VERY HOT and dry weather will continue in the interior for the remainder of the week. A deeper marine layer will result in cooling with occasional fog and low clouds for coastal areas today and Wednesday. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A warmer 57F under foggy skies this Tuesday morning on the coast. I sure did not see much sunshine yesterday, did you? The NWS says patchy fog into tomorrow then clearing later in the week. As usual, we'll see. That's a good fog bank out there.
OOPS
Mike Geniella corrects our ‘Closer Look’ at the State Controller’s office report:
“It was the state Controller's Office that did the review. The state Auditor will do a county-wide probe under the measure just passed by the Legislature. It will be done over the next 18 months, at a cost of $800,000.”
NO MORE CHARLIE BROWNS
Editor,
If the Board Of Supervisors doesn't implement all the recommendations provided in this document from the State Controller's Office Division of Audits they should all be recalled except Norvell and Cline. It's not rocket science. Show some leadership, stop talking Charlie Brown because Mendocino County deserves better.
Redemeyer Red
Ukiah
TIME FOR CEO ANTLE TO RESIGN OR BE FIRED
This is an open letter to the Board of Supervisors, the CEO, Darcie Antle and the public:
I call upon the BOS to demand Ms. Antle step down from her position as CEO.
Ms. Antle was hired as CEO for her alleged financial experience. The current State audit is an indictment of gross County mis-management. I have personally heard from multiple Board members that she is not responding to their requests for information, or keeping the BOS informed of her decisions. The many poor decisions her office is making are costing the County millions of dollars in litigation, wasted man-hours un-doing bad decisions, uncollected taxes, and inefficient unresponsive public services. The Veteran’s Office fiasco; the allegations against the elected Auditor; the on-going inability of the Cannabis Department to function as it was intended; the combining Public Health and Behavioral Health with no independent study to determine whether it was a good idea; and most troubling, there has been NO response to the very serious findings of the Grand Jury report about the under-staffing and too large case-loads at Family and Children’s Services and Adult Protective Services. Her office has taken over running almost all the County departments, including Human Resources, which seems like an obvious conflict of interest. Department heads are hired because they are subject matter experts, but the Deputy CEO’s now running almost all County departments lack this expertise. The County complains that they can’t hire department heads. Duh – no one wants to take a job that they could be marched out of at a moment’s notice and jeopardize their future careers. Our track record on how we treat our employees is horrible.
Ms. Antle has shown she is not up to the task of Chief Executive Officer and I call upon the BOS to remove her as CEO.
Respectfully,
Julie Beardsley
Former Mendocino County Senior Public Health Analyst
Past President of SEIU 1021
Concerned citizen
A FORMER COUNTY EMPLOYEE WRITES:
The State Auditor reported: “The County does not have an official policy and procedure manual; existing written procedures have not been formalized through standardization. Furthermore, these procedures do not fully or accurately reflect the county’s current operational processes. Policy updates have been sporadic and haphazard, leading to confusion among staff who found these changes unclear, contradictory, and poorly communicated.”
As soon as Angelo got in the CEO position, policies went out the window. And, the CEO Office never put things in writing that any department could stand on because every day is a new day, you never know what mood the CEO will be in and if something is in writing then the narrative can’t be manipulated to fit the mood of the day. End of story. That is what employees lived with and apparently still do. Before the top office, Angelo did the same to HHSA. No rules equals chaos and chaos equals an opportunity to be the savior. Until everyone realizes that the empress never had any clothes. Too bad most didn’t realize til after she was outta here. And sadly some still don’t.
VICKI WHITEHEAD (facebook): There has been a request for a multi AV reunion at the fair this year. We are open to suggestions as the planning process is in the early stages. We’re looking at the years 1974 to 1984 with the possibility of having dinner at one of our local restaurants. Everyone paying for their own meal. If this interests you, or you have other suggestions, please respond to this post. We want to get a headcount of interested participants. Go panthers. Sorry the request was for breakfast not dinner. The heat must be getting to me.
CATALYTIC CONVERTER THIEF CAUGHT IN STOLEN VEHICLE, ONE MORE AT LARGE
On July 7, 2024 at approximately 12:30 AM, Fort Bragg police officers were dispatched to the 600 block of East Redwood Ave on the report of an interrupted vehicle tampering.
When officers arrived, they learned the victims heard noises from outside and saw a man and a woman under their full size van, cutting off the catalytic converter. The suspects fled when the victims yelled at them. The victims provided a basic description of the vehicle the suspects ran to and got a couple of letters from the license plate.
Using information from Flock camera data, officers identified the suspect vehicle and license plate, and gave the information out for other officers. At approximately 2:48 AM, the vehicle was spotted eastbound on Pine Street at a high rate of speed. Officers were trying to catch up to it, when it stopped in the 600 block of N. Harold and the male driver fled on foot.
The female passenger, Katelyn Baguley, 18, of Saratoga Springs, Utah, was unable to open her door to flee and was subsequently arrested.
Officers determined the vehicle was stolen out of Lake County and had false license plates attached to it. Officers found burglary tools, a reciprocating saw, and narcotics in the vehicle. No other catalytic converters were found, indicating to them the suspects had not committed any other thefts in Fort Bragg yet.
Data from the Flock cameras in Fort Bragg show the vehicle entered the city about 10:15AM on 7/6/2024.
Baguley was booked into the Mendocino County Jail on the felony charges of Vandalism; Grand Theft; and Possession of a Stolen Vehicle. She was also booked on misdemeanor charges of Vehicle Tampering; Possession of Burglary Tools; Possession of Narcotics; and Possession of Narcotic Paraphernalia.
Officers are currently attempting to identify the male suspect.
Anyone with information on this incident is encouraged to contact Officer Arellano of the Fort Bragg Police Department at (707)961-2800 extension 228.
WASTEWATER TREATMENT PROBLEMS AT MASSIVE HOPLAND WINE PRODUCTION FACILITY DRAW SCRUTINY, ACTION FROM REGULATORS
Water quality regulators are cracking down on a Hopland winery, saying its owner has not adequately invested in treating wastewater from wine processing and bottling during massive expansion.
by Mary Callahan
Hopland ― Besides the millions of cases of wine bottled each year at Ray’s Station Winery off Highway 175, the massive facility has been producing something else in recent years, to the chagrin of its neighbors.
An aroma of raw sewage and rotten eggs, with notes of hot garbage and sweaty feet, permeates the air much of the time going back five years and, this year, pretty much constantly since early spring, residents say.
It’s a stench described as that of “rotting teeth” or a “pig farm” or “fecal matter”― an odor so foul it’s ruined parties, driven neighbors to shut their windows and stay indoors and has, they are sure, degraded their property values along with their quality of life―especially when the weather is warm.
“There have been moments where, like, you walk outside and you gag physically,” said one resident, Taylor Macri. “It’s so strong that you have to hold your breath and run to the car.”
And this year, “it’s gotten so much worse ― exponentially worse,” she said.
The source is wastewater from wine production and bottling activities that have expanded tremendously on the site since 2012. That’s the year that what had been Weibel Winery ― the last of several smaller operations there― was snapped up by Vintage Wine Estates amid a period of rapid acquisition that saddled it with debt and since has pushed it to the brink of bankruptcy.
At the time Vintage Wine Estates bought the property about four miles east of Highway 101, then-president Pat Roney said he planned to crush 400,000 cases of wine at the facility in the coming year.
Roney also told The Press Democrat that having a bulk processing facility in Mendocino County was advantageous because “there are no use permits required, so we can continue expanding to unlimited production up there.”
As much as 11 million cases of wine may now be bottled each year at Ray’s Station, much of it made by fast-growing Josh Cellars, though Vintage Wine Estates, whose operational offices are in Santa Rosa, owns close to three dozen brands, including at least one cider.
A call to Ray’s Station Winery bottling manager Scott Wallace was not returned. Operations head Rodrigo de Oliveira said he would find a company representative to answer questions but did not call back. A second call to his office was unanswered.
According to the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, it appears the winery’s swift expansion may have overwhelmed its wastewater treatment facilities, which regulators say are poorly designed, in disrepair and lack adequate capacity, though the system is intended to handle an average daily flow of 91,100 gallons at peak production.
The problems go beyond wretched odors and have repeatedly put groundwater and surface water connected to the Russian River at risk of contamination, in addition to violating the winery’s permit and general requirements, regulators said.
After a series of actions over several years, including four formal notices of violation, the water quality agency has issued several new orders over the past month intended to force the company to bring its wastewater treatment system under control at last.
A Draft Cease and Desist order issued Tuesday is the latest attempt by water quality regulators to bring order to a situation that, since June 17, has included a torn or punctured liner in one wastewater treatment pond and the risk of rupture and leakage in the second.
The Cease and Desist Order must be approved by the board’s six members in order to be enforceable. A hearing will be held on the matter in the first few days of October.
A Cleanup and Abatement Order and Investigative Order issued June 20 is enforceable now, however. It requires Vintage Wine Estates to develop an urgent corrective plan by Friday and provide information to regulators necessary to oversee improvements.
The most urgent problem apparently arose when wastewater somehow accumulating underneath the pond liners, backed up underground drains, though they were capped five years earlier, said Jeremiah Puget, senior environmental scientist with the water quality agency’s enforcement unit. The backed-up fluid put upward pressure on the liners so they ballooned outward and, in one case, ruptured, though regulators are still awaiting a full explanation, Puget said.
The agency’s actions go back years and are based, in part, on inspections and findings related to odor complaints raised since January 2019, as well as evidence of problems associated with the wastewater treatment system, which includes two lined aeration ponds for wastewater treatment, one treated wastewater storage pond and five rapid infiltration basins used to dispose of treated wastewater.
At least twice in recent years, an aerator has broken, including this spring, when repairs were delayed because a particular component was unavailable, winery representatives told regulators.
The aerator failure, which persisted for more than a month, happened to coincide with Mother’s Day and Memorial Day, creating havoc for neighbors who had planned to host events. It was reportedly repaired May 29, but the odor has not abated.
An earlier series of violations, from October 2022 to April 2023, involved workers found to be disposing of excess treated wastewater on green and landscaped areas around the property, a practice prohibited since the organization yanked out a 12-acre vineyard that once grew there, according to water quality board documents.
Staffers told regulators the facility’s five, quarter-acre rapid infiltration basins, designed for disposal of treated effluent, weren’t percolating at the expected rate, requiring another disposal route that regulators say threatened contamination of groundwater and surface water resources through commingling with stormwater drainage, board documents say.
Some treated wastewater also has ended up in stormwater structures that drain to a vineyard pond across the highway from which it can reach the Russian River, regulators say.
Other issues arose from grape pomace left over from wine production that was stored in a corner of the property about 150 feet from the nearest home after the facility managers could find no other disposal option.
“That ended up stinking really badly,” said Ken Richter, a neighbor who plans to sell the ranch house he shares with his wife off the north edge of Highway 175.
Richter, a vineyard manager, says there’s no way the wastewater aeration ponds and other facilities are sufficient to “handle the amount of wastewater they push through,” and with only about 35 acres, 10 of them built, it seems unlikely they’ll be able to, he said.
“It’s criminal as far as I’m concerned,” Richter said. “I don’t know how they can get away with it …. Every county agency we’ve talked to has just done nothing for us.”
“It really has affected us,” said Marie Kong, one of a handful of others with rural homes just east of the winery.
Vintage Wine Estates, in a public video touting the site’s tremendous capacity and function as “the primary work horse” for its bottling operation, said in addition, “We’re proud to be good neighbors and supporters of our community.”
But neighbors say their dreams of living in a beautiful, rural valley and enjoying time outdoors with family have been destroyed.
“They did construction for years and years and years and years and moved a whole lot of dirt for years, and for years and years and years we had construction noise,” said Kong, who, with her husband Todd, built their home in 1991. “They kept adding tanks, and its huge, and even that, I was like, ‘OK.’”
“ … And then the smell started,” she said.
Russian Riverkeeper Executive Director Don McEnhill said the recent regulatory notices had gotten his organization’s attention, which is now looking into the matter.
“It’s pretty easy to control that environment unless you’re not trying,” he said. “This is not rocket science. It’s about making sure you have the capacity to treat the volume you have, and you have the appropriate protocols and treatment systems.
“It’s pretty simple stuff, and they shouldn’t be getting it wrong, but if you under-invest in your treatment systems or you’re undersized, that’s a real problem.”
(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)
JULIE BEARDSLEY: It would have also been appropriate for the BOS to do a study on whether it was a good idea to put the Public Health Department under Behavioral Health. (Which is the reality of the situation, regardless of how they want to spin it). Now almost all experienced PH staff have left and you have people who I’m sure are well-intended, but who lack any Public Health training or experience. Learning on the job while getting paid as subject experts.
MENDOCINO COUNTY SECURES VICTORY as Telecom Deregulation Bill Pulled
by Sarah Reith
A bill that would have relieved telephone companies of their legal obligation to provide essential telecommunications services at affordable prices was pulled from a key committee last week, meaning it is not currently on its way to a vote by the full House.…
mendofever.com/2024/07/09/mendocino-county-secures-victory-as-telecom-deregulation-bill-pulled
‘FORRESTERJ’ WRITES:
Mike Geinella @ A milestone reached…
Thank you for sharing your Betty Ford story, I was touched and a little misty eyed hearing your story and gratitude.
I attended the family program at “The Betty” in 1993 to “help” my family member. Quickly family members learn the addict can only help themselves. We can’t force them to sobriety or fix things so life will just get right for them to make the change. Rather we learn our role in the family that continues the cycle without even realizing it. Family members serve as a “cog in the wheel” which helps keep it rolling. You have to jam a stick in the cog to stop it from rolling, take the air out of the tires so to speak. We know cars can keep running even with a flat tire, not well, but they can keep moving! This is why as many family members that can learn to change their role /heal their pain/ set true boundaries for themselves that they are no longer enabling or codependency and are free. The “vehicle” breaks down and is no longer there for the addict.
None of this blames the family but rather to gain an understanding of how it functions, where to heal members of the family, and know how to move forward in a different way.
Happy 17th Birthday Mike to you and family!
ED NOTES
I'LL BET our superintendent of county schools wouldn't take a free trip to Israel like John Carroll superintendent of the Marin County schools did. Why wouldn't our superintendent take a major freebie? Because here in Mendocino County only the most ethically scrupulous of our citizens ever get elected to public office, that's why.
SUPERINTENDENT CARROLL'S “Study Tour of Israel” from June 28, 2023 to July 9, 2023 (12 days) was paid for by the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Relations Council, to the tune of $8,000. A bunch of Bay Area elected people have enjoyed similar jaunts, the purpose being to occlude the Israelis’ criminal assaults on the trapped Palestinians of Gaza. (Thanks to Eve Crysanthe's reporting Marin has become aware of its officials succumbing to propaganda vacations.)
IF YOU'RE LIKE ME, I pity you but assume we share at least a few opinions, maybe even opinions about book stores. New books book stores are of little interest to me other than as places to buy a book I can't really afford but can't wait to be remaindered when I can buy it from Hamilton for $5.95. I want to read it now. And the new book store sells now. (Kids aren't the only segment of the society prone to the pull of instant gratification. Book fogies are right up there with children and junkies in unreasoning compulsion.)
NEW BOOK STORES irritate the hell out of me, frankly, because they're a living reminder how far the culture has slipped. Of course to stay in business a new bookstore has got to sell what people pay to read, hence the shelves stuffed with Dr. Laura, Dr. Phil, Tom Clancy, Michael Jackson bios, Trump tell-alls, and all the rest of the downward cultural indicators in print form. The cover art, if that's what it's called on new books, is as awful as the stuff on the page. Fifty years ago even bad books came in interesting wrappers designed and illustrated by real artists. No more. If the product wasn't in book form you could be browsing a candy warehouse for all you can tell from the packaging.
THE INTERNET and unreasonably high rents are chipping away at used book stores; why pay to rent a store when you can sell books for free in cyberspace? But there are some wonderful used book stores here in Mendocino County, two very good used book stores in Fort Bragg alone — The Book Store on Laurel and Windsong Books on Main Street. Down the road, Moore's Books in Mendocino is quite good for used books, as is the amazing Book Juggler in Willits. Ukiah, the wonderful used book store on North State was outta business the last time I tried to visit,
THERE ARE OF COURSE several easy over “spiritual” book stores in a county where low energy, no demand “spirituality” is fairly prevalent; wherever there are large numbers of fuzzy warms in proximity to redwoods and the sea, they tend to group-up and go woo-woo wow-wow. In other words, Michael Toms and Starhawk would go broke in Cleveland. Where were we? O yes. Used book stores. Catfish Books in Lakeport is a good little used book store — the only one I know of in the great wasteland between Mendocino County and Time-Tested Books in Sacramento, travelling west to east. And it's been many years since I stopped in. North to south? Hmmm. Coupla good used book stores in Ashland, another couple in Eugene, a bunch in Portland, which is as far north as I've been. In Frisco, my favorite used book store is Chelsea Books on Irving, and, natch Green Apple.
LEFTYS, the few who still get their information via print, the amazing Bolerium Books on Mission near 16th in San Francisco are a book person's promised land. Bolerium is strictly left stuff — a kind of book museum of lost causes — whereas Time-Tested has an eclectically seductive collection of used books on many subjects because proprietors Scott Soriano and Peter Keats know their books. They even read books, which puts them apart these days from lots of folks in the book biz. Bolerium is kinda high-priced because, I think, much of their business is with libraries and academics, for whom price tends to be no object, but Bolerium has everything you ever heard of and then some.
THE MAGAZINE RACKS are even more offensive than new book stores. They are little seas of brightly colored covers committed to nothing at all of the latest in mindless consumption. Hidden away in the serious part of the mag rack back there might be three never-to-be-sold copies of New Left Review and maybe two copies of MR, there's The Nation wondering on its cover if Joe Biden will move the Democratic Party in a more “progressive” direction and, on the same cover, another inane ditherer is worried that RFK Jr. might be to the advantage of the Orange Monster. The Nation, In These Times, The Progressive, Mother Jones, and Jacobin are all pretty much the same, doomed print publications for people who drive correct vehicles with lots of bumper stickers on them. (Jacobin is offensively slick and its articles are junior faculty all the way.) But with podcasts and cell phones, print is pretty much finito.
PEOPLE ASK SO OFTEN I feel that I've got to update my answer, “How often do you get threatened? Not often. And now that I'm old and ailing, never. I miss it. I used to get a lot of threats, but my detractors always seemed to lack stamina. A few woofs and gone. The telephoned threats I used to record and hand over to deputy Squires. Ditto for the written ones, but nobody who calls up to threaten is likely to follow through. I've got maybe 30 demand letters from lawyers saying that if I don't take it back they're going to sue me, but I don't recall ever having felt that I had to take it back. Been sued for libel a couple of times, won both on appeal. Hand-to-hand combat is definitely a thing of the past, but I found myself in quite a few scuffles with unhappy readers over the years. But the reality is in our seething country all media take incoming all the time. The diff with us media small fry is that we're a lot more gettable than David Muir or even the blandly inoffensive Press Democrat whose premises are high security, complete with a babe in a bulletproof bubble on the paper's ground floor. To even get upstairs where the guild mice are tapping out their safe paragraphs in their little cubicles, the babe in the bullet proof bubble has got to buzz you into the elevator. I miss my enemies!
‘ENGAGING INTIMATELY WITH THE MATERIAL’:
Panel speaks on philosophy and history of Krenov School
by Roberta Werdinger
On July 13, from 2 to 3:15 p.m. PDT, the Grace Hudson Museum will present a virtual panel, "Through the Years: Insights from Krenov Instructors." Three people who were key to the birth and evolution of the Krenov School of Fine Woodworking in Fort Bragg will speak: Creighton Hoke, who helped establish and launch the school; David Welter, who was shop manager, ad-hoc instructor, and overall go-to person for the school for 30 years; and Laura Mays, who has been the Krenov School's director and lead instructor since 2011.
David Welter, who Creighton Hoke calls "the beating heart of the program," was born and raised in Iowa. He and his wife, Laura, grew up on farms and were comfortable with small-town life, which helped enhance their move from the Midwest to Fort Bragg, where the Krenov School was founded in 1981 near a satellite campus of College of the Redwoods. (At the time, the school was known as the College of the Redwoods Fine Woodworking Program.) The Welters expected to spend only one year in the area, as David completed the school's nine-month program, but they never went back--"and we wouldn't want to be anywhere else," Welter emphasizes. Gradually, he took on more responsibilities: machine maintenance, clerical work, providing one-on-one help to students.
Welter found James Krenov, whose craft as a woodworker and writings on the subject had brought him international fame, to be a "remarkable genius," though "he wasn't always easy to be around." Nevertheless Krenov, who died in 2009, was accepted and appreciated by the town at large, with the school bringing in students from all over the world.
Now retired, Welter keeps in touch with students from the school's forty-three-year-old history. The Krenov School has tended to attract students who fill the gap between commercial cabinetmakers and those who are self-consciously creating an art object. He cites the example of Sarah Marriage, who studied at the school 14 years ago: She has now started a cooperative workshop in Baltimore for women and nonbinary people to practice their woodworking skills. "She had heart and worked hard," Welter says of her. "Just about every year there's one person who really stands out."
Creighton Hoke has been everything from a philosophy undergraduate in the UK to a designer and builder of chicken barns to a software coder for Autodesk. Now a writer living in Asheville, North Carolina, he maintains that what he learned from Krenov has remained relevant and inspiring at every point in his path. The spark was lit when he read Krenov's 1976 book A Cabinetmaker's Notebook, in which Krenov expressed how, as Hoke puts it, "to be engaged intimately with the material and to do the very best you can with that … Do you have the skill to listen, watch, and then respond -- with a shape, a color, a proportion?"
After meeting Krenov out West and learning that a woodworking school based on his philosophy was forming, Hoke returned to his home on the East Coast, quit his job, put his dog and his tools in his pickup, and drove cross-country to join the school. There was one detail he had overlooked: the school didn't exist yet. The Mendocino Woodworkers Association had invited Krenov and his family to come from Europe to preside over the school, but it hadn't gone much further. So Hoke got busy: he designed the curriculum, wrote ads, and helped hire teachers (including Krenov).
Like Creighton Hoke, Laura Mays found her way to the Krenov School through reading his books. In 2001 she traveled from her native Ireland and enrolled at the school. Ten years later, she was employed as director and lead instructor, a position she still fills. In this time, the school has worked to further encourage applications from women and people of color--groups traditionally under-represented in woodworking. The school also seeks to culturally contextualize the work, acknowledging "there are woodworking traditions around the world." The school has had to confront the degradation of forests and climate change, all of which affects the wood they work with. "We're tied into the same systems that everybody else is," Mays reflects.
Mays also notes that the school's curriculum and approach has not changed in its forty-plus-year history. Hoke says that he doesn't remember there being an empty seat in the classroom. "Developing real skill in hand and eye," he remarks, "is a message that does not get old … Fancy tools come and go, but the real reward is being able, with your own hands and eyes, to make a change in this material and have it be pleasing."
To access the link for this virtual meeting, go to the home page or “Museum Events” page of the Museum's website and scroll down to the event listing. Please note that the 2 p.m. start time reflects Pacific Daylight Time.
This panel ties in with the Museum's current exhibit, Deep Roots, Spreading Branches: Fine Woodworking of the Krenov School, which explores the school's history and features woodworking pieces from Krenov, and school instructors and students. Deep Roots, Spreading Branches will be on display through Aug. 18.
The Grace Hudson Museum is at 431 S. Main St. in Ukiah. The Museum is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 4:30 p.m. General admission is $5; $12 per family; $4 for students and seniors; free to all on the first Friday of the month; and always free to members, Native Americans, and standing military personnel. For more information please go to www.gracehudsonmuseum.org or call 467-2836.
MENDOCINO COLLEGE INTRODUCES CREATIVE WRITING CLASS AT POINT ARENA COAST COMMUNITY LIBRARY
Mendocino College is thrilled to announce its inaugural Creative Writing class at the Point Arena Coast Community Library (225 Main St.). Scheduled to run from August 23 to December 13, 2024, English 503 (5010): Creative Writing for Older Adults welcomes writers of all levels, aged 13 and above. Costing only $12 to enroll, this course provides a unique opportunity for both experienced authors and beginners to hone their literary skills in a supportive environment.
Vincent Poturica, a tenured Associate Professor of English and published author, will lead the course. With over a decade of experience guiding students in crafting compelling narratives across various genres, Poturica brings a wealth of expertise to aspiring and established writers on the Mendocino Coast. His passion for storytelling and commitment to nurturing local talent make him an ideal instructor for this innovative program.
"We are excited to bring the first-ever creative writing class to the Mendonoma community," said Dr. Amanda Fox Xu, Dean of Centers at Mendocino College. "This initiative underscores our dedication to fostering artistic expression and educational enrichment across our district in partnership with local institutions like the Coast Community Library."
Former students of Poturica's classes have praised his teaching style and its impact on their writing journey:
"Multi-faceted, dynamic, ultra-collaborative, and inspiring—Vincent's ENG-530 course is the best creative writing class I have ever taken,” shared Matthew Long, a past participant and Fort Bragg filmmaker. "Meshing classic writing techniques with modern sensibilities and a cinematic teaching style, this is the place to transform your writing ideas into poetic narratives."
Another former student and Mendocino Coast writer Dot Brovarney added, "Vincent brings his unbridled enthusiasm for writing to the classroom. He encourages new writers by providing practical ideas and tools to get started and keep going. He invites more experienced writers to expand their skill set by experimenting with new literary forms."
The course will run every Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 12:50 p.m., offering participants a structured yet flexible schedule to accommodate different writing styles and personal commitments. Sessions will include interactive exercises, discussions on craft elements such as character development and plot structure, as well as workshop opportunities for peer feedback and constructive critique.
"We designed this class to be inclusive and accessible," remarked Vincent Poturica. "Whether you're a seasoned writer looking to polish your skills or someone who's just beginning to explore, there's a place for you in our community of writers."
Participants can expect to explore various genres, from fiction to poetry to creative nonfiction, under Poturica's guidance. The course aims to empower writers to discover their unique voices and develop a deeper understanding of narrative techniques through practical exercises and collaborative learning.
Registration for Mendocino College's Creative Writing class at the Point Arena Coast Community Library is now open. Interested individuals are encouraged to secure their spots early. For more information on how to enroll, please visit www.mendocino.edu or contact the Mendocino College Coast Center by phone at (707) 961-2200. Additionally, all students who pay the $12 enrollment fee will also have free access to the college’s food pantry, mental health and career counseling, and other community services, including complimentary bus travel throughout Lake and Mendocino Counties.
About Mendocino College: Serving Lake and Mendocino Counties, Mendocino College, is a community college that provides equitable educational and career-training opportunities and services to diverse student populations at its campuses in Ukiah, Lakeport, Willits, and Fort Bragg, as well as at its learning sites in Anderson Valley, Covelo, and Point Arena. With a focus on innovation and rural community engagement, the college offers a wide range of academic programs, career certificates, and enrichment activities to support student success, career-technical education, and lifelong learning.
COAST CLINIC WELCOMES NEW LICENSED MENTAL HEALTH AND FAMILY THERAPIST LOGAN BENGSTON
MCHC Health Centers is pleased to welcome behavioral health provider Logan Bengston, a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT). He will see patients three days a week at the Hillside Health Center in Ukiah and one day a week at the Lakeview Health Center in Lakeport. Bengston will provide mental health care for adults and children.
When an opportunity arose to work at MCHC, Bengston was especially drawn to the health center’s holistic approach to healthcare.
“I’m really excited about the integrated behavioral health model,” he says. “What I’m seeing here already is how seriously the medical providers take mental health and how they see it as part of treating the whole person.”
Bengston has worked in caregiving and mental health throughout his career. His particular areas of interest include substance abuse (addiction), anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and psychosis. As a therapist, he uses techniques including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and motivational interviewing, approaches that help patients make incremental changes in their behavior.
When he was first exploring career options, Bengston studied both art and psychology. He first earned an addiction counseling certificate, and then a bachelor’s degree in art from Humboldt State University. Once he worked in in-patient drug and alcohol settings and at a detox center, his path became clear. He went back to school to earn a master’s degree in counseling psychology from the University of San Francisco.
After earning his degree, Bengston worked as a mental health therapist with Mendocino Coast Clinics and had a private practice on the coast. He then contracted with the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program (VASH), where he helped veterans acquire and maintain housing. His most recent position was with Redwood Community Services, where he worked with patients experiencing moderate to severe mental health concerns and often cared for people in crisis.
Bengston grew up in Ukiah, where his parents still live. He spent about 18 years in Fort Bragg before moving to Willits three years ago. His position at MCHC has allowed a welcome return to the familiar. “Ukiah is different, but it’s also really the same,” he says of his hometown.
Given the nationwide shortage of mental health workers and the need for quality caregivers—problems exacerbated in a rural setting—Bengston is glad to be able to provide care in this community. “There’s always a huge need here,” he says.
Though some people still find it uncomfortable or unfamiliar to talk about mental health concerns, Bengston is encouraged by how much less taboo the topic has become. “It’s kind of exciting to think about just how much the stigma around mental health has changed in the last 20 years. When I was younger, you couldn’t access the care you can access now. That stigma is going away,” he says.
He encourages anyone who thinks they might benefit from seeing a mental health therapist to give it a try, even if they are a bit hesitant. “You’ve got nothing to lose,” he says. He also notes that it is important for patients to remember that they might not click with the first mental health provider they see, and that is okay. “When it comes to mental health care, the right fit is really important,” he says. “It’s important to find the right person to work with.” MCHC has more than a dozen providers people can choose from.
Bengston enjoys traveling and describes himself as a dog person. He also loves spending time outdoors. “I used to surf every day when I lived on the coast, which I miss,” he says.
Bengston finds his work as a therapist fulfilling and meaningful. “My personal perspective is that life is about helping others,” he says.
MCHC Health Centers includes Hillside Health Center and Dora Street Health Center in Ukiah, Little Lake Health Center in Willits, and Lakeview Health Center in Lakeport. It is a community-based and patient-directed organization that provides comprehensive primary healthcare services as well as supportive services such as education and translation that promote access to healthcare.
CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, July 8, 2024
KATELYN BAGULEY, Saratoga Springs, Utah/Fort Bragg.
DANIEL BARBOZA-DIAZ, Safety Harbor, Florida//Ukaih. DUI.
TYLER CALES, Willits. County parole violation.
DAVID COPE, Fort Bragg. Controlled substance, paraphernalia.
NICKOLAS DUNSING, Ukiah. Grand theft, stolen property, conspiracy, controlled substance.
JULIE FRISBIE, Willits. Domestic battery, child endangerment.
JAIME FUENTES-BANALES, Point Arena. Domestic battery.
JODI HODGES, Ukiah. Parole violation.
JAMAAL HOLLIDAY, Covelo. DUI.
OSCAR MENDOZA-AGUILAR, Redwood Valley. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.
ISSA NIAMBELE, Ukiah. Petty theft.
EDWINA NIDEROST, Ukiah. Domestic violence court order violation.
OSCAR RAMIREZ, Ukiah. Domestic battery.
TRENTON SHOOPMAN, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.
MARIYA SIDDONS, Willits. Vandalism.
JONATHAN WOLFE, Potter Valley. Vehicles theft with priors.
LISA WOLFINGER, Abilene, Texas//Fort Bragg. Domestic abuse.
VISHNU WITH CRAIG
Warmest spiritual greetings,
Having a really good day in Ukiah. A doctor removed the annoying skin tag inside of the lower lip, and wrote it up so as not to appear “cosmetic.” Celebrated by going to SuperCuts which was definitely “cosmetic.” Bought a bagful of rehydrating beverages on the way back to the motel. Took a cool shower. The new computer is on, presently watching the Jagannath Rath Yatra LIVE in Puri in eastern India right this very moment. Body relaxed. Mind at ease. The real Self is in charge without interference. Anybody want to be part of a spiritual nomadic direct action group? There are alternatives to rotting in the quagmire of samsara. I've got some money, the health at 74 is adequate, and we've got God on our side. Talk to me.
Craig Louis Stehr
Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com
TIME TO GO
Editor:
I never thought I’d say these words about Joe Biden: stubborn, stupid, selfish. With Biden’s refusing to face reality and accept that his debate disaster has doomed any chance of defeating Donald Trump, we can only now hope that Democratic leaders will develop the spine to do what Barry Goldwater did with Richard Nixon in 1974: tell him “It’s hopeless — to save the country, it’s time to go.”
Rick Childs
Mendocino
PAUL HIBBERT EXPLAINS THE SEMI-COLON: “It's like taking a deep breath. The comma is like a short breath.”
PROJECT 2025, A DIALOGUE
Del Potter:
Tom, you must be excited about using the military to tame these Democratic cities. Given your loyalty, I”ll bet you”ll get a special position and uniform, a brown shirt or what have you. You”ll probably get a MAGA hat signed by the Fuul.
Tom Tetzlaff:
What the %^$##$^ Del?
This kind of bs and smear filled rhetoric is not only unnecessary, but is the reason why the D side continues to lose support. Not all that long ago I was once a solid “D” yet now firmly stand in the “I” camp mostly due to how the D side has deteriorated to the level of moronic, inaccurate claims and exaggerated rhetoric like your post(s) and doing exactly what you claim the “R” do only in reverse.
The polling data clearly indicates that I am not alone in holding my current political position. The “I”s are growing larger every day.
Del Potter:
It”s just moronic, exaggerated, inaccurate !@#%!!! rhetorical smears from the Democrats.
Tom Tetzlaff:
Del, what you wrote directly to me is NOT what the NYT wrote. Those words are yours. They were not printed by the NYT. It is you that insinuates and wrote the “brown shirts” rhetoric aimed directly toward me personally. Those are for certain “moronic, exaggerated, and inaccurate rhetorical smears”. It is probably a violation of list moderation rules too.
So what are you going to do Del? Are you going to side with your beloved, yet biased NYT writers who are calling for Joe to step aside? Or stand with Joe and the “sharp as a tack” crowd for four more years?
Yeah, his recent interview with Stephanopoulos was another indicator of just how far the decline in his capacity has fallen. He couldn”t even remember if he had rewatched his own debate!
And when are the American people going to see him operate a simple press conference? He shuffles away from the press every time. If he can”t handle the American press, how could you expect him to handle anything else? America deserves an honest press conference without prearranged questions, or a teleprompter.
Marie Tobias:
Hi Tom,
I'm not a big fan of Lindsay Graham, but his idea of having both candidates thoroughly tested for mental defects and making the results public sounds like an excellent idea to me.
We have a right, no, a responsibility for putting the best man in office we possibly can. If either or both are seriously compromised, America has a right to know and a responsibility to find a better candidate. That said… Donald Trump shouldn't be allowed anywhere near DC… If you read ANY of the books written by the folks in his cabinet, he has neither the temperament, knowledge/ understanding, nor social aptitude/ psychology to manage a "Church Bizarre", let alone the federal government.
If you read Mary Trump, a noted psychologist and author, her Uncle's pathology is clearly the result of neglect and abuse: https://www.pacesconnection.com/blog/donald-trump-is-the-product-of-abuse-and-neglect-his-story-is-common-even-for-the-powerful-and-wealthy
It's also a cautionary tale about America's strange penchant for putting sociopaths in positions of power: with some estimates putting the frequency of Sociopathy among Corporate CEOs as 10 times higher than the general public. We need to create a place where we can vet potential leaders with the clear understanding that we need to select candidates based on their ideals and accomplishments.
THE 2024 BRITISH ELECTION: BIG CHANGE AIN’T GONNA COME
by Jonah Raskin
Yeah, yeah, I know the Tories are out, Labour won big time and Keir Starmer is the new PM and at home at 10 Downing Street. Starmer called for “Change.” That’s what voters clearly wanted after years and years of disastrous Conservative Party rule that saw a widening gap between haves and have nots and an economic crisis that might be beyond repair unless something decisive is done and done quickly. Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.
Yes, change is in the air, but don’t expect anything revolutionary. England hasn’t had a real revolution since the 17th century, when King Charles I was beheaded and Oliver Cromwell became the “Lord Protector” who did everything but protect the Irish, the Catholics, the Royalists, and supporters of the Crown.
I arrived in England in 1964 to begin a three-year course of study at the redbrick University of Manchester, in a working class town where as one English woman explained to me, “Where there’s muck there’s brass.” (Where there are poor people there are rich people).
Almost all of my friends were Irish, Scottish and Welsh. The English were and still are elusive. No wonder that Doris Lessing who was born in Persia in 1919 and who was raised in Southern Rhodesia and didn’t arrive in England until 1949, wrote a book called In Pursuit of the English. I pursued them for years, drank beer and tea with them, cheered for Manchester United and Arsenal, learned English slang and spoke some Cockney.
In the fall of 1964, when Harold Wilson became the Labour Party PM some of my new-found friends predicted a revolution. That was wishful thinking. England is an evolutionary kind of place, where change happens slowly and over the course of centuries. No wonder Charles Darwin, with his theory of evolution, was English.
In the three years I lived in Manchester, heated my digs with coal, learned to live with rain, rain, rain, and learned to love fish and chips there was no revolution and nothing remotely resembling anything revolutionary, though there was Carnaby Street in London, Mary Quant fashion and the beginnings of the rock ‘n’ roll rebellion that would roil the US. The boys in the bands were very effective at cultural approbation; stealing from and recycling the blues.
In England in the mid-1960s,there was racism and there were racists. Black babies were described by whites as “pickiness,” brown thread, English sales girls said, was “nigger brown” and Robertson’s Jams offered a “Golly” or “gollywog”—a stereotypical Black cartoon figure— on all jars that sold in stores. “Paki Bashing”– attacks on Pakistan immigrants — was a favorite pastime of rowdy racist youth, and workers in some Manchester unions went on strike to protest against Pakistani immigrants who wanted to join the unions. In movie theaters when “God Save the Queen” played on loudspeakers, audience members stood at attention. I was not so inclined.
“Reform U.K.,” the insurgent anti-immigration party, which just won more than four million votes, is nothing new in English politics. Brit racism goes back centuries and is deep seated. Hell, the Brits even look down at the French and the Italians, though they’ll vacation on the French Riviera and on Italian beaches.
As a Yank in England from 1964 to 1967, I didn’t expect a revolution and might not have joined it either, though on holiday in Italy I joined demonstrations against the War in Vietnam and paid a call on the Cuban Embassy in Rome to wish the Cubans a Happy Anniversary on their revolution and to smoke cigars and drink rum. I had to cross the channel to celebrate anything that smelled as sweet as Cuban tobacco.
I was happy to return to England where I could enjoy a “proper” breakfast which meant eggs, bacon, beans, toast and tea and not the skimpy continental breakfasts of café au lait and a buttered tartine. I’ve been back to England again and again over the last several decades, You can take the boy out of England but not England out of the boy. Still, I’ll never love the Tories and I’ll never learn to love the British Crown.
Labour may not be what the British working class needs and really wants, but Labour is better than the Conservatives any day or night of the week, including Guy Fawkes Night, when lads and lassies built bonfires and celebrated the Gunpowder Plot when Guy Fawkes and his comrades planned and failed to blow up the House of Lords. For three years running, I never failed to attend.
(Jonah Raskin is the author of Beat Blues, San Francisco, 1955.)
KATI PETERS
When I was a kid, one of my teachers told us about a street sign that said:
‘NO PARKING ALLOWED’
Someone parked there and got a ticket and went to court to disagree and won!
‘No parking’ is allowed, but the sign doesn't say anything about ‘parking.’
TAKE THE POWER TEST.
How do you know if you are losing power? One of the most time-tested ways to tell is the sit-to-stand test, which also gauges one’s risk for falling. Sit in a chair with a straight back and no arm rests and cross your arms over your chest, resting your hands on your shoulders, feet flat on the floor. Start a timer for 30 seconds and count how many times you can move from sitting to standing.
Men over 65 should be able to do 12 or more; women over 65 should do 11 or more. If you score below that, you may be low on power.
The Dog Soldiers were the Cheyenne Elite, they formed their own bands within the Cheyenne Nation, they often gave their own lives to protect their women and children, they were very much feared by the white Soldiers, and their Native American Foes, Pawnee, Ute, to name but a few, however, they where honoured Allies of the Lakota Sioux, and the Arapahoe's, Comanche's and Kiowa's, the mention of the words "Cheyenne Dog Soldier", put Fear into the most hardest of white Soldiers, they are still the most famous warrior society on Earth today.
NEW DOCUMENTS REVEAL SF JCRC “STUDY TRIPS” TO ISRAEL for Marin County’s Elected Representatives With Little To No Disclosure
by Eva Chrysanthe, Marin County Confidential
Editor’s Note: In early 2024, I submitted a series of CPRA requests to the County of Marin and the City of San Rafael for correspondence from elected officials regarding Israel/Palestine. I have now received thousands of pages of documents, most of which I have managed to read and review, with generous insight from Bay Area reporters and attorneys. (Additional documents are still being processed for release.) The sheer volume of documents has been one thing; quite another is the shock of reading them and learning just how much political pressure has been applied to elected officials in Marin County by the San Francisco Jewish Community Relations Council (SF JCRC).
My intent in making the requests was always to report the matter to the public in a timely fashion. Unfortunately, there is no way to condense the entirety of the released documents into one article. Many of the more revealing documents deserve their own articles. One example is an October 19, 2023 email, which revealed Marin County Office of Education Superintendent John Carroll’s 2023 SF JCRC-paid summer trip to Israel.
Carroll’s trip was so quiet that at least two MCOE trustees only learned about it two weeks ago, on June 25, 2024. To his credit, when I contacted Superintendent Carroll’s office, he invited me to MCOE and patiently answered almost every question I asked.…
marincountyconfidential.substack.com/p/new-documents-reveal-sf-jcrc-study
CALIFORNIA, 1936…
El Monte federal subsistence homesteads. Four-bedroom house. Eight in family, six boys, aged one to fourteen. Father is conductor (streetcar), one hundred dollars monthly. Pays sixteen dollars and twenty cents a month rent on purchase. California…
Source: Farm Security Administration Dorothea Lange photographer
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
I thought 10 years was the time limit on any one person’s presidency. Ol’ Joe would have to at least live another two years into his term. I suppose that could be arranged.
Parkinsonism comes in many forms, but the sort associated with dementia, the most common being Parkinson’s with Lewy body, is probably the most unpleasant, and is accompanied by terrible hallucinations. My neighbor once called the cops and asked them to remove the naked head and torso of a woman dancing on his table. They had to call his daughter out of state to come and get him. They had to turn my cousin’s nightgowns inside out because she couldn’t tolerate the sensation of the seams against her skin, and it took her a God-awful length of time to die.
DETAILS ON THE PROPOSED "BLITZ PRIMARY"
The oddest primary season in modern times may take an even stranger turn, as calls for Joe Biden to step down as presumptive Democratic nominee grow louder
by Matt Taibbi
Semafor ran a report:
A pair of well-connected Democrats is offering an optimistic plan that would involve the president stepping down as the nominee and the party announcing a “blitz primary” process ahead of the August convention.
The “well-connected Democrats” are Georgetown law professor Rosa Brooks (Racket readers will remember the former defense official who co-led the 2020 “Transition Integrity Project”) and venture capitalist Ted Dintersmith, whose “blitz primary” would involve Joe Biden stepping down as presumptive nominee within weeks.
He would then team with Vice President Kamala Harris to announce a new “positive only” intramural campaign for the nomination among the “six candidates who receive the most votes from delegates.” Semafor said the memo described a process by which “the six candidates who receive the most votes from delegates” would agree to run a “positive only” campaign, engaging with voters through a series of public forums moderated by “cultural icons” like Oprah Winfrey, Taylor Swift, and Stephen Colbert. Delegates would then use a ranked choice system to pick a nominee, to whom the torch would be passed by Biden, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton at the end of next month’s Democratic convention.
I reached out today to Brooks, who generously answered a series of questions about the “blitz,” including about the “celebs,” whose participation she said would be “optional.” Details are listed below, but first, a recap of the ten billion or so developments on the Democratic side of the presidential race you may have missed, if you blinked since Friday.…
racket.news/p/details-on-the-proposed-blitz-primary
NY TIMES’ MAUREEN DOWD SAYS BIDEN CAMPAIGN AIDE PRESSED HER TO SCRUB ‘GOODEST’ GAFFE
by Ariel Zilber
New York Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd said a campaign aide working to help re-elect President Joe Biden asked her to scrub a verbal gaffe from one of his recent media appearances.
In her column in the op-ed section of Sunday’s Times, Dowd wrote that TJ Ducklo, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, emailed her after she published a commentary on Saturday that included reference to the word “goodest.”
Biden appeared to utter the non-word during his interview on Friday with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, but the network later revised the transcript to reflect that the president actually said “good as.”
Disney-owned ABC News altered the initial transcript at the behest of the White House, according to The New York Times. The Gray Lady also revised the Biden quote “to conform with the updated ABC transcript.”
Dowd’s Saturday column was updated with an addendum that also reflected the change made by ABC News.
In her Sunday column, however, Dowd included the “goodest” quote which came in response to a question from Stephanopoulos about how Biden would feel if he stayed in the presidential race and ended up losing to former President Donald Trump.
“I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about,” Biden told Stephanopoulos, according to Dowd’s second column over the weekend.
Dowd noted in her Sunday column that “‘goodest’ isn’t a word” and that she had her “ears up against the computer, 10 times, and that’s what it sounded like.”
“We also checked the ABC News transcript and that’s the word they used,” Dowd wrote.
Ducklo had emailed Dowd on Saturday to “flag” a revision that ABC made to its transcript, according to her column.
“I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the good as job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about,” Biden is quoted as saying in the revised ABC News transcript.
Ducklo is a former White House deputy press secretary who resigned in 2021.
According to Dowd, Ducklo asked her to “tweak” the column and “change the word ‘goodest’ to make my piece ‘consistent with the corrected transcript,’ even though the revised version was also gobbledygook.”
Dowd wrote that she responded to Ducklo by letting him know “we would tell our editor what he thought” — to which Ducklo is said to have replied: “Yeah again, it’s not what I think. It’s what ABC News, who conducted the interview, thinks.”
“I think it would be quite unusual if the Times asserted the president said something that the news organization who conducted the interview says he didn’t say…,” Ducklo is reported to have written to Dowd in the email exchange.
When Dowd inquired as to whether the Biden campaign pressured ABC News to change the transcript, Ducklo is said to have replied: “ABC News, like any news organization, makes their own independent editorial decisions. Surely you are not suggesting otherwise.”
He sent text messages threatening to "destroy" reporter Tara Palmeri.
According to Dowd, Ducklo sent a subsequent email which read: “Had another convo on this. ABC News received the tape and confirmed the error to us. Then made the correction.”
Despite the controversy over what the president said, Dowd was scathing, writing: “Whatever the president meant, his answer to that question went over like a lead balloon. No one cares if he feels good about himself in a losing cause.”
She added that “maybe the White House should think about closed captioning.”
The Post has sought comment from the Times, ABC News, Ducklo and the White House.
In February 2021, Ducklo made headlines after he resigned as White House deputy press secretary in the wake of threatening text messages he sent to a reporter who was working on a story about his relationship with another journalist.
Palmeri was working on a story about Ducklo's relationship with Alexi McCammond.
Ducklo vowed to “destroy” the career of Tara Palmeri, a former New York Post journalist who was working at the time for Politico. He accused Palmeri of being jealous of his relationship with Alexi McCammond.
At the time, McCammond was a reporter for Axios who covered Biden’s presidential campaign. After news of the relationship surfaced in early 2021, McCammond was taken off the White House beat and reassigned to cover Congress.
McCammond is a former Axios reporter. She and Ducklo have since split up.
Later that year, she was hired to take over as editor-in-chief for Teen Vogue, but she ended up returning to Axios after staffers at the magazine protested decade-old tweets which were deemed by some to be racist.
McCammond and Ducklo split up, though it is unclear when the relationship ended. Last week, McCammond slammed her ex on TikTok, calling him “toxic.”
“Good morning!” McCammond, who currently works as an opinion editor for The Washington Post, wrote on TikTok on June 30.
What do you think? Post a comment.
“I’d just say ‘morning’ but [I’m] not my toxic ex who works for the Biden campaign and has to play cleanup after that disastrous debate,” she added in the post.
McCammond also included a caption describing Ducklo as “the smallest man alive,” referring to the Taylor Swift song.
(Washington Post)
In 1903, on his last visit to his in-laws at Quarry Farm in Elmira, New York, Mark Twain (1835-1910) posed for this photograph with his friend, John T. Lewis (1835-1906), who was born a free man in Maryland and who had migrated to upstate New York. They met in 1877 after Lewis saved the lives of Twain’s sister-in-law and her daughter by courageously stopping their runaway carriage at no small risk to his own safety. Lewis was an Elder in the Church of the Brethren (the Dunkers), and he and Twain often talked about religion and other such matters. Lewis loved to read, and Twain would send him every one of his books when they came out, with a loving inscription in each one. After Lewis retired from farming, Twain and his in-laws arranged to have him receive a pension. When Twain returned to writing Huckleberry Finn, in 1879 while at Elmira, Lewis was one of the real-life people upon whom he based the character of Jim, and it is even possible that his acquaintance with Lewis caused Twain to continue working on the novel after having earlier set it aside.
Twain’s friendship with Lewis was hardly atypical; of all the white authors in this period, he was the one most fully immersed in and appreciative of African American culture and the one most at home in the company of African Americans. Near the end of his life he recalled a time in New York City when he was walking with another black friend, George Griffin, and people stared at them: “a ‘white man’ & a negro walking together was a new spectacle to them. The glances embarrassed George, but not me, for the companionship was proper: in some ways he was my equal, in some others my superior.”
Published in 1884/1885, Huckleberry Finn is about a racist boy’s realization of the full humanity of a fugitive slave. Ten years later, in Pudd’nhead Wilson, Twain would deconstruct the very idea of race itself as nothing more than “a fiction of law and custom” without any basis in biology. As Toni Morrison stated, “Mark Twain talked about racial ideology in the most powerful, eloquent, and instructive way I have ever read.”
Mark Twain and John T. Lewis are both buried with their families in Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira.
MONDAY'S LEAD STORIES, NYT
U.S. Officials Say Russia Is Unlikely to Take Much More Ukrainian Territory
Biden Says He Is ‘Firmly Committed’ to Staying in the Race
Parkinson’s Expert Visited the White House Eight Times in Eight Months
Following Trump’s Lead, Republicans Adopt Platform That Softens Stance on Abortion
Children With Autism Carry Unique Gut Flora, Study Finds
ANGRY BIDEN: ‘GO AHEAD. CHALLENGE ME AT THE CONVENTION’
by Noah Bierman
As angry Democrats pile onto President Joe Biden, he has a message: He's angry too.
"I'm getting so frustrated by the elites … the elites in the party who — they know so much more," Biden said sarcastically, calling in to MSNBC's "Morning Joe," his favorite cable news show. "Any of these guys don't think I should, run against me: Go ahead. Challenge me at the convention."
Pressure has been mounting on Biden to drop out of the race since last month's poor debate performance. The televised call was part of a larger effort to push back against the internal pressure by rallying his party's base and channeling national anger with elites that cuts across both parties. Though public opinion surveys show large majorities pf Americans want Biden out of the race, he has cast the movement to persuade him to step aside as top down and anti-democratic.
"The voters of the Democratic Party have voted. They have chosen me to be the nominee of the party," he wrote in a letter to congressional Democrats Monday, laying out his case for staying in the race. "Do we now just say this process didn't matter? That the voters don't have a say?"
Biden calling in to morning cable news to rail at his party's establishment was reminiscent of former President Trump's favorite method of communication. For years, even before he ran for election, he has been calling into "Fox & Friends" to speak his mind to friendly hosts.
Trump has held only one public event in the 11 days since then, allowing Democrats to publicly debate Biden's future and keep the focus on Biden's frailty, rather than Trump's convictions or policy proposals. Congress is back in session this week and more Democratic lawmakers are expected to weigh in, which could put further pressure on Biden to drop out.
"It drives me nuts people are talking about this," Biden said, asking "where the hell has Trump been?"
But he would not answer whether he has been tested for Parkinson's or other age-related illnesses.
"I had a bad night," he said with a purposeful chuckle. "That's why I've been out. I've been testing myself."
(NY Times)
HOPE FROM NOTHING
by Selma Dabbagh
One of the pieces in the recent retrospective of Barbara Kruger’s work at the Serpentine Gallery is an image of a woman’s divided face, with the slogan ‘your body is a battleground’ taped across it in red. Since October, women’s bodies have been blasted across the killing fields of Gaza and trapped under its rubble. In November 2023, Atef Abu Seif witnessed efforts to rescue a teenage girl. ‘She looked like she was asleep,’ he wrote:
Certainly when the attack happened, she was sleeping. She was wearing a red tracksuit. Her body was laid out. Her left hand lay on her chest. She struck me for a moment like a character from a fairy tale; like sleeping beauty. The concrete ceiling had fallen on her and pinned her to the bed. The men kept scraping out rubble from the sides so as to release the body. They performed this act with utmost care, as if they didn’t want to wake her from her deep sleep.
‘Feminists, where the hell have you been?’ Hala Hanina, a Palestinian PhD student in the UK, whose work focuses on activism to combat domestic violence in Gaza, asked in an Instagram reel in February: ‘Can you name one of the eight thousand Palestinian women who have been killed in the last four months in Gaza?’
In May, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that ‘women, girls and children overall are among those most exposed to danger in this conflict’:
as of 29 April 2024, of 34,488 Palestinians killed in Gaza, 14,500 have been children and 9500 women. Another 77,643 have reportedly been injured, of which 75 per cent are estimated to be female. Over eight thousand others are reported missing or under the rubble – and the experts noted that at least half of them can be assumed to be women and children.
Hanina’s instagram reel shows a series of photographs of women and girls, with mortar boards or certificates, in karate poses, by the sea on balconies, smiling, laughing and very much alive. ‘Women and girls are enduring unimaginable pain,’ Hanina says, ‘having their limbs amputated, having C-sections without any kind of anesthesia or after-delivery care, being widowed, having their kids killed in front of their eyes. If you know about all of that and you don’t move, how could you be a feminist?’
Femicide is defined as the intentional killing of women and girls because of their gender. Nearly three-quarters of those killed in Israel’s war on Gaza have been women and children, not to mention the thousands of embryos destroyed when Gaza’s fertility clinic was bombed in December. In January, the UN Population Fund reported that 180 women are giving birth each day in Gaza, while reproductive health kits are prevented from entering.
In an interview with Ghada Karmi in March, Hanina decried the lack of response by feminists globally to the UN report that documented the sexual abuse of Palestinian women by Israeli soldiers. She spoke of a friend who was forced to deliver her baby under bombardment, in the rubble. She was unable to cut the umbilical cord as they could find nothing sharp, and had to walk for six hours to get to a health facility to cut the cord.
A few days ago I received a voice message from my friend Marwa in Gaza:
The last evacuation order, around 200,000 people were asked to be evacuated from Khan Younis and the neighborhood. Can you imagine? You just wake up and all there is: did you find a place, did you find a place, did you find a place? My niece, my brother’s youngest daughter still she was not able to find a place till now since yesterday at 5 p.m. when the order of the evacuation came. Literally, the majority of people are sleeping on the street and this is all of a sudden like Shujayia City [where sixty thousand Palestinians were displaced on 29 June]. It is beyond the imagination. All of a sudden most of the neighborhood of Khan Yunis received the order after they [Israeli forces] have already entered and done all of what they did and now asking again and most of their people want to take all of their luggage, they think when they come back, they [Israeli forces] will have destroyed everything.
In an earlier voice note from her tent in Deir el Balah, Marwa says that Gaza was once known for its agricultural produce, its fish, its grapes, its wine:
Gaza is 365 square kilometers which is 1 per cent of historic Palestine, 6 per cent of the Occupied Territories and the majority of people are in this district. I gave a brief to one of the international staff, it is one of my duties, and she said 365? Like the number of days of the year, which I had never thought of before. You can imagine all the people in this area. It is unbelievable how much they have suffered while people just listen: one generation, two generations and they know we are not the ones who started this. This is not October 7th.
On 27 May, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories including East Jerusalem and Israel published its report into ‘possible international crimes committed by all parties between 7 October and 31 December 2023’. The introduction stressed the need for context:
These events were preceded by decades of violence, unlawful occupation and Israel’s denial of the Palestinians right to self-determination, manifested in continuous forced displacement, dispossession, exploitation of natural resources, blockade, settlement construction and expansion and systematic discrimination and oppression of the Palestinian people.
Despite the high levels of ‘complex continuous trauma’ that Palestinian children in Gaza lived with even before October 2023, and the repeated destruction of educational facilities (after the 2014 bombardment, school was delayed for 475,000 children and 180 of Gaza’s 690 schools needed ‘extensive reconstruction’), the adult literacy rate among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza is close to 98 per cent, and the number of postgraduate degrees higher than most other countries in the region. By April, all of Gaza’s universities had been destroyed.
In May, staff at Birkbeck, University of London published an open letter in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement:
From October 2023 up until the time of writing, at least 95 university professors, and hundreds of school teachers and educators have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza; all twelve universities in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, along with well over three hundred schools and colleges, as well as cultural centers, archives, libraries, and museums. Universities in the West Bank have also been targets of violence and disruption, operating entirely online since October, with students and staff subject to settler violence and arrest or detention by Israeli forces. We write in response to calls for solidarity by those who have experienced this violence.
A vocabulary of educide and scholasticide has emerged to describe these crimes committed by Israel in Palestine. This is a key part of what the International Court of Justice has described as a ‘plausible case’ of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. As legal observers have pointed out, this ruling creates an obligation on institutions, including universities, to avoid institutional complicity.
On 1 July, after months of protest, the UCL Academic Board voted to establish a working group to examine the university’s investments in and ties to arms companies, in line with international law. A presentation to the board before the vote argued that ‘these links run contrary to UCL’s mission, are incompatible with its ethical values and place the university at risk of legal action.’ The board also voted to establish scholarships for Palestinians.
Marwa described to me the living conditions of those seeking refuge in tents in a school in Deir el Balah: ‘There are three ladies in the school who gave birth recently and you can imagine how bad their situation is in terms of food, in terms of taking care of the baby, hygiene, milk.’ One woman’s grandmother was asking after her. ‘You don’t need to hear,’ the woman replied, ‘each detail, the bathroom, the water, the sleeping place, the mosquitos, the flying things [drones], they are not able to sleep from that flying and flying. It’s impossible.’
In another voice note Marwa said:
Being in the tents without walls makes your approach to your life different. Of course, as a woman, you are overwhelmed with the details of living. But the men they feel oppressed because they can’t do anything now, neither for themselves, nor for the women, or children. A lot of details are killing the soul. The resistance people are doing something, and the other people are taking all of the consequences and they [the Israeli forces] know this and they are targeting a population that still stands and still they don’t collapse. They are not breaking down. Broken down. I don’t know if they are broken or not yet, but what I know is that they try to create hope from nothing, because they don’t have another option.
(London Review of Books)
Just read through the AVA online. It’s numbing. I was wrong to continue haranguing “postmodernism” constantly, because it is now proven beyond doubt that this meaningless existential substitute for authentic life has died. Apparently the New York Times did not report that, while selling newspapers detailing its shadows. For example, the current American presidential situation. Or the bizarre horror porno which passes for popular culture nowadays. Take a look at Rolling Stone magazine recently. Anybody recognize the B side characters featured? And then there is the total time waste of the excruciating details of Mendocino County government. And the non-existence of a mental health system, affordable housing, and a culture which promotes a spiritually progressive, inquisitive, insightful existence with purpose. I’ll give it to you straight: YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN! If you are ready to form a spiritual nomadic direct action group, contact me at: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com. The peace vigilers in front of the White House keep encouraging me to return. A career opportunity? ;-))
Poor career choice for Issa, he is not very good at it.
Bottle Cap Cork Scraping
Yeah, I remember. Up through at least the the second half of 70s, I scraped the cork off the caps of RC Cola bottles to see if I had a winner. Seems like only yesterday.
“All behavior is a form of communication.”
— Source Unknown —
Julie Beardsley is right…it’s time for Darcie Antle to go. Antle is in way over her head. The CA State Controller’s Office has just concluded that Mendocino County has failed in almost every respect. The CA State Auditor’s Office will soon come to the same conclusion.
Antle’s claim to fame before the CEO’s Office?
She managed the revenue cycle and oversaw so-called strategic operations for physician groups across Mendocino, Lake, and Sonoma counties for Adventist Health. That says it all. Except for its emergency room physicians, Adventist Health sucks. They have predatory business practices and have trouble recruiting qualified physicians. And many of their physicians are DOs, not MDs.
“We are excited to bring the first-ever creative writing class to the Mendonoma community,” said Dr. Amanda Fox Xu, Dean of Centers at Mendocino College.
Dr. Phillip Swerling was Prof. of Creative Writing at Coast Campus in March of 2020 when Covid hit.
Not only did his students have to hunker down at home, but he became Pilot to new Zoom platform, which thankfully a student helped him, and his class navigate.
Dr. Zwerling persevered, culminating the semester with collection of student work in a book.