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A WARMING TREND will continue through this week with the hottest inland valleys reaching the upper 90s by Friday. A regular cycle of stratus and gusty afternoon onshore winds will persist for the coast until Sunday. Monday shows rain arriving to the northern counties in a quickly moving system with rain focused on Del Norte County. Later next week, temperatures are going to easily be above normal from the interior to the coast. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Mostly clear skies with a few high clouds & 50F this Thursday morning on the coast. Less wind the next 2 days, I have dueling forecasts for the weekend with fog on 1 side & windy on the other side? We'll see.
UKIAH MAN TELLS JURY Hopkins Fire started accidentally after he dropped cigarette
Devin Lamar Johnson is charged with arson in the September 2021 blaze. His trial began May 22 in Marin County Superior Court.
by Colin Atagi
A Ukiah man on Wednesday said he dropped a cigarette and accidentally ignited the 257-acre fire that destroyed 30 homes north of Ukiah on Sept. 12, 2021.
Devin Lamar Johnson, 23, took the stand in his own defense during the final day of testimony in his ongoing trial. Charged with one count of arson, he is accused of starting the 2021 Hopkins Fire in the Mendocino County town of Calpella.
Fueled by light wind and 90-degree temperatures, the Hopkins Fire raged through a number of streets in the town before it reached a hillside bordering the Russian River and Lake Mendocino.
Flames spread quickly up a 1,000-foot ridge and down to the western shore of Lake Mendocino before burning sections of the reservoir that had been left dry as a result of California’s drought.
About 200 people were evacuated from area homes. No injuries were reported.
The fire destroyed homes along Eastside Calpella Road, a north and south street parallel to the Russian River.
Johnson was identified as a suspect after an area photographer took a photo of him watching the fire from the Moore Street Bridge.
“He made that choice to stand on that bridge and watch what he had done,” Mendocino County Deputy District Attorney Heidi Larson said Wednesday.
Johnson was arrested Sept. 14, 2021, two days after the fire began.
The trial, which is being held in Marin County Superior Court in San Rafael, is being overseen by Judge Kelly Simmons.
The case was moved to Marin County, after Johnson’s attorney successfully argued for a venue change last year to ensure that his client receives a fair trial since most Ukiah area residents were very familiar with the blaze.
Optional venues came down to Marin and Colusa counties, the latter being about 95 miles and just under two hours east of Ukiah.
Marin County is about 90 minutes south of the Mendocino County courthouse in Ukiah.
A Mendocino County judge ruled it a better option since it would have a larger jury pool to choose from.
On Wednesday, Johnson said the fire began after he dropped a used cigarette he’d found in an area bar’s ashtray. He said he was on a local trail at the time and the cigarette, which was lit, burned on the ground for about 30 seconds.
“I tried to stomp it out,” he told jurors.
Speaking softly, he often mumbled.
Simmons asked him to speak closer to his microphone, while attorneys frequently repeated his statements so jurors understood what he was saying.
His version of events, though, was contradicted by Ukiah Valley Fire Authority Battalion Chief Justin Buckingham, who testified for the prosecution.
Buckingham investigated the blaze and said there was no evidence of cigarettes at its origin point. He added that a fire does not ignite after just 30 seconds.
Larson pressed Johnson about his behavior on the day the fire started.
She asked why he decided to go on a dry trail with a cigarette.
He responded that he had a bottle of water and Larson asked why he didn’t use it to douse the cigarette. She said Johnson also did not dial 911 and alert authorities about the fire and asked him why.
“You were counting on other people to call, right?” she added.
All of Johnson’s responses were inaudible.
Following his testimony, the defense rested its case and opposing attorneys offered the jury of four men and eight women their closing arguments.
Dana Liberatore, Johnson’s attorney with the Mendocino County Public Defender’s Office, told jurors Larson had not proven his client intentionally ignited the fire.
He doubled down on Johnson’s stance that the fire was an accident and emphasized that his client didn’t have a motive or the mindset to purposefully set a fire.
“What’s his motive to do this if he really planned on hurting somebody or burning a building?” Liberatore asked jurors.
In her closing argument, Larson contended Johnson knew what he did was wrong.
“To this day if it was an accident why has the defendant never shown any remorse for what happened?” she asked jurors.
Testimony lasted about four days and Johnson could be sentenced to 10 years to life in prison, if convicted.
Jurors received the case Wednesday afternoon.
(pressdemocrat.com)
MOVING DIRT
As part of the Big River Quarry restoration plan, CA State Parks is working with CalTrans to utilize soil excavated from the Hwy 1 repair project at Juan Creek to fill the abandoned quarry. Trucks will be transporting material along the M1 road in Big River through the end of August. The project schedule is Monday-Friday between 7AM and 6PM. No work will occur during the weekends. This area will remain open to the public, but caution is advised when signage is present. This project will benefit the public by filling the quarry with native soil and reducing the amount of carbon emissions that would be created by transporting this soil to sites further inland.
For your safety, please remain aware of your surroundings and move to the shoulder when trucks are present.
For more information, please contact Mark Ernst at 530-523-3178
NO SENIOR CUT DAY
Parents,
I am sure you all received Ms. Simson’s message from yesterday regarding Senior Ditch Day.
We have received multiple calls this morning to check out kids for appointments. We will need proof of their appointment tomorrow morning. That note will be their ticket for graduation. If we do not have a note they will not be able to participate in the ceremony.
(Please see Ms. Simson's message below)
“We are quickly approaching the end of the year. Seniors have been notified that a Senior Cut Day will result in loss of participation in Graduation Ceremonies. We have heard another rumor that a cut day is planned. Please be clear with your student not to do it, or your family will not have the privilege of seeing them participate in the graduation.”
(AV High School Presser)
ED NOTES
THOSE SENIORS graduating from AVHS claiming that Ditch Day is a local tradition won't want to know there’s no such “tradition.” May have been an occasional senior class over the years who cut classes but not often enough to comprise tradition. Cruel fact is that if students aren't in school, the school doesn't get paid. Cutting classes, if it happens often enough, could cost the school district a job or two, and that wouldn't be fair, if there's a concern here about fairness. I’m glad the superintendent is standing fast on this one. Administrators of yesteryear most likely would have caved. I’m a little surprised that some parents are backing callow youth instead of the authority.
FOR YOUR ENTITLEMENT FILES. The scene, a Ukiah restaurant much favored by inland libs. A purple person alights at a nearby table with her tea and a huge muffin. She's got the requisite lavender ribbon in her hair, a purple sweater, that overall Mendolib affect — beady-eyed righteousness. She occupies space like an expanding sea creature, dipping into a massive handbag for more and more stuff she spreads out on her table and its three unoccupied chairs. It's as if she's moving in, not stopping by for a restorative, late morning cup of tea. Several Ukiah-based, male passive-aggressives drift by. One of them is wearing a KZYX t-shirt. She rises for an affection-free hug. The purple person rises to hug each passerby. The encounters are non-verbal and eyes averted, consisting entirely of insincere ooh-ing and ahh-ing. The purple person has now resided at the table for a good 15 minutes. She's writing in a notebook in between the hugs and the orgasmic acclamations with which she and the passing parade of males greet each other. Was it Chekhov who said there was one artist for every two million people? In Mendocino County the ratio is one artist out of every two people, and the second person is mega-cool anyway. A Mexican woman who works in the restaurant's kitchen happens past on a work-related errand. The purple person suddenly reaches out and grabs her by the arm as if the Mexican woman had been reaching for a gun. “My table wobbles,” the purple person complains. “Will you fix it, please?” The Mexican woman flushes, but takes a napkin from an unoccupied table, tears two small pieces of paper from it, folds them, then crouches before the purple person’s unyielding knees, cautiously lifting the table so as not to slide the purple person’s mounded accumulations from the tabletop, and slips the tiny table stabilizers beneath the legs of the table. Purple person hasn't moved herself or her chair to accommodate the woman making repairs the purple princess could not have made herself. The Mexican woman stands up and walks back into the kitchen. The purple person, bent over her notepad writing important sentences, murmurs, without looking up, “Thank you,” by which time the Mexican woman is beyond hearing and out of sight.
I TOOK UMBRAGE. To take umbrage you draw yourself up to your full height and exclaim in offended tones, “Well, I never!”
I GAVE UP taking umbrage years ago when there were so many umbrages to be taken that I was spending hours taking them. One of my last umbrages taken was on behalf of my friend Kevin Hoover at the old paper-paper, the Arcata Eye.
A HUMBOLDT STATE faculty intellectual named Craig Klein had criticized the Eye, claiming the paper wasn't serious.
KLEIN was a professor of journalism, which is like being a professor of donuts or dog walkers. Anyway, to test the bona fides of a journalism department professor all one has to do is read an edition of the student paper whose staff the journalism professor instructs and advises. Judging from Humboldt State's student paper of the time, Klein was a cretin and his students were morons.
BUT PROFESSOR KLEIN, pressed into service as Arcata's resident journalo-expert when the Chron wrote about Hoover and the Eye, told the Chron, “It's not the journalism that we teach at the academy.” (The what?) “His writing is full of editorial commentary [sic] A traditional journalism program teaches people to just put the facts out there.”
IN FACT, a traditional journalism program teaches young people how not “to put the facts out there” if they hoped to be employed by a contemporary American newspaper, hence the campus publication at HSU, hence Professor Klein, hence journalism departments.
FORT BRAGG GARDEN CLUB
The Fort Bragg Garden Club is celebrating all our gardens from Westport to Elk, front yard, back yard, side yard, whatever kind of garden you have—veggie garden, cut flower garden, pollinator garden, and more.
The Celebrate Our Gardens Photo Contest is open to all home gardeners from Westport to Elk.
Send up to two photos of your garden in landscape (not portrait) format, by June 3 to info@fbgardenclub.com
Name your photo with your address.
We will exhibit them all at our Celebrate Our Gardens Dessert Gala on Monday June 10, 6:30-8:00pm at FB Presbyterian Church, 367 S Sanderson Way, Fort Bragg.
Come on out to see the photos, and vote on your favorite for the People’s Choice Award.
Enjoy the desserts (some free; the most extravagant $). Proceeds to scholarships and the Noyo Food Forest Intern Program. Exhibits by Noyo Food Forest, local school and community gardens.
ADAM GASKA:
At the December 19 (2023) regular BOS meeting, they tucked in a new job classification for Director of Health Services. It wasn’t pulled so it wasn’t discussed and was passed. Technically that was the first step to give Jenine Miller a raise and move to make her the director of both. In January, she was being referred to as such during the board meetings. They did publicly post for the new position.
What they coulda shoulda done is to interview for the new position which Jenine likely would have been the only applicant. Then they could post it publicly the next meeting and hire her. That would have at least given her a raise for running two departments.
That wouldn’t have dealt with the issue that they are moving behind the scenes without public notification/input on the merging of the two departments.
SUPERVISOR ELECT BERNIE NORVELL:
At the after party of Robert Marbut’s ‘No Address’ movie screening.
www.noaddressmovie.com
“The movie follows a group of homeless people as they struggle to survive on the streets against a harassing gang, an unforgiving community, and the local authorities.” — imdb
THE EXCEPTION THAT PROVES THE RULE
Lew Chichester (Covelo)
Just a bit of push back on the generally justifiable criticism of the various advisory boards. My experience with two, the Round Valley Municipal Advisory Council (RVAMAC) and the Mendocino County Library Advisory Board (LAB) has been anything but a bunch of wasted time and BS. The RVAMAC is just about the only regular venue available to those of out here to have a collective conversation with Sheriff Matt Kendall, our third district supervisor John Haschak, and when needed, Howard Dashiell of the Dept. of Transportation, or Emergency Services, or CalTrans, or Animal Control. These regular monthly meetings, partly in person, partly on a telecommunications device, have been valuable and effective.
The LAB a few years ago functioned as much as an oversight committee as an advisory board. After the passage of a sales tax partly earmarked for libraries the LAB reviewed the complex and not particularly transparent inter county agency billings and accounts and determined that the library system was being unfairly and unjustifiably charged by other branches of the county for supposedly amortized equipment and other suspicious entries. The Grand Jury got involved, and sure enough, there was a degree of hanky panky in how the books were balanced. The library system ended up getting some of the money back. This would have never happened without a citizen’s group being part of the oversight with an official advisory role. So it is not all a big waste of time and window dressing.
TRITA PARSI AND WILL HOPKINS: 9 am, May 30, on KMUD
Trita Parsi (Persian: تریتا پارسی) is the co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, as well as the founder and former president of the National Iranian American Council.
He regularly writes articles and appears on TV to comment on foreign policy and is the author of three books: "Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States", "A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama's Diplomacy with Iran" and "Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy".
In 2010, the "Treacherous Alliance" won the Grawemeyer Award for "Ideas Improving World Order."
Will Hopkins served for six years in the New Hampshire Army National Guard as an infantryman, which included a year-long tour in Iraq.
Will is a lifetime member and former board member of Veterans for Peace, and he served as Executive Director of New Hampshire Peace Action from 2009 to 2023.
He is a nonviolent direct action and peacekeeping trainer. Will believes in the power of nonviolence to transform hearts, minds, and systems, when the dignity of those who would be othered is held with respect and compassion.
This month, he stepped into the role of Executive Director of Veterans for Peace.
KMUD
Our show, "Heroes and Patriots Radio", airs live on KMUD, on the first and fifth Thursdays of every month, at 9 AM, Pacific Time.
We simulcast our programming on two full power FM stations: KMUE 88.1 in Eureka and KLAI 90.3 in Laytonville. It also maintains a translator at 99.5 FM in Shelter Cove, California.
We also stream live from the web at https://kmud.org/
Speak with our guests live and on-the-air at: KMUD Studio (707) 923-3911. Please call in.
We post our shows to our own website and Youtube channels. Shows may be distributed in other media outlets.
Wherever you live, KMUD is your community radio station. We are a true community of informed and progressive people. Please join us by becoming a member or underwriter.
— John Sakowicz
THE BOONVILLE HOTEL
Summer is on its way….
the roses are blooming everywhere, we're jumping in the river, cracking the rosé and putting on our flip flops.
come see the last vestages of spring before we roll into a beautiful summer….
pssst..second weekend of June is surprisingly quiet.
use the code "lemonade" get 20% off your room stay. (June 7, 8, & 9th)
outdoor dining has begun!!
our Paella Sundays are back, now thru mid-October.
check out the menu & reserve a table on our website + the daily news in social media land.
in the garden
Fridays-Mondays 4-6pm
(no reservations needed)
the star on the front of the Boonville Hotel
Offspring, across the street is happening!!
we have seating outside on the our new deck, soon to have booths & shade cover.
serving our à la carte menu of handmade pastas, beautiful sides, main plates to share & of course wood fire pizzas.
you should know about the roast porchetta on the menu every Saturday Lunch,
it's worth the trip alone!
Open Tuesday-Saturday 5:30-8:30pm
Saturday lunch 12-3pm
Paysanne
Adding Mondays and Thursdays mid-June thru Labor Day weekends + open evenings w/Offspring
Along with everything else:
Perry's churning, housemade ice creams
top picks this month…
Boonville Barn Collective Strawberry IC
Peach Leaf IC
we have some beautiful new late spring, early summer drinks from our bar on nights the restaurant is open.
Along with friday & monday evenings 4-6 we are offering a simple bar menu perfect for a light meal.
we're serving our prix fixe menu, sourced from local farms thursday thru mondays during the warmer months.
Perry posts the menu online Wednesday afternoons for the upcoming weekend.
we've been here 36 years, and are planning for another 36!
thank you for being part of it all. hope to see you soon
The Boonville Hotel and Restaurant
‘it’s about people, food, drink, and a well made bed.’
14050 Highway 128, Boonville CA 95415
PO Box 326, Boonville CA 95415
www.boonvillehotel.com
CATCH OF THE DAY, Wednessay, May 29, 2024
ANDRU CAMPBELL, Ukiah. Assault weapon, harassment by phone, violation of domestic violence court order.
KYLER CASEY, Fort Bragg. Shoplifting, controlled substance, paraphernalia, concealed dirk-dagger, disobeying court order, failure to appear.
JAMES COLYAR, Willits. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, suspended license, probation revocation.
VANESSA DUNCAN, Ukiah. Failure to appear.
ADAM FULLER, Ukiah. Probation revocation.
THOMAS HANOVER, Ukiah. Domestic battery.
RAYMOND SNYDER JR., Nice/Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.
ASHTYN TAYLOR, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon with great bodily injury.
RYAN WHITMAN JR., Albion. Petty theft, probation revocation.
CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS PERPETRATED BY ‘UNTOUCHABLE’ ELECTED OFFICIALS
by Betsy Cawn
Background: The Lake & Mendocino Counties Area Agency on Aging (AAA) was formed by the County Supervisors who agreed to form a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) to oversee the distribution of federal funding for the Older Americans Act programs [https://acl.gov/about-acl/authorizing-statutes/older-americans-act] after North Coast Opportunities (NCO) abandoned their management of the AAA in 2004.
The Governing Board of the AAA is comprised of elected and appointed officials (in line with the JPA’s Bylaws), members at large, and staff of both counties’ Department of Social Services. The funding formula they adopted endows the county with the lowest “cost of doing business” (for administration of the federal funds) to fill the Board of Directors chair and vice-chair positions with the Director of Social Services from each county.
In 2007, Lake County’s Department of Social Services (DSS) Director made the case that Lake’s Department of Social Services could provide those administrative services at a lower cost than Mendocino, and the Lake County DSS Director (Carol Huchingson) became the perennial chair, with Mendo County DSS Director (Beckkie Emery) became the vice-chair.
(I think I read recently in the AVA that Beckkie Emery had taken medical leave.)
Current: On April 22, 2024, the AAA Governing Board met to announce the “winners” of contracts for the FY 2024-25 through 2027-28 4-year planning period (matched by the agency’s four-year service plan, to be approved by both Boards of Supervisors in the near future).
Attendees of the April 22 Governing Board meeting included:
Lisa Morrow (Lakeport Senior Center); Jill Rexrode (Redwood Coast Senior Center); Joyce Overton (Clearlake Senior Center); Dan Hobbs (Live Oak Senior Center [Clearlake Oaks]); John Haschak (Mendo BoS); Jessica Pyska (Lake BoS); EJ Crandell (Lake BoS), Dena Eddings-Green (AAA Program Coordinator); Virginia Peeke (AAA Program staff); Lisa Faraco (Lake DSS Program Manager, Housing & Area Agency on Aging); and two whose positions I do not know: Rebecca Stewart and Stephen White. Seems to me that Mr. White was “conducting” the meeting and may have been doing so as the Mendo DSS representative, although Dena said that the meeting was “chaired” by Lake County Supervisor Crandell.
On a minor note, I believe it is “telling” (an indication of overall incompetence) that Ms. Eddings-Green provided the information about attendance at the meeting in two groupings: In person and “Virtual.” Mendo Supervisor Haschak was a “virtual” attendee.
In any case, here’s the clincher: AAA staff announced the award of contracts to senior centers (based on their compliance-approved applications) but said the AAA needed to conduct a “private” meeting of the Governing Board to discuss how the agency would “allocate” the available federal funding, after which the agency would “negotiate” with the awardees.
And, in line with these “private” conversations with contractors for this particular purpose, there is the “standard” system whereby the agency (AAA) monitors their contracts also in privacy, with the staff of the contracting entity but not with the actual contracting authority — the contractor’s legal decision-making bodies (i.e., the elected members of the Board of Directors. Rare but very real failures of the entity’s staff include embezzlement of entity funds (known to have occurred at two of Lake County’s contracted senior centers).
The Area Agency on Aging itself is a program of the State Department of Aging, which monitors all of its agencies on a rotating five-year basis. Compliance requirements are viewable by the public: https://aging.ca.gov/Providers_and_Partners/Area_Agencies_on_Aging/
One can have a modicum of sympathy for today’s bureaucratic workforce, inheriting the burdens of the “baby boom” (predicted in the 1965 Older Americans Act), but the lack of support for the Older Californian’s Act — which acknowledges the merits of including older adults in the active roles of “participatory governance” (clearly disdained by your local government and mine) is a downright shame:
“Older individuals constitute a fundamental resource of the state that previously has been undervalued and poorly utilized, and ways must be found to enable older individuals to apply their competence, wisdom, and experience for the benefit of all Californians.”
FIRED FOR DOING THE RIGHT THING
Editor:
Students throughout the world protesting apartheid and genocide in Gaza are rightfully pressuring leaders of universities and President Joe Biden to support a permanent cease-fire and end apartheid. Only a few universities (CSU campuses in Sacramento and San Francisco, UC campuses in Berkeley and Riverside) have negotiated with students regarding divestment issues. I applaud former Sonoma State President Mike Lee’s response to Sonoma State students.
He opened the door to judicious discussion, which we expect should occur in institutions of higher education. Considering that most organizations have remained silent to prevent political backlash, Lee is one who had the fortitude within a politically driven system to open a dialogue with the students he served. In the meantime, Israel’s military continues the bombing in Gaza where hundreds are dying every hour.
The local organizations denouncing Lee’s actions seem to have forgotten what this is all about. All should align with international humanitarian laws even if it means uncomfortable and “risky” conversations, as the real risk is complicity with crimes against humanity. Lee resigned as Sonoma State president knowing the odds were against him. CSU lost a decent man and president. He opened the door, and I thank him.
Gail Y. Seymour
Santa Rosa
LET US DRIVE
Editor,
Regarding the letter that driving doesn't make sense, and while I agree that public transit is not expensive, especially for seniors, I take offense with everything else in that letter.
Seniors are among the safest drivers. Most of us don't drive drunk, we don't drag race, we don't engage in side shows, we don't speed, we don't drive recklessly. It is the younger generations that are the most dangerous drivers.
What are the safe alternatives to driving in the city?
Muni is often dangerous for seniors. Many of us are frail and can't defend ourselves if we are accosted.
Taxis are great if you use them occasionally, but expensive if used frequently.
Uber and Lyft are out of the question; we don't like being forced to pay for things with phones. We prefer to use actual money, and many of us don't have smartphones.
I am sick of the younger generations constantly trying to force us off the road. I will not stop driving unless I become physically unfit to do so.
Michael Benardo
Vallejo
“Assume the worst. About everybody. But don't let this poisoned outlook affect your job performance. Let it all roll off your back. Ignore it. Be amused by what you see and suspect. Just because someone you work with is a miserable, treacherous, self-serving, capricious and corrupt assh*le shouldn't prevent you from enjoying their company, working with them or finding them entertaining.”
— Anthony Bourdain
DEMOCRATS KILL CALIFORNIA HOMELESS CAMP BAN, AGAIN
by Marisa Kendall
A bill to ban homeless encampments statewide near parks, schools and transit hubs failed to get out of the same legislative committee as last year.
For the second year in a row, Democrats today voted down a bill that sought to ban homeless encampments near schools, transit stops and other areas throughout California.
Despite the fact that cities up and down the state are grappling with a proliferation of homeless camps, legislators said they oppose penalizing down-and-out residents who sleep on public property.
“Just because individuals that are unhoused make people uncomfortable does not mean that it should be criminalized. And this bill does that,” said Sen. Aisha Wahab, a Democrat from Fremont and chairperson of the Senate Public Safety Committee. “The penalties will just be added to their already difficult situation of paying for things.”
Senate Bill 1011 stumbled in its first committee hearing, stalling in the Public Safety Committee on a 1-3 vote. The measure by Senate GOP leader Brian Jones and Democratic Sen. Catherine Blakespear, both of the San Diego area, would have made camping within 500 feet of a school, open space or major transit stop a misdemeanor or infraction. It also would have banned camping on public sidewalks if beds were available in local homeless shelters.
“I’m disappointed in the closed-minded opposition from the majority party members of the Senate Public Safety Committee to new approaches and their knee-jerk support of just throwing more money at the problem with no real plan,” Jones said in a statement. “Today’s continued rejection of real solutions during this health and safety crisis is immoral and irresponsible.”
After today’s defeat, Jones will continue speaking with committee members to see if there is any way to negotiate a path forward for his bill, spokesperson Nina Krishel said in an email.
Sen. Nancy Skinner, a Democrat from Oakland, said while she appreciates that Californians don’t want to see encampments, she couldn’t support the bill.
“It’s kind of like trying to make a problem invisible versus addressing the core of the problem,” said Skinner, who joined Wahab and Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, in voting “no.”
More than three dozen people voiced their opposition to the bill during today’s hearing, speaking on behalf of organizations such as the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union California Action.
The bill’s supporters, who numbered far fewer, included the mayor of Vista and a representative from the city of Carlsbad.
The lone “yes” vote came from the committee’s only Republican, Sen. Kelly Seyarto of Murrieta.
“We had a slew of people that came forward to tell us about what we shouldn’t be doing,” he said. “But what the hell should we be doing? Because right now we’re not doing anything.”
Sen. Steven Bradford, a Democrat from Inglewood, abstained.
Wahab granted reconsideration, which means the committee could hear the bill again later this session. But last year, a nearly identical bill met the same fate. SB 31, also introduced by Jones, died in the Senate Public Safety Committee with one “yes” vote, one “no” vote and three abstentions. It also received reconsideration, but was never revived.
This year’s version of the encampment ban had more going for it. Jones found a Democratic co-author and narrowed the bill’s scope. Instead of banning people from camping within 1,000 feet of schools and other locations, the new bill would have banned people from camping within 500 feet.
Jones also was leaning heavily on a new camping ban in San Diego, upon which he said he modeled his bill. The San Diego ordinance, which took effect at the end of July 2023, bans camps near schools, shelters and transit hubs, in parks, and — if shelter beds are available — on public sidewalks. Jones called the ordinance a “success,” a sentiment echoed by San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria.
But a CalMatters investigation paints a more complicated picture. While encampments have drastically decreased in some areas, such as downtown and around certain schools, they are still just as prevalent — in some cases much more so — along the city’s freeways and the banks of its river. Opponents of the ordinance say it displaces people instead of housing them.
And Jones’ bill failed to copy a key piece of San Diego’s approach. When the city started enforcing its encampment ban, it also opened two massive “safe sleeping” sites where about 500 people camp on vacant lots in tents purchased by the city.
Jones’ bill would not have forced cities to set up accommodations for people displaced from encampments, because, he said, there’s no state funding for that.
CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT WEIGHS TWO CASES THAT COULD LIMIT THE BALLOT INITIATIVE PROCESS
by Dan Walters
Seven years ago, California’s Supreme Court declared broad support for the historic right of voters to make law through the initiative process.
Ruling in a case dubbed “Upland,” the court said that while governments are subject to voter-approved constitutional restraints on raising taxes, tax increases proposed via initiative need only simple majority votes for enactment. But the decision embraced much more than taxation.
Citing other cases about the initiative process in the 5-2 decision, Associate Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar wrote, “Whether the context involves taxation or not, all of these cases underscore how courts preserve and liberally construe the public’s statewide and local initiative power. Indeed, we resolve doubts about the scope of the initiative power in its favor whenever possible and we narrowly construe provisions that would burden or limit the exercise of that power.”
Ever since the 2017 Upland ruling, California has seen a flurry of tax increases placed on the ballot via initiative, many sponsored by public employee unions. Needing only simple majority approval, the vast majority passed. In 2020 the Supreme Court explicitly upheld their validity by refusing to consider challenges to them.
Inevitably, there was a backlash. California Business Roundtable and anti-tax groups such as the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association are sponsoring a November ballot measure that would impose or restore state constitution restrictions on taxation. Among other things, it would overturn the Upland decision by requiring local taxes to garner two-thirds voter approval, even if proposed via initiative.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders are leading a counter-backlash, asking the Supreme Court to declare the measure a constitutional revision rather than a constitutional amendment, and thus, legally cannot be proposed by the initiative process.
Fundamentally, the case poses the same underlying issue as the Upland case: What, if any, constraints should be placed on using the initiative process to make changes in law — even the state Constitution?
The issue was repeatedly mentioned in several forms, particularly by Justice Goodwin Liu, during oral arguments earlier this month. At one point, Liu pondered whether giving voters more authority over state taxes would create a fourth branch of government.
“Doesn’t this measure essentially shift us from a republican form of government far more strongly towards a direct democracy, given how fundamental the taxing power is?” Liu asked.
The Supreme Court has until June 27 to declare whether the Business Roundtable measure will appear on the ballot, or is a constitutional revision that cannot be proposed by initiative.
It is, however, not the only pending Supreme Court case over use of the initiative process. This week, the court heard oral arguments over Proposition 22, the 2020 ballot measure, sponsored by Uber, Lyft and other companies, to exempt themselves from Assembly Bill 5, a highly contentious 2019 state law aimed at strictly limiting or prohibiting the use of contract workers.
Prop. 22 opponents contend that, by allowing “gig” workers, the measure unconstitutionally undermines the Legislature’s authority over workers’ compensation, the state’s system of supporting employees who suffer job-related illnesses and injuries.
Justice Liu once again mused over the limits, if any, on use of the initiative process, saying there is “still ambiguity there.”
“Does that mean voters cannot act in this field (workers’ compensation) whatsoever,” Liu asked lawyers for both sides.
Given the leftward leanings of the Legislature, business interests are increasingly using the initiative process to counter what they regard as regulatory overreach and burdensome taxes and fees.
Decisions on the two pending cases will reveal whether the court continues to endorse fairly unfettered use of the process, as it did in the Upland case, or tighten restrictions on how its employed.
(CalMatters.org)
GAZA OFFENSIVE TO LAST AT LEAST TO YEAR’S END, ISRAELI OFFICIAL SAYS
The assessment, at odds with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertion that the country is “on the brink of victory,” came as Israel claimed control of a key buffer strip along Egypt’s border.
Israel’s national security adviser said Wednesday that he expected military operations in Gaza to continue through at least the end of the year, appearing to dismiss the idea that the war could come to an end after the military offensive against Hamas in Rafah.
“We expect another seven months of combat in order to shore up our achievement and realize what we define as the destruction of Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s military and governing capabilities,” Tzachi Hanegbi, the national security adviser, said in a radio interview with Kan, the Israeli public broadcaster.
The Israeli military also said Wednesday that it had seized “operational control” over a buffer strip along the southern edge of Gaza to prevent cross-border smuggling with Egypt that would allow Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups to rearm. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said repeatedly that controlling the corridor is critical for Israeli security in postwar Gaza.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, said the zone was “Hamas’s oxygen tube” and had been used by the Palestinian armed group for “smuggling munitions into Gazan territory on a regular basis.” He said that Hamas had also built tunnels near the Egyptian border, calculating that Israel would not dare strike so close to Egyptian territory.
(NY Times)
JOE BIDEN’S DECEPTIVE-DECLARATION ZIGS & DEADLY-DEED ZAGS
by Ralph Nader
As the keynote speaker at Morehouse College in Atlanta last week, Joe Biden listened to the class Valedictorian’s call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The President nodded and applauded with others in the assembly. In contrast, he had just approved another billion dollars in killer weapons for the genocidal Netanyahu regime to blow up what’s left of the Death Camps in Gaza. “Stop it, stop it now, Joe,” declared his wife, Dr. Jill Biden months ago.
Countless times Joe Biden has publicly urged Netanyahu to allow the waiting trucks carrying – food, water, and medicine – blocked at the Egyptian and Israeli borders to deliver this humanitarian aid. But Biden declined to demand sanctions and an end to the Israeli military blocking hundreds of trucks, paid for by the U.S., into Gaza to help the dying population. He could have draped American flags over these trucks and dared the Israeli state terrorists to stop them. Biden showed lethal weakness from an unused position of great presidential power. “Stop it, stop it now, Joe,” implored his wife Dr. Jill Biden as thousands of children are being killed who could have been saved.
Biden asked early on that Netanyahu comply with international law. His government commits daily overt numerous war crimes targeting civilians, homes, schools, markets, hospitals and health clinics, ambulances, fleeing refugees, and even Mosques and Churches. The Israeli regime also violates the international law that requires the conquerors to protect the civilian population. Biden, Blinken and Austin have refused to condemn such “crimes against humanity,” halt arms shipments and thereby obey five federal laws prohibiting the U.S. from sending weapons to countries that are violating human rights or being used for offensive purposes.
When Biden took his oath of office, he swore to uphold the laws of the land. That oath requires action. His State Department, in a required compliance report this month to Congress, disgracefully punted. “Stop it, stop it now, Joe,” beseeched Dr. Jill Biden.
From the beginning, Biden has backed a two-state solution publicly and in private conversations with Netanyahu. These words support a peaceful settlement. Yet whether under Obama as vice president for eight years or since 2021, as president, Biden has not connected to any action advancing the two-state proposal. Worse, he has never called out Netanyahu, with consequences, for bragging year after year to his Likud Party that he has been supporting the Hamas regime and helping to fund it because Hamas, like Netanyahu, opposes a two-state solution.
Biden is still rejecting the recognition of a Palestinian state by 143 of the 193 member states of the United Nations. This week Spain, Norway and Ireland said they would recognize a Palestinian state. Biden bizarrely insists statehood be negotiated with Israel. He knows, of course, how many Israeli colonies (so-called settlements) exist in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel rejects outright any such Free Palestine. Weak Joe Biden is okay with that brutal occupation. “Stop it, stop it now, Joe,” says Dr. Jill Biden.
Joe Biden is always condemning anti-semitism against Jews, while he spends billions of dollars weaponizing Netanyahu’s violent anti-semitism against Arab semites in Palestine. This “other” anti-semitism has been violently inflicted, with very racist epithets, on defenseless, subjugated Palestinian families for over fifty-five years. The violence includes U.S. fighter planes bombing, ground troops smashing homes, and refugee camps, blowing up homes, imprisoning and torturing thousands of men, women and children, without charges, and hundreds of dictates, checkpoints, and other maddening harassments. (See the New York Times Magazine Sunday, May 19, 2024 piece “The Unpunished: How Extremists Took Over Israel”). Biden and Netanyahu are arm-in-arm anti-semites against Arabs. (See the “Anti-Semitism Against Arab and Jewish Americans” speech by Jim Zogby and DebatingTaboos.org).
Throughout his fifty-year political career, Biden has never said that “Palestinians have a right to defend themselves.” Only the overwhelmingly more powerful, occupying Israelis have this right, as he has repeated hundreds of times. “Stop it, stop it now, Joe,” advises Dr. Jill Biden.
Biden has expressed doubt about the Hamas Health Ministry’s fatality count in Gaza – itself a huge undercount. (See my column March 5, 2024 column: Stop the Worsening UNDERCOUNT of Palestinian Casualties in Gaza). His actions enabling the Israeli annihilations (“over the top” he once blurted) are moving the real fatality toll, especially with the Rafah invasion and starvation, to the fastest rate ever recorded in 21st century conflicts, according to experts. This includes the bloody, accelerating deaths of babies and children.
It’s the ongoing massacre of these little innocents – in their mother’s or father’s arms or in crumbling hospitals that led Dr. Jill Biden to admonish: “Stop it, stop it now, Joe.”
Still, Joe Biden conveys weakness to Netanyahu, to Netanyahu’s Congress and its omnipresent “Israel-can-do-no-wrong” lobby. Being weak on such a high visibility and protested genocide in Gaza is bad for your re-election, Joe. Even though Der Führer Donald is worse. Look at the latest polls in the swing states! A true leader doesn’t zig and zag when innocent people are being killed. “Stop it, stop it now, Joe.”
JUSTICE ALITO: “My wife and I own our Virginia home jointly,” Alito wrote the two senators. “She therefore has the legal right to use the property as she sees fit, and there were no additional steps that I could have taken to have the flag taken down more promptly.” As to the second flag, an “Appeal to Heaven” banner at their New Jersey vacation home, that property “was purchased with money she inherited from her parents and is titled in her name.”
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
Saving our Democracy is now going to require:
1) Large-scale social revolts, social upheaval and most importantly the self-organization of ordinary citizens that can lead to a wider distribution of power, property and local control.
2) Without such self-organization (in the past, such organizations as unions, co-operatives, family firms etc.) we will not have the necessary social-political leverage to influence our existing market structures, including finance, as well as the necessary clout to restrain/dismantle our intelligence agencies and their foreign policy priorities.
3) We have temporarily lost our ability to exert collective pressure on elite-decision making and unless we get this back our chances of generating broadly distributed prosperity, meaning ultimately figuring out creative ways to save ourselves since the institutional networks that presently surround us could care less about our economic, political or spiritual well-being.
RENEWAL
by David Yearsley
In the spring of 2002 I traveled to New York City. My first visit since September 11th took me to the precincts of Ground Zero. The pair of soldiers in full combat gear guarding the western entrance to the George Washington Bridge did little to shore up my faith in homeland security, but their presence certainly changed the tone of my New York arrival, making me turn my gaze more quickly to that spot on the skyline where the Trade Center towers once stood.
The purpose of positioning these two soldiers at this entry point to the city is purely psychological, intended mainly to encourage a siege mentality at home and the endorsement of military adventurism abroad. Few can harbor illusions that two guys in camo and carrying M-16s would be capable of thwarting terrorist plots on the GWB or enemy incursions into Washington Heights and beyond.
Just look at the demographics of the traffic jam working its way onto the bridge, the drivers honking impatiently at each other even as the two soldiers greeted them with such amiable gestures of solidarity. There were swarms of taxis driven by Muslims and Sikhs jostling for position against vanloads of Hassidic Jews; killer queens headed for a Saturday night cruise off the Chelsea piers; square-jawed, crew-cut young men driving F-250 pick-ups with Montana plates; downsized middle-managers in soon-to-be-repossessed Bavarian muscle cars heading for a forgotten mound of Time Square filth in which they might resurrect for a few fleeting moments the remnants of their manhood; embittered and fully-armed ex-wives returning to the Gold Coast; countless children of dysfunction and abuse late for homicidal family reunions on the Upper West Side. Who among these masses might be transporting the next bit of terror: a packet of anthrax; a brace of surface-to-air missiles; stacked cases of mad-cow hotdogs; a bin of fertilizer explosives; a briefcase with an atom bomb in it; a mason jar filled with malarial mosquito larvae; a gaggle of crows sick with the West Nile virus; an Uzi, a couple of clips of ammo and a still-valid I.D. at the Chase-Manhattan Building?
No, intercepting these and other threats to civilization was not part of the servicemen's brief. They were acting as official greeters to Manhattan and had about as much security impact as ushers at a wedding in the Hamptons.
As always I chose to take the upper level of the bridge — the Henry Worthington as it's called by my uncle, a native of the Lower Hudson and a man who predates the GWB — not only because it affords a more exhilarating view of the Hudson River and the length of Manhattan, but because the lower level is a later addition to and abomination of architect Cass Gilbert's original conception. Built in 1962, this lower level completely distorts the wondrous grace of the structure as seen in old photographs.
If this complaint strikes you as pretentious posturing, just imagine what a lower level would do to the Golden Gate Bridge. It is true, of course, that Gilbert's architectural vision for the span was never completely realized since he planned to encase the entire structure in a neo-Classical concrete shell — an idea that was abandoned for reasons of economy. But retrenchment also produced the arguably beneficial effect of leaving the steel beams and myriad rivets exposed in magnificent deconstruction. O Mighty Henry Worthington Bridge: may you live a thousand years!
As I walked down to Ground Zero on Monday morning I happened by Cass Gilbert's masterpiece — the Woolworth Building which rises some sixty stories above Broadway at City Hall Park, only a few blocks from the where the World Trade Center Towers once stood. The Woolworth building was the tallest in the world when it was finished in 1913, retaining that status until the 1930 completion of the Chrysler Building. Richly ornamented with spires that lift the eye up to a graceful steeple, the Woolworth Building is a wonderfully quirky union of form and content: in accordance with F. W. Woolworth's wishes it was to be the first cathedral of commerce, an unabashed embrace of capitalism as religion. Unable to secure financing for the admittedly eccentric project, Mr. Woolworth paid cash to have it put up.
If the façade is a breathtaking testament to architectural invention and high-altitude craftsmenly skill, the lobby is even more magnificent. Restored in the 1990s, this barrel-vaulted, bi-level cruciform space is drenched in guilded mosaics. At either end of north-south nave are extravagantly kitschy side-chapels dedicated to Industry and Commerce — American capitalist values personified in religious raiment. And peering out at the crossing of the lobby's two axes is a gargoyle version of Mr. Woolworth himself counting out his dimes.
As I looked up in wonder at all this shining golden detail one of the guards said to me, “Amazing, isn't it? I've been here all these years and I see something new every day.”
Say what you will about the great captains of industry and retail but at least in the bad old days these kingpins combined a penchant for lavish disbursement with a sense of style; their approach to self-aggrandizement was literally monumental and tended to outlive their own monomania.
Less than a century after the completion of his once iconic building, the Woolworth chain itself is no longer, having been finally vanquished by the newer discount retailers only a few years ago. But with respect to architectural legacy the Woolworth building is a good gauge of the extent to which corporations have abandoned the ideals of urbanism and the aesthetics of civic majesty. Will that high-tech squalor in Redmond, Washington, known politely as the Microsoft Campus be cherished by subsequent generations long after Bill Gates and his software empire have receded into history? One doubts it. Will the Costco Central Office — if such place indeed exists in some dismal sprawling wasteland on the outskirts of some nameless suburbia — ever be placed on the historic registry? God help us!
After reveling in the neo-gothic grandeur of the Woolworth building for the better part of an hour, I then continued on to Ground Zero where I discovered that I needed a ticket to be admitted to the viewing platform on the east side of what was once the World Trade Center complex. These tickets were to be gotten at the ticket office at the South Street Seaport.
Never having been to this place immortalized by Joseph Mitchell in several of his New Yorker pieces, I decided to walk the six blocks and get a ticket. Sadly, only the fish market remains as a distant reminder of the gritty and characterful charm described so beautifully by Mitchell; the rest is chain stores — Sunglass Hut, Uno's Pizza, and the like. The taverns and flophouses which surrounded the area in Mitchell's day have been displaced by anonymous corporate skyscrapers. The fish market itself is soon to be removed to Brooklyn. Why anyone would want to visit the South Street Seaport now is beyond me.
On my way back to Ground Zero I ducked into one of those same corporate towers: the grimly named Time Equities Building on Maiden Lane. The lobby could not have been more different than that of the Woolworth building. All was polished marble, the interior devoid of ornament, interest, humor, and humanity. In short, it was a typical corporate lobby. The guards were not about to declaim on the visual richness of the place.
But in a salutary attempt on the part of the management “to improve the aesthetics of the building” and “to connect [it] to the contemporary Art scene of New York,” the lobby also serves as the Maiden Lane Exhibition Space, and I was lucky enough to find there an array of half-a-dozen sculptures by the young American artist Todd McGrain. If anything, the commanding artistic skill, ingenuity, and warmth of McGrain's massive objects of wood, metal and cement come into even greater relief in the grimly impersonal corporate surroundings. In McGrain's impressive and compelling works are found motives and echoes of the natural and artistic world — especially potent medicine in such a de-natured, de-humanized, and aesthetically denuded space.
In Eddy (1999) a pair of contorted human forms cast in bronze with only their backs visible encircle each other as they swirl into a vortex of wood and cement textured both by natural knots and cracks and by the careful but seemingly spontaneous hand of the artist. It is unclear if the figures are moving inward towards coalescence as the fluidity and elegance of the joining material might suggest, or, given the large cracks in this material, whether these proto-human forms have been captured by McGrain just as they are about to break apart into glorious, independent life. One suspects an allegory of artistic creation, or, even, of the invention of the human form: a humanist myth of creation. Eddy is therefore something of a paradox: the piece seems both finished but still in the process of formation — a vital, energetic sculpture of churning dynamism which nonetheless attains true aesthetic poise.
This tension between stillness and movement is given a different spin in the apparently abstract Bridd (1999-2002). A smaller piece than Eddy, Bridd might be seen as a tribute to Brancusi's gleaming polished brass Bird in Space housed a few miles Uptown in the Museum of Modern Art. With Bridd, McGrain has traced the return of that perfect, aestheticized form back from space and to the earth; Bridd is a kind of fallen Brancusian bird and therefore, unlike its putative inspiration, lies against the ground. And while its slender, tapered ovoid recalls Brancusi's optimistic, Apollonian sculpture, Bridd's irregular, even somewhat misshapen, surface with its haunting, late autumnal hues roots it in the earth. Where Brancusi has given us an idealized abstraction of flight, McGrain has captured a melancholic vision of the end of flight. But there is affirmation even in this melancholy, for, as in Eddy, decay and renewal are not opposites: destruction and re-creation are seen to be somehow part of the same thing.
Duly uplifted by this memorable exhibition I headed for Ground Zero. It now looks like any building site: little if any wreckage is visible. There is simply a big hole in the earth. Except for the glittering high-rises facing the former Trade Center plaza, it is almost as if one has been transported back to 1970 and the outlandish project to make not one, but two of the tallest buildings in the world is just beginning. There is not much to see, and little if any sense of the recent cataclysm.
Next to me on the platform a tourist turned towards his wife and smiled broadly for her camera, the expanse of Ground Zero opening up behind him. I felt a sudden urge to punch him in the face.
Do people smile for the camera at Gettysburg? At Antietam? At Little Bighorn? Of course they do.
I glanced once more at Ground Zero, imagining for a moment that I was standing where the World Trade Center National Battlefield Interpretative Center would someday be. Then I turned and headed for that sign I'd seen a couple of blocks away: “Closest Beer to Ground Zero.”
AS MLB CHANGES ITS RECORDS, JOSH GIBSON, NOT TY COBB, IS ALL-TIME BATTING LEADER
by Tyler Kepner
It has been an article of faith for nearly a century, as if chiseled onto a tablet by Abner Doubleday himself: The leading hitter in major league history is, and always will be, Tyrus Raymond Cobb.
But history evolves. We know that Doubleday did not, in fact, invent baseball. And as of Wednesday, Josh Gibson will replace Cobb as the leading hitter in the official records of the game. At .372, Gibson’s career batting average eclipses Cobb’s by six points.
Major League Baseball will announce on Wednesday the results of a newly integrated statistical database covering records from Negro Leagues that operated from 1920 to 1948. The formal acceptance of the data comes three-and-a-half years after MLB officially recognized the Negro Leagues as major leagues in December 2020.
“People will be, I don’t know if upset is the word, but they may be uncomfortable with some Negro League stars now on the leaderboards for career and seasons,” said Larry Lester, an author and longtime Negro Leagues researcher who served on the committee.
“Diehards may not accept the stats, but that’s OK. I welcome the conversations at the bar or the barbershop or the pool hall. That’s why we do what we do.”
John Thorn, MLB’s official historian, said that with the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants playing a game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., next month, the timing was right to release the committee’s findings. Thorn estimated that about 75 percent of all Negro Leagues box scores have been documented, and that MLB would update the records as more are uncovered.
To some extent, Negro League numbers will always be a work in progress. Barnstorming games, essential as a financial lifeline to Negro League teams, are not included in the statistics.
“For example, the Kansas City Monarchs travel to Chicago, and once they get into town, they play as many games as possible,” Lester said. “So instead of a three-game series, they play five — and on the way there, they might stop in Moline and play the local team to pick up some change.
“Based on players that I’ve interviewed, they say they played almost every day, sometimes two or three games a day and not in the same location. So they were playing probably 150 to 175 games a year, but only 60 to 80 games counted in the league standings.”
Those shorter official seasons, MLB noted in a release announcing the change, naturally lead to some “leaderboard extremes”. But the league verified a 60-game season during the COVID-19 pandemic, and with that as a recent precedent, Thorn said, it made sense to also verify Negro League seasons.
“The irregularity of their league schedules, established in the spring but improvised by the summer, were not of their making but instead were born of MLB’s exclusionary practices,” MLB said in the release.
The committee used the same statistical minimums for Negro League leaders as it does for the American and National Leagues: 3.1 plate appearances or 1 inning pitched per scheduled team game. The scheduled games range from 26 (Negro American League, 1942) to 91 (Negro National League I, 1927).
The new accounting gives Gibson not just the career batting average record, but also the single-season mark at .466 in 1943, followed by Chino Smith’s .451 in 1929. The previous record, Hugh Duffy’s .440 mark for Boston in 1894, drops to third.
At Baseball-Reference, however, Gibson’s .466 isn’t even listed in bold on his career ledger. That’s because another hitter in Gibson’s league, Tetelo Vargas of the New York Cubans, batted .471, which the website considers the single-season record.
Vargas is credited with 136 plate appearances that season. But MLB considers that league’s schedule to be 47 games long, so Vargas falls short of MLB’s minimum 146 plate appearances required for recognition as a league leader.
On Baseball-Reference’s single-season batting average leaderboard, Vargas and Gibson are followed by another .466 hitter — Lyman Bostock Sr., the father of the star outfielder for the Twins and Angels who was murdered after a game in Chicago in 1978.
Bostock Sr.’s .466 mark is recognized by Baseball-Reference as the top average in 1941 (which is why Ted Williams’ fabled .406 for the Red Sox in 1941 is not listed in italicized type on the site). But MLB does not recognize Bostock Sr.’s average on the new single-season leaderboard, because he did it in just 84 plate appearances.
“Here’s the difference,” said Sean Forman, the president of Sports Reference LLC. “Throughout the Negro League stats, there are games that are missing; maybe we have the score of the game that was played, but we have no box score for it.
“So I’m looking at Bostock in 1941. We have 23 games of records for him, and we have the Birmingham Black Barons (Bostock’s team) with 45 games that season. So Bostock, with 84 plate appearances, would be below the 45 times 3.1 (threshold). The thing is, he’s over 3.1 per game for those games that we have box scores. We use that number as how we set the minimum.
“We have certain reasons for making the choices we did, and MLB has certain reasons for making the choices they did.”
Ty Cobb’s career average has long stood as MLB’s highest mark. (Photo Reproduction by Transcendental Graphics / Getty Images)
Baseball-Reference uses Negro League statistics from the Seamheads database, a project that Lester said began with a grant from MLB in 2000. Researchers Gary Ashwill and Kevin Johnson searched exhaustively for verified box scores, and while both are on the committee, it took years for MLB and Seamheads to agree on the implementation of data.
“There were arduous negotiations,” Thorn acknowledged. “And part of the difficulty was not financial — that was almost to one side and agreed upon — it was how the stats would be used and what level of involvement Seamheads might have on a continuing basis. It took a long time to get to agreement, but once we got to agreement, we brought in Retrosheet as an additional statistical partner. And, of course, we had Elias on board already as our official statisticians, the ones responsible for auditing the data.”
It took more than two years for those entities to come together. But once they did, it seems, the pace accelerated. Thorn said the committee was careful to rely only on box scores, not merely game accounts. Gibson was reported to have hit four homers in a game in 1938, for example, but with no box score, there’s no way to make all the numbers work.
“If a man hits a home run, he hits it off someone,” Thorn said. “So, absent the double-entry accounting that is required to provide balance to the entire historical record of Major League Baseball, we cannot make exceptions for anecdotal evidence.”
Likewise, Thorn said, a game account from 1948 says that Willie Mays homered for Birmingham. But without a box score to verify it, Mays’ career home run total remains at 660 — all with the Giants and Mets.
The records are not full, but they are accurate for what they cover, as far as MLB is concerned. The painstaking research demands it.
“It takes me roughly 30 minutes to input one box score — line by line, number by number, and then I run data integrity checks at the end of the season,” Lester said. “I roughly have about 16,000 box scores in my database, so it took years to perform the task.
“But it’s fun. We welcome the critics, the doubters. But we know the numbers are solid.”
Decades ago, Lester said, people told him the numbers simply did not exist — “that African-Americans were apathetic about recording baseball history,” he said. He is proud to have helped upend that trope, to unearth the numbers that validate the achievements of Oscar Charleston, Bullet Rogan, Turkey Stearnes and others.
The revised records — even certified as official — will not sway everyone. Lester understands that. And for all the meticulous record-keeping, the what-ifs of segregation can never be resolved.
“Critics will say, ‘Well, (Gibson) only played against other Black teams,’” Lester said. “Well, Babe Ruth never hit a home run off a Black pitcher, and Josh Gibson never hit a home run off a white pitcher. So I guess my point is, the amount of melanin or the lack thereof does not indicate the greatness of a ballplayer.”
(TheAthletic.com)
MS NOTES: Josh Gibson was not just a great hitter. He was a cagey and highly entertaining catcher as well. In his fascinating 2021 book ‘The Bona Fide Legend of Cool Papa Bell: Speed, Grace and the Negro Leagues,’ Lonnie Wheeler writes that when Gibson wanted to psych out an opposing batter he’d bring out a child’s rocking chair and leisurely sit in it while catching, sending the clear message that he had no respect for the opposing hitter. If Gibson thought a runner at second base was stealing signs, he’d flip his cap at the pitcher signaling that while still using fingers to give (fake) pitching signs, the real signs were being sent by the position of his catcher’s mitt. Imagine keeping all that in mind while also catching some of the best pitchers in the game against some of the best hitters.
COUNTING THE NEGRO LEAGUE RECORDS IS ABOUT MORE THAN NUMBERS
by Dave Zirin
In 1962, legendary South African activist Dennis Brutus helped launch SAN-ROC—the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee. One of its aims was to relentlessly point out the hypocrisy of apartheid officials speaking about “South African” sporting records when the only marks being counted and feted were those by white athletes. Government forces jailed, tortured, and exiled SAN-ROC members for speaking this truth. But they could not be crushed and kept organizing international sports boycotts until the fall of apartheid. It has taken until 2024 for Major League Baseball to achieve what South Africa did in the early 1990s.
At long last, the records set in the Negro Leagues prior to 1948 will be integrated into the official MLB record book. No longer will the the incredible baseball feats of the Negro Leagues be relegated to a separate and unequal category. No longer will the accomplishments of legendary players like Leroy “Satchel” Paige, Oscar Charleston, and James “Cool Papa” Bell be dusted off only during Major League Baseball’s thin-gruel salutes to Black History Month.
It has taken a shockingly long time for MLB to arrive at this point—a delay that falsely gives the impression that competition in the Negro Leagues was somehow below that of the Major Leagues. But due to the tireless work of historians, activists, and organizations like the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, the MLB has finally entered the mid 20th century.
One player in particular is laying waste to the baseball record book: Josh Gibson. No longer is baseball’s all-time leader in batting average Ty Cobb and his mark of .367. It’s now Gibson who throughout his remarkable career hit .372. No longer is the single-season record for batting average held by Rogers Hornsby and his .424. It’s now Gibson and his staggering .466. The Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays catcher now is also the all-time leader in career slugging percentage (over Babe Ruth) and slugging in a single season (over Barry Bonds). That Gibson was able to accomplish these hitting feats as a catcher—a position that wears down great hitters with the stress it puts on the knees and back—makes his prowess even more remarkable. What would Gibson have batted as a designated hitter if such a position existed in yesteryear? It boggles the mind.
In announcing this long-overdue move Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said, “We are proud that the official historical record now includes the players of the Negro Leagues. This initiative is focused on ensuring that future generations of fans have access to the statistics and milestones of all those who made the Negro Leagues possible. Their accomplishments on the field will be a gateway to broader learning about this triumph in American history and the path that led to Jackie Robinson’s 1947 Dodger debut.”
Manfred did not add that the debut of Robinson was also the first step toward MLB’s destruction of the Negro Leagues, as it was strip-mined for talent. Teams were left without their main attractions like young hitters Willie Mays and Henry Aaron. Crowds dwindled. And just like that, the grand possibility that entire Negro League teams could be integrated into Major League Baseball, including Black ownership, Black management, and Black laborers, was dashed. To this day, there has never been a Black team owner in Major League Baseball, and the paucity of front-office leaders and managers remains an embarrassment. How different the future may have looked if on the eve of the civil rights movement, a group of Black executives were given a well-earned seat as part of the power structure in America’s pastime. Instead Major League Baseball harpooned what could have been among the largest Black-owned businesses. Manfred shouldn’t skip over this part of baseball history.
If Dennis Brutus was still with us, the brilliant South African poet and sports activist would relish the thought of over 2,300 Black players getting their due in the official record books. He would see it as a great victory for everyone who would not let the Negro Leagues be erased. And in acknowledging the debt to those who kept the flame lit, he would insist we never forget an inequitable past that Major League Baseball first created and then—as flowers bloomed through the concrete—ruthlessly destroyed.
‘WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING UP HERE?’: A GEN Z REVIEW OF NAPA’S BOTTLEROCK
by Madilynne Medina
The Napa sun was beating down on me as I waited among thousands of other festivalgoers at BottleRock Napa Valley’s culinary stage to see the legendary 1980s hair rock drummer of Motley Crue, Tommy Lee. A few minutes before Lee took the stage, a stranger turned to me and asked, “How old are you?”
Even though songs like “Girls Girls Girls” and “Home Sweet Home” were released before I was born, I was still eager to see a legendary troublemaker just a couple of feet away from me — cooking steak, nonetheless. I screamed and cheered, maybe a little too loudly for someone who was born when Bill Clinton was president.
This wasn’t the first time someone asked my age at BottleRock, a three-day music festival held at Napa Valley fairgrounds featuring a wide range of popular artists, plus a food and wine experience that brings in tons of local vendors offering gourmet cuisine. This year, the headliners included Stevie Nicks, Megan Thee Stallion, Pearl Jam, Kali Uchis, Ed Sheeran and Queens of the Stone Age, so despite a reputation for drawing an older crowd, the festival really did have something for music lovers of every age.
I’ve been to numerous festivals, some more than once, including Coachella, Outside Lands and Beyond Wonderland. I have a good grasp of the California music festival scene; however, BottleRock had escaped me until now — surprising, given that I’ve lived in the Bay Area my whole life.
I was initially skeptical of BottleRock. When I mentioned it to my friends who are also regular festivalgoers, they said they had heard the name but weren’t sure what the festival was about. I can’t count how many times someone asked me, “Is that country music?” or “Isn’t that for old people?”
BottleRock isn’t new. It’s been around since 2013 and has garnered more than 100,000 attendees in recent years, so why doesn’t anyone my age seem to care what it is?
Three Days In Millennial Land
Although I might not have been in the target demographic, I was thrilled to see the BottleRock lineup. Many of the headliners excited me, including Stevie Nicks, who put on a mesmerizing show Friday night. T-Pain hyped up the crowd with LMFAO’s “Shots” and made the outdoor and dusty audience feel like we were at the club.
I was also curious to see if I’d feel out of place as I made my way through a crowd of people wearing cowboy hats paired with long dresses and denim outfits. It looked very different from the Western trend at the Bad Bunny concert I had recently attended.
And I likely didn’t make a good first impression for us younger people when I arrived at the festival Friday afternoon. I rode into the fairgrounds on a light-up pedicab in typical Generation Z style: running late to pick up my press credentials.
After a dramatic arrival at the gates, the first person I saw who looked about my age was sitting on the grass in the middle of an interrogation by several cops towering over him. A cliche for the youth.
Overjoyed to start the festival, I made my first stop at Nelly’s set.
Nelly had everyone grooving and belting out the lyrics to his 2002 hit “Hot in Herre,” which made for contagious energy. It was nostalgic hearing some of his biggest hits, even though I felt like I was in Millennial Land, but I might’ve cringed once or twice as the people in the generation above me tried to drop it low. (I’m sorry, that wasn’t Megan knees.)
The festival began on an extremely enjoyable note, even though I felt distant from the attendees at times when I overheard them talk about their kids.
‘What The Hell Are You Doing Up Here?’
Despite the age gap between many attendees and me, I found that we did have a lot in common. One of the things that older festivalgoers and I could agree on was our love for Bradley Cooper. (Who can’t love that man?)
I joined a crowd screaming in excitement as Cooper and Steph Curry walked onstage and proceeded to throw cheesesteaks into the audience. The stunt was linked to Cooper’s up-and-coming cheesesteak business, and he let festivalgoers get a taste at a pop-up concession stand.
While waiting in line to try one of Cooper’s sandwiches, I met a pair of festival attendees who were around my mom’s age. The two women said it feels like different days at BottleRock draw different crowds, mentioning that the first day appeared to have younger people (perhaps because of Megan Thee Stallion and Nelly).
One festivalgoer, Sheila Burgh, was attending her second BottleRock and said she caught part of Megan Thee Stallion’s show after seeing Stevie Nicks.
“A lot of the young ones were looking up at me like, ‘What the hell are you doing up here?’” Burgh said but was open-minded and thought Meg put on a great show.
Talking with the two women in line for cheesesteaks made me feel more comfortable. Even though Gen Zers weren’t the majority at BottleRock, I didn’t feel ostracized for attending. There are others like me out there, I thought as I took a bite into a warm, cheesy sandwich made by the Hollywood heartthrob.
The Musical Experience
Pearl Jam, one of BottleRock’s biggest acts, last headlined a Bay Area music festival in 2009 while at Outside Lands. This year, the Golden Gate Park festival scheduled several artists beloved by younger festivalgoers, including Tyler, the Creator (who headlined Coachella) and rapper-singer Post Malone.
I know only a few Pearl Jam songs but can clearly recognize the band’s legendary status. Seeing Pearl Jam headline a festival was a great way to fully immerse myself in its music for the first time.
Decked out in PJ hats and sweaters, some of the die-hard fans lit up and headbanged to the beat of the drums, which was heartening to see because their excitement was infectious for everyone around them.
(Except for the lady who told me to Shazam a song when I asked if she knew the name. I apologize to the “Jamily” — I was just trying to appreciate it. Anyway, Shazam doesn’t work for live music.)
I felt right at home during some other sets, though, when I knew every word of the songs.
During the Kid Laroi, a 20-year-old Australian rapper and singer who rose to fame in 2019, I was able to hear some of my favorite songs, such as “Love Again” and “Without You.” The artist isn’t shy of gloomy subjects but still accompanies his lyrics with stellar vocals and trap beats, making for a lively show.
It was actually pretty nice that Gen Z wasn’t the majority during the Kid Laroi’s set, who brought a jam-packed crowd to Coachella in 2023. Besides the fact that I overheard some older festivalgoers confuse him with Justin Bieber, people seemed to embrace his music.
Despite a gap in some festivals’ target audiences, BottleRock reaffirmed that some aspects of the music festival experience are universal regardless of age.
I may have missed the memo to wear a cowboy hat and long skirt, but I felt at peace knowing that the love of music is a given similarity. Most people I interacted with at BottleRock were swaying along to the various musical artists, sipping on a beer and taking in the warm, beaming sun.
At one point, a group of moms tapped me on the shoulder and let me know they were barricading me from a “creepy guy” as I watched Steph Curry and Bradley Cooper throw cheesesteaks into the crowd.
I’ve done the exact same move to “protect” a bunch of my Gen Z friends at other crowded festivals. I realized that I have more in common with BottleRockers than I thought.
After three days in Napa, I think more Gen Z folks should give BottleRock a chance because some communal experiences aren’t specific to a certain demographic. If age is just a number, then we can all move to its infectious beat.
After all, I think everyone can agree, regardless of birth year, that Bradley Cooper is a stud in the kitchen and can whip up a zesty cheesesteak.
(SF Chronicle)
Sonoma State University President Mike Lee resigns.
What Mr. Lee did wrong, in violation of university policy was to agree to divestment on his own, without consulting with any other party at Sonoma State.
I bet no one would have raised an eyebrow if Zionist Israel had not been the entity subject to the divestment.
Happy Thursday…… 💕
I love Anthony Bourdain a shame he is gone, a great reminder to not infect yourself with miserable bs! Sorry but enjoying their company might be taking it a bit too far! Haha… 💕
“Assume the worst. About everybody. But don’t let this poisoned outlook affect your job performance. Let it all roll off your back. Ignore it. Be amused by what you see and suspect. Just because someone you work with is a miserable, treacherous, self-serving, capricious and corrupt assh*le shouldn’t prevent you from enjoying their company, working with them or finding them entertaining.”
— Anthony Bourdain
mm 💕
A. B. was WRONG, Mazie…unfortunately, we ARE affected by other people’s behavior. Bullying causes stomach aches, headaches, sleeplessness, dread, depression, and if left un-addressed a myriad of other horrible symptoms, like car accidents, divorce, over reacting, being unable to focus, overuse of medication, overuse of alcohol.
People AT THEIR PLACE OF WORK/JOB need to focus on one thing only AT ALL TIMES, and that is the work at hand, and/or service to the public, period.
Thin King
True we are affected by others behaviors but he was not talking about bullying .. he was simply saying see it for what it is don’t trust anybody, and enjoy the fact that you know what it is!
As a recipient of bullying myself at least at a work situation there is protocol and support to handle it no one should by any means accept or put up with such abhorrent behavior!
mm 💕
Let’s break it down.
“Assume the worst”
WRONG. You can’t show up feeling that way to work. What a sick feeling to start the day. Our natural instinct is JOY.
“About everybody”…
WRONG. What about the nice people. Do you get to ruin their day with your oppressive attitude?
“But don’t let this poisoned outlook affect your job performance”
WRONG. It WILL.
IF this horrible miserable no good individual respects you, and your work, then there is no problem.
LOL. You are describing a dream world rather than the reality of the rapidly decaying US “society”. Don’t worry. With trash like Biden and trumples to lead us, it’ll all be over soon, in a blossoming of mushroom clouds. Good riddance to a loser of a species.
Well I think if you assume the worst right off the bat, there will be no surprises later. In fact the nice people may pleasantly surprise you but there will always be those mofos that want to take you out. Although I am a positive person I disagree with Joy
being a natural instinct, it may be a cultivated one with the right set of privileges and circumstances! How do you find joy if your workplace, asshole boss or anyone else is oppressing you?
mm 💕
At the after party of Robert Marbut’s ‘No Address’ movie screening.
Photo op Mo doesn’t care who she takes a picture with as long as the picture is taken. Why in hell would she agree to go to this screening? She was adamantly opposed to Marbut’s recommendations for reducing homelessness in her district when she was on the City Council. I read that this film, even though it isn’t released to the public yet, has already won several awards.
The City needs to lean on Plowshares, but refuses to. Plowshares is a magnet.
Letter: Marbut has the wrong attitude
From Plowshares
https://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/2019/04/27/letter-marbut-has-the-wrong-attitude/
MAGA Marmon
James,
Thats a nice letter, the issues and attitudes are much worse. and will continue to rise if we do not implement interventions and support ASAP.
mm 💕
I didn’t mean for it to be a nice letter. The “Travelers” need to be given limited services so that they can move on and we can focus on our home grown homeless. Mr. Norvell and the City of Fort Bragg embraced Marbut’s recommendations and now have homelessness under control over there.
MAGA Marmon
James, …lol,,,
It is not under control in FB slightly better maybe…
Well as far as travelers go…. yeah well .. thats not so easy is it? But plowshares is correct no discrimination if someone is hungry and in need.
mm 💕
Fort Bragg’s new crisis team gets thumbs-up from controversial homeless expert
https://mendovoice.com/2023/02/fort-braggs-new-crisis-team-gets-thumbs-up-from-controversial-homeless-expert/
MAGA Marmon
FORT BRAGG, CA — The Fort Bragg City Council and the Fort Bragg Police Department have developed policies to address the issue of homelessness within the city limits. Inspired by the 2018 Homeless Needs Assessment Report given by national researcher Robert Marbut to the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, Mayor Bernie Norvell, then a new city council member, began his mission to solve the homeless problem in Fort Bragg.
Downtown businesses had long complained about people sleeping in their doorways at night. Encampments within city limits sprouted and became sanitation hazards, and some homeowners reported finding people sleeping on their front porches who were unwilling to move on. Shopping carts disappeared at alarming rates.
Although the County Supervisors chose not to adopt Marbut’s recommendations, Norvell believed applying Marbut’s ideas could work and be done humanely. The current policy procedures were developed over the course of a few years due to mistakes that required changes when they were found to be ineffective. Mayor Norvell calls this “the very infant stages.”
Mayor Norvell said, “We tried for years to work with a service provider, and it just didn’t work out for several different reasons. So we just started building our own thing.” Looking back he added, “Four or five years ago, we had probably three times as many homeless.” The mayor and the police chief think the city currently has less than 50 people identifiable as homeless.
Mayor Norvell believes that the support of Police Chief Neil Cervenka made a difference. “The Chief came in, and he had a lot broader experience of what works and what doesn’t. He saw his department make mistakes and didn’t duplicate them here.” Norvell added, “He continues to build on it. What we’re doing is working. It’s very humane.”
What Mayor Norvell and Chief Cervenka have designed is an approach that sets limitations upon unsheltered people. The mission guidelines, said Norvell, established the core belief of “zero tolerance for camps. We wouldn’t let people in the downtown be a nuisance.”
Another no-tolerance enforcement was the theft of shopping carts which cost businesses well over $100 each. What initially seemed a minor issue became quite serious when Mayor Norvell and others found 89 shopping carts abandoned in the Hare Creek watershed area.
“Now they use baby strollers,” said Norvell. He continued, “Nobody wants them to be unable to carry their stuff around. It was always about theft.” Chief Cervenka added, “It was about blight, too. They were abandoned everywhere.”
Chief Cervenka has his code enforcement officers meet with business owners to explain the municipal code. All carts should be marked with ID. Otherwise, theft cannot be charged if a person possesses one. Police will inform businesses of found carts and allow the businesses 72 hours to pick them up.
What also developed was a proactive approach by the police department’s Care Response Unit (CRU), dressed in street clothes, to ask, “How can we help you?” Chief Cervenka explained, “The CRU team is there to tell them what they can do to better their situation, get them off the street, get them into rehab.”
There are various options available, such as a bed at the Hospitality House along with meals, substance abuse rehabilitation, and a bus ticket for those who have a reliable person to pick them up. Chief Cervenka said that 30 to 40 people in the past year have successfully been returned to family or friends.
Those who refuse help are informed that they have a specified number of hours to remove all their belongings and find somewhere else to go. According to Mayor Norvell’s philosophy, “If you want to live in a community, you have to abide by its rules.” He noted, “Some people will say we’re just pushing them out of town. But we have got a lot of people into housing and in a much better spot in life.”
By law, no one can be forced into housing or treatment services, even if the person is mentally ill. Mandated services by the court occur only after a person has committed a crime. New subsidized housing units in California may soon be required to offer 24-hour services on-site for those qualifiers who have mental health or substance abuse issues. However, the law does not require those renters to accept the provided services to stay in their units.
Fortunately, the city’s CRU team can ameliorate these restrictions by offering a wrap-around plan to help keep someone seeking help to stay on track. They monitor a client’s progress while rehab services are in progress. They help address housing issues for those coming back after treatment and guide them through what it takes to maintain a stable lifestyle.
Chief Cervenka described the CRU team program. “It’s a whole approach when they’re working with ego development, and they’re working with rehab, and they’re working with permanent, supportive housing. It’s far more successful than a lot of other programs I’ve experienced.”
The Chief has been in talks with UCLA about the success of the CRU team, whose work has cut homeless arrests in Fort Bragg by 47%. He has also been invited to speak to the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors about the team. However, there is a looming issue for CRU. “The biggest problem right now,” said Chief Cervenka, “is finding long-term, sustainable funding.”
According to a UCSF report on homelessness released this past June, most homeless in California are individuals and families who have lost their housing due to their inability to pay rent. Rents have increased, and the fewer units available, the more likely that rents will be high. Job loss and increased rent are the main causes of housing loss.
Mayor Norvell sees a critical difference between an unsheltered homeless person refusing services and a woman with children who had ten days’ notice to leave when she could not keep up with a rental increase. He believes it is a disservice by state agencies not to view this family as a different category of homeless who should have different and more immediate options than other groups.
“The state would be better off paying her rent for six to nine months while she gets back on her feet,” he said. “It makes sense to keep her housed rather than allow more homelessness.” This type of homelessness directly results from the state-wide shortage of about 2.5 million housing units. Since the economic crisis in 2008, apartment and home construction has not met the public’s needs.
Fort Bragg’s latest construction of affordable units, The Plateau, remains filled. With the help of local nonprofits such as the Food Bank, donations of pots and pans, bedding, window curtains, and other household items helped give newly housed people a start. Homelessness is everybody’s local problem, stretching across regions and states.
One of Mayor Norvell’s major criticisms of state programs for the homeless is the passive approach. He said, “We’re proactive. We’re addressing people in the street for the most part, not waiting for someone to come in the door.” The state, he noted, relies on people with mental illnesses to seek services.
Mayor Novell continued, “Five years ago, we admitted that it wasn’t working. Today I think you can say that it is. We took the leap, but nobody else has been willing to take it with us.” He added, “If your numbers haven’t changed in seven years, whatever you’re doing isn’t working.”
Chief Cervenka advised, “If it took twenty years for the problem to get so bad, it will take years to fix it. Start small. Start in one neighborhood. Start with a small CRU team in one block of a downtown business district. They make mistakes and learn. Then you hire a few more and spread out.”
He continued, “It will push out those who don’t want help. They’ll keep moving. Our goal is to get to the people who don’t want that situation. They just need a helping hand.” Chief Cervenka noted that some people are embarrassed to ask for help but agree immediately when asked.
Mayor Norvell stressed, “We have a moral obligation to help people, but I have no desire to subsidize poor choices and bad behavior.” Both he and Chief Cervenka remain committed to their program and can point to success with many stories about individuals who took that helping hand.
https://www.advocate-news.com/2023/08/03/care-response-unit-provides-solutions-for-the-homeless-population-in-fort-bragg/
MAGA Marmon
Hey, hey
Don’t come around here no more
Don’t come around here no more
Whatever you’re looking for
Hey, don’t come around here no more
I’ve given up, stop
I’ve given up, stop
I’ve given up, stop, on waiting any longer
I’ve given up, on this love getting stronger
Don’t come around here no more
Don’t come around here no more
Don’t come around here no more
Don’t come around here no more
I don’t feel you anymore
You darken my door
Whatever you’re looking for
Hey, don’t come around here no more
I’ve given up, stop
I’ve given up, stop
I’ve given up, (stop) you tangle my emotions
I’ve given up, honey please admit it’s over
Hey, don’t come around here no more
Don’t come around here no more
Don’t come around here no more
Don’t come around here no more
Stop walking down my street
Don’t come around here no more
Who you expect to meet?
Don’t come around here no more
And whatever you’re looking for
Hey don’t come around here no more
Hey
Honey please (honey please) don’t come around here no more
Whatever you’re looking for
Don’t come around here no more
MAGA Marmon
Let’s give credit where credit is due. That is a song written and sung by Tom Petty and probably referred to a groupie.
He also wrote “What’re You Doin’ in my Life (I didn’t ask for you).” Could also apply to the above topic, “homeless :foreigners”, but, like his song “I Won’t Back Down” used by Trump, as his theme song, without permission of the Petty estate, those songs belong to Petty and not to a cause he may not have gone along with. I have nothing against you, but I do think it’s unfair to involve Tom Petty in this. In the same topic, Petty also wrote “Burnt Out Town”, which sounds very much like a description of dear old Ukiah!
“This is a burnt out town
The city fathers have come to blows
They’re dancing on glass ceilings
While the filthy money flows
And here I am
Stealing gas with a garden hose.”
Oops got the verses out of order. This verse should say:
“This is a burnt out town
The city fathers have come to blows
It’s out of their realm of reality
The truth’s indecent when exposed
Yeah it’s a burnt out town
It’s going down but no one knows
Yeah it’s a burnt out town
Ain’t dead but gettin’ close”
Raise your hand if you, too, thought she was our own Mendocino County BOS Mo. ✌🏻
Sorry, I was focused on the woman’s legs under the table, they’re similar to Mo’s.
MAGA Marmon
That’s not Mo in the photo.
Marbut movie. My apologies for not properly identifying everyone. The woman next to the chief is Folsom City Council M ember and Sacramento county Supervisor Elect, Rosario Rodriguez not Mo. Again, my apologies.
Bernie,
How was the movie?
mm 💕
It was an amazing documentary. It focused on failing polices and service providers that are highly successful across the country. The doc only covered seven of the 29 they toured. The commonalities among the. 29 Are they are all self funded. None of them check the boxes to qualify for state of federal funding. It was a spectrum of emotions amongst the viewers. Ranging from happy to sad tears to anger at the system. Street homeless increasing nearly15% a year while the budget continues to increase. I believe we are in our third decade of a ten year plan.
Hmmm well self funding you get to do things your way so thats something! I would have to see the movie maybe you should show it do a screening in Fort Bragg!
mm 💕
Caption under picture, which appears to be written by Bernie, clearly states Maureen Mulheren. I know Mo and that is not her in the picture. Once again, Liberal politicians vote against encampments. This is the biggest BS. I got news for these people, they are not being arrested for being homeless. They are being arrested for committing crimes. Theft, vandalizing peoples private property, also vandalizing public property, public urination and deification, assaults, brandishing weapons, and several murders(homeless on homeless), violation of probation, failure to appear. What part of this shows compassion to anyone? In reality you’re letting these people die a slow death, make laws that encourage someone with no money, no food, no job, drug addiction and mental illness to live on the street. I thought you Liberals cared about people.
The caption was mostly mine, I thought it was Supervisor Mulheren. I thought it needed some explanation I was incorrect. Sorry. Mr. Norvell has already apologized for not providing a complete caption. Let’s focus on something besides captions.
Just explaining why there was confusion. No one to blame, just a mistake. I thought I did focus on something other than captions, most of my statement is about Liberals who choose to encourage homelessness that effects everyone’s way of life, including the homeless.
CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT WEIGHS TWO CASES THAT COULD LIMIT THE BALLOT INITIATIVE PROCESS
Requiring a two-thirds majority is simply minority rule. That’s why the conservatives love it so much.
All tax increases should be approved by the voters.
Perhaps, but not with a two-thirds minority rule caveat.
The original Bruce Anderson would have encouraged AVHS seniors to enjoy their ditch day, invited them to stop by the AVA office for a coke and congratulated them on their graduation.
A New York jury has found Trump guilty on all counts. Let the flame wars commence.
I hope DeNiro does a few cartwheels…
What will the Dems say if Biden manages to lose to “a convicted felon”?
Can’t wait to see their response! Trump will beat Biden. They just put Trump in the White House with this verdict. You can’t fix stupid.
The verdict is in: “A jury found Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts.”
Apt court music:
Asking for a friend…. How come all these American Christians are so gung ho on supporting Israels stampede through Gaza at all costs? Didn’t the Jews crucify the Christian savior? Is it simply that Mooslems are more despised to the devout Americans?
Did the Lord really guide the creepy hand of Mike Johnson to send more bombs to Israel and forget what happened thousands of years ago?
Why arm the folks that killed your only child?
At the time of Jesus there was a great deal of decent, and conflict against Roman rule. Typical for the region. There was at least one Jewish sect that was assassinating Romans in the streets of Jerusalem. To the Romans, Jesus was just another Jew causing trouble that needed to be killed. To those Jewish clerics, Roman hegemony included some Jewish clerics who primarily wanted to comply with Roman demands. So they killed Jesus to meet Roman requests. But the Jewish-Roman conflict continued to escalated to the point that Rome brought in a large enough army to wipe all Jews and to destroy Jerusalem. Jesus appears to have been an insignificant figure at the time. There were likely many other Jews that got the same treatment at the hands of the Roman hegemony. If it had not been for the conflict between Rome and Jews, Jesus would have likely not emerged as a leader, and likely never been crucified either. Blame Rome.
The irony is, of course, Rome eventually became Christian and adopted the Christian version of history, likely with some prompting, with something like “Rome didn’t kill Jesus, the Jews did.” Most Jews that survived the Roman conducted, shall we call it, Jewish genocide escaped to places outside of the Middle East where their culture adapted to fit their survival needs in the context of continued Roman repression. Many Jews remained in Jerusalem to then be slaughtered by the Christian Crusaders a thousand yeas later, in spite of the Crusaders primary target being Muslims. “Kill them all and let God sort them out”. Rome can be blamed, or get credit for all of it: Jesus, Christianity, the crucifixion, and the historical displacement and on going repression of Jews in Europe that lead to the Holocaust. Rome has quite a legacy.
Jews continued to have a presence in the ME up until the 20th century, but were always subjugated and repressed, as is the way things are done in the ME. Thus the creation of Israel.
So now you’re an historian. Trouble is you peddle nonsense in that field as well. Almost anything you read in, or that is based on either “testament” is pure hokum and wishful thinking, too. The BIBLE is a collection of fairy tales. You might try reading Schlomo Sand’s The Invention of the Jewish People. It’s based on reality, as foreign a territory as that may be for you. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, there is NO “Jewish Gene”.
Hitler also thought of himself as a Roman emperor and admired the Roman civilization. and he despised Jews and Muslims alike, but used the Muslim hatred of the Jews by involving them on his side in WWII. A Palestinian leader, the “Grand Muftee” of Jerusalem was sentenced to ten years in prison (by a Muslim court) for inciting a riot at the Al Aqsa Mosque, and fled, eventually ending up in Germany, consorting with Hitler. Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.
The Al Aqsa Mosque is in the “Old City”, where the riot (in 1920) occurred, but the riot actually took place at the “Old City” proper at the Jaffa Gate, the entrance to the Old City..
Hitler was all over the map with his history, and religion. He revered the Germanic tribes, and the Teutonic Knights. It appears he embraced the pagan religion of the Germanic people, and the fighting skill of the Christian Teutonic Knights. The Swastika is a very old pagan symbol that goes back at least 5,000 years. (That symbol also had a history in pre-Columbian America.) There is a good argument suggesting that Hitler was trying to establish his own pagan religion. Jews, Muslims, and Christians were the enemy of the Third Reich. Jews controlled a significant part of the German economy, and were universally resented, thus were an easy target. His sometimes good relations with the Vatican, and Muslims were a matter of convenience. Most of the Germans under Hitler were Catholic. He needed them.
What’s “pagan” and what isn’t is all in the eye of the beholder. All religions are nutty and all are fallacies created by humans, mainly for the control of other humans. Hitler was just another nut case who tried and failed to rule the world. The Persian Empire put Hitler’s effort (and that of us dumb, gawd-fearin’ Americans) to shame. All Hitler needed the Catholics for was cannon fodder, much like the US guvamint prefers christians…they’re much easier to control in military situations, so willing are they to “serve”, and die for their imaginary “savior”.
The term pagan is what it is. It’s two syllables. Everyone knows what it means. As far as I know few ,if any, are left who would be offended by it. How about the term barbarian?
That is just a cop-out, George, your specialty, in an attempt to cover your ignorance and get people to believe the tripe you peddle. Your “explanation” is as nonsensical as the one you use for correlations, and fish passage. When those like you knock on my door to peddle their ignorance, I send them away, immediately; I know their tales by heart, now. A simple-minded variation on, “Do as I say; believe as I do; otherwise it’s eternal damnation for you.”
Your friend should get some remedial education on current events, and come back with a more informed question.
Thanks, Norm, that’s super helpful