River Views
One hundred seven years ago this spring, my oldest uncle, Jack Macdonald (then 18), woke in the house he’d grown up in here at the family ranch. He ate his breakfast hours before dawn, packed lunch in...
View ArticleBicycle Bryan
Former Mendocino County Supervisor Charles Petersen first told me the story of Bicycle Bryan. We were discussing “enabling,” the old dilemma of when to intervene with the mentally ill. Or not...
View ArticleCaesar V. Stornetta
C. David Eyster is the Mendocino County District Attorney. The C. stands for Caesar, at least in the opinion of a certain element of local law enforcement, a close-knit group stitched together for the...
View ArticleCaltrans’ Bait & Switch
Dozens of mostly Willits people spoke in opposition to the Caltrans bypass of Willits at last Tuesday’s meeting of the Board of Supervisors, specifically the Board’s draft letter to Caltrans endorsing...
View ArticleValley People
NEED FOR SPEED, the big budget car chase movie, has begun filming in The Valley. Tuesday, they were zooming around the Flynn Creek area, and this weekend they’ll be up on the Ukiah Road all day...
View ArticleOff The Record
A FIFTH TREE-SITTER had joined the protest late last week against the Caltrans bypass around Willits. There were five as of Monday night, none as of Tuesday (April 2nd) when all five, including The...
View ArticleFishing Season Approvals Near
Representatives from the Pacific Fisheries Management Council and various state agencies were in Eureka last week to hear North Coast fishermen lobby for the ocean salmon fishing season options they...
View ArticleThe Soundtrack Of Imperial Revisionism
Now that the salt has finally settled to the bottom of the 2012 movie season popcorn tub, it’s time to pick through the recalcitrant kernels and send them back to the molars for last rites. Today I’m...
View ArticleMoney Worries
Of course, everybody should have been worried a lot sooner than last week because the basic operating system of global banking is accounting fraud, and has become that stealthily, insidiously, for...
View ArticleBird’s Eye View
Greetings one and all. If you are sitting comfortably then I shall begin. What better place to do that than with the April Birthday list? Many Happy Returns to these Valley folks: Robert Fowler, Kirk...
View ArticleSane Man Walking
“Solvitur ambulando, St. Jerome was fond of saying. To solve a problem, walk around.” — Gregory McNamee After a severely stressful year of extreme physical challenges finally resolved by two successful...
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Mendocino County Today: April 3, 2013
WARBLER was extracted with a “Dominator” cherry picker truck from the Ponderosa pine along Highway 101 she’d been sitting in for more than two months to protest the Caltrans bypass around Willits this...
View ArticleThe Easter Lily
Because my father was the minister at the Methodist churches in Boonville and Philo, and therefore I grew up in a church environment, I have always been drawn to the beauty and symbolism of the Easter...
View ArticleLetters To The Editor
WHAT IS LOCAL? Editor, I am an Environmentalist! There I said it. I have been all my life I suppose. Ever since I learned on the back of a horse, that nature is where I would rather be. In the 1960′s I...
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Mendocino County Today: April 4, 2013
THIS PARAGRAPH from the Wednesday edition of the Press Democrat manages to misstate the case: “The Willits protest, in comparison, is much more tightly focused. Environmentalists contend the 6-mile...
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Mendocino County Today: April 5, 2013
A MILDLY FRAUGHT Wednesday in San Francisco began with a dead man and a bomb scare. I’d just footed it out to Baker Beach and was truckin’ home along Lake when I couldn’t help but see a man crumpled at...
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Mendocino County Today: April 6, 2013
THE QUESTION was prompted by the frequent catch-and-release arrests of a Navarro man: “If the County Jail has empty beds, how come the judges don’t keep this guy in for a while?” THIS PARTICULAR...
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Mendocino County Today: April 7, 2013
Huffman THE NORTHCOAST’S new congressman, Jared ‘Spike’ Huffman, told the Press Democrat that he’s raised $80,000 in re-election dough only months into his first term. Huffman, once an All-American...
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Mendocino County Today: April 8, 2013
THE PD PUBLISHED a puffaroo Sunday about how to attend Giants games without taking out a mortgage to fund a day at the ballpark. Probably the best thing you can do is ingratiate yourself with someone...
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Mendocino County Today: April 9, 2013
AS OF MONDAY afternoon, a woman identified so far only as “Owl,” has commenced a Willits Bypass tree sit. ======================================================== A LOCAL READER WRITES: I was up in...
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