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Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, Apr 20, 2016

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NEW YORK PRIMARY ELECTION RESULTS.

Democratic: Clinton 58%, Sanders: 42%.

Republican: Trump: 61%, Kasich: 25%, Cruz: 14%.

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THE COUNTY OFFICE OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, MCOE, "will host a job fair on Saturday, April 23, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at 2240 Old River Rd., Ukiah. Want a job that empowers youth with the skills and opportunities they need to build careers that create a better future for themselves, their communities, and the world? If you share a vision of educational success for all students...."

IF YOUTH are to have any kind of chance at "empowerment," a word only Government Donut Eaters dare use, you should help organize them into armed, revolutionary cells, because, objectively, persons under the age of 30 are screwed six ways to Sunday. Those of milder temperament should be taught HOW TO BE POOR BUT STILL HAVE A GOOD TIME.

THE REST OF MCOE's empowering and envisioning press release, which probably took them a hundred days of meetings and in-services to compose, contains exactly two intriguing facts, the first one probably untrue. MCOE claims to have "80 current job vacancies" throughout the County. The second, which probably is true, is the public schools employ 3,500 people.

THIS IS NO DOUBT UNFAIR, but my overall impression of the noble 3,500 is of a cringing, intellectually impaired-to-disinterested cadre of time servers whose overall impact on the young is to shut them down forever to learning. On second thought, I'd exempt elementary and middle school teachers. The former because their task is to simply pound the basics into the little savages, the latter because the schools couldn't pay most of us enough to ride herd on sugar-fueled, television-raised pubescents.

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MATEO LaCAMPAGNE, son of John and Andrea LaCampagne, recently of Navarro but lately of Sonoma County, is now the starting pitcher for 13 year old division of the elite Redwood Baseball Club out of Santa Rosa. Last week Mateo pitched a solid seven-inning no hitter to give his team their seventh win in a row. The week before he pitched five shut-out innings in the first game of a double header against a team of 14-year olds from Petaluma, a town famous in little league circles. These games were played on full-sized varsity fields with a 60-foot pitching distance.

MateoLaCampagne

ORIGINALLY INSPIRED by Giant pitching phenom Tim Lincecum back in Lincecum’s heyday in 2010, the smooth-throwing Navarro southpaw is on track for a serious baseball career.

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A CALL FOR HELP from our neighbors in Mendocino and Little River

The City of Fort Bragg needs your help!

Due to the fact that the Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center spent over 2 million dollars in the past few years and only chose to obtain 10 beds for our most needy we have homeless folks here who need emergency weather shelter, temporary housing and permanent housing.

We ask that you offer up your spare rooms, your empty vacation rentals and your guest houses to house our most needy and vulnerable.

If you would like to help us house these homeless folks we are sure that MCHC would be happy to fill your empty beds with those most deserving of your help. Please call them when you have space available. Everyone deserves a bed to sleep in. Don’t you agree Wendy Roberts? Perhaps you have a spare room you can help with.

In fact, we would be happy to do all we can to help with transportation to your place.

Thanks for your support,

The folks who live in Fort Bragg, want housing for the homeless and Support Measure U.

Anne, Fort Bragg

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MEASURE U — FORT BRAGG GETS DOWN TO THE REALITIES

The Adult says: YES on Measure U!

It’s time for the community to GROW UP and think about “the general welfare,” “the greater good”… It’s not always about “you.”

How does Measure U really impact social services?

If social service organizations were in the district by January of 2015 they can stay where they are. The measure was written to grandfather them into the DISTRICT, which means that can they stay where they are and they can move and expand in the Central Business District if they want to. That is what Yes on Measure U intended, no impact on existing services prior to January 2015.

However, it looks like the city told them they are going to apply the non-conforming use rule and if things change they will have to relocate. That is how the Fort Bragg City Government is choosing to interpret the measure. City Government could allow them to move and expand if they wanted to but if they did that they wouldn’t have any well-meaning pawns to campaign against Measure U for them because there wouldn’t be any reason for them to do that.

So, City Government creates an issue to defeat U. Due to city government’s interpretation if existing organizations want to move or expand they will still have 95% of the town to choose from. It is possible that they may find a location in a more appropriate neighborhood with a better facility.

Measure U does require the project in the Old Coast Hotel to move so that they have to provide a more appropriate, private, accessible, lead free setting for their clients to receive services in. MCHC spent over 2 million tax dollars in the past few years and only got 10 more beds. Measure U wants more beds for our most needy. What’s wrong with asking them to find a better place for the clients? We are doing this to demand better care and services for our most vulnerable neighbors. Measure U insists on prioritizing beds and quality of care rather than making profits on real estate for the organization.

What’s wrong with locating social service organizations outside of the Central Business District? Nothing as far as I am concerned. There are more locations; more choices outside of the Central Business District than there are in the business district.

Zoning is about land use and city planning...commercial districts are traditionally set up to accommodate commerce not services. Hospitals, veterinarians, caterers, emergency shelter, and many other uses are not allowed in the Central Business District. How is adding social service organizations to this list any more discriminatory or segregationist than the existing rules? It’s not, it’s how zoning works.

Does this mean that all Zoning should be challenged as a civil rights, social justice issue? That’s what it sounds like. Measure U is about sensible zoning that complies with the City’s General Plan.

Let’s not let personal, emotional issues cloud our judgment. Let’s use our heads and make smart choices for the economic development of our community that has the general welfare of all the people as a priority.

Calm down and use your heads, maybe talk to a therapist about your personal issues rather than create unnecessary drama in the community with unfounded, unsubstantiated, and nonsensical accusations about a simple non-discriminatory zoning change. Think about it.

As limit setting is necessary for children to grow into fully functioning, prosperous adults, zoning is necessary for a community to grow into a fully functioning, prosperous town.

Measure U takes the adult stance in this situation so perhaps it’s time for you to behave like adults and stop throwing temper tantrums because you simply don’t like rules, spewing irrational and untrue conclusions like a two year old kicking their hands a feet on the floor, it’s time to calm down and accept that limits are necessary in order to grow up.

It’s time to GROW UP and start thinking about the welfare of the whole community rather than just “me”. Yes on Measure U is the adult choice for Fort Bragg.

A Fort Bragg Resident and Health and Human Services Professional

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WINE, WAVES & WEED?

by Justine Frederiksen

With recreational marijuana legalization looming, a local economic expert advised Mendocino County business leaders Friday to position the area to become known for “wine, food and weed.” “Because if you don’t, someone else will,” Robert Eyler, economics professor at Sonoma State University and director of the Center for Regional Economic Analysis, told the group gathered at the Ukiah Valley Conference Center April 15 for the 2016 Agriculture Business Coalition Economic Outlook. “People will be looking for a place to eat five-star food, drink five-star wine and smoke five-star weed,” Eyler continued, explaining that Mendocino County could easily become that place, as long as it planned ahead and got in front of the wave. The wave he was referring to, of course, is the pending statewide legalization of recreational marijuana, an issue that many expect to come before voters again soon. However, Eyler said the recent passage of a $15 state minimum wage, completed in lightning-fast fashion by legislative standards, could foreshadow what will happen with marijuana. “There’s a lot less talk about putting marijuana on the ballot now,” Eyler said. “They may decide after the success with the minimum wage increase that they didn’t need to put it before the voters.” And once recreational marijuana becomes legal, Eyler said, a thriving underground industry may become day-lighted overnight. “Then the question is, can Mendocino become to weed what Napa became to wine?” Eyler said. “Because if it doesn’t get ahead of the curve, it’s going to get left behind.” While it wasn’t clear if any local tourism officials attended Eyler’s talk, Ukiah Mayor Steve Scalmanini and City Council member Kevin Doble were in the audience. Scalmanini said tourism in general, not necessarily pot tourism, is definitely on the city of Ukiah’s radar lately as the City Council is preparing to have its third discussion Wednesday regarding whether it wants to pay to have a feasibility study done for a higher-end downtown hotel. Attracting businesses and industry of almost any kind is a near-constant goal for Ukiah and Mendocino County, and Eyler asked the group Friday if it felt that the relatively low housing costs in the area is enough to attract businesses to the area. Most felt that it wasn’t quite enough, since Ukiah and other Mendocino County cities still don’t have many of the amenities that cities in Sonoma County can offer. Eyler then pointed to Healdsburg, and how that city, which has a smaller population than Ukiah, recently had two companies, one with 100 employees and one with 200, relocate there because of the quality of life it offered. “You can provide the same quality of life,” Eyler said, likely referring to a rural area surrounded by vineyards and recreational opportunities like the Russian River and hiking. “I disagree with us having the same quality of life,” said Ross Liberty, founder of Factory Pipe. “Visitors come here and see ‘The Walking Dead’ homeless we have and don’t want to move here.” Other attendees pointed to the lack of housing and inadequate broadband infrastructure as definite reasons why businesses would not want to locate here. As if to provide one more incentive for action, Eyler pointed out that neighboring Lake County might be perfectly poised to attract the new wave of tourism as well. “Lake County is the biggest question in California right now,” he said. “Whether it will evolve socially and culturally, or de-evolve.”

(Courtesy, Ukiah Daily Journal)

ED NOTE: It done devolved, professor. And your affection for the smoke seems to have clouded your judgement. Ukiah and Healdsburg have nothing in common, and haven't had anything in common since about 1950 when both were coherent, attractive little towns. (So was Willits, believe it or not.) But Ukiah lost its way, its civic pride, its intelligent leadership. (This is a town that celebrates the arrival of Dunkin' Donuts and In 'N Out Burger!) Healdsburg retained its civic brains, and retains them to this day. Ukiah grows steadily worse, ever less redeemable. Even the stoner shoals who drift up and down Highway 101 hurry on past Ukiah to join their comrades in the open air homeless camps of Garberville where they can comfortably herd-up with devoted tokers. Upscale pot heads will continue to head for the Mendocino Coast where there's still coherence and beauty.

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THAT WAS AWFUL NEWS from Mendocino on Monday that described how an 11-year-old boy and his father, a Lake County deputy sheriff, were pulled from the ocean after they'd both been swept off the rocks at Mendocino Point near Mendocino Village. A Mendocino County sheriff’s deputy was among the first rescuers to arrive. The deputy threw an inflatable device — called a throw stick — to the clear-thinking boy, who swam to the device and used it to stay afloat until the fire department’s water rescue team could reach him on a Jet Ski. His father, however, was found unconscious and floating face down. He has still not been identified at the request of his family after being airlifted to a Butte County hospital where he remains in a coma.

THESE OCEAN TRAGEDIES just keep on happening. We wrote of two early in 2009:

WHEN THAT YOUNG mother and her daughter were pulled into the ocean and drowned at Montara last week, it was one more terrible instance of people not being able to tell the difference between the beach and the surf line. Here in Mendocino County you see toddlers playing in the surf all the time at dangerous places like the little beach at Mackerricher, to name one particularly perilous ocean venue. And we all remember the sleeper wave that reached out to pull the visiting Italian scholar off the rocks at the Mendocino bluffs, his frantic wife and two weeping sons watching as the doomed man drifted farther and farther out to sea until he finally disappeared. At Ocean Beach in San Francisco I've seen the cops forced into compelling people out of the water for their own safety during high surfs, and we read regularly of the unwary being carried off from Sonoma County beaches. Without making a total agoraphobe out of your kid, at a minimum he ought to know that life hangs by a thread, and that the thread often looks benign, like a sunny day at the seaside.

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MENDO POT REGS: MAYBE NEXT YEAR.

The Board of Supervisors learned Monday that pot regulations will take many more months to institute than expected. Apparently some anonymous wizard on Low Gap Road decided they'd need an EIR. (The simplest task is never easy in Mendocino County.) The local regs probably won't be in place until well after the 2016 growing season.

LONG TIME North County marijuana activist Tim Blake complained to the supervisors that the delay would not be as much of a problem if Mendocino County could provide the kinds of assurances to participating growers that Humboldt County does.

"You are going to leave the legitimate growers out in the open," Blake said, "if you continue this way. The people in Humboldt County are not going to get their permits in time like we are here because it's too big of a process. But none of them are worried because they have been assured by their government, by their Sheriff's department, that they are not going to be hassled. They are not going to come after these people. They all know that. Because in Humboldt you don't have people coming in for 25 or 40 plants and pillaging people. You don't have to play with Eyster. You don't have any of this stuff. Tom Allman had to get together with some of the 9.31 people and admit that there were so many allegations of impropriety and illegal activity among the task force and yet they turn it over to the DEA and the FBI in Santa Rosa. And that was back three years ago. Who is running the task force? It's the DEA and the FBI. So nothing was ever done. Come on! Let's be real here. This task force has been menacing in Mendocino County for 30 years. And if you guys sit here and leave us out like this it won't be like Humboldt. Eyster and all the task force people are going to be out there terrorizing us all summer. So have the courage to put something in place to protect us. Keep those people off us and do what's right. Because we are not Humboldt. And we have to ask you guys to protect us. And it's not under Sheriff Randy Johnson who is going to come after us, it's that task force and all those people who have been terrorizing us for all these years. There have been television shows made about this. This is not like something that has not been discussed in the open. We have been under something like you'd see in the South for the last 30 years. It's time to end it and we need your help to do it."

BLAKE'S statement brought a hearty round of applause from the pot-friendly audience.

SUPERVISOR McCowen commented, "I hear the concern but I don't see that it's one that we are able to address."

SUPERVISOR HAMBURG, a veteran stoner whose own grow operation was busted back in October of 2007, said that indeed he'd heard a lot of allegations in recent years about overzealous law enforcement on smaller grows and that they couldn’t all be wrong, adding that the Board does not control the Task Force and that he'd never been able to figure out who controls the task force. "I don't know if the Sheriff controls the task force. I don't know if the DEA controls the task force. The task force is made up of all these different agencies and each one contributes a member. I don't know who controls the task force. Maybe somebody can enlighten me on that."

HAMBURG'S put his finger right on the meat of the issue. How is it that the Supes don't know who's running the pot raid team? The plot thickens when we understand that Mendocino County makes a ton of money playing Let's Make A Deal with raided pot growers. The DA, in return for cash fines, trades gro felonies for misdemeanors. No raids, no Highway 101 "interdictions" no cash for County law enforcement. Overall, however, the status quo works to the advantage of local growers. The cops take off enough dope to keep prices attractively high (sic), although because so many people are now in the biz prices have fallen to new lows, that mom and pop, more mythical now than ever as the industrial grows become more prevalent, are more endangered from corporate-oriented competitors than they are from the police. When marijuana is fully legalized, the Mendocino County pot economy, will tank.

SUPERVISOR BROWN thought that the Board should consider an interim ordinance, but that idea had its own problems.

SUPERVISOR GJERDE thought the Planning Commission should deal with the details, including some way to allow more than 25 plants for growers or bigger grow sites who need to grow more to cover all the costs of fees and permits and lawyers. Nothing was decided. The question of at what point the grow size would trigger a full EIR as well as questions about indoor grows and zoning and grandfathering and so forth will come back to the Board on May 16 after being considered by the Planning staff, the Planning Commission and the Board’s Marijuana ad hoc committee of Supervisors McCowen and Woodhouse.

GJERDE wrapped up with “I hope we can make some progress on this this year and a complete package for next year.”

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Lassie&Timmy

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WELL, WELL, LOOKEE HERE: The OFFICIAL webpage for the county shelter. Page designed by Coots and aided by Goody. The new page is mendoanimalshelter.com

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WATCHING TONIGHT'S GIANTS GAME against Arizona at AT&T Park, I couldn't help but notice that the Arizona uniforms are an unhappy death gray. These poor guys look like x-rays. Actually they play like corpses.

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ZZZZZZZZZZ

An Open Letter to the Board of Supervisors:

The slogan, "It's all about the animals" certainly feels stale and disingenuous at this point in the never-ending campaign of a (small) group of people, annoyed that a contract proposal for shelter management was not awarded to Petaluma Animal Services.

Though the RFP is over, the process continues to be picked over and exploited as a tool to wedge the conversation away from the future--stuck in the unhappy past. The proponents of outsourcing the shelter have called the process first too long (when they believed no one was working on it properly,) too short (when they were unhappy with the results and demanded it go back to the administrators,) and now "completely flawed" and "set up for failure." During their appearances in front of the board these past months, not one speaker has given the smallest, positive credit to the shelter and its staff. Instead, the same people talk about personal problems, make opaque threats to the board and county, and give graphic accounts of feces, standing water and the horrid plight of "furbabies.". The subject morphs as is necessary for them: the current battle cries are the Coast, First Amendment Rights violations, the shelter being at it's "worst ever," and the waste of money spent on an interim manager and a guard---things put in place BECAUSE OF THE NEGATIVE ENVIRONMENT created by these same folks and their followers.

ENOUGH! What the board is not hearing are the many many voices of the "silent majority"--folks who, while not claiming the agency is perfect, want to see the shelter, and thus the animals in its care, succeed. And to that end, we are either at work on our computers creating photographs, updating our websites, creating graphics; or on the phone arranging transport to rescues; or at the shelter walking dog and petting cats. Moving forward can AND WILL be accomplished, even if the county and the shelter staff are continually bombarded by negativity by people who take zero responsibility for their actions over the past year. Those of us who would like to get on with the caring of the shelter's animals wait for the day when the shelter can TRULY move forward and improve. Those folks who, by their constant negativity and refusal to let that happen, have proven that the animals take second place to their personal agendas.

Kathy Shearn

Ukiah

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CATCH OF THE DAY, April 19, 2016

Beers, Bradshaw, Fitch
Beers, Bradshaw, Fitch

MICHAEL BEERS, Ukiah. Under influence, probation revocation.

RYAN BRADSHAW, Willits. Failure to appear.

FREDRICK FITCH, Ukiah. Controlled substance, failure to appear, probation revocation.

Halvorsen, Harvey, McNeil
Halvorsen, Harvey, McNeil

NICHOLAS HALVORSEN, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

KIMBERLY HARVEY, Nice/Ukiah. Shopliftin, conspiracy.

JUSTIN MCNEIL, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

Mendoza, Pickett, Reynaga
Mendoza, Pickett, Reynaga

FRANCISCO MENDOZA, Willits. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

JASON PICKETT, Willits. Failure to appear.

PEDRO REYNAGA, Ukiah. Drunk in public.

Rozek, Stiles, Zarate
Rozek, Stiles, Zarate

ZACHARIA ROZEK, Redwood Valley. Trespassing.

REBECCA STILES, Ukiah. Failure to appear. (Frequent flyer.)

ROGELIO ZARATE, Ukiah. Sawed-off shotgun.

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TRIMMER RAPIST FINALLY BUSTED

Kailan Meserve Found Guilty of 15 Felony Counts

Humboldt County Office of the District Attorney press release:

Meserve
Meserve

On April 19, 2016, a jury found 45-year-old Kailan Coridon Meserve guilty of 15 felony counts, including three counts of forcible rape, six counts forcible oral copulation, false imprisonment, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury, criminal threats, two counts of sexual battery, and sexual penetration by a foreign object.

On December 26, 2013 the defendant entered a residence in Petrolia where an acquaintance was staying and found her upstairs asleep. The victim awoke with the defendant on top of her, told him no, and tried to resist. During the rape he committed various forcible sex acts against her before leaving the residence. He then returned and committed sexual acts a second time.

On November 9, 2014 after a community event in Petrolia the defendant offered a ride home to a woman he had met. Instead of taking her home, he took her to his property. Once there, Meserve took her into a trailer, raped her and committed other sex acts without her consent. During the incident, he also strangled her, threatened to kill her and told her he would freeze her body and feed her to animals.

The case was tried by Deputy District Attorney Brie Bennett, with assistance from District Attorney Investigator Steve Dunn. The defendant was represented at trial by Russell Clanton.

The defendant was remanded into custody after the verdicts were read. Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Cissna will sentence the defendant on July 1, 2016. DDA Bennett and District Attorney Maggie Fleming wish to express appreciation to the victims in the case, whose willingness to provide difficult testimony has enhanced public safety.

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CAREFUL! You May Have Accidentally Signed Up With A Loony Political Party! Plus: More Election Must-Knows

by Hank Sims

Here’s why some of those numbers are almost certainly misleading, at least as they might reflect the electorate’s intent.

SimsChart

So a few years back you said to yourself: To hell with the two-party system! To hell with it, I say! And to make your disgust known to the world you filled out a new voter registration card and proudly ticked the box that said “independent.”

AIP

Well, you want to check yourself sometime pretty soon, because instead of declaring yourself “independent” what you probably did is accidentally pledge allegiance to a curious group of cranks and wackadoodles called the “American Independent Party,” formed in 1968 to support the presidential candidacy of Ür-wackadoodle George Wallace.

This means you won’t get to go to the polls on June 7 and choose a Republican or Democratic ballot, as you thought you might. You won’t get to vote for Bernie or Hillary or Donald or Ted. You’ll be stuck with choosing between the wackadoodles put up by the AIP. (Note: Including Bob Ornelas!) (Another note: Not that Bob Ornelas!)

You have until May 23 to fix this, and we’ll tell you how at the end, here, but since California keeps changing its election rules maybe we’ll spend a moment running down how this year’s primary election will work, at least as far as party registration goes. You have three categories of races:

Local races.

State legislative and executive offices, and seats in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

The presidential race.

The local races on the June ballot are nonpartisan. So when you go to choose between Uri Driscoll and Mike Wilson for Third District Supervisor, say, it won’t matter whether you are a registered Democrat or Republican or Green or Libertarian or what have you. They’ll both be on your ballot. What’s more, the ballot will not list their party affiliations. If a candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote in these county elections — a safe bet this year, as both the Third District and the Second District are two-person races — then that candidate is elected. In other years, when there are more than two candidates in a county election, there is a runoff between the top two on the November ballot.

Races in the second category are technically partisan, in that the candidates’ party affiliation are right there on the ballot. However, since the passage of Proposition 14 in 2010 it doesn’t matter how you, the voter, are registered — you get all the options, Republican, Democrat and otherwise, right there on your ballot, however you yourself are registered. You may vote for the person of your choice, regardless of your party or theirs. The top two vote-getters then go on to a runoff in November. Theoretically, then, two Democrats could go into a runoff against each other for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat.

The presidential race is as you might expect it to be. Republicans choose among the Republican candidates, Democrats among the Democratic candidates, etc. The only twist is that if you are not registered with any party — if you’re a true no-party voter, not an “American Independent” — then you may elect to receive either a ballot with no presidential contest, or else you may choose to vote a Democratic ballot, or a Libertarian ballot, or an American Independent Party ballot. (Only those three parties, though — they’re the ones that allowed “no party” people to participate in their presidential primary, if they so choose.)

OK! In other words, the only time party registration matters on your ballot these days is once every four years, in the presidential primary. We’re coming up on that now. So if you want to vote in that primary, and if you think there’s any chance at all you may have accidentally registered with the wackadoodles, here’s what you want to do.

In the first place, you need to call the Humboldt County Elections Office at 445-7481. Keep your driver’s license at hand. Once you prove you are you, election workers can verify which party you are registered with, or whether you are not registered with any party. (UPDATE: The LA Times also has a handy online AIP-checker at this link, about halfway down. Just enter your name, birthday and zipcode.)

If you’re not registered to vote, or if you need to reregister, the quickest and easiest way is to do that online, right here at this link. If you can’t do that for some reason you can pick up voter registration forms at the Elections Office (3033 H Street, Eureka), or at any DMV office or library or post office.

You need to do all of that before the registration deadline of May 23. If you can’t register online and you need to mail a physical voter registration form into the office, be a good person and do that well before May 23.

Again: If you find you were taken in by the wackadoodles, don’t be ashamed. A recent Los Angeles Times investigation found that about 73 percent of the people who are registered American Independent registered that way by mistake. They include Demi Moore, Emma Stone and Sugar Ray Leonard.

Note to genuine American Independent Party voters, if they exist: We mean no disrespect when we call your party “wackadoodle.” Humboldt loves its wackadoodles.

(Courtesy, LostCoastOutpost.com)

* * *

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The biggest problems with Obamacare are:

  1. Cost controls were not part of the reform. The cost of healthcare for most people has gone up faithfully 20% or more every year. Insurance companies are claiming they can’t keep up with their cost of adding more previously uninsured to the pool (read: they are still very healthy financially, thank you very much) but perhaps profits are not as wildly successful as they would like.
  2. THE FINE for not having health care. This is my biggest gripe. Those who can’t afford health insurance certainly can’t afford the fine that the government imposes for not having it, which rose to $1,100 this year. How does making a poor person $1,100 poorer give them better access to something they know they’ll never have? The government should NOT be in the business of forcing people to buy a product, especially one that will force them to become poorer as a result. I’m surprised the Supreme Court did not throw this requirement out.

The cost for healthcare in the US is twice as high as any other nation, and with poorer outcomes. And still not everyone is insured. If that doesn’t constitute a racket, I don’t know what does.

* * *

A MIRACLE HAS OCCURRED: Vice President Joe Biden delivered a pointed criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before a Jewish-American group Monday, describing the White House’s feelings mostly as “overwhelming frustration.” “I firmly believe that the actions that Israel’s government has taken over the past several years — the steady and systematic expansion of settlements, the legalization of outposts, land seizures — they’re moving us, and more importantly, they’re moving Israel in the wrong direction,” Biden told a J-Street meeting in Washington, D.C. However, he also noted that the U.S. remains committed to Israel’s security. The comments come as talks between the two countries have been halted over a military-aid package, as Israel is demanding more money than the U.S. is willing to contribute.

* * *

DONALD TRUMP LOSING GROUND; TRIES TO BLAME THE SYSTEM.

To normal people like you and me, it may seem strange that Trump might be denied the Republican nomination despite winning most of the primaries, and by sizable margins. Not to the establishment.

Dripping with a what-a-whiny-baby tone, the Old Gray Lady argues that Trump has no one to blame for himself for losing states he, you know, won:

Donald J. Trump and his allies are engaged in an aggressive effort to undermine the Republican nominating process by framing it as rigged and corrupt, hoping to compensate for organizational deficiencies that have left Mr. Trump with an increasingly precarious path to the nomination.”

“Our Republican system is absolutely rigged. It’s a phony deal,” the Times quoted Trump, saying that he was “accusing party leaders of maneuvering to cut his supporters out of the process.”

“They wanted to keep people out,” Trump continued. “This is a dirty trick.”

Any normal person would agree. You win the most votes, you win the election. Especially when it’s not close. Which, in the case of Trump (8.2 million) vs. Cruz (6.3 million) vs. Kasich (3 million), it isn’t. But the big corporate news media outlets don’t hire normal people; they hire rich kids who can afford graduate degrees from journalism schools that don’t give financial aid…kids born on third base who think they constantly hit home runs because they’re so damn smart.

The system is working great for them. Why change it?

The Times goes on to accuse Trump of “seeking to cast a shadow of illegitimacy over the local and state contests to select delegates” and “blaming the process rather than his own inadequacies as a manager.” Ted Cruz, on the other hand, is praised because he cleverly “outmaneuvered him [Trump].”

Trump had complained — “whined,” many news outlets called it — that he won the popular vote in the Colorado primary, yet came away with zero pledged delegates. This was because Cruz and his forces flooded the zone at the Colorado State Republican Convention, enticed party officials with trips and other gifties, and came away with all 33 delegates pledged to him.

The same thing happened in Louisiana.....

— Ted Rall

* * *

FORUM ON EUROPEAN REFUGEE CRISIS at FB Town Hall April 30th

RefugeePoster

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BEACHWATCHERS & BIRDERS wanted for coastal observation and seabird survey team

The Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST) will deliver a free training in Caspar, CA on Sunday, May 15. COASST volunteers help make a difference for the environment by collecting data on beach-cast carcasses of marine birds on a monthly basis to establish the baseline pattern of beached bird mortality on North Pacific beaches. Data collected helps address important marine conservation issues and protect marine resources.

Through an interactive, hands-on workshop, trainees will become acquainted with the custom COASST field guide, Beached Birds, and have a chance to try out their newly acquired identification skills on seabird species common to the North Pacific. The COASST training provides volunteers with the tools to monitor for potential changes in the marine environment and promote stewardship of local marine resources.

COASST is a citizen science project of the University of Washington in partnership with state, tribal, and federal agencies, environmental organizations, and community groups. COASST believes citizens of coastal communities are essential scientific partners in monitoring marine ecosystem health. By collaborating with citizens, natural resource management agencies and environmental organizations, COASST works to translate long-term monitoring into effective marine conservation solutions. Currently, more than 800 volunteers survey beaches in Washington, Oregon, California, and Alaska.

The training session in Caspar will be held at the Caspar Community Center (15051 Caspar Rd, Caspar, CA 95420) from 12:00 – 5:00 PM on Sunday, May 15. Beach surveys are best conducted in groups of 2 or more – please come with a survey partner in mind or plan to join a team during training.

Reserve your training spot at either training by calling COASST at 206-221-6893 or by emailing coasst@uw.edu. For more information on COASST: University of Washington, School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences, Box 355020, Seattle, WA 98195-5020; Phone: 206-221-6893; Website: www.coasst.org; Email: coasst@uw.edu

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POINT ARENA! THE SMOKING LAMP IS LIT!

The Green Room Dispensary in Point Arena is Opening Tomorrow at 11am! We are the first Medical Cannabis Collective in Point Arena, located at 138 Main St. on the west side of HWY 1. Come in and let us find the medicine that can help you the most. Closing the doors at 6pm and we will be open Tuesday-Saturday all year round.

14 Comments

  1. BB Grace April 20, 2016

    RE: MEASURE U — FORT BRAGG GETS DOWN TO THE REALITIES

    “However, it looks like the city told them they are going to apply the non-conforming use rule and if things change they will have to relocate.”

    It appears some cat has the tongues of local non profits occupying FB business district. Great letter to clarify that Inniative Measure U poses no threat to them, and enjoyed the humor of the letter above requesting help from Mendo and LR.

    Yah think FBCC would actually punish local non-profits by amending Measure U after it wins to exclude the grandfathered in non profits?

  2. Alice Chouteau April 20, 2016

    I agree with BB, great letter on measure U. What mystifies me is why the writer wished to be anonymous. I support Measure, U, tho cannot vote on it, living outside city limits. However, I always like to know who authored a measure, or bill, to appear on ballots. Why the need for secrecy?
    I promise to buy the group a box of donuts…
    AC

  3. Bill Pilgrim April 20, 2016

    re: New York primary results. An emergency class-action lawsuit was filed yesterday by a coalition of groups protesting yuuuge irregularities in the voting process, including thousands mysteriously purged from voter rolls, polling places that didn’t open ’til noon, broken machines, reductions in number of polling places, and so on.
    Most of these issues occurred in Brooklyn (natch) where support for Sanders is strongest.
    The judge did not dismiss the suit, but held it over for a hearing soon.
    None of the corporate MSM have reported on the irregularities. (natch)
    Are we seeing a pattern here?
    Is the ‘fix’ so obviously in?

    • Bill Pilgrim April 20, 2016

      FYI: The Carter Center, and other neutral, reputable organizations that have monitored the fairness and freedom of elections in numerous counties around the world have consistently been refused permission to monitor elections in the US. In fact, no neutral group from outside the US, including from the U.N., has ever been able to do so.

  4. Harvey Reading April 20, 2016

    Re: ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

    The fine is ludicrous, I agree. However, it pales compares to what John Edwards proposed before his prezudenchul run ran out of steam. He proposed mandating that those with insurance must go to doctors whether they wanted to or not, for “preventative” care (you know where kaputalist doctors get to tell you something is “wrong” and then get busy prescribing unneeded drugs and unneeded surgery). He justified what he said with some blather to the effect of, if “we’re” gonna provide coverage, then “they” gotta use it. He never clarified who we and they were. Fortunately that scum bucket is history, now.

  5. Harvey Reading April 20, 2016

    “The comments come as talks between the two countries have been halted over a military-aid package, as Israel is demanding more money than the U.S. is willing to contribute.”

    A penny is more than I would be willing to contribute to the Zionist savages.

  6. Jim Updegraff April 20, 2016

    Bruce: received today my copy of ‘An American Genocide – The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe” by Benjamin Madley – 692 pages published this month by Yale university.lots of footnotes and reference sources. Has a section on the genocide in Mendocino County.I will follow up in a few days with the info about Mendo County once I get a chance to digest it all.

    Jim Updegraff

    • Bruce Anderson April 20, 2016

      Thanks for the heads-up on this one, Jim. I hadn’t heard of it.

    • LouisBedrock April 21, 2016

      Jim and Bruce A.,

      David E. Stannard’s book, AMERICAN HOLOCAUST, offers a before and after look at the destruction of the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas.

      He not only describes the cultures of the people who were destroyed, but offers a grim portrait of the European culture of the time that effected the genocides and ethnocides.

  7. Bruce McEwen April 20, 2016

    The Timmy cartoon — thank you, Dick Cheney — reminds me of my joke about the pittbull aesthetics we were discussing last week on this thread. I’ve been (perhaps overly)concerned that my joke fell flat. Lassie, it now appears, was an old-school delusion on my part, ( Do I need some patented eyewash to get the patina of nostalgia out of my personal world-view?…Anywho, I was wrong in my crude opinion that anyone who could take a pittbull at face-value, would, necessarily, feel complimented by being called a ugly pig. This cartoon, brings me up short, however: No I’ll readily change it to, my what a cute pup you are! Fair enough?

    • LouisBedrock April 21, 2016

      It was a response to your joke.
      You don’t have to be Dick Cheney to hate Lassie.

  8. Bruce McEwen April 20, 2016

    Reading Tuesday’s Clusterfuck Nation, turned up some evidence in Ukiah of those wildly sexual courses offered in our universities these days. I passed an abandoned pair of $170 jeans, on the sidewalk, downtown, 10:00 a.m.; and within a block the shrubbery along State Street sidewalks, festooned with dog-turds, and decorated with lacy braziers and crotch-less panties, presented such a typical manifestation of JHK’s outrageous prophesies, which become more real and prevalent every day, don’t they?

  9. david ellison April 20, 2016

    Yep Mr Editor the D-Backs uniforms suck, but they took the first 2 games of the series.

    No I’m not an Arizona fan. I was raised in Cloverdale and watched
    the Seals at the old Seals Stadium before Candelstick was a gleam in Horace Stonnam’s eye. ( spelling? )

    Goin to my 50th Cloverdale reunion ( class of 66′ ) in June.

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