Mendocino County Today: Tuesday 11/26/2024

LINGERING SHOWERS will taper off into this afternoon. Calm, dry and cool weather through Friday. Dry weather is expected to continue through the foreseeable future. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 1.95" today + 2.97" yesterday gives me a 2 day 2nd storm total of 4.92" - I have no idea where that came from? 11.76" for the month & 14.45" YTD. This after my personal forecast for a dry season, do not try this at home, I am a wanna be professional. But I digress...... Clear skies & cold mornings are forecast into the weekend. Next week is also looking dry so far. Gobble.

BERNARD NORVELL

On October 22, 2024 Fort Bragg businessman Bernard (Bernie) Robert Norvell passed away suddenly. Bernard was 85 years old.

He is survived by his wife of 62 years Donna Norvell, his children Evelyn Hautala and son in law Steven Hautala as well as his son Bernie Norvell and daughter in law Michelle Norvell.; His four grandchildren, Tanisha Norvell and Gavin, Lane and Taylor Norvell, Mariah (Hautala) and Tyler Pennington, Ashley (Hautala) and John Thorpe. His great grandchildren Clayton, Waylon, Asher and Reese.

His family would like to thank everyone in the community for all the support and kindness to the family over the last few weeks. Any donations of behalf of Bernard should be made to the Humane Society or any youth sports programs.

The Norvell Family

GARY LEVENSON-PALMER:

Tell your family (and guests if you're a vacation rental) that Highway 1 at the Garcia River is NOT closed. It has been open since Saturday morning at around 7:30 am. This is a screen shot from Google Maps tonight, Monday at 10 pm. It's 2 1/2 days since the road has opened and Google Maps still shows it as closed. I put in going from Irish Beach to Gualala just to test what folks have been saying. It has me taking Mt View Rd to 128 and back then over Skagg Springs Road. Not sure if this is caused by Caltrans not updating records or an update issue with Google.

NO NEWS on that missing Anaheim man whose car was found abandoned in Navarro a few weeks ago. The Anaheim police are still working it, albeit slowly, trying to figure out where the man’s cellphone has been and, if possible, where the car has been, using whatever internal vehicular location data may be available. The vehicle is still in Mendo law enforcement custody as evidence though, so progress is slow.

THE CASE against the man whose boat trailer apparently set off up to eight separate fires collectively known as the Grange Fire east of Philo last summer is also still in limbo as the law enforcement agencies deal with the DA staff to figure out just how much liability the driver has and how much proof is needed. Needless to say, progress is slow.

WE WERE PLEASED to hear that Mendo drug court may return to some semblance of functionality soon now that Prop 36 has passed. The presumption is that more low-level criminals will enter some kind of court-mandated treatment once they realize they face jail for what used to be “minor, non-violent crimes,” which were effectively decriminalized by the Prop 47 catch & release provision that was corrected by Prop 36. We shall see.

(Mark Scaramella)

HUMAN REMAINS FOUND IN PIERCY AREA IN 2012 IDENTIFIED

On October 30, 2012 at 0700 hours during the morning shift briefing, Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Dispatch advised then Sergeant Matt Kendall that human remains had been discovered, buried in a shallow grave in the Piercy area.

Detectives with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Investigations Bureau responded to the 83000 block of Highway 271 in Piercy, and were provided with a plastic bag containing human foot bones. Photographs taken by the reporting party were also provided to investigators at this time.

Sheriff’s Detectives utilized kayaks and paddled approximately 1/4 mile to the location, where the remains had been discovered.

Forensic Anthropologists from California State University in Chico were requested for the excavation/preservation of the buried skeletal remains.

At the conclusion of the excavation, the Forensic Anthropology team unearthed human skeletal remains, which were absent the head. It appeared the remains located within the shallow grave had been there for an extended time, and the partial articles of clothing collected suggested 1980’s styles.

Due to the surrounding circumstances this investigation was labeled as a “John Doe” homicide.

An investigation was launched, and multiple attempts to identify the remains of the buried skeletal remains were made, but ultimately unsuccessful.

In Spring 2024, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office sent forensic evidence to Othram in The Woodlands, Texas. At Othram's laboratory, scientists successfully developed a DNA extract from the forensic evidence and used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing® to build a comprehensive DNA profile for the unknown man. Othram’s in-house forensic genetic genealogy team then used this profile to conduct genealogy research, ultimately providing new investigative leads to law enforcement. The investigative leads presented genealogical findings for a Warren David Hawkins.

After receiving this information, Investigators learned that “Warren Hawkins” had been reported missing by his sister (Paula Hawkins) to the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office in Washington state. Paula Hawkins provided a DNA reference sample to the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office, which was provided to Othram Technology and later used for his identification. An additional DNA sample was obtained from Paula in 2024 by the Gresham Police Department in Oregon.

The last reported sighting of Hawkins was in July of 1986 when his now deceased mother dropped off 21-year-old Hawkins and another unknown male at a bus station.

Because of the hard work and dedication of the above listed agencies, the remains of Warren David Hawkins can now be returned to his family.

This is still an active and ongoing homicide investigation with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office and anyone with information related to this case is requested to call the Sheriff's Office Dispatch Center at 707-463-4086.

The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office would like to thank the following agencies for their assistance during this investigation:

Othram Technology
California State University - Chico Anthropology Department
NamUs (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System)
Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office in Washington
Gresham Police Department in Oregon

NON-RESPONSIVE PG&E & McGUIRE

Dear Editor,

PG&E the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

First, the Good:

When these winter storms hit the Pacific Coast with lashing winds and heavy rains and we inevitably lose power it is generally restored promptly and professionally by the men and women who are PG&E employees.

Now for the Bad:

The vegetation management operations which are ongoing throughout the year are a case study in waste and inefficiency on an unprecedented scale. The crews, subcontractors all, are never the same company, and yet they come into our rural communities driving all the newest and shiniest trucks that money can buy. Each crew has one or two men out of their troop who seem to know what is going on, but the rest appear highly unmotivated and untrained. They often arrive in force and do maybe an hour of work, then they split having pruned a few insignificant branches while large dead and dying trees stand looming over the power lines year after year. Recently they came out, took down power lines and felled one of three dead trees which had been marked for removal years ago, leaving big sections laying around all akimbo. Then the armada six of trucks headed down the road having left the other two dead trees growing within ten feet of the one removed, though clearly marked for removal as well. Pure and simple waste and inefficiency.

And the Ugly:

Just one look at your monthly PG&E bill reveals the ugly and outrageously high cost, just about the highest in the nation, of electricity. Don’t try to march into your local PG&E office to complain and try to get some answers. Corporate has gone into hiding, Fort Bragg shuttered its office years ago. Too much bother for them to deal with the customers who fund these bloated administrative salaries through the ever higher rates we pay.

What about our representatives in Sacramento? You would think they would be able to help us with this issue. Nope, two letters to Senator McGuire’s office explaining the situation received no response at all. Apparently they are as powerless as we are.

A common excuse that the vegetation management teams put forth is the failure of the California Coastal Commission to act in a timely manner when applications for removal of hazardous trees are submitted. Meanwhile the redundancy of checking and rechecking the work of other checkers involved with the process of maintaining line clearance safety standards leads to an endless and haphazard parade, accruing maximum costs with minimum efficiency. As we all suspect, these costs are then passed along to the public, who are dependent on electricity supplied by a Monopoly.

Sincerely,

Tim McClure

Fort Bragg

UNSETTLING BEHAVIOR ON WEST SIDE OF MENDOCINO

Dear Community,

We have been witnessing prolonged and unsettling behavior at the west end of Mendocino. We have decided, in coordination with the Mendocino County Sheriff Department, to create a Neighborhood Watch group.

If you live on the west side of Mendocino, and are interested in joining or would like to learn more, please email us directly, off of list.

Unsigned, mendofm@mcn.org

Kate Sarfaty: What kind of unsettling behavior? I walk there frequently and haven’t seen anything.

Rebecca Aum: What kind of “prolonged and unsettling behavior”?

Michael Hilburn: It’s homelessness. Lots of NIMBYs.

ACCURATE RAINFALL RESULTS! [coast chatline]

Iris Cutler:

Can anyone post the rainfall amounts each day? The information online cannot be right. We were slammed Sunday night and it said we got 1.25 inches…how can that be?

Nicholas Wilson:

If you want accurate figures for your location then get an accurate rain gauge and do the work of reading and recording the data.

Rainfall amounts around here vary considerably with differences in location, including distance from the coast, elevation, slope. Several people have been posting their rain figures the past few days, and most include their location data.

Here are some of my latest rain figures for my location 3 mi. inland on Little River Airport Rd. at 622 ft. elevation on the spine of the ridge separating Little River and the Albion River.

11/18/24 season total to date was 4.92"
11/20 2.37" first day of atmospheric river driven storm
11/21 3.53" day 2 of storm
11/22 0.90"
11/23 0.72"
11/24 1.38"
11/25 1.63" and counting as of 4:30 pm
Storm total 10.47" so far
Season 15.39" since July 1, 2024

Others have reported far different readings than mine. For example Notty Bumbo up on a ridge east of Fort Bragg reported just under 3.5" for last night as of 8:11 AM today, and 24.5" season to date., which is more than 10" above my year do date figure.

Earlier this year I resigned from being the unpaid rain reporter for Little River to the Mendocino Beacon after at least 30 years. The Beacon long ago stopped being a local newspaper after it was bought up by an outside corporation that bought and hollowed out most of the formerly local weekly and a few daily papers, laying off their staff and closing their newsrooms and offices. At the end I was emailing my figures to the advertising department of the Lakeport paper. The Beacon was a genuine local newspaper for many decades, reported, edited and printed right on Ukiah St. in Mendocino on an old-time linotype cast-lead press. There is no longer any local editor or reporters on the Mendocino Coast for the Beacon or the Fort Bragg Advocate-News. The current papers are just an excuse for overpriced advertising space, in my humble opinion.

Oyster Mushrooms *Pleurotus ostreatus* (photo mk)

PRISCILLA HUNTER, THE OTHER STUFF

To the Editor:

Priscilla Hunter has just passed away, and the tributes are pouring in. Folks have a tendency to romanticize the dead, but let's not forget that back in 2006, a four-year investigation into the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians led to federal charges against seven former tribal leaders, including Priscilla Hunter.

Ms. Hunter was charged with stealing from her own people.

I'll explain.

In the 2006 indictment, former chairwoman Priscilla Hunter, former historian Michael Hunter, former vice chairwoman Iris Martinez, former secretary Darlene Crabtree, Michelle Campbell and former council members Fred Naredo and Allan Crabtree faced 39 charges of theft, misuse of funds, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, tax evasion and failure to file tax returns.

The indictment accused the defendants of using $35,000 in tribal casino funds to make contributions political candidates and organizations. Some of the defendants allegedly shred documents to cover up their actions and impeded an audit of the casino.

The defendants were also accused of using tribal funds to buy personal items like hockey tickets, art, cable television services and airline tickets. The defendants were also charged with tax evasion and failing to file tax returns. Finally, the casino itself was used for money laundering purposes.

The charges smacked of racketeering, pure and simple.

All of the former tribal leaders named in the indictment were ousted two years earlier in December 2004 vote that came months after a federal raid of the tribe's casino and several homes.

And there may be more.

Maybe.

A double homicide of two tribal members from 2004 also remains a cold case. The two victims were killed “execution style” in what seemed to investigators to be a “professional hit”.

Charles “Buzzy” Mitchell, then 66, was killed outside his house, according to then-Captain Kurt Smallcomb of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office (MCSO).

Charles Michell's son, Nolan Mitchell, then 34, was shot to death while he slept inside the home, Smallcomb said. Nolan had been shot more than once.

“They were definitely targeted,” Smallcomb said.

To date, no suspects have ever been identified. Early leads amounted to nothing.

What the MCSO knows is that the killings occurred sometime in the late hours of Oct. 31, 2004, or in the early morning hours of the next day, at the home the father and son shared on Orr Springs Road.

Both men were members of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians. Charles was a reformer who was running for tribal office and had been politically active up to the time of his death — particularly about tribal corruption issues and controversial tribal land development issues, according to Smallcomb.

So, what happened? Were former tribal leaders under indictment involved in murder for hire? Was someone else guilty?

Who killed Charles and Nolan Mitchell?

No one will ever really know. No one can ever really know what happens here in Mendocino County. No one can ever really know what happens here behind the “Green Curtain”.

But after serving on four grand juries and having worked for the MCSO, I can say with reasonable confidence that local politics are corrupt, and people get away with murder.

John Sakowicz

Ukiah

UNITY CLUB NEWS:

A.V. Unity Club's Holiday Bazaar December 7th 2024 In Apple Hall Boonville From 10 to 4. Admission is FREE

Santa Claus is coming to town. Santa will be at the Holiday Bazaar from 11 to 1. Listen for the jingling bells announcing Santa's arrival. He'll be in Apple Hall to take photos with children of all ages. You won't have to mail your wishes to the North Pole, just tell Santa what you want. Your children will also enjoy making collectible crafts in the Craft Corner located in the Dining Room adjacent to Apple Hall. Ornaments and photo frames are some of the crafts the Parent Teacher Alliance of A.V. Elementary School have provided in past years. Let's see what masterpiece your child creates this year.

When you enter Apple Hall Saturday, you will see the fabulous items at the Silent Auction. These range from wine tastings, fine arts, jewelry, and crafts to dinners and household items; all provided by local merchants, vintners and artisans. Make a bid, you might win a bargain. We are also holding a Raffle for a beautiful wreath, decorated with money. The wreath is donated by the A V. High School's Ag. Institute.

Step into the hall and relish the sights and smells. The Baked Goods booth offers Cookies, Cupcakes and Cowboy Crunch, as well as Candy, Preserves and an Apple Pie. The Snack Shack at the North end of the Hall will offer good food and beverages and a place to sit down and visit with friends. The Snack Shack is sponsored by the Parents and Staff of the Elementary School's Second grade class.

Stroll around and see all the wonderful gifts made by our local artisans. You'll find jewelry, fine arts, soaps, needle work, ornaments, pot pouri, and decor. A fine selection of cards, puzzles, household items and Tools will be found at Grandma's Attic and Grandpa's Shed.

Books are a great gift for all ages. The Lending Library located in the Home Arts Bldg. will have Special Hours during the Bazaar, from 10 to 4. They will have a curated collection of gently loved books for your gift list. Hardbound books are only $1 and Paperbacks are 2/$1 or $0.50.

There's no need to drive to the Mall; come to Boonville for your shopping needs. Don't take the kids to an icky Santa for photos, come to the Holiday Bazaar for photos with a hometown Santa. Amazon will sell you sale cookies; your loved ones deserve grandma made cinnamon rolls. Come to the Unity Club's Annual Holiday Bazaar on December the 7th in Apple Hall from 10 to 4. Proceeds go toward Scholarships and other Community Projects sponsored by the Unity Club.

Unity Club Members please note:

Our December Meeting is at 1:30 in the Dining Room and is devoted to wrapping and pricing the Baked Goods Booth items. Bring your creations with a label stating what it is and any allergens, like nuts. We donate non-perishable food and unwrapped toys and books to the Food Bank and AV Volunteer Firefighters. Bring any Silent Auction items not already delivered. Please contact Alice to tell her what you're donating, for the banner and labels. I know there's another … Oh yes, bring your Grandma's Attic & Grandpa's Shed items too.

— Miriam Martinez

GOOD FARM FUND WINTER FEAST is a Who’s Who of Local Food

[Willits, CA] November 25, 2024. The Good Farm Fund is hosting its 8th Annual Winter Feast on Tuesday, December 10 at Ridgewood Ranch in Willits from 5-9 pm. A perennial favorite among local food enthusiasts, the event is back after taking a hiatus last year. It has sold out every year in the past.

The Good Farm Fund, a fiscally sponsored project of North Coast Opportunities, was founded in 2015 with the goal of providing direct support to small farmers in Mendocino and Lake Counties and increasing local food security for underserved members of the community. The organization has awarded over $400,000 in capacity-building grants to 60+ farms and ranches, and has provided $35,000 and counting to Market Match at Mendocino and Lake County farmers markets.

The menu is being designed and executed by a team of local volunteer chefs led by Caroline Radice of Black Dog Farm Catering. Radice will be working with Tamara Adams of Emandal Farm, Jason Pluck of Caring Kitchen Project, Erica Schneider of Fogeater Café, Caroline Rehberger of Flying Dog Pizza, Ryo Muto of Hatake Farm Kitchen, and chef Janelle Weaver, former owner of The Bewildered Pig. “It’s a collaborative effort – a fun group project by a bunch of local chefs who love to cook together,” says Radice, who is also the Good Farm Fund co-founder.

The menu will feature Mulligan Gardens' pastured chicken pot pie, complemented by a vegan version from Fogeater Café. A "potluck salad" will feature ingredients sourced from "as many local farms in Lake and Mendocino counties as possible", says Radice. Guests can also enjoy a selection of appetizers, Reza's Breadery focaccia, and a dessert prepared by Emandal Farm, including ice cream made with honey from Carson and Bees.

Matt Rowland Events will turn the Ridgewood Ranch dining hall into a festive space with cozy lighting, and on-site farms including the Golden Rule Garden and Headwaters Grazing are donating produce and volunteer time to round out the event.

For the first time ever, this will be a sober event - no alcohol will be served. Chef Bridget Harrington, former owner of Patrona Restaurant, will be creating several crafted mocktails using county favorites such as teas from the Mendocino Tea Company, kombucha from Mendocino Ferments, as well as local produce, herbs, and spices. “We are grateful to the many local wineries that support us, and this year we just wanted to try something new,” says Good Farm Fund steering committee member Elizabeth Archer.

Redwood Credit Union, a longtime supporter of the Good Farm Fund, has created a $10,000 matching challenge for this event. This can be met through ticket sales, the silent auction, and a live funding "ask" that will be done by local auctioneer Rachel Britten, whose rousing style is always a hit with the crowd.

In addition to the many farms who are donating ingredients and the army of volunteers who make it all happen, event sponsors include Ukiah Natural Foods Co-Op, Mariposa Market, Blue Zones, and Aum Construction. “Sponsors are so important to keeping the event affordable for everyone,” explains Radice. “We literally couldn’t do it without them.”

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit goodfarmfund.org.

Photos: 2022 Good Farm Fund winter feast
 Photo credit: Nikolas Zvolensky

HOW TO ‘BE OF GOOD CHEER’

by Terry Sites

Yes, the holiday season 2024 is upon us. Starting with Thanksgiving it will be a merry ride filled with festive occasions for anyone with the desire to “Deck the Halls.” Every community has its own offerings and for the price of the gas in your tank you can partake. Some events do require tickets (look on the internet for that information), but most do not. Starting in Anderson Valley the following is a list from 16 different towns within a hundred mile radius, many much closer than that.

Anderson Valley

Tree lighting at the Boonville Hotel, delicious snacks, singing- Dec. 5 at 5:30 Holiday Bazaar AV Unity Club at the AV Fairgrounds Dec. 7 from 10-4 AV Grange Community Dinner Potluck Dec. 8 at 5 PM

Ukiah

Ukiah On Ice. Downtown. Dec. 2- Jan. 12.

Holiday Art Fair. Downtown. Dec. 7 12-6pm

Parade of Lights. Dec. 7. 6:00pm.

Hometown Holiday. Downtown. Dec. 7, 11am-4pm.

Willits

Holiday Truffle Hunt. Dec.15. 10:30am-1pm

Mr. Skunk’s Giant Tree Skunk Train. Dec. 17, 18 and 19

Small Works of Art for Gifts. Willits Center for the Arts.

Middletown

Christmas in Middletown. Downtown. Dec. 14, 3-8pm.

Lakeport

A Xmas Carol Live Radio Play. Soper Reese Community Theater Dec. 1- 2pm.

Occidental

Occidental Center for the Arts Craft Fair. Dec. 14 & 15

Tis the Season, Occidental Community Choir at Occidental Center for the Arts 6, 7, 8 and 14.

Guerneville

Tree Lighting and Parade Of Lights. Downtown. Dec. 7, 7pm.

Santa Rosa

Western Farm Supply, Santa Paws Pix with Santa. Dec. 8- 10am-3pm

French Market Court House Square. 11am-4pm

Handmade Holiday Craft Fair, Finley Center. Dec. 7 & 8, 10am-4pm

Winter Lights Ice Rink. 11/30-12/29. Thur. & Fri. 4-8pm, Sat. & Sun. 12-8pm

Irving Berlin Xmas Musical. 6th Street Playhouse. Nov. 29-Dec. 22.

Luther Burbank Garden Holiday Open House. Dec. 7 & 8, 10am-4pm

Windsor

Holiday Celebration on the Town Green. Dec. 5- 5-8

Healdsburg

Tree Lighting. Dec. 13. 5-8pm.

Healdsburg Chorus, “Joy Shall be Yours.” Raven Theater. Dec. 14 & 15, 3pm

Cloverdale

Winter Festival with Tree Lighting. Dec. 13. 5-8pm

Arts Alliance Jazz Concert. Downtown. “Charged Particles.” Dec. 5. 7:30pm

Hopland

Holiday in Hopland. Dec. 14- 5-8pm.

Point Arena

Hometown Holidays. Dec. 7. 10-7pm

Coast Highway Art Collective Holiday Show. Dec. 7. 11am-7pm.

Fort Bragg

Hideous Holiday Sweater Noyo Harbor Inn (ticket required). Dec. 11. 6-8:30pm

Winter Wonderland. Dec. 7- 12. 6pm.

Noyo Harbor Lit Boat Parade. Dec. 8. 6-9pm.

Mendocino

The Festival Chorale, This Christmas Tide. Preston Hall. Dec. 7. 3pm

Visit Santa Kelly House Museum. Dec. 7. 3:30-4:30pm.

Elk

Holiday Arts and Crafts at Greenwood Community Center. Dec. 7. 10am-4pm

CANDLE MAKING at the Little Red Schoolhouse (Historical Society Museum), Sunday, December 15, 1-4 PM

Bring your family, make candles, enjoy hot cider and cookies. A great way to start the holiday season.

ED NOTES

ON MONDAY, JULY 14th, 1958, the Ukiah Daily Journal reported: “Coyote Dam Clearing Underway. Though the beginning was slow and complicated by difficulties of one kind or another, the drive to clear the Coyote Valley dam basin of brush and debris was underway today and work crews who can muster a few minutes or hours each evening and days on weekends are asked to report to the Coyote Dam entrance on old Highway 20. Unavailability of a bulldozer until late Saturday night slowed the first day’s efforts. Doing the first work in clearing the basin and coming back tonight for more are Walter Heady and his eldest son, Bruce…”

Sonoma County put up most of the money to get the dam built so, in perpetuity, most of the water stored at Lake Mendocino belongs to Sonoma County. The late Joe Scaramella was the only supervisor who voted against the deal.

WALTER HEADY, some of you will recall, was the John Birch Society’s man in Mendocino County. He erected the famous landmark signs on the west side of 101 north and south of Ukiah urging “US Out of the UN.” Mr. and Mrs. Heady, already elderly, used to show up at liberal demos in 1990s Ukiah where, of course, they were subjected to torrents of abuse from people who would otherwise characterize verbal assaults on the elderly as “ageism.”

ANOTHER clip from even further back, this one from the Fort Bragg Advocate of June 30, 1934, illustrates how different the routes of travel used to be in vast Mendocino County. “Coast Line Stages will inaugurate a passenger bus service between Fort Bragg and Duncan Mills in Sonoma County, to become effective July 1st. This service will connect with the regular Pickwick service, giving a direct bus line to Sausalito.” Coast travelers, then, proceeded directly south to West Sonoma County. Some still do if they're traveling by MTA bus, but most Coast residents these days head east for 101 then south.

OLD, OLD TIMERS will correct me, but I believe at or near Duncan Mills in the 1930s one could get on a train to continue one’s journey south to Sausalito then from Sausalito by ferry to San Francisco. Farther back, circa 1910, the aforementioned Joe Scaramella remembered when the mail, wending its way north by horse-drawn stage from Cazadero announced its arrival in Point Arena by a blast from the trumpet carried for that purpose by the stagecoach driver.

A LOCAL OLD TIMER remembers taking the train from Guerneville to Duncan Mills. At Duncan Mills there was a turnaround on which the train reversed direction for the trip back to Guerneville and points east where southbound travelers, at Santa Rosa, caught the old Northwestern Pacific for San Francisco and, if they were northbound, the Northwestern Pacific for Eureka. West Sonoma County, like the East Bay, was served by rail through the 1940s. The Northwestern Pacific ran two trains a day north and south and, briefly, it was possible to get from Fort Bragg to Willits on the Skunk, transfer to the Northwestern Pacific, and get to San Francisco by early evening.

A READER WRITES: “Your comment about the rest of us subsidizing junk mail reminds me of a letter I sent to my local paper… You rail against the Press Democrat. But you haven’t experienced Fairfield’s Daily Republic — or, as it is variously known by locals, the Daily Repulsive or the Daily Repugnant. I’m almost ashamed to have my name appear therein. A quarter of a century ago, after they published a 32-point hed on the second section, “Pet Burial Cite Selected,” I sent off a rather caustic letter asking if a community of 120,000 (then) didn’t deserve better… Two days later I got a very hot call at work from a Senior Editor. ‘Haven’t you ever made a mistake? What qualifies you to criticize our efforts? Have you ever worked in the newspaper business? I replied that, as a matter of fact, I have worked in the newspaper business, the Pasadena Star News. Then I hastily changed the subject before she could ask about my position at the Star News (Paper Boy.) The Daily Republic: the local paper you love to hate! No, I have never subscribed. But my landlady passes me portions of her copies twice a week for Maureen Dowd.”

MENDOCINO ART CENTER

Interested in learning how to sculpt the human face? Already have some figurative sculpting skills but want to refine them while receiving guidance from one of the best in the field? Don’t miss Portraiture in Clay with @jamiebatesisalone this coming February! Sign up online at mendocinoartcenter.org/workshops or through the link in our bio.

During this workshop students will learn to create a sculptural portrait out of clay. Each piece will be built solid and hollowed out for complete freedom while sculpting. The self-portraits will begin with general rules of proportion and will end with a complete detailed image of the sculptor. Sculpting topics to be discussed will include anatomy, underlying bone structure, musculature, expression, ethnicity, weight, and age. Underglaze decorating techniques will be discussed if time permits. This workshop is open to all skill levels.

Jamie Bates, originally from Cameron, Missouri, is a ceramic artist celebrated for their exploration of identity and mental landscapes through figurative sculpture. Holding an MFA in Ceramics from the University of Kansas and a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Central Missouri, Bates skillfully employs scale, composition, and surface to challenge societal norms and address themes such as mental health, sexuality, and gender. Their work has garnered recognition in solo and group exhibitions and social media, captivating audiences with its thought-provoking depth and emotional resonance. Currently serving as an Assistant Professor of Ceramics at the University of Oklahoma, Bates continues to inspire and educate emerging artists while further developing their own practice. Bates has also participated in prestigious artists residencies across the US, further enriching their artistic practice and expanding their creative horizons. Through their work, Bates invites viewers to contemplate the complexities of the human experience, fostering dialogue and introspection.

SAD NEWS (Coast Chatline)

“Notty Bumpo”: Sad to report that Alice Brock has left the restaurant, but you can sing anything you want. 83 years young. Rest in peace.

Marco McClean:

In the early 1980s restaurants in Mendocino had regular places inside where a musician could sit and play. Even /tiny/ Sip-n-Sup. Walt McKeown had a one-man-band setup, including a foot-bulb and hose to operate the shift lever of the harmonica around his neck; he was in Sip-n-Sup a lot. They had a piano, too, and regular pianists. I played guitar there a few times. Brannon's restaurant had a bigger dining room. Mickey Zekley brought people in his orbit to Brannon's, so that by the end of a night the whole dining room was a ring of people playing Irish music. I have a sharp memory of coming out of the kitchen to get bus trays full of dishes and there, as though in a spotlight, Melinda (Groucho Marx' daughter) was furiously, ecstatically playing violin a hundred miles an hour, her high-heel shoe going up and down like a piston, her three-foot-long waterfall of night-black hair whipping the air. Sean Gagnier played there. He was a giant heavy man shaped like a football standing on end, and his patient, quiet, skinny little daughters seemed happy to sit at a table the whole time while he played /Banging Of the Wheelhouse Door/ and the rest of his unvarying pretty good set. He could whistle, too. A tall Nordic woman sometime played cello there and, I think, electronics teacher Francis Rutherford also played cello there a few times. An elfin, impeccably groomed red-blonde man played classical music. Earl Gray (his real name) played there, who later got knocked off his motorcycle by a truck and wrecked his hands, the day before he was about to ride down to L.A. to join a master class in classical guitar. Charles Tyler. Lynn Kiesewetter. Butch Kwan. There were always lots of great musicians, but the places were open to everyone trying it, even if you really didn't know what you were doing or why you were doing it. For example, I used to play guitar and sing in Brannon's for tips (and dinner; they gave you a steak dinner!). I played Cat Stevens songs, and Bob Dylan songs, and John Prine, and a few I wrote myself that now I cringe to even imagine; I had a list of the forty or fifty songs I knew, in tiny handwriting, taped to the top of the guitar, to look at in case I forgot. Sometimes I experimented: once I brought an electric guitar and a tape-echo box I'd got from Fiddles and Cameras, that used a blank 8-track tape for the medium, tuned the guitar open and low and weird, and played this twangy reverby raga-like crap for three hours. I had a hand puppet named Mr. Itchy that I distracted loud children with. (Years later the costume department of Gloriana Opera Company glittered and fierced him up to be the projected monster Wizard in their Wizard of Oz. I never got him back the way he was; he was a victim of cosmetic surgery.) But I learned to play the guitar part of Alice's Restaurant and several nights played and sang and recited that whole 25-minute-long thing word-for-word and note-for-note like an 18th-century mechanical harpsichord automaton and nobody ever stopped me. In the whole entire early 1980s I got only one mean (meaning honest) heckler, a drunk old businessman type whose sweet mortified wife almost slapped him, but tipped me twenty dollars. Ah, I thought, I see how to do it now.

R.D. BEACON

Navarro by the Sea,Inn & bar and restaurant, now to the story about, why we had to close the INN, one night, actually a Saturday night, I had a bad cold and could not be doubted the business on at Navarro, by the sea, bar and restaurant, it was a Saturday night, and the Mark Levine review, local rock 'n roll band was the night's, entertainment I had hired to bartenders, to take care of the place, in my absence, one Jeffrey Perl, and Steve, andapolicy, their instructions were simple, make sure all the money went in the cash register, and at the end of the evening put it in the save and spend the dial, I would take care of everything next day, yet other types of music show up, a band from Anderson Valley, with two young people, that were one was the singer, the other guy played the drums, the rule was, there was no alcohol in the dance floor area, persons under 21 could be in a bad, because the lobby, was part of the restaurant, and we did serve food, until closing, which would be 1:45 AM, the next thing I knew, I was woke up, at home, by a phone call, from a representative, of the Highway Patrol, saying that there was a vehicle accident, Upton Navarro River, a vehicle off in the water, due to the fact that, I wish the fire chief, for the Greenwood Ridge fire department, and we serve part of the area, I managed to call out the troops, with a four-wheel-drive, fire truck, that had a wincing system on the front, I got out of my warm bed, and went to the same, where, I could see only the back part of the vehicle, in the water, I got to individuals, but a chain on the vehicle, and we regarded it up on the bank, where they opened the back door, to young people were pulled out, but they had drowned, due to my bad cold, and left other members of my department in charge, and went home back to bed, I was woke up again at 7 AM, by a member of the California Department, of alcoholic beverage control, requesting that I come to the business, from meeting, dammit Navarro by the sea, it turned out, that my two bartenders, who I thought were reliable, had had a party after-hours, with the members of the band, and part of the party was, giving alcohol, to individuals, out on the beach, while the bartenders had a little fun, with the young lady that was the singer, using one of my motel rooms, to have a private party, needless to say my liquor license was suspended, as I looked around for the bartenders, to have a chat with them, about the subject, they had both left town, not even waiting for their paycheck, this is why Navarro by the sea we shut down, too bad bartenders, cost me my business, and I was forced into selling, the liquor license, out of the business, which made the place, virtually worthless, it is interesting that I offered to sell it to the state parks at that time for $150,000, and they turned me down, I put it on the market to write to try, to recover some of the money I had in it, simple fact the state paid over $300,000, for property they could have had for less than about half, I should've hired better bartenders, for these individuals cost of family several families, their loved ones, it cost me my business, I managed to rent, the cabins out for a while, over the years, the restaurant and bar, never opened again, what used to be, a real hopping spot in the old days, today, only the ghost of many customers past, walked down the walls and in the halls of time, the state has returned to building to what it used to be before the bar was added on, I made a deal with the people involved to recover the original bar, that are Q McCorkle, but it which is made of combed, redwood paneling, manufactured by Casper lumber company, I also acquired as much of the paneling that was in the bar area, that I could retrieve, and have it all stored, in a dry area, thinking I would like to put it in another location, for your sidebar could talk, he would tell many stories, as I look back, my own personal greed, costs the place to be shut down, huge amounts of customers, for dance music, was great while it lasted, but in the end, it was short-lived, and as my regrets and looking back at the history, if I would've run it like it was in its heyday, it would still probably be going, other than the fact, the place was frequently flooded, and now the state has raised the building up, so the water, does not intrude upon the downstairs, as to the preserving of the structure, and the reasons for it, Capt. Fletcher, much is he is revered by some of the newer historians, he was basically the owner, of the house of prostitution, the real truth, around his little store, was wrapped around, the fact that, people who would come into the immediate area, were tied into the timber business, with the huge sawmill right in the front yard and a little bit east, of the main building, over the years, all of the sawmill, buildings of disappeared, and much of the machine reach sunken into the mud, but there are photos, of days gone by, some of the parties, that were held there, or ethic under themselves, I really miss going down there, and having a good steak dinner with fresh made apple pie for dessert, but like so many businesses on the coast, when the sawmills disappeared, many of our finest restaurants, and hangouts went away with, all we can do today, it looked to the future.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, November 25, 2024

ALEXANDER ADAMS, 27, Fort Bragg. Under influence, resisting.

REGINALD AZBILL, 41, Covelo. Controlled substance, no license, evasion.

PABLO BALANDRAN, 22, Boonville DUI, no license.

NATHANIAL BUBLITZ, 40 Boonville. DUI.

JOHN CUNNAN, 55, Covelo. Domestic violence court order violation.

MARCO DAVILA, 29, Point Arena. Failure to appear.

JESTIN GOTT, 39, Redwood Valley. Petty theft, paraphernalia.

JOSE GRANT, 44, Willits. Parole violation.

JAMES MCGARY, 45, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

JACOB PARMELY, 39, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, parole violation.

SIXTO RAMOS-OCONNELL, 34, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, concealed dirk-dagger, disobeying court order.

MYCHELL VEGA-AYALA, 30, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

ERIKA WILLIAMS, 42, Hopland. Controlled substance, disobeying court order, failure to appear, probation revocation.

BEFORE THE BOTTOM DROPS OUT…

Overcoming Evil

Just left the (lower) Crypt Church following Catholic Mass at the Basilica in Washington, D.C., where the assembled prayed for peace in the Middle East. Have sent out a request widely asking for support of the Washington, D.C. Peace Vigil; contact Philipos Melaku-Bello at philiposbello@gmail.com. Please appreciate the fact that I am still at the Adam’s Place Homeless Shelter, and with the weather about to turn into winter, need to get a stable living situation somewhere soon. Am playing the lottery regularly. Obviously, more money would be precisely what is necessary. Before the bottom drops out of the United States of America, why not do the enlightened thing and support peace and love? You can still go shopping and enjoy a beer and watch sports.

Craig Louis Stehr

BE PREPARED FOR A NUCLEAR WAR

Amid growing fears of World War III, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) re-released (originally released in 2018) a series of steps detailing how to survive a nuclear attack should the U.S. ever find itself the target of one.

With the war in Ukraine — sparked by Russia's invasion of it in February 2022 — and now heating up with the U.S. now authorizing Ukraine to fire U.S.-supplied long-range missiles deep into Russia, many are fearing the possibility of a third world war. The conflict in the Middle East is also heating up, and frequent exchanges between Israel and Iran have sparked fears of nuclear escalation.

So today, FEMA released (again) a detailed guide, an updated remnant of Cold War nuclear safety guides, to teach Americans what they should do if they find themselves in the midst of a nuclear explosion (see below).

BE PREPARED FOR A NUCLEAR EXPLOSION

The “Doomsday Clock” has never been closer to “midnight.” Pray for the world.

John Sakowicz

co-host “Heroes and Patriots Radio”

HEROES AND PATRIOTS - Heroes Patriots, Radio

PS. In his solemn address last Thursday, the Russian president threatened nuclear retaliation on countries that help Ukraine, including NATO countries. This is a clear escalation of nuclear tensions.

In this respect, an excerpt from Vladimir Putin's speech about the new Russian doctrine is particularly illuminating:

“In response to the use of American and British long-range weapons, on November 21 this year the Russian armed forces launched a combined strike on one of the objects of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex.

One of Russia's latest medium-range missile systems was tested under combat conditions, in this case with a ballistic missile fitted with non-nuclear hypersonic equipment.

Our rocket specialists call it the “Oreshnik.” The tests were successful, and the launch target was reached. On the territory of Ukraine, in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, one of the largest industrial complexes known since the days of the Soviet Union was hit, which is still producing missile and other weapons technology today.”

And Putin increased the pressure on the U.S. and threatened:

“We will determine the targets to be destroyed in subsequent tests of our new missile systems, based on threats to the security of the Russian Federation. We consider that we have the right to use our weapons against military targets in countries that allow their weapons to be used against our targets, and in the event of an escalation of aggressive actions, we will react just as decisively and in the same way.

NEW REPORT ON BIG OIL’S FRONT GROUPS IN CALIFORNIA EXPOSES A ‘DECADE OF DECEPTION’

by Dan Bacher

The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), the most powerful corporate lobbying group in California, has spent tens of millions of dollars creating and funding faux “grassroots” organizations”— “Astroturf” groups — according to a new report by the Last Chance Alliance.

WSPA has done this to mislead the public on climate, derail public health and environmental policies, and protect Big Oil’s profits at taxpayers’ expense,

The full report is available here: lastchancealliance.org/decadeofdelays/

At the helm of WSPA is Catherine Reheis-Boyd, WSPA’s President and CEO, who oversees the trade organization’s operations and advocacy in five Western states — California, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, and Oregon.

In a major conflict of interest cited by grassroots environmentalists, anglers and Tribal members, Reheis-Boyd served as the Chair of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create “marine protected areas” in Southern California from 2009 to 2012 at the same time that the oil industry was lobbying for new oil drilling off the West Coast. She also served on the task forces for the Central Coast, North Central Coast and North Coast from 2004 to 2012.

Oil giant Chevron contributed 63% of the California influence spending money for the front groups over the decade, spending $10.9 million (37%) during the 2023-2024 legislative session alone, the report revealed.

In response to the unveiling of the new report, Nicole Ghio, California Director of Food & Water Watch said, “This report reaffirms what we already know: Big Oil spends big to deceive the public in its campaign to profit by ripping off consumers, attempting to rob Californians of a decade of progress on climate action.”

“Ten years after WSPA’s infamous slide deck leaked — outlining a strategy to deploy astroturf groups to create the illusion of grassroots support for Big Oil — advocates are updating the public on these front groups,” the Alliance wrote. “The new report exposes how the oil industry continues to wield influence in California politics, even as genuine grassroots movements push for bold climate measures to hold polluters accountable, protect community health, and end drilling.”

“This is textbook astroturfing,” said Jamie Henn, Executive Director of Fossil Free Media. “Since they don’t have any legitimate grassroots support, WSPA uses a network of front groups with intentionally misleading names, like Californians for Energy Independence, to lobby on behalf of oil and gas companies and against the public interest. With the world looking to states like California to help lead the climate fight, it’s more important than ever to shine a spotlight on these industry villains who are standing in the way of progress.”…

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2024/11/25/2288709/-New-Report-on-Big-Oil-s-Front-Groups-in-California-Exposes-A-Decade-of-Deception

DRESOW ANSWERS QUESTIONS ABOUT LARGELY UNREPORTED PORTJE V. SAUSALITO SETTLEMENT. And In Unveiling A Much-Needed Flood Control Project, Rep. Huffman Says Marin City Qualifies for Reparations.

A big win for Marin City’s most patient organizers. Meanwhile, when an initially much-publicized lawsuit quietly settles, local media skips the story.

by Eva Chrystanthe

Author’s note: I held off on publishing this last weekend as I was awaiting responses from attorney Charles Dresow regarding Novato photographer Jeremy Portje’s largely unreported settlement with the City of Sausalito. Dresow graciously responded early this week.

I admit that it has been difficult to view Portje’s case outside of the history of notable incidents of law enforcement abuses in Marin, specifically those targeting Black men from Marin City: Arrest-referred-to-prosecution data covering 1989 through 2020 indicates that Marin City has historically been the most overpoliced community in the County. And yet Marin City residents have long struggled to gain the attention of prominent attorneys and legal rights organizations based in Marin, whether it was for law enforcement abuses, housing protections, or even securing proper lights in the walkway of the underpass tunnel that is the only entry/exit point for Marin City.

It is also difficult to see Portje’s case outside of the context of the County’s secretive Sheriff Civilian Oversight Working Group (SCOWG), on which Portje and his attorney Charles Dresow both served. No Black residents of Marin City were permitted to serve on the SCOWG, and only one Latino resident, a wealthy former Chief of Staff to Gavin Newsom, was permitted entrée to the group, which was composed almost entirely of property owners, most of whom had significant ties to County power.

Which is to say that the county chooses insiders and outsiders, and the vast majority of Marin City has never had insider status conferred on them by the County.

Dresow’s responses to my questions about the case and the settlement are included below.…

https://marincountyconfidential.substack.com/p/dresow-answers-questions-about-largely

THE END OF THE WORLD FROLICS

by James Kunstler

“If these people had to be honest, it would all be over.” — Mike Benz

“Now that our cheques are bouncing and we are starting to default on our debts, our entire civilization appears to be manifesting suicidal behavior in an effort to control the firing squad.” — Luke Dodson

“Joe Biden” is feeling blue. Not a joke. In the lurid sunset of his dwindling term-in-office, the long shadow of his legacy points toward a gigantic glowing cinder where North America used to be. Such are the grievances of the outgoing president. I pass unto you and your legions of white supremacist slobs the ashtray that was once our mighty nation. Fix that! But, as Sir Mick Jagger observed some time ago: you can’t always get what you want. “Joe Biden,” in despair, sinks deeper into his McTeer power recliner and slips back into the bitter dream of his nemesis, a beast named Chrump. . . .

It’s such a chewy name: Chrump, a fricative fiesta! The tongue briefly presses against the alveolar ridge before releasing, then curls back, and the jaw opens slightly to form this vowel sound, the lips close to let the sound resonate nasally before releasing air. Chrump Chrump Chrump. Like, what your mouth would feel like working through a bowl of Froot Loops. So satisfying! The outgoing Party of Chaos can’t stop chanting it on the cable news networks, as if trying to invoke the ancient furies, ghastly, terrifying figures with snakes for hair, dogs' heads, blood-red eyes, and bat-wings, brandishing torches and scourges to mortify their enemy.

Otherwise, fantasy aside, they are in paralysis as this enemy, Mr. Trump, marshals his pieces on the gameboard: Musk, Vivek, Bobby Jr, Tulsi, Bondi, Hegseth . . . . Ay-yeeeeee! They are coming to get us. . . . Somebody. . . do something. . . !

Okay, then, who, exactly, in the shadows behind the half-conscious ghoul in the White House, thinks that now is a great time to commence an ATACMS (Attack’ems) missile barrage on Russia as the very thing to salvage our Ukraine project? You’d naturally turn first to Blinken and Jake Sullivan, those gold-dust twins of overseas jiggery-pokery. Or, is it the geniuses at Spook Central, worried about the fumigating operation incoming with Mr. Ratcliffe? Or perhaps it’s the men-in-skirts over in the Pentagon, seeking to punish humanity because of the clerical error inflicted on them by the desk up-yonder that handles sexual assignments at birth. Blow it all up!

The psychopathic wrath of this gang is really getting out-of-hand. Can Mr. Putin make it any clearer? FA and FO. Hence, many of us are a little concerned that the Thanksgiving birds might not make it to table this year, or ever again, if “Joe Biden” and company keep it up. One more sortie of ATACMS or British Storm Shadows and the satellite targeting and navigation installations for these missiles will get vaporized, along with the NATO member technicians on duty there. What’s your next move, “Joe”? ICBMs? I think we all know what that means.

Let me tell you a few things about this Russia Russia Russia business. It’s been thirty years since the fall of the Soviet Union. It was a bold political experiment running a society by means contrary to human nature, and after an impressively long run, seven decades, if finally flopped, bankrupt in every sense of the word. It took a while for the dazed Russians to get their minds right after that long misadventure, but they have come around to embrace the idea of being a normal European nation. That is, a country whose citizens are at liberty to do business, travel freely, enjoy a rule-of-law (rather than a rule of despotic personalities). That is, much like we are supposed to be.

Surely, Russia under Mr. Putin has its imperfections, at least as viewed through lens of America’s Woke-cryptoMarxist-Neocon/psychopath lens. Mainly, it won’t do what we tell it to do: roll over and die! But as often is the case with illnesses of the mind, the American cabal projects its own perverse thoughts on its adversary. Russia, we keep insisting, wants to take over the world! Is it news to you that this does not comport with reality. (By now you know that news in the USA does not comport with reality.) Rather, America acts like we want to take over the world. Hegemony: power over everyone and everything, an increasingly sick notion, given how things are going in this world. Sorry to tell you: that dream is over.

Since 1990, Russia has tried like hell to establish normal relations with western Europe and the USA. Our blob wouldn’t allow that. Russia even asked to join NATO some years ago. Russia wanted to trade with Germany, France, Italy, and the rest. Our blob had to stop that. Finally, the blob geniuses decided that they could put Russia out of business altogether, bust it up to make it helpless, and then own all its mineral and energy resources.

Ukraine would be the means to accomplish that — plus we’d end up with all the goodies in Ukraine, too: the breadbasket lands, the ores. BlackRock, Haliburton, and many other companies lined up to benefit from this scheme, which is now a smoldering wreck. Mr. Trump, wants to terminate that stupid, wicked project. Going back even further, to 2016, he proposed to try making friends with Russia. The benefits were obvious, principally, keeping them on our side against the rising power of the CCP. Russia, no longer under communism, had interests in common with Western Civ — hell, it was part of Western Civ, really, its literature, music, science, manners.

The blob couldn’t abide what Mr. Trump was proposing, so they turned around and burnt his ass with the Russia Russia Russia flamethrower. . . and after that there could be no more talk of friendship between the USA and Putin Putin Putin. Mr. Putin must marvel at how much America under “Joe Biden” is loving the old Soviet Union — since we’re doing everything possible to emulate its workings. We’ve got censorship. We’ve got an FBI-turned-KGB swatting citizens guilty of nothing and a DOJ stuffing them in our gulag. We’ve got a senile president every bit as non compos mentis as Konstantin Chernenko was. We’ve neatly managed to bankrupt ourselves.

Do you see yet what has been going on in our country? In about fifty-odd days we are going to start correcting all that — if “Joe Biden” doesn’t conjure up nuclear Armageddon. This Thanksgiving, direct your prayers to averting that outcome, and give thanks for better days to come.

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Someone I know was ranting about Trump's nominations last week when I pointed out that "Joe Biden" had earlier in the week taken the clock even closer to midnight. He hadn't noticed. When I pointed out that green lighting landmines was particularly evil he went off on Putin's "evil". I'm still angry at this level of wilful myopia and general stupidity. A headline of an op-ed piece in the ghastly Guardian today tries to claim this escalation is not the West's doing. There must be some way out of here…

LEAD STORIES, TUESDAY'S NYT

Trump Plans Tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China That Could Cripple Trade

Trump Aide Is Accused of Asking for Money to ‘Promote’ Potential Appointees

Special Counsel Moves to End Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 and Documents Cases

End of Trump Cases Leaves Limits on Presidential Criminality Unclear

Devoted Aide Who Keeps Good News Flowing Will Follow Trump to the White House

‘Liberated’ From Leadership, McConnell Is Ready to Pick His Own Fights

Netanyahu Signals Openness to Cease-Fire With Hezbollah, Officials Say

ICC ISSUES ARREST WARRANTS FOR ISRAEL, HAMAS LEADERSHIP

The decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants citing alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former defense minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, has led to huge interest in the court, and what comes next.

The ICC can only investigate and prosecute if the national judicial system of the countries concerned are not, in the eyes of the Court, conducting genuine investigations or prosecutions for the same alleged crimes.

“The primary responsibility is for the national judicial systems,” Fadi El Abdallah, the ICC spokesperson, told UN News. “However, if there are no genuine investigations or prosecutions, then the court has to investigate and to prosecute where the legal conditions are met. So that means that it's not enough to have a legal system, but there is a need to demonstrate that this legal system is active in relation to crimes or alleged crimes.”

The warrants, related to alleged war crimes stemming from the year-long Gaza conflict triggered by the Hamas-led attacks in Israel, indicate that the judges have found reasonable grounds to believe the suspects are responsible for crimes under ICC jurisdiction.

This Is Just The First Step

At the pre-trial stage, for the defendants to challenge the admissibility of the proceedings. “It's possible either for the concerned state or for the concerned suspect to seek from the ICC to stop the proceedings against him or her,” says Mr. El Abdallah, “but that has to be based on evidence that there are genuine serious prosecutions, at the national level, for the same alleged conduct.”

It is also important to note that the ICC does not conduct trials in absentia: the defendants must be physically present in order for the case to begin.

All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt before the ICC. Each defendant is entitled to public and impartial proceedings. If and when suspects appear, they are provided with a defence team if needed, and undergo a confirmation of charges hearing before the case can proceed to trial.

Once the defendants appear before the court, a “confirmation of charges” hearing takes place, at which the judges will decide, after having listened to the defence, whether the prosecutor evidence is still solid enough for the case to move to trial.

If they decide to go ahead, the defence and prosecution will call witnesses and present evidence. Legal representative of the victims also have the rights to present their observations in person.

The court then decides if the defendants are innocent or guilty, and what their sentence should be.

Finally, the defendants have the right to appeal to the ICC Appeals Chamber, made up of five judges, different from the three judges of the pretrial and the other three trial judges.

How Significant Are These Warrants?

The answer to this question lies in the reason the court was set up in the first place. Created in 2002, the ICC is the world’s first permanent, treaty-based international criminal court to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and the crime of aggression.

The warrants send a signal that the rule of law must be upheld, and provide a legal avenue for justice, which is crucial to breaking the cycle of violence and revenge.

Countries That Recognize The Court Are Obliged To Support The Warrants

The court has no police to enforce its warrants and depends on its member States to implement its orders. This means that, if Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Gallant or Mr. Deif (whom Israel claims to have killed, although this has not been confirmed by Hamas) visit one of the 124 countries that accept the Court’s jurisdiction, the authorities of the nation in question should arrest them and deliver them to a detention centre in the Netherlands, where the Court is based.

Why Issue The Warrants, If The Defendants Are Unlikely To Come To Trial?

“The judges have decided, based on the evidence and on the rule of law as they have interpreted them, and we need to respect that,” declares Mr. El Abdallah.

“It is important to let people believe that the law is there for them, and to believe that justice will be done, because if not, what choices are we leaving to them, other than continuing in the cycle of violence and revenge?”

(UNNews)

Arrest Warrants Issued For Netanyahu, Gallant And Hamas Commander Over Alleged War Crimes

by David Gritten

Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have issued arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and former defense minister, as well as the military commander of Hamas.

A statement said a pre-trial chamber had rejected Israel’s challenges to the court’s jurisdiction and issued warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.

A warrant was also issued for Mohammed Deif of Hamas, although Israel has said he was killed in an air strike in Gaza in July.

The judges said there were “reasonable grounds” the three men bore "criminal responsibility" for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war between Israel and Hamas. Both Israel and Hamas have rejected the allegations.

Prime Minister Netanyahu condemned the ICC’s decision as “antisemitic”, while Hamas said the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant had set an "important historical precedent".

The impact of these warrants will in part depend on whether the ICC’s 124 member states - which do not include Israel or its main ally, the United States - decide to enforce them or not.

The White House said the US rejected the ICC decision.

However, several European countries have said they respect the decisions of the court.

Gardner: ICC warrants 'major blow to Israel's standing'

What is the International Criminal Court?

Why are Israel and Hamas fighting in Gaza?

The ICC has the authority to prosecute those accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes on the territory of states party to the Rome Statute, its founding treaty.

Israel rejects the ICC's jurisdiction, but the court ruled in 2021 that it had jurisdiction over the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza because the UN’s secretary general had accepted the Palestinians were a member.

What are the charges?

In May, the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan sought warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, Deif and two other Hamas leaders who have since been killed, Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar.

Although Israel believes Deif is dead, the chamber said it had been notified by the ICC prosecution that it was not in a position to determine whether he was killed or remained alive.

The prosecutor's case against them stems from the events of 7 October 2023, when Hamas gunmen attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others back to Gaza as hostages.

Israel responded to the attack by launching a military campaign to eliminate Hamas, during which at least 44,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

For Deif, the chamber found reasonable grounds to believe he was "responsible for the crimes against humanity of murder; extermination; torture; and rape and other form of sexual violence; as well as the war crimes of murder, cruel treatment, torture; taking hostages; outrages upon personal dignity; and rape and other form of sexual violence.”

It also said there were reasonable grounds to believe the crimes against humanity were "part of a widespread and systematic attack directed by Hamas and other armed groups against the civilian population of Israel".

For Netanyahu and Gallant, who was replaced as defence minister earlier this month, the chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that they "each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts".

It also found reasonable grounds to believe that "each bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population".

The chamber also noted that it had rejected two Israeli challenges - one disputing the ICC’s jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories, and Israeli nationals specifically, and the other arguing that the ICC prosecutor had not given Israel the opportunity to investigate the allegations itself before requesting warrants.

The ICC is a court of last resort and is only supposed to act when domestic courts cannot, or will not, genuinely investigate or prosecute serious international crimes.

Will Netanyahu Be Arrested?

Despite the warrants, Netanyahu and Gallant do not face any immediate threat of prosecution, although it could make it difficult for them to travel abroad.

Technically, if either of them set foot in any ICC member state they must be arrested and handed over to the court.

Netanyahu’s most recent overseas trip was in July to the US, which is not a member. But last year, he visited several other countries, including the UK, which is.

When asked by journalists if Netanyahu would be arrested if he came to the UK, the government spokesman replied: “We are not getting into hypotheticals.”

It is believed a domestic legal process would be required in the UK to determine whether to endorse the warrant.

Two EU countries - Italy and the Netherlands - have said openly they would arrest any of the men on their territory. Several other European countries promised to comply with the ICC's rules without specifying this.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the ICC decision was binding on all EU member states.

ICC members do not always choose to enforce warrants.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, wanted over alleged war crimes in Ukraine, received a warm welcome and was not arrested during an official visit to neighbouring Mongolia - an ICC member - in September.

South Africa, another ICC member, also failed to arrest then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir when he visited in 2015 despite him facing a warrant for alleged war crimes in the Darfur region.

In the US, incoming Senate Republican leader John Thune urged the Senate to pass a bill that has already been passed by the House of Representatives, under which the US would impose sanctions on people "engaged in any effort to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute any protected person of the United States and its allies”.

How Have Israel and Hamas Reacted?

Netanyahu said in a video that it was a "dark day in the history of humanity," and that the ICC has become "the enemy of humanity.

"It's an antisemitic step that has one goal - to deter me, to deter us from having our natural right to defend ourselves against enemies who try to destroy us," he said.

Gallant said the court’s decision “places the State of Israel and the murderous leaders of Hamas in the same row and thus legitimises the murder of babies, the rape of women and the abduction of the elderly from their beds”.

Hamas made no mention of the warrant for Deif but welcomed the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, saying the ICC's decision “constitutes an important historical precedent, and a correction to a long path of historical injustice against our people”.

Israel has vehemently denied the allegation its forces are committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, which is the subject of a separate case before the International Court of Justice.

The Palestinian Authority - which runs parts of the West Bank - said the decision “represents hope and confidence in international law and its institutions” and urged ICC member states to halt “contact and meetings” with Netanyahu and Gallant.

Palestinians in Gaza expressed hope that it would bring Israeli leaders to justice.

“The court’s decision may ease some of my pain, but my sister’s soul - and those of tens of thousands of Palestinian victims - will not find peace until Netanyahu and his army leaders are behind bars,” Munira al-Shami, whose sister Wafa was killed in an Israeli attack a month ago, told the BBC.

(BBC)

MORE ISRAELIS ARE REFUSING DEPLOYMENT TO GAZA

by Arvind Dilawar

On November 27, Soul Behar Tsalik, an 18-year-old from Tel Aviv, is expected to show up at an induction center for the Israeli military, but he isn’t going to enlist. Instead — like a dozen other Israeli teens in the last year — he has decided to face military prison rather than comply with conscription.

Behar Tsalik describes military service as an obligation that Israelis like him are raised expecting to fulfill from birth, but it becomes increasingly palpable at age 16, when they start receiving their first draft notices. He likens the process to college admissions for teenagers elsewhere, full of angling for the best positions — albeit in military units and divisions, rather than with universities and scholarships. Unit 8200 of the Israeli Intelligence Corps, for example, is well known for being a stepping stone to Israel’s tech industry.

“From around 16, you’re doing well in school and you’re going into programs because you’re trying to get into the best position you can get to in the army,” Behar Tsalik told Truthout. “Some people put in a lot of work, some people don’t. And when you’re 18, you get the official draft letter: ‘Come on this-and-this date for this-and-this job.’

And that’s when I will probably be going to jail.” In publicly refusing military service, Behar Tsalik joins hundreds of reservists who have similarly said they would not be complicit in the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip. Together, they hope that they will be able to reprise the role that “refusers,” as they are known in Israel, have played in the past and help bring the current carnage to an end. “The Circle of Violence” The refuser movement in Israel is a patchwork of individuals, networks and more formal groups, some organized around specific military units and conflicts, others centering their broader political perspective, typically on the left. Although military service is often described as a national duty in Israel, conscription is in fact far from universal. As little as 50 percent of Israeli citizens actually enlist, according to left-leaning Mesarvot (Hebrew for “I Refuse”), a network of Israeli refusers to which Behar Tsalik belongs. Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up more than 20 percent of the population, are exempt from military service. Similarly, especially observant religious Jews, who are often described as “ultra-Orthodox” (although some reject the term), make up more than 10 percent of the population and have historically avoided conscription by requesting deferrals for religious study until they reach the age of exemption, which may extend as far as the late thirties.

Other Israeli Jews avoid conscription through medical exemptions or fail to serve their full two-to-three year deployments due to physical or psychological conditions. Others simply opt for months-long prison sentences rather than years-long deployments in order to get back to their private lives sooner. Among reservists who have completed their initial deployment but remain eligible for redeployment until the age of 40, the numbers who serve are as little as 2 percent of the population.

Despite such widespread avoidance of conscription, public opposition is relatively rare. In addition to the months-long prison sentences that can be renewed to years by Israeli military authorities, there is the fear of social ostracization by Israeli society, which is generally very militaristic. That said, many draft resisters — especially those from more left-leaning backgrounds — describe being supported by their immediate family, friends, and other community members, including employers. Nevertheless, fear persists.

“There are many other people who refuse for political reasons,” Nimrod Flaschenberg, a spokesperson for Mesarvot, told Truthout. “But they don’t want to put their faces on it.”

Since Palestinian militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, only a dozen inductees like Behar Tsalik have publicly refused to enlist, along with a few hundred reservists. In fact, in the immediate aftermath of the attack, the Israeli military had 30 percent more reservists volunteer for redeployment than it had actually called up, according to Yesh Gvul (Hebrew for “There is a Limit”), a more centrist organization which supports Israeli refusers.

But as the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza commenced, reservists like Yuval Green, a medic and member of Yesh Gvul, questioned whether they were rescuing the 240 Israeli hostages captured by Palestinian militants — or exacting revenge for the 1,200 Israelis killed on October 7. (According to the United Nations, more than a dozen Israelis that day were killed by the Israeli military, as reported in The Telegraph and elsewhere.) Due to the escalating violence by Israeli forces in the West Bank, Green was planning on refusing redeployment prior to the attack, but October 7 pushed him to reconsider. His unit was deployed to Gaza, where he witnessed the widespread destruction caused by fellow Israeli soldiers.

Green reached his limit when his commanding officer ordered him to burn down the Palestinian home where his unit had been quartered. When he questioned the necessity of it, he was told it was to conceal their operations and prevent their equipment from falling into militants’ hands. When he offered to sweep the home for any signs of their operational set-up and their equipment, he was once again ordered to burn it down. He refused and shortly thereafter left Gaza.

“All of them knew people who were murdered on the 7th of October,” Green tells Truthout, referring to the other members of his unit. “They were just feeding the circle of violence.”

As of this writing, Israeli forces have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, including 16,000 children, in the Gaza Strip, per the Palestinian Ministry of Health as cited by Al Jazeera. The true toll of the genocide, obscured by the ongoing Israeli attacks and blockade, may top 330,000 deaths by the end of the year, according to estimates published in The Guardian. Nearly 70 percent of the dead who have been identified so far were women and children, according to a UN report.

“They Need People”

Although public refusers make up only a fraction of those Israelis who reject military service, their impact can be pronounced. Yesh Gvul, for example, was founded by reservists in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and was cited by then Chief of Staff Moshe Levi as contributing to Israel’s eventual withdrawal. (Israel’s currently ongoing invasion of Lebanon notwithstanding, the Israeli occupation persisted until 2000, when Hezbollah militants forced the Israeli military and its collaborators in the South Lebanese Army from all of Lebanon but Sheeba Farms, which Israel continues to occupy.) Similarly, refusers were cited by Israeli diplomat Dov Weisglass as contributing to the Israeli military’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, following the Second Intifada (Arabic for “Uprising”) in which Palestinians challenged the Israeli occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

While the number of public refusers currently trails those during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the Second Intifada, the movement now is set to be bigger than those of the past, according to Ishai Menuchin, a spokesperson for Yesh Gvul.

“We cannot estimate the numbers,” Menuchin told Truthout. “We know it’s a big wave, but we don’t know how big is this wave.”

According to Menuchin, 3,000 reservists publicly pledged to refuse redeployment during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and 2,500 did during the Second Intifada, but both took years of public organizing. While the current number of reservists publicly pledging to refuse deployment to Gaza is in the hundreds, he notes that they have emerged entirely organically, rather than as the result of a years-long public campaign, as was the case in the past. Furthermore, Menuchin points to other evidence of widespread private refusal: testimony received by Yesh Gvul from those newly released from military prison attesting to the facilities being full of deserters, government statistics reporting that the numbers of reservists appearing for duty is falling and the Israeli military’s recent efforts to conscript those traditionally exempt from service, such as the “ultra-Orthodox.”

The motivations of such refusers may run the gamut from moral opposition to self-preservation to religious tradition, but they all contribute to ending the Israeli genocide in Gaza, according to New Profile, another leftist organization that supports refusers.

“They need people,” Or, an activist with New Profile, tells Truthout, referring to the Israeli military. (As advocating for refusal is a crime in Israel, Or declined to share their last name.) “You can’t commit any kind of war crime without having people to do it. More people refusing means that there is less of an ability to commit war crimes — not in Lebanon, not in Iran, not in Gaza and not in the West Bank. It’s the most practical thing Israelis can do, saying no.”

For Behar Tsalik, publicly refusing to join the Israeli military was a decision he had made prior to receiving his first draft notice two years ago, in opposition Israel’s occupation of Palestine more broadly. He describes the genocide that Israel unleashed in Gaza after October 7, 2023, as providing only further evidence of what he had already come to believe beforehand.

“Some of my friends are fighters in the war right now,” said Behar Tsalik. “The stuff they’re doing is terrible, and I think it’s also doing terrible stuff to them. … There’s some stuff that you shy away from, and some stuff that you have to put your foot down and say, ‘I won’t.’”

(Truthout.org)

STARE INTO GAZA: The Horror Was Not What I Expected

by Matthew Hoh

That is Gaza behind me.

The fence line is 600m away. The northern part of Gaza, where Israel is carrying out a genocide within a genocide, systematically starving 300,000 Palestinians to death, is about 2km further.

The absurdity and the obscenity of being able to be this close to 20,000 murdered children, their bodies “prophetic voices from under the rubble” as a colleague called them, is difficult to accept.

The grotesque horror of a school field trip arriving at this location from two hours away to watch the mass slaughter from an observation deck was a shock I am overwhelmed by. The first wave of boys pumped celebratory firsts and thrust middle fingers upon their sight of Gaza.

There were no warplanes or drones visible. The school kids and other audience members of a genocide who gawked and put money into a telescope left disappointed as they saw no bombs or missiles, no artillery or tank fire. There were no blast waves from controlled demolitions to wash over them, and the numbers of smoke pillars from smoldering and cratered homes and schools were in the single digits, their fires not vigorous enough to be smelled. It must have been underwhelming and a let down; not much to boast about or revel in on the school bus ride home.

It was quiet. The sounds of those buried under rubble don’t reach the observation deck. No torn and wrecked bodies could be seen, no sunlight reflected in pools of blood, and no strips of clothes snagged on exposed bones fluttered in the strong wind. We were as close as we could be but so separate and so safe from it. It was sanitary and septic, picturesque.

I felt I was a voyeur, a tourist, a spectator. I felt disgust and disbelief. And I felt an absence within me that I cannot articulate.

To be that close to the cleansing and destruction of 2.2 million people and to be centering now my words on my feelings doesn’t escape me. Perhaps a well-achieved purpose of that observation deck of genocide.

The Nietzsche-ism, stare into the abyss and the abyss stares back at you, struck me as I stood there.

Stare into Gaza and Gaza stares back is what I am left with now, comfortable in my Jerusalem hotel, just hours after looking into their genocide as if I were on a platform at a national park or on the boardwalk at the shore.

The horror of the genocide I expected but did not see. I thought I might curse and cry. I did neither. The cruel and so very human spectacle of a caged people being destroyed as a display for school children was what I encountered. I did not expect that and I don’t know how to respond.

These are my first thoughts on standing that close to Gaza. I may need to revisit them.

I am in Palestine this week as part of a delegation to be in solidarity with and learn from those engaged in Palestinian liberation. Today, in addition to this visit to the border of Gaza, we met with Rabbis for Human Rights and an October 7th survivor in the Sderot settlement, as well as a Palestinian Lutheran minister in Bethlehem.

(This first appeared on Matthew Hoh’s Substack page. Matthew Hoh is a member of the advisory boards of Expose Facts, Veterans For Peace and World Beyond War. In 2009 he resigned his position with the State Department in Afghanistan in protest of the escalation of the Afghan War by the Obama Administration. He previously had been in Iraq with a State Department team and with the U.S. Marines. He is a Senior Fellow with the Center for International Policy. CounterPunch.org)

*Marriage License* by Norman Rockwell for The Saturday Evening Post (June 11, 1955)

11 Comments

Scott Ward November 26, 2024

PG&E = Pacific Graft and Extortion

- Harvey Reading November 26, 2024
  
  The one I remember from my teen years is, “Pigs, Goats, and Elephants…”
  
Chuck Wilcher November 26, 2024

Kunstler squawked: “That is, a country whose citizens are at liberty to do business, travel freely, enjoy a rule-of-law (rather than a rule of despotic personalities). That is, much like we are supposed to be.”

Sure, just ask the Navalny family or the many people who “fell” out of windows what they think about that claim.

- McEwen Bruce November 26, 2024
  
  A good way to endure the suspense of imminent nuclear hell to break loose is watching old James Bond movies and relish the way he faces down the billionaires Hugo Drax, Auric Goldfinger or Max Zorin before they take over and blow up the world.
  
  And oodles of Boodles…
  
- Chuck Dunbar November 26, 2024
  
  Thank you, Chuck, that bizarre sentence made me gasp. Too many right wing folks seem to rate Putin, as well as other autocrats, way too highly. and give them undeserved respect. This tendency is weird, twisted, hard to understand.
  
Whyte Owen November 26, 2024

The status of the Garcia river bridge (or that of almost any major road) can be viewed anytime at the CalTrans CCTV page:

https://cwwp2.dot.ca.gov/vm/iframemap.htm

Boomer G. November 26, 2024

Not To Be A Contrarian,

I am on my hands, and knees, giving praise, and thanks to PG&E for the outstanding job they performed in this cyclonic storm in the County of Mendocino.

Without you, PG&E, the world as we know it with all of its creature comforts would come to a screeching halt.

- gary smith November 27, 2024
  
  Huh? For the money you are paying I should hope so. My electricity in southern Oregon is provided by a co-op. The crew is excellent in times like these and has outages repaired quickly regardless of weather or time of night. My average monthly bill is $52. That’s the actual cost of providing electricity. You are supporting stockholders who do absolutely nothing to provide you with juice with every cent over that.
  
Tim McClure November 26, 2024

What on earth will Mr. James Kuntsler have to blather on about once his Dream Team of Trump and Co. have their corrupt and self aggrandizing posteriors ensconced in the People’s House?

Dick Whetstone November 26, 2024

I remember a New Year’s Eve party at Navarro By The Sea, when Bobby Beacon, dressed in a suit like a 30’s gangster, came in and laid a fully functional Thompson submachine gun on the bar.

Jim Armstrong November 26, 2024

Beacon writes stoned gibberish.

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