Mendocino County Today: Tuesday 4/9/24

Sunny | Cloud Show | Solar Eclipse | Blood Drive | Walking Group | Hypnosis Meeting | Peter Principle | Horses | Newman Chat | Earth Day | Eigenman Memorial | MCHCD | Burn Day | Philo Greetings | Ed Notes | Yesterday's Catch | Thirsty Ag | Many Jobs | Wolf Dogs | Hitchhiking | Lady Wepner | USA Money | Farleys | Gaza Flotilla | Glorious Victory | Caen Files | Just Tulips

WARM-UP IS UNDERWAY for the work week, then a short and damp cool down for Friday and into the weekend, then back to a warm-up next work week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Clear skies & 44F on the coast this Tuesday morning. Clear skies thru Thursday then rain later Friday & the weekend. Next week is looking dry so far.

THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE brought America to a standstill on Monday as millions stopped work, paused classes and flocked to the streets and city rooftops to view the rare event. After sweeping northeast through Mexico and then Texas, Arkansas and Ohio shortly before 2pm, crowds gathered in New York City and Washington DC hoping to catch a glimpse. The grand finale was in Maine, where families took a break from spring to take it all in. The last partial eclipse was seen in Caribou at 4.40pm. While the crowds in the south were awestruck and New Yorkers were typically underwhelmed, the event sent animals in zoos and households across the country into a frenzy. At the Dallas Zoo, giraffes, zebras and ostriches shrieked, squawked and ran for cover as the clouds grew darker. (Daily Mail)

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SOLAR ECLIPSE, MENDO-STYLE!

Jim Heid (Coast Chatline): It wasn’t total, but it was totally great.

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DIFFERENCES ECLIPSED

Editor,

The solar eclipse on Monday April 8 served to unite humanity in the witnessing of a celestial spectacle in which racial, economic and partisan differences were set aside, however briefly, in a peaceful, awe-inspiring and communal experience of sublime wonderment.

As the sun was slowly yet inexorably obscured by the moon, all of our earthly human rancor seemed petty and ephemeral by contrast.

Compared with the magnitude and magnificence of our planet and its sun and moon and their heavenly dance, humankind’s quotidian travails and grievances are cosmically inconsequential, even if we foolishly and hubristically imbue them with incommensurate vehemence and import during our relatively fleeting lives on terra firma.

Mark Godes

Chelsea, Massachusetts

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BLOOD DRIVE IN FORT BRAGG APRIL 10 AND 11

Your blood donation can make a HUGE, positive difference in many folk's lives!! There will be a blood drive on April 10 and 11 at the First Presbyterian Church 367 So Sanderson in Fort Bragg. Please call VITALANT at 877-258-4825 with any specific questions or concerns or go to their website vitalant.com

MARY PAT PALMER: I'm thinking that a “slow walker” group would do well. So far there are four of us tho some are more sporadic than others. I am pretty much always out the door at 10. I live on Grey Fox, off of Lambert Lane. I walk from my place to the 2nd bridge, about 1/2 mile and 1/2 hour. Folks could meet me if they walk west on Lambert from 128. Afterwards a latte at Mosswood or just home. Let me know if you are interested - 707-895-3007, or mpatpalm@herbalenergetics.com.

A READER WRITES:

As you drive down Perkins St., also known as the Homeless Hwy, you will notice the vacant buildings. Denny’s, Savings Bank offices where Century 21 once called home, Curry’s Furniture and Dragon’s Lair. And now, J.C. Penney. What do all of these have in common? The City of Ukiah!

Let’s talk about our business friendly city, that is at least what Ukiah City Manager Sage Sagiacomo says. Obviously Sage has never met his planning department. Two words, unfriendly and difficult. While their main importance is the beautiful Streetscape, business is disappearing. We will have the most beautiful streets to drive up to a plethora of vacant buildings. As I write today, the old Romi’s Barbecue was purchased by a restaurant owner to put another restaurant in the same site. The planning department has delayed him for almost a year. As a reader wrote, maybe we can get a meeting to nowhere with Mo. Mo has a lot of meetings but nothing ever gets done. Funny isn’t it? But lucky us, her trolls have given us four more years with our fearless cheerleader. Got to love Facebook.

Happy Donuts and the Regal Theatre must love the City of Ukiah as their entrances have been torn up for almost a year, that’s got to be good for business.

Who do we hold responsible? The City Council! The buck stops there. They are Sage’s boss. One would think that Sage is the boss of them if you witness a council meeting.

It gets down to this, elections are important. We need council members who are pro small business. We can have beautiful streets and businesses, but the people we vote in must lead, not follow. They must send a message to staff that their jobs are to open doors, not shut them.

Enough with Streetscapes and Redwood Trails. Elected leaders need to start dealing with real issues that affect their citizens.

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“LAZARUS” (of Willits) responds: Your observations are all too common throughout the county, State, and Country. Once, political offices were held by people who knew how to build, grow a business, and manage money. The best and the brightest competed for the right to make policy and govern the masses. But now, the best and the brightest want no part of the morass that all politics has become. Those qualified to lead are either recruited or build their own, more secure environment to live out their lucrative, privileged lives. So, that leaves people who are the poster people for The Peter Principle. Those, for the most part, are morally flawed, intellectually challenged individuals who, through a popularity contest, are promoted to their highest level of incompetence. There are no better examples than Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

VALLEY CHAT WITH AARON & MARSHALL NEWMAN

The Anderson Valley Historical Society presents another fun and informative Valley Chat featuring Aaron & Marshall Newman. They will be speaking on Sunday, April 14 at 2pm. Their Chat will feature Stories of "El Rancho Navarro", living near Philo in the early 1960's. Aaron & Marshall's folks were the owners of the El Rancho Navarro youth camp during those years and they resided on the property. The property was on the west side of the Navarro River with the only access being a walking swinging bridge. Come enjoy the stories of their adventures.

Join us in the Anderson Valley Museum Rose Room - Refreshments to follow and Admission is Free!

15TH ANNUAL EARTH DAY CELEBRATION APRIL 20 FEATURES

…great food, earth-friendly activities, plant sale, lively entertainment

Noyo Food Forest’s 15th Annual Earth Day Festival will be held Saturday, April 20 from 12-4pm at The Learning Garden on the Fort Bragg High School campus at 300 Dana Street. Join us for this FREE, fun family event. This year’s festival will include live entertainment with Circus Mecca, Gwyneth Moreland and Morgan Daniel (of Foxglove), and 2nd Hand Grass featuring Gene Parsons. Also join us for a plant sale, hands-on environmental activities, earth-friendly artisan crafts, local nonprofit booths, delicious food, upcycled T-shirt press, and our famous bicycle-powered smoothies… all with a focus on regenerative gardening and community farming.

Earth Day, founded in 1970, is an international celebration of the planet and environmental teach-in. Our multicultural, multi-generational event brings together people and organizations from all across our community. The Earth Day Festival has been the signature benefit event for Noyo Food Forest since it was founded in 2006. This FREE event is open to all (adult donations encouraged). Please observe school campus rules: no dogs, no alcohol or drugs, and no smoking. More information at noyofoodforest.org.

A CELEBRATION of the life of Carolyn Eigenman will be held Saturday, May 18th at the little red school house in Boonville from 1-4pm.

MENDOCINO COAST HEALTH CARE DISTRICT (MCHCD) was formed in 1967 and spans the Coast from Rockport to Elk. The purpose of the MCHCD is to support thriving, healthy communities on the Coast by ensuring continuous, accessible, high-quality, sustainable health care.

MCHCD owns and oversees the property and buildings of our current hospital while Adventist Health Mendocino Coast hires, manages, and oversees management and all of the doctors, nurses and staff working in the hospital and the North Coast Family Health Center. 

Learn more about the Mendocino Coast Health Care District at https://www.mchcd.org/

JOHN REDDING:

The neighbor behind me has two burn piles going. It is a burn day but the smoke is going into my home but more concernedly into the homes of elderly people with respiratory issues. 

I called over the fence to ask the neighbor to put out the fire until the wind dies down. Being a jerk and this not being the first time he has done this, he did nothing.

I called the Sheriff, and a nice woman helpfully transferred me to Cal Fire. The nice woman there said although it was a burn day, there has to be a smoke management plan. Gave me the phone number of the Mendocino Air Quality Management District. That is where the trail ended. No one is answering the phone. 

I guess we need to realize that we live in a world where a lot of people don't respect the interest of others and that there is no one in government coming to our aid.

FROM E-BAY, two old postcards of local interest. The first from 1909, the second from 1911. (Marshall Newman)

ED NOTES

THE DEBATE about how to manage the mouth of the Navarro hasn't changed much over the years. I've unearthed one from 25 years ago featuring the colorful, plain-talking Comptche logger, the late Jerry Philbrick, who always got right to the point, which was only one reason local bureaucrats tried to avoid him. The other reason natural world managers scuttled off in the opposite direction when Philbrick appeared was because much of what he had to say was at least worth discussing.

People who work outside tend to know more about the natural world than people who work indoors.

"I GOT this letter the other day," Philbrick began, "from a woman named Cynthia Rodham Bloom or something like that. She said she wanted to go out and look at streams. I called her back and left a message for her that she was missing the real problems with the county's streams. She called me back. She's fun to talk to but dumb as a box of rocks."

WHICH is where indoor people say to themselves, "I think we've got trouble." Out loud they say, "We don't allow personal attacks or any other forms of negativity in our office, Mr. Philbrick, and you've already caused 25 of us extreme distress.

MS. BLOOM may or may not be dumb, but pretending to be dumb is a smart career move if one is headed up the bureaucratic ladder. But more and more often the regulatory agencies are putting "chicks up front," as the demonstration tactic of placing the most attractive and vulnerable demonstrators in the front ranks of 60's was called. The theory was that the cops were less likely to beat on women than men. Which was another theory undone by reality.

PUTTING A YOUNG WOMAN up front to explain Fish and Game's shifting party line on how to put fish back in local streams seems pretty cynical to me, but government is a pretty cynical business these days. 

Look at it from Ms. Bloom's perspective: she's got layers of bosses — all men — all far from Mendocino County who'd toss her over the side in a quick minute if it was to their advantage. The big boys in Sacramento go with the political flow, even when Mendocino County's rivers have ceased flowing, and the fish are backed up at the mouth of the Navarro like commuters during a BART strike.

"WHO THE HELL are these people?" Philbrick demands. I've got the same question. Who the hell are these people, and who's in charge of them? What's the policy? Where can I read it? Why are they allowing our rivers to die?

"RIGHT NOW," Philbrick points out, "Salmon Creek, Alder Creek, Greenwood Creek, Mill Creek, Pudding Creek, the Navarro, and Ten Mile are all closed at the mouth. I told the Fish and Game lady that we don't get the early rains any more, and unless the streams are opened at the mouth like we used to open them at their mouths when they silted up, a whole year's worth of fish will dump their eggs out to sea, if the sea lions don't get 'em first."

PHILBRICK was about an inch short of apoplectic. "You know what she said? 'I don't believe in the philosophy of opening up the mouths because I think it washes the young fish out to sea too soon. They're not ready for salt water’."

"I COULDN'T BELIEVE what I was hearing," Philbrick said. "I was going to take her out to the rivers and show her the situation, but I guess her boss found out and that was that. There will be no fish again this year unless we get a seven or eight inch storm between now and the 15th of November. And there's hundreds of sea lions out there."

IT USED TO BE that people who lived here could do what needed to be done to free the streams for the fish, but....

"IN THE OLD DAYS," Philbrick recalls, "we'd go out and dredge open the streams. We'd open them just big enough for the salmon to get in; we'd help them get through the tide water. It doesn't take a monster storm to get them up stream; three or four inches of water, they can go. But it takes a monster storm to get the stream big enough to break through a sand bar, and we've got sand bars at the mouths of these streams right now. Worse, nobody is allowed to open them just a crack for the fish! Nature will take its course, but sometimes man has to help nature a little bit."

PHILBRICK is up on his history. "The policy of not going near the mouths with a tool bigger than a sugar spoon began in the early 1980's. We used to open them up with backhoes. The weather has changed over the last few years. I've been rained out of the woods when we got the good early rains the first of October, and those were the best fish years. But we haven't got those early rains any more. Maybe we will again, but for the last ten years or so, there's been no early rain big enough to open the river mouths. The policy of Fish and Game is just let things alone. They don't understand that leaving things alone is taking the salmon runs away from us. If the early rains don't start again the mouths will stay closed, the fish will drop their eggs out in the ocean, and there'll be more sea lions than fish out there. I agree that nature should be left alone in normal rain years, but during these dry years when you have a lot of sedimentation and siltation in the streams, and most of it from Caltrans and the County, the more of it washes down towards the mouth and the ocean forces it back into the sand bars we see at the mouths right now. Man has to go out there and help out a little bit because not only can't the salmon get up stream, the sea lions show up behind them and murder them as fast as they can!"

I CALLED FISH AND GAME, finally reaching a man named Albin. He sounded like a young guy, not that there's anything wrong with young people except lack of experience, the only real teacher any of us have, when it comes down to it. 

MR. ALBIN listened patiently as I relayed Philbrick's sense of urgency about the condition of the streams as fish habitat, adding that I not only agreed with Philbrick but I, too, had watched the big early rains of late September and early October disappear and had seen the mouths of the rivers silt shut earlier every year. I'd also seen clusters of sea lions massed at the river mouths, chowing down on the fish schooling up like so many millions of hors d'oeuvres because they couldn't get upstream.

"IF THE FISH run in early," Mr. Albin said, "it might expose them to more poaching, spearing with pitchforks and things like that."

I DAMN NEAR dropped my phone. Even the most committed poacher gave up pitchforks by the age of ten. Besides which, people have been pretty good about not poaching the local streams. Everyone wants the fish back, even the poachers. It's no secret there are serious problems with the annual fish runs, and poachers are the least of it.

ALBIN partially redeemed himself with more plausible arguments for not forcing open the stream mouths. "Even if the fish get through they're still stuck in the lagoon; they can't get upstream and the sea lions follow them in. And the water temperature in the streams is too hot right now for the health of the fish. It's illegal to open up the mouths of the rivers. You need a stream alteration permit to do it, and it's not something we want to provide. For many years, the sea lions were shot by fishermen, but sea lions are sacred now."

MR. F&G'S comment about the protected status of the exponentially reproducing sea lions was said with what sounded to me like an ironic chuckle. Albin sounded like he'd like to crank off a few rounds into a sea lion himself.

I ASKED ALBIN what his fish prognosis was for the coming year. "Hard to say locally," he replied. "It seems to be a good year for salmon off our coast, but those fish are mostly Chinook from the Sacramento and Klamath rivers, with some from the Eel."

HOW ABOUT the impact on the Navarro and the fish from the large-scale water diversions by Anderson Valley's wine industry?

"THERE'S A WATER THING going on in Anderson Valley," Albin laconically conceded, "but I'm not involved with that. I know there are discussions going on between the State Water Board and Fish and Game."

THE "WATER THING" is likely to be with us for some time, but it seems common sense is pretty much confined to the old logger from Comptche, Jerry Philbrick. He'd like to see the fish get upstream again with a little help from the only real friends they've ever had — the people who live here.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, April 8, 2024

KELISHA ALVAREZ, Ukiah. Battery on peace officer, county parole violation. (Frequent flyer.)

TIFFANY BARRINE-HART, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, resisting, probation revocation.

JOSEPH BUCKINGHAM, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, disorderly conduct-alcohol.

JOVANY CORTEZ-TOVAR, Philo. DUI.

SANTOS GONZALEZ-ESQUIVEL, Ukiah. Protective order violation.

MICHAEL OLVERA-CAMPOS, Ukiah. Under influence, paraphernalia, parole violation.

MARITA SCHNEIDER, Redwood Valley. Protective order violation, resisting.

VINCENT TARANGO, Ukiah. County parole violation.

LISA WEBER, Ukiah. Shopping cart, resisting.

CATTLE ARE "DRINKING THE COLORADO RIVER DRY" — IS THE SAME TRUE FOR THE KLAMATH?

by Felice Pace

High Country News reported recently on a research study which found that, within the Colorado River Basin, agriculture:

• Consumes 74% of the water directly used by humans, including the water used producing cattle feed, and that
• Cattle-feed crops (alfalfa and other hay) consume more Colorado River water than any other crop category, accounting for 32% of all water from the basin; 46% of direct water consumption; and 62% of all agricultural water consumed.

That got me wondering about how much of the Klamath River Basin's surface water is consumed by agriculture in general and for beef production. According to US Bureau of Reclamation studies:

• Agricultural irrigation uses about 98% of the total surface water used throughout the Klamath River Basin.

That staggering amount includes irrigation using surface water and surface water consumed directly by cattle and other livestock.

There is probably no other river basin in the USA where agriculture accounts for such a high percentage of total surface water consumption. While that reflects the overwhelmingly rural nature of the Basin, where population density is among the lowest in the West, it also points to the opportunity (some would call it "the necessity") for a rebalancing of Klamath waters.

Furthermore, because groundwater and surface flows are closely related in significant portions of the basin, including the Scott River Subbasin, and because of the significant use of groundwater for irrigation, especially cattle production, the impact of Upper Klamath, Scott and Shasta Valley agriculture on total water supplies is also likely to be in the 90 to 98 percent range. For this reason, any significant balancing of Klamath waters must include not only surface water but also our Basin's interconnected groundwater as well.

Without a true balancing of the waters, that is, an alignment of supply and demand which including adequate streamflows, there can be no Klamath water peace, conflict over water will continue and intensify with climate change.

The other main current impediment which is preventing a balancing of Klamath waters is the lack of political will within the Biden and Newsom Administrations to get the job done. Here as in the Columbia and other salmon basins, Biden's folks and Newsom's prefer to buy off tribes and restorationists with funding for "habitat restoration" while totally ignoring and omitting funds for the flow assessments which must form the basis for a true balancing of the waters.

So far that has worked with most of the salmon tribes. But I still have hope that tribal leaders will awaken to the limits of "collaboration" and "habitat restoration" and will become, once again, the leading advocates for the necessary flow studies and a true balancing of the waters.

For a return to Klamath River tribal flow advocacy to take place, I believe that new, young and dynamic leadership, ready to demand change, must replace those among current tribal, county and other leaders who are totally bought into the twin distractions - "collaboration" and "habitat restoration".

Postscript: There will be some readers who take exception to my characterization of "habitat restoration" as a "distraction". I want those folks to know that I was an early advocate for restoration and led the successful first efforts to get Congress to fund salmon habitat restoration way back in the 90s. I still support smart, targeted habitat restoration. However, all the good habitat restoration possible will not restore living rivers. For true and sustainable restoration to take place, adequate flows are required. As a matter of equity, I believe adequate flows must be established by water year type. In that way, when there is abundance, all share in it. And when there is scarcity, all share in that as well.

(klamblog.blogspot.com)

PACK OF WOLF HYBRIDS EVADE CAPTURE IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

by Amanda Bartlett

Authorities are trying to capture a pack of wild “wolf-type” dogs that have been roaming the streets of Shingletown in Northern California since last week.

The animals were described as likely “wolf/husky/malamute hybrids that belonged to a local resident and had gone feral,” Tim Mapes, public information officer for the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office, said in a news release Friday. Wolf hybrids are canines produced from the mating between a wolf and a domestic dog.

Animal regulation officers cited the owner of the dogs for having unlicensed and unvaccinated animals, strays and kennel violations, which were not specified but can address issues such as animals being kept without food and water, or lack of adequate shelter, per the Humane Society of the United States. 

The owner voluntarily turned over one of the dogs. “But finding and catching the remaining six animals is challenging,” Mapes said. 

Animal regulation officers have set traps and are routinely patrolling the area. The pack of wolf hybrids killed another dog last week, Mapes said, and officers have notified residents of the animals’ presence to keep themselves safe as well as their pets and livestock.

Last November, a wolf hybrid was spotted wandering on the outskirts of Sebastopol, prompting a multi-agency effort to track it down. The two-year-old dog named Shadow was captured and reunited with his owner after days of searching; the animals are known for their tendency to roam and require intensive care. 

First-generation wolf hybrids are illegal to own, according to the Fish and Wildlife Department, and though no state permit is required to possess a first-generation wolf hybrid’s descendants, certain cities and counties may prohibit possession or require a permit.

SFGATE attempted to contact the sheriff’s office for updates Sunday but did not hear back by time of publication.

“We will continue to address this issue until it is resolved,” Mapes said in the news release.

(SFgate.com)

“ONE OF THE BIGGEST TROUBLES hitchhiking is having to talk to innumerable people, make them feel they didn’t make a mistake picking you up."

— Jack Kerouac

THE NIGHT BEFORE the championship fight, I bought my wife Phyllis a powder-blue negligee. I was confident. I was on a nine-bout winning streak and I bought the negligee and I gave it to her in Cleveland the night before the fight. I said, 'Tomorrow night I want you to wear this in bed because tomorrow night you're going to be sleeping with the heavyweight champion of the world." She said, "OK, no problem."

After the fight I came back to the hotel - I lost the fight - and walked into the hotel room. And there she is sitting on the end of the bed with the powder-blue negligee, and she says to me, "Am I going to Ali's room or is he coming to mine?"

She had real good sense of humor.

— Chuck Wepner

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The USA has money for everyone, giving countries like Egypt billions, arming Ukraine, protecting South Korea, and so on, but when it comes to maintaining our own power grid, bridges, roads, tunnels and infrastructure generally, we don’t appear to have nearly enough money to do that. It is a sad and absurd state of affairs. I remember W. Bush braying about how proud he was that the US was building roads/schools/hospitals in Iraq . . . and the outcry from US citizens asking why aren’t we building those things here, to help our own citizens/businesses/communities.

INTERNATIONAL CIVILIAN AID FLOTILLA TO BREAK SIEGE OF GAZA

CODEPINK’s Ann Wright, Medea Benjamin and hundreds of other human rights activists with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition are due to set sail on multiple vessels in mid-April to carry 5,500 tons of aid for Gaza. Their mission, aside from delivering the much-needed humanitarian aid, is to challenge Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza amid dire conditions, including widespread hunger and lack of medical attention intentionally caused by Israeli policies. Time is running out for many in Gaza as Israel threatens an all-out attack on Rafah and experts warn hunger and disease could soon surpass casualties from bombings.

“I have been walking the halls of Congress every day since October, going to rallies every weekend, writing letters of outrage to President Biden every night–and nothing has worked to stop Israel from murdering thousands upon thousands of innocent people. What more can I do? I can go on this flotilla to try to break the criminal siege that Israel has imposed on Gaza,” said CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin.

“President Biden waited six months, waited until 33,000 had been killed, mostly women and children, before picking up the phone and demanding that Netanyahu reduce civilian harm, allow more aid in, and protect aid workers,” said CODEPINK Ret. Army Colonel and former U.S. Diplomat Ann Wright. “But even if Israel allows more humanitarian aid in, it is still bombing Gaza with U.S. bombs, shooting innocent people and imprisoning the 2.2 million people that live in Gaza. Getting humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza is urgent, but it is not sufficient. We must end Israel’s unlawful, deadly blockade as well as Israel’s overall control of Gaza. That’s why we need this flotilla, filled with unarmed civilians, human rights observers from 30 countries, to challenge Israel’s brutal grip on the Gaza strip.”

Israel’s longstanding neglect of its responsibility as an occupying power to safeguard the health and wellbeing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank has escalated into genocidal actions, including using starvation as a weapon of war. Israeli leaders have openly declared intentions to collectively punish Gaza’s population. The Freedom Flotilla opposes Israel’s authority over aid and will refuse any inspection of our cargo. For safety and effective aid distribution, the flotilla will deploy numerous international humanitarian observers from diverse backgrounds and countries.

Despite air drops of food and temporary docks, Israel continues to block thousands of aid trucks from entering Gaza through land crossings. The International Court of Justice’s rulings on January 26 and March 28 emphasize Israel’s obligation to ensure the safety and security of Palestinians in Gaza, including facilitating humanitarian assistance without obstruction.

“The International Court of Justice’s preliminary measures ordered against Israel are very clear,” comments Ismail Moola of South Africa’s Palestine Solidarity Alliance, which is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. “The court’s ruling requires the whole world to play their part to stop the genocide unfolding in Gaza, including unobstructed access to vital aid. While our governments fail to lead in these urgently required humanitarian responses, people of conscience and our grassroots organizations must act to take leadership. When governments fail, we sail!”

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition is a non-partisan international coalition of campaigns that stand for freedom and human rights in Palestine. They have sailed since 2010 with the goal of breaking the blockade of Gaza, and in solidarity.

(CounterPunch.org)

HERB CAEN'S FBI FILE

by Todd Venezia

San Francisco — Herb Caen's 58 years of newspaper writing earned him a reputation as the “Bard of the Bay,” the “Sackamenna Kid” and the king of the “three dot” gossip columnists.

J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, however, knew the beloved Pulitzer Prize winner by other, less-flattering names. It even fact-checked his columns.

“Caen is described by the San Francisco Office as a liar, no good, and a gossip monger, who constantly ridicules the United States Government,” the bureau wrote at the bottom of a 1967 letter from Hoover. Bureau “files reflect that Caen was reported to be a member of the Communist Party in the past and an active supporter of Communist causes.”

Such accusations, and a slew of other angry epithets from some of the bureau's top men, are included among decades of memos, letters and formal reports inside the legendary San Francisco Chronicle scribe's FBI file, which was recently released to APBnews.com under the Freedom of Information Act.

The papers reveal the bureau used terms like “nit-wit columnist” and “key-hole journalist” to describe Caen, a revered city figure whose 1997 funeral drew 2,500 mourners. In addition to the criticism, the FBI also considered Caen a communist and investigated several columns that contained seemingly minor jabs at Hoover's G-men.

Hoover sings “Pistol-Packin' Momma”?

Some of the bureau's story checks, including a week-long investigation into Caen's tale about John Dillinger's watch, led agents to determine some of the columnist's stories were, in fact, not true.

But other investigations, such as the inquiry into one Caen “scooplet” that claimed Hoover was “no fun” because he no longer sang his rendition of “Pistol-Packin' Momma” for friends, drew only a peeved response from agents.

“He thrives on second hand information written to suit his own personal distorted sense of humor,” a San Francisco-based agent wrote in a memo dismissing the 1958 item. “He thinks he is a master of wit and very funny. In fact, he is a no-good, loud mouthed individual.”

 “He would love” his fed file

The bureau's name-calling and accusations of communist connections dismayed some of those who worked with Caen. No one interviewed was surprised the bureau kept a Caen file. But they said that if Caen had known about its existence, he would have been interested enough in the nastier tidbits to turn them into nice items for his five-day-a-week gossip column.

“He would laugh, he would love it,” said Karyn Hunt, who worked as Caen's “legwoman” during the 1980s. “We were always getting our noses into places where we shouldn't have been. You always had to wonder who was watching and why. So, no, I'm not at all surprised.”

Bill German, the Chronicle's editor emeritus who first met Caen in 1940, also wasn't surprised, though he didn't expect the amount of vitriol revealed in the files. He said that despite some agents' low opinion of Caen, the disdain was apparently not mutual.

“I don't think Caen had any particular built-in attitude about the FBI,” German said. “I think that when the FBI was doing all these heroic things and fighting crime and putting their own lives on the line, I think that drew Herb's admiration.

“But I think the use of the FBI to pry into personal beliefs and to carry out what I think was felt by a lot of people to be sort of a vendetta activity. I think Herb was not exactly somebody that applauded that part of the FBI.”

Salesgirl shouts “Heil Hitler”?

The first inquiry into Caen's work is revealed in a June 10, 1941, memo to the San Francisco field office from Hoover. Caen had apparently demonstrated his usual prescience in a May 24, 1941, item that alleged the FBI was making a federal case out of an “attractive salesgirl” who ran through a posh downtown store shouting “Heil Hitler.”

“After running through the store twice … [she] has been canned and FBI'd,” he wrote, apparently implying the bureau was probing the girl. It was an assertion that may have been premature, though it apparently gave the bureau an idea.

“Please advise the Bureau whether the identity of this young woman is known,” Hoover asked in a May 1941 letter to his Bay-area agents, “and whether an investigation is in progress.”

With that, the bureau began to “FBI” the rumored Nazi-loving salesgirl. On Sept. 15, 1941, San Francisco Special Agent in Charge N.J.L. Pieper decided the story was only a rumor.

“I have just determined from [redacted] … that Caen was unable to substantiate anything along the lines that were carried in this story,” Pieper wrote in his report to Hoover. “Herb Caen is a nit-wit columnist. Most of his stuff has no basis in fact, and is purely rumor. This is a typical example, and no further action will be taken here.” 

The Dillinger watch controversy

Over the next 36 years, the FBI would fact-check and examine Caen at least four more times and respond to a handful of angry letters about the gossip guru (one of which asked that he be blacklisted as a communist).

In the most extensive probe, the bureau examined the circumstances behind a brief item in the Oct. 8, 1956, edition of Caen's “Baghdad by the Bay” column, which ran in the San Francisco Examiner during his eight-year tenure there.

Caen drew the bureau's interest by implying a former agent had taken bank robber John Dillinger's wristwatch from FBI headquarters for himself.

“Ralph Brown … was an FBI agent in the '30s — and was in on the kill when Mobster John Dillinger was shot to death in Chicago,” Caen wrote. “In fact, Brown has the wristwatch Dillinger was wearing that fateful day, an item he's understandably reluctant to discuss. Because the FBI museum in Washington has a wristwatch on display — labeled as Dillinger's. THAT watch happens to have been Ralph Brown's!”

On Oct. 17, 1956, former bureau records chief Milton A. Jones sent a memo to Hoover's assistant, Louis Nichols, describing the effort to confirm the story.

He said agents scoured the bureau's evidence records for hints about the disposition of Dillinger's effects. The files did turn up a listing for a watch belonging to Dillinger. But after a check with some local jewelers, agents determined the story could not be true because the watch described in their records was a pocket watch, not a wristwatch.

Nevertheless, the gossip column's implication that an agent had stolen the former public enemy No. 1's timepiece annoyed the bureau bigwigs — so the matter could not be dropped.

“It is felt that Caen's column makes the FBI look extremely bad in that he says we have Brown's watch on display,” Jones wrote in an Oct. 22, 1956, memo on the matter. “We should contact him and set him straight.”

The call to Caen, which is the only contact mentioned in the files between the bureau and the columnist, came three days later.

“Caen was advised that there was no basis for the story [and] that the bureau has no watch on display,” the San Francisco office wrote, adding that Caen also was advised of something else, which has since been blacked out by FBI censors for privacy concerns.

“Caen thanked me for straightening this matter out,” the memo said.

Army of Sources

Caen, who was born April 3, 1916, in Sacramento, began his career in 1938. His 1997 Chronicle obituary described his arrival from Sacramento as a cub reporter: “He drove his car onto a big white ferryboat and went out on a deck to take a look at his new city. The stiff spring wind blew his brand new hat into the bay.”

After that inauspicious start, Caen's career would never run into such bad luck again. He soon became the most read and most influential single voice in the city's media. With his army of sources, from doormen to mayors, Caen would help set San Francisco's agenda for 58 years. Caen won a special Pulitzer Prize for his career accomplishments during the bittersweet month of April 1996, in which he married his fourth wife, Ann Moller, turned 80 and learned he had cancer.

In June 1996, a few months before his death, the city named a 3.2-mile stretch along San Francisco's Embarcadero “Herb Caen Way” and celebrated the occasion with a parade and ceremony attended by thousands. At his funeral, Mayor Willie Brown gave the eulogy, and celebrities such as Robin Williams showed up to grieve.

 “Outpourings of love and hate”

“I thought Herb Caen was a great man. He was my hero,” said Carl Nolte, a Chronicle staff writer who penned the columnist's obituary. “Up to his 80s he could write like the wind. He did a lot of good stuff, and he really did have a feeling for the city of San Francisco.”

Caen is believed to have written 16,000 columns in his time, each with 22 individual items, separated by his trademark three dots. He earned his impressive reputation by continually beating all the city's news desks with what he called “scooplets,” small, gossipy items that had enough real news in them to fill entire stories.

Hunt, Caen's “legwoman,” said Caen was a master. But she admitted some mistakes were made over 58 years, even some that would draw the ire of institutions such as the FBI.

“Quibble if you want about corrections and the occasional mistakes,” she said. “Well, perhaps they were at times more than occasional. He was able to draw a picture and to bring people together. You can't know how much of an influence he had and what people thought until you sat in the chair I sat in where you got as many as 300 phone calls a day and 1,000 letters a week. Both outpourings of love and hate.”

Memo to director: Watch your back

The FBI's files, though strongly leaning toward the hate, did show some love — or at least respect. Two memos showed the San Francisco field office tried to keep Hoover abreast of possible rivals for the FBI's top job whenever their names surfaced in Caen's column.

One of the names was that of a mysterious “Mr. P--buss ... buss ... buss,” who Caen believed would be nominated FBI director if former California Gov. Earl Warren was elected president.

That “Mr. P--buss” turned out to be none other than former Special Agent in Charge Pieper — the one who called Caen a nitwit. After noting Pieper's identity, the new special agent in charge, H.B. Fletcher, sent a memo to headquarters suggesting Hoover get to know Warren better — soon. Fletcher presented an idea: Have him address the FBI academy's graduating class.

Caen a Communist?

As with FBI records on many public figures of the 1940s and '50s, Caen's file contains accusations of communism. They stemmed partly from dubious secret sources and partly from Caen's public opposition to the deportation of union leader Harry Bridges. Caen's friends called the allegations ludicrous.

“That's a good case of the kind of news figure Herb Caen would get to know very well,” German said. “Herb was maybe too close to somebody like that for J. Edgar Hoover's comfort. But Herb also wore white tie and tails at the opera and sat in the box as a guest of bankers and people who certainly were not representative of the left.”

That versatility is what insinuated Caen into the life of San Francisco and earned him a seat in every restaurant, the ear of many politicians and even a parade of bicycle messengers to pay tribute to him on his day of honor. An accomplished drummer who performed into his 80s, Caen often banged out the city's beat, even if the FBI wasn't marching to the same tune.

“In my own opinion, Herb was not a nitwit. Herb was a genius,” Hunt said. “He was an amazing writer who could chronicle a city and a time and a sense of place and belonging that unified the city in a way that nobody had been able to do before, and nobody has been able to do since then.” 

(Courtesy APBnews.com)