Mendocino County Today: Thursday 10/3/2024

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YESTERDAY'S HIGHS: Ukiah 106°, Boonville 104°, Yorkville 103°, Laytonville 101°, Covelo 100°, Fort Bragg 65°, Point Arena 62°

HIGH TEMPERATURES will continue to remain above average, but will begin to gradually trend closer to average by early next week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Clear skies & 47F this Thursday morning on the coast. More of the same well into next week it looks like. The fog is way down south but the satellite in motion shows it moving north, it will get here soon enough.

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MCHCD – AH RESTRUCTURING LEASE AGREEMENT… OR ELSE!

by Malcolm Macdonald

The Mendocino Coast Health Care District (MCHCD) held a special board of directors meeting on October 1st. After roll call Chair Paul Garza read the following statement, “On September 30, 2024 the Mendocino Coast Health Care District received notification from Adventist Health that based on Section 19.11 in the Lease Agreement between Adventist Health and MCHCD they would like to renegotiate the terms of the lease. The MCHCD Board of Directors will review the Restructure Notice and explore every possible option to continue to provide access to healthcare services to residents on the Coast. We will keep the public apprised of the situation as we know more.”

The basic background: Since July 1, 2020 Adventist Health (AH) has run the day to day operations of the coast hospital in Fort Bragg. AH has taken in all profits and incurred the losses from those medical practice operations. The healthcare district still owns the buildings and property where the hospital rests. Hence, a landlord – lease arrangement between MCHCD and AH.

Unfortunately, the statement read by MCHCD Board Chair Garza did not touch on the full notification from Adventist Health's Northern California Network President, Eric Stevens. Stevens' September 30, 2024 letter was addressed to the Mendocino Coast Health Care District, Attn. Paul Garza, Board Chair:

“This letter is a follow up to our discussions on September 26, 2024, wherein we discussed what the best path forward would be to allow us time to evaluate our relationship under the Lease and the implications those discussions may have on the TBOA [Transfer of Business Operations]. We tentatively agreed to Adventist Health Mendocino Coast (“AHMC”) providing a Restructure Notice under Section 19.11 Lease, using the 60-day period to evaluate our relationship, and setting an agreed upon termination date in the event we are unable to restructure our relationship.

“Accordingly, this letter constitutes Adventist Health Mendocino Coast's (“AHMC”) notice of the following:

• The Medical Business, as defined under the Lease, has achieved less than 5% EBITDA [Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization] for the previous 12-month period; • This letter is AHMC's restructure notice under Section 19.11 of the Lease. AHMC's restructure terms will be discussed during the 60-day negotiation period.

“Consistent with our discussion on the 26th, we are proposing the following:

• The 60-day negotiation period shall begin immediately and end at the close of business on Friday, November 29, 2024. • If we are unable to reach agreement during the 60-day negotiation period, AHMC may terminate the Lease and TBOA, by delivering written notice to the Mendocino Coast Health Care District (“District”). Such termination will be effective at midnight on June 30, 2025. AHMC's right to terminate after failing to reach an agreement during the 60-day negotiation period will expire on December 31, 2024. • Upon delivery of the termination notice, the parties shall meet and confer within thirty (30) days to begin negotiating the necessary agreements to transfer hospital assets and operations back to the District as required under Article 13 of the TBOA. • All other terms and conditions of the Lease and TBOA will remain in effect pursuant to their terms. The parties may amend this letter agreement in a writing signed by both parties.

“If these terms are acceptable, please sign and return this letter agreement no later than October 2, 2024. Once this letter agreement is executed, we can begin scheduling our negotiations immediately. If we do not receive a signed copy by October 2, 2024, this letter shall constitute AHMC's notice of termination under Section 19.10 of the Lease and the termination will be effective at midnight on June 30, 2025.”

MCHCD Chair Garza did sign the agreement to negotiate with Adventist Health over the 60 day period ending November 29th. However, at the October 1st special board meeting all that the public received was the brief statement quoted at the outset of this piece. No allusion to the possible termination aspects of the situation were mentioned by Chair Garza. The statement, “We will keep the public apprised of the situation as we know more,” appears disingenuous to say the least, if not a clear obfuscation of the facts as Garza knew them at the time.

The pertinent sections of the lease agreement between MCHCD and Adventist Health, that went into effect on July 1, 2020 are available at mendocinochcd.gov by clicking on the legal documents link.

Speculation can run wild as to what Adventist Health wants in this 60 day negotiation period. The bottom line is, as almost always, money. AH lost in the neighborhood of $5 million running the coast hospital in 2023. This year's losses are projected to be just as high if not slightly more.

Along those financial lines, coast residents should not be shocked if/when AH cuts some of the services now offered, meaning patients would have to travel to AH's Ukiah hospital, or farther, for those medical services.

What happens if Adventist Health terminates the lease agreement? The District might very well put out a RFP (Request For Proposal) to see if other healthcare systems are interested in affiliating with the coast hospital. Keep in mind that when that request for proposal was sent out far and wide in the spring of 2019, Adventist Health was the only realistic respondent. If Adventist Health cuts the coast hospital loose after only four years of operation, consider the message that sends.

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MIKAEL BLAISELL

Will There be a Future for our Mendocino Coast Hospital?

Existing California law requires all hospitals to meet the state's stringent requirements for earthquake safety by mid 2026 -- two years from now. By January 1st, 2030, even more strict requirements will apply.

Our Mendocino Coast hospital buildings do not currently meet those standards. When the deadlines arrive, if corrective action has not been taken, our hospital will be required to either close, or to offer only non-acute care. While the governor signed AB 869 into law yesterday, September 28th, 2024, that allows for a 3-year delay for some hospitals, the time for effective action is now. Hospitals are not built or retrofitted in a day.

It is the responsibility of the Mendocino Coast Health Care District (MCHCD), the landlord for our hospital, to prepare and execute the strategic plans to meet those fast-approaching deadlines and requirements. By the terms of the lease agreement between MCHCD and Adventist Health, MCHCD must present a committed plan to achieve seismic compliance to the reasonable satisfaction of the tenant, Adventist Health, by January 1, 2025. That's roughly 90 days from now. If the plan is not forthcoming, the tenant has the option to terminate the lease.

The MCHCD Board has made major progress since the last election. But much more is needed, and time is getting critically short. There are two open seats on that Board to be filled on November 5th. If the deadlines are to be successfully met, the two directors to be seated must be prepared to work fast and effectively with the continuing three directors: Paul Garza, Susan Savage, and Jan McGourty.

I am a candidate for one of the open seats on the MCHCD Board., and have been endorsed by Paul Garza, currently MCHCD Chairman, and Susan Savage, MCHCD Secretary. For more information, please visit my campaign website at: https://mb4mchcd.com

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KATHY WYLIE

The League of Women voters and the Mendocino Coast Health care district board are co-sponsoring a Candidates forum tonight, 10/2/24, at Fort Bragg Town Hall 6:00-7:30 pm. Four candidates are vying for 2 open board seats: Paul Katzeff (incumbent), Mikael Blaisdell, Gabriel Maroney and Lynn Finley.

The forum will be broadcast on Zoom and the Fort Bragg City Gov. channel, and will be available for download afterwards, at the district’s website: https://www.mendocinochcd.gov/candidate-profiles

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JOHN TOOHEY (AV Athletic Director): I am in search of a large redwood round suitable for turning into an award plaque for the 65th Redwood Classic basketball tournament. This tournament is going to be the biggest ever, and I'd like to make a championship plaque to represent a tournament of this scope. I'll attach a terrible AI rendering of what I had in mind. If you have somehting and could bring it by the school, I would appreciate it! Thanks AV

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UNITY CLUB REMINDER: Not All the Exec Committee hostesses in October. We had to split up to make sure each meeting can be covered. (Jean Conlon)

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DIRTY CELLO AT ANDERSON VALLEY GRANGE: Hot off the press! Halloween Rock the Grange poster soon appearing in Boonville, Philo, Navarro and mark your Halloween calendar for Nov 1st to party while supporting the Anderson Valley Grange #669 COSTUME CONTEST @7pm! Dirty Cello concert 8-10 pm. Get tickets here or @ the door!

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LOCAL EVENTS (this week)

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SHERIFF, UKIAH POLICE HIRE NEW PERSONNEL

by Justine Frederiksen

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and the Ukiah Police Department recently introduced newly hired law enforcement personnel to the community.

At the latest meeting of the Ukiah City Council on Sept. 18, Ukiah Police Chief Cedric Crook introduced Michael Jensen, whom he described as a “lateral officer, which means he is tried and proven.”

Crook said Jensen began his law enforcement career in 2019 with the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office, then “he transferred to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office in 2021, and was quickly assigned the resident deputy position in Point Arena, which is pretty much a solo officer job there.

“It’s a big day at the UPD getting a lateral officer,” Crook continued. “Our numbers are at 29 out of 32 as of this week. One of my main goals is to get us up to 32, so we’ll see what we can do.”

Also that evening, the UPD “presented Officer Adam Elledge with the Exceptional Employee Award,” describing Officer Elledge as “an incredible asset to our department.”

Also recently sworn in were three new employees at the MCSO headquarters in Ukiah, including “two lateral Deputy Sheriffs, Brittany Shores and Christopher McNally,” who Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall introduced in a Facebook post as “bringing nearly three decades of peace officer experience with them to our community, (and expressing gratitude) that McNally and Shores have chosen to continue their peace officer service in Mendocino County.”

Also introduced at the ceremony this week was Sarah Davis, whom Kendall introduced as the MCSO’s “newest Community Services Officer.”

Also last month, the UPD noted that it joined members of the MCSO and the Mendocino County Search and Rescue Team at St. Mary of the Angels Catholic School in Ukiah “to discuss public safety, (where UPD) showcased some of our amazing resources, including drones, fingerprint technology, and K9 Carat, our talented canine partner who specializes in human detection.”

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

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MENDOCINO COUNTY REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLAN (RTP) AND ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION PLAN (ATP)

The Mendocino Council of Governments (MCOG) is updating the Mendocino County Regional Transportation Plan and Active Transportation Plan (RTP/ATP) and would like to hear from members of the community about transportation needs, deficiencies, and mobility barriers/challenges.

The RTP/ATP is a long-range planning document covering a 20-year time span, which includes short- and long-range transportation projects across all modes of transportation, including motorized, non-motorized, and public transit. It promotes a safe and efficient transportation system, and establishes regional goals that support mobility, economic, and health aims of the region. The 2026 Plan is due to be adopted by February, 2026

Initial public outreach will be both virtual (through online survey and mapping tool) and in-person at community events. Please visit MCOG’s website for upcoming event information and to take the online survey and access the interactive mapping tool: https://www.mendocinocog.org/2026-regional-transportation-active-transportation-plan

For more information, call the MCOG office at 707-234-3434 or consult the agency's website at www.mendocinocog.org.

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SOME ON LINE COMMENTS re: Ackerman Creek encampment clean-up/sweep

I know of a couple campers in the Russian River area that do bag up and haul off their trash to the appropriate places.

They can’t find work that will hire ex-felons that want to work. Catch-22 so they do what they can while still keeping their heads up. No help from these local posing politicians to what is the underlying reasons why people can’t get or afford housing.

Here in this county we will continue to see more and more families living rough. But hey we love the redwood trail.

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The rents here are ridiculous. The average folk here can’t afford to pay pot grower prices. And when you are someone who has not taken of the illegal black market pot industry or any other illegal black market industry here, you can’t afford housing.. So much for the American dream… It’s the American nightmare now.

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These low lifes camping out are not the result of high costs of living. They are just druggie criminals. The rest of us homeless do not do any of the things they are doing, and we do not turn down assistance. Try knowing anything about reality before commenting. You people are endangering the rest of us with your misplaced empathy.

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The biggest problem I see with the homeless, there is no reprocussions for their actions so they refuse any kind of help. It’s easier to steal from stores and hard working people for the things they want with no fear of being arrested or any legal reprocussions. So therefore they will continue doing what they do. Until there are strict laws set in place we will continue to see this defacement of properties.

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The homeless need to play by the rules and laws of their communities or else face consequences. The community base in Ukiah, like many areas throughout Ca, have made this situation way more destitute. Not to mention high inflation (heavily related to the lack of housing nationally). Housing and/or opportunities to buy housing or have a way of life in the community has eroded for many folks (many of them are locals). Many have either left the area to places where they can have a life or else go the ways of mad max and live off grid and abide by no law and order. Mendo (and Ukiah) local zoning has made it damn near impossible to develop really anything over the last 20 plus years. There was already a housing shortage before Covid so this shouldn’t surprise people on the outcome of having mad max communities scattered all over the country, including Mendo, after a few years of bursting inflation. Quite a Tragedy.

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I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who came out to help clean our creeks and rivers. That Ackerman creek is the same one where a woman overdosed a few months back and a recent shooting around the same time. We need to have consequences for these people ruining our creeks. I want to go down and clean but, don’t want to get stabbed doing it.

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ADAM GASKA: I was asked by Sheriff Matt Kendall to help clean up Ackerman creek a few weeks after writing an op-ed about it being unacceptable to allow our creeks/tributaries to be damaged by transients and people abusing drugs. I told our sheriff in order to clean the creek, the people living there needed to be evicted as they are the source of the damage and garbage.

Paul Trouette of Lear Asset Management heard about the plan to clean up the creek and told me of the cabins, terracing of the stream bank and likely drug trafficking. He offered his company’s services to provide security and clean up labor with a priority on taking down the cabins. His company’s services were entirely donated and he paid out of pocket for the labor. His company does security for the Great Redwood Trail and other business owners. Through his work on the GRT and surrounding businesses, he became aware of the cabins and the impact to the surrounding area hence his desire in dismantling the embedded encampments.

Of the volunteers that helped, two came via MCRCD’s Street to Creek Clean up campaign. Former 2nd District Supervisor John McCowen and a relative came out of their own interest. Lear Asset Management provided two clean up workers and 4 security officers. Pinoleville Pomo Nation had three tribal members and Terri McCartney who works for the tribe was present. Add myself and local reporter Monica Huettl. In total we had 10 people working to demolish the cabins and clean up garbage. MCSO deputies came by during the clean up multiple times and made one arrest for outstanding warrants.

I spent part of Tuesday coordinating resources for a follow up clean up for Saturday, October 5th as there are still tens of yards of trash and debris to remove. I am lining up dumpsters to be delivered to the site. I reached out to people who work in Social Services to send outreach/social workers out to the site again to make contact with anyone attempting to reestablish the encampment to notify them that the over all goal is to finish the clean up and evict everyone before the rainy season. I have been told that many in the encampment have repeatedly rejected offers of assistance and are recalcitrant toward the programs that are available.

The amount of damage to the stream bank is appalling. There has been massive soil movement to build terraces and staircases, devegetation, clearing of trees and underbrush, holes dug into the stream bank and stream bed to defecate into, dozens of large batteries with broken cases, along with trash and debris. It is going to take a lot of work to restore the damage done much less improve the riparian area to a point to where it could become prime habitat supporting salmonid species or keystone species such as river otters.

I will be putting out posts via social media looking for volunteers to help me with the ongoing effort. I have reached out to people at Pinoleville to get their help again as well.

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As a real homeless person, not a druggie, and a vulnerable member of society, thank you for helping our community. These people do not want help. They are mostly criminals, and they pose a threat not just to our environment, but our physical safety. I was assaulted by one of them.

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Needless to say…I’m overwhelmed knowing that encampment has been eradicated. Unfortunately, it has taken over a year to do this, and from what I’m reading in this article, it is much larger than the one that was there last year. What’s frustrating to me, is knowing the California fish and game and the Mendocino sheriff department were fully aware of the encampment that existed in that very same creek last year in June 2023. They did check on the creek from what I’m told, but they didn’t take care of it in its entirety and left it to fester into what it has became to be this year in 2024! I will never forget that date ,June 30, 2023…nor will I forget finding my beloved little dog killed internally within the encampment , left deceased on a trail for the flying overhead vultures. For me and my little dog…it was too little too late.

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ADAM GASKA:

Actually, the encampment was broken up last year. I volunteered for the Streets to Creeks clean up last year and was at Ackerman creek. There were two small abandoned plywood sheds, if you could call them that. There was an intoxicated guy passed out, sleeping in the creek. He eventually woke up and stumbled off. Besides that, there wasn’t anyone in the creek. So someone either told people to move on prior to the September clean up or they moved on their own accord.

This encampment was built out just in the last few months. I only put eyes on it a few weeks ago when I was told of its existence and scale by our sheriff. I’m sorry about your dog.

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I will volunteer my time and truck if my waste disposal and gas costs are covered. I can’t afford to buy the contractors bags and pay the dump fees, and especially the gas to haul the waste. I used to do it all the time. Brooktrails; multiple dump sites where houses are yet, if ever to be built. Tomki creek basin. Outlet creek basin. As much as I could whenever I could. I got hollard at and questioned by concerned passersby all the time. Accusing of dumping. Makes me smile the thought of the taste of crow in the mouth when truckloads of junk disappeared. Not easy work either. Rolling tires back up the steep embankments and mountains they were tossed from. But yeah I did it. Can’t afford to anymore much as I’d like to. At all anymore really. Now I just get sick to my stomach thinking about it and how if I had the funding, I could clean this shit up full time. And the presence deters more dumping… May be easier to make waste disposal easier, cheaper, sliding scale EBT whatever, I need help to take out the trash or I let it pile up. Free dumpsters? Free dump days? Want California clean? Don’t make it so ridiculously expensive to dispose of Chinese garbage that should never been allowed in the country to begin with. 6months break buy another Chinese junker. Disposable this disposable that, but no where to dispose of it when times are tolling. Yeah try putting up free garbage disposal appliance disposal. Cheaper and easier than dump cleanups. Where is all California garbage going these days anyhow? Half way back to China?. Yeah its in the ocean. You see and hear about floating junk pile? What about all the shit that sank?

So you are “evicting” these people on the behalf of which landowners? Go be homeless somewhere else I’m guessing.

As I stated before there isn’t really any available “services” and what needs to be addressed is why are our community members homeless and jobless?

Maybe some of these homeless community members could join the asset managers for work or even participate on one of the many special district boards!

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ADAM GASKA:

Yes, the landowner has given us permission to evict people trespassing. Rivers are subject to the Public Trust doctrine which protects natural resources for public use and enjoyment. Public trust doctrine also makes it a crime to harm the shared resource.

Trash cleanup is no longer about the odd tossed tire or trash washed off the street. It’s about full on addicted communities with open sewer, and no trash service living in the fucking creeks!! What do you all want? To let babies get born in that creek?!! To just let them be and become another mysterious body found in the river? Compassion is getting those people out of that rinky dink shelter before a winter storm collapses it on some poor drunk!

I have witnessed the progression that led to these encampments existing in these more remote areas..The local police were apparently given orders to tell people found within city limits living unhoused to “move to another location or go to jail” and when asked where to go the answer was always, “we can’t tell you where, just not right here…” They eventually run these people to the outer lying areas where it becomes unlikely they will seek or have a convenient way to access resources to help them find better solutions to meet their needs.. The threat of jail and the city of Ukiah’s desperate need to take on the appearance of having solved its homeless problem brings people in need of help to areas that need to be protected. I wonder. This will add to the already negative view the public has of these people so that when the day comes to round them up like animals nobody will see a need to come to their aid.

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ED NOTES

VANCE won the debate, considered purely as an argument, but America, as usual, lost, given that both candidates represented catastrophic plans for US captives of the two-party stranglehold. The Coach didn't seem prepared, or maybe he's just slow on the draw, which seems more likely. He whiffed on numerous opportunities to slamdunk Vance. Vance, however, is smart with the added advantage that he's also a sociopath, managing to go from his fervid liberalism and insults of Trump of a few years ago to an equivalently fervid Trump-ism. Sociopath? Isn't that a little strong? As Vance admitted, he made up the story about Haitians eating pets to draw attention to “more important issues,” and if that one isn't sociopathic it's psychopathic. Vance's boss apparently didn't get the memo about the Haitians snagging pets soooooo, as the boss closes in on Biden in the Senility Sweepstakes, seems to believe the most preposterous whopper ever trotted out by a presidential candidate. Vance is too smart not to know Trump is batshit, but Vance is a sociopath, a dangerous one, a guy who will do and say anything to advance himself. In that, he's just right for Trump.

A READER WRITES: I’ve been in the restaurant business for many years and, after reading your phone message menu for the police department and the newspaper office, I thought I’d do one for the restaurant business. Most of our business is walk-in, not phone calls, so this is a list of options that we should post on our front door.

“Hello. You are about to enter the Clean Spoon Restaurant. In order to best serve you, please read the following options and select the one that best fits your situation. If you’re arriving within two minutes of closing time and want to know if we’re still open for dinner after reading the hours of operation, please accept our apology: we’re closed. If, after eating your entire meal and being asked several times how it was and saying fine, you want to complain about how horrible it was, please write your complaint on the toilet paper in the bathroom so that we may process it appropriately. If you’re here to pick up a take-out order that you ordered three hours ago expecting it to still be warm, please bring your own microwave. If you can see that every table in the Clean Spoon is full and we’re very busy, and you want to complain that we’re not filling your water glass promptly enough after you asked everyone in the place to fill it, please bring your own canteen in the future. If you want reservations when we’re not taking reservations but you claim to know the owner and you know she’d be happy to put you on the (non-existent) reservation list, please write your own reservation list and give it to the owner. If you’d like to refuse a meal because it is just like it was described on the menu but wasn’t what you thought it was, please eat it anyway. If you want your rare steak to still be rare after you took half an hour to eat your salad while the steak sat cooking under the hot warming lights because you emphatically demanded that it shouldn’t be brought out until you’re finished with your salad, please accept your medium-well steak. If your sandwich includes an ingredient you didn’t want which was clearly listed on the menu, please exchange your sandwich with your lunch guest. If your cooked chicken salad includes some pieces of chicken which are not ice cold, please pour your ice water on your salad. If you’re going to leave a $4 tip in coins no larger than a dime because you don’t have any one dollar bills, please keep your tip. Thank you for your business, and remember, we’re here to feed you, not coddle you.

FROM THE AVA of June 26, 1968: “In the early hours of last Saturday, at the Alice Ostrum Price house 7 miles north of Philo, there occurred incidents which have shocked all residents of the Anderson Valley community. As nearly as can be learned the following seems to be the chronology of the events. The house was rented to five girls from San Francisco, one of them the mother of a two-month-old baby. It is reported that the deputies found quantities of marijuana, LSD and other drugs of unknown variety. Nine adults and four juveniles were arrested.” Among the arrested was a Sadie Mae Glutz, a pseudonym often adopted by members of Charles Manson’s seraglio which had briefly touched down in Navarro that fraught year where they quickly came to the attention of the authorities by selling dope to local kids.

OLD TIMERS will also recall when the high school cafeteria was contracted out. Yes, a private family ran it and, as I recall, the food was pretty good, although not nearly as good or as healthy as it became under Gloria Ross and her successors.

A RECENT HEADLINE in the SF Chronicle read: “Grand tour of BART's bathrooms — from the pristine to the pathogenic.” Public bathrooms should all be privatized, one to each entrepreneur who would agree, as part of the deal, to work on-site for a minimum number of hours a week to ensure quality control. Rather than enter the fetid, toxic dank of the typical public lavatory, wouldn't you pay a buck to use scrupulously clean facilities manned or womaned by a smartly uniformed attendant who hosed you down afterwards and handed you a fresh towel? Why, think of it! The national transformation of the public bathroom experience! Clearly a project made for free enterprise!

THE WATER CRISIS, shortage of, is still with us. Ukiah and Sonoma are tardy filing state mandated water management plans while much of Sonoma County continues to take more of the Russian River's depleted waters than Sonoma County is supposed to be taking. The reason Northcoast municipalities must file water plans is to prevent those municipalities from erecting more structures than they will be able to provide water for. The reason Sonoma County is probably looking at strict water rationing before the end of this scorching October is because Sonoma County has already overdrawn the Russian River, source of much of that county's water. Much of the Russian River, as you should know by now, originates over the hill from Potter Valley in the Eel River. The Eel is diverted at Potter Valley via a tunnel hand dug by Chinese labor at the dawn of the 20th century. The diverted water moves through Potter Valley and into storage at Lake Mendocino from where it flows south to metastasizing Sonoma County where it is distributed to stakeholders as far south as Sausalito.

SONOMA COUNTY owns most of the water stored at Lake Mendo, having picked it up for a song when Mendocino County supervisors, with the shortsightedness characteristic of them to this day, the late Joe Scaramella the only supervisor dissenting, basically gave the water to downstream developers in the early 1950s. Without the Eel River Diversion — a half-mile tunnel about four feet wide and seven feet tall — which, by the way, was constructed to provide Ukiah with its first electricity, there wouldn't be a Lake Mendocino, and without the summer time Eel confined in the lake there would be no water in the summer time Russian River. To say that Sonoma County’s water depends on an extremely precarious delivery system radically understates the case.

A NICE LADY, who turned out to be just as nice in person, called Boonville from the county's tax office one day to tell me that as a veteran I didn't have to pay the business license fee. Which just might be the first time a government entity called a taxpayer to tell him he could pay less in taxes. I was anxious to get the license because without it I was unable to open a bank account for the many thousands of dollars in new subscriptions arriving in Boonville at the rate of six mail bags a day. But to get the exemption a veteran had to produce what’s called a DD-214, a form proving he or she served and was discharged unblemished. I haven't had to produce the crucial document in years because the hippies in my family stole all my military stuff years ago, including my DD-214. I had no idea where the thing was so, to avoid a lengthy search for the doc I simply paid the extra $42 non-vets pay for a biz license. But darned if the grand County of Mendocino didn't have my old form on file! And double darned if the nice county lady didn't call me to tell me the good news, and triple darned if she didn't hand me my cash refund the very next day! I take it all back, government, the years of abuse I've heaped… well, one positive interface in 60 years shouldn't carry me away off to Superlative Land, but the County's Treasurer/Tax Collector Office has always been A-OK with me.

SO, BACK IN FRISCO with a fistful of checks, I once jogged a block to my all-Chinese neighborhood branch of the Bank of America to open my AVA account. There were some communication problems. “What kind biznest is this?” the manager asked, enunciating it, “What kine biznest is dis?” I explained the biznest as a weekly newspaper based in Mendocino County. “You live here, not there?,” he said, puzzled. “You want an ATM card?” I live there much more than here, I explained and, no, I don't want an ATM card. Mounted on the wall behind the manager was a huge print of Maplethorpe's pornographic Calla Lily. “You don't want an ATM card?” the manager asked. And asked five more times over the length of the transaction during which he also muttered skeptically several times to himself, “Biznest there, you here. Newspaper. Huh!” Then he’d say, “Meno what cowny? You want ATM card? Where is Meno Cowny? How far?” Two hours north, I said. It’s very beautiful, beautiful like your Calla Lily, I said, pointing at the Maplethorpe behind him. The banker turned to look at the picture; its straining pestil leaped out at his forehead. The manager seemed to be seeing the painting for the first time. “San Francisco better,” he said. “You sure you don’ wan’ ATM card?”

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ANNE FASHAUER

For my birthday this year, I'm asking for donations to Toy Fox Terrier Rescue Inc. I've chosen this nonprofit because their mission means a lot to me, and I hope you'll consider contributing as a way to celebrate with me. Every little bit will help me reach my goal. I've included information about Toy Fox Terrier Rescue Inc below.

We are a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit, nationwide, breed-specific dog rescue group run by volunteers, dedicated to the re-homing of Toy Fox Terriers (TFTs) who need one, whether they are strays or because their owners can no longer care for them.

Fundraiser for Toy Fox Terrier Rescue, Inc

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GABRIELLA BIANCA

Friday Night Music at the Brewery with Gregory Sutton from 5:30-7:30pm.

Gregory Sutton, a solo acoustic and band musician from Oakland and the Sierras. I've been playing wineries and pub gigs in many resort areas in CA for a good number of years and would love to book a solo acoustic show at your brewery. I play a lot of originals and a lot of favorites from the 60's and 70's singer-songwriter heydays on 6 and 12 string guitar and harmonica. I'm sure my breadth of performance of rock, blues and America music styles would go over very well with your crowd. I've performed numerous times at Almost Famous Winery, The Meritage Napa, Stevenot Winery, The Sequoia Woods CC, Copperopolis CC, Murphys Irish Pub, The Bankhead Theater, Harry's Pub Pismo Beach and other venues.

https://www.gregorysuttonmusic.com/live-booking

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PACIFIC TEXTILE ARTS FIBER FAIRE OCT 4-5, THIS FRIDAY and SATURDAY

This weekend --

Located at 450 Alger St Fort Bragg (at the East end of Laurel St next to the bus barn and the college woodworkers)

Friday 5-7pm

Saturday 10-4

Pacific Textile Arts' Annual Fund Raising Event

Always wonderful bargains and lovely textiles - donated fabrics, notions, clothing, fiber and equipment

Maker's Market and Yard Sale on Saturday

Handmade crafts by local artisans and collectors

Silent Auction

Demonstrations

Best of Fiber Faire in Gallery throughout October.

PTArts open every Friday and Saturday for 1-4pm and by appointment

https://www.pacifictextilearts.org/

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NATIVE PLANTS AT FALL GARDEN FAIR - SATURDAY OCT. 5

In addition to cool season veggies, succulents and other flowering plants, the following Native Plants will be available at the Fort Bragg Garden Club's Fall Garden Fair Saturday Oct. 5 10am-3pm at First Presbyterian Church of Fort Bragg, 367 S. Sanderson Way.

• Achillea millefolium Sonoma white + other v. — Yarrow
• Armeria maritima Sea Thrift
• Artemesia californica California Sagebrush
• Asarum caudatum Wild Ginger
• Baccharis pilaris Coyote Bush
• Ceanothus thyrsiflorus + other v. — Ceanothus
• Epilobium canum (Zauschneria californica) California Fuschia
• Erigeron glaucus Seaside Daisy
• Eriogonum grande v. rubescens Red Buckwheat
• Eriogonum laltifolium Seaside ‘Chalk’ Buckwheat
• Erythranthe guttata (Mimulus) Seep Monkey Plant + other v.
• Eschscholzia ca. v. maritima California Poppy “local form”
• Fragaria chiloensis Beach Strawberry
• Frangula californica Coffee Berry
• Grindelia hirsutula Hairy gum plant
• Lonicera hispidula Hairy Honeysuckle
• Monardella villosa Coyote mint
• Penstemon heterophyllus Foothill Penstemon
• Penstemon heterophyllus Margarita BOP
• Phacelia californica Phacelia
• Phacelia tanacetifolia Phacelia
• Ribes sanguineum Red Flowering Currant
• Salvia apiana White Sage
• Salvinia spathacea Hummingbird Sage
• Sisyrinchium bellum Blue-eyed Grass
• Sisyrinchium californicum Yellow-eyed Grass

Note from Fort Bragg Garden Club: most of our plants are grown from roots, cuttings, or seeds collected in our own gardens; others are commercial in origin. Most, but not all, of the California native plants listed are local natives, particularly of the Northern coastal scrub ecosystem. We have information for you on their care, on what pollinators they support, and on their natural companions. Quantities are limited.

See you on Saturday

mendoourtown@mcn.org

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MICHELLE HUTCHINS

Watching the Grateful Dead Movie in my own movie theater is something I never would imagine could happen.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Wednesday, October 2, 2024

KAYLA BOWMAN, 27, Fort Bragg. Hit&Run with property damage, reckless evasion.

BHAKTI DILLENBECK, 41, Ukiah. Probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

CRAIG FRASER, 62, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs.

SERGIO MALAGON, 19, Potter Valley. Burglary, conspiracy.

MARK MASON, 49, San Francisco//Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

FRANK ONETO JR., 50, Dos Rios. Paraphernalia, parole violation.

JAVIER RAMIREZ, 33, Ukiah. Domestic violence restraining order violation, probation violation.

JESUS RAMIREZ, 27, Philo. Domestic battery, child endangerment.

ROY TURNER, 65, Fort Bragg. DUI, suspended license.

NORMA VERDUZCO, 38, Willits. Domestic violence restraining order violation, disorderly conduct-alcohol.

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DON SHANLEY

Interesting to see a couple iconic photos from Khe Sanh 1968 in recent online AVA.

Here’s little bit of an op-ed NYT 1975 popped out of the clutter of my desk. Khe SaNh not Khe SaHn. Hell on Earth.

Stay strong Mr. Anderson & May your strength prevail!

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SHARON DOUBIAGO

I don't know exactly how to explain it, but I've always been deeply turned-off by "fame" seeking, by the famous. Some early experiences testify to this, (My Father's Love) so my attention to Kris Kristofferson is exceptional. He was a neighbor for a while, and married to another "neighbor", Rita Coolidge.. They lived in Comptche, Mendocino. California. While we lived on Navarro Bluff, overlooking the ocean, he bought/lived across Highway One, a large old farm of many acres, sheep spilling down the slope. Once I was stopped at the top of the dirt drive to the Highway, stopped for him to drive by. Several such distant encounters. I never saw any of his movies, I was somewhat interested in his wife, Rita Coolidge. And her whole family, including her father, a preacher for awhile at the small church across the street from where we were now living in "downtown" Mendocino. I tried to find out how he died,, other than old age, 88, but at first there was no telling, Kris, it turns out, died of Lyme disease! Lyme Disease has long been acknowledged as a Mendocino ailment, caused by ticks, most abundant in the Comptche area, and long acknowledged as long lasting, and miserable-making.

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AWOKE EARLY at the Adam's Place Homeless Shelter in Washington, D.C. Took a bus to Union Station and enjoyed the new bacon breakfast burrito at Wendy's, plus a small coffee. Rode the Metro to Foggy Bottom-GWU and went to Miriam's Kitchen for the monthly housing check-in. Proceeded on the Metro to Catholic University, and am now at the student library with a guest pass on a computer. Will walk over to the Basilica shortly. From then on, it is a matter of the mind being absorbed in the Absolute, with no place to go. Am receiving the social security monthly disbursements, auto-deposited into the Chase checking account. Gotta check my LOTTO tix today. This is my retirement plan! Thanks America.

Craig Louis Stehr

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DURING THE 1920s, America developed a fascination with human endurance, leading to various contests, with dance marathons—initially called "walkathons"—at the forefront.

These events emerged in response to cultural shifts following World War I, as societal norms evolved. Participants competed to see which couple could dance the longest for cash prizes, with strict rules eliminating anyone who stopped moving or touched a knee to the ground. Audiences flocked to these marathons, drawn by the spectacle of human struggle and the mix of entertainment and grim reality.

The craze peaked during the Great Depression, providing cheap entertainment for those seeking an escape from hardships. However, as "professional" marathoners emerged and the novelty wore off, interest waned. The decline of "virgin towns" for these events further diminished their appeal. With the advent of World War II, national focus shifted dramatically, leaving behind the dance marathons that had once captivated the public, highlighting the complex interplay of entertainment, economic challenges, and societal change during this tumultuous period.

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ON KMUD, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, AT 9AM, PACIFIC TIME

On Tuesday night, October 1, Iran launched almost 200 ballistic missiles toward Israel. It was Iran’s second such attack on Israel this year, after it launched about 300 missiles and drones in April.
Tuesday's attack was very bad timing.

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, began on Wednesday, October 2. It marks the beginning of the Jewish High Holy Days leading up to Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement and the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

Israel plans a swift retaliation
 
OUR SHOW

Our guests for our show are Richard Silverstein and Abba Solomon.
 
Silverstein writes at Tikun Olam. His recent pieces include "Nasrallah Assassinated, Regional War Looms", "Deceits Keep Israeli Attacks Going" and "“Iran’s Attack and Prospects for Regional War”.
 
Solomon is author of "Zionism, The Miasma of Unity: Jews" and “Anti-Zionism Is Not Anti-Semitism”: A Conversation with Abba Solomon".
 
KMUD

Our show, "Heroes and Patriots Radio", airs live on KMUD, on the first and fifth Thursdays of every month, at 9 AM, Pacific Time.
 
We simulcast our programming on two full power FM stations: KMUE 88.1 in Eureka and KLAI 90.3 in Laytonville. It also maintains a translator at 99.5 FM in Shelter Cove, California.
 
We also stream live from the web at https://kmud.org/
 
Speak with our guest live and on-the-air at: KMUD Studio (707) 923-3911. Please call in.
 
We post our shows to our own website and Youtube channels. Shows may be excerpted in other media outlets.
 
Wherever you live, KMUD is your community radio station. We are a true community of informed and progressive people. Please join us by becoming a member or underwriter.

— John Sakowicz

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SHE LOST HER JOB AFTER TALKING WITH STATE AUDITORS. SHE JUST WON $8.7 MILLION IN WHISTLEBLOWER CASE

by Nigel Duara

Tamara Evans found something fishy in the expenses filed by a San Diego contractor for the state’s police certification commission.

Classes were reported as full to her employer, the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, even if they weren’t. Meeting room space was billed, but no rooms were actually rented. Sometimes, the number of people teaching a course was less than the number of instructors on the invoice.

In 2010, Evans reported her concerns about the contract to auditors with the California Emergency Management Agency.

Then, Evans alleged in a lawsuit, her bosses started treating her poorly. Her previously sterling performance reviews turned negative and she was denied family medical leave. In 2013, she was fired – a move she contends was a wrongful termination in retaliation for whistleblowing.

Last week, a federal court jury agreed with her, awarding her more than $8.7 million to be paid by the state.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, alleged that Evans found governmental wrongdoing and faced retaliation from her employer, and that she wouldn’t have been fired if she hadn’t spoken up.

That’s despite a State Personnel Board decision 2014 that threw out her whistleblower retaliation claim and determined the credentialing agency had dismissed her appropriately.

Evans’ trial attorney, Lawrance Bohm said the credentialing agency hasn’t fixed the problems Evans originally identified. The money Evans complained about was federal grant money, but the majority of its resources are state funds.

“The easier way to win (the lawsuit) was to focus on the federal money, but the reality is, according to the information we discovered through the investigation, (the commission) is paying state funds the same way that they were paying illegally the federal funds,” Bohm said. “Why should we be watching California dollars less strictly than federal dollars?”

Bohm said Evans tried to settle the case for $450,000.

“All I know is that systems don’t easily change and this particular system is not showing any signs of changing,” Bohm said, who anticipates billing $2 million in attorney fees on top of the jury award.

“That’s a total $10 million payout by the state when they could have paid like probably 400,000 (dollars) and been out of it.”

Katie Strickland, a spokesperson for the law enforcement credentialing agency, said in an email that the commission is “unaware of any such claims” related to misspending state funds on training, and called Bohm’s allegations “baseless and without merit.”

The commission’s “position on this matter is and has always been that it did not retaliate against Ms. Evans for engaging in protected conduct, and that her termination in March of 2013 was justified and appropriate,” Strickland said. “While (the commission) respects the decision of the jury, it is disappointed in the jury’s verdict in this matter and is considering all appropriate post-trial options.”

Bohm said the training classes amount to paid vacation junkets to desirable locations like San Diego and Napa, where trainees might bring their spouses and make a weekend out of it while spending perhaps an hour or two in a classroom.

“Why is it that there are not a lot of classes happening in Fresno?” Bohm said. “I think you know the answer to that.”

(CalMatters.org)

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STATE AND FEDERAL WATER AGENCIES CANCEL FALL FLOW PROTECTIONS FOR ENDANGERED DELTA SMELT!

by Dan Bacher

The Delta Smelt, once the most abundant fish species in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, is virtually extinct in the wild, due to massive water exports to agribusiness and other factors over the past several decades. Zero smelt have been caught over the past six years in the California Department of Fish and Game’s Fall Midwater Trawl Survey.

With the start of the new water year today, representatives of fishing and environmental groups blasted the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) for cancelling the fall flow protections for the few remaining Delta Smelt.

October 1, is the start of the new “water year,” the date water managers use to mark the end of the dry season and the beginning of the wet.

Current state and federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) permits require DWR and Reclamation to release a pulse of water through the Delta to the San Francisco Bay in September and October to improve habitat conditions for the listed Delta Smelt, according to a statement from environmental and fishing groups. This fall outflow requirement is only triggered in years when it is wetter than normal and is often referred to as “Fall X2.”

The groups pointed out that some of the state’s largest Delta water exporters wrote to the agencies in August, requesting the suspension of Fall X2, despite Delta Smelt populations collapsing to record low levels in recent years.

The coalition of environmental and fishing groups said Reclamation ignored them when they said that acquiescing to the water users would be the “next step towards extinction.” Instead, advocates said “they moved forward with cutting short one of the only actions that could help the imperiled species at this time of year.”

“The Fall X2 outflow action uses the bounty of a wetter year to provide a rare measure of relief and recuperation — colder water, more food for Delta fish, and better water quality,” the groups revealed.

They also said the massive pumping facilities operated by DWR’s State Water Project and Reclamation’s Central Valley Project are ramping back up to export even more water to San Joaquin Valley corporate agribusiness and Southern California water agencies. The water operations are still largely operating under rules — a biological opinion — written by the Trump administration. The state and many environmental groups challenged the biological opinion because it ignored legal requirements and discarded the “best available science.

Reclamation and DWR accused of implementing “Trump era water policies”

Representatives of the groups slammed DWR and Reclamation for putting the final nails in the coffin of the Delta Smelt.

“It is incredibly disappointing to see the Newsom and Biden administrations willing to implement Trump-era water policies,” said Ashley Overhouse, Water Policy Advisor with Defenders of Wildlife. “This decision marks a somber start to the new water year, undercutting years of collaborative work to ensure the best available science is informing our water management decisions.”

Gary Bobker, Senior Policy Director at Friends of the River, agreed with Overhouse.

”At this time next year, we may be looking at the extinction of a fish species that was once incredibly abundant when the Bay-Delta Estuary was healthy, and it will have been completely preventable, because we know a lot about what it takes to restore the Estuary’s health,” noted Bobker.

Fish advocates said the “best available science” indicates that a “variety of complementary actions” — such as improving summer and fall outflows, expanding tidal marsh habitat, and operating salinity control gates differently — are all needed to prevent the Delta Smelt’s extinction. DWR and Reclamation are only prioritizing Smelt survival if it doesn’t involve using any water.”

“DWR and Reclamation conveniently neglected to propose improving summer outflow this year, an ‘adaptive management’ decision that would have scientific justification,” noted Eric Buescher, Managing Attorney with San Francisco Baykeeper. “Instead, they are quelling the October fall outflow action — and with it, possibly, the survival of Delta Smelt itself.”

Cancelling the fall flow action in 2024 marks the second consecutive year in which wet-year protections for fish have been waived, according to Chris Shutes, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

“The rules protecting fish only work when they are enforced,” said Shutes. “But adaptive mis-management is making the rules optional each time water contractors clamor for more water.”

Salmon, steelhead and other fish are in deep trouble also

Smelt aren’t the only fish species in trouble, advocates point out. “DWR and Reclamation have killed countless steelhead and salmon on several occasions in 2024, exceeding the legal limits of their ESA permits,” the groups said

“The last two years recorded some of the lowest numbers of spawning salmon ever in the Sacramento River. Central Valley fall-run Chinook Salmon numbers are so low that it required two closures in a row of the California coastal salmon fishing season, threatening tens of thousands of California and coastal Oregon salmon fishing jobs,” they added.

In response to the agencies' decision to change Delta operations, Scott Artis, Executive Director of the Golden State Salmon Association stated: “For the salmon fishing industry, this decision is infuriating. Years of reckless water project operations have in turn severely impacted the lives of our communities that depend on healthy salmon runs.”

“Fish like salmon and Delta Smelt are our ‘canary in the coal mine.’ When will the agencies realize they are jeopardizing our future? They slashed protections for fish during the drought. Now they’re doing the same in a wet year. They are preparing to permanently exacerbate conditions for salmon with new ESA permits that are even worse than those adopted under the Trump administration,” he argued.

Barbara Barrigan-Parilla, Executive Director for Restore the Delta, concluded, “Once again, government agencies are changing the rules to weaken Delta protections for powerful special economic interests, rather than striving to save the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas for the people.”

Water Contractors are “extremely pleased”

On the other hand, Jennifer Pierre, General Manager of the State Water Contractors, said her organization was “extremely pleased with the decision to rely on the full body of scientific evidence to assess the value of Fall X2 releases and adjust October operations accordingly.”

“ This adjustment ensures the same protections for fish and water quality as those contemplated in the ITP and 2019 BiOp while smartly protecting water supplies. We applaud state leaders for their continued commitment to science-based decision-making and ensuring adaptive management in the Delta is more than just a catchphrase,” she continued in a statement.

“The cost of releasing additional water in the few years Fall X2 has been implemented has had varying—but significant—costs to our water supply by releasing stored water and cutting exports to test the Fall X2 adaptive management action’s potential benefits to Delta smelt. In 2023 alone, the State Water Project sent 600,000 acre-feet to the ocean to implement the Fall X2 requirement,” Pierre claimed.

Delta Smelt is a key indicator species

Disparaged as a “little minnow” by agribusiness oligarchs, right wing talking heads like Sean Hannity and former President Trump, the key role the Delta Smelt plays in the ecosystem can’t be overemphasized.

“Delta Smelt are the thread that ties the Delta together with the river system,” Caleen Sisk, Chief of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, said several years ago. “We all should understand how that affects all the water systems in the state. They are the irreplaceable thread that holds the Delta system together with Chinook salmon.”

For the sixth year in a row, no Delta Smelt were collected in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Fall Midwater Trawl (FMWT) Survey in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta from September through December 2023. This year’s survey is also expected to produce no Delta Smelt

The 2 to 3 inch fish, found only in the Delta, is an “indicator species” that shows the relative health of the San Francisco Bay/Delta ecosystem. When no Delta Smelt are found in six years of a survey that has been conducted since 1967, the estuary is in a serious ecological crisis.

The Delta smelt is listed as “endangered” under both the federal Endangered Species Act and the California Endangered Species Act.

“No Delta Smelt were collected at any stations from September through December,” reported Taylor Rohlin, Environmental Scientist for the CDFW Bay Delta Region, in a memo published on Jan. 25 of this year. “The 2023 September-December index (0) is tied with 2018-2022 as the lowest index in FMWT history.”

She said the absence of Delta Smelt catch in the FMWT is “consistent among other surveys in the estuary.”

For example, the Enhanced Delta Smelt Monitoring (EDSM) survey of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) caught only 5 Delta Smelt among 10 sampling weeks (between 9/4 and 11/10 2023) comprised of 1,360 tows (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2023).

Meanwhile, the other pelagic species collected in the survey — striped bass, Longfin Smelt, Sacramento Splittail and threadfin shad — continued their dramatic decline since 1967 when the State Water Project went into effect. Only the American shad shows a less precipitous decline. The graphs in this CDFW memo graphically illustrate how dramatic the declines in fish populations have been over the years: nrm.dfg.ca.gov/…

Entire Delta Ecosystem Is Collapsing

The near-extinction of Delta Smelt in the wild and the collapse of striped bass, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, American shad, splittail and threadfin shad populations documented in the fall survey is part of the larger Pelagic Organism Decline (POD) caused by massive water diversions from the Delta by the state and federal water projects, along with toxics, water pollution, invasive species and other factors.

Between 1967 and 2020, the state’s Fall Midwater Trawl abundance indices for striped bass, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, American shad, splittail and threadfin shad have declined by 99.7, 100, 99.96, 67.9, 100, and 95%, respectively, according to the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

Meanwhile, Governor Gavin Newsom is forging ahead with the environmentally destructive Delta Tunnel, Sites Reservoir and Big Ag-backed voluntary agreements, This will only make the ecosystem crash even worse by exporting more water to corporate agribusiness interests south of the Delta.

There is no doubt why Governor Newsom is backing the Delta Tunnel, Sites Reservoir and the voluntary agreements— to serve the wishes of his corporate agribusiness contributors and other Big Money donors.

For example, agribusiness tycoons Stewart and Lynda Resnick, owners of The Wonderful Company and major promoters of the Delta Tunnel and increased water pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, have donated a total of $431,600 to Governor Gavin Newsom since 2018, including $250,000 to Stop The Republican Recall Of Governor Newsom and $64,800 to Newsom For California Governor 2022.

Newsom received a total of $755,198 in donations from agribusiness in the 2018 election cycle, based on the data from www.followthemoney.org. That figure includes a combined $116,800 from Stewart and Lynda Resnick and $58,400 from E.J. Gallo, combined with $579,998 in the agriculture donations category.

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JUST WINGING IT

Posey, the new honcho in town, offers no words of direction moving forward

by Dieter Kurtenbach

The so-called king of preparation didn’t seem to have anything prepared for his opening remarks.

Buster Posey rattled off some platitudes and truisms before a riff where he remembered some guys. When he ran out of old, legendary Giants to name-drop, he started naming his contemporaries in the game.

There was no talk of philosophy, direction, or structure in Posey’s introductory press conference as the Giants’ director of baseball operations. These are just nice words with little meaning.

Analytics? Posey likes them.

Traditional scouting? He’s for it.

Manager Bob Melvin, who is entering a lame-duck season? Posey’s excited to work with him.

And as for the team’s general manager, the person who sounds like they’ll have the totality of the responsibilities of a director of baseball operations without the title or, I presume, the pay? Well, Posey will just have to find the right guy or gal.

You don’t say?

Posey spent his entire career saying plenty of words but never giving the media or fan base much of anything. Perhaps Tuesday was just an extension of that.

But that was as a player.

Now, he’s the boss. The game has changed. And as the head honcho, Posey must be taken at his word.

And in so many words, he made it clear that there’s no real plan in place in San Francisco. Posey is winging it. The organization is winging it.

This is a $4 billion company, and the most essential aspect of the business is operating on a “we’ll take it as it comes” motto.

If it were anyone other than Posey up there on the dais on Tuesday, Giants fans would be apoplectic.

But because it’s Posey, apparently, this is all fine.

No one has more slack with the fan base (and apparently ownership) than No. 28, and he’s cashing it in right now. Again, you have to respect the confidence of the franchise legend.

And amid the empty rhetoric, Posey made one thing clear: He’s just happy to be part of a team again.

It was such a strange thing to repeat.

Despite there being countless jobs in the organization — including the possibility of jobs he, a part-owner, could create — apparently, the only way Posey could re-create that feeling of brotherhood is to take over the single most crucial job, the duties and responsibilities of which, he admits, he doesn’t yet know.

“Buster is just somebody that asked for the ball,” Giants chairman Greg Johnson said.

Johnson gave it to him without a second thought.

What the Giants are doing is unprecedented in modern baseball.

This isn’t like when Brodie Van Wagenen, a longtime player representative and head of the largest agency’s baseball division, took over the Mets front office.

(He was fired within two years.)

This isn’t like when former MLB pitcher Chris Young took over in Texas, either. Young worked for two years as Jon Daniels’ right-hand man before being promoted to the top job. Craig Breslow, now the Red Sox top decision maker, did four years in the Cubs’ front office before taking over in Boston.

And this sure as hell isn’t John Lynch with the 49ers. Football and baseball are apples and oranges when it comes to the responsibilities of the head honcho, if, for nothing more than the sheer number of players in baseball — more than 5,000 in the offseason, on top of international, college, and high-school prospects.

NFL front offices are littered with former players. MLB front offices are run by Ivy League grads who opted against running a hedge fund to make fantasy baseball real life.

To do something this bold — to think this far outside the box — is, frankly, beneath the Giants’ organization.

Why think outside the box? The box is full of money. Use it to attract a top mind to fix this mess.

But the Giants didn’t interview anyone else for the gig. Posey said he wanted it, and he was given it without any sort of serious apprenticeship.

They didn’t bring in Mike Chernoff of the Guardians or Erik Neander of the Rays for a chat. They didn’t bother to see if former Marlins GM Kim Ng was interested, or if Braves player development guru Ben Sestanovich wanted the job.

What made Buster qualified to lead an entire baseball operations staff? According to Johnson, it’s his “skills,” “intellect,” and “drive.” But also, he’s a great listener, and leader, and he has a lot of pride.

“He’s going to set a tone.”

The Giants have missed the playoffs in five of the last six seasons. I don’t think “tone” is the issue here.

All those traits might make Posey beloved by fans and a favorite of the media, but they are hardly unique qualities. Yes, the game, like all professions, has its fair share of bad communicators and idiots (the former issue did Farhan Zaidi in). Still, there are capable, impressive people all around this sport, and many of them have a track record of success building up farm systems, player development plans, and optimizing 40-man rosters.

Posey has to fix all three of those things and do it with what appears to be Zaidi’s staff.

To me, this all reeks of cronyism.

Worse yet, Posey won’t just do ownership’s bidding. He is ownership.

And when did Giants fans — who have been bellyaching about how this team has been run for years — change their tune on the owners?

But Posey sounded like he wanted to be a figurehead on Tuesday, not the man pushing all the buttons.

It’s his finger on those buttons until he finds someone else to do that job, though.

You can hardly blame Posey, the ultra-competitor, for “wanting the ball” in a moment like this. Someone needs to pull this team out of its now-perennial morass, and Posey’s smarts, legacy, competitive fire, and fiscal entanglement make him an outstanding candidate to be part of the solution.

But his fellow Giants owners made Posey the singular solution.

They might be able to formulate a plan in the coming days, weeks, and months, but the Giants fired Zaidi and his general manager, put Posey in charge, and haven’t really gotten to anything after that.

On Zaidi’s way out of town, he dropped a couple of nuggets of truth on his tenure.

This isn’t to exonerate him from the mess the Giants now face — it’s only to say he wasn’t the sole proprietor of the team’s fate.

One quote stood out above the rest.

“But I think it’s my responsibility, and as an organization, we have to figure out our identity and not feel like just because the strategy is successful, it’s the right thing for us,” said Zaidi.

It makes you wonder: Is Posey’s appointment about winning, or is it about restoring the mystique of the Giants?

Is this just to quell the constant KNBR clamoring to return to the way things were a decade ago, when the ball was dead, Statcast didn’t exist, and “real” baseball men ran the show?

In short: an era that is long gone and never coming back?

Sure seems like it.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe running a professional baseball team in a big market is much easier than I believe it to be. Maybe it’s just that easy for someone like Posey. How could we mere mortals understand?

Perhaps things like culture and magic are actually real and not simply lazy catch-alls folks use to try to explain situations that don’t quite add up logically.

But it’s one thing for the fan base to be tapping into the spirit of an even-year magic run (as we head into an odd-numbered year). It’s something else for ownership to do it, too.

“We’re in the memory-making business,” Posey said. “The entertainment business.”

No, Buster, that’s the Savannah Bananas.

The Giants are in the business of winning. That’s how you entertain. That’s how you create memories.

How’s he going to do that?

I guess it’s just a mystery.

(Marin Independent Journal)

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WALZ OUT-COACHED

To the Editor:

JD Vance won the vice-presidential debate on both substance and aesthetics. He was calm, pleasant and assured throughout. He showed an excellent grasp of policy, a quick mind, a good memory and a willingness to see other points of view and adapt.

Tim Walz, while congenial, often looked red-faced and bug-eyed as if he was about to blow a fuse. His cheerleader persona was apparent, but so was his befuddlement over the facts of his own history, the latest one being his false statements about being in Tiananmen Square in June 1989.

One issue in assessing vice-presidential candidates is determining whether they are capable of taking over the top spot if necessary. Mr. Vance’s steady demeanor, level of energy and cleareyed grasp of issues showed him ready for this.

Mr. Walz looked little more ready than Kamala Harris was when she was elected Joe Biden’s vice president in 2020. We don’t need a cheerleader in chief; we need a commander in chief.

Mark Godburn

Norfolk, Connecticut

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TIM WALZ STILL DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THE FIRST AMENDMENT

Governor Walz becomes the ten millionth person to wrongly claim "Shouting 'Fire!" in a crowded theater" is a legal standard. Are the Democrats just dumb about speech, or is this calculation?

by Matt Taibbi

Bored to the point of praying for death from a lightning strike in the latter half of the Vice Presidential debate last night, an exchange between Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Walz woke me up:

VANCE: You yourself have said there’s no First Amendment right to misinformation. Kamala Harris wants to use…

WALZ: Or threatening. Or hate speech.

VANCE: The power of the government to use Big Tech to silence people from speaking their minds. That is a threat to democracy that will long outlive this political moment: Let’s persuade one another. Let’s argue about ideas and come together afterwards.

WALZ: You can’t yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater. That’s the test. That’s the Supreme Court test!

The “You can’t yell ‘Fire!’ in a crowded theater” saw is not only wrong, it’s the most overused anti-speech argument of our era, surpassing even the Karl Popper “Paradox of Tolerance” cartoon that was once meme legend. In 2012, the ACLU’s Gabe Rothman wrote that the “Fire!” bit was “worse than useless in defining the boundaries of constitutional speech.” Lawyers and civil liberties activists are in danger of self-harm every time it’s mentioned. “My head hits my desk every time the ‘shouting fire’ canard is trotted out. I think I have a permanent bruise on my forehead because of it,” says Nico Perrino of the Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression, who adds the damage might prevent him from knowing how many times it’s happened.

The “Fire” saw is one of those unkillable nuggets of received wisdom blurted out by people with at least three drinks in them, repeated as fact by a Vice Presidential candidate. Why? It feels like Democrats are intentionally fumbling the issue.…

https://www.racket.news/p/tim-walz-still-doesnt-understand

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JOSE VEGA CONFRONTS KRUGMAN (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED WATCH)

pic.x.com/RaXLNyzWvH

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Trump says so much bullshit that the “Media” whether right or left let’s him get away with. Take any of his rallies and read what he has to say. People are so used to the garbage coming out of his mouth they just ignore it. His stream of consciousness is disturbing and if a family member of mine went on like he does, I would seek psychiatric for them.

If Trump has a subject he misspoke on I would let that slide, but when he says the same thing over and over, one has to conclude that that is what he believes.

“They’re eating the dogs” case in point.

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LEAD STORIES, THURSDAY'S NYT

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Viewfinders Make Fall Foliage Pop for the Colorblind in Virginia

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ISRAEL IN LEBANON, 1982 -- SIMILAR SLAUGHTER, DIFFERENT U.S. MEDIA THAN 2024

US media coverage of the 1982 war in Lebanon looks a lot different than today's media coverage.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-gdkwNCzZd0&rco=1

(Norman Solomon)

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THE WHITE HOUSE

October 1, 2024

Friends,

I wanted to provide some details on the attack on Israel.

Today, Iran launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles toward targets in Israel. The United States military coordinated closely with the Israel Defense Forces to help defend Israel against this attack. At the President’s direction, U.S. naval destroyers joined Israeli air defense units in firing interceptors to shoot down inbound missiles, just as we participated in Israel’s defense when Iran launched its April 13th attack.

President Biden has been clear: our support for Israel’s security is ironclad. He is the first U.S. President to ever order the U.S. military to defend Israel from an attack by Iran, and he has now done so twice. The United States will continue to stand with the people of Israel at this critical moment.

President Biden and Vice President Harris monitored the attack and the response from the White House Situation Room, joined in person and remotely by their national security team.

We are still working with the IDF and the authorities in Israel to assess the impact of the attack. Based on what we know at this point, this attack appears to have been defeated and ineffective. This was first and foremost the result of the work of the IDF, but in no small part because of the skilled work of the U.S. military and meticulous joint planning in anticipation of the attack.

We will consult with the Israelis on next steps, including on the response and how to deal with what Iran has just done, and we will continue to monitor for further threats and attacks from Iran and its proxies.

I'll close with Vice President Harris' remarks from earlier today: "I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist militias. My commitment to the security of Israel is unwavering.”

Thank you,

Shelley Greenspan

Liaison to the American Jewish Communi

Office of Public Engagement · 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue · Washington, DC 20504-0001 · USA

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BOMBS FALL, ARMIES MOVE

by Des Freedman

Unlike with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 or Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the British media were slow to recognize Israel’s invasion of Lebanon on October 1 as an invasion. The BBC’s headline yesterday morning was: “Israel says troops enter Lebanon for ‘limited, targeted’ ground raids on Hizbullah.” ITV News led with something very similar. Hugo Bachega, the BBC’s Middle East correspondent in Beirut, described it as a “ground incursion” (not that different from the IDF spokesperson’s description of the invasion as a “raid”). Only later in the day did both news organizations change their language to acknowledge that this was indeed an invasion.

Britain’s right-wing press were more prepared to describe it as such than the liberal media. Tuesday morning’s headlines in the Times, Telegraph and Mail all used the word “invasion” while the Guardian’s overnight lead referred to “ground attacks on Hizbullah.” Twelve hours after the invasion started, the Financial Times was still using a headline of “Israeli troops move into Lebanon” as if this were an inconsequential tactical maneuver and the soldiers were merely stretching their legs.

When Israel bombarded Beirut on September 27, killing hundreds of people, the BBC headline was “Beirut rocked by multiple blasts.” ITV News had “strikes hit Beirut” and Sky “Beirut hit in multiple blasts.” None went for al-Jazeera’s straightforward and accurate statement: “Israel attacks Lebanon” (which remains its main tag for the crisis). Tuesday evening, by contrast, the BBC headline was: “Iran launches barrage of missiles at Israel.”

As with a lot of reporting on Gaza, broadcasters are reluctant to name Israel directly and immediately as the source of violence, as if the “strikes” and “blasts” materialized from the night sky. The Center for Media Monitoring argued in a comprehensive report earlier this year that news coverage of Palestinian deaths tends to use “passive language which omits the perpetrator (Israel) and the action (shot, bombed, killed),” in contrast to the far more “emotive” language used when covering the deaths of Israelis.

Yet despite this asymmetry of media coverage, it’s never enough for some supporters of Israel, who seem to think that any pro-Palestinian voice on the airwaves is evidence of underlying antisemitism across the media. The Jewish Chronicle, looking to regain credibility after it published made-up stories about Israeli intelligence, went on the attack. Stephen Pollard, its former editor who once described the JC as “Israel’s candid friend,” fumed that the BBC’s Today program gave airtime to an “Iranian government apologist, Prof Seyed Mohammad Marandi of Tehran University, to broadcast a series of grotesque antisemitic slurs.”

Obviously having an Iranian government apologist on Today meant less time for Israeli government apologists to appear on the program, such as Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, or the spokesperson David Mencer, who claimed – against all evidence – that “we don’t want to harm ordinary Gazans” and that the IDF was taking “all possible steps” to avoid harming civilians.

Pollard and others are particularly offended by any suggestion that genocide might be taking place in Gaza (despite the findings of the International Court of Justice) or that Lebanon has the same right to self-defense that we are constantly being told Israel has. As the Center for Media Monitoring pointed out in relation to Gaza, there is a huge disproportion between the number of pieces in the British media insisting that Israel has the right to defend itself compared to those arguing that the same rights should be extended to Palestinians – and now to Lebanon.

(London Review of Books)

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