Shane Brinton at Arcata Arts Alive!

City Council candidate Shane Brinton will hold an informal meet-and-greet event on tonight during "Arts Alive" in Arcata. The event will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. at Prosperity Real Estate, located at 839 9th St., near the Plaza. And he did. Shane Brinton for Arcata City Council. I feel Shane will be a great addition to the Arcata City Council.

This last Wednesday Arcata City Council candidates weigh in on issues on a KEET forum. Shane was far above all the other candidates with addressing pertinent issues for the City of Arcata and giving solutions. Michael Winkler did OK but seemed tense and nervous. Susan Ornelas seemed like she was comfortable but is she a Liberal/Conservative? Michael Machi came across all right. Same old. Jason Grow has a future in politics, he surprised me with his candor. Geronimo Garcia was entertaining and did bring up points from his perception from the streets. Entertaining anyways.

I feel Shane will bring a great dynamic change to Arcata government. He is a social liberal with fiscal conservative tendencies. I think he is able to leave his politics "at the door" and react to issues without partisan pressure. He has shown that as a board member with the Northern Humboldt Union High School District and I know he will continue this at the Arcata City Council level as well.

So if you have an extra $170 (Max amount allowed in Arcata races) laying around earmarked for a political candidate for the Arcata City Council race or you have a high profile/traveled sign placement, please call Shane's campaign.

As far as "Arts Alive Arcata" Robin and I went around the Arcata Plaza and were constantly pan-handled to the point of almost ridiculous. I mean, when you are stuffing your face with food or smoking or drinking and asking for change, I am not feeling overly generous. And normally I am an easy touch. I want to help people who need help and this makes picking those out hard. Shane and I argued over which "Arts Alive" was better, the Arcata or Eureka venues. I argued for Eureka, because it is the best. Hands down.

Leo Sears, Patrick Eytchison, Paul Pitino and Sir Elton John sightings at HCDCC headquarters? Is it close to a full moon?

Went to the HCDCC general meeting last night and was helping put decorations away and saw every phone manned for the the George Clark/Linda Atkins campaign. Anti Pulp Mill Green Party activist Patrick Eytchison was on one of the phones. I wanted to tell him we were closing the mill for awhile, but thought better of it and didn't.

Leo Sears and Paul Pitino were at the meeting looking for endorsements on tax initiatives for their cities. In Leo's case, he was promoting Measures D & E for Eureka and Paul was pushing Measure G for Arcata. Both garnered unanimous endorsement.

Tera Prucha and Edward "Buzz" Webb were present to seek the endorsement for the Division 2 seat on the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District board. Both are Democrats who seem to be great choices and we argued back and forth, but neither were able to catch enough support for endorsement. A third Democrat in the race, Jake Pickering, was not there.

Today I was helping with a mailing for fund-raising at the HCDCC headquarters and many people were stopping in looking for Obama material. It seems as fast as it is coming in, it goes back out again. Anyways, in walks a dude that looks like Elton John! He says his name is Reginald Ferguson and he is a representative of Sir Elton John and was looking for Obama stuff. I asked what he was doing here and he said he had grandchildren in Humboldt County. I then asked if he had any demo tapes. He said no, but he left a snazzy picture of his alleged boss with an autograph. Just another day at the HCDCC headquarters!

Evergreen announces Temporary (Hopefully) mill closure and mass layoffs.

Our union standing committee met with Evergreen company officials and they broke the bad news to us. Evergreen will no longer be purchasing wood chips to process into pulp and so there will be a mothballing of the mill until the pulp market picks up. This is the first time in the history of the plant that there has been a complete stoppage of buying of wood chips that I can remember. And I have been there nearly 30 years. Looking through the seniority list, I am still not even in the top 40 seniority wise. So our workforce has been pretty stable through the last 4 decades.

It is sad and hard hitting seeing how these economic times have come to affect Humboldt County workers. By us closing, truck drivers bringing in chips will be laid off. Container drivers will not be coming from Oakland. Chemical drivers will not show up. It will ripple through our local economy. Don’t know what else to say. Bummer.

George and Linda want new wage ordinance.

Two candidates suggest raising minimum wage! I was kind of shocked that Frank and Polly were against such a modest bump. "It’s a great idea,” Jäger said, “but it’s a job killer.” But he did not justify his reasoning. In this case, I will just disagree. I feel a living wage ordinance would be a good idea. We can argue the amount all you want. I was encouraged and surprised to hear George go public that he paid his employees over $3 an hour over the minimum when he was a business owner, and he seemed able to stay in business.

Evergreen Pulp wants reduction of workforce and wages!

Kind of shocking news for most, but not for the workforce. We have seen the company cut back on small items like linen service to the purchasing of essential materials such as wood chips. Evergreen seems to have a cash flow problem.

Our parent company Lee & Man Paper has went from a 52 week high of $37.00 a share to as low as $3.58 a share on the Hong Kong stock exchange. They had plant closures due to the Bejing Olympics, and now the pulp market has went soft as well.

Locally, our union workers have been asked to take a 15% reduction in wages and to be prepared for temporary closures with layoffs of production workers. Along with this, the company has announced a reduction in hourly staff from 165 to 145.

The only way for there to be a reduction of wages is for there to be an election of the bargaining unit (our union body) and a majority agreement to accept a pay cut. We are currently under a binding labor agreement (Labor contract) with Evergreen until June of 2009.

I personally have issues with this request, as Lee & Man has reported gross profits of 1.4 Billion dollars on March 2007 and 2.1 Billion dollars on March 2008. (Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing Ltd. (2314.HK): Financial Statements - BusinessWeek) No savings for a rainy day? And I have locally witnessed many dollars wastefully spent in speculative operational ventures that have produced nothing but an abundance in scrap metal. Ultimately, the workforce might be requested by Evergreen to make a sacrifice of their agreed upon wages. Hopefully we will have a quick resolution.

Johanna Rodoni has huge mountain to climb in the 2nd District.

Johanna Rodoni Write-In Campaign for 2nd District Supervisor, Humboldt County is going to have many obstacles. First, her campaign is assuming they will be able to garner the votes that her late Husband Roger had back in the primary vote. If that 37% decides to vote for Johanna, they will have to actually write in her name and fill the pertinent bubble to show they are voting for her. Not as clear cut as some might think.

In 2004 Donna Frye, a city councilperson for San Diego mounted a write in campaign for Mayor and won! Until the votes were challenged and ballots that did not spell her name correctly or have the bubble properly filled in were thrown out. So even when the intent was clear that voters in San Diego were voting for her was there, she still lost.

So Johanna's campaign has a two fold problem, one is to educate the voters to spell her name correctly, and two, making sure they fill the bubble. Sounds easy, but it is not. Absentee voters who get to take their time in voting will be the most likely to vote correctly, and I am sure her campaign is focusing heavily on those people. But people who hurry to the polls and feel rushed to vote are not as likely to take the time to make sure they correctly vote for Johanna. I predict that she will not receive over 27% of the vote. (Taking into account that 10% less will vote for her than Roger just because of the write in hassle.) Even if I am wrong and she pulls out a majority victory, those challenged votes will come into play.

Now where will those votes go? That is the big question. I would like to think that Estelle will have a 10% jump, but is that reality? Does that much separate Estelle and Clif ideology wise? I am going to guess that each will have a 5% bump and the final Tally will most likely come down to this:

Clif Clendenen 40%
Estelle Fennell 33%
Johanna Rodoni 27%

Biden vs Palin.

Biden came across as the definite best information source. Palin hit a high point when she made a comment that she is not part of the Washington Machine and can't understand why politicians would vote yes on one thing and then no on the same thing later. She made it clear she was not a Washington insider. (Hey Sarah, Bridge to no where!) Platform, Talking points and attacking points. She did well. Asked policy procedure substance wise, nothing. "You Betcha. Get back to ya!"

Obviously Biden could have ate her alive fact wise. But he did not. Kind of weird really. He was in a no win zone.

KEET debate for the 2nd Supervisorial District.

Many people probably missed the debate last night due to Suddenlink cable outages. Robin and I watched it on an old Black and White portable TV with an antenna. Johanna Rodoni came out strong in her opening statement, but seemed confused when answering questions and even a bit nervous. Estelle Fennell was pretty consistent and well spoken all debate. Clif Clendenen seemed to be well prepared by memorizing his opening statement, but I could see he lost some of his points and had to end abruptly. When Code enforcement was brought up, it seemed that Estelle had the best answer that was agreed upon by Clif and Johanna had trouble answering. I thought that this would be her strong point. When the General plan options were brought forward, Clif was the only one that identified his preference.....kind of. He chose plan A or B or maybe A- and B+. Johanna and Estelle were evasive. Overall I thought that Clif and Estelle were about equal, and that Johanna lagged way behind. But this is a nerve wracking venue. The 2nd District has a tough choice.

Suddenly-Unlinked again!

I don't have to remind most of you that we are vulnerable to outages like we are having today in Humboldt! "Suddenlink, we are disconnected!" Oh, yes, I am using dial up.

George Clark for the Marina Center! Labor endorses Clark and Adkins!

Surprised me. Call Randy Gans to verify. I haven't seen George in a Marina Center sweater yet, but I have been assured by local labor that he is indeed for the project! And for port development with rail. More than Frank Jager! Wow.

The Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers (AWPPW) local 49 does not normally endorse candidates and does not have an active Political Action Committee to disperse money, but our affiliate senior, the United Brotherhood of Carpenter's local 751, has also endorsed Mr. Clark. Nobody asked me by the way. But, yes, my union dues will go to their chosen candidate. So financially I am supporting George.

I just want to know what Humboldt Baykeeper, EPIC, ECONEWS and Surfrider Foundation's have on their agenda concerning the Marina project and a Port Terminal. And maybe that largest manufacturing plant on the northcoast, Evergreen Pulp.

Stock market plunges 777 points. Sign of the purity of God? Record one day loss! Quick Summary.

94% of people who have a mortgage in the USA have not defaulted. And yet taxpayers are being asked to bail bad house loan debts that were created by bad management practices. Why aren't CEO's of these companies held criminally accountable? Remember Savings and loan crisis fiasco? What ever happened to that $136,000,000 tax payer bailout? Oh, how often history repeats itself.

Please give your quick summation and solution.

Check out Stryper. They used the number 7 symbolically for God a few times.

Let the sign wars begin! Eureka and Arcata.

Political signs are popping up in Eureka and Arcata for their respective city council races. I see Polly and Frank have the early lead in Eureka, but I fully expect to see a wave of signs for Linda and George in the near future. Both Frank and Polly have very visible signs. The Clark/Adkin's signs are kind of blah but consistent with their theme. (Two candidates in one.)

Micheal Winkler has started a push, but I fully expect Shane Brinton to blanket Arcata. Susan Ornelas has started also. Machi? Jason A. Grow? Geronimo Garcia? Not yet.

Any scouts out there for Fortuna, Blue Lake and Trinidad?

AWPPW California Council at Los Angeles.

Down here in So-Cal for a council meeting of all the locals in California. We give reports on how our plants are doing and catch up on grievances, arbitration's, organizing and bargain's the AWPPW is active in. (We had lunch at a place called the The Hat in Brea. Awesome!) The theme seemed to be about the economy and how it is affecting our industry. Our jobs in the Pulp and Paper industry are moving overseas because of environmental constraints that oversea operations do not have to abide by. I will touch on this subject when I am home.

Did you see that tonight! Comet or UFO?

I worked some Over-Time today operating a 950 Caterpillar and operating a new piece of equipment. When I was driving home I saw bright light streaking across the sky heading west. It was a bright light streaking at a unbelievable rate. This was around 8:30pm on Navy Base road. Any other people see this?

Seen those Blogger people in Rio Dell! Hey Juan Barnstormers win. The Higster has 2 hits.

Went to the blogger picnic. No Heraldo, but I seen others so I can put a face on their blogs. It was nice to do.

Hey Juan had sweet revenge on my Tomaso team, winning the championship game of the Beer League Wood Bat Tournament 6-1 by playing stellar defense.

Tomaso's vs. Barn Stormers. Hope to "De-Rail" Higgins.

The Tomaso softball team has been the most dominate wood bat team for the last 5 plus years. We will play the Barn Stormers in the Semi-Finals to see who is the front runner in the 2008 wood bat championship in Willow Creek. The Tomaso team has 3 players over 50 years of age and the rest are over 40 or 30, and one just over 20. Humboldt Harbor Commissioner Pat Higgins plays for the Barn Stormer team, and we hope to dominate their challenge. Our game is at 1:40pm at Willow Creek.

Hey EHS! Give that Vainuku kid "Soma" of the ball!

Went to watch the EHS football games tonight against Pleasant Valley. The JV's lost in the 4th Quarter 6-2. Tough loss. Anthony Hernandez (Number 23) had a nice return on a punt. The Wilkinson kid had a good game also. (Their punting team needs to practice!) This JV team should be 2-1.

The EHS varsity team worked hard and was up 21-14 going to the 4th quarter. In the first half, Soma Vainuku had gained nearly 80 yards and had a touchdown. In the 3rd Quarter, he did not touch the ball! I am not a football coach, but I do follow the game some. Soma did touch the ball a few times in the 4th quarter, for about 60 yards! But not the last two series? C'mon! Greg Allen was open and is a weapon the team needs to use. Dallas Mohorovich was stellar on Defense.

And of course the Loggers lost again 27-21. 0-3 on the season. But they will beat up on the local teams later.

Unagi wins "Wall Ball" Tournament at Big League Dreams Sept. 13th.

Unagi from Yreka beat FTH of Redding 6-5 by scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the 7th for the championship. The Bombsquad from Weaverville finished 3rd. Hamanaka Paint of Eureka, NSC from Redding, the Rock Shop from Ft. Bragg and the Ofer's from Arcata rounded out the tournament.

Rodney Dickerson of Eureka won the HR contest in a playoff. He beat out 16 other contestants.

This was the first tournament Robin and I have hosted at Big League Dreams Redding. The staff was friendly and helpful. The restaurant seemed to be quite busy, and much beer flowed. (I just drank water and ice tea all day. It was around 100 degrees and the artificial turf was hot!) There must have been 15 staff people at the park for the tournament. Good to help the Redding economy. We would run another tournament there. Overall it was a positive experience.

30th Anniversary! Robin and Richard endurance race continues work in progress.

Robin and I have now been married 3 decades! And how are we going to celebrate? You guessed it. We are both working. Robin from 7:30am to 7pm and me 7pm to 7am. Story of our lives. We will have to plan a date to go out later.

Ex Crab in bad trouble. Domestic violence at its worst.

Man accused of beating girlfriend goes to court. Tom Wallace and I played quite a bit of ball together through the years. Softball and Basketball. I just don't understand how this could happen. Drugs/Alcohol most likely have cost an innocent woman her health and Tom his freedom. I would never have expected this, and yet I have other friends that have been either the victim or violator. If you are having difficulties in your relationship, please contact HDVS: Humboldt Domestic Violence Services. And just another note, Robin and I are on the board of directors for HDVS and we are in need of new board members. So contact the above.