Mendocino County Today: December 25, 2013
THE SHERIFF’S LOG for arrests made on 19 December 2013, lists Ed Christensen, 41, of Point Arena who is accused of two felony charges of elder abuse. Some 15 years ago, Christensen was arrested for...
View ArticleMendocino County Today: December 26, 2013
MERRY CHRISTMAS, AVA PEOPLE! Our gift bag is light today but, as they say in the Marines, or used to say, “Every day’s a holiday, every meal’s a banquet!” ============================= WATER WORRIES....
View ArticleMendocino County Today: December 27, 2013
WE HAVE LEARNED that our friend Dannie Martin has died. Many of you will remember Dannie from his column in the San Francisco Chronicle, the first by a prison inmate to appear regularly in a major...
View ArticleChief Wilson Looks Back
I don't even remember when I first started volunteering as a firefighter. I think it was in the early 80s with Homer Mannix. He put me on the reserve firefighter list when he was trying to get...
View ArticleMendocino County Today: December 28, 2013
SLOW LEARNERS. Ukiah Unified is investing $282,000 in laptop computers for its 900 third and tenth grade students. The devices will allegedly “help students transition to the Common Core State...
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Mendocino County Today: December 29, 2013
FLU SEASON is upon us, and this year the doctors say we can again blame it on the pigs or, if you prefer, swine, last infecting us the winter of 2009. The symptoms: fevers, body aches and general...
View ArticleMendocino County Today: December 30, 2013
WITTIEST CREATIVE WRITING OF THE YEAR from Holly Tannen, as posted on the Coast Listserve Sunday: For those of you who were unable to read every post on the 2013 Repercussion-list, here is a recap of...
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Mendocino County Today: December 31, 2013
COURTHOUSE REVIEW, 2013 by Bruce McEwen Things look a whole lot clearer when you see ‘em in your rearview mirror. — John Prine Those of us who have come to loathe our obligatory Year In Review features...
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Affinito Denied; Ortner’s Mendo Man
A week before Christmas the Fort Bragg Planning Commission denied Robert Affinito a use permit to convert his property at the corner of Franklin and South Streets into a Dollar Store. That’s been...
View ArticleCourthouse Review, 2013
Things look a whole lot clearer when you see ‘em in your rearview mirror. — John Prine Those of us who have come to loathe our obligatory Year In Review features find scant consolation in the...
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The Best & The Worst Of Mendocino County, 2013
ABSENTEE OF THE YEAR: Winter. Where did it go? 2013 was the driest year in Mendocino County ever. MIA OF THE YEAR. Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster for his failure to prosecute Dr. Peter...
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Mendocino County Today: January 1, 2014
THE ROACH CLIP — In 2003 the Pride of Tacoma Press published a limited edition (150 copies) of a piece written by Charles Willeford in 1973 called “The Ubiquitous Roach Clip.” Willeford is a very...
View ArticleChristmas In Myanmar
Dear all, Finally sitting in our new home in Sittwe, Myanmar, listening to the many sounds of the evening, monks chanting, students reciting homework and of course the blow-up bouncy castle in our...
View ArticleDrought
“Rigid beliefs make disappointments seem unbearable, whereas realistic beliefs help us to accept disappointment and go on from there.”— Eileen Kennedy-Moore We are currently in the midst of a local...
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Letters: Jan 1, 2014
HOBGOBLINS Dear Bruce, Most AVA detractors reject your journal because they claim you are mean spirited. I always challenge that view and remind them that honest muckrakers aren’t supposed to be in it...
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Mendo’s Black Mesa Caravan
In late November and early December, I was among five people from inland Mendocino County who stayed with elder Dine’ (Navajo) families at Black Mesa, an uplands mountain plateau on Navajo/Hopi...
View ArticleValley People
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN: Steve Williams Henry Hill Alyce Falge Harold Perry Raul Malfavon Deborah Sarsgaard Robert Tomkins Clyde Price Mike Langley Elizabeth Carson Leo Howard Brian Blumberg Bert...
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Off The Record
WATER WORRIES. If winter doesn’t reappear soon, inland Mendocino County, from Redwood Valley to Healdsburg, is in serious trouble. The Sonoma County Water Authority, out of necessity, and having...
View ArticleAMTRAK — Again!
AMTRAK has handled the black-porter/white-porter issue very deftly. Their logo — or at least the one that appears on the tissue covering the head rest — depicts a porter standing erect in his sharp...
View ArticleKilling GI Jane
Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force.” — G.B. Shaw I’m channel surfing when I happen upon some congressional hearings dealing with the...
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