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Mendocino County Today: Sunday, Jun 7, 2015

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LORETTA WOKE UP TODAY!

The Loretta Houck Update, as posted today by her husband, W.Dan Houck:

Words do poor justice for how I feel at having heard those words and now seeing them. Elation, delirious joy, relief, giddiness, exhilaration, euphoria, wonder, delight, relief. At 3:30 this afternoon I had an appointment to speak with Dr. Doherty, the brain injury specialist at Kentfield hospital. Her assistant was the call I got telling me that the doctor had just gotten back from vacation and was running a bit late, would it be ok to postpone until 4:30 so she could see Loretta before talking to me? "Of course it is!", after all I am just the anxious know nothing husband who has to trust the amazing professionals who have my wife's life in their hands. So instead of getting on the road South to be with my wife as I had planned I stayed home in a safe three bar cell phone spot and waited. I can not say that in these past 5 weeks that I have learned to be at peace with waiting but I am resigned to it. At least here at home I have diversions so our dog Skooter got a bath and the house got a cursory vacuuming.

At 4:30 sharp I got the call. Dr. Doherty got right to the point. "The last time I saw Loretta was a week ago and today I was not sure I was in the right room!" Last week Lo was completely unresponsive. The dr. mentioned a scale with 115 being fully cognizant and fully aware. 1 being the opposite of that. Last week the delight of my life was a 1. Today she is a 75-80! Loretta was wide awake. Dr. Doherty explained that she was going to ask some questions and for Loretta to nod for yes and shake her head for no. "Do you understand?" a nod. "Is your name Loretta Houck" a nod "Yes". "Are you in pain?" head shake "no". "Can you stick out your tongue?" out came the tongue. (That last is to access, among other things, speaking ability.) She has a trache helping her breath so she can not talk yet. The dr then threw her a curve ball " is your name Mrs Winterbottom?" (Dr. Doherty's maiden name) A confused look and then a head shake "no."

Lo then gave a thumbs up with the right when asked, wiggled right toes and smiled. I had gotten a text from Jen, Loretta's daughter, the night before saying her mother had smiled at her. Lo is not responding readily with the left side yet but she has movement there so with therapy that should return. The doctor said Loretta had a big day and needed a good nights sleep so no, I should not drive down tonight. But tomorrow morning at 5:00 a.m. I will be on my way and eagerly waiting at the door when visiting hours start at 8:00. I am so looking foreword to seeing my wife and possibly having her see me and maybe smile when I tell her I love her.

I know that there is a long hard road ahead to travel but today the love of my life woke up and my heart is bursting with happiness! And I must say, tears of joy are are wonderful!!!!

From W.Dan

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DR. PETER KEEGAN, sole suspect in the bludgeoning murder of his wife of thirty years, Susan Keegan, pictured here with his new love interest, Libby Crawford, both of Ukiah, have been visiting Paris.

Keegan&Crawford

Ms. Crawford writes: "We were at the Hyatt, Place de la Vendome, Paris for the last 4 nights of our trip. Usually 1,000/night, but we got it for free for signing up for a Hyatt credit card... I'm home now though, got back last night.

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A MAN appeared in the parking lot of the Willits Police Department this morning about ten claiming to be in possession of a bomb which he said he'd detonate if the police didn't shoot him. Surrounded by a large contingent of local law enforcement, the would be suicide-by-cop surrendered and is in custody. The Willits Police haven't released any more details.

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A READER WRITES: Here’s a WPD press release about bomb threat at the WPD parking lot today. Nobody hurt. They negotiated with the guy who said he had a bomb and would explode it if they didn’t kill him. But he surrendered, and there was no bomb. Dean Hickam, 33, from Washington state, In custody.

I’ve been mostly out of the loop today: but what I’m wondering right now, is if this Dean Hickam on Facebook (see link below) is the same guy: seems like he’s from Washington state, but there’s a June 3 post about “I love Humboldt” and planning to stay, so he’s down here – Probably about the same age. OF COURSE it could be a different “Dean Hickam” but it seems at least likely:

So … see all the posts about cops killing citizens, other “pissed off about cops” posts…..
https://www.facebook.com/EvergreenDean

Here’s a picture from that Facebook page: described as of Dean Hickman (guy on the left)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=419452767565&set=t.722649841&type=3&theater

No booking log up yet for the “Dean Hickman” who was arrested.

My guess is it was the same WPD cop, Sgt. Jake Donahue, who wrote this bomb threat press release, who talked bomb threat guy “Dean Hickam” down. We know Donahue was negotiator with Lacee Ross (arson at John’s Place); Gonzalez was quoted as crediting Donahue’s good judgment and negotiating skills in that incident’s press release. And Michael Mott’s TWN story talks about “an officer” who approached Hickam.

Good on the negotiator. If it’s true Hickam wanted ‘suicide by cop,’ maybe he stopped at the wrong police department.

The photo on the UDJ site that Steve Eberhard got of the arrestee looks like he has the same hair as the Facebook guy, too.

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WILLITS POLICE DEPARTMENT NEWS RELEASE

Suspect: Dean Hickam, 38, Washington State

Bomb Threat

On Saturday June 6th at about 9:50 AM, the Willits Police Department dispatch center received a call from a subject who reported he was parked in the Willits Police Department parking lot. According to that subject, he’d outfitted his vehicle with a bomb and threatened to detonate the bomb unless he was killed by law enforcement within a designated time. Law Enforcement from the Willits Police Department, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department, California Highway Patrol, Little Lake Fire Department, and Cal-Fire responded to the located and engaged the subject in crisis negotiation. The subject, Dean Hickam, ultimately surrendered and was taken into custody.

After Hickam was taken into custody, he told officers he had no explosives in the vehicle and that the threat was false. As a precautionary measure, the Willits Police Department evacuated and isolated the surrounding neighborhoods until the Sonoma County Sheriff Bomb Squad responded to the scene and confirmed that that the vehicle was clear of an explosive device. Hickam was arrested for Criminal Threats and Falsely Making a Bomb Report and booked into the Mendocino County Jail.

The Willits Police Department would like to thank the Willits community for their patience during the incident, and our allied agencies including MCSO, CHP, and Cal-Fire, and the Little Lake Fire Department for their assistance. During the incident, and to ensure the safety of WPD Dispatchers, all incoming 9-1-1 emergency calls were rerouted from WPD dispatch to MCSO dispatch to ensure continued and uninterrupted service.

Anyone with additional information is urged to contact the Willits Police Department at (707)459-6122

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"ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG with Oracle Arena" for the Warriors

Although I've been a Warriors fan since before they won their last championship in 1975, I see the push to build a new arena in San Francisco as nothing but a greed/power hustle by the owners, the kind of guys who never have enough money, power, and ego gratification. Since the Warriors now sell out every home game — and, importantly, Oracle Arena has acres of parking next to the freeway — there's no real need for a new stadium.

Warracle

If you're a local sports fan, you already know that the Chronicle's sports page is the smartest part of the paper. Bruce Jenkins nails it in this morning's column:

In the process of addressing the media before Game 1, Commissioner Adam Silver proclaimed the Warriors “need a new arena. There is no doubt about that.” You figure he can’t say much else, hanging out with co-owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber as they chart the path to San Francisco, but the Warriors’ East Bay fan base begs to differ. Fenway Park is a structure from some other time, but its treasures are preserved. Wrigley Field didn’t get torn down, just renovated. Oracle doesn’t have that brand of charm or tradition, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, especially now as it thrives in the Finals spotlight...

See also this morning's front page story (Traffic at arena at heart of project) on the release of the EIR on the arena project:

Backed by Mayor Ed Lee and San Francisco’s political establishment, the Warriors plan is facing unanticipated opposition by the Mission Bay Alliance, a newly formed group of wealthy UCSF donors and bioscience executives. They contend that the arena would snarl traffic around the new $1.6 billion UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco, creating dangerous delays for the patients and physicians trying to get to the medical center…

Of course Ron Conway is helping Mayor Lee push the project.

— Rob Anderson, District 5 Diary

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WHO WAS JACK GREEN?

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4033798-181/gaye-lebaron-remembering-aclu-awards

http://northbaydigital.sonoma.edu/cdm/ref/collection/Lebaron/id/425

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BRUCE PATTERSON WRITES: I continue to be impressed by your stable of writers. Seems every week a new name appears. I know it's a buyer's market but it's the AVA's quality that stands out. We subscribe to the Bend Bulletin and it's like they fired their fact-checkers and copy editors and hire only journalists who can pleasantly plagiarize press releases while keeping a straight face.

Anyway, the other night I happened to catch "All Things Considered" on the radio and learned about the PBS/Propublica study of the American Red Cross in Haiti. I'm sure you've heard about it; but already the key points have been disappeared. In the aftermath of the earthquake, it turns out, the ARC raised roughly a half billion dollars from the American people and not one of their employees touched a shovel or a tractor, a water pump or a box of rations. The ARC hired sub-contractors for their "relief efforts" and took $160,000,000 as their fee for providing "oversight." Here's the real outrage: after months of trying, those doing the study couldn't get an accounting of where that $500,000,000 went. Then the journalist who headed the study appeared on TV and had the gall to pretend she doesn't know mafia style criminality when she sees it.

If the Pentagon/CIA can literally "lose" tens of billions of tax dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan, shrug their shoulders ("shit happens.") and get away with it, it makes sense that the Red Cross would degenerate into just another extortion/protection racket. Once rape is made legal, gang rapes become inevitable. It makes me want to puke.

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-red-cross-raised-half-a-billion-dollars-for-haiti-and-built-6-homes

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Nature has a nasty habit of correcting population problems e.g., black death, Spanish flu aided by people who just have to have a war driven by elite snots. Nature may have well begun to strike back via bee colony collapse, ebola, cancers, flu of various types, antibiotic resistant infections, crop diseases, radiation, volcanos, fresh water shortages, pollution, human waste amounts, et al. Mother Earth will rid itself of the human fleas that are irritating her. Matter of time. Our faith in technology will kill us. It does not depress me at my age though. I have a front row seat to the biggest human disaster in written history. I can even flip channels to watch various scenes. I can watch people have their heads cut off or floods carrying away houses and people. I can watch some former military soul tell me how lucky they are to only have lost three limbs. I can listen to the next miracle drug to make me have everlasting erections. I can watch the “lie of the day” on any news channel I choose. I can watch some guys knocking a little ball around until it goes into a small hole and people wildly applaud it. I can watch all sorts of various balls being played with by highly paid ball players. I can watch cars race around a track at big speeds and hope for some form of carnage if I am lucky. Boy, what a life!!!! I shall be sad to leave it. But, I will be turned into a wafer for some bottom 99% to eat and survive so they can have the life I have. Who would have believed?

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MY ONE-HIT WONDER — A 1985 FLASHBACK

Willits In The 70s / Thirty Years Ago

by Jim Gibbons

When I got back from Mexico at the end of February I was told by my landlord’s son, Bruce Burton, that he and Chris Baldo were taking over the property to mill their redwood and store their poles, and needed to use my rental unit for an office for their new Willits Redwood Company.

So I’m back in Willits without a job, soon to be without a place to live, and wouldn’t get my Teacher’s Retirement check until summer. I didn’t actually retire, per se, but quit. I got what you might call early burnout. Still, the district owed me about a grand per year that I had put into the kitty, and since I’d saved enough money to live on for awhile, I wasn’t worried. Plus I did make 50 cents an inch writing a weekly column for The Willits News called, “Foot Notes.”

My column was mostly about running, which had become more and more popular, with more road races and marathons showing up in Northern California and across the country every year. I would go to run these races, usually with my two boys, and then write about them.

When I was introduced to local folks they usually responded with, “Oh, you’re the runner,” and then they’d tell me why they don’t run.

The main reason I decided to remain in Willits was because of my boys, who were living with their mom in town in the place we bought back in ’78 with money she inherited when her grandma passed away two years earlier. In ’79 I built a two-story addition off the back so we’d all have a little more room, but by ’81 I had an affair with a friend’s 21-year-old daughter and that pretty much was the end of our ten-year relationship.

Yvonne and I had a good ten year run, in fact, looking back often makes me think that a marriage should only be ten years. I mean, it doesn’t get much better after ten years, so why endure it? Of course we should be given the option of renewing the wedding vows for another ten years, but also feel free to walk away, take a break, see what else is out there. You’d still be friends, sharing custody and whatever assets that were accumulated together during that ten year run, and you wouldn’t have to go through a nasty divorce. Just hang in there until your ten-year time is served. No problem.

Cannabis Indica

My friend Neva said I could stay in the house her ex built on their 20-acre property before he decided to go his own way, plus she wouldn’t charge me any rent if I just made it more livable. A live-in carpentry project with no pressure was just what I needed, and it was only five miles from town.

Another friend said he had some extra marijuana starts he’d give me. Although I never grew cannabis before, I had smoked on and off since that first time in Milwaukee back in ’67. I remember four of us sitting around a friend’s living room floor passing a Mexican joint around and I stubbornly insisted I felt nothing. Then driving home, when the stop light went from green to red it was like the red was really bright.

“Wow!! Look how bright that red light is!” I awed, as if it was the brightest red light I’d ever seen. My fiancé Lois laughed and brought me out of my denial with, ”You’re stoned, Jimmy!”

Neva said I could grow ten plants, but not near the house, and she pointed to a ridge that was on the highest and most distant part of her property. The good news was it faced east and got ample morning sun, causing those plants to grow big and hearty.

The bad news was I broke my ankle less than a week after getting them in the ground. This meant I couldn’t walk without crutches and couldn’t walk up to the ridge with crutches, so I crawled on my hands and knees for nearly two months to nurture those greedy monsters. But it was worth it, I got twelve pounds off ten plants, and the price of pot was going up. That year it hit $2000 a pound, and if you knew the right people it didn’t take long to get rid of it.

To sum up for the record books, ten marijuana plants earned me more money than my last year of teaching in the public school system. Also, I should mention, in case the Feds are reading this, I paid taxes on the money, but called the work carpentry, since I wasn’t getting paid for the carpentry I did on Neva’s extra house, it somehow made sense to me at the time. What else made sense to me was how my friend who gave me the starts summed it up: “Growing pot is part-time work for full-time pay.”

By the end of September I started harvesting. I wanted to test each of the plants separately to see what I had, so by mid-morning every day or so, when the sun came through the window to my cleaning station, I would take a dried bud from one of my ten plants and roll a joint. Then I would smoke it and just observe my reaction.

Every high made me feel good, made me breath deep, move around, and unless I already went for a run that morning, made me want to do something physical.

One day I smoked some of my Kush. Most of my plants were Cannabis Sativa or a cross, but this was Cannabis Indica. It looked different than the Sativa, not as tall but thicker, the leaves wider and the buds coated with resin. It also had a more potent odor, what some later called skunk weed. But maybe best of all, especially during the CAMP years (Campaign Against Marijuana Planting) with helicopters flying around the county during harvest time, it matured faster.

I had only a few hits and the next thing I knew I was outside in a patch of sun, barefoot, and doing tai chi. I stood there breathing deeply, feeling centered and tuned in to everything around me. The squirrels were chattering, the birds were tweeting, and a Western Fence Lizard was doing push-ups on a sunny rock, looking in my direction in a challenging manner.

That by far became my favorite of the ten. I shared it with a few people, but I didn’t want to sell it. The sad part was my friend didn’t have the seeds to that particular strain, so it was a one-hit wonder.

So how did I break my ankle? I wrote about it in one of my Foot Notes columns. I broke it running the Dipsea, a footrace in Marin County from Mill Valley over Mt. Tamalpais to Stinson Beach. That race in ‘85 was the 75th running and it’s still going strong. This year, on June 14, 2015 the 105th Dipsea footrace will take place. No, I’m not doing it again. I only ran it that one time, and then moved it from my Bucket List to my Fuck it! List.

The 1985 Dipsea

(the following is an edited version of my 1985 Foot Notes column from The Willits News)

The Dipsea is a handicap footrace that starts in downtown Mill Valley and winds up and up and up 671 stairs to Muir Woods, around the slopes of Mt. Tamalpais, and down to the finish line in Stinson Beach. The 75TH annual Dipsea was run last Sunday, making it the second oldest continuous footrace in the United States, behind only the Boston Marathon.

I’ve been wanting to run this 7.4 mile trail run since I joined the Tamalpa Runners last year after turning 40 because they’re the closest club with a competitive Masters Team, and I was told that if you haven’t run the Dipsea you’re a running virgin.

To reduce the crowded conditions on the trail, the field is limited to 1,500 runners, and the age-handicap start gives older and younger runners up to a 20-minute head start. Being 40-years old, I had a 2-minute head start, which meant I had to pass nearly 700 runners on the narrow steps and trails to finish near the front and receive one of the 35 coveted black T-shirts.

Since the more people you have to pass on the single-file trail, the slower your time, this race is ideal for the fit older and younger runners who get to start before most of the crowd. One of the fittest older runners in the country is 45-year old Sal Vasquez, who won this year for the fourth straight time. Sal had a 4-minute head start, which meant he had his share of runners to pass, but still ran the fastest scratch time with a 49:56!

Perhaps the best way to describe this rugged, root-infested trail is to list some of the names along the way: Suicide Hill, Cardiac Hill, Steep Ravine, and Insult Hill, to a name a few.

According to the Marin Independent Journal, 85 runners suffered an assortment of strains, sprains, abrasions, and heat exhaustion. One runner was taken to Marin General Hospital for a “possible torn tendon.” Actually, that runner sustained more than a torn tendon, he suffered “an avulsion of the right distal fibula.” An avulsion is a ripping off, a tearing away. In laymen’s terms, this runner broke his ankle.

He was charging down Insult Hill, trying to make up lost time due to a wrong turn, when suddenly his ankle snapped and he flipped into a dry creek bed, rolled into a boulder, and without losing his place, jumped back on the trail and finished the race, hobbling like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

It may seem crazy to run the last mile on a broken ankle, but this runner wasn’t sure it was broken, he just thought it was a bad sprain, and all he could think about was getting to the finish line and putting ice on it. This runner finished in 33rd place with a scratch time of 54:58. He felt stupid and embarrassed and extremely sorry for himself. If you happen to see this runner in Willits, treat him as you would any other cripple on crutches. Don’t ask him if he wants to go jogging — haha — he’s a sensitive human being, just like some of you.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, June 6, 2015

Abodecrespo, Beltran, Burns
Abodecrespo, Beltran, Burns

ANTHONY ABODECRESPO, Leespeport, Pennsylvania/Ukiah. Drunk in public.

JOSE BELTRAN, Covelo. DUI, Reckless driving, suspended license, resisting arrest, probation revocation.

AMBER BURNS, Sacramento/Willits. Fugitive from justice.

Burris, Camara, Cortez, Ferguson
Burris, Camara, Cortez, Ferguson

ERIC BURRIS, Ukiah. Domestic assault.

AMADOU CAMARA, Willits. Drunk in public.

ALBERTO CORTEZ, Philo. DUI.

MICHAEL FERGUSON, Laytonville. Possession of controlled substance.

Graham, Lyons, Markowiak
Graham, Lyons, Markowiak

GRADY GRAHAM, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

BRANDEE LYONS, Ukiah. Drunk in public, resisting arrest.

JAROSLAW MARKOWIAK, Ukiah. Pot possession for sale, sale, transport, furnish.

Molina, Moore, Perez, Zalar
Molina, Moore, Perez, Zalar

MIGUEL MOLINA, Ukiah. Drunk in public, probation revocation.

KENNETH MOORE II, Ukiah. DUI.

NOE PEREZ, Talmage. Drunk in public, possession of controlled substance, resisting arrest.

GRANT ZALAR, Willits. Drunk in public.

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THE SUMMER WIND

The summer wind came blowin' in

From across the sea

It lingered there to touch your hair

And walked with me

 

All summer long we sang a song

Then we strolled on golden sand

Two sweethearts and the summer wind

 

Like painted kites

Those days and nights went flying by

The world was new

Beneath a blue umbrella sky

 

Then softer than a piper man

One day it called to you

I lost you to the summer wind

 

The autumn wind and the winter wind

They have come and gone

And still the days, those lonely day

Go on and on

 

And guess who sighs his lullabies

Through nights that never end

My fickle friend, the summer wind

— Johnny Mercer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XLM4TvgHwY

(We hope his dog’s not dead)

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THE HUMBOLDT CRABS

Founded in 1945, the Humboldt Crabs are the oldest continuously-operated summer collegiate, wood-bat, baseball team in the country. 2015 will mark the 71st consecutive year of Crabs baseball. The team based in Arcata, California, approximately 250 miles north of San Francisco, and play their home games at the Arcata Ball Park.

The Crabs’ roster is mostly made up of collegiate players from up and down the West Coast.

The Humboldt Crabs are a non-profit, community-oriented organization.
Its mission is four-fold:

To promote family entertainment by providing high-quality summer collegiate baseball games to the public at a reasonable price;

To provide talented collegiate-level baseball players with a positive summer baseball experience;

To support youth sports programs (with an emphasis on baseball or softball) in the Humboldt County area with contributions of funding and/or equipment as funds permit in addition to annual baseball skills camps and clinics operated by Humboldt Crabs players and coachs;

To preserve and build the tradition of Humboldt Crabs Baseball.

Humboldt Crabs Baseball, Inc is a 501(c)(4) community-owned organization. A volunteer board of directors rely on the support of community members & sponsors to keep the Humboldt Crabs Baseball operation functioning.

DATES/TIMES http://humboldtcrabs.com/sites/humboldtcrabs.com/files/crabs_schedule_2015_0.pdf

WHERE Arcata Ball Park

PRICE $9 / $4 kids under 12 / $6 students/seniors

CONTACT INFO http://humboldtcrabs.com/

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SpeedControl

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JERRY BROWN'S HEAD OIL REGULATOR RESIGNS AFTER RICO SUIT FILED

by Dan Bacher

Mark Nechodom, the controversial director of the California Department of Conservation that oversees the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR), resigned on Thursday, June 4.

DOGGR is the agency charged with regulating the state's oil and gas industry. Governor Jerry Brown in 2011 appointed Nechodom, who is considered very friendly to the oil industry, to the post in order to expedite permits for oil drilling in Kern County and elsewhere.

The agency has faced increasing scrutiny from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after permitting oil companies conducting steam injection and fracking operations to drill thousands of oilfield wastewater disposal wells into protected aquifers.

The Committee to Protect Agricultural Water, a citizen organization comprised of Central Valley farmers and "individuals concerned about California's drinking water," filed a civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) complaint in Federal Court on June 3, the day before Nechodom resigned.

The RICO Complaint claims that Governor Jerry Brown's office ordered the DOGGR to approve permits to inject contaminated water in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

(http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2015/06/03/741916/10137097/en/Kern-County-Group-Files-RICO-Lawsuit-Against-Governor-and-Oil-Companies.html#sthash.9gqriFwS.dpuf_)

The lawsuit alleges that "The Oil Companies, Governor's Office, Director of Conservation Mark Nechodom, State Oil & Gas Supervisor Tim Kustic, Director of the Kern County Planning and Development Department Lorelei Oviatt, DOGGR, WSPA, CIPA, and others known and unknown, formed an "enterprise" ("the Enterprise") to achieve through illegal means the goal of increasing oil production and maximizing profits and tax revenue by allowing the Oil Companies to inject salt water into fresh water in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act."

That's not the only suit filed challenging the agency's "permits to pollute." A lawsuit filed on May 7 by Earthjustice in Alameda County Superior Court, on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club, challenged recently unveiled “underground injection control” regulations from DOGGR.

"The regulations allow oil companies to continue injecting oil industry wastewater and other fluids into protected aquifers until February 2017, in violation of state and federal law and despite a water-scarcity crisis caused by the worst drought on record," according to a statement from the groups. "DOGGR pushed the rules through in just a few days, characterizing inconvenience to the oil industry from interrupting its illegal injections as a public 'emergency.'" (See interactive map: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/publications/maps/highlighted_maps/enhanced_oil_recovery_wells.html).

Nechodom told lawmakers earlier this year that regulators “all fell down” in protecting the state’s water supplies.

Jason Marshall, the Conservation Department’s Chief Deputy Director, will head the tainted department while a permanent replacement is sought.

Attorney Rex Parris, whose law firm filed the RICO lawsuit, said in a written statement Friday, “We are not surprised that Nechodom resigned a day after the filing of this lawsuit. We are confident he is just one of many resignations to come.”

Mark Schlosberg, organizing director with Food and Water Watch, a member organization of Californians Against Fracking, responded to the resignation by pointing out that it points to the larger failure by the Brown administration to protect California's water and air.

“When it comes to ensuring the public’s health and protecting our water and air, Jerry Brown has failed,” said Schlosberg. "Mark Nechodom is one of many in the Brown Administration who have looked the other way as oil companies inject poison into underground drinking water, spill oil onto our beaches and spew methane into the air."

"It is incumbent upon Gov. Brown to hold the oil industry and his own state regulators accountable and protect Californians from these inherently unsafe practices. Nechodom’s departure does not let Brown off the hook," he concluded.

No comments from Nechodom or the Natural Resources Agency were available at press time.

While Brown spouts off about his carbon trading and "green energy" policies at photo opportunity after photo opportunity, he is currently committed to the expansion of fracking in California, spurring increasing building resistance to his Big Oil-friendly policies by environmentalists, Tribal leaders and fishermen.

Brown has also continued and expanded some of the worst environmental policies of the Schwarzenegger administration, including the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build the twin water export tunnels and the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative to create questionable "marine protected areas."

In one of the biggest environmental conflicts of interest in California history, the Brown administration approved the implementation of so-called "marine protected areas" on the South Coast created under the leadership of a Big Oil lobbyist. Catherine Reheis-Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), chaired the MLPA Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast, as well as sitting on the task forces for the Central Coast, North Central Coast and North Coast.

The "marine protected areas" created under the leadership of her and other corporate operatives fail to protect the ocean from oil spills, oil drilling, fracking, pollution, corporate aquaculture, military testing and all human impacts on the ocean other than fishing and gathering.

In a bizarre scenario that the mainstream media and most of the "alternative" media have failed to discuss, four "marine protected areas" now being fouled by the Santa Barbara Oil Spill - the Goleta Slough, Campus Point, Naples and Kashtayit State Marine Conservation Areas - were created under the oil lobbyist's "leadership." If that isn't the proverbial fox guarding the hen house, I don't know what is.

It is also notable that the Central Valley farmers' Rico lawsuit named Reheis-Boyd's organization, WSPA, as one of the co-conspirators in "the Enterprise" to achieve through illegal means "the goal of increasing oil production and maximizing profits and tax revenue by allowing the Oil Companies to inject salt water into fresh water in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act."

Big Oil is able to exert enormous influence over regulatory bodies like DOGGR and the MLPA Initiative because it is the largest and most powerful corporate lobby in the state. The Western States Petroleum Association spent a record $8.9 million on lobbying in the California in 2014, nearly double what it spent the previous year. WSPA spent $4.67 million in 2013. (http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/02/06/big-oil-group-spent-89-million-last-year-lobbing-jerry-brown-and-california-officials)

The expansion of fracking, the tunnels plan and the MLPA Initiative's flawed "marine protected areas" are just a few examples of Jerry Brown's abysmal environmental policies. For an in-depth analysis of Brown's environmental record, read my article: http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/30452-the-extinction-governor-rips-the-green-mask-off-his-tunnels-plan

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ALMOND, THE DEVIL'S LEFT NUT.

The recording of last night's (2015-06-05) KNYO Memo of the Air:

Good Night Radio show is ready to download and keep or just play with one click at http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

Also there you'll find thousands and thousands of links to other things to see and do and learn about, such as:

Twin-stick shifting. An impressive skill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjJ8n1aQSfw

A whole new way of looking at the sky.

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

And Gypsophilia: /Horska/.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xIrqQTKc_E

Marco McClean

memo@mcn.org

http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

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