Mendocino County Today: Monday 9/30/2024

Dusk | Hot Week | Familiar Faces | Panther Athletics | Ukiah Football | Hopland Tap | Meet Soroptimists | Poetry Calendar | Candidate Forum | Payment Assistance | Cubbison Case | Ed Notes | Hare | Cloud Nine | Contra Dance | Memorial Benches | Trailer Mystic | Maple | Mendo Blue | Jug Band | Trail Avoidance | Anemone | Buck Clark | Stump Station | Yesterday's Catch | Garberville Man | Shrinkflation | News Past | Kris Kristofferson | Baby Voice | Niners Win | Munchkins | Casino Dreams | Idolizing | Lead Stories | Somehow Connected | Complainers | Khe Sahn | Omniscient Computer | Broken Edges | Yogi-isms | UPS Hiring | Galactic Year | Alien Find

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NORTH BAY HEAT ADVISORY ISSUED, high of 105 expected this week: The heat advisory will go into effect 11 a.m. Monday to 11 p.m. Wednesday and applies to the North Bay, as well as most of the rest of the Bay Area.

A DRY, WARMING TREND is expected mid week, along with hot interior temperatures. Breezy northwesterly winds along the coast, ease overnight into Tuesday. Gusty offshore flow over the interior ridges will last through Tuesday. Dry and above normal temperatures are expected to persist through the forecast period. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A brisk 46F under clear skies on the coast this Monday morning. One look at the coastal satellite provides hope our forecast for clear skies all of this week could happen. Could.

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HEY, THAT’S ROY AND BUCK!

At approximately midnight on Thursday, September 26, 2024, a Ukiah Police Department (UPD) officer was on routine patrol on Airport Park Boulevard when he noticed Ryan Roydowney and Buck Leggett in the parking lot of the Quick Stop at 1105 Airport Park Boulevard.

The officer was familiar with both subjects and knew there were active warrants for Roydowney’s arrest and that Leggett was on Post Release Community Supervision (PRCS) probation out of Mendocino County. Roydowney’s local misdemeanor warrants included violations of petty theft, contempt of court, and possession of a controlled substance. Leggett was on PRCS probation for a previous possession of a controlled substance in jail/prison).

Additional UPD officers arrived on scene, and Roydowney was taken into custody for his arrest warrants. During a search incident to arrest, he was found to be in possession of drug paraphernalia. Leggett attempted to avoid contact but was located in the Walmart parking lot and detained.

Morningstarr Hoaglin was seated in the driver’s seat of Leggett’s vehicle. She was asked to step out so a search could be conducted to ensure Leggett was in compliance with his PRCS probation terms. Hoaglin insisted on bringing a bag with her as she exited the vehicle, which caused officers to suspect the bag contained a weapon or contraband. Upon inspection, a loaded 9mm handgun was found inside. The handgun was unregistered.

All three subjects denied knowledge of the firearm, but UPD officers believed they shared joint possession of it. A further search of the vehicle revealed several pounds of marijuana, drug paraphernalia, and multiple dangerous weapons—another violation of Leggett’s PRCS probation terms.

Leggett was arrested and booked into the Mendocino County Jail on charges of Carrying a loaded concealed weapon, ammo possession by prohibited person, felon-addict with firearm and county parole violation.

Hoaglin was arrested and booked on charges of carrying a loaded concealed weapon and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Roydowney was arrested and booked on charges of carrying a loaded concealed weapon and possession of drug paraphernalia and marijuana for sale, disobeying a court order and failure to appear and his open arrest warrants.

(UPD’s mission is to make Ukiah as safe as possible, and we are grateful for the community’s support in our efforts to rid the streets of illegal firearms. For more information about crime in your neighborhood, you can sign up for notifications by clicking the Nixle button on our website: www.ukiahpolice.com.)

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PANTHER ATHLETICS: A SUCCESSFUL WEEK

Highlights from this last week:

Junior High volleyball defeated Laytonville!

Soccer defeated Redwood Academy!

JV and Varsity volleyball bested Potter Valley at home!

And we officially announced the first boys Volleyball team at AV which will begin practice in February after basketball season!

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UKIAH FOOTBALL

Editor,

The most exciting game of Week 5 happened in Mendocino County, where Ukiah nearly knocked off North Bay powerhouse San Marin in a hard-fought 38-31 loss. The Mustangs scored two touchdowns in the final seven minutes of the game — the go-ahead score coming with three minutes left — to complete the rally from an early 15-point deficit.

After its rough season-opening loss to Rancho Cotate, Ukiah has started to round into form over the last few weeks, picking up a big win over Dublin (38-7) and a very quality road win at Chico (28-21) before this week’s down-to-the wire battle with San Marin, which won consecutive state titles in 2021 and 2022 and is ranked as a top-10 team in the North Coast Section this year.

Despite the loss, the Wildcats have made improvements week after week and showed Friday that they have the firepower to keep up with one of the top teams in the section. At 2-2, there’s obviously room to grow, but the Wildcats have played a tough nonleague schedule and will have one final test next week against a Carlmont team that can put up points in bunches.

Ukiah was always slated to be one of the top teams in the REC-Bay this year and has shown the last few weeks why it should be considered as such. The league title will very likely come down once again to the Oct. 25 meeting with St. Vincent.

Gus Morris

Ukiah

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HOPLAND TAP CLOSES

Owners Ron and Cheryl say farewell to and thank their fans and customers at a Saturday afternoon party at The Hopland Tap with great music by the Pulsators. A large crowd, many of them Hopland locals, celebrated the saloon they love and commiserated at its end.

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MEET THE SOROPTIMISTS

Tonight!!  Tall Guy Brewing Company -- Monday 9/30 at 5-6pm

Meet the Soroptimists that …

• Put on the Whale Run
• Give Roses for Mammograms
• Arrange Donations to the Community
• Give thousands of dollars to educational scholarships for women and girls.

Learn how you can help us (or we can help you) make dreams come true!! For more information email sinoyosunrise@soroptimist.net

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THERESA WHITEHILL'S Calendar of Poetry Events for the month of October

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COAST HEALTH CARE DISTRICT CANDIDATES FORUM - Oct 2

Mendocino Coast Health Care District Candidate Forum
This Wednesday night, October 2, 2024
6:00 -7:30 pm
Fort Bragg Town Hall

Co-Hosted by the League of Women Voters, Mendocino County

On the November 5, 2024 ballot, Paul Katzeff (incumbent), Lynn Finley, Gabriel Maroney, and Mikael Blaisdell are candidates for two (2) 4-year terms on the MCHCD Board. Interested residents are invited to attend the Candidate Forum to learn more about the candidates and their vision for the MCHCD. The two candidates who receive the highest vote count will be elected to the board.

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ON LINE COMMENTS about Mike Geniella’s report on the latest developments in the Cubbison case:

1. Why is no action being taken against Eyster for weaponizing the county judicial system to protect his unauthorized use of county funds for staff parties, etc? Will Porter be held legally accountable for the loss of emails, aka evidence? Will the county will be held fiscally liable for emotional and professional damages to Cubbison and Kennedy, who it seems have been wrongly charged? But really…will the BOS please fire Eyster and will other candidates for DA please step forward so the voters of Mendo County will have choices of who to put into office?
2. How is this not considered sloppy work? It boggles the mind to think of the indiscretions and errors that are constantly being made by those in power within Mendocino County. If someone who was being sued and had to defend themselves against the DA, haha like Ms Cubbison they are dragged over the coals if they deleted emails or lost things or couldn’t provide information. But it’s perfectly acceptable for the DA’s office or the investigator to lose everything and not know what’s going on and deny everything. It’s absolutely insane the things these folks get away with. Not paying someone for hours that they worked, well yes that’s a county tactic too with how they’d like to put time cards in way ahead of time, no time clock, they robbed the employees of time worked and also employees rob the county of working hours. You need to pay your workers for the hours they work. And the workers need to work the hours they say that they’re working.
3. Eyster is a stain on this County. His handling of Kevin Murray’s case should have landed him in deep s@!&. Instead, Murray skated and the City paid significantly more than Kennedy was reimbursed for work she performed.
4. I wish somebody could explain a few things. Who’s grand idea was it to combine two of the county offices into one? And when did the merging of the two actually happen? Was it made in hopeful intent to save money for the county? And why is it Eyster has not been charged with spending county money on expensive resteraunt parties. Just ask the Broiler how often and how much it cost. We the people. Did he get discounts?

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ED NOTES

I MET KAMALA HARRIS at a jazz event in San Francisco maybe twenty years ago. The Missus and I were gifted the tickets by my nephew, a jazz aficionado. We were seated at a table with, among others and of all people, Willie Brown and his Russian girlfriend. Brown didn’t seem happy to see me. Maybe he remembered a night in Mendocino in ‘85 or so when I was on a bullhorn outside a Democratic Party wine fete for him at the Mendocino Hotel. I was with a mob of enviros outside trying hard to wreck the party inside. The local Democrats, led by a character called Luke Breit, were entertaining Brown, nevermind that he’d just cancelled an attempt by Mendo to locally regulate the aerial application of herbicides. Big Ag objected, and when money talks, Willie Brown listens. I was seated next to his Russian girlfriend. Every time I tried to talk to her she said, “Vot’s that you say to me?” and variations on that theme. She and Brown were carping at each other like a pair of high school kids. I’d hope for a chance to argue with Brown about everything, but out of deference to Nephew, I didn’t. Charlie Musselwhite and his wife Henrietta were seated on my other side, fortunately, because they are always pleasant and fun. Kamala Harris, then San Francisco DA, was going from table to table introducing herself. When she got to us, I mentioned that my cousin worked for her. “He does?” Yes, I said, Jimmy Rowland. “Well, I can tell you I love James Rowland. He’s head of my domestic abuse department.” I replied that our family suspects that Jimmy is himself a victim of domestic violence, explaining that his wife, known in our family as The Barracuda, had recently thrown him out of their car somewhere deep in the desert down by the Mexican border. Kamala took a closer look at me to assess just what kind of crank she was dealing with and quickly moved on. “Nice meeting you Mr. and Mrs. Anderson.” I must say I liked Kamala’s vibe, as the hippies say. She seemed real. The music that night? Knocked me out. Beautiful. The company? Except for the Musselwhites, to be avoided.

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BILL KIMBERLIN

These long ears were outside my office window in Boonville this morning. That is a lot of ears for someone so small. I have been told that this is to hear airborne predators that might swoop down on them. Does that sound right? They hear the wings flapping?

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SUN SETS ON CLOUD NINE

I’m sad to announce that Cloud Nine Art Gallery will be closing on October 31st due to circumstances beyond my control. My heartfelt thanks to the community for your unwavering support.

On a more cheerful note, we will be celebrating the mixed media and watercolor art of Karen Bowers on First Friday, October 5, from 5-7. Join us for a piece of cake, a glass of bubbly, the background music of Chris Cisper and a jovial time with friends.

We are located at 320 N Franklin Street in Fort Bragg.

Margaret Paul

Cloud Nine Art Gallery

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UKIAH CONTRA DANCE

The Ukiah October Contra Dance will be held on Saturday October 12th at the Ukiah United Methodist Church Social Hall.

Dancing to the live music of Gus Garelick & Don Collins - jigs, reels, waltzes and more. All dances will be taught and called by Ken Olcott.

There is a FREE lesson at 6:30 pm before the dance starts.

All ages welcome.( There is always a great mix of ages.) No partner needed. Come together. Come alone.

The next dance will be November 9th. Ukiah Contra Dance is every 2nd Saturday til June.

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NEW SKATE PARK BENCHES UNVEILED FOR FOURTH ANNUAL SHRED FEST

Pictured above are Roland Spence, Jim Shields and Jayma Shields Spence, posing with the memorial bench for Susan and Lois Shields (photo by Joe Polson). Long-time Observer readers will remember Susan as the co-owner and brains behind the Observer newspaper business and Lois as the Observer’s office manager and billing clerk. When Roland and Jayma moved back to Laytonville from attending college in Santa Barbara, Rolo wanted to re-kindle an idea he had in high school; to build a skate park in Laytonville. One of the first fundraisers Rolo did was place donation jars around local businesses. Jayma, Lois and Susan would be responsible for rolling the change for the deposit into the skate park’s bank account. Lois and Susan believed in the project from day one and volunteered at skate park events to show their support.

To honor the two women who dedicated their time to the Skate Park, it was decided to put up a memorial bench. Rolo worked with other families and friends in the Laytonville area to secure funding to dedicate additional benches to some local skaters we lost too early. Stop by the Laytonville Skate Park and sit on one of the memorial benches. Additional picnic benches were funded through the Community Foundation of Mendocino County. And still to come is some landscaping to accompany the benches/sitting areas. And of course more concrete to skate on! If you would like to make a monetary donation to the Skate Park to support these upcoming projects, a check can be mailed to: Laytonville Skate Park, PO Box 1382, Laytonville, CA 95454. Information about the recent Shred Fest fundraiser will be in next week’s Observer.

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EXTRA CAUTIOUS

Editor,

Thank you for running my Letter to the Editor! I know it was more of a cathartic personal essay, but I wanted to reach out to people in the country apparatus, that I interacted with during my campaign. I’m pleased how many people track (although not nearly enough) County affairs through the AVA, so thanks for the opportunity, and I certainly don’t mind bothering that sociopath Williams, and if I can help anyone be a little extra cautious in their affairs with him, then I’ve done a service.

Well, it certainly was not my intention to become some sort of modern day contemplative mystic living in a trailer in Fort Bragg. But as the country song says, “If you wanna hear someone laughs, tell God your plans.” I think I aced that one! Anyway just wanted to express some gratitude, I appreciate you both, and carry on!

Chris Skyhawk

Fort Bragg

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MENDO GIVES ITSELF A BLUEZONE AWARD

The County of Mendocino has officially received the Blue Zones Project Approved status, marking a significant milestone in its commitment to fostering a healthier, happier work community.

“We are thrilled to achieve the Blue Zones Project Approved status,” said Darcie Antle, Chief Executive Officer. “This designation underscores our dedication to improving the well-being of our employees and their families by promoting healthy living and creating an environment that supports longevity.”

Blue Zones Project is a national initiative that leverages insights from the world’s longest-lived and healthiest cultures to enhance community health and wellness. The rigorous criteria for Blue Zones Project approval include demonstrating a commitment to promoting healthy eating habits, regular physical activity, social engagement, and a sense of purpose.

“The County of Mendocino has exceeded the Blue Zones Project guidelines, showcasing our community’s strengths and dedication to health,” said Michelle Hutchins, organization lead for Blue Zones Project Mendocino County. “We are proud to recognize the efforts of our local leaders in making this achievement possible.”

Several initiatives contributed to the County of Mendocino’s Blue Zones Project approval. These include:

Nutrition: Educating employees on the importance of mindful eating and balanced nutrition with ongoing individual support through various programs.

Physical Activity: Programs encouraging daily exercise and the creation of safe, accessible spaces for walking and biking to and from work.

Social Engagement: Events and community spaces that foster connections among employees.

Purpose and Well-being: Activities and resources that help employees find and pursue their purpose.

The County of Mendocino has numerous projects and programs that align with Blue Zones principles. These include the Leadership Initiative, comprehensive health benefits, Employee Wellness Program, Employee Assistance Program and more.

“Being part of the Blue Zones Project is an honor and a testament to our County’s hard work and dedication,” Maureen Mulheren, District 2 Supervisor added. “We look forward to continuing our efforts to create a healthier environment for all our employees.”

The County of Mendocino joins the growing list of organizations across the County that have embraced the Blue Zones Project to enhance the quality of life for their employees. As one of the largest employers, this designation is a significant step towards ensuring that Mendocino County remains a vibrant, healthy place to live, work, and play.

For more information about the Blue Zones Project and the County of Mendocino’s initiatives, please visit https://mendocinocounty.bluezonesproject.com/approved-worksites/

About Blue Zones Project

Blue Zones Project® is a community-led well-being improvement initiative designed to make healthy choices easier through permanent changes to a city’s environment, policy, and social networks. Established in 2010, Blue Zones Project is based on research by Dan Buettner, a National Geographic Fellow and New York Times bestselling author who identified five cultures of the world—or blue zones —with the highest concentration of people living to 100 years or older. The Project incorporates Buettner’s findings and works with cities to implement policies and programs that will move a community toward optimal health and well-being. In partnership with Sharecare, the model has since been applied to more than 75 communities across North America, impacting more than 5 million citizens. The population health solution includes Albert Lea, Minnesota; the city of Fort Worth, Texas; Corry, Pennsylvania; Brevard, North Carolina; Grand Forks, North Dakota; and communities in California, Iowa, Southwest Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin. For more information, visit https://bluezonesproject.com

About Blue Zones Project – Mendocino County

Blue Zones Project® is brought to Mendocino County through an innovative sponsorship with Adventist Health and Blue Zones, LLC. Adventist Health is a faith-based, nonprofit integrated health system serving more than 80 communities on the West Coast and Hawaii, as well as others across the U.S. through its Blue Zones® organization, a pioneer in taking a systemic and environmental approach to improving the health of entire cities and communities. Through this work and other initiatives, Adventist Health is leading a 21st century well-being transformation movement. For more information, visit https://mendocinocounty.bluezonesproject.com.

The County of Mendocino is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for its residents through a variety of health, wellness, and community-building initiatives. Located along California’s scenic North Coast, Mendocino County is known for its natural beauty, vibrant communities, and commitment to sustainability and well-being. For more information, visit https://www.mendocinocounty.gov/home.

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PLEASE OH PLEASE FENCE ME IN

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

Some friends recently returned from hiking the Appalachian Trail. Or maybe they’re leaving next week.

No matter. I’m not interested in details of planning the trip or stories of adventures encountered. The whole hiking, biking, nature, fitness, workout, aerobic nonsense is as foreign to me as 10th grade algebra.

Burdening my already creaky back with kilos of gear (sleeping bag, mattress, pots, pans, bug spray and a note from my mother) guarantees a 15-minute hike. First we eat lunch, then I go home.

A journey, on foot, mind you! of many miles through isolated forests and mountains, unarmed, where money will not keep you from getting lost, falling off a cliff or being eaten by flesh-eating snipe holds zero appeal for me.

What’s the point? What’s the draw? What’s the incentive? Why would anyone embark on a harrowing journey of pain and deprivation, much like the Westward Ho! caravans from hell our ancestors endured? Those creaky old Conestega wagons without shock absorbers or even air in the tires didn’t get loaded up and sent across the prairies because travelers wanted to inhale fresh, bracing mountain air or bathe in icy frozen streams in snow-covered Rockies.

But here you are, with all the comforts and luxuries of 21st century America, and you want to waddle from Georgia up to Canada so you can live life to the fullest? Follow your dream? Bucket List #17?

I might be swayed if there were vending machines every quarter mile and a nice saloon ‘round every bend. And I wouldn’t get too picky about housing as long as my door had a lock and I didn’t have to walk down some hallway to make potty. And room service too, please.

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UPDATE UKIAH: The Next Big Thing in appeasing our outdoor hike-bike-kayak-climb-taichi-jump-jog-die-of-cardiac-arrest-triathalunatic-crowd is the Great Rail Trail, yet another hoax to convince taxpayers there’s a lucrative future in abandoned railroad tracks. This new swindle is a bit of a switcheroo, because it’s free of trains, tracks, engines, cabooses, passengers or freight. The politicians have tried all those and every one of them has failed, so here we are with a cool new hiking path to the North Pole.

We know about their failed plans for a new Cloverdale Depot that, 40 years later, has yet to see its first train. We know about the various Smart Trains to ‘Frisco and back and then on to Eureka, and the Bullet Train that soaked up a billion or so dollars before the same politicians who demanded it be brought to life demanded it be put to sleep.

This is different. This is better. This is a pedestrian pathway to somewhere over the hillside and through the woods where you safely stroll along until A) you snap a tendon and realize it takes 72 hours for an ambulance to arrive, or B) you and a half dozen of your friends are accosted by a gang of Robin Hood-type thugs from Garberville who want your money and your life.

You sprint into the deep dark woods to escape. It takes four days to hack your way out, and that’s when you learn swarms of flesh-eating snipe ate your six friends.

And C) No vending machines.

Don’t worry. Over to the east, on the dark side of Alder Point, you see a warm, orange light slowly, gently caressing the mountains, and you realize a new day will dawn and you’ll soon be able to return to civilization. And then you realize it’s a west-bound wildfire that’s been roaring for two days and three hundred miles and is hell-bent for Hawaii.

Question: Did you bring sunglasses?

My friends, all this happy talk about a grand new project that will transform the coast and bring joy to citizens is just another cynical ruse. Ultimately the only beneficiary will be some well-connected Democrat angling for a lifetime position as the Rail Trail Czar in charge of guiding this dead-on-arrival project through to its abandonment.

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Recent History

Contrary to popular cliche there’s not much truth in the oft-repeated saying “Those who fail to learn from history are bound to repeat it.”

History does not repeat itself. But it does rhyme and echo.

Example:

Donald Trump had Stormy Daniels.

Willie Brown had Kamala Harris.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook for more history lessons and small engine repair tips!

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BUCK CLARK, LAST OF THE OLD-TIME LOGGERS

as told to Bruce Anderson

Slim Pickens, a rodeo caller who went on to fame as a movie actor, said that 1950 Boonville was the roughest place he’d ever called a rodeo in.

Buck Clark admits to having been an occasional participant in what he called “the fightin’ and the fussin’” of the county’s logging boom of the 1950s, but it never got in the way of a day’s work for him. Buck is gone now, but in his inimitable way, and in his own words, his life is partly a history of logging, partly the history of Mendocino County.

“I started workin’ when I was a kid near Monroe, Louisiana. I worked the swamps cuttin’ down trees for paper mills. I made 50 cents a day. I worked out in the swamp with water moccasins and alligators. Me and my brother fall a tree then we had to float it in and around all the other trees to get it to shore. Later on, we’d make rafts of trees and float ‘em down the river in big bunches. Most I ever made was $1.50 a day. Had a little ol’ boat that wouldn’t do but 5 miles per hour that I used to keep my rafts of logs from runnin’ up on the shore.

“1930 was a dry year. The water in the swamp was way down. One day we was workin’ fallin’ trees when we come up on a alligator. Well, that’s a place alligators hibernate and hatch their eggs. There was lots of ‘em down in this particular well. We took a can of carbide, put it on the end of a stick and stuck it down in the hole. This gator bit the can of carbide right off the end of the stick and a came up breathin’ carbide out of his mouth. I hit ‘em one right behind the gill and killed him. That alligator was 9 foot 11 inches. That thing looked like a sea monster a smokin’ pourin’ out of his mouth. There was days when we would see a hundred alligators while we was workin’. That 9-footer we gave to a family who cut it up and ate it. Taste just like beef steak. If I’d a known it was that good I’d a kept it and ate it myself.

“Times then was tougher than tough! We would do anything just to survive. We’d hunt swamp rabbits, birds — mostly those big breasted robins — and we fished. We’d sell the birds to people for a nickel a piece. Things got so tough we hunted birds with bean flips (sling shots) because we couldn’t afford shells for our rifles. I knew everything about that swamp. One time a rich man from somewhere out of state hired me to take him fishing. As we was paddlin’ down a little side stream I saw a little ‘ol water snake, harmless thing, hanging up in a tree. I steered right under it and it fell right on this man. He did a back flip right out of the boat. After that he said he never wanted to see another fish or fishing tackle or fishing pole in his life.

“I was born in Texas, near the Louisiana border. We moved on into Louisiana when I was a year old, a little place called Calhoun, Louisiana, near Monroe. I lived around in there until 1946 with some time out for the war. I cut logs for paper wood, logs for pilings, and floated logs to mills that were 45 miles away from where we cut ‘em. Had to learn the river and loggin’ both. I got here in ‘46. Came out here with the Brown brothers, Laster, Jay and Highpockets, whose real name was Boyce. We landed in Garberville. I fell my first redwood up there. Twelve foot on the stump. Used a drag saw that weighed about 200 pounds. Took me about six hours workin’ by myself.

“I was workin’ around and out of Garberville until ‘49. ‘49 was the worst year in the woods in California. No jobs anywhere. Finally, I heard of a job in Fort Ross, but after I was workin’ in the mill there for six weeks it burned down. A guy in Fort Ross told me there were 21 mills in Boonville. So me and my partner drove up Highway One, come over the road from Manchester. The road at that time was real bad. Pot holes took up most of some parts. I never seen so many people in such a little place as there was in Boonville then. People everywhere. At night in the bars crew bosses was buyin’ drinks and tryin’ to steal men for their crews, one another’s crews. People at the bars was six deep sometime, had to pass the drinks back. You could wear corks right in the bars. Man up near Garberville was stomped to death one night with corks so you couldn’t wear ‘em in bars anymore.

“In Boonville, I worked peelin’ logs. I set chokers. Worked up off the Manchester Road on what is now Mannix Road. Went to work for Hollow Tree in Ukiah before it was Masonite. Worked in mills. Quit the mills because I wanted to fall. My first day fallin’ I made $300 and they fired me. I got enough money to get my first chainsaw — a Mercury. That thing weighed about 200 pounds without the bar and the bar was seven feet long. Worked on the Masonite Road out of Ukiah then I went back to Boonville fallin’ for Blackie Lattin at Indian Creek Mill. I fell enough timber by myself to keep that mill goin’ steady for five years.

“My biggest day was 71,000 feet. The biggest tree I ever fell had 50,500 foot of lumber. I made $3,100 once for two weeks fallin’. They wanted me to scale back. At the time I was workin’ for Twink Charles. Twink told me, ‘You’re makin’ more money than me and I own the mill!’

“That big tree I was tellin’ you about was cut up off the Greenwood Road. Darndest tree I ever saw. It was bigger at the top than at the foot and it had huckleberry bushes growing out of it at the top. Never seen anything like it. Buster Farrer’s brother, George, was the scaler then. The logging boom was over by ‘55. Work got a little thinner each year after that.

“I’ve never missed a day of work in my life due to accidents or injuries. Got hit one time not too long ago by a big ol’ branch that knocked me out for a minute or so. I was smokin’ then and when I come to the ash was close to the mouth end of the cigarette. That’s about how long I was out. I seen lots of accidents in the woods. When all the mills was goin’ they was losin’ one or two men a week. I was workin’ the day Danny Huey got hit by a widow maker and fell on top of his chainsaw. He was real lucky he wasn’t killed that day.

“When I first got to Garberville you could buy redwood land for $4 a thousand foot. I worked for a while up in the Sierras, too. We had an old G.I. truck we could drive from job to job. Had everything in it. Freezer, too. Worked up around Chester and Quincy. Had a fight with the boss up there who just got out of the Army, and he bossed everyone like he was still in the Army. He come up on me one day and said, ‘Your log is too long.’ I never heard of a log bein’ too long. Me and him tangled up and fell to fightin’ in some blackberry bushes. The briars hurt worse that the fight! He came up the next day with a fifth of whiskey and tried to get me to stay workin’ with him.

“There was something like probably 2000 fallers because they wouldn’t let you single jack. Had to have two guys. Worked up around Piercy, out on the Elkhorn Road, everywhere around here. Never used a plumb bob, never will. Don’t need to. I just look at ‘em. Never been fooled yet. The only way you can get fooled by a tree is if the wind comes up on you.

“I started makin’ split stuff when I was a kid in Louisiana. I made railway ties. When I come out here I learned to make fencing, grape stakes, beams — all kind of split stuff up in Garberville. I used to get 3 and a half cents a grape stake, $37.50 a thousand. I made 1,100 7-foot stakes once in nine hours. I’ve sold split stuff to people as far away as Los Angeles. Now I get $4.50 a post for seven footers for fencing. I’ve made bean poles for the Gowans, redwood shakes for lots of houses around here. Most all the fencing you see at Navarro Vineyards I did. In the old days people wouldn’t take a sawed stake. The young guys don’t do much split stuff. Too much work for ‘em.

Buck points to a rusting vehicle that looks like an ancient oversized tow truck.

“This here machine will do darn near anything you ask it to do. It’ll buck logs, skin ‘em, skid ‘em, lift’em, winch ‘em, drag ‘em, loosen ‘em — all of it, whatever you do in the woods. I thought Ford Motor Company had stopped making them in 1938, but I was out on the beach at Navarro where I saw one working there that was built in ‘53. I bought this one from a midget. He’s about that high. He used to log out at Hollow Tree. The midget had blocks wired onto the pedals way out so he could drive it. Me and Kay Hiatt went over to the midget’s place in Ukiah and brought it back over here on the lowbed. That little sonofagun backed right on there. All it needs now to run is a new carburetor. I’m thinking about putting it into the parade this year. Mainly, they skidded logs with it.

“Out at Hollow Tree they skidded logs seven miles with it. They loaded shingle bolts with it, too. It’s got 400 feet of cable on it. Me and Rex made 1500 posts one winter with it. We hauled the post logs right out of Bear Wallow Creek with this thing. It’ll pull a big log. It’s geared real low, maybe it’ll go 12 miles per hour. Tops. One winter right up the road here in the park (Faulkner Park) they had some blow overs right over the camp part. We slid them sonofaguns right out of there. They’d gone over right into the camp ground. I hauled one of the blow overs to the Philo Saw Works. He sawed it right up for me. If I’m not mistaken, Steve Holmes drove this sonofagun over at Big River skidding logs. Put right on here and skid ‘em right out of the bush! Regular old Ford motor, four cylinders runnin’ since 1938. It’s got no generator on it. You got to use two batteries to start her up. Heck, I need one battery to start myself up in the morning! 12 volts to start it up. The 6 keeps it going. This here windshield looks like it come off a car. She’s something else, little bits of her from all over the place. Right now there might be some water in the dad-gummed gas tank. It’ll run a little bit then go dead. I’m going to get underneath there and get it fixed up one day soon. I loaded a 28-foot log on my old green pick-up one time. Bob Mathias has a picture of it down in his office. That thing there will pick up a helluva load.

“Bob Trotter had her going one day. I looked around and this old sonofagun was standing nearly straight up! It’ll work! It’ll go right up anybody’s hill. You could use it as a tow truck if you wanted to. See that swivel up there? It’ll go thataway, thataway, thataway, thataway. I got chains for it. They fit right over both sets of back tires. You can work this thing in all kinda mud. I’m fixin’ to crank it up. I could use it at this place I’m working. You can take this machine, put you a block on a tree that gives you lots more power. I broke about ten feet of line off that cable one time hauling a log out with this thing. I like to skid up hill. Down hill is no good. Logs get hung up too easy. It’s a good machine. Built to last.”

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, September 29, 2024

QUORTNEY BRAZIER, 30, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs.

DARRIN DOWNUM, 58, Lathrop/Ukiah. Baiting game birds and mammals, unlawful trapping.

DANIELLE FONTAINE, 40, Mendocino. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, domestic violence court order violation.

MARK HABBESTAD, 58, Valley Springs/Ukiah. Baiting game birds and mammals.

GEORGE MAVRAKIS, 47, Cloverdale/Ukiah. Domestic battery.

BOGDAN MAYSTRYSHIN, 49, Carmichael/Ukiah. DUI.

JOHN MORSE, 59, Ukiah. Felon-addict with firearm.

LUIS ORTIZ, 37, Ukiah. Controlled substance without prescription, paraphernalia, mandatory supervision violation.

CYNTHIA PHILLIBER, 33, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

BRETT ROBBINS, 25, Willits. DUI.

ALEXANDER RODRIGUEZ, 26. Willits. DUI.

KIMBERLEE THOMPSON, 40, Ukiah. Controlled substance, vandalism, disorderly conduct-alcohol.

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STEVE HEILIG: Spotted by friends passing thru [Garberville]; apparently he walks around like this every day. They report:

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The last eggs I bought were $3.52/dozen. They were the cheapest ones at Winco. I don’t have a record of egg prices, but that seems pretty high to me. My grocery bills these days make my jaw drop. Adding insult to injury is the prevalence of shrinkflation. The last time I splurged on Hagen-daz ice cream I noticed that the container was 14 ounces and no longer a pint (12.5% less). The Winco store brand TP we use went from 286 sheets/roll to 242 (down more than 15%). Anyone else feel like their essential bills are up more than the statistical inflation rate?

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THE GOLDEN AGE

Editor:

I’m old enough to remember being part of CBS News, then the crown jewel of broadcast journalism. Back in the 1960s and 70s, when facts mattered, there were laws. Each of the three major networks was limited to six TV stations in the major markets, and only if they didn’t own a newspaper in the same market. The networks were required to air a finite percentage of public programming, and if they did not, they could lose the cash cow local stations. The threat was real; it happened.

The result was a golden age of television journalism. Words like facts and truth meant something, and for decades, the public was served by some of America’s best journalists and documentary filmmakers. As Peter Coyote wrote in a letter to the Chronicle recently, the airwaves belonged to the public, and the business of news was a serious business for all three networks. They competed for talent and stories, and when you tuned in you were rewarded with facts and went to bed a more informed citizen.

Ah, dear reader, such was the past. Today, after watching a stream of overcaffeinated, overopinionated and overpaid celebrities hype the day’s events, I, for one, am afraid of going to sleep.

Robert Markowitz

Healdsburg

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KRIS KRISTOFFERSON, SINGER-SONGWRITER AND ACTOR, DIES AT 88

by Andrew Dalton And Kristin M. Hall

Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and an A-list Hollywood actor, has died.

Kristofferson died at his home on Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday, family spokeswoman Ebie McFarland said in an email. He was 88.

McFarland said Kristofferson died peacefully, surrounded by his family. No cause was given.

Starting in the late 1960s, the Brownsville, Texas native wrote such country and rock ‘n’ roll standards as “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” “Help Me Make it Through the Night,” “For the Good Times” and “Me and Bobby McGee.” Kristofferson was a singer himself, but many of his songs were best known as performed by others, whether Ray Price crooning “For the Good Times” or Janis Joplin belting out “Me and Bobby McGee.”

He starred opposite Ellen Burstyn in director Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” starred opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1976 “A Star Is Born,” and acted alongside Wesley Snipes in Marvel’s “Blade” in 1998.

Kristofferson, who could recite William Blake from memory, wove intricate folk music lyrics about loneliness and tender romance into popular country music. With his long hair and bell-bottomed slacks and counterculture songs influenced by Bob Dylan, he represented a new breed of country songwriters along with such peers as Willie Nelson, John Prine and Tom T. Hall.

“There’s no better songwriter alive than Kris Kristofferson,” Nelson said at a 2009 BMI award ceremony for Kristofferson. “Everything he writes is a standard and we’re all just going to have to live with that.”

Kristofferson retired from performing and recording in 2021, making only occasional guest appearances on stage, including a performance with Cash’s daughter Rosanne at Nelson’s 90th birthday celebration at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in 2023. The two sang “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again),” a song that was a hit for Kristofferson and a longtime live staple for Nelson, another great interpreter of his work.

Nelson and Kristofferson would join forces with Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings to create the country supergroup “The Highwaymen” starting in the mid-1980s.

Kristofferson was a Golden Gloves boxer, rugby star and football player in college; received a master’s degree in English from Merton College at the University of Oxford in England; and flew helicopters as a captain in the U.S. Army but turned down an appointment to teach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, to pursue songwriting in Nashville. Hoping to break into the industry, he worked as a part-time janitor at Columbia Records’ Music Row studio in 1966 when Dylan recorded tracks for the seminal “Blonde on Blonde” double album.

At times, the legend of Kristofferson was larger than real life. Cash liked to tell a mostly exaggerated story of how Kristofferson landed a helicopter on Cash’s lawn to give him a tape of “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” with a beer in one hand. Over the years in interviews, Kristofferson said with all respect to Cash, while he did land a helicopter at Cash’s house, the Man in Black wasn’t even home at the time, the demo tape was a song that no one ever actually cut and he certainly couldn’t fly a helicopter holding a beer.

In a 2006 interview with The Associated Press, he said he might not have had a career without Cash.

“Shaking his hand when I was still in the Army backstage at the Grand Ole Opry was the moment I’d decided I’d come back,” Kristofferson said. “It was electric. He kind of took me under his wing before he cut any of my songs. He cut my first record that was record of the year. He put me on stage the first time.”

One of his most recorded songs, “Me and Bobby McGee,” was written based on a recommendation from Monument Records founder Fred Foster. Foster had a song title in his head called “Me and Bobby McKee,” named after a female secretary in his building. Kristofferson said in an interview in the magazine, “Performing Songwriter,” that he was inspired to write the lyrics about a man and woman on the road together after watching the Frederico Fellini film, “La Strada.”

Joplin, who had a close relationship with Kristofferson, changed the lyrics to make Bobby McGee a man and cut her version just days before she died in 1970 from a drug overdose. The recording became a posthumous No. 1 hit for Joplin.

Hits that Kristofferson recorded include “Watch Closely Now,” “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” “A Song I’d Like to Sing” and “Jesus Was a Capricorn.”

In 1973, he married fellow songwriter Rita Coolidge and together they had a successful duet career that earned them two Grammy awards. They divorced in 1980.

The formation of the Highwaymen, with Nelson, Cash and Jennings, was another pivotal point in his career as a performer.

“I think I was different from the other guys in that I came in it as a fan of all of them,” Kristofferson told the AP in 2005. “I had a respect for them when I was still in the Army. When I went to Nashville they were like major heroes of mine because they were people who took the music seriously. To be not only recorded by them but to be friends with them and to work side by side was just a little unreal. It was like seeing your face on Mount Rushmore.”

The group put out just three albums between 1985 and 1995. Jennings died in 2002 and Cash died a year later. Kristofferson said in 2005 that there was some talk about reforming the group with other artists, such as George Jones or Hank Williams Jr., but Kristofferson said it wouldn’t have been the same.

“When I look back now — I know I hear Willie say it was the best time of his life,” Kristofferson said in 2005. “For me, I wish I was more aware how short of a time it would be. It was several years, but it was still like the blink of an eye. I wish I would have cherished each moment.”

Among the four, only Nelson is now alive.

Kristofferson’s sharp-tongued political lyrics sometimes hurt his popularity, especially in the late 1980s. His 1989 album, “Third World Warrior” was focused on Central America and what United States policy had wrought there, but critics and fans weren’t excited about the overtly political songs.

He said during a 1995 interview with the AP he remembered a woman complaining about one of the songs that began with killing babies in the name of freedom.

“And I said, ‘Well, what made you mad — the fact that I was saying it or the fact that we’re doing it? To me, they were getting mad at me ’cause I was telling them what was going on.”

As the son of an Air Force General, he enlisted in the Army in the 1960s because it was expected of him.

“I was in ROTC in college, and it was just taken for granted in my family that I’d do my service,” he said in a 2006 AP interview. “From my background and the generation I came up in, honor and serving your country were just taken for granted. So, later, when you come to question some of the things being done in your name, it was particularly painful.”

Hollywood may have saved his music career. He still got exposure through his film and television appearances even when he couldn’t afford to tour with a full band.

Kristofferson’s first role was in Dennis Hopper’s “The Last Movie,” in 1971.

He had a fondness for Westerns, and would use his gravelly voice to play attractive, stoic leading men. He was Burstyn’s ruggedly handsome love interest in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and a tragic rock star in a rocky relationship with Streisand in “A Star Is Born,” a role echoed by Bradley Cooper in the 2018 remake.

He was the young title outlaw in director Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,” a truck driver for the same director in 1978’s “Convoy,” and a corrupt sheriff in director John Sayles’ 1996, “Lone Star.” He also starred in one of Hollywood biggest financial flops, “Heaven’s Gate,” a 1980 Western that ran tens of millions of dollars over budget.

And in a rare appearance in a superhero movie, he played the mentor of Snipes’ vampire hunter in “Blade.”

He described in a 2006 AP interview how he got his first acting gigs when he performed in Los Angeles.

“It just happened that my first professional gig was at the Troubadour in L.A. opening for Linda Rondstadt,” Kristofferson said. “Robert Hilburn (Los Angeles Times music critic) wrote a fantastic review and the concert was held over for a week,” Kristofferson said. “There were a bunch of movie people coming in there, and I started getting film offers with no experience. Of course, I had no experience performing either.”

(AP)

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MENDOCINO COUNTY TIES—Kris Kristofferson owned a beautiful oceanfront property at Elk on the southern Mendocino Coast for four decades. It went up for sale last year for $17 million. For a long time, Kristofferson was with Rita Coolidge, a fine singer/songwriter who was the daughter of a church pastor and grew up in Comptche, another Mendocino County hamlet.

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49ERS GAME GRADES:

Some issues persist as 2-2 Niners overwhelm Patriots

by Michael Lerseth

Offense: B

Officially, Brock Purdy rushed for 11 yards on five carries. Unofficially it might have been closer to 100 as he went full Fran Tarkenton behind a leaky offensive line that had him scrambling far too many times. Purdy finished completing 15 of 27 for 288 yards with a TD, an INT and only one sack. Brandon Aiyuk remains all but invisible with another game with fewer than 50 receiving yards. Jordan Mason (24 carries, 123 yards, TD) put up his third 100-yard game of the season.

Defense: A

Dominant with a dash of concern. Fred Warner had a first-half pick-six, but then suffered an injury just before halftime and didn’t return. The 49ers had allowed the Patriots' NFL-worst offense only 167 total yards before New England uncorked a 50-yard pass play with 4 minutes to go. No worries, though, as Nick Bosa ended that drive with a trifecta: sack, forced fumble, recovered fumble. Kevin Givens had 2.5 and Maliek Collins 1.5 of the 49ers’ six sacks.

Special Teams: C

This remains the most troublesome aspect of the 49ers. Most glaring Sunday was Isaac Guerendo fumbling away the second-half kickoff. The 49ers were concerned enough that when Jacob Cowing was knocked out of the game, they turned instead to fullback Kyle Juszczyk to make his first career punt return (he picked up 8 yards). On the bright side, Jake Moody was 3-for-3 on field goals and made all three extra points. Mitch Wishnowksy averaged 44.3 yards on his three punts.

Coaching: B

This could be a very busy week for offensive line coach Chris Foerster. The law of averages for Purdy are not good if he’s going to have to continue to run for his life like he did Sunday — and against the NFL’s 19th-ranked defense to boot. And what can Kyle Shanahan do about Aiyuk? He was targeted five times and made just two catches.

Overall: B

The 49ers put their consecutive losses behind them, but be aware they did so against one of the NFL’s junior varsity teams. Exhibit A: They scored three times on one second-quarter drive against a team seemingly unable to stop them (the first two TDs were negated by penalties). Important to keep an eye on are the injuries to Warner and George Kittle. San Francisco can hardly afford to lose another All-Pro or two as the schedule takes a turn toward the difficult.

(SF Chronicle)

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A TINY TRIBE IS GETTING PUSHBACK FOR BETTING BIG ON A $600M CASINO IN CALIFORNIA'S WINE COUNTRY

by Olgar Rodriguez

For decades a small, landless tribe in Northern California has been on a mission to get land, open a casino and tap into the gaming market enjoyed by so many other tribes that earn millions of dollars annually.

The Koi Nation's chances of owning a Las Vegas-style casino seemed impossible until a federal court ruling in 2019 cleared the way for the tiny tribe to find a financial partner to buy land and place it into a trust to make it eligible for a casino.

Now the tribe of 96 members has teamed up with the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, which owns the biggest casino in the world, and is waiting for U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to decide whether the 68-acre (27-hectare) parcel the tribe bought for $12.3 million in Sonoma County in 2021 is put into trust.

Placing the land into trust would allow the Koi to move closer to building a $600 million casino and resort on prime real estate in the heart of Northern California’s wine country.

The decision comes as the U.S. government tries to atone for its history of dispossessing Indigenous people of their land, in part through a federal legal process that goes beyond reinstating ancestral lands and allows a tribe to put land under trust if it can prove “a significant historical connection to the land.”

The Koi Nation, a Southeastern Pomo tribe whose ancestors lived in Northern California for thousands of years, faces mounting opposition from other tribes and even California Gov. Gavin Newsom over its plans for the Shiloh Resort and Casino, which would include a 2,500-slot machine casino and 400-room hotel with spa and pool.

If approved, the casino would be built near Windsor, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) north of San Francisco, near two other Native American casinos a few miles away: Graton Resort and Casino in Rohnert Park and River Rock Casino in Geyserville.

The money generated would allow tribal members a better life in one of the country's most expensive regions, including educational opportunities for young tribe members, said Dino Beltran, Vice Chairman of the Koi Nation’s Tribal Council.

“It has taken us years to be on the same playing field as every other tribe in the United States and now the same tribes that have established themselves are against us. It’s a very sad thing,” Beltran said.

Among the most vocal critics of the Koi Nation’s project is Greg Sarris, chairman of Graton Rancheria, a federation of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo people with more than 1,500 members. The tribe's casino is the biggest in the Bay Area and is undergoing a $1 billion expansion.

Sarris, who last year was appointed by Newsom to the University of California Board of Regents, said the Koi Nation are Southeastern Pomo people whose ancestral home is in Lake County, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of the project site.

The tribe, Sarris said, is not linguistically, culturally or historically connected to Sonoma County and he accused the tribe of cherry-picking land that already draws tourists.

“They are claiming that part of their deep historical connection is they had a family member in the early 20th century who lived in Sonoma County,” Sarris scoffed.

The Indian Gaming Regulation Act, enacted by Congress in 1988, sets rules for how and where Native American tribes can operate casinos, and generally limits them to ancestral lands that have been returned to the tribe.

But the law also makes a “restored lands” exception for federally recognized tribes that do not have a reservation — or rancheria, as they are called in California — to build a casino outside their ancestral land if the tribe can show historical and modern connections to the area where the gambling facility will be located. The land also has to be near where a significant number of tribal members reside.

“Generally speaking, tribes cannot game on any land that is taken into trust after 1988 but there are important exceptions to that general prohibition that are meant to be fair to tribes that did not have land in 1988,” said Kathryn Rand, an expert on tribal gaming law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’s International Center for Gaming Regulation.

Before white colonizers arrived in California, Koi Nation’s ancestors lived on an island in Lake County and traded with other tribes in Northern California, according to the tribe’s website.

In 1916, the U.S. government approved land in Lake County for Koi Nation's rancheria about 28 miles (45 kilometers) north of the proposed casino site. The land was eventually declared uninhabitable by the Bureau of Indian Affairs because of its rocky terrain and many Koi families moved south to neighboring Sonoma County, mainly to Sebastopol and Santa Rosa, where the tribe is now headquartered.

Four decades later, the federal government took that land and sold it for an airport, leaving the tribe landless. After a lengthy court battle, a federal judge in 2019 ruled the Koi Nation had the right to pursue buying land for a casino.

Michael Anderson, a Koi Nation attorney, said a historic trail used by the tribe from the Clear Lake basin to Bodega Bay, on Sonoma County’s Pacific Coast, runs through a portion of the property, which supports the legal requirement of having a “significant historical connection to the land.”

Anderson said their legal case is strong. But, “the politics is a whole different thing,” he added.

Sarris, whose casino gives millions to small, non-gaming tribes and has become a major donor to California politicians, said the Koi Nation has previously tried to get land under trust to open a casino in Solano and Alameda Counties — both in the San Francisco Bay Area — and accused the tribe of “reservation shopping.”

Anderson said the term was offensive and Sarris is simply trying to protect his lucrative casino from competition.

“This is about market protection, that’s the heart of it,” Anderson said.

Newsom and local politicians also oppose the project along with the Dry Creek Band of Pomo Indians, which operates River Rock Casino.

Newsom’s office sent a letter last month to Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Bryan Newland urging him not to move forward with the Shiloh casino project and another proposed casino in the Bay Area, saying the governor is concerned the department is not considering other sites for the casinos and approving them would “stretch the limits of the ‘restored lands’ exception.”

The department is weighing three other land trust applications under the “restored lands” exception, including one by the Scotts Valley Tribe that wants to build a casino in Solano County. In Oregon, the Coquille Indian Tribe wants to open a casino in Medford, about 170 miles (273 kilometers) south of its tribal headquarters and closer to the California border.

Casino-owning tribes are pushing back on both. The Guidiville Rancheria tribe in Northern California has applied but has not yet identified land for their project, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Haaland will consider several factors in making her decision, including opposition to the casinos, said Steve Light, an expert on tribal gaming policy at the UNLV International Center for Gaming Regulation.

But the secretary also will take into account whether the casino will help with “tribal self-determination, tribal self-governance, and tribal economic development, job creation and resources for the tribe,” he said.

Of the 574 federally recognized tribes, 110 are in California. According to the American Gaming Association, there are 87 tribal casinos in the state, making California the largest tribal gaming market in the country.

“With 40 million people in California, this is presumably still an untapped market, but one that is increasingly competitive,” Light said.

(AP)

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MONDAY'S LEAD STORIES, NYT

Israel said on Monday that it had killed a Hamas leader in Lebanon in an airstrike in the southern part of the country, as military officials said that commando units had made brief incursions into Lebanese territory in preparation for the possibility of a wider invasion targeting Hezbollah.

Israel Strikes Multiple Fronts, Including Long-Distance Attack on Yemen,

In North Carolina, Remnants of Helene Become an ‘Unprecedented Tragedy,’ 

Republicans Criticize Trump Over His Insults of Harris

California Governor Vetoes Sweeping A.I. Legislation

Kris Kristofferson, Country Singer, Songwriter and Actor, Dies at 88

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MY SPEECH IN WASHINGTON: “RESCUE THE REPUBLIC”

by Matt Taibbi

I was once taught you should always open an important speech by making reference to a shared experience.

So what do all of us at “Rescue the Republic” have in common? Nothing! In a pre-Trump universe chimpanzees would be typing their fourth copy of Hamlet before RFK Jr., Robert Malone, Zuby, Tulsi Gabbard, Russell Brand, Bret Weinstein and I would organically get together for any reason, much less an event like this.

True, everyone speaking has been censored. The issues were all different, but everyone disagreed with “authoritative voices” about something. Saying no is very American. From “Don’t Tread on Me!” to “Nuts” to “You Cannot Be Serious!” defiance is in our DNA.

Now disagreement is seen as threat, and according to John Kerry, must be “hammered out of existence.” The former Presidential candidate just complained at a World Economic Forum meeting that “it’s really hard to govern” and “our First Amendment stands as a major block” to the important work of hammering out unhealthy choices.

In the open he said this! I was telling Tim Pool about this backstage and he asked, “Was black ooze coming out of his mouth?”

Kerry added that it’s “really hard to build consensus,” and told Forum members they need to “win the right to govern” and “be free to implement change.”

What do they need to be free of? The First Amendment, yes, but more importantly: us. Complainers. That’s our shared experience. We are obstacles to consensus.

My name is Matt Taibbi. I’ve been a reporter for 35 years, covering everything from Pentagon accounting to securities fraud to drone warfare.

My son a few years ago asked what I do. I said, “Daddy writes about things that are so horrible they’re interesting.”

Two years ago, I was invited by Elon Musk to look at internal correspondence at Twitter. This led to stories called the Twitter Files whose main revelation was a broad government effort to suppress speech.

I was invited to talk about risks to the First Amendment, but to spare the suspense: that battle is lost. State censorship is a fact in most of the West. In February our European allies began observing the Digital Services Act, which requires Internet platforms to enforce judgments of state-appointed content reviewers called “trusted flaggers.”

Everything we found in the Twitter Files fits in a sentence: an alphabet soup of enforcement agencies informally is already doing pretty much the same thing as Europe’s draconian new law.

Now, is it against the law when a White House official calls Facebook and asks to ban a journalist for writing that the Covid vaccine “doesn’t stop infection or transmission”? I think hell yes. It certainly violates the spirit of the First Amendment, even if judges are found to say it keeps to the letter.

But this is post-9/11 America. Whether about surveillance or torture or habeas corpus or secret prisons or rendition or any of a dozen other things, We ignore laws. Institutional impunity is the chief characteristic of our current form of government.

We have concepts like “illegal but necessary”: the government may torture, the public obviously can’t. The state may intercept phone calls, you can’t. The state may search without warrants, assassinate, snatch geolocations from your phones, any of a hundred things officially prohibited, but allowed. This concept requires that officials have special permission to ignore laws.

Ten years ago, we were caught spying on three different French presidents as well as companies like BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Peugeot, Renault, and Total. Barack Obama called the French to apologize, but did we stop? We did indict the person who released the news, Julian Assange. Congratulations to Julian on getting out, by the way. And shame on every journalist who did not call for his release.

We ignore laws. It’s what America does. With this in mind, our government has moved past censorship to the larger project of changing the American personality. They want a more obedient, timorous, fearful citizen. Their tool is the Internet, a vast machine for doling out reward and punishment through likes and views, shaming or deamplification. The mechanics are complicated but the core concept is simple: you’re upranked for accepting authority, downranked for questioning it, with questions of any kind increasingly viewed as a form of disinformation.…

https://www.racket.news/p/my-speech-in-washington-rescue-the

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DONALD TRUMP’S BRAND may be about winning, but his coalition is strictly about the losers whom Barack Obama’s Democratic Party openly disdains. They may hope for their reward in the world to come, but here on earth they are plainly as helpless in the face of the Party’s whole-of-society juggernaut as the miners of the Anaconda Copper Mine in Butte were in the face of George Hearst. Maybe the Mormons will find their way through, by keeping their heads down and continuing to have children. Or maybe not.

I don’t disdain any of these people, God knows. At the same time, I think it’s fine for the George Hearsts of the world to take all the money, because that’s what ruling classes do in every time and place; the alternative being for the government to run society instead, and seize the means of production on behalf of the people or the volk, before launching the inevitable campaign to purify the revolution before establishing a final utopia.

What I don’t understand is why it seems necessary for the winners to grind the losers’ faces in the dirt. It’s ugly. None of these people’s ancestors owned slaves. They’re not haters. In a decent country, they would be left alone to care for the land and celebrate their feast days and drive their trucks instead of watching helplessly as their children are poisoned by fentanyl and bad food and plastics in the water.

Where does the impulse to hurt these people come from? The dream of creating a Moloch in the form of a giant calculating machine that will determine the true path of justice is hardly new. The great Russian novelist Eugene Zamyatin identified it in the 1920s as the dream that animated the Soviet communist party and its romance with engineering, which he satirized in his remarkably prescient science-fiction novel We, in which an omniscient computer floats over a glass city in a giant blimp.

While Orwell and Huxley all predicted and identified key features of the worst nightmares of the 20th century, it was Zamyatin who foresaw the actual future that we inhabit today. He knew that the machines were just another device by which humans pursue their own fantasies of control, greed, lust and deceit. George Hearst never tried to control what was inside anyone’s else mind. He simply wanted whatever was in their pocket.

— David Samuels, ‘County Highway’

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“SO FAR AS I CAN SEE, nothing good in the world has ever been done by well-rounded people. The good work is done by people with jagged, broken edges, because those edges cut things and leave an imprint, a design.”

― Harry Crews

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YOGI BERRA'S TOP 35 QUOTES:

1. “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
2. “It’s deja vu all over again.”
3. “I usually take a two-hour nap from 1 to 4.”
4. “Never answer an anonymous letter.”
5. “We made too many wrong mistakes.”
6. “You can observe a lot by watching.”
7. “The future ain’t what it used to be.”
8. “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”
9. “It gets late early out here.”
10. “If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.”
11. “Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical.”
12. “Pair up in threes.”
13. “Why buy good luggage? You only use it when you travel.”
14. “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
15. “All pitchers are liars or crybabies.”
16. “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”
17. “Bill Dickey is learning me his experience.”
18. “He hits from both sides of the plate. He’s amphibious.”
19. “I always thought that record would stand until it was broken.”
20. “I can see how he (Sandy Koufax) won 25 games. What I don’t understand is how he lost five.”
21. “I don’t know (if they were men or women fans running naked across the field). They had bags over their heads.”
22. “I’m a lucky guy and I’m happy to be with the Yankees. And I want to thank everyone for making this night necessary.”
23. “I’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.”
24. “In baseball, you don’t know nothing.”
25. “I never blame myself when I’m not hitting. I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn’t my fault that I’m not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?”
26. “I never said most of the things I said.”
27. “It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility.”
28. “I think Little League is wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house.”
29. “I wish everybody had the drive he (Joe DiMaggio) had. He never did anything wrong on the field. I’d never seen him dive for a ball, everything was a chest-high catch, and he never walked off the field.”
30. “So I’m ugly. I never saw anyone hit with his face.”
31. “Take it with a grin of salt.”
32. (On the 1973 Mets) “We were overwhelming underdogs.”
33. “The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase.”
34. “You should always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise, they won’t come to yours.”
35. “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

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KLUGE & THE COMET: ACTUARIAL ART IN SPACE

by David Yearsley

Johann Sebastian Bach’s church cantata, Liebster Gott, wann werd ich sterben (Dearest God, when will I die?), BWV 8, was first performed on Sunday, September 24th—300 years ago this Wednesday.

Strains of the opening chorus of Bach’s (im)mortal work provide the soundtrack for a short film called Das Galaktische Jahr (The Galactic Year) collected in Cornell University’s digital archive holding just some of the vast output of Alexander Kluge, a cultural figure whose myriad contributions are not even adequately captured by the true statement that he counts as one of Germany’s greatest living authors, filmmakers, and intellectuals. At ninety-two, Kluge’s productivity and brilliance continue to shine like the sun seen sweeping through the Milky Way in gleefully naïve AI-generated animation at the outset of the “The Galactic Year,” one of the many short videos that make up his 90-minute Cosmic Miniatures, which premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam earlier this year.

It could be said of Kluge and Bach that, in their respective centuries, both answer the immediate demands of production (in the composer’s case cranking out a cantata almost every Sunday in the liturgical year), while also pursuing a longer artistic mission whose findings extend far beyond a single human lifetime. In his quirky and often comic film, Kluge finds gorillas singing on Uranus, sends dogs into space, and puts Jacobins in a balloon on the way to revolutionize the moon.

At the start of “The Galactic Year,” we see a close-up of our sun and its planets orbiting through the Milky Way. Rough-and-ready intertitles with garish colors, goofy fonts and skewed orientations intermittently appear, their design concocted by computer. The first written announcement informs us that our solar system will take some 250 million years to complete one cycle around the galaxy’s core. Another intertitle tells us that astronomers call this lap a “revolution.” That word echoes through the other films, Kluge archly implying that the cosmos are inherently subversive: things get upended even if there is no up or down.

Looking down on — or is it up? — at the heavens, Kluge observes in one of his intertitles that the dinosaurs saw the center of the galaxy from the opposite side of where we are now. The head of a snake-like beast with gleaming green eyes emerges from the celestial soup to stare at us from across time and space to the accompaniment of Bach’s chorus.

Kluge’s computer-aided camera doesn’t zoom in closely enough on our patch of space to catch sight of either of the two Voyager Spacecraft that were launched from Earth in September of 1977. Voyager 1 departed our solar system in 2012 and is currently about 24 billion kilometers away and the human-made object farthest from earth. Voyager 2 lost contact for a couple of weeks in 2023 but is now, like Voyager 1, connected again through NASA’s Deep Space Network. Although neither Voyager is navigating towards any particular star, one of the spacecraft will pass within 1.6 light-years of the star Gliese 445, currently in the constellation Camelopardalis, in about 40,000 years. That’s just under a galactic week from now.

Both spacecraft carry identical Golden Records meant to demonstrate, if discovered and played, something of the diversity of terrestrial sounds and cultures. A salutation from United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim is followed by greetings in 55 human languages. Then come other animal sounds, including whale song and human music. The latter has been claimed as a universal language. The Voyager spacecrafts put that assertion to the test by sending musical recordings out into the universe. Over their journeys so far, the discs have been silent, but both include instructions on how to get them to sound should they be intercepted, the assumption being that the interceptors will be intelligent enough to decipher the schematics etched into the records’ surface.

The musical offerings of the Golden Record begin on track 5 with the first movement of Brandenburg Concerto no. 2 by Bach. Of the remaining 26 musical tracks, two more pieces are also by him. Beethoven has two; Chuck Berry and the Mahi musicians of Benin, one each; Handel zero. The NASA committee charged with selecting the repertoire was chaired by Carl Sagan, a Cornell Professor of Astronomy who also hosted the popular public television show of the 1970s, Cosmos.

Given that Bach’s music without words is hurtling through intergalactic space, I was delighted to hear a Bach vocal work on “The Galactic Year” — a period of time that amounts to some 250 million terrestrial years, Mr. Kluge tells us in the film.

In Bach’s chorus, various groups of instruments fit together like the gears of an astrolabe. Fluting puffs of the recorder tick out the seconds, marking the ebbing duration of human life, each one determined by God: “Meine Zeit läuft immer hin,” (my time runs away) the lyric intones in its second line. These are the first words we hear in the soundtrack of “The Galactic Year,” since Kluge picks up the music not at its launch but in the midst of its flight path. The dinosaurs were not in church that Sunday in September of 1724 in Leipzig.

The cantata’s poetry was written around 1690 by the Lutheran clergyman Caspar Neumann. Before Neumann became a pastor he had studied as a pharmacist and married a physician’s daughter. He first took up a preacher’s post in Altenburg, now famous for its fully extant organ dedicated by Bach, perhaps even designed by him. Neumann later returned to his native Breslau to become one of the city’s leading clerics, as well as the inspector of schools, and a professor of theology.

As we hear in this cantata, Neumann dedicated much of his poetical energy to the subject of death, his lyrics informed by his rigorous study of mortality rates in Breslau between 1687-1691, during which time he also composed the sacred text later set by Bach. Neumann sent his findings first to Leibniz, who posted the researcher’s tables on births and deaths to the Royal Society in London. They were then handed over to the astronomer and mathematician Edmond Halley who, in 1685, the year of J. S. Bach’s birth, had taken over the duties of Robert Hooke as editor of the society’s journal, The Philosophical Transactions. The letters exchanged between Neumann and Halley were rediscovered in the nineteenth century.

Halley published his work based on Neumann’s statistical research in the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1693 under the title, “An estimate of the degree of the Mortality of Mankind, drawn from curious Tables of the Births and Funerals of the City of Breslaw; with an attempt to ascertain the price of Annuities upon Lives.” A seminal work of actuarial science, the article counts as the first monetary valuation of human life.

A dozen years later in his Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets of 1705, Halley would calculate the periodicity of the heavenly body now named after him. His predictions were confirmed by the comet’s return in 1758, by which time Halley had been dead for sixteen years.

Bach’s musical research based on Neumann’s work contemplates the ticking away of earthly time even while conjuring timeless eternity. Kluge’s film revels in the arbitrariness of time by sending this cosmic, chronological cantata into orbit in and around the imagination.

Bach’s “Liebster Gott, wann werd ich sterben” was born 300 years ago; Kluge is 92. Neither span amounts to even a nanosecond on the galactic clock. Yet with its inexorable, wondrously weightless metric progress, Bach’s cantata both calibrates earthly time and conjures timeless eternity.

What are the chances that the musico-actuarial spacecraft BWV 8, built by Johann Sebastian Bach and Caspar Neumann and launched into space in “The Galactic Year” will come within a parsec or two, or perhaps even collide with, Halley’s Comet, then wormhole its way into a trajectory alongside Voyager 1 as it transports wordless Bach works through interstellar space? Inspired by the imaginings of Alexander Kluge, I like to think that the likelihood is a lot higher than zero.

(David Yearsley is a long-time contributor to CounterPunch and the Anderson Valley Advertiser. His latest book is Sex, Death, and Minuets: Anna Magdalena Bach and Her Musical Notebooks. He can be reached at dgyearsley@gmail.com.)

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