IN SUNDAY’S UKIAH DAILY JOURNAL, Tommy Wayne Kramer conflates hippies and “the left.” He said the hippies have stopped lots of cool progress like rural bypasses erected by those prodigies of engineering, Caltrans. A discernible left hasn’t existed in this country since around 1970, and the occasional retro-hippie we sometimes see today is usually a grunge or rasta music person rather than a disoriented, long-haired beast wondering where Jerry Garcia went. I agree, and have often said, the hippie overlay discourages wider participation in resistance to this, that or the other thing. But the people leading these things around here, with the exception of the late Madam Bari, have always tended to put their jive “spirituality,” their costumes, their dope, their drum circles, their overweening piety, their totality of pure bullshit, ahead of the objective. A serious movement would move these people out of the way as the first order of business. But whatever else you might say about Judi Bari she didn’t lack clarity. She got the whole amorphous mass of hippies, nut cases, left over lefties, and a whole buncha conventional people rounded up and headed in the same correct direction.

KRAMER WRITES: “Then we had Redwood Summer a bit closer to home, and yes indeed, you could go right down the checklist: Trees were climbed, plus all the usual chanting, sign-waving, yelling and singing. And, presto, the logging stopped, the lumber companies folded, thousands of jobs were lost and the joyful protesters went back home. Tremendous success!”

IN LIVING FACT, the outside timber corporations cut all the trees down real fast in the interest of short-term profit-taking, leaving the Northcoast stripped of thousands of jobs that used to enable working people to make reasonably comfortable lives for themselves. Hippies did not destroy the timber industry. L-P and G-P and Charles Hurwitz managed that, and laughed all the way to many millions of dollars.

Bari

THE REDWOOD SUMMER protests led by Bari were most successful in drawing national attention to the crimes committed against the working people and the forests of this area, but the protests didn’t even slow the corporate onslaught. You could make a strong argument that the hippie factor gave the timber corporations perfect foils. The corporations could plausibly say, which they did, “Look at these dopeheads. They don’t even get out of bed until noon. You want them or do you want us?” That’s what Big Timber put out there and it resonated with much of the public.

WHEN BARI was car bombed by her ex-husband before Redwood Summer even got going, Bari herself became the object of “the movement,” the only movement in the history of movements to move steadily backwards. Loggers were caught between people who didn’t have to work, aka Bari and the hippie brigades, as Tommy Wayne would have it, and the timber corporations. The loggers lost. They had no viable allies.

I DON’T THINK the hippie factor discouraged mass turnout for the Willits protests. It never helps, of course, but I think most Willits-area people still haven’t grasped how dumb and expensive the Bypass is. No off and on ramps at Highway 20? Duh. When construction really gets going they’ll belatedly get it, but it will be too late. Unfortunately, the “hippies” were tardy getting into the trees on this one. But they’re right, just as the hippies of 1990 were right about the timber corporations.

========================================================

UPDATE: On June 17, 2013 at 7:48am the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office was contacted by a person who had received second hand information of a possible homicide at a remote location on Spyrock Road in Laytonville, California. Before responding to the scene a Deputy Sheriff interviewed the reporting person who advised they had received a telephone call prior to contacting the Sheriff’s Office. The anonymous caller told the reporting person that their relative, the victim, had been murdered at the Spyrock Road location. Upon arriving at the location described by the reporting person, law enforcement personnel located a deceased Hispanic adult male suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. Sheriff’s Detectives responded to the location and initiated a homicide investigation. During the processing of the crime scene Sheriff’s Detectives noticed the presence of approximately 300 budding marijuana plants that had been recently cut as if to be harvested. The plants had been growing in an outdoor setting and inside of at least two temporary greenhouse structures. Sheriff’s Detectives learned the victim had been camping at the location while tending to the growing marijuana plants. The victim had been found in his camp in close proximity to the cut marijuana plants. A forensic autopsy has been scheduled for 06-19-2013 and currently the victim has yet to be positively identified. Sheriff?s Detectives are continuing their investigation and have yet to determine a motive or identity of any suspect(s) in connection with the homicide. Sheriff’s Detectives were aided in their crime scene investigation by the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force, County of Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team and the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office. Anyone with information in regards to this incident is urged to contact the Sheriff’s Office Tip-Line by calling 707-234-2100. (Sheriff’s Office Press Release)

========================================================

Lombardi

JOHN SAKOWICZ WRITES: Retiring Mendocino County Savings Bank SVP, Marty Lombardi, will be my guest on my next show. In his 40 or so years at the bank, Marty helped bring the bank from $35 million in assets to about $1 billion in assets. Marty is also a past chair of the California Independent Bankers Association. To the best of my knowledge, despite his high public profile, Marty has never given an interview to the media — certainly not on KZYX. The interview will air on Friday, June 28, at 9am. We’ll take listener calls at: 895-2448.

========================================================

Tevaseu

THREE BOONVILLE MEN are coaching football at Ukiah High School. Logo Teveseu; John Toohey; and a new name to us, Ron Capazuto, Tom Brady’s high school coach at Serra High School back in the day. Ukiah seems to have an almost a one-on-one coaches to players ratio. When I was a 160 pound lineman and emergency quarterback back in another life time, we had one coach. He seldom spoke to me except to tell me to shut up. As I recall we had maybe six plays, one of which was an emergency, last ditch job where I, a baseball pitcher over-hyped as strong-armed, threw the ball as far as I could downfield in the general direction of a sprinter named Fred Thomas. Fred could cover a hundred yards in 10.5 with all that heavy 50′s era equipment on. We only tried it once but Freddy outran my longball pass. Our quarterback, Dave George, went on to play at Cal, and one of our linemen, Willie Hector, was all-everything at UOP and played a few seasons with the Rams. We knew nothing about training, less about weights. The coach was a math teacher named Miller. He’d have us run around the track a couple of time then do push-ups. Practices were like torture, the games exciting, although we never had a winning season in my high school years. Vallejo was the league powerhouse. Anymore, it’s a professionalized enterprise at the high school level, with armies of coaches, headphones and all the rest of NFL-ness of it. Anthropologists a thousand years from now will never puzzle it all out.

========================================================

JUST IN. The mystery of the Willits Coca Cola bottle has been solved. Boonville guy Jim Gibson tells us that he remembers visiting a relative in Willits way back in 1949-50 where he recalls the Willits Soda Works standing prominently on a corner of Main Street. Jim also recalls “a huge pile of saw dust behind the place like they used to use to keep bottled drinks cool.” Jim says he has a beautiful old seltzer bottle with the little faucet dispenser on the top inscribed “Willits Soda Works.”

========================================================

WHAT WITH A RECENT increase in crime plus festivals, miscellaneous events, and the constant deluge of 911 calls, the three new deputies recently hired by the Sheriff’s Department may help the Department cope. The new hires will likely go to the Mendocino Coast and to the always busy wilderness of the North Sector, that vast outlaw sanctuary beginning at Willits and ranging from Covelo to the east, Rockport to the west, Spy Rock and Bell Springs to the north.

THE MENDOCINO COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE has formally identified the victim of a shooting near a Spy Rock Road pot garden as Upper Lake resident Hugo Olea-Lopez, 23. Olea-Lopez was found dead of a single gunshot wound to the torso on Monday, June 17. The Sheriff’s department believes he had been camping and tending about 300 budding pot plants being grown in two temporary greenhouses. It remains unclear why or by whom he was killed, although an anonymous someone connected to the incident called a family member to report the slaying, leading to the discovery of his death. The pot plants in the vicinity appeared to have been cut prior to the arrival of investigators.

========================================================

A PROTESTER CALLING HIMSELF “Red Tail Hawk” climbed a huge construction crane on Wednesday to hang a banner saying “NO BYPASS.” The crane is the primary piece of equipment which is installing the incomprehensible 55,000 “wick drains” up to 150 feet deep which are supposed to somehow keep the earth under the bypass kinda dry by soaking up moisture and evaporating it. The process is experimental and hazardous to the general flow of water in Little Lake Valley. Red Tail Hawk’s crane occupation was part of a larger protest to block the wick-drain equipment comprising some 50 people, five of whom were arrested for trespassing. (Note: “Red Tail Hawk” is the nom de guerre of AVA contributor Will Parrish.) Among those arrested Wednesday was Naomi (not Namoi) Wagner.

========================================================

SAME OLD HAL. Hal Titen once rode high as a program director at the Mendocino Office of Education. In his off hours, which then and now is most of the time at MCOE for its laughably overlarge cadre of administrators, Titen ran a bar on North State Street, Ukiah. He was tardily arrested when an underage girl revealed that Titen was using school video equipment to make pornographic films featuring her in the back room of his bar. The video equipment had been purchased by MCOE for instructional use and for public television broadcasting for inland Mendocino County, which was also run by Titen. MCOE had glommed on to public tv and, as we now know, Titen, whose idea of dynamic viewing was NASA weather photos, killed it at inception.

TITEN was subsequently packed off to the State Pen on a chomo conviction, a condition of which is mandatory registration as a sex offender. A month ago, Titen was arrested and booked into the County Jail for failing to register. And here he is again in and out of jail for failing to register or a related offense. It will be interesting to see if the judge lets him slide. Again.

MCOE has been a sleazy operation for many years, having veered from the paths of righteousness in the early 1970s under the late Lou Delsol. Delsol hired Titen, another crook named Jack Ward, and present superintendent, Paul Tichinin, who worked under Titen. These people, of course, hire people like themselves, and their net effect on the Mendo educational effort has been baleful, as versions of Tichinin occupy the high-pay edu-slots everywhere in the County. You don’t have to look farther than Mendoland to understand why California’s public schools are among the worst in the nation.

ALLOW ME to break this particular record one more time: The Mendocino County Office of Education doesn’t do a single thing that the individual school districts of Mendocino County could not do better and cheaper — for those things that really need to be done. MCOE is a relic of the 19th century when it served as a hiring hall for vast Mendocino’s one-room schoolhouses. Then it did payroll for the County’s individual school districts, but remained small with the Superintendent and the usual several intelligent women doing the real work of paymaster. But then, when all kinds of nebulously aimed (and unsupervised) state and federal dough rolled out to MCOE headquarters in Talmage beginning in the early 1970s, MCOE metatasized to the massive scam we see out there today.

========================================================

Chesbro

MEANWHILE IN SACRAMENTO, Wes Chesbro et al, from the governor through all the state’s officeholders, will get 5% pay raises beginning in December, putting most of them at an average take of $95,000 a year.

They also get $141 per diem which some selfless souls choose not to take.

And nice health insurance policies covering them and their families.

State legislators, however, don’t get retirement.

========================================================

DEBBIE L. HOLMER, archivist of the Fort Bragg Advocate, remembers that 102 years ago, June 20th, 1911, “Jack London, the celebrated novelist, accompanied by his wife and a Japanese servant, drove into town behind four little ponies. The North Bay Counties Association has engaged this prominent writer to write an article for Sunset Magazine, boosting the resources of the seven counties. After a short visit, Mr. London left for Eureka Tuesday afternoon and intends to make a complete tour of the seven counties collecting data for his articles. This makes Jack’s second visit to Fort Bragg. He passed through here on horseback for the first time shortly after the great earthquake and states that he is surprised to see the rapid strides of improvement our little city has made in the last few years.”

========================================================

IS THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT FAILING TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS? Anabel Hernandez Thinks So, And Fears For Her Life

By Jason McGahan

Hernandez

Anabel Hernandez is one of the most decorated journalists in Mexico, and currently reports for the weekly news magazine Proceso and the online magazine Reporte Indigo. She’s been on the radar of the most powerful corrupt law enforcement officials in the country since at least 2008, when she published her first expose on Genaro Garcia Luna, the head of Mexico’s equivalent of the FBI and then-president Felipe Calderone’s right-hand man in the drug war. She revealed he owned lavish homes and vast amounts of property that far exceeded what could be bought with the salary of a humble public servant.

She followed that up, in 2010, with Los Senores del Narco, a 588-page history of the Mexican drug mafia that exposed, in exhaustive detail, the crimes of Garcia Luna and his inner circle of corrupt officials. (That book is being translated into English by Verso Press and will be available in September under the title Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and Their Godfathers.) Sources in the federal police warned her soon afterward that Mexico’s top cop was plotting to have her murdered and make it look like an accident.

Anabel alerted the authorities in Mexico City, and they’ve been providing her and her two children with 24-hour armed protection ever since—until now, that is. On April 26, she received a letter from the government of Mexico City informing her that her armed escort would be revoked at some point in June (no date was specified in the letter). Her protection, she was told, will become the responsibility of the same federal police whose top officials she believes are the ones behind the death threats and attacks against her life, not to mention the jailing, intimidation, and in some cases even assassination of her sources.

I recently reached her by telephone in Los Angeles, where she was on tour to promote her newest book, Mexico en Llamas: El Legado de Calderon (“Mexico in Flames: The Legacy of Felipe Calderon”), and asked her about the danger she’s in and the Mexican government’s total lack of effort to protect journalists like her. [Interview has been translated from Spanish.]

VICE: Could you tell me about the threats made against you because of your work?


Anabel Hernandez: In 2008 I began investigating a clique of Mexican police officers, all with more than 20 years of service, who are deeply implicated in criminal activities like kidnapping and drug trafficking. Since then, I’ve been targeted by this group of cops headed by Genaro Garci Luna, Luis Cardenas Palomino, and Facundo Rosas Rosas.

The first thing they did was threaten to kill me and incarcerate those who were my sources of information. I was publishing, for example, investigations into the criminal past of Luis Cardenas Palomino, who was one of the main chiefs of police in Felipe Calderon’s government. I also published stories about the homes and properties that Genaro Garcia Luna owned and how far beyond his policeman’s salary they were. Plenty of people say that that money came to him from organized crime. I also published items about how federal police officers, on orders from Garcia Luna, carried out kidnappings, like in the well-known case of Fernando Marti, the [14-year-old] hostage who was murdered in 2008. The policemen who kidnapped him were very close to Garcia Luna. They worked for the federal police directly, in the anti-kidnapping unit. Only instead of preventing kidnappings, they carried them out.

All of those investigations that I published over the course of five years made these corrupt policemen very angry. Then in 2010 I published Los Senores del Narco. In December 2010, I got a tip from police sources of mine who warned me of a plot being hatched to have me killed. One of my sources told me that he had just come from a meeting in which Garcia Luna tried assigning members of a federal police unit to carry out my assassination and faking an accident or kidnapping or robbery—they’d kill me and in exchange he was going to give them better salaries and higher posts in the government. Thanks to that tip I had enough time to protect myself—if I hadn’t found out from the policeman, I certainly wouldn’t be here now. I’d be just another journalist executed in Mexico. When I got that tip, I immediately brought a complaint to the National Commission on Human Rights, and the human rights commission went with me to the office of the district attorney in Mexico City, which opened a case file and quickly assigned me an armed security detail.

I’ve lived with bodyguards 24 hours a day for the past two years. It’s what has allowed me to keep working and remain safe.

In January 2011, two men aimed pistols at my daughters. They threatened my family with guns—not stealing anything, mind you, because the only purpose was to terrorize them. The message became clear to me after that night. It was: we can do whatever we want, whenever we want, to whatever it is you care about the most. My family has lived under armed guard ever since that attack to protect their lives.

Over the past two years I myself have also been physically threatened. For example, at a restaurant in January 2010 I was accosted by a man wearing a hoodie. My bodyguards had to rush in and get me out of there. I managed to take a photo of the man who threatened me and chased after me, but the authorities didn’t investigate it any further.

In May of 2012 a source of mine was kidnapped and tortured by the federal authorities in order to force him to make false accusations against me. Other sources of mine have been jailed, still others have been murdered. And I get word from people who are close to Garcia Luna that he hasn’t given up his plan to have me killed. I’ve been informed that Garcia Luna has commented to more than one person that I was his worst enemy, that he was going to get rid of me. And to be honest, it’s not a fair fight. I’m just a journalist. This man is one of the most powerful men in Mexico—because he is so corrupt, because he is the leader of a group of corrupt police that has been around for 20 years. And basically I’ve gone beyond trying to comprehend it. I am incapable of understanding how a public servant can think that a journalist and her pen are more dangerous than all of the cartels he’s supposedly combating.

What’s your opinion on the procedures that are in place to protect journalists in Mexico?


My experience with the whole process has been terrible. Now I understand why they keep killing journalists in Mexico, and why others choose to flee the country. The money spent on paying for it is money wasted. On April 26, I went to a meeting with the Secretary of the Interior and I criticized the process for its lack of commitment. [The government seems to think] that the law enforces itself, without any effort necessary from the men and women sworn to enforce it. It has become clear to me that the [Journalist Protection Program] is being used simply to put on a show for the outside world. It’s a means to save face internationally. Keeping up international relations is more important than addressing freedom of expression.

It’s obvious to me that these government institutions are only good for simulating a concern for journalists’ lives. But the truth is that my case put them to the test, and now I have a better understanding of what the rest of my colleagues are facing. The procedures in place for protecting journalists are nothing more than the appearance of concern, because this government—not the outgoing government of Felipe Calderon, not the incoming government of Enrique Pena Nieto—has no interest in either solving the murders of journalists or protecting them while they continue working in the country. I’m worried because they know that my life is in danger and even so they want to take away my security detail. I’m worried that the real objective is to force me to flee the country—because how convenient would it be for everyone if a journalist who asks tough questions, who won’t shut her mouth, were forced to run away crying to another country instead of continuing the struggle for freedom of expression and continuing to publish in Mexico?

I’m not leaving Mexico. If something happens to me and I become another name on the long list of murdered journalists, it won’t be because of any failure of mine, but the failure of the Mexican government that refused to protect me. It’s an institution, a whole government, that can’t even protect its journalists—it’s not that it can’t, but that it doesn’t want to.

What is the extent of the security provided to you by the Journalist Protection Program? 


The bodyguards I have are from the district attorney’s office in Mexico City. That is the only tangible, real, concrete benefit I’ve received from any ministry in the Mexican government. That’s why I was requesting that they please not take them away from me, because that’s the only thing that has kept me in Mexico in recent years in spite of the death threats. I’ve been physically targeted in the past two years, my family has been attacked, and more threats have come recently. I think the plots to harm me establish there is a clear danger in removing my police protection. That’s why it’s important that I keep it. As for the agency headed run the federal government, they haven’t followed up on any leads. The only thing they’ve given me is a so-called panic button that is nothing more than a telephone number to call if someone is trying to kidnap me or shooting at me. It does nothing to aid in the pursuit of the attackers, it does nothing to protect me, and nothing to prevent the attack. The panic button’s only purpose is that if I’m being attacked, killed, or kidnapped, snatched off the street like so many thousands have been in Mexico, I can call that phone number if I have the chance—though of course if [the attackers] take the phone out of my hands I won’t have anything to call with. What I mean to say is that the protection program is a joke, and the whole world might as well know it.

Why are they removing your security detail?


I should say that I entered into the Journalist Protection Program last March at the suggestion of the Secretary of the Interior, which came after the district attorney’s office in Mexico City recused itself, after two years, from the investigation into the threats and the assassination plots against my life. So my case ended up in the hands of the [federal] office of the attorney general.

I should also point out that by then I had already filed a criminal complaint against Genaro Garcia Luna as the culprit in the threats made against my family in 2011, independently of the complaint I’d brought to Mexico City authorities in 2010. When the Mexico City authorities recused themselves from my case, and the whole investigation shifted over to the federal authorities, I asked the attorney general’s office to show me my file for the first time. That was how I learned firsthand that the attorney general’s office hadn’t lifted a finger to investigate my case in a year and a half. Nothing. They hadn’t investigated a thing, hadn’t interviewed a single person, hadn’t even followed up on the leads that I had given them about people who had harassed me. So to enroll in the Journalist Protection Program was my only option.

If the Mexico City authorities take away my security detail, all that the federal government has to offer me is protection from the federal police, which is stupid, illogical, and absurd in the extreme—these are the same federal police who are under the command of Garcia Luna. They’re delivering my head into the hands of those that most want me dead. To me, protection from the federal police is not an option. So I’m asking for the Mexico City police to continue providing for my protection.

The Journalist Protection Program was supposed to clear up this situation. At a meeting on April 26 attended by the Secretary of the Interior, the Mexico City government, the UN, the office of the attorney general, and the protection program itself, they vowed to continue providing for my protection, leaving only the investigation in the hands of the federal authorities. However, the protection program informed me a week ago by mail that it was going to withdraw my security detail in June, without telling me what day or time. And this in spite of the fact that the same protection program acknowledged—this was told to me over the phone by its director, Juan Carlos Gutierrez—“Anabel, your level of risk, according to our assessment, is high.”

To me it indicates one of two things: either the federal government wants me dead or wants me gone. And of course neither of those options is viable to me.

What conclusions should we draw from your experience with the Journalist Protection Program?


I know based on what I have lived through that the federal government doesn’t care about punishing those who make threats against journalists. The government has no interest in putting in prison the assassins who murder journalists. The government that allows this to happen is as guilty as whoever ends up pulling the trigger. I’m not sure I’m making myself clear: The government, if it wanted to, could lock up every murderer of every one of the 90 journalists killed in the past 12 years. The government, if it wanted to, could scare Garcia Luna, put him in jail for all the threats and for all the harm he’s caused in the past five years. It doesn’t do so because it doesn’t want to. It prefers a dead journalist to a corrupt policeman in prison. (Courtesy, vice.com)

========================================================

A READER WRITES: “I got this notice from Blue Shield last week and don’t really know what to make of it, other than giggle nervously. Obviously, it does not apply to me. The notice is from Jeff Smith, VP & General Manager of Individual and Family Plans, Blue Shield of California, 50 Beale Street, San Francisco, CA 94105, and is dated April 22, 2013: ‘I am writing to provide you with information about a change to the Policy for your health plan effective July 1, 2013. Due to a mandate from the California Department of Insurance, coverage for medical services related to gender transition will not be denied if coverage is available for those services when not related to gender transition. Health services that are ordinarily available to individuals of only one sex will not be denied solely due to the fact the person is enrolled as the other sex. Enclosed is an endorsement to your policy which clarifies this change. For future reference, please keep this endorsement with the Policy that was in the Blue Shield plan updates book we recently mailed to you. If you have questions, please contact our Customer Service representative at the number listed on your member ID card’.”

========================================================

ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS: A panel of federal judges on Thursday rejected Gov. Jerry Brown‘s attempt to circumvent its long-standing order for reducing California’s prison population, the latest step in an ongoing legal drama over how to improve inmates’ medical and mental health care inmates.

Brown quickly announced that he will ask the courts to stay what he called an “unprecedented order to release almost 10,000 inmates by the end of this year.” The governor already filed notice that he intends to appeal the latest order to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The judges stopped just short of citing the Democratic governor for contempt of court, but again threatened to do so if he does not immediately comply with their latest order.

The plan submitted by the Brown administration in May to further reduce the inmate population failed to meet the judges’ mandate because it fell short of the court-ordered population cap by 2,300 inmates, the judges said in their 51-page order. That previous population reduction order has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The judges reiterated in their sharply worded ruling that the governor must comply with the original order to reduce the population to 110,000 inmates by the end of the year. They ordered Brown to take all the steps he outlined in May, as well as one more step — the expansion of good-time credits leading to early release. Brown had offered that as an option, but it was not one he was willing to embrace.

The governor’s plan for getting closer to the required level called for sending more inmates to firefighting camps, leasing cells at county jails, slowing the return of thousands of inmates now housed in private prisons in other states, increasing early release credits for nonviolent inmates and paroling elderly felons.

The judges ordered the administration to implement all the measures regardless of whether they conflict with state or local laws.

At issue is how far the state must go in reducing its inmate population to meet a previous court order to improve medical and mental health treatment. The courts have said that prison overcrowding is the main cause of care that fails to meet the constitutional guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment.

The order leaves Brown with no more excuses, said Don Specter, director of the nonprofit Prison Law Office and one of the lead attorneys representing inmates’ welfare.

“The court’s order is absolutely essential to maintaining prison conditions that protect prisoners from serious illness and death due to inadequate health care,” Specter said. The court had no choice because Brown and Democrats who control the state Legislature were refusing to comply with its previous orders, he said.

However, the judges offered the state some flexibility in how it complies.

The administration can revise the expanded good-time credit program, so long as the changes still result in the required population reduction. It can also pick and choose among inmates, substituting those who are deemed less likely to commit new crimes for riskier convicts who would otherwise be released early. Or, it can pick any other measure that was previously on the administration’s list of options.

But if the population goal is not met through other means by Dec. 31, “defendants shall release the necessary number of prisoners to reach that goal” by using a list of lower-risk inmates that the state has previously said it could develop.

Though Brown argues otherwise, the court has found that “there is no public safety issue” with the earlier releases, said Michael Bien, the lead attorney representing mentally ill inmates.

The state has reduced its prison population by more than 46,000 inmates since 2006, with more than half the decrease due to a 2-year-old state law that is sentencing lower-level criminals to county jails instead of state prisons. But the population remains about 9,400 inmates over the level required by the courts.

The state has said it can whittle the population further by the end of the year but would remain 2,300 inmates over the court-ordered number.

The administration said it is doing everything it can under California law, but that Brown’s reluctantly adopted plan had little support from state lawmakers. Specter said Thursday’s ruling removes that obstacle.

The judges warned Brown in April that he could no longer ignore its orders. They opted in their latest order not to cite Brown for contempt, though they said they would be well justified if they were to “institute contempt proceedings immediately.”

They decided to delay a contempt citation until they see if the state complies with their new order. However, they warned that failing to comply now with the latest order “shall constitute an act of contempt.” (Courtesy, the Associated Press)

========================================================

MENDOCINO COUNTY’S DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH IS WARNING that anyone “who may have consumed berry smoothies from A Frame Espresso in Fort Bragg, which, until a June 4 recall, had been making blended drinks with a berry mix linked to an outbreak of hepatitis A,” that they may be in danger of Hepatitis A. A fruit-blend sold by Costco has been identified as contaminated. A Frame Espresso had bought the recalled Organic Antioxidant Blend frozen berry mix produced by Townsend Farms and sold at Costco stores around the west. A Frame had immediately stopped using the blend when its recall was announced. Hepatitis A has a long incubation period. Anyone who bought an A Frame smoothie between March 4 and June 8 of this year, County Health warns, “should watch for jaundiced, or yellowing, skin or eyes, fatigue, abdominal pain, abnormal liver tests, dark urine and pale stool.

========================================================

STATE LAW PRESENTLY says that requests for public records  must be responded to within 10 days, and the requestor must get a response if the government agency needs more time or is rejecting the request. AB76 would make compliance optional.

WHICH MEANS to us media people, especially those of us regarded as enemy aliens, that local government agencies would simply either ignore our requests or reject them without explanation.

THERE’S BEEN A HUGE hullabaloo rightly raised by media that the present access regs not be tampered with. Assembly Speaker John Perez said last Wednesday he will see to it that this sneak attack on public access would not succeed. “To be clear,” Perez said, “this means that the California Public Records Act will remain intact without any changes…”

========================================================

ON MAY 14th Ukiah’s newest restaurant, Crush Italian Steakhouse, began a job training/mentoring program that has been a great success at their flagship location in Chico.  Students from the Ukiah Boys & Girls Club and Mayacama Services will participate in a 10-week program working hand in hand with Crush staff learning how to cook, serve, buss and host in a fine-dining establishment. Every Monday from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. until July 15, 2013, dinners at Crush Italian Steakhouse & Bar will receive service from teenagers assisting staff in performing their various duties. A special menu item will be featured and Ukiah Crush will give $10 from each special menu directly to the Boys & Girls Club organization. Donations are also accepted. The teenagers involved are members of the Boys & Girls Club who have shown interest in learning about job opportunities in the local community and participants in Mayacama Services, part of the Ukiah Valley Association for Habilitation (UVAH). They Boys & Girls Club students participate regularly in the after school programs and have successfully completed the Club’s job curriculum program. Students were selected after an extensive interview process prior to acceptance into the mentoring program. Boys and Girls Club Chief Professional Officer, Liz Elmore is very excited about the program. “This is an innovative program offered to Boys & Girls Club of Ukiah teens. I am delighted about this partnership and working with Crush by expanding members’ skills from giving them emotional support and encouragement needed to succeed while furthering their education or moving into the job market and adulthood. The significance of Crush’s mentoring program will benefit Ukiah Valley youth as well as businesses for years to come.” The participating youth gain experience four hours every Monday evening at Crush, located at 1180 Airport Park Blvd in Ukiah. On Monday, July 15th, mentored apprentices will perform their final dinner service and be acknowledged for their achievements by the Crush staff, community members, Boys & Girls Club and supporters at a graduation ceremony. Ukiah Crush principal Doug Guillon and his staff work closely to educate each teen in creating a strong work ethic and sense of responsibility. “The restaurant environment provides an excellent medium for young people to learn skills essential to being a valued employee. Emphasis is placed on accountability and creating communication skills so necessary in today’s workplace,” said Guillon. “This program has raised around $3,000 for the Boys and Girls Club in Chico and over time we intend to make a substantial impact in creating the sort of job opportunities the youth of Ukiah deserve.” For more information regarding this Boys & Girls Club of Ukiah program, please contact Liz Elmore, Chief Professional Officer at 467-4900.

ABOUT 50 BYPASS PROTESTERS began to impede wick drain installation in a field (aka former wetland) along the northern end of the bypass construction zone on Wednesday. The California Highway Patrol called for their usual battalions of reinforcements after observing the obstructing protesters for awhile. Five of them — Danielle Fristoe, 24, and Patricia Kovner, 72, of Laytonville; Naomi Wagner, 67, and Freddie Long, 67, of Willits; and Chad A. Kemp, 21, of Eureka, were arrested for trespassing.

ON THURSDAY, AVA Contributor Will Parrish (aka Red Tail Hawk) climbed more than halfway up the 100-foot metal scaffolding of one the “stitchers,” aka a wick-drain installer, stopping wick drain installation. CHP was unable to get the Hawk down on the spot after they noticed that he had locked himself to the machine with a cable protected by a pipe.

PHIL FRISBIE, Caltrans spokesman, tells Glenda Anderson of the Press Democrat that the Willits Bypass protests “have cost taxpayers about $1.2 million since April.” Faithfully regurgitating Frisbie’s unsupported statements, Glenda writes that “the protests have cost the state $100,000 for paying workers sidelined by the protests, $160,000 for building a temporary access road to remove tree sitters and about $935,000 for law enforcement to remove tree sitters.”

ON THE OFF CHANCE that the ineffable Frisbie’s figures are more or less accurate, and although the handful of protesters prompted the police response, were so many cops really necessary to deal with less than fifty harmless demonstrators? What if the security masterminds had decided to call out the National Guard? Would that cost be the responsibility of the protesters too?

========================================================

THE DREADS HAVE LANDED. The Sierra Nevada World Music Festival packs them in every year, and Mendocino County’s most happening venue, Boonville, is radiating peace, love and good vibrations as Mendo’s very own rasta-groover, Sister Yasmin would say. Our fair town will be so crowded with fans of Bob Marley’s son(s) on Saturday and Sunday that lots of people will be parking (and camping) beyond our civic center at Boonville High School. Pedicabs are expected to be much in evidence, and second hand smoke from the holy herb the dominant scent. Many locals will be able to enjoy the music, whether they want to or not, as the reggae sounds accompanied by congas and cowbells intermingle with the mind-altering fumes long into the night.

========================================================

COASTAL REPORTER FRANK HARTZELL deserves some credit for getting some action taken to clean up a petroleum spewing wall owned by Caltrans near the Navarro River estuary. Hartzell got Mendocino County’s Environmental Health department to issue an abatement order to Caltrans based on a finding that the leaky wall was a public nuisance. Trey Strickland, a County Environmental Health supervisor wrote to Caltrans, “I’m writing to inform Caltrans that the abandoned asphalt emulsion oil present at Hwy 128 Post Mile 0.16 constitutes a public nuisance that requires additional mitigation to be considered fully abated. Per Mendocino County Code, it is a public nuisance to maintain property in such a manner … To abate this violation of Mendocino County Code, remove and properly dispose of the remaining asphalt emulsion oil no later than August 2, 2013.” It’s very likely that when Caltrans is seen to have done nothing when August 2 rolls around Hartzell will be right back on the case.

========================================================

PERVS ALWAYS FIND A WAY. A Fort Bragg man was arrested Tuesday for allegedly touching a woman inappropriately during a pedicure, the Fort Bragg Police Department reported. According to the FBPD, a 23-year-old Fort Bragg woman reported shortly before 1pm on June 18 that she was groped by a man giving her a pedicure at the “My Beautiful Nails” salon on East Redwood Avenue. The woman told responding officers the suspect, identified as Anhtuan Nguyen, 24, of Fort Bragg, had slid his hand under her pants and rubbed the inside of her thigh during her pedicure. She reported the incident to the owner of the business, then called the police. When officers spoke with Nguyen, he reportedly admitted touching the woman in a sexual manner. He was arrested on suspicion of sexual battery and later cited and released.

========================================================

THE COUNTY’S RETIREMENT BOARD continues to refuse to lower their highly optimistic expected rate of return on their investments. On Wednesday Board member and investment maverick Ted Stephens suggested lowering the currently projected 7.75% to a more realistic 7.5% or lower (to a rate that more accurately reflects what the future revenues and value stock market values will be. The problem with lowering the expected rate of return is that the County and the pensioners would have to pony up more in the short run to make up whatever difference might result from the lower return assumptions. The current retirement board is mostly made up of representatives of the County and the pensioners who are not inclined to bump up their contributions in the wake of a lower revenue projection. The green-eyeshaders point out that not lowering the revenue projections will just postpone the inevitable as the “unfunded pension liability” grows larger and larger. But the County and the pensioners all say they need the money now and can’t afford to put more into the pension fund via lowering the projected revenues.

STUDIES HAVE SHOWN that most county pensions are modest and reasonable considering the time most pensioners put in. But a small percentage of higher paid pensioners (and some current employees in the same high pay range) have skewed their own pension levels artificially high by not only engineering high pay raises for themselves while on the government payroll, but also by various well-documented salary and benefit tricks to bump up their own pensions at the end of their careers. It’s not fair to harp simply on interest rates and make everybody pay more now simply because a few high paid pensioners have gamed the system to their advantage. But since the high pensions were obtained legally, the only solution, if a solution is even possible, may be to take more money from County coffers and current employees at all pay grades. It’s an upside-down formula favoring high paid insiders that seems to dominate almost all financial problems these days.

========================================================

THE NEW YORK TIMES published a story Friday on the environmental damage caused by marijuana growers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/us/marijuana-crops-in-california-threaten-forests-and-wildlife.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

In it, Gary Graham Hughes of EPIC says, “There is an identity crisis going on right now…The people who are really involved with [the marijuana] industry are trying to understand what their responsibilities are.” The article looks into many marijuana growing issues that have been covered locally — rodenticide, erosion, and water diversion. Interestingly though the piece leans heavily on the problems associated with marijuana growing, it does end with the idea that the industry has “begun to police itself.” The conclusion notes the Best Management Practices manual and the program that works with people to install water storage. According to the Times, law enforcement hasn’t been very effective against the worst offenders. The article states, “Federal environmental agents, including Mr. Roy and Mr. Job, have brought two cases to the United States Attorney’s office in San Francisco. The office declined to prosecute a case last year, they said. A new one is under review. But, they said, manpower for enforcement is limited.” With articles like this happening more frequently, will the increasing notice the wider world is taking of the environmental impacts of growing marijuana cause the government to take more notice also? (— Kym Kemp, Courtesy LostCoastOutpost.com)

========================================================

COMMENT OF THE DAY: Regarding the ongoing heat wave in Alaska, “The melt in Greenland and the high temperatures in Alaska may be more signs—like we needed more—of the reality of climate change. Even scarier is the fact that the climate models used before didn’t predict this sort of thing. The climate is very complex, and it’s hard to model it accurately. This is well-known and is why it’s so hard to make long-term predictions. But before the deniers crow that climatologists don’t know what they’re doing, note this well: The predictions made using these models almost always seem to underestimate the effects of climate change. That’s true in this case, too. So it’s not that the models are wrong and therefore climate change doesn’t exist. It’s that the models aren’t perfect, and it’s looking like things are worse than we thought.” (Slate, on-line magazine)

========================================================

CORPORATIZING NATIONAL SECURITY

What It Means

by Ralph Nader

Privacy is a sacred word to many Americans, as demonstrated by the recent uproar over the brazen invasion of it by the Patriot Act-enabled National Security Agency (NSA). The information about dragnet data-collecting of telephone and internet records leaked by Edward Snowden has opened the door to another pressing conversation—one about privatization, or corporatization of this governmental function.

In addition to potentially having access to the private electronic correspondence of American citizens, what does it mean that Mr. Snowden—a low-level contractor—had access to critical national security information not available to the general public? Author James Bamford, an expert on intelligence agencies, recently wrote: “The Snowden case demonstrates the potential risks involved when the nation turns its spying and eavesdropping over to companies with lax security and inadequate personnel policies. The risks increase exponentially when those same people must make critical decisions involving choices that may lead to war, cyber or otherwise.”

This is a stark example of the blurring of the line between corporate and governmental functions. Booz Allen Hamilton, the company that employed Mr. Snowden, earned over $5 billion in revenues in the last fiscal year, according to The Washington Post. The Carlyle Group, the majority owner of Booz Allen Hamilton, has made nearly $2 billion on its $910 million investment in “government consulting.” It is clear that “national security” is big business.

Given the value and importance of privacy to American ideals, it is disturbing how the terms “privatization” and “private sector” are deceptively used. Many Americans have been led to believe that corporations can and will do a better job handling certain vital tasks than the government can. Such is the ideology of privatization. But in practice, there is very little evidence to prove this notion. Instead, the term “privatization” has become a clever euphemism to draw attention away from a harsh truth. Public functions are being handed over to corporations in sweetheart deals while publicly owned assets such as minerals on public lands and research development breakthroughs are being given away at bargain basement prices.

These functions and assets—which belong to or are the responsibility of the taxpayers—are being used to make an increasingly small pool of top corporate executives very wealthy. And taxpayers are left footing the cleanup bill when corporate greed does not align with the public need.

With this in mind, let us not mince words. “Privatization” is a soft term. Let us call the practice what it really is—corporatization.

There’s big money to be made in moving government-owned functions and assets into corporate hands. Public highways, prisons, drinking water systems, school management, trash collection, libraries, the military and now even national security matters are all being outsourced to corporations. But what happens when such vital government functions are performed for big profit rather than the public good?

Look to the many reports of waste, fraud, and abuse that arose out of the over-use of corporate contractors in Iraq. At one point, there were more contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan than U.S. soldiers. Look to the private prisons, which make their money by incarcerating as many people as they can for as long as they can. Look to privatized water systems, the majority of which deliver poorer service at higher costs than public utility alternatives. Visit privatizationwatch.org for many more examples of the perils, pitfalls and excesses of rampant, unaccountable corporatization.

In short, corporatizing public functions does not work well for the public, consumers and taxpayers who are paying through the nose.

Some right-wing critics might view government providing essential public services as “socialism,” but as it now stands, we live in a nation increasingly comprised of corporate socialism. There is great value in having public assets and functions that are already owned by the people, to be performed for the public benefit, and not at high profit margins and prices for big corporations. By allowing corporate entities to assume control of such functions, it makes profiteering the central determinant in what, how, and why vital services are rendered.

Just look at the price of medicines given to drug companies by taxpayer-funded government agencies that discovered them.

(Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer and author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us! He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion, published by AK Press. Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition.)

========================================================

THE ALBION LITTLE RIVER FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT & the Albion Little River Fire Auxiliary present our 52nd annual BBQ and fundraiser.  Come join us at the Little River fairgrounds by the airport Saturday, July 13, 12-5 pm. $15 Adult, $10 ages 6-11, under 6 free.  We will be serving beef tri-tip, smoked chicken and vegan tamales. Enjoy good food and live music throughout the afternoon. We’ve got lots of new firefighters – come meet us! Spend the day with family and friends and support your Local Fire Department.  Featuring Music with the: The Groovenators Stellar Baby including Jon Faurot, Butch Kwan, Buddy Stubbs, John Smith, & Steven Bates Solos by Jon and possibly Steven Three on the Tree  Additionally: – Display of classic cars and hot rods! – Display of CalStar & REACH air service vehicles, including the newest EC135 REACH helicopter  There will be children’s activities, so bring the kids!  Kids’ area with games, prizes, bounce house, & Smokey! Save the date!  Mark your calendars now! If you would like to donate baked goods, please contact Susy Kitahara at 937-3714. If you can’t attend but still want to support us, consider joining the Fire Auxiliary. Monthly meetings are held the third Tuesday of every month at 7 pm at the fire station behind the Albion Grocery. We look forward to seeing you. — Scott Roat, Mendocino

WHO SAYS we don’t benefit from the casinos? The Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund, with a committee comprised of local elected officials looking on, has awarded $140,772.33 to all eight Mendocino County agencies that applied. According to Mr. Grim of the delighted Mendo CEO’s office, fire districts usually get the money, but this year the money’s spread around a little more.

THE SHERIFF’S OFFICE and the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office each received $39,637.06; the Hopland Fire Protection District received $13,795.69; the Long Valley Fire Protection District and the Redwood Valley-Calpella Fire Department each received $12,395.68; the Mendocino County Health and Human Services Agency received $3,500; and the Little Lake Fire Protection District received $2,800.

========================================================

FOR YEARS the soporific PBS NewsHour often perked up with some fine reporting on NorCal from Spencer Michaels, an excellent reporter with 30 years at PBS and KQED-TV.

But PBS has announced the end of its San Francisco-based bureau and Michaels is outtathere.

We all hope he’ll continue to report from this area somehow.

========================================================

CONTROVERSIAL LAKE COUNTY Sheriff Frank Rivero didn’t like the way the Lake County News was reporting on his serial, high profile hijinks so he stopped talking to them, even refusing to include Lake County News among his press release recipients. Lake County News sued, and now Lake County’s taxpayers are on the hook for $110,990 in attorney’s fees for the on-line newspaper. Visiting judge J. Michael Byrne, ruling for Lake County News, stated the obvious: “It’s a reporter’s right to report the news without retaliation.”

THE AVA lost a similar suit some years ago when the “liberals” on the Mendo Board of Supervisors retaliated against us for rightly pointing out their many deficiencies. We won a jury trial with the jury finding in less than an hour that we’d been the victims of lib thuggery, and leave it to the libs to use public cover and public money to do their dirty work for them. But we lost on appeal, which I believe was due to, well, it’s over, we got screwed, and that was that.

========================================================

PEOPLE WITH PILES OF MONEY that they don’t know what to do with because ordinary bank interest rates are essentially zero these days, mainly think that loaning it to someone at as high an interest rate as they can is the easiest way to make more money. And there are lots of middlemen and middlewomen out there who are always looking at creative, not to say very complicated and risky, ways of lending it out. At the same time, these monied people don’t want to take any risk; they know that the already fragile economy could tank at any minute and borrowers, who are only now starting to recover from the 2008 crash, could start defaulting in droves again.

LOCALLY there are several piles of money looking for people to loan it to. “Public banking” has become a popular idea among some local liberals and the remnant of the local “occupiers.” Others occasionally suggest that Mendo should do some local lending with the County’s “local agency investment fund.” And on June 11, the Board of Supervisors considered implementing a “PACE” (Property Assessed Clean Energy) program. A PACE program involves a homeowner borrowing money from a bank or other lending institution for energy or water conservation or solar energy upgrades and then paying it back through a special tax administrated by a specialty PACE contractor overseen by the County. In theory, the PACE program has lots of obvious benefits: It would create jobs for energy saving and solar companies, it would save some energy and money for homeowners, and it would reduce risks of loan defaults by enforcing the loan repayment with tax laws.

THE STICKLER in all of these programs is that Mendocino County would be burdened with administering something that is much more complicated than they seem. And if they’re such a great idea — local jobs, energy saving, money saving, low risk — why does the County have to be involved at all? Mendo already has more than it can handle with its outdated and obsolete parcel tax computer program and the PACE program would add a whole new layer of complication to it, even if the PACE contractor handles the tax assessments for the individual property owners who might apply. In particular the PACE program would have to carefully navigate the extremely complicated tax and bank loan system that’s already in place because most home and business owners already have outstanding loans from whoever for whatever and local property-parcel taxes are imposed under a conflicting layer of overlapping fire, school, water, cemetery, hospital, and other special districts that have built up over the years making keeping track of who owes what to whom for what into near-nightmares, not to mention delinquencies, late payments, bankruptcies, foreclosures, deaths, relatives, probate court, ownership disputes, inheritance disputes, etc.

THE UPSHOT? Mendo shouldn’t try to get into the banking business or the PACE program until and unless the program can be simplified and properly and fairly administered by an independent board and competent staff. Since that’s not likely to happen, we think Mendo should stay out of the money/banking/loan business, and instead put pressure on the local banks and credit unions to come up with ways to do what they already should do: make decent low interest loans to promising startups or small-business expansions (for example, by requesting regular status reports on their commercial loan programs to the Board).

========================================================

Daly

HERE’S A STATEMENT OF REALITY we’ll never hear from any elected person in this country. This is a question from Clare Daly, member of the Irish Parliament who represents Dublin North (Independent/No party affiliation) during Leaders’ Questions last week to Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny while President Obama was visiting Ireland for the G-8 conference.

I think it’s important to take this opportunity to bring a bit of balance into the discussion surrounding the business of the US president and his wife here in Ireland, given the almost unprecedented slobbering over them that the nation has been exposed to over the last number of days. It’s very hard to know which is worse, whether it’s the outpouring of the Obamists themselves or the sycophantic falling over them by sections of the media and the political establishment. We’ve had separate and special news bulletins by the state broadcasting agency telling us what Michelle Obama and her daughters had for lunch in Dublin, but very little questioning of the fact that she was having lunch with Mr. Tax Exile himself. We had very little challenging of the fact that she’s glad to be home, calling a country that she’d been in for less than a week “home” and that her husband has very tenuous links to. And of course the biggest irony of all, the protestations of Obama himself in his speech to children in Northern Ireland about peace. He said, “Those who choose the path of peace, I promise you that the United States of America will support you every step of the way. We will be the wind at your back.” Now I ask you, is this person going for the Hypocrite of the Century Award? Because we have to call things by their right names. The reality is that by any serious examination this man is a war criminal. He has just announced his decision to supply arms to the Syrian opposition including the jihadists fueling the destabilization of that region and continuing to undermine secularism and better conditions for women. This is the man who is in essence stalling the Geneva peace talks by trying to broker enhanced leverage for the Syrian opposition by giving them arms and to hell with the thousands more who daily lose their lives or the tens of thousands more who are being displaced as this war goes on. This is the man who has facilitated a 200% increase in the use of drones which have killed thousands of people including hundreds of children. And you Taoiseach [Irish Prime Minister] are the one who has turned a blind eye on these activities. You have talked about the G-8 being an opportunity to showcase Ireland. But is it not a reality that you have showcased us as a nation of pimps, prostituting ourselves in return for a pat on the head? To be honest with you, we don’t need you speculating this morning on whether you were going to deck the cabinet out in leprechaun hats decorated with a bit of styrofoam stars and stripes to really demonstrate our abject humiliation here. My question to you, Taoiseach, is as follows: What steps are you going to take to follow in the correct statements and the correct decisions of your colleagues who voted against the lifting of the arms embargo in relation to Syria? What steps are you going to take to ensure that no weapons for Syria are going to go through Shannon Airport in breach of our international laws of neutrality? What steps are you going to take to showcase this country not as a lap dog of US imperialism, but as an independent nation with an independent foreign policy which takes a lead in international diplomacy to outlaw the use of drones, the favorite method of extermination of your friend, Mr. Obama?”

Kenny & Obama

The Irish Prime Minister didn’t respond directly but expressed his displeasure with Daly’s comments, saying, “I think your comments are disgraceful. I think they do down the pride of Irish people all over the world who are more than happy to see this island being host to the G8.”

Daly replied:

And of course, I said nothing about the Northern Ireland peace process which Mr. Obama mentioned, a process which everybody supports but which is not one which gives you a license to do whatever you like anywhere else around the globe. There isn’t much peace in Iraq where 26 people lost their lives yesterday. There isn’t much peace in Afghanistan. There isn’t much peace in Pakistan. And there certainly isn’t much peace in Syria. The side I am on in Syria and the one I agree with is a statement by Oxfam. Oxfam said: Sending arms to the Syrian opposition will not create a level playing field. Instead, it further risks fueling an arms free for all where the victims are the civilians of Syria. Our experience tells us that the crisis will only drag on far longer and longer if arms are poured in. And that in essence is what the Americans have done here. I can only take from your non-answer to the question that you were asked, that you will take no steps to ensure that those arms will not be sent through Shannon in breach of our neutrality. You said here last week that no arms ever came through Shannon. How do you know that? No investigation has taken place. The reality is that in 2012 548 US planes landed in Shannon. How do you know what was on them if you have not examined them? Your Minister for Transport revealed in a parliamentary question that 239 civilian planes landed in Shannon where they sought permission because they were carrying munitions of war or dangerous goods on a civilian aircraft. What steps are you going to take to intervene in this situation? And the last point I will make is that people in this country are very fond of our American brothers and sisters. I think we stand far more shoulder to shoulder with them by making valid criticisms of their president who has broken his election promises, rather than just pimping this nation as a tax haven for their corporations. I’m sure the Americans would far prefer that their multinational corporations pay their taxes at home rather than offshore here so that they could develop their health care and so they would not be wasting money on arms being sent to slaughter people in other countries.

========================================================

STATEMENT OF THE DAY: The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. — Edward Bernays, 1925

========================================================

A READER SENDS ALONG an April article from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette noting, “If you think it’s nuts in Northern California, look at this incident in Arkansas.”

Article appalls GOP leader; 2 quit posts. By Sarah D. Wire

The secretary of the Benton County Republican Party and her husband, a county GOP committee member, resigned Monday, days after placing an article in the organization’s newsletter calling for Arkansans to make “examples” of “turncoats” and “traitors” in the state Legislature who have “placed Arkansas firmly on the path to Socialism.” The article discusses the feasibility of shooting certain lawmakers and envisioned some as “bullet backstops.” The head of the County committee called the statements “abhorrent.”

The Arkansas State police reviewed the matter but determined Monday that the newsletter article and a series of purportedly threatening emails written by Chris Nogy of Lowell to state lawmakers were not serious enough to warrant an investigation, nor did a social media message from a different person that referred to shooting House speaker Davy Carter that was also sent over the weekend.

The Republican Party of Benton County’s April newsletter included an article that discussed shooting lawmakers who “step out of line.”

The article was written by Nogy, husband of the party’s secretary, Leigh Nogy. In the article, titled “Scathing,” Chris Nogy wrote that he is frustrated by some Republican members who voted on a plan to use federal MedicAid money to purchase private health insurance for 250,000 poor people. He said approving the bill helped implement the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.

“The Second Amendment means nothing unless those in power believe you would have no problem simply walking up and shooting them if they got too far out of line and stopped responding as representatives,” Nogy wrote. “If we can’t shoot them, we have to at least be firm in our threat to take immediate action against them politically, socially and civically if they screw up on something this big. Personally, I think a gun is quicker and more merciful, but hey, we can’t.”

Known at the Capitol as the “private option” for Medicaid, the concept was one of the most contentious issues of the legislative session, pitting Republican legislators against one another over whether the state should willingly participate in the 2010 federal healthcare law that has remained divisive among Arkansans.

Benton County Party Chairman Tim Summers said by phone Monday that he asked for, and received, Chris and Leigh’s resignations. A number listed for the Nogys in the phone book was no longer in service. “It reflected poorly on our county for that to come out,” Summers, a former lawmaker, said.

He said Chris Nogy did not have permission to insert the article in the newsletter. Summers said that as county chairman he should have reviewed the content of the newsletter before it was sent.

Summers called the article offensive and said “to suggest violence as a response to a vote of our elected legislators is simply abhorrent.”

Representative Sue Scott, R-Rogers, said Nogy also sent her two emails beyond the newsletter that referred to harming her and other legislators from Northwest Arkansas.

Scott was one of about 15 lawmakers who voted against legislation to create a framework for the private option but then voted to give the state Department of Human Services authority to spend money implementing the program.

She would not provide a reporter with a copy of the emails from Nogy. “I was scared, I’ll be very honest with you. I’m just not used to this kind of response from anyone,” Scott said. “I had no idea someone would threaten me in such a manner and threaten my friends, my fellow legislators. We don’t threaten to line people up and shoot them, it’s not an adult way — it’s not a Christian way — to handle our differences.”

Scott said she knew Nogy and his wife through the County party. “It was a big surprise, I couldn’t believe it,” Scott said. “I was very surprised that he continued to write more.”

In a statement Monday, Arkansas State police spokesman Bill Sadler said state police had looked into the matter and didn’t think it warranted further investigation.

“The state police has not developed any evidence that would substantiate a criminal investigation being opened,” Sadler said. “State police have also been in contact with the state representatives who were the subject of the comments and at this time there is no reason to believe their safety is presently compromised.”

Scott said she is satisfied with the reaction from state police. “If there was any need for me to continue to be concerned, I would think they would let me know about it. I trust that they would do that,” she said.

Also over the weekend a person who calls himself Seanonymous, using the micro-blogging website Twitter, referred to shooting Carter of Cabot. He called Carter “a very persuasive gun advocate. I’d like to buy a gun and shoot him with it.”

State police learned of the message when someone asked if the agency was investigating him. The man does not provide his real name.

Carter said he lost his temper in his response to the man on Twitter, “I’d rather him come here for an ass-kicking.”

He said Monday that he didn’t feel threatened by the message. “I regret popping off like I did, but that’s human nature,” Carter said. “I worry more about the members than I do myself. It just has no place in politics or society in general. That sort of bullying, intimidation, threatening nature has no place, and my instincts are to get angry about it and to get mad about it.”

Carter said he was told by police that the man is in California. He said they had no previous contact. The message sender later posted to Twitter that he meant to address the message toward Representative Nate Bell, R-Mena. He did not respond to messages seeking comment Monday.

Bell has received more than 10,000 comments on his Twitter account since he made a reference to the hunt for suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing last week. “I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering in their homes wishing they had an AR-15 with a high-capacity magazine? #2A,” he wrote. Bell later apologized for the timing of his comment. Sadler said state police have not looked into messages sent to Bell nor have they been asked.

RASTAFARIANS here, Rastafarians there, Rastafarians everywhere in Boonville this weekend. Overall impression is of shuffling, listless people, most of them young but enervated-seeming. Thanatoids. The weather has been rain-cloudy, muggy-warm but only a few sprinkles of actual precipitation. The Rasta brigades seem to bring seasonally odd weather with them. They were in town five years ago for the big lightning storm. Sunday noon, a drunk was passed out in the flowerbed of the Boonville Post Office. A group of street people was stretched out on the grass strip at the fairgrounds parking lot. A shopkeeper said she would be “glad when they’re gone. They steal stuff, they camp out in the bathroom, they’re stoned so they’ll stand there staring at the menu like they’re the only one in line.” Saturday night, a frantic male voice crackled out of the scanner demanding to know what to do with the garbage piling up, an inquiry he concluded by repeatedly screaming the full version of “WTF!” Inside the Fairgrounds, it all seemed well organized, including a tent called Jah-Med, an emergency medical group. Off Lambert Lane, a scruffy, youngish man sat with several jars of marijuana bud. “I’m not selling it, I’m donating it. I give you some, you make a donation to me.” A Sheriff’s deputy commented on the numbers of “unsupervised juveniles,” remarking that he didn’t think the festival was “appropriate for kids.” It’s not Sesame Street, for sure, but given that somewhere between seven and eight thousand people are in town for this thing, the only arrests so far have been a few drunks-in-public and “juveniles in possession,” which we tend to get anyway even when there are only five people in town.

========================================================

RED-TAILED HAWK SPENT A SECOND DAY on Friday aboard the contraption called a “wick drain stitcher,” perched about half-way up the crane on which the stitching mechanism is hung. At one point, operators moved the stitcher several feet, letting the crane come to rest on a steel plate. The intent seemed to be to make way for the second stitcher, which was in operation all day. To their credit contractors notified Hawk and onlookers in advance of the move. The night was illuminated by generator-driven floodlights, and the toplights and floods of the CHP cars surrounding Red-Tailed Hawk’s perch. Loud sounds broadcast from the cars and honking in the early hours of the morning were evidently the CHP’s version of the strategy used by U.S. troops surrounding the Vatican Embassy in Panama when Manuel Noriega took refuge there. In that instance, blaring rock ‘n roll at deafening levels was employed to persuade Vatican personnel to dis-invite Noriega. Low-grade torture evidently has its advocates even among the CHP, who are apparently determined to wait out Red-Tailed Hawk’s machine-sit, while making his stay as uncomfortable as possible. There was no attempt Friday, in fact, to dislodge our Hawk, who spent the day adjusting his platform and using occasions of relative quiet to exchange words with supporters on the ground. Supporters coming in met no opposition, as the private security guards hired by NCRA to harass protesters were nowhere in evidence today, their claims to enforcing a bogus ban on “trespassing” having been challenged by at least one walker on Thursday. Please walk on out to the sight via the train tracks on the north side of town and spend some time over the next couple of days in support of Red-Tailed Hawk. Besides the moral support, he’ll need witnesses should the CHP try to dislodge him.

RED-TAIL HAWK’S THIRD DAY IN THE STITCHER. Supporters make dramatic bid to resupply. Saturday evening around 45 supporters of Red-Tailed Hawk’s occupation of a wick drain “stitching machine” converged on the site of what was precious wetlands in the path of CalTrans’ freeway project. Supporters walked onto the site unopposed until they reached CHP squad cars, when two officers emerged and tried to call a halt to the march. Supporters from Willits, Ukiah and beyond proceeded on to the stitcher in which Red-Tailed Hawk is perched. When he lowered a supply rope, they tried to attach bundles of food and water. CHP officers repelled the attempt three times, cutting the rope in the process. With press on hand protestors quietly sat and reasoned with the officers to allow resupply to Red-Tailed Hawk, who has no food and very little water left. The officers refused and refused as well to reveal whether they were under orders to starve him until he descends. When CHP reinforcements arrived, Sgt A. Mesa ordered protesters to leave the site and immediately grabbed Sara Grusky as she was complying with the order. Her daughter Thea Grusky-Foley and Naomi Wagner allowed themselves to be arrested in solidarity. Matt Caldwell was also forcibly arrested. The evening ended at Willits Police Station, where Sara and Thea, who had walked away after being handcuffed, talked by phone to press and Sheriff Tom Allman amidst a crowd of supporters. They surrendered to an angry Sgt. Mesa after calling in their whereabouts to the CHP. All four arrestees were in Mendocino County Jail awaiting booking on Sunday. (Courtesy, SaveLittleLakeValley.com)

========================================================

COMMENT OF THE DAY: Two dangerous runaway processes have taken root in the last decade, with fatal consequences for democracy. Government secrecy has been expanding on a terrific scale. Simultaneously, human privacy has been secretly eradicated. The US government is spying on each and every one of us, but it is Edward Snowden who is charged with espionage for tipping us off. Let’s be very careful about who we call “traitor.” Edward Snowden is one of us. — Julian Assange

========================================================

BOOK REVIEW: Southern League: A True Story of Baseball, Civil Rights, and the Deep South’s Most Compelling Pennant Race. By Larry Colton

1964 was a pivotal year in the Civil Rights movement, and in Birmingham, Alabama — perhaps the epicenter of American racial conflict — a remarkable grand experiment was about to take place: Alabama’s first-ever integrated team, the Barons of baseball’s Southern League. Johnny “Blue Moon” Odom, a talented pitcher and Tommie Reynolds, an outfielder — both young black ballplayers with dreams of playing someday in the big leagues, along with Bert Campaneris, an escapee from Cuba, all found themselves in this simmering cauldron of a minor league town, all playing for manager Haywood Sullivan, a white former major leaguer who had grown up surrounded by the ways of Jim Crow just down the road in Dothan, Alabama. Critically-acclaimed and best-selling author Larry Colton — himself a former professional pitcher who played in the Southern League — traces the entire 1964 season, writing about the extraordinary relationships among the Barons players and their charismatic manager Sullivan. Colton captures the heat of Birmingham and its citizens during this tumultuous year. The infamous Bull Connor, for example, who ordered the notorious Birmingham police to pummel civil rights marchers with blasts from powerful water hoses, was a fervent follower of the Barons. (He had leveraged his fame as a long-time broadcaster of Baron games to launch his political career.) Famed Alabama head football coach Bear Bryant was a regular at the Barons’ games. And the flamboyant Charlie Finley, who hailed from Birmingham, was the owner of the Kansas City (and later the Oakland) Athletics, the major league team that controlled the Barons’ players and the team’s fate. More than a story about baseball, this is a true accounting of a pivotal moment in the transformation of American society. Colton takes us on the road with the players as they stay in separate but unequal hotels; he introduces their girlfriends and young wives; he follows a desperate pennant race down to the wire; he takes us inside the culture of our great American sport in an era when players worked off-season jobs in warehouses for a buck-fifty an hour; and he gets us to root for a courageous team owner regularly facing threats from the KKK. Seventeen years after Jackie Robinson had broken the color line in the major leagues, official Birmingham was resisting the end of segregation with bombs and terror. But Birmingham’s citizens, black and white, were finally going to go to the ballpark to watch their very first integrated sports team. Around the Southern League, the racial jeers and taunts that rained down upon these Birmingham players echoed the abuse Jackie Robinson had faced, but these young athletes were forged into a team capable of winning in spite of the hostility. Their story is told here for the first time.

(http://www.larrycolton.com/books/southern-league/)

========================================================

NSA WHISTLEBLOWER Edward Snowden is set to fly from Moscow to the Republic of Ecuador where he will seek asylum, WikiLeaks has revealed. Snowden flew into the Russian capital just after 5pm local time on Sunday after fleeing Hong Kong, where he had been hiding out since leaking explosive details of the US government’s widespread surveillance programs. Unable to leave Moscow’s Sheremtyevo airport without a Russian visa, the former National Security Agency contractor is reportedly booked into a $15-an-hour capsule hotel on the airport premises where he will stay before he flies out to Ecuador tomorrow via a “safe route” — presumably Cuba. In a statement on Sunday afternoon, WikiLeaks said Snowden was bound for Ecuador, a country which has been harboring the anti-secrecy agency’s founder Julian Assange for the past year — “for the purposes of asylum, and is being escorted by diplomats and legal advisors from WikiLeaks.”

========================================================

NEIGHBORS RAISE MONEY for burial of deceased husband of cash-strapped woman who buried him in own backyard. According to police, Yvonne Winn, 59, buried her husband Thomas Winn, 63, in the couple’s backyard. Yvonne Winn told police she buried her husband because she couldn’t afford the costs of a funeral. Police arrived at the Winn residence to do a welfare check on Thomas Winn, when Yvonne Winn told them her husband had died of natural causes in late May, and she had buried him. Neighbors are helping Yvonne Winn by raising money so she can have an official burial for her husband.

A 59-year-old woman buried her husband behind the porch in their backyard in San Bernadino, California because she couldn’t afford funeral costs, police reports say.

Yvonne Winn of Apple Valley dug a four- to five-foot hole in the yard of the couple’s home and buried her husband Thomas Winn, 63, after he died in late May.

Neighbors who heard of Yvonne Winn’s plight have been raising money to help her pay for a proper burial for her husband.

“She seems like such a nice, hard-working, older lady,” neighbor Colin Wilson told the LA Times. “I could imagine how difficult it might be, just the whole situation. I feel for her.”

According to NBC4, authorities showed up to the home on Wednesday to do a welfare check on Thomas Winn. Yvonne Winn told them she had buried Thomas in the backyard after he died last month.

The body was wrapped in two garbage bags when officials dug it out of the hole in the home’s yard Thursday.

According to neighbors, the police spent three hours digging in the backyard of the Winns before exhuming a plastic-wrapped body.

Wilson says Yvonne Winn was visibly upset as police dug up her husband’s body. “She appeared frantic, frustrated. She was definitely bawling, she was crying. Just very out of sorts,” Wilson told NBC4, describing the smell after the body was dug up as “rancid.”

After burying her husband, Yvonne Winn attempted to sell the house.

A prospective buyer of the house told NBC4 that he was set to move into the house on July 31st but was now having second thoughts.

Yvonne Winn told the buyer that her husband had died after hitting his head. He’d gone to bed that night but in the morning, she hadn’t been able to wake him, the buyer told NBC4.

A spokeswoman for the San Bernadino sheriff’s department said there was no suspicion of foul play in the death of Thomas Winn, and a spokesperson for the town said authorities had decided not to penalize Yvonne Winn for the illegal burial.

Neighbors have rallied around Winn in her time of need to raise the money needed to have a proper burial for Thomas Winn.

“It’s a terrible feeling to know that just across your backyard there’s someone that was so financially strapped that they felt like they couldn’t bury their own family properly,” said Colin Wilson, who along with his sister has been fundraising through Fundrazr.com for the Winns. So far, they’ve raised $2723 of a $3000 goal.

“Resident of Apple Valley, Yvonne Winn recently suffered the tragic loss of her husband, Thomas Winn. In her time of immense grief and with no money for a casket, she desperately buried him in their backyard. Thomas Winn was a beloved man and an upstanding member of the High Desert Community. Please help Yvonne and her family give Thomas the proper burial he deserves,” says the page. “I just feel terrible for her,” Wilson said. “I can’t imagine what she went through.”

(— Alex Greig. Courtesy, the London Daily Mail)

========================================================

FAMILY SEEKS ANSWERS in disappearance of SoCal man headed to ‘Murder Mountain.’ Private investigator: His truck was found in Garberville area.

by Colleen Chalmers

Private detectives investigating the disappearance of a Southern California man — who went missing after reportedly heading to work at a marijuana grow near what he called “Murder Mountain” — said this week that his pickup truck was found broken down on private property in southern Humboldt.

Cook & Associates Private Investigation owner and licensed investigator Chris Cook said she’s notified the Humboldt County Sheriff’s office about the latest information related to 30-year-old Garret Rodriguez’s disappearance.

“I believe there’s a strong connection,” Cook said.

No one has heard from Rodriguez since Christmas time, officials and private investigators said. He was last heard from while en route from his home in the San Diego enclave of Ocean Beach to the mountains of southern Humboldt, where he was reportedly going to work at a marijuana ranch.

Rodriguez’s father, who lives in central Mexico, said he believes some of his son’s friends must know something.

“I believe that some of them know what happened to him, but they’re afraid to come forward and say anything,” Val ‘Buzz’ Rodriguez said. “I know that for a fact.”

His mother, who lives in Georgia, said she knows her son was going to work at an indoor grow in the Rancho Sequoia area near Alderpoint for the winter. She questions why the two people her son worked with have been silent about the case.

“It’s important for people to know who he was working with,” said Pamela McGinnis, who believes the two business associates were the last to be with her son.

Sheriff’s Office Detective Todd Fulton said the names of the two men Rodriguez worked with are not being released at this time.

“We don’t have any reason to release the names of his associates,” he said. “As far as I know, his last known location was in San Diego.”

Fulton said the office is investigating Rodriguez’s disappearance as a missing person’s case, but it is unclear if Rodriguez was in the county.

Cook & Associates investigator Jeremy Yanopoulos said Rodriguez had been involved with growing marijuana since high school, and had also been working with marijuana trafficking and sales between Humboldt County and San Diego for a couple years.

“He wasn’t the top guy,” Yanopoulos said. “It doesn’t sound like it was paying particularly well.”

McGinnis said her son never seemed to make much money in the marijuana business.

“I know a lot of young guys go up to Humboldt to try and make a lot of money. His goal was to save money, but there was always some reason why he didn’t have any,” she said.

His family said Rodriguez was in the marijuana business to save enough money to eventually fulfill his dream of having a home in Mexico.

“It was just the allure of money that got him involved, so he could build his home in Mexico,” McGinnis said.

Rodriguez’s family said he loved water sports, fishing and cooking — mostly with fish and anything wrapped in bacon — and he made a mean ahi poke sushi roll.

“He also had a famous crab dip that I know his friends liked. He’d cook anything, but he loved being in the ocean, so he always had tons of lobsters and fish on hand,” McGinnis said.

His family said he won trophies for fishing and was once offered a full scholarship to a culinary school and apprenticeship program at a five-star restaurant in Colorado after he went through chef training in San Diego. Rodriguez turned down the opportunity because he did not want to leave his friends in California, family members said.

His aunt Bonnie Taylor, who lives in the Chico area, said she was the last family member to see him before he went missing. She said Rodriguez’s friends were his family.

“He was sweet, loving, caring and good-hearted. He had a love of life,” she said. “This guy wasn’t somebody who just goes missing.”

Rodriguez is described as being 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 180 pounds, with brown hair.

”He has the most gorgeous green eyes and a beautiful smile,” Taylor said.

Rodriguez also has a tattoo of a colored ocean scene on his right shoulder.

“He actually knew how to swim before he was walking,” McGinnis said. “I never thought he would leave the ocean.”

Taylor said the family tried to talk Rodriguez out of going to Humboldt County for work.

“We tried as best we could. He didn’t always make really good choices,” she said. “Choice of certain friends. Choice of going up to Humboldt.”

McGinnis said there have been hundreds of friends posting photos and memories of her son on a Facebook page dedicated to bringing him home, saying how much they miss him. “Everybody’s really concerned,” she said.

Yanopoulos said Cook & Associates is investigating rumors about what has happened to Rodriguez and speculation on why he disappeared.

It was not until April that Rodriguez was officially reported missing. Yanopoulos said it was not uncommon for friends and family members to go short periods of time without hearing from Rodriguez while he was working in southern Humboldt.

“But this went way beyond just business as usual,” he said.

His father reported him missing on April 25 after one of his son’s ex-girlfriends told him no one had heard from Rodriguez in months.

Taylor said the family knows in their hearts that Rodriguez made it to southern Humboldt and would have contacted them if he could. “There’s no way Garret could be alive,” she said. “He was a really sweet kid. I call him a kid; he was a man. But to me, he was a kid.”

McGinnis said some people might look at her son’s case and think, “Oh look, just more druggies.”

”But he had a lot of people who loved him and thought the world of him,” she said.

Anyone with information regarding Garret Rodriguez is asked to contact Cook & Associates Private Investigations at 839-7422 or call Chris Cook at 616-4507. You may also contact the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at 445-7251. (Courtesy, the Eureka Times-Standard)

========================================================

ALWAYS APPEAR in feminine attire when not actively engaged in practice or playing ball. This regulation continues through the playoffs for all, even though your team is not participating. At no time may a player appear in the stands in her uniform or wear slacks or shorts in public.

Boyish bobs are not permissible, and in general your hair should be well groomed at all times with longer hair preferable to short haircuts. Lipstick should always be on.

Smoking or drinking is not permissible in public places. Liquor drinking will not be permissible under any circumstances. Other intoxicating drinks in limited portions with after-game meal only will be allowed. Obscene language will not be allowed at any time.

All social engagements must be approved by chaperone. Legitimate requests for dates can be allowed by chaperones.

Jewelry must not be worn during game or practice, regardless of type.

Due to shortage of equipment, baseballs must not be given as souvenirs without permission from the management.

Baseball-uniform skirts shall not be shorter than six inches above the kneecap.

In order to sustain the complete spirit of rivalry between clubs, the members of different clubs must not fraternize at any time during the season. After the opening day of the season, fraternizing will be subject to heavy penalties. This means, in particular, room parties, auto trips to out-of-the-way eating places, etc. However, friendly discussions in lobbies with opposing players are permissible.

Fines of five dollars for first offense, ten dollars for second, and suspension for third, will automatically be imposed for breaking any of the above rules.

(— From the League Rules of Conduct for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, established in 1943.)

========================================================

WE HESITATE to get into the middle of what should be a personal family problem. But when an elected official flouts the law and then sues the taxpayers for it, we feel it’s time to weigh in.

Supervisor Dan Hamburg’s wife, Carrie, was, by all accounts, much admired. Her last wishes, made known as she was facing death from a long bout with cancer, were certainly worth doing one’s utmost to fulfill.

She wanted to be buried on the property she and her husband had shared for many years. The problem was, it is illegal in California to be buried on your own – or any – private property without special permission.

Mr. Hamburg ignored that law and simply buried his wife at home without asking anyone’s permission.

The county rightly refused to release a death certificate for Mrs. Hamburg without the proper paperwork showing he had permission to do so.

Then someone alerted the Sheriff that the burial had taken place unlawfully and the Sheriff was forced to take action. He could not ignore a patently illegal act – especially one carried out by an elected official.

Once the Sheriff got involved, the burial became public knowledge and, in the end, to prevent the Sheriff from doing his duty – exhuming Mrs. Hamburg – Mr. Hamburg went to court and filed a lawsuit. Not only does Mr. Hamburg want the court to forgive his transgression after the fact, he wants the taxpayers to foot the bill.

Mr. Hamburg has many devoted followers in this county. They have rushed to his defense, decrying the unfair treatment of the man and insisting that anyone should be able to bury someone on their private property no questions asked.

We disagree. We think there are good reasons burying a loved one at home should be generally prohibited. For one thing, when human bones are found buried somewhere other than a cemetery they spark necessary investigations that can be lengthy and expensive. We also need to have specific rules about where and how a human body is buried to protect the environment.

Having said that, however, we get to the most important point of Mr. Hamburg’s situation. Did he have to go through this or put his family and supporters (or any of us) through it?

No.

All he had to do was ask a judge to approve the burial before hand. Mr. Hamburg’s wife did not die suddenly. There was no need to secretly grant her wishes. As Mr. Hamburg’s own suit points out, local judges have approved these requests twice in recent years.

Why did he not simply do as others have done as ask permission? Is that so hard to do?

We hope whatever judge ends up with this case will grant Mr. Hamburg’s request to leave his wife buried where she is – with the stipulation that county health officials are allowed to visit the site and make sure environmental rules were followed.

But we hope the judges will require Mr. Hamburg to pay his own legal bills. The taxpayers should not have to pick up the tab for his legal activism. (— K.C. Meadows. Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)

========================================================

THE CHRON POSES the question, “Are techies good for The City?” An anon on-line response speaks for lots of us: “The gays and hippies (as mentioned in another comment) did not come to SF to make money. And they did not displace tens of thousands of people by unleashing a wave of legal and illegal evictions. And they enhanced the culture, created culture, made the city a more interesting place. I hate to generalize, but I meet tech people every day on my job and there are certain commonalities. The average ones seem to have been here for two months, have ADD, have no curiosity about the culture of their adoptive city, are completely humorless, dismissive of others not of their kind, have their face buried in a device, are poorly read, and demonstrate no political awareness other than a knee-jerk libertarianism bestowed upon them by their corporation. The ‘hipster’ tag is just silly. There’s nothing hip about a corporate gig or rabid money-seeking. Recently, a Zynga employee talked my ear off about the ‘artistry’ of the ‘creatives’ at her firm. These were mass-produced computer games she was referring to. Puh-leeze! And buying high-priced tickets to Burning Man so you can go wild once a year does not make you hip, it makes you look like a sucker.”

WILLITS POLICE are investigating the death of Danny Lawrason, 77, found dead in his home on East San Francisco Avenue on Sunday June 16th. A press release from the police was ambiguous. It said that Lawrason suffered “gunshot wounds” — plural — but his death “is being investigated to determine whether foul play was involved.” Foul play as speculation means the old man was either murdered or he shot himself. Forensics are expected to reveal which.

SO, a likely homicide of an old man in Willits, a definite homicide on Spy Rock of a Mexican man found dead at a pot op, an LA kid missing out of Southern Humboldt who said he was going to work on “Murder Mountain,” which sounds like Spy Rock but could be any ridgetop between Spy Rock and Arcata, the likely homicide of Fort Bragg’s Katlyn Long, and the adjudicated but unprosecuted homicide of Ukiah’s Susan Keegan.

Dr. & Mrs. Keegan

NOT THAT DRUG murders are less serious than the bludgeoning of Mrs. Keegan by Doctor Keegan, and not that the shooting death of an old man in his home is easy to unravel, but we don’t know who committed these crimes. How about prosecuting the crimes where we do know who did it. If Doctor Keegan and Mrs. Keegan are the only people on the premises and the death certificate says that Mrs. Keegan was murdered, where is the prosecution, Mr. DA? It’s past time to get the doctor on the stand. Of course, if the professional classes of Mendocino County get free passes to bludgeon their mates to death and generally skate on major felonies, maybe the DA’s office should update its policy manual to indicate official reality.

Long & Matson

WORSE, IN ITS WAY, is the death of young Katlyn Long of Fort Bragg. She spends her last night among us with her estranged boy friend at his request. He, Garrett Matson, scion of Fort Bragg’s prominent Matson family, wakes up the next morning, Katlyn doesn’t. She is dead from a drug overdose, but she’s not a drug person. Matson hires ace criminal defense attorney Richard Petersen. Petersen tells the cops, in this case the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department, that if they’ll submit the questions they want to ask to Petersen, the cops can eventually, perhaps, quiz his “client.”

FIRST OFF, a dead girl with one other person in the room obviously constitutes probable cause that the alive person is responsible for the dead person. Why wasn’t Matson arrested on the spot? His lawyer can sit in on any subsequent questioning, of course, but that questioning should have occurred at the County Jail. But it never took place at all either in or out of jail.

ANY OTHER PLACE than this bumbling jurisdiction, Matson would have been run through the system. As it stands, we’ve got two male killers running around loose because law enforcement, all the way up to the DA, haven’t done their jobs.

BUT DOCTOR KEEGAN is the more egregious of the two perps. He was married to Susan Keegan for 30 years, but wasted no time hooking up with a new girlfriend only weeks after his wife died at his hands. And Mrs. Keegan’s death certificate was changed to “homicide.” Again, two persons in the house, one of them is murdered, and it wasn’t the doctor. Why hasn’t he been arrested and charged?

========================================================

RASTA FEST’S organizers know what they’re doing. By Monday night you’d never know 7-8,000 people had been in town over the weekend. Clean-up crews were already at work Sunday night, and by daylight Monday our very own Arlene Guest, the under-sung heroine who voluntarily keeps Boonville litter-free year-round, had launched her own second-wave clean-up.

========================================================

NINE YEARS AGO, cameras on the Golden Gate Bridge recorded a lone coyote jogging across the bridge from the Marin Headlands south to the Presidio. That pioneer apparently founded the Frisco coyotes who now number about 20, having established themselves in most of the substantially wooded areas of the city. Two coyotes were shot in Golden Gate Park a few years ago after they allegedly attacked two big, aggressive dogs — off leash dogs — an attack that seemed more like mutual combat when the dogs rushed a den containing coyote pups. Coyotes aren’t stupid. They don’t look for fights with larger animals, and there was no real reason to shoot the two in Golden Gate Park. I’ve seen the same coyote (I think) twice in the dunes near Lobo Creek at the western edge of the Presidio not far from Baker Beach, an exciting discovery both times for me, a coyote guy from way back off odd encounters with the animals in Mendocino County. Those encounters both involved stare downs that went on for several minutes until the coyote got tired of laughing at me. They made me understand why the Indians regarded the coyote so highly — the animal is intelligent and has a sense of fun. The more hysterical dog people want the SF coyotes exterminated as ongoing hazards to little Woofie and Floofie, the obese housecat. One nut even said she was afraid her infant might be carried off by unchecked coyotes! The coyotes may pick off a feral cat once in a while but they’ve never been seen roaming the neighborhoods in search of larger meals. I hope the city isn’t stampeded into killing this least menacing of all the wildlife roaming San Francisco.

========================================================

COMMENT OF THE DAY: If real fame is a mask that eats into the face, then pseudo-fame, the current kind, might be a decoy that eats into the brain. You often meet those people in California, people who have forgotten that you are real, that you watch the news, that you know who they really are, that you know where the money is coming from. They begin to lie to journalists and themselves with the same grim hope: if I say this and no one contradicts me it might be true. A sense of entitlement stands in for personal values. They don’t mind if they’re fooling you and fooling themselves, so long as they can keep the show on the road. — Andrew O’Hagan

========================================================

THE PURSUIT OF EDWARD SNOWDEN: Washington in a Rage, Striving to Run the World

By Norman Solomon

Rarely has any American provoked such fury in Washington’s high places. So far, Edward Snowden has outsmarted the smartest guys in the echo chamber — and he has proceeded with the kind of moral clarity that U.S. officials seem to find unfathomable.

Bipartisan condemnations of Snowden are escalating from Capitol Hill and the Obama administration. More of the NSA’s massive surveillance program is now visible in the light of day — which is exactly what it can’t stand.

The central issue is our dire shortage of democracy. How can we have real consent of the governed when the government is entrenched with extreme secrecy, surveillance and contempt for privacy?

The same government that continues to expand its invasive dragnet of surveillance, all over the United States and the rest of the world, is now asserting its prerogative to drag Snowden back to the USA from anywhere on the planet. It’s not only about punishing him and discouraging other potential whistleblowers. Top U.S. officials are also determined to — quite literally — silence Snowden’s voice, as Bradley Manning’s voice has been nearly silenced behind prison walls.

The sunshine of information, the beacon of principled risk-takers, the illumination of government actions that can’t stand the light of day — these correctives are anathema to U.S. authorities who insist that really informative whistleblowers belong in solitary confinement. A big problem for those authorities is that so many people crave the sunny beacons of illumination.

On Sunday night, more than 15,000 Americans took action to send a clear message to the White House. The subject line said “Mr. President, hands off Edward Snowden,” and the email message read: “I urge you in the strongest terms to do nothing to interfere with the travels or political asylum process of Edward Snowden. The U.S. government must not engage in abduction or any other form of foul play against Mr. Snowden.”

As the Obama White House weighs its options, the limits are practical and political. Surveillance and military capacities are inseparable, and they’re certainly huge, but constraints may cause major frustration. Sunday on CNN, anchor Don Lemon cited the fabled Navy Seals and said such commandos ought to be able to capture Snowden, pronto.

The state of surveillance and perpetual war are one and the same. The U.S. government’s rationale for pervasive snooping is the “war on terror,” the warfare state under whatever name.

Too rarely mentioned is the combination of nonviolence and idealism that has been integral to the courageous whistleblowing by Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning. Right now, one is on a perilous journey across the globe in search of political asylum, while the other is locked up in a prison and confined to a military trial excluding the human dimensions of the case. At a time of Big Brother and endless war, Snowden and Manning have bravely insisted that a truly better world is possible.

Meanwhile, top policymakers in Washington seem bent on running as much of the world as possible. Their pursuit of Edward Snowden has evolved into a frenzied rage.

Those at the top of the U.S. government insist that Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning have betrayed it. But that’s backward. Putting its money on vast secrecy and military violence instead of democracy, the government has betrayed Snowden and Manning and the rest of us.

Trying to put a stop to all that secrecy and violence, we have no assurance of success. But continuing to try is a prerequisite for realistic hope.

A few months before the invasion of Iraq, looking out at Baghdad from an upper story of a hotel, I thought of something Albert Camus once wrote. “And henceforth, the only honorable course will be to stake everything on a formidable gamble: that words are more powerful than munitions.”

Edward Snowden’s honorable course has led him to this historic moment. The U.S. government is eager to pay him back with retribution and solitary. But many people in the United States and around the world are responding with love and solidarity.

(Norman Solomon is co-founder of RootsAction.org and founding director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His books include “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.”)

========================================================

U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE THELTON HENDERSON has granted preliminary approval to a $1.025 million settlement in a class action lawsuit brought by the National Lawyers Guild on behalf of 150 people who were arrested by Oakland Police during a Nov. 5, 2010, demonstration. The civil rights lawsuit, Spalding et al. v. City of Oakland, CAND No. C11-2867 TEH, challenged OPD’s unlawful kettling and mass arrest of the 150, and their detention by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, following a march protesting the light sentence given Johannes Mehserle for killing Oscar Grant. (http://wecopwatch.org/nlg-victory-for-oscar-grant-protesters/)

========================================================

AGENCY BUSY SPYING ON 300 MILLION PEOPLE FAILED TO NOTICE ONE DUDE WORKING FOR THEM

By Andy Borowitz

Washington (The Borowitz Report)— A US intelligence agency was so busy spying on 300 million Americans that it failed to notice one dude who was working for it, a spokesman for the agency acknowledged today. “I guess we were so busy monitoring the everyday communications of every man, woman, and child in the nation that we didn’t notice that a contractor working for us was downloading tons of classified documents,” the agency spokesman said. “It’s definitely embarrassing, for sure.” Despite having an annual budget in the neighborhood of tens of billions of dollars, the agency had no idea that a dude who was working for it five days a week was getting ready to send those classified documents to a journalist who would then tell everybody in the world. “Maybe if we hadn’t been so busy keeping our eye on those other 300 million people, we would have noticed that this one guy who was working right under our noses was up to something totally fishy,” the spokesman said. “But you know what they say about hindsight.” As for where that guy who leaked the documents was planning to go next, the spokesman admitted, “We don’t have a clue.” … “I know what you’re thinking — an intelligence agency probably should know that Hong Kong has an international airport and that its departures board lists flights to Moscow and whatnot,” the spokesman said. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe we need a bigger budget or something.” — Andy Borowitz. Courtesy, the Borowitz Report

========================================================

NANCY PELOSI BOOED at Conference for Saying Snowden Broke the Law — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was challenged over her criticism of Edward Snowden and defense of the Obama administration’s surveillance policies during the Netroots Nation conference in California. As she spoke about the need to balance security with privacy rights, activist Marc Perkel interrupted, shouting, “It’s not a balance! It makes us less safe!” Pelosi was later booed when she mentioned Snowden.

Pelosi: “As far as Snowden, he did — you know, I may be in disagreement with you. He did violate the law in terms of releasing those documents. We don’t know…”

Audience members: “Boo! Boo!”

Pelosi: “I understand. I understand.”

Audience members: “Boo! Boo!”

Pelosi: “I understand. But it did violate the law. And the fact is — and the fact is that, again, we have to have the balance between — between security and privacy.”

========================================================

WANTED. ROOM TO RENT IN UKIAH. CAN PAY $300 A MONTH. BRUCE MCEWEN C/O AVA AT 895-3016 OR AVA@PACIFIC.NET

========================================================

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY: I do not understand why all these “homeless” ding dongs are allowed to drag these dogs and puppies around with no collars, no tags, no vaccination tags, yet under penalty of having a lien placed on my property, I have to license my pets every year. I went to Garberville today with my granddaughter and she pointed out a guy dragging by that had absolutely no seat in his pants. Bare butt. Nice. The bank has to steam clean the stairs behind their building to get out the stink. Virtually every single “homeless” person here has a dog. I saw a woman the other day with a chicken. We don’t walk down the streets of Garberville anymore. I’ll move my car around town rather than expose my granddaughter to possibly being bitten or worse by these dogs. I feel sorry for the animals. Most of them are full of fleas and ticks, not neutered and often get dumped when they aren’t cute anymore. It’s a shame.

========================================================

THE MENDOCINO TOWN PLAN UPDATE, after maybe 20 years since its last update, will again be reviewed and considered and public comments will be taken by the County Planning Commission on July 11 at some time after 9am (the second item on the agenda) at the Board of Supervisors Chambers, 501 Low Gap Road, Ukiah. The Planning Commission will then comment on the Local Coastal Program Amendment/General Plan Amendment Draft Mendocino Town Plan and Ordinance Amendment to Town Zoning Code, making recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. Should the Board of Supervisors adopt the Mendocino Town Plan and Zoning Code, the Local Coastal Program/Ordinance Amendments will be submitted to the California Coastal Commission for certification. For more information go to http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/planning  Or call 463-4281

KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS. Black Bird Farm is still mostly known locally as Highland Ranch, ancestral home of the late Charmian Blattner, the Redwood Empire’s longest-running print columnist. When Charmian was a girl, Highland was a long haul across the Navarro River and on up into the hills. These days, visitors can drive in off Greenwood Road.

THE PROPERTY became well-known as Highland Ranch under the gentlemanly auspices of George Gaines, about whom a negative word has never been heard. Mr. Gaines developed the property as a comfortable, high end retreat for comfortable, high end people. Not long ago Gaines sold Highland’s lush 200 acres to the Hall family of Los Angeles. Jamie Hall, a young woman still in her twenties, daughter of John and Joan Hall, presides over the Highland property, now re-christened as Black Bird Farm and organized as a tax-exempt non-profit.

JOHN AND JOAN struck it rich in the oft-plundered gold fields of public education funding. The Halls were teachers at Hollywood High School when they discovered a particularly lucrative loophole in public education funding requirements, and very soon the Halls were multi-millionaires via a chain of store front charter schools called Options for Youth and Opportunities for Learning, paying themselves some $600,000 annually to run their publicly funded schools, a nice step up from their previous salaries at Hollywood High.

THE OPTION most frequently exercised by Options For Youth seems to have been millions in private profits for the Hall family. In 2006, a state audit concluded that the Halls had been “overpaid” by the state to the tune of $57 million, but since they’d been operating inside California’s notoriously lax school funding guidelines, the Halls had done nothing illegal. They got to keep the money, some of which apparently made its way to Philo where more than $3 million was spent to buy Highland Ranch from George Gaines. The Halls also own a lavish ranch in Colorado.

THE HALLS set up a charity run by their daughter Jaimie seeded with $10.8 million, and it’s that charity that seems to be the funding device fueling the fortunate Miss Hall’s Black Bird Farm in Philo. Black Bird says it’s an organic farm that brings in underprivileged youth for stays in lavish rural circumstances the individual underprivileged youth probably hasn’t even seen on television. EXCEPT for the ranch foreman, all the old Highland Ranch employees have been sent packing. They say the Halls first drove down their pay to minimum wage then sacked them.

========================================================

THE TRUE STATE of the economy: “As 2013 progresses, a further downturn will become visible through the orchestrated statistics. This time the Fed will have to get the printed money past the banks and into the economy, and inflation will explode. The dollar will collapse, and import prices–as globalism has turned the US into an import-dependent economy–will turn high inflation into hyperinflation. Disruptions in food and energy deliveries will become widespread, and a depreciated currency will cease to be used as a means of exchange. I wouldn’t bet my life on this prediction, but I think it is as likely as the Fed’s prediction of a full recovery that allows the Fed to terminate its bond purchases and money printing by June 2014. Americans, who have been on top of the world since the late 1940s, are not prepared for the adjustments that they are likely to have to make. And neither is their government.

(Paul Craig Roberts is a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. His latest book is The Failure of Laissez-Faire Capitalism. Roberts’ How the Economy Was Lost is now available from CounterPunch in electronic format.)

========================================================

HEATHROW CONNECTION. In the shrouded mists of its long-ago youth London’s Heathrow Airport had two terminals: Europa and Oceana, titles worthy of Lancelot and the Lady of the Lake. What romantic names to inspire visions of pith-helmeted explorers mapping the unsteady earth in the name of Queen, country and com­merce. Now the mega-airport has grown to five termi­nals, but with the swelling has come modernism’s usual handmaiden: numbing mediocrity. Europa and Oceania are now named #2 and #3, making them easier to distin­guish from their three new sibling terminals, but woe­fully less interesting. Yes, it makes it easier to navigate, but so do freeways and bulldozers. And every their ugly proof that architecture and civic responsibility are cost-conscious Orwellian utilities, like a three-hole punch to keep our thickening surveillance folders in easily acces­sible fighting trim. Whatever the terminals are called, and however many CCTV cameras recorded each sleep-deprived step, I land in Heathrow with my cousin and brother, bound for Edinburgh. We stumble through the post-Arthurian haze and embark on a sinister if banal dance to our connecting flight. After being herded off the plane and down a wheeled staircase onto the tarmac, we worm our way onto a shuttle bus that crawls like a meandering snail across acres of exhaust-streaked asphalt until stopping at the next checkpoint. Once papers and ID are approved we pass through grey double doors and, like slabs of meat on a slaughterhouse con­veyor belt, up a tall escalator. A jog to the left (or maybe right) puts us into the belly of a beast-like shopping emporium. Perfume girls offer samples of Lurid by Calvin Klein, Sniff! by Casa de Escobar, and Dead Honey Bee by Monsanto. Newspaper vendors sell risqué tabloid gossip alongside dire warnings that fascism is patiently stomping the last vagabond sperm cells from the twin testicles of freedom and justice, to achieve the corporate state’s aim of leaving the planet genderless, hopeless and lost. After fighting through the clouds of toxic sweet we slog through boutiques kitted out with Milan’s dispos­able latest, pharmacies selling ear plugs and codeine, and numerous outposts of the British coffee chain, Nero. One imagines the Roman Emperor-God himself on a 23-hour Heathrow layover, soaking in the many hotel rooms for hire, cash vendors every 50 yards, and legions of nervous plebeians waiting for the Vandal hordes to put the torch to the empire. Amused and consoled by the cafés bearing his name, one imagines Nero grabbing a handful of this strange new money from his own coffers, or (more likely) a quick Caesarean swipe across cashier’s tempt­ing doubloons. Beyond the screaming ghosts of tyrants and commercial jingles we take a grain elevator down to a subway platform. A gleaming train arrives, disgorges its human cargo, and we step into a clean, well-ventilated car that goes nowhere. Either robots or the invisible operator says, “Stand away from the doors” or some such kindly edict from Big Brother/Sister/Undecided. A mocking minute passes. We cattle begin to shift in our pen. Finally, just as the collective conscious begins to panic, an identical train arrives on the opposite site of the platform, causing several harried passengers to dash to the new chariot sent by Claudius or Cicero. Finally our train’s doors shut, and we’re whisked down the bright tracks for 180 seconds and WHISH out again onto another identical platform and another steep escalator – make that two escalators stretching side by side towards Mt. Olympus! Double the capacity, half the time! The motorized staircase has a magic effect on my psyche. To be mechanically transported at a leisurely pace is a sign that somewhere in the overwhelming cosmic dark flick­ers a kind and nurturing force. It’s a fairy tale I repeat to myself, enjoying the slight tingles of vertigo. For if we are traveling, then maybe someday we actually arrive. (—Z)

========================================================

DEBBIE L. HOLMER, archivist of the Fort Bragg Advocate, remembers that 102 years ago, June 20th, 1911, “Jack London, the celebrated novelist, accompanied by his wife and a Japanese servant, drove into town behind four little ponies. The North Bay Counties Association has engaged this prominent writer to write an article for Sunset Magazine, boosting the resources of the seven counties. After a short visit, Mr. London left for Eureka Tuesday afternoon and intends to make a complete tour of the seven counties collecting data for his articles. This makes Jack’s second visit to Fort Bragg. He passed through here on horseback for the first time shortly after the great earthquake and states that he is surprised to see the rapid strides of improvement our little city has made in the last few years.”

========================================================

BOOMSTOCK

Three Days of Peace, Love, And…Raindrops?

by Steve Heilig

“I did not tell half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed” — Marco Polo, 1324

Rain? In late June? Sure California sorely needs it, but the forecast did make the honchos at the 20th annual Sierra Nevada World Music Festival a bit apprehensive. Early Sunday morning, while walking out by the high school and health center, it began drizzling as if things might get seriously wet, the dog looked at me like I was nuts for dragging him all the way out there from down­town, and I was reminded I had no rain gear nor umbrella. But it let up, to remain a light intermittent sprinkle that caused no real woes, and later a fast-talking wild-eyed woman wearing a sliced-up unstuffed stuffed lion on her head informed me she had “taken care of the rain thing” via some voodoo-type stuff she had “learned at Burning Man last year.” Whatever works.

Prior to that reassurance, I had briefly envisioned in the fairgrounds a sprawling muddy trashy mess reminis­cent of the legendary 1969 Woodstock festival (theme: “Three days of peace, love, and music”), but the sun played hide-and-seek throughout Sunday instead, raising a kind of semi-tropical steam, and it was actually a nice respite from the heat of days before. Pretty much every­thing else went smoothly too. By Sunday evening, an eighteen-year veteran of medical services at SNWMF reported, well, nothing; the firefighters said they had nothing to fight; staff at the local stores reported their usual busiest weekend of the year; law enforcement had only tangled with a handful of underage drinkers, my traditional morning trashwalk yielded only two plastic bottles the whole length of town, and a loud nonstop-lecturing guy (there always seems to be at least one) in front of Mosswood Sunday morning yelled into his cell­phone “I’m at that festival! Where? I don’t know! Boonieville! Where’s that? I dunno! But it sure is pretty and peaceful here, man!”

The big and broad musical roster went off with nary a hitch as well, once the last-week cancellations of a couple key acts were taken care of (with replacements by stars of equivalent fame and quality, no small feat, that). As always, the mix was dominated by reggae music, leavened with African, Latin, and some other flavors. Two stages run simultaneously from late morning to late night; choices must be made, but they are happy ones. On the small “village stage” one can have a Sunday brunch show with older reggae founding figures like key Jamaican duo Keith & Tex — actually they do Motown-like “rock steady,” briefly-lived 1960s step in the evolu­tion of Jamaican music from jazz-like ska to reggae, having been together since 1967 — and Errol Dunkley with a few hundred dancing nearly-ecstatic fanatics. Or one can dance with a similar-sized joyful crowd to the funkified sound of San Francisco’s Afrolicious, or hear irresistible Columbian dance music from Candelaria, some heavy roots from St. Croix (Virgin Islands). Abja & The Lions of Kush, or feel a deep trancelike sound of proto-Rastafarian drumming by Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus — to pick some highlights from each evening. There are always pleasant surprises there, and a respite from the louder, more crowded “valley stage” where the bigger-named acts tend to appear.

Some other musical highlights? As promised by festi­val chief Warren Smith, the Korean band Windy City enchanted a large Saturday afternoon crowd with a unique, eastern-tinged take on reggae and dub, and seemed genuinely grateful to be there — they bowed to the crowd, and to each other, to start things off, and I was told they even did so to the van driver who brought them to town. Leroy Sibbles, a founding member of The Heptones, one of reggae’s most revered harmony trios, energized the whole arena with a sort of history lesson on Jamaican music. More modern reggae roots star Luciano, one of the late replacements, repeated his per­formance from last year, standing somersault included, and likewise got a big ovation (and warned, seemingly apropo of nothing, “don’t get hooked, on Facebook”). Don Carlos, the other late fill-in and another roots reggae veteran, was in top form as well. Sunday afternoon’s African/French showcase was superb, with rousing reg­gae by the French band Danakil, an even more intense set by Fatoumata Diawara from Mali, and Bombino’s blend of Saharan blues and Jimi Hendrix (Diawara was stunning both musically and visually, and her story is inspiring; Bombino’s a nomadic Touraug, and his life story to date is also worth looking up). Other female energy was provided by Marcia Griffiths and Sister Carol, who both put on very strong sets of positivity.and Hollie Cook, who was a bit, well, chirpy for my taste and was called “a delightful little kitten” by one announcer, which struck some as a bit sexist but must have been accurate in his view. Her musical partner/producer Prince Fatty did double duty as a fine DJ and performer. There were dancers and drummers most everywhere you looked, especially on the lawn in between the stages — if one could get past all the tempting food and drink pur­veyors. Festival closer Alpha Blondy, a temperamental veteran star from the Ivory Coast who sings in multiple languages not only showed up, but got onstage almost on time, and wowed the crowd, some of whom had come just to hear his first appearance at this festival.

I missed some acts I’d wanted to see, but that’s unavoidable. A bit less wow-ing, for some of us, were the brothers Marley — Damian and Stephen, sons of Bob Marley and what they call collectively their “Ghetto Youth Crew.” A renowned reggae legend who knew Marley senior once scoffed “Ghetto youth, them? — Only ghetto them youth have seen is from a jet airplane.” In other words, they might be seen to be playing a role, banking on their dad’s legend, and/or debasing his legacy a bit with some rude-sounding “dancehall” music. But the youth dem love it, as they say in Jamaica, so who am I to criticize on that level; It’s hard to follow in the musi­cal footsteps of a world-idolized musical figure — what­ever happened to Frank Sinatra, junior? Sean Lennon? Etc? But these guys try, as they drew a sellout crowd of mostly younger fans on Saturday night, so they must be doing something and must be doing something right (besides multiple product ‘brand’ marketing of things like “Marley’s Mellow Mood” drink, which is mostly sugar water, at this fest given away freely by some very allur­ing product representatives). Again, whatever works — I guess.

They were undeniably loud, too. The bands stop ear­lier than they used to, but can certainly be heard outside the fairgrounds. The next morning, while I sat reading a front-page New York Times story about how pot cultiva­tion destroys animal habitats and nature in general via various transgressions, including water diversion (shocking; and, sounds familiar?), a number of locals who chose to remain nameless were complaining about the roar and rattle. “It shook my doors and windows last night,” one said. “We’re still trying to figure out how to mitigate the impact of all this sound at a time when the fairgrounds is in trouble financially” said another. While all seemed to admire the dedication and sensitivity of the festival organizers, “It’s still got to be tweaked a bit” seemed to be the sentiment. One person identified as a doctor opined that such noise could “damage the human chest,” a seemingly dubious assertion given that thou­sands of chests inside the fairgrounds, where it was much louder, seemed to be quite healthy. But “They’re going to hear about it,” predicted one local, adding “there’s got to be some way to turn it down.” Some folks then stuck around to solve the looming national and international challenges of national security, immigration policy, affirmative action, gay marriage, climate change, and the San Francisco Giants. All in a morning’s work, but we had to move on, as my dog had his barking appointment with the numerous tough junkyard-types in the front yards up and down 128 — although he only yells back if there is a secure fence preventing actual encounters.

Whatever one might think or say, it is undeniable that the “vibe” in the festival is one of true “niceness” (a Jamaican term that means just what it would seem to). Jamaica has been called “the loudest island in the world” for how far and wide its music has spread. Thirty-two years after Bob Marley passed on, “Somehow, wherever you go, you will hear Marley there” said old pal Charlie from Point Arena, who related he once heard Bob Mar­ley music on the Ganges in India (likewise, I heard his songs in the Sahara desert). “Whatever you are going through in life, Bob wrote a song about it,” another festi­val attendee said. “I have two grandkids named Marley” said another (in my own experience, those are usually dogs). Obviously Marley is just the most visible public representation of reggae, the music’s enduring worldwide icon. It is striking to see his messages of struggle, spirit, unity, and yes, ganja live on in a multiple-generation gathering decades on. It’s not your average all-American gathering. The words of so many reggae songs are seri­ous messages and questions, like “What is the future of the human race?” — not what one tends to hear pondered in the dominant hip-hop/pop tunes of our time. If you think about some of the likely answers to such questions, things can look dark quick. Most SNWMF attendees are clearly there for a good time only, and they get that. For this one weekend, anybody who makes the trip to Boon­ville can get a whole year’s worth of not only music, but smiles, hugs, good and sometimes wackily fascinating conversation, tasty healthy food, equally good libations, fine views of the surrounding hills, and probably much more that, like Marco Polo, I will omit. Because you really had to be there and might not believe it if you weren’t. ¥¥

JUST IN FROM THE GUV’S OFFICE:

Press release from the governor’s office below:

After years of struggle, the US Supreme Court today has made same-sex marriage a reality in California. In light of the decision, I have directed the California Department of Public Health to advise the state’s counties that they must begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in California as soon as the Ninth Circuit confirms the stay is lifted,” said Governor Brown.

The effect of today’s US Supreme Court ruling is that the 2010 federal district court’s decision that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional is left intact and the law cannot be enforced.

In response, the Governor has directed the California Department of Public Health to advise county officials today that the district court’s injunction against Proposition 8 applies statewide and that all county clerks and county registrar/recorders must comply with it. However, same-sex Californians will not be able to marry until the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals confirms the stay of the injunction, which has been in place throughout the appeals process, is lifted.

In preparation for this outcome, Governor Brown sought an opinion from California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris on whether the state, through the California Department of Public Health, can advise county clerks and registrar/recorders that they are bound by the federal district court’s ruling that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.

The Attorney General concluded that the California Department of Public Health “can and should” instruct county officials that they “must resume issuing marriage licenses to and recording the marriages of same-sex” couples. The Department will issue another letter to county officials as soon as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals confirms the stay is lifted.

========================================================

CALTRANS will soon commence pile driving along the route of the viaduct stretch of the six mile bypass. Will Parrish, aka Red Tail Hawk, remains locked down half way up the device known as a “wick drain stitcher,” a kind of mini-pile driver. Hawk has not been re-supplied in a week.

IT OCCURS to us here at the mothership that our star young enviro-reporter, the handsome lad presently locked down in protest at the Willits Bypass, might become a male version of Julia Butterfly. Of course Will would have to stay locked down and figure out re-supply, but…

========================================================

THE ARMADA OF THE .0001% — If Google represents the global menace of Silicon Valley, and Zuckerberg represents its amorality, then Oracle CEO Larry Ellison might best represent its crassness. The fifth richest man in the world, he spent hundreds of millions of dollars to win the America’s Cup yacht race a few years back. The winner gets to choose the next venue for the race and the type of boat to be used. So for this summer’s races, Ellison chose San Francisco Bay and a giant catamaran that appears to be exceptionally unstable. Last month, an Olympic-medal-winning sailor drowned when a boat he was training on capsized in San Francisco Bay, pinning him under its sail.

Ellison

Part of Ellison’s strategy for winning again evidently involves making the boats so expensive that almost no one can compete. A race that once had seven to 15 competitors now has four, and one may drop out. Business Insider headlined a piece, “Larry Ellison Has Completely Screwed Up The America’s Cup.” It went on to say, “Each team, with the exception of New Zealand’s, is backed by an individual billionaire, and each has spent between $65 million and $100 million so far.” In typical Silicon Valley-fashion, Ellison also figured out how to stick San Francisco for a significant part of the tab and in the process even caused the eviction of a few dozen small businesses, though in the end the city did not give him a valuable stretch of waterfront he wanted. Here’s what San Francisco is now: a front row seat on the most powerful corporations on Earth and the people who run them. So we know what you may not yet: they are not your friends and their vision is not your vision, but your data is their data, and your communications are in their hands, and they seem to be rising to become an arm of or a part-owner of the government or a law unto themselves, and no one has yet figured out what we can do about it. (— Rebecca Solnit)

========================================================

ARCATA MEN ARRESTED for Destruction of Forest Lands, Cultivation, etc.

Barton & Brown

On June 18th, 2013 at approximately 0800 hours officers with [Trinity County Narcotics Task Force, United States Forest Service, and the California Highways Patrol] walked into a marijuana cultivation site on the Six Rivers National Forest. Officers had received information that unknown subjects had been stealing water from the water source that feeds the town of Salyer. Upon entry of the marijuana cultivation site officers observed an area of the National Forest that had been clearcut. On one edge of the clearcut, officers observed growing marijuana in pots that were being prepped to be planted in raised planter boxes that were being constructed. The planter boxes were being constructed using the trees that had been cut down. As the officers cleared the clearcut, a tent was located on one edge of the clear cut. Officers approached the tent and as they did they heard a dog barking from within the tent. Officers then announced their presence and demanded that anyone in the tent show themselves. A few seconds later the dog (pitbull mix) was let out of the tent… [T]he dog was aggressive and quickly approached the officers… [T]he dog then engaged the K9 officer’s K9 by biting the 
officer’s K9 in the face. After the two dogs were separated, the dog then went after other officers. Due to the immediate threat to the officers, the dog was dispatched by an officer with a rifle. At no time did the suspects in the tent attempt to restrain the dog. After repeated requests from the officers for the suspects in the tent to show themselves officers cut holes in the sides of the tent. Two male subjects were located inside the tent along with a loaded pistol which was in reach of both suspects. Both subjects were then handcuffed. After processing the site, officers then walked both subjects out of the site and they were transported to the Trinity County Jail where they were booked on various charges. [I]t was determined that one of the suspects that was arrested [Eric Brown] was on supervised release out of Shasta County, courtesy of AB-109 (The prisoner realignment program putting former state prisoners in County jails to relieve overcrowding). 182 growing marijuana plants were eradicated and the damage to the national forest was significant. The investigation into the amount of resource damage is still being conducted and 
will be concluded at a later date. As of June 26, 2013 both Eric Brown [of Redding] and Samuel Barton [of Arcata] are still in Trinity County Jail. Brown is being held on $350,000 bail. Barton is being held on $265,000 bail. (— Trinity Co. Sheriff’s Dept. Press Release)

========================================================

WE’RE REALLY SORRY TO SEE MULLIGAN BOOKS CLOSE. We always stopped in to chat with Dave Smith at Mulligan’s, an oasis of civilization in mostly savage Ukiah. Fortunately, Dave himself is not leaving town. He “will be transferring the downtown “Mini Post Office” only to inside Mendocino Book Company, and reopening it in late June…” We hope a conversation booth will be part of Dave’s post office ops.

========================================================

AS EXHIBIT A of how far organized labor has fallen, look no further than the mastermind “organizers” for SEIU representing County workers. They’ve declared Tuesdays “Purple Day,” and have announced a bulletin board decorating contest for the membership. What’s next, pep rallies and pom pom girls? If I were a County worker I’d be turning an apoplectic purple to be funding the feebs who dream this stuff up.

WE HEAR, THOUGH, that the new SEIU guy doing the actual contract negotiating for County employees is smart and sensible; he may be able to dial down the bad feeling left by the SEIU reps who managed to lead County workers from a 10% pay cut to a 12% cut during the last round of negotiations.

========================================================

A HUSBAND AND WIFE were shopping in their local Wal-Mart. The husband picked up a case of Miller Lite and put it in their cart. “What do you think you’re doing?” asked the wife. “They’re on sale, only $10 for 24 cans,” he replied. “Put them back; it’s a waste of money,” demanded the wife. So he did and they carried on shopping. A few aisles further along, the woman picked up a $20 jar of face cream and put it in the basket. “What do you think you’re doing?” asked the husband. “It’s my face cream. It makes me look beautiful,” replied the wife. Her husband retorted: “So does 24 cans of Miller Lite and it’s half the price.” Store Loudspeaker: “MAN DOWN, AISLE 7!”

========================================================

WHAT DO OLD SPORTS STARS DO?

There’s an old cliché about high school football heroes and their prom-queen/cheerleader counterparts: that this is the high point of their lives, and it’s a long downhill slide from there, into the drab mediocrity of everyday life in the U.S.A.

Of course we know that a few of them go on to play in college, and that a tiny elite minority make it to the big-time professional level. But it still seems that post-sports-stardom, the long downhill slide is waiting. When I saw Joe Montana selling suits on TV in San Francisco, my thought was, is that it? Is that all? Did high school glory just stay with such guys longer, but they still have to turn back into pumpkins?

Elway

Here in Denver, John Elway has remained a constant presence. This morning at a traffic light, a bus turned the corner, exposing a huge blow-up of the former Broncos star quarterback’s face, his ultra-white, blond, horse-faced, toothy rich-kid features reminding us what a Real American looks like, and exhorting us to patronize his auto dealerships and restaurants. The only thing missing is a TV commercial with a jingle sung by Carly Simon. Mickey and Judy again: “Gosh, let’s start a business. Why not several? We just need to think of what crap to sell.”

“I bought a car from John Elway.”

“Gee whiz, can I touch it?”

Why do people who know nothing of food start restaurants?

Why do old, large muscle-bound men look so ridiculous in suits?

Why can’t these guys think of anything to do besides sell something?

Does John Elway fear being forgotten? Because he sure does remind the people of Denver that he’s still around and doesn’t have enough money yet. — Jeff Costello

========================================================

FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK, Ukiah, California

July 5th from 5-8pm. Enjoy one or all of the First Friday venues– art, music and refreshments.

ART CENTER UKIAH — “Veterans’ Art Juried Show “American Freedoms” – July 2013.” Celebrate American veterans who are artists and admire their work. 201 S. State Street Ukiah, 707 462-1400.

CORNER GALLERY — Willow Yielding and Alexis Greenburg, recent paintings 201 S. State Street, Ukiah, 707 462-1400 www.artcenterukiah.org.

GRACE HUDSON MUSEUM AND SUN HOUSE  — “Points of Encounter” Catherine Woskow and Larry Thomas Catherine Woskow, in a dialogue with the head, which she sees as the source of “chaotic thought, most often directed from violent contradiction.” Larry Thomas, dramatic landscapes of sea, wind, fog, and forest inform paintings that pulse with a quiet delight. 431 South Main, Ukiah, 707 467-283 www.gracehudsonmuseum.org.

KIT ELLIOTT GALLERY — “In Praise of all Things” Janet Denninger Janet Denninger, a collection of landscapes, still lifes, abstracts, and a few tasteful nudes. Please come and share her visions -and maybe take one home — now at bargain prices.” 116 South State, Ukiah, 707 468-1600.

MANZANITA & FRIENDS — “Here Comes the Sun.” Join Manzanita for a Fourth of July weekend, a Summer time display of local talent. 270 N. Pine Street, Ukiah, 707-972-9040.

MENDOCINO COUNTY LIBRARY — “Shared Visions: The Mendocino Quilt Artists 14th Annual Ukiah Library Quilt Show with special guest quilters from the Rag Tag Quilters” The show is will be available for viewing June 3rd through August 26th  during regular library hours. This annual event is made possible by the generous support of the Ukiah Library staff. 105 N. Main St, Ukiah, 707 463-4491.

THE SATURDAY AFTERNOON CLUBHOUSE — Mamma Grace Records & SAC Present Jen & her Lady Friends Light Up The Stage @ SAC Join host Jenna Mammina for a night of songs, friendship, fundraising and food! Featuring: Maureen Catalina-singer/songwriter with a country folk flair Jewels & Johnny Nation-our answer to a nouveau hippy June & Johnny Cash Jenna Mammina-song stylist/songwriter melding jazz/pop and a little bluegrass too. The night starts out with community/conversation with an appetizer potluck Followed by Open Mic/Poetry reading and then Jenna, Maureen, Jewels and Johnny will light up the stage! Proceeds of the night’s event will help support The De Waal Animal Welfare Fund at Mendocino Animal Hospital 107 South Oak, Ukiah, 707 467-8229.

UKIAH VALLEY ARTIST COOPERATIVE GALLERY —  “California Landscapes” Adelle Pruitt Adelle Pruitt’s work is in many corporate and private collections. She also restores paintings and teaches classes in her studio. 518 E. Perkins, (next to Rod’s Shoes), in the Pear Tree Center, 463-0610 Open Thursday-Saturday 11am to 5pm.

MENDOCINO COUNTY CLERK ready for same-sex marriages

Mendocino County Clerk Sue Ranochak said Wednesday morning that she is fully prepared to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples in Mendocino County as soon as she gets the go ahead from the state. Ranochak said she has already received a letter from the state explaining how it will proceed to reinstate same-sex marriages. According to Ranochak, the state will need to wait until the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lifts the stay it had placed on same-sex marriages in California while the Supreme Court considered the case. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has let stand the California Supreme Court’s ruling declaring Prop. 8 (the ballot measure making same-sex marriage illegal in the state) unconstitutional, that stay will be lifted. Ranochak says so far, her morning has been quiet, no calls coming in from people wanting to know when they could get married. Ranochak recalls June 2008 when gay marriage was declared legal statewide and the rush for gay couples to get married. “There was more of a movement in 2008. We were having contact with people prior to that decision that June, we had phone calls from people wanting to know Can we sign up? Can we be first?’” Ranochak said. Between that month and November of that year when the ballot measure banning gay marriage passed, Ranochak thinks there may have been about 50 marriage licenses given to gay couples in this county. “We did quite a few that June and then it became pretty normal after that, both heterosexual and same sex pretty much proportional,” she said. She’s not expecting the same kind of rush this time. “After years of struggle, the U.S. Supreme Court today has made same-sex marriage a reality in California. In light of the decision, I have directed the California Department of Public Health to advise the state’s counties that they must begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in California as soon as the Ninth Circuit confirms the stay is lifted,” said Brown in a statement as soon as the Supreme Court decision was announced. In preparation for this outcome, Governor Brown sought an opinion from California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris on whether the state, through the California Department of Public Health, can advise county clerks and registrar/recorders that they are bound by the federal district court’s ruling that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. The Attorney General concluded that the California Department of Public Health “can and should” instruct county officials that they “must resume issuing marriage licenses to and recording the marriages of same-sex” couples. The Department will issue another letter to county officials as soon as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals confirms the stay is lifted. According to the San Jose Mercury News, the Supreme Court decision itself will take 25 days to become official. The Mercury News also reports that some anti-gay marriage groups may still go back to court to try to convince a state judge that the California ruling allowing gay marriage should only apply in two counties, Los Angeles and Alameda. — KC Meadows (Courtesy, Ukiah Daily Journal)

MICHAEL HICKEY WRITES: Phyllis Lyon walked down the steps in the rotunda of SF City Hall, supported on one side by Mayor Lee and on the other by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had kicked off the gay marriage argument in California after making a secret deal with the SF gay community, by which the gay vote was split, allowing him to defeat the progressive candidate for mayor who had been favored to win. Newsom promised the gays that he would find a way to start gay marriage, and he kept his word. At the lectern, Mayor Lee blathered for a while, then Newsom added more blather, then the current head of a big time lezbean organization got in front of the mike. “Fuck you, Prop 8!” she shouted, then added, “I looked around the room to see if there were any kids here first, but I will put a dollar in the bad word jar anyway.” There was a lot of hurried whispering behind the scenes in the studios of the local TV stations carrying the event, and the audio link was cut. No seven second delay here, and you’ll never see this on the news tonight! Righteous indignation, gloating, and HARD partyin’ goin’ on in the Castro. Our enlightened and benevolent Supremes dropped their love bomb right in the middle of Pride Week! I guess we can get married now.

========================================================

WE’RE FOR JOAN RAINVILLE, whom we know as the friendly and helpful lady at the Mendocino Book Company. Yes, Joan has five DUIs since 1996, the latest one occurring on May 26^th when she plowed through a Westside Ukiah fence into a backyard barbecue. But the DA is charging Joan with assault with a deadly weapon for the May episode, which doesn’t seem reasonable since Joan did not deliberately aim her car at either the fence or the people on the other side of it. Considered rationally, the May event is another DUI. Which is certainly worrisome by itself, but the case is really misdemeanor, not a felony. Joan’s got a lot on her plate, and without getting into it and making excuses for her — there’s no excuse for driving drunk — it would be a travesty to send her off to prison for five years on an inflated misdemeanor. Impounding Joan’s car seems reasonable, prison doesn’t. She’ll be back in court on July 9^th for a preliminary hearing represented by Justin Petersen.

========================================================

THE HAWK has been re-supplied. Will Parrish, aka Red Tail Hawk, has been locked down half way up a crane at the Willits bypass for a week now to protest the Willits Bypass boondoggle. An attempt to hoist water and food to Parrish last Saturday was foiled by police. But under the cover of darkness Wednesday night, an agile anonymous comrade scaled nearby equipment to get Parrish another few days of supplies.

========================================================

THE ANNOUNCEMENT this week that Ukiah will again have to dip into dwindling city reserves to keep basic services limping along comes as no surprise. Ukiah perfected the art of siphoning off redevelopment money to pay for administrative salaries, to the tune of $1 million annually by the time the state pulled the plug on redevelopment. The million dollars in admin salaries that are no longer covered by RDA explains the nearly million dollar projected deficit. But in the wake of losing the RDA cash cow, no one on the City Council, and certainly no one in city admin, has even suggested making any cuts to the city’s bloated administrative overhead. The topic has never even come up. In fact, the city council has been giving the city manager extra perks that were never discussed publicly. Since when does a city manager get an extra $8,000 for “executive pay”? Wasn’t she hired to be an executive? And $16,500 for “merit” pay? Isn’t that really just a back door way to increase her pay while pretending that her pay has been frozen at the original $150,000 she was originally hired for? But give the city manager credit – she’s converted the people who are supposed to be supervising her into her slaves, not that slavery is in the long term interests of Ukiah.

========================================================

SIERRA NEVADA WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL DRUNKS/ARRESTS

Jed Kimball-Hiat, Drunk; Kaicee Griffin, Drunk; Jason Cass, Drunk; Arthur Streb, Drunk;Travis Benevich, Drunk; Erik Mohan, Drunk.

And Mark Weatherly, Dirk or Dagger & Indecent Exposure

========================================================

WAY TO GO, MIKE (THOMPSON)

June 27, 2013

Dear Friend,

With student loan rates set to double on Monday, July 1st, I called on the House yesterday to immediately bring up legislation I co-authored, HR 1595, the Student Loan Relief Act. This bill would allow college students to benefit from historically low interest rates by freezing the current 3.4% rate on subsidized Stafford loans for the next two years. Unfortunately, the House Majority wouldn’t allow my bill to come to up for consideration. Students and the thousands of hardworking families across our nation already carry $1 trillion in student loan debt. Allowing these rates to double undermines our economy, weakens our middle class, and puts college out of reach for millions of students. Congress needs to act now. Time is running out. The House Majority recently passed legislation, HR 1911, which would make college more expensive for students and families by forcing them into loans with interest rates that fluctuate year by year. Under HR 1911, interest rates on loans would be reset every year. So, the interest rate on a loan taken out next year by a freshman may start off low, but she doesn’t get to keep that interest rate for the life of the loan. It will change every year, potentially skyrocketing. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the bill would charge millions of students and families $3.7 billion over the next decade in additional interest payments relative to current law. The CBO also found that HR 1911 is even worse for students and families than allowing interest rates to double on July 1st as currently scheduled. Under HR 1911, students who borrow the maximum amount of subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans over five years would pay nearly $2,000 more in interest costs than if interest rates doubled. Our students and families deserve better than a bill that makes many students pay higher interest payments than they would if Congress did nothing and interest rates doubled. The one essential element to our nation’s long-term economic success is education. Instead of passing bills that would increase the debt burden for students and families, we need to work together to keep college costs down. The bill I’ve co-authored would do just that. Sincerely, Mike Thompson, Member of Congress

========================================================

A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO, searching for a Ukiah room to rent for our ace crime reporter, Bruce McEwen, we posted an ad on Craig’s List. Inresponse, we received three versions of the following message: Subject: Need Room For Rent $300

From: “Loren Manchini”

Date: Thu, June 27, 2013 9:53 am

This message is about a meet up for later on. I’m from Las Vegas, 28 years of age and last time I had a boyfriend was in December, so honestly I haven’t got laid since then So much is not known while you meet someone online, and this will be the first time that I will be doing this. I have tried many things before with my sexuality, except anal. So this is what I am looking for today, is someone who is experienced and wouldn’t mind teaching a girl how to do it. I heard it is really fun actually. My picture is also attached, and another little secret about me is I do like facials. You can see more pics of me underneath within the link. I am also aware that ladies probably send you response in their links, but I know you remember the killing in Boston, and also the issue in New York. So it is advised that once ladies get interest in classifieds, we send the guy to our profile on dating sites. Sorry but some of you guys are psychos. Lol You don’t need any card or anything, and I have more flicks on there. Im real about this, please be so also. P.S. When you enter code: 36472 in the second page, it goes direct to my profile. — Linda

========================================================

ROBERT MICHAEL SHERIDAN

Robert Michael Sheridan, born in Chicago on August 24, 1948, died unexpectedly May 26, 2013, at age 64, of a heart attack He lived in Philo for 17 years in the 1970s and 1980s, and always returned thereafter to the land he loved on Clow Ridge. He played with the valley Clams baseball team and was a member of local band Wood Heat, which performed on the coast and at The Oaks near Yorkville. His lifelong passion for music and singing culminated in the recent release of his CD “Late in the Day” with Red Sky.

Robert graduated from Oberlin College in 1970. There he met Jennifer Thiermann, the love of his life, and they moved to Mendocino and became part of the community that lived together on the mountain top. Robert eventually took over the family business in Chicago, producing and directing major events, including corporate conferences, two Presidential Youth Inaugural Concerts, the Canada Pavilion for the Winter Olympics in 2010, and the opening for the Modern Wing of the Chicago Art Institute. Friends here knew him in overalls cutting wood and building cabins, but saw pictures of Bob in formal wear with major musicians and entertainers.

Robert is survived by his wife Jennifer and his sons Devin and Robin; his siblings Marion, Ana, James, Charles, and Francis; and his beloved in-laws, nieces, nephews, aunts, and cousins. He loved being with family and friends; dancing, singing, and playing his guitar. He was an avid reader, film-goer, sports-watcher, and conversationalist. He left his magnanimous persona to inspire us all.

Donations in Robert’s honor may be made to American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102, or to Chicago Food Depository, 4100 W. Ann Lurie Place, Chicago, IL, 60632.

========================================================

OUR DEEP SEA GARBAGE DUMP: 18,000 hours of footage shows Pacific seafloor heaped in man-made trash Seafloor along the west coast and all around the Hawaiian Islands is covered in refuse A massive study of the Pacific Ocean floor shows it’s a huge underwater garbage dump. On over 18,000 hours of footage from deep sea remotely operated vehicles, researchers at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) looked at seafloor as deep as 13,000 feet and found manmade trash items in every place they looked. Deep sea vehicles viewed dive sites all along the West Coast from the Gulf of California to Vancouver Island and all around the Hawaiian Islands, with the worst accumulation of plastic, metal, fishing debris, and other trash in Monterey Canyon off the California coast. Researchers found that Monterey Canyon, where MBARI conducts 200 research dives per year, had more trash than anywhere else. In the deep sea ravine off the coast of California alone, the researchers noted over 1,150 pieces of debris on the seafloor. Researchers did not find random spatterings of trash all across the Pacific seafloor. Instead, they discovered that debris accumulates in deep sea slopes and rocky areas. There was more garbage found in deeper areas than in more shallower spots. ‘I was surprised that we saw so much trash in deeper water. We don’t usually think of our daily activities as affecting life two miles deep in the ocean.’ Said lead author of the study Kyra Schlining. ‘I’m sure that there’s a lot more debris in the canyon that we’re not seeing. A lot of it gets buried by underwater landslides and sediment movement. Some of it may also be carried into deeper water, farther down the canyon.’ Most of the debris, about a third of it, is plastic. Because there is no sunlight on the sea floor, these petroleum-based objects can take hundreds of years to degrade. And as they do, they often turn brittle and break into tiny pieces. As this happens, it becomes more likely that tiny sea floor creatures will consume the toxic substances. This can harm the animal and introduce foreign substances into the food chain. Of the plastic items, about half were plastic grocery bags. These increasingly controversial items can choke and smother animals. Los Angeles became the biggest city in the country to ban free plastic bags in grocery stores following a city council vote this past Tuesday. About $2 million a year is spent to clean up plastic bag litter in Los Angeles. Sanitation authorities estimate more than 228,000 bags are distributed in the city every hour. But clearly many of the bags are ending up deep down on the sea floor. Metal objects were the second most common. Of them, about two thirds were aluminum, steel, or tin cans. Discarded fishing equipment was also commonly observed. As were glass bottles, papers, and cloth. MBARI researchers hope to do additional research to understand the long-term biological impacts of trash in the deep sea. Working with the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, they are currently finishing up a detailed study of the effects of a particularly large piece of marine debris—a shipping container that fell off a ship in 2004. Inside the container are over 1,000 steel-belted tires. Researchers believe such a large item, to which many organisms have attached despite being in a habitat devoid of solid objects, can seriously disrupt a deep sea ecosystem. There is no way to cost-effectively remove the trash, so education about preventing further accumulation is a major goal of the project. For now, though—or at least up until now—the problem has only worsened. ‘The most frustrating thing for me is that most of the material we saw—glass, metal, paper, plastic—could be recycled,’ said Schlining. ‘Ultimately, preventing the introduction of litter into the marine environment through increased public awareness remains the most efficient and cost-effective solution to this dilemma.’ (Courtesy, the London Daily Mail)

========================================================

YOU THINK the Mendocino County Jail is rough? Try China. “At the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau Investigation Center, also known as the Song Mountain Investigation Center, the cell bosses devised an exotic menu of torments. A few samples: Sichuan-style smoked duck: The enforcer burns the inmate’s pubic hair, pulls back his foreskin and blackens the head of the penis with fire.

THEN YOU HAVE, Noodles in clear broth: Strings of toilet papers are soaked in a bowl of urine, and the inmate is forced to eat the toilet paper and drink the urine. There’s also the relatively wholesome Turtle Shell and Pork Skin Soup: The enforcer smacks the inmate’s kneecaps until they are bruised and swollen, like turtle shells. Walking is impossible.” (Ian Buruma, A Chinese poet’s memoir of incarceration.)

========================================================

When I was a child / I played by myself in a / corner of the schoolyard / all alone.

I hated dolls and I / hated games, animals were / not friendly and birds / flew away.

If anyone was looking / for me I hid behind a / tree and cried out “I am / an orphan.”

And here I am, the / center of all beauty! / writing these poems! / Imagine!

— Frank O’Hara

========================================================

WHILE JAMES TEMPLE writes a reasoned defense against the pillorying of techies, he seems to have forgotten that, starting with the dot-com boom of the 90s, any kind of real bohemian art scene has been priced out as well. The hippies would have bypassed San Francisco; the same with the beats before them. Too expensive. But my beef against most techies is just that they seem to be so friggin’ boring. Maybe it’s because they’re too functional or too well adjusted. Where are the charming drunks and lotharios, the Don Sherwoods, the Don Drapers? I’m sure there are a few sloppy, booze-oozing techies, but for the most part, they seem like a sort of Stepford People; clean, trim, and barren. (— Armando Lagunas Jr.)

========================================================

SELECT TV ANCHOR ESTIMATED ANNUAL SALARIES

(Courtesy, the Daily Beast):

Matt Lauer, $25 million. Bill O’Reilly, $20 million. Sean Hannity, $15 million. $Brian Williams, $13 million. Diane Sawyer, $12 million. Anderson Cooper, $11 million. Charlie Rose, $8 million. Al Roker (Al Roker!), $7 million. Piers Morgan, $6 million. George Stephanopolous, $5 million. $Chris Matthews, $5 million. Scott Pelley, $5 million. Wolf Blitzer, $3 million. $Erin Burnett, $2 million. Savannah Guthrie, $2 million.

========================================================

GOV. JERRY BROWN on Thursday signed into law a new state budget for the fiscal year beginning Monday, calling it a “momentous occasion” for California’s finances, which have been on a roller coaster for years. “We have a balanced budget, not proposed, but actually actualized — the first time in probably a decade or more where the state’s finances are in very solid shape,” Brown said. The plan outlines spending for $96.2 billion in the general fund — the state’s main checking account, which pays for schools, colleges, health and human services, and public safety — and $49 billion in special funds and bonds. Brown did not make significant changes to the plan the Legislature passed earlier in the month, though he did use his line-item veto authority to cut about $41 million from the spending plan. Most of that — some $30 million — was cut from a Department of Education fund for special education. The governor and Democratic leaders of the Legislature gathered in his office at the Capitol for the bill signing, which included two other bills that will enable the state to further implement the federal Affordable Care Act. He and the legislative leaders were jovial, and among the crowd were many health care advocates. Democrats in the Legislature had hoped for more spending during the budget process, but Brown curtailed their enthusiasm by demanding limited growth in funding for various programs. Overall state spending through the general fund will grow by less than 1 percent in the new fiscal year, according to the Department of Finance. But Democrats did get some of what they wanted, with the creation of a tuition subsidy for students from families making less than $150,000 who attend University of California or California State University schools. The budget also provides $143 million in new funding for mental health services to create crisis and triage positions throughout the state. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, had pushed for the increased mental health funding, and said it was “the first time in state history” that the budget had the most new money — after education spending — going toward mental health services. Assembly Speaker John Pérez, D-Los Angeles, got his way in creating the tuition break for UC and CSU students from middle-class families. Starting in 2014, students from families that make less than $150,000 will get tuition breaks that will grow over four years to a 40 percent reduction of the overall cost. “We’re in a position to focus on long-term planning,” Pérez said. The health care bills that Brown signed take California another step toward leading the country in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Diana Dooley attended the bill signing and said the national effort was something that “the president made possible, but we have to make real in California.”

========================================================

SANCTUARY FOREST PRESENTS a magical evening of mind-bending entertainment, featuring Brad Barton, Reality Thief. Brad is a versatile entertainer with more than 20 years in the business. His blend of magic, humor, and mind reading is a unique and unforgettable experience as he predicts your dreams, causes borrowed objects to levitate, and reveals your most cherished memories.

On Thursday, July 18^th Sanctuary Forest is bringing Brad to the Garberville Theater. Doors will open at 6 p.m. with cocktails, prosecco, beer and wine available for purchase, as well as a delicious assortment of Asian appetizers and homemade cupcakes. The show will begin at 7 p.m., and will include an intermission. Recommend for those 10 years of age and up. Admission is $15 at the door. All proceeds will go to Sanctuary Forest to support the restoration and conservation of the Mattole River watershed and surrounding areas.

Brad Barton’s impact is immediate and undeniable, and his irresistible playful manner and mind blowing magic is both mystifying and motivational. Don’t miss out on what is sure to be a memorable event!

Sanctuary Forest is a land trust whose mission is to conserve the Mattole River watershed and surrounding areas for wildlife habitat and aesthetic, spiritual and intrinsic values, in cooperation with our diverse community.

AS A LONG-TIME RESIDENT of America’s intoxicants capitol, Mendocino County, where cannabis, wine grapes, wine, beer, methamphetamine, heroin, and pure delusion reign, local journalists who mount their high horses to fulminate against the predictable consequences of our two primary businesses, booze and dope, seem, well, deluded.

SO HERE’S CHRIS COURSEY of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat piling on poor old Joan Rainville with a pecksniffian column Friday called “Delivering a message on repeat drunken driving.” Coursey rehashes Joan’s unhappy history of boozed locomotion then applauds the Mendo DA’s attempt to charge Joan with a felony rather than the misdemeanor the law says her offense is.

THE PD derives a large portion of its ad revenue from the wine business. But going by the images we get from the Rose City Daily, we know that wine drinkers aren’t drunks. They’re handsome people with big white teeth who take dainty sips from finely wrought glasses they hold to the sun.

BACK TO JOAN. We all know by now she has a history of driving drunk, but the Mendo DA has attracted even the dim attentions of the Press Democrat by attempting an end around existing law. The DA has charged Joan with felony assault with a deadly weapon, i.e., pickled Joan and her car. The law says that Joan’s latest offense is a misdemeanor, albeit a serious misdemeanor. It isn’t a felony. So the DA wants to re-write the rule book just to nail Joan.

SENDING A MESSAGE? As if a drunk driver will think to himself, “Hmmm. I’ve just downed three bottles of Pinot but my house is ten miles from here. Better not drive, though, because the Mendo DA has just charged a lady with a felony for drunk driving. He was sending me a message. And then Chris Coursey of the Press Democrat sent me another message in a column today. I’ll call Coursey for a lift home.”

DESPITE THE BARRAGE of Don’t Do It messages over the past decade the CHP says drunk driving stats have gone up and up. Americans aren’t getting the message; they’re getting drunker, as more and more alcohol is also sold every year.

YES, DRUNK DRIVING is no joke. It’s roadway roulette, and every year lots of people lose. But how about a no joke law, how about confiscation of the drunk’s vehicle for, say, a year? Second offense, permanent impound of vehicle and license? Sending messages no one hears isn’t getting it done.

========================================================

SUBJECT: FIRST DISTRICT LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION

From: “Congressman Jared Huffman” <CA02JHima@mail.house.gov

Date: June 27, 2013 1:38:38 PM PDT

Dear Friend,

I’m pleased to announce my first district-wide landscape photography competition, starting today! This photography competition will showcase what is without a doubt the most beautiful Congressional District in the nation. I am modeling this program after a similar competition I held last year in my California Assembly District which was very successful.

Please email your original landscape photograph to Huffman.Staff@mail.house.gov, and include your name, hometown, and the location of the photo in the body of the email. Submissions will be accepted until July 5, 2013.

Submissions will be posted to my Facebook at Facebook.com/RepHuffman, where you will have the opportunity to vote on the photos by “liking” them. The two winning photographs, as determined by most likes, will be announced on Thursday, July 18. Each photograph will be published as my official Twitter header photo and my Facebook cover photo. I’m looking forward to seeing all the submissions, from the Golden Gate Bridge standing sentinel at the San Francisco Bay to the remote beauty of the Lost Coast, to the ancient Redwood forests.

I have included a few of last year’s Assembly District winners as an inspiration to the broader field of photographers and other citizens who aspire to such an artistic challenge in the First Congressional District.

This last one’s my absolute fave. So upbeat, so positive!

So, get snapping, and good luck!

Sincerely, Jared Huffman, Member of Congress

========================================================

ON TUESDAY, June 18, Board Chair Dan Hamburg pulled Item 4a from the consent calendar. Item 4a is Hamburg’s demand for reimbursement for his legal expenses (“unlimited, over $10,000”) associated with the County’s denial of a burial permit for his late wife which Hamburg claims should have been issued even though state law explicitly prohibits burial in unlicensed cemeteries. “The reason I pulled it is because it deals with me so I cannot vote on it,” said Hamburg. “I must abstain. So it would take other board members to approve that item. So I need a motion to approve Item 4a under consent. County Counsel Tom Parker: “I would recommend Mr. Chair that you leave the podium and let the vice chair, Mr. Pinches, run things.” Hamburg then passed the gavel to Mr. Pinches. “Leave the podium?” asked Hamburg. “Yes, if you could, please,” replied Parker. “Ok, do we have any discussion on Item 4a?” Pinches asked. (Silence.) “I move to reject the claim,” said Supervisor Dan Gjerde. “Second,” said Supervisor McCowen. “All in favor?” said Pinches. All four supervisors said “Aye.” “One abstain,” said Pinches. “One abstain,” added Hamburg as he retook his seat. “Supervisor Hamburg was absent,” added Pinches. “Absent,” repeated Hamburg as he reclaimed the gavel.

========================================================

BEYOND THE WILDWOOD MTB WEEKEND

Hi JAG-mates,

Mendocino Bike Sprite (my fun job) had our first Mountain Bike Weekend on Jackson Demonstration State Forest last weekend. One of our guests made a video that I thought I’d share. A different way to enjoy our woods. Here’s what riding in Jackson is like. And, No, I don’t ride on logs; that’s our guide Brian Astell. He’s amazing! Cheers, Amy Wynn, Mendocino Bike Sprite. 703 North Main Street. Service Shop: 568 South Franklin Street, Fort Bragg, CA 95437. p. 707-962-4602 f. 707-964-2622. www.MendoBikeSprite.com & FaceBook — “Sharing the joys of cycling on the Mendocino coast.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDDuibW6qqI&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uM2mOdXtYM

========================================================

DAVE HILLMER OF POINT ARENA writes:

Subject: Point Arena, Water Rights and Future Development

Hi, David Hillmer of Empire Contracting here. I’d like to get the word out regarding the City of Point Arena’s attempt to reduce the amount of water available to parcels in Point Arena. In 2007, the City conducted a build-out study, and supported the Point Arena Water Works (PAWW) in its rights to adequate water to support future development. In May of this year, the City has apparently reversed its position, and sent a letter to the PUC requesting water rights to be reduced by half. This action, if it moves forward, will severely compromise the ability of parcels in Priority 3 & 4 (as designated in the 07 study) to be developed. I own a parcel in Priority 3, and we are currently pursuing entitlements for an Affordable Senior Housing project there, so I am deeply concerned.  I have attached pertinent data, including the letter I presented to the Council during Public Comment on Tuesday.  Please let me know if you have any questions, thanks, David

========================================================

ANOTHER MURDER on Murder Mountain?

Sheriff Investigating Homicide in Rancho Sequoia Area.

Humboldt Co. Sheriff’s Office Press Release:

Detectives from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office are currently investigating a death that has been determined to be suspicious and suspected to be a homicide. The location of occurrence is the 3700 block of Rancho Sequoia Drive, Alderpoint.

The reporting party called the Sheriff’s Office at 8:50 AM. The reporting party stated that she had not heard from her step-father for the last four (4) days and drove to his residence in the 3700 block of Rancho Sequoia Drive. When she arrived she discovered her 57 year old step-father was deceased. Deputies and Detectives were dispatched to the residence and have ruled the death to be suspicious and are investigating the death as a homicide.

Detectives are looking for a black 2000 Jeep Cherokee, CA 5HNG536 which may be driven by Anthony Ray Lane, WMA, 510, 185, red and brown (DOB 09-18-1975). Lane is a person of interest in this investigation and is being sought for questioning by the Sheriff’s Office. Persons should not approach Lane, if located, and are asked to call the Sheriff’s Office if he is spotted. The lead investigator is Detective Franco (707) 268-3644 or (707) 445-7251.

The motive for this suspected homicide is not known at this time. Detectives are just now arriving at the time of this release. The name of the victim is not being released until additional family members can be notified. Due to the infancy of this investigation, the suspected cause of death is not being released, and will be once the Coroner is able to arrange for an autopsy.

* * *

Lane

ALDERPOINT HOMICIDE SUSPECT TAKEN INTO CUSTODY at Willits Motel

From the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Thursday June 27, 2013 at about 11:30 PM, Officers from the Willits Police Department located the black Jeep Cherokee that was believed to be operated by suspect Anthony Lane. The Willits Police Officers had received a “be on the lookout” broadcast issued by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office for this homicide investigation. The vehicle was found in the parking lot of a motel in the Willits area.

On June 28, 2013 at about 12:30 AM, officers of the Willits Police Department, with the assistance of deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, located Lane in one of the rooms of the hotel. Lane was taken into custody without incident and was transported to the Humboldt County Line, where deputies from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office took custody of Lane. Lane was booked into the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office for suspicion of murder and possession of a stolen vehicle (the black Jeep Cherokee).

At this time the motive for the crime is being investigated. There does not appear at this time to be a connection with this homicide to the earlier marijuana cultivation investigation and arrests that took place in the same area. The homicide does not appear to be a home invasion, marijuana related or in association with the Garret Rodriguez missing person investigation.

The Humboldt County Coroner’s Office is still in the process of notification of family members of the victim of this suspected homicide. For that reason, the name of the victim is not being released. An autopsy is scheduled for Saturday June 29, 2013 and the cause of death is not being released until after the autopsy is concluded and it will not jeopardize the investigation. The lead investigator is Detective Franco (707) 268-3644 or (707) 445-7251, anyone with information about this investigation is encouraged to telephone Detective Franco at the listed numbers.

(Courtesy, LostCoastOutpost.com)

========================================================

THE CLINTONS & THE RICH WOMEN

Fixers Indicated That Hillary Was a Key Player in the Marc Rich Pardon Deal

By Jeffrey St. Clair

President-in-waiting Hillary Clinton has never addressed her role in the midnight pardon of billionaire fugitive Marc Rich, who died this week. In fact, she’s rarely been asked her opinion on the free pass given to one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, a man who violated embargoes against Iran and South Africa and fled the country rather than face trial in what was billed as “the biggest tax evasion case in history.” The senator has variously said that she was “unaware” of the decision and “surprised” by it. When pressed, she merely cackles.

Even though 300 pages of core documents relating to the pardon decision remain under seal at the Clinton Library, a review of the available record tells a much different story. In fact, the Rich legal team viewed Hillary as a secret weapon, and as one door after another closed on their search for a pardon they focused more and more on invoking what Rich lawyer Robert Fink called the “HRC option.”

Who is Marc Rich? And why did he need a presidential pardon?

Rich

Born in Belgium to Jewish parents, Marc Rich moved with his family to the United States to escape Hitler. Young Marc soon went to work for a commodity firm in New York called Phillip Bros, later acquired by Salomon Brothers. He soon made his mark as an oil trader and, along with his friend Pincus “Pinky” Green, he is credited with inventing spot market trading in oil, ferrous metals and sugar. Billions flowed into the firm, and the European press took to calling Rich “the Aluminum Finger.”

Green

But Rich and “Pinky” Green felt underappreciated and underpaid. They bolted the firm, and Rich angrily vowed to “grind Phillip Bros. into oblivion.” In 1974, the pair started their own holding company, eventually known as the Marc Rich Group, and began making oil deals with Iran, Iraq and wildcatters in Texas. He and Pinky were soon billionaires and big shots in the global petrochemical trade.

.

Denise Rich

Around this time, Rich courted a buxom young Jewish singer/songwriter from Worchester, Massachusetts, named Denise. He whisked her off to his seaside villa in Marbella, Spain, where the couple were married and rapidly assumed the life of international jet-setters and art collectors. It is said that Rich owns one of the largest private collections of Picasso paintings and sculptures in the world. Rich began referring to himself as a “business machine.” The years passed. Denise bore Rich three daughters and honed her songwriting skills on transcontinental flights on the family’s private jet. Saccharine pop flowed off her microrecorder , including minor hit “Frankie.” The bank accounts swelled.

Then in 1983 crisis hit the Rich family. The US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York notified Rich and Pinky that they were under investigation for fraud, illegal oil deals with Iran and the apartheid regime in South Africa, and tax evasion. Documents were subpoenaed. Indictments were in the works. Rich hired DC heavy-hitter Edward Bennett Williams to fend off assaults of a vicious young prosecutor — none other than Rudy Giuliani.

When Giuliani requested that Pinky and Rich turn over their passports and post a large bond, Williams acted indignant and personally avowed to the federal judge overseeing the case that his client was not a flight risk. Two days later, Pinky and Rich were on a plane bound for Europe. As expected, the indictments came: a 65-count charge alleging fraud, trading with the enemy (Iran), and tax evasion.

Humiliated, Williams resigned in a huff, and Rich found a succession of new lawyers over the next decade, including former Nixon attorney Leonard Garment and Lewis Scooter Libby, who would later find refuge in the awesome power of presidential privilege.

Rich’s escape from Giuliani’s clutches is the stuff of spy novels, made even more thrilling due to the fact that he almost certainly had several moles inside Giuliani’s office, US law enforcement and intelligence agencies who kept him apprised of the schemes to nab him. He evaded the US marshals on his tail at Heathrow Airport in England, and then later his plane bound for Finland mysteriously turned at the last moment for Sweden, once again narrowly avoiding landing in custody. Years later, Rich would also escape his captors in Germany and Jamaica, courtesy of anonymous tips to the fugitive billionaire.

The tycoon’s eventual passage to safe harbor in Switzerland went from Sweden through East Germany, aided by the notorious Wolfgang Vogel, an East German lawyer who specialized in shuttling spies into and out of Eastern Europe.

Rich dropped millions at every stop, especially in Switzerland. He and “Pinky” Green choose the town of Zuq to establish their new headquarters in a blueberry-colored office tower. Entreaties were made to Swiss officials, and money liberally dispensed.

“He bought Swiss loyalty,” says Shawn Tulley, a financial crimes reporter for Fortune magazine, who covered the Rich case. “He really put out the charm and the money.” When the US Marshals finally tracked Rich down in Switzerland, they immediately petitioned the Swiss government for his extradition. Request denied. As far as the Swiss were concerned, financial crimes, especially involving taxation, were trifling concerns unworthy of governmental consideration.

When the Swiss refused to turn Rich over, the Marshals tried to kidnap the world’s most famous tax evader under the extraordinary rendition program, which has since become a staple of the Bush regime.

The Marshals set up a team outside of Rich’s mansion and his offices. But again, there was a fortuitous leak. The Swiss police approached the would-be kidnappers and told them to shut down their operation or they would be the ones sitting in jail. The Marshals retreated. Rich had found his sanctuary. He summoned Denise and the children to join him in a sprawling mansion near Lucerne and then renounced his US citizenship. This freed him from the nagging obligation of ever again having to worry about entanglements with the IRS over tax obligations. But it also threw the validity of his eventual pardon into question.

The exile of Marc Rich was not an idle one. Indeed, from 1983 to 1996 Rich’s fortune ballooned from a mere billion dollars to more than $7 billion. He and Pinky struck oil deals in Russia and Bulgaria (prompting accusations of fraud and thievery in both countries) and mining operations in central Asia, Africa and South America. Along the way, he sharpened the art of the political bribe. Rudy Giuliani alleges that during this period Rich tried to bribe the state of New York, offering millions to the State Department of Education in exchange for a withdrawal of the pending charges.

In order to buy alumina from the new leftist government of Jamaica for less than half the market price, Rich wired $50 million to Jamaican President Michael Manley in an hour of acute distress for the embattled ruler.

Even as he neared the top of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, Rich also didn’t see any reason to abandon his operations in the United States. In fact, his hand is seen orchestrating one of the most savage crackdowns on organized labor in recent decades. In 1989, Rich secretly acquired the controlling interest in a West Virginia-based company called Ravenswood Aluminum. Ravenswood was embroiled in a tumultuous battle between management and workers at the plant when in 1990, under Rich’s long-distance orders, the company tried to bust the union. On a bitterly cold night, a private security force arrived at the plant, set up armed guards at the gates and surveillance cameras around the perimeter of the facility, and locked out 1,700 workers, all members of the Steelworkers Union. Over the ensuing weeks, the armed guards repeatedly clashed with picketing union members, fogging the air with tear gas and beating skulls with their police clubs. Soon Rich made the call to hire permanent replacement workers, for less pay and reduced benefits. The lockout went on for two more years. “It was a brutal affair,” says Dan Stidham, president of the Ravenswood union local at the time of the lockout. “I’m still pretty upset with Clinton for pardoning that guy after all we went through.”

Azulay

Meanwhile, back in Lucerne, Rich was beginning to cultivate the Israeli government. He established the Rich Foundation in Tel Aviv, which would distribute more than $100 million to Israeli causes over the next decade. To oversee the foundation, Rich selected a former high-ranking Mossad official named Avner Azulay, whose ties to the intelligence agency probably never totally evaporated. Azulay was a useful conduit to Israel’s political elite. He was close to Yitzak Rabin, Ehud Barak, Shimon Peres and Ehud Olmert. A decade later, Azulay would play a key role in securing Rich’s pardon from the Clintons.

Through Azulay, Rich offered his services to the Israeli government, especially the Mossad. Indeed, according to letters from Israeli officials, Rich played the role of a “Say-Ayon,” or unpaid asset of the Mossad. In fact, Rich was subsidizing Israeli intelligence operations. He financed numerous covert missions and allowed Mossad operatives to work covertly in his offices around the world.

With experience as an international spook now added to his C.V., Rich reached out through intermediaries to both the FBI and the CIA. He offered his services to both agencies in exchange for dropping the charges against him. The CIA’s response is unknown, but the FBI was intrigued and sent the request to the Justice Department, where it was quashed.

Around this time, Rich launched into a public liaison with a glamorous Italian widow by the name of Gisela Rossi.

Rossi

He flaunted the affair in front of Denise, the tycoon’s wife who had followed him into his luxurious life on the lam. Denise filed for divorce and prepared to return to New York. But Rich, whose net worth now neared $10 billion, was offering her only a tiny settlement. So Denise took matters into her own hands. She removed a Van Gogh painting from the wall of their palace in Lucerne and warned her estranged husband that unless he ponied up more money, she would take the masterpiece with her. Ultimately, Rich offered her a settlement of $200 million. Although the amount is far less than she would have gotten in most US courts, Denise signed the papers and took her daughters with her back to Manhattan.

Rossi and Rich soon married and divided their time between St. Moritz and Marbella, Spain.

A year after the Rich’s divorce, their oldest daughter, Gabriella, was diagnosed with a rare and terminal form of leukemia. She died within the year. Marc Rich made no effort to visit Gabriella in her final months. Denise Rich seethed.

Pardon Me

The machinations to secure a pardon from Bill Clinton for Marc Rich began in earnest in the fall of 1998, when Rich’s public relations flack in the US, Gershon Kekst, squirmed his way into a seat next to Eric Holder, the number two in the Clinton Justice Department, at a gauche DC party thrown by Daimler/Chrysler. Without mentioning Rich by name, Kekst asked Holder how a man of considerable resources might be relieved of the burden of being “unproperly indicted by an overzealous prosecutor.”

Holder took a sip of wine and told Kekst that such a man would need to hire a DC lawyer who knows the ropes and has deep connections inside the Clinton administration. “He comes to me and we work it out,” confided Holder.

“Can you recommend such a person?” Kekst inquired.

Holder

Holder pointed to a man sitting at a nearby table. “There’s Jack Quinn,” Holder whispered. “He’s a perfect example.”

Kekst dutifully wrote down Quinn’s name, did some research on the former lawyer for the Clintons, and transmitted the joyful news to the Rich camp.

There is every indication that Holder was trying to drum up business for Quinn, a partner at the powerhouse firm of Arnold and Porter, as well as a top advisor for Al Gore’s presidential campaign. Holder was desperate to have Quinn’s backing in his doomed bid to become attorney general.

Quinn

Back in Switzerland, Rich ordered up a dossier on Quinn. His initial response was not favorable. Rich believed Quinn to be merely a “pretty boy” with little experience and “more connections than clout.” He decided to stick with Scooter Libby’s team. But Scooter, who had represented Rich since 1985, produced no results, and in the summer of 1999, with the clock ticking down on Clinton time, the desperate tycoon reached out to Jack Quinn.

Quinn formally became Rich’s lawyer on July 21, 1999. His fees were stiff: an initial retainer of $355,000, plus a minimum payment of $55,000 each month. Quinn’s firm, Arnold and Porter, reserved the right to represent clients suing Rich on other matters. Rich consented.

Initially, Quinn intimated to the Rich team that securing the pardon would be a relatively easy matter. A few calls to his good friend Eric Holder, and that would be that. Quinn was wrong. When Holder contacted the prosecutors in Manhattan about the Rich case, they vowed to oppose any deal until Rich returned to the US and entered a plea in the case. Rich refused.

From that point on, the Rich team, including his sympathizers inside the Clinton administration, hid their maneuvers from federal prosecutors. After discussions with White House aides Bruce Lindsey and Beth Nolan, Quinn sent out an email calling for a new approach: “It’s time to move on the GOI [Government of Israel] front but we have to get the calls initiated over there.”

Letters and calls soon flooded the White House from Israeli officials and high profile Jews, including Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert and Elie Weisel. In one way or another, each had received benefits from Rich or one of his foundations.

A problem soon developed. When presented the opportunity to discuss presidential pardons with Clinton, many of these leaders, anxious perhaps to legitimize Israeli penetration of the US government, choose to plead the case of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard instead of Rich.

Quinn scrambled comically for a solution. Quinn sends an urgent email to Robert Fink, Rich’s longtime New York lawyer.

From: Jack Quinn. To: Fink, Robert, NY.

“Hope you’re checking email; I don’t have access here to avner’s email address, or marc’s, and wonder if you can inquire whether there is a possibility of persuading Mrs Rabin to make a call to POTUS [President of the United States]. He had a deep affection for her husband.”

Fink leaps into action with an email to Avner Azulay, the former Mossad officer, now heading the Rich Foundation in Tel Aviv.

From: Fink, Robert, NY. Sent: Saturday. To: Avner Azulay

“… Jack asks if you could get Leah Rabin to call the President; Jack said he was a real big supporter of her husband…”

Azulay writes back with distressing news.

From: Avner. To: Fink, Robert, NY.

“Bob, having Leah Rabin call is not a bad idea. The problem is how do we contact her? She died last November …”

Eventually, Quinn secures a letter and congenial phone call to Clinton from Rabin’s daughter, who doesn’t really know Rich. Their best hopes seem to be evaporating. Perhaps Rich was right about Quinn, after all.

First Catch Your Foxman

The scene shifts to a crowded restaurant in Paris. It’s Valentine’s Day. Two men are having dinner and drinking wine. They know each other well. One man has just received a $100,000 contribution from the other man’s boss. The man on the receiving end of the money is Abe Foxman, and the financial gift was for his group the Anti-Defamation League. The man picking up the hefty dinner tab is Avner Azulay – though Marc Rich will soon reimburse him.

Rich has one last shot, Foxman advises. They need to get directly to Bill and Hillary. And the key to unlocking the inner doors of the White House, Foxman told Azulay, is Denise Rich. Foxman confided that he and Denise had flown together on Air Force II to the funeral of Yitzak Rabin.
 There was just one problem. Denise Rich still loathed her husband.
 Entreaties are made to Denise, now a New York socialite and successful songwriter, by Quinn and others on the Rich teams. Three times Denise Rich declines to come to the rescue of her former husband.

Then suddenly, in November 2000, she agrees to help. What made her change her mind?

That remains open to speculation, but given Marc Rich’s history and Denise’s view that she was shortchanged in the divorce, it may well have involved a financial offering. This much is known. On November 16, Avner Azulay flies to New York and takes Denise to dinner. He pleads for her to back Rich’s pardon to her friends Bill and Hillary. Two days later Denise consents.

Dozoretz with Wm. Clinton

Denise calls her close friend Beth Dozoretz for help in the best way to handle the matter. Another rich Manhattan socialite, Dozoretz had been the finance chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Dozoretz had contributed more than $1 million to Democratic coffers. Bill Clinton was the godfather of her daughter.

Dozoretz who, like Denise Rich, would later plead the Fifth at a Senate hearing in the matter, helped Rich craft her strategy. Almost immediately, a check for $25,000 was sent from Denise Rich’s account to the DNC. This was soon followed by Denise Rich’s first letter to the Clintons, imploring them to pardon her ex-husband. Dozoretz also helped Rich bundle a $450,000 contribution to the Clinton library fund. (A Democratic fundraiser told the New York Times in 2001 that Denise had also pledged another million in four installments over the next two years. This figure was disputed by Denise Rich. But the donor lists to the Clinton Foundation are kept secret.) In all, Denise Rich made at least $1.1 million in contributions to Democratic causes, including $70,000 to Hillary’s Senate campaign and PACs, and at least $450,000 to the Clinton foundation.

For her part, Dozoretz kicked in another million of her own money to the fund. This is the same library that now refuses to release more than 300 pages of Clinton’s records relating to the pardon. She later lavished gifts on the Clintons as they left the White House, including antique furniture for the new home and golf clubs for Bill.

As Dozoretz and Denise Rich plotted their strategy, Quinn and Azulay sought another opening. In a December 19, 2000, email to Quinn, Azulay emphasizes the importance of Hillary’s role in the affair. She has just been elected senator from New York, where Rich was indicted. If there was to be fallout, it might backfire on Hillary. She would need reassurance. Dozoretz and Denise would provide financial aid, but she might also need political cover. Azulay recommends Abraham Burg, former speaker of the Knesset. “Burg is on very friendly terms with Hilary (sic) and knows POTUS from previous contacts.”

The next night there’s a party at the White House honoring Barbra Streisand, Quincy Jones and Maya Angelou. Dozoretz and Denise are invited, and Denise lands a plum seat at the presidential table. Denise is wearing a burgundy ball gown trimmed in fox fur. She eats little and talks less. After dinner, Denise espies Bill having an intimate conversation with Streisand. She rushes across the room, cuts in on Babs and whisks Bill away. She makes an impassioned plea for her ex-husband, who had humiliated her, stuffs a letter into Bill’s hand and whispers, “I could not bear it were I to learn you did not see my letter.” 
When Denise arrives home, she makes a call to Lucerne. It’s the first time she has talked to Marc Rich since the divorce. She describes her meeting with Clinton. Her friends say she ended the conversation by telling Rich: “You owe me.”

A week later the Rich team is getting antsy. There’s still been no word on how Hillary feels. Rich’s New York attorney Robert Fink sends an email to Quinn: “Of all the options we discussed, the only one that seems to have real potential for making a difference is the Hillary option.”

Quinn, Dozoretz, Burg and, perhaps, Denise call Hillary’s people. They are told that the senator needs cover. According to a December 26 email from Azulay titled “Chuck Schumer”: “Hillary shall feel more at ease if she is joined by her elder sen. of NY, who also represents the Jewish population.”

Gershon Kekst leaps at the opportunity, firing an email to Fink looking for Schumer’s pressure points:

“Can Quinn tell us who is close enough to lean on Schumer?? I am willing to call him but have no real clout. Jack might be able to tell us who the top contributors are … maybe Bernard Schwartz??”

Bernard Schwartz was a good guess. The former CEO of the Defense electronics firm Loral (a Friend of Bill and Marc Rich) was a top DNC contributor and had lavished money on both Schumer and Hillary. Schwartz also donated $1 million to the Clinton library fund.

But Quinn had been around Washington a long time. He knew enough not to trust Schumer, a famous media hog who was already showing signs of being jealous of the attention Hillary was getting. Quinn notes: “I have to believe that the contact with HRC can happen w/o him after all, we are not looking for a public show of support from her.”

Calls continue to flood the Clinton White House. The King of Spain. Sandy Berger. Ehud Barak.

Meanwhile, Denise and Beth are skiing in Aspen. Beth’s phone rings. It’s Bill Clinton. Clinton tells Dozoretz, “I want to do it and am trying to get around the White House counsel.” Keep praying, Bill told the women. He also let them know that Michael Milken wasn’t getting a pardon.

A few days later, the two women are back in Washington. It’s now January 19, 2001. Jack Quinn is sitting at a board meeting of Fanny Mae. He quietly types a message to Denise on his Blackberry. (It’s not known if he bills both clients for this hour of his time.) The text message urges Denise to make one last call to Bill. Quinn tells her not to “argue merits” but merely to explain to Clinton that “it is important to me personally.”

Though both women will later dispute it, the Secret Service logs show that the next afternoon at 5:30, Beth and Denise were admitted to the private quarters of the White House. This was Denise’s nineteenth visit to the White House. Beth had visited the White House 76 times in merely the last two years. The logs do not record when the women departed. This is the encounter that appears to have consummated the pardon.

At 2:30 in the morning on January 20, Clinton gets a call from his National Security Advisor. Marc Rich’s name has surfaced in an intelligence file in connection with an international arms smuggling network. Clinton calls Quinn. Quinn says the allegations are bogus. Bill turns to his staff, all of whom oppose the pardon that is now being signed. “Take Jack’s word,” Clinton snapped. Later Clinton will claim to have been “sleep deprived” when he signed the pardon, an excuse that his wife would resurrect to explain her fabulation of her landing under sniper fire in Bosnia.

Marc Rich bought his pardon and now flies freely in his private jet, while Leonard Peltier languishes in prison with no hope of release.

That pretty much sums up Clintonism.

(This article is adapted from a piece that ran in the March 2008 edition of CounterPunch magazine. Jeffrey St. Clair is the author of Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me: the Politics of Nature, Grand Theft Pentagon and Born Under a Bad Sky. His latest book is Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion. He can be reached at: sitka@comcast.net.)

========================================================

AMERICAN TROUBADOUR – WILLIAM JAMES NICHOLSON – will be appearing live on stage at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds – Not So Simple Living Fair.

Date: Saturday July 27, 2013 Time: 9:00 PM

Upstate New York’s William James Nicholson is a uniquely American artist. Yes, he writes some of the most powerful modern folk songs of today, but he performs them armed only with a custom made 11-string harp-guitar. Despite the virtuosity and musical depth, it is really the song, the emotion and the storyteller’s voice that always hold center stage.   “It is refreshing to hear a great voice combined with a great song, played with passion, competence and honesty…” (Albany, NY)   “When I saw the harp guitar I thought one thing, then when he opened his mouth to sing, something entirely surprising and beautiful happened…” (Marietta, OH)

========================================================

CRAIG’S READY!

Destroying Postmodernism before it Gets You!

Morning salutations, I have two more weeks to go at the central Berkeley men’s shelter, and then they say I’m on my own, because Alameda county social services does not have anything further to give to me. I am totally available right now! I have several hundred dollars which would get me transported anywhere in the USA lower 48, decades of experience of a radical nature, plus a fully cultivated spiritual life, and I’m willing!!! Instead of languishing in the cultural death of postmodernism, I’d like your cooperation in order to remain active frontline-wise. No need to hurry, because this is America and it’s summer; so slow down, take your time, and then encourage me to travel where you are and participate. I don’t have anything to do anymore in California. That’s just the way it is, and I am really not interested in attempting anything so ridiculous as “retiring.” That won’t work for me. I’m not the type. However, I am ready to help usher in a brand new civilization based on a spiritual foundation, Craig Louis Stehr/craigstehr@hushmail.com

INSPIRING QUOTATION:

Wherever and whenever / The mind is found / Attached to anything, / Make haste to detach / Yourself from it. / When you tarry for / Any length of time / It will turn again into / Your old home town. —Daito Kokushi (1282-1334)

========================================================

FIGHT THE POWER!

Subject: Corporate Power & Building Democracy study group forming this Sunday in FB

How did the corporations gain so much power? How can we integrate this knowledge and think clearly about what to do about it. How can we be effective in our efforts to create the democracy we want for people and the planet? These are the kinds of issues that are considered in the Corporate Power & Building Democracy study group forming this Sunday in Fort Bragg. We use a curriculum that was created by and can be downloaded from the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. http://wilpf.org/CPOWER_10sessions  There will be a ten-session study group starting up again this Sunday, the 30th of June, at 6:00 PM. The first meeting will be in Fort Bragg at Meg Courtney’s home, 661North Harrison St. in Fort Bragg. The remaining sessions will be every other Sunday and will most likely be in Mendocino.  About eight people completed the study group that started last January. Michael St. John and myself will be facilitating the group going forward. If you are interested you can contact me and I will provide more details.  Carrie Durkee, 937-2554, CDurkee@mcn.org

========================================================

MOVE TO AMEND contingents in Mendocino and Point Arena July 4th parades! Local “Move to Amend.org“ members and supporters are encouraged to join fellow ‘Amenders’ in a parade contingent in the 4th of July parade in Mendocino at noon, and also in the Point Arena Parade on Sunday July 7, 2013. Banners will be provided, but bring your own flags, posters and signs to invite others to join in the national effort locally. Participants meet in Mendocino at Crown Hall at 11:30 am on Thursday July 4, 2013; and in Point Arena at the high school parking lot by 11:30 am Sunday. Contact Jane Jarlsberg at 882.2339 for more information.

THE “WE THE PEOPLE” AMENDMENT affirms that 1) rights protected under the Constitution are the rights of natural persons and not of incorporated entities and 2) money spent to influence elections may be regulated by Congress and the states and is not protected free speech under the First Amendment.

TEN ACRES of dissipation or a political celebration? Dissipation seemed preponderant at San Francisco’s civic center Saturday but, as a child of the 1950s, I’m still adjusting to new realities. I do remember, though, that the first gay parades occurred in an overall political context emphasizing all kinds of freedom, from economic to sexual. Anymore, especially this year, Gay Pride Day seems heavily corporate, heavily Democratic Party, heavily mainstream with Bradley Manning, a gay hero if there ever was one, purged as the parade’s grand marshall. He, Assange and now Snowden, are well outside the great Frisco Consensus as defined by Willie Brown, Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein. Like a great, gray poison fog the grasping talons of the Democrats enfold us all in their lethal embrace. The Republicans aren’t even good for a laugh anymore. I’d footed it up Market from Union Square with Castro Street as the goal. I wanted to see what the celebration was like only hours after the Defense of Marriage Act had fallen. I didn’t know that the Civic Center had become a weekend set aside, admission $5, to a mob scene of people with theirs buns hanging out. There’d been lots of citizens in odd costumes all over downtown, but there always are. And even at the official celebration area stretched out in front of City Hall, the revelers weren’t particularly gay — the whole sexual panoply seemed present — from the naked guys to nubile young women, and everything in between. I thought back to my deformative years when gays weren’t part of the national consciousness. I remember feeling sorry for a classmate who’d been arrested with an adult barber for “unnatural acts,” or whatever the phrase was then. It got into the newspapers, and only now can I fully imagine what it must have been like for that kid to have everyone pointing him out like some kind of secret freak. Gays weren’t gays yet, either, and the other prevalent pejorative, fag, was also unknown. Homo and homos was the term, as in, among high school wits, “How you homos doing today?” That kind of thing. I had a baseball coach who constantly grumbled that the frustrations presented by both the team and the game were “driving me fruit.” Or, “For Christ’s sake, you bums are enough to drive a guy fruit.” But I don’t remember anybody associating the phrases with homosexuality, although to those who constantly invoked it, the shrinks informed us, homosexuality must have been an omnipresent fear in these guys. In Marine Corps boot camp our DI routinely denounced Californians as “a bunch of damn queers sent to sabotage my Marine Corps.” We all laughed at that one, but not in front of him, though. He scared the shit out of all of us and often talked about how he’d like to choke us all to death. I remember wondering, If this nut is on my side, how bad can the Russians be? One day Sgt. Wells outdid himself, denouncing all of us as “syphilitic misfucks.” All this stuff seems ancient now, and very crazy. People nostalgic for the 50s weren’t there. Like most heteros, it wasn’t until those first gay marches in San Francisco that I realized how awful it had been for gay men and women. Now, if they can only free themselves from Pelosi, maybe all of us together can take on The Beast.

========================================================

ON-LINE STATEMENT OF THE DAY: A story about gay puppets receives a prominent position on SFGate’s website. This was to be expected now that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are over, Gitmo has been closed, the unemployed have become employed and Obama has locked up those responsible for the financial crisis.

========================================================

THE LATEST book on the dope biz, Humboldt County branch, is a ho-hummer called Humboldt: Life on America’s Marijuana Frontier. It’s written by a young woman, a very young woman judging from her prose, called Emily Brady.

Brady

“HUMBOLDT COUNTY was a beautiful place, there was no mistaking it, but it had become like a Hollywood set for Bob. It was like a facade, and behind the facade was a different story, one of trash, and meth, and familial dysfunction. Of course it wasn’t just Humboldt. Cops deal with the margins and extremes of society everywhere; the bowels, as Bob put it. His pessimism about the place was an occupational hazard, and he knew it…”

MS. BRADY describes the lives of four archetypal, drug-affected HumCo persons: a cop, a young woman raised in the pot counterculture; a career dope guy; and a pioneer back-to-the-lander the author calls ‘Mare’ but is clearly based on Mem Hill, a well-known eco-activist who lives in the Whitethorn area.

AS US RESIDENTS of the Emerald Triangle know, the pot business hasn’t been the harmless enterprise of the original hippies who brought it here for many years. The money involved has attracted lots of thugs, and lots of people raised by peace and love people who have also become thugs. The fairly recent addition of Mexico-based gangs to the dope business has torqued upwards the habitual violence that comes with the business. The love drug causes its own universe of misery.

THERE’S NOTHING in Ms. Brady’s book we don’t know, and nothing that Jonah Raskin’s Marijuanaland and Ray Raphael’s Cash Crop don’t do more comprehensively and a lot better. However, the portrait Ms. Brady draws of the young woman raised in the tumultuous circumstances romanticized by hippies as a “counter culture” certainly rings true as the author reveals the huge downside of the marijuana business as it plays out in the deceptive idyll of Humboldt County’s natural beauty.

========================================================

MANBEATER OF THE WEEK: Come on. No way!

========================================================

SITTER RESUPPLIED!

The dramatic resupply took place in the light of day despite the presence of two officers, who were preoccupied with a CHP vehicle stuck in the wetlands mud and a string of walkers near the site. In a tense moment, an officer or contractor attempted to move the second driver away from the machine that Will occupies, threatening the hold of the climber. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIxahiG1HIQ.)

Later that night, with floodlights on the wick drain drivers and CHP reinforcements on the ground, the resupply climber slipped away.

With new supplies, and able to contact supporters, Will is in good spirits.

Meanwhile, a medical team attempted to reach Will to check on his condition. They were turned back by CalTrans and referred to the CalTrans office, where they were told they could not enter the site.

Reportedly, the CHP decided Thursday that Will can receive one visit a day with food and water. Supporters are now organizing daily visits.

* * *

Daring Aerial Resupply Reaches Parched Crane-Sitter on Caltrans Tower

In an action combining daring, danger and comedy, Earth First! activists succeeded in putting a climber atop the second wick drain driver, and stringing a traverse rope to the crane-sitter who had been without food and water for a week. The bold action was carried out in broad daylight Wednesday afternoon. To get to the tower, the climber had to cross a wide belt of bare earth, guarded by 2 CHP vehicles. In spite of floodlights and guards, the climber delivered his life-saving supplies, and vanished into the night.

One week ago Little Lake Valley Defender and writer Will Parrish set up residence on a 2-ft wide plank halfway up one of the two 100’ towers. About 40 people entered the worksite Saturday evening to bring supplies to Parrish, who had run out of food and water and was facing cold wet weather. In a dramatic confrontation, CHP officers cut his supply rope. After a standoff of several hours, six people were arrested, including a mother and daughter who were grabbed while attempting to comply with CHP orders to leave.

Concern for Parrish’s safety after four days without food or water has been mounting, and a medical team sought permission to bring water. Communication was cut when his cell phone fell from the tower the first day. During Saturday’s resupply attempt, Parrish called down from his perch: “I’ll starve before I’ll let this machine install another wick drain.”

According to Parrish, who now has a phone, “I’ve just been resupplied by a real-life superhero. The machine operator started to lower the crane with him on it, and the CHP just watched.” Bystanders and press recorded the life-threatening incident on camera and video. Carrying supplies and gear, the climber scaled the tower, and attached his safety harness about 60’ up.

 CHP officers were preoccupied with the effort to extract one of their vehicles from the deep mud near the site’s entrance, about 100 yards away. The officers summoned several passing protesters to help them, apparently taking them for passersby walking their dogs. The protesters helped free the car, which then got stuck again. The patrol cars next to the machine were apparently unmanned at the time.

Surveying the sea of mud left by three days of rain, long-time Willits resident Freddie Long observed: “This is a perfect illustration of why the wick drains are such a bad idea. This should be wetland, not a freeway.”

Bypass opponents say they will stop protesting when Caltrans stops work on the current version of the bypass, which they maintain is environmentally destructive and fiscally irresponsible. Sticker price for the 6 miles of road is $210 million dollars, not counting bond interest and cost overruns, or the $300 million dollar phase 2 of the project, which Caltrans says will be necessary to bring the current project up to safety standards.

Local citizens and civic organizations have long advocated a set of cheaper, less destructive alternatives. A meeting between opponents of the current project and Caltrans head Malcom Dougherty is set for July 9^th.

* * *

Update on Will Parrish – Sitting in the Wick Drain Crane

Some small victories!

The latest news is that (as of Friday June 28th) Caltrans and the CHP have changed their policy. Will Parrish is now permitted to receive deliveries of food and water. The first delivery was made on Friday around 6:00 pm by Jessica Snow accompanied by Rachel Britten. My husband (Micheal Foley) made several large pesto hamburgers (at Will’s request) and the extras were offered to the CHP officers. We are still concerned about Will because he is being subjected to lots of heat and sun this weekend as he sits in the wick drain crane. He is still recovering from his ordeal of going without much food or water for four days and being wet and cold during the unseasonable rain storm. But, his spirits are high! Here are some ways you can help.

1. We are looking for volunteers to provide him with an evening meal/food and water delivery each day.

2. His spirits are always higher when he has visitors. So, please make some time to show your support with a personal visit.

For more information or to arrange a food delivery call Sara 707 216-5549 or 707 376-5202

Sara Grusky

* * *

PLEASE JOIN US … For a Roadside Demonstration on Monday, July 1^st, 9:30 am – 11:30 am. Sign holding and leafleting as people return from the Kate Wolf Festival

Meet at the truck scales on Hwy 101 north of the High School at 9:30 am. Make signs if you can as we are running low. Be creative, Be positive!

(Courtesy, SaveLittleLakeValley.org)

========================================================

FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES…

by Sara Grusky, Green Uprising Farm

I am writing this with a stubby pencil inside Mendocino County Jail where I am accompanied by five other brave “trespassers” including my daughter, Thea, Earth Firster Naomi Wagner and Matthew Caldwell. We spent the last two nights on a cold concrete floor under the bright florescent lights of the 6 ft by 6 ft holding cell. Now we are more comfortably housed as official inmates with cots to sleep on. Many people ask us why we continue doing this. Jail gives one lots of time for reflection and contemplation so here is my answer to the question.

Why I trespass. Civil disobedience is a fancy name for the idea, deeply rooted in American history and culture (beginning with the Boston Tea Party), that we have a right, even a responsibility and duty, to disobey laws that are unjust, destructive to people and other living things, and do not uphold our basic constitutional rights. Henry David Thoreau popularized the idea of civil disobedience but all of the major social movements in U.S. history including the movements for the abolition of slavery, the suffrage movement, civil rights, anti-war and environmental movements have used the tactic of civil disobedience. It is a time-honored tradition.

I believe it is a great honor and privilege to stand up for what you believe in. Most days, I cannot think of anything more important to do…..except maybe farming. (I do love to nurture plants and animals and make healthy food for my family and community!) Here is a short list of reasons why I trespass.

I trespass because I do not accept as legitimate Caltrans claim to “own” approximately 2,060 acres, one third of our precious Little Lake Valley (sixty acres are part of the Bypass footprint and 2,000 are part of the so-called Mitigation Plan). I believe this “land grab” is a great travesty. We need farmland, pastures, wetlands, forests, in part, because our future will require greater local economic self-sufficiency. Our children and grandchildren will face many challenges but I would like them to have a fighting chance to make a life and have a livelihood here in Little Lake Valley.

I trespass because I do not believe it was legitimate for Caltrans to dispossess local farmers, ranchers and homeowners in order to build an over-priced and unnecessary Bypass freeway.

I trespass because I cannot accept as legitimate Caltrans claim that they have the right to destroy and remove the forests, the soil, the creeks, the ancient oaks, the wetlands the pastureland and all the beautiful, delicate and intricate life forms that depend on these miracles of nature.

I trespass to protect the future for our small herd of goats. I know this sounds silly, but it is the honest truth. Watching our goat herd graze and browse teaches me many things about the plant life in our valley. I know the goats are concerned about the future of the creeks, the wetlands and the pasture lands because they understand how they are an interdependent part of the web of life in our valley.

I trespass because many people in this community have spent more than two decades trying to get their voices heard. Doors have been slammed again and again. Our political and judicial systems have failed to provide any viable recourse for those who seek a commonsense alternative route to Caltrans’ Bypass boondoggle. Unfortunately, putting our bodies on the line seems to be necessary, but we all know it should not have come to this.

I put my body on the line as an offering of hope for the future. I know there has to be a better way than building another asphalt and concrete freeway. Climate change is real and it is caused by burning fossil fuels – including the fuel we put in our cars. So many people in Willits and in Mendocino County have a long and proud tradition of seeking and implementing alternative solutions to our energy and transportation needs. It is time all stand together to stop this bypass freeway.

Why we trespassed on June 22, 2013

More than 35 community supporters gathered to bring food and water to Will Parrish who has been sitting in the crane of the wick drain machine since June 20^th. The machine had been drilling “wicks” eighty feet deep into the wetlands to remove water and compact the soil in preparation for the fill dirt, asphalt and concrete that will follow in order to build a freeway over the top of the wetlands. Will’s brave presence on the crane of the machine has prevented it from working. The community supporters, myself and my daughter included, “trespassed” in an attempt to bring food and water to Will Parrish. The California Highway Patrol (CHP) blocked the delivery of supplies, cutting Will’s rope, and later ordering us to leave. As we were moving to leave I was grabbed and arrested. My daughter was very upset by what she perceived as my wrongful arrest and when she spoke up in my defense she was also arrested. Naomi Wagner also sat down to protest the arrests and was later arrested along with Matthew Caldwell.

========================================================

MIKE KALANTARIAN WRITES: Oh man, your Jared Huffman photo contest “winners” from last year were brilliant! You had us roaring with laughter this morning. That shot of corktop in the vines, Huffman’s happy kite, and all the rest of the entires were inspired.

Here was my entry:

Name: Mike Kalantarian, Hometown: Navarro

Photo: A view of poisoned hardwood trees, taken a few miles east of Comptche, along a steep headwater canyon of the Albion River. Mendocino Redwood Company poisons around 5,500 acres of Mendocino County forestland every year. More info:

http://mk.users.sonic.net/mrc/

* * *

HERE IS Assemblyman Wes Chesbro’s submission from last year: “The epic grandeur of the political face”

========================================================

WITH MONDAY shaping up as the hottest day of the year, CalFire announces “A controlled burn at Lake Mendocino is now planned for Monday, the US Army Corps of Engineers announced. According to the USACE, it originally planned to conduct a live-fire training exercise with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection by burning the face of Coyote Valley Dam on June 24, but decided to postpone the event because of rain that day. The exercise is now scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. July 1, and “access to walking across the dam will not be permitted beginning at 4pm. Monday until the burning is completed.” Cal Fire also announced it will be surveying users of the Jackson Demonstration State Forest, and the group hired to do the survey will provide a overview of the “survey design and methodology” at a meeting next week that members of the public are encouraged to attend. According to CalFire, the recreation user survey will be “conducted on random dates and locations within JDSF throughout the summer and early fall,” and the results of the survey will “help guide the development of a recreation plan.” The JDSF Recreation Task Force meeting will be held at the Camp One Day Use area on Wednesday, July 3, at 2 p.m. For more information, call the Cal Fire Fort Bragg office at 707-964-5674.”

========================================================

IT’S TIRESOME to hear Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo woof repeatedly about the environmental crimes of Sonoma County winemaker-outlaw Paul Hobbs who pops up periodically with yet another blatant violation of SoCo’s weak ag and river protection rules (which, weak as they are, are more than Mendocino County has: None). Carrillo “vowed” Friday that Hobbs’ latest violation — illegally cutting down acres of streamside vegetation — “would not be ignored.” “I will tell you that the full force of the law is going to be applied in this matter,” Carrillo huffed. Every time Hobbs is caught breaking a rule, Supervisor Carrillo comes out with a tough sounding quote. A couple of years ago after a prior flagrant violation Carrillo said, “One need not wait for a legal determination before expressing outrage at the insensitivity and environmental depravity of this conduct.” And after an earlier violation, “I don’t understand how someone can show such blatant disregard not only to the process but also to our resources and to their fellow grape growers,” none of whom are ever quoted with their own complaints — probably because they’re not quite as flagrant as Hobbs so Hobbs can be the convenient “bad apple.” In recent years Hobbs has been caught illegally clearcutting forests and orchards for vineyards and violating promises made to neighbors. But no enforcement action has ever been taken. His critics say he’s happy to pay the small fines which could be imposed if necessary. But so far the SoCo District Attorney’s office has done nothing more than say, “We’re looking into it.” (The local angle: Hobbs buys Mendo pinot grapes and makes them into a tasty brand of wine called “Crossbarn,” which is just one letter from “Crossburn.”)

========================================================

METH FLOODS US BORDER CROSSING

By Elliot Spagat

SAN DIEGO—Children walk across the US-Mexico border with crystal methamphetamine strapped to their backs or concealed between notebook pages. Motorists disguise liquid meth in tequila bottles, windshield washer containers and gas tanks.

The smuggling of the drug at land border crossings has jumped in recent years but especially at San Diego’s San Ysidro port of entry, which accounted for more than 40 percent of seizures in fiscal year 2012. That’s more than three times the second-highest—five miles east—and more than five times the third-highest, in Nogales, Ariz.

The spike reflects a shift in production to Mexico after a US crackdown on domestic labs and the Sinaloa cartel’s new hold on the prized Tijuana-San Diego smuggling corridor.

A turf war that gripped Tijuana a few years ago with beheadings and daytime shootouts ended with the cartel coming out on top. The drugs, meanwhile, continue flowing through San Ysidro, the Western hemisphere’s busiest land border crossing with an average of 40,000 cars and 25,000 pedestrians entering daily.

“This is the gem for traffickers,” said Gary Hill, assistant special agent in charge of the US Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego. “It’s the greatest place for these guys to cross because there are so many opportunities.”

Customs and Border Protection officers seized 5,566 pounds of methamphetamine at San Ysidro in the 2012 fiscal year, more than double two years earlier, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations unit. On the entire border, inspectors seized 13,195 pounds, also more than double.

From October 2012 through March, seizures totaled 2,169 pounds at San Ysidro and 1,730 pounds at Otay Mesa, giving San Diego 61 percent of the 6,364 pounds seized at Mexican border crossings. Much of the rest was found in Laredo, Texas; Nogales; and Calexico, Calif.

San Ysidro—unlike other busy border crossings—blends into a sprawl of 18 million people that includes Los Angeles, one of the nation’s top distribution hubs. By contrast, El Paso is more than 600 miles from Dallas on a lonely highway with Border Patrol checkpoints.

Rush-hour comes weekday mornings, with thousands of motorists clogging Tijuana streets to approach 24 US-bound inspection lanes on their way to school or work. Vendors weave between cars, hawking cappuccinos, burritos, newspapers and trinkets.

A $732 million expansion that has created even longer delays may offer an extra incentive for smugglers who bet that inspectors will move people quickly to avoid criticism for hampering commerce and travel, said Joe Garcia, assistant special agent in charge of ICE investigations in San Diego.

Children are caught with methamphetamine strapped to their bodies several times a week—an “alarming increase,” according to Garcia. They are typically paid $50 to $200 for each trip, carrying 3 pounds on average.

Drivers, who collect up to $2,000 per trip, conceal methamphetamine in bumpers, batteries, radiators and almost any other crevice imaginable. Packaging is smothered with mustard, baby powder and laundry detergent to fool drug-sniffing dogs.

Crystals are increasingly dissolved in water, especially during the last year, making the drug more difficult to detect in giant X-ray scanners that inspectors order some motorists to drive through. The water is later boiled and often mixed with acetone, a combustible fluid used in paints that yields clear shards of methamphetamine favored by users. The drug often remains in liquid form until reaching its final distribution hub.

The government has expanded X-ray inspections of cars at the border in recent years, but increased production in Mexico and the Sinaloa cartel’s presence are driving the seizures, Garcia said. “This is a new corridor for them,” he said.

The US government shut large methamphetamine labs during the last decade as it introduced sharp limits on chemicals used to make the drug, causing production to shift to Mexico.

The US State Department said in March that the Mexican government seized 958 labs under former President Felipe Calderon from 2006 to 2012, compared with 145 under the previous administration. Mexico seized 267 labs last year, up from 227 in 2011.

As production moved to central Mexico, the Sinaloa cartel found opportunity in Tijuana in 2008 when it backed a breakaway faction of the Arellano Felix clan, named for a family that controlled the border smuggling route for two decades. Sinaloa, led by Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, had long dominated nearby in eastern California and Arizona.

Tijuana registered 844 murders in 2008 in a turf war that horrified residents with castrated bodies hanging from bridges. After the Sinaloa cartel prevailed, the Mexican border city of more than 2 million people returned to relative calm, with 332 murders last year and almost no public displays of brutality.

Alfonzo “Achilles” Arzate and his younger brother Rene, known as “The Frog,” have emerged as top Sinaloa operatives in Tijuana—the former known as the brains and the latter as the brawn. The elder Arzate has been mentioned on wire intercepts for drug deals as far as Chicago, Hill said.

He appears to have gained favor with the Sinaloa cartel brass after another cartel operative raided one of his warehouses in October 2010, leading to a shootout and the government seizing 134 tons of marijuana.

Methamphetamine has also turned into a scourge throughout Tijuana, becoming the most common drug offense for dealers and consumers in the last five years, said Miguel Angel Guerrero, coordinator of the Baja California state attorney general’s organized crime unit.

“It has increased a lot in the city because it’s cheaper than cocaine, even cheaper than marijuana,” he said.

Disputes among street dealers lead to spurts of violence in Tijuana, said Guerrero, including April’s murder tally of 56 bodies. But the killings pale in numbers and brutality compared to the dark days of 2008 and 2009. While president, Calderon hailed Tijuana as a success story in his war on cartels.

“The Sinaloa cartel, their presence here has been strong enough to the point that no one is pushing back,” said the DEA’s Hill. “They just simply want to focus on making money and moving the dope across.”

(Courtesy, the Associated Press)

========================================================

MARIJUANA’S MARCH TOWARD MAINSTREAM CONFOUNDS FEDS

Nancy Benac & Alicia A. Caldwell

It took 50 years for American attitudes about marijuana to zigzag from the paranoia of “Reefer Madness” to the excesses of Woodstock back to the hard line of “Just Say No.”

The next 25 years took the nation from Bill Clinton, who famously “didn’t inhale,” to Barack Obama, who most emphatically did.

And now, in just a few short years, public opinion has moved so dramatically toward general acceptance that even those who champion legalization are surprised at how quickly attitudes are changing and states are moving to approve the drug — for medical use and just for fun.

It is a moment in America that is rife with contradictions:

• People are looking more kindly on marijuana even as science reveals more about the drug’s potential dangers, particularly for young people.

• States are giving the green light to the drug in direct defiance of a federal prohibition on its use.

• Exploration of the potential medical benefit is limited by high federal hurdles to research.

Washington policymakers seem reluctant to deal with any of it.

Richard Bonnie, a University of Virginia law professor who worked for a national commission that recommended decriminalizing marijuana in 1972, sees the public taking a big leap from prohibition to a more laissez-faire approach without full deliberation.

“It’s a remarkable story historically,” he says. “But as a matter of public policy, it’s a little worrisome. It’s intriguing, it’s interesting, it’s good that liberalization is occurring, but it is a little worrisome.”

More than a little worrisome to those in the anti-drug movement.

“We’re on this hundred-mile-an-hour freight train to legalizing a third addictive substance,” says Kevin Sabet, a former drug policy adviser in the Obama administration, lumping marijuana with tobacco and alcohol.

Legalization strategist Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, likes the direction the marijuana smoke is wafting. But he knows his side has considerable work yet to do.

“I’m constantly reminding my allies that marijuana is not going to legalize itself,” he says.

* * *

By the numbers:

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes since California voters made the first move in 1996. Voters in Colorado and Washington state took the next step last year and approved pot for recreational use. Alaska is likely to vote on the same question in 2014, and a few other states are expected to put recreational use on the ballot in 2016.

Nearly half of adults have tried marijuana, 12 percent of them in the past year, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. More teenagers now say they smoke marijuana than ordinary cigarettes.

52% of adults favor legalizing marijuana, up 11 percentage points just since 2010, according to Pew. Sixty percent think Washington shouldn’t enforce federal laws against marijuana in states that have approved its use. Seventy-two percent think government efforts to enforce marijuana laws cost more than they’re worth.

“By Election Day 2016, we expect to see at least seven states where marijuana is legal and being regulated like alcohol,” says Mason Tvert, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, a national legalization group.

* * *

Where California led the charge on medical marijuana, the next chapter in this story is being written in Colorado and Washington state.

Policymakers there are struggling with all sorts of sticky issues revolving around one central question: How do you legally regulate the production, distribution, sale and use of marijuana for recreational purposes when federal law bans all of the above?

How do you tax it? What quality control standards do you set? How do you protect children while giving grown-ups the go-ahead to light up? What about driving under the influence? Can growers take business tax deductions? Who can grow pot, and how much? Where can you use it? Can cities opt out? Can workers be fired for smoking marijuana when they’re off duty? What about taking pot out of state? The list goes on.

The overarching question has big national implications. How do you do all of this without inviting the wrath of the federal government, which has been largely silent so far on how it will respond to a gaping conflict between US and state law?

The Justice Department began reviewing the matter after last November’s election and repeatedly has promised to respond soon. But seven months later, states still are on their own, left to parse every passing comment from the department and President Obama.

In December, Obama said in an interview that “it does not make sense, from a prioritization point of view, for us to focus on recreational drug users in a state that has already said that under state law that’s legal.”

In April, Attorney General Eric Holder said to Congress, “We are certainly going to enforce federal law. … When it comes to these marijuana initiatives, I think among the kinds of things we will have to consider is the impact on children.” He also mentioned violence related to drug trafficking and organized crime.

In May, Obama told reporters: “I honestly do not believe that legalizing drugs is the answer. But I do believe that a comprehensive approach — not just law enforcement, but prevention and education and treatment — that’s what we have to do.”

Rep. Jared Polis, a Colorado Democrat who favors legalization, predicts Washington will take a hands-off approach, based on Obama’s comments about setting law enforcement priorities.

“We would like to see that in writing,” Polis says. “But we believe, given the verbal assurances of the president, that we are moving forward in Colorado and Washington in implementing the will of the voters.”

The federal government has taken a similar approach toward users in states that have approved marijuana for medical use. It doesn’t go after pot-smoking cancer patients or grandmas with glaucoma. But it also has warned that people who are in the business of growing, selling and distributing marijuana on a large scale are subject to potential prosecution for violations of the Controlled Substances Act — even in states that have legalized medical use.

Federal agents in recent years have raided storefront dispensaries in California and Washington, seizing cash and pot. In April, the Justice Department targeted 63 dispensaries in Santa Ana, Calif., and filed three asset forfeiture lawsuits against properties housing seven pot shops. Prosecutors also sent letters to property owners and operators of 56 other marijuana dispensaries warning that they could face similar lawsuits.

University of Denver law professor Sam Kamin says if the administration doesn’t act soon to sort out the federal-state conflict, it may be too late to do much.

“At some point, it becomes so prevalent and so many citizens will be engaged in it that it’s hard to recriminalize something that’s become commonplace,” he says.

* * *

There’s a political calculus for the president, or any other politician, in all of this.

Younger people, who tend to vote more Democratic, are more supportive of legalizing marijuana, as are people in the West, where the libertarian streak runs strong. In Colorado, for example, last November more people voted for legalized pot (55 percent) than voted for Obama (51 percent), which could help explain why the president was silent on marijuana before the election.

“We’re going to get a cultural divide here pretty quickly,” says Greg Strimple, a Republican pollster based in Boise, Idaho, who predicts Obama will duck the issue as long as possible.

Despite increasing public acceptance of marijuana, and growing interest in its potential therapeutic uses, politicians know there are complications that could come with commercializing an addictive substance, some of them already evident in medical marijuana states. Opponents of pot are particularly worried that legalization will result in increased adolescent use as young people’s estimations of the drug’s dangers decline.

“There’s no real win on this from a political perspective,” says Sabet. “Do you want to be the president that stops a popular cause, especially a cause that’s popular within your own party? Or do you want to be the president that enables youth drug use that will have ramifications down the road?”

Marijuana legalization advocates offer politicians a rosier scenario, in which legitimate pot businesses eager to keep their operating licenses make sure not to sell to minors.

“Having a regulated system is the only way to ensure that we’re not ceding control of this popular substance to the criminal market and to black marketeers,” says Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, a trade group for legal pot businesses in the US.

See Change Research, which analyzes the marijuana business, has estimated the national market for medical marijuana alone at $1.7 billion for 2011 and has projected it could reach $8.9 billion in five years. Overall, marijuana users spend tens of billions of dollars a year on pot, experts believe.

Ultimately, marijuana advocates say, it’s Congress that needs to budge, aligning federal laws with those of states moving to legalization. But that doesn’t appear likely anytime soon.

The administration appears uncertain how to proceed.

“The executive branch is in a pickle,” Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., said at a recent news conference outside the Capitol with pot growers visiting town to lobby for changes. “Twenty-one states have a different view of the use of marijuana than the laws on the books for the federal government.”

* * *

While the federal government hunkers down, Colorado and Washington state are moving forward on their own.

Colorado’s governor in May signed a set of bills to regulate legal use of the drug, and the state’s November ballot will ask voters to approve special sales and excise taxes on pot. In Washington state, the Liquor Control Board is drawing up rules covering everything from how plants will be grown to how many stores will be allowed. It expects to issue licenses for growers and processors in December, and impose 25 percent taxes three times over — when pot is grown, processed and sold to consumers.

“What we’re beginning to see is the unraveling of the criminal approach to marijuana policy,” says Tim Lynch, director of the libertarian Cato Institute‘s Project on Criminal Justice. But, Lynch adds, “the next few years are going to be messy. There are going to be policy battles” as states work to bring a black market industry into the sunshine, and Washington wrestles with how to respond.

Already, a federal judge has struck down a Colorado requirement that pot magazines such as High Times be kept behind store counters, like pornography.

Marijuana advocates in Washington state, where officials have projected the legal pot market could bring the state a half-billion a year in revenue, are complaining that state regulators are still banning sales of hash or hash oil, a marijuana extract.

Pot growers in medical marijuana states are chafing at federal laws that deny them access to the banking system, tax deductions and other opportunities that other businesses take for granted. Many dispensaries are forced to operate on a cash-only basis, which can be an invitation to organized crime.

It’s already legal for adults in Colorado and Washington to light up at will, as long as they do so in private.

That creates all kinds of new challenges for law enforcement.

Pat Slack, a commander with the Snohomish County Regional Drug Taskforce in Washington state, said local police are receiving calls about smokers flouting regulations against lighting up in public. In at least one instance, Slack said, that included a complaint about a smoker whose haze was wafting over a backyard fence and into the middle of a child’s birthday party. But with many other problems confronting local officers, scofflaws are largely being ignored.

“There’s not much we can do to help,” Slack says. “A lot of people have to get accustomed to what the change is.”

In Colorado, Tom Gorman, director of the federal Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Taskforce, takes a tougher stance on his state’s decision to legalize pot.

“This is against the law, I don’t care what Colorado says,” Gorman said. “It puts us in a position, where you book a guy or gal and they have marijuana, do you give it back? Do you destroy it? What in effect I am doing by giving it back is I am committing a felony. If the court orders me to return it, the court is giving me an illegal order.”

More than 30 pot growers and distributors, going all-out to present a buttoned-down image in suits and sensible pumps rather than ponytails and weed T-shirts, spent two days on Capitol Hill in June lobbying for equal treatment under tax and banking laws and seeking an end to federal property seizures.

“It’s truly unfortunate that the Justice Department can’t find a way to respect the will of the people,” says Sean Luse of the 13-year-old Berkeley Patients Group in California, a multimillion-dollar pot collective whose landlord is facing the threat of property forfeiture.

* * *

As Colorado and Washington state press on, California’s experience with medical marijuana offers a window into potential pitfalls that can come with wider availability of pot.

Dispensaries for medical marijuana have proliferated in the state. Regulation has been lax, leading some overwhelmed communities to complain about too-easy access from illegal storefront pot shops and related problems such as loitering and unsavory characters. That prompted cities around the state to say enough already and ban dispensaries. Pot advocates sued.

In May, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously that cities and counties can ban medical marijuana dispensaries. A few weeks later, Los Angeles voters approved a ballot measure that limits the number of pot shops in the city to 135, down from an estimated high of about 1,000. By contrast, whitepages.com lists 112 Starbucks in the city.

This isn’t full-scale buyer’s remorse, but more a course correction before the inevitable next push to full-on legalization in the state.

Baker Montgomery, a member of the Eagle Rock neighborhood council in Los Angeles, where pot shops were prevalent, said May’s vote to limit the number of shops was all about ridding the city of illicit dispensaries.

“They’re just not following what small amounts of rules there are on the books,” Montgomery said.

In 2010, California voters opted against legalizing marijuana for recreational use, drawing the line at medical use.

But Jeffrey Dunn, a Southern California attorney who represented cities in the Supreme Court case, says that in reality the state’s dispensaries have been operating so loosely that already “it’s really all-access.”

At the Venice Beach Care Center, one of the dispensaries that will be allowed to stay open in Los Angeles, founding director Brennan Thicke believes there still is widespread support for medical marijuana in California. But he says the state isn’t ready for more just yet.

“We have to get (medical) right first,” Thicke said.

Dunn doubts that’s possible.

“What we’ve learned is, it is very difficult if not impossible to regulate these facilities,” he said.

* * *

Other states, Colorado among them, have had their own bumps in the road with medical marijuana.

A Denver-area hospital, for example, saw children getting sick after eating treats and other foods made with marijuana in the two years after a 2009 federal policy change led to a surge in medical marijuana use, according to a study in JAMA Pediatrics in May. In the preceding four years, the hospital had no such cases.

The Colorado Education Department reported a sharp rise in drug-related suspensions and expulsions after medical marijuana took off. An audit of the state’s medical marijuana system found the state had failed to adequately track the growth and distribution of pot or to fully check out the backgrounds of pot dealers.

“What we’re doing is not working,” says Dr. Christian Thurstone, a psychiatrist whose Denver youth substance abuse treatment center has seen referrals for marijuana double since September. In addition, he sees young people becoming increasingly reluctant to be treated, arguing that it can’t be bad for them if it’s legal.

Yet Daniel Rees, a researcher at the University of Colorado Denver, analyzed data from 16 states that have approved medical marijuana and found no evidence that legalization had increased pot use among high school students.

In looking at young people, Rees concludes: “Should we be worried that marijuana use nationally is going up? Yes. Is legalization of medical marijuana the culprit? No.”

* * *

Growing support for legalization doesn’t mean everybody wants to light up: Barely one in 10 Americans used pot in the past year.

Those who do want to see marijuana legalized range from libertarians who oppose much government intervention to people who want to see an activist government aggressively regulate marijuana production and sales.

Safer-than-alcohol was “the message that won the day” with voters in Colorado, says Tvert.

For others, money talks: Why let drug cartels rake in untaxed profits when a cut of that money could go into government coffers?

There are other threads in the growing acceptance of pot.

People think it’s not as dangerous as once believed; some reflect back on what they see as their own harmless experience in their youth. They worry about high school kids getting an arrest record that will haunt them for life. They see racial inequity in the way marijuana laws are enforced. They’re weary of the “war on drugs,” and want law enforcement to focus on other areas.

“I don’t plan to use marijuana, but it just seemed we waste a lot of time and energy trying to enforce something when there are other things we should be focused on,” says Sherri Georges, who works at a Colorado Springs, Colo., saddle shop. “I think that alcohol is a way bigger problem than marijuana, especially for kids.”

Opponents have retorts at the ready.

They point to a 2012 study finding that regular use of marijuana during teen years can lead to a long-term drop in IQ, and a different study indicating marijuana use can induce and exacerbate psychotic illness in susceptible people. They question the idea that regulating pot will bring in big money, saying revenue estimates are grossly exaggerated.

They counter the claim that prisons are bulging with people convicted of simple possession by citing federal statistics showing only a small percentage of federal and state inmates are behind bars for that alone. Slack said the vast majority of people jailed for marijuana possession were originally charged with dealing drugs and accepted plea bargains for possession. The average possession charge for those in jail is 115 pounds, Slack says, which he calls enough for “personal use for a small city.”

Over and over, marijuana opponents warn that baby boomers who are drawing on their own innocuous experiences with pot are overlooking the much higher potency of the marijuana now in circulation.

In 2009, concentrations of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in pot, averaged close to 10 percent in marijuana, compared with about 4 percent in the 1980s, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. An estimated 9 percent of people who try marijuana eventually become addicted, and the numbers are higher for those who start using pot when they are young. That’s less than the addiction rates for nicotine or alcohol, but still significant.

“If marijuana legalization was about my old buddies at Berkeley smoking in People’s Park once a week I don’t think many of us would care that much,” says Sabet, who helped to found Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a group that opposes legalization. “But it’s not about that. It’s really about creating a new industry that’s going to target kids and target minorities and our vulnerable populations just like our legal industries do today.”

* * *

So how bad, or good, is pot?

There are studies that set off medical alarm bells but also studies that support the safer-than-alcohol crowd and suggest promising therapeutic uses.

J. Michael Bostwick, a psychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic, set out to sort through more than 100 sometimes conflicting studies after his teenage son became addicted to pot. In a 22-page article for Mayo Clinic Proceedings in 2012, he laid out the contradictions in US policy and declared that “little about cannabis is straightforward.”

“Anybody can find data to support almost any position,” Bostwick says now.

For all of the talk that smoking pot is no big deal, Bostwick says, he determined that “it was a very big deal. There were addiction issues. There were psychosis issues. But there was also this very large body of literature suggesting that it could potentially have very valuable pharmaceutical applications but the research was stymied” by federal barriers.

Marijuana is a Schedule I drug under 1970 law, meaning the government deems it to have “no currently accepted medical use” and a “high potential for abuse.” The only federally authorized source of marijuana for research is grown at the University of Mississippi, and the government tightly regulates its use. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says plenty of work with cannabis is ongoing, but Bostwick says federal restrictions have caused a “near-cessation of scientific research.”

The American Medical Association opposes legalizing pot, calling it a “dangerous drug” and a public health concern. But it also is urging the government to review marijuana’s status as a Schedule 1 drug in the interest of promoting more research.

“The evidence is pretty clear that in 1970 the decision to make the drug illegal, or put it on Schedule I, was a political decision,” says Bostwick. “And it seems pretty obvious in 2013 that states, making their decisions the way they are, are making political decisions. Science is not present in either situation to the degree that it needs to be.”

The National Institute on Drug Abuse’s director, Dr. Nora Volkow, says that for all the potential dangers of marijuana, “cannabinoids are just amazing compounds, and understanding how to use them properly could be actually very beneficial therapeutically.” But she worries that legalizing pot will result in increased use of marijuana by young people, and impair their brain development.

“You cannot mess around with the cognitive capacity of your young people because you are going to rely on them,” she says. “Think about it: Do you want a nation where your young people are stoned?”

* * *

As state after state moves toward a more liberal approach to marijuana, the turnaround is drawing comparisons to shifting attitudes on gay marriage, for which polls find rapidly growing acceptance, especially among younger voters. That could point toward durable majority support as this population ages. Gay marriage is now legal in 12 states and Washington, D.C.

On marijuana, “we’re having a hard time almost believing how fast public opinion is changing in our direction,” says Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance.

But William Galston and E.J. Dionne, who co-wrote a paper on the new politics of marijuana for the Brookings Institution, believe marijuana legalization hasn’t achieved a deep enough level of support to suggest a tipping point, with attitudes toward legalization marked by ambivalence and uncertainty.

“Compared with attitudes toward same-sex marriage, support for marijuana legalization is much less driven by moral conviction and much more by the belief that it is not a moral issue at all,” they wrote.

No one expects Congress to change federal law anytime soon.

Partisans on both sides think people in other states will keep a close eye on the precedent-setting experiment underway in Colorado and Washington as they decide whether to give the green light to marijuana elsewhere.

“It will happen very suddenly,” predicts the Cato Institute’s Lynch. “In 10-15 years, it will be hard to find a politician who will say they were ever against legalization.”

Sabet worries that things will move so fast that the negative effects of legalization won’t yet be fully apparent when other states start giving the go-ahead to pot. He’s hoping for a different outcome.

“I actually think that this is going to wake a lot of people up who might have looked the other way during the medical marijuana debate,” he says. “In many ways, it actually might be the catalyst to turn things around.”

Past predictions on pot have been wildly off-base, in both directions.

The 1972 commission that recommended decriminalizing marijuana speculated pot might be nothing more than a fad.

Then there’s “Reefer Madness,” the 1936 propaganda movie that pot fans rediscovered and turned into a cult classic in the 1970s. It labeled pot “The Real Public Enemy Number One!”

The movie spins a tale of dire consequences “leading finally to acts of shocking violence … ending often in incurable insanity.”

(Courtesy, the Associated Press.)

========================================================

WORLD’S MOST EVIL AND LAWLESS INSTITUTION? THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT by Fred Branfman, June 26, 2013

Executive Branch leaders have killed, wounded and made homeless well over 20 million human beings in the last 50 years, mostly civilians.

Introduction: America’s Secret Shame

America has a secret. It is not discussed in polite company or at the dinner tables of the powerful, rich and famous.

Parents do not teach it to their children. Best-selling authors do not write about it. Politicians and government officials ignore it. Intellectuals avoid it. High school and college textbooks do not refer to it. TV pundits do not comment on it. Teachers do not teach it. Journalists from the nation’s most highly regarded TV news shows, newspapers and magazines, do not report it. Columnists do not opine about it. Editorial writers do not editorialize about it. Religious leaders do not sermonize about it. Think tanks and professors do not study it. Lawyers do not litigate it and judges do not rule on it.

The few who do not keep this secret, who try to break through to their fellow citizens about it, are marginalized and ignored by society at large.

To begin to understand the magnitude of this secret, imagine that you get into your car in New York City, and set out for a drive south, staying overnight in Washington DC, a four-hour drive. As you leave, you look out your window to the left and see a row of bodies, laid end to end, running alongside you all the way to DC.

You spend the night there, and set out early the next morning for Charleston, South Carolina, an 11-hour drive. Again, looking out your window, you see the line of bodies continues, hour after hour. You are struck that most are middle-aged or older men and women, younger women, or children. You arrive in Charleston, check into your hotel, have a good meal, and get up early the next morning to drive to Miami, another 12-hour drive. And once again, hour after hour, the line of bodies continues, all the way to your destination.

If you can imagine such a drive, or these bodies piled one on top of each other reaching 120 miles into the sky, you can begin to get a feeling for former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara’s mid-range estimate of 1.2 million civilians killed by U.S. firepower in Vietnam. (The U.S. Senate Refugee Committee estimated 430,000 civilian dead at the end of the war. Later estimates as more information has become available, e.g. by Nick Turse, author of Kill Anything That Moves, put the number as high as 2 million.)

And the secret that is never discussed is far larger. To the 430,000 to 2 million civilians killed in Vietnam must be added those killed in Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq and many other nations (see below), all those wounded and maimed for life, and the many millions more forced to leave villages in which their families had lived for centuries to become penniless refugees. All told, U.S. Executive Branch leaders – Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals – have killed wounded and made homeless well over 20 million human beings in the last 50 years, mostly civilians.

U.S. leaders have never acknowledged their responsibility for ruining so many lives, let alone apologized or made proper amends to the survivors. Those responsible have not been punished, but rewarded. The memory of it has been erased from national consciousness, as U.S. leaders endlessly declare their nation’s, and their own, goodness. Millions of civilian lives swept under the rug, forgotten, as if this mass murder and maiming, the destruction of countless homes and villages, this epic violation of basic human decency—and laws protecting civilians in time of war which U.S. leaders have promised to observe—never happened.

Over a million innocent human lives in Vietnam alone. Grandparents, parents and children. Decent, hard-working people, each with a name, a face, and loved ones; people with dreams and hopes, and as much of a right to life as you or I. Forgotten. Over one million civilians dead, over 10 million wounded and made homeless in Vietnam alone, forgotten. And particularly remarkable is how this has happened. Totalitarian regimes go to great lengths—strict censorship, prison for those violating it—to cover up their leaders’ crimes. But in America, the information is available. All that is needed to keep America’s secret is to simply ignore it.

Americans keep this secret because facing it openly would upend our most basic understandings about our nation and its leaders. A serious public discussion of it would reveal, for example, that we cannot trust Executive Branch leaders’ human decency, words, or judgment no matter who is President. And more troubling, acknowledging it would mean admitting to ourselves that we have been misleading our own children, that our silence has robbed them of the truth of their history and made it more likely that future leaders will continue to commit acts that stain the very soul of America.

It is a matter of indisputable fact that the U.S. Executive Branch has over the past 50 years been responsible for bombing, shooting, burning alive with napalm, blowing up with cluster bombs, burying alive with 500 pound bombs, torturing, assassinating, and incarcerating without evidence, and destroying the homes and villages of, more innocent civilians in more nations over a longer period of time than any other government on earth today.

It is also undeniable that it has committed countless acts, as no less an authority than U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry noted in regard to Vietnam, which have been:

“contrary to the laws of the Geneva Convention, and… ordered as established policies from the top down,” and that “the men who ordered this are war criminals.”

And its crimes against humanity have continued since Vietnam. Thirty years later, a Nuremberg prosecutor speaking of the U.S. invasion of Iraq stated that a

“prima facie case can be made that the United States is guilty of the supreme crime against humanity, that being an illegal war of aggression against a sovereign nation.”

And as you read these words the U.S. Executive Branch is adding to its crimes, as it conducts secret drone and Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) ground assassinations of individuals without due process.

The rationalizations by which even decent human beings allow themselves to ignore their leaders’ mass murder, e.g. that “these things always happen in war,” or “it’s the other side’s fault,” are just that: rationalizations that allow us to avoid our secret shame. Human civilization, through its body of international law, has defined which acts are both immoral and illegal even in times of war. And a citizen’s first responsibility is to oppose his or her own government’s crimes, not those of others.

Although America’s media, intellectual, political and economic elites ‘turn their heads pretending they just don’t see’ U.S. leaders’ responsibility for mass murder, dozens of dedicated and honorable scholars and activists led by Noam Chomsky have spent years of their lives meticulously documenting it.

Readers wishing to flesh out the overview below are directed to five important recent books: Kill Anything That Moves, by Nick Turse, about Vietnam; Dirty Wars (and a film), by Jeremy Scahill, about Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia; The Deaths of Others, by John Tirman, covering Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan; The Untold History of the U.S. by Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick (and a 10-part Showtime documentary) discussing U.S. policy from World War II to the present; and Drone Warfareby Medea Benjamin. FLYBOYS, by James Bradley, also offers invaluable information on U.S. aerial mass murder of civilians in World War II, as does The Korean War: A History by Bruce Cumings on U.S. Executive massacres of civilians in Korea. Such careful work has been supplemented by numerous reports from such organizations as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Until now, the issue of U.S. Executive Branch leaders’ disregard for innocent human life has mainly concerned their treatment of “non-people” abroad. But as the sinews of a surveillance state and police-state infrastructure have been steadily strengthened at home since 9/11, an Executive Branch mentality that has been so indifferent to innocent human life abroad will threaten increasing numbers of Americans in coming years.

No honest human being can deny what the facts below reveal about the U.S. Executive’s institutional evil and lawlessness. The only serious question is what we are willing to do about it.

Can Americans Trust the U.S. Executive Branch?

Columnist George Will recently summarized the fundamental issue underlying not only Edward Snowden’s recent whistleblowing, but all controversies about U.S. Executive Branch behavior:

“The problem is we’re using technologies of information-gathering that didn’t exist 20 years ago… and they require reposing extraordinary trust in the Executive Branch of government.”

Former Bush aide Matthew Dowd chimed in on the same talk show, saying “what they’re saying is trust us, trust us.” Trust is indeed the only basis for supporting a U.S. Executive which hides its activities from its own citizens.

But can we trust the Executive’s Branch’s commitment to truth, law and democracy, or even basic human decency? Judging its actions, not words, over the past 50 years is the key to deciding this issue. And we might begin with some basic questions:

How would you regard the leaders of a foreign power who sent machines of war that suddenly appeared over your home, dropped bombs which killed dozens of your neighbors and your infant daughter, wounded your teenage son, destroyed your home, and then forced you into a refugee camp where your older daughter had to prostitute herself to those foreigners in order to support you, your wife and legless son? (U.S. Executive Branch officials created over 10 million refugees in South Vietnam.)

What would you think of foreign leaders who occupied your country, disbanded the military and police, and you found yourself at the mercy of marauding gangs who one day kidnapped your uncle and cousin, tortured them with drills, and then left their mangled bodies in a garbage dump? (U.S. Executive Branch officials occupied Iraq, disbanded the police, and failed to provide law and order as legally required of Occupying Powers.)

How would you view a foreign power which bombed you for five and a half years, forced you and your family to live in caves and holes like animals, burned and buried alive countless of your neighbors, and then one day blinded you in a bombing raid that leveled your ancestral village, where you had honored your ancestors and had hoped after your death to be remembered by your offspring? (U.S. Executive Branch leaders massively bombed civilian targets in Laos for nine years, Cambodia for four years.)

What would you think of foreign assassins who, as Jeremy Scahill reports in Dirty Wars, broke into your house at 3:30am as a dance was coming to an end, shot your brother and his 15-year old son, then shot another of your brothers and three women relatives (the mothers of 16 children) denied medical help to your brother and 18-year-old daughter so that they slowly bled to death before your eyes, then dug the bullets out of the women’s bodies to cover up their crimes, hauled you off to prison, and for months thereafter claimed they were acting in self-defense? And how would you feel toward the leaders of the nation that had fielded not only these JSOC assassins but thousands more, who were conducting similar secret and lawless assassinations of unarmed suspects while covering up their crimes in many other countries around the world?

How would you view the foreign leaders responsible right now for drone attacks against you if you lived in northwest Pakistan where, a Stanford/NYU study reported after a visit there:

“hovering drones have traumatized millions living in these areas. Drones hover twenty-four hours a day over communities in northwest Pakistan, striking homes, vehicles and public spaces without warning. Their presence terrorizes men, women and children, giving rise to anxiety and psychological trauma among civilian communities. Those living under drones have to face the constant worry that a deadly strike may be fired at any moment, and the knowledge that they are powerless to protect themselves.”

These are not rhetorical questions. Every one of these acts, and countless more, have been committed by the U.S. Executive Branch over the past 50 years, and will continue indefinitely until it is transformed. If we judge them by their actions, not words, we must face the following facts:

– The U.S. Executive Branch killed in Vietnam from a U.S. Senate Refugee Subcommittee-estimated 430,000 civilians to the 1.2 million civilians later estimated by Robert McNamara, to the two million civilians estimated by Nick Turse. And it wounded at least 1,050,000 civilians and refugeed at least 11,368,000, according to the Refugee subcommittee; assassinated through its Phoenix Program an officially estimated 26,000 civilians, and imprisoned and tortured 34,000 more, on unproven grounds that they were “Vietcong cadre”; created an estimated 800,000-1.3 million war orphans and 1 million war widows; and after the war ended left behind Agent Orange poisons, unexploded cluster bombs, and landmines, creating an estimated 150,000 deformed Vietnamese children; and killing and maiming 42,000 peacetime victims.

– The U.S. Executive has, in Laos, conducted nine years of bombing which has been estimated by Laos’ National Regulatory Authority to have killed and wounded a minimum of 30,000 civilians by bombing from 1964-’73, and another 20,000 since then from the unexploded cluster bombs it left behind. It also created over 50,000 refugees after it had leveled the 700-year-old civilization on the Plain of Jars.

– The U.S. Executive has, in Cambodia, killed and wounded tens of thousands of civilians by carpet-bombing villages from 1969-’75. All told, after Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger secretly bombed and invaded Cambodia, waging a war that made the U.S. Executive responsible for casualties on all sides, the U.S. Senate Refugee Subcommittee estimated that 450,000 persons had been killed and wounded, and 3,990,000 made refugees. Historian Michael Clodfelter has estimated that, all told, 600,000 Cambodian civilians died.

– The U.S. Executive under Bill Clinton in Iraq, John Tirman reports in The Deaths of Others, imposed an embargo so severe that “UNICEF estimated that 500,000 children under five years of age had died as a result of the war and sanctions from malnutrition, diseases for which cures were available but medicine in Iraq was not, and poor health at birth due to prenatal effects on mothers.”

Dennis Halliday, Assistant UN Secretary General, declared that

“I had been instructed to implement a (sanctions) policy that has effectively killed over a million individuals.”

– And after invading Iraq in 2003, the Executive under George W. Bush, as the Occupying Power, was legally responsible for maintaining law and order. Its war was also an aggressive war as outlawed at Nuremberg. It thus bears both the moral and legal responsibility for the deaths of more than130,000 Iraqis (Iraq Body Count) to 654,965 (Lancet Scientific Journal) to 1,220,580 (Opinion Research Business), hundreds of thousands more wounded, and more than officially estimated 5 million refugees.

– The Executive has, in Afghanistan, conducted thousands of night raids familiar to viewers of World War II Gestapo movies – killing over 1500 civilians in 6282 raids in 10 months from 2010 to early 2011 alone, as revealed by investigative reporter Gareth Porter. They have also conducted numerous bombing strikes and supported a corrupt regime which has stolen billions of dollars while their fellow citizens died for lack of healthcare and food.

–The Executive has, in Pakistan and Yemen, killed an estimated 2,800-4,000 persons from drone strikes, only 73 of whom it has named. Most were killed in “signature strikes” in which the victims’ names were unknown, and who in no way threatened the United States.

– Also, over the past 50 years, the U.S. Executive Branch bears a major responsibility for massive death and torture throughout Central and Latin America, Africa and Asia. Church, human rights and others estimate that U.S.-installed, trained, equipped and advised death squads in El Salvador and Contras in Nicaragua killed well over 35,000 and 30,000 persons respectively. The U.S.-supported Rios Montt regime in Guatemala killed an estimated 200,000. The U.S.-supported coup in Chile brought to power a regime that killed an estimated 3,200-15,000 political opponents and tortured another 30,000. U.S. support for Indonesian government genocide in East Timor helped kill over 200,000 persons. U.S. support for terrorists led by Jonas Savimbi in Angola helped kill an estimated 1.2 million persons and displaced another 1.5 million.

And how much can you trust the decency of a US. Executive that treats these millions of human beings as mere nameless, faceless “collateral damage” at best, direct targets at worst, as human garbage barely worthy of mention, as “non-people” as Noam Chomsky has observed?

We almost never ask such questions in this country, never try to put ourselves in the shoes of the tens of millions of victims of our leaders’ war-making, because doing so confronts us with a grave dilemma. On the one hand, if we would say these acts are evil if done to ourselves they are obviously also evil when done to others. But admitting that would require most of us to challenge our most basic beliefs about this nation and its leadership. And if we are members of our political, intellectual, media, government and private sector elites, it would threaten our jobs and livelihoods.

We are divided. The honest part of ourselves knows there is only one word that can adequately describe the U.S. Executive Branch’s indifference to non-American life. It is not a word to be used lightly, for overuse robs it of its power. But when appropriate, failing to use it is an act of moral cowardice that assures its continuation. That word is “evil”.

If we would regard such acts as evil if done to us, they are equally evil if done to others. This is what we teach our children when we teach them the Golden Rule or that America is a nation of laws not men. It means, simply, that if needlessly ruining the lives of the innocent is evil, the U.S. Executive Branch is the most evil and lawless institution on the face of the Earth today, cannot be trusted, and poses a clear and present danger to countless innocents abroad and democracy at home.

We speak of “institutional evil” here because the greatest evils of our time are conducted by often personally decent, even idealistic, men and women. It is not necessary to be hate-filled or personally violent for an American to commit evil today. One need only be part of, or support the police, intelligence and military activities of the U.S. Executive Branch.

But the practical part of ourselves, the part that needs to make a living and maintain emotional equilibrium, leads us to ignore the mass evil our leaders engage in. It is so much easier. For accepting this truth means accepting that our leaders are not good and decent people; that JSOC commandos are not “heroes” but rather lawless assassins whose very existence shames us all; that we are not being protected, but endangered by leaders who are turning hundreds of millions of Muslims against us; that we must assume that Executive officials are right now secretly engaging in a wide variety of illegal and immoral activities that would shock and disgust us if they were revealed; and that we cannot believe a word they say when these abuses are revealed as they so regularly engage in secrecy and stonewalling, lying when discovered, covering up when the lie is revealed, and claiming it was an aberration and/or blaming it on a subordinate when the coverup fails. (8)

The issue of trust is key since it is the only basis upon which U.S. citizens can support secret Executive actions about which they are not informed. And the issue of trust is ultimately a moral, not legal judgment. We acknowledge that the citizen actually has a moral obligation to resist an unjust law promulgated by an immoral government, whether in the Soviet Union, South Africa, or, as we acknowledge when we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, in America.

Even when the law is used by the likes of David Ignatius, David Brooks, Tom Brokaw, and Nancy Pelosi to attack an Edward Snowden, their key unstated assumption is that they trust the U.S. Executive since they know little more about its secret activities than anyone else. The moral dividing line is clear. Those indifferent to innocent human life and democracy are less angry at Executive mass murder and threats to democracy than at those who reveal this wrongdoing.

Although the principal responsibility for the millions of lives U.S. leaders have ruined lies with the Executive, most of America’s other organs of power have also participated in keeping the screams of America’s victims from reaching the public. Republicans and conservatives have not only shown no concern for America’s innocent victims, but cheered on its leaders’ torment of the innocent.

Bush U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, when asked by a New York Times writer about U.S. responsibility to aid the millions of refugees its invasion of Iraq had created, responded that the refugees had:

“nothing to do with our overthrow of Saddam. Our obligation was to give them new institutions and provide security. We have fulfilled that obligation. I don’t think we have an obligation to compensate for the hardships of war. Helping the refugees flies in the face of received logic. You don’t want to encourage the refugees to stay.”

But particularly striking has been the behavior of centrists and liberals who know full well the horrors U.S. Executive Branch leaders have inflicted upon the innocent, espouse humanitarian values, but simply look the other way. TheTimes, for example, quite appropriately ran photos and small bios humanizing each of the nearly 3,000 Americans killed on 9/11. But its editors have made a conscious decision not to humanize virtually any of the millions of non-Americans for whose deaths U.S. leaders are responsible, as has the rest of the U.S. mass media.

David Petraeus became Afghanistan commander on July 4, 2010, and proceeded to loosen General McChrystal’s rules of engagement, triple bombing and night raids and invade southern Afghanistan, leading to a huge increase in U.S. and Taliban violence against civilians. Within months, the Red Cross said conditions for civilians were the worst they’d been for 30 years.

A Pakistan newspaper reported that things were so bad at the Kandahar Mirwais hospital that civilian casualties “overwhelm the limited bed space. On some days, the floor is red with blood” and that “the overflow at Kandahar’s Mirwais hospital has forced hundreds of sick and injured Afghans to cross the border into Pakistan every day to seek medical treatment.” It also noted that “many Afghans are unable to get to basic healthcare” because, despite hundreds of billions in U.S. spending on war, “thirty years of conflict have left the country’s health care system struggling to cope.”

The Special Representative to Afghanistan of close ally Great Britain said:

“David Petraeus should be ashamed of himself … He has increased the violence, trebled the number of special forces raids and there has been a lot more rather regrettable boasting from the military about the body count … Petraeus has ignored his own principles of counter-insurgency which speaks of politics being the predominant factor in dealing with an insurgency.”

But none of this reached the American public. No stories of visits to Kandahar Hospital, no interviews with Britain’s Special Representative appeared in the U.S. mass media. Instead, dozens of U.S. journalists visiting Afghanistan praised General Petraeus, and presented his sanitized version of a war in which only “militants” are killed. Petraeus’ greatest accomplishment, Time magazine columnist Joe Klein informed his readers after a Petraeus-managed trip to Afghanistan, was to turn the U. S. army into a “learning institution.”

And Democratic Party politicians, while at least voicing concern for those in need in this nation and acting honorably for a few brief moments at the end of the Indochina war, have funded the Executive’s killing abroad and limited their own concerns to the wellbeing of America’s soldiers. (9)

In 1967, Chomsky wrote a landmark essay entitled “The Responsibility of Intellectuals,” arguing that public intellectuals – who had the time, opportunity and freedom to study the pain its leaders inflicted upon the innocent, and to convey it to the larger public – had a special responsibility to do so.

But his argument, by and large, has fallen upon deaf ears, particularly since Vietnam. Thousands of intellectuals, members of Congress, pundits, academics and journalists have turned a blind eye to U.S. mass murder. And many even turned into “liberal hawks”, supporting war against Iraq. The likes of the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen, the N.Y. Times’ Thomas Friedman, Slate’s Christopher Hitchens, The New Republic’s Leon Wieseltier, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, and many others not only urged a war that brought a living hell to Iraq, but being liberals, justified it on the grounds that it would help the Iraqi people. (See “Bush’s Useful Idiots,” by Tony Judt.)

They even denigrated the millions of decent and honorable Americans who marched to try and head off the Iraq war. It is so easy when making a good living and having access to “official sources” to see oneself as smarter and better-informed than “naïve” students and grandmothers in tennis shoes. Hitchens, for example, called war opponents “moral imbeciles,” “noisy morons,” “overbred and gutless,” “naive” and “foolish.”

And after the war began most of these “liberal war hawks” then turned a blind eye to the civilian carnage resulting from the war they had supported in the name of the Iraqi people, as the body count steadily rose by tens of thousands until over 5 million Iraqis were killed, wounded or made homeless. Nor did they apologize to the millions of their fellow Americans opposing the war whom they had so arrogantly maligned, and who had turned out to be so much wiser and more moral than were they.

Executive Evil in Microcosm: A Personal Report

I first encountered U.S. Executive evil and lawlessness in September 1969, when I interviewed the first Lao rice farmers to come out of communist zones in northern Laos into American zones around the capital city of Vientiane. I was horrified as these gentle Lao, who did not even know where America was, described living under U.S. bombing for five and a half years. I interviewed people who had been blinded and lost limbs and yet were the lucky ones because they had survived. As I learned of grandmothers burned alive, pregnant mothers buried alive, children blown to bits by antipersonnel bombs, and realized that millions of Lao and Vietnamese farmers were still being bombed, I felt as if I had discovered Auschwitz while the killing was still continuing.

As I began to research the bombing, visiting U.S. airbases in Thailand and South Vietnam, talking with U.S. Embassy officials, interviewing a former U.S. Air Force captain over a period of months, I learned it was but a handful of top U.S. Executive Branch leaders, Republicans and Democrats alike, who were solely responsible for the bombing. Neither Congress nor the American people had even been informed, let alone offered their consent. The U.S. Executive, I learned, was a power unto its own that could not legitimately claim to represent the American people.

From May 1964 until March 1970, U.S. Executive officials constantly denied they were even bombing in Laos. When the evidence became so great that even Richard Nixon had to admit the bombing, Executive Branch officials continued to lie by denying they had bombed any civilian targets at all—even as I was interviewing over 1,000 refugees on dozens of occasions and hearing from each that their villages had been destroyed and that they had witnessed countless civilian casualties.

One day I was shocked to feel pellets still in the body of an old grandmother and see a 3-year old girl with napalm wounds on her breast, stomach and vagina. That night I read that U.S. Air Attaché Colonel William Tyrrell had testified to the U.S. Senate that:

“I recall talking to refugees from (the Plain of Jars) and they told me they knew of no civilian casualties during the operation. Villages, even in a freedrop zone, would be restricted from bombing.” (10)

I couldn’t believe it! How could a U.S. official look a U.S. senator directly in the eye and tell so big a lie?

I also read how the Senate had not been told of this mass bombing, how Executive officials had lied to senators even in a closed 1968 hearing. Senator William Fulbright stated at the fall of 1969 hearing that:

“I think the surprise that is evidenced by the chairman of the subcom­mittee and others, that they did not know the extent of this involve­ment until these hearings, is pretty clear evidence that we were not aware of these activities, although we had had some hearings on it.” (11)

Realizing that a handful of U.S. Executive Branch leaders had the power, all by themselves, to level the Plain of Jars shook me to my core. Every belief I had about America was upended. If a handful of Executive leaders could unilaterally and secretly destroy the 700-year-old civilization on the Plain of Jars, it meant that America was not a democracy, that the U.S. was a government of men, not laws. And it meant that these men were not good and decent human beings, but rather cold-blooded killers who showed neither pity nor mercy to those whose lives they so carelessly destroyed.

On a deeper level, it meant that even core beliefs I took for granted were untrue. Might did make right. Crime did pay. Suffering is not redemptive. Life looks very different in a Lao refugee camp looking up than in Washington, D.C. looking down. In those camps I realized that U.S. Executive Branch leaders lacked even a shred of simple human decency toward the people of the Plain.

I remember once laying in my bed late at night after returning from an interview with Thao Vong, a 38-year old Lao farmer who had been blinded in a U.S. bombing raid. Vong was a gentle soul, displayed no anger to those who had turned him from a provider of four into a helpless dependent.

I contrasted him and the other Lao farmers who had been burned and buried alive by bombers dispatched by LBJ, McNamara, Nixon and Kissinger. The latter were ruthless, often angry and violent men, indifferent to non-American life—precisely the qualities threatening all life on earth. Thao Vong was gentle, kind and loving, and he and his fellow Lao wanted nothing more than to be left alone to raise their families, enjoy nature and practice Buddhism — precisely the qualities needed for humanity to survive.

I also thought of sweet-faced Sao Doumma, whose wedding photo had so struck me, and who was killed in a bombing raid executed by Henry Kissinger seven years later. (12)

And I found myself wondering: by what right does a Henry Kissinger live and a Sao Doumma die? Who gave Richard Nixon and he the right to murder her? Who gave Lyndon Johnson the right to blind Thao Vong? I found myself asking, what just law or morality can justify these “killers in high places” who burned and buried alive countless Lao rice farmers who posed no threat whatsoever to their nation, solely because they could?

I was also troubled by another thought: if even a Thao Vong and his fellow subsistence-level farmers were not safe from this kind of brutal savagery, who was? If I believed that a society is judged by how it treats the weakest among us, what did this say about my nation?

And I found myself particularly reflecting on the question I found most troubling of all: beyond the issue of lawless and heartless American leaders, what does it say about my species as a whole that the most powerful could so torment the weakest for so long with virtually no one else knowing or caring? I was anguished not only about this extreme form of mass murder, but what it implied about humanity.

I shuddered in 1969 as I reflected on what I was seeing with my own eyes. I shudder today as I write these words.

One particular fact puzzled me during my investigations of the air war. All the refugees said the worst bombing occurred from the end of 1968 until the summer of 1969. They were bombed daily, every village was leveled, thousands were murdered and maimed. But I knew from U.S. Embassy friends that there were no more than a few thousand North Vietnamese troops in Laos at the time, and that there was no military reason for the sudden and brutal increase in U.S. bombing. Why, then, had this aerial holocaust occurred?

And then, to my everlasting horror, I found out. At Senator Fulbright’s hearing, he asked Deputy Chief of Mission Monteagle Stearns why the bombing of northern Laos had so intensified after Lyndon Johnson’s bombing halt over North Vietnam. Stearns answered simply:

“Well, we had all those planes sitting around and couldn’t just let them stay there with nothing to do.” (13)

Yes, there it was, in black and white. U.S. officials had exterminated thousands of people of the Plain of Jars, destroying their entire civilization, because the U.S. Executive just couldn’t let its planes sit around with nothing to do. The fact that innocent human beings were living there was irrelevant. No one hated the Lao. For Executive policy-makers in Washington, they just didn’t exist, had no more importance than cockroaches or mosquitoes.

And that wasn’t all. Once the planes became available, they did in fact discover a purpose for them, as the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Refugees reported in September 1970:

“The United States has undertaken a large-scale air war over Laos to destroy the physical and social infrastructure in Pathet Lao held areas. Throughout all this there has been a policy of secrecy. The bombing has taken and is taking a heavy toll among civilians.” (14)

Once the planes became available, the people of the Plain of Jars were not “collateral damage” to military targets. They were the target.

Chomsky, who interviewed the refugees in 1970 and is the world’s expert on U.S. war crimes abroad, has called the bombing of northern Laos “one of the most malevolent acts of modern history,” and N.Y. Times columnist Anthony Lewis termed it “the most appalling episode of lawless cruelty in American history.” Chomsky has also stated that though U.S. leaders did not achieve their primary goal of winning militarily in Indochina, they did destroy a possible independent economic alternative to the U.S. model for developing countries.

“Malevolence.” “Lawless.” “Cruel.” These are not words we normally apply to the Executive Branch as an institution, or the individuals who head its powerful agencies. But if we are to decide whether we can trust the Executive Branch with our own lives we must face the truth of its evil lawlessness.

Executive Lawlessness: Might Makes Right

In the movie The Fog of War, McNamara stated that after World War II, General Curtis Lemay, who had firebombed Tokyo killing 100,000 civilians and dropped the atomic bomb, said:

“`if we’d lost the war, we’d all have been prosecuted as war criminals.’ And I think he’s right. He, and I’d say I, were behaving as war criminals. LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side had lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?”

Good question. U.S. leaders dropped 6.7 million ton of bombs and fired an equal amount of ground artillery in Indochina, killed 1.2 million Vietnamese civilians, wounded over a million more, leveled towns and villages, created 10 million refugees, and poisoned Vietnam’s forests and soil. This was precisely “the indiscriminate destruction of cities, towns, and villages,” and “other inhumane acts committed against civilian populations”, as so painstakingly documented in Kill Anything That Moves, for which the U.S. executed Nazi leaders at Nuremberg. Had the same judgment been rendered on Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, and other top officials in their administration like Henry Kissinger and Robert McNamara, they too would have been executed – as McNamara acknowledged.

But the truth is that we live in a world, and an America, in which the rule of law does not prevail and might makes right. Our leaders endlessly inform us that America is a “nation of laws not men,” even though they only escape punishment for their massive violations of basic human decency and the law, as McNamara suggested, because they are too powerful to be punished.

Even if one believes the U.S. had a right to intervene in Indochina or Iraq, no decent human being can possibly excuse its disregard for civilian life after doing so. You do not need to be a lawyer to know this was wrong. You just need a conscience.

In addition to one’s own sense of right and wrong, however, there is another basis for deciding whether Americans can “trust” the Executive Branch: its willingness to observe the rule of international law. Laboriously, over more than a century, humanity has slowly evolved a body of international law that spells out what “geopolitical evil” consists of.

This body of international law is what determines whether a given nation is or is not acting lawfully. Any nation – from North Korea to Russia to the United States – can pass its own domestic laws legalizing its war-making, e.g. North Korea giving itself the right to attack South Korea, or George Bush using the “Authorization for the Use of Military Force,” authorizing him only to respond appropriately to 9/11, to justify his illegal invasion of Iraq, failure to meet the legal responsibilities of an Occupying Power, and subsequent mass murder.

But domestic laws cannot be said to truly constitute the “rule of law” unless they also conform to international standards. The second of the Nuremberg Principles specifically states that

“the fact that internal law does not impose a penalty for an act which constitutes a crime under international law does not relieve the person who committed the act from responsibility under international law.”

And the third and fourth principles specifically state that the fact that one is a head of state, government official, or was acting under orders “does not relieve him from responsibility under international law.”

No nation on earth has refused to ratify so many laws seeking to protect civilians in times of war, and so violated even those it has signed, than the U.S. The U.S. did ratify the “Fourth Geneva Convention Relative To The Protection Of Civilian Persons In Time Of War, 1949,” but has massively violated it ever since.

Those laws seeking to protect civilians in times of war that the U.S. has refused to ratify include (1) Protocol II to the Geneva Convention, passed in 1977, “relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts”; (2) the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC); (3) the Rome Statute Of The International Criminal Court; (4) the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which prohibits the abduction and secret detention of the state; (5) the Optional Protocol To The Convention Against Torture; the Mine Ban Treaty; the Cluster Bomb Treaty. And though the U.S. ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, it has gutted it by demanding exceptions for itself.

The responsibility for the U.S. failure to ratify treaties protecting innocent people is shared between the Executive Branch and U.S. Senate conservatives. But there is little doubt that if a president and giant Executive Branch agencies, especially the Pentagon, lobbied for them they would probably be ratified. In almost every case, however, it is Pentagon lobbying and presidential indifference which has prevented ratification. Former Vietnam Veterans Foundation chief Bobby Muller personally lobbied then-President Bill Clinton to sign the land mine treaty, for example. Clinton responded that it was up to Muller to “get the military on board” but showed no interest himself in trying to do so.

The Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly defines “grave breaches” which are to be considered “war crimes.” Those that U.S. leaders have committed on a massive scale include:

“launching an indiscriminate attack affecting the civilian population or civilian objects in the knowledge that such attack will cause excessive loss of life, injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects.” (Protocol 1, Article 85).

U.S. Executive Branch leaders have tried to escape their legal responsibilities in their current war-making by claiming they do not apply to today’s “War on Terror” against “non-state” actors. But this is, of course, as valid as North Korea giving itself the right to attack South Korea. As U.N. Rapporteurs on Torture and Drone strikes have stated, there is no serious doubt that U.S. leaders have massively violated both the spirit and letter of international law seeking to protect civilians in wartime.

Among the most obvious and important violations of international law to which U.S. leaders are a signatory include:

(1) Failing to meet their responsibilities for “Protection Of Civilian Persons In Time Of War,” including Article 25 of the 1907 Hague Convention which states that “attack or bombardment of towns, villages, habitations or buildings which are not defended, is prohibited.”

In Vietnam alone U.S. leaders dropped 6.7 million tons of bombs and used an equal amount of ground artillery. As Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick report,

“Unexploded ordnance blanketed the countryside. Nineteen million gallons of herbicide poisoned the environment. In the South, the U.S. had destroyed 9,000 of 15,000 hamlets. In the north it rained destruction on all six industrial cities leveling 28 of 30 provincial towns and 96 of 116 district towns … Nearly 4 million of their citizens had been killed. The landscape had been shattered. The beautiful triple-canopy forests are largely gone. In 2009 land mines and unexploded bombs still contaminated over a third of the land in six central Vietnamese provinces. Over 16 million acres remained to be cleared. Beyond the terrible toll of the war itself, 42,000 more Vietnamese were killed by leftover explosives.”

(2) Failing to meet their responsibilities as an Occupying Power in Iraq as required by the Hague Convention Article 43 which states that

“the authority of the legitimate power having in fact passed into the hands of the occupant, the latter shall take all the measures in his power to ensure … public order and safety.”

As discussed, U.S. Executive leaders failed to provide public order and safety; the U.S. military was revealed in the Wikileaks cables to be turning over captives to be tortured by the Iraqi police; and, of course, the U.S. was itself murdering, maiming, torturing and incarcerating the innocent. (16)

(3) Engaging in the “Crimes Against Peace” defined at Nuremberg to include “planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances,” and defined by U.S. Chief Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson as

“the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”

There is no doubt that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was such a “crime against the peace.” U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan unambiguously stated, as reported in a BBC article entitled “Iraq War Illegal, Says Annan”:

“I have indicated it was not in conformity with the UN charter from our point of view, from the charter point of view, it was illegal.”

Benjamin Ferencz, a U.S. Nuremberg prosecutor who convicted 22 Nazis, has stated that a:

“prima facie case can be made that the United States is guilty of the supreme crime against humanity, that being an illegal war of aggression against a sovereign nation.”

He also noted that the British deputy legal adviser to the Foreign Ministry had stated that:

“I regret that I cannot agree that it is lawful to use force against Iraq without a second Security Council resolution … [A]n unlawful use of force on such a scale amounts to the crime of aggression; nor can I agree with such action in circumstances that are so detrimental to the international order and the rule of law.”

Only in America could leaders convince their citizens they are not launching an aggressive war when they unilaterally attack foreign nations thousands of miles away which pose no serious threat to them.

IT’S HOT AND GETTING HOTTER, with temperatures averaging 102 from Boonville east. Sunday, it reached 97 in Mendocino County’s most happening town, which is Boonville, if you absolutely must be told. It was 99 in Ukiah, 100 in Covelo but a balmy 88 in Willits where our ace eco-reporter, Will “Hawk” Parrish, remains strapped about forty feet up to a piece of road building equipment in protest of the Willits Bypass. Fort Bragg, our county’s coolest town — coolest in every way — was 66 and clear. Temps will be over 100 on Tuesday but won’t cool until next weekend.

========================================================

BRUCE McEWEN REPORTS from Willits: When I visited Will Parrish’s crane-sit protest in the wick drain “stitcher” at the north end of the planned bypass on Saturday morning at about 7:30 the cops would not allow me to get close enough to call out to Will. In fact there were four of them and they ordered me to leave the property or face arrest for trespassing. “You need to leave,” one of them said. And you have to call Caltrans and they’ll escort you out here. But you can’t just come out here. And the Caltrans office is closed on weekends.” They let me take a photo, then told me to leave again. So I left.

========================================================

A FEW SMALL fires over the last several days, but nothing to speak of except for one oddity in the Hopland area where a few of acres of vineyard were destroyed in a slow-moving blaze.

========================================================

LAST FRIDAY, the Ukiah Police Department was called to sort out the folllowing: A man said his child was locked in a dungeon behind the family couch, but soon called back to say the child was asleep in his own bed. A woman screaming from under a bridge was non-existent. A man was asleep under a tree at the WalMart parking lot. An aged cat hadn’t moved from a vacant field until police took it to Animal Control. A raving tweeker was taken into custody. A resident of North Franklin said there was a raccoon or a possum in her bed. It was her cat. Items reported as bombs in a parked car were fishing tackle. A woman selling books door-to-door was advised to dial down her sales pitch. A water balloon accidentally struck a passing vehicle.

========================================================

GAY-PRIDE PARADE Sets Mainstream Acceptance Of Gays Back 50 Years

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA–The mainstream acceptance of gays and lesbians, a hard-won civil-rights victory gained through decades of struggle against prejudice and discrimination, was set back at least 50 years Saturday in the wake of the annual Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade.

“I’d always thought gays were regular people, just like you and me, and that the stereotype of homosexuals as hedonistic, sex-crazed deviants was just a destructive myth,” said mother of four Hannah Jarrett, 41, mortified at the sight of 17 tanned and oiled boys cavorting in jock straps to a throbbing techno beat on a float shaped like an enormous phallus. “Boy, oh, boy, was I wrong.”

The parade, organized by the Los Angeles Gay And Lesbian And Bisexual And Transvestite And Transgender Alliance (LAGALABATATA), was intended to “promote acceptance, tolerance, and equality for the city’s gay community.” Just the opposite, however, was accomplished, as the event confirmed the worst fears of thousands of non-gay spectators, cementing in their minds a debauched and distorted image of gay life straight out of the most virulent right-wing hate literature.

Among the parade sights and sounds that did inestimable harm to the gay-rights cause: a group of obese women in leather biker outfits passing out clitoris-shaped lollipops to horrified onlookers; a man in military uniform leading a submissive masochist, clad in diapers and a baby bonnet, around on a dog leash; several Hispanic dancers in rainbow wigs and miniskirts performing “humping” motions on a mannequin dressed as the Pope; and a dozen gyrating drag queens in see-through dresses holding penis-shaped beer bottles that appeared to spurt ejaculation-like foam when shaken and poured onto passersby.

Timothy Orosco, 51, a local Walgreens manager whose store is on the parade route, changed his attitude toward gays as a result of the event.

“They kept chanting things like, ‘We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!’ and ‘Hey, hey, we’re gay, we’re not going to go away!’“ Orosco said. “All I can say is, I was used to it, but now, although I’d never felt this way before, I wish they would go away.”

Allison Weber, 43, an El Segundo marketing consultant, also had her perceptions and assumptions about gays challenged by the parade.

“My understanding was that gay people are just like everybody else–decent, hard-working people who care about their communities and have loving, committed relationships,” Weber said. “But, after this terrifying spectacle, I don’t want them teaching my kids or living in my neighborhood.”

The parade’s influence extended beyond L.A.’s borders, altering the attitudes of straight people across America. Footage of the event was featured on telecasts of The 700 Club as “proof of the sin-steeped world of homosexuality.” A photo spread in Monday’s USA Today chronicled many of the event’s vulgar displays–understood by gays to be tongue-in-cheek “high camp” — which horrified previously tolerant people from coast to coast.

Dr. Henry Thorne, a New York University history professor who has written several books about the gay-rights movement, explained the misunderstanding.

Gay Pride Parade 1970

“After centuries of oppression as an ‘invisible’ segment of society, gays, emboldened by the 1969 Stonewall uprising, took to the streets in the early ’70s with an ‘in-your-face’ attitude. Confronting the worst prejudices of a world that didn’t accept them, they fought back against these prejudices with exaggeration and parody, reclaiming their enemies’ worst stereotypes about them and turning them into symbols of gay pride,” Thorne said.

 “Thirty years later, gays have won far greater acceptance in the world at large, but they keep doing this stuff anyway.”

“Mostly, I think, because it’s really fun,” Thorne added.

The Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade, Thorne noted, is part of a decades-old gay-rights tradition. But, for mainstream heterosexuals unfamiliar with irony and the reclamation of stereotypes for the purpose of exploding them, the parade resembled an invasion of grotesque outer-space mutants, bent on the destruction of the human race.

Gay Pride Parade 2013

“I have a cousin who’s a gay, and he seemed like a decent enough guy to me,” said Iowa City, IA, resident Russ Linder, in Los Angeles for a weekend sales seminar. “Now, thanks to this parade, I realize what a freak he’s been all along. Gays are all sick, immoral perverts.”

Parade organizers vowed to make changes in the wake of the negative reaction among heterosexuals.

“I knew it. I said we needed 100 dancers on the ‘Show Us Your Ass’ float, but everybody insisted that 50 would be enough,” said Lady Labia, spokesperson for LAGALABATATA. “Next year, we’re really going to give those breeders something to look at.” (Courtesy, The Onion)

========================================================

========================================================

JOHN MUIR DEFIES THE FOUL FIEND

Hetch Hetchy Valley, far from being a plain, common, rock-bound meadow, as many who have not seen it seem to suppose, is a grand landscape garden, one of Nature’s rarest and most precious mountain temples. As in Yosemite, the sublime rocks of its walls seem to glow with life, whether leaning back in repose or standing erect in thoughtful attitudes, giving welcome to storms and calms alike, their brows in the sky, their feet set in the groves and gay flowery meadows, while birds, bees, and butterflies help the river and waterfalls to stir all the air into music—things frail and fleeting and types of permanence meeting here and blending, just as they do in Yosemite, to draw her lovers into close and confiding communion with her.

Sad to say, this most precious and sublime feature of the Yosemite National Park, one of the greatest of all our natural resources for the uplifting joy and peace and health of the people, is in danger of being dammed and made into a reservoir to help supply San Francisco with water and light, thus flooding it from wall to wall and burying its gardens and groves one or two hundred feet deep. This grossly destructive commercial scheme has long been planned and urged (though water as pure and abundant can be got from sources outside of the people’s park, in a dozen different places) because of the comparative cheapness of the dam and of the territory which it is sought to divert from the great uses to which it was dedicated in the Act of 1890 establishing the Yosemite National Park.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike. Nevertheless, like anything else worthwhile, from the very beginning, however well-guarded, they have always been subject to attack by despoiling gain-seekers and mischief-makers of every degree from Satan to senators, eagerly trying to make everything immediately and selfishly commercial, with schemes disguised in smug-smiling philanthropy, industriously, shampiously crying, “Conservation, conservation, panutilization,” that man and beast may be fed and the dear nation made great. Thus long ago a few enterprising merchants utilized the Jerusalem temple as a place of business instead of a place of prayer, changing money, buying and selling cattle and sheep and doves; and earlier still, the first forest reservation, including only one tree, was likewise despoiled. Ever since the establishment of the Yosemite National Park, strife has been going on around its borders and I suppose this will go on as part of the universal battle between right and wrong, however much its boundaries may be shorn, or its wild beauty destroyed.

That anyone would try to destroy such a place seems incredible; but sad experience shows that there are people good enough and bad enough for anything. The proponents of the dam scheme bring forward a lot of bad arguments to prove that the only righteous thing to do with the people’s parks is to destroy them bit by bit as they are able. Their arguments are curiously like those of the devil, devised for the destruction of the first garden—so much of the very best Eden fruit going to waste; so much of the best Tuolumne water and Tuolumne scenery going to waste.

These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and, instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar. Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water tanks the people’s cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man.

— John Muir, 1912

WILLITS BYPASS PROTESTER Will Parrish, aka Red Tail Hawk, was arrested Monday morning after being cut out of the metal sleeve by which he’d fastened himself some 60 feet above ground on a piece of construction equipment. More than 40 California Highway Patrol officers assembled at the north end of the Bypass site where Parrish was locked down. They were accompanied by two cherry pickers, and soon several officers were aloft and attempting to saw through Parrish’s lock down device. As a CHP helicopter hovered over the odd scene, the main body of the CHP contingent kept roughly 20 Bypass protesters away from the extraction effort. A metal saw was unable to penetrate the lock down equipment so the CHP deployed a grinder that finally freed Parrish. Prior to sawing away at the metal encasing Parrish’s arm, the extraction team covered him with a protective blanket to protect him from sparks. The extraction took more than an hour before The Hawk was taken into custody along with Amanda Senseman, aka Warbler, who said she was being arrested in solidarity with Parrish. Parrish was taken to Howard Memorial Hospital in Willits for a medical evaluation then driven to the Mendocino County Jail and booked for trespassing. He’d been strapped to the equipment just north of Willits since June 20th. A tree sitter continues to occupy a grove slated for destruction.

AS THE CHP pulled The Hawk from his nest, Caltrans commenced pile driving along the route of the Bypass. Hawk had not been re-supplied in a week until CalTrans, tardily aware that a skeleton of a young man dangling from one of their pieces of equipment would present image probs for Big Orange, had relented in allowing Parrish to receive water and food once a day.

IT HAD OCCURRED to us here at the mothership that our star direct action enviro-reporter, might parlay his good looks to become a male version of Julia Butterfly. Of course he’d have had to stay locked down and to have enlarged his platform to accommodate visiting media and movie stars, but the kid does have Butterfly-quality charisma. And she parlayed two years in a redwood tree into quite a lucrative career for herself, peddling new age platitudes and $500 huggsie-wuggsies on into a new Lexus and a home in the Oakland hills.

NOT TO BE. As of Monday evening, Parrish was again locked down, but this time in the County Jail where he has been booked on trespass and resisting arrest charges.

THE HAWK had been fastened to the equipment at the Willits bypass for a week to protest the Willits Bypass boondoggle before he was finally allowed to be re-supplied with water and food. An agile comrade had earlier scaled nearby equipment to get Parrish another few days of supplies, but Parrish was up there in bad heat with no water for several days.

========================================================

THE CLOVERDALE REVEILLE has been sold. Publisher Val H. Hanchett has announced that the ownership of the newspaper is changing hands from one local family to another. Owned by the Hanchett family since 1988, the Reveille will now be owned by Sonoma West Publishers, owners of The Healdsburg Tribune, Windsor Times and Sonoma West Times and News. The new publisher and owner will be Rollie Atkinson and his wife Sarah Bradbury. Atkinson has worked at The Healdsburg Tribune since 1982, assuming ownership in 2000. Neena Hanchett will continue in her various roles for the Cloverdale Reveille under the new ownership, serving as Associate Publisher.

========================================================

A BAD THING HAPPENED in central Boonville about 4pm Sunday, but by 9pm a very good thing had happened at the same place. The bad happened when a Subaru, driven by a woman later arrested for driving under the influence of drugs, and containing three teenage girls, rear-ended a pick-up driven by a dad with his wife and their little girl as passengers. The pick-up was struck with so much force it was shoved off the highway and into a Fairgrounds walkway pole, while the Subaru veered and sheered Lauren’s overhang, taking out a combined phone and power line plus the timbers holding up the overhang. No one was seriously hurt, although a total of five people from the two vehicles involved were hauled over the hill by ambulance to be checked out.

LAUREN HERSELF was soon on-scene. At first glance she must have assumed her popular restaurant would be out of business for some time. But The Good Thing had commenced almost immediately when Anderson Valley’s volunteer firefighters went to work on Lauren’s fallen overhang and, by the time night had fully fallen, what had appeared at first glance to have been catastrophic damage to the front of the enterprise had been converted to a spiffy new face lift, complete with new supports.

MONDAY MORNING, the only evidence that a major collision had occurred were Lauren’s crushed planters and the severely bent metal pole at the Fairgrounds. That pole, incidentally, seems to have prevented the careening pick-up from crashing into the Fairgrounds office itself. Any pedestrian in the path of either vehicle as both left the roadway would have been seriously injured. The Subaru had set out from Mountain View for a camping stay near Fort Bragg. An onlooker, commenting on his fellow onlookers, “This is the biggest local crowd I’ve seen since the night the Mannix Building burned down.”

I HAD BEEN ENJOYING the twin delights of a taco and Anel’s radiant smile at Anel’s restaurant when the vehicles collided down the street. There was a pop, a sizzle and the lights went off. People poured out of the bar next door, and we all began to speculate about what had happened. Soon, a large crowd of kibbitzers had assembled behind the yellow crime tape fencing off the two damaged vehicles. Power remained out at Anel’s and several locations in the downtown area until later in the evening, but nearby Anderson Valley Market never did lose power.

RAINA FAIGEN, 20, Mountain View, has been identified as the driver of the 2002 Subaru Outback; Emiliano Soto-Valencia, 28, of Boonville, the driver of the truck. He was driving his Ford pick-up at about 30 mph when the speeding Subaru hit him from behind. Soto-Valencia’s wife and four-year-old daughter were taken to Ukiah Valley Medical Center with minor injuries.

THE SUBARU’S THREE passengers are identified as Kate Robbins, 16, of Watsonville; Alanna Reyes, 18, of Walnut Creek; and Sophie Drukman-Feldstein, 16, of San Francisco. Ms. Faigen was arrested at the Ukiah Valley Medical Center and booked into the Mendocino County Jail on $30,000 bail.

========================================================

THESE THREE GUYS are arrested every couple of weeks. Often, they’re not in jail long enough to dry out, long enough to maybe reconsider their options which, at this time, range from immediate death to slow death. The local justice system, presided over by people who make a lot of money, serve as sponsors for what amounts to torture of these three men and about 50 more like them in Mendocino County.

========================================================

A MARIN COUNTY judge has dismissed a two-year lawsuit aimed at stopping the North Coast Rail Authority from expanding rail operations from Napa County to Willits. Friends of the Eel River and Californians for Alternatives to Toxics filed a lawsuit July 2011 in state court to block expansion of service by the railroad north to Willits. The two groups contended the NCRA should be forced to conduct an in-depth environmental review along the entire length of rail line from Napa County to Arcata before expanding rail operations along any corridor. The NCRA contended it is not subject to California Environmental Quality Act requirements and had conducted the Environmental Impact Report as part of a private settlement with the City of Novato. Marin County Superior Court Judge Roy Chernus agreed the railroad was specifically exempted from requirements of CEQA. Railroads are mainly regulated by the federal Surface Transportation Board. “The STB [has] exclusive jurisdiction over railroad construction and operations,” ruled Chernus. “As such this court does not need to address the merits of the CEQA challenges alleged in the petitions. The ‘project’ as described in the EIRs… is the resumption of freight rail service, as well as the rehabilitation, construction and repair activities to upgrade the track, along the 142-mile segment of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad from Willits…to Lombard in Napa County.”

========================================================

WHY THE SECRECY? Carmel Angelo, Mendocino County’s chief executive officer, will be answering written questions at Fort Bragg Town Hall on Friday, July 12, 2013 beginning at 10:30am from, it seems, invited persons only. Brandon Merritt is screening the questions for Her Majesty. He can be reached at 463-7236, merrittb@co.mendocino.ca.us

========================================================

OKAY, WAIT A MINUTE. I was on the sound crew at the SF gay pride parade in ’83 or so. I sat there and watched thousands of people walk (not march) by in all kinds of outrageous outfits, including guys in some kind of black cowboy chaps that showed their hairy asses. It was not a particularly pleasant sight and I didn’t dwell on it. This went on for hours and for all the flamboyant behavior and outfits, I was bored nearly to death. My attitude is live-and-let-live, but none of this interested me, nor did the speeches we were there to amplify. It was a job. Most of the comments in the July 1 column boil down to moral judgment and it seems a lot of people pretending “tolerance” would still rather all the queers go back in the closet and stay there.

By contrast let us consider the typical 4th of July parade. Always the uniformed soldiers flashing their (phallic?) rifles and flag-bearers with their jockstrap-like pole holders. All this to glorify our mighty military and killing. Next come the high school marching bands playing out of tune and wearing ridiculous outfits that lots of homosexuals wouldn’t be caught dead in. And the bagpipers. I’m part Scottish and can’t help loving the sound, but let’s not forget the real purpose of this music, to fire up British soldiers into a murderous patriotic frenzy, the better to mow down the wogs in the imperial colonies. I might also mention the Russians and Chinese and Koreans, for instance, marching their tanks and missiles (speaking of phallic) down the street. But these cultures have a pretty dark view of homosexuality, do they not? It might be instructive to note that all human cultures have two things in common: beer (some kind of fermented alcoholic beverage) and homosexuality. If homosexuality is taught, who might be perverting kids in equatorial African bush tribes?

So the queers celebrate life by showing some skin and the rest of us glorify death and mayhem. It boils down to what we consider obscene, doesn’t it? — Jeff Costello

========================================================

FAMILY FUN At The Museum Goes Abstract

Workshop Complements Modern Art Exhibit

by Roberta Werdinger

The Grace Hudson Museum offers its next Family Fun at the Museum workshop, “It’s Abstract!”, on Saturday, July 13^th from 1 to 3:30 pm. Taught by professional illustrator Surya O’Shea, this will be a day of experimentation and exploration in the world of abstract art.

When encountering abstract art, many people comment that it looks like something their child could have painted. On this day, kids and adults can explore the rich and creative relationship between spontaneous expression and the art that hangs on the walls of the world’s museums. Participants will learn about abstract art throughout history and will make their own artworks to take home using a variety of media and techniques. A special musical performance will also be offered demonstrating the art of abstraction in music.

The backdrop to this colorful workshop is the Museum’s current exhibit, “Points of Encounter: Catherine Woskow and Larry Thomas,” paintings by two internationally known Mendocino County artists who both use techniques of abstraction to create portraits and landscapes that weave inner moods with outer elements. “Points of Encounter” will be on display until July 28, 2013.

Enrollment in “It’s Abstract!” is free with Museum admission and includes all materials. Space is limited and pre-registration is strongly encouraged. To register call the Museum at 467-2836. The Family Fun at the Museum program is made possible with a grant from the Rotary Foundation.

The Grace Hudson Museum and Sun House is at 431 S. Main St. in Ukiah. The Museum is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 am to 4:30 pm and from 12 to 4:30 pm on Sunday. General admission is $4, $10 per family, $3 for students and seniors, and free to members or on the first Friday of the month. For more information please go to www.gracehudsonmuseum.org.

========================================================

COMMUNITY CARE’S Senior Information & Assistance Program offers a new, free telephone reassurance program for individuals 60+ in inland Mendocino County. “Community Care Connect” is a weekly phone check-in — a friendly voice to see how a senior is doing. It also offers the senior a chance to express new needs as they arise and for the Community Resources Specialist in Ukiah to suggest possible resources to help. Available to residents from Hopland to Leggett, from Anderson Valley to Round and Potter Valleys, and all points between, call 468-5132 or 1-800-510-2020 to learn more. — Kathy Johnson, 
Senior Information & Assistance Program, Community Care
301 S. State Street
Ukiah, CA 95482. Phone: 468-5132.

SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE ANN MOORMAN last week stood up to a brazen attempt by Supervisor Hamburg to rig a court appearance for his troubled son. I know, I know. Fathers and sons, etc. But, as described by Bruce McEwen in this week’s AVA, Hamburg’s efforts to protect his son involved some extremely shady interference in the process by, of all people, County Counsel Tom Parker, who seems to be functioning lately as Hamburg’s free lawyer. Worse, was a quick palsy-walsy sign-off by visiting judge Richard Kossow. Kossow was elected exactly once, back in the middle 1970s when lots of people in Anderson Valley thought it would be funny to elect a hippie judge to the one-day-a-week Anderson Valley Justice Court. The joke’s been on all of us ever since.

THE OCCUPANTS of the part-time justice courts were then elevated to Superior Court status and Kossow has ridden a highly lucrative wave ever since as a visiting judge around the state. But he was a rum character as a hippie, and he’s a rum character now as a judge, as he demonstrated last week by joining Hamburg, Parker and an old Hamburgian from Ukiah, the therapist Kevin Kelly, in an attempted end around the courts on behalf of Hamburg’s son.

========================================================

THE ANNUAL SALMON Barbecue is this Saturday down in Noyo Harbor, Fort Bragg. Proceeds support salmon restoration efforts, this year fish counts in the Usal Forest and work on spawning grounds in the Noyo River. 11am to 6pm, $30 at the entrance, $23 in advance from Harvest Market, Fort Bragg. This being a good salmon year, the fish should be right off the boats. Nice event, good cause.

========================================================

GOOD TO SEE DAVE EVANS back in the live music business this year with two great shows. On Saturday, July 15th, Dave presents Roy Rogers and the Delta River Kings with Boonville native Guy Kephart on the grill. Music at 6:30, gates open at 6.

LATER THIS SUMMER, the amazing blues man, Charlie Musslewhite, will appear at the amazing Navarro Store venue with his two brothers for a rare family appearance of a genius musical family. Stay tuned for the date.

========================================================

WHEN THE NSA spying scandal broke, so did the illusion that President Obama was significantly different than his predecessor, Bush Jr. Obama’s meticulously crafted image was specifically created as an alternative to Bush: Obama campaigned as a peace candidate who loved civil liberties and wanted to work with the UN instead of unilaterally launching wars. But now that the president has been fully exposed as an aspiring Bush III, will he retreat back into the sheep’s clothing he wore as candidate Obama? Or will he shed any remaining pretense and fully adopt Bush’s international recklessness? The answer is that both are likely true: Obama will continue to perform his stale routine as a “pragmatist” while in reality acting out an even more dangerous foreign policy than Bush. (—Shamus Cooke)

========================================================

LAST FRIDAY, the Ukiah Police Department was called to sort out the folllowing: A man said his child was locked in a dungeon behind the family couch, but soon called back to say the child was asleep in his own bed. A woman screaming from under a bridge was non-existent. A man was asleep under a tree at the WalMart parking lot. An aged cat hadn’t moved from a vacant field until police took it to Animal Control. A raving tweeker was taken into custody. A resident of North Franklin said there was a raccoon or a possum in her bed. It was her cat. Items reported as bombs in a parked car were fishing tackle. A woman selling books door-to-door was advised to dial down her sales pitch. A water balloon accidentally struck a passing vehicle.

ALL DAY EVERY DAY, this is what the cops do everywhere in Mendocino County, everywhere in this unraveled country.

========================================================

WE ARE THE PEA

by James Howard Kunstler

The political air lies thick and heavy upon us, like the subtropical wedge of atmospheric sludge that has bogged down the northeast USA for weeks of soupy gray days when there is nothing to do but wonder when things will become unstuck. If the world is an organism, something is wrong with its blood. That blood is money, which allows the “developed” nations to run their advanced techno-industrial economies. Only the “money” is not exactly what we suppose it is, that is, colored paper coupons representing claims on future work or tangible collateral. The “money” is a matrix of counterparty entanglements so abstruse and impenetrable that all the vicars of Christendom (plus the mullahs of Islam, the monks of Mahayana, and the Op-Ed flunkies at The New York Times) would not avail to describe its metaphysical substance. Rather, a cosmic shell game is being played and we are the pea. Unlike other commentators, I don’t see this as a conspiracy of one-percenters, Rothschilds, Bilderbergers, and United Nations intriguers. Rather, it is just a sticky pass in world history. Things have gone a certain way for us for a long time, and now they can’t, and the inertia from all those decades of doing and being what we were persists in the illusion of motion, like the sound of a truck that still rings in your ears after it has passed by. So we, the pea, sit in the dark under our cosmic walnut shell, waiting to see what happens next. When the Great Bernanke spoke not long ago, an ominous rattling was heard throughout the banking system as of things shaking loose. Even if nobody quite understood exactly what money was anymore, an intimation wafted on the still, muggy air that there was liable to be less of it, at least in the form that The Wall Street Journal pretended to understand — a particular digital carry-trade between the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Markets puked at Bernanke’s mild utterances as though he was Thor flinging a thunderous hammer at them. The gold market, already punch-drunk, went reeling into the roadside weeds, covered indecorously in its own vomit — leading many to suppose that gold would soon be as precious as sheetrock. Then, the Great Bernanke, via subordinates, tapered his tapering talk and a nervous, tentative, march forward resumed into the summer pea soup of events. Here we are, waiting, waiting in the murk, for the sound of shoes dropping. If you listen carefully enough, you can hear a few things in motion distantly. The mobs roistering in surprising places — Sweden, Turkey, Brazil — ought to unnerve even the quants immersed in their charts and auguries. Something wicked this way emanates from Japan. It has the outline of a political death-wish and is being played out with the sharp instruments of capital. The Japanese, I suspect, have at least had enough of uncertainty and have elected to move toward resolution, whatever that may hold. One thing it will mean is that the hands of bankers elsewhere around the world will be forced by what Japan does. Interest rates, for example, do not exist in exquisite isolation but only in relation to other things, most particularly that money earlier alluded to, of which nobody knows the value. The answer to that may lie in the riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma known as derivatives. My own guess is that we’ll discover the value of gold is not equivalent to its weight in sheetrock. The third quarter of 2013 might go down in history as the great moment of price re-discovery in a world that thought — for a while — that the price of things can be whatever you say it is. Historians of the future, squatting in the plastic and silicon midden-heaps of bygone technocracy, may note that FASB Rule 157 provoked a four-year psychotic episode of worldwide accounting fraud in which anything could mean anything. That only goes on so long until civilizations shudder and fall. The pea under the walnut shell can’t see much outside, but it can certainly feel the earth tremble.

========================================================

ARGUMENT OF THE DAY: Schizophrenia affects almost three million Americans—more than six times the number of people with multiple sclerosis, two and a half times the number of people with Parkinson’s disease, and more than twice the number of people with HIV/AIDS. Less than one-third of patients with schizophrenia can hold a steady job or live independently. A large portion (about one-third) of homeless people in the U.S. suffer from the disease.

Though they receive little attention in the legalization debate, the scientific studies showing an association between marijuana use and schizophrenia and other disorders are alarming. A 2004 article in the highly respected British Journal of Psychiatry reviewed four large studies, all of which showed a significant and consistent association between consumption of marijuana (mostly during teenage years or early 20s) and the later development of schizophrenia. The review concluded that marijuana is a “causal component,” among others, in the development of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.

A 2007 study in the Lancet, a British medical journal, concludes that using marijuana increases the risk of young people developing a psychotic illness, such as schizophrenia. This risk is greatest—up to a 200% increase—among those who use marijuana heavily and who start using at a younger age.

Those not familiar with epidemiological causation may wonder how cannabis could “cause” schizophrenia if so many people who smoke marijuana or hashish don’t develop the disease. As an example, medical researchers have known for several decades that smoking causes lung cancer, yet over 80% of smokers do not develop lung cancer.

As research accumulates, the emerging picture is that marijuana precipitates schizophrenia or related psychotic disorders in people whose brains are inherently vulnerable to psychosis. All of us who do not regularly experience hallucinations or delusions reside on what may be called a “cliff of sanity.” Some of us, for reasons still unclear (thought possibly to be genetic), are closer to the edge of the cliff than others.

Marijuana may push everyone a few feet closer to that cliff. For those who were already close to the cliff, the drug pushes them over the edge into the chasm of insanity, hence precipitating the development of schizophrenia.

(Samuel T. Wilkinson, The Wall Street Journal)

========================================================

CALIFORNIA’S GAS TAX HISTORY

1923: State lawmakers institute first gas excise tax of 2¢ a gallon.

1927: Tax rises 1¢ a gallon to pay for new road construction.

1932: A 1¢ federal gas tax is created.

1947: State raises tax to 4.5¢ a gallon.

1971: State applies sales tax to fuel purchases, with money going into the general fund.

1983: Lawmakers boost excise tax to 9¢ a gallon; federal gas tax also raised from 4¢ to 9¢.

1990: Federal gas tax rises to 14.1 cents.

1990-94: Voters support Proposition 111, which hikes excise tax to 14¢ a gallon, with automatic penny increases each year through 1994, to a total of 18¢ a gallon.

1993: Federal gas tax rises to 18.4¢.

2002: Sales tax moves out of general fund into transportation.

2010: Sales tax on gasoline reduced, and excise tax set at 36¢ a gallon.

2013: Increase of 3.5¢ a gallon begins Monday, making total tax of 71.9¢ a gallon — 39.5¢ state, 18.4¢ federal and 14¢ in sales tax.

FIREWORKS EXTRAVAGANZA WEEKEND IS HERE!

City of Point Arena invites you to join us in the festivities on Saturday July 6th from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. in Arena Cove

Back to Back Bands! Enjoy Live Music By Fast Company, Lucky 13, Dysphunctional Species and featuring ELIQUATE!

Street Fair with wide variety of vendors and great food selections; Oceanfront FIREWORKS display by PyroSpectaculars!

During each band intermission: Buy a pie – and take aim! Pie Throwing Contest

This year’s famous faces are: Warren Galletti, Trevor Sanders, Terry Solomon.

And Sunday July 7th beginning at Noon in our downtown Point Arena city park. Downtown Historical Parade

The 2013 Theme is “Making it Happen”

This year’s Grand Marshall is “Mr. Warren Galletti”

Don’t Miss the Largest Point Arena Event of the Year!

========================================================

GARRET RODRIGUEZ: Last Heard From Near ‘Murder Mountain’

by Kym Kemp

Rodriguez

When Garret Rodriguez drove north from Ocean Beach in late December 2012, he sat behind the wheel of his newly purchased 1998 Dodge Ram four-wheel drive pickup. He and two friends had left their marijuana growing operation in Humboldt to visit the neighborhood in San Diego that he had lived in for many years. Now, he was headed back to Rancho Sequoia, a rural subdivision near the tiny hamlet of Alderpoint in southeastern Humboldt County. The area has a reputation for violence and is sometimes known as Murder Mountain.

As Rodriguez headed back to the Emerald Triangle after the holidays, he called a friend, Katrina LeBlanc, to ask her to visit him there. She explained, “He wanted a big group of us to come up for New Year’s Eve.”

Rodriguez’s Truck

He called, LeBlanc said, from a 707 number, so she knows he made it back to Humboldt. Another friend, Bill Macpherson, remembers a phone call in January. He believes Rodriguez was calling from Humboldt also. These calls were normal for Rodriguez who kept in touch frequently, LeBlanc says. She also says, however, that he warned his friends that he wouldn’t be able to call again soon because cell service was spotty in the hills where he was.

LeBlanc was close with Rodriguez. In fact, he had spent Christmas Day with her. He had showed up in the morning to help put out toys for her two year old. LeBlanc says, “The last place he was seen [by family and friends] was at my house at Christmas. He came over so early and helped up set up all the gifts from Santa for my little girl.” She paused and added, “She loves her uncle Gar Gar. That has been one of my hardest things has been her asking about him.”

Rodriguez had been at LeBlanc’s house on Christmas Eve also. She recalled, “He brought little gifts the night before. He was basically our adult Santa…”

Photo of Garret Rodriguez taken during Christmas at Katrina LeBlanc’s home.

Late on Christmas Day or in the wee hours of the 26th, LeBlanc walked Rodriguez down to his truck to say goodbye. It would be the last time she saw him.

By April, Rodriguez’s friends began comparing notes. None of them had heard from him since at least January. This was very unusual, said his mother, Pamela Mcginnis. “It is really out of character for him not to contact someone. He was really social…He always had contact with his friends. The people who have known Garret for years know that he would have to have contact with the people he cares about.”

As friends and family ascertained that Rodriguez hadn’t been in touch with anyone since late December or maybe January, their concerns grew. By the end of April, Rodriguez’s father reported him missing.

Through the cooperation of both public investigators and private investigators hired by the family, Rodriguez’s truck was found in late May. Mcginnis explained, “Someone called in where the truck was located on private property in a remote area… The truck was found about 20 miles from where he worked…” It took awhile to verify that this was Rodriguez’s truck but since the family had the vin number as well as the license plate, they were able to confirm it was his. The truck wasn’t running and the person who left the vehicle there is out of the area and difficult to find, said Mcginnis.

“The family,” she explained, “whose property it is on have been extremely cooperative.” However, the person who left the truck there is out of the area.

Private investigators from Humboldt County’s Cook and Associates are attempting to find the person who left it. Mcginnis pointed out, “It would be nice to know how [the person] came by the truck and when they came by it…”

Though his mother said the vehicle was clean, Chris Cook, the lead private investigator explained, “It wasn’t like it was detailed out. There was crap in the back.” Which may, she said, hold some information. But, she says, “There were no obvious signs of foul play.”

On a late June day, Chris Cook has been in town for hours trying to meet up with someone who might have information about the disappearance of Rodriguez. No luck. Now she’s sipping water in a coffee shop. She doesn’t have much hope Rodriguez will be found alive.

She leans forward and explains seriously, “Garret was in Humboldt before New Year’s Eve….[But] he wasn’t here very long before he disappeared.” Not long after Rodriguez got back, she believes, he called LeBlanc from Humboldt. He also might have called another friend mentioned above a week or two later. Cook has been checking around in Humboldt and asking questions. She shakes her head noting, “No one has seen him since early January. I am 100% convinced that this is not a situation where someone is hiding out because [Rodriguez] had too many people that he trusted not to contact someone.”

When asked, Cook admits, “Is he alive? Probably not….I really want people to know that if you are coming up here, you could be taking your life in your hands.”

She says she has been trying to find out what happened to Rodriguez since mid-May. She just met with a detective from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. Cook, whose husband was a sergeant with the force, reports that the local sheriff’s department is taking the case seriously and is working with her to solve it.

The Humboldt County detectives working on the case did not respond to requests for an interview. The department public information officer stated that the place where Rodriguez was last seen is uncertain. He is considered a high-risk missing person, however, and detectives are assigned to the case and following up leads as they develop.

The cost of paying for a private investigator has been hard for the family and friends of Rodriguez are stepping in to help. LeBlanc says that the fundraiser will be Sunday, July 21st at Collier Park in Ocean Beach. “We’re trying to raise some money for his mom to help continue the investigation. He was really well known. I’ve gotten three bands who will donate their time…We’re having t-shirts made for Garret…” The money raised will go to help pay for the investigation. [People can also donate online here.]

In addition LeBlanc hopes that getting Rodriguez’s friends together will help put together the pieces of that last visit Rodriguez made with his two Humboldt partners to the San Diego area. She notes, “Everybody’s got a story. Maybe we can iron out and get some more accurate information.”

His friends have also set up a Facebook page for information to be shared among themselves. Mcginnis has been impressed with his friends’ passion. “Early on when they first set up this Facebook page,” she explained, “I was told that people would stop going after about a week. Garrett is so loved and missed that this is still active. A lot of his friends are not going to give up until he is found. I don’t think people realize how tenacious his friends are in Ocean Beach. They aren’t going to let this rest.”

She sighs, “It’s been difficult. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t cry. Sometimes it is because of comments people send me or post on the site.” She says one of the hardest parts is that the family just doesn’t know what happened.

The family has arranged for new posters to be placed at local garden stores and other community gathering places. A phone number to contact the private investigators with information has been provided: (707) 839-7422.

SIDE NOTE:

How did Rancho Sequoia become Murder Mountain?

Around 1968, the land which came to be known as Rancho Sequoia was subdivided in response to the proposed Yellow Jacket Dam. (Eureka Times Standard 1/29/68) The dam never materialized. The land was eventually subdivided into relatively small lots—many just 10 acres. The area soon became home to many people who came from out of the area to own their piece of paradise.

Like much of Southern Humboldt during the late Seventies and early Eighties, the area became known as a place for growing marijuana. Numerous raids were held in the subdivision over the years. Here’s one described from the point of view of people living there. Here’s a CAMP report (scroll to page 18.)

The name Murder Mountain probably came in response to a 1982 murder. There are also rumored to be other disappearances related to the area but below are three of the most well-known stories.

Clark Stephens, age 26, was murdered by Michael and Suzane Carson, on the 17th of May, 1982. The couple were serial killers who were convicted of three deaths but suspected of more. A book, Cry for War, was written about the lethal twosome. Here’s an excerpt about the murder from a contemporary newspaper.

Stephens, who allegedly worked on a marijuana farm near Garberville with the Carsons, was slain near the town of Alderpoint, Mrs. Carson said he was “a demon. He had to be killed.”

Carson said he shot Stephens twice in the head and once in the side and then burned the body and buried it beneath some chicken fertilizer.

See also here for another contemporary account. Here’s a video containing interviews with Carson’s daughter and ex-wife.

Tennison

Another man missing and presumably dead in the area is Bobby Tennison. He was known locally as Builder Bob. He came frequently to Southern Humboldt. Reportedly he went to the Rancho Sequoia area to get paid for a construction job. He has not been seen since January 2009.

Interesting note: Just across the valley from Rancho Sequoia is the location of another famous death. Dirk Dickenson was killed while running from law enforcement in 1972.

(Courtesy, LostCoastOutpost.com)

========================================================

WE RECEIVED this message anonymously. It was from Mari Rodin, Ukiah City Councilperson, responding to recent criticism:

“Why do the media in Mendocino County continuously, relentlessly, and ignorantly criticize the City of Ukiah? If anyone cared about the truth, they would speak to the individuals involved like reporters in most newspapers do. They would then find out that the City is, in fact, a well-run organization that has done an amazing job of dealing with five straight years of financial challenges that have come as a result of factors completely beyond the City’s control. (For example, revenues increased only $300,000 between 2008-2012, which is 2% of a $15 million general fund. With immense pressure on expenditures coming from PERS, labor contracts and the loss of RDA, the City still managed to hold down costs to 2%/year over this same period. A remarkable accomplishment by any measure.) The facts regarding the city manager’s salary are mistaken. There USED to be executive pay (and several other extraneous and ridiculous pay categories) but to clean up all these behind-the-scenes components of her pay package, the city manager herself (!) suggested we streamline and simplify her contract to make it transparent. Her pay is $150,000 and she may be eligible for merit pay, but that will depend on how revenues come in this new fiscal year. She volunteered to take a 10% salary cut. The statement about administrative overhead is false too. It’s laughable! The city manager recommended eliminating her administrative assistant last year to help trim the deficit. The city clerk has taken up some of this role, but not all of it, which has been very difficult. How many executives do you know of who oversee a $62.5 million budget give up their secretary in an effort to do their part in sharing the pain during difficult times? If reporters around here would simply (oh, so simply!) just ask questions directly, they would have a different story to report.”

THING IS, MS. RODIN, all the stuff you complain about is public record from which we’ve all drawn pretty much the same conclusions, i.e., the Council majority’s spending decisions haven’t been wise and tend to favor management over line staff. Also, there was the suspiciously selective allocation of Redvelopment monies on your fave restaurant, the talk of an on-staff therapist, and other public statements by you, Ms. Landis and Little Benj that create an overall impression of fuzz brains running the City of Ukiah.

========================================================

THE AVA’S FAVORITE PAINTER!

Mary Robertson: River Days

July 11 – August 17, 2013

Reception with the Artist

Saturday, July 13th, 3:00 – 5:00PM

Odd Fellows #37, 2013, oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

Recent paintings, watercolors, and drawings by Bay Area artist Mary Robertson capture the color, light and feel of summer on the Russian River.

http://www.georgekrevskygallery.com/dynamic/exhibit_detail.asp?ExhibitID=198

Writer Jon Carroll, a longtime friend of Robertson, reflects on her work. “I have always wanted to live on Mary Robertson’s Russian River. Such an indolent place, so dreamy, like an underwater kingdom. The umbrellas, towels, beach chairs, and the people in Mary’s paintings are frozen in time, always inhabiting that same summer. It’s a little like heaven and a little like camp.” Mary Robertson is a California native and studied Art History at UCLA. After a successful career in graphic design and art direction she began painting full time. She has been exhibiting with George Krevsksy Gallery since 2002. Previously, solo shows include Campbell Thiebaud Galleries in San Francisco and Laguna Beach, and Addison Rowe in Santa Fe. Her artwork has been featured in public exhibitions at the Sonoma County Museum, the Stanford Faculty Club, the Santa Cruz County Museum, and the American Academy of Art & Letters. Located in San Francisco’s Union Square District, George Krevsky Gallery specializes in 20th-century American Art in the figurative tradition, including the Ashcan, Regionalist, Modernist, Social Realism, as well as Northern California contemporary artists. Established in 1992, George Krevsky Gallery is a member of the San Francisco Art Dealers Association.

========================================================

AFTER OUTING them for their secrecy, the County CEO’s office released the following press release on Wednesday:

County Kicks Off District Budget Presentations. The Public Is Invited To Attend The July 12, 2013 Forum At Fort Bragg Town Hall.

Mendocino County Chief Executive Officer, Carmel J. Angelo, is scheduled to present a County Budget Update/State of the County informational presentation in the 4th Supervisorial District on Friday, July 12, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon at the Fort Bragg Town Hall.

At the start of this year’s county budget process, the Executive Office announced that informational budget presentations would be scheduled in each of the County’s five supervisorial districts. With the beginning of the new Fiscal Year on July 1, the Executive Office is scheduling the budget presentations to be held before the September 9, 2013 County budget hearings.

The presentation will include highlights of the County’s 2013/2014 Recommended Budget, a State of the County update, and items of interest in the 4th District. The intent of these presentations is to inform the audience of the workings of County government and to provide a high level of transparency and accountability to all Mendocino County residents. It is hoped that those interested in performing their civic duty will continue to stay engaged in the workings of local government.

========================================================

MISSING MAN’S FAMILY STILL HOPING TO FIND HIM

The wife of a Rodondo man who has been missing since the end of May is still hoping a someone will provide a tip that may lead to finding him.

Samantha Lamberg has been at home in Southern California with her 10- and 14-year-old children, wondering what happened to their father, Erik Swan Lamberg, 51, who was last seen in Laytonville on May 27.

Lamberg in various family photos

The Lambergs are separated, and he was driving to Oregon to seek help for mental health issues, according to Samantha Lamberg, who said he is bipolar and was off his medication when he left Southern California around May 23.

She talked with him on the phone from Laytonville on May 26.

“He sounded paranoid,” she said, “but said he was safe in a motel.”

He had apparently tried to get some repairs done to his Honda Odyssey van in Laytonville, but told Samantha Lamberg the repairs could not begin until after the holiday weekend, on May 28. Nonetheless, the van — which had been towed to Laytonville from Leggett — was driven away.

According to Samantha Lamberg, the motel owner said Erik Lamberg and the van were gone on May 28. His credit card showed a charge May 26 for the motel.

Samantha Lamberg did not hear from Erik Lamberg between May 26 and May 28, and his credit card was not used again, which she said was unusual, and so she reported him missing the night of May 29 to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office.

The MCSO found the Honda van on Sherwood Road about 20 miles west of Willits on Saturday, June 1. Deputies did a limited search immediately around the van, and a ground search for Erik Lamberg — including a bloodhound and a shepherd — was organized for the following Wednesday.

Lt. Shannon Barney at the MCSO said the dogs followed what they thought was a good scent about a mile west of the spot where the van was found, but then lost the scent.

Since the search, the MCSO has had a couple of calls of possible sightings but neither panned out.

“We’re looking for tips,” Barney said.

Samantha Lamberg is hoping to keep her husband’s case in the public eye and has launched a Facebook site dedicated to finding him.

In the meantime, however, “I’m down here feeling pretty powerless,” she said.

(Courtesy, The Ukiah Daily Journal)

========================================================

STATEMENT OF THE DAY: Whether the desire for liberty exists in America remains to be seen. If Americans can overcome their gullibility, their lifelong brainwashing, their propensity to believe every lie that “their” government tells them, and if Americans can escape the Matrix in which they live, they can reestablish the morality, justice, peace, freedom, and liberty that “their” government has taken from them. It is not impossible for Americans to again stand with uplifted heads. They only have to recognize that “their” government is the enemy of truth, justice, human rights and life itself. Can mere ordinary Americans triumph over the evil that is “their” government without the aid of a superhero? If ideas are strong enough and Americans can comprehend them, good can prevail over the evil that is concentrated in Washington. What stands between the American people and their comprehension of evil is their gullibility. If good fails in its battle with Washington’s evil, our future is a boot stamping on the human face forever. — Paul Craig Roberts

========================================================

DR. WILLIAM COURTNEY at the International Cannabinoid Research Society meeting in Vancouver, BC, June 24. (Photo by Fred Gardner). PS. I want Mendoland to know that we are not at war. I’ll fill you in on the why. (Just back from Canada.)

========================================================

To: Board of Directors Mendocino County Public Broadcasting

July 2, 2013

P.O. Box 1 Philo, CA 95466

Re: Violation of California Corporations Code – Annual Membership Meeting

Members of the Board:

I am writing today to alert you to violations of the California Corporations Code that affect the legitimacy of the corporation and its ability to renew its broadcast license for KZYX&Z.

Sections 5510-11 of the Corporations Code state, in part, that:

5510. (b) A regular meeting of members shall be held on a date and time, and with the frequency stated in or fixed in accordance with the bylaws, but in any event in each year in which directors are to be elected at that meeting for the purpose of conducting such election, and to transact any other proper business which may be brought before the meeting. . . . 5511. (a) Whenever members are required or permitted to take any action at a meeting, a written notice of the meeting shall be given not less than 10 nor more than 90 days before the date of the meeting to each member who, on the record date for notice of the meeting, is entitled to vote thereat . . .

The Bylaws of Mendocino County Public Broadcasting state, in part, that:

Section 10.01 Annual Meeting:

1) The annual meeting of the Membership shall be held within sixty (60) days of the completion of Board elections each year, unless the Board shall provide for another date and so notifies Members. 2) The purpose of this meeting shall be to declare the results of the preceding election of the Board, to present an annual report to Members on the activities and accomplishments of MCPB, to present the audit report, and any other business as may come before the meeting. 3) Notice of the annual meeting date and location, including agenda items that may require Membership vote, shall be given to all Members a minimum of fifteen (15) days prior to the meeting if delivered by first class mail or a minimum of four (4) days prior to the meeting if broadcast daily on the Station’s radio frequencies and posted at the Station headquarters.

MCPB failed to notify its membership of the most recent purported annual membership meeting, as required by both the Corporations Code and its own Bylaws. Such notice is required under Section 5510 because 1) the meeting completes the election process for the Board of Directors, and 2) such a meeting is required by the Bylaws. The notice must be no less than 10 nor more than 90 days prior to the annual membership meeting. The 90 day outside limit will allow you to send a notice of the annual meeting along with the notice of election, so there is no practical reason not to do so.

In addition, MCPB failed to hold a proper annual membership meeting by failing to answer any questions put forth by members at the meeting, thereby failing to transact any other proper business which may be brought before the meeting or to fully present an annual report to Members on the activities and accomplishments of MCPB.

I recently attended a regular meeting of your board, during which members were permitted three minutes each to make comments and ask questions, but with no provision for the board to answer those questions. It took two brave board members to disobey the instructions of the current Board chair and actually respond to questions raised by members. The Board’s current policy of never responding to the questions and concerns raised by the membership at any meeting brings into question the legal legitimacy of the Board. Worse, it burns the bridges of communication that are essential to any membership nonprofit organization.

As a member of the Board of Directors, each of you has a sacred duty to maintain that communication.

MCPB is a membership-based organization dedicated to serving the entire community of Mendocino County and contiguous counties. The primary purpose of MCPB is to engage in providing high-quality, independent, community and public radio and other media products and services. — MCPB Bylaws, Article III, Purpose and Governing Principles

When I raised these issues at the recent Board meeting, the General Manager shook his head in a dismissive gesture. If any employee fails to honor the organizations Bylaws or abide by California law, they are doing a disservice to the Board, the organization, and the community. It may be more work to listen and respond to the questions and concerns of the membership community, but that is precisely what the governance of MCPB must do. You are enjoying the benefits of being a membership organization. You must also accept the responsibilities.

On a related matter, I have requested that your quarterly reports to the Public File, required by the Federal Communications Commission, be posted on your website, along with the General Manager’s reports and other information. I was told I would need to go to your main office in Philo if I wanted to see any such reports. Considering the size of Mendocino County and the cost of gasoline, that is an undue burden to place on your membership, or the public, when access can otherwise be provide with a few keystrokes. You will be required to include the most recent Public File report in your application for renewal of your broadcasting license. Refusing to make them readily available to your members and the public at large appears to violate the rules concerning public access.

Since you are submitting another legal matter to pro bono counsel for review, I recommend that you do the same here. The full California Code section on membership meetings can be found online at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=corp&group=05001-06000&file=5510-5517

Please give your urgent attention to these matters. Although I try to resolve issues with the least confrontation possible, the issue of membership involvement is so important that I will file an action in Superior Court to enforce compliance if the Board does remedy its current practices.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Sincerely,

Dennis O’Brien, Ukiah

========================================================

GEOFF THOMAS of Boonville writes: So Edward Snowden simply tells the world that the US government has the ability and power to collect information, powers that were legally granted by his own Government . So where’s the f**king PROBLEM? Is it now ILLEGAL to talk about what is LEGALLY allowable in the land of the free? You make something technically “Legal,” but then make it “Illegal” to mention that which should not be mentioned? I may be slow and I may often be stupid, but can somebody please explain why with all the shit that’s happening in the world today, Edward Snowden is America’s Most Wanted?

========================================================

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY in response to pot raid in the Alderpoint area Wednesday morning:

Get the armed felons and mega grows cleaned out and the area cleaned up and you will see crime drop like a rock and a sudden migration out of the area of these career criminals and it will be appreciated by the majority of people in the area, especially those who still work an honest job or are retired and pay taxes and want a safer family friendly community like they remember not that long ago. This should start a turn around, the people are ready and have had enough body counts and neck tatted criminal zombies who should be locked away and the key thrown away. Good work HCSO!

========================================================

PRESIDENT MORSI OVERTHROWN IN EGYPT

By Al Jazeera English (03 July 13)

The Egyptian army has overthrown President Mohamed Morsi announcing a roadmap for the country¹s political future that will be implemented by a national reconciliation committee. The head of Egypt’s armed forces issued a declaration on Wednesday evening suspending the constitution and appointing the head of the constitutional court as interim head of state. Morsi’s presidential Facebook page quoted the disposed president as saying he rejected the army statement as a military coup. In a televised broadcast, flanked by military leaders, religious authorities and political figures, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi effectively declared the removal of Morsi. Sisi called for presidential and parliamentary elections, a panel to review the constitution and a national reconciliation committee that would include youth movements. He said the roadmap had been agreed by a range of political groups. Speaking shortly after al-Sisi’s announcement, liberal opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei said the 2011 revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak was relaunched and that the roadmap meets the demand of the protesters for early presidential elections. Egypt’s leading Muslim and Christian clerics also backed the army-sponsored roadmap. Ahmed al-Tayeb, Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Cairo’s ancient seat of Muslim learning, and Pope Tawadros, the head of the Coptic Church, both made brief statements following the announcement by the head of the armed forces. Tawadros said the plan offered a political vision and would ensure security for all Egyptians, about 10% of whom are Christian.

WHAT ABOUT SOME PATRIOTISM FOR AMERICA?

A Message to Big Corporations

by RALPH NADER

The 4th of July is synonymous with patriotism. Tomorrow, all over the country, Americans will congregate to spend time with family and friends, barbecue, watch fireworks, and celebrate our nation’s independence. Many will recite the pledge of allegiance or sing the national anthem. Wouldn’t it be appropriate for the large corporations that were founded in the United States to show a similar acknowledgement of patriotism?

After all, these corporations rose to their enormous size on the backs of American workers. Their success can be attributed to taxpayer-subsidized research and development handouts. Not to mention those corporations that rushed to Washington D.C. for huge bailouts from the taxpayers when mismanagement or corruption got them into serious trouble.

How do these companies show their gratitude to their home country? Many of them send jobs overseas to dictatorial regimes and oligarchic societies who abuse their impoverished workers — all in the name of greater profits. Meanwhile, back home, corporate lobbyists continue to press for more privileges and immunities so as to be less accountable under U.S. law for corporate crimes and other misbehaviors.

In a survey conducted by the Center for Study of Responsive Law, twenty of the largest unions and twenty of the largest U.S. Chartered corporations were asked the following simple question on three separate occasions:

Do you think it desirable to have your CEO and/or your president at your annual shareholders meetings stand up on the stage and, in the name of your company (not your diverse board of directors), pledge allegiance to our flag that is completed by the ringing phrase “with liberty and justice for all?”

In this survey, nine of the twenty unions replied that they do “pledge allegiance to the flag …with liberty and justice for all” or, as a substitute, sing the national anthem.

Only two of the twenty corporations — Chevron and Walmart — responded with an explanation of their company’s view of patriotism, but declined to respond directly to the question. Some of the companies that chose not to respond are: Apple, GE, GM, Verizon, J.P. Morgan Chase and Co., AT&T, Ford, ExxonMobil, Bank of America and others.

See nader.org for the full list of companies and unions that were sent the letter, including which ones that responded and which did not.

Back in 1996, a similar survey was sent to 100 of the largest chartered corporations. Thirty-four of them responded, and all but one explained why they declined to say the Pledge of Allegiance at their annual shareholders meeting. (Federated Department Stores was the only company that embraced the idea.) Many of the corporations misconstrued the request by explaining that it might offend foreign nationals who might be on their boards of Directors. (The request was crystal clear; it was to have the CEO stand up and pledge allegiance on behalf of their U.S. chartered corporation… ) After all, it’s these very CEOs who want their American companies to be treated as “persons” under our constitution in order to retain and expand their powerful privileges and immunities.

In an age of increased jingoism about freedom and American ideals, the comparative yardsticks of patriotism should be applied frequently and meticulously to the large U.S. corporations that rove the world seeking advantages from other countries, to the detriment of the United States. It is our country that chartered them into existence and helped insure their success and survival. And these corporations now wield immense power in our elections, in our economy, over our military and foreign policies, and even in how we spend time with our friends and families.

The 4th of July is an ideal time to call out these runaway corporate giants who exploit the patriotic sensibilities of Americans for profit and, in wars, for profiteering, but decline to be held to any patriotic expectations or standards of their own.

(Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer and author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us! He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion, published by AK Press. Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition.)

* * *

PATRIOTIC FOOTNOTES: Remember when that French big shot raped the hotel maid? The French polls showed that the French, overwhelmingly, thought the hotel maid was lying while Americans, overwhelmingly, believed the hotel maid. Myself, I could never live any place else.

AND TRUE to their ongoing betrayal of the French Revolution, the French have denied Edward Snowden political sanctuary.

“WHEN IN THE COURSE of human events, it becomes necessary for our people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…impel them to separation.”

AND SO ON thunders our Declaration Of Independence, here and there interchangeably describing Americans and Native Americans as savages because we didn’t wear red coats and march straight into the bullets.

IF YOU READ the document substituting “oligarchs” for King George, you have an accurate picture of the current political situation in America where, to varying degrees, most of us are economic serfs without representation at the federal level of government while only some of us are represented at the state level.

MY LAST LINK to the federal government was severed about five years ago when the Post Office stopped delivering my newspaper in a timely manner. But long before that I’d developed a robust contempt for my elected reps except, I should say, for four members of the current Mendocino County Board of Supervisors. (Hamburg represents himself, and the more committed stoners and the outpatients clustered at the Mendo ListServe.) The four supervisors do make an honest effort to represent the true interests of the people of Mendocino County. It’s safe to say that most elected boards of supervisors and city councils are as committed to the people of their regions and towns.

BUT AT ALL the higher levels of government, elected people carry water for the owners of the country — collections of concentrated capital variously called corporations, the one percent, the ruling class, and so on. Democrats and Republicans are wholly owned subsidiaries of the upper echelons of the owning classes.

ALL THIS IS OBVIOUS to citizens of most countries because they understand how capitalism works and they know their place in the class system capitalism creates. Americans, most of whom are now descending the class ladder, are slowly awakening to the realities of our social-political system and, when fully awake, well, it won’t be pretty, but we’re at the point where we’ve got to have another revolution or our children and grandchildren won’t even be allowed into the starting blocks to pursue the happiness we’re guaranteed by what’s left of our shredded Constitution.

MYSELF, I’m going to listen to the Giants game, enjoy an afternoon of gluttony and general over-indulgence with relatives, climb up on the roof for the fireworks tonight, and call it a day. We may be seriously on the skids as a country, but it’s still possible to have a good time.

========================================================

ACCORDING TO THE US National Weather Service in Eureka’s Facebook page, Over 500 cloud to ground lightning strikes occurred yesterday and last night in the three county area of Trinity, Humboldt, and Mendocino counties. Multiple small fires have been reported in the Shasta-Trinity and Mendocino National Forests. If you see a smoke plume, especially a small one that may not be known about yet, be safe and call 911 to report it. If firefighters can get to a fire quickly they can keep it from getting out of control.

MENDOCINO COUNTY was zapped overnight by numerous lightning strikes over a period of hours, igniting small wildland fires at Goat Rock south of the Ukiah Boonville Road, one on a ridgetop near Yorkville, one between Hopland and Ukiah off Burke Hill, and one not far from Lake Pillsbury. So far none of the local fires have presented much of a problem, but lookouts are on the alert in case one flares up. A mist-like rain fell overnight but was so light as to be immeasurable in Boonville. Philo residents said they got a bit more.

========================================================

LAST TUESDAY, JULY 2 we asked:

WHY THE SECRECY? Carmel Angelo, Mendocino County’s chief executive officer, will be answering written questions at Fort Bragg Town Hall on Friday, July 12, 2013 beginning at 10:30am from, it seems, invited persons only. Brandon Merritt is screening the questions for Her Majesty. He can be reached at 463-7236, merrittb@co.mendocino.ca.us

THE NEXT DAY, July 3, the day after we outed the CEO office’s for trying to hold a budget meeting “by invitation only,” the County CEO’s office released the following press release:

County Kicks Off District Budget Presentations. The Public Is Invited To Attend The July 12, 2013 Forum At Fort Bragg Town Hall.

Mendocino County Chief Executive Officer, Carmel J. Angelo, is scheduled to present a County Budget Update/State of the County informational presentation in the 4th Supervisorial District on Friday, July 12, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon at the Fort Bragg Town Hall.

At the start of this year’s county budget process, the Executive Office announced that informational budget presentations would be scheduled in each of the County’s five supervisorial districts. With the beginning of the new Fiscal Year on July 1, the Executive Office is scheduling the budget presentations to be held before the September 9, 2013 County budget hearings.

The presentation will include highlights of the County’s 2013/2014 Recommended Budget, a State of the County update, and items of interest in the 4th District. The intent of these presentations is to inform the audience of the workings of County government and to provide a high level of transparency and accountability to all Mendocino County residents. It is hoped that those interested in performing their civic duty will continue to stay engaged in the workings of local government.

========================================================

LONG-TIME INTERNET STALKER, Michael Hardesty, has been sending his nasty opinions to our website under the name Martin Zemitis, a successful Berkeley entrepreneur. For years, Hardesty wrote to us under various pseudonyms. At first, he’s more or less rational, insofar as your generic Randian nutball can be said to be rational. But soon, unable to contain himself, Hardesty’s racist and homophobic rants betray him and we cut him off. The Zemitis cover means that Hardesty, banned from newspaper websites throughout the Bay Area, in his desperation to vilify whole populations of people, has moved into identity theft. We apologize to Mr. Zemitis for any embarrassment he’s suffered from this lunatic appropriating his name.

========================================================

JOHN SAKOWICZ WRITES:

“Nice response to Ukiah City Council Member, Mari Rodin, in today’s “Mendocino County Today” blog. Thank you.

The indisputable fact is that the City of Ukiah has what’s called a “structural deficit”. The structural deficit happened two years ago as a result of the city’s Redevelopment Authority (RDA) being dissolved per state law (AB 126) and a California Supreme Court decision that upheld the law.

The deficit is of $900 000 is now baked into the budget, meaning that if the City Council doesn’t cut the excessive number of executive positions/salaries at the top of its personnel chart, the city can expect this deficit to be recurring year after year going forward into the future.

Why? Because in an accounting shell game masterminded by City Manager Jane Chambers, Assistant City Manager Sage Sangiacomo, and City Finance Director Gordon Elton, that $900,000 in RDA monies were used to pad the salaries of those very same executives.

Shocking. Absolutely shocking.

Some say it was self–enrichment at its worst.

It’s all public information. See the Grand Jury’s report:: http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/grandjury/pdf/1112-RDA_Successor_Agencies.pdf

As a footnote: I think Mari Rodin announced her resignation from the Ukiah City Council effective in August. I think I heard that she has accepted an analyst position at Monterey County LAFCO.”

WE WENT BACK to the Grand Jury Report Mr. Sakowicz referred to. Here’s an excerpt from the “Summary” in the 2012 Grand Jury RDA report:

“The 2010-2011 report found that the City used RDA funds to pay significant portions of the salaries and benefits of 18 employees, many of them executive employees. The report also found that some of RDA project time lacked documentation by a code system intended to track staff hours on RDA projects.”

SO WE WENT BACK to the 2010-2011 report:

Finding 14. “Employee salaries are paid with RDA funds disproportionate to the time spent on RDA business. More than one RDA employees’ salary and benefits are paid 100% with RDA funds even though they do not perform 100% RDA business.”

And,

Finding 24. “The RDA is using funds to pay significant portions of 18 employees’ salaries and benefits: City Manager/Exec. Dir.: 50%. Senior Planner: 40%. Ass’t City Mgr.: 80%. Assoc. Planner: 25%. City Clerk: 50%. Ass’t Engineer: 31%. Ass’t Finance Dir.: 15%. Accounting Ass’t.: 15%. Director of Finance: 35%. Administrative Sec.: 20%. Project and Grant Admin.: 100%. Administrative Sec.: 40%. Finance Controller: 7%. Park Service Worker: 60%. Accountant: 15%. Director of Public Works: 8%. Senior Civil Engineer: 32%. Director, Planning & Community Dev.: 35%.”

The City of Ukiah Responded:

“The Ukiah Redevelopment Agency pays for a percentage portion of the salaries and benefits of employees that share duties between the URA and the City of Ukiah. The Agency does not pay a disproportionate share of City salaries. The percentage varies among personnel in accordance with the estimated time spent on duties associated with each of the respective agencies and is approved by both agencies with each fiscal year’s budget. The shared resource model increases efficiency through the elimination of redundant administrative staffing and services for both agencies. In Fiscal Year 2010/11 the URA and the City of Ukiah had only one full time staff member funded at 100% with redevelopment funds.”

TRANSLATION: Ukiah jiggered the timecards so that highly paid financial staffers and managers billed more of their time to RDA than to the Ukiah General Fund so that they could continue to be employed at their generous salaries while appearing to be saving money for the City’s budget. The specific percentages reported by the Grand Jury were not disputed and they show that the City Manager and her assistant spent 50% and 80% respectively on RDA business. Ridiculous on its face. Clearly the numbers were skewed to overbill the RDA account where the money was. Mr. Sakowicz calls it self-enrichment and that’s fair to say, although it’s also standard issue bureaucratic empire building for no other reason than: “because that’s where the money is.”

========================================================

THE MENDOCINO COAST FURNITUREMAKERS (including my husband Les Cizek) celebrate their 15th Anniversary with a show at Odd Fellows Hall in Mendocino. The show opens July 3, but the Opening Reception will be Saturday, July 13, 5-8 pm. I’ll be there with butterbean hummus (you have to taste it to understand) and — maybe — the dastardly brownies. Hope you can come.

— Norma Watkins

THE FABULOUS IRONY OF AMERICAN PATRIOTISM

July 4 2013

by Jeff Costello

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it. — G.B. Shaw

Patriotism is as fierce as a fever, pitiless as the grave, blind as a stone, and irrational as a headless hen. — Ambrose Bierce

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind. — Albert Einstein

Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about. — Mark Twain

Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious. — Oscar Wilde

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. — Samuel Johnson

In Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary, patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first. — Ambrose Bierce

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind. — Voltaire

Kill for Peace. — The Fugs

* * *

If the British had nuclear bombs in 1776, would we be eating hot dogs, drinking beer, setting off firecrackers and waving the stars and stripes today? Just wondering.

Front page of the Denver Post: a picture of fireworks going off in front of the capitol building with the headline, “Celebrating.” And I think, celebrating what? Our independence from England, remember? The colonies throwing off the occupying oppressor. Oh, isn’t it rich, as Stephen Sondheim wrote in Send In The Clowns? Imagine, the very idea. We worship in the past, ideas that are criminal today. Because we are the oppressor now but our innate goodness and exceptionalism are without question. (Just ask those great patriots, W. Bush and Sarah Palin.) Surely this is how the British saw things in 1776. They were merely looking after their interests here, weren’t they?

And these days… Oh the interests, the many and far-flung “interests” of the USA. And all those bad people, where our interests lie… The nerve of them to question our motivations. Which boil down to: we want all your good stuff and we don’t mind killing you to prove it.

One hears much about rape within the military. Pundits wring their hands and wonder, What’s the matter? Why are male soldiers abusing female soldiers? It isn’t obvious? One need only look at recruitment advertising, which promises young men they’ll be glorious heroes, vanquishing all those bad people everywhere. The feelings of entitlement that go with this sort of thing are natural for the young, dumb and full of, okay, patriotic urges. If you’re entitled to kill, you’re certainly entitled to sexual gratification. Maybe the military should get off its high moral horse and have squads of patriotic prostitutes, hard core professionals, on duty at all times.

As a school kid in the 50s, for whatever reason, I didn’t buy the Pledge of Allegiance, although I hadn’t the vocabulary to explain why. Now I would say, “How Nazi is that?” Pretty much, I think. Same with the Lord’s Prayer. Remember that? I would mumble, “Howard be thy name…” We opened the school day with nationalistic and Christian propaganda. I suppose it must have worked with a lot of kids, because we see results now and it doesn’t seem to have turned out all that well.

========================================================

MORE THAN $10,000 of stolen goods has been recovered by Fort Bragg police and two alleged thieves taken into custody. Joseph Anthony Fitch, 30, and Eric Christopher Seale, 37, also charged with meth possession, were arrested last Tuesday. Police say Fitch’s family told police they thought Fitch was robbing houses in Fort Bragg, and Fitch implicated Seale in whose apartment many stolen items were subsequently discovered.

========================================================

A 29-YEAR-OLD HOMELESS MAN WAS FOUND DEAD beneath the North Cliff Hotel on Thursday morning. The area at the mouth of the Noyo River has functioned as a homeless camp for some time. The young man, not yet identified, went to sleep with his girlfriend on Wednesday night. She woke up, he didn’t.

========================================================

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Banks can borrow money at .75% interest, mortgage loans are currently around 4% and Students are charged 6.8% on student loans. What’s wrong with this picture? Why aren’t people demonstrating? Why do the people in this country take such abuse and not fight back as people do in other countries?

========================================================

OUTSIDE MAGAZINE  in its June 30th edition proudly declares that Eureka is one of the best places to raise adventurous kids. It names the “towering redwoods on one side and plunging ocean cliffs on the other…” The redwoods, yes… But, plunging ocean cliffs in Eureka? A further read exposes the confusion: The magazine lists a number of amazing places to visit in the area including a “unique pygmy forest,” Jughandle State Reserve,

and the Devil’s Punch Bowl in Russian Gulch State Park.

All, of course in Mendocino about a three hour drive from Eureka. Humboldt: a great place to live… because it’s really not that far from Mendocino… (—Kym Kemp)

========================================================

THE COUNTY BUDGET for fiscal year 2013-14 is preliminarily set at about $224 million, which includes a $2.9 million carryover from the fiscal year ending this month. It also includes about $57 million of anticipated revenue for the County’s general fund (the rest going to state and federal programs over which the county has little fiscal control). CEO Carmel Angelo told Tiffany Revelle of the Ukiah Daily Journal last week, “Over the past three-plus years, we’ve gone from a $7-million shortfall to a $7-million reserve; we’ve saved this county $14 million. We certainly have avoided the (fiscal) cliff … and there’s been a lot of work on all fronts.” Final budget hearings begin September 9th.

COUNTY REVENUES REMAIN FLAT, however, while the County’s “structural deficit” stemming primarily from ongoing debt repayments for the formerly mismanaged Teeter Plan and the underfunded pension, plus continuously escalating healthcare costs and general inflation. Most of the improved budget picture stems from the large reduction in line staff over recent years combined with a 10% wage reduction. With an apparently better budget picture, county employees (in eight separate bargaining units, about two thirds of which are SEIU members) are expected to demand some kind of restoration of pay/benefits in ongoing negotiations.

========================================================

THE STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATIOIN has begun mailing out another round of tax bills for their controversial “fire prevention fee” fire parcel tax — alphabetically, county by county. According to the Howard Jarvis Tax Haters League, they didn’t get their lawsuit filed with the state until last March. That lawsuit claims that the parcel “fee” is actually a tax which was imposed illegally by not going through the voters via Proposition 218 rules. The Howard Jarvis people don’t expect a decision any time soon — “Please be patient as lawsuits typically take a long time” — so they advise that property owners pay their $150 tax (perhaps $35 less if your parcel with a “habitable structure” is on land that is within an existing fire protection district). Most of Mendocino County outside the incorporated cities is subject to the tax, including all of Anderson Valley (although the slightly lower $115 tax will apply to most Anderson Valley homeowners in the Anderson Valley Community Services District).

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors has repeal of the fee on its Legislative agenda: “Repeal of State Responsibility Area (SRA) fire prevention fees (pursuant to ABX1 29; Chaptered by the Secretary of State; Chapter 8, Statutes of 2011/12 First Extraordinary Session) imposing fire prevention fees within State Responsibility Areas (SRA) served by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.” But so far nothing has come of this item. Legislation to repeal or change the fee has been introduced in the state Legislature but hasn’t been passed out of any committee.

For more information go to the Jarvis group’s website: http://firetaxprotest.org/

Or the state’s tax board fire prevention fee website: http://www.firepreventionfee.org/

========================================================

Chesbro

STATE ASSEMBLYMAN WES CHESBRO will be term-limited out of office as of December 1, 2014. He has milked the taxpayers of California for 16 years since first being elected out of obscurity as the wine industry’s state senator in 1998, succeeding wine industry state senator Mike Thompson when Thompson was elected to represent the wine industry in the House of Representatives in Washington DC. Chesbro, who was born in Glendale then came north with the northcoast hippie invasion in the 1970s, has a degree in “Organizational Behavior” from the University of San Francisco. Then he “attended” Humboldt State classes in “natural resources.” According to his own website Chesbro’s complete “professional experience” is: “Director, Arcata Community Recycling Center, 1971-1972.” Under “organizations” Chesbro lists: Member, California Integrated Waste Management Board, 1990-1998, 2007-2008; 
Founding Member, California Integrated Waste Management Board, 1990-1998
; Vice Chair, Western States Recycling Coalition, 1995-1997; 
Member, Board of Directors, County Supervisors Association of California, 1988-1990
; Member, Humboldt County Child Welfare Advisory Board, 1986-1990; 
Member, Humboldt Health Planning Council, 1985-1990
; Member, Humboldt Transit Authority Board, 1982-1990; 
Member, Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention, Humboldt County, 1983-1990
; Member, Board of Directors, Redwood Natural History Association, 1986-1990; 
Member, Redwood Empire Division, League of California Cities, 1978
; Member, Northcoast Environmental Center, 1971-1974; 
Co-Founder, Arcata Community Recycling Center, 1971
; Member, Multiple Sclerosis Society; 
Co-Founder, Northcoast Environmental Center
; Member, Board of Directors, Open Door Community Health Systems Centers
; Member, United Methodist Church.”

It would be hard to find a less distinguished background for a politician since most of these “memberships” are in positions nobody else applied for. Chesbro leveraged his Arcata Recycling experience to get elected to the Arcata City Council in 1974, then somehow got elected Humboldt County Supervisor in 1980, lasting there until 1990.

Upon assuming his senate office in 1998, Chesbro proposed a bill that would benefit one (1) person — Francis Ford Coppola — by describing “certain” wine-selling restaurants so narrowly that a sharp reporter at the Sacramento Bee noticed that Chesbro’s Bill would have applied only to Coppola (a big Chesbro campaign contributor) and his small wine/restaurant chain. When the Bee published their story, Chesbro quickly withdrew the Coppola bill in insufficient disgrace. Chesbro spent eight years as state senator, then after being term-limited out he was appointed by his Democratic Party pals to the state’s Integrated Waste Management Board where he did nothing but attend a few meetings for over $100k a year until former assemblyperson Patti Berg was term limited out as this area’s assemblyperson. Chesbro immediately ran for that office with the backing of Party Boss Mike Thompson and won automatically in a district that would elect Charles Manson if Manson could somehow get the endorsement of Mike Thompson.

LAST MONTH ARCATA RESIDENT HEZEKIAH ALLEN announced that he intended to run as a Democrat for Chesbro’s assembly seat. We don’t know the young Mr. Allen that well, but simply on the strength that his announcement that he intended to run does not mention wine, he’s already made it clear that he’d be an improvement over Chesbro.

* * *

Hezekiah Allen Officially Announces Candidacy for Assembly District 2

June 6, 2013 – 7:57pm

Non-Profit Executive and Small Businessman with Local Roots Running to Create Jobs and Serve as a Strong Voice for Small Towns and Rural Communities

Allen

(Arcata, CA)— Today, Hezekiah Allen, a non-profit executive and small businessman announced he will be a candidate for State Assembly District 2 in the June 2014 primary. Allen, a Democrat, is campaigning to replace Assemblymember Wes Chesbro, who will be termed out in 2014.

“The people of our District are innovative, hardworking, and independent. They have a unique perspective and unique values, and deserve a strong voice in Sacramento,” says Allen. “Our next Assemblymember must be a leader who understands the District and listens to different perspectives, who can bring people together and serve as a strong voice for the North Coast’s small towns and rural communities in Sacramento. I am that leader.”

Allen is running on a platform of creating good jobs for the North Coast, natural resource and environmental stewardship, and reinvesting in education.

“I will lead our District toward a time when we don’t have to choose between a prosperous economy and a healthy environment,” says Allen. “I’ll invest in the recovery of natural resources, restoring fisheries and forests and the jobs they sustain. I’ll reduce unnecessary regulations, to empower businesses and farmers to create jobs and get goods to market. And I’ll invest in our schools, increase local control of education, and expand vocational programs, so students can be prepared for successful careers.”

Born and raised in rural Humboldt County, Allen says he has a commitment to the community and its people that is deeper than any ideology.

“I want to represent the people of this District, not any political agenda, not any big moneyed special interests,” says Allen. “I want to ensure that those of us who live in some of California’s most rural places are not forgotten as distant conversations in Sacramento continue to shape the way we live and work.”

Allen lives in Arcata and serves as Executive Director of the Mattole Restoration Council, an organization committed to watershed restoration-based economic development.

Under Allen’s leadership, the Council was a finalist for the International Riverprize, one of the world’s most prestigious environmental awards. The organization also won an award from the Governor of California for bringing communities together to create jobs and protect the environment.

As a Humboldt County General Plan Update Working Group facilitator, Allen is currently building consensus and promoting public participation around land use policies that will affect us for generations.

And as a Boardmember of the Institute of Sustainable Forestry, Executive Committee Member of the California Northern Region Land Trust Council, and advisor to the North Coast Environmental Center, Allen is working to help these organizations develop long term strategic plans to ensure their success.

Allen also runs a local small business that provides land use, water storage, fuel reduction, and forest management consultation and services, and works as a facilitator, helping opposing parties resolve their conflicts.

California’s 2nd State Assembly District covers the state’s North Coast. It stretches from the California-Oregon border down through northern and coastal Sonoma County. It is one of the most rural districts in the state. The District includes all of Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, and Trinity Counties, and approximately 40% of Sonoma County, including the cities of Cloverdale and Healdsburg, the town of Windsor, and the northern portion of the city of Santa Rosa.

The primary election is set for June 2014. The top two vote getters will then head to the general election in November 2014.

========================================================

Rodin

MARI RODIN of the Ukiah City Council is leaving the Council for a government blah-blah job in Monterey County. Bowing out with Mendo-Typical solipsistic effusion, Rodin said her “work with the city has been a gift that changed my life, shaped my thinking, expanded my appreciation of local government” and similar arias to ME ME ME ME ME.

IN FACT, she leaves the city a cool mil in debt, administratively top-heavy and an estranged public muttering that the city has been destabilized by the self-serving crackpots.

========================================================

JOHN SAKOWICZ WRITES: The City of Ukiah has noticed a Special Meeting on July 10, which will be a closed session with City Manager Jane Chambers and all department heads, presumably to talk about labor contract negotiations. Let us hope this will be the time that the City Council begins to deal with its $1 million structural deficit by cutting some of the 18 positions that were funded, in whole or in part, by the now-dissolved RDA.

http://cityofukiah.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=19

========================================================

CALIFORNIA PRISONERS SET TO HUNGER STRIKE JULY 8

Press Contact: Isaac Ontiveros

Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition

Ph: 510.444.0484

Who: Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition

What: California Prisoners Begin 3^rd Peaceful Hunger Strike and Work Actions

When: Monday, July 8, 2013, 11am

Where: Elihu Harris CA State Office Building, 1515 Clay St, Oakland.

Oakland—Family members, advocates, and lawyers will announce their support for the peaceful hunger strike and job actions beginning today throughout the California prisons starting on Monday July 8. Prisoners have been clear since January that they are willing to starve themselves unless the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) agrees to negotiate honestly about their demands.

On June 20, prisoners being held in solitary confinement at the notorious Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit describe their actions:

“The principal prisoner representatives from the PBSP SHU Short Corridor Collective Human Rights Movement does hereby present public notice that our nonviolent peaceful protest of our subjection to decades of indefinite state-sanctioned torture, via long term solitary confinement will resume today, consisting of a hunger strike/work stoppage of indefinite duration until CDCR signs a legally binding agreement meeting our demands, the heart of which mandates an end to long-term solitary confinement (as well as additional major reforms).

Our decision does not come lightly. For the past (2) years we’ve patiently kept an open dialogue with state officials, attempting to hold them to their promise to implement meaningful reforms, responsive to our demands. For the past seven months we have repeatedly pointed out CDCR’s failure to honor their word—and we have explained in detail the ways in which they’ve acted in bad faith and what they need to do to avoid the resumption of our protest action.

On June 19, 2013, we participated in a mediation session ordered by the Judge in our class action lawsuit, which unfortunately did not result in CDCR officials agreeing to settle the case on acceptable terms. While the mediation process will likely continue, it is clear to us that we must be prepared to renew our political non-violent protest on July 8th to stop torture in the SHUs and Ad-Segs of CDCR.

Thus we are presently out of alternative options for achieving the long overdue reform to this system and, specifically, an end to state-sanctioned torture, and now we have to put our lives on the line via indefinite hunger strike to force CDCR to do what’s right.

We are certain that we will prevail…. the only questions being: How many will die starvation-related deaths before state officials sign the agreement?

The world is watching!”

While the CDCR has claimed to have made reforms to its SHU system—how a prisoner ends up in the solitary units, for how long, and how they can go about getting released into the general population—prisoners’ rights advocates and family members point out that the CDCR has potentially broadened the use of solitary confinement, and that conditions in the SHUs continue to constitute grave human rights violations. The California prison system currently holds over 10,000 prisoners in solitary confinement units, with dozens having spent more than 20 years each in isolation. Conditions in Pelican Bay State Prison’s SHU sparked massive waves of hunger strikes in 2011 that saw the participation of 12,000 prisoners in at least a third of California’s 33 prisons.

For more information visit: https://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/

WINE TASTING

By Howard Belkamp

Ramblin’ around this dirty old town

Scroungin’ for nickels and dimes

Times getting rough I ain’t got enough

To buy me a bottle of wine

Bottle of wine, fruit of the vine

When you gonna let me get sober

Leave me alone, let me go home

Let me go back and start over

Little hotel, older than Hell

Cold and as dark as a mine

Blanket so thin, I lie there and grin

Buy me little bottle of wine

Aches in my head, bugs in my bed

Pants so old that they shine

Out on the street, tell the people I meet

Won’cha buy me a bottle of wine

— Tom Paxton

* * *

Have you noticed, we don’t have the term “wino” anymore?

It was around 1978 when I had my first and only Northern California “wine-tasting” experience. We were driving north to Willits, to visit Jim Gibbons, the poet, athlete, sportswriter and all-around not-very-nice person who was busy becoming famous for being able to run long distances without dropping dead, and for writing stories offensive enough to get him fired from certain positions in the local education establishment.

We got as far as northern Sonoma or southern Mendocino, I can’t remember which, when, having recently switched from amphetamine addiction to alcoholism, I realized it was time for a drink. No bars or liquor stores were in sight, but just around the next curve a winery appeared. The sign said, “Tasting Room.” My wife rolled her eyeballs when I said, “Let’s drop in for a taste,” but she didn’t hesitate to join me. In the parking lot, I combed my hair and straightened my clothes in hopes of creating the illusion that I was a sophisticated, classy sort of person, the kind who discriminates carefully in matters such as wine selection.

The winery itself was an impressive building — very large and very clean, and occupying some very expensive real estate — obviously designed for the sophisticated, classy sort of person. No doubt about it, our car, a beat-up ‘65 Valiant, was the crummiest one there and looked cheap indeed next to the shiny new Winnebagos and luxury sedans.

The Tasting Room looked more like a bar than I’d expected, but a classy bar, lined with well-dressed people from the shiny cars. Nervously, thinking someone would spot me for a freeloading drunk, I eased up to the bar and in a discriminating manner read the labels on the bottles available for “tasting.” The bored-looking bartender walked over, looked at me and said nothing.

I now noticed that of all the available wines, none had a date, a vintage, or a recognizable wine-snob name. Picking one at random, I said, “I’d like to try this one, please,” as if really caring about anything but a free drink. The bartender produced a very small glass and poured my selection. I took a sip. It was junk, barely better than Thunderbird, Annie G-Strings or Night Train Express. Now there’s a powerful potion. My friend Buck drank a bottle of Night Train once and proceeded to get a can of gasoline and set his mattress on fire. At least he got it out of the house first.

Finishing the small glass of swill quickly, I scanned the other bottles and realized they were all equally low-grade material, but if I “tasted” all of them I might get a decent buzz on. The bartender did his duty as I moved down the line. Eventually I began to see the other “tasters” more clearly. Their new clothes and shiny vehicles were one thing, but their faces were a whole other story. They were a bunch of sots — wheezy, watery-eyed inebriates — here for the exact same reason as I was, a free dose of their drug of choice, and despite their expensive possessions, closer in mind and spirit to skid-row bums than wine connoisseurs.

I laughed out loud, realizing that unlike upper-class wine tasting sessions, there was really not much pretense going on here at all. This was all about nothing but drinking for free.

After sampling every bottle, we hit the road again. My wife drove, having imbibed only moderately. Leaving our tourist friends inside to repeat their samplings again and again, we knew we’d never view a retired couple in an RV or a northern California Wine Tasting room in quite the same light again.

2013 update

During my two years of involvement on internet dating sites, I was shocked at the number of women who named wine tasting as one of their favorite activities. One of my acquaintances in Portland drank a lot of wine and “loves” wine tastings. Her alcohol addiction was covered with a fine veneer of what she regarded as sophistication, as though drinking wine wasn’t really drinking; rather, it was an expression of refined taste. A divorced woman, she also played around with dating sites but remarked that the “caliber” of men available in these venues was not up to her standards. I was such a man, thank goodness, and suspect this woman would be almost deliriously at home anywhere on the 101 corridor from Santa Rosa to Ukiah, where there are enough wine tasting rooms to drink oneself into oblivion while navigating to the next sophisticated gourmet experience.

========================================================

STATE COMMISSION REPORT SNUBS 101 INTERCHANGE

By Daniel Mintz

The California Department of Transportation’s Arcata-Eureka Highway 101 improvement project has been deemed at odds with state law due to its most expensive aspect.

A staff report for the July 10 state Coastal Commission meeting describes the 101 project’s $23 million interchange at the Indianola Cutoff as being inconsistent with the California Coastal Act. The Commission staff’s recommendation is to deny certification of Coastal Act consistency, which Caltrans needs to do the project.

The Commission hearing won’t be held on July 10, however, as Caltrans has heeded calls for holding it in Humboldt County. It’s been postponed until September, when the Commission meets in Eureka, said Caltrans Public Information Officer Scott Burger.

He added that “the agenda change will better accommodate local public participation” and the commission staff report is “under review.”

Burger said Caltrans has no further comment. The agency has launched what Burger described as a “news and information blog” about the project at eurekaarcatacorridor.wordpress.com.

The commission staff report focuses on the interchange and states that it fails to comply with the Coastal Act. The interchange will displace wetlands and according to the staff report, its purpose doesn’t justify it because the goal is to expand traffic capacity instead of better accommodating existing traffic levels.

The staff report acknowledges that the project’s intent is to improve safety but it states that a less environmentally-damaging alternative is available — installing a traffic signal at Indianola. Growth inducement, sea level rise, visual impact and bicycle and pedestrian safety are also highlighted as concerns.

The findings were announced in a June 28 press release from Humboldt Baykeeper and the North Coast Environmental Center. It points out that the Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG) approved using regional state funding for the 101 project but the cities of Arcata, Fortuna and Rio Dell dissented.

In 2011, the HCAOG majority approved half of the funding Caltrans needs to build the interchange. The plan is to build half of it and then apply for the funding needed to finish it. At the time, the Coastal Commission’s staff had indicated that the interchange wouldn’t jibe with the Coastal Act.

In the press release, Jen Kalt, Humboldt Baykeeper’s policy director, said filling in wetlands is only allowable for “very specific purposes — and an interchange isn’t one of them.” She adds that “this is something Caltrans has been informed of before and yet they continue to pursue the interchange.”

In an interview, Kalt was asked her thoughts about why the agency is persisting. Noting that Caltrans has “proceeded with lots of very controversial projects in recent years,” Kalt said the agency seems unconcerned about public comment on project costs, coastal access and bicycle/pedestrian access.

“They’re a road-building agency, obviously — we’ve seen a little bit of change but it’s very slow to change,” she added.

A Coastal Commission denial will force a reappraisal of the project and Kalt said that outcome is no surprise. “I think that privately, many of the public officials who voted to support funding this project have believed from the beginning that the Coastal Commission would deny the interchange,” she continued.

“The unfortunate reality is that all over California, local officials pass the buck to the Coastal Commission to protect the coast,” said Kalt.

Northcoast Environmental Center Executive Director Dan Ehresman is also quoted in the press release and he said that the interchange would be accompanied by median closures, leading to increased traffic speeds. That would make the Humboldt Bay stretch of 101 — which is designated by Caltrans as part of the Pacific Coast Bicycle Route — less safe for bicyclists, he continued.

Also in the release, Jessica Hall, Humboldt Baykeeper’s executive director, describes Caltrans’ other project alternatives as “undeveloped” and says the agency needs to “explore more realistic solutions.”

========================================================

Dr. Courtney

ACCORDING TO THE FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE website: “Dr. William J. Courtney is an evangelist for the medicinal use of non-psychoactive, RAW cannabis. Cannabis aka hemp is not psychoactive unless it is dried, cooked or burned, prior to ingestion. While still raw, however it does not affect the cognition or motor skills of its user and therefore, it can be taken in doses 60 times greater than burned cannabis. It is at these doses that cannabis becomes among the most anti- inflammatory compounds ever discovered, that has been proven to cure skin- and ovarian cancer, with medicinal applications for dozens of illnesses. Courtney believes that hemp/cannabis needs to be re-cast as a green, leafy vegetable that should be consumed every day as a nutritional supplement, preferably juiced, by those afflicted by painful inflammatory conditions like arthritis, IBS, etc. Dr. Donald Abrams, MD, Chief Hematology and Oncology at San Francisco General Hospital asserts that if cannabis were just discovered in the Amazon, people would be clamoring to make uses out of it. Instead, it suffers from the stigma of a “street drug” and worse — from the stiff legal sanctions against its possession or use in many states and countries. Courtney says that the FDA, which owns a patent on cannabis, recognizing its medicinal value should change its current status as a Schedule I narcotic with no accepted medical uses, as these two positions are in stark contradiction with one another.

========================================================

A DAYLIGHT HOME INVASION in Hopland early Friday evening was said to have been committed by three black men who’d fled a home invasion at Hopland and took off south on 101 about 6pm. The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department alerted police agencies to be on the lookout for three black men heading south on 101 in a black Dodge Challenger. Cloverdale Police soon saw the car rocket past them on 101 and gave chase at a top speed estimated at 125mph. The fugitives abandoned the Challenger near Alderbrook due west of central Healdsburg. A house-to-house search that included a helicopter, three canine teams and some one hundred officers found only a duffel bag, which may or may not have contained marijuana.

UPDATE: Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputies located one suspect around 11pm Friday night and took him into custody. That suspect, later identified as Gregory Ladel Jenkins Jr., was positively identified by a victim as being one of the robbery suspects. At approximately 5:30am Saturday morning two more individuals thought to be suspects were detained by Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputies and were transported to Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies. One of the suspects, identified as Michael Edwin Steele, was positively identified by one of the robbery victims. The third subject was later determined to have responded from Stockton, California at the request of Michael Edwin Steele, advising he had been robbed when he was trying to purchase marijuana in Santa Rosa. The third subject was unaware Michael Edwin Steele was being sought by law enforcement in regards to the Hopland robbery. After corroborating the third subject’s statement, he was released without charges. Sonoma County Law Enforcement agencies were advised to be on the lookout for the third suspect who fled from the Dodge Challenger and is outstanding at this time. Gregory Laden Jenkins Jr. and Michael Edwin Steele were booked into the Mendocino County Jail and were to be held on $250,000 bail. The investigation into the Hopland robbery is ongoing and anyone with information is urged to contact the Sheriff’s Office Tip-Line by calling 707-234-2100.

========================================================

FOUNDER OF THE BOHO GROVE PROTESTS, MARY MOORE, INFORMS US THAT THERE WILL BE NO ORGANIZED DEMONSTRATIONS THIS YEAR:

For those who may have received information to the contrary, there will be no organized protest this year at the exclusive, all male, Bohemian Grove this July. There were some advanced proposals being considered about a “Squeaky Wheels” protest on July 20 which would have focused on the recent government sequester cuts which are disproportionately affecting the disabled, elderly and poor populations of this country. Because of internet confusion many people have not understood that this event was only a proposal and is not being planned.

Upcoming Movie Based On Bohemian Grove: In 2012 a movie production company based in Texas attended and filmed portions of the Cremation Of Care event filmed in Monte Rio for the 2012 protest. Bumbershoot Productions recently finished it’s second movie script after extensive research into why there have been protests for over three decades at this yearly July gathering along the Russian River in Monte Rio. They are now in casting and looking forward to a release in a year or so. The characters are fictional but based on the dynamics of the Bohemian Grove. Sponsored by the Bohemian Grove Action Network, protests at this annual two week encampment of the elite males from the Corporate, Financial, Military and Governmental circles began in 1980 when a network of anti nuclear groups researched WHO was profiting from the issue of nuclear power and weapons. While many issues have been raised since then the focus has always been on the Lakeside Talks given twice daily during their encampment. These talks are often on subjects that affect public policy without any public scrutiny. To see some highlights from over the years please visit the link below which will take you from 2003 all the way back to 1980.

========================================================

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace — business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred. I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master.” — Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1936

========================================================

THERE’S NO WAY to spin this as a good thing — but it’s important what manner of bad messages are imparted. First off, a no-brainer: The data reveals that the number of San Francisco city residents not visiting the ER in a drunken haze has dropped from 9,957 out of 10,000 to 9,939. So, yes, alcohol-fueled visits have jumped by 42% (scary). But the overall rate has only risen from 0.4% to 0.6% (less so). The other conclusion is that San Francisco likely isn’t housing a greater number of alcoholics than in yesteryear, but, rather, the city’s alcoholics are drinking themselves into stupors more aggressively. 26,000 people spent time in a San Francisco “sobering center” by the end of 2011 or, the stat broken down, only 7,500 individuals. Roughly 80% of the people sent to the sobering center are repeat clients; 80% of them had a history of homelessness.

========================================================

ON THE FOURTH OF JULY at about 8:19pm, Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office received a radio call for service regarding a physical assault in the 100 block of Main Street in Point Arena. Deputies arrived at approximately 9pm and contacted the victim, Timothy Hall. Hall told Deputies that the suspect, Janet Guess (aka “Janet Planet”), had entered his home and demanded that he give her his prescription medications. After Hall refused to provide Guess with his prescription medications, Guess took possession of Hall’s cane and struck Hall in the head causing a minor visible injury. Hall was able to take the cane away from Guess after a brief struggle. Guess continued to demand Hall’s medications then attacked Hall by striking him several times with closed fists. Guess then left the location and Hall called 911. Deputies contacted Guess who was subsequently arrested for attempted robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse and ultimately transported to the Mendocino County Jail where she was booked to be held in lieu of $150,000 bail. (Sheriff’s Press Release)

========================================================

BOOZE IN MENDO: Menace Or Cash Cow?

by Mark Scaramella

Cash cow, of course. And a sacred one, too.

Reinhard

The Board of Supervisors was not kindly disposed to Meredyth Reinhard’s presentation on Tuesday, June 18. An austere-looking woman whose spiel made her doubly reminiscent of Carrie Nation, Miss Reinhard, of the County’s Public Health Department, spent about half an hour reading a powerpoint presentation aimed at informing Mendo’s booze-friendly leadership that there’s lots of drinking going on, much of it “excessive.” We also know that we have lots of places to buy liquor not including the many roadside wine boutiques, and we know that many underage people drink heavily.

According to Ms. Reinhard confirming statistics:

In 2010 there were 793 arrests for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) in Mendocino County.

In 2010 there were 46 arrests for underage drinking in Mendocino County.

Mendocino County has been consistently among the state’s leaders over the past five years in collisions resulting in injuries or fatalities that are alcohol-related.

And, Mendocino County has had alarmingly higher rates of aggravated assaults linked to alcohol consump­tion given its population of less than a hundred thousand people.

“The evidence shows,” she said, “that a high density of alcohol outlets corresponds with a proportional increase in alcohol related violence, underage drinking, and driving after drinking. The number of alcohol outlets in Mendocino County per capita is over twice the average in the State of California.”

Ms. Reinhard suggested conditional use permits to regulate the number, location and “operational practices” of new alcohol outlets and to provide “responsible beverage service training” to bartenders, clerks and tasting rooms.

But associating the County’s drinking problem with the number of booze outlets in the County is a non-starter in a wine-dependent economy like Mendocino County’s and, sure enough, Ms. Reinhard’s neo-temperance pitch prompted some ill-tempered griping from not just the Board of Supervisors, but Sheriff Allman too.

Allman wasted no time launching a perp-like interrogation.

“How much money were you provided for this survey?”

Reinhard: “The seed money that we received back in 2010 was $5,000. The money that has kept this project going for sustainability comes from the federal level down to the states. It’s substance abuse prevention fund­ing.”

Allman: “I’m sorry I didn’t get my question answered.”

Reinhard, who seems to possess a rather daring sense of humor, responded as if talking to a child, emphasizing each word.

“Substance … abuse … prevention … funding.”

Allman: “So, that’s…?”

Board Chair Dan Hamburg: “Mr. Sheriff, would you mind directing your comments to the Chair?”

Allman: “I’m sorry. I certainly have respect for Public Health. I certainly have respect for their employees. I certainly appreciate a good working relationship on many projects. However, this is not one. This isn’t a project where law enforcement was contacted for our statistics or the number of enforcement actions we take. The number of arrests we make. We did have a meeting after the report was prepared. With all due respect to Public Health, and I apologize if I am offending any­body, but I am disappointed by this presentation…”

Allman went on to point out the statistical anomalies implicit in comparing vast Mendo with other rural counties, especially given Mendo’s vast geography.

Then it was the Board’s turn to jump on Ms. Reinhard.

Supervisor John Pinches, apparently speaking from direct experience, “Your report here shows Trinity County has the highest density of alcohol outlets. You can drive in Trinity County for over two hours and not find a place to buy a sixpack of beer. So that’s very skewed.”

The normally unflappable Supervisor Carre Brown seemed upset too.

“I personally would like to caution County staff about the release of such a survey prior to a presentation before this body. To me it shows a lack of respect for us and a lack of courtesy. My first indication of the results came in newspaper articles back in April [when the Pub­lic Health department first issued their press release on the outlet density study]. I had not read them yet. I didn’t even know they were there until my telephone started ringing. People were very upset and not very happy about how that came out, how it was presented.”

Supervisor Brown’s calls undoubtedly came from the County’s wine lobby. It leaps into full alert at the slightest hint of regulating the roadside wine bars called tasting rooms which, of course, are magically considered “agriculture,” Ms. Brown’s primary constituency.

Ms. Brown went on at length about how far you have to drive in Potter Valley find a commercial drink, concluding, “I think that the influence you have is best done by education — educate not regulate.”

Ukiah Emergency Room doctor and former County Public Health officer, Dr. Marvin Trotter, felt compelled to offer a few disjointed, wholly irrelevant, but entertainingly grisly anecdotes about treating alcoholics.

Trotter

“You can smell them before you go into the room,” said Trotter. “People vomiting blood and defecating blood have a very distinct odor. Fortunately I don’t have a very good sense of smell. [O thank the goddesses for that, doctor.] When you have cirrhosis, you develop large varicose veins at the bottom of your esophagus next to your stomach that is under pressure. When they break open it’s a lot of trouble. Our surgeons have a difficult time clipping them with small metal staples trying to stop the bleeding. I find it very hard to get a stomach pump tube down someone’s throat when they are vomiting blood.”

Trotter, by now waist deep in gore, rattled on into a vague tale about a drop-fall Hopland drunk.

“It was raining very hard New Year’s Eve. The ambulance could not get to the house directly because some of the roads were flooded in Hopland where she lived. When she finally arrived at the emergency room she no longer had a pulse and had flat lined. I stopped the code at that time. The gunshot wound to her left chest was small as were her two children. He said it was an accident while celebrating New Year’s Eve. We call them pumpkins. The men look especially strange as if they were 10 months pregnant, orange with small breasts. At times you have to clean the skin very well between your right rib margin and your hip bone because any bacteria in the abdomen with all the fluids causes a fatal peritonitis. You numb the skin and then poke a hole through with a large needle about the size of a pencil and then hook that up to a vacuum bottle. I stop at ten bottles because I don’t want to cause shock.”

Doctor Trotter held up a quart-sized plastic bottle that that was supposed to demonstrate how much fluid he was referring to — not how much booze had to be consumed.

The supervisors seemed nonplussed at these macabre revelations, not that the doctor seemed to notice the effect his remarks were having.

“Every shift I work in the emergency department has to do with alcohol. Alcohol, alcohol, alcohol. I rarely see problems with marijuana, cocaine or heroin. Metham­phetamines, yes. Opiates, yes. They are all dwarfed by alcohol. I just came from a meeting of 17 physicians and nurse practitioners who ask you not to approve any more outlets. And talking to the charge nurse, he said today, More outlets? That’s ridiculous. Why don’t you make it cheaper also?”

Ms. Reinhard’s boss, Linda Helland, Prevention Supervisor, replying to Pinches and the Sheriff, said, “Nobody has said the word prohibition. What we are focusing on is excessive drinking, not moderate drinking. I want that to remain clear. I want to thank the Sheriff for all that he’s done. His office has done a lot of great work on enforcing alcohol laws and we have worked together in several instances and the Sheriff has gotten grants to conduct compliance and I really laud those efforts.

“I’m sure Sheriff Allman will recall that we presented the initial findings from this report to the chiefs meeting in June of 2011 and did invite collaboration and partici­pation at that time. So I hope that we can continue to work together. The sheriff’s office and obviously other law enforcement does fabulous jobs at stopping and solving crime. But this is about going ahead of the game and stopping it before it starts. Regarding the statistics, they are not just based on Mendocino County. They are based on 20 similar counties, so it’s not just looking at the arrest rates in Mendocino County, but it doing a cor­relation with alcoholic density and arrest rates and com­missions for those areas across these 20 counties…”

Ms. Helland continued with her version of the stats, by which time it was long past obvious what little that could be done was being done to get our amok citizens to show some restraint. Anyway, berserk drinking and drugging is, at this point in our darkening history, an existential question having more to do with, “Why are so many people so unhappy that they drink and drug them­selves into medical stupors?”

Supervisor Dan Gjerde had an idea based on his expe­rience in Fort Bragg, at one time home to more bars per capital than any town in America and, in 1969, fea­tured in an alarmed Life magazine story called, “A Town in Trouble” about the frightening preponderance of hard drug users at Fort Bragg High School.

“This is not about wineries, it’s not about restau­rants. This is about basically liquor stores. The concen­tration of those, not just in the rural areas but the con­centration of them in the cities and the urbanized areas as well. This is an issue that involves both the county and cities in Mendocino County. I hope that this presentation goes to the cities besides going to the Board of Supervi­sors. A number of alcohol products that are marketed these days are geared towards children. They are not really marketed towards adults. So, why, knowing that, would we permit the sale of those types of alcohol to the children of Mendocino County? Clearly their intent is to get kids hooked on alcohol so they can make them into alcoholics as they grow into adulthood. It’s pretty obvi­ous that’s what they’re doing. We could simply just pro­hibit the sale of those types of products in Mendocino County. That seems like a simple issue that we could tackle. … I know for a fact that Harvest Market on the coast limited the sale of certain types of alcohol products because they knew it was causing a problem with tran­sients and others who were causing problems in their town and their neighborhoods. I think we need to bring in some of the retailers into the discussion as well to see if they have some suggestions. Why should one retailer do the right thing knowing that their competitor across the street is selling a product that they just stopped sell­ing and causing the problems in their neighborhoods?”

Supervisor John McCowen agreed there was a prob­lem, but that the way to deal with it is not by restricting outlets but — wait for it… — more meetings! “What’s undeniable is that we do have many people in our com­munity who have an alcohol problem. We have a real problem with probably overexposure to youth of alcohol which by the statistics Mendocino County has signifi­cantly more alcohol use by young people, significantly more binge drinking that puts youth at risk for sexual assault, accidental death, a whole list of negative conse­quences. Mendocino County does seem to have a signifi­cantly elevated record of arrests for aggravated assault. I’m sure that a lot of that is alcohol related. So I do appreciate highlighting the issue. I second Supervisor Gjerde’s thoughts on having a collaborative process. I certainly heard the Sheriff say that he was interested in that as well. This is a community problem that does deserve serious attention.”

Supervisor Pinches said the Public Health Depart­ment should spend more time in grammar schools and less time worrying about booze outlets.

“Why isn’t our Health Department putting more pro­grams in our schools? I think we are really shy. That’s something I have been advocating for years, more drug and alcohol programs in our grammar schools, not our high schools. I think we are real shy of that. I have requested that for years and there seems to be a reluc­tance. Why is there such a reluctance to let’s go after the problem? We know the only way it’s going to be solved is through education. Education is what ultimately solves all of our problems, or at least works on them. So why is our Health Department so reluctant to put more of their budget into going after the group of people — when you get to be my age if you’d like to drink booze and whatnot it’s a little bit too late. I don’t think you’re going to change my habits. But maybe we can affect to a better degree our kids in the grammar schools because frankly they are not really learning from their parents because of the statistics of a lot of people drinking. So we have to start young. Let’s go upstream. I would encourage public health — this is budget time. Why don’t we divert some of those dollars into studies and whatnot into something that’s going to have an effect? That would be some drug and alcohol programs in our grammar schools.”

Linda Helland: “Number one, we would love more resources to go into the schools. That would be fantastic. We would really love that.”

Pinches: “I’m not talking about more resources, I’m talking about converting some of your existing millions of dollars you have into drug programs and so forth.”

Helland: “We are not treatment, we are prevention. So we have about $200,000 a year. With that, we do send about two and a half to three full-time people into the schools. We do have people in the schools. It’s woefully inadequate indeed. I wish we had more. But we also need to look at the full spectrum of evidence-based best prac­tices. As I said at the beginning studies have shown that the most cost effective strategies are pairing education with the enforcement — we call them environmental strategies which do involve reducing access. That has been found to be most effective.”

Pinches: “I’d like to have my question answered.”

Stacy Cryer, Director of Health and Human Services (whose husband, Marlon, was famously arrested last year for drunk driving while wearing a sweatshirt that read “Get me drunk and enjoy the show”) came to Ms. Helland’s assistance.

Marlon Cryer, 2012

Cryer: “One of the problems, one of the biggest prob­lems with funding that comes into Public Health, is that it is very siloed [sic], and you have to use it for a specific thing. So if we get a grant to collect specific data then that’s what the money is for, to collect the data, nothing else. We have very little discretionary dollars that come in to the substance abuse program on the pre­vention side. We do use those dollars — at your request actually three or four years ago we started doing some private programs in the elementary primary level educa­tion program in schools and we have replicated that in a couple other schools and I think we are in a couple schools now, or three or four.”

Pinches: “How many elementary schools do you have in this county?”

Cryer: “I totally agree. You have to remember we used to get in the substance abuse program, we got about $700,000 worth of general fund five years ago. Today we get zero. The money going into substance abuse, although it’s the primary problem causing a lot of federal dollars and statewide dollars across the state, there is not much funding coming into the problem. It’s similar to mental health in that way. There’s not a lot of funding that comes into substance abuse. We don’t have very many discretionary dollars. Although we agree with you wholeheartedly on what could solve the problem, we don’t have the money to put into every school. We do what we can. That’s just a reality. I’m sorry for that. … You don’t really do substance-abuse education at the primary level but you can do things like a esteem build­ing and things like that.”

Pinches: “Why don’t you do substance abuse?”

Cryer: “It’s not found to be very effective to be quite honest with you.”

Pinches: “Well, I disagree with that.”

Cryer: “You go to third grade and under, you have to get to the root of the problem that begins to build all of that.”

Pinches: “I don’t want to argue the point, but I dis­agree with that finding. … We have some real problems and it’s showing up here. But I think attacking the amount of outlets we have is the wrong direction.”

Supervisor Dan Hamburg said sarcastically, “I think we are doing a great job of educating our kids that alco­hol is wonderful. Turn on your television set, drive down the highway, it’s all about drink, drink, drink. I totally agree with Supervisor Gjerde about these — it’s like the tobacco industry. It’s the same thing. Create addicts. And then you’ll take the money to the bank for decades to come. We are doing the same thing with alcohol that we use to do with tobacco. I enjoy wine and beer. I’m not a teetotaler by any means. I realize how important alcohol is to this County’s economy. I do doubt whether the issue of outlet density is nearly as important as the culture. It’s a drinking culture. That’s not just Mendocino County with all our wineries. We are that a little more than some counties. Drive up Highway 101. What does the sign say? The first thing it says is wine! Well — duh! That’s a big part of our economy and it’s supported and our kids, as soon as they can read, they know. Or as soon as they can turn on the TV, they know. Watch a football game or a baseball game. It’s not, Open your Bud. It’s grab some Buds. When you sit down to watch a ballgame. It’s not enough to have a beer. You have to grab some Buds. So the whole thing, trying to get a handle on this with the power of the corporate advertising machine is almost impossible in my view. I’m sorry to say that.”

No mention of pot addiction from Supervisor Stoner Dude, and pot is the substance that probably screws up more kids forever than alcohol, especially in Mendocino County.

Supervisor Hamburg wrapped up with some pure blah-blah.

“I would like to see more interdepartmental communi­cation before these presentations come about because I don’t think any of the board members like sit­ting up here and hearing departments argue with each other about whether an issue is important or not. So I just want to mention that.”

The Mendocino County economy is pegged to dope, booze, public employment, and lib-labs getting paid to sit around talking about all three. If dope is legalized and twenty dollar bottles of wine become unaffordable, Mendo will be down to lib-labs getting paid to delude each other.

OUR SUPERVISORS will hold a closed-door meeting Monday at 11am. The agenda includes three items: labor negotiations and two court cases to be discussed with the county’s legal counsel. The first case lists the cities of Ukiah, Fort Bragg and Willits as petitioners who are suing the County and Auditor-Controller Meredith Ford, along with “Does 1-10.” The second case on the agenda is Fifth District Supervisor Dan Hamburg’s lawsuit against the county in his attempt to get the County to allow his family’s burial of his wife, Carrie Hamburg, on the family’s property. The Supes meet in Fort Bragg on Friday the 12th at Town Hall downtown.

========================================================

WHEN LIGHTNING sparked a fire west of Hopland last Thursday night, and a CalFire chopper showed up the next day when smoke made it visible, the bucket chopper passed low over a ridgetop grow where an ag man was tending his crop. In the nude. The ag man dashed for the trees as the chopper gave him a merry blast of its siren, and a good time was had by all.

========================================================

CRAIG STEHR WRITES: Warm spiritual greetings, Today I spent the whole day in Catholic churches in San Francisco. Beginning with 7:30AM mass at the historic St. Patrick’s, and then sat a lengthy meditation at Old St. Mary’s. I walked to the National Shrine of St. Francis, and met with the new rector Fr. Snider. We briefly discussed my need of a spiritual vocation, and he appreciates that I have been active with Catholic Worker for 23 years. We agreed to pray for each other. A visit was then made to the Sts. Peter & Paul church, and I discovered upon leaving that the SF Mime Troupe was performing their new play across the street in Washington Square Park, so I watched “Oil and Water,” realizing that it’s not just my own circumstances which are dire. I’ve got one more week at the Berkeley men’s shelter. I have no idea what I am going to do or where I am going to go. Of course I have sent out hundreds of emails to activist groups saying that I am willing to relocate to continue being involved. Nothing substantive has been received yet. I have given up all hope, and am praying continuously. I ask for your prayers to receive a spiritual vocation, and am as always only seriously interested in doing the will of God. That’s just the way it is with me. Thank you very much, Craig Louis Stehr, Email: craigstehr@hushmail.com Mailing address: c/o NOSCW, P.O. Box 11406, Berkeley, CA 94712-2406.

========================================================

MAJOR CORPORATION execs now make, on average, about 273 times more than the average worker, according to a recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) of the CEO-to-worker pay ratio at top 350 firms. The average pay, EPI found, was $14.1 million in 2012, up 12.7% from 2011. That’s a big change from a half-century ago. In 1965, the CEO-to-worker pay ratio was about 20-to-1, but it grew over the next three decades, and that growth picked up speed in the 90s. It peaked in 2000 before the early 2000s recession, with a CEO-to-worker pay ratio of 383.4-to-1. It hit a lesser peak again in 2007, before the Great Recession, with a ratio of 351.3-to-1. During the recovery, CEO pay has been climbing upward once more. At the same time, for most Americans, wages have remained stagnant at best.

========================================================

THE RISING TIDE OF SUICIDES

The Link Between Suicides & Homicides

By Ralph Nader

“I am sorry that it has come to this.” Thus began the searing suicide note by 30-year-old Iraq War veteran, Daniel Somers on June 10, 2013 to his wife and family.

On the other side of the violent divide are video messages from the suicide bombers — the oft-described “weapon of the weak” against US soldiers and their presumed local collaborators.

In 2012 suicide by active duty American soldiers exceeded the number of US combat deaths in Afghanistan. Why?

In the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, young natives are lining up to become suicide bombers. Why?

For the soldiers’ conditions, there is an acronym — PTSD or post-traumatic stress syndrome. During World War I, it used to be called “shell-shock.” But in the Afghan and Iraq regions, the adversaries are not modern armies armed with “shells” — they have no thunderous artillery, missiles, gunships, tanks fighter planes or drones. They have rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and suicide belts sporadically used. Something else is at work that is causing PTSD.

War correspondent and author, Kevin Sites offers this explanation: “Our understanding of PTSD from a clinical perspective has been that it’s triggered by witnessing a traumatic event that resonates so deeply that it prevents a person from leading a normal life in the aftermath. And so it is the witnessing of the event that causes the problems…. The Veterans Administration (VA) started looking at the connection between killing and post-traumatic stress and found that those soldiers who were involved in killings or who witnessed killings were experiencing a higher degree of post-traumatic stress disorder… It was about the feelings of guilt they had about what they did or witnessed. And the guilt stemmed from two things: the guilt from killing, whether justified in the line of duty or killing a civilian by accident or killing one of your own guys by accident or killing in a war crime — so any kind of killing; the second point was surviving, survivor’s guilt. Their friends died, but they didn’t.”

The VA distilled thousands of interviews in their 2009 report, Moral Injury in the Context of War, to come to their assessment.

Mr. Sites came to the same judgment after his many profiles of returning veterans. In an interview with the Northwestern Alumni Magazine, he said “when we do something that goes against our moral compass — and killing goes against a lot of moral compasses out there — unless you’re a sociopath — we do feel some empathy…. So that idea of participation in something that goes against your moral compass really screws you up. It makes you feel bad, makes you feel guilt and shame.”

But soldiers aren’t supposed to talk about these feelings and don’t, which is why Sites titled his new book The Things They Cannot Say: Stories Soldiers Won’t Tell You About What They’ve Seen, Done or Failed to Do in War (Harper Perennial).

The fact that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were so one-sided in weaponry and so full of casualties of innocent civilians, including children, who never threatened our country, exacerbates these feelings of guilt.

This trauma coursed through the lengthy suicide letter of Daniel Somers who ran more than 400 combat missions as a machine gunner in Iraq during 2004-2005 and later worked with JSOC — Joint Special Operations Command — in Mosul, Iraq.

He writes “to sleep forever seems to be the most merciful thing… During my first deployment, I was made to participate in things, the enormity of which is hard to describe. War crimes, crimes against humanity. Though I did not participate willingly, and made what I thought was my best effort to stop these events, there are some things that a person simply can not come back from…. To force me to do these things and then participate in the ensuing cover-up is more than any government has the right to demand.”

In Daniel Somers’ final message he asks: “And for what? Bush’s religious lunacy? Cheney’s ever growing fortune and that of his corporate friends? Is this what we destroy lives for?”

As for what he called his “actual final mission,” he wrote: “Not suicide, but a mercy killing…. It was quick, and I did not suffer. And above all, now I am free…. I have no more nightmares or flashbacks or hallucinations.”

What of the young suicide bombers who are depicted in their videos as wanting to become martyrs? Western reporters like to say their motivation is to go the Islamic paradise. That is not what University of Chicago professor, Robert Pape found in his extensive research, concluding that their principal motivation was to expel the occupying invader.

Their immense poverty, war-torn devastation of their villages and tribal areas, and the absence of any future, whether of economic survival or personal achievements, was probably also in the mix. Perhaps some money was given to their destitute families in exchange for their attacks.

Whatever the reasons, to dismiss these fighters as sociopaths is to help preclude our own examination of why we are there blowing apart their societies, provoking sectarian revenge cycles, bribing our way everywhere with crates of $100 bills. As a Yemeni villager plaintively asked, after a devastating drone attack that killed many civilians, “Why do you hate us so much?”

Here in the US we better start understanding the rising tide of suicides generally. The Centers for Disease Control totals suicides in 2010 at 38,364 Americans as compared with homicides totaling 16,259. Among the baby boomers, suicides are sharply higher than previous generations, especially since the onset of the recession, unemployment and home foreclosures.

We better starting digging more deeply into the conditioning “whys?” and discounting the traditional explanations of self-hatred and hating us “for our freedoms.”

(Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer and author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us! He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion, published by AK Press. Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition.)

========================================================

HAMBURG’S LATEST END-AROUND

by Bruce McEwen

On Tuesday June 25^th a bench warrant was issued for Matthew Hamburg, the troubled son of Fifth District Supervisor Dan Hamburg. Matthew had bailed on a promise to appear at a hearing that day. He had failed to appear at a previous court date as well back on June 11^th. A bench warrant had been held at that time, at the request from the Public Defender. But in fact, Hamburg wasn’t supposed to have been granted bail at all, since he was the subject of a felony hearing to determine his mental competency to aid in his own defense, and it was speculated in open court that the Hamburg family had intervened in Matthew’s case for “political reasons.”

The case is a kind of local version of the Kennedys in the sense that Dan Hamburg is regionally regarded as the leader of the soft liberalism that prevails on the North­coast. It may be remembered that when she became an embarrassment to the Kennedys’ political ambitions, the disabled Kennedy sister, Rosemarie, was shipped out West to a private institution and given a lobotomy. When the Hamburgs bailed the troubled son Matthew out of jail a few weeks ago, he too was put in a private mental institution and was probably given a prescription for an oral lobotomy — Big Pharma has plenty of ’em.

But on Tuesday the 25^th, the court agreed that the Hamburg’s political interests were being put ahead of Matthew Hamburg’s mental health interests and the warrant was issued.

It has been common knowledge for years that Matthew Hamburg has mental issues, and it is often speculated that his heavy use of marijuana at an early age caused the condition he suffers from.

The latest episode involving him occurred on May 5^th, when Matthew got into some sort of squabble at or near the Frank Zeek School in South Ukiah. He was reportedly using foul language at peak volume and blis­tering the sensitive ears of the young scholars on the playgrounds. The police were called, a chase ensued across town and out the Boonville Road to Shepherds Lane, site of the Hamburg property, where Matthew was finally run to ground and arrested after a scuffle with deputies. He was charged with recklessly evading an officer, a felony.

The case was assigned to Carly Dolan of the Public Defender’s Office and a prelim was set for May 22^nd. Ms. Dolan in the meantime made a motion for a sanity hearing due to her doubts that Mr. Hamburg was men­tally competent to aid in his own defense. This proceeding includes appointments with psychologists to determine whether a person is crazy or not, because, well, in a culture as crazy as ours, only a professional with an office in an old Victorian house on School Street in Ukiah can tell for sure who’s crazy and who’s sane.

Kossow

But before the psychological evaluations could be completed enter Richard Kossow, described as “a visiting judge from Humboldt County.” He may live there now, but the Honorable Richard Kossow was a pioneer stoner who rose from a prolonged interlude of hippie grab ass at the famous Rainbow Commune on Greenwood Road, Anderson Valley, to the Superior Court sinecure he occupies to this day. Judge Kossow, who goes all the way back with Hamburg to the days of full moon boogies, had already granted bail to Matthew Hamburg on the grounds that a conservatorship was underway.

Matthew Hamburg had disappeared.

Someone — presumably a member of the Hamburg family — had bailed Matthew out on a promise to appear on June 25th. But he failed to appear, and the judge handling the case, the Honorable Ann Moorman, wanted an explanation why she shouldn’t issue a bench warrant. Her Honor was also annoyed with a set of orders with political overtones from an undisclosed source.

“I’ve been presented with orders I won’t sign,” Judge Moorman said.

Ms. Dolan wasn’t present, so Public Defender Linda Thompson filled in for Dolan, saying that it was her understanding that Matthew Hamburg had been taken to a private mental health facility and that County Counsel Tom Parker had somehow been involved in making this unique arrangement.

“The case has taken a weird turn, frustrating my office,” Ms. Thompson said. “I suspect something political is going on here. We had no notice his bond had been posted, so he could be taken to North Valley Mental Health on a 5150. But Ms. Dolan was hoping the 1368 (competence hearing) wouldn’t have to be declined.”

Thompson said it was her understanding that Matthew had somehow been found incompetent and his public guardian had asked for a temporary conservatorship.

“Dr. Kelly spoke with Matt and said he’d been restored… somehow. Then Judge Kossow accepted the placement.”

Kelly is also a long time Hamburg supporter.

Judge Moorman said she wasn’t entirely confident as to where Mr. Hamburg was. “But we need him here,” she added, emphatically. “And I won’t sign a placement recommendation.”

Deputy DA Matt Hubley wanted the bail bond forfeited and a bench warrant issued. “There’s a political element here,” he said, “and Dr. Kelly is caught in the middle. The defendant was not going to go back to North Valley.”

The Public Defender said she’d like the warrant held until she could contact the mental health facility and find out if Mr. Hamburg was there or not; and whether or not he was the subject of a conservatorship. DA David Eyster said it was unheard of that a conservatorship would be done when a defendant was the subject of a competency hearing, without first consulting with the DA.

DDA Hubley said, “Let the bench warrant issue and let law enforcement get him here.”

Thompson said, “I talked to Dr. Kelly this morning and he said if he could get the order today, he’d go back to North Valley and talk to him [Matthew Hamburg]. The family and Mental Health made this decision to get him out of here. If the court could hold the warrant until I can talk to ‘the powers that be’ and see if we can get him back here without law enforcement involvement…”

Judge Moorman said she agreed with Ms. Thompson that Matthew Hamburg’s interests were taking a back seat to his  connected family’s interests, and that his father’s political influence had obviously been exerted.

Moorman said, “I have an obligation to keep track of the expenses involved here. He was in court and Judge Kossow found him incompetent and agreed to the placement. Now, I‘m being asked to spend more tax dollars on the same questionable decision.”

Hubley said, “The DA was approached by two county officials asking for the release and placement — this comes at a time when we have other people waiting for those beds, and I don’t see why Mr. Hamburg should receive preference.”

DA David Eyster said, “I’m not sure how it happens that a 1368 felony gets bailed out of jail… I think the court has to forfeit the bond and issue the warrant.”

Judge Moorman said, “I don’t have jurisdiction if I don’t have a body so I’m going to issue the bench warrant in the amount of $35,000. The bail bond is forfeit because the defendant bailed to appear and failed to do so. I am also ordering County Counsel to be here, and I’m considering recalling Judge Kossow’s incompetent ruling. The court has not rescinded the 1368 even though he may have failed to appear intentionally.”

An honest judge is a wonderful thing to see.

WILL PARRISH was released from the County Jail on his own recognizance last Wednesday (July 3rd.) Parrish, also known as Red Tail Hawk, writes on environmental matters for the AVA. He’d been arrested for strapping himself to a piece of CalTrans road building equipment in protest of the Willits Bypass.

========================================================

“KUDOS,” a reader writes, “to Supervisors Dan Hamburg and John McCowen for getting ‘smoked out’ at the World’s Largest Salmon Barbecue in Fort Bragg. Both of them manned the grills, donning bright yellow rubber aprons and rubber gloves, completely sunburnt, covered in grease, completing grueling, six-hour shifts to save the salmon. Hamburg recalled that in earlier years, all the county judges used to come down and take a shift. Apparently the 3,000-plus portions of King Salmon come from Alaska. My boyfriend quipped that the motto for next year’s event should be, ‘Protect and Serve’.”

========================================================

SOME 3,500 PEOPLE turned out at the Green Center at Sonoma State University on the 4th hoping to hear some music and watch some fireworks. The fireworks fizzled, the many kids there strictly for the fireworks were bored by the classical music, the grass was inaccessible to wheelchairs, and lots of people demanded (and got) at least part of their money back. The disabled had to be carried up several flights of stairs to get to the green.

========================================================

SHORTLY before noon Monday, a trench on the Holmes Ranch near Philo caved in, injuring a man. No details yet.

========================================================

THE MENDOCINO COUNTY Republican Central Committee will meet Saturday, July 20, 2013, 10am–Noon at the Henny Penny Restaurant, 697 S. Orchard Ave (corner of Gobbi), Ukiah 95482.  For further information contact: Stan Anderson, 707-321-2592. One possible topic: “Are we as crazy as the liberals say we are, or is it them who’s nuts?”

========================================================

COMMENT OF THE DAY: “I communed with my fellow citizens this Fourth of July weekend for a few hours at a little beach in a Vermont state park. It was a family kind of place. The mommies and daddies were putting on a competitive tattoo display (along with competitive eating). So many skulls, Devil heads, snakes, screaming eagles, flags, and thunderbolts. I suppose they acquire these totem images to ward off some apprehended greater harm, the metaphysically inchoate forces marshalling at the margins of what little normal life remains in this nation of rackets, swindles, and tears. All was nonetheless tranquility, there by the little lakeside, with the weenies grilling and the pop-tops popping. A three-year-old came by where I was working on my tan on a towel in the grass, supine. He asked me if I was dead. Not yet, I told him. Behind him a skull smoking a doobie loomed in blue and red ink on his daddy’s thigh. My people. My country.”

========================================================

DON’T TELL the Mendo Health Department, but there’s a liquor store in San Francisco at 2nd & Balboa called “DRINK LIQUOR” Liquor Store. Been there for years.

========================================================

DRUG WAR OUT OF CONTROL: THE JOHN DALTON CASE

by Alexander Cockburn

(First published in June 1999, and reprinted this week in the hope that our friend, John Dalton, still being held at the federal penitentiary at Lompoc, will soon be free. So far as we know, Dalton has been held longer on marijuana-related charges than any other Mendocino County resident. He’s been in prison now for 17 years, and was already in custody during the hearing Cockburn describes here for The Nation magazine.)

* * *

All those present in a federal courtroom in San Francisco in mid-May were edified by the sight of a federal prosecutor getting off to a faltering start by having to admit that the government’s prime witness and lead investigator — Drug Enforcement Agency special agent Mark Nelson — had committed perjury.

The object of special agent Nelson’s probe has been John Dalton, brought to the courtroom from the federal detention center in Dublin, Calif., to hear his lawyer, Tony Serra, argue before Judge Susan Illston that the DEA’s case against Dalton be dismissed for “outrageous government conduct.” Among such outrageous conduct must undoubtedly be included the fact that special agent Nelson’s perjury stemmed from his efforts to conceal the precise date on which he commenced an amorous relationship with Dalton’s wife, Victoria Horstman.

Here, in other words, is a saga that gives us the government’s war on drugs at its ripest malevolence, for which I’m indebted to Mark Heimann, who compiled the incredible tale from court documents for a recent series in the Anderson Valley Advertiser, the weekly newspaper in Mendocino County, Northern California.

Let’s return to 1985. Dalton is living with his first wife on an 80-acre parcel in Mendocino County, some four hours’ drive up 101 from San Francisco. This is pot-growing country. About 4:00 in the afternoon, bullets start raining down on the cabin, and Dalton sneaks out to the ridge where the shots are coming from. At this point, he’s bushwacked by five men in camouflage, who beat him senseless.

He comes to, face in the dirt, to find his assailants are from the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, better known as CAMP. These are teams of federal, state and local cops. They ask him if he’s a marijuana grower. Dalton says no and that he will sue. Sheriff’s Deputy Charlie Bone, who’s dislocated his finger in the encounter, tells Dalton that they know he’s a pot grower and that his troubles are only beginning.

Within eight hours of the arrest, the charges against Dalton are dropped, and though an attorney tells him he could collect big time, Dalton reckons the safe course is to do nothing.

In 1992, Dalton, a brilliant mechanic favored by the hot-rod set, embarks on a relationship with Victoria (Tori) Horstman. They are married a year later in Las Vegas.

The Dalton-Horstman menage is not tranquil. Dalton calls the police from time to time to restore order, and though Horstman claims her husband is a brute, her own 19-year-old son has testified, most recently in Judge Illston’s courtroom, that John was “a very mellow man” and a good dad, and that his mother was a mean drunk.

Horstman is a wanna-be cop, consorts with cops and by 1994 is passing bank deposit slips from her husband’s machine shop to DEA special agent Mark Nelson, who forthwith signs her up as a DEA source, SR3-94-0054. Horstman has also become romantically involved with agent Nelson, initial overtures having been made in a DEA safe house, where, according to a sworn statement by Horstman, “Agent Nelson gave me a beer, and later, we kissed and fondled each other. I do want to make it clear agent Nelson considered me at all times his personal possession and got angry if I ever talked with other DEA agents.” Among Nelson’s other possessions are three children and a pregnant wife.

Nelson successfully presses Horstman to spy on her husband. On at least two occasions, she allows Nelson to search the house while Dalton is at work. Whenever she demurs, the DEA agent threatens to charge her with money laundering on Dalton’s behalf. The most vivid episode in this sequence comes in September 1994, during a big fed/state/local enforcement drive against marijuana gardens in the area of Mendocino County. Nelson and a colleague seek out Horstman with the request that she place a “special FBI tape recorder” behind the headboard of her marital bed. Dalton duly returns home and describes the raids to wife and tape recorder, with the latter instrument soon returned by Horstman to Nelson.

Despite the surveillance, the DEA never gets a shred of evidence linking Dalton to marijuana growing. Thus balked, they turn to the drug war’s favored tool, a snitch. Two, in fact. Using the statements of these snitches — one with prior convictions for perjury and fraud — they seize all Dalton’s property for forfeiture, on the grounds that such property is the fruit of illegal labor. After the raid, Nelson oversees Horstman’s separation from Dalton; he and five feds load up a U-Haul with Horstman’s stuff while Dalton is out. When Dalton finds out Horstman is in Blaine, Wash., and goes north to patch up their marriage, Horstman informs Nelson, who himself hurries north with eavesdropping equipment. Horstman rejects Dalton’s overtures and ultimately divorces him at the urging of Nelson, who even drives her to the lawyer’s office to sign the final papers.

On Sept. 27, 1996, the Feds arrest Dalton, on the basis of a secret federal grand jury indictment, charging him with marijuana cultivation and witness tampering. Among the witnesses against him is the operator of a speed lab facing a life term but rewarded for his testimony with a 10-year sentence. Denied bail, Dalton has been in prison for nearly two years, awaiting trial. He’s suing the feds for $44.8 million for outrageous conduct. The feds’ last desperate throw in the dismissal suit was rich with effrontery, seeking to paint Dalton as an abusive husband. At time of writing, Judge Illston is considering whether to dismiss the case.

What this has to do with marijuana cultivation is unclear. Even if Illston doesn’t dismiss, it’s hard to imagine a jury failing to agree with Serra that in its war on drugs the government is running amok.

========================================================

HERE IN DENVER I haven’t yet personally encountered any Political Correctness. But in this neighborhood, diversity we’ve got. Next door is a black man and his Jewish rabbi wife, and they are right across the street from the young gay Mexican fellow. More Spanish than English is spoken on this block. This is what used to be commonly called a “mixed” neighborhood, and that’s what it is. If it were transported to Marin County, it would be “diverse” in PC terms but more realistically considered “ghetto.” No one on this very “diverse” street appears to be the slightest bit concerned with the notion of PC. People are too busy living for such nonsense.

If memory serves adequately, I seem to recall that PC is something occurring almost exclusively among middle class white people, most of whom have been exposed to one or another post-60′s New Age sort of thing, from “experimenting” with marijuana before it became mainstream — espresso and wine are the drugs of choice now — to gurus from India, the likes of Wavy Gravy and more serious dispensers of wisdom like Dr. Wayne Dyer and Byron Katie, seminar hustlers like Werner Erhard, tarot cards and so forth. PC boils down these days to denial of all stereotyping (in theory although reality can sometimes intrude), earnest trash recycling, calling oneself “progressive” while hypnotically voting for mainstream democrats, and cultivation of gay friends (for some reason gay women seem generally a bit safer to have at the suburban dinner party than gay men). And so on.

Our Esteemed Editor has joked, off the record, that the ultimate political correctness would be expressed in a transgender cripple as president of the US. Off the record only, since the warm-and-fuzzy PC legions, what the AVA sometimes calls The Nice People, would be horrified at the statement although delighted at such a reality, even though we have now seen that the first non-white president is strictly political business-as-usual or worse. And there is no reason to imagine that a disabled person of indeterminate gender would be any different, since anyone aspiring to the presidency is thoroughly corrupted well before getting near the possibility.

National Lampoon did a goof on Joan Baez in the 70s, a sound-alike singing “Pull the triggers, niggers, we’re with you all the way, just across the bay… Just because I can’t be there, doesn’t mean I don’t care…” (Google ‘Pull the Triggers’ to find it on youtube.) This is PC distilled right down to its essence, despite deployment of the hot-button “N” word. — Jeff Costello

========================================================

ON JULY 4, 2013, at about 8:19pm, Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office received a call for service regarding an intoxicated male vandalizing a residence located in 17000 block of Redwood Springs Drive in Fort Bragg, California. Upon arrival, Deputies spoke to the victim Christopher Havens, 59, of Fort Bragg. Christopher told Deputies that his son Madison Havens, 19, also of Fort Bragg, had returned home intoxicated and became irate when Christopher would not allow him access to a motorcycle. This resulted in Madison breaking out the glass in two exterior windows at the residence. Deputies spoke to another family member at the location who also witnessed the event and told Deputies that Madison had pushed Christopher out of his wheel chair during the incident, causing Christopher to fall to the ground. Based on the statements received from all parties and Christopher meeting the criteria of a dependant adult by California law, Madison was arrested on the listed charges. Madison was transported to the Mendocino County Jail where he was booked on the listed charges and to be held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

========================================================

ON JULY 5, 2013, at about 4:50pm, Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office received a call for service regarding criminal threats and a brandishing of a knife in the 100 block of Mountain View Road in Manchester. (Manchester Indian Reservation). When Deputies arrived they contacted victims Elvis Scarioni, 56, and Colleen Rice, 49, both of Manchester. Both victims told Deputies that the suspect John Logan had entered their residence and forced entry into the bedroom they were occupying. Logan then demanded monies Scarioni owed him for labor work performed on Scarioni’s property. After Scarioni informed Logan that he was presently unable to pay him the monies owed, Logan demanded keys to a vehicle in Scarioni’s possession. Logan then brandished a knife and threatened to kill both Scarioni and Rice and/or cut their throats, and then demanded money or the keys to the vehicle. Rice provided Logan a set of keys to the above vehicle and Logan departed the location in that vehicle. Deputies responded to another location on the reservation and made contact with Logan outside of a residence. Logan was immediately arrested on an outstanding active arrest warrant for driving without a license [section 12500 of the California Vehicle Code]. Incident to that arrest, Deputies established probable cause to arrest Logan in regards to the reported incident on Mountain View Road. Logan was subsequently booked into the Mendocino County Jail on the listed charges where he was to be held in lieu of $50,000.00 bail.

========================================================

ELK FIRE’S ANNUAL SUMMER BBQ — The Elk Volunteer Fire Department invites you to cool down at the coast at its annual Summer BBQ to be held Saturday, July 27, from noon to 4 p.m. at the Greenwood Community Center on Highway 1 in downtown Elk. Department members and friends are preparing to serve up grilled tri-tip, smoked chicken and portabella mushroom entrees, along with beans, green salad, homemade dessert and coffee. Fresh bread from the Center’s wood-fired brick oven will accompany the meal, all for $15 for adults and $8 for kids 7-12 (6 and under free). And, as always, Elk’s famous Margaritas will be available, along with beer, wine and soft drinks. Emergency vehicles and equipment will be on display at the BBQ. Children can enjoy a dip in the portable pond. Local musicians will liven up the day. There will be a raffle featuring items donated by local inns, merchants and community members. Raffle tickets are a bargain at $1 each or 6 for $5 and are available now at the Elk Store, the Elk Garage, Queenie’s Roadhouse Café, and at the BBQ. You don’t need to be present to win. Serving the community for 57 years — and providing mutual aid to Anderson Valley and other districts — the EVFD currently has 19 volunteers, 6 of whom are Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and 4 trained to respond to large fires statewide. The department maintains a fleet of 7 firefighting vehicles of mixed type and an ambulance housed at 4 stations spread out over a large, 55 square-mile service district. The annual BBQ is the department’s most important fundraiser. Thanks to the community’s generosity last summer, the leaky, rusty 41-year-old tanker/pumper on Greenwood Ridge was replaced earlier this year with a new 2,000 gallon unit. Proceeds from this year’s BBQ will be used to outfit the new tanker/pumper with hoses, fittings, a radio, and other necessary parts and equipment.

========================================================

COUNTY’S SCHOOL GARDENS IN CRISIS

by Elizabeth Archer

With summer just starting, students are hardly thinking about next year’s classes. But unless a handful of dedicated educators can pull a rabbit out of their hat, students might find one of their favorite programs missing in the fall.

Twelve years ago, the Network for a Healthy California (NHC) paved the way for Mendocino County’s Garden Enhanced Nutrition Education (GENE) program. Thanks to this funding, Mendocino now has a unique claim to fame: every single public school in the county has a vegetable garden.

For the past decade, garden coordinators have worked with local organizations such as The Gardens Project of North Coast Opportunities Community Action, as well as other organizations and volunteers, to get these gardens up and running. Teachers have incorporated the gardens into their lessons, and the food services staff at some of the schools use what’s grown in the meals they serve.

These 32 gardens at the 32 public schools in unified school districts — plus all the private school gardens — serve more than 8,000 kids every year throughout Mendocino county.

However, in a devastating blow to this successful program, all NHC funding has been cancelled. Starting in the 2013-2014 school year, schools must find the funds to keep GENE running, or shut their gardens down.

“It’s ironic,” says GENE Program Coordinator Terry D’Selkie. “This year our gardens are better than ever before, and all of a sudden, the funding is gone.”

D’Selkie is working with each school’s garden coordinator — all of whom will be laid off unless a new funding stream is found — as well as school administration and staff, parents, and community members to find a long-term solution to keep the gardens running. She estimates that each school garden needs eight to ten thousand dollars a year to operate; a remarkably small amount considering the program’s benefits.

“Students love it,” says D’Selkie. “For many of them, it’s their favorite part of the day.” Since the program started, attendance levels are up. The cause? Students don’t want to miss out on garden time. GENE also helps attention span in the classroom, since kids are able to move their bodies and expend energy in the garden before heading back inside.

The traditional classroom does not address the learning styles of all students, and garden lessons are an eye-opener for kids who need to see something in action to really process it. “Science and math become much more interactive when it’s done in a living classroom,” says D’Selkie. In a report commissioned by the Center for Ecoliteracy in 2003, California middle school students who participated in garden-based instruction experienced significant gains in GPA, specifically math and science.

School gardens also help establish a pride of place among students. “We’re part of an agricultural community,” says Susan Lightfoot, Farm2Fork Coordinator. “These gardens help weave kids into the fabric of our community.” Teachers are also proud to work at schools with gardens. The same Ecoliteracy report showed that teachers working in schools with garden programs have higher morale and greater job satisfaction.

Of course, the garden programs also educate kids about nutrition and help them make healthy and lasting choices — the primary goal of NHC and a proven outcome of garden and nutrition education. In a study done by the Journal of the American Dietetic Association showed students involved in garden-based education more than doubled their daily fruit and vegetable consumption. “I learned to try new fruits and veggies,” says Cody Shepard, a student at Eagle Peak Middle School. “After seeing food grow, I am more aware of what I eat.”

Fall is just around the corner, and without significant commitment from every school board and the community to keep the GENE program afloat, these established gardens will revert to weeds. “When I think about the gardens being closed, I feel really sad,” says Shepard. “I see a lot of people growing gardens now, but I never would have started without learning about it in school first.”

If you’re interested in volunteering with or donating to your local school garden, contact Terry D’Selkie at tdselkie@uusd.net.

========================================================

“OKLAHOMA!” musical performance raises funds for Ukiah Symphony. Enjoy an American classic under the stars

Ukiah, CA — On Saturday, August 3, the Ukiah Symphony will join forces with professional singers Melissa Dunham and Ian Parmenter to present Rodgers and Hammerstein’s beloved “Oklahoma!” at the Nelson Family Vineyards. The show, part of the Symphony’s “Broadway Under the Stars” fundraising series, is directed by Les Pfutzenreuter and offers musical entertainment as well as delicious food and wine. “Oklahoma!” is the first — and perhaps best — collaboration by the songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Debuting on Broadway in 1943, the play is one of the most popular in the American canon. Rodgers and Hammerstein creatively integrate musical numbers with the plot to provide a wonderfully entertaining story about the high-spirited rivalry between local farmers and cowboys in the brand-new state of Oklahoma. Singers Melissa Dunham and Ian Parmenter play the lead roles of Laurey and Curly, respectively. Both Dunham and Parmenter attended UC Irvine’s theater program. Dunham, who debuted with the Ukiah Symphony in 2000 as Amaryllis in “The Music Man,” acts and sings in Los Angeles, where she is currently portraying Princess Jasmine in “Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular” at the Disneyland Resort. Parmenter’s performing credits include work at some of the finest regional theatres across the country, as well as in independent film and as a lead singer for six-star cruise entertainment. He is based in New York. Filling out the bill are Dave Strock as Will Parker, Rosanne Wetzel as Ado Annie, and Carole Hester as Aunt Eller. Patrons can purchase dinner or bring food for a picnic. A wide and tempting array of food and beverages will be available for purchase, including wine from Nelson Family Vineyards, veggie pizzas from Mendough’s Woodfired Pizza, bountiful salads with grilled chicken from North State Café, tri-tip and sausage sandwiches from Si’s Grill, and house-made desserts and coffee from Uncorked. A lawn area will be provided for people to bring blankets and low-back chairs, and picnic meals if they so desire. No outside alcohol is allowed at the event. Concert-goers can further support the Ukiah Symphony by booking a private table seating eight people for $100. A gift basket will be awarded for the best decorated table. To reserve a table, call (707) 462- 0236. Gates open at 5:30 pm, with the concert starting at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. They are $5 for those under 18 or for students with an ASB card. Tickets may be purchased at the Mendocino Book Company at 102 South School Street in Ukiah or at Mail Center, Etc. at 207A North Cloverdale Boulevard in Cloverdale. Tickets may also be purchased by calling (707) 462-0236, or online using PayPal at www.ukiahsymphony.org. Please leave pets at home. Parking space is limited and carpooling is encouraged. A golf cart will be available to shuttle people from the parking lot. Nelson Family Vineyards and Ranch is located next to the Saechao Strawberry Farm on Highway 101, between Ukiah and Hopland on the west side of the highway. This event is sponsored by Mendo Lake Credit Union and Nelson Family Vineyards.

========================================================

THE KUMBAYA CONNECTION FOR GROWN-UPS: Learning to Let Go: First, Turn Off the Phone

By Matt Haber

There was a phantom buzzing in my shorts. I had carried my iPhone in my left front pocket for so many years that my jeans have permanent rectangular fade marks over my thigh. By now the phone is almost an extension of my nervous system; even without the thing on my person, I could still feel it tingle like a missing limb. My phone was stapled inside a Trader Joe’s bag along with my watch, credit card and ID. Any buzzing I felt was surely imagined. Then again, it could have been a mosquito. This was Day 2 at Camp Grounded, an adults-only summer camp held on former Boy Scouts quarters in Navarro, Calif., about two and half hours north of San Francisco. A little more than 300 people had gathered there for three days of color wars, talent shows, flag-raisings and other soothingly regressive activities organized by Digital Detox, an Oakland-based group dedicated to teaching technology-addled (or technology-addicted) people to, in the words of its literature, “disconnect to reconnect.” The rules of Camp Grounded were simple: no phones, computers, tablets or watches; work talk, discussion of people’s ages and use of real names were prohibited.

There was a reason such strictures seemed appealing. A year ago, I was an editor at a news blog. My days started at the office at 7:30 a.m., where I routinely worked through lunch until 6:30 p.m. I was compelled to follow 1,200 Twitter users, skim 180 RSS feeds and edit dozens of posts a day on an ever-accelerating conveyor belt of content that would have made Lucy and Ethel choke. Evenings were a chance to catch up on “important” television shows between skimming Twitter.

The work-life crises of the meth dealer Walter White on “Breaking Bad” and the advertising executive Don Draper on “Mad Men” (or, when I was feeling particularly dark, Dexter Morgan, the serial killer on “Dexter”) were amplified, better art-directed versions of my own 24/7 grind. At night, the iPhone was docked beside my bed, making me feel that even as I slept, I was on the banks of the data stream just in case anything important — or anything at all — happened.

After a few months, my hands became numb and I asked my doctor for a chest X-ray because I was convinced I had pneumonia. I was beyond burned out: I was scorched, like a marshmallow on a stick held too close to the fire.

At Camp Grounded, however, we would no longer be bloggers, entrepreneurs, lawyers, consultants or any other title; we were just ourselves (in my case, answering to “Brooklyn”). By removing the things that supposedly “connect” us in this wireless, oversharing, humble-bragging age, the founders of Digital Detox hoped to build real connections that run deeper than following one another on Twitter or “liking” someone’s photo on Instagram. Without the distractions of the Web, social media, television and breaking news, campers, who, according to organizers, ranged in age from 19 to 67, were invited to share with one another and learn about ourselves.

All of which started immediately upon driving up to the camp. Cars were met at the gate and we were greeted by counselors whose grinning positivity reminded me of that scene in the 1981 movie “Ticket to Heaven” in which a reluctant recruit to a religious cult was met with a chant of “Bomb With Love!”

I had had a long, twisty ride up the mountain to get to the camp, and wasn’t prepared for so much full-body enthusiasm, especially not the hugs. Normally, I find myself pressed up against strangers only during my morning subway commute, and usually that’s no cause for smiles.

What was I getting myself into?

“My goal now is to connect people,” Levi Felix, Digital Detox’s 28-year-old co-founder, told me. “There’s always going to be more media, more to do outside of where you are. The only moment that matters is right now.”

Mr. Felix, whose camp name was Fidget Wigglesworth, is part of an emerging shift toward mindfulness among users of technology. Rather than merely accept social media’s intrusion on relationships, and the small, distancing lens onto experience that smartphones and tablets have become for many of us, some tech-savvy folks are rethinking their attachment to electronic devices.

Groups like Reboot have begun to advocate for digital sabbaths and a National Day of Unplugging. Jaron Lanier, a pioneer in the field of virtual reality, has lately begun to speak out against the dehumanizing downsides of technology. And Arianna Huffington, an undisputed doyenne of the Internet, has used her site and Twitter account to call for time offline, even plugging Camp Grounded, though she’s yet to relinquish her four BlackBerries. As for Mr. Felix, he used to work at Causecast.com, a corporate philanthropy platform, but after long hours and a bad diet landed him in the hospital, he re-evaluated his priorities. He sold his car and his “nice Penguin clothing,” he said, and traveled for two and half years. He spent time in Southeast Asia, letting his facial hair grow like a wizard’s.

“I had the opportunity to step away from ‘the modern world’ for a little bit,” Mr. Felix said. “I went on my hero’s journey and I escaped. A lot of people who do that never come back. They live vagabond lives. I came back, and my cause was to show people how to connect, how to shed these rules and unwritten codes we bought into.” He founded Digital Detox last year, leading small retreats in Northern California, Cambodia and other locations, emphasizing yoga, meditation, a healthy diet and one-to-one connections as a reprieve from digital life.

But Camp Grounded, Digital Detox’s biggest event thus far, was designed less to be a spiritual journey than a whimsical return to childhood. Campers, who spent $300 for the weekend, were sent maps, instructions and a suggested packing list designed with a self-consciously retro style that wouldn’t be out of place in a Wes Anderson film.

Men and women were separated and sorted into separate animal-themed villages, where they bunked in three-walled lean-tos built for the camp’s original Boy Scouts by the Petaluma Kiwanis Club. Aside from a water-resistant sleeping pad, no camping equipment was provided.

The Scouts’ rifle range had been reconceived as a typewriter range, and a yurt had been erected near a stream and used as an all-night tea lounge. Throughout the weekend, there was skinny-dipping at the swimming hole. A psychedelic bus parked in a clearing hosted a late-night concert. On the final night, there was an ’80s-themed prom, replete with souvenir couples’ photos and a new wave band that looked as if it had walked off the set of “Revenge of the Nerds.”

Meals were vegan and gluten-free variations on summer camp staples: The first night we ate chickpea “sloppy Joes” and kale salad; another night, gluten-free “mac ’n’ cheese” made from rice pasta and soy with collard greens. To hear some of the campers tell it, giving up meat was harder than giving up technology, and by the second day, talk of hamburgers, bacon and fried chicken was constant. For some, the craving for meat got so bad that a group of campers sneaked into the kitchen one night and devoured slabs of bacon and packets of hot dogs that had been stored in the freezer for the kitchen staff. Another night, two campers who had volunteered to tear kale for hours in the kitchen were rewarded with bacon, which they passed around like contraband candy at a weight-loss camp.

Unaccustomed to such a legume- and leafy-green-rich diet, many campers privately complained about feeling bloated or snickered about the dubious wisdom of feeding 300 people so many lentils and asking them to share a few latrine-style toilets. For the most part, though, complaints were few and interpersonal conflicts nonexistent. “When all that stress in life is removed, what’s there to fight about?” Mr. Felix said.

As for love, meanwhile, any fears (or fantasies) that this would be the millennial generation’s answer to Sandstone Retreat, the legendary Southern California swingers’ outpost chronicled in Gay Talese’s “Thy Neighbor’s Wife,” went unrealized. Immediately on entering, it seemed everyone reverted to a preadolescent state of innocent crushes, promiscuous hand-holding and “cuddle puddles,” a reprieve from the transactional approach to dating in the age of OkCupid and Match.com.

“It was affection you just don’t see in regular life,” Mr. Felix said. “I think that when you create a space of authenticity and openness, there’s true, true respect.”

If authenticity and openness included fretting about everyday career concerns, however, you were out of luck. Montgomery Kosma, a 45-year-old CEO of a new foundation addressing gun violence, was once featured in a Washington Post article about his addiction to his BlackBerry. A friend told him about Camp Grounded and he thought it sounded like fun — he also thought he could recruit some developers.

“I wasn’t aware it was entirely networking-free,” he said after camp. “I was thinking, ‘I’m building a company and need to hire people.’ ” He wasn’t able to do any of that, and said, “It was frustrating.

“This was the longest I’d been away from e-mail or cellphone literally since 1997,” said Mr. Kosma, whose camp nickname was Jefferson Smith. “It was strange, but not that strange. … I spent a lot of time off thinking and writing.

“My name and my job really form my identity,” Mr. Kosma said. “It’s really hard to talk about your job in generic terms.”

After a day, though, he adjusted. He spent some time learning how to solar carve using a magnifying glass and a piece of wood, creating a souvenir that reads “The Time Is Now” on one side and “All the Time in the World” on the other. A week after camp, Mr. Kosma said he was still carrying the Camp Grounded journal he was given in which he asked himself over and over “Who am I?” before concluding that he is “a man with an open heart.”

“I did a lot of listening to my own self,” Mr. Kosma said. “That’s just a remarkable thing.” And while his foundation is just months away from opening, he said he planned to attend the Burning Man festival this summer.

For Tatyana Plaksina, a 26-year-old social worker from Los Angeles, camp was almost a necessity.

“I felt like I needed something like this,” said Ms. Plaksina, whose nom de camp was Tater Tot. “I felt pulled in a lot of directions. My phone was always going off. I wanted an excuse to put it away and not respond to anybody.”

“From the moment that we drove up there, as soon as we met the organizers, they completely made me feel we were at the right place,” she said. “I didn’t expect there to be so much love and freedom and acceptance. It felt like a place where you could be yourself and be accepted for that.”

And me?

I had spent two days getting to know my fellow campers and participating in a meditative breathing workshop (or “playshop” in Camp Grounded lingo), taught by a surfer-yoga instructor called Didgeridoo, wherein I learned how to hug someone by positioning my head to my partner’s right side so that our hearts could touch and our breath could sync. I lost my voice during some very enthusiastic singalongs where I realized that I knew all the words to “If I Had a Hammer,” but not the second verse to “Norwegian Wood.” I had my face painted, napped in a hammock and spontaneously danced — not an easy thing since, as friends and family can attest, I’ve never done anything spontaneously in my entire life. And one night, I found myself lying on my back, gazing up at the night sky. The only other times I’d seen the constellations so clearly were when I glanced up at the ceiling in Grand Central Terminal.

Somewhere outside of Camp Grounded, iPhones were buzzing with the breaking news of Rupert Murdoch’s divorce and Kim Kardashian’s baby. But I was looking for shooting stars, not reality ones. And for once, I was enjoying the silence.

(Courtesy, The New York Times)

========================================================

OSAMA BIN LADEN Was Stopped By The Police For Speeding Just A Year After 9/11, Reveals Stunning Secret Pakistani Report Into Raid That Killed Him

By David Martosko

The terror chief was almost caught shortly after the 9/11 attack, said the wife of one of his guards, when their car was stopped for speeding Bin Laden was in the habit of wearing a cowboy hat in his Abbottabad compound because he thought it would shield him from US drones. He spent his last night with his youngest wife, and the two initially thought the noise from approaching Chinook helicopters was just a rainstorm.

A Pakistani government commission decided that killing bin Laden was an act of “murder” — and that he was a “victim.” Bin Laden was so secretive about his compound that he and his followers waited until after an earthquake to add a third story to the house Dr. Shakeel Afridi, now imprisoned in Pakistan for helping the US, wasn’t arrested for three weeks following the raid, allowing the CIA time to help him escape if US officials had wanted to help him.

9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden died on May 2, 2011 in a military raid, but the Pakistani government’s appointed commission is convinced he is a “victim” who was murdered by the United States. A secret Pakistani report leaked online Monday provides a series of stunning revelations about the life and death of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden, the long-time Al-Qaeda leader responsible for the 9/11 attacks against the United States in 2001. The report, placed online by the Al Jazeera news network, recounts the testimony of more than 200 witnesses including bin Laden’s family members.

On one occasion during 2002 or 2003, bin Laden was almost caught while headed to a market with his security guard Ibrahim al-Kuwaiti and the guard’s wife Maryam. The car he was riding in — it’s unclear who was driving — was pulled over for speeding, but bin Laden “quickly settled the matter,” according to Maryam’s testimony, and the al-Qaeda leader was once again off and running. One of bin Laden’s relatives said “The Shaikh,” as he was known, often “wore a cowboy hat to avoid detection from above” by overhead US drones, and that “a complete collapse of local governance” allowed him to hide inside the country for six years before US President Barack Obama gave the order to have him killed in a Navy SEAL raid.

May 2, 2011 marked the end of bin Laden’s reign of terror as the leader of al-Qaeda. President Barack Obama announced that the United States had killed the most-wanted terrorist in an operation led by Navy SEALS.

Did he get the idea from Barack? Bin Laden was in the habit of wearing a cowboy hat in his Abbottabad, Pakistan compound because he believed it would shield his identiiy from U.S drones. That “kill mission,” Pakistan’s official inquiry declared, was “a criminal act of murder which was condemned by a number of international lawyers and human rights organizations.” “Due process was deliberately denied the victims,” the commissioners wrote — referring to bin Laden as a victim — “and their killing was explicitly ordered by the President of the US.”

Bin Laden had not left the room where he was shot for the past FIVE YEARS, claims his wife. Osama bin Laden’s secret Pakistani compound demolition completed as country tries to forget painful an embarrassing chapter in its history. Bin Laden WAS NOT buried at sea, but sent to the US for cremation, leaked emails reveal. Pentagon DELETES files about Osama bin Laden raid after transferring them to CIA where they can’t be made public. Revealed: How Bin Laden fled on horseback as US bombs rained down on Tora Bora… and slipped through the net for a decade. Among the dozen of new details in the report is the revelation that bin Laden and his supporters waited to build an unauthorized third story on the compound until after a devastating earthquake hit Pakistan in 2005.

Thunderclaps or Chinook helicopters? Bin Laden and his youngest wife reportedly thought at first that the Navy SEAL raid’s noises were due to a rainstorm. Of the raid itself, the commission wrote that bin Laden and his youngest wife Amal were together in the bedroom when the US helicopters first arrived. “After the evening meal and prayer,” the account reads, “Amal and the Shaikh retired for the night. Shortly past midnight, they were awakened by the noise of what at first sounded like a storm.” It wasn’t a cloudburst. Minutes later, bin Laden lay dead on the floor.

Scene of the “murder”? Pakistan’s commission decided that killing “the victim” bin Laden in his compound, was a criminal act since he was executed without due process in a court of law.

In a now-famous photo, White House national security officials and cabinet members watched the SEAL Team Six raid in real-time as they stalked, found and killed Osama bin Laden.

The report also explores the case of Dr. Shakeel Afridi, a Pakistani physician who used his position as a public health vaccination volunteer to attempt to be admitted into bin Laden’s compound.

Pakistani doctor Shakeel Afridi helped the US track down Osama bin Laden. He was sentenced to 33 years in prison for “conspiring against the state.” Although he failed to get in, Afridi got a good enough look at the complex system of locks on the front door to help the Navy SEALs design a specialized package of explosives designed to blow the door off.

He also provided his CIA handlers with crucial information about the voices of the people inside the compound. Aftridi “met with the CIA operatives [assigned to him] on more than 25 occasions,” the report concludes, “and received approximately Rs. [Rupees] 10 million from them. 10 million Pakistani Rupees is equal to about $100,000.

The Pakistani government arrested Afridi and he remains in prison, sentenced to more than three decades behind bars. Despite the doctor’s key role in the mission’s success, the United States has done little to secure his release.

“[T]he fact is that he was arrested three weeks after the raid during which time the CIA could have ferreted him out of the country.”

Al Jazeera’s release of the commission’s report came on the same day the United States government was exposed for going to great lengths to hide its own collection of information related to the 2011 raid. The Associated Press gained access to information from the Department of Defense under the Freedom Of Information Act, but only after the Pentagon acknowledged shifting documents to the CIA and purging them from their original files, so it would no longer possess anything it would have to turn over to the news agency.

(Courtesy, Al Jazeera)