Election still unsettled
I'm getting more and more comments each day from people who still think there's something very wrong with the local election and that should greatly concern County Clerk Marsha Wharff. She blames us, the media, for creating the confusion, but at least I was glad to see that she told the supervisors Tuesday that she would take another look at whether she can reopen some polling places now that she has more handicapped accessible voting machines available for them. As for the count, she told me - from an assessor's conference out of town Wednesday - that it could well be after Thanksgiving before we have results and that it certainly would not be this week.
On another topic, I think the FBI, the DEA and whoever else was involved owes the family of the late Norm Vroman a big apology. Apparently, the "raid" they planned on his house, which they still won't officially confirm, was based on erroneous information from someone who doesn't know the difference between a gun and a silencer. Apparently you have to register silencers with a number just like each gun. So, Vroman's office had two of the assault weapons at issue, each fitted with a silencer, hence four separate registration numbers. So, seeing four numbers, the Feds assume there are four guns and start wondering where the other two guns are. They jump to the conclusion that they're at Vroman's house. I am told by a source I trust that the feds were called on it and essentially the answer was, "Oh." I also found out that there did indeed appear to be pot growing on Vroman's property and it was an illegal grow. Vroman had over 100 acres in the Hopland area and in one corner his family later found the evidence of a clandestine growing operation much like the ones agents find in the woods around here all the time. We're hoping to get someone to go on the record on all of this, but I'm not holding my breath.
After several weeks, we've decided to pull the community blog page for the time being. No one is using it. We will save it for times when there is likely to be lots of traffic, say, during winter weather events or another huge political issue.