Mendocino County Today: Thursday 4/24/2025

Mostly Cloudy | Palace Preservation | Creative Accounting | Randy Missing | GJ Reports | Ault Guilty | Local Events | Trouette Syndrome | Pollinator | Medical Pathways | Floodgate Store | Job Search | Saturday Protests | Tahja Presentation | Pianist Videos | Springboard Slot | CPB Funding | Big Rock | Giants Radio | Yesterday's Catch | Yellow Cab | Polluters Act | Just Sitting | Warriors Lose | Naked Lady | Giants Win | April 1967 | Dismissed Charges | Andreas Fault | Sudden Stop | Getting Closer | Americans Reading | Murphy Twins | Owning Capital | Private Prisons | Lead Stories | Climate Change | Three Months | Tax Code | Cease-Fire Plan | Quit Whining | Gaza Film | Killing Palestinians | Patience | Roadkill Parity | Lifting Stone

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AN UPPER LEVEL TROUGH approaching the area will bring cooler temperatures across the interior through Saturday. There is a slight chance for thunderstorms over the mountains for the next few days as well as widespread showers in most areas by Friday. Cool nights and pleasant sunny afternoons will return Sunday and into next week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): We have both high & low (fog) clouds with 48F this Thursday morning on the coast. Cloudy & cool today, a chance of rain Friday & Saturday with cool temps, then clearing a some warming starting on Sunday. Next week is looking dry & a little warmer.

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PALACE HOTEL EFFORTS CITED BY NATIONAL PRESERVATION MAGAZINE

by Mike Geniella

The Palace Hotel, the iconic downtown Ukiah landmark focus of new clean up and stabilization efforts, is one of five projects featured in the Spring edition of ‘Preservation,’ the quarterly magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The magazine notes that the Palace for decades “sat vacant, deteriorating, and mired in uncertainty.”

“The Palace Hotel has hope in the form of a new steward,” the Preservation article states about local contractor Tom Carter.

Carter last October secured title to the venerable 60,000 square foot building from former owner Jitu Ishwar. Months earlier, Ishwar had been granted a demolition permit by the City of Ukiah for the historic building after the collapse of a contentious deal he had made with a local restaurateur and local tribal representatives.

Carter and his crew have stabilized the weakened portion of the Palace, removing debris from the interior, and recycling doors, wood, and other material from a building that dates to 1891.

Carter’s efforts began after he secured a city permit to begin shoring up the Palace and temporarily sealing its roof to prevent further degradation.

Carter said Wednesday he had not seen the Preservation magazine article but he hopes it will create “greater interest” in the project.

“We are currently navigating through the historical tax credit process,” said Carter. With national exposure on the level of Preservation magazine, “It might open up the door to a much larger group of investors who use those tax credits.”

“It could help expedite our project,” said Carter.

Architect Carolyn Kiernat is a principal at Page & Turnbull, the noted San Francisco firm specializing in historic preservation efforts statewide. The firm prepared preliminary plans for investor Minal Shankar’s proposed 2022 Palace restoration but her efforts were torpedoed when former owner Ishwar struck a side deal with a local investment group and the Guidiville Rancheria. That effort, which included securing a $6 million special state targeting tribes and poor communities, failed when state regulators balked at using possible contamination issues to tear down a historic landmark.

On Wednesday Kiernat applauded the National Trust’s recognition of the Palace’s historical importance, and Carter’s efforts to stabilize the landmark and lure new investors.

“We are excited to see the National Trust’s coverage of the Palace Hotel,” said Kiernat.

Kiernat said, “The project still has a long way to go, but the building is in good hands with Tom Carter and his team. It’s a great time to look to the future and imagine how the Palace Hotel can be reactivated and reincorporated into the streetscape of downtown Ukiah.”

Preservation writer Malea Martin labeled the Palace “saved” in her article published under a headline of “Transitions: Places Restored, Threatened, Saved and Lost.”

The Preservation magazine article also cites a historic Masonic Temple Building in Charleston, South Carolina; the Joliet Steel Works Main Office Building in Illinois (destroyed by fire in 2024 and lost); a former rail station in Aberdeen, Maryland; and the 200-year-old Overfield Tavern in Troy, Ohio.

Here is the text of the Preservation magazine article as it relates to the Palace:

“For decades, the Palace Hotel sat vacant, deteriorating, and mired in uncertainty.

There were various proposals over the years to save or demolish the building but none came to fruition – until now.

The Palace Hotel has hope in the form of a new steward. Local general contractor Tom Carter purchased the hotel in October 2024, with plans to restore it and eventually reopen it to guests.

Carter secured a city permit in December to begin shoring up the building and sealing its roof to prevent further degradation. He’s looking for investors to join him in bringing the Palace back to prominence.

The hotel consists of four structures built between 1891 and 1929, with the earliest portion considered Ukiah’s finest example of brick construction from that period. In its heyday the Palace hosted a number of distinguished guests, including California governors and film stars, but it eventually shuttered in the 1980s and was left to deteriorate.

Carter previously undertook a successful restoration of the Tallman Hotel in nearby Upper Lake, California, and he’s bringing his lifetime of construction experience to saving the Palace.

‘For me,’ he says, ‘it’s the love of the building’.”

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DEFICIT REDUCTION BY ‘CREATIVE’ ACCOUNTING

by Mark Scaramella

“The budget team continues to work with the departments to fine-tune the budget,” said CEO Darcie Antle on Tuesday. “It is requiring all departments to be creative, look at all funding streams to ensure all the dollars are going to the highest and best use.”

That nebulous statement, backed up by nothing from any, much less “all departments,” was typical of the Supervisors’ meandering budget discussion last Tuesday. As usual the discussion was heavy on basic budget opinions and light on departmental specifics.

Supervisor Maureen Mulheren effectively admitted that the Board has very little understanding of what the departments do, asking that in the future the CEO report — which lately has been nothing but a generic collection of boilerplate descriptions with a few random numbers — actually report what they did the previous month. No commitments were made, of course. None of her colleagues backed her up.

CEO Antle told the Board that the budget deficit has magically declined from over $23 million last month to just $2.6 million. She implied that the deficit reduction was the result of “creativity” by the departments, saying that six (unspecified) county department heads had submitted proposed reductions totaling only $624,327 since the April 8 budget workshop in Willits.

Wait a minute. The departments only came down by around $600k, but the deficit came down by almost $20 million?

A closer inspection of the agenda packet’s “Budget Deficit Detail” chart shows that most of the recent reduction is based on unfounded assumptions:

Sara Pierce, acting assistant CEO (and former Acting Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector), told the Board that the staff’s proposed recommendations since April 8 amounted to about $14 million in deficit reduction. Among other things, that $14 million apparently assumes an estimated 6% employee turnover rate. (See highlighted number.) This, along with a hiring freeze is supposed to translate to an $8 million savings by not replacing vacated positions. “The county's true turnover rate is about 9.9%,” said Pierce, adding, “So that’s almost 10%. We did take the conservative approach at 6%, taking that kind of consideration along with economic factors. People may not be wanting to change jobs to come up with a lower rate.”

So… $8 million in deficit reduction… Right.

We can’t make Pierce’s math work. The General Fund is around $100 million, most of which is salaries. So say $80 million for salaries. 6% of $80 million is $4.8 million. Then since the attrition occurs over the budget year, one cannot expect a full year of savings. So that’s an average of about half of the $4.8 million, or $2.4 million. On top of that, we doubt they will really leave every vacant position vacant because some of the affected positions will be determined to be essential and approved for rehiring. And whatever positions are re-filled will involve training and a learning curve and the associated cost.

If Ms. Pierce is saying the base number upon which to apply the deficit reductions is the County’s much bigger total budget, not just the General Fund, then we question that assumption on its face because the budgets for the state and federal grants and programs are fixed and (mostly) not funded by property, sales or bed taxes. Yet based on the above Deficit Reduction Chart it looks like they’re comingling the General Fund deficit with the non-General Fund deficit.

Unfortunately, the Board didn’t get into any of this during Tuesday’s rambling, muddled and ultimately indecisive budget discussion.

Supervisor Ted Williams suggested finding and assessing un- and under-assessed properties, But, as we have seen in prior discussions of this idea, there’s nowhere near millions of dollars’ worth of County revenue involved and what little there is will not help to reduce next year’s budget very much.

A much bigger long-term revenue loss, suspiciously unmentioned by the Supervisors, is Ukiah’s huge new annexation proposal. Nobody knew how much of a giveaway that was when they blindly approved the “tax sharing” agreement last year. And they certainly don’t know how much it will cost now that Ukiah has driven a semi-truck through it. It looks like it would involve a lot more property tax losses to the County than the $3 million they estimated last year. Sheriff Matt Kendall said last week that Ukiah’s big parcel annexation grab amounts to a significant “bait and switch” because Ukiah’s city leaders misrepresented their plans back when they bamboozled Supervisor Maureen Mulheren and the rest of the Supervisors into agreeing with the one-sided “tax sharing agreement” that would turnover millions in property tax revenue from many of the County’s most highly assessed properties for the next ten or so years to Ukiah’s coffers with no compensating reduction in County services and costs. The tax sharing agreement was worked out in secret between Mulheren and a few Ukiah city officials then sprung on the rest of the Supervisors for quick up or down vote. Nobody, including then-Acting Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector Sara Pierce could figure out how much the County stood to lose, yet the Supervisors voted for it based on Mulheren’s claim that everything would work out fine and everybody should be “optimistic.” The deal was not circulated for review by the public or County department heads for comment.

Another big chunk of assumed deficit reduction is the CEO’s proposal to “Utilize one-time funds from Retirement Contribution Reserve ($3.2 million) to offset one-time expense for General Fund portion of Pension Obligation Bond.”

If these kinds of ill-defined things are considered “deficit reduction,” one must wonder why the original deficit included them in the first place.

As union rep (and budget wonk) Patrick Hickey told the board on April 8, “The County always overestimates expenses and underestimates revenues. These chicken little announcements about the sky falling are once again being rolled out like clockwork. If you do this every time you lose credibility and you lose public trust.”

When the budget is “balanced” using “creative” approaches like these, the County’s credibility suffers major losses every time the Supervisors meet these days.

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TWO NEW GRAND JURY REPORTS:

[1] HOMELESSNESS A County-Wide Issue

The 2024-25 Mendocino County Grand Jury report entitled: “HOMELESSNESS A County-Wide Issue” and is now available to the public on the Grand Jury website at: https://www.mendocinocounty.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/70991/638810057748670000

Prior to publication, each Civil Grand Jury report is reviewed and approved by the full panel of seated jurors, by the Mendocino County Counsel office, and by Judge Moorman of the Superior Court.

Report Summary: The 2024-25 Mendocino County Civil Grand Jury investigated the Care Response Unit established in the City of Fort Bragg, reviewing intent, operation and future sustainability. The investigation focused on research and studies of unhoused individuals in present day Mendocino County with guidance from sources including the 2019 Marbut Report commissioned by the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors and interviews with local agencies.

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[2] The 2024-25 Mendocino County Grand Jury report entitled “CONTINUITY REPORT 2024-25 Mendocino County Civil Grand Jury” is now available to the public on the Grand Jury website at: https://www.mendocinocounty.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/70989/638810057745270000

Prior to publication, each Civil Grand Jury report is reviewed and approved by the full panel of seated jurors, by the Mendocino County Counsel office, and by Judge Moorman of the Superior Court.

Report Summary: According to the California Penal Code (Penal Code), civil grand juries request responses to the findings and recommendations in their reports. The Grand Jury Continuity Committee reviews those responses to ascertain whether they meet the Penal Code. Except for response to

Recommendation 10 in the Family and Children Services report, all responses met the requirements of the California Penal Codes § 916, 933 and 933.05.

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ANOTHER BIG WIN FOR OUR ACE PROSECUTORS

A Mendocino County Superior Court jury returned from its deliberations in less than one half hour to announce it had found the trial defendant guilty as charged.

Defendant Richard James Ault, age 57, of the Laytonville area, was found guilty of two misdemeanors — driving a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol and driving a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol reading of .08 or greater.

The jury also found true a sentencing enhancement that alleged defendant Ault’s blood alcohol was .15 or greater at the time he was driving and crashed his vehicle back on November 28, 2024.

The breath test evidence presented at trial demonstrated that the defendant had been driving with a whopping blood alcohol of .25/.27.

The law enforcement agencies that developed the evidence used to convict the defendant were the California Highway Patrol and the California Department of Justice forensic laboratory.

The prosecutor who presented the People’s evidence to the jury was Deputy District Attorney Nathan Mamo.

Retired Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Jeanine Nadel, sitting on temporary assignment, presided over the two-day trial.

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LOCAL EVENTS

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EMPLOYEES OF CALIFORNIA MERCENARY GROUP CHARGED AFTER VIOLENT TOWN HALL

Charges include battery and false imprisonment.

by Matt LaFever

A Northern California private security firm known for raiding cannabis farms and clashing with environmental activists is now facing criminal charges after some of its agents violently removed a protester from a recent Republican town hall in Idaho.

The Coeur d’Alene City Attorney’s Office told SFGATE that five Lear Asset Management employees are facing charges stemming from the incident. CEO Paul Trouette was charged with four counts of misdemeanor battery, two counts of false imprisonment, and one count each for violating security uniform and duty regulations. The other four men face a mix of similar charges for their roles in the protester’s removal. A sixth man not affiliated with the security firm also faces charges.

The charges stem from a legislative town hall organized by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee at Coeur d’Alene High School on Feb. 22. Video of the incident recorded by attendee Tonya Jean, obtained by SFGATE, shows three plainclothes operatives, later identified by police as Lear employees, descending on protester Teresa Borrenpohl. The men are seen grabbing her arms and legs and dragging her facedown through the aisle, ignoring her repeated demands: “You refuse to identify yourselves. Who are you? Who are you.”

In the wake of the incident, city officials revoked Lear Asset Management’s business license for violating Coeur d’Alene City ordinances. None of the operatives wore a uniform or displayed visible security ID, a direct breach of Coeur d’Alene’s municipal code, which requires “SECURITY” in 1 inch-tall letters on the front and 4 inch-tall letters on the back of private agent attire.

Immediately after the town hall, Borrenpohl, a former Democratic candidate for the Idaho House of Representatives, said on Instagram, “I could have never imagined my right to free speech and my right to assemble could be stripped in such a violent way.”

Borrenpohl has filed a $5 million civil claim against Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris and Lear Asset Management. She alleges they violated her constitutional rights and physically assaulted her for exercising free speech at a public event.

In response to SFGATE’s request for comment, Trouette said, “You are not a trustworthy reporter, we have no intention of giving you anything, so you can just spin. Let’s see if you print that.” In a statement given to the New York Times, Trouette said, “We believe these charges are false and should have never been made.”

Lear’s tactics on the North Coast have long drawn controversy, as SFGATE previously reported. Timber companies contracted the firm to patrol remote forestlands; cannabis growers hired it to eradicate unlicensed grows. In response to treesitting protests, operatives trained floodlights on activists, deployed drones and blared loudspeaker recordings of distressed wildlife or political talk shows. Environmentalists have accused Lear of psychological intimidation and physical harassment.

(SFGate.com)

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MCOE LAUNCHES FREE CNA PROGRAM TO EXPAND LOCAL MEDICAL CAREER PATHWAYS

The Mendocino County Office of Education (MCOE) is expanding opportunities for local residents to enter the healthcare field, launching a new Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) program this summer. This program, offered at no cost through June 2026, is funded by a Healthcare Career Pathway (HCP) grant from Empowered Aging. It joins MCOE’s existing Dental Assistant, Medical Assistant, and Phlebotomy courses as part of the agency’s broader Medical Pathways initiative.

Designed for students age 16 and older, the CNA program prepares participants to enter the workforce in just four months. The class includes 85 hours of in-class instruction and 100 hours of clinical experience, coordinated with local facilities. With a maximum of 15 students per cohort, the program also provides need-based financial support for transportation, food, and childcare, helping to reduce common barriers to participation.

MCOE is working in partnership with Ukiah Unified School District to offer a high school section of the CNA course, while also running a summer cohort open to Mendocino County adults.

“The new CNA program opens the door to another in-demand job in healthcare,” said Eric Crawford, MCOE Director of Career and College Programs. “Students will gain hands-on experience and a strong foundation—whether they choose to build a long-term career as a CNA or continue to pursue nursing training or other medical support professions.”

Meanwhile, MCOE continues to offer established training opportunities in Dental Assisting, Phlebotomy, and Medical Assisting. These programs combine classroom learning with clinical externships, preparing students for both certification and employment. The next Dental Assisting and Phlebotomy cohorts begin this summer, with applications open through May 16, 2025. Medical Assistant and Certified Nursing Assistant program applications will be available in June.

The Dental Assistant course runs for six months and meets one day per week on Thursdays. Phlebotomy meets once a week on Fridays and runs for four months.

"If you've ever had your blood drawn, teeth cleaned, or your blood pressure taken at a local medical office, there's a good chance the person who helped you was trained right here at MCOE," said Tami Mee, MCOE Adult Programs Manager. "We couldn't offer programs of this quality without the support of our community. Generous donations from local clinics, clinical partnerships, and scholarships from organizations like the Alliance for Rural Community Health and Empowered Aging make it financially and geographically possible for students to train locally."

For more information or to apply, please visit: http://mcoe.us/medpath

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OMG! I NEED A JOB.

Job Searches, Applications, and Resumes for Teens

Are you a teenager who wants a job? Do you have questions about getting a job? Do you know how to find businesses that would hire you? What do you need to know to fill out a job application? How do you write a resume when you’ve never had a job before? Join us in the Teen Room of the Ukiah Branch Library on April 26, 2025, from 4 – 5 p.m. for a crash course on job search and application basics, led by Filemon Lara-Lopez of the Mendocino College Career Hub. Snacks will be provided!

This program is made possible through the generous support of the Friends of the Ukiah Valley Library and Mendocino County Library. For more information, please visit www.mendolibrary.org or contact the Ukiah Branch at 707-463-4490.

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JOIN THE NATIONAL PROTESTS EVERY SATURDAY!

There will be a protest every Saturday from 11 A.M. on the sidewalk in front of the Guest House Museum, 343 N Main St. in Fort Bragg. Please don't block entrances to Town Hall or any other building. Support our local businesses while you're downtown!

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THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT MENDOCINO COUNTY

A Presentation with Local Author Katy M. Tahja

What was Winston Churchill doing in Willits in 1929? Why do we have white deer here? What do potato chips and Laura Scudder have to do with history here? Which Miss America was born here and what special skill did she have? Why did a local newspaper headline the phrase “Private Parts in Public Places?” Join us at the Ukiah Branch Library on Saturday, May 3rd at 2 pm for an informative & fun presentation with local author Katy Tahja!

Katy Tahja is a retired librarian and author who lives out in the woods in Comptche. She is a docent at the Kelley House Museum in Mendocino. A professional storyteller, she portrays several figures out of history and always has a good folktale to share. A resident of the county for fifty years, living with three generations on a ranch owned by her husband's family of 100 years, she enjoys collecting local history. On her wild side she’s been going to the Burning Man gathering in the Nevada desert for more than a decade…but that is a whole other story.

This program is sponsored by Mendocino County Library and the generous contributions from Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library. Please contact the Ukiah Branch Library at 707-463-4490 or carrm@mendocinocounty.gov for more information.

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FREE ON-LINE CONCERT

As a gift to all of you music lovers, Ukiah Community Concerts is delighted to present the videos of the 32nd annual Professional Pianist Concert performed at the Mendocino College Center Theatre on January 25 and 26, 2025.

Click on the links below or watch the performances on our website. www.ukiahconcerts.org

Experience again--or for the first time if you missed it--the flair, finesse, humor, irreverence, and the sheer joy of the talent of six accomplished musicians per show that have wowed audiences for over three decades.

The UCCA expresses deep gratitude to David Nelson for lending his time and talent to the filming and editing of these videos.

Artists who performed on Saturday, January 25, 2025

Artists who performed on Sunday, January 26, 2025

The Professional Pianist Concerts promise you terrific artists, humor running high (and low), and a performance that is always full of surprises. Now just a click away!

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Las Cafeteras are coming to the Ukiah High School stage on Sunday, May 4 at 2:00 p.m., bringing a thrilling blend of instrumentals, vocal music, and dancing that honor the past while taking Mexican folk music into the future.

In their own words: “The movement for Peace and Justice has always been filled with music, and we intend to be a part of the Soundtrack.”

Why the High Shool venue?-- Because a) they asked for a space where people could dance, and b) the Ukiah High Cafetoriun has twice as many seats as the MC Center Theatre and this concert is going to be BIG.

Tickets are available now on the UCCA website and at the Mendocino Book Company in Ukiah and Mazahar in Willits.

For more information: 707.463.2738

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WHITHER FEDERAL FUNDING FOR CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING AND MCPB?

For many years, Mendocino County Public Broadcasting (MCPB) has depended on funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) for roughly one-quarter of its annual operating funds. At present, that amounts to roughly $175,000 a year. This critical revenue source is now in jeopardy.

KZYX listeners and supporters have doubtless been following developments in this area, recognizing the implications for public broadcasting all over the U.S. and especially for rural areas such as ours. Here is a brief overview of the current situation. Nothing has been decided yet, and we will continue to report on this story as it develops.

CPB funding is normally obligated by Congress in two-year increments and distributed annually to grantees, including KZYX. Funding for 2026 and 2027 is already obligated and sitting in the U.S. Treasury. However, the president is currently trying to rescind those funds. A vote on the administration’s proposal to Congress is expected in early May. Passage requires a simple majority vote in both the House and Senate.

If the rescission effort is successful, it will cut public broadcasting revenues for the next two fiscal years, starting this July.

In addition, the two-year allocation to CPB for 2028 and 2029 could be reduced or defunded altogether through the forthcoming normal budgeting process. The president’s success on the budget process would affect public broadcasting for the next four fiscal years.

This is a critical time for all public media supporters and audiences to contact their representatives and urge Congress to oppose the rescission and continue its bipartisan support for public media. Bear in mind that public radio serves ninety-nine percent of Americans at a tiny cost to taxpayers compared to other federal spending. This limited investment in public radio delivers tremendous benefits in return. In the KZYX listening area, loss of CPB funding would threaten the availability of local news, harm public safety by impacting our emergency alert systems, eliminate support for collective music licenses, and undermine our station’s ability to nurture collaboration and connection among our local residents, organizations, and communities.

If CPB funding is cut in whole or in part, the MCPB/KZYX board and management will respond with a careful approach to our revenue streams, operating expenses, and building project needs.

(KZYX Newsletter)

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TUNE IN, COASTIES

92.7

The main place the Giants games come from to go to all the other stations is KNBR in the Bay Area. Try going to their website and streaming from there.

— Marco McClean

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Wednesday, April 23, 2025

LINDA ALMOND, 66, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

ELIZABETH ARNOLD, 39, Lucerne/Ukiah. Shoplifting, controlled substance, disorderly conduct-loitering, bringing controlled substance into jail.

PAYTRA DAVIS, 37, Folsom/Ukiah. DUI-any drug, controlled substance, paraphernalia.

NINA GARCIA, 40, Ukiah. Domestic battery, assault with deadly weapon not a gun.

MIREYA MELLO-GARCIA, 23, Fort Bragg. Failure to appear.

OMAR MERINO, 48, Laytonville. Domestic battery, failure to appear.

SAUL VAZQUEZ-CENDEJAS, 29, Willits. DUI.

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BILL KIMBERLIN: I know a guy who owns an antique store in Layfette, Ca. He used to park a 1927 Studebaker Yellow Cab out front. Someone offered him so much money for it that he sold it. Now all he had was the hat. Now I have the hat and it will go in my train room.

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CALIFORNIA POLLUTERS PAY CLIMATE SUPERFUND ACT PASSES FIRST ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE

by Dan Bacher

In a victory for climate justice advocates, the Assembly version of the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act passed out of its first California Assembly Committee, the Natural Resources Committee, in a 9-4 vote on the day before Earth Day.

Senator Caroline Menjivar (D- San Fernando Valley) and Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D- Morro Bay) introduced SB 684, the Senate version, and AB 1243, the Assembly version, on Feb. 21, 2025.

The Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act would require the largest fossil fuel corporations to pay for the climate devastation they have contributed to across California in proportion to their fossil fuel emissions from 1990 through 2024.

Vermont and New York have already enacted climate superfund laws, so California would be the third state to pass this type of legislation if the bill gets through the Legislature.…

https://www.dailykos.com/blogs/Climate%20Action%20Group

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JUST ANOTHER DAY

Just sitting here on a public computer at the MLK Library in Washington, D.C., having read through The Washington Post today, and also browsed the NY Times and Wall Street Journal at Hudson News at Union Station, (while digesting a sumptuous breakfast at Sbarro’s. Coffee from Starbucks). That moved the day along to 11:09 a.m. EST. Could go and hang out at the Peace Vigil in front of the White House. Could go to the big shopping mall at Pentagon City. Could go to the Smithsonian Mall again. Could go find a new watering hole that isn’t quite so expensive and enjoy a couple of pints of the local brew. Could do all of the above before returning to Adam’s Place Homeless Shelter for the 5 p.m. check in, following the Wednesday deep cleaning. Not identified with the body nor the mind. Identified with that which is “prior to consciousness.” Just another day in postmodern America.

Craig Louis Stehr, craiglouisstehr@gmail.com

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WARRIORS LOSE BRUISING GAME 2 BLOWOUT TO ROCKETS AFTER BUTLER INJURY

by Sam Gordon

HOUSTON — The Golden State Warriors expected the Houston Rockets to play with intensity Wednesday night after beating them 95-85 in Game 1 of their first-round playoff matchup.

The Warriors lost Butler to a pelvic contusion with 1:51 to go in the first quarter of a 109-94 loss that evened the series at one win apiece with the tiebreaker Saturday at Chase Center. The star wing landed on his tailbone as he was undercut by Houston’s Amen Thompson while securing a defensive rebound in traffic. He’s set to undergo imaging Thursday to determine his playing status for Game 3.

Podziemski played through a stomach illness but had to leave Golden State’s bench toward the end of the first quarter. He returned in the third quarter after receiving fluids intravenously at halftime, and finished play scoreless in 14 minutes.

Stephen Curry, targeted by blitzes, double teams, traps, handsy holds and aggressive grabs by the Rockets, led Golden State with 20 points in 37 minutes. Quinten Post and Moses Moody scored 12 apiece for the Warriors, who lost 47-33 in rebounding while committing 15 turnovers that led to 14 points for the Rockets. Out of the rotation the previous three games, Jonathan Kuminga had 11 points (4-of-12 shooting) in 26 minutes.

Jalen Green scored 38 for Houston with eight 3-pointers. Star big man Alperen Sengün had 17 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists. The Rockets made 5 of 29 from 3-point range in their Game 1 loss Sunday, but improved to make 15 of 40 in the second game.

“When you start on the road, you want to get one and that’s what we did,” Curry said. “We wanted to get greedy tonight and try to get another one, but you had to expect that they were going to come out with some force. You look around the league, evenly matched series have pretty much gone that same kind of way where the road teams wins the first game or the second game. It’s a long series and we’ve shown that we have what it takes to put together a 48-minute effort and beat a very good Houston Rockets team.”

The Warriors expected additional physicality from the Rockets after their Sunday win in Game 1 and got it in the first quarter amid a 9-4 deficit that preceded Butler’s pelvic contusion. Houston spread the floor for Green and Sengün and activated cutters when they got into the paint. Defensively, it harassed the perimeter and mixed its coverage against screening actions.

Golden State’s offense lagged without Butler, a scoring and play-making hub.

Twelve different Warriors played in the first half as head coach Steve Kerr sought a spark, and got one with reserve guard Pat Spencer, who punctured the paint for three layups during a nine-point outburst in the second quarter. The teams combined for 22 points the final 1:57 of the first half en route to a 60-46 halftime deficit for the Warriors.

“I thought our guys really fought,” Kerr said. “We hung in there. We didn’t make it all the way back, but we competed, we hung in there and proud of the guys.”

Golden State twice pulled within 11, in the third and fourth quarter respectively, but Houston would answer, often relying on Jalen Green. Curry said the Warriors “let (Green) get loose on some big momentum threes and (take) advantage of some matchups.”

Curry noted he expects adjustments Saturday.

Benches cleared in the fourth quarter when Draymond Green jawed with Fred VanVleet, prompting one of several stoppages. Green and Spencer were issued second-half technical fouls, as were Houston’s Amen Thompson and Tari Eason. Post and Rockets center Steven Adams were assessed technicals in the first half.

Green was showered with expletive-filled chants by an impassioned crowd mostly dressed in red, but said he wasn't bothered. “It’s not original. Been there before. Won a championship while it was happening,” he said, referencing the 2022 NBA Finals in Boston.

Kerr said the Warriors wanted two wins in Hosuton, “but we didn’t get two. We got one. They’re a hell of a team. They’re the two seed for a reason. And, so, it’s a good trip. Not a great trip, but it’s a good trip, and excited to get home and play in front of our home crowd.”

(sfchronicle.com)

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LOGAN WEBB REWARDED FOR HIS EFFICIENCY, GIANTS HOLD ON TO BEAT BREWERS

by Shayna Rubin

Logan Webb returned from the San Francisco Giants’ three-city road trip with a frustrating result hanging over him: with an offense unable to aid in run support, a career-high-tying 12 strikeouts and two runs allowed earned him a loss in Anaheim.

Wednesday night, Webb was similarly stellar but enjoyed a reversal of fortune. The Giants scored all their runs in the sixth inning of a 4-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers, securing at least a split of the four-game series.

Because the Brewers hit the changeup well, the gameplan called for Webb to go heavy on the sweeper and sinker combination. Of the 11 swings-and-misses Webb generated, six were off the sweeper as he struck out six over 6 ⅓ shutout innings. The outing was Webb’s second scoreless outing of the season, lowering his ERA to 1.98.

“It was a decent chance to throw some sweepers,” Webb said. “I felt pretty good throwing that pitch. The only thing I haven’t done is throw it for strikes. That was kind of the emphasis on today, which was trusting throwing it in the zone. Patty (Patrick Bailey) has a lot to do with that. He keeps telling me to throw it and it ended up being a really good pitch for me today.”

Webb is mastering game-to-game adjustments and carving his place, again, among one of baseball’s most consistent workhorses. The Giants’ rotation is playing catch up to take some of the workload off the bullpen with Webb carrying a heavy load. His 36 1/3 innings not only lead the starters, but are the second-most in the majors, an inning behind Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler. His sub-2.00 ERA is is keeping afloat the rotation’s collective 4.28 ERA, which ranks 22nd in baseball.

Wednesday, Mike Yastrzemski aided Webb during one of the Brewers’ few threats. In the sixth inning, William Contreras, at first, put on the jets when Sal Frelick’s line drive to right field landed in front of Yastrzemski. Though Webb had collided with Brewers third base coach Jason Lane trying to get out of the way, he was oddly happy to see Contreras rounding second base for third.

“I was excited when I saw him going to third,” Webb said. “I was like, ‘You’re doing us a favor.’”

As Webb suspected, Yastrzemski’s laser throw to Matt Chapman made it just in time for the tag and putout.

In the same inning, second baseman Christian Koss wrangled a sharp grounder from Rhys Hoskins, getting a throw to first in plenty of time for the third out. It was a complete turnaround from Tuesday night’s loss in which defensive mishaps aplenty spiraled into an eight-run loss.

“(That’s the defense) we need to play. Against teams like that that put a lot of pressure on you,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Yaz’s throw was huge and Koss made a big play up the middle, too. In close games at our ballpark — and we’ll play a lot of them — that’s the type of defense you need to win games.”

The top of the order made sure to get Webb his win just in time.

Willy Adames and Jung Hoo Lee led off the sixth against righty Freddy Peralta with back-to-back hits and Chapman loaded the bases with a walk to boot Peralta out of the game. Wilmer Flores dug out a breaking ball from Nick Mears up the middle to score a pair for his team-leading 26th and 27th RBIs.

LaMonte Wade Jr. and Koss put the Brewers’ infield defense into uncomfortable twists. Both hit ground balls that resulted in errors to churn out two more runs.

There was drama in the ninth.

Ryan Walker, coming off a four-run blown save against the Angles, brought his struggles in Anaheim back with him. With a four-run lead in the ninth, Walker gave up a bases-loaded ground-rule double to Brice Turang and was replaced by Camilo Doval with one out in the inning and the tying run at second base. Doval induced a strikeout and groundout to preserve the win and notch his fourth save.

Walker had compiled seven straight scoreless outings, but he’s slipped in his past two to up his ERA to 7.27. Doval, on the other hand, has had six consecutive scoreless outings.

“The key to not allowing runs is to trust my stuff,” Doval said through interpreter Erwin Higueros. “I don’t think about the situation, I just think about how I’m going to go play catch with the catcher. I tell myself they gave me the ball because it’s a high leverage situation, so I’m going to go in and take care of it.”

Though Walker is the named closer, Melvin didn’t rule out the idea of mixing and matching opportunities for him and Doval in save situations.

“We like them both,” Melvin said. “We’ll figure it out as we go along. It’s too early for me to say anything. Not talking to anybody, but we’re in a great position if we have two guys that can close games.”

(sfchronicle.com)

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WHAT HAPPENS AFTER HOMELESS GET ARRESTED FOR CAMPING?

by Marisa Kendall

Wickey Two Hands sat at the defense table on a recent Thursday morning, holding in his lap the red baseball cap he’d doffed out of respect for the judge.

The 77-year-old homeless man was supposed to be the first person tried in court under an ordinance Fresno passed last year making it a crime to camp in all public places. Over the past six months, he’d spent hours in a courtroom, arriving early for each hearing. He’d packed up and moved his campsite multiple times, trying to find out-of-the-way spots where he could avoid getting arrested again.

But instead of sending Two Hands’ case before a jury, the judge — on the day trial was supposed to begin — dismissed all charges. The reason? The city waited too long to prosecute.

Two Hands’ case shines a spotlight on a contradiction seen around the state in recent months. California cities are passing ordinances left and right that allow police to arrest or cite unhoused people for camping on their streets and sidewalks, or in their parks. Police are making arrests. But when it comes to prosecuting, trying or sentencing people for violating these ordinances, some cities haven’t been able to follow through. In many cases, prosecutors aren’t filing charges. If people are charged, their cases often are dismissed quickly. Two Hands’ case was a rarity for how close it came to trial. But in the end, it too was thrown out.

That has some wondering: what’s the point of arresting people at all?

Two Hands’ case was set to be a bellwether to see if Fresno’s camping ban — under which police have made several hundred arrests already — would hold up before a jury. The city and county — as well as Two Hands’ lawyer, activists and even local journalists — invested a considerable amount of resources in the case before it was ultimately dismissed last week without a trial or any public hearings on its merits.

“They wasted a lot of time and money pursuing this case,” said Ron Hochbaum, a law professor at the University of the Pacific who specializes in homelessness and poverty law. “When you think about all the people who were involved, from police to the city attorney’s office to judges and court clerks and so on. That’s probably hundreds of hours of work and thousands of dollars wasted. And that money would be better spent by simply offering Mr. Two Hands housing without arresting him.”

CalMatters analyzed the resources that went into prosecuting Two Hands’ case:

At 8:40 a.m. on Oct. 14, 2024, two Fresno police officers came across Two Hands and his belongings on the side of the road and arrested him for camping in a public place and illegally possessing a shopping cart.

Over the next six months, Two Hands attended four hearings in three different courtrooms. Before each hearing, he dropped off his belongings at a friend’s house and then caught the bus to the downtown Fresno courthouse, sometimes arriving as much as an hour early so he didn’t miss anything. After court, an advocate sometimes drove him back to his campsite. On April 10, the day his trial was supposed to begin, he missed work to attend court, skipping his scheduled shift at a wrecking yard and with it, his chance to earn money for food and other necessities for the day.

City and county resources also went into each hearing. Public funds paid for the presence of a judge, a bailiff and staff from the city attorney’s office. The city brought on outside law firm Manning Kass to help prosecute the case.

Kevin Little, a private attorney who specializes in civil rights litigation, signed on to defend Two Hands pro bono. Little estimates he spent between 100 and 150 hours on Two Hands’ case. He had two additional staff members helping him, and they put in another 50 to 100 hours. The week the case was supposed to go to trial, Little said he spent a couple nights working in his office until 3 a.m.

Another attorney, Patience Milrod, was also in court on April 10. She was there to represent Pablo Orihuela, a Fresnoland journalist who had been covering Two Hands’ case and received a subpoena to testify on behalf of the prosecution. Attorney Karl Olson was standing by to contest a subpoena issued to Fresno Bee reporter Thaddeus Miller, according to the Bee.

In addition to Orihuela and Miller, journalists from CalMatters and ABC30 were there to cover the trial.

About two-dozen activists and local community members also showed up at the courthouse — some arriving as early as 7 a.m. despite work and childcare obligations — to support Two Hands on the day his trial was set to start. Activist Wes White drove two-and-a-half hours from Salinas to be there.

After all that, Judge Brian Alvarez dismissed the case. He found that the trial should have started by March 6, and going past that date would violate Two Hands’ right to a speedy trial. Two Hands’ supporters filed out of the courtroom and filled the hallway, cheering, until a bailiff asked them to keep it down.

“I’m really shocked by how much money and resources they put into this,” said advocate Dez Martinez, who recently helped Two Hands get into a shelter. “There was so much money used in this so they can make a point because they don’t want to lose a case. It just bothers me that they used that (many resources) and finances into punishing Wickey instead of doing what I did: sit down and talk to him, figure out why does he not want to go inside.”

The trial originally was set to start Feb. 20, but the city asked for a delay, which was granted by Judge Carlos Cabrera. Judge Alvarez appeared to disagree with that ruling.

(CalMatters.org)

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THE GREAT QUAKE APRIL 18, 1906 SAN ANDREAS FAULT exposed in Marin County northwest of Olema

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BILL KIMBERLIN:

“What we’re seeing now is something familiar to those of us who have studied economic crises in other countries, usually but not always emerging markets. For this is looking more and more like a “sudden stop.” That’s what happens when a country that has relied on large inflows of foreign capital loses the confidence of international investors. The inflow of money dries up — and the economic consequences are usually ugly.

Trump inherited an economy in remarkably good shape. We’d had “immaculate disinflation”: The inflation spike of 2021-22, largely caused by Covid-related supply chain disruptions, had faded away without a large rise in unemployment.”

— Paul Krugman

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Republicans will be quick to say that once you use the Hitler analogy you've lost the argument. This is 2025 America - not 1930's Germany so obviously it's not an exact comparison. But it's getting closer. Deporting citizens to foreign gulags would be a huge escalation. Gaming the system to run for a third term sounds a little dictatorial.

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AMERICANS ARE STUDYING UP

A Reader writes:

"Sales of the U.S. Constitution have skyrocketed, prompting publishers to scramble to print more copies to keep up with demand. By mid-April, combined sales of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Federalist Papers hit 162,000 copies — nearly triple last year's numbers and the highest since tracking began in 2004. This spike isn't just patriotic nostalgia; it's a direct response to the constitutional crisis sparked by Trump’s overreach. Americans are racing to brush up on the rulebook he's so willingly ignoring."

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Two old men are sitting in a bar.

One of them looks at the other & says, “You look familiar, where you from?”

The second old man replies, “Ireland”

The first old man looks astonished & says, “No way! I’m from Ireland myself, what a small world!”

The second old man then looks at the first: “What city?”

The first old man says, “Dublin?”

The second old man looks astonished. “No way! I’m from Dublin meself! What a small world.”

The first man looks at the second old man: “What school you go to?”

The second old man replies, “Saint Mary’s class of 89.”

The first old man is absolutely baffled. “NO WAY. Saint Mary’s class of 89 myself! What a small world!”

At this point, another man comes into the bar and says to the bartender, “Hey, Joe! Anything interesting going on?”

The bartender says, “Not really… But the Murphy twins are drunk again.”

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NO MORE PRIVATE PRISONS

To the Editor:

The Trump administration has justified cuts to public health, education and international aid programs in the name of “government efficiency.” At the same time, it is passing billions of taxpayer dollars to private prison executives to expand an immigration incarceration system that is notorious for abuse, mismanagement and waste.

The private prison executives who run 90 percent of immigration detention personally pocket millions in public funds by cutting costs through understaffing, overcrowding and denying minimum services like suitable food and medical care.

These ICE facilities aren’t just abusive. They’re also ineffective and wasteful. While community-based alternatives to detention like case management programs cost only $14 a day per participant and have returned a 100 percent court appearance rate, detaining one adult immigrant costs more than $160 a day.

Furthermore, the cities and towns meant to house and staff these new facilities have little interest in funding bonuses for out-of-state executives. From Leavenworth, Kan., to southwestern Wyoming to Newark, N.J., people across the country are fighting back against ICE’s private prison expansion and its broken promises of economic boom times for local workers.

These communities have made their voices clear. We don’t need more private prisons that profit off human suffering.

Medha Raman, Anthony Enriquez

rfkhumanrights.org

Washington DC

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LEAD STORIES, THURSDAY'S NYT

Trump Pressures Ukraine to Accept a Peace Plan That Sharply Favors Russia

Trump Offers Private Dinner to Top 220 Investors in His Memecoin

Interior Department to Fast-Track Oil, Gas and Mining Projects

Trump’s Approval Rating Has Been Falling Steadily, Polling Average Shows

India Takes Aim at Pakistan After Slaughter of Civilians in Kashmir

The Sleep Trends Experts Think You Should (and Shouldn’t) Try

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TRUMP’S FIRST THREE MONTHS

The opening chapter of Trump's second term has been everything but quiet

by Greg Collard and James Rushmore

Following Trump 2.0 is a difficult task. There has been no calm in President Trump’s first three months. He even generated controversy on Easter Sunday (then again, so did Joe Biden last year when he proclaimed it Transgender Day of Visibility).

Besides Trump’s Happy Easter social media post, there was also news Sunday regarding his much-maligned secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth.

Call it Signalgate 2.0. The New York Times reports that his wife, brother (a Pentagon employee), and personal lawyer were part of a Signal group chat that Hegseth initiated about the March 15 attack on the Houthis. The sources are “four people with knowledge of the chat.” From the Times:

Some of those people said that the information Mr. Hegseth shared on the Signal chat included the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen — essentially the same attack plans that he shared on a separate Signal chat the same day that mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic.

The Times had an update on Tuesday — this time from “an official and a person familiar with the conversations” — with a report that the attack plans Hegseth texted on Signal “came from U.S. Central Command through a secure, government system designed for sending classified information.”

Trump doesn’t seem to care. He called it a waste of time to address the Signalgate controversy and added: “He’s doing a great job — ask the Houthis how he’s doing.”

U.S. attacks against the Houthis have killed about 120 people. The latest, last Thursday, killed 74.

As for Hegseth, he pulled out a version of the same playbook he used last month when Signalgate 1.0 broke. He noted the media’s culpability in pushing the Russia hoax, and also blamed recently-fired staffers.

What a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that pedaled the Russia hoax [and] won't give back their Pulitzers. They got Pulitzers for a bunch of lies, Pulitzers for a bunch of lies, and on hoaxes time and time and time again. And as they pedal those lies, no one ever calls 'em on it. See, this is what the media does.

National Security Adviser Michael Waltz formed the first Signal group chat that included The Atlantic’s editor, but Hegseth has also been heavily criticized for texting specific attack plans on the messenger service.

The White House maintains that nothing in that group chat was classified (National Security Director Tulsi Gabbard called the texts “candid and sensitive”) but that did not calm the concerns of people like Sarah Streyder of the military families group Secure Families Initiative. She told Newsweek:

Leaked war plans aren't just a breach of national security in some impersonal way. They're really a direct threat, both to the safety of service members and for us as military families, those are our parents, our spouses, our kids who now have increased risk and targets on their back.

Here’s a look back at many of the highlights — or, depending on your point of view, lowlights — and multitude of controversies in the first three months of Trump 2.0.…

https://www.racket.news/p/a-recap-of-trumps-first-3-months

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VANCE OUTLINES U.S. PLAN FOR UKRAINE THAT SHARPLY FAVORS RUSSIA

Vice President JD Vance said the cease-fire plan would freeze territory along the current front lines of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and that the U.S. would “walk away” if both parties did not agree.

by Michael D. Sheer & Mark Landler

Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday called on Ukraine to accept an American peace proposal that closely aligns with longstanding Russian goals, including a “freeze” of territorial lines in the three-year war, acceptance of the annexation of Crimea by Russia and a prohibition on Ukraine becoming part of the NATO alliance.

It was the first time a U.S. official had publicly laid out a cease-fire deal in such stark terms and the comments appeared designed to increase pressure on Ukraine, which has long refused to accept Russia’s claims on its lands, particularly in Crimea.

Mr. Vance, speaking during a trip to India, said the United States would “walk away” from the peace process if both Ukraine and Russia refused to accept the American terms. But President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was clearly the target.

“We’ve issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it’s time for them to either say yes or for the United States to walk away from this process,” Mr. Vance told reporters. “The only way to really stop the killing is for the armies to both put down their weapons, to freeze this thing and to get on with the business of actually building a better Russia and a better Ukraine.”

The vice president’s comments came just hours after Mr. Zelensky said his country will never accept Russia’s 2014 occupation of Crimea as legal, adding that doing so would violate Ukraine’s Constitution. He also said that Ukraine could not accept any prohibition against becoming part of NATO.

“There is nothing to talk about. This violates our Constitution. This is our territory, the territory of the people of Ukraine,” Mr. Zelensky told reporters in a news conference.…

https://dnyuz.com/2025/04/23/vance-outlines-u-s-plan-for-ukraine-that-sharply-favors-russia/

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JEFF BLANKFORT

“Walking, Waiting, Wondering, Walking Again – On Orders” April 21, 2025 by B Nimri Aziz

From Barbara Aziz: "“Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk” is the title of a soon-to-be-released film featuring photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, the most recent of more than 208 assassinated Gazan journalists.

With no prior knowledge of this film’s content, I knew it must emanate from Palestine. These eight words embodied reiterations of a portrait that incessantly haunts me, a photo that had become too routine, and to most of the world, a fleeting image. Even the few who catch glimpses of those slowing moving tributaries of walkers with no destination turn silent. Yet nothing quite equals the experience of Gaza’s people on the move today. Occasionally a photo emerges of their aimless marches. Children drag bundles of belongings. A crippled youth is pushed along in his wheelchair; an elderly man hangs onto the back of his son, grandson or a paid helper; a heavily shrouded woman is secured to a bicycle maneuvered by a boy. A donkey cart with heavy wheels is invisible under a tower of mattresses. Pots and yellow plastic cans are roped to a teetering load. No other furniture. Walling in these irregular columns of walkers and carts are looming heaps of ghostly, gray collapsed buildings. In the few photos that somehow reach us, I see no stations along the route offering water, no health posts to treat the wounded and exhausted. I wonder: did Israeli bulldozers widen these corridors to nowhere in order to accommodate the exodus?

"Isn’t this a death march?

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/04/24/walking-waiting-wondering-walking-again-on-orders-in-gaza/

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‘YOU CAN READ THE WRITING ON THEM’

by Selma Dabbagh

Most wars kill men, and leave widows and fatherless children. The war on Gaza follows a different pattern. According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in 36 of the 224 Israeli strikes on residential buildings and tents for the displaced between 18 March and 9 April, ‘the fatalities recorded so far were only women and children.’ More than 15,000 children in Gaza have been killed since October 2023 and 39,000 have lost either one or both of their parents. According to Unicef, ‘Gaza has the highest number of child amputees per capita anywhere in the world.’ On 18 March, Israel killed 174 children in 24 hours. It isn’t hard to kill children when they make up 47 per cent of the trapped population that you’re carpet bombing. One young Gazan, when asked by an interviewer what she would like to be when she grows up, replied that children do not grow up in Gaza.

No aid has been allowed into the Gaza Strip since 2 March. Makeshift food kitchens are being targeted. On 4 April, the pipeline supplying 70 per cent of potable water to Gaza City was interrupted and not restored until 17 April. Power cuts to the southern desalination plant have slashed water production by 85 per cent. The water that remains is frequently salty, contaminated or both. In the North, Unicef reports, ‘families rely solely on water trucking.’ Tap water at home is a thing of the past. The cost of fresh water is exorbitant. I may have said this before, but the situation is not getting better, it is getting far worse. On 27 March, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Israel has no obligation to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

For more than fifty days a trapped, injured, hungry, grieving, orphaned and thirsty young population has been denied access to food, safe water, shelter and medical supplies from outside. During the fragile ceasefire earlier this year, they did not go south to leave Gaza; they walked north, to go home. They are not going to leave voluntarily.

More than 400,000 people are estimated to have been displaced between 18 March and 9 April. The Palestinians ‘will soon lose more and more land’, the Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said on 21 March. ‘The plans are prepared and approved.’ The film maker Meron Rapoport wrote recently in +972 Magazine:

Israel is preparing to forcibly displace the entire population of Gaza – through a combination of evacuation orders and intense bombardment – into an enclosed and possibly fenced-off area … Without mincing words, this ‘humanitarian zone’ … in which the army intends to corral Gaza’s two million residents, can be summed up in just two words: concentration camp. This is not hyperbole; it is simply the most precise definition to help us better understand what we are facing.

Concentration camps for Palestinians are not new. The Palestine Post reported on 3 October 1937 that my grandfather was arrested by the British in Jaffa ‘and sent to Acre Concentration Camp’.

My father, like many Palestinians, was partly educated at a UNRWA school in Damascus after being forcibly expelled from Jaffa. What is left of UNRWA – whose flag, one Gazan told me, he grew up believing was their national flag, as it flew over their homes, their schools and their recreational facilities – is now, after a sustained Israeli and US campaign of smearing, killing and cutting of funding, being obliterated. All UNRWA international staff have been ordered to evacuate the Gaza Strip for the first time since the agency was established in 1948. Palestinian UNRWA employees who have remained in Gaza are being redeployed to other organisations. Those Palestinian UNRWA employees and their families who left Gaza seeking safety, or medical treatment, have been removed from the payroll and left to fend for themselves. It is akin to dismantling the civil service and the education and welfare systems; hard under any circumstances, murderous a thousand times over in the current genocide.

On 23 March, eight Red Crescent medics and seven other humanitarian workers in Rafah were murdered in their ambulances by Israeli soldiers, who fired on one vehicle after another before killing the people inside and burying them in a mass grave. The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis was struck the same day. Reports continue of the torture of doctors, including Hussam Abu Safiya, in Israeli prisons.

Following a visit by Netanyahu to Budapest at the beginning of April, Hungary withdrew from the International Criminal Court. The British chief prosecutor of the court, Karim Khan KC, recently described the situation in Gaza as ‘hell on earth’. ‘We’re at a pivotal point in the world order,’ he said. If ‘some people are denied protection of the law’, it ‘undermines the rule of law everywhere, for everyone’.

The Israeli army has many British passport holders in its ranks. Lawyers including Raji Sourani of the Palestine Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) in Gaza and Michael Mansfield QC, working with London’s Public Interest Law Centre, submitted a dossier to Scotland Yard’s War Crimes Unit, itemising the alleged war crimes of ten British nationals, on 7 April.

I asked Sourani recently if it was true that Gazans can hear the difference between a British drone and other drones. ‘Hear the difference?’ he replied. ‘You can read the writing on them.’

Sourani and his family are currently in Egypt. The deputy director of PCHR, Ihab Faisal, moved into the Souranis’ house in Gaza City with his wife and daughters, aged three and six. At around 2 a.m. on 16 January, Sourani told me, while they were sleeping, ‘a quadcopter hit the window from the southern area of the house at the first floor’. A ‘big explosion killed three of them on the spot, one of the girls’ screaming was heard but nobody dared to do anything, or reach them. In the morning they found them dead.’

Residents of Nuseirat refugee camp told Middle East Eye that Israeli quadcopters were playing recordings of women and children crying for help to lure Palestinians out of their homes. Those who respond to the cries are then shot at.

On 24 March, Israeli settlers beat up one of the directors of No Other Land, Hamdan Ballal, outside his house in Susya, in the West Bank. Ballal thought they were going to kill him. After the attack, Israeli soldiers came and threatened to shoot Hamdan, then took him (not his assailants) into custody, where they beat him up further.

There has been an increase not only in the amount but in the viciousness of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. Ballal’s treatment follows a typical pattern of settlers being supported by the army. As Palestinian commentators have pointed out, someone shouldn’t have to win an Oscar for the Western media to notice that they’re being attacked by settlers. As well as shootings and beatings, settler attacks involve burning cars, smashing windows at night and releasing dogs on residents. At the same time, Israeli agricultural machinery moves onto Palestinians’ land.

Footage coming out of Fawwar refugee camp near Hebron shows children running screaming with their school bags on their backs as tanks enter the street. The incident is far from isolated, but reporting is getting increasingly patchy.

According to internal data obtained by Drop Site News from Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, ‘Israel is the biggest originator of takedown requests globally by far,’ and 94 per cent of its requests since October 2023 have been complied with.

Al-Jazeera estimates that Israel has killed more than 230 media workers since October 2023. Five of them have been al-Jazeera journalists, including 23-year-old Hussam Shobat, who was killed when the Israelis targeted his vehicle without warning. I recall a clip of a girl leaning into his car, saying: ‘I want to be like you when I am older!’

Dina Khaled Zaurub, a 22-year-old artist who drew portraits of people who had been killed, was in a tent in a displaced persons camp close to Khan Younis when she was herself killed by an Israeli airstrike.

Fatima Hassouna, a 25-year-old photojournalist, was killed with ten members of her family, including her pregnant sister, in an Israeli airstrike on her home in northern Gaza on 16 April, a few days before she was due to be married. ‘If I must die, I want a resonant death,’ the young woman said. A documentary based on video calls between her and the Iranian-French director Sepideh Farsi will be shown at Cannes next month.

During Ramadan, the poets Alice and Peter Oswald walked 150 miles from Bristol to London, while fasting during the day in solidarity with Muslims, to raise money for the Hands Up Project, which connects volunteer teachers around the world, including the Oswalds, with Palestinian schoolchildren. ‘That kind of personal contact with schoolchildren who you know are being heavily bombed is something that you obviously can’t ignore,’ Peter has said. I was part of the crowd gathered at short notice to greet them in Parliament Square.

There was another, smaller, uninvited crowd with Israeli flags and banners that declared there is no genocide taking place. One of them was a large man with a megaphone. ‘Israel doesn’t start wars, Israel doesn’t lose wars,’ he blared repeating the lines: ‘You don’t like the war you started, that’s your problem,’ making it hard to hear.

‘We have national laws that protect free speech,’ Alice Oswald said, ‘and when they are broken, we have human, natural laws that protect human behaviour.’ The poets kept their dignity as the megaphone voice continued to jeer: ‘Am I shouting? Am I shouting?’

(London Review of Books)

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HOW ABOUT SOME ROADKILL PARITY?

Mandatory reporting of cats struck by vehicles….

We were hoping for your support in our quest to lobby the Government.

Our aim is to highlight the inequality between cats and dogs in the eyes of the law, specifically when it comes to road traffic accidents. The Road Traffic Act states drivers must stop and report incidents to the police when they have sadly hit a dog when driving. We would like to see similar protections in place for cats, along with the owners of Britain's 12.5 million cats.

You may have seen the numerous Government petitions on this issue over the last few years. It's even been debated 3 times in the last 5 years! Words from officials are always warm and supportive but we say enough talk and fancy words now, we want action! Real action! It just can't be right that in this day and age drivers can legally hit a cat and leave them scared, alone, in pain, or worse, roadside. And since we successfully brought in the mandatory microchipping of cats through the successful Cats Bill in the last Parliament, there is now no excuse that cats won't be identifiable once reported so owners can either collect cats from local vets and fund for any care needed, or collect their cats remains should the worst sadly happen. Either way, cat owners have had enough of all Governments suggesting it is perfectly alright for drivers to leave their cats to suffer should they hit them on the road, and by not acknowledging it and condemning the lack of laws protecting cats, they are essentially suggesting it is either OK or they don't care about the welfare of cats. We are simply asking a bit of decency is legislated for. That is all.

In 2019 we successfully worked with the then Shadow Secretary for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Sue Hayman to get it included in the previous Manifesto and we want Sir Kier to continue work already done in this area so we speak to him and his team direct - the cat owners of the UK want change!

We sincerely hope to have your support.

Best wishes

Tiya, Mandy and Carlie

Cats Matter info@catsmatter.org

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MY PEOPLE, MY PEOPLE!

This lifting stone commemorates the battle of Culloden, 1746. Ruthven Barracks in the background is where the Jacobite army disbanded after its defeat. The rest is history… The stone is 150+ kg and the tartan is ancient weathered Murray of Atholl.