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Mendocino County Today: Friday, July 20, 2018

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THE FAMILY OF EDDIE KOCH IS WORRIED. The last time anyone in the family saw this lifetime resident of Eureka, was March 8. A missing person’s report was filed the second week in May, says his sister, Machelle Bates.

“It is very out of character for him to be gone longer than a week without at least a call,” she said. “Through word of mouth, we heard he was looking for a trimming job in Hayfork or Garberville CA.”

Eddie will be 28 in November. He’s 5’10” and weights about 165 pounds.

If anyone has information, the family asks them to please call the Eureka Police at (707) 441-4044.

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KQED: WILDFIRE DEBRIS CLEAN-UP TAB: $1.3 BILLION

(An extensive report on the “disaster after the disaster”)

kqed.org/news/11681280/cleaning-up-inside-the-wildfire-debris-removal-job-that-cost-taxpayers-1.3-billion

LEE HOWARD ADDS: I have a whole lot more than this! Where was our local government? This may be the start — and the $1.3 Billion is just clean-up.

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CORRECTION: Last week we reported that “a large crowd celebrated Bastille Day at the French-owned Roederer Winery on Sunday, enjoying music by the Boonville Big Band and a locally-catered lunch.” Most of that was correct, but the music was not provided by the Boonville Big Band, but by an impromptu five-piece jazz band assembled by Philo drummer Kevin Burke (piano, bass, drums, saxophone and trumpet) fronted by local singer Dorothea May. Their four hours of jazz standards were indeed “enjoyed” by the large crowd.

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HUTCHINS’ PHILO FOES

Marshall Newman writes: I was looking at the local results regarding Michelle Hutchins’ election as County Superintendent of Schools and was startled by the total votes cast in Boonville and Philo. Boonville cast a total of 95 votes in this race, while Philo cast a total 125 votes. So Philo cast 30 more votes than Boonville, even though Boonville has a population almost triple Philo (the 2010 numbers are and 1035 and 349, respectively). I’m puzzled as to how this happened. To quote The Lion King, “What’s going on here?”

ED NOTE: I wondered about that apparent discrepancy myself. Can it be that behind Philo's welcoming face lurks that many assassins?

* * *

DEPARTMENT OF UNINTENTIONAL SATIRE:

Mendocino County Board of Supervisors Agenda Item 5a, July 24, 2018:

Noticed Public Hearing - Discussion and Possible Action Including Adoption of Resolution Accepting Two Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Funded Studies; One Titled “Removing Barriers to Entry for Local Economic Development in Mendocino County” and the Second Titled, “Housing Conditions Survey.”

(The “housing conditions survey,” by the way, is three years old, and what it has to do with “removing barriers” is not explained, but, WTF, they threw that up there too. The Supes don’t care.)

Housing Conditions Survey

AMONG THE ASTOUNDING RESULTS of the “Removing Barriers” report are such keen insights as “Employee recruitment and retention is the largest concern for businesses in Mendocino County,” And, “Housing costs was another issue that was reported as being a difficulty.” And, “Insurance costs (health and liability) as well as worker’s compensation costs were also challenges.” And, “the biggest struggle reported was the planning and zoning processes.”

You see, Mendo would never know about these problems without a high-paid consultant telling them.

But this “result” stands out:

“While the survey did not directly address the marijuana culture in Mendocino County, the comments section made it clear that this was a major issue affecting businesses throughout the County. The words marijuana/pot/weed were mentioned 36 times in the comment section. Unfortunately, few conclusions could be drawn from the comments. There was considerable conflict between comments as many comments pointed out that it brought people and money into the region, while others felt it was a drain on local resources. Several businesses did agree that marijuana cultivation makes it difficult to retain employees because legitimate businesses cannot compete on wages and employment taxes. One business said, ‘when you are paid $35 per hour cash to trim marijuana, it's difficult to find people who want to work in the legitimate jobs.’ They were not the only one to express this sentiment.”

RemovingBarriers2-2

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HOW TO APPLY FOR A POT PERMIT

(Never mind it’s a year late, but then the process itself is a moving target…)

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Ag Commissioner’s Report – July 24, 2018

“The cannabis unit has planned four events to allow cultivators to complete application requirements and move permits forward. Each day will consist of two sessions. One will be open to allow applicants who need help with applications, have questions about the status of their permit and/or would like to submit applications for administrative permits. The other will be a presentation by Chevon Holmes from the Department of Agriculture and Jesse Davis from Planning and Building Services to review new application documents and process. Those who would like to attend but are unavailable during these times can contact Chevon Holmes at (707) 234-6830 or holmesc@mendocinocounty.org.”

Tuesday, July 31, 2018
8-12 Open AG,
1-1:30 Process Presentation

Wednesday, August 1, 2018,
8-12 Process Presentation
1-1:30- Open AG,

Monday, August 6, 2018
8-12 Open AG,
1-1:30 Process Presentation

Tuesday, August 7, 2018
8-12 Process Presentation,
1-1:30 Open AG

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MENDO-LAKE EDFC WANTS THE COUNTY TO PAY A FOUR-YEAR OLD BILL FOR $29K

Agenda Item: 4g) “Approval of Payment to the Economic Development and Financing Corporation (EDFC) for Invoice No. 199, Dated July 1, 2014, in the Amount of $29,000 for Contract Services Completed in Fiscal Year (FY) 2014-15”

(Click to enlarge)

WHAT DOES EDFC DO, readers may ask?

Oh, lots! They “connect money and ideas with entrepreneurs to create sustainable prosperity in Lake & Mendocino Counties.”

Translation: We don’t do anything really. And don’t ask us for a list of “sustainable prosperity” activities.

Supervisor McCowen loves EDFC anyway: “I am proud to say that we are putting the Economic Development back into EDFC,” Supervisor McCowen is quoted as saying in a prominent blurb on EDFC’s website.

Here’s what the taxpayers get for their $29k a year or more:

In the 2017 – 2018 Fiscal Year, EDFC accomplished the following:

Hired a new Executive Director

Awarded Community Development Financial Institution Fund Financial Award Grant for $350,000 ($300,000 for loan funds)

Awarded $500,000 in USDA Rural Development Intermediary Relending Program loan funds

Provided technical assistance through our Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program via West Company and Community Development Services to 41 business owners and entrepreneurs.

Provided an “Access to Capital” Workshop in Ukiah and Fort Bragg on May 17, 2018.

Provided digital access to content from “Access to Capital” online in perpetuity

Participation in the Healthy Mendocino Poverty Action Teams for inland Mendocino and the Mendocino Coast

Lent out $150,000 to 3 businesses

Applied for 3 grants to support economic development work

Participated in meetings to re-establish a Mendocino County Committee for the North Bay Workforce Alliance

Participated in the Broadband Working Group to develop a broadband plan

Participated in the CalRecycle Recycled Marketing Development Zone and created new marketing materials to promote RMDZ and EDFC.

Revision and distribution of the “How to Do Business in Mendocino County Resource Guide”

Created a page on our website with links to current economic and demographic data for Mendocino County.

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THAT WEB-PAGE “ACCOMPLISHMENT” was probably worth thousands of dollars all by itself! Plus the participation! And the grant applications! And the workshops! I mean! How much more “economic development” could anyone want?!

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LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Nipped over the fence for a burrito at the Redwood Drive-in today. Guy says to me, ‘I didn't know dogs ate burritos.’ Live and learn, buddy, I said, and walked on out the door with extra salsa.”

* * *

BAD NEWS FOR HUMCO

Humboldt Bay is at the highest risk of sea level rise on the entire U.S. west coast. The County has completed a sea level rise vulnerability assessment indicating three communities are at risk of being inundated by sea level rise. Nearly 400 residential parcels are vulnerable in the unincorporated communities of King Salmon, Fields Landing, and Fairhaven.

Community members will have the opportunity to learn about local sea level rise and participate in planning conversations at two public workshops focused on these three communities. The first workshop will be for the communities of King Salmon and Fields Landing on Tuesday, August 7, at 6 pm at the Humboldt Agricultural Center, 5630 South Broadway in Eureka. The second workshop will be for the community of Fairhaven on Tuesday, August 14 at 6 p.m. at the Samoa Women’s Club, 115 Rideout Ave, Samoa. Refreshments will be provided.

Local sea level rise planner Aldaron Laird of Trinity Associates will present the results of the vulnerability assessment and lead the discussion.

“The first thing we want to do is educate the people who live there, own property there, have a business there or just use those areas recreationally. By 2040, King Salmon could be tidally inundated at least eight times a year, and that’s most of the residential lots. That’s going to be problematic with the existing development in King Salmon,” Laird said. “There’s a limited amount of time; by 2070, King Salmon and Fields Landing could be inundated on a daily basis by mean high water. And it’s not just these three communities with something at risk. By 2100, the PG&E power generating plant is expected to be tidally inundated on a monthly basis, and that would affect all of us.”

Residents, property owners, business owners, utility service providers, stakeholders and other interested community members are encouraged to participate in the workshops. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and contribute to the discussion of potential adaptation strategies.

“The first thing that needs to be explored is how can we protect these existing communities?” Laird said.

(Ryan Burns, LostCoastOutpost.com)

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BOONVILLE 1987

by Bruce Anderson

Arturo Flores might be Boonville's least known serial killer. In 1987, Flores would tell his friends that “all anglos should be exterminated.” Then he exterminated one. Maybe he'd exterminated others, too, but we knew from the cold, dead fact of Gregory Evans, a 27-year-old softball player from Rohnert Park, that Flores exterminated Evans because two men saw Flores do it. That was almost forty years ago, and Flores got away with it, and then he ran away, far away.

You'd see Flores around Boonville at all hours of the day and night. Couldn't miss him. He was tall for a Mexican, lean and he stared a big-eyed stare right at you, unblinking, not hostile exactly but homicidally indifferent, a vacant-eyed psycho-stare, a kind of encompassing death ray. Vehicles, people, dogs, insects disappeared into those eyes. You got the feeling that Flores wanted to kill it all.

Some people thought Flores was crazy. Others were merely unnerved by him. "That Mexican creeps me out big time," someone would say. "Does he sleep standing up? He's always here," another person would say. There he was, a constant staring public presence, a brooding human surveillance camera, leaned up against the wall of the Lodge or Tom Cronquist's cyclone fence or the Anderson Valley Market, never saying a word to any anglo body, not much to his countrymen, always staring that blank stare that somehow seemed to go blanker at the gringo visuals.

Of course it is better than likely that Senor Flores had had unhappy encounters with gringos some of whom, at the time, amused themselves by heaving Mexicans out the door of the Boonville Lodge like so many fifty-pound bags of pinto beans. Mexican-tossing finally ended the memorable afternoon the Mexicans counter-attacked, beating down the locked door of the bar with half a telephone pole to get at the Mexican tossers who had barricaded themselves inside the bar when fed up Mexicans suddenly appeared outside the bar in seriously angry numbers.

When a contingent of riot-geared deputies arrived from Ukiah, the Mexican assault force was inside the bar where a replay of the Alamo was underway. A small group of Mexican-tossers was backed up in a corner where they were beating back their attackers with broken pool cues. Another gringo — a fat, strong one — was all-fours on the floor with a determined Mexican riding his bucking back, sawing away at the big man's enlarded throat with a knife not quite sharp enough to penetrate the suet. "His fat and his arm strength saved him," a deputy commented later. "The Mexican couldn't cut all the way through the neck because the guy was able to scrunch up tight enough to keep the knife from penetrating. He was starting to fade, though. Another minute or so and the Mex would have had him sliced and diced."

Boonville was a hard place for Mexicans then, and Arturo Flores didn't bother making distinctions between good gringos and bad gringos. He hated them all.

The night Flores launched his gringo eradication program, assuming he hadn't already notched one or two before he touched down in bucolic Anderson Valley, Anastacio Yanez and Luis Orozco had met Greg Evans in the Boonville Cantina, also known as The Mexican Bar. (Now Lauren's Restaurant.) Yanez and Orozco had watched Evans drive in the winning run in a Boonville slo-pitch softball tournament across the street at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds. It was the first tournament of the year, and the weather was in and out; it rained a little, the sun came out, it rained a little more, the sun came out. That night it rained steady and hard.

Yanez and Orozco said Evans was drinking a lot of beer before he left the Cantina. They said they next saw him outside the bar trying to flag down cars for a ride. When Evans saw Yanez and Orozco walk out of the Cantina he asked them for a lift to Ukiah. Evans said he'd pay them for the trip. Yanez said he was going to Ukiah anyway so Evans didn't have to pay him.

Yanez said later that Evans "was a very good person."

Yanez invited Orozco and Flores to drive with him to Ukiah in his Ford Pinto. Yanez said he was headed to Ukiah for a dance. Flores and Orozco climbed in the back. Yanez got behind the wheel, Greg Evans rode in the passenger seat, which Flores may have seen as an undeserved concession to the gringo or, worse perhaps to Flores, the human panopticon, gringo-hood's assumed front seat privilege.

Yanez said Evans was "friendly" during the trip over the hill. He said that he and Evans hit it off so well that Evans offered to introduce Yanez to some bimbitos* in Ukiah. Yanez said that Evans gave him a card with Evans' name and address and telephone number on it. Evans and Yanez chatted as best they could in mutually unintelligible languages all the way up and over the Ukiah hill until the carload of merrymakers was about five miles from Highway 101 and Ukiah's night life, rightly assumed, but not by much, to be more exciting than Boonville's.

Gregory Evans suddenly threw up his hands and exclaimed, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

Whatever Evans thought he'd done to be sorry about was neither audible nor visible to either Yanez or Orozco.

Flores, seated directly behind Evans, had suddenly reached over the seat and driven a knife blade deep into Evans' heart. Evans said he was sorry and then he was gone.

Orozco asked Flores why he'd done it. "This is nothing," Flores said. "These guys we have to exterminate."

Yanez and Orozco couldn't have been too upset about the murder of the Rohnert Park softball player because the three amigos dumped Evans' body about a foot off the pavement of Stipp Lane, then drove to a Mexican bar on North State Street to re-commence their Saturday night festivities. In the men's room of the bar on North State, Yanez said he saw Flores wash the blood off the folding knife he'd murdered Evans with.

Evans' body was discovered by a passing motorist at about 11pm, only a few hours after his final apology. Evans hadn't even been dragged into the bushes, just dumped on the side of the road.

Flores, Yanez and Orozco saw the cluster of police and police vehicles as they drove back to Boonville.

Yanez and Orozco said their fear of Flores prevented them from voluntarily turning themselves into police. They didn't say that Flores had threatened them; he didn't have to. He might prefer to murder gringos but anybody would do.

There being few secrets in the Anderson Valley, and the few secrets that aren't in general circulation are fully known by Deputy Squires, the three Mexicans were arrested three days after Gregory Evans said he was sorry. Orozco and Yanez quickly agreed to tell all in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Their stories matched, and Yanez and Orozco were released from custody. Flores was arrested and, it was assumed, confined to the County Jail to await trial.

The Mendocino County Jail was rather loosely administered in the middle 1980s. An inmate was caught boffing a female jailer in a broom closet, and tennis balls stuffed with marijuana frequently sailed into the prisoners' outdoor commons by dope missionaries passing by on Low Gap Road. The day before he was scheduled to be arraigned for exterminating Gregory Evans, perhaps while inmates scrambled for a pot ball, Flores vaulted the jail fence out onto Low Gap and hasn't been seen since.

(*Bimbito, n. 1. Spanish for bimbo. 2. Loose woman short in stature. 3. Bilingual welcome wagon specializing in intimate transnational relations.)

* * *

CATCH OF THE DAY, July 19, 2018

Blagg, B.Britton, T.Britton, Garcia-Jordan

ODDIE BLAGG, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

BRENDAN BRITTON, Willits. Probation revocation, resisting.

TALON BRITTON, Willits. Vandalism, resisting, probation revocation.

ENRIQUE GARCIA-JORDAN, Point Arena. Harboring a wanted felon, evasion.

Glidden, Ireland, Irven

ZACHARY GLIDDEN, Eureka/Ukiah. DUI.

CASEY IRELAND, Willits. Parole violation.

ZACHARY IRVEN, Fort Bragg. Trespassing, vandalism, resisting.

Johnson, Lawrence, Lindland

DEREK JOHNSON, Willits. Domestic battery.

DEBORAH LAWRENCE, Ukiah. Under influence, disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent flyer.)

KELLY LINDLAND, Sacramento/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

McCrae, Mendez, Newton

LUKE MCCRAE, Ukiah. Battery on peace officer, resisting.

MICHAEL MENDEZ, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

DAVID NEWTON, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

Schaefer, Sisson, Wheeler

JUSTIN SCHAEFER, Lakeport/Ukiah. Battery, petty theft, contempt of court, probation revocation.

ARNOLD SISSON, Willits. Probation revocation.

MOLLY WHEELER, Eureka/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

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RIGHT NOW IT LOOKS LIKE TRUMP IN 2020

by Ted Rall

First: No. It’s not too early to discuss the 2020 election. The Iowa caucuses are only a year and a half away. Any presidential hopeful who hasn’t begun chatting up donors by now will find it nearly impossible to mount a viable campaign.

At this point insert the usual caveats that anything can happen, no knows anything, scandals happen, politicians get sick, a year is an eternity in politics.

Let’s speculate!

On the Right: Donald Trump will almost certainly be the Republican nominee.

Impeachment? Republicans are knee-jerk loyal AF, so Democrats would have to initiate proceedings. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says impeachment “is not somewhere I think we should go.” Also, note the word “minority.” Democrats can’t do jack without taking back the House — far from a sure thing.

A serious Republican primary challenge? Most incumbent Republican presidents have nothing to worry about there but Donald Trump is not most presidents. You can imagine a right-wing version of Ted Kennedy’s devastating 1980 challenge to Jimmy Carter.

The GOP doesn’t have superdelegates so it’s harder for the RNC to fix the race the way Democrats did for Clinton in 2016. Still, I don’t think a serious (as opposed to symbolic) challenge will materialize from the three currently most-talked-abouts. Jeff Flake can’t raise enough dough. (Trump, on the other hand, already has a whopping $88 million.) Mitt Romney could self-fund but seems too bogged down in Utah’s primary race for Senate to have time to pivot for another presidential run in 2020. Ohio governor John Kasich is beloved by the Beltway media but not GOP primary voters. I could be wrong. But my political instincts say Trump will coast to renomination without a significant primary challenger.

On the Left: The Democratic nomination belongs to Bernie Sanders. If he wants it.

Neither the centrist-controlled Democratic National Committee nor its official mouthpiece the New York Times have learned anything from the debacle of 2016, when guaranteed-to-win Hillary Clinton lost to Trump because she and the party snubbed Bernie Sanders and the progressive wing of the party he represents. These days, they’re floating Elizabeth Warren.

Until 2016 progressives saw Warren as a Bernie alternative but then she lost her leftie street cred by endorsing and supporting Clinton.

“On her Western swing, Ms. Warren sought to strike a unifying chord. At a tapas restaurant in Salt Lake City, she said Democrats had to close ranks in 2018 in order to recapture the White House. “Perhaps most appealing to Democratic leaders,” wrote the Times, “Ms. Warren might please their activist base while staving off a candidate they fear would lose the general election. A candidate such as Mr. Sanders.”

Throughout the campaign, polls showed that Bernie Sanders would have beat Trump.

My gut tells me Warren doesn’t really want to run. If she does, she’ll have charisma problems. As Boston magazine pointed out last year, even the people of Massachusetts aren’t much into her. (Bernie Sanders has the highest home-state approval rating of any U.S. senator, 75%.)

Given a choice between Sanders and Warren, progressives will choose the reliable progressive over the accommodationist pragmatist. That said, Warren would make a fine veep option.

As mayor of Newark, then up-and-coming political star Cory Booker made headlines by rushing into a burning house to save a woman in 2012. But politics is a fickle mistress. In the “what have you done for us lately” category, Booker was chastised for tying right-wing Republican Mitch McConnell as the senator who received the most contributions from the big Wall Street banks who destroyed the economy in 2008-09. This won’t affect his standing among the corporatists who supported Hillary Clinton despite her fundraising in the Hamptons. But it makes him anathema to the progressive Democratic base.

Once again, Joe Biden is being touted as a possible Democratic candidate. But he has signaled that, once again, he’s funnin’, not runnin’. Yeah, but what if he does?

Biden would have no choice but to compete for centrist votes against Booker and California’s Kamala Harris. Though once known as more liberal, his vice presidency for centrist Democrat Obama, his focus on building a Southern strategy for the primaries and his disconnection from the left makes him unlikely to appeal to the Berniecrats.

Harris, a law-and-order “lock ‘em up” former prosecutor and California senator, seems to be running a Clinton-style identity politics-based campaign based on her double history-making potential as a woman of color. While it’s true that she hasn’t always been a lock-step establishmentarian, she has gotten much closer to banks, cops and other elites than ordinary Americans as she has considered how to market her policy positions.

Harris is canny.

Some say slippery.

Harris is the biggest threat to Bernie. Harris supports “the concept of single-payer healthcare, and bills to incrementally raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, eliminate tuition and fees at four-year colleges and universities for families making up to $125,000 and creating more campaign finance disclosure requirements for corporations, unions and super PACs.” Good stuff. Call her Berniedette?

But those are official positions. She doesn’t campaign on them. It’s like how Obama’s 2008 campaign website promised a public option on the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare, but he never talked about it and then never proposed it in his healthcare bill. Good positions don’t get far unless they’re articulated loudly and repeatedly.

The Democrats are a 50-50 party divided between progressives and liberals. Three serious liberals — Harris, Warren, Booker and whoever else pops up between now and then — divvy up the liberal half. Bernie Sanders has the progressive half all to himself. So he wins the nomination — if he wants it.

I think he does.

In the general election? This is sad, and bad for America’s baby Left, but I think it’s true: Trump defeats Sanders. Not because he’s a self-declared democratic socialist though you can be sure GOP attack ads will be full of stock footage of old Soviet May Day parades. Also not because he’s too far left: he really would have beaten Trump in 2016.

Trump defeats Sanders because of the innate advantages of incumbency, the historical hesitancy to change horses midstream, Sanders’ advancing age and the sad fact that the DNC will never push for him as hard as they would have for one of their own: a Wall Street-friendly corporatist.

Again: anything can happen, no one knows anything, scandals happen, politicians get sick, a year is an eternity in politics.

(Ted Rall, syndicated writer and the cartoonist for ANewDomain.net, is the author of the book “Snowden,” the biography of the NSA whistleblower.)

* * *

SUMMER HOURS!

Give yourself something to look forward to and plan on an evening stroll at the Gardens. The Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens is extending hours through the summer! Come and experience the magic of this 47-acre garden by the sea in the warm filtered evening light. The Gardens will be open until 7:00pm each Thursday, Friday, and Saturday through the end of September. Regular Gardens admissions applies. Free for members of the Gardens, sign up for a membership today (online www.gardenbythesea.org or at The Garden Store)!

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ART IN THE GARDENS!

Also a great time to get your discounted tickets to the 26th anniversary of Art in the Gardens (Sat, August 4) which is just 17 days away! Advance tickets are available now through Friday, August 3rd (online sales end at 4:00pm PST on 8/3/18) on the Gardens' website. Tickets can also be purchased at the pre-sale price until August 3rd at The Garden Store at MCBG, Harvest Market in Fort Bragg, and Out of This World in Mendocino.

General admission tickets $20 in advance or $30 at the door; $5 children ages 6 to 16; Free for children ages 5 and under

$25 additional for wine tasting (Includes complimentary tasting glass and wine tastings from 11 wineries spread throughout the Gardens)

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MENDOCINO COUNTY FARM BUREAU CELEBRATES 100 YEARS IN MENDOCINO COUNTY AND AWARDS SCHOLARSHIPS

In 1917, several Mendocino County farmers recognized the value of bringing an Agricultural Extension Service into the county and began the process of forming a Farm Bureau. An official Farm Bureau needed to be organized prior to a county petitioning for a U.C. Farm Advisor position.

Redwood Valley was the first to form a Farm Bureau center by obtaining 40 signatures for their roll. Redwood Valley’s effort was followed closely by Ukiah, Potter Valley, Willits and Fort Bragg. A petition of 280 signatures from these districts were presented to the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors at the December 10, 1917 meeting along with the unanimous support from Anderson Valley which had just held their first discussion on the subject.

With the approval of the Board of Supervisors in December 1917, the Farm Bureau was officially recognized which allowed for Mr. Charles Myszka to enter the county in January 1918 as the first U.C. Farm Advisor for Mendocino County. The first meeting of the Mendocino County Farm Bureau took place in February of 1918 where the bylaws were written and officers were elected.

Now 100 years later, the Mendocino County Farm Bureau is still working to protect and promote agriculture in the county. To celebrate the last 100 years, Mendocino County Farm Bureau hosted a centennial celebration on June 30th. Although the temperatures were hovering around 106 degrees that day, close to 400 people were in attendance to help celebrate. With historical displays, music by the Gibson Creek Bluegrass Band, tasting of the 2015 CORO wines, local beer provided by Hare In The Forest brewing from Potter Valley, a live historical reenactment by the Roadshow Players as well as the after party with Waylon and the Wildcats, the event was a greatly enjoyed by all who attended.

Part of the celebration included the annual recognition of the local high school and college students who were selected to receive scholarships from Mendocino County Farm Bureau. This year, with generosity from many donors and proceeds from our annual fundraiser, we were able to provide $30,000 worth of scholarships to local high school graduates and students continuing in higher agriculture education programs.

High school graduates receiving scholarships were: Cassandra Renteria from Fort Bragg, Katie Penry and Javier Alvarez from Potter Valley, Jocey Thieman from Round Valley and Gracie Silva from Laytonville

College students receiving scholarships were: Alison Morse, Natasha Looney, Emma Braught, Matthew Delbar, Aaron Becerra-Alvarez, Casey Looney, Charles Lucchesi, Jamie Connor, Andres Aceves, and Ashley Hautala.

For more information on the Mendocino County Farm Bureau or the scholarship program, please contact the Farm Bureau office at (707) 462-6664 or admin@mendofb.org

* * *

Attached: Press Release with pictures of scholarship receipients.

FarmBureauCentennialPressRelease

* * *

THIS IS AN EXTRAORDINARY THING about President Trump that should be lauded and not a little, is that he is willing to meet with adversaries to try to prevent us from having World War III. He has undergone an onslaught of a year, year and a half of a partisan investigation accusing him of somehow colluding with the Russians. We all have now concluded and all understand that the investigation was started by partisans, James Clapper and John Brennan, who started the investigation at the behest of the Clinton campaign, who paid somebody in Russia to come up with a dossier. So it's funny that we keep talking about Trump and Russia, when in fact the only person actually known to pay Russian agents was Hillary Clinton, who paid a British spy who then paid British agents who concocted dirt on Trump.

— Rand Paul

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* * *

YOU KNOW HOW IT IS, you want to look and you don’t want to look. I can remember the strange feelings I had when I was a kid looking at war photographs in Life, the ones that showed dead people or a lot of dead people lying close together in a field or street, often touching, seeming to hold each other. Even when the picture was sharp and cleanly defined, something wasn’t clear at all, some repressed feeling that monitored the images and withheld their essential information. It may have legitimized my fascination, letting me look for as long as I wanted; I didn’t have a language for it then, but I remember now the shame I felt, like looking at first porn, all the porn in the world. I could have looked until my lamps went out and I still wouldn’t have accepted the connection between a detached leg and the rest of the body, or the poses and positions that always (one day I’d hear it called “response-to-impact”), bodies wrenched too fast and violently into unbelievable contortion. Or the total impersonality of group death, making them lie anywhere and any way it left them, hanging over barbed wire or thrown promiscuously on top of other dead, or up into the trees like terminal acrobats, Look what I can do.

—Michael Herr, Dispatches

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UNFORTUNATELY, too many people, when you try separating them from their material possessions and activity, turn out to be like cheap golf balls. You unwind and unwind but you never get to the core because there isn't any.

— Betty MacDonald

 

8 Comments

  1. Betsy Cawn July 20, 2018

    The latest Lake County Grand Jury Report (2017-18) describes the impacts of local government “mishandling” of responsibilities for recovering the costs of debris cleanup following the 2015 Valley Fire, which was conducted by the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), “a branch of the California Environmental Protection Agency that oversees the state’s waste management, recycling, and waste reduction programs.”

    As the County “did not have in effect an executed contract with CalRecycle during or after the structural debris removal” process, the County did not have means of “requiring CalRecycle to provide documentation of its charges” or “assuring that CalRecycle responded to property owners’ emails questioning the charges.”

    In order to qualify for the state-provided debris cleanup, property owners were required by the County to authorize “Right of Entry” access to their properties, with the explanation that the owners would only be charged the amount covered in their insurance policies (for cleanup). Months of wrangling with county and state agencies over the amounts charged to the individual property owners, then being dunned by the County Administration to fork over their insurance-covered compensation (if they had any) under dispute between owners and insurers because of CalRecycle contractor damages and unexplained charges for unauthorized debris removal.

    And then, of course, the County opted to carry out the insurance collection process “internally,” eschewing the option of using the federal monies available (“a minimum of $300,000”) or awarding a contract to professionals for the work. But the County “did not . . . create a duty statement or scope of work for the person responsible for collecting insurance proceeds” . . . and, “[o]nly in December, 2017, were procedures formally created by Administration.”

    “Although the residential debris removal was completed by March 2016, CalRecycle did not submit its bills to the County until June 2017, and has never submitted any documentation to support the amount of the bills” — leaving individual property owners to fight with both the County (over hastily issued “INVOICES” for insurance compensation collection) and CalRecycle, plus the insurers’ refusals to assist in specifying what policy coverage included.

    “When the specific amount owed is unknown, thereby excluding external collections, how the County will force owners to pay is unclear.” (Conversely, “Property owners affected by the [2016] Clayton Fire, who have received proceeds for debris removal that they want to pay to the County, now are unable to do so for lack of a dedicated database created to document/track such payments for the Clayton Fire.”)

    “Part of the reason for the delay in collecting insurance proceeds was linked to the prolonged delay in issuing building permits by the Department of Community Development, as insurers often retained rebuilding payments until a permit was issued.”

    The general lack of County preparedness for handling the aftermath of large-scale wildfire disasters reflects the County’s years of ignoring requirements to develop management capacities clearly defined in federal legislation (the Robert T. Stafford Act, and the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000). Reporting of revenues and expenditures for County operations, including its acquisition of multiple funding sources for “rebuilding” support and distribution of “recovery” assistance monies — via third party agencies and organizations — is nowhere to be found.

    Progress is hampered as well by the escalating costs of reconstruction, and the restoration of critical water supply infrastructure in the mountainous terrain of small “subdivisions” ensconced in the Cobb Mountain communities, an answer for which was collaboratively achieved by the merging of small private and county water systems with the Cobb Area Water District. State funds and long-term property owner reimbursement of low-interest “loans” to provide distribution systems adequate to meet new state fire prevention requirements have only recently been sanctioned by the Local Agency Formation Commission’s approval of the new “county water district” consolidation project.

    Over-shadowing the catastrophes in Lake County, the 2017 “Northbay” fires in Sonoma County are receiving the kind of attention to failed communication systems, water infrastructure, emergency response planning, and — coming soon to a neighborhood near you — the post-cleanup phase of “long-term recovery” will reveal a multitude of the same problems with insurance coverage (already the hue and cry of Mouthpiece Mike, Sonoma County officials, and the flock of disaster assistance organizations responding to the smell of blood and “donations” funneled through County-designated counting houses).

    Mendocino’s pre-existing community support agencies, better preparedness for post-disaster response service demands, and fierce independence of many rural residents may indeed “mitigate” the kinds of misfortunes and missteps that are slowly coming to light because of the scale of Sonoma County’s losses and errors. But Mendocino County residents should take swift action to assess the capacities of County services (Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services, Public Health, Environmental Health, Planning & Building, Public Works, Public Services, and Administration) and collectively address their local needs for minimizing the impacts of wildfire disasters — and opportunities to improve their chances of survival.

    Among the many recent results of our three-year-long “recovery” efforts is the introduction of “Fire Wise Communities” — a model of coordination and preparation that affords designated participating community groups the ability to apply for local grants and other funding sources to “mitigate” anticipated fates defined in the “Local Hazard Mitigation Plan,” which requires not only federal and state approval but also the imprimatur of CalFire, to ensure that known hazards are specified in great detail (not the broad-brush approach heretofore endorsed by County approvals).

    Mendocino County’s Emergency Operations Plan, long available on the County’s website and inclusive of maps delineating critical facilities (bridges, transmission lines, roads, and other health and safety facilities essential to survival and restoration of acceptable living conditions), is miles ahead of Lake County’s still obtuse disclosures of public information needed by residents to prepare themselves — the demand for which is reflected in the constant exhortations to be “ready” for mass evacuations and the like by federal and state agencies — who are still stymied by our ineffective County Administration, Office of Emergency Services, and the ever elusive Disaster Council.

    A good place to start is by reviewing your community’s “Area Plan” (an adjunct element of the County’s General Plan). Updating that plan to include critical infrastructure priorities and fundable projects is an action that can be taken by local “municipal advisory councils” (typically formed as a precursor to incorporation, but also well used by small communities to simply address local health and safety needs). A great example of this useful (and state-regulations-defined) model for community organizing can be seen in the Cobb Area Council (www.cobbareacouncil.org), which included in its formative resolution (approved by the Board of Supervisors in June 2016 — a rapid community response if ever there was one) the intention to update its 1989 Cobb Area Plan to rebuild with contemporary upgrades to prevent and mitigate future fire impacts.

    The time to consider the possibilities (and assuredly anticipated probabilities) of local wildfire disasters — not just firefighting emergency response demands) is always NOW. Disaster preparedness, especially for disabled people (estimated to be generally 50% of the population, by the California Emergency Management Agency, Office of “Access & Functional Needs”) and resources for immediate personal assistance (not just the obligatory quick-turn American Red Cross shelter operations), as a focus for community prioritization of small local planning efforts, will reveal many opportunities for citizens to take action, and to assess the local government capacities on which all of us depend.

    As we have clearly seen, the burden of survival, recovery (both short and long term), and reconstruction of our homes, neighborhoods, and communities, cannot be borne by county governmental agencies with internally limited understanding of their responsibilities. Fortunately, we can also count on the AVA to provide a forum for discussion and consideration of our shared issues and experiences.

    And you can let us know how it’s going west of the Cow, by joining us on the air Sunday afternoons on KPFZ (88.1 fm). Since November 2015, KPFZ — following its 24/7 coverage of the Valley Fire — our long-term recovery and disaster preparedness programs explore the prismatic array of ongoing community, local government, and regional efforts.

    And Lake County’s “share” of the “Northbay Fires” (centered in the City of Clearlake, which became the lead agency in its immediate aftermath — NOT the County of Lake) lacks entirely any post-disaster assistance information. As our regional companions in combatting wildfire destruction in similar terrain and with equally limited local resources, we wish you all the best, and urge you to understand the “lessons” we keep hearing about from officials who claim to have our best interests at heart. Godspeed.

  2. Bruce McEwen July 20, 2018

    Having just read Richard The Third by Paul Murray Kendall, I must say I found Jeff St. Claire’s picture of Dicky 3rd in his weekend post on Counter Punch, somewhat overblown propaganda, as The Royal Usurper Hank 7th hired an Italian propagandist, Polydore Vergil, as court historian, to do a hit piece on Dicky 3rd’s reign; and His Majesty’s son, Hank 8th’s bootlicker, Tommy More, relied entirely on these malicious aspersions in his Richard The Third, and both of these propagandist’s were read by Shakespeare — and as Greenblatts’ book is all about Shakespeare’s view of tyrants, it is not surprising (is it?), that the view of Dicky 3rd, as represented in the long lead-in quote by Stephen Greenblatt has it all wrong, and further besmirches a wronged man.

    Not that anyone should care, except Mr. St. Clair, who seems more and more to be allured into propagandizing for what he perceives his readership demographics to consist of; and it was something like the distaste I felt after reading his childhood memories of a stint in Cub Scouts, a few months ago, wherein he, as an eight-year-old (!), confronts a redneck racist scoutmaster at a den meeting – completely oblivious to the fact that Cub Scouts had Den Mothers, not Scoutmasters. But the point Mr. St. Claire was going overboard to make was he was all about that wonderful cliché that the Boy Scouts are homophobic, racist, militarist, et cetera.

    I sometimes wonder if I should send a few dollars to Counter Punch, now that my minimal retirement has kicked in, so Mr. St. Clair can rebuild his record collection, and continue to buy new books every week; but then I remember when I was down and out, living hand to mouth, and Counter Punch published one of my stories – not a dime, not a goddamn dime, did they pay me, and they took such liberties in editing that I was really quite unhappy about the whole experience, even though my friends were impressed and congratulated me warmly.

    • Bruce McEwen July 20, 2018

      Please allow me to moderate my comment: Let me rather say, “not a dime, not a Roosevelt dime, did they pay me, and et cetera…”

      • Bruce McEwen July 20, 2018

        The sober prude assuaged his conscience with a view to the [small caps, please] PUBLIC GOOD [thank you], by repeating to his managing editor the conveniently thrifty aphorism: “He’d only spend it abusing alcohol, anyway.”

  3. Bruce McEwen July 20, 2018

    Incidentally, there was a wickedly apt comment re: KZYX&Z’s demographics last week about the Dems w/$ who send membership contributions in to support the kind of programing that is safe, sterile and, essentially, as blandly mind-numbing as a Dead-Head concert; and to stretch the appelation, the same kind of writing that ruined The Nation and Harper’s Magazine.

    But, to quote Dorothy Parker, “what can you do?”

    It takes money to put out a publication (online or in print), and if the people who can pay are silly, they must be pandered to, eh?

    Too bad Counter Punch is going down the same sad road to irrelevance.

  4. james marmon July 20, 2018

    Suspect arrested after fatal shooting in Ukiah Thursday

    “Wyatt said his officers were not involved in the pursuit or the arrest of the suspect, but he was told the suspect’s vehicle was recovered with a firearm inside. He said it is not clear yet if the shooting was gang-related, but at this point “there are indications of gang affiliations” and his officers are still investigating.”

    http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/general-news/20180720/suspect-arrested-after-fatal-shooting-in-ukiah-thursday

    No, Wyatt’s crew, the Ukiah Police Department, were probably down on the tracks or at Walmart dealing with transients/homeless and too busy to be involved. Good thing MCSO and Highway Patrol covered for them. The gang problem is out of control in Ukiah and getting worse every day. UPD needs to get their head out of the ass, especially Wyatt, and demand that Plowshares get their head’s out of asses too. Stop feeding everyone and help clean up this mess.

    This shooting was no doubt retaliatory for shooting of the 18 year old out on Lake Mendocino Drive on Wednesday, the police presence in these gang infested neighborhoods is nonexistent since the homeless took over the city. There is a gang war in the making in Ukiah and our police need to be able to protect the citizen’s who pay their wages.

    Wyatt makes me sick, he’s got his head stuck so far up the Mendocino County Homeless Services Continuum of Care (MCHSCoC) ass’s that he has lost sight of what the real problem and what really needs to be addressed by law enforcement.

    When Wyatt did his Marbut Report presentation to the city council he was all wissy washy about following Marbut’s recommendations, he basically discounted them. He spent most of this time talking about how great the other members of the MCHSCoC members were, lots of high fives, but no action.

    I was the only one who stood up and told the council that Plowshares needed to be reigned in. That bunch of retards just looked at me.

    Get your priorities straight Wyatt

    James Marmon MSW
    Ukiah Native
    July 4, 1954

    • james marmon July 20, 2018

      Last year, 2017, 41 percent of all arrest made by the UPD were transients, defined as not being from anywhere in Mendocino County. 31 percent of all UPD 5150 detentions by UPD were transients as well. Transients are killing us. Ukiah needs to address the influx of transient moving to our town via Highway 101. I don’t care how much Mendocino County Homeless Services Continuum of Care (MCHSCoC) depend on increasing their numbers for the building up their industry. If the MCHSCoC members really wanted to put an end to homelessness in Ukiah, they would all sit down with Plowshares and demand that they get on board with Marbut’s recommendations.

      UPD 2017 Performance Report.

      http://ukiahpolice.com/site/assets/files/1/2017-performancereport_final.pdf

      James Marmon

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