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Mendocino County Today: Saturday, May 14, 2016

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POPULAR logger and Boonville football coach, Dan Kuny, has been moved from ICU to a private room at the Modesto hospital where he's recovering from a nearly fatal logging accident earlier this week. Lisa Kuny says her father "is in a lot of pain," but good spirits. The Kuny family is trying to get their patriarch moved into a hospital in Mendocino County.

KunyPractice

Kuny, 61, was nearly killed early Tuesday morning when a tree fell on him as he worked in a forest near Jackson in the Sierra foothills. Kuny's workmate, a young man so far identified only as Jeff, is credited by the badly injured Kuny with saving his life. It was Jeff who found the almost fatally injured Kuny, and it was Jeff, reinforced by men working nearby, who cut Kuny free from the tree crushing him. A helicopter medical team carried the downed logger to the Doctor's Medical Center, Modesto, where he has already undergone surgery on a crushed ankle. According to his close friend, Tony Pardini, Kuny was "awake and laughing this morning that he's happy to be alive." The irrepressible Kuny suffered at least two cracked vertebrae, a broken collarbone, a separated shoulder, four broken ribs, and broken fingers. Brittany Kuny, the logger's daughter, said Wednesday that her dad was alert and talking although suffering considerable pain. "I hold the phone up to his ear so he can talk to people close to him." Ms. Kuny said that doctors told her her father's muscular frame "saved his internal organs from being crushed." Kuny is a famously fit man committed to weight training much of his adult life.

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THE WINE INDUSTRY'S Northcoast representative and Demo super-delegate, Congressman Jared Huffman, has received so much flak from constituents feeling The Bern for his pre-election endorsement of Hillary, now says, "Initially when I endorsed Hillary Clinton I spoke a little more definitively about my superdelegate vote than I should have." The Huff said he will now support the candidate who wins the most delegates.

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LOW SALMON YIELD Means Most Boats Sticking with Crab

by Kurtis Alexander

Irby Elliston netted 16 salmon off the coast of Point Reyes last weekend, an outing he deemed successful after he did some "quality control in the frying pan."

But the 60-year-old angler was one of only a few who set out for the opening of this year's commercial salmon season in the Bay Area. What is normally a celebrated affair, with boats dashing off the docks of San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf and returning with heaps of the culinary gem, has been marred by low fish counts and strict fishing restrictions meant to protect the fragile health of the California catch.

Consumers with a hunger for the pink-fleshed meat should, as a result, expect high prices as restaurants and grocery stores strive to get a piece of the action.

At Pier 45, just out of sight of the seafood shacks and tourist shops, many boaters say they don't have high hopes for salmon in coming months. Most fishermen have decided to stick with crab, since the season for Dungeness remains young, having been pushed back four months by a toxic algae bloom.

Even Elliston, who has looked forward to the salmon opener every year since his father started taking him fishing as a child, is keeping crab pots in the water, opting to play it safe.

"I'm going to try to do both," he said as he tied spoon lures and packed ice for salmon fishing aboard his 63-foot boat, Phantom. "There's good salmon real close to where my crab gear is. I can go out, anchor up, and move back and forth. I'm optimistic."

While Elliston and others have reported decent fishing between Point Arena (Mendocino County) and Pigeon Point (San Mateo County) since the area's May 6 opening, California's $1.4 billion salmon industry isn't seeing its best days. Not even close.

Reduced salmon fleet

Just a few decades ago, more than 1,000 boats would be trolling for Chinook, or king, salmon this time of year, making the lush, nutrient-rich fish a staple in California kitchens and on backyard barbecues. Now, only 100 or so boats make up the commercial fleet.

Federal fishery regulators have estimated that about 300,000 adult Chinook from the Sacramento River's fall run are at sea now, about half of what was projected during the past few years. The fall-run Chinook - which like other salmon are born in freshwater and migrate to the sea - are the core of the state's commercial salmon catch.

In addition, roughly 142,000 adult Chinook from the Klamath River are estimated offshore, a similarly low number.

Last month, the Pacific Fishery Management Council elected to restrict the time and locations for salmon fishing - by as much as half along the California coast compared with last year - because of the grim fall-run counts as well as problems with the winter salmon run in the Sacramento River.

The winter-run Chinook is in even more dire shape than its fall-run counterpart, and has been designated as endangered. Because the two commonly cross paths, California waters are closed to salmon fishing in July, when the overlap is greatest.

In the Bay Area, the commercial salmon season will run in fits and starts this year, with fishing allowed the remainder of May, 2½ weeks in June, most of August, all of September and a few days in October in limited spots.

Dams, pollution, drought

Salmon numbers have declined historically because of the damming of rivers and agricultural pollution, with the conditions made worse by streams dried up by drought as well as warming ocean water and its ripple-down effect on food supplies.

With fewer boats taking to the waters this year and the fishing prospects anything but certain, consumers can expect to face hefty price tags. In markets along Monterey Bay, where the commercial season kicked off May 1, the popular fish is selling for nearly $25 a pound. At some retailers in San Francisco, it's going for $30 and more.

"I'm cutting it up right now," said Gabe Hernandez, who answered the phone at the meat counter of New Leaf Community Market in Santa Cruz. "It's nice and red, good marbling on the inside."

A handful of Bay Area groceries have received limited quantities of the California catch, though most has come from the Monterey area. Antonelli's Meat, Fish and Poultry in San Francisco's Laurel Heights was expecting to get fish caught just outside the Golden Gate as more boats on the bay returned from their maiden salmon trips.

"The local fish is very popular," said Dominic Antonelli, co-owner of the market. "It goes a lot faster because it's so fresh. It's caught right out here. There's no travel time involved."

Larry Collins, who runs the San Francisco Community Fishing Association at the wharf, said four salmon boats went out opening day and not many have followed.

The crab alternative

"It's a strange year with the crab season opening so late," he said. "Because there's still some pretty good crab in the water, folks are going to be doing that a bit longer."

The crabbing gear also serves as a deterrent to salmon fishing, as the pots can get in the way of trolling boats.

South of Mendocino County, commercial fishermen were allowed to begin trapping Dungeness crab March 26, compared with their normal start in November. The season is scheduled to end June 30.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife delayed crabbing this year because the crustacean was found to have high levels of domoic acid, a potentially deadly neurotoxin produced by an algae bloom that flourished in last year's unusually warm ocean water. The toxin didn't affect the health of the crab, but posed a risk for those who eat it.

Although many crab fishermen say their catch has been good the past month, the delay in the season meant missing the lucrative holiday period - a loss from which they can't fully recover.

Mike Mitchell, 68, who's been chasing crab, acknowledged that things weren't the same on the docks of San Francisco this year.

"The world is upside down," he said. "Guys who fish for salmon are fishing for crab. Guys who fish for crab are fishing for salmon. It's all screwed up."

(Courtesy, the San Francisco Chronicle)

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PULLING THE PLUG

In about four years in California, the dial tone and ring of a landline telephone could be as rare as the call of the dodo. The corporations formerly called, quaintly, “the telephone company,” are getting out of the telephone business. This is happening across the country. Thirteen states in the past three years have said telcos can use alternative technology, like wireless and broadband Internet, to provide basic service. California could be next, as Assembly Bill 2395 moves through the Legislature. In addition to providing reliable high-quality voice communications, copper wire phone lines also connect retail credit card readers, home alarm systems, medical monitors, fax machines and other devices. Cell phones can’t accept collect calls or even call an operator. Emergency 911 calls on wired-in phones go direct to dispatchers in our own county, while cell phones are routed to operators in Vallejo who don’t know Fish Rock Road in Gualala from Fish Rock, a street on The Sea Ranch. Legislators and corporate executives who work in an urban sea of wi-fi and cell phone coverage may think the copper-wire landline is obsolete. However, those of us in thinly-settled rural areas who don’t have urban access to broadband or reliable cell coverage will be left out of the telephone loop when our phones are disconnected and that dial tone goes silent.

—J. Stephen McLaughlin

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SHIRLEY FERIKS WRITES:

Heads up Mendocino folks ­ Our rural area could lose its landline service in only four years with no alternative high speed internet or cell service yet in sight for many residences in Mendocino County, especially the coast. We need to go viral really fast so please sign the petition (website below) and spread this word to your contacts. Corporate-backed AB 2395 (Low, D-Silicon Valley) would give AT&T the go-ahead to abandon the landline-based phone networks customers depend on and pick and choose which customers it serves - and which are cut off. California consumers, especially vulnerable seniors, and rural and low-income communities, may be left without reliable 911 service or even the most minimal protections, or means of communication. Remember when phone companies took the pay phones out about 10 years ago? They said they were not necessary because everyone had a cell phone. Our area did not even have a cell tower! Now they want to abandon the copper based landlines many households depend upon because cell phone reception is still lacking in most of our area. Important to know: Even if you have satellite service, it is not considered reliable or affordable broadband/high speed Internet, nor is it a substitute for mobile phones or useful to get to 911 in an emergency.

Skype says its software is not a replacement for your ordinary mobile or fixed line telephone and does not allow you to make emergency calls to emergency services so calling from the computer is not possible. FCC says: In the future, text-to-911 will be widely available in the United States. However, text-to-911 is currently only available in certain markets where 911 call centers, also known as Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs), have elected to accept emergency text messages from the public. For this reason, unless you have confirmed that the PSAP in your area supports text-to-911, you should not rely on text to reach 911. Clearly we are not in one of those areas and we need landlines until we have a proven alternative in every household. Please send a message asap/by may 15 to stress that the bill needs to include the provision that landlines cannot be taken out of any residence until there is proof of reliable alternative communication methods with similar location accuracy, functionality during power outages and NO coverage gaps. AT&T refuses to serve our area any further with either Internet or cell coverage and yet they want to discontinue our landline service so we have no 911 service. Voice your concern here on the TURN/The Utility Reform Network website -

http://org.salsalabs.com/o/746/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=19537

Those in favor of this bill now in the CA Assembly Appropriations Committee have not a clue about the needs of rural areas so we need to educate them quickly before the big vote on May 16. Thank you for doing your best to tell them you, as a member of the public that would suffer because of it, OPPOSE it.

Shirley Freriks, Mendocino Coast Broadband Alliance

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GRACE LIU MEMORIAL: Saturday, June 4, 10AM, at the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas. There will be a movie of her life. Catered by the restaurant on site.

RSVP please: Steve Liu: 520/878-8116.

Thanks.

Linda Breckenridge, Willits

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HealthCare

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NO ON MEASURE V

To the Editor:

An article titled “Campaign statements: MRC spent nearly $197,000 to oppose dead trees ballot measure” by Adam Randall, was published in the Ukiah Daily Journal on May 7, 2016. Mendocino Redwood Company found a number of comments that would benefit from additional correction, clarification or commentary.

Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC) was created in 1998 from lands purchased in Mendocino and Sonoma county with the publicly declared mission to be good stewards of the forest and at the same time run a successful business. We have made significant progress in that regard:

Adopting policies to make MRCs forestlands FSC certified (since November 2000);

Adding more than 1 billion board feet of redwood and Douglas fir trees by lowering the rate of harvest;

Defining of old growth down to the level of an individual tree, along with implementation of a policy to protect all individual old growth trees across our property;

Elimination of traditional clear cutting from our property;

Long term investments to improve habitat for fish across the property by controlling or holding back more than 1 million cubic yards of sediment (more than 100,000 dump trucks of dirt) from the coastal streams flowing through our forest;

Removal of more than 36 long time fish barriers, increasing fish bearing streams by more than 20 miles.

Operating as an open and transparent business; including an open invitation to take interested individuals anywhere in the forest;

Completing a substantial rebuild of our Ukiah sawmill, assuring that Mendocino County will have infrastructure in the processing of wood products for many years to come; and

Employing about 300 skilled employees in Mendocino County earning family-level wages and benefits.

Out of an abundance of caution, MRC has reported what we have spent on a campaign against Measure V and what we expect to spend to comply with very complicated campaign laws. The amount spent on the campaign is a reflection of how important MRC feels it is to talk with people about our Forest Stewardship Council-certified forest management, long term commitment to forest restoration and providing more than 300 family wage jobs to local residents.

Campaigns of this type have strict public reporting requirements. To date, we have spent more than $50,000 to publish letters, send mail, provide information to the public and hire experts. To inform voters and interested parties about Measure V, we expect to spend and properly report more than $150,000 between now and June 7.

A complaint was filed against MRC earlier this year with the State Fair Political Practices Commission. After a thorough review, the Commission determined we had properly followed the law. You can find the State’s ruling here:

www.hrcllc.com/wpcontent/uploads/2016/04/Fair_political_practices_letter_2016.pdf.

MRC was created in 1998 from lands purchased in Mendocino and Sonoma Counties with the publicly declared mission to be good stewards of the forest and at the same time run a successful business. This set a different, sustainable and better path from the legacy of previous owners. This legacy includes tens of thousands of acres of redwood and Douglas fir forest that are now dominated by tanoak. MRC is committed to restoring these forestlands to the natural balance of conifer and hardwood.

Treating tan oak encourages the emergence of a healthier forest by restoring the health of redwood and Douglas fir trees.

Since the inception of MRC, approximately 69,000 acres have been restored to a natural conifer balance by controlling tanoak and planting 10.1 million redwood and Douglas fir seedlings.

The treatment of tanoak to restore the natural balance of conifer to hardwood is a tool used for at least 25 years. Small private landowners, industrial landowners, and state landowners all use this tool to achieve this goal in a careful and controlled manner according to state regulations.

MRC has reviewed its internal policies to encourage fire safety. These include procedures and processes we have used for more than a decade, such as:

Partnering with communities to place dedicated fire-water tanks, improve egress for remote neighbors and coordination of activities with local fire districts.

Working in Sacramento to encourage investment in Mendocino county infrastructure through the return of taxes paid locally and deployment of CalFire resources.

Donations of time, equipment and money to Volunteer Fire Departments.

MRC strengthened its practices to improve coordinating with local fire districts, fire experts, climate experts and CalFire on pilot projects for fuels hazard reduction and additional road access in the remote parts of the County.

The restoration of the forest can occur while providing safety to firefighters and adjacent landowners. There are many examples of wildland fires where firefighters successfully and safely controlled fires in and adjacent to areas where tanoak had been treated. A few examples include the 2008 Mendocino Lightning Complex fires, the Comptche Fire, and the Lodge Fire. In some instances, the fires were controlled in tanoak treatment areas.

Tanoak treatment and selective management of MRC forestlands is a more expensive style of forest management when compared to even-aged management or clearcutting. Even-age management would remove all the standing tanoak and conifer but MRC policies since its inception in 1998 eliminated clearcutting.

The use of herbicides is regulated by the Mendocino County Agricultural Commission and the Regional Water Quality Control Board. Additionally, MRC voluntarily subjects itself to third part verification of forest practices under the guidelines of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and has done so since 2000.

The US Forest Service has conducted research on the presence of herbicides in smoke when treated areas of the forest burn. The research included five different herbicides including Imazapyr. The research concluded no herbicide residues are found in smoke when treated areas of the forest burn. For more details on this research see the actual document on MRC’s website at:

http://www.hrcllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/imapazyrandfire.pdf.

MRC is regulated by seven (7) state and federal agencies, including CalFire. Additionally, MRC voluntarily subjects itself to third part verification of forest practices under the guidelines of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and has done so since 2000. We publish our inventory and many other details of our forest management on our website. It is straightforward to find information on our management of the forest.

From our inception we have encouraged transparency and we have a publicly stated policy of taking anyone to anywhere on the property at any time to see our practices first hand. Please contact John Andersen at 707-272-1177 to arrange for a tour. Additionally, we post our inventory and other forest facts on our website. You can find more information at www.mrc.com.

John Anderson, Director, Forest Policy
Mendocino Redwood Company, LLC, Humboldt Redwood Company, LLC

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NEW HOPE AT MAC

Editor,

There’s new hope at the Mendocino Art Center. For the first time in years, adult supervision has arrived. With new board members Debra Lennox, Janis Porter and Donna Worster. All of whom seem genuinely concerned about restoring MAC to its once vibrant state. Childish board members John Cornacchia, Patrick “Rick” Keller and Dale Moyer are — as usual — oblivious to public concern. Whenever a member of the public spoke out at last week’s board meeting, Spanky and Our Gang jumped down their throats. You can see it on the video. Kudos to Derek Hoyle and Channel D Productions for recording that meeting.

Scott M. Peterson
Mendocino
PS: You can see more nonprofit nonsense at my weakly video comic strip, Mendopia.

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HOW TO DO MCN

When someone makes an announcement that infuriates you, and you want to tell them to knock it off-- sending your reply to the entire list, complaining of people using up the world's bandwidth, just takes your angst and sprays it into the email of everyone on the listserv, and then they do the same thing you just did, and soon there's watery blood everywhere, trickling into the storm drains.

Instead, if this applies to you, why not try the following:

In your email program create separate folders for the listservs you subscribe to, so email whose subject lines contain Announce, or Discussion, or whatever, automatically go there, so your inbox only ever gets important email to you, and then when it's convenient you can look in the other folders and there's all that to play with. This way makes a clunky old-fashioned listserv into the functional equivalent of a decent web forum -- and you have the power to do this all by yourself in less than a minute. It's your computer. If you don't want to hear about Bernard and Hillaroo and Drumpf and so on, add their names to a filter that just rejects any email containing them. Also, if a writer bugs you by offending your sense of netiquette, add his or her name to the same go-away filter. Presto, instant entitled comfort bubble, even on dialup.

PS. Speaking of blood in the water, I just got this, about the Art Center meeting:

http://mendocinotv.com/2016/05/13/mac-board-meeting-something-rotten-in-mendo/

Marco McClean
memo@mcn.org
http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

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SLEEPING BEAUTY

On Thursday, May 12, 2016 at 6:42 AM, Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to a situation of illegal camping at the intersection of Poppy Drive and Bear Drive in Brooktrails. Upon arrival, the Deputies found a male and a female in a tent illegally camping at the location. A Jeep Cherokee with Utah plates was parked nearby with a 28 year-old male sleeping inside. While contacting the man sleeping in the car, the Deputies detected the odor of marijuana coming from inside the vehicle. The subject initially provided a false name but was subsequently identified as being Jonathon Wayne Fitzpatrick, 28, of Lake Elsinore, Ca.

Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick

Fitzpatrick was found to be wanted on a felony arrest warrant out of Los Angeles. A search of the car resulted in the discovery of approximately one pound of psylocibin mushrooms, a digital scale and a small quantity of marijuana. Fitzpatrick was arrested on the felony arrest warrant, possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance for sale and for obstructing or resisting an officer in the performance of his duties. Fitzpatrick was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held on a no bail status.

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HE PROBABLY HAD IT COMING, BUT STILL…

Staser
Staser

ON THURSDAY, May 12, 2016 at approximately 8:30 AM, Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to a domestic disturbance in the 76000 block of Hwy 162 in Covelo. Deputies learned a 32 year-old male and his 32 year-old female cohabitant, Taleasha Marieann Staser, had engaged in an argument over relationship issues. As the argument grew more heated, the 32 year-old male decided to leave the residence the couple shared. As he bent down to gather the personal belongings he wanted to take with him, Staser kicked him twice in the face. The 32 year-old male had a visible injury to his face but declined medical treatment. Staser was later located in Ukiah by a Ukiah Police Department Officer and arrested for felony domestic violence battery in connection with the incident. Staser was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where she was to be held in lieu of $25,000 bail.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, May 13, 2016

Barber, Evans, Fagin
Barber, Evans, Fagin

ZACHARIAH BARBER, Ukiah. Mandatory supervision sentencing.

WILLIAM EVANS, Fort Bragg. Drunk in public, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

DUSTIN FAGIN, Willits. Under influence, resisting.

Fitzpatrick, Gonzales, Hanes
Fitzpatrick, Gonzales, Hanes

JONATHAN FITZPATRICK*, Lake Elsinore/Ukiah. Meth possession for sale, pot possession for sale, controlled substance, resisting.

MIGUEL GONZALES, La Quinta/Ukiah. Meth for sale, controlled substance, under influence, suspended license.

TYLER HANES, Hopland. Battery.

Holloway, Holway, Mejia
Holloway, Holway, Mejia

JOHN HOLLOWAY, Fort Bragg. Drunk in public.

JAMES HOLWAY, Potter Valley. DUI.

VICKIE MEJIA, Fort Bragg. Battery on peace officer, resisting, failure to appear, probation revocation.

Miller, Moore, Rodriguez, Russaw
Miller, Moore, Rodriguez, Russaw

SHANE MILLER JR., Ukiah. Suspended license, resisting, probation revocation.

DANNY MOORE, Ukiah. Battery, probation revocation.

MONICA RODRIGUEZ, Ukiah. Controlled substance, smoking-injecting device, probation revocation.

JONATHAN RUSSAW, San Bernadino/Ukiah. Pot possession for sale.

Saldivar, Walsh, Webb
Saldivar, Walsh, Webb

JOHN SALDIVAR, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

ASHLEE WALSH, Fort Bragg. DUI-drugs, controlled substance, controlled substance without prescription, child endangerment.

TERRY WEBB JR., Protective order violation, probation revocation.

*Backpfeifengesicht

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I also disagree with this definition of the “Deep State”. There is nothing sinister afoot. There is no secretive group of state, police, or intelligence people secretly guarding the wheelhouse and keeping this ship on an even keel. What we are seeing in the US is what James Bovard has been talking about for ages. The beast, the Leviathan. It’s the living, devouring, expanding, replicating bureaucracy of our centralized government. It’s the symbiotic relationship that not only keeps the wealthy and powerful wealthy and powerful, but the middle-class and working middle-class and working. Too many wheels getting greased, too many hands getting the dole. Its pervasiveness is correlated with its ability to bring more on board. The military dependents need the military, as a stepping stone for miscreants and poor students as a contract awarder for fabrication and tech industry, as a research funder for educational institutions. It infects all layers. Society has been built on it, replaced by it. There is nothing nefarious about it, it only does what it needs to survive, and for it to survive it needs to infect more and more. Life here on earth is built on the fight for survival. The colony is the creature, the swarm is the creature, the bureaucracy is the creature.

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JACKSON DEMONSTRATION STATE FOREST CAMPGROUND AND SEASONAL ROAD OPENING

Fort Bragg– California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) Mendocino Unit will open the campgrounds and seasonal roads within the Jackson Demonstration State Forest (JDSF) on Friday, May 13th for the dry period. Campers are reminded that camping is only allowed within designated camping areas and a fee is required. The camping fee is $15 per night with a single vehicle. Each additional vehicle up to a maximum of two vehicles per site is an additional $5. Motorists are advised that it is always unlawful to operate unlicensed vehicles (including off-road vehicles with or without green stickers) on State Forest roads. Off-road travel with motorized vehicles is not permitted on the State Forest. Please do not drive on roads that are wet and have soft surfaces, even if they are formally open. Other closed roads may still be used for hiking, bicycling and horseback riding if outside of an active timber operation area. Each year, seasonal openings/closures occur, please refer to our website or contact our office for current information.

Website: http://calfire.ca.gov/resource_mgt/resource_mgt_stateforests_jackson.php.

The CAL FIRE JDSF office is located at 802 North Main Street, Fort Bragg, CA. (707) 964-5674. Office hours are Monday-Friday 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. (closed from 12-1:00 p.m.).

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PG&E WILL BE CONDUCTING LOW-LEVEL HELICOPTER PATROLS to inspect electric distribution lines for maintenance in rural and remote areas in Mendocino County. The aerial patrol is scheduled (weather permitting) from roughly 8am to 5pm on Monday, May 23, 2016. Areas to be patrolled include: Little River/Albion, Ukiah/Talmage/Calpella, and Yorkville. In addition, we are performing upgrades to and extending the height of some of our electric transmission towers in the rural area near Ukiah/Talmage. Crews will use a helicopter to transport equipment and the new tops of the towers to the existing towers where they will be installed. Helicopters are scheduled to be used June 2nd-5th. Power will be re-routed to ensure customers remain in service during this important work. As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Leslie G. Horak
PG&E Public Affairs
111 Stony Circle
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
O: 707-577-7206 M: 707-331-2998

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GET THE FLOCK IN HERE!

FlockWorks Show at Oddfellows Hall

The 4th Annual Art of Letter, Word & Book exhibit is up and running (until May 30) at Odd Fellows hall, corner of Ukiah and Kasten Streets in Mendocino. Please stop by any day between 9:30 and 5 p.m. to browse the galleries. The Writers Conference “Word Journeys” installation upstairs invites your input! Please pick a card, a prompt, and some map words. Scribe your imaginary flights of mind and add to the display. Young writers: Broadside poems from Redwood Elementary Second Grade students and beautiful handmade books from Anderson Valley / Point Arena schools offer delight and inspiration. Both projects were sponsored in part by GASP / the Arts Council of Mendocino County along with the Community Foundation, Mendocino County Office of Education and the Hudson Family Trust. You’re invited to a special event on Saturday May 21, 3:30 - 5:00 p.m. This is the Noyo River Review launch party and offers an all-ages Open Mic. Sign-ups start at 3. The Noyo River Review is an annual publication of the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference featuring prizewinning prose and poetry. We’ll pour fizzy water (or any other libation you care to donate) and offer light refreshments (please bring these early, before 3 p.m.) Allow time to browse the galleries. Karen Lewis will be on site starting at 2 in order to set up. Odd Fellows is open daily 9:30 - 5 p.m. Writers: this is a family-friendly venue and PG. discretion is advised. Free & Open to the Community! A flyer is attached to share with your networks. Please invite friends, family, and students. Questions? Contact Karen Lewis, (707) 357-0592 or news@mcwc.org.

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F13Day

(Courtesy, MendocinoSportsPlus)

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HELL NO WE'RE NOT BROKE. WHY WOULD YOU THINK WE ARE?

May 18, 2016 Board of Retirement Meeting Agenda.

Please use the following link to access the May 18, 2016 Board of Retirement meeting agenda and supporting documents:

http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/retirement/meetings.htm

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MissLiberty

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RELIGIOUS PREFERENCES AT ALL-TIME LOW IN US

Dear Editor:

The role of the Evangelical vote in elections has been important. However, as the US continues the trend towards becoming more secular it probably will affect the weight of the Evangelical vote. In assessing the role of religion I find the Pew Research Center on Religion and the General Social Survey (GSS) provides the best information.

For this letter I will be using the reports of GSS which has been gathering data on various social issues including religion since 1972. The last study on religion was in 2014 with findings released in 2015. I would assume the trends displayed in that report continue to the present. The figures show that there has been a steady decease since 1990 in a preference for no religion up to 21% in 2014 from 8% in 1990. Praying and attending religious services are also less frequent than they were 20 years ago. Most demographic groups are less religious. Women are generally more religious than men with 18% of women compared to 25% of men with no religious preference. Among 18-24 year olds, 33% prefer no religion compared to people 75 years or older where it was only 5% who had no preference. Education has a difference with “no preference” increasing from 15% for high school dropouts to 23% for those with some college.

As would be expected the South is the most religious part of the country with 15% having no religious preference while the Pacific Coast region was the highest “no preference” region at 30%. What I have discussed is only a very small part of the report but it supports the overall findings that the country is becoming more secular.

As a sidebar, the answers depend on the way the question is asked. A few years a Pew Research Center on Religion in a survey asked "Do you believe in a God?” A very high percentage in the 90s answered “yes.” Then the survey asked, “Do you believe there is a God?” A very high percentage in the the 90s answered yes. Then they were asked, “Do you believe in a personal God (who hears and answers your prayers)?” And there was a very significant drop in the percentage who believed in a personal God.

In peace and love,

Jim Updegraff

Sacramento

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CATCHING UP WITH CRAIG

When Does the Ritualistic Spiritual Mojo Kick In?

As I sit here calmly at a computer at the University of Florida science library, I wonder: "When are we collectively going to ritualistically respond to this postmodern, insane, global socio-fuck up?" My present guest stay at Gainesville's Zen Hostel is until May 23rd. I am chanting the Navarna mantram to invoke the warrior goddess Kali, for the purpose of being more effective in terms of radical environmental intervention. Otherwise, I've been enjoying riding around on buses seeing a bit of the region, eating well by getting supplies at a health food store located next to an essentially anarchist infoshop (a five minute walk from the hostel), and reading the New York Times daily to remain informed about the craziness of the U.S. presidential primaries. But on May 23rd, I am ready to go forth. The Earth First! annual gathering begins in Michigan on June 29th. The political conventions are in Cleveland and Philadelphia in late July. As the point of no return has now been passed in terms of carbon ppm atmospherically, and Mother Earth becomes a toxic garbage dump, while species continue to be in decline, and the people of the earth now live in a situation that is beyond the carrying capacity of the planet, I ask you: "What would you like to do?" I am mobile. We could form a spiritually based, diverse, direct action affinity group. We may bring in the spiritual mojo to intervene in history. We might be amazing.

Craig Louis Stehr
Gainesville, Florida
EMAIL: CraigStehr@inbox.com

10 Comments

  1. Lazarus May 14, 2016

    That telephone (land line) story is very disturbing…
    As always,
    Laz

  2. Bill Pilgrim May 14, 2016

    RE: Pulling The Plug. The utility customer advocacy group TURN (Toward Utility Rate Normalization) has a vigorous ongoing campaign to defeat AB 2395. Contact them if you wish to join the fight.
    http://www.turn.org

    • Lazarus May 14, 2016

      Thank you,
      Laz

  3. Mike May 14, 2016

    Are our armchairs coated tar pits?

    That’s how I feel when reading Craig’s dispatches and attempts to mobilize in a manner sorta reminiscent of the iconoclastic, lay Siddhas of medieval India trying to liberate others from the trance of the conventional (and sleep walking) order. He’s not glued to an armchair.

    Kali vs Biff Tannen. That might get a few folks to fight the tarry glue and rise up.

    • Mike May 14, 2016

      A key excerpt from article:

      “Dr Etheridge said that while a reduction in emissions could slow the increase of temperatures, it would likely take many years of net-negative emissions – effectively removing the gas from the atmosphere – to push CO2 levels back below 400 ppm.
      “It would take a lot of emissions reductions – and probably negative emissions for some period, decades – before we see CO2 reduce in concentration,” he said.
      Research to be published soon by CSIRO has shown the ocean would act against any drop in atmospheric CO2.
      The seas would likely give back some of the extra CO2 it has absorbed – as it did during the “Little Ice Age” during the middle ages – delaying any drop in levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, he said.
      Dr Fraser, who helped set up the Tasmanian site in the 1970s, said CO2 levels were rising fast, at about 3 ppm a year. The precise timing of the 400-ppm mark at Cape Grim would probably take some time to confirm.
      “On the day it happens, we won’t recognise it,” he said. “It will take a few weeks to verify.” End quote.

      ~~~~

      I wonder if this type of news will lead to a shift in a focusing on adaptation rather than “saving” us from what is now significant climate change underway?

  4. Rick Weddle May 14, 2016

    re: number of medical-induced bankruptcies…

    Let’s repeat those numbers: Six Hundred Forty Three Thousand PER YEAR medical bankruptcies here in the good ol’ U.S….while in one year there are zero (0) medical bankruptcies in all of England, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Japan, Switzerland. Let that simmer.

    Let’s also hear this again: The FREE (and Higher Quality) medical care enjoyed everywhere else among our neighbor nations would cost us less than HALF of what we’re shoveling out to this disfunctional lot (and to the insurance bandits, and the litigation bandits, and the govt. bandits who we keep choosing and swearing in and paying to protect us from all this and who don’t, and haven’t for some time)…

    It seems to me even the American Public is able and willing to add two and two together and come up with something like getting out in the street in crowds, sober, determined and concerted, calculators blazing, and deliberately bring this Terrorists’ Rodeo to a halt.

    Playing one crisis off against another isn’t funny. There are so very many, more than enough from which to choose.

    Priority would be assigned, I believe, to getting one’s Health Care Professionals’ (and one’s Defense Menials’) undivided attention and ready compliance.

    Don’t ya think? As a kind of First Response Triage kind of deal?

    One ‘Executive Order’ could get us a long way there…The Pentagon would salute smartly, do a crisp about-face and dump it’s budget allowances into immediate (Emergency) implementation, and conversion of existing infrastructure, and realignment of Domestic and Foreign Mission Paradigms.

    Presto!: A functional grasp on their governments by Humans, and a Provident Defense. We’d need that, of course, just for starters…

  5. Whyte Owen May 14, 2016

    On the Lolita Express.

    On bankruptcies from medical costs, while we certainly have an absurd and corrupt system, the data on the number of bankruptcies here v abroad are not so simple.

  6. Jim Updegraff May 14, 2016

    We will be hitting 450 ppm no latter than 2050 and then all bets are off plus considering what is going on with the Rink and Jakobshavn glaciers we are looking at the prospect of an increase in sea level of at least 20 feet and perhaps more when you factor in the Arctic Antarctic oceans.

  7. Zappa Montag August 28, 2019

    Another case where it appears that a person who was arrested for Mushrooms (Jonathan Fitzpatrick is smeared with a Meth charge in your newsletter. Why does this happen?

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