Month: December 2010

Will Parrish: The North Coast Wine Industry’s Latest Coup De Grace — Draining Our Rivers Dry

Help Support Important Local Reporting, Subscribe Today http://theava.com/ From WILL PARRISH Laytonville The latest in the North Coast wine oligarchy’s long series of legislative coups de grace occurs on December 14th. In what will surely be a 5-0 vote, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors will rubber-stamp new regulations on frost protection in the Russian River … Read more

Largest salmon run on Eel River in 77 years arrives after Tribal ceremonies

by Dan Bacher via http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/12/20/18667140.php Over 2,300 fall run Chinook salmon, the largest number of fish counted at the Van Arsdale Fisheries Station on the Eel River below Cape Horn Dam since the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) began keeping records, arrived just a few months after members of the Round Valley Indian Tribes … Read more

Feather Dancers of the Round Valley Tribes

Thank you all for such a powerful year! In July of 2010 the Feather Dancers of the Round Valley Tribes joined Friends of the Eel River at a magnificent swimming hole in the Hearst area, a few miles downstream of the PG&E Potter Valley diversion (PVP). Prayers and dances began just before dusk and continued … Read more

Will Parrish: Sonoma County, Banana Republic of Wine-Grapes

Help Support Important Local Reporting, Subscribe Today http://theava.com/ From WILL PARRISH Laytonville In 1993, American wine industry goliath E&J Gallo (annual revenue: $2 billion) founded its first subsidiary dedicated solely to producing high-end, “premium” vintages: Gallo of Sonoma. The move reflected a dramatic shift for the Gallo empire, which accounts for one in four bottles sold … Read more

Booze, a Banker, & The Bailout: The Murder of Mark West Creek

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by Will Parrish on Nov 25th, 2010

As the Director of Merchant Banking at America’s most politically well-connected investment firm, Goldman Sachs, Henry L. Cornell is accustomed to reaping the benefits of political oligarchy. (Webster definition: “a government in which a small group exercises control, especially for corrupt and selfish purposes.”) His company exerts a profound influence in the corridors of both national and global power, not only by shaping legislation to the benefit of the interlocking financial, real estate, and investment industries, but by helping set the rules under which policy battles are waged in the first place. The multi-trillion dollar 2008 bailout of the banking industry, authored by then-Treasury Secretary and former Goldman CEO Henry Paulson, is only the most famous example.

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