Mendocino County Today: Wednesday 4/9/2025

Sunny | Tulips | Fatal Crash | Seale Caught | No Leadership | Frustrated Growers | Local Band | Pollinator PSA | Crook to Corning | Ocean Bluff | Ukiah Protest | Town Hall | New Owner | Women's Choir | Reticulate Venation | Ed Notes | Galina Global | Historical Photos | Mendosa's Grocery | Elliott Family | Yesterday's Catch | Illegal Immigrants | Rate Hike | Oligarchically Correct | Zionist Perfidy | Ceasefire People | Davy Handshake | Young Man | Another Shutout | Straitjackets | Deinstitutionalization | Boomer Confession | Too Stupid | Lead Stories | Unending Cruelty | Two Paths | Not Funny | Ottoman Empire | Musk Contracts | Brutal Genocide | America Burning | Hands Off | Trauma Response

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STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Another 41F under clear skies this Wednesday morning on the coast. A few high clouds to the north is about all the forecast has to offer today.

A FRONTAL SYSTEM will bring a chance of rain and breezy southerly winds to Del Norte and northern Humboldt Counties on Thursday. Otherwise, dry and warmer weather is expected today through Thursday. Blustery northerly winds and cooler temperatures are expected for Friday and Saturday, followed by gusty offshore flow and interior warming Sunday and Monday. (NWS)

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FATAL CRASH

On April 5th, 2025, at 1355 hours, Humboldt Communications Center (HCC) received a 9-1-1 call of a solo vehicle crash on SR 162 near MPM 5.7. CHP officers arrived on scene at 1358 hours and found the solo occupant of the vehicle was unresponsive. CHP officers provided life-saving measures on the driver until relieved by Laytonville Fire Department. The driver, Dennis Shepherd (Age 78, Covelo, CA) was ultimately pronounced deceased at the scene. Cal Trans assisted on scene as the roadway was reduced to one way traffic control for scene investigation and vehicle recovery. Shepherd was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.

A preliminary investigation shows Shepherd was driving westbound on SR-162 and for an unknown reason, Shepherd’s vehicle travelled off the roadway and collided with two trees and the embankment. The CHP Garberville Area Office is investigating the cause of this crash.

The California Highway Patrol wants to remind motorists the importance of wearing their seatbelt while operating or riding in a motor vehicle.

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ANOTHER MASTER CRIMINAL…

On Friday, April 4, 2025 at 10:42 P.M., a Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputy was dispatched to an unknown disturbance occurring in the 31000 Block of W. Highway 20 in Fort Bragg. The caller reported hearing glass breaking and a male subject yelling in the area. Upon arrival at the scene, the Deputy located Eric Seale, 49, of Fort Bragg, standing next to a vehicle that was disabled on the side of the road.

Seale provided his name and date of birth to the Deputy who performed a warrants check. The Deputy learned Seale had an active felony warrant for his arrest issued out of Sacramento County for a probation violation. There was no-bail status associated with the arrest warrant.

The Deputy told Seale he was under arrest for the warrant, however when the Deputy attempted to arrest Seale, he pulled away and told the Deputy he was not going to be arrested. As this occurred a Sheriff's Sergeant arrived, and Seale was ultimately placed into handcuffs without further incident.

Seale was arrested for the felony warrant and for Resisting or Delaying a Peace Officer. Seale was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he is being held on a no-bail status for the felony arrest warrant.

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A READER WRITES:

I just wanted to say, in light of Tuesday’s board meeting, I noticed that the Deputy CEOs kept asking the board for direction and the board kept pushing it back on to them to bring back a plan. WTF?!? The board members need to do their jobs and make as informed a decision as they can make. There’s no excuse for this B.S.! These people just voted to give themselves a raise!

Where’s the cart and where is the mule in this situation??? It’ll be interesting to read what others have to say tomorrow in the AVA. There needs to be some dramatic turn around in this county.

I won’t say that everybody that works for the county is bad. I know a lot of people that work for the county and they do it because they love the community and they care about their friends, neighbors & relatives. They’re good people who are vital to our local services.

It’s the leadership that’s terrible here. Or should I say “Where is the leadership? It’s (true leadership) so terrible here!”

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MENDOCINO CANNABIS FARMERS PUSH BACK AGAINST OVERREGULATION

by Monica Huettl

Mendocino County’s licensed cannabis growers voiced their frustrations at the county’s Economic Development meeting in Willits on March 27, highlighting the challenges of operating within a heavily regulated industry. Representatives from the Mendocino County Producers Guild, the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance, and other stakeholders discussed the obstacles they face, including overregulation, zoning restrictions, and the inability to sell directly to consumers. As small farmers struggle to compete against larger operations and the unlicensed market, they urged the county to take action to support the local cannabis industry.…

https://mendofever.com/2025/04/09/mendocino-cannabis-farmers-push-back-against-overregulation/

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RENEE LEE (AV Senior Center Director)

AV Senior is looking for a local band willing to donate/play at our fundraiser BBQ on June 21, 2025. Hours are 4-7 pm at the AV Senior Center/Veterans Building in Boonville. We can’t afford to pay but the band gets a free delicious dinner prepared by AV Lions Club. Please PM (facebook) with any leads. Thank you!

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OLIVIA ALLEN (Philo):

Hey everyone! I'm seeing a lot of weed-whacking and mowing going on, and I wanted to share this PSA about how vital our native grasses and flowers are to pollinators and the other living critters! I hope people will hold off for at least a few more weeks or even until things start to get brown. There's no real need to do it now, and the bugs really need it natural. Our pollinators have been a sensitive group for a long time, but native bees are dying at an alarming rate right now. Anything we can do to support them is crucial.

Plus it looks so much better along the road to have the natural prairie instead of mowed with dead grass on top and dirt showing through. And of course chemicals pesticides like Roundup should please please never be used!

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UKIAH POLICE CHIEF CEDRIC CROOK ANNOUNCED RETIREMENT After 28 Years of Service; Captain Tom Corning to Succeed Him

The City of Ukiah is announcing the retirement of Police Chief Cedric Crook, who has dedicated 28 years of service to the department and the City, including the past three years as Chief. Chief Crook has made the decision to step down, marking the conclusion of a distinguished career in public service and law enforcement.

Chief Crook began his career with the Ukiah Police Department as a reservist in 1997. After graduating at the top of his class from the police academy, he was promoted to full-time police officer in 1998. Over the years, he served in nearly every role within the department, including as a SWAT team member, canine handler, and a member of the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force. In 2002, he was honored as Ukiah's Police Officer of the Year. Promoted to Chief in 2022, he played a key role in developing policies to enhance community safety. As a Ukiah native, his deep connection to the city has been evident throughout his career, and he is widely recognized for his unwavering commitment to his hometown.

“It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve this community alongside such a talented team,” said Chief Crook.

In light of this transition, Ukiah Police Captain Tom Corning has been selected to succeed Chief Crook as the new Police Chief. Chief Crook remarked, “I am proud of the work we’ve accomplished together, and I have full confidence that the department will continue to thrive under Captain Tom Corning’s leadership.”

Corning, a U.S. Army combat veteran, has served with distinction in law enforcement for 16 years. His extensive background, proven leadership, and dedication to the Ukiah community make him the ideal candidate for this important role.

"I have every confidence that Captain Corning will lead the Ukiah Police Department with integrity and dedication," said Ukiah City Manager Sage Sangiacomo. "His wealth of experience, strong leadership, and passion for serving this community will ensure the department continues to build trust and safety for all Ukiah residents."

Captain Corning has held numerous leadership positions within the department, including patrol officer, field training officer, president of the police officers’ association, patrol sergeant, detective sergeant, patrol lieutenant, and captain. His experience gives him a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for law enforcement in Ukiah. Corning is committed to building strong community partnerships while maintaining a department that is professional, transparent, and accountable.

Jacque Williams, Executive Director of the Ford Street Project, where Corning serves as an active Board member, expressed her support for the leadership transition, saying, “We have worked closely with Captain Corning over the years, and his commitment to making Ukiah a safer and more supportive community is truly evident. We look forward to continuing our work together and are confident that his leadership will have a positive impact.”

Chief Crook’s retirement marks the end of an era for the Ukiah Police Department. His outstanding contributions to public safety will leave a lasting legacy. As the Department and City of Ukiah look ahead, there is great anticipation for the future under the leadership of incoming Chief Corning, who will be officially sworn in on Wednesday, April 16th, during the Ukiah City Council meeting at 5:15 p.m. Chief Crook’s retirement will take effect on August 2nd, allowing for a smooth transition of leadership.

The community is invited to join us at the beginning of next week's City Council meeting (April 16, 5:15 pm, 300 Seminary Avenue) for the swearing in of our new Chief.

Regards,

Shannon Riley, Deputy City Manager

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UKIAH SAYS ‘HANDS OFF’

by Carole Brodsky

A crowd estimated between 700 and 1,000 people gathered in front of the Ukiah Courthouse on Saturday, joining with over 1,300 protests in every state plus Puerto Rico, and a number of participating countries including Scotland and the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, American Samoa and Canada.

The “Hands Off” protest, organized by over 150 groups, garnered over half a million RSVPs on their website. Locally, simultaneous protests took place in Lakeport, Cloverdale, Point Arena, Gualala, Fort Bragg and Willits. Saturday’s march was among the three largest protests in Ukiah’s history, the biggest being the Women’s March in 2017, which brought out about 2,000 people.

The issues that brought together so many protesters included outrage at the firing of thousands of federal employees, the closure of Social Security offices and veiled threats by the Trump administration to “go after” Social Security benefits, cutting back funding and personnel for programs connected to health care, Head Start and veterans, the fear of illegal deportation and “disappearance” of immigrants and the assault against the LGBTQ+ community.

Protesters filled the area surrounding the Mendocino County Courthouse, with hundreds of people carrying signs, filling the sidewalks on State Street from Perkins to Standley Streets. Cars drove by, showing their support by honking, or their disapproval by gunning their engines and loudly peeling out from stop lights.

Indivisible Ukiah was the organizing body for the event, and speakers included Tony Melville, Jamie Connerton, Jackie Orozco and her son Esteban.

Connerton is a retired public-school teacher and a veteran, who enlisted in the Navy during the Vietnam War. He did not hold back in his disgust for the Trump administration’s cuts to veterans services.

“Our ‘King,’” said Connerton sarcastically, “ordered 80,000 jobs cut from the Veterans Administration, camouflaging the cuts as efficiency. Does he think we’re stupid?” he asked the crowd. “Many veterans depend on life-sustaining services,” he continued, adding that many of the people fired from the VA were veterans themselves. “Private control of public institutions is the definition of fascism. We should know who the gangsters are. It’s better to be pissed off than pissed on!” he said to applause.

The signs said it all, with people getting creative with their artistic prowess and their verbiage.

“I can barely put a list together of all the bad things that are happening,” said Sharon Paultin, sporting a “Doge” costume complete with a Donald Trump puppet and a miniature chainsaw. “We need to get together to get back our country.”

Deborah Moore, a teacher, held a sign that depicted a hand, saying “Hands Off” with photos of Social Security cards, a California Benefits card and a Medicare card, with the added, “And as for stupid tariffs, don’t touch my champagne!”

“I’m filled with sorrow for all the terrible things people all over the world are experiencing, enabled by Trump and Musk,” Moore said. “I’m worried for my daughter and granddaughter, and if I’m going to get my first Social Security check in June, because if not, life will become much more pinched and much smaller.”

Longtime activist and psychologist J Holden was bedecked in his well-used Uncle Sam costume. “This might be the last time I can wear it,” he laughed, pointing to a rip in the sleeve.

“If you want to make America great, tax the rich. It’s that simple. It would pay for Social Security for years.”

This was not the first rodeo for 12-year-old Abner, who held a sign saying “Trump Couldn’t Care Less about your job, your kids, your health, your future.”

“I think the worst thing he’s done is shutting down ways to give food to homeless people.”

Don Hughes held a simple sign: “Hands off My Medicare.” But he had post-it notes that had additional items to protect, which included national parks, cancer research, food bank funding, Social Security and International Aid. “My fear is that the budget bill coming out of the house will stop Medicare and Medicaid. But here we are. We’re here and there are quite a few of us,”

Marilyn’s sign said, “Donald Musk, ‘You’re Fired!’” “Trump is destroying our democracy. Civil rights are the critical issue right now. They are at the heart of the matter.”

Gail Kreider and her husband, Rob, didn’t have a sign but were happy to see the large crowd. “There’s a felon in the highest office of the land who’s destroying our country,” said Gail. “Do you know who developed the tariff plan?” Rob asks. “A fake person.” He is referring to the breaking news that Donald Trump relied on the advice of one “Ron Vara,” a non-existent “expert” who was invented by Peter Navarro by using the letters of his last name, and who is repeatedly quoted as an expert throughout several of Navarro’s books.

Lena works for a city park, and her colleagues work in the federal park system, ‘Parks need people,” she says. She and her mother, Julie Beardsley, past president of SEIU, were carrying clever signs of “St. Upid,” the patron saint of economic collapse, featuring none other than the face of Donald Trump in the guise of a saint. Beardsley attended the recent town meeting held by Congressional Representative Jared Huffman at Mendocino College.

“Fascism is on the horizon, if not already here,” Beardsley said. “Huffman called a spade a spade, admitting that the Trump administration was violating the Constitution.”

Anna held handmade signs saying, “Musk Bought Trump, not the USA,” and “Veterans Benefits Paid Full in their Blood.”

“I’m worried that my medical benefits are going to be cut off. I want my kids to live stress-free. We need a system that works for us, not against us.”

Wendy held a sign saying “Musk/noun. A strong-smelling reddish-brown substance,” with a likeness of the poop emoji at the bottom. “America should remain a democratic country — not an autocracy or an oligarchy. I am ashamed how the President has alienated our allies. Musk doesn’t belong in government. He is not an elected official.”

Longtime “troublemaker” Laura Hamburg held a sign saying, “Who Would Jesus Deport?”

“I am standing up, fighting because this is happening before my eyes. We won’t stand for this. Let us link arms with every person and not tolerate disappeared, deported people. It’s really important that small-town, rural America stand up and be noticed. We rely on federal dollars, and we rely on each other.”

Kim held a hand-painted sign with four faces of Donald Trump, wearing “Many Bad Hats,” which included the hats of dictators and a prison hat. “This is one thing we can do,” she said. “Trump hates people speaking against him. My sister is in Colorado right now, doing the same thing. We’re all here, speaking against this.”

John’s poster said, “Gun Owners Against Trump.” He said, “The general perception is that rural white men are in favor of Trump. I wanted to call attention to the fact that the stereotypes are not accurate, and if possible reach out to some of those people peeling out in their trucks.”

“You are not alone,” Esteban Orozco told the audience in a speech by Claryssa Ayala, a Mendocino College student. “Don’t live in fear. This is the land of the free. Let immigrants live free, because their families belong together.”

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AV BREWING: The Beer is Back and Under New Ownership!

Hibernation is Over!

We’re excited to announce the dawning of a new chapter here at Anderson Valley Brewing! Local entrepreneur Jason McConnell, is going to be leading the fantastic team, we all love, at AVBC through some exciting new projects — as well as bringing back some old favorites, and ensuring we retain the soul and quality of our legacy.

Jason comes with decades of experience in the wine industry, and a passion for community-focused events. We’ll be ramping up live music, bringing in even more bahl gorms, and making sure there’s always something for everyone!

Sunday, April 13th 1pm-4pm Come on out to meet Jason!

We’re kicking things off with a bahl tidrick this coming Sunday, April 13th — join us for live music from Adam Manus 1pm-4pm. Adam will also be performing at the Beer Fest (which is only a month away, grab your tickets!) — you won’t want to miss it.

There will be complimentary BBQ to accompany those delicions ales! Come by. Say hi. And partake in the new adventure.

(avbc.com)

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SPRING INTO SPRING WITH THE MENDOCINO WOMEN'S CHOIR

The Mendocino Women's Choir is pleased to present our 33rd Annual Spring Concert at Preston Hall in Mendocino.

Saturday April 26, 7:30 pm

Sunday, April 27, 2:30 pm

Tickets available at:

Harvest Market in Fort Bragg

Out of this World in Mendocino

$20 in Advance

$25 at the door

Children 12 and Under FREE

The Mendocino Women's Choir began in 1992 and has welcomed dozens of women and girls from our diverse community to join us in song.

Our respect and gratitude for our home community is reflected in our varied repertoire. The folk tunes, original compositions, Venezuelan rhythms, and singalongs in this year's concerts express our desire to live in a diverse, ethical, and supportive country.

Director Cynthia Frank, accompanist Marie-Claire Dizin, percussionist Bing York, along with special guests, and maybe a few kazoos will guide us on our musical journey.

Please join us for our welcome-to-springtime shows in Mendocino.

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ED NOTES

JUSTINE FREDERICKSON reports that Congressman Huffman, at his recent Mendo College event, was asked about Israel's Gaza onslaught and “a very loud group asked Huffman about supporting Israel and booed his answer. (You can find videos of the event on Facebook and YouTube).”

NOT THAT LONG AGO, Mendocino County had a real economy based on timber, fishing, ranching, and non-booze tourism. Outside timber corporations destroyed the timber economy, fishing was lost to a variety of eco-causes, ranching became unsustainable, and tourism, with or without roadside booze boutiques, is always precarious in a down economy. Today's Mendo economy is based on two intoxicants, both legal, both dying.

There are also a large number of professional Democrats employed in public jobs and the local non-profits where they are dominant except among the cops. The industrial wine industry, of course, is wholly dependent on non-union Mexican labor. The quality of our schools and much of our local political leadership is unlikely to attract the environmentally sensitive, high-paying, techno-groove-o businesses the financially secure residents of Westside Ukiah are always going on about. A person with “a strong business background and great people skills” provides exactly what in this context?

I BELONG TO AARP only to get Medi-Gap coverage, not because I don't know that AARP is basically an insurance sales force and a slave to the worst elements of the Democratic Party. This phony “senior's” organization is also a major obstacle to single-payer, sells its membership lists to other hustlers attempting to rip off the elderly, and has come out for Medicare “reform.”

EVERY TIME I get a sales pitch from AARP, I amuse myself by writing an abusive reply, and I mean abusive, complete with strings of the most creative obscenities I can devise. For years, I never heard back, but I finally got a generic response AARP probably reserves for its most persistent cranks:

“DEAR MR. ANDERSON: Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and concerns with us. While our goal is to act on behalf of our membership at large, I hope you can appreciate that with such a diverse membership; we are unable to craft a single policy directive in agreement with every member. Our membership demographic includes, among other variables, men and women from several political parties including Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and other third-party affiliations, an array of nationalities, incomes, and educational backgrounds, the employed and the retired. We work hard in the federal and state legislatures to advocate for our members, their families and society as a whole. We certainly appreciate communications such as yours because they help us know how to spend our time and resources on behalf of the 50+ population. I have taken note of your views; member feedback is reported to our leadership on a regular basis. While we may disagree on this issue, it is our hope that you find the many services, products, and other issues that AARP is engaged in beneficial to you and your family. Thank you again for writing and please continue to share your opinions with us. It is the combined interest, energy and commitment from members like you that gives AARP the power to make life better. Sincerely, Colin W., Member Communications.”

“COLIN W.” I love that. What's the 'W' stand for, Wuss? What Colin W. should have said: “Dear Mr. Anderson. We're really tired of your demented responses to our tireless efforts to help you find great deals on denture glue and the other fine products we recommend to you and the rest of the senile suckers on our mailing list. We hope your bedpan blows up and your catheter runs from your peenie out your nose so you can really have something to bitch about at the Anderson Valley Senior Center. But seriously, you either end your abusive bullshit or we'll send someone out to Boonville to end YOU. Got that, gramps? Sincerely Colin W.”

A FRIEND writes that she's hobbling around in a walker after a couple of weeks in the hospital. I just pretend I'm all systems go, and not falling apart every which way. I kinda enjoy emergency rooms and hospitals, truth to tell. Don't know why exactly, but probably because workers are the most impressive human-type beings one meets in the aggregate these days.. And they're funny, too, which isn't surprising. Given their grisly tasks it's either laugh or cry.

GRANDSON is in Cuba with the Marin Jr. All-Stars playing their Cuban age-equivalents.

I'm surprised Marin is holding their own. I expected them to get routed simply because Cuba is such a hotbed of baseball players, but coaching is so good these days even 12 and 13-year-olds are fundamentally sound. Grandson loves Havana, and loves the food — variations of rice and beans considered austere by commenters on Cuba. If I'm even luckier he'll come home a socialist!

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GALINA'S DEFAMATIONS GO GLOBAL

I Think My Father Is America's Worst Serial Killer… I Have 'Taped Confessions' But Police Say They Aren't Proof

by Sheila Flynn

‘My name is Galina… I am the daughter of a serial killer.’

The first shocking post appeared on Maria ‘Galina’ Trefil’s Facebook page on March 13 and quickly went viral.

She shared the startling statement nearly 15 years after she claims her psychiatrist father told her a blood-curdling story that first made her suspect he was a murderer.

Galina said she was recovering from the traumatic birth of her first son in 2011 following a medication mix-up.

Her father told her she could have died, she said, because in the 1960s he deliberately gave one of his patients a fatal overdose.

‘He thought it was very funny,’ the 43-year-old told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview.

‘He talked about how, after he overdosed this person, whose name he did not even know, he went down to the cafeteria and had lunch, fully aware that by the time he got back upstairs, they were going to be dead - and they were,’ Galina added.

‘And I just knew, when he was describing it like that, there was no way this only happened once. There’s just absolutely no way.’

Reflecting on her life and relationship with her father, she says, 'all of a sudden, everything just made sense'.

Her allegations spread like wildfire online and led police to publicly state that their investigation has not turned up any evidence against her father.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Dr. Jon Trefil denied any suggestion he is a murderer and said he is open to working with investigators to help clear his name.

But the family saga has snowballed into a bizarre mystery that has sent armchair detectives into overdrive.

Galina told the Daily Mail that years ago she ‘came up with a plan to catch’ her father, playing the ‘good daughter’ to lure him into a sense of security.

It worked, she said, claiming that Dr. Trefil confessed ‘to murdering one person, give or take, a month’ between 1965 and 1999.

That would mean the 86-year-old’s alleged victims number in the hundreds, far surpassing the body count of even the most infamous serial killers, despite police finding no evidence to support the claims.

‘I knew that this was up to me. Nobody had caught him. Nobody would catch him,’ Galina told the Daily Mail.

Her frequent posts on Facebook, which have been widely shared and amassed hundreds of comments, include specific details about purported victims, as well as photographic ‘evidence’ she claims prove his guilt.

Dr. Trefil, his daughter alleged, killed his grandparents by poisoning. As a teenager, he also poisoned his own father on his deathbed, she said.

And that’s only the beginning.

Galina insisted her father has claimed to be both the Zodiac and Santa Rosa Hitchhiker killers and that he was tangentially involved with the Children of God cult.

She said he murdered countless hitchhikers and campers in California and buried bodies at remote cabins. She alleged that he worked with other murderers and that he claimed victims across the US and Europe.

He found some targets by placing classified ads seeking women in the medical field and taking them on dates before killing them, she claimed.

He kept one woman underground for three weeks before murdering her, Galina said, and she even suspects him of killing her unborn siblings.

Galina told the Daily Mail that she first went to authorities in 2017 and has repeatedly tried to engage various agencies, including the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, which she approached in January 2023.

But the lack of action, she said, motivated her to take her claims public - starting with the March 13 Facebook post. It has been re-shared by thousands of other users on the platform. Her subsequent posts have garnered keen interest from commenters, some of whom began doing their own online sleuthing.

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office says it hasn’t found any evidence - even after launching investigations into the doctor when his daughter came to them in January 2023 with the jaw-dropping accusations.

Investigators pored over ‘recordings, scanned journals, and other investigative materials,’ the sheriff’s office said, and compared DNA connected to a cold case cited by Galina in Mendocino County.

His DNA was uploaded to a nationwide database to see if it matched evidence from other unsolved cases. Investigators also searched a property and cabin where Galina claimed they would discover human remains.

Authorities found nothing and have zero proof, the sheriff’s office said in a lengthy statement issued four days after Galina’s initial Facebook post.

At the time of the investigation, Galina told authorities that her father would not speak to them, a spokesman for the sheriff's office said this week.

Dr. Trefil, meanwhile, resides at a care facility in Fort Bragg, California, about 20 miles from the 18-acre property where he and his wife - who married and divorced before remarrying - spent much of their lives.

Speaking to Daily Mail by phone from the facility this week, Dr Trefil said there’s ‘no truth’ to his daughter’s allegations and that he never confessed to her.

‘It makes me feel terrible,’ he continued. ‘It’s not true what she’s saying… I can only come to the conclusion that she might be mentally ill.’

The doctor added that he would ‘look forward’ to speaking with investigators.

‘I’d be willing to talk to them,’ he said.

His wife and Galina’s mother, Kandeda Trefil, told the Daily Mail that her husband has been battling Parkinson's Disease for the past 30 years.

‘He tells me, “I thought I had a daughter, but I don’t anymore,”’ the 84-year-old said by phone from the family home.

Kandeda was unclear on the exact time she first found out about her daughter’s accusations - but believes it was around 2015, when Galina was caring for the doctor in Reno, Nevada, where she lived at the time.

‘I thought it was weird,’ Kandeda said. ‘I thought it was something she cooked up for no reason, so I didn’t make a big problem with it, but now I have.’

Galina said that in 2015, she convinced her bedridden father to let her act as his caretaker in Reno - the same time she began enacting her ‘plan’ to expose him.

She said Dr. Trefil gave her power of attorney and she cared for him for more than a year, during which time she peppered him with questions about his life and alleged crimes.

Galina says she eventually began recording such 'confessions' as her father detailed more and more killings.

According to the sheriff’s office, investigators listened to tapes provided by Galina.

‘It was very clear that leading questions were provided to him and then when he would make sounds, she would say, “Oh, he confesses to this,”' Sheriff Matthew Kendall told The Press Democrat. ‘But my detectives could not hear him say yes, no or anything else. A lot of it was just strange moans.’

Galina responded by posting online the audio of her father’s alleged confessions, along with a trove of photos, alleged evidence like journal entries, and specifics about the crimes she claimed her father admitted to committing.

She said she is in possession of possible murder weapons, including a bottle of strychnine from her father’s medical bag, that authorities have failed to procure and test.

Kandeda said she read some of her husband’s journal entries and that Dr. Trefil agreed to give his journals to Galina.

‘I thought it was a very bad idea,’ Kandeda told the Daily Mail. ‘He’s a psychiatrist. He should know better. But I didn’t really think that it was going to go any further.’

Kandeda said she was ‘tickled to death’ when sheriff’s deputies eventually turned up at her home. ‘I didn’t think that anybody would just swallow [Galina’s claims] wholesale,’ she explained.

Both mother and daughter acknowledged that authorities searched the family’s property. Galina, however, insisted that investigators failed to use cadaver dogs.

The sheriff's office said last month that it 'will continue to investigate crimes associated with Trefil or allegations that he was a serial killer in Mendocino County.'

‘The Sheriff’s Office has not interviewed Trefil directly regarding these allegations due to his fragile medical state and information provided by his family that he will not cooperate with law enforcement,’ a March 17 statement read. ‘When legally justified and supported by probable cause, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office will continue to investigate this matter.’

A spokesman for the sheriff's office this week elaborated by saying that Dr. Trefil 'was non-verbal and unable to communicate' during its 2023 investigation. He added that investigators 'were told by [his] daughter that he would not cooperate with or speak to' them at the time.

After learning that Dr. Trefil spoke to the Daily Mail, the spokesman said that investigators 'will see if they want to reassess their decision regarding interviewing' him.

Kandeda added that she would 'love to see him talk with [investigators].'

Galina has authored books of historical fiction and gothic novels, listing Edgar Allan Poe and Isabel Allende as her influences.

According to her LinkedIn profile, she’s also an actor, director, producer, film critic, rabbi and Romani educator. She describes herself online as a descendant of Romani slaves.

In 2002, when she was 20 years old, Galina married a prison inmate. Aaron Channel, whom Galina said she had previously dated, was charged alongside two others with murder, conspiracy and robbery in the 2001 death of Donald Perez, 39, in Mendocino County. Channel was sentenced to 19 years in prison.

In 2018, she posted a photo commemorating their anniversary - though Galina has referred to Channel more recently as her ex.

She discussed the marriage in a Facebook post, writing that she hadn’t believed at the time of their wedding that he’d committed the murder.

‘He told me that he didn’t for 17 years. I’d known him since we were in grammar school. I believed him,’ she wrote, while apparently defending herself against critics of her accusations.

‘Now I’m baffled by the concept that my father’s claims of being a serial killer should be ignored because’ of Channel’s criminal history.

Galina, who said she’s both autistic and epileptic, insisted that she wants the truth revealed to get justice for victims’ families.

She is urging people to come forward, insisting that a number of intended victims escaped her father’s murderous attempts.

‘My father has repeatedly said that there were many victims who actually got away, some of whom were his patients,’ she wrote on Facebook.

‘If You Have Information, Please Go To The Mendocino County Authorities,’ she continued.

'I’m afraid that, given the lack of DNA analysis, this case absolutely will not be solved without the other surviving victims being willing to come forward.’

(DailyMail.uk)

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On Line Reactions:

• This woman sounds crazy at the very least. It also sounds like she is obsessed with murder.
• Oh, wait. You married an inmate? Get outta here….
• Trying to write a book. BS.
• If there isn’t any evidence she sounds like a disturbed woman who has a bad relationship with her father. If there are real victims their deaths deserve to be investigated but it sounds like nothing she has provided is enough to prove what she has said. False allegations like this aren’t fair either, if her father isn’t a murderer he obviously doesn’t deserve being called one. And the local police don’t deserve her claiming they won’t do anything or they don’t believe her when they don’t have much of a choice. They can’t just claim her father was a killer without proof.

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MENDO HISTORY (Jack Saunders)

The three photos here are cropped from a series of postcards that were produced after 1906 and appear to depict the same car, perhaps an auto-stage. They've been stuffed in a box for years. The car has the look of an Overland to me, and I'd tend to date the photos to 1910-12, but who knows? I don't recognize the driver in one but believe that it was taken in Fort Bragg, though it could also have been in Willits. The one with the dog in the driver's seat was likely taken along some road between the two, perhaps Sherwood Road. The last seems to be a meeting of the car and a stagecoach along the tracks of the California Western Railroad. Unfortunately, my grandfather or grand aunt did not note anything on the backs, and those that I might have asked are long gone.

Stagecoaches… These two were cropped from other postcards produced after 1906, and I believe they are almost certainly scenes in Mendocino County, as my grandfather and his family did not just collect random postcards and then pass them down. I suspect that the one with the typical 4-horse team was taken on some east-west road, e.g., Sherwood-Fort Bragg, Ukiah-Mendocino, or Cloverdale-Mendocino. I don't recognize anyone on the stage. The other is more interesting in that it has a 6-horse team with what looks like a heavy load. For whatever reason it has the look of the Anderson Valley to me. It's hard to imagine this thing getting through the turns on some of the roads closer to the coast or even up and down the coast. In any case, perhaps someone with a better eye and knowledge can provide some insights/ideas.

Shown here is the Westport stage, cropped from a postcard produced sometime between 1899 and 1906. It was taken looking to the west as the stage had just crossed some bridge on its journey north from Fort Bragg. The driver was George Calvus Pitts, a friend of my great grandfather and a couple of my great grand uncles. Pitts was born in May 1867, probably in the area of Napa, and came to Mendocino County with his family. He ranched for a while in Round Valley before coming to the coast where for about 11 years ending in Oct 1910 he worked for Len Barnard driving this stage. He also owned property up around Inglenook. Pitts was active in the NSGW and also a member of Santana Tribe #60 IORM where he rose to the rank of Sachem in 1909. On 3 Sep 1898 he married 17 year-old Elizabeth Belle Schaeffer in Fort Bragg, but the honeymoon didn't last long. Elizabeth quickly filed for a divorce and sought the attentions of another man. Sadly, things did not work out in that effort either, and on 8 Dec she ended her life, the funeral held in Fort Bragg. Pitts died in Fort Bragg on 26 Apr 1912 and was interred at Rose Memorial Park.

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MENDOSA’S GROCERY STORE has long been a staple in Mendocino, but its beginnings trace back to a small saloon at the turn of the 20th century. This story begins with William Zerbone, who immigrated from Flores in the Azores Islands in 1884.

In 1894, Zerbone constructed a single-story building with three rooms on the east side of Lansing Street, just south of the intersection with Little Lake Street. This property belonged to Frank J. Mendosa, also an Azores immigrant, who worked in the local lumber mill. Zerbone operated a combination saloon and fruit store called the “Flores Saloon” in this modest structure until about 1900.

After losing his right arm in a tragic accident at the Mendocino Lumber Mill in 1902, Frank Mendosa began looking for other ways to support his wife and eight children. With the help of his eldest son Antone, he opened his own saloon in this building. Business was slow at first - on the first day, only one glass of beer was sold for 5 cents - but it gradually picked up. Frank began serving food three years later - at first, chowder, and later, oysters and tamales. He was assisted by his wife and the children who were old enough to help out.

In 1909, the town of Mendocino voted to ban alcohol sales, forcing Frank to make a major shift. He converted his saloon into a grocery store, extending the building by 30 feet to accommodate more goods. Over the next several years, the store grew into a full general merchandise shop, selling groceries, hardware, enamel, tinware, and Sherwin-Williams paint. Frank's children played a key role in the store’s success, helping with bookkeeping, deliveries, and daily operations.

By 1920, Frank was ready to take his business to the next level. He commissioned the construction of a brand-new store on the same site, featuring 40 feet of frontage on Lansing Street, large plate glass windows, and a broad cement walk in front of the building. During construction, the new building was built over the old one, allowing the store to remain open without interruption. This expansion solidified Mendosa’s as a cornerstone of the Mendocino community.

(kelleyhousemuseum.org)

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ELLIOT FAMILY

by Carol Dominy

America Jane Moore was born on July 16, 1839 in Missouri to William H. Moore and Nancy Logan. In the late 1840s, the Moore family moved to California, settling in Sonoma County.

America Jane married Commodore Cornelius Fulton Elliott, and they had five children: Florence Eleanor (1862), Ida May (1865), Elizabeth (Lizzie) (1867), Henry Harrison (1869), and Burtt Logan (1873). In 1873, America Jane divorced her husband and relocated to Mendocino from Red Bluff, California, with her children.

In Mendocino, she established a dressmaking and millinery business. The family resided in an apartment over the Jarvis & Nichols store (where Gallery Bookshop is located today) on the west side of the building. James Nichols and his family occupied the flat on the east side.

In 1916, Henry Jarvis and James Nichols retired and sold their store to America Jane's youngest son, Burtt. He continued to live upstairs and operated the store for the next eighteen years, selling clothing and shoes on one side and groceries and meat on the other. In 1934, Burtt sold the store to his clerk, Chet Bishop.

(kelleyhousemuseum.org)

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, April 8, 2025

KENNETH BUTTREY, 67, Willits. Smuggling controlled substance into jail.

CHRISTOPHER GARCIA, 44, Ukiah. Parole violation.

NATHAN GREGORI, 36, Ukiah. Attempted burglary failure to appear.

DANOKOO HOAGLEN, 41, Hopland. Domestic violence court order violation, criminal threats.

DAVID SERROS JR., 24, Ceres/Ukiah. Suspended license.

SARAH SMITH, 34, Willits. Domestic abuse.

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CALIFORNIA HEARING ON STATE FARM’S HUGE RATE HIKE REQUEST STARTS TODAY

by Megan Fan Munce

Starting Tuesday, state regulators, consumer advocates and representatives of State Farm General were meeting in Oakland to make a final determination about whether the state’s largest insurer can implement a major rate hike on customers later this year.

Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara already granted State Farm initial approval to raise rates by 22% for homeowners, 15% for condo owners, 15% for renters and 38% for rental homes starting in June. But his approval was contingent on the company, California’s largest insurer by far, justifying such a price hike to an administrative law judge. The hearing could last up to three days, depending on how much testimony the judge deems necessary.

It’s the first time in nearly a decade that a company’s request to change its rates in California will go to a formal hearing. The hearing started at 10 a.m. and will be livestreamed at youtube.com/@cdiahb3069/streams.

State Farm has said its claims payments from the Los Angeles wildfires — which it expects to reach $7.6 billion — will justify its need to raise rates for customers across the state. But Consumer Watchdog, a consumer advocacy group that is participating in the hearing, believes State Farm doesn’t have the data to properly support its request. Consumer Watchdog has also criticized State Farm for seeking to increase costs for consumers rather than turn to its national parent company for assistance.

At a February meeting between State Farm General, the Department of Insurance and Consumer Watchdog, company executives said the insurer’s parent company, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., would consider providing financial assistance to its California subsidiary if the rate hike request were approved.

This week’s hearing will involve testimony and evidence on State Farm General’s financial condition and the impact of the Los Angeles wildfires. State Farm has said it has the money it needs to pay its current wildfire claims but is worried about its ability to pay future claims.

The time a rate case went to a formal hearing, in 2016, also involved a State Farm rate hike request — that one for a 6.9% increase. The hearing led to an order for the insurer to decrease rates. However, State Farm later appealed the decision, and a judge overturned the order for the insurer to issue refunds.

(SF Chronicle)

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WHAT WOULD IT TAKE?

Editor,

Rereading the opening paragraph of Philip Lenberg’s passionate account of an experience he perceived as harrowing while attending a performance of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra in San Francisco, I sensed that he was trying to make AVA readers believe that, under a barrage of shouting and alleged spitting from opponents of Israel’s unprecedented genocidal war on the Palestinians of Gaza, now, it seems, on the verge of completion, that he, as a Jew, was reliving the experience of Jews in Europe in the late 30s as they were herded on to trains by the Nazi SS, destined for concentration camps from which the majority would never emerge. But it won’t work as this time around, the Israelis are the Nazis and the Palestinian, as well as truth, their victims.

But who is this Lenberg of Ukiah about whom I had never heard? For openers, he is very accomplished and well regarded in the music world well beyond Ukiah’s reaches but that he also is one of the pool of speakers provided by the Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center in San Francisco, none of whom, including Lenberg, judging from their photos, were even remotely around at the time that catastrophe happened, as I, born the year after Hitler assumed power, Consequently, what he and the others know about the Holocaust, I suspect, is the filtered history, from the Zionist perspective, that completely covers up the ugly but successful efforts of the mainstream Zionist movement under David Ben-Gurion, to sabotage not only efforts to inform the American public and the world about what was happening to the Jews of Europe, but undermine efforts to rescue them in the US and Europe since the higher the Jewish death count at Hitler’s hands, the better chance the Zionists would have, following an anticipated victory by the US and its allies, including the USSR, to be awarded Palestine in its aftermath.

It wasn’t then the secret that it has since become over the years, as the Zionist Establishment has excluded from every list of books required for “Holocaust Studies” that I have seen, two of the most important exposes of what was nothing less than Zionist collaboration with the Nazis and the general cooperation of Jewish ghetto leaders with Adolph Eichmann and his underlings in providing Jews on demand for their concentration camps. Had that not occurred, wrote Hannah Arendt in “Eichmann in Jerusalem,” the coverage of his trial first serialized in the New Yorker, the number of Jewish dead would have been closer to two million dead than six million.

Making such a statement and providing an indisputable argument in its defense resulted in this world famed expert on totalitarianism to be excommunicated by certain sectors of the Jewish community, and even she had yet to see the shocking footage of Jewish men, in their ghettos, standing tall in their Nazi greatcoats and peaked hats, though weaponless, herding their fellow Jews to their almost certain deaths with Nazi-like efficiency. Arendt’s argument was quite clear. In the countries where Jewish leaders and the governments did not cooperate with the Nazis, the latter simply did not have the expertise and or organization to round up the Jews by themselves.

The book that first opened my eyes to the Zionist betrayal of the Jews and which would, for years be suppressed, was “Perfidy,” by the well-known Jewish playwright and screen writer, Ben Hecht, who, ironically was an ardent supporter of the Irgun which would be denounced by the likes of Albert Einstein and other well-known Jews as fascist and terrorist both of which its leader and future Israeli prime minister, Menachem Begin, proudly acknowledged. But in the United States, its followers composed the only Zionist organization that put saving Jewish lives over establishing a Jewish state in Palestine “cleansed” of its indigenous Arab majority. (That the very pale Lenberg advances the nonsense that the Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated to Palestine from Europe and elsewhere were the true indigenous people of that land has a much truth to it as claiming that the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock or their successors who slaughtered the Indians they and their successors found here are the true indigenous of this country. That the Zionists contend that the Arabs came to Palestine after learning of the” successes” of the Jewish immigrants from the late 19th and early 20th century and wished to take advantage of it is such a disgusting piece of propaganda that even Goebbels would reject it.)

“Perfidy” centers around the trial of an 86 year old Hungarian Jewish survivor in Israel who, not long after the war and foundation of the state, in a small self-published newsletter, denounced the former head of the Zionist Organization in Hungary during the Nazi occupation, Rezo Kastner, for having testified on behalf of former Nazi SS General Kurt Bucher at the Nuremberg Trials, for having assisted members of Kastner’s family, among 1200 Jewish “notables” to travel to Palestine at the end of the war when Jews by the carload were being shipped by train to Auschwitz and certain death while the Red Army was sweeping away the fleeing Nazis before them and within whose lines they would have found safety.

The deal was apparently approved by Eichmann, with whom Kastner was on the best of terms, upon the latter’s agreement not to tell the Hungarians boarding the trains what fate awaited them but also to pass out postcards to family and friends praising their “trip” that the Nazis forced the Jews to write before their execution.

Kastner, on arriving in what would become Israel after the war, had been welcomed into the Ben-Gurion government, despite or because of his record. Whatever the case, Ben-Gurion elected to prosecute the old man for slandering Kastner, and the trial record, which makes up an important segment of Hecht’s book, exposes the hypocrisy of the Zionist movement for all the world so see. But apparently, they would not be allowed to as, in the US, the book magically disappeared from bookstores and I was fortunate to find, by accident, a copy in San Francisco’s Mechanic’s Library. It would be years before a book finder friend in Seattle found me one for my own library. In more recent years, far too late, it has been available in paperback on Amazon. I have not checked to see if it has been “edited.”

As for the old man’s trial, the Irgun provided him with an excellent lawyer from their ranks and after days of riveting testimony, he was acquitted which clearly and correctly, meant the accusation against Kastner was valid. Ben-Gurion appealed the decision. The old survivor who told the truth would have to be punished. And so Ben-Gurion found the judges that would follow his orders and the decision was reversed. The day before it was announced, Kastner was assassinated. Whether it was by the Mossad on the basis of the belief that “dead men tell no tales,” which we saw more recently in the case of Noam Chomsky and former Israei PM, Eyad Barak, consorts of Jeffrey Epstein. Yes, Noam Chomsky, but that’s another story.

It has occurred to me that since at the moment, Lenberg and I are both residents of Mendocino County, where many readers of the AVA and others in the area have been aghast at Washington’s (and our Congressman Jared Huffman’s) enabling of Israel’s extermination and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from both Gaza and the West Bank, a public exchange, not necessarily a formal debate between the two of us, at Mendo College or the Saturday Afternoon Club in which each of us would have a half hour to state our respective positions on the overall subject and then, for another half hour to answer questions from one another and then from the audience. If I promise not to spit of shove, Mr. Enberg, are you up for it?

Jeffrey Blankfort

Ukiah

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HEY, HEY

Dear Diary:

On July 15, 1967, my brother drove my best friend and me, two 13-year-old girls, to Forest Hills Stadium to see the Monkees. We rode squeezed into his 1957 TR-3 with the top down.

The show was one of eight that Jimi Hendrix opened for the band, but we went to see them, and Davy Jones, my idol, in particular.

The next morning, Sunday, we and about 20 other fans waited outside the Waldorf Astoria, where the band was staying. Jimi Hendrix emerged from the hotel first. He signed autographs as he walked to a cab. Then I caught a glimpse of Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith.

Davy Jones came out next and got into a cab alone. As it drove off, I ran after it up the empty avenue. Out of breath, I caught up to it at a red light.

Davy was sitting in the rear seat with the window open. We looked at each other. I didn’t know what to say. One word came out: “Shake.”

I stuck my hand through the window, and Davy Jones shook it. The light turned green, and the taxi drove off, leaving me with the indelible memory of his hand in mine and the look of his beautiful eyes.

Dinah Wells

Westchester, New York

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GIANTS MANAGE JUST FOUR HITS in second straight shutout loss to Cincinnati

by Susan Slusser

Every hot start is followed, at some point, by a dip. The San Francisco Giants just hoped they’d extend their sizzle a little longer, but the Reds came to town and put the Giants’ bats to sleep.

In the first two games of the three-game series, which ends Wednesday afternoon at Oracle Park, the Giants have scored zero runs. Cincinnati took Tuesday’s game 1-0, giving San Francisco a losing streak for the first time in this young season. And, for as little happened on the field, the game wound up presenting some potentially interesting questions about roles.

The Giants recorded just four hits, two of them by Casey Schmitt, who lifted his average to .222 and has the glove to be in the mix for more playing time. Tyler Fitzgerald, meanwhile, has had some bumps as he moves from shortstop to second, and he’s batting .179.

With two outs in the seventh, manager Bob Melvin had LaMonte Wade Jr. pinch hit for Fitzgerald, and Schmitt moved from first to second base. Might we see more of him there?

“We’ll see where it goes,” Melvin said. “Obviously we’re pretty committed to Fitzy, too. I think it was just more about Schmitty getting a couple hits tonight and LaMonte being available off the bench to pinch hit there.”

Melvin and starter Landen Roupp both noted how well Schmitt played at first, too, particularly on Jose Trevino’s safety-squeeze bunt in the fifth, which Schmitt scooped up, then fired home to nail Spencer Steer at the plate.

Schmitt gave the Giants their best chance to score in the fifth, reaching on a leadoff hit, advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt by Fitzgerald and to third on a flyball by Sam Huff. Heliot Ramos then hit a drive to the track in right center — where Jake Fraley made a great over-the-shoulder grab before falling to the ground. “I thought I hit it pretty good,” Ramos said. “Just bad luck. He’s a great defender, there’s nothing I can do about that.”

Huff had the Giants’ other two hits and the team has just eight in a series that has been there for the taking. The Reds have won twice and scored only three runs in the process, but they also have the best team ERA in the majors, at 2.52.

“We had a tough night last night, then the first few innings don’t go well, and they make some pretty good plays in the field, and honestly, you start pressing,” Melvin said. “We probably tried to do a little too much and end up getting shut out two nights in a row.

Four hits is just not going to do it, and they only walked one guy — we didn’t have a lot of traffic on the bases to do much with.

“Both our guys pitch great. It’s tough to waste two really good pitching performances.”

A night after Logan Webb’s seven shutout innings, Roupp went six innings for the first time in his career. The only slight blemish on his night was this sequence in the third: Steer’s leadoff double, Fraley’s base hit and Trevino’s RBI groundout. Roupp allowed seven hits, no walks and struck out four, with his cutter working the best it has, he said, since spring training.

Hayden Birdsong supplanted him and worked three scoreless innings, giving him seven for the season. He showed particular composure in the ninth after Gavin Lux’s leadoff double, getting Christian Encarnacion-Strand to ground out and then striking out Jeimer Candelairo and Steer.

So that’s your other young player question of the day: Is Birdsong in the bullpen to stay? Talented young starters are prized, and it’s more than likely he’ll wind up back in that role, but for the time being, he’s killing it as a reliever, making it pretty tempting to leave him there.

“He’s just pitching, I don’t think he really cares,” Melvin said of the specific role. “He wanted to make the team and he did make the team because he deserved to, and just embraced the role that he’s in right now. It’s been really good, getting a key strikeout, man on third, less than two outs, just a lot to like. The velocity’s been there out of the bullpen as well, all his pitches working — he just looks like he’s really confident.”

Perhaps his trajectory will be something like Roupp’s — Roupp made the big-league club out of spring last year with a sensational camp and worked out of the bullpen; now here he is in the rotation.

“Kind of in the same situation I was last year, never been in the bullpen,” Roupp said. “And he’s pitched his tail off. I’m super happy for him for just taking over that role and learning it super quick.”

(sfchronicle.com)

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‘NOWHERE TO GO’

We are pleased to announce that “Nowhere to Go: The Tragic Odyssey of the Homeless Mentally Ill” by TAC's founder, Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, is now available with an updated prologue and epilogue via open access. The book is freely available to read and/or download via the link here: https://go.tac.org/e/976233/book-10-1007-978-3-031-84685-4/7jgyq/539585844/h/pnqNEU0iJorle8PRrbLgHBFke0yJs1daN7niAKKs1nQ

When it was originally published in 1988, the book was said to be the definitive account of why deinstitutionalization failed, why the community mental health center movement failed, and why there are so many severely mentally ill individuals among the homeless and incarcerated. The Wall Street Journal called it “a remarkable book”. The San Francisco Examiner said it was “a historical hit piece on the horrors of deinstitutionalization.” Newsweek called it “one of the most scathing indictments yet of the deinstitutionalization effort.” And, according to the Washington Post, “Nowhere is a portrait of the battered mental patient more vividly drawn than in Nowhere to Go”.

Today, 70 years after we started emptying the state mental hospitals, there are approximately 218,000 severely mentally ill individuals who are homeless, 108,000 in our local jails, and 156,000 in our state and federal prisons. Deinstitutionalization has been politically an equal opportunity disaster. The emptying of the hospitals took place over 35 years under four Republican and three Democratic administrations. Since then, three more Republican and three more Democratic administrations have failed to correct the mistakes. The last two chapters of the book tells them how to do so.​​​​​​

Mailing address is:

200 Daingerfield Rd, Suite 202, Alexandria, VA 22314

Phone: (703) 294-6001

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I am a Boomer who stayed home and raised three children. At 76 I have watched and seen it all. The destruction of our towns by Wal-Marts, 7-Elevens, magnificent miles of car dealerships, & every chain store & fast food restaurant you can name … so every town looks exactly the same w/ all small businesses & exceptionalism ruined. I’ve watched the blue skies & puffy clouds disappear to dreary, gray sameness day after day. I’ve watched the beauty of lovely architecture, gorgeous fields & neighborhoods of trees, shrubs, & bushes disappear into concrete jungles with hideous flat square buildings that are depressing to look at. And murder to the human soul. I’ve watched people go from gloves, dresses, suits & heels on the airplanes to pajamas & bed head. I’ve watched schools go from disciplined formal teaching, w/ plenty of recess & lunch ladies cooking the meals to social engineering, chaos, unlimited days off, no recess & fattening, processed garbage for food.

I could go on & on. “They” have destroyed everything they possibly could. They ruined beauty in every way. They took everything away that gave life meaning. If it weren’t for my children and my faith in God I probably would not be here. So, the Boomers may be responsible but I don’t know what we could do to stop them. Just as I don’t know how to stop the unhinged, repulsive people doing everything in their power to destroy Trump. Voting in my Blue town is an exercise in futility, but I do it. And I pray.

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LEAD STORIES, WEDNESDAY'S NYT

Asia Grapples With Punishing Tariffs as Its Stocks Sink Again

Top I.R.S. Officials Said to Resign After Deal to Give ICE Migrants’ Data

Trump Signs Orders Aimed at Reviving a Struggling Coal Industry

Trump Administration Freezes $1 Billion for Cornell and $790 Million for Northwestern, Officials Say

In Trump Cases, Supreme Court Retreats From Confrontation

What Are Microplastics Doing to Our Bodies? This Lab Is Racing to Find Out

Epic Universe Is Coming. Here’s a Sneak Peek

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THE CRUELTY IS UNENDING

Migrants who were temporarily allowed to live in the United States by using a Biden-era online appointment app have been told to leave the country 'immediately.'

More than 900,000 people were allowed in the country using the CBP One app since January 2023.

They were generally allowed to remain in the United States for two years with authorization to work under a presidential authority called parole.

Kristi Noem's Department of Homeland Security said: 'Canceling these paroles is a promise kept to the American people to secure our borders and protect national security.'

Authorities confirmed termination notices were sent to CBP One beneficiaries but did not say how many.

They were urged to voluntary self-deport using the same app they entered on, which has been renamed CBP Home.

It came down with an announcement that those who are in the U.S. illegally and refuse to leave will be charged $998 per day until they go, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced.

'If they don't [leave], they will face the consequences,' a DHS spokesperson said.

(dailymail.uk)

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TAKE THE NPR “THAT'S NOT FUNNY!” CHALLENGE

NPR's advice to parents concerned their children may become incel murderers? Keep them away from jokes

by Matt Taibbi

NPR, during a 23-minute piece about “What to Tell Your Kids About Online Extremism,” on learning “the signs of radicalization”:

It’s really important to know when your kid might be falling down the rabbit hole… [“Radicalization” consultant Christine] Saxman told me to really keep an eye out for the kinds of jokes your kids are reacting to and making. Be particularly aware if they are beginning to engage with humor that dehumanizes others, in particular gay, transphobic and sexist jokes. Disguised as humor, it gives people with racist agendas plausible deniability, because it's “just” a joke.

Originally published in 2002, the NPR story was just updated and pegged to news about the Netflix series Adolescence. It’s a spiffily-directed horror series starring the excellent Stephen Graham about an angelic British boy moved to savage knife crime by “violent misogyny” online. Adolescence is the 2020s version of The Day After, a scared-straight parable about the dangers of relaxed vigilance, though the enemy is Andrew Tate instead of Soviet bombers. A thrilled Keir Starmer not only launched an initiative to make the series free for every secondary school in the U.K., but put out a video endorsement that employs the signature one-shot technique of Adolescence as he brings the series creators on a tour through Downing Street. A spoof of the same technique using Martin Scorcese’s Copacabana scene and a Crystals soundtrack would have been much funnier (“Every time I come here, every time you two!” Starmer could have shouted at Morgan McSweeney and Rachel Reeves on the way in), but Starmer wouldn’t have seen the irony in the mafia-Downing street comp and was obviously more interested in a Fangrrling Adolescence tribute.

The basic math of “dehumanizing” comedy has been proven a billion times over by now, but somehow it still needs to be said. If such humor is allowed to spread, it is true: Don Rickles or a modern equivalent will occasionally guest star on television and may even influence a few people to think ethnic jokes are funny. If on the other hand such material is suppressed, Don Rickles gets elected to the White House. It’s comedy’s iron law, but you’d never know it, listening to NPR extol the virtues of Keir Starmertainment…

https://www.racket.news/p/take-the-npr-thats-not-funny-challenge

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ELON MUSK'S FAT NEW GOVERNMENT CONTRACT

Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s space company was recently handed a $5.9 billion contract subsidized by taxpayers, even as his so-called Department of Government Efficiency continues to take a wrecking ball to key government agencies.

The U.S. Space Force announced on April 4 that Musk’s SpaceX was among three companies awarded government contracts for the National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 2 program. Space X will receive more than $5.9 billion of the $13.7 billion in spending that was announced.

Musk is the CEO of SpaceX and owns approximately 42% of the company.

While SpaceX is newly flush with government money, Musk’s DOGE has been laying off critical federal workers at multiple agencies. Federal judges have ruled that some of those firings are illegal.

At the Social Security Administration, DOGE has cut 7,000 jobs even though millions of Americans rely on their Social Security payments for day-to-day living. The Washington Post reports that the agency’s website, which citizens use to access information on their benefits, has had repeated outages in recent weeks….

(DailyKos)

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BILL HATCH:

We come back to Gaza, as all serious discussion must at present. I cannot come to terms with the fact that the takeover of the political Establishment by Zionist interests — itself a consequence of the massive growth of the comparative wealth of the ultra-rich — is making it possible for the most brutal genocide possible to happen before the eyes of the world, with active support from the Western establishment.

It is not that the people do not want to stop it. It is that there is no mechanism connecting the popular will to the instruments of government. The major parties all support Israel’s genocide in almost all the Western “democracies.”

It has become impossible to deny the intention of genocide now. Israel has stepped up its killing of children to dozens every day, is openly executing medics and destroying all healthcare facilities, is bombing desalination plants and is blockading all food.

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HANDS OFF WHAT?

by Ron Jacobs

The numbers are coming in, and as always, the estimates vary widely. Let’s just say there were more than a million people across the United States in the streets protesting the excesses of the Trump administration since January 20, 2025. Also, like always, the demands of the organizers (who went by the name Hands Off) were often transcended by the intentions of those actually attending the rallies, marches and other manifestations of discontent. Just as predictable as the speculation about the number of people in the streets are the complaints by some on the left, complaining that the protest demands were not radical enough and were just an attempt by the Democratic party to divert the growing anger of the US population.

Meanwhile, another large march was held in the streets of Washington, DC. This protest was organized by Palestinian solidarity organizations, leftist groups against US imperialism, Muslim and Jewish organizations opposed to the Israel-US genocide and occupation in Palestine and others. It’s estimated that this protest involved at least a hundred thousand or more protesters. In addition, many of the local protests organized under the auspices of the Hands Off group highlighted the US-Israeli massacre in Gaza and the West Bank. This meant that the opposition to the occupation and the repression of anti-occupation protesters was humanized and brought to the attention of thousands of US residents who previously had only the anti-Palestinian US media providing its take on the slaughter. This is a positive development, especially as the crackdown on students and others supporting an end to the Israeli occupation takes a considerably more ominous and despotic turn.

At Vermont’s two largest protests—Montpelier (3000 or more) and Burlington(1000)—there was a substantial anti-genocide presence. Montpelier also had a large labor presence. However, the majority of people were liberals. Instead of disparaging the protesters, who are angry and looking for answers, we should focus our criticism on the leadership while encouraging the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist dialogue being introduced to these new protesters. Unless the left starts getting its own act together, the Democrats will turn these into a US version of the color “revolutions,” putting the neoliberals who helped get us to this point back into power. Nothing will change. The ruling class shell game will continue only with the house having better odds than at any time in US history.

The previous remark regarding the kvetching from some on the left about the liberal nature of the organizers was not meant to disparage the content of those leftists’ critique. Indeed, it’s quite accurate at its core. This is not unusual or unique; it does need to be addressed. Historically speaking, many if not most of the protest movements since World War Two for greater rights and economic justice in the United States have been popularized by liberals. Those that arguably weren’t—the movement against the US war on Vietnam, for example—reached their peak when more liberal organizers took the reins from the leftist and radical pacifist organizers that birthed the movement. At the same time, the efforts of the liberals and the subsequent popularization of the essential demands of the civil rights movement opened space for revolutionary groups like the Black Panthers to exist and grow. Looking back, the results of this dynamic are at best, mixed. Radical organizations exist in the historical record, with some even getting the respect they deserve. However, their descendants in today’s political milieu are left out of the conversation and, when they do make enough noise to be heard, they are arrested, fired from their jobs, and attacked as agents of some foreign power. This is exactly what we are seeing happen to the radical movement calling for Palestinian freedom and against the US-Israeli genocide of Palestinians.

There is a historical moment taking place. The US ruling class has exposed its fascist core. Trumpism is the manifestation of long-time right-wing dreams. Sure, it’s a bit uncouth for the more cultured on the right, but that hasn’t prevented them from supporting the Trumpist executive orders designed to destroy what remains of the social welfare system in the United States. The wealthy understand that to achieve the complete power they desire, some may suffer. They intend to make sure it is not them who do. Furthermore, they believe the suffering they cause now will make them very rich later, when private endeavors run former government programs.

The role of the liberals organizing protests like those this past weekend is to save US capitalism. They may not see themselves in that role, but the objective truth says otherwise. The ruling elites represented by the Democrats believe that by keeping working people employed and benefiting from capitalism, they will continue to rule and make money. The programs the Trumpists and their right-wing allies want to cut will render such a scenario impossible. Neither sector of the ruling class can abide Palestinian freedom from occupation. Nor can either sector free itself from the war machine that

US capital relies on for its plans of permanence.

The role of the radical left regarding these types of protests is to show up with our signs and our energy; to join organizing committees and coalitions and push the demands leftward. A friend in Olympia, Washington wrote on social media that the organizers there included anti-occupation activists who made the demands around Palestine and the repression of anti-occupation activists part of the program. This is a great example of how these protests can be expanded beyond the Democrats’ agenda—an agenda that became obvious when NATO was one of the programs the organizers demanded Trump keep his hands off of.

Let me close with the final sentences of a recently-released pamphlet from Fomite Press: “What is needed is a popular rejection of the Trump White House and its fascism; not just one led by Democrats in the courts and the legislature. This struggle needs to be waged in the streets, the schools, the workplace and throughout the United States. It’s a struggle against fascism, not a battle between the political parties of the elites.”

Onward.

(Ron Jacobs is the author of several books, including Daydream Sunset: Sixties Counterculture in the Seventies published by CounterPunch Books. His latest book, titled Nowhere Land: Journeys Through a Broken Nation, is now available. He lives in Vermont. He can be reached at: ronj1955@gmail.com. CounterPunch.org)

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