Landis regains REMINISCE yellow jersey SUNDAY Elusive Images photo contest ..........Page A-8 July 23, 2006 ................................Page A-3 INSIDE Mendocino County’s Obituaries The Ukiah local newspaper .......Page A-2 Monday: Mostly sunny; continued hot Tuesday: Mostly sunny and hot $1 tax included DAILY JOURNAL ukiahdailyjournal.com 54 pages, Volume 148 Number 105 email: [email protected] UKIAH PROP BUSTERS Too hot Scale Saturday’s 112º planes breaks 1916 record Heat wave to last several more days Cool advice in flight before cooling to sidestep By LAURA MCCUTCHEON By LAURA MCCUTCHEON The Daily Journal heat illnesses The Daily Journal A high pressure system A heat wave couldn’t keep scale By LAURA over the four corners region of MCCUTCHEON pilots away from aerial acrobatics at the western United States is Saturday’s annual championship in The Daily Journal responsible for record-break- The heat may appeal Ukiah. ing temperatures spanning the Many of the contestants would to the average lizard, but West Coast, according to hydrangeas wilt and have been there anyway, however, meteorologists. because they are members of Ukiah people risk developing a Today’s temperature in the heat-related illness if Prop Busters and fly most weekends Ukiah area is expected to at the vineyard location -- just south they don’t stay cool and reach 109 degrees, tying the hydrated when the ther- of Retech between Ukiah and record from 1942, according Hopland -- courtesy of Max mometer soars into the to AccuWeather. The National triple digits. Schlinger, the property owner. Weather Service in Eureka Saturday’s afternoon event would While we can’t yet forecasts a high of 110, which control the weather, we pay a $3,000 purse to the winner -- would set a new record. the third largest in the country -- but can attempt to live with Saturday, even hotter, it. flying these remote control scale air- peaked at 112 degrees, break- planes isn’t about the money as much The best advice is to ing the record of 109 set in stay out of the heat as as it is an addiction. 1916. Friday, too, was scorch- “It’s a great time,” member Tim much as possible, stay ing, also at 111 degrees, and cool and stay hydrated, Moore said. “The camaraderie with tying the record set in 1938, everybody ... it’s a great club,” he Gloria Gutfeld, senior according to AccuWeather. public health nurse at the said, noting, currently there are some Monday isn’t looking 73 members from Ukiah, Redwood Mendocino County much cooler. According to Department of Public Valley, Lake County and Santa Rosa, AccuWeather’s forecast, the and even a few from the Bay Area and Ryan Garner/The Daily Journal Health said. temperature will reach 107 “People make a mis- Washington. Washington native Kyle Woyshnis, the model airplane flying degrees. The National “It’s fun to bring something you national champion, navigates his inverted airplane across the take of only drinking Weather Service in Eureka when they are thirsty, actually built, throw it up in the air, runway during the Ukiah Prop Busters Model Airplane Flying predicts Monday will be and it actually flies,” Moore said, Contest on Saturday afternoon. Ukiah Prop Buster member Mike but that is not enough. around 104. You need to drink more adding, “We are a scale club; most of Bonacorso, below, attended Saturday’s model airplane flying con- A few degrees aside, the the airplanes we fly resemble a real test. Bonacorso has been building and flying model airplanes for than you normally heat wave is caused by a large would,” Gutfeld said. aircraft (but smaller).” nearly 25 years. area of high pressure centered For the skilled 17-year-old Kyle In addition to drink- over the four corners region of ing plenty of fluids, it Woyshnis, of Washington -- who won the western United States -- at the Nationals last week in Indiana - - flying is a form of relaxation. See HEALTH, Page A-13 Apparently it all started with a dis- See HOT, Page A-13 carded model airplane. “I have always been interested in airplanes. My mom bought my dad a small model airplane years ago. I BOARD OF SUPERVISORS found it in the closet and I finished building it. ... That was basically how it started and it just kind of snow- County to explore balled from there,” he said, noting that plane never got off the ground. The remote control airplane he marijuana’s impact flies now -- a “40 percent Carden Extra 330 S,” which has a 10-foot The Daily Journal See Page A-4 for agenda of wingspan -- not only gets off the On Monday, the Mendo- ground but does all kinds of 3-D cino County Board of Tuesday’s regular meeting. maneuvers when he’s got the remote Supervisors will hold a in his hands. Marijuana Workshop to the agenda, the board hopes to review the legal, social, envi- “determine appropriate and See PLANES, Page A-14 ronmental and financial effective local actions in impacts the local industry has on the county. According to See MARIJUANA, Page A-13 Voters angry, confused over election changes Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part required TouchScreen vot- lots, or they can bring their “Everybody was different. Many precincts story about the balloting changes in the June ing machines, she elimi- ‘It hampered the election on ballots to a polling place or had five, or six or seven different ballot types. 2 election. nated 28 polling places in person to Wharff’s So we went ahead, beginning in November and designated precincts both sides. This valley didn’t office by 8 p.m. on election 2005, and put all of those ballot types into indi- By MIKE A’DAIR with fewer than 250 as day. vidual precincts. So now our volunteers at the The Willits News vote-by-mail precincts. get adequate representation.’ Wharff claims the polls have a much easier time distributing bal- As the dust settles after the 2006 primary Wharff’s efforts changes were necessary. lots,” Wharff said. election, one thing is clear: some people are changed the ratio between Under the old system, she One result of the move was to relegate some upset with County Clerk Marsha Wharff and vote-in-person and vote- CLAIRE HURT argues, many precincts neighborhoods, and in some cases whole com- her decision to eliminate some Mendocino by-mail precincts in the contained such a dizzying munities, to vote-by-mail status. Some of the County polling places. county. Prior to the array of special districts it switched precincts were part of existing cities; In recent months, Wharff made several redesign there were 62 consolidated precincts was difficult for poll workers to be certain vot- others were scattered pockets of residents liv- major changes to the way county voters cast voting in 50 polling places, and 36 vote-by- ers were being given the correct ballot. ing near cities, while yet others included entire their ballots. She eliminated all precincts in mail precincts. There are now 37 consolidated “In some of our precincts we had voters who remote communities. which there was more than one special district, precincts voting in 22 polling places and 171 were in a fire district and a water district. Other or one combination of two special districts. vote-by-mail-only precincts. That means people were in a water district and flood con- Covelo And she increased the number of precincts in 26,352 voters or 55 percent of the county’s reg- trol district; others were in a school district and One example of the latter is Covelo, the tiny the county from 274 to 388. At the same time, istered voters now live in vote-by-mail a flood district but not the fire district, and so in order to spend less money on federally precincts. Those voters must cast mail-in bal- on, all across the county,” she says. See ELECTION, Page A-13 Come BarB.Q. with Us Saturday July 29 10-4PM North Coast HYDRO GARDENS Thank You to Our Customers 3450 N. STATE STREET, UKIAH (NEXT TO WEEKS DRILLING) • PHONE 707-462-7214 • FAX 707-462-7213 • HOURS: MONDAY - FRIDAY 9 - 6 • SATURDAY - SUNDAY 11 - 3 A-2 – SUNDAY, JULY 23, 2006 DAILY DIGEST Editor: Jody Martinez, 468-3517 The Ukiah Daily Journal [email protected] FUNERAL NOTICES POLICE REPORTS FIRE AND RESCUE The following were STRUCTURE FIRE -- [\ noon at the Chow- away. WE will miss other people. She shared all compiled from reports Just after 12:30 p.m. Saturday, chilla Cemetery. her every day of our lives! of her talents prepared by the Ukiah a fire started in a motor home, Arrangements are under Services will be freely and that included Police Department. To located on Highway 20 in the direction of the held on Saturday, August 5, home made bread, anonymously report Willits, and spread to the sur- Eversole Mortuary 707-462- 2006 at Potter rolls and cakes for her crime information, call rounding vegetation, burning 2206 Valley Methodist Church at friends. Betty and John 463-6205. a large spot. 10 a.m. In lieu of attended school together ARREST -- Breanna Little Lake Fire Protection [\ flowers, Judi would have southern California Bealer, 22, of Santa Rosa, was District, the California ROBERT “PAUL” FITCH JUDITH NANCY wanted you to touch and migrated to Healdsburg arrested on suspicion of dri- Department of Forestry and Robert “Paul” Fitch of someone else with kindness in 1950. They ving under the influence at Fire Protection and the Redwood Valley, Ca.