MCT: Tuesday, January 22, 2019

• Hiker's Guide
• Elijah Missing
• Fee Waiving
• Wet/Dry
• Memories
• Alturas Funeral
• Wine Track
• Timberwolf Fundraiser
• Navarro Rental
• Livingston Fundraiser
• MLK Courage
• Emergency Access
• Permaculture Workshop
• Family Executions
• Sandwich Request
• Trotsky
• Safety Grant
• Table Bluff
• Yesterday's Catch
• Madam President
• Sports Interview
• Recycling
• Marijuana Transport
• Shutdown Solution
• Medicine
• Caspar Event
• Tricky
• Openminded
• Poor Peter
• Writhing
• Military Spending
• Decor
• Whaling
• Whiteout
• Complaining
• Lightning
• Water Grab

THE BRAND NEW 4TH EDITION of The Hiker’s hip pocket Guide to the Mendocino Coast is finally out. Long-time Fort Bragg resident and author Bob Lorentzen and his friends have beavered away for months making sure that visitors and residents will be able to find a great place to walk, bike, ride, picnic and more when they set out to explore and enjoy the outstandingly rich and beautiful region of coastal California from the King Range to Sea Ranch. There are new trails and changes to old trails with maps, notes on history, nature, and plenty of information on accessibility and seasonal availability. Whether you’re a backpacker, a day hiker, or just a day dreamer, this book will appeal. The Guide is $17.50, available at all the best bookstores or online from BoredFeet.com.

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NEW TRAIL GUIDE TO THE MENDOCINO COAST DEBUTS

by Katie Tahja

Outdoor enthusiasts will respond with delight to the arrival of the new edition of The Hiker’s hip pocket Guide to the Mendocino Coast by Bob Lorentzen. It’s available at local independent bookstores, museums, and from the Bored Feet website.

Since 1986 this guide has been leading walkers, backpackers, bicyclists, and equestrians to back country and coastal adventures; however, it does not stop there.

If you’re a wheelchair rider, a picnicker, a tidepool fan or a nature lover there are hikes listed in the book for you, too.

The book’s new trail information features Fort Bragg’s Coastal Trail on the Noyo Headlands, the dramatic shoreline of the Stornetta and Cypress Units of the California Coastal Monument in Point Arena and trails through Big River State Park you never knew existed.

Mendocino Land Trust has opened up many new trails. The book includes MLT's new route at Usal on the Lost Coast, new paths along Newport and Kibesillah and Caspar uplands, Pelican Bluffs south of Point Arena, and a new trail at Montgomery Woods State Reserve. Did you know there are redwoods that grow like candelabras on the Peter Douglas Coastal Trail near Usal? This book tells you how to find them.

One of the best additions to the trail descriptions is an entry called “Other Suggestions”. If you’ve just hiked the Bruhel Point Trail and want to know what else is close, you can read that Chadbourne Gulch and its beach is just to the north, and that there’s a paved wheelchair-accessible trail just off the south side of the parking area.

Classic trails through the Sinkyone Wilderness, King Range, Jackson State Forest, Bowling Ball Beach and Gualala Point are updated as are walks through state parks at MacKerricker, Russian Gulch, Van Damme, Hendy Woods, and Manchester.

Some warnings, like the one for Big River Laguna Trail really tell you what to expect and how to be prepared: “remote country with unmarked roads, carry maps… trail can be overgrown with blackberry, poison oak and nettles: take pruning shears…. use caution on deteriorating bridge… bears and mountain lion visit the Laguna… So why visit this place? It’s great for bird watching, botanizing and wildlife viewing in wetlands and open water.”

To take your feet on magical adventures be sure to pick up the new edition from your local bookseller or from BoredFeet.com.

(Contact: Bob Lorentzen, 707.964.6629/888.336.6199, boredft@mcn.org.)

HELP FIND ELIJAH HOWELL

Bolo: Humboldt County

Missing 32-Year-Old – Elijah Howell-5'10 225lbs, Reddish/ Brown Hair and Blue Eyes

Last Seen 1-19-19 Garberville, Ca. - Driving A Silver 2013 Ford -F150 Crew Cab Lifted-Black Camper Shell-Light Bar On Top-Lift Gate On The Back - Plate Number # 08956m1

If you see him or have information dial 911 or Humboldt County Sherriff’s office at 7079232761 case # 201900326

When seen last he was wearing a black t-shirt with green letters that said primate tatu, black cargo pants and boots. He has multiple tattoos on his arms.

Elijah Howell was last seen 1-19-19 at 4:00 p.m. in Garberville, Ca. He was dropping his dog off for a weekend visit, with his wife. They are still legally married but are not together. Elijah had told her he was headed to a party in Willow Creek, Ca, his plan was to drive home later that night to Eureka, as he was looking forward to his parents visit on Saturday around noon. Elijah is very close to his family and would never not be home to meet them or call. The names of the persons having the party are unknown. Numerous calls and text to his phone have been unanswered. His phone goes straight to voicemail.

HELPFINDELIJAHHOWELL #GARBERVILLE #WILLOWCREEK #EUREKA#MISSINGINHUMBOLDTCOUNTY #EMERALEDTRIANGLE#MURDERMOUNTAIN #HUMBOLDTMISSINGFIVE

SUPES CAN WAIVE $20k WORTH OF FEES FOR A HELIPORT, but they can’t waive them for fire victims?

Board of Supervisors Agenda 1/22/2019, Item 6a: “Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Authorization to Waive Permit Fees Associated with the Gualala Air Ambulance Landing Pad at Redwood Coast Medical Services (RCMS) (Sponsor: Supervisor Williams)

Recommended Action/Motion:

Receive the update regarding waiving all or a portion of permits fees associated with the Gualala Air Ambulance Landing Pad at RCMS, based upon issues associated with Health, Safety and Welfare; direct Planning and Building Services staff to proceed with permit issuance; and provide possible direction to staff regarding the fiscal options associated with the fee waiver.

Summary of Request:

The permitting fees associated with the Gualala Air Ambulance Landing Pad are approximately $20,000. This Helipad was constructed in the mid 1980s. RCMS is currently pursuing reclassifying the facility from an “EMS landing site” to a “heliport” that would hold a “Heliport Permit” granted by Caltrans Division of Aeronautics. This would formalize the existing use and enhance operational safety. The availability of Air Ambulance service can be life saving, but depends on pilot discretion and is greatly impacted by coastal fog. The proposed reclassification will not introduce major changes to the existing use, but will increase the pad’s safety for crew and patients. No new buildings, fuel storage or other public or private uses are proposed. Its use will continue to be for medical emergencies only, as has been the case for the past 33 years. The 2002 Gualala town plan includes requirements which are believed to be impossible to meet. In consulting with Planning and Building Services, there may be the possibility of addressing the zoning on three parcels, effectively reducing the cost of the RCMS landing pad to approximately $9,700 for a Coastal Development Use Permit and Airport Comprehensive Land Use consistency review. Due to the health, safety, welfare issues associated with emergency response to that remote area of our County and the ability to transport injured citizens in the event of an emergency and/or as transport to outlying medical facilities, it is recommended that the Board of Supervisors waive the permitting fees for this project and direct staff to proceed with the permitted process. As Planning and Building Services is primarily a General Fund department, the Board of Supervisors may considering [sic] directing that the department absorb the costs associated with waiving the fees within their current appropriations (the majority of the fees are related to salaries, which are already including in their current adopted budget) with an understanding that the department would anticipate a slight decrease in permit revenues. Alternatively, the Board of Supervisors could direct staff to work with the Executive Office during the Mid-Year Budget presentation on increasing the Planning and Building Services budget should there be any unanticipated discretionary revenues to consider.

Fiscal Details:

Source of funding: Planning and Building Services BU 2851

Current f/y cost: Estimated between $9,700 - $20,000

HERE COMES THE SUN

"We're forecasting a ridge of high pressure to build over the West Coast that's shifting the storm track to the north and will prevent us from seeing any active weather as far as rainfall goes," says Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Monterey office. "It's looking like at least the next two weeks will be dry and there's no way of knowing what will happen after that."

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, agrees the second half of January will be dry and writes in his Weather West blog, "There are currently indications this pattern could persist for 4 weeks or more."

THIS FORECAST comes on the heels of a wet week, as Boonville got 6.7 inches of rain, while Yorkville received 8.1 inches. The first three weeks of January were wet enough to essentially double the season totals for these two towns: Boonville 22 inches; Yorkville 27.7 inches.

ON FOGGY NIGHTS, where memories grow suddenly sharp in the gloom, you know the old city is still around you, just below the surface – an Atlantis on the Pacific. Maybe it’s the foghorns calling mournfully to each other, the only voices still around that evoke the swish of paddlewheels on ghostly ferries. Or, barely visible in the mist, a cable car disappearing over a hill on its plunge into yesterday. Halos on streetlamps over empty sidewalks that knew the tread of feet long gone….On a long January night in the quiet city (just before it stops being late and starts to get early), the ghosts begin dancing again, atop the creaking ferry slips, through the venal parking lots where lovely buildings once stood, across the steel bones of cable car lines that were buried without funerals. Bits and pieces remain, the leftover pieces of a jigsaw puzzle we could never quite fit together.

— Herb Caen

A FUNERAL IN ALTURAS

by Anne Fashauer

About a week ago my husband was notified that one of his uncle’s had been found dead at home of natural causes. He was 82, the oldest living sibling of my husband’s mother. He had lived in Alturas for about the past 30 years, choosing the ranching life after serving the State as Chief Brand Inspector for many years before that. The funeral was scheduled for last Friday afternoon.

We headed out on Thursday midday; it’s about a 6.5 hour drive, with about four of that between here and Redding. We got as far as Fall River Mills that evening; we were both hungry and I was ready to get out of the car. We had a nice steak dinner at the old hotel and then crashed in a motel down the road. On our way out the following morning we came across a huge herd of Antelope. I had never seen antelope in the wild before and it was an impressive and beautiful sight. The drive was otherwise uneventful; it was snowing lightly and over the last pass at Adin we had to slow down, but no chains were required and we made good time.

I had never been to Alturas or that part of the country. My father and his brothers used to go annually to Modoc to hunt mule deer (the head of one of those deer hangs over my fireplace in tribute to them) and in a way Modoc was this mystical place in my mind. In fact, it is beautiful country, high desert, and very beautiful with the dusting of snow and the Pit River meandering through. Alturas has an old-town charm but is otherwise not much different than Ukiah, just smaller.

The funeral was well attended and featured many fun and funny stories about “Red,” as he was called. He left behind a large family including 10 grandchildren and 19 great grandchildren, plus the extended family that included us. We gathered at the house after for food and drink and more stories.

We left Saturday late morning after another gathering of family for breakfast. We decided to stop at Burney Falls on our way home as I had never been there. What a beautiful place. And since I have been given the green light to start some walking, we took the mile trail that goes to the base of the falls and around them, with two beautiful bridges across the river. It was cold but lovely and it felt great to be outside moving again.

On a real estate side note, I had several calls and emails requesting showings over the weekend; big thanks for the agents in my office for handling these while I was away. But it was an interesting uptick in showings after a fairly quiet Fall and December. Perhaps things are looking up?

NEW WINE TRACK & TRACE REGULATIONS APPROVED BY THE OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL (AABC)

SACRAMENTO – California’s three state alcohol licensing authorities announced Monday that the Office of Administrative Alcoholic Beverage Control (AABC) has officially approved state regulations for wine business across the supply chain from vineyard to retail. These new regulations take effect in April. The previous emergency regulations, adopted by the Bureau of Alcoholic Beverage Control, California Department of Public Health and California Department of Food and Agriculture in December 2017 and readopted in June 2018, were originally issued through the emergency rulemaking process to meet the legislative mandate to regulate California’s wine market on January 1, 2018 in the wake of the tragic fires in wine country. With today’s action, these emergency regulations are rescinded and no longer in effect.

“These new regulations are the culmination of more than two years of hard work by California’s alcohol licensing authorities,” Bureau Chief Michael Delbar, former Mendocino County Supervisor turned wine regulator, said. “Public feedback was invaluable in helping us develop clear regulations for the wine business and ensuring public safety amid the widespread fear of ash-taint. We also got complaints from cannabis growers that they were being unfairly over-regulated compared to alcohol manufacturers, especially via the widely popular cannabis track and trace system which all the pot growers love and should work just as well with wine. We agreed and decided that this new wine track and trace system will help to restore parity between the two industries while assuring that smoke and ash tainted grapes do not accidentally enter the wine market, undermining the state’s reputation for a quality untainted quaff.”

Each licensing authority’s final regulations and rulemaking documents have been posted to the California Alcoholic Beverage Portal and can be viewed by clicking the following link: https://alcohol.ca.gov/wine-track&trace/

The three licensing authorities submitted these regulations to Alcoholic Beverage Control Board on December 3, 2018, which was the start of their 30-working day review process. This review process ended Wednesday and the system will go into effective on April 1, 2019.

DINNER & DANCE TO SUPPORT FORT BRAGG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

From Timberwolf Boosters

The Fort Bragg Timberwolf Boosters is hosting the third annual “Almost Spring Affair” Feb 2nd at the Pentecost Hall, 822 Stewart St. in Fort Bragg.

Dinner, Music and Festivities, $45

Dance only, $20

The doors open at 5:30, dinner will be served from 6pm-8pm. Prepared by New B&C, the menu features your choice of BBQ Boneless Skinless Chicken Thigh, BBQ Pork Ribs, ½ & ½ BBQ Boneless Skinless Thigh and BBQ Pork Ribs or Grilled Eggplant, all meals include baked beans, cole slaw, corn medley and cornbread. Local wines will be available and beer is being provided by the North Coast Brewing Company. Dinner and Silent Auction will be followed with dancing the night away with The Funky Dozen Band known as the dance party band. Dance 8:00 - midnight. There will be a silent auction and drawings till 9:00pm, including items from many local businesses. A BIG Thank you to this years event sponsors: Harbor Lite Lodge, Fort Bragg Plumbing and North Coast Brewing Co. Tickets for the event can be purchased at the Fort Bragg High School or Call 707-234-0527 For more information, visit the Timberwolves Boosters Facebook page or email timberwolf501c3@gmail.com All proceeds support Fort Bragg High School student athletes and club members.

FOR RENT

1-2 person rental available in Navarro.

Wood stove, furnishings optional, pet considered.

$850/ month + utilities.

Call Mike, 707-357-4834

PLEASE HELP 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. Call the Elementary School for time and place at 895 3010.

REMEMBERING MARTIN LUTHER KING on his 90th birthday it occurs to me that lots of people, especially the young, don't know much about him beyond his iconic status as a civil rights martyr and as a day off. And few people will want to recall that King was vilified on a daily basis by the newspapers of the time. Then, presto! magico! millions of Americans were liberals! Still the best book on King is "Martin Luther King, Jr: A Life" by Marshall Frady available in that nifty Penguin series whose biographies range from Elvis (also recommended) to DaVinci. What has always struck me about MLK is the pure courage of the man knowing, as he said, he was doomed but keeping on nevertheless. His home was firebombed with his wife and children in it, the police withdrew even a pretense of protection, every lowdown cracker in the country was out to kill him… And the arch-weirdo, J. Edgar Hoover, was busily taping MLK's private life. And here we are a little more than 50 years later with armies of "liberals" counting on the suddenly unimpeachable FBI to bring down Trump!

PRIVATE ROADS AS SECOND ACCESS, BUT…

MENDOCINO PERMACULTURE’S 36TH ANNUAL WINTER ABUNDANCE WORKSHOP Saturday, February 9, 2019 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Fairgrounds in Boonville — Rain or Shine. Seed, Scion, & Cutting Exchange, Classes + Hands-on Fruit Tree Grafting Clinics

Free classes all day on tree & vine propagation; how to grow your own food; how to save seeds of all kinds of food plants. You can purchase fruit tree rootstocks cheaply here and then graft your own trees from our free scions. Please bring seeds, scions, cuttings, and your love of plants. For more information go to https://mendolocalfood.org/ (scroll down) or call Barbara/Rob at (707) 895-3897, Richard 459-5926, or Mark at 463-8672. See you there!

If you can and want to volunteer this year, please contact Barbara at bgoodell@mcn.org or 895-3897.

MAYBE THIRTY YEARS AGO, a Fort Bragg family was murdered as some kind of biker gang payback. As I recall, the murdered four had been re-located to FB under the auspices of a witness protection program, although the events that led to the family’s execution had occurred in the Bay Area, a mere three hours south. The most horrifying part of that awful event was that the killer murdered the children first, a final piece of viciousness endured by the parents before their murders. Last week, the Mendocino County Coroner identified Michael David Wilkins, 49, of Willits, as the man who killed his estranged girlfriend and the couple’s 8-year-old son and then himself. We don’t know the order of these killings, but anybody who reads, hears, watches mainstream media can’t help but know that these mass family executions happen somewhere in the rapidly deteriorating United States every day. Even the self-pitying suicidal used to spare children, as did criminals. Not anymore. Makes a guy yearn for the eternal Old Testament Hell for the inhuman wrecks who take the innocent with them as they exit.

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

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.

GEORGE HOLLISTER WRITES: “ED NOTE: THE UKIAH-BASED non-profit axis, has for years benefitted from large hunks of public cash funneled to it through the Supervisors. On the face of it, $144,000 to teach children what they know is preposterous.”

How much of the $144,000 was money being paid directly from Mendocino County taxpayers? Not much? None? Where did the money come from, then? Was there an administrator’s fee collected by the county? Does anyone know, or care?

I know the answer to the last question. But what the hey. Mendocino County Supervisors have bigger fish to fry engaging in tribal warfare. We like it that way, and can’t wait for the fun to begin. This budget stuff is too boring.

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MARK SCARAMELLA REPLIES: As the agenda item says, it’s an OTS grant, state Office of Traffic Safety. Another grant-driven “agency” that simply funnels fed money to state and local governments for “safety” stuff because it’s there, and not much more. NCO gets it because they got it in the past, no other reason. No thought is given to any of it. It’s all on auto-pilot like most grants. Most of Official Mendo thinks that their job is to dole out money and be done with it. They actually think that handing over upwards of $30 mil to Schrader et al with no reporting or feedback is what they’re there for. That’s why they think the OpenGov software is so great: it shows that they spent the money. To them, spending it is the end of it. Whether it does anything like what it’s intended for is totally irrelevant. That’s why the “consent calendar” approach is so entrenched. The feds and the state give it to us, we pass it along, what’s to discuss? Next!

From the OTS website:

“The California Highway Safety Program is a partnership effort between the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and California. OTS is designated by the Governor to receive federal traffic safety funds for coordinating California’s highway safety programs. Each year OTS develops a Highway Safety Plan (HSP) identifying the key highway safety problems in the state and the most effective countermeasures to address them. OTS then solicits proposals statewide to address the identified problems and allocates funds to state and local governmental agencies to implement traffic safety programs and grants.”

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GEORGE HOLLISTER ADDS: OK, so it’s not our money. And if there is no requirement to oversee how those funds are spent, then why even bother putting it on the agenda? For many reasons, I think there’s too much of this sort of money coming from above, but why futilely pound one’s head into a brick wall with concern about it? It’s a fight with the politically connected hogs at the public trough. Good luck.

The question should be, will this create a problem for Mendocino County? There is money from above that is creating problems, like money for the homeless. I don’t see wasting money on teaching how to ride a bicycle safely fits in that category.

At some point the money from above to feed the hogs will run out, and this sort of spending will temporarily end. When that point arrives, life will be interesting. There will be much crying, and finger pointing.

NORTH COAST NIGHT LIGHT: EEL RIVER DELTA FROM TABLE BLUFF

Text and Photos by David Wilson

If you have ever driven to the South Jetty of Humboldt Bay, then along the bluffs just before the road descends to the ocean level you will have passed by Table Bluff County Park. The park is graced with trails, a broad field, trees, benches, and of course great views over the Pacific Ocean and out across the Eel River delta. Information signs provide historical and ecological context. And at night you can see the Milky Way.

The clearest skies for stargazing usually aren’t along the coast, but coastal folks aren’t left entirely in the dark. I have found many a night sky crowded with stars along the Pacific, and when the Milky Way is out it is plainly visible once one’s eye has become accustomed to the night.

On the evening that I took this photograph it was my pleasure to accompany Erica Botkin’s Digital Photography class from College of the Redwoods on a field trip to share my nighttime photography expertise as a guest photographer. We chose Table Bluff for its proximity, with the hope of catching a view from the bluffs of the stars over the Pacific.

Much about night photography is different from shooting in the daytime, and there is a good deal of seat-of-the-pants estimation during shooting. I won’t attempt to teach the whole of it in these few words, but I’ll mention some of the things that came up for us.

The camera’s light meter is fooled by the low light and gives completely false readings, which if one doesn’t compensate will lead to dark images. How much to compensate will be a matter of experimentation. Light has a very different palette at night, both in the extremes of brightness and shadow and in the quality of colors, and it requires some experimentation to get a feel for it before one can predict results. Fortunately, we are spoiled in this age with the ability to see the image immediately, so trying different settings doesn’t take long. I began my own photographic journey using film, which was expensive both to buy and process, and it took hours or days to see the results. I don’t long for that.

It is too dark to focus easily at night, especially at infinity, which is where the stars are. The camera’s autofocus can’t lock in on the stars, so one must disable it and focus manually. Focusing on the stars is not necessarily as simple as turning the focus ring to the farthest. It may be that some lenses work like that, but I find that I need to back my focus off a “smidge,” which is photographic jargon for “a little bit.” So how much is that? Well, it’s not much. All I can say is, take a shot and then examine it for focus on the camera’s LCD. When examining your LCD for focus be sure to zoom in to 100% because if you view it too small it’ll appear that the image is sharper than it really is.

An unexpected focusing issue we encountered was that on some lenses the focus ring turns infinitely, never stopping at infinity. This required a little more shooting to find the right focus, as one couldn’t simply turn the focus ring until it stopped and then back off a tad.

A good camera support is crucial. The low light at night often requires very long shutter speeds, which necessitates a tripod or other support to keep the camera stable while the shutter is open for many seconds or minutes at a time. Immobilizing the camera during long exposures is very critical, and for that I recommend as sturdy a tripod as you can afford. If possible, avoid touching the camera by using a remote shutter release, or use the self-timer so that any vibrations caused by pressing the release button will be stilled when the shutter opens.

Some of the history of the Table Bluff Light Station, including old photographs of the many buildings of the installation, can be found at Lighthouse Friends, http://lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=62 . Note from the Google Earth image that no buildings remain. Wikipedia had an entry as well with additional information.

A bench looks south from Table Bluff across the Eel River delta, where lines converge beneath the Milky Way at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The sun had set at 6:30, and this photograph was taken at 7:58 PM, just catching the tail end of a colorful sunset along the horizon. Humboldt County, California on October 17, 2017.

Google Earth view looking south from Table Bluff County Park in the foreground, with the Eel River delta in the distance. Humboldt County, California. Google Earth screen shot fall 2017.

Aerial view of the Table Bluff Light Station shows the numerous buildings that used to be there. No structures currently remain. Unknown date. Image source: anyplaceamerica.com.

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(To keep abreast of David Wilson’s most current photography or peer into its past, follow him on Instagram at @david_wilson_mfx or his website mindscapefx.com, where you can also contact him, but which Wilson says he updates less frequently.)

CATCH OF THE DAY, January 21, 2018

DAVID AMUNDSON, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

RICHARD CAUCKWELL, Ukiah. Disobeying court order, failure to appear.

JOSHUA DENNEY, Laytonville. Failure to appear.

CHRISTOPHER FILBERT, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, failure to appear, probation revocation.

ANTONIA GONZALEZ, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

ANGELA GUTIERREZ, Potter Valley. DUI.

SPENCER HERMAN, Hopland. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

SHAWNTEL HOAGLEN, Laytonville. Probation revocation.

MARIA MARFIL, Ukiah. Taking vehicle without owner’s consent, id theft, controlled substance, probation revocation.

AARON MICHAEL Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

CASEY O’FERRALL, Covelo. Domestic battery.

ANGELA RIVERA, Willits. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

TYLER ROW, Willits. Domestic abuse.

DALLAN SERVIN, Ukiah. DUI.

BRADLEY SHEEHY, Ukiah. DUI.

CHRISTOPHER THOMAS, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

by James Kunstler

“Last night I had a dream. You were in it and I was in it with you….” — Randy Newman

As in this age of Hollywood sequels and prequels, America prefers to recycle old ideas rather than entertain new ones, so you can see exactly how the 2020 presidential election is shaping up to be a replay of the Great Depression, with Roosevelt-to-rescue! — only this time it’ll be with somebody in the role of Eleanor Roosevelt as chief executive. Donald Trump, of course, being the designated bag-holder for all the financial blunders of the past decade, gets to be Herbert Hoover. As was the case in the original, economic depression will segue into war, with maybe not such a happy ending for us as World War Two was.

There should be no doubt that the money part of the story is on a slow boat to oblivion. The world has been running on loans to such a grotesque degree that it’s managed the impressive feat of bankrupting the future. The collateral for all that debt was the conviction that there were ample amounts of future “growth” up ahead to service that debt. That conviction is now evaporating as car sales plummet, and real estate goes south, and nations twang each other over trade, and global supply lines wither. Globalism is unwinding — and not for the first time, either.

As in the standard Hollywood screenplay format, expect an “all is lost” moment when the “hero” (the USA) faces the existential dread of realizing that there is no more borrowing with the collateral gone. Translation: when the Federal Reserve discovers it can’t cue up yet another round of “Quantitative Easing” (QE) and ZIRP without destroying the value of the dollar — which it might do anyway, since monetary inflation is a great benefit to those who can’t pay back their debts, and the USA is the biggest deadbeat of all. An inflationary depression won’t be the same as the deflationary depression of the 1930s, but remember (cliché alert): history doesn’t exactly repeat, it rhymes. Financialization, it’ll turn out, was just money with its value removed. Imagine how pissed off the voters will be.

Note: the growth predicament is hugely misunderstood in this land, because the shale oil “miracle” was such a dazzling stunt. America is now producing above 12 million barrels of oil a day, two million higher than what was thought to be the all-time peak of 10 million a day in 1970. That is extraordinary indeed. We are the world’s leader in oil production now, ahead of Saudi Arabia and the wicked Russian bear. What most Americans don’t know is that this stunning feat was accomplished with hundreds of billions of dollars in borrowed money (debt) that will never be paid back.

The collateral for all that money was the conviction that there was a lot of money to be made in shale oil. But the shale oil industry has had a negative cash flow since it started around 2005. So, we’ve demonstrated that you can produce a lot of something at a big loss for a while, until you can’t. And the moment is approaching when there will be no more loans for the shale oil industry and then, voila, no more shale oil. And the USA will have a whole lot less of its primary energy “input” to the economy. We’ll be back to 2008. The turnaround will be fast and shocking and the American public will feel swindled. And having been already swindled out of all the other comforts and conveniences of what used to be modern life — a job, a home, a car — they will be even more supremely pissed off.

Enter stage left, the first woman president. Take your pick: Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand — with AOC as Speaker of the House! The new “Eleanor” will out-do Franklin Roosevelt in “innovative” economic policy. Only this time it won’t be jolly corps of brawny men marching off with pick-axes and shovels to carve trails through the national parks. It will be an orgy of collectivization, led by a gender-fluid army of commissars in an American sequel to the classic film Battleship Potemkin. Madam President will nationalize everything that’s not fastened down with square-head decking screws. Then the show trials will commence, first with the hated One Percenters going to the firing squads and then briskly moving to all the enemies of “intersectional justice.”

None of that will make the USA a better country. And then imagine how pissed off Russia and China will be when Madam President takes up her policy of exporting the New Bolshevism to other lands (because it works so well). Been there, done that, they’ll say. And maybe they’ll have to smack us down to get the point across.

(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page.)

RECYCLING OLD MEDS

Editor,

I recently tried to dispose of a bottle of unused antibiotics. After searching online and calling my local Kaiser offices, I found that, in Petaluma, the only place to dispose of medications is the Police Department. When I went to drop the leftover medicine, I discovered that they cannot accept liquids. They wanted me to go to the municipal waste disposal.

It is a waste of tax dollars to have the police or the counties bear the responsibility for disposing of and recycling the very things our society depends on and that are supplied by profit-making corporations.

The pharmaceutical industry is posting record profits. The public has been burdened with the responsibility of proper disposal of hazardous materials. We have also been given the responsibility of responsibly recycling our waste.

Drugstores, pharmacies and pharma corporations should be required to retake and responsibly recycle and dispose of medicine they sell.

Recycling should be required not only of citizens and municipalities, but the ones who sell us the products that must be recycled. If you sell paint, you should take the leftover paint. Retailers who sell batteries should receive the spent, hazardous batteries. Supply plastic bags for vegetables and meat? Take the bags back. The corporations that supply retailers should receive, reuse and recycle the byproducts.

Philip Cohen

Petaluma

MARIJUANA IS LEGAL IN CALIFORNIA. SO WHY IS THE CHP ARRESTING DELIVERY DRIVERS?

(Especially when the delivery drivers are former CHP Officers!)

“Marijuana may be legal in California, but it’s still an illicit substance under federal law and people in the business run the risk of time in custody or lost product if they run afoul of local authorities.”

sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article224079655.html

MARIJUANA SHOULD BE LEGALIZED, but don’t pretend it’s therapeutic. It’s as much a medicine as Budweiser is.

wsj.com/articles/if-weed-is-medicine-so-is-budweiser-11547770981

BREAKFAST IN CASPAR

Caspar Community's Fourth Sunday Breakfast and Sale

Just to let you know we will be having one more sale at the January 27 from 9 until 2. Think Valentine's and Easter!! I will have Treasures from Guatemala including scarves, jewelry, cotton pants, bags of various sizes, baby backpacks, bibs, booties, dolls, little boys' shirts, jumpers, girls' dresses, tablecloths, tortilla/bread wraps, and fabric. Carla and Jima Abbott will have their stunning mixed-metal jewelry and the Bookster will have gently-used books. Enjoy a delicious breakfast and come over to the north room for a little shopping.

Annie Lee annielee@hotmail.com

IF YOU KEEP YOUR MIND sufficiently open, people will throw a lot of rubbish into it.

— William Orton

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #1

To the question “Am I my brother’s keeper?” your answer is “yes.”

My brother-in-law, Peter, with his stupidity and profligate ways, his failure to “spend less than you make” over a lifetime, has brought the world crashing down around his ears. Should I loan (i.e. give) him another thousand that he imagines will save his ass from utter disaster? Could I afford it? Yes. Would it be sending good money after bad? Yes. Would it simply be facilitating further bad behavior? Yes. So my answer is no.

The minimum wage is often not the problem. Peter has earned more money in his lifetime than I ever did yet I am well off and he is poorer than a church mouse. The problem is he pissed it all away. Did he ever fund an IRA? Of course not…he took a vacation to Greece. Do minimum wage workers continue to smoke and buy lottery tickets? Of course.

Oh yeah, tomorrow is Peter’s oft-delayed court date when we will find out if he is guilty and if so what kind of fine payment scheme can be worked out between him, his lawyer and the judge. I expect the worst.

Every day Peter’s mail arrives at my house. I open it to see what new disaster awaits. Saturday it was a special delivery letter from an outfit named “Got Junk?” who hauled away several loads of Peter’s possessions in preparation for the closing on the sale of his house which, as reported earlier, fell through at the last second…literally the last friggin’ second. The letter was a demand for $2,499.50 plus $40 bank charges for depositing “insufficient funds” checks. Peter had handed the big brutes who picked up his junk payment in the form of two post-dated checks as his last act before skedaddling to Florida on the Auto Train. Florida, the land where ne’re-do-wells go to skip out on debts, leave bad marriages, and stay warm until they eventually die.

MELVILLE came home to face out the long rest of his life. He married and had an ecstasy of a courtship and fifty years of disillusion. He had just furnished his home with disillusions. No more Typees. No more paradises. No more Fayaways. A mother: a gorgon. A home: a torture box. A wife: a thing with clay feet. Life: a sort of disgrace… The whole shameful business just making a man writhe. Melville writhed for eighty years.
— D.H. Lawrence

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2

“The Deputies conducted further investigation and located expended shell casings from a small caliber firearm outside of the female’s residence.”

Here in Covelo we call that decor.

HE HAD NO FANCY for lowering whales after sun down; for persisting in fighting a fish that too much persisted in fighting him. For, thought Starbuck, I am here in this critical ocean to kill whales for my living, and not to be killed by them for theirs; and that hundreds of men had been so killed Starbuck well knew. What doom was his own father's? Where, in the bottomless deeps, could he find the torn limbs of his brother? —Herman Melville, Moby Dick

PISSIN' AND MOANIN'

Makes me remember my mother, hanging wash on the line. This was about as near to swearing as she ever got. It served her need for a broad brush to paint the folks who were clearly not enamoured with much of post-war America. Not that she witnessed a whole lot of it. She was one of a startling number of children born to an Irish mom in booming, pro-union Portland. So there wasn't much time for pointless complaining.

These deep winter days provide a steady diet full of things and situations to complain about, and a seeming majority do. Regularly. So it seems a good question to ask, what good do they do? The people and their actions. On the level of an old civics textbook, they bring a working democracy to life. And their faces and body language spell righteousness, which can mimic the release of a good bowel movement. Heady stuff, so to speak.

Plainly these folks are doing something out there, but what that something amounts to is unclear. From the outside, it often seems that when the beast gets poked, all it does is lie. This process expands like a slime mold. And the poking recalls the person who installs solar panels because they make him feel better about himself. This being the case, over and over, it seems useful to look at results.

So far, little more than more lies and bad, sometimes lethal, behavior, have been generated. But it is plain that at the same time, democracy shines. Speaking truth to power, naively expressed it may often be, is what we can do, in all the ways we can do it. And liars, we hope and we know, never prosper.

(Bruce Brady)

SENATOR FEINSTEIN DROPS SUPPORT FOR WIIN ACT WATER GRAB

by Dan Bacher

In a letter sent out to constituents on January 17, Senator Dianne Feinstein said she has withdrawn her support, at least for now, for the WIIN Act, a controversial federal law that would have weakened protections for endangered salmon and steelhead and other fish species and allowed more pumping of Delta water to corporate agribusiness interests.

“I understand that you are concerned about a proposed amendment to fiscal year 2019 funding legislation that would have extended portions of the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act (Public Law 114-322) related to California drought,” she wrote.“You may be pleased to learn that this amendment is no longer being considered for inclusion in any current legislative package.”

However, she noted, “I strongly believe that we must continue to look for ways to address the increasing threat of drought by investing in water infrastructure, ensuring a reliable water supply, and protecting our state’s fish and wildlife.”​​​​​

“Throughout my time in the Senate, I have sought to balance the competing demands on California’s water resources. Years of prolonged drought have placed unprecedented stress on our state’s water infrastructure, which was designed for the 16 million people who lived in California in the 1960s, but now supplies more than 40 million people. I have worked to secure substantial investment in California’s water infrastructure while ensuring that new laws do not violate existing federal and state environmental protection,” Feinstein concluded.

A broad coalition of Tribal leaders, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, environmental justice advocates, Delta residents, family farmers and elected officials opposed the WIIN Act.

In December, Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) announced her opposition to the controversial “Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation” (WIIN) Act), a bill designed to increase water deliveries to agribusiness. The deal was proposed by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senator Dianne Feinstein and was supported by the Jerry Brown and the Donald Trump administration.

“We must invest in sustainable water projects that protect critical ecosystems while also supporting our important agricultural economies across the state,” said Senator Harris in a tweet. “Extending the controversial and detrimental policies of the WIIN Act is not the way to do this.”

On November 30, then-Governor Jerry Brown announced his endorsement of the 7-year extension of the WIIN Act, “including important provisions that House Majority Leader McCarthy and Senator Feinstein have proposed that enable California water users to participate in voluntary agreements and help improve river flows to restore fish populations.”

Along with Senator Harris, Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D-Discovery Bay), the Co Chair of the Califorrnia Legislative Delta Caucus, strongly opposed proposed extensions to the Water Infrastructure Improvements for WIIN Act.

“As Co-Chair of the California Legislative Delta Caucus, I urge Senator Feinstein, Governor Brown, and Representative McCarthy to end their support for the misguided and harmful WIIN Act extensions currently under consideration in Congress,” he said. “By pursuing this power grab, they are sending a clear message of support for billionaire agribusiness and contractors at the expense of local fishermen, farmers, and the water quality of an entire region. Instead of giving water away to billionaires, I ask that they stand up for the Delta that we call home, and the millions of Californians who believe that small businesses and the Delta’s precious environment should have a fair chance to thrive.”

Fraser said the WIIN Act, passed in 2016, enacted temporary changes to protect both water supply reliability and the ecological health of the Delta in the aftermath of a historic drought in California. He said the proposed extensions would prolong those short-term emergency provisions until 2028, without regard to actual drought conditions or Delta water quality.

To contact Senator Feinstein, you can call her Washington, D.C., office at (202) 224-3841 or visit her website at feinstein.senate.gov. You can also follow the Senator online at YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, and you can sign up for her email newsletter at feinstein.senate.gov/newsletter.