Mendocino County Today: Saturday 4/5/2025

By AVA News Service on April 5, 2025

Sparaxis (red) and Spiraea prunifolia (Falcon)

WARM, DRY weather continues today. Rain returns Sunday as a quick moving system moves through. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): On the coast this Saturday morning I have a cloudy 46F. Clouds should clear out by noon. We have a good chance of rain Sunday night then next week is looking dry. Finally. Sneaker waves are back along the coast so be careful near the shoreline.

ATTEMPTED MURDER SUSPECT INJURED IN WILD COVELO ESCAPE ATTEMPT

A traffic stop escalated into a high-speed chase Friday afternoon after authorities reportedly identified an attempted murder suspect among the vehicle's reported six occupants. One of the occupants took control of the vehicle and proceeded to flee the scene, later flipping the vehicle and suffering major injuries requiring an airlift to a hospital, according to law enforcement radio traffic.

The incident began around 4:40 p.m. when law enforcement initiated a traffic stop near the area of Outlet Creek and State Route 162, west of Covelo. Officers reportedly discovered one of the passengers was wanted for attempted murder. Shortly after, one of the vehicle's occupants took control of the car and sped away, prompting a pursuit. Officers reportedly detained four individuals who remained at the scene.

The fleeing driver reportedly reached speeds of 85 mph, crossing double yellow lines before losing control and rolling the vehicle, blocking both lanes of traffic. Upon reaching the crash site, officers found an occupant breathing but unresponsive and requested an air ambulance for medical transport.

The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office has been contacted for further details, and updates will be provided as new information becomes available.

(Matt LaFever, Mendofever.com)

CONGRESSMAN HUFFMAN DRAWS LARGE CROWD IN UKIAH (photos/captions by Karen Rifkin)

A packed Town Hall meeting Friday evening in Ukiah with Representative Jared Huffman at Mendocino College Center Theater.

Law enforcement at Mendocino College during Representative Jared Huffman's town hall meeting.

The Mendocino College Center Theater is packed for a town hall meeting presented by Representative Jared Huffman and Asssemblymember Chris Rogers on Friday evening.

Representative Jared Huffman presenting at the town hall meeting.

Representative Jared Huffman and Assemblymember Chris Rogers field questions from the audience.

DA EYSTER TO BE DEPOSED IN CUBBISON CIVIL LAWSUIT

by Mike Geniella

District Attorney David Eyster tops the list of top county officials who are scheduled to be deposed in the pending civil lawsuit Auditor Chamise Cubbison has filed against the Mendocino Board of Supervisors.

Cubbison’s team of attorneys said the depositions of Eyster, County CEO Darcie Antle, and former County Counsel Christian Curtis, among others, will be noticed soon. Also on the list are Deputy CEO Sarah Pierce, who functioned as Acting County Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector for the 17 months that Cubbison faced a felony criminal charge, Human Resource Director Cheri Johnson, and “potentially other county employees.”

“I expect these to be set in late April, or early May,” said Therese Cannata, a noted San Francisco labor lawyer who is representing Cubbison in her civil case against the county.

Hopes for an early settlement were dashed in late March, after a joint status report that Cannata and the County’s outside attorney Morin Jacobs made this week to Superior Court Judge Ann Moorman.

“The parties met and conferred on March 20 and again on March 27 but were not able to reach resolution on any of the outstanding issues,” according to a joint filing signed by Jacob and Cannata.

On Friday Moorman agreed to the attorneys’ mutual request that she delay until June 9 the scheduling oral arguments on Cubbison’s formal bid for reinstatement and at least $250,000 in back pay and benefits. (Cubbison immediately returned to work after Moorman cleared her of any criminal wrongdoing.)

Attorneys Cannata and Jacob agreed the delay will allow their law firms to “continue to work to address any outstanding issues before oral arguments on the writ petition is scheduled.”

County Supervisors have huddled behind closed doors multiple times with attorneys of the law firm of Liebert Cassidy Whitmore of San Francisco to discuss the pending litigation. The clearing of criminal charges against Cubbison has increased her chances of winning substantial damages to her professional and personal reputation for the board’s quick decision in October 2023 to suspend her without pay or benefits before granting her a public hearing.

The litigation delays are costly for the County which already has spent close to $200,000 on legal fees for the civil and criminal cases, and Cubbison, who has racked up debts to defend herself of more than $200,000.

In addition, Cubbison co-defendant Paula June Kennedy, who also was freed of criminal charges by the court, was provided a public defender at county expense because she could not afford private counsel.

The costs are significant compared to the $68,000 in extra pay DA Eyster accused Kennedy and Cubbison of misappropriating over a three-year period during the Covid pandemic. Eyster, who had battled with Cubbison over his own office spending, accused the two veteran county employees of felony misappropriation of public funds. The controversial case never made it to trial.

Besides Eyster, Cubbison lawyers plan to depose CEO Antle about her knowledge of a years-long pay struggle Kennedy had been engaged in with County administrators, and when she learned of the alleged illegal payments.

Antle’s testimony during the Cubbison preliminary hearing is being questioned concerning a sworn deposition given in March by former county CEO Carmel Angelo.

In what Cubbison attorneys described as a “stunning revelation” that suggests a cover up, Angelo said Antle, Eyster, and other top county administrators learned about the disputed extra pay months earlier than what was claimed in court testimony and in public statements.

Angelo also linked then County Counsel Christian Curtis to the circle of officials who were aware of what led to a criminal case laced with backroom politics.

In 2021 County Supervisors sought a forced merger of the County’s two independent elected financial offices – Auditor/Controller and Treasurer/Tax Collector – in hopes of creating a new Department of Finance, eliminating two voter elected department heads, and eventually putting control over County finances more closely aligned with the Board of Supervisors and the CEO.

Eyster, who had publicly condemned Cubbison and blocked her appointment in 2021 as interim Auditor until she was elected, became engaged behind the scenes with board members and Antle. On a private email account Eyster wrote a three-page plan outlining the steps board members could take to create the new position and sent it to former County Supervisor Glenn McGourty. Angelo, then still CEO, distributed it to other administrators.

After the revelations from the Angelo depositions, Antle was accused by Cubbison attorneys of being “knee-deep in the cover up of an unlawful scheme to oust Ms. Cubbison from public office.”

On Friday Eyster continued his practice of not responding to requests for comments on his attempt to felony prosecute Cubbison, or his planned deposition.

BENJAMIN GRAHAM

Benjamin (Buz) Graham died peacefully surrounded by family in his Mendocino home on March 12, 2025 after a long encounter with multiple cancers. During his last five years, this compassionate doctor became a courageous patient, facing daunting setbacks with resilience and grace. He continued to embrace life fully, welcoming loved ones, sharing meaningful conversations, and getting back on his hiking poles almost until the very end. Buz will be remembered as beloved doctor who never turned away a patient, offering each one his full attention, compassion and care. He dedicated himself to the Mendocino Coast Hospital community, where he garnered respect as a calm and guiding presence, emanating friendliness as he greeted each staff member and patient by name. Buz Graham was born in New York on March 21, 1945 to Estelle Graham and Benjamin Graham, “the father of value investing.” In 1967, Buz married his Dutch-born wife Pamela, beginning a lifelong partnership rooted in deep love, curiosity, and shared adventure. Together, they traveled the world and raised three children, Sasha, Oliver, and Vanessa , and a grandson, Isaiah. They were happily married for 58 years. In 1964, nineteen-year-old Buz Graham volunteered to join hundreds of Black Mississippians and college students who traveled to Mississippi to register African-American voters, a campaign known as Freedom Summer. The efforts of Buz, his fellow volunteers, and the Mississippians they stood alongside helped pave the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As a young college student, Buz suffered a life-threatening cancer diagnosis and underwent extensive surgery and medical treatments. Grateful to the physicians who saved his life, he decided to give back, taking pre-med courses, applying to medical school, and ultimately becoming a doctor of internal medicine. Buz is survived by his wife, three children, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. He will be remembered with love at a small, private memorial. In lieu of flowers, the family invites donations in Buz’ memory to Doctors Without Borders, USA. Regarding his prolonged bout with cancer, Buz wrote: “These past few years have been physically challenging, but emotionally extremely rewarding. I would not have missed it for the world.”

FROST FANS. SPRING TIME IN THE ANDERSON VALLEY:

Editor,

I live near Anderson Creek bridge in Boonville and this is the second night we are woken up at midnight by this very loud fan/helicopter noise! The sound is coming from this vineyard next door. It lasts for hours and makes it impossible to go back to sleep!! Does anyone know what it could be? Has anyone else heard this?!

Jennifer Mendoza

Boonville

AV FFA IN SACRAMENTO

Day one at the CA State Leadership Conference is in the books! Fifteen excited FFA members are attending. Our voting delegates tended to delegate business. FFA members and Ms. Swehla were on a live interview panel about our chapter. Mr. McNerney was interviewed as a Star Administrator. Members went to the career fair and loved the first session! We are Fired Up!

MENDO CEO HAS NO IDEA HOW TO DEAL WITH THE BUDGET CRISIS SHE HAD LEAD ROLE IN CREATING

by Mark Scaramella

Mendocino CEO Darcie Antle issued the following Press Release on Friday, essentially asking the public to do her job for her. Antle offers no background budget information nor does she provide any options for the public to comment on.

“2025-26 Budget Listening Session

The Mendocino County Executive Office will be hosting a listening session on the Fiscal Year 2025-26 budget from 2:30PM to 4:30PM on Tuesday, April 15th at the Veteran’s Hall in Fort Bragg located at 360 N Harrison St, Fort Bragg.

This Listening Session is for you to provide input on the County budget, potential budget reductions, and what we need to preserve for a balanced budget for Fiscal Year 2025-26. Each speaker will have three minutes to provide comments.

Feedback on closing the budget gap can also be submitted online here: Suggestion Box | Mendocino County, CA”

Remember, at the last budget session, Antle agreed to provide the Board with budget packages from a few randomly selected departments (not the right ones, of course) at their meeting next Tuesday. But Tuesday’s budget “presentation” not only does not provide any departmental budgets, it simply lists the gross, unreviewed requested budget amounts from the departments and claims that even using over $9 million in one-time funds (largely a bad idea) will still leave the County with about an $8 million deficit. Antle’s “presentation” offers no suggestions or options about what might be done to deal with the deficit, on either the revenue side or the expense side. She simply says that “Scenario 1” is not using one-time funds leaving the deficit at about $17 million. Or, “Scenario 2,” use the one-time funds and reduce general fund deficit to about $10 million. No possible new revenue sources are mentioned, no mention expenses that could be delayed, no lists of top general fund expenditores, no proposals — Nothing.

Ominously, under “operating transfers out,” Antle lists the almost $4 million from Measure P that is earmarked for emergency services, implying that the Supervisors could snag that essential money from cash-strapped emergency services in the County to help balance her budget.

For the last several weeks Antle has been crying wolf and and saying the sky is falling — albeit in her typical ho-hum/oh well droning style — as the Supervisors sit back and wait for somebody to do something. Clearly, not Antle. (Each week of delay costs hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost savings opportunities.)

At their last meeting, after Board Chair John Haschak asked his colleagues for budget balancing ideas, only Williams responded, asking for ridiculous lists of invoices and transactions. Williams’s colleagues not only hadn’t the slightest idea what to do, but they didn’t even know what basic budget info to ask their CEO for.

In our report on that meeting last week (“Budget Bungling, er, Balancing”) we offered some practical suggestions: Consult with the former Supervisors who dealt with a similar deficit back in 2010, look back at what the 2010 board did to reduce the deficit, ask the departments to list their top budget balancing proposals, stop wasting money on outside attorneys, cut their own fat salaries and benefits, renegotiate the barganing unit pay increases (by, say, delaying some of them, especially the management and department head bargaining units)… But of course none of that has entered their thick skulls, despite their claims to be “listening.”

Instead, they schedule an ill-prepared “workshop” in Willits on Tuesday with no useful budget balancing information to work with, followed by an even dumber “listening session” in Fort Bragg the following week asking the uninformed Mendo public for their ideas. Oh, and keep them to three minutes each please.

If history is any guide, after “the public” offers no workable budget balancing proposals for the board to “listen” to and then ignore, the CEO and the Board will turn around, throw up their hands and blame “the public” for the deficit.

This is blatant managerial malpractice, but it is what passes for leadership in Mendocino County in 2025.

SAFFRON FRASER: Otto Fraser got a raise. His brother Angus was there to pin him. Of course he's humble about all of it. But I'm proud of him. The young man has follow through. So great so see this picture with Meghan and Angus by his side. Go Blue, go!

CUTS TO MEDICAID COULD THREATEN COAST HOSPITAL’S FUTURE

by Mary Benjamin

At the March 26, 2025, County Board of Supervisors Meeting, Paul Garza, the Mendocino Coast Health Care District Board Chair, stepped forward during the public comment period to apprise the supervisors of the potential trouble Mendocino Coast Adventist Health Hospital may be facing.

Although MCHCD no longer operates the local hospital, it remains an integral part of Adventist Health’s lease agreement to provide health services to the people who reside within the health district’s boundaries.

To avoid insolvency, the District Board proposed a private takeover of the hospital’s medical services, which the public voted to accept in 2020. Since that point, Adventist Health has operated the hospital under a lease agreement with the district board.

At this time, the hospital is not operating with negative margins, but profit margins are far below the accepted low-end base of 5% recommended for a rural hospital. Adventist Health’s goal for now is to reach a profit of 2 1/2%.

However, due to talk in Washington, D.C., of deep cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, rural hospitals across the country would face full closures or, at the least, reduction or elimination of essential services currently provided and delays in critical equipment upgrades. According to Paul Garza, the discussed cuts would “close thousands of rural hospitals. The outcome will be dire.”

Garza spoke publicly at the supervisors’ meeting because, he said, “ I think it’s important they understand the consequences of what’s being talked about, and I don’t think it’s clear.” He continued, “There’s been an attempt to frame Medicaid as just something that’s a welfare program.”

He explained, “ I’ve even heard comments at the national level about having a work requirement which sounds bizarre because you’re talking about sick people.” Garza plans to update the supervisors regularly. He said, “I just think it’s important we have a better sense of what’s going on.”

In a way, the brewing situation is a perfect storm of the hospital’s marginal profits and the long time Congressional neglect of adequate financing for Medicare and Medicaid which was established by law 60 years ago in 1965.

At this time, the reimbursements cover only 40% of the actual costs to hospitals. Under the current administration, cutting government spending spans every part of the federal budget including Medicare/Medicaid.

Garza had presented a positive report to the board in January of this year concerning financial challenges, revenues, expenses, and must-dos before mandated seismic retrofit can begin. Now he sees the hospital district as being in a much more precarious position.

Lease differences were worked out with Adventist Health a few months ago, and although now facing a new possible crisis, Garza noted, “We’re now starting to work closely with Adventist Health and hope to develop a really good working relationship.”

“I want the people in the community begin to understand,” said Garza, “what the loss, even the substantial cut of Medicaid will mean. All reimbursements that Adventist Health receives represents 78% of the hospital’s annual revenue.”

He added that it is not unusual for a rural hospital to be that dependent on federal dollars. He noted, “We’re definitely high. We’re a poor community here. There aren’t many economic opportunities here. The county’s median income is about $10,000 below the national median income.”

With 78% of the revenue tied to federal reimbursements, and half of that coming from Medicare/Medicaid, Garza noted, “What that comes out to is about $30-$32 million a year, or about 39% of the hospital’s revenue. A business can’t afford to lose 40% of its revenue.”

From Garza’s vantage point, it’s not just an issue of poor people having no health care resources. He sees it as a possible house of cards that would affect all the hospitals in the county. He noted, “Our county will be a whole lot less healthy.”

“The other factor I’ve pointed out in the past and will continue to make apparent,” said Garza, “is the impact on the economy. Adventist Health is the main driver of the economy on the coast.”

He continued, “Adventist Health represents between $120 to $150 million a year of economic impact on the local community. The economy here will be very compromised since the good paying jobs won’t be here anymore. It’s a little scary.”

For now, Garza said, “It’s watch and see.” Garza said that the hospital board will be joining a few hospital associations that will provide more government information and give guidance about how to inform the public over time.

At this time, the hospital board takes in enough funds to pay for the costs of hospital repairs, maintenance and equipment, and to reimburse Adventist Health for the improvements they have incurred. The board is also able to manage a debt repayment plan set up to clear the money owed from previous years of financial mismanagement.

The board has been discussing plans to go beyond simply retrofitting the hospital buildings and set up financing new construction to accommodate more patients, particularly in the physical therapy and oncology departments.

Another consideration is updating and expanding emergency and surgery services. The potential outcome would be pulling in many of the locals who are privately insured but seek care in Santa Rosa and San Francisco. Private insurance reimburses 100%.

Generally, large urban hospitals serving hundreds of patients can make up that difference through fees charged for surgeries and other complex treatments. Rural hospitals with the traditional small number of patients are not full service centers but were designed for basic care of patients who must be sent out to larger hospitals for most surgeries and specialized treatments.

These small hospitals do not have a large enough patient base to help finance costs lost to the federal government’s failure over the years to increase reimbursements, a reality that has also driven a number of physicians in private practices to close their offices.

Due to financial losses exacerbated by low Medicaid reimbursements, Mendocino Coast District Hospital ended obstetric services and orthopedic surgery before the public voted to grant a lease to Adventist Health.

Garza said that the board does not want to ask the public to increase taxes. He explained, “We’re thinking that a bond would allow us to borrow very significantly against the income we’re going to have. This is just another thing on the table.”

He clarified, “We have four options. The first is to build a new facility. The second alternative is to modernize it and retrofit. That seems to be the most likely at this point. The third alternative would be just to do retrofit which we can accomplish. The last alternative would be to do nothing which carries a whole lot of risk and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

Garza said the hospital board has a self-imposed deadline to have a plan in place by July 1 that it can present to the state for approval. He sees a wait of about three months for approval which would help the board get a head start on expected inflation. He said, “We need to move if we’re going to do the best job for the community.”

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

MCFSC & YOUR FIRE DEPARTMENT NEED YOUR SUPPORT

In 2017 the Board of Supervisors (BOS) promised our Fire Departments a small fixed portion of funds that come from a statewide sales tax, Proposition 172, which is dedicated to public safety agencies. The County has not lived up to that agreement and the amount delivered to our Fire Departments has been declining, without explanation or discussion.

We need to be able to rely on the BOS to be responsible for what it promises, particularly when it come to keeping our fire and EMS services alive. PLEASE SPEAK UP.

Here are the facts: Prop 172 is a statewide sales tax passed in 1992 to help restore public safety funding. In 2016, due to the hard-fought efforts of local Fire District Boards and others, the BOS finally and formally recognized that Fire Agencies are "public safety" agencies eligible for Prop 172 allocations from the County. In December 2017 the BOS and Mendocino County Association of Fire Districts agreed what the allocation of Prop 172 would be. The formula is 5.46% of the total Prop 172 revenue + a fixed $87,521. In looking at the allocations of Prop 172 since 2017, the County has not followed this formula and Fire Agency allocations have been decreasing over time. The math shows that Fire Agencies have been shorted over $1M relative to the agreement with the BOS.

Fire services are a key component of the public safety net that keeps us all whole. They are the day-in, day-out, all-night front line response we rely on for all manner of emergencies – medical calls, car crashes, smoke checks, trees blocking roads, house fires, public lift assists for when you’ve fallen and you can’t get up, the list goes on, not to mention getting in front of potentially catastrophic wildfires and saving communities.

They are funded by a patchwork of small funding sources and supplemented by a huge amount of volunteer labor. Our County receives immense benefits and cost-savings from the volunteer model providing fire and EMS services. The limited support they get from, and have been promised by the County, needs to be reliable and predictable. That has not been the case relative to funding promised by the BOS from Proposition 172. Residents need to speak up and demand that the situation be corrected.

The issue is on the April 8th BOS meeting as item 4d. We urge you to submit a comment, contact your supervisor and/or write the Board. Instructions below…

https://mailchi.mp/firesafemendocino/mcfsc-your-fire-department-need-your-support

DIVISIVE WATER POLITICS

by Jim Shields

Gather around, time to spend a quick minute looking at a water resource issue that affects you whether you know it or not.

It’s a tortuously convoluted hot mess.

It, of course, is the 120-year-old PG&E Potter Valley Project (PVP), a combined operation that provided electrical energy, flood control, and water for consumers, including the agriculture sector.

Six years ago, PG&E announced it was going to abandon the corporate-owned PVP citing it was no longer operationally profitable. Attempts to sell the PVP on the open market resulted in no takers of the offer.

Since then PG&E has been processing the formal abandonment of its federal license with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

The question pending is who will take on operations, including infrastructure such as two dams (Scott Dam and Cape Horn Dam) and a mile-long tunnel diverting Eel River water through Potter Valley and into the Russian River, which flows into Lake Mendocino.

There are now at least 20 different state agencies, local governments, joint power agencies, environmental/wildlife organizations, and other public interest groups, pushing their arguments and plans over the future of the PVP.

By far, the number one item garnering the most attention and vitriol revolves around the “decommissioning”, i.e., take down/removal of Scott Dam and Cape Horn Dam, and the related issue of what to do with the mile-long diversionary tunnel.

Arguments pro and con center on restoring the Eel River to its original flows, and the divisive politics of fishery sustainability versus human consumption and needs. In my opinion, it’s not an either/or question or debate, it’s an issue that must be re-framed into “how can we realistically do the most to accomplish both goals.” But that’s a discussion for another time.

Former county supervisor John Pinches, of Laytonville, sent me a letter he directed to Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster regarding this PVP controversy. The long-time supervisor was recognized and noted for his expertise in the budget process, transportation issues such as roads, bridges, and maintenance, and, of course, water affairs.

Here’s his thoughts on this water affair:

Felony Lake Theft

Attention: Dave Eyster Mendocino County District Attorney

My intent of this letter is to expose the largest theft in the history of Mendocino County, and to a lesser degree in Sonoma and Marin: The removal of Lake Pillsbury which is one of the largest freshwater lakes with a shoreline of 31 miles.

The proposal by Dept of Fish & Wildlife, CalTrout, Humboldt County, Round Valley Indian Tribes and the Inland Power & Water Commission is criminal!

In 1906 the tunnel for water diversion was built. This was before the first water right law in 1914. This clearly gives its ownership and control to Mendocino County.

Round Valley Tribes are to collect $1 million dollars per year while taking the water from their relatives in Coyote Valley & Redwood Valley. If this proposal goes forward it can eliminate the water in Coyote Valley & Redwood Valley completely in dry years to include the water for Redwood Valley Fire Department. (Remember the large fire in Redwood Valley in 2017.)

If CalTrout was so interested in the fisheries why don’t they stop the Tribes from completely netting the North Fork of the Eel when the salmon and steelhead are running? Also CalTrout has done nothing to place a single trout in the tributaries of the Eel which are many, Blue Rock Creek, Burger, Tin Cabin, Shell Rock, Bellsprings, Chamise Creek… just to name a few.

Humboldt County’s position is to wipe out our water, but they have the Mad River dammed to create Ruth Lake. They are talking out of both sides of their mouth.

Chuck Bonham, Director of Fish & Wildlife has stated in a February 16 in the SF Chronicle article, “We’ll protect water for 600,000 people in the Russian River Basin.”

In fact this is a lie, actually in a dry year it will eliminate the water for 600,000 residents, businesses, farmers and fire protection.

With PG&E their hydroelectric project at the base of the tunnel they should BUTT OUT.

Why do they call it Inland Water & Power Commission? They don’t have anything to do with power. (Only in their meetings).

Water running down hill is not a new concept. The Potter Valley Project is the most beneficial project in the history of our County. To tear down Scott Dam and eliminate Lake Pillsbury is criminal and needs to be investigated. Putting the water resources in jeopardy for 600,000 residents, businesses, farmers, and devastation to our region’s frail economy is clearly a huge crime.

The Eel River had two hatcheries on it in the late 1800s so Fish & Wildlife policy not to integrate hatchery fish with natural strains is over 100 years too late.

Mr. Eyster please take this issue serious as it is.

For further facts please call me at (707) 216-1482 as I have lived in the Eel River watershed for 73 years. Actually, there are more salmon & steelhead this year than in over 30 years.

Please don’t let a few special interests take down our most valuable resource. Scott Dam was built in 1920. If the dam is not safe then build a new one downstream with a state-of-the-art fish ladder, tearing out the water supply will not help the fish.

The People of California recently passed a $15 billion bond issue for water projects with hardly any of that money used. Let’s keep the water and common sense flowing.

During his 12 years on the BOS, Pinches attempted a number of times to enlist his colleagues’ support for a plan to capture mid-county Eel River wintertime high flows that could be diverted for additional capacity either in existing reservoirs, temporary storage facilities or new reservoirs. His proposals never gained traction with the Board and were opposed by a number environmental groups.

(Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, observer@pacific.net, the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District, and is also chairman of the Laytonville Area Municipal Advisory Council. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at 12 noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org))

GREAT REDWOOD TRAIL PRIORITIES: FIRST THINGS FIRST

The Great Redwood Trail Agency (GRTA) is seeking proposals from qualified hauling service providers to remove and dispose of refuse present in building on GRTA property in Calpella, CA.

The project is funded through a CalRecycle grant. The Calpella Building, approximately 70,000 to 80,000 square feet in size, contains a large volume of waste, including hazardous waste, solid waste, lumber, recyclables, and encampment garbage to be disposed of as appropriate by material type including recycling all recyclable material.…

https://thegreatredwoodtrail.org/bids

DEFINITE CHRONOPHAGIC EXPERIENCE

Editor,

Our supervisor is asking us to attend a meeting to give the Board our input. Does anyone else feel this is a waste of time? Our wishes about a parcel tax to support the District Hospital, passed by a clear majority and were ignored by MRC and the County did not instruct its attorneys to collect. Nor did they implement the mental health initiative or the “support our VOLUNTEER fire departments” in a timely, efficient manner.

They did close ranks around the CEO and the DA with the advice and consent of County Counsel insuring further unnecessary costs to the county by firing an elected official without the basic courtesy of a hearing.

Peter Lit

Elk

CAR INSURANCE

Insurance rip off…

Is anyone else reeling from their car insurance bills sky-rocketing?

Mine has increased 30% in one year. What the hell?

How can these crooks sleep at night?

Recs for good, low cost car insurance?

AAA- I've been a customer for 50 years. One accident 27 years ago, + one fender bender, not my fault. Great driving record.

I'd like to hear from people who use other companies, to compare rates. Anyone? It seems like others have this issue with their companies.

Daney Dawson (Coast Chatline)

NICE BIT OF HYPOCRISY from Supervisor Williams:

In Philmore, California, the people's business is conducted in front of the people. Public money is not allocated without board discussion, in front of the public, with public comment. This is the process to improve road funding.

However, I believe there is a mix up. This is a county Board of Supervisors agenda item. The county is responsible for roads in the unincorporated [area]. Roads within the City of Ukiah are entirely the responsibility of the Ukiah City Council.

(Ed note: Tell it to Cubbison, Ted.)

SOCIAL SECURITY GETTING LESS SECURE

Editor,

The Social Security fiasco scaring the crap out of people and whether or not they will have funds to pay their bills and feed themselves is disgusting. It is a very scary world we live in free falling into hell. I am not sure of the exact percentage of people in Mendo County who receive Social Security benefits I would guess it is somewhere between 25 and 50% maybe more about 35% again not real clear. Most people do not understand that Social Security benefits are three different programs. One is SSDI which a person may only utilize for 12 months and is based on medical necessity proven by your doctor and you can only qualify according to your last five year work history and how many credits do you have earned. The second program is the Social Security retirement program that a person receives from all the taxes they paid into Social Security through their working life. They do not have to medically prove because it is their right as a lifelong worker paying into the system. The third Social Security program is the Social Security welfare program for people who have no resources and the inability to work due to medical/physical/mental afflictions that will not improve and again must be medically proven. I once worked a job where we help people obtain the Social Security Disability Benefit and the Social Security Welfare Benefit, what a laborious pain in the ass. Aside from that it can take 2 to 3 years to get the welfare benefit again it has to be medically proven. I would question what portion of the program they claim the overpayment and under payments came from? Were they over paying the retired people, were they over paying the ones utilizing the disability program or was it the Social Security welfare program that was overpaying? Social Security does make mistakes in my job I witnessed with an a short amount of time at least four people who were hit with a $90,000 Social Security overpayment. These people had utilized the SSDI benefit. With that being said then there is a whole bunch of paperwork and trying to figure out where and why the overpayment occurred. There is no way working class. People can pay back a $90,000 bill luckily you can dispute it and try to figure it out and then if you were overpaid, you can set it up to make payments at a very low amount.

Not only did I witness Social Security over payments. I also witnessed an individual who had been sentenced to prison for five years, kept receiving his monthly military pension from the VA while he was incarcerated so when he got out, he had a little chunk of change.. Last I heard the VA was aware of the overpayment and he had to dispute it. I do not know if it was resolved and had to pay it back with his meager Social Security check.

Happy Friday

Mazie Malone

Ukiah

DEB SILVA WRITES:

In today's MCT you mentioned the lighthouse tender Sequoia and its encounter with killer whales and seals. My late husband, Bob Silva, was in the Coast Guard from 1962-1966. He was stationed at Yerba Buena Island (YBI) as part of his service. The ship he was assigned to while at YBI was the buoy tender Columbine. They changed the lights on the buoys in San Francisco Bay and its tributaries.

The attached picture is one that was hanging at YBI until they did some remodeling. It was going to be scuttled and Bob asked if he could have it. It has hung in my home for the 44 years we were together and is still here. The picture shows the three ships that installed and maintained the buoys in SF Bay and coastwise as well as maintaining the lighthouses. The three ships were the Lupine, Sequoia and Columbine.

UKIAH HOSTS FIRST ELECTRIC HOMES TOUR TO SHOWCASE GREEN LIVING

Five Ukiah homeowners and the developers of Acorn Valley Plaza, Ukiah’s new 72-unit apartment complex on Gobbi Street, share a deep conviction that transitioning to all-electric homes and transportation is the way to slash energy bills as well as the emissions that cause climate change.

During Ukiah’s first Electric Homes Tour on Saturday, April 26, from 1-4 p.m., these homeowners and Acorn will open their doors and share what they’ve done. The self-guided tour is co-sponsored by the city of Ukiah Electric Utility and Climate Action Mendocino.

“These homes are all or mostly electric, and because most of them have solar panels that power appliances and vehicles, monthly utility and transportation costs are minimal,” said Eileen Mitro, president of Climate Action Mendocino. “If you’re interested in an electric home and want to learn from people who have been in the trenches, this is the event for you.”

Registrants will receive a tour map and can design their own route to see homes outfitted with solar, back-up batteries, induction stovetops and convection ovens, heat pump water heaters, mini-split heating and air conditioning systems (HVAC), efficient washer/dryers and EV charging stations.

At least one certified installer will join each homeowner on-site to answer questions about current costs, installation, and incentives. And for those who want to see heat pump products, another stop on the tour is AC&R Heating Cooling & Solar in downtown Ukiah.

“I wish that I had had the benefit of an event like this when I was adding solar and electric appliances to my home,” said Dave Redding, whose house just south of Ukiah city limits will be on the tour. “I had to learn on my own, and it can get complicated.”

Electric homes in Ukiah and Mendocino County really do cut emissions because the utilities supplying the county source their electricity from primarily clean energy resources. The city of Ukiah Electric Utility supplies, on average, 70% carbon-free electricity from large hydropower, solar and geothermal from The Geysers. Sonoma Clean Power boasts 88% locally-generated electricity from geothermal, wind, solar and hydropower, and customers can opt for Evergreen electricity from 100% locally-generated renewables. PG&E provides 40% of electricity from renewable geothermal, solar and wind plus another 55% from large hydropower and non-emitting nuclear.

Mike Cannon, another host on the tour, said that—over the past 20 years—when his gas appliances needed replacement, he purchased modern electric ones. He added solar, a used electric vehicle and home charging station. Last year he disconnected his home from gas completely.

“Today’s electric products are a completely different technology than the old ones. They are absolutely the way to go,” Cannon said. Jonathan McChesney of Radiant Solar Technology will be at Cannon’s house to answer questions about solar, and Ronnie Dodd and Justin Foster of All In Heating and Cooling will walk people through mini-split HVAC technology and installation.

Eric Crawford is opening his Rogina Heights house for the tour. He installed the solar and backup battery system himself with the aim of reducing his utility bills. Jim Purcell of Pardini Appliances will be at his house to answer electric appliance questions.

Peggy Backup, who bought her central Ukiah home in foreclosure and discovered all the appliances had been ripped out, including the heater, started the journey to all-electric from scratch. She is proud of her smart electric panel, which allows her to monitor and change her electrical usage with her iPhone.

Within walking distance of Backup’s house, Joyce Paterson said she and her husband, Steve Zuieback, were passionate about lowering their carbon footprint and years ago began the process of upgrading their older home to modern, solar-powered all-electric. She has switched to heat pump HVAC, drives an electric car that she charges off the solar system, and just recently switched her gas stove to induction.

Cindy Sauers, director of the city of Ukiah Electric Utility, emphasized that the energy efficiency of modern electric appliances helps customers cut costs.

“As our Ukiah utility becomes greener and greener, and as we deal with wildfire risk and all the things that the utility industry is facing, our costs are going up. That’s just the reality of it,” she said. “The energy efficiency of a modern all-electric home gives a customer a tremendous amount of power over electric bills.”

Ukiah offers rebates to its electric utility customers to help offset the cost of energy efficiency upgrades, including $500 for a heat pump water heater and another $150-$500 for heat pump HVAC. These are in addition to state and federal tax credits and rebates.

“I don’t want to just focus on cost, though,” said Sauers, “because the reality is also that as utilities become greener, natural gas is going to go away. As a result, customers with all-electric homes are going to be that much farther ahead—and they hasten the transition of our community and our state from fossil fuels to clean energy.”

Since 85% of a home’s emissions are from heating, cooling, and water heating, California has prioritized mass adoption of heat pumps as a key strategy in achieving its goal of carbon neutrality by 2045. According to media reports, one in five HVAC units sold annually in the state are heat pumps, or about 1 million. But many people still aren’t aware of the appliances’ benefits, and some contractors aren’t prioritizing them. The state is focused upon building awareness, training more contractors and publicizing tax credits, rebates and other incentives.

“It’s something that we’re educating our customers about every chance that we can get because of the efficiency of heat pumps, rebates that are available and the rising cost of gas. It makes sense to consider it,” said Seb Strzelecki, general manager at AC&R, which specializes in heat pumps. Strzelecki said sales are growing, particularly on the Mendocino coast.

“Overall, though, it’s about education,” he said. “Some people aren’t even aware of what a heat pump is or how energy efficient these appliances are and how they can help lower costs.”

Danco Group, the developer of all-electric Acorn Valley Plaza, is plenty aware of the energy efficiency and climate advantages of heat pumps. The company has paired heat pumps with solar electricity as standard practice in its net zero energy projects—including Acorn—for years.

Tour registrants will gaze three stories up to the rooftops of each apartment block at Acorn and notice they’re blanketed with solar panels. They’ll see an innovative heat pump HVAC unit and heat pump water heater in an apartment.

“It helps us minimize carbon emissions from our projects, keep tenant costs low, and contribute to the well-being of our community," said Property Manager Heather Reyes.

Registrants will receive a tour map with addresses and icons depicting what appliances and installers will be at each stop. A glossary of appliance terms and website links for information, tax credits, rebates and incentives will be included with the tour map.

Solar and electric appliance installers participating in the tour and not already mentioned are: Fernando Arcilas, Ultra Air HVAC; Jim Apperson (retired), Apperson Energy Management; Laurent Richard, AC&R; Pete Gregson, Advance: Solar, Hydro, Wind Power Inc.; and Rod DeWitt, American Refrigeration Services.

(Pletcher Consulting Presser)

CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, April 4, 2025

LINDA ALMOND, 66, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, probation revocation.

ARMANDO ALVAREZ, 34, Ukiah. False personation of another, failure to appear.

AMY CARDOZA, 50, Redway/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

ANDREA GONZALES, 39, Willits. Domestic violence court order violation, failure to appear.

EUGENE HARRIS, 51, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

TROY HOAGLIN, 39, Laytonville. DUI-alcohol&drugs, controlled substance.

KENNETH PARTRIDGE, 57, Fort Bragg. Controlled substance with two or more priors, paraphernalia, switchblade in vehicle, bringing controlled substance into jail, offenses while on bail.

JAMES RAY, 50, Hopland. Probation revocation.

MARK RAY, 46, Laytonville. Probation revocation.

MATEO SANDOVAL, 28, Ukiah. Reckless driving, evasion, resisting.

BIANCA SCHOIELD, 38, Point Arena. Trespassing.

SAMANTA THOMAS, 25, Willits. Domestic battery.

OSCAR TORRES-MAGANA, 36, Ukiah. Domestic battery, assault with deadly weapon with force: possible great bodily injury.

A READER PASSES ALONG this photo…“Seen on the streets of San Francisco…”

$3,716.37

I Am Available

Good afternoon, Just checked the Chase checking account balance, and the Social Security auto-deposit is in! Both the SSA and SSI. Since booking into the homeless shelter in Washington, D.C. in September, my slightly over $2000 balance has nearly doubled to $3,716.37. Therefore, I’ve been able to eat very well, purchase new clothes, and maintain myself satisfactorily. This has enabled me to support the Washington D.C. Peace Vigil for the sixteenth time. I am happy!! If you also identify with that which is “prior to consciousness”, and are a jnani identifying with sahaja samadhi avastha (the continuous superconscious state), feel free to make contact. What would you do in this world if you knew that you could not fail? Talk to me.

Craig Louis Stehr, craiglouisstehr@gmail.com

A COUNTY BAN ON TESLA PURCHASES

Dear Supervisor Madrone (HumCo),

Thank you once again for calling into my show yesterday on KMUD.

I was pleased to hear your willingness to introduce a resolution to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors to ban county purchases of Tesla vehicles, products, and services due to Elon Musk's and DOGE's many conflicts of interest with the federal government.

Such conflicts undermine the public trust.

A sample resolution is found at the following: Stop Funding Elon Musk: Local and State Government Resolution - draft 1.0 - Freedom Forward

I am copying Mendocino County Supervisor Madeline Cline (my representative) on this email in the hope Supervisor Cline will do the same.

I will also copy other members of the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors.

Thank you for your support of KMUD.

Sincerely,

John Sakowicz

Ukiah

TESLA DRIVERS, BEWARE

Editor:

Elon Musk, former darling of the left and once revered for his Twitter platform, SpaceX and Tesla electric vehicles, is now reviled. What hypocrisy. SpaceX recently rescued the astronauts stranded on the space station for nine months. Musk offered to extricate them months ago, but Joe Biden said no because he didn’t want Donald Trump and Musk to get a “win.”

Tesla vehicles are being shot, keyed and firebombed; dealerships graffitied and rammed; charging stations destroyed, all because the once-exalted Musk now works with Trump. People who perform these acts of violence are domestic terrorists. Is this what the Democrats call freedom of speech, like the summer of 2020? No prominent Democrat has condemned this violence.

Teslas are common all over our county, most being driven by those who have bought into the green new deal save the planet story and mandate. So virtuous. Most conservatives do not accept the EV hypothesis.

Are Telsa owners not fearful their own ideologues will harm their once-cherished, now-despised Tesla? Will they drive it? Will they sell it? Will they cheer on the terrorists who hate Trump and Musk? Beware, Tesla drivers, your car may be next, Molotov-cocktailed by one of your own.

Sandy Metzger

Santa Rosa

MEMO OF THE AIR: Good Night Radio all night tonight on KNYO and KAKX!

Soft deadline to email your writing for tonight's (Friday night's) MOTA show is 5 or 6pm. If that's too soon, send it any time after that and I'll read it next Friday. I've got some amazing stuff for this show, so far. For one thing: a Gary Shockley story that's about tenses, and so complicated and hard to read aloud. It's like pretzels of pretzels. I will do the best I can.

Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am PST on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg and KNYO.org. The first three hours of the show, meaning till midnight, are simulcast on KAKX 89.3fm Mendocino.

Plus you can always go to https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com and hear last week's MOTA show. By Saturday night I'll put up the recording of tonight's show. You'll find plenty of other educational amusements there to educate and amuse yourself with, such as:

History of the music video. (198 min.) Just start it. Give it ten or fifteen minutes. You'll stick around. https://laughingsquid.com/music-video-history/

"Not. Quite. Enough. Bolts." I know the feeling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1Xn0EUrQg0

About /The Inner Light/. Not my favorite episode nor even favorite flavor of Star Trek, but this guy's favorite, and it was pretty good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZpZfJC21lM

Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

JUSTIN VERLANDER DONE AFTER 2 1/3 INNINGS in his home debut for San Francisco Giants against Seattle

by Janie McCauley

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Justin Verlander loved the vibe of pitching for the San Francisco Giants with the home fans supporting him — he just wishes he could have been on the mound to enjoy it a little longer.

The veteran had a forgettable home debut for the San Francisco Giants.

The 42-year-old right-hander, who signed a $15 million, one-year contract in January, was done after just 2 1/3 innings Friday against the Seattle Mariners in the Giants' opener and eventual 10-9, 11-inning victory at Oracle Park.

“It really was (special) but I would have liked to have done better,” Verlander said. “I appreciate the fans cheering me on the way off the field, too.”

He retired only seven batters. He surrendered three runs and five hits with two strikeouts and two walks, throwing 44 of 65 pitches for strikes. He left with the game tied at 3.

“They just made him work really hard, threw a lot of pitches, so he'll tell you it wasn't his best stuff," Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “He only walked two but they made him throw a ton of pitches. He gave up some hits. At that point in time I wasn't going to let him throw 40 pitches in an inning. That was going to be it regardless. Kind of for him, move on to the next.”

The three-time Cy Young Award winner and nine-time All-Star with 262 career victories is eager to show he can still pitch at the highest level after an injury-plagued 2024 season with Houston in which he made only 17 starts.

He watched the rest of the 4-hour, 3-minute win from the clubhouse.

“What a ballgame, the reaction was ecstatic,” Verlander said. “All the guys were jumping and hollering and having a good time. Great home opener.”

Melvin said before the game how happy he was to give the ball to Verlander for this moment, a day the club brought in some of the franchise's stars to honor the 25th year of the waterfront ballpark that opened on April 11, 2000.

“Kind of the timing of it was pretty cool, too,” Melvin said. “(Logan) Webby got the opening day and then Justin gets the home opener. I don't know if it could have been timed better. I'm sure he's looking forward to it and I know our fans are looking forward to it. When you add players like him in the offseason, to be able to kind of show them off on opening day I think is kind of cool.”

Verlander made just his second regular-season start and appearance at Oracle Park in his 20-year career and first since June 16, 2008, with Detroit. This was his 40th career start against the Mariners; he was 22-10 with a 2.98 ERA in those previous matchups.

The only other teams he has made 40 or more starts against are Cleveland (57), the Chicago White Sox (48), Kansas City (46) and Minnesota (40).

Verlander took an 8-3 loss here in Game 1 of the 2012 World Series, giving up two of Pablo Sandoval's three home runs that October day.

“The atmosphere was great. I’ve experienced it from the other side obviously in some big moments and know how great these fans are,” he said. “A lot of guys here had told me how special opening day is here for San Francisco. It really was. The atmosphere was wonderful for the short time I was out there.”

(sfgate.com)

WS 18th Street gang members. Pico and Union, 1982 Los Angeles. Photo by (Merrick Morton)

MARBUT RESURFACES:

Trump Turns Homelessness Response Away From Housing, Toward Forced Treatment

by Angela Hart

President Donald Trump is vowing a new approach to getting homeless people off the streets by forcibly moving those living outside into large camps while mandating mental health and addiction treatment — an aggressive departure from the nation’s leading homelessness policy, which for decades has prioritized housing as the most effective way to combat the crisis.…

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/trump-homelessness-policy-housing-first-forced-treatment/

PRESIDENT WRECKING BALL

To the Editor:

President Trump has used the National Emergency Act as an excuse for the bizarre tariffs he has enacted. The only national emergency we face is his presidency, enabled by a spineless Republican Congress and a billionaire puppeteer. Congress has rolled over and allowed the president to usurp many of its constitutionally designated powers, including the power to impose tariffs.

The president inherited one of the strongest economies in the world, and he has begun to either systematically or whimsically destroy it, disrupting the global economy in the process.

Nina Miller

Ithaca, New York

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

A close friend of mine is a police chief in my town and believe me when I tell you, the people themselves are corrupted and wicked. The heart breaking stories of drugs, crime, child abuse, spouse abuse, infidelity, pornography and so forth are stunning. And I live in a rural Utah community.

UNSCRAMBLING THE PRICE OF EGGS

Yes, bird flu is a factor, but so is greedflation.

by Claire Kelloway

The fate of the nation, as we have all learned, hangs on the price of eggs. But have you noticed that the price of eggs—which might finally be coming down—has risen much faster for some eggs than others? In the past, if you went down to your farmers’ market and bought eggs laid by local free-range hens living under humane conditions, you had to pay a big premium. But now, if you go to Walmart or Kroger and buy conventional eggs produced by caged hens on supposedly super-efficient industrial-scale farms, you are likely to pay just as much or even more.

How can this be? Part of the answer lies with the bird flu outbreak, which has affected different kinds of poultry operations differently. But another factor appears to be just as important: corporate conclusion and resulting greedflation.

There is no doubt that bird flu has played a significant role in driving up the cost of all eggs. Wild birds brought a particularly contagious strain of bird flu to the U.S. in 2022, and egg farmers have struggled ever since to protect their flocks. When farmers find a single case of bird flu, current federal policy requires that they kill their entire flock. Since 2022, farmers have killed more than 120 million egg-laying hens. That loss of supply naturally drives up prices.

But there is a lot more going on. To start, why has the price of conventional, industrial-scale, caged-bird eggs increased much more than the price of cage-free eggs? For example, the average retail price for caged-bird eggs rose 140 percent from December 2021 to December 2022, while average retail price for cage-free eggs rose just 41 percent during this time.

One factor is that cramming thousands, in some cases millions, of chickens into confined indoor spaces creates the perfect breeding ground for spreading and evolving zoonotic disease. So it should be no surprise that the biggest bird flu losses have been concentrated among a few massive farms with more than a million birds each.

By comparison, most cage-free or pasture-based egg farms house fewer birds per farm. When an outbreak occurs, fewer hens must be preventively destroyed. Less concentrated production means less concentrated risk.

But that’s not the whole story. The greater hen losses in caged-egg production still cannot account for how much caged-egg prices have risen. In the past, when egg supply contracted, prices went up at a comparatively modest rate. According to the agriculture economist Jayson Lusk, a rule of thumb in the egg business is that a 1 percent decrease in supply will typically result in a 6.6 percent increase in prices. This held true for the last bird flu outbreak in 2015: Prices rose roughly 7 percent for every 1 percent decrease in supply. But prices rose much more this time around. An analysis by Hunterbrook Media found that between 2022 and 2024, for every 1 percent decrease in egg production, prices increased by anywhere from 17 percent to 33 percent.

Here’s where apparent corporate collusion enters the story. To understand how it works, you need to know that the wholesale price of the typical egg produced by a caged hen is, by and large, not determined by markets. There is a wholesale spot market for eggs in which market prices are discovered each day through competition between buyers and sellers, just as economic textbooks prescribe. But, according to one survey of egg producers, only 11 percent of conventional eggs are sold in this market.

Most conventional eggs are sold through long-term contracts between large egg producers (companies that either own egg farms directly or contract with farmers to collect, clean, and package eggs) and large egg purchasers like supermarket chains and food processors. How do these corporate entities know what price to use in their contracts? They can’t use market prices, because most eggs don’t trade on markets. Instead they rely on an obscure entity called Urner Barry. The company’s roots go back to the 19th century, but it’s now a unit of Expana, which describes itself as “the world’s leading agrifood-focused Price Reporting Agency and global information provider.”

Urner Barry compiles a so-called price index for different kinds of eggs. It determines these prices, it says, by taking note of the tiny spot market and by collecting price data directly from individual processors, distributors, exporters, and buyers. It aggregates all this data and then turns around and sells it, primarily to the same entities who sent the information in originally, who then use it in the pricing formulas that set the ever-changing price of eggs in their contracts.

If this sounds to you like a process that might be easily manipulated, your instincts are right. If large egg sellers wanted to use bird flu as a cover for pushing prices up beyond competitive levels, all they would need to do is feed inflated price data to Urner Barry. When the Urner Barry egg price index rose as a result, so would all the egg prices in the contracts they signed with egg buyers. It would only take coordinated action from a few dominant industry players to create a reinforcing upward price spiral.

Urner Barry says it scrutinizes the information it gets from egg companies and uses methods established by the International Organization of Securities Commissions to avoid price manipulation. However, state attorneys general, members of Congress, and investigators at Hunterbrook, Farm Action, and Food & Water Watch have all questioned the integrity of Urner Barry’s self-referential game of telephone.

And for good reason. Price fixing based on this kind of information sharing has happened before. In the mid-2010s, chicken companies settled major price fixing allegations that they fed false information to an influential regional price index, the Georgia Dock, in a scheme to raise prices. Some of these chicken price fixing cases specifically named Urner Barry as a vector for collusive information sharing. One suit alleged that chicken executives pressured an Urner Barry executive to raise reported prices.

The stark price differences between conventional and cage-free eggs adds to the suspicious pattern. Trade in cage-free and other specialty eggs involves more players, and prices are usually pegged to the cost of production rather than to the Urner Barry egg index. So manipulating the price of cage-free eggs seems more difficult, which is perhaps part of the explanation for why their price has not gone up as much as the price of caged-bird eggs.

Another cause for suspicion is the fact that the profit margins for the largest egg provider in the U.S., Cal-Maine, which mostly sells conventional eggs at contract prices pegged to the Urner Barry index, have swollen by as much as four times. By contrast, the profit margins of entities like Vital Farms, which sells eggs from free-range chickens and sets prices based on the actual cost of production, have remained steady. We could soon get more answers to such anomalies as the Department of Justice pursues a recently opened antitrust investigation into the egg industry.

Whether intentional conspiracy or uncoordinated collective greed, pricing mechanisms for caged-bird eggs are clearly broken and hurting consumers, especially low-income families. Egg companies, global food commodity traders, and large food manufacturers have reaped record profits following disruptions like bird flu and the COVID-19 pandemic. With more environmental and political disruptions on the horizon, we need a fairer food economy that rewards resilience over fragility. We need policies that support more diversified food systems and crack down on corporate collusion and price gouging.

“IT'S GOING WELL.” — Trump

Wall Street had its worst two-day wipeout in history — with $5 trillion wiped off the value of US stocks.

Stocks crashed again on Friday as it looks increasingly likely that President Donald Trump's tariffs will cause a global recession.

US stocks have lost about $9.6 trillion in value since January 17 — the Friday before President Trump began his second term, according to MarketWatch analysis of Dow Jones Market Data.

Roughly $5 trillion of that was wiped out on Thursday and Friday alone — marking the biggest two-day loss of shareholder value ever recorded, according to the data.

Markets have seen bigger percentage drops, such as in 1929, but never as much in dollar terms. Wall Street's biggest two-day plunge came during the 1929 crash, when the Dow tumbled around 25% over October 28 and 29.

The carnage has hit ordinary Americans whose retirement savings, including 401(K) are tied to the market.

The flagship Dow Jones index of America's 30 biggest companies plunged an astonishing 2,200 points, its biggest daily drop since June 2020.

It came after China imposed fresh tariffs on all US goods in response to the Trump's sweeping levies, escalating a global trade war.

But panicking Americans checking their 401(K)s, IRAs and trading apps were advised to sit tight for now and not panic sell. They should speak to the experts managing their investments and seek out a financial advisor if they do not have one.

Mark Scaramella Notes: It’s early, of course, but the impact of the stock market on Mendo’s investments and pension fund is also probably going to be significant.

AS TWO BILLIONAIRES gear up to slash Social Security, it’s worth noting that 25% of seniors in the US live (or try to) on $15,000 or less a year. These guys have no idea how the other 90% live, and worse, they don’t care…

— Jeffrey St. Clair

DESPITE DWR'S CLAIMS, THE DELTA TUNNEL WILL INCREASE WATER DELIVERIES BY 22 PERCENT, TESTIMONY BY DWR ENGINEER REVEALS

by Dan Bacher

Yesterday I received the latest Delta Conveyance Project update from the Department of Water Resources. The agency claimed that it is a “myth” that it intends to increase water exports from current levels to state water contractors if the Delta Tunnel is built:

Myth: DWR intends to increase deliveries through the Delta from current levels, even during droughts.

Fact: What this myth conveniently omits is that the State Water Project is facing a reduction in delivery capability and supply reliability by as much as 23% over the next 20 years. We will lose much more over the life of the system due to climate change, sea level rise, and wild swings in precipitation patterns. The purpose of the Delta Conveyance Project is to minimize these future losses and protect reliability for 27 million Californians. State Water Project deliveries have declined, and will continue to decline, yet with the DCP the declines will be lessened and all Delta water quality and fishery protections will continue to be sustained. To call this an “increase” is simply untrue and misleading. Additional Myths/Facts can be found here.

However, written testimony from a Department of Water Resources engineer submitted to a State Water Resources Control Board hearing on the DCP tells a much different story. His testimony reveals that the project will indeed maximize deliveries from the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta, “accelerating the death spiral of the already beleaguered estuary,” according to an analysis by the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN).…

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/4/2314546/-The-Delta-Tunnel-will-increase-water-deliveries-by-22-percent-testimony-by-DWR-scientist-reveals

Sunset on the Sacramento River near Clarksburg. (photo by Dan Bacher)

THE A'S SACRAMENTO ATTENDANCE IS VISIBLY ATROCIOUS

by Alex Simon

The first full series for the Athletics in their multiyear pit stop in Sacramento is complete, and one thing seems abundantly clear: The move to a minor league stadium still won’t fix the attendance problems for John Fisher’s baseball team.

The move to West Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park was, in theory, supposed to reduce the number of empty seats at A’s games simply because the park had fewer seats overall than the Oakland Coliseum. Vivek Ranadive, the owner of the Sacramento Kings and Triple-A River Cats, whose home stadium is Sutter Health Park, boldly claimed last year that A’s games in Sacramento would be “the most sought-after ticket in America,” according to the Athletic.

The A’s also hyped up how great turnout was going to be as the team finally started playing in Sacramento. The team said in early January that it had sold out its allotment of season tickets — roughly 6,000 seats — and officials told the Sacramento Bee a few weeks later that single-game ticket sales had “just been incredible.”

But when the games in Sacramento actually arrived this week, things seemed dramatically different. The A’s were offering $25 tickets to sit on the lawn for the home opener Monday as late as the day of the game itself. For all three games, the A’s came in well under Sutter Health Park’s listed capacity of 14,014 — and also below what the A’s told reporters is a capacity of 13,416, with 10,624 seats plus additional lawn seating.

The A’s called Monday a sellout but said the paid attendance was only 12,119. According to KXTV-TV reporter Matt George, the A’s gave the remaining tickets — nearly 1,300 — to player family members, team executives and other guests. So sure, the stadium was full, but giving away nearly 10% of the available seats in the ballpark makes the full house feel a little different.

Now, perhaps the A’s could indeed have sold all of those comped tickets for the home opener. After all, Opening Day drew some huge crowds even back in Oakland. But the next two games didn’t fill every seat in Sutter Health Park, either.

The A’s reported crowds of 10,095 for Tuesday’s night game and just 9,342 on Wednesday, putting the full paid attendance for the three-game series at 31,556. The empty seats were noticeable on both Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon, both from photos in person and on the television broadcasts.

The fans who did go to the games, by the way, got to witness the Cubs absolutely annihilate the A’s, winning 18-3, 7-4 and 10-2 to sweep the series.

There’s no way to dance around how horrific this opening series is for MLB and the A’s. The Cubs are one of baseball’s oldest franchises and have a massive fan base, one known to fill up opposing ballparks on the road all across MLB. What’s going to happen when teams with fewer dedicated fans come to Sacramento? Or when it’s the middle of the summer and the temperatures at Sutter Health Park surge into the triple digits?

Meanwhile, at the other minor league venue being used for MLB games, the Tampa Bay Rays had sellout crowds for all six games on their opening homestand against the dregs of the National League, the Rockies and Pirates.

Subpar attendance is just one more in the long list of disasters around this opening series in Sacramento for the A’s. For many of the fans back in Oakland, Fisher finally showing back up to games, only to have to stare at even more empty seats than he had at the Coliseum, would bring the ultimate level of schadenfreude imaginable.

(SFGate.com)

SHOULD I TOUCH MY 401(k)? What to do as tariffs go up and the market drops

by Jessica Roy

President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” has come and gone. In a soon-to-be more economically isolated America, tariffs are going up and markets are already down.

On Thursday, the day after he announced sweeping global tariffs, Trump said the rollout is “going very well” and predicted “markets are going to boom.” By the close of trading, the Dow had plunged more than 1,600 points and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq suffered their worst losses since the pandemic crash of 2020.

Amid tariff turbulence, what should you be doing with your 401(k)?

Everyone knows they’re supposed to buy low and sell high. But money decisions aren’t made in an emotional vacuum. On Wall Street, many traders and bankers ignored the conventional wisdom and joined the sell-off Thursday, deeply unsettled by Trump’s actions and the prospect of weaker economic growth and a rise in inflation that experts are predicting will follow.

But if you’ve got the stomach for it, financial experts say right now is the moment to sit back and not touch a thing.

“In most cases, for most people, the best thing you can do is stay the course” with your 401(k), said Carlos Aguirre, the financial literacy and career development manager for San Mateo-based Peninsula Family Service.

If you don’t sell anything, your investments may be worth less right now, but they have the potential to come back up in value. If you sell, you are doing what’s known as “locking in your losses.” You don’t want to do that, said Chris Orestis, the president of Retirement Genius.

“Ride out the storm,” he said of the current economic unrest. “That’s what I’m going to do.”

You especially don’t want to cash out your 401(k), which would come with a huge tax hit in addition to stock losses. But if you find that you can’t take your eyes off your 401(k) balance and the ups and downs have you tossing and turning at night, it may be a sign your portfolio is more exposed to risk than you’re comfortable with, and you might want to think about rebalancing it over the next few months.

Odysseas Papadimitriou, CEO of financial comparison website WalletHub, said if stress over your stocks is impacting your family or your marriage, it’s OK to take a step back from investing right now. He suggested people who can’t take the current volatility could decrease 401(k) contributions to the minimum employer match, then put that money into CDs instead. CDs come with a guaranteed rate of return, though lower than how the market has historically performed.

“From a financial equation standpoint, if someone looks back 10 years from now, I think the conclusion is most likely going to be ‘you should have stayed the course,’” he said. “But there is a cost to that. And we cannot underestimate the mental and physical health costs that these ups and downs take on people.”

The market has had major downturns. The causes were all different, but the outcome was always ultimately the same: The market recovered and went on to reach new highs.

No matter how extreme or unprecedented the shock feels from Trump’s tariffs, Matthew Chancey, a certified financial planner and the founder of Tax Alpha Companies, said it’s a form of cognitive bias to believe we’re going through the one time that things have gotten so bad they will never recover.

“Global instability has always been a thing,” he said. “It’s always been like this. It’s cyclical. … All the things we’re experiencing today are things we’ve experienced in other parts of history.”

His recommendation to anyone itching to sell: “You’re overthinking it. Stay the course.”

He did say for anyone looking to rebalance their portfolio, target date funds are a type of investment that shifts away from risk as you approach retirement. They don’t always have the same optimal rate of return of doing it yourself or with a dedicated financial adviser — and your 401(k) plan has to offer them — but as a DIY investing solution, “it’s doing the job.”

Beyond the stock market

If you want to do something to address your economic anxiety, there are actionable steps you can take to improve your finances that don’t involve selling off your stocks. If you’ve never made a budget before, there’s never been a better time.

Aguirre of Peninsula Family Service said the average household gets a $3,221 federal income tax refund, which means you’re loaning the government $268 a month. Adjust your W-4 withholding form and get that money in your bank every month instead.

Chancey also said that for the time being, consumers should pay down debt, avoid getting into new debt, and avoid major purchases like cars. If you focus on building cash savings now, you’ll have money to put back into the market once things start to stabilize.

If you have a sub-4% mortgage rate, which more than half of Americans do, don’t hurry to pay it down right now, Papadimitriou said. He recommended taking that money and stashing it in CDs instead. He also said he likes CDs more than interest checking and savings accounts at the moment — he said he sees a lot of banks offering high “teaser rates” to bring in business, and then dropping the rates and hoping customers don’t notice.

When will the market volatility end? Anyone who knows the answer to that is not sharing it with a newspaper columnist. But, historically speaking, it always ends.

(SF Chronicle)

Tom Robbins, 1977 (photo by Bob Petersen)

NEIL YOUNG:

What’s happening in our America right now: Our rights to free speech are being taken away and buried by our government.

Reporters who do not agree with our government have been banned from interviewing our President. Canadian / Americans like me have had their freedom threatened by activities such as taking private info from their devices and using it to block them from entering our country – ie: If you don’t agree with our government, you are barred from entering or sent to jail. There are many stories in the Contrarian that make this information very clear.

Corporate controlled newspapers and TV are mostly bought and paid for now, to a great degree. The information found there is not complete anymore. Thats why you need to read the Contrarian. Articles published here are not controlled by Corporations, they are supported by the public – you.

Just because you love music, don’t allow your children to lose their freedom. Read here and learn what our government is doing to you. That’s right – our government.

Music is my love and my life. I want that for my children and theirs. That’s why I’m here doing this today instead of just selling you records.

There is plenty of music associated news in The Times Contrarian and you can easily find it here. Choose the Music News section or the World News section at the top of the page. Check out your music and the rest too. Don’t let your knowledge be limited by today’s politics and the controlling Trump agenda that challenges your basic American freedoms. You elected this president. He is your President. Elon Musk? Really? Think about it. He is a threat to America, enabled by our president because of the millions he spent supporting our president’s election.

THE WASHINGTON POST on the mass firings at HHS: “Some government health employees laid off Tuesday were told to contact Anita Pinder with discrimination complaints. But Pinder, the director at the Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, died last year.”

TRUMP'S VERY COZY RELATIONSHIP WITH LAURA LOOMER

by Maureen Callahan

She's back!

Laura Loomer, the 31-year-old conspiracy theorist and far-right activist whose closeness to President Trump threatened to derail his 2024 campaign, popped up again this week — in the Oval Office, apparently with a 'kill list' of staffers to be fired.

On Thursday, one day after Loomer's face-to-face meeting with President Trump, he fired six members of the National Security Council.

Three had close relationships with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and one had close ties to Trump's national security adviser Mike Waltz — a strategic way, perhaps, of punishing Rubio and Waltz for their roles in Signalgate.

Though Trump denied Loomer had any role in these firings on Air Force One on Thursday — 'she makes recommendations… and sometimes I listen to those' — other top advisers in that meeting told the New York times they were alarmed by Loomer's presence.

Remember: This is a woman who said, if Kamala Harris won the election, that 'the White House would smell like curry.'

Who, upon the death of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a well-known member of the Black Congressioal Caucus, called Lee a 'ghetto bitch'.

Loomer has described herself 'pro-white nationalism', believes 9/11 was an 'inside job' and has accused Governor Ron DeSantis’s wife Casey of 'exaggerating' her breast cancer.

She has suggested that at least two of America's worst mass shootings were staged.

Even for Teflon Don, this woman — hair freshly dyed hot pink — seems way too dangerous. It says something when eight members of his most loyal inner circle promptly leaked details of this meeting to the press.

It is all too reminiscent of last September, about six weeks out from the election and just off the back that disastrous Trump-Kamala debate.

Trump's campaign, up until then steady, was seeming to falter – and not least because he made the decision to allow Loomer, an 9/11 conspiracist, to accompany him on his private jet to September 11 memorial services.

That's when a friend of Trump, who speaks to him every week, told me of their serious concern and disgust over Loomer's closeness.

'The truth is no one's in charge. He's not taking good advice because there isn't any. It's embarrassing.'

Loomer — and if you believe in nominative determinism, this woman is the looming threat that won't go away — clearly offers Trump something no other member of MAGA-land does.

Kanye West? Completely ousted. Antisemite Nick Fuentes? A distant memory.

But Loomer, who has been photographed pushing her breasts against Trump's chest and has been invited to his private balcony at Bedminster, clearly has the president's ear like no other.

No wonder Melania seems to prefer New York.

According to the Times, Loomer sauntered into the Oval with a stack of documents that named NSC members she wanted fired. Walz, who reportedly joined the meeting later, was described as practically neutered.

'[He] briefly defended some of his staff,' the Times reported, 'though it was clear he had little if any power to defend their jobs.'

Let that sink in: Loomer, a professional agitator with no role in this administration, had more power in that meeting than Trump's own national security adviser.

If Trump wants to push back against the liberal media narrative that the lunatics are running the asylum, this isn't the way.

Among those present at the 30-minute Oval Office meeting were Vice President JD Vance, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whose brother died in 9/11 attacks — how he could be forced to sit in the same room with Loomer is beyond me — and Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles, who was instrumental in removing Loomer last September, when she was otherwise Velcroed to Trump's side.

It was Wiles, Trump's affectionately nicknamed 'Ice Maiden', who reportedly stopped Trump from hiring Loomer last year.

What on earth is Trump thinking now?

Loomer is surely his biggest liability, but perhaps that's exactly why he likes her. She appeals to his inner chaos agent.

After all, this is a week that saw Trump's tariffs wreak havoc on the stock market – and Elon Musk exit his role, reportedly sooner than anticipated.

One can only imagine the looks of disbelief in that meeting as Loomer, a crackpot who once got caught jumping Nancy Pelosi’s fence, dictated whose heads should roll at the NSC.

Her presence was either completely spontaneous or sprung by Trump on his unsuspecting staff. As the Times reported: 'It was not clear how she was invited to such a sensitive meeting with the president'.

Truly, this beggars belief.

What other influence does Loomer exercise with her special access to the president? Foreign policy? Trade and tariffs? The expunging of rivals for his favor?

It was Loomer, after all, who went after Musk last year for his stance on granting H-1B visas to the best and the brightest, calling Indian migrants 'third-world invaders'.

This is not a fine mind at work. Nor does she seem particularly emotionally mature. Loomer is nothing more than a click-baiting race hustler and xenophobe with zero scruples.

Say what you will about Trump, but he's not dumb. Nor is he self-destructive.

Except, apparently, when it comes to Loomer.

He flirted with losing the 2024 election, in its final weeks, by bringing her along those 9/11 memorial events, offending MAGA Republicans and voters.

Even Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who said 'I don't often agree with Marjorie Taylor Greene', publicly joined the controversial congresswoman last year in urging Trump to cut Loomer loose.

'The history of this person is just really toxic', Graham told Huffpost. 'I mean, she actually called for Kellyanne Conway's daughter to hang herself.'

Loomer has zero shame.

In fact, this March, Loomer established her own opposition research firm, called — what else? — 'Loomered'.

Spoiler alert: Getting Loomered isn't a good thing, as Trump himself once pointed out when he lauded her at a Mar-a-Lago event, singling her out in the crowd.

'You don't want to be Loomered,' Trump said. 'If you're Loomered, you're in deep trouble.'

The President would do well to heed his own words.

LEAD STORIES, SATURDAY'S NYT

Republicans Like to Cut Taxes. With Tariffs, Trump Is Raising Them.

The Fed Isn’t Rushing to Save the Markets This Time

Here’s How Tariffs Are Hitting Digital Commerce Companies

Trump Hit a Small African Economy With a Huge Tariff

Trump vs. the World: Understanding Tariffs and Their Consequences

Why Small Changes Meant Big Differences in Tariff Rates Around the World

Trump Weakens U.S. Cyberdefenses at a Moment of Rising Danger

Laura Loomer’s Role in Firings Shows Rising Sway of Fringe Figures on Trump

THE FIRE THIS TIME

by Henry Giroux

The mobilizing passions of fascism are no longer a distant echo of history — they are here, surging through the United States like an electric current. We are in a period of social, ideological, and racial cleansing.

First, the notion of government as a democratizing public good and institution of social responsibility—that once held power to account, protected the vulnerable, and nurtured the ideals of justice and collective responsibility—is being methodically destroyed. The common good, once seen as the essence of democratic life, has become the enemy of the neoliberal fascist state. It is not merely being neglected—it is being assaulted, stripped bare, and left to rot in the shadows of privatization, greed, and brutality—the main features of gangster capitalism. Public institutions are hollowed out, courts are under siege, regulatory bodies are politicized and disempowered, and the mechanisms of governance now serve only the most ruthless forms of concentrated financial and political power.

Second, we are witnessing a form of ideological cleansing—a scorched-earth assault on critical consciousness. Education, both public and higher, is under siege, stripped of its democratic mission to cultivate informed judgment, critical thinking, and the capacity to make corrupt power visible. What once served as a space for reflection, dissent, and civic engagement is being transformed into a battlefield of ideological control, where questioning authority is replaced by obedience, and pedagogy is reduced to training, conformity, and propaganda. Education is explicitly no longer on the side of empowerment for the many. It has become an ideological tool of massive repression, indoctrination, surveillance, and an adjunct of the billionaire elite and the walking dead with blood in their mouths.

Books that illuminate injustice, affirm histories of resistance, and introduce critical ideas are being banned. Entire fields of knowledge—gender studies, critical race theory, decolonial thought—are outlawed. Professors are fired, blacklisted, or harassed for daring to speak the truth, especially those who denounce the genocidal violence being waged by Israel, which has now taken the lives of over 50,000 Palestinians, many of them children. Journalists are doxxed, detained, or demonized.

Cultural institutions are defunded or coerced into silence. The arts are no longer sacred; they are now suspect. Social media platforms and news outlets are intimidated, policed, and purged. Elite law firms are targeted, intimidated, silenced or forced into complicity by the Trump administration. Scott Cummings rightly argues President Donald Trump’s recent speech to the Department of Justice was meant as a declaration of war against lawyers. Some prestigious law firms and attorneys—once alleged guardians of justice—now grovel before authoritarianism in acts of staggering complicity. The public sphere is shrinking under the weight of repression.

Third—and perhaps most alarming—is the escalating campaign of racial cleansing—a war against the most vulnerable, on bodies, on the flesh, and on visceral forms of agency. This is not hyperbole. Immigrants are caged in squalid detention centers, separated from their families, deported without due process to detention centers in Louisiana or to Guantanamo, or simply disappeared. Muslims are vilified, surveilled, and targeted with impunity. Black and brown communities are over-policed and under-protected, sacrificed to the machinery of carceral violence. State terrorism is normalized. The state is actively criminalizing existence itself for all those who do not fit the white Christian nationalist fantasy of purity, obedience, and subjugation.

This is a war not only against people, but against memory, imagination, and the very capacity to think, make connections, and to dream a different future. The unimaginable has become policy. The unthinkable now passes for normal.

Consider just a glimpse of the horror now unfolding:

Venezuelan migrants are being disappeared into a notorious maximum-security torture dungeon in El Salvador run by Nayib Bukele, a ruthless dictator, punished not for crimes, but for the ink on their skin. A legendary British punk band, the UK Subs, denied entry for voicing dissent against Trump’s authoritarian policies. A French scientist barred at the border for criticizing Trump, who with sneering smile, tears up the Constitution with performative contempt. Trump violates court orders with impunity. Student visas are revoked in the dead of night. Their dorm rooms raided, their wrists bound in handcuffs, they are forced into unmarked cars by agents of a system that is both cruel and clandestine. Young people—Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, Ranjani Srinivasan, Yunseo Chung—are disappeared, imprisoned in Louisiana, and await deportation under a regime of malignant legalities. cloaked in legalese. These are not arrests—they are abductions. Not justice—but the slow machinery of fear made flesh. Dissent is now branded as terrorism, and those who challenge Trump’s authoritarian grip vanish into the void—arrested, erased, rendered disposable.

Trump’s totalitarian machine is waging a relentless war on colleges and universities. As Chris Hedges observes, the administration has threatened to strip federal funding from more than 60 elite higher education institutions under the guise of protecting Jewish students—while already pulling $500 million from Columbia University, an action that has nothing to do with combating antisemitism. The charge is a smokescreen, a cynical pretext to silence protest and crush dissent—especially in support of Palestinian freedom. As Rashid Khalidi observes, “It was never about eliminating antisemitism. It was always about silencing Palestine. That is what the gagging of protesting students, and now the gagging of faculty, was always meant to lead to.”

Elite universities once proud of their intellectual autonomy are being transformed into fortified zones of surveillance and submission. Columbia among the most glaring, where the campus now resembles a police precinct more than a place of progressive ideas and democratic values. Only now, as the darkness thickens, are a handful of journalists and liberal commentators awakening to the authoritarian siege on higher education—a siege some of us have been naming for decades.

Americans are not witnessing a slow drift toward authoritarianism. They are living through the violent, coordinated seizure of democratic life by fascist forces emboldened by indifference, cruelty, and the architecture of unaccountable power.

Under such circumstances, it is crucial for people to pay attention to the political crisis that is unfolding. This means being attentive, learning from history, analyzing the mobilizing passions of fascism as a system—one directly related to the forces of gangster capitalism and the force of white supremacy and white Christian nationalism. Language matters, and those willing to fight against the fascist tide must rethink the meaning of education, resistance, bearing witness, and solidarity. And action is imperative: build alliances, flood the streets, defend critical education, amplify resistance, and refuse to be silent.

In the face of this rising tide, resistance must no longer be fragmented, polite, or confined to isolated corners of dissent. As Sherilyn Ifill notes, “it is not enough to fight. You have to meet the moment.” Cultural critics, educators, artists, journalists, social workers, and others must wield their craft like weapons—telling prohibited stories, defying censorship, reigniting the radical imagination. Educators must refuse complicity, defending classrooms as sanctuaries of truth and critical inquiry, even when the risks are great. Students must organize, disrupt, and reclaim their campuses—not as consumers of credentialing, but as insurgents of liberation.

Academics, including faculty and administrators, must form a common front to stop the insidious assault on higher education. Journalists must break the silence, not by chasing access or neutrality, but by naming injustice with moral clarity. Organizers, activists, and everyday people must converge—across race, class, gender, and nation—into a broad front of democratic refusal. This is a moment not just for outrage, but for audacity—for reclaiming hope as a political act, and courage as a shared ethic. Fascism feeds on fear and isolation. As Robin D. G. Kelley brilliantly argues, it must be met with solidarity, imagination, and relentless struggle, based on a revived class politics. In a culture of immediacy, cruelty, and staggering inequality, power must be named for its actions, and the language of critique and hope must give way to mass collective action. History is not watching—it is demanding. The only question is whether anti-fascist forces will rise to meet it.

This darkness is not without precedent, nor is it without models of resistance. During the rise of fascism in Europe, teachers and intellectuals in Nazi-occupied France joined the underground, distributing banned literature and teaching forbidden truths in secret classrooms. In apartheid South Africa, students in Soweto sparked a nationwide uprising, defying bullets with the cry that liberation begins with education. In the American South, Black freedom fighters risked their lives to build freedom schools, challenge police terror, and reimagine democracy in the face of white supremacy. The Zapatistas in Chiapas created autonomous zones rooted in dignity, justice, and Indigenous knowledge. Palestinian writers, youth, freedom fighters, and teachers continue to create under siege powerful examples of resistance, insisting through every poem, every painting, every lesson, that their people will not be erased, their memories will survive, and settler-colonialism will not only be relentlessly resisted but will be defeated. There is no other choice.

Today, movements like Black Lives Matter, Abolitionist Futures, Extinction Rebellion, Sunrise Movement, March for Our Lives and Indigenous Rights Movements are keeping alive the traditions of collective struggle. Courageous campus coalitions, in spite of the shameful crackdowns by the government and in some cases universities themselves, are resisting militarized policing and corporate capture of higher education. Migrant justice organizations are building sanctuary networks to protect those the state seeks to expel. These are not just moments of protest—they are blueprints for democratic rebirth. The task now is to connect these diverse movements in a mass movement with the power to wage strikes, engage in direct action, teach-ins, and use any viable non-violent form of resistance to overcome the fascist nightmare spreading across the globe.

The stakes could not be higher. This is a time to reimagine justice, to reclaim the promise of a radical democracy yet to be realized. Fascism feeds on despair, cynicism, and silence—but history teaches otherwise. Again and again, it is when ordinary people refuse to be silent, when they teach, create, march, strike, and speak with fierce clarity, that the foundations of tyranny begin to crack. Fascism has returned from the shadows of history to once more dismantle justice, equality, and freedom. But its resurgence must not be mistaken for fate. It is not the final script of a defeated democratic future—it is a warning. And with that warning comes a call to breathe life into a vision of democracy rooted in solidarity and imagination, to turn resistance into a hammer that shatters the machinery of cruelty, the policies of disposability, and the totalitarian and oligarchic opportunists who feed on fear. As we stand before the terrifying rise of authoritarianism, it becomes undeniable: the fire we face is not some distant, abstract peril, but a fierce and immediate struggle — the fire this time is the fascist capture of America. This is the moment to make education central to politics, to shape history with intention, to summon a collective courage rooted in the demands of freedom, equality, and justice—to act together with a militant hope that does not yield. Fascism will not prevail—unless we let it. In times like these, resistance is not a choice; it is the condition of survival.

(Henry A. Giroux currently holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the English and Cultural Studies Department and is the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy. His most recent books include: The Terror of the Unforeseen (Los Angeles Review of books, 2019), On Critical Pedagogy, 2nd edition (Bloomsbury, 2020); Race, Politics, and Pandemic Pedagogy: Education in a Time of Crisis (Bloomsbury 2021); Pedagogy of Resistance: Against Manufactured Ignorance (Bloomsbury 2022) and Insurrections: Education in the Age of Counter-Revolutionary Politics (Bloomsbury, 2023), and coauthored with Anthony DiMaggio, Fascism on Trial: Education and the Possibility of Democracy (Bloomsbury, 2025). Giroux is also a member of Truthout’s board of directors.)

LIVE FROM THE OVAL OFFICE

21 Comments

Harvey Reading April 5, 2025

DIVISIVE WATER POLITICS

Tear down the damned dams and get your overpopulated area’s monkey population down to its natural carrying capacity for human monkeys. Fish are more important than welfare wine farmers, no matter what the idiot prezudint in DC may spout.

Reply
Kimberlin April 5, 2025

FROST FANS. SPRING TIME IN THE ANDERSON VALLEY: Can anything be done? Yes.

In Europe they use a different type of fan blade that is less noisy. If there is an alternate that the growers could use but don’t want to bother then the ccounty authorities should make it a requirement. Complain to them. Other than that you will have to sue them so that a judge will order it.

Reply
- peter boudoures April 5, 2025
  
  Put a square foot cap of 10k like they do some other local crops. Jackson family just cleared 500 acres of oak in southern Mendo off 128.
  
  Reply
David Stanford April 5, 2025

GO TESLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reply
Paul Modic April 5, 2025

“If I had to make a choice between having only books or only the Internet, I would choose books every time.” (I said that.)
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh is a terrific author of both fiction and nonfiction, I’ve only read his fiction, and have voraciously gobbled up most of it. He writes a lot of historical fiction which is fun because you learn stuff as well as follow along on the latest adventures his characters are having, often in the 1800’s. I recently read his trilogy about the opium wars, the first one is called Sea of Poppies, and all three, especially the first two, were enthralling page turners.
(When China tried to prevent the British and others from dealing dope to their masses, the British sent their superior warships within half a year and took care of that problem by invading. The opium was coming from India which was already one of Britain’s colonies so they had a nice drug business going and many ship captains made bank. And wow, there are still opium wars going on, this time in the form of oxycodone and fentanyl. What an amazing drug…)
This guy is a great writer, I’ve read about five of his books in the last year, and am dismayed that I have just one or two more to go. Highly recommended.

Reply
Harvey Reading April 5, 2025

THE FIRE THIS TIME

A great summation of where we are…exactly where we should have expected to be given our history since the end of the Second World War.

Reply
- Norm Thurston April 5, 2025
  
  I thought we were changing the trajectory back in the late 1960’s, but that didn’t last long.
  
  Reply
Mazie Malone April 5, 2025

Another day in Mendo

On Trump’s BS on homelessness and forced treatment for street folks. First off in essence “housing first“ is jargon, a catch phrase for the problem of “homelessness“, not the solution. Housing an inherent human right is only the first step to the solution and the most necessary one! However, without proper support and infrastructure along with appropriate protocols for those who battle the trifecta of homelessness, addiction, and mental illness. Sanctioned camps are not the answer to get people the help that they need and force them to comply making a choice between Jail or treatment. It is imperative to understand that all three conditions, homelessness, mental illness and addiction, cause cognitive decline and impairment and greatly limits one’s ability in making beneficial choices.

Sanctioned camps are not the answer to address the needs of our homeless population. Proper supports, housing, intervention, family involvement, appropriate protocols and education are!

There are absolutely circumstances and instances that forced treatment for psychotic conditions/ disorders, are necessary and warranted! That’s why we have PHF’s unfortunately not enough beds under utilized and these conditions are largely misunderstood. Which is why most end up incarcerated when in fact they need psychiatric intervention treatment

You cannot put every person in the same camp and say problem solved we rounded em up for good now they must obey!!!

Oh but at least they will be unseen out of the public view.

Even if a sanctioned camp was a good idea which it is not and you are forcing treatment where the fuck do you think you’re gonna send any of those people there are not enough treatment, beds, or facilities or most importantly, dual diagnostic care because most people on the street have a serious mental illness, along with addiction!

mm 💕

Reply
- Norm Thurston April 5, 2025
  
  You fight the good fight, Mazie.
  
  Reply
  - Mazie Malone April 5, 2025
    
    Thank you Norm!!
    
    mm 💕
    
    Reply
- Eric Sunswheat April 5, 2025
  
  Cognitive decline in greenness space, dementia and antidepressants.
  
  —>. March 1, 2025 
  David Merrill, MD, a board-certified geriatric psychiatrist…did explain a reason why patients on antidepressants could have some degree of cognitive decline.
  “One possibility is that SSRIs may influence neurotransmitter systems in ways that exacerbate cognitive deterioration,” said Merrill. “Additionally, the depressive symptoms themselves, which these medications aim to treat, might inherently contribute to cognitive decline, making it challenging to disentangle the effects of the medication from the underlying condition.”…
  
  “Clinicians should thoroughly assess the severity of depressive symptoms and consider non-pharmacological interventions, such as psychotherapy or behavioral therapies, as first-line treatments,” he recommended. “If antidepressant medication is deemed necessary, selecting agents with a more favorable cognitive profile and closely monitoring the patient’s cognitive function over time is essential.” https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/can-antidepressants-speed-up-cognitive-decline-in-dementia
  
  —> July 17, 2024
  Published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, the study found that residing in areas with higher amounts of greenness during midlife may slow a person’s annual rate of cognitive decline by about eight months. This association was stronger among people living in neighborhoods of low socioeconomic status (SES), highly populated neighborhoods.
  
  This association was also observed among people with the APOE-ɛ4 gene, a variant of the APOE gene that is a major risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. APOE-ɛ4 carriers exposed to more greenery had a threefold magnitude of slower cognitive decline, compared to people without the gene, which is an important research development, as there are currently no known ways for carriers of this gene to reduce their risk of developing dementia.
  https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2024/living-in-greener-neighborhoods-during-midlife-may-slow-cognitive-decline/
  
  Reply
  - Mazie Malone April 5, 2025
    
    Hi Eric
    
    Interesting, I often like to point out that wether the condition is Dementia or Mental Illness both cause major cognitive distortions only difference being that we tend to treat Seniors with empathy, compassion and support, those with Mental Illness/addiction we blame and condemn!
    
    I am all for natural remedies and treatments, including being out in nature, I also understand the side effects of conventional medications, but they also have their place. All medication’s do not work for everyone, of course, but you have to weigh the benefits against the side effects. In our case, the anti depressant Wellbutrin was a great medication for curbing suicidal ideation! In bipolar disorder, it can be tricky to give antidepressants because it can cause mania which can lead to psychosis. Also marijuana addiction can cause mania and psychosis.
    
    Any illness can cause depression so can aging, homelessness, addiction & having 2 unhinged idiots in charge, one must decide which process best suits your needs and it’s a crap shoot.
    
    mm 💕
    
    Reply
- Call It As I See It April 5, 2025
  
  The result we have now is unacceptable!
  Whatever their problems are, when they commit crime and break laws and become an obstacle on everyone’s way of life, no idea is bad. It is time for some tough love. Leaving the decision process to the person affected is ridiculous. But it’s exactly what happens when people who supposedly care change laws.
  
  Reply
  - Mazie Malone April 5, 2025
    
    Hi CIAISI,
    
    I am going to nickname you CSI ha ha ha!
    Anyways, no one disagrees that we have a major problem on the streets. Everyone knows this no one likes it including the folks on the street! Should crimes go unpunished no of course not however let’s be clear not every street person commits crimes. Tough love is not a remedy for the problems that we face with homelessness, addiction, and serious mental illness that is a crock of shit. Are you referring to a specific law?
    
    mm 💕
    
    Reply
Jim Armstrong April 5, 2025

Well, it looks like our long mistreatment by Mike Ireton and his two internet companies may finally be over. He killed my internet connection a year ago but convinced me to keep my email account with them, prepaid. Now it is gone too, with no notice or explanation. I guess the last week or more of my email is plain old gone. Now to notify a bunch of friends and other contacts.

About 48% of US voters put the country’s and world’s economy in the hands of the worst and most dishonest businessman in history. Nice going.

If you don’t feel like paying the NYT, WP or any of the other place now charging for news, here is an interesting list:
https://media.defense.gov/2025/Apr/04/2003683009/-1/-1/0/250404-LIST%20OF%20REMOVED%20BOOKS%20FROM%20NIMITZ%20LIBRARY.PDF

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Mike Jamieson April 5, 2025

Hands Off demonstration turnout in Ukiah
https://youtu.be/GnfyxZ0kPwA?si=hKqDx1LVw7o7Tnw3

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- Mazie Malone April 5, 2025
  
  Hi Mike,
  
  I drove past it earlier a lot of people !!
  
  mm 💕
  
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  - Mike Jamieson April 5, 2025
    
    I got a part one also at that YouTube. Earlier film of people first showing up. A half hour later the size was very impressive.
    Breaking News!! The Kubanis Trump signage is gone from the windows above the Ukiah Brewing Company. The American flags still present.
    
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keith Lowery April 6, 2025

The issues with Mendocino County CEO and BOS started years ago under the direction of the former CEO Carmel Angelo. And yet she and her “legacy” go unscathed.
The current CEO unfortunately worked for years under Angelo and took on some bad habits without the manipulative political skill set of Angelo.
There absolutely needs to be significant structural changes in the CEO’s office with more checks and balances.
The BOS should resolve the Cubbison case in an Expedited manner.
The CEO should resign or be terminated.
The BOS should also call on the resignation of the District Attorney, Dave Eyster by writing a formal letter to the State of California Attorney General Office.
Cooperation with the State Auditors and be transparent on how money is moved around. The CEO raids the funding for Child Welfare on a consistent basis.
The Director of Social Services and the Deputy Director of Child Welfare need to have more authority over their budgets with the ability to prevent the County CEO from moving dollars to other non general fund departments.
These type of actions will begin to build trust with the public that these elected or appointed officials are supposed to serve and also begin to show that they are good stewards of taxpayer dollars.

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- Chuck Dunbar April 6, 2025
  
  Mr. Lowery knows more than most about the context and content of the County’s problems and malfunctions. I wish the BOS had an advisor like him to help them deal honestly, forthrightly, and effectively with the difficult issues at hand.
  
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  - Lazarus April 7, 2025
    
    Those Stiffs are too busy looking over their collective shoulders to take advice from anybody. The County is in trouble. If I’m reading Ms. Cubbison’s lawyers correctly, they’re going after a bunch.
    Rumors say the DA is getting out and moving. As is the Sup from the 3rd. But who knows…If the State wasn’t so dysfunctional they would already be here, taking control. Fraud, corruption, lying on the witness stand. Hell Boy, folks go to jail for that shit!
    As around,
    Laz
    
    Reply

Mendocino County Today: Saturday 4/5/2025

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