Republic of Gilroy Archives

Open letter to Kate Woods c/o Inside San Benito

To: Kate Woods, award-winning journalist, San Benito satirist laureate, word painter of toxic landscapes, and President of the  Nan Pipestem Wildlife Rehabilitation Center

From: Doug Meier, recent escapee from the soul-sucking confines of Gilroy

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Kate. I relished joining forces with you to fight the good fight against raging stupidity compounded by flagrant apathy compounded by toxic dosages of unchecked corruption. We shined some light on the halfwit incomps running the local creepshow.

Thanks to the Republic of Gilroy and Inside San Benito, the likes of wannabe state assemblyman Iggy Velasquez, the Los Valientes goon squad, and Mainstreet Media tyrant publisher Steve Staloch were exposed for what they are, a dotard mule-train of specious mendicants and complicit willing idiots, instead of congratulated for what they pretend to be.

Out of morbid curiosity I was browsing the Opinion archives of the redesigned Gilroy Dipsack. I discovered that ALL links to my 100-plus columns published in the Dipsack lead to "invalid request" errors. Check it out: you can access any former or current Dipsack columnist except Doug Meier.

I am honored that Dipsack editor Mark Derry would take the trouble to erase me from the Dipsack Opinion page archives. I have now joined Kate Woods on the official Meanstreet Media blacklist! Apparently my posts criticizing Mark Derry's rancid little newspaper puppy mill hit home. Or maybe his wife Jenny Derry, PR flak for the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau, demanded my deletion for pulling down her pants and revealing the "Property of SoCal Developers Lobby" tattoo on her ass? 

[at left, Santa Clara County Farm Bureau mouthpiece Jenny Derry, and her husband, Gilroy Dispatch editor Mark Derry (artist rendition)]

I wonder if they'll also erase the editorials I penned as a member of the Dipsack editorial board? Will they attempt to rescind the two CNPA awards (a first place in 2002 and a second place in 2001) garnered by my Republic of Gilroy columns in the pre-blog era?

Kate, you know better than anyone how the creeps run their creepshow with impunity. The fourth estate is on permanent hiatus from Gilroy and SBC. When your Badlands column was embargoed and you were taken off the San Juan and Hollister beats, at least 50 letters expressing the community's outrage poured into the Pinnacle News. Nothing printed in a Meanstreet Media publication before or after generated more honest community outrage against the creepshow than the Silencing of Kate Woods.Then Pinnacle editor Mark Paxton, at Staloch's urging, censored the community's voice as well. He refused to run any more letters objecting to Kate Woods' removal. In his mind this was a public service! 

You were dangerous to them. After Meanstreet's takeover of the original Pinnacle News, as resurrected by Tracie Cone, and the subsequent dumbing down and screwing up of that once-proud weekly, Meanstreet (at the behest of Censorin' Steve Staloch) unarchived your Badlands columns and the investigative pieces you published in The Pinnacle before and after Staloch took over. Just as Joseph Stalin purged all perceived threats to his iron-fisted rule, so Staloch "disappeared" you from his sad little totalitarian empire. Because you always represented the Truth, which they can't stand.

Journalism, as the sackless Paxton would define it, means that no influential local personage, no matter how corrupt, is ever offended, especially if they are on good terms with the publisher.

 

[at left: Steve Staloch, Mainstreet Media publisher, creep protector, and Kate Woods, the award-winning investigative reporter whom Staloch censored for insisting on reporting the truth].

 

 

I live in Truckee now, but I'm still devoted to the Bay area, the coast, funky old San Jose, weird wonderful Santa Cruz, the mountains on both sides of the Valley, and the Valley (I still work there, remotely, from the Far East Bay). Regrets? Yeah. I regret that I spent nine years of my life anchored in Gilroy, and that for half of that time I honestly thought that the situation could improve, deluded myself that despite the daily evidence of rampant ignorance, it wasn't really all that bad! Wrong.

OK so the creeps know that I ditched G. Half of the Gilroy school board and the district office slackers who manage low expectations in the Gilroy school district are quite pleased that the GUSD Watchdog doesn't watch them anymore. I suppose they can claim they outlasted me. But you know my response. They can have their unflushed turdlet town and all the floaters who clog it. Anyway, during my time in Gilroy I held the district accountable for its ineptitude. I exposed the rampant incompetence. I helped elect two board members who now hold the school district accountable to tax-paying, home-owning residents who foot the bill for the district's academic morass. And I was a constant thorn in Mainstreet Media's side. I exposed its seamy underbelly. It's on the Internet record and neither Staloch nor Derry can take it down.

Ah, Gilroy. Ever notice that there isn't a single competent waiter or waitress in the entire town? But then the pinnacle of cuisine in Gilroy is the big hot sweaty bbq known as the Garlic fest... and Rib Night at Applebee's.

Gilroy seems to cherish being an intellectual dead zone, a breeding ground for flabby dufus video-game addicts with ambitions to work the checkout line at Target and Wal-Mart and CostCo. "Welcome to Gilroy! Celebrate obesity in soulless deadening cookie cutter subdivisions! Enjoy a fulfilling career in the nail salon industry!"

It's been six months since my family completed Operation Escape from Dipshitville, armpit of Santa Clara County. That right there was a life moment I'll never ever forget: rolling down the cargo door on the Budget rent-a-truck, about 5,000 pounds over limit, bound for the Sierras. Before putting the rig in Drive, I asked my 15 year old son Henry if he had any regrets and he said None! I said Sure? and he said Nope. and I said Then let's you and me get the hell out of this two-bit town, and we high-fived and we wore big shit-eating grins that lasted all the way to the mountains. With the Gilroy housing market in a death spiral -- thanks in large part to the stewardship of a city council / planning commission that bends over for any developer (what RDO?), my grin is wider than ever. Yeah, I got out in time; feel sorry for those homeowners who didn't sell but wish they had. Gilroy, like Stockton, Antioch, Vallejo, Sacramento, and other overbuilt areas, is ground zero in the housing market collapse.

I ditched the scene, Kate, but I still keep tabs on Inside San Benito. God love it. It's the only outlet attempting to give people the truth, framing the news and the politics in San Benito county with honesty, and using humor and undeniable facts to hold the creeps accountable.

[at left: Mainstreet Media brass enjoy a night out after a hard day of censoring dissenting opinions]

It may seem like no one cares, but In SBC there's a healthy undercurrent of outrage and anger against the Beavis' and Buttheads who've screwed things up so badly. Not everyone in Gooberville is a goober! Just remember how many people wrote in when your Badlands column was axed. That outpouring was genuine, heartfelt outrage, not the manufactured claptrap you usually get in your typical letter to the editor to the Hollister Free Pants or the Gilroy Dipsack. (Or is it the Hollister Flea Ranch and the Gilroy Dogfart? I can never remember!)

Kate you are correct when you say that these crappy little newspapers are doomed. It's the nimble independent Internet sites that will expand while the little podunk shoppers-pretending-to-be-newspapers shrivel. There's a market in South SC County and SBC for an alternative weekly that's Internet based and regional, not provincial. I hope you and your Inside San Benito cohorts are in the mix when real community journalism returns to SBC. 

Mutants, zombies doing a good job running San Benito County

"Anything worth doing is worth doing badly -- here's to Gilroy," a city councilman once toasted the R of G. It was true then. It's true now. Just look at the dysfunctional public school system; the piecemeal, "outfill" housing developments; the vacant downtown; the pitiful job market that runs the gamut from Christopher Ranch food processor to GUSD facilities worker to Wal-Mart cashier. Just pick up the Dipsack, the pathetic  excuse for a local newspaper.

At least Gilroy is without pretension. It knows it's the armpit of Santa Clara county. That alone makes Gilroy more likeable than Palo Alto or Los Gatos.

Anyway, however ass-backwards things are in Gilroy, San Benito has it worse. Much worse.

Inside San Benito -- the reliable source of information in "the Badlands" of SB County -- paints a picture of government gone mad, a closed system of morbid political dysfunction dominated by raving incompetents who couldn't find their asses with both hands in a roomful of mirrors -- I'm referring of course to the majority of the county's supervisors, planning commissioners, and city councilmen, and the coterie of puppet masters and sycophants, in and outside of the halls of government, who enable them.

The mutants have taken over the zombie farm. Below are excerpts from  eye witness accounts posted on insidesanbenito.blogspot.com. See the weblog for the gory details.

May 21 D.A.Hooper covers up arrest of SJB councilman George Dias  Excerpt:

"George Dias, the embattled San Juan Bautista city councilman was formerly charged last week with “resisting arrest,” a relatively minor offense. District Attorney Candy Hooper was unavailable to explain why she failed to charge Dias with the multiple felonies recommended by the Sheriff’s Office. Dias was arrested last month after getting into a scuffle with a deputy sheriff at the scene of a fire. The deputy was forced to go to the hospital for medical treatment. This is the second time in three years that Dias has been charged with a criminal offense, thereby beating the record held by a local politician, county supervisor Jaime De La Cruz.....

[at left, Dias booking photo, courtesy Inside San Benito]

"Voters in San Juan are openly discussing whether county supervisor Anthony Botelho brought any pressure to force Miss Hooper to reduce the charges."

May 24 Feds take Back SJB Water Grant Excerpt:

"A scathing report penned by federal auditors last month concludes that San Juan Bautista is not deserving of a $3.8 million grant to fix the town’s crumbling water system....

[at left, San Juan Bautista resident prays for deliverance from imbecilic governance]

"The auditors’ negative recommendation was totally expected by town activists, including Rebecca McGovern and former Councilman Chuck Geiger, who repeatedly warned their civic leaders against diddling with the town coffers. For years they and others have pressed town leaders for full financial disclosure, to no avail....

"It means San Juan leaders finally screwed the pooch on the town’s badly needed water upgrades, leaving homes and businesses vulnerable to fire and low water pressure, and the citizenry choking on old well water riddled with nitrates. The historic town’s water system has not been upgraded for 90 years."

R of G note: Former Pinnacle reporter Kate Woods detailed the arrogance and hubris of SJB's elected leaders and City Hall management that led to SJB's losing their water subsidy. You could read her reports if only they hadn't been removed from the Pineackle's archives along with just about every other piece of investigative journalism published under Woods byline. See The Silencing of Kate Woods for the whole story.

June 26 Supervisor Nominates Sherriff for Planning Commissioner Excerpt:

[at left, Robbie "Big Boy" Scattini, photo courtesy Inside San Benito]

"In a move that surprised few, Jaime De La Cruz, the formerly convicted criminal county supervisor nominated County Marshal Robert Scattini for a seat on the County Planning Commission....

"Reports had surfaced in the last year that Scattini was considering a run against De La Cruz, and many believe that De La Cruz threw Scattini a bone in the hope that the current Marshal would not run against him.

"Questions are sure to surface regarding the legality of serving in both county offices, as there could be a perception of a conflict of interests."

June 26 Supervisors Give Ranchers $85K Subsidy for Trappers Excerpt:

"With the zeal of zoo monkeys flinging their dung at the public, San Benito supervisors haphazardly rammed through approval today of an $82,500 subsidy for county ranchers and farmers who demand that the money come out of every county taxpayer’s pocket, and will go to pay the salaries of two USDA animal trappers....

"The board, without notice to the public, voted on the issue two weeks ahead of schedule. It was originally planned, through an amendment made by Supervisor Pat Loe, that they would wait to see if funds were available for the slaughter at budget time in July....

"Other taxpayers are reeling from the decision, which ultimately means there is nothing in the coffers for useful public projects, such as a new park, eradicating invasive starthistle, road improvements or any number of back-burnered but much needed budget items. An inside county source says the county budget is in shambles."

July 3 SBC Supes to Revise County Growth Ordinance Exceprt:

"The San Benito County Board of Supervisors is going to vote on changes to Chapter 30 of the San Benito County Code and General Plan....

[more homes are coming to the county that con't flush a toilet without rupturing its sewage systems]

"The changes in the ordinance should make it easier for some of the board members large development friends to get their large projects developed with less trouble.

“They are trying to sneak one past us like they did with this latest handout to their wealthy ranch owning friends”, said one insider....

"With the waiving of the reading of the ordinance, it would appear that the board is trying to minimize any input from the public on this change to a very important ordinance currently on the books."

R of G note: Ah, San Benito. Where the corrupt operate with impunity in a variety of elected and unelected capacities, abetted by the putrid soulless "news" organism -- Meanstreet Media, LLC -- more like a virus -- that makes Ruppert Murdoch himself seem saintly.

July 29 Has De La Cruz Lost His mind? Excerpt

"Just days after Inside San Benito (ISB) began polling readers, County supervisor Jaime De La Cruz, the twice prosecuted coyote jerky magnate and renowned canine hater proved that a majority of our readers may be correct by stating at a board meeting "They're going to be bitching and complaining about something else." The meeting was on July 24, 2007.

"Jaime was complaining about residents and a representative of “Concerned Citizens of San Benito County” who showed up at a board meeting to speak out against proposed changes to the County’s growth control ordinance."

Aug 1 Planning Commission Potty Shocker Excerpts:

"In the middle of a public meeting packed with disgusted citizens, Tres Pinos developer John Eade and his stable of attorneys managed to allegedly make official their “arm twisting” of another planning commissioner last week – and they reportedly did it in the men’s bathroom at the county Administration Building."

Aug 5 Backroom Dealings on Growth Excerpts:

"San Benito County Board of Supervisors were trying to sneak “another fast one by us”, revising an important ordinance they would prefer to not have public input on and using their normal method of operation in trying to avoid drawing an angry public to their chambers.

"As was the case weeks ago, the agenda was unclear as to what the item really was that was being voted on....

"Apparently the board wants to make some major changes to the [County Growth Control] Ordinance, changes which could perhaps help out their developer friends. The major change in the ordinance is putting the vote off on projects over 100 units until after the project has essentially been approved by the county, and ... having the voters vote on a project that has already been approved...."

"Those determined to get larger projects pushed through would simply have to divide a large project into many smaller projects that are under 100 units. With the 500 unit cap removed, they would be free to build thousands of units without any voter approval...."

"In the Free Pants, a misguided editorial claimed that those speaking in opposition to adopting the ordinance change were “a small minority of unreasonable dissent”, and “antagonist's (with a) convoluted argument”, and “inappropriate or irrational speakers.”

Sarsfield wins prestigious award, Staloch kills story

Delicious irony. Much-maligned former SBC District Attorney John Sarsfield received an award from the Society of Professional Journalists for his efforts to restore openness to San Benito County government.

In a March 13 ceremony in San Francisco, Sarsfield was awarded the SPJ's James Madison Freedom of Information award. He was the only public official in NorCal to receive the award. Thanks to Inside San Benito for providing all the details.

[at left: former San Benito County D.A. John Sarsfield, Freedom of Information award winner]

From the SPJ web site: "As district attorney of San Benito County, John Sarsfield did something unheard of for someone in his position: He sought to prosecute the county board of supervisors for violating the Brown Act, the state law providing for openness in government meetings. Sarsfield launched an investigation after a complaint that the board had met illegally in closed session; the board later cut off his funding in retaliation. The Brown Act lacks an enforcement mechanism, and a DA’s decision to prosecute is entirely discretionary. In other words, it never happens. Sarsfield is being honored for valuing open government enough to put his position on the line by tackling a politically sensitive violation."

As expected, no mention of Sarsfield's award was made in the local newspapers (the Hollister Free Pants and The Pineackle). According to Sarsfield, a Free Pants reporter interviewed him about the award, but the story was killed before it could be published. The irony is perfect: Former D.A. Sarsfield wins the SPJ's Freedom of Information award and the local newspaper chain (Mean Street Media) censors that information.

Winning a prestigious Freedom of Information award was not newsworthy enough for the ultra-happenin' Hollister newspapers. But it did merit mention in the San Francisco Bay Guardian:

... Sarsfield upset the political applecart when he tried to prosecute the County Board of Supervisors for ignoring the Brown Act's prohibitions on private communication and consensus building among board members on matters that involved employment decisions, personnel appeals, contracting, and land use–growth control issues.

His decision didn't sit well in a county where battles over the future of the land have spawned Los Valientes, a secret society that has targeted slow-growth advocates and anyone who gets in its way — including believers in open government. So the board retaliated by defunding Sarsfield's office, forcing the DA to file for a temporary restraining order against the board, the county administrative officer, and the county auditor, a countermove that kept his office operating and the investigation alive — until he lost his reelection bid to the board's chosen candidate in January 2006.

[Hollister, CA: San Benito County seat, Los Valientes base of operations, and home to two feeble newspapers]

Sarsfield's Freedom of Information award does not change the situation in SBC, where a skulking band of weasels (formerly known as Los Valientes) continues to wield its negative influence on SB government, and the local news media enables the situation by ignoring it. But the real puppet masters in SBC are the landowners and development interests who regard it their birthright to profit massively from unrestricted growth -- principles of smart growth and environmental considerations be damned.

Still, if it hadn't been for Sarsfield, and former Pineackle ace reporter Kate Woods, and some watchdog blogging by Brian Conroy at Inside San Benito, we wouldn't know how deeply the weasels have infiltrated the board of supervisors, the SBC Republican party, the SBC bar association, and local city governments. And the puppet masters would be even less accountable.

A debt of gratitude is owed to Kate Woods. Her consistent reporting on the plague of corruption in SBC garnered several awards from her journalism peers. But these journalistic credentials weren't valued by   "Censorin" Steve Staloch, local print media potentate. In February of 2006, Staloch snuffed Woods' investigation of Los Valientes at the behest of Richard Place, a candidate for county supervisor who didn't like the truth that Woods was reporting. Staloch made sure that Pinnacle editor Mark Paxton and Gilroy Dipsack editor Mark Derry kept Woods away from investigative reporting that would embarrass the weasel mob. (See: Mainstreet Media hides the negative truth, All the news that's fit to censor, The Silencing of Kate Woods, and other San Benito Nation postings.) Eventually Woods grew tired of her in-house exile and moved on. Our loss.

"I was truly surprised to get the award," writes Sarsfield. "It was an unbelievable honor. Finally, someone besides you, Brian, and Kate recognized what outrages were occurring in San Benito County, aided and abetted by MSM [Mean Street Media]."

[at left: Kate Woods and the three-headed censoring machine -- MSM publisher Censorin' Steve Staloch, Pineackle editor Mark Paxton, and Dipsack editor Mark Derry]

As reported in a November, 2007 Mercury News investigation titled "Fury on the Range" that leveraged Woods' investigations (read part 1 and part 2 here), Sarsfield paid a personal and professional price for exposing corruption on the San Benito County board of supervisors. But while the Merc's story helped to expose Los Valientes, the paper missed the main issue -- the local newspaper chain's complicity in the corruption and incompetence plaguing SBC.

Final note: When "Fury on the Range" revealed the LV story for the entire Bay area to see, Pinnacle editor Paxton whined: "To use a broad brush to paint the community in terms of good vs. evil, black vs. white ignores that we're considerably more complicated than that." Typical response from the human doormat. Instead of following the story, Paxton stuck his head in the sand. We wouldn't expect anything less from one of Staloch's minions.

It's the way things work in SBC. Don't laugh Gilroy, the same shit is going down in your town. You just don't have a John Sarsfield or a Kate Woods to tell you about it.

 

Brian Conroy on Inside San Benito

[The scoop on who ran HFPO and why, from Brian Conroy, and how Inside San Benito came to be... If only the Los Valientes creeps were as forthright about their membership, origins, and reason for being... fat chance. Anyway, to get the parts left out, bookmark Inside San Benito]

Great Article on the State of the “San Benito Nation”.

If I may, I would like to make clear a few things in regards to what has been put up concerning “Inside San Benito”, the “HFPO”, and my involvement in both.

The HFPO was a collective effort from about 10 members of the Hollister community who were sick and tired of the drivel being passed off by Mean Street Media as "news" in Hollister. We all know countless examples of their biased reporting, now thanks to the Mercury News' in depth story.

My specific role with the HFPO was that of IT consultant. The HFPO was primarily controlled, for the majority of its existence by Paul Grannis. Later, after Paul retired, it was briefly run by Vince Lewiston and Joe Raleigh. Eventually the website had to shut down.

Recognizing a need for a media source, even one web based, that isn't controlled by Steve "Stalin" Staloch, the iron fisted ruler of the Freelance and all Mean Street Media publications, I took the initiative to create Inside San Benito.

Inside San Benito will have a very different feel from the HFPO, but will provide the same opportunity for Hollister residents to vent on the various and numerous mis-truths and errors from the “Free Pants”.

All comments are welcome, and will be posted without editing, except in the case of libel.

Happy New Year to all of the ROG readers.

Brian Conroy

Inside San Benito

http://insidesanbenito.blogspot.com/

Inside San Benito (2006 corruption and stupidity roundup)

Blatant corruption and flagrant stupidity ruled San Benito County politics and government in 2006. The primary enablers, ironically, were the local newspapers. Things only got worse when the lone voice of truthful reporting in SBC -- the Hollister Free Press Online -- went offline late in the year. 

[at left, Brian Conroy, former Hollister mayor, just rolled out the Inside San Benito web site]

Maybe 2007 will be a better year for the the truth in SBC. Brian Conroy, a mainstay of HFPO, has rolled out a web site that picks up where the HFPO left off. Inside San Benito reports the unpleasant details conveniently left out of the Mainstreet Media newspapers.

The unveiling of Inside San Benito  is a good time to revisit the San Jose Mercury News' investigation of SBC politics, Fury on the Range, which caused such a backlash in the local lame-o press. Fury on the Range should be required reading for all San Benitans. It should be handed out in high school civics classes. It should make all residents of the San Benito nation wonder: Why do we have to rely on outsiders to help us confront the truth about our elected officials and other prominent citizens?

[at left, Mercury News reporter Julia Prodis Sulek, whose reporting offended the San Benito media status quo]

The two-part investigation by Julia Prodis Sulek in the Merc's November 19 and 20 issues (read Part 1 and Part 2 here) addresses the situation directly: "in fast-growing San Benito county, a battle over land, power and the pace of development breaks out with accusations of blackmail, bribery and revenge."

Even though significant events and details are left out, Fury on the Range does a commendable job of revealing the sloth, incompetence, and venality driving SBC politics. The two-parter identifies some of the prominent San Benitans associated with, or directly involved in, the Los Valientes fear-and-smear mob. (Note: Los Valientes translates to "Brave Ones," which is laughable. The gang operated anonymously, until they were found out, then they denied their own existence. A more appropriate gang moniker would have been Los Cobardes -- "the Cowards.")

[Hollister, CA: San Benito County seat, Los Valientes base of operations, and home to two feeble newspapers]

Prodis Sulek does a good job of documenting former District Attorney John Sarsfield's lonely effort to hold Los Valientes accountable for wasting tax-payer money in nuisance lawsuits and other political maneuvers designed to discredit (and remove) anyone perceived as a threat to unrestrained growth in San Benito county. The story reveals the price Sarsfield paid for opposing the Los Valientes mob members on the board of supes.

Locally, Fury on the Range's main effect was to send the local newspapers into hyper-defensive mode. They tried to spin the story away, and it was a pathetic thing to behold.

[at left, Mark Paxton, spineless and confused managing editor of the Pinnacle News]

The reaction of Pinnacle News editor Mark Paxton was an exasperated harumph: "SJ looks down its nose at SBC - unfairly," he wrote in his Notebook column. Paxton's editorial policy is essentially dickless, along the lines of "All the news that's fit to print -- as long as it doesn't offend anyone important."  Here are some outtakes from Paxton's response to Fury on the Range (with R of G comments in italics):

"The two-part series amounted to some 7,000 words, detailing what most of us grew sick of months ago." [R of G comment: According to Paxton, readers shouldn't have to read sickening news stories about corrupt county supervisors and their influential friends. That's why Paxton removed reporter Kate Woods from the story just as it got really really sickening.]

"To use a broad brush to paint the community in terms of good vs. evil, black vs. white ignores that we're considerably more complicated than that." [R of G comment: So, the little local newspaper that could have explained the complicated story decides not to. Then, when the big regional newspaper does their job for them, the little newspaper gets snitty.]

In fact, a convincing case might be made that none of the players in the Los Valientes debacle or the larger community is all good or all bad and that we're considerable more skilled at getting along with one another than most urban residents." [R of G comment: City people living on top of each other seem to get along much better than some rural San Benitans who work out their disagreements by poisoning dogs, smearing political opponents anonymously, and losing their composure in public meetings.]

Meanwhile, the Hollister Free Pants, which pretends to be a Hollister paper even though it's just a Hollister edition of the Gilroy Dipsack, didn't know how to react to Prodis Sulek's investigation. They'd never seen a story longer than ten column inches that wasn't about a barbecue, a football game, or a motorcyle rally. Like the town imbecile blinking stupidly on a park bench, the so-called newspaper is mentally incapable of grasping the SBC corruption-in-government scandal they've been sitting on for years.

In a bigger media market, the Free Pants' and Pinnacle's decision to not investigate corruption, gross incompetence, and influence-peddling in SBC government would be its own scandal. The Free Pants, in particular, has endorsed and enabled several San Benito county supervisors whose agenda is mainly greasing the wheels of unrestrained growth. Both newspapers have helped to create the decrepit county infrastructure that they regularly complain about.

[former Pinnacle publisher Tracie Cone, proponent of slow, reasonable growth, and target of Los Valientes]

Even now, long after the housing boom that left Hollister unable to flush its own toilets without overflowing the sewage ponds, the Free Pants remains permanently skeptical of San Benitans aligned with slow-growth -- for instance, people like defeated supervisorial candidate Tracie Cone, a longtime critic of ad hoc housing development:

"I hate to be so right about these things,'' Cone said. "Slow down, and have a plan, and grow. People don't think two generations from now, they think now. Why do we have to become Gilroy when we could become Sonoma?''. [from Fury on the Range]

Prodis Sulek's two-part story got a lot of things right, but she missed the underlying story -- the local news media's complicity. In SBC, corruption, stupidity, and the newspaper business are all wadded together in the same disgusting gob. If Prodis Sulek had made this connection, she might have discovered these additional aspects of the SBC corruption story:

• How county supervisor Reb Monaco managed to escape unscathed from the juvenile hall porn scandal, especially considering that he opposed an anti-porn in the SB workplace measure. If a juvy hall porn scandal had occurred in Santa Clara county, Monaco's shooting down of the no-porn-at-work-rule and his involvement with the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (Reb's an exhibitor) would be newsworthy, and rightfully so. In SB, these details are deemed "not relevant" -- only because Monaco is aligned with the "right" people who've profited from dubious development projects. If he was a slow-growther, Monaco would've been skewered by the Free Pants.

• Los Valientes lawyer Michael Pekins' severe credibility issues. According to former D.A. Sarsfield, every comment made by Pekin in Fury on the Range should be "weighed against Pekin's employment record, and his documented history of substance abuse."  There are good reasons why Pekin practices law in remote SB county, and associates primarily with anonymous clients who prefer to operate in clandestine fashion: Pekin specializes in nuisance lawsuits and noxious courtroom tactics that make judges really angry. What other lawyer would agree to represent Los Valientes? With a couple phone calls a good reporter could learn more.... Nah. Not newsworthy in SBC. Pekin's friends on the board of supers are cozy with Meanstreet Media publisher Steve Staloch.
  

• The similarities between the nearly-anonymous political sleaze that Ignacio Velazquez used against Anna Caballero in the district 28 state assembly race, and the covert, anonymous, bullying tactics used by Los Valientes during the Measure G campaign in 2004. Velazquez' method has always been to smear opponents by proxy, while carefully painting his public persona in wholesome conservative family hues. But where does Velazquez' money really come from? Velazquez spent approximately $.75 M to defeat assemblyman Sam Farr in 2004. He spent $.5 M to defeat Caballero in 2006. Who/what really bankrolls Velazquez' political bids? Also not considered newsworthy. Why? Despite his kookiness, scrutinizing Velazquez' past affiliations and his current backers is off limits at Meanstreet Media.
  

Ironically, just as Fury on the Range was getting front-page attention throughout the Bay area, yet another SBC corruption/incompetence story was unfolding and Meanstreet Media was busy downplaying it: a  vote-tallying snafu in the county supervisorial election called into question Reb Monaco's 60-vote victory over challenger Tracie Cone. One voter reported not being able to choose Cone's name on the machine. Despite the technical glitch, the machine was left in service. But this barely merited notice in the press.

Of course you can bet that no Mainstreet Media reporter will be asked to investigate the standing rumor that the SBC board of elections sometimes mails absentee ballots in duplicate, or sends them to non-residents or deceased residents. When was the last time SBC voter rolls were checked to make sure that the deceased and the vacated aren't "voting?" Oops! Can't go there. That might call into question the validity of ultra-slim margins of victory in close county supervisor elections. That might be another unpleasant truth that squeamish Pinnacle editor Mark Paxton automatically classifies as "too complex to cover."

The fubar political climate in SBC won't likely change much in 2007. But... as the local newspaper chain continues to marginalize itself by not reporting the incompetence-and- influence-peddling-in-SBC-government story, it will be up to Inside San Benito (and other new media enterprises) to nail the truth to the wall.

The truth will out, eventually; it just takes longer in the San Benito nation.

Good luck to Inside San Benito.

 

 

The Ignacio Velazquez Admiration Society

There's little chance that Hollister businessman Ignacio Velazquez will defeat Salinas mayor Anna Caballero in Tuesday's election for the California State Assembly District 28. The district includes Monterey, San Benito, and parts of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. 

[at left, Salinas mayor Anna Caballero and her opponent for state assembly, Hollister building contractor Ignacio Velazquez]

Caballero, a Democrat, and the current mayor of Salinas, is an experienced public servant, and scandal-free. Velazquez, a Republican, is barely known outside the political wasteland of San Benito County (where he is known for all the wrong reasons), and has never held public office -- unless you count his membership in the political shadow group known as "Los Valientes".

No one expects Republican voters to support Caballero's pro-union politics, but at the very least Caballero has proved that she can do business without smearing opponents and creating lifelong enemies. Velazquez has a different kind of resume:

• Used anonymous mailers and other forms of mean-spirited disinformation to smear advocates of  growth control in San Benito county.
• Added his name as a plaintiff to frivolous, nuisance lawsuits against elected county officials and county employees.
• Mounted five failed petition drives to recall San Benito District Attorney John Sarsfield -- all rejected because they contained bogus signatures.
• Created a trail of inflammatory postings and letters featuring angry, contradictory rhetoric that makes people wonder "What the %$#! is he talking about?"
  

Velazquez has had difficulty getting meaningful endorsements from Republican leaders who matter, however Velazquez does have supporters.

[Santa Clara county supervisor Don Gage and Gilroy councilmen Dion Bracco and Craig Gartman support Velazquez despite his sleazy tactics.]

Despite his underhanded political methods, Velazquez has received the endorsement of Santa Clara County supervisor Don Gage. Gilroy councilman Dion Bracco and Craig Gartman are also among those few Santa Clara Republicans endorsing Velazquez. Their questionable decision to endorse Velazquez is something to consider the next time these three run for office.

But Iggy's main support comes from within San Benito County. The Iggy Velazquez Admiration Society includes current and former Hollister politicos who helped lower the standards for representative government (including mayor/marshal Robbie Scattini who, just to play it safe, has also endorsed Anna Caballero).

Iggy is also popular with current members of the county board of supervisors who share the Los Valientes taint (see Naming the LVers, despite Mainstreet Media and Mainstreet Media hides the negative truth). He has the endorsement of cranks and extremists in the so-called San Benito County Militia (see chief crank Marvin. L. Jones' web site).

[The Iggy Velazquez Admiration Society, San Benito chapter, includes such political luminaries as -- left to right -- illegally elected supervisor Jaime De La Cruz; mayor/marshal Robbie "What does he do here?" Scattini; supervisor Anthony "I know nothin' about Los Valientes!" Botelho; and Harry "What provisional ballots?" Damkar. Not pictured are county planning commissioner Richard Bettencourt, current councilman Brad Pike, and a parade of former Hollister mayors including Tony Bruscia, Tony LaBue, Richard Boomer, Ken Duran, and Cliff Cardoza, all of whom can claim responsibility for Hollister's severe infrastructure problems.]

Velazquez and SB County supervisor Jaime De La Cruz are especially intertwined. Velazquez was De La Cruz' campaign manager in the 2004 supervisor's election, when De la Cruz was elected over Bob Cruz on the strength of provisional ballots that shouldn't have been counted. (Provisional ballots are used to record a vote when there is some question in regards to the voter's eligibility -- e.g., lack of photo ID, name doesn't appear on election rolls, voter info contains inaccurate or outdated information, etc.). When evidence of the ballot-stuffing came to light, the federal government sued the county for violation of the Voting Rigthts Act. but De la Cruz and Velazquez escaped the controversy when the D.A. at the time, Harry Damkar, inexplicably allowed the election certification to stand. (Inexplicably, somebody got to him.)

Velazquez has managed to avoid serious scrutiny in this election only because Caballero took the high road and refused to sling mud back in his direction. She easily could have exposed Iggy's history of sleaze by documenting the De La Cruz election scandal, or by reviewing the history of Los Valientes' shadowy activities. She could have exposed his weird political discourse by reprinting samples of Velazquez' scrambled, contradictory tirades.

She could have taken him to task for his glossy mass mailings blaming her for the murders, rapes, and other aberrant behavior committed by Salinas gangs over the last decade. She could have asked why his name was printed in small, barely visible type at the back of the worst political hit pieces. She could have asked why he prefers anonymous smearing to debating the issues facing district 28 constituents.

The Velazquez style of smear-and-innuendo campaigning has become standard political procedure in San Benito County. Velazquez has crammed all our mailboxes with mailers portraying himself as a wholeseome "leader for our families" who will "fight the culture of corruption in the State Capitol." And how will Iggy fight corruption? With more corruption? By leaving anonymous flyers on the chairs of assembly members?

Iggy will lose this election, yes, but with the help of development interests who want to exploit San Benito county land sprawl and political "friends" in the Republican party, you can bet that this venal opportunist will make another run at achieving political stardom.

 

RofG poll results: why the Pinnacle was pulled

It's been several weeks since the Pinnacle News reduced it's print run from 60,000 to 20,000 copies and stopped distributing to Gilroy and Morgan Hill.

The Pinneackle's editor/publisher, Mark Paxton, hasn't provided an explanation. Not considered newsworthy -- just like the censoring of Kate Woods and the censoring of the columnist who tried to write about Woods' situation. And of course Meanstreet Media's capo, Censorin' Steve Staloch, won't comment. Not now, not ever.

The Pinnacle still publishes, and still provides in-depth reportage you won't find in Meanstreet's other fluff-based broadsheets (the Morgan Hill Sometimes, The Hollister Flea Ranch, and the Gilroy Dipsack). A good example is Kate Woods' piece on the Hollister Sewage Saga, which provides cogent details and significant background information that allows readers to appreciate the entire chain of events, not just the most recent development.

For a little while longer, anyway, the Pinnacle remains, still managing to provide an antidote to the gloss-over "journalism" of the other broadsheets in the Meanstreet Media chain. Appreciate it while it lasts...

The R of G asked its readers to speculate on why the Pinnacle is no longer circulating in Gilroy and Morgan Hill.

Why was the Pinnacle pulled? (poll results)

• 34.3% felt the Dispatch couldn't compete with the Pinnacle head-to-head. Pinnacle advertisers were opting out of the Gilroy Dispatch and the Morgan Hill Times... now we'll find out for sure whether the Pinnacle cannabalizing sales or whether the other Meanstreet newspapers were doomed anyway. (Word to Staloch: generally speaking, it's getting harder for community newspapers based on the "pathetically stultifying anachronism" model to compete in an increasingly Internet-based media game.)
• 31.4% pointed to the philisophical differences between Censorin' Steve Staloch and the Pinnacle's editorial staff. Staloch feels that media ethics should be optional, not an obligation. But staffers weren't in tune with Staloch's idea that the public has a right not to know disturbing truths about corrupt politicians in San Benito county. By insisting on reporting the inconvenient truth about local people of influence, staff caused "problems" in the newsroom and as a result Staloch is bent on downsizing the paper out of existence.
  
• 17.1% felt that Pinnacle writers used too many big words. And frankly this irritated some folks down at Meanstreet corporate who resented having to look up words in a dictionary.
• 14.3% observed that people in Gilroy don't read, and the Dispatch fits that model much better than the Pinnacle.
• 2.9% felt that readers felt they knew enough already, and the Pinnacle was basically providing disquieting information that made some people -- for instance, San Juan Bautista councilmembers and San Benito County supervisors -- feel uncomfortable.

Break out the freak repellent!

Gilroy, Morgan Hill beware.

Like flesh-eating zombies from Dawn of the Dead, political freaks from the badlands of San Benito County have crossed the Pajaro River and are headed this way. Hollister and San Juan Buatista may be unredeemable, politically, yet voters may still rescue the south valley from demented freaks determined to hold public office.

[at left: mutants from San Benito enjoy a night out after filing to run for political office]

Leading this gruesome caravan of toxic pols is Ignacio Velasquez, the face-painter from Hollister. Velazquez is running for state assembly district 28, which includes Monterey, San Benito, and parts of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties.

Some Republicans may consider Velasquez' Democratic opponent, Anna Caballero, a dubious choice. But at least Caballero isn't considered a public nuisance and a vindictive schemer. While Caballero has provided biographical information and explained her stances on the Smartvoter.org web site (see California State Assembly, District 28), Velazquez has yet to enumerate his positions. Not surprising. When you spew opinions like bird seed it's hard to write a coherent paragraph that conveys a reasonable position on issues. 

[Voting for Iggy for state assembly would be like voting for a bad accident to happen.]

In Hollister, "Iggy" Velazquez' flamboyant public persona and involvement in the anonymous Los Valientes extortion and intimidation ring are well known. Beginning in 2003, Los Valientes members began filing frivilous lawsuits against the county, claiming 'mass corruption' by officials who supported growth control measures. The county's District Attorney, John Sarsfield, fought back, even though it made him a primary target of the LVers smear-and-fear tactics. Now the state's civil case against Los Valientes accuses LV's membership, including Velazquez, of extortion and civil rights violations for the methods it used to go after political adversaries.

Search the Hollister Free Press Online archives for the details of Velasquez' role in Los Valientes, his involvement in the vote-counting scandal surrounding supervisor Jamie De La Cruz' election to office, his failed attempts to recall D.A. John Sarsfield from office (each petition thrown out for irregularities), and his rantings against anyone standing in his way. The R of G has also exposed the LVers and Velazquez (see "You write what you're told" and "Mainstreet hides the negative truth").

Said Sarsfield in June: "Once Los Valientes realized that I wasn't going to go away, they tried to recall me five times.... The recall drives were master-minded by  Velazquez. But in each case, recall petitions were disqualified.... Iggy's way of getting signatures was illegal. Half were no good."

[D.A. Sarsfield on Iggy and the LVers: ""The irritating thing is they (LVers) thought I would go along with their little jihad"]

"It must be remembered that Velazquez was De La Cruz campaign manager during the ballot stuffing episode that led to De La Cruz' eventual victory," said Sarsfield. "The same tactics used to make sure De La Cruz was elected failed in the recall attempts."

(Gilroyans, take note: Your local God squad on council, Craig Gartman and Dion Bracco, have both endorsed Iggy Velasquez. Count Bracco and Gartman among those who would open the door when the zombie extremist  fear-mongering freaks draped in red, white, and blue come a-knockin'.)

The SBC 2006 Voters' Guide describes Velazquez:

Owner of The Vault restaurant ("where LVers meet") and an electrical contracting company, Velazquez is also a prime LV operative, sometimes even placing his name on lawsuits as a plaintiff when LVs need a warm body (and when Juan Monteon is in jail). A self-aggrandizing social butterfly who wears makeup, Iggy tells stooge Supervisor James De La Cruz what to say and do. Distributes propaganda sheets to county residents defaming people he doesn’t like. Wants the county to build a performing arts center next to his eatery and name it after him. Sued Tracie Cone, Anna Remedios and Kate Woods in 2004 over an LV story -- lost, but dodged court sanctions. Entirely self-possessed, he spent $185,000 in 2001 in an attempt to unseat Congressman Sam Farr. Now running for State Assembly. An embarrassment to the Republican Party, according to leading Republicans in Santa Clara County.

Also representing the proudly brain-addled in this year's local elections are two representatives of the San Benito County Militia Wives -- Reba Jones and Angie De La Cruz -- running for two open seats on the Gavilan Community College Board of Trustes. While its main campus is in Gilroy, Gavilan has satellite branches in Hollister and Morgan Hill. For more on this election, see Smarvoter.org: Gavilan Joint Community College District, Trustee Area 3.

[at left: Marvin and Reba Jones]

I can't speak for the incumbents running in this race, or the other challenger, but this is known: Reba Jones carries the equivalent of the ebola strain of extremist politics. Which is not surprising considering Reba is the wife of the Rabid One, the sputtering street-corner hater "Doctor" Marvin Jones.

The SBC 2006 Voters' Guide describes this feral pair:

"Haling from Kentucky, 'Dr.' Jones is a newcomer to Gooberville (also known as Hollister), but seems to fit right into a culture that embraces the stridently confused. Jones has enlisted his entire family as LV cheerleaders. Never found a minority or immigrant whose civil rights he didn’t love to violate while whistling “Dixie.” Can be observed flag waving every Friday on the corner of Fourth and San Benito as he rallies on behalf of sacrificing young Americans for War in Iraq profiteering. Hates the D.A. Recently, Doc Jones mailed a desperately false hit piece against District 4 challenger Tracie Cone.... [Reba Jones,] wife of Marivin L. Jones. Leader of the so-called Militia Wives Club. So fundamentalistly neo-Con, she makes David Duke seem like Mother Theresa by comparison." 

   

Little is known about Angie De La Cruz except that she is the wife of SB county supervisor Jaime De La Cruz, a semi-literate bumbler with a notorious temper. In 1998, De La Cruz released his notorious temper on his wife. Wife abuse charges were dropped under a diversion program (after all, it's Hollister).

[There is substantive evidence that SBC county supe De La Cruz was elected illegally in 2002. Now his wife, Angie, is aiming for the Gavilan board of trustees]

More recently, following the 2002 SBC supervisor elections, De La Cruz was charged with threatening an officer, as well as a variety of election related crimes. He pled "no contest"  (the same as a guilty plea in criminal court) to a misdemeanor charge of "obstruction" of a peace officer. For sentencing purposes, De La Cruz admitted to a charge of mis-using the voter registration data base. De La Cruz was required to perform 40 hours of community service, re-pay the county for the cost of the investigation, and write an apology to the officer. After one year, he was allowed to set aside his plea (typical in misdemeanor cases). 

This information doesn't necessarily reflect on Angie De La Cruz, but it does provide a perspective on her candidacy.

The incumbents running for re-election as Gavilan trustees are Elvira Robinson, a Hollister lawyer, and Kent L. Child. They seem to have managed to survive their current terms without scandal and without permanently alienating people who might not agree with their views. The other challenger, Dee Brown, has experience in education, and was a candidate for the office of Hollister schools superintendent.

Bottom line: Political freaks from San Benito -- e.g., Velazquez, Reba Jones -- are accustomed to manipulating the political scene with impunity in their mutant political wilderness. In San Benito county, as long as you're committed to the pave-everything-over, pro-sprawl gang, then your bizarre public behavior, slimy relationships, and questionable activities are sure to be overlooked by the local newspaper, the Hollister Free Pants... er, Flea Ranch...  er, Freelance. But those toxic tactics won't fly in Sacramento, where Velasquez would face real media scrutiny. In Sacramento, his inadequacies, his insecurity, his venality, and his incompetence would soon be exposed. Hopefully the SBC extremists known as the Militia Wives won't prevail in the Gavilan College trustees race either. But with voters paying little attention to that contest, Reba Jones and Angie De La Cruz may manage to bring a dysfunctional, disoriented brand of governance to that body.

Meanstreet Media: Pinnacle disappears, Hogpatch and Free Pants labor woes

[update, 05 September 06: The Pinnacle pullout rumor proved true -- circulation to Morgan Hill and Gilroy ended on Aug 26. With the newsweeky's print run reduced from approx 60,000 to 20,000 copies, What next? Ad sales wither, page count shrinks, staff departs, layoffs occur. Meanwhile, Meanstreet Media is looking for another editor to manage the Hollister Free Pants (Dan Fitch decided he couldn't stomach the job). Interested? Respond to this job listing. And be ready to take orders from Gilroy Hogpatch editor-in-chief Mark Derry. Observed a former Free Pants newsroom manager: Meanstreet "is working toward completion of the centralization process (long since done with "lifestyles" and sports, as well as advertising and circulation).... news, too, will soon be assembled at the Disgrace with 'bureaus' in Hollister and Mortgage Hill." Will he apply for the job? "I'd have to be evicted from a refrigerator carton before I'd consider working for those Philistines again."]

Word is that "Meanstreet" Media, LLC, purveyors of bland community journalism -- including the Gilroy Hogpatch, the Hollister Free Pants, and the Morgan Hill Sometimes -- will shut down the Pinnacle News' south valley coverage and distribution beginning in September.

Sources at the Pinnacle -- Meanstreet's free weekly newspaper -- are convinced that the move is designed to resuscitate the Hogpatch's diminishing circulation numbers. As the Hogpatch, the  Free Pants, and the Sometimes become steadily duller and more insipid, and readership shrivels, the overall advertising pie grows smaller. In this time of on-demand media, community news filler is not exactly a growth industry. But put yourself in Meanstreet Media capo Steve Staloch's gucci knockoffs: ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

[Reports are that Meanstreet Media boss Steve Staloch will sacrifice the Pinnacle so the Hogpatch might survive] Instead of raising the quality of the Hogpatch's content, Staloch figures it's easier to cannabalize the in-house competition. He hopes that cut-off Pinnacle readers will be forced to buy the Hogpatch to get their news. Fat chance! The Pinnacle is the only Meanstreet publication committed to reporting the stories behind the news (that is: doing journalism). And it's free. Pinnacle readers aren't going to pay for the Hogpatch.

Under Staloch's stewardship, the Hogpatch has become too freaking boring to read, let alone buy. The Hogpatch is limited to three basic categories of "news": (a) youth sports coverage and (b) profiles of chamber of commerce members, and (c) GUSD press releases. Down at Hogpatch HQ,  running feature on Gilroyans who happen to share the same surname is considered investigative journalism.

With the exception of Heather Bremner's ongoing coverage of the Gilroy education beat, the Hogpatch hasn't run an interesting, informative piece in months. Gilroy city council and planning commission conduct the community's business without scrutiny from the Hogpatch. The editorialists at the paper spend their opinion coin denouncing county and state agencies from a safe distance. Do you really want to know any more than you've already been forced to learn about Cynthia Walker's family?

Anyway, back to the details of the Pinnacle de-circulation rumor. According to one Meanstreet employee who occasionally sends me emails describing life under publisher Censorin' Steve Staloch's regime, The Pinnacle's circulation decrease in south Santa Clara county won't be compensated by a circulation increase in San Benito county. The Pinnacle "won't go to ALL San Benitans," the source says, just to the people who already get it.

The source notes that the Pinnacle doesn't have a mail/subscription department -- which means that "if [San Benitans] don't get the Pinnacle now, they never will. And if you DON'T want to get the weekly 'mag-rag,' tough luck, you're stuck with it... Apparently, the receptionists/ad people in the lobby don't know how to call the distributor to get someone on/off the delivery list.... The advertisers and ad people are up in arms over this dwindling Pinnacle delivery footprint. It will take circulation down from 58,000 to 18.000."

According to a different source inside the Meanstreet nuthouse, Pinnacle reporters are "not allowed to report on San Benito County... no reporting is happening on San Benito politics or policy making. One of the reasons for this is that reporters are ... nearly barred by MSM and its editors from attending city council and supervisor meetings, which would be the only way to truly understand an issue and observe all players on all sides of a controversy."

[According to censored Pinnacle reporter Kate Woods, reporters don't cover meetings anymore] Kate Woods, the Pinnacle reporter censored by Steve Staloch for her honest, forthright, detailed, properly attributed, award-winning reporting on the Los Valientes/SB County supervisors' corruption scandal, has confirmed the newly instituted and extremely ridiculous meeting coverage policy at the Pinnacle. "We are expected now to make 'followup' phone calls after meetings to 'find out what happened.'"

Ah, journalism, Meanstreet style.

News of the Pinnacle's pending demise comes as no surprise to the R of G. As any sacred cow in Gilroy who rubs elbows with Hogpatch editor Mark Derry will tell you, the Pinnacle "just isn't a good fit" ...  the Pinnacle doesn't meet the status quo's requirement for bland, anesthetized, boutique journalism. The Pinnacle also has a history of intelligent, thoughtful opposition to unrestricted development on ag and cattle lands, and support for growth control initiatives, both of which stances don't sit too well with landowners and corporations dedicated to continuing the south valley sprawl pattern -- the same wealthy, influential people, coincidentally, that Meanstreet and Staloch and Santa Clara Farm Bureau executive director Jenny Derry (the editor's wife) are desperate to please.

Meanwhile... folks in Gilroy are still wondering why Meanstreet decided to dump long-time, award-winning chief photographer James Mohs. The R of G checked around some, and although Mohs wasn't known as the easiest person to get along with, his credentials were indisputable, as was the high quality of his work.

The circumstances of Mohs' unceremonious dumping by Meanstreet prompted Mohs to file an unemployment compensation claim with the labor board, which Meanstreet lost on appeal. Mohs received notice that he'd won the appeal several weeks after an April 25 hearing with an administrative law judge at the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce.

Mohs' case is a matter of public record, if anyone wants to investigate the details. According to Mohs: "The judge's name was Douglas Bird, and the case number is 1788693. The two issues/codes ... heard were 1030/32 and 1256 of the state unemployment insurance code. Mainstreet Media's unemployment account number is 235-2335. I would be curious to know many claims were filed against them over the 30 odd papers owned by the company."

Mohs, who now runs a photography business in Gilroy -- www.IconImagesPhotography.com -- told the R of G:

"I have nothing to hide and frankly would like everyone to know the truth of my separation of employment with the company. I am very proud of my work as Chief Photographer of the three papers since Aug 1997. I started as a stringer in 1993, went to Saturday photographer  when there was no intern, to part-time 'on-call' photographer, to weekend/holiday photographer and then hired as a 'part-time' photographer, then to full-time chief photographer... I won over 20 California Newspapers Publisher Association (CNPA) annual Better Newspaper Contest Awards (they are Emmy's of California newspapers) since 1997,  capturing from 1 to 4 First or Second Place photography awards every year and covering every catagory from Spot News Photo, to Sports to Feature Photo, and Photo Story and design. To the best of my knowledge no photographer in the state has ever won at least one CNPA award for thirteen years straight, and we competed against about thirty other papers in our size category. I found out [in May] I won another First or Second Place award in the photo story catagory for a three-part series on Cattle Ranchers Joe and Kathy Vargas in 2005. "

[Award-winning photography by James Mohs has been noticeably absent from the Hogpatch]

Add "dumping award-winning photographer" to the long list of dubious achievements by Censorin' Steve and Meanstreet Media. Just last year Meanstreet lost a different employee labor dispute and had to compensate veteran reporters who were released because they wanted an increase in their entry-level salaries.

The labor lesson Meanstreet can't seem to learn is the hidden cost of being sociopathically tight-assed: vengeful ex-employees, disgruntled current employees, and labor lawsuits that cost you more than the raises you refuse to pay. Keep in mind that Meanstreet newspaper salaries are abysmally low. A Meanstreet reporter would be lucky to make $30K/annum. That's poverty level compensation for a 45+ hour work-week in the Silicon Valley economy.

Meanwhile, down in "Gooberville" -- Kate Woods' affectionate moniker for Hollister -- the Free Pants reportedly lost another managing editor, the third in a year. According to the Hollister Free Press Online:

Dan Fitch, a professional journalist with an excellent reputation who was reportedly brought in to try to save the little paper is rumored to be on the "outs" with MSM's iron-fisted rule, Steve "Stalin" Staloch.

According to MSM sources, Staloch is in the process of pushing Fitch out of the editorial position at the Freelance. Stalin has never commented to the HFPO on any aspect of his "leadership" at MSM.

If true, Fitch's departure will be a blow to the paper, which is now on its firth editor in three years.

Fitch's defection follows the brief tenure of editor Marcus Hibdon, who, having been forced through the bowels of Meanstreet's publication empire, probably moved back to Montana to cleanse himself. Perhaps, to his credit, Fitch couldn't stomach the idea of writing anti-Sarsfield, pro-Los Valientes editorials to please Los Valientes founder Richard Place and his coterie of right-wing dingbats and cro-magnons -- a past-time Hibdon and his predecessor Canan Knoll eagerly participated in.

Net result: The Pinnacle starts to disappear, sacrificed to sustain the dying troika of the Meanstreet Media newspaper chain. As long as we need obits, a police blotter, and as long as there are mothers willing to write about their children, these papers will have a reason to carry on. But without any truly interesting content, fewer and fewer will pay for the "privilege" of this information.

The question now, after the de-circulation and de-coverage, is how long can the Pinnacle survive as a genuine newspaper? Only as long as certain staffers who hew to the editorial standards established by ex-publisher Tracie Cone remain on staff. And those people aren't exactly feeling loved right now.

[Pinnacle city editor Dennis Taylor]

"I think the market is, and will increasingly be, thirsty for what we are trying to do," Pinnacle city editor Dennis Taylor told the R of G, referring to the investigative pieces that still run in the Pinnacle.

But with Staloch threatening to cut off the Pinnacle's nuts by eliminating delivery to south valley residents, it's doubtful whether the independent weekly paper can sustain enough ad revenue to support in-depth reportage on the stories south valley residents and San Benitans really want to know.

Commenting on the future of community  journalism in south valley and San Benito, and everywhere, Taylor notes that "the key is the younger audience.... An audience where going to the net for news content is first nature.... Covering the issues important to 20-35 year olds -- education, job markets etc. -- with an edgy, witty, humorous feel. Remember where young people get a lot of their news: The Daily Show."

The Daily Show versus the Daily Disappointment. Take your pick.

Naming the LVers, despite Mainstreet Media

[Note: San Benito county District Attorney John Sarsfield has successully exposed the names of the Los Valientes fear-and-smear mob. For details, see Dennis Taylor's July 1 Pinnacle News report. The names of the LVers are listed at the bottom of this article, in bold.]

Kudos to the staff of Hollister Free Press Online, who continue to provide biting commentary and  fact-based, truthful reporting missing from the pages of San Benito county's daily newspaper, the Hollister Free Pants (which, like the Gilroy Dipsack and the Pinnacle News, is owned and operated by Mainstreet Media, LLC.)

The HFPO-produced political cartoon at left sarcastically "salutes" Mainstreet Media, and especially the Free Pants, which has protected corrupt politicians who belonged to the Los Valientes shadow group from public exposure. In Hollister and San Benito County, HFPO has taken up the role of the free press.

HFPO's cartoon is a stinging commentary on the culture of fear at Mainstreet Media publications, where censorship has become standard operating procedure, and reporters have to squeeze by a herd sacred cows to get to their desks. Moo!   

Newspaper policy at the Hollister Free Pants is pretty simple: Editorial staff will kow-tow to the cabal of imbeciles and wannabe gangsters who run the town and the county (with a few notable exceptions, like supervisor Pat Loe). As the HFPO has aptly documented, Free Pants editor Conan Knoll was more than willing to co-author Los Valientes-approved editorials, and condemn D.A. Sarsfield's investigation of the fear-and-smear gang.

Unfortunately for Los Valientes, "virile young editor" Knoll couldn't keep his hands off the female staff, and had to depart. His replacement, the equally young Marcus Hibdon, was inserted into the editor slot in the springtime, but left after six months, without explanation, probably to find a job that pays a living wage. This leaves Dan Fitch, a veteran news reporter, to take charge of editorial affairs at the Free Pants. And good luck to him. Hopefully he's wearing hip waders to step through all that sacred cow dung.

Free Pants editors come and go. But people in Hollister won't soon forget that the local newspaper helped Los Valientes drive good people out of public service. They won't forget that the Free Pants looked askance as LV filed bogus lawsuits and funded anonymous hate mailers. Sarsfield's civil lawsuit against LV seeks to recoup $1 million in county (taxpayer) legal costs to defend against spurious LV lawsuits. The cost of defending against frivolous LV lawsuits is reportedly what forced Tracie Cone to sell the Pinnacle News to Mainstreet Media.

In SB County,  Los Valientes really does owe Main Street Media a debt of gratitude -- for censoring Pinnacle News reporter Kate Woods before she could completely expose the depth of LV's influence on the county board of supervisors and other aspects of county government; for creating a climate of fear in which good people were too intimidated to oppose the pro-growth cabal for fear of reprisals; and for making sure that steadfast D.A. John Sarsfield, who was LV's chief threat, received enough negative press to prevent his re-election (the LV case will eventually be dropped by D.A.-elect Candice Hooper, who will take office in January -- she hasn't the stomach to prosecute the LV case).

But not every editor in the Main Street Media empire is ready to accommodate Los Valientes. Pinnacle News city editor Dennis Taylor recently picked up the story again, almost daring Censorin' Steve Staloch to retaliate. As reported by Taylor in the July 1 edition of the Pinnacle News:

But in one sense, Sarsfield has garnered a small victory by releasing the names of several Los Valientes "associates," including Dennis Madigan, a former planning commissioner, appointed by Supervisor Reb Monaco, whom the previous Board of Supervisors fired after they discovered he was inappropriately using county letterhead in ads he placed in the local newspapers soliciting complaints against the planning department when former planning director Rob Mendiola was still at its helm.

Others named by the D.A. and the state as Los Valientes associates are Richard Place, who lost his June bid for the District 3 Supervisor seat, rockery owner Dave Grimsely, Supervisor   Jaime De La Cruz, local restaurateur and 28th Assembly Republican candidate Ignacio Velazquez, contractor Vince Pryor, and [LV attorney] Michael Pekin himself.

All the named parties either declined to comment or strongly denied belonging to Los Valientes.

Let's remember that chief LV associate Richard Place scared Mainstreet Media publisher Steve Staloch into censoring Woods, and that Censorin' Steve censored a columnist who tried to comment on Woods' censorship, and that he avoided television crews who tried to interview him about the censorship case. But censorship didn't ultimately protect Los Valientes. The names of the not-so-brave are known now, anyway. There is a little bit of justice going on in the San Benito Nation.

"The anonymous group [that] targeted people who publicly opposed strong pro-growth initiatives" have been outed. They operated under the guise of rooting out corruption, but their real intent was to "drive out county employees and elected officials members deemed corrupt political adversaries. And then, as you would expect with extortionists, when someone pulled off their masks, they denied who they were.

Kate Woods once asked, "What's so brave about doing things anonymously?" As you suspected, Kate, there's nothing brave about doing creepy things anonymously. But when you have Steve Staloch and the Free Pants backing you, it's a helluva lot easier to creep along anonymously.

 

Free Pants endorsements revisited

San Benito county elections are Tuesday. In the races for county supervisors and district attorney, the line separating qualified, competent candidates from tainted, unqualified candidates couldn't be more distinct.

Mainstreet Media publications, controlled by Censorin' Steve Staloch, have aligned with the tainted and the unqualified in two of the three key races. Today we visit the election endorsements appearing in Saturday's edition of the Hollister Free Lance (or Free Pants, as we lovingly refer to it)

[It is entirely fitting that the newspaper known as "the Free Pants" would endorse Reb Monaco]

 The Free Pants endorses Reb Monaco for district 4 supervisor -- instead of former Pinnacle News publisher Tracie Cone (Cone's campaign web site) -- despite Monaco's squandering of county budget reserves. According to HFPO: "Some of the more outrageous spending habits of [Monaco and fellow supervisor James De La Cruz] include increasing the money paid to criminal defense attorneys while simultaneously cutting the funds to prosecutors, handing out retroactive pay raises to retired department heads, and paying out huge sums of money to settle shakedown lawsuits." The Free Pants also overlooks Monaco's reported resistance to passing an anti-computer porn policy in the workplace and his advocacy for "polyamorous" lifestyle (which is not noteworthy except that swingers have traditionally been railroaded out of town by Mainstreet Media newspapers).   

[Snubbed supervisor candidate Richard Place can now direct his anger towards his former pals at the Free Pants]

The Free Pants did not endorse Richard Place for district 3 supervisor, going with incumbent supervisor Pat Loe instead. Even they couldn't overlook Place's affiliation with Los Valientes, whose reputation for unsavory politicial tactics has become legend in Hollister; his desperate attempts to avoid testifying in the Los Valientes civil case; and his ongoing representation by nuisance lawsuit specialist Michael Pekin. Place's legendary public displays of anger and his past lobbying efforts on behalf of out-of-control development interests in a city without adequate sewer treatment facilities may be considered deficiencies now, instead of strengths.

[Like Place, D.A. candidate Art Cantu was also snubbed by both Mainstreet Media newspapers]

The Free Pants also couldn't bring themselves to endorse Art Cantu for District Attorney. Even the Free Pants couldn't overlook Cantu's lack of experience as a prosecuting attorney (defense attorney only), his dubious academic credentials (graduated with degrees from an unaccredited institution, according to the Hollister Free Press Online), and his abusive treatment of family members (see Cynthia Cantu vs. Arthur Cantu court documents).

The Free Pants enthusiastically endorses Candice Hooper for D.A., only because she is not John Sarsfield (Sarsfield's campaign web site), the incumbent D.A. who has vowed to prosecute Los Valientes. Hooper has indicated that she will drop the county's $1 million Los Valientes civil case (see the Hollister Free Press Online) even as LVers are about to give depositions, under oath.

[at left, D.A. candidate Candice Hooper, who would let the LVers walk.

Anyone who lets Los Valientes associates on the board of supervisors, and their allies on the planning commission and the SB county bar association, off the hook, would not make a good district attorney for the law-abiding residents of San Benito county. If elected, would Hooper also forgive Michael Pekin, the nuisance lawsuit filer who represents LVer Richard Place? Perhaps she could hire Michael Pekin as a county counsel, just to make sure no more false lawsuits and bogus legal motions are made against the county.

Editorial sock puppets

The Republic of Gilroy was given a peek inside the tainted election endorsement process at the Free Lance and The Pinnacle by John Sarsfield and Tracie Cone. Both candidates walked into their newspaper interviews knowing they had zero possibility of receiving an endorsement, no matter how they responded to questions. Censorin' Steve Staloch, the publisher/owner of Mainstreet Media, which runs both papers, would never permit an endorsement of Cone or Sarsfield. Staloch is sympathetic to the principals involved in the Los Valientes political corruption scandal, whom Sarsfield is attempting to bring to justice. Staloch is also diametrically opposed to Cone, because she stands in the way of pro sprawl development interests, the kind of people Staloch wants to be close to. Cone's bad experience in the Pinnacle interview made her decide to skip the Free Lance interview altogether. Sarsfield knew that "no way [the Free Lance] would ever endorse me, since they spend a great deal of their ink routinely calling for my removal.... But, they do speak for a small portion of the community ... so out of respect for the people they represent, I went."     John Sarsfield recounts his interview with the Free Lance editorial board: "We met in the paper’s conference room, a room filled with awards for various writings, mostly from long ago. Present was Steve Staloch, one of the two corporate officers who really runs all the local Main Street Media publications, whatever his actual title may be. Also present was the editor, Marcus Hibdin, as well as reporter Brett Rowland. "Three community members were present: Christine Breen, wife of the former candidate for Judge Paul Breen, Louise Ledesma, a school teacher, and Jae Eade, one of the husband and wife developer team that wants to build a Bed and Breakfast hotel in Tres Pinos (and one of the activists from the “No on G” campaign). "I found the comments from Mr. Staloch and the Mr. Hibdon were generally well thought out, even when I disagreed with them. Both men were obviously reasonably informed about county government and the DA’s office, although some of their assumptions were not accurate. The community members, on the other hand, were almost rabid in expressing their opinions, which were frequently uninformed, to say the least. For example, at one point Ms. Ledesma made a blanket accusation that a former elected official was “corrupt” because of a zoning change. When I pressed her for what proof she had to back up her statement, she had to concede she had none. Interestingly, at that point Mr. Staloch interjected that 'no one was being accused.' "I thought it a classic example of exactly the type of harm the LVs and their attorneys have done by poisoning the community atmosphere with their nonsensical accusations. People in this community are now “corrupt” because a nut-job like Pekin, or his criminal associate Juan Monteon, said so. Never mind proof, we don’t need it. "The other two community members made equally odd claims or statements. For example, Ms. Eade asserted that we (the DA’s office) weren’t prosecuting gang members or drug cases enough, but couldn’t point to any specific case to complain about. She was not convinced even when I pointed out to her that no gang enhancements were ever brought by the former administration, but are now routinely. Her demeanor bordered on outright hostility the entire time. "Ms. Breen thought that the LV case should not be prosecuted, not withstanding the grand jury’s indictment of Mr. Pekin. "Notably absent was Tony Bruscia, former Mayor of Hollister and relative (by marriage) of Iggy Velasquez. "Editorials are opinions, nothing more or less. However, it is glaringly obvious that the community members of the editorial board, at least those present this morning, are grossly uninformed about even the most rudimentary aspects of the LV-Pekin cases, or county government." Tracie Cone recounts her interview with the Pinnacle editorial board: "I was just looking at your website and I'm so glad someone is speaking out about what's going on with local journalism. "Let me tell you what the 'editorial board' meeting was like for the supervisor's endorsement: A strip miner, a developer who is a consultant to DMB [Arizona-based developer looking to build a planned community on seven square miles off of Highway 25] who gets paid more the further the project gets in the system, the manager of the largest cattle operation, the president of the Hollister Downtown Association (who didn't bother to show up yet got a vote), [Pinnacle publisher Mark] Paxton and city editor Dennis Taylor. There were many questions about DMB, which didn't seem fair. I gave honest answers about the project not conforming to the General Plan, which discourages leap frog development. "I was told two months ago that Censorin' Steve said "no way in hell we're going to endorse her," and I believed it to be true because he prefaces many things with "no way in hell...." And, of course, it was true, but I was hoping I would be proven wrong." "After the vote on me, the developer resigned from the board. He stayed on long enough to vote against me, however. Today, Pat Loe went for her interview and Jim West the shill for the strip miner is still on the board despite the fact that four years ago he was the campaign manager for her main opponent, Richard Place. "Apparently all of these people missed the Journalism 101 course on ethics and conflicts of interest."

Editorial bias vs. John Sarsfield and Tracie Cone SBC District Attorney John Sarsfield and supervisor candidate Tracie Cone pose a threat to the status quo, and Mainstreet Media publisher Steve Staloch is in deep with the status quo. If elected, Sarsfield will have a public mandate to continue his prosecution of county supervisors associated with Los Valientes. If elected, Tracie Cone will be in a position to align with supervisor Pat Loe to balance out a board of supervisors that is otherwise rancid with Los Valientes principals. Add to the mix the growing animosity between Cone, the former publisher of the Pinnacle News, and Staloch, who represents the company that bought the Pinnacle. Staloch has taken Cone's award-winning newspaper, once known for high-quality investigative reporting, and turned it into a low-cost center that specializes in fluff content. Who were the Free Lance election board sock puppets? The Free Lance election board interview team included Censorin' Steve Staloch; Christine Breen, wife of Paul Breen, who heads the San Benito County Bar Association, and is a supporter of Arthur Cantu and an outspoken critic of D.A. Sarsfield's efforts to bring LVers to justice; Jae Eade, a vocal opponent of the controlled growth initiatives in San Benito county; Louise Ledesma, a history teacher who apparently gets all her information about local history from the Free Lance; Marcus Hibdon, the young, newly appointed Free Lance editor who understands that his role is to squelch negative truths about LV principals; and Brett Rowland, a veteran Free Lance reporter who knows better than to disagree with Staloch. Who were the Pinnacle News election board sock puppets? Members of The Pinnacle election board interview team included Brenda Weatherly, executive director of the Hollister Downtown Association; Scott Fuller of San Juan Oaks Golf Course, who is looking to build a resort/golf community in SJB; Jim West of Granite Rock Co., and definitely not a tree-hugger; Mitt French of the San Benito Cattle Co, the biggest cattle ranching operation in SBC, also inclined against growth control measures; Dennis Taylor, Pinnacle city editor, perhaps the only employee of Mainstreet Media willing to stand up to Steve Staloch; and Mark Paxton, Pinnacle publisher, who basically caves in every time Staloch tells him to abuse journalism ethics.

Mainstreet Media hides the negative truth

"All truth isn't positive, and all positive information isn't the truth." -- San Jose political consultant Rich Robinson

The Republic of Gilroy operates under these assumptions about public figures:

• Bumbling by elected officials is expected, even acceptable; but outright lies and corruption cannot be overlooked.
• A newspaper's first job is to report the truth about the conduct of public persons in the performance of their duties. This applies to the elected, the appointed, and those seeking power.
• It's much more difficult to accurately report the negative truth than the positive truth, which is why so many newspapers don't bother with the first.
• People find out what's wrong by reading about the negative truth.
• A newspaper editor or publisher who is offended by negative truth and negative campaigning, or who is averse to negative, satirical commentary, should quit his job, immediately, and take up poetry, or embroidery. He is in the wrong business.

[San Benito county: home of chronic political dysfunction, thanks in large part to the Mainstreet Media cartel]

Which brings us to the state of affairs in the political wilderness south of the border, San Benito County, where the terminally corrupt and the genetically shiftless hold power -- on the county board of supervisors, the planning commission, and the county bar association ... and the Mainstreet Media newspaper cartel enables the ongoing dysfunction.

The overwhelming stench of corruption in San Benito emanates mostly from public figures associated with the political agenda of Los Valientes, the "citizen's group" trying to "attempt to affect a change in government" -- as LV lawyer Michael Pekin once said. He doesn't talk that way anymore. In three years of anonymous mayhem, LV's only legitimate accomplishment has been to incur civil lawsuits totalling $1 million from San Benitans who were slandered, intimidated, extorted, or otherwise targeted by LV.

LV has disbanded now. The gang members are mostly busy denying involvement and portraying themselves as victims. But the damage is done and people don't forget. Many in SB agree with District Attorney John Sarsfield that LVers should pay a price for their anonymous hate campaigns and abuse of the legal system. 

LV may no longer exist, but the facts about LV are permanently on the public record. Free Lance reporter Brett Rowland's coverage of the LV saga and Pinnacle reporter Kate Woods' in-depth pieces are at the bottom of this posting. This body of journalistic work makes it obvious that, going forward, certain county supervisors and other SB politicos will carry a Los Valientes stain.

Of course, athough Rowland has done a good job chronicling the LV saga and documenting LV attorney/gasbag Pekin's abuse of the court system, he also hasn't been allowed to investigate LV in depth. For instance, Rowland hasn't exposed the reasons why LV attorney Michael Pekin can't represent cases in Monterey county. That's a story he won't be allowed to follow. Too much negative truth there, too much "unpleasantness." You see, Pekin represents supervisorial candidate Richard Place, who is also the probable founder and leader of LV. Place has connections to LV sympathizers on the SB county bar association. Place has friends on planning commission. Place is a former editorial board member of the Free Lance. Place wields influence with Mainstreet Media publisher Censorin' Steve Staloch.

[at left, Hollister businessman and supervisorial candidate Richard Place. He coerced Staloch to censor the LV story in the Pinnacle, but he can't stop D.A. Sarsfield from identifying him as the originator of the LV extortion and intimidation gang.] 

As for Woods, she's no longer covering a political beat. Woods does her job too well, exposes way too much negative truth. In February, Place convinced Staloch to permanently kill Woods' Badlands column and remove her from the LV story, no doubt threatening Staloch with a lawsuit. Staloch caved. Place received a front page apology and was allowed to rebut the facts reported in Woods' final LV story.

Emboldened by this success, Place had Pekin file a motion in court demanding an apology from SB District Attorney John Sarsfield for identifying Place as the leader and founder of Los Valientes. Pekin also requested a restraining order against Sarsfield, for trying to "intimidate" Place into testifying in a civil case against Pekin (Pekin vs. Scagliotti).

But last week San Benito County Superior Court Judge Alan Hedegard denied both requests. Being tagged by the D.A. as an LV gang member, Hedegard said, is "more embarassing than intimidating." Now Place is running out of legal maneuvers to avoid testifying under oath about his involvement in LV.

On the same day, Superior Court Judge Harry Tobias slapped Pekin with an $800 fine for using improper procedure when he filed a motion to dismiss the county's civil lawsuit against LV. The SB courts have grown weary of Pekin's legal strategy.

[at left, LV attorney Michael Pekin, fined by SBC superior court judge Hedegard for filing bogus motions on behalf of county supervisor candidate Richard Place]

Pekin's pathetic legal antics in the LV saga could be seen as amusing, except for the fact that Mainstreet Media newspapers view Pekin and Place as legit, even painting them as victims whose civil rights are being abused. Pekin's dubious past, his legacy of false filings, his frequent rebukes by judges responding to his parade of motions, interventions, and complaints, and his client Place's obvious ties to LV, never make the transition from Brett Rowland's reporting to the Free Lance editorial page, where LV always gets a free pass.

 

For exposing the negative truth and identifying LVers by name, Sarsfield was condemned by the Free Lance as the bad guy (see the Free Lance's infamous "Where is the Smoking Gun?" editorial). The LV-friendly Free Lance labeled the D.A.'s ongoing civil case against Los Valientes as a "McCarthy-era witch hunt." Wrong. Sarsfield's prosecution of LV is more like a tumor removal than a witch hunt.

You can bet that in this climate, the new, 28-year-old editor of the Free Lance, Marcus Hibdon, isn't about to risk his job by connecting the dots linking frivolous lawsuits, smear campaigns, and extortion to current and potential county supervisors, Hollister planning commission members, and Republican state assembly candidate Iggy Velazquez. Nor will he expose D.A. candidate Arthur Cantu's ties to the former LV mob. Too much negative truth with too much connection to Mainstreet Media publisher Staloch.

Meanwhile, Pinnacle publisher Mark Paxton steadfastly refuses to follow the LV scent. He sits atop a mound of negative truth condemning Los Valientes, yet instead of disclosing the extent of the corruption, he can only lecture: every story has many sides; let's not rush to judgement; keep the discourse civil; negative comments are hurtful so let's take the high road; etc, etc. etc...

Is Paxton running an encounter group or a newspaper? Paxton thinks himself wise, cautious and balanced -- a good guy. Maybe so. But a good guy who knows the negative truth and does nothing makes himself a pawn of the bad guys. In other words, a putz.

The ridiculous concept that "people don't want to hear negative newsreporting" has led to the fubar situation in SB, where bad but influential people with selfish aims break voting laws, enjoy success misrepresent themselves in the press, feel justified in smearing adversaries and spreading lies and successfully engaging in extortion, and successfully drive good, responsible, people out of government and away from the political arena. It's the Paxton's of the world -- the passive nice guys -- who often enable the evil that these men (and women) do.

Further Readings

Brett Rowland's LV news stories from 2006, appearing in the Free Lance:

• Accused LV Leader Won't Get an Apology May 23, 2006
• Hooper Assigned to LV Case May 19, 2006
• Emotional Cost High in LV Lawsuits May 19, 2006
• Sarsfiled Prevails in Funding Decision May 02, 2006
• Day of Meidation Brings No Relief April 11, 2006
• Los Valientes Plaintiff Headed for Trial April 06, 2006
• Grand Jury Complaint Seeks to Unseat DA April 04, 2006
• Sarsfield Threatens SBC with Lawsuit March 31, 2006
• Supes Restore Funding to DA March 30, 2006
• Supes Have 'No Confidence' in DA March 29, 2006
• Accused LV Leader Demands Apology March 28, 2006
• Supes to Consider Tight Financial Leash for DA March 24, 2006
• Staffing Woes Plague DA's Office March 21, 2006
• LV Case Rolls On March 21, 2006
• DA Takes on County Supervisors March 15, 2006
• Lights Going Out at the County DA's Office? March 14, 2006
• SBC Won't Defend Place, De L Cruz March 08, 2006
• DA Sent Back to Drawing Board March 02, 2006
• Sarsfield Plans to Follow the Money Feb 28, 2006
• DA to be Deposed in LV Case Feb 23, 2006
• Supe Chair No Conflict of Interest Feb 14, 2006
• Sarsfield to Run for DA Feb 8, 2006
• County Supervisor Slams District Attorney at Board Meeting January 26, 2006 (Luke Roney)
• Questions in Case Against Los Valientes Jan 20, 2006
• Supe Gets Clean Slate (De La Cruz' plea bargain) Jan 20, 2006
• DA Seeks $1M from Los Valientes Jan 16, 2006
• Lawyer Breen Chooses Family OVer District Attorney Race Jan 16, 2006
• Pekin Files Suit Against SBC January 04, 2006
• Breen to Head San Benito County Bar Association 12/05/2005

Kate Woods investigations into LV, appearing in the Pinnacle (she was taken off the story in February by Paxton and  Staloch):

DA names LVs public figures named as being among the notorious Los Valientes, the San Benito district attorney announced	19 feb 2006
Group costs citizens $1 million ... “Los Valientes” has cost the San Benito County taxpayers nearly $1 million in legal fees	15 jan 2006
Pekin sues county again Los Valientes attorney Michael Pekin has filed charges ... (by Patrick O'Donnell)	01 jan 2006
Bye-Bye, 2005 .. common thread prevalent in the top 10 stories that occurred in San Benito County	01 jan 2006
D.A. to appeal Pekin indictment  visiting judge dismissed without comment seven indictments against Los Valientes' attorney Michael Pekin ...	26 june 2005
Supes fire Mendiola... planning director Rob Mendiola ... had 48 hours  to clear out the office he held for nearly 24 years	08 may 2005
Witness: Pekin knew affidavit held lies ... Pekin should have known that Richard  Scagliotti had not committed the alleged acts of corruption...	17 mar 2005
Double voter case dismissed .. case filed in the wake of the District 5 supervisor's race has ended without a felony conviction.	10 mar 2005
Grand Jury indicts Pekin Grand Jury returned five felony indictments and one misdemeanor against Salinas attorney Michael Pekin ...	44 feb 2005
Scagliotti and Cruz move on ... former supervisors Richard Scagliotti and Bob Cruz are no longer sitting at the county dais.	06 jan  2004

Fear and loathing in San Benito: District Attorney's race

 

Incumbent SB County District Attorney John Sarsfield: Will prosecute a $1M civil lawsuit against Los Valientes, to recoup court costs on behalf of the county and reparations on behalf of LV victims. SB County District Attorney candidate Art Cantu: Will drop prosecution of the county's  civil lawsuit against LV perpetrators, some of whom he is associated with, in return for their political favor. SB County District Attorney candidate Candice Hooper Mancino: If campaign comments are any indicationk, will find the county's civil lawsuit against Los Valientes too bothersome to prosecute.

The Republic of Gilroy received the letter below from a long-time San Benitan who supports D.A. John Sarsfield. She wishes to remain anonymous because she fears becoming a target of Los Valientes, the anonymous shadow group practicing intimidation and extortion in San Benito over the last three years. Her desire to remain anonymous makes me not want to run the letter. San Benito has suffered enough from anonymous tactics. On the other hand... this woman's remarks reveal the level of fear and loathing in SB resulting from hree years of smear campaigns, costly nuisance lawsuits targeting political opponents, and physical intimidation tactics that include the poisoning of the D.A.s dogs and telephone death threats to the editor of the HFPO. The people associated with Los Valientes --  supervisorial candidate Richard Place; supervisors James De La Cruz, Reb Monaco, and Anthony Botelho; D.A. candidate Arthur Cantu; state assembly candidate Ignacio Velazquez; and LV lawyer Michael Pekin -- are directly responsible for the fear factor in San Benito Nation. Yet each denies involvement. Read the letter and judge for yourself whether this long-time SB resident and businesswoman with a history of involvement in the SB school district and in SB charitable organizations, should be afraid to attach her name.  Perhaps later she'll find the courage to come forward. Right now she's afraid that her animals will be injured or killed if she openly comes out in support of Sarsfield, who is actively trying to prosecute the LVers and make them pay for their nefarious and slimy deeds. Dear Republic of Gilroy: Last weekend I asked my husband to put our "Vote for John Sarsfield" signs out in front of our home. He said: Don’t you think our house might get vandalized or even something worse, especially since we are going away on vacation? I mean I support John, but, quite honestly, I would be afraid to make it public, with all that has been going on since he got elected. I couldn’t answer him.

 

Then he went on to say that the people in the community hate what has been going on with the whole Los Valientes thing and they very much want it to go away. The members of the anonymous Los Valientes have attached themselves to John like a giant tumor. Therefore, even though the huge majority of the county’s voters elected John, they might not vote for him this time, thinking that they can get rid of Los Valientes – kinda like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

My mind flashed back to when John Sarsfield was overwhelming elected to the office of District Attorney by the voters in this county, and then, after he won, his family dog was viciously poisoned. Since that time he has been relentlessly slandered and sued by a secretive organization whose only "presence" seems to be a lawyer who I think doesn't live in this county.

I also remembered that several times I started to write a letter of support for Mr. Sarsfield to the editor, but thinking that if I sign my name to it, maybe this secretive, terrorist group called Los Valientes would investigate my personal life and publically target me, or cause me grief by harming my beloved animals.

So, I decided not to write a letter of support for John Sarsfield with my name on it, and I still have not decided to put signs out in front of my home . . . simply because I am afraid of Los Valientes.

I am thinking that when the voters reelect John Sarsfield to office, it will send a message to secretive, vindictive conspiracy-type groups who waste our taxpayer dollars and our elected officials’ time, that we will not tolerate them and, in addition, that we want to give our District Attorney a chance to do his work without being distracted by their assaults.  I also find it interesting that the local newspapers do not publish the work that John Sarsfield is doing, except for his efforts to defend himself and the Office of District Attorney from these ongoing assaults. The newspaper accounts make it sound like the only thing John Sarsfield does is fight Los Valientes.

After discussing this with numerous people in the community, I learned that the majority of them feel the same way. The people who support John Sarsfield just say, keep a low profile and stay out of the line of fire, because, in spite of all the negative press associated with Los Valientes, he will be reelected.

Well, I just wanted to share this with the community, and I hope that the Editor will print my letter, even though it is not signed by me because I fear retribution by a very secret and vindictive group of people in our county. The newspaper certainly publishes Los Valientes allegations without knowing who the authors are, so I would think that this letter could be published without knowing the author even though I don't have a public attorney to speak for me.

Thank you.

Anonymous San Benito County Citizen of 20 Years

The Good, the Bad, the Witless

San Benito county voters, check out the San Benito County Voter Guide -- "the Good ... the Bad ... the Witless" -- posted on the Hollister Free Press Online (HFPO). Don't go to the polls without it.

• The list of the good includes both those who've tried to report the truth and those attacked for opposing the bad.
• The list of the bad includes the forces behind Los Valientes (LV for short) and their friends in office and seeking office.
• The list of the witless include both the clueless and the gutless, people who could use their influence to shine a light on corruption and oppose the corrupt but choose not to.

The intention of the voter guide is to cut through the fog of disinformation flowing from the Mainstreet Media cartel, which owns both Hollister newspapers -- the Hollister Free Lance and the Pinnacle -- and the Gilroy Dispatch. The MSM news cartel's editorial policy has been to ignore the seamy history, shady dealings, and severe character issues of many candidates running to gain or retain office in San Benito. Instead of reporting the truth, MSM's editorial policy has only added to the stain of corruption and incompetence. But MSM isn't the only guilty party. Other influential folks in SB are also doing their part to make sure San Benito county remains a wasteland of bad government.

Not considered newsworthy

I'm making a list ... of all the news you won't read about in Censorin' Steve staloch's crummy newspapers, including the Hollister Free Lance, the Gilroy Dispatch, and the Pinnacle News (with acknowledgement to Mainstreet Media news reporters like Brett Rowland, and others, who do a fair to good job despite working under unreasonable conditions). This Not Newsworthy list might be posted in the break room at each newspaper, so that employees can know which stories are officially off limits.

For the record, the only media outlets that consider this list newsworthy are Republic of Gilroy and the Hollister Free Press Online.

• Not newsworthy in Hollister: Vandals in San Benito county deface the election signs of John Sarsfield (running for re-election as DA) and Tracie Cone (former publisher of the Pinnacle News, running for San Benito county district 4 supervisor).
  

  

[above: if D.A. candidate Art Cantu and supervisor candidate Richard Place's signs had been defaced, you can bet the Pinnacle would have considered it newsworthy]

• Not newsworthy in Hollister: Supervisor Reb Monaco's character issues, including his participation in polygamous sexual encounter seminars and his resistance to passing a no porn in the workplace ordinance.
• Not newsworthy in Gilroy or Hollister: Republican state assembly candidate (district 28) Ignacio Velasquez' public rants and ravings, and his close association with the anonymous extortion and slander klan known as Los Valientes. 

   

  

  [above: Hollister electrical contractor Iggy Velazquez, one of the Los Valientes stooges. Watch out Gilroy, he could be your next state assemblyman]

   

• Not newsworthy in Gilroy: The firing of chief photographer James Mohs, who collected 20 CNPA newspaper awards over his nine-plus years at the Girloy Dispatch. Reportedly the Dispatch tried to deny Mohs unemployment benefits, but Mohs won the appeal in court last month, in a hearing at the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce.

 

Not newsworthy in Gilroy and Hollister: The unreasonable working conditions of reporters slaving for the Mainstreet Media cartel, where policy is to pay sub-livable wages, burden reporters with more stories than they can cover, and never ever pay overtime. Ask for overtime or a raise, lose your job.

Not newsworthy in Gilroy Hollister: A settlement that MSM paid last year to a group of veteran employees, including reporters, who filed an age discrimination lawsuit against the paper. The veterans may have made the fatal mistake of asking for pay increases. Also, not being young and naive about the MSM's editorial policy.

Not newsworthy in Hollister: A report that  Censorin' Steve Staloch vowed that "no way in hell" would his newspapers endorse Tracie Cone, Pinnacle News ex-publisher, in her bid to be an SB county supe. Staloch's remarks were reportedly made before the editorial board met to interview Cone, who is running on a controlled growth platform in a county overwhelmed with infrastructure problems resulting from years of unplanned, out-of-control residential growth.

[above: Censorin' Steve Staloch, Mainstreet Media publisher and permanent obstacle to truthful reporting by the Mainstreet Media cartel]

• Not newsworthy in Hollister: District 4 supervisorial candidate Richard Place's history of angry, uncontrolled public outbursts, his battles with the bottle, and his involvement with an anonymous gang of slimy individuals who are facing a $5 million civil lawsuit -- the county's cost to defend against frivolous Los Valientes nuisance lawsuits -- and other reparations to individuals whose civil rights were abused by the LVers.
• Not newsworthy in Hollister: The makeup of the Pinnacle News editorial board, which includes Jim West, Richard Place's former campaign manager; a consultant to a major housing developer; and  the county's largest cattle rancher -- all of whom are anti-Sarsfield, anti-Cone and for the removal existing growth control restrictions.
• Not newsworthy in Hollister: The fact that when Richard Place was served with a subpoena to appear at a deposition in the D.A.'s civil prosecution against Lost Valientes, he demanded that the taxpayers pay his attorney fees. Just one of many ironies in about Place's greasy legal maneuverings.
• Not newsworthy in Gilroy: City council's ongoing history of approving haphazard residential housing projects that far exceed the agreed-upon building limits defined in the General Plan and the RDO (residential development ordinance).
• Not newsworthy in Gilroy: Whether former councilman Tony Sudol,under SEC  investigation for insider tipping to the tune of $400,000, should be given permission to convert the land occupied by the former Indian Motorcyle plant into a townhouse/condo development called San Ysidro Square.

[above: Tony Sudol, whom the SEC claims  tipped off his brothers prior to Cisco System's acquisitions of Latitude Communications in 2003,  Active Voice (in 2001), CAIS Internet (in 2000), Arrowpoint (in 2000), and GeoTel Communications (in 1999).]

• Not newsworthy in Hollister: SB Supervisor James De La Cruz outrageous claim, in a television interview, that District Attorney John Sarsfield had spent $1 million in tax-payers dollars pursuing the Los Valientes case, when in fact the D.A.'s office has spent just over $100,000 to expose the extortionists and seeks to make that group repay approximately $5 million in taxpayers' money.
• Not newsworthy in Hollister: Telephone death threats received by Hollister free press online publisher Danny Grannis from people unpleased with the HFPO's LV exposes. At MSM, HFPO does not exist (tell that to HFPO's considerable online readership).
• Not newsworthy in Hollister: Someone unhappy with the D.A.'s pursuit of election fraud in San Benito county snuck into Sarsfield's yard and killed both of the family dogs (necropsy revealed that the dogs were fed antifreeze). At the time, Sarsfield was investigating ballot-stuffing on behalf of supervisor James De La Cruz.
• Not newsworthy in Hollister: District attorney candidate Arthur Cantu's past domestic violence troubles, as reported in the Hollister free press online.

[above, Art Cantu, candidate for San Benito county D.A.'s office and the lawyer for embattled Los Valientes attorney Michael Pekin]

• Not newsworthy in Gilroy: Gilroy sacred cow #1 Jane Howard's membership on the editorial board of the Gilroy Dispatch, despite her deep involvement with the Chamber of Commerce, the Santa Clara county board of educaton, and her "undersight" of Measure I bond funds while chairwoman of the Measure I Citizen's Oversight Committee. Now that the school district hasn't enough money to build the new high school that was supposed to be funded by the $69 million Measure I bond, Howard's fellow editorial board members should ask Citizen Jane why she  didn't sign off on the oversight committee's 2003 annual financial report.
  

[above: Jane Howard, perennial Gilroy politico and a member of the Dispatch editorial board, proved to be clueless about how an oversight committee is supposed to safeguard the tax-paying public from wasteful or improper expenditure of school construction bond money]

• Not newsworthy in Gilroy: GUSD assistant superintendent of curriculum development Jacki Horejs' glaring incompetence. Incapable of creating anything but powerpoints for school board meetings, she and co-curriculum "superstar" Olivia Schaad abdicate curriculum development decisions to outsiders, including education consultant Douglas Reeves and the shadowy Stupski Foundation.
• Not newsworthy in Gilroy: The superintendent of school's farcical investigation of his own miserable performance -- called the Accountability Task Force -- which not surprisingly found that Edwin Diaz is doing a wonderful job, even as SAT scores of GHS grads continue along an 8-year downward trend.
• Not newsworthy in Gilroy or Hollister: The tradition of censoring political news reporting that might reflect unfavorably on MSM advertisers, Gilroy chamber of commerce "dignitaries," Leadership Gilroy wannabes, Hollister Downtown Association insiders, and Steve Staloch's Los Valientes pals  -- all of whom are granted immunity from negative press.

All the news that's fit to censor

      

[At left, SB supervisorial candidate Tracie Cone, former publisher of the Pinnacle News. Cone was snubbed by her successor, Mark Paxton, who decided not to endorse Cone for county supe. Paxton has also decided not to continue the tradition of in-depth investigative reporting Cone established at the Pinnacle.] Former publisher Tracie Cone's replacement at the news weekly,  Mark Paxton, has proven to be just another willing accomplice in Mainstreet Media's trampling of the public's right to know -- or, as Steven Colbert might ironically state, "the public's right NOT to know." In April, Paxton cut off the flow of reader letters expressing outrage and dismay over the silencing of reporter Kate Woods. At least 50 letters calling for Woods' reinstatement to her SB government beat were published before Paxton decided he'd had enough. In a March editorial, Paxton called readers' complaints "hogwash." Then Paxton refused to print a former Pinnacle employee'ss response to that Pinnacle editorial. At right is the letter containing sarcasm Paxton found unworthy. Who knows how many other letters were axed. Paxton also halted news coverage of the Los Valientes political corruption scandal that has been reported in the R of G, and in the Hollister Free Press Online, and by both KSBW (Salinas) and KION (Monterey) television stations. Cancelling a hot story and rebuking "insubordinate" readers is an odd tactic in the journalism business, but not at Mainstreet Media, where the truth is considered an inconvenience. Still I held out some hope for accountability by Paxton. That is, until yesterday, when he refused my standing request for an interview. Why won't Paxton talk to R of G? Because I accidentally misspelled his name. And I referred to him as editor instead of publisher. And I inferred that he wasn't going to do an interview with R of G (see Dispatch smothers Cheek story), which turned out to be true. In a snit, Paxton cut off our conversation before it could begin. Doug Sorry, but I've had to change my mind. I checked your blog after our last exchange. You can't even spell my name right. You got the job title wrong. You very clearly tried to leave the impression that I had not  been cooperative, when I've consistently (until now) replied that I was open to a conversation. A look at your blog makes it clear your mind is made up. Conversation at this point is a waste of both our time.        It was encouraging a month ago ... when you indicated every story has two sides. Actually, I think nearly every story worth telling has many sides. You make it clear through your blog   that you are not interested in telling more than one side.        Best of luck with ROG, I'll continue to check it occasionally, but based on my own experience, I'll season it with a large measure of salt.        Regards,        Mark Paxton won't talk to me because he's embarrassed by the facts I'm reporting, and the honest questions I'm going to ask. I'll let readers decide whether these questions are "pretty far-fetched speculation," or whether they deserve an answer.  Despite his vow not to speak with me, I hope Paxton has the courage to answer a few of these qestions, instead of dousing them with salt.

Censored letter from Pinnacle News reader  (too much sarcasm) Thank you, Mr. Paxton, for your recent editorial, which set the record straight on several important issues. Not enough of us stopped to realize what the public outcry over Kate Wood’s demotion had done to your staff, which you suggest had a hard time “tolerating” the recent wave of letters to the editor. Too many of us assumed your employees (and you yourself) would have appreciated the flurry of public support for a veteran and decorated colleague, or at the very least would have understood the public perception that the Pinnacle had kowtowed to political pressure by demoting the best reporter in the county.    Thank you also for bravely admitting your mistake in having Kate simultaneously writing a political column and reporting on San Benito politics. At first, many of us thought she was in those roles long before you took over – losing both only after she reported on the identities of the so-called “Los Valientes,” the secretive group aggressively suing the county.           Finally, thank you for further admitting a mistake by explaining how you freed Kate of the “unfair burden,” as you term it, of being both columnist and reporter. For a minute there, we thought that she actually liked both jobs, and that she would continue to be doing them if she hadn’t been taken off her beats.

 

R OF G QUESTION: In your March 24 editorial, you wrote about Millard Hoyle, long-time editor of the Free Lance and your first newspaper editor: "Hoyle ... was a student of the community, one who took pains to understand all its subtleties and nuances. he was one of the most prudent, fair people I ever knew." Would Millard Hoyle allow Hollister businessman, Los Valientes leader, and supervisorial candidate Richard Place into an editorial staff meeting where policy and assignments are beings discussed? What would he say about putting Kate Woods on trial with Place, a subject of her investigations, in the same room? Would Hoyle have caved to Place's demands or told him to get the hell out of his office? Would Hoyle have allowed Place to run a rebuttal to Woods' fact-based eporting on the front page of the paper. How did Hoyle respond when cranks threatened lawsuits?

PAXTON'S ANSWER:

 

R OF G QUESTION: Here's a quote from your Feb 24 editorial -- "The Pinnacle is taking a break from Kate Woods' Badlands column. As much as her razor wit is able to delight or anger readers, we are moving into an election season, and we want Pinnacle readers to be neither delighted nor angry -- we want them to take the issues seriously and to listen in earnest to the various mesages the candidates portend." Why do you believe that reporting of the Los Valientes political corruption scandal shouldn't anger readers, especially considering that many LVers now hold public office, and other LVers seek public office? Please elaborate on your concept of bland investigative reporting that offends no one.

PAXTON'S ANSWER:

R OF G QUESTION: Again the Feb 24 editorial -- "Inciting is easy; communicating is more difficult and listening to opposing points of view with an open mind is the hardest of all.... we simply ask everyone to be thougthful about the issues, respectful toward one another and to remember that cooperation is the keystone that keeps our communities from collapsing." Can you provide specific examples of unprofessionalism in Woods' reporting of the LV story? And what about the venerable history of satirical criticism in American journalism and letters, including Samuel Clemens, H.L. Mencken, and Dorothy Parker? Why do you perceive that quality, evident in Woods' Badlands column, as a drawback instead of a strength, especially in an election season?

PAXTON'S ANSWER:

R OF G QUESTION: Regarding the Los Valientes political corruption scandal, you wrote that "...the list of good guys and bad guys change depending on the issue at hand." Please elaborate on how is district attorney John Sarsfied NOT the good guy in this scenario? Why is it wrong for D.A. John Sarsfield to spend $115,000 to recoup $1M in damages from frivolous LV lawsuits? Why would you give an anonymous, unaccountable shadow group as much credence as an elected, accountable public official? How exactly can Sarsfield's efforts to expose nuisance lawsuit filers and take depositions from LV prinicples who are on the county board of supervisors not be on behalf of the public good? In what way have any of LV's accomplishments been positive?  

PAXTON'S ANSWER:

R OF G QUESTION: You wrote, "I believe it places unfair burden on a reporter to be asked to write a column of political satire drawn from the people on that reporter's news beat. At best, it's guaranteed to strain professional relationships." Woods wasn't having any problem reporting the story, getting background info, developing her sources. In fact, the California Newspaper Publishers Association believes that Woods is a fine, intrepid journalist. It's one thing to tell Woods to back off on the Badlands column, but how were your readers served by preventing her from continuing her coverage of the LV story? And was this Richard Place's decision, Steve Staloch's decision, or yours?

PAXTON'S ANSWER:

R OF G QUESTION: "Here's the promise: ... lead the way in pursuing the story of Los Vaientes." How have you "led the way" by not reporting the story at all in April, and filing just one staff report in May glossing over the story behind the story? Why have you suppressed truthful details about obvious ties between LV and elected officials and candidates for office that are documented in the Hollister Free Press Online?

PAXTON'S ANSWER:

R OF G QUESTION: With elections coming up, do voters deserve to know about SB district attorny candidate Arthur Cantu's domestic violence problems, as reported in the HFPO, or about SB supervisorial candidate Reb Monaco's affiliation with a polygamous sexual encounter group, as reported in HFPO, or about Ignacio Velazquez's association with the anonymous group Los Valientes, which is the focal point of an ongoing political corruption investigation by the D/A/'s office. Assuming you agree that character is an issue in any election, why have you avoided reporting these stories?

PAXTON'S ANSWER:

More Mainstreet media censorship: Dispatch smothers Cheek

   

[at left, Martin Cheek, a respected local writer and  columnist. Cheek has written extensively on a wide range of subjects. He recently produced a "video poem" entitled We All Must Fall. Now Cheek can add "smothered by Staloch" to his list of accomplishments.] Dark days for truth in reporting. The public's right to know sordid truths about elected officials and candidates for office lies buried under six feet of slime and muck. The creatures patrolling the slimy muckhole where the truth lies imprisoned include the local newspaper monopoly's publisher, Steve Staloch, and Hollister businessman Richard Place. Place is a candidate for San Benito county supervisor. SB District Attorney John Sarsfield has identified Place as the leader of  "Los Valientes," an anonymous organization that emulates the intimidation tactics of the Ku Klux Klan. Staloch and Place's willing dupes include Pinnacle News publisher Mark Paxton and Gilroy Dispatch editor Mark Derry. In late February, these four men conspired to permanently censor writer Kate Woods' award-winning political reportage on San Benito county politics. Woods "Report from the Badlands" was deemed "too political" and she was charged by Derry with writing for the enemy (me -- it wasn't true). To appease Place, Staloch also pulled Woods off any controversial Hollister and San Benito stories -- her beat for most of the last decade. (Details: see Kate Woods silenced) Unbelievably -- unless of course you are a resident of San Benito county, then you understand perfectly well -- Paxton's editorial explanation of Woods' silencing during an election season was that "we want Pinnacle readers to be neither delighted nor angry -- we want them to take the issues seriously and to listen in earnest to the various mesages the candidates portend." Wow. That is either an incredibly stupid statement to be ignored or a direct threat to freedom of the press that should make us shiver. What is Paxton saying? That Woods' political commentary isn't earnest or intelligent enough for a podunk Hollister paper? Is Paxton saying that Woods' CNPA award-winning investigative reporting is an editorial liability? [at left, Mainstreet Media publisher Steve Staloch.] Now "Censorin' Steve" Staloch has struck again. The R of G has learned that Staloch halted publication of columnist Martin Cheek's column about Woods' censorship. According to Woods, who read Cheek's column before it was submitted and rejected: "it was a thorough commentary about censorship, since it has been such a scorching hot topic in the Pineackle lately, and yes, he interviewed me on what happened with the Richard Place censorship  management meeting. Marty was going to compare what happened with me with what happened to the Smother Brothers [when NBC TV execs censored the comedy team's political commentary in the late 60s]." According to Cheek, Staloch gave no explanation for cutting his column. "I didn't speak directly with Steve about this situation. Katie Niekerk, the lifestyle editor, told me the column I wrote about Kate Woods was a 'no go.' She had forwarded it to Mark Derry and he gave it to Steve. Steve sent me an  e-mail saying he wanted to talk, but we haven't spoken to each other yet." Why did Staloch smother Cheek? Simple. To discourage any other Mainstreet Media writers (including reporters at the Dispatch, the Hollister Free Lance, and the Morgan Hill Times) from writing about Woods or Los Valientes. [at left, Pinnacle editor Mark Paxton, enabler of Staloch's news blackout of the Los Valientes political scandal.] Slapping Cheek reinforces Staloch's message to all employees: stories about Woods' censorship or the Los Valientes scandal are off limits, will be gagged. Don't bother. (see the Hollister Free Press Online for current, honest up-to-date coverage) Staloch's intimidation tactics are working. After he learned that I knew his column had been pulled, Cheek was eager to make sure I understood that he holds no ill will toward Staloch. "...  it was only the column that I wrote about Kate  Woods and the Smothers Brothers that was cut. I'll still be writing my column every week. It's just that I can't write about something so  sensitive to Mainstreet Media. As for Steve Staloch, I hold no animosity toward him." No one inside the Mainstreet Media compound will talk to the Republic of Gilroy about the silencing of Kate Woods or Staloch's decision to pull Cheek. Pinnacle editor Paxton told me several weeks ago that he would explain everything. "The issue is considerably  simpler than most people understand," he assured me by email. I haven't heard back yet. Looks like the R of G is going to have to force the issue. Internet Addendum: the Smothers Brothers Brothers Tom & Dick Smothers co-hosted the controversial variety program THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS SHOW/CBS/1967-69 that poked fun at Middle America, the military, the police (Officer Judy), The Silent Majority, and government at large (Pat Paulsen's wacked-out jibes and editorials aimed at President Lyndon Baines Johnson). Network censors had a field day cutting what they considered unacceptable comedy skits from the program. Segments that got the censor's axe included a special 1968 Mother's Day message which ended with the words "Please talk peace" (referring to the Vietnam War); Harry Belafonte singing before a backdrop of disturbing images from the 1968 Democratic Party convention in Chicago; an interview with Dr. Benjamin Spock, at the time an advocate for draft evaders; and the cancellation of the performance in 1967 of folk singer Pete Seeger (blacklisted from TV for some 20 years) who was scheduled to play the song "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" about a WWII soldier killed because of a stupid order from his commanding officer. Afraid to insult the political powers, CBS refused to allow  the song (he did, however, perform the song on a later episode). The     country at the time was itself "deep" in the Vietnam War. In October 1968 CBS executives began to prescreen all of Smothers Brothers their programs. After several tumultuous seasons, the program was canceled (the Smothers Brothers called it being "Fired") and left the air in June of 1969. The CBS network justified their cancellation by referring to network policy that "Prohibits appeals for active support of any cause" (even if it was "peace"). TRIVIA NOTE: The CBS network would not allow singer Bob Dylan to sing "John Birch Society Talking Blues" on the ED SULLIVAN SHOW in 1963. Dylan then refused to appear on the show

LOCAL PRINT MEDIA CENSORSHIP OF THE LOS VALIENTES STORY After Kate Woods was silenced, the Pinnacle News assigned reporter Melissa Flores to cover the Los Valientes story. Flores has obediently made sure not to report developments in D.A. John Sarsfield's civil case against LV lawyer Michael Pekin and SB politicians who have been identified as LV members. Flores understands that the Los Valientes corruption scandal -- which includes county supes Anthony Botelho and James De La Cruz; candidates for office Richard Place, Ignacio Velazquez,  and Arthur Cantu; and LV nuisance lawsuit filer Michael Pekin  -- is out of bounds. Like so many journalists these days, she dutifully avoids controversy. Editor Paxton refuses to run any more letters from readers complaining about Woods' removal and has penned a couple editorials telling readers to get over it.  Fortunately, the Hollister Free Press Online continues to report the seamy political scandal the Pinnacle ignores. The Hollister Free Lance covers the Los Valientes story ... from the LV viewpoint. In fact, Los Valientes itself may be an outgrowth of an anonymous "Citizen's Voice" column that used to run in the Free Lance. This makes sense when you realize that Richard Place is a former editorial board member and an associate of Steve Staloch. Place was in the room when Staloch and Paxton killed Woods' column and banished her. That conversation took place at the Free Lance offices, where Place feels at right at home. The "Free Pants" dedicated opposition to SB District Attorney John Sarsfield isn't stopping the D.A.s plan to take depositions in the LV case. Fortunately, the Hollister Free Press Online continues to counter the "free Pants" biased coverage of this seamy political scandal. The Gilroy Dispatch doesn't cover Los Valientes, except to occasionally reprint slanted articles from its sister publication, the Hollister Free Lance. Dispatch editor Mark Derry's policy is to avoid the story. So Dipsack readers do not know that Ignacio Velazquez, a Hollister restaurant owner and a known supporter of Los Valientes' Klan-like tactics, is running for office in the District 28 Assembly race, and could represent Gilroy at the state capitol. Since "Iggy" Velasquez is an associate of Richard Place, he's therefore off limits and Derry knows it. To know more about Velazquez' character, read the collection of Iggy rants apppearing in the Hollister Free Press Online. TV & NON-PRINT MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE LOS VALIENTES STORY While print media coverage has been snuffed, the Hollister Free Press Online continues to report the sordid details that Staloch's newspapers aren't reporting, or are mis-reporting, including Los Valientes' origins, their methods, their motives, their embattled legal counsels. This independent media outlet continues to report truthfully and is keeping the public informed about nefarious deeds by elected officials and their cronies. The price for honesty, as HFPO editor Paul Grannis recently learned, includes receiving phone calls from Los Valientes associates who are "valiant" enough to issue death threats anonymously.  KION (Monterey) and KSBW (Salinas) television stations have also reported the Los Valientes story, including D.A. Sarsfield's ongoing battle with SB county supes who don't want to be investigated, and the Kate Woods censorship story. When KION reporter Joel Moreno attempted to interview Staloch to question his relationship to Los Valientes and explain why he gave the order to censor Woods, Staloch "bravely" went underground. Known Los Valientes associate Anthony Botelho wasn't so smart -- he denied, on camera, any knowledge of or involvement with Los Valientes. Botelho may sing a different tune under oath, when D.A. Sarsfield takes depositions in the Los Valientes civil case. That is, if corrupt SB supes don't find a way to prevent that from happening.

Quicksilver chronicles (censored Badlands column)

[The R of G is proud to print Pinnacle News columnist Kate Woods' last known Badlands column, censored from publication by Mainstreet Media publisher Steve Staloch, who deemed the column "too political." Staloch also censored a follow-up story about the Los Valientes saga that outlines the money trail and Mainstreet Media’s involvement in the group. The decision to embargo Woods' column came after Staloch gave LV ringleader Richard Place pre-edited, pre-published copies of the column and the news story to review (a textbook example of an egregious violation of journalism ethics). Judge for yourself whether Woods' satirical send-up is fit for public consumption. (The LV follow-up story eventually ran in The Pinnacle, but Woods' column remains banned.) -- Doug Meier]

by Kate Woods (special contribution to the Republic of Gilroy)

LV Day in New Idria!

Finally. After four years of waiting and wonder, we rubes of New Idria finally know the identity of our political heroes, the Los Valientes gang of Hollister. You see, for years the good citizens of the defunct ghost town of New Idria have strived to build the most gullible, the most politically malleable, the most internally corrupt city government system ever known to mankind.

We don’t recoil from it. We embrace it! And we take our cues from the masters of political goobery: San Benito County.

After all, the LVers succeeded in getting everything they wanted – a new board of pro-growthers, a new “yes man” planning director, a new bunch of friends with a plan to build 8,000 homes on a flood plain – ahh! And let’s not forget, a new newspaper.

In celebration of this fine political acumen, the town of New Idria, Acid Mine Drainage Capital of the World, decided to hold our First Annual Los Valientes Day.

Everyone enthusiastically got involved, from the welfare bum dogs to the town water district president, my brother (and plumber) Kemp. Events included dramatic readings from the Dave Henderson deposition, staged pageants of LV court hearings and open mic night – selected poetry from LV archives. It was all quite moving.

My sister Mel, New Idria City Manager, kicked off the day’s events with a poem she wrote about her favorite LV gang member. She read it with great feeling and bombast, in the center stage area on the Bridge Over Troubled Water, with an eager audience surrounding her on all sides. It went like this (sort of a Haiku):

“He runs here, he runs there,
He runs everywhere,
Afire! His once white hair.
From the daily rag,
To the weekly bag,
To court records and back,
To and fro. Time to duck.
No luck.”

She bowed solemnly. The audience went wild with applause. After all, it’s the effort that counts, not the artistry itself.

Next was the Henderson deposition pageant. It started with a lively stage prologue: Someone had made a cardboard cutout of a bus, with a caricature of former investigator Henderson behind the wheel. As the bus rolled along the bridge (the stage) – the audience hanging on the railing and watching in awe – stagehands threw dummies of various Los Valientes members before its wheels. In the background, the old-time favorite “Man of Constant Sorrow” was playing. It was breathtaking! Women fainted, children cried...it was all quite effective.

Then the curtains opened to a stark stage scene: a small conference room somewhere in Merced County. A stenographer was tapping grimly at her machine. My brother played Dave Henderson, being questioned by special state prosecutor Nancy Battel (played by Mel). Our Cousin Woody played Pekin, and he was snoring away in his chair like an old rattling chain saw.

HENDERSON: Anyway, Ms. Cone wasn’t exactly thrilled when I called her and –

BATTEL: Excuse me, Mr. Henderson, does Mr.Pekin’s snoring interrupt your train of thought? (turns to Pekin) Mike, do you want a cup of coffee?

PEKIN (lifting head momentarily from table, annoyed): Just keep going!

Curtain closes.

Oohs and ahhs, hooting and hollering all around. The audience demanded an encore performance, three times.

Throughout the day the concession stands were doing brisk business. The most popular was the one selling Los Valientes rubber facemasks. The scariest masks were of former Supervisor Richard Place and current Supervisor De La Cruz. But the ones depicting Iggy Velazquez, fired Planning Commissioner Denny Madigan and bully rockery king Dave Grimsely were equally spooky and hideous.

Kids ran around sporting the masks, playing games of chance on the midway set up in the driveway. One of the carny games was “Who Can Make the Most Outrageous Accusations.” Inevitably, when someone yelled, “Corruption!” they won a big stuffed plush toy of a legal brief. Fun!

Another booth ran a Dung Flinging Contest. Participants took turns lobbing piles of coyote excrement against a wall, wherein the one who’s dung stuck the most won! Winners got a bound copy of hundreds of car repair receipts. Then there was the booth for the Friends of the Los Valientes Auxiliary Militia Wives Club. They passed out free copies of the Daily Disappointment, which screeched headlines like, “D.A. Should Resign!” and “Support D.A. Recall!”

Then it was time for another pageant. This one was a stage scene of Supervisor De La Cruz (played by Molly the Dog), flapping and crowing around during a closed session meeting of the county board when they had to discuss litigation against them in the Monteon (Los Valientes) v. the county lawsuit. County Counsel Claude Biddle, hand-picked by the LV fan club of Sally Reed and Susan Lyons, was played by Kemp. The crowd was on the edge of their seats, expecting Biddle (Kemp) to say the obvious: “Conflict of interest!” Instead, he just smiled and said, “That’s right,” while De La Cruz (Molly) kept howling about everything.

That was a nail-biter, a real cliffhanger.

The next scene had De La Cruz (Molly) in open public session, along with the other four board members, who remained silent throughout. County department head after department head would go to the podium and listen while De La Cruz (Molly) said the same thing over and over:

De La Cruz: Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark.

The crowd was morbidly fascinated.

Quite frankly, I think we give the San Benito Stage Company a run for its money.

San Carlos Creek Update: The next day, remnants of the grand festivities wafted around in tatters. I swept up the confetti and bits of LV face masks left behind on the Bridge over the filthy, mercury-choked rust-colored creek, musing over the high points of the celebration – like when Molly the Dog, playing D.A. John Sarsfield in another pageant, chomped down on the ass of the actor playing an LV moneyman. We had to get out the garden hose and spray her to get her to stop. She really got into her part.

I stared into the roiling orange water below and watched an abandoned Los Valientes balloon, emblazoned with a grinning Iggy Velazquez, drift and bumble down the orange rocky banks of the creek.

POP!

Hey columnist! your paper censors the truth

This post goes out to all Mainstreet media editorial page columnists (Cynthia Walker, Mark Paxton, Tom Mulhern, Lisa Pampuch, Chris Morsilli, Dina Campeau, Denise Apuzzo, Bonnie Evans, John Yewell, and anyone else I'm forgetting), and any other frequent contributors to the opinion pages.

[Steve Staloch, Mainstreet Media publisher, chief censor, and creep protector]

As you are busy scribbling your next thoughts for publication, your newspaper is busy censoring the truth and protecting creeps.

But first, since Kate Woods' weekly Pinnacle column remains censored (taken away by publisher Steve Staloch until after the elections), here's an unofficial report from the "Badlands" of San Benito county politics:

The county District Attorney (John Sarsfield) is closing in on the Los Valientes extortion and intimidation ring. He is going to start depositioning LVers and their buddies for the civil rights case he has against Los Valientes -- which means he's going to depose most of the board of supervisors. The board is up in arms over it,  running scared. Today they suspended all money to the DAs office because of it, without the knowledge of Chairwoman Pat Loe, who is not associated with Los Valientes... It's a Brown Act Violation, not to mention it's against state law not to fill empty positions at DA's office or pay the bills. The money is there but they won't release it. Basically it means that there is no criminal justice system in San Benito for the DA's office, except to prosecute DUIs and violent offenses. Corrupt SB county supervisors who belong to shadow groups conducting "anonymous" intimidation lawsuits against political opponents and other people they don't like are off the hook, for now.

The point is this, my former colleagues in the Gilroy pundit press: you won't read about the silencing of Kate Woods, or political corruption in San Benito County politics in your local Mainstreet Media publications. They don't comment on cronies, except to have the Hollister Free Lance write an editorial portraying Los Valientes as victims and the DA as overzealous (see Hollister Free Pants editorial, Where is the Smoking Gun).

Your readers probably assume that the newspaper you write for is committed to exposing corrupt politicians and their henchpeople when they are standing knee-deep in slime.

But your newspaper isn't doing that. Do you care to know why?

Your newspaper is actively suppressing the public's right to know because elected and appointed public officials hold sway with your newspaper's management (Mainstreet Media, LLC). Cronyism rules. Negative stories about cronies aren't reported, or are glossed over. Special cronies can even have a columnist censored during election season, banished for the crime of writing satirical political commentary.

You should know how Kate Woods came to be silenced, because it could happen to you too.

In late February, your publisher, Steve Staloch, the guy who signs the check for your column, agreed to take Woods off the Los Valientes extortion/intimidation case and assigned her to a different beat (Gilroy). Woods has been covering the LV story for years and was revealing important information. An "associate" of Los Valientes, Richard Place, is running for election in San Benito county, and threatened  legal action if  Woods kept covering the story. (Note: despite her new Gilroy workload, Woods managed to publish a follow-on piece to the LV investigation in the March 5 Pinnacle -- Pekin and state may negotiate -- co-written by editor Mark Paxton; however, a follow-on story by Woods was withheld from publication by Pinnacle news management, and the LV coverage has since been given over to reporter Melissa Flores).

Staloch actually allowed Place to call a meeting to decide what to do about Kate Woods. The meeting was held at the Free Lance newspaper office in Hollister. That's right, Richard Place, a candidate for county supervisor and an admitted "associate" of Los Valientes (the DA says he's been the leader all along) was in the room when the newspaper  chain discussed editorial assignments and determined a personnel matter with an employee.

Place also demanded that Woods' Report from the Badlands column be pulled. Too political. Too satirical. Staloch agreed! So Woods' voice was silenced. How convenient for Place, and other cowards and bullies in the South Valley. 

Imagine that! A political candidate enmeshed in civil lawsuits threatening to sue a newspaper for publishing details of a court case readily available from courthouse transcripts. You'd think the newspaper would tell Place to go to hell!

[at left: SB county supervisorial candidate Richard Place (top) and county supe Jaime De La Cruz await judgement outside the SB county courthouse. Perhaps glum after learning that the county wouldn't pick up their tab for legal expenses related to the Los Valientes civil rights trial. Both contend they are not members of Los Valientes. De La Cruz recently voted to suspend funding for the District Attorney's office, so it can't prosecute the LV civil case.]

But not Mainstreet Media, where a political candidate operating under a pall of suspicion can direct editorial policy. Gilroy folks who think this is only a Hollister thing should remember that a similarly entrenched politico with personal political agendas, Jane Howard, sits on the editorial board of the Dipsack. You see, Mainstreet Media reeks with the politics of insider influence, and cronyism compromises the public's right to know. (See the R of G's Hypocrisy, the Dipsack, and Citizen Jane.)

Your publisher and your editor want the Kate Woods/Los Valientes censorship story to disappear. After all, censoring a columnist and being spineless and trampling on journalism ethics is an embarrassing thing for a newspaper to do. Ironically, the San Benito High newspaper is rumored to be tracking the story --  Good for them! It's a perfect case study in journalism ethics --and they can scoop the local professional news publications!

Mainstreet Media is hoping no one reads the Hollister Free Press Online, which has not only named the members of Los Valientes, but also exposed their motivations. HFPO also seems to have caught the editor of the Hollister Free Pants in a workplace web of sexual intrigue. A scandalous tale indeed! But, again, not available in Mainstreet Media publications.

Mainstreet Media is also hoping that people won't read the Republic of Gilroy's investigation into the Kate Woods censorship story (see the Silencing of Kate Woods). But Pinnacle city editor Dennis Taylor found the R of G's coverage relevant enough to warrant a printed copy for each Pinnacle staffer.

They are hoping it'll all go away, hoping that the dozens of letters submitted to the Pinnacle by angry readers will subside. But that may not happen. The longer Mainstreet continues to censor Woods (Mainstreet Media's specious explanation for doing so -- End the Personal Attacks -- was published on Feb 24, in place of Woods' column), the more momentum the story gains.

Even though Woods is off the case, she is still following it. The R of G learned earlier this week that Woods and other Pinnacle staffers have been attending the trial en masse, in defiance of Staloch and Place. According to an R of G source inside the Mainstreet media operation:

Friday (Mar 10) was another court hearing on the LVs ... again some four Pinnacle reporters went. Judge Harry Tobias argued with the state prosecutor Nancy Batelle over the state's definition of extortion -- the DA is trying to prove that LV extorted from nine victims, but Tobias said there has to be physical violence involved with extortion (!!). Remember that his case has two parts -- the first against LV attorney Michael Pekin and his law practice and the second against the LVers themselves. The LVers defaulted on Friday, didn't show up in court, which means they admit they've lost. Pekin did show up, however. Now the case moves forward and the DA must prove that Pekin and the LVs violated civil rights. Ironically, the Hollister Free Lance ran the story this way: "DA does not prove that LVs violated civil rights" -- the opposite of what actually happened.   

[at left: embattled Los Valientes lawyer Michael Pekin (center) and LV "associates" Ignacio Velazquez (owner of the Vault restaurant) and Supervisor James De La Cruz.]

On Wednesday night, Salinas TV station KION 46 picked up the story of the San Benito County DA's case against Los Valientes. Reporter Joel Moreno reported that the SB board of supervisors has voted to de-fund the District Attorney's budget, to the point that he won't be able to pursue the Los Valientes case, which involves several county supervisors. (video: DA's Office may be shut down due to budget problems). Reportedly, Moreno is working on followup stories on LV and has also interviewed Woods about the censoring of her award-winning Badlands column.

The Hollister Free Press Online reports that KION's Moreno tried several times last week to interview Staloch about Woods' censorship and the squelching of the Los Valientes coverage, but Staloch couldn't be found.

Staloch doesn't want to talk about it what's going on.

The question is, do you?

 

The silencing of Kate Woods (end of the public's right to know)

[Mainstreet Media, owners of The Pinnacle News, is suppressing truthful reporting about public figures and politicians in Hollister. Without adequate explanation, Mainstreet Media ownership has suspended the Pinnacle News' investigations into Los Valientes (LV), a shadow group using under-handed tactics to influence Hollister and San Benito county government. They have banned reporter Kate Woods from reporting on LV, and removed her weekly "Badlands" column from the editorial page. Fortunately, the HOLLISTER FREE PRESS ONLINE has continued the reporting. They've backgrounded the LV story on their web site. If you want to understand the motives of the Los Valientes group, make sure to read the HFPO editorial on Los Valientes sacred cows. Go to the HFPO site and decide for yourself what is LV's political agenda.]

Bastards!

The Pinnacle Newspaper has censored Kate Woods' Badlands column, which does not appear in Saturday's paper. The paper has also pulled the veteran Pinnacle reporter off of her beat. She's no longer going to investigate corruption and fear-mongering in San Benito county. 

Why has Woods' column been silenced? It was "too political."

[at left: Hollister, CA, home of press censorship]

This is like saying Pavarotti's singing is "too good" before canceling his performance. Yes, Woods' "Badlands" column is too political. And too bitingly funny. Too accurate at parodying the foibles of local government and too embarrassing because it names names. Woods' column and reporting has been so "too political" that she's won "too many" California Newspaper Publisher's Association (CNPA) awards.

Woods' Badlands columns were not fluffy enough for Mainstreet Media, which owns the Pinnacle News, the Gilroy Dispatch, and the Hollister Free Lance, and a buncha other crummy shopping supplements passing for newspapers. Mainstreet Media is looking for happy, positive. But the story Woods was covering was seamy, nasty.

And what we've got is ugly. There's a hole in the heart of the editorial page where Woods' column used to be.

The truth is the Truth has been censored. Kate Woods' crime: doing her job too well. She got too close to the bone, threatened the newspaper ownership's relationship with a local Hollister businessman named Richard Place, who's running for election to the county board of supervisors. Woods had been reporting on Place's involvement with an anonymous political group in Hollister called Los Valientes ("The Brave Ones").

(The archive  on the Pinnacle News site can be difficult to sift through, for convenience here is a chrono list of Pinnacle stories on Los Valientes, by "Pineackle" reporters Kate Woods and Tracie Cone.)

                                                                                                                                 

DA names LVs public figures named as being among the notorious Los Valientes, the San Benito district attorney announced	19 feb 2006
Group costs citizens $1 million ... “Los Valientes” has cost the San Benito County taxpayers nearly $1 million in legal fees	15 jan 2006
Pekin sues county again Los Valientes attorney Michael Pekin has filed charges ...	08 jan 2006
Los Valientes may have to pay Prove-up hearing slated for Tuesday; Pekin says his rights were violated ...	01 jan 2006
Bye-Bye, 2005 .. common thread prevalent in the top 10 stories that occurred in San Benito County	01 jan 2006
D.A. to appeal Pekin indictment  visiting judge dismissed without comment seven indictments against Los Valientes' attorney Michael Pekin ...	26 june 2005
Supes fire Mendiola... planning director Rob Mendiola ... had 48 hours  to clear out the office he held for nearly 24 years	08 may 2005
Witness: Pekin knew affidavit held lies ... Pekin should have known that Richard  Scagliotti had not committed the alleged acts of corruption...	17 mar 2005
Double voter case dismissed .. case filed in the wake of the District 5 supervisor's race has ended without a felony conviction.	10 mar 2005
Grand Jury indicts Pekin Grand Jury returned five felony indictments and one misdemeanor against Salinas attorney Michael Pekin ...	4 feb 2005
Scagliotti and Cruz move on ... former supervisors Richard Scagliotti and Bob Cruz are no longer sitting at the county dais.	06 jan  2004

Los Valientes is known for frivolous lawsuits and other intimidation tactics against people they don't like. Woods' Feb. 18 article (see DA names LVs) identifies Place as a member of Los Valientes, citing evidence provided by San Benito county district attorney John Sarsfield. Sarsfield identifies Place as "the instigator of the group."

 

In that story, Place threatens to sue the special state prosecutor representing the county, Nancy Batelle, who has also identified Place as a member of Los Valientes. "The attorney who told you this is lying," Place responded in Woods' report, "and she should be brought before the (state) bar on ethics charges. I, myself, will bring charges against her before the bar.”

Woods also reported that the county has filed a civil lawsuit against Los Valientes, and that it has evidence of LV's extortion methods and its civil rights violations of San Benitans who got in LV's way.

And it looks like Place had his way, with the Pinnacle. Looks like, instead of defending the public's right to know, Mainstreet Media rolled over. In addition to censoring Wood's Badlands column, they also pulled Woods' follow-up story to her Feb. 18 LV article.

The dirty rotten shame of it is that Woods' reporting on LV was silenced just as she was about to provide details about the identity of Los Valientes' members, and about how the group wields influence through intimidation, character assasination and spurious lawsuits.

The story gets more sickening.

According to the Hollister Free Press Online, Place was a frequent visitor at the Pinnacle offices in Hollister last week. Place is known to have a good working relationship with Mainstreet Media management. He was once a member of the Hollister Free Pants editorial board. And get this....

"Place has been telling many people around town that he "controls" what gets said in the Freelance and the Pinnacle. He has even, reportedly boasted that he will cause the reporter to be terminated." -- from HFPO posting, 24 Feb 2006

Place is apparently right. According to the Hollister Free Press Online, Place was present at a Pinnacle editorial staff meeting where Woods was called on the carpet and pulled from her beat.

True to his boast, Place did his influence to shut down Woods' Badlands column, and silence her reporting. Silenced for how long, we don't know. It may depend on whether this press censorship story remains local (and dies) or whether it is picked up by regional and national media outlets.

The stench is overwhelming.

If you have Saturday's (Feb. 25) Pinnacle nearby, take a look at the Views & Editorials section. In place of the usual Badlands column is a testament to hypocrisy titled "End the Personal Attacks." The editorial attempts to explain the disappearance of Woods' column and the silencing of her voice. It marks the offical end of journalistic integrity at the Pinnacle.

"The Pinnacle is taking a break from Kate Woods' Badlands column. As much as her razor wit is able to delight or anger readers, we are moving into an election season, and we want Pinnacle readers to be neither delighted nor angry -- we want them to take the issues seriously and to listen in earnest to the various mesages the candidates portend." -- 24 Feb Pinnacle editorial explaining the silencing of Kate Woods

What specious, pompous claptrap. "We want Pinnacle readers to be neither delighted nor angry"... we want them happy and uninformed! As if Woods' astute political commentary wasn't good enough for the Pinnacle. As if political satire isn't a highly valued means of expression in a free society. Or is it free? if you live in Hollister, or San Juan Bautista, or Gilroy, you have to wonder. Has significant information about influential people that you have a right to know been suffocated by people you think you can trust?

"Inciting is easy; communicating is more difficult and listening to opposing points of view with an open mind is the hardest of all.... we simply ask everyone to be thougthful about the issues, respectful toward one another and to remember that cooperation is the keystone that keeps our communities from collapsing" -- more of the specious 24 Feb Pinnacle editorial

Allow me to interpret. As of Feb 24, and the official silencing of Kate Woods, The Pinnacle's new editorial policy is: (a) ask no embarrassing questions of influential people, (b) negative thoughts are not to be expressed, and (c) unless you've got something positive to write about the candidates in the supervisor's race, you best write nothing at all.

This would be an approriate time to amend the Pinnacle's motto to "All the news that's fit to leave out." (In fact, if you look at the Pinnacle's web site, you'll see that Kate Woods name is left out -- it isn't mentioned anywhere on the home page. To get to her archives you have to search on "kate woods".)

As Hunter S. Thompson might observe, the demons are howling at the windows...

It must have also been decided, during Place's meeting with the Pinnacle and Mainstreet Media ownership, that the Feb. 25 Pinnacle front page would feature Place's rebuttals of details in Woods' reporting. Place is given the bottom of the page to quibble over the difference between being a "member of" Los Valientes and just being an "associate" of Los Valientes.

But none of Place's comments in the Pinnacle provide anything close to an adequate reason for suspending Woods' "Badlands" column and taking her off the story she's been pursuing for years. After all, candidate Richard Place's association with Los Valientes is not a matter of national security. It can be reported without compromising the war on terrorism.

The nauseau level continues to rise.

Coincidental to the disappearance of Woods' column and the hijacking of her LV story, the Hollister Free Pants -- the Pinnacle's rival newspaper in Hollister -- published an editorial that describes the DA's investigation of Los Valientes as excessive, and attacks Woods for practicing irresponsible journalism, and basically paints Los Valientes as a victim.

Ignoring the incriminating evidence released by the DA's office that identifies Los Valientes members and "associates" and details their scurious deeds, the Hollister Free Pants disingenuously asks, Where is the Smoking Gun?

The editorial spends half its breath enumerating the details released by the DA so far, then exonerates the members of Los Valientes because the DA's office hasn't won the case yet. Until there is an absolute judgement against Los Valientes, the Free Pants will dismiss all the evidence against LV as innuendo: "personal character assassination through innuendo without proof needs to end," they say. Just as honest reporting of the facts at the Free Pants has already ended.

I agree that it takes balls to walk into a newspaper and tell them to fire their reporter. But you have to remember that Mainstreet Media recently caved under similar pressure from San Juan Buatista council members who demanded Woods' removal from the SJB council beat, and got it. Her crime that time? Truthful reporting of SJB council members and the city manager, who were abusing the public trust (see: San Juan's Shroud of Secrecy).

Who will be the next Hollister person of influence operating under a cloud of suspicion to walk into the offices of the Pinnacle and demand to read next week's issue before it goes to print? Who will be the next to demand a reporter's head because they object to the reporting? In Hollister, whoever uses the best bullying tactics gets to decide which stories aren't covered.

Still not done. There's more fear and loathing to relate.

The Republic of Gilroy has learned, from a Dipsack source, that Woods' censorsing occurred despite the protests of Pinnacle editor Mark Paxson and city editor Dennis Taylor. Paxson and Taylor were overruled, but they may have prevented Woods' termination when they threatened to walk if Woods was fired. But the Dipsack source added that Woods' relocation to the Gilroy beat may be a way of forcing her to quit, a virtual pink slip.

I've also learned that Dipsack editor Mark Derry was present at the meeting where Woods was stripped of the story and demoted, and that he accused Woods of writing for the Republic of Gilroy.

Not true. So far, these posting are all mine. But Kate Woods is welcome to post here.

Are you kidding me? I'd consider it a community service to host Kate Woods. I wouldn't be able to pay her anything, but she'd still be making close to what a Dipsack reporter gets paid.

And the first question I'd ask Kate is, Do these people know anything about journalism ethics? Don't they know that any newspaper doing its job correctly should be defending itself from at least one ongoing crank lawsuit? Don't they know not to allow a vested political interest like Richard Place into an editorial staff meeting where policy and assignments are beings discussed? Don't they know enough not to put Woods on trial with Place, a subject of her investigations, in the same room?

Bullies and other cowards have taken over the newspaper business in Hollister. But this isn't just Hollister's problem. The Gilroy Dipsack's editorial policy also kowtows to local sacred cows (see: Sacred Cow sanctuary).The R of G has said all along that certain influential folks in Gilroy are immune to "negative" reporting. Many parts are left out from the news stories you read in the Dipsack.

.... Dubious congratulations are in order. Bravo Mainstreet Media! You have completely compromised the public's right to know. You've caved to typical legal threats used by Los Valientes, and surrendered any remaining shreds of journalistic integrity. You've utterly failed in your obligation. Fortunately, the Hollister Free Press Online is standing up to these very same bullies and exposing them.

The lesson? Mainstreet Media cannot be trusted. They don't give a damn about a free press. They care mostly about not offending potential advertisers and other persons of influence. Mainstreet Media operations are low-cost centers designed to crank out fluffy, chatty, "newsy" content in order to sell retail ads from big box stores at the mall, OK? That's the aim of community newspaper journalism today.   

We should all regret the death of a free press in Hollister. Don't think it hasn't already happened in Gilroy. Unlike Hollister, and San Juan Buatista, we haven't had a Kate Woods to let us know what really goes on.

And what of Woods?  Last seen, she was driving away from the Pinnacle packing several boxloads of  information, gathered over dozens of investigations of the supposedly anonymous group known Los Valientes. Hopefully she's backed up the information on her computer hard drive as well, because that information might also happen to disappear.

Or did she give the newspaper and the town the figurative finger, and dump the information out the window, watching it scatter in her review mirror as she drove out of town for good? I wouldn't blame her, but that's exactly what the bad guys want her to do.

That's where we'll leave this story. With the remainder of it in danger of not being told, and some despicable individuals running the local newspaper business.

Mike Honda: Indian Gaming Giver

"Indian gambling on tribal land became a significant political issue in California in the last decade. California has more gaming tribes than any other state, with 43 currently hosting some form of gambling. Gaming revenue in California grew in 2002, increasing 17.2 percent from $2.92 billion in 2001 to $3.43 billion in 2002. With huge increases in revenue, tribes have entered the political arena by donating large sums of money to both Democratic and Republican candidates." -- Institute of Government Studies Studies, University of California, Nov, 2004

Our representative in Congress, Mike Honda (representing California's 15th congressional district, which encompasses Gilroy and Silicon Valley) recently introduced legislation that would expedite federal recognition of the Amah Mutsun, a branch of the Ohlone/Costanoan peoples who inhabited the Bay area for at least 1200 years before the Europeans arrived. Passage of the bill (HR 3475) would officially transform Sargent Ranch, a 6,000+ acre area of prime open space south of Gilroy, and other swaths of undeveloped lands on the Santa Clara-San Benito county border, into tribal territory.

[at left, Mike Honda, sponsor of HR 3475, specious special interest legislation on behalf of Indian gaming interests]

The bill's passage would also guarantee Indian gaming sprawl in the South Valley. Keep this in mind: Since 1988 -- and the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which defines how tribes may operate large-scale (class III) gaming casino operations -- federal recognition of Indian tribes by the Bureau of Indian Affairs has been closely followed by the development of Indian gaming casinos on supposedly sacred tribal lands.

Now let's examine the politics and potential deal-making around Honda's bill.

A dubious faction of the Amah Mutsun (led by Woodside resident and self-annointed Amah Mutsun tribal chairperson Irene Zwierlein) has signed a treaty with Sargent Ranch developer Wayne Pierce to develop the land if and when the tribe receives federal recognition. Although the agreement between Pierce and Zwierlein doesn't currently call for an Indian gaming casino, it's a good bet that the agreement would change if Honda manages to get his bill through Congress. You only have to know that for the last 13 years Pierce has tried, and failed, to develop his Sargent Ranch holdings. Pierce is more desperate than ever to cash in the ranch (Ranch mired in debt -- 21 Feb 2005, Gilroy Dispatch).

Zwierlien is likely a poser. She claims to be the tribal leader of the "Amah Mutsun of San Juan Bautista," but her claim to leadership is probably fraudulent. As reported by the Dispatch, the document she used to "prove" her leadership contains photocopied signatures (Forgery Claim blurs Tribe's Fate -- 27 Aug 2005, Dispatch). Zwierlein's bogus claim to tribal leadership has made her unpopular with the legitimate Amah Mutsun and the real tribal chairperson, Valentin Lopez. One of Zwerlien's letters containing photocopied signatures of tribal leaders, and addressed to the BIA, requests that the federal government recognize Zwierlein's paper tribe as the real petitioning tribe, "a separate tribe from the other tribe that we left."

Lopez' band, the legit Amah Mutsun, wants federal recognition also, but they aren't interested in Indian gaming operations. The legit Amah Mutsun are dedicated to celebrating and renewing their cultural authenticity. They hold storytelling festivals, basket weaving seminars, and ceremonies honoring women elders. They recently raised a traditional village house pole, an act typical of their dedication to maintaining an historical identity. You can learn all about the legit Amah Mutsun and the ways of local native peoples at this web site: http://www.indiancanyon.org/. The legit Amah Mutsun don't seem to need federal recognition to be a tribe. And they don't acknowledge Zweirlein's claims.

No one believes that Zwierlein is the authentic leader of the Amah Mutsun -- except Zwierlien and our own Mike Honda. He swears that he's not taking sides in the dispute between the real Amah Mustun and Zwierlien's psuedo-tribe, but no matter how much Honda backtracks, there's no getting around the fact that the language of his bill specifically recognizes Zwierlein the usurper: "To require the prompt review by the Secretary of the Interior of Petition No. 120 for Federal recognition of the Amah Mutsun of Mission San Juan Bautista as an Indian tribe, and for other purposes." There it is in Mike Honda's own writing -- his bill specifically acknowledges the name Zwierlein is using to differentiate her bogus tribe from the real tribe.

A few extra words in the bill's language -- of Mission San Juan Buatista -- would give Zwierlien the legal position to negotiate the development of an Indian gaming casino on Sargent Ranch or on other supposedly sacred tribal lands.

And that stinks. But it shouldn't surprise. There are a lot of sharks in the water waiting to pounce if and when Honda's bill is passed. Despite ardent, organized local opposition to "gaming sprawl" (see this Greenbelt Alliance article) in south Santa Clara county's back yard, plenty of people who matter remain quietly eager for casino development. You can wager they'd like to see Honda put Zwierlein into a position of negotiating strength. 

The list of erstwhile casino investors who have positioned themselves to reap the profit from Indian gaming operation buildout includes:

• Kirk Rossmann, one of the founders of Heritage Bank
• Sal Rubino, a farmer whose family has lived in Santa Clara County since 1892
• Joe Giacalone, a lifelong resident of the area who owns an electrical contracting firm
• Pepper Snyder, owner of Sprig Electric
• Gilroy's own Chris Vanni, owner of Hillcrest Ministorage.

These folks recognize that Indian gaming is an enormously lucrative, mega-billion dollar industry. They know full well how it works: A lot of uneducated common folk get crappy casino jobs and a select few investors, tribal leaders, and construction firms becoming wealthy and wealthier.

Rossman has organized the wannabe casino developers under the banner of two investment groups, Game Won and Game Too. Both entities are currently assisting the California Valley band of Miwok Indians (all of five members; based in Stockton) to court local and state officials with plans to build a casino near the San Benito-Santa Clara county line. If Honda's bill passes, and Zwierlein gets to make her deal with Pierce, you can bet that Game Won and Game Two will be waiting to pounce on that opportunity as well.

The labor unions are also licking lips over the prospect of casino development on federally-recognized tribal lands in the area. Labor unions are huge supporters of Indian gaming, which is a labor intensive business. Labor unions are inextricably central to the construction, maintenance, and operation of Indian gaming casinos. Given that 42% of Honda PAC contributions come directly from labor (see opensecrets.org' spage on Mike Honda), it's no wonder that he has introduced legislation that would legitimize Zwerlien's false tribal leadership claim, open up enormous profit-making opportunities for land developers, and expand the labor unions' sphere of influence. (Note that a tribe is not free to develop its own measures relating to unionization. It must participate in the state-wide labor relations scheme established by the State of California in the Tribal Labor Relations Ordinance. So where casinos are concerned, uniformity to the rules of the existing labor unions is required. In other words, labor and Indian gaming are in lockstep.)

Now we can look at the timing of Honda's bill -- why he's trying to rush through Amah Mutsun federal recognition that's supposed to happen anyway.

We know that motives behind federal recognition of Indian tribes have frequently been tied to gaming influence on United States senators and congressman. But that's going to change. In the future, the burden of proof will be on the tribe to prove that it meets all of the criteria.

A GOA report in 2002 found that the seven criteria for tribal recognition have been widely ignored, with many psuedo-tribes like Zwierlien's receiving recognition they don't deserve. The Dodd-Leiberman amendment, introduced in September, 2002, put the brakes on tribal recognitions. The Federal Acknolwedgement Process Reform Act of 2003 made it more difficult for Indian gaming interests to peddle their influence. The point is that the proliferation of Indian gaming casinos and public awareness of the pitfalls of the Indian tribal recognition process are making it much more difficult for Indian gaming interests to work behind the scenes to pbuild casinos on tribal lands, much more difficult than, say, ten years ago.

It's no stretch of the imagination to believe that these same interests have influenced Honda to submit his bill to expedite recongition of the Amah Mutsun. It's no stretch to view Honda's bill as an end-run on behalf of local Indian gaming pushers. It's no stretch to view Honda as a silent-but-willing Indian gaming patron and his bill as specious special interest legislation.

Indian gaming sprawl is new to south county, but it's not an unusual story in California. As a result of the 1988 Indian Gaming act, little-known groups with the barest of genealocial links to local native American identity have petitioned and received recognition as federal tribes, mostly in order to open casinos for "economic development purposes." Once recognized, the tribes act like sovereign nations, free to operate without restriction of whatever state regulations may exist regarding gambling. Call it red man's revenge on the white man for a 150 years of demeaning subjugation known as reservation life. Call it payback.

Just don't call Irene Zwierlein a legitimate Amah Mutsun leader. It's debatable whether she is even an Amah Mustun proper. Responding to a posting on an ancestry message board,  Zwierlein, who gives her email address as amah_mutsun@yahoo.com, wrote the following:

"... my ancestors are orginally from
Mexico they came with
Anza and the Portola Expiditions

1769 Census in CA
Manuela Cantua
Julian Cantua in Santa Calrain the 1800
living at the San Ysidro Rancho in the 1900 Census"

So by her own admission, Zwierlein is a Mexican who calls herself an Amah Mutsun. Which is OK. Anyone with ancestral links to people who lived, worked, and died at missions San Juan Bautista or Santa Cruz prior to 1840 are considered legitimate Amah Mutsun. The question remains: who does Zwierlein represent, really?

In a March letter to the Dispatch, the tribal band's true chairperson, Val Lopez, pointed out that Zwierlein  "resigned as chairperson of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, in writing, effective March 18, 2000." He then went on to say this about Zwierlein's pal, Wayne Pierce:

"We reiterate our opposition to Mr. Pierce’s plans to develop any portion of Sargent Ranch and strongly encourage the community to continue it’s opposition to this proposal. We are the Amah Mutsun People of San Juan Bautista, we speak for ourselves, and we will continue to support protection of open spaces and cultural resources in our aboriginal territory."

Again, it doesn't matter what the Amah Mutsun's true leader says about Zwierlein. Mike Honda's bill recognizes Zwierlein as the real deal, as the true leader of the Amah Mutsun. That's what matters.

How dare this diverse assemblage of the scurious connive to bring a casino to our area, you ask? Why not? Just look at the geography, the demographics, and recent history.

South county is close to a major metropolitan area, with plenty of undeveloped land available to build on. Ad hoc big box development is standard practice in garlic town -- remember that Gilroy's city council cleared a path for the Bay area's first super Wal-mart without gaining a single concession to improve Gilroy's ratty downtown. What is it that makes you think Gilroy wouldn't embrace all the tacky pleasures a casino may bring? What makes you think a casino deal wouldn't be one-sided and stupid? Hollister has a history of making atrocious land development decisions, the village of San Juan Bautista is run by a collection of dunces, and Gilroy's town fathers are notoriously anti-green and obstinately proud about doing development  poorly.

Casinos are gaudy, unsavory temples to shlock, greed, and overstimulation. They are criminal magnets. Any economic benefit that might arise is overshadowed by the spectre of low-paying, dead-end jobs, an influx of drug dealers and prostitutes, a general increase in the population of unsavory characters, and a dramatic rise in gambling addiction. But let's face it, many folks round these parts would consider $7/hr to $15/hr casino jobs to be lucrative. They'd be happy. So perhaps this was meant to be. Mike Honda and the labor unions, Wayne Pierce and Irenne Zwierlien, Game Won/Game Too and the California Wiwok Tribe -- they're all just a means for the inevitable Indian gaming casino sprawl that is destined to arrive.

Further readings

• Sweeping recognition reform bill offered (Indianz.com -- also see their news links)
• FindLaw for Legal Professionals: Indian Gaming
• University of California Government Studies: Indian Gaming in California
• Opinion Journal: the rise of Indian gaming casinos, a $10 billion a year industry
• Indianz.com: Congress shouldn't micromanage BIA
• Tribal claim under the microscope -- 02 sept 2005 Dispatch
• Tribe plan San Benito Business Resort -- San Jose Business Journal
• Gaming News: Hollister casino supporters speak out (15 Feb 2005)
• Landwatch Monterey County: Casino politics (21 Feb, 2005)
• Hollister Free Lance artice (reported on Greenbelt Alliance web site): Another tribal development/second Indian group seeks Sargent Ranch deal (17 Sept, 2004)
• Zweirlein speaks out: Tribal chair of Amah Mutsun Indians defends right to develop ranch (09 Nov, 2005 letter to editor)
• Val Lopez speaks out: Local Indians against Sargent Ranch Proposal and Developer and tribal faction leader way off base on claims (letters to the editor)