Mendocino County Today: Saturday 6/7/2025

WARMER temperatures inland this weekend. A slight chance of thunderstorms over the Klamath Mountains and the Yolla Bollas on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday afternoons. Windy afternoons return to NW California by the middle of next week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Another foggy 50F for the 3rd day in a row this Saturday morning on the coast. Yep, our forecast is for more of the same. Sea conditions are looking good for the 2 day salmon season:

Today : SE wind 5 kt. Seas 4 ft. Wave detail: NW 3 ft at 9 seconds. Patchy dense fog this morning.
Tonight : NW wind 5 kt. Seas 4 ft. Wave detail: NW 3 ft at 11 seconds. Patchy dense fog.
Sun : NW wind 5 to 10 kt. Seas 4 ft. Wave detail: N 1 foot at 7 seconds and NW 3 ft at 11 seconds.

HITCHHIKER DEATH AFTER BEING TASED UNDER INVESTIGATION

On 06-05-2025 at approximately 07:02 P.M., the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Communications Center received a call from the California Highway Patrol (CHP) who requested Sheriff’s Office assistance for a call in the 2000 block of Hearst Willits Road in Willits.

CHP informed the Sheriff’s Office of a call they received regarding a hitchhiker who was picked up by a motorist in the area and the subjects were now involved in a physical fight. CHP Officers were responding to the call with an extended response time and Willits Police Department (WPD) Officers were also requested to assist. This investigation revealed the male subject had brutally assaulted the driver of the vehicle after he was offered a ride and entered the vehicle. This assault was unprovoked and resulted in injuries that caused the driver to be admitted into a local hospital.

A Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Deputy responded to the area and contacted a male adult subject walking in the middle of the roadway in the 1200 block of Hearst Willits Road. The male subject failed to comply with the lawful orders of law enforcement and immediately took a fighting stance and lunged at the Deputy. The Deputy pointed his department-issued Taser device at the subject while ordering the male to comply and surrender.

The Deputy moved away from the male in the roadway and attempted to speak with him and de-escalate the situation. The Deputy continued to employ de-escalation tactics that were ignored by the male.

The male subject fled along the north side of the roadway when a Sheriff’s Sergeant arrived to assist. The male subject ran into the brush north of the roadway as Sheriff’s Office personnel continued to order him to surrender. Multiple warnings were provided to the male subject that he would be Tased if he did not comply with their orders. During the attempts to lawfully arrest the male subject, Sheriff’s Office personnel utilized Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) spray.

The male subject moved onto his stomach, so Sheriff’s Office personnel attempted to place the subject in handcuffs. The male subject physically resisted attempts to place him into handcuffs and assaulted a Deputy so a Taser was deployed to overcome the resistance and arrest the individual.

Willits Police Department Officers arrived as Sheriff’s Office personnel continued to inform the male he was under arrest and ordered him to comply with the arrest.

Sheriff’s Deputies and WPD Officers removed the male from the brush and continued to attempt and place him into handcuffs as the male physically resisted. Law Enforcement personnel were able to eventually handcuff and arrest the male subject.

The male subject was monitored at the scene after being arrested and Law Enforcement personnel determined the male became unresponsive. Restraints were removed from the male as Law Enforcement provided emergency medical treatment at the scene. Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was initiated by Law Enforcement personnel as emergency medical assistance was requested.

Law Enforcement personnel administered Narcan on the male subject and CPR was continued for approximately 5 minutes when emergency medical personal arrived at the scene. Fire and EMS personnel continued life-saving efforts, to include CPR and other emergency medical treatment. Life-saving efforts continued for approximately 25 additional minutes until the male subject was pronounced deceased by medical personnel at the scene.

Since the male subject was in the custody of law enforcement and died during the incident, the County-Wide Fatal-Incident Protocol was initiated. The Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office was contacted and is the lead agency for this ongoing investigation.

A coroner’s investigation was initiated, and a post-mortem examination will be conducted to determine the official cause and manner of death. The decedent has been identified as a 36-year-old male from Willits, but his name is not being released at this stage of the investigation.

Pursuant to Sheriff’s Office Policy, the two Sheriff’s Office personnel involved in this incident have been placed on paid administrative leave while this matter is being investigated.

Investigations are continuing regarding the crimes committed against the motorist who provided the subject a ride.

Anyone with information related to this investigation is requested to contact the Mendocino County 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. Any information provided regarding this continuing investigation will be forwarded to the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office as the primary investigating agency.

MARSHA DEPRIEST:

Ukiah police department investigated a woman going through mailboxes. This was on Baywood Court in Ukiah. The report said she was contacted and warned. Tampering With Mailboxes or Mail Within Them Is A Federal Crime, Punishable By Fines or Imprisonment.

She should have been arrested and charged…I still use the USPS. What if my Personal Info, my Medicare, My Bank Statements, My Auto Registrations were stolen. I’d be screwed.

You can counsel a teen with a beer keg, or petty theft and send them home, talk to parents. An adult NO. This was at 8:30 at night…What would your response be?

LORNA ROSS:

Alright y'all, especially you high rollers. I have had encounters with three rattlers and my neighbor has killed two in his yard. I killed one. One was far enough away on a hike. The other crawled under my house this morning! All in the last three weeks.

I have severe holes in this house. There is no way to seal it. What if that big snake is crawling under there to lay eggs? Am I a chicken to not want to stay here or…? I've lived in rattlesnake country most of my life but I've only ever had to deal with one before. And never seen one while hiking either.

Anyone familiar with rattlesnake repellents and removal? I also need brush removal. Please help! (Via Facebook)

BILL KIMBERLIN

I had a kind of a strange horse encounter on my run down Anderson Valley Way yesterday afternoon. I knew about this little horse spoof, but it don't know why it happens. Over the years I have noticed that if you are watching horses they mostly ignore you, but if you turn your back to them for a little over a minute or so, they will come closer. Are they curious? I don't know, but it works.

This was group of three and after a minute of back turning, this one approached and soon we were buddies and I was scratching him behind the ears. I said goodbye and ran on, but when I stopped again on my way back he came right over, I patted him hello again and started to run off beside his fence. He trotted along with me as far as he could. Tonight I will bring a apple and see what happens. Will he remember me? If you know about horses, please tell me what is going on.

CLEAN CALIFORNIA PROJECT BREAKS GROUND on a New Sports Field and Track to Bring Safe, Clean, and Accessible Outdoor Facilities to Anderson Valley Junior Senior High School

BOONVILLE — A groundbreaking ceremony was held Friday morning at Anderson Valley Junior-Senior High in Boonville to mark the start of construction for the Anderson Valley Track to Health and Fitness project.

This $4.7 million Clean California project was made possible through Governor Gavin Newsom’s Clean California initiative, a sweeping $1.2 billion, multiyear clean-up effort led by Caltrans to remove trash, create thousands of jobs, and help communities beautify their public spaces.

This project will feature a new synthetic turf field that can be used for both soccer and football and an all-weather track accessible to students and the community, providing varied fitness opportunities for Boonville residents. The project addresses an important need, as there are no gyms or workout facilities within a 20-mile radius.

The project centerpiece is a state-of-the-art, six-lane running track with a rubberized, artificial surface for track and field athletics and community-wide exercise. The track will be accessible before and after school hours, on weekends and during the summer months.

“This project represents a significant investment in our school and community, creating a space that promotes health, recreation, and school pride,” said Anderson Valley Unified School District Superintendent Kristin Larson Balliet. “We are deeply grateful to Caltrans for recognizing the value of accessible outdoor facilities and for helping us bring this long-awaited project to fruition.”

These improvements will provide a safe and equitable venue for students from low- income families to participate in sporting events and independent soccer leagues in a clean, welcoming environment designed to help residents achieve their individual wellness and recreation goals.

“Through our partnership with the Anderson Valley Unified School District, this project highlights our commitment to improving quality of life in communities throughout the region,” said Caltrans District 1 Director Matthew Brady. “This athletic facility provides a convenient home base for Boonville residents and students to recreate and engage in outdoor activities.”

Representatives from the Anderson Valley Unified School District, Caltrans and Rege Construction joined students and staff for the groundbreaking event. Construction is expected for completion by spring 2026.

Clean California has funded 319 projects statewide to revitalize and beautify underserved communities. Projects are improving public spaces, tribal lands, parks, neighborhoods, transit centers, walking paths, streets, roadsides, recreation fields, community gathering spots, and places of cultural importance or historical interest in underserved communities. Since July 2021, Caltrans’ Clean California initiative and its local partners have picked up more than 2.9 million cubic yards of litter – enough to cover nine lanes of Interstate 5 with trash from the Mexican border to Oregon. Caltrans also hosted more than 650 free dump days in communities throughout the state, resulting in the collection of 15,500-plus mattresses and 57,000 tires. The initiative has enlisted more than 72,000 community clean-up volunteers and created thousands of jobs, including positions for individuals who were formerly incarcerated, on probation, or experiencing housing insecurity.

Superintendent Kristin Larson Balliet expressing gratitude to Caltrans and others affiliated with the project. Teresa Malfavon, translator, on the left, Principal Heath McNerney on the right

For more information, visit CleanCA.com.

DAMS ARE COMING DOWN — AND A NEW FACILITY IS GOING UP.

by John Haschak

June is time to celebrate those graduating and their families. Best wishes in this next adventure in life. June is also the budget month for the county. The Board approved a balanced budget on June 3. We heard presentations from 11 different departments and offices.

The cuts haven’t been easy, and department heads and elected officials will be making their cases about what they can and can’t do without. We will use six million dollars of one-time-only money to pay one-time expenses, which will prevent more drastic cuts.

The Inland Water & Power Commission had an all-boards’ meeting on May 29. Since the IWPC is composed of different boards, this was an opportunity for all the boards to hear the same update.

My takeaways are: PG&E is going to take down the dams. A coalition has formed to build a New Eel Russian Facility (NERF) that will divert water during high water times from the Eel River to the Russian River. The current projection is that the NERF will cost $40 million to build and $10 million annually to operate. The process will take years, and people/groups in both basins have agreed to this plan. Storage of water on the Russian River side is critical to making it all work, and a feasibility study by the United States Army Corps of Engineers is beginning to study the raising of Coyote Dam. That will be a very expensive and long process. There has been a lot of work done by very dedicated people, coalitions have been formed from entities from both basins, and continuing to work through the issues is the only realistic path forward to keep water flowing in both directions.

I have a couple of new committee assignments that are making the Talk with the Supervisor dates bounce around. This month, it will be on Monday, June 9 at 11 a.m. at the Brickhouse in Willits. As always, you can email [email protected] or call 707-972-4214.

JULIE BEARDSLEY

Rock, meet hard place. Social Services, Behavioral Health and Public Health are mostly not funded with General Fund money, and provide vital services. So which departments are? Tax Collector and Assessor bring in money, so cutting staff there wouldn’t be wise. Limiting the number of deputies in the Sheriff’s department is not a good idea either. Cutting transportation staff will result in unsafe roads. I don’t want to see anyone laid off.

The Executive Office is funded from the General Fund. Do we need as many employees there? How about if the CEO took a temporary salary reduction as a good faith gesture? The Supervisors? How about not giving away a big portion of the inland tax base to the City of Ukiah? The County has properties that could be rented out for private parties and other venues, are they advertising that? Hold a bake sale? There must be creative ways the County can leverage it’s assets….

HOW MUCH FIREWOOD one round can yield (mk)

ALEXANDRA THERON: I’d like to advertise for land. 50k cash on offer. Dirt is fine, as are redwoods. I have a four wheel drive, just want to be close to surf and be able to live. I work at the school. ([email protected])

FORT BRAGG CITY MANAGER MONTHLY ROUND UP

As the City Manager of Fort Bragg, I want to share key updates from the City Manager’s Roundup for May. This month, we focused on ongoing infrastructure projects, launched new community programs, and worked on enhancing local services. Stay tuned for more developments as we work towards making Fort Bragg an even better place!

https://issuu.com/cityoffortbragg/docs/city_manager_round_up_-_may

FLOODGATE REOPENS

We are a family run business that is now 4 generations into working at the Floodgate! The Floodgate itself has gone through many changes, with several different proprietors adding their food options and flare to Anderson Valley. Currently we are the 3rd and 4th generations of Paula family members to be running the Floodgate Store. We are John and his partner Alyson, and Brian and his wife Cinnamon. Together we are working out our menu, schedule, and atmosphere at the Floodgate Store.

For now, John and Cinnamon are taking turns running the Store on different days. Brian and Alyson are working other jobs and fill in as needed when it's busy and behind the scenes with recipe ideas, tech, etc. It is a group effort! John and Alyson are world travelers who love to eat and be active in their community! Brian and Cinnamon have lived in Southern Humboldt for 25 years where the food options may be few, but it is a community of serious foodies with some of the best snack shacks for youth sports anywhere. These many influences between us all have helped build our menu offerings.

Our vision of what we wanted the Floodgate Store to be has been guided by long ago memories and what we thought Anderson Valley would enjoy having. Many of our recipes are family recipes that we have been using for generations, such as our pickled beets. Our paninis, sandwiches, salads, coffee, etc are all borrowed ideas and products from other places we have enjoyed eating at over the years. And some are just things we see on social media that look good. Our main menu will remain the same and we will continue to add other items to keep it fresh!

When we asked Butch Paula what he wanted for the Floodgate and what he thought was special about the place when he ran it, he said he wanted it to be a community hub again. What made it special was the diversity of people that came in. The loggers were always there doing their thing. While the newcomers, brightlighters, and back to the landers came in and they all had to mix and get to know each other. The newcomers were all doing the same things. So when one guy would talk about getting his house roofed, another person was asking who did it and getting contact info. It was a networking hub on top of a place to have a damn good time!

We couldn’t have explained our vision better! We are happy to have locals, new and old, brightlighters, etc come enjoy themselves at the Floodgate Store!

‘MUST-DO HIKES’

by Justine Frederiksen

Not every highway pullout is worth a stop, but I think every one of them on the Mendocino Coast just might be worthy of visiting. And the latest proof is one just south of the town of Mendocino that I recently discovered connects to a lovely path along the bluffs above the Pacific Ocean.

I had never stopped at that bumpy stretch of dirt until last month, because I never knew its secret until I found a book at a library sale called “Must-do hikes for everyone on Northern California’s Redwood Coast,” written by Mike White. And when I scanned the 12 hikes listed for Mendocino County, I found two I hadn’t heard of before, so I happily paid $2 to take this treasure home and study the list more carefully.

One name I didn’t recognize at all was fourth on the list, “Chapman Point and Spring Ranch Headlands,” which is the trail mentioned above that you can walk after finding the dirt pullout at mile marker 48.94 along Highway 1, just south of the driveway leading up to the Mendocino Grove “glamping” site.

My first clue that I found the proper pullout was that there were two other cars (nice, not junker) parked there, including one that people with backpacks and walking sticks just emerged from, in yet another example of the fact that no matter how remote, hidden or “unknown” a trail is, you can be assured that if it is worth walking on, there will always be another car parked near the trailhead.

So I followed the path to the bluffs over the ocean, and while I did not do the entire length of the trail, I’m not sure it offered anything more in terms of views and beauty than the bluff walks at the Stornetta Public Lands or the nearby Mendocino Headlands, yet it did offer great views with fewer people than those other trails. But also no bathrooms.

Which brings me to another “must-do” hike in the book, the Mendocino Headlands. I was well aware of these trails and have walked them several times, but until finding this book I had always stuck to the paths near downtown Mendocino, never venturing to the beginning of the trails to the north.

And I’m so glad I tried those other paths, because there I found one of the loveliest coves on the Mendocino Coast, conveniently “hidden” behind a public bathroom. Before finding this cove I thought the bathroom (wait, is it technically a bathroom if there’s only a pit toilet?) at the top of Greenwood State Beach had the prettiest view of an ocean cove, but these facilities definitely top the list, as they have both running water and a sink.

The second trail listed in White’s book that I had never heard of was called the “Forest History Trail” in the Jackson Demonstration Forest, which he describes as a walk through a second-growth redwood forest that is best enjoyed with a copy of something called the “Forest History Guide,” which he said was available at the Cal Fire office in Fort Bragg.

Unfortunately, White’s book was printed in 2014, because when I visited the office on North Main Street in May of 2025, the helpful woman behind the counter said that copies of the guide were no longer available, and more would not be printed. (Request to readers: If anyone has a copy of this guide they are willing to let me borrow, I would very much appreciate it.)

Of course, ultimately, you don’t need advice from a book, a website or even me to enjoy the Mendocino Coast: Just drive Highway 1 until you find somewhere safe to pull over, then get out and look around. I can almost guarantee you that you’ll find something worth looking at, and exploring further — if appropriate and legal, of course!

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

NAVARRO BY THE SEA DAY Today, Saturday, June 7

Come on down to Captain Fletcher’s Inn at Navarro State Beach to celebrate! A day of community and friends featuring a BBQ, live music, Inn tours, and a raffle of Many prizes. Proceeds go directly to MendoParks and Fletcher’s renovations!

Here's the Live Music schedule

Noon to 1pm Uke jam - all ukulele players welcome!
1:15 Comptche Strummers
1:45 Lawrence Bullock
2:45 Marcus McCallen and Friends
3:45 Foxglove

BBQ

Burgers (beef, garden veggie) - $10
Hot dogs (beef, Polish, chicken apple) - $10
Sides (cabbage slaw, potato chips, pickle wedge) - included with burger or dog
Tortilla chips and salsa - $2

Raffle

Meals, overnight stays, goodie bags, canoe and trail bike rides and more

More info/details about the event: www.mendoparks.org or Sid at 707.937.4700

THE NOYO BIDA TRUTH PROJECT SPONSORS A SPECIAL PROGRAM ON TUESDAY, JUNE 10, AT 7 P.M.

The Noyo Bida Truth Project sponsors a special program on Tuesday, June 10, at 7 p.m. in the Community Room of the Fort Bragg Library, 499 East Laurel Street.

Our third annual Essay Contest winner will receive his prize and read his winning essay on the subject “The Name of Fort Bragg Should/Should Not Be Changed”. Chosen by judges unaffiliated with TNBTP, the winning essayist is a Fort Bragg High School graduating senior who will receive a prize of $2,000.

We’ll also present a special Guest Speaker, Nathan Rich. Rich is of Dakota / Muscogee / Filipino / Irish descent. Born in Oakland California, Nathan will share his family’s history, their challenges and triumphs to build community and maintain a healthy cultural identity in an ever changing world. Nathan’s experiences of being raised in a Native Community in the diversity of the Bay Area provides a glimpse into the value of indigenous commitment to healthy communities.

This program is free and open to all.

For further information: www.thenoyobidatruthproject.org

A UKIAH HIGH TRAGEDY - AFTER GRADUATION, THE STRUGGLE BEGAN

by Tahtiana James

For many high school seniors, graduation is a moment filled with pride, joy, and hope, a celebration of the past and the promise of what’s ahead. But for some, that moment feels less like stepping into a new chapter and more like being pushed off a cliff into the unknown.

“After your senior year is really the first time in your entire life that you actually get to choose,” says Adrienne Bakewell, Ukiah High School’s mental health counselor. “There’s a ton of overwhelm and stress from having to make large decisions, and then possibly, stress and depression from how things turn out.”

For some students, the weight of that freedom can be crushing. And for Angel Murguia-Martinez, a member of the Ukiah High graduating Class of 2017, the journey after high school became a silent struggle that ended in heartbreaking tragedy.

On Valentine’s Day, 2024, Murguia-Martinez went missing. He had walked away from his Ukiah home late in the evening and disappeared. Unresponsive to messages, concern quickly grew among friends, family, and coworkers. In the days that followed, the Ukiah community launched search efforts and spread awareness on social media. Despite ongoing efforts, weeks turned into months with no answers, leaving his loved ones in a painful state of uncertainty.

In March 2025, more than a year after his disappearance, Murguia-Martinez’s body was discovered in the Low Gap area by a cleanup crew. The confirmation brought an end to the long search, but also marked the beginning of a new wave of grief for those who had held onto hope. The discovery devastated his family and deeply impacted the Ukiah High School community, where Murguia-Martinez had been known for his kindness, quiet strength, and love of music and video games.

UHS News spoke with Murguia-Martinez’s family and said they remember him as quiet, deeply kind, with a heart full of music and a passion for gaming. After graduation, he found joy in his job at GameStop, which was a place where his enthusiasm and gentle spirit truly shone. But beneath the surface, he was quietly enduring a darkness that few could see.

“Angel did have some serious bouts of depression that consumed him,” his family shared with UHS News. “We sought help for him. We tried. But in the end, it was what took him from us.”

His story is a painful reminder that some of the brightest smiles can hide the deepest wounds. Bakewell explains, “There’s a lot of misunderstanding with depression, especially in young people. Just because someone is laughing with friends or showing up to school doesn’t mean they’re okay when they go home.”

According to Murguia-Martinez’s family, his downward spiral seemed to deepen after losing his grandmother, the woman who helped raise him. Though Murguia-Martinez did see a counselor for a time, like many young people navigating mental health, the support was not consistent, and eventually, he stopped going.

“In our community, mental health care is virtually non-existent,” his family says. “I believe that Angel really lost a battle that no one ever really ever knew he was fighting.”

Silence can be deadly. That’s why Murguia-Martinez’s family is speaking out, urging others to listen, to check in, and to never assume someone is “fine” just because they’re functioning. Murguia-Martinez’s family wants students to know that it’s okay not to be okay, and it’s essential to ask for help.

“I would want them to know that they are not alone,” his family says. “I would want them to know that the amount of pain and hurt this has placed on our hearts and souls has been devastating. Even if you think you are not loved or that you will not be missed I can promise you that you are loved more than you know and you would be missed…Tremendously.”

Bakewell also wants to ease the pressure students may feel when trying to support a friend. “You’re not expected to fix it. Just walk with them. Lead them to someone who might be able to help.”

Bakewell agrees that the emotional terrain after high school is often overlooked. “We’ve literally lived our whole lives with structure — bells ringing, classes scheduled, people checking in,” she says. “And then suddenly we say, ‘Go make the biggest decision of your life — and do it on your own.’ No structure. No safety net. It’s easy to flounder.”

To honor Murguia-Martinez’ memory and try to protect others from similar pain, his family is working to place a memorial bench at Low Gap Park. “If you see someone sitting there alone then just maybe you could take a moment and be the person that changes their mind when they feel they have lost their battle.”

(Tahtiana James is a senior in her first journalism class at Ukiah High School. She has a passion for environmental science and storytelling. Growing up in Ukiah, Tahtiana developed a deep appreciation for nature, which drives her interest in studying the environment. Tahtiana enjoys combining her love for writing with a commitment to raising awareness about environmental issues, especially those impacting local communities. When not writing or studying, Tahtiana can be found exploring the nearby hills or experimenting with sustainable practices. Tahtiana looks forward to contributing to the school’s environmental club and making a difference through her work in journalism. Ukiah Daily Journal.)

ERIK LAMBERG IS STILL MISSING

Matt LeFever wrote at the time…

Erik Lamberg had the smog of Los Angeles in his rear view mirror and Oregon’s fertile fields ahead of him when he left his Hermosa Beach home. Hoping to find solace from his substance abuse and mental illness, he instead was lost in Mendocino County never to be seen again.

On May 23rd, 2013, Erik struck north from his SoCal home of Hermosa Beach driving a Silver 2004 Honda Odyssey. Since 2000, his family had been rocked by Erik’s addictions and mental illness. Samantha (Erik’s wife) and he had separated periodically to protect the kids from this instability. Two years before his northward journey, Erik’s father had passed away leading to a prolonged period of volatility. Erik left that late-spring day with the purpose of finding a sober living facility in Oregon, though no specific treatment center was ever identified.

Samantha spoke with Erik on May 26th, three days after leaving Hermosa Beach. (In Cold Case Mendocino’s research, no information was provided justifying the inordinate length of Erik’s trip. According to Google Maps, it takes approximately 8.5 hours to travel from his home to where his vehicle was discovered.) In the last conversation he would ever have with his wife, Erik told her the van had broken down in Leggett and needed repairs. The car would be towed 25 miles south to Laytonville to a mechanic.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, Erik stayed at Laytonville’s Budget Inn for two nights. According to motel staff, his behavior did not indicate anything was awry. After the first night, Erik apparently became impatient waiting for the mechanic to return from the long weekend and chose to reclaim the vehicle. It is still unclear how Erik was able to get the vehicle running again.

On Tuesday May 28th, Erik left Laytonville stopping at a market before leaving town. This transaction is the last time Erik would be seen alive.

At this point, Samantha’s concerns were growing. She had not gotten any updates from Erik regarding the vehicle or his northward journey. On Wednesday May 29th, she contacted Mendocino Sheriff reporting concerns about her husband who was in the area. Based on the report, a Be On The Lookout was issued to all Northern California law enforcement for a Silver Honda Odyssey.

Just days later 20 miles deep on rugged Sherwood Road west of Willits, ATV riders found a van matching the description of Erik’s stuck in mud and seemingly abandoned. Large scraps of bark and sticks had been placed under the tires indicating someone had attempted to extricate the van themselves.

Between the off-roaders finding of the vehicle and law enforcements investigation, Samantha described how, “The car was intact when the ATV people found it, but by the time police had it towed, it had been broken into. There were things in the car when he left – a pretty expensive camera and a couple of computers – but those were not there.”

It is worth noting that the van was found south of Laytonville. Some suggest this southward route indicates Erik was considering abandoning his Oregon destination and returning to his Hermosa Beach home.

Using bloodhounds, Mendocino Sheriff tracked Erik’s movement. According to a Facebook post, sheriffs “followed a possible scent for about eight miles” that then returned back towards the vehicle. Law Enforcement surmised Erik had been seeking assistance but then returned to his vehicle when none came.

Due to the dense foliage and lack of concrete clues, the efficacy of aerial investigation was limited and ground searches waned. Samantha worked doggedly to collaborate with local law enforcement and media to spread word of Erik’s disappearance throughout the Mendocino region.

The search for Erik was reinvigorated in July 2013 when a local woman heard a report of the missing person on KZYX. Her boyfriend was a professional owl caller and had been working at night near the area the van was found. The boyfriend described how on May 31st he heard what sounded like “a man screaming as if he was scared out of his mind.” This occurrence would have been only three days after Erik had entered the woods.

The break in the case spawned renewed search and rescue attempts. Bloodhounds were once again utilized and found scents nearby the site of the man screaming. Unfortunately, this did not lead to any concrete clues about Erik’s disappearance.

As of now, ground and aerial searches have been suspended. Samantha continues to update the “Help Find Erik Lamberg“ Facebook page. With posts dating back as far as June 3, 2013, only two days after the discovery of his van, Samantha and family documented their tragic and difficult process of initial discovery, searches, and eventual acceptance. Never before has Cold Case Mendocino seen such a substantive social media effort to create awareness of a local missing person.

Online sleuths have hypothesized Erik’s disappearance could be related to the Old Sherwood Rancheria in close proximity to where his van was located. Two other Mendocino County Cold Cases (Danny Ray Michael in 1995, Mark Maples found deceased in 2012) are directly related to that area. Though intriguing, Cold Case Mendocino hesitates to connect Erik’s disappearance to these others. Erik came from far away and spent most of his life in an urban area. For many locals Mendocino County’s forests are their backyards but to many urbanites can prove formidable.

Essential Questions about the Case

Why did Erik take three days to drive from Hermosa Beach to Leggett when Google Maps says the drive should 8.5 hours?

What specific rehabilitation center/sober living facility did Erik intend to receive treatment from? Are there any AA/NA/Support Group buddies that could provide more context to where Erik intended to go?

Why did Erik turn west onto Sherwood Road? Some suggest this indicates a change of mind and decision to return home.

How did Erik fix his car on Sunday, May 26th and make it drivable? Was there a mechanic at the shop that could offer information on Erik’s intentions and motivations to pick up the car early?

What, if any, is the connection between the missing computers/cameras and Erik’s disappearance? Were serial numbers of those products ever identified and cross referenced against local pawnshops?

CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, June 6, 2025

TIMOTHY DAVIS, 46, Covelo. Controlled substance with two or more priors, paraphernalia, suspended license, county parole violation.

VICTORIA FALLIS, 58, Covelo. DUI.

SEAN LOGAN, 50, Fort Bragg. Sex registrant-removal or disabling of GPS monitor, parole violation.

VICTOR LOPEZ, 41, Ukiah. County parole violation.

MICHAEL MENDEZ, 52, Ukiah. DUI.

JORGE RODRIGUEZ, 51, Ukiah. DUI-any drug, controlled substance, paraphernalia.

ROLANDO RUIZ, 36, Ukiah. Controlled substanc with two or more priors.

JAVIER SILVA, 27, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. DUI causing bodily injury, suspended license for DUI.

STILL SEEKING OTHERS FOR SPIRITUALLY DIRECTED ECO REVOLUTION AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

Warmest spiritual greetings, Just sitting here online at the MLK Public Library in Washington, D.C., listening to the Panchakshara Mantra of Lord Shiva, God of Destruction in the Hindu Trinity. I am continuing to send out emails to attract a critical mass for spiritually directed eco-revolutionary direct action. As the summer heat begins to make its appearance, and the deadly global ramifications become certain, isn’t it time to take effective action in response to this insane situation on planet earth? I am more than ready to leave the homeless shelter, having supported for the sixteenth time the D.C. Anti-Nuclear War Vigil; we are directly across from the White House, in Lafayette Park. With around $2600 in the bank, I can get to wherever. It is time for the Eco-Revolution to commence. Either that, or wait until we are all killed off. The choice is ours. ;-))

Craig Louis Stehr, [email protected]

Jan. 21, 1969: Waves break against a barrier at Fort Point below the Golden Gate Bridge. A few brave visitors got a little too close to the crashing water during the winter storm. (Joe Rosenthal)

MEMO OF THE AIR: Good Night Radio all night tonight on KNYO and KAKX!

Soft deadline to email your writing for tonight's (Friday night's) MOTA show is 5pm or so. If that's too soon, send it any time after that and I'll read it next Friday.

Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am PST on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg and KNYO.org. The first three hours of the show, meaning till midnight, are simulcast on KAKX 89.3fm Mendocino.

Plus you can always go to https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com and hear last week's MOTA show. By Saturday night I'll put up the recording of tonight's show. You'll find plenty of other educational amusements there to educate and amuse yourself with until showtime, or any time, such as:

Chain-smoke Old Gold unfiltered cigarets all night and feel great, with a fresh-tasting mouth full of gleaming white teeth. I'm /so/ sure. And yet, “After smoking for 56 years she's still fit as a fiddle.” Maybe those four out of five doctors knew something after all. https://www.weirduniverse.net/blog/comments/chainsmoking_in_bed

Speaking of which: the first guy ever to drink coffee. https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-first-guy-to-ever-drink-coffee.html

And a story of branding. https://laughingsquid.com/original-brand-names

Marco McClean, [email protected], https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

SPIRITUAL ELDERING

To the Editor:

The symbolism that Edmund White died on my birthday, June 3rd, is not lost on me. I was Ed's student at Johns Hopkins in the mid-1970s. He was important teacher of fiction writing, along with John Barth. My classmates included Louise Erdrich.

Beginning in the late-1980s, I later went on to be the executive director of AIDS Project Worcester, then at the Cape Cod AIDS Council, and, in 1997, I received a PEN award in 1997 for writing about the AIDS epidemic and how I mourned the passing of a generation of gay men who were out and proud--an epidemic many homophobes considered God's will.

For these same homophobes, gay men represented sin, and Gay Liberation represented heresy.

It was at this time; Ed reappeared in my life. Ed did a kind of “spiritual eldering”, working with me on coming to spiritual terms with death and grief. It was the deepest sort of spiritual intimacy I have known in my life.

John Sakowicz

Johns Hopkins University, MA, 1979; BA, 1977

Ukiah

GIANTS PULL OFF WIN over Braves in extras, overcome baserunning snafus

by Susan Slusser

San Francisco Giants second baseman Tyler Fitzgerald celebrates scoring from third base on a wild pitch by Atlanta Braves pitcher Pierce Johnson in the 10th inning during an MLB game at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Friday, June 06, 2025. (Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle)

For a team that plays a large number of one-run games, the San Francisco Giants aren’t always great with some of the nuances that help earn narrow wins.

On Friday at Oracle Park, the Giants ran into three outs on the bases, all of them late and with the game tied. But terrific defense, something the team displayed all night, saved them in the 10th when, with the bases loaded and two outs, Luke Williams hit a 41.5 mph tapper to third that Matt Chapman had to zing to first with extra gusto to end the inning and prevent a run.

That set the stage for the Giants to win 5-4 when Pierce Johnson’s wild pitch with two outs in the 10th sent in placed runner Tyler Fitzgerald from third, San Francisco’s major-league leading seventh walkoff win of the season. The Giants extended their winning streak to three.

“How we did it was a little unorthodox after maybe not playing our cleanest game,” manager Bob Melvin said.

Fitzgerald also scored on a walkoff wild pitch last year against Toronto, and he had that in mind Friday night, knowing Johnson has a nasty curveball that might prove elusive if it got away.

“I kind of had a feeling it might hit the dirt, and if that guy’s curveball hits the dirt, there’s no stopping it,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald was the place runner because Johnson picked him off to end the ninth.

“Last year, that would have bothered me a little bit more, but I was being aggressive in that situation,” Fitzgerald said. “I did all my homework, and I kind of had his timing down, but he held it a little bit longer.

“I knew if I did get thrown out or picked off, I’d start at second base, so I knew the risk.”

The other inning the Giants fared poorly on the bases featured onetime Atlanta legend Craig Kimbrel back in a Braves uniform for the first time since 2014. Kimbrel, who signed a minor-league deal with the team near the end of the spring after pitching for Baltimore last year, was promoted Friday after putting up a 2.00 ERA in 18 appearances between two levels. Kimbrel, 37, is fifth on the all-time saves list.

Kimbrel gave up a leadoff single to Heliot Ramos, who was then caught stealing, and he walked Jung Hoo Lee, then picked him off before he then struck out Wilmer Flores to end the inning.

“It was a sloppy baserunning game for our whole team,” Fitzgerald said.

New guy Dominic Smith had another notable game, driving in two more runs and contributing to a strong overall defensive effort. His work at first base was exemplary, scooping up grounders, making nice feeds to pitchers and, in the fifth, blazing to the screen to catch a foul ball along the railing. The 29-year-old was signed to a one-year deal Wednesday and he’s 3-for-9 with two walks and four RBIs.

Also turning in fine work afield was shortstop Willy Adames, who went to his left for Sean Murphy’s scorching bouncer, smoked at 106.6 mph, the momentum pulling Adames toward the outfield, so he spun and fired to first for the second out in the sixth.

Another key play came from Mike Yastzremski, who picked up that Lee had lost Ozzie Albies’ fly ball to center and sprinted over from right to make the grab and end the fifth.

“We had to do something right, and the defense was the best part of it,” Melvin said.

The Giants needed every nice play and every bit of situational hitting because the Braves are as inclined toward close games as they are; the teams have played 26 one-run games apiece, the most in the majors. Atlanta followed the wrong script for narrow margins, making two errors in the first — Nick Allen, the former A’s shortstop, was charged with one, third baseman Austin Riley the other — and a walk and a run-scoring wild pitch also factored in the Giants’ three-run inning.

Hayden Birdsong started for San Francisco and he hit Matt Olson to open the third then walked Marcel Ozuna. “I just lost feel for some things,” Birdsong said. Murphy’s sacrifice fly sent in Olson and Michael Harris II provided an RBI single.

In the seventh, Olson banged a two-run homer to right off reliever Ryan Walker, who entered the previous inning. The Giants didn’t retire Olson, the former A’s first baseman, until the ninth, when Camilo Doval froze him on a slider.

There was one unsettling moment in the fourth when Murphy’s sacrifice fly sent in Olson. A fan (presumably) threw a second ball on the field. Catcher Patrick Bailey was zeroed in on the throw from Yastrzemski and was not distracted by the second ball; the umpiring crew huddled briefly but it wasn’t readily apparent where the second ball had come from.

“I was like, ‘How is the ball there?’” Birdsong said. “I thought it was the ball that was thrown home, then then I realized Patty had the other ball. I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ I had no idea.”

“I’ve never seen that before,” said Melvin, who played in 692 big-league games and managed 3,168. “I don’t know where it came from, and I don’t know what the rule is. I think everybody was a little surprised by it. It didn’t affect the play, but it was extremely odd to see another baseball come on the field.”

(sfchronicle.com)

HE COULD HAVE BLED OUT': HOW A CALIFORNIA DAY HIKE BECAME LIFE-OR-DEATH

by Matt LaFever

The trip to the Feather River Canyon wasn’t random. It was part of a personal ritual. “Every year for our anniversary we go find waterfalls, and that was one of my favorite spots,” Sharlene Shea told SFGATE.

This year, Shea, her husband Chris, their daughter and a few friends had traveled from Quincy, California, for a day hike to the remote Camp Creek Falls on Sunday, May 25. The area is known for its dramatic, cascading drops deep into the Butte County canyon. They reached the top of the system, a high vantage point above the main waterfall, when Chris suggested taking a group picture.

“He’s like, ‘Oh hey, let’s get a picture.’ Nobody else wanted to do it. And he’s like, ‘Alright, I’ll get a picture of me,’ and sat down,” she said.

They snapped a photo of Chris seated in shallow water near the edge, where the terrain dropped steeply away. As Chris stood up, Shea noticed the slippery rock and potential for a fall, saying, “Please don’t mess around and find out.” Moments later, Chris “stood up and lost his footing,” she said.

The accident unfolded in seconds, but what followed was a grueling three-hour fight to keep him alive and a dramatic rescue involving rope systems and a helicopter airlift that left Chris suspended 150 feet below the aircraft. Shea, who didn’t have any medical training, was forced to improvise emergency tourniquets to stop the severe bleeding, working frantically in front of their daughter and close friends.

Now, about two weeks after that incident, Shea reached out to SFGATE to share the real story of what happened that day. Her goal: to correct misinformation that has since spread in other media reports.

Shea watched as Chris fell over 30 feet, crashing into a rocky pool below. His family and friends rushed down, pulled him from the water and discovered what Shea described as him “bleeding out.” Thinking quickly, she rigged the tourniquet out of a T-shirt to slow the blood loss.

Doctors later confirmed that Chris had completely dislocated his left foot, torn a major artery and severely damaged a key tendon in that foot. In his right leg, he had a fractured tibia and a torn meniscus. Shea said the first aid she provided was crucial: “He could have bled out.”

The group spent three hours keeping Chris stable while rescuers worked to reach the remote location. Kevin Soukup, a spokesperson for the Butte County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue team, told SFGATE in a previous interview that crews had to hike three-quarters of a mile after washed-out roads blocked access. Ground teams stabilized Chris at the base of the falls. With no ambulance access, a helicopter lifted Chris out of the canyon, with him suspended 150 feet below in a rescue harness.

Chris’s injuries required extensive medical care. Shea said surgeons reattached his ankle, relocated the damaged artery and inserted hardware to repair a fractured tibia. Citing privacy laws restricting the release of medical information, rescue personnel could only confirm Shea experienced “traumatic injuries.”

He remains bedridden, unable to bear weight, and faces multiple surgeries. Recovery is estimated to take at least six months. Chris, who works as an accountant, is “in the bedroom doing his little office work,” Shea said.

One reason Shea contacted SFGATE was to push back against rumors circulating after her husband’s fall. She had seen media reports falsely claiming that “his legs had been amputated” and wanted to set the record straight. She also clarified a key detail from that day: Chris wasn’t taking a selfie when he fell. “He was not taking the photo at all,” she said. “We were taking a photo of him.” While initial reports from first responders suggested Chris was taking a selfie, Sharlene emphasized that he was simply posing, not holding the camera, and reached out to SFGATE to share the real story of what happened.

Despite everything, the Sheas say their love for the outdoors remains intact. While they don’t plan to return to waterfall hiking anytime soon, Shea added: “We’re not scared. We’ll do it again.”

(SFGate.com)

RESTORE THE DELTA CALLS FOR AUDIT OF BILLIONS OF PUBLIC SPENDING ON DELTA TUNNEL

DWR will have spent nearly $1 billion on various iterations of tunnel project planning, with projected construction costs exceeding $20 billion before inflation or unforeseen expenses.

by Dan Bacher

Stockton, CA – At a time when Governor Newsom's May revision budget proposal slashes overtime pay for caregivers, consumer access to care and nursing home oversight, the environmentally destructive and unjust Delta Tunnel is costing taxpayers $1 million per day, according to the Department of Water Resources.

Restore the Delta (RTD) has decided that it’s time for an audit. Yesterday the group submitted a formal request to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee urging a full audit of the Department of Water Resources’ (DWR) spending on the controversial Delta Conveyance Project (DCP) and associated Voluntary Agreements.…

https://www.elkgrovedailynews.com/restore-the-delta-calls-for-audit

BILL VEECK

by Fred Gardner

Slightly condensed from an article in the March 1949 American Legion Magazine by Paul Gardner (my dad, whose folder of yellowed clippings I’ve been looking through.)

In mid-summer of 1946 Bill Veeck limped into Cleveland to head up a syndicate which had bought out the 6th place Cleveland Indians. Two-and-a-half tempestuous years later he had engineered a miracle of baseball money-making, attracting the greatest crowd ever to see one game, 86,288 and the largest season home attendance for any club, 2,640,000. Meanwhile the team under manager Lou Boudreau swept to the world championship.

How has he been able to cut loose from the curse of dignity and self-importance? Most club presidents have remained aloof from the throng, acting more like distant financiers or captains of industry than showmen. Why has Bill Veeck not set up the barriers between himself and the fans which other club presidents elect?

His father, William Veeck, Sr., was president of the Chicago Cubs of the National League, and young Bill who was himself treasurer of the Cubs, knows his way around a big-league front office blindfolded. But in spirit he is a perennial sophomore… and would be whether it was a good business or not. He is the emotional twin of the most exuberant baseball fan – delirious in victory, inconsolable in defeat, blindly loyal.

I watched him on the evening following the fourth game of the World Series last fall, a game in which Cleveland went ahead of Boston, three games to one. The president was not in the counting house counting his money, he was dancing wildly on his artificial leg in the assembly room of the Hotel Hollenden in Cleveland. His right leg, injured by the recoil of an artillery piece when Veeck served with the Marines on Bouganville in the Solomon Islands, had been whittled away many times to stabilize the improperly healed wound. His doctor had warned him to lie on his back for a year in a warm climate, but on this night he danced madly, risking his health to express the joy he felt in common with the people of Cleveland. He outlasted every able-bodied fellow on the floor as he stomped about with one partner after another.

For two years Veeck had attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. He is recalled as a prankster – but not by everybody. One college chum recalls that Veeck impressed him as “a serious guy who didn't want you to know he was a serious guy.” A fraternity brother would not have been surprised “if Veeck turned out to be a circus clown or a banker.” This was an able prophecy, since he has managed to be a little of both as a baseball executive. Jack Stickney told me that the college legend that Veeck leaped out of a fast-moving car one night while riding in a rumble seat with a blind date is absolutely true. I then checked this yarn with Veeck, and he nodded.

“Why did you do it?” I asked him.

He shrugged. “I didn't like the doll.”

The original family name had been Vander Veeck, of Dutch origin. William Veeck, Sr., been a reporter on the Louisville Courier-Journal, then shifted to a sportswriter's job on the Chicago American. His constructive criticism of the Chicago Cubs baseball team so impressed owner William Wrigley that he finally asked Veeck, Sr. to head the Cubs organization. It was a wise move. In 1929 and 1932 the Cubs won the National League pennant.

The elder Veeck died in 1933 when Bill was a sophomore at Kenyon. He had never shown the slightest interest in professional baseball while his father lived, but when his father died he dropped out of college and joined the Cubs organization at age 19. He was treasurer of the club at the age of 26. In 1940 he borrowed $130,000 and purchased the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association. There he busted loose with the kind of showmanship and baseball manipulation which he later displayed in Cleveland. By 1942 Milwaukee was making money and winning pennants. In 1945, while he was in the Marines, Veeck sold the Brewers at a nice profit.

Veeck settled briefly in Tucson, but he was too restless to follow doctor's orders. He moved to Cleveland while still on the mend and put together a syndicate in which Bob Hope was a major – and an excellent source of free publicity.

Veeck says his happiness peaked not in the moment the Indians won the World Series but afterwards, riding with the team down Euclid Avenue. “A third of the population of the city came out to see us,” be recalls, “all grinning all laughing.”

Captions of pix accompanying the American Legion Magazine story inform us that “To introduce more ladies to baseball, Veeck gave away 20,000 orchids” on one occasion and 500 pairs of nylons on another. And he arranged for a day-care center to be installed at Municipal Stadium!

Afterthought: The photo didn’t go with the American Legion piece. Eddie Gaedel didn’t draw a walk until 1951. My dad was very fond of Veeck, but I can’t find any more pieces he wrote about him. He had read in the Kodak booklet that came with your Brownie that a good picture had to involve an action. Which is probably why he was taking notes.

PS.

Musicians and bands drew people all six days of the 1955 Negro State Fair. This inventive musical contraption includes dancing people and animals. The sign (punctuation added) says, “this is the one one aram man and the greatest ban in the world. It took 22 years to make this one man band. I played school, tv, clubs, teatner and weddings. No charged. All silver donation. Coin box.” The unidentified musician, missing a forearm, strapped instruments to his upper arm.

THE ORIGIN OF BASEBALL

by Kenneth Patchen (1942)

Someone had been walking in and out
Of the world without coming
To much decision about anything.
The sun seemed too hot most of the time.
There weren’t enough birds around
And the hills had a silly look
When he got on top of one.
The girls in heaven, however, thought
Nothing of asking to see his watch
Like you would want someone to tell
A joke – “Time,” they’d say, “what’s
That mean – Time?”, laughing with the edges
Of their white mouths, like a flutter of paper
In a mad house. And he’d stumble over
General Sherman or Elizabeth B.
Browning, muttering, “Can’t you keep
Your big wings out of the aisle?” But down
Again, there’d be millions of people without
Enough to eat and men with guns just
Standing there shooting each other.

So he wanted to throw something
And he picked up a baseball.

ROCKY MARCIANO:

All the time I was fighting, mom was very upset. She would never go to my fights. She wouldn't even watch them on television or listen to them on the radio.

Whenever I was fighting, she stayed in her room and prayed or some friend of the family would take her riding in an automobile until it was over.

I remember once Joe Louis was in Providence for an exhibition bout with Bill Weinberg. All of a sudden, mom said, 'I think I'll take a look at this.' I stayed home, but waited until mom got back before I went to bed.

She came to my room and said, 'Rocky I don't care who you fight. Now that you're a fighter, I suppose you got to fight everybody. But promise me one thing, Rocky.

Promise me you'll never fight this Joe Louis. He's a big, strong man. He's like a big monster.

His hands were going like machines in the shoe shops. Promise, figlio mio?'

Once in a while mom went to see Mrs. Lucy Parziale to fight off 'malocchio'. Malocchio is the 'evil eye'. At least, that's what the old Italian people from the south of Italy say. It's like some kind of a curse.

The only way to get rid of it is to see someone who can break the spell, like Mrs. Parziale. Mom would take something that I used against my body, like a T-shirt, and give it to Mrs. Parziale. Mrs. Parziale would fill a deep dish with water and dip a teaspoon of olive oil in it.

Then she'd recite some words and dip her finger in the water. If the oil didn't spread out, mom knew nobody was putting the evil eye on me. But the more the oil spread, the more people were giving me this malocchio.

Mom also went over to Fall River a couple of times a year to get St. Jude's Oil from St. Anne's Church there. It's supposed to protect you from injury.

FRESH-AIR BREATHING DEVICE AND METHOD, Patent No. 4,320,756

Inventor William O. Holmes came up with the idea in the early 1980s after rash of fires in high-rise hotels. Holmes' tube-shaped device plunges into a toilet bowl, past the water trap and into the air on the other side, which blows in from the sewage stack pipe. The idea isn't utterly ridiculous, the gist being that trapped users can suck stinky but non-toxic air from the toilet until the fire fighters arrive. Just remember to take a break from pulling air through a toilet long enough to scream for help.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

There's no public figure on the stage today worth believing in or supporting. The system is so hopelessly corrupt that it needs to die. Apologies for the utter nihilism - it is what it is, bubbs. I'm just pissed that my nephews are going to have to put up their lives to salvage something that's no longer theirs - was stolen from them far before they were even born. But we're going on a rafting trip next week, so the little moments make it all worth it, I guess.

UR-FASCISM depends on the cult of action for action’s sake. Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation. Therefore, culture is suspect insofar as it is identified with critical attitudes. Distrust of the intellectual world has always been a symptom of Ur-Fascism, from Goering’s alleged statement (“When I hear talk of culture I reach for my gun”) to the frequent use of such expressions as “degenerate intellectuals,” “eggheads,” “effete snobs,” “universities are a nest of reds.” The official Fascist intellectuals were mainly engaged in attacking modern culture and the liberal intelligentsia for having betrayed traditional values.

– Umberto Eco, “Ur-Fascism” (1995)

LEAD STORIES, SATURDAY'S NYT

Elon Musk May Be Out. But DOGE Is Just Getting Started.

6 Days of Tension, Then a Meltdown: How Trump and Musk’s Alliance Fell Apart

Trump Has Options to Punish Musk Even if His Federal Contracts Continue

Trump-Musk Spat Creates More Problems for Tesla

Return of Deported Man Raises Questions About Trump Administration’s Views of Justice

Buyer Tied to Chinese Communist Party Was a V.I.P. at Trump’s Crypto Dinner

Haiti Reels as Trump Severs a Lifeline With Travel Ban

Trade Brought Together China and the U.S. What Happens Now?

I PITY THE POOR IMMIGRANT

by Bob Dylan (1967)

I pity the poor immigrant
Who wishes he would've stayed home
Who uses all his power to do evil
But in the end is always left so alone
That man whom with his fingers cheats
And who lies with every breath
Who passionately hates his life
And likewise, fears his death

I pity the poor immigrant
Whose strength is spent in vain
Whose heaven is like ironsides
Whose tears are like rain
Who eats but is not satisfied
Who hears but does not see
Who falls in love with wealth itself
And turns his back on me

I pity the poor immigrant
Who tramples through the mud
Who fills his mouth with laughing
And who builds his town with blood
Whose visions in the final end
Must shatter like the glass
I pity the poor immigrant
When his gladness comes to pass

THE CHARGES AGAINST ABREGO GARCIA

Three months after being wrongly deported to El Salvador, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was flown back to the United States on Friday to face federal charges.

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the man who was erroneously deported to a prison in El Salvador earlier this year, was flown back to the United States on Friday to face charges related to transporting undocumented migrants.

For months, the Trump administration had resisted court orders instructing officials to bring back Mr. Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland and had a special court order forbidding his deportation to El Salvador.

The fight thrust Mr. Abrego Garcia into the national spotlight, and he became the face of the political and legal turmoil surrounding President Trump’s crackdown on immigration.

Mr. Abrego Garcia appeared in federal court in Nashville on Friday evening. He was detained and is expected to return to court on June 13.

What are the charges?

In court papers seeking his pretrial detention, prosecutors said Mr. Abrego Garcia had played “a significant role” in smuggling immigrants, including unaccompanied minors. A federal indictment unsealed on Friday also accused him of transporting firearms and narcotics purchased in Texas for resale in Maryland.

He appeared in Federal District Court in Nashville on Friday wearing a short-sleeved, white, button-down shirt, The Associated Press reported. Through an interpreter, he said he understood the charges.

If convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each person he transported, the pretrial detention papers said, a penalty that would go “well beyond the remainder of the defendant’s life.”

Part of the charges stem from a November 2022 traffic stop outside of Cookeville, Tenn., where he was driving nine people from Houston to Maryland, according to the indictment.The stop was captured on video by body cameras worn by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the indictment said.

According to court papers, the vehicle’s passengers did not have identification. Mr. Abrego Garcia told the state troopers that he and the passengers were returning to Maryland from St. Louis after they spent two weeks doing construction work, the indictment said. Troopers said the passengers did not have luggage or construction equipment in the vehicle.

Mr. Abrego Garcia was not charged with any infraction during the stop but was given a warning for driving with an expired license, the indictment said.

Then on March 12 of this year, he was pulled over again, this time in Maryland by a law enforcement officer while he heading home with his 5-year-old son in the back seat.

He called his wife, Jennifer Vasquez, that night from a detention center in Baltimore. She said immigration agents had accused him of being in the Salvadoran American gang MS-13, stemming from a separate arrest in 2019.

Three days later, Mr. Abrego Garcia was taken to South Texas, where he boarded a flight to the notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador known as the Terrorism Confinement Center.

What happened during the 2019 arrest?

In March 2019, Mr. Abrego Garcia was standing with three other men in a spot designated for day laborers outside a Home Depot in Hyattsville, Md., when a police officer approached them thinking they were loitering. Two of the men, neither of them Mr. Abrego Garcia, tossed plastic bottles containing marijuana under a parked vehicle.

All four men were arrested and interviewed by the police. Only two of them were accused of having ties to the MS-13 gang. Mr. Abrego Garcia did admit to being in the United States without proper documentation but denied gang membership.

While in detention in 2019, he fought his deportation by requesting a humanitarian exception, because of the gang harassment that his family had experienced in El Salvador. An immigration judge granted him a special status that indefinitely prohibited the government from deporting him to El Salvador.

Why did the U.S. government resist bringing him back?

While Mr. Abrego Garcia and other immigrants were flying to El Salvador, a judge ordered the Trump administration to turn the planes around. The Justice Department continued with the flights despite the order.

Though the government admitted that it had wrongfully deported Mr. Abrego Garcia, the Trump administration fought orders to bring him back to the United States and continued to assert that he was a member of MS-13.

Mr. Trump showed a digitally altered photo of Mr. Abrego Garcia’s tattooed hands as proof. Vice President JD Vance claimed he was a convicted gang member. And a top homeland security official said in a social media post that he had been “found with rolls of cash and drugs.”

WHAT MOVIE IS THIS?

by James Kunstler

In this age of info overload, when everybody’s brain has become a memory hole, we’ll see how long anyone remembers Elon Musk’s epic tantrum. The latest news is that Mr. Trump and Wonderboy have scheduled a phone convo for today, Friday, supposedly to “make-up.”

The whole psychodrama looks like an episode out of the Batman movie that America has become. You could see the current plot twist from a thousand miles away. Even back in the summer, Elon’s spastic cavortings on the campaign trail looked suspiciously drug-edged. He’s reported to use ketamine, which induces mood changes from euphoria to anxiety and agitation, as well as slurred speech. Also, altered judgment and disinhibition that might provoke risky behavior. You just have to kind of wonder.

Meanwhile, the fabled Fourth Turning enters full churn. Western Civ, of which we are part, continues to go sideways into history. In case you are distracted by Mr. Musk’s histrionics, we are on a path toward World War, political crack-up, and global bankruptcy.

Among the strange doings, note former CIA Director Mike Pompeo showing up a week ago at a “Black Sea Security Forum” in Odessa, Ukraine, where — say, what? — he called for called for a “complete victory” over Russia, and advocated for Crimea to be recognized as part of Ukraine (which is not in the folder labeled “Reality”).

A call for “victory” implies that we’re at war with Russia, or seek to enter such a war. Granted, the US neocon-intel-blob sparked the Ukraine-Russia War, starting in 2014, when State Department Cookie Monster Victoria Nuland set off the Maidan color revolution. And “Joe Biden” kept stoking the conflict with cash and ammo — and inflammatory rhetoric. But Mr. Trump has been working this year to put out the fire, difficult as that is, with the EU and the rest of NATO beating war drums offstage.

What was Mike Pompeo up to in Odessa? You can make the case that he was violating the Logan Act: attempting to make freelance foreign policy outside government, and in a rather dangerous way, calling for war, however obliquely. And then you have Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal flying to Kiev to confab with the unelected coke-head running Ukraine’s war machine. . . and alakazam, the next day Ukraine pulls off its long-distance bombing prank deep into Russia, destroying some of its strategic nuclear force. Surely, the purpose of that was to provoke a response that could amount to a cassus belli for the EU to launch its (insane and suicidal) longed-for war against Russia.

Why were Pompeo, Lindsey Graham, and Blumenthal not arrested when they flew back to the USA? Everything they were up to in Ukraine had the odor of serious mischief. Mr. Patel of the FBI, a former US attorney who knows how to manage such things, should have personally hauled all three of them into a windowless room for depositions. Who, exactly, does Mike Pompeo purport to represent these days? Who paid for his trip to Odessa, and who went with him? And why isn’t anybody asking these questions?

Elon Musk’s bout of intemperance was supposedly provoked by his disgust over the “big beautiful bill” before Congress, not a budget, really, but a mandatory spending reconciliation package with lots of bells, whistles, and kazoos attached. Of course, you have to ask: what legislation coming out of that animal farm is not a monstrosity? Maybe it takes a monster to fight a monster.

Maybe America needs to transition out of its Batman phase into something like King Kong versus Godzilla. The multitude of little folk underfoot are getting trampled, anyway. And the bankruptcy of America is already presenting itself as a sort of systemic sepsis driving ordinary people and small businesses to ruin, even while the stock and bond markets manage to levitate. No one can feel comfortable in the present situation.

The Democratic Party played the Joker the past ten Batman years, working overtime to throw the country into chaos. That movie’s over. Now, strange to relate, it’s looking more and more like the USA (King Kong) against Europe (Godzilla). Russia is the lady in peril down among the ferns watching the brutes roar at each other. China is something like Ming-the-Merciless from a distant planet (and another movie), waiting off-stage to see what happens.

Europe has a death wish. Its economy is cratering. It’s sacrificing two-thousand years of culture to a new barbarian invasion. The governments of the UK, France, and Germany, have gone full Orwell against their own citizens. The unelected EU has turned into a tyrannical machine grinding up anything that looks like enterprise. And the war drums they’re beating can only bring on a hard rain of Russian hypersonic “hazelnuts,” destroying the only thing they have left: their once-charming cities. If that’s not enough to finish Europe off, wait for the banking and bond market implosion.

Mr. Trump knows that Godzilla is fixing to fall off a cliff. He’s more inclined to take up with that lady down in the ferns and march back into the humid, welcoming jungle. If you really want to rescue what’s left of Western Civ, Russia in its current form, would be your natural ally, not your opponent. Nobody knows how we will get through this movie, but time does not stand still and some day we will be back in a world of nations that have given up acting like monsters. . . and maybe the next movie is something light-hearted like Carey Grant and Kate Hepburn with a pet leopard.

THE RULE OF IDIOTS

In the last days of all empires the idiots take over. They mirror the collective stupidity of a civilization that has detached itself from reality.

by Chris Hedges

The last days of dying empires are dominated by idiots. The Roman, Mayan, French, Habsburg, Ottoman, Romanoff, Iranian and Soviet dynasties crumbled under the stupidity of their decadent rulers who absented themselves from reality, plundered their nations and retreated into echo chambers where fact and fiction were indistinguishable.

Donald Trump, and the sycophantic buffoons in his administration, are updated versions of the reigns of the Roman emperor Nero, who allocated vast state expenditures to attain magical powers; the Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang, who funded repeated expeditions to a mythical island of immortals to bring back a potion that would give him eternal life; and a feckless Tsarist court that sat around reading tarot cards and attending séances as Russia was decimated by a war that consumed over two million lives and revolution brewed in the streets.

In “Hitler and the Germans,” the political philosopher Eric Voegelin dismisses the idea that Hitler — gifted in oratory and political opportunism, but poorly educated and vulgar — mesmerized and seduced the German people. The Germans, he writes, supported Hitler and the “grotesque, marginal figures,” surrounding him because he embodied the pathologies of a diseased society, one beset by economic collapse and hopelessness. Voegelin defines stupidity as a “loss of reality.” The loss of reality means a “stupid” person cannot “rightly orient his action in the world, in which he lives.” The demagogue, who is always an idiote, is not a freak or social mutation. The demagogue expresses the society’s zeitgeist, its collective departure from a rational world of verifiable fact.

These idiots, who promise to recapture lost glory and power, do not create. They only destroy. They accelerate the collapse. Limited in intellectual ability, lacking any moral compass, grossly incompetent and filled with rage at established elites who they see as having slighted and rejected them, they remake the world into a playground for grifters, con artists and megalomaniacs. They make war on universities, banish scientific research, peddle quack theories about vaccines as a pretext to expand mass surveillance and data sharing, strip legal residents of their rights and empower armies of goons, which is what the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has become, to spread fear and ensure passivity. Reality, whether the climate crisis or the immiseration of the working class, does not impinge on their fantasies. The worse it gets, the more idiotic they become.

Hannah Arendt blames a society that willingly embraces radical evil on this collective “thoughtlessness.” Desperate to escape from the stagnation, where they and their children are trapped, hopeless and in despair, a betrayed population is conditioned to exploit everyone around them in a desperate scramble to advance. People are objects to be used, mirroring the cruelty inflicted by the ruling class.

A society convulsed by disorder and chaos, as Voegelin points out, celebrates the morally degenerate, those who are cunning, manipulative, deceitful and violent. In an open, democratic society, these attributes are despised and criminalized. Those who exhibit them are condemned as stupid; “a man [or woman] who behaves in this way,” Voegelin notes, “will be socially boycotted.” But the social, cultural and moral norms in a diseased society are inverted. The attributes that sustain an open society — a concern for the common good, honesty, trust and self-sacrifice — are ridiculed. They are detrimental to existence in a diseased society.

When a society, as Plato notes, abandons the common good, it always unleashes amoral lusts — violence, greed and sexual exploitation — and fosters magical thinking, the focus of my book “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.”

The only thing these dying regimes do well is spectacle. These bread and circuses acts — like Trump’s $40 million Army parade to be held on his birthday on June 14 — keep a distressed population entertained.

The Disneyfication of America, the land of eternally happy thoughts and positive attitudes, the land where everything is possible, is peddled to mask the cruelty of economic stagnation and social inequality. The population is conditioned by mass culture, dominated by sexual commodification, banal and mindless entertainment and graphic depictions of violence, to blame itself for failure.

Søren Kierkegaard in “The Present Age” warns that the modern state seeks to eradicate conscience and shape and manipulate individuals into a pliable and indoctrinated “public.” This public is not real. It is, as Kierkegaard writes, a “monstrous abstraction, an all-embracing something which is nothing, a mirage.” In short, we became part of a herd, “unreal individuals who never are and never can be united in an actual situation or organization — and yet are held together as a whole.” Those who question the public, those who denounce the corruption of the ruling class, are dismissed as dreamers, freaks or traitors. But only they, according to the Greek definition of the polis, can be considered citizens.

Thomas Paine writes that a despotic government is a fungus that grows out of a corrupt civil society. This is what happened to past societies. It is what happened to us.

It is tempting to personalize the decay, as if ridding ourselves of Trump will return us to sanity and sobriety. But the rot and corruption has ruined all of our democratic institutions, which function in form, not in content. The consent of the governed is a cruel joke. Congress is a club on the take from billionaires and corporations. The courts are appendages of corporations and the rich. The press is an echo chamber of the elites, some of whom do not like Trump, but none of whom advocate the social and political reforms that could save us from despotism. It is about how we dress up despotism, not despotism itself.

The historian Ramsay MacMullen, in “Corruption and the Decline of Rome,” writes that what destroyed the Roman Empire was “the diverting of governmental force, its misdirection.” Power became about enriching private interests. This misdirection renders government powerless, at least as an institution that can address the needs and protect the rights of the citizenry. Our government, in this sense, is powerless. It is a tool of corporations, banks, the war industry and oligarchs. It cannibalizes itself to funnel wealth upwards.

“[T]he decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness,” Edward Gibbon writes. “Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the cause of the destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and, as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of the ruin is simple and obvious: and instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted for so long.”

The Roman emperor Commodus, like Trump, was entranced with his own vanity. He commissioned statues of himself as Hercules and had little interest in governance. He fancied himself a star of the arena, staging gladiatorial contests where he was crowned the victor and killing lions with a bow and arrow. The empire — he renamed Rome the Colonia Commodiana (Colony of Commodus) — was a vehicle to satiate his bottomless narcissism and lust for wealth. He sold public offices the way Trump sells pardons and favors to those who invest in his cryptocurrencies or donate to his inauguration committee or presidential library.

Finally, the emperor’s advisors arranged to have him strangled to death in his bath by a professional wrestler after he announced that he would assume the consulship dressed as a gladiator. But his assassination did nothing to halt the decline. Commodus was replaced by the reformer Pertinax who was assassinated three months later. The Praetorian Guards auctioned off the office of emperor. The next emperor, Didius Julianus, lasted 66 days. There would be five emperors in A.D. 193, the year after the assassination of Commodus.

Like the late Roman Empire, our republic is dead.

Our constitutional rights — due process, habeas corpus, privacy, freedom from exploitation, fair elections and dissent — have been taken from us by judicial and legislative fiat. These rights exist only in name. The vast disconnect between the purported values of our faux democracy and reality means our political discourse, the words we use to describe ourselves and our political system, are absurd.

Walter Benjamin wrote in 1940 amid the rise of European fascism and looming world war:

A Klee painting named Angelus Novus shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned towards the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe, which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.

Our decay, our illiteracy and collective retreat from reality, was long in the making. The steady erosion of our rights, especially our rights as voters, the transformation of the organs of state into tools of exploitation, the immiseration of the working poor and middle class, the lies that saturate our airwaves, the degrading of public education, the endless and futile wars, the staggering public debt, the collapse of our physical infrastructure, mirror the last days of all empires.

Trump the pyromaniac entertains us as we go down.

(chrishedges.substack.com)

GRETA THUNBERG:

The Freedom Flotilla aid mission is about supporting Palestinian resistance and challenging the Israeli blockade and genocide when our complicit governments fail to step up. One month after the bombing of the boat Conscience during our last attempt to sail to Gaza, break the siege and open up a humanitarian corridor, we have yet again set sail towards Gaza - not carrying weapons, but food and medical supplies. Systematic starvation and deprivation of basic needs are some of many methods of warfare Israel is using against Palestinians.

This mission is only part of a global movement for social- and climate justice, liberation and decolonisation led by marginalised people. If we are to stand on the right side of history, it is our duty and about time that we join that movement. Free Palestine.

17 Comments

Harvey Reading June 7, 2025

My thoughts are roughly the same as before reading the issue: We are effed! Thanks at least for confirming my thoughts on the matter…

jim barstow June 7, 2025

Yet again, from Kunstler: “ If you really want to rescue what’s left of Western Civ, Russia in its current form, would be your natural ally, not your opponent.”

Can’t you find someone a little less deranged?

- Kirk Vodopals June 7, 2025
  
  I continue to believe that the main reason this paper keeps reproducing the Kuntsler garbage is to give some sort of “balanced” facade of their esteemed publication.
  But I beg to differ. Kunstler is a quack hack. His writing is nauseating and trite.
  Stick with Taibbi and Hedges. Particularly Hedges. That man seems to be the torchbearer for the moral compass of our times.
  
  - Chuck Dunbar June 7, 2025
    
    Ditto Kirk–Chris Hedges’ piece today is a good companion-piece to Kunstler’s–the contrast is striking. Kunstler’s is crap–“quack hack” fits well for him. Hedges’ piece actually explains and educates and has some grounding in historical experience and fact. It’s worth the read, and the re-read for the big picture of where we’re at.
    
  - Norm Thurston June 7, 2025
    
    Hedges’ opening line had a dark resonance for me. “In the last days of all empires the idiots take over. They mirror the collective stupidity of a civilization that has detached itself from reality.”
    
  - Bruce Anderson June 7, 2025
    
    Balance shmalance. Kunstler is the only rightwing writer I know of who is also funny, and don’t us lib-lefties need an occasional break from ourselves? Let a hundred flowers bloom!
    
    - Bob Abeles June 7, 2025
      
      The anti-rightest campaign followed on the heels of the hundred flowers. Those who had criticized the party were rounded up and, best case, sent to re-education camps.
      
- Chuck Dunbar June 7, 2025
  
  And ditto, Jim–Just read Kunstler and was going to quote that same idiotic sentence. You got there first. “Deranged” fits well.
  
David Stanford June 7, 2025

ABREGO GARCIA

Welcome back hope you enjoy your stay in lockup before you are deported you skumbag:)

Kimberlin June 7, 2025

Kimberlin on horses:
“My neighbor who is a long time horse person gave me the answer. She said you can divide animals into predators or prey. Horses are prey. When you approach a horse they are afraid. But when you turn your back for awhile, you switch roles in their minds and now curiosity allows them to approach you. Makes sense to me. Because that is just what happen. Tonight I went with apple in hand but the owner had put blinders on them. While they can still see, I’m told, I just did my run. Another day perhaps.”

- Norm Thurston June 7, 2025
  
  Just recently I watched a horse trainer on TV whose approach was to remove fear and make the animal feel safe. His results seemed impressive.
  
Mazie Malone June 7, 2025

Happy Saturday, 🌷☀️

Dear Editor,

I have noticed Ed notes are few this week, hope all is well with you. I enjoy reading your thoughts and adventures, your humor, and wit give this paper real character, one can never go awry with a fun and lovable guy! Haha I know many do not think you are a lovable character, but I know better! 💕💕

mm 💕

- Chuck Dunbar June 7, 2025
  
  Mazie, your sweet post to our much respected, much cared-for editor, made me smile. A gift out of the blue from you. Bless your heart. Bless our editor’s heart.
  
  - Mazie Malone June 7, 2025
    
    Aww thanks Chuck, glad I made you smile, enjoy your weekend.
    
    mm💕
    
Doug Holland June 7, 2025

120, but it’s too easy. Must be a trick question.

- Norm Thurston June 7, 2025
  
  Looks right to me.
  
- Harvey Reading June 8, 2025
  
  1000 x 0.4 x 0.3

17 Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply