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Upper Lake woman killed in domestic fight

Balloon pilot says landing in Santa Rosa parking lot avoided emergency

Latinos leaders call for residents to rally behind immigrant communities

Dont mix alcohol and boating, authorities warn ahead of holiday

Santa Rosa prepares to clear out Homeless Hill

Firefighters contain brush fire outside Cotati

KEVIN MCCALLUM

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | June 30, 2017, 6:55PM

| Updated 5 hours ago.

Forum on Homeless Hill

The city will host a community meeting on July 10 to outline a program to address the health, safety and fire issues stemming from the homeless encampment at Farmers Lane and Bennett Valley Road. The 6 p.m. meeting will be held at Congregation Shomrei Torah, 2600 Bennett Valley Rd.

Santa Rosa officials have cleared out Homeless Hill before.

Teams of outreach specialists, public works crews and police officers have periodically swept through the longtime encampment on the wooded, city-owned hillside above the intersection of Farmers Lane and Bennett Valley Road.

On Friday, crews cut down weeds and built a fire line on the outskirts of the tent community, seeking to protect the adjacent neighborhood from small fires that break out near the camp all too frequently.

But people always came back, seeking sanctuary in the shade beneath the eucalyptus trees and overgrown brush between the Calvary Catholic Cemetery and Congregation Shomrei Torah.

This time, however, Santa Rosa it trying to ensure they wont return.

Complaints from neighbors, fire danger and liability concerns have convinced the city that the time has come to clean up Homeless Hill once and for all.

To succeed, the city is trying to do a better job of helping the inhabitants find permanent housing, something in short supply in a city with an acute housing crisis and a maxed-out shelter system.

So in conjunction with the cleanup effort, the city is reopening the 50-bed shelter it closed just three months ago and beefing up social services aimed at helping people find permanent housing.

This new program is much more about providing people an avenue out of homelessness and into housing, said Jennielynn Holmes, director of shelter and housing at Catholic Charities.

The city has for years operated a 50-bed winter shelter in the gymnasium of the 138-bed Sam Jones Hall in the southwest corner of the city. The main shelter is full with 200 people on the waiting list. The winter shelter program ended for the season March 31.

That program was largely aimed at getting people out of the elements during the wet, cold winter months, but it provided little services beyond shelter. People spent the night on the gymnasium floor and were required to depart early the next morning.

This new housing first program will be very different, Holmes said.

Last month, the City Council authorized spending up to $600,000 to reopen the shelter and refocus it into a year-round, housing-focused operation. That includes a half-dozen additional staff, three of whom will be trained in helping with housing.

Holmes said the nonprofit is currently hiring: one housing locater, a real estate professional focused on identifying available housing in the community; one housing navigator, a social worker trying to direct people to the most appropriate housing situation; and one housing stabilization case manager, responsible for helping orchestrate the services people need to stay housed.

There is also about $100,000 in rapid rehousing funds to put people up in motels if need be, or to pay for them to be reunited with out-of-area family members, Holmes said.

The expanded shelter is expected to open in mid to late July, she said.

To make both shelters more accommodating, Catholic Charities has relaxed the shelter rules, Holmes said.

People who leave the shelter wont be excluded from it for 90 days, as in the past, she said. People who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol wont automatically be turned away, she said. Instead there will be a code of conduct agreement.

Forum on Homeless Hill

The city will host a community meeting on July 10 to outline a program to address the health, safety and fire issues stemming from the homeless encampment at Farmers Lane and Bennett Valley Road. The 6 p.m. meeting will be held at Congregation Shomrei Torah, 2600 Bennett Valley Rd.

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There will also be storage bins where people can keep their stuff, transportation provided from the encampment to the shelter, and help getting pets certified as companion animals, potentially allowing them to stay at the shelter, she said.

Outreach workers headed to Homeless Hill on Friday morning to explain the program, and it was well received, Holmes said.

Police, meanwhile, conducted compliance checks Friday at approximately 50 homeless camps throughout the city, joining with outreach workers from Catholic Charities and Social Advocates for Youth. Five of the 85 people contacted were arrested for outstanding warrants and one person was arrested for providing a false name, police said.

On Homeless Hill, the city unveiled another element of its new strategy, dispatching workers to reduce the danger of fires spreading from the encampment. A crew from the Sonoma County probation department used weed-whackers and a tractor to cut a fire break in the dry grasses on the perimeter of the hill.

A number of small fires have broken out in recent months, and firefighters want to make sure the fuels on the hill are reduced, said Assistant Fire Marshall Paul Lowenthal.

Fires pose a risk to those occupying encampments and to the community surrounding the open space, Lowenthal said.

At a City Council forum on homeless solutions recently, liability concerns were cited by city staff as a key reason for cleaning up the hillside. The property has been owned by the city for years, eyed for a Fountaingrove Parkway-like extension linking Farmers Lane with Kawana Springs Road and Yolanda Avenue.

Once people depart, a later effort will involve removing brush and cutting limbs off trees up to 6 feet, he said. The area will be monitored to ensure camping does not return to the hill, though what form that takes remains to be seen.

A visit to the hill Friday morning found dozens of people living in cluttered tent sites. Piles of garbage, clothing and bicycle parts were strewn about. A couple of large pit bulls roamed the area, and residents asked no photos be taken.

Nastajia Edwards, 30, said shed lived on the hill on and off for 13 years. There were only a handful of people staying there initially, which made it easier to keep it tidy, she said. But now so many come and go that managing their activities is impossible, she said. The Santa Rosa native argued the encampment should be allowed to continue in some more-sanctioned form with facilities and services.

Theyre not going to do anything with the property, dude, Edwards said. Its better for us to be up here than downtown under the bridges.

Shes referring to the Highway 101 overpasses at Fifth, Sixth and Ninth streets, which have become crowded with homeless people in part because of their proximity to downtown services and permissive law enforcement policies during winter months.

If the pilot program is a success, however, those overpasses are also slated for more aggressive intervention efforts, according to the city.

If we can prove the effectiveness of this pilot, then well be looking to duplicate it elsewhere, Holmes said.

Edwards said she was skeptical but would give the new program a try. But only if her family members could come with her. And her boyfriend. And her pit bull.

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Santa Rosa prepares to clear out Homeless Hill - Santa Rosa Press Democrat

The Multnomah County Republican Party voted this week to use far-right milita groups as private security at events.

The resolution is the brainchild of party chairman James Buchal, who last month suggested to The Guardian that the GOP could use Oath Keepers and Three Percenters, two paramilitary groups, as security guards to protect them from antifascist protesters, or antifa.

UPDATE, 1:15 pm: "We are an all-volunteer organization with no money," Buchal tells WW. "So if we are going to get security services, we are going to get them from volunteers. And people who are going to volunteer to provide security services to Republicans are generally going to be people who share the view that the government has developed an unconstitutional overreach of power."

Buchal says he and the Multnomah County GOP won't be attending tonight's far-right "free speech" protest near the Waterfront Blues Festival, unless he is personally invited. (He hasn't been.)

WW reported last week that Buchal has been fundraising by warning of "threats of Leftist violence" making it difficult for Republicans to hold events in Portland.

The approved resolution reads as follows:

"Proposed Resolution of Chairman Buchal: Resolve that the MCRP may utilize volunteers from the Oregon Three Percenters, Oath Keepers, and other security groups. To provide security where such volunteers are certified to provide private security service by the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training. Kay Bridges moved and Janice Dysinger seconded. Resolution passed."

More here:
Multnomah County Republican Party Approves Oath Keepers and Three Percenters as Private Security - Willamette Week

More than 60 Republican lawmakers want Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reaffirm to them that the Justice Department will not administer a religious test for people to work in government.

The letter written to Sessions by 64 Republicans was inspired by questions asked by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to Russell Vought, President Trump's nominee for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, at his confirmation hearing earlier this month.

USA Today first reported the existence of the letter.

"Questions were asked during a recent Senate Budget Committee hearing about an executive branch nominee's adherence to the Christian faith, suggesting that such beliefs disqualified the nominee from service," the lawmakers wrote.

The lawmakers, including Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., asked Sessions to "make clear" that "no religious test will ever be required to serve in the government of the United States."

During the hearing before the Senate Budget Committee, Sanders mentioned a 2016 post Vought wrote for the Resurgent, the conservative blog.

"Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology. They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ, his Son, and they stand condemned," Vought wrote.

Sanders read the post aloud and asked whether Vought believed it was Islamophobic. Vought replied: "Absolutely not, senator. I'm a Christian, and I believe in a Christian set of principles based on my faith."

"This nominee is really not someone who is what this country is supposed to be about," Sanders responded.

Religious liberty advocates criticized Sanders' questioning. Lankford accused Sanders of coming "dangerously close to crossing a clear constitutional line."

See the article here:
Republican lawmakers ask Jeff Sessions to ensure no religious test for government jobs - Washington Examiner

You have known her for 30 years. She was in your wedding. She is smart and has a big heart. The day you realized she voted for Trump you were thunderstruck. Who is this stranger? you thought. Literally, your entire understanding of her crumbles. She feels your judgment and resents it. The dynamic of this relationship changes. It may evolve, but it will not be the same.

I may be able to help explain this communication and understanding gap and how to bridge it. I am a Democrat who speaks fluent Republican.

My parents were largely apolitical. My best friend in elementary school, however, had a father who was one of the few Republican legislators in the Democrat-dominated Georgia House of Representatives. While other little girls were at sleepovers or watching Disney movies, we were attending rallies and community forums or standing in parking lots handing out fliers. I became well steeped in Republican principles.

In college, I was the three-time president of the College Republicans, volunteered on Capitol Hill for Republican Senator John Warner, and was on the payroll of Reagan-Bush 1984 as the only female member of Youth for Reagan. I witnessed the Reagan Revolution first hand.

It was at the Morton Blackwell Leadership Institute for Republican campaign training in Washington, D.C., that a seed of doubt was first sown in the heart and mind of this young woman interested in the proper role and function of government. The Republican objective seemed more about using government for power than service. That impression turned out to be accurate.

By 1990, I had jumped the fence and never looked back. Republican principles had become hollow. Many had proven ineffective, while others were applied in shockingly cynical or hypocritical ways. I have since been associated with Democratic progressive principles and have twice been elected to the non-partisan position of mayor of the Columbus, Georgia Consolidated Government.

So, here is why your friend voted for Trump. She was voting for the perceived Republican Brand, not for Trump.

The Republicans have done an excellent job of defining their party in terms of class and social status. This status is primal and tribal. It is not easily shaken. Here are four components that underlie Republican Party affiliation:

1. Perceived AffluenceIf you were born into wealth, Republicanism is a family tradition and, frankly, an obligation. If you werent, voting Republican suggests an economic class status that is free to obtain.

2. Power AssociationIf you are a Republican, you need no one. The brand conveys that you are quite capable of going it alone and succeeding. The feeling of strength that comes with that is intoxicating, even if it is not remotely true.

3. Economic JusticeRepublicans are convinced that Democrats want to take taxpayers hard-earned resources and give them to the undeserving out of misguided sympathy. The favor in this perceived redistribution effort is intolerable to Republicans.

4. Faith FortificationThe Republican Brand is seen as an imprimatur of the faithful. It is a stamp of Christian fidelity, regardless of any actual ascription to Christian principles.

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On the other hand, for 30-plus years, the Democratic Brand has been wrongly cast as being weak and catering to those in need of a disproportionate amount of government services. Of all the social and class stigmas out there, being perceived as weak or needy is about the worst. And that is the threshold many voters have been unwilling to cross, even if it means they have to vote for the likes of Donald Trump.

Take this case in point. In 2004, I was the southwest Georgia chairwoman of the Women for John Kerry presidential campaign. That was the year Republicans came up with the political strategy of placing the anti-gay marriage constitutional amendments on the ballot in over a dozen states, including Georgia. It would gin up the evangelical vote, depress the African-American faith-based vote, and generally be a boon to the struggling George W. Bush re-election effort.

One evening, I casually mentioned to a gay male friend and his longtime partner that I was working for the Kerry campaignyou know, fighting for the cause. Stunned, they both looked at me and said: Youre a Democrat? Equally as stunned, I exclaimed: Youre not? The deadpan response: Honey, Id rather be a gay Republican than a Democrat. In 2004, that was saying something. Clear in his retort was the fact that there was only so much stigma a person could take, and being associated with the Democrat Brand was a bridge too far.

Recently, however, the Republican Brand has lost some luster, and the Democratic Brand is strengthening. In the four recent special elections, we saw the Republican congressional victors underperform their predecessors by eight points (Kansas), six points (Montana), 10 points (Georgia), and eight points (South Carolina). Each of these previously solid Republican districts is now purple. This is a Herculean feat for Democrats, particularly when you understand that these gains were made in districts where the Republican Brand is worn like a family coat of arms.

The margins will be bettered in 2018, if Democratic messaging will stop relying solely on moralistic arguments of how the strong should help the weak. The messaging needs to explain that the voters self-interest and the body politic as a whole are improved through Democratic policies. In other words, learn to speak some Republican.

Take the AHCA debate, for instance. Beginning and ending a discussion about the AHCA by noting that it benefits the wealthiest Americans and harms those on Medicaid is not broadly persuasive. A more persuasive argument includes the fact that the AHCA also threatens the affluence of Americans who do not believe they need any assistance with health care. Increasing the number of uninsured, as the AHCA will do, will create exorbitant debt for hospitals and increase local property taxes in order to fund public hospitals. It will increase health care costs, thereby increasing private insurance premiums. It will eliminate jobs in the relatively high-paying medical profession, and it will hamper workforce quality and economic growth. Without pointing out the economic impact to all, too many voters fail to see the negative affect the AHCA has on their self-interest. A purely moralistic justification for fighting the AHCA sounds sanctimonious to some, ends the conversation, and unnecessarily excludes powerful facts.

Communicating with people in their own language is an earnest gesture of meeting them in a familiar and comfortable space. It is highly effective at persuading, or at least tempering, an opposing view. It also comes in handy while rebuilding longtime friendships. It may even persuade that friend not to vote Trump next time.

See original here:
Why the Republican Brand Is So Strong Where I Live - Daily Beast

President Trump and Vice-President Pences election integrity commission is unequivocally declaring war on voters. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

The most important aspect of any democratic election is participation. A democracy gains its legitimacy through elections only so far as those elections represent the will of the people. Limit voter participation, and there is a direct correlation between the legitimacy of an election and the democratic system. President Trump and Vice-President Pences election integrity commission is unequivocally declaring war on voters our democratic legitimacy be damned.

The commission recently sent a letter to all 50 states asking that they provide all the names and associated birthdays, last four digits of social security numbers, addresses, political parties, and voting histories since 2006 of people on their voter rolls. This letter is helping to lay the groundwork for nationalized voter suppression.

The commission is requesting the same information that Republican state governments have used to create hyper-partisan gerrymandering and enact restrictive voter ID laws. Such measures have been disturbingly successful at suppressing voting of minority and low-income citizens, groups that tend to vote with Democrats. This assault on voters might seem farfetched, except that weve seen this strategy too many times before to claim ignorance now.

After slavery ended, white elites invented felony disenfranchisement as a means to delegitimize black citizens and prevent them from gaining influence. We saw Jim Crow gut-punch our democracy in yet another attempt to disenfranchise minorities. We are witnessing history repeating itself.

Nationally, the Democratic party is gaining support as the countrys demographics become increasingly diverse. The majority of black, Native American, Hispanic and Asian voters vote as Democrats. The Republican party has known for several years now that its best tactic to cling to power is not to build a party worth supporting, but to deny participation in the political process to Democratic party voters.

Making matters worse, the Department of Justices Civil Rights Office, long heralded as the ultimate guarantor of civil rights, including voting rights, might unknowingly be supporting the commissions efforts. The Civil Rights Office sent out a letter on Wednesday, the same day as the commission sent its letter, seeking information from states on how they maintain their voter rolls. The office charged with upholding the 1965 Voting Rights Act must resist playing a leading role in further dismantling this most fundamental democratic right.

I would expect these actions from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or any of the other authoritarian regimes we have sanctioned around the world regimes that stay in power by suppressing their people and manipulating election results. We must not lie to ourselves when we see the warning signs here at home. This commission is a harbinger of a top-down, White House-endorsed assault on voters, specifically Democratic voters: the same voters who denied Trump the popular vote.

State leaders have a moral and constitutional obligation to our democracy and to their citizens to refuse to cooperate with this commission.

States should refuse to hand over any of the requested voter information, as California, Virginia, Rhode Island and Kentucky have refused to do at this writing. The Connecticut, Oklahoma and North Carolina secretaries of state, on the other hand, have agreed to send publicly available information to the commission. This is a mistake.

Our democracy cannot afford to turn over any information now and ask questions later. States turning over any information, including publicly available information, legitimize the commission and betray the trust and privacy of voters. Having publicly available information for in-state use is different from providing information for a national voter database that will be placed at the hands of nefarious actors. States must take a stand to protect their voters most fundamental democratic right.

Additionally, Democrats must refuse to participate in the commission. The secretaries of state for New Hampshire and Maine should step down from the commission immediately. Participation risks granting legitimacy where there can be none. Two lone Democrats on this commission will stand no chance of preventing the pre-cooked outcomes. Instead, they and their states are being used to cloak the commission in the guise of bipartisanship. If Democrats refuse to participate, the commission will be left with no clothes on.

The litany of research on voting in recent years has failed to come up with but a handful of voter fraud cases. On the other hand, voter suppression techniques, such as those employed by the Republican party, effectively disenfranchise scores of voters across the country. If the real goal of the administration is election integrity, the stated objective from day one should have been to maximize voter participation.

Rather than target minority voters with a modern gloss on McCarthyism, we should be prioritizing a 21st-century Voting Rights Act to protect voting rights and increase access to the ballot box.

Rather than voter ID laws that disenfranchise certain demographics, a new Voting Rights Act could set a national ID standard, granting maximum flexibility to voters. It could also ban felony disenfranchisement in national elections and require publication of new electoral changes to help educate voters.

The options are there to strengthen our democracy and truly protect one person, one vote. Instead, this commission appears intent on nationalizing the Republican partys strategy of one Anglo-Saxon, financially successful person, one vote.

Continued here:
Trump's next attack on democracy: mass voter suppression - The Guardian