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UNOFFICIAL REPORTS coming in to AVA HQ say attendance at this year’s 100th Anniversary of the Boonville County Fair was higher than average.
A MIX OF SUN AND CLOUDS is expected across the area today with some afternoon showers in the interior. Another round of rain showers is expected Tuesday through Wednesday with the heavier showers in the north. A drying and warming trend is expected late in the week. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A cooler 51F with high clouds this Monday morning on the coast. We might see a sprinkle today, then clearing tomorrow, then another shot at showers Wednesday morning. Then a return to our familiar patchy fog routine the rest of the week.
BUS STOP UPGRADES, CANNABIS DEBATES, AG COMMISSIONER SPEAKS AT THE REDWOOD VALLEY MAC
by Monica Huettl
At its recent meeting, the Redwood Valley Municipal Advisory Council (RVMAC) covered a range of local updates, including agricultural initiatives, public safety, and community projects. Angela Godwin, Mendocino County’s new Agricultural Commissioner, discussed promoting sustainable farming and market transparency. The Redwood Valley-Calpella Fire Department announced the availability of free firefighting tools, and a new bus stop on West Road is under construction. The council also addressed local cannabis regulations and efforts to establish the Redwood Valley Recreation Center at the former Redwood Valley School.…
ANDERSON VALLEY CASUAL GRAD GATHERING
Thank you, Palma Toohey for all the hard work you put out to make this event happen. Thank you to everyone who attended, honoring their RSVP and paying their $20 to support the cost of the food and venue. AV Panthers forever and always.
COUNTY NOTES
by Mark Scaramella
After seven weeks off, what did the Supervisors have to say about their activities last Tuesday having just given themselves big raises in July then going their seven-week long “August Recess”?
Glenn McGourty: Nothing,
Ted Williams: Nothing.
Dan Gjerde: Nothing.
John Haschak (after noting that “we haven’t had a meeting in over a month”) said he went to a bunch of non-County meetings and congratulated various people for doing nice community stuff having nothing to do with the County or the Board of Supervisors, followed by a brief summary some mostly irrelevant state legislature activity. Haschak also noted that “There were no major fires.”
Maureen Mulheren talked about some Russian River clean up. She noted that there were homeless camps at the north end of Ukiah and said that “homeless trash is a challenge,” not bothering to mention that homeless people are an even bigger challenge. Mulheren added brilliantly that “It’s simple to say they shouldn’t be camping but they are.”
Supervisor Ted Williams pulled the consent calendar item ratifying the Board’s big pay raise from two months ago saying, “I will not support raises now. I have to stand with the people of District 5.” But Williams did not say he would refuse the raise if approved.
Having previously voted in favor of the raise, Supervisors John Haschak reversed himself saying that “other people got raises,” claiming the Board had “made a lot of steps towards balancing the budget and cutting costs, such as the Golden Gate Bridge initiative.” Haschak claimed that cuts were made “to other areas” and “We are trying to increase our revenues.”
Actually, all they’ve done is talk about raising revenues. No substantial attempts such as tracking lien sales, tax delinquencies or letters to property owners about overdue taxes, have been made. If this counts as “trying to increase our revenues” then there’s no chance any new revenues will be received. In fact, as reported by Assessor-Clerk-Record Katrina Bartolomie, the value of the small number of mostly outbuildings that have been newly added to the tax rolls amounts to only a small fraction of the cost of the half-dozen new appraisers added to her staff in recent months.
“I understand people’s concern like the other raises,” said Haschak, adding, redundantly. “That’s a concern. So I think we should hold off [on any raises] until we have a balanced budget without using one-time funds. That should be taken up first before any other raises. That’s only fair.”
When it came to the vote McGourty, Mulheren and Gjerde voted to ratify their big raises; Williams and Haschak voted no.
Supervisor Mulheren has natural tendency to secrecy and insiderism which runs contradictory to her hypocritical claims about the importance of “transparency” in the County. She was positively thrilled to have conjured up a very one-sided (against the County’s interests) “tax sharing” and annexation agreement in secret a couple of months ago. And on Tuesday Mulheren praised the raise resolution she voted for because it ties Supervisors’ future raises to department head raises — which the Supervisors always approve, thus tying their raises to the raises they give their subordinates and themselves — because “we would like not to have a back and forth on the dais.”
Of course, as Supervisor Mulheren must know, California law requires that raises for all senior officials in California be voted on individually with an official non-consent agenda item. So the poor thing will just have to suffer through a public discussion of future proposed raises after which she will continue to ignore any “concerns” of her colleagues, her staff, and the public and rubberstamp them robotically.
BEST SMALL LIBRARY IN AMERICA 2024
by Lisa Peet, photos by Ree Slocum
The Mendocino County Library Round Valley Branch is Library Journal’s 2024 Best Small Library in America
At Library Journal we have been inspired over the past few years to see a growing number of libraries step up to address some of the nation’s most pressing issues: ensuring their services are inclusive and provide connectivity for as many people as possible, offering sustainable practices that everyone can take part in, and contributing to their community’s safety and resiliency. Every so often, however, we come across a library that has been doing this work from the start, out of necessity as well as ideals.
The Round Valley Branch Library of the Mendocino County Library System is the lone facility serving the unincorporated community of Covelo, CA—a remote spot even by northern California standards. Located nearly 200 miles northwest of Sacramento and about three hours from the affluent tourism destination of California’s wine country, Covelo sits between the Pacific coast and Mendocino National Forest; the westernmost section of the single state highway providing access becomes a gravel road just outside of town limits and is closed during the winter because of heavy mountain snowfall. More than 400 acres of the unincorporated town of Covelo are part of the 23,000 acres of the Round Valley Indian Reservation, whose history was born out of the California Trail of Tears. According to 2022 Economic Census data, just over 29 percent of Covelo’s nearly 3,000 residents live below the poverty line—nearly double the rate for the rest of the county—and for many years experienced poor broadband connectivity. As in many parts of the state, Mendocino County has suffered devastating wildfires, including two of California’s largest in the past six years.
Because Covelo is isolated and lacks the infrastructure and resources of more populous areas; because many residents’ livelihoods depend on agriculture and ranching, industries hit hard by the recession; because it is vulnerable to wildfires; and because it is home to a population divided mainly among white, Indigenous, and Latine residents, the library has always needed to prioritize sustainability, resiliency, and inclusivity. For the work it has done to create a robust community hub through responsive services and strong partnerships, the Mendocino County Library Round Valley Branch is the recipient of LJ’s 2024 Best Small Library in America Award, sponsored by Ingram Library Services.
A COMMUNITY REVITALIZED
The Round Valley Branch was founded in 1978 as the Covelo Public Library, run by a handful of volunteers in a former laundromat. In 1989 it was incorporated into the Mendocino County Library System, joining branches in Fort Bragg, Willits, and Ukiah, the county seat; facilities in Point Arena and Laytonville joined later. At the same time, the Friends of the Round Valley Public Library (the Friends) group formed.
The downfall of the timber industry in the 1990s hit Round Valley’s economy powerfully, leaving it vulnerable. When a wealthy developer bought up a large block of downtown and razed it with the intent to build, some saw hope for a renewed economy; but he abandoned his plans when the recession hit in 2008, leaving a quarter of Covelo’s commercial buildings gone.
The Friends realized that the community badly needed revitalizing, and had an idea to help: a Commons, with the library as its hub, that could provide necessary services to residents of the town, reservation, and county. With the help of several endowments from local ranchers, the Friends were able to buy a large former restaurant. The county supported the plan, and some generous outside donors—as well as a steady stream of smaller local contributions—helped fund the $1 million, 7,500 square foot project. The library moved into its new space in 2010.
“It’s beautiful to walk into,” says County Librarian Mellisa Hannum. “There’s lots of light, it has gorgeous woodwork, and the community room has all these overstuffed cushy leather chairs. It’s a really nice environment.”
The complex houses a certified commercial kitchen, redwood-paneled meeting and community room, café, and radio station, among other amenities, but the anchor of them all is the Round Valley Branch. With five employees including Branch Librarian Josh Bennett, as well as a roster of volunteers, the library provides a range of programming for adults and children, a robust collection—print books, hoopla and Libby e- and audiobook lending, and Kanopy streaming video, among other offerings—and widespread outreach.
“We’ve been really working hard to reach as many families as possible in this small community,” says Bennett. A former teacher, he works closely with the local school system, in addition to a host of other day-to-day services—“I’m ready to receive kids when they walk through the door. I’m lending books, I’m talking with partners and arranging outreach, and I’m making Facebook posts.”
SEEDS OF SUSTAINABILITY
The community has always been self-reliant, both by necessity, because of its isolation, and thanks to a great deal of agricultural fortune: good soil, a deep aquifer throughout the valley, and clean air when there isn’t a fire.
“The challenge is, how do you transition from that insular, homesteader idea of ‘I can take care of my own place,’ to recognize that we’re all in this together?” asks Lew Chichester, a Round Valley resident and contractor who came on to help manage the library design and construction process and currently serves as vice president of the Friends board. “This is sustainability, this is resiliency, to create these relationships with one another, and relationships with the structures of the world that you live in.”
Round Valley’s Seed Library embodies those ideals of interdependence and regard for the land. All of the system’s branches now have seed libraries, each different according to their local microclimates—which vary widely across Mendocino County’s nearly 4,000 square miles—but Round Valley’s was the first, started by Library Technician Pat Sobrero in 2013. “The county really believes in supporting sustainable agriculture and growing things that are adapted to the region,” says Hannum. “Covelo is inland and gets really hot in the summer and colder in the winter.”
An old wooden card catalog holds a large collection of seeds that community members can access for free, and a couple of seed and fruit tree scion swaps each year draw participants from all over the county. During the growing season, the Seed Library provides the local food bank with seed packets to distribute to community members who may be experiencing food insecurity. Local experts often speak at the library about seed saving and cultivation, with an eye toward healthy eating and sustainable growing practices.
“Interest in gardening and food production has only grown since the COVID pandemic,” says Sobrero. “We focus on encouraging people to garden and save seeds and on developing locally adapted crop varieties that will grow and thrive in our extreme climate.” The library has distributed more than 4,600 seed packets over the past 12 months.
The Commons property also includes two lots, one of which—a grassy area shaded by walnut trees—is home to a Farmers Market on Fridays. The market is a gathering spot for the community as well as a place to shop. Residents sell organic produce, baked goods, and preserves that have often been processed in the Commons’ commercial kitchen. Monthly seed planting parties during the growing season, using seeds from the Seed Library, let people plant flowers and vegetables “to go.”
Sobrero also runs a sustainability film series with subjects ranging from beekeeping to restorative agriculture, bikes to forest management. Along with the Seed Library, says Bennett, the series “easily fits into that story of simple things that we can all do to lighten our footprint on Earth.”
KEEPING CONNECTED
Bennett credits Mendocino County Library Administrative Services Manager Barb Chapman with one of the library’s most important developments—its Wi-Fi connection. “When I started in 2016, the branch was connected with fixed wireless. What that means is there’s a microwave signal beamed out from a mountaintop,” he says. “It was unreliable and it was slow.” On Fridays, the library’s busiest days, “the Wi-Fi would just kind of whimper.” For residents dependent on the library to print a document, access telehealth or social services, register at the county DMV, or do homework, this was more than just an inconvenience.
In 2019, Chapman began work to connect the Mendocino Library system to the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC), a nonprofit consortium, and helped secure $100,000 in grant funding from the California State Library. CENIC installed the first fiber optic high-speed broadband lines in the county; the schools were wired up with high-speed internet at the same time. The network upgrade to the Round Valley Branch was completed in 2022, to the delight of patrons and staff alike. “It’s a huge success and a win for this community,” says Bennett. “Folks get connected via Wi-Fi, they have reliable public computers, and those of us who are conducting library business have an uninterrupted workflow and ability to serve patrons.”
TRIBAL PARTNERSHIPS
The federally recognized nation of Round Valley Indian Tribes is one of the state’s largest and—as with many Indigenous U.S. territories—has a complex, difficult history. It originated as a confederation of smaller tribes forcibly relocated from their own lands by white settlers, in the mid–19th century, to the homeland of the Yuki tribe. Some were enemies, and nearly all spoke other languages, held other beliefs, and used the land and its products differently. In 1936, descendants of the Yuki, Wailacki, Concow, Little Lake Pomo, Nomlacki, and Pit River peoples formed a new tribe on the reservation, adopting a constitution and creating the Covelo Indian Community, later called the Round Valley Indian Tribes.
The library has a longstanding relationship with tribal government, and hosts tribal programs and community events year-round, as well as collaborating with the Round Valley Indian Health Center (RVIHC) community outreach department on nutrition classes, early literacy, and the Native Way Walking Amongst Youth and Yuki Trails Youth Activity days. Recently, the library partnered with RVIHC physical therapist Emily Bruton on a Senior Power program, which challenges seniors of all fitness levels to improve their strength and balance.
The RVIHC, which has provided health care to the community for more than 50 years, holds its annual Health Fair every September, and the Round Valley Library consistently participates in the community event. The day features a walk/run in the morning followed by an opening prayer, music, free BBQ lunch, bingo for elders, traditional dancers, and booths from a variety of organizations. This year, the fair’s 44th, the library will have a table with new books and plenty of arts and crafts for children, says Bennett.
A PLACE TO GATHER
The handsome community room has its own entrance, so gatherings can be held after library hours. Monthly meetings of the Round Valley Area Municipal Advisory Council (RVAMAC) are held there, and the county sheriff, Department of Transportation, and animal control officers Zoom in on the room’s big screen to meet with constituents. In an area where neighboring towns are more than an hour’s drive away, this central access is critical to keeping community members informed and in touch.
County Supervisor John Haschak regularly used the meeting room when he was campaigning for the position. “The library would be the first place I’d go to,” he says. “It’s the center of the community. During my campaign, they would hold forums there and debates.”
Six years later, he’s a regular visitor—particularly on Fridays, when he spends time at the Farmer’s Market and talks with residents about what’s on their minds. “Pretty much everything revolves around that library in the town—the café, radio station, meetings, forums, parties, movie nights, you could just go on and on,” he says.
Bringing community together doesn’t only happen on library grounds, though. Round Valley makes good use of the Mendocino County Library outreach van, which Bennett says “is almost thought of as one of the branches.” It comes equipped with an awning, beanbag chairs, and astroturf to sit on during story times, not to mention a smoothie bike—a stationary bicycle with a blender attached that children and adults can pedal to power up, get some exercise, and make a healthy snack. People can check out books from the “honor lending library” without needing a library card. (Most of the books are returned, notes Bennett.)
And if the van is busy in some other part of the county, Bennett will go out himself with a table, a crate of new children’s books, and a pile of library card applications. “Every month of the year, we’re doing some sort of outreach,” he says. “If we’re invited somewhere, we show up.”
ON THE AIR
The Friends’ community radio station, KYBU 96.9 FM, serves to connect people in good times and in bad. The volunteer-run station, housed in a building adjacent to the library, broadcasts a mix of music, news, interviews, and information relevant to the Round Valley community 24 hours a day, and streams online via the station’s website. The station is underwritten by local businesses and officials—in 2023 these included the Round Valley Unified School District, M&M Feed and Supply, the Mendocino County Sheriff, the Hot Shots firefighting crew, Tri Counties Bank, and Keith’s IGA Grocery.
Among its many other programs, every afternoon the radio plays an hour of music recorded from a local music festival with a 40-year catalog—“which is fun,” says Chichester, “because you get to hear your grandpa, or this person who has moved away, or this person who passed away.” Library staff use another daily spot, which serves as a bulletin board for library news.
In 2020, the August Complex wildfire—California’s largest in recorded history—burned across more than a million acres over nearly three months, destroying an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. Much of that was within the Mendocino National Forest, as well as swaths of the Yolla Bolly–Middle Eel Wilderness, just northeast of Covelo, and the Yuki Wilderness to the south. Townspeople could see it burning in the hills.
“We got in touch with the sheriff and the public information officers of the California Division of Forestry and the Forest Service,” recalls Chichester. Every morning for a month and a half, KYBU broadcast a live interview with fire safety officials and fire reports, which were then archived and made available on the radio’s website for listeners anywhere in the country, any time during the day.
STAYING SAFE
In an isolated region where wildfires pose a very present danger, the library’s involvement with community safety goes beyond providing a news stream during an emergency. The library partners regularly with several fire and safety organizations, including the Round Valley Indian Tribes Natural Resources Department and the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council (FSC), on preparedness programs.
The library “create[s] community around them, and events where people can come and connect, and they’ve also supported all of our core programs,” says FSC Executive Director Scott Cratty. “We have a program that provides free defensible spaces systems”—ways to make property less vulnerable to fire—“for seniors and people who can’t afford to get the work done themselves, and [the library has] taken on advertising that for the community, coaching people. They even helped us find people who could do the work.”
In 2022, RVAMAC applied for and received a Community Foundation of Mendocino County Community Resiliency and Preparedness Fund grant to provide reflective address signs for local seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, or those who are low-income. The collaboration has provided signs for more than 300 residents, helping first responders find those who need them in an emergency.
The library helped coordinate orders and distributed the signs—not only providing a critical community service but bringing new people through its doors. “Folks that we had never seen before inside the library showed up,” says Bennett. “The library won in so many ways, because these are all new library users.”
The library provides programming on wildfire preparedness, such as evacuation plans for people and animals (including livestock), how to sign up for emergency alerts, how to make do-it-yourself air filters, and how to prepare homes so they are more likely to survive a fire event. It coordinates free brush clearing and wood chipping days to help clear flammable debris and has given away rain gutter scoops for removing dried leaves and branches. “We’ve helped people change the string on their weed eaters, because that’s what you do when there’s a lot of flammable grasses—you need to get rid of that stuff,” says Bennett.
The Friends secured U.S. Department of Agriculture grants for solar panels in 2014, which have helped the building keep up with air conditioning demands in the summer. But Covelo’s emergency energy needs are greater than air conditioning alone; In 2021, with the support of several community grants, the library installed a 48 kw backup generator. It can supply power to the entire building in the event of an outage in the winter when power lines go down, during wildfire season, or when the Pacific Gas and Electric Company conducts periodical Public Safety Power Shutoffs for dangerous weather—during LJ’s video call with Bennett, the library was running, seamlessly, on generator power.
“There were fires everywhere in California that year,” Bennett recalls. “We responded to that need, and we keep the lights on now when stuff like that happens. So if it’s the midst of winter and everyone’s kind of scrambling to deal with life without electricity—for some people, that means without heating, or without internet connection—the library’s lights are on, it’s delivering a Wi-Fi signal and we’re lending books and movies.”
SMALL LIBRARY, BIG SERVICE
The Round Valley Branch is in the admirable—and somewhat rare—position of being fiscally stable. The Friends own the building and property in full, paying insurance and utility bills and maintaining the facilities. The county leases half the building from them and covers the library’s rent plus staff salaries and benefits, contributes to programming and collections, and maintains IT functions; the Mendocino County Library System provides the public Wi-Fi. Round Valley residents comprise only 3 percent of Mendocino County’s population, but it receives between 6 and 8 percent of countywide library use—22,000 visits in 2023—and is funded accordingly.
The Friends do their own fundraising as well. In addition to private endowments, several businesses in the area can be counted on for support; last fall a local road paver paved the library parking lot as an in-kind gift. A significant portion of money raised—Chichester estimates between $10,000 and $12,000 a year—supplements the county’s collection development funding.
Thanks to the additional support from the Friends, Bennett says, Round Valley often has newly published books not available in some of the other branches. “The collection is responsive to what folks are looking for when they come in,” he points out. “We spend a ton of time being ready for those kids who come on their class visits, but it’s not just for kids—our collection’s great. Our circulation numbers reflect that.”
That responsiveness—of the collection, and the library’s offerings as a whole, as well as its many strong partnerships and anchor spot in the busy Commons—make the Round Valley Branch a consummate small library that steps up for people in a big way.
“It really is a model of the new type of library, meeting the people’s needs and bringing community together,” says Haschak. “I think that’s what a library, as the open house for communities, needs to be doing. And they do it at an exceptional level.”
TRISH HOWARD-DEUBLER
Hello neighbors we have lived in Albion now for 2 years and come to know our neighborhood very well. Some have met our son JJ who is currently in the hospital again and has been here for the last 30 days.
We are reaching out to see if you all could donate or share his go fund me as we work towards getting JJ back to home and enjoying the redwoods and beautiful town of Albion again. If you can donate we thank you. If you can share thank you.
ASSIGNMENT: UKIAH: 1) CURED BY WEED; 2) THE ANTI-LIBRARY
by Tommy Wayne Kramer
I’ve been a skeptic of marijuana as a medical miracle for almost as long as I’ve been doubtful the Easter Bunny lays eggs in my stocking once a year and the Cleveland Browns are someday going to the NBA Finals.
Marijuana cures cancer? Ho ho ho. Marijuana is the answer for those suffering from glaucoma? Ha ha ha. Marijuana, the weed that gives me headaches when I smoke it and hallucinations when I eat it, is capable of making the blind to see and allows the crippled to cast aside their crutches? Oh stop. You’re killing me. I’m laughing! No, I’m crying!
Also: chanting Om will bring world peace, aromatherapy will cure bunions and chakra absorbers will keep your Subaru’s front end aligned. And the next great medical breakthrough will come from listening to wind chimes.
So yeah, add me to the Skeptics column if the question has to do with pot being able to cure anything other than ambition and motivation. The notion that cannabis is a magic healing agent never gets raised except prior to another “Legalize Weed Now!” campaign. But since that memorable day when we began to smoke whatever we want (as long as it isn’t tobacco) anywhere we want (as long as it isn’t your mother’s living room) all the righteous nonsense about marijuana as the biggest deal since the Salk vaccine has withered and died.
Well, not completely. Mostly it’s gone but not in some remote corners of obscure pharmacological experimentations. My medicine cabinet, for instance.
A few years ago my legs and feet and their ligaments and tendons started going all electric on me, causing shock-like jolts through what had previously been the most serene of all my bodily precincts. Aside from a random stubbed toe my extremities have always seemed content.
Then came the zapping jolts, the restless legs and the troublesome notion that if my foot hurts this much in 2022, what will it feel like in 2032? Next: doctors, exercises and reflexology. After that: more pain.
I was blubbering about my po’ footsies one day and an ex-cop told me to try CBD salve. Sure thing. Why not Chanel face cream, STP or olive oil?
But I did. I tried Mama’s Medicinals, from a downtown Ukiah shop run by Emily Held. For a few days nothing improved. Yet within two weeks my feet waved a white flag and sought a truce. My 50 volt zaps disappeared.
Thank you, Emily!
I realize rubbing salve on my feet has positive effects that might also improve if I rubbed butter or Brylcreem on them. But I’m not going to try those unproven substances.
I’m sticking with good old tried-and-true marijuana juice.
No Dewey Decimal System Needed
Next time you’re in Hopland, ask directions to the Thatcher Hotel. It’s the big dark building in the middle of town and perfect for a jolly good Martini or a fresh-brewed pint of honest-to-Michael Laybourne Red Tail Ale.
Nice comfy bar, easygoing bartenders and patrons all polite and civilized. I stopped in a week or two ago with J and Kip; you probably know who they are, and maybe the bartender did too. We were treated like nice people anyway.
But what’s puzzling and insane is the old hotel’s library. And you think to yourself: How can a library go bizarre or nonsensical?
If the Thatcher Library was limited to cookbooks only from Calpella chefs, or poetry composed solely by French zookeepers, it would merely be odd.
And if all book titles only started with the letter “G” it would be weird, yet you could explain it, sort of, to anyone who asked. I hope the Thatcher library is both A) one of a kind and, soon to be dismantled and B) rearranged in compliance with standards from the American Librarian Association.
The Thatcher library: Some books stand in rows, all shelved with spines facing rearward. The book titles are lined up backwards. Think that over.
The edges of pages are all you see when choosing a book, and choosing a book is impossible when you can’t read the book’s title because it’s facing backwards. That’s just the start.
Other shelves house books only having green covers, regardless of subject matter. One shelf above, the volumes are stacked like bricks, all horizontal, except for those aligned vertical. On a nearby shelf all the books are blue. Or red. Or yellow, black, brown or have their covers removed.
There is no attempt to differentiate novels from biographies, nor poetry from dictionaries. Ancient history might be in the attic, graphic novels in the Men’s Room. It’s all a mad mess compiled by someone whose understanding of “library” is nowhere apparent.
Have we reached “incomprehensible” yet?
What’s funny, sort of, is that this monstrosity is probably the work of a “Library Curator” as if it’s the work of a sniffy, stuffy, pretentious museum intellectual. Maybe it is.
Regardless, it’s laughable and pointless.
(Tom Hine thinks the hotel “library” should host reading groups that place random printed words and fragments in a blender set on high, pluck them out, swallow them and challenge one another to explain the 34th paragraph in James Joyce’s ‘Finnegan’s Wake.’ TWK will moderate.)
ED NOTES
EVERY DAY in San Francisco Muni is a banquet, and sometimes a banquet and a bouquet, which it was on a jammed westbound California Street bus the other morning. (I still get around a little.) On the steepest block of Sacramento climbing out of Chinatown, it was standing room only as our packed vessel momentarily stalled behind a line of traffic when suddenly the bus lurched backwards. The mostly Chinese passengers, in one great startled gasp shouted, “Hai, yah!” The Mexican driver shouted back, “Hai, yah! No problemo!” and we all laughed.
AT SAN RAFAEL JOE’S the waitress says to me, “As soon as I see you I think eggplant sandwich.” Because I look like one? I ask. “No, silly,” she says, “because you always order it.” Never had an eggplant sandwich in my life. Didn't know there was such a delectable. She must have had her vegetables confused. Objectively, I look more like a turnip.
AT OCEAN BEACH Friday afternoon I was watching cops on four-wheelers zipping up and down warning the suicidally oblivious away from a huge surf when a street person, male type, asked me, “Can you spare a dollar?” I said I was sorry but I didn't have any money on me. “Not as sorry as I am, you Winnebago motherfucker,” he said as he scuttled off into a stiff headwind. Winnebago? I'd have given him two bucks for that one. You don't get many creatively zany non-sequiturs out of the mendicant community.
MY PANHANDLING POLICY is to give to older vics but stiff the younger ones unless the young ones have a creative pitch, and they seldom do. But a ravaged kid on Kearney near Broadway held a sign that read, “Help Fight Trump Fascism,” and in smaller print, “And all the other ones, too.” I asked him if Trump had driven him to self-destruction. “Him and the suburbs,” the young man explained.
IN THE AREAS of San Francisco where aberrant behavior is more or less tolerated, the crime rates are low because, it seems, every third person is an undercover cop. It's fun to watch the cops work the weekend crowds on Haight, cutting the dope dealers and the worst of the street crooks out of the herd as neatly as cowboys culling a herd of its yearlings. But a lot of police effort goes into keeping street crime at a minimum in places like the Haight because it draws so many tourists and shoppers, and that effort, it seems to me, explains why there's no police time left over to at least try to stem the epidemic of car break-ins and other quality-of-life crimes.
ONE AND TWO-PERSON “public interest” and “activist” entities can wield a disproportionate power to stop public good. An effort to plant trees in the Tenderloin was halted by a tiny group of lesbians and transgenders who called the proposed tree planters “a brutal gentrification squad.” Like, low-lifes and the honest poor who live there don't like trees?
MARY PAT PALMER (Philo School of Herbal Energetics, Boonville)
My last Gladiola this year.
They are so very beautiful and long lasting. Someone said they disliked them because they are funeral flowers. I'm pretty sure they were thinking of Calla Lillies. At any rate, I don't think I've ever met a flower I didn't like.
THE PIONEER MCABEES
by Blanche Brown
John Wesley McAbee (Nov. 5, 1826-1899) was a pioneer of Yorkville and of the Boonville area. He was the son of Samuel McAbee (1795-1846) of Indiana and Margaret (Pitcher) McAbee (1804-1844).
John Wesley was one of nine children. He lived in Indiana until he was 15, when they moved to Henry County, Missouri, and farmed for four years. By 1845, his parents were both dead.
His first marriage was to Martha Jane Crow (1830-1852). Their children were James Wesley McAbee (1848-1849) who lived about three weeks; John Watson McAbee (1851-1937) who married Charlotte Louise Clounts (May 2, 1851-1937) and had three children: Effie (married Buchanan, had a son, Foren. Second marriage, (to Harry Hulbert); Frank (who married Ethel Lile; and son Forrest McAbee; and Hazel (married Fred Guernsey of Petaluma.)
The first wife, above, died shortly after the birth of the second child. The American war with Mexico started in 1846, and the young John Wesley enlisted and served over a year. Then, according to the History of Mendocino County of 1880 (page 512), he lived in Kansas City until 1850, when he and his brother, Jerome, crossed the plains with ox teams to Nevada City. John Wesley worked in the mines for a few months, visited Sacramento and decided to go “back East” (a term used by the pioneers).
He took the steamer “Republic,” and when near Acapulco on the west coast of Mexico, it sank. (Source, History of Mendocino County, page 512). They must have been close to shore, because the passengers, about 750 of them, were safely taken to land. They waited about two weeks while the ship was “raised and newly coppered,” then it was towed to Panama with all the passengers.
Mr. McAbee spent some time in Cuba, then went back to Missouri. In August of 1852, he was married to Susan Minerva Weaver (1831-1925). In the spring of 1853, John Wesley McAbee and his wife started for California.
This was an eventful trip. Mrs. McAbee experienced it all with fortitude and a sense of humor. In later years she told the story to her grandchildren. The story is exciting and inherently dramatic.
After the above-mentioned trip, Mr. and Mrs. McAbee arrived in California and settled near Bloomfield in Sonoma County. Here they farmed and raised stock until about 1859 when they came to what later was called Yorkville. They built a house near Beebe Creek, about where the new home of Mr. and Mrs. Alex Burger stood. Nearby is a small stream called Kalti Creek, named for a well-known Indian of that time.
Mr. and Mrs. McAbee made a living there by dairying and stock raising for about 12 years. In 1871, they moved their family to Boonville.
After another move or two, the family settled on a site for a home on the lane leading to the pioneer Patrick Donnelly place. This lane leaves the Valley road just north of the Boonville Bridge (north of town), and runs to the foothills. This “Old Donnelly Place” is a good landmark. Patrick Donnelly and his wife settled there on November 2, 1857 when the land was still part of Sonoma County. It became part of Mendocino County on March 11, 1859.
Here the McAbee couple lived and raised their nine children.
John Wesley McAbee was for several years the Boonville Postmaster. Several men acted as postmaster as a private venture before him, and so far we have found the dates unclear.
In 1873, Mr. John McAbee deeded the land for a Methodist Church South, the site of the present Methodist church in Boonville. The trustees, all of Ukiah at the time, were: William Ford, W.H. Van, J.N. Nuckols, M.J. Cox, M. York and W.F. Holliday.
Mr. McAbee's death came December 21, 1899. He was buried in Green Mound Cemetery near Boonville.
His wife was an interesting woman. Many Valley folks went to her house to enjoy her stories of crossing the plains. She was also interested in medicine and knew the medicinal value of various herbs. Her death came in 1925 and she was buried beside her husband.
A READER WRITES: “Mendocino County Sheriff is no longer posting mugshots. In Maricopa County, Arizona, an innocent man who was arrested sued the County. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals deemed mugshots prejudicial and unconstitutional. Now other jurisdictions are removing them from websites.”
CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, September 15, 2024
STEVEN ALLEN, 67, Ukiah. Concealed dirk-dagger, paraphernalia failure to appear.
CHARLES BERUMEN, 34, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.
JONATHAN CAMARGO, 36, Ukiah. Trespassing with prior, failure to appear, probation revocation.
GIRESENIA FIGUEROA, 41, Hopland. Domestic battery.
ALEXANDER FRASER, 33, Gualala. DUI.
JOEL GARCIA, 35, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting, probation revocation.
TONY HANOVER, 18, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun.
DAVID HOLLISTER, 78, Ukiah. Domestic battery.
EMERALD JAMES, 25, Ukiah. Misdemeanor hit&run with property damage.
BANEZAA LUA, 22, Clearlake/Ukiah. DUI.
SITO RAMOS-OCONNELL, 33, Ukiah. Under influence, controlled substance, paraphernalia contempt of court.
RUSY RAMSING, 31, Willits. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, disobeying court order, failure to appear.
JIMMY RICKETTS, 71, Ukiah. Domestic battery, false imprisonment.
CHRISTOPHER VELAZQUEZ, 50, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.
AVA,
Sad about California's public schools and their present national ranking at 40 (between Mississippi and Tennessee). When my aunt moved out here in 1955 to teach and be involved in the school system, California's schools were tops in the nation. She was so proud of the school system at the time though by her retirement she was less enamored. Unless one goes to a magnet or alternative school, home education is the best choice.
Jeff Goll
Willits
ANOTHER OPTION
Editor:
I read a lot of letters telling us who we should vote for, but today I will tell you who you shouldn’t vote for. Don’t vote for the candidate or party that has failed to effectively do anything about crime, gangs and gun violence. Don’t vote for a party that has failed to do anything about homeless encampments and people overdosing and dying in the streets. Don’t vote for a party that has failed to do anything about high taxes and out of control debt. They have not earned your vote. Find someone else to vote for or choose not to vote at all.
Michael Morrissey
Santa Rosa
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
“The levers we have been given to operate our democracy have been disconnected. What’s the percentage of voting adults in a normal election now — maybe 25, 30% of the party? How can you say that those election results are valid? What happens if it goes to 15 — a president who was chosen by 15% of the population? Is that really a valid result? If enough people see the futility, the dysfunction in the system and say, ‘I’m opting out,’ pretty soon we have to sit down as a country and say, ‘Now what? They quit.’”
NOT A TOUGH CROWD
by Christian Lorentzen
On the second evening of the Democratic Convention, I passed through Union Park on the way to meet a few journalists. A few hundred people were gathered to protest the war in Gaza. Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, was calling for a weapons embargo: “Free Palestine! Not another nickel, not another dime, for Harris’s genocide!” went the refrain. A vote for the Democrats was “consent for genocide” and there should be no more “nonsense about the lesser evil.” “We have two greater evils being rammed down our throat,” Stein said. The next speaker, from Students 4 Gaza, drew a parallel between Israel’s war and the “scholasticide” being committed by the local government, which was “systematically closing schools in Chicago.” The Democrats were “a party that does nothing for us.” “A new face for the Democrats will not stop us.” The goal of the movement was, he said, “a sea change in mass consciousness.”
Though the crowd was small, it was a bracing departure from the euphemisms on offer in the convention hall, where “uncommitted” delegates representing the pro-Palestinian protest votes (the only votes not cast for Biden and transferred to Harris) had their requests to speak turned down. One of them, Georgia state representative Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian American, delivered her refused speech outside the arena. Around 70 arrests were made over the course of the week, and phalanxes of police were arrayed around the arena on the last night for a confrontation that didn’t erupt into violence. The protests didn’t match the historic confrontation in 1968 between Vietnam War protesters and the Chicago police and National Guard, but no one could enter by the main gate to the arena without hearing the names and ages of Gazan children killed since October being read out over a megaphone.
The final two nights brought few surprises. Bill Clinton, meandering and digressive but not uncharming, seemed out to prove he could execute Trump’s improvisational self-referential style in a manner slicker than Trump’s. Oprah Winfrey took to the stage as though to remind the crowd of a time when everybody watched the same things on television, though she now looks younger than she did back then. Tim Walz, the high school football coach turned Minnesota governor, brought onto the ticket for his earnest populist touch and his potential to reach white guys who like sports, told the story of his own family’s experience of the “hell of infertility.” I was disappointed he didn’t cast it as a football metaphor, something about the Republicans declaring a touchdown gained by IVF in the fourth quarter a penalty and sending families back 20 yards to kick the field goal of adoption. (He did use some of those metaphors in a closing exhortation to the crowd to donate to the campaign and get out the vote.)
Harris herself reprised all the convention’s themes with poise and confidence, if not quite joy: her family story; coming to the aid of victims of sexual assault such as her friend Wanda; her fights for veterans, homeowners, defrauded and abused elders; her campaigns against drug cartels and for a secure border; her championing of reproductive rights; her loyalty to the middle class. She settled into one of the convention’s slogans as a refrain: “We are not going back.” Not going back to a Trump presidency and not going back to the retrograde vision of America on offer from him and “his billionaire friends.”
Of late, American elections are decided by a few thousand votes in a handful of states, even when the margins of the national popular vote are in the millions. As I write, the week after the convention, Trump was last seen hawking “digital trading cards” of himself for $99 each, with the promise of a “physical trading card” and a swatch of the suit he wore during the debate with Biden (“people are calling it the knockout suit”) if you buy a complete set of 15. I will be surprised if Trump and Vance defeat Harris and Walz in November. The Democratic Party is the most powerful force in American society. It has won the popular vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections, and the nation’s organized money and institutions are behind it. A real sea-change will occur when it faces significant resistance from someone other than a gang of rich scumbags and the folks they manage to con.
MONDAY'S LEAD STORIES FROM THE NYT
Trump Safe as F.B.I. Investigates Apparent ‘Attempted Assassination’
Will TikTok Be Banned in January? That Question Is Headed to Court
‘Water Is Coming.’ Floods Devastate West and Central Africa
What a Mayor in Crisis Means for New York City
Best and Worst Moments From the 2024 Emmys
TRUMP SAFE AS F.B.I. INVESTIGATES APPARENT ‘ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION’
For the second time in just over two months, federal officials say, a man armed with a rifle attempted to assassinate Donald Trump. A Secret Service agent spotted a man with a gun at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Fla., yesterday and fired at him before the man could hit anyone. Trump was unharmed, and the police arrested a suspect.
Trump was golfing at his club in West Palm Beach yesterday afternoon with a few staff members and a longtime friend. A Secret Service agent traveling ahead of Trump noticed the barrel of a rifle sticking through a fence along the course. The agent quickly fired shots toward the gunman, the Palm Beach County sheriff said.
The gunman fled, and it’s not clear whether he fired any shots. He left behind an AK-style rifle with a scope; two backpacks filled with ceramic tile, which he had hung on a fence; and a video camera.
A witness’s photo allowed the police to track the suspect as he drove up Interstate 95, and he was arrested a short time later. A law enforcement source identified him as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii.
Not long after the shooting, Trump sent an email to supporters saying, “Before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL!” People close to him said that he was shaken but upbeat, and that he had joked about not getting to finish what had been a good round of golf.
President Biden said he was briefed on the attempted shooting. “I am relieved that the former president is unharmed,” Biden said. “As I have said many times, there is no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country.”
Vice President Kamala Harris said she was “deeply disturbed” by the assassination attempt.
Suspected Gunman Said He Was Willing To Fight And Die In Ukraine
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, told The New York Times in 2023 that he had traveled to Ukraine and wanted to recruit Afghan soldiers to fight there.
by Adam Goldman, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Glenn Thrush & Nalim Rahim
Ryan Wesley Routh, the 58-year-old man who was arrested on Sunday in connection with what the F.B.I. described as an attempted assassination on former President Donald J. Trump, had expressed the desire to fight and die in Ukraine.
Mr. Routh’s posts on the social media site X revealed a penchant for violent rhetoric in the weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. “I AM WILLING TO FLY TO KRAKOW AND GO TO THE BORDER OF UKRAINE TO VOLUNTEER AND FIGHT AND DIE,” he wrote.
On the messaging application Signal, Mr. Routh wrote that “Civilians must change this war and prevent future wars” as part of his profile bio. On WhatsApp, his bio read, “Each one of us must do our part daily in the smallest steps help support human rights, freedom and democracy; we each must help the chinese.”
Mr. Routh, a former roofing contractor from Greensboro, N.C., was interviewed by The New York Times in 2023 for an article about Americans volunteering to aid the war effort in Ukraine. Mr. Routh, who had no military experience, said he had traveled to the country after Russia’s invasion and wanted to recruit Afghan soldiers to fight there.
In a telephone interview with The New York Times in 2023, when Mr. Routh was in Washington, he spoke with a self-assuredness of a seasoned diplomat who thought his plans to support Ukraine’s war effort were sure to succeed. But he appeared to have little patience for anyone who got in his way. When an American foreign fighter seemed to talk down to him in a Facebook message he shared with The New York Times, Mr. Routh said, “he needs to be shot.”
In the interview, Mr. Routh said he was in Washington to meet with the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, known as the Helsinki Commission “for two hours” to help push for more support for Ukraine. The commission is led by members of Congress and staffed by congressional aides. It is influential on matters of democracy and security and has been vocal in supporting Ukraine.
Mr. Routh also said he was seeking recruits for Ukraine from among Afghan soldiers who had fled the Taliban. He said he planned to move them, in some cases illegally, from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine. He said dozens had expressed interest.
“We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country,” he said.
It is not clear whether Mr. Routh followed through, but one former Afghan soldier said he had been contacted and was interested in fighting if it meant leaving Iran, where he was living illegally.
A man with the same name and similar age as Mr. Routh was arrested in 2002 in Greensboro, N.C., after barricading himself inside a building with a fully automatic weapon, according to the Greensboro News & Record newspaper.
The newspaper said the man was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a fully automatic machine gun. It is not clear how the charges were resolved.
It is not clear if Mr. Routh, a lean man with reddish-brown hair who wore American flag clothing in one of his profile pictures, fired any shots before leaving the scene on Sunday, according to the Secret Service.
In a series of posts on X in 2020, Mr. Routh expressed admiration for former Representative Tulsi Gabbard, then a Democratic presidential candidate, saying “she will tirelessly negotiate peace deals in Syria, Afghanistan, and all turmoil zones.”
At some point over the past several years. Mr. Routh moved to Hawaii, where a man with his name ran a small business.
In a May 2020 post, he invited Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, to Hawaii for a vacation and offered to act as “ambassador and liaison” to resolve disputes between the two nations.
When deputies stopped him on Interstate 95 after the incident, Mr. Routh appeared calm, did not ask why he was being detained, and “was not armed when we took him out of the car,” Sheriff William D. Snyder of Martin County told a local station, WPTV.
(NY Times)
RYAN WESLEY ROUTH'S SHOCKED NEIGHBOR claims everyone was afraid of him before Trump golf course assassination attempt
by Rachel Bowman
Neighbors of the man accused of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump at his Florida golf club described him as 'a little cuckoo', and claim he left everyone on the street terrified.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, is in custody after he allegedly pointed an AK-47 at the former president as he played at the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach on Sunday afternoon.
The suspect was found unarmed while a backpack, GoPro camera and AK-47 style rifle were discovered at the scene once he fled.
His home in North Carolina was raided late Sunday night and a pickup truck with a Biden-Harris bumper sticker was found outside his Hawaii home.
A woman who lived next door to Routh in North Carolina described the registered Democrat as unusual and revealed she was not shocked to learn that guns were involved.
'I mean I didn't think he would go that far. I knew he was a little cuckoo, but assassinating the president? I mean he's going to be going away for a long time,' the anonymous neighbor told Fox 8.
She added: 'I just can’t believe it. I mean, if I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I mean the pictures and stuff and all, then I wouldn’t be able to believe that.'
The concerned neighbor said she has seen guns in his home over the years but never expected him to be involved in something like this.
'I’ve seen the guns myself and all, and, yeah, they had a lot of guns and stuff over there, and, yeah, a lot of people were afraid of him back in the day,' the woman said.
'I thought he was just living the life in Hawaii with the girlfriend and all, so for him to be assassinating the president, that’s just crazy.'
Her comments come as photos show a Biden-Harris sticker on a white pickup truck sitting in the driveway of Routh's Hawaii home.
His son, Oran Routh, said his father moved to Hawaii from North Carolina a few years back and was living with his longtime girlfriend.
In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Oran claimed his dad is not a violent person and couldn't believe his father would target the president.
'This was the first I heard about it,' the 35-year-old said upon realizing his dad's involvement. 'Was my father shot or injured?'
He said his father hates Trump as 'every reasonable person does', adding ‘I don't like Trump either.'
Oran said: 'He's my dad and all he's had is couple traffic tickets, as far as I know. That's crazy. I know my dad and love my dad, but that's nothing like him.
'He said he was at the beach, but I thought that meant the outer banks in Hawaii. I didn't ask him for more information because we've had a falling out. We've grown apart.'
He wouldn't explain the nature of their 'falling out,' but still spoke highly of his father.
'He's not a violent person,' he said. 'He's a hard worker and a great dad. He's a great dude, a nice guy and has worked his whole f**king life.'
The former president was rushed to safety on Sunday once his security detail fired multiple shots in his vicinity upon noticing Routh's gun.
Officials said U.S. Secret Service agents spotted a rifle barrel sticking out of the bushes two holes ahead of where Trump was golfing.
Routh ran into his vehicle from the trees, but was spotted by a witness who snapped a picture of his vehicle – a black Nissan – which included the license plate.
Real estate investor and New York City landlord Steve Witkoff was Trump's golfing buddy on Sunday, sources told DailyMail.com.
Martin County Sherriff William D. Snyder said Routh 'was not displaying a lot of emotions' when police arrested him.
Snyder added that the suspected shooter was 'relatively calm' and 'never asked' why he was being detained.
Routh was convicted in 2002 of possessing a weapon of mass destruction, per online North Carolina Department of Adult Correction records but could not provide details about the case.
He is a registered Democrat and donated at least 19 times between September 2019 and March 2020 to the Democratic political action committee ActBlue, Federal Election Commission filings revealed.
The donations totaled more than $140 and were earmarked for individual 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidates including Andrew Yang, Tom Steyer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Routh's social media was filed with anti-Trump rhetoric and previously said that 'Democracy is on the ballot,' reported The New York Post.
His posts on his now-deactivated Facebook and X accounts paint a picture of a man radicalized about both Trump and the Russia-Ukraine war.
Routh admitted on social media in June 2020 that he did vote for Trump in 2016, but was hoping as president he would be 'different and better' than how he was as a candidate.
'We all were greatly disappointed and it seems you are getting worse and devolving; are you retarded,' Routh wrote at the time. 'I will be glad when you gone (sic).'
The incident comes as Trump's security detail has been ramped up in the two months after the former president was shot in the ear during an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said that the Secret Service had a 'limited' ability to protect Trump at the golf course.
'The golf course is surrounded by shrubbery, so when somebody gets into the shrubbery, they're pretty much out of sight, all right, and at this level that he is at right now, he's not the sitting president,' Bradshaw said.
'If he was, we would have had this entire golf course surrounded. But because he's not, security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible.
'So, I would imagine that the next time he comes to the golf course, there'll probably be a little bit more people around the perimeter. But the Secret Service did exactly what they should have done.'
Special Agent Rafael Barros explained at the press conference on Sunday that Secret Service moves with Trump and is usually surveying one or two holes ahead of him when he goes for a round of golf.
Just hours after the incident, the Republican presidential nominee shared his intriguing take about the 'interesting day' on Truth Social and praised the Secret Service and authorities for their 'incredible job'.
'I would like to thank everyone for your concern and well wishes - It was certainly an interesting day!
'Most importantly, I want to thank the U.S. Secret Service, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and his Office of brave and dedicated Patriots, and, all of Law Enforcement, for the incredible job done today at Trump International in keeping me, as the 45th President of the United States, and the Republican Nominee in the upcoming Presidential Election, SAFE.
'THE JOB DONE WAS ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING. I AM VERY PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!' Trump wrote.
Vice President Kamala Harris also shared her reaction online, writing: 'I have been briefed on reports of gunshots fired near former President Trump and his property in Florida, and I am glad he is safe. Violence has no place in America.'
Her comments came before President Joe Biden's, who issued a statement to say he was 'relieved' to hear Trump emerged unscathed.
'I have been briefed by my team regarding what federal law enforcement is investigating as a possible assassination attempt of former President Trump today.
'A suspect is in custody, and I commend the work of the Secret Service and their law enforcement partners for their vigilance and their efforts to keep the former President and those around him safe. I am relieved that the former President is unharmed.'
He reiterated his stance on violence has no place in America.
'As I have said many times, there is no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country, and I have directed my team to continue to ensure that Secret Service has every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure the former President’s continued safety,' he added.
(dailymail.co.uk)
PROJECT 2025 & CALIFORNIA - ULTIMATUM: REPORT ABORTION DATA OR LOSE BILLIONS IN MEDICAID
by Monique O. Madan
Project 2025, the 900-page conservative playbook for the next Republican president, issues an ultimatum for California: track and report abortion data to the federal government or risk losing billions in Medicaid funding for reproductive health.
California is one of only three states that do not report abortion data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Project 2025’s proposed federal mandate directly conflicts with the state’s strong protections for patient privacy and could dismantle the legal and ethical foundations that have made California a refuge for those seeking reproductive care.
The blueprint, crafted by Donald Trump allies and leaders in his first administration, clearly targets states with abortion protections like California, seeking the kind of data that could be used to target abortion-seekers or even criminally punish out-of-staters who come to the state for reproductive health services.
“Because liberal states have now become sanctuaries for abortion tourism, [the Department of Health and Human Services] should use every available tool, including the cutting of funds, to ensure that every state reports exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother’s state of residence, and by what method,” reads the chapter on abortion reporting.
Roger Severino, who served as the Department of Health and Human Services’ director of the Office for Civil Rights under Trump, authored Project 2025’s abortion surveillance plan. He is now the vice president of domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025. He declined an interview with CalMatters.
As Project 2025 and reproductive health have become major campaign themes, Trump continues to distance himself from the right-wing plan. He’s repeatedly called some of the project’s proposals “abysmal” and has said “I have no idea who is behind it.” Paul Dans, the Project 2025 director and a former top adviser in Trump’s administration, resigned from the Heritage Foundation in July after Trump began to disengage from the plan.
In Tuesday’s presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris explicitly warned about Project 2025’s plans to monitor “your pregnancies, your miscarriages.”
On the stage, Trump denied supporting a national abortion ban, in part because the fall of Roe led to his desire for each state to implement its own policy. “This is an issue that’s torn our country apart for 52 years,” Trump said on the debate stage. “Every legal scholar, every Democrat, every Republican, liberal, conservative, they all wanted this issue to be brought back to the states where the people could vote. And that’s what happened.”
Harris’ home state has a long history of protecting reproductive rights. The state legalized abortion in 1967, six years before the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, and has since enacted numerous laws to ensure access to abortion care.
The California Constitution includes an explicit right to privacy, which has been interpreted by state courts to guarantee the right to choose an abortion.
California, along with Maryland and New Hampshire, does not require abortion providers to report patient data to the federal government, as Severino points out. The California Department of Public Health said just days after Roe v. Wade was overturned that it does not report abortion data to the federal government because it is not required to do so. The states that do collect data generally use it for public health analysis that can help improve abortion access by identifying gaps and needs
Under Project 2025, all 50 states would be required to submit to the federal government data such as the reason for the abortion, fetus’ gestational age, the birthing parent’s state of residence, whether the procedure was surgical or pill-induced, and more.
Cat Duffy, a policy analyst at the National Health Law Program, said the intention of collecting this data “is not one of scientific exploration.”
“It’s to create a culture of fear, which will spread, not just to abortion seekers, but pregnant people as well, who will be afraid of going to the doctor and what they tell the doctor,” she said.
Medi-Cal and access to critical care
Medicaid — known as Medi-Cal in California — is the single largest payer of maternity care in the country. So, if California fought the proposed abortion reporting requirements, billions of dollars in Medicaid funding that provides critical reproductive healthcare services would be at risk.
The state didn’t immediately release figures showing how many Californians rely on Medi-Cal for family planning or how much money would be at stake. But Medi-Cal’s family planning funds pays for about 39 percent of all births in the state. In total, Medi-Cal covers about 14.2 million Californians, according to a June 2024 report. Medi-Cal brought in $85 billion in federal funds in fiscal year 2021—2022.
Medicaid operates as a state-federal partnership, with the federal government paying a percentage of the costs. And in exchange, states have to comply with minimum requirements set forth by the federal government.
Some examples of minimum requirements include providing mandatory benefits such as transportation to medical appointments; maintaining programs for preventing and detecting Medicaid fraud; and reporting immunization figures and annual pediatrician visits. Project 2025 seeks to establish abortion surveillance as another minimum requirement.
Duffy estimates Medi-Cal spends multiple billions annually on reproductive health, considering the costs of comprehensive services like contraceptives, counseling, reproductive health education, prenatal care, labor and delivery, postpartum care, STI and cancer testing, and infertility treatments.
“If a state like California decided to not comply with those abortion reporting requirements, it could lose billions of dollars and would likely hamstring the ability of the state to provide sexual and reproductive healthcare services,” Duffy said. “Because while I think that there are states that would try to compensate with state funds, it’s just a lot of money to make up and that it could potentially be really devastating.”
Duffy noted that the proposal could increase surveillance of individuals seeking abortions, particularly targeting vulnerable populations. The fear of being monitored or reported could deter these groups from seeking necessary healthcare, increasing health risks, she said, adding that it can also heighten the risk of legal repercussions for both patients and providers, further marginalizing those already facing systemic inequalities.
“Those disproportionately impacted by the provisions in Project 2025 are the same folks that are disproportionately impacted by abortion bans: It’s communities of color, it’s young people, it is LGBTQ+ individuals.”
Fear of being monitored—in the clinic and beyond
Josie Urbina, an OB-GYN at San Francisco General Hospital and a research fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, said some individuals are more prone to pregnancy complications due to social determinants like low socioeconomic status, living in urban areas, or exposure to toxins. These factors, along with pre-existing conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and chronic stress, contribute to poor outcomes.
Research from the University of California also found that while receiving an abortion does not negatively affect women’s health, being denied one leads to worsened financial, health, and family outcomes.
(CalMatters)
49ERS FALL TO VIKINGS IN MINNESOTA AGAIN, lose 23-17 as Brock Purdy gets pummeled in the pocket
by Eric Branch
Minnesota nice? Yeah, not for the San Francisco 49ers.
The “Land of 10,000 Lakes” remained the land of losses Sunday for the 49ers, who dropped their eighth straight game in Minnesota, a streak that began 30 years ago.
In the latest Minnesota meltdown, quarterback Brock Purdy committed two turnovers and the 49ers allowed six sacks, their first blocked punt in 57 games and the longest pass play in franchise history. There was more: They also failed on two fourth-down attempts in the first 24 minutes and couldn’t prevent a game-sealing field-goal drive when the Vikings, who were already missing a starting wide receiver, were without All-Pro wideout Justin Jefferson,
The only 49ers player who was alive when they last won in Minnesota: Trent Williams, 36. The 49ers last victory, a 20-17 win, was on Dec.13, 1992, and they have lost by an average of 11.5 points during their skid.
Their history, along with their circumstances, foreshadowed Sunday’s nightmare.
The 49ers were playing on a short week after Monday’s season-opening win against the Jets and had traveled about 2,000 miles for a game with 10 a.m. West Coast kickoff. In addition, they were playing without running back Christian McCaffrey, the 2023 Offensive Player of the Year who was placed on injured reserve Saturday.
It took about eight minutes for the first signs to emerge that they might not be up to the challenge.
Midway through the first quarter, Mitch Wishnowsky’s punt was blocked by C.J. Ham, who came free up the middle, and Theo Jackson scooped the loose ball and returned it 37 yards to the 49ers’ 24-yard line. The gaffe, the first blocked punt the 49ers had allowed since Sept. 13, 2020, set up a 22-yard field goal by Will Reichard.
The 49ers responded with a 15-play, 88-yard drive that lasted 9 minutes, 18 seconds and … resulted in zero points. On 4th-and-goal from the 2-yard line, Purdy targeted wideout Jauan Jennings in the end zone, but his pass was tipped at the line before it was broken up in mid-flutter by safety Harrison Smith.
Two plays later, the Vikings took a 10-0 lead when QB Sam Darnold heaved a long pass to wide receiver Justin Jefferson, who got behind Ji’Ayir Brown and George Odum and outran the safeties for the final 40 yards for a 97-yard touchdown, the longest receiving score the 49ers have allowed in their 79-season history.
The 49ers trailed 13-7 at halftime, but they could have been in a far bigger hole if not for linebacker Fred Warner, who made the first of two points-saving takeaways with the Vikings, leading 10-0, set up with a first down at the 49ers’ 21-yard line with about five minutes left in the second quarter.
Warner made a diving, over-the-middle interception of Darnold’s short pass to give the somnambulant 49ers a jolt. The pick set the stage for a 65-yard drive capped by Purdy’s 7-yard touchdown pass to tight end George Kittle to trim the deficit to 10-7.
Late in the third quarter, Warner did it again. With the Vikings leading 20-7, Warner drilled running back Aaron Jones at the 49ers’ 2-yard line, forcing a fumble, and cornerback Isaac Yiadom made the recovery at the 1.
The takeaway was again followed by a scoring drive that gave the 49ers life. Their 12-play, 99-yard march ended with a 10-yard run by running back Jordan Mason that trimmed the deficit to 20-14 with about 10 minutes left.
The 49ers needed a stop. And the Vikings, who were playing without wide receiver Jordan Addison (ankle), didn’t have the services of Jefferson, who exited with a quadriceps injury late in the third quarter.
Darnold delivered by delivering to his backups. On a 62-yard drive, he converted a 3rd-and-8 from Minnesota’s 46-yard line with a 26-yard strike to Jalen Nailor. Darnold followed, on 3rd-and-2 from the 49ers’ 20-yard line, with a 5-yard completion to Bradon Powell. The conversions led to a 27-yard field goal by Reichard that gave the Vikings a 23-14 lead with 3:32 left.
49ERS GAME GRADES: Offense struggles in yet another loss in Minnesota
by Mike Lerseth
The San Francisco 49ers struggled for consistency on offense and had trouble containing Minnesota QB Sam Darnold — a Niner a year ago — in losing 23-17 in Minneapolis on Sunday.
Offense: C
The 49ers’ offense played one of its worst quarters of the Kyle Shanahan era in the third Sunday as Brock Purdy (28-for-36, 319 yards) was sacked four times and had as many turnovers as completions — two each. And, yet … S.F. opened the fourth quarter with a 12-play, 99-yard drive to cut its deficit to six. Jordan Mason (20 carries, 100 yards, one TD) proved his Week 1 stand-in for Christian McCaffrey was no fluke, but the play of the offensive line (Purdy was sacked five times and played under constant pressure), the turnovers and two failed first-half fourth-down conversions were too much to overcome.
Defense: C
Fred Warner (team-high nine tackles, a sack and a forced fumble) was terrific, and this unit kept the 49ers in the game by forcing Minnesota into two first-half field goals — one after Minnesota had 1st-and-goal at the 10. But the 49ers also gave up the longest pass play in franchise history — a 97-yarder from Darnold to Justin Jefferson — and allowed 6.1 yards per rush as the Vikings rolled up 146 yards on the ground. Nick Bosa had two of the 49ers’ four sacks.
Special Teams: D
Mitch Wishnowsky’s first punt was 58 yards — equaling the length of his only one in Week 1 — and then his second was blocked. Jacob Cowing muffed a third-quarter punt, but a turnover was avoided when Isaac Yiadom jumped on the loose ball amid a wild scramble. Jake Moody made a 31-yard field-goal try with 1:12 to play (he’s now 7-for-7) and both extra-point attempts, but a last-gasp onside kick by Wishnowsky was easily covered by Minnesota’s Nick Muse to seal the outcome.
Coaching: C
Three times in the first half, Shanahan went for it on fourth down. It didn’t go well. The 49ers converted the first, but on the second, Shanahan eschewed a chip-shot, game-tying field goal and went for the TD only to have Purdy’s 4th-and-goal pass from the 2 fall incomplete. Shanahan followed that with a 4th-and-2 attempt at the Minnesota 43 that gained only a yard on a Purdy scramble.
Overall: C
The 49ers better hope they don’t meet the Vikings in the playoffs — especially on the road. This is eight straight losses in Minnesota for S.F. Mason’s success aside, the play of the offensive line is worrisome. Safe to say the Vikings are not the Jets and the question now becomes: Which is the reality, the cakewalk in Week 1 or the slog in Week 2?
(SF Chronicle)
PROGRESSIVE RESURGENCE
by Jim Hightower
Did you know that here in Lampasas, just a few miles from my family farm, is where the Populist movement got its start? I’m proud to be part of that long history of farmers and ranchers who’ve led the fight against monopoly control of our food system and supported local cooperatives to provide independence from greedy financiers and suppliers. It was fitting that the first meeting of the Farmers Alliance was in a schoolhouse because the founders knew universal education was a key to breaking the stranglehold of the railroad monopolies and robber barons of the time.
And now, we are seeing an explosion of enthusiasm for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Every Labor Day, the Lampasas Democrats hold a celebration to honor America’s workers. We usually have 70 people join us, which isn’t bad for such a small county.
This year we had over 120. We didn’t even have that many folks at our Labor Day Celebration when Beto ran in 2018.
Back to Lampasas history.
The Populist movement, which even included some members of future President LBJ’s family, grew drastically. One of the ways it grew was by providing services to the people. For instance, the populist and “Alliance Men” would come to small communities to help teach folks how to read, as well as strongly supporting public education. Strong public education for all was a cornerstone of the movement (& now the TX GOP seeks to defund our public education system).
The Populist Party expanded across the country, became active and successful in some 43 states, before it was crushed by the bankers and by monopolists, and by political partisans more interested in taking kickbacks from megadonors than helping their neighbors. While the organization itself was crushed, its members and their ideas were not. They evolved into the progressive movement of the early 1900s and 19-teens in our country, and later into the New Deal.
The New Deal would transform the USA by building the middle class. Even with my own family, both sides of my grandparents went from backbreaking poverty where they had to pick cotton and hunt squirrels to survive, to having the bootstraps to build generational middle class wealth because of actual investments into working families instead of corporate tax breaks.
To me that is the essence of the American Dream: Having the investment into yourself, your family, and your community to build a brighter future.
History may not repeat but it certainly rhymes — or perhaps another way to put it, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”
Campaigns are short but movements are eternal. The fundamental ideas that power ought to be democratized as much as possible and that universal education is crucial to a functioning democracy are still principles worth fighting for. You can see the powerful forces trampling over this history when Sid Miller, our current Texas Ag Commissioner, tweets, “Public education is a closed system that hurts kids and wastes money.” The school vouchers he advocates for don’t democratize, they deprive. Rich folks get to send their kids — and our tax dollars — to private schools. Regular folks get the leftovers.
If you want to see the marker commemorating the farmers' fight against monopolies, drive along US-183 N/US-190 W, just north of Lampasas. The marker (#4055) will be on your left if heading from Lampasas to Lometa.
Back to the present day.
We still have a long road ahead of us.
Reclaiming Texas for working families will take time. It cannot happen in a single election or by a single candidate; rather, like Democracy itself, it can only be done by all of us working together to create a world we’re proud to pass down to the next generation. Even FDR needed a progressive Congress and state governments to build the New Deal. So shall we.
Glad to see Covelo getting some positive pub.
When i asked a guy who is from there about the wild goings on we hear about, he said, “Covelo is the land of the free. People do whatever they want.”
TRUMP SAFE AS F.B.I. INVESTIGATES APPARENT ‘ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION’
It oughta be illegal to be an assassin who cannot hit the broad side of a barn with its weapon. Trump is a huge, brainless target, which would be hard to miss.
“President Biden said he was briefed on the attempted shooting. “I am relieved that the former president is unharmed,” Biden said. “As I have said many times, there is no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country.””
“Vice President Kamala Harris said she was “deeply disturbed” by the assassination attempt.”
Probably about as disturbed as they get about Zionist savages committing genocide, committed with weaponry supplied by freedomlandia, against the rightful inhabitants of Palestine.
PROJECT 2025 & CALIFORNIA – ULTIMATUM: REPORT ABORTION DATA OR LOSE BILLIONS IN MEDICAID
As the pitiful right-wing accelerates its race to end freedom for all but the wealthy trash who own it. How come no one tries to assassinate those filthy trash?
Transparency is the last thing on Mulheren’s mind, actually it’s the opposite.
The Facebook page and any press release she issues is a calculated move with the appearance of transparency. It is her controlling the conversation.
Her individual meetings with groups never result in solutions, they are merely a smoke screen. A way for her to appear like she cares. Her office on School St. has always appeared to be a marketing business but in reality is a campaign office.
She does numerous things in secret, even spying on businesses who questioned her views on homelessness. She is a habitual liar. Her only goal was to get elected for the salary. So when it was clear that her vote would be the deciding factor for the raise. Are you shocked? If you are, I got some ocean front property in Arizona to sell you. I think George Strait wrote a song about it.
Trent Williams gave up a sack for the first time in forever, and Brandon Aiyuk had a big drop for the second week in a row. And for this I skipped the sheep dog trials? Never again.
You deserve crime, gangs and gun violence. You deserve homeless encampments and people overdosing and dying in the streets. You deserve high taxes and out of control debt.
You vote pro-war and pro-genocide EVERY TIME, and it doesn’t even make your list of grievances!
Who was Trump golfing with? That’s 1000x more important than yet another staged assassination hoax. It was Steve Witkoff, a billionaire real estate developer who was implicated in the corruption of 9/11 criminal Bernard Kerik – paying for Kerik’s housing for two years while Kerik had multiple places to live, some being paid for by an “Israeli” billionaire as well. Kerik is the former NY Police Commissioner (and, oh yeah, former Minister of the Interior of…. Iraq) who covered up the explosives found on the George Washington Bridge, and who had the Mossad agents that were arrested that day deported instead of being charged and tried.
The media will focus on the insane Globalist/Neoliberal with a gun, of course. Just like they buzzed on and on about Newsom having dinner at French Laundry without mentioning that he was dining with PG&E lobbyists to discuss how to best screw the residents of Paradise.
Man, you got a lot hate going on.
I’m opposed to genocide and corruption, so I’m full of hate.
You’re pro-genocide and pro-war, which you vote for EVERY TIME, so you’re full of love.
Got it.
So, so sorry (not sorry) to disturb your Monday with pesky facts. Go on about your business, and be sure to vote for subhuman murderous filth like you always do.
Thank you, Mr. Z, for filling in the blanks. Simply eyeballing the alleged assassin I’d say he’s an obvious 5150., but then Lee Harvey set a pretty high bar.
Cheers, Mr A.
Reply To Norm Thurston’s Question Re: Voting Approval Standards On Special Taxes
Hi Norm,
I was out-of-pocket over the weekend so I didn’t see your post regarding citations for the two-thirds voter requirement on special, dedicated taxes being lowered to a simple majority standard if the measure is placed on the ballot by voters via the initiative process. The Library sales tax, Measure O, was put on the ballot by voters and was approved by the simple majority standard. That’s why Library proponents could argue they had put a “lock box” on the funds that the Supes couldn’t unlock, unlike the Fire Tax prop that was put on the ballot by the Supes.
Back in March of 2022, my newspaper, the Mendocino County Observer, published the Library Tax Notice provided by Chief Elections Officer and Registrar of Voters, Katrina Bartolomie.
I’ve provided excerpts from the published notice of the entire five-page, nearly 3,000 word Ordinance.
Please see sub-section “A” for the main citation: “Part 1.6 (commencing with Section 7251) of Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code and Section 7286.59 that authorizes the County to adopt this tax ordinance which shall be operative if a majority of the electors voting on the measure vote to approve the imposition of the tax at an election called for that purpose by petition of the voters of Mendocino County.”
Likewise, Section 5.170.160. Effective Date, specifies that “This ordinance shall take effect upon adoption by a majority vote of the electorate.”
Thanks for your inquiry, as always enjoy your salient comments and observations. Speaking of initiatives, we need to get one on the ballot naming you as the County’s Chief Financial Ombudsman.
Jim Shields
ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 5.170 OF TITLE 5 TO THE MENDOCINO COUNTY CODE EXPANDING A LIBRARY SPECIAL TRANSACTIONS AND USE TAX
The Citizens of the County of Mendocino ordain and direct the Board of Supervisors as follows:
Chapter 5.170 of Title 5 of the Mendocino County Code to be amended to read as follows:
LIBRARY SPECIAL TRANSACTIONS AND USE TAX
Section 5.170.000. Title. This ordinance shall be known as the County of Mendocino Library Special Transactions (Sales) and Use Tax Ordinance. The County of Mendocino shall hereinafter be called “County.” This ordinance shall be applicable in the incorporated and unincorporated territory of the County.
Section 5.170.000. Title. This ordinance shall be known as the County of Mendocino Library Special Transactions (Sales) and Use Tax Ordinance. The County of Mendocino shall hereinafter be called “County.” This ordinance shall be applicable in the incorporated and unincorporated territory of the County.
Section 5.170.010. Operative Date. “Operative Date” means the first day of the first calendar quarter commencing more than 110 days after the adoption of this ordinance, the date of such adoption being as set forth below.
Section 5.170.020. Purpose. This ordinance is adopted to achieve the following general purposes, and directs that the provisions hereof be interpreted in order to accomplish those purposes:
A. To impose a retail transactions and use tax in accordance with the provisions of Part 1.6 (commencing with Section 7251) of Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code and Section 7286.59 that authorizes the County to adopt this tax ordinance which shall be operative if a majority of the electors voting on the measure vote to approve the imposition of the tax at an election called for that purpose by petition of the voters of Mendocino County.
B. To enact a retail transactions and use tax ordinance that incorporates provisions identical to those of the Sales and Use Tax Law of the State of California insofar as those provisions are not inconsistent with the requirements and limitations contained in Part 1.6 of Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code.
Section 5.170.030. Restricted Use of the Tax.
A. Proceeds from this tax shall be deposited into the County Treasury in a special fund entitled “Library Special Tax Fund” (hereinafter the “fund”).
B. Monies deposited into the fund, together with any interest that accrues thereon, shall be used for maintaining and improving services at the existing libraries, upgrading and expansion of facilities, services, and collections; and extending branch library services to the unserved and under-served areas of the County.
C. The revenues collected from this tax shall be used only to supplement existing expenditures for public libraries and shall not be used to supplant existing funding for the support of public libraries.
D. At least 40% of these proceeds are reserved for capital investment in Library facilities. Capital investment funds directed to a specific branch or project may be carried over to subsequent fiscal years to allow for accrual of sufficient funds for major capital expenditures. The Mendocino County Library Advisory Board shall determine a fair and equitable distribution of funds to all areas of the County.
E. Proceeds from this tax shall be allocated by the Board of Supervisors acting in consideration of recommendations of the Mendocino County Library Advisory Board.
Section 5.170.150. Sunset.
The previous sunset provision of this Ordinance is revoked and the tax shall be permanent.
Section 5.170.160. Effective Date.
This ordinance shall take effect upon adoption by a majority vote of the electorate.
They may not be posting your picture in the newspaper any more, but they’ll still print your real age.