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A WARMUP to slightly above average temperatures will carry into next week. Chances for a wetting rain will remain very low through the weekend and into next week with the passing of a dry front and a weak trough. Stronger northerly winds are expected over the weekend, with additional breezy northerly winds into next week. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A foggy 48F this Friday morning on the coast. Foggy again tomorrow morning then clearing after that, we'll see? It did clear out yesterday afternoon, likely will again.
CEO ANTLE GETS AN EARFUL AT HER ‘LISTENING SESSION’
Coastal Residents Say District Attorney, County CEO Bear Responsibility for Budget Crunch
by Elise Cox
Mendocino County Chief Executive Darcy Antle opened the first of several public budget listening sessions on Tuesday, inviting residents to weigh in on spending priorities and potential cuts for the coming fiscal year. The Fort Bragg meeting quickly became a forum for public frustration, with calls for accountability and structural reform.
Coastal residents identified deteriorating roads and a lack of equitable funding for spay and neuter programs as pressing needs. But when it came to budget cuts, some said the most wasteful spending had already occurred — specifically, the county’s expensive criminal prosecution of elected official Chamise Cubbison, who was ultimately vindicated.
“The CEO is an at-will employee and she is part of the problem,” said Jean Arnold, referencing Antle. She and others placed significant blame on District Attorney David Eyster, accusing him of draining county resources with what they described as a politically motivated prosecution.
“DA Eyster’s salary is a county expense, and he’s effectively defunded numerous programs with the oncoming expense of this litigation,” said Steve Kaspar. As of December 2024, the cost of paying outside law firms to work on the Cubbison prosecution was more than $119,000. The sum did not include the time spent by county employees — members of the district attorneys office, the sheriff's office and the chief executive office — who all spent many hours attempting to a build an unusual criminal case against the elected official and her employee. It did not include the cost of a arguing a motion to dismiss and the cost of the preliminary hearing. Furthermore, it did not include the amount that Cubbison and Kennedy were forced to spend defending themselves — or the cost the county will have to pay damages in the civil suit they have brought against the county.
Jacob Patterson called for Antle’s replacement with a neutral restructuring expert from outside the county organization.
Supervisor Ted Williams, who has previously advocated for a “clean start” in county leadership, defended Antle’s office. “I think you have a team that’s been trying to [build efficiency],” he said. “It’s really hard. Every little incremental change is faced with opposition.”
The public outcry over the Cubbison case has intensified in recent weeks, spilling over from a Board of Supervisors meeting last week into the listening session on Tuesday.
At the board of supervisor’s meeting, Bill Barksdale, a local resident, called the DA “an abuser of taxpayer money” and demanded his termination, citing his office’s “lavish banquets” and prosecution of Cubbison and her colleague Paula Kennedy.
Public concern has also reignited debate over a structural change Eyster previously supported — the consolidation of the auditor-controller and treasurer-tax collector roles. A coalition of local organizations, including the Mendocino County Farm Bureau, the Mendocino Women’s Political Coalition, and the Mendocino County Democratic Central Committee, has sponsored a change.org petition requesting the board to reverse that merger.
“We prefer democratically elected offices,” said Adam Gaska, executive director of the Farm Bureau.
Antle plans to hold additional budget listening sessions in the coming weeks as the county prepares to close an estimated $4.2 million gap in the current fiscal year and confronts a projected $17 million shortfall in the next budget cycle.
(kzyx.org)
A LOCAL ELECTED OFFICIAL, retired from a career in government and private industry who has not followed the Supervisor follies much in the past, attended the Supervisors recent Willits budget workshop and came away shocked at the ineptitude of the Mendocino Board of the Supervisors and their CEO and staff. “Nothing remotely like this would EVER happen in private industry,” he declared. “The level of buck passing and ignorance was unbelievable.”
ON LINE COMMENT RE: COUNTY BUDGET DEFICIT
They have a little over two months to balance the budget. Good luck with that. Expect more games from everyone. I can help them simplify the process: With Ted saying he will not vote for a budget that includes one time funding, simply stop listening to him. With this short of time and this large of a gap, I don’t see how you balance the budget without using one time funds. This gap should have been worked out long ago. This will be a budget where the CEO will need to count to three. Why even bother listening to him? And he put himself on this sideline.
Watch as the revenue side of the balance sheet mysteriously expands, anticipated departmental fees and tax revenue estimates will quietly grow. This will be in total contradiction to the regional and national economic situation, which are both in serious and potentially catastrophic decline at the moment.
LOCAL EVENTS (this weekend)
BUDGET BUNGLING 3.0
by Mark Scaramella
The Supervisors have scheduled another budget discussion for next Tuesday. From the looks of the “presentation” the CEO and her staff have prepared, the dismal (both financially and managerially) picture hasn’t changed much. CEO Antle says that the departments have reduced their budget requests by about $625k against a deficit that she says is somewhere between $9 million and $17 million depending on how much one-time money is applied. Antle doesn’t say which departments contributed to the small budget request reductions. All she offers is the painfully muddled claim that the reductions “include held vacancies and reductions in services and supplies.” But much of that reduction is being eroded by the ongoing delay of the apparent cost cutting measures to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars for each week of delay. No budget reduction targets or mandates have been imposed on the departments.
Antle also mentions a resignation/retirement incentive program that would pay people to quit or retire. A few senior people did that last year, and a few more may do it this year. The incentive program would require that the affected departments leave the vacated position vacant for at least two years. Nobody seems concerned about how that would affect the services in the affected department. This might reduce the budget deficit a bit but savings will be offset by the buyout costs.
Antle also proposes to “remove all vacant positions from the position allocation table that are not public safety (Sheriff/Jail, District Attorney, Public Defender, Alternate Defender or Probation/Juvenile Hall)…
Finally we have a list of departments that they consider “public safety.
“…or currently in recruitment as of 4/22/25, regardless of funding status.”
It’s not clear what “in recruitment” means. Is it when a job is posted? When someone is offered a job? Or when someone has been hired but is not in a County chair yet? This amounts to a de facto hiring freeze for all non-public safety departments. Again, there’s no concern about the impact of such a freeze on department operations. Nor is there an estimate of how much money this might save.
Besides being ill-defined, a random hiring freeze like this will hit the smaller general fund departments harder than the large ones. And you can be sure that the Supervisors, the CEO’s office and the County Counsel’s office will make sure they have as many vacancies “in recruitment” as possible before any freeze kicks in.
Antle also suggests that the Board consider using Measure B money to cover some of costs of staffing the new (“mental health”) wing of the jail. There does appear to be Measure B money that was supposed to go to treatment services available. But using it for jail services is a twisted interpretation that is not what the preparers of Measure B told the voters it would be used for. But twisting voter approved promises to cover for the Board’s and the CEO’s own incompetence is nothing new in Mendocino County.
In a related agenda item the County is preparing to jack up their already high fees again, this time with an unscheduled, earlier than usual, increase, and to “Step Up Fees Over Two Years For Those Fees With Increases Greater Than 50%…” Translation: The fee increases are going to be substantial.
THE COMMUNITY GARDEN at the Elder Home in Boonville has beds available for AV community members. Two raised beds ( both 5’x20’) and two in-ground beds (one 5’ x 20’ and one 10’ x 20’). Drip irrigation, water and and compost provided for a low annual fee (depending on bed size).
Join your neighbors, make new friends, grow food and flowers. It’s a grand experience. For information and to apply, contact: avehcommunitygarden@gmail.com.
FORT BRAGG RENEWS SUPPORT FOR IMMIGRANTS AMID ICE CRACKDOWN
by Mary Benjamin
Protection of immigrant rights was one of the more common signs at the April 5 Hands Off! protest in Fort Bragg. Residents were responding to the recent nationwide ICE actions, which have included the detention of foreigners with legal visas and the removal of other immigrants from the U.S. without due process.
In 2017, the Fort Bragg City Council passed a resolution establishing the city’s policy regarding its immigrant residents. According to Councilmember Lindy Peters, the mayor of Fort Bragg at the time, the city committed to expressing its disagreement with the new immigration policy that President Donald Trump had enacted.
With its own resolution, the Fort Bragg City Council was also publicly responding to a painful event back in the 1980s between the federal Immigration Service and a number of immigrants who lived and worked in Fort Bragg.
The event that day began when immigration officials arrived without prior notice at the Fort Bragg Police Department and demanded assistance in arresting a number of immigrants who worked in Noyo Harbor restaurants and at local fish processing businesses. According to Peters, “That was the area where there were a lot of Hispanic employees.”
As the immigration officials, accompanied by local police, carried out their sweep in Fort Bragg, the roundup turned into a high-stakes drama. Peters said, “The agents went in to arrest, but many of the workers fled up the hills and out of these businesses scared for their lives even if they were legal. They didn’t realize what was going on. They didn’t speak English very well.”
He added, “Some people were deported. Some were detained. Then, the agents left. There were enough people picked up that it really caused a lot of community concern.” The community learned that parents with children in the Fort Bragg schools were arrested, or if one parent was arrested, the rest of the family was left behind with no source of income. Even Little League was affected.
Back then, it was common for local governments to assist in these round-ups. In fact, today, in some states, local law enforcement officials maintain contracts with ICE to assist in locating and detaining immigrants.
According to Peters’ recollection of that time period, many
residents were alarmed by the treatment of immigrants by federal agents and the sudden lack of employees at local businesses. He said that after the raid, a well-known Hispanic restaurant owner came to him for help when a fraud scheme preying on local immigrants’ fears succeeded in draining a large sum of money out of that part of the community.
The spokesperson told Peters that a couple of people were targeting “immigrants who were trying to gain legal status by promising them legal status and citizenship” for a certain amount of money.
According to Peters, the scammers had already managed to pull $10,000 out of the community, but then nothing would ever happen for the immigrants.
Peters said the business owner also told him that “people had nowhere to go. They were too afraid to contact the police or the district attorney because they did not want to call any attention to themselves.” He added, “The restaurant owner came to me on behalf of them to get help.” Then came the city’s resolution.
After the Latino Coalition approached Peters as mayor about the sanctuary idea, the Fort Bragg City Council drafted a policy and also considered identifying Fort Bragg as a sanctuary city. As the first step, in January of 2017, the City Council passed its resolution in support of its resident immigrants.
In August of 2018, after a City Council ad hoc committee reported on the pathway for naming Fort Bragg as a sanctuary city, the City Council decided not to make this declaration. They would stand by the resolution passed the previous year.
The City Council’s main concern was the fear of drawing too much attention to Fort Bragg. Many worried that a sanctuary declaration would draw federal agents to the city again. They wanted to avoid a repeat of the sweep in the 1980s. According to Peters, the public reaction to the resolution “was mostly positive. People said they felt safe.”
He explained, “During that first Trump administration and campaign, there was some pressure put on certain groups that felt threatened, and they were already feeling oppressed and prejudiced against.”
He continued, “They needed their local government to protect them as best they could. I thought we did a pretty good job at the time.” Peters added that small posters sprouted up all over town in business windows that welcomed everyone who came. He added, “The goal was to reassure our wounded community.”
The State of California had already been moving away from assisting the federal agent’s direction over a four-year period. In 2013, the CA Trust Act was enacted to prevent the detention of immigrants beyond the normal release time for those being held.
In 2016, the state enacted the CA TRUTH Act, which gave local police the authority to notify immigrants that federal agents were requesting an interview, which gave targeted people the opportunity to refuse to comply.
In 2017, the state enacted the CA Values Act, which gave local police the legal authority to deny any assistance to federal immigration agents. The law even identified “assistance” as allowing federal agents to use the local police department’s parking lot.
In Fort Bragg’s 2017 resolution, the city asserted “equal protection and treatment of all persons without discrimination” based on a list of factors. The list included “citizenship status, race, national origin, ethnicity, familial status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, physical and intellectual abilities, religion, religious observance, political orientation, economic status, or other social status.”
The resolution stated, “The City of Fort Bragg has strong protections for non-discrimination in its interactions with all community members, and these protections are enshrined in City practices, policies, ordinances, resolutions, as well as State law.”
The resolution then provided assurances that the Fort Bragg Police Department was fully committed to all parts of the resolution. Local law enforcement would not “participate or aid in immigration raids, sweeps or detentions of people solely to determine their immigration status.”
The resolution concluded, “The Fort Bragg City Council affirms its commitment to helping our town continue to thrive as a culturally diverse community where all are welcome; where all respect the life and dignity of every human being without discrimination or prejudice; and where community interactions are built upon respect and compassion for others.”
In 2025, as warnings from the federal government about impending immigrant sweeps filled the news, the City of Fort Bragg sponsored an Immigration Question & Answer Town Hall Community Meeting conducted by local immigration lawyer Grady G. Gauthier and Police Chief Neil Cervenka.
Gauthier explained what rights immigrants had and what to do and say if approached by ICE agents. He also gave advice on how to avoid creating opportunities for potential questioning by ICE.
Handouts listing Gauthier’s main points on the legal process were available as well. Chief Cervenka discussed what procedures ICE agents should be following if they approach someone to question their visa or citizen status.
Both speakers stressed that sanctuary city status does not protect a resident from federal detention if ICE agents have a legitimate warrant signed by a court judge. Should that occur, the detained person still has a guaranteed right to due process. Fort Bragg’s resolution has clearly affirmed the city’s stand about respect for all its residents.
In January of 2025, the City Council renewed its original 2017 regulation. Peters commented, “All we can really do is control our local town and government. I can only do what I can for us here locally, and that’s what I plan to focus on. Now, our city needs to be ready to respond if local service groups lose their funds.
(Ukiah Daily Journal)
KATHERINE MEADOWS: The Hopland strawberry stand is open! Yay. Owner says it’ll be on and off for the next couple weeks while strawberries ripen.
PROTEST PLANNED FOR SATURDAY IN FORT BRAGG!
ACTION SATURDAY:
Local Rally & Sign-Holding Event
Saturday April 19
11 To Noon
On Sidewalk In Front Of Guest House Museum
Fort Bragg
Please do not block easy access to the craft fair at Town Hall.
Head to Noyo Food Forest for the Earth Day Festival afterward, 12 to 5
(Susan Nutter)
DJ-KEN STEELY: Happy Heavenly Birthday to former Mendocino County Sheriff, Reno Bartolomie. He worked in the Mendocino County Sheriff Department from 1937 to 1975. He was Sheriff from 1955 to 1975.
RCRC NATIONAL CORE INDICATORS (NCI) PRESENTATION FOR FISCAL YEAR 2021-2022
Date: May 17, 2025 Time: 9:00am to 10:30am
Zoom Video/Teleconference:
Meeting ID: 845 4614 2191
Passcode: 888824
Dial by phone: 1-669-900-6833
The Redwood Coast Regional Center (RCRC) will be presenting information on the RCRC National Core Indicators (NCI) Presentation for Fiscal Year 2021-2022. The public is invited to participate in a discussion and offer feedback to the regional center.
Information for this meeting can be found at hyperlink “http://www.redwoodcoastrc.org”www.redwoodcoastrc.org or by calling 707-445-0893 ext 363.
The Redwood Coast Developmental Services Corporation (RCDSC) is the governing board of directors for the Redwood Coast Regional Center (RCRC). RCRC is a non-profit organization and through a contract with the State of California, RCRC provides essential services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families in Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake and Mendocino Counties.
Redwood Coast Regional Center
Respecting Choice in the Redwood Community
525 - 2nd Street, Suite 300, Eureka, CA 95501 707-445-0893
Satellite offices:
- 1116 Airport Park Blvd., Ukiah, CA 95482 707-462-3832 * □ 270 Chestnut St., Ste A, Ft Bragg, CA 95437 707-964-6387
- 180 Third Street, Lakeport, CA 95453 707-262-0470 * □ 14888 Olympic Drive, Clearlake, CA 95422 707-621-6169
- 1301 A Northcrest Dr., Crescent City, CA 95531 707-464-7488
ED NOTE: CATHETER BLUES
Late Wednesday afternoon I had to make a run for the Emergency Room at Marin General Hospital where my mother worked as an RN when it first opened. The hospital, now a mammoth rambling complex, was just across from a slough where a kid named Eddie LeVan and I swam off his porch. Eddie lived in one of a row of shacks known locally as The Arks. Marin, and America wouldn’t be rich until the later 1960s. Marin today, except for Mount Tamalpais, is unrecognizable to me.
Nurse Anderson had a low opinion of her profession. She was almost 90 when I took her to see a neurologist about easing her night rages. “When’s the last time you saw a doctor, Mrs. Anderson?” Nurse Anderson fairly bellowed, “I’ve never seen a doctor. Why do you think I’m still alive?!”
The valve on my catheter bag had cracked, and blood-enriched urine had begun to leak onto the floor of my living room. I grabbed a big plastic bag and a rubber band, fitted it over my sloshing foot and headed for the ER, where I’ve become something of a regular.
I created quite a stir as I made my way to the check-in desk, having neglected to pull down my pants leg over the see-through bloody mess of my drowning foot, now lapping just below my ankle. For all anybody in the crowded room knew as they stared at my apparent injury, I’d cut my foot off. A nearby geezer commented, “That looks pretty bad, son.” I laughed. If I could still talk I would have explained I’d stepped on a land mine outside Safeway.
An operation on my throat last March cost me my voice, but has spared me talking on the telephone. Another problem has since developed; I seem to be under a two-pronged attack with me serving as the prong.
Because I can’t talk, I write down in big block letters why I require medical attention. If I’d had a spare bag like any other prudent person would have had in my catheterized situation, I would not be bothering the ER people with a task I could have, should have, managed myself.
I handed my explanatory note to an enormous fat guy at intake. He stared at it, puzzled. “Catamaran… uh, Catawampus… ah…” He gave up and handed my mysterious message to the man seated next to him, an efficient black man with a Caribbean accent to whom I also handed my driver’s license and Medicare card. I didn’t bother to renew my license when I turned 75 and went on driving on the assumption renewing it was one more bureaucratic task I would never do again and would pay the fine if I got caught out, which is simpler than dealing with the DMV. If Trump kills Social Security and Medicare, I will pick up the gun, and I won’t be alone, I’m sure.
Hospitals have their protocols. Although a young guy quickly fitted me up with a new bag, a tall Chinese man, a doctor I presumed, led me into a room, handed me a hospital gown and told me to undress. But… but… but all I needed was a new bag. I got it. I didn’t need anything more.
Voicelessness leaves one vulnerable to a whole new world of misunderstanding. A nurse appeared. She asked me a few questions beginning with, oddly, are you afraid of anything or anyone? Novels by Joyce Carol Oates, I guess, but no one living.
A large tattooed woman approached. (The staff at Marin General is not undernourished.) She said she was taking a blood sample like I had no choice but to give it up. If she’d said, “We’ve decided to amputate your foot,” I wouldn’t have been surprised. But I’ve given blood bank quantities of my precious life stuff over the last year, and I was only present today with a minor bag change, much simpler than a vehicle lube job. The new bag was strapped to my leg, and all systems were again go, but here I was apparently being surgery-prepped.
In between each step in what was shaping up as an endless process, there were waits of about twenty minutes each. I lay there in my hospital gown mentally kicking myself for simply not fleeing.
Finally, a young female doctor appeared. I was ready for her or any other authority figure who could set me free. I’d again written in big block letters that all I’d come in for was a new bag and I was sorry to have put the ER people to so much trouble for a task I should have done myself if I’d had the sense to lay in a supply of spare bags. She read my note and laughed. “That’s all you’re here for?”
Yes, I mimed cupping my hands in silent prayer. She laughed again. “You can leave, Mr. Anderson.”
I did the fastest catheter scuttle outtathere I could manage, and mentally put another ER notch in my lengthy medical belt.
WILLITS CENTER FOR THE ARTS presents ‘Duets,’ a musical collaboration with Spencer Brewer and friends on Mother’s Day, Sunday May 11, 2025.
This special concert with musical stylings from jazz to classical, will feature four separate musical offerings with well-known artists pairing up on piano, violin, saxophone, vocals, and traditional Chinese instruments.
Beverages and nibbles will be served. Doors open at 3:30, music begins at 4pm. Tickets are $25 online at www.willitscenterforthearts.org, or at the door for $30. Join us for a unique and enjoyable musical afternoon honoring all moms, Sunday, May 11th, 2025, in the Great Room at Willits Center for the Arts.
For more information please call 707-459-1726.
CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, April 17, 2025
ZACHARIAH BOESEL, 32, Redwood Valley. Domestic violence court order violation, vandalism.
BRANDON FEILER, 37, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs.
SEAN HAMMON, 55, Ukiah. Mayhem, kidnapping, domestic abuse, false imprisonment, false ID, battery on peace officer, resisting, probation revocation, failure to appear.
JESUS MALFAVON-SANDOVAL, 44, Ukiah. Domestic abuse, vandalism, damaging communications device.
LORENZO MARTINEZ, 41, Ukiah. Controlled substance, county parole violation, unspecified offense.
JEREMIAH MCOSKER, 46, Ukiah. Vandalism. (Frequent flyer.)
EVAN NELSON, 37, Ukiah. Contempt of court, probation violation.
ALBERT ROMO, 49, San Jose/Ukiah. Failure to appear.
AARON STILL, 44, Fort Bragg. Burglary, defrauding an innkeeper, controlled substance, vandalism.
ANTHONY TOLBERT, 36, Ukiah. Battery with serious injury, resisting, parole violation.
ANGELA ROBINSON:
The “glory days” of Salmon trolling are definitely past. I knew it was never going to be the same in 1980, with the first mid-season closure. The Boldt decision up north messed up a lot lives as well.
But, I haven’t written it off completely. Certainly the little boats couldn’t diversify easily, but those like my s-i-l with good sized boats can switch to other fisheries (halibut, albacore, etc.) and his main income is crabbing.
There are several boat pictures on our walls from our lives. Everything from a king crabber in Alaska to an ancient picture of my husband’s first boat, a dory that he fished after he came back from the war. He started commercially fishing when he was 11, out of Pacific City. A little guy pushing the dory in the waves. He’s seen big changes in his 60 years of commercial fishing.
He’s going to go with the s-i-l to Washington to salmon troll. He hasn’t trolled in decades. It’s kind of fitting that he winds up trolling as his last fishery, full circle. It’s the queen of Pacific fisheries. Skill and finesse and one on one with a fish. Nothing like it.
Sorry to be so maudlin. This has been on my mind a bit lately. But to be a fisherman, you either have to be optimistic or get out.
Edited to add: One of the pictures is a salmon fleet from the early 50s, docked in Eureka by the old marine hardware and supply place by the Vista Del Mar. I used to go in there to get stuff and every time I’d stop and look at the picture. The owner finally just gave it to me.
HUFFMAN RESPONDS TO ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ COMMERCIAL SALMON FISHERY CLOSURE
by Isabella Vanderheiden
North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman today issued a statement in response to the Pacific Fishery Management Council’s recent decision to shut down California’s commercial salmon fishing season for the third year in a row, in an effort to help Chinook salmon populations rebound from deteriorating ecological conditions. The “unprecedented” move could have “devastating impacts” on the coastal communities and fishermen who depend on the salmon season to stay afloat, Huffman said.
The full statement:
Today, U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (CA-02) released the following statement regarding the Pacific Fishery Management Council’s vote to cancel salmon fishing season in California:
“Coastal towns, river communities, and thousands of salmon fishery employees depend on the salmon season to generate income and stay afloat – and now, for the third year in a row, they’ve been dealt another devastating impact with an unprecedented closure of the 2025 salmon season. The last two years of closures have devastated California’s coastal economies – and facing a third consecutive closure marks an unprecedented low point. Our slipping environmental conditions are to blame for this economic disaster: we are seeing dangerously low ocean abundance forecasts for the Sacramento River Fall-Run Chinook Salmon, and Trump’s extremist agenda is only going to worsen this already developing crisis,” said Rep. Huffman.
“Trump has vowed to slash current environmental protections even further – which could result in more irresponsible water management during droughts and ultimately, additional salmon season closures in the future. It’s completely unacceptable – and while I’m relieved that I’ve been able to pass reforms in Congress for federal disaster relief, the amount of disaster money secured is not nearly enough to sustain the needs of fishermen, tribes, businesses, and families who depend on healthy salmon fisheries. Now entering this third canceled season, we will have to restart this process for federal funding once again and keep pushing the state to speed up its own process for quantifying impacts,” Rep. Huffman continued.
“While I will continue fighting to bring these state and federal efforts home, this scramble for disaster relief is an unsustainable and insufficient solution to the downward spiral that California salmon fisheries are facing, and have been facing for years now. Instead, we need to implement mechanisms to prevent fishery disasters in the first place. And to do that, we need to confront the irresponsible policies that are killing salmon – including failing to protect cold water supplies, starving rivers and tributaries of flows salmon need to survive, and over-pumping in the Delta during sensitive times for migrating salmon. Trump’s environmental policies are only going to worsen these already compromised conditions, and I will keep doing everything I can in Congress to prevent his agenda from impacting our coastal communities here in California,” Huffman concluded.
(CalMatters.org)
STERLING HAYDEN’s Wanderer sails by the Sausalito waterfront, shortly before he sailed away with his kids against a court order. Another chapter in an illustrious life.
Sterling Hayden and Wanderer
by Tad Roberts
Any story telling session among sailors out here on the West Coast will not go long before someone mentions Sterling Hayden. Writer, Actor, Father, and mostly Sailor, he was a larger than life character who touched the lives of many, but perhaps especially those concerned with boats and sailing. It seems that many true sailor’s character is firmly attached to their ship, they are inseparable and one is handicapped without the other. So it was with Sterling and Wanderer.
She was launched as the Gracie S. in 1893, built at Union Iron Works in San Francisco Bay as a South Pacific trading schooner. She was named for a niece of her first owner, sugar baron Claus Spreckels. But that time was drawing to a close and the steam schooners were fast replacing sail. So she was relegated to the life of a pilot boat in San Francisco, were she worked the harbour entrance under cut down rig for 52 years. Sterling bought her in 1946 for $7000 when he was 30 years old, he sold her once and bought her back when fortunes turned. She was 95’ 6″ on deck, 81′ on the waterline, beam 24’6″, and draft 11’0″, 100 gross tons.
Between being owned by Sterling, the Gracie S. went north to Seattle, where William Garden surveyed her in 1948 and wrote about it in Pacific Motor Boat magazine. He called her a “Monument to Fir”, she was 55 years old then. “Frames, Beams, clamp, shelves, ceiling, planking, in fact everything but rail caps, top timbers, skylights, scuttle, companionway and joinerwork is fir. One especially interesting detail was the corner of a teak skylight coaming rotted next to the fir deck which was still sound.”
Garden outlined her general arrangement….The after 12 feet is Lazaret with access through a door under the main companionway. Then there’s a fine after cabin 18 by 20 feet with 6 berths along the sides and benches in front, the table is centered under the skylight. Next forward is the engineroom to port of the mainmast and a messroom to starboard. Then the galley and an 8 man foc’sl around the foremast, then a crews head and forepeak.
Construction scantlings…….”Planking 3 inch, frames 8 by 8 to 8 by 5 inches at heads; deck 3 by 3; beams 6 by 10 inches with 6-inch sided knees moulded 14 inches through the throat on alternate beams; clamp 8 by 12 inches; ceiling 3-inch; keelson 12 by 12 inches; keel 18 by 18 inches; shoe 11 by 12 inches, and rail cap 4 by 8 inches. Rail cap and top timbers are teak.”
In 1959 Sterling sailed Wanderer out the Golden Gate headed southwest, for Tahiti. In defiance of a court order, aboard were his four children, a mostly amateur crew, but a good hand in Spike Africa as mate, along with his family. Sterling would later write, “Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in.”
The California court claimed Wanderer was old and rotten, too small and dangerous to take innocent children to sea. Sterling replied, “Yachtsmen are consumed with the notion that their boats must be one hundred percent sound. They are oblivious to the fact that the majority of the world’s working vessels are plagued by rot. Yet these are the ships that do the work, year after year, no holds barred when it comes to weather.”
Eventually Sterling sailed Wanderer back to Sausalito, and he moved ashore to write a book called Wanderer; an autobiography named after after his ship or his life. Wanderer was chartered and sailed twice more to the South Seas with young crews of escapists. Then in the dark on November 1st of 1965, rounding the southern tip of Rangiroa Island in the Tuamotus, she went hard aground. In 20 minutes the 11 crew-members abandoned ship in a rubber boat. She was a total loss almost instantly in the high surf on a coral reef. Her skipper, William King, stated afterwards that he should not have been there. But Wanderer was were she belonged, sailing the South Pacific.
GIANTS SETTLE FOR 4-GAME SPLIT as emotions flare in Phillies finale
by Shayna Rubin
Jordan Hicks’ fastball runs hot. His emotions throughout Thursday’s start ran hotter.
What ticked Hicks off was a tumultuous first inning in which the Philadelphia Phillies piled on five early runs, attacking Hicks’ fastball often. Those runs were all the Phillies needed to hand the San Francisco Giants a 6-4 loss and gain a split in the four-game series at Citizens Bank Park.
But the first inning was just the beginning of an eventful afternoon.
Tension on the field climbed when Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm was granted a timeout while Hicks was in his windup and throwing, prompting Hicks to throw his hands up in frustrating and jaw at home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi. As frustration over the first inning mounted, so did the velocity on Hicks' fastball. Of his career-high 105 pitches, he threw 16 of them more than 100 mph.
His 101.7 mph sinker to Johan Rojas in the fourth inning was the fastest pitch thrown by a Giants starting pitcher in the pitch-tracking era. Another 101 mph fastball ran too far in and struck shortstop Trea Turner in the second inning, prompting more icy glares between starter and dugout.
Passions peaked when Hicks induced a double play to end the seventh, marking his longest start of the season. He stared down the Phillies dugout and, perhaps, a few angry words were tossed between each side. Cuzzi, who had been trying to temper frustrations between the Hicks and the Phillies, intervened by getting up into Hicks’ space on his way back to the dugout and yelling a few feisty words his way. Voiced frustrations over Cuzzi’s strike zone might’ve gotten the umpire heated, too.
“He was trying to defuse the situation. Every time I looked over, he said something,” Hicks said. “He just didn’t want me starting anything with them.”
Between the chirps and ugly innings, third baseman Matt Chapman was focusing on the bigger picture. Not yet midway through a stretch of 17 consecutive games without an off day, the Giants’ bullpen wasn’t in a state to be called upon if Hicks’ day was cut short. With numerous relievers unavailable, it was likely that typical high-leverage arms such as Erik Miller and Tyler Rogers get into the game no matter the situation.
A short outing for Hicks would create trouble.
Chapman frequently made trips to the mound to calm Hicks down.
“He said, ‘We need you to go deep in this game today,’” Hicks said. “Trying, basically, to not get me tossed, and I appreciated him for that. He’s good at diffusing situations.”
Added Chapman: “I know he’s a competitive guy and he really means well. I think Phil, sometimes, can also get a little bit hot. So it was two guys clashing a little bit. Both guys are hot-headed, but I’m glad nothing bad came out of it.”
That Hicks was able to get through seven innings was the thick silver lining around this loss. Fueled by “some anger, some passion,” and hearing Chapman, Hicks adjusted his game plan after the first inning and leaned more on his slider to toss six shutout innings.
“The fact he gave up five in the first inning and be able to settle down — that’s a good lineup — it was huge,” Chapman said. “He could have very easily gave up five and came out for the second and not had a good inning and then we have to throw bullpen guys for seven innings and we have 10 more games in a row. For him to give us seven innings and give us a chance was huge.”
These Giants have gotten good at chipping away at leads, managing to get the game-tying run at the plate in the ninth inning. Chapman generated the first three runs, knocking in one in the first inning with an RBI single and hitting a two-run home run to left field in the sixth. Chapman came into the series in Philadelphia having gone 0-for-his-last-22 (with eight walks). Since Monday, he’s 7-for-16 with four RBIs.
“I was hitting some balls hard and not getting any luck. I was still getting my walks,” Chapman said. “The biggest thing is being able to take hits and go the other way and hit the breaking ball for the homer. I think putting myself in a good spot. I was getting a little anxious and going to get the ball a little bit, so I was trying literally to stay back behind the baseball so I can be a little more balanced.”
Despite their 13-6 mark, the Giants are off to a slow start against left-handed starters despite a roster seemingly well-equipped to compete. They began Thursday batting .186 with a .593 OPS in five games against lefties and, save for Chapman, didn’t do much better against Phillies southpaw Cristopher Sanchez, striking out a combined 12 times against him and 14 times overall.
Tyler Fitzgerald made things interesting in the ninth, hitting his second homer of the series. Jung Hoo Lee, the team’s hottest hitter, and Wilmer Flores, MLB’s RBI leader after Wednesday, got a day of rest, but both pinch hit in the ninth inning.
Lee singled on a chopper, but not without a little drama to round out a fraught afternoon. On Cuzzi’s called strike, Lee adjusted his helmet — which Cuzzi interpreted as him pretending to challenge the call for a not-yet-instituted ABS — and told Lee he shouldn’t be arguing balls and strikes. But Lee couldn’t understand Cuzzi because of the language barrier.
After the game ended, Cuzzi confronted Lee with Justin Han interpreting the exchange.
“The umpire thought I was requesting a challenge on the pitch because I do adjust my helmet every pitch. I guess I have to work on not making misunderstandings like this,” Lee said with Han interpreting. “There is no challenge in the major leagues so I couldn’t challenge it. But the umpire was having a sensitive game. He’s a human being and can make mistakes.”
(sfchronicle.com)
ESTHER MOBLEY
Club Deluxe, a live jazz bar in the Haight that I loved, is reopening after two years, reports Nico Madrigal-Yankowski in SFGate. The new operators are a former Deluxe bartender and the owner of another San Francisco jazz club, Mr. Tipple’s.
Mexico’s Querétaro wine region has received Protected Geographical Indication status, reports Meininger’s. That makes it the southernmost PGI in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Pudding has a very cool data visualization about critter wines. It analyzed thousands of wines with animals on their labels and tried to predict the quality. Can you guess which bottles tend to be better: reptiles, bugs or birds?
(SF Chronicle)
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
Gas went up .40 cents this past week here. Grocery prices aren’t going down and WTF?: ”The US is getting RICH ON TARIFFS.”
Does this fucking moron not understand who pays for tariffs? I mean it is really simple. The US customer/business pays the tariff and passes it on to their customers. China or the penguins on the Heard and McDonald Islands are not paying the tariff. I don’t know how this concept is so hard for anyone, especially someone who brags about graduating from Wharton.
ANCIENT LINDEN TREE (tilia) in the Czech Republic. Estimated over 800 years old!
‘JUST DON’T GO’: Rockets fans beg Ted Cruz to skip Warriors games
by Alex Simon
As the Warriors prepare to take on the Rockets, Houston fans are begging Sen. Ted Cruz to stay as far away from the arena as possible.
The “Cruz Curse“ is an ongoing social media sensation in the Texas sports world, as the Republican senator seems to love attending games where the Texas team he is rooting for ends up losing.
It’s why Jay Suayan, aka Reddit user Brilliant_Mouse 76, took to the Rockets subreddit and said the “Cruz Curse,” not the refs, was the bigger problem facing Houston in this upcoming series with the Dubs. In a phone call with SFGATE, Suayan admitted that the entire curse idea has started to transcend social media meme status for Houstonians.
“It does seem real, even though a therapist or a psychologist would tell you that it’s all in our heads or it’s basically an attempt at a self-fulfilling prophecy,” he told SFGATE.
The curse first kicked into high gear back in 2018, when Cruz sat courtside for Game 7 of the Warriors-Rockets showdown in the West finals. While Cruz was also in the building for the Rockets’ win in Game 5 of that series, Houston blew a lead in Game 7 with its infamous 0-for-27 stretch from 3-point range and lost to the Warriors, who went on to win their third NBA title in four years.
“As a Rockets fan, I felt like I must have woken up in a nightmare,” Suayan recalled about that night.
Cruz’s sports bona fides had been questioned ever since he referred to a basketball hoop as a “basketball ring” in 2016. His courtside posts from that 2018 Game 7 made him the target of social media ire after the Rockets loss, and his weak attempt at clapping back the next day only made the idea stick harder.
Since then, fans have started requesting that Cruz stay away from their beloved sports teams, and the senator has grown increasingly sensitive to it. In 2023, Cruz responded on social media to a Rolling Stone story about fans asking him to stay away from a Game 7 for the Astros by blasting the outlet as “lying hacks” and citing the team’s recent success as if he had helped it happen.
The Astros would lose Game 7, becoming the second team in U.S. sports history to lose all four home games in a seven-game playoff series. The first? The 2019 Astros in the World Series — games Cruz attended, too.
The “Cruz Curse” has also impacted colleges all across the state. Cruz attended Texas A&M’s 2024 football season opener and saw the Aggies lose to Notre Dame. For Texas football, Cruz was there for the Longhorns’ losses to Washington in last year’s College Football Playoff and for the regular-season loss to Georgia. (Longhorns fans even tried to get Cruz banned for life from Texas athletic events last year.) Texas Tech basketball saw Cruz post about his attendance in the final minute of the 2019 national title game, but the Red Raiders lost anyway.
Even Cruz’s last political opponent Colin Allred tried to turn Texans against him because of the curse, starting the website CruzCurse.com to highlight the losses. (Cruz defeated Allred, a UC Berkeley law graduate, to win reelection to the Senate.)
“He has every right to root for whoever he wants to, but his presence at stadiums or arenas has become problematic,” Suayan said. “It’s not something where the Onion would put out like, ‘Ted Cruz caused this team to lose,’ but as the past decade or so has revealed, it’s taken on a life of its own.”
University of Houston basketball fans were the latest to try to break the “Cruz Curse,” starting an online petition asking Cruz to stay away from the Final Four. But Cruz was spotted by the Houston Chronicle in the second half of the national championship game … and the Cougars subsequently blew a 10-point lead to lose to Florida.
SFGATE reached out to Cruz’s office, asking if the senator was planning on attending Game 1 on Sunday or any other games in the series but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Suayan, who lives in a Houston suburb, said any spotting of Cruz at a Rockets game this series will “set off nervousness and anxiety among Rockets fans.” A few in the comments on the Reddit post think they have the solution, though.
“I remember the crowd booing him when he came on screen at one of the games this season and we won by like 15,” one commenter wrote. “All it takes is a little public ridicule.” Another added, “If we take care of business and finish them off in San Fran Ted Cruz will not be there.”
Suayan has a rather simple request for his senator.
“Watch the game from his house or a sports bar or any of his colleagues’ places,” he said. “Just don’t go to the arena.”
(SFGate.com)
AN UNSENTIMENTAL EDUCATION
by Merve Emre
I Am Charlotte Simmons, which many people believe to be Tom Wolfe’s crudest and most offensive book, played an important part in my moral education. When I think about the novel now, I think about a girl who used to go to the college bookstore for the express purpose of reading it. She would pick it up from the front display table, climb to the balcony, and sit on the floor behind a large white column that was broad enough to hide her from the clerks and the customers below. She would read, with an air of intense absorption, about people who seemed to her very much like the people she had met in her first year at an old East Coast university, which in turn seemed very much like Dupont University, where the novel was set. Its heroine, the beautiful, intelligent, and virtuous Charlotte Simmons, had arrived at Dupont from Sparta, North Carolina, a river town with no industry other than Christmas tree farms. Lacking money and culture and connections, she possessed nothing but her simple faith in the university as the place where she would finally be recognized for what she was: exceptional in mind and body, and pure of heart.
Yet Dupont also seemed designed to test her faith. The students did very little reading or writing. Instead, they smoked and drank and stumbled in and out of crowded parties, where they shouted at one another in a peculiar language (“You’re money, baby, and you don’t even know it!” “Sexy prexy!”) and laughed at nothing in particular. They had sex, never with pleasure, and they woke up in strange beds with shame and regret. They betrayed their friends casually, cruelly — although “betrayed” was not the right word, for among them there was no expectation of loyalty or respect.
Charlotte Simmons tried to rise above the lure of sex and money and social status, the fatal desire to be someone whom everyone knew and talked about. “I am Charlotte Simmons,” she liked to say. “Charlotte Simmons was above them all.” But she could not hold out against the squalor of campus life. She lost her virginity to a handsome fraternity brother in the fall and became incurably depressed, losing all interest in her books, in her appearance, in the life of the mind she had been so eager to lead — until she emerged from her hibernation in the spring as the girlfriend of the basketball team’s star forward. The girl I knew returned to the bookstore to read and reread the novel, hoping perhaps for a different ending. Each time it was the same, and each time its finality angered her, then strengthened her resolve. People like Charlotte Simmons might waste the opportunities that had accrued to them. But she was not Charlotte Simmons. She was above it all.
Twenty years later I can look at my young self and wonder that she should have understood so little — about the novel, and about the university, the relentless pressure it exerts on the souls of its inhabitants. A person who prided herself on withstanding this pressure would not only end up surrendering to it like everyone else, but also experience her surrender as tragic, while everyone else would merely smile at her naiveté and self-importance.
I had failed to understand this because, like Charlotte Simmons, I believed in the university. I believed in it in the same way that many people believed in the church, as a place of the purest and highest purpose. Walking through its gates had seemed to me an act of rebirth. Everyone was washed clean. Nothing that came before counted against you — not where you were born, or where you went to high school, or how much money your family had — and everything that came after depended only on your innate and enduring gifts: your discipline, your intuition, the sheer velocity of your thought. I had also failed to understand it because, like Charlotte Simmons, I maintained a stubborn sense of my own exceptionality. I believed that my mind and my character were as inviolable as the university I had entered. Or rather I believed that our fates were entwined in which I played a vital role, and whose outcome I could imagine only as triumphant.
(London Review of Books)
SHREDDING THE POST-WAR ORDER
by Fintan O’Toole
On March 9 Poland’s minister of foreign affairs, Radosław Sikorski, posted on X about an apparent threat by Elon Musk to deny Ukraine access to the Starlink satellite system it uses to guide its military drones. Musk, whose company SpaceX operates Starlink, had written that Ukraine’s “entire front line would collapse if I turned it off.” Sikorski noted that
“Starlinks for Ukraine are paid for by the Polish Digitization Ministry at the cost of about $50 million. per year. The ethics of threatening the victim of aggression apart, if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider we will be forced to look for other suppliers.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio weighed in to admonish Sikorski: “Say thank you because without Starlink Ukraine would have lost this war long ago and Russians would be on the border with Poland right now.” (He is presumably unaware that Poland already shares a border with Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave.) Musk posted his own reply to Sikorski: “Be quiet, small man.”
Such boorishness had by then ceased to be shocking. Imitation is the tawdriest form of flattery: Donald Trump’s courtiers signal their devotion by inflicting his mode of puerile bullying on allied governments. Rubio’s “Say thank you” was an obvious attempt to curry favor with Trump by emulating Vice President J. D. Vance’s haranguing of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office on February 28: “Have you said thank you once?” Musk’s “small man” mimicked Trump’s familiar mode of insult — once aimed at “Little Marco” himself. The infantilization of America’s domestic politics has spread to its international relations. In Trump’s boys’ club, disdain for Europe is an important signifier of belonging: as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth assured Vance in a Signal message of March 14, inadvertently leaked to The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, “I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”
(New York Review of Books)
LEAD STORIES, FRIDAY'S NYT
Maryland Senator Meets With Wrongly Deported Man in El Salvador
Inside Trump’s Plan to Halt Hundreds of Regulations
DOGE Guts Agency That Organizes Community Service Programs
Milwaukee’s Lead Crisis: Flaky Paint, Closed Schools and a C.D.C. in Retreat
What We Know About the Florida State University Shooting
They Endured the Parkland Shooting. Then Came Florida State
Google Broke the Law to Keep Its Advertising Monopoly, a Judge Rules
Meat Is Back, on Plates and in Politics
SAME MOVIE, different soundtrack. That’s Gaza under Trump.
The Biden administration backed a genocide while occasionally making noises about humanitarian concerns, and now the Trump administration backs a genocide without making those noises.
All that’s changed is the noise.
— Caitlin Johnstone
OUR PROFOUND OUTRAGE
Dear Secretary Noem and Secretary Rubio:
On April 14, 2025, Mohsen K. Mahdawi, a U.S. permanent resident, entered a local U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office for what was supposed to be his final citizenship interview and then was instead arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents upon arrival. Masked, hooded men in plain clothes removed Mr. Mahdawi, he was then handcuffed and taken into an unmarked van from the USCIS office in Colchester, Vermont. All Americans should be chilled by this action, taken straight out of dystopian fiction.
Americans may disagree on immigration policy, but we have always agreed that the Constitution guarantees people within our borders the most basic of rights including due process and free speech. This administration has ignored those fundamental rights in its horrific imprisonment of Mohsen K. Mahdawi.
If Mr. Mahdawi can be tricked into coming to a government office and then arrested for simply making statements that the Trump Administration does not agree with, every American is at risk. We write to express our profound outrage with this Administration’s continued disappearance of lawful residents of the United States and to demand questions about Mr. Mahdawi’s case.
According to his lawyers, Mr. Mahdawi, who was one of the organizers of pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year at Columbia University, was detained by immigration officials on Monday after arriving for an appointment in Vermont that he thought was a step toward becoming a U.S. citizen. Mr. Mahdawi has had a green card for 10 years.
Americans were horrified last month when Mahmoud Khalil was removed from his apartment building for speech that the President disagreed with. And now, Mr. Mahdawi is the latest Palestinian student the Trump administration has targeted involved in pro-Palestinian organizing on U.S. college campuses. Mr. Mahdawi has not been accused of a crime. According to his lawyers, the Trump administration appears to be seeking his removal from the country under the same legal provision that it is using to detain Mr. Khalil.
The First Amendment protects the right of all people in the United States, including lawful permanent residents, to speak freely on political matters without fear of government retribution. The Immigration and Nationality Act prohibits the Secretary of State from excluding entry to noncitizens based on past or current lawful speech. In similar cases, the administration has relied on a dubious determination that a person’s protected speech compromises U.S. foreign policy interests and is grounds for preventing admission into the country. The law requires that the Secretary provide certification of that determination to Congress.
We write to request that you respond to the following questions no later than April 22, 2025:
- Has Secretary Rubio made the personal determination that Mr. Mahdawi’s speech compromises a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest?
- Do you intend to provide certification to the relevant Congressional committees of the determination of whether and how Mr. Mahdawi’s speech compromises a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest?
- What reasonable grounds, including specific evidence, did DHS or the State Department have to conclude that Mr. Mahdawi’s presence or activities in the United State have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States?
- Is it the policy of DHS to engage in immigration enforcement activity under the pretense of citizenship interviews or other routine immigration processing related matters?
It is Mr. Mahdawi’s right as a legal resident of the United States to argue for what he believes in.
This most fundamental of American rights is crucial to the fabric of our country, and one that
America was built upon. In fact, President Trump stated at his joint address to Congress in
March, “I’ve stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America.” If
the President was serious about protecting free speech in the United States, he would protect it
for everyone, including those with whom he disagrees.
Mr. Mahdawi’s arrest is immoral, inhumane, and illegal. With Mr. Mahdawi’s abduction, the
Trump Administration continues to degrade America’s image on the global stage and descend
the country further and further into authoritarianism. We profoundly oppose unlawful abductions
and expect a prompt response to our questions.
Sincerely,
[signed by 68 members of Congress]
EL SALVADOR’S PRESIDENT EXPLAINS
Salvadoran President Claims He Lacks Humanity To Return Deported Man
Washington—During a visit with President Donald Trump at the White House, El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele claimed Monday that he “lacks the humanity” to return wrongly deported legal U.S. resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to America.
“How can I return an innocent man to the United States when I don’t have the ability to feel empathy or compassion?” said Bukele, explaining that he’s consulted with his top advisors about the 29-year-old Maryland father being held in a Salvadoran prison, but none of them could find it in their hearts to care at all about the man’s situation…
HUNDREDS OF ISRAELI ACADEMICS condemn Trump for exploiting antisemitism to target universities
Over 200 Israeli academics signed an open letter published on Thursday, accusing U.S. President Donald Trump of "fostering anti-Jewish sentiment" and cynically exploiting the fight against antisemitism as part of his administration's crackdown on Columbia University and other academic institutions.…
WHAT ARE RARE EARTH METALS?
China’s new restrictions on exports of the metals could have an impact on the production of everything from LED lights to fighter jets.
by Eli Tan
For years, the Chinese government has worked to control the export of rare earths, a group of metals used in an array of products, as common as semiconductors and lights. Now, in its trade war with the United States, China is moving to limit the market for these metals even further, which could have disastrous consequences for American manufacturing and military power. So, what exactly are these metals, and why are they so important?
What are rare earths?
There are 17 types of metals known as rare earths, which span the periodic table and are crucial to industries like technology, energy and transportation. With names like terbium, praseodymium and dysprosium, the metals are important ingredients for some of the most advanced technologies.
Rare earths can be sorted into two kinds: heavy and light. Heavy rare earths have a greater atomic weight and are typically more rare, meaning they sell in smaller quantities and are prone to shortages. Light metals, by contrast, have a lesser atomic weight. The two most important are neodymium and praseodymium, which are primarily used to create magnets.
What are they used for?
The uses for rare earths are expansive: semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence; the motors of electric vehicles; fighter jets and guided missiles used by the U.S. military; wind turbines; and LED lights found in millions of households, among others.
Many rare earths have chemical properties that make them heat resistant, so they can be used to create high-quality magnets, glass, lights and batteries. Magnets made from rare earths are significantly more powerful — and valuable — than other types, especially in electric car production.
Does the United States produce rare earths?
The United States has just one operational rare earths mine, in Mountain Pass, Calif., which produces around 15 percent of global rare earths.
It wasn’t always this way. In the 1980s, the United States was a leader in rare earth production, accounting for around a third of the global market. But in tandem with a decades-long effort by China to take control of the market, the share of rare earth production in the United States slowly declined until it nearly ceased to exist in the early 2000s.
Where do rare earths come from?
Rare earths are mined from rock deposits in the earth’s crust. With nearly 70 percent of the market, China is able to control the export and price of the metals sold around the world. About 90 percent of rare earth magnets are produced in China, and 99.9 percent of the world’s dysprosium, which the chipmaker Nvidia uses to create capacitors, is mined in China.
In recent years, rare earths have become an increasingly important geopolitical tool. The Trump administration has sought to broker a deal to acquire mineral-rich Ukraine’s rare earths in exchange for military support. The administration has also talked about an outright takeover of Greenland, in part because of its rich rare earth supply.
What will the impact of China’s restrictions on rare earths be?
Without an adequate supply of rare earths, American manufacturing for sectors like the automotive industry would grind to a halt. Some American companies have been stockpiling rare earths for years in anticipation of a trade war, but it’s unclear how long those supplies would last if China cut off exports.
It could also affect the strategic goals of the U.S. military, which without rare earths could wind up with shortages of drones, missiles and aircraft. Tech manufacturers like Nvidia, whose chips are already in short supply, could also be affected, along with smartphone makers like Apple.
While many rare earth mining operations in China were for years private or even foreign-owned, the Chinese government has consolidated control over the industry by acquiring the largest local miners with state-owned companies, giving it total control over manufacturing and exporting.
(NY Times)
Regarding the “catheter bag blues”…best wishes to you, Bruce. And Happy Easter. Thinking of you. As my mom used to say: “Getting old ain’t for wimps.”
Bruce, very sagacious and wise one, we send our most compassionate wishes for future lasting patience and comfort. And when the Medicare and Social Security surface to be at risk, forget about the gun; I’ll pick you up in my electric driven wheel chair and we can head to DC and throw your used bags at the golden /orange cage of the “white house”. The get away might be tough, but we can use Vance’s couch to float down the Delaware.
+1
Sterling Hayden and Wanderer
by Tad Roberts
He left out one of the best parts of the Hayden/Sausalito story. Hayden went on to buy a luxury private railroad car which he lived in near the bay on the old rail line He used it to write his book.
Sterling Hayden’s character’s impassioned reaction to the Old Men’s decision in /King of the Gypsies/ plays in my head whenever his name appears.
Oh, jeez, it just occurred to me to mention that my show’s on KNYO tonight, 9pm to 5am. I’ll recite the speech, but after 10, because of the swears.
At yesterday’s Giants game, this umpire, Cuzzi, is only second to the despised Major League umpire Angel Hernandez, who was forcibly retired from MLB. Jung Hoo Lee has more style and class in his little finger than that prick has in his whole body…
Ask around,
Laz
“ON LINE COMMENT RE: COUNTY BUDGET DEFICIT
They have a little over two months to balance the budget. Good luck with that. Expect more games from everyone. I can help them simplify the process: With Ted saying he will not vote for a budget that includes one time funding, simply stop listening to him. With this short of time and this large of a gap, I don’t see how you balance the budget without using one time funds. This gap should have been worked out long ago. This will be a budget where the CEO will need to count to three. Why even bother listening to him? And he put himself on this sideline.
Watch as the revenue side of the balance sheet mysteriously expands, anticipated departmental fees and tax revenue estimates will quietly grow. This will be in total contradiction to the regional and national economic situation, which are both in serious and potentially catastrophic decline at the moment.”
Except for the stock market boom of the 1990’s, this strategy for budget development seldom produces positive results.
RE: Sad State of Salmon: I guess I’m on the glass half empty side for Chinook salmon fisheries in California. There’s no going back, most likely, for all the dammed and diverted watercourses in the Central Valley. Habitat loss and destruction has been in place for decades now, thus the downward spiral of Chinook populations in the Sacramento/San Joaquin systems. Just go read “Cadillac Desert” by Marc Reisner. All the hatcheries and trucking fish up and down the state won’t solve the problem.
One possible scenario is that Orange Blob does his best to open up commercial fishing and diminish environmental restrictions. Overfishing and habitat destruction would ensue, then populations tank fast. The next statement would be that Biden, The “Chy-knees” and Team Blue Envrio nuts destroyed it all first. Ugh. ……Guess I’ll have to head to Alaska to fish someday.
Indigenous Peoples gill nets at the mouth of the Klamath and Eel Rivers are not helpful.
not that i can speak for anyone, but i’d venture to guess that most of the indigenous folks would say that the crux of the problem is/was the Mayflower
My uncle Dell took a undercover game warden fishing in his boat, or so the family legend goes, and when Dell lit a stick of dynamite and threw it in the lake to bring up the fish, the warden pulled out his badge and said, “You are under arrest, you have the right to a lawyer…”Dell lit another stick, handed it to the warden and asked, “are you gonna talk or fish?”
Great story. It made me laugh.
Many moons ago I visited an Indian village museum on the banks of the Frazer River near Mission, BC. These ancient natives were fisherman. They made sophisticated gill nets from the fiber in the inner bark of Western Red Cedar. Gill nets were strung across the Frazer from both sides. Obviously some salmon got through to spawn, even though that did not appear to be by design. What I took from the visit was intense fishing did not necessarily negatively impact salmon populations on the Frazer. Even when a reduced number of fish get through, the number of eggs from spawning females is still in the millions.
Alaska—hah! Standing shoulder to shoulder with a line of fishermen as far as the eye can see on both sides of a stream—bah! That ain’t fishing in my book! The last time I went was in the Bob Marshall Wilderness 40-odd years ago and that was already overcrowded to the point I gave it up for good and all. Judge Behnke traveled to Outter Mongolia several years ago and showed me some of his trophy pictures and that was great but even so it must be clogged with anglers by now to the point of a quick return… Judge LaCasse flew into Christmas Islands a few years before that and reported back how “brutal” it was.
Ah, I remember when I waded in my worn out gym shoes and cutoff jeans with a old J C Higgins fly rod and caught my first golden trout from the Sierras whilst all these guys in fancy waders and nets and creels and vests full of tippets, leaders, books of flys (like everything in the LL Bean store) and they were sore envious of my catch, all hung on a willow branch. It’s gotten too commercial for me. But I bet you found some satisfactory angling back when you were a wee lad living in Ferndale. Eh? Before it all went to pot. Hey, that reminds me of Izaak Walton (I worked at the Isaak Walton Inn near Glacier Park one season and there was good fishing for cutthroat trout in those days, if you could hike in a few miles), but here’s old Isaak: “is it art to catch a trout on an artificial fly, or is it evil?”
caught a lot of stocked rainbows out of Francis Creek (main creek through Ferndale) as kid right down from my house on Van Ness Avenue (aka Frog Alley). My brother and I would mostly use bubble gum and cheddar cheese as bait. Can’t recall if we ate any. I think the dog got a few.
First time I went fly fishing was outside of State College Pennsylvania. Can’t remember the creek name, but I recall my first back cast. I hooked a bat. Poor thing got a lip ring that evening.
Last time I caught salmon on my own was on my friends boat out of Noyo a few days before my wedding in June of 2007.
Since then, I’m happy paddling my kayak off of Caspar Beach and hooking a few rockfish. Makes me a happy boy.
I have to pay $16.40 per lbs for my rockfish. You lucky dog!
You left out the description of the pint in the back pocket(s) of those cutoffs. An item needed to provide buoyancy should we fall or pass out in the turbulent waters.
Ocean conditions are the primary indicator of salmon populations, not freshwater habitat. We can do many things to facilitate large numbers of smolts getting to the ocean, but after that it’s in the hands of Poseidon.
I suggest you check with Game and Fish on that… As I recall, returning adult numbers depend a lot on what the smolt ocean escapement was for their cohort during their outbound migration, 3 or 4 years prior. Freshwater habitat for ocean-bound smolts in the year they migrate to the ocean is a very important factor in determining how many salmon return in a given year.
Catheter
Coming out of Safeway, I saw coming towards me an old acquaintance with a very serious look of discomfort. He said he had recent surgery, and was looking for a Catheter. Soon after, I saw him walking to his car, and approached him suggesting he go to the Emergency Room, at the hospital, which he did. It was the weekend. Problem solved.
I vaguely understand there is no replacement Catherer given to the patient. I vaguely understand maybe the risk of infection?
BUT, something is terribly wrong—our
males shouldn’t be running around town in panic mode, bleeding, in terrible pain, and discomfort.
NOT ACCEPTABLE.
Enjoying a fabulous sunny day in Washington, D.C., about to head over to the Peace Vigil (across the street from the White House). It is agreed at the vigil that stronger statements in regard to global climate destabilization need to be made. In the midst of the American society’s meltdown, it is comprehended that Divine Intervention is needed in addition to social activism. Moreso, a brand new civilization based on the sacred heart center in each one of us is the ultimate answer. Please make note of the fact that the present dark phase of Kali Yuga continues to segue into the Satya Yuga, or age of truth and light. On an individual basis, please remain comfortable resting in your own svarupa, or heart chakra, which ensures sahaja samadhi avastha, or the continuous superconscious state.
Nota bene: I am available for spiritually based direct action. Feel free to contact me.
Craig Louis Stehr
Adam’s Place Homeless Shelter
2210 Adams Place NE #1
Washington, D.C. 20018
Telephone: (202) 832-8317
Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com
April 18th, 2025 Anno Domini
The Trump Is God* T-shirts are out just in time for Passover, and anyone who isn’t wearing one this weekend can expect to be Shanghighed to an El Salvador prison or, if you don’t have the blood of a Philstine on your lintel (or hands), you’ll be turned ashore on the Gaza Strip where you may plead your case to the IDF.
*the Hebrew God, of course, a jealous, vengeful, deity by all accounts, to be sure…!
Stupid(ity)
God means good —don’t think m(any) of US grew up hearing this.
Had the tees said: ‘Trump is Good’, the message would have been more powerful, reasonable, made more sense, and not been stupid.
Jesus.
Quite the theologian, Mr Tzu! You must know the chief Ancient Egyptian God, Amen was diametrically opposed to the Hebrew God, Jehovah, and perhaps you can enlighten me as to why, to this day, Christians worldwide, close their prayers to Jehovah with the name of His rival? Please explain— my ears are growing long in anticipation, and my nose is twitching rabbit-like as well !
Mr. McKEwen,
“The word ‘amen’ used in Christian and Jewish prayer is of Hebrew origin, not Egyptian,” says Andrew McGowan, dean of Yale University’s Berkeley Divinity School’.
Amen means, I say: You can take that to the bank, now go.
Nothing about Trump makes sense
Not to worry, though, don’t worry, ‘cause if you paid your taxes the last two years you most assuredly have blood on your hands; as surely as if you had given David the sling he killed Goliath with.
Wow, must have a little more than just hooch this morning, huh Bruce! Attacking religion and supporting gang members on Good Friday.
The only fishing you ever done was with a treble hook packed in powebait and a bobber. Sure, prolly caught yr limit of cottonmouth suckers and carp, so carp on —incidentally, you ain’t that Cissi umpire Laz reviled are you? Just asking around, as Laz always advises.
Bottom feeders are tasty when the ice first melts. Ravenous, bullhead bite hard on night crawlers in April, sometimes on just a plain old rusty hook. If you can avoid their sting, they’re mighty good eating. Careful! Their skulls are so thick you’ve gotta stun them first with a sharp blow.
Benthonic as a bull trout. On Flathead Lake we trolled with leaded line, colored to tell off how deep, and it was tricky bringing ‘em up but cut in steaks the best fish I ever ate. Long story behind the end of that fishery which Ive told several times before in these very pages… Yellow Bay, the cherry orchards, the goats and horses we had, living in teepees, waiting for the economy to grow so top-heavy it toppled o’er… that was the Seventies, I was ready then, now it seems overdue….but here it comes. Stand by.
As I recall there was a little wire leg-jig that hung below the bait to bump along the bottom and thereby send a jiggle to the end of your rod to let you know you were trolling a few inches off the bottom, where the mythical “lunkers” (a Boone & Crockett trophy fish) slumbered….
I never saw Gary S. happier. It was cold. After work we’d hiked down to a wild spot on the shore of Lake Chautauqua, just a little ways up from the flume. We had a case of Stroh’s, a frying pan, a couple of dirty sticks of butter, a knife, and a hammer. Gary had his new 9mm automatic. We looked like outlaws, but that was the look in ’74. Gary was still married to the Mormon lady then. In the early weeks of their bliss, he’d gone full in on her faith. He’d said a life of no beer and no cigarettes looked like like a healthy break. A year later he wasn’t having it. His marriage was breaking up. So there he was, holding a Stroh’s while playing in a bullhead. Grinning, a Salem in his teeth like FDR.
“While there’s a god Amun Ra in ancient Egyptian mythology, there is no connection between this deity and the Hebrew word “amen”. The Hebrew “amen” is a noun meaning “certainty” or “verity,” and it is related to a verb meaning “to confirm”.
Do you own a dictionary?
Hiya,
Ummmmm what???!!!
“Antle also suggests that the Board consider using Measure B money to cover some of costs of staffing the new (“mental health”) wing of the jail. There does appear to be Measure B money that was supposed to go to treatment services available. But using it for jail services is a twisted interpretation that is not what the preparers of Measure B told the voters it would be used for.”
Jail is not treatment no matter how you package it!!
Every time I drive past the jail which is daily. I look over at that new building being erected, it is going to be quite nice, no doubt. However it does not take an entire new building to provide what is necessary to help incarcerated individuals with their Mental Health needs, that’s a new jail!
I mean holy hell most these people live on the street, they do not care about nice shiny walls and quiet treatment rooms! What they do care about is dignity and being treated compassionately.
You should see some of the psych wards, and if you have I am sorry!
mm 💕