LOOK FOR A LIVELY pro-gun rally in front of the County Courthouse this Friday at 5pm. Organizer Dan Kuny said Monday, “We're not with any organized group. Just local, law-abiding people angry about how we're being painted in the media.” Info at 489-8452.
VERY BAD HOME INVASION the other night at Greenfield Ranch. Two guys in camo and ski masks cut their way in through a closed gate off Orr Springs Road, drove to the home of a sixty-ish couple, beat the man with a flashlight, fracturing his skull in several places, and getting nothing for all that felonious effort. The cops got up the hill pretty fast, but the bad boys got away.
AND FROM THE USUALLY TRANQUIL confines of Mendocino Village, “Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies received a radio call for service regarding a burglary in progress at a residence in the 45000 block of Heeser Street in Mendocino.” A crafty senior by the name of Dorothy Baker owns the property, which she was monitoring via a live-feed video camera positioned inside the home and accessible to her by internet. Ms. Baker provided a description of the suspect and was watching as deputies rolled up to find that Alec Faccone had moved into the place.
Faccone was soon under arrest and found to be in possession of a pistol modified with an illegal silencer and a sawed-off rifle. Faccone was also confirmed to have had an active felony arrest warrant out of Seattle, Washington for robbery and is believed responsible for at least four other reported and non-reported burglaries in the Mendocino and Fort Bragg areas. Faccone had been living in Ms. Baker's home for a week.
BABY EMERALD is the Fort Bragg infant beaten to death by a male foster parent. The child's mother has retained an attorney with a long history of winning lawsuits against negligent CPS agencies. He's suing Mendocino County in federal court for wrongful death.
JAMES MARMON, a former CPS worker in the appeals process to get his job back, has long been an outspoken advocate for CPS reform. Marmon alleges that Mendo's CPS routinely falsifies documents, as they seem to have done in the Baby Emerald case to make it appear as if they'd done due diligence before placing the infant in a home with an amphetamine user functioning as patriarch.
IT'S NO SURPRISE that the County wanted Marmon out, and now the County has taken another step against its most vocal critic. Douglas Losak of the Mendocino County Counsel's office, just last week, filed a temporary restraining order against Marmon: “Mr. Marmon: A petition for a restraining order against you has been filed with Mendocino County Superior Court. An ex parte hearing on the county's request for a temporary restraining order is scheduled for Friday February 22, 2013 at 1:15 pm in Courtroom E of the Mendocino Superior Court.
THE REQUEST for the restraining order, which of course can be reversed upon a full hearing, was prompted by the following two messages from Marmon to County CEO Carmel Angelo: “Not only will l not go away, I can't go away, my career is ruined; the County has made it impossible for me to transfer to another county through Merit Systems. I was a good social worker and I was wronged. Bryan Lowery is a criminal and should not be rewarded for being so. You have left me no choice but to fight on. Please stop the cover up and restore my good name. James”
AND THEN there was the more problematical communiqué from Marmon to Ms. Angelo: “Carmel, I was just thinking about what is going on with me and my personal mental state; the recent news about the killer cop in Los Angeles really parallels much of what is going on with me. I reported wrongdoing and I was punished for doing so. My career was destroyed. You should know I do not own a weapon and never have, and I am against physical violence and have always been. With that said, I have decided to continue my attempts to clear my name, without violence. I reported to you and DA Eyster over a year ago that Bryan Lowery was altering official records, I was ignored. You have left me nowhere to go, I have to fight. The emails I sent you over the years will become public knowledge. I was wronged and I will not go away.”
WELL. As a veteran of hostile communications, I would say this is not overtly threatening but borderline. There's certainly an implication of ultra-vi but in the context of a vow not to commit it. I sympathize with the guy. CPS, thanks to a lack of responsible oversight by the local courts in many cases I've been involved with, hasn't been held to account for years, and I think that's because they deal largely with people who can't fight back, and because they deal largely with people who can't fight back they can do their work in the dark. Clearly, the murder of Baby Emerald was committed as much by CPS dereliction as by the drug-fueled monster who did it.
SAVE LITTLE LAKE VALLEY, aka the Willits Bypass Tree Sit, sent out this bulletin Tuesday noon: “Owing to the vigilance of The Warbler's ground support squadron and biological survey work taking place in the path of CalTrans' proposed two-mile fence project, Big Orange has packed up and gone home for a second straight day! From the looks of things, they aren't coming back today. They've completed only a very small portion of the work they had planned. Our spirits are running high! We'll keep you posted!”
COMMENT OF THE DAY: “We need more people to work at local farming. A necessary first step to making that happen is to get out of the way of people already farming and gardening. One thing people like all of us here who might agree can do right now is find out who sits on city councils, zoning commissions or other relevant public bodies and make our desire known that there be no interference with or unnecessary restrictions on farms or gardens. I went to city hall and looked up the relevant statutes in my city: I was pleasantly surprised to find that while farm animals are prohibited within city limits, there are no restrictions on what people can plant in their yards. I have no problem with that. I am happy to leave milk, meat, cheese and dairy production to the many organic farmers who live nearby. By growing most of my own veggies, I can afford to buy local and organic for other foods. One reason behind the failure of the political left is its arrogant disdain for local issues and local politics. Lefties in my, and probably your, communities can tell you every detail of every atrocity perpetrated over the last three decades on the five inhabited continents, but have no idea how government works or who makes decisions where they live.”
WORD OF BRUCE RICHARD'S retirement party, held Saturday night, has filtered back to Anderson Valley. We are told the event program featured a picture of the $20 million MTA bus barn, a monument to Soviet style architecture and a Washington style waste of public funds that will serve as Richard's legacy. Richard's was paid for over thirty years to do nothing as the General Manager of the Mendocino Transit Authority (MTA), which is locally infamous for its fleet of ghost buses that traverse the County at times that are inconvenient for anyone but the drivers. Corporate sponsors for the Richard retirement event included various companies that have turned a tidy profit over the years selling those big empty buses to MTA.
NOT SURPRISINGLY, JIM MASTIN, long time MTA board chair and Richard's personal Sancho Panza, was on hand to MC the event. Mastin also made a career on the public payroll for more than thirty years for “managing” the Mendocino College bookstore, an operation that could (and probably did) manage itself off students forced to buy required course materials at drastically inflated prices. At the dinner, with the portly Richard beaming approval, Mastin began by announcing that a number of people had sent their regrets, including Tommy Wayne Kramer and Bruce Anderson who tried to board a bus for the jaunt over the hill, but the bus was full and couldn't get on.
RICHARD WAS presented with the usual proclamations and various going away gifts, including a lifetime bus pass for free rides on the MTA, the latter representing a neat little parting gift of public funds, not that MTA ever worried about that. And not that Richard himself ever road the dang things, or will, since they run at times that are inconvenient for him, too. The public cost to subsidize MTA runs about $15 for each passenger while private cabs manage to operate at a profit in Willits, Fort Bragg and Ukiah with no subsidy. But the public employee unions have made it illegal for federal transportation dollars to go to private operators, even when doing so would cut costs and increase service. So we can look forward to another thirty years of big empty buses aimlessly traversing the county.
YOU GOTTA be there for this one, the book signing with Laurel Krause from the Kent State Truth Tribunal Saturday, March 2nd from 5-7pm at TWIST (Mendocino Village) during the Mendocino Whale Festival. Laurel will share Kent State Truth Tribunal's recent Plea for Justice to the United Nations http://bit.ly/Xl9R2L and discuss her chapter “Was Kent State About Civil Rights or Murdering Student Protesters?” written with Mickey Huff http://bit.ly/RQNUWC published in Censored 2013. Huff is the director of Project Censored. He will be there supporting Laurel's book signing as a fundraiser. All Censored 2013 books sold will benefit the Kent State Truth Tribunal. “Censored 2013, Dispatches from the Media Revolution” is the current Project Censored annual with top censored stories and media analysis from 2011-12.
THE STATE JUDICIAL COUNCIL has put off funding the new Mendocino County Courthouse for another year — fiscal year 2014-15 to be exact. The money for a new courthouse in Ukiah keeps getting diverted by the politicos into the state's porous general fund, and away from courthouses for spoiled judges. The local plan is for a structure containing 9 courtrooms at an estimated cost of $119 million, and you can expect it to cost at least twice that. It will almost certainly be located on West Perkins Street in Ukiah at the site of the old train deport. It is also certain to be a major eyesore in a town replete with them, and it will be a building resembling the now abandoned Willits Courthouse still regarded by the AVA as the ugliest building its size in the United States. And the new courthouse will house only their majesties, not the ancillary offices presently housed in the perfectly serviceable County Courthouse in the center of Ukiah.
JAMES AND ELIZABETH SODERLING of Fort Bragg have entered separate guilty pleas to federal marijuana distribution conspiracy charges. The Soderlings appeared last week in a Kansas federal court. They could be facing 10-years-to-life in federal prison, but the fact they pled out, and apparently admitted the culpability of the other persons involved, means it is unlikely the Soderlings will suffer lengthy sentences. Five more Mendocino County residents face a June trial in Kansas on the same charges arising from what the feds describe as a three-state conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana. The Soderling’s have agreed to testify at future proceedings, presumably in return for reduced sentences for themselves. The Soderlings have also agreed to disclose and potentially forfeit all current assets and any assets transferred during the past three years.
THERE ARE 44 defendants in the case, including the five remaining from Mendocino County: John Paul McMillan, Erin M. Keller, Henry McCusker, Richard W. Smith Jr., and Jeffrey Wall. Their trials are set for June in Kansas. The remaining local defendants, except McCusker, are out on bail awaiting trial. McCusker of Mendocino, remains in custody. A January 25th ruling by United States Kansas District Judge Kathryn H. Vratil declared that McCusker poses a danger to the community and that no set of conditions of release will reasonably assure his appearance in court. McCusker has been held without bail since his arrest on November 7. Federal prosecutors claim that McCusker’s history of resisting arrest, fighting in a public place and driving under the influence makes him a flight risk, although the court conceded McCusker has a wife a child, that he's been sober since 2010, and he has family in Mendocino County.
THE JUDGE SAID McCusker was a flight risk because when a local deputy went to McCusker’s home in Mendocino to arrest him back on November 7, and learned McCusker was driving to Comptche, the deputy passed McCusker headed in the other direction. The deputy made a U-turn to look for McCusker who had pulled off the roadway onto a dirt trail in an apparent effort to flee, only to get his vehicle stuck on a tree stump where the deputy found him. The deputy also said that McCusker reeked of “marijuana juice” when he was arrested.
THE FEDERAL PROSECUTOR testified at McCusker's bail hearing that six cooperating witnesses have identified McCusker as being personally involved in shipping 1,000 pounds of high-grade marijuana with a street value of approximately $2.6 million.
ACCORDING TO a story by Linda Williams in the Willits News, local cops filed 20 percent more cases in 2012 than they did in 2011. “Whether the increased workload is due to more effective policing, or whether it's a result of increasing criminal activity, is not yet clear to Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster,” Williams reported. “Since detailed state and county level crime data is not yet available for 2012, it is unclear whether this trend is primarily a local issue, or whether it's part of a statewide trend,” she wrote.
WE FOLLOW EVENTS in Humboldt County, and can't help but see that our neighbors to the north suffer a much higher incidence of drug-related crime than we do here in Mendocino County. HumCo's population is larger but it also has a larger population of drug people, judging from the daily arrest tally out of the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department.
THE UKIAH CITY COUNCIL is poised to apply for a 30-year loan of up to $4 million from the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (I-Bank) to do site prep for the billion-dollar Costco corporation. If Ukiah's taxpayers fund the loan Costco will condescend to build a store on Airport Park Boulevard. The city has already agreed to complete improvements to the intersections and Highway 101 off-ramps leading to the proposed bulk products emporium, having intended to use Redevelopment Agency money to literally pave the way for CostCo. But Governor Brown has terminated redevelopment agencies because their funding had improperly diverted for years, certainly by Ukiah, to spending unrelated to the revitalization of decrepit neighborhoods. Ukiah, for instance, paid the salaries of an expanded city hall staff and, in one of the most flagrant abuses of redevelopment money, authorized an outdoor patio at a privately-owned restaurant where three councilman enjoy their after hours.
JEFF COSTELLO WRITES: Got my last issue here in Portland on Wednesday, as the next issue was being distributed in Mendo. Sometimes it gets here early as Saturday, but not often. Monday is the usual norm. Let me join the others in pleading for perpetuation of the print issue. I would sorely miss the margin quotes, some of which from over the years I have used again and again. And what would off-the-grid hermits like Bill Brundage do? I've concluded that the US postal service is constipated. Sometimes things move, sometimes they don't.
MANBEATER OF THE WEEK. In the pink corner, weighing in at 100 mayhem-ready pounds of pure terror..... Straight outta Ukiah, Amberrrrrrrrrrr Cate!
CHRIS MULCAHY, 50, lately the chief financial officer of Brutocao Cellars based in Hopland with a branch in Philo in the Anderson Valley, was arrested Saturday on allegations of forging checks and embezzling roughly a quarter million dollars from Brutocao. Mulcahy is being held on $500,000 bail in the Mendocino County Jail. He had worked for the winery for six years. Prior to Brutocao, Mulcahy was with the Coca-Cola corporation for 14 years. He presently co-owns Sapphire Hill Winery in Healdsburg with his wife, and also owns Family Wine Services, a consulting business.
EXCELLENT REPORTING by Frank Hartzell in last week's Advocate-Beacon on a no-public-allowed public meeting convened Tuesday by the Noyo Harbor District. The meeting, at the Coast Guard station, as Hartzell tells us, was to discuss “how to deal with the mountainous issue of Noyo Harbor dredge spoils. Who is not invited? The press and general public.” According to Hartzell, “The agenda says Noyo Harbor District commissioners Tommy Ancona and Joe Caito would attend along with new district Secretary-Treasurer Kevin Michel and Manager Jere Kleinbach.” The two board members comprise “Noyo Harbor District's Commission Infrastructure Committee…” “The meeting today [Feb. 19] is a Noyo Harbor District staff presentation of the history and current status of the dredge material holding area to bring Jared Huffman, our new US Congress Representative, up to speed on this issue. This is not a new story, just bringing new folks up to speed on past events.” Michel subsequently allowed Hartzell in, but not the public, none of whom seemed interested anyway.
RYAN FLOYD, 30, the Humboldt County gun guy become something of a media sensation, has pled not guilty to 11 felony drug and weapons charges. The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office said last week that it found 110 guns stashed inside a cave on Floyd's 55-acre property in Garberville. HumCo Sheriff Mike Downey says at least 20 of the weapons were stolen and likely bound for the black market. Deputies also found 117 pounds of dried marijuana, $12,000 in cash, thousands of rounds of ammunition and jewelry and vehicles that had been reported stolen. Floyd is due back in court on April 3.
DRUG OVERDOSE DEATHS rose for the eleventh straight year in America, fueled by legal prescriptions for OxyContin and Valium, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week. OxyContin, Vicodin and Valium caused about 60 percent of the 38,329 drug overdose deaths nationwide in 2010, the CDC reports. “Anti-anxiety drugs including Valium were among common causes of medication-related deaths, involved in almost 30 percent of them. Among the medication-related deaths, 17 percent were suicides.” Legal drugs deemed safe by the FDA killed more people than illegal heroin and cocaine overdoses combined, and those numbers are likely to increase when statistics for 2011 and 2012 are announced.
ACCORDING TO THE RESULTS of a Field Poll released last Friday, 9 out of 10 California voters favor an orderly path to citizenship for persons in the country illegally. To get on the path to citizenship, poll respondents said, persons aspiring to be Americans should be employed, learn English and pay whatever back taxes they may owe. The poll also found that a majority of voters support allowing residents who are in the U.S. illegally to get California driver's licenses, a reversal from previous surveys. But the poll also found that Californians wanted the border with Mexico somehow made less porous and real penalties imposed on employers who hire illegals.
IT ISN'T KNOWN what percentage of Mendocino County's wine industry workers are not legal, probably because the industry prefers that no one knows, but it is assumed a large percentage of vineyard labor is illegal.
CONGRESSMAN MIKE THOMPSON announced today that Congressman Jared Huffman will co-chair the Congressional Wild Salmon Caucus with Congressman Don Young. Thompson and Don Young founded the Caucus in 2010. One of the first orders of business for the Wild Salmon Caucus will be to address the issue of genetically engineered (GE) salmon, sometimes referred to as “Frankenfish.” The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is moving closer to approving fish that are developed by artificially combining growth hormone genes from an unrelated Pacific salmon, with DNA from the anti-freeze genes of an eelpout. If approved, this would be the first food from a transgenic animal, one whose genome has been altered, available for public consumption. Studies show that a restored salmon industry could contribute up to $5 billion and 94,000 jobs to the California economy.
ON-LINE COMMENT regarding a CNN discussion about driving under the influence of marijuana: “This study all depends on tolerance. People will argue this statement and that's fine due to different chemical reactions. For me personally I started smoking dope habitually at the age of 11 and quit at 20 years old. I in fact took my drivers test at 16 stoned, it was only natural, since I smoked a quarter to a half a day. I passed the physical driving test with flying colors, just as anyone would with common operational skills. However, fast forward 19 years to present day and I would never get behind the wheel stoned. Simply due to my tolerance. If I over indulged, which is easy to do, I would feel the same as I did in the beginning stages of the tolerance development. I.e., incapacitation. I definitely support the regulation behind legalization. There are too many idiots out there to assume they use “good” judgment. Get ready for more imprisonment due to legalization. More regulation = more incarceration. Voting for these laws actually takes away from the state laws that are already in existence. Making medical more illegal than it is present day. Good luck with that.”
THE AVERAGE PRICE average price of gasoline in the state is now $4.22 per gallon, up almost 60 cents a gallon in a month. Food prices are way up as well because it suddenly costs a lot more to get that food to markets. Very little comment on this ominous development in the mainstream media.
NINER COACH JIM HARBAUGH said the other day that Judge Judy is his guide to honesty: “Somebody that’s not truthful? That’s big — to me. I’m a big fan of the Judge Judy show. When you lie in Judge Judy’s courtroom, it’s over. Your credibility is completely lost. You stand no chance of winning that case. I learned that from her. It’s very powerful.”
FITCH RATINGS has upgraded Mendocino County from dire to more or less solvent: “The Positive Outlook reflects improvements in the county's financial position following substantial expenditure reductions and management reforms over the last several years.... The county continues to face challenges from a long-term economic contraction that preceded the recent downturn. Employment levels have fallen each year over the past decade while population has stagnated. In addition, wealth and income levels remain well below state and national averages.... The county has made notable progress in addressing weaknesses cited in past reviews. Management has raised fund balance targets and established policies to help meet these new goals, updated treasury practices, and begun preparations for its first capital improvement plan in seven years.... Overall debt levels are moderate but county long-term obligations are substantial due to pension funding requirements... A sustained record of surplus operations and enhanced financial flexibility will likely result in an upgrade in the near term.” And so on. But the current Board of Supervisors has done a good job bringing the County back from the brink of insolvency, but they've done it via hiring freezes and layoffs primarily.
THE JACKSON DEMONSTRATION STATE FOREST Advisory Group meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Ukiah Field Office at 2550 North State Street in Ukiah beginning at 9:30a.m. This meeting is open to the public and public attendance is encouraged. If anyone has any questions about Jackson Demonstration State Forest, please call (707) 964-5674.
DAY 26 AT WARBLER'S TREESIT — Report from the Warbler Support Crew, February 22, 2013. Warbler is strong and well. She remains determined to hold her ground in the Liberty Ponderosa until Caltran's Bypass is cancelled. Many people have sent her copies of the newspaper coverage and she is thrilled to see renewed debate in the community about all of the possible alternatives to Caltran's $214 million boondoogle. She also sends many thank-yous and much gratitude to all of those who are sending food, supplies, and words of support and inspiration. We are certain that the strong presence of people from the community holding vigil at the treesit site has helped to deter CalTrans. So, please keep coming! With help and support from the community Warbler has been working to make her perch more livable, more self-sufficient, and stock-piled with supplies to meet her basic needs for the long haul ahead. She is now solarized! She is well aware that times will be more difficult when CalTrans begins to build the fence and gate around the so-called “designated construction zone.”
THAT WAS LAST FRIDAY. Today, Monday, CalTrans was assembling equipment in the vicinity of The Warbler's tree, and it probably won't be long before Climber Dan (remember him?) or a new version of Climber Dan scales Warbler's tree to de-nest her.
BUT, SAY THE PROTESTERS, “Standby alert remains. Whenever CalTran's contractors arrive to begin building the fence we will initiate the emergency phone tree. We don't know when this will be. If you are on the emergency phone tree you will receive a call asking you to please gather at Evergreen Shopping Center. From there we will have shuttles to the treesit site. At the treesit site we will hold a peaceful and joyous musical rally to celebrate the trees, Warbler's courage, and our own determination to stop the Bypass destruction. Stay strong. STOP CALTRANS BYPASS. There is a better way!”
OCCUPY UKIAH Presents an Open Public Forum on Herbicide Use in Mendocino County Sunday March 10th, 2013 at The Ukiah United Methodist Church Choir Room 270 N. Pine St. Ukiah 4:30 to 6:30pm The open public forum on herbicides in the county will review herbicide use in the Mendocino Redwood Company 80-year Habitat Conservation Plan and herbicide use on school campuses. Our goal is to view all sides of the controversial topic through the format of public discourse. There will be a moderated panel of featured speakers including Ag Commissioner Chuck Morse. Public comment will follow with a question and answer period. Public input is welcome! For more information, contact Charlie Vaughan 707-367-2194 roshambo1414@yahoo.com
INTERESTING study by the combined forces of Fish and Game and the Forest Service to try to explain the radical fall-off in the state's deer population. 96 fawns were radio-collared. Of the 96, only 38% survived. Disease and accident killed 11%; mountain lions took out 49%; coyotes 27%; and bobcats the rest. 96 fawns is not a large number to sample, but if it's representative it means that less than a third of the fawn population makes it to adulthood, that predators are largely responsible for the entire population's decreased numbers and that there may be a predator imbalance.
LOOK FOR A LIVELY pro-gun rally in front of the County Courthouse this Friday at 5pm. Organizer Dan Kuny said Monday, “We're not with any organized group. Just local, law-abiding people angry about how we're being painted in the media.” Info at 489-8452.
VERY BAD HOME INVASION the other night at Greenfield Ranch. Two guys in camo and ski masks cut their way in through a closed gate off Orr Springs Road, drove to the home of a sixty-ish couple, beat the man with a flashlight, fracturing his skull in several places, and getting nothing for all that felonious effort. The cops got up the hill pretty fast, but the bad boys got away.
AND FROM THE USUALLY TRANQUIL confines of Mendocino, “Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies received a radio call for service regarding a burglary in progress at a residence in the 45000 block of Heeser Street in Mendocino.” A crafty senior by the name of Dorothy Baker owns the property, which she was monitoring via a live-feed video camera positioned inside the home and accessible to her by internet. Ms. Baker provided a description of the suspect and was watching as deputies rolled up to find that Alec Faccone had moved into the place. Faccone was soon under arrest and found to be in possession of a pistol modified with an illegal silencer and a sawed-off rifle. Faccone was also confirmed to have had an active felony arrest warrant out of Seattle, Washington for robbery and is believed responsible for at least four other reported and non-reported burglaries in the Mendocino and Fort Bragg areas. Faccone had been living in Ms. Baker's home for a week.
DAY 26 AT WARBLER'S TREESIT — Report from the Warbler Support Crew, as of February 22, 2013. Warbler is strong and well. She remains determined to hold her ground in the Liberty Ponderosa until Caltran's Bypass is cancelled. Many people have sent her copies of the newspaper coverage and she is thrilled to see renewed debate in the community about all of the possible alternatives to Caltran's $214 million boondoogle. She also sends many thank-yous and much gratitude to all of those who are sending food, supplies, and words of support and inspiration. We are certain that the strong presence of people from the community holding vigil at the treesit site has helped to deter CalTrans. So, please keep coming! With help and support from the community Warbler has been working to make her perch more livable, more self-sufficient, and stock-piled with supplies to meet her basic needs for the long haul ahead. She is now solarized! She is well aware that times will be more difficult when CalTrans begins to build the fence and gate around the so-called “designated construction zone.”
THAT WAS LAST FRIDAY. On Monday, CalTrans was assembling equipment in the vicinity of The Warbler's tree, and it probably won't be long before Climber Dan (remember him?) or a new version of Climber Dan scales Warbler's tree to de-nest her.
BUT, INSIST THE PROTESTERS, “Standby alert remains. Whenever CalTrans contractors arrive to begin building the fence we will initiate the emergency phone tree. We don't know when this will be. If you are on the emergency phone tree you will receive a call asking you to please gather at Evergreen Shopping Center. From there we will have shuttles to the treesit site. At the treesit site we will hold a peaceful and joyous musical rally to celebrate the trees, Warbler's courage, and our own determination to stop the Bypass destruction. Stay strong. Stop Caltrans Bypass. There is a better way!”
LATE MONDAY UPDATE: Protesters against the Willits bypass today stopped Caltrans subcontractors from building a fence — and bulldozing a path through the brush for that fence — at a site north of where a month-long tree sit is located on Highway 101 The alert went out early Monday morning that earth moving equipment was gathering off East Hill Road. Protesters walked the route, discovering several bird nests in the brush Caltrans had already cleared, and sat in the path of the bulldozer.
CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL OFFICERS came to the site, and were told by protesters they wanted to talk to California Fish & Wildlife about whether a required survey of nesting birds had been done properly. The Migratory Bird Act of 1927 prohibits disturbance of migratory birds during nesting season, which is why Caltrans had originally planned to “top” trees along the route last fall, to remove any possible nesting habitats.
A BIOLOGIST from SHN Consulting, which had done a bird survey in January, came to look at the nests, along with an environmental compliance officer from Caltrans. Both handled and moved the two still intact nests protesters had found, breaking one of them up. When local Fish & Wildlife Warden Rusty Boccaleoni arrived, he asked if the evidence had been moved, and looked at videos neighbor Malakai Schindel had taken of what he described as the “tearing apart” of one of the nests. Schindel also told the game warden he witnessed birds flying up from the brush as it was cleared. Caltrans’ compliance officer told game warden Rusty Boccaleoni, as they were both examining the one still intact bird nest: “There is some green material on the bottom [of the nest]. I can't think of a bird that builds a nest from the top down.”
BOCCALEONI eventually told protesters that JoAnn Dunn, a staff environmental scientist for Fish & Wildlife, who works on Caltrans projects that need permitting, would be coming down to the Willits site to look things over.
ORGANIZER Sara Grusky later said Dunn told protesters at the site that Fish & Wildlife would be returning to do a more complete survey, which would take a few days, and discuss the nests protesters found. “No one told us whether Caltrans was or was not allowed to start building again before the survey was done,” Grusky said.
AVA REPORTER WILL PARRISH said the Save Our Little Lake Valley group would be inviting the local Audubon Society to do an independent survey.
PROTESTERS were pleased they’d stopped Caltrans for the day, and were asking supporters to call Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman — there was no local law enforcement present Tuesday — to ask him if he now agrees that CHP has jurisdiction at the site. At the site Tuesday, CHP Sergeant Jerry Elrod said his agency had jurisdiction because these were state lands. (— Jennifer Poole)
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