If you don’t believe in angels, this story may change your mind. Three weeks ago, 2 of them appeared in Ukiah to save Tash, our third newly rescued Jack Russell Terrier.
Recall, in Installment Two, that Bill had chased Tash through downtown Ukiah all the way to Todd Grove Park. Once again, it was a Saturday morning and Bill, accompanied by me, was doing the shopping.
I should have remembered, but didn’t, that Tash is cat-like in his amazing ability to squeeze around any apparent blockade such as a car seat. After Bill parked in the side lot to keep the dogs out of the morning sun at the Coop, he got out of the driver’s side and as I hopped out of the passenger’s side, Tash’s warm body slithered around behind me and was out before it registered what was happening. Oh no, not again. I tried calling him back: Tashy, come back! Here Tashy! Tashyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
He was off! As he crossed Gobbi Street I became hysterical, emitting a cry at the top of my lungs – STOP!– at the cars and at Tash. The cars did stop as I ran in front of them to chase north on Main Street by the Safeway parking lot. But not Tash; well, he did stop – briefly – to eat some tasty morsel off the sidewalk, but not long enough to catch him. He crossed the street and a friendly pedestrian with her arms full of wrapping paper rolls called to him, trying to help. Tash was having none of it; instead, he pranced across the street again, eliciting another death-defying scream from me. Cars stopped – thank you Ukiah drivers. But not Tash.
Before following in my footsteps, Bill filled his pocket with treats, figuring to lure him back with promises of treats. But Tash was too fast. He turned west on Clay Street, and then north on State Street. At the corner, I threw down my purse and briefly resumed a running career.
At that moment, angels appeared in a red-and-white-candy-striped-Mustang More…
RITUAL, RULES, AND ROUTINE are writer John Katz’s three guidelines for successful living with dogs. And, dogs do the teaching.
Tashtego (now shortened to “Tash”) realized immediately the way to learn the 3 R’s was to follow Heidi’s and Jerry’s lead. At this, he proved adept.
The first test came when, after 4 nights, Tash objected to sleeping in his crate. One plaintive bark alerted us to his wanting to be upstairs with the rest of us. The next night we brought a dog bed upstairs and motioned that he should jump up on the big bed. He did, and Heidi and Jerry glared at him. He jumped down so we placed his bed on the floor near the big bed, put his blanket in it and he hopped right in, sleeping through the night with no further ado. Ritual established.
Test Number Two was whether we could leave Tash out of the crate when we went to the Redwood Health Club at 5 AM for Bill’s swim and my spin bike class. When he stopped getting up with us, instead opting to stay buried under his blanket, it was worth a try. Not wanting to jinx the experiment I said not a word– all the time thinking we could come home to the aftermath of a dog fight: vet bills, blood, a horrible mess. More…
It is a well-known fact that there can’t be a three dog night without three dogs. And so–
Bill and I are inordinately fond of Jack Russell Terriers, believing them to be a special breed suited to living with a select group of slightly crazy people who have a fairly high tolerance for aberrant (for lack of a better word) behavior.
We believe, perhaps mistakenly, that we are among said slightly crazy group of people.
Last week we heard of a year-and-a-half-old male JRT (as they are known by their fans) who was in desperate straits (he had been sentenced to death). Once more, we agreed, we could leap into the breach. After introductions via phone and email, Bill, accompanied by Heidi (one of our other 2 rescued JRT’s), drove to San Francisco to bring home number three, and after his interim rescuers duly appraised Heidi, who was on her very best behavior, we were deemed suitable adopters.
“Tashtego” was to be his new name. And if you’re scratching your head trying to remember where you might have heard that name, here’s where you heard it: In Moby Dick, Herman Melville’s great novel incidentally about whaling, but really about how the world works (or mostly doesn’t), Tashtego is a Gay Head Indian harpooneer from Nantucket. Quequeeg (a South Sea Islander) and Daggoo (an African tribesman) are the other two. Think 19th century whaling: in Chapter 78, Tashtego slips while extracting spermaceti oil from the severed head of a huge whale, falling into its head just as it comes loose from its moorings and slides into the water. More…
[Thanks to Janie Sheppard who writes: "I don’t know if I’m ready to agree with MacArthur because in a world where the bankers rule, I just can’t figure out how someone outside of the bankers’ thrall could make it in politics. Anyway, here is an essay making a strong case for someone (who?) else." -DS]
As evidence of a failed Obama presidency accumulates, criticism of his administration is mounting from liberal Democrats who have too much moral authority to be ignored.
Most prominent among these critics is veteran journalist Bill Moyers, whose October address to a Public Citizen gathering puts the lie to our barely Democratic president’s populist pantomime, acted out last week in a Kansas speech decrying the plight of “innocent, hardworking Americans.” In his talk, Moyers quoted an authentic Kansas populist, Mary Elizabeth Lease, who in 1890 declared, “Wall Street owns the country…. Money rules…. The [political] parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us.”
A former aide to Lyndon Johnson who knows politics from the inside, Moyers then delivered the coup de grace: “[Lease] should see us now. John Boehner calls on the bankers, holds out his cup, and offers them total obeisance from the House majority if only they fill it. Barack Obama criticizes bankers as fat cats, then invites them to dine at a pricey New York restaurant where the tasting menu runs to $195 a person.”
As it happens, Moyers’s remarks anticipated the trenchant question posed in an interview by another prominent liberal More…
Making a special trip to San Francisco was worth it to see muralist Ben Cunningham’s 9’ by 23’ fresco, “Outdoor Life.” Cunningham is the artist who painted the mural in the Ukiah Post Office, which is currently under a death sentence, thanks to ill-conceived, purported cost-saving measures by the Postal Service. Public art is endangered nationwide; to save it we first have to know it is there. Hidden treasures must be revealed.
Ben Cunningham’s mural in Coit Tower is a revelation; most of the time it remains unseen; thus the special trip. The picture above is only part of the mural. Because the mural is in a very tight space and goes around a door, I could capture it only in segments.
Determined to see another example of mural art by Ben Cunningham, the artist who painted the mural in the Ukiah Post Office, I trekked to Coit Tower in San Francisco. There, my Internet research assured me, was another example of Ben’s art, a mural entitled “Outdoor Life.” No mention of the fact on the Internet that the nine by twenty-two foot mural is off limits to the public.
To see a photo of the mural I bought an expensive but beautiful book, Coit Tower San Francisco: Its History and Art, by Masha Zakheim, photos by Don Beatty. Searching the Internet for a good picture of Ben’s mural More Janie Sheppard…
After watching a video version of a 1937 film made by the original owner of the Ukiah Theater on State Street, I found a modern version here. Do go to the Grace Hudson Museum to watch the 1937 Buy Local film. The narrator tells us that all the local businesses pay most of the taxes that support our schools, paved roads, police and firefighters. You gotta love that guy. Great film of businesses that you might recognize and people who your grandmother might recognize. The film is part of the excellent exhibit now at the Museum, and it’s on a small TV to the left as you enter the exhibit (I missed it the first time).
~~
As everyone now knows, the Ukiah Post Office is home to an authentic New Deal mural. Noted artist Ben Cunningham painted it specifically for the Ukiah Post Office after consulting with respected members of the community. The mural reflects the agriculture and timber industry of the Ukiah Valley, as it was in the 1930’s and even now.
A recent trip to the East Coast where I searched out post office murals led me to reflect on the particular style of post office murals and the significance of preserving the murals “in situ” (in their natural place).
The Ukiah post office mural exemplifies New Deal art, funded by the federal government to embellish federal buildings and provide employment for artists during the Great Depression. We are fortunate to have in our everyday lives authentic New Deal art by an artist who went on to paint pieces that hang in the Smithsonian, adorn Coit Tower in San Francisco, and continue to be sold in fine art galleries.
If we convince the US Postal Service to retain the 1936 historic Ukiah Post Office, the mural will remain in its natural home.
If the Postal Service ignores our request, the Postal Service would sell the Oak Street Post Office and the mural would end up far from home, and, in any case, out of our everyday sight. Viewers, wherever and whenever, would have to be told of the economy of the Ukiah Valley in the Depression More Post Office Art…
Something Wendy Roberts said [in her Radio Curious interview here] has been rattling around in my head for a few weeks, and last night I realized why.
Roberts said she was inspired to run for supervisor as she was riding home after a difficult meeting of the Board of Supervisors. She found herself, she said, sympathizing with the present supervisors and managers in our county.
Didn’t three of the present incumbents do their share to dig us into the hole we’re in? Why would I vote for anyone who sympathized with them? I would not.
I will vote for Dan Hamburg because he has a vision of how to use the strengths of our county to lead us out of our old ways. Those ways no longer work, if they ever did. We need fresh ways of doing the county’s business. And we need new business.
As a committed member of the County Library Advisory Board, I am writing to let you know of an agenda item coming before the Board of Supes on Tuesday October 19.
At 9:30 the Supes will hear a proposed action to terminate the county’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Coast Community Library and thereby untether the South Coast Library from the countywide system. I don’t know how the vote will go.
While many south coast library supporters will attend the meeting, I think that inland support could be crucial in carrying the day. What may be a divide and conquer approach to the evisceration of the Library system will work only if the rest of the county remains silent.
And here is the text of the ASR:
DATE: Wednesday, October 13, 2010
TO: Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
FROM: Melanie Lightbody, County Librarian
RE: Coast Community Library MOU and county operations
BACKGROUND: The County has a Memorandum of Understanding with Friends of the Coast Community Library which provides for 32 hours of regular staffing to the Coast Library and payment of certain facilities and book delivery costs.
[As a local retailer who will be negatively affected by Measure C, I am voting for Measure C as a citizen. -DS]
A vote against Measure C, which, if passed would increase the sales tax by ½ % to pay for county services, is not going to bring to justice any wrongdoers in connection with the county pension fund, as John Dickerson (YourPublicMoney.com) would have us believe (see John Dickerson’s argument below, and the rebuttal by John McCowen).
A taxpayer lawsuit would, however, accomplish that.
Meanwhile, the county needs revenue to provide services.
The issues are separate. Don’t get confused.
Vote Yes on Measure C and encourage John Dickerson to bring a taxpayer lawsuit. That way the county can have much-needed revenue and justice can be served.
~
[UPDATE]
From JOHN DICKERSON
I understand that the Mendocino County Democratic Central Committee will be reconsidering whether or not to endorse Measure C.
[This is a must-read if you want to understand Measure C and the Pension System. John McCowen explains below how the pension system works and the relationship to Measure C (the money from Measure C will not go to pay debt). Please read and pass along to anyone who truly wants to understand the financing of the Pension Fund.
Update:The main reason, in my opinion, that Dickerson and Sakowicz complain that “no one listens” to their rants on the state of the debt and unfunded liability is (1) they seem incapable of explaining their position in plain English and (2) the county has addressed the issues that could be addressed, including making sure payments on the debt are being made, not deferred. In reality, there is nothing left to gripe about regarding the county debt, except for the unavoidable fact that it’s there. The county could get in worse shape if revenue is not increased. Then who would be to blame? I think the blame would fall squarely on deluded voters.
Please read John’s post and then VOTE IN FAVOR OF MEASURE C. -JS]
Instead, consider how valuable the FPPC is to the integrity of state and local elections in California. A creature of the California initiative process, voters passed the Political Reform Act (Prop. 9) in 1974.
Since then, the FPPC has served as a model for the nation and the rest of the democratic world, according to Wikipedia.
Indeed, thanks to the FPPC we know who contributes the big bucks to local campaigns. With that information, we can construe what’s really at stake in the 5th District Supervisorial Campaign where Dan Hamburg and Wendy Roberts now vie for 5th District votes.
Big bucks contributors to the Roberts campaign include:
1. John Mayfield, longtime conservative, contributed $500. A supporter of a mega mall on the old Masonite site, who paid for front page ads in the Ukiah Daily Journal in favor of Measure A, which, had it passed, would have changed the zoning to allow a Ohio developer (DDR) to place a mega-mall on the old Masonite site.
2. California Real Estate Political Action Committee (for North Bay Association of Realtors), pro-development PAC, contributed $500 more
Last night representatives from the local water agencies met to hear a presentation by the Corps of Engineers on its plans for the Coyote Dam at Lake Mendocino. The public was invited. Bill and I attended, as did Fifth District Candidate for Supervisor, Dan Hamburg.
Below I report the gist of the meeting.
Local water agencies want to increase the capacity of Lake Mendocino to provide a more dependable source of water, presumably for irrigation. This year, the Corps has raised the level of the lake to the point where some land-based recreation has disappeared, or is unusable.
A significant portion of the lake is now occupied by sediment, thereby decreasing its capacity to hold water. Dredging, however, is not a viable option for reasons of expense, stirring up the mercury buried in the sediment, and huge logistical problems in removing the sediment.
Safety issues must be addressed first. The spillway is undersized, there is some seepage, and the ever-present seismic issue isn’t going away.
Raising the dam remains the most obvious solution, but only after identifying and solving the safety issues. But, studies addressing safety and the feasibility of raising the dam remain low-priority in terms of allocating the very limited Corps budget.
A proposed “solution” to the money and priority issues is to demonstrate unified local and downstream support for completing the studies and raising the dam. more
Tonight there will be a meeting to discuss raising the Coyote Dam. As you have likely noticed, the raised water level has already led to some recreational facilities being under water. As of Tuesday evening these recreational facilities remained under water. Raising the dam will put more recreation facilities under water and so far there is no consideration being given to the users of these facilties. The planners need to hear from us, the land-based users.
A major constraint in relocating land-based recreation is the present boundaries. There simply is not enough room for more water and all the recreation that we have there now, should the dam be raised and the boundaries not extended.
If recreational users (mountain bike riders, hikers, campers, horse people, picnickers, wild flower enthusiasts, and other land-based recreation’ers) are to have a voice and have their concerns addressed, now is the time.
Please come to the meeting tonight: 6 pm, Ukiah Valley Conference Center, 200 S. School Street, Ukiah.
I know this is short notice, but it’s all the notice I had as well. See the UDJ story below.
Last Saturday evening was the opening of a new exhibit featuring 4 Mendo artists: Ukiah’s own Laura Fogg, and three Willits artists, photographer Steve Eberhard, painter Garry Colson, and ceramicist Bonnie Belt.
Art appreciators poured in to see the latest works by these four remarkable artists. Fogg’s newest quilt is a study in human movement, as depicted in this detail.
Eberhard’s photo portraits of Willits residents are remarkable. My fave is the rodeo rider’s expression as he is dismounted from the bull.
Bonnie Belt’s latest ceramics have an organic topographic appeal.
Gary Colson’s landscapes are studies in soft focus and color.
To see more pictures from the exhibit and the artists click on this link.
The exhibit of these quintessentially Mendo artists runs through September 26th. Hours for the Willits Center for the Arts, 71 East Commercial Street, are Thursday and Friday 4 – 7 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday noon to 3 p.m. Phone number is 707-459-1726 and the website is here.
~~
5th District Supervisorial Candidate Wendy Roberts often states that she has always been a Democrat except for a period when she supported Pete McCloskey, a staunch Republican environmentalist who represented Santa Clara county. I haven’t heard her explain why supporting McCloskey required her to be a Republican. Many other Democrats who supported McCloskey did not change party to do so.
The company she keeps makes you wonder. Last week, Roberts visited the neighborhood where my partner, Bill, and I live. While in the neighborhood she replaced a smaller sign left from the June primary election (having never removed it, in violation of election law) with a bigger sign that is flanked by two Republican candidates, one for state assembly and the other for the seat held by longtime Democratic Congressman Mike Thompson. At least one of the Republican signs was there when she directed the placement of her new, larger sign. No, Roberts, you can’t say you didn’t know.
During the same visit she placed a mailer directly into our mailbox. She could have placed the mailer in one of our three newspaper boxes, but did not, saving postage but violating federal law, which prohibits placing anything other than stamped mail in mailboxes. more
Inspired by the Ukiah controversy over murals, Laura Fogg and I decided to do some community mural viewing. Laura wanted to investigate the murals in San Francisco’s Mission District and I was game to go along.
We started early, 7 a.m., stopping at the Flying Goat Coffee House in Healdsburg for scones and coffee, and arriving in the Mission around 10 a.m. We parked easily near 17th and South Van Ness, very close to our first stop: Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP), near the intersection of Mission and 17th Streets. Facebook says about CAMP: that it chose social inclusiveness and aesthetic variety as its themes. The result is more than 100 murals on and around Clarion Alley by Latino, Caucasian, African-American, Native American, Asian, Indian, Queer and disabled artists of all ages and all levels of experience. Here are a couple of the murals.
Balmy Alley, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street, offered more treats, including a scary robot taking over the Mission District. A resident explained that when the Dot.com economy offered high incomes to many energetic young people, they chose to move to the Mission, threatening its local culture. The resulting robot mural depicts the crushing power of dot.com monster. more
Laura Fogg’s art has top billing at the Corner Gallery in Ukiah. On Friday, June 4th, Laura’s show opened, with her newest quilts, tile mosaics, and some older drawings that together show her development as one of Mendocino County’s outstanding artists.
The Corner Gallery is located at 201 S State Street in Ukiah. Check out the website: artcenterukiah.org. Hours are 11-6, Tues thru Saturday. It is a co-op gallery with over 20 artist members. Laura’s work will be in the front windows for the month of June.
On Memorial Day, Bill, the dogs, and I set out to take pictures of the beautiful wildflowers along the Lake Mendocino eastside trails. Indeed, our cameras captured a profusion of white, blue and yellow wildflowers. As we hiked we could not, however, ignore the signs of impending trouble.
First, we noticed that the trails were being damaged by truck traffic. Signs at the locked trailhead gate prohibit all motorized vehicles. So, what’s going on? Apparently, Corps of Engineers personnel are not heeding their own rules as they drive pickup trucks through the mud. It’s high time that the Corps fix this damage. As you can see from the pictures, the damage is substantial in some places. If not repaired, the beautiful trails will become eroded and impassable.
Second, we noticed that horseback riders are using the trails when they shouldn’t. Horses’ hooves leave big holes in the trails, just about the right size for ankle twisting. The horseback riders too need to repair the trail sections damaged by their horses.
I met candidate for 5th District Supervisor, Dan Hamburg, in 2003 during the campaign to ban the cultivation of GMOs in Mendocino County. During that campaign I realized we shared a vision of a Mendocino County based on a locally based economy. Since then, we have shared that vision in several campaigns: opposing the Ryder Homes plan to develop the Masonite site, impeaching then Vice-President Cheney for his role in starting the Iraq War that continues to suck the life blood from Mendocino County; and opposing Measure B because it would do nothing to address the real problems with marijuana while punishing medical marijuana patients and harming a potential source of much-needed tax revenue. More recently, in opposing Measure A, that, had it passed, would have put a monster mega-mall on the old Masonite site. Those campaigns are just the most recent of the many campaigns to preserve Mendocino County from corporate greed.
Over the intervening years, we have traded articles and comments on the major issues facing the nation and our county. I know the depth of Dan’s commitment to preserving what we value about Mendocino County: the forests, the rivers, the farmers, the artists, musicians, local theater, our local businesses and the unique Mendo way. Simply put, love of place is the most important part of Dan’s life.
As the county absorbs the blows from the economic meltdown, Dan will keep that love of place. With the leadership Dan will bring to the Board of Supervisors, the Mendo way will prevail. We will grow our own food, make our own entertainment, harvest our forests sustainably, restore our rivers and educate our children.
I live in the 5th District and I’m voting for mygood friend, Dan Hamburg. If you value our unique place in the world, I urge you too to vote for Dan Hamburg.
~~
Following the ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the recent underground mine disaster in West Virginia, and yet another mine disaster in Kentucky, it now appears that before we “run out” of fossil fuels we will die trying. All we need now is another nuclear power plant disaster, and because the existing plants are all “on borrowed time”, that will likely happen in the near future.
Unless we come to grips with the dangers to the environment and ourselves, dangers that are inherent in trying to extract oil in deep water, mining under old mines, and handling nuclear materials, these disasters will become a regular feature of our daily existence, if they aren’t already.
What to do? Tell the big fossil fuel and nuclear interests to back off. Instead, adopt an energy policy based on conservation, solar energy, and wind energy where it can be done without killing birds.
Enough already with trying to get the last drop of oil, last lump of coal, and last granule of uranium ore out of Mother Earth.
~~
Friday, Bill and I ventured to Berkeley where we had a lunch reservation at our favorite restaurant, Chez Panisse. I truly love the café, the cheaper alternative to the very posh upstairs restaurant.
Simple is the way it is, but Waters’ version of simple: white tablecloths covered with white butcher paper, flatware that is perfectly weighted so it doesn’t slip out of your hand, simple plates that are always spotless, servers– several who I recognized from previous visits.
The décor is craftsman with a big touch of Frank Lloyd Wright in the fixtures and furniture. The walls have posters of the old Marcel Pagnol movies, Cesar, Fanny and Marius. I have a sentimental nostalgic feeling for a life I did not live in Marseille about 100 years ago so the posters take me there. And I imagine what Cesar, Fanny and Marius ate in their little bistro/bar, anticipating the café food.
Waters’ cookbooks are things of beauty. The best known is probably Chez Panisse Vegetables, published in 1996. The color linocut images are gorgeous. The recipes are arranged alphabetically and according to season so that if you find perfect red and yellow peppers in the fall, you just might want to make pizza with them.
But I digress. In the Green Kitchen goes in a different direction. Thirty cooks contributed recipes that they use in their home cooking. There is no fussy food to be found here. The recipes mostly illustrate basic techniques, but with flair and lots of herbs. Examples of really simple stuff are a Cherry tomato & tofu salad, which, Waters informs us, “applies traditional Asian flavorings and methods to the foods of this continent.” more→
When I read that the Board of Supervisors appointed Ms. Carmel Angelo to a two-year contract as a CEO, I was very disappointed. In my disappointment I sent around an overly cranky email directed at John McCowen, who had sent around a notice of the Board’s actions.
I apologize for the overly cranky email. Since then I have heard that Angelo is indeed a very good administrator, and had I had information on her performance in other jobs, or some evaluation of her performance I likely would have agreed that her appointment was a good thing for the county. I do like the fact that she is actually living here (she is, isn’t she?) and therefore is not someone who has to be moved to the county and introduced to all the players.
That said, it would have been helpful if the members of the Board had shared their thoughts in a wider forum than in individual communications. It’s the preemption of public input (in a public forum) that drives county residents crazy.
And then there is the issue of a two-year contract. Would she have just picked up and left if the BOS had said she would continue as the interim CEO until the BOS decided whether to continue the CEO model, or do something else? If the answer is yes, then maybe she isn’t so dedicated to the welfare of the county residents as we would like to think she is.
In sum, after 2 disastrous CEOs, to go ahead and appoint another one without some deliberations (in public) seems dangerous.
Going forward, I would like to see the BOS adopt a formal tracking system so that the BOS receives updates on its priority items. This is something I have seen work in my career in the federal government.
~~
When it’s sweets you crave, the best toffee in the whole world is to be had at the Saturday Farmers Market. Just try to resist after tasting it . . . impossible!
But, let’s say you want a toy. This sheep bah-ed “Snuggle me!” Poor little sheep, I took its picture instead.
Whiling away a few more minutes before picking up my share of vegetables from the MendoOrganics Winter CSA, I noticed a young man, Eric Cinowalt, with an intriguing knife sharpening gadget that holds a knife at a steady angle while sharpening it on a traditional sharpening stone. more→
[With the expansion of Walmart in South Ukiah, I think we need to be asking if we will be seeing a food desert (explained in this excellent post on the Daily Kos) in the Ukiah Valley. For people who are not farmers market shoppers for whatever reason, I think this is a real possibility. I say this because if Walmart becomes a superstore that contains a huge supermarket, will the other supermarkets be able to survive? Will Safeway, Lucky, and Raley's still be around? Or, will only people with transportation to Walmart be able to buy food from other than fast food establishments and minimarts (where the food is both bad for you and very expensive. -JS]
So why in the name of (insert your deity or hero’s name here) are there people starving in America? According to Feeding America’s latest figures, 49 Million people are in a state of food insercurity:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA) reported (Nov. 19th) that 49 million Americans, including nearly 17 million children, are food insecure. The 2009 report on Household Food Insecurity in the United States paints an alarming picture of the pervasiveness of hunger in our nation.
This is an increase of 36 percent over the numbers released one year by the USDA, which found that 36.2 million American were at risk of hunger.“It is tragic that so many people in this nation of plenty don’t have access to adequate amounts of nutritious food,” said Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America.
Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing. ~Willam James
DDR generously, but erroneously, attributes to my organizing skills the sing-a-long at their recent “town hall” in Redwood Valley. Kudos should be directed to The Bronnettes for their clever lyrics and singing! The subject of the meeting was Measure A, the initiative to put a monster mall on the old Masonite site. Watch the YouTube video of the sing-a-long portion of the meeting below.
In the video, DDR accuses The Bronnettes of disrupting the meeting. But if you look at the video, it’s plain to see that the meeting hadn’t begun; the room is nearly empty. The sing-a-long was simply a bit of pre-meeting entertainment. Hardly what I’d call “disruption.”
Why do so many oppose Measure A? If passed, Measure A would: (1) Allow an Ohio corporation to bypass local planning regulations that the rest of us have to follow; (2) Avoid review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA); (3) Replace jobs at existing local businesses with minimum wage jobs at the monster mall; (4) Create traffic nightmares; (5) Create polluting runoff from a huge parking lot; (6) Use lots of scarce water; and (7) Divert shopping dollars from downtowns across the county to big corporations that have no stake in Mendocino County.
August 25, 2009 Ukiah Valley, Mendocino, North California
The Bronnettes singing group strikes AGAIN and all others that would like to participate, are welcome to copy the words below, which (loosely) goes to the Ernie Ford song Sixteen Tons.
DDR is planning a Community Town Hall meeting tonight, 6:15 ish or 6:30 is when we plan to sing.
The place….Redwood Valley Grange, 8650 East Road, near the Fire Station I’m told. Please feel free to make as many copies as you want… pass them around… an unofficial “No on A anthem”? Come sing with us, bring friends, we’ll have a few copies there to pass around too I believe. By the way, I find that snapping my fingers keeps a steady beat through out this piece plus I believe there will be guitar to keep us all “mostly together”.
some… people say a town is made out of shops,
but a good town has a lotta mom and pops,
mom and pops – not yer great big box -
the money stays here on our own sidewalks
CHORUS
with a DDR mall, what do you get -
another credit card and deeper in debt.
if there’s enuff water for a great big mall
you can be sure that they’ll take it all.
DDR’s too broke to develop what it owns,
that’s why they want us to pass a re-zone,
they can turn around and sell it to a bigger guy,
and no one knows if the project will fly.
now… other comp’nys work with the peoples plan,
but these carpetbaggers do whatever they can,
we’ll be stuck with it even if it ain’t right,
as we stop on State at the seventh stop light Keep singing→
August 24, 2009 Ukiah Valley, Mendocino County, North California
Driving to Oregon and wanting to break up our trip, Bill and I stopped at Eureka’s Bayshore Mall. I wanted to see how the economic downturn was affecting the mall. Maybe there were some lessons for Mendocino County voters as Election Day approaches for Measure A.
We were surprised to see the parking lot practically full. Maybe things weren’t so bad after all.
The mystery deepened once we entered the mall because it was practically empty on a Thursday afternoon.
What about all those cars in the parking lot? We did not solve the mystery, but we did take a few pictures before a very imposing guard informed me that taking pictures was prohibited. Why? I asked. Because, he said, there were concerns about trademark infringement, what with all those logos (of extinct businesses?) and store names right out there for anyone to copy.
August 5, 2009 Ukiah Valley, Mendocino, North California
To the Editor:
Mr. Jon Fenwick’s lengthy letter (7/30/2009) in which he attacks Dave Smith, Tom Anderson, Judy Pruden and me for hypocrisy and “preachy letters” prodded me to do some research. I first Googled “’Jon Fenwick’ Ukiah California”, turning up only Mr. Fenwick’s letter. Then I called information to ask for his telephone number, and found that there was no listing for a ‘Jon Fenwick’ in Ukiah. I find it strange that Mr. Fenwick’s foray into letter writing to the local paper began with a very long preachy letter. If I talked to him, I figured, maybe there could be some common ground. Mr. Fenwick, please take note.
With respect to the proposed projects at the Redwood Business Park by the airport, Mr. Fenwick may not be aware that although the City of Ukiah did not prepare an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when it purchased the land for the projects, those projects are not exempt from CEQA. The act of purchasing, because it does not involve any change in land use, does not warrant an EIR. Because the City is subject to CEQA, there will be additional environmental analysis before approval (or denial) of any permits that would allow development to take place. Should Measure A pass, however, Developers Diversified Realty (DDR), would-be developers of the Masonite site, would be exempt from CEQA. That’s a major distinction that Mr. Fenwick should consider.
On at least one point Mr. Fenwick and I are in agreement. Indeed, California is a mess. And the root cause of the mess is Proposition 13. In 1978, voters thought they were capping real property taxes to allow the elderly to remain in their homes. Property taxes would increase only at the time of sale, or so the voters thought. Corporations, however, soon found ways to transfer property without a resultant increase in property taxes. Keep reading→
August 3, 2009 Ukiah Valley, Mendocino County, North California
Bill and I love this CSA.
Last winter we were supplied with the most gorgeous vegetables I’ve ever seen. Everything looked like something from Sunset Magazine – only the vegetables were the real thing, not all doctored up for a fancy magazine. The vegetables were also the best tasting ever, and I consider myself a discriminating foodie. If you can sign up now, Adam Gaska and Paula Manalo will be forever grateful – they’re in a bit of a tight spot, along with the rest of us, but their tight spot is particularly tight as Adam explains below.
Oh– an added bonus is a weekly newsletter with lots of recipes, pictures, descriptions of the plant and animal lives, and occasionally a bit of food politics.
Please pass this along to all your friends who appreciate good food and want to see more of it produced locally.
~
From ADAM GASKA and PAULA MANALO
Redwood Valley
Think it’s too early to start thinking about winter produce? WRONG!
It’s 100 degrees out, and the sun is blazing, but all the planting for fall and winter crops happens as soon as Summer Solstice hits. Please sign up here (pdf) for the Winter CSA and send in a deposit to keep your local farmers farming and ensure a bountiful winter harvest.
July 20, 2009 Ukiah Valley, Mendocino County, North California
How can we get real healthcare reform NOW?
Not next year, not in five years when the economy may have recovered, but now. We want single payer healthcare by the end of August.
For a succinct discussion of the health care policy debate, go to Wikipedia here.
We are stuck with two reluctant reformers: Dianne Feinstein, Senator, and Mike Thompson, Representative. So far as I know Barbara Boxer is not a problem.
Thompson gets campaign money from the “health sector”, to the tune of $254,625 in 2008. He does, however, profess to be in favor of the public option (second best after single payer).
Our job is to turn him to single payer. Here’s his contact information:
July 7, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California
In its campaign to make the idea of a mega mall on the old Masonite site attractive to county voters, DDR (Developers Diversified Realty) didn’t count on Ron Lippert. Turning up at a focus group, Wednesday, July 1, in Ukiah at the Hampton Inn, Lippert and 11 other gentlemen were paid $50 each to let Nichols Research, Inc., a Fresno-based research outfit, pick their brains and shape their opinions.
In a phone conversation with Lippert, he told me how it unfolded. For starters, 9 participants initially favored DDR’s plan for the mega mall, 2 were neutral, and 1 (Lippert) was opposed.
The process began with the participants registering their awareness of local institutions and personalities by using a hand held device akin to a game boy toy. The results are revealing. A third did not recognize the names of the members of the Board of Supervisors. Keep reading→
July 6, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California
Sitting at the intersection of Lansing and Lake Streets in Mendocino, Bill, dogs Heidi and Jerry, and I watched the Fourth of July parade in Mendocino. Here are some of the photos…
June 26, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California
Thirty-five inland Mendocino County residents demonstrated in the noonday sun to show Congressman Mike Thompson that there is strong support for single payer health care reform in his Congressional district.
Demonstrating were a small business owner, politicians, a doctor, several retirees, and members of the Ukiah Valley Democratic Party. In other words, people from all walks of life came together to show their support for single payer health care reform.
The ambiance was friendly; there were no hecklers, unlike Friday evening demonstrations for peace where a couple of hecklers can be counted on to shout epithets at the demonstrators. Could there be more support for health care reform than for peace? That’s what it looks like. Perhaps it’s because, as one demonstrator’s sign showed, health care is an out of pocket expense whereas war is covered by our taxes. We don’t see the tax money; we do see the health care money go to insurance companies that thrive by overcharging and cherry picking whom they choose to insure.
To put health care on the same footing as war, it would be paid for with tax revenues. Everyone would receive the benefits, not just those with lots of money who have never been sick. Is that so much to ask? We don’t think so, Congressman Thompson.
Support H.R. 676, the bill that, if enacted, would give all your constituents health care without worrying about paying for it.
June 21, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California
To demonstrate how much universal health care means to Mendocino County, let’s meet on Thursday at 12 Noon in front of the courthouse in Ukiah. Bring video cameras. Make some beautiful signs. The videos can show our way too-conservative Congressional Representative, MIKE THOMPSON, that his constituents CARE ABOUT UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE, preferably the single-payer kind.
MIKE THOMSON recently said outside a business meeting in Fort Bragg to the 20+ constituents requesting his signing onto HR 676 that “there is not enough public support for Single Payer Health Care. If there were 2,000 of you here, that would be public support.”
In a recent Letter to the Editor (UDJ 6/18/2009), a constituant addressed the following to MIKE THOMPSON: “You said that while Single Payer is popular in your district, it does not have wide spread support throughout the country. This statement is factually in error; poll after poll shows a large majority of the Americal people in support of Single Payer. Here is a list of reputable independent polls on Single Payer with the percenage of people in support: Feb. 2009 New York Times/CBS News Poll – 59 percent; Feb. 2009, Grove Insight Opinion Research – 59 percent; Read more→
[This is the first comprehensive look at what is in store for the state that I have seen. It shows exactly the ideological underpinnings of what is going on. Before watching this I had not been aware of the rabid moronic Joe and Ken Show on AM talk radio in Los Angeles. I also was not aware of Schwarzenegger's affection for Milton Friedman. -JS]
June 22, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California
Since the financial crisis hit in September, Naomi has been warning that the real shock was yet to come. “Unless we get a good deal” on the bailouts, Naomi wrote back in October, “there will be nothing left over after the banks are done feeding to pay for the meager services now provided in exchange for taxation. The spiraling cost of saving Wall Street from its bad bets is already being used as an excuse for why we can’t solve our many other crises, from health care to climate change.”
In California, the real shock has arrived with the state’s devastating budget crisis and unprecedented spending cuts. Read the post by Avi Lewis below about California and then click on the links to watch his incredible half-hour documentary.
Schwarzenegger’s Shock Therapy — The Poor Pay For The Sins Of The Rich
Now that Washington has ruled out an immediate bailout for California, we know who will pay the ultimate price for the crisis born on Wall Street: the state’s most vulnerable citizens. And with many states facing similar crises, this could be a preview of where the country as a whole is headed.
California is facing a $24.3 billion dollar budget gap, and the governor wants to attack it with cuts to social programs alone. If Schwarzenegger has his way, the price will be paid by 1.9 million people who lose their Read more→
June 7, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California
[After reading Robert Reich's blog, I just sent this to my congressional respresentative Mike Thompson -JS]
Dear Congressman Thompson:
I am writing to urge you to support a real public option in the emerging health care bill. Big Pharma is trying very hard to make any public option meaningless as I learned from Robert Reich in his blog→.
My first choice would be single payer health care, but that appears to be off the table. To have any meaningful reform there must be a public option. As a member of Congress you are already a beneficiary. Every American should have the same opportunity.
I urge you to press as hard as you possibly can for a public option without conditions or triggers — one that gives the public insurer bargaining leverage over drug companies, and pushes insurers to do what they’ve promised to do.
Your constituent,
Janie Sheppard
In the “Frontline” documentary “What It’s Like To Be Sick Around the World,” the award-winning correspondent shows why the health care system in the United States lags far behind other major democracies. To watch the PBS program, click here→.
In a letter to the Ukiah Daily Journal (5/3/09), two Manchester residents said they would love to see a Costco in Ukiah. Now, when they go to Costco in Santa Rosa they said they also shop at Friedman’s, Home Depot and Wal-Mart. Their shopping does not benefit Mendocino County, but it could.
They would do their shopping in Ukiah, they wrote, if there was a Costco.
What if Costco located in the current Airport commercial mall, with Friedman’s, Wal-Mart and with Home Depot close by?
Costco, the City of Ukiah, and the owner of the Airport commercial mall could work this out to benefit not only themselves but all county shoppers. Furthermore, that’s good planning because it would use the existing commercially zoned land. The Masonite site could remain zoned for industry.
Why not do it?
~
From DAVE SMITH
Masonite Not About Costco
Julie Simental in her letter to the editor (UDJ 4/20 responding to my letter against the Masonite Monster Mall) has either not done her homework, or is purposefully misleading citizens. By hanging her argument for supporting the mall around “we could have a Costco right here in Ukiah,” she does a disservice to our community.
In numerous letters to the editor and opinions in the UDJ, it has been well-documented that Costco was about to close a deal with the City of Ukiah for building on land already designated for retail in the city. Costco withdrew their plan when they were offered a deal by DDR to build on the Masonite site, even though that site is not zoned for retail. I daresay walls would already be going up for a Costco store in Ukiah by now if that had not happened.
Personally, I do not support any more big box stores in our area for all the reasons I’ve stated [in other letters]. But, please. Can we put the Costco canard to rest?
~~
As a newcomer to Ukiah, I find it disheartening to find my new home possibly about to make the same mistake as my old one, Sonoma County.
DDR, a development company, is pushing for a shopping center on Ukiah’s Masonite site, and while the project is promoted as a small strip mall, the developer’s 2009 proposed specific plan amendment calls for construction of a mixed-use center with maximum building area of 800,000 square feet — making it comparable to Coddingtown or the Santa Rosa Plaza.
In the 1980s, the Santa Rosa Plaza emptied Santa Rosa’s downtown of commerce, and it’s taken decades for that downtown to recover. I would hate to see the same fate for downtown Ukiah and its nearby smaller shopping centers.
There’s evidence nationwide that Americans are rejecting mall culture as gas prices rise, turning instead to smaller local shopping areas and to online shopping that doesn’t require car travel at all. DDR’s large mall would require a large shopping population drawn from a wide radius, not just from small Ukiah.
How sad if we in Ukiah allow construction of a major shopping center when other Americans are learning the lessons of the past decades, coming to prize their downtowns and avoiding huge malls.
McFadden discusses why he is strongly opposed to the attempt by Ohio-based Developers Diversified Realty Inc. (DDR) to pass a ballot initiative which would rezone the 76-acre Masonite plant site to allow a shopping mall of up to 800,000 square feet.
Obama’s First 100 Days Makes and Remakes History
…what team Obama has accomplished in its first 100 days is nothing less than an unprecedented reversal of decades of unsustainable national policy forced down the throat of the American public by conservatives. While I will present a longer list below — and welcome your additions — three game-changing accomplishments stand out:
Green Stimulus: Progressives, Obama keep promise to jumpstart clean energy, economy — conservatives keep promise to jumpstop the future
Sustainable Budget: The first sustainable budget in U.S. history.
Regulatory breakthrough: EPA finds carbon pollution a serious danger to Americans’ health and welfare requiring regulation
Obama has clearly demonstrated he has a serious chance to be the first President since FDR to remake the country through his positive vision. Indeed, if Obama is a two-term president, if he achieves even half of what he has set out to, he will likely be remembered as “the green FDR.”
April 27, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California
It appears that Congressional leaders are being deliberately dismissive of single-payer to the point of ludicrous statements. It’s like they have put their fingers in their ears and are yelling “I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you.”
Here they are in all their Congressional “member” glory:
Baucus a few days ago: “Everything BUT single payer is on the table. Single payer is off the table”
Pelosi: “In our caucus, over and over again, we hear single payer, single payer, single payer. Well, it’s not going to be a single payer.”
Pelosi’s aide: “Where are the phone calls, e-mails and faxes in support of single-payer? Speaker Pelosi has been in favor of single-payer for a long time. Now make us do it.”
From JANIE SHEPPARD Save Our Local Economy (SOLE)
P.O. Box 1530, Ukiah CA 95482
SOLE@pacific.net – www.NoMegaMall.com
April 25, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California
Efforts of Diversified Development Realty (DDR) to put a mega mall on the old Masonite Site demonstrate the power of money.
See what corporate money buys:
Jeff Adams, spokesman for DDR, says $1 Million has been spent so far for mailers and public relations. He says DDR will spend another million to get its initiative on the ballot.
H & H Petitions hired signature gatherers to blitz the county. The signature gatherers are paid $2.00 per signature. DDR foots the bill through a consultant.
Arno Political Consultants, a very big-time outfit paid by DDR, subcontracted H & H Petitions to gather signatures. On its website, Arno brags that it has turned signature gathering into an “art form.” Among the services offered is “assisting letter writers in putting their own thoughts on paper [for letters to the editor].” Be skeptical when you read those letters that are subsidized by DDR.
Brian Sobel, principal consultant at Sobel Communications, is paid by DDR to go to the local media. Sobel boasts that his clients include Chevron and Unocal. His services are not cheap.
Mendocino County Tomorrow purports to be an exclusive club. If you want to join, be prepared to pay least $80 and be scrutinized for suitability. “Mendocino County Tomorrow reserves the right to refuse membership to anyone.” In reality, it’s a front group paid for by DDR.
All the money is being spent to pass a 324-page “specific plan” which is the actual initiative language. That’s what we would vote to accept or reject if the H & H signature gatherers get enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. How specific could it be when it is “subject to change” in 28 places?
The initiative, if passed, allows DDR to do whatever it wants. If passed, we would have no control, no public hearings, and no environmental review. We would, however, have a mega mall.
Help Save Our Local Economy. Join SOLE by going to its website, nomegamall.com, and signing up. If you can, please make a donation.
SOLE’s coffers are empty. You can send a check to SOLE, P.O. Box 1530, Ukiah, CA 95482. Thank you very much.
Janie Sheppard
Treasurer, SOLE
~
From EVAN JOHNSON:
The list of known entities DDR/”Mendocino Crossings” has hired to ram this project through:
1. Mendocino County Tomorrow
2. Hogle-Ireland, Inc.
3. Muelrath Public Affairs
4. Ruff and Associates
5. Nielsen, Merksamer, Parrinello, Mueller & Naylor, LLP
6. Sobel Communications
7. CoxCastleNicholson
8. Arno Political Consultants
9. MCG Architecture
10. Fair & Powerful Communication
~~
This only confirms local suspicion that DDR is interested in making a fast $30 million by getting the Masonite site zone changed, then flipping it to who knows who to develop.
Apr 12, 2009, Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California
Un-sign yourself. Please spread the word . . . lots of people are really confused.
Dave will have forms available at Mulligan Books during store hours (11-6) to sign, and I will pick them up and take to the County Clerk.
According to the Ukiah Daily Journal:
Those who believe they have signed their names to a ballot petition in error recently can have their signatures removed, provided they provide paperwork to the county before the petitioners get there first, said Assessor/Clerk/Recorder Sue Ranochak on Friday.
“As long as we receive the written requests before the signatures get here that will work,” she said.
Ranochak said Section 103 of the California Elections Code covered the procedure voters could follow should they wish their names stricken from the record.
“Any voter who has signed an initiative, referendum or recall petition pursuant to the constitution or laws of this state shall have his or her signature withdrawn from the petition upon filing a written request therefor with the appropriate county elections official or city elections official prior to the day the petition is filed,” stated the code.
UKIAH, Mendocino County, North California Apr 8, 2009
[The New Hampshire project is in trouble for not agreeing to widen the road and the the design plans for DDR's project here in Ukiah also has no plan to reroute traffic. -JS]
SEABROOK, Apr 06, 2009 (The Daily News of Newburyport) The developer proposing a massive shopping center for Route 1 has fallen into financial distress as it continues to refuse to widen the state highway that town officials say would assure the project’s approval.
Developers Diversified Realty has already poured more than $20 million into buying and improving the site for its proposed 500,000-square-foot shopping center. The additional roadwork would add a few million to its investment.
The company, however, has widely reported financial problems, its stock losing about 95 percent of its value in the last year.
Although doing very well in 2005 when it began its initiative in Seabrook, DDR — a publicly traded company — has been hit hard by the recession. A look at its stock values in the past four years shows stock that once traded at a high of $72.33 per share in February of 2007 opened on the stock exchange late last week at $2.39 a share.
According to market reports, the company has been suffering from rising debt and a cash shortage. Last month, DDR was dropped from Standard & Poor’s 500 Index “due to low market capitalization,” according to a report from Zacks, an Web-based market reporting site.
In April, a group calling itself Mendocino County Tomorrow will launch an effort to get enough signatures on a petition to allow placing an initiative on the ballot.
The initiative, if passed by a majority of Mendocino County voters, would allow building an 800,000 square foot mega mall on the old Masonite site, just north of the Ukiah city boundary.
Diversified Development Realty, better known by its initials “DDR,” realizing that the Board of Supervisors would vote 4-1 to defeat the attempt to change the zoning from industrial to retail, will now go to the voters.
The initiative, a 310-page document, would become the law on the Masonite site without environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act. Once passed, the developer could do anything it pleased, provided what it wanted to do fit within the very loose parameters of the initiative. The county would have no leverage to get changes. Now, when the county finds a builder’s plans would damage the environment, the county planners can get the plans changed. Not so on the Masonite site if the initiative passes.
DDR, if it remains the developer, has very little capital. It would skimp on the fancy stuff that you likely saw in the appealing mailers. We know this because on Friday, March 27th, Fitch Ratings, the same rating agency that downgraded the county’s debt, downgraded DDR’s debt. DDR debt was downgraded to the lowest investment grade. Its preferred stock now has “junk” status. And, it has a “liquidity shortfall” of 300 Million Dollars. DDR’s broke.
Alternatively, what DDR may be trying to do is put the Masonite site up for sale, recouping its 6 Million Dollar investment and then some. In which case, the county would not be dealing with DDR, but with some other developer that would be so leveraged after buying the site, it too would have no money for niceties.
Don’t sign DDR’s petition. Just say NO.
Let’s save the Masonite site for industry and real jobs.
A delightful 8-minute video of organic gardening in Cuba. Great music, old cars, a handsome narrator with a great British accent. Happy farmers and reformed bureaucrats.
Click on Title (First Day of Spring) above to get full screen
Let’s just imagine, for a few minutes, that marijuana is legal. There are signs that such legalization is in the offing: The new Attorney General, Eric Holder, has said it will henceforth be the policy of the DEA not to raid California medical marijuana dispensaries. There are other signs as well.
California would become the first state in the nation to legalize marijuana for recreational use under a bill introduced February 23rd by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco. Numerous commentators have suggested that taxing marijuana sales, a Thirteen Billion Dollar industry in California alone, would be a painless way to fill the state’s coffers. Taxation, long ignored as a source of revenue for our beleaguered state, extends to marijuana sales. Imagine, for now, that is the reality.
With legalization, comes regulation. Only sustainably grown marijuana, meeting organic standards, is legal. Artificial fertilizers, fungicides, pesticides, diesel generators, their spills and contamination, along with vicious guard dogs, are relics of the past.
Sales are made only to adults, with strict punishments meted out to anyone caught selling to underage purchasers. This is how sales of alcohol and tobacco are controlled today; such a scheme easily could be adapted for marijuana sales.
Mendocino County is known for strains of marijuana that treat specific maladies, many of them providing medicinal benefits without the high. Purchasing these strains is no longer illegal. Imagine patients receiving treatment without being forced into bankruptcy by prescriptions that make the out-of-county pharmaceutical companies rich. Recall too that the defendant in the Kelly case, presently before the California Supreme Court, grew 7 marijuana plants (one over the limit under S.B. 420) to treat pain, something he could not afford to do by purchasing prescription pharmaceuticals.
Recreational users, for the most part, become responsible, just as most wine drinkers are today. Wine drinking drivers know they stand a healthy chance of being pulled over and arrested if they have exceeded the allowable blood alcohol limit. Well publicized campaigns against driving drunk provide further deterrence and the same could work for marijuana.
The Sheriff deploys deputies to help the federal government clean up trespass on federal lands where illegal grows produce no tax revenue, only environmental damage. Illegal grows decrease rapidly because there are more available enforcement personnel. Wildlife returns to take advantage of the quietude and the water that is no longer siphoned from the streams for irrigating. Consider that last season there were 50 trespass grows on Cow Mountain alone, with only one BLM enforcement agent for the entire Ukiah district. Consequently, there was no enforcement and only minimal cleanup.
The Sheriff can deploy deputies to help the feds because it got its act together early. Seeing legalization on the horizon, the Sheriff and his deputies brainstormed priorities. They figured out that the serious problems (not per se breaking the law) came from large-scale growers using diesel powered generators to run the lights and fans required for indoor grows. Also causing big problems were the out-of-county residents who hired locals to tend marijuana gardens here, there, and everywhere. And, of course, the gun-toting, pit bull owning outlaws. The Sheriff realized that if he concentrated his efforts on the serious problems, he could win support of county residents. He also realized that shutting down local, small-scale growers hurt the local economy. He quit doing that.
Paul Krugman, noted economist and New York Times op-ed columnist won the Nobel Prize last year for his ideas about international trade. Implied in those ideas was the notion that production (e.g., of marijuana) becomes concentrated in areas where expertise exists. Here, where medical marijuana expertise exists in abundance, we should acknowledge it by promoting the various Mendocino marijuana-based remedies. This is our opportunity. We need to take advantage of it.
~~
The Obama administration is about to disgorge the second half of TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) money ($350 Billion Dollars) to bail out the banks. The first $350 Billion didn’t do the trick, the second won’t either. But wait, before once again dumping that much money into unsound banks, here’s another idea. This idea isn’t mine, and if it gets some attention, I’ll again ask permission to disclose its origins. For now, we’ll just focus on what I understand to be the substance.
Forget existing banks. Why not leave them to sink or swim? The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was created to clean up banking messes, and it has a good record. Let it do its job.
Instead, ask Congress to appropriate money for a NEW BANK. In its charter would be a mandate to extend credit, something no amount of TARP money alone will do, as we have seen.
The NEW BANK would not be burdened with toxic assets like mortgage-backed securities that turned out to have no value and were a bad idea in the first place.
The NEW BANK would not have greedy shareholders demanding dividends from government bailout money. The shareholders would be us, the taxpayers. Instead of dividends going only to rich shareholders, taxpayers would see the benefits in the form of readily available credit. What would this mean? Ordinary people could finance cars, houses, businesses, and get lines of credit. With the increase of economic activity created by the loosened credit, employment would increase. Instead of losing hundreds of thousands of jobs each month, there would be a gradual turnaround.
What else would this mean? No more huge bonuses for executives more concerned about their pay and perks than the welfare of the country. No more incentive to produce short-term stockholder dividends. The NEW BANK’s profits would come from the interest on loans, not from fraudulent financial instruments that through the deceptive magic of “bundling” hid huge losses. This game of “hot potato” went on while the bundlers sold the instruments to our pension funds and, amazingly, to each other.
Congress would set the salaries for NEW BANK employees and managers. Bonuses would be tied to the health of the economy, not bolstered by phony recommendations of executive pay consultants. This could be in the legislation, if we demanded.
There are plenty of people in the federal government who could run the NEW BANK. Recall that the Resolution Trust Corporation and the FDIC employ plenty of smart people. Bankers who made the mess would be prohibited from employment, if we demanded.
To get the NEW BANK going requires a popular revolt. Unless we tell the Congress, loud and clear and with street demonstrations, if necessary, that we’re fed up and not going to take it anymore, the TARP money will be spent, banks will continue to go bankrupt, and the likes of you and I will not see any benefits while the unemployment numbers keep going up.
If you’re fed up, let President Obama know, let Mike Thompson know, let Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein know, and share this idea with your friends. Don’t take it anymore!
To be truly radical is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing.” ~ Raymond Williams
Small is beautiful, when small is skilled and dedicated... There is so much artificial and plastic crap around, the human spirit yearns for the homespun and the real. ~Gene Logsdon→
I've observed that people tend to live at one of two extremes in the spectrum of life: those who live on the edge, and those who avoid the edge. Those who live on the edge are hanging out in the most dangerous and unstable places — yet they're also often the most powerful agents of change, because the edge is where change is happening; away from the edge, things are naturally unchanging. ~Thom Hartmann
What is not worth doing, is not worth doing well. ~Abraham Maslow→
Society is like a stew: If you don't stir it up every now and then, the scum rises to the top.~Edward Abbey
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. ~Buckminster Fuller→
We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.~Herman Melville
Be joyful though you have considered all the facts. ~Wendell Berry→
We're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit. ~David Suzuki
I sang as one / Who on a tilting deck sings / To keep men's courage up, though the wave hangs / That shall cut off their sun. ~C. Day Lewis
All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. ~Thomas Paine
In its campaign to make the idea of a mega mall on the old Masonite site attractive to county voters, DDR (Developers Diversified Realty) didn’t count on Ron Lippert. Turning up at a focus group, Wednesday, July 1, in Ukiah at the Hampton Inn, Lippert and 11 other gentlemen were paid $50 each to let Nichols Research, Inc., a Fresno-based research outfit, pick their brains and shape their opinions.
Obama’s First 100 Days Makes and Remakes History
