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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

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York has come out in favor of a single-payer health care system.

When her senior adviser Glen Caplin was asked by CNN about whether the junior senator from New York supports single payer, he responded Yes.follow-ups a follow up to Gillibrands response to a health care question at a Facebook Live hosted by Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.

Health care should be a right, it should never be a privilege. We should have Medicare for all in this country, Gillibrand replied.

This is a move to the left for Gillibrand, who despite advocating for Medicare for all since her first congressional campaign has not outright advocated a single-payer system. She is following in the suit of Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who told The Wall Street Journallast week that President Obama tried to move us forward with health-care coverage by using a conservative model that came from one of the conservative think tanks that had been advanced by a Republican governor in Massachusetts. Now its time for the next step. And the next step is single payer.

Gillibrands new position does place her in good stead among many of her fellow Americans.

A Pew Research Center poll releasedlast weekfound that 33 percent of Americans favor a single-payer health care program, including 52 percent of Democrats/Leaning Democrats and 64 percent of liberals. The total number who favor single payer has risen by 5 percent from its total in January and a whopping 12 percent from where it was in 2014.

Overall 60 percent of the people polled said that the government is responsible for guaranteeing that all Americans have health care coverage, compared to 39 percent who felt that it did not. That number reached 85 percent for Democrats and independents who lean Democratic, while 68 percent of Republicans said the government should not have that responsibility.

The new Democratic push for a single-payer system comes as Senate Republicans plan, which the Congressional Budget Office reported would slash Medicaid funding by 26 percent by 2026, appears at an impasse.

The rest is here:
Kirsten Gillibrand becomes latest Democrat to come out in favor of single-payer health care - Salon

OBSERVERPhoto Basil A. Smikle Jr., state Democratic Party executive director, stands with Norm Green, right.

It is not about the politics, it is about the policies. Thats the message Basil A. Smikle Jr. gave county Democrats during the partys annual banquet on Thursday in the Gov. Reuben Fenton Historical Society in Jamestown.

Smikle, executive director of the New York State Democratic Party, also made a stop in Dunkirk during the morning to discuss his partys agenda.

He admitted there are plenty of concerns regarding President Donald Trump and the plans to repeal health care across upstate.

Our message is that we will address (constituents) economic anxiety, their political anxiety and help push back on what were seeing coming out of Washington, he said during a meeting in the OBSERVER offices.

Smikle said it was his second trip to Chautauqua County. He was here in 2000 when he was a senior aide to Hillary Clinton who would win election as U.S. senator for New York.

Whos in office matters, he said. You may not like politics but it really matters whos actually occupying those legislative seats, the governors seat and the president of the United States.

Trumps policies and actions have not sat well with all of America, especially many on the left. Smikle pointed to the Womens March on Washington in January, which took place a day after Trump officially took office. Those people cared enough about policy to be driven to go out and show their support for the policies they care about. Its important the Democrats captured that energy.

As for the country, Smikle notes a division. He also sees the upcoming election as an opportunity.

I do think theres renewed interest in the Democratic party even though, I think overall, there has been a hit to the brand, Smikle said. I think Republicans have as well, but I think we most recently took a hit to our brand.

Even if I cant go out and say become a Democrat, I can go out and say we care about the policies you care about and then I hope over time you come to believe its the Democrats who care about these policies too.

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State Democrat leader makes county stop - Evening Observer

WASHINGTON (AP) A GOP-controlled House committee unexpectedly agreed Thursday to a proposal by a strongly anti-war Democrat to force a debate on a new war authorization.

The proposal would cut off the sweeping 2001 authorization to use military force against terrorism. The move by California Democrat Barbara Lee unexpectedly won voice vote approval by the House Appropriations Committee as it debated a Pentagon funding bill.

Lee wants to force a debate on a new war authorization, and some Republicans agree that debate is a good idea.

A surprised Lee took to Twitter to claim victory.

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"Whoa. My amdt to sunset 2001 AUMF was adopted," Lee tweeted, using Washington code for authorization of military force. "GOP & Dems agree: a floor debate & vote on endless war is long overdue."

Lee's amendment would repeal the 2001 law which has been broadly interpreted to permit military operations beyond those contemplated at the time 240 days after the bill is enacted, which Lee said in a statement "would allow plenty of time for Congress to finally live up to its constitutional obligation to debate and vote on any new AUMF."

The proposal has a long way to go before becoming law. For starters, it would likely be knocked out of the spending bill on procedural grounds during floor debate since spending bills technically aren't supposed to carry policy language.

The 2001 force authorization was enacted in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks to give the president greater powers to respond. It was very broadly drafted to authorize "all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001." A separate authorization for the war in Iraq was enacted just before the 2003 invasion.

"It is far past time for Congress to do its job and for the speaker to allow a debate and vote on this vital national security issue," Lee said.

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Democrat wins panel vote to debate new authorization for war - Monterey County Herald

The recent attempted mass assassination of Republican congressmen and its aftermath reveals much about differences between Democrats and Republicans. Its a difference that Democrats are doing their best to pretend does not exist.

One of the ways Democrats are attempting to escape any responsibility for the shooters motives is by using one of their favorite and most insidious subterfuges moral equivalence. Democrats are doing their level best to convince everyone that Democrats and Republicans are equally responsible for the poisonous atmosphere currently rampant in our culture.

The event ought to be an enormous indictment of the Democrat party and the left. There is what should be an obvious and blatant difference between the two parties.

It simply would not occur to a Republican to make a Democrat president symbolically an assassinated Julius Caesar, as they have been doing with their Shakespeare in the Park presentation in New York City this spring. We simply dont think that way. There isnt that much hate in our hearts. Any haters in the Republican Party are outliers. The haters on the left are mainstream.

Democrats are doing their best to gloss over and minimize the shooters political affiliations and the similarity of his attitudes and opinions with those of the Democrat party. The shooters beliefs were carbon copies of those of Democrat politicians. Democrats want us to believe that fact is irrelevant. Is it irrelevant that he specifically targeted Republican politicians? When in history has any shooter ever targeted Democrat politicians specifically because of their party affiliation? The attitude of Democrats reminds me of what George W. Bush said about al Qaeda, They dont oppose our policies, they oppose our existence.

Following the shooting, the clueless FBI pretended not to know what the shooters motives were. As John McEnroe would say, You cant be serious! Were they trying to be funny? Does the FBI not realize how ridiculous they sound? Has political correctness fried their brains? As they might say in the red states, Dont pee in my face and tell me its raining.

Theres a whole lot of denial going on. They have sown the wind, but they deny responsibility for the whirlwind.

Moral equivalence is one of the lefts personality disorders. It is, for example, why liberals are uncomfortable with the idea of American exceptionalism. They would like us to believe that no one country is better than another or that no one religion is better than another. It is why they hold Israel and Palestine equally responsible for the murder and terrorism in that region.

The left does not want to take sides in any conflict. They do not like facing the existence of evil. Their inability to face that reality is part of their utopian mindset. Theyre typically more sympathetic with the killer than the victim, more sympathetic with the law breakers than the law enforcers.

For Democrats, any incident involving guns is a terrible thing to waste. Whenever guns are involved, they exploit it for all its worth. Their tiresome obsession with that issue demonstrates their empty bag of issues. Democrats have no new issues or ideas. They have no young leadership. The party is worn out intellectually and demographically.

Democrats actually believe that an abortion is something positive. Unrestricted abortion is the political issue they are most passionate about. They believe that an abortion is as desirable, or even more desirable, than a live birth. The cold heartedness with which they view the issue is chilling.

Liberals know for certain that Donald Trump is a racist and bigot. How do they know that? Because he wants to protect our borders and enforce existing immigration laws. In order to categorize Trump as a hater they have to redefine and corrupt the meaning of hate. In their minds wanting to secure the borders and enforce existing immigration laws means he has hatred in his heart.

Another example occurred during the 2008 campaign against Prop 8 in California. That proposition was about adding to the states constitution the following, Only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. The most frequently seen bumper sticker seen at the time was 8 is Hate. In other words, Democrats in California believed that you had to be a bigot to in favor of keeping the definition of marriage what it has been for hundreds of thousands of years. Prop 8 passed but was subsequently voided by the courts.

The good news for Republicans is that the Democrats worn out bag of tricks and duplicity arent working like they used to. Theres a huge difference between how the two parties behave and how they see the world, and most of the country agrees with the Republican version, at least as evidenced by the November and other recent elections.

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Democrats and Republicans Are Not Morally Equivalent - American Spectator