Mendocino County Today: Thursday 3/13/2025

By AVA News Service on March 13, 2025

RAINFALL (past 24 hours): Laytonville 1.34" - Yorkville 1.40" - Willits 1.21" - Boonville 1.14" - Ukiah 1.02" - Covelo 0.83"

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A rainy 41F with 1.05" more rainfall in the last 24 hours this Thursday morning on the coast. Scattered showers & cool today, rain Friday, & so on thru the weekend. Next week is looking, I'll go with "unsettled" for right now.

A CONTINUATION of active winter weather proceeds through the day before easing this evening. Low snow levels will accompany the next inbound storm, likely to arrive tonight and into Friday morning. Attention is required when transiting major travel corridors. Snow levels should rise over the weekend as a moderate atmospheric river storm brings an increase risk for heavy rain and strong winds. (NWS)

AUDITOR-CONTROLLER/TREASURER TAX COLLECTOR CHAMISE CUBBISON’S REMARKS TO THE SUPERVISORS TUESDAY MORNING:

“I returned to my office on Wednesday, February 26, having been out of the office for nearly 17 months. First let me express my appreciation for the hard work that the staff in the Auditor’s office the Tax Collector’s office have done to continue many of the tasks we had begun prior to my absence, and other projects initiated without me. I recognize that the last couple of years have been very stressful and often challenging. I appreciate the patience and support of the board, other county department heads, county employees, and the public as I endeavor to learn about what has been done in my absence. This includes changes already implemented, changes that are in process and operations that may need to be on the list for further evaluation and change. It is my sincere hope that my staff, with the cooperation of other county departments, will be able to continue moving these things forward without losing momentum. In the last two weeks, I’ve been working with IT to reestablish my access to county systems, and technology equipment. I’ve met individually with some of my staff. I attended the Northern Area Regional State Association Of County Auditors meeting in Colusa last week and submitted next year’s department proposed budget, largely relying on information provided by Sara Pierce and other department employees. In the coming days I will be reviewing the report prepared by Regional Government Services, meeting with RGS and Chandler Asset Management, the treasury pool asset management consulting firm. My aim is that we continue to make positive progress on the various ongoing improvement projects. To ensure that we have the resources to make that happen I plan to bring forward an amendment to the Regional Government Services agreement to extend that agreement through December of 2026. In addition, I ask that the Board fund budget appropriation requests that are deemed to be necessary to continue the important work of the Auditor’s office and the revenue collection efforts of the Treasurer-Tax Collector offices. Also, in order to avoid delays or any need to pause many tasks while I research and revisit all of the areas evaluated while I was out of the office, we could use the help of other departments. It would be especially helpful if the Chief Executive Officer continues to provide access to essential CEO staff, including Sara Pierce so that my staff can obtain necessary transition information and efficiently continue our work. It would be a shame for some of that to be lost, or for the county to have to pay for the services again, or to lose out entirely on the information gained. I look forward to working with one or two board members where we can discuss any concerns or requests of the board. I also look forward to a productive relationship between myself and the board in the future. My staff and I are dedicated to moving forward in order to continue serving the public with fiscal leadership and financial integrity. I will have more to report in the coming weeks. Thank you."

Mark Scaramella notes: The entire response from Supervisors was Board Chair John Haschak’s muttering of a perfunctory, “Thank you.” No, Welcome back. No confirmation from CEO Darcy Antle on cooperation by her or her staff or other department heads. Nothing about agreement that other departments or staff will cooperate. Nothing about the office’s current budget or pending budget requests. Nothing about the RGS contract extension. Nothing even acknowledging Cubbison’s requests. Just the usual rude silence. Even the two new Supervisors were mute. Overall, the only person in the room being professional and courteous was Ms. Cubbison. Other than Ms. Cubbison, bygones do not appear to be bygones. As Mendo hurtles into another serious financial crisis, the Supervisors and the CEO are stonewalling the elected Auditor-Controller/Treasurer Tax Collector out of petty spite.

WESTPORT'S MAIL

The USPS is no longer serving the PO boxes in Westport. I was hoping the solution would be similar to what they have created in Caspar but it sounds like a PO box in fort Bragg or mailboxes at our physical addresses were the only solutions offered at the meeting today (second hand information as I was working and couldn't attend the meeting). Are the boxes in Caspar PO boxes? If so, how did the convince the USPS to do that?

Maddie Ray

Westport

TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE visible from start to finish here late tonight:

Penumbral phase will begin at 9 pm
Partial at 10:09 pm
Full phase begins at 11:26 pm
Max eclipse at 11:58 pm
Full Phase Ends at 12:31 am
Partial ends at 1:47 am
Penumbral phase ends at 3 am

https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2025-march-14

SHIELDS TO TALK WITH TRACI PELLAR ABOUT WEED, This Saturday, March 15th

This Saturday at 12:30pm, Traci Pellar, member of the Laytonville Town Council, Cannabis farmer, and economic development advocate, will appear on KPFN on “This & That” with Jim Shields and Mendo Mke. They will be discussing all things cannabis, as well as opportunities for economic recovery in the greater Laytonville area.

As always, will also discuss other news and issues of interest. Be sure to tune in to “This & That” on Saturday starting at noon, Saturday, March 15th, on KPFN, 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org

DOGE PLANS to close the Bureau of Land Management Field Office in Ukiah. The office manages protected, recreational and mineral properties in nine counties. The closure will likely impact the management of the California Coastal Monument in Point Arena and Cow Mountain in Ukiah.

BETTER WATCH THIS ONE, MENDO

Water Right Petition for Temporary Urgency Changes in Mendocino and Sonoma Counties

Sonoma County Water Agency has filed a petition for temporary urgency change for water right Permit 16596 (Application 19351). Pursuant to the existing water right, water is diverted from the Russian River stream system in Mendocino and Sonoma Counties. The petition seeks authorization to add a point of rediversion to conduct an aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) pilot study at its well in the Santa Rosa Plain groundwater basin, starting June 1, 2025. A total of up to 50 acre-feet of water is anticipated for recharge and recovery through the petition. To view the Notice and project information, please visit the Division of Water Rights website at: https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/petitions/temporary_urgency.html

Objections filed in response to this notice should be submitted by 4:30 p.m. on April 11, 2025

If you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact Ken Emanuel by email at kenneth.emanuel@waterboards.ca.gov.

FORT BRAGG PLANNING COMMISSION HEARING FOR 87-UNIT FORT BRAGG APARTMENTS PROJECT

Community members,

Some of you got the below information after the hearing was already over. In case you want to know what happened the Planning Commission approved the project 5 to 0. Appeal process and fee schedule: Decisions of the Planning Commission shall be final unless appealed to the City Council in writing within ten (10) days thereafter with a filing fee of $1,000 to be filed with the City Clerk. If you challenge the above case in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing described in this notice or in written correspondence delivered to the Community Development Department at, or prior to, the public hearing.

If the City Council approves it, it can be appealed to the Coastal Commission free of charge. Once it gets downloaded you can see what happened: https://www.city.fortbragg.com/government/planning-commission/planning-commission-meeting-live-stream

Annemarie Weibel

HEARING TODAY WEDNESDAY 3-12 at 6pm Fort Bragg Planning Commission at Town Hall FOR 87-UNIT FORT BRAGG APARTMENTS PROJECT (zoom possible)

Community members,

Sorry for last minute info. For agenda about tonight's hearing see https://cityfortbragg.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

Read the staff report, the attachments, the memo, and the public comments.

Attend either in person, by phone, or by zoom. Join from PC, Mac, iPad, or Android:https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86328653345 Phone one-tap: +16694449171,,86328653345# US +12532050468,,86328653345# US Join via audio: +1 669 444 9171 US Webinar ID: 863 2865 3345 International numbers available:https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kbaKKct14o To speak during public comment portions of the agenda via zoom, please join the meeting and use the raise hand feature when the Chair or Acting Chair calls for public comment on the item you wish to address.

The property is on the west side of Highway 1 before Noyo Bridge where Auto Zone wanted to develop. It is possible to see the ocean from there and the 87 unit buildings would be 38 ft. tall. They would be the first 3 stories tall buildings in the area. We need housing. Should it be at this site? Should the houses be that tall? Should there be that many at that site? How will traffic be affected? Is there enough water? Will there be sidewalks in the area making it safe?

It is important to comment,

Annemarie

HEARING SET FOR WEDNESDAY FOR 87-UNIT FORT BRAGG APARTMENTS PROJECT

by Frank Hartzell

FORT BRAGG, CA., 3/11/25 ? An 87-unit apartment complex proposed just south of the Noyo River Bridge would be Fort Bragg?s largest housing project of the century if approved.

The development would be Fort Bragg?s largest housing project of the century if approved, with the developer planning 87 units for the 2.7-acre site.

In a town starved for rentals in all income categories, an unrelated 49-unit housing project for seniors is also now on the books adjacent to Moura Senior Housing near Adventist Health Mendocino Coast Hospital. And the city is also in the process of considering master developer agreements with the Skunk Train to develop the former lumber mill site that comprises most of the city?s oceanfront, with even more housing.

The Fort Bragg Apartments project is proposed by Kosh Petroleum of Roseville between the Emerald Dolphin Inn and Fort Bragg Outlets on the west side of State Route 1. The public will get its first chance to talk to the city about the plans at the Fort Bragg Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday, March 12.

https://mendovoice.com/2025/03/hearing-set-for-wednesday-for-87-unit-fort-bragg-apartments-project/

FROM EBAY, POSTCARD OF SEMI-LOCAL INTEREST (via Marshall Newman)

SOUTH COAST DRAINAGE PROBLEM DUMPED

from Randy Burke, Gualala…

Hello Ted Williams,

You have been very helpful in the past on environmental issues in the past so here goes I own a property through which an easement drainage exists. When the county does not maintain, it floods out me house, and everything around it… I have maintained this position for 22 years to keep the Gualala court flowing. But upstream maintenance is totally lacking. Getting very tired of upstream lack of maintenance and control which should be the county's responsibility. When this thing floods, it theatens me chickens, me garden, and me vehicles, to say the least. Is there a person I could contact to resolve such a planning malfuncrion?

Ted Williams

Directors Krog and Dashiell, what’s the split of public and private responsibility in this circumstance?

Howard Dashiell

Hi Ted:

The 8-foot-wide drainage easement Mr. Burke references was offered for public use in 1954 when Gualala Heights Subdivision No 1 was approved. In general, “offered for public use” means that any adjoining property owner has a right to occupy and use that easement for its stated purpose (drainage)… that includes the County as we have an interest in the County Road drainage.

I am reading in the road file… I see that the county crew worked on the upstream pipe between the two properties upstream of Mr. Burke (Espinosa/Lopez or prior owners)… apparently, the original 1954 concrete pipe was so badly plugged and broken by redwood tree roots that it was replaced with plastic which roots would not re-penetrate…

At the corner of “Gualala Court” we get a ponding from vehicles parking over the drain inlet and plugging… the crew does what they can but the parking activities re-plug the inlet often… I attached a photo I think this might be what Mr. Burke is referencing?

Perhaps Mr. Burke’s email sheds some light in that is sounds like the “neighbors” has sort of accommodated the situation for some time… sounds like Mr. Burke has a drainage problem coming down from above that he has worked on himself over the years… assume that could be the past root obstruction… however, he apparently has done a lot of work himself.

I am not sure I concede Mr. Burke’s position that the responsibility to correct all this problem is completely that of the County; the trees and other backyard plants might contribute; but… back to your question… County could share in the common goal of reestablishing an original subdivision ditch and/or culvert which was part of the original subdivision drainage system… if people did not park in on Gualala Court over the pipe inlet it might stay clear longer… not sure the County is responsible to repair/replace or install an all new storm drain… appears to me that if the property owners wanted to occupied the easement area with “back yard residential uses” that those owners should be responsible for that portion of the project…

If in fact the upstream problem Mr. Burke references is the “ponding” on the upstream Gualala Court — the County’s only “interest and responsibility”; then we would simply dig back the side ditch in on Gualala Court and remove some parking, open up the inlet and remove the grate… or leave it like it is and just keep cleaning off the grate inlet.

Kent Standely, Deputy Director Road Services is off recovering from minor surgery until after Thanksgiving… if Mr. Burke wants to talk with someone then I am sure Kent can talk to him and discuss this matter after he recovers a little more… he is more familiar with the past work… I have only read the file… looked at pictures…

Cordially,

Howard N. Dashiell, Director

Mendocino County Department of Transportation

340 Lake Mendocino Drive

Ukiah, CA 95482

(707)463-4363 front desk

(707)463-5474 FAX

County Engineer / County Surveyor / Road Commissioner

Burke:

Well, it’s that time of the year again, and the drainage easement needs to be addressed again. I know this may be a constant monitoring issue, but last year, Scott Liston doing the obvious unplugged the drain…I was in the yard cutting fallen limbs, and all of a sudden I “heard a freight train coming down the rails”…knocked down my fence and after wading through spent beans and carnitas waste, I hired a friend to resurrect the fence because they have miniscule dogs (chihuahua, whatever). Over the years (check county environmental records) the first recipients have channeled the water down at the base of the fence, as well as septic pumped waste, thus compromising my 7 foot high good neighbor fence, installed in 1989. So, as I see it, my property in this great county is unsolvable, unsustainable, and hard to protect, should the total runoff from a county road such as Full surface of Gualala Court. Last time this system failed aside from the fence, it took out my garden, put the kayaks down on Old Stage Road, and partially removed a wood pile. Instead of acting like John Bower in all affairs, I would like to meet.

If you believe no county responsible easement exists, then move the drainage surface somewhere else.

If you believe it is legal to “dump” water onto someone else's property, perhaps we can consult Curtis or Eyster.

Dashiell:

Mr. Burke:

It is your prerogative to contact any public official… Curtis or Eyster.

This drainage easement and drainage course were identified in 1950s… that established drainage course is not “dumping water”… the water is where it was designed to be by the developer of the subdivision.

Howard N. Dashiell

Director of Transportation

340 Lake Mendocino Drive

Ukiah, CA 95482

Burke:

I have been living with this drainage problem off Gualala court for 23.75 years. Would you be so kind as to send a representative (qualified) to look at the problem and possibly solutions. I, and my insurance company will pursue, and it may require a lawsuit to stop the water off a county road from destroying my tax-paid property. My phone is 707 326 6555, leave a text or message, but I have had it, and I am fully ready to proceed in a legal manner.

ED NOTES

THE MURDEROUS Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, has been taken into custody at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where he will face charges of crimes against humanity for presiding over thousands of extrajudicial killings during his rampaging war on drugs.

ANY CHANCE the ICC will snatch Netanyahu any time soon? The Israeli fascist has murdered a lot more people than Duterte. Where Duterte pretty much confined his killings to adult males, Netanyahu is murdering a whole nation of people with, of course, American-supplied bombs, weapons, money and the full-throated support of the non-combatant in the White House, the latter also busy with a crypto-fascist coup against US.

LATELY, I've been tuning in the CBS News at 4pm, anchored by an unintentionally hilarious salt and pepper news team, the white guy lunging at whomever he's interviewing, the black guy feigning interest when he isn't looking totally bored. I expected by now some CBS big shot would have restrained the white guy's crazy presentations, which I guess he thinks makes him look fascinated by the interviewee, but I keep watching in the hopes he'll do a full lunge some afternoon when, just before the screen goes dark, we get an almost subliminal glimpse of him with his hands around the throat of, say, Marco Rubio.

WAITING for the CBS News, I catch the final minutes of a much wackier show presided over by someone I'd never heard of before, Drew Barrymore, who, if she isn't on a little too much pharmaceutical speed, certainly does a good imitation of a female tweeker. Then, to my utter horror, I pick up the latest edition of the Geezer Gazette — AARP, the magazine — and who's on the cover, Drew Barrymore! “From ET to Talk Show Fame, the Actress Riffs on Her Five Decades in the Limelight.”

BOYOBOYO, am I glad I'm old. What I don't get about this lady is her frenetic pace before it shrieks to a close with a shot of the mostly female audience cheering and clapping, on cue obviously. Isn't it still possible to fake enthusiasm calmly? Truth to tell, I've never been able to bring myself to watch the thing prior to its final moments when the hyperactive hostess paces around mugging and screaming fake delight at her captive Moonies, so I repeat the Jesus Prayer a couple of times and wait for the next televised insanity.

BROCK PURDY, the 49er quarterback, is in the news every day because he's in “contract negotiations,” as two teams of sharks decide how many millions the kid will make this season. The bargaining is said to begin at $45 mil, in a market where a couple of quarterbacks are making two hundred mil.

THE LAD could strike a major blow for big time sports if he simply announced, “As a Christian, and in the spirit of Christ, the greatest quarterback of all time as he threw the big money boys out of their counting houses, I say this money is crazy. Therefore, in protest, I will accept no more than half a mil a season, in cash, less if I have a bad year, which is likely because management has traded many key players so they can pay me.”

BROCK will probably get at least a hundred mil and live ever after in thrall to lawyers and accountants. I bring it up because big money has ruined sports, for this fan anyway. Unsavory owners have ruined baseball as the bloated owners of sports franchises buy up the best players, making a mockery of uneven contests in, of all things, stadiums built for them by the taxpayers.

SADDER YET are the millions of proles cheering the owners on. There are a hundred facebook pages featuring Niner fans urging, “Pay Brock the money he deserves.” The funniest one I've seen is a guy at his backyard grill, togged out in the Niner gear he probably wears year round, when his wife appears to tell him the Niners have traded “Dre and Tufanga.” The guy is stunned before he says, “If they get rid of George [Kittle] I'm going down there with my gun!”

BARRY MARSHALL AT CLOUD NINE ART GALLERY

Our First Friday Featured Artist is Barry Marshall, master painter of coastal impressions

First Friday, April 4, from 5-7, and continuing Through April 30 at Cloud Nine Art Gallery, 320 N Franklin Street in Fort Bragg. Barry Marshall grew up in Gloucester, five miles from Rockport, a region in Massachusetts that supports a large art colony. He always knew that he wanted to paint to become a part of the community of artists. Barry uses strong brush work and glazes to capture the contrasting energy of the sea with the luminescence of the sky.

This will be a fun get together celebrating the acclaimed art of Barry Marshall, listening to the melodious guitar music of Joe Pardini, sipping a glass of bubbly and catching up with friends.

Cloud Nine Art Gallery is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 12-5. We are pet friendly.

APRIL AT THE FORT BRAGG LIBRARY

https://fortbragglibrary.org/events/month/2025-04

26TH ANNUAL AV PINOT FESTIVAL

Anderson Valley Winegrowers Association will hold the 26th Annual Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival on Saturday, May 17 at 8501 Highway 129, Philo. Tickets are $195.

More than 50 wineries will pour for you at the Pinot Noir Festival, including more than a dozen prestige labels from Napa and Sonoma that covet our fabulous fruit.

The only wine festival set in the vineyards, our best chefs will serve up delicious food pairings all weekend, and you can also acquire exclusive wine and experiences during our ever-popular silent auction.

What to Expect: VIP Multi-Event Pass — Beat the crowds with VIP entrance.Saturday Grand Tasting — Discover elegant Pinot Noir, Sparkling, Rosé, and White Pinot Gourmet Food Pairings — Crafted to complement every sip. Stock Your Cellar — Worthy case promotions and opportunities. Friday Sunset BBQ — A favorite event to discover a breadth of wines as the sun sets behind the vineyard. Friday Eco Tour — Roam the vineyards of Husch Vineyard and learn about environmental practices, while sipping Pinot.Friday Vineyard Seminar — Learn about sustainable farming and connect over geeky Pinot topics. Meet the Winemakers — Unlike other events, taste with the ones making the wine & our amazing wine community. Winery Sunday VIP Open House Events — Continue the exploration on Sunday at the wineries. Fall in love with Anderson Valley, and so much more!

Reserve tickets early, as events do sell out. Also, secure lodging in the Valley or on the nearby Mendocino Coast. Learn more at avwines.com. For more information, call 707-895-9463.

FROM EBAY, POSTCARD OF SEMI-LOCAL INTEREST (via Marshall Newman)

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

My parents live in a small street of around 15 bungalows that had a shared wooden vehicular gate at the top. The gate rotted and fell off its hinges. My dad was in charge of organising the repair. Some residents didn’t want to pay. Others argued the cost. Some wanted different designs. It took many months to finally get a consensus and book a contractor. Moral of the story: sometimes you just need a dictatorship.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Wednesday, March 12, 2025

DONALD BARSELL, 66, Fort Bragg. Domestic abuse.

JAMES DODD JR., 32, Willits. County parole violation.

JOHN DOYLE, 36, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, felon-addict with firearm, ammo possession by prohibited person, bad check, forgery, offenses while on bail.

CHERRAL MITCHELL, 41, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

JOSE REYES, 36, Ukiah. Under influence.

STUPIDITY, PART DEUX

A reader writes: Thanks for the presentation on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's account of Stupidity. Very timely. Yesterday I watched Sam Seder's calm interaction with astoundingly stupid young people on political facts and issues. They heard nothing. Zero. What schools did they attend? I think your readers will want to see this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js15xgK4LIE

Mt Tam view, fog Above Stinson and Bolinas (Dan Kurtzman)

BILLIONS BEING SPENT ON MENTAL HEALTH HOUSING

by Kristen Hwang

The Newsom administration is moving swiftly to distribute by May billions of dollars from the 2024 mental health bond narrowly approved by voters, but concerns are emerging about whether areas of the state that have the greatest need will be left behind, according to testimony at legislative oversight hearing this week.

Proposition 1, championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, pledged to inject $6.4 billion into the state’s overburdened mental health and addiction treatment system. Newsom promised voters the move would help the state address its homelessness crisis, which is often publicly associated with unaddressed mental health and substance use issues.

A majority of the money, $4.4 billion, would be used to build treatment facilities to help meet the state’s estimated 10,000-bed shortage. The rest of the bond money would be used on housing and managed by the state’s housing department.

Newsom wanted to move as fast as possible. Last year, he announced the state would release the bond money months ahead of schedule. During a press conference last year, Newsom told counties to move with a “sense of urgency.”

“You’re either part of the problem or you’re not. Period,” he said at the time.

But that timeline could neglect counties that have the fewest mental health resources.

“Moving this money out fast does come at a cost, because there will be some who are left behind,” said Susan Holt, Fresno County Behavioral Health director, during the Tuesday hearing.

Small and rural counties say they simply don’t have the manpower or expertise to navigate the complex grant requirements governing this one-time, multibillion-dollar investment. A recent Legislative Analyst’s Office report found that a majority of money distributed from programs similar to Prop. 1 in the past went to regions of the state that need it least. The area with the highest unmet need, the southern San Joaquin Valley, didn’t get any state money in previous rounds of funding.

To meet the population need, the region needs to nearly triple its capacity.

Prior to Prop. 1, Holt testified that Fresno County submitted nine grant applications for primarily acute care beds and did not receive any money from the state.

“I can speak with conviction and assurance that we understand the urgency,” Holt said. “Sometimes with this much money we need to go a little bit slower in order to go faster in the end.”

Counties are also concerned that the state has provided money for treatment facilities but not for workforce or services.

Ryan Miller, an analyst from the Legislative Analyst’s Office, examined how the state spent similar building funds in the past. His analysis found that the state has historically awarded funds to “launch ready” projects that can be completed on a quick timeline, a criteria that gives an advantage to more sophisticated counties.

Which regions got more mental health funding?

For example, a 2022 RAND study found that Los Angeles and the greater Sacramento region have sufficient adult acute care capacity, yet collectively those areas received nearly three-fourths of the funding distributed for acute care beds, roughly $130 million, according to the analyst’s office. Instead, those areas have a higher need for sub-acute care and community residential treatment.

“A great deal of resources and staff are needed to put together a compelling launch ready project,” Miller said. Other areas of the state that received less money than expected based on need were the Inland Empire, Central Coast and Bay Area, Miller said.

Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, who authored the legislation that put Prop. 1 on the ballot, said voters were very skeptical about how the state spends its money and that promises were made to get the money to counties quickly. But the Democrat from Thousand Oaks also questioned whether the accelerated timeline was sensible.

Prop. 1 passed by the narrowest of margins last year, 50.2% to 49.8%.

“Do you think the administration’s…implementation has been too aggressive, or are the goals realistic?” Irwin said.

State backs projects it believes will succeed

Marlise Perez, a division chief for the Department of Health Care Services, pushed back against the notion that awards would leave small counties behind.

“I don’t want it to appear that we’re only awarding the shiniest applications,” Perez said, pointing to almost $200 million in grants that were awarded to small counties prior to Prop. 1.

At the same time, the administration must support projects that can actually be completed, Perez said.

According to the analyst’s office, 18 small counties received no funding in previous grant rounds. According to Perez, 16 of them didn’t apply. “Unfortunately we can only award who applies. That has been a challenge,” Perez said.

Her office is helping those counties with the application and now expects seven to apply for the next round of funding. One of the more difficult grant requirements is that facilities guarantee they can provide services for the next 30 years.

Still with more than $3.3 billion rolling out in two months, there’s little room to pivot how the money will be targeted. This round of grants will focus once again on “launch ready” projects. The remaining $1.1 billion will be awarded by early 2026.

Applicants have submitted projects totaling more than $8.8 billion, double the amount of money available, an indication of the severe needs across the state.

Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, a Fresno Democrat, said when the system rewards those who have historically been able to provide services there is a risk of “baking in historical inequities and disparities.”

(CalMatters.org)

THE ADVICE MAN

by Paul Modic

(“When you know yourself, accept yourself, and like yourself, you’ll have less anxiety.” I said that.)

Helpful Tips For Conversations (Or: How To Be Less Annoying)

Don’t filibuster with boring stories, conversation is a give and take exchange.

Give advice only if asked. (Remember, you’re most likely an expert at nothing, don’t pretend you are.)

If you absolutely must give unsolicited advice, say it once quickly without lecturing or haranguing.

If you disagree say it just once, and briefly explain why you do.

If someone disagrees with you, don’t get snippy, angry, and walk away in tears.

If you need to apologize do it succinctly, without elaborating, explaining, or groveling.

If someone tells you that you need anger management training, don’t deny it by screaming incoherently at them.

See the humor in differing opinions and all interactions.

If someone criticizes you, don’t respond by criticizing them.

Be able to laugh at yourself and admit it when you’re wrong.

If someone asks you a simple (non-personal) question, answer quickly and honesty, and if you don’t want to answer tell them why. Don’t play games like a politician, trying to figure out which answer will best suit you or thwarts the questioner.

If you tell me I’m judging then you’re judging.

If you’re critical about someone tell them why, briefly, then ask them a question about it.

If you disagree, discuss the issue without anger or putting out bad vibes.

Remember, your opinion is not worth any more than anyone else’s, it’s not necessarily correct, and there’s a 50/50 chance that you’re wrong.

Don’t tell others what to do. If you absolutely must, give them your opinion just once and don’t argue about it.

If someone criticizes you, listen and think about it, then tell them if you disagree and ask them to back it up with facts.

Don’t think that you have all the answers, and that if someone disagrees then that means they are obviously wrong.

When you get a boyfriend or girlfriend don’t downgrade your friends, they will be there long after your relationship is over. (At least stay connected with short in-person visits.)

Take a good look at yourself and ask if you’re selfish.

More Helpful Hints (To Avoid Picking Up Your Dog’s Shit)

When your dog darts away and starts to look for a place, (because of course you’re not obeying leash rules) you can also look the other way at the multiple beautiful views in the park.

If you’re talking to someone and your dog starts going through its familiar pre-shit routine, make sure you’re continuing to make good eye contact with the friend, acquaintance or stranger you just ran into.

If it goes off the trail in the weeds, you don’t have to get that one, do you? (Moot question: you never bag any of them, and probably don’t know the word moot either.)

When your dog gets ready to go, look intently at your phone until it’s safe to look up again.

The only time you should really pick up your dog’s shit is if you’re in the park on a walking date and will do anything to get laid, like bag that shit like a good citizen.

(The other day in the park I saw a hippie lady in the distance, her dog took a shit by the trail, and she walked away. What to do? A normal person would probably go get the pile of shit, walk behind her to the parking lot, follow her up her dirt road road and then throw the shit at her house, right?)

Even More Random Advice

If you have more complicated personal issues it’s time to ask yourself how you can get help, first asking these questions:

Do I know what my problem/issue is?

Do I know what I have to do to solve it?

Do I have the psychic/emotional/mental tools to solve it?

Do I know what those tools are?

If I need help do I know where to find it?

Do I have any good friends to get input from?

I can only recommend my former Eureka therapist Carmela, who always wrote “Anxiety” on my bill. One of her basic questions for her clients to ask themselves was: “Which decision should I make, what path should I take, to have the least amount of pain?” (Humor and a good laugh can help most issues, especially if you’re willing to laugh at yourself. Right now, wherever you are, laugh!)

STUDY TELLS STATE LEGISLATORS TO DECLARE WAR ON RED TAPE — BUT WILL THEY?

by Dan Walters

Construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and its more famous cousin, the Golden Gate Bridge, began in 1933, and both were carrying traffic by 1937.

The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake severely damaged the Bay Bridge, leading to a decision to replace its eastern section rather than merely repair or refit it.

However state and local politicians argued for more than a decade over design of the new section and how to pay for it. Construction finally began in 2002 and was finished 11 years later — nearly four times as long as the entire bridge took — at a cost of $6.5 billion, the costliest public works project in California history.

The Bay Bridge saga exemplifies how California, which once taught the world how to build things, lost its mojo by erecting so many political, legal and financial hurdles to getting things done.

Sixty-plus years ago, the state’s water managers proposed a canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to complete the state project that carries water from the northern part of the state to the southern.

As the years rolled by, the project languished. Eventually it was revised to twin tunnels and more recently to a single tunnel, but construction, if it ever occurs, is still many years away.

Lesser projects suffer from the same political and procedural sclerosis. It can take years, or even decades, for large-scale housing projects, electric generation facilities and desalination plants to traverse the thickets of permits from federal, state and local agencies.

Even small housing projects are subject to lengthy entanglements in red tape as costs escalate.

A newly released report from a special legislative committee declares that to deal with housing, homelessness, water supply and climate change issues, California “will need to facilitate new construction at an unprecedented scale.

“This includes millions of housing units, thousands of gigawatts of clean energy generation, storage, and transmission capacity, a million electric vehicle chargers and thousands of miles of transit, and thousands of climate resiliency projects to address drought, flooding and sea level rise, and changing habitats.”

However, it continues, “each of these projects will require a government-issued permit before they can be built — and some will require dozens! Therefore, only if governments consistently issue permits in a manner that is timely, transparent, consistent, and outcomes-oriented will we be able to address our housing and climate crises. Unfortunately, for most projects, the opposite is true. They face permitting processes that are time consuming, opaque, confusing, and favor process over outcomes.”

The Legislature itself erected many of these procedural barriers — most notably by passing the California Environmental Quality Act more than a half-century ago — and the Legislature is controlled by regulation-prone Democrats, so it’s remarkable that such a report would be issued.

The California Assembly Select Committee on Permitting Reform spent months talking to those who have been affected by California’s permit-happy system, as well as experts on specific kinds of projects, before reaching a conclusion that sounds like it came from conservative Republicans.

“It is too damn hard to build anything in California,” Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, an Oakland Democrat who chaired the committee, said in a statement.

“Our broken permitting system is driving up the cost of housing, the cost of energy, and even the cost of inaction on climate change.

“If we’re serious about making California more affordable, sustainable, and resilient, we have to make it easier to build housing, clean energy, public transportation, and climate adaptation projects. This report makes it clear: the system isn’t working, and it’s on us to fix it.”

Yes it is — and we’ll see whether the report has legs or winds up in the discard bin like so many other governance reform proposals.

Dan Walters is one of most decorated and widely syndicated columnists in California history, authoring a column four times a week that offers his view and analysis of the state’s political, economic, social and demographic trends. He began covering California politics in 1975, just as Jerry Brown began his first stint as governor, and began writing his column in 1981, first for the Sacramento Union for three years, then for The Sacramento Bee for 33 years and now for CalMatters since 2017.

(CalMatters.org)

49ERS ARE GETTING RID OF ANYTHING NOT BOLTED DOWN. COULD MCCAFFREY BE NEXT?

by Gabe Fernandez

The San Francisco 49ers’ teardown through the first two days of free agency has been a sight to behold, but the deluge of cuts hasn’t come for the Niners’ most essential and expensive offensive pieces. Or at least not yet.

The prospect of a bigger, more caustic move came up on ESPN Wednesday morning, following a quick summary of everything the 49ers have done — or rather, not done — since Monday. “Get Up” host Mike Greenberg asked panelist and former NFL cornerback Ryan Clark if trading star running back Christian McCaffrey is something the Niners should consider. The question seemed to surprise Clark a little, but he gave unequivocal support to the general idea.

“I would absolutely trade Christian McCaffrey,” he said. “And I would try to get as much as I could possibly get for him. When you look at what Kyle Shanahan has been able to do, it’s run the football. And I know we thought last year they missed some of things with the versatility of Christian McCaffrey, but when you trade [fullback Kyle] Juszczyk, you let some of that versatility go, you let some of the things you could do formationally go.”

Clark added that getting rid of McCaffrey would allow the Niners to spread his offensive responsibility around to other players, like now-second-year receiver Ricky Pearsall, and get players who are “more available” than the running back was last season in a hypothetical trade. The running back appeared in just four games, a stretch that didn’t begin until Week 10, before suffering a knee injury that took him out for the rest of the season.

Putting the merits of Clark’s argument aside, this move couldn’t just happen at the drop of a hat. If the goal is to maximize cost-cutting this offseason, then the Niners would have to wait until June 1 to make a trade involving the running back. Trading him before then would cost them $8.4 million this season, according to Over the Cap, and $951,000 the next. Trading him after June 1 would save San Francisco $4.4 million this season alone.

A trade would also have to actually materialize, and it would have to be one that’s actually worth what the team is giving up. Domonique Foxworth — a former NFL cornerback and the other “Get Up” panelist during this discussion — questioned the value of dealing the 28-year-old back.

“The other teams actually also know that Christian McCaffrey was injured a bunch last year, and they know the history of the running back position,” he said. “I wouldn’t hate the idea of taking some calls, but I honestly think that he’s probably worth more to you than he is to any other team out there.”

Foxworth wasn’t totally out on the idea of a trade. He noted that if McCaffrey is healthy during the season, his trade value would skyrocket. It’s worth remembering he’s just one year removed from being the league’s Offensive Player of the Year. Still, getting to even a percentage of that level might not happen for seven months or so, and by then, where the 49ers will be in this organizational reset is anyone’s guess.

This won’t be the last time McCaffrey’s name comes up when the Niners consider trimming the fat around their organization. The running back’s salary will only skyrocket from here over the next two seasons — $11.9 million in 2026 and $27.5 million in 2027 — when he’ll be in his 30s, a notable running back production cliff. It’ll also be much cheaper to cut him after this upcoming season if they opt to go that route, which seemed improbable before March’s fire sale. Now? Who knows.

WHY DEMOCRATS WON’T THROW A REAL PUNCH

Faced with existential threats from the right, the Democratic leadership remains timid; faced with demands for justice from the left, the Democratic leadership goes on the attack.

by Dave Zirin

A relative of mine—an older gent with a penchant for salty language—yelled over the phone at me in frustration, “Where are the damn cojones in the Democratic Party?”

His use of language aside, this argument—that the Democrats are not raising nearly enough hell as Apartheid’s Chestburster, Elon Musk, vivisects the government from the inside—is all over the liberal left. The phrase going around is, “The Democrats have brought a lectern to a social media war.” Masses of enraged, terrified people are looking at the analog, slow-motion leadership of Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer and the zero-calorie rhetoric of House leader Hakeem Jeffries and want them replaced by people who know how to fight. As The Nation has reported, when Democratic politicians have shown up to protests, people aren’t cheering their presence. They are howling at them to do more.

To be clear, people aren’t criticizing the efforts of individual Democrats trying to expose this deadly grand theft taking place in plain sight. The cry is, “Why aren’t the Democrats as unified and ruthless toward their enemies as Republicans?”

Why aren’t they taking the fired federal workers who are sharing their heartbreaking stories—the ones that Musk says were being paid to do nothing—and making them famous? The cancer researcher on the verge of a breakthrough? The park ranger in Yosemite who won’t be there to conduct rescues and save lives? The air traffic controller who can speak to the connection between understaffing and recent plane crashes? Is it even safe to fly in Trump’s America?

The Democrats should be amplifying these folks—writing op-eds about them, refusing to go on camera without sharing their spotlight, pressuring their IG influencers to raise them up—but instead, we learn their stories from Reddit. As Moira Donegan wrote in The Guardian, “Why are the Democrats so spineless?” The conventional wisdom is that they simply “don’t know how” to wage a social media and public-relations attack that can, to use one blaring example, define people like JD Vance as a Nazi-curious Manchurian Candidate.

But we need to lose the theory that these Dems are “spineless” and just don’t understand how to wage political war. We know they can be vicious because we’ve seen them execute that kind of operation against the left since Ralph Nader caught them sleeping in 2000. We have seen them do it maliciously during Senator Bernie Sanders’s two primary runs. We saw Black and brown women stamped as “Bernie Bros” with enough, yes, ruthless, repetition to make it stick. We’ve seen President Barack Obama with all his rhetorical powers hector young Black men, but not aim his electric cadence at Musk and his Palo Alto brownshirts. It’s not that they cannot—they will not. When it was Sanders or an individual who demanded even a modest change in policy on Gaza, they brought out the knives. When it’s Musk and his apartheid army of incels, they wield sporks. Yet, as we keep seeing, spork fighting is demoralizing.

The question then is why, amid this tornado of anger, are Democratic institutions so soft?

Here is what I think and here’s what I think we can do about it:

They’d rather have peace with the billionaire tech bros—see Jeffries’s recent Silicon Valley visit to “mend fences”—than wage a struggle to get their money out of politics, have campaign finance reform, and, for the love of God, tax their obscene and unearned wealth.
A wing of the Democratic Party actually supports the substance if not style of what Musk is doing, accepting the argument of bureaucratic excess and the need to stop “waste.” Several put themselves forward to join the entirely made up, extra-constitutional operation known as DOGE. It’s not that this “waste” doesn’t exist—looking at you, defense budget—but in politics timing is everything. Legitimizing the need for DOGE at that moment provided Musk with the runway to destroy lives—he thinks workers are the “waste”—and wreck the best parts of this country: like the parks, the medical research, or the ability to fly on a plane with the certainty of landing safely.
The legacy of Clintonian triangulation and the corporate-centered rightward pull of the New Democrats means their top campaign consultants for a generation have been insulated, isolated, and utterly incapable of being left populists or the “brawlers for the working class” that AOC says they need to be. I remember the Rev. Al Sharpton crushing right-wing hecklers at a Democratic primary debate when they went after fellow candidates Wesley Clark and Joe Lieberman. Since Sharpton was the only person on stage with real movement experience, he actually knew how to assert his will and inspire a crowd to join him in shutting them down. Too many Democrats are weak under the bright lights. Again, not everyone melts, but as an institution, this party is melting.
The legacy of Obama was that a coalition based upon “demographic destiny” would win elections in perpetuity as long as they were not Republicans. This not only bred inertia; it meant that in 2016, they were caught unaware by how much this country was becoming unglued. Yes, a “whitelash” was a big part of Trump’s Electoral College win, but that doesn’t explain everything. According to the highly respected University of Virginia Center for politics, 15 percent of Trump voters had pulled the lever for Obama. When Hillary Clinton lost, the party explained it by saying, “She won the popular vote, and there was Russian election interference” (both true!). But the party’s institutional response should have been: “Holy shit. What did we do wrong that caused us to lose to this fascist ass-clown caked in orange concealer?” Maybe if Democratic leaders pretended Elon Musk was a 22-year-old Palestinian from Dearborn, Michigan, they’d show more fight.
Israel. Israel. Israel. In 2025, marching lockstep behind Israel means defending ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and billions in weapon sales so they continue unhampered. It’s also taking the opposite position of what their potential voters, particularly young voters, want to see. To watch Trump yank Netanyahu to the ceasefire table was so enraging because Biden could have done that any time. Instead of disciplining Netanyahu, Democrats armed him. They did this even at the price of not being able to do a rally on a college campus in an election season out of fear of being heckled and, due to the aforementioned isolation, they have no stomach for hecklers. When a Columbia University encampment for Gaza, led by Jews and Muslims, called for peace, Democratic darling Representative Jared Moskowitz compared the organizers to the Nazis of Charlottesville—instead of, say, comparing the actual Nazis around Trump to Nazis. This is morally bankrupt, and voters know it.
Democrats are allergic to raising people’s expectations, and as a result, they cannot solve problems. Instead of codifying Roe legislatively after the Supreme Court killed it, they raised money off its death. Biden could have opened clinics on federal land—and before one says Trump would have just closed them, that’s politics: creating viral images of Trump shuttering abortion clinics. And before one says they didn’t have the votes to codify Roe, think about how Trump’s thugs crack down on any Republican with even a stray musing that, for example, the drunk rapist with the Pat Riley hair and plausibly deniable white-power tattoos shouldn’t be in charge of the military. The contrast is shattering. President Biden let Senator Joe Manchin, a corrupt and charisma-free coal baron from a small, unwinnable state, become the most powerful person in the world. Real “brawlers for the working class” find a way to browbeat Manchin into voting accordingly.

An IWW volunteer of the “Second Division” photographed on a horse in front of the Cantina Tijuana Saloon in Tijuana, Mexico during the Magonista rebellion of 1911. The Magonista rebellion of 1911 was an early uprising of the Mexican Revolution organized by the Liberal Party of Mexico, which was only successful in northern Baja California. The Magonistas controlled Tijuana and Mexicali from January 1911 until June 1911 when the rebellion was suppressed by forces loyal to Francisco I. Madero.

“I DO NOT HAVE a particularly prestigious or notable career. And for much of the time as a chef, I was unemployable by respectable businesses. And the only people who would hire me would hire me for brunch shifts because most cooks hated doing brunch for very good reasons.

I was good at it, but it was the only work I could get. And I came to hate the - you know, when you’re cooking 300 omelets a day and, you know, scraping waffles out of the waffle iron and making French toast and pancakes and . . . cooking hundreds of pounds of home fries, those smells, those associations, those were very painful times - addiction, post-addiction. I was a desperate man, often working under a pseudonym when I was cooking brunch. So I really hated it, and I also hated the whole concept of brunch.

And later as a chef, I hated it because it was a huge profit center that caused problems for me as an employer because all my cooks hated to do it. But it was such a moneymaker because people are so foolishly happy to pay $22 for the same two eggs and bacon . . . that they have during the week for $7 or even - or $3. Give them a free mimosa and a little strawberry fan and suddenly they’re happy to - I just had utter contempt for the entire enterprise.”

– Anthony Bourdain

THERE IS A KIND OF SADNESS that comes from knowing too much, from seeing the world as it truly is. It is the sadness of understanding that life is not a grand adventure, but a series of small, insignificant moments, that love is not a fairy tale, but a fragile, fleeting emotion, that happiness is not a permanent state, but a rare, fleeting glimpse of something we can never hold onto. And in that understanding, there is a profound loneliness, a sense of being cut off from the world, from other people, from oneself.

— Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

RUSSIA WINS

Editor:

To date, Russia has seized around 20% of Ukraine. After the shameful display of international bullying in the Oval Office on Feb. 28, it is fair to say that Russia has also seized around 50% of the United States. The embarrassment of that anti-diplomatic display is gut wrenching. I have faith that European nations will step up to the challenge of defeating Vladimir Putin’s naked aggression. For now, no one should be foolish enough to count on the U.S. for support. We stand alone in the shadow of the Kremlin.

Brian Narelle

Rohnert Park

ONE OF THE FINAL photographs of Al Capone was taken in 1946 in Miami, where he was pictured with his wife, Mae. At the time, Capone’s health had drastically declined, and he was no longer the powerful mob boss he once was. Struggling with the effects of syphilis, which he had contracted in the 1920s, Capone’s once formidable mind had been severely impacted by the untreated disease. His reluctance to seek treatment due to embarrassment ultimately led to irreversible damage, and by the time this photo was taken, Capone’s physical and mental state had deteriorated significantly.

The image captures a rare moment of tenderness between Capone and Mae, who had stood by him throughout his rise to power and his fall from grace. However, just a month after this photo was taken, Al Capone would pass away from complications related to syphilis. When doctors examined him after his death, they determined that the notorious gangster's mental age had regressed to that of a 12-year-old. This tragic outcome highlighted the profound toll that untreated illness, combined with a life of crime, had taken on the once-feared figure.

This final photograph of Al Capone serves as a stark contrast to the larger-than-life image of the mobster in his prime. The decline of Capone, from a ruthless criminal mastermind to a shell of the man he once was, underscores the consequences of his refusal to seek help and his disregard for his own health. The photo, showing him with his wife, offers a fleeting glimpse into the quieter, more personal side of a man who lived a life marked by violence, power, and eventual destruction.

LEAD STORIES, THURSDAY'S NYT

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Senate Democrats Balk at Funding Extension, Raising the Risk of a Shutdown

Columbia Activist Has Not Been Allowed to Speak Privately With Lawyers

U.S. Inflation Eased More Than Expected in February

Meta Seeks to Block Further Sales of Ex-Employee’s Scathing Memoir

THE MAN IN THE WOODS: The Aaron Bassler Case

When a mind begins to unravel, who has the right — and the responsibility — to step in?

by Ashley Powers

It’s cold in the woods. Dark, too. This redwood thicket outside Fort Bragg feels like a passageway to some other realm. Redwoods have that effect. They’re Grimms’ fairytale trees: They render you small and disoriented, a child who’s wandered off. Look up: Their branches brawl for space with Douglas firs and grand firs, and the canopy of green nearly blots out the sun. Look ahead: You can’t see farther than a few yards.

There aren’t many well-groomed trails here, just skid roads etched by logging equipment. Ferns and branches web across them, as hard to untangle as knotted hair. They hide gopher snakes, turkey vultures, coyotes, gray foxes, mountain lions, black bears. What kind of man would squat here — not in the homeless camps near the forest’s edge, but deep in the wilderness?

One summer morning, Jere Melo tromped into the thicket. A beloved city councilman in Fort Bragg, a coastal town three hours north of San Francisco, Melo had spent much of his 69 years in these woods: first as a forester and now as a property manager for a timber company. Clad in an orange vest and aluminum hard hat, he checked that gates were open and roads closed, or vice versa. If he stumbled on a marijuana garden (this was Mendocino County, in the heart of California pot land), he slashed water pipes, hauled out beer cans, and gave the sheriff’s office a heads-up. The growers didn’t rattle him much. Most reacted like teenagers at a kegger and fled.

On this trek, Melo was accompanied by Ian Chaney. A tiling contractor who lived on nearby Sherwood Road, Chaney was the one who’d told Melo about the man in the woods, Aaron. Chaney didn’t know his surname, but he’d repeatedly run into Aaron near timber-company land and recognized his shaved head, broad shoulders, and tattered black wardrobe. A few weeks back, Chaney noticed a firelike glow in the forest. A chainsaw whirred. Soon Chaney spotted Aaron lugging a grower’s kit of potting soil and fertilizer into the woods. “An eccentric person,” Chaney warned Melo. “A bit unstable.”

It was midmorning when the men huffed up an incline, wind in their faces. They peeled back some brush and discovered a waterline. Chaney assumed they would write down GPS coordinates for the sheriff, then hike back. Instead, Melo followed the line, hacking it with his ax, and Chaney reluctantly tagged along. They soon arrived at a bunker: a fortress of dirt and logs a few feet deep, with a fire pit inside and barbed wire on top. Nearby were neat rows of red poppies. Opium poppies. Gave Chaney the creeps.

Melo put down his ax and picked up his camera. That’s when Chaney saw a bullet casing. “We got to go,” he whispered. Something crackled. Leaves, probably. The men turned around.

There he was, a few yards upslope: shaved head, broad shoulders, clad in black.

“Hey!” Melo called. “What the fuck are you doing over there?”

“FBI!” the man yelled. Then, gunfire.

Melo spun and fell. Chaney plastered himself against the bunker, whipped out his pistol, and popped off a few rounds. Aaron kept firing as Chaney slid-ran down the hill, fumbling with his cellphone.

“911, what is your emergency?”

“OK, listen to me right now. I’m being shot at —”

“Where are you at?”

“I’m out in the woods, and I think Jere Melo has been hit. I got —” Gunfire interrupted. “Shit!”

“Where are you at?”

“Goddamn it!” Some beeps. Chaney was thumbing the phone. “I’m out in the fucking woods!”

The town of Fort Bragg, California

THERE ISN’T MUCH to Fort Bragg, population 7,200, a longtime logging town whose last mill shut down in 2002. You can zip through in less than ten minutes, stoplights included: welcome sign, RV park, weathered vacation lodges (Harbor Lite, Seabird, Ebb Tide), Safeway, Rite Aid, charming downtown peddling mango-pepper jelly and candy cap mushroom ice cream. But the real attraction unfurls on both sides of the city: untamed California.

To the west is the Mendocino coast, a stretch of wide beaches and lush headlands as sinuous as the edge of a puzzle piece and a Hollywood stand-in for rugged Maine in Murder, She Wrote. Fort Bragg’s swath is known for its glass beaches, former city dumps where waves polish broken tail lights and beer bottles into “sea glass” that resemble Jolly Ranchers. To the east, the redwoods don’t just soar above the town, they swallow it entirely. The forest is so immense, so impenetrable, that the quickest way to some parts is the Skunk Train, a logging route turned tourist railway that chugs 40 miles inland.

He riffed on a Neil Young lyric: “It’s better to burn out than fade away.” Perhaps it was a hint as to where Aaron’s mind was: That spring, Kurt Cobain used it as the sign-off to his suicide note.

The redwoods have long beckoned loners and miscreants, seekers of fortune and refuge: flower children and tree sitters and cults (not far from here, Jim Jones was a teacher before moving his Peoples Temple to San Francisco and then to Guyana). Growing up in Fort Bragg, Aaron Bassler found solace here, too — he was a woodsman, not a lost boy.

Aaron was born in 1976 to a young couple, Jim Bassler and Laura Johansen. Their rocky union, at times more a brawl than a marriage, lasted only four years before they divvied up their possessions — Laura got the TV and washing machine, Jim the table saw and yellow couch — and tried to start anew. Both stayed in Fort Bragg and eventually remarried, and Jim had another son; Aaron and his younger sister, Natalie, sometimes felt they were floating between the two families, never entirely part of either one.

Aaron quickly sprouted from towheaded Gerber child to sullen teen who studied too little and drank too much. In his senior picture, in 1994, he’s dashing in a tuxedo and bow tie: thick dark hair, sapphire eyes, lips taut in an almost-smile. He was a lean 6-foot-1, and for a time, he played baseball and skied. But as far as his friends knew, he never had a girlfriend. Something about him warned: Stay away.

In the forest, though, he sprang to life. He and his buddy Jeremy James poached salmon, hunted quail, hiked the tracks, camped. They tended pot gardens and prided themselves on dodging security. One whiff of laundry detergent, an interloper’s scent, and they escaped to forts they’d made along the Noyo River, their sleeping bags wrapped in trash bags and tucked under brush.

The boys loved movies and quoted them constantly; their escapades must have felt like scenes in Stand by Me. They dreamed of joining the Army. Under “Future Plans” in his yearbook, Aaron wrote, “Get into the Special Forces.” For a quote, he riffed on a Neil Young lyric: “It’s better to burn out than fade away.” Perhaps it was a hint as to where Aaron’s mind was: That spring, Kurt Cobain used it as the sign-off to his suicide note.

THE SEARCH FOR Aaron began immediately. Following Chaney’s directions, the local SWAT team started to retrace Melo’s path. They had chased plenty of cases into the woods, but usually farther inland, where the climate was warmer and more conducive to pot growing. This terrain was less navigable. “Jurassic Park,” joked one.

By nightfall, the team hadn’t even located the bunker — brush-choked trails had slowed them; at one point, a few guys tumbled into a ravine. They camped in the pitch-black forest, huddled around a glow stick, caked in dried sweat, shivering. After sunrise, they crunched their way through the brush and found Melo’s body. Nearby were 7.62 x 39 mm casings (from Aaron), 9 mm casings (from Chaney), a sleeping bag, foil twisted into a marijuana pipe, and silver Hershey’s Kisses wrappers — but no sign of where Aaron had fled.

The SWAT guys wanted to stake out specific locations, but with only a few dozen deputies to police the entire county, the department didn’t have the manpower. Instead, they rode the Skunk Train into the forest, each clad in camouflage and humping at least 30 pounds: a helmet, night-vision gear, a vest with rifle plates, water, ammunition, and a rifle whose size and power rivaled that of Aaron’s Norinco SKS Sporter. (Later, redwood gawkers sometimes joined them on the train. The operator, a man known as Chief Skunk, joked that the trip had probably never been safer.) They hiked around the woods, trying to flush out Aaron much as they would a pheasant, with few hints as to his exact location. Aaron didn’t carry a cellphone or anything they could track. Aircraft streaked across the sky but couldn’t see through the awning of branches.

They hiked around the woods, trying to flush out Aaron much as they would a pheasant, with few hints as to his exact location.

One of the team’s leaders, deputy Jason Caudillo, had served in the Army, the same branch Aaron once dreamed of joining, and he felt strange deploying Ranger School tactics here. The men hiked single file, or “ducks in a row.” When they spoke, they whispered. They’d likely hear Aaron, or wildlife spooked by Aaron, before they spotted him. They found snuffed-out fires. They found pigeon carcasses. They found more than one crosshair. At least, that’s what they called them: circles with a cross in the middle — a taunt or a warning or nothing at all. This guy’s well-armed, Caudillo thought. He’s in shape. He’s obsessed with military tactics. He could be behind this redwood tree or that stump. He could be up that slope, around that bend. Someone’s going to die.

AARON BACKED OUT of enlisting in the Army at the last minute. His friend Jeremy blamed the easy money of weed. But other problems soon cropped up. Aaron was guzzling peppermint schnapps and tinkering with acid and psychedelic mushrooms; when he wasn’t plastered, he was avoiding eye contact and mumbling about Nostradamus and quantum physics. His father was alarmed. But mustachioed, flannel-shirted, plainspoken Jim was a fisherman, not a shrink. Aaron’s an addict, he told himself.

Jim tried to protect his son. He moved Aaron into an old farmhouse across the street, on an overgrown patch of family land. Their neighborhood, near the northeast edge of Fort Bragg, has a rustic feel: goats chomping yards, a sign hawking PIGS RABBITS EGGS, the ocean salting afternoon breezes. One day, Aaron lit a fire in the farmhouse’s wood-burning stove, and the flames raced off and eviscerated the roof. It’s sunny today, Jim thought afterward. Warm, too. Why build a fire?

Aaron was closer to his mom, Laura, though their conversations were mostly pragmatic, with Aaron asking her to cook dinner or wash clothes. Aaron tried a few square jobs: delivering newspapers, cleaning a theater, chopping firewood, fishing with Jim (though that was always ill-fated; Aaron got seasick). But he preferred his marijuana gardens — in the woods, he was alone. Though he was constantly running from timber-company guards, he was able to earn enough to buy a black leather couch, a big-screen TV, a guitar, and some guns, as well as stash a few hundred dollars in a can (and then bury it) and brag to Jeremy, “I’m rich!”

IN THE DAYS following Melo’s murder, Aaron’s mug shot glowered from downtown windows under the words ARMED AND DANGEROUS. It was an eerie counterpart to that long-ago yearbook photo: Now his face was hard, the light in his eyes dim. To the town, he was the bogeyman.

The sheriff charged with finding him, Tom Allman, had been a cop for three decades. Silver-haired and genial, Allman was probably best known for his tolerance of small mom-and-pop grows and his efforts to wipe out huge ones. Earlier that summer, he’d led a multiagency charge — including hundreds of officers and a squadron of helicopters and planes — that, authorities said, uprooted more than 600,000 marijuana plants. But he’d never overseen such a sprawling hunt for a fugitive; to his knowledge, no one in county history had.

The operation was run out of the Fort Bragg substation, a squat blue building whose walls were papered with maps reminding him how daunting his task was: 400 square miles of skid roads and game trails that Aaron had hiked for much of his life, many unmarked and so clotted with vegetation that you practically had to chainsaw your way through. A local logger, Allman would later tell reporters, summed up his predicament best: “‘So, Tom, what you’re saying is, in 400 square miles, you’re not trying to find a rabbit. You’re trying to find the rabbit — and the rabbit has an assault rifle.’”

As deputies searched, detectives interviewed Aaron’s parents. Jim had cleared away brush near his house so Aaron would have no place to lurk, and he’d been sleeping with a pistol nearby. He didn’t think his son would shoot him — but he didn’t want to confront him unarmed, either. In other moments, though, he softened into a worried dad: What if Aaron kills himself in the forest, he wondered, and no one finds his body?

Laura was equally distraught. Until now, she told detectives, Aaron had either stopped by her house or called every week. The last time she saw him, they went grocery shopping, and he bought 15 packs of ramen, some Best Yet rice, white-grape juice, bananas, Skittles, Milky Ways, Starbursts, Butterfingers, Milk Duds, and Hershey’s Kisses. (He’d always had a sweet tooth.) Then she drove him about 45 minutes up Highway 1 to a redwood grove that parted to a stunning expanse of sea; Aaron hopped out with his groceries and his rifle, a recent loan from an uncle.

Jim had cleared away brush near his house so Aaron would have no place to lurk, and he’d been sleeping with a pistol nearby.

When Laura mentioned the grove, detectives were startled. It was a potential clue in another homicide. About two weeks earlier, Matthew Coleman, a 45-year-old land manager, had been murdered. He was an unlikely victim: an avid reader and “gentle giant,” according to his sister.

Coleman arrived one morning at a conservation group’s property where he was clearing trails. He placed a weed eater and a pickax near his white Saturn station wagon. Then he was shot twice. That night, colleagues found his driver’s side door ajar and the car radio humming. Coleman was face-down, his head on the door frame, his right leg frozen midcrawl. Someone appeared to have defecated on his body. A search team discovered Hershey’s Kisses wrappers and foil twisted into a marijuana pipe. The results of a test comparing DNA on the foil pipe to DNA from Aaron’s blood came back soon after: They were a match.

As the manhunt entered its second week, Fort Bragg prepared for the annual Paul Bunyan Days parade, an homage to its logging heritage and the culmination of a weekend of fish frying, tricycle racing, water fighting, and ugly-dog judging. The procession would honor Jere Melo, and his City Hall colleagues planned to display a blown-up photo of him in a lumberjack shirt.

The day before the parade, there was a break in the case. A sergeant spotted Aaron near his mother’s house, and though Aaron quickly ghosted into the woods, deputies retrieved a backpack and a fanny pack belonging to him. It felt like rummaging through junk drawers. There was a bar of soap, a blue disposable razor, three aspirin. A bag of coffee grounds, several packs of fish hooks, a stained red rag. Two bags of seeds and dozens of rounds of ammunition, same caliber as the ones that killed Melo.

And then, wrapped in an ocean-tide chart and jammed into a plastic bag with a Raiders patch: 18 playing cards, each one an eight of spades.

That last discovery especially troubled Sheriff Allman. The case had been consuming him. He kept dreaming about it, jolting awake, reaching for his phone to see if there was any news. That night, he couldn’t fall asleep. He sat in his sweats, Googling: “eight of spades,” “8 of spades,” “8 symbolism,” looking for meaning.

In most crimes, a motive quickly emerges: money, dope, pride, love. Once you grasp that, you start to understand the man, think like him, guess his next move. Only Aaron didn’t make sense. His own father compared him to an animal, cowering in familiar turf. There’s no explanation, Jim said. The sheriff had known someone a little like that: his brother.

A water-treatment operator who lived one county to the north, Mike never lashed out like Aaron. But his lifelong storminess mystified his siblings, and when they tried to broach the subject, he waved them off. Even after Mike shot and killed himself — news the sheriff learned while guarding hospitals in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina — his family would never know why he unraveled. His obituary lamented only that his “big heart and compassionate nature was, in the end, unable to overcome his battle with alcohol.” Years had passed, and yet nearly every time Allman talked to their elderly mother, she found a way to bring it up.

When the sheriff realized how unsettled Aaron was, it reframed how he saw him: as a prisoner of his delusions. Allman was hunting someone whose trust he couldn’t win, whose motives weren’t grounded in reality. The meanings of the cards, the crosshairs, the crimes — they were all lost in the wilderness of Aaron’s mind.

IN THE WINTER of 2009, two years before the manhunt, Laura got a call. Aaron, then 32, had been arrested in San Francisco. Starting a few weeks earlier, Aaron had made several trips to the Chinese Consulate, a blocky white building that mostly blends into the surrounding Fillmore District. Sheathed in black, he left packages there. Diplomats panicked and called the police; a bomb squad found no explosives inside. Three times, the packages contained a drawing of a red star and a message: “Alpha RE, Martian Military and Chinese Weapons Designs.” The fourth time, when a cop saw Aaron heave a package over the fence and arrested him, the package held a black jumpsuit with red stars. Later, Aaron told a friend that Martians had been helping China build technology to invade the United States.

Following the arrest, while Aaron was briefly locked up, his sister, Natalie, walked over to his latest residence: a small, gray outbuilding behind the farmhouse he’d burned down. Natalie was three years younger than Aaron and as blond and charming as he was dark and brooding. They were never close, but Natalie still wanted answers about Aaron’s behavior and hoped they were inside.

Aaron had thrown up a 6-foot-tall fence and padlocked most everything, but a window was open, and she wriggled through. It was dim inside, with the windows shrouded by black sheets. The kitchen floor was black, too. Natalie didn’t see any dishes; Aaron refused to turn on the gas stove, convinced he smelled a leak, though the utility company had checked and found nothing awry. He’d gotten rid of nearly all his furniture, except a large drawing table.

Natalie didn’t look in what the family called the dungeon, the roughly 8-foot-by-12-foot basement her brother had constructed as a sleeping chamber. She didn’t need to. The living room was a whirl of paper, hinting at the thoughts that consumed him: giant world maps, sketches of aliens. Natalie thought of A Beautiful Mind. For so long, she’d dismissed her brother as a jerk, a weirdo, a creep. Aaron’s really sick, she realized, and she was almost relieved he was behind bars. Maybe there, she reasoned, he’d get help.

LIKE AARON, 40-year-old Californian Scott Thorpe had reached an age when his peers had chosen careers, married, started raising kids. Instead, Thorpe shrouded his windows and stockpiled guns to fend off an FBI assault imminent only in his mind. Alarmed by his slipping grasp on reality, his family asked his psychiatrist to commit him, to no avail. Then one day in 2001, Thorpe brought a gun to a mental-health clinic in Nevada County, California, shot and killed two people, drove to a restaurant he believed had poisoned him, and gunned down a third.

In the aftermath, the family of one of his victims, a 19-year-old college student named Laura Wilcox who was filling in at the clinic over winter break, began lobbying for a bill that came to bear her name. Passed in 2002, Laura’s Law makes it easier to court-order those who are rapidly and publicly deteriorating to be treated at home, a program known as assisted outpatient treatment.

The living room was a whirl of paper, hinting at the thoughts that consumed him: giant world maps, sketches of aliens. Natalie thought of A Beautiful Mind.

Laura’s Law is designed as a compromise between giving those with mental illness responsibility for their own care and locking them in state psychiatric facilities, many of which were considered inhumane. California was at the forefront of a movement that made it harder to commit people with mental illnesses and shuttered facilities nationwide (including one in Mendocino County; it’s now the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, a monastery and training center). This deinstitutionalization was an effort intertwined with the civil rights era, as new antipsychotic drugs afforded the seriously mentally ill a chance to reclaim their autonomy.

The fallout from this system is apparent from San Francisco’s Tenderloin to Los Angeles’s Skid Row and in nearly every correctional facility. If Aaron’s story had ended with him as a 32-year-old marooned in a cell, obsessing over an alien conspiracy, it wouldn’t have been exceptional. A few years ago, when a grand jury visited the Mendocino County lockup, close to a fifth of the inmates had psychiatric troubles, on par with estimates from around the country. A dozen were in bad enough shape that they should have been hospitalized — including an inmate arrested on a misdemeanor charge who’d spent months waiting for a psychiatric bed. And those in jail aren’t the worst off. Last year, The Washington Post analyzed close to 1,000 fatal shootings by police and found about a quarter of those killed were either mentally ill or in the throes of emotional crises — and in many cases, panicked families or neighbors had been the ones to seek the cops’ help. “We as parents really have nowhere to turn,” says Dan Hamburg, a Mendocino County supervisor whose son has schizophrenia and once led police on a high-speed chase.

Pigeon carcasses were found near Aaron’s suspected location.

To patient-rights advocates, solutions like Laura’s Law are a throwback to the asylum era. Laura’s Law gives power to a roommate, family member, therapist, or law-enforcement officer to start a process that could force people into intensive treatment overseen by a judge, sometimes before they’ve even broken any laws. We don’t force cancer patients to undergo chemotherapy or diabetics to inject insulin, and the perception that the mentally ill are responsible for more violence than others is, for the most part, untrue.

At least half of people with schizophrenia, however, can’t recognize they’re sick, and so most states have some kind of involuntary outpatient commitment law. Several of them, like California’s, are modeled after a 1999 New York measure called Kendra’s Law. When researchers evaluated Kendra’s Law a few years ago, they found participants were more likely to keep adequate medication on hand and less likely to end up hospitalized. Sparsely populated Nevada County, where Scott Thorpe’s rampage took place, was the first county to fully implement Laura’s Law, in 2008. Its program is small, with fewer than two dozen participants during the most recent yearlong reporting period. They spent 79.5 percent fewer days homeless, 77 percent fewer days hospitalized, and 100 percent fewer days jailed — numbers consistent with past years of the program.

But the state didn’t provide funding for Laura’s Law, as New York did for Kendra’s Law, and it has to be approved county by county, meaning 58 separate conversations few people want to have. At the time of Aaron’s descent, Mendocino and nearly every other county hadn’t opted in. Only after a string of mass shootings involving disturbed young men — after Tucson and Aurora and Newtown — did state lawmakers agree to counties using certain funds to implement the law. Ever since, much of the state has grappled with the question that dogged Aaron’s family: How far should we let someone crumble before we step in?

IN THE THIRD week of the search for Aaron, detectives found that someone had jimmied open a window at a former Boy Scouts facility, Camp Noyo. On the other side of the building, they found a cross made of sticks. There was a motion-activated camera nearby, and they downloaded a stream of black-and-white photos. The sheriff had been toying with the theory that Aaron was less of a mountain lion, stalking prey through the forest, and more of a bear, lashing out only when threatened. In fact, Aaron had run into at least one transient, and he hadn’t turned on the man — he’d shared a joint with him. Maybe if they approached him the right way, he’d surrender?

But the photos hinted at a darker outcome. The man in them had a spectral quality. He stood outside the Camp Noyo kitchen, a rickety wood structure, his back to the camera, his gaze fixed on a small window reflecting a knot of branches. He wore a dark jacket, though because of the camera’s night vision, it gleamed white. His pants had split in the rear, and he’d tucked the ankles into pulled-up socks, pseudo-military-style. In his right hand, Aaron clutched a rifle, as large as anything in the movies. The position of his index finger made Allman shudder: He rested it alongside the trigger, as cops and soldiers do. There’s a killer in the woods, the sheriff thought, and we’re not smart enough to find him.

The search was stretching past a month; it had included dozens of law-enforcement officers pulled from the U.S. Marshals Service and from agencies up and down California. They’d scoured the woods but couldn’t stay indefinitely, and the rainy season loomed: storms pelting the coast, fog shrouding the forest. What else could they do?

Deputies had scattered 40 motion-activated cameras through the woods and ended up with an album’s worth of wildlife photos. Community groups offered a $30,000 reward, and mostly kooks responded. (One psychic claimed Aaron was hiding “around tall trees near to a large body of water,” which basically describes the entire Northern California coast.) The sheriff considered tucking notes in the brush, urging Aaron to give up — there was really no other way to communicate with him. But U.S. Marshals behavioral experts were helping with the case and warned that Aaron’s mind was too jumbled: Instead, they suggested, try short messages describing specific locations as either SAFE or UNSAFE.

As desperate as the sheriff was to find Aaron, he also felt a tug of sympathy for his family. Not just because of his own brother’s suicide, but because, as sheriff, he’d sat across from numerous parents who had begged him to help rein in their mentally unstable child, and he had been able to offer little beyond his condolences. He’d enlisted Aaron’s dad in the search. Sleep-starved and frazzled, Jim had considered trying to track down Aaron himself, an idea his wife nixed. He kept chewing over how the manhunt might end — with Aaron dead, probably. Just don’t let him kill anyone else first.

Jim boarded the Skunk Train one day with deputies. They handed him a bullhorn, and as the train lurched along, he pleaded with Aaron. Jim tried for a casual tone, as if his son were late for dinner, but he struggled to stay composed. Laura couldn’t bring herself to go. Instead, she shouted into the trees near her home — “Aaron!” — or left him a bag of food with a note:

“Aaron, If you come across this bag it’s from me, your mom. The bag is not bugged or anything. Please turn yourself in, we are all worried sick about you. Please leave me a note. Love, Your Mom & Family

P.S. No one knows I left this.”

AS FAR AS his family knows, Aaron was never diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder — though medical privacy laws mean they only know what he chose to share. After the Chinese Consulate scare, he was enrolled in a federal pretrial diversion program. If he went to counseling, his charges would be dismissed. Sharing his dark thoughts seemed to help, though he told a friend he wasn’t like the other patients: They were nut jobs.

As the summer of 2010 became fall, and Aaron’s case wrapped up, he hurtled downhill. He screamed obscenities at an off-duty cop waiting for his kid’s school bus. He parked on Highway 1 for days, eating Skittles while hunched inside his Toyota Tacoma, whose entire dashboard, including the speedometer, he’d spray-painted black. He was speed-talking and fidgeting, jabbering about survivalism, one-man warfare. His family was his only tether to society, and by then they were terrified of him.

There were crosses and crosshairs in the woods.

On a cool winter evening in 2011, Aaron barreled his truck into a chain-link fence outside the middle school tennis courts, barely missing a clutch of students. His blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit, and when officers arrived, he thrashed and kicked so furiously that it took several of them — plus pepper spray and a taser — to pin him down and arrest him.

To those around him, Aaron’s DUI arrest was welcome. At least in jail, guards could subdue him if he careened out of control; on the outside, his family was powerless. Natalie was convinced that Aaron would kill himself, and she asked her dad repeatedly: What can we do?

Jim had been poring over a medical guide, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and he believed Aaron had schizophrenia. He consulted a woman named Sonya Nesch, whom he’d met through the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. She’d written a book on mental-health advocacy and offered Jim a suggestion that, in her years of counseling families, had never failed to get some response: Send a letter to every official who could help, asking for a psychiatric evaluation and possible treatment. So Jim listed Aaron’s symptoms — paranoia, recklessness, rage — and implored for someone to intervene: “His family fears for his safety, there [sic] own safety and that of the community, if this psychiatric disorder is not addressed.”

Jim sent his letter to the county psychiatrist and to his son’s public defender. He was surprised when Aaron was sentenced to only a few weeks behind bars and ordered to attend a drunk-driving program.

In the spring, Jim opened his door and found Aaron on his porch. Father and son sat on blue furniture draped with blankets, the walls covered in horse art and family photos. Aaron chattered about his jail stint and his wrecked truck, and Jim listened intently. Then Aaron shared his plans: I’m going to go into the woods and get my head together. Jim thought, Great idea. In the woods, Aaron would be safe from society — and it from him.

DURING THE COURSE of the manhunt, police had been tracking someone who was breaking into cabins. The thief had bypassed electronics, marijuana, and anything else of value, and instead filched bread, peanut butter, jam, sausage, rice, pasta, hot dogs, a rack of ribs, dozens of soup and vegetable cans, two Coronas, and a bottle of cheap vodka. He swiped blankets, binoculars, a pair of firearms: a 12-gauge shotgun and a .22-caliber rifle. These were smash-and-grabs, and the thief left only whiffs of his presence.

Then, during one burglary, in the community of Northspur, the thief apparently lingered: muddying the kitchen, confetti-ing marijuana trimmings across a futon, swigging Jim Beam. The bottle was dusty, and a deputy noticed fingerprints on its neck. One turned out to be Aaron’s right thumb.

The sheriff had been toying with the theory that Aaron was less of a mountain lion, stalking prey through the forest, and more of a bear, lashing out only when threatened.

The morning after that discovery, a three-man team pulled up to a logging road and spotted Aaron, rifle in hand. Aaron opened fire, then disappeared. But the cops were closing in. The next day, just before dinnertime: a report of another break-in. Though the shop was on the outskirts of Fort Bragg — roughly a 14-mile hike from Northspur — the thief’s identity was clear. Among his plunder: a half-eaten bag of Lay’s barbecue chips, five boxes of ammunition, and brown hiking boots, size 12.

Deputy Caudillo arrived with a floppy-eared bloodhound named Willow, who usually worked the concrete sprawl of eastern Los Angeles County. She sniffed the shop’s rug. Padded over to a bench. Rocketed into the trees and led deputies straight toward Aaron’s bunker.

Every law-enforcement team was sent to the vicinity, and several hunkered down overnight near the dirt paths Aaron might use to escape. They melted into the hulking trunks, the gnarls of ferns, the darkness of a forest veiled in branches. It was October 1, 2011, a few months since Aaron decamped to the woods and 36 days since the manhunt began. Hours crawled by; sunlight eked through the trees; a new crop of officers rotated in. Finally, one deputy nudged the others, a prearranged signal.

A man was striding around the bend: stubbled head, broad shoulders, clad in black. He lugged a backpack with the stolen .22-caliber rifle, a couple hundred rounds of ammunition, and more eights of spades. He grasped the Norinco rifle, safety off, a round in the chamber. It wasn’t long before Allman, at the Fort Bragg substation, heard the radio crackle: “Target down.” Aaron was dead, struck by seven bullets.

THE LETTERS JIM SENT, it turned out, had disappeared into a bureaucratic void. The county psychiatrist apparently never saw them and never assessed Aaron.

For a long time after Aaron’s death, Natalie pilled herself to sleep. During the day, she busied herself with her family and tried to pretend her brother never existed. When he flickered into her head, she sobbed for his victims, their families. She still can’t keep pictures of him around.

Jim sat on the county mental-health advisory board for a spell and repeatedly pressed supervisors to adopt Laura’s Law. This year, Mendocino County became one of nine California counties to use it. It’s just a small test program, though, and Jim knows that a law can’t prevent every tragedy. When he speaks about Aaron now, his shoulders sag and his gaze drifts across the room, as if a ghost of sorts has entered.

The sheriff eventually self-published a book about the manhunt with a co-author. In it, he recounts the moments after hearing about Aaron’s death: hopping into a truck, speeding down Sherwood Road, passing Laura’s house. It’s the part of Fort Bragg where the forest envelops the town, and the roads soon peter into dirt. He stopped at a logging road cordoned off with crime-scene tape, and a deputy pointed up a hill. Seeing Aaron’s body, the sheriff felt relief, but no surge of victory. This was the same forest Aaron had played in as a child. He had been one of them, and now he was a crumple of black.

(The California Sunday Magazine, June 2, 2016)

North Beach circa 1865. Elevated view east over sandy beach and fishing boats on Francisco Street at center. Toland Medical College (two story building with cupola) and Home for the Inebriate in center distance. Telegraph Hill at right.

29 Comments

Marshall Newman March 13, 2025

I’m curious about who shot the North Beach photograph. Not many professional photographers in SF back then. Anybody?

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- george castagnola March 13, 2025
  
  George Robinson Fardon. Salt prints mostly from 1854 to 1856 and some later.
  
  Reply
  - Marshall Newman March 13, 2025
    
    Thank you!
    
    Reply
- Koepf March 13, 2025
  
  Those are not “fishing boats.” Those are schooners under construction.
  
  Reply
  - George Castagnola March 13, 2025
    
    Good point. I think the sandy beach later became Aquatic Park.
    
    Reply
- Kimberlin March 13, 2025
  
  Edward James Muybridge, certainly the most famous photographer of the era and still today was located in San Francisco at this time and took thousands of photos. In fact it is easier to find a photo of a building in San Francisco from this period than it is to find one from say, the 1970’s because it was such a novelity. There were dozens of photo studios in the City at that time. I have many photos of my great grandfather’s Mason’s Brewery, then located in North Beach opposite Megg’s Wharf from 1865. He photographed the building of the S.F. Mint, the Board of Supervisors (including my grandfather as head of the North Beach Ward and as Fire Commisioner. He went on to be the master of stop motion photography which ultimately led to the invention of motion pictures. There is a fine statue of him on the grounds of the Lucas Digital Center in the Presideo, which company I worked for 20 years.
  
  Reply
  - Marshall Newman March 13, 2025
    
    I’d put Carleton Watkins up there with Muybridge as the most famous California landscape photographer of the era. Watkins’ Yosemite photographs were instrumental in the establishment of the Yosemite Land Grant – which protected Yosemite Valley – in 1864
    
    Today, only their photographs – though rare – survive; nearly all the glass plate negatives were either reused or destroyed in fires. Sad.
    
    Reply
    - Kimberlin March 13, 2025
      
      I thought we were talking about photographs of San Francisco in the 1860’s.
      
      Reply
      - Marshall Newman March 13, 2025
        
        Watkins did several of SF, including a famous panorama from Russian Hill.
        
        Reply
        
        Kimberlin March 13, 2025
        
        Muybridge did his S.F. Panorama photos from the top of the Mark Hopkins mansion twice, once in 1877 and again in 1878. He used 18×22 inch glass plates. We have his prints in the California Society of Pioneers library of which I am a member.
        
        I appreciate Watkins but Muybridge’s photos changed the world. He was the first person to stop time. Every painter changed their style after seeing his work. When I went to a exhibit of Dega’s painting in San Francisco among his ephemera was a early edition of Muybridge’s famous motion studies of moving animals and people in long strips of stop motion action he had recorded to dissect human and animal locomotion.
        
        Reply
    - George Castagnola March 13, 2025
      
      I think the creator of this particular photo is actually unknown, but any of the photographers named could have been responsible and are pioneers in the profession. It amazes me that so many of these old photos still exist.
      
      Reply
Chuck Dunbar March 13, 2025

Thanks this AVA day for:

Chamise Cubbison’s remarks to the BOS—A professional, a woman of class. And Mark Scaramella’s end note, well-said.

Virginia Woolf for the truth—“There is a kind of sadness…”

“It will NEVER make sense” (Musk)

Mt. Tam view—Dan Kurtzman

Mazie Malone’s “Transitions.” Life lessons—more truth.

Reply
- Mazie Malone March 13, 2025
  
  Thanks Chuck, I have been thinking A lot about our friend James Marmon did anyone go to his service? Him and I had some really good conversations about all the mental illness, homelessness stuff.
  
  mm 💕
  
  Reply
- keith Lowery March 14, 2025
  
  Chuck,
  I’ve followed you for a while on AVA and I very much appreciate the balanced information you provide. It’s really no different from the many years of reading the reports you submitted from the coast office. Always productive, to the point and filled with common sense all while doing the difficult task of keeping children safe and working with parents when possible on making substantial progress on their case plans. Even when some children were not able to return home you still treated the parents / families with respect, kindness and dignity. In my experience this is the way in which you handled all situations.
  You made a difference in many lives of children and families as well as the staff under your guidance.
  You made an impact on me and in particular one letter that you wrote to me which I still have today.
  I always took the feedback you provided and as best I could I attempted to present and implement as many as I possibly could.
  I am very sorry I didn’t respond and although I have some reasons for not doing so I realize this must have felt rude and disrespectful. I sincerely apologize and maybe someday we will be able to discuss the challenges I faced at the time which prevented me from responding to you.
  As I reflect on the discord that is occurring in our countries politics that is affecting the way many individuals are treating one another, I often think if only our elected officials would have even 1/4 the leadership skills that Chuck had our Country would be much better off.
  You had the ability to appropriately present tough topics and work through disagreements and problem solve with a skill that seems to be lost in today’s political world and that is common sense.
  The post you made above is an example of being positive and honoring the good work/comments people have made.
  
  Reply
  - Chuck Dunbar March 14, 2025
    
    Keith,
    
    Thank you so much for your very kind comments. I still reflect on the work we did together at CPS/CWS. It leaves its mark forever on us, doesn’t it. I too often recall mistakes I made, cases I wish could have turned out better for children and parents. But we learned and learned and tried to do better. We worked with so many solid, caring social workers, doing our best under such difficult circumstances– way too much drug use, which undermined parents who often meant well, were doing their best, and got very lost.
    
    Your CPS/CWS leadership was the best we had over my 18 years there. You were caring, dedicated and committed,straight-forward, honest, clear. You knew what you were doing, and we trusted and respected you. Trust and respect–that’s a huge issue–as we see in the current issues with the County and its management. I can’t say that about too many other management folks, though there were other good ones off and on. I was saddened by the miserable treatment you received at the end of your County service. You, above all, deserved better.
    
    If we ever get the chance, I would love to sit down and talk about it all, that would be something for sure. Let’s try to do that. I often think of your leadership, your positive, good impact in our hard work. Thank you again, from my heart. I hope you and your family are well. Blessings, friend.
    
    Reply
Call It As I See It March 13, 2025

Did I not tell you Chamise Cubbison needs to watch her back? After the BOS meeting on Tuesday, it was affirmed. As Mark reports, no “Welcome Back”, just no response!

What’s the new secretive plan? Are they grilling Ms. Pierce for inside information? Are they preparing to ignore the office’s requests and then bring Cubbison in front of the board to publicly shame her? Is the CEO’s office looking for mysterious payments to report to the Sheriff’s office? With this band of fools, you know something is in the works.

Why the silence? Some will say it’s because of pending litigation. A simple “Welcome Back” admits wrongdoing in these simple minds. Folks, the three supervisors, Antle and Eyster are pissed. They’ve been embarrassed and exposed. They will do anything possible to redeem their reputation. So watch out, Chamise.

Reply
- Lazarus March 13, 2025
  
  And what of Ms Kennedy? Jim Shields mentioned when he asked John Haschak about Ms. Kennedy that the Supervisor of the 3rd District did not respond. Speaking of Haschak, the Street says he will not run for reelection and plans to sell out and move to Guatemala…
  Ask around,
  Laz
  
  Reply
- Carrie Shattuck March 13, 2025
  
  Welcome back Chamise! As I’ve said before, to the Board, what happened to integrity? Shameful!
  
  Reply
Mazie Malone March 13, 2025

Good Morning,

In 2020 at the height of Covid and my son‘s psychosis, I came across this article about Aaron Bassler in the California Sunday magazine, I thought it was a great article. Informative. All those years ago Jim Bassler given the advice to write letters and reach out for help & support met with no action no recourse no intervention. Nothing has changed I myself have spoke to Mr. Bassler on the phone around 2022 when I thought I was going to be on KZYX talking about all these issues before they fired Alicia Bales I was working with her to create a program. But after she was fired, they decided they were not ready for me because they needed to hire a public affairs director. Anyways, since Aaron Bassler‘s situation again not a damn thing has changed with no help no direction no intervention I myself had to write letters requesting something be done to help my son. The only response I received was from the chief of police at the time Justin Wyatt he was a blessing to me for what I was going through. We were going to bring my story forward to the BOS about what I experienced in trying to get help for someone who was unraveling mentally very sick so that we could get Mobile Crisis moving forward he thought my story would convince approval so that police could have less interference on the mentally ill. As you know I have friendship & great rapport with sheriff Kendall we have met and talked about these issues multiple times not specifically Mr. Bassler. The Sunday article asked who is responsible, but never gave the answer. The answer is the community the programs the police, the services all the entities who have made their mission to serve those who are homeless, addicted, and afflicted with mental illness. When 50 years ago, the psychiatric institutions were closed. That was the plan the community was to provide the support in the that these people need to be well and productive hence multitudes of non profits. It is about how the services are provided what they are providing and the protocols utilized to assist people. Whether it be drugs, mental illness, homelessness one or all three these are all disabling conditions that cause distortions in thinking clarity and processing information. When you do not intervene when someone’s brain is unraveling in psychosis, whether drugs or mental illness or both you are going to have damage crime bad things can happen and they do obviously. Sadly, we are no better off now in addressing these issues then when Mr. Bassler deteriorated and committed these crimes. They literally could have been avoided if he had been held against his will and medicated so who is responsible for not making sure that that happened when he clearly was very sick and his family begged for help.

Also very strict criteria for getting in to Lauras Law program “Assisted Outpatient Treatment” would be great to know how many people have finished that program after all these years of implementing it.

mm 💕

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- Call It As I See It March 13, 2025
  
  I’m glad to see your statement concerning intervening and force them into treatment. This seems to be one of the major issues as laws have changed making consent by the person who is being affected by mental illness. This alone keeps the person in the state they are currently in. In my opinion, we need to hold the groups who receive funds accountable. Make sure their programs are working and make changes that are needed. Arrest when they are committing less dangerous crimes and not waiting for Jere Mello to lose his life.
  
  I agree with you, there is no help for families who ask for intervention. As you describe in your experience and the Bassler’s. That must change. I feel sorry for the Bassler’s who tried to get help for their son.
  
  Reply
  - Mazie Malone March 13, 2025
    
    CIAISI,
    Thanks I think, lol, but let’s be clear here I am not saying forced treatment is needed for every street person. Intervention and supports are always a necessary component to address all of these issues. Someone like your favorite person JT is a perfect candidate for intervention and forced treatment. absolutely the laws, allowing people freedom of choice when their mind is incapable of making rational decisions is the problem. That is why education advocacy and people speaking up about what is necessary and appropriate is vital.
    
    mm 💕
    
    Reply
Harvey Reading March 13, 2025

“Sixty-plus years ago, the state’s water managers proposed a canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to complete the state project that carries water from the northern part of the state to the southern.

As the years rolled by, the project languished. Eventually it was revised to twin tunnels and more recently to a single tunnel, but construction, if it ever occurs, is still many years away.”

Hopefully the underground Peripheral Canal will NEVER be built. It’s just another damned fish killer and the notion of building the thing should be dropped. Doing so would show that Californians can do at least something right…

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Kirk Vodopals March 13, 2025

That plane with Duterte should have also swooped down and picked up Cheney and old “W”, as well as Netanyahu. Might as well throw Putin in there, too

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Tim McClure March 13, 2025

Thank you Paul Modic for the good, sound advice on avoiding common human mistakes. The only thing I might add is that if you are inclined to pick up that steaming pile of Dog excrement in a tidy little plastic bag, For Gods sake, take it with you and put it in your own refuse container. Don’t leave it festering beside the trail in the noonday sun for all to behold and bear witness to until the end of time!

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- Paul Modic March 13, 2025
  
  Thanks, I have a friend who inspired me with the conversational ones, as she breaks them all, and I probably did also through the years…
  
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  - Tim McClure March 13, 2025
    
    Hey Nobody’s perfect! But we can at least have these civilized concepts rattling around in the Prefrontal Cortex, No?
    
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Tiburón Sharkzila March 13, 2025

Stay Tuned

Thank God it’s not Friday the 13th, and gooder things to come.

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Jim Armstrong March 13, 2025

I was going to make a comment about Allman and Bassler, but decided this is better.

David Attenborough:
“The Helsinki-Toronto flight was loaded with 400 passengers and only 200 lunches. The airline made a mistake and the crew was in a difficult situation. However, an intelligent flight attendant has come up with an idea. About 30 minutes after take-off, she announced:
“Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know how this happened, but we have 400 passengers on board and only 200 lunches!” “Anyone who is kind enough to give up food for someone else will receive a free unlimited amount of wine throughout the flight.”
Her next announcement was made 6 hours later: “Ladies and Gentlemen, if anyone wants to change their mind, we still have 200 lunches available!”

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Doug Holland March 13, 2025

Excellent advice, Paul, and the dogshit stuff made me wish the paper was still on paper so’s I could hand it to the sonofabitch who lives across the street.

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Mendocino County Today: Thursday 3/13/2025

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