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Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, Jan 13, 2015

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DAVE SEVERN REPORTS on the Navarro: "The River is beautiful - gloriously clean, clear and cool but flowing much shallower than it should be. As of Monday it had dropped down to about 87 cu. ft. per sec. - the 63 year median statistic is 500 to 600. For fish protection the State has designated 200 cu. ft. per sec. as a minimum flow before any water is to be appropriated for agriculture so we better not be hearing any pumps. If you do let somebody know. Nobody, including the fishermen among us has reported seeing any steelhead, or salmon for that matter, this year but we can always hope that some early fish did sneak on up for spawning during the big muddy flood-flow back the end of November."

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NICE PIECE ON BETH SWEHLA in a recent edition of Future Farmer's magazine. Anderson Valley High School's popular ag teacher has been awarded an Honorary American Degree by national FFA, a very big deal in junior ag circles. Rather than travel alone to the awards ceremony, Beth raised enough money take four students with her to Louisville, Kentucky: Aaron Alvarez; Chris Espinoza; Ethan Read; and Morgan Kobler all joined their teacher for a trip east none of them will forget.

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GREG KROUSE WRITES: Grange events coming up. We are presenting a Musician’s Jam to allow Musicians to try new tunes with one another in a true Jam Jan. 23rd Friday evening at 7 PM. Musicians should bring 5 sheets of music, instruments and BYOB to the AV Grange. The following week Daddy Squeeze AKA Dan Newton of Prairie Home Companion Fame is coming on Thursday evening at 7 PM Jan. 29th. Dan plays all styles, is accompanied by his percussive wife Elisabeth and may have special guests Debbie Dawson and local friends accompanying him. Debbie plays Hurdy Gurdy and violin and brings a French touch. Dan plays Parisian Café, tex mex, zydeco and well more.

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A READER WRITES: “Apropo your annotated press release from Judge Nelson, among the many unanswered questions, What happens to old courthouse?, remains high on list. Who owns it? DA gonna have to use for short term, anyway. So a half empty building? Another Palace/Post Office? Who's gonna demolish if ever vacated? Who's going to build new offices down by new courthouse? County, i.e., local taxpayers?” Of course.

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McNeill
McNeill

ON FRIDAY, January 2, at approximately 7:23 am, officers of the Fort Bragg Police Department were dispatched to 300 S. Lincoln Street (CV Starr Center) for the report of a suspicious vehicle.
 Upon arrival, officers discovered the vehicle had been reported stolen out of Willits on (Wednesday) 12-31-14. 
While investigating, officers located receipts and clothing items left inside the vehicle that connected Christofer McNeill (age 19) and Arion Kelsey (age 19) to being in possession of the vehicle immediately after the initial report of it being stolen.
 Fort Bragg Police Department Officers developed enough probable cause to arrest McNeill and Kelsey for being in possession of the stolen vehicle.
 McNeill was arrested at his mother’s residence on Saturday, January 3 at approximately 3:41 pm. Kelsey was not located during the initial search for the two suspects, and a BOLO (Be On the Look Out) was subsequently sent out to all surrounding law enforcement agencies.
 To date, Kelsey has not been arrested or located regarding this incident. Kelsey currently has several outstanding cases pending against him out of the Fort Bragg area which include charges such as burglary, weapons possession and narcotics related incidents.

KelseyWanted

Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Arion Kelsey is requested to contact the Fort Bragg Police Department at 707-964-0200. 
Anonymous information can be left on the Department Crime Tip Hotline at 707-961-3049.

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A SOUTH COAST PERSON estranged from Gualala's Redwood Coast Medical Services, writes: “Pursuant to our convo at the co-op the other day, some new definitions of RCMS:

Really Considering Malpractice Suit

Re-thinking Cure Misdiagnosed Symptoms

Receptionist Can't Manage Scheduling

Ready Cash Motivates Slugs

Royally Corrupt Manipulating Serfs

Rotten Cash Money Scam

Re-sending Charges Miscalculated Statement

Rotting Corpses Making Smells

Rural Californians Mangling Simplicity

Retarded Cretins Managing Stuff

Reopening Cannabis Marijuana Shoppe

Retroactive Charges Might Stick

Rectum Cranium Merged Syndrome

Well anyway, you get the drift, feel free to add to the list and make it your own..."

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Jan 12, 2015

Donahe, Johnson, Paul, Williams
Donahe, Johnson, Paul, Williams

MICHAEL DONAHE SR., Ukiah. Drunk in public, failure to appear. (Frequent flyer.)

EDWARD JOHNSON, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

TONY PAUL, Ukiah. Possession of smoking-injection device, probation revocation.

KRYSTAL WILLIAMS, Ukiah. Resisting arrest.

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COMMENT OF THE DAY

The photos of Parisians carrying signs proclaiming “Je Suis Charlie,” in defiance of the carnage inflicted by masked killers thought to be Islamic extremists, made my colleague wonder if a similar outpouring of grief and solidarity would be possible in America if such an incident happened here.

It was a provocative question, though the answer is obvious. If there is ever — God forbid — a bloodbath at the headquarters of The New York Times or any major media operation here, there would certainly be outrage across American society, but there probably wouldn’t be candlelight marches long into the night.

The sight of hundreds of thousands of Americans carrying signs proclaiming “I am CNN” or “I am Fox News” or “Huffington Post forever” is unimaginable. The kind of protest grief we see in Paris for the media might occur only if a couple of fanatics invaded Comedy Central to murder the staff of “The Daily Show,” “South Park” and any lingering “Colbert Report” writers who haven’t already decamped for CBS with their boss. — Tony Norman

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THE BIGGEST THREAT TO FRENCH FREE SPEECH ISN’T TERRORISM. IT’S THE GOVERNMENT.

by Jonathan Turley

Within an hour of the massacre at the headquarters of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper, thousands of Parisians spontaneously gathered at the Place de la Republique. Rallying beneath the monumental statues representing Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, they chanted “Je suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”) and “Charlie! Liberty!” It was a rare moment of French unity that was touching and genuine.

Yet one could fairly ask what they were rallying around. The greatest threat to liberty in France has come not from the terrorists who committed such horrific acts this past week but from the French themselves, who have been leading the Western world in a crackdown on free speech.

Indeed, if the French want to memorialize those killed at Charlie Hebdo, they could start by rescinding their laws criminalizing speech that insults, defames or incites hatred, discrimination or violence on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, sex or sexual orientation. These laws have been used to harass the satirical newspaper and threaten its staff for years. Speech has been conditioned on being used “responsibly” in France, suggesting that it is more of a privilege than a right for those who hold controversial views.

In 2006, after Charlie Hebdo reprinted controversial cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that first appeared in a Danish newspaper, French President Jacques Chirac condemned the publication and warned against such “obvious provocations.”

“Anything that can hurt the convictions of someone else, in particular religious convictions, should be avoided,” he said. “Freedom of expression should be exercised in a spirit of responsibility.”

The Paris Grand Mosque and the Union of French Islamic Organizations sued the newspaper for insulting Muslims — a crime that carries a fine of up to 22,500 euros or six months’ imprisonment. French courts ultimately ruled in Charlie Hebdo’s favor. But France’s appetite for speech control has only grown since then.

The cases have been wide-ranging and bizarre. In 2008, for example, Brigitte Bardot was convicted for writing a letter to then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy about how she thought Muslims and homosexuals were ruining France. In 2011, fashion designer John Galliano was found guilty of making anti-Semitic comments against at least three people in a Paris cafe. In 2012, the government criminalized denial of the Armenian genocide (a law later overturned by the courts, but Holocaust denial remains a crime). In 2013, a French mother was sentenced for “glorifying a crime” after she allowed her son, named Jihad, to go to school wearing a shirt that said “I am a bomb.” Last year, Interior Minister Manuel Valls moved to ban performances by comedian Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala, declaring that he was “no longer a comedian” but was rather an “anti-Semite and racist.” It is easy to silence speakers who spew hate or obnoxious words, but censorship rarely ends with those on the margins of our society.

Notably, among the demonstrators this past week at the Place de la Republique was Sasha Reingewirtz, president of the Union of Jewish Students, who told NBC News, “We are here to remind [the terrorists] that religion can be freely criticized.” The Union of Jewish Students apparently didn’t feel as magnanimous in 2013, when it successfully sued Twitter over posts deemed anti-Semitic. The student president at the time dismissed objections from civil libertarians, saying the social networking site was “making itself an accomplice and offering a highway for racists and anti-Semites.” The government declared the tweets illegal, and a French court ordered Twitter to reveal the identities of anti-Semitic posters.

Recently, speech regulation in France has expanded into non-hate speech, with courts routinely intervening in matters of opinion. For example, last year, a French court fined blogger Caroline Doudet and ordered her to change a headline to reduce its prominence on Google — for her negative review of a restaurant.

While France long ago got rid of its blasphemy laws, there is precious little difference for speakers and authors in prosecutions for defamation or hate speech. There may also be little difference perceived by extremists, like those in Paris, who mete out their own justice for speech the government defines as a crime. To them, this is only a matter of degree in responding to what the government has called unlawful provocations. As the radical Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary wrote this past week, “Why in this case did the French government allow the magazine Charlie Hebdo to continue to provoke Muslims?”

It was the growing French intolerance of free speech that motivated the staff of Charlie Hebdo — and particularly its editor, Stéphane Charbonnier — who made fun of all religions with irreverent cartoons and editorials. Charbonnier faced continuing threats, not just of death from extremists but of criminal prosecution. In 2012, amid international protests over an anti-Islamic film, Charlie Hebdo again published cartoons of Muhammad. French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault warned that freedom of speech “is expressed within the confines of the law and under the control of the courts.”

Carbonnier wasn’t cowed — by the government pressure, the public protests or the inclusion of his name on a list of al-Qaeda targets. In an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, he echoed Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata and proclaimed, “I would rather die standing than live on my knees.” Carbonnier was the first person the gunmen asked for in their attack on the office, and he was one of the first to be killed.

The French, of course, have not been alone in rolling back protections on free speech. Britain, Canada and other nations have joined them. We have similar rumblings here in the United States. In 2009, the Obama administration shockingly supported Muslim allies trying to establish a new international blasphemy standard. And as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton invited delegations to Washington to work on implementing that standard and “to build those muscles” needed “to avoid a return to the old patterns of division.” Likewise, in 2012, President Obama went to the United Nations and declared that “the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”

The future once belonged to free speech. It was the very touchstone of Western civilization and civil liberties. A person cannot really defame a religion or religious figures (indeed, you cannot defame the dead in the United States). The effort to redefine criticism of religion as hate speech or defamation is precisely what Charbonnier fought to resist. He once said that by lampooning Islam, he hoped to make it “as banal as Catholicism” for the purposes of social commentary and debate.

Charbonnier died, as he pledged, standing up rather than yielding. The question is how many of those rallying in the Place de la Republique are truly willing to stand with him. They need only to look more closely at those three statues. In the name of equality and fraternity, liberty has been curtailed in France. The terrible truth is that it takes only a single gunman to kill a journalist, but it takes a nation to kill a right.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University. (Courtesy, the Washington Post)

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FARM TO FARM

by Spec MacQuayde

The spring of 2010, the rains lingered on through May in Anderson Valley, delaying the planting of tomatoes, potatoes, and most anything in that mucky clay. My neighbor had requested that we help him load the three wild, fat cows that had been occupying his copious pasture for decades, so my son and I had constructed somewhat of a loading chute between the old greenhouse frames, for that purpose. I didn't really like the idea of attempting to load these cows at all, as their wildness was intensified by hatred for humanity in general after seeing their only calves slaughtered every spring for nearly a decade before they grew too old and obese to get bred. I would have rather just shot the three of them and hauled them off to a friend's place to butcher, but part of the deal I had with the folks I rented the farm from was that I would refrain from slaughtering livestock on the property.

So I called Bud and Vicki Johnson, who for a nominal fee would haul the critters, pulling a stock trailer behind their white, dually truck to a slaughterhouse. They agreed to show up on a Saturday morning. Both of them had once been national champion calf ropers and had plenty of experience, though their horses would be of little use in the three acre field leading to the loading chute, so their expertise would be limited to securing the cows once we'd herded them out of the field.

That three acre field, something like 900 feet long and 100 feet wide, already constituted somewhat of a loading chute due to its dimensions. Thanks to the help of my blue heeler dog, we'd managed to separate those three wild ass cows from the rest of our herd, locking them in the long, narrow field that had been carrots, potatoes, and other vegetables the season prior, meaning that the muck had been worked more than a foot deep and was nearly impossible to traverse in such a wet season, especially for some of the fattest Hereford cows who'd ever lived. Anybody who says you can't fatten cows on grass, that you need to feed concentrates like corn, should have seen these three specimen. Nobody in twenty years had tossed them a bale of hay — they'd grazed year round on orchard grass and harding grass and trefoil. I was a little worried they'd get stuck in the muck, but at first they avoided it anyway, grazing on the grass that covered the road along the ditch and the fence, beside the field.

Once the three cows had been separated into that field, the next thing to do was assemble a crew. Alan Thomas speaks with an undeniable Scottish accent, and had expressed interest in the truly grass-fed beef after discussing the situation with Boonville Hotel owner, Johnny Schmitt. "He says the steaks in such an aged cow are already tender and of the highest quality, so I'm in for one of the bloody critters."

We were going to pay my neighbor the market price, only about 60¢ per pound at the time.

Other than Alan, there was my son and I, and most importantly, my blue heeler dog. We needed another set of hands, though, so I called my buddy, Jonathan, promising him some of those extra tender steaks. He showed up on Saturday morning in these appropriately knee-high rain boots that he'd spray-painted shining gold several years earlier for a Halloween party alien costume, smoking a cigarette in one hand and drinking a tall can of Coors in the other.

"I don't know about this fella," murmured Alan.

"Shit, Jonathan grew up in Potter Valley with all those ranchers. That whole place used to be a rodeo."

Bud and Vicki hadn't arrived yet. Light drizzle was falling as Alan & Jonathan waited in the barn while I tied two of my blue heeler's remaining pups to fence posts at strategic locations back from the loading chute. The pups were only half heeler and so even worse than nothing at all for stock dogs, as they would chase the hooved critters all the way around the world with their ears back, never listening for commands. Tied to posts in the right spot, though, they might deter the wild ass cows from trying to crash the redwood split rail fence.

In the barn, we held a brief conference. One of us produced a pint of Wild Turkey.

"Good idea," I said. "We're gonna need it out there in the field — be out there for a while. The idea is we take our time, work the cows through the muck, wear them down."

Just as we were about to venture forth from the barn, an apparition manifested out of the fog, sauntering across the old wooden bridge over the creek where the Lambert Lane pavement ended. Donning the most grandiose 10 gallon, black cowboy hat I'd ever witnessed — more like a twenty gallon sombrero, AVA court reporter, Bruce McEwen passed through our gates, snapping a long bullwhip.

It was then I remembered mentioning something about a round-up of wild cattle that morning over coffee at the Mosswood Market. McEwen had been at the tale, along with Jeff Pugh, Jimmy Humble, and the veterinarian, Dr. Larry Chaulk.

Evidently, after the coffee conference broke up, McEwen had headed back to the AVA ranch and chosen the appropriate attire for such an affair, then walked past the Lodge, Pic & Pay, the ice cream shop up Highway 128, then turned at the AT&T building to mosey down Lambert Lane.

"You walked through town in that get-up?"

McEwen snapped the whip in response.

Alan Thomas looked at me like, what next?

Glancing at McEwen, who seemed raring to go, I had to wonder if he might not be carrying some kind of concealed firearm, to go along with the cowboy boots, the caricature of a cowboy hat, and the bullwhip. Knowing the temperament of those wild cows as well as I did — after eight years of observation and interaction, I had to hope one of these guys was packing.

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OLD FAITHFUL

Editor:

Any KZYX Board candidate suffering the great good fortune of an endorsement from John Sakowicz will have to answer the following. Was it appropriate for Sako to write to the FCC demanding refusal to renew the broadcast license?

Gordon Black, Mendocino

WHY CHANGE?

Editor:

To Gordon Black’s most recent letter, I did not demand that the FCC not renew KZYX’s two licenses. Demand is a strong word. An unconditional demand even stronger.

What I did was to file an “informal objection” to the renewal of the station’s two licenses "pending a change in management". I was one of five members of the public who filed such an objection.

Pending a change in management, Gordy.

Why a change in management?

I really don’t have room here to count the ways, do I, Gordy?

Let’s just say management has hijacked our beloved public radio station. KZYX isn’t operated on behalf of public. The public certainly doesn’t make programming decisions. Otherwise, you probably wouldn’t be playing the same records after 25 years. Talk about tedious and tiresome. But I do really understand why you keep your show all these years, Gordy. You are KZYX’s most reliable apologist. I understand.

No, Gordon Black, KZYX is not operated on behalf of the public, not operated on behalf of the community, not operated on behalf of the people. Instead, KZYX is operated on behalf of the five people who work at the station.

Pure and simple, KZYX is a jobs program for the five people who work at KZYX.

Those five people expect lifetime job security, even as they refuse to document hours worked and to provide job descriptions.

Also, objective job performance evaluations by someone other than another staff member are strictly out of the question.

As a Board member, I asked for these all these things, and I was laughed out of the room.

Job security? You bet! KZYX Program Director, Mary Aigner, has been at KZYX since it was started 25 years ago. She’s the one who has given you the free pass on your show for the last 25 years, Gordy.

The other four staffers are going on ten years or more.

Five staffers. With lifetime job security. And all this without documentation for hours worked, job descriptions, and objective job performance evaluations.

Those five people also expect raises, Gordy, even as real income is falling in Mendocino County, i.e., KZYX Executive Director and GM, John Coate, gave himself a 10% raise in 2013, at precisely the same time that County workers were either getting laid off or having a 10% pay cut forced on down their throats.

I find Coate’s lack of solidarity with County workers to be absolutely appalling. As a supporter of unions, in general, and of SEIU, the Teamsters, the Deputy Sheriff’s Association, and the County’s other collective bargaining units, in particular, I’m ashamed for everyone at KZYX, especially the Board.

Those five people with lifetime job security at KZYX will also not disclose their salaries. I find this secrecy to be highly offensive at a presumably public radio station. Transparency and accountability are strictly the norm in the not-for-profit world, so why not at KZYX? Why Gordy?

Talk about secrecy, lets talk about how KZYX reports its financials. They report in three different formats: the Executive Director’s Annual Report; the station’s IRS Tax Returns; and the Audit. No line item for one financial report matches up with a line item on either of the two other reports. It’s like comparing apples to oranges to kumquats. It’s impossible to decode, and that’s deliberate, Gordy. I should know. I was KZYX’s Treasurer for 2014. And I’m certainly the station’s most highly trained financial person. So why obfuscate station finances? Why?

Secrecy. That’s the name of the game here at KZYX, Gordy. KZYX management won’t even investigate the battery of two women in two separate incidents.

One victim of battery, a former co-host of “Trading Time”, was assaulted on station property. Station management refused to investigate. She ended up reporting the incident to the Sheriff’s Office. In a separate incident, a woman — who, incidentally, was one of the five complainants to the FCC — was spit at by a member of staff in the station’s parking lot. I witnessed the incident. The woman documented the incident in an affidavit. When I brought the matter before the Board, another Board member, Jane Futcher, protested that the incident couldn’t be publicly discussed at a Board meeting, because it was a "confidential personnel issue”; yet, the incident was neither discussed in a closed session of the Board, nor was it investigated by the station's GM.

Secrecy trumps the truth at KZYX, Gordy. Secrecy trumps all. Management calls all the shots. Every feminist in Mendocino County should be outraged by the two incidents described above.

But we can save KZYX. We can pry it out of the iron grip of management. The upcoming Board elections offer an opportunity for change.

Personally, I’d like to see the Board reassert its authority. Take the Executive Director title away from the GM. Executive Director is synonymous with Emperor, in my opinion, especially at a closed shop like KZYX.

I could also see eliminating the position of Program Director entirely. Combine that job with the job of General Manager. Make it one job. Save a few bucks, and with that money hire a News Director.

In the alternative, take all the money spent on salaries — about $250,000 — and pool it. And out of that pool, pay all people at the station for time worked, including the station’s programmers, news stringers, fundraisers, and other volunteers. How about that for a radical, socialist idea, Gordy!

John Sakowicz

KZYX Board, 2013-2016; KZYX Treasurer, 2014

Ukiah

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BILLIONAIRES BUILDING BUNKERS

http://www.survivalcondo.com/

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PickeringCartoon4

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DELTA SMELT REACHES NEW RECORD LOW IN FALL SURVEY

by Dan Bacher

The Delta smelt, an indicator species that demonstrates the health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, reached a new record low population level in 2014, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's fall midwater travel trawl survey that was released on Friday, January 9.

The smelt was once the most abundant fish in the Bay-Delta Estuary. It is considered an indicator species because the 2.0 to 2.8 inch long fish is endemic to the estuary and spends all of its life in the Delta.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has conducted the Fall Midwater Trawl Survey (FMWT) to index the fall abundance of pelagic (open water) fish, including Delta smelt, striped bass, longfin smelt, threadfin shad and American shad, nearly annually since 1967. The index of each species is a number that indicates a relative population abundance.

The dramatic decline of fish species this year is part of a long term decline of fish species, due to massive water exports out of the Delta, increases in toxic chemicals and the impact of invasive species.

Scientists and leaders of fishing groups, Indian Tribes and environmental organizations pinpoint the export of massive amounts of water to corporate agribusiness interests on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, Southern California water agencies, and oil companies conducting steam injection and fracking operations in Kern County as the key factor behind the fishery collapse.

"The 2014 Delta Smelt index is 9, making it the lowest index in FMWT history," wrote Steven Slater, CDFW environmental scientist, in a memo revealing the results of the survey. "Delta Smelt abundance was highest in 1970 and has been consistently low since 2003, except in 2011."

Found only in the upper Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the fish mainly inhabits the freshwater-saltwater mixing zone of the estuary, except during its spawning season when it migrates upstream to freshwater following winter "first flush" flow events from approximately March to May.

Because of its one-year life cycle and relatively low fecundity, it is very susceptible to changes in the environmental conditions of its native habitat.

The survey also revealed the continuing collapse of striped bass, longfin smelt, threadfin shad and American shad in the Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas.

The 2014 age-0 striped bass index is 59, making it the third lowest index in the survey's history. Age-0 striped bass abundance was highest at the survey’s inception in 1967, according to Slater.

The index for longfin smelt, a cousin of the Delta smelt, is 16, making it the second lowest index in history. Longfin smelt abundance was also highest in 1967.

The 2014 threadfin shad index is 282, the sixth lowest in history and the seventh in a series of very low abundance indices. Threadfin shad abundance was highest in 1997, a year of high outflows into San Pablo and San Francisco bays.

"The 2014 American Shad index is 278, which is the second lowest in FMWT history and only slightly higher than the 2008 index of 271," said Slater. "American Shad abundance was highest in 2003."

Delta advocates pointed to mismanagement of Central Valley reservoirs and the Bay Delta Estuary by the state and federal governments as the primary reason for the decline.

"These crashes in fish populations show that the Delta was not managed for fish protection in 2014," responded Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta. "We know from research that outflows to San Francisco Bay were needed to stop salinity intrusion at the state and federal export pumping facilities."

"Thirty years of overpumping have led to the destruction of our fish species during the current severe drought. The question is whether proposed federal drought relief legislation proposed in Congress is going to even worsen the bad management practices and destroy Bay Delta fisheries in 2014," Barrigan-Parrilla stated.

The surveys were initiated in 1967, the same year the State Water Project began exporting water from the Delta. The surveys show that population indices of Delta smelt, striped bass, longfin smelt, threadfin shad and American shad have declined 95.6%, 99.6%, 99.8%, 97.8%, 90.9%, respectively, between 1967 and 2013, according to Bill Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) and Board Member of the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN).

Both the 2013 and 2014 indices for Sacramento splittail, another native fish, were not released, but results from 2012 reveal that splittail indices have dropped 98.5% from 1967 levels. In 2011, the Brown administration presided over a record "salvage" of 9 million splittail in 2011, a record year for exports by the federal and state projects.

The release of the survey takes place as Governor Jerry Brown continues to back the controversial Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build the twin tunnels under the Delta. The plan is based on the premise that taking more water from the Sacramento River above the Delta will "restore" the collapsing estuary.

The $67 billion plan will hasten the extinction of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish species, as well as imperil the salmon and steelhead populations on the Trinity and Klamath rivers.

You can read the full report with graphs at: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentId=92840

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SOUTH COAST PEOPLE FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE have just celebrated our 6th month anniversary of demonstrating for Peace and Justice in downtown Gualala every Monday at noon. (July 7 - January 5, 2015). We continue standing for Peace and Justice every Monday in front of the Gualala Post Office and we invite everyone to join us. We are now focusing on Black And Brown Lives Matter (and all lives matter). We also stand for an end to ongoing wars, support for Gaza and the Palestinian People, and Equal Rights/Human Rights and Justice for all people, worldwide. Please join us this Monday, January 12th. Everyone is welcome. We will continue to stand every Monday through January, February and March 2015. Happy New Year to All! Dissent Is Patriotic!

We are a group of political and social justice activists dedicated to Equal Rights, Justice, an end to police terrorism; we stand for human rights for all people, especially in the Middle East, The West Bank and Gaza, and all Black and Brown People and People Of Color and Poor and Working People here in America. We have been demonstrating since Monday, July 7th, the first day of Israel's assault on Gaza, and have continued every Monday since then, in front of the Gualala Post Office at 12 noon.

South Coast People For Peace & Justice continue our vigils every Monday at noon in front of the Gualala Post Office. We stand for an End To Police Murder and Terrorism or People Of Color. Black and Brown Lives Matter! (And all lives matter.) We demand Equal Justice and Equality for ALL People, and end to the militarization of the police all over our country.

A badge is not a license to kill! We also continue to demonstrate for Gaza and the Palestinian People, and an absolute END to ongoing wars! War is NOT the answer! Please join us on Mondays (continuing through January 2015) in downtown Gualala at noon. All are welcome. Visit our Facebook page or call Yasmin at 884-4703 for more information.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - Beyond Viet Nam

"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the Good People." Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from A Birmingham Jail

"You can bomb the world to pieces, but you can't bomb the world into Peace! "Michael Franti & Spearhead

Information: 884-4703 and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/South-Coast-People-For-Peace/1488299098076641

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