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STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 44F under clear skies this Thursday morning on the coast. Our forecast is for clear with a mild breeze, however, changes are underway with clouds & cooling temps on their way so be ready for conditions to change. Largely mostly clear & cooler is our forecast going into the holiday weekend although some high clouds & fog could make the scene.
SLIGHT CHANCE of drizzle along the north coast Thursday morning. Upper level disturbances for the rest of this week and weekend will bring cooling temperatures. Another period of warm temperatures and high pressure this weekend before and another chance for light rain Sunday into Monday. (NWS)
ERIC BLOYD: LION OF THE YEAR
by Terry Sites
The Anderson Valley Lion’s Club is proud to announce that their president (for the last eight years) Eric Bloyd was named “Lion of the Year” at the 66th Annual District 4-C2 Lion’s Club Convention held May 16-18th at the Holiday Inn in Dublin (California). Eric is also the District Zone Chairperson.
As Zone Chair he travels to other Mendocino County Lion’s Clubs assisting them in their various projects and helping them to find solutions to their organizational problems.
The engraved plaque presented to Eric reads, “Lion of the Year Award to Eric Bloyd in recognition of outstanding service, loyalty and devotion to Lionism in District 4C-2 2024-2025”
The overarching mission of the Lions Club is “We Serve Our Community.” In this current moment where it seems looking out for the needs of others has lost ground, the Lions’ Club is holding steady. At the convention members had a chance to meet with many officers from other areas of the state and country. Daniel Simpson who is First Vice District Governor and has been a Lion in Rio Vista since 1996 is representative of other Lion officers. With a long history of service to his community his personal motto is, “Mindset is everything.” Deborah Cantrell whose motto is “We rise when we lift others up” is the International Director for 2024-2026 who joined the Lebanon Host Lions in 2004. She also has a long leadership resume.
Reaching out to Eric, Deborah handed him a small plastic box containing eight small objects, each one a reminder of the best in every individual Lion. A toothpick: reminder that the Lions only pick the best. A rubber band: reminder that Lions are flexible — Blindness, Measles, Disaster Relief, Hunger, Diabetes, Pediatric Care, the Environment, Youth Mentorship — are all concerns of the Lions Club. A battery: Lions have a lot of energy to serve others. They keep going and going. A quarter: Lions are not paid because they are worthless but because they are priceless. A candy: because there is nothing sweeter than helping those in need. A Paperclip: a reminder that Lions help hold things together when things fall apart. A tissue: because Lions wipe away tears of sadness every single day and they also create tears of happiness. A candle: to remember that in 1925 Helen Keller challenged the Lions to be “Knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness.”
A brochure that was available at the convention addressed the question, “Why should I consider becoming a Lion?”
The reasons included; We make new friends with a common purpose (around the globe). Being a Lion is a rewarding experience. There are world-class training and opportunities to grow as volunteers. Lions develop young leaders (by being an example to youth).
The brochure asks, “Will you share your talents?” Together WE can do more. Alone WE can do so little and together WE can do so much. The Lions are the largest service organization in the world — 15 million strong now. Founded in 1917.
As a member of the Anderson Valley Lions Club I can say that the promises the brochure makes are real. I joined the Lions club under president Christine Clark who served for 26 long years and whose father was the founding president of the AV club and then under president Bill Harper for ten years and now with Eric for eight.
Each year has brought more rewards in friendship, satisfaction of a job well done with able teammates, knowing we can push through difficulties to get to the other side. It hasn’t all been easy but it has all been good.
If you are interested in joining the local Lions to help us serve our community we would welcome you. You can do some research on the club at www.lionsclubs.org. You can call our secretary Mea at 707 489-7026.
We meet once a month on the third Monday at 6:00 for a potluck dinner at the AV Grange Hall followed by a business meeting. It is an opportunity to meet people outside of your usual social circle; people who care enough to do something for others. When we are working together (which is really what we do best) we have a lot of fun along with what can be some pretty hard work.
We feel connected in a very old school, positive way as we work together. It is undeniably true that the most lasting happiness comes from making others happy. The Lions Club with its emphasis on service is a simple old-fashioned and sturdy way to both do good and feel really good.
LOCAL EVENTS
REPORT FROM A SMALL FARM IN BOONVILLE
Whew, we just harvested 400 Russian Tzan hard neck garlic! A back breaking job, but it smells good. I also collected the scapes (flower stalks) which Trudy has already canned. Once pulled, the entire garlic plant must be laid flat, out of full sun, and given enough room to breathe while it dries down. Finding space for so much garlic is difficult, and this is the first to ripen of the five different hard neck varieties we planted. In total there will be 800+ heads.
Eight hundred garlic heads may seem like a lot but the kitchen goes through it in a year since nearly all of our canned pickled products take garlic as an ingredient, and what’s left we pickle as whole cloves. These garlics are both spicy and flavorful. Once dried, the head needs to be detached from the plant, the roots trimmed, and the dried greens composted. I then select the 10-15 largest heads to set aside for the November planting, because the biggest cloves grow the biggest heads. We’ve found that keeping garlic visible in the kitchen is not a good idea since every customer who sees it wants to buy some. We just can’t produce enough to supply both our canning needs and our customers’ desires!
Juan made two grafts to one of two rootstock pear trees earlier this spring. We grafted one tree to Magness and one to Warren, both dessert pears. Several of the grafts seem to have taken on each tree. Once they are strong enough, we’ll cut the rootstock head back and let the trees fill out.
Take care and stay healthy. Also, please be careful about what you eat, there are lots of recalls and food deaths lately.
Nikki Auschitt and Steve Krieg
MCHCD, ADVENTIST HEALTH, AND THE FUTURE OF FORT BRAGG’S HOSPICE THRIFT STORE
by Malcolm Macdonald
There’s an interesting struggle playing out within the Mendocino Coast Health Care District Board of Directors around the subject of the Hospice Thrift Store in Fort Bragg. As part of the affiliation with Adventist Health in 2020, the control of the thrift store fell under the purview of Adventist Health.
Let’s just tell the tale in the words of the participants.
On May 9, MCHCD Board member Paul Katzeff sent out the following message to his constituents:
“Today, May 9th, is my 864th day serving on the board of the Mendocino Coast Healthcare District. I want to thank you for voting for me in the 2024 election. I was informed by the governor’s office that I was the oldest elected official in the California 2024 election cycle. (87 years old.)
In The Works:
Currently, I am working on our community’s hospice thrift store situation. It’s in the Boatyard Shopping Center west of David’s deli. Here’s what’s happening:
- Adventist Health inherited the store when it took responsibility for our hospitals, patient care.
- Adventist Health has asked the MCHCD to take possession of the store.
- The MCHCD board has not agreed to this plan and has set up an ad hoc committee to investigate options other than MCHCD ownership, supervision, plus oversight.
- Susan Savage and I are members of that ad hoc committee.
- The hospice store is a viable business, profitable and self-supporting.
- The store is also the facility that warehouses used prosthetic devices that are recycled to needy patients in our community. This is a service organized and overseen by Friends of Health (board chair, Cynthia Wall)
There is a belief among those of us who have met to discuss this “Hospice” in name only thrift store, that it can be the seed for a greater center focused on elder advocacy, which now is needed more than ever in our community as the 60s and 70s hippies plus plus artists are now, 50 years later in their 70s and 80s, often living alone on the ridges in homes that they’ve raised families in, but now require more fireplace wood than they can carry or are suffering from isolation, depression, and having given up their cars, driving no more, and are lonely and socially isolated.
Adding to that stress, the County building department is red-tagging homes, causing code upgrades, and harassing a generation of our community that needs “advocacy.” It has been suggested that the hospice store can be a place where volunteers can be organized to help our elders who need help.”
Katzeff’s message concluded with a notice about an upcoming get together: “On May 28th, a meeting of the interested parties will take place.
Time: 4 pm
Location:303 W. Redwood St. Downtown Fort Bragg
Upstairs in the Company Store; north west corner of the building across from Cafe Dijon.”
On May 20 Katzeff sent this email to Jeff Mock, Chief Financial Officer for Adventist Health in Mendocino County:
“As a result of AH Lease negotiations [in the fall of 2024] we have been looking for a solution. If you have one, come to the meeting and tell us about it. There are two attachments that can get you up to speed.”
About an hour later, Mock responded, citing a conversation involving Paul Garza, MCHCD Board Chair:
“To best serve our community, I propose a collaborative communication regarding the future of the Hospice Thrift Store, as both Adventist Health (AH) and the District have independently decided to discontinue its operation.
For clarity, in Q3 2024, our team discussed the Thrift Store’s future with the District, noting that AH’s expertise lies in healthcare rather than thrift store operations. Consequently, the District requested time to evaluate assuming operations, and AH committed to providing financial support and resources for existing staff through Q2 2025. Subsequently, the District informed AH of its decision not to operate the Thrift Store.
To ensure a positive message for the community, I believe a joint statement reflecting our mutual decision is ideal. This approach avoids any perception of blame and aligns with our shared goal of fostering positive sentiment, as discussed by Paul Garza at the recent AH Community Board meeting. A unified message will reinforce AH’s and the District’s commitment to enhancing healthcare quality on the coast.
I’ve included our Marketing and Communications Director, Luke McMurray, to assist in crafting this statement. My request is for both parties to collaborate on a communication that acknowledges this decision while emphasizing our focus on improving patient care.
Paul, Kathy, and Paul, do you agree to proceed with a joint community communication? Please let me know your thoughts.”
The “Paul, Kathy, and Paul” comment by Mock appears to reference Paul Garza, Kathy Wylie, and Paul Katzeff. It is interesting in that Mock seems to be placing Wylie, the agency administrator employed by Regional Government Services (RGS) on equal footing as the two elected MCHCD Board members.
Early on May 21, Katzeff answered back:
“Slow down, the timing is June 30 (end Q2) which is enough time to save the resource or morph it into a different resource . The store is self supporting at this time and will be for the next month and it does not require much AH oversight. I was assigned to explore and find options and report back to the MCHCD Board. The Board and I have made it very clear that we are looking for a solution or at best, a transition that serves the community. To that end, I have asked interested organizations and local luminaries to discuss (brainstorm) the issue. There are many, 45 to be exact, non profits who might jump at the chance to enhance their survival by this cash flow operation. How can they step forward if they are not aware? I was elected to solve problems and represent my constituents and more specifically, my demographic. So although my Board would love to wash its hands of this, I believe it would harm its reputation to prematurely issue a statement which I could not, and would not support until I believe all options were identified and explored.
You have to realize that I have lived here 53 years and consider myself a Citizen first and a Board member second, and my responsibility is to my friends who voted for me and expect me to be me and not some “go along to get along” administrator/ Politician. This situation is already in the community’s conversation and I intend to protect the reputation of the MCHCD Board from a hasty declaration with AH. Let’s see what happens first.
Why don’t you come to the Community Meeting on the 28th and speak about AH and why it is needing to end its ownership at this time? I am on your side. You never know what the unknown will bring. It may bring an Angel!”
MINA!
You aren’t a complete Mendo person until you’ve driven the Mina Road out of Covelo.
SAVE MENDO’S WATER TOWER
AVA,
We have a historic water tower in Mendocino that the owner, who inherited the property a couple of years ago and lives in Ferndale, was denied three times by the Mendocino Historical Review Board to demolish it.
Her name is Jennifer Raymond. She hired attorney Brian Momsen, who appealed it to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday for her. Ted Williams voted to keep it, all four of the other Supervisors voted to demolish it.
This is a large water tower on Main Street. It is part of the character of Mendocino. There is a rule in the Town Plan and Mendocino Historic Guidelines that everything in the Historic District, which has the designation as a Federal Historic District (the whole town) must be preserved.
County Planning Director Julia Krog surprisingly supported taking it down. A group of citizens may be filing an appeal with the California Coastal Commission within 10 days.
Ted Williams is in support of keeping it.
Besides mine, there were numerous other letters in support of keeping it that were submitted as public comment, and there is a Mendocino Beacon article of when the demolition was denied by the MHRB board.
The property is on the market for sale, it is a mystery as to why Jennifer Raymond is so adamant about taking it down. She lives in Ferndale, the water tower makes her property more valuable.
Here is the listing: 45040 Main Street - Pamelahudson
Thanks,
Deirdre Lamb, Broker
Mendocino Realty Company
CORRECTION: Haschak Voted Against Mulheren’s Tax-Sharing Agreement
Supervisor John Haschak: “Just reading the May 15, 2025 Observer. Mark Scaramella says that I voted for the tax sharing agreement which is wrong. As you know, I was very much against the scheme but it was a 4-1 vote. Also, the CEO was against it. Thanks and hope to see you soon.”
Jim Shields: “Apologize for that, John, I should have caught it but didn’t. That’s on me since I wrote a couple of columns and said on my Saturday KPFN show a number of times, that you were the only supervisor who figured out that that the City of Ukiah had hornswoggled the BOS with what looks like a very bad deal. Again, my apologies.”
Mark Scaramella adds: That tax sharing vote was held last June, almost a year ago. Apparently I forgot what I reported at the time: “In the end the Supes voted 4-1 to approve the [tax sharing] agreement with two of the votes in favor by lame duck supervisors who won’t be around when the [estimated] $3 million a year is gone. Supervisor Haschak was the lone holdout saying he didn’t think the agreement had been thought through or planned well.” So Haschak is right, he voted against it. As of Tuesday’s meeting the Board is finally starting to realize how bad a deal it was. I’ll have more on that coming soon.
MENDO HISTORY MYSTERY
Check out this curious object someone found on a beach near Albion! The outer part is wood with a rusty, fragmental metal core, which they thought might be part of an old cable.
We’re stumped, and now we’re turning to YOU—our history-loving community—for clues. Have you seen anything like this before?
If you have any ideas or know anything about this object, please let us know! We’d love to hear your thoughts.
Sunday: Annual Book Sale at Kelley House Museum. May 25, 10am to 3pm. Stop by for a great selection of history and art books at low prices. Curated by Katy Tahja.
ANOTHER MAJOR VICTORY BY DA’S OFFICE: Defendant Found Guilty Of Violating Court Orders
A Mendocino County Superior Court jury returned from its deliberations Tuesday afternoon after only 25 minutes of deliberations to announce it had found the trial defendant guilty.
Defendant Judah Bell, age 53, generally of Napa, was found guilty of two counts of Violating a Court Order, involving credible threats of violence and stalking. The violations occurred on January 24th and January 31st of 2025.
The law enforcement agency that investigated the violations was the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office.
The prosecutor who presented the People’s evidence to the jury was Deputy District Attorney Nathan Mamo.
Retired Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Richard Henderson, sitting by assignment, presided over the two-day trial.
The defendant was ordered to return to court on June 10th at 9 o’clock in the morning in Department H for formal sentencing.
(DA Presser)
JOHNNY PINCHES: ‘KNOCKING ‘EM IN THE HEAD.’
by Jim Shields
This past Saturday, I sent out the following email to E-Observer subscribers as well as others:
Hello Everybody,
I have some very sad news. My good friend John Pinches passed away today.
Johnny has been hospitalized for the past week. The family is requesting for a bit of time to deal privately with Johnny’s passing.
Johnny was a good, good, good man who always cared about and represented the best interests of working people and salt-of-the earth ordinary folks who had no one fighting for them. And he accomplished it all with old-school charm, down-home witty humor, and fierce commitment to finish what he started, even if he didn’t always win.
I can say with no fear of contradiction, we won’t see another Johnny Pinches in our lifetimes.
Johnny and I worked together for many years, he as a supervisor, and me as an advocate for good government. We won some and we lost some, but overall we had one hell of a good time doing what Johnny called “Knocking ‘em in the head.”
Here’s a piece I wrote 25 years ago that reveals what Johnny was all about. Pinches served on the Board of Supervisors for a total of 12 years, first from 1995 to 1999, and again from 2007 to 2015.
Pinches Rips Board of Supervisors
by Jim Shields (June 20, 2000)
Former 3rd District Supervisor John Pinches paid a visit to his former colleagues at the Board of Supervisors regular Tuesday meeting. He didn’t drop by to shoot the breeze or socialize.
Pinches was calling on the Supes because “what spurred me coming down here — aside from (the BOS) giving 50 thousand dollars (for commuter vans) to a billion dollar-profit corporation (Fetzer) — instead of dust-coating some of the rural roads, was because of what happened last week. The authorization (by the Supes) to go out and borrow 24 million dollars kind of tipped me over the edge. I wanted to come down here before the budget process started so I could talk about what I feel is a major malfunction of the budget process.”
He was referring to a decision last week where the Supes approved the issuance of a $24 million Certificates of Participation (C.O.P.). In layman’s terms, C.O.P.s are a financial instrument used by local government to borrow money. C.O.P.s are collateralized by various assets, such as government buildings.
For months Pinches had been following events in the county seat where the Supes were committing sizable blocks of money to such things as millions of dollars in salary increases for county employees (the so-called Slavin Study), starting up a redevelopment agency, expansion of certain departments, and proposed construction of new county facilities in Ukiah and Willits.
Along with others familiar with county government, he was concerned about the revenue source for these activities.
“Where are they planning to find all the money to do these things?” Pinches inquired of me more than once. I had no answer because I was asking myself the same question.
Pinches also noted what he perceived as a disturbing trend. Numerous projects funded in past budgets were either behind schedule or not completed at all. Some of these projects were authorized and funded when he was still on the Board of Supervisors over two years ago.
Pinches was justifiably proud of his tenure on the Board given that he was instrumental in planning a fiscal turn-around from near-bankruptcy to a position of solid solvency with cash reserves. It’s a story that’s been related here many times before, so I won’t repeat.
As a Supervisor, Pinches’ philosophy was that tax dollars should be spent to the maximum on providing a full array of services to constituents, while eliminating bureaucratic waste and departmental redundancies. His slogan was to “hold the department heads accountable” for their actions and job performance. He successfully fought attempts by the Social Services Department to cut general assistance payments to those folks down on their luck. “If this country can afford to build billion dollar B-2 bombers, we can certainly afford to give a few hundred dollars to the poor and single moms who can’t work through no fault of their own,” he said at the time.
In keeping with his philosophy of fiscal responsibility and departmental accountability, he was able, for example, to ferret out millions of dollars hidden away in the Public Works Department’s (now the Department of Transportation) budget. This money resided in a “rainy day” account for years, increasing over time, but never used for its intended purpose: To repair and maintain county roads and bridges. Once Pinches discovered the secret account, he “liberated’ it, using it as seed money to begin a long overdue program to repair roads in neglected rural areas. Pinches now believes that the rural road program is on the back burner even though DOT’s budget has at least several million dollars for such purposes.
When Pinches addressed the Supes on Tuesday, he spoke to many of these issues. What follows are some of his comments, criticisms and recommendations.
Mendocino County Promotional Alliance:
“I really feel that before you move into the budget process, you need to do some sort of review of the projects (from last year’s budget) which have never been done, and also those going back as long as three years ago. One example you can remember is I made a big issue about the (taxpayer-funded) Mendocino County Promotional Alliance providing signs in Willits (directing the public and tourists) to the Mendocino County Museum and Library. They (the Promotional Alliance) assured us it would be done. Well, after a million dollars (of local taxes being given to the Promotional Alliance) in two consecutive budgets, those signs which cost two thousand dollars have not been put up yet.”
Roads and Bridges:
“I’m really upset as a taxpayer. I was coming down the Bell Springs Road the other day. There’s been a lot of fender-benders at one place on the road (because gravel has mounded on a curve causing drivers who hit it to lose control). There was a County road crew working about 50 yards from that spot. So I stopped and said to them, ‘You know, if you would bring that excavator down here it’ll take you about five minutes to fix it.’ One of the crew said, ‘We’d like to do that but there’s no money in the budget for that.’ When I hear things like that, and then see stuff like this (the $24 million C.O.P.s), it makes me livid.
“The (multi-million dollar) Potter Valley bridge is now over a year beyond its (original) completion date. There are 33 road projects that were supposed to be done by now that aren’t even started yet.”
The Slavin Study:
“I’ve heard a lot of discussion about budget problems in reference to a ‘big ticket’ item called the Slavin Study. The Slavin Study shows some department heads getting 40 percent salary increases, but I think they need to be held accountable …I think that the Slavin Study has a cloud over every county department head and every person in this system. It’s like there’s an acorn for every pig out there because everybody sees there’s going to be plenty of money. But I think it’s a big mistake. You’ve all complained about not having discretionary dollars to do the little things. You were arguing this morning about nobody can come up with a hundred thousand dollars (to complete) the Ukiah Valley Area Plan. But, yet you’ve authorized to pay 2.5 million dollars a year (in interest payments) from here on out for years. Those are discretionary general fund dollars you can use (for services and projects).”
Certificates of Participation:
“In the last two years, your general revenues have increased from $104 million to $140 million. That’s a 36 million dollar increase in two budget cycles. This is the same period of time when the state has taken over the trial court funding (responsibility) from the county. This is the same period of time when the social services rolls have dropped 27 percent. In addition, you are now receiving an extra million dollars every year in Tobacco Settlement money. You also receive another million dollars each year from the fifty cent tax on cigarettes.
“If you went to your banker and said, ‘My income has increased $36 million over the last two years, but I need to borrow another $24 million,’ I think the banker would look askance at you.
“Now, when you start treating borrowed money (the $24 million COP) as income, this county is heading for disaster. It wasn’t that long ago that the Courthouse was encumbered to a bank in Japan (when the County was near bankruptcy). I don’t want to see that happen again. I think it’s a poor time right now to go out and borrow money just because you have the credit rating to borrow it. I think the financial institutions will really look afoul at this and the direction this County is going.
“I’m really upset that the Auditor-Controller (Dennis Huey) and the Treasurer-Tax Collector Tim Knudson never even came in here last week and commented on this issue (the $24 million Certificates of Participation). I understand that it went through without any comments from the Board either. Actually, there were more comments and time spent on the Dawg Pound (lease renewal for the operators of the county cafeteria).
“I don’t see why you would pay a broker a commission of about two percent to pay off the 1998 C.O.P. that that is at 4.3 percent interest, and then authorize to pay up to seven percent (for the new $24 million C.O.P.). That doesn’t make any sense to me.
“I’m extremely upset at the five of you. I can’t believe that Dennis Huey would let this County encumber another $24 million as our debt.”
Supes Response
Supervisor Patti Campbell was the only Board member who responded to Pinches. She thanked Pinches for his “comments and cautionary remarks.” She also urged Pinches to “sit down and chat” with County Administrative Officer Jim Anderson.
She said Anderson would explain the financial “restructuring, what it’s for and what we’re trying to do with that because I think there’s some perception there (by Pinches) that is different than the direction from this Board, so I would like to have that clarified.”
Campbell told Pinches, “And, if indeed, it matches what you’re thinking, John, then I would stand corrected and be the first to give you a call on it (to apologize). But, I think what we’re trying to do is different than what you’re stating.”
That same day, Pinches and Anderson huddled to discuss the issue. According to Pinches, Anderson didn’t dispute “the numbers” since they are drawn from the County’s own financial records and documents. Nor did they disagree over the purpose of the $24 million C.O.P.
“I don’t blame Jim Anderson for this,” Pinches explained. “He was just doing what the Supervisors directed him to do. They committed themselves to expending funds for a lot of things, including what they call a ‘big ticket’ item, the Slavin Study. They now have to pay for those things, so they told Anderson to ‘go and get us the money.’ He did what he was told to do. The problem is the Supes’ decision to borrow the $24 million dollars is both bad public policy and bad business.”
(Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, observer@pacific.net, the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District, and is also chairman of the Laytonville Area Municipal Advisory Council. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at 12 noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org)
CATCH OF THE DAY, Wednesday, May 21, 2025
LAURIE HAYES, 54, Covelo. Battery with serious injury, failure to appear.
NICK MAGANA, 26, Covelo. DUI.
JAVIER MENDEZ, 44, Ukiah. Disobeying court order, failure to appear.
JOSE PANAMENO, 63, Fort Bragg. Failure to appear.
PETER ROSE JR., 31, Fort Bragg. Grand theft, obtaining money by false pretenses, controlled substance, paraphernalia.
CARLOS SILVA, 25, Clearlake/Ukiah. Probation revocation.
JOHN JOHNSON: I know one or two paint me as a right wing nut or some such. I’m not a nut, but a free thinker not brainwashed by the propaganda media. So I will share the following with you. Something new is being rolled out in California in regards to illegal aliens. US attorney Bill Issaily based in LA is headed up a new federal task force called Guardian Angels. They scan criminal databases within the state daily. They are looking for illegal aliens who have been deported one or more times in the past. Reentering the United States illegally after being deported is a crime. The crime is a federal felony under section 8 of the US code known as illegal reentry. With a federal warrant signed by a federal judge, warrants can’t be ignored by sanctuary jurisdictions. This means the federal task force that includes ICE receives the named fugitive. This has already started and has results in the LA area, and being rolled out statewide.
SABLE OFFSHORE ANNOUNCES OIL PIPELINE IN PRODUCTION ON TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF REFUGIO BEACH OIL SPILL
by Dan Bacher
On May 19 ten years ago, a corroded oil pipeline then owned by the Plains All American Pipeline corporation spilled over 140,000 gallons of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean at Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara County in California.
The disaster resulted in the devastation of marine life, the closure of iconic beaches and a big economic impact on the recreation and fishing-based economy of Southern California.
Now, on the exact anniversary of that spill, Sable Offshore, the oil company that now owns that failed pipeline and the offshore oil platforms that connect to it, announced that it has restarted the pipeline and the oil is flowing from one oil platform once again.…
SF GIANTS OWNER BUSTER POSEY BOOTS KIDS CAMP FROM $10.4M NORCAL RANCH
‘We hated to leave there,’ said the camp’s director after Posey took over.
by Matt LaFever
Buster Posey is living large these days — the president of baseball operations for the San Francisco Giants, a part-owner of the team and a beloved former star catcher. But the Posey empire hasn’t just expanded inside the Giants organization. He’s also made big moves off the field, moving back to the Bay Area and dropping $8.3 million on a luxury East Bay home while shelling out another $10.4 million in July 2024 for the iconic Six Point Ranch, a 4,129-acre hunting estate spanning Mendocino and Lake counties.
While Posey settles into his new properties, a longtime summer camp that once called Six Point Ranch home has been uprooted. Founded by Judy Oswald 26 years ago, the Kids Outdoor Sports Camp won’t be returning to the ranch in 2025. The property had hosted the camp for five summers, offering kids some hands-on experience in fishing, archery and wildlife conservation — until Posey took over.
Oswald, the camp’s executive director, told SFGATE that Posey “wasn’t interested in having camps” on the land. “We thought for sure he would want to help,” she said, especially given Posey’s well-known love of the outdoors. But when her team reached out to his representatives, they were met with silence that ultimately severed the camp’s longtime ties to the property.
Since opening in 1998, the camp has focused on “building the next generation of outdoor and conservation leaders to ensure a bright future for California hunting, angling, and shooting sports,” according to its website.
The mission seems to align perfectly with Posey’s own love of the outdoors. In a 2014 interview with the California Sportsman during a fishing trip, he spoke about the “challenge” and “art” of being outside. He told the reporter at the time: “You can’t appreciate it unless you go out and do it.”
Oswald spoke fondly of Six Point Ranch, a storied property among North Coast hunters that’s known for its tule elk, black-tailed deer and wild pigs, exactly the kind of environment that brought the camp’s mission to life. “We hated to leave there,” Oswald told SFGATE. “The kids could actually shoot squirrels and shoot pigs. It was too good to be true.”
Oswald acknowledged that summer camps like hers, where outdoor sports such as riflery and angling are central, can raise liability concerns. Still, she emphasized the camp’s safety record, noting that the camp has “never had an accident” in its 26-year history.
The camp has relocated from Six Point Ranch to Wing & Barrel Ranch in Sonoma County for the summer. Despite the move, Oswald told SFGATE that interest in the camp hasn’t waned.
SFGATE contacted Shana Daum, the Giants’ senior vice president of public affairs, in an attempt to reach Posey for comment but did not receive a response before the time of publication. Oswald acknowledged that the former ballplayer, now a high-profile team executive, “deserves his privacy.”
Still, she said the years the camp spent at Six Point Ranch were special. “We enjoyed the support we got from the community,” she recalled, grateful for the connection her program built with the region.
Though the camp continues elsewhere, the loss of that chapter lingers. Oswald put it simply: “We were bummed.”
(SFGate.com)
GIANTS THUMPED BY ROYALS AS LOGAN WEBB LASTS A SEASON-LOW FOUR INNINGS
by Shayna Rubin
Logan Webb cruised through the first third of the season, positioning himself again as one of the game’s best workhorse starters through his first 10 starts. Heading into Wednesday’s start, the one blemish he harbored was a five-run outing against the San Diego Padres.
The Kansas City Royals followed a similar blueprint to the Padres and handed Webb another setback in the San Francisco Giants‘ 8-4 loss on Wednesday afternoon. The Giants dropped the series on a sour note before embarking on an 11-day, three-city road trip.
Like the Padres last month, the Royals ambushed Webb with a flurry of singles to get three runs on the board through the first two innings.
By the start of the third, the Royals had six hits as Webb left a few too many sinkers and sweepers up in the zone. Webb suffered death by singles in the first few frames, but Bobby Witt Jr. and veteran Salvador Perez put a fork in the outing in the fourth inning when Witt hit an RBI double and Perez blasted a sinker the other way for a two-run home run.
“I thought they had a good approach. Going into it I knew it would be a grindy game, that’s a team that I don’t necessarily match up well with,” Webb said. “They don’t chase a ton and make a lot of contact. It really sucks that the momentum with the guys really changed yesterday and I go out there and give up three straight hits to start the game. Just kind of a bad job by me today.”
The deciding fourth inning began when LaMonte Wade Jr. bobbled and botched the out on Kyle Isbel’s ground ball to first, so all three runs were unearned. A season-high six runs crossed on 10 hits in Webb’s four innings — a season low for the ace — but only three go against his 2.67 ERA. He struck out five and walked none.
“Just (left) some balls up,” manager Bob Melvin said. “The first inning, a couple groundballs and a bloop, he managed it really well and only gave up a run. Came out and gave up a couple more in the second on some pretty good hitting — have to give them credit. (They) hit ball the other way and then he left some balls up. You don’t often see a righty take him deep the other way to right-center field, so just kind of an off day for him.”
In a bullpen game for the Royals, the Giants had opportunities to climb into the game. Matt Chapman hit his first home run since May 9, making it 3-1 in the third. Patrick Bailey hit his first home run of the year, a solo shot that made a minor dent into a five-run deficit in the fourth.
Later that inning, Wilmer Flores — whose 42 RBIs are tied for the NL lead — hit a line drive to center with the bases loaded, but Isbel charged in time to make the inning-ending catch. In the ninth, Heliot Ramos hit a two-run home run to cut into the deficit. It capped off a quiet homestand for the Giants’ bats, indicative of their 5-4 record in the three series. The Giants will go on a three-city trip having gone 17-17 in their previous 34 games.
“We go through some stretches like this,” Melvin said. “But typically we don’t give up that many runs, and you end up winning close games when we don’t score a ton of runs. It’d be nice to take pressure off the pitching.”
(SF Chronicle)
OSCARS 2025
by William J. Hughes
The Oscars. Been going down to Los Angeles for years, for the hotels, for the bars, for the stars and usually a Los Angeles I’ve never seen before. But this year, nah, just didn’t feel the desire to admire, but this year the Pacific Palisades fires — someone I know lost their home and I lost a village and a neighborhood I’d come to know quite well. My friend the curator at Will Rogers State Park, Rogers’ historic Pacific Palisades home, was burned to the ground, a loss, personal, profound, where I first found the “real” Los Angeles beyond the beach. And Trump spooked me into spending my money, spending my time. Go — because who knows? A chance to leave some flowers near the Pacific Palisades.
So I find myself on the still somewhat fine ride on 99 South, the old soul worn but not out, what was and the newer, vines and muffler stops, still enough Route 66-ish left to keep you attentive, unlike I-5 South which keeps you indifferent.
From 99 to 5 to over the green/brown Tehachapi mountains, on past Magic Mountain Playland with its seasonal closure, the empty skeletons of the roller coasters looking like a Blade Runner future and on to Santa Monica Boulevard, around 6 p.m. still blue sky and snow mountain clouds setting their sun over Rodeo Drive, a fair-sized pro-Ukrainian demonstration on the park grass of the Beverly Hills City Park beside Beverly Boulevard. Fine shops and your usual stuff, the Beverly Laural Motor Hotel. Normal extra.
Not your normal stuff, the Ivy Restaurant on Robertson off Beverly Boulevard, the Ivy tucked in behind its greenery, film scenery here, black limos, no notables in sight.
For tonight, my home sweet for not too, too a price, classic blue and white sign, almost chic, tall and obvious. Been staying here for years, in the Fairfax/Jewish district, the motor hotel once clean and neat, a real motor court from the time of Route 66 but now a bit more stylish. Still next door to Streaker’s Café, a be-bop gem, a gem of a day ending, storms a’brewin’, wind, which means the Pacific Palisades fires.
I’ve come to leave flowers as close to the burn of someone I know, and the strangers who lost and most importantly, sadly, Will Rogers State Park, where that friend was the curator, where I first discovered “real” Los Angeles, the Rogers home burned to the ground along with the well-used Reel Inn Restaurant and the little wooden cabins of the Topanga Ranch Motel both right up against the PCH. I’ll get as close as I can with flowers.
Dinner in Canter’s Jewish Delicatessen Restaurant - been around on Fairfax for at least 75 years, 1950s like. Again, worn but not out, servers from a movie of a Brooklyn server gone gray. Pastrami on rye, chicken soup. I’m from Long Island, so I’m somewhat Jewish, so it’s all homespun.
The motor hotel is quiet, worth the price. Now, speaking of price, tomorrow evening I’m staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Again, that Trump elbow to the ribs, go, stay, spend, do it. I’ve seen many a star and spoken to a few in the Beverly Hills Hotel, so no one stay can happen. Don’t ask the price.
Breakfast at Streakers Café next door, funky fine. Today’s assigned, flowers, check, to one end of Sunset Boulevard to see how close I can get, wind blowin’ like Santa Ana’s revenge, west on Sunset to the ocean end, National Guard cutoff well before the burn area. Can’t see any of the burn.
That’s OK. I show the National Guardsmen the flowers and voice my intention. He smiles and waves me away. Then Santa Monica Boulevard all the way to the ocean and the Pacific Coast Highway. Wind blowin’, can feel the sadness in the wind, the ocean a comfort and there’s the National Guard all in gear turning away those without a pass. I show the flowers. He waves me away, feels like 1960s.
Will Rogers State Beach will do, the ocean waves a nasty gray, volleyballers, bikers, runners and strollers braving the sand in the wind. Two ladies in the parking lot luck out, one flower to the wind, the rest to two pleasantly surprised and pleased children with the sudden flowers and explanation.
Good. Do good.
Grand view of the ocean, parked in Santa Monica Beach parking, some time to breeze before check-in at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Like Trump hasn’t happened, skaters, bikers, runners, flag football, slight sandstorm, the Santa Monica Pier very much in carnival business. Enjoy, relax, spend my dough because now who knows?
“Who knows you, baby?” They kind of do at the Beverly Hills Hotel, after a nice drive on Sunset Boulevard on past Athens, UCLA and megaish rich Beverly Hills.
The pink palace hotel up on its short hill, across the Boulevard from Will Rogers City Park all luscious green. He was once the honorary mayor of Beverly Hills. See how sad the loss of his home is.
Attack of the valets, my little white KIA a speck among the bad-ass black line of limousines. My car, my bags, myself immediately attended, up their red carpet to the front desk of the lush facility. You can feel the unique atmosphere, the unique privilege. I’m somewhat used to it, but now its officially a visit, a stay, my first, my front desk dapper fella with a French accent. He’s… He is, more than glad to see me, actually taking me to my room, guiding directions to other lushness, my bags on the way, tips, tips and more tips. Let ‘em rip.
It’s a dream come true or better yet the truth become a dream, the hallway quiet as a church to the casual, floral and pinkish. My room not up to what I’d imagined I’d paid for it ($1,700), but way above and beyond anywhere I’ve stayed before, swanky-normal, all one requires and then some and just a tip away from anymore service I may require, pure white BHH crescent bathrobe hanging in the closet. I need a coffee.
How’s the Cabana Café, next to the pool, down the carpeted staircase to the shimmering blue pool, kids at play, white attire with shorts on the servers, Ralph Lauren casual, bagels and lox, coffee Americano. “Charge it to my room,” like a Bogart would.
Time to clean up and change my clothes, brand new casual purchased just for the occasion, always an eye out for a star, across the lush lobby to the back bar and green balcony, big screen for the Oscar show, wealth and overdressed all around with jeans and flannel shirts as casual as you come; what the hell, you just might be a somebody. I’ve been asked. I’ve never answered, “Yes.” Jack Daniels on the roks: “Charge it to my room.”
Let the show begin.
Conan O’Brien real good, the rest just filler awaiting the results for “A Complete Unknown.” No awards for the fine film. That ends my show, in no rush to leave the soft seat and the swell crowd, the heavy wind blowing in off the patio, open doors, palm trees bending, swappping stories with a fella in jeans and flannel, noticing that the rich are different.
Dinner is different, Steak Tartar and a martini, the meal prepared right at the table by the white jacket waiter. Polo Lounge, where Cary Grant et al… the dinner a myth. Now to sit and await. The lobby, soft lounge chair, carpeted like that’s the natural, blooming bouquets, security and here comes Oprah. I give her a Quincy Jones shout out, not too loud. Her tribute to Quincy Jones at the Oscar show. She raises a “right-on” fist. Next is Andrew Garfield, down-dressed in brown, just dashing by. Adam Sandler, hangin’ around, sort of sharing with me, a fella I’d been talking to and a mother and daughter from Maine. Funny fame. Famous as Oppenheimer, Gilian Murphy just dashing by. Jamie Fox strolin’ in with two regal looking posse guards. The actor who played Joan Baez in the Dylan film, Phew! All made human, made real. Fun.
About done in, done good. The room, the bed, the Alice in that land.
Just a morning coffee by the pool. Overslept so time is driftin’; the shimmering pool inviting but enough is enough, already.
99 North again, over the still wild west Tehachapis and down to the dusty central valley. A re-run of an old movie with a new scene, scenes: a stop in Porterville, why? A friend from there, sad, worn out, crippled Main Street.
Delano, looking for the Cesar Chavez home. Not right away, up, down and around the dusty Mexican/American streets so at least my respect. North, nothin’ left.
ATTN BOB ABELES? AI?
17 year-old Juliane Koepcke was sucked out of an airplane in 1971 after it was struck by a bolt of lightning. She fell 2 miles to the ground, strapped to her seat and survived after she endured 10 days in the Amazon Jungle.
After ten days, she found a boat moored near a shelter, and found the boat’s fuel tank still partly full. Koepcke poured the gasoline on her wounds, an action which succeeded in removing the maggots from her arm. Out of 93 passengers and crew, Juliane was the only survivor of the LANSA flight 508 crash that took place December 24th, 1971.
More information here: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/juliane-koepcke-plane-crash/
RETURN TO ALCATRAZ: A PHOTO ESSAY
by Jeffrey St. Clair
Always turned on by his most extreme ideas, Trump wants to reopen Alcatraz as a federal prison. He apparently got this twisted idea after watching Don Siegel’s 1979 film with Clint Eastwood, Escape from Alcatraz, one of the best prison movies ever made, a film with a deep sensitivity to those who live under confinement. Trump says he picked Alcatraz because it’s a prison no one’s ever escaped from, which is a pretty clear indication that he didn’t watch the Siegel/Eastwood flick, which documents the 1971 escape by three prisoners, Frank Morris and the brothers Clarence and John Anglin. (I doubt Trump has the attention span to watch any film that doesn’t include him.) In fact, there were 11 known escape attempts, five of which appear to have been successful.
But of course, preventing prison escapes is not the point of Trump’s theatrics. The point is to sound tough-to-the-point-of-sadistic while getting under the skin of California Government Gavin Newsom and San Francisco elites, for whom Alcatraz has become a weird emblem of the Bay Area, attracting more than 1.5 million tourists and generating more than $60 million in revenue from ferry tickets and tours of the Island.
The issue certainly isn’t a pressing concern about federal prisons, which isn’t escapes. There’s only been one escape from a Super Max prison (none at Florence, however) and nine from medium security federal prisons in the last 20 years, and all of the escapees were recaptured within a few days. Most prison escapes aren’t escapes from prison, but people who just walk away from parole, home confinement, skip bail or miss court dates. The real issue with America’s over-stuffed federal (and state) prisons is keeping prisoners alive, where the conditions are so unforgiving that in 2019 alone, there were 695 suicides in state, local, and federal prisons and jails.
Trump, ever in search of sadistic pleasures, wants his own CECOT-like prison to intern what he calls America’s “most vicious and violent criminals.” After prowling Alcatraz’s dark corridors, where men spent years in solitary confinement, in cramped cells that would turn anyone into a claustrophobic, not allowed to speak to each other or communicate with the outside world, you can see why this haunted rock with its chill history of retribution and psychological torture appeals to Trump’s debased instincts.
The reconstruction of Alcatraz, which is a ruined prison on top of a ruined Army fort on stolen ground, wouldn’t survive a DOGE audit. ADX Florence costs $60 million to build and more to operate: $33,000 a year per prisoner versus $18,500 a year at a medium security prison. Yet Alcatraz would prove even more outlandishly expensive. From the time the prison doors opened in 1934, Alcatraz was America’s most expensive prison, costing three times as much per inmate to run. And it was falling apart almost as soon as it began operations, with the spray from the salt water eroding the prison’s walls and foundations. RFK, Jr, ordered its closure and replacement by a new maximum security prison in Marion, Illinois, in 1963.
The most thrilling Alcatraz story isn’t about people trying to escape the island but about the 89 Native Americans who invaded the island, reclaimed it, and occupied it for 19 months, from November 20, 1969, through June 11, 1971. On the day the tribal activists landed, the lone guard on Alcatraz sent out a radio alert: “Mayday! Mayday! “The Indians have landed!”
In researching the Indians of All Tribes occupation of Alcatraz (Gannet) Island, I spent three days exploring the Island and photographing the remains of the old fort and rusting prison, much of which has been reclaimed by the island’s vegetation, birds, and marine life.. It’s still not too late to do the right thing and give it back.
All photos by Jeffrey St. Clair, co-editor of CounterPunch. His most recent book is An Orgy of Thieves: Neoliberalism and Its Discontents (with Alexander Cockburn). He can be reached at: sitka@comcast.net or on Twitter @JeffreyStClair3. CounterPunch.org)
Full Photo collection: https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/05/21/return-to-alcatraz-a-photo-essay/
NEWSOM BLAMES CALIFORNIA’S STATE BUDGET OUTLOOK ON TRUMP TARIFFS
by Dan Walters
As Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a revised 2025-26 budget Wednesday, he blamed a “Trump slump” from President Donald Trump’s tariffs and other economic moves as the major factor in increasing the state’s deficit by another $12 billion.
“California is under assault,” Newsom told reporters at a budget briefing, declaring that Trump’s actions had created “a climate of deep uncertainty.”
The initial budget Newsom proposed in January already had at least an $11 billion gap between income and outgo that he filled with reserves, loans, deferrals, raids on special funds and accounting maneuvers.
State tax receipts were running ahead of expectations during the early part of the year, but after Trump imposed tariffs on imported goods, saying it would spur domestic production, Newsom and his budget staff revised revenue estimates downward, particularly personal income taxes.
“Washington’s imposition of tariffs has driven a downgrade in both the economic and revenue forecasts,” the revised budget declares. “Combined with increased expenditure growth above the governor’s (January) budget — most notably in Medi-Cal — the state must now close an estimated shortfall of $12 billion to balance the budget and provide for a prudent discretionary reserve. This will require difficult but necessary decisions to reduce ongoing expenditure growth to maintain budget resilience and stability for critical state programs.”
The revised budget maintains overall spending at virtually the same level of the January version, $322 billion, but drops general fund expenditures by $2 billion to $226 billion.
As noted, the state also experienced a multibillion-dollar spike in costs for Medi-Cal, the state’s health care system for the poor, which contributed to the $12 billion deficit estimate. Newsom proposed a series of maneuvers to close the new deficit, primarily reductions in Medi-Cal, including a freeze on adult enrollments and $100 per month premiums for Medi-Cal enrollees.
By singling out Medi-Cal as a major driver of state spending and urging reductions, Newsom was doing a 180-degree political pirouette from a year ago, when he was boasting about achieving nearly 100 percent medical care coverage for Californians with the addition of thousands of undocumented immigrants to the programs rolls.
The latest expansion of California’s chronic budget gap, what fiscal experts deem a “structural deficit,” makes it virtually certain that Newsom’s governorship will end 19 months hence with the state’s finances still unbalanced. The governor’s own budget staff and the Legislature’s nonpartisan budget advisor, Gabe Petek, have both projected multibillion-dollar deficits well into the future. It doesn’t appear that a sudden economic boom will provide fiscal salvation.
The revised budget projects that California’s economy faces a sluggish future, with little overall job growth and unemployment rates, which are now among the nation’s highest, virtually unchanged. Accordingly, state revenues are projected to increase slowly.
The forecasts don’t assume that the national economy will drift into recession, as some economists are predicting due to Trump’s tariffs. If one occurred, it would depress revenues even more.
The budget also does not assess the potential reductions in federal aid to states, particularly in health care, that Trump and Republicans in Congress have proposed. Medi-Cal and other social and medical programs are targets in both Washington and Sacramento because they are among the largest items in both federal and state budgets.
As services are trimmed to close budget gaps, advocates for the poor, public employee labor unions and progressive groups are increasing pressure for tax increases to balance the state’s books.
Newsom has resisted those calls, but if the projected multi-year deficits become reality, the tax increase drumbeat will grow louder. He can and probably will continue to shun tax increases but if he does, the pressure will hit his successor, whomever that is, immediately upon inauguration.
(CalMatters.org)
HER MISCARRIAGE SHOWED THE LIMITS OF CALIFORNIA’S ABORTION PROTECTIONS. WHERE YOU LIVE MATTERS
by Kristen Hwang
Anna Nusslock never wanted to be the face of a new kind of reproductive rights battle in California, but when a small Catholic hospital refused to provide an abortion that would end her miscarriage, Nusslock girded herself for a long and difficult conflict.
Nusslock felt her civil rights were being violated, she said, even as she lay in the hospital bed curled in on herself, bleeding and mourning the loss of her twin girls. The doctor had said that her pregnancy needed to be terminated immediately to protect her from infection and other serious complications but hospital policy prohibited it, according to two lawsuits filed by Nusslock and California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
“I am planning to fight this for the rest of my life,” Nusslock said in an interview with CalMatters.
Both complaints allege that Providence, the Catholic health system that owns St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka, illegally denied Nusslock emergency abortion care and discharged her instead. They also allege that multiple pregnant women have been denied abortions at St. Joseph Hospital during medical emergencies.
The disputes playing out in a small courtroom in Eureka highlight the limits of California’s efforts to protect abortion rights since the Supreme Court in 2022 repealed federal protections granted under Roe vs. Wade. They also reveal geographic disparities in patients’ access to reproductive health care after dozens of California hospitals shuttered their maternity wards over the past decade.
Providence has denied the state’s allegations and argued that it provided appropriate care to Nusslock. It contends that its actions are protected by religious liberties that are enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Timothy Canning earlier this month rejected a bid by Providence to dismiss the state’s lawsuit. Providence has filed a request to dismiss Nusslock’s civil suit, which is ongoing.
Catholic companies own about 13% of hospitals in California, but operate 20% of the state’s maternity wards, according to a CalMatters analysis of state data. In the rural northern counties, they represent an even greater share at 35%.
Large corporations such as CommonSpirit (Dignity), Providence, Trinity and Scripps are the most prominent Catholic health care systems in the state.
In Humboldt County where Nusslock lives, Providence now owns the only hospital with an obstetrics department. The next closest maternity ward is 86 miles north along a winding, mostly two-lane stretch of Highway 1.
Last year, Nusslock arrived at Providence St. Joseph Hospital bleeding and in pain but still hopeful her pregnancy could be saved, according to the state’s complaint. Her water had broken at 15 weeks – too early for the twins to survive on their own – and tests indicated Nusslock had an infection and high blood pressure, the complaint says.
Multiple doctors said her condition was dangerous and she needed immediate treatment but Providence refused to intervene because her twins still had fetal heart tones, according to the complaint. Nusslock was discharged with a bucket and towels “in case something happens in the car,” according to the complaint and a declaration filed by Nusslock.
Nusslock’s husband drove her to another hospital about 20 minutes away where she began hemorrhaging and underwent immediate surgery, according to court documents. That hospital, Mad River Community Hospital in Arcata, has since permanently closed its labor and delivery ward, leaving St. Joseph alone in the county.
California’s constitution protects abortion rights, but religiously affiliated hospitals, clinics and individual providers are not required to provide them if they have moral objections. State law, however, requires hospitals to provide emergency services to any person who requests help whose life may be in danger or at risk of “serious injury or illness.”
In an unsigned statement, a Providence spokesperson said the hospital is clear about not performing elective abortions but does allow “medically necessary interventions to protect pregnant patients who are miscarrying or facing serious life-threatening conditions” in an emergency.
“This is consistent with the California Emergency Services Law and the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. It is also consistent with the Catholic Ethical and Religious Directives, which include discussion of the importance of the physician-patient relationship as well as the circumstances in which certain medical procedures that could result in fetal death may be allowed in a Catholic hospital,” according to the statement provided to CalMatters.
The Catholic Health Association, a trade group representing Catholic health facilities, did not respond to repeated questions about personal belief protections and the expansion of Catholic hospitals.
Religious liberty at heart of hospital’s defense
On a rainy day in February, Harvey Rochman, lead attorney for Providence, argued that religious freedoms protect Providence’s alleged actions.
“The elephant in the room so to speak on this case is there is no court that has ordered a Catholic hospital to perform an abortion under circumstances that the hospital has determined is contrary to the hospital’s faith,” Rochman said during the hearing in Eureka.
The hospital denies that it discriminated against Nusslock or improperly denied care to her. Rochman argued that federal law allows secular hospitals to transfer patients if they do not have the expertise or technical ability to perform a procedure, which is no different from a faith-based hospital saying it cannot perform a procedure that “contravenes” its beliefs.
“The current jurisprudence of the U.S. Supreme Court…is the religious rights have the same significance as the secular,” Rochman said during the hearing.
Catholic hospitals nationwide must adhere to the “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services” developed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The directives prohibit abortion in almost all circumstances.
Martine D’Agostino, a deputy attorney general representing the state, argued that the case was about Providence St. Joseph Hospital denying women emergency health care “at great risk to their lives.”
State law prohibits hospitals from transferring patients for non-medical reasons, such as lack of insurance. D’Agostino argued that St. Joseph Hospital did not stabilize Nusslock and illegally discharged her.
“The record details harrowing experiences of several women who were turned away from St. Joseph’s emergency department,” D’Agostino said. “The attorney general brought this case to ensure that St. Joseph Hospital follows the law that emergency health care must be provided to women of this county.”
In declarations filed with the court, multiple doctors allege that other St. Joseph patients have experienced close calls similar to Nusslock’s miscarriage.
One doctor who delivers babies at Providence St. Joseph Hospital said in a declaration that he has had three patients other than Nusslock who needed emergency pregnancy terminations during miscarriages that he was not able to carry out. The declaration states “…the Chaplain told me, that under no circumstances was I to terminate a pregnancy at Providence Hospital.”
Another doctor who later treated Nusslock at Mad River Community Hospital said one to two patients each year would come to the hospital’s now-closed obstetrics department having been turned away from Providence in the midst of a miscarriage.
Another woman has anonymously filed a civil lawsuit in Humboldt Superior Court against Providence alleging similar circumstances to Nusslock. In February, lawyers for Providence filed papers asking a judge to dismiss the case.
Differences in how hospitals treat miscarriage
Although Nusslock’s case is not unique, experts say patient experiences at Catholic hospitals vary widely.
“People always ask me ‘Why are people not dying all over the place?’ And it’s because it’s not exactly that extreme,” said Lori Freedman, a sociologist and bioethicist at UC San Francisco who has extensively researched patient and doctor experiences at Catholic health systems.
Frequently, doctors at Catholic institutions, many of whom are not Catholic, find workarounds to prevent patients from dying, Freedman said. An ethics committee headed by a priest or other religious figure at each hospital decides in the moment whether doctors can intervene. They may wait until the woman develops a fever (a sign of infection), until her bleeding increases or until the fetus dies, Freedman said.
The Ethical and Religious Directives at Catholic hospitals allow pregnancy termination for a “proportionately serious pathological condition of a pregnant woman,” but ethics committees at each hospital can have different interpretations of where to draw the line, Freedman said.
This approach, however, is often shocking to obstetricians in non-religious hospitals, Freedman said.
“When you talk to someone in a really high-quality obstetric service, their jaw drops because they’re like, ‘Well it’s not just die or not die,’” Freedman said. “What kind of level of suffering and risk are you going to require, before the intervention you know is going to happen is allowed to happen?”
The Catholic Health Association states in a policy brief that “Our deeply held religious and moral convictions are the source of both the work we do and the limits on what we will do.”
Those religious and moral convictions include a mandate to continue the “healing ministry of Christ,” to care for the poor, and to advocate for marginalized groups like immigrants, according to the Ethical and Religious Directives.
They also state that the “Catholic health care ministry is rooted in a commitment to promote and defend human dignity; this is the foundation of its concern to respect the sacredness of every human life from the moment of conception until death.”
Maryam Guiahi, an obstetrician in Santa Barbara who has previously worked in Catholic institutions in Chicago, said that’s where Catholic policies begin to conflict with modern secular medical ethics that place different emphasis on patient autonomy and avoiding harm.
In cases like Nusslock’s, in which the amniotic fluid sac breaks before the fetus is viable, terminating the pregnancy is typically the safest option and the standard of care, Guiahi said.
Guiahi said Catholic hospitals sometimes don’t allow doctors to tell patients that an abortion is an option.
“I’ve been in secular institutions and we can give that information. We can let people decide what they want, and some people will choose to continue and hope and see what happens, but other women don’t want to go through that,” Guiahi said.
Not telling patients all of the risks and options compromises their ability to consent and can lead to avoidable complications like infection and hemorrhaging, Guiahi said.
Guiahi said she never saw a patient die after being denied an emergency abortion at the Catholic hospital she worked at, but sometimes patients would come back septic and require care in the intensive care unit.
“To me, medicine is about ‘to do no harm.’ I don’t know many medical situations where we wait till people get sick in order to intervene,” Guiahi said.
Moving to have a baby
Nusslock is making plans to leave Eureka during her next pregnancy. She and her husband still desperately want to start a family, but she can’t drive past Providence St. Joseph Hospital without getting dizzy. She said she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I still have that voice in the back of my head just screaming, ‘you’re bleeding to death,’” Nusslock said.
Most likely Nusslock said she’ll find a place in the Bay Area to live during her pregnancy.
Having few options to give birth reflects a larger loss of maternity services in California. The northern counties, including where Nusslock lives, have lost a third of their birthing hospitals since 2012, according to a CalMatters database on maternity care.
Statewide, 59 hospitals have stopped delivering babies in the same time period, creating broad swaths of maternity deserts particularly in rural and low-income communities.
Nearly 80% of those closures have been secular hospitals, increasing the influence of Catholic health care.
During the February court hearing, Providence lawyer Rochman said that a core mission of the Eureka hospital is to keep labor and delivery services available “when it may not be financially sensible to do so.”
In a statement, a Providence spokesperson said “providing high-quality labor and delivery services” is a “top priority” for the organization in Humboldt County and throughout the nation.
But having an operating maternity ward doesn’t mean all services are available. The Ethical and Religious Directives also prohibit the use of contraceptives to prevent pregnancy, including sterilization for both males and females, and in vitro fertilization.
Josie Urbina, an obstetrician with UC San Francisco Health who specializes in complex family planning, said this creates an unequal patchwork of services in the state.
“It’s unfortunate that in rural parts of California, which happen to be dominated by religious hospitals, that the standard of care is not being followed,” Urbina said. “It’s really just detrimental to patient care.”
For Nusslock, who moved to Eureka 10 years ago and quickly fell in love with the towering redwoods and small-town feel, the lawsuits are about ensuring her experience doesn’t happen to anyone else, she said in an interview with CalMatters.
“These are good people. These are people worth protecting,” Nusslock said. “If they’re going to give me an opportunity to speak for them and fight for them, I’m going to take every opportunity I can.”
(CalMatters.org)
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
Trump is Trump. I expect nothing good from him. The real villain in the piece is the Biden administration. All they had to do — literally all — was stop a genocide. And they didn’t do it, and not a single Democrat has anything intelligent or strategic to say on this disaster. Not one. (Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat.)
LEAD STORIES, THURSDAY'S NYT
2 Israeli Embassy Aides Are Fatally Shot Outside Event in Washington
Trump Lectures South African President in Televised Oval Office Confrontation
House Passes Trump’s Domestic Policy Bill, Overcoming Last-Minute Resistance
U.S. Formally Accepts Luxury Jet From Qatar for Trump
Justice Dept. to End Oversight of Local Police Accused of Abuses
American Breakfast Cereals Are Becoming Less Healthy, Study Finds
“I KNEW A MAN who gave twenty years of his life to a scatterbrained woman, sacrificing everything to her, his friendships, his work, the very respectability of his life and who one evening recognized that he had never loved her. He had been bored, thats all, bored like most people. Hence he had made himself out of whole cloth a life full of complications and drama. Something must happen and that explains most human commitments. Something must happen even loveless slavery, even war or death.”
― Albert Camus
WILD GEESE
by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
Buster Posey is one of the most respected public figures in Northern California. Taking a cheap shot at him because declined to allow an outside group access to his new ranch is a very bad look.
Buster Posey’s reputation doesn’t exempt him from scrutiny — especially when a long-running kids’ camp loses access to land he now owns and no explanation is given. Calling it a “cheap shot” to ask questions is a bad look. This isn’t about tarnishing a local hero — it’s about holding power accountable, even when it wears a Giants cap.
I suspect there’s more to this than Buster “booting” the kids’ camp. This is a guy who visits sick kids and supports various youth programs, and Buster and his wife have done it for years. Perhaps if this story has legs, more will suffice, or not…
Laz
😶 How T. can justify the statement below is beyond me.
‘…President Trump wrote: “These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! [Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA]. So sad that such things as this can happen!’
Dear Esteemed Editor,
I just spent too much time (5 minutes) on the photo in question. It is not AI generated, but it is also not an actual photo of Juliane Koepcke. Instead, it’s a pre-AI internet meme from 6 years ago that someone has unearthed and recycled. The photo is a still from a 1974 movie about Koepcke’s ordeal.