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Mendocino County Today: Monday, Sept. 12, 2016

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FRANK WYANT, a prominent member of the Anderson Valley community for many years, has died. Our condolences to the Wyant family. An obituary is being prepared.

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FOR ALL ITS VIRTUES, I can't say I look to the ICO for irony, let alone major yuks. But last week's edition of the South Coast weekly had me in stitches. Well, had me chuckling anyway.

IN A STORY by Chris McManus called "Historic PA meeting doesn't change rocky history of Mendocino's public radio,” the title of which read like a transmission falling out onto the pavement, we learn that KZYX's board of directors held a meeting in PA, the first time that illustrious body has done so. (Quick! Get out the brass. We need a plaque here.)

MS. McMANUS writes that station trustee, Jane Futcher “…reportedly said she felt underutilized and detached as a board member, that board members need jobs to do and that the station needs a strategic plan.”

THE HILARITY soon commenced with Meg Courtney’s comment in response, “There’s a plan to have a strategic plan.”

A SURE SIGN that incompetents are driving the bus is sloppy language. A plan is a plan, and a plan is a strategy and, look! we’re back at plan again. This group not only doesn’t have a plan, it doesn’t have a clue. The station is broke and even loyal boosters are fed up with the perpetual bungling.

THE STORY was amusing throughout for Ms. McManus’s accurate rendering of a group of people who are clearly inadequate to the task of public radio.

* * *

A COUPLE OF LOCAL KIDS are flying Confederate flags on their pick-up trucks.

ConfederateTruck

I know one of them, met the other Sunday afternoon for an over-the-counter exchange of views with both of them at Anderson Valley Market. They’re smart and articulate, but their information is upside down, so to speak. I suspect they’ve been inspired by Klan websites. There’s lots of them and, like Fox News, they can be seductive, especially to the young and the haphazardly lettered. Most of us, I think, agree that as an historical fact, the Confederate flag stands for slavery and treason. I doubt if the kids brandishing the symbol of slavery are for slavery or treason — they said they weren’t — but flying that flag as if it stands for something else, something grand, is wrongheaded, dangerously wrongheaded. I talked more than they did, but they made the usual case you see on these “Aryan” websites, that the Confederate flag was the work of “Christians,” that it has something to do with “heritage,” that it wasn’t a symbol of racism. They said they were exercising their right of free speech, which they are, but as free speechers for much better causes have discovered, free speech can be expensive.

* * *

101 HORTENSE, the Westside Ukiah address housing a good portion of the Mendocino College football team, has calmed considerably. Neighbors were upset at late night noise, poor housekeeping and the usual array of young guy behavior. The nabes complained, the landlord denounced the nabes as racists, the president of the college distanced himself from the controversy, and a good time was had by all. What's the situation at 101 today? According to the always hyper-vigilant Tommy Wayne Kramer:

"Walked past the house today and obvious signs of habitation — cars in front and back, etc. Neighbor told me they hadn’t left after all and were keeping a low, quiet profile. All we ask of the high-spirited youngsters is that they act just like their neighbors: old, retired fuddy-duddies who mow their lawns three times a week, check the flowers daily for aphids, buy Metamucil by the crate, listen to NPR, watch Seinfeld reruns and go to bed at 8:30."

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MENDO’S ASSESSOR/CLERK-RECORDER Susan Ranochak, rightly under fire for obstructing volunteer count-the-vote watchers, is scheduled Tuesday to “provide an update to the Board of Supervisors regarding the County’s elections processes and the recent election results.” The Board’s agenda packet offers no details on the presentation, but given the timing and the background we assume the Board will ask Ms. Ranochak about the problems and delays in the recent elections, including those described in Carole Brodsky’s excellent (and disturbing) “Primary Concerns” article last week.

* * *

THE PLANNING DEPARTMENT will propose a change to commercial zoning to address emergency shelters and “transitional housing” — “provided that the site is located in a water and sewer district, and located more than 300 feet from industrial uses.” We’d like to think that this is in advance of the possible site acquisition in the event that Sheriff Allman’s mental health facilities initiative passes, but that may be giving them too much planning credit. “Transitional housing would be covered by allowing it the same rights as other residential units in similar zonings. With respect to emergency shelters, they have been included historically as a ‘typical use’ within the Group Care Civic Use Type.”

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THE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES AGENCY will give an update “regarding the Status of Adult Mental Health Services Transition and Related Activities.” Translation: Re-privatization of mental health from a Yuba City hustler to a Ukiah-based business. The donuts and meeting people who pass their days coordinating and interfacing, are moving this rolling disaster to a presumably less disastrous denoument. According to the status report one of the items that was recently completed was “Letter and email sent to Ortner Management Group detailing documents outstanding and/or due.” Wow! Get back! Imagine the long hours and work hours that went into this one!

Tom Ortner
Tom Ortner

But there’s no identification of what those documents are or when they’ll be provided. We know that Ortner, the Yuba City hustler, still owes the County a final bill, but the dragging out of the process is not particularly encouraging. It’s likely that Ortner will hit the County with a very large bill for dubious services rendered as he walks out Mendo’s door.

Then the State Audit will reject a significant percentage of those bills leaving the County holding the bag. The fact that it’s taking so long, that Ortner seemed so “cooperative” about being dumped as a service provider, and the lack of interest by County management in this aspect of the Ortner contract cancellation leaves the County open to some big surprises before Ortner really goes away.

Supposedly the Mental Health staff has prepared a “Draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Outline for interface with the County jail.” But it’s only an “outline,” not even a draft of the actual MOU.

(If these people had been involved in planning D-Day, World War Two would still be a stalemate.)

The MOU with the public defender’s office is even worse: “In process of scheduling.”

And Redwood Quality Management’s (Ortner’s Ukiah-based successors) relationship with the County Courts system hasn’t even progressed past a meeting: “RQMC met with Family Court and outlined a new system.”

MOUs with local hospitals and law enforcement are not past the meeting stage yet.

GIVEN THE BOARD’s stated interest in these agreements with outside agencies, it would be nice if the Board at least asked their crack staff to commit to completion dates for these long overdue agreements.

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CARE-A-VAN COMES TO BOOMSVILLE

The Mendocino County Animal Care Services CARE-A-VAN will be rolling into Boonville on Wednesday, September 28, at the Boonville Grange--9800 Hwy 128. Spay and neuter surgeries are by appointment only; please call 707-888-7698. Vaccinations are $10-13 each and do not need an appointment. Stop by the Care-a-Van for vaccines, heartworm testing, feline combo testing and microchipping 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

careavan

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MENDO MAN ARRESTED FOR RAPE AT RED ROOF INN

A little before 2 a.m. on Saturday, Arcata Police responded to a report of a rape at the Red Roof Inn. A woman reported that she had been assaulted by a Riley Gordon Kiesel age 32 from Mendocino County.

Keisel, in four prior booking photos
Keisel, in four prior booking photos

“They were acquaintances,” explained Sgt. Keith Altizer of the APD. “It wasn’t strangers.” The man, he said, allegedly assaulted the woman in a motel room at approximately 1:30 a.m. At this time, Altizer would not divulge how the woman managed to get out of the room and contact law enforcement. He said the incident was under investigation.

Kiesel was not allowed bail as he was on parole for Assault with a Deadly Weapon.

In a 2013 article by the Anderson Valley Advertiser, Kiesel was reported to have stabbed a man. According to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, “Before the stabbing, Kiesel had a record of local arrests going back to 2004, which include charges of carrying concealed weapons, drunk in public and marijuana-related offenses.”

Then in February 2013, Kiesel was arrested on multiple charges after fleeing Arcata Police.

In early 2015, Kiesel fled as the Mendocino Sheriff’s Office attempted to serve a felony arrest warrant from Humboldt County. A manhunt ensued. Eventually, he was arrested without incident.

Apparently, he was released.

(Courtesy, KymKemp.com)

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GREENWOOD CEMETERY, near Manchester

greenwoodcemetery

* * *

THE POWER OF GOOD EDITING

Dear Editor, I was catching up on my AVA reading when I came to the Major’s fine profile of Len Feinstein, “America’s Best Cutter.” One of my favorite PBS shows was the series “The Power of Myth.” The documentary was hosted by Bill Moyers and the exuberant storyteller was Joseph Campbell. It was a conversation that riveted my imagination and excited my mind.

It was so wonderful that I was shocked to learn from the article that it took film editor Len Feinstein to assemble the mess of still shots and film and sound because to me and my family it all seemed like a seamless masterpiece.

I’m glad Len talked with Anne Fashauer in Boonville or Philo. If you talk to the wrong person you might end up in Ukiah.

Ken Hurst

Philo

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VALLEY FIRE’S HEARTBREAKING TOLL

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/6041674-181/a-year-later-valley-fires

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JADE’S STORY

Dear Editor,

I arrived in my Fort Bragg home after a five mile walk, hopped in the shower, and had a word with my mother and began a relaxing doze on the couch. I'm not sure how long, but after a while there was a knock at my door. I got up and answered it finding two deputies on our porch.

"Hello, what can I do for you?"

"Well, we really didn't think you were here; we thought you were in jail from the last time we arrested you! We were looking for someone else, but where have you been and what were you just wearing?"

I said on my walk home I was wearing a black t-shirt before my shower. His response was, "Well, you have a white t-shirt on now and we have your neighbor who says a man approximately 30 years of age wearing a white t-shirt was just seen leaving his porch. Would I come with them and do a line-up?

I remember telling him this was unfair. I'm 11 years older (41) and at the suspected time I was in the opposite colored t-shirt. I was arrested for trespassing, anyway. Yes, I've been on formal probation for around six months now stemming from something that happened on my property. And yes, I believe the same cops arrested me again but I didn't get their names last time, I was in such disbelief.

Well anyway, six months ago I walked into my home to find my mother standing in the living room shaken up and her ex-boyfriend holding a baton in the kitchen, talking loud and crazy. I assessed that he was there intimidating my mom and that I should attempt to give him the chance to leave. As I kept an eye on the baton (stick) I nicely said, "John, you need to leave." He then came towards me fast and hit me in the stomach with the end of his weapon. I tried to grab the stick from him and pull free. With great fear I jumped up and put him in a headlock dropping him to the ground. I wanted to call for help but I couldn’t because he was trying to struggle free. I then hit him twice, which dazed him enough (long enough) for me to check on mom.

The cops arrived and he (John) said he wanted medical attention for his strawberry where I had defended me and my mother. So he took advantage knowing that would look very bad on my part. They arrested me for great bodily injury while he was lying to them in the ambulance. Mom told them in my defense that I had just been hit first. Cops took pictures of his weapon and hauled me away again with mom crying.

At my preliminary hearing my attorney Bart Kronfeld said, Mr. Bennett, you can go home today on three years felony probation with credit for time served.

I said, But my mother’s here to testify and she surely will free me with her statement and testimony.

"I don't know, Mr. Bennett, it's up to you; the court is waiting."

I wanted to go home to my animals and mother so bad that day that I took the deal.

Mr. Davenport, the district attorney, put a felony with his bare hands on my record and I accepted a three-year probation deal. So now they are offering me a misdemeanor trespassing charge that I do three years for state prison time in all.

I've never heard of such an unfair deal. This is my second violation of probation. I won my first violation hearing but Judge Brennan slapped me with 30 days for it.

Anyway, have you heard of the courts being able to do that? See, my brother’s [Josh Bennett] is set to get out in February — they locked him away for a long time now for driving on a suspended license and I believe he had a small amount of powder on him and he was driving the millionaire Catherine Cummings in the passenger seat.

Many of you good citizens have never had to experience injustice. I'm here saying that since my buddy Deputy Del Fiorentino ain’t with us anymore it’s like I have no one on my side who cares about conduct of law with patience. If the deputies had taken their time out at my house in the great bodily injury case they would have been able to see that John was probably off his meds, fabricating, and has an "assault on me" on his record that he did time for and he had just been released from prison for elder abuse on his own mother.

Once again, they wouldn't listen to me at the time because they think I'm mentally ill, that I'm in danger, that I have a record, the list goes on, the stereotypical labeling that really obviously cost me.

Maybe you haven't experienced injustice in Mendocino County, but I really think everyone should keep a lookout, keep money for bail ready, and maybe have a private attorney picked out and within reach wouldn't hurt.

I used to think that maybe it's just the outside cops who act like this. That was until I went to take a shower in jail and my new bottle of shampoo was gone. I told the deputy on duty that it was missing and the first thing he did was make me show him my belongings and receipts for it. He actually thought I was going to hide my shampoo in the tiny cell/module and blame someone for taking it and at the same time show a receipt to him to show where I bought it that day. They took me out to a holding cubicle where it was torturously hot for an hour and a half. Of course they had their fan running in the side office and I witnessed five deputies gathering around the computer and all five agreed that the suspected inmate (me) never ordered any shampoo as he had claimed. Next they moved me to the other side of the jail to put me in solitary confinement. Huh? And I am the victim.

Thank you very much for your time and if anyone is wondering who wrote this it wasn't really an inmate or convict, it was one of Boonville's own 1993 graduates.

Jade Blaine Bennett, cell 142, lockdown,

Mendocino County Jail. (Arrested July 18, 2016.)

Some Like Me.

Some like me, some like me behind bars.

Some don't, some don't want me in the free world.

Some stare at the stars, I don't because I can't see them anymore. Not because I'm blind, because I can stare at these walls and pretend everything is fine.

It's a pretend world anyway isn't it?

PPS. Now I'm being held in solitary confinement probably until the end of my trial and not having my canteen back so I can't pay for anything. I've been looking for your weekly paper but it's nowhere to be found. Do you think if there is an extra copy you could mail it to me and I would promise to let the lockdowns have a read too. I know your son Ben remembers me but maybe I'm concerned you don't. My mother Cleo and brother Josh lived on Mountain View Road up by the dump at my grandparent’s property Cleo and Buck Clark. I remember you walking and always smiling and waving at us coming down the mountain! Much love to you and your wonderful family.

jadejoshbennett
Jade & Josh Bennett c.1985

* * *

CATCH OF THE DAY, September 11, 2016

Anthony, Arguelles-Hernandez, Bass, Boccaleoni
Anthony, Arguelles-Hernandez, Bass, Boccaleoni

ANDREW ANTHONY, Ukiah. Drunk in public, resisting.

RICARDO ARGUELLES-HERNANDEZ, Ukiah. Drunk in public.

ROBERT BASS, Ukiah. DUI-drugs, suspended license, probation revocation.

ROCKY BOCCALEONI, Laytonville. Dirk-dagger.

Brazil, Espinoza, Fiftita
Brazil, Espinoza, Fiftita

BRIAN BRAZIL, Ukiah. DUI with prior convictions within ten years, misdemeanor hit&run.

RAYMOND ESPINOZA JR., Ukiah. Battery.

TUAVEVEA FIFTITA, Gardena. Possession of drug proceeds over $25,000.

Greene, Ickes, Jenkins, Kidd
Greene, Ickes, Jenkins, Kidd

QUINN GREENE, Comptche.DUI.

COLE ICKES, Fort Bragg. Assault with deadly weapon with great bodily injury, elder abuse with great bodily harm or death, probation revocatioin.

GREGORY JENKINS JR., Stockton. Proceeds from drug transactions.

ANDREA KIDD, Ukiah. Drunk in public, resisting, probation revocation.

Knight, Luna, Mendoza
Knight, Luna, Mendoza

JANET KNIGHT, Redwood Valley. DUI-drugs causing great bodily injury, probation revocation.

RYAN LUNA, Hopland. Court order violation.

LUIS MENDOZA, Ukiah. Domestic assault.

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TRUTH ABOUT 9/11 by Eric Margolis

http://www.unz.com/emargolis/truth-about-911/

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BLAMING THE PARENTS

The other day a friend of mine, who is a police chief, saw a fifteen-year-old girl coming out of a tavern. She had obviously been drinking. The chief knew her, and knew her family — respectable, serious-minded people. Shocked, he took the girl home to her mother. He told me about it as an example of how even the best homes are being hit.

But to me, the rest of his story was even more significant. He had expected the child’s mother to be upset, and she was — but not in the way that he had expected. She was upset because of the indignity he had inflicted on the girl by bringing her home. Of course the girl had done wrong, she admitted; but she should have been allowed to look out for herself. That, the mother insisted, was the way to develop a child’s character.

And that, I insist, is the kind of crackpot theory which has laid the groundwork for our present surge of teenage trouble. For years, we have listened to some quack theorists and pseudo-psychologists who have preached that discipline and control were bad for children — that they should be left uninhibited to work out their own life patterns, their own self-discipline. But you don’t acquire self-discipline if you never learn what discipline is: neither can life’s problems be worked out without experience which can be secured only through hard knocks or by guidance from the experience of others.

— J. Edgar Hoover, 1949

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AND LEST WE FORGET — THE FLAG

by Jeff Costello

In this southwest Denver neighborhood, there are American flags flying at the houses to my left and right, across the street, and kitty-corner across another street. It takes a short walk to see another house besides ours without a display of the red, white and blue.

The other day I picked up a prescription at Rite-Aid (now owned by Walgreens, or so it's been said) and the pharmacist asked if had a Rite-Aid card. "Would that get me a discount?" He said "No, it's a loyalty thing." My high school song ended with "So praise our great victories, and may they always say, that if I ever will be loyal, t'will be to thee Farmington High." So as a kid, my loyalty was demanded by my country, by the prevalent Christian religion, and the high school. It starts early. Apparently it's the drug store now, too.

Displaying the flag is a sign of patriotic loyalty - or is it merely the appearance of loyalty to cover any number and kinds of dirty deeds? Congressmen are often heard to say, when criticizing another lawmaker's action, "I'm not questioning his patriotism, I'm questioning his judgment." Because we dare not question anyone's patriotism. So the question becomes, if an institution, or religion, or an individual demands loyalty in some form - why, if they are so wonderful, do they need to demand loyalty? If they're really so terrific, wouldn't people happily, by choice, stick with them?

Why must the presidential candidates (I can't bear to mention their names, but they all do it) appear in front of a backdrop of flags? So no one will question their patriotism? Or do they think they are assuring the suckers of their sincerity, their wholesome all-American-ness. I had a big American flag once, used it for a bedspread. But once in a while I'd fly it for irony's sake because I am so un-American. A friend in Sausalito, a German I'll call Fritz, got himself a nice sailboat and took a bunch of us out on Richardson Bay. Fritz went below and came back with his father's swastika flag, a genuine relic of nazi Germany and a clue his heritage, and hauled it up the mast. So there we were, in view of all the houses on the hills above, sailing around with a nazi's son, swastika flying. Was Fritz being ironic? I doubt anyone saw irony in my stars and stripes, which made it all the more ironic. But there isn't much in the way of irony or humor with a swastika, even if Fritz meant it that way. Which is doubtful if you knew him.

If this country is really exceptional, why do they pound the idea into our heads every day? Why must football games have military jet flyovers?

From Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land":

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,

By the relief office I seen my people;

As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking

Is this land made for you and me?

Rally round the flag, boys.

* * *

I’VE TRIED TO DRINK SOME WINE. Once in a while I’ll have a glass of red wine with my wife because that’s what she drinks. It’s fine, but I can’t get into the whole wine thing. I can’t be a student of wine and spend a lot of time thinking about it. I write all day. I just want a drink that is friendly and familiar and makes me feel good. I don’t want to have to study a label to figure out what year or where it came from. That’s too much work. I’m too fricking lazy to do that.

— Carl Hiaasen

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AS I SEE IT

Saturday, September 24th, 2016

2:30 - 4:30 PM

Main Library

Brad Walters Community Room 125 14th Street (510) 238-3138 | WWW.OAKLANDLIBRARY.ORG

Elbert "Big Man" Howard, one of the 6 original founding members of the Black Panther Party and author of Panther On The Prowl, will read from his recently published collection of essays, As I See It.

While in the BPP, he served as the first editor of the Black Panther Party Newspaper, Deputy Minister of Defense and he travelled the world as International Spokesperson. A writer, lecturer and lifelong community and human rights activist, Mr. Howard is a founder of PACH - the Police Accountability Clinic and Helpline of Sonoma County, helping people with complaints about law enforcement; he also shares his views and provides programs through volunteer community radio stations in Sonoma County.

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DELEGATION TO PALESTINIAN WEST BANK TO SPEAK AT WILLITS’ LITTLE LAKE GRANGE

On Saturday afternoon, September 24, from 2 to 4pm, the San Francisco-based Freedom Archives, the California Coalition for Women Prisoners and the Little Lake Grange, 291 School Street, Willits, will host an informal discussion with four members of a 19 person delegation of anti-prison, labor, and scholar-activists who visited the occupied Palestinian West Bank this past March.

It was the first U.S. delegation to Palestine to focus specifically on political imprisonment and designed to strengthen the solidarity between Palestinian and US prisoners.

According to a statement issued by the delegation, during the ten day trip, “we were empowered and humbled by stories of the many ways Palestinians maintain their culture and dignity” while maintaining resistance to Israel’s ongoing military occupation and that will be the main subject of the planned discussion.Free. Donations accepted.

For information, please call 707-467-0518

Jeff Blankfort

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PUBLIC BANKS COULD BREAK THE IMPASSE OVER MARIJUANA MONEY

Marc Armstrong, President, Commonomics USA, and formerly of the Public Banking Institute, will be joined in the KMEC studio by Jed Davis and Doug McKenty, two spokespeople for the local cannabis industry here in Mendocino County, CA. We'll talk about how public banks, specifically a county bank, may be the answer to the federal prohibition on marijuana businesses opening up bank accounts.

Currently, the U.S Treasury and the U.S. Department of Justice both prohibit banks and credit unions from taking marijuana money. Nationwide, sales in the decriminalized sector of the cannabis industry alone hit $5.4 billion in 2015, according the the Arcview Group, a market research and investment firm specializing in the legal cannabis industry. The underground cannabis economy is much bigger.

See: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/37343-public-banks-could-break-the-impasse-over-marijuana-money

See also: https://arcviewgroup.com/

John Sakowicz and Sid Cooperrider host the show. Our underwriters include Frey Vineyards and Orr Hot Springs, with support from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.

Our broadcast is heard live at 105.1 FM in the Ukiah Valley. We also stream live from the web at wwww.kmecradio..org.

Please support the Mendocino Environmental Center and KMEC Radio 105.1 FM by becoming a member at: http://www.kmecradio.org/donate/

* * *

TANGO FROM HEAVEN

Ukiah Community Concert Association Presents

Anna Maria Mendieta’s “Tango del Cielo” (Tango from Heaven)

The Passion of Tango meets the romance of the harp September 18, 2016

Ukiah, California – (September 8, 2016) "an exceptional and charimastic soloist" (American League of Symphony Orchestras) Anna Maria Mendieta brings a multimedia concert-show full of surprises featuring Argentine Tango, Flamenco, Spanish Classical and Latin Jazz with harp, strings, percussion and dance! The concert will be at Mendocino College Center Theater, on Sunday September 18, 2016 at 3:00 pm.

Anna Maria has appeared on TV, movies, NPR, and the Emmy Awards. She has shared programs with Federica von Stade, performed with Josh Groban, Frank Sinatra Jr., and Barry Manilow. Ms. Mendieta has performed for the King and Queen of Spain and is nationally recognized as a pioneer in performing Argentine Tango music on the harp. She is accompanied by Marcelo Molina, who has won numerous championships including 1st place winner at the USA Argentine Tango Championship. Also on stage will be Suzanne Mendieta, Flamenco dancer, Antonio Gomez on percussion, Matthew Szemela, violin and Joel Cohen, cello.

Ukiah Community Concert Association has been presenting nationally acclaimed talent since 1947. This all volunteer nonprofit’s mission is to build and maintain a permanent concert audience and bring great live concerts to Ukiah. It is also their goal to encourage music appreciation in the schools of the community.

Advanced tickets available at Mendocino Book Company, in Ukiah and on our website. Single tickets are $30 (adult) and $10 (youth). For more information call 707-463-2738, or visit the association’s website at www.ukiahconcerts.org.

* * *

CRAIG WALK

Sunday Afternoon Walk — Took a walk south on 4th Street in San Francisco on a cool, cloudy Sunday afternoon. Not attached to anything at all. Ignoring thoughts. Just non-interference where the body goes. Identifying with the total lack of anything mental or physical, (which the individual discovers upon meditating fully and deeply enough). The yogis in India told me that this is where one needs to be anchored! "Focused incessantly" is how it was described at Swami Sivananda's ashram in Muni-ki-Reti (near Rishikesh). The Reality at the core of everything will take care of every detail. The Higher Will is not to be denied at the earthly chaotic carnival. The phase between darkest Kali Yuga and emerging light-filled Satya Yuga is in motion. Paradigm shifting, shifting, shifting. Where are you, O Prem? I need to move out of the Emperor Norton Travel Inn in downtown San Francisco at 11 A.M. on Monday September 19th. If you want to team up, write down the bones, attack the New World Order head on, advocate for an Earth First! approach to global climate destabilization and other ecological areas of decline, then email me at

CraigStehr@inbox.com. I'm ready. You ready??

Craig Louis Stehr

San Francisco

* * *

GREAT STUFF HAPPENING AT UKIAH LIBRARY THIS WEEK

How did you like our All Ages Summer Reading Program? We want to know what you think! Take this survey and help us improve our program for next year.

They're BACK!! Our wonderful therapy dogs are back from their summer vacation and eager to meet your children. Your kids can learn how to greet the doggies AND listen to great stories. Every Wednesday from 3:30-4:30

Vegans, veggies, meaties and omnis are all welcome. Bring a copy of your recipe and your appetite to this monthly gathering.

STEAM FOR KIDS: Things that Fly. Kids are invited to make an FPG-9 Styrofoam Plate Glider, then put their craft to the test on our airplane obstacle course.

Join us to celebrate the launch of Eileen Tabios's new poetry collection, AMNESIA: SOMEBODY'S MEMOIR (Black Radish Books, 2016). Open mic follows. Teens & adults are invited to share poems in any form or style.

For a full list of events, check out our website or follow us on Facebook.

32 Comments

  1. LouisBedrock September 12, 2016

    I’m not questioning Jeff Costello’s loyalty; however, this is the second or third article he’s written that questions the display of our nation’s flag.

    I could not agree with Jeff more strongly and thank him once more for writing what many of us think, but hesitate to express.

    If I never hear The Star Spangled Banner or The Pledge again, it will be too soon.

  2. Jeff Costello September 12, 2016

    I think, Louis, that with age we can tend to repeat ourselves.

    • Bill Pilgrim September 12, 2016

      I love my mother, too. But I don’t wear a picture of her on a lapel pin.

      Advertising specialists (propagandists) found years ago through test-group research that staging people in front of flags elicits a favorable emotional response from a majority of viewers.
      Heck, you could put a dog in front of flags and it will bring tears to some people’s eyes.

  3. Jim Updegraff September 12, 2016

    Public Banks would break the Impasse over Marijuana money: Thanks for starting my day with a good laugh. The county bank scam just never seems to go away.

    Hillary was wrong when she said 1/2 of the supporters of Deadbeat Donnie the Village Idiot were deplorable – it is a least 2/3 are deplorable.

    With age we not only repeat ourselves we do not even know we are repeating ourselves.

    • Bruce McEwen September 12, 2016

      Re: The County Bank idea was defeated on the ballot last June, as I recall, along with the Measure (and I’ve forgotten the name of it) to let a clique of pot pharmas govern the county; but, like the pirate Lafitte, whenever somebody makes a tidy fortune illegally, they begin to yearn for respectability — hence, the undying efforts for a pot bank (and ya think they’ll be laundering some meth money, too?).

      Money talk bores me more than any other subject, but I hear there’s a goodly audience hereabouts who can’t get enough of listening to Sid Cooperider and John Sackzyx yammer away about it.

  4. james marmon September 12, 2016

    Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.
    -George Washington-

  5. james marmon September 12, 2016

    I hope that the Family Court discussed the conflict of interest issues between the “for profit” RQMC and the Red Queen’s (Camille Schraeder) “non profit” foster care and adoption agencies who will financially benefit from diagnoses made by their paid “on staff” Pediatrician. I also hope that they talked about the fact that any parent who seeks mental health services from any of RQMC’s umbrella organizations that that information may be used in Court as an excuse to place their child in foster care and/or later adopted. This new system is rigged, the financial incentives to make you and/or your children as sick as possible are overwhelming.

    James Marmon MSW.

    • james marmon September 12, 2016

      The issue isn’t that these nice people would do that, its that they can do that, there are no firewalls.

      • james marmon September 12, 2016

        Sorry for another comment, but I wanted to give an example. When I was a mental health specialist at a mental health agency I would sometimes advocate in court for a parent that their child be returned to their care. When the “Super Agencies” HHSA’s were created those practices stopped because it appeared different departments of “the Agency” did not agree with which direction the Court should consider. Multidisciplinary teams were created as a cure for this problem so that these things could be worked out prior to or in avoidance of a lengthy court hearing . Moving forward in Mendocino County, all the Multidisciplinary team members will all be employed by Camille Schraeder, with the exception of the wrongly trained CPS social workers who would never question one of the County’s Partnership Members and face any of the horrible consequences that would follow for doing so. That’s a no no, and Camille will pick up the phone and call Bryan Lowery, that fast.

  6. Bruce McEwen September 12, 2016

    At risk of repeating myself, there’s still one Evelyn Waugh novel I haven’t read and it’s Put Out More Flags. If anyone comes across it browsing secondhand bookshops, please keep me in mind — I’ll gladly trade Decline and Fall, Men At Arms, A Handful of Dust or The Loved One for it. Until then, Let’s all pledge allegiance to the flag and to the Republicans for which it stands, one yoooouge party under a self-righteous Christian god, with liberty and justice for the wealthy few… so on & etc. And all you little pickeninnies who ain’t Baptists can go wait in the hall while we have our prayer.

    • LouisBedrock September 12, 2016

      I have a copy of SCOOP and PUT OUT MORE FLAGS in one volume. It’s in my hand now.

      Despite your backwoods nationalism, your affection for periodic sentences full of archaic words, tertiary denotations—which take me hours to decipher, and fury, you’re my friend, so it will be in the mail tomorrow.

      Same address?

      • Bruce McEwen September 12, 2016

        Backwoods nationalism is the last refuge of the varlet, the rake, the scoundrel and the sot (to paraphrase Dr. Johnson). I’ll send you both volumes of Edmund Morris’s biography of Teddy Roosevelt in return — You may be disillusioned to read that even Mark Twain censured him for inviting Booker Washington to dinner at the White House. And, yes, the address is the same. Scoop is my favorite, of course, as it is about a journalist much after my own proclivities. You’re the best, pal!

      • Bruce McEwen September 12, 2016

        I do. But they don’t have Put Out More Flags. I bought a book there this weekend, though, at their popular sale — The Trouble With Tom, The Strange Afterlife and Times of Thomas Paine, which I’m anxious to devour.

        • Stephen Rosenthal September 12, 2016

          I’m a bit confused. Do you want to own the book, or just read it? If you click on my link, you’ll see that it is available within the Mendocino, Lake, Sonoma County Library Consortium. You can put it or any other materials (except reference) within the system on hold and have it sent to Ukiah for free.

          • Bruce McEwen September 12, 2016

            I would be glad just to read the novel, to be sure. But since I already have a respectable collection of Waugh titles, I cannot, without pretense, decline dear Bedrock’s kind offer, can I?

    • LouisBedrock September 12, 2016

      Welcome back, Stephen.

      • Bruce McEwen September 12, 2016

        I’ve been meaning to ask you who do you think led the Nation down the primrose path to irrelevance? — it used to be quite interesting to read, much like Harper’s, then there were some changes at the editorial level and all the good writing was replaced by the likes of John Nichols.

        Mr. Nichols, like Pat Conroy, had a solid first novel, then he (like Conroy) sort of became a kind of portable fountain who went around spouting liberal bromides; and it always seemed to me they were both being coached by someone.

        What — rather who — inaugurated all that froth?

        • LouisBedrock September 12, 2016

          I hope you won’t castigate me for misogyny, but it was the snot-nosed little rich girl whose father helped found the CIA, Katrina vanden Heuvel. She moved the magazine from journalism to advocacy.

          She’s famous for saying, ” I understand black people because I grew up with them.” She grew up in a mansion overlooking Morningside Park and the rest of Harlem. Any black people she knew were probably family servants.

          Put her on a bus with Tina Brown, Ellen Rosenbush, a couple of the ingenues who ruined the Villlage Voice, and ship them all back to the Seven Sisters where they were spawned.

          There are good women editors. Brown, Rosenbush, and vanden Heuval are not among them.

        • Bruce McEwen September 12, 2016

          Also, Bedrock, I’m looking at this picture of you in Spain with three little maids populating an urban neighborhood. One is out in the street wiping her nose on the hem of her party dress, and the two flanking you, dressed like twins in matching smocks, can’t be more than five or six years old; now, one of them has a cigarette in her mouth! Did you give her that smoke? Everyone looks dressed for an religious occasion, the backdrop has been decorated with a tapestry, there is a Santo on a pedestal, a white tablecloth, vases of flowers, huge urns, and palm fronds… down the street a Spaniard is ducking through a doorway, and you, very formal in white shirt and dark suit, have a lapel pin which I can’t quite make out — what is it all about?

          • LouisBedrock September 12, 2016

            Damn!

            My ex-wife, Concepción, threatened to send you that picture if she did not receive the alimony payment by last Friday.

            In the Spain of the Transición in the 70s and 80s, very young children, especially young girl children, were expected to drink and smoke. Why should my daughters have been treated differently? They’ve grown up okay: Xana is an editor and Begonia teaches history and gym in a colegio.

            Don’t know who the third child is. Little wench has a lot of nerve insinuating herself into my family photograph.

            My cousin Arnaldo was running away to avoid the Guardia Civil. He was affiliated with ETA back then but in a purely administrative position.

            As a non Catholic, non Converso, I dressed like everybody else. No sense in calling attention to myself.

            Destroy the picture immediately. Do nor show it to Mr.. Anderson or Mr. Scaramella.

      • Stephen Rosenthal September 12, 2016

        Thank you, Louis. Just hasn’t been much that stirred my innards enough to comment. As long as literature is the topic of the day, I tried reading a currently popular book, Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. He seems to be a highly touted author with the millennials, a demographic of which I am far removed. Made it to page 45 of the 1,079 (!) pages until I slammed it shut and returned it to my thirty-something neighbor, who gushed about it until I succumbed to her implorations. Could be me, as I read almost non-fiction exclusively these days. There’s so much fiction (read: lies) being bandied about that I don’t need to experience any more in my personal reading.

        • LouisBedrock September 12, 2016

          I enjoyed The End of the Tour, a movie about DFW, but couldn’t get into Infinite Jest. I have read and enjoyed some of his shorter pieces like the one on Roger Federer.

          Yes mendacity abounds. Bib Daddy had it right in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof:

          —What’s that smell in this room? Didn’t you notice it, Brick? Didn’t you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?… There ain’t nothin’ more powerful than the odor of mendacity…

          • Bruce McEwen September 12, 2016

            I think (as though anybody asked what I thought) that the obese *ass at the library should shut-the fuck-up about books he hath not had the courage to read, let alone the perserverence to finish; furthermore, I deplore the asinine contretempts, from a jerk who hath for the past 20+ years kept the AVA censored and proscribed from the nasty little hell-hole ya’all call the Mendocino County Library …. may I add, just for shits and giggles, that he whosomever hath any standing on the subject of et cetera &c.

  7. Jim Updegraff September 12, 2016

    I think Bruce and Mark should share the picture with all of your admirers.

    • LouisBedrock September 12, 2016

      Jim:

      I would hate it if any of my more than five thousand fans got a glimpse of my darker side.

      • Bruce McEwen September 12, 2016

        A cry for a Bio, ?

  8. Jim Updegraff September 12, 2016

    Oh, you have many more fans than 5,000.

    • Bruce McEwen September 12, 2016

      Sir Jms. Keep in mind, should I survive you — and the insurance actuaries give me good odds I will — I’ll be writing your bio, too. Now, you may live to piddle on my grave (nobody ever knows), but only a joker would take that bet, eh? Texas Hold ‘Em…?

  9. Jim Updegraff September 12, 2016

    Pool. I’m an old Oakland boy – started going to the pool hall when I was about 12.

    • Bruce McEwen September 12, 2016

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