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MCT: Sunday, January 20, 2019

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PLEASE HELP OUT ONE OF OUR OWN.

Tickets are $10.

Fundraiser For Carolyn Livingston & Family.

On Monday, January 14, Carolyn Livingston, our sixth-grade teacher at Anderson Valley elementary, lost her home in a fire. Luckily, her family and pets are safe. Unfortunately, her home was a total loss. To help offset some of the costs that the family will incur, we are having a drawing. There will be six gift baskets including a variety of handmade gifts, soaps, local wine, gift certificates to local markets and restaurants and many more items. We are accepting monetary donations if you are not interested in purchasing a ticket. All donations will be greatly appreciated. Tickets are $10 each. The drawing will be held on Friday, February 1.

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SUPER BLOOD WOLF MOON

The total lunar eclipse of January 2019 promises to be a spectacle to behold, and may be visible to millions across North and South America, weather permitting. But if Mother Nature prevents you from seeing the moon marvel, fear not. You can always tune in to the "blood moon" on your favorite digital devices with some free webcasts. On the night of Jan. 20, beginning just minutes after 7:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, the moon will noticeably, progressively get darker. The sun, the Earth and the moon will converge in an instance of perfect cosmic alignment to create a total lunar eclipse. The online observatory Slooh will host a free webcast on Slooh.com (you can sign up for a free account). We'll simulcast that feed on Space.com's homepage, courtesy of Slooh.

As the sun's rays pass through Earth's atmosphere, the light refracts. Blue light, which is visible during the daytime, gets scattered, and the red shades that accompany sunset and sunrise get cast into space. During the full moon phase, the lunar nearside is completely lit by the sun, because the moon passes over or under Earth's shadow. But occasionally, the moon travels, partially or completely, through the planet's copper-colored shadow, giving skywatchers a special treat. [Super Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse of 2019: A Complete Guide]

If weather, location or mobility concerns prevent you from watching the eclipse directly under a clear sky, don't worry: Plenty of webcasts will broadcast the event.

The online telescope service Slooh will begin its coverageat 10:30 p.m. EST (7:30 p.m. PST). "We stream it live so that people from around the world, no matter their geographical location, can witness this phenomenon together," Slooh's resident astronomer, Paige Godfrey, said in a press statement. (This webcast will also appear on Space.com's homepage.)

Godfrey and Slooh astronomer Paul Cox, plus Slooh storyteller Helen Avery, will discuss the science and cultural impact of lunar eclipses during the webcast.

The Exploratorium in San Francisco will provide live lunar eclipse Facebook, and this broadcast, like Slooh's, will begin at 10:30 p.m. EST (0330 GMT/7:30 p.m. PST) as the moon moves into the darker region of Earth's shadow, called the umbra. "The Exploratorium will broadcast a telescope view of the moon live from Pier 15 on San Francisco's Embarcadero," museum representatives announced on the Exploratorium website. The museum will be closed during the broadcast.

Doris Elin Salaza, Space.com

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KING TIDES OPEN HOUSE Mendocino County, Navarro Beach. Captain Fletcher's Inn, 500 Navarro Beach Road

Jan. 20, 8:30am-noon

Presented by Navarro-by-the-Sea Center

The historic Captain Fletcher's Inn will be open to visitors coming down to Navarro Beach to view and record the King Tide. We'll have coffee, hot tea, light refreshments, and a roaring fire to warm up and enjoy as you view the tides from a safe distance. For info on the cultural and natural histories of the area visit www.navarro-by-the-sea-center.org

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UKIAH SHELTER PETS OF THE WEEK

Nugget is very handsome dog who is sweet and has that goofy Lab energy. And, like any good Lab, Nugget loves playing fetch. Nugget knows SIT, SHAKE and ROLL OVER. Nugett is a 1 year old, neutered male who weighs in at a stylish 54 pounds. More about Nugget on his shelter webpage: http://www.mendoanimalshelter.com/dogblog/nugget

Senor Jeffe is a 3 year old, neutered male cat with very handsome black and white tuxedo markings. Not only is he a very attractive looking cat, he also has a great outgoing personality. Senor Jeffe is a chill cat who doesn't mind being picked up and carried or left on his own to explore his surroundings. A comfy place for Jeffe to lounge around and plenty of lap time with his new family will be a must in his new home!

The Ukiah Animal Shelter is located at 298 Plant Road in Ukiah, and adoption hours are Tuesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday from 10 am to 4:30 pm and Wednesday from 10 am to 6:30 pm. To see photos and bios of the shelter's adoptable animals, please visit us online at: mendoanimalshelter.com

For more information about adoptions please call 707-467-6453.

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POT PERMITS: GOING NOWHERE SLOW

by Mark Scaramella

AT THEIR LAST MEETING on January 8, 2019, newly seated Supervisor Ted Williams asked, “Are there any staff recommendations on how we can process the [pot permit] queue faster? I would like to hear; what can the supervisors do to make sure we are getting everyone into the system where the application is kicked out and not stuck in a holding pattern where month after month we see a large number still in review.”

MENDO'S freshly appointed pot permit program manager, Sean Connell, replied: “We are currently doing the work in order to provide that. We are going to — we think that we are going to address that much more on the 22nd [of January] when we can have enough time to comprehensively understand all the aspects of that and I do plan on bringing this to you and this board on 22nd of January.”

CONNELL didn’t specify what he meant by “that” or “this,” leaving it pretty much open to whatever he wanted "this" or “that” to be.

IT WAS CLEAR, however, that Supervisor Williams wanted specific “staff recommendations.”

THE JANUARY 22 Supe's agenda has now been posted, including what Mr. Connell describes as a “comprehensive cannabis program update.”

https://www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Comprehensive-Cannabis-Program-Update-01-22-2019.pdf

“COMPREHENSIVE” is in the eye of the updater, it seems.

MENDO'S NEW POT GUY, Sean Connell, lists the bureaucratic titles of the kinds of documents that the Water Board and Fish & Wildlife want to see. It’s a mess, of course. (For example, one of them is “EPIMS-Application Received Notification.” “EPIMS” is not explained, not that we’d know any more if it was. But it indicates how much of a bureaucrat’s game the pot permit process has become.)

UNDER Fish & Wildlife Mr. Connell notes: “total number of documents received by department 300.”

AND UNDER “Water Board Evidence” Mr. Connell notes: “total number of documents received by department 483.”

CONNELL then goes on to repeat most of the same information that lead to Supervisor Williams' original question, showing the numbers of permits in various categories of review — very close to the same as last time and still very much “in a holding pattern.”

THEN COMES a nod to Supervisor Carre Brown with a final chart entitled “Moving Forward” which says:

"Conduct 212 pre-permit site inspections prior to reopening for Phase I in April 2019

"Finalize department policies and procedures for submission, acceptance, processing, review, referral, inspection, determination and recommendations and issuance of permits

"Outreach and Education such as satellite office locations, streamlined applications, technological integration of web based forms

"Receive remaining outstanding documents from current applicants.”

Nothing new there.


NOWHERE in Connell’s (not so) “comprehensive” presentation is anything even in the general vicinity of a response to Supervisor Williams' original question.

Prediction: 1. Supervisor Williams will give up on the subject. (We can’t say we’d blame him, but we hope we’re wrong on this one.) and 2. If Supervisor Williams tries to follow-up on his original question he will get another non-responsive stream of pot-bureaucratese.

Why is it so darn hard to get simple answers to straightforward questions about the pot permit program? Is the subject of "marijuana" itself affected by the product under discussion?

If Mr. Connell doesn’t know what can be done to speed up the permit process, why doesn’t he just say that, and offer to prepare a list of possible steps that would help? Staffing changes? Letters to state agencies? Legislators? Deletion or waiver of some requirements?

ALL THIS CONFUSION was predictable. Official Mendo, with big buck pot revenues bedazzling the CEO's office, rushed headlong into the breech with a constantly amended set of rules, apparently not fully aware that a bunch of state agencies would hold trump cards over sort-of redundant local rules. It's all still in a state of confusion, and totally skewed to well-capitalized, large-scale growers, meaning whatever rules Mendo finally adopts, the small-time pot farmer will continue his outlaw grows, albeit with the attendant additional law enforcement hazard overlay and lower margins for it. They are here to stay because it's already clear, as Colorado's experience proves, that street pot is and always will be cheaper than store pot.

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LAKE MENDOCINO NOW CAN HOLD 22 BILLION GALLONS OF WATER, most since its creation in 1958

Heavy rains this week left Lake Mendocino, the North Bay region’s second-largest reservoir, with an extra 2 billion gallons of water that until now officials would have been obliged to release into the Russian River and eventually the Pacific Ocean.

pressdemocrat.com/news/9186632-181/lake-mendocino-now-can-hold

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LOCAL GANG MEMBER ENROUTE TO SAN QUENTIN.

Julio Rafael Najera Leon, age 26, of the Ukiah area, was sentenced this past week to a combined 10 years in state prison on two separate cases.

Najera Leon was convicted by plea in the principal case of being a felon in unlawful possession of two firearms. He reluctantly admitted as true a sentencing enhancement charged by the DA that he has suffered a prior Strike conviction, a 2011 robbery in Los Angeles County. He also admitted enhancements that he has served two prior prison commitments and failed to stay conviction-free for at least five years following both of his releases from custody to parole supervision.

In the subordinate case, Najera Leon was convicted by plea of a felony assault with a firearm on another person. He also admitted a separate sentencing enhancement that he has suffered an additional prior Strike conviction, a 2011 residential burglary in Los Angeles County.

With statutory credits that may be earned at a reduced rate due to the prior Strikes, this defendant would normally be required to serve eight of the ten years in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. However, if found eligible by prison authorities for voter-approved Proposition 57 expedited release, the defendant will only have to serve just over two years before being released yet again to local parole supervision.

The attorney prosecuting this defendant was District Attorney David Eyster. The investigating law enforcement agencies were the Ukiah Police Department, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, and the California State Parole Office.

Mendocino County Superior Court Judge John Behnke accepted the negotiated plea bargain and sentenced the defendant to the stipulated term of 10 years in state prison.

(District Attorney Press Release)

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ED NOTES

FUNNIEST sign seen today on tv clips of the Women's March in SF. "Shut up Trump and make me a sandwich."


FESS UP, my fellow lib labs. I laughed, and I bet you did too, when Trump pulled Pelosi and her fellow Demo junketeers off the plane for Afghanistan. We should recall that Pelosi, Schumer, the Clintons, Biden et al signed off on W. Bush's disastrous invasion of Iraq, that the endless wars in the Middle East was the usual bipartisan blunder. A mega-blunder given that it destabilized the entire world.


THIS IDIOT'S GUIDE to the PG&E dilemma: PG&E, despite its supposed public utility status because the entire public of California depends on it for power, is organized like a private business owned by shareholders. In any business with shareholders, shareholders come first. PG&E reported net income last year of a billion dollars. Guess who got most of that? The Public Utilities Commission, in theory acting in the public's interest, instead acts in the interests of PG&E's shareholders. The young woman functioning as PG&E's CEO, Geisha Williams, "the first Hispanic female" to be PG&E boss (to kill an entire town in Butte County), was paid more than two million to leave her "job," one more gift of ratepayer funds. Coming right up? A form of bankruptcy paid for by ratepayers like the last one. The mighty ava recommends the break-up of PG&E into regional servers overseen by truly independent trustees, and the replacement of the entire PUC Commission.


NO FOOL like an old fool. I couldn't resist the annual free throw contest at Drake High School this morning (Saturday). For ten bucks benefitting The Needy Families of Marin, and all ages welcome, I went 6 for 25. But no air balls! Around the rim every time! The gaffer shooting next to me looked like he was shooting cannonballs, firing up ten air balls in a row. My 24% on the morning was, in the dentures class, almost respectable.


CRUISING NETFLIX the other night, I came across a Russian-made epic called "Trotsky." Curious about how the Putin-era Russians were handling their recent history — filmic tongs, I imagined — I tuned it in. Pretty corny with lots of distinctly un-Trotsky-like sex scenes, but politically interesting in its obvious sympathies for the old man, and well made enough to hold my fragged attentions, and fairly true to the history of the Trotsky-Stalin death struggle. Had to laugh, though, when they threw in a Trotsky-Freud dispute, with Freud claiming that sex and violence were the two primary psycho-drivers, and Freud could see them both in Trotsky's eyes. Although Stalin, Trotsky, Hitler, Freud, and lots of other heavy hitters lived in Vienna at the same time, Trotsky didn't know Freud. Or Hitler. The dialogue is enhanced by the real life statements from revolutionary circles. The acting is so-so. I wished they could have found an actor as imposing as the real man, but it is a movie after all, a kind of Russian Gone With the Wind, I guess.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, January 19, 2019

Dugazon, Lopez, Magdaleno

TERRY DUGAZON, Margate, Florida/Willits. DUI-alcohol&drugs.

JOSE LOPEZ, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

GERARDO MAGDALENO, Ukiah. Community supervision violation.

Petty, Quail

SHERRIE PETTY, San Rafael/Ukiah. Parole violation.

MICHAEL QUAIL, American Canyon/Ukiah. Concelaed dirk-dagger, false personation of another, probation revocation.

Rodriguez, Ruiz, Sanders

JONATHAN RODRIGUEZ, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

ROLANDO RUIZ, Ukiah. Disobeying court order, evasion.

RHONDA SANDERS, Fort Bragg. Under influence, probation revocation.

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WHY I ABJURE THE INTERVIEW

by Bruce McEwen

When I was an editorial intern at Ranch & Coast Magazine back in 1983 my editor, Steve Marshke, would fill my inbox with press releases he’d sorted through; my job was to edit them down to the bare bones, just the facts, six to a dozen lines at most, and then give the corpse a clever turn, a fresh take, an effervescent tone, something like a cocktail in words. It's called radio copy in the magazine trade.

Afterwards, Editor Marshke would go over them and make notes in the margin, where he suggested alterations, and after a couple of rewrites, he would select enough to fill a two-page spread of what magazines call a “shopping column” featuring the new products and services Marshke felt our readers, the affluent denizens of Rancho Santa Fe and La Jolla, would be interested in.

My column was called ‘A Cut Above’ to assuage the superiority complexes of our readership, and after a few months of re-writes and tune-ups, I developed a set of skills that have stood me in good stead ever since. But my new facility also brought me new problems. This was due to an assumption which even Marshke suffered from, which is to say that the prospectus of a slick regional monthly for the affluent presumes a standard of sophistication, a reasonable amount of enlightenment on the part of the readers that, unfortunately, most rich people are seriously lacking in.

Certainly, the prescient and the recondite had to be kept to absolute minimums, but even an occasional phrase of high school French proved too much for our readers to take without irascible letters of complaint to the editor. The publisher, Ruth Giffen, was Barging Through Burgundy at the time, and sending in reports and photos from France which she wanted me to go over and add a little pizzazz to before publication. My efforts were met with hostile censure from the readership; especially those who knew Ruth personally, and didn’t believe for a minute she would ever use a phrase like le Coeur a ses raisons, “she [Ruth] doesn’t even like raisins,” one woman blustered impatiently.

But far and away the most touchy thing about the readers was the Interview With A Distinguished Personage feature-length article. You could never do one of these to anyone’s satisfaction, least of all the interviewee’s. The problem arose from the simple fact that for most of these people, the only thing that distinguished them from anybody else was their money. And yet they themselves honestly believed that they were inherently special, and that it was the fault of the interviewer that this quality of specialness didn’t come through in the interview. It was simply impossible, for me at least, and after a couple of attempts I refused any further such assignments.

Nowadays, of course, the interview is a very popular form of writing and we have locally a good many people plying their talent at the trade. The best in the business, I suppose, is NPR’s Terry Gross, but Radio Curious producer Barry Vogel is also quite a hand at interviews, not to forget Dave Smith, and Marilyn Davin, both whom have published recent interviews printed in the Anderson Valley Advertiser. But whether it is about Jerry Philbrick or Larry Judson Butler all I have to say is, “That’s nice.”

In fact, that’s about all I can say for any of Terry Gross’s interviews. All I can remember from at least a hundred I’ve heard over the years, is a phrase from Johnny Cash praising Ms. Gross: “What you do, you do really well.” That’s it. Nothing else was memorable enough for me to retain it. And the same can be said from all the interviews I’ve read of famous people in magazines like The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire and Vanity Fair. Oh, wait – I take that back: I recall Norman Mailer said in an interview that he kept his writing hand on a green silk pillow. That’s all.

What other people get out of the plethora of interviews that fill magazines and newspapers – to say nothing of the internet – I can’t begin to guess. But I get very little, if anything, out of reading or listening to the darn things. And I have come to think that the form itself is what makes the interview so forgettable.

First off, you have to be awfully nice to get people to submit to an interview. And niceness, like icing, never lasts. An anecdote of James Thurber’s recounts the time when he was at the New Yorker; Time editors wanted to do a profile on him but couldn’t find the right person for the job, so Thurber suggested he do it himself. “We wanted a favorable piece,” the editors said by way of rejection. In his early newspaper days Thurber had done a lot of interviews himself, including Thomas Edison, Eddie Rickenbacker and General Pershing, so he couldn’t have been entirely brutal in his approach as a cub reporter.

But by the time Thurber was in his 30s and 40s his trenchant sense of humor was too scary for the publishers at Time. And what does that tell us about the form of the interview? That it’s a very humorless business? That it is by definition favorable?

I’ll leave those answers to the discerning readership, and close this précis of the Art of Portraiture in Words with my own observation that the interview is more like ad copy than radio copy; that is to say it is the complete opposite of the way I learned to write as an editorial intern, parsing press releases down to the basic product or service, stripping away all the flattering adjectives and sugary adverbs, skimming off the syrupy enthusiasm, distilling it down to its 180 proof essence and then serving it up in a parfait glass with a twist of verve and a rime of salty wit on the brim – which would never do in an interview.

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ON JANUARY 18, 1958, men of the Lumbee tribe surrounded a large Ku Klux Klan rally and kicked them out of their territory. Four Klansmen were injured in what is now known as The Battle of Hayes Pond. The KKK never returned.

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NO SURPRISE

Editor,

It’s no surprise that PG&E is declaring bankruptcy. Any fire that erupts in wind or a storm is its fault. PG&E can trim trees but cannot cut them down and is responsible for branches from the remainder of the tree. (Ponder for a second what this county would look like if every tree within falling distance of a PG&E pole were cut down).

If PG&E cuts service, many people are at risk. If it doesn’t cut power and someone dies, will anyone praise PG&E for its actions? Who will pay the billions PG&E is liable for, even if it could pay? Everyone.

I lost a house to fire in Weed in 2014. It was started by an arsonist but fueled by sawdust from a sawmill. Is the mill responsible? Fortunately for me, it wasn’t my home.

Do I feel for the families whose lives have been disrupted by the Tubbs and Paradise fires? Absolutely. On the night of the Tubbs fire, the wind was incredible — blowing in all directions. The idea that a fire could cross a six-lane freeway cannot be attributed to PG&E. Even if there was no bankruptcy, we all would pay whether we lost our homes or not — for power, insurance, commerce and changes we haven’t yet seen.

Karen Norman-Boudreau

Sebastopol

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GASLIGHTING ONESELF

As a form of psychological manipulation gaslighting has been with us for years. It works by preying on one's sense of knowledge, one's sense of self worth in the sense of the worth of one's knowledge. I have been myself gaslighted by a friend who sat across a restaurant table suavly smiling as he denied that I had ever experienced what I had just told him I had experienced. This can be crazy making, I assure you.

When the person denying your experience is the president, and especially when your denial en masse becomes part of the story, things have at least gotten world's more threatening. What you heard him say yesterday wasn't, he says, what he said, certainly not what he meant. Through stupidity or inattention, you do not understand. This has much impact on what you think that you know.

These days preparing to hear the news takes preparation. You don't just change the station or look away from the departure board like you are glancing at a sitcom because you know that you're about to be lied to in a way that wasn't ever true before. If the president saw you hesitate, he'd gloat. His minions are already looking murderous. There. You're gaslighting yourself.

(Bruce Brady)

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RAND PAUL, the man who once compared socialized medicine to “slavery,” is scheduled to have hernia surgery at a private clinic in Canada, despite the fact the he has repeatedly claimed that private doctors are eradicated by nations with single-payer health systems. — Jeffrey St. Clair

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TEACHERS PRICED OUT OF THE CITY…

A few years ago, Sarah was living in a drafty garage belonging to one of her friends. Despite being a smart, highly qualified teacher to sixth- and seventh-graders at a public middle school not far from San Francisco’s international airport, she simply could not afford to live anywhere else in the city.

San Francisco is facing an unprecedented housing affordability crisis. That was the conclusion of an analysis published in July by the city’s planning department documenting the huge challenge facing the city and the wider Bay Area.

Rapidly rising rents and soaring property values, combined with high construction costs and prohibitive zoning policies, have stymied the “missing middle” housing options needed for public sector employees like Sarah, who earn too much to qualify for low-income housing, but not enough to afford the Bay Area’s often outlandish market rates.

While teachers may be invaluable to society, their pay and working conditions are deteriorating as housing costs rise. On Monday, Los Angeles public school teachers began their first strike in 30 years after more than a year of failed negotiations over issues that include pay.

“It’s so important for our public servants to be able to live in their communities,” says Kristy Wang, community planning policy director at the nonprofit San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association, or SPUR. “But we live in such a high-cost housing market that it’s really difficult for them to do that because they just don’t make enough…”

(HuffingtonPost.com)

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ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE DAY

Re: Wall Street Democrats want you to hate Bernie Sanders

[1] "It's a whacky world, right?" I'd add that Trump's world is a dirty money world. He can command lots of dark mob money. Let's not forget his speech when the producers of The Apprentice initially suggested they film it in his own office. Trump said that was impossible because he meets with "contractors, politicians and mobsters" and "mobsters don't like cameras." > There sure are a lot of people thinking about running for President as a Democrat. Sanders, Biden, Warren and Harris are just the tip of that iceberg. And then, there's Hillary?? I'd vote for Beto O-Rourke but the National Democrats don't like him now. He put country over party in a local election in Texas and voiced support for a Republican, whom he said was the better candidate. I thought that was what we wanted. It's a nice theory, it seems, until it actually gets used.

[2] What standards do we apply when selecting leaders: identity, appearance, personality, rhetoric, charisma, regardless of Party? Or do we admire their political philosophy, their integrity, and their record of commitment to a public or common good? If we fall again for another corporate Obama/Hillary clone because we like their style or their gender, we get what we deserve: neoliberalism. And neoliberalism is what brought us Trump. Seems to me that to date at least, Bernie is not only the best chance we have to open the door to a left. He is the only chance we have. I’d like to see him run with Barbara Lee. When the house is burning, and there is no door to the left, people will rush to the right.

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FISHING GROUPS, WINNEMEM WINTU TRIBE SUE CA DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES TO PROTECT DELTA FLOWS

by Dan Bacher

The avalanche of lawsuits filed against Jerry Brown’s Delta Tunnels project over the past couple of years has continued into the new administration of Governor Gavin Newsom.

In the latest legal battle in the California water wars, a coalition of environmental, fishing, and Native American groups led by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen Associations (PCFFA) filed suit on January 16 against the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to “overturn its latest attempt to force former Governor Jerry Brown’s Twin Tunnels (California WaterFix) proposal upon California taxpayers,” according to a press release from PCFFA.

The suit, filed in Sacramento Superior Court by the Law Offices of Stephan C. Volker, challenges DWR’s attempt to revamp its 30-year-old Coordinated Operations Agreement (COA) with the federal Bureau of Reclamation to export more water from the Delta through the Twin Tunnels while evading scrutiny under California’s environmental laws, including the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the Delta Reform Act and the Public Trust Doctrine.

The North Coast Rivers Alliance and the Winnemem Wintu (McCloud River) Tribe are joining the PCFFA in filing suit against DWR. The Tribe, under the leadership of Chief Caleen Sisk, is currently fighting to bring the winter-run Chinook salmon, now thriving in the Rakaira River in New Zealand after eggs were shipped there over 100 years ago, back to the McCloud River above Shasta Dam.

On December 12, 2018, the Department of Water Resources entered into two controversial agreements before Jerry Brown left the Governor's Office: (1) an Addendum to the Agreement between the Trump administration and the Department of Water Resources for coordinated operation of the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project and (2) an Agreement to address the Effects of the California WaterFix on Central Valley Project Operations by and between the Bureau of Reclamation and DWR (“Hold Harmless Agreement”) and collectively with the COA Addendum Project.

"In taking these actions DWR violated CEQA, the Delta Reform Act, and the Public Trust Doctrine," the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit alleges that DWR’s attempted COA addendum would export more water from California’s Delta and its upstream reservoirs when imperiled fish populations can least afford it — during drought years — for export to San Joaquin Valley corporate agribusiness and Southern California water interests.

“Although the impacts on the Delta’s beleaguered salmon and other fisheries could be potentially calamitous, DWR has claimed no environmental review was needed. It granted itself an exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act on the grounds that their action was merely an 'ongoing operation' of the State Water Project (SWP)," according to PCFFA.

Delta Tunnels opponents argue that DWR’s revision of the COA would worsen existing SWP operations by increasing exports when the Delta has the least water available for fish.

PCFFA Executive Director Noah Oppenheim likened this evasion of environmental review to “old-style political double-speak.”

“Instead of restoring the Delta as scientists agree is critically overdue, the Twin Tunnels would steal its flows when fish most need protection, pushing salmon fishermen closer to the brink,” said Oppenheim.

The litigation also charges that DWR’s COA addendum would violate the Delta Reform Act and the Public Trust Doctrine, both of which forbid DWR from exporting more water and require instead that it restore natural flows,.

“Before DWR began exporting Delta waters south some 50 years ago, historic outflows to San Francisco Bay supported salmon runs in the millions of fish. Today, several salmon species are clinging to survival as their numbers have dwindled to a fraction of their historic population,” said Oppenheim.

Oppenheim said excessive Delta exports have resulted in “drastically lower Delta flows and higher water temperatures, destroying the habitat salmon need to migrate upstream to their spawning grounds to reproduce, and then return to the ocean as juveniles.”

As Oppenheim observes, “we are now facing extinction of the Bay Area’s salmon, and the livelihood of those fishing families who make up the backbone of our local fishing industry.”

I have contacted the Department of Water Resources for a comment on the lawsuit, but haven't heard back from them yet.

The Delta Tunnels are not an isolated project but part of a much larger water diversion and privatization scheme. Chief Sisk emphasizes the deep connections that exist between the Twin Tunnels, Sites Reservoir and the Shasta Dam raise proposals.

“The Twin Tunnels, Sites Reservoir, and the Shasta Dam raise ‘are all 1 Brown WaterFix project’ to get the Water Mongers more water to sell back to the communities, towns and cities,” Sisk said before Brown left office on January 7.

More information about the 2018 Winnemem Wintu Run4Salmon held in September 2018 is available here: www.dailykos.com/…

The California WaterFix is a proposal to build two massive 35-mile long tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to facilitate the export of Delta water to corporate agribusiness interests and Southern California water agencies. The project would not only hasten the extinction of Sacramento River winter and spring-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish species, but would imperil the salmon and steelhead populations on the Trinity and Klamath rivers.

As the lawsuit was filed, populations of Delta smelt and other pelagic (open water) fish species in the Delta continue to collapse. For the first time ever, a fish survey that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) conducts every autumn turned up zero Delta smelt throughout the monitoring sites in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in September, October, November and December 2018.

The smelt, a 2 to 3 inch fish listed under both federal and state Endangered Species Acts, is found only in the Delta estuary. It is regarded as an indicator species, a fish that demonstrates the health of the entire Delta ecosystem.

More information:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/1/10/1825104/-Fall-Fish-Survey-Finds-Zero-Delta-Smelt

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SURRENDER

Q: How does this magic work?*

A: This magic works by accessing the 4th dimension, which enables bringing in a higher power to actualize one's intent.

Otherwise, we are welcome to street protest as much as we like, and in the end, will succeed in wearing out the street!

Craig Louis Stehr

Honolulu, Hawaii

Email: craiglouisstehr@outlook.com

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WITHOUT A PATH FROM PROTEST TO POWER, THE WOMEN'S MARCH WILL END UP LIKE OCCUPY

Social activists have succumbed to one of the most enduring myths of contemporary American protest. It’s time to consider what happens the day after.

by Micah White

Shortly after Donald Trump’s shock election victory, I received an urgent call from one of the co-creators of the Women’s March on Washington. She was concerned at a moment you might expect her to be ecstatic. Hundreds of thousands of women in 17 countries had already signed on in solidarity, and the numbers kept growing. Yet despite the tremendous momentum, she confessed a nagging skepticism about the effectiveness of the protest.

“I’m not that interested in the march itself but in what comes afterwards,” Fontaine Pearson confided to me. I admire her candor because I know it takes courage to voice such a concern. It is her difficult question – what comes the day after? – that every supporter of the Women’s March should be earnestly figuring out.

Without a clear path from march to power, the protest is destined to be an ineffective feelgood spectacle adorned with pink pussy hats.

It is exciting when a protest meme leaps from social networks to the streets, capturing the imagination of millions, prompting this very website (guardian.com) to proclaim that the forthcoming protest could be among the biggest in American history and Vogue to commission glitzy photos of the core organizers dressed up like Eileen Fisher models. But it is all too easy to succumb to the false hope that a big splash is a transformative tsunami.

Don’t be fooled. It is not. I’ve been there, as the co-creator of a raucous pro-democracy meme that inspired months of Occupy protests in 82 countries. And I can tell you that raising awareness and getting media attention is never enough. Frankly, neither brings the people closer to sovereign power.

For all those who want the Women’s March to be the start of an enduring revolutionary movement, here is my advice on how to increase the odds.

Know your history: let’s go back to 1789

On 5 October 1789, during the earliest days of what would become the French Revolution, a mob of women materialized on the streets of Paris. Some historians say it was spontaneous, others that it was planned. Regardless, we know that the furious women, desperately hungry from bread shortages in the city, descended on the Hôtel de Ville, the seat of municipal government, and demanded to speak to the mayor. The national guard refused them entry but also refused to fire on them and so the women burst through the police line, ransacked city hall and raided the armory.

Now armed with swords and cannons, the crowd of protesters grew to more than 7,000 female insurrectionaries. Suddenly a far more revolutionary goal was adopted: a Women’s March on Versailles, where King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette where hosting a series of lavish banquets for royalist soldiers.

It the first protest march of women in modern history, and it was also the most effective. When the revolutionary women arrived at Versailles, they broke into the palace, murdered two guardsmen and attempted to enter the queen’s bedchamber before ultimately forcing King Louis XVI and his entourage to march with the crowd – now 60,000 strong – back to Paris.

The Women’s March on Versailles was a literal and forceful assertion of the people’s sovereignty over the king. It was a defining moment in the revolutionary history of democracy. As the historian William Doyle explains: “Louis XVI never returned to Versailles … All open attempts on the king’s part to resist the reform of France now came to an end.” The National Assembly was led to Paris shortly after and legislative decision-making power was eventually fully captured by the people. Democratic revolutionaries executed King Louis XVI by guillotine less than four years later.

The day after the women marched on Versailles was the definitive point of no return for the French Revolution. And let’s not forget that the Russian Revolution of 1917 was also initially sparked, as Leon Trotsky recalls in his definitive history, by a defiant women’s protest.

The lesson here is that protesting grandmothers, daughters and mothers have the unique power to do what male protesters cannot – such as break through a line of national guard bayonets without being fired upon. And for this reason, women will always play a foundational role in the great revolutions to come, but only when they take matters into their own hands, act unexpectedly and viscerally, and focus their collective energy on the only target that matters: concretely establishing the power of the people over their governments.

Ignore repeated failures and change tactics

The original Women’s March on Versailles involved women using direct action to force the king to listen to the people’s demands. Today’s Women’s March is entirely symbolic.

No one would ever dare to call for an insurrectionary march on Trump Tower with the goal of physically dragging the president-elect and his family out of their penthouse. No one says the Women’s March on Washington should ransack the White House or occupy Congress and appoint themselves legislators. Instead, we organize a well-publicized spectacle and hope he will listen from within his palatial accommodations.

If you’re showing up at the Women’s March on 21 January in the hopes that the world will be different on 22 January, then you need to think seriously about the goal of marching.

As a general rule, before you protest, ask yourself why this is one of your chosen forms of action. Question your tactics, not your motives. In this case, the obvious first question for any activist ought to be: why deploy a communal march in the streets as a form of protest?

Sometimes, the people march. Other times we hold general assemblies, tar and feather opponents, occupy pipelines, go on strike, dance in a circle, riot in the streets or pray together. In each case, behind every act of protest is an often unarticulated theory of social change: a story we tell ourselves about why the disobedient behavior we’ve chosen will usher in the change we desire.

So why are women marching the day after Donald Trump becomes president? It all comes down to a false theory of how the people can assert sovereign power over their elected president in 2017.

Today’s social activists have succumbed to one of the most enduring myths of contemporary American protest: the comforting belief that if you can get enough people into the streets from diverse demographics, largely unified behind a clear message, then our representatives will be forced to heed the crowd’s wishes.

If this story has ever been true, and I’m not so sure it has, then it hasn’t been the case since 1963, when 250,000 people marched on Washington for “jobs and freedom” and heard Martin Luther King Jr deliver his I Have a Dream speech. Less than a year later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination based on “race, color, religion, sex or national origin” in employment and housing.

But let’s be real: there are countless counter-examples of marches on Washington that failed: the 1913 march of women to demand the right to vote, the 1978 march for the Equal Rights Amendment, the 1986 Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, the Million Man March of 1995, the 2004 March for Women’s Lives, the inauguration protests against George W Bush’s second term in 2005 … the list is practically endless. Activists have a tendency to ignore repeated failure in favor of overemphasizing one or two anomalous minor victories.

The absolute failure of the 15 February 2003 anti-war protest, the largest synchronized global march in human history, was the last gasp of this tactic. Today’s nominally democratic governments would be more concerned by the absence of our marches, as that might suggest something darker is in the works.

The only way to attain sovereignty – the supreme authority over the functioning of our government – is to use social protest to win elections or win wars. Either we can march to the ballot box or the battleground; there is no third option.

To the ballot box, then: prepare to govern

That Trump was elected demonstrates that an anti-establishment outsider can sweep into power through elections – a fact activists should learn from and begrudgingly celebrate.

Before Trump’s victory, it was widely assumed that a candidate without the backing of the establishment could not possibly win a presidential election. Good news: now we know that it is possible. It is finally conceivable that a revolutionary movement beholden to the people could take power in America by winning elections and without violence.

I suspect the Women’s March on Washington has a role to play in this unfolding drama, but only if we cultivate a few moments of detachment from the thoughtless excitement to truly take time to consider this question: what happens on the day after the women march?

Right now, in America, there is no pro-democracy anti-establishment party that is capable of stepping forward, seizing power and governing. America needs a protest movement like Spain’s Podemos, Iceland’s Pirate Party or Italy’s 5 Star Movement. These populist democratic movements are the prototype for the future of protest. Each has achieved surprising electoral victories in a short time, but what is more important is how they are changing the way power functions.

Consider, for example, what happened when Virginia Raggi, a member of the anti-corruption 5 Star Movement, was elected mayor of Rome in 2016 only to be embroiled in her own corruption scandal. The movement didn’t make excuses. Instead, the Five Star Movement very swiftly asserted its sovereignty over its candidate and stripped Raggi of the power to make appointments and other “important decisions” without the movement’s approval. This represents a leap forward in people power: a concrete example of a social movement winning elections while still retaining a firm grip on decision-making power. Bravo!

The number one challenge standing in the way of an effective protest in America today is the inability of our social movements to actually govern. There might be a slight chance our protests could oust Trump, but there is no chance that our present-day movements could govern at all, let alone effectively.

That is because leaderless protesters don’t know how to make complex decisions together as movement. Occupy couldn’t even come up with its one demand.

Now we are seeing this capacity slowly develop among protest movements in Europe. However, until we can replicate their successes in America, the people will never be able to take back sovereignty and our protests remain an exercise in infantile futility.

And that is the great gift that the Women’s March on Washington could give us. May the angry women return home the day after the march to lead us toward a women-led hybrid movement-party in every state that is disciplined enough to govern, militantly local and single-mindedly devoted to actualizing a force capable of seizing control of city councils and mayorships during midterm elections across America in preparation for an electoral coup against the presidency in 2020.

Now that would be a goal worth marching toward.

(Guardian.com)

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SPECIAL SCREENING OF ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN

Mendocino Film Festival

http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/575144/2dcd05ee6c/286148553/2ca288f17f/

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THE PLANTING OF A TREE, especially one of the long-living hardwood trees, is a gift which you can make to posterity at almost no cost and with almost no trouble, and if the tree takes root it will far outlive the visible effect of any of your other actions, good or evil.

— George Orwell

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ARIZONA: FOUR WOMEN CONVICTED AFTER LEAVING FOOD AND WATER IN DESERT FOR MIGRANTS

theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/19/arizona-four-women-convicted-after-leaving-food-and-water-in-desert-for-migrants

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* * *

I MET A MAGICAL FAIRY YESTERDAY who said she would grant me one wish.

"I wish to live forever," I said.

"Sorry," said the fairy, "That is the only wish that I'm not allowed to grant."

"Fine," I said, "then I want to die the day after Congress is filled with honest, hard-working, bipartisan men and women who act only in the people's best interests!"

"You crafty little bastard," replied the fairy…

* * *

BLAME THE RIGHT PEOPLE

Editor,

Gavin Gruesome Newsom is going to put a tax on tap water. You can't catch rainwater. You can't trap any rainwater anymore.

There should be no trials for cop killers. Kill them on the spot. I can't believe they arrest cop killers and take them into custody and put them in jail and feed them and blanket them and shower them after they just shot an officer. Are you kidding me? If it was me, I'd put a bullet between their eyes. No trials for anyone who kills anyone, especially an officer of the law. It's disgusting.

People who are trying to destroy the Constitution and America and our freedom should be brought up on treason charges and shipped out of the country, people like Pelosi, Schumer, Kamala Harris, Maxine Waters, that guy Booker, Feinstein, Ocasio-Cortez and all the rest of the far left, miserable liberal Democrats. They need to get out of the way and leave the rest of us alone for the good of the country. Get rid of the far radical left movement.

Thanks Flynn Washburne for the nice words, but I am who I am. I believe in the Constitution, the national anthem, Pledge of Allegiance, law enforcement, the military, the American flag, respect for elders, being a good person. I don't like far left radicals like George Soros and Tom Steyer who create trouble with their money. They brag about how anti-American they are and you can't do anything about it because they're so rich and cause so much trouble. I love President Trump and what he's doing. I hate the social media especially the Washington Post. They are anarchist terrorist anti-Americans, the scum of the earth. I am me. I'm good at what I'm saying.

Thank God we have a President Trump. MAGA.

About 15 or 20 years ago, CDF started expanding to interfere with all kinds of logging operations and making up all these rules to get rid of loggers, and lumber prices went up. It was a mess. They should be spending their time and money on preventing fires. If they had spent half the money they spent getting rid of logging jobs on preventing fires there wouldn't be any fires.

How can you blame somebody like PG&E who has 100,000 miles of wire criss-crossing around Northern California for a couple of sparks here and there? If the right-of-way had been cleaned the way it should have the fires wouldn't have happened and you can thank Jerry Brown for that, okay?

The EPA is also responsible for the wildfires because of the crap they pull on the American people who got so rich off of Bill Clinton's donations which then went to Obama to hire lawyers to interfere with timber operations in California. And hunting. And ranching. And construction. It didn't matter. The EPA lets trees and brush and grass grow and that's why all those fuels are out there creating fires. That's the EPA. Let's get off the BS of blaming PG&E and blame the right people.

God bless Donald Trump

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche

* * *

* * *

MEMO OF THE AIR: SUPER BLOOD WOLF MOON. TIME TO AROOOOO! LIKE NIXON IN FUTURAMA.

The recording of last night's (2019-01-18) KNYO Fort Bragg and KMEC Ukiah world-class Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show is available by one or two clicks, depending on whether you want to listen to it now or download it and keep it for later and, speaking of which, it's right here:

https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0316

Besides that, also at http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you can find a fresh batch of dozens of links to not necessarily radio-useful but nonetheless worthwhile educational items I set aside for you while gathering the show together. Such as:

"It’s almost horrific the way they pop in the dolls' eyes with workaday nonchalance."

https://tinyurl.com/NothingLikeADoll

There is nothing like a wall. A big embarrassing racist superfluous wall.

https://tinyurl.com/NothingLikeAWall

Things that begin with guh.

https://tinyurl.com/BeginWithGuh

And the lemonade machine.

https://tinyurl.com/RubeGoldbergLemonade

--

Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org,

https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

11 Comments

  1. Craig Stehr January 20, 2019

    *Thanking Daniel Kingery of the Washington, D.C. Peace Vigil (continuous and ongoing across the street from the White House in Lafayette Park since 1981) for his question: “How does this magic work?”. See “SURRENDER” above for my answer.

  2. Eric Sunswheat January 20, 2019

    RE: NO FOOL like an old fool. I couldn’t resist the annual free throw contest at Drake High School this morning (Saturday).

    ——>. I was jonesing for dark chocolate outside the Fairfax Market tonight when they shut the 2am closing doors on me. On mind that got my goat, was an excerpt in the pending Keith Faulder article by Bruce McEwen in Friday’s MCT blog,

    To wit:
    “After twenty-five years in this community I know its perimeters,” Faulder said. He added, “I know that I want to use the law to help people break the cycle of criminal behavior. I want to give people the opportunity to correct their own mistakes.”
    “Have you regretted any sentences you meted out to convicted criminals?” this reporter asked.
    Faulder paused for a few moments and replied, “Nothing comes to mind.”

    —->. Judge Faulder’s summarizing statement bothers me, does not fit square with the need for prison reform for lowering rate of recidivism, by dealing with preliminary root causes and distortional variables, interpreted as fostering crimality. I could go on but I’m fading with a dry sheet of rolled cardboard to rest my head, missing a push from fermented organic dark chocolate nutrients.

  3. mr. wendal January 20, 2019

    re: POT PERMITS: GOING NOWHERE SLOW

    “Why is it so darn hard to get simple answers to straightforward questions about the pot permit program?”

    That could be repeated when reporting about most departments of our county government: “Why is it so darn hard to get simple answers to straightforward questions about _________?” (fill in the blank)

    I hope Mr. Scaramella continues to ask these questions and that supervisors Williams and Haschak have the desire and perseverance to do the same until they regularly get facts, data and coherent sentences instead of the current gobbledygook in response to their requests for information. If they both do, then we may have a glimmer of hope for the future of Mendocino County. Especially if supervisor Gjerde joins them. Now is your chance, gentlemen.

  4. Betsy Cawn January 20, 2019

    Re: the futility of the Women’s March – in the mid-eighties, many of the female underlings in the “high tech” industry were roused to mewl and whisper about the obnoxious practices of their blustering or brutish male bosses, but when confronted with the fact that in that very year women spent over $7BILLION dollars on makeup and frillery that could be put to use for political action, these women decided I was a traitor to their cause (as a rare female manager in our business, noticeably unimproved in appearance by the standards of the day). The E.R.A. failed because women didn’t have the guts to strike — at home and in the office — and found it more satisfying to pay for glossy magazines featuring “feminists” endlessly vilifying masculine dictatorship of modern culture, for fame and fortune.

    I don’t disagree with their disgruntlement, just the wishy-washy whining and diversion of precious resources to “her-oic” hedonism and self-proclaimed success stories (a female CEO at Hewlett-Packard, Vice-Presidential candidate — remember her? — a Supreme Court judge, like “wow”?), while blue-collar workers of both genders do the heavy lifting and generally get screwed by the “owners.”

    On the other hand, I do not regret having spent the better part of 10 years “protesting” the “war” (American raids on valuably exploitable resources overseas) in Southeast Asia, as the breakdown of the then-established political royalty unfolded, ultimately defrocking Nixon, but costing us the lives of some great men and women along the way.

    The fruits of successful American protest at home have not been lost, some gains have been made, some have not. My love for Cassius Clay and the Reverend Martin Luther King gives me courage every day to serve in good faith the cause of human rights.

    Remember the student protest in Berkeley, which led to the so-called “free speech movement”? These followed on the heels of UC refuseniks who defied the Regents’ demand that they sign a “loyalty oath” or lose their jobs. Those were the people who put their money where their mouth is.

    There are more ways to go on strike than people generally realize; usually what’s needed is a very clear mission and consistent, relentless repetition of the primary message: I’ll go with Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s — get that motherfucker out of there.

    [Live it up, Jerry.]

  5. Randy Burke January 20, 2019

    McEwen, you are a master of your art. Thanks for sticking it out.

  6. james marmon January 20, 2019

    “All politics is local”

    Nancy couldn’t find her way to meet with Trump in order to end the shutdown, but she had the time to take care of her and Mike Thompson’s rich donors who grow grapes in Lake and Mendocino Counties. Most vineyards and wineries in Lake County are not mom and pop operations, they are owned by rich investors from the Bay Area for write off purposes and federal bail out aid programs. The AVA’s Will Parish once did a radio show on Lakeport’s KPRZ about the local grape industry, good listen. Trump probably won’t sign the bill until Pelosi’s and Thompson’s donors force them back to the table to work with Trump to get something done. Trump earlier this week promised Pelosi’s grape growers the he would make sure they have enough legal immigrants to pick their grapes.

    U.S. House passes bill that aids Lake, Mendocino county grape growers

    “The U.S. House on Jan. 16 passed legislation that would allow North Coast grape growers to tap emergency funding to compensate them for losses incurred because of smoke taint in 2018.

    Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, offered an amendment to the overall legislation that would allow growers in Lake and Mendocino counties to be eligible for federal funding. Growers in those areas had their grapes rejected by wineries during last year’s harvest because of smoke damage to their crop from the Mendocino Complex fires in the summer.”

    https://www.pressdemocrat.com/business/9170194-181/us-house-passes-bill-that?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_content=5c449b1e04d3017004d623e3&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

    James Marmon
    Presently Residing in Lake County

    • james marmon January 20, 2019

      Potential Tax advantages of Vineyard Property

      “While this is not an exhaustive or all-inclusive list of the potential tax advantages of owing a vineyard, following are some of the most relevant potential advantages.”

      https://www.jennyheinzen.com/vineyard-tax-advantages

    • james marmon January 20, 2019

      Nancy Pelosi’s vineyard makes her fourth-richest Californian in Congress

      “Financial disclosure rules allow lawmakers to report broad ranges for the value of both their assets and liabilities starting at $1 to $1,000 and ending with any value greater than $50 million. Precise figures are not required. Roll Call calculated minimum net worth by subtracting the minimum value of liabilities from the minimum value of assets disclosed.

      The Pelosi estate on Zinfandel Lane, for example, is valued between $5,000,001 and $25 million, according to the records the congresswoman filed with the House clerk’s office for calendar year 2014. A description of the property posted on its architect’s website says it was inspired by Palladian villas and boasts a guesthouse and a “Z” shaped pool.”

      https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-richest-nancy-pelosi-vineyard-story.html

      • james marmon January 20, 2019

        Thompson is also a large grape grower, he has one in the Middletown area, southern Lake just over the Napa line.

        “Under my leadership, the Wine Caucus has held numerous policy briefings and receptions on Capitol Hill and has become involved in a wide variety of legislative issues – all with the goal of promoting our country’s incredibly vibrant wine industry from grape to glass.”

        -Mike Thompson

  7. james marmon January 20, 2019

    Here comes Murder Mountain season 2. Our Charismatic Sheriff Tom Allman better get out of the mental health business and focus more on his law enforcement duties. Sheriff Allman’s disdain for the Lincolns is not helping things in Covelo.

    Women’s march in Ukiah emphasizes murdered and missing indigenous women — watch the video

    “A number of speakers also addressed the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women’s (MMIW) movement, and many attendees wore red to honor the missing women. Speakers including Bernadette Smith, whose sister Nicole Smith was killed in November, 2017. Supporters of Britton’s family also brought banners with Britton’s face to marches in Santa Rosa, San Francisco, and Reno, NV as part of a number of MMIW groups participating in the events.

    https://www.mendovoice.com/2019/01/womens-march-in-ukiah-emphasizes-murdered-and-missing-indigenous-women-watch-the-video/
    Blast from the past

    THE OLD GUY whose car was found shot up near Xenia remains missing. As you can see from Kym Kemp’s story above from her invaluable website, kymkemp.com / Redheaded Blackbelt, the missing man had told relatives he was driving to Washington State from Yuma via Highway 101. How his vehicle wound up out there, not all that far from the grand junction of Trinity, Mendo and Humboldt counties is, at this time, a mystery. An outsider, let alone an old man in less than vigorous physical condition, would be unlikely to find his way to outlaw country.

    UNTIL you drive around Mendocino County you can’t understand how vast the county is. At least once a year I like to make a day trip from Boonville to Covelo, north on the Mina Road to Alderpoint, then west to Garberville, with stops at Kettenpom and, until it closed, the old store in Xenia. The Mina Road is a kind of alternate route for 101, which it parallels, and off which the dirt roads running in all directions could be your last mistake if you drive up or down one for a look around. Beautiful country, lots of bad hombres, and the women who love them (sic). People wanted by the law could hide out there unmolested the rest of their days. After the famous Covelo shootings of April, 1995 involving Bear Lincoln, and the deaths of deputy Bob Davis and Leonard ‘Acorn’ Peters, ignited by the earlier shooting death of Gene Britton, people close to Lincoln have told me that he eluded the massive police hunt for him on horseback, galloping out the Mina Road, and on into the maze of back roads where he was hidden by “hippies.”

    Farther back, and a little east of the Mina Road, George White, the nationally infamous “King of Round Valley,” had his gunmen murder rival ranchers and random persons bold enough to be willing to testify against him for murdering his wife and attempting to murder another wife. A fascinating character called “Wylacki John” was White’s chief gunsel.

    A white man raised by Indians, Wylacki John was fluent in the regional dialects. And there was a black community in Covelo, circa 1870. One of White’s thugs was a black cowboy. A drive out the Mina Road on a clear Fall day and this is the reverie that might accompany you.

    IT’S STILL the rural custom in Humboldt and Trinity counties to vandalize vehicles left by the roadside more than a day or two. Used to happen around the Anderson Valley but the hipnecks — products of marriages, or no fault couplings between hippies and rednecks — who did it grew up, or at least got older and less energetic.

    I HOPE the missing man emerges with a story to tell if he emerges to tell one, but that country tends to be unforgiving.

    https://www.theava.com/archives/76042#6

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