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Mendocino County Today: Sunday, Apr 19, 2015

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I'M ON THE EDGE OF PANIK (sic) about the Giants. I can't remember a start this bad. I think letting Pablo and Morse go was a big mistake. Those two, along with Pence, put the soul into the team. Vogelsong, poor guy, just serves it up there, fastballs straight as a string like batting practice. He's finished, as are Peavy and Hudson. Lincecum has gone mental. Belt looks helpless again with that old hitch in his swing. The Giants have been so bad it's almost weird. Even if Cain and Pence return at a hundred percent, I think the ownership, rightly assuming that us saps will keep on keeping on, decided to really make some money this season and get by on last year's championship. Right now, the Giants are the worst team in baseball. They look like a bunch of sleepwalkers out there.

TODD WALTON AGREES:

I smelled a rat before the season began when they resigned Peavy and Vogelsong, and Hudson was being touted as a starter. Those three were done midway through last year. Washed up. Finished. Actually Vogelsong was done before last season. I actually thought ownership must be intentionally throwing away this season. And I have never thought such a thing in all my years of following the Giants. Then we make two signings in the off-season: McGhehee and Aoki. That's it? An average third baseman and a singles hitter? What kind of a team, let alone a championship team, spends so little money on improving the team after losing Pablo and Morse and depending on ONE pitcher to carry them through the off-season? As for Belt, he has never been much good, despite all the promise and all the chances he's had. We thrived last year when he got hurt.

And I also think the guys on the team realize what's going on and don't care to try. Why go out and bust your butt if management is going to reward you for a World Series with a starting rotation that is an absolute joke.

I know you're not a conspiracy theorist guy, but when you look at the people San Diego signed in the off season, essentially an entire new team with three big bats and several great pitchers, and what LA and Colorado and Arizona did, and what we did NOT do, the only explanation that fits for me is we're taking the dive this year for some reason.

I barely care to listen this year, and that's a first.

But maybe there will be a grand upheaval ere long. We can hope.

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WEATHER OUTLOOK FOR NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA (North Coast Interior, Upper Trinity River, Mendocino Interior): there is a slight chance of thunderstorms Monday through Wednesday during the afternoon and evening hours. (National Weather Service)

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MOST GAS PRICES in Mendocino County are in the $2.80-$2.90/gallon range as of April 18, 2015

Ukiah: $2.81 to $3.07 per gallon.

Willits: $2.79 to $3.03 per gallon

Fort Bragg: $2.83 to $3.06 per gallon.

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RECOMMENDED READING: “Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence” by Bryan Burrough. It was more like counter-revolutionary violence, I'd say, at least the Weathermen underground part of it. The black radicals whose program consisted of murdering line cops mostly managed to get themselves killed, while both made assumptions about the state of American society in the late 1960s and the first part of the 1970s unshared by most Americans who hardly comprised the seething proletariat masses necessary to kick off a real revolution. What we got out of the rich kid rev of Bernadine and Billy was a lot of posturing and the worst, least inspiring political prose imaginable until David Brooks picked up a pen. B&B, predictably, resurfaced and became college professors. Less well-connected bomb throwers, black and white, remain buried in the penal system. The interviews and comments by re-entry rads cited by the author all lament how wrong they'd been about the reality they'd misread. America wasn't ready for fundamental change, but it was an outrageously provocative time, with the usual racism and a war in Vietnam that went on and on. There were armies of terminally frustrated young people, few of whom went over to ultra-vi but a heckuva a lot of those frustrated young people sympathized with their violent brothers and sisters, for a fact. I did, certainly, and I knew people who were "into" things I didn't ask them about. Me, I was married and broke. I had to work, and I always wondered how the leadership — rad talking media figures like Tom Hayden, Jerry Rubin and that creepy little character Rennie Davis — managed to fly all over the place with no visible means of support. Well, hell, Lenin was supported by a millionaire, but still these guys seemed disconnected from the way most Americans lived.

DaysOfRageBURROUGH is a good, clear writer, and his book is quite a research feat. There are frequent references to "movement" lawyers like Dennis Cunningham who acted as cash conduits to the underground and represented them when they got arrested. Funny to read and hear "movement," given that the whole show amounted to the first movement in history that moved steadily backwards and, without getting into it, Cunningham isn't my idea of the kind of person who is going to take US any place good.

AS SOME OF YOU older Mendo people will know, and as confirmed by Burrough, the Weathermen were often in and out of Mendocino County where they strategized at posh, ocean view homes lent to them by rich libs, and lots of wanted people hid out for brief periods at the famous Black Bear commune deep in Siskiyou County. There was a whole network of outback hideaways open to people sought by the government. The irony, I'd say, is that objectively conditions are much more ripe for radical resistance now than they were then; the Occupy Movement spoke much more realistically to lots more people than were ever reached by the underground rads of the 1970s.

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FROM SPY ROCK to the Rock Hall of Fame:

Childhood friends Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt formed the Grammy Award-winning pop-punk trio Green Day in the late 1980s. On Saturday, the two, along with drummer Tre Cool, who joined the band in 1990, will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Other inductees include Ringo Starr, Lou Reed, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and others.

Back in 1995, the year after their second album "Dookie" launched them toward stardom — and on the heels of being named Rolling Stone's band of the year — The Press Democrat's Gaye LeBaron explored Cool's Mendocino County roots.

Below is an excerpt from that Jan. 25, 1995 column:

“His childhood friends from Laytonville and his Willits High classmates may know him as Tre Wright. But now he's Tre Cool. Together he and Billy Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt are a punk-rock band called Green Day…

GreenDayRS“The photo on the cover of the Jan. 26 issue of Rolling Stone (Tre is the one with the studiedly dumb look and the green and yellow hair) honors Green Day as the best new band of the year.

Tre's parents Linda and Frank Wright and his sister Lori still live in Willits. I think it's fair to say that his parents are in mild shock over the notion of their son as a musical phenom. Since Green Day's performance at Woodstock ’94, in which Armstrong pulled down his pants and Dirnt lost his front teeth in the resulting melee, it’s been a wild ride. The most recent stopover has been the birth of Tre’s daughter, Ramona Isabella, to his girlfriend Lisea, and a fancy new house in the East Bay hills.

Here is Rolling Stone writer Chris Mundy’s assessment of this latest ‘hometown hero.’

‘The youngest of two children, Tre lived in the Mendocino mountains (a location notable for its high concentration of hippies and marijuana farms), where his father — a helicopter pilot in Vietnam — moved the family in order to insulate them upon his return to the States. The nearest neighbor was more than a mile away.

“ ‘…Luckily the closest neighbor was Lawrence Livermore, leader of the punk-rock band the Lookouts and founder of Lookout! Records. When his band needed a drummer, Livermore turned to 12-year-old Wright…’

It’s kind of a folksy story Mundy tells. There's Tre, the sophomore class president at Willits High (and teen-age disc jockey at the radio station) giving up on formal education. He passed the equivalency test and hit out for Berkeley, where Armstrong and Dirnt were looking for a drummer.

The Wrights are a supportive family. Frank, who owns a trucking company in Willits, fixed up a used bookmobile and served as driver for the band on early tours. He shared some of those adventures with writer Mundy:

“ ‘On our first tour or two, it was more of a party than anything else. I still scratch my head and say, ‘How in the hell did they make it?’ They used to practice in my living room here. … You hear it coming together … but when it does, you just say, ‘Wow, that's so cool’.”

Which is his son’s new name.”

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony takes place Saturday in Cleveland. It will be aired on HBO May 30.

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SKAGGS v. MILLER

Dear AVA,

Being from Mendocino I am aware that the AVA is the finest newspaper Mendo prints and would like to once again be able to read the AVA each week. I hope you can renew my subscription here in Corcoran State Prison. There are actually about half a dozen fellow Mendo boys here who enjoy reading the AVA and passing it around. I have been waiting to receive a subscription for some time now but until recently I received a letter informing me of your address and containing an article from the AVA with my name in it. I did not have information to write to you with a request for a subscription. I now would like to ask if you would please send me a subscription of the best damn newspaper printed in Mendocino County. I'm also hoping that you will print this enclosed letter to the Editor. I write this to correct some lies and misinformation that was printed about me in the letter to the Editor titled "183 years for?" authored by Walter "Kris" Miller. I have actually been in your newspaper several times for my bad decisions in the past, but never was I lied about before that article. My name is Christopher Skaggs and Mr. Miller was my codefendant in this case. Please send a subscription to the enclosed address.

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Miller and SkaggsTelling It Like It Is — Hello there, Mendocino County. What's up home boys and home girls and all the rest of my fellow AVA readers? I hope that you are all having a wonderful day and comfortably enjoying this article and newspaper. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Christopher Skaggs and I am writing from my cell in Corcoran State Prison. Most of you are probably familiar with who I am and probably aware of why I am in prison. Until recently I don't think my name has been in any newspaper since I was sent to prison in early 2014. But recently I received some mail that had a newspaper clipping out of the Advertiser in it. It was a Letter to the Editor from a recent paper by Walter Krissy Miller titled "183 years for…" Mind you the mail is real slow here so it may have taken a few months for that letter to reach me. I have been in the newspaper many times before but this is the first time I read blatant lies about me and felt compelled to write my own article so that I can set the record straight and say things of my own.

The first thing I would like to say is to Miller: You got 183 years for being the idiot moron who admitted to using an AP9 9-mm machine pistol to fire from the passenger seat of a fleeing vehicle upon the fully marked with lights and sirens Mendocino County Sheriff's vehicle that was in pursuit of us and demobilizing it, then surrendering after a four-hour standoff with law enforcement two days later still being in possession of said gun, then taking it to trial rather than taking the 25 to life deal the district attorney offered you while at the same time pleading guilty to a third strike for residential burglary and losing in trial whereupon you received 183 years.

Imbecile!

Now I would like to address the lies Mr. Miller wrote about me in his letter to the editor.

Yes, I was the driver of that fleeing vehicle that night. I seem to have a bad habit of that. I guess I got some rabbit in me. I hate being locked up and chained so for some strange reason I usually try my damnedest to avoid that and whereas most people pull over when they see lights and sirens behind them, my first natural reaction is to run.

Anyway, in Miller's letter he wrote one big lie about me in some stupid attempt to smut me up. That being where he tries to state that I had all of my charges dismissed for my cooperation with the District Attorney. Even a person as sharp as Mr. Miller knows that lie don't even make a bit of sense and anyone with a brain would quickly realize that I by no means ever had any of my charges dismissed. And never have I and never would I ever cooperate with any district attorney whatsoever no matter what. I wasn't brought up that way and I don't believe in it.

I got 30 years in prison, two strikes and $121,000 restitution fine. You don't get 30 years in prison for having all your charges dismissed. No, I just took a plea bargain and took the 13 years rather than risk getting life if I were to lose in trial like you did, Mr. Miller.

I also had no prior strikes whereas you had been a violent two-striker already. I also want to say this as just about everybody agrees that any solid dude who was pleading guilty to a third strike and was getting no less than 25 to life without possibility of parole would have taken the rap for everything and taken all the charges up off all the others. I mean I pray that doesn't ever happen, but were I getting life for the stuff I did and admitted I would be like, I did that — and anybody else involved, I forced them. Straight up, I would. What's the point in taking everybody else down with you? I would take it and be like, Take care of me homeboi and go down with some honor. Nope. That probably never crossed the mind of a guy who never cared for anybody but himself.

Why plead guilty to a residential burglary and third strike but then testify that I kicked open the door for you? Why admit that you fired a gun at the cops then say that both I as well as Tracy were encouraging you to shoot, making us accessories to that charge which carried life? Why try to say that I was armed with a pistol grip shotgun and lever action rifle when I was never found to be in possession of any firearms period? Why even say shit? Even one of the jurors from your trial told the Ukiah Daily Journal following your conviction that you really hung yourself running your mouth. Your mouth not only put the nail in your own coffin, but it also screwed me, pretty much forced Tracy to save us, as well as led to the arrests and charges of three home girls who you gave up that were simply trying to help you out. (Alicia, Ashley and your black chocolate no-no that you said yes-yes to, Kamara.) Oh and the video you made on the laptop in the motel after the shooting that showed you with the gun and telling the police "Come on, get served, motherf__ers” was a great touch.

You really are sharp. I would rather be me any day. At least I will be back out there having it my way and trying to build up an army of my children. I only got four years left. That's going to really fly by fast for me what with the family visits I am getting every 90 days or so. I also want to say this: "Only bitches perpetuate rumors and gossip." I put stuff on the table. If I got an issue, I handle it.

I'm going to wrap this up as I ain't the window or newspaper warrior and would have never written this had you not lied about me. I would have waited for the day I could have brought it to you personally or let it be if we don't get that opportunity. I read that bullshit letter you wrote and got pissed off that you tried to smut me up and had to respond. Anybody who knows me personally knows that was all bullshit. And for those of you who don't, well, rather than believe any propaganda you read in some newspaper, go down to the Mendocino County Superior Court and research everything that ever happened or was said in court in both cases. It's public knowledge. Go look at it. It's all there.

And for those of you who are too lazy to go down and research it and are stupid enough to believe that idiot's bullshit, well then, just come and see me because I will be back in Mendo soon. 2019 will be here fast. Yes, due to this being my first strike I got half time. So I will be back and will not be hard to find. I take responsibility for the stupidity of my actions, the stupidest being around and involved with an idiot, scandalous coward, fake, phony SOB like Miller. So I have manned up and am paying my debt to society. Since being here I got what I had coming for what I had done and take full responsibility for it. I can do my time and won't cry about it when it's time to pay the piper.

And as stipulated in the plea agreement I took, I had to wave my rights to appeal. So don't worry about me wasting your tax dollars on appeals for a new trial that won't change shit. But I want to say this to Mr. Miller before closing: I wish you all the best of luck at the new trial you are getting. I honestly hope that you win and get a date because I would love an opportunity to have a face-to-face with you ASAP. So good luck with the new trial and until we meet again, keep my name out of your holster.

Chris Skaggs, Mendocino's Finest
Chris Skaggs AS 5194 3C04-131
Corcoran State Prison
Box 3471 Corcoran CA 93212

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CATCH OF THE DAY, April 18, 2015

Carson, Donahe, Guevara, Inclan
Carson, Donahe, Guevara, Inclan

CHRISTOPHER CARSON, Clearlake/Ukiah. Criminal threats of death or great bodily harm. (6’-6”, 300 pounds)

MICHAEL DONAHE, Ukiah. Drunk in public, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

MIGUEL GUEVARA, Ukiah. Under influence of controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, child endangerment, probation revocation.

TAMMY INCLAN, Arcata/Redwood Valley. DUI, no license.

Luna, Marcelius, McGuire, McOsker
Luna, Marcelius, McGuire, McOsker

JEREMIAH LUNA, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

DONOVAN MARCELIUS, Forestville/Ukiah. DUI-drugs, under influence of controlled substance.

JUSTIN MCGUIRE, Willits. Petty theft, probation revocation.

REMO MCOSKER, Ukiah. Probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

Moses, D.Nelson, S.Nelson, Pena
Moses, D.Nelson, S.Nelson, Pena

STEVEN MOSES, Ukiah. Drunk in public, resisting arrest.

DEANNE NELSON, Potter Valley. DUI.

SHANE NELSON, Ukiah. Petty theft, drunk in public.

HECTOR PENA, Ukiah. Battery.

Peters, Pike, Reeves, Retzloff
Peters, Pike, Reeves, Retzloff

MONIQUE PETERS, Ukiah. Under influence/possession of controlled substance and paraphernalia, suspended license, destroying/concealing evidence.

KEVIN PIKE, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a firearm, resisting arrest, probation revocation.

ALVA REEVES, Ukiah. Resisting arrest, probation revocation.

WILLIAM RETZLOFF, Redwood Valley. Drunk in public.

Sanchez, Vaughn, Wiley
Sanchez, Vaughn, Wiley

SAMUEL SANCHEZ, Ukiah. Drunk in public. (Frequent flyer.)

RICKY VAUGHN, Los Angeles/Willits. Unspecified charges (no bail.)

TRISTAN WILEY, Willits. Domestic battery, battery of peace officer, resisting arrest.

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STOP CORPORATE WELFARE KINGS

Strip-Mining America

by Ralph Nader

“Tax day” comes and goes each year, but unfortunately, the systemic issues that plague American taxpayers linger on without resolution well past the mid-April deadline.

The U.S. tax code has long been manipulated by corporate lobbyists and their corporate tax attorneys. (President Jimmy Carter once called the loophole-ridden tax laws “a disgrace to the human race.”) A primary purpose of these perforations is to arrange the law and regulations so that certain categories of profit-rich companies can avoid paying their fair share to Uncle Sam.

In many states, it is a literal race to the bottom for elected officials to offer corporations sweeter tax deals to keep jobs in their locality — see the 2013 Boeing controversy in the state of Washington, in which the aerospace industry, much of which is made up of Boeing, was awarded $8.7 billion in tax breaks over 16 years to produce the 777X jetliner in-state. Notably, Boeing paid zero in federal income tax that year — along with many other major U.S. corporations such as GE and Verizon. Some of these Fortune 500 companies even get a rebate check!

According to Citizens for Tax Justice, “American Fortune 500 corporations are avoiding up to $600 billion in U.S. federal income taxes by holding more than $2.1 trillion” of retained profits offshore, which they designate as “permanently reinvested” to avoid a tax liability.

And of course, millionaires and billionaires often pay less in taxes than middle-class Americans do, taking full advantage of tax loopholes, deductions, deferrals and other forms of creative accounting. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives now intends to pass legislation to repeal the estate tax, which would see that “vast amounts of money that has never been taxed will be passed tax-free to the heirs of today’s billionaires,” according to Scott Klinger of the Center for Effective Government.

The end result is that, through a myriad of tax avoidance schemes, the wealthy 1 percent continue to profit using public resources, subsidies and infrastructure while the 99 percent disproportionately pay the bills for it — all while struggling to pay their own bills, mortgages, student loans, and more. And when Wall Street runs amok, it’s the taxpayers who have paid the bills for the catastrophic damage as a result of regulatory surrender. Millions of these taxpayers also lost their jobs and pensions in the 2008-2009 Wall Street collapse of our economy.

This brings us to the Internal Revenue Service — which has been made into a dirty word to many Americans. Those Americans might be surprised to learn, however, that the current IRS enforcement budget is $10.9 billion, after a cut of $346 million from the previous year. To put that in perspective, Apple Inc. spent $14 billion just to buy back its own stock last year, a move that only serves to provide a meager benefit, if that, to its shareholders, while nourishing executive compensation packages.

The IRS loses an estimated $300 billion a year due to tax evasion. A budget proposal by the Obama administration claimed that the IRS could bring in an additional $6 for every dollar it adds to the enforcement budget. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said that he pushes this very convincing point in Congress to little reception or reaction. “I say that and everybody shrugs and goes on about their business,” he told the AP in 2014. “I have not figured out either philosophically or psychologically why nobody seems to care whether we collect the revenue or not.”

The effects of these budgetary cuts are already being seen. Current staffing levels at the IRS are at 87,000 — the lowest since the early 1980s. The agency lost 13,000 employees from 2010 to 2014 and expects to lose another 3,000 this year. In the final stretch towards April 15, many taxpayers have experienced excruciatingly long waits on hold and long lines at local IRS offices as a result. Congress doesn’t care. (National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, who operates independently within the IRS, detailed this degradation of service in her annual report to Congress. (See taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov.)

Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz has gone so far as to publicly state his intention to abolish the IRS entirely, calling that radical course of action the “simplest and best tax reform.” It’s not clear how Senator Cruz intends the federal government to collect revenue to pay for his presidential salary, the White House budget and expanding his giant military budget if he should be elected and not recover his senses.

It is clear, however, that significant rational tax reform is necessary. What remains unclear is who will benefit the most from such reform. Americans must seriously ask why individual U.S. taxpayers are fronting the money for hugely profitable corporations. These are funds that could potentially be used to repair critical public infrastructure, create decently paying jobs, or simply reduce the tax burden on middle-income individuals.

One solution to ensure that the interests of small taxpayers are accounted for and protected is to establish taxpayer watchdog associations across the country. These organizations would work full-time in each state to make sure that individual taxpayers get the best deal possible. After all, big corporations can afford to support an army of tax accountants and attorneys to continually update the playbook of tactics to avoid having to pay their fair share. Most taxpayers don’t have this luxury. What they do have, however, is sheer force of numbers. Organization of such watchdog organizations could be facilitated by including a notice on the 1040 tax return inviting people to pay a small due and join these advocacy and educational nonprofit groups. These associations would be supported by membership dues and would receive no tax money. The members would elect a board of directors that could hire researchers, organizers, accountants and lawyers.

Such pressure from united citizen bodies would provide the organizational mechanism to enhance the influence of individuals in the tax-collection and policy-making process — something that is much-needed in our current American plutocracy.

A simple motto to consider when asking what we choose to tax is: “Tax what they burn, not what we earn.” Before we place the largest burdens of taxation on workers, we should tax areas that have the greatest potential negative or damaging influence on our economy and our society. Tax the polluters, the Wall Street speculators, the junk-food peddlers, and the corporate criminals. Consider that just a fraction of a 1-percent sales tax on speculation in derivatives and trading in stocks could bring in $300 billion a year! (See robinhoodtax.org.)

If taxpayers really want to protect their interests, they must organize and fight for them. The corporations certainly have the money — but they can’t match the manpower or votes of an organized citizenry.

In the meantime, big corporations on welfare like Walmart, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Pfizer, General Electric, Weyerhaeuser, and ExxonMobile should declare April 15 to be Taxpayer Appreciation Day. The corporate welfare kings should have the decency to, at least, thank smaller taxpayers who pay for all the freeloading that the corporatists have rammed through Congress. (See goodjobsfirst.org for much more on this issue.)

(Ralph Nader’s latest book is: Unstoppable: the Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State.)

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StreetArt

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SPILL THE WINE

I was once out strolling one very hot summer's day

When I thought I'd lay myself down to rest

In a big field of tall grass

I laid there in the sun and felt it caressing my face

As I fell asleep and dreamed

 

I dreamed I was in a Hollywood movie

And that I was the star of the movie

This really blew my mind

The fact that me, an overfed, long-haired leaping gnome

Should be the star of a Hollywood movie, but there I was

 

I was taken to a place

The hall of the mountain kings

I stood high upon a mountain top

Naked to the world

In front of every kind of girl

 

There was long ones, tall ones, short ones, brown ones,

Black ones, round ones, big ones, crazy ones

Out of the middle, came a lady

She whispered in my ear, something crazy

She said...

 

Spill the wine, take that girl

Spill the wine, take that pearl

 

I thought to myself, what could that mean?

Am I going crazy or is this just a dream?

Now wait a minute, I know I'm lying in a field of grass somewhere

So it's all in my head

And then I heard her say one more time...

 

Spill the wine, dig that girl

Spill the wine, dig that pearl

 

I could feel hot flames of fire roaring at my back

And she disappeared -- but soon she returned

In her hand was a bottle of wine, in the other, a glass

She poured some of the wine from the bottle into the glass

And raised it to her lips

And just before she drank it, she said...

 

Spill the wine, take that girl

Spill the wine, dig that pearl

— Eric Burdon

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ClimateChange

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LIGHTHOUSE LANTERN ROOM & LENS TOURS

Saturday, May 2nd   10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Please join the Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 87, our modern light keepers, and the volunteers at Point Cabrillo Light Station for a unique opportunity to visit the lantern room and the beautifully restored operational Third Order Fresnel Lens. These tours are offered only eight days each year. A modest fee, which supports the lighthouse maintenance fund, of $5.00 is appreciated. Children must be at least 42 inches tall to participate in the tours. For additional information please call 707/937-6122.

May 9, 2015:

SATURDAY MAY 9th  Winemaker's Dinner. Lens Tour 6:30 Dinner in the Lighthouse 7:00. $125 per guest - Reservations 707 / 937-6123. Benefit for the Aquarium Project

Kim Badenhop, ZAGAT rated chef

Greg Graziano, Graziano Vineyards

5 course dinner with paired wines

Parking at the lightkeeper's houses

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HUMCO LOBBIES AGAINST WATER USE CUT

by Daniel Mintz

Humboldt County is pushing back against the governor’s statewide water use reduction mandate and will get support from Senator Mike McGuire and Assemblymember Jim Wood.

In response to ongoing drought conditions, Governor Jerry Brown has ordered a 25 percent statewide cut in water use. The reduction is asked to be driven down to 10 percent for Humboldt in a letter to the state’s Water Resources Control Board approved at the April 14 Board of Supervisors meeting.

An original draft of the letter referred to the county’s situation generally but supervisors agreed to amend it to refer specifically to the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District. The district provides water to seven municipalities, including Arcata and the McKinleyville Community Services District, and its Ruth Lake Reservoir is at full capacity.

The letter asks the state to provide “added flexibility into the new emergency regulations to account for varying local water supply conditions.”

The Humboldt Bay water district’s supply situation was described by Supervisor Ryan Sundberg. “Ruth Lake is full and we use a lot less water than other people around the state already,” he said. “It feels like we’re being punished for being good and having lots of water.”

Dennis Mayo of the McKinleyville Community Services District is the regional vice president of the Association of California Water Agencies. He summarized the association’s recommendations for amending the governor’s blanket mandate, saying that the state’s water management needs to “adjust for climate” and “adjust for immediate past performance – credit for the reductions we did last year and the year before.”

Mayo added that the state should apply “custom conservation standards” that “better reflect the unique attributes that are relative to other water supplies.”

The Humboldt Bay water district has sent its own letter to the state which makes similar requests and also emphasizes that water releases from Ruth Lake provide fish habitat benefits in the Mad River watershed.

District General Manager Carol Rische told supervisors that for the first time, water reductions will be mandated for commercial, industrial and institutional customers. She said cutting water supply to businesses by 25% will have economic impacts that are unique to the Humboldt Bay area.

Cogeneration power plants in Fairhaven and Blue Lake and the Sierra Pacific lumber mill in Manila will have to curtail operations to meet a 25% water use reduction, Rische continued.

The lobbying for a more location-specific water reduction mandate will be joined by the area’s state legislators. Representatives of Senator Mike McGuire and Assemblymember Jim Wood said letters to the state similar to the one the county is sending are being drafted.

Supervisors unanimously voted to send the amended letter focusing more specifically on the Humboldt Bay area. Rische had recommended that Humboldt County’s letter also include the requests made by the association of water agencies and supervisors agreed to have Sundberg collaborate with Rische on a new version.

Board Chair Estelle Fennell said that if the collaboration was done by the end of the day, she’d sign the letter and have it sent.

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MEET MISTER TULIP AND MISTER PIN.

At http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find the recording of last night’s (2015-04-17) KNYO Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show ready to download and keep or just play with one click.       Yet another live remote from Juanita’s apartment, in my lucky plaid pyjamas. I read a new Alex Bosworth story that explains all the others he ever wrote, and a true-life horror story about traveling to the U.S. by tunnel and a bad doctor who can catch you and cut you up if you don’t watch out, and a letter to The South by a brilliant black doctoral candidate, and a reminder of Israel’s open-secret atomic arsenal, and a hundred and fourteen other things, including a great deal of valuable information that might save your life one day, you never know.

Also at http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com there are literally scads of wonderful but not necessarily radio-useful items that I found while putting my show together. Here are just a few:

Time-lapse storms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGwUy2Ttppw

Chauvet cave paintings from 26,000 years ago.

http://tinyurl.com/ledmxx8

Cutaways of the future city-hives.

http://boingboing.net/2015/04/16/arcology-cutaways-of-the-futu.html

A project to show what the night sky above L.A. might look like if you could ever see it.

https://vimeo.com/125108525

And fascinating tiny self-replicating machinery.

https://vimeo.com/104515252

2 Comments

  1. Jim Updegraff April 19, 2015

    Re Giants: As you know I’m an East Bay guy but on occasion do catch an occasional Giants game. I watched today – what a sorry ass performance. As I commented sometime ago Hudson is part of the over hill gang and Lincecum, a space cadet from another galaxy. Mr Walton has got it right on Vogelsang. It is going to be a long season for the Giants – have to look to next year in hopes they will get rid of the deadwood and get some real talent.

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