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Mendocino County Today: Wednesday 4/30/2025

Warm | Local Events | Water Advisory | Pomo Woman | Can't Help | Spring Flung | Naughty Deputy | Gang Swat | Decaders | Bragg Gardens | Plaza Petition | Phony Story | Pride Arena | No Takeover | Good4Youth Program | Mayday Protest | VFW Fundraiser | Singer Winkle | Rummage Sale | Visual Jazz | Ed Notes | King Apple | Yesterday's Catch | Kidd Hardaway | Insane/Sane | Fragment | Giants Lose | Between Hours | Tariff Repercussions | Delta Burden | Giant Sequoia | Crime Prevention | Mr Cig | Huff Puffs | Knife Caddy | Cascadia Subduction | Nobody Understands | Zodiac Book | Xanax Fun | Charlie Moon | Not Ready | Lead Stories | Pretty Good | Get Schumer | Young Illusions | Johns Flag


DRY weather with above normal interior high temperatures expected today and Thursday. Chance of rain and possible interior thunderstorms are forecast for Friday through Saturday. Much cooler temperatures and strong blustery winds expected this weekend. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): "If you liked yesterday, you'll like today" Steve Paulson KTVU. 45F under clear skies this Wednesday morning on the coast. Clear & cool thru Friday with only a 10% chance of rain on Saturday now, although it is looking cold & windy this weekend.


LOCAL EVENTS


BOIL WATER ALERT issued for part of Mendocino after state citations

by Matt LaFever

Mendocino County Public Health is urging residents and businesses west of Highway 1 in the town of Mendocino to test their water following a state-issued boil water advisory affecting three local businesses.

In a press release issued Tuesday, the California State Water Resources Control Board’s Division of Drinking Water said it had served citations and compliance orders to the businesses, prompting the boil water notice. While the specific businesses weren’t named, all are located west of Highway 1 — the area now under heightened scrutiny.

Dr. Charles Evans, the county’s Deputy Public Health Officer, recommended that anyone in the affected area have their water tested “as a precaution.” The county’s Environmental Health team is actively working with impacted businesses and offering support to others that may be at risk.

Public Health officials will be on-site at Harvest Market at Mendosa’s (10501 Lansing Street, Mendocino) from 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30, and Thursday, May 1, to answer questions and provide information to concerned residents.

County officials say they’re continuing to coordinate with the state to monitor the situation and will release updates as needed.

Residents west of Highway 1 are urged to boil tap water before drinking, brushing teeth, or using it for cooking until further notice.

(mendofever.com)


Pomo woman - circa 1920

AG WON'T ACT

Hello,

I am Mike Geniella, a veteran North Coast journalist. 

At issue is Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster's practice of selectively blocking public comments on his posts on the Mendocino County District Attorney site on Facebook and other social media.

The local news media have repeatedly raised the matter with him. Eyster ignores the complaints and citations of the U.S. Supreme Court opinion governing such issues.

I am requesting a review by the AG staff and an opinion on how to make the District Attorney comply. 

Please advise,

Mike Geniella

Ukiah Daily Journal

Anderson Valley Advertiser

707-477-6733

https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-supreme-court-and-social-media-can-government-officials-block-online-comments


Mike, 

Thanks for reaching out. The Attorney General's authority to issue opinions is controlled by Government Code section 12519. Under this statute, the Attorney General may give opinions only to these specified public officials, and not to private individuals or to public officials who are not listed in the statute. More information can be found on our website here.

Best, 

Press Office


Okay. 

What agency do members of the public turn to about this issue? The District Attorney is not going to ask for an opinion about his actions.

To our knowledge, this is the second time that the AG's office has sidestepped how the Mendocino County District Attorney handles internal matters happening locally. 

The AG's Office found no conflict of interest with the Mendocino office criminally prosecuting the elected County Auditor for felony misuse of public funds, even though he and Auditor Chamise Cubbison had a contentious relationship over his office spending. A Superior Court judge tossed the case out after the preliminary hearing. More than $100,000 of taxpayer dollars was spent prosecuting the case. Now, Mendocino County taxpayers face significant exposure to civil damages.

When does the state Attorney General take a look on the public's behalf?

Mike Geniella

Ukiah Daily Journal


YORKVILLE SPRING FLING

by Terry Sites

Last Saturday, April 26, the Yorkville Community celebrated their annual Spring Fling. This year was special as it included the unveiling of their brand spanking new community identity brand.

Attached to the rear of the almost brand spanking new firehouse extension are giant letters spelling out “Yorkville” in bold relief.

Each letter was painted by a different Yorkville artist. Tom Rodrigues celebrated grapes and wine. Adrian Card honored The Pomo Indians who came before us. Paula Gray painted local fauna and a shout out to the seamstresses of Yorkville. Curtis Frost saluted our “downtown” and fire department. Sterling Hoffman painted [to come].

They all collaborated on a slice of Redwood forest. So next time you are flying down Highway 128 on your way through Yorkville headed to Boonville or points south take a gander to your left (or right) as you pass the Yorkville post office/community center and fire station to see our proud new letters on display. If you hit just the right time of the day you might even see each letter neatly “drop shadowed” by the setting sun.


SHERIFF’S DEPUTY UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR HIT & RUN WITH PROPERTY DAMAGE TO COUNTY VEHICLE

On Thursday, April 24, 2025 at approximately 1800 hours, a Sheriff’s Sergeant with the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office arrived to work at the Willits Substation and noticed damage to a county-owned patrol vehicle.

Upon investigating the damage, the Sheriff’s Sergeant learned the (male) Sheriff’s Deputy had not reported the damage to his assigned county vehicle pursuant to Sheriff’s Office policy and procedures. The Sheriff’s Deputy has worked for the Sheriff’s Office for over three years and has held assignments in the Patrol and Corrections Divisions.

Sheriff’s Office patrol vehicles are equipped with video-recording devices, and the footage was reviewed by the Sheriff’s Sergeant to determine how the vehicle was damaged.

When reviewing the video footage from the damaged patrol vehicle, the Sheriff’s Sergeant learned the Sheriff’s Deputy had operated the vehicle while off duty and drove the county vehicle to a bar in the City of Willits. While driving the vehicle in Willits, the off-duty Sheriff’s Deputy collided with a guardrail on Sherwood Road causing damage to the passenger side of the vehicle.

This matter was immediately reported to the California Highway Patrol Garberville Office to investigate the traffic collision, damage to the guardrail and county-owned patrol vehicle, hit and run incident, reckless driving, and the possibility of the off-duty Deputy driving under the influence. The California Highway Patrol is actively investigating this incident with the assistance of an Investigator from the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office.

It is the intent and endeavor of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office to maintain transparency and accountability with the immediate reporting and investigation of this incident. The name of the Sheriff’s Deputy is being withheld at this time to protect the integrity of the ongoing criminal investigation. The Sheriff’s Deputy involved in this incident was immediately placed on paid Administrative Leave with his peace-officer status suspended while this matter is being investigated.

Anyone with information related to this incident is requested to contact the Sheriff’s Office Communications Center at 707-463-4086 (option 1). Information can also be provided anonymously by calling the non-emergency tip-line at 707-234-2100.


INCREASED GANG ACTIVITY LEADS TO SWAT RESPONSE AND ARREST IN FORT BRAGG

On Tuesday, April 29, 2025 at approximately 7:00 AM, the Fort Bragg Police Department, in collaboration with the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and the Lake County Sheriff’s Office SWAT teams, executed coordinated search warrants at two known gang-affiliated residences in response to a recent increase in gang-related activity in the region including violence and graffiti.

One of the suspects, Christopher Morgan, 23 of Fort Bragg, was detained without incident in the 300 block of Cypress Street. A subsequent search of his home in the 200 block of E. Chestnut Street, led to the discovery of a loaded, unregistered .38 Special revolver in a location that could have been accessed by a child who also resides in the house. In addition to the firearm, officers also recovered various items of gang clothing, paraphernalia, and electronic evidence further substantiating Morgan’s suspected gang involvement. A second location in the 800 block of Myrtle Street was also searched in compliance with a search warrant. No arrests were made at that location.

“This operation was the result of weeks of joint investigation and interagency cooperation aimed at disrupting gang activity threatening the safety of our communities,” said Fort Bragg Police Chief Neil Cervenka. “We want to thank our law enforcement partners in our ongoing effort to make Mendocino County safer.”

No injuries were reported during the execution of either search warrant. Morgan was arrested and transported to the Mendocino County Jail for the following charges: 242 PC (battery), 422(A) PC (criminal threats), 273A(a) PC (child endangerment likely to cause death), 25100(A) PC (criminal storage of a firearm), 186.26(c) PC (using violence to prevent a person from leaving a criminal street gang), and 186.22(d) PC (participating in a criminal street gang). Officers obtained a bail enhancement for Morgan, raising his bail to $100,000.00.

The investigation is ongoing, and additional arrests and charges may follow. Authorities urge anyone with information related to gang activity in the area to contact Sergeant Frank with the Fort Bragg Police Department at (707) 961-2800 ext. 223.

This information is being released by Chief Cervenka. All media inquiries should contact him at ncervenka@fortbragg.com.


SOCIAL NOTE: Boonville Residents Rob Goodell (who turned 80), and Linda McElwee (who turned 60) last weekend celebrated together with a blow-out party at the AV Grange on Saturday the 26. In true Anderson Valley style a monumental potluck created groaning boards with tempting snacks, main dishes, and desserts. Michael and Leslie Hubbert and Chris Bing provided live music for dancing with Judy Basehore leading off the dancers. Safe to say that a good time was had by all. They rocked the hall. (Terry Sites)


GARDENS TO BRAGG ABOUT

The Fort Bragg Garden Club’s 16th Annual “Sidewalk Gardens to Bragg About” contest has arrived. 

Any time from May 1 - May 23, please nominate a beautiful yard - your own or another’s - if it is in the Fort Bragg city limits, can be seen from the sidewalk, and is a pleasing-to-the-eye, well-kept space.

From May 27 - 30, Fort Bragg Garden Club members will judge the gardens. A gift certificate to a local nursery will be  given to the first, second, and third place winners, and to the best pollinator garden.

Have a yard to nominate? Send the address by May 23 to info@fbgardenclub.com or call and leave a message or text (707)397-5824.


PETITION IN UKIAH CALLS TO STOP DEMOLITION OF TOWN’S ONLY PUBLIC PLAZA

Christina here from Change.org—wanted to flag a new petition published in Ukiah, where locals are pushing back against a proposal to raze the city’s only public square.

Andrew Lutsky started a petition after reports revealed that the City of Ukiah is considering plans to demolish Alex Thomas Plaza to make room for potential commercial development. Petition signers argue that the plaza is not just a green space, but the heart of community life, hosting everything from live music to farmers markets. They’re calling on the Ukiah City Council to publicly commit to preserving the plaza and protect it from future development.

We do not have contact information readily available for this petition starter, but you’re welcome to quote from the petition text or comments directly, which you can find at https://www.change.org/SaveUkiahPlaza.


WILLIAMS CAUGHT OUT AGAIN

Bob Abeles

The panic piece that Ted Williams graced these pages with yesterday is not an actual CNN report. You’d think he’d be a bit more careful when re-posting random stuff he found on the intertubes.


George Hollister

Other outlets have said the same things as CNN. This will take some sorting out to get to the best evaluation. Yes, Europe is in panic mode, as maybe they should be. Putin is a psychopath on the war path, and Trump wants them to take the lead in dealing with it.


Bob Abeles

Except CNN didn’t say it. Or write it.

There is a clear tell that immediately makes the story suspect: CNN is not a wire service. They don’t contribute stories to what little remains of the print media.

Digging a little deeper, you’ll find that nothing in the story is true. For example, Ursula von der Leyen didn’t hold the press conference reported in the story, nor did she utter the words attributed to her. Instead, she delivered remarks in Valencia lambasting the Trump administration for its attacks on education and its erratic trade policies. Here is a sample of what she did say, “Controversial debates at (European) universities are welcome. We consider freedom of science and research as fundamental, not only because it is a core value for us but also because this is how excellence and innovation thrive.”

Doing a search on the first sentence of the phony story brings up references to it as a piece of disinformation that has been making the rounds on social media.

Whether or not Putin is a psychopath is beside the point. Ted was taken in by an obvious piece of fiction to the extent that it triggered him to shout it from the rooftops. It clearly brings his judgement into question.



AMID PLEAS TO ‘SANTA TRUMP,’ DAM REMOVALS REMAIN ON TRACK as feds rule out takeover of PG&E’s Potter Valley plant

Federal government intervention is seen as a last resort for residents who oppose the proposed decommissioning and new water diversion facility to be built as Scott and Cape Horn dams are to be torn down.

by Amie Windsor

Despite pleas from leaders of regional farm bureaus, Lake County and communities including Cloverdale and Lake Pillsbury, President Donald Trump’s administration says it has no intention of assuming control of the Potter Valley hydroelectric power plant that’s slated for decommissioning by PG&E.

The decommissioning, if approved, is likely at least a decade away and would involve tearing down the Cape Horn Dam in Mendocino County and Scott Dam in Lake County. This would alter the flow of the Eel River to the Russian River, with a new multimillion-dollar diversion facility routing water from both the Eel and Russian watersheds to Marin, Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties.

Many North Coast elected officials and residents strongly oppose the plan, insisting it might not provide the four counties with enough water ― especially during dry, summer months punctuated by fire risk. They also worry about the impact on Lake Pillsbury, which would shrink significantly with Scott Dam’s removal.

Potential intervention by branches of the federal government ― especially the Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees dams and water management issues under the U.S. Department of the Interior ― has been seen as a last resort for officials who want to maintain existing conditions.

“The Bureau of Reclamation has a lot more bandwidth. They could take responsibility,” Adam Gaska, executive director of the Mendocino County Farm Bureau said recently. “We’re looking to Santa Trump … to be willing to invest. We are at our last hour here.”

Despite the back and forth, Peter Soeth, acting chief of public affairs for the Bureau of Reclamation, told The Press Democrat on Friday that the federal branch “does not have and is not seeking authority from Congress to own or operate the Potter Valley project.”

That now puts a spotlight on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which must sign off on PG&E’s decommissioning plan.

Messages to FERC about the decommissioning process were not immediately returned. But a FERC handbook notes the decommissioning process is lengthy … and could pave the way for the removal of the dams.

“Hydroelectric projects under the [FERC’s] jurisdiction cannot be simply abandoned; surrenders must be approved … in order to ensure public safety and any needed environmental protection,” the handbook reads.

It adds that surrender applications must include a plan “describing the planned disposition of project facilities; an environmental report that describes the existing environment in the project area, environmental effects that are expected to occur upon surrender, and any measures that would be taken to mitigate those effects.”

Strong Differences Of Opinion

Part of the decommissioning plan includes a key component agreed upon in February: a water diversion facility and diversion schedule called the two-basin solution. It would be managed by the newly formed Eel-Russian Project Authority.

The diversions rely on the installation of a new diversion facility called a NERF, or New Eel-Russian Facility, to be built as the Cape Horn Dam is to be removed. When finished, the facility would divert between 30,000 and 40,000 acre feet of water annually during high flows.

That is roughly equivalent to current flow rates, officials with Sonoma Water, the county’s water agency, say.

Many elected and community leaders just aren’t buying that, though.

Several sent letters to the Trump administration over the past three months requesting that the federal government intervene on their behalf.

“The removal of the Scott Dam threatens the region’s water accessibility, economic stability and disaster preparedness,” an April 4 joint letter from the Mendocino, Lake, Sonoma and Marin County farm bureaus to the Trump administration said. “Preserving the Potter Valley Project is the desired outcome to maintain our water supply, allowing Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin counties to continue receiving this water, serving over 600,000 people.

“Communities were built based on this water supply, and communities will be ruined should it go away.”

The Department of the Interior’s acting commissioner, David Palumbo, responded to another letter sent by the Lake Pillsbury Alliance, saying it would look at a December 2023 grant award to Sonoma Water through the Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Program.

That $2 million grant provides funding for the water agency to design the NERF — the new diversion facility that would allow water to keep flowing from the Eel River to the upper east fork of the Russian River should the Cape Horn Dam be torn down — essentially the piece of infrastructure that would allow for the 30,000 to 40,000 acre feet of water to flow to Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin counties.


What Is The ‘Two-Basin’ Solution?

In February, representatives from three counties, the Round Valley Indian Tribes and two environmental nonprofits reached an agreement creating a framework for future water diversions from the Eel River into the Russian River once PG&E receives approval for decommissioning of the Potter Valley power plant.

The diversions rely on the installation of a new diversion facility called a NERF, or New Eel-Russian Facility, to be built as the Cape Horn Dam is to be removed. The NERF is to be managed by the Eel-Russian Project Authority, a joint powers authority that includes Sonoma County, Sonoma Water and the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission.

The NERF would allow water to flow from the Eel River to the East Fork of the Russian River, where it would travel into Lake Mendocino. Unlike diversions today, most of the diversions under the new agreement would occur when the Eel River has enough water to accommodate different life stages of federally protected salmon and steelhead trout; typically in winter.

Under the agreement, Russian River users would also pay between $750,000 to $1 million into an Eel River restoration fund to pay for fish recovery and environmental restoration efforts along the Eel River.

Additionally, PG&E’s water rights for the diverted flows, which it has held for more than 100 years, would be transferred to the Round Valley Indian Tribes. The Tribes would collect $1 million a year from Sonoma and Mendocino county users in exchange for the diverted flows.

Signatories of the agreement included the Sonoma Water, the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, Humboldt County, the Round Valley Indian Tribes, Trout Unlimited, California Trout and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Sonoma Water representatives say the design is about 60% complete and report that if the federal government rescinds funding, it would have to seek other sources to complete the design process.

In his letter, Palumbo said the federal government wanted to ensure the grant funding aligned with President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14154, which seeks to create affordable energy using natural resources.

While Palumbo’s letter had offered hope to leaders like Gaska and Cloverdale Mayor Todd Lands, that doesn’t mean the battle is over.

Lands said he would “continue to fight for the health and safety of my community. The proposed two-basin solution is not an equitable solution, and the politicians that created it know that it is insufficient for Cloverdale and the entire Alexander Valley region.”

Two of those politicians, Sonoma County Supervisors James Gore and Lynda Hopkins, were relieved — and surprised — by the Bureau of Reclamation’s statement last week. They reiterated that, without the two-basin solution, the four-county area would have virtually no water under PG&E’s decommissioning plan.

“Some folks are comparing our two-basin solution to the status quo, and the reality is we need to compare the two-basin solution to the decommissioning and complete teardown and end of transfer of water from the Eel River to the Russian River,” Hopkins said. “Because that’s what would have happened if we hadn’t put together a coalition.”

Gore added: “For the folks who are saying this isn’t good enough and are going for a Hail Mary, that’s fine. But we have to get this solution into the FERC review process. 100%.”

Lengthy Process Ahead

PG&E aims to submit its plans to FERC, which has jurisdiction over the power company’s license, by July 29.

According to Tony Gigliotti, senior licensing projecting manager with PG&E, approval of the license surrender and decommissioning plan are guaranteed, though the company expects conditions with approval.

“FERC can’t deny a license termination,” Gigliotti said.

Now, Lands and others like Carol Cinquini and Frank Lynch of the Lake Pillsbury Alliance say they plan to rely on FERC to slow down or stop the dam removals.

“We want a full assessment,” Lynch said of PG&E’s proposed plan. “We need things to slow down, otherwise the community of Lake Pillsbury will be lost. We’re going to lose our water supply.”

Lynch, Cinquini and Lake County leaders say the plan, particularly removing Scott Dam, would result in Lake Pillsbury decreasing in size significantly.

“We don’t know what the footprint of the lake will be like,” said Patrick Sullivan, Lake County treasurer-tax collector. “But this is a monumental project. Nothing to this scale has been done before.”

Gigliotti said the process with FERC is likely to be lengthy … and thorough.

“Accepting our plan [in July] doesn’t mean we’re good to go,” Gigliotti said. “Once we submit, there’s no defined timeline. The earliest we believe FERC will act is 2028, but we believe that is extremely ambitious. … The first and only surrender we’ve done took between 12 and 13 years.”

“This isn’t something that gets done in four to six months,” he added. The dams aren’t “going to be removed in the next three years.”

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)


GOODWILL ~ REDWOOD EMPIRE GOOD4YOUTH JOB SKILLS PROGRAM

Goodwill ~ Redwood Empire is pleased to announce the launch of the 9th cohort of its Good4Youth program, beginning June 24, 2025. This five-week workshop series is designed to equip youth with essential job readiness skills, followed by a 90-day paid internship that provides valuable hands-on work experience.

The Good4Youth program is offered free of charge to youth ages 15 to 20 who are interested in entering the workforce. It is open to youth residing in Sonoma, Mendocino, and Napa counties. This initiative is fully funded by Goodwill ~ Redwood Empire through the generous support and donations of our local community.

Participants will receive training through a curriculum that includes career exploration, resume building, interview preparation, employer expectations, and interpersonal skill development. The program also features guest speakers - local professionals who share insights about their industries, educational pathways, workplace culture, and career experiences.

Upon successful completion of the workshop series, participants will earn a Work Readiness for Youth certification and become eligible for a three-month paid internship at Goodwill. This internship offers young people the opportunity to apply their new skills in a real-world environment, build confidence, and strengthen their resumes for future employment.

Lindsey, a participant who completed the workshops and then did her internship at the Goodwill store on Stony Point, shared her experience with the program by saying, “I have gained the ability to complete tasks efficiently and become more comfortable with new things I haven’t tried. I have gained the skills to look out for myself.”

Goodwill ~ Redwood Empire is excited to give youth the opportunity to gain skills to succeed in the workforce. Information sessions for Youth and Parents will be held on June 10th. Email programs@gire.org for more information.

Ready to apply? Use the QR code provided or visit https://gire.org/programs/.

Contact:

Tracey Feick, Director of Mission Services

Goodwill ~ Redwood Empire

707-523-0550

tfeick@gire.org

About Goodwill ~ Redwood Empire’s mission is Changing Lives and Strengthening Communities through the Dignity and Power of Work. Goodwill has been supporting the Redwood Empire since 1974 to empower those with barriers to employment including poverty, disability, lack of work history, and recent incarceration prepare for, find, and retain meaningful employment. Community donations fund our retail stores to provide job training for those building job skills and employment history, as well as other job readiness, training, and employment programs.  In the past year, we have delivered 156,289 hours of job skill training and our Donated Goods Program has helped the planet by diverting 10+ million pounds of materials from landfills.  


MAYDAY!

Protest in Boonville at noon


VFW BREAKFAST FUNDRAISER, Sat., May 10. Ukiah

by Carole Hester

Ukiah area Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1900 (VFW) has been sponsoring a breakfast fundraiser for decades. The next one is Saturday, May 10, 2025, from 8 – noon at Veterans Memorial Hall, 293 Seminary Ave., Ukiah.

The Post cannot do it alone. Redwood Empire Lions Club volunteers have been catering the breakfast: Eggs, hash browns, biscuits, gravy, sausage, and a drink - not a bad deal at $10!

Ukiah Elks Lodge #1728 has stepped up and gifted the local VFW Post 1900 a check for $550 per breakfast for three quarters. Though growing older and a bit infirm these intrepid volunteers have persevered even post-COVID, opening for the VFW Breakfasts quarterly: May, August, November and February - always the second Saturday. Joel Greenfield is the Commander of VFW Post 1900.

The proceeds go towards Veterans’ assistance. Funds raised also go to the many worthwhile projects the VFW supports, flowing back into the community a variety of ways, including student scholarships.

One huge responsibility of the VFW is maintaining the flags in Ukiah Cemetery. At last count, the Post cares for 468 regulation “casket flags.” Flags currently span WWI through Vietnam. Last year the local Post needed to add 20 additional poles to accommodate the need.

They are on Facebook. Questions, call (707) 234-7392.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), formally the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, is an organization of US war veterans, who, as military service members fought in wars, campaigns, and expeditions on foreign land, waters, or airspace. The organization was established twice separately, once by James C. Putnam on September 29, 1899, in Columbus, Ohio. The VFW is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. The organization was congressionally chartered in 1936 under the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.


FIRST FRIDAY AT GRACE HUDSON

Stephen Winkle

Spring has sprung at Grace Hudson Museum's First Friday, taking place on May 2 from 5 to 8 p.m. Wildflowers are blooming in the Wild Gardens. Singer/guitarist Steve Winkle will perform his eclectic mix of classic rock, R&B, and country, including some of his own compositions.

This will be the last chance to view the Museum's current exhibition, "Reclamation: Aboriginal Ancestral Homeland and Resilience of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe," which closes on May 4. Visitors can also discover or get reacquainted with the core galleries, featuring Grace Hudson’s artwork, exquisite Pomo basketry, and Carpenter-Hudson family history.

Grace Hudson Museum has free admission all day and evening on First Fridays. The Museum is located at 431 Main St. in Ukiah. For more information, call (707) 467-2836, or visit online at www.gracehudsonmuseum.org.


36th ANNUAL ELK RUMMAGE SALE

The Greenwood Civic Club will hold its 36th annual Rummage Sale with antiques, collectibles, clothes, toys, housewares, furniture, tools and more at bargain prices. Proceeds benefit community projects, the summer children's program and student scholarships.

Date: May 31st and June 1st

Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Location: Greenwood Community Center Elk

Free admission

For more information contact 509-630-3971


'VISUAL JAZZ' ASSEMBLAGE ART SHOW opens this First Saturday at Willits Center for the Arts

61 East Commercial St in Willits

Join the fanfare this Saturday, May 3rd at the First Saturday show of 'Visual Jazz' at the Willits Center for the Arts. This fun and unique show will be on display throughout May, and the artists will be in attendance talking about their art and meeting folks this Saturday.

Assemblage artists Esther Siegel, Spencer Brewer (from Harmony Gaits’ ‘Outta the Box’ Assemblage Camps) and Leslie Rich will have over 60 original assemblage pieces on display. There will be live music, finger foods and beverages of your choice served from 6 - 8pm at the Willits Center for the Arts. This is a free show!

(Spencer Brewer)


ED NOTES

LOWBROW GOES HIGHBROW. I climbed aboard the 2 Clement one late December day and headed east for SF MOMA, knowing I'd find a whole building of provocations beginning with the building itself with all its wasted space and its dependably overwarm, recirculated air.

CHINESE SENIOR CITIZENS occupied all the Senior seats on the bus where, at Presidio and California, there was a stare down between a standing Russian woman and a seated Chinese woman, both of them clearly seniors. The Russian woman seemed to assume that the Chinese woman was not a Senior and should, therefore, give up her seat to the Russian. The Russian was dumpy, aggrieved-looking and muttering martyred Slavic exhalations, all the while staring at the Chinese woman who was so short her feet didn't reach the floor.

AS MUNI RIDERS will tell you, elderly Chinese women can be absolute boulders of intransigence. They are also absolute geniuses at Not Seeing You. A knife fight in the aisles would be none of their business. Apologies for these stereotypes and the implicit sexism, but I'll bet SF readers will agree with me that that both live up to the generalization. Sure, the Russians have much to be aggrieved about given their experiences in their mother country, and Chinese, whose loyalties and affections begin and end with their own families, have much Not To See in this unhinged, anything goes country.

THE NUMBER TWO rumbled east, the Russian woman sighed and grumbled and stared curses at the Chinese woman, until at Post and VanNess the Chinese woman, suddenly brandishing a California ID card, stood up and said to the Russian. “You sit. I stand, but I older than you.”

I GOT OFF at Union Square where the giant plastic Christmas tree was up and being festooned with buoy-size ornaments. I was headed for MOMA at 3rd and Mission. Counting the mendicants as I went, I'd seen eleven in the time I walked to MOMA, maybe six blocks from Union Square.

OPPOSITE the museum entrance a black guy, age maybe 50, was selling a crumpled-beyond-readability Street Sheet. I gave him a dollar, not bothering to ask for my purchase. “That five you got looks pretty good,” he said, hanging on to the paper that in theory he'd just sold to me. He wasn't getting the five he'd glimpsed, but he'd earned my admiration, a dollar's worth, for immediately asking for five more.

INSIDE the most annoying museum I've ever visited, a teacher was saying to a group of inattentive high school students, “Architecturally, this building is very cool…” Which it is not. It's a big atrium with a pile of stuffy rooms stacked on its east side. Up the stairs you're confronted with a Disney like cartoon panel of laughing mushrooms, and it was on to Rafael Lozano-Hemer — something like that, with the hyphenated name putting me on full pretension alert.

MR. HYPHEN'S exhibit was called, “Frequency and volume.” No thanks. I know the two frequencies I frequent and I can turn a volume knob with the best of them. Next was an exhibit by a teacher at Mills College described as “fiercely independent.” The worse the art at the MOMA the fiercer the artist.

THESE UNHAPPY abstracts looked like the back ward project of a heavily medicated depressive, shades of gray slapped up on the canvas. Richard Serra took up a whole room with a pile of metal splashed with concrete, and darned if this particular fraud wasn't called, Splash: Night Shift.

NIGHT OR DAY, it's a swindle MOMA probably paid a couple hundred grand for. Jasper Johns was the big draw, and if you're thinking of going just to see him, don't bother. It's his worst stuff.

I was hoping his big American flag painting would be included, but no, there was one nice abstract and then things like a mounted toothbrush and a slice of bread glued to black cardboard.

BEFORE OL' JASPER this month, the big MOMA draw was a photographer who changed her look 20 times and blew each photo up into big pictures. It costs $22 (!) for a senior ticket to see this stuff.

WHAT REDEEMS the MOMA is its permanent collection — the Klees, Riviera, Arneson's truly radical sculpture of George Moscone and, my favorite two paintings, Intermission by Hopper and the San Francisco painter Robert Bechtie's Potrero Hill.

THERE'S SOME GOOD THINGS at SFMOMA but they just barely outnumber the fakes.


WHEN APPLES WERE KING

by Marshall Newman (2012)

With vineyards everywhere one looks in Anderson Valley today, it may be hard to believe grapes weren’t always huge here. Believe it. Anderson Valley agriculture was much different during my time in the valley from the late 1950s through the 1980s, as this trip back in time illustrates.

To understand Anderson Valley agriculture in the 1950s and 1960s, one has to go back to the 1920s. The Valley’s isolation and the difficulty in delivering fresh product quickly to major markets in the 1920s limited local agriculture to apples that were dried in the valley — a couple of the old drying sheds remain standing today —before shipping. Before apples and shipping, prunes were dried in the valley. and sheep numbered in the tens of thousands.

I remember Leo Sanders, one of my grammar school teachers, telling us it took two days to drive sheep to the railhead in Cloverdale, with both flocks and herders spending the night at Mountain House. There may also have been a few fields of hops (another crop shipped dried) left in the valley then, but Prohibition had already rendered them commercially unviable.

Improvements to the road now called Highway 128, changing tastes and the advent of tourism between the 1920s and the 1950s resulted in a different mix of Anderson Valley agriculture by the time I first visited in 1957. Apples, sheep and — to a much lesser extent — cattle dominated valley agriculture then. Highway 128 improvements enabled fresh apples to be shipped to market or processing facility by truck, and fresh apples became the valley’s primary agricultural product. Sheep and cattle also traveled by truck, either to the auction yards in Ukiah and Petaluma or to various slaughterhouses in Sonoma and Mendocino County. Those same road improvements combined with the unspoiled beauty and quaint towns of the Mendocino Coast to increase visitor traffic through the region. And apple stands became fixtures along the highway.

Although there may have been more, I remember six apple growers in the Valley growing up. Situated just north of Boonville, Archie Schoenhal may have been the region’s largest apple producer. His apples went to the retailers and probably the Sebastopol Cooperative Cannery (which produced apple sauce, apple juice and canned sliced apples). He didn’t have a roadside stand, but sold apples out of a barn across the driveway from his house. He also kept a sizeable herd of beef cattle. The Schoenahl land is now completely planted to vineyards.

About a half mile south of Philo, Johnny Peterson grew apples and sold them at his roadside stand. He also made wonderful unfiltered apple juice, which we bought frozen in gallon bottles. As a kid, it was fun to drink the bottle down halfway and know that the remaining juice, left to its own devices in the refrigerator, would turn into slightly fizzy, slightly alcoholic apple cider, after a few days. After Johnny passed away, his property became Goldeneye Winery and his orchard was converted to grapes.

About a mile north of Philo, Art Gowan grew apples, made apple juice and ran sheep. His apple stand was called Art’s Apples. My parents bought apples from Art’s apples for their summer camp (El Rancho Navarro). I am uncertain as to the fate of the orchard: the apple stand, now abandoned, is located just south of Brutacao Winery. Across the road, Clarence Hulbert grew apples and ran sheep.

Gowan’s Oak Tree was situated just slightly north of Art’s Apples. Back in my childhood days, the orchard was run by James Gowan, though I remember seeing his father Cecil — then an old man — frequently at the apple stand. My parents bought apples and produce from Gowan’s Oak Tree for their summer camp, and my mother also bought cucumbers, which she canned as dill pickles. Although I now stop at Gowan’s Oak Tree only occasionally when in the Valley, I like that this reminder of my youth continues to thrive.

Another mile farther north, Earl Clark also grew apples west of the highway. I remember a drying shed on the property and believe the orchard dated back to the dried apple era. I don’t recall Clark ever having an apple stand, so I assume he shipped his apples to market or to the Sebastopol Cooperative Cannery. Again, those apple trees now have been replaced with grapevines.

Anderson Valley used to be publicized as being home to 38 (or was it 39?) varieties of apples and in all likelihood there were many more. Everyone had a favorite or two. We Newmans were — and still are — partial to the Sierra Beauty, which we bought at Gowan’s Oak Tree by the lug.

Many of the Valley’s apple producers showed their wares at the Mendocino County Fair and Apple Show back then. Usually one side of the Apple Hall was devoted to apples, with rows and rows of full lugs displayed on sloped racks for all to see.

As previously mentioned, sheep also were a major element of valley agriculture during my childhood in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In addition to those with flocks already mentioned, the Prather and Burns families ran sheep, as did Austin Hulbert (who was very active in the local 4-H when I was a member) near Yorkville, and Ray Pinoli and Leo Sanders (whom my brother and I helped with lambs on a couple of occasions) near Philo.

I am sure there were others in the Valley with apples and sheep, and to those I have missed, I apologize.

Most of my family’s agricultural endeavors in the late 1950s and early 1960s were associated with the summer camp, though a couple of them became small commercial enterprises.

On our property when we arrived was a small French prune orchard, planted in 1903. My father hated waste of any kind, so we harvested the trees (by shaking them, with tarps underneath to catch the falling fruit) every autumn, and trucked the fruit to the dryer in Healdsburg and later in Ukiah. Due to Anderson Valley’s cool climate, our prunes invariably were the last to be harvested and the last to be processed. Often the dryer was closed for the season when we came back to pick up our crop; our prunes — usually 100 to 200 pound’s worth — would be sitting in a large box by the gate with “Newman’s” written on the side in chalk. We packed each year’s prunes in plastic bags and served them to campers as an afternoon snack. A steady diet of prunes as a kid made them among my least favorite foods as an adult for many years.

We got into small-scale dairy farming by accident. Soon after we moved to Philo full-time in 1959, my mother was sent to the auction in Ukiah with instructions to purchase a beef cow. Knowing nothing about cattle, she bought a handsome young pregnant Jersey heifer. So my father, brother and I built a small milking shed and — when the calf arrived — learned to milk. “Bessie” proved to be an unusually prolific milk cow, producing six gallons of milk a day — more than a family of six could ever use. (And we tried.) So we bought a pasteurizing machine (from Sears, Roebuck) and a couple of one-gallon plastic jugs, and my father sold milk to his fellow teachers at the grammar school. He later expanded his offerings to include butter, which — after a brief stint with a hand-cranked butter churn — my mother discovered could be made in the blender, and eggs from our flock of camp chickens.

Anderson Valley agriculture changed greatly with the arrival of wine grapes in the 1960s, though the Anderson Valley grape story began several decades earlier. It is a vineyard tale that will have to wait until another time.


CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, April 29, 2025

TIMOTHY ELLIOTT, 52, Ukiah. Under influence.

ISABEL ESPARZA, 33, Gualala. Under influence.

JESUS FIGUEROA, 22, Clearlake/Ukiah. DUI, pot possession while driving, suspended license for DUI, probation violation.

EVERARDO GRANILLO, 32, Ukiah. County parole violation.

STEPHAN GRANT, 55, Daly City. DUI.

JOSEPH HOAGLIN, 31, Ukiah. False personation of another, parole violation.

DUSTIN JORDAN, 46, Willits. Domestic violence court order violation.

TYLER KELLER, 33, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, county parole violation.

CHRISTOPHER MORGAN, 23, Fort Bragg. Battery, use of physical violence to prevent someone from leaving a criminal street gang, participation in criminal street gang, criminal storage of firearm, criminal threats, cruely to child with possible injury or death.

ADAM VASQUEZ, 35, Hopland. Probation revocation, resisting.


KEZAR PRO-AM: Jason Kidd had just graduated from Cal. Tim Hardaway was a Warriors star. Hardway brought the ball up and scored over the rookie-to-be. On the next play, Kidd went the length of the court and scored over Hardaway! And the seats were free! (Fred Gardner)


WESTWARD HO!

The American social security administration awarded me a $3500 judgement because over the course of one year, I proved that there was an inconsistent cooking situation at the homeless shelter in Ukiah. This of course increased my checking account balance over the $2,000 limit. An independent group in Georgia reported the overage to the social security administration. A letter arrived saying that because my checking account was over the limit, that future SSI disbursement would be reduced in order to recover the payments which had already been made, which I was not entitled to because I was over the $2,000 limit. Additionally, the letter stated that even if I was over the limit due to social security disbursements, I would still be penalized. This is insane!

Item #2: I am ready to leave Washington, D.C. because I have completed my being supportive of the Washington, D.C. Peace Vigil for the sixteenth time, beginning in June of 1991. I need a place to go to upon arrival in the Golden State. Obviously, the American experiment in freedom and democracy owes me at least a senior housing situation. This is sane! I want to be contacted and given cooperation as soon as possible. Thank you very much.

Craig Louis Stehr, craiglouisstehr@gmail.com


FRAGMENT

The way I see it

either you do it
or you don’t do it

& all that apologietic
fresh lettuce sunset
self-effacing effusive
sentimental humility

might make it in group therapy

or goat husbandry.
But…

— Don Shanley


GIANTS LOSE 7-4 to Padres in first 2025 test against an NL West foe

by Shayna Rubin

SAN DIEGO — The San Francisco Giants have played a fair share of tough teams to start the season. After a stretch of 17 straight games with grueling trips on both coasts, they came out the other side having won or tied all but two series and in the running to rule the roost atop the National League West.

This hot start happened without having to face any of their divisional rivals until Tuesday, when the Giants began a quick two-game series against the San Diego Padres. It’s a brief test to see how the Giants compete within a division and, ultimately, served as a bit of a wake-up call as the Padres handed the Giants a 7-4 loss in front of a crowd of 47,345, the second-largest crowd in Petco Park history.

“We know it’s going to be a challenge,” shortstop Willy Adames said. “This whole division, I feel, is the best division in baseball. There’s a lot of talent on this side and every time we face the Padres or (Arizona) D’backs or (Los Angeles) Dodgers in this division it will be a fight, a battle.”

San Francisco Giants infielder Willy Adames, left, tags out the San Diego Padres' Manny Machado (13) as he tries to steal second base during the fourth inning at Petco Park on Tuesday, April 29, 2025, in San Diego. (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images/TNS)

The Giants' propensity to erase deficits — they lead the league with 10 wins after trailing by at least two runs — will face longer odds going up against teams like the Padres, who boast a bullpen with baseball’s best ERA (1.63). That they put up a fight after chasing starter Nick Pivetta out of the game was a sign that this Giants team could be one of few to test that bullpen’s limits.

Down four runs in the sixth inning, Adames’ double and Jung Hoo Lee’s RBI single got Pivetta out of the game for reliever Jeremiah Estrada. The right-handed reliever had allowed two runs in 13 appearances prior. With two outs and two strikes against him, Heliot Ramos singled up the middle, opening an opportunity for scuffling LaMonte Wade Jr., who took a breaking ball outside into the left-field corner for a double to score a pair and cut the Giants’ deficit to one.

The rest of San Diego’s bullpen didn’t allow a baserunner, tossing three perfect innings with four combined strikeouts to tamp down any hint of a comeback.

The sixth-inning double was Adames' second big hit of the game. He stroked an opposite-field solo home run in the fourth inning for the Giants' first hit and first run off Pivetta, who was attacking the zone with his four-seam fastball. That Adames hit a ball 399 feet over the right-field fence was encouraging for the shortstop after a sluggish start to the season. He will be the first to point out that April has been the worst month of his career — his .670 OPS in April is the worst of all six months — and the calendar is turning.

“Every time I’m doing good I hit the fastball the other way,” Adames said. “It’s not a feeling I’ve had since the season started. But it felt great today to hit the fastball that way. It gives me confidence.”

A night against the Padres also served as a reminder that starter Logan Webb’s best may not always pay off. Webb came into his seventh start with a 1.98 ERA and was generating all the soft contact that typically characterizes a successful night for the ace. But all that soft contact found holes and touched grass. Of the nine hits Webb allowed, seven were hit with an exit velocity under 90 mph, but the Padres pushed across five runs against him. A costly four-pitch walk was part of a three-run first inning. In the fourth, a misplay by Ramos in left field on Jason Heyward’s single put Heyward in scoring position and gave way to a two-run inning.

“It’s the same thing they did to me last year,” Webb said. “Some stuff in there that’s unacceptable, the two out walk with the guy on first in the first inning was pretty bad. I thought I did what I wanted to do for the most part. That’s the way it goes, it’s baseball. That’s why it’s a great game. It’s why it’s a (expletive) game.”

Said Adames: “If you watch all the hits they got, they had good ones, but most of them were bloopers. It’s frustrating for Webby to have a day like that the way he’s competing.”

The Padres put the game away in the seventh inning and tagged one of the Giants' most consistent arms with his first runs. Randy Rodriguez, without having allowed a run in his first 11 appearances out of the bullpen, left a slider over the plate for Xander Bogaerts, who yanked it for a two-run home run.

For every punch the Giants could muster, the Padres punched back hard. Though it was a loss, Adames saw some of this team’s better qualities.

“People are starting to see our identity that we aren’t going to back down from anybody,” he said. “We’re going to continue to battle. We’re going to come here and fight. Like I said in spring training, we’re in a better position than people think we are. I will say it again today because I know the talent we have here and confidence we have here and we’re going to continue to try to be better every day and win games.”

(sfchronicle.com)



EVEN IF THE WINE produced in this country stays here, tariffs mean US winemakers face higher costs on everything from bottles — glass mostly imported from China — to labels and corks, to metal posts and wooden stakes for the vines. As for U.S. wine exports, 95% of those come from California, says Gino DiCaro, spokesperson for the Wine Institute. And 35% of exports go to Canada, which now has a serious don’t-buy-American, don’t-go-to-America campaign in effect because of the president’s threats about tariffs and annexing Canada. “(Canadians) are voting with their feet, and there’s a real sense of betrayal and a sense of shock,” said Rana Sarkar, consul general of Canada in San Francisco. “Economic crisis within Canada will no doubt ensue from this, but it will also be deeply painful in the United States.” …

In some cases, the damage is already done. The office of U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, a Democrat whose district includes Napa’s Wine Country, shared anonymized anecdotes from winery owners and managers, who the congressman’s staff said are afraid to go on the record. Thompson’s constituents say their Canadian business partners have canceled hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of orders, and that potential sales to Mexico or the European Union are on hold. One medium-size winery in St. Helena told Thompson’s staff that since the tariffs Trump imposed during his first term, it has lost 90% of its business with China and is no longer seeking to sell there: “China has turned to other wine regions across the globe and we believe rebuilding this market will take over 20 years.”

— Levi Sumagaysay, ‘How tariffs could upend farms, wine businesses,’ CalMatters.org


THE DELTA TUNNEL WILL BURDEN URBAN WATER USERS and Subsidize Corporate Players

by Dan Bacher

The cost of living in California has always been high and it’s getting worse for low-income and working-class residents.

“While the focus typically is on housing, home energy and food, water costs often go overlooked. But water rates have been rising quickly across the state, further stressing household budgets and necessitating public response,” according to a press release from the California Water Impact Network…

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/29/2319501/-The-Delta-Tunnel-Will-Burden-Urban-Water-Users-and-Subsidize-Corporate-Players


The giant sequoia (from Kings Canyon National Park, California, USA) was felled in 1891 at the age of 1,341 years. It had been 101 m tall and just over 5 m in diameter.

TRUMP CUTS MILLIONS IN CALIFORNIA CRIME PREVENTION GRANTS: ‘THIS WAS A SLEDGEHAMMER’

by Cayla Mihalovich

Dozens of California violence prevention and victim service programs, including ones to protect survivors of domestic violence and end sexual abuse in jails and prisons, are facing devastating cuts after the Trump administration abruptly pulled funding from them.

“These programs literally save lives — not just for the victims, but for our entire communities,” said Tinisch Hollins, executive director of the nonprofit organization Californians for Safety and Justice. “When they go away, we lose a safety net.”

The U.S. Justice Department last week slashed grants that were initially valued at $811 million. In California alone, the department cut just over $80 million, the majority of which was for groups based in Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco, according to a U.S. Justice Department document obtained and published by Reuters.

The organizations might have already spent some of the grant funding, which typically lasts for three years, and it’s unclear how much the administration clawed back. They have 30 days to appeal the decision. The U.S. Justice Department did not respond to repeated attempts to confirm the list of affected grant recipients in California.

In a statement to CalMatters, Justice Department spokesman Gates McGavick said, “Under Attorney General (Pam) Bondi’s leadership, the Department of Justice is committed to ensuring its resources are spent on arresting criminals, getting drugs off the streets, and crucial litigation. We will always protect victims of crime and legitimate law enforcement initiatives, but we will no longer spend millions on ‘listening sessions’ and ‘bridging socio-ecological contexts.’”

California officials rejected the Trump administration’s characterization of the grants, and described the programs as critical.

“The Trump administration is recklessly disregarding the safety of the people it is sworn to serve,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta in a statement to CalMatters. “These resources are not optional luxuries, they are essential, and critical to ensuring the security and stability of our communities nationwide. My office will do everything in our power to stop the potentially deadly consequences of freezing federal funding.”

Representatives from three organizations that lost money told CalMatters they were committed to continuing their programs, and they stressed that they provide vital services to vulnerable people.

In Oakland, the nonprofit organization Youth ALIVE! lost its $2 million grant to support the nation’s first hospital-based violence intervention program. The organization’s staff appear at the hospital bedside of youth who have been violently injured in order to help them navigate their recovery and prevent retaliatory violence.

Through ongoing support such as mental health and housing services, the organization maintains that it can break cycles of violence. Last year, it served 113 clients, only one of whom was injured again.

“It’s an essential part of the ecosystem, because you need to be in specific places to help quell violence and help people heal,” said Dr. Joseph Griffin, executive director of Youth ALIVE! “It’s about increasing the health of the community.”

When he learned that the organization had lost its funding, he said he was in disbelief.

“It’s not an impact that we can absorb lightly,” he said. “Replacing $2 million is never easy.”

Elsewhere in Oakland, the organization Impact Justice lost $8.5 million in grant funding.

“This was a sledgehammer,” said Alex Busansky, its founder and president.

The organization was awarded a $4 million grant to expand opportunities for reentry housing for people returning home from prison. It also received three grants totaling $4.5 million to support its work in eliminating sexual abuse and sexual harm from confined facilities, such as prisons and jails.

“To take that away puts the most vulnerable people in a much riskier and potentially harmful situation,” Busansky said.

Asian Women’s Shelter, one of three domestic violence shelters in San Francisco, lost its $500,000 grant to support Arab survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking through connecting them with legal and social services.

The competitive grant had only been awarded to five organizations last year, according to the Asian Women’s Shelter’s communications and community engagement specialist, Saara Ahmed.

“The irony is that the reasons given by the Justice Department is that they’re shifting funding toward law enforcement to combat violent crime and trafficking. But violent crime and trafficking affects survivors so there’s a lot of contradiction,” Ahmed said. “It’s a matter of asking: Whose safety and security are they prioritizing?”

On April 25, over 600 local, state and national organizations, including the Asian Women’s Shelter, signed a letter to Attorney General Bondi expressing “deep concern” over the Justice Department’s federal funding decisions, including the canceled grants.

“This longstanding bipartisan commitment to supporting services and prevention efforts for victims of [domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking and trafficking] remains strong; however, the Department’s recent actions have left these critical lifesaving programs uncertain about their ability to continue serving victims,” advocates wrote.

The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office also lost a grant in the culling. “It is heartbreaking to see funds cut for such critical work,” said San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, whose grant supported at-risk youth and young adults from underserved communities.

“Public safety, at its core, is fewer victims of crime overall. And as a government, we cannot simply be reactionary,” she said. “We have to do the front end, proactive work so that people don’t feel the need to get involved in crime in the first place.”

(CalMatters.org)



CALIF. CONGRESSMAN: TRUMP ADMIN WANTS TO MONETIZE, PRIVATIZE NATIONAL PARKS

by Sam Hill

U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Natural Resources, laid into President Donald Trump in a recent podcast appearance, criticizing his administration’s turbulent management of federal lands, downsizing of staff at national parks and weakening of the Endangered Species Act, among other executive actions.

“I think it’s chaos, in a nutshell,” Huffman said of the Trump administration’s endgame on the National Parks Traveler podcast. “It’s the same thing that we see across the board. From their economic policy to their social policy to their foreign policy, chaos is the point. Chaos is the feature. And it is, frankly, how authoritarians divide us and overwhelm us and consolidate power.”

Cuts to National Park Service staff across the agency have left park scientists and rangers filling in on bathroom cleaning duties ahead of the busy summer season, and yet Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has issued an order for the parks to “remain open and accessible.” Individual park leaders must now consult top Interior Department officials before enacting closures or reductions to operating hours and visitor services.

“It’s going to be difficult for any national park to make it through this summer with any semblance of, you know, the level of service and stewardship that we expect,” Huffman said. “[The Trump administration] wants to spin things off and privatize them and monetize them. They don’t subscribe to this idea of an intergenerational trust where we do things that, you know, might not immediately give us benefits but will benefit our children and grandchildren.”

The California congressman claimed that Burgum sees the country’s public lands as “something on a balance sheet,” an untapped resource that can be monetized to reduce the national debt.

Since the Trump-appointed officials started settling into federal agencies in January, projects to protect public lands have been canceled or put on an indefinite hold, and national parks have been thrown into disarray. Logging operations in national forests are expanding, park properties are slated to be sold off, nonprofits are running into walls trying to get Endangered Species Act designations for threatened animals and operational procedures like park reservation systems remain in limbo.

While these measures may seem disorderly, Huffman believes they are all a part of a wider, well-orchestrated plan.

“It seems to be the end goal for so many federal agencies — basically hollow them out, set them up for failure and then, you know, either destroy them or completely reimagine them and, you know, spin them out to either the states or the private sector,” Huffman said.

The National Parks Traveler, an independent news outlet focused on the parks and other public lands, reported that the first few months of Trump’s second term have been largely defined by Project 2025, a conservative political initiative led by the Heritage Foundation that lays out a detailed revamping of the federal government. Trump distanced himself from the radical plan on the campaign trail, but many recent actions taken by the administration have aligned with the sprawling plan.

Huffman and the publication’s editor-in-chief Kurt Repanshek didn’t bring up Project 2025 on the podcast, but in a blog post promoting the episode, Kepanshek included a breakdown of the project and a list of recent actions by the Trump administration that mirror its aims.

The pair also discussed topics such as staff reductions at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service, efforts to improve wildfire management and the administration’s erasure of climate change education. Huffman and Repanshek came to a similar conclusion on every topic: Federal agencies designed to protect public interests are being dismantled and may never again exist as the public now knows them.

“We have seen political swings in the past as different parties win elections and take power and try to advance their priorities. This one is very different because they are not only trying to move their policies and priorities forward — they are trying to go back and destroy the things that preceded them and make it so that the country can never go back to that,” Huffman said. “It is this very authoritarian, hyper-masculine attempt to fundamentally change and forever control the direction of the country.”

(SFGate.com)



NORTHERN CALIFORNIA FACES RISK FROM TERRIFYING PACIFIC NORTHWEST EARTHQUAKE FAULT

by Tara Duggan

The Cascadia Subduction Zone, a major fault that runs offshore from Northern California to British Columbia, is best known for putting the coast in danger of large earthquakes and tsunamis. A new study sounds another alarm: A big earthquake on the fault could cause land along the coast to sink permanently, increasing its long-term exposure to flooding.

If such a quake happened today, it will likely cause subsidence of anywhere from a half foot to 6 feet along coastal areas between southern Washington and Humboldt Bay, doubling the flood exposure in those areas, according to the authors. Federal, state and local governments should take the risk into consideration along with other factors that go into floodplain maps and flood preparation, such as sea level rise and tsunamis, they argue.

“If you drop the estuaries in those coastal communities down by 2 meters or 6 feet, that’s going to change the frequency of flooding that they experience,” said Tina Dura, the lead author and an assistant professor in geosciences at Virginia Tech.

The potentially impacted areas along the coast are home to airports, major highways, wastewater treatment facilities and housing. Sinking from a major earthquake would add to flood risks accompanying sea level rise, which is already expected to hit Humboldt Bay especially hard because tectonic activity is causing the area to sink.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone is capable of mega earthquakes that can cause tsunamis when water is displaced by the movement of the Juan de Fuca plate being pushed underneath the North American plate. That movement also can cause the land along the water to suddenly drop, Dura explained, increasing the area of the floodplain.

In such a scenario, “All the sea level rise you expected by 2300 is going to happen in minutes,” she said.

While a tsunami would likely also happen at the same time, with potentially devastating consequences, its impact would be relatively short term, compared to earthquake-caused subsidence. “This is a change that is going to persist for decades and centuries,” said Dura.

The study looks at potential subsidence following a major quake of 7.7 to 9.2 magnitude in the Cascadia subduction zone. Through the study of paleoseismology, or the history of earthquakes in an area based on fossils and other evidence, scientists know that such quakes have typically happened along the fault every 450 to 500 years, though some were only 200 to 300 years apart, Dura said.

The last major earthquake on the fault took place in 1700, when low-lying wetlands in the area sank suddenly by up to 6 feet, based on evidence like carbon-dated plant material buried in peat, as well as a tsunami in Japan likely caused by it.

When doing research in tidal zones in the area, Dura said bystanders were often surprised to find out about the earthquake risk. But Dura said a quake in the area could bring a tsunami on the scale of Japan’s 2011 tsunami or the one that hit Sumatra in 2004 that killed hundreds of thousands of people.

The study was funded by the Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center, part of the National Science Foundation. Though the center currently retains its federal funding, Dura said, scientists are concerned about recent staffing cuts at Tsunami Warning Centers in the Pacific region.

“This is a massive disaster looming and we already don’t have enough people on it,” she said. “And so if we’re losing more, that’s really concerning.”

(SF Chronicle)



NEW BOOK OFFERS TANTALIZING NEW CLUES IN THE UNSOLVED CASE OF THE ZODIAC KILLER

James Bigtwin's "The Only Time Richard Got Angry at Me" recounts a first-person experience of one of the primary suspects and new evidence in the still unsolved case of the notorious serial killer - including the possibility that the killer was on the campus of Stanford University

NEW YORK, April 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A new book offers undiscovered evidence that may finally help crack the case of the greatest murder mystery of the 20th Century: the still unknown identity of the notorious Zodiac Killer, who was active in California in the late 1960's. James Bigtwin's The Only Time Richard Got Angry with Me: New Discoveries in the Zodiac Killer Case is a first person account of a multi-year odyssey that began when Bigtwin learned that his long-time acquaintance, Richard Gaikowski, has been accused of being the Zodiac Killer.

The case of the Zodiac Killer has confounded generations of both professional and amateur sleuths, and has generated countless articles, books, podcast episodes, and David Fincher's remarkable 2007 film "Zodiac." But despite all of this attention and fascination with the case, there has been no resolution to the series of murders that terrorized the Bay Area in the late 1960's. Until now.

"Richard was a friend," said Bigtwin, author of The Only Time Richard Got Angry with Me. "When I first learned he was a suspect in the Zodiac killings, I was incredulous, but I then remembered this strange moment when he got uncharacteristically angry – about astrology. It gave me pause and spurred me to learn about the Zodiac case. While I initially didn't believe I had anything to add, my discoveries years later in the archives of Stanford student publications - the Stanford Chaparral and Daily - blew my mind and are too great to dismiss."

Bigtwin's new book lays out a meticulous string of evidence and discoveries based around some as yet unknown facts, raising questions including:

• Is there evidence that the Zodiac Killer was on the Stanford University campus in 1969 and 1971?
• Are there clues hidden in issues of the Stanford Daily and Stanford Chaparral that could upend the entire Zodiac case?
• Will a single out of character moment of anger more than thirty years ago be the one mistake that solves the Zodiac case?

The Only Time Richard Got Angry at Me is a firsthand account of the prankings, ravings, and the counterculture, art and computer scenes on the Stanford campus in the 1960's to the 1980's - and exposes the possibility that one of the 20th Century's most elusive serial killers might have been hiding in plain site on one of our nation's most illustrious campuses. It's an essential addition to the library of any serial killer obsessive as well as an engaging account that might crack the case of one of the greatest murder mysteries of the last century.

"If Zodiac was at Stanford, this also changes our perception of four campus murders of the early 70s, one of which is still a cold case," said Bigtwin. "Once I put it all together, the Zodiac-Mikado connection, the Geikie bylines, the fake Chaparral issue, and the two Message to the Zodiac editorials, one at Stanford and one by the main accuser of Gaikowski, I knew I had to come forward with my discoveries."

The Only Time Richard Got Angry at Me is available now at Amazon as well as in independent bookstores nationwide.

About James Bigtwin: James Bigtwin Is a 1988 graduate of Stanford University, where he was editor of the Stanford Chaparral. An award-winning computer artist, he created virtual sets for ABC News, ESPN, Discovery and others; creator of Digital Hachiko, animated character of Japan's legendary dog; performed at Montreux Jazz Festival; had 3 songs played on Dr. Demento; worked with Dr. John C. Lilly; programed an underwater touchscreen computer for dolphin-human communication research; founder of Technoromantics NYC parties; co-founder of Disorient; organized a Guinness World Record for the largest serving of fried chicken; is the basis for the cartoon character Jim on the cult TV show Mission Hill; and drawn thousands of mandalas on self-programmed software. For more information visit the site www.theonlytime.org



1885 CHINESE EXPULSION AND CHARLIE MOON

Chinese immigrants in the nineteenth century faced much discrimination from residents in Humboldt County, as well as throughout the entire United States. Early racism and stereotyping by fellow miners and union leaders led to job exclusion and legislation against the Chinese. Much of this was fueled by the idea that Chinese immigrants were taking jobs from whites. Nonetheless, large groups of Chinese were living and working throughout all settled parts of Humboldt and Trinity Counties. So much so that there were Chinatowns in most all settlements, in which opium dens, taverns, and brothels were common.

(In 1885, a Eureka city councilman was shot and killed by a Chinese gambler in Eureka. Angry whites promptly compelled all of the coastal Chinese to depart for San Francisco by boat, leaving only a few of their countrymen remaining in the hills of Humboldt County. Charlie Moon was one of these few.

Charlie Moon left his home in China when he was 11, traveling in the hold of a ship until he reached San Francisco. He soon headed north with his brother and some other men who planned to work at the Klamath River mines. Believing that he was too young and small to work with them, the group left Charlie in Arcata, where he got a job cleaning up burned houses.

Then Tom Bair came along, taking Charlie to his Maple Creek ranch, where he learned to cook, keep a vegetable garden, and do other work. Charlie had firmly established himself at Bair’s second ranch, on Redwood Creek when, in 1885, a posse of 10 vigilantes from the coast came for him. Boldly, Tom Bair stood up to the posse claiming they would have to come through him and his shotgun to take Charlie Moon.

Charlie remained at the ranch for many, many years. He married Minnie, a local Chilula woman and raised a large family. He was one of the very few Chinese immigrants who remained a resident of Humboldt County after the expulsion of 1885.

(Redheaded Blackbelt/Kymkemp.com)


HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED who gets assassinated? It’s always people who tell us to live together in harmony and try to love one another. Jesus, Gandhi, Lincoln, John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, John Lennon… They all basically said, Try to live together peacefully. Bam! Right in the head. Apparently we’re not ready for that.

— George Carlin


LEAD STORIES, WEDNESDAY'S NYT

Trump Marks 100 Days by Vilifying Migrants and Attacking Opponents

Trump Grants Carmakers Some Relief From His Punishing Tariffs

Trump Says He Could Free Abrego Garcia From El Salvador, but Won’t

More Than 50,000 Workers Go on Strike as Budget Woes Disrupt L.A. County

With Black Enrollment Down, Amherst College Faces an Identity Crisis

European Anti-Tourism Groups Plan June 15 Disruptions


ON-LINE DELUSION OF THE DAY

President Trump’s first 100 days, he’s doing pretty good getting things done, correcting a lot of problems from the last Administration. Of course opposition and progressives in general, and idiots overall are out there chanting all the wrong he is doing, and problems he’s causing. But they really aren’t real.



THE VIETNAM AND GAZA WARS SHATTERED YOUNG ILLUSIONS ABOUT U.S. LEADERS

by Norman Solomon

Eight years before the U.S.-backed regime in South Vietnam collapsed, I stood with high school friends at Manhattan’s Penn Station on the night of April 15, 1967, waiting for a train back to Washington after attending the era’s largest antiwar protest so far. An early edition of the next day’s New York Times arrived on newsstands with a big headline at the top of the front page that said “100,000 Rally at U.N. Against Vietnam War.” I heard someone say, “Johnson will have to listen to us now.”

But President Lyndon Johnson dashed the hopes of those who marched from Central Park to the United Nations that day (with an actual turnout later estimated at 400,000). He kept escalating the war in Vietnam, while secretly also bombing Laos and Cambodia.

During the years that followed, antiwar demonstrations grew in thousands of communities across the United States. The decentralized Moratorium Day events on October 15, 1969 drew upward of 2 million people. But all forms of protest fell on deaf official ears. A song by the folksinger Donovan, recorded midway through the decade, became more accurate and powerful with each passing year: “The War Drags On.”

As the war continued, so did the fading of trust in the wisdom and morality of Johnson and his successor, Richard Nixon. Gallup polls gauged the steep credibility drop. In 1965, just 24 percent of Americans said involvement in the Vietnam War had been a mistake. By the spring of 1971, the figure was 61 percent.

The number of U.S. troops in Vietnam gradually diminished from the peak of 536,100 in 1968, but ground operations and massive U.S. bombing persisted until the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in late January 1973. American forces withdrew from Vietnam, but the war went on with U.S. support for 27 more months, until – on April 30, 1975 – the final helicopter liftoff from the roof of the U.S. embassy in Saigon signaled that the Vietnam War was indeed over.

By then, most Americans were majorly disillusioned. Optimism that public opinion would sway their government’s leaders on matters of war and peace had been steadily crushed while carnage in Southeast Asia continued. To many citizens, democracy had failed – and the failure seemed especially acute to students, whose views on the war had evolved way ahead of overall opinion.

At the end of the 1960s, Gallup found “significantly more opposition to President Richard Nixon’s Vietnam policies” among students at public and private colleges than in “a parallel survey of the U.S. general public: 44 percent vs. 25 percent, respectively.” The same poll “showed 69 percent of students in favor of slowing down or halting the fighting in Vietnam, while only 20 percent favored escalation. This was a sharp change from 1967, when more students favored escalation (49 percent) than de-escalation (35 percent).”

Six decades later, it took much less time for young Americans to turn decisively against their government’s key role of arming Israel’s war on Gaza. By a wide margin, continuous huge shipments of weapons to the Israeli military swiftly convinced most young adults that the U.S. government was complicit in a relentless siege taking the lives of Palestinian civilians on a large scale.

A CBS News/YouGov poll in June 2024 found that Americans opposed sending “weapons and supplies to Israel” by 61-39 percent. Opposition to the arms shipments was even higher among young people. For adults under age 30, the ratio was 77-23.

Emerging generations learned that moral concerns about their country’s engagement in faraway wars meant little to policymakers in Washington. No civics textbook could prepare students for the realities of power that kept the nation’s war machine on a rampage, taking several million lives in Southeast Asia or supplying weapons making possible genocide in Gaza.

For vast numbers of Americans, disproportionately young, the monstrous warfare overseen by Presidents Johnson and Nixon caused the scales to fall from their eyes about the character of U.S. leadership. And like President Trump now, President Biden showed that nice-sounding rhetoric could serve as a tidy cover story for choosing to enable nonstop horrors without letup.

No campaign-trail platitudes about caring and joy could make up for a lack of decency. By remaining faithful to the war policies of the president they served, while discounting the opinions of young voters, two Democratic vice presidents – Hubert Humphrey and Kamala Harris – damaged their efforts to win the White House.

A pair of exchanges on network television, 56 years apart, are eerily similar.

In August 1968, appearing on the NBC program Meet the Press, Humphrey was asked: “On what points, if any, do you disagree with the Vietnam policies of President Johnson?”

“I think that the policies that the president has pursued are basically sound,” Humphrey replied.

In October 2024, appearing on the ABC program The View, Harris was asked: “Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?”

“There is not a thing that comes to mind,” Harris replied.

Young people’s votes for Harris last fall were just 54 percent, compared to 60 percent that they provided to Biden four years earlier.

Many young eyes recognized the war policy positions of Hubert Humphrey and Kamala Harris as immoral. Their decisions to stay on a war train clashed with youthful idealism. And while hardboiled political strategists opted to discount such idealism as beside the electoral point, the consequences have been truly tragic – and largely foreseeable.

(Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. The paperback edition of his latest book, "War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine," includes an afterword about the Gaza war.)


Flag (1954) by Jasper Johns

32 Comments

  1. Craig Stehr April 30, 2025

    It is with great sadness to read the news that the Alex R. Thomas Jr. Plaza in downtown Ukiah might be demolished to make way for commercial development. In the ongoing insanity of my social situation in postmodern America, both Niko and Stevie Thomas are okay with my making use of the plaza as a living space. After all, their grandmother Gay wrote the check which paid for it from her retirement digs in San Francisco. None of the rodeo clowns in Mendocino County did anything to realize this much needed green space. In addition to needing a pick up at the Santa Rosa airport if I come in, I will need a housing situation. As a 75 year young American citizen, the “experiment in freedom and democracy” needs to pull its lost, chaotic, bankrupt head out of its ass and get real with me. Of course for that, you need to be sane! How’s everybody doing today? Contact me here: Craig Louis Stehr, Adam’s Place Homeless Shelter, 2210 Adams Place NE #1, Washington, D.C. 20018, Telephone messages, which Catholic Charities will accept: (202) 832-8317, Email me at: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com No groovy closure. Supply your own if needed. Sayonara, Baby! ;-))

    • Craig Stehr April 30, 2025

      Prior to Being–Nisargadatta Maharaj

  2. Bob Abeles April 30, 2025

    And just like that, the AVA has taken me back to high school. “Et tu Brute.” There’s our beloved English teacher, doing his level best to manufacture life-long haters of English literature. For the remedial readers, he’s serving up a heaping portion of humiliation, going up and down the rows, demanding readings of Julius Caesar, all the while interrupting and correcting like a magpie on speed. There I am, watching the leaves of a Sycamore invert and show their shiny undersides in a sudden breeze.

  3. Lee Edmundson April 30, 2025

    The Democrats of the US Senate need to chuck Chuck, id est, replace Senator Chuck Schumer of New York State as their minority leader in the US Senate.
    I’d like to see John Fetterman, Senator of Pennsylvania assume the mantle.
    Of course that’s not going to happen.
    The Dems are rudderless. If Bernie Sanders was (even) 20 years younger, he would be the Dems presidential nominee. The Party put their thumbs on the scale against him in 2016 and 2020; and so they’re strapped to Chuck. The Party sabotaged Howard Dean’s campaign.
    The “Party” is the Democrats greatest enemy. Not Trump. Not the MAGAtes. Party Democrats are the presenting enemy of the Party.
    Kamala Harris needs to P or get off the pot: Governor of California? It might be a nice sinecure for her. President of the United States…ain’t gonna happen. She should throw her support to someone who can actually bring the Democratic Party victories in the 2026 mid-terms, and beat JD Vance for the Presidency in 2028.
    Maybe the Dems are smart, maybe not. We’ll see.
    In the meantime, we get to witness — and to live through — Trump’s evisceration of world trade agreements, federal social, medical, scientific, foreign aid and research programs… and more.
    Welcome to Trump 2.0. Dems? Any Answers?
    Stay tuned.

    • Chuck Dunbar April 30, 2025

      My Answer–J.B. Pritzker–“It’s time to fight everywhere and all at once. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace.”

      This guy is tough and smart. I am through for now with women as candidates for president. This next time we need a rough, hard guy–Dems needs to stop with the niceties, wake the hell up, get over woke stuff, and push back hard. Tell the truth, fight for the working men and women of this country, the ones who truly hold the place together. This guy could do it.

      • Norm Thurston April 30, 2025

        I think Sean Patrick Mahoney, former Representative from NY, would also fit the bill.

        • Norm Thurston April 30, 2025

          “Maloney”

      • Harvey Reading April 30, 2025

        Female candidates are fine with me, as long as they don’t support genocide like Harris did.

    • George Hollister April 30, 2025

      To be effective the candidate needs to be his own man (person). Kamala Harris was the opposite. She is old enough to know better. John Fetterman certainly is his own man, but this brings up another problem, getting nominated. Newsom has indicated an effort to think for himself, but again, he has to win the nomination. An independent nonpartisan president seems to be in our future.

    • Bruce Anderson April 30, 2025

      I don’t think the MAGA Gang intends to leave.

  4. Me April 30, 2025

    LOVE the Yorkville sign/mural by local artists!! Well done!

    • Marshall Newman April 30, 2025

      +1

  5. Chuck Artigues April 30, 2025

    Say what you will about SFMOMA, at ground level, FOR FREE, there is the great Diego Rivera mural Pan American Unity that was done on Treasure Island in 1940 for the Golden Gate International Exposition. If you are in the area, well worth a visit at twice the price.
    My favorite encounter of Chinese Women on MUNI; my Mom used to live out near Aquatic Park and one Xmas Season afternoon me and a bunch of my siblings had been shopping and cocktailing downtown, it’s the time of year right? So we are waiting for the 30 Stockton and it starts to rain, hard! The bus finally shows up, we scramble onboard. Unfortunately a bunch of us have paper bags with presents in them (no plastic allowed) and the bags are disintegrating. Three different Chinese Ladies see our problem, and whip out plastic bags from their personal stash and offer them to us!

  6. Jim Armstrong April 30, 2025

    Somehow David Brooks has gotten famous.
    Here is a paragraph from his opinion piece in Monday’s SRPD:

    “To understand why taking the initiative is so important, it’s best to read military grand strategists such as Sun Tzu, Carl von Clausewitz, Martin van Creveld, B.H. Liddell Hart and John Boyd. I find it insane that it’s now possible to graduate from a four-year college without having read any of these thinkers. Such students emerge unprepared for a frequently adversarial world.”

    Insane?
    Anyone here claim familiarity with those “thinkers”?
    Not me.

    • Bruce Anderson April 30, 2025

      Brooks is, ah, uh, well….. Maureen Dowd is the only interesting writer in the NYT’s stable of received wisdom hacks.

    • George Hollister April 30, 2025

      Sun Tzu, “The Art Of War” should be read by anyone who is a military officer, is President, or in Congress. Carl von Clausewitz is a much longer book that says essentially the same thing as Tzu. I will have to check out the other three. War is reality, and that will remain. It is best to read up on those with timeless wisdom on the subject.

      • Bruce McEwen April 30, 2025

        I read Clausewitz in college history class but I read the Art of War when it hit the Best Seller list — not for military academies — but for B-school grads in the Eighties; its influence on the predatory marketplace today can be traced back, if you care to look in to it assiduously enough.

      • Lee Edmundson April 30, 2025

        “The true warrior never has to unsheath their sword.” — Sun Tzu.

        • Jim Armstrong April 30, 2025

          “The only chance of life lies in giving up all hope of it.” ~ Sun Tzu

        • Bruce McEwen May 1, 2025

          Forget Sun Tzu, Lee. Go back to the Iliad. What was Agamemnon’s problem? He couldn’t unite the various sects and tribes of Greeks against the Trojans; the same trouble Techumseh had, uniting the tribes against the English settlers; the same problem Lawrence had with uniting the Arabs; in short, our problem is uniting the different groups and political factions against the MAGAs, and the DNC can’t seem to get it done because they’re too corrupt … there’s your problem and Sun Tzu can’t help you.

          The VA now is sending out all these computer game deals to us vets, and I find it highly suspicious, to profit the tech companies, and, worse, to distract us from any immanent threat…!

  7. Jacob April 30, 2025

    RE AG WON’T ACT
    I believe the way to deal with the issue of selectively blocked comments is to file a legal challenge in court, no one else is likely to address the issue through other means.

  8. Mike Geniella April 30, 2025

    A CLARIFICATION IS NEEDED. Some believe the City of Ukiah intends to demolish Alex R. Thomas Plaza. A fledgling petition drive has been launched to block such a move. It is based, apparently, on comments I included in a recent article on the construction of a new $144 million Mendocino County Courthouse, and how a completed project will bring significant changes to downtown Ukiah. In a lengthy interview, Deputy City Manager Shannon Riley mentioned the possibility of the city acquiring the current courthouse site – the historic heart of downtown since 1860 – and recreating the Thomas Plaza there. That move would open up the historic center of town to the public, instead of being developed commercially, or worse yet, allowing the squat, 1950s current courthouse, owned by the County of Mendocino, to become another white elephant downtown. To date, county representatives have not publicly discussed future uses of the current building. The existing Thomas Plaza is located on downtown’s southern edge, not in Ukiah’s historic center. Relocating Thomas Plaza is not a new idea. Two years ago, a group promoted demolishing the current courthouse and turning the site into a new Thomas Plaza. It included the notion that the Mendocino County Museum would take over the limestone-clad courthouse addition fronting School Street for use. It is time for responsible county officials to begin public discussions about the fate of the current courthouse and site, and not leave it up to speculation.

  9. Call It As I See It April 30, 2025

    I love all the Libtards suggesting who they think should be the leader of their party, one big problem , you have no message or common sense.

    1- covered up Biden’s mental state, along with the media
    2- Lies that have caused Americans to doubt your credibility
    3- the border fiasco
    4- transgenders playing in women’s sports, what happen to Title IX which your party swore to protect
    5- criminals are the victims, no bail, crime by illegals and you support the illegal
    6- Americans have caught on to your gaslighting
    7- Hunter Biden’s laptop, Russia Hoax, Trials of Trump, Failed Impeachments
    8- Disrespectful to the blue collar worker
    9- Hypocrisy
    10- Attempted take down of Elon Musk backfired as he exposed the waste that the Biden Administration tried to cover up
    11- Colleges and schools have been feeding grounds of DEI
    12- Religion has been under attack by Liberals using the Justice System
    13- Censorship confirmed by your hero Zuckerberg
    I could go on and on!
    Your approval rating is 21% as a party

    When you realize your hate for one man is more important than America and it’s citizens, maybe you can start fresh and get back to reality.

    • Bruce Anderson April 30, 2025

      How about a new insult, Call. ‘Libtard’ is worn out.

      • Call It As I See It April 30, 2025

        Just for you, I’ll think of something.

    • Marshall Newman April 30, 2025

      Name calling is the last resort of those unable to make cogent arguments.

      • Call It As I See It April 30, 2025

        And there it is, the hypocrisy. Who calls certain people Hitler, Fascists. How about all the tough guy cussing Democrats have been doing.

        • Jurgen Stoll April 30, 2025

          Name calling and whining, gee who does that remind me of?

    • Norm Thurston April 30, 2025

      Zzzzzzzzzz…

  10. Chuck Dunbar April 30, 2025

    Man oh man, I make a brief comment this morning, go out into the garden to clean-up a hell of a mess–working slowly but surely on this for weeks now. At my older age, I have become the tortoise. Then, tired out, come back in, look at and admire the many comments–all the world’s problems solved by all those commenters, working together as one. Good work, folks!

  11. Douglas Rutchman April 30, 2025

    O.K. So dude as he sees it uses the term libtard.
    Point of order!
    Still there is the list…

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