Free Republic

A Mendocino cafe that has repeatedly pushed back against public health mandates during the pandemic, including charging customers who wear face coverings a $5 fee, will close this weekend, owner Chris Castleman confirmed. He did not agree to Fiddleheads Cafe’s new lease offer, which requested that he comply with government mandates and no longer post “controversial signage or writings.” Castleman said he is being unfairly targeted due to his political beliefs. But the landlord said it wasn’t driven by ideological differences — since the cafe went viral nationally for Castleman’s tactics, the landlord said they have faced harassment from his...

One German shepherd puppy has found a forever home with a Utah firefighter who rescued him from the Mendocino Complex wildfire in California. On August 28, KTVU reported that Draper City Fire Department member Patrick Cullen had been in Mendocino County to battle the massive blaze in August when he crossed paths with the 2-year-old pup, in the middle of the night.

Just days after the massive Mendocino Complex Fire ignited in Northern California, fire officials were getting desperate in their emails to Verizon Wireless. As Santa Clara County firefighters mobilized, they discovered that Internet access had slowed to a crawl on the vehicle they were using to coordinate their response. "Please work with us," Daniel Farrelly, a systems analyst for the Santa Clara Fire Department, entreated the company in an email dated July 30. "All we need is a plan that does not offer throttling or caps of any kind." A few hours later, the Verizon accounts manager suggested they get...

A New Jersey man has been found guilty of attempted murder in a 2015 hammer attack on a Covelo man who was his associate in a marijuana business. Jurors returned the guilty verdict Tuesday against Adam Michael Kendall, 28 of Harrison, New Jersey. He faces a long prison term when he is sentenced Oct. 10. Sheriff’s deputies said Kendall traveled from the East Coast to Mendocino County to collect a debt. The 40-year-old victim suffered a broken wrist, fractured eye socket and several laceration before the attack was broken up by Round Valley tribal police. Kendall was arrested after fleeing...

A high school basketball tournament set to begin Monday in Fort Bragg has been thrust into the national discussion over police killings of unarmed black men, after Mendocino High’s girls team was disinvited because its players refused to stop wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “I Can’t Breathe” during warmups. The debate has pitted socially progressive high school students from Mendocino against a blue-collar Fort Bragg community still mourning the killing of Ricky Del Fiorintino, a Mendocino County sheriff’s deputy and popular wrestling coach at Fort Bragg High who was gunned down in March by an Oregon fugitive. The controversy...

Fort Bragg, Mendocino County -- For someone accused of shooting a 63-year-old former neighbor in front of the man's stunned wife and then standing by for half an hour to watch him die, Aaron Vargas has an awful lot of supporters in this damp little coastal town. The reason?Vargas says the dead man, Darrell McNeill, started raping him at the age of 11.The abuse continued into his 20s, Vargas' relatives say. And even when the now-32-year-old handyman finally broke away, McNeill kept badgering and pursuing him - until finally, Vargas snapped and confronted him. Nobody disputes that Vargas brought...

Jennifer Carah is a scientist who doesn't normally squeal, especially not when she is under water, but a recent snorkeling expedition in an obscure creek on the North Coast caused her to abandon all scholarly protocol. "Yeeeee heeeeee," she shrieked through her snorkel upon spotting a mass of little fish behind a rock in Pardaloe Creek, a remote tributary of the Garcia River, in the heavily logged forests of Mendocino County. The critters that elicited the squeal were endangered coho salmon. In fact, juvenile coho were found in 10 places where they had not been seen in years in the...

I thought you would be interested in the following message. =============================================== Dear Friend: Protecting our oceans makes good economic and environmentalsense.  Our oceans not only provide food and recreation butalso help to regulate our water quality and climate.  Someareas of our ocean are particularly vital, supporting anabundance of fish and marine mammals.  One of these areas isfound just off the coast of Mendocino, Sonoma, Marin, and SanFrancisco counties. I recently joined Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey at a pressconference to highlight our legislation to provide greaterprotection to a larger portion of California’s coast.  Her billin the House, and mine in the Senate,...

When Tank, a 3-year-old male pit bull mix, arrived with his owner at a veterinary office in Humboldt County, his jaws packed with white powder, it was clear that something was seriously wrong. Earlier, Tank had mysteriously consumed an entire box of baking soda — odd behavior, even for an animal with famously indiscriminate eating habits. But more disturbing was Tank's demeanor. He sat trembling, his front legs stuck out at an awkward angle, his dilated eyes fixed on a distant point. A check of the heart revealed a coma-like 32 beats per minute, far below normal. Joseph Humble, the...

A dozen anti-war activists from Mendocino County took their tops off at high noon in San Francisco's Union Square shopping district Thursday, using what they said was their best weapon to get the public's attention. ... Members of the Breasts Not Bombs contingent, which included seven women, three men and two young girls, said the war in Iraq is indecent, not their nakedness. After more than two years of opposition to the war, protesters are having a hard time grabbing headlines, said Sheba Love, size 40D...."Hey! Explain this to me!" said an agog visitor from Florida, approaching San Francisco police...

Medical pot may be certified organic Regulating plant will subject it to health, safety standards BERKELEY (AP) - Mendocino County, the rugged California outpost that was first in the nation to ban genetically modified crops, is striding toward a new agriculture frontier with a proposal to certify medical marijuana as organic. The notion of pesticide-free pot is eliciting a few chuckles. But county officials, who are waiting to hear back from the state agriculture secretary about their proposal, say the issue is quite serious -- with no system to regulate cultivation, consumers are at risk. ''We regulate wine grape growers...

Mendocino County's district attorney is disqualifying a Fort Bragg judge from hearing criminal cases, claiming the jurist doesn't know the law and his courtroom is poorly managed. Judge Jonathan Lehan said judicial ethics prevent him from responding to the allegations by District Attorney Norman Vroman. Vroman's crusade against Lehan is forcing judicial officials to ship criminal cases to inland courts, leaving Lehan with mostly civil cases to oversee. Vroman has been filing affidavits to disqualify Lehan from all of his department's cases since mid-October. "Their calendar is dwindling rapidly," said Vroman. "By mid-December, there won't be any cases left in...