Lady Eagles Smith-Ferri to ON THE MARKET softball takes tell of Iraq trips Guide to local real estate down Laney at college ..........Page A-6 ............Page A-3 ...................................Inside INSIDE Mendocino County’s Daily digest The Ukiah local newspaper .......Page A-2 Tomorrow: Partly sunny; H 62º L 41º 7 58551 69301 0 FRIDAY April 4, 2008 50 cents tax included DAILY JOURNAL ukiahdailyjournal.com 38 pages, Volume 149 Number 361 email: [email protected] UKIAH CITY COUNCIL TRIPS TO HOLY LAND INSPIRED GLOBAL FAMILY AWAKENING Surprise fee hike The other side of the wall a challenge for new trash hauler By ZACK SAMPSEL The Daily Journal The possibility of a $10 per Amendment ton increase in the gate fee at Portrero Hill Landfill is caus- ing a stink for Ukiah Waste to city sign Solutions, Inc., forcing the newly-formed company to ordinance find a financial remedy. Last year, the city’s introduced garbage hauler, Solid Waste Systems, Inc. (owned by the By ZACK SAMPSEL Ratto Group) asked the Ukiah The Daily Journal City Council to approve a sale It appears sandwich of the business to David signs are appetizing for Carroll, John Shea and Bruce local businesses after all, McCracken, owners of Ukiah following a 4-1 vote by the Waste Solutions, Inc. The Ukiah City Council council approved the agree- Wednesday night approv- ment on Oct. 29, 2007, but ing the introduction of an within a day things weren’t as amendment to the sign they had appeared. Back in ordinance. October, the council, Carroll, If adopted, the amend- Shea and McCracken expect- ment will allow business ed escrow on the sale from owners to display A-frame Ratto to close immediately, signs, tables, chairs, but that has yet to happen. planters and clothes racks The reason has to do with a outside their businesses, surprise the buyers got. providing they gain During discussions, the Ratto approval, minimize liabili- MacLeod Pappidas/The Daily Journal Group represented that it had ty and are properly insured. LaSara Firefox, local spiritual teacher and peace activist, wants to use her new philanthropic tourism a favorable, long-term guar- The hearing was the company, Global Family Awakening, to tear down walls of misunderstanding in the Middle East. anteed gate fee for waste dis- third part in a series of pub- posal at Portrero Hills lic hearings by the council regarding the creation of an By RICHARD ROSIER Landfill, which was around $28 per ton. But, in fact, the ordinance amendment that The Daily Journal would allow A-frame signs When Palestine is mentioned, the image brought to agreement had never been implemented. Instead, Ratto and other objects in the mind is often one of strife and conflict, but one local public right of way. woman is doing her best to illuminate a culture that she has been taking Ukiah finds warm and inviting, yet lies in shadow. Transfer Station waste to See SIGN, Page A-12 LaSara Firefox, a local spiritual teacher and peace See TRASH, Page A-2 activist, traveled to the Holy Land three times in 2007. These trips inspired her to create Global Family Awakening, a philanthropic tourist organization that will lead family tours to the West Bank and beyond. Police say child was Firefox’s first trip to Israel was a 10-day tour with The Beloved Community, a peace-oriented tour group led by internationally-known peace activist and musician James drugged and then Twyman. The trip was a peace pilgrimage, during which the group prayed in a variety of places held sacred to the Muslim, Jewish and Christian traditions. raped by Ukiah man “What happened for me during that experience was that By BEN BROWN I went with this incredible sense of desire to bring peace The Daily Journal FOLLOW-UP Photo by LaSara Firefox Children play on the ancient steps of Bethlehem. The Ukiah man arrested on See WALL, Page A-12 sexual assault charges ongoing. He said it does not Wednesday allegedly drugged appear that the victim was his girlfriend’s 11-year-old Fetzer’s child. daughter and then raped her, Officers arrested Fetzer on according to reports from the the above listed charges and Ukiah Police Department. booked him into the Natural Foods Co-op to focus on ‘Rethinking Christopher John Fetzer, Mendocino County Jail, 39, was arrested on suspicion where he was held on a Plastics’ at upcoming annual members meeting of lewd acts with a child, $105,000 bond. aggravated lewd acts with a Officers at scene contacted By ROB BURGESS child, rape by administering the Project Sanctuary The Daily Journal an intoxicant, rape of a victim Domestic Violence Response With a ban on plastic bags in the coun- Co-op candidate’s statements under the age of 18 years old Team to provide assistance to ty in the headlines and on the lips of local and child endangerment in the the mother and the child. The politicians, the Ukiah Natural Foods Co- The three uncontested candidates for the Ukiah Natural Foods Co-Op have 500 block of Empire Drive mother then had a domestic Op has decided to make the issue the cen- each issued a candidate statement ahead of Saturday’s annual member meeting, early Wednesday morning. violence emergency protec- terpiece of its annual members-only which will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Saturday Afternoon Club, 107 S. Oak UPD Capt. Trent Taylor tive order filed against Fetzer, meeting. St. said officers were called to the restraining him from contact- The theme for this year’s gathering has house around 12:56 a.m. ing her or her daughter. been dubbed “Rethinking Plastics: One Nehemiah Bear Wednesday on reports of a Fetzer was served with the Bag at a Time” and is scheduled to run My name is Nehemiah Bear and I am putting myself in the running for Board domestic disturbance. order, which he then violated from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Saturday of Directors of UNF (Homestead Exchange). Upon the urging of friends and When they arrived, the by attempting to call the Afternoon Club, 107 S. Oak St. colleagues I am looking to renew my position on the Board after taking a short woman living there told offi- woman from jail, according to The event will feature guest speaker break (I believe two years). cers her boyfriend, Fetzer, had police reports. Stuart Moody, the chairman for Citizens’ sexually assaulted her 11- He was additionally Advisory Committee on Zero Waste for See CANDIDATES, Page A-2 year-old daughter. charged with violation of an the County of Marin, who was responsi- According to police emergency protective order. ble for initiating the Green Sangha reports, Fetzer allegedly gave The name of the girl and Rethinking Plastics campaign, was a the girl a “drug cocktail” to her mother are not being founding member of Green Yoga ment program. thing more cyclical.” incapacitate her so he could released because the case Association, an advisory board member “So far we’ve been giving talks every- Susan Grelock, who does marketing assault her. The child reported involves allegations of both for Campaign Against the Plastics where we can,” he said. “Plastics are get- outreach for the co-op, said the store cur- the assault to her mother, who domestic violence and sexual Plague, a member of the Davidson ting into the ocean at an alarming rate. rently uses two environmentally-friendly confronted Fetzer and called assault. The investigation is Middle School Garden project in San The first thing we need to do is just stop. options. the police. ongoing. Rafael and a member of the education We’ve been persuaded to throw away Taylor said police did not Ben Brown can be reached at team of San Rafael Clean, a litter abate- things very quickly. We need to do some- See CO-OP, Page A-2 know if the alleged abuse was [email protected]. A-2 – FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2008 DAILY DIGEST Editor: Jody Martinez, 468-3517 The Ukiah Daily Journal [email protected] hauler. several areas where we can 15-year-old suspected Trash Carroll, Shea and Candidates move forward in the coming McCracken are exploring sev- months and years. eral alternatives, including the UNF is the gastronomical Continued from Page A-1 Continued from Page A-1 of molesting 3-year-old use of a landfill in Anderson soul of our community. I want The Daily Journal her anus and took her to Portrero Hills under a short and negotiating a more favor- to see the store maintain its able gate fee with Portrero My position is this: I am a A 15-year-old Ukiah boy Ukiah Valley Medical Center term agreement. Although firm believer in the coopera- position at the leading edge of has been arrested on child for treatment. The parents sus- that agreement has the same Hills, although the group may not have an agreement with a tive system of business and “food consciousness” in the molestation charges for pected that the girl may have low gate fee, it expires this life. I have resided in landfill in place before it clos- valley. Supporting policies allegedly assaulting a 3-year- been sexually assaulted and month. That probably means a Mendocino County for 39 like Measure H is one way to old girl earlier this week, the called the Sheriff’s Office. es escrow on the purchase of $10 per ton increase to the years, mostly on the coast do that. Another is to use our Mendocino County Sheriff’s A sexual assault examina- current $38 per ton gate fee at the business from Ratto.