In the Mendocino County DA's race there are 3 candidates. The election is April 3. The only endorsements I've seen earlier are from the prior election. Here's Bill's endorsement of Keith Faulder as I received it by e-mail today. Ex Sheriff Tony Craver has also endorsed Faulder. Patty Berg endorsed Lintott in the 2006 election, and quite possibly still does.

Friends:

I too want to publicly state my endorsement of Keith Faulder for Mendocino County District Attorney. I have worked with Keith on numerous cases over the past several years. He has struck me as intelligent, fair, reasonable, and he conducts himself with integrity. He is an experienced attorney who, from what I can see, has the respect of the deputies in the office. He is open-minded and realistic about cannabis cases. We have spoken on this issue numerous times - in fact Keith has gone out of his way on occasions to seek out my opinions, ask me questions, and/or sought references to more info about medical cannabis law. He has appeared to me to show the most compassion in this area than I've seen from a D.A., except for Terrnece Hallinan. A D.A. must also deal with many non-cannabis related issues. In these areas, I believe Keith's fairness and experience would well serve the residents of Mendocino County. I fear that the addition of a third candidate with split votes and result in the election of Meredith Lintott, who appears to be the least cannabis-friendly of the three candidates. I hope this won't happen and ask the MMJ community to take a serious look at Keith and, most importantly, GET OUT AND VOTE.

Bill Panzer

I drove up from Emeryville this morning. First sign that I was entering Mendocino county was a Lintott for DA sign way far south. Miles later saw my first Faulder sign. Bigger, but falling over. Flowering trees everywhere on the drive, temperatures in the 80s, radio says big worries about the Sierra snowpack melting quickly which will cause the dams to release water now as they prematurely fill, and then leave nothing in reserve as summer drags on. Oddly its the 2008 season's reserves that will be the problem (there won't be any). Trivia fact: It is sunlight, and not temperature that melts the snowpack mainly. So on cloudly days, says the radio, snow melt is greatly reduced.

Strike continues as usual (see SoHum Parlance strike thread for report).

My favorite motel, the Economy Inn (think location, location, location) has no internet so I'm at the Best Western. Location is not good in the real world, but it is a portal to the virtual world where we meet.

I don't know if anyone in Redding knows what a striking setting the city is in. As I came over 299 heading east today I saw Mount Lassen directly before me, and Mount Shasta to the north. Both covered with snow and looking quite wonderful.

When I hit the Bay Area it was sunset and what a sunset. The bay was dark blue, the mountains were purple tending to black, and the sky was a deep red with swirls of black in it. I could only glance over at it from time to time because I-80 is a fast and heavily travelled road, but it was a sunset in a thousand. I was really wishing I were sitting on the deck of some house with a great Bay view enjoying the evening spectacle.

I had some cases in Ukiah last week. There are cherry trees (I guess) lining the main drag, all in full bloom and it looked great. In some ways Ukiah's core is one of the best looking and most comfortable to be in of any of the great county seats I visit as a lawyer. May I recommend Gather Drake's CD "Happytown" especially for "You and Me in Ukiah." I believe he rhymes Ukiah, higher, and papaya in that song. The rest of the CD is pretty nice too.

The DAs and PDs were on strike while I was at the courthouse last week. In retrospect Mendocino county's court system has been a bit chaotic from the vantage of a defense attorney for some time. Last fall the DA, Norm Vroman, died. He was replaced by an interum DA, Keith Faulder. Norm died during an election campaign in which he was running for DA again, along with two others. What does it do to an election to have a major candidate die? In California it means the votes don't get counted if the candidate dies within a certain period prior to the election. So the election was held, the votes were not counted, and a new special election was set. It will happen in late March I think. Meanwhile Keith Faulder decided to run for DA so he quit being the interum DA, which position is now held by Beth Norman. The election is a 3 way race with Meredth Lintott, Keith Faulder, and Bert Schlosser (I've no idea if I spelled anyone's name right).

So since Norm died there has been no long-lasting DA setting the directions for the office. Of course now they're on strike with the county refusing mediation, so the office work has ground down to the minimum possible to keep the justice system running until the strike is settled. Who would have thought Mendocino county would become unstable?

It snowed recently and as you climb up the steep grade from the Klamath Highway - route 96 - to approach Yreka, suddenly there is Mount Shasta in full view, dominating the scene as you look up the canyon. It is huge, it is covered with snow, and it is beautiful. I've been up this road before, but never while a snowstorm's effects were still evident on the mountain, and I never realized that I was seeing it. I wish my camera were with me instead of warming my desk at home.