Community Weekend GASOLINE SURVEY sports digest entertainment Fuel demand up despite prices ............Page 6 ..............Page 3 .....................................Page 1 INSIDE Mendocino County’s World briefly The Ukiah local newspaper ..........Page 2 Tomorrow: Rain in the morning 7 58551 69301 0 THURSDAY Feb. 22, 2007 50 cents tax included DAILY JOURNAL ukiahdailyjournal.com 16 pages, Volume 148 Number 319 email: [email protected] IN COURT MENDOCINO GRAPE PRUNING CONTEST PG&E Woman decision admits worries murder farmers Jury deliberating By BEN BROWN The Daily Journal when defendant The decision by Pacific pleads guilty Gas and Electric to reduce flows through the Potter The Daily Journal Valley Project by 33 percent Sylvie Groleau Stewart on has many farmers in Potter Tuesday pleaded guilty to Valley concerned about their first-degree murder for the future, said Janet Pauli, chair- Nov. 4, 2003 shooting death woman of the Mendocino of her boyfriend, Aaron Foss, County Inland Valley Water according to the Mendocino Commission. County District Attorney’s Following a meeting with Office. the National Oceanographic The jury was in its second Atmospheric Administra- full day of deliberations when tion’s fisheries division, the Stewart, 48, of Trois United States Fish and Game Revieres, Quebec, admitted Department and the Potter she intentionally shot and Valley Band of Pomo Indians killed Foss, and that she last week, PG&E announced planned the killing, the DA’s it would be cutting the flow Office stated in a news by 33 percent as it had release. announced in December. Stewart invited Foss to her Isaac Eckel/The Daily Journal “There will be no more home in Laytonville, so he Beckstoffer Vineyards hosted the 6th annual Mendocino Pruning Competition on Wednesday, with 27 water but the minimum com- took a Greyhound bus from of the best pruners from around the county competing in the yearly event. Vicente Aguilar-Lua works ing through the tunnel until San Francisco and arrived in to prune five vines as quickly and accurately as possible during the competition. April 15,” Pauli said. the early morning of Nov. 3. PG&E spokesman David Stewart picked him up at the Eisenhaur said reducing the bus station and drove him to water diverted out of the Eel her Spyrock Road home. River and into the project was At around noon the next Champion pruners compete necessary for PG&E to com- day, Stewart took a .38 caliber By BEN BROWN ply with the license granted it handgun and shot Foss as he by the Federal Energy sat on the couch in her living The Daily Journal Regulatory Commission that room, according to the news nder gray skies threatening rain, 27 vineyard allows the project to operate. release. Forensic experts testi- workers gathered Wednesday on the grounds of Water is important to agri- Beckstoffer Vineyards to face-off in this year’s culture in Potter Valley, Pauli Mendocino Grape Pruning Contest. See GUILTY, Page 15 U said, both for irrigation in the “These guys are the best,” said Rich Schaefers, dry summer months and for vineyard manager for Beckstoffer Vineyards, which frost protection in the spring. hosted the event. “They don’t make too many mistakes.” The frost-protection season Plea in The workers compete to prune five vines as quickly is generally between mid- and accurately as possible. Points are deducted from a March and mid-May, Pauli competitor’s score for missing cuts, failing to cut dried said. and dead vines, cutting vines too long or short, cutting “It’s a very short period of killing into the bud spurs and not cleaning debris out from time but a critical period of beneath the vines. time,” she said. The average time to prune five vines is somewhere Farmers in Potter Valley delayed between four and five minutes, Schaefers said, but some Raul Valle races to prune his vines accurately. are dependent on water for take longer. Competitors were judged not only on speed, but frost-protection, having “You can be the quickest and not win,” said John on the accuracy of their pruning. moved away from smudge- 14-year-old Enquist, president of the Mendocino County Wine and pots and wind generators back in court Winegrape Commission. This is the sixth year the competition has been held because of air-quality con- “I can’t ever remember seeing this where the fastest and the first time it has not been sponsored by the state, cerns. By BEN BROWN guy won, but I can’t remember seeing it the other way Enquist said. The Potter Valley Irrigation The Daily Journal either,” Schaefers said. In previous years, the top finisher in each county has District requires all agricul- Marcos Escareno appeared This year the top finisher was Jesus Garcia of gone on to state competition, but this year the state tural producers to have a pond in court for arraignment again LaRibera/ Downey Vineyard Management. Second place bowed out, Enquist said. containing three-nights worth Wednesday morning, but did went to Sergio Azevedo Rosas of the Mendocino “Each county is doing it on their own and we’re doing of frost-protection water on not enter a plea to charges of Vineyard Company, and third place went to Damian it on our own,” Enquist said. “It’s good for the guys.” their property, Pauli said. murder. Maldonado of Chevalier Vineyard Management. In the previous four statewide competitions, pruners Farmers in the valley rely on At Escareno’s first arraign- The first-place finisher earned $500, second received water from the project to ment Feb. 9, family members $250 and third $150. See PRUNERS, Page 15 recharge those ponds. announced they intended to hire their own attorney. See WATER, Page 15 Speaking for Escareno on Wednesday, Deputy Public Defender Linda Thompson Electrical work- said the family needed more ers from the city time and asked that entrance DOWNED POWER LINE Gasoline headed of Ukiah repair a of plea be delayed until downed power March 1. line that fell on The 14-year-old is being Washington Ave- ‘up, up and away’ charged as an adult in the nue near the in- By LAURA MCCUTCHEON keep their prices down,” homicide of Enoch Cruz, who tersection with The Daily Journal Sean Comey, spokesman for was found shot to death in his South State St. at Gasoline prices are up AAA of Northern California car in Garcia Court in 4 p.m. Wednes- said Wednesday. “If you are Manchester at 6:20 a.m. Feb. because -- among other rea- day. The downed sons -- refineries are having selling the same amount of 6. Cruz had been shot three line cut off power gasoline at $2.75 a gallon as times by a long rifle, accord- some difficulty with produc- to many resi- tion, California is an island you were at $2.50 a gallon, ing to reports from the dents in south where is the motive to lower Mendocino County Sheriff’s market and there has been an Ukiah, and traffic increase in demand, accord- the price? That is why we Office. lights on South recommend consumers try Cruz was dating ing to the California Energy State Street at the Commission. to conserve fuel whenever Escareno’s 22-year-old sister Talmage Road possible and shop aggres- at the time of his death, but And since people are will- and Washington ing to pay the price, why sively for the lowest price,” the Sheriff’s Office is not dis- Avenue intersec- he said. cussing a motive for the lower it? tions were not “Part of the problem is According to a recent killing. working briefly. It report from AAA of Escareno is being charged that demand remains rela- was not known at tively constant despite high Northern California -- as an adult and, if convicted, press time what released Feb. 13 -- which could face up to life imprison- prices, so there is only a lim- caused the line to ited amount of incentive for tracks fuel costs as a service ment. break. Ben Brown can be reached at retailers and the rest of the [email protected]. Ben Brown/The Daily Journal people in the industry to See GASOLINE, Page 2 2 – THURSDAY, FEB. 22, 2007 DAILY DIGEST Editor: Jody Martinez, 468-3517 The Ukiah Daily Journal [email protected] Those arrested by law enforcement POLICE REPORTS officers are innocent until proven guilty. FUNERAL NOTICES People reported as having been arrest- The following were ed may contact the Daily Journal once [\ their case has been concluded so the Ardie were married Clarke, his wife Lorraine worked as a compiled from reports results can be reported. Those who feel FRANCES MARIAN CLARKE July 25, 1942, after Bill Clair, and their children Psychiatric Technician for prepared by the Ukiah the information is in error should con- May 31, 1921 to joined the Marine Canon and Carley of Napa, Sonoma and Police Department. To tact the appropriate agency. In the case of those arrested on suspicion of dri- February 20, 2007 Corps following the attack Bend, OR; grandchildren, Mendocino State Hospitals anonymously report ving under the influence of an intoxi- Known as “Ardie” to on Pearl Harbor. Chad and Krysten for a total of 30 crime information, call cant: all DUI cases reported by law They were married 55 of Novato, CA, and grand- years. She was an active 463-6205. enforcement agencies are reported by family and friends, she the newspaper.The Daily Journal makes moved to Ukiah with her years before Bill’s children Jason, Eric member of the As- ARREST -- Sarah Ann no exceptions. late husband, Bill death in 1998.