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MCT: Tuesday, December 17, 2019

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AN OFFSHORE LOW will generate considerable cloud cover as well as locally breezy southeasterly winds today. This low may produce some rain late tonight into Wednesday. Snow above 2500 feet will also be possible, mainly in Trinity county Wednesday morning. A warm front will then bring rain and windy conditions Wednesday night through Thursday, primarily for Del Norte and northern Humboldt counties. A stronger front will bring widespread rain to the entire area this weekend. (National Weather Service)

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JUST IN: On a 3-2 vote Monday, Supervisors Williams and Haschak dissenting, the Supervisors approved expansion of the Harris Quarry. The quarry is visible from Highway 101 on the Willits Grade. It's been an object of complaints and lawsuits from neighbors for years.

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REMEMBERING RENÉ

by Robert Mailer Anderson

“Check out the rider for René Auberjonois,” our line producer suggested a week into the chaos of shooting an independent film in New York City; over budget, not making our days, rewriting the script nightly, pounding espresso, swallowing pride, coming down off twenty hour work days with Maison Premiere martinis and holding back tears.

As the producer of “Windows on the World,” not just the co-writer, all of the contracts came across my “desk.” But unless something was seriously wrong, I was never asked to scrutinize any particular contract. That job, along with travel and accommodations for talent, was someone else’s responsibility.

“Why?” I asked, bracing for another small calamity.

René was due on set the next day, and I was currently doing my best Cole Porter imitation and writing a song for his barfly character to sing in his scene as we suddenly didn’t have the budget to use Tony Bennett’s “Rags to Riches.” Or any other existing song. I had woken up to the brutal report that the “final number” to use a karaoke version of the classic “New York, New York” had blown our entire music budget.

“Look at the pick-up location.”

“What does he want? A limo? A guarantee his driver won’t make eye contact? Just green M and M’s in his trailer? A single sliced kiwi?”

I scrolled through the rider wondering what now, what now, what now? Were we going to have extra costs for excessive travel miles, some small print that required us to pay René for another day’s work at double union scale, the need to fly him first class. Was he NOT coming?

Then I saw his point of departure…

Boonville.

No shit.

“One of us!” I said, uttering the line from Todd Browning’s film “Freaks,” and smiling for the first time in a month.

As a character actor, René Auberjonois was one of the best. The original “Father Mulcahy” in Robert Altman’s “M.A.S.H,” as well as playing roles in Altman’s “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” “Brewster McCloud,” “Images,” and “The Player.” Aside from his other numerous film roles, he was also in seemingly every iconic TV show of the 70’s and 80’s and into the 90’s; “Love American Style,” “Starsky and Hutch,” “Rockford Files,” “Charlies Angels,” “The Jeffersons,” “Rhoda,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” “Punky Brewster,” “Murder, She Wrote,” “Matlock,” clocking in 135 episodes as the pompous Clayton Runnymede Endicott III on “Benson” and 173 episodes of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” as the shapeshifter “Odo.” According to IMDb, he had 228 film/tv credits as an actor. None of which covered his illustrious theater career; winning a Tony Award for his work with Katherine Hepburn in “Coco,” playing The Fool in the longest-running Broadway production of Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” teaching at Julliard, helping found ACT in San Francisco, being inducted into the American theater Hall of Fame in 2018.

In order to try to land someone of René’s talents to play such a small role in our obscure indie film, I had to first give the character a true name, “Maury,” as opposed to the formerly generic “Barfly.” If a character didn’t have a proper name, it seemed like too small a part to the actor. Or for his agent to pass along to him for consideration. Then I had to juice up the description of Maury. He was the pumping heart of New York City and the personification of all the post traumatic sorrow, suffering and terror of 9/11. His fellow eclectic bar patrons help him regain his courage and sense of hope by helping him cathartically finish singing “New York, New York” when he stumbles. We called this scene our ““La Marseillaise scene” after the iconic one in Casablanca where the refugee patrons of Rick’s sing the French national anthem to drown out the Germans. One of the greatest moments in cinema. If you are going to steal, I mean pay homage, steal from the best.

Apparently, René liked the part, the screenplay, and our politics. He wanted to add his talent Windows on the World, our attempt at changing the narrative about immigration, especially regarding Mexicans – not having any lead characters that were criminals, maids, or “cop #2,” which make up about two-thirds of the roles for vastly underrepresented latinos in film and TV – and telling a story about family, fathers and sons, undocumented labor, as a way into the larger tragedy of 9/11. The stark reality that contrasts the American Dream.

“Who wrote it?” René had asked our casting director.

“Two guys that are cousins from Northern California. Robert Mailer Anderson and Zack Anderson.”

“Really?” René replied.

“You’ve heard of them?” our casting director slightly shocked.

“Most everyone in Boonville has heard of Robert and Zack,” René answered, apparently with a giggle.

Some people make you smile when you see them coming, even if you’ve never met them before. René was of that rare breed. He came on set with the glowing poise of a true professional; ready in his role, immediately inspiring confidence with his tangible intelligence and experience. It is an overused expression in acting, and an under-available commodity, but René was “giving.” Generous in his craft.

With that scene stealing twinkle in his eye, we were introduced and he told me how much he loved Boonville, the community, the AVA, being called a “Hill Muffin” by my uncle Bruce. Quickly, we ran through some film touchstones – I could have listened to his inside stories and insights about The Industry for days – then literature, Paris, politics, art. René was an intellectual from a time when theater and filmmaking were a matter of life and death.

Then he dove into his character and the first scene.

Although I wasn’t the director, I had to break the news that “Rags To Riches” was out, and René had to learn a new song for the scene, “Don’t Break My Heart Again.” We had a recording of me singing it accompanied by my musical composer playing piano and he said he was up for whatever needed to be done. And he went off to learn the new song, as we also tried to rig an earpiece that could play the song for him as it was going to be tricky to play the song in the actually space out loud, baking whatever sound we had into something that may or may not be usable.

Problems.

More problems. Lighting. An actress in tears. Cursing. Serious conflicts. Shouting. Changes. More changes. Time time time. No time. Limited set ups. Rewrites.

If we are going to get a version of the scene which we need, introducing René’s character, to have proper impact for the later “New York New York” scene, we are going to have to shoot a “oner” – a single shot that encompasses an entire scene. Or at least from only one camera direction.

So, René’s character is no longer on stage, singing with a karaoke machine. The blocking now is that he is drinking on a barstool next to our two lead characters (Ryan Guzman and Chelsea Gilligan) who are on an awkward first date. When they finish their pertinent dialogue (cut, save, cut cut, move, cut, add a new connecting line of dialogue…), René now sings along to the love song that happens to be playing in the bar. But it won’t be playing for sound concerns. René will be the only one hearing the music (me singing in Fred Astaire fashion) through an ear piece. If he mangles the words a bit, so be it, he’s playing a drunk.

Cut!

Later, because it no longer needs to be a tinny karaoke version, I get five friends in the SFJAZZ Collective to record a beautiful instrumental version of “Don’t Break My Heart Again” and that’s what we match to René’s singing in the final version.

Movie magic.

And it was magic working with René.

He was someone who made the collaborative experience happen. The sum total of the parts was more when he was involved. It was exciting and fun to be a part of. Without his willingness to change, to “play,” improvise, to lean into his unparalleled craft as an actor, to “trust,” we never would have got that scene. And everyone who has seen the movie always smiles (and spontaneous applause during a few festival screenings…) when René’s “Maury” comes on screen and plays out his role.

Today there is a little less magic in the world.

But I’m glad over his long career René Auberjonois was able to capture so much on camera.

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NAVARRO SANDBAR UPDATE 12/16, ALL CLEAR

As of Sunday, the Navarro River mouth sandbar was still closed, blocking outflow to the ocean and causing the estuary level to rise to within 3 ft. of the Hwy. 128 pavement at the 0.18 mile marker just east of the Hwy. 1 bridge.

The sandbar breached again this morning and allowed the estuary level to fall 4 ft. by 1:15 PM at high tide.

The river level at the gauge 5 mi. upstream remains at about 3.1 ft., and NWS forecasts it will stay at that level through next Saturday at least. Without more river flow than that, the sandbar will probably close up again in a few days.

However, even with the bar closed again, there is no chance of flooding of Hwy. 128 because only light rain is forecast through next weekend.

—Nicholas Wilson [MCN-Announce]

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THE AV FIRE DEPARTMENT AWARDS DINNER was held last Saturday, honoring the fire, EMS, and supporting volunteers that make emergency services possible in our community. Every year AV crew members nominate and vote for awards for the fellow volunteers that they believe have made outstanding contributions (a hard decision every year). This year, the following were recognized for their extraordinary efforts:

  • Rookie Firefighter of the Year - Don Graves
  • EMS Rookie of the Year - Aisea Taukave
  • Ambulance Operator of the Year - Wayne Howard
  • Engineer of the Year - Eddie Pardini
  • EMS Leadership - Terri Gowan
  • Officer of the Year - Tina Walter
  • EMT of the Year - Regine Boudoures
  • Firefighter of the Year - Ky Clark

Also recognized for Distinguished Service is Martha Hyde, awarded on her retirement for her years of dedication as the AV Ambulance Service manager, EMT, radio programming expert, crew member advocate, and more.

Emergency services are available in Anderson Valley because of the time, effort, and dedication of approximately 45 Firefighter and EMS volunteers - with the considerable support of their families, the Volunteer Fire Fighter Association, the Ambulance Service, & the Community Services District board and staff. To everyone who is part of this heroic and critical effort, THANK YOU.

(AV Fire Chief Andres Avila)

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KARY MULLIS has died. Internationally famous for winning the Nobel Prize for chemistry, Mullis, undoubtedly the liveliest Nobel Prize winner ever, owned a home on Gschwend Road where he presided over some memorably debauched soirees that live on in the torrid minds of some local debauchees. Mullis sold the Gschwend property to a far more sedate friend of his some time ago. The place is now looked after by local couple Gordon Tranberg and his celebrated artist-wife, Maire Palme. (The ava on-line archive has a large file of Mullis-in-Anderson Valley stories.)

MULLIS’S 1998 autobiography is called “Dancing Naked in the Mind Field.” It makes for interesting reading, and also makes his ideas accessible to us non-geniuses, not to mention the laughs we get from his hilarious descriptions of his many adventures. Mullis told Parade magazine: “I think really good science doesn’t come from hard work. The striking advances come from people on the fringes, being playful.” This guy managed both.

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AS OF LAST FRIDAY, this was the list of folks needing housing in the aftermath of the downtown fire:

  • Family 1: 2 adults and 2 children
  • Family 2: 5 adults
  • Family 3: 1 family with 2 adults and 1 young woman
  • Family 4: with 1 adult, 2 young women, 2 children
  • Family 5: 4 adults and 2 kids
  • Individual 1: 1 adult- needs to be in downtown Boonville because the person does not have a car
  • Individual 2: 1 adult

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REPORT FROM THE EMERALD CUP: PIPE DREAM OR AMERICAN DREAM?

by Jonah Raskin

The Emerald Cup roared into Santa Rosa and crawled out with a hangover on the next-to-the last weekend in December. Two days of partying takes a toll on a body, especially if the body isn’t as limber as it once was. It takes 365 days of the year to stage the Cup, with lots of behind-the-scenes scrambling and rambling. “Working with all the vendors is like herding cats,” one of the organizers said. At the end of the second day of the Cup, which seemed to go on forever, the pot farmers went home to Covelo, Redway, Hearst and beyond, and the pot tourists flew back to Alabama, Virginia, New Jersey, Mexico City and across the Atlantic Ocean to lands where the grass isn’t greener than it is in the hyper-taxed, super-regulated Golden State.

This year, there was a lot to complain about and the complaints came fast and furious, though there seemed to be fewer people complaining at the Cup than ever before. The crowds were thinner, and there were not as many vendors selling grams and ounces and all kinds of “merch,” as they call it, though the vendors were bigger than in previous years. It’s called concentration of the industry. There were more products on display, products to touch, smell, buy and sell, some at discount prices, which led to long lines. Everyone loves a good deal.

“A dope opera,” as one of the promoters called it, a giant weed emporium and a lucrative black market under the legitimate cover of the Santa Rosa Fairgrounds, the most recent Cup provided a nifty hangout where seeds changed hands, stories reverberated, folks rolled the fattest of joints, got royally stoned and stayed stoned for a couple of days. In fact, one could get stoned just breathing the air at the Fairgrounds, where one saw more people of color, more Asians, more Latinos and even more African-Americans than one sees in a whole year on Fourth Street in downtown glorious Santa Rosa.

The mega-event has come a long way since Tim Blake, ex smuggler, real estate agent, fabulous farmer and entrepreneur extraordinaire, launched the Cup in his living room in Laytonville without the kinds of corporate sponsors who make the event possible these days. Yes, weedsters swapped stories, but the stories weren’t as wild as they once were. Encounters with code enforcement and fines don’t have the same pizzazz as clashes with cops and days in the county jail.

Still, it was exciting to listen to “Mila,” who calls herself the “Hash Queen,” and Frenchy Cannoli, who might be described as the “Hash King,” recount their stories of the 1960s. Mila, who was born in Liverpool, England, hitchhiked to India with her three-year old daughter and lived there until she went native. She remembered the hippies who brought hash to Morocco where it caught on. “That’s right,” Frenchy said in his inimitable French accent. “The Moroccans didn’t make hash until the late 1960s when the hippies introduced it to them.” Three cheers for the hippie vagabonds.

Oh, please, sir, bring back the days of yesterday, with tie-dye, helicopters overhead, rip-offs in the dead of night and potlucks where growers smoked weed and snorted coke until all hours of the morning. No, just joking. We have come a long way, brothers and sisters. There has been progress in the hills, the dispensary is a godsend and CBD will save your life and maybe the whole world.

As proof of the distance the Emerald Triangle has come, think of filmmaker, Mark Kitchell, of Berkeley in the Sixties fame, who has followed a generation from gritty streets to organic farms and who was on hand with his camera to interview the usual and the not so usual suspects in preparation for a documentary about dope in the Triangle.

It must be safe now for the pioneers, the lone wolves and the out-right outlaws to tell their stories without fear of prosecution. Statutes of limitation must be up. Maybe even Joe Munson will be the recipient of an award from Governor Gavin Newsom. After all, there was Joe handing out seeds by the thousands and urging Cupsters to grow their own, six plants maximum, even while he said, “Sometimes the cops are right about dope. It can be a menace. I don’t want my teenage son to smoke dope!”

Fortunately no one under the age of 21 was allowed at the Cup. Boomers and millennials predominated. The generations in-between must have been home making babies or wrapping Christmas presents and stuffing stockings with rolling papers and paraphernalia. More proof of the distance we have come: the panel with Mendocino County Second District Supervisor John McCowen and Santa Rosa Mayor Tom Schwedhelm, the former police chief, who wants the city he once tried to keep squeaky clean to become a cannabis “hub.”

McCowen noted that while car dealerships had benefited from the Green Rush, not everyone had grown rich. Property values had declined with regulation, he said. But McCowen predicted that Mendocino would become well known for high quality cannabis and for pot tourism, too, and that the cannabis market would become an integral part of the economy of the whole county, and not remain an underground stream.

Not long ago, NORML’s deputy director Paul Armentano said, “We make marijuana far more interesting than is warranted.” He added. “My goal is to make it boring.” That doesn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon in the Emerald Triangle, where growers and dealers, smokers and manufacturers, can’t get enough Cups. After years of sneaking around and whispering conversations, the idea of smoking and talking openly in public is still a novelty.

For tourists from states like Alabama and Mississippi where it is still illegal to grow, the Cup is mind blowing. “I can’t believe it,” an African American woman from Birmingham said. “When I go back and tell friends and family what I’ve seen and heard they will think I’m making it up.” Maybe it is all a pipedream. Maybe it will all go away in a puff of smoke. Naw! Weed is now as much a part of the American Dream as baseball, mom and apple pie. And the Emerald Cup is a part of living history and a destination known around the world.

(Jonah Raskin is the author of "Dark Day, Dark Night: A Marijuana Murder Mystery.")

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RICHARDSON GROVE, 1920. It was named after Friend Richardson, the 25th Governor of California.

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J.HOLDEN WRITES: Mr. Sakowicz’s “interesting and possibly relevant questions” can be answered by a simple review of existing public documents, which Mr. Sakowicz has not bothered to do before making his wild accusations of fraud and malfeasance against these dedicated service providers and leading to his threats to “fire the bums and rebuild from scratch” while offering no plan for doing so. My “anger" is not an attempt to hide anything, as you insinuate, but to reveal the facts. You too are welcome to review the audits for the facts.


More on Mr. Sakowicz’s wild and uninformed accusations. Don’t be fooled.

From: J Holden <jholden@pacific.net>

To: John Sakowicz <sako4@comcast.net>

Interesting to see you now hiding the names of the recipients of your speculative innuendos — your “Dear friends”. That way the recipients don’t get to see responses. Clever, in a sociopathic way.

“Was any therapy provided. Of course not.” Where is the proof for your blowhard accusations of no therapy and falsified records and “billing games" and “no measurable progress"? Once again, I challenge you to do your homework and fact-gathering before throwing out such wild and baseless accusations in your grandstanding effort to destroy our mental health service system.

Months ago I challenged you to give evidence for the slanderous claim in your 9/30 letter to the Daily Journal that alleged "“The Schrader Gang pocket most of the many millions of dollars the county has budgeted for our seriously mentally ill.” You still have not offered one iota of hard evidence. That letter declared your mission to "fire the bums and rebuild from scratch our county’s broken mental health system”. My response challenged you to “Please provide evidence of the sources and amounts of money and staff you will secure in order to accomplish this reinvention of the wheel”. Once again, you provided nothing. Nada. Zero.

Neither have you responded to my question of how many Behavioral Health Advisory Board meetings you have attended to share your Trumped-up charges and grandiose ideas. Hmmm.


Camille Schraeder <camille@rqmc.org> adds:

Re: The RQMC-RCS Pipeline

There are very little means to falsify or rake millions of dollars from the mental Health System.

The contracts clearly reflect not 30 million but 19 million in the contracted mental health system of care and 95 percent of that is subcontracted to our providers. Any savings from that 95 percent is either returned to the county or go towards additional contracting for services.

The BHB Board and the County Board receive a monthly report regarding services and revenues expensed.

Furthermore the county audits the invoices every single month and requires the relative back up for such invoices.

Lastly The System of Care is absolutely improving in both expanded services, federal support for those services and in regulatory and fiscal compliance as proven in the State Tri annual Audit that occurred in January that reflected a 98.3 percent success for the system and only a 1.7 percent audit recoupment For documentation. This kind of success is virtually unheard of for most counties especially small counties and is a testament to the work of the county, RQMC , and the diligent work of our service providers. Please share this important information.

If you want to be proactive regarding the future for the County Mental Health System of Care you may want to read the CALAIM proposals available on the DHCS website which reflect some very real changes that will be occurring to the management and funding for Mental Health in the next 1-5 years. It is my hope that no matter what happens we have a strong system of care that can transition to whatever is to come without hurting those we are committed to serve.

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RAOUL RADIO WRITES: “I was watching a post-apocalyptic movie last night called Goodbye World, and a few minutes into it I saw what I thought was the Philo gas station. A few minutes later in the movie, bikers had taken over Lemon’s grocery store. I had no idea a movie had been filmed there! Fun to see. Must have been a big story there at the time. 2013. In the Lemon’s scene, end-of-the-world price gouging was in effect… So the tomatoes were $40 each!”

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ROCK SLIDE ON US HIGHWAY 101 in Mendocino County just south of Confusion Hill dating back to July 14, 1959. Caltrans crews use bulldozers to remove debris from the highway, and some of those boulders look to be taller than the men at the bottom.

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FROM THE BUSTLING YORKVILLE MARKET: Join us this Friday for good food, great friends and festive Holiday Cheer! We will be hosting our annual community Christmas Party on 12/20 at 5:30 PM, with food, drinks and merry tunes played by local legends, The Lost Claus. Spend the evening singing carols (Music books will be provided), decorating sugar cookies, and chatting with your neighbors. There will be lots of fun activities for children of all ages. Remember that there is just over a week until Christmas, and the Market has many great locally made gifts for everyone on your list. PS. The Market will be closed from 1/1/20-1/15-20 for inventory, cleaning, and a winter break. We will see you all again in mid-January, sparkly and ready for another year.

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LIBRARY LINES. The Anderson Valley Library will be closed Saturday December 21 through Tuesday December 31, for the holidays. We will reopen on Jan. 4, 2020. Happy Holidays to all. (If you book people have never dropped by the AV Library, you're missing out on a great little hidden treasure at the Boonville Fairgrounds. Tuesdays, 1:30-4:30, Saturdays 2-4.)

(Liz Dusenberry)

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ROUTE 1, MENDOCINO COUNTY, 1913

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ED NOTES

OLD TIMERS recall when the Vista Ranch sub-division near Boonville, the site of last week’s terrible house fire, began as a settlement of like-minded Christians who aggressively maintained the area for their co-religionists.

IT MAY BE PREMATURE to talk about what will replace Boonville's burned out center, but affordable housing and small business space at the site would certainly be welcomed, and maybe someone might also buy the awkward space of the Buckhorn and re-do as the viable structure it once was.

THE LEGENDARY Boonville Lodge, destroyed by the recent fire, is now just a memory, and what a memory! It's been called "a bucket of blood," and for sure it had a well-deserved reputation as a fightin' bar, but the older old timers will tell you that the reference to The Lodge as a "bucket of blood" really began with the bar's first years in the 1930s as deer hunters suspended their prey near the door to bleed out the carcasses while they knocked back triumphant shots.

BACK A WAYS when Slim Pickens called Boonville the roughest town he ever called a rodeo in, the Boonville Lodge, a squat, brick bunker perhaps unconsciously designed to confine the mayhem common to it within its walls, there were Saturday night head-butting contests, only one of many heavily physical hijinks common to the place. One guy would position himself at the post office just across the road from the Lodge while another pawed the floor in the bar. At “Go!” the Lodge guy would sprint out the door to ram heads with the post office guy, winner take all.

STRANGERS entered the Lodge at their own risk, especially long-haired strangers. One night in the middle 1970s a thirsty longhair stopped by for a six-pack to go. While the hippie waited for Amy the bartender to bring him his beer, the hippie’s VW van was tow-barred to a logger’s pick-up. When the unsuspecting visitor got back behind his wheel, he and his VW were dragged around Boonville for a spell, the terrified man screaming to be freed.

THE LATE BOONVILLE postmistress, Peggy Bates, was at work one morning when the door to the Lodge suddenly flew open “and here came a little guy running for his life straight down the middle of 128, and right behind him a big shirtless guy with a broken pool cue stuck in his back like he was the bull in a bull fight.”

SOME TIME in the late 1970s the Boonville Lodge was the site of a pivotal episode. It also began in the morning, a weekend morning as I recall, when the drunks began hurling Mexicans out the front door of the bar like bowling balls. But that morning the Mexicans counter-attacked. A mob assembled outside as the drunks hurriedly bolted the door from the inside. Guns were brandished as the Mexicans, wielding half a telephone pole as a battering ram, pounded at the locked door to get at their tormenters. Frantic calls were placed to the Sheriff’s Department a half hour away (at least) over the hill in Ukiah. By the time a platoon of deputies arrived on-scene, the Mexicans were in a pitched battle inside the bar. They had one guy down and were sawing at his throat and everyone else was involved in serious hand-to-hand combat. Boonville was soon after declared “lawless” by then-Sheriff Tim Shea, who also said the Anderson Valley was dominated by “anarchists.” The legendary Deputy Squires seemed to have been given carte blanche to restore order, which he did, and singlehandedly, too.

AH, THOSE WERE THE DAYS. When the NPR brigades took over, Boonville’s wild people were mostly priced outta here, and the Anderson Valley seemed almost instantly blanded down to where people now come and go talking of radicchio. The area, if you're given to literary before and afters, went from Flannery O'Conner to Updike. The excitement these days is all on television and telephones.


MENDOCINO COUNTY'S longest-running eyesore, cum fire trap, the long-abandoned Ricard slum at Haehl Street and Highway 128, has for forty years sat there unabated like a big pile of highly flammable kindling, imperiling the surrounding homes and businesses. No other community in Mendocino County would tolerate this gross eyesore and fire hazard. While we’re considering what to do with the burned out heart of Boonville, we might also persuade our fire people and our CSD board to get the County to at last abate the Ricard property. Operation Clean Sweep!


IF WORDS still had meaning, references to the liberal wing of the obviously conservative Democratic Party as “radical Left Democrats” and “the party of socialism” would have been laughed at. As if single payer health insurance is, as Biden and Trump have described it, “crazy socialism.” One third of GoFundMe requests arise from some desperate family trying to raise money to save a loved one. If I hear one more everyday working person say something like I've already heard, something like this, I'm going to start drinking again: "I wish we had single payer. Hell, I could use it myself. I'm totally screwed if I get sick but we can't afford it." We? You're barely scraping by and you're talking like you're Bloomberg? The Brits just voted against their own true interests and here we go in the USA where millions who ought to be all the way behind Bernie will vote against their true interests. Chalk another one up for a lying mass media, with CNN and MSNBC as bad as Fox on the "socialism" issue.

THE DEMOCRAT'S top secret Get Trump whistleblower, as we and many other media except the mainstream media have identified for more than a month now, is a young (in his 30's) CIA agent name Eric Ciaramella with ties to Biden. In other words, not credible. Meanwhile, the true whistleblowers — Snowden; Manning; Assange — are written off by Trumpers and Schiffters as "traitors" for documenting that our government has lied to us about darn near everything (I guess this fact surprises some people) and also spies on us in our Alexa and home computer fastnesses!

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BRUCE McEWEN WRITES: “I have a document that proves the Judges, so recently blamed for the neglect of the late Mr. Chas. Hensley, was not overlooked and shunted aside by their honors. The judges who have dealt with the late Chas. H. over the years, and they’ve done everything legally – not to say “humanely” — possible to accommodate an obviously suicidal drunk.

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SUNDAY AFTERNOON WITH KATY TAHJA, DEC. 22, 4-5PM — A Kelley House Event

Local author Katy Tahja has just published her latest book, “An Eclectic History of Mendocino County.”

Copies are flying off the shelves at bookstores, but we will have gift-wrapped copies signed by the author available to purchase here at Kelley House. During this casual one-hour presentation, Katy will entertain us with a trivia quiz covering fascinating topics in our county’s history. White deer? Tobacco farms?

Find out more at the Kelley House on December 22nd at 4:00. Admission is $7 and $5 for members.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, December 16, 2019

Aceves, Casagrande, Demezes

MARIA ACEVES, Willits. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, domestic abuse, child endangerment.

VALENTINI CASAGRANDE, Laytonville. Battery on peace officer, resisting.

MERNIE DEMEZES, Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

Drye, Jones, Leach, Mangrum

DONALD DRYE, Laytonville. DUI.

RAYMOND JONES, Ukiah. Suspended license, county parole violation.

MONICA LEACH, Ukiah. DUI.

CHRISTOPHER MANGRUM, Willits. Probation revocation.

Meza-Reyes, Parmely, Rabano, Sanchez

JOEL MEZA-REYES, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery.

JACOB PARMELY, Ukiah. Parole violation.

SEBASTIAN RABANO, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

KATTIE SANCHEZ, Ukiah. Disobeying court order, probation revocation.

Schlapkohl, Spinardi, Thompkins

CARLEY SCHLAPKOHL, Willits. Evasion, probation revocation.

JOHN SPINARDI, Rio Vista/Ukiah. Vandalism.

GREGORY THOMPKINS, Fort Bragg. Protective order violation.

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PROGRESSIVES NEED A UNITED FRONT FOR BERNIE SANDERS AND ELIZABETH WARREN

by Norman Solomon

The need is for supporters to openly explain reasons for preferring Warren or Sanders while avoiding the start of a mutual demolition derby. In the process of strengthening progressive forces, it’s vital to defeat corporate Democrats, before proceeding to defeat Donald Trump.

We’re now seven weeks away from the Iowa caucuses, the first voting in the Democratic presidential race. After that, frontloaded primaries might decide the nominee by late spring. For progressives torn between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren -- or fervently committed to one of them -- choices on how to approach the next few months could change the course of history.

As a kindred activist put it to me when we crossed paths last weekend, “Bernie speaks our language”—a shorthand way of saying that the Bernie 2020 campaign is a fight for a truly transformative and humanistic future. “Not me. Us.”

I actively support Bernie because his voice is ours for genuine democracy and social justice. Hearing just a few minutes from a recent Bernie speech is a reminder of just how profoundly that is true.

At the same time, many thoughtful and well-informed progressives are supporting Warren. While I’m wary of the conventional foreign-policy outlook that she laid out early this year and reaffirmed days ago, there’s much to applaud in Warren’s record and proposals on economic and social issues. Notwithstanding her declaration of being “a capitalist to my bones,” Warren has earned corporate America’s hostility.

Overall, Wall Street despises Elizabeth Warren. With some exceptions, the titans of “the Street” are highly averse to her regulatory agenda, fear her plans such as a wealth tax, and definitely don’t want her to become president.

What’s more, the power structure of top corporate Democrats is out to crush the Warren campaign as well as the Sanders campaign. Not coincidentally, corporate media attacks rose along with Warren’s poll numbers. The corporate system’s antipathy toward her isn’t as high as it is toward Sanders, but it’s pretty damn high.

Meanwhile, powerful status-quo interests are eager to see acrimony develop between Sanders and Warren forces.

“The year began with a weak-looking Sen. Elizabeth Warren posing no threat to Sanders; by summer, Warren had jumped past Sanders and the rest of the field,” the Washington Post’s David Weigel noted days ago. “Now, with Warren’s momentum fading, the two Democrats most broadly acceptable to the left have been splitting endorsements and capturing separate swaths of the electorate.”

Let’s face it. Supporters of Sanders and Warren will probably need each other if one of them is going to win the nomination.

Scenarios for Sanders or Warren to ultimately go it alone at the mid-July national convention in Milwaukee are unlikely. Much more probable is a necessity of teaming up to combine the leverage of their delegates.

In the shorter term, given the structure and rules of the Iowa caucuses coming up on February 3, tacit teamwork between Sanders and Warren supporters would benefit both while undermining the corporate Democrats in contention.

The approach taken so far by Sanders and Warren on the campaign trail suggests how their supporters ought to proceed in relation to each other—illuminating real and important differences without rancor, while teaming up to fend off policy attacks from corporate-backed opponents.

What continues to be in effect between Sanders and Warren—and what is needed among their supporters on the ground—is the equivalent of a nonaggression pact. At the same time, we should be willing to draw clear distinctions between the policy positions of those two candidates.

The need is for supporters to openly explain reasons for preferring Warren or Sanders while avoiding the start of a mutual demolition derby. In the process of strengthening progressive forces, it’s vital to defeat corporate Democrats, before proceeding to defeat Donald Trump.

“Electability” can be debated endlessly, but anyone claiming total certainty as to which candidate would be more likely to beat Trump is overreaching. At the same time, the need for a Sanders-Warren united front should be clear—as clear as the imperative of rolling back the monstrous right-wing power that has controlled the presidency during the last three years.

(Normon Solomon is co-founder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org. His books include "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death" and "Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America's Warfare State." He is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.)

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SHUTTLE NEEDED

Editor,

Amid the hoopla over the opening of SMART train service to Larkspur, the public is learning that the train doesn’t go all the way to the ferry terminal. There is a half-mile walk from the train to the ferry.

For people with limited mobility, such as those with walkers or canes, that is a challenge. But when asked if SMART was considering a shuttle, Farhad Mansourian, SMART’s general manager, replied that SMART does not provide door-to-door service and would need to rely on other local transit agencies to consider such a service if the train-to-ferry passenger mix eventually calls for it.

To me, that response is totally unacceptable. How does Mansourian propose to determine whether the train-to-ferry passenger mix calls for shuttle service? On the one hand, he would never know how many people wanted to make the trip but decided they couldn’t, and thus didn’t show up in the passenger mix. On the other hand, would SMART officials observe how many people are struggling to walk the half-mile, and decide then, and only then, whether there are enough of them to warrant a shuttle?

SMART needs do the right thing and provide a shuttle now.

John Mason

Santa Rosa

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SANDERS SURGES AHEAD OF IOWA CAUCUSES

Former President Obama has reportedly told those close to him that he’d speak out against Sanders if he continues to build momentum, and some believe that other party leaders would join a concerted “anyone but Bernie” effort to block him from winning the nomination, if it comes to that.

thehill.com/homenews/campaign/474777-sanders-surges-ahead-of-iowa-caucuses

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MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT ACT CITIZEN’S OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE To Hold December 18 Meeting At Howard Memorial Hospital In Willits

On December 18, 2019, the Mental Health Treatment Act Citizen’s Oversight Committee (Measure B Committee) will hold an offsite regular meeting at Adventist Health Howard Memorial Hospital, 1 Marcela Drive in Willits. The Measure B Committee meeting is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. and will take place in the Sea Biscuit Conference Room.

The public is welcome and invited to attend every Committee meeting. Committee meeting agendas are posted online at www.mendocinocounty.org/community/mental-health-oversight-committee. For more information, please contact the Executive Office at (707) 463-4441.

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AN EXPULSION OF DEMONS

by James Kunstler

Is there any saving the Democratic Party? This wretched concatenation of ill-will, bad faith, false witness, and sore-loserdom lurches from one defeat to the next like some mindless monster from an ancient fable of ruin, seeking a final spectacular spasm of self-annihilation. Let’s face it: only an exorcism will do, some spiritual emetic to induce the projectile vomiting of all that borscht the monster has swallowed.

The “progressive” (not) Resistance took two body-blows last week, one foreign and one domestic. Its cousin in Britain, the Labor Party, led by the red-headed stepchild of a Marxist-Jihadi chimera, Jeremy Corbyn, got such an unexpected and mighty thrashing at the hands of BoJo that it virtually dissolved into a little puddle of bile on the floor of parliament. Corbyn was a piece of work, a cheerleader for Hezbollah and other enemies of western civ, with a zealous antipathy to economic reality, spreading the virus of identitarian Wokesterism that has infected Britain like a plague of yore. Surely the American Dems noticed how that went down.

The Horowitz report also staggered the monster lurching across America, though it took a few days to absorb the blow of countless incriminating details in the fine print. UkraineGate maestro Adam Schiff went on TV Sunday to declare that he had been “unaware” of abuses in the FISA warrant process. Gee, ya think? We are left to wonder who exactly pulled the wool over his goggle-eyes. In fact, his self-unawareness extends to virtually every utterance flying out of his pie-hole since 2016. The IG report left the FBI and DOJ in such a shambles of criminal odor that it dispelled all the narrative curses conjured by sorcerers in the news media for three years running. And as everyone in the country knows now, the IG report is hardly the end of the story. Mr. Horowitz labored under — as they say — an extremely narrow purview that will not constrain the legal audit to come.

Meanwhile, the impeachment dumbshow put on by hobgoblin Jerrold Nadler enters a most interesting zone of suspense this week as fate propels it towards a floor debate and then a vote by the whole house on Wednesday or Thursday. That’s a lot of time for members to reflect on the message sent to the voters by last week’s IG report — namely, that the investigative arms of government are so deeply corrupt and malicious that only fools and cads will go along with their findings, and that the distrust extends to the committees in congress who swallowed all that seditious malfeasance in pursuit of impeachment. That might give the vapors to enough congresspersons in swing districts to bring the actual floor vote for impeachment up short. If the case against General Michael Flynn is dismissed as it should be by the IG’s report of broad prosecutorial misconduct — and possibly at any moment now — that could seal the deal against an impeachment vote.

How much ignominy can they endure? Have they not grasped the reality that the Mueller investigation failed? That it appears to have been only one part of a larger criminal enterprise to defraud the public? That the Resistance was just an effort to cover up swales of wickedness in a greater swamp of government-gone-rogue? And now, to come to this: two articles of impeachment so transparently empty that they look like windows into vacated soul of the Democratic Party.

And now consider all this vectoring into the catastrophe that the Democratic primary has become heading into election 2020. Joe Biden? Really? Are they serious? He left a slime trail as wide as the DC Beltway around his doings as Veep, with enough video evidence to make the College of Cardinals weep for his post-mortal prospects. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders might be moved to study up on what just happened in the UK election, and weigh how US voters might be disposed to another four-year beat-down with the cudgels of inclusion and diversity plus the shady blandishments of free everything. And what else can you show me? Mayor Pete and Cory Booker, two pieces of defective merchandise cluttering up the showroom?

This solemn holiday may be the Democrat Party’s last chance to avoid suicide. They need to have a conversation with someone on the cosmic hotline, come to the realization that they’ve truly hit bottom now and must, as Rep Devin Nunes suggested Sunday to his colleague Adam Schiff, sign into rehab.

(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page.)


Postscript: Here’s an example of the kind of mail I get lately. I told this fellow I would publish it along with his email address, in case anybody wants to join a colloquy on the issues he raises:

From Paul Siegel (peaceagl@frontiernet.net):

“Here’s a report on the status of your website. Fucked and demented. If I gave a shit I would hope you get to live in the sick and tortured world of fascist scumbags you hold in such high esteem. Contrary to your dream of being rich, racist, rube and religious enough to gain favor with your heroes, they will forget and ignore you as soon as they can destroy this great country. Freedom of speech allows you to scream fire from your post at Rockwell when there is no smoke and certainly no blaze either. Rockwell has been a great source of Libertarian thought these past 20 years. Too bad they saw fit to include your bullshit into the mix. Regards Paul Siegel”

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28TH ANNUAL PROFESSIONAL PIANIST CONCERT JAN 11-13

On January 10, 11 & 12, 2020 the 28th Professional Pianist Concert will hit the stage with three concerts featuring nine different pianists at the Mendocino College Center Theatre in Ukiah. Performers letting the keys fly this year are Spencer Brewer, Elena Casanova, Wendy deWitt, Barney McClure, Frankie J, Tom Ganoung, Elizabeth MacDougall, Ed Reinhart and Charlie Seltzer. The musical styles range from classical to jazz, boogie-woogie to Cuban, Broadway to ragtime…..each performance will be different!

This utterly fun and stimulating series features the finest regional pianists on stage in a living room environment throughout the performance trading stories and melodies with two pianos on stage to accommodate impromptu collaborations. The event is an annual sellout because of the diversity, quality in a multitude of styles of music and humor that takes place throughout the evening. A special sculpture art show benefitting fire victims featuring Spencer Brewer and Esther Siegel will also be on display at the Mendocino College Art Gallery throughout the weekend…not to be missed!

Friday, January 10th at 7:00pm will feature Spencer Brewer, Elena Casanova, Elizabeth MacDougall, Ed Reinhart, Barney McClure, Frankie J and Charlie Seltzer. Saturday, January 11th, 7:00pm performance features Spencer Brewer, Elena Casanova, Wendy DeWitt, Tom Ganoung, Elizabeth MacDougall, Barney McClure and Ed Reinhart. Sunday afternoon’s 2:00pm performance will include Spencer Brewer, Elena Casanova, Wendy deWitt, Charlie Seltzer, Tom Ganoung, Frankie J and Elizabeth MacDougall. No two concerts are the same, so if you love piano and piano music, enjoy more than one performance.

The concert benefits the Ukiah Community Concert Association, Mendocino College Recording Arts & Technology Program and the Allegro Scholarship Program. Tickets are on sale at Mendocino Book Co. in Ukiah, Mazahar in Willits and online www.UkiahConcerts.org. Tickets are $20 general admission and $30 "I ‘Wanna’ See the Hands" limited seating. For more information call (707) 463-2738.

Sponsors are Sparetime Supply, Ken Fowler Auto, Savings Bank of Mendocino, Flow Kana, Yokayo Ranch, Mendocino College Recording Arts, Willits Furniture Center, Waterman Plants, K-WINE/MAX, KOZT-The Coast and KZYX/Z. Wine & refreshments will be provided by Ukiah Community Concert Association. The Center Theatre is at 1000 Hensley Creek Rd in Ukiah. There will be autographed CD's by the artists for sale in lobby.

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THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT PARADE

To the Editor:

The first Saturday in December the annual Ukiah Light Parade tradition carried on with tremendous community support and involvement, I would love to take the opportunity to thank some of the people that helped make it happen. Tami Bartolomei and Lieutenant Sean Kaeser from the City of Ukiah for providing support for the street closure. The volunteers that assist in the street closure and passenger unloading include the Mendocino County Sheriff Search and Rescue, Mendocino College Men's Baseball Team, Cannavine, Lino Reed, Catherine Martinelli, Clint Hudson and Alexis Garrett from the Northern California Outdoor Education and Mentoring Program.

The judges this year were Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman, Former Mayor of the City of Ukiah Jim Brown and Ukiah Daily Journal Editor K.C Meadows. DJ Ken Steeley provided the parade announcement. The judges choice for awards are as follows: Grand Champion - Gregg Simpson Trucking, Best of Show - Mendocino Redwood Company/Mendocino Forest Products, Honorable Mention- LD Giacomini, Most Enthusiastic- Girl Scouts. The City of Ukiah Electric Utility and Public Works departments have a friendly competition going, this year the judges and the spectators overwhelmingly voted for the Electric Utility "Polar Express" entry as the winner, second runner up for People's Choice is Ukiah Unified and their "Santa School Bus". We had over 40 entries so congratulations to everyone that entered you are all winners for showing up for your community.

A big thank you goes out to all of the business owners that opened their doors to provide refreshments and enjoyment for the community W Real Estate, Bombshell Salon, Kingdom Games, Better Homes and Gardens Realty, Pure Blendz Barbershop, Windemere Realty and Black Oak Coffee Roasters. Thank you to Gregg Simpson Trucking for helping to sponsor the parade.

Most of all we want to thank the community for coming out in the rain and supporting all of the entries that worked hard to get everyone in the holiday spirit. We look forward to an even bigger and better parade next year and invite you to follow our page on Facebook for updates @UkiahParadeofLights

Until next year!

Maureen "Mo" Mulheren

President

Ukiah Valley Networking Agency

104 N School Street

Ukiah, CA 95482

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ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK

(1) Truth is another of those overworked words such as outrage. The truth that matters is being overlooked or even buried. Truth is millions of Americans that are a very short step into living out of their cars. The cars with the 7 year mortgage on them. Truth is that a whole bunch will go into their cars because some medical “professional” sent them a bill that they cannot pay off in a gazillion years. Truth is that the whole damn economy is a sham and a scam. Truth is that the deep swamp cannot be cleaned up because there is zero benefit to any politician for that to happen. Why would anyone expect someone to break their own rice bowl? The truth is the courts are a scourge. When some judge in Hawaii can render a ruling that constipates the rest of the nation is a system with a 1000 dictators. The truth is too ugly for the electorate to bear which is why the impeachment scam lives on and will keep living on beyond Trump’s lifetime. The electorate is too busy to give a shit because another bill just came in they cannot pay.

(2) Back in the1950s we had a milkbox on the front porch. When the milkman put full bottles in the box, he would pick up the empty bottles—glass of course—and take them back to the dairy, where they were washed and refilled.

The only part of the packaging that was single-use was the bottle cap, which was crimped, wax-coated, heavy paper. No plastic.

How many times could a glass milk bottle be washed and refilled? I can only guess, but it could have been dozens, if it did not get broken.

Good to hear you will soon have home delivery of milk. I hope they go back to this system of returning and re-using the glass bottles.


Ed note: My brother and I used to fight over who got to drink the cream at the top of the bottle, and the ice man, with a leather gherkin over his shoulder, used to lug in big blocks of ice for the ice box over our old Kelvinator. And guys hand-digging ditches all day. And washing machine wringers. Remember those? There was always some kid with his forearm in a cast from running his arm through the thing. (All boys. Girls were too smart to mess with the machines.)

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WHAT JEREMY CORBYN’S DEFEAT MEANS FOR THE DEMOCRATS, By An American Journalist Who Has Never Been To The Uk

mcsweeneys.net/articles/what-jeremy-corbyns-defeat-means-for-the-democrats-by-an-american-journalist-who-has-never-been-to-the-uk

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AREA AGENCY ON AGING ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS for members of the Advisory Council

The Governing Board of Lake and Mendocino County’s Area Agency on Aging (AAA) is currently recruiting for AAA Advisory Council members.

The Council advises the Governing Board on issues such as planning and developing community services for older adults and persons with disabilities throughout both counties.

Council members must meet at least one of the following criteria:

  • Be an adult person 60 years or older;
  • An advocate of older persons;
  • Representative of a health care agency or organization serving older adults or those with disabilities;
  • A person providing leadership in the private and/or volunteer sectors;
  • A local elected official;
  • A member of the general public residing in Lake or Mendocino County.

Anyone interested in serving on the Advisory Council should contact Amber Madero, Staff Services Analyst, at 707-995-3744 or aaa@dss.lake.co.ca.us, to request an application for membership.

Applications must be received no later than February 13, 2020

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ELK SING-A-LONG

Greenwood Community Church annual Christmas sing-a-long. Tuesday night 12/17 at 7pm the Greenwood Community Church in downtown Elk. Come join the fun and celebrate the season with Song Santa and Sweets.

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FOUND OBJECT

50 Comments

  1. John Sakowicz December 17, 2019

    Camille Schraeder and her apologists can say what they want. The county isn’t getting their money’s worth for the millions we fork over to RQMC.

    The fact remains that two, possibly three, homeless people have died in public places within this last month of winter rains and cold. This is a scandal of major proportions.

    If a homeless person is too mentally ill or seriously alcoholic to care for oneself — and is a danger to oneself — than an LPS conservatorship should be sought by helping agencies.

    The Lanterman–Petris–Short (LPS) Act (Cal. Welf & Inst. Code, sec. 5000 et seq.) concerns the involuntary civil commitment to a mental health institution in the State of California. The act set the precedent for modern and humanitarian mental health commitment procedures in the United States.

    Privatizing county mental services was a union-busting move by the County CEO. Privatization meant the county had fewer SEIU members to contend with. Fewer county jobs. Fewer county pensions. What followed was disastrous — first Ortner, now RQMC.

    And now, the homeless are dying in our streets. We can do better.

    • James Marmon December 17, 2019

      A lot of money is being spent on services that would otherwise be Medi-Cal billable if the programs were certified. Day Treatment and SUDT just to name two. Kemper pointed that out in his needs assessment.

      • James Marmon December 17, 2019

        Manzanita house and hospitality house are beneficiaries of those dollars.

  2. George Hollister December 17, 2019

    “ROCK SLIDE ON US HIGHWAY 101 in Mendocino County just south of Confusion Hill dating back to July 14, 1959. Caltrans crews use bulldozers to remove debris from the highway, and some of those boulders look to be taller than the men at the bottom.”

    The “debris” went into the Eel River, too. What we call debris is landslide material, that represents the essence of the Eel River watershed, and makes the Eel River what it is, and what it has always been; roads or no roads, people or no people.

  3. John Sakowicz December 17, 2019

    To the Editor:

    REGARDING AUDITS OF REDWOOD QUALITY MANAGEMENT COMPANY (RQMC)

    RQMC apologist, J. Holden, writes: “Mr. Sakowicz, you ‘demand’ an already existing audit, having no idea that they [RQMC] already submits monthly financial, quality assurance, and compliance documents, in addition to four full audits a year on the services they provide. I suggest that you review those audits before further advocating to waste our taxpayer money on your quixotic reinvention of the wheel.”

    Mental health advocate James Marmon responds: “Mr. Holden, those so called audits you talk about are Medi-Cal billing audits. At Mendocino County Behavioral Health Services (BHS) and at RQMC, there has never been a full financial audit, as suggested by Kemper, regarding the overall spending by BHS and RQMC. And what they spend is significant. Over $30 million and counting. Keep in mind, RQMC is a for-profit organization, and that says it all.

    James Marmon continues: “Meanwhile, BHS is being run by the incompetent Dr. Jenine Miller, who puts her boss, County CEO Carmel Angelo, and Angelo’s best interests, over those interests of the county’s mental health clients and the tax paying public. The single Administrative Services Organization (ASO) model is a complete failure, but no one wants to admit it. Angelo runs around the state bragging about her privatized mental health system. She says it’s her claim to fame But it’s a disgrace. And now, within chronically mentally ill and seriously alcoholic homeless people dying in our streets, it’s a public scandal.”

    James Marmon continues; “Furthermore, Substance Use Disorders Treatment (SUDT) services are basically non-existent in Mendocino County, according to both Kemper and Marbut, independent consultants hired by the county. Kemper was seriously concerned about the SUDT void, and suggested that Measure B money be used to help poor souls like Charles Hensley, who died neglected on the streets of Ukiah, and who, in my opinion, should have been placed in a Conservatorship and housed in a facility. Mr. Hensley was what we in the mental health and rehab field call “Gravely Disabled” due to his chronic alcoholism, and he should not been left on the streets to die.”

    James Marmon makes a final point: “Kemper recommended an ‘Independent Financial Audit’…screw those RQMC in-house audits. They cover up the problem.”

    John Sakowicz, Candidate, 1st District Supervisor

    P.S. National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day will be observed on December 21. Please join in solidarity with local friends and neighbors to honor and remember those who have experienced homelessness in our community and who lost their lives in 2019. Many churches and service organizations across the country will have memorial services. Candlelight vigils are also being planned in many cities.

    • James Marmon December 17, 2019

      Mendocino does contract with Behavioral Health Concepts, Inc. ((BHC), a behavioral health consulting firm who serves as California’s External Quality Review Organization (EQRO) for Medi-Cal Specialty Mental Health Services. According to Kemper, BHC, provided him with selected performance data for FY 2016-17 pertaining to inpatient psychiatric care, and data on Mendocino County and comparison counties regarding:

      • Percent Medi-Cal population;
      • Percent of high cost clients;
      • Re-hospitalization rates post hospital discharge (within 7 days and within 30 days); and,
      • Provision of outpatient services post hospital discharge (within 7 days and within 30 days).

      BHC has not conducted a financial audit of Mendocino’s Mental Health System which has several funding sources.

      James Marmon MSW

  4. Professor Cosmos December 17, 2019

    Mr. Mullis had a very interesting encounter experience there at his G road cabin. His daughter also had experienced et interactions.

    Just very recently a brave young scientist and CEO for quantum computing company in British Columbia came out with his fully conscious encounter this past February.
    His name is Deep Prasad and he is part of a project called UAPExpedition.

    Currently, in the area of the Mullis cabin, stuff is happening. Let’s see if anyone shares!

  5. Kirk Vodopals December 17, 2019

    RE: Kary Mullis. If you get a chance, check out he article on Mr. Mullis in the UC Berkeley Magazine. Dude “invented” Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) while traipsing around his Gschwend Road property, but he couldn’t repeat it in the lab because he wasn’t a good experimentalist. But his buddy boss installed some good experimenters and they did it. The company sold the rights to PCR for $300 million and Mr. Mullis got a $10,000 kickback. Then he got the Noble Prize and went down the road of nutso public appearances. An female interviewer apparently refused to be in the same room with him after the first interview. Dude was a genius and a character and a bit creepy. Seems like lots of those float around this County

    • George Hollister December 17, 2019

      I know many people who have taken LSD, and that experience does not seem to have done any of them any good. Of course, none of them agree with me, nor would have the late Kary Mullis.

      • Harvey Reading December 17, 2019

        Nor would I, George. Nor would I. Simply because, you’re…well…you’re you! Let’s just say your track record here for being correct in your assertions is not one that would make me proud. I would rank you right alongside Professor Gizmo in that regard.

        • George Hollister December 17, 2019

          Harv, have you taken LSD?

          • Harvey Reading December 19, 2019

            No, George, I have not. Nor have I used any drugs other than alcohol, nicotine, and marijuana, and a few snorts of cocaine over about a three-evening period in the early 80s (couldn’t see what attracted people to the latter after trying it). I have known, and probably unknowingly know, plenty of people who have dropped acid. They seemed at least as normal as you, if not more so.

            What is your point, my man?

  6. James Marmon December 17, 2019

    Same as it ever was.

    “County Financing, Budgeting and Financial Accounting for Mental Health Services KCG’s review of the Mendocino County Mental Health System focused primarily on programmatic and delivery system matters. As a result, we did not conduct a substantive review of the County’s budgeting process and allocations for the ASO contractors and county-delivered services, or associated cost accounting by BHRS/MH. However, in our overall review of financial documents associated with the ASO model, we generally found an absence of easily understandable information about how the ASO system is budgeted by fund source (i.e. Med-Cal, MHSA, Realignment and County General Fund) and how this budgeting fits within the County’s larger framework for revenues and expenditures for BHRS/MH. Furthermore, we heard from a number of Key Informants that there is a lack of understanding about how the ASO model has been constructed and financed and how it is placed in the overall financing structure for mental health services in the County.”

    -Lee Kemper (2015)

  7. Louis Bedrock December 17, 2019

    Nearest stars to earth:

    Proxima Centauri (4.3 light years)
    Barnard’s Star (6 light years)
    Luhman 16 (6.5)
    Wolf 359 (7.9)
    Lalande 21185 (8.3)
    Sirius (8.7)

    So, traveling at the speed of light, denizens of planet X of Proxima Centauri would need 8.6 years for a round trip to a small shit-hole of a planet, in a small shit-hole of a solar system, to interact with a planet largely populated with brain damaged speed freaks like Professor Cosmos and psychopaths, like most of our “leaders”.

    Doesn’t make much sense to me.

    • Professor Cosmos December 17, 2019

      They warp space locally. The craft is in an insulated bubble. Space is contracted in front, expanded in back. The 1994 Alcubierre equation fleshes this out. One of the 38 science papers done for the DOD describes this process. Sapiens arent expected to develop this for a long time.

      • Louis Bedrock December 17, 2019

        “However, there is are few problems with this theory. For one, there are no known methods to create such a warp bubble in a region of space that would not already contain one. Second, assuming there was a way to create such a bubble, there is not yet any known way of leaving once inside it. As a result, the Alcubierre drive (or metric) remains in the category of theory at this time.”

        https://www.universetoday.com/89074/what-is-the-alcubierre-warp-drive/

        • Professor Cosmos December 17, 2019

          When did we figure out how to fly? LOL.
          “No known methods” isnt exactly a convincing argument. In fact, i made the same point in my last sentence, written without the benefit of meth intake (btw).
          4 years before Miguel Alcubierre equation i was visiting and walking with Bill Moore, an author with intel sources and infamous for exposng a disinformation campaign. He told me that a very senior cia figure told him that “they” get here by bending space locally.

            • Harvey Reading December 17, 2019

              Who next? Hillary Clinton? Barack Obama? Both have about the same level of credibility as ol’ Harry, one of the worst senate “leaders” ever.

              • Harvey Reading December 17, 2019

                WTF? This was supposed to appear under the Cosmos comment with the link to the story featuring that idiot, Reid.

      • Louis Bedrock December 17, 2019

        Make me.

      • Louis Bedrock December 17, 2019

        After thinking about, I do retract the comment—even though you yourself once alluded to using meth in one of your comments.

        Scratch out “brain damaged speed freak” and replace it with “delusional moron”.

        • Professor Cosmos December 17, 2019

          I have never ever said any such thing and i dont use speed or drink.

        • Professor Cosmos December 17, 2019

          Re: delusional moron.

          Unlike YOU, i have never been stifled or conditioned by the brilliant and effective program initiated by the CIA’s Robertson Panel recommendations in Feb 1953.

          And i have known since the mid 60s that they are here.

          The engineered atmosphere of ridicule and denial has kept attention off this. That ended 2 years and one day ago!

              • Harvey Reading December 17, 2019

                Who next? Hillary Clinton? Barack Obama? Both have about the same level of credibility as ol’ Harry, one of the worst senate “leaders” ever.

                • Professor Cosmos December 17, 2019

                  Hillary and Bill recently visited Reid.

                  Btw, Sen Michael Bennet just told the Conway Daily News in NH that he and Sen Intel Cmt are taking the subject very seriously

                  • Harvey Reading December 17, 2019

                    Oh, my! I’m convinced! LOL.

                    Enjoy your fantasies perfesser.

                  • Harvey Reading December 17, 2019

                    ET just handed me a ray gun. He said to use it on you. I refused, saying you are harmless. He threw a tantrum, so I booted him out the door into the snow. He’s now begging me to let him in. Should I use the ray gun on him?

                  • Professor Cosmos December 17, 2019

                    Harvey, i am doing public ed, not missionary work. I am also studying the psychological dynamics among uninformed or superficially informed true believers and reflexive deniers.
                    Otherwise my study focus is on the close encounters of the 3rd and 4th kind cases.
                    In the fringe “ufo community” many have fashioned quasi religious and political cult-like movements; serious ufologists are getting rarer. I hope academics take this ball soon.

                  • Harvey Reading December 17, 2019

                    Again, enjoy your fantasies, perfesser.

  8. Louis Bedrock December 17, 2019

    Found Object:

    “Alas, poor McEwen! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow
    of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy, …Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen?”

  9. Eric Sunswheat December 17, 2019

    Unavoidably so far, people from all walks of life eventually die, some more obviously, but not necessarily, from homelessness. Cannot blame all homeless deaths on injustice, but of course, does make a rallying point.

  10. Stephen Rosenthal December 17, 2019

    “No other community in Mendocino County would tolerate this gross eyesore and fire hazard.“

    Bruce, have you forgotten about Ukiah and the Palace Hotel?

    • Bruce Anderson December 17, 2019

      The ivy and brick wreckage of the Palace is easily the most attractive large building in Ukiah.

    • Marshall Newman December 17, 2019

      +1. A lovely tribute to Mr. Auberjonois.

  11. James Marmon December 17, 2019

    My question to Measure B Oversight Committee and the BoS.

    Why would anyone in their right mind not want a “INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL AUDIT” of current mental health spending before dipping into Measure b monies for anything?

    My answer: Because Angelo is afraid of the truth.

  12. James Marmon December 17, 2019

    RE: BRUCE McEWEN WRITES:

    “The judges who have dealt with the late Chas. H. over the years, and they’ve done everything legally – not to say “humanely” — possible to accommodate an obviously suicidal drunk.”

    Ask your pals, the judges, why there was never a civil commitment, maybe they should be asking that question. Maybe we should blame our mental health providers and/or the public guardian, whoever that is these days. Charles met the requirements as being “Gravely Disabled due to chronic alcoholism”.

    James Marmon MSW
    Former LPS Conservatorship Case Manager.
    Lake County Mental Health

  13. Lazarus December 17, 2019

    Found Object

    Zinjanthropus or “Nutcracker Man”; colloquially as “Dear Boy”,
    Mary Leaky…

    As always,
    Laz

  14. Craig Stehr December 17, 2019

    ~~Ryokan Instructs~~
    Without a jot of ambition left
    I let my nature flow where it will.
    There are ten days of rice in my bag
    And, by the hearth,
    A bundle of firewood.
    Who prattles of illusion or nirvana?
    Forgetting the equal dusts of
    Name or fortune,
    Listening to the night rain
    On the roof of my hut,
    I sit at ease,
    Both legs stretched out.
    – Ryokan (1757-1831)

      • Craig Stehr December 17, 2019

        Seriously, that was great!! I realize that you and I are on opposite sides of the philosophical divide, and I’m okay with that. ;-)

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