MONDAY AT THE WILLITS BYPASS
by Jennifer Poole, Willits Weekly
www.facebook.com/WillitsWeekly
Caltrans contractors continued work along the bypass route over the weekend in Willits, felling trees and clearing brush in multiple locations. All three tree-sitters are still in their trees, although California Highway Patrol officers are preventing any access to ground support crews, to re-supply water and food. Save Little Lake Valley's Sara Grusky said she was very concerned about what she called “very dangerous” activities by Caltrans and the Highway Patrol, including a CHP helicopter circling around each tree sit at a low height this afternoon, taking pictures of the tree-sitter. Caltrans contractors on Saturday and Tuesday also felled trees “dangerously close” Grusky said, to tree sitters “Caspian” and “Celsius” who are up in a grove of pine trees off East Hill Road.
CHP Capt. George Peck told Willits Weekly: “We brought our copter over so we could check on the safety of the tree-sitters.” Peck said there was no backwash wind from the copter on the tree-sitters, that all of the force was projected downwards. Peck said he was at the pine grove this afternoon when trees were being felled, and he didn't see any hazards. “I stood way back,” he said.
Asked about the issue of food and water for the tree sitters, Peck said: “We are not prohibiting the tree sitters to come down and get food and water. We would never ever want them to suffer from lack of food and water.”
The Highway Patrol has no specific formal procedures for dealing with tree-sitters, but Peck said: “We always have the ability to adjust to any situation, and we are adjusting to the tree-sitters. I think the best option is just to sit and wait and see what happens.”
Grusky said protesters were looking into FAA regulations about how near helicopters could fly to people. She described the tree felling and low circling helicopters as “intimidation without any concern for safety.”
Grusky also said Caltrans was blatantly disregarding environmental laws. “We are continuing to explore a variety of legal avenues,” she said, “and we'll have an announcement on that soon.”
Tara Dragani of Redwood Valley, who was arrested for trespassing with seven others Thursday, was arrested again Saturday, as contractors were felling an ancient valley oak. At least four of the big oaks were taken down that day.
Dragani was booked on a felony count of “removing or taking any weapon other than a firearm from the person of, or immediate presence of, a public officer or peace officer.” She was also booked on a misdemeanor count of trespassing and a misdemeanor count of battery against a peace officer in performance of their duties. Bail was set at $15,000.
Save Our Little Lake Valley is calling for supporters to attend the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, where North County Supervisor John Pinches has placed on the agenda a letter to Caltrans Director Malcolm Daugherty expressing continued support for the Willits bypass. The Caltrans letter is not a timed item, but Save Little Lake Valley expects it to be heard around 10:30am. Members of Friends of Outlet Creek, a group fighting the proposed Grist Creek Aggregates concrete batch plant in Longvale, right next to Outlet Creek, also plan to attend Tuesday's board meeting, speaking during the public comment period starting at 9am.
========================================================
FOR GROSS INCOMPETENCE of the relentless type, KZYX station manager John Coate is tough to beat, even in target-rich Mendocino County. Coate's latest blunder? The tax-exempt station is, of course, in theory owned by everyone. In practice it's owned by Coate, Mary Aigner and its captive board of directors, the last functioning for a quarter century now as a rubberstamp for whomever happens to be functioning as station manager. (Coate, we understand, prefers the title “Executive Director.” Yo, big boy, if it makes you feel better about yourself, how about “Your Excellency” or “Generalissimo”? So out go the ballots for a rare election to the station's cringing board of directors, an election held to keep incumbents in and insurgents like King Collins out. The cover letter accompanying the ballot says the ballot's got to be in by April 12th; the ballot itself, however, says it's due back by March 31st. Not a huge deal, but for a guy whose daily duties seem to range from invisible to opaque one would think Coate could at least get the basics correct on what might yet someday become a democratic process.
========================================================
POINT ARENA CITY ATTORNEY Joe Brecher was granted a new contract during a closed session special meeting earlier this month. As previously reported, Brecher submitted a letter of resignation after he learned that a city council committee was looking into what other city attorneys did and how much they were paid. The committee members said they were just doing their due diligence in exploring options, but at least some on the council are known to be upset that Brecher advised them that the lawsuit brought by former City Administrator Claudia Hilary for wrongful termination was groundless since she was an at will employee. The council ignored Brecher's advice and agreed to pay Hilary $90,000 to settle the lawsuit. (Libs throw public money around like confetti, their own like manhole covers, and you've got to marvel at city with 600 citizens that can't competently manage itself.) The effort to off Brecher, if that is what it was, or even to have a serious discussion about his performance, backfired when a motion to accept his letter of resignation failed on a 2-3 vote. The closed session special meeting was then called and Brecher's contract was renewed with no public discussion of his performance or other options that might have been available. Brecher will continue as City Attorney, but with the knowledge that at least two council members were more than happy to accept his letter of resignation.
========================================================
LAKE COUNTY SHERIFF FRANK RIVERO, the subject of a unanimous vote on March 19th by the Lake County Board of Supes calling for his resignation, now faces a recall campaign. Rivero, who previously said he would step down after one term, vowed to fight for re-election in response to the vote of no confidence from the Lake County Supes. But the recall may remove him from office before his term is up. Rivero's problems mounted recently when the Lake County District Attorney released a report saying he had “clear and convincing” evidence that Rivero lied to investigators regarding a (non-lethal, non-injury) shooting incident that Rivero was involved in back in 2008. The investigation was sparked by information recently supplied by one of Rivero's former colleagues. The determination by the DA means that in any case where Rivero is a material witness, it must be disclosed to the defense that Rivero has a history of lying.
SUPPORTERS OF RIVERO claim the recall, the DA's report and the call for his resignation, are all payback for Rivero's efforts to break up a corrupt power structure in the County. Rivero, who was elected on a reform ticket following a series of scandals and management problems that plagued the Sheriff's Office under previous Sheriff Rod Mitchell, says he is the target of a vendetta by an entrenched good old boys network.
RIVERO has the opportunity to respond to allegations in the recall petition before recall organizers can begin collecting signatures to put the recall on a future ballot. According to the Lake County Registrar of Voters, organizers will have 120 days to collect valid signatures of 7,026 registered voters, equal to 20% of the total registered voters in the county. Lake County Assistant Chief Probation Officer Brian Martin, who resigned from the Sheriff's Office as a lieutenant in 2011, has joined retired Clearlake police chief Bob Chalk as candidates to replace Rivero, either in a recall or in the next general election in 2014.
========================================================
KATY TAHJA WRITES: The Redwood Region Logging Conference just celebrated 75 years of sharing news of the logging industry and logging heritage in Eureka and the show deserves praise. No matter what a reader’s opinion is of modern logging practices this group gets praise for a job well done. What do you find at a logging conference? Thousands of people of all ages are having fun, to begin with. Thursday is always Education Day and this year 1,700 school children grades 3 to 6 got their field trip to the show paid for by conference sponsors. Knowledgeable guides show the kids what is going on out there in the commercial timberlands that surround the communities they live in. They hear about reforestation, habitat preservation, fisheries management, and what happens in the woods. The “Wild Things” show introduces them to the bear, mountain lion and eagles that live in the woods. Antique and modern logging heavy equipment is demonstrated and a lumberjack skills show is presented with things like splashy wet log rolling demonstrated and chainsaw carving. This next generation of people who will work in, or care for, timberlands come away with a clearer idea of what’s happening in the woods. While kids swarm the fairgrounds the Associated California Loggers are offering “Pro Logger” classes in risk management, professional business practices, air resources regulations, and first aid for loggers. For three days there are exhibits for everyone to take in. Some are quite tame, like my booth for Gallery Bookshop full of logging history books, but others with heavy equipment moving outside are noisy and full of action. I tried to categorize all the informative stuff I saw. Booths featured trucking, fuel, lubricants, logging equipment, tires, machinery, rigging, and chainsaws, of course. If a company needed credit, insurance, banking services, or consulting someone was offering it. Private timberland owners, open space supporters, sawmills, and lumber retailers were represented. Lawns were covered in super powered pickup trucks for sale. You could have your choice of “gimmie” (baseball) caps from a dozen booths. I survived three days without partaking of the free candy offered in most every booth. There was a career day on Friday for high school students to learn about the diverse job opportunities in the forest product industries and the conference is a generous scholarship provider. Saturday had a portable sawmill exhibition were viewers could see how both logging and lumber production could take place in your own back yard. Lumberjack and Jill shows had college teams providing educational entertainment. Who wouldn’t enjoy an ax throwing contest? There was a professional chainsaw carving contest with prize money provided. A logging skills competition showed what team could load a log truck the fastest and tie the load down safely. Of course timber professionals can’t be serious and hard working all the time so there is a golf tournament, beer and wine gala, gin fizz breakfast, banquet and auction (with the prize being the log load of a log truck) and ladies luncheon. Green Diamond Resource Company was kind enough to feed all the exhibitors a great lasagna dinner for free. All the local restoration and heritage groups had displays up. You could ride behind the tiny steam engine called the Falk on portable track laid down for the event and see a steam yarder operate, brought to the fairgrounds by the Timber Heritage Association. Roots of Motive Power sent a steam powered steamroller to flatten a roadway and other informative displays. The Early Days Gas Engine & Tractor Association had a variety of engines chugging and pop-popping Steam whistles tooting echoed over the Redwood Acres Fairgrounds next to Ryan Slough, where the first logging in Humboldt County took place in the 1850’s. Since I was a one woman exhibition booth I couldn’t wander far outside and I lived in a cacophony of noise for days. Nothing like the booth selling lubricants grinding metal together at screeching volume to show viewers how their wonder product just smoothes everything out. Plus everyone is talking at the top of their voices because it is so noisy. But even in this noise I had wonderful conversation with old timers. Understand that this is a family event and while I saw babies wrapped in camo baby bunting (pink for the girls) in Jeep strollers I saw families bringing their elders, the men who had worked all their lives in the woods, to see what was new and the old heritage equipment many had worked for decades with. “Logging Railroads of Humboldt & Mendocino Counties” is a new book I wrote and I had big poster pictures of engines decorating the Gallery Bookshop booth. Time and again an elder logger came over, moving slowly with age, to tell me a great story, while his kids and grandkids waited for the old man to finish. I made new elderly friends, sold 30 of my book, and got stories to go with some of the old photos in my book. This Redwood Region Logging Conference is a real family event and had something for everyone...from the little kid carrying a log chip “because I saw the man chop up the tree!” to the old man carrying his book of memories of days gone by. No matter what your opinion is of modern forestry practices it’s a fun show for the whole family. I promise you’ll come away having learned something new, and had fun too. The 2014 conference will be in Ukiah in March.
========================================================
AS A BOY, I was an early newspaper reader. Well, I read the sports pages anyway, because sports, especially the 49ers and the old San Francisco Seals, captured my imagination early. Major League Baseball still hadn't arrived on the West Coast. For a baseball fan, then, the Seals and the Pacific Coast League were it. But one day, I read my first news-news story and, like everyone else in Northern California, I kept reading that story as it unfolded over the next two years. It had begun with the kidnap and murder of a 14-year-old Oakland girl, Stephanie Bryan, by a 27-year-old UC student named Burton Abbott. The story ended with Abbott's execution at San Quentin two years later. Stephanie was grabbed in 1955, Abbott was executed in 1957. Justice had been swift and maybe not always so sure in those days, but if you killed someone you could count on the state killing you in a matter of months. Abbott maintained to the end he'd been framed, that Stephanie Bryan's purse and undergarments found in the crawl space beneath his house had been placed there by a relative who didn't like him. But the girl's body had been found on Abbott family property in Trinity County; if Abbott was framed, it was about as thorough a frame job as could be devised.
STEPHANIE BRYAN was only a couple of years older than me, which may have diverted my attention from the sports page to the front page. I could relate to her, more or less, as a peer. But I wasn't the only one diverted. For two years, Bay Area papers ran the Abbott case on their front pages every day. I can still remember one story that said a girl, presumably Stephanie, had been seen struggling with a man in a speeding car headed north. With every edition of the four dailies out of San Francisco you could almost feel a collective chill go up the Bay Area's collective spine. (My best friend's father used to pack up his family for Sunday outings to Alameda just to stare at Abbott's house; so many horror tourists showed up every day the police had to cordon off the street.) A young girl walking home from school snagged in broad daylight? It was the Bay Area equivalent of the much earlier Lindbergh kidnapping. This kind of thing never happened. Now, of course, much more spectacular criminal events occur on a daily basis.
JUST LAST WEEK in Mendocino County, a rural area assumed to be beyond the primary psycho zones, saw two babies almost killed out of parental fecklessness; that happened right here in the bucolic Anderson Valley. Over the hill, a man running naked and bloody down a central Ukiah street required a whole defensive backfield of cops to restrain him, and there were two episodes classified as “elder abuse.” In one of those a 60-year-old woman caring for an 80-something-year-old woman bit the 80-year-old so severely the old lady scuttled out her Fort Bragg door for help. In the other, a daughter in her forties simply hauled off and slugged her 80-year-old mother in the face, hospitalizing the old lady. And there was the usual sea-to-sea scumbaggery, of course, everywhere in the land, all of it non-occurring a short half-century ago.
THE POINT? Couple of points: The first is that the country is unraveling faster than even us pessimists have expected. Aberrant, even murderous behavior, has become so prevalent we barely notice the media accounts but can't help but notice it the instant we step out our front door. We now live in a daily envelope of insanity which, to finally get to the trite point I'm making, is that it's the chaos that feeds the fear in the gun people, but the gun people's sense of reality is much more accurate than, say, Dianne Feinstein's, sense of reality. A Mendo gun person's sense of reality is much more realistic than Mendolib's sense of reality.
SO, MR. PONTIFICATOR, what's your solution? There might not be one in any conventional sense because the economic apparatus is also collapsing from its own ongoing criminality, but I'd start by reversing the flow of the money upwards to establish a social floor consisting of guaranteed work, housing, medical care, free education through the college level, and everything else that would remove the national fear and anxiety. Won't happen, of course, because the limo people of both political parties are simply couriers for the money, but it's the only way to stabilize life for the ever more millions who have been destabilized and are now going crazy every day everywhere in the United States. The gun people are as unlikely to go for socialist strategies of psycho-social remediation as the libs are. The system has de-stabilized itself, and here we are on the slippery slope to national ruin, and all the untied people, millions of them, are going crazy.
========================================================
TO ALL RESIDENTS within Driving Range of Little Lake Grange in Willits! Next Friday, March 29th—coming up real soon—a one-man concert in support of SOLLV (Save Our Little Lakes Valley) and of the remodeling of the Grange Great Hall (one of Willits' main community centers). SOLLV needs our support. Now. Half the gate from Jim Page's concert will go directly into support of SOLLV. Please, please, please make (or change) plans to attend this concert on Friday. Bring someone who loves meaningful, entertaining folk and blues music and whom you wish to know more about our community's fight to save the beauty, arable land, and integrity of our Valley. Don't come alone. Bring someone. Come see how the Grange has refurbished its Great Hall (and bathrooms). Come in a show of mutual support for our love of community and our beautiful Valley. Ukiah residents are being challenged by Laytonville who says it will bring more people than Ukiah! Ft. Bragg claims they are bigger fans of Jim Page than any city in Mendocino county—and will have no trouble trouncing both Laytonville and Ukiah. If you're from outside 95490, to get $10 advance price, come to boxoffice and use code: “GRANGER". Willits residents can get advanced price at The Goode Shop or The Coffee Garden (in Brooktrails). Otherwise, $12 at the door. It's for a great cause. And if on the other hand you support the CalTrans by-pass, come anyway; you probably support the Grange Hall as a community center! — Lanny Cotler
========================================================
PUBLIC INFORMATIONAL MEETING WITH MENDOCINO REDWOOD COMPANY (MRC) on Thursday March 28th, from 7-9pm at the Senior Center in Boonville to review the key components of its Draft Habitat Conservation Plan/Natural Communities Conservation Plan (the Draft Plan) and accompanying Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). The intent of this meeting is to provide interested members of the public information on current status of covered species as well as a general outline of conservation measures and monitoring strategies in the Draft Plan. MRC biologists and foresters will be on hand to answer questions related to covered species and proposed conservation strategies presented. The Draft Plan covers more than 213,000 acres in Mendocino County including 54,600 acres in the Navarro River watershed, as well as portions of the Greenwood Creek, Elk Creek and Albion river watersheds. The Senior Center is located at 14470 Hwy 128, Boonville This event is co-sponsored by the Anderson Valley Land Trust and the Navarro River Resource Center.'
========================================================
TO THE BOARD of Supervisors Mendocino County
The Willits Bypass will allow through traffic on the Freeway to bypass the streets of Willits. CalTrans advises that this will be good for our community, because it will get some of those big rigs off local streets and reduce air pollution. Phase I will cost over $200 million and the total could well be over $350 million if it is ever completed. It will not improve downtown backups for traffic headed toward Fort Bragg: this traffic will need to exit the new Highway 101 several miles north or south of town and drive through downtown streets to reach Highway 20 just as they do now.
While all of this is being discussed and protested to the north, the Ukiah City Council is proposing the opposite solution to their traffic problems. They want to use $6.2 million of local tax funds not to allow traffic to bypass Ukiah but to move it more efficiently into town. They want to expand freeway off-ramps and feeder roads so as to shuttle shoppers into Ukiah's expanding Big Box stores along Airport Boulevard. Our visionary City Council feels this will be good for our community: generating new sources of sales tax revenue, even while admittedly forcing many smaller businesses to close.
Recommendations: First: The Board of Supervisors should lend its support to the effort by Senator Noreen Evans to get CalTrans to explain its justification for selection of what many see as the worst of the Bypass Options. Second: Insist that the Ukiah City Council explain to the public how their highway project will be financed, how loans will be repaid, and how this will impact the revenue sharing talks that continue between County and City. — James Houle Redwood Valley
========================================================
TODAY’S REALITY CHECK: More empty houses than homeless people — There are more than five times as many vacant homes in the US as there are homeless people, according to Amnesty International USA. Since 2007, banks have shuttered about eight million American houses, almost doubling the previous number, while 3.5 million homeless shiver in the cold. Experts expect 8-10 million more foreclosures in the years ahead. —ARK
========================================================
MENDOCINO COAST BOTANICAL GARDENS proudly announces an exciting new event – My Garden 2013. We cordially invite you to join us for an afternoon garden party, sumptuous farm to table dinner, and live auction featuring brilliantly hand crafted one-of-a-kind items built exclusively for My Garden 2013.
Purchase your tickets now, as seating for this special event is limited.
Regards,
Mary Anne Payne, Executive Director
Michael Greene, My Garden Chair
My Garden 2013 Fundraiser
Saturday . May 25th . 2013 ~ 3:30 p.m.
Featuring Mendocino County's Finest
Featured Speaker: Kate Frey: Mendocino County’s resident world class garden designer, specializing in sustainable, bio-diverse, ecological gardens and landscaping.
Gourmet Farm-To-Table Sit Down Dinner
Specially Crafted Beer From North Coast Brewing Company
Award Winning Wines From Yorkville Cellars
Live Auction Of Brilliantly Hand Crafted One-Of-A-Kind Garden Items Built Exclusively For My Garden 2013 By Mendocino County Craftsmen
Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens 18220 N. Highway 1 . Fort Bragg . CA 95437
========================================================
THE CITY OF ARCATA will fly the rainbow flag on the Arcata Plaza on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 26 and 27, 2013. The rainbow flag has a history of use in many cultures as a symbol of diversity and inclusiveness. Since the 1970s the flag has been used as a symbol of gay pride and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights. The LGBT flag will fly on Tuesday and Wednesday while the United States Supreme Court hears Hollingsworth v. Perry, a case challenging the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, and USA v. Windsor, which challenges the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act. Arcata Mayor Shane Brinton requested the City fly the flag and sign a statement by California Mayors United Against Proposition 8 at this Wednesday’s City Council meeting. “I am joining other forward-thinking California mayors in calling for an end to the separate and unequal status imposed on same-sex couples by Proposition 8,” said Brinton. “It makes me proud that my colleagues on the City Council voted unanimously to support this position by flying the LGBT pride flag. This is a symbol of our community’s solidarity in the struggle for equal rights.”
========================================================
DEAR EDITOR, My name is Doug Newton and I am the private investigator on the Chris Giauque murder case. During my investigation of this case I follow up on new leads. I try and sort out which ones may have some merit and which leads are put out there to throw me off in the wrong direction. I have also spent a considerable amount of time going back through my notes and reading everything I have in two binders.
I have read news articles and reports until my eyes burn. There is one article that has bothered me and that was a letter to the editor written by Scott Mckinney. I ask myself, why out of dozens of people that I have interviewed or otherwise spoken with, does Scott McKinney feel compelled to write an article to clear his name? Think about it.
Scott writes his letter in Feb 2012 and explains how he wants to see closure for the family, His heart goes out to Mr. Giauques' family. He wants justice for Chris Giauque & family. He loves his community and has worked hard to earn respect. He is even willing to add to the reward money (but hasn't).
He tells us that he has passed a polygraph examination. The problem is Scott, it was set up by your attorney and paid for by you. How about letting the Sheriff's Office or FBI administer a polygraph or did you turn down that request. What about your willingness to help anyway you can and all I ask for is your signature on a medical release form regarding one knife wound and you refuse. That could have cleared you in my books but instead it just pointed a big finger at yourself.
I am still working on this case and still willing to help set up a polygraph at no charge to you. I am still willing to accept a medical release form for one specific knife wound. If you pass the poly and the knife wound is explained away, I will make every effort to clear your name.
Doug Newton, Private Investigator, Healdsburg
========================================================
“ON THIN ICE” wraps up the International Wildlife Film Fest Tour
A beautifully photographed documentary and an award-winning short film, both focusing on the impact of changing weather in our northern realms, will close out the International Wildlife Film Festival, on Friday, March 29, at 7 pm at the Ukiah Civic Center.
In “On Thin Ice,” viewers join David Attenborough for a captivating journey to both polar regions to investigate the impact of rising temperatures. The film captures the first-ever images of the largest recent natural event on our planet—the break-up of the Wilkins Ice Shelf, an ice sheet the size of Jamaica, which shattered into hundreds of icebergs in 2009. As with his previous work, David Attenborough has made an engaging film filled with breathtaking photography. “While the results of global warming are alarming, we found this film absolutely fascinating,” say Helen Menasian and Cathy Monroe of the RVOEP. “It gives us an exciting first-hand look at how scientists are gathering data at the poles. This is one of our favorite films of the series.”
Also playing is an eight-minute short, “TRUST Alaska,” which won the award for Best Non-Broadcast film at the Wildlife Film Festival. This is one of a 10-part series of short documentaries featuring the voices of youth from across the country who went to court to compel the government to protect our atmosphere, in trust, for future generations. This film tells the personal story of Nelson Kanuk from Kipnuk, Alaska and how climate change is impacting the life of his family.
Films will be shown at the Ukiah Civic Center, 300 Seminary Avenue. The doors open at 6:20 with live music by Sheridan Malone and John Morris. Films begin at 7 pm. Tickets are available at Mendocino Book Company or at the door. A suggested donation of $10 for adults and $5 for children is requested for each evening. These films are appropriate for older children.
All proceeds benefit the Redwood Valley Outdoor Education Project (RVOEP). The RVOEP is a community-supported outdoor environmental education program of the Ukiah Unified School District and serves over 2,000 students each year. Donations provide vital funding for staff, field trip transportation, and other program expenses. To learn more about the RVOEP and see a full film schedule, visit www.rvoep.org or contact Helen Menasian, Education Coordinator, at 489-9932.
========================================================
THE FRIENDS OF OUTLET CREEK are planning a formal objection to the Grist Creek Aggregates proposal to add a concrete batch plant to their Hwy 162 gravel yard. Grist Creek just re-opened the dormant gravel plant on Highway 162 about 2 miles east of Hwy 101. A neighbor of Grist Creek explains: “A concrete batch plant will virtually destroy the return on the salmon run to Outlet Creek and the tributaries up in Little Lake Valley. Also cause great harm to the other creatures. My guess is after this is approved they will request the addition of supplying asphalt. Besides objecting to the concrete batch plant we feel the owners should, at a minimum, prepare an EIR to expose and address the concerns this operation will bring to this area. We have made comment and the decision has been delayed. We have decided to make an appearance at the BOS meeting Tuesday. March 26. Start time is 9:00 a.m. Public comments are heard at the beginning of the meeting and we will be making ours on behalf of Outlet Creek. We will also be handing out info. packets to the board members, press, and hopefully to the right, honorable Jared Huffman, our Congressman, who will be speaking on an unrelated matter. He has recently been appointed to the Wild Salmon caucus. It is crucial to be there before the 9:00 a.m. start. ( 8:50 a.m. is good ) We will be finished with our business before 9:30. Our goal is to have 20 friends at the meeting. We feel this will make a powerful statement, and help prevent the building of a concrete plant on Outlet Creek. Please let me know if you plan to attend. The BOS chambers are on Low Gap Rd. in the county complex.”
========================================================
TASER CASE Shows County Negligence. We have supported and encourage the County’s effort to contract out mental health services to an organization that can do better and we are appalled at the new low to which the Mental Health department has recently sunk in the case of the mentally ill man who left the hospital naked and bleeding to walk down Perkins Street in Ukiah. The man had been taken out of the restraints at the hospital on the orders of a mental health staffer but for no good reason we — or apparently anyone else — can understand. As a result of course the mentally ill man (who was in restraints at the hospital because he had threatened to kill someone) tore out the catheter the hospital had provided and, bleeding, left the hospital. At this point so did the County mental health worker. Yes, he just quit the scene. Nothing left to do here, he must have concluded. Instead a lone Ukiah Police Officer was forced to confront this bleeding drugged, 6’5” man with a Taser. By the time the man was finally subdued he had been tased five times by more than one police officer, as the first officer on the scene got some backup. Some of you may remember 15 years ago when a huge criminally insane man named Marvin Noble was shot by police after resisting arrest and several pepper sprays and only after stabbing a police K-9 officer. At that time the county’s mental health department had asked police to go get Mr. Noble for them since he was off his meds. After the shooting, the county’s mental health department promised it would be proactive and on hand whenever police had to interact with the mentally ill. Instead, our police and sheriff's deputies are now the de facto mental health department and that’s not acceptable. The county administration and Board of Supervisors need to make sure that just because the mental health department knows it may be taken over, doesn’t give it the right to hobble law enforcement officers through its indifference. At the very least the County needs to spend the money to being back the contract “sitters” it used to have for the mentally ill brought to the hospital and it needs to take a very close look at what happened here — and this is just one more slightly bizarre case among other bad incidents lately with mentally ill patients. Equally important, the County needs to make it clear to staff that negligence wont be tolerated. — K.C. Meadows. (Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)
========================================================
HEIST: Who Stole the American Dream? Film screening this Thursday March 28th, at 6 PM at the Fort Bragg Library Who Stole the American Dream? That's the subtitle of the new film Heist, which will be shown Thursday, March 28th, at 6 PM at the Library in Fort Bragg. Admission is free. Heist reveals how American corporations orchestrated the dismantling of middle-class prosperity through rampant deregulation, the outsourcing of jobs, public opinion moulding, and tax policies favoring businesses and the wealthy. The collapse of the U.S. economy is the result of conscious choices made over forty years by corporate leaders, their politicians, and the biggest lobbyists in Washington. Heist: Who Stole the American Dream? is stunning audiences across the globe as it traces the worldwide economic collapse to a 1971 secret memo entitled Attack on American Free Enterprise System. Written over 40 years ago by the future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, at the behest of the US Chamber of Commerce, the 6-page memo, a free-market utopian treatise, called for a money fueled big business makeover of government through corporate control of the media, academia, the pulpit, arts & sciences and the destruction of organized labor and consumer protection groups. But Powell’s real “end game” was business control of law and politics. Heist’s step by step detail exposes the systemic implementation of Powell’s memo by both US political parties culminating in the deregulation of industry, outsourcing of jobs and regressive taxation. All of which led us to the global financial crisis of 2008 and the continued dismantling of the American middle class. Today, politics is the playground of the rich and powerful, with no thought given to the hopes and dreams of ordinary Americans. No other film goes as deeply as Heist in explaining the greatest wealth transfer of our time. Moving beyond the white noise of today’s polarizing media, Heist provides viewers with a clear, concise and fact- based explanation of how we got into this mess, and what we need to do to restore our representative democracy. Heist was designated a Critics' Pick by The New York Times, remarking that the film “has the virtue of taking the long view of a crisis that recent films like Inside Job and Too Big to Fail have only sketchily explored.” Slant Magazine called this documentary “remarkably balanced and even-toned.” Find out Who Stole the American Dream? And How We Can Get it Back on Thursday, March 28th, at 6 PM at the Library, 499 E. Laurel St., Fort Bragg. Heist is 75 minutes long and will be followed by a discussion with those interested. The film's producer and director, Donald Goldmacher, had said he would lead the discussion, but he just informed us that he is now sick and unable to make the trip. This free screening is sponsored by Move To Amend Coalition; more information from TW@MCN.ORG or 937-1113.
========================================================
HISTORIAL SOCIETY SPECIAL EXHIBIT AND TOUR The special exhibit of the Cloverdale Historical Society, “Frank Lloyd Wright, Aaron G. Green and Dr. Harold Nathan Ives: The Cloverdale Connection” will open for public view at the Cloverdale History Center on Thursday, March 28 and run through Sunday, April 14. This exhibit will tell the story of Dr. Harold N. Ives, a graduate of UCSF Dental School, and why he choose small town Cloverdale to build his home and open his first dental practice and too bring with him the Architectural ideas of “organic” design of the renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The Cloverdale History Center is located at 215 N. Cloverdale Blvd, Cloverdale and is open Thursdays, 10 am to 4 pm, Friday, 10 am to 2 pm, Saturday 10am to 4pm and Sunday, Noon to 4pm. The History Center is closed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Suggested donation is $2.00 for individuals and $5.00 for families or small groups (5). For further information call Joaquin @ 894-5653 or CHS @ 894-2067. Email office@cloverdalehistory.org or www.cloverdalehistory.org. Tour Of 114 N. Main St. Cloverdale. A guided tour of this Frank Lloyd Wright inspired, Aaron Green designed Dental office, a one of a kind structure, will only take place on Thursday, March 28 at 1pm and 2pm. Meet at the History Center 15 minutes before the hour for each tour. There is a suggested donation of $3.00 per person.
Be First to Comment