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May 1, 2003
Medi-Cal
cuts threaten local clinics
by
EMILY GURNON
Community clinics are among
those scrambling to cope with potentially huge cuts in funding
as California's budget deficit approaches one-third of the state's
total budget by some estimates.
Because no one expects the Legislature
to pass a budget by June 30, the state will be forced to borrow
money to pay for things like Medi-Cal reimbursements for treatment
of low-income patients. But the borrowing limit will be reached
within two months, at which time the payments could stop, said
Herrmann Spetzler, executive director of Open Door Community
Health Centers.
"We would lose basically
80 percent of our income and it would make it very difficult
for us to continue to provide services," he said.
The Open Door network, which
includes nine centers and 20 to 30 outreach sites, saw nearly
35,000 patients last year one of every five residents in its
service area (Humboldt County plus parts of Del Norte, Trinity
and Siskiyou counties). Eighty percent of its patients are officially
poor, by federal standards. Thirty-one percent are children.
In the long term, once the budget
is passed, clinics like Open Door could see a 20 percent cut
in funding.
Spetzler said the network has
hired a grant-writer to seek money from private foundations,
and officials are searching for ways to cut back. "We're
trying to look at every aspect of our funding to make sure we
are as efficient as possible," he said. "I think we
provide no superfluous services. We're going to have to do some
juggling."
He said the deficit's impact
on other "safety net providers" organizations like
Humboldt Women for Shelter and the Rape Crisis Team is also of
great concern. "If we lose those programs, community clinics
will have a double whammy: Their resources will shrink and the
demand for their services will increase." This will be true,
too, if Medi-Cal payments to private physicians are cut, as the
governor has proposed.
Nevertheless, Spetzler remained
optimistic. "California has weathered storms like this in
the past. It is still the fifth-largest economy of the world,"
he said. "We're going to continue to make sure that people
who come through the door have access to the health care that
they need."
Declaring
war
The bid to recall DA Paul Gallegos has begun
by
ANDREW EDWARDS
It's official. Humboldt County
District Attorney Paul Gallegos is the target of a recall effort.
Last week Rick Brazeau, head
of the Arcata-based MTC political consulting firm (which ran
former DA Terry Farmer's re-election bid last year), served Gallegos
with a "Notice of Intention to Circulate a Recall Petition."
The notice, a kind of a formal
declaration of war, lays out reasons the petitioners believe
Gallegos needs to go. As one of the signatories, Darrol Meyer
of Eureka, put it Monday: "I feel that the guy is lax on
crime and this marijuana thing is just inviting people to grow
marijuana and I don't think that's right."
The first two charges assert
he's letting criminals go with a slap on the wrist. The notice
states that Gallegos accepted a one-count plea agreement in a
recent Eureka drive-by shooting case, and that he initially offered
probation for the alleged perpetrator of a sexual assault against
a 12-year-old girl until law enforcement criticism forced him
to go for a felony.
That's all hogwash, according
to Gallegos.
"I guess I should be happy
that their only criticisms are lies," Gallegos said, speaking
by cellphone Tuesday. "These people are free to lie, they're
not under penalty of perjury, but it's just freakin' false."
In the driveby case the plea
that was accepted carried a 7-year prison sentence, provided
restitution to every victim and prevented the guilty parties
from ever owning a gun again.
"These people are going
to prison, there's no getting around that," Gallegos said.
In the sexual assault case,
the perpetrator, who is also a juvenile, is being charged as
an adult. The route Gallegos initially considered was allowing
him to present evidence to the judge and ask for probation. Even
then, a determination by a psychologist that he was not a danger
to the community would have been necessary, as would passing
a polygraph test on the details of the crime. He also would have
been registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Gallegos said he was offended
that the case was even brought up.
"It's just so offensive,"
he said. "This case involves a young person who has a right
to not have this bandied about in public."
The third reason cited in the
recall notice is Gallegos's controversial marijuana policy.
"That's not a medical issue,
that's a permit for commercial cultivation," said Randy
Price, identified as a member of local law enforcement in a press
release put out by the supporters of Gallegos' ouster.
Brazeau, spokesman for the recall
campaign, had not returned multiple calls to his office as of
press time Tuesday afternoon.
Gallegos' policy increases the
marijuana a patient is allowed to possess from 1 pound to 3 pounds,
and allows for up to 99 plants, so long as their canopies fit
into a 10x10 area. Gallegos has contended that his policy conforms
perfectly with state law, and that it requires a doctor's recommendation.
The press release cited other
reasons Gallegos should be recalled, beyond those mentioned in
the recall notice itself. They include the "weak and complex"
fraud lawsuit against the Pacific Lumber Co. The press release
also contended that they have yet to uncover a single criminal
defense case Gallegos has won. That final charge set Gallegos
laughing.
"It's because they haven't
looked," he said. "There are a superabundance of cases
I've won here and all over California."
The proponents of the recall
have 153 days as of May 1 to gather the signatures of 15 percent
of Humboldt County's registered voters, about 11,200 people.
After those signatures are verified the Board of Supervisors
has 14 days to schedule an election.
The clock is ticking.
HUMBOLDT PEOPLE
From SoHum to the Holy Land: A spiritual
journey
by
ANDREW EDWARDS
 Standing
on the stone steps leading up to the Basilica of the Annunciation
in Nazareth, surrounded by a throng of singing, palm-frond-waving
Palestinian Christians, long-time Humboldt County resident Stephen
Lewis was in ecstasy.
Tears were streaming down his
cheeks as he brandished "pax-calibur" -- a sword turned
peace symbol -- in time to the music, overwhelmed.
"I was near epiphany,"
Lewis recalled, speaking from his home in Rio Dell. "It
was the highest moment in my life and I will treasure it forever."
For him the scene was the culmination
of a 14-year "vision quest" that he believes will help
bring peace to the Middle East.
It all started back in 1988
when Lewis was visiting his dying father. Depressed, he occupied
himself by reading romance novels that featured the crusades
of Louis VII of France. From the book, he got the idea of buying
a sword to "visualize empowerment" for himself.
He ordered nothing less than
a full-size replica of what 1,000 years ago was the ultimate
weapon: Excalibur, named for the famed sword of the legendary
King Arthur. It arrived by mail on his birthday, Feb. 11, 1989.
As soon as he took it from its box, Lewis, a Gnostic Christian,
knew it was no ordinary blade.
"When I got the sword in
my hand I got this vision to do all these rituals with the sword
to sanctify it in our local waters," he said. "Sort
of the opposite of forging a sword in fire."
The ceremonies, consisting of
dipping the sword in the water and saying prayers over it, were
to be performed on seasonal turning points, the solstices and
equinoxes, and include women as well as men to give the sword
"feminine energies."
The first baptism took place
on the March 21, 1989, the spring equinox, at dawn near Richardson
Grove. The second was performed by Lewis's friend Susan at the
Redwood Monastery along the Mattole River on the summer solstice
in that same year; the third, on the autumnal equinox, by his
friend Bridgett in front of the naval station at Centerville
beach south of Ferndale.
"I was supposed to do the
fourth in the Jordan in the winter of that year," Lewis
said, referring to the sacred Israeli waterway, not the considerably
less lauded Jordan Creek near Pepperwood. "I was also miraculously
supposed to get the money [to travel there]. And I didn't."
He was also tied up in his role
in the local activist community. Lewis was one of the organizers
of the famous Redwood Summer of 1990, but after an Earth First!
action that he felt violated their non-violence code he abandoned
the project.
Disillusioned, he did the environmentalist
equivalent of selling his soul when he went to work for the Pacific
Lumber Co. as their liaison with the Garberville-based Environmental
Protection Information Center. In 1995, he left that job to work
for the Bear River tribe in Rohnerville, which was attempting
to hold a lottery to buy the Headwaters forest. He became so
consumed with that issue that he decided to do the fourth ritual
there, in the midst of the old-growth, in the winter of `95.
Still, he kept waiting for the
money he would need to take his trip to the Holy Land. Events
kept getting in the way. Two small inheritances were wiped out
when Lewis totalled his car and then lost his apartment. Twice,
while working in "the underground economy," Lewis raised
significant sums only to loan them away. He even tried gambling,
once losing over $800.
But this March, he decided to
try one last time. He played $75 on an internet casino all the
way up to $1,300 and immediately bought a ticket for a six-day,
there-and-back dash to Israel at Easter time.
"I count that to God's
providence," Lewis said. "Because I'm not a gambler
and when I do gamble I usually lose."
But there was still the problem
of taking the sword with him.
The final stage of the plan,
after baptism in the Jordan, had always been to turn turn the
sword into a plowshare, as described in the Bible in the second
chapter of Isaiah. But Lewis had learned a few years back that
Israeli customs officials wouldn't let a sword into the country.
So with his trip looming, he had a local metalsmith reshape the
bottom half of the blade into the peace symbol; it was then mounted
on a chunk of polished redwood burl. No longer a weapon -- and
therefore no longer unacceptable to Israeli customs -- it was
now "pax-calibur."
He flew into Tel Aviv, arriving
on April 18, Good Friday. He had arranged to stay with an Israeli
peace activist named Hagit Ra'anaan. The next day they both drove
to the Jordan to complete the ceremony, 14 years after his original
vision. [above photo:
Stephen Lewis holds paxcalibur aloft standing in the Jordan River]
Afterwards, he and Hagit discussed
where he could store it so that one day, perhaps, a Palestinian-Israeli
peace group might come along and turn it into a plowshare. A
church seemed appropriate and Ra'anaan knew a Catholic priest
at St. Stephen's in Nazareth, so off they went.
The priest, or Abbuna,
as Lewis called him, was impressed when Lewis related his story
and presented the transfigured sword. So impressed, in fact,
that he took pax-calibur and invited Lewis back for the Easter
celebration the next day.
That morning Lewis took the
bus to Tel Aviv, riding through across the Holy Land next to
a nervous Filipino woman, who worried about suicide bombers.
St. Stephen's is a small, opulently
decorated church in a shabby, Arab neighborhood of Nazareth.
As he came through the door he was "propelled" through
the crowded interior up to the front, where Abbuna was
delivering the service.
At the end, the parishioners
filed out, picking up palm fronds and olive branches from a pile
near the door to wave as they proceeded down the street. At the
bottom of the stack was pax-calibur. Lewis picked it up, and
along with the father led the noisy march down the street accompanied
by drums and bugle blasts as the Muslims in houses above the
street showered them in flower petals and candy.
Nobody questioned why he, a
middle-aged American, was there, or what he was holding.
"It just speaks for itself,"
Lewis said. "I didn't have to say a word."
The march ended on the steps
of the basilica, and when Abbuna explained its significance
and the crowd cheered, Lewis wept. He flew home two days later.
Lewis said he hoped that in
some small way his visit and pax-calibur would improve the chances
for peace. But he said the impression he got from peace activists
was one of despair at even the possibility of an end to hostilities.
"They've given up on the
peace process," Lewis said. "They don't think they
can do anything until the Israeli people themselves wake up to
the horror of too many deaths."
Child
abduction cases solved
In June 1988, 5-year-old Christina
Owen was abducted, allegedly by her own mother. The mother and
her husband fled the state, leaving Owen's biological father
with no idea as to the whereabouts of his child.
For 15 years off and on, investigators
with the Humboldt County District Attorney's Child Abduction
Unit worked on the case.
"This case has been hanging
on for years in this office," said investigator Paul Blake.
"Three or four investigators have worked on this case, with
no success."
But earlier this year, Blake
caught a break. Searching through phone records that had been
seized on a search warrant, he was able to trace the girl, now
19, to a public phone in Indiana. The bureau then staked out
the area, eventually finding not only the daughter, but also
the fugitives.
The arrests were made on March
13. The alleged abductors are now sitting in Humboldt County
Jail facing felony charges and up to four years each in state
prison.
The Owen case is one of four
that the Child Abduction Unit has solved this year, in an unprecedented
run.
"We recover two or three
kids a year, usually; parental abductions. But in the first four
months this year we've had such good returns," said James
Dawson, chief investigator at the DA's office.
The day after the arrests in
the Owens case were made, another alleged abductor was arrested
in Shasta County where she had fled in 1992 with her two daughters,
attempting to avoid a custody proceeding.
And finally, a child who was
abducted in March 2003 was found and returned to her legal guardian.
That leaves only one case left
unsolved, where a child was apparently taken to Mexico.
The Child Abduction Unit has
been a state-mandated part of the DA's office since 1985, the
year Blake, the head abduction investigator, came on board. It
is now in danger of losing its funding due to the state budget
crisis.
"It is my hope that the
current threat of loss of funding for the Child Abduction Unit
will not materialize," said District Attorney Paul Gallegos
in a press release.
HSU
prof expelled from Beijing
A California State University
program coordinated by a Humboldt professor was among the American
university courses in Beijing suspended because of concerns about
severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Anthropology Professor Mary
Scoggin was in charge of a study-abroad program called the Wang
Family Scholars, which this year involved eight students from
four CSU campuses -- San Jose, San Francisco, Northridge and
Sacramento. The students had been studying at Peking University
in Beijing since September. None have been diagnosed with SARS.
All American university students
have been evacuated from Beijing, a CSU spokeswoman said.
HSU spokeswoman Elizabeth Hans
McCrone said all of the Wang students left Beijing on Friday.
Scoggin has not returned to the United States because her husband
lives somewhere in China "well outside Beijing, so she's
been evacuated to his house," McCrone said.
As of Monday, there were 5,462
reported cases of SARS worldwide, according to the World Health
Organization. Of those victims, 353 had died.
Decrying
PL ads
A group of citizens have signed
a letter addressed to Pacific Lumber Co. President Robert Manne
and Maxxam Corp. CEO Charles Hurwitz decrying their recent ad
campaign labeling tree-sitters as "terrorists."
The group, organized a week
ago, largely by long-time environmentalist Patty Clary of Californians
for Alternatives to Toxics, presented the letter in a press conference
Tuesday at Woodley Island Marina in Eureka.
"Our brothers and sisters
who live here in this community are not terrorists," said
John Lyons, a member of the county Human Rights Commission and
former president of the local chapter of the NAACP. "Please
don't split our community apart or divide us; love goes both
ways."
About 60 people have signed
the letter so far, according to Clary. Signatories include three
Arcata City Council members and Supervisor John Woolley.
Be
careful out there
Always put life jackets on children
and take extra caution when you're out on the water this spring,
officials advised.
"Spring snowmelt from high
country areas, winter rainfall and increased water releases into
the Trinity River have resulted in high water levels, swift currents,
very cold water and submerged hazards on our North Coast rivers,"
said Lou Woltering, Six Rivers National Forest Supervisor.
Jumping or falling into cold
water, because of the initial shock and rapid heat loss that
follows, is especially dangerous and can lead to hypothermia,
Woltering said. He recommended that all those using a watercraft
at risk of getting wet or being tossed into the water should
wear appropriate gear, such as a wetsuit and life jacket.
Anyone visiting a lake or river
should check on the latest conditions before they leave, Woltering
said. Contact Bob Hemus at Six Rivers, (530) 627-3291, or the
U.S. Forest Service office closest to your trip.
Annual
eco-auction Saturday
The Northcoast Environmental
Center is holding its annual fundraising auction this Saturday.
The lavish affair at the Arcata
Community Center, it is expected to bring in about 20 percent
of the organization's annual operating budget.
The NEC lost its downtown Arcata
building in a fire in 2001, but Sid Dominitz, editor of EcoNews,
the organization's monthly newsletter, emphasized, "The
auction proceeds don't go towards rebuilding, just operations."
The money supports NEC's mission
to "educate the public on environmental issues" through
its library, information and referral services, school programs,
EcoNews, and EcoNews Report, a radio program that
is the longest-running public affairs show on KHSU FM 90.5 (Thursdays
at 8 p.m.).
The core of the auction is a
collection of fine art and crafts donated by an A-list of local
painters, potters, photographers, sculptors and jewelers including
Jim McVicker, Terry Oats, George Van Hook, Bill Van Fleet, Robert
Haynes, Frances Boettcher, Kris Patzlaff, Larry Ulrich, J. Patrick
Cudahy, Mark Lufkin, Jay Brown, Annie Reid, Kathy O'Leary and
Ann Anderson.
But there's more than just art
and crafts. "There has been a lot of zany stuff, too,"
said Dominitz. "One donor offered to write your epitaph,
another to organize your closets. Amid the art one year, one
of the hottest sellers was a pickup load of organic horse manure."
This year auction attendees
can bid on jet boat rides on the Klamath, a Chinese/Italian dinner
for eight, a holiday in Hyapom, a collection of M&M dispensers,
a used wedding ring set, a coffee drink every day for a year,
handyman and painting services -- and some items that might seem
incongruous, like 100-board feet of redwood lumber or a sculpture
carved from a l,000-year-old tree.
For an advance look at the artwork
go to www.yournec.org
or check out the preview show that's hanging at the Plaza
Grill.
Doors open at the Arcata Community
Center at 5 p.m. Saturday; a dinner catered by Abruzzi is served
at 6; the auction begins at 7. Advance tickets are required.
Call 822-6918 for details.
Mac Armstrong dies
Mac Armstrong, an early Humboldt
State University basketball pioneer and Fortuna High graduate,
died April 24 at the age of 94.
Armstrong played a key role
in establishing scholarship funding for the HSU basketball program.
"He's been a good friend
to our program and we're forever grateful," said HSU men's
basketball coach Tom Wood.
From 1927 to 1929, Armstrong
played basketball for what was then called the Humboldt State
Teacher's School.
"When I played, the sport
was in its infancy," Armstrong said not long ago. We were
just learning what we could do. Today the players are much more
proficient and have fantastic moves."
Clarification
A news item in last week's Journal
misstated a new rule on how health care providers may disclose
patient information. Providers do not need a patient's written
authorization before divulging information to other providers,
insurance companies or friends attempting to visit a patient
in the hospital; permission is implied when patients sign a "consent
for treatment" form. However, a patient may request some
restrictions on the disclosure of data.
[The original
version reflects this correction.]
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