Podcasts about Measure B

September 13, 2024 — The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors tackled several key issues during their Tuesday meeting. They approved a pay raise for supervisors and the use of Measure B funds for the county jail. They also approved amending the cannabis ordinance to clarify the original intent of the ordinance.

On Tuesday, 57% of NSJ voters approved forming a County Service Area to create a funding mechanism for maintenance of a fire suppression system in the town's commercial core. In Grass Valley, Patti Ingram-Spencer vs. City of Grass Valley and Natalie Adona, Nevada County Registrar of Voters was dismissed with prejudice. According a press release from Nevada County Elections, the matter is resolved and may not be put before the court again. 

Presiding Superior Court Judge S. Robert Tice-Raskin denied Grass Valley's effort to dismiss Measure B evidence and ordered Nevada County to produce a roster of voters. Read the article at the Union.com.

Patti Ingram-Spencer, former Mayor of Grass Valley and recent candidate for the Nevada County Board of Supervisors filled a challenge against Measure B claiming that illegal votes were cast in the March 5th election.Nevada City's Neighbor to Neighbor Kick Off event is tonight at 6 p.m. at Seamans Lodge in Pioneer Park. Learn more on Nevada City's website. 

Grass Valley could start seeing funds generated by the new tax as early July 1st.

The March 5th Primary Election Results are available on the Nevada County Election's website. Learn more about the Youth News Corps at KVMR.org.

Nevada County's final election results from the Presidential Primary Election are expected to be officially certified March 27. 

September 11, 2023 -- How much will Fort Bragg's innovative Care Response Unit save the county's general fund?  Supervisors Ted Williams and Dan Gjerde brought Fort Bragg Police Chief Neil Cervenka to the Board of Supervisors Meeting on September 12 to provide an overview of the innovative homeless response program initiated by the city and managed through the police department.  The program known as “CRU” or Care Response Unit utilizes a non-enforcement type of interaction to help the homeless get what they need and hopefully get them off the street. The CRU team has served 321 individuals and successfully reconnected 22 homeless individuals with family or friends, persuaded 18 into rehab programs and moved 7 into permanent housing. The program which was initiated by Mayor Norvell got its start with grant funding from the State of California's Behavioral Health Justice Intervention Services Project.  Funding for the program through grant and city funds will only last through mid-2024.  Cervenka asked the BOS to fund the program for four years at a cost of 1.72 million using Measure B dollars.  Measure B is tax money that was designed to fund the construction of psychiatric and behavioral health facilities, operation costs, and services to treat mental illness and addiction.So how does the program save the money in the county's general fund? According to Chief Cervenka it costs a minimum of $107 dollars per day to incarcerate an individual in the county jail and goes up based on health and psychiatric needs. Since the CRU program's implementation there has been a sea change in how the Fort Bragg Police Department deals with the homeless and spends its officer hours.  There has been an overall 27 percent decrease in calls for service involving homeless from the 21/22 fiscal year to the current fiscal year.  The most dramatic being 242 calls in December of 2021 versus 58 in December of 2022.  There has been a 20% decrease in arrests of homeless and an increase in overall arrests.The program also includes contract staffing for Project Right Now, which helps youth with substance abuse disorders fight addiction. The Board of Supervisors directed staff to determine if current funding for homeless services, that is not as effective, can be redirected to CRU and agreed to send Cervenka's request to the Measure B Committee for consideration.  Williams also asked staff to determine how much money the CRU program has saved the county, presumably, due to reduced jail expenses.

January 10, 2023--Host Dr. Marvin Trotter speaks with Jacque Williams, CEO of The Ford Street Project in Ukiah. They discuss how Measure B monies are being used for sober living at Ford Street. With listener questions.

San Diegans voted yes on Measure B last month to allow the city to charge for trash collection that many have been enjoying for free, but it'll be a while until they see any bills. In other news, a new report breaks down the improvements needed at Balboa Park. Plus, children in Liberia are set to have a merrier Christmas this year, thanks to a woman from Del Mar.

Email Us:dbahnsen@thebahnsengroup.comwill@calpolicycenter.orgFollow Us:@DavidBahnsen@WillSwaim@TheRadioFreeCAShow Notes:On this day in history, Dec. 5, 1848, President Polk ignites California Gold Rush with address to CongressRep. Ro Khanna pushed back on Twitter suppression of Hunter Biden laptop storyFriendly fire: Dems resurface Cárdenas's links to violent porn producer to hurt bid for DCCC ChairmanCalifornia moves toward punishing oil companies for high gas prices with a new profit penaltyCalifornia restaurant owners say they have enough signatures to block fast-food minimum-wage lawSan Diego's Measure B, which would allow waste collection fees, poised to passA teachers union in Clovis Unified remains out of reach as fight drags into third yearThis California city asked where its recycling went. The answer wasn't pretty.Charlie Munger: The world is driven by envy, not greedUSC linebacker Ralen Goforth's hit on Utah QB Cameron Rising

The latest election results include a turnaround for Measure B. The proposal to charge single-family homeowners in San Diego a fee for trash pickup is narrowly in the lead after trailing for most of the vote count. Then, it's been five years since the #MeToo movement. But many female police officers still experience sexism on the job. KPBS investigative reporter Claire Trageser looks at what departments are doing to fix this. And, in our weekend preview, art that explores street markets, contemporary dance, bilingual theater and more.

Measure that Would Charge San Diegans for Trash Pickup is Passing, Nurses in North County are Calling for Changes, OB Pier Updates Now Target of Lawsuit, Fire Flares Up East of El CajonSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

District committee to review textbooks (pagesuite.com) Lawsuit against S.D. over housing, poverty near trial (pagesuite.com) Measure B questions fairness on trash collection (pagesuite.com) Measure C aims to define Midway District (pagesuite.com)

On Midday Edition we're bringing you a special program featuring our reporting and analysis of some of the key races voters will be weighing in on in San Diego County on Tuesday. President Joe Biden will be in San Diego Thursday to campaign for Congressman Mike Levin, (D-San Juan Capistrano). Levin is in a tight race with Republican Brian Maryott. Then, San Diego County voters will choose a new sheriff for the first time in 12 years. And, we'll dig in to Measure A which proposes taxing cannabis businesses in the unincorporated area, Measure B which proposes allowing the city of San Diego to study the feasibility of charging trash pickup fees for single-family homeowners by repealing the century-old People's Ordinance law, and Measure C which would remove the 30-foot coastal building height limit in the Midway District. Then we'll hear about the candidates and issues in the Chula Vista mayors race. Finally, we'll hear about the significant focus on local school board races.

October 27, 2022 — Measure B, the half-cent sales tax to fund mental health, is heading into its fifth year, when the tax will be reduced from a half-cent to an eighth of a cent. The behavioral health training center in Redwood Valley and the critical residential treatment center in Ukiah are now open. A crisis respite center in Fort Bragg could be open by the end of the year, and preparations to demolish a building and build a psychiatric health facility in Ukiah are underway. But now, with the prospect of much less revenue and several buildings to maintain, the 11-member oversight committee is turning its attention to how to pay for long-term maintenance of the physical infrastructure. Two items at Wednesday's special meeting dovetailed with one another. County facilities director Janelle Rau offered a presentation about the maintenance and life cycle costs of the Measure B-owned buildings, which have been added to the county's list of assets. Commissioner Sherrie Ebyam proposed developing a long-term financial plan, including projected revenue and ongoing costs, and expectations for the prudent reserve. The prudent reserve for Measure B is currently 6.85%, following the county's policy per advice from former county CEO and Measure B oversight commissioner Carmel Angelo. Rau told the committee that the numbers she estimates for maintaining a 20-year life cycle for the buildings is rough, because one is new, another is not yet built, and the other hasn't been used for very long. “So that's the CRT (critical residential treatment center), the puff (psychiatric health facility), and then the training center in Redwood Valley,” she clarified. “From an operational perspective, it's approximately $155,000 per year. That's the total of the three buildings. So Redwood Valley is approximately $35,000. The psychiatric health facility we're estimating at between $78,000 and $80,000, and then the CRT was an estimate of $42,000. And again, that's an annual cost to operate, separate and aside from the services that are included in that. From a capital asset management perspective, over a 20-year period, for a total of the three buildings, we estimated $3 million: $553,000 for the CRT, the psychiatric health facility a little over $2 million, and then the Redwood Valley training center, approximately $400,000.” Dr. Jeanine Miller, who is the current chair of the committee and the head of the county's Behavioral Health Department, posed the question that may have been on everyone's minds when she asked, “Do we need a capital facilities reserve for Measure B to be able to maintain these buildings for twenty years?” Commissioner and county CEO Darcie Antle said, “My question would be, if it's not Measure B, Jeanine, are you going to have money? Because otherwise it's going to come back to the general fund, and that's not likely an option.” Miller replied that, without a plan, the money for maintenance and repairs could come out of the very services the buildings are supposed to house. “Behavioral Health would not have that if we do not have it through Measure B,” she confirmed. “I don't know where those costs would come (from). It would actually come from having to reduce client care overall. There isn't going to be any revenue on these buildings. If we were to be generating revenue they would most likely be running in a hole, which means we'd be using Measure treatment dollars to maintain them at a zero budget. So there isn't going to be a revenue to maintain these facilities, because the services are not going to cover themselves, so we are trying to make it so the services do cover themselves, which means not creating a large rent to maintain the buildings.” Miller added that the current plan for a prudent reserve is not specifically a capital reserve. “At the time, what we brought forth for the prudent reserve was to cover treatment services long term, knowing that the psychiatric health facility is not going to be 100% covered. It's going to require Measure B dollars to operate. We've known that from day one. We also don't know if the crisis residential treatment will or will not be able to operate at a zero dollar amount. Will it be able to cover all of its costs? This year is really going to tell us whether or not we're able to cover all costs or what that looks like long term. So when we brought a prudent reserve forward, that's why we brought it forward...we didn't want to build a building and then four years from now, we do not have the funds because we're not bringing enough in, and then how do we fund that loss for those facilities.” The eight commissioners present voted 6-2, with Commissioners Tom Allman and Donna Moschetti dissenting, to ask the county's Behavioral Health and facilities departments to put together a multi-year financial estimate for the committee to review at a future meeting. Commissioners agreed that a crisis stabilization unit was beyond the financial abilities of Measure B. Moschetti, who represents the local branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, summed up the committee's perspective. “NAMI National as a whole, supports the CSU,” she said. “However, NAMI local does not. It does not pay for itself. It's a beautiful idea. It is a wonderful part of the mental health continuum of care. But it is very expensive. First of all, we'd need staffing. It's hard to staff anything we have already. But secondly, you can keep a person for 23 hours and 59 minutes. You can only bill for 20. And of course we're not going to let people go when they're not able to go. And so we'd have to provide four hours of care at no reimbursement cost. I personally, and I asked my board, we don't think that this county can support that.” The committee has been charged with assembling a stakeholder group to craft a request for proposals from service providers competing to offer drug addiction treatment. Miller estimated that the document could be ready for review in 60 days.

Today I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Imperial Valley College President Dr. Lennor Johnson. We talked about some of the amazing accomplishments our local community college has accomplished, like being on the top 10 list of ASPEN list. But Dr Johnson was here to talk and promote a measure that's on the November ballot, Measure B. If passed they hope to bring in close to $130 million dollars to expand it's facilities to be able to train our local students in lithium, and also train more fire fighter, police officers, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians to name a few. Learn more about measure B on their Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/ImprovePublicSafetyTraining Huge thanks to Calexico Brewing Company for allowing us to record this episode at their tap room!! Thank You to my Anchor Sponsors! Camilo Garcia, Jake, Eric Ortega Norma Sierra Galindo IID Director representing division 5 and serving the entire Imperial Valley! Sergio's Tacos and Hotdogs! Follow Sergio's Tacos and Hotdogs https://www.facebook.com/Sergios-Tacos-and-Hotdogs-814183015393170 Follow Eddie Lopez and Roots Creative on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/cultivatingideas/ Eric Reyes - Amigos de la Comunidad Will Torres - Valley Sports Network! https://valleysportsnet.com/ Thinking of buying or selling a house or property, contact David Gastelum! https://www.facebook.com/whybuyorsell Follow us on Facebook! http://bit.ly/2AljpUQ Follow us on Instagram! http://bit.ly/31l34ve Follow us on Twitter! http://bit.ly/2ZTMdlL Visit our new and improved website https://quepasacalexico.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/quepasacalexico/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/quepasacalexico/support

Both the San Diego Padres and the San Diego Wave FC had major playoff wins this weekend. We take a look into sports fandom and why it matters to people. Then, reprimands were issued last week for two Navy SEAL leaders and a senior medical officer in connection with the death of Seal trainee Kyle Mulle. Next, we take a closer look at the November election as a new cannabis tax measure could bring in millions of dollars from businesses in unincorporated San Diego County. And, Measure B would allow the city to study the feasibility of charging trash pickup fees for single-family homeowners by repealing the century old People's Ordinance. Then, people in Imperial County are expecting a gold rush, and the gold is a lightweight metal called Lithium. Finally, with Halloween just around the corner, it is the perfect time to enter the macabre world of Edgar Allan Poe. For the fifth year Write Out Loud hosts Poefest, a celebration of the author and all things strange and other-worldly.

October 12, 2022 — The Measure B Oversight Committee is seeking a contractor to provide substance use disorder treatment. Measure B is a sales tax initiative to fund mental health facilities that passed in 2017. The tax was a half-cent for the first five years, and has now decreased to an eighth of a cent. An eleven-member oversight committee is tasked with making recommendations to the Board of Supervisors on how to spend the money. Last month's meeting of the Measure B Oversight Committee included a discussion about a $3.1 million proposal from the Ford Street Project to offer substance use disorder treatment, or SUDT. Last week, Behavioral Health Director Dr. Jeanine Miller, who sits on the committee, spoke with the Board of Supervisors about what they'd like to see in a request for proposals, or RFP, from contractors competing to offer the service. Supervisor Glenn McGourty was shocked to learn that 75 people in Mendocino County died last year from drug overdose. Miller clarified that the number ruled out people who intentionally took their own lives. “Really, really terrible,” McGourty remarked, adding that he thinks the number points to the need for treatment. Supervisor Dan Gjerde wanted to make sure Measure B funds wouldn't be used to pay for a program that could be funded by the state. “My concern with the Ford Street Project isn't what they're proposing. My concern was that they were seeking local tax dollars for what I suspect the state would be happy to fund,” he explained. “For example, the state's making significant money available for homeless housing, or for people who are in danger of becoming homeless, and I would think that people who have serious substance abuse issues are certainly in danger of becoming homeless. So I would just be concerned if we were to use local tax dollars, which are very precious and minimal, even if it's Measure B funds, to pay for something that we think the state is likely to fund.” Miller told him the details haven't all been hammered out yet, and she was monitoring the availability of state grants. Supervisor Ted Williams signaled that he is likely to vote in favor of a proposal requesting evidence-based treatment plans that meet with the approval of local doctors. Miller suggested inviting some of them to help write the proposal. “I appreciate the RFP. I think that's the right process, given the dollar amount. We have finite funds. I would prefer (to) see evidence-based, medically supervised substance abuse treatment. Is that a possibility?” Williams asked Miller. Miller told him “we can put out a request for whatever type of services we want…in that RFP we can put in a request for specific services, or all of the services, and then get the proposals we get, and go off of those by opening up types of SUDT (substance abuse disorder treatment) services.” WIlliams told her that “I don't want to guide that process, as the county supervisor. You're our expert. I want to trust you. It would be helpful if we could involve local physicians. When I have local physicians calling me and telling me they don't support what we're doing, that it may have benefits, but is it the best use of funds, that's concerning. It's a red flag. Is there a way early in the process to make sure that we're including local physicians so we at least capture their ideas about what they need?” Miller said discussions at the Measure B Oversight Committee meeting had included a conversation about the composition of a stakeholder group as part of writing the RFP, “so we can definitely include a couple of medical community members in that RFP to get their feedback,” she said. Miller also assured Williams that the RFP would come back to the full Board of Supervisors for its approval before it is posted. Measure B funds have also been used to purchase a behavioral health training center in Redwood Valley. Miller told the Board that although the training center is coming in $285,000 under budget, more IT equipment is needed, and there's a marketing campaign underway to rent the hall. It's mostly unused, even as the memory of pandemic restrictions fades. There is also a Measure B funded Crisis Residential Treatment facility in Ukiah, where people in moderate psychiatric crisis can spend up to thirty days in treatment. It's currently $264,000 under budget. The facility opened in April, so it is still too early to tell if initial financial projections of a neutral impact on the budget were accurate. A mobile crisis response team of three mental healthcare staff working with the sheriff's department and the Ukiah police department has responded to 212 calls so far. An architect is designing the tear-down of an old nursing home on Whitmore Lane in Ukiah to build a Measure-B funded psychiatric health facility, or puff, on the site. The original estimate was $19.5 million, but that estimate has grown by about a million. The current estimated completion date for the construction is June of 2025.

August 11, 2022 — The Fort Bragg City Council had second thoughts this week about its own plans for a sales tax that would have been used to fund workforce housing. The proposal for a ⅜ cent sales tax would have been a general tax, needing only a simple majority to pass and going into the city's general fund. An oversight committee was going to make sure the estimated $650,000 to $800,000 a year was used for the stated purpose, but that's not guaranteed with general taxes, as former interim city manager David Spaur, who now works as a consultant for the city, explained. “Having the funds go into the general fund, and then earmarking or designating them towards your specific purpose, allows you to build that account for your specific purpose, but in the event of an emergency, if the Council needed the funds for police, or for fire, or for flood or famine, those funds would be available to you,” he said. “But the oversight committee would want you to possibly replace those funds and backfill them at a later date, or find alternative sources of revenue to replace those funds.” Council member Tess Albin Smith asked Spaur what the city could do with less than a million dollars a year. She said $800,000 “does not seem like enough to do anything with workforce housing. So I'm wondering, are we just going to save it up until we get enough? What would we do with $800,000? What's the plan?” Spaur replied that the money “will allow you to leverage your housing community development funds for $800,000 into $1.6 million. So with a 50% match, you can double it. You can accrue those funds over several years. You can use those funds to purchase property, or a down payment on property, and then use grant funds and others to close on that property. So it's a good start. It's a good bite at the apple. Obviously, you're going to need a couple bites at the apple. You've got a housing crisis going on, and you need to find revenue sources specifically for workforce housing, for the workers, and have that housing be deed-restricted. You also need the funds. So creating some source that helps the city apply for other grants and leverage the funds is needed, whether it be this source or another source.” There will be two taxes on the county ballot in November. During public comment, Supervisor Dan Gjerde told the council that he's worried that a third ballot measure asking for a tax would doom all three. Fractions of two already-existing taxes are sunsetting: Measure B, a special tax to fund mental healthcare facilities; and Measure A, for the libraries. Library supporters got enough signatures to put a quarter cent proposal, Measure O, on November's ballot. The Board of Supervisors is also asking voters to approve Measure P, another quarter cent sales tax for fighting fire and fire prevention. Gjerde was key in getting the Board of Supervisors to drop its original idea to include funding water projects, in part by arguing that the Board does not have the political credibility of a citizens group. “I think this is a great, worthy proposal that you have,” he said. “My concern is the timing….One thing you should know is, in the last couple of years, California courts have ruled that if the voters collect signatures and put a tax on the ballot for a specific purpose, it only takes a 50% (plus one majority) to pass. So the library folks have figured that out, and that's part of the reason why they went directly to the voters. First of all, they gathered support by getting people to sign up to put it on the ballot. Secondly, they know it only takes 50% (plus one majority to pass) and they can guarantee how the money is being spent. So with this proposal, if there was a sales tax, if the voters here in Fort Bragg, if we were to collect signatures and put it on the ballot, it could potentially be ready for the next election. At the latest, that would be March of 2024, the presidential primary…I actually think there's an advantage, when you have fewer things on the ballot. I think people are better able to understand the proposal itself. And I think they are therefore more likely to vote yes. I think if they don't know enough about a proposal, they're more likely to vote no. Anyway, again, I'm just concerned that if there are three taxes on this election, they're more likely to all go down in defeat.” Mayor Bernie Norvell cited the lack of trust in government at the county as he agreed with most of his colleagues that now is the wrong time to ask voters to pay more taxes. “I'm going to fall in line here,” he said. “I think the timing is just not right for a general tax. I don't think there's trust in government right now. If you have followed the county, they got a lot of heat. I don't think there's trust with the county right now. I do think they'll get their library tax. I hope they get their fire tax. I think we're in a better position than the county with government trust, and I would hate to see this project get a stain on it by not getting the necessary votes, and I just don't think it will. With looming recession, inflation, I don't think it's a great time right now to be taxing people. Again, if you go back and watch some of the county meetings, that was a lot of the discussion, is why now, why more taxes. If we do shoot this down tonight, it may send a message of goodwill, that we understand the economy, and what people are struggling with…I'm just not going to support this. I'm going to recommend no action on this item. But Mr. Spaur, you did everything we asked you to do…I think a year and a half or even two years ago, when we started this, and even at the budget meeting, I think we were right then. I just think so much has changed since then. I just don't want this to reflect on you at all. Because this was our idea, and I think you did an amazing job putting the report together.”

July 28, 2022 — At a brief Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, the Board heard about Measure B, cannabis, covid, and labor. Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren called in to warn about new variants. He is strongly recommending that people wear masks indoors and gather outdoors. Since May, the county has recorded eight deaths from covid, six of them in the greater Ukiah area. The descedents ranged in age from 67-91, and most had comorbidities. And negotiations between the county and the union representing most of its workers are not going amicably. SEIU Local 1021 filed an unfair labor practice charge with the state Public Employment Relations Board, claiming that the county has refused to give union negotiators all the information they need to participate in bargaining sessions. Union representative Patrick Hickey called into the Board meeting on Tuesday to say that he thinks the county does have the money to give members a cost of living allowance, or COLA. “We've been waiting since November for a variety of information requests,” he said. “And the county continues to drag its heels, has failed to present the information that we've needed to analyze the budget…we did finally get a dribble of information from the county last week in our negotiations. They provided a small portion of the information requested regarding the more than 402 unfilled vacant positions in the county…based on the limited amount of information provided, it's clear that there is certainly funding available to provide county employees with a reasonable COLA to address the current high level of inflation. Based on the current budget, a lot more attention is being paid to taking care of the buildings, rather than taking care of the employees. Some of those projects are not imminent or urgent, and certainly can be postponed and that money can be rededicated to COLAs…there's a sizable amount of money set aside to buy new vehicles. The County has a large number of vehicles that are not even used on a regular basis, that are just sitting in parking lots, getting old.” The union told the employee relations board that “the County should be ordered to provide complete and accurate responses to the Union's outstanding requests for information; ” and asked it to “order all other remedies it deems just and proper.” The union frequently contends that low pay leads to understaffing, a theme that emerged in many of the Grand Jury reports, which started to come out last week. Michael Katz, the Executive Director of the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance, drew the board's attention to the Grand Jury report on the cannabis equity grant program, which is supposed to provide grants to people who have been harmed by the war on drugs. The report detailed communications failures, and noted that as of May, the county's Cannabis Department had ten vacant positions and only twelve employees. Katz said the report bolstered many points the board has heard before. “I'm not sure you had a chance to review it. It came in yesterday,” he began. “If you had, you might see that some of the findings and some of the recommendations align with what MCA and stakeholders from the community have been saying for quite some time. One of the first findings indicates that there was no process developed for the distribution of grant funds to individuals prior to applications being received. What that indicates is a project management issue, I believe, that speaks to the need for additional support of the cannabis department by the CEO's office to ensure that as projects are set up, they align with all of the requirements of the county infrastructure and that we are not waiting for the last minute to identify potential roadblocks in getting out these much-needed funds. That goes on, additionally, to finding #2, that the County did not ask county did not ask the State for requirements on record-keeping until May of 2022, and apparently only did so to establish the County's risk of having to repay funds if they were not spent for approved purposes.” The county received $2.2 million for the equity program, and close to $10.5 million for a local jurisdiction assistance grant program to help growers comply with environmental regulations and cover the cost of various fees. Supervisor John Haschak pulled an item from the Board's consent calendar approving a year-long agreement with a company called Planet Labs to provide satellite imaging services, starting July 27, for a little over $350,000. “This is the Local Jurisdiction Assistance Grant money,” he said; “and the concern expressed was that this only be used for helping out with getting people to their annual licenses, which is the intent of the Local Jurisdiction Assistance Grant.” The Mendocino Cannabis Alliance sent a memo to the Board, sounding the alarm over the satellites' potential use for enforcement purposes, which it contends are ineligible uses for the grant money. Katz called out what he sees as a double standard. “It's been made very clear that if funds are misused, we will not be able to retain them,” he warned. “And seeing County Counsel's focus on making sure that the misuse of funds policy was in place for applicants to the equity program, people who have already been harmed by the war on drugs, it seems obvious to us that there should be similar misuse of funds policies in place for the administration of these funds.” The Board passed the consent calendar and agreed to fine-tune the use of the funds later. In the Measure B update, Behavioral Health Director Dr. Jeanine Miller told the Board that a new crisis team of mental health specialists worked with law enforcement to answer about one call a day last year. Sheriff Matt Kendall claimed that law enforcement visits to hospital emergency rooms with people in mental health crises are down 60% since the team started working together. But the mental health training center in Redwood Valley is expensive, and so far not living up to expectations. Again, Haschak was dubious. “We're hearing that there's two trainings per month at this point,” he said. “So that's 24 per year, and if we're looking at the operational cost of $50,000 per year, plus it looks like $30,000 for the capital, so we're talking $80,000 a year just to keep it up and running. So I guess the question is, how do we get better usage of it.” Miller said she expects better marketing will get the training center rented out more often. While the Measure B committee has put aside a prudent reserve, there is no reserve for capital improvement projects or maintenance, though one of the stated purposes of the Measure was to “Provide for the necessary infrastructure to support and stabilize” people needing treatment for a variety of conditions. The Measure B committee has ordered a gun locker for the training center and is deciding where to put it.

Alameda news and information with host Scott Piehler for the week ending July 8, 2022. This one goes to 11!Stories include a raise on November's ballot for City Councilmembers, Measure B passes (finally), Tina 'Bean' Blaine is moving on to Madagascar, the July Fourth Parade and  so much more!For more podcast information, please visit AlamedaPost.com/Podcast. For more event information, please see AlamedaPost.com/Events, or visit AlamedaPost.com for more Alameda news and information.Support the show

Alameda news and information with host Scott Piehler for the week ending June 17, 2022.Stories include Planning board's public workshop, the Cross Alameda Trail gets longer, more election results showing Measure B leading,  the importance of Juneteenth to the Black community, and more!For more podcast information, please visit AlamedaPost.com/Podcast. For more event information, please see AlamedaPost.com/Events, or visit AlamedaPost.com for more Alameda news and information.If you would like to support our work, please make a donation via Square.Support the show

Alameda news and information with host Scott Piehler for the week ending June 10, 2022. Stories include results after low turnout from Tuesday's Primary Election and Measure B headed towards rejection, Alameda County's new mask mandate, new parking enforcement, Alameda becomes an island, art hits the ground,  and more!For more podcast information, please visit AlamedaPost.com/Podcast. For more event information, please see AlamedaPost.com/Events, or visit AlamedaPost.com for more Alameda news and information.

On this episode we have Guest Host Adrian Gonzales, who currently serves as the Director of Regional Implementation at All Home, a nonprofit organization that advances regional solutions to disrupt the cycle of poverty and homelessness across the nine Bay Area counties. He previously served at Destination: Home where he managed the County of Santa Clara's Emergency Rental Assistance Program, a homelessness prevention program created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to his focus on housing and homelessness policy, Adrian also served as a local government management consultant who conducted efficiency studies and performance audits for over 50 government agencies over the course of a decade, including campaign finance and election programs. Our guest interview is Neil Park-McClinktick of Silicon Valley Rising (SVR), which is a coordinated campaign driven by a powerful coalition of labor, faith leaders, community-based organizations and workers. SVR is in support of Measure B a ballot measure proposal to amend the San Jose City Charter to (1) move the mayoral election from the gubernatorial election cycle to the presidential election cycle beginning in 2024 and (2) to limit the person elected to the Office of Mayor in 2022 to a Two-year term with the option to run for the Office of Mayor and serve as such for two additional successive four-year terms. City of San José Measure B Resources Yes on Measure B Resources No on Measure B Resources --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/onlyinsj/message

June 1, 2022 — As another dry summer heats up, the Board of Supervisors is considering asking voters to approve a sales tax for local fire districts and county-wide water projects. The tax for Measure B is due to decrease this year, and the Board hopes voters will agree to replace that reduction with the new tax, which is expected to generate about $7 million per year. At a meeting in mid-May, firefighters and Russian River water users expressed their support for the tax, though details about how to allocate the funds and the exact size of the need were not part of the initial discussion. The Inland Water and Power Commission is eyeing some of the potential money as it works to take over water rights associated with the Potter Valley Project. The rights are currently held by PG&E, the project's owner. Commission Chair Janet Pauli is preparing for an expensive and convoluted process The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has directed PG&E to begin the license surrender process. “That is going to be lengthy,” Pauli predicted. “We don't know exactly how it's going to unfold. We do know there are certain sections of that process that are going to require a lot of our participation, so that we can have a voice in what is going to occur with this project. That is going to require some funding.” Pauli added that there has not been consideration of a CDFW-funded study that examined several possible ways to continue diverting water without the current infrastructure. “If the diversion structure comes out, if that's the final disposition of the license surrender, then we have a very, very, very serious problem,” she said, citing the conclusion that, without water from the diversion, Lake Mendocino would not fill in eight out of ten years. The Commission was part of a consortium that tried to take over the license for the Potter Valley Project, though it fell far short of its funding goals. In addition, it was supposed to form a regional entity that would manage the project, a task that is also imperative for acquiring the water rights. The water rights coalition, Pauli said, “would ultimately own and manage and fund the diversion. That entity needs to be formed so that they can negotiate with PG&E regarding acquiring the actual physical infrastructure and securing the water right for the diversion, as well.” The long-term license for the hydropower project has expired, and PG&E is operating it on an annual license. “Now that PG&E is required to surrender the license, the project will no longer produce power,” Pauli reasoned. “Our job is to protect the diversion, to assure that that water can continue to be diverted into the Russian.” Another long-time goal, a feasibility study for raising Coyote Valley Dam, just got a step closer to the fundraising stage. A press release from Congressman Jared Huffman's office declared that expediting the study is one of his priorities as the Water Resources and Development Act winds its way towards completion. The Act was approved by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure last month. The Inland Water and Power Commission is the non-federal local sponsor for funding that study, so “When the federal budget allows funding, we need to match it,” Pauli said. “Those costs combined will be about $3 million, over about a three-year period,” starting sometime in 2023. The IWPC is budgeting for its half of that cost, which would be $1.5 million. But without Eel River water, Lake Mendocino would rarely fill to its current capacity in a rainy year, let alone a millennial drought. Last month, PG&E asked federal regulators to expedite permission to slash the diversion of Eel River water from Lake Pillsbury into the East Branch of the Russian River, which flows into Lake Mendocino, from 75 cubic feet per second to five. The request is being vigorously contested by the Potter Valley Irrigation District and Sonoma County Water Agency. “The idea of people who benefit from this water supply helping to fund what's needed to get us that water supply is critically important,” Pauli declared. She expects that it will cost between $1.6 and $1.8 million a year, over the next five or six years, to secure the water supply through the diversion and raise Coyote Valley dam. “That's what our budget outline is showing right now,” she concluded. The Board of Supervisors plans to review an initial draft of the proposed tax ordinance at its meeting next Wednesday, on June 8th.

May 19, 2022 — The Board of Supervisors considered proposing a sales tax to fund firefighting efforts and water projects this week. The Board cannot impose a tax, but it can draft an ordinance and put it before the voters on a ballot. In this case, the tax initiative would appear on the November ballot, which could also feature a quarter-cent tax initiative to fund the libraries. Measure B, the tax to fund mental healthcare facilities, is due to decrease from a half cent to an eighth of a cent this year. The Supervisors hope to make up the difference with the new tax, which Interim CEO Darcie Antle calculated would bring in about $7 million a year. “The Measure B tax that currently comes in on an average has been around $9 million a year,” she said. “If you start with the $9 million, the three-eighths is $7 million.” Supervisor Dan Gjerde told his colleagues he is not the voter who needs to be persuaded, but he's also not convinced the Board can sell it to a two-thirds majority of the electorate. “The voters are not going to rubber-stamp a tax that this Board of Supervisors puts on the ballot,” he cautioned. “I think we should approach this with some humility.” He reminded the Board of the referendum effort to collect signatures demanding that a new cannabis ordinance, Chapter 22.18, be rescinded. “It was likely to succeed at overturning that ordinance,” he recalled. The demand to rescind never made it to the ballot. Instead, the Supervisors, who had voted 4-1 with Supervisor John Haschak dissenting to pass the new ordinance, agreed to rescind it without a campaign fight. “I don't think we have the credibility to go to the voters and say, of all the ways that you can spend your tax dollars, this is the way,” Gjerde continued. He said he thinks there are good arguments to be made for funding water and fire services, but that he believes successful tax initiatives come from the electorate, like the volunteer library supporters, who are busy gathering signatures at all the usual venues. “I think they're the ones who are showing the way to do it,” he opined. “It's not by rounding up three or five votes on the Board of Supervisors, because that is a path to nowhere.” Ron Edwards, a cannabis advocate who keeps a close eye on the Board, suggested an argument. “Is this enough money?” he asked. “It seems like the need might be much greater…if you guys could dig into it deeply to find out exactly what the need would be, I think that would be a better sell for the public.” Supervisor Glenn McGourty thought the tax could have a lasting impact, just as the future of one legacy project is at its most uncertain. “What we're really going to need is to have the ability to study and be at the table, particularly with the Potter Valley Project,” he said. “What I'm hoping that we do is chart a path forward for the next hundred years. Because we've been living on about a hundred years of legacy decision-making in Mendocino County on water. And our time has literally run out. For instance, we've had all this wonderful free abandoned water from the Potter Valley Project, which has helped us fill Lake Mendocino and provided very inexpensive water for water users from here clear down to Marin.” One voter was in full support of the proposal. John Reardon, who sits on the boards of the Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District, as well as the Inland Mendocino County Water and Power Commission, told the board he supports using some of the tax revenue to sustain water supply reliability. “Inland Water and Power is in the middle of a battle to try and secure water through the Potter Valley Project,” he noted. Emily Tecchio spoke in support of the proposal, on behalf of the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council. “Something we have noted, as an organization, is that water for fire suppression is a huge need, and something that is pretty difficult to fund through other various mechanisms,” she told the Board. “So we hope that is considered as well.” Volunteer firefighters were on hand to make a case for their allocation, if the voters approve the tax. Dave Latoof is Chief of the Mendocino Volunteer Fire Department and current president of the Mendocino County Fire Chiefs' Association. “They know I'm here,” he announced. He expects that most of the voters in his fire district, which straddles the Fourth and Fifth supervisorial districts on the coast, would support a tax that helps fund firefighters. “Please consider a generous amount to fire services,” he urged the Board. “Fire is very popular right now in this county. I think you can ride on that popularity, along with the water…you can't fight fire without water, but all the water in the world won't do any good without firefighters.” Gjerde cautioned that there are voters who will oppose the initiative, saying, “I probably have voted against a few taxes, but probably pretty rarely…when it takes a two-thirds, the person who votes no has twice the voting power as the person who votes yes.” The Board agreed that Supervisor Ted Williams will work with staff to flesh out the particulars of allocating the tax to fire, while McGourty will take on the details about water. An initial draft of the item will return to the full board on June 8th.

May 12, 2022 — The Redwood Valley Municipal Advisory Council held a hybrid meeting last night on zoom and at the grange. The council agreed to form a committee that would educate community members about local water issues, and advocate for Redwood Valley's interests as water resources dwindle. The council decided to recommend that a cannabis grow not be allowed to increase its area of operations, due in part to a lack of information about where it would get its water. Lieutenant Jason Caudillo from the Sheriff's Department warned of a possible increase in criminal activity as the Redwood Trail progresses. Caudillo also said the future of the sheriff's sub-station at the Measure B-funded training center in the former Jehovah's Witness church on East Road appears to be uncertain, as the cost of repairing extensive water damage to an outbuilding mounts. Asked when the sheriff's sub-station would open, Caudillo said damage caused by a broken pipe would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair, so “I do not have an answer for you.” The Sheriff's Department paid one-third of the $389,000 purchase price of the property in 2019. Too much water is rare in Redwood Valley, where ag water has been shut off, and the community only has rights to surplus water from the much-reduced Lake Mendocino. The water district has rationed water use to 55 gallons per person per day. Council member Adam Gaska talked about why he's joining the committee on water issues, in a town that overlooks the lake. “Redwood Valley has zero right to that water,” he emphasized. “Twenty years ago, when Russian River really started signing up people for contracts, I remember Danny Thomas had written up this missive that had said, whisky's for drinking, water's for fighting. And I think I was like twenty at the time, and I'm like, it's gonna get serious.” Supervisor Glenn McGourty filled the council in about how much water is coming through the controversial Potter Valley Project, which is limping along with a missing transformer that curtails the amount of water that comes into the Russian River from the Eel through a diversion tunnel in Potter Valley. “You will see Lake Mendocino come up a little bit, primarily because of the water that's coming through the Potter Valley Project, even at the low rate that it's flowing in at the moment, it's still coming in, and will continue through most of the summer, but at a reduced rate,” he said. “Normally, we'd expect about fifteen to sixteen thousand acre feet to come through, and it'll be more like four to seven thousand.” The Municipal Advisory councils, or MACs, were formed in unincorporated parts of the county so that community members could have a venue to form cohesive approaches to planning concerns. They generally have the ear of their county supervisor, and they receive alerts about certain kinds of permits, so they can make comments to various governing bodies. They are not legislative bodies, themselves. Gaska thinks the MAC is the best local venue to educate community members about a variety of complex issues, including water policy. “Our business is communication. It is people having a voice,” he said. “RVMAC, we can't promise you anything. But we allow you the space and the time to be heard. Which is important, because then we also decide who else needs to hear that. Is it Glenn? Does Glenn need to hear that? Does Jason Caudillo from the sheriff need to hear that? And they're here. That's what our board does.” Water played a significant role in the council's lack of enthusiasm for a request from a cannabis permit holder to double the grow size to 10,000 square feet of outdoor cannabis. A map showing 14 hoop houses led to confusion about whether the request was to change the whole grow site to outdoor or grow some outdoors and some in the hoop houses. Council members Chris Boyd and Marybeth Kelly had additional reasons for opposing the permit's approval. “All of a sudden, we'll see huge increases in water trucks going up the road,” Boyd said. “And with all of these problems we're having with water, we don't need to add noise pollution and diesel pollution to the picture. So I'm not for this.” “Not to mention the state of the roads,” Kelly added. “Road E is one of the worst.” McGourty reported some of the things that the Board of Supervisors is considering as the county works on an ordinance to regulate water hauling. He favors requiring permits and business licenses for wells that are the source of water for water trucks, and giving Code Enforcement the responsibility of checking water truckers' documents. But, he pointed out, many people with some illegal cannabis also need water for legitimate domestic uses. “So how do you separate that out?” he asked. “Do you say no to health and public safety because they have a cannabis grow? So those are some of the things we have to work through.” Council member Sattie Clark said she believes that regulating water use, through policies based on rigorously gathering information, isn't all about busting illegal cannabis growers. “We all need to be looking at our water in a more holistic sense,” she opined. “Because it's kind of like, whoever takes it, gets it. And this conversation that we're having about hydrological studies for new wells, et cetera, is really just good management of our water resources…we need clarity about where this water is going and whether it's sustainable, whether it's healthy for our community as a whole.” McGourty encouraged the council to seek state money, saying that, while the county is broke, the state is flush with cash, and likely to spend some on small disadvantaged communities. Redwood Valley has gotten some relief for a major disaster. After the fire of 2017, PG&E awarded the MAC a $10,000 community planning grant. Boyd said the MAC decided to spend $5,000 of that grant on a new heating and cooling system for the grange, which became a hub in the wake of the fires. “Part of what we discovered in going through the fire and the emergencies is that the grange is a central locus for the community when we go through any emergency,” she declared.

May 4, 2022 — Two Measure B-funded facilities opened last week. The Regional Behavioral Health Training Center on East Road in Redwood Valley opened on Tuesday, after being remodeled. Some pieces of equipment, like a media cabinet for hybrid meetings, a virtual reality training program, and gun lockers, are expected to arrive soon. The Critical Residential Treatment Center on Orchard Street in Ukiah is now fully licensed and opened last Monday, serving three clients. The facility has eight beds that will be available for 30 to 90 days by adults who are in a mental health crisis but have not received a 5150, the designation that would lead to an involuntary 72-hour hold. Sarah Livingston, the crisis program director for Redwood Community Services, which is operating the CRT, said the facility fits smoothly with respite care. She said the facility will include peer support, case managers and rehab specialists, many of whom come from the RCS Madrone House, which is a respite center. “A respite house is set up to be immediate respite for someone who is just on the other side of a 5150,” she explained. “And so that's been used for immediate stabilization, ideally for up to seven days. The CRT is where we take it one step significantly further. That 30, 60, 90-day model where we're doing significant psycho education and other programming and allowing people to really get back on their feet as they stabilize.” Livingston said clients will be encouraged to take part in daily life outside the facility. “I think there's this misunderstanding by quite a bit of the community, where they thought it was a locked facility,” she noted. “It is not a locked facility. Ultimately we want people to choose to be there, and they do have 24/7 support.” Livingston added that there will also be therapists available, though not always on site. “We can get folks into a pretty quick psychiatric appointment,” she added. She expects the facility to be fully staffed in another thirty days. “And I am certain we will fill those eight beds very, very quickly,” she predicted. Once it is fully staffed, RCS plans to contract with Lake County to offer a bed to one of its crisis patients. The CRT was designed and built by architecture firm Nacht and Lewis for $2.6 million, a combination of Measure B funds and a $500,000 grant from the California Health Facilities Financing Authority. The training center in Redwood Valley, formerly the location of the Jehovah's Witness Church, was the first facility purchased with Measure B funds. The purchase price was $389,000, a third of which was covered by the sheriff's office. A small building and a garage have been dedicated as a sheriff's substation. Sheriff Matt Kendall said he is waiting for the floor and drywall to be repaired after water damage caused by a broken pipe. But when he is able to use the building, he'd like to use it as a terminal for a dual response team with a deputy and a mental health specialist. Dr. Jenine Miller, head of the county's Behavioral Health Department, was on hand for the ribbon-cutting and a tour. She expects that the new training center will allow county departments to send more staff to more trainings nearby, rather than sending a limited number of people to be trained outside the county. As far as how sustainable the center will be, Miller said, “this really is the first year to look at how does the facility sustain itself, how much are we getting from the trainings versus how much are the costs to maintain the facility.” She plans to work with the General Services Department to present a plan to the Board of Supervisors, detailing the ultimate yearly costs of all the county's Measure B-funded facilities, including the CRT and the Psychiatric Health Facility, which the Board decided to build at 131 Whitmore Lane in Ukiah. Retired Sheriff Tom Allman, an original Measure B Committee member who remains the sheriff's representative on the committee, said he hopes a $100,000 piece of virtual reality training equipment, paid for by the state, will be available by the end of June. He is looking forward to using the venue for trainings that he hopes will raise the standard of local law enforcement officers. The Measure B sales tax will drop from a half-cent to an eighth-cent next year. “That money can be used for training and improved mental health services,” Allman said. “But there will still be costs to the departments.” One of the three-day trainings cost $12,000, but Allman said, “We want to spend that money. So we can have the best-trained first responders out on the street.”

Measure B ended the city's existing police review board and replaced it with a new, more powerful Commission on Police Practices. But the commission can't add new members yet, and the current board is unable to keep up with a growing workload.

Measures A, B and C on the February 15 ballot ask if school board members Alison Collins, Gabriela López, and Faauuga Moliga, respectively, should be removed from their positions. Recall proponents say the board should have been more focused on reopening schools during the pandemic. Since voters will be making their choices based not only on the board members' records but also on their policy stances, we asked all three how they would handle issues like the ongoing pandemic and the budget if they stay in place.

January 26, 2022 — The Board of Supervisors unanimously selected Assistant CEO Darcie Antle to serve as interim CEO following Carmel Angelo's departure in March, praising her fiscal acumen and thanking Angelo for her fourteen years of service to the county. The Board also made a long-awaited unanimous decision about the location of the puff, or psychiatric health facility. After a presentation from Eric Fadness of Nacht and Lewis, the firm that drew up plans for the new jail and the Crisis Residential Treatment facility, the board chose to spend just over nineteen and a half million dollars to demolish the building at 131 Whitmore Lane, which is just outside Ukiah city limits, and build a new facility on that location. Fadness said that the building, which was once a skilled nursing facility, has a lot of deficits. In addition to a badly designed flat roof, the windows are breakable, the fixtures and wall-mounted air conditioning units pose a suicide hazard, and the building is not entirely ADA accessible. The county bought the building at a deep discount using state money at the beginning of the pandemic. The original plan was to use it as an alternate housing site for people who didn't have anywhere else to quarantine. It was also eyed briefly as a recovery and wellness center. Fadness estimated that it would take a little over three years to build the sixteen-bed facility, which will be staffed by a company called Telehealth. The construction and a portion of the operational costs will be funded by Measure B. Covid numbers are higher than they have been at any other point during the course of the pandemic, though positive results from rapid antigen tests are not always included in the official tally. There were no ICU beds available in local hospitals yesterday, and Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren told the Board of Supervisors that nursing registries have few available people to send to hospitals in need. One hundred thirteen people in the county have passed away from covid, and Coren expects the number to rise in the next few weeks. There are currently seven outbreaks in the county. None of them are at schools, though absences of students and staff have mounted, due to community transmission.

December 31, 2021 — Toby Keith's anthem to military valor, “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)” was on the radio in Officer Alex Cowan's police car the day his dash camera recorded him beating a naked, mentally ill man in Ukiah. As Cowan's colleagues iced their bloodied hands in the aftermath, the singer crooned, “A mighty sucker punch came flyin' in from the back. Soon as we could see clearly through our big black eye, Man, we lit up your world like the Fourth of July.” The police videos were released Thursday, as a civil lawsuit in federal court winds its way towards trial.Gerardo Magdaleno, who suffers from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, ran out of psychiatric medications on April first of 2021. He was standing on South State Street, alone, unarmed, and wearing nothing but a wristwatch when Ukiah Police Officer Saul Perez pulled up and shot him with a taser within less than a minute of telling him to get on the ground. According to an amended complaint filed in the US Northern District Court of California last month, Ukiah police officers tasered the severely disabled man four times, punched him 54 times, kneed him four times, once in the groin, kicked him in the head, and emptied an entire can of pepper spray in his face, which amounts to 20-25 applications. Multiple bystander cell phone videos of the incident immediately began circulating on social media. But on Thursday, video from Cowan's dash camera and Officer Perez' body camera were distributed to the public.. The civil lawsuit names Officers Saul Perez, Jordan Miller, Alex Cowan and Lieutenant Andy Phillips as defendants. Former Ukiah Police Chief Justin Wyatt and the City of Ukiah are also being sued. Previously, only Perez, who was the responding officer, had been identified. The lawsuit claims discrimination on the basis of a disability, wrongful arrest, excessive force, and inadequate training. Magdaleno's attorney Izaak Schwaiger wrote that the City of Ukiah and former Chief Wyatt failed to train officers properly to accommodate the needs of the mentally ill, ”despite police interactions with mentally ill individuals being a commonplace occurrence.” He is seeking damages, attorney's fees, and “injunctive relief requiring the City of Ukiah to adopt national best practices with regard to policing people with disabilities.” Much of the complaint is a description of the videos, including a tally of the blows, taser strikes, and pepper spraying. During an interlude that Perez described on his police radio as “a standoff,” Magdaleno stood up, looked at the sky, and began to whistle. Officer Miller arrived, did not turn on his body camera or his dash camera, and immediately shot Magdaleno with his taser. “You got a taser?” Perez asked him. “Go ahead and deploy it. Yeah. Zap him. I already hit him once.” Miller hit him twice, and both officers shouted at Magdaleno to “get on the ground! Get on the fuckin' ground!” Cowan arrived just as Miller was administering two knee strikes to Magdaleno's buttocks. He got out of his car, ran over to where Perez and Miller were holding onto Magdaleno's arms, and punched him in the back of the head. The day after the incident, the Ukiah Police Department issued a press release containing several characterizations that are not supported by the department's own videos, including a claim that there were “numerous citizens, including children in the immediate area.” The blows to the head were described as “distraction strikes,” and the statement assured the public that “the technique was ceased” as soon as Magdeleno was handcuffed. But Cowan's dash camera showed the three officers kicking and punching Magdaleno as he lies unresisting on the ground, being handcuffed. Miller and Perez lift him off the ground briefly, one on each arm, and Cowan shoots him in the back with a taser. Lieutenant Andy Phillips arrives and the men flip Magdaleno onto his stomach. Miller throws himself onto Magdaleno while the other three immobilize him. He proceeds to punch him four times and slap him twice, all in the back of the head. Shwaiger's complaint registers that the three officers and one lieutenant held him on the blacktop for almost four minutes, during which Magdaleno uttered a phrase that has become familiar in police encounters that end badly. “Let me breathe,” he implored the officers who were wrapping him in a leg restraint and removing the taser barbs. “You can breathe,” an officer assured him, then added a piece of medical misinformation: “You can talk, you can breathe, bro.” The officers were not unharmed. Miller and Perez suffered multiple abrasions on their hands, which paramedics treated at the scene. “I'm pretty sure I hit his fuckin' tooth, dude,” Perez remarked. “It hurts so bad.” A colleague congratulated him on his “smart move,” in waiting for backup to arrive before tackling Magdaleno. “Yeah, I didn't want to take him by myself,” Perez laughed. Assistant City Manager Shannon Riley said Ukiah city staff are not able to discuss the matter, since a civil lawsuit is pending in federal court. It is one of many lawsuits that have been filed recently against the city, the police department, and individual members of the force. Izaak Schwaiger, Magdaleno's attorney, has sued the City of Ukiah in the US District Court before, along with former Ukiah Police Sergeant Kevin Murray, alleging he attacked a disabled veteran named Christopher Rasku. In a separate matter, Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster has charged Murray with sex crimes, burglary, and possession of methamphetamine, in multiple incidents between 2014 and 2020. In yet another court case, former Detective Isabel Siderakis is suing the city, the police department, and Kevin Murray for discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation, claiming among other things that Murray attacked her during an out-of-town training and the department failed to take her complaints seriously. And earlier this month, Madisyn Carley, the daughter of new Ukiah Police Chief Noble Waidelich's ex-girlfriend, filed a civil suit against Waidelich for domestic violence alleged to have occurred between 2011 and 2015. The matter was investigated by the sheriff's office, but Eyster declined to prosecute, citing the lack of credible evidence. Riley said the Magdaleno matter is still being handled by an independent investigator. When he concludes his investigation, he will turn it over to the District Attorney, who will decide whether or not to prosecute it as a criminal matter. And the county is using Measure B funds to hire a part-time mental health worker who has been helping the Ukiah police for a few weeks now. The city has hired Dale Allen, of San Francisco law firm Allen, Glaessner, Hazelwood and Werth, to defend it in the Magdaleno case. Reached by phone yesterday, Allen said that during the course of litigation, he expects the officers to explain the use of force, what they did, and why they did it. He declined to say how much the city has paid him or what his hourly rate is, citing business privacy. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for September of 2022. Allen said there is a “huge, huge backlog of cases due to covid.”

December 20, 2021 – Sometimes the government does work to better serve its people, and when this happens, it is cause for celebration.Therefore, a celebration was held on the afternoon of December 16th when government officials and community members joined together to commemorate the grand opening of the new Crisis Residential Treatment Facility of Mendocino County. Members from the Measure B committee, Behavioral Health, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Mendocino's Board of Supervisors, and Redwood Community Services stood together under grey skies to witness the red-ribbon cutting officially opening the new facility on Orchard Street in Ukiah. Neither the rain nor the chill could dampen the palpable joy and sense of accomplishment felt by everyone in attendance who had played a part in bringing this much needed mental health care facility to fruition. Measure B was instrumental in funding the facility. Back in November 2017, over 83% of Mendocino County residents approved to raise the sales tax to finance the construction of behavioral health facilities, and to fund operation costs and services to treat mental illness and addiction. The new Crisis Residential Treatment Facility is one of the first tangible results of Measure B. Funded by Measure B and the Investment in Mental Health Wellness grant, the new facility offers social rehabilitation services in a safe, welcoming, non-institutional, residential setting. The lovely, homey establishment offers an open floor plan featuring a reception room, nurse's station, bedrooms, bathrooms which are all centered around a large dining room and kitchen area flooded with natural lighting from large windows that look out to the spacious backyard patio. Former Measure B Committee member Jan McGourty, current chair Donna MoschettiBehavioral Health Director Dr. Jenine Miller, and retired sheriff Tom Allman all worked many years on the Measure B committee to bring the CRT to fruition.

October 4, 2021 — Projected construction costs for a new jail building have gone up more than 14% in the last three years, an unprecedented increase driven by steel tariffs, supply chain delays and shortages of skilled labor. In spite of several efforts to reduce costs, the architect on the project told the Board of Supervisors last week that there is a budget shortfall of $3.6 million. In 2017, the county received $25 million from the state to build a new jail designed to meet the mental health needs of inmates. Originally, the county planned to contribute a little over a million dollars, but that amount climbed to about $2.8 million as delays piled up and costs increased. The project is currently expected to cost $31.1 million. Deputy CEO Steve Dunnicliff reported that disasters ranging from global to bureaucratic are playing out in the construction project that's still about a year from breaking ground, “starting with rebuilding thousands of houses lost to wildfires, then tariffs on construction material and supply chain impacts due to the ongoing global pandemic,” he noted. “Additionally, the state's project approval was extended due to a change in their process.” Eric Fadness, an architect with Nacht and Lewis, which is designing the jail, said the 14.5% increase in projected construction costs since June of 2019 is based on the California Construction Cost increase, which historically has increased each year at an average of 3.5% “So an increase of 14.5% “is unprecedented,” he concluded. “It's sort of significant of the time we're in.” Soft costs, like fees, testing, and equipment, have increased from $5.8 million in June of 2019 to about $6.4 million. Supervisor Ted Williams implied that he expects costs to keep rising. “Would you be as surprised as I would be if we could pull it off for thirty-one?” he asked Fadness, who concurred that, “I guess I would be at this point.” He recommended that the board set aside $4 million to meet cost increases that could keep accumulating in the future. CEO Carmel Angelo pointed out that the county could tap the reserve account, “and certainly any fund balance that we may have would be applicable, as well...I do not think that there is any additional grant money...my guess is that this would be all county money,” she reported. Supervisor Dan Gjerde noted that lumber costs have fluctuated, and wondered if that might indicate that overall construction costs could go down in the next year. He didn't seem to find the shortfall insurmountable, noting that in previous years the county has had significant close-out surplus funds. “I don't know if that's going to be the case this year,” he acknowledged, “with the budget being closed out last year, but if that's the case, maybe another million dollars here, another two million there, and next thing you know, you have four million dollars.” The current timeline for the project is to award a construction contract by August of next year, followed by a notice to proceed by the end of September. Fadness said he expects construction to be finished by spring of 2024 and for inmates to move in by early summer. Williams made a motion to accept the presentation, adding that “inherently in that is to ask staff to find four million dollars from somewhere.” In another unanimous vote, the board approved a request by Dr. Jenine Miller, the head of behavioral health, to use $240 thousand dollars per year for the next four years from the Measure B fund for a crisis respite center in Fort Bragg. Miller said the facility would likely be on the campus of the coast hospital and have four to six beds, managed by Redwood Community Services. The proposal received support from the Fort Bragg City Council, the chief of police, and the Measure B committee, which passed the request along to the board. Miller also reported that construction on the crisis residential treatment center in Ukiah is expected to be complete by November. She added that a feasibility study on whether a psychiatric health facility should be located at a county-owned building on Whitmore Lane in Ukiah or be built from scratch should come before the board in January.

May 25, 2021 — The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously yesterday to use Measure B funds for a psychiatric health facility, or puff, and to conduct a study on the feasibility of locating it on Whitmore Lane, in the unincorporated fifth district portion of south Ukiah. The county purchased the 26,601 square foot building with two point two million dollars of CARES Act federal funding last August. Repairing the roof appeared on an original document with suggestions for how to use the funds from the PG&E settlement, though now the possibility of a partial demolition is under consideration. CEO Carmel Angelo told the board that the Ranch Proposal, for the county to buy a rural parcel of land and build a multi-purpose mental health care facility, is no longer being pursued. Operators for the county’s psychiatric health facilities are emerging. The Board of Supervisors has approved a contract with Redwood Community Services to run the critical residential treatment facility that’s being built on Orchard Avenue in Ukiah. It’s expected to be up and running in November. Dr. Jenine Miller, the head of the county’s Behavioral Health and Recovery Services Department, wrote in a letter to the board that Telecare Corporation, an Alameda-based mental healthcare organization, had received a conditional award letter to operate the puff. Telecare, according to the letter, is the largest provider of county contracted PHF services in California, with 122 beds. In a letter to the board, Miller cited operating costs of between $5.7 and $7 million a year, with Medi-Cal, Medicare, realignment, Measure B, and private insurance as funding sources. She wrote that Lake County had expressed an interest in using the facility, which would reduce operating costs. She added that projected costs vary widely due to Medi-Cal payment regulations. Early in its tenure, the Measure B Citizens Oversight Commission hired Lee Kemper to conduct a study and write a report about mental health needs in Mendocino County. Ros Liberty, who serves on the Commission, wondered about the long term return on the investment in a PHF. He said that, according to the Kemper report, the county could expect to see a reduction of about 50% in the need for a PHF, provided there were more services available to people in the early stages of a mental health crisis. “I don’t think this conversation is complete without at least looking at the possibility that maybe, instead of a PHF, we spend more money on advanced services before people get into that kind of crisis, per Kemper report recommendation,” he suggested. And Jan McGourty, a former member of the Commission, called in to urge the board to figure out exactly what kind of PHF, and what kind of services, they want. If the facility ends up at Whitmore Lane, the building will have to garner a higher rating than it currently has with OSHPD, the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, the agency that approves hospital expansions and building plans and analyzes California’s healthcare infrastructure, according the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism. As the meeting adjourned with unanimous direction to conduct a feasibility study on locating the puff at Whitmore Lane, Angelo added that she would include regular updates in her CEO report.

April 5, 2021 — A little over a dozen people marched on Civic Center in Ukiah Saturday, calling for an end to police brutality and more mental health services in the wake of Gerardo Magdaleno’s beating at the hands of Ukiah police officers. On April first, Magdaleno, a schizophrenic bipolar man, took some non-prescription drugs after running out of his psychiatric medications. He was wandering nude on south state street when an encounter with Ukiah Police Officers escalated into officers tear-gassing, Tasing, kicking, and punching Magdaleno multiple times in the head. Videos began circulating online almost immediately. Magdelano was taken to jail after a medical clearance, but returned to the hospital the next morning. By Saturday night, he was at home with his family after his sister posted bail. He was charged with public intoxication, possession of drug paraphernalia, and felony resisting or threatening an officer. Early Saturday afternoon, protesters broke out signs similar to the ones they carried during last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death beneath the knee of now-former Minnneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. At the head of the procession in Ukiah was Josie Ann Zolata Batiste, expertly steering her daughter Odessa’s red wagon through the construction on State Street. “There’s no reason for violence, there’s no reason for two, three, four, five cops on one person,” she said. “I’m pretty much disgusted. And sad. It’s scary to have a daughter, it’s scary to be Latin...I love Ukiah, and I’ll never stop sticking up for Ukiah, but I feel like we’re spiraling out of control as well as the rest of the country.” Shy, who witnessed part of the incident, came from Philo to participate in the march. “I put it together once I saw the videos,” they said. “I thought perhaps he was sick because I saw the firefighter and thought that he was getting care and was concerned because of the amount of police cars, and seeing the report knew it was not care, it was violence.” A woman named Ashley wore a cap that said “You Are on Native Land” and carried a sign that said “Divest and Invest in Solutions.” She said she had a Native American uncle who was killed by San Diego police while having a mental health breakdown. “I think Ukiah police could adopt, like my sign says, a crisis response team made up of mental health professionals to respond to these types of mental health crises that we saw on the videos.” Jordan Uggla, too, wants more mental health resources. In early September of last year, the Board of Supervisors approved a recommendation by the Measure B Citizens Oversight Committee to use Measure B money to fund mobile outreach teams that would pair psychiatric workers with sheriff’s deputies. Thursday’s incident took place on the border of the city and county jurisdictions. “I would be happy to pay more taxes to fund support for marginalized people, for disabled people, for mental health services,” he said; “and I’m not very happy that my taxes money is going to pay police officers that beat people that are in crisis when it’s not necessary.” When reminded that we are paying more taxes, with Measure B, Uggla said, “Great.” One of the videos shows Magdeleno being punched in the head for about twenty seconds straight, sometimes simultaneously by two officers who are pinning him to the ground. Ukiah police chief Justin Wyatt had no comment on Friday, but a press release signed by a subordinate described the blows as distraction strikes, which “allowed the officers a brief opportunity to place Magdaleno into handcuffs, and the technique was ceased.” A man named Cooper believes it’s time to rethink the budget. “The response always ends up with police departments getting a larger budget, and that’s never going to solve the problem,” he said, echoing other calls for more money to go toward mental health services. Asked what he thought about the press release that characterized the blows as “distraction strikes,” he said, “yeah, that was pretty offensive. You could look at it and understand exactly what they’re doing...it sounds like something made up to justify looking for an excuse to punch the man in the face.”

March 22, 2021 — The Board of Supervisors agreed to work on dedicating staff and funding to an economic development program run by West Business Development Center. Supervisors also agreed to spend Measure B money to remodel the behavioral health training center in Redwood Valley, purchase a gun locker for the site, and reimburse the sheriff’s office for crisis intervention training for law enforcement. And, now that the county is in the fourth year of collecting the half-cent sales tax, the board requested proposals on what it would take to get a psychiatric health facility going in different locations. The one cannabis item, which came up briefly at the end of the day, generated the most correspondence, including eighteen lots of 25 letters each that were forwarded from the Planning Commission. The board established a moratorium on Phase III cannabis cultivation permitting, in preparation for a new controversial chapter in the county code, which has not been finalized yet. Move2030 is an economic development program based, according to Paul Garza, the chair of West Business Development Center, on data and research. The work was funded by a grant from the U.S Economic Development Administration. Garza said that, in spite of an economy concentrated in too few industries that don’t provide a living wage, which he declared was $27 an hour for a family of four, there were bright spots in using biomass for sustainable product development, manufacturing in cannabis, food, beer wine and distilleries, and metal. Some of the biggest challenges, according to surveys, are access to technology and startup funds. Michelle Hutchins, the Superintendent of the Mendocino County Office of Education, was enthusiastic about using the program to fine-tune workforce training. Supervisor Dan Gjerde was all in, citing a study by economists with Sonoma Clean Power that projected a grim recovery for Mendocino County. He said he approved of West’s request for a staff person and funding to continue its work. Supervisors Ted Williams and Maureen Mulheren agreed to bring a proposal back to the full board within a month. The board also agreed unanimously to authorize close to $300,000 of Measure B money to remodel the Behavioral Health Training Center, including fire sprinklers. Another $8400 of Measure B money went to purchasing a gun locker, though Jan McGourty called in to say she thought it was inappropriate. Another $12,400 of Measure B funds went to reimbursing the sheriff’s department for a training that is usually paid for by NAMI, the National Alliance of Mental Illness. This particular training was not held at a county building, though, so NAMI refused to pay for it, according to Jan McGourty. The board chose to reimburse the training this one time, but to have a plan moving forward. Supervisors also called for more plans about possible locations for a puff, one on a ranch somewhere in the unincorporated county, and another at the property on Whitmore Lane, which CEO Carmel Angelo called “a free fixer-upper,” because it was purchased with $2.2 million of CARES Act funding. It will need a new roof, though, which will cost close to $3 million. Williams urged Dr. Jenine Miller, the head of behavioral health to research the options. “Maybe this is like ordering a sandwich,” he analogized. “We have some check-mark boxes, and we need to know which ingredients we can throw in there for a total of about seven bucks. I think we need our director to bring forward those check-boxes. And if a puff is one, great, if not, give us a few more we can choose from...pick a location, tell us what the options are, and let’s vote on it.” Supervisor John Haschak gave a general idea of what he would be voting for. “I think that there’s pretty much consensus that the sandwich needs to be a puff,” he opined.

March 23, 2021 — A detailed proposal for building a psychiatric health facility in a rural part of the county was filed under public expression on the agenda for yesterday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, though the item came up Monday during Measure B discussions. On Monday, the board asked staff to come back with two proposals for a psychiatric health facility, one called the Ranch concept for a rural puff, and the other for Whitmore Lane. Earlier this month, Deputy Public Health Officer Dr. Mimi Doohan sent the Board a 12-page outline of the “Ranch concept,” proposing to use $30 million of Measure B funds to purchase an as-yet-unidentified property, construct the puff, and operate it for two years. The current Measure B fund balance is just under $23 million. Yesterday, the board authorized over $320,000 of Measure B money to remodel the training center, purchase a gun locker, and reimburse the sheriff’s office for a law enforcement training. Ongoing sources of funding for the puff, according to the Ranch proposal, are possible from philanthropy and the State of California through a $750 million dollar allocation in the new budget. The document states that “It is recommended that the County own the property and any buildings for a PHF;” partly to ensure that local people have priority. The proposal leans heavily on a concept called “the lean startup,” and provides a link to an article in the Harvard Business Review, which describes this as an approach that “favors experimentation over elaborate planning,” and declares that “A business plan is essentially a research exercise written in isolation at a desk before an entrepreneur has even begun to build a product. The assumption is that it’s possible to figure out most of the unknowns of a business in advance, before you raise money and actually execute the idea.” The lack of a strategic plan has plagued the Measure B committee for years. After quoting from the article, which is geared toward technology startups and small businesses, the proposal goes into a wealth of detail, including staffing ratios and the qualifications of the dietician. Social Services, rehabilitation, and pharmaceutical services, including a pharmacist who would make regular reports, could be provided in kind by the hospital, funded by cost savings. Security could be provi ded in kind by the sheriff’s department, also funded by cost savings. Adventist Health did not respond to requests for more information about its involvement in drafting the document, but Sheriff Matt Kendall said he was never consulted about the proposal. He added that deputies are too valuable to provide security to a facility.

March 11, 2021 — A property on Whitmore Lane, just outside Ukiah city limits, is out of commission even as its potential uses multiply. Last March, CEO Carmel Angelo commandeered a former skilled nursing facility to use as an alternate care site for people who did not have another safe place to isolate or quarantine during the pandemic. According to a CEO report from April of last year, “the monthly lease rate of $31,550 is approximately $415 per bed, per month.” That comes out to 76 beds, but no one has been in the building since February 11. The county bought the building in August with $2.2 million of CARES Act funding. Now repairs are estimated at $2.8 million, after two rainstorms that damaged the roof and the HVAC system on the roof of the 27,000 square foot building. Doug Anderson, the assistant facilities manager with the county, briefed the board of supervisors during the mid year budget review this week. He said the building had known leaks when the county bought it, and that the capacity is 100 beds. It has 33 rooms, a commercial kitchen, nursing stations, and a laundry facility. And fixing the currently flat roof, which is not up to code, will be complicated, after what Supervisor Glenn McGourty described as a spectacular failure. With Old Howard Hospital off the table as a psychiatric health facility, some are eyeing Whitmore Lane’s potential as a puff. But Dr. Mimi Doohan, who still serves as a deputy public health officer, is also interested in using it as an addiction clinic, funded with a combination of philanthropy, grants and government money. By fall of last year, she was interviewing stakeholders and raising money in Mendocino County for a Safe Haven clinic, which would include drug rehabilitation, street medicine, medical respite with hospice detox and a pharmacy, according to documents at the Healthforce Center at UCSF. Safe Haven is an initiative of the Arlene and Michael Rosen Foundation, which specializes in medical philanthropy and has also funded the Ukiah Valley Street Medicine Program and the Mendonoma Health Alliance. Doohan spearheaded the Street Medicine Program and the family medicine residency program at Adventist Health Ukiah Valley hospital. Angelo did not commit to any one use of the building, but offered to bring forward an agenda item about it later this month, during a discussion about Measure B.

Mach 8, 2021 — About half the Caucasian population in Mendocino County has been vaccinated, compared to 16% of the Hispanic population. Still, with case rates dropping, Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren says the county could enter the red tier by the middle of this month. The county Planning Commission unanimously approved a subdivision of parcels on Feliz Creek in Hopland for more winemaking, with the possibility of publicly available walking trails on a 40-acre parcel in the floodplain. And the county has likely missed its opportunity to purchase Old Howard Hospital, with another potential buyer taking steps to secure the property. The topic of possibly using Measure B money to buy Old Howard Hospital for a psychiatric health facility surfaced at the January meeting of the Measure B citizens oversight commission, which decided to leave the matter to ad hoc committees of the Board of Supervisors and the Willits City Council. In 2018, when the site was first being considered for a puff, the City Council passed an ordinance noting that the county had failed to provide the city any information about the project; that the Council believed the building does not conform to seismic and safety standards; and that the proposed use of the site does not comply with the city’s zoning requirements. The upshot of the ordinance was essentially a public records act request to the county, enfolded in a declaration of the city’s desire to be involved in the decision-making process about the use of the property. Just a week and a half ago, county representatives were gearing up to do just that. The Willits Rotarians received a presentation about the implications of having a puff in their community, and a town hall with the city and county ad hoc committees was planned for yesterday afternoon. But as of late last week, the Frank R. Howard Foundation had signed a letter of intent with an undisclosed buyer. The purchase agreement had not been signed, but once it is, a minimum of sixty days’ escrow will begin. Arnie Mello, the Executive Director of the Howard Foundation, said the potential buyer had expressed an interest in renovating the property and converting it to a healthcare facility of some sort, but there is still lots of due diligence to be done. And on Thursday Gary Breen, the CEO of Campovida winery in Hopland, made a case to the Planning Commission to subdivide 54 acres into four small parcels and a 40-ACRE remainder. Last year, he built a $12 million 60,000 square foot building to store a million gallons of wine from local vineyards. He argued that he’s made significant financial contributions to the local economy and public safety. The planning Commission agreed unanimously to grant Breen’s request.

February 26, 2021--Byline Mendocino features local journalists. On this episode, host Alicia Bales talks with Sarah Reith of KZYX News about her coverage of local issues this week, including developments on the Measure B committee and the Great Redwood Trail. In the second half of the show, Alicia interviews Neal Reardon of Sonoma Clean Power, about the state of our power grid in light of the disastrous events in Texas.

February 25, 2021 — A day after CEO Carmel Angelo critiqued the Measure B Citizens Oversight Commission as having no common mission, the committee voted to hire a consultant to work out a long term strategic plan based on the Kemper Report.Commissioning that report was the first thing the committee did after electing Tom Allman as its first chair three years ago. The commission also formed an ad hoc committee to work with county supervisors to change its function. As Commissioner Shannon Riley put it, the goal would be for the eleven-member body to spend its time overseeing work that was being done according to the strategic plan and reconciling independent financial audits, rather than debating landscaping and lighting contracts. The item was on the agenda days before Angelo made her remarks to the Board of Supervisors, but according to Riley, who brought the item forward, it was long overdue.

February 10, 2021 — A covid-19 outbreak at a Ukiah nursing home has infected eighteen people, according to Bekkie Emery, of the county’s Department Operations Center. The outbreak was identified at Mountain View Assisted Living and Memory Care on Saturday. Twelve residents and six staff have tested positive, and another staff member is considered a close contact and is in quarantine. Alyson Bailey, the program manager for the Measure B Citizens Oversight Committee, is no longer working in that position. Dr Jenine Miller, who heads the county’s Behavioral Health department, said in a statement that her department will be taking over Measure B clerical tasks, monitoring fiscal activities related to Measure B, and continuing the development of the training center and the crisis residential treatment facility. Supervisor John Haschak, who is on the Measure B ad hoc committee, said he does not believe it was a rash decision, and that, “With the variety of tasks that were being done by people in either behavioral health or facilities, it seems that streamlining and cost efficiencies were appropriate.” The three year anniversary of Khadijah Britton’s disappearance was Sunday. Witnesses say Britton was abducted at gunpoint by Negie Fallis on February 7, 2018. On Friday, Scott Shelby, the special agent in charge of the San Francisco division of the FBI, said the bureau is still working with the county to find Khadijah Britton. The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for her disappearance. “Somebody knows,” he declared. Anyone with that information is urged to call the sheriff’s office or WeTip, the anonymous crime reporting hotline, at (800) 782-7463. You can also email the fbi at tips.fbi.gov. At yesterday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Dr. Coren reported that the county only has enough vaccines for second doses this week. He said the county had to give out extra doses on January 13, 14, and 15 to meet the governor’s call to vaccinate a million people in a week. Those people are now due for their second shots. The county health department and the rural health centers are vaccinating people who are now eligible due to their occupational risk of exposure, while the hospital and its clinics are focusing on those 75 and older. Things could change, if the state decides to prioritize people with co-morbidities and disabilities. Meanwhile, testing and vaccines are hard to come by for people who live outside of Ukiah or Fort Bragg. Supervisor John Haschak asked if the traveling OptumServ testing team would be coming to Willits anytime soon. Deputy CEO Darcie Antle, who is now overseeing the vaccine program, said it had to do with the now-familiar urban rural divide at the state level. But Anna Stockel, who called in during public comment, said she thought the county and the state have something in common. “The Board of Supervisors complained endlessly about the state not disclosing data,” she said; “but, quite frankly, Mendocino County isn’t doing much better.” Supervisor Ted Williams asked if more data could be made available to the public, saying the item at the top of his wish list for more information is vaccine numbers. Emery said that is a goal, but her focus has been on satisfying state reporting requirements, which involve nine different systems. The board supported giving direction to staff to publish how many vaccines are distributed daily, by which provider. Four of the local skilled nursing facilities have received vaccines from a contract with CVS and Walgreens pharmacies, which are not required to report to the county. Williams offered to collect the data himself, rather than wait a week or two. And Supervisor Maureen Mulheren revisited the issue of what kind of paperwork is necessary for essential workers who are eligible for the vaccine but don’t have pay stubs. “I think it’s important that the county public health gets out to all the vaccine clinic locations that we will accept a letter as proof of employment, instead of a pay stub for some essential workers,” she said. “That has been a question that has been coming up, and I think clear direction to the vaccine clinics would be helpful.”

Jan 29, 2021 — A renewed interest in using the old Howard Hospital in Willits as a psychiatric health facility revived community outcry and intimations of NIMBYism. The half-cent mental health sales tax enacted by Measure B has been in effect for about three of its five years. So far, a little over twenty one and a half million dollars have been collected. Some of the money has been used to purchase a training center in Redwood Valley and hire a contractor to remodel it. The architect Nacht and Lewis, which is also designing a new jail for the county, is almost finished with architectural plans for a Crisis Residential Treatment facility in Ukiah. The sheriff and the Ukiah Police Department are recruiting mental health workers to accompany law enforcement on calls involving psychiatric crises. But specialists to run the facilities that were the original goal of the measure have not been identified. Negotiations with a potential operator for the Ukiah facility are underway, and there’s a request for proposals from contractors to run a puff. When Old Howard Hospital was first considered as a site for the puff, the city was not enthusiastic about the idea. The Willits City Council passed an ordinance with recitals noting that the county had failed to provide the city any information about the project; that the Council believed the building does not conform to seismic and safety standards; and that the proposed use of the site does not comply with the city’s zoning requirements. The upshot of the ordinance was essentially a public records act request to the county, enfolded in a declaration of the city’s desire to be involved and informed in the decision-making process about the use of the property. But at this week’s meeting of the Measure B Citizens Oversight Committee, a sub-committee tasked with taking up the recommendations of a $30,000 report on how it should proceed brought up the issue again. The Kemper report, which was commissioned early in the committee’s tenure, calls for a variety of wellness and support services, but does not comment specifically on the hospital site. Dr. Jenine Miller, who runs the county’s behavioral health department and represents it on the Measure B committee, explained why she was bringing the topic forward again, urging the committee to consider the site as one of the most viable in the county, and pointing out that every community wants a puff, but “not in my backyard.” But Commissioner Shannon Riley blasted the item on multiple grounds, calling it “government at its worst.” She cited a lack of documentation, and the sub-committee’s failure to work on items it had been explicitly charged with, including bringing forth an update on a the status of the request for proposals from would-be contractors for the puff, an update on the strategic plan, or word about the doings of a financial consultant who was hired to help with the strategic plan. Commissioner Mark Mertle reminded the committee that the original estimate for remodeling the hospital was $17 million, but that this estimate is now out of date. Commissioner Ace Barrash said that psychiatric hospitals do not require the same level of seismic readiness that acute hospitals do. Dr. Mills Matheson of Willits worried that patients of the hospital would be released without housing and might swell the city’s homeless population. Both he and Sherrie Ebyam, a community member, returned to Riley’s point of not having any information about who would run the facility. “Why consider a particular site if you don’t know what the costs are, and if you don’t know what the available budget is for that site?” Ebyam asked. In the end, the committee did not even vote on the item. Chair Donna Moschetti paraphrased Commissioner Tom Allman’s suggestion to turn the matter over to the Board of Supervisors and the Willits City Council. “It’s been brought forth to the Measure B Committee,” she noted; “and if the supervisors want to run with it, run with it,” she concluded.

January 27, 2021 — The Board of Supervisors agreed unanimously to move ahead with soil testing for a $35 million state-funded water and sewer project in Boonville yesterday, over objections from the Fair Board. And Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren reported that 11,000 people in Mendocino County have been vaccinated, including 70% of school staff. Four nursing homes have been vaccinated by pharmacies under the contract with the federal government, and the state is considering moving away from the equity-based method of vaccinations toward a system prioritizing the elderly. In Mendocino County, 308 of the 3293 known cases have occurred in people over 65, though most of the 36 deaths are among senior citizens. Fully a third of the known cases are in people between the ages of 19 and 34, and a little over fourteen hundred of the cases have been in people between the ages of 35 and 64. Board members also expressed dissatisfaction with the quality and the amount of information provided by Measure B project manager Alyson Bailey, unanimously approving a motion that read like a checklist of the update they expected...

November 19, 2020 — Current local election results have not been completely tallied yet, but a new batch of ballots has been freshly counted, bringing the percentage of counted votes up to just over 68%. Maureen Mulheren and Glenn McGourty’s leads in the supervisorial races have grown over their opponents, Mari Rodin and Jon Kennedy, but in the Ukiah City Council race, Steve Scalmanini and Josefina Duenas have switched places. Duenas is now the second-highest vote getter, with 17.90%, while Scalmanini is third, with 16.99% Douglas Crane is still in the lead with 18.94%, but with two seats in the race, the top two contenders will win a seat on the council. 65.59% of In a previous election, the Measure B mental health sales tax measure passed three years ago this month. At yesterday’s Measure B Citizens’ Oversight Committee meeting, Commissioner Lloyd Weer reported that, at almost halfway to the five-year mark, the tax initiative’s revenues are close to projections.

California voters rejected a proposal to partially dismantle the state’s 42-year-old cap on property taxes, a move that would have raised taxes for many businesses in a pandemic-hobbled economy. Plus, two new ordinances passed by the San Diego City Council will give the public more say over how surveillance technology, such as cameras and smart street lights, are used. Also, now that San Diego has sunk back into the purple tier, what does it mean for businesses and could it have been prevented? In addition, voters passed Measure B, which will establish an independent commission to oversee the San Diego Police Department. But there are still many details to be worked out regarding how the commission will operate. And, San Diego City College and the San Diego Housing Commission collaborated to create a class that will train people who are interested in working with the homeless. Finally, the rich sounds of the ocean right off San Diego’s coast in this replay of “Rad Scientist” episode.

October 29, 2020 — The Measure B committee reviewed the first draft of its strategic plan, went over some financial information, and discussed the training center in Redwood Valley at Wednesday’s meeting . Some commissioners were surprised that Measure B is now paying for services that have not appeared on previous budgets, but Commissioner Carmel Angelo said this is the beginning of the commission paying its own way. The decision about who will run the psychiatric health facility, or puff, and the crisis residential care unit, or CRT, will be made this winter. And next week, the Board of Supervisors will discuss a virtual training module, which would run trainees through various scenarios with people in mental health crises.

October 29, 2020 — The Measure B committee reviewed the first draft of its strategic plan, went over some financial information, and discussed the training center in Redwood Valley at Wednesday’s meeting . Some commissioners were surprised that Measure B is now paying for services that have not appeared on previous budgets, but Commissioner Carmel Angelo said this is the beginning of the commission paying its own way. The decision about who will run the psychiatric health facility, or puff, and the crisis residential care unit, or CRT, will be made this winter. And next week, the Board of Supervisors will discuss a virtual training module, which would run trainees through various scenarios with people in mental health crises.

Far more people have died during the pandemic than previously known. inewsource uncovers new details about the death toll in San Diego County. Plus, Measure B asks for a Commission on Police Practices that would have the power to subpoena and conduct investigations into police officer misconduct. And Measures C and D focus on school board elections and accountability. Plus, San Diego City Council District 1 candidates agree on what to do about issues like homelessness but disagree on short-term rentals. And some parents are able to form learning pods and hire tutors to help their kindergarteners with online learning, while others cope with far fewer resources. Finally on the Rad Scientist podcast, we meet Dr. Chandler Puritty and learn lessons on environmental science and the complex relationship of Blackness in STEM.

We take a close look at the Super Tuesday results in the local races in San Diego County and in the Presidential Primary. We reflect on the candidates and community activists that were guests on the podcast and see how they fared in the election. We also examine the impact political leaders have on your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. We discuss a wide range of people and topics including Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Mike Bloomberg, Andrew Yang, Amy Klobuchar, Tusli Gabbard, Scott Peters, June Yang Cutter, Brian Maienschein, Pete Murray, Joel Anderson, Steve Vaus, Fernando Garcia, Todd Gloria, Scott Sherman, Barbara Bry, Marni Von Wilper, San  Diego Convention Center, Transient Occupancy Tax, Sara Jabobs, Darrel Issa, Carl DeMaio, Ammar Campa-Najjar, Ronald Reagan, Prop 13, Measure A, Measure B, Measure P, Poway Unified, PUSD, Poway School Bond, JFK, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Mekita Rivas, Groucho Marx #JohnRileyProject #SuperTuesday #SuperTuesdayResults   JRP0117   Our Sponsor:   PowayStore.com:  https://powaystore.com/   John Riley Project Info:   Bookings? Inquiries? Contact me at https://johnrileyproject.com/   Donations: https://www.patreon.com/johnrileyproject   Sponsorship Inquiries: https://johnrileyproject.com/sponsorship/   YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJJSzeIW2A-AeT7gwonglMA   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnrileyproject/   Twitter: https://twitter.com/JohnRileyPoway   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnrileypoway/   iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/john-riley-project-podcast/id1435944995?mt=2   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3llrMItpbx9JRa08UTrswA   Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/john-riley-project   Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9qb2hucmlsZXlwcm9qZWN0LmNvbS9mZWVkLw   Tune In: https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/John-Riley-Project-Podcast-p1154415/   Listen Notes: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/john-riley-project-john-riley-2l4rEIo1RJM/   Music: https://www.purple-planet.com  

I break down my own March 3rd Super Tuesday primary ballot and share how I am voting on every candidate and measure.  I explain my own history, my rationale and numerous thoughts on issues including money in politics, voting for the lesser of two evils and the wasted vote fallacy.  I also offer my thoughts on the breaking news of Mayor Pete Buttigieg dropping out of the race on Sunday March 1. We discuss a wide range of people and topics including Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Mike Bloomberg, Andrew Yang, Amy Klobuchar, Tom Steyer, Cory Booker, Tusli Gabbard, Julian Castro, Marianne Williamson, Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente, Phil Collins, Genesis, Adam Kokesh, Justin Amash, Scott Peters, June Yang Cutter, Brian Maienschein, Pete Murray, Joel Anderson, Steve Vaus, Howard Jarvis, Prop 13, Measure A, Measure B, Measure P, Poway Unified, PUSD, Poway School Bond, JFK, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Thomas Sowell, Richard Rider #JohnRileyProject #SuperTuesday   JRP0114   Our Sponsor:   PowayStore.com:  https://powaystore.com/   John Riley Project Info:   Bookings? Inquiries? Contact me at https://johnrileyproject.com/   Donations: https://www.patreon.com/johnrileyproject   Sponsorship Inquiries: https://johnrileyproject.com/sponsorship/   YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJJSzeIW2A-AeT7gwonglMA   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnrileyproject/   Twitter: https://twitter.com/JohnRileyPoway   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnrileypoway/   iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/john-riley-project-podcast/id1435944995?mt=2   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3llrMItpbx9JRa08UTrswA   Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/john-riley-project   Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9qb2hucmlsZXlwcm9qZWN0LmNvbS9mZWVkLw   Tune In: https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/John-Riley-Project-Podcast-p1154415/   Listen Notes: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/john-riley-project-john-riley-2l4rEIo1RJM/   Music: https://www.purple-planet.com  

Guests North EDC ECO Erik Bruvold (Yes on Measure B) & Cliff Williams (No on Measure B

We at Kinktra In The Raw VOTE Siouxie Q for president, in this episode this most phenomenal woman takes us all to school as she addresses the dangers surrounding SESTA -FOSTA and brings to the forefront a broad range of topics such as transgender issues, sexuality, politics, and pornography. She shares her journey into the adult industry but most importantly her passion for raising awareness for the rights of sex workers, sex educators, and the overall sex industry. Siouxie currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee and continues to write, perform, and fight for sex worker’s rights at the local, state, and national levels. So grab a pen and paper take notes and be aware of the current injustice taking over our now highly suppressed nation. About Siouxie Q In 2010, Siouxsie Q left her retail job and began dancing at The Lusty Lady Theater, a unionized peep-show in San Francisco. Shortly after, she began her career as a sex worker while living in Inner Richmond, commuting to an apartment in East Bay to conduct business. Initially using the Internet primarily as a marketing tool, Siouxsie has stated that podcasts have "really transformed how I do business." By 2012, she had settled into her career and, at the urging of her boyfriend, began a regular, biweekly podcast as a way to speak out against California’s Proposition 35, Measure B. Originally called, “This American Whore,” the podcast’s name was eventually changed to “The WhoreCast” after a dispute with "This American Life," the public radio program. After the passing of Proposition 35, the podcast was expanded to cover a broad range of topics. In 2013, she was featured on CNN after organizing an Obamacare registration drive dubbed the “Healthy Ho’s Party.” The event, designed to encourage sex workers to enroll in newly established insurance exchanges, was declared a success, with nearly 40 attendees filing enrollment paperwork. Keep Up With Siouxie Q IG : @siouxsieQmedia @Therealwhorenextdoor Twitter: @siouxsieQMedia @IllReputePod Snap: @realwhore Www.fancentro.com/therealwhorenextdoor Www.thewhorecast.com

We're pre-empting Meaning Conference (the event that spawned this podcast last year) with our current thoughts on the subject of meaning. We talk about meaning vs survival, the differences between everybody's definition of meaning, self-awareness and the fragmentation of shared meaning. We talk about the nature of signs and language and the dangers of advertising.---- This week's links ----[1] Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - https://amzn.to/2QGNswv [2] The Alt-Right Playbook - You Go High, We Go Low - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAbab8aP4_A [3] Measure B - https://ballotpedia.org/Los_Angeles,_California,_Measure_B,_Public_Bank_Charter_Amendment_(November_2018) [4] Dr zhivago - https://amzn.to/2OGvqZF [5] Vox on the biohazard symbol - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOEqzt36JEM [6] New York Times Daily Podcast - https://www.nytimes.com/column/the-daily---- Credits ----Music by http://michaelforrestmusic.comTalking is by Ivanka Majic and Michael Forrest---- Follow us on Twitter ----https://twitter.com/ivankahttps://twitter.com/michaelforresthttps://twitter.com/PodcastGrand---- Grand Podcast Library ----Find links to everything we've mentioned on the podcast at http://grandpodcast.com/library---- Find us on Facebook ----https://www.facebook.com/grandpodcast See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Marc Armstrong on the defeat of Measure B in Los Angeles and the future of the public banking movement. Matt Bruenig and Elaine Maag discuss Earned Income Tax Credit proposals. Noni Session and Greg Jackson introduce the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative.

Dan and Spencer welcome our latest sponsor “MeOnesie” to the show, and our favorite socialist Josh Androsky pops in to explain Measure B. Antonio Banderas also premiers his latest musical, and is not to be missed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast is about the factors leading to Measure B, a half-cent sales tax measure, placed on the November 2018 ballot. The audio also discusses the associated likely impacts from the result of the vote. This audio clip is taken from a presentation the City has presented to several community groups, including in this case, the Roseville Public Utilities Commission.

In this episode I have the great honor to speak with Chanel Preston the chair person of the non-profit Adult Performer Advocacy Committee. I saw her presentation at the XBiz show and was moved to become a member and to get involved. APAC is leading the revolutionary efforts to enlighten pornophobes to the artistic and liberatory value of adult entertainment and helping to end the dark ages of sex negativity. She shares a bit of her personal history and provides a wealth of insight into the major challenges and opportunities for adult performers. We discuss our visions for an ever more ethical, independent, and sustainable future for the industry. Please visit her website and APAC: http://www.chanelpreston.com/ http://www.apac-usa.com/ About Chanel: Every destination is accessible via countless paths. There is no checklist or guidebook on how to become a progressive feminist or advocate for change – as a result, Chanel Preston (born Rachel Taylor) took an unusual, more challenging route, when in 2010, she filmed her first of more than 400 sex scenes for the adult entertainment industry. Born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, the state is in Chanel’s blood. Its nonconformist mentality and fearlessness have always been evident in every decision she’s made, and her choice to become a porn star at 24-years-old was no different. However, porn was not the end goal for Chanel – rather it was a way to further explore her sexuality, how it defined her as a woman, and her role in patriarchal America. Chanel Preston was instantly a superstar – a Penthouse Pet, multiple award-winner, and host of the AVN Awards (the “Oscars of porn”). Despite the accolades, it was her work behind the camera to change public perception on the adult industry and better it from within that Chanel is most proud. In 2013, Chanel co-founded the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee (APAC), the adult industry’s first performer organization working together to maintain and improve safety and working conditions through organized representation. As APAC’s Chairperson, Chanel has been on the front lines of the industry’s fight against government legislation affecting performers’ health. Her work educating the general public on the dangers of Measure B, AB 1576, and Proposition 60 contributed to the Free Speech Coalition naming her its 2015 Performer of the Year, an award for one “who has gone out of their way to dispel the myths and misconceptions of the adult entertainment industry.” Fans were not the only ones who gravitated towards Chanel. Her intelligence and eloquence quickly made her a media darling, as popular news outlets CNBC, The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, Forbes, Cosmopolitan, and more turned to Chanel for everything from political commentary to sex advice and op-ed articles. Television station RTTV continually brought Chanel on-air as a spokeswoman for the adult industry. Desiring to control her own narrative and create a healthier discussion on sexuality in America, Chanel launched the online platform NakedWithChanel.com. Chanel further refined her voice and communication skills through hosting jobs for Showtime documentaries, Canada’s Rogers TV specials, and the cable series “Inside Adult,” known as the “Entertainment Tonight” of the adult industry. Her ability to convey her conviction and passion while maintaining professionalism led to multiple speaking opportunities at universities and on event panels. People are quick to label porn as misogynistic, just as they are to dismiss porn stars as stupid girls or victims. Anyone who hears Chanel Preston speak or reads her words knows how far from the truth this is. Chanel works to destroy all of these misconceptions by pulling back the curtains on the taboo adult industry and introducing the world to the very real people who make their living by having sex on camera. She hopes public familiarity will breed understanding and ultimately respect.

This week, Mitcz heads to downtown LA to participate… err.. well, watch, the LA County Board of Supervisors hearing on the proposed updated implementation of LA County’s “Measure B” provision, which is another of those pesky anti-porn “you need condoms, you heathens!” laws. We discuss what went down, how it went down, and do some journalist stuff. Like professionals! Kinda! Stoya gives historical perspectives, a lot of educational remarks, and provides a lot more background on the various laws discussed in this episode.

Driving to the Roseville Galleria is not much fun. Neither is commuting on Highways 80 and 65 through Rocklin and Lincoln. But with population growth and more homebuilding on the way in Placer County, traffic isn't going to get any better. Placer is one of 16 counties in California with a ballot measure to increase the retail sales tax for transportation improvements (Sacramento County has something similar with Measure B). If approved by two-thirds of county voters, it would be in place for 30 years and raise about $1.6 billion to fund highway projects ($380 million specifically for the Highways 80-65 chokepoint), public transit expansion, local street improvements, and other projects in Placer’s suburban and rural areas. Measure M is a contentious one, and it certainly is making for strange bedfellows (when was the last time the Tea Party and the Sierra Club took the same side on a political issue?). Opponents say it will hurt the local economy, residents already pay high taxes to build and repair roads, and not enough is earmarked for public transit. Advocates say Measure M will relieve congestion and repair roads with strict accountability, and if not this, then what? Whatever the outcome of Measure M, anyone driving through Placer County will feel the effect. For our second "Policy and a Pint" discussion at The Monk's Cellar in Downtown Roseville, proponents and opponents of Measure M squared off over this ballot initiative to explain why it will have a major impact -- for better or for worse -- in the Sacramento region. As you'll hear, it was a contentious debate -- but all the panelists shook hands and saluted each other at the end. PANELISTS * Jeff Flint, Campaign Manager for Yes on Measure M * Michael Garebdian, Vice Chair of the Sierra Club’s Placer Group * Tom Hudson, Executive director of the California Taxpayer Protection Committee, and President of the Placer County Taxpayers Association. * Kirk Uhler, Placer County Supervisor District 4 (Granite Bay and much of Roseville)

Random access memory.Testing out Skype, but Facetime worked better.Had no idea what the night had in store, when Rodrigo called Thierry.I do not know this dude, but we've worked around the same peoples and mindsets in education.As the Nikka Whiskey seeps through conversation, we lament about them damn Chargers and Measure C.  We discuss Measure B and why the South Bay is voting on something going on in North County.SORRY, but the gloves do not come off about Charter Schools in this episode. Rodrigo don't want it with Hov. Peace.

Porn, porn and more porn. Nick and Mo discuss California's controversial "Measure B" law that forces porn actors to wear condoms, as well as a nostalgic retelling of the porn glories of their mid-90s youth in the days before the internet. A series of tragically embarrassing personal revelations come with each discussion, as well as a thorough examination of some of the strangest, crudest pornography ever viewed by two lifelong perverts.

This week on The Wednesday Night 3way Raylene returns from NYC and is Jewish for a few days whilst Kylie wanders the desert and rants about hating Michael Weinstein, the AHF and Measure B. The crew covers everything from gay/lesbian marriage to killing your boyfriend and slow-cooking your wife. Derrick Defends Mankind, talks about lyin' bitches and they take some intelligent calls.

We're back and the opposite of well rested after hurricane Sandy. The election and Eiiana's parents, gonzo pron and Measure B, and a hysterical fit in a parking garage.

Hello ladies and gents, we are back after a week off due to the Halloween festivities to bring you a very long episode to make up for it. This week we take about many things on the show including such big time news as the selling of all things Lucas to Disney. Also this week we […]

Guests - Matt Kirshen / Dax Jordon / Eric Cash

James talks about Measure B (California) and how it could affect the porn industry.

Check that hole, there might be a FUHcast in there! There is! Bill sticks in his thumb and out pops this week's Rundown. Bill notices that Jim is sounding a little under the weather and Jim informs Bill that he was indeed ill (to Bill's horror). A small discussion on classic drinking straws takes place before Bill shows Jim his 30th Anniversary He-Man and Battlecat purchase. NBC decides to mercifully kill Mockingbird Lane but will give the morbidly curious a chance to view the show's pilot episode as a Halloween special of sorts. Tom Hanks drops the F-bomb on national morning television. The PTC freaked out, but both Bill and Jim believe that no one who would have cared was really watching in the first place. A video game project funded by Kickstarter took a dump; is this an eye opener for internet fundraising sites and those who donate? Bill takes a moment to introduce a new term into your vulgar vernacular. A tampon company takes social marketing to the next level by responding to a humorous Facebook post regarding their advertising in a creative way. The porn industry wants to get Measure B off of their D's and P's and you get to find out what that means. The show closes with a couple of interesting emails involving hideously crazy brides and a spooky invitation to a bathroom party, but not before getting to your Facebook questions! Make sure to tune in next week for the 2nd Annual FUHcast Halloween episode (title to be determined)!  ****Check out FILEUNDERHORRIBLE.com for this week's ENHANCED show notes and this week's special artwork!**** Tweet us! We're @ FUHcast! Like Us on Facebook! Go to facebook.com/fileunderhorrible Pin us on Pinterest! pinterest.com/fuhcast Re-Blog us on Tumblr! fileuderhorrible.tumblr.com Email us! podcast@fileunderhorrible.com Call the FUHcast Hotline and get YOUR voice on the show! Call (478) 227-8384