Radio Curious

The history of the Mendocino Environmental Center, as told by its co-founder Betty Ball, is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Betty and her late husband Gary Ball, founded the Mendocino Environmental Center, based in Ukiah, California in early 1987, which soon became a central organizing hub for several environmental movements in Northern California.

The issues in those years included protection of the Northern California coast from off shore oil drilling, an effort which has remained successful; the Forests Forever initiate campaign in behalf of the Heritage Tree Preservation Act, which narrowly lost a state-wide California election in 2002; and Redwood Summer, a non violent civil disobedience effort to protect old growth redwood trees in northern California from being logged, modeled after the Mississippi Summer civil rights projects in 1964. Shortly before the planned beginning of Redwood Summer in June 2000, Judi Bari, a Redwood Summer organizer was severely injured in a car bomb explosion in Oakland, California. In a subsequent civil jury trial the F.B.I. and the Oakland Police Department were found liable for certain matters related to the bombing, and ordered to pay over $4,000,000.00 compensation. The bombers still remain at large.

These and other issues are discussed in this interview with Betty Ball, which was recorded for video and audio broadcast on November 7, 2011, at the studios of Mendocino Access Television in Ukiah, California. We began when I asked Betty Ball what drew her and her late husband, Gary Ball into the environmental movement.

The books that Betty Ball recommends are any written by Arundhati Roy, Derrick Jensen or Chris Hedges.

This interview with Betty Ball was recorded for radio and television broadcast with the generous cooperation of Mendocino Access Television in Ukiah, California, and the engineering assistance of Mikah Mate.

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This program is about honey. We visit with Keith Feigin, owner of Lovers Lane Farm, at his bee keeping center in Ukiah, California. We discuss bees on the loose, how they orient themselves to a new location, communicate with each other and how Keith harvests the “liquid gold.”  Keith was just leaving to catch up with some bees on the loose when I arrived, and that’s when our conversation began in mid August 2011.

The book that Keith Feigin recommends is the “Secret Life of Bees,” by Sue Monk Kidd.  You may contact Keith Feigin via email at loverslanefarm@gmail.com.

This interview was recorded on the streets of Ukiah and at Lovers Lane Farm in Ukiah, California on August 15, 2011.

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One of the things I learned in law school about bankruptcy was that if you have to borrow money to take a trip and then go bankrupt, the judge can’t take the trip away from you. In this edition we have a travel report from Christina Aanestad the Associate Producer for Radio Curious. Christina recently returned from a 6 week exploratory, journalist visit from Ecuador, a favorite country of mine.

We visited at the Radio Curious studios on August 29, 2011, to discuss her adventures and what she learned about oil drilling, gold mining and dam construction, as well as what motivated her to take this trip.

The books that Christina Aanestad recommend are, “Now is the Time to Open Your Heart,” by Alice Walker and “Pronoia is the Antidote to Paranoia: How the Whole World is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings,” by Rob Brezney.

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This program is the second of a two part series with Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman.  We begin when Sheriff Allman explains the “moral dilemma” and then discuss what can be done about it, as well about a lot about Sheriff Tom Allman.

This program was recorded in the Radio Curious studios on August 8, 2011.

The book Sheriff Tom Allman recommends is “Outliars,” by Malcolm Gladwell.

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This program is the first of a two part series with Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman.  Sheriff Allman when he and Radio Curious Host and Producer  Attorney Barry Vogel discuss the procedures to legally grow marijuana in Mendocino County, the problems of large illegal grows, and what is being done about them, the extent the marijuana is a cash crop in Mendocino County, and a lot about Tom Allman. The next edition will be the second half of our conversation. That’s when we discuss the Sheriff’s “eureka” moment, what he wants to do with the rest of his life and a book he recommends.

The interview with Sheriff Tom Allman was recorded on August 8, 2011 in the Radio Curious studios.

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In part two in our series, “Greed is Now Respectable,” we visit again with Attorney Prescott Cole, employed by California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, or “Canhr,” a non-profit agency based in San Francisco, California.  The goal of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform is long term care, justice and advocacy.   Their website, canhr.org, has sections on Elder Abuse and Elder Financial Abuse, Medi-Cal for Long Term Care, Finding a Nursing Home, Lawyer Referral, among many other related topics.  The CANHR phone number within California is (800) 474-1116, and outside of California it is (415) 974-5171.

Our conversation with Attorney Prescott Cole was recorded from his office in San Francisco on June 9, 2011.  We discuss what a reverse mortgage is and the grave and potential economic and social consequences to which purchasers of a reverse mortgage are exposed. We talk about annuities, what they are, what they cost, and why an annuity is a poor investment for seniors. We include a discussion of how Veterans eligible for aid benefits have been lured into giving away their assets in an attempt to become eligible for the aid benefits.

We began our conversation when I asked Precott Cole to tell us about reverse mortgages.

The books Prescott Cole recommends are those written by P.G. Wodehouse, about Jeeves the Butler.

The website for California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform is canhr.org.

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A will is a legal document that one prepares to identify what should be done with property after the writer has died.  In recent years, a document called a “living trust” has come into fashion that if it fits a persons needs and is done properly, would achieve the same purpose. Occasionally so called “free seminars,” are advertised living trusts.  Some of the gatherings are calculated to be more than instructional.  Rather they are calculated to sell the attendees, mostly senior citizens, a living trust at a surprisingly low price, as well as reverse mortgages and annuities.

Prescott Cole, an attorney working with California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, based in San Francisco, California is our guest on this edition of Radio Curious, in the first of two discussions on financial elder abuse.  In this program we will discuss living trust seminars, how they are organized and what some of their goals are.

I spoke with Prescott Cole from his office in San Franciso on May 27, 2011 and began our conversation by asking him to describe a living trust seminar.

The website for California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform is canhr.org. This interview was recorded on May 27, 2011.

The book that Prescott Cole recommends is the “Bartimaes Trilogy,” by Jonathan Stroud.

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In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Les Blank, film maker extraordinaire. Les Blank will receive the Albert Maysles award at the 2011 Mendocino Film Festival where his films “Burden of Dreams” and “The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins” will be presented.  John Rockwell, writing in The New York Times, describes Les Blank as, “…a documentarian of folk cultures who transforms anthropology into art.”

Though he had a long fascination with films, his career turned to film making after he saw “The Seventh Seal,” by Ingmar Bergman.   Our conversation, which was recorded by phone from his home in Berkeley, California on May 23, 2011, began when I asked him why he makes films.

The films Les Blank recommends are “The Seventh Seal” and “Through a Glass Darkly,” both by Ingmar Bergman.

Les Blank’s website is www.lesblank.com

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This edition of Radio Curious is again about Richard W. Johnson Jr., publisher of a group of newspapers in Mendocino County, California, called Mendocino Country.  He died March 16^th, 2011.  The interview was recorded in June  2008 shortly after voters passed Measure B, a ballot measure that attempted to regulate marijuana growth and production.  The measure repealed an earlier ballot initiative Richard Johnson wrote, Measure G in 2000, that set a limit of 25 plants and 2 pounds of processed marijuana.  Measure B reduced the limits to 6 plants person and 8 ounces of processed marijuana.  Richard Johnson was opposed to Measure B and we began our conversation when I asked him why he took on this issue considering the fact that he did not use marijuana.

Richard W. Johnson said he didn’t have time to read because he was too busy writing.

Originally Broadcast: June 18th, 2008

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