– All this time there has been an epic legal battle going on under our very Ferndalian noses. Seems someone is alleged to have pulled the old dairy cow switcheroo, thereby saddling another innocent husbandman with a rep for poorly producing livestock.

Back in 2004, Ray Christie cut a deal with Ferndale’s Miranda Dairy to pasture 537 of his cattle on their grounds in exchange for milk revenue. Later, Christie sold a number of those cows to someone else. Bad scoobies erupted when that third party came to collect his four-legged goods. According to a lawsuit that Christie later filed, Miranda Dairy instead kept the quality Christie cattle for its own self, substituting some less generous bovines from its own inventory. In his lawsuit, Christie alleged “trade libel” – the theory that his own reputation as a dairyman suffered in the sale, because the cattle that actually changed hands were crap. Through no fault of his own.

This all comes to light now because Miranda Dairy sued its insurance carrier on the grounds that said carrier should have coughed up the dough to pay off Christie on the trade libel claims. A California appellate court recently handed the dairy a partial win , Westlaw reports today: On the one hand, the insurance company must indeed pay the claim. On the other, the company did not act in bad faith, so doesn’t owe damages in that regard.

Dramatis personae : Dorice Miranda of Miranda Dairy is perhaps better known throughout the county at large as the heavily government-subsidized head of the local chapter of the Tea Party . Ray Christie is that McKinleyville dude who beat a pretty serious cockfighting rap a couple of years ago.

So: There ya go.

– Former HSU student government representative Jason Robo was arrested last week on outstanding concealed weapons charges , the Arcata Eye reports. The fidgety fellow, a colorful Arcata presence who had a previous run-in with the law when he lost his shit on an airplane , is out on bail.

– It is April 20.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRm1yqSmsGY

UPDATE :