By a long-term Resident of a California State Prison.

There are times in the span of a life that stand out. Those shining golden times which immortalize the moment and speak promises of still greater things to come. Know what I’m talking about? First kisses; college graduations; love and marriage; your first child. That’s the stuff you fashion dreams from — the good stuff, the expected good stuff.

Me? I never really had much of that in my life. Oh sure, early on there were glimmers here and there, some hopeful runs. But even though I ran the ball hard and churned up the yards, I could never seem to break away from the pack. Never punch it into the end-zone like the great ones. So, as often happens, I fell behind and let myself slip into the mediocrity of the “almost made its.” From there I took up the Sisyphean task for a while, pushing the rock up the hill only to have it roll back again and again. Finally this also became too much and I just gave up. Finding a defeated place at the bottom, I never again moved. From down here I became all too familiar with the underside, the shadow world of criminals, drug pushers and addicts. Which in time led me to prison with a life sentence for murder. A place where my body has been for 20 years, until it seems to have become a ubiquitous part of a vast organism made of concrete, steel doors and razor-wire.

NSA INC.

Dear Editor:

Edward Snowden, who deserves a medal for exposing NSA’s big brother surveillance on American citizens, is discovering the life of a whistleblower can be a very unpleasant life. In particular, the Obama Administration in charging Snowden under the Espionage Act of 1917, an odious law that was used by Woodrow Wilson to punish dissenters who were opposed to the US getting involved in WWI. It has seldom been used since that time until President Obama starting using it to punish whistleblowers who have the audacity to report on his unconstitutional actions. It is interesting to note 70% of the NSA’s budget goes to private contractors. It is a tremendous cash cow for them for engaging in immoral actions. The NSA claims all this information has resulted in stopping over 50 terrorist actions. One would have to believe in the tooth fairy to believe what the NSA claims. Just look at NSA Administrator Clapper who earlier this year lied to a Congressional Committee. If the head person is a liar why would you believe any claims by the agency?

SUPES REJECT COSTCO-AT-MASONITE PROPOSAL. Supervisor Pinches was unable to find a second to his motion to invite the present Ohio-based owners of the 79-acre Masonite property north of Ukiah “to request a meeting to discuss revisiting the use of the DDR (Developers Diversified Realty) property as a potential location for a new retail store.”

Abandoned Masonite Site, looking south toward Ukiah

MASONITE CEASED manufacture in 2001. In 2009, a mall developer, had visions of an 800,000-square-foot shopping mall and housing complex at the site, a vision County voters overwhelmingly rejected 62-38% when mallification was put on the ballot for an up or down.

LOCAL OFFICIALS want to retain the Masonite site as industrial land, which is assumed to be in short supply in inland Mendocino County. Supervisor Pinches disputes that opinion. “There’s over 3,000 acres of industrial land in this county that’s zoned for industrial. Most of it’s either vacant or underutilized. It’s just not acceptable to me to see the county go into a spiraling financial downhill. To drive by there every day, and to see the county’s finances spiral, and the company that owns it wanting to do something with it, and the county continuously saying, no, no, we’d rather have crumbled-up concrete and weeds out there — I think that’s ridiculous.”

PINCHES HAS A POINT. Lots of people talk industry at the site but, apart from Ukiah businessman Ross Liberty, owner of “Factory Pipe” who is buying ten acres of the Masonite site for a motorcycle parts manufacturing facility, industry north of Ukiah remains vaporous.

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COUNTY RELEASES AMBULANCE CONSOLIDATION REPORT. LOTS OF DATA. PREDICTABLE RESULTS.

The County of Mendocino is exploring the option of establishing an exclusive operating area (EOA) for the sustainable provision of emergency ambulance services. Fitch & Associates, the County’s consultant, has completed their report on the feasibility of one or more EOAs within the County. It is now available online at:

http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/administration/EMS.htm

The County initiated this study to address previously identified critical issues relating to the standard of care and reliable provision of ambulance services. The County has the legal responsibility to oversee the provision of ambulance services and EMS as a whole; this study is an exploration of a strategy that could alleviate some critical issues within the EMS system. Release of this report does not necessarily imply implementation of the consultant’s recommendations. “While the consultant’s report may incite some controversy,” states CEO Carmel J. Angelo, “it’s important that the Board of Supervisors and our community partners understand the critical issues facing the EMS system and seriously consider the options available for system sustainability.” The Executive Office anticipates much more work to be done to determine the best path forward to improve the EMS system. A Board of Supervisors workshop is tentatively planned to take place in September to consider the report and related EMS topics, but there will be no action on any of the recommendations regarding creation of EOAs at that time. The project team recommends that the Board of Supervisors commence a sustained initiative to address EMS issues, working with EMS providers and other stakeholders. Once the specific date for the workshop is determined, further details will be posted on the website. For more information, please email ceo@co.mendocino.ca.us, or call the Executive Office at 463- 4441.

SELECTED EXCERPTS:

• The establishment of a countywide EOA that has a single provider is not feasible. The recommended structure will improve the stability and performance of the current EMS system. Moreover, the proposed configuration will encourage the retention of existing irreplaceable volunteer resources and ensure that all areas of the county have access to ALS.

• The County should recognize that if it moves forward with the establishment of EOA, it will be necessary to clearly communicate what creating EOA means to each community, how local services can continue and be supported, and that it is critical to retain the support and continued involvement of the system’s volunteers.

• It is clear that if Mendocino County decides to establish one or more EOA for ambulance services, these grandfathering provisions of law would not apply. That is because there have been a number of different ambulance providers, expansion and contraction of service areas, and closure of ambulance services over the years. None of the existing services meets the requirement for operating continuously in the same manner and scope since 1981. Therefore, the County would be required to select its exclusive provider through a competitive process.

• It is impossible to replace the time and effort provided by the volunteer personnel of Anderson Valley Ambulance Service. There is inadequate call volume to support the placement of an ambulance manned by paid personnel. Therefore, every effort should be utilized to maintain and support the Anderson Valley Ambulance Service.

• The key question regarding (the Ukiah Valley) zone is whether there is adequate revenue to support two ambulance services operating at a high level of quality on a long-term basis. Together, the two ambulance services currently are staffing up to six ambulances at a time. The estimated revenue of $1.5 to $2 million is unlikely to be able to support that level of coverage on a long-term basis. … The characteristics of this ambulance service zone met the criteria for considering establishing an EOA. There is adequate patient transport volume to support service but the patient transport volume is unlikely to be able to support two services able to maintain high quality service delivery and reliable response time performance.

• It is recommended that the County of Mendocino create an EOA corresponding to the boundaries of the current ambulance service zone (Zone 5) where services are being provided by Ukiah Ambulance and Verihealth. The County should develop an RFP and conduct a competitive procurement for a single provider to provide all emergency 911 responses and transport and all interfacility transports originating in the zone, as well as require the service to provide ALS intercept with BLS services, specifically to Anderson Valley and Covelo.

• Limited revenue streams (in outlying areas) mandate that services provided by volunteer agencies should be retained and operationally supported. This is particularly true for the areas served by Anderson Valley, Laytonville and Covelo. The only locations that receive adequate funding from patient fees to independently support fulltime ambulance operations are located in areas served by Ukiah and Verihealth and potentially the area served by the Mendocino Coast District Hospital.

• The ability of some the existing ambulance services in Mendocino County to maintain current operations or expand to meet future growth and demand is threatened. The two primary causes of instability for the services are directly related to: 1.) the lack of financial resources and, 2.) the challenge of recruiting and maintaining an adequate volunteer staff.  MCDH, as indicated earlier, is going through bankruptcy and the long-term financial ability of the district to maintain current ambulance operations or provide necessary responses to growth and demand is questionable.  Covelo and Elk are challenged by a lack of available volunteers who can reliably and consistently respond to emergency events. Moreover, while Anderson Valley maintains an active volunteer corps, it can only consistently respond to medical emergencies with a crew with limited capability consisting of a driver and a single EMT.  Laytonville Fire Department is also challenged by the availability of volunteers to respond to medical emergencies in its zone. In fact, the fire district is considering only serving within the boundaries of its district and not responding outside to areas that it currently covers.  Long term expanded deployment of staffed ambulances in the Ukiah and Willits zone is barely feasible, given the questionable financial strength of the two existing services to maintain this coverage level..  It is clear that without action, there will be a continued disintegration of the Mendocino County EMS System and that the result will be lower levels of care, and in many instances, extremely long response times to emergency events.

* * *

OVERALL, the study concludes, ambulance responses in Mendocino County are uneven, inconsistent and unreliable from service zone to service zone. Finances and capabilities vary. And the only two areas that might benefit from an EOA are Ukiah and Fort Bragg.

Not to be too cheeky about it, but, basically, we knew that. The money for this study could have been better used by giving it to one or more of the volunteer ambulance services which are already underfunded.

* * *

CEO ANGELO CONCLUDES:

The County contracted Fitch & Associates to study the feasibility of an EOA, or multiple EOAs, for Mendocino County as a means to stabilize fragile parts of the EMS system. The County has the legal responsibility to oversee the provision of ambulance services and EMS as a whole; this study is an exploration of a strategy that could address some critical issues with the system. Release of this report does not necessarily imply implementation of the recommendations. It is also not the only source of information by which the Board of Supervisors will base any future decision. There is more work to be done to determine the best path forward to improve the EMS system. Initially, the project team planned that the feasibility study be divided into two phases. The first phase would determine if an EOA is feasible, and the second phase, if approved by the Board of Supervisors, would include the competitive bidding process for securing services. However, as the team delved deeper into the project it became apparent that there were broader issues at hand. We anticipate that those issues will need to be adequately addressed before any specific strategies are implemented. The Executive Office would like to express caution to our decision makers in moving forward with phase two of the project at this time. The project team is committed to providing the time needed to fully understand the implications of any structured changes to the EMS system. Therefore, based on direction from the Board of Supervisors, a workshop is tentatively planned to take place in September 2013 to examine the findings and hear input from community members and EMS stakeholders, but there will be no action on any of the recommendations regarding creation of EOAs at that time. The Board of Supervisors welcomes your comments on the report. To do so, please fill out the form accompanying this letter and send it to the Executive Office. You can email it to ceo@co.mendocino.ca.us, fax to (707) 463‐5649, or mail to 501 Low Gap Road, Room 1010, Ukiah, CA, 95482. Questions may be directed to the Executive Office at (707) 463‐4441. Sincerely, Carmel J. Angelo, Chief Executive Officer County of Mendocino and send it to the address below.

Mendocino County Feasibility Study of Exclusive Operating Area for Ambulance Services

COMMENT FORM

Name:

Location:

Email:

I am affiliated with: (circle as many as apply)

Private Ambulance Service, Fire District/Dept., Ambulance District, Community Volunteer, RCMS, Howard Memorial Hospital, UVMC, MCDH, Other CSD Non‐Profit

Comments (to the degree possible, please indicate which section or page of the report your comments are in reference to):

Please send your response no later than August 31, 2013, using one of the following methods:

Email: ceo@co.mendocino.ca.us

Fax: (707) 463‐5649

Mail: 501 Low Gap Road, Room 1010, Ukiah, CA 95482

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SKUNK TRAIN PARTLY BACK ON TRACK FOR SUMMER FUN

Crew poses outside the Number 1 tunnel today as the engine makes its first trip since an April rockfall closed the westernmost tunnel. (Steve Eberhard – Photo) Left to Right – Iver Iverson, Jr, Jeff Scott, Iver Iverson, Sr., Robert Jason Pinoli, and Raul Elenes, Jr.

The Skunk Train, a beloved Mendocino institution, chugs back into action tomorrow after a rockfall inside the number one tunnel closed the attraction down on April 10th. Full service has yet to be restored as work inside the tunnel is still ongoing. Tuesday, however, the first engine crept through the tunnel.

This means that, on Wednesday, July 31st, according the Skunk Train’s Facebook page, enough equipment will have been brought through to allow a shortened version of the ride to recommence. Operations from Willits to Northspur will begin tomorrow with the full train trip to Fort Bragg offered sometime mid-August. “Things are progressing well,” wrote Robert Pinoli. The company is excited to be back on track.

The railroad intends to continue offering the short ride west of the tunnel in the summer season, even after full service is restored. A public fundraising effort in May and June brought in about $110,000 toward the cleanup, expected to cost at least $300,000. In mid-June, however, Save the Redwoods League stepped in to fund the cleanup, paying an additional $300,000 for an option to buy some or all of the tree-lined 40-mile right of way between Fort Bragg and Willits. That process will take at least a year.

For more information go to www.skunktrain.com

(Kym Kemp, Courtesy, LostCoastOutpost.com)

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JEFF COSTELLO WRITES:

Speaking of Glovebox Bandits — The Gang of Three

I’ve mentioned how this Denver neighborhood is “diverse.” It’s low-working class, white people are in the minority. People lock their cars at night. I have a hard time with this, I’m no Pangloss but prefer to see people as potential allies rather than enemies.

Years ago in Seattle I was at a friend’s place, car parked on the street. I came out to find the car rifled through but nothing was taken but a pharmacy bottle of pills, 300mg capsules of Zantac, a strong antacid. So I knew it was just kids and had a chuckle imagining them taking a handful of the pills and getting a monster stomach ache.

But here, there have been thefts…including a truck and trailer full of heavy industrial equipment. The vehicles were recovered but thousands of dollars in tools and machines were gone. Still, I stubbornly balked at locking the vehicle. So one morning, yep, I find the car has been – again – rifled through. There were items all over the ground, and I panicked a little until I found my packet of auto documents – registration, insurance, bill of sale and such. Then I looked in the place where the tools are kept, the only stuff of any value, and they were untouched. Once again I knew It just kids – punks after some kind of instant gratification. And, once again, they had taken my little stash of antacids. Any kid serious about drugs will know to some extent what the good stuff looks like, and these guys were clueless. They saw pills and took them, period.

Maybe a week later, three kids maybe 11 – 13 years old came up the driveway and asked to use my cell phone, “to call somebody.” I told them to wait, and I’d go in the house and get it. When I came out they were gone.

Now it happens on this property there are several gasoline containers full of hydrochloric acid, which had been used in concrete and stone work. In an attempt to get rid of some it, I got in touch with a guy who wanted some to clean his garage floor, and told him I’d leave a can in the driveway for him to pick up. He wound up not taking it.

A day or two afterward, I came back from a store run and saw the same three kids around the corner with two lawn mowers and a can that looked like the one with the acid. Sure enough it was, and they trying to run a lawn mower on it, right on the street not 100 ft. from where they had stolen the can. They recognized my car and gave me a funny look. One of them was rubbing his eyes. These were my boys, all right. And it was clear they just weren’t terribly bright. A little later, they wheeled one of the non-working mowers past our driveway back to wherever it came from. I went around the corner where the can of acid and another dead mower still sat, and retrieved the jug of stuff-that-was-not gasoline.

The Gang of Three has not been seen since.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Just because 50/50 sounds fair, it is not necessarily fair,” said soon-to-be-retired Ukiah Finance Director Gordon Elton. “The 50/50 formula had the county ending up with 122 percent of the sales tax the city does.”…Gordon Elton, in speaking about the County of Mendocino and City of Ukiah tax-sharing sharing agreement, from The Ukiah Daily Journal, July 31, 2013.

How does 50 become 122? Where did this guy get his accounting degree? No wonder Ukiah can’t balance its books. — John Sakowicz, Ukiah

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FRISCO STRAY: On July 28, 2013 at 8:30pm Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies were called to the area of 31000 Highway 20 in Fort Bragg, California for a reported nude male adult walking down the street. Upon arrival the Deputies observed the subject, Brett Dymond, walking naked on Highway 20 and he was not covering his genitalia. Deputies contacted Dymond who was displaying signs of alcohol intoxication. Dymond initially gave a false name because he thought he had warrants from another state. Dymond said that some friends took his clothes from him and so he was walking home.

Dymond

Dymond was arrested for providing false identification to a police officer, indecent exposure and for public intoxication. Dymond was listed as a missing person and had an active warrant out of San Francisco for a failure to appear in court on a traffic related case. Dymond was transported to the Mendocino County Jail where he was booked on charges of indecent exposure and public intoxication on $15,385. (Sheriff’s Press Release)

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NORTH COAST RAILROAD AUTHORITY COMMITTEE FLOATS THE POSSIBILITY OF IMPENDING BANKRUPTCY

by Hank Sims

The North Coast Railroad Authority could be running out of steam.

Harbor Commissioner Richard Marks, who represents Humboldt County on the NCRA Board of Directors, told the Lost Coast Outpost that board chair Allan Hemphill brought up the possibility of the authority — a state agency — filing for Chapter Nine bankruptcy yesterday during a meeting of the authority’s finance committee, on which Hemphill and Marks both serve.

No action was taken, and the shape of a potential NCRA belly-up were not explored in depth. “Bankruptcy was brought up but not defined,” Marks told us.

Still, Marks said the dire state of the authority’s finances meant that something had to happen soon — probably by next month. The authority is currently projecting a $211,767 deficit in the 2013-2014 fiscal year. Cash reserves are minimal to nonexistent. The fact that the potential of bankruptcy was brought up by Hemphill — the authority’s longest-serving director and one of its most stalwart boosters — means that the its financial crisis must be serious.

At least in Humboldt County, the NCRA has suffered not only from its perenially problematic finances but the loss of railroad-booster mindshare. As of late, the boosters’ big dreams have attached to the idea of an east-west route rather than the NCRA’s north-south line — which once actually existed, though it hasn’t reached Humboldt County in the last 15 years.

(Courtesy, LostCoastOutpost.com)

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AVA NOTES: The NCRA’s biggest creditor is its own subcontractor, NWP Co., owned by a man named John Williams, from whom the NCRA has borrowed lots of money for track repairs over the last few years. If the NCRA were to go belly-up, the most likely outcome would be a turnover of the entire system, including the relatively usable portion south of Willits, to Williams.

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AN EXCELLENT STORY today from truthout.org on “The Plight of California’s Prisoners: Hunger Strike, Sterilization and Valley Fever

By Jean Trounstine, The Rag Blog

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/17909-the-plight-of-californias-prisons-hunger-strike-sterilization-and-valley-fever

(Give the page a few extra seconds to load…)

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Gonzalez

ON JULY 25, 2013, the County of Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team (COMMET) (Yes it still exists) assisted by the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, Mendocino County Major Crimes Task Force and California Department of Fish and Wildlife served a search warrant at a trailer in the 76000 block of Covelo Road in Covelo. Contacted and detained at the residence was Edgar Gonzalez-Juarez. There were four marijuana gardens with 490 growing marijuana plants at the residence. As officers were clearing the marijuana gardens a second suspect fled on foot from one of the marijuana gardens who dropped a loaded .357 caliber pistol. Gonzalez-Juarez was arrested for violation of section possession for sale, cultivation and being armed in the commission of a felony and was booked into the Mendocino County Jail on $25,000 bail. (Sheriff’s Press Release)

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WUZ UP WITH CRAIG

It’s Crunch Time!

Warmest greetings of peace and love, Powerful spiritual currents are occurring in this darkest phase of the Kali Yuga, resulting in abominable social situations. A cloud burst mid-June in northern India washed away countless villages, bridges, and urban residences as the wall of water cascaded southward. Glacial melting, deforestation, and the moving of a Kali related goddess murti to accommodate a power project are all cited as factors in the devastation north of Rishikesh. Once again, global climate destabilization is recognized as the most critical environmental concern, and there are no ordinary effective solutions. Following the dissolution of the Washington DC Occupy protest encampment at Freedom Plaza last year, I returned to California, but was soon flown back by Veterans for Peace to help get additional media attention for their ongoing dissent. This led to my reuniting with members of the D.C. Occupy kitchen working group. We stayed at a house in Virginia, and co-wrote a play which is focused on the increase of global warming, and the failure of society and government to do anything intelligent in response to the crisis. The play is parked in my blog, several pages back, at http://craiglstehr.blogspot.com; it has not been performed publicly as of yet. I wrote countless poems of a mystical/radical nature, which were sent out and subsequently published…am happy that Earth First! and particularly Warrior Poets Society appreciated them…they’re on the blog too. Apparently the left wing in Washington D.C. didn’t value me enough to let me stay at the Peace House, and since the Catholic Worker Olive Branch House was turned into condominiums after the D.C. Metropolitan Police confiscated it, I had nowhere to live long term in the district, and therefore accepted a return airplane ticket to California in mid-December. Due to having given up my housing space in Cali before returning to Washington D.C., I returned homeless to Cali! Six months of homeless shelter hopping ensued, as I continued to be active with Berkeley Catholic Worker these past 23 years. I also spent countless hours doing advanced yoga sadhana at Ocean Beach, when not reading mystical texts at Berkeley’s Graduate Theological Union Library. Last Thursday I boarded a Greyhound bus in Oakland, and traveled 3,000 miles to Pittsburgh, PA to again reunite with members of my D.C. Occupy kitchen working group. We are at a house in Mt. Lebanon, PA hosted by our friend Julie, who is sitting in a Pittsburgh jail, for letting postmodern America publicly know of her dissatisfaction with mindless materialism’s illegitimate authoritarian structures. As I sit in Julie’s backyard at a large glass-topped table, with a summer shade umbrella, sipping my organic chai tea, and automatically “writing down the bones” longhand in my marble covered standard student issue blank page composition booklet, I reconsider a proposal I made to the D.C. Occupy encampment at McPherson Square in January of 2012. My proposal is to create a caravan to circumambulate the beltway which goes around Washington D.C. The purpose is to neutralize the bogus energy which emits from within the beltway, which is negatively affecting the rest of world society, and irresponsibly contributing to a deteriorating global ecological situation. (This is aside from philosophical considerations, such as the stupidity of materialism in lieu of necessary individual spiritual progress, which itself is the whole purpose of taking human birth in the first place). I suggest creating a caravan featuring recitation of mantrams, performance of Vedic rituals, and related sacred art forms. And yes, your band on a flat bed truck is welcome, and I am open to other traditions and their ways being woven into this as well. The potential is vast! I am tonight sending this message out and I am very actively seeking others to do the beltway action. I want to establish permanent residency in the region, having obviously moved on from California after 40 years of front line radical environmental and peace & justice enlightened behavior. Following my bliss, Craig Louis Stehr Nota bene: I am accepting money, and don’t even think about giving me any insane left wing American shit, inferring that I am not being politically correct because I am asking for it. I need some dental work, and I am still interested in enjoying an adult social life at 63 years of age. Yo, that’s just the way it is right now. My current address: Craig Louis Stehr, c/o Julie Diana, 903 Florida Ave., Mt. Lebanon, PA 15228-2016.

THE LATEST FROM THE WILLITS BYPASS PROTESTS.

Ripper Restrained from Destroying Hillside
 at Caltrans Bypass Site

In yet another stealthy pre-dawn action, protesters against the Caltrans bypass around Willits again snuck onto the construction site, this time on the south end of the route, locking themselves to a giant bulldozer called a ripper. The machine is tearing apart a hillside and using the soil to fill in wetlands and streams to build a freeway. For the first time, press has access to the protest site, after Willits News photographer Steve Eberhard was arrested when he tried to cover a protest last week.

Bowman, Kane, Keyes

Two women, Kim Bancroft and Maureen Kane, have locked their hands around the equipment in welded steel tubes, which are difficult to remove and must be sawn through. A third protester, Steve Keyes, was arrested when he would not leave their side, where he was stationed with water. Temperatures have been in the 90s all week. A crowd of local citizens has gathered in support, and CHP is on scene. Bancroft explained: “Caltrans put out false information to justify a four-lane bypass. The people of Willits designed an alternative route that would not be so expensive or destructive, and it was ignored.” The project’s cost at this point is $210 million.

“Caltrans is attempting to mitigate for the loss of wetlands on an unprecedented scale, using an untried method with no long term manager and without long term funding to sustain it,” said Ellen Drell, founding board member of the Willits Environmental Center. “They’re replacing an already functioning wetland with a speculative plan.”

Caltrans purchased one third of the entire Little Lake Valley in an effort to mitigate for this project, which will cause the largest loss of wetlands in 50 years. In a scheme that they themselves acknowledge to be experimental, Caltrans will excavate 266,000 cubic yards of wetland soils, gouging out unnatural depressions. In other areas the plan calls for stripping off existing vegetation and replacing it nursery grown plants.

“The total price tag of this mitigation travesty to the taxpayers is $54 million dollars,” said Drell.

The Mendocino Conservation Resource District (RDC), which Caltrans assumed would take over management of the mitigation plan, has declined to accept ownership of the mitigation lands or responsibility for its management, after reviewing the mitigation plan. Thus the plan is moving forward with no manager, leaving one-third of valley lands with Caltrans as the sole owner, and no plan for the future. While there is funding for earth moving, planting and 40 miles of fencing, there is zero funding for land management, including rotational grazing for cattle, oversight, maintenance, and flood control.

Protests over the Willits Bypass freeway have been ongoing since January when a young woman, Amanda Senseman, calling herself “Warbler” took up residence high in a pine tree on the route. Her tree-sit, and five others were ended after two months in a huge military-style operation by CHP swat teams. “Warbler” returned to the trees this week, this time in a rare wetland ash forest at the north end of the route. Over 30 people have been arrested, and rallies, petitions, protests and a lawsuit continue.

(Courtesy, SaveLittleLakeValley.org)

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THE FIRST pink ladies have appeared, those perennially startling swathes of improbable color in the most unexpected places, especially those otherwise sere summer hillsides.

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FORMER LEGGETT MAN ARRESTED IN CAMBODIA FOR CHILD SEX CRIMES

According to the Cambodian Daily, John Stahl, who is on the most wanted list of Mendocino County on multiple arrest warrants including one related to “child-sex offenses,” was arrested July 20th in the Preah Sihanouk province. The paper explained,

Yi Moden, acting director of Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), which monitors sexual abuse cases involving minors, said the local NGO’s investigations had found that Mr. Stahl had been living in Cambodia for about four years and was the co-owner of the beachside Cafe Noir establishment in Sihanoukville.

Mr. Moden said APLE staff had begun monitoring Mr. Stahl about a year ago when another NGO that works with young children said it had suspicions about the American.

“So far, no children in Cambodia were reported to be abused by him,” Mr. Moden said of the American who was detained at his rented apartment in Buon commune on Saturday morning.

Stahl, shown on the right in a photograph taken from a biography associated with his small publishing company, is the author of several books including one entitled “The Laughter of God” which is dedicated to “Children and young people everywhere. You are the future of the human race; take it further.”

Stahl was wanted in 2012 in Mendocino County for failing to register as a sex offender. Stahl is also the founder of The Church of the Living Tree. Its motto is “Do no harm.”

Hat tip to the Press Democrat which has more information.

Kym Kemp (Courtesy, LostCoastOutpost.com)

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A 14-YEAR-OLD FORT BRAGG BOY DIED WEDNESDAY when his 2000 Yamaha ATV rolled over on him. Ryan Kinney had been camping with his father and several friends on private property on Annapolis Road near the Sonoma-Mendocino County line when about 2pm, he went for a ride on his ATV. When he didn’t return, his father and friends went looking for the boy, only to discover him dead. The CHP report says Kinney had been wearing a helmet. The accident remains under investigation as officers try to understand how the boy lost control of the vehicle.

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LETTER OF THE DAY

Editor,

A totally preventable tragedy. The story as I know it: Escalade, a large brown and white dog and owned by a man named George who lives in Clearlake, disappeared from his yard. Strayed, picked up, stolen? George reported him stolen, made trips to various animal controls including two to the shelter in Ukiah. It was said no one saw him until one officer said they all knew him and that he had been adopted out two weeks ago.

Now legally, if a dog is unclaimed for a certain number of days and then adopted out, he/she is legally the property of the adopters. That is the legality of it. And of course, the tragedy is that if the dog is microchipped, then it has a much greater chance of being reunited with its person. I keep reading these wonderful stories of dogs and cats found thousands of miles away and identified through microchips. I do know that they are cheap now. You can have one in your dog or cat for $10 or $15.

The only hope for George to have his companion of ten years back is if the people who adopted him give Escalade back to him. He has offered to pay whatever they paid for him. That of course would be the morally correct action for them to take. No ifs, ands or buts about it. George and Escalade have a solid ten year relationship. Even if George was not a former Prisoner of War in Vietnam, even if he was just the guy on the corner, Escalade in every way (other than legally at this moment) is his dog.

This is not the first time a much loved dog has for some reason ended up at Animal Control and been adopted to another person or family and not returned to their person. It was a tragedy 10 years ago and it is a tragedy now. I know how quickly I become attached to some of the 300 foster dogs that I have had over the last 15 years. I know how a well loved dog can fit in another household easily. I also know how totally devastating it is to lose a dog to illness or old age. I do not know how these people can keep Escalade knowing how much George misses him. There are thousands of truly homeless dogs that need a good home. Escalade has a home.

Now, more time has gone by, Escalade and George, his rightful owner, have NOT been reunited! George made two trips to the shelter in Ukiah. The staff denied that any of them even remembered him being there. Then one of their officers walked in and said, “Oh yeah, we know that dog well. He was adopted two weeks ago.” Then “suddenly” the rest of the staff remembered him. I think they remembered him from the start, they just didn’t want to admit they knew anything.

I’m trying to help George any way I can to get Escalade back. It is not George’s fault his baby was stolen from his property in Clearlake and then abandoned in Ukiah. Now, that the Ukiah shelter knows the dog was stolen it is their responsibility to get the dog back, or they are guilty of receiving and selling stolen property. George is even willing to refund the new adoptees the money back they paid the shelter for Escalade. This is more than wrong of the shelter to keep this man from his therapy dog, and his four legged son of 10 years. George has had to start counseling through the Veteran’s Administration because he is so upset. If any of you would like to call and complain to the shelter about this, their number is (707) 463-4427. This will be a voice mail more than likely, and please be polite about your complaint because we are still attempting to get Escalade back to George, and do not want to make the shelter angry.

Their Facebook page is

www.facebook.com/mendocino.animal.

Eliza Wingate, Upper Lake.

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WE’VE ALWAYS CONSIDERED Scott Simon a “rum character,” as the Brits call cracked or bogus persons. Simon, the smarmy NPR radio phony, has taken self-regard and all-round phoniness — “extreme douchebaggery,” as a young person might assess it — to a new low. He’s turned the death of his mother into a demonstration of his own pious devotion to Mommy, tweeting their joint “emotions” as the old girl checked out last week. Mom, I suppose, has to be excused; but I can’t imagine another family who would convert deathbed narcissism to national spectacle. Of course Simon’s perfect for NPR and the NPR demographic, but still this is… I’m beyond appalled.

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OFF-SITE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MEETING, AUG. 13, 2013

On August 13, 2013, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors will meet at Fort Bragg Town Hall, 363 N. Main Street, in Fort Bragg, California, for both a regularly scheduled meeting of the Board, and a joint meeting with the Fort Bragg City Council.

Despite continued fiscal challenges, the Board of Supervisors strongly supports preserving the policy of off-site meetings, affording constituents in rural communities and in every district an opportunity to directly participate in their local government.

Beginning in 2006, the Board’s adopted annual calendar has called for up to three of its regularly scheduled meetings to be held in outlying areas of the county. The primary focus for off-site meetings has been our coastal communities and the north County. Over the past seven years, meetings have been held in Boonville, Covelo, Gualala, Mendocino, Point Arena, and Willits.

The Board meeting on August 13, 2013, is scheduled to begin at 10am. Following the opening of the meeting, the Board of Supervisors will hold an appeal hearing related to the State Parks dune restoration project at MacKerricher State Park. At 3pm, the Board will participate in a joint meeting with the Fort Bragg City Council, addressing the topic of a new commercial transfer station.

Dan Hamburg, Board Chair, shared the following comments: “The entire Board is looking forward to spending the day in Fort Bragg. There are two critical issues — the Haul Road and the transfer station — that will be front and center in the Board’s consideration. We anticipate, and hope, that many members of the community will attend!”

The public is welcome and invited to attend all Board meetings. For more information, please contact the Mendocino County Executive Office at (707) 463-4441, or visit the website at: www.co.mendocino.ca.us/bos/meetings.htm. The full agenda and supporting material will be available online after Thursday, August 8, 2013. The meeting will be recorded for delayed broadcast.

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STATEMENT OF THE DAY UNO

“Going to church was a twofold coercion. My parents and my school insisted on it, and the school even took attendance at Mass. Young nitwit that I was, I couldn’t make this kind of weekend surveillance jibe with the omniscience attributed to the Good Lord. I also had trouble with the fact that one of our classmates was allowed to absent himself from all church services on the basis of a medical certification. This kid Wilhelm was as healthy as a lumberjack, but his father was the richest taxpayer in town, a millionaire who could afford his own concordat with the church. Our family used the same devout Catholic doctor, but we wouldn’t dream of requesting a similar dispensation. My father was not in a salary range that would have permitted him to enter into negotiations with God’s representatives. When he finally worked his way up to the point where he could have greased the Lord’s palm, I had long since sprung free of the whole dishonest mess. It didn’t cost me a dime, but it cost me many a sleepless night and threw the course of my education out of balance. For years, Sundays remained poisoned days for me, and for years I nursed a strong mistrust of a Church that I was unable to square with the God who was said to reside within its walls.”

— Albert Vigoleis Thelen, 1953; from “The Island of Second Sight”

STATEMENT OF THE DAY DOS

As a child I suffered from a condition that someone once referred to as Sunday melancholy. Later this affliction extended to the remaining days of the week, and then it was no longer anything special, considering that I had been able to summon a certain amount of energy to counter it. I recall Sunday mornings when the sun shone through the slits in the venetian blind into my room, turning everything into a celebration. Every flower on the wallpaper looked different, even though the pattern replicated them a thousand times. I knew each and every exemplar by heart, and discovered more and more new transformations. On the street outside there was no rattle of trucks passing by: on Sundays commercial traffic was prohibited. Sunday! Gradually my not quite wide-awake brain registered the truth: no school, no humiliation, no teasing, no punishment, no homework, nothing — just Sunday, the most comforting day.  But then I burst awake and remembered: You have to go to church! Gone was my summery meadow of a thousand blossoms. All the roses looked alike and crummy and cheap, fifty cents a yard and pasted up at all the wrong angles.

— Albert Vigoleis Thelen, 1953; from “The Island of Second Sight”

STATEMENT OF THE DAY TRES

That capability at any time could be turned around on the American people and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything. Telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide. If this government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back, because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology. I don’t want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capability that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.

— Senator Frank Church, 1975

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FOR PURE POLICE scumbaggery or, as it was described in the outrageous case of Mendocino County’s John Dalton, “egregious government misconduct,” it’s hard to beat the DEA. (We’ll return to the Dalton case.)

IN APRIL of 2012, Daniel Chong, 23, an engineering student at UC San Diego, was at a friend’s house when the DEA burst through the door. Chong had nothing to do with the guns and 18,000 ecstasy pills the drug boys confiscated. But he was there, and if you’re there you’re going to be detained while who’s responsible for what is sorted out.

CHONG WAS TOLD he wouldn’t be charged, but he was nevertheless placed in a 5-by-10-foot holding cell where he was found four days later severely dehydrated and covered in his own feces. In all that time, nobody had looked in on him; he had received no food, no water. By day four, assuming he was about to die, Chong used a glass shard, to carve “Sorry Mom” into his arm, but could only manage the “s.” When he was finally freed by the incompetents who’d tossed him into the cell and forgotten he was there, Chong had to be hospitalized for dehydration, kidney failure, cramps, and a perforated esophagus. He said he drank his own urine to stay alive.

CHONG’S ATTORNEY, Eugene Iredale, said last week that no one from the DEA has been disciplined, let alone fired, for nearly killing Chong who has been awarded $4.1 million in damages. Incredibly, the DEA, post-Chong, has only now instituted a detainee policy that includes daily inspections and cell cameras.

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JOHN DALTON, as AVA readers know, remains in the federal prison at Lompoc for a Laytonville marijuana bust nearly 20 years ago. The DEA literally seduced Dalton’s wife, entertaining her with rides in a police helicopter and arranging for her to place a tape recorder beneath the marital bed, finally moving the woman, to whom Dalton thought he was still married, to the state of Washington without Dalton’s knowledge. This behavior by the DEA was not, according to a San Francisco-based federal judge, “egregious government misconduct.” One has to wonder what the hell is.

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GW PHARMACEUTICALS is testing a treatment for Type 2 diabetes derived from marijuana. Known as GWP42004, GW hopes to “improve the pancreas’ ability to produce insulin to drop blood-sugar levels.”

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RANDOM SHOTS: The only way to get performance enhancing drugs out of sports is a life-time ban for the first offense. Take baseball, and take it from a guy who remained seated every time Barry Bonds jacked a splash home run — it’s being ruined by cheaters. And it’s one of the few sports left for people of normal size and athletic gifts, but the new drugs not only make guys unnaturally strong, vision is improved to where the baseball looks softball size as it crosses the plate. Bonds was a great ballplayer before peds, after he was a joke, seems to me. And now this collection of clowns ranging from Ryan Braun to that middle-age relief pitcher for the A’s who has miraculously retrieved the fastball he had as a 19-year-old is making a mockery of the game. Football? Don’t even try to tell me those guys aren’t on the stuff.

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LAST WEEK, the San Francisco Bay Guardian ran a statement that began, “Join us for a community forum on the future of San Francisco’s venerable alternative weekly…”

WHY? A free, ad-dependent weekly newspaper, especially one produced in Neener-Neener Land, can only hang on by deferring to the dead, flabby hand of the Democratic Party apparatus that dominates The City, while simultaneously touting every lunatic occurrence as somehow in the grand Frisco tradition of carefree zaniness. If the paper at least occasionally took out after the board of supervisors, as grand a group of feebs and hustlers as the city has seen in my lifetime, it might not have to resort to bogus community input sessions. Ditto for Mayor Lee, the cops, the fire department, city workers, Critical Mass, Larry Ellison, the Dog People, street people, the ongoing give away of prime real estate to the One Percent and on and on. Ask San Franciscans what they want, and most of them will shout back, “Me! Me! More! More of the same!”

IN ANY CASE, a newspaper is not a committee. One reason journalism in this country is so awful, so craven, is lawyers and accountants now make editorial decisions, that and editors who are so craven they give chickenshit a bad name. Then you have j-schools emphasizing “objectivity” (code for “don’t disturb the rich”) plus term-paper prose and the art of nuzzlebumming. Calling a community meeting to discuss your newspaper is beyond pathetic.

PS. The crack about the SF supervisors being feebs? You want proof? According to Matier & Ross, old school reporters, The City’s Recreation and Parks Dept., which owns Candlestick, “handed out more than $25,000 in tickets to SF politicians, department officials and their friends for Jay Z and Justin Timberlake’s ‘Legends of the Summer’ concert…”

WORSE, the supervisors actually wanted to attend!

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Cable

DR. BRIAN MARCEL
 CABLE, 48, a Ukiah orthopedic surgeon associated with Ukiah Orthopedics, was arrested Wednesday on charges of “possession of controlled prescription narcotics,
 fraudulently obtaining controlled prescription narcotics, using another
 person’s identity for an unlawful purpose, burglary and conspiracy.”
 County, state and federal investigators served 
search warrants at Cable’s Redwood Valley home and office with the Ukiah Police Department making the arrest. Odd thing about the arrest is that when Cable was booked into the County Jail, the charge was merely “theft from a motor vehicle.” Cable graduated from the UCLA School of Medicine in 1993 and has practiced medicine since January of 1995.

A SCREAM IN THE NIGHT. A man doing a night time owl survey for the Mendocino Land Trust near the tracks on the Willits end of the Skunk line back on May 31^st heard what he described as “incoherent screaming” when he shined a light in an outbuilding. Although the owl surveyor reported the screaming to the Land Trust, and the Land Trust relayed the report to the Skunk Line, and a Skunk crew searched the area, the Sheriff’s Department and the wife of Erik Lamberg, missing since May 28th, didn’t learn of the eerie screeching until late in July. Mrs. Lamberg has since said that in his “most paranoid state,” her mentally ill and missing husband screams out in fear at non-existent threats.

Lamberg in various family photos

LAMBERG, 51, of Hermosa Beach, was last seen in Laytonville where he spent the night at the Budget Inn. His wife has described him as being “bipolar, off his medication and having drug addiction issues.” She said he left home on May 23 and was driving to Oregon to enroll in a sober-living program. Lamberg, a fit-looking 6’5” 200 pound man, stayed in daily contact with Mrs. Lamberg until May 27. She reported him missing two days later when he didn’t respond to her calls, texts, e-mails or Facebook posts.

WEDNESDAY, Lt. Shannon Barney of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office assembled a search team of 40 ground personnel and five tracker dogs for a search of the rugged country along the Skunk track west of Willits. Barney told the Willits News and the Ukiah Daily Journal that his team had found “fir tree boughs laid on the floor and recent signs of a warming fire” at the Clare Mill Station, but could not determine how recently someone had camped there. The Crowley Station area also yielded signs that have encouraged a second search of the woods along the track next week, an area north of where Lamberg’s Honda was found on Sherwood Road.

LAMBERG’S 2004 silver Honda Odyssey was found mired in a ditch on Sherwood Road on June 1st amid signs that the disoriented man had tried unsuccessfully to extract his vehicle before walking west on Sherwood, then, reversing himself, walking east. The Skunk tracks lie north of Sherwood Road in hilly terrain covered with the thick brush that grew up after the L-P and G-P clearcuts of the 1990s.

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BLAST FROM THE PAST:

“Perhaps I have seen worse television displays, but the tasteless pair served up by Milton Berle Tuesday night has made me forget them. Maybe Uncle Miltie should be complimented. After all, it takes a certain amount of ability to co-star the two least talented people in show business, Debra Paget and Elvis Presley. Their combined displays of flesh and fantasy were in such appalling taste that had I not been exposed to both of them in person, I would have thought NBC was kidding. First we got Elvis Presley, a sort of male burlesque queen. And we got him right in the face. It is the weakest face I have ever seen. There is as much character there as you’ll find in a bowl of tapioca pudding.

It pains me to say this, but beside him Liberace looks as rugged as Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Presley sings and moves to the steady beat of rock ‘n roll. I have seen burlesque girls move in such a manner on the ramp of the El Rey, but I have never seen a man go through the same motions. As if the first number with Elvis wasn’t enough, a midget came out right afterward and imitated him.”

— Terence O’Flaherty, SF Chron, June 7, 1956)

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THAT’S HER!

Editor,

Devil Girl?  You mean the Creole sex goddess with the big firm booty and the giant hard knockers and the foot long tongue?  The Devil Girl that made hash out of Mr. Natural and Flakey Foont?  As drawn by the demented lust-freak, R. Crumb, who sits atop a pile of battered women in HUP #3, dangling his dong into an unconscious mouth? Why–why–this is pornography, Mein Redaktor!!  Your duty is clear!  Wrap up this Evil Portrait and mail it to me immediately!!

Yrs, Jay Williamson

ED NOTE: Crumb is a great artist, and Devil Girl, in all Crumb’s renditions of her, is a work of art.

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TRIPLE-MURDER SUSPECT SHANE MILLER could be in Mexico according to federal court documents, the Redding Record Searchlight reported Wednesday.

Investigators in the murder of a Shingletown woman and her two young daughters believe the Humboldt County native and lone suspect may have fled to property he bought in Oregon and could now be in Mexico, according to the documents.

Miller, 45, who was added to the US Marshals Service’s “15 Most Wanted” list on Tuesday, was the subject of a massive manhunt in the Mattole Valley last May.

Authorities say he gunned down his wife Sandy and daughters Shelby Miller, 8, and Shasta Miller, 4, in their Shingletown home in Shasta County on May 7 before fleeing 200 miles to Humboldt County, where he abandoned his truck and the family dog.

Miller has been indicted for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution in US District Court in Sacramento, according to electronic court records. A federal complaint filed in May was quickly sealed at the request of federal prosecutors but unsealed last month at the request of federal marshals.

Federal prosecutors in their request to unseal the complaint said Miller could be in Mexico.

In an affidavit filed to obtain the federal unlawful flight warrant, Supervisory US Marshal Marco Rodriguez said law enforcement officers believed Miller may have run to Oregon after the murders, possibly to somewhere near Roseburg or Eugene.

Roseburg is about 250 miles north of Redding on Interstate 5 while Eugene is about 72 miles north of Roseburg.

Authorities consider Miller armed and dangerous. He has been charged with three counts of murder in Shasta County and officials said he threatened the lives of several other family members.

A reward of up to $25,000 is offered for information leading directly to Miller’s arrest. The US Marshals Service asks anyone with information to connect one of its offices or the U.S. Marshals Service Communications Center at 1-800-336-0102.

At a glance: Shane Miller

Height: 5 feet, 10 inches tall

Weight: 200 pounds

Hair: Red

Eyes: Blue

Reward: $25,000

Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or the nearest US Marshals Office or 1-800-336-0102

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F. SCOTT FITZGERALD’S MUST READS

Sister Carrie: Theodore Dreiser

The Life of Jesus: Ernest Renan

A Doll’s House: Henrik Ibsen

Winesburg, Ohio: Sherwood Anderson

The Old Wives’ Tale: Arnold Bennett

The Maltese Falcon: Dashiel Hammett

The Red and the Black: Stendahl

The Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant

An Outline of Abnormal Psychology: edited by Gardner Murphy

The Stories of Anton Chekhov

The Best American Humorous Short Stories

Victory: Joseph Conrad

The Revolt of the Angels: Anatole France

The Plays of Oscar Wilde

Sanctuary: William Faulkner

Within a Budding Grove: Marcel Proust

The Guermantes Way: Marcel Proust

Swann’s Way: Marcel Proust

South Wind: Norman Douglas

The Garden Party: Katherine Mansfield

War and Peace: Leo Tolstoy

John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley: Complete Poetical Works

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NORM FLUHRER on the Coast tells us that Scott Schneider, the “President and CEO” of Visit Mendocino County (which is subsidized by County taxpayers and a self-assessment on B&Bs, wineries and restaurants) makes about $95.5k per year for an average of 35 hours per week. (For more information about the “Promotional” ripoff that Schneider heads and what prompted Mr. Fluhrer to to comment, refer to the Mendocino County Today posting of July 28 at

http://theava.com/archives/23124

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A GATHERING OF GHASTLIES

Jared Huffman Invites You to a Harvest Celebration.

Please join Jared along with hosts Deborah Cahn and Ted Bennett for a tasting of Navarro wine with locally made appetizers in the garden at Navarro Vineyards Sunday, August 25, 3-5pm. Thank you to our generous sponsors: Rachel Binah, John Fetzer, Phyllis Curtis, Kit Elliot, Carre Brown and others. Tickets $25.00 per person.

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IF YOU’RE THINKING of becoming a hippie, or you are a hippie but are too stoned to find compatible nests, according to Estately, a real estate website, these are the best places to do it:

17. Arcata, CA

16. Bloomington, IN

15. San Francisco, CA

14. Manitou Springs, CO

13. Berea, KY

12. Oakland, CA

11. Missoula, MT

10. Bisbee, AZ

9. Austin, TX

8. Berkeley, CA

7. Ithica, NY

6. Burlington, VT

5. Portland, OR

4. Boulder, CO

3. Asheville, NC

2. Olympia, WA

1. Eugene, OR

Estately’s criteria? “Availability and legality of marijuana, number of stores selling hemp, local counter-culture icons (human-type, presumably), tie-dye availability, hippie festivals, progressive government (har de har), intensity of Occupy protests…”

HAVING LIVED IN EUGENE, certainly a city home to thousands of the righteous, but also a city that has paved over thousands of acres of wetlands for endless sprawl, and a local government “progressive” only rhetorically, I’d say whatever the hippie quotient may be they’ve been paved over, too. As for Frisco, well, only a rich stoner can afford to live there. The icons? Eugene has produced two writers of note: Ken Kesey and Richard Brautigan; Frisco-Oakland can boast Jack London and the beatniks. Kesey’s the only hippie who ever produced anything worth reading. Brautigan was a juicer, and never was a hippie, although hippies claimed him.

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“WHAT’S THERE TO LIVE FOR?


Who needs the peace corps?

Think I’ll just DROP OUT


I’ll go to Frisco

Buy a wig & sleep

On Owsley’s floor

Walked past the wig store

Danced at the Fillmore


I’m completely stoned

I’m hippy & I’m trippy


I’m a gypsy on my own


I’ll stay a week & get the crabs &


Take a bus back home

I’m really just a phony

But forgive me


’Cause I’m stoned


Every town must have a place

Where phony hippies meet

Psychedelic dungeons

Popping up on every street

GO TO SAN FRANCISCO. . .”

Who Needs The Peace Corps?

—Frank Zappa

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THE PLIGHT OF THE FARMER CONTINUES

Still Reaping a Harvest of Shame

by Ralph Nader

The great reporter Edward R. Murrow titled his 1960 CBS documentary Harvest of Shame on the merciless exploitation of the migrant farmworkers by the large growers and their local government allies. Over fifty years later, it is still the harvest of shame for nearly two million migrant farmworkers who follow the seasons and the crops to harvest our fruits and vegetables.

As a student I went through migrant farmworker camps and fields and wrote about the abysmally low pay, toxic, unsafe working conditions, contaminated water, housing hovels and the complete absence of any legal rights.

It is a perversely inverted society when the people who do the backbreaking work to harvest one of the necessities of life are underpaid, underinsured, under-protected and under-respected while the Chicago commodity brokers – where the white collar gamblers sit in air-conditioned spaces and speculate on futures in foodstuffs’ prices – are quite well off, to put it modestly.

It probably won’t surprise you that the grapes, peaches, watermelons, strawberries, apricots and lettuce that you’re eating this week are brought to you from the fields by the descendants of the early migrant workers. Their plight is not that much better, except for the very few working under a real union contract.

Start with the exclusion of farmworkers from the Fair Labor Standards Act. Then go to the EPA’s Worker Protection Standard (WPS), which is aimed at protecting farmworkers and their families from pesticides but is outdated, weak and poorly enforced.

Continue on to the unyielding local power of growers and their campaign-cash indentured local, state and Congressional lawmakers. The recent shocking description of the tomato workers in central Florida in Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco’s book Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, shows how close defenseless migrant workers can come to involuntary servitude.

In a recent television interview, featuring Baldemar Velasquez – a vigorous farm worker organizer – Bill Moyers summarized the period since Harvest of Shame: “Believe it or not, more than fifty years later, the life of a migrant laborer is still an ordeal. And not just for adults. Perhaps as many as half a million children, some as young as seven years old, are out in the fields and orchards working nine to ten hour days under brutal conditions.” (See http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-fighting-for-farmworkers/ for the full interview.)

Among the conditions Moyers was referring to are the daily exposures to pesticides, fertilizers and the resulting chemical-related injuries and sicknesses. Far more of these pesticides end up in the workers’ bodies than are found in our food. President of Farmworker Justice, Bruce Goldstein writes: “Short-term effects include stinging eyes, rashes, blisters, blindness, nausea, dizziness, headache, coma and even death. Pesticides also cause infertility, neurological disorders and cancer.”

In a recent letter appeal by the United Farm Workers (UFW), the beleaguered small union representing farmworkers, these ailments were connected to real workers by name. Focusing on the large grape grower – Giumarra Vineyeards of California – the UFW describes one tragedy of many: “After ten hours laboring under a blazing July sun, 53-year-old Giumarra grape picker Asuncion Valdivia became weak, dizzy and nauseated. He couldn’t talk. He lay down in the field. The temperature was 102 degrees.

Asuncion’s 21-year-old son, Luis, and another worker rushed to his aid. Someone called 911. But a Giumarra foreman cancelled the paramedics. He told Luis to drive his father home. They reached the emergency room in Bakersfield too late. Asuncion died on the car seat next to his son.”

For backbreaking work, kneeling 48 hours a week on crippled joints, 29-year-old Alejandro Ruiz and other farmworkers are not making much to live on. The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour does not apply to farmworkers. Workers without documents are often paid less than those with documents. In most cases, they are too frightened to consider objecting.

It is so deplorable how little the members of Congress from these farm Districts have done to improve the plight of migrant farm workers. Members of Congress could be raising the visibility of deplorable working conditions faced by farmworkers and allying themselves with urban district Representatives concerned about food safety. This partnership could raise awareness of the safety of the food supply, the careless use of agricultural chemicals, and press the EPA to issue a strong WPS that emphasizes training, disclosure of chemical usage, safety precautions prior to spraying and buffer zones.

Is there a more compelling case for union organizing than the farm workers who sweat for agri-business? Federal labor laws need to be amended to improve national standards for farmworkers and eliminate existing state fair wage and health barriers. California has the strongest law, passed under the first gubernatorial term of Jerry Brown in 1975. Even this law needs to be strengthened to overcome the ways it has been gamed by agri-business interests.

Next time you eat fruits or vegetables, pause a moment to imagine what the workers who harvested them had to endure and talk up their plight with your friends and co-workers. Remember, every reform starts with human conversations and awareness. (For more information see http://www.ufw.org/ and http://www.supportfloc.org/.)

(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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CALIFORNIANS OPPOSE EXPANDED FRACKING

by Dan Bacher

A poll released by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) on July 31 reveals that the majority of Californian residents oppose expanded fracking in the Golden State.

Fracking (hydraulic fracturing) employs huge volumes of water, mixed with sand and toxic chemicals, to blast open rock formations and extract oil and gas. The technique is environmentally destructive, resulting in pollution to groundwater supplies and streams, as documented in the documentary films Gasland 1 and 2, directed by Josh Fox.

“As state legislators debate stricter regulations on fracking—already under way in California—51 percent oppose increased use of the drilling method used to extract oil and natural gas (35% favor it, 14% don’t know),” according to PPIC, a nonpartisan research foundation. “Asked whether they favor or oppose stricter regulation of fracking, 50 percent say they are in favor. Among those who favor increased use of fracking, 62 percent also favor stricter regulation.” (http://www.ppic.org/main/pressrelease.asp?i=1378)

The controversial technique, currently unregulated and unmonitored by California officials, has been used in hundreds and perhaps thousands of oil and gas wells across the state, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

The survey asked about another hotly debated plan to increase the supply of oil: construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to carry oil from Canada to Texas refineries. Half of Californians (51%) favor building the pipeline, 34 percent oppose it, and 15 percent don’t know, according to PPIC.

“Californians are conflicted when it comes to controversial efforts to expand the oil supply,” said Mark Baldassare, PPIC president and CEO. “Slim majorities favor building the Keystone XL pipeline but also oppose fracking, with many wanting stricter regulation of the practice.”

The poll also revealed that the majority of Californians are opposed to expanded offshore oil drilling, with 54 percent opposing and 41 percent favoring more oil drilling off California’s coast. Among those living in coastal areas, 57 percent oppose more drilling, while those inland are divided (49% favor, 47% oppose).

Delta advocates fear that much of the water destined for the proposed peripheral tunnels under the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) will be used to expand fracking in California. The tunnels will hasten the extinction of Central Valley Chinook salmon, steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish species.

As oil companies gear up to frack massive petroleum deposits in the Monterey Shale and build the Keystone XL Pipeline, the poll also found that 65 percent of Californians say the state should act immediately to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The poll puts new pressure on state lawmakers and regulators and Gov. Jerry Brown to halt fracking expansion in the state. A USC/Los Angeles Times poll in June found that more than half of California voters — 58 percent — favor a moratorium on fracking.

It’s time for a fracking moratorium

“Californians are telling pollsters and policymakers they don’t want fracking pollution fouling up our state,” said Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity. “There’s strong public support for a moratorium on this dangerous practice. We need to stop the oil industry’s fracking expansion now, while there’s still time to protect the air we breathe, the water we drink and the climate we depend on.”

Oil companies, represented by the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), are increasingly interested in fracking the Monterey Shale, an oil-laden geological formation beneath some of the state’s most productive farmland, important fish and wildlife habitat and scores of towns and cities. Much of the shale is located off the California coast in and near controversial “marine protected areas” that fail to protect the ocean from fracking, oil drilling, pollution and other human impacts other than fishing.

“Fracking routinely uses numerous toxic chemicals, including methanol and benzene. A recent Colorado School of Public Health study found that fracking increases cancer risk and contributes to serious neurological and respiratory problems in people living near fracked wells,” according to Siegel.

Fish and wildlife are also at risk. Fish, including endangered Central Valley Chinook salmon and steelhead, can die when fracking fluid contaminates streams and rivers. “Birds can be poisoned by chemicals in wastewater ponds and the intense industrial development that accompanies fracking pushes threatened or endangered animals out of wild areas they need to survive,” Siegel stated.

“Drilling and fracking also release huge amounts of methane, an extremely powerful global warming gas,” said Siegel. “Methane is about 105 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas over a 20-year period. Burning the estimated 15.5 billion barrels of oil in the Monterey Shale will generate more than 6.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to calculations based on Environmental Protection Agency figures.”

Besides threatening groundwater supplies, endangered salmon and steelhead in the state’s rivers and bird populations through the state, fracking also poses an enormous rise to California’s marine waters.

Ocean fracking operations in Santa Barbara Channel approved

An investigative piece by Mike Ludwig at http://www.truthout.org on July 25 has confirmed that federal regulators approved at least two fracking operations on oil rigs in the Santa Barbara Channel off the coast of California since 2009 without an updated environmental review that critics say may be required by federal law.

These operations were approved as state officials and corporate “environmental” NGO representatives gushed about the alleged “Yosemites of the Sea” and “underwater parks” created in Southern California waters under the “leadership” of Catherine Reheis-Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum Association.

“The offshore fracking operations are smaller than the unconventional onshore operations that have sparked nationwide controversy, but environmental advocates are still concerned that regulators and the industry have not properly reviewed the potential impacts of using modern fracking technology in the Pacific outer continental shelf,” said Ludwig. (http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/17765-special-investigation-fracking-in-the-ocean-off-the-california-coast)

“Oil drilling remains controversial in Santa Barbara, where the memory of the nation’s third-largest oil spill lingers in the minds of the public. In 1969, the nation watched as thick layer of oil spread across the channel and its beaches following a blowout on an oil rig, killing thousands of marine birds other wildlife. The dramatic images helped spark the modern environmental movement and establish landmark federal environmental laws that eco-groups continue to challenge the government to enforce,” Ludwig noted.

The current push by the oil industry to expand fracking in California, build the Keystone XL Pipeline and eviscerate environmental laws was made possible because state officials and MLPA Initiative advocates greenwashed the key role Reheis-Boyd and the oil industry played in creating marine protected areas that don’t protect the ocean.

Reheis-Boyd chaired the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Blue Ribbon Task Force to create alleged “marine protected areas” that fail to the protect the ocean from fracking, oil drilling and spills, pollution, military testing, wind and wave energy projects and all human impacts on the ocean other than fishing and gathering. She also served on the task forces for the Central Coast, North Central Coast and North Coast.

Reheis-Boyd apparently used her role as a state marine “protection” official to increase her network of influence in California politics to the point where the Western States Petroleum Association has become the most powerful corporate lobby in California. The association now has enormous influence over both state and federal regulators. (http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/lawsuit-filed-against-fracking-oil-lobbyist-says-its-safe)

Oil and gas companies spend more than $100 million a year to buy access to lawmakers in Washington and Sacramento, according to Stop Fooling California (http://www.stopfoolingca.org), an online and social media public education and awareness campaign that highlights oil companies’ efforts to mislead and confuse Californians. The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) alone has spent more than $16 million lobbying in Sacramento since 2009.

As the oil industry expands its role in California politics and environmental processes, you can bet that they are going to use every avenue they can to get more water for fracking, including taking Delta water through the peripheral tunnels proposed under the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP).

The industry will also use its power to expand fracking in the ocean, as evidenced by the recent approval of ocean fracking operations off the Southern California coast, unless Californians rise up and resist these plans!

DUCK AND COVER

When the bomb drops, Admiral A.G. Cook, civil defense director, suggests San Franciscans lie down with the lions. The lion house at Fleishhacker Zoo is one of 59 public fallout shelters he earmarked on a list submitted to City Property Director Philip D. Rezos yesterday for approval For those too timid to share Armageddon with a lion, the admiral also tagged the elephant house as a shleter. Candlestick Park was on the list as a place to hide, although the admiral did not say how the open stadium could provide protection.

— SF Chronicle, 1962

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— R. Crumb, Rejected New Yorker Cover, 2009, watercolor, ink, and graphite on paper, 14 1/2 x 10 5/8 inches. Courtesy the artist, Paul Morris, and David Zwirner, New York, Copyright ©Robert Crumb, 2009.

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ENGAGING THE SQUARES, AGAIN

ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED for August 5th, Will Parrish’s trial is now slated for Monday, September 16th at 9am at the Mendocino County Courthouse. Will is being charged with 12 counts of Unlawful Entry, two counts of Resisting Arrest, and two other misdemeanors in connection with his 12-day occupation of the wick drain driver that CalTrans’ contractor, FlatIron, is using to drain and compact the soils of the Little Lake wetlands. Each charge carries a maximum prison sentence of six months. The charges also relate to Will’s arrests on March 21st and April 2nd while taking action in support of The Warbler’s tree sit.

Under the charges, Will would also be required to pay financial “restitution” for damages CalTrans and the California Highway Patrol say they incurred as a result of his wick drain boom occupation and his other two arrests. This harsh and vaguely defined stipulation would set a dangerous precedent for handling of other Bypass protesters’ cases, of which it seems likely there will be more in the future.

The trial may take 3-4 days. Supporters are still being asked to write letters to Mendocino County District Attorney C. David Eyster.

Eyster had originally charged Will with three infractions. However, the requirement to pay an undisclosed amount of restitution was also included with these charges. Will would also have had to stay away from the Willits Bypass construction area for one year under the terms of “conditional probation.”

Under an infraction, the defendant’s case is presided over by a judge rather than a jury. Will was unwilling to accept the financial restitution stipulation and was also adamant about his right to receive a jury trial, so his attorney asked that Eyster re-file the charges as misdemeanors. Eyster responded by essentially “throwing the book” at him, filing entirely different charges rather than simply re-filing the original three infractions.

On Friday, Will joined an international day of action by conducting a one-day fast in solidarity with prisoners who are hunger striking to demand an end to solitary confinement and four other reforms in California prisons. He says the draconian prosecution of his case is one comparatively tiny expression of the same repressive incarceration system that has led the United States to have the world’s largest prison population, and which has fostered the human rights abuses in California prisons that have precipitated the hunger strike.

On Tuesday, August 6th, Will will speak in Fort Bragg in his first public presentation since being removed from the wick drain driver. The Warbler will also speak. More details to follow.

In other Bypass resistance news, Kim Bancroft, Maureen Kane, and Steve Keyes were released yesterday morning following an arraignment, without charges having been filed. They were arrested and held for two days after locking down to an excavator that has been removing soil from the hillsides in the proposed Bypass’ southern interchange area. They delayed the excavator’s work for more than five hours. About a dozen supporters came out to support their appearance at the Mendocino County Courthouse.

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THE US SUPREME COURT has ruled, the usuals (Thomas, Scalia, and the other clown, Alito) dissenting, that the early release of nearly 10,000 California inmates by year’s end should go forward. Jerry Brown, as always talking left and acting right, and other state officials claim early release would cause a “safety crisis.”

WE KNOW a dozen inmates presently serving unreasonably lengthy sentences who, if they were released today, would not re-offend. And I know two other guys, sentenced to life without at age 19 are not the same men they were when they committed murder. People with direct personal experience of state and federal incarceration will tell anybody who will listen that roughly 20% of the people locked up for long periods of time should be kept locked up. They are irredeemable. But the 80% kept behind bars for periods out of all proportion to their crime, pose no threat to their fellow citizens.

A PANEL of three federal judges had previously ordered the state to cut 
its prison population by nearly 8% — roughly 110,000 inmates — by
 December 31st to avoid conditions amounting to cruel and unusual punishment.
 That panel, responding to decades of lawsuits filed by inmates, repeatedly
 ordered early releases after finding inmates were needlessly dying and 
suffering because of inadequate medical and mental health care caused by 
overcrowding.

COURT-APPOINTED experts found that the prison system had a suicide rate
 that worsened last year to 24 per 100,000 inmates, far exceeding the 
national average of 16 suicides per 100,000 inmates in state prisons.

DON SPECTER of the Berkeley-based Prison Law
 Office said Friday’s Supreme Court ruling underscores what inmates have been arguing for years, but that “conditions are still overcrowded, and the medical and health
care remain abysmal.”

CALIFORNIA has already transferred thousands of low-level 
and nonviolent offenders to county jails where local officials — Humboldt County, for instance — have been forced into releasing some inmates early to ease county jail overcrowding. Mendocino County is running right at legal capacity.

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RECOMMENDED VIEWING: “The Act of Killing” focuses on two jolly, government-sponsored killers the Indonesian military deployed during the Suharto coup of 1965 to murder alleged communists. Perhaps as many as a million people were slaughtered, many of them ethnic Chinese, unaffiliated with communists. Some of the greatest massacres occurred on Bali, long synonymous among American lotus eaters as the ultimate good vibes destination. The Indonesian government still uses a fascist-type militia to suppress demonstrations.

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MORNING CONSULT, a healthcare media company, has commissioned an online poll from Survey Sampling 
International, Inc. which found a stunning 77% of the 2,000 registered voters polled want to see 
Obamacare’s individual health insurance mandate delayed or tossed entirely. Only 11% agreed with the Obama administration’s contention that 
fully implementing ObamaCare will lower 
their “total health care costs, such as appointment co-payments, monthly 
premiums, deductibles and drug co-payments.”

MEMBERS of Congress and their staffs, of course, have made their own deal with the White House to
 subsidize their enrollment in healthcare exchanges out of taxpayer dollars; Americans of ordinary means will struggle to pay between $300 and $500 a month for mandated health insurance under ObamaCare. If they don’t buy coverage, they’ll be fined via the IRS, although the House of Representatives passed a bill Friday that would deny the IRS any funding to operate or enforce the health care law (!)


AMERICANS are supposed to enroll in 
the healthcare exchanges beginning October 1. Government employees are also supposed to enroll in the exchanges, which the
 White House needs to expand by many millions of Americans in order to make 
ObamaCare’s math work.

POLLS INDICATE that more Americans than ever want the ObamaCare law repealed, and a majority disapprove of it. Get this: The ObamaCare call center hired part-time employees — denying them the very 
healthcare benefits they are promoting. The ObamaCare employer mandate has been delayed until 2015 after the 2014 midterm elections so this massive swindle won’t hurt Democrat electoral chances.

THIS LOOMING FIASCO was caused by Obama and the Democrats who invited the health insurance companies to write the “reform” legislation. Republicans, natch, like the free enterprise aspect of it but claim to dislike the compulsory parts, especially the use of the IRS as collection agent. Meanwhile, single-payer, the only feasible approach to mass healthcare, remains on the No Option table because insurance companies oppose it.

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THERE ARE SEVERAL fires burning in the very northern areas of Humboldt and another two in Trinity County, hence some smoke over Mendocino County today.

The Butler Fire, located on the Six Rivers National Forest, is located approximately 10 miles east of Somes Bar, California. Northern California Interagency Team 2 is managing the incident. The following closures remain in effect:

Highway 93 (Forks of Salmon Road) is closed at the Highway 96 intersection.

Nordheimer Campground is closed.

The land around the Salmon River is closed 300 feet from the high watermark between the confluence of Wooley Creek and the confluence of Nordheimer Creek.

Firefighters continue to prioritize protection of residences along the Salmon River. Fire reached the area of Morehouse Mine, where structures are threatened. As of Sunday morning, the fire lines were holding around those structures. The fire continues to burn mostly on the south side of the Salmon River in the area east of Butler Flat. Efforts to reach a spot fire on the north side of the river continue to be hampered by poor visibility and steep terrain. The fire was active around the perimeter yesterday and progressed across Lewis Creek (on the southern side) and into Grant Creek drainage (on the northeastern side). The fire is burning in the fire scars of the Hog Fire (1977). Difficult terrain, heavy vegetation, snags and poor access to the fire have continued to limit firefighting strategies. Crews are working today to open and utilize lines from the Somes Fire (2006).

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DENNIS O’BRIEN TELL US:

Dear Friends,

The Mendocino Environmental Center recently hosted a community radio forum with the San Francisco Mime Troupe and several local organizations. You can listen to the full two-hour show by going to http://www.sharejerusalem.com/files/Video/sfmimetroupecommunity.mp3 We discussed who we are, how we can work better together, and how we can better engage the public. All who attended and listened found it very inspiring. To support the work of the Center and it radio station, KMEC 105.1 FM, please become a member. For regular membership, send a check for $35 to Mendocino Environmental Center, 106 West Standley Street, Ukiah, CA 95482. Your check is sufficient for membership if it includes your address and contact information. Thank you very much for your interest and support.

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STUDY: NEW RAIL IS ‘HIGH COST, HIGH RISK’

By Daniel Mintz

A draft feasibility study prepared for the county’s Harbor District has identified several challenges to railroad development and deemed it to be a “high cost and high risk” venture.

Authored by the Washington-based BST Associates and the Portland-based Burgel Rail Group consulting firms, the draft study’s focus has disappointed rail advocates who believe imported manufactured goods are an important source of rail cargo.

The study only considers export of bulk goods such as coal, grain and iron ore, describing them as high volume, strong growth rail traffic commodities that “represent a key source of revenue to railroads.”

High cargo volume is described as a requirement for recouping investment, debt and operation costs of a new rail line. Developing an east-west railroad is estimated in the study to cost up to $1.2 billion. The cost of redeveloping the North Coast Railroad Authority’s unused north-south line from Windsor to Samoa is estimated at $609,000 in the study.

Etching an east-west rail corridor from here to the Gerber/Redding area and its connection to a national rail line is a challenging proposition due to the “extreme ruggedness” of the terrain, according to the study. The distance is about 100 miles but 200 miles of rail track would be needed as the route would wind and curve around slopes and mountains.

Three primary east-west route alternatives are outlined in the study, beginning in the Eureka/Arcata/Samoa areas and ending at Union Pacific railheads in the Redding/Gerber/Red Bluff areas.

The study questions whether rail development is economically feasible, as there are several existing West Coast port/rail connections.

“Humboldt County would face several competitive disadvantages relative to these other ports, including the need to cover the cost of constructing the new line and the lack of a rail distance advantage,” the study states.

It references a 2009 study sponsored by the Security National Company, which operates a shipping terminal in Fairhaven. Drafted by the UK-based Drewry Shipping Consultants firm, that analysis focused on imports of container (manufactured) goods and part of its executive summary is quoted in BST/Burgel study.

“This report concluded that ‘Under no foreseeable circumstances should Security National consider building a new container terminal at the port, without the prior contractual support of at least one shipping line, in the hope that ‘the lines will come when it is built’,” the study states.

Also included is this quote from the Drewry report summary: “The difficulty will lie in convincing the shipping lines that the Port of Humboldt Bay offers sufficient competitive advantages over Prince Rupert, Vancouver, Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and Oakland for it to fully support the project before construction commences.”

Returning to its focus on exports, the study adds that “it is assumed that if Humboldt County were to attract a commodity that is not currently shipped through another West Coast port, it would most likely be destined for Asia.”

Coal is identified as the commodity that fits the assumption, as the amounts shipped from the U.S. have “risen sharply” in recent years. Corn and petroleum products are also named as high volume Asian export commodities.

Humboldt would have an export distance advantage over some West Coast rail-connected ports, such as the one in Coos Bay, but the study deems it to be insubstantial. Far greater is the basic advantage offered by other shipping hubs compared to Humboldt, according to the study.

“A critical advantage that all of these other ports have relative to Humboldt County is that the rail lines are already in place,” the study states. “In addition, most of these existing rail routes are capable of handling large volumes of heavy rail traffic, without the billion dollar-plus investment needed for an east-west route to Humboldt County.”

The draft study was presented to the Harbor District’s Board of Commissioners and an audience of railroad advocates and skeptics on July 25.

Brian Winningham of BST described various financing scenarios and said higher-interest borrowing may be more appropriate for a high risk project like rail development. Depending on the interest rate for financing, a north-south rail would need to move anywhere from 5.6 to 42 million tons a year of cargo and an east-west operation would need 11.5 to 100 million tons to cover costs, he said.

Winningham compared that with the “top export ports” of Portland, Oregon and Kalama, Washington, which each handle 10 to 12 million tons a year. “When you get up to some of the higher volumes, these are beyond what anybody on the West Coast does right now,” Winningham said of the Humboldt cargo estimates.

Commissioner Richard Marks said he attended a forum whose participants said they’ve been negotiating with the Wal-Mart corporation on importing its products to Humboldt’s port.

When Winningham said Humboldt would be competing with Oakland’s port – which he said has additional capacity – Marks pointed out that Humboldt has a two-day shipping time advantage when fielding imports from Asia.

But Commissioner Pat Higgins, a rail skeptic, said the expansion of Oakland’s port was government-supported and lower payback on borrowing would allow Oakland to “undercut” Humboldt if it came down to a bidding war.

Winningham said container volumes peaked in 2005 and there’s “new competition” from Canadian ports and even more will be introduced with the widening of the Panama Canal. “It’s a riskier business now,” he said, adding that ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach are also expanding.

The study cost $19,000 and was paid for by the California Department of Transportation.

REVISITING BASSLER

Dear AVA,

A few months ago, I read Allman and Spark’s hastily written how-to on catching a mentally ill killer, who also happened to be an excellent tracker and survivalist outwitting inner-city swat teams and police brigades by the hundreds in the Mendocino woods.

When I got to the part where Allman had just received news of the killing of Bassler and headed out Hwy 20 to the site, passing by, but not stopping to inform Bassler’s mother of his death, my heart ached with disappointment. Are the family of high profile killings by cop no longer informed by law enforcement when law enforcement has to act defensively in a mortal way in regards to a relative outside the law?

In this case such consideration was not given. Bassler’s family heard of his killing through the grapevine — not law enforcement. Natch Mom, conflicted and oblivious as she was, was not always forthcoming with information about knowledge of her son’s activities.

Instead Allman’s rendition sounded and felt like no victor vanquishing crime, but childishly hateful in intentionally NOT stopping to inform Bassler’s mother of her son’s killing. As though Allman had chosen in a very ugly way then, stooping to no better than her level, by matching her actions in choosing to not inform — like she did when dropping Bassler off with rifle in the location of Matt’s killing. Somehow, law enforcement is still supposed to be expected to take the higher moral ground, and failed at that last chance.

Many folks whom I’ve asked if they read the book, won’t even read it, and find it distasteful and opportunistic of Allman’s re-election bid, even if the money is donated to mental health blah, blah, blah.

Also in the book, why no mention of the extraneously unidentified burner/disposable cell phone call (the “hit” call) reporting Melo had been hit and was on the ground. A lot of folks hated Melo and the work that he did. It was creepy and weird then, that his body was left there overnight by law enforcement. That’s the strangest part of the whole story. Was it an assassination of Melo?

Law and lumber concerns about homeless vagrant campers numbering a small community (who also provided law enforcement with helpful witness information regarding meeting Bassler in those woods) were expensively rectified by the woodland sifting and dollars dedicated to Bassler’s highly expensive end.

Aaron Bassler kept trying to return to his mother’s home. Why didn’t law enforcement let him? Why could they not let Mom feed him one last time with laced food? Start with any one of several highly effective and expedient knock out drugs added to his mom’s food and let her feed him one last time.

Allman comes up for re-election. He’s starting to collect money for his campaign NOW. Can’t we get Tony Craver back? Recently Allman was asking for donations because the Sheriff’s Dept. is broke. After Allman’s been on whose side of how many pot confiscations — especially for those in his unsuccessful zip tie program? Pick another badge-man Mendocino!

Name Withheld, Fort Bragg

ED REPLY: I know for a fact that both Basslers were kept fully informed throughout that awful series of events, and that Allman and Captain Smallcomb did everything they could to bring Bassler in alive. It was an unprecedented occurrence, and given that Bassler had committed two murders and seemed likely to commit more, law enforcement’s first priority had to be the safety of the wider community. Expecting the Sheriff to stop by the former Mrs. Bassler’s home to bring her the news of her son’s death seems wildly unreasonable to me in the circumstances. Melo was shot down doing his job managing a timber property, ordinarily not a capital offense. Drug people, many of them forever stalled in Blue Meanie mode, forget that at least half the population of this county do not assume the libertarian position on the drug issue. Allman is Sheriff of everyone while going to extraordinary and extraordinarily creative lengths to accommodate the pot brigades only to be overridden by federal authority, which is where the unreason on the entire drug question resides. He’s been a good Sheriff in a difficult time, and I think the book is an honest account of the Bassler affair, and a must read for anyone interested in local history.

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Presswood

ORLANDO VILLALPANDO, 18, of Fort Bragg, was knocked unconscious during a 30-person brawl on South Street around 3 a.m. Sunday morning. Villalpando was punched in the face and hit his head on the sidewalk when he fell, apparently suffering a severe concussion. He was flown from Coast Hospital to Santa Rosa in serious condition. Another Fort Bragg man, Jonathan Presswood, 24, has been arrested on a charge of “assault with force likely to create serious bodily injury or death.” Sgt. Gilchrest of the Fort Bragg Police Department said the incident remains under investigation and more charges are possible against people involved in the fight.

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ALSO ON SUNDAY, Franz Westfel, 46, of Oregon, was killed when the pick-up he was riding in on a private road near Laytonville plunged over the side, ejecting Westfel. The driver, not identified, was not seriously injured. The victim’s Oregon hometown has not been identified pending notification of his family.

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THAT WAS AN ALARMING headline on the front page of last week’s ICO, the weekly paper serving Mendocino County’s south coast. “Anger fueled by Chronicle spills over,” it read, conjuring visions of Gualala’s first-ever street riot. Alongside Lisa Walter’s account of local anger spilling over was a photo of the object of all that unleashed wrath, a pleasant looking Asian woman identified as Stephanie Lee. What had Stephanie done to roil the ordinarily placid precincts of the Sea Ranch north to Point Arena? She’d written a Sunday piece for the Chron saying, essentially, that the South Coast was home to a bunch of couch-bound fatso-watsos who got that way because the nearest healthy food was two hours south in Santa Rosa. The rest of Mendocino County was, the writer suggested, equivalently backwards when it came to diet and exercise. Harrumph and Double Harrumph. Fatso-watsos and lean, mean fighting machines alike have rushed into the ICO’s print to point out that Ms. Lee’s story managed not to see all the healthy food available on the South Coast, not to mention her impaired sight in not noticing the unlimited recreation ops. Golly, Steph, wake up. Myself, I thought Steph’s story was a hoot, as many Chron stories are these days as the paper, like all newspapers, fights to stay alive. The real oddity was the story’s origins — some foundation provided the funding for Steph’s uncomprehending jaunt to Gualala. Oh, and this rather alarming statement by a South Coastie called Mark Bollock: “The poor woman you interviewed will be ostracized in our very small, tight knit town.” Bollocks, Mark! Tightly wrapped might be the phrase we want here. Why should the poor thing be ostracized for, she says, being misquoted? (People always say they’ve been misquoted when they see what they said in print.) If she wants to shop in the Rose City who could possibly care? And what kind of uptight gink even thinks of ostracizing someone over something this trivial?

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THE MENDOCINO COUNTY MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES ACT (MHSA) FORUM for Children and Families & Transitional Age Youth (TAY) will be August 13, 2013 from noon to 1pm in Point Arena.

The Mendocino County Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) Forum for Adults and Older Adults will be August 13, 2013 from 1-2pm at the same location.

The meetings will occur at the Point Arena Library at 225 Main Street, Point Arena. Members of the public are encouraged to attend the meetings to provide suggestions, ideas and feedback on the MHSA programs. Meeting agendas are published at: http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/hhsa/mhsa.htm .

To attend either of these meetings by phone,

Call-In Number: (888) 296-6828

When prompted for the Participant Pin, Dial: 756853 followed by the pound # sign.

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CHP MAKES PROTEST WORSE

By David Little, Chico Enterprise-Record

The old existential question of whether a tree falling in the forest makes a sound has been reformulated in Mendocino County.

The modern-day questions: If people are protesting a highway project, but the government ensures that no news photographers are allowed to take pictures, does the protest exist? And if a photographer is arrested in Willits, does it make a sound?

We’re getting those answers, and two misguided state agencies don’t like them. The ham-handed actions of the California Highway Patrol and Caltrans don’t put them in a flattering spotlight.

Willits isn’t the middle of nowhere, but it’s in the same area code. (I know this because my grandfather used to run the newspaper there.) Though it’s a small town, it has inexplicably long backups on Highway 101. They’ve talked about a highway bypass around town for decades, and it’s finally getting built.

Well-organized protesters are disrupting the construction, however, and have been since winter. The protests — people chaining themselves to construction equipment, living in trees that are being bulldozed, and so forth — don’t get much attention outside of Willits.

Willits has a twice-weekly newspaper, and there’s a daily newspaper a half-hour down the road in Ukiah, but the area is too far out of reach for big Bay Area newspapers, the Associated Press and any TV station.

The Willits News, which is owned by the same company that owns the Enterprise-Record, has been covering the protests, though. A Willits News freelance photographer, a retiree named Steve Eberhard, has taken some very interesting photos of the protests. And lately it seems the CHP and Caltrans have been more fixated on the only journalist there than the protesters.

Eberhard was arrested while shooting a protest early on a Tuesday morning, July 23. He was the first person arrested that day, just after sunrise.

Eberhard was supposed to have a Caltrans escort, as the agency has requested. When he tried to call that Caltrans liaison early that morning, he got no response. News doesn’t always happen during business hours, so he didn’t wait for the escort. He never even took a photo that day. He was arrested quickly.

Though no other journalists were there, one protester took film of the arrest that was quickly posted to YouTube. The video doesn’t make the CHP look good. The conversation between Eberhard and an officer looked cordial, till another officer showed up and arrested him.

So that question about whether anybody would know if a news photographer was arrested in Willits? It was answered when newspapers from Humboldt County to San Bernardino County ran editorials chastising the CHP for stomping on constitutional rights.

The CHP and Caltrans responded with a letter, printed today, that dances around the truth. It doesn’t mention that Eberhard called for an escort and got no response. It says he refused an order to leave. Eberhard said he asked an officer to read him the dispersal order, and instead the officer handcuffed him.

It ignores the fact Eberhard was not interfering with the property owner’s (the government’s) property rights, but rather was engaged in newsgathering activities protected by the First Amendment.

It also says journalists have been treated with “respect and professional courtesy.” But Eberhard was once shoved from behind by an officer while being escorted, and another time, the CHP threatened to arrest protesters, starting with the media.

The letter’s statement that the press has been treated with nothing but “respect and professional courtesy” is a fabrication by two bureaucrats who are either trying to cover up the mistakes of lower-level employees, or asking those employees to act as henchmen toward those annoying reporters.

Why? Because they hope nobody is paying attention.

(David Little is editor of the Enterprise-Record and Oroville Mercury-Register. His column appears each Sunday. He can be reached at dlittle@chicoer.com or 896-7793. Courtesy, the Chico-Enterprise Record.)

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Estrada

LOW GAP BOOGIE. On July 30, 2013 at approximately 11pm, a deputy from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office observed a vehicle traveling northbound on North Highway 101 with multiple traffic violations. The deputy conducted a traffic stop in the area of the Irvine Lodge Rest Area, near Laytonville. The vehicle was occupied by several individuals who stated that they were travelling to the Reggae on the River music festival. One female passenger, Cesia Estrada, 20, of Los Angeles, was wanted for an outstanding drug related arrest warrant from Iowa. The deputy searched Estrada’s belongings and located over 20 grams of a flat reddish substance that was determined to be MDMA, commonly known as “Ecstasy.” Estrada was arrested for the outstanding warrant and possession of a controlled substance for sale. All other passengers were released at the scene. Estrada was transported to the county jail where she was booked on the outstanding warrant and possession for sale of a controlled substance. Bail was set at $20,000 for the Iowa warrant and $25,000 for the drug violation. (Sheriff’s Press Release)

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ADDRESSING COMMUNITY CONCERNS ABOUT THE ECOLOGICAL IMPACT OF BIOMASS REMOVAL FROM FORESTLAND

Presented By The Mendocino County Woody Biomass Working Group (WBWG) & The Coastal Biomass Collaborative

You are invited to attend a community education and discussion session regarding the ecological impact of biomass removal in Mendocino County Forests. Three events will be held throughout the County: Ft Bragg- Aug. 20th 5-7:30pm County Library in Ft. Bragg, Community Room Covelo- Aug. 21st 5-7:30 pm Tribal Administration Building, Buffalo Room Ukiah- Aug. 22nd 5-7:30pm Grace Hudson Museum, Public Meeting Room Background: These meetings are a follow-up to a series of community events in 2009-10 hosted by the Mendocino County Woody Biomass Group (WBWG), where we solicited community concerns about biomass removal. The August 2013 meetings are in direct response to the primary concern of the community- overharvesting of biomass causing ecological harm to our forests. Meeting Topics: Ecological Assessment of Biomass Thinning in Coastal Forests-A Literature Review, By Greg Giusti of the U.C. Cooperative Extension; Guidelines for Talking with Your Forester, a tool to help forest landowners ensure ecological sustainability when removing biomass from their land- presented by Greg Giusti of U.C. Cooperative Extension; Current Initiatives- Small Scale Biomass Utilization, a review of the projects that are being pursued in the County and how they are ecologically sustainable; Biochar Demonstration Project; 3MW Electricity Facilities; Community Discussion, about the Literature Review and Projects in the County Who Should Attend? We are encouraging landowners, foresters, elected officials, county regulators, non-profit and conservation organizations, and representatives of environmental groups to attend.

Please RSVP to Judith@rffi.org<mailto:Judith@rffi.org> to sign up for one of the events and to receive a copy of Ecological Assessment of Biomass Thinning in Coastal Forests-A Literature Review to read before the event.

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ROBBERY IN COVELO. On August 3, 2013 at about 9pm deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office were detailed to investigate the burglary of a cabin off of Highway 162 near Covelo. Deputies learned a vacation cabin had been broken into and items were taken. The reporting party advised he had walked to a neighboring cabin and had seen through the window items of his property inside this residence. He contacted the neighboring property owner and learned no one was supposed to be at this cabin. On August 4 deputies met with the reporting party for further investigation of the crime. Deputies also spoke with the owner of the second cabin where the stolen property had been seen and learned no one was supposed to be at the location. Deputies walked to the residence where they encountered a subject outside of the residence. Deputies attempted to contact the subject who picked up a firearm and began to run away from the cabin. Deputies ordered the subject to drop the firearm several times, and the subject complied throwing the firearm to the ground, while continuing to run away. The subject fled the location and ran down the Eel River canyon towards Dos Rios. The residence was cleared and no additional suspects were located. Deputies located the firearm which had been dropped by the suspect and found it was a crudely fashioned shotgun which had been constructed of plumbing materials and was loaded with a 12 gauge shotgun round. Also located at the residence were items of stolen property which belonged to the reporting party. These items were recovered and returned to the owner. Further investigation revealed this second residence had also been entered through a window and it appeared the suspect was a transient who had taken up residence in the cabin. The suspect is described as a Caucasian male adult in his mid 40s to early 50s. 5’ 09” to 6’0” with brown hair, and a gray beard. The suspect was last seen wearing blue jeans and a tan beanie type cap. Anyone with information regarding this subject is urged to contact Sergeant Matt Kendall, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, at (707) 463-4086. (Sheriff’s Press Release.)

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THIS MAY SOUND INSANE BUT…

I WANT YOU TO FORWARD THIS OUT TO OTHER RADICAL SPIRITUAL PARTICIPANTS

Hello everyone, I understand that by now this must appear to be insane, but for reasons known only to the inner cabal, the Washington D.C. IMC removed for the umpteenth time my message re: D.C. Beltway Protest Caravan Action. Let’s get something straight, alright? I am certain that an action of dissent circumambulating the D.C. beltway is very spiritually intelligent, and is the only effective large scale possibility to counteract the bogus energy inside of the beltway. I am also certain that a combination of ritual performance, chanting mantrams, perhaps your band on the back of a flat bed truck?, and other creative, imaginative participation, would in fact function as a neutralizing agent to the abominable, stupid decision-making, which is utterly devoid of any spiritual intelligence, and is the hopeless condition of the United States government, particularly inside of the D.C. beltway. Three of us, formerly of the D.C. Occupy kitchen working group, are guesting at a house near Pittsburgh; I recently returned from California; and we want others to cooperate with us to 1.get us situated closer to Washington D.C., and 2.create with us an effective D.C. beltway protest caravan.

Craig Louis Stehr, August 5, 2013

Email: craigstehr@hushmail.com

Blog: http://craiglstehr.blogspot.com

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ANIMAL CARE SERVICES STAKEHOLDER MEETING

Animal Care Services welcomes public insight and input at the Animal Care Stakeholder Meeting taking place on August 28, 2013 from 10am to Noon. The public is highly encouraged to bring ideas on how Animal Care Services can better serve the community. New Shelter Manager Sage Mountainfire will introduce newly hired Katherine Houghtby as Adoption Coordinator, explaining the roles of both. The shelter’s successes and challenges in the past year will open discussion on future improvements. This annual meeting will be held at the Ukiah Animal Shelter located at 298 Plant Road. Snacks will be provided. For those unable to attend, please submit your ideas, question or concerns to Ms. Mountainfire via email at mountais@co.mendocino.ca.us or call 707-463-4654.

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UKIAH COUNCILPERSON MARI RODIN responded to critic John Sakowicz who, a few days ago, had sarcastically complained, ““Just because 50/50 sounds fair, it is not necessarily fair,” said soon-to-be-retired Ukiah Finance Director Gordon Elton. ‘The 50/50 formula had the county ending up with 122 percent of the sales tax the city does.’ Gordon Elton, in speaking about the County of Mendocino and City of Ukiah tax-sharing sharing agreement, from The Ukiah Daily Journal, July 31, 2013. How does 50 become 122? Where did this guy get his accounting degree? No wonder Ukiah can’t balance its books.”

MS. RODIN REPLIED: “It is because of the proposed ‘make whole’ component of the agreement. You can look that up in the draft. Basically, if the county went below its ‘base’ of sales tax revenue in any particular year, the City would have to pay whatever amount brings the county up to its base and THEN share 50/50 the remaining sales tax revenue. With such a provision, it isn’t hard to see that we’d be giving the county more than we ourselves get and we’d be providing (and paying for) all of the services to support the development. Depending on the figures in any given year (I think Gordon was using figures from Jane’s hypothetical scenario), the split on revenue could be what Gordon said. You should apologize for blaming Gordon.”

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OPEN LETTER TO ELIZABETH SWENSON

My Dear Elizabeth Swenson ––

I want to thank you for keeping Channel 3 on the air for a while, because the ARTS Showcase at least temporally gives me the illusion that my world is not going to hell in a hand basket!

I owe you an apology –– not that I’ve ever been actively related to the Footlighters or MCTV, other than being interviewed for Senior Perspectives and in news clips and having attended Footlighters’ performances. I apologize for the naivety exposed on October 8, 2009 in The Advocate Community Forum, in which in part I said:

“For half a century Footlighters Theater brought the coastal community a touch of down to earth family fun and in doing so earned our sincere thanks. So it was with confusion and sadness that I learned that in the name of Footlighters a lawsuit is pending against MCTV, our public access television station.”

Apparently there was some dispute among the members of Footlighters as to the gift offer of the Footlighters’ somewhat dilapidated building to the TV public access outlet. But as I wrote in 2009 :

“In my view, the Footlighters at the time took proper and responsible action. The reputation of the Footlighters was safeguarded, their deteriorating property brought back into use, while the quality of life for the entire community was enhanced by the strengthening of MCTV. After transfer of ownership, MCTV substantially repaired the property, expending over $100,000 to do so.”

During the two years MCTV spent making structural repairs, Footlighters said nothing. Then a lawsuit –– against MCTV ! not vs Footlighters’ erstwhile President! Apparently absent any mutual discussions, in this action one could discern opportunism, even greed. I remarked then:

“It is difficult to see how destroying MCTV furthers the interests of the people dedicated to the Footlighters. We should focus our energies and creativity rather than let them be consumed by the destruction this lawsuit represents.”

As to my apology: When we chatted in 2009 I was mistakenly assuming good will and community respect would govern the matter of whether or not a law suit. I was in error and am sorry I was not more forthright in urging action.

In light of the current behavior of the remnants of Footlighters, the conflicts of interest shadowing the case, the persistence of misstatements of facts and misdirection by leaders of the Footlighters and their attorney, I should have been more direct in urging public and legal action. Now, I am puzzled why no appeal has been filed. To my mind, the very basis of the law suit was fragile, if non-existent.

The overwhelming reality is that we residents-citizens have been deprived of a vital community communication resource –– an important vehicle for helping to make government processes more visible, accountable, and accessible to our widespread residents.

Yes, we have newspapers and radio, and some of us have broadband computers –– but the loss of MCTV is seminal. For citizens to be able to see and recognize public officials –– and to realize they can speak up to them –– is a precious value. Access, participation and communication are critical to the very existence of our community and our democracy.

In my time I’ve seen many instances of incompetence and unfounded and arrogant assertions –– the McCarthy fiasco, for instance –– but this home-grown one is startling in its viciousness and absence of concern and respect for community needs and values.

Honestly, my personal inclination now in light of this revelation of ethical lapses and absence of community values is to remove myself from this environment. It’s only that being in my 97th year do I refrain from moving. Certainly today I’d not recommend anyone taking up residence or business on the Mendocino coast.

My dear Elizabeth, please remember that in shaping MCTV you achieved a marvelous turn-around against substantial odds. I honor and thank you! Yes, I know you feel it was a team effort, that you had support –– enthusiastic often –– and the MCET-MCTV history will shine on, of that I am certain.

I must say, however, that I am acutely disappointed by the silence and invisibility of our community leadership who, by and large, have not stirred or expressed themselves. I am reminded of Edmund Burke’s comment:

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men [ and women –– HE ] to do nothing.” With warm personal regards, I am

Howard Ennes, Fort Bragg

Blue Meadow Farm gets its name from the blue-eyed grass that cast a lovely blue sheen over the meadow which became our farm field. Sunflowers and zinnias grow there now, among an acre of organic vegetables, most of them cherished heirloom varieties.

The farm is a collaboration between Roy and myself. I’m the farmer. He maintains and repairs small engine equipment, which, he likes to say, helps support my farming habit. He was also instrumental in moving me from gardening to farming.

Salmon are one of nature’s miracles, a resource of protein and nitrogen that feeds entire ecosystems, both marine and terrestrial. Far inland, within river basins of the Pacific Northwest, their biomass nourishes the soil, while at sea, nearly every level of predator — from rockfish to halibut to seal to orca — relies at least partially on this abundant source of food. Salmon are also one of the most revered guests in any kitchen. Their bright red meat is so distinct and so delicious that it hardly qualifies merely as seafood but, rather, occupies a princely culinary category of its own. But within the Pacific salmon genus, Oncorhynchus, there are five main species — and they are all very different. Some restaurant menus will specify the species — especially if the fish is Chinook, also called king. Other times, salmon is sold anonymously or under false marketing names — like “silverbrite” for the ill-named chum salmon. Some is, of course, farmed — almost always the Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar — but such cage-raised fish are not a part of this discussion. Here, we catch, taste and discuss the wild Pacific salmon — from the reddest to the biggest to the best.

Pink Salmon

What this little fish lacks in size it makes up for in sheer abundance. The pink, or humpie, salmon averages just several pounds in weight — like a large trout — but teems in ocean waters from Oregon to Alaska in the tens of millions. They surge upstream to spawn in astonishing numbers, actually clogging streams at times and making easy pickings for bears, birds, wolves and humans. In places along the Pacific Northwest coast, residents may notice a putrid scent emanating from the woods in mid-summer — literally the smell of a good pink year. Pinks caught in the ocean are the best, as with all salmon. But pinks are not known for their excellence as a table fish. Their meat at its prime — before it begins to deteriorate as the fish swim upstream to spawn and die — is grayish-pink. Indeed, many fishermen believe the pink is good for nothing but canning or halibut bait. Others — like this writer — have found sea-bright pinks to be excellent when wrapped in foil, seasoned and grilled.

Chinook Salmon

Few, if any, fish are more prized by fishermen, whether commercial or recreational, than this giant of the salmon family. The Chinook can grow to the size of a human — more than 100 pounds — and also bears the highest fat content of all the five Pacific salmon species. It is generally considered the most delicious, and its secondary name — the king salmon — is absolutely appropriate in more ways than one. Chinook salmon grow largest in Alaskan waters but also spawn in rivers as far south as the Sacramento and the San Joaquin of California, where they are the only commercially caught salmon. A barbecued steak of king, lightly salted, peppered and drizzled with lemon juice, takes seafood lovers into epicurean heaven. Such a cut provides a cross section of the entire creature — from its crispy-when-grilled skin, to the firm back muscle, to the velvety soft and succulent belly meat — often named as the very best part. Can you believe that some fishermen intentionally cut away the belly flesh to use as crab bait? Chinook salmon have declined in numbers in the southern extent of their range, due mostly to destruction of river habitat, while a poorly managed sport fishing industry for the giants of Alaska’s Kenai River has caused a recent population crash — and an emergency season closure.

Chum Salmon

This large and powerful fish is the least known of the Pacific salmon and usually receives the least love — if only because we rarely have a chance to give it any. After they enter freshwater to embark upon their terminal spawning migrations, chums transform dramatically into the ugliest beasts in the Oncorhynchus genus. Their mouths curl into wicked, toothy snarls — especially on males — and their chrome bodies turn brown as large reddish bars and blotches appear along the lateral line. When caught at sea or outside of river mouths, where they often co-mingle with hoards of pink salmon, chums are bright, fresh and — when taken home to eat — perfectly delicious. Some sources suggest cooking chum salmon with a sauce to help moisten the flesh, which is dry compared to that of Chinook or Coho.

But chum, also called dog salmon, was once mainly fed to sled dogs in the far north. It’s rarely found in most American seafood markets, as much of the annual catch goes overseas. Efforts to create culinary demand for chum salmon have struggled and have generally relied on false marketing names, like Keta (the Latin species name of the fish) and Silverbrite (as though all ocean-fresh salmon are not both silver and bright).

Coho Salmon

Esteemed as a fighting game fish as much as it is a food fish, the Coho is unofficially ranked as #2 in the salmon clan. It grows large (up to 30 pounds), aggressively strikes lures and flies and fights wildly when hooked. On the table, it performs just as spectacularly. It has a high oil content (not as high as the Chinook’s) and its meat is rich, red and delicious. In Alaska, Coho salmon remain abundant. The fish are able to spawn in tiny creeks and once did so in virtually every moving West Coast waterway from Santa Barbara to the Arctic. However, south of Canada, Coho habitat — often streams that have been drained, filled, buried or otherwise fouled by development — has dwindled, and so have the fish. Coho are endangered in much of their US range; most Coho that arrives on your plate is Alaskan.

Sockeye Salmon

This second-smallest of the Pacific salmon may be tied with the Coho in terms of table quality. Sockeye flesh is brilliantly colored — almost fluorescent orange — and even when canned is sold as gourmet-grade fish. When served fresh, it is top notch — firm, rich and flavorful. In fact, many salmon devotees consider sockeye the absolute best of all the salmon — even better than the king — however one decides to cook it. Sockeye salmon spawn almost exclusively in river systems connected to lakes, but this biological prerequisite hardly detracts from their abundance. They rival pinks in terms of millions and historically swam up the Columbia River in water-clogging millions, their heads turning green and their bodies brilliant red. Those days are gone south of Canada, thanks to hydroelectric dams, logging and other forms of habitat destruction, but in the Fraser, the Kenai, the Yukon and other river systems — many hardly wider than a sidewalk — sockeye salmon still thrive, and those fillets so red they seem like they’d glow in the dark remain perhaps the most abundant form of wild salmon.

There are pot cases and there are pot cases, and here at ground zero Pot County we see them all, great and small. This one is big, as in big personalities, and its roots go back some.

HIS MANY PHILO friends will be sorry to hear that Robert “Bob” Johnson has died. Bob, 53, had valiantly fought the liver cancer that finally carried him off last Monday in Fort Bragg. He leaves behind his widow, Jacqui. A memorial gathering for friends and family will be announced.

How did I get into this? That’s the inevitable question of concert day, one that has been gnawing at the performer’s nerves through the preceding night, perhaps for days before.

You’ve practiced for weeks on the piece or program you’ve got to play, not to mention the years spent practicing fundamentals of technique. You assure yourself that your interpretations of the works to be performed are finely tuned. You’ve run the pieces countless times at performance tempo. You’ve slowed them down to glacial pace to detach the digits from their muscle memory. At this more moderate pace, the trusty foot soldiers that are your fingers can sometimes doubt their next step. Wherever they falter, you drill the spot again ten times. You play the piece in sections out of order so that you’re sure that in case of momentary setback the forces can be regrouped quickly rather than routed for good.

These and many more training exercises are undertaken until they serve as battlements to enable the performer to hold his or her position against the heavy bombardment and ensuing cavalry charge of the concert. The natural inclination is to throw down the flag and run screaming, leaving Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms face down in the mud behind you.

On concert day, before is always worse than during.

During my teen years an annual piano competition for a small scholarship sponsored by the main Seattle piano dealer was held once a year on a Saturday afternoon. My organ lessons happened each Saturday morning, so that when the day of the piano contest (into which my piano teacher had entered me) rolled around I always had several hours to kill, wandering the streets and occasionally ducking into the old Seattle Public library where I would sit miserably in a carrel, imagining I was at a piano and running the piece through in my mind, checking that my memory of it was intact.

Whether that memory would hold up during the event itself was another question, though I can’t remember now any cataclysms. Perhaps that view of the past is itself a service that memory provides, letting the disastrous outings slip forever from view. During these seemingly endless hours of waiting, time slowed down so much it seemed not to be moving forward at all. Aside from the intervals in the library, the nerve-racked me liked mostly to keep moving. This probably explains why I still prefer to walk to a concert I’m playing, even though I’ve stopped getting too nervous — at least most of the time. If the venue is too far to reach by foot, I always try to take the air just beforehand, rain or shine.

After accepting my fate and going ahead with the performance rather than fleeing in panic, I usually experience a hugely heightened sense of being in the moment, often so much so that I seem to be hovering outside myself watching and listening as the music unfolds as if in slow motion. It is exhilarating and dangerous to hover for too long in that space, for you risk drifting too far from yourself. Things can go badly wrong very quickly in the real world of fingers and keys, feet and pedals. Best to be slightly outside but still crisply engaged, focused in a way I’ve experienced only in musical performance.

As of yet I have not died in performance, either figuratively or literally, but playing in and waiting for my own concerts seems increasingly like a kind of rehearsal for death. After being mired in the thick, gooey, seemingly immovable time leading up to the ordeal you find that the dread thing is actually happening. You are both in the experience and outside of it. And then almost miraculously it is over.

Doubtless this view of a concert stems at least partly from my study of the art of dying in Lutheran Germany of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Believers were enjoined to practice for their deaths every day, often learning uplifting hymns to shore up their faith in salvation in the hour of their death, when the devil would be clawing at them, trying to pull them down to damnation.

A lifelong obsessive practicer, I’ve watched helplessly as the so-called responsibilities of adulthood have cut massively into the undisturbed hours of youthful keyboarding; it is that formative experience that now gets me through the still sometimes terrifying test of a concert.

A rational look at concerts tells you that the performance is not a matter of life and death: the world will go on even if you fall off the organ bench. But rational thought never truly clears the elemental fear. That atavistic panic coupled with the most intense concentration produces (or is produced by) a powerful mix of chemicals. There must be something addictive about being in this state, otherwise why would one find oneself asking again and again: How did I get into this?

Having been introduced to music by my parents, I told myself that my own children should have the same opportunities. Lessons were begun. Practice was encouraged, then enforced, just long enough to make it strangely fulfilling to the young musicians.

And then your own children are suffering the awful nervousness of concert day. You watch the kids go pale, turn away from food. They wonder out loud why it has to be this way. Ultimately they always accept their lot. But you know full well that this is a form of torture for them. You convince yourself that it is good “life experience”: excellent training for the school presentation, public speaking, examinations. But then in the end the only thing that keeps them from revolting from this bizarre ritual is that after the concert is over they claim to have enjoyed it. The memory tested in the performance has already forgotten the preceding agony, expunged by the euphoria of watching yourself riding the knife edge between disaster and glory and living to tell the tale.

David Yearsley is a long-time contributor to CounterPunch and the Anderson Valley Advertiser. His latest book is Bach’s Feet. He can be reached at dgyearsley@gmail.com.

Traveling by train to Philadelphia, going North, you will pass by Chester, Pennsylvania, a city that has been in decline for more than half a century. Founded in 1682, the same year as Philadelphia, Chester was a major manufacturer of US Navy ships from the Civil War until World War II. It also made ammunitions and automobile parts. Despite its relative small size, with a peak population of 66,039 in 1950, Chester was an industrial powerhouse.

In 1926, Mrs. Marin Garvey won a $160 washing machine for coming up with an enduring slogan for her city, “What Chester Makes Makes Chester.” This was fashioned into a huge electric sign that impressed countless rail passengers until 1973, when it was dismantled. Who can forget the sight of Mr. D’ancona taking down the S, T, E and R? Many have sobbed to this day. Though Chester no longer produces anything, saves babies and premature corpses, the same slogan adorns bright blue banners in its mostly derelict downtown. Entire buildings are abandoned and falling apart, its windows boarded up with graying plywood or left hollow. Others have first floors occupied by gasping businesses offering cheap clothes, wigs, way too expensive sneakers or Obama posters and T-shirts. “WE WON!” “HOPE WON!” “YES WE DID!” On sidewalks, black marketeers offer incense, body oils, bead necklaces, underwear and sox. The Cambridge Restaurant has been put out of its misery, thank you, Lord, for I sure won’t miss their home fries, but Italian Brothers is still hanging on. They do make decent hoagies. It is claimed that Chester’s Catherine DiCostanza made the world’s very first in 1925, to feed a starving gambler ambling over from Palermo’s Bar down Third Street.

Lots of Italians back in the day, as well as Irish, Poles, Jews and Ukrainians. With Chester’s industries gone, they have mostly scattered. Recently, though, I walked by a downtown store front and saw all white people inside, a truly rare sight in contemporary Chester. It turned out to be an art opening, with tentative or frustrated watercolors and oils of a snowy pine tree, a pensive cat, a covered bridge or Cubistic jazz musicians… On pedestals, lumpy ceramics. A shy, charcoal nude lounged on a smudgy, charcoal sofa. A man waved at me to come in, so I did, “Hey, what a surprise to see an art opening! Is everybody here from Chester?”

“Not all of us, but we live nearby.”

A woman appeared, “Did you sign our guess book? Come, come, sign our guess book.”

As I printed my first name, though, she said, “We do have a suggested five dollar donation.”

I have attended many art openings, from Soho to art school, to suburban old ladies’ watercolor society, but I have never encountered an admission fee, and five bucks also mean two Rolling Rocks at the Gold Room, one block over. Seeing me cringing, the lady added, “It’s for the wine and cheese.”

“Forget it, forget it,” I crossed my name out, and walked out to her “No! No!” At many art openings, you do see hungry art students, an odd bag lady or a clearly homeless guy stuffing their faces with cheddar and crackers while draining Yellow Tail Shiraz or Duck Pond Chardonnay, so the five buck fee may be a measure to prevent undesirables from crashing this schlock fest.

What made that art bad wasn’t so much execution but orientation. Rootless, it was indifferent to its surroundings, that is, it didn’t pay attention to Chester, didn’t care at all for it. No art is worthless if it reflects in any way its place of origin, so no painting, photo, poem or short story about Chester can be bad if it reveals any aspect of this place, but to do this, one must first pay close attention. Folk art is never without charm and interest, but much of cosmopolitan art is mediocre since it is removed, in time and distance, from its original moment of inspiration. This cosmopolitan art may be partly salvaged by its backwoods dilution, distortion or bastardization, however, but the pleasure is likely mild, the humor unintentional. Seeing a show of Canadian Impressionist paintings in Ottawa, I remember thinking, Why? And would you care for Thai Suprematism, Ugandan Constructivism or Fijian Neo Geo? With globalism unraveling, we can return to the local in each sphere of our lives, and that means a revival of regionalism in all the arts. We’ve been jerked about by the distant media long enough, teased and dictated by distant cultural centers. It’s time we observe and listen to what’s right in front of us.

It was a Saturday evening, but Chester’s main drag, Avenue of the States, was mostly empty. Even fifteen years ago, there would have been many shoppers, or loiterers, at least. Now, there was hardly a parked car to break in. On both sides of the street for an entire block, there was only one business open, Huddle Barbershop. On this scorching night, two box fans were kept on high. The owner/barber would work until 10PM, at least. In his window, a flyer with “Get To Know Your Candidates. ‘Let’s Get Back To Progress,’” with the faces of two smiling, suited yet unnamed individuals, one man, one woman, with the man much taller.

Wanting to meet, or at least see some people, I decided to go to the Gold Room. On the way, I walked past the old Excelsior Saving Fund, with its sign reduced to “UND.” The Gold Room is large and cool, with three pool tables and five televisions. Once settled at the bar, one will notice two shelf altars featuring incense, the Vajaradhara and a beer-bellied Chinese God of Wealth, so is the owner Asian? No, just a black Buddhist. I came in as the daytime bartender was finishing her shift. Walking out, a middle-aged white guy hollered, “Your husband must be a wonderful man, because you are a wonderful lady!” She smiled, naturally. Minutes later, she said to some young guy, “Ah, you look wonderliscious today! That’s a new word. I’m gonna patent it!” Then she complimented some giggling and boobiliscious apparition, hovering at the far end of the bar, backlit by a Southern Comfort light from heaven or hell, “You’re so sexy. I can just hug you!” A man in his late twenties then chimed in with a false note, I think, “I’d love to spend money on both of y’all.”

This verbal orgy finally stopped with the new bartender, but she also gushed in her own way, with a low cut dress that flaunted a glittering, burning skull on her buttocks, and “MISFIT” in bold black on her back. What a pun, eh, with a skull as pelvic girdle, or dead head as live bottom, with the anus where mouth should be? “From my booty, death will rise,” she emitted wordlessly. “You may think you’re staring at my ass, but you’re just seeing your own cracked skull, sucka. I mean, sugar.”

Thirty-years-old, Misfit was born in Chester, but left at 17 to work in a home for retarded people in Williamsport, in the idyllic Poconos. It didn’t pay very much, but it got her out of Chester. After nine years doing that, however, she took a $950 course to become an emergency medical technician, that is, an ambulance attendant, for which she was paid less than $2,000 a month, take home, then she was let go. She tried hard, but couldn’t land a similar job anywhere else, so she settled for this bartending gig. Misfit admitted that business was also down at the Gold Room, and no one she knew was doing well, “But we’re in a recovery nationally, right?”

“No,” I said, “and it’s only going to get worse.”

“You think so?”

“Yes, I travel all over the country, and it’s the same shit all over, and everyone I talk to says they’re not doing well. Well, eight or nine out of ten, anyway. Almost no one is doing well.”

“So what should we do?”

“You just have to cover your own ass, that’s all.”

I should have said, “You just have to cover your own skull, that’s all,” or better yet, “We just have to cover each other’s flaming skull, that’s all.” As the only bar in downtown Chester, the Gold Room should survive for a while, so Misfit’s job is probably safe, but like many people these days, she must be willing to switch jobs at a moment’s notice, do something entirely different to survive. The word career has become nearly meaningless. We have all become career improvisers.

At someone else’s mercy, we can fit in momentarily, but from their careful, cost-cutting calculation or sudden, inexplicable whim, we become misfits again, for that is what we are. We’re not misfits as fashion statement, but essentially. Try as we might, we cannot adjust ourselves dexterously enough to our rapidly shifting surroundings, of which we have no role in shaping. In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” there’s a misfit who says, “I was a gospel singer for a while […] I been most everything. Been in the arm service, both land and sea, at home and abroad, been twict married, been an undertaker, been with the railroads, plowed Mother Earth, been in a tornado, seen a man burnt alive oncet.” He has also killed, robbed and been jailed, and though everything has happened to him, nothing matters, because nothing makes sense. Sounds familiar?

You think you’re a housepainter? Wrong! A secretary? Wrong! A nurse? Wrong! A professor? Wrong! A pipe fitter? Wrong! A dock worker? Wrong! Though nothing adds up, one still has to eat daily, so one solution is to become a mass murderer, if only in an auxiliary capacity. At Concord and 7th, I saw a flyer in a torn plastic sleeve, stapled to a light pole:

US MARINES

WE HAVE EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES

NON COMBAT JOBS AVAILABLE

FULL TIME (ACTIVE DUTY) OR PART TIME (RESERVE PROGRAM)

FULL BENEFITS TO START/

FAMILY COVERAGE

DO THINGS THAT OTHERS ONLY DREAM ABOUT DOING

BETTER YOUR FUTURE, CALL OR TEXT SERGEANT WILLIAMS

To kill or be killed is here presented as improving oneself and one’s family, as sheer survival, for in trading in one’s freedom, humanity and conscience, one will get adequate health care and nutrition, maybe even a home in a safe environment. To attain these basics, however, one must first become a berserker. Kill! Kill! Kill! I In Harrisburg, I had encountered a National Guard poster:

There are all kinds of moments you’ll experience where you serve the people of your community in the National Guard. If you’ve got it inside you, this is your time to act.

The accompanying image showed soldiers standing outside a suburban home during some kind of rescue mission. This is very reassuring, for they are not threatened in any way, nor are they menacing anybody. They’re not kicking down some foreigner’s door and terrorizing his family, and most importantly, they’re not getting their nuts blown off seven or eight time zones away. As a National Guardsman, you’ll only be rescuing your neighbor’s siamese from some midget tree, this poster was implying, and you’ll be home in time to watch your dreadful Phillies.

I wanted to get away from downtown Chester, drink in a neighborhood dive and hear, or overhear, what those folks have to say, so I decided to go to the Love People Lounge on Highland Avenue. I had no idea what that neighborhood was like, but I had seen this bar from the train, many times, and had always wanted to walk in because of its irresistible name. When I got there, though, I found out that it had been closed, with even its sign removed. Oh well, I thought, let’s find another place to drink, so I started walking.

In many distressed cities, as in Detroit, Gary, East St. Louis or Camden, to walk into the unknown is to be a reconnaissance scout or a suicide, not so much a tourist, and Chester has a violent crime rate more than four times the national average, and it was sunny that day, meaning perfect for a mugging, but also ideal for a pleasant walk, and I was getting very thirsty for a Colt 45 or a Yuengling, so I kept walking. In truth, it wasn’t half bad. I passed Give Me Suga, an inviting Caribbean joint serving jerk chicken and oxtail. I saw people sitting on their porches or steps, and two pudgy, middle aged men, one black, one white, sprawled on folding lawn chairs beneath a bouffant tree. Every so often I’d see a desperate sign offering a home for less than $20,000, cash, and presently I came to another house that looked abandoned, with no glass in its windows and its door boarded up, but there was a newish Direct TV dish attached to its wall. Is it possible that someone was watching a movie on demand, say, Titanic or The 40 Year Old Virgin, while lying on a bare mattress, with a half finished bag of Cheetos next to him? In winter, snow drifts into the gaping windows as he cheers our hapless Flyers. Since it is dark, and nobody’s outside, no one who’s up to any good anyway, he can comfortably piss from the second floor, his dick en plein air, as they say. With tall grass and weeds besieging, and no air conditioning or heat, this home is a rough-and-tumble, back to nature dwelling, a cabin in the woods, except no bears will attack you here, only men down to their last quarter or fix.

There were no lit beer signs at the front, so Sporty’s West End Cocktail Lounge didn’t even appear open, but I could hear the hum of the air conditioning, so I opened the door and walked in. Sporty and his bartender seemed a bit startled to see me, but everything was cool as I sat down and ordered a bottle. It was just after 1PM, and I was the only customer. For the next two hours, the only other patrons only sneaked in to buy a six-pack or can to go. As she left, a woman in her late 40’s shouted to Sporty, “Make some money now!”

“I’m with you on that!” Sporty then returned to his video game, with its thin, whistle like gun shots constantly discharging. Video blood splattered as he charged through his enemy, shedding corpses by the wayside. There was a pool table and five televisions, all left on, with the biggest one showing an episode of “Have Gun—Will Travel.” A sneaky Chinaman was caught reading other people’s mail, then later, some mustachioed crank snarled, “Who cares what any woman wants.” During a firefight, a bullet merely grazed a man’s elbow, causing him to rub it.

In most working class bars at this hour, you’d find old men, at least, and perhaps contractors who have finished their work early, but here, like I said, I was the only drinker. Dangling from the drop ceiling were stars, astroids and a round cornered piece of cardboard urging me to “CELEBRATE.” I noticed the young bartender had on a snug tank top, and a pair of black and white shorts, showing some sort of African design. There were signs all over the walls:

FOUR THINGS YOU CAN NOT RECOVER

1- The stone after the throw….

2- The word after it’s said….

3- The occasion after it’s missed….

4- The Time after it’s passed…

A BIG LATINO NITE

Featuring A Ethnic Diversity

For A Rollicking Good Time

A ATLANTIC CITY BUS TRIP $25

NO LOITERING PERMITTED In This Establishment If You Don’t Have A Drink Or If You’re Not In Line To Play Pool.

FEDERAL PRISON

CONVICTED FELONS & DRUG DEALERS BEWARE

1 GUN = 5, 10, 15 YEARS OR MORE

NO PAROLE

OPERATION CEASE FIRE

REPORT ILLEGAL GUNS 1-800-ATF-GUNS

On the last was an illustration of a prison cell, with the silhouette of a man sitting on a cot, his head down. Across from him, an open toilet and toilet paper. A large handgun hovered outside the prison bars.

There was also a group portrait of movie gangsters, with Al Pacino’s Scarface in the middle, hoisting his badass M-16A1, then, high up on the wall, an image of Martin Luther King and Obama, their heads merging into one another, with “I HAVE A DREAM” on top, and “I AM THE DREAM” on the bottom. In almost every black bar, you’ll find images of Obama. At Scotty’s, near my South Philly apartment, there’s an Obama shrine complete with red tinsel, foil flags and a string of tiny lights resembling condomed pricks or aerodynamic milk bottles, all surrounding a sacred likeness of our Chief War Lord and Patron Saint of All Banksters.

Hardly loquacious, Sporty finally grunted that the bar was empty because it was the end of the month, “Come back in a couple days, there’ll be people here.” Running out of beer money is hardly the poor’s biggest concern these days, for towards the 28th and 29th, the fridge may have long been empty, not to mention that pile of ignored bills, some still in their envelopes, unopened. Soon, the cable may be shut down, then gas, electricity and water, in that order. Chester is already half shut down.

Martin Luther King spent three years in Chester, and graduated from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1951, and outside the Crozer Library, there’s a large bronze bust of King. On another visit to the Gold Room, I met a woman who said she was born on King’s birthday, “And that’s very special to my family, because King was such a special man, you know.”

“I’d say he’s more important than any American in the last 50 years.”

“I’m very glad you think so,” she smiled.

I could feel myself getting a bit worked up, “Obama ain’t shit compared to King! King threatened them, and that’s why they had to kill him. King wanted to change this society. Obama doesn’t want to change shit!” I stared hard into her eyes. “If they’re propping up Obama now, that can only mean Obama is serving them! He serves them!”

“I agree with you,” she said, “I’ve always felt the same way. I’ve always known they had to kill him. Oh Lord, I think I’m going to cry. I’m going to cry!”

Linh Dinh is the author of two books of stories, five of poems, and a novel, Love Like Hate. He’s tracking our deteriorating socialscape through his frequently updated photo blog, State of the Union.

Chamberlin, then and recently

JOHN CHAMBERLIN’S MEMORIAL PARTY will be Saturday, August 31, at the Greenwood Community Center in Elk, from 3 to 11 pm. Pot luck and bring your own drinks. Music by dozens of John’s friends, a silent auction and a memorabilia sale. Come celebrate John’s life and work and all our years of dancing together!

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LABOR NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN MENDOCINO COUNTY and the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, resumed in April. SEIU represents nearly 600 County employees who pay between $40 and $70 a month to the union for an office in Ukiah in which sits a union rep and a secretary. Let’s say SEIU funds the Ukiah office to the tune of approximately $150,000 a year, which is probably a lowball estimate. The rest of the union’s enormous annual take in Mendocino County alone (conservatively estimated at $50 per month times 800 employees times 12 months = $480k) goes to… what? SEIU gives many millions to Democrats — Obama alone raked in many millions — in an overall American context of less than 20% unionized workers. A hunk more of local dues goes to the union’s overpaid bureaucrats and so-called organizers, a forever changing parade of softy-wofty liberals who drive up to Ukiah from Oakland, Sacramento, or the union’s spa-offices in Santa Rosa.

UNION DRIVES that take on private businesses are much tougher than union drives among clumps of public employees, the diff being that private businesses resist and resist viciously while public employees work for other public employees and elected people who, not to put too fine a point on it, are willing, and often eager to toss public money at public employees, hence the precarious financial position of most American governments and municipalities, including broke-ass Mendocino County. (Disclaimer: The AVA is pro-union but anti-jive union. We’ve always thought that Mendo’s public employees would be wise to affiliate with the Teamsters or to represent themselves.)

SO, THE LAME-O SEIU leadership kicked things off in Ukiah with a high-school pep rally approach, encouraging its members to “Purple Up 4 Purple Power! Every Tuesday till (sic) we have a contract.” Out of the box this is double-dumb; the Board of Supes no longer meets most Tuesdays, having gone over to every other Tuesday and some Mondays for two years now. The leadership is not around to swim in SEIU’s purple seas, besides which very few County workers don the purple shirts, the local equivalent of “Kick Me” signs.  THE SEIU brain trust followed up on the pep rally theme with an appeal to “Decorate your SEIU Bulletin Board and make it the talk of your department!” Prizes were offered for such categories as Most Provocative, Most Imaginative, Most Colorful, Most Eye-Catching, and so forth.

THE SEIU LEADERSHIP prepared for contract negotiations by holding a series of meetings to ask the members what they wanted. Not surprisingly, what employees wanted was more money. Specifically, the employees want an immediate restoration of the 10% pay cut plus other add-ons. So, then, does the County have the money? CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS for SEIU seem to be led by a man named Jason Klumb. Klumb seems to have replaced the inept and nearly invisible team of Paul Kaplan and Carl Carr, who seldom showed up when budget related items were on the Board of Supes agenda. Carr made a cameo appearance at last year’s budget hearings when he urged the Supes not to pass the budget because he claimed it was a meet and confer issue, which it certainly is not, a fact SEIU was apparently unaware of.

KAPLAN WAS LET GO by the SEIU corporate shot-callers in Oakland after failing to convince the membership to strike, followed by his failure to convince County workers to stay at a 12.5% cut with no contract, instead of agreeing to a 10% cut with a contract. That’s right; the SEIU honchos wanted the members to stay at a 12.5% cut to create as much discontent as possible.

THE SUPERVISORS, with an office full of tax paid attorneys at the County Counsel’s office just down the hall, has nevertheless engaged the services of a hired gun named Donna Williamson of Liebert, Cassidy and Whitmore, to lead the County negotiating team, thus squandering money the County says it doesn’t have.

SPECULATION AMONG COUNTY WATCHERS is that Williamson is being brought in to provide a level of legal expertise that is, shall we say, beyond the reach of former County Counsel Nadel since elevated to the Mendocino County Superior Court. (The proverbial Old Boys Network in Mendocino County is pure a “liberal” enterprise. The libs, clustered in public employment and the seemingly endless non-profits reinforced by the Democratic Party apparat, hire each other, promote each other, faithfully troop to the polls at election time to ensure that they maintain control of every public dollar.) Two years ago it was a toss-up to decide which was more inept — the pathetic SEIU PR campaign — or the bumbling County response. The botched negotiations resulted in the County and SEIU filing unfair labor practice charges against each other. There is little reason to think things will end any differently this time around.

SEIU HAS ALREADY HELD MEETINGS, including at outlying job sites, like the County Department Of Transportation yards, talking up a strike if their contract demands are not met. And with an opening demand for restoration of the 10% pay cut; additional 4% Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) raises each of the next two years; and miscellaneous wish list add-ons, an agreement seems unlikely. But that doesn’t mean a strike is inevitable, especially in a deteriorating economic context where most employed people feel blessed simply to have a job, any job. Last time around, after the SEIU bargaining team drove the incompetently represented County to impose a 12.5% cut when the County would have settled for 10%, it was the rank and file employees who forced the leaders to accept a 10% cut instead of striking. The rank and file seems to understand that the County can’t agree to a pay raise without having a way to pay for it. They also seem to understand they will bear the brunt of any strike through lost wages and the emotional toll strikes always take on working families.

THE SEIU AND COUNTY NEGOTIATORS seem to have been going through the motions until Wednesday of last week when the County objected to the presence of SEIU “silent observers” who were not part of the negotiating team. When SEIU refused to exclude the observers, the County negotiators left the room. Gawd. What movie did they learn this fake militancy from?

IN AN EMAIL EXCHANGE, Mr. Klumb, speaking for SEIU, said the County had not objected to the presence of observers earlier and now the County was stuck with them. Ms. Williamson, responding for the County, said the issue of observers had never been discussed, the County was not interested in being part of a show with an audience, and the refusal to meet without observers was unfortunate. Klumb objected to Williamson’s objections, and said they were not finished with the County’s request for “costing out” (an apparent reference to the cost of the SEIU monetary demands), adding a complaint that the County sent data in the wrong format. Williamson said the union had not objected previously to the data format and reiterated the County’s willingness to meet without observers.

IN OTHER WORDS, both sides are already stuck on non-issues.

SEIU STAGED a totally horseshit, PhotoShopped picture of their negotiators facing a row of empty chairs and sent it to their membership under the heading “Management walks out, refuses to bargain!” The flyer claims the union has an “action plan” to win a fair contract, which probably means the County can expect more of the same posturing from these clowns.

THE COUNTY RESPONDED with an email to the SEIU employees saying the County was ready to bargain and added the back and forth email exchange between Klumb and Williamson as an attachment. (At this point you might be wondering when the hall monitor is going show up and make the children get back in line.) The County also invited the reader to visit the County’s “labor negotiations website” at

http://www/co.mendocino.ca.us/hr/laborNegotiations1.htm

ACCORDING TO AN SEIU FLYER, in addition to restoring the 10% pay raise, the union is also asking for an additional cost of living allowance, affordable health care, longevity pay, layoff protections, and job security through limiting contracting out. In a continuation of the carnival theme, the SEIU leadership urged their members to “Storm the Board” on July 30, later claiming they filled the Board chambers “in support of the bargaining team’s proposals to reinvest the county’s new surplus in services, infrastructure and its workforce, all devastated after years of budget cuts.”

EXCEPT COUNTY REVENUES HAVE flatlined for several years, healthcare and retirement costs keep going up, and the reserves have been funded mostly with one time savings, which means spending the reserves is not a sustainable way to pay for raises. And without reserves the County and the employees will be even more vulnerable to lay offs when the next economic tremor hits. Which it inevitably will and this time much harder than it did in 2008.

THE BASIC PROB that SEIU refuses to acknowledge is that Mendocino is rural-poor and teetering on the edge of financial ruin. The road to ruin was paved with lots of bad decisions by previous Boards of Supes, aided and abetted by highly placed County officials who should have known better. The current Supes, out of necessity, for the most part, have made smart budget decisions. Which means it is unlikely the Supes will raid their modest reserves to pay for raises, at least not until revenues begin to increase. If they ever increase again.

THE MANAGEMENT BARGAINING UNIT, in contrast to SEIU, reached agreement within a couple of months, according to the above mentioned website, taking another couple of months to finalize the agreement. Except for some minor cleanup language, the contract is status quo, keeping the 10% pay cut in place, but with a “me too” clause in case any other bargaining group gets a better deal. Which is another reason the County is unlikely to restore the 10% pay cut for SEIU.

IF THE COUNTY LABOR WEBSITE is intended to provide useful info of the kind that would allow an outsider to come to an informed opinion, it fails miserably. A typical posting says that on May 14 the County received 34 questions from Meredith Staples, representing SEIU out of Oakland, but doesn’t say what the questions were. A subsequent posting says the County responded to the questions, but without giving the answers. On July 10 we learned that the County submitted four counter offers to SEIU and that SEIU then submitted several proposals, some new and some old. WTF are they?

AT THIS POINT, we agree that observers should be present, but they should include media and/or community reps, in addition to hand picked union members who can be expected to take the union side.

WE ALSO THINK SEIU should quit playing games and use a small part of the dues extracted from the membership each month to pay for an independent examination of the County budget. But they don’t, and won’t, because SEIU headquarters in Oakland probably knows that an honest review would confirm that the County budget gives an accurate picture of the County’s bleak financial condition. And that the County is in no position to restore the 10% wage cut, much less consider all the other requested add ons. Without an honest effort by SEIU to understand County finances, we can expect to watch another slo mo train wreck unfold over the coming months. According to SEIU, negotiations are scheduled to resume August 16.

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A READER suggested we post this anonymous note which was posted on Craig’s list on Monday entitled “The Trades: Carpenters-Rockers-Painters (Remodels Everywhere)”

The construction trades have evolved into a big world of suck. Perhaps once there may have been a window of time when they didn’t, but now they suck. Deadlines and despair. Toxic lung dust exposure alllll day every say. Ear damaging tools that never stop. Tradesmen jockeying for position and ruining each other’s work in a mad dash towards a false deadline imposed by remote viewing figurehead puppet masters in big trucks with hookers in the back and lines of blow on the dash. Stress and cheating and lying on site with workers sleeping off life stresses behind pallets of poisonous plywood. Broken bodies, hacked off fingers, roof tar lung flashing eye burn blue room hurry crap ass syndrome stop and start truck engine failure scrambled egg finish coats on fiberglass doors in the hot sun tumors painter’s leukemia carpenter redwood dust lung squabbles resentment sarcasm quiet desperation and stale bread styrofoam sandwich lunch with an aspertame chaser.

For the love of God stop your kids or your friends kids or anyone’s kids from playing guitar. They’re just gonna end up crouched in a corner of a remodel at age 40 something covered in paint, earphones on, struggling to look busy, holding on to that memory of the time that someone who knew someone said “Your band is so good!” Struggling to make enough bread to get the kid they had with a stranger out into the world so that finally then… Then they can make the solo album. The one no one will listen to and no one will buy. The one that will sit on the cluttered desk next to the dying iMac 20 years too late to the party.

Fucking screamingly loud shop vacs. Interior cutting stations PVC in a chop saw chain smoking German showerphobes head cheese lunches tobacco chewing chicks with overalls pool construction foreman with colostomy bags bent over crippled sidewall specialist 60 year olds with $400 in savings and a kid in college recovering drunks and tweaker enthusiasts thieving ex-con roofers pounding nails through the million dollar walnut ceiling with a cancerous oil finish and gangs of central americans with ten course lunches in discardable plastic and tinfoil deaf contractors who yell and drop shit on new floors grinding failed crushed granite pathways through rosin paper and ordered a year too early high end European appliances in the breezeway where the rats eat through the wires stove drop custom counter smash mud bubbling job sites birthplaces for client contempt and vertebrae decline stoop over shuffle into acetone induced early Alzheimer’s.

Mondays. Mondays are the worst,

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HIP SERVICE to Play Sundays in the Park August 11

This Sunday, August 11th in Todd Grove Park at 6:00pm Fowler Auto & Truck Center, The City of Ukiah, KWNE-FM and MAX 93.5 are proud to present the fifth concert of the 22nd annual 2013 Sundays in the Park concert series featuring the Electrifying Motown R & B Revue with Hip Service. Hip Service is one of Sundays in the Park’s favorite bands and are unrivaled in the entertainment industry with its unique variety of crowd pleasing, from-the-soul dance music. This accomplished group, made up of world-class performers, has become one of the most in demand live acts in Northern California. They won the Sacramento Sounds of Soul Music #1 award for Best R&B Group several times! Performing dance hits from the ’60′s through the ’90′s, Hip Service features three outstanding lead vocalists, a screaming four piece horn section, rock solid funky rhythm section and four electrifying dancers. Since their inception in 1996, the Hip Service sensation has taken Northern California by storm. It’s the music that makes you get up and shake your hips! Rhythm & Blues, Classic Soul, sounds of Motown, Classic Rock, 70′s Disco, or funky grooves: they have it all! This group’s dance-’til-you-drop performances and stellar reputation in the entertainment business has made Hip Service “The-Band-In-Demand!” Great music, dynamic choreography, endless fun and enthusiasm, and true professionalism make Hip Service a boogying good time for the 20th annual Sundays in the Park concerts.

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ALEX DE GRASSI Performs at Parducci’s Acoustic Café This Saturday August 10th, Parducci Winery’s Acoustic Café concert series presents world famous guitarist Alex de Grassi. Alex’s concert last year gathered the largest audience Acoustic Café has ever had and we look forward to a repeat performance by this seminal guitarist. General Admission is $14 and tickets are available at Parducci Wine Cellars tasting room, on 501 Parducci Rd. in Ukiah, by calling 463-5357, or online at parducci.com/Wine-Store/Event-Tickets. Food will be available throughout the summer from The Potter Valley Café and North State Street Café with part of the drink proceeds benefiting the Alex Rorabaugh Center (The ARC). Seating fills quickly so be sure to show up early enough to get a seat at 6pm.

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YOU ARE INVITED to a panel discussion hosted by Congressman Jared Huffman Preparing for the Affordable Care Act: Navigating the Covered California Exchange with representatives from Covered California Health and Human Services Small Business Administration Thursday, August 29, 2013
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm Mendocino College Little Theater, 1000 Hensley Creek Road, Ukiah, CA.

Please RSVP to Alice.Young@mail.house.gov or 707.962.0933 ========================================================

OIL LOBBY LEADS CALIFORNIA SPENDING AS OCEAN FRACKING PROCEEDS

by Dan Bacher

Some may consider California to be a “green” state and the “environmental leader” of the nation, but that delusion is quickly dispelled once one actually looks at who spends the most on lobbying in California – the oil industry.

The Western States Petroleum Association spent the most on lobbying in Sacramento in the first six months of 2013 of any interest group, according to quarterly documents released by the California Secretary of State.

The association spent $1,023,069.78 in the first quarter and $1,285,720.17 in the second quarter, a total of $2,308,789.95, to lobby legislators and other state officials. (http://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Lobbying/Employers/Detail.aspx?id=1147195&session=2013&view=activity)

Because of the enormous influence exerted by the group and the oil companies themselves in the Capitol, all but one bill to regulate or ban fracking was defeated in the Legislature this year. The only bill that passed through the Legislature was the weak bill to “regulate” fracking sponsored by State Senator Fran Pavley.

The association’s members are a “who’s who” of big oil companies, including BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillip, ExxonMobil, Navajo Refining Company, Noble Energy Company, Occidental Oil and Gas Corporation, Shell Oil Products US, Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company, U.S. Oil & Refining Company, Venoco, Inc. and many others.

The top 20 interest groups who spent the most money in the first six months included labor unions, the California Chamber of Commerce, Chevron and health care corporations. (http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/)

The latest report on spending on lobbying emerged as the Associated Press revealed that companies prospecting for oil off California’s coast have used the controversial practice of fracking (hydraulic fracturing) on at least a dozen occasions to force open cracks beneath the seabed.

Now regulators are investigating whether the environmentally destructive practice, one that threatens fish and wildlife populations in the state’s marine waters, should require a separate permit and be subject to stricter environmental review. (http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_23789784/fracking-off-california-coast-draws-call-greater-regulation)

“Hundreds of pages of federal documents released by the government to The Associated Press and advocacy groups through the Freedom of Information Act show regulators have permitted fracking in the Pacific Ocean at least 12 times since the late 1990s, and have recently approved a new project,” wrote AP reporters Jason Dearen and Alicia Chang.

“Companies are doing the offshore fracking — which involves pumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of salt water, sand and chemicals into undersea shale and sand formations — to stimulate old existing wells into new oil production,” they said.

Inexplicably missing from the mainstream media and even most “alternative” media reports on this issue is any mention of the fact that the President of the Western States Petroleum Association, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, CHAIRED the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Blue Ribbon Task Force that created the alleged “marine protected areas” that went in effect in Southern California waters in January 2012! She also served on the task forces to create “marine protected areas” on the Central Coast, North Central Coast and North Coast.

Without the shameless support of corporate “environmental” NGOs and state officials for Reheis-Boyd’s role as a “marine guardian” in the creation of questionable “marine reserves,” the current expansion of fracking offshore wouldn’t be possible. Grassroots environmentalists, Indian Tribe members, fishermen and advocates of democracy and transparency in government blasted the leadership role of the oil industry lobbyist in creating these “marine protected areas,” but to no avail.

You see, the “marine protected areas” created under the privately-funded Initiative weren’t true “marine protected areas” as the language of the landmark Marine Life Protection Act of 1999 called for. Under the leadership of ocean industrialists like Reheis-Boyd, a marina corporation executive, a coastal real estate developer and other corporate operatives, marine protection was effectively eviscerated in California.

These “marine protected areas” fail to protect the ocean from fracking, oil drilling and spills, pollution, wind and wave energy projects, corporate aquaculture, military testing and all human impacts other than fishing and gathering.

As I have pointed out in article after article, Reheis-Boyd apparently used her role as a state marine “protection” official to increase her network of influence in California politics to the point where the Western States Petroleum Association has become the most powerful corporate lobby in California. The association now has enormous influence over both state and federal regulators. (http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/lawsuit-filed-against-fracking-oil-lobbyist-says-its-safe)

Oil and gas companies spend more than $100 million a year to buy access to lawmakers in Washington and Sacramento, according to Stop Fooling California (http://www.stopfoolingca.org), an online and social media public education and awareness campaign that highlights oil companies’ efforts to mislead and confuse Californians. The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) alone has spent more than $16 million lobbying in Sacramento since 2009.

Not only do the association and oil companies buy access to lawmakers, but they exert enormous control over Governor Jerry Brown, who is currently fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build the peripheral tunnels. The water destined for the tunnels will go to corporate agribusiness and oil companies seeking to expand fracking operations.

“A state senator has told me that Brown has cut a deal with the oil companies – he’ll push fracking in exchange for campaign contributions to his 2012 Proposition 30 and his 2014 reelected,” said RL Miller in her recent article on Daily Kos. (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/01/1228191/-Drowning-Sacramento-in-a-tide-of-oil)

She cited as evidence for a deal the $27,200.00 that Occidental Petroleum Corporation contributed to Brown’s 2014 campaign. That’s the maximum allowable under California law.

Miller also noted the roughly $1 million that oil companies – members of the Western States Petroleum Association – contributed to Brown’s Proposition 30 campaign. These contributions include the following:

Aera Energy (Exxon-related), $125,000

Berry Petroleum, Denver, $35,000

Breitburn Operating, Houston, $21,250

CA State Pipe Trades Council (usually the pipeline union supports Big Oil), $100,000

Conoco Phillips, $25,000

E & B Natural Resources Management, Bakersfield, $20,000

MacPherson Oil Co., $50,000

Naftex, $10,000

Occidental Petroleum, $500,000

Plains Exploration & Production, $100,000

SoCal Pipe Trades Council, $125,000

Signal Hill Petroleum, $10,000

Vaquero Energy, $35,000

Venoco, $25,000

As the oil industry expands its role in California politics and environmental processes, there is no doubt that they are going to use every avenue they can to divert more water for fracking, including taking Delta water through the peripheral tunnels proposed under the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). The construction of the tunnels will hasten the extinction of Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish species.

The industry will also use its power to expand fracking in the ocean unless Californians rise up and resist these plans.

Californians must question state officials and MLPA advocates about why they supported the leadership role of an oil industry lobbyist in creating so-called “marine protected areas” off the California coast. After all, oil and water don’t mix!

In recent weeks, my thoughts have turned to neighbors. During our years in Anderson Valley, from the late 1950s to the late 1980s, the Newman family was — with perhaps one exception — blessed with good neighbors. Neighbors that helped in remarkable ways; from offering advice and loaning tools to pitching in on projects and watching our property — including feeding the horses and cattle — during those rare times we had to be elsewhere. As novices to country living, we needed good neighbors, were lucky to have them and were — we hope — good neighbors in return.

A draft feasibility study prepared for the county’s Harbor District has identified several challenges to railroad development and deemed it to be a “high cost and high risk” venture.

Authored by the Washington-based BST Associates and the Portland-based Burgel Rail Group consulting firms, the draft study’s focus has disappointed rail advocates who believe imported manufactured goods are an important source of rail cargo.

The study only considers export of bulk goods such as coal, grain and iron ore, describing them as high volume, strong growth rail traffic commodities that “represent a key source of revenue to railroads.”

High cargo volume is described as a requirement for recouping investment, debt and operation costs of a new rail line. Developing an east-west railroad is estimated in the study to cost up to $1.2 billion. The cost of redeveloping the North Coast Railroad Authority’s unused north-south line from Windsor to Samoa is estimated at $609,000 in the study.

Etching an east-west rail corridor from here to the Gerber/Redding area and its connection to a national rail line is a challenging proposition due to the “extreme ruggedness” of the terrain, according to the study. The distance is about 100 miles but 200 miles of rail track would be needed as the route would wind and curve around slopes and mountains.

Three primary east-west route alternatives are outlined in the study, beginning in the Eureka/Arcata/Samoa areas and ending at Union Pacific railheads in the Redding/Gerber/Red Bluff areas.

The study questions whether rail development is economically feasible, as there are several existing West Coast port/rail connections.

“Humboldt County would face several competitive disadvantages relative to these other ports, including the need to cover the cost of constructing the new line and the lack of a rail distance advantage,” the study states.

It references a 2009 study sponsored by the Security National Company, which operates a shipping terminal in Fairhaven. Drafted by the U.K.-based Drewry Shipping Consultants firm, that analysis focused on imports of container (manufactured) goods and part of its executive summary is quoted in BST/Burgel study.

“This report concluded that ‘Under no foreseeable circumstances should Security National consider building a new container terminal at the port, without the prior contractual support of at least one shipping line, in the hope that ‘the lines will come when it is built,’” the study states.

Also included is this quote from the Drewry report summary: “The difficulty will lie in convincing the shipping lines that the Port of Humboldt Bay offers sufficient competitive advantages over Prince Rupert, Vancouver, Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and Oakland for it to fully support the project before construction commences.”

Returning to its focus on exports, the study adds that “it is assumed that if Humboldt County were to attract a commodity that is not currently shipped through another West Coast port, it would most likely be destined for Asia.”

Coal is identified as the commodity that fits the assumption, as the amounts shipped from the U.S. have “risen sharply” in recent years. Corn and petroleum products are also named as high volume Asian export commodities.

Humboldt would have an export distance advantage over some West Coast rail-connected ports, such as the one in Coos Bay, but the study deems it to be insubstantial. Far greater is the basic advantage offered by other shipping hubs compared to Humboldt, according to the study.

“A critical advantage that all of these other ports have relative to Humboldt County is that the rail lines are already in place,” the study states. “In addition, most of these existing rail routes are capable of handling large volumes of heavy rail traffic, without the billion dollar-plus investment needed for an east-west route to Humboldt County.”

The draft study was presented to the Harbor District’s Board of Commissioners and an audience of railroad advocates and skeptics on July 25.

Brian Winningham of BST described various financing scenarios and said higher-interest borrowing may be more appropriate for a high risk project like rail development. Depending on the interest rate for financing, a north-south rail would need to move anywhere from 5.6 to 42 million tons a year of cargo and an east-west operation would need 11.5 to 100 million tons to cover costs, he said.

Winningham compared that with the “top export ports” of Portland, Oregon and Kalama, Washington, which each handle 10 to 12 million tons a year. “When you get up to some of the higher volumes, these are beyond what anybody on the West Coast does right now,” Winningham said of the Humboldt cargo estimates.

Commissioner Richard Marks said he attended a forum whose participants said they’ve been negotiating with the Wal-Mart corporation on importing its products to Humboldt’s port.

When Winningham said Humboldt would be competing with Oakland’s port — which he said has additional capacity — Marks pointed out that Humboldt has a two-day shipping time advantage when fielding imports from Asia.

But Commissioner Pat Higgins, a rail skeptic, said the expansion of Oakland’s port was government-supported and lower payback on borrowing would allow Oakland to “undercut” Humboldt if it came down to a bidding war.

Winningham said container volumes peaked in 2005 and there’s “new competition” from Canadian ports and even more will be introduced with the widening of the Panama Canal. “It’s a riskier business now,” he said, adding that ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach are also expanding.

The study cost $19,000 and was paid for by the California Department of Transportation.

“Your life is the fruit of your own doing.” — Joseph Campbell

Sitting on the sun-drenched beach on this first day of August, writing in my Strathmore sketchbook, the waves setting up nicely for the surfers yet to arrive, the air chill but warming, the sky void of clouds, I am here this morning to write three little tales abut love and obesity. Coincidentally or ironically or naturally, of the nine adults I encountered on my way to this place on the sand overlooking Mendocino Bay, eight were enormously fat and the ninth was a woman so entirely void of excess weight she appeared to be a member of an entirely different species than her behemoth brethren.

We recently had a visit from a dear old friend of mine, and in the course of catching up on each other’s lives, I inquired about his sister G, now fifty-six, who I have known and loved since she was ten-years-old. I last saw G twelve years ago when she came to visit me in Berkeley with her two rambunctious children. Adjectives I have used in the past to describe G include brilliant, funny, musical, beautiful, sensitive, lithe, athletic and strong. I remember going on walks with G from the time she was ten until she was in her late twenties, and how on every one of those walks, with amazing ease, she would execute a handstand and walk twenty yards on her hands, just for fun and because such limber physicality was as natural to her as breathing.

So imagine my shock when my friend said that G currently weighs well over 200 pounds, down from the three hundred pounds she weighed a year ago. My jaw dropped and my mind reeled. Impossible! G? Beautiful, strong, slender, vegetarian, health-conscious G?

I went to G’s wedding twenty-two years ago and thought she was the most beautiful and poised and captivating bride I had ever seen. And, yes, I was jealous of the guy she was marrying and wished I’d had the nerve and foresight to ask her to marry me instead of whoever this lucky guy was. But then, when I had my one and only long conversation with G and her husband at the reception following their wedding ceremony, I thought to myself They really don’t seem to like each other. What’s up with that?

According to G’s brother, G never has and never will like the man she married and is still married to. Yet they stay together, ostensibly for the kids, and G eats and eats and eats. “And their house…” said my friend, his eyes widening. “You cannot imagine the chaos and squalor. Uninhabitable. Yet somehow they live there.”

“But I thought they were well off and successful and…?”

“They are,” said my friend, nodding sadly. “But so deeply unhappy. Off the chart unhappy.”

“There are only two ways to preserve your freedom and individuality: saying no, and living alone.” — Nicolas De Chamfort

As it happens, I can imagine the chaos and squalor of G’s house because I know J and L, the lovable, smart and gainfully employed parents of a marvelous teenager. These three seemingly sane people live in a fine house, the interior of which they have rendered so squalid and chaotic it appears that an enormous truckload of random junk was dumped therein and then trampled by marauding elephants. There is no unoccupied surface in the entire house on which to sit, the kitchen is a post-apocalyptic nightmare, and the backyard might easily be mistaken for the city dump.

Having been the confidante of both J and L, I know that theirs was only briefly a sexual relationship, that they love each other but do not particularly like each other, and that they stay together for the sake of their child. When I first met J and L, J was a strikingly beautiful woman, a magnificently fit dancer and martial artist. L, twelve years older than J, was a chubby fellow who loved to take long bike rides and was in training to become a massage therapist.

Every six months for most of their eighteen-year marriage, J has traveled five hundred miles to spend a week with her lover, a married man she has known since childhood. L unhappily approves of J’s twice-yearly rendezvous with her lover, while L does not have a lover and is no longer interested in sex. When J returns from her erotic vacation, she is always full of energy, takes daily dance and yoga classes, eats sensibly, and sheds fifty pounds in three months, transforming herself into a beautiful dancer yet again. She even tries to impose a bit of order on the chaos and squalor of their home, but never with lasting success.

After J has been away from her lover for three months, she takes on way too much extra work, stops exercising, and begins to eat and eat and eat, pizza and ice cream and pastries her primary foods, washed down with oceans of coffee and beer. By the time she zooms off to be with her lover again, she is uncomfortably heavy, her feet and back ache constantly, and she is severely cranky. Her lover, as it happens, is a big fat man.

“We are afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, afraid of death and afraid of each other.”—  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sitting here gazing at the timeless sea and thinking of J and G armoring themselves with so much extra weight in order to survive the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and their painful longing for love and satisfaction, I am reminded of a brief love affair I had long ago and the shocking coda to that short-lived romance.

S was short and rather heavy, a darkly beautiful gal who hid her body in baggy trousers and oversized sweatshirts, and kept her hair extremely short. When I met her, and we were obviously attracted to each other, she told me with disarming candor that her few relationships with men had been hideous disasters, she had sworn off men forever, and she wasn’t sexually interested in women. “I’m a secular nun,” she told me in her tough-talking way. “The only decent men I’ve ever known are gay. Heterosexual males are evolutionary mistakes.”

Nevertheless, we went out for Thai food, traded books, met for coffee, and a few weeks into our friendship became lovers. Surprise, surprise. S turned out to be a zealous and imaginative lover with a large appetite for sex, we had a great time in and around the bed, and she swiftly shed her excess weight. It was as if satisfying sex negated her need for anything in the way of food other than salads and the occasional slab of meat, and ere long her body and face were so dramatically transformed that she began attracting men and women like clover attracts honey bees.

Alas, S was one of the angriest and most cynical people I’ve ever known, and she was so persistently and viciously dismissive of my writing and music and everything else that mattered most to me that I had a hard time being with her except in bed where she was one of the happiest and most uncynical people I’ve ever known. And our marvelous sexual connection sufficed to keep me entangled with S for four months until I couldn’t take another word of her verbal abuse and declared, “Enough. No more. Goodbye.”

S was stunned that I wanted to end things between us. “Oh, honey,” she said, her voice becoming the soft sweet loving voice I knew from making love with her, “I’m sorry. You know I think you’re wonderful.”

“How would I know that when you’re always telling me how shitty my writing is, how crappy my music is, how stupid my friends are?”

“I’m just teasing, sweetheart. I love everything about you. Please. Give me another chance. We’ve got such a good thing going here. How can you throw this away? Come on, sweetie. Let’s go to bed.”

But I was done. Sex, no matter how good the fit, is not love without love, and love cannot survive without trust, so…

Three years later, I arrived at a friend’s house, and my friend greeted me at the door, saying, “S is here. That okay?”

In retrospect, I wish I had said, “I think I’ll come back another time,” but instead I said, “Sure,” and entered the house and there was S, so huge she took up an entire two-person sofa with no room to spare. I would never have known that this gigantic person was once upon a time my sexy beautiful curvaceous lover. Never in a million years would I have known it was she.

“Mother, food, love, and career are the four major guilt groups.” — Cathy Guisewite

As I’ve been sitting here on the windswept sand scribbling in my notebook, three women with their eight children have arrived and set up camp a very short stone’s throw away from me. Why do people do that? Twenty acres of sand, hundreds of great places to sit, nobody on the beach but little old me, and they choose to sit right beside me. Perhaps it is because they make an apt ending to this article.

I would guess these women are all thirty-something, their children ranging in age from two to twelve. One of the mothers is trim and muscular and moves with a pleasing grace. The other two mothers are massive and ungainly and clearly uncomfortable in their bodies, while all the children are skinny and wildly active. Some minutes after the mothers have settled down on their beach blankets to watch their children playing, two of their husbands arrive, huge men with gigantic bellies. These enormous fellows plant themselves several feet apart from the women—with them but not with them.

Todd Walton’s web site is UnderTheTableBooks.com

This week marks the anniversary of the start of Operation Prairie, a series of battles fought between U.S. Marines and the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) in the northern provinces of what was then South Vietnam during 1966. One of the Marines who fought in those battles was twenty-three year-old Sergeant Ralph Coleman, who helped evacuate five injured members of his squad while under intense enemy fire. Coleman was awarded the Bronze Star for his heroism. Like many Leathernecks, he responded to the medal of valor by saying, “I was just doing my job, what I had been trained to do in the Marines.”

A few months ago my older son came to visit me in Ukiah en route from Oregon (where he had been living for several years) to southern California, where his younger brother lives, and where he has since moved. During that time, I took advantage of his offer to drive me to Davis to help me sort through boxes of “stuff” from my two storage units, eliminate a substantial amount of it, and consolidate the two units into one. One of the items that I located in the midst of that process was my brother’s 1958 (the year he graduated from eighth grade) AV Junior/Senior High Argus yearbook. Pulling out my copy of the February 13th AVA, I had a great time comparing the photos on page 5 of the members of the first group who spoke at the AV Historical Society’s Roundtable on Sunday, the 10th, to their photos in the yearbook, envisioning their younger counterparts engaging in all of their many “extracurricular activities,” the details of which they shared with the audience members at the event, which I was fortunate enough to attend.