state, 18.4¢ federal and 14¢ in sales tax.

On Friday, members of the Broadband Alliance of Mendocino County and Access Sonoma Broadband presented a chilling report on the future of broadband in Northern California.

The event, titled, “The State of Broadband in Northern California” was a call to action for residents of the upper third of the state. According to Jim Moorehead, chairman of the Alliance, rural Californians face serious challenges, because their need for Internet service is largely ignored by major carriers focusing on high-density population centers.

Jim Mayfield, board president of the Community Foundation of Mendocino County, lauded the work of the volunteer-based Broadband Alliance. “The Foundation recognized that broadband is an infrastructure requirement necessary to create economic opportunities in Mendocino County. The Alliance has tremendous, dedicated, talented volunteers that have extended their reach beyond the borders of Mendocino.” A $40,000 Community Foundation grant was recently matched, providing the Alliance with research and project development funds. “This is a great example of philanthropy being tied to economic development,” Mayfield concluded.

The Alliance developed out of a group of Mendocino coast residents desiring faster, reliable Internet access. The group expanded their reach and now partners with Access Sonoma County, a similar organization attempting to bring broadband to under-and-unserved residents of Sonoma County. The Alliance has received unqualified support from Congressmen Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman, California Sen. Noreen Evans, Assembly members Wes Chesbro and Mark Levine and the Mendocino and Sonoma County Boards of Supervisors.

“Over a decade ago, the Board of Supervisors entered into a contract with Williams Communication to lay fiber on county roads. It was a momentous decision, on the negative side. We have no access to that fiber,” noted Supervisor Dan Hamburg. “We live in a broadband world. Here in Mendocino, we lag far behind. I’m proud the board is supporting the Alliance’s effort to create a 21st century infrastructure,” he noted.

“Economic development is critical to our survival. Revenues have been flat-lining for the past six years and county government is in retreat. I can think of nothing better to correct some of these trends than getting broadband access to our citizens. In all my years of government, I have never seen a volunteer group with as much energy and determination as the Alliance. It is a pleasure and honor to work with them,” Hamburg concluded.

Steve Turner, director of Mendocino County Office of Education’s maintenance and operations, spoke on behalf of superintendent Paul Tichinin, the county’s 13,000 students and the 1,000 MCOE staff who serve them.

MCOE recently partnered with the Alliance, submitting a grant application to Caltrans to help identify the county’s digital divide. If funded, the grant would survey students, staff and organize forums to compile a statistically relevant sample identifying who does and does not have Internet access.

“Broadband service often doesn’t extend beyond the campus. The future of education is broadband-based. Students need broadband for research and to be competitive. They need devices and affordable, high-speed access,” Turner concludes.

“Our libraries do not have adequate internet access,” says Mendocino County librarian Mindy Kittay. “The library provides lifetime learning for everyone — the only free place where anyone can go to learn. It doesn’t matter what equipment we have if we don’t have reliable, high-speed broadband,” she notes.

Greg Jirak, business and strategic planning chairman for the Alliance presented the document titled “The State of Broadband in Northern California.”

“Jeff Tyrell, district staffer for State Senator Noreen Evans suggested the Alliance develop this formal presentation. The rollout of this document is the reason for today’s event,” notes Jirak, stating the document was emailed to supervisors in every Northern California county north of San Francisco.

Jirak described the digital divide by recounting the experience of Fort Bragg mayor Dave Turner, owner of Flo-Beds. “Dave needed a gigabit connection for his business. He contacted the provider and was quoted a price of $15,000. That same connection is available in San Francisco for about $1,000. How can Mendocino County be competitive if incumbents are charging us 15 times what it costs in the big city?” Jirak asks.

“Having full-service broadband is a basic right, like other utilities, but getting it will take unified action by Northern Californians. This problem exists in all rural areas with relatively low population density and particularly in areas with disadvantaged populations. The solution requires a high-level, organized approach. That is why we’re reaching out and creating the Broadband Coalition of Northern California Counties- a grass-roots initiative which will bring attention to this issue,” Jirak continues.

The Coalition will provide mutual aid on broadband matters and advocate for continued grant funding- essential for building and improving rural broadband service.

“We have tremendous local support. Now we need support from all of Northern California- residents and elected officials. Only then will our rural voices be heard by decision makers in Sacramento,” he concludes.

“The entire Sonoma and Mendocino County Boards of Supervisors are fully on board. I believe we’ll find all Northern California counties with us. It’s hard to imagine any local leaders that wouldn’t be supportive. The Alliance and our allies are really coming of age with this movement,” notes Supervisor John McCowen.

“Broadband Hero” Community Awards were presented to four residential areas- the Comptche and Rancho Navarro communities in Mendocino County and the Joy Road Neighborhood Association and the Sea Ranch Association in Sonoma County, for taking initiative to improve broadband service in their communities.

There is urgency in the Alliance’s request for community and governmental involvement, notes Jirak. If signed by Governor Brown, Senate Bill 740 (Padilla), currently in the Assembly will provide continued California Advance Services Funds for Internet deployment projects. One project, the $119 million Northern California Regional Middle-Mile Infrastructure project, is currently under review by CASF staff. If funded, the project would provide 16 rural northern California counties with a “middle-mile” broadband backbone- the foundation for delivering broadband to most of Northern California.

But CASF grants, says Moorehead, are evaluated using wrong data at the wrong scale. “If you only looked at state and national broadband maps, life would look good in our county. Data maps indicate we have great broadband. This is a figment of the ATT and Comcast advertising departments. Actual, real service is not reported on these maps,” says Jim Moorehead.

“We’re asking that this discrepancy, this mapping data problem be addressed,” says Jirak.

The meeting concluded with comments from Mitch Drake, CEO of Golden Bear Broadband- the overseeing entity for the NCRMMI project. “At this point, the bulk of our application is being denied. It looks like only two routes- one in Modoc and one in Siskiyou County will be funded.” The project is being challenged by major telecom carriers, in part because it traverses incumbent territories such as Santa Rosa. “We might have to pass through a city infrastructure to access the next community. This infrastructure will enable existing providers to expand and extend their networks to places they want to go but can’t. If needed, we’ll provide low-cost backhaul to regional Internet service providers, but this is not going to put ATT or Verizon out of business,” says Drake.

Carriers also have access to CASF money and federal ConnectAmerica funds. “They’re not going after those moneys, but they’re fighting those who are trying to solve these problems. Rural Internet requires an infrastructure, and the carriers are not going to do anything about this,” Drake concludes.

“We’re working with the system, working together and working to unify the entire northern portion of the state. We believe this is the key to resolving these issues. We’ll work with anyone who will work with us,” Moorehead concludes.

For more information on the Broadband Alliance of Mendocino County visithttp://www.mendocinobroadband.org.

I am writing this with a stubby pencil inside Mendocino County Jail where I am accompanied by five other brave “trespassers” including my daughter, Thea, Earth Firster Naomi Wagner and Matthew Caldwell. We spent the last two nights on a cold concrete floor under the bright florescent lights of the 6 ft by 6 ft holding cell. Now we are more comfortably housed as official inmates with cots to sleep on. Many people ask us why we continue doing this. Jail gives one lots of time for reflection and contemplation so here is my answer to the question.

On Tuesday June 25th a bench warrant was issued for Matthew Hamburg, the troubled son of Fifth District Supervisor Dan Hamburg. Matthew had bailed on a promise to appear at a hearing that day. He had failed to appear at a previous court date as well back on June 11th. A bench warrant had been held at that time, at the request from the Public Defender. But in fact, Hamburg wasn’t supposed to have been granted bail at all, since he was the subject of a felony hearing to determine his mental competency to aid in his own defense, and it was speculated in open court that the Hamburg family had intervened in Matthew’s case for “political reasons.”

Marlon Cryer, whose wife directs the county’s Department of Health and Human Services, was arrested last year for drunk driving. He was wearing this shirt at the time.

Cash cow, of course. And a sacred one, too.

The Board of Supervisors was not kindly disposed  to Meredyth Reinhard’s presentation on Tuesday, June 18. An austere-looking woman whose spiel made her doubly reminiscent of Carrie Nation, Miss Reinhard, of the County’s Public Health Department, spent about half an hour reading a powerpoint presentation aimed at informing Mendo’s booze-friendly leadership that there’s lots of drinking going on, much of it  “excessive.” We also know that we have lots of places to buy liquor not including the many roadside wine boutiques, and we know that many underage people drink heavily.

Black Watch.

“Black Watch,” the ‘Five Star’ Scottish military play that has been touted in expensive ads all over the Bay Area as “The #1 Theatrical Event of the Year,” (New York Times) delivered a powerful anti-war message that I wager stunned even lib/left San Francisco audiences. At $100-a-pop tickets and rave reviews from all major US and British newspapers, it seemed that the mostly older, suburban folks in attendance during the play’s recent five-week run expected flaring kilts and lots of bagpipes.

“Do not blame others for things that you have brought upon yourself.” — Alexander McCall Smith

Do we, indeed, bring things upon ourselves? Are we the masters of our own destinies or are we pawns of forces we have no control over? These are questions I entertain myself with while walking to town today.

Having learned from my trusty tide chart that there is a negative tide attaining negative zenith at 9:30 in the AM today, and being a lover of negative tides, I decide to begin my daily trek to the village by walking down to Big River Beach, communing with the oceanic sprits, and then accessing the village by climbing the seventy stairs from the beach up to the headlands and from there meandering along the little trail through blackberry bushes and wild roses to the Presbyterian church.

“But is this what I really want to do?” I wonder as I amble down the steepest stretch of Little Lake Road. “Or have forces I have no control over made me think this is what I want to do when, in fact, it is what they (whoever they are) want me to do?”

I make a left onto Clark Street and head south toward Big River Beach. I am excited about the prospect of exploring the mouth of Big River with the tide so low and…or is my excitement merely a trick of those forces that want me on that beach at that particular time because…

Two bearded men approach me, one holding a leash connected to a large brown dog. As they draw near I instinctively give them a wide berth, and I’m glad I do because the large dog lunges at me as they pass, and the man is barely able to keep the dog from getting to me.

“Sorry about that,” says the man. “He’s never done that before.”

“Well, I’m glad you have him on a leash,” I say, having heard that same He’s never done that before line from dozens of unconvincing dog owners.

The lunging dog behind me, I wonder what brought me to that place on Clark Street just in time to encounter a lunging dog? A few minutes earlier or a few minutes later, no lunging dog. Coincidence? Or are the unseen ones trying to tell me something? I dunno.

A hundred yards further along, I get a panoramic view of Big River Beach in the distance — not a human being in sight on the vast expanse of sand. I wonder why. Gorgeous day. Extremely low tide. Summer upon us. Where are all the people? Or where are some people?

And now for the most obviously dangerous part of my journey, a quarter-mile stretch of walking against traffic on Highway One down to Big River Road, which is the main entrance to Big River State Park. There is a wide shoulder here, but not wide enough as far as I’m concerned, as cars and trucks come hurtling toward the walker at sixty miles an hour, cars and trucks driven by people who are often oblivious to pedestrians. Having nearly been killed at least three times by people talking on cell phones while driving, I am extremely wary of putting myself in situations where such thoughtless people might kill me, but this is the most convenient way to get to the beach on foot, so I hug the inside edge of the shoulder and prepare to jump into the bushes should an oncoming vehicle appear to be making a beeline for me.

Arriving at Big River Road, I find the park entrance closed to vehicular traffic by several big white saw horses, three of which bear giant traffic signs reading EXAM UNDERWAY. I kid you not. The signs don’t say ROAD CLOSED or PARK CLOSED, but EXAM UNDERWAY. Seeing no sign saying DO NOT ENTER, I saunter down the steep drive to the beach parking lot and espy three uniformed park employees standing beside two white dump trucks. One of the employees, a muscular man wearing reflective dark glasses says to me, “Yes, sir. What can I do for you?”

“I’m heading for the beach,” I say. “Is that okay, or will I be disturbing the exam?”

“No, that’s fine,” he says. “We’re keeping vehicles out because we’ve got some folks undergoing heavy equipment operation tests, but we’re not using the beach.”

“Thank you,” I say, having solved the mystery of why there was nobody on the beach.

“No worries,” says the man. “Enjoy.”

Big River’s flow of fresh water is so little right now and the tide is so greatly withdrawn that I can, for the first time in my eight years of living here, wade all the way across Big River and back, which I do before wandering out onto the greater beach. A few folks have come down the stairs from the headlands, so I am not entirely alone on the vast expanse of sand, but nearly so.

As I follow the widening river to where the stream of fresh water meets the salty sea, an osprey plummets into the river and quickly rises into the air with a little fish in her talons — a breathtaking sight and reason enough to have made this trek to the beach.

I roll up my pants’ legs and wade out into the ocean up to my knees, the breakers perfectly formed for surfing, though there are no surfers in the water yet, no doubt kept at bay by the heavy equipment exam. The water is relatively warm compared to how I remember it being a week ago, and I smile at thoughts of going swimming in the ocean, one day soon if not today.

Finding a likely spot on a sandy slope some fifty yards from the water’s edge, I eat a breakfast of nuts and seeds and a juicy navel orange, and get out my notebook to write. A story grabs me and I have the feeling the hidden heart of the tale is the question of whether we are masters of our own destinies or merely pawns of forces we have no control over. And as I write, I think of Buckminster Fuller and his notion that wisdom is knowing how, after much experimentation and experience, to harmonize our efforts and actions and designs with Nature’s principles for our own good and the good of all people and things.

I fill several pages of my notebook, and when the words cease to flow I look up and see five surfers out in the water, one of them just catching a wave and having a lovely little ride. I also see several people walking on the beach, including a few who are both elderly and obese, which suggests the heavy equipment exam has ended and the parking lot is now open for business. There are mothers with children, a woman looking for rocks and shells, a man with a dog on a leash, and a woman with a dog not on a leash. Everyone is taking pictures with their phones. A woman strides by talking on her cell phone and I hear her say, “…yeah, it may go up some more, but let’s not get greedy and lose…”

Feeling nicely energized by the oceanic fumes, I traverse the warming beach and sit on a log at the bottom of the stairs to wipe the sand off my feet and put on my shoes. A ten-year-old boy wearing a Giants baseball cap comes skipping down the stairs ahead of his parents and shouts, “See? I told you! It’s perfect!”

I count the stairs as I climb, but right before I reach the top I lose count because I’m distracted by a homeless guy sitting on a log overlooking the beach saying to another homeless guy, “Seriously, man, I watched the game on my phone and LeBron was not to be denied.”

As I arrive at the Presbyterian parking lot, a dusty expanse the church generously allows the general public to use, I am met by a muscular young man with curly brown hair, his sternum adorned with a lifelike tattoo of a pink rose. “How you doin’, man?” he asks, frowning at me.

“Great,” I say. “Beautiful day.”

“Would you be interested in buying some hash?” he asks, nodding.

“No, thank you,” I reply, wondering what made him think the likes of me would want to buy hashish from him. Or maybe he asks everyone he meets if they want to buy hashish. Or maybe…I dunno.

I get a little cash from the ATM machine at my bank, Mendocino’s one and only bank, stroll to the post office and pick up the mail featuring this week’s Anderson Valley Advertiser, and transect the village to reach the hardware store where I buy three bolts to attach a vice to a table in our workshop. As I’m searching the bolt bins, two men down the aisle from me are having an animated discussion about a construction project. One of the men says, “You know, I think it might look better if we do that, but I’m afraid we’d be tempting fate. You know what I mean? I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

Home again. Gardening. Writing. Snacking. Practice the piano. Writing. Hours pass and evening approaches. Marcia has been away for two days concertizing in Santa Rosa and is due home for supper. What shall I make? I sit at my desk awaiting inspiration. I could heat up some rice and sauté some garden vegetables. That sounds good, yet I remain at my desk. I feel pleasantly ensnared, held in my chair by unseen powers. The phone rings. It’s Marcia calling from Boonville and suggesting she stop at Libby’s restaurant in Philo and pick up some superlative Mexican food. What do I think about that? I think Yes! and surrender to the beneficent spirits.

Todd Walton’s web site is UnderTheTableBooks.com.

A couple of weeks ago I walked into the Coast Hardware Store in Fort Bragg for my annual purchase of a sleeve or two of .22 shorts. Usually, when the clerk asks what they are for I reply “target shooting,” but the truth is they are for shooting blue jays, woodpeckers, and occasionally pigeons who invade our cherry trees. Anybody who is aghast at that has no concept about what really happens on a ranch or farm. The truly appalling thing is that Coast Hardware doesn’t have any .22 shorts or .22 longs or almost any bullets whatsoever on its ample number of shelves devoted to ammunition. A long time Coast Hardware employee put it this way, “After Obama got re-elected and the Sandy Hook shooting, they bought out all the ammo and darn near all the guns.”

Anyone using colchicine, one of the best treatments for gout, is in for a nasty surprise, compliments of the FDA and the rapacious actions of URL Pharmaceuticals and Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Until recently, I used the generic drug colchicine. A prescription of 100 tablets typically cost about $10, actually 9¢ a pill. Best of all, it really worked. However, now one must use something called Colcrys (a recently branded version of colchicine) which costs $5 per pill. Colcrys is simply colchicine with a new label stuck on it. You might think that the much respected FDA (Food and Drug Administration) would have had more good sense than to allow any drug manufacturer to corner the market on the generic drug colchicine and then charge 50 times the former cost. You would be wrong. They allowed this sham to play out with not so much as a howdy-do — and at the expense of unsuspecting patients, doctors, medical insurance providers, Medicaid, and Medicare. Is there indeed a new climate of regulation unfolding in the halls of the FDA? Is the new initiative one that insures that no good generic medicine can go unpunished?

The Beach Man cometh.

The album “Brian Wilson” by the Beach Man Brian Wilson.

First you start with the album, then you add your friend in Manhattan Beach; then you throw in your birthday wish: a sunset drive in your friend’s apple red Porsche along the coast highway from Santa Monica through Malibu with the album on the tape deck for its personal premiere. It’s July, so the top on the apple red Porsche is home in the garage.

A BAD THING HAPPENED in central Boonville about 4pm Sunday, but by 9pm a very good thing had happened at the same place. The bad thing happened when a Subaru, driven by a woman later arrested for driving under the influence of drugs, and containing three teenage girls, rear-ended a pick-up driven by a dad with his wife and their little girl as passengers. The pick-up was struck with such force it was shoved off the highway and into a Fairgrounds walkway pole, while the Subaru veered onto Lauren’s front porch, taking out a combined phone and power line and the timbers holding up the overhang. No one was seriously hurt, although a total of five people from the two vehicles involved were hauled over the hill by ambulance to be checked out.

LAUREN HERSELF was soon on-scene. At first glance she must have assumed her popular restaurant would be out of business for some time. From a distance, damage looked significant. But The Good Thing had commenced almost immediately when Anderson Valley’s volunteer firefighters went to work on Lauren’s fallen overhang and, by the time night had fully fallen, what had appeared to have been catastrophic damage to the front of the enterprise had been converted to a face lift, complete with new supports.

MONDAY MORNING, the only evidence that a major collision had occurred were Lauren’s crushed planters and the severely bent metal pole at the Fairgrounds. That pole, incidentally, seems to have prevented the careening pick-up from crashing through the doors of the Apple Hall. Any pedestrian in the path of either vehicle as both left the roadway would have been seriously injured.

THE SUBARU had set out from Mountain View for a camping stay near Fort Bragg. It was clearly being driven at a high rate of speed when it reached central Boonville.

I HAD BEEN ENJOYING the twin delights of a taco and Anel’s radiant smile at Anel’s restaurant when the vehicles collided down the street. There was the inimitable sound of vehicles colliding, then pop, a sizzle and the lights went off at Anel’s. People poured out of the bar next door, and we all began to speculate about what had happened. Soon, a large crowd of kibitzers had assembled behind the yellow crime tape fencing off the two damaged vehicles. An onlooker, commenting on his fellow onlookers, said, “This is the biggest local crowd I’ve seen since the night the Mannix Building burned down.”

RAINA FAIGEN, 20, Mountain View, has been identified as the driver of the careening 2002 Subaru Outback. Emiliano Soto-Valencia, 28, of Boonville, was driving his Ford pick-up at about 30 mph when Ms. Faigen’s speeding Subaru hit him from behind. Soto-Valencia’s wife and four-year-old daughter were taken to Ukiah Valley Medical Center with minor injuries.

POWER REMAINED out at Anel’s and several locations in the downtown area until later in the evening; Anderson Valley Market never did lose power.

THE SUBARU’S THREE passengers are identified as Kate Robbins, 16, of Watsonville; Alanna Reyes, 18, of Walnut Creek; and Sophie Drukman-Feldstein, 16, of San Francisco. Ms. Faigen was arrested on charges of driving under the influence of a controlled substance and booked into the Mendocino County Jail on $30,000 bail.

MAJOR ATTA BOYS for our volunteer fire department. They went right to work on Lauren’s and, by 9pm, it was hard to tell that anything so drastic had happened there.

CAPTAIN RAINBOW must be in Burma by now while we await his first dispatches from that long-sequestered country. We all enjoyed Rainbow’s accounts of his stay in Sri Lanka several years ago and now look forward to his reports from Myanmar.

NOW THAT GRADUATION PARTIES ARE OVER and done with for another year, it’s time to get down to business. The AV High School Boys’ soccer team begins summer practices next week, 6pm on Wednesday, July 10, at Tom Smith Field behind the school. As usual it is expected that around 25-30 student athletes will be competing for spots on the roster so they are all encouraged to come out on Wednesdays for the next month, before Mondays are added to the practice schedule for August. The team won the Championship for the second time in three years last season, and with many players returning it is hoped that the program’s winning tradition will continue. Reaching the play-offs eight years in succession does not just happen — it all starts with practice and training. See you out there, lads! — Coach Steve Sparks.

THE 149th Vassar College commencement on May 28th conferred bachelor of arts degrees on 612 graduating students including Cassidy Hollinger of Boonville, a young woman we remember as if it were yesterday waiting tables at the Buckhorn.

FOUR BORDER COLLIE/MCNAB PUPPIES, just five-days old, are in desperate need of a “mother.” Their actual mother became ill during birth last Friday and, although she will survive her upcoming surgery, she cannot support them with the milk they require for the next three or four weeks. During this crucial period of the pups’ lives, the vets at Mendocino Animal Hospital want to find a temporary home (that could become permanent) requiring a private space and bottle feeding a few times a day. They want the puppies to stay in two pairs. If anyone can help these pups survive, please contact Kathy at the vets in Ukiah at 462-8833.

THAT DRILLING APPARATUS at Guererro’s Tire Center in downtown Boonville last week was measuring air emissions from the long abandoned fuel tanks beneath that site. The high octane ground water that had caused so much consternation for so many years has, we understand, been cleared up.

THE RAVE at the Boy Scout Camp in Navarro this past weekend drew quite a crowd, with parking and camping at the Hulbert Ranch near Gowan’s serving as a parking lot and camping area, with shuttle buses running celebrants back and forth all weekend.

IT’S HOT AND GETTING HOTTER, with temperatures averaging better than a hundred degrees from Boonville to all points east. Sunday, it hit a hundred in Mendocino County’s most happening town, which is Boonville, if you absolutely must be told. It was 99 in Ukiah, 100 in Covelo but a balmy 88 in Willits where our ace eco-reporter, Will “Hawk” Parrish was, until Monday morning, strapped to a piece of road building equipment in protest of the Willits Bypass. Fort Bragg, our county’s coolest town in every respect, from its dashingly handsome population to its many civilized amenities to its perfect weather, was 66 and clear. Temps in Anderson Valley will remain globally toasty all week, and won’t cool until Saturday when a redeeming fog is expected to blanket the Mendocino Coast, whistling up through the redwoods to return the Anderson Valley to the temperate zone. In the interim, your beloved hometown newspaper recommends that you walk slow and drink a lot of water.

A FEW SMALL fires over the last several days, but nothing to speak of except for one oddity in the Hopland area where a few of acres of vineyard were destroyed by a slow-moving blaze.

SAN FRANCISCO is a small city. I often run into people I know, and I’ve had some peculiar encounters with people who seem to know me. “Are you….?” No, I’m his brother. I can take a message for him, though. A couple of weeks ago at 8th and California, trucking south on 8th to see the Diebenkorn at the deYoung, an older woman piloting a big Mercedes leaned out her window and yelled, “Way to go, Bruce. Whooeee!” That kind of enthusiasm for my public appearances is quite rare, non-existent in fact, so when another lady on a bicycle near one of my fave overlooks at the west end of the Presidio commenced waving and smiling, I focused what’s left of my distance vision and darned if it wasn’t Wendy Ludwig who’s given me hours of free gardening advice over the years.

THE ANNUAL SALMON Barbecue is this Saturday down in Noyo Harbor, Fort Bragg. Proceeds support salmon restoration efforts, this year fish counts in the Usal Forest and work on spawning grounds in the Noyo River. 11am to 6pm, $30 at the entrance, $23 in advance from Harvest Market, Fort Bragg. This being a good salmon year, the fish should be right off the boats. Nice event, good cause.

GOOD TO SEE DAVE EVANS back in the live music business this year with two great shows. On Saturday, July 15th, Dave presents Roy Rogers and the Delta River Kings with Boonville native Guy Kephart on the grill. Music at 6:30, gates open at 6.

LATER THIS SUMMER, the amazing blues man, Charlie Musslewhite, will appear at the amazing Navarro Store venue with his two brothers for a rare family appearance of a genius musical family. Stay tuned for the date.

THE THURSDAY before Rasta Fest, Claudia Jimenez was startled to look out the window of her Boonville business, All That Good Stuff, to see a scruffy white guy in a t-shirt reading “Staff” trying to get into her car. Claudia hustled out to confront him. “What are you doing?” she asked. “Oh, I thought it was my friend’s car,” Scruffy replied, moving gingerly on down the street. Scruff was also disavowed by the Rasta people setting up across the street at the Fairgrounds. I bring it up because it’s the only incident during that weekend that even looked like a crime.

FIREWORKS EXTRAVAGANZA WEEKEND IS HERE!

City of Point Arena invites you to join us in the festivities on Saturday July 6th from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. in Arena Cove

Back to Back Bands! Enjoy Live Music By Fast Company, Lucky 13, Dysphunctional Species and featuring ELIQUATE!

Street Fair with wide variety of vendors and great food selections; Oceanfront FIREWORKS display by PyroSpectaculars!

During each band intermission: Buy a pie – and take aim! Pie Throwing Contest

This year’s famous faces are: Warren Galletti, Trevor Sanders, Terry Solomon.

And Sunday July 7th beginning at Noon in our downtown Point Arena city park. Downtown Historical Parade

The 2013 Theme is “Making it Happen”

This year’s Grand Marshall is “Mr. Warren Galletti”

Don’t Miss the Largest Point Arena Event of the Year!

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GARRET RODRIGUEZ: Last Heard From Near ‘Murder Mountain’

by Kym Kemp

Rodriguez

When Garret Rodriguez drove north from Ocean Beach in late December 2012, he sat behind the wheel of his newly purchased 1998 Dodge Ram four-wheel drive pickup. He and two friends had left their marijuana growing operation in Humboldt to visit the neighborhood in San Diego that he had lived in for many years. Now, he was headed back to Rancho Sequoia, a rural subdivision near the tiny hamlet of Alderpoint in southeastern Humboldt County. The area has a reputation for violence and is sometimes known as Murder Mountain.

As Rodriguez headed back to the Emerald Triangle after the holidays, he called a friend, Katrina LeBlanc, to ask her to visit him there. She explained, “He wanted a big group of us to come up for New Year’s Eve.”

Rodriguez’s Truck

He called, LeBlanc said, from a 707 number, so she knows he made it back to Humboldt. Another friend, Bill Macpherson, remembers a phone call in January. He believes Rodriguez was calling from Humboldt also. These calls were normal for Rodriguez who kept in touch frequently, LeBlanc says. She also says, however, that he warned his friends that he wouldn’t be able to call again soon because cell service was spotty in the hills where he was.

LeBlanc was close with Rodriguez. In fact, he had spent Christmas Day with her. He had showed up in the morning to help put out toys for her two year old. LeBlanc says, “The last place he was seen [by family and friends] was at my house at Christmas. He came over so early and helped up set up all the gifts from Santa for my little girl.” She paused and added, “She loves her uncle Gar Gar. That has been one of my hardest things has been her asking about him.”

Rodriguez had been at LeBlanc’s house on Christmas Eve also. She recalled, “He brought little gifts the night before. He was basically our adult Santa…”

Photo of Garret Rodriguez taken during Christmas at Katrina LeBlanc’s home.

Late on Christmas Day or in the wee hours of the 26th, LeBlanc walked Rodriguez down to his truck to say goodbye. It would be the last time she saw him.

By April, Rodriguez’s friends began comparing notes. None of them had heard from him since at least January. This was very unusual, said his mother, Pamela Mcginnis. “It is really out of character for him not to contact someone. He was really social…He always had contact with his friends. The people who have known Garret for years know that he would have to have contact with the people he cares about.”

As friends and family ascertained that Rodriguez hadn’t been in touch with anyone since late December or maybe January, their concerns grew. By the end of April, Rodriguez’s father reported him missing.

Through the cooperation of both public investigators and private investigators hired by the family, Rodriguez’s truck was found in late May. Mcginnis explained, “Someone called in where the truck was located on private property in a remote area… The truck was found about 20 miles from where he worked…” It took awhile to verify that this was Rodriguez’s truck but since the family had the vin number as well as the license plate, they were able to confirm it was his. The truck wasn’t running and the person who left the vehicle there is out of the area and difficult to find, said Mcginnis.

“The family,” she explained, “whose property it is on have been extremely cooperative.” However, the person who left the truck there is out of the area.

Private investigators from Humboldt County’s Cook and Associates are attempting to find the person who left it. Mcginnis pointed out, “It would be nice to know how [the person] came by the truck and when they came by it…”

Though his mother said the vehicle was clean, Chris Cook, the lead private investigator explained, “It wasn’t like it was detailed out. There was crap in the back.” Which may, she said, hold some information. But, she says, “There were no obvious signs of foul play.”

On a late June day, Chris Cook has been in town for hours trying to meet up with someone who might have information about the disappearance of Rodriguez. No luck. Now she’s sipping water in a coffee shop. She doesn’t have much hope Rodriguez will be found alive.

She leans forward and explains seriously, “Garret was in Humboldt before New Year’s Eve….[But] he wasn’t here very long before he disappeared.” Not long after Rodriguez got back, she believes, he called LeBlanc from Humboldt. He also might have called another friend mentioned above a week or two later. Cook has been checking around in Humboldt and asking questions. She shakes her head noting, “No one has seen him since early January. I am 100% convinced that this is not a situation where someone is hiding out because [Rodriguez] had too many people that he trusted not to contact someone.”

When asked, Cook admits, “Is he alive? Probably not….I really want people to know that if you are coming up here, you could be taking your life in your hands.”

She says she has been trying to find out what happened to Rodriguez since mid-May. She just met with a detective from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. Cook, whose husband was a sergeant with the force, reports that the local sheriff’s department is taking the case seriously and is working with her to solve it.

The Humboldt County detectives working on the case did not respond to requests for an interview. The department public information officer stated that the place where Rodriguez was last seen is uncertain. He is considered a high-risk missing person, however, and detectives are assigned to the case and following up leads as they develop.

The cost of paying for a private investigator has been hard for the family and friends of Rodriguez are stepping in to help. LeBlanc says that the fundraiser will be Sunday, July 21st at Collier Park in Ocean Beach. “We’re trying to raise some money for his mom to help continue the investigation. He was really well known. I’ve gotten three bands who will donate their time…We’re having t-shirts made for Garret…” The money raised will go to help pay for the investigation. [People can also donate online here.]

In addition LeBlanc hopes that getting Rodriguez’s friends together will help put together the pieces of that last visit Rodriguez made with his two Humboldt partners to the San Diego area. She notes, “Everybody’s got a story. Maybe we can iron out and get some more accurate information.”

His friends have also set up a Facebook page for information to be shared among themselves. Mcginnis has been impressed with his friends’ passion. “Early on when they first set up this Facebook page,” she explained, “I was told that people would stop going after about a week. Garrett is so loved and missed that this is still active. A lot of his friends are not going to give up until he is found. I don’t think people realize how tenacious his friends are in Ocean Beach. They aren’t going to let this rest.”

She sighs, “It’s been difficult. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t cry. Sometimes it is because of comments people send me or post on the site.” She says one of the hardest parts is that the family just doesn’t know what happened.

The family has arranged for new posters to be placed at local garden stores and other community gathering places. A phone number to contact the private investigators with information has been provided: (707) 839-7422.

SIDE NOTE:

How did Rancho Sequoia become Murder Mountain?

Around 1968, the land which came to be known as Rancho Sequoia was subdivided in response to the proposed Yellow Jacket Dam. (Eureka Times Standard 1/29/68) The dam never materialized. The land was eventually subdivided into relatively small lots—many just 10 acres. The area soon became home to many people who came from out of the area to own their piece of paradise.

Like much of Southern Humboldt during the late Seventies and early Eighties, the area became known as a place for growing marijuana. Numerous raids were held in the subdivision over the years. Here’s one described from the point of view of people living there. Here’s a CAMP report (scroll to page 18.)

The name Murder Mountain probably came in response to a 1982 murder. There are also rumored to be other disappearances related to the area but below are three of the most well-known stories.

Clark Stephens, age 26, was murdered by Michael and Suzane Carson, on the 17th of May, 1982. The couple were serial killers who were convicted of three deaths but suspected of more. A book, Cry for War, was written about the lethal twosome. Here’s an excerpt about the murder from a contemporary newspaper.

Stephens, who allegedly worked on a marijuana farm near Garberville with the Carsons, was slain near the town of Alderpoint, Mrs. Carson said he was “a demon. He had to be killed.”

Carson said he shot Stephens twice in the head and once in the side and then burned the body and buried it beneath some chicken fertilizer.

See also here for another contemporary account. Here’s a video containing interviews with Carson’s daughter and ex-wife.

Tennison

Another man missing and presumably dead in the area is Bobby Tennison. He was known locally as Builder Bob. He came frequently to Southern Humboldt. Reportedly he went to the Rancho Sequoia area to get paid for a construction job. He has not been seen since January 2009.

Interesting note: Just across the valley from Rancho Sequoia is the location of another famous death. Dirk Dickenson was killed while running from law enforcement in 1972.

(Courtesy, LostCoastOutpost.com)

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WE RECEIVED this message anonymously. It was from Mari Rodin, Ukiah City Councilperson, responding to recent criticism:

“Why do the media in Mendocino County continuously, relentlessly, and ignorantly criticize the City of Ukiah? If anyone cared about the truth, they would speak to the individuals involved like reporters in most newspapers do. They would then find out that the City is, in fact, a well-run organization that has done an amazing job of dealing with five straight years of financial challenges that have come as a result of factors completely beyond the City’s control. (For example, revenues increased only $300,000 between 2008-2012, which is 2% of a $15 million general fund. With immense pressure on expenditures coming from PERS, labor contracts and the loss of RDA, the City still managed to hold down costs to 2%/year over this same period. A remarkable accomplishment by any measure.) The facts regarding the city manager’s salary are mistaken. There USED to be executive pay (and several other extraneous and ridiculous pay categories) but to clean up all these behind-the-scenes components of her pay package, the city manager herself (!) suggested we streamline and simplify her contract to make it transparent. Her pay is $150,000 and she may be eligible for merit pay, but that will depend on how revenues come in this new fiscal year. She volunteered to take a 10% salary cut. The statement about administrative overhead is false too. It’s laughable! The city manager recommended eliminating her administrative assistant last year to help trim the deficit. The city clerk has taken up some of this role, but not all of it, which has been very difficult. How many executives do you know of who oversee a $62.5 million budget give up their secretary in an effort to do their part in sharing the pain during difficult times? If reporters around here would simply (oh, so simply!) just ask questions directly, they would have a different story to report.”

THING IS, MS. RODIN, all the stuff you complain about is public record from which we’ve all drawn pretty much the same conclusions, i.e., the Council majority’s spending decisions haven’t been wise and tend to favor management over line staff. Also, there was the suspiciously selective allocation of Redvelopment monies on your fave restaurant, the talk of an on-staff therapist, and other public statements by you, Ms. Landis and Little Benj that create an overall impression of fuzz brains running the City of Ukiah.

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THE AVA’S FAVORITE PAINTER!

Mary Robertson: River Days

July 11 – August 17, 2013

Reception with the Artist

Saturday, July 13th, 3:00 – 5:00PM

Odd Fellows #37, 2013, oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

Recent paintings, watercolors, and drawings by Bay Area artist Mary Robertson capture the color, light and feel of summer on the Russian River.

http://www.georgekrevskygallery.com/dynamic/exhibit_detail.asp?ExhibitID=198

Writer Jon Carroll, a longtime friend of Robertson, reflects on her work. “I have always wanted to live on Mary Robertson’s Russian River. Such an indolent place, so dreamy, like an underwater kingdom. The umbrellas, towels, beach chairs, and the people in Mary’s paintings are frozen in time, always inhabiting that same summer. It’s a little like heaven and a little like camp.” Mary Robertson is a California native and studied Art History at UCLA. After a successful career in graphic design and art direction she began painting full time. She has been exhibiting with George Krevsksy Gallery since 2002. Previously, solo shows include Campbell Thiebaud Galleries in San Francisco and Laguna Beach, and Addison Rowe in Santa Fe. Her artwork has been featured in public exhibitions at the Sonoma County Museum, the Stanford Faculty Club, the Santa Cruz County Museum, and the American Academy of Art & Letters. Located in San Francisco’s Union Square District, George Krevsky Gallery specializes in 20th-century American Art in the figurative tradition, including the Ashcan, Regionalist, Modernist, Social Realism, as well as Northern California contemporary artists. Established in 1992, George Krevsky Gallery is a member of the San Francisco Art Dealers Association.

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AFTER OUTING them for their secrecy, the County CEO’s office released the following press release on Wednesday:

County Kicks Off District Budget Presentations. The Public Is Invited To Attend The July 12, 2013 Forum At Fort Bragg Town Hall.

Mendocino County Chief Executive Officer, Carmel J. Angelo, is scheduled to present a County Budget Update/State of the County informational presentation in the 4th Supervisorial District on Friday, July 12, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon at the Fort Bragg Town Hall.

At the start of this year’s county budget process, the Executive Office announced that informational budget presentations would be scheduled in each of the County’s five supervisorial districts. With the beginning of the new Fiscal Year on July 1, the Executive Office is scheduling the budget presentations to be held before the September 9, 2013 County budget hearings.

The presentation will include highlights of the County’s 2013/2014 Recommended Budget, a State of the County update, and items of interest in the 4th District. The intent of these presentations is to inform the audience of the workings of County government and to provide a high level of transparency and accountability to all Mendocino County residents. It is hoped that those interested in performing their civic duty will continue to stay engaged in the workings of local government.

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MISSING MAN’S FAMILY STILL HOPING TO FIND HIM

The wife of a Rodondo man who has been missing since the end of May is still hoping a someone will provide a tip that may lead to finding him.

Samantha Lamberg has been at home in Southern California with her 10- and 14-year-old children, wondering what happened to their father, Erik Swan Lamberg, 51, who was last seen in Laytonville on May 27.

Lamberg in various family photos

The Lambergs are separated, and he was driving to Oregon to seek help for mental health issues, according to Samantha Lamberg, who said he is bipolar and was off his medication when he left Southern California around May 23.

She talked with him on the phone from Laytonville on May 26.

“He sounded paranoid,” she said, “but said he was safe in a motel.”

He had apparently tried to get some repairs done to his Honda Odyssey van in Laytonville, but told Samantha Lamberg the repairs could not begin until after the holiday weekend, on May 28. Nonetheless, the van — which had been towed to Laytonville from Leggett — was driven away.

According to Samantha Lamberg, the motel owner said Erik Lamberg and the van were gone on May 28. His credit card showed a charge May 26 for the motel.

Samantha Lamberg did not hear from Erik Lamberg between May 26 and May 28, and his credit card was not used again, which she said was unusual, and so she reported him missing the night of May 29 to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office.

The MCSO found the Honda van on Sherwood Road about 20 miles west of Willits on Saturday, June 1. Deputies did a limited search immediately around the van, and a ground search for Erik Lamberg — including a bloodhound and a shepherd — was organized for the following Wednesday.

Lt. Shannon Barney at the MCSO said the dogs followed what they thought was a good scent about a mile west of the spot where the van was found, but then lost the scent.

Since the search, the MCSO has had a couple of calls of possible sightings but neither panned out.

“We’re looking for tips,” Barney said.

Samantha Lamberg is hoping to keep her husband’s case in the public eye and has launched a Facebook site dedicated to finding him.

In the meantime, however, “I’m down here feeling pretty powerless,” she said.

(Courtesy, The Ukiah Daily Journal)

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STATEMENT OF THE DAY: Whether the desire for liberty exists in America remains to be seen. If Americans can overcome their gullibility, their lifelong brainwashing, their propensity to believe every lie that “their” government tells them, and if Americans can escape the Matrix in which they live, they can reestablish the morality, justice, peace, freedom, and liberty that “their” government has taken from them. It is not impossible for Americans to again stand with uplifted heads. They only have to recognize that “their” government is the enemy of truth, justice, human rights and life itself. Can mere ordinary Americans triumph over the evil that is “their” government without the aid of a superhero? If ideas are strong enough and Americans can comprehend them, good can prevail over the evil that is concentrated in Washington. What stands between the American people and their comprehension of evil is their gullibility. If good fails in its battle with Washington’s evil, our future is a boot stamping on the human face forever. — Paul Craig Roberts

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DR. WILLIAM COURTNEY at the International Cannabinoid Research Society meeting in Vancouver, BC, June 24. (Photo by Fred Gardner). PS. I want Mendoland to know that we are not at war. I’ll fill you in on the why. (Just back from Canada.)

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To: Board of Directors Mendocino County Public Broadcasting

July 2, 2013

P.O. Box 1 Philo, CA 95466

Re: Violation of California Corporations Code – Annual Membership Meeting

Members of the Board:

I am writing today to alert you to violations of the California Corporations Code that affect the legitimacy of the corporation and its ability to renew its broadcast license for KZYX&Z.

Sections 5510-11 of the Corporations Code state, in part, that:

5510. (b) A regular meeting of members shall be held on a date and time, and with the frequency stated in or fixed in accordance with the bylaws, but in any event in each year in which directors are to be elected at that meeting for the purpose of conducting such election, and to transact any other proper business which may be brought before the meeting. . . . 5511. (a) Whenever members are required or permitted to take any action at a meeting, a written notice of the meeting shall be given not less than 10 nor more than 90 days before the date of the meeting to each member who, on the record date for notice of the meeting, is entitled to vote thereat . . .

The Bylaws of Mendocino County Public Broadcasting state, in part, that:

Section 10.01 Annual Meeting:

1) The annual meeting of the Membership shall be held within sixty (60) days of the completion of Board elections each year, unless the Board shall provide for another date and so notifies Members. 2) The purpose of this meeting shall be to declare the results of the preceding election of the Board, to present an annual report to Members on the activities and accomplishments of MCPB, to present the audit report, and any other business as may come before the meeting. 3) Notice of the annual meeting date and location, including agenda items that may require Membership vote, shall be given to all Members a minimum of fifteen (15) days prior to the meeting if delivered by first class mail or a minimum of four (4) days prior to the meeting if broadcast daily on the Station’s radio frequencies and posted at the Station headquarters.

MCPB failed to notify its membership of the most recent purported annual membership meeting, as required by both the Corporations Code and its own Bylaws. Such notice is required under Section 5510 because 1) the meeting completes the election process for the Board of Directors, and 2) such a meeting is required by the Bylaws. The notice must be no less than 10 nor more than 90 days prior to the annual membership meeting. The 90 day outside limit will allow you to send a notice of the annual meeting along with the notice of election, so there is no practical reason not to do so.

In addition, MCPB failed to hold a proper annual membership meeting by failing to answer any questions put forth by members at the meeting, thereby failing to transact any other proper business which may be brought before the meeting or to fully present an annual report to Members on the activities and accomplishments of MCPB.

I recently attended a regular meeting of your board, during which members were permitted three minutes each to make comments and ask questions, but with no provision for the board to answer those questions. It took two brave board members to disobey the instructions of the current Board chair and actually respond to questions raised by members. The Board’s current policy of never responding to the questions and concerns raised by the membership at any meeting brings into question the legal legitimacy of the Board. Worse, it burns the bridges of communication that are essential to any membership nonprofit organization.

As a member of the Board of Directors, each of you has a sacred duty to maintain that communication.

MCPB is a membership-based organization dedicated to serving the entire community of Mendocino County and contiguous counties. The primary purpose of MCPB is to engage in providing high-quality, independent, community and public radio and other media products and services. — MCPB Bylaws, Article III, Purpose and Governing Principles

When I raised these issues at the recent Board meeting, the General Manager shook his head in a dismissive gesture. If any employee fails to honor the organizations Bylaws or abide by California law, they are doing a disservice to the Board, the organization, and the community. It may be more work to listen and respond to the questions and concerns of the membership community, but that is precisely what the governance of MCPB must do. You are enjoying the benefits of being a membership organization. You must also accept the responsibilities.

On a related matter, I have requested that your quarterly reports to the Public File, required by the Federal Communications Commission, be posted on your website, along with the General Manager’s reports and other information. I was told I would need to go to your main office in Philo if I wanted to see any such reports. Considering the size of Mendocino County and the cost of gasoline, that is an undue burden to place on your membership, or the public, when access can otherwise be provide with a few keystrokes. You will be required to include the most recent Public File report in your application for renewal of your broadcasting license. Refusing to make them readily available to your members and the public at large appears to violate the rules concerning public access.

Since you are submitting another legal matter to pro bono counsel for review, I recommend that you do the same here. The full California Code section on membership meetings can be found online at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=corp&group=05001-06000&file=5510-5517

Please give your urgent attention to these matters. Although I try to resolve issues with the least confrontation possible, the issue of membership involvement is so important that I will file an action in Superior Court to enforce compliance if the Board does remedy its current practices.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Sincerely,

Dennis O’Brien, Ukiah

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GEOFF THOMAS of Boonville writes: So Edward Snowden simply tells the world that the US government has the ability and power to collect information, powers that were legally granted by his own Government . So where’s the f**king PROBLEM? Is it now ILLEGAL to talk about what is LEGALLY allowable in the land of the free? You make something technically “Legal,” but then make it “Illegal” to mention that which should not be mentioned? I may be slow and I may often be stupid, but can somebody please explain why with all the shit that’s happening in the world today, Edward Snowden is America’s Most Wanted?

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY in response to pot raid in the Alderpoint area Wednesday morning:

Get the armed felons and mega grows cleaned out and the area cleaned up and you will see crime drop like a rock and a sudden migration out of the area of these career criminals and it will be appreciated by the majority of people in the area, especially those who still work an honest job or are retired and pay taxes and want a safer family friendly community like they remember not that long ago. This should start a turn around, the people are ready and have had enough body counts and neck tatted criminal zombies who should be locked away and the key thrown away. Good work HCSO!

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PRESIDENT MORSI OVERTHROWN IN EGYPT

By Al Jazeera English (03 July 13)

The Egyptian army has overthrown President Mohamed Morsi announcing a roadmap for the country¹s political future that will be implemented by a national reconciliation committee. The head of Egypt’s armed forces issued a declaration on Wednesday evening suspending the constitution and appointing the head of the constitutional court as interim head of state. Morsi’s presidential Facebook page quoted the disposed president as saying he rejected the army statement as a military coup. In a televised broadcast, flanked by military leaders, religious authorities and political figures, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi effectively declared the removal of Morsi. Sisi called for presidential and parliamentary elections, a panel to review the constitution and a national reconciliation committee that would include youth movements. He said the roadmap had been agreed by a range of political groups. Speaking shortly after al-Sisi’s announcement, liberal opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei said the 2011 revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak was relaunched and that the roadmap meets the demand of the protesters for early presidential elections. Egypt’s leading Muslim and Christian clerics also backed the army-sponsored roadmap. Ahmed al-Tayeb, Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Cairo’s ancient seat of Muslim learning, and Pope Tawadros, the head of the Coptic Church, both made brief statements following the announcement by the head of the armed forces. Tawadros said the plan offered a political vision and would ensure security for all Egyptians, about 10% of whom are Christian.

The Kate Wolf Music Festival is put on annually by Bob and Sue Barsotti at their Black Oak Ranch five miles north of Laytonville. Bob Barsotti was partners with Bill Graham during the heyday of the Fillmore West and sold his share for millions to buy the Black Oak Ranch. The venue is also the site of The Hog Farm Commune, a highly secretive enterprise that includes The Clown Camp children’s school run by Kate Wolf Music Festival MC Wavy Gravy, where the kids — mostly troubled youth from the city — live in teepees. Wavy Gravy is really Hugh Romney, a professional clown known for his self-effacing humor and devotion to entertaining the patients at children’s hospitals across the country. He was an original member of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters. And he did the Free Food Kitchen at Woodstock.

MAX RASPECT, MON

Editor,

The Sierra Nevada World Music would like to extend a GIGANTIC THANK YOU to all those involved in making our 20th annual summer solstice celebration one of the greatest ever. Despite some sprinkles on Sunday morning, the weather was most cooperative, the vibes were super high throughout the weekend and the music was fantastic. All of that could be witnessed by the beaming faces that could be seen on everyone’s face throughout the weekend.

Maximum RASpect to all the staff who worked tirelessly to insure that everything went off seamlessly, and to the hundreds of volunteers. They were the ultimate Samaritans, not only in greeting all the attendees with smiles, but also in helping transform the Boonville Fairgrounds into a majestic spot for a festival in the days leading up to our gathering as well as working unremittingly last week to get the fairgrounds restored and cleaned up. We give thanks to the people of Boonville for opening up your hearts and all of Anderson Valley to us for the past 8 years. SNWMF is blessed to be able to call Boonville our home.

Big up to Jah Med for making sunscreen available, handing out ear plugs and tending to any minor injuries (and thankfully there were only minor ones) sustained by the patrons. We are also grateful to our excellent security team that managed to keep everything under control for the festivities, and to Alisha Goodrich for spearheading the canned food drive that raised food for Mendocino’s Food Bank and Community Center. We are also thankful to all the members of the press, media and street team for helping to get the word out about our world peace celebration and for assisting in bringing a record number of people to Boonville on Saturday night.

To the artists, ALL of whom came (on time) and delivered powerful and moving sets throughout the weekend we extend our deepest gratitude. But, most of all, SNWMF would like extend a heart-felt thank you to all the patrons and attendees who choose to spend the third weekend of June in Anderson Valley dancing to their heart’s content. Because, when all is said and done, the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival is really about YOU the festival goers. Having attended hundreds of concerts, I have no reservations in saying that this festival is truly unique in the good people it attracts. It is your smiles, your good vibes and the love that is shared amongst the wonderful people in attendance at SNWMF that keeps us going year after year.

Warren Smith, Promoter

Sierra Nevada World Music Festival

Ryde

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POMPOUS INCOMPETENCE

To The Editor:

After reading last week’s report by KC Meadows about whether Mr. Elliott should get a new murder trial, I am outraged at the utter disregard for real justice.

Are you seriously telling me that Dr. Jason Trent can, while under oath, admit to having committed perjury, and there has been no repercussion? I am inclined to believe if you or I knowingly committed perjury and admitted to it that we would surely face jail time!

I also cannot believe the absolute absence of integrity in the District Attorney’s office. You would think that after findings such as these, if the District Attorney had a conscience there would be no question but to agree to the retrial motion. Can we at the very least get a confession from them admitting they hired and use the most incompetent version of a medical examiner known to man?

How can someone be allowed to recant his recanted testimony? Did he honestly not recall recanting? I find it ridiculous that Dr. Trent and his sudden case of amnesia wasn’t torn apart while on the stand.

Linda Thompson did not perform to the best of her abilities. I would assume that in the process of gaining that degree in law she learned a little about justice. It seems absurd that Thompson would state she was so sure that she wouldn’t call Trent’s testimony into question. Who cares if he doesn’t like to be contradicted on the stand? Isn’t that the point of cross-examination? Of defending someone? Let him become pompous. As far as I’m concerned he’s a pompous so and so who contradicted himself! I think it’s fair to say that Dr. Jason Trent is a liar, and it’s reasonably to say that if he’s not, he’s surely held by much different standards than the rest of us.

“I was wrong. I don’t know what else to tell you”? Well then, when were you right?

“That’s what I swore to, that’s what I signed, but I was wrong.” Really Dr. Trent? You know when you’re a kid and you would say, “Swear on your life”? I guess it’s all right if you aren’t swearing on your own, but someone else’s.

Mr. Sequeira, where is the justice here? This case is full of inconsistencies, professionals and experts who quickly forget their duties, their responsibilities, and push aside moral rightness for pride. How can you justify the inconsistencies?

Mr. Elliott may actually have an ally in Ms. Cole-Wilson. At least she’s still working off basic principles of truth, honesty and integrity where representing someone actually means in their best interest. No personal agenda where she will gain real credibility, not falsely claimed. Let’s hope that she can salvage some justice out of this wreck.

Justice means the quality of being fair and reasonable. It’s the concept of moral rightness. What’s unfair and unjust is the level of incompetence representing individuals in circumstances where their lives, their futures are left hanging in the balance. I can only hope that myself or anyone I care about is never in this same situation, relying on pompous incompetence. What a combination!

Cecil Dixon

Ukiah

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I NEED A LAWYER

Dear Editor —

In my last letter I forgot to mention Mark Twain’s underappreciated classic, “Life on the Mississippi,” a nonfiction account of his life behind the wheel of a Mississippi River steamboat as a cub (rookie) pilot. The technology is astounding.

I’m writing from a psych joint called Be’er Yaakov (Jacob’s Well), the best psych joint I’ve ever been in in my life and I’ve been in so many. I’ll be released as soon as my son finds an apartment for me back in Jerusalem and that will be in a couple of weeks with God’s help.

What’s this boolsheet about a newspaper having no friends? The Chicago Sun-Times has lots of friends and when I was living in Chicago I was one of them. The San Diego Union has lots of friends, certainly including me. I was a dear friend of the AVA even though whenever I called up the staff made me feel like an illegal alien.

Decades ago McDonald’s big commercial which they pushed very hard was: “At McDonald’s, we do it all for you-ou-ou.”

No profit motive. They pushed the worst kind of protein, leading often to heart disease and open-heart surgery, just because they love us so much. False advertising. Is there some kind of statute of limitations on false advertising or can we nail them on this?

I’ve been out of the United States for 16 years and a long long time ago I deliberately let both my passports expire. I’m computer illiterate and no one but me seems to know how to use the post office anymore. In other words, I’m very much out of touch and you’re the only one I can think of who might be able to find a good tough lawyer. It would be so good if you could!

My son Benjamin has a computer. His e-mail address is garson@netvision.net.il

Please, please drop me a line.

Keep on truckin’

Moish (Marvin) Garson

Jerusalem

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THEY NEED $4 MIL

Dear Sir:

Wednesday. June 26, I attended a luncheon to hear about the proposed expansion to the Adventist Hospital in Ukiah. The hospital proposes to spend $41 million to expand and modernize the Emergency Treatment Center and expand the Intensive Care Unit at the Ukiah facility. The hospital will obtain financing from the parent Adventist Organization at favorable terms but the hospital must raise $4 million from the local communities before it can qualify for the financing. Currently, they have collected about $2.7 million from communities in Mendocino County.

The hospital is also considering the possibility of establishing in the future a Health Maintenance Program for the region.

Although the Anderson Valley Health Center is the first line of contact for medical care in the Valley, many folks in Anderson Valley use this hospital. As a resident of Anderson Valley and beyond you may want to consider donating to this worthy cause.

Details are available from Allyne Brown at the Adventist Hospital in Ukiah, 707 463 7623.

Sincerely,

Fred Martin

Philo

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WHERE’S CAPTAIN RAINBOW?

Dear Editors —

Seeing the attached in these hinterlands reminded me of Rainbow (aka, Robert Salisbury) and friend — current location.

Have you heard from him since he left? Sounds like he jumped into a kettle of fish. Let us (your readers) know if you hear.

Mark, thanks for your piece on the dismantling of mental health department in Mendocino County. Painful testimony of repercussion abounds. I remember my son telling me of discontinued meetings with his caseworker due to “budget cuts.” “Too bad, I really liked talking to her.” She even talked to his family!

Yours in bedlam —

Trish Beverly

Prineville, Oregon

Enclosed: Article attached titled “Violent extremism rising among Myanmar Buddhists. From “The Bulletin,” an independent newspaper, out of Bend, Oregon.

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THE WILLITS BIG BLAST

Will Parrish, and Fellow AVAers,

We Mendocino County rain forest residents say it’s time to give Big Orange Corporation a big timber squeeze and file down Caltrans’ chain saws. It was good of you to let us AVA readers know that “Big Orange is Little Lake Valley’s largest landowner.” And that the Big Orange and Caltrans plan to cut down our trees for the Willits Bypass is an ecological and anthropological BIG BLAST. You climbed 70 feet up that valley oak to let the people know we residents of northern California want to leave our trees untrammeled. We want to walk through the trees and inhale while Big Orange and Caltrans plan to perform unnecessary amputations and turn our trees to timber to construct the Willits Bypass. No, I cry, no execution for asphalt. Cut the trees and feel the breeze. Save the trees and plant more please. Trees are the air we breathe. Redwood, eucalyptus, Douglas fir, manzanita, madrone, and pine unite against anti-forest America.

Yours,

Diana Wood Duck Vance

Mendocino

PS. Let’s keep the forest we’ve got left in America. Amen.

PPS. High school graduation 2013, the seats bounced to and fro in the bright oxygen outdoor air. A squadron of draped nudes rear towards their Gods. Militant, they take my hat, as each girl presses her share of makeup against me, speech fails.

Feigning aplomb, I hover on the corridor concrete. Their fathers cheer congratulations; a wink, a leer. The best have found love’s ordinary distances too far, and stand their ground. Map explorers, drunk-dry sailors see no arrival that can compensate. “Sophia, deep wisdom, the splendid unquenchable fount.” “Somebody slapped somebody’s second wife somewhere.” Our promises break like tossed pennies. The years have gone by without a wink. Eye the ocean. Aye. And drink the sunlight.

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DERMATOLOGICAL DAMAGE

Editor,

I have glaucoma and it’s pure hell on eyedrops. Six months now I’ve had glaucoma because my then dermatologist in Ukiah did not tell me I could get it from skin creams he had me use. He never told me I had and still have seborebic dermatitis on my face and the front of my head and he never told me. Using eyedrops for me is difficult. I’m 68 years old, very high strung and this doctor has really ruined my entire life. No one should go to him. No one. How many others as he done this too?

John Easton

Ukiah

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WE’LL MISS YOU, CARL

Dear AVA,

The last issue of my current sub is schedule for 7/7. I have arrived at a point in life where it is difficult to read your paper so it is best to allow the sub to expire. I have enjoyed the AVA in many ways for close to 20 years. Long live the One And Only Real Newspaper. Thank you much.

To you, Bruce and Mark (and the rest of the contributors), I remain amazed how you guys keep your shit together knowing all the horrible things that happen in your area without losing it. I get dizzy imagining all the information that is in your memories.

Thanks to everyone involved in producing the AVA — the best paper anywhere.

With sincere regards,

Carl Flach

Alameda

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BAREFOOT DEFENDERS

Editor,

My name is Raoul Taylor of Redwood Valley. First I would like to thank you for such a wonderful paper that’s filled with news ranging from lost dogs, backyard burials and sockless public pretenders to pretend to defend the public by responding to a person’s shortcomings with the law with a Monte Hall approach — “Let’s Make a Deal.” By God, please don’t get me wrong. I’m not out to make anyone look bad. I would like to say that I’m just sharing what I’ve encountered and experienced, although I would like to slide an opinion into the best newspaper in the northern hemisphere, Mr. Haehl is a lot to deal with in himself. I sat across from this pretender only separated by a thick glass window, listening to him run down my past life history which I found to be a slick technique to coerce me into signing my life away by simply choosing Door Number one, two or three. As I thought about my list of options, I quickly noticed how my emotions were being singed with a life waiver by the sock invader only to feel as a half human under duress.

Well my fellow Mendonites, while I began to chime in with concerns and facts about my case, Mr. Haehl’s focus went to hell, out the glass window over my left shoulder. The emptiness in his eyes caused me to stop speaking to see if he was paying attention. As I stared at him he then came back from the land of — ? I turned to see the land he had ventured off to and, goodness, it was a young lady in cuffs being placed in a holding cell or probably the lion’s den, gauging from the looks of the pretender.

I asked him, “Are you with me?”

His response was, “Well, you were that age when you first came in.”

I believe that’s when I got serious with my prayer life and immediately called on God’s help to save me from this sockless sea monster!

So to Mr. William Jackson in last month’s issue: Just to let you know, I was praying for you in your court proceedings. I heard your call and I responded with prayer. Also, for those of you who are in the public arena that’s filled with plea bargaining juice: Remember CDC a department California built to help make corrections. Rehabilitation is for us here in our community to help offer aide with mental health, which helps our healing processes. We can lead our livestock to water but we can’t make them drink. We can give donated socks to those who probably don’t have any, but we can’t make them wear them. What we as a community can do is PUSH — Pray Until Something Happens.

Respectfully submitted,

Mr. R. Taylor

San Quentin

PS. Concerning “A Blatant Waste” in the June 26 AVA. I agree with the writer’s findings on our taxpayer dollars being invested in the governor’s construction company. It’s such a waste. When do the governor’s plans take effect? When do times start being cut by 50% or 80%?

WILLITS BYPASS PROTESTER, Will Parrish, aka Red Tail Hawk, was arrested Monday morning after being cut out of the metal sleeve by which he’d fastened himself some 60 feet above ground on a piece of road building equipment. More than forty California Highway Patrol officers assembled at the north end of the Bypass site where Parrish was locked down. They were accompanied by two cherry pickers, and soon several officers were aloft and attempting to saw through Parrish’s lock down device. As a CHP helicopter hovered over the odd scene, the main body of the CHP contingent kept roughly 20 Bypass protesters away from the extraction effort. A metal saw was unable to penetrate the lock down equipment so the CHP deployed a grinder that finally freed Parrish. Prior to sawing away at the metal encasing Parrish’s arm, the extraction team covered him with a protective blanket to protect him from sparks. The extraction took more than an hour before The Hawk was taken into custody along with Amanda Senseman, aka Warbler, who said she was being arrested in solidarity with Parrish. Parrish was taken to Howard Memorial Hospital in Willits for a medical evaluation then driven to the Mendocino County Jail and booked for trespassing. He’d been strapped to the equipment just north of Willits since June 20th. A tree sitter continues to occupy a grove slated for destruction.

WHAT ABOUT SOME PATRIOTISM FOR AMERICA?

A Message to Big Corporations

by RALPH NADER

The 4th of July is synonymous with patriotism. Tomorrow, all over the country, Americans will congregate to spend time with family and friends, barbecue, watch fireworks, and celebrate our nation’s independence. Many will recite the pledge of allegiance or sing the national anthem. Wouldn’t it be appropriate for the large corporations that were founded in the United States to show a similar acknowledgement of patriotism?

After all, these corporations rose to their enormous size on the backs of American workers. Their success can be attributed to taxpayer-subsidized research and development handouts. Not to mention those corporations that rushed to Washington D.C. for huge bailouts from the taxpayers when mismanagement or corruption got them into serious trouble.

How do these companies show their gratitude to their home country? Many of them send jobs overseas to dictatorial regimes and oligarchic societies who abuse their impoverished workers — all in the name of greater profits. Meanwhile, back home, corporate lobbyists continue to press for more privileges and immunities so as to be less accountable under U.S. law for corporate crimes and other misbehaviors.

In a survey conducted by the Center for Study of Responsive Law, twenty of the largest unions and twenty of the largest U.S. Chartered corporations were asked the following simple question on three separate occasions:

Do you think it desirable to have your CEO and/or your president at your annual shareholders meetings stand up on the stage and, in the name of your company (not your diverse board of directors), pledge allegiance to our flag that is completed by the ringing phrase “with liberty and justice for all?”

In this survey, nine of the twenty unions replied that they do “pledge allegiance to the flag …with liberty and justice for all” or, as a substitute, sing the national anthem.

Only two of the twenty corporations — Chevron and Walmart — responded with an explanation of their company’s view of patriotism, but declined to respond directly to the question. Some of the companies that chose not to respond are: Apple, GE, GM, Verizon, J.P. Morgan Chase and Co., AT&T, Ford, ExxonMobil, Bank of America and others.

See nader.org for the full list of companies and unions that were sent the letter, including which ones that responded and which did not.

Back in 1996, a similar survey was sent to 100 of the largest chartered corporations. Thirty-four of them responded, and all but one explained why they declined to say the Pledge of Allegiance at their annual shareholders meeting. (Federated Department Stores was the only company that embraced the idea.) Many of the corporations misconstrued the request by explaining that it might offend foreign nationals who might be on their boards of Directors. (The request was crystal clear; it was to have the CEO stand up and pledge allegiance on behalf of their U.S. chartered corporation… ) After all, it’s these very CEOs who want their American companies to be treated as “persons” under our constitution in order to retain and expand their powerful privileges and immunities.

In an age of increased jingoism about freedom and American ideals, the comparative yardsticks of patriotism should be applied frequently and meticulously to the large U.S. corporations that rove the world seeking advantages from other countries, to the detriment of the United States. It is our country that chartered them into existence and helped insure their success and survival. And these corporations now wield immense power in our elections, in our economy, over our military and foreign policies, and even in how we spend time with our friends and families.

The 4th of July is an ideal time to call out these runaway corporate giants who exploit the patriotic sensibilities of Americans for profit and, in wars, for profiteering, but decline to be held to any patriotic expectations or standards of their own.

(Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer and author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us! He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion, published by AK Press. Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition.)

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PATRIOTIC FOOTNOTES: Remember when that French big shot raped the hotel maid? The French polls showed that the French, overwhelmingly, thought the hotel maid was lying while Americans, overwhelmingly, believed the hotel maid. Myself, I could never live any place else.

AND TRUE to their ongoing betrayal of the French Revolution, the French have denied Edward Snowden political sanctuary.

“WHEN IN THE COURSE of human events, it becomes necessary for our people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…impel them to separation.”

AND SO ON thunders our Declaration Of Independence, here and there interchangeably describing Americans and Native Americans as savages because we didn’t wear red coats and march straight into the bullets.

IF YOU READ the document substituting “oligarchs” for King George, you have an accurate picture of the current political situation in America where, to varying degrees, most of us are economic serfs without representation at the federal level of government while only some of us are represented at the state level.

MY LAST LINK to the federal government was severed about five years ago when the Post Office stopped delivering my newspaper in a timely manner. But long before that I’d developed a robust contempt for my elected reps except, I should say, for four members of the current Mendocino County Board of Supervisors. (Hamburg represents himself, and the more committed stoners and the outpatients clustered at the Mendo ListServe.) The four supervisors do make an honest effort to represent the true interests of the people of Mendocino County. It’s safe to say that most elected boards of supervisors and city councils are as committed to the people of their regions and towns.

BUT AT ALL the higher levels of government, elected people carry water for the owners of the country — collections of concentrated capital variously called corporations, the one percent, the ruling class, and so on. Democrats and Republicans are wholly owned subsidiaries of the upper echelons of the owning classes.

ALL THIS IS OBVIOUS to citizens of most countries because they understand how capitalism works and they know their place in the class system capitalism creates. Americans, most of whom are now descending the class ladder, are slowly awakening to the realities of our social-political system and, when fully awake, well, it won’t be pretty, but we’re at the point where we’ve got to have another revolution or our children and grandchildren won’t even be allowed into the starting blocks to pursue the happiness we’re guaranteed by what’s left of our shredded Constitution.

MYSELF, I’m going to listen to the Giants game, enjoy an afternoon of gluttony and general over-indulgence with relatives, climb up on the roof for the fireworks tonight, and call it a day. We may be seriously on the skids as a country, but it’s still possible to have a good time.

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ACCORDING TO THE US National Weather Service in Eureka’s Facebook page, Over 500 cloud to ground lightning strikes occurred yesterday and last night in the three county area of Trinity, Humboldt, and Mendocino counties. Multiple small fires have been reported in the Shasta-Trinity and Mendocino National Forests. If you see a smoke plume, especially a small one that may not be known about yet, be safe and call 911 to report it. If firefighters can get to a fire quickly they can keep it from getting out of control.

MENDOCINO COUNTY was zapped overnight by numerous lightning strikes over a period of hours, igniting small wildland fires at Goat Rock south of the Ukiah Boonville Road, one on a ridgetop near Yorkville, one between Hopland and Ukiah off Burke Hill, and one not far from Lake Pillsbury. So far none of the local fires have presented much of a problem, but lookouts are on the alert in case one flares up. A mist-like rain fell overnight but was so light as to be immeasurable in Boonville. Philo residents said they got a bit more.

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LAST TUESDAY, JULY 2 we asked:

WHY THE SECRECY? Carmel Angelo, Mendocino County’s chief executive officer, will be answering written questions at Fort Bragg Town Hall on Friday, July 12, 2013 beginning at 10:30am from, it seems, invited persons only. Brandon Merritt is screening the questions for Her Majesty. He can be reached at 463-7236, merrittb@co.mendocino.ca.us

THE NEXT DAY, July 3, the day after we outed the CEO office’s for trying to hold a budget meeting “by invitation only,” the County CEO’s office released the following press release:

County Kicks Off District Budget Presentations. The Public Is Invited To Attend The July 12, 2013 Forum At Fort Bragg Town Hall.

Mendocino County Chief Executive Officer, Carmel J. Angelo, is scheduled to present a County Budget Update/State of the County informational presentation in the 4th Supervisorial District on Friday, July 12, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon at the Fort Bragg Town Hall.

At the start of this year’s county budget process, the Executive Office announced that informational budget presentations would be scheduled in each of the County’s five supervisorial districts. With the beginning of the new Fiscal Year on July 1, the Executive Office is scheduling the budget presentations to be held before the September 9, 2013 County budget hearings.

The presentation will include highlights of the County’s 2013/2014 Recommended Budget, a State of the County update, and items of interest in the 4th District. The intent of these presentations is to inform the audience of the workings of County government and to provide a high level of transparency and accountability to all Mendocino County residents. It is hoped that those interested in performing their civic duty will continue to stay engaged in the workings of local government.

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LONG-TIME INTERNET STALKER, Michael Hardesty, has been sending his nasty opinions to our website under the name Martin Zemitis, a successful Berkeley entrepreneur. For years, Hardesty wrote to us under various pseudonyms. At first, he’s more or less rational, insofar as your generic Randian nutball can be said to be rational. But soon, unable to contain himself, Hardesty’s racist and homophobic rants betray him and we cut him off. The Zemitis cover means that Hardesty, banned from newspaper websites throughout the Bay Area, in his desperation to vilify whole populations of people, has moved into identity theft. We apologize to Mr. Zemitis for any embarrassment he’s suffered from this lunatic appropriating his name.

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JOHN SAKOWICZ WRITES:

“Nice response to Ukiah City Council Member, Mari Rodin, in today’s “Mendocino County Today” blog. Thank you.

The indisputable fact is that the City of Ukiah has what’s called a “structural deficit”. The structural deficit happened two years ago as a result of the city’s Redevelopment Authority (RDA) being dissolved per state law (AB 126) and a California Supreme Court decision that upheld the law.

The deficit is of $900 000 is now baked into the budget, meaning that if the City Council doesn’t cut the excessive number of executive positions/salaries at the top of its personnel chart, the city can expect this deficit to be recurring year after year going forward into the future.

Why? Because in an accounting shell game masterminded by City Manager Jane Chambers, Assistant City Manager Sage Sangiacomo, and City Finance Director Gordon Elton, that $900,000 in RDA monies were used to pad the salaries of those very same executives.

Shocking. Absolutely shocking.

Some say it was self–enrichment at its worst.

It’s all public information. See the Grand Jury’s report:: http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/grandjury/pdf/1112-RDA_Successor_Agencies.pdf

As a footnote: I think Mari Rodin announced her resignation from the Ukiah City Council effective in August. I think I heard that she has accepted an analyst position at Monterey County LAFCO.”

WE WENT BACK to the Grand Jury Report Mr. Sakowicz referred to. Here’s an excerpt from the “Summary” in the 2012 Grand Jury RDA report:

“The 2010-2011 report found that the City used RDA funds to pay significant portions of the salaries and benefits of 18 employees, many of them executive employees. The report also found that some of RDA project time lacked documentation by a code system intended to track staff hours on RDA projects.”

SO WE WENT BACK to the 2010-2011 report:

Finding 14. “Employee salaries are paid with RDA funds disproportionate to the time spent on RDA business. More than one RDA employees’ salary and benefits are paid 100% with RDA funds even though they do not perform 100% RDA business.”

And,

Finding 24. “The RDA is using funds to pay significant portions of 18 employees’ salaries and benefits: City Manager/Exec. Dir.: 50%. Senior Planner: 40%. Ass’t City Mgr.: 80%. Assoc. Planner: 25%. City Clerk: 50%. Ass’t Engineer: 31%. Ass’t Finance Dir.: 15%. Accounting Ass’t.: 15%. Director of Finance: 35%. Administrative Sec.: 20%. Project and Grant Admin.: 100%. Administrative Sec.: 40%. Finance Controller: 7%. Park Service Worker: 60%. Accountant: 15%. Director of Public Works: 8%. Senior Civil Engineer: 32%. Director, Planning & Community Dev.: 35%.”

The City of Ukiah Responded:

“The Ukiah Redevelopment Agency pays for a percentage portion of the salaries and benefits of employees that share duties between the URA and the City of Ukiah. The Agency does not pay a disproportionate share of City salaries. The percentage varies among personnel in accordance with the estimated time spent on duties associated with each of the respective agencies and is approved by both agencies with each fiscal year’s budget. The shared resource model increases efficiency through the elimination of redundant administrative staffing and services for both agencies. In Fiscal Year 2010/11 the URA and the City of Ukiah had only one full time staff member funded at 100% with redevelopment funds.”

TRANSLATION: Ukiah jiggered the timecards so that highly paid financial staffers and managers billed more of their time to RDA than to the Ukiah General Fund so that they could continue to be employed at their generous salaries while appearing to be saving money for the City’s budget. The specific percentages reported by the Grand Jury were not disputed and they show that the City Manager and her assistant spent 50% and 80% respectively on RDA business. Ridiculous on its face. Clearly the numbers were skewed to overbill the RDA account where the money was. Mr. Sakowicz calls it self-enrichment and that’s fair to say, although it’s also standard issue bureaucratic empire building for no other reason than: “because that’s where the money is.”

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THE MENDOCINO COAST FURNITUREMAKERS (including my husband Les Cizek) celebrate their 15th Anniversary with a show at Odd Fellows Hall in Mendocino. The show opens July 3, but the Opening Reception will be Saturday, July 13, 5-8 pm. I’ll be there with butterbean hummus (you have to taste it to understand) and — maybe — the dastardly brownies. Hope you can come.

— Norma Watkins

THE FABULOUS IRONY OF AMERICAN PATRIOTISM

July 4 2013

by Jeff Costello

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it. — G.B. Shaw

Patriotism is as fierce as a fever, pitiless as the grave, blind as a stone, and irrational as a headless hen. — Ambrose Bierce

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind. — Albert Einstein

Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about. — Mark Twain

Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious. — Oscar Wilde

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. — Samuel Johnson

In Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary, patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first. — Ambrose Bierce

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind. — Voltaire

Kill for Peace. — The Fugs

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If the British had nuclear bombs in 1776, would we be eating hot dogs, drinking beer, setting off firecrackers and waving the stars and stripes today? Just wondering.

Front page of the Denver Post: a picture of fireworks going off in front of the capitol building with the headline, “Celebrating.” And I think, celebrating what? Our independence from England, remember? The colonies throwing off the occupying oppressor. Oh, isn’t it rich, as Stephen Sondheim wrote in Send In The Clowns? Imagine, the very idea. We worship in the past, ideas that are criminal today. Because we are the oppressor now but our innate goodness and exceptionalism are without question. (Just ask those great patriots, W. Bush and Sarah Palin.) Surely this is how the British saw things in 1776. They were merely looking after their interests here, weren’t they?

And these days… Oh the interests, the many and far-flung “interests” of the USA. And all those bad people, where our interests lie… The nerve of them to question our motivations. Which boil down to: we want all your good stuff and we don’t mind killing you to prove it.

One hears much about rape within the military. Pundits wring their hands and wonder, What’s the matter? Why are male soldiers abusing female soldiers? It isn’t obvious? One need only look at recruitment advertising, which promises young men they’ll be glorious heroes, vanquishing all those bad people everywhere. The feelings of entitlement that go with this sort of thing are natural for the young, dumb and full of, okay, patriotic urges. If you’re entitled to kill, you’re certainly entitled to sexual gratification. Maybe the military should get off its high moral horse and have squads of patriotic prostitutes, hard core professionals, on duty at all times.

As a school kid in the 50s, for whatever reason, I didn’t buy the Pledge of Allegiance, although I hadn’t the vocabulary to explain why. Now I would say, “How Nazi is that?” Pretty much, I think. Same with the Lord’s Prayer. Remember that? I would mumble, “Howard be thy name…” We opened the school day with nationalistic and Christian propaganda. I suppose it must have worked with a lot of kids, because we see results now and it doesn’t seem to have turned out all that well.

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MORE THAN $10,000 of stolen goods has been recovered by Fort Bragg police and two alleged thieves taken into custody. Joseph Anthony Fitch, 30, and Eric Christopher Seale, 37, also charged with meth possession, were arrested last Tuesday. Police say Fitch’s family told police they thought Fitch was robbing houses in Fort Bragg, and Fitch implicated Seale in whose apartment many stolen items were subsequently discovered.

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A 29-YEAR-OLD HOMELESS MAN WAS FOUND DEAD beneath the North Cliff Hotel on Thursday morning. The area at the mouth of the Noyo River has functioned as a homeless camp for some time. The young man, not yet identified, went to sleep with his girlfriend on Wednesday night. She woke up, he didn’t.

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QUESTION OF THE DAY: Banks can borrow money at .75% interest, mortgage loans are currently around 4% and Students are charged 6.8% on student loans. What’s wrong with this picture? Why aren’t people demonstrating? Why do the people in this country take such abuse and not fight back as people do in other countries?

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OUTSIDE MAGAZINE  in its June 30th edition proudly declares that Eureka is one of the best places to raise adventurous kids. It names the “towering redwoods on one side and plunging ocean cliffs on the other…” The redwoods, yes… But, plunging ocean cliffs in Eureka? A further read exposes the confusion: The magazine lists a number of amazing places to visit in the area including a “unique pygmy forest,” Jughandle State Reserve,

and the Devil’s Punch Bowl in Russian Gulch State Park.

All, of course in Mendocino about a three hour drive from Eureka. Humboldt: a great place to live… because it’s really not that far from Mendocino… (—Kym Kemp)

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THE COUNTY BUDGET for fiscal year 2013-14 is preliminarily set at about $224 million, which includes a $2.9 million carryover from the fiscal year ending this month. It also includes about $57 million of anticipated revenue for the County’s general fund (the rest going to state and federal programs over which the county has little fiscal control). CEO Carmel Angelo told Tiffany Revelle of the Ukiah Daily Journal last week, “Over the past three-plus years, we’ve gone from a $7-million shortfall to a $7-million reserve; we’ve saved this county $14 million. We certainly have avoided the (fiscal) cliff … and there’s been a lot of work on all fronts.” Final budget hearings begin September 9th.

COUNTY REVENUES REMAIN FLAT, however, while the County’s “structural deficit” stemming primarily from ongoing debt repayments for the formerly mismanaged Teeter Plan and the underfunded pension, plus continuously escalating healthcare costs and general inflation. Most of the improved budget picture stems from the large reduction in line staff over recent years combined with a 10% wage reduction. With an apparently better budget picture, county employees (in eight separate bargaining units, about two thirds of which are SEIU members) are expected to demand some kind of restoration of pay/benefits in ongoing negotiations.

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THE STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATIOIN has begun mailing out another round of tax bills for their controversial “fire prevention fee” fire parcel tax — alphabetically, county by county. According to the Howard Jarvis Tax Haters League, they didn’t get their lawsuit filed with the state until last March. That lawsuit claims that the parcel “fee” is actually a tax which was imposed illegally by not going through the voters via Proposition 218 rules. The Howard Jarvis people don’t expect a decision any time soon — “Please be patient as lawsuits typically take a long time” — so they advise that property owners pay their $150 tax (perhaps $35 less if your parcel with a “habitable structure” is on land that is within an existing fire protection district). Most of Mendocino County outside the incorporated cities is subject to the tax, including all of Anderson Valley (although the slightly lower $115 tax will apply to most Anderson Valley homeowners in the Anderson Valley Community Services District).

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors has repeal of the fee on its Legislative agenda: “Repeal of State Responsibility Area (SRA) fire prevention fees (pursuant to ABX1 29; Chaptered by the Secretary of State; Chapter 8, Statutes of 2011/12 First Extraordinary Session) imposing fire prevention fees within State Responsibility Areas (SRA) served by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.” But so far nothing has come of this item. Legislation to repeal or change the fee has been introduced in the state Legislature but hasn’t been passed out of any committee.

For more information go to the Jarvis group’s website: http://firetaxprotest.org/

Or the state’s tax board fire prevention fee website: http://www.firepreventionfee.org/

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Chesbro

STATE ASSEMBLYMAN WES CHESBRO will be term-limited out of office as of December 1, 2014. He has milked the taxpayers of California for 16 years since first being elected out of obscurity as the wine industry’s state senator in 1998, succeeding wine industry state senator Mike Thompson when Thompson was elected to represent the wine industry in the House of Representatives in Washington DC. Chesbro, who was born in Glendale then came north with the northcoast hippie invasion in the 1970s, has a degree in “Organizational Behavior” from the University of San Francisco. Then he “attended” Humboldt State classes in “natural resources.” According to his own website Chesbro’s complete “professional experience” is: “Director, Arcata Community Recycling Center, 1971-1972.” Under “organizations” Chesbro lists: Member, California Integrated Waste Management Board, 1990-1998, 2007-2008; 
Founding Member, California Integrated Waste Management Board, 1990-1998
; Vice Chair, Western States Recycling Coalition, 1995-1997; 
Member, Board of Directors, County Supervisors Association of California, 1988-1990
; Member, Humboldt County Child Welfare Advisory Board, 1986-1990; 
Member, Humboldt Health Planning Council, 1985-1990
; Member, Humboldt Transit Authority Board, 1982-1990; 
Member, Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention, Humboldt County, 1983-1990
; Member, Board of Directors, Redwood Natural History Association, 1986-1990; 
Member, Redwood Empire Division, League of California Cities, 1978
; Member, Northcoast Environmental Center, 1971-1974; 
Co-Founder, Arcata Community Recycling Center, 1971
; Member, Multiple Sclerosis Society; 
Co-Founder, Northcoast Environmental Center
; Member, Board of Directors, Open Door Community Health Systems Centers
; Member, United Methodist Church.”

It would be hard to find a less distinguished background for a politician since most of these “memberships” are in positions nobody else applied for. Chesbro leveraged his Arcata Recycling experience to get elected to the Arcata City Council in 1974, then somehow got elected Humboldt County Supervisor in 1980, lasting there until 1990.

Upon assuming his senate office in 1998, Chesbro proposed a bill that would benefit one (1) person — Francis Ford Coppola — by describing “certain” wine-selling restaurants so narrowly that a sharp reporter at the Sacramento Bee noticed that Chesbro’s Bill would have applied only to Coppola (a big Chesbro campaign contributor) and his small wine/restaurant chain. When the Bee published their story, Chesbro quickly withdrew the Coppola bill in insufficient disgrace. Chesbro spent eight years as state senator, then after being term-limited out he was appointed by his Democratic Party pals to the state’s Integrated Waste Management Board where he did nothing but attend a few meetings for over $100k a year until former assemblyperson Patti Berg was term limited out as this area’s assemblyperson. Chesbro immediately ran for that office with the backing of Party Boss Mike Thompson and won automatically in a district that would elect Charles Manson if Manson could somehow get the endorsement of Mike Thompson.

LAST MONTH ARCATA RESIDENT HEZEKIAH ALLEN announced that he intended to run as a Democrat for Chesbro’s assembly seat. We don’t know the young Mr. Allen that well, but simply on the strength that his announcement that he intended to run does not mention wine, he’s already made it clear that he’d be an improvement over Chesbro.

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Hezekiah Allen Officially Announces Candidacy for Assembly District 2

June 6, 2013 – 7:57pm

Non-Profit Executive and Small Businessman with Local Roots Running to Create Jobs and Serve as a Strong Voice for Small Towns and Rural Communities

Allen

(Arcata, CA)— Today, Hezekiah Allen, a non-profit executive and small businessman announced he will be a candidate for State Assembly District 2 in the June 2014 primary. Allen, a Democrat, is campaigning to replace Assemblymember Wes Chesbro, who will be termed out in 2014.

“The people of our District are innovative, hardworking, and independent. They have a unique perspective and unique values, and deserve a strong voice in Sacramento,” says Allen. “Our next Assemblymember must be a leader who understands the District and listens to different perspectives, who can bring people together and serve as a strong voice for the North Coast’s small towns and rural communities in Sacramento. I am that leader.”

Allen is running on a platform of creating good jobs for the North Coast, natural resource and environmental stewardship, and reinvesting in education.

“I will lead our District toward a time when we don’t have to choose between a prosperous economy and a healthy environment,” says Allen. “I’ll invest in the recovery of natural resources, restoring fisheries and forests and the jobs they sustain. I’ll reduce unnecessary regulations, to empower businesses and farmers to create jobs and get goods to market. And I’ll invest in our schools, increase local control of education, and expand vocational programs, so students can be prepared for successful careers.”

Born and raised in rural Humboldt County, Allen says he has a commitment to the community and its people that is deeper than any ideology.

“I want to represent the people of this District, not any political agenda, not any big moneyed special interests,” says Allen. “I want to ensure that those of us who live in some of California’s most rural places are not forgotten as distant conversations in Sacramento continue to shape the way we live and work.”

Allen lives in Arcata and serves as Executive Director of the Mattole Restoration Council, an organization committed to watershed restoration-based economic development.

Under Allen’s leadership, the Council was a finalist for the International Riverprize, one of the world’s most prestigious environmental awards. The organization also won an award from the Governor of California for bringing communities together to create jobs and protect the environment.

As a Humboldt County General Plan Update Working Group facilitator, Allen is currently building consensus and promoting public participation around land use policies that will affect us for generations.

And as a Boardmember of the Institute of Sustainable Forestry, Executive Committee Member of the California Northern Region Land Trust Council, and advisor to the North Coast Environmental Center, Allen is working to help these organizations develop long term strategic plans to ensure their success.

Allen also runs a local small business that provides land use, water storage, fuel reduction, and forest management consultation and services, and works as a facilitator, helping opposing parties resolve their conflicts.

California’s 2nd State Assembly District covers the state’s North Coast. It stretches from the California-Oregon border down through northern and coastal Sonoma County. It is one of the most rural districts in the state. The District includes all of Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, and Trinity Counties, and approximately 40% of Sonoma County, including the cities of Cloverdale and Healdsburg, the town of Windsor, and the northern portion of the city of Santa Rosa.

The primary election is set for June 2014. The top two vote getters will then head to the general election in November 2014.

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Rodin

MARI RODIN of the Ukiah City Council is leaving the Council for a government blah-blah job in Monterey County. Bowing out with Mendo-Typical solipsistic effusion, Rodin said her “work with the city has been a gift that changed my life, shaped my thinking, expanded my appreciation of local government” and similar arias to ME ME ME ME ME.

IN FACT, she leaves the city a cool mil in debt, administratively top-heavy and an estranged public muttering that the city has been destabilized by the self-serving crackpots.

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JOHN SAKOWICZ WRITES: The City of Ukiah has noticed a Special Meeting on July 10, which will be a closed session with City Manager Jane Chambers and all department heads, presumably to talk about labor contract negotiations. Let us hope this will be the time that the City Council begins to deal with its $1 million structural deficit by cutting some of the 18 positions that were funded, in whole or in part, by the now-dissolved RDA.

http://cityofukiah.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=19

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CALIFORNIA PRISONERS SET TO HUNGER STRIKE JULY 8

Press Contact: Isaac Ontiveros

Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition

Ph: 510.444.0484

Who: Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition

What: California Prisoners Begin 3^rd Peaceful Hunger Strike and Work Actions

When: Monday, July 8, 2013, 11am

Where: Elihu Harris CA State Office Building, 1515 Clay St, Oakland.

Oakland—Family members, advocates, and lawyers will announce their support for the peaceful hunger strike and job actions beginning today throughout the California prisons starting on Monday July 8. Prisoners have been clear since January that they are willing to starve themselves unless the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) agrees to negotiate honestly about their demands.

On June 20, prisoners being held in solitary confinement at the notorious Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit describe their actions:

“The principal prisoner representatives from the PBSP SHU Short Corridor Collective Human Rights Movement does hereby present public notice that our nonviolent peaceful protest of our subjection to decades of indefinite state-sanctioned torture, via long term solitary confinement will resume today, consisting of a hunger strike/work stoppage of indefinite duration until CDCR signs a legally binding agreement meeting our demands, the heart of which mandates an end to long-term solitary confinement (as well as additional major reforms).

Our decision does not come lightly. For the past (2) years we’ve patiently kept an open dialogue with state officials, attempting to hold them to their promise to implement meaningful reforms, responsive to our demands. For the past seven months we have repeatedly pointed out CDCR’s failure to honor their word—and we have explained in detail the ways in which they’ve acted in bad faith and what they need to do to avoid the resumption of our protest action.

On June 19, 2013, we participated in a mediation session ordered by the Judge in our class action lawsuit, which unfortunately did not result in CDCR officials agreeing to settle the case on acceptable terms. While the mediation process will likely continue, it is clear to us that we must be prepared to renew our political non-violent protest on July 8th to stop torture in the SHUs and Ad-Segs of CDCR.

Thus we are presently out of alternative options for achieving the long overdue reform to this system and, specifically, an end to state-sanctioned torture, and now we have to put our lives on the line via indefinite hunger strike to force CDCR to do what’s right.

We are certain that we will prevail…. the only questions being: How many will die starvation-related deaths before state officials sign the agreement?

The world is watching!”

While the CDCR has claimed to have made reforms to its SHU system—how a prisoner ends up in the solitary units, for how long, and how they can go about getting released into the general population—prisoners’ rights advocates and family members point out that the CDCR has potentially broadened the use of solitary confinement, and that conditions in the SHUs continue to constitute grave human rights violations. The California prison system currently holds over 10,000 prisoners in solitary confinement units, with dozens having spent more than 20 years each in isolation. Conditions in Pelican Bay State Prison’s SHU sparked massive waves of hunger strikes in 2011 that saw the participation of 12,000 prisoners in at least a third of California’s 33 prisons.

For more information visit: https://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/

WINE TASTING

By Howard Belkamp

Ramblin’ around this dirty old town

Scroungin’ for nickels and dimes

Times getting rough I ain’t got enough

To buy me a bottle of wine

Bottle of wine, fruit of the vine

When you gonna let me get sober

Leave me alone, let me go home

Let me go back and start over

Little hotel, older than Hell

Cold and as dark as a mine

Blanket so thin, I lie there and grin

Buy me little bottle of wine

Aches in my head, bugs in my bed

Pants so old that they shine

Out on the street, tell the people I meet

Won’cha buy me a bottle of wine

— Tom Paxton

* * *

Have you noticed, we don’t have the term “wino” anymore?

It was around 1978 when I had my first and only Northern California “wine-tasting” experience. We were driving north to Willits, to visit Jim Gibbons, the poet, athlete, sportswriter and all-around not-very-nice person who was busy becoming famous for being able to run long distances without dropping dead, and for writing stories offensive enough to get him fired from certain positions in the local education establishment.

We got as far as northern Sonoma or southern Mendocino, I can’t remember which, when, having recently switched from amphetamine addiction to alcoholism, I realized it was time for a drink. No bars or liquor stores were in sight, but just around the next curve a winery appeared. The sign said, “Tasting Room.” My wife rolled her eyeballs when I said, “Let’s drop in for a taste,” but she didn’t hesitate to join me. In the parking lot, I combed my hair and straightened my clothes in hopes of creating the illusion that I was a sophisticated, classy sort of person, the kind who discriminates carefully in matters such as wine selection.

The winery itself was an impressive building — very large and very clean, and occupying some very expensive real estate — obviously designed for the sophisticated, classy sort of person. No doubt about it, our car, a beat-up ‘65 Valiant, was the crummiest one there and looked cheap indeed next to the shiny new Winnebagos and luxury sedans.

The Tasting Room looked more like a bar than I’d expected, but a classy bar, lined with well-dressed people from the shiny cars. Nervously, thinking someone would spot me for a freeloading drunk, I eased up to the bar and in a discriminating manner read the labels on the bottles available for “tasting.” The bored-looking bartender walked over, looked at me and said nothing.

I now noticed that of all the available wines, none had a date, a vintage, or a recognizable wine-snob name. Picking one at random, I said, “I’d like to try this one, please,” as if really caring about anything but a free drink. The bartender produced a very small glass and poured my selection. I took a sip. It was junk, barely better than Thunderbird, Annie G-Strings or Night Train Express. Now there’s a powerful potion. My friend Buck drank a bottle of Night Train once and proceeded to get a can of gasoline and set his mattress on fire. At least he got it out of the house first.

Finishing the small glass of swill quickly, I scanned the other bottles and realized they were all equally low-grade material, but if I “tasted” all of them I might get a decent buzz on. The bartender did his duty as I moved down the line. Eventually I began to see the other “tasters” more clearly. Their new clothes and shiny vehicles were one thing, but their faces were a whole other story. They were a bunch of sots — wheezy, watery-eyed inebriates — here for the exact same reason as I was, a free dose of their drug of choice, and despite their expensive possessions, closer in mind and spirit to skid-row bums than wine connoisseurs.

I laughed out loud, realizing that unlike upper-class wine tasting sessions, there was really not much pretense going on here at all. This was all about nothing but drinking for free.

After sampling every bottle, we hit the road again. My wife drove, having imbibed only moderately. Leaving our tourist friends inside to repeat their samplings again and again, we knew we’d never view a retired couple in an RV or a northern California Wine Tasting room in quite the same light again.

2013 update

During my two years of involvement on internet dating sites, I was shocked at the number of women who named wine tasting as one of their favorite activities. One of my acquaintances in Portland drank a lot of wine and “loves” wine tastings. Her alcohol addiction was covered with a fine veneer of what she regarded as sophistication, as though drinking wine wasn’t really drinking; rather, it was an expression of refined taste. A divorced woman, she also played around with dating sites but remarked that the “caliber” of men available in these venues was not up to her standards. I was such a man, thank goodness, and suspect this woman would be almost deliriously at home anywhere on the 101 corridor from Santa Rosa to Ukiah, where there are enough wine tasting rooms to drink oneself into oblivion while navigating to the next sophisticated gourmet experience.

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STATE COMMISSION REPORT SNUBS 101 INTERCHANGE

By Daniel Mintz

The California Department of Transportation’s Arcata-Eureka Highway 101 improvement project has been deemed at odds with state law due to its most expensive aspect.

A staff report for the July 10 state Coastal Commission meeting describes the 101 project’s $23 million interchange at the Indianola Cutoff as being inconsistent with the California Coastal Act. The Commission staff’s recommendation is to deny certification of Coastal Act consistency, which Caltrans needs to do the project.

The Commission hearing won’t be held on July 10, however, as Caltrans has heeded calls for holding it in Humboldt County. It’s been postponed until September, when the Commission meets in Eureka, said Caltrans Public Information Officer Scott Burger.

He added that “the agenda change will better accommodate local public participation” and the commission staff report is “under review.”

Burger said Caltrans has no further comment. The agency has launched what Burger described as a “news and information blog” about the project at eurekaarcatacorridor.wordpress.com.

The commission staff report focuses on the interchange and states that it fails to comply with the Coastal Act. The interchange will displace wetlands and according to the staff report, its purpose doesn’t justify it because the goal is to expand traffic capacity instead of better accommodating existing traffic levels.

The staff report acknowledges that the project’s intent is to improve safety but it states that a less environmentally-damaging alternative is available — installing a traffic signal at Indianola. Growth inducement, sea level rise, visual impact and bicycle and pedestrian safety are also highlighted as concerns.

The findings were announced in a June 28 press release from Humboldt Baykeeper and the North Coast Environmental Center. It points out that the Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG) approved using regional state funding for the 101 project but the cities of Arcata, Fortuna and Rio Dell dissented.

In 2011, the HCAOG majority approved half of the funding Caltrans needs to build the interchange. The plan is to build half of it and then apply for the funding needed to finish it. At the time, the Coastal Commission’s staff had indicated that the interchange wouldn’t jibe with the Coastal Act.

In the press release, Jen Kalt, Humboldt Baykeeper’s policy director, said filling in wetlands is only allowable for “very specific purposes — and an interchange isn’t one of them.” She adds that “this is something Caltrans has been informed of before and yet they continue to pursue the interchange.”

In an interview, Kalt was asked her thoughts about why the agency is persisting. Noting that Caltrans has “proceeded with lots of very controversial projects in recent years,” Kalt said the agency seems unconcerned about public comment on project costs, coastal access and bicycle/pedestrian access.

“They’re a road-building agency, obviously — we’ve seen a little bit of change but it’s very slow to change,” she added.

A Coastal Commission denial will force a reappraisal of the project and Kalt said that outcome is no surprise. “I think that privately, many of the public officials who voted to support funding this project have believed from the beginning that the Coastal Commission would deny the interchange,” she continued.

“The unfortunate reality is that all over California, local officials pass the buck to the Coastal Commission to protect the coast,” said Kalt.

Northcoast Environmental Center Executive Director Dan Ehresman is also quoted in the press release and he said that the interchange would be accompanied by median closures, leading to increased traffic speeds. That would make the Humboldt Bay stretch of 101 — which is designated by Caltrans as part of the Pacific Coast Bicycle Route — less safe for bicyclists, he continued.

Also in the release, Jessica Hall, Humboldt Baykeeper’s executive director, describes Caltrans’ other project alternatives as “undeveloped” and says the agency needs to “explore more realistic solutions.”

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Dr. Courtney

ACCORDING TO THE FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE website: “Dr. William J. Courtney is an evangelist for the medicinal use of non-psychoactive, RAW cannabis. Cannabis aka hemp is not psychoactive unless it is dried, cooked or burned, prior to ingestion. While still raw, however it does not affect the cognition or motor skills of its user and therefore, it can be taken in doses 60 times greater than burned cannabis. It is at these doses that cannabis becomes among the most anti- inflammatory compounds ever discovered, that has been proven to cure skin- and ovarian cancer, with medicinal applications for dozens of illnesses. Courtney believes that hemp/cannabis needs to be re-cast as a green, leafy vegetable that should be consumed every day as a nutritional supplement, preferably juiced, by those afflicted by painful inflammatory conditions like arthritis, IBS, etc. Dr. Donald Abrams, MD, Chief Hematology and Oncology at San Francisco General Hospital asserts that if cannabis were just discovered in the Amazon, people would be clamoring to make uses out of it. Instead, it suffers from the stigma of a “street drug” and worse — from the stiff legal sanctions against its possession or use in many states and countries. Courtney says that the FDA, which owns a patent on cannabis, recognizing its medicinal value should change its current status as a Schedule I narcotic with no accepted medical uses, as these two positions are in stark contradiction with one another.

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A DAYLIGHT HOME INVASION in Hopland early Friday evening was said to have been committed by three black men who’d fled a home invasion at Hopland and took off south on 101 about 6pm. The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department alerted police agencies to be on the lookout for three black men heading south on 101 in a black Dodge Challenger. Cloverdale Police soon saw the car rocket past them on 101 and gave chase at a top speed estimated at 125mph. The fugitives abandoned the Challenger near Alderbrook due west of central Healdsburg. A house-to-house search that included a helicopter, three canine teams and some one hundred officers found only a duffel bag, which may or may not have contained marijuana.

UPDATE: Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputies located one suspect around 11pm Friday night and took him into custody. That suspect, later identified as Gregory Ladel Jenkins Jr., was positively identified by a victim as being one of the robbery suspects. At approximately 5:30am Saturday morning two more individuals thought to be suspects were detained by Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputies and were transported to Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies. One of the suspects, identified as Michael Edwin Steele, was positively identified by one of the robbery victims. The third subject was later determined to have responded from Stockton, California at the request of Michael Edwin Steele, advising he had been robbed when he was trying to purchase marijuana in Santa Rosa. The third subject was unaware Michael Edwin Steele was being sought by law enforcement in regards to the Hopland robbery. After corroborating the third subject’s statement, he was released without charges. Sonoma County Law Enforcement agencies were advised to be on the lookout for the third suspect who fled from the Dodge Challenger and is outstanding at this time. Gregory Laden Jenkins Jr. and Michael Edwin Steele were booked into the Mendocino County Jail and were to be held on $250,000 bail. The investigation into the Hopland robbery is ongoing and anyone with information is urged to contact the Sheriff’s Office Tip-Line by calling 707-234-2100.

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FOUNDER OF THE BOHO GROVE PROTESTS, MARY MOORE, INFORMS US THAT THERE WILL BE NO ORGANIZED DEMONSTRATIONS THIS YEAR:

For those who may have received information to the contrary, there will be no organized protest this year at the exclusive, all male, Bohemian Grove this July. There were some advanced proposals being considered about a “Squeaky Wheels” protest on July 20 which would have focused on the recent government sequester cuts which are disproportionately affecting the disabled, elderly and poor populations of this country. Because of internet confusion many people have not understood that this event was only a proposal and is not being planned.

Upcoming Movie Based On Bohemian Grove: In 2012 a movie production company based in Texas attended and filmed portions of the Cremation Of Care event filmed in Monte Rio for the 2012 protest. Bumbershoot Productions recently finished it’s second movie script after extensive research into why there have been protests for over three decades at this yearly July gathering along the Russian River in Monte Rio. They are now in casting and looking forward to a release in a year or so. The characters are fictional but based on the dynamics of the Bohemian Grove. Sponsored by the Bohemian Grove Action Network, protests at this annual two week encampment of the elite males from the Corporate, Financial, Military and Governmental circles began in 1980 when a network of anti nuclear groups researched WHO was profiting from the issue of nuclear power and weapons. While many issues have been raised since then the focus has always been on the Lakeside Talks given twice daily during their encampment. These talks are often on subjects that affect public policy without any public scrutiny. To see some highlights from over the years please visit the link below which will take you from 2003 all the way back to 1980.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY: “For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace — business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred. I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master.” — Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1936

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THERE’S NO WAY to spin this as a good thing — but it’s important what manner of bad messages are imparted. First off, a no-brainer: The data reveals that the number of San Francisco city residents not visiting the ER in a drunken haze has dropped from 9,957 out of 10,000 to 9,939. So, yes, alcohol-fueled visits have jumped by 42% (scary). But the overall rate has only risen from 0.4% to 0.6% (less so). The other conclusion is that San Francisco likely isn’t housing a greater number of alcoholics than in yesteryear, but, rather, the city’s alcoholics are drinking themselves into stupors more aggressively. 26,000 people spent time in a San Francisco “sobering center” by the end of 2011 or, the stat broken down, only 7,500 individuals. Roughly 80% of the people sent to the sobering center are repeat clients; 80% of them had a history of homelessness.

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ON THE FOURTH OF JULY at about 8:19pm, Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office received a radio call for service regarding a physical assault in the 100 block of Main Street in Point Arena. Deputies arrived at approximately 9pm and contacted the victim, Timothy Hall. Hall told Deputies that the suspect, Janet Guess (aka “Janet Planet”), had entered his home and demanded that he give her his prescription medications. After Hall refused to provide Guess with his prescription medications, Guess took possession of Hall’s cane and struck Hall in the head causing a minor visible injury. Hall was able to take the cane away from Guess after a brief struggle. Guess continued to demand Hall’s medications then attacked Hall by striking him several times with closed fists. Guess then left the location and Hall called 911. Deputies contacted Guess who was subsequently arrested for attempted robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse and ultimately transported to the Mendocino County Jail where she was booked to be held in lieu of $150,000 bail. (Sheriff’s Press Release)

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BOOZE IN MENDO: Menace Or Cash Cow?

by Mark Scaramella

Cash cow, of course. And a sacred one, too.

Reinhard

The Board of Supervisors was not kindly disposed to Meredyth Reinhard’s presentation on Tuesday, June 18. An austere-looking woman whose spiel made her doubly reminiscent of Carrie Nation, Miss Reinhard, of the County’s Public Health Department, spent about half an hour reading a powerpoint presentation aimed at informing Mendo’s booze-friendly leadership that there’s lots of drinking going on, much of it “excessive.” We also know that we have lots of places to buy liquor not including the many roadside wine boutiques, and we know that many underage people drink heavily.

According to Ms. Reinhard confirming statistics:

In 2010 there were 793 arrests for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) in Mendocino County.

In 2010 there were 46 arrests for underage drinking in Mendocino County.

Mendocino County has been consistently among the state’s leaders over the past five years in collisions resulting in injuries or fatalities that are alcohol-related.

And, Mendocino County has had alarmingly higher rates of aggravated assaults linked to alcohol consump­tion given its population of less than a hundred thousand people.

“The evidence shows,” she said, “that a high density of alcohol outlets corresponds with a proportional increase in alcohol related violence, underage drinking, and driving after drinking. The number of alcohol outlets in Mendocino County per capita is over twice the average in the State of California.”

Ms. Reinhard suggested conditional use permits to regulate the number, location and “operational practices” of new alcohol outlets and to provide “responsible beverage service training” to bartenders, clerks and tasting rooms.

But associating the County’s drinking problem with the number of booze outlets in the County is a non-starter in a wine-dependent economy like Mendocino County’s and, sure enough, Ms. Reinhard’s neo-temperance pitch prompted some ill-tempered griping from not just the Board of Supervisors, but Sheriff Allman too.

Allman wasted no time launching a perp-like interrogation.

“How much money were you provided for this survey?”

Reinhard: “The seed money that we received back in 2010 was $5,000. The money that has kept this project going for sustainability comes from the federal level down to the states. It’s substance abuse prevention fund­ing.”

Allman: “I’m sorry I didn’t get my question answered.”

Reinhard, who seems to possess a rather daring sense of humor, responded as if talking to a child, emphasizing each word.

“Substance … abuse … prevention … funding.”

Allman: “So, that’s…?”

Board Chair Dan Hamburg: “Mr. Sheriff, would you mind directing your comments to the Chair?”

Allman: “I’m sorry. I certainly have respect for Public Health. I certainly have respect for their employees. I certainly appreciate a good working relationship on many projects. However, this is not one. This isn’t a project where law enforcement was contacted for our statistics or the number of enforcement actions we take. The number of arrests we make. We did have a meeting after the report was prepared. With all due respect to Public Health, and I apologize if I am offending any­body, but I am disappointed by this presentation…”

Allman went on to point out the statistical anomalies implicit in comparing vast Mendo with other rural counties, especially given Mendo’s vast geography.

Then it was the Board’s turn to jump on Ms. Reinhard.

Supervisor John Pinches, apparently speaking from direct experience, “Your report here shows Trinity County has the highest density of alcohol outlets. You can drive in Trinity County for over two hours and not find a place to buy a sixpack of beer. So that’s very skewed.”

The normally unflappable Supervisor Carre Brown seemed upset too.

“I personally would like to caution County staff about the release of such a survey prior to a presentation before this body. To me it shows a lack of respect for us and a lack of courtesy. My first indication of the results came in newspaper articles back in April [when the Pub­lic Health department first issued their press release on the outlet density study]. I had not read them yet. I didn’t even know they were there until my telephone started ringing. People were very upset and not very happy about how that came out, how it was presented.”

Supervisor Brown’s calls undoubtedly came from the County’s wine lobby. It leaps into full alert at the slightest hint of regulating the roadside wine bars called tasting rooms which, of course, are magically considered “agriculture,” Ms. Brown’s primary constituency.

Ms. Brown went on at length about how far you have to drive in Potter Valley find a commercial drink, concluding, “I think that the influence you have is best done by education — educate not regulate.”

Ukiah Emergency Room doctor and former County Public Health officer, Dr. Marvin Trotter, felt compelled to offer a few disjointed, wholly irrelevant, but entertainingly grisly anecdotes about treating alcoholics.

Trotter

“You can smell them before you go into the room,” said Trotter. “People vomiting blood and defecating blood have a very distinct odor. Fortunately I don’t have a very good sense of smell. [O thank the goddesses for that, doctor.] When you have cirrhosis, you develop large varicose veins at the bottom of your esophagus next to your stomach that is under pressure. When they break open it’s a lot of trouble. Our surgeons have a difficult time clipping them with small metal staples trying to stop the bleeding. I find it very hard to get a stomach pump tube down someone’s throat when they are vomiting blood.”

Trotter, by now waist deep in gore, rattled on into a vague tale about a drop-fall Hopland drunk.

“It was raining very hard New Year’s Eve. The ambulance could not get to the house directly because some of the roads were flooded in Hopland where she lived. When she finally arrived at the emergency room she no longer had a pulse and had flat lined. I stopped the code at that time. The gunshot wound to her left chest was small as were her two children. He said it was an accident while celebrating New Year’s Eve. We call them pumpkins. The men look especially strange as if they were 10 months pregnant, orange with small breasts. At times you have to clean the skin very well between your right rib margin and your hip bone because any bacteria in the abdomen with all the fluids causes a fatal peritonitis. You numb the skin and then poke a hole through with a large needle about the size of a pencil and then hook that up to a vacuum bottle. I stop at ten bottles because I don’t want to cause shock.”

Doctor Trotter held up a quart-sized plastic bottle that that was supposed to demonstrate how much fluid he was referring to — not how much booze had to be consumed.

The supervisors seemed nonplussed at these macabre revelations, not that the doctor seemed to notice the effect his remarks were having.

“Every shift I work in the emergency department has to do with alcohol. Alcohol, alcohol, alcohol. I rarely see problems with marijuana, cocaine or heroin. Metham­phetamines, yes. Opiates, yes. They are all dwarfed by alcohol. I just came from a meeting of 17 physicians and nurse practitioners who ask you not to approve any more outlets. And talking to the charge nurse, he said today, More outlets? That’s ridiculous. Why don’t you make it cheaper also?”

Ms. Reinhard’s boss, Linda Helland, Prevention Supervisor, replying to Pinches and the Sheriff, said, “Nobody has said the word prohibition. What we are focusing on is excessive drinking, not moderate drinking. I want that to remain clear. I want to thank the Sheriff for all that he’s done. His office has done a lot of great work on enforcing alcohol laws and we have worked together in several instances and the Sheriff has gotten grants to conduct compliance and I really laud those efforts.

“I’m sure Sheriff Allman will recall that we presented the initial findings from this report to the chiefs meeting in June of 2011 and did invite collaboration and partici­pation at that time. So I hope that we can continue to work together. The sheriff’s office and obviously other law enforcement does fabulous jobs at stopping and solving crime. But this is about going ahead of the game and stopping it before it starts. Regarding the statistics, they are not just based on Mendocino County. They are based on 20 similar counties, so it’s not just looking at the arrest rates in Mendocino County, but it doing a cor­relation with alcoholic density and arrest rates and com­missions for those areas across these 20 counties…”

Ms. Helland continued with her version of the stats, by which time it was long past obvious what little that could be done was being done to get our amok citizens to show some restraint. Anyway, berserk drinking and drugging is, at this point in our darkening history, an existential question having more to do with, “Why are so many people so unhappy that they drink and drug them­selves into medical stupors?”

Supervisor Dan Gjerde had an idea based on his expe­rience in Fort Bragg, at one time home to more bars per capital than any town in America and, in 1969, fea­tured in an alarmed Life magazine story called, “A Town in Trouble” about the frightening preponderance of hard drug users at Fort Bragg High School.

“This is not about wineries, it’s not about restau­rants. This is about basically liquor stores. The concen­tration of those, not just in the rural areas but the con­centration of them in the cities and the urbanized areas as well. This is an issue that involves both the county and cities in Mendocino County. I hope that this presentation goes to the cities besides going to the Board of Supervi­sors. A number of alcohol products that are marketed these days are geared towards children. They are not really marketed towards adults. So, why, knowing that, would we permit the sale of those types of alcohol to the children of Mendocino County? Clearly their intent is to get kids hooked on alcohol so they can make them into alcoholics as they grow into adulthood. It’s pretty obvi­ous that’s what they’re doing. We could simply just pro­hibit the sale of those types of products in Mendocino County. That seems like a simple issue that we could tackle. … I know for a fact that Harvest Market on the coast limited the sale of certain types of alcohol products because they knew it was causing a problem with tran­sients and others who were causing problems in their town and their neighborhoods. I think we need to bring in some of the retailers into the discussion as well to see if they have some suggestions. Why should one retailer do the right thing knowing that their competitor across the street is selling a product that they just stopped sell­ing and causing the problems in their neighborhoods?”

Supervisor John McCowen agreed there was a prob­lem, but that the way to deal with it is not by restricting outlets but — wait for it… — more meetings! “What’s undeniable is that we do have many people in our com­munity who have an alcohol problem. We have a real problem with probably overexposure to youth of alcohol which by the statistics Mendocino County has signifi­cantly more alcohol use by young people, significantly more binge drinking that puts youth at risk for sexual assault, accidental death, a whole list of negative conse­quences. Mendocino County does seem to have a signifi­cantly elevated record of arrests for aggravated assault. I’m sure that a lot of that is alcohol related. So I do appreciate highlighting the issue. I second Supervisor Gjerde’s thoughts on having a collaborative process. I certainly heard the Sheriff say that he was interested in that as well. This is a community problem that does deserve serious attention.”

Supervisor Pinches said the Public Health Depart­ment should spend more time in grammar schools and less time worrying about booze outlets.

“Why isn’t our Health Department putting more pro­grams in our schools? I think we are really shy. That’s something I have been advocating for years, more drug and alcohol programs in our grammar schools, not our high schools. I think we are real shy of that. I have requested that for years and there seems to be a reluc­tance. Why is there such a reluctance to let’s go after the problem? We know the only way it’s going to be solved is through education. Education is what ultimately solves all of our problems, or at least works on them. So why is our Health Department so reluctant to put more of their budget into going after the group of people — when you get to be my age if you’d like to drink booze and whatnot it’s a little bit too late. I don’t think you’re going to change my habits. But maybe we can affect to a better degree our kids in the grammar schools because frankly they are not really learning from their parents because of the statistics of a lot of people drinking. So we have to start young. Let’s go upstream. I would encourage public health — this is budget time. Why don’t we divert some of those dollars into studies and whatnot into something that’s going to have an effect? That would be some drug and alcohol programs in our grammar schools.”

Linda Helland: “Number one, we would love more resources to go into the schools. That would be fantastic. We would really love that.”

Pinches: “I’m not talking about more resources, I’m talking about converting some of your existing millions of dollars you have into drug programs and so forth.”

Helland: “We are not treatment, we are prevention. So we have about $200,000 a year. With that, we do send about two and a half to three full-time people into the schools. We do have people in the schools. It’s woefully inadequate indeed. I wish we had more. But we also need to look at the full spectrum of evidence-based best prac­tices. As I said at the beginning studies have shown that the most cost effective strategies are pairing education with the enforcement — we call them environmental strategies which do involve reducing access. That has been found to be most effective.”

Pinches: “I’d like to have my question answered.”

Stacy Cryer, Director of Health and Human Services (whose husband, Marlon, was famously arrested last year for drunk driving while wearing a sweatshirt that read “Get me drunk and enjoy the show”) came to Ms. Helland’s assistance.

Marlon Cryer, 2012

Cryer: “One of the problems, one of the biggest prob­lems with funding that comes into Public Health, is that it is very siloed [sic], and you have to use it for a specific thing. So if we get a grant to collect specific data then that’s what the money is for, to collect the data, nothing else. We have very little discretionary dollars that come in to the substance abuse program on the pre­vention side. We do use those dollars — at your request actually three or four years ago we started doing some private programs in the elementary primary level educa­tion program in schools and we have replicated that in a couple other schools and I think we are in a couple schools now, or three or four.”

Pinches: “How many elementary schools do you have in this county?”

Cryer: “I totally agree. You have to remember we used to get in the substance abuse program, we got about $700,000 worth of general fund five years ago. Today we get zero. The money going into substance abuse, although it’s the primary problem causing a lot of federal dollars and statewide dollars across the state, there is not much funding coming into the problem. It’s similar to mental health in that way. There’s not a lot of funding that comes into substance abuse. We don’t have very many discretionary dollars. Although we agree with you wholeheartedly on what could solve the problem, we don’t have the money to put into every school. We do what we can. That’s just a reality. I’m sorry for that. … You don’t really do substance-abuse education at the primary level but you can do things like a esteem build­ing and things like that.”

Pinches: “Why don’t you do substance abuse?”

Cryer: “It’s not found to be very effective to be quite honest with you.”

Pinches: “Well, I disagree with that.”

Cryer: “You go to third grade and under, you have to get to the root of the problem that begins to build all of that.”

Pinches: “I don’t want to argue the point, but I dis­agree with that finding. … We have some real problems and it’s showing up here. But I think attacking the amount of outlets we have is the wrong direction.”

Supervisor Dan Hamburg said sarcastically, “I think we are doing a great job of educating our kids that alco­hol is wonderful. Turn on your television set, drive down the highway, it’s all about drink, drink, drink. I totally agree with Supervisor Gjerde about these — it’s like the tobacco industry. It’s the same thing. Create addicts. And then you’ll take the money to the bank for decades to come. We are doing the same thing with alcohol that we use to do with tobacco. I enjoy wine and beer. I’m not a teetotaler by any means. I realize how important alcohol is to this County’s economy. I do doubt whether the issue of outlet density is nearly as important as the culture. It’s a drinking culture. That’s not just Mendocino County with all our wineries. We are that a little more than some counties. Drive up Highway 101. What does the sign say? The first thing it says is wine! Well — duh! That’s a big part of our economy and it’s supported and our kids, as soon as they can read, they know. Or as soon as they can turn on the TV, they know. Watch a football game or a baseball game. It’s not, Open your Bud. It’s grab some Buds. When you sit down to watch a ballgame. It’s not enough to have a beer. You have to grab some Buds. So the whole thing, trying to get a handle on this with the power of the corporate advertising machine is almost impossible in my view. I’m sorry to say that.”

No mention of pot addiction from Supervisor Stoner Dude, and pot is the substance that probably screws up more kids forever than alcohol, especially in Mendocino County.

Supervisor Hamburg wrapped up with some pure blah-blah.

“I would like to see more interdepartmental communi­cation before these presentations come about because I don’t think any of the board members like sit­ting up here and hearing departments argue with each other about whether an issue is important or not. So I just want to mention that.”

The Mendocino County economy is pegged to dope, booze, public employment, and lib-labs getting paid to sit around talking about all three. If dope is legalized and twenty dollar bottles of wine become unaffordable, Mendo will be down to lib-labs getting paid to delude each other.