BIG BOXES spawn hate groups — Everyone and their mother’s brother emailed this to the Humboldt Herald. A report from Science News Online finds Hate Group Formation [is] Associated with Big-box Stores: The presence of big-box retailers, such as Wal-Mart, K-Mart and Target, may alter a community’s social and economic fabric enough to promote the creation of hate groups, according to economists. The number of Wal-Mart stores in a county is significantly correlated with the number of hate groups in the area, said Stephan Goetz, professor of agricultural economics and regional economics, Penn State, and director of the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development. Read the rest here. Eureka voters dealt a solid thumbs-down to Walmart in 1999 but will now get one anyway thanks to Eureka-based Carrington Co. and the roll-over-like-a-puppy-dog-for-its-corporate-masters City of Eureka. Courtesy, the Humboldt Herald
THE UKIAH PLANNING COMMISSION has again unanimously voted to nix WalMart’s desired expansion to include a mammoth food market. An expansion of the Ukiah store would be ALL bad, especially in driving some existing markets clear out of business. The Commission’s vote was unanimous to reject.
A DELEGATION of persons mobilized by the murder of Jamal Andrews has approached the DA’s office about training the Sheriff’s Department and the DA’s staff in ethnic sensitivities. They are convinced the murder of Jamal Andrews was racially inspired, Andrews being black, his killer, Billy Norbury, white. We assume that race was probably a factor in that a drunken dope head of limited intelligence like Norbury had an easier time pulling the trigger on a black man than he may have had shooting a white man, but we keep hearing that the basic beef between the two men had to do more with the marijuana business than race hatred. There’s also the problem of, well, the credentials of the persons who want to lecture the DA and the cops. Who are they and what makes them so confident they are zippety zoo zah qualified to instruct the rest of us? To be blunt about it, we find it impossible to take the Madam Dafarges of the Mendocino Environment Center as moral exemplars, exemplary, nay virtuous, as they may be. There are lots of kindly, decent people in Mendocino County, but darned if any name springs to mind who might be qualified to pass out the advice on race relations. Anyway, disappointing as it probably is to our would-be tutors, the simple ethnic fact of life in Mendocino County is that people get along quite well, that there may be a few walking around with unhealthy racial attitudes, but it just isn’t true that overt, or even implicit, race hatred is a problem in this county. Nationally? I’m hauling my wrinkled pink and white ass out on a very small limb to say that there are millions of affectionate, loyal, cross-race relations where, when I was a kid, they only existed in the military and in the wide, wonderful world of sports. The true problem here, there and everywhere is class, as in one tiny class has all the money and they’re killing the rest of us regardless of race, religion or creed.
A READER WRITES: “My impression is that Tom Lynch is plain spoken, lacks rancor, maintains a sense of humor, knows what he is talking about, can make friends with anyone, is not afraid to get dirty, understands local government, and has a real life experience. He needs to get out there, voters will like him. Lynch is running against Wes Chesbro for Assembly.” Here! Here! Lynch would indeed be a radical improvement over Chesbro, a career officeholder of zero distinction.
THE “FINAL” Environmental Impact Report for the new Mendocino County Courthouse is now posted online, courtesy of the people shoving it down our throats, i.e., the Judicial Council of California's Administrative Office of the Courts based in Sacramento. The AOC says its still “selecting a site for the $119 million project, and is still considering two locations for the new courthouse” that no one except our eight (8) judges want, one plot near the Ukiah Railroad Depot on East Perkins Street and a collection of parcels that includes the library and Curry's Furniture. Pure bushwah, as is the projected figure of $119 million for the project. It will cost at least twice that amount and it will be built on Perkins, and it will be the ugliest large building between here and Eugene, Oregon, where a new federal courthouse fouls the skyline of East Eugene.
SCOTT DIETZ will succeed Dan Gjerde on the Fort Bragg City Council as Gjerde succeeds Kendall Smith as a County supervisor. What can we expect from Dietz? He’s a real estate salesman who works for Paul Clark at Century 21; that fact may speak volumes. He is a registered Republican. He is pro-development, not that any is likely any time soon in Fort Bragg, but Dietz’s victory in an unenthusiastic election means the Council now has a 3-2 that will become 4-1 conservative because the libs have no one in sight or even in mind to run just when the mill site comes up for possible develolpment. As a long-time Coastie put it, “It is sad when you think how hard we worked in the late 90s to win three reform seats on the council and had a liberal majority.”
BUT THE TRULY terrifying news from the Coast is the terrible rumor going around that former city manager Gary Milliman wants to come back to Fort Bragg and is looking for a job. Milliman? If this one turns out to be true, we’ll break out our Milliman file. Put it this way: If we’d had a DA who took major crimes seriously when Milliman was running Fort Bragg, Milliman and the people who burned the heart out of the town in 1987 would have gone to jail.
“EARLY PSYCHOSIS Intervention Program” — Behavioral Health and Recovery Services of Mendocino County presents a free training on Monday, April 23rd from 9am to 4pm at the Ukiah Valley Conference Center, 200 S. School Street, and on Tuesday April 24th from 9am to 4pm at the John Deiderich Center, 208 Dana Street in Fort Bragg. The training will focus on helping family members, clients, community members, and mental health workers recognize early warning signs; and the supports that are effective in leading to recovery. Speakers include Demian Rose MD and Shelley Levin, PhD. Treating psychotic symptoms early may prevent the onset of schizophrenia and other debilitating mental illnesses. At the first signs of paranoia, hallucinations, delusions and hearing voices, a person can seek various treatments to begin and maintain recovery. The afternoon session will be a Panel Discussion facilitated by Eric Van Schoor PhD and Julie Van Schoor MD. Presenters include: Sonya Nesch, Author of Advocating for Someone with a Mental Illness and Facilitator of the Fort Bragg NAMI Family Support Group; Susan “Wynd” Novotny, Director of Manzanita Services, Inc., Raven Price, Coordinator, Manzanita Community Education; and Stephanie Brown. Free CEUs for MFTs and LCSWs are available. Please RSVP with Shira 472-2304 as lunch will be served. (We hope they cover the psychiatric effects of marijuana, now known to trigger schizophrenia in young adults who are predisposed to it and who smoke it at a young age.)
SOMEONE set Fort Bragg on fire.
Locals knew who probably conspired.
But DA Massini
preferred prosecuting zucchinis
And when the statute ran no one inquired.
Be First to Comment