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GUSTY and locally strong coastal northerlies through Thursday. Stronger west and northwest winds expected for the interior Thursday through Friday. Much cooler with below normal temperatures for the interior Friday and Saturday. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 48F under clear skies this Thursday morning on the coast. The fog has gone away leaving us with clear & breezy conditions going into the weekend. Keep in mind a few clouds are always nearby.
MISSING FROM UKIAH/MENDOCINO COUNTY
*If anyone has security cameras in the Ukiah area on their homes/businesses can you please check them from 5:40 AM till 7:30 AM this morning to see what direction ileen has gone!
*We have zero leads at this point.
Dear family and friends. We are asking for all of your help. Our oldest has gone missing. If anyone spots her, please let us know as we are very worried. We love her and just want her to know she can come home anytime, we're heartbroken without our baby.
Please no negativity, we just want our child back! Please contact myself at 7073911689 or her dad Wilson Villalta at 7073911026
She left around 5:30 this morning with nothing! Her phone, house and car keys are all here at home.
ELIZABETH KNIGHT (Reporting from the Deep End): Old traditions are coming back to the Floodgate Store! We were so excited to see the logging truck parked there! We knew this is something that Butch Paula has been wanting to see also! Picture by Paullen Severn-Walsh.
FOGEATERS LOOK FOR A PLAN
The main items on Point Arena’s City Council Agenda for June 20 at 2pm are:
A) City Financial Update
B) Point Arena City Council Goal Setting
For the full agenda go to: https://mailchi.mp/95a9964730f5/city-council-goal-setting-workshop-june-20-10338210?e=d0e3cdc057
VERA JUANITA BALLEW
Vera Juanita Ballew, a beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother passed away on June 15, 2025, in Hot Springs, Arkansas, at the age of 91. Born on September 9, 1933, in Avant, Arkansas, she was the daughter of Jesse Godwin and Pearl Meeks, whose legacy of love and resilience she carried throughout her life.
Juanita was known for her deep affection for her family and her ability to create a warm and inviting home. She is survived by her three children, Judy Rone, Amy Kelley (Darrel), and Vince Ballew; Her brother, Dwight Godwin(Donna); Her grandchildren, Cheryl McClard(Fred), Dale Hamilton(Angie), and Dixie Ballew-Miller(Michael), along with great-grandchildren Nathan McClard, Nick McClard, Natalie Grizzle, Ryan Hamilton, Wesley Hamilton and 6 great-great grandchildren.
She is preceded in death by her parents, Jesse Godwin and Pearl Meeks; Her husband, Pete Ballew; Her brothers, Morrilton Godwin, Harvey Godwin, and Gary Godwin; Her sisters, Wilma Fisher, Verna Williams; And her son, Randy Ballew.
Juanita had a special place in her heart for quilting, crocheting, and playing bluegrass music alongside her friends in the West Mountain Bluegrass and Gospel group. She dedicated her life, alongside Pete, to care for and give her son, Randy Ballew, the best life possible.
A visitation to honor Juanita’s life will be held on June 19, 2025, from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Smith Family Funeral Home in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Her funeral service will take place the following day, June 20, 2025, at 11:00 AM at Avant Community Church in Jessieville, Arkansas with Brother Roger Smith officiating. Burial will follow at Oakwood Cemetery.
Pallbearers will include Ted Fisher, Jesse Godwin, Greg Terry, James Sims, Jerrime Sims, and Darrel Kelley.
Honorary Pallbearers include Dr. Mark Aspell, Dr. Scott Irwin, Dr. Hunter Carrington, the staff at Lake Hamilton Health & Rehab, and Nathan McClard, Nick McClard, Ryan Hamilton and Wesley Hamilton.
DEMOLITION OF FORMER CURRY’S FURNTURE STORE ON UKIAH AGENDA
by Justine Frederiksen
At its next regular meeting Wednesday, the Ukiah City Council will consider approving the requested demolition of the former Curry’s Furniture building on East Perkins Street.
According to the staff report prepared for the June 18 meeting, the building’s owner, listed as the Pinoleville Pomo Nation, applied in April of 2025 for a permit to demolish the building at 214 East Perkins Street, which is nearly 80 years old.
“According to documentation provided by the Mendocino County Assessor and the Historical Society of Mendocino County, the building was constructed in 1947,” the staff report explains. “The Historical Society further reported through their research that the building served as a warehouse for Montgomery Ward and was later occupied by the Pioneer Company beginning in 1954, at which time some remodeling may have occurred. Pioneer operated at the location until 1989, selling furniture, propane, appliances, and fuel oils. After Pioneer closed, Curry’s Furniture became the primary tenant.”
Because the structure is more than 50 years old, staff further explain that “the demolition request falls under the review process outlined in Ukiah City Code,” and while the building remains “largely unchanged since 1954, it is not considered a significant or rare example of mid-century commercial architecture. Specifically, it does not exhibit gabled or hipped rooflines, transom windows, decorative brickwork, or stylistic elements found in other eligible resources, such as Craftsman, Classical, or Modern designs. Instead, the flat-roofed building reflects a utilitarian commercial form, with no ornamental detailing or documented architectural evolution.”
At the most recent meeting of the Ukiah Planning Commission on June 11, Community Development Director Craig Schlatter was asked about the potential sale of the building.
“We generally don’t give any information, and don’t usually know the deals, of Real Estate transactions, as those are mostly confidential,” Schlatter said. “But we can report that the Demolition Review Committee reviewed the item, because the building is more than 50 years old, and recommended (the demolition) for approval, and it is headed to the City Council (June 18) for a final decision.”
When asked by Commissioner Mark Hilliker if he could provide any names of “interested parties for construction of the site,” Schlatter said “there’s no site development permit or use permit at this time.”
When the demolition request was considered by the Demolition Review Committee at its May 22 meeting, city staff report that the committee “unanimously recommended approval,” explaining that “Chief Building Official Matt Keizer noted that in recent years, multiple tenant improvement inquiries had stalled due to the extensive upgrades required, including fire sprinklers, accessibility compliance, and structural hardening. He described the building as “dead building stock,” no longer viable for effective or efficient reuse, before moving to recommend approval of the demolition permit to the City Council.”
Given that the Ukiah Library is located next door to the building, staff from the Mendocino County Library System submitted public comment requesting that any “asbestos removal be carefully monitored, (and) we also recommend that the demolition take place on a Monday when the Library is closed and there will be much less foot and car traffic on the street around the Curry’s building.”
The City Council meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:15 p.m. June 18 at both the City Council Chambers located at 300 Seminary Avenue, and on Zoom. To participate or view the virtual meeting, go to the following link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83364415614
(Ukiah Daily Journal)
LOCAL EVENTS (this week)
BEWARE THE NIGHT BETWEEN MENDO & ELK!
Caltrans fixing everything on the roads from Mendocino to Elk, but you won’t read about it on their website
by Frank Hartzell
Caltrans and its contractor, Argonaut Constructors, are working furiously on the biggest Mendocino Coast road project you have never heard about.
You will love the new roads and guardrails. You won’t like driving at night south of Mendo town.
Going from Elk to north of Mendocino between the hours of 5 p.m. and 6 a.m? Might be good to bring lunch and a book along with you.
We tried this with toy trucks when we were kids. These guys get in BIG trouble if they miss with that stream of gick from the cold milling machine.
And don’t look for news of this huge project, it’s not there.
Caltrans has told us all about the Jack Peters Creek bridge upgrade project, now in its second summer.
But not about the massive project going on through September that makes traveling anywhere south of Caspar a huge hassle.
I first encountered the massive tie-ups one day when I was filling in doing the news broadcast on The Coast, KOZT.
Caltrans provides the media with a list of projects. I got into the usual tie-up at Jack Peters Creek Bridge.
Then WHAMO! I hit the second tie up that Caltrans sure didn’t share with me to inform the morning radio listeners that day.
As dark approached, I was up close and personal with these guys. This had to be a no look picture the camera took without me out the window, as I had NO hands free.
Big River Bridge was closed while a giant machine called the Liquidator worked on the guardrails. I waited 10 minutes then went down to Big River Beach instead. I had read the Caltrans news feed which warned me about tree work in Boonville, but said nothing about this. I went home and read the website. Nothing there either.
Full Story with photos:
PS. I love Mark Scaramella’s coverage of the County government. But it would take some doing to match William Heeser’s frothing rage at the Board of Supervisors over non payment of the bills for the Jack Peters Bridge of 1884. And how could we beat a BOS headline that says.. merely Pusillanimity Personified?
CIRCLE UP, MENDO!
Circle Dance this Sunday (a week earlier this month) to celebrate the Summer Solstice!
Greetings. Our circle dance this Sunday will celebrate the Summer Solstice!-- grounded in the year’s turning. Let it give us focus and strength for the troubles we face. We are meeting a week early this month, June 22nd (NOT the usual last of the Sunday) from 3-to-5pm at the Mendocino Community Center.
No previous experience or partners necessary! All dances are taught before each one.
Dance is one of the oldest ways in which people celebrate community and togetherness, and the circle is the oldest dance formation. Circle Dance mixes traditional folk dances with new choreography’s set to a variety of music both ancient and modern. Dances can be slow and meditative or lively and energetic.
Circle Dance groups are a grass roots phenomenon, with hundreds of dance circles in the US, England, and throughout the world. The Mendocino group has been dancing every month for over 30 years. As one dancer put it, “We are doing what people have been doing for millennia, on beaches, in forest glens, around campfires-- dancing together in circles to express joy, passion, solidarity, pain and faith”
For more information on Sacred Circle Dance go to http://www.CircleDancing.com
For local info contact Devora Rossman at [email protected] or 937-1077.
Come for the Dance, come for the Community, come for the Ritual.
Tom Wodetzki, [email protected]
Albion
SPIRIT OF PLACE - BOOK LAUNCH, Saturday, June 28, 4-6pm at the Mendocino Art Center
Spirit of Place: Mendocino County Women Poets Anthology is an anthology of poetry written by women who live through-out Mendocino County. It represents a diverse group of poets who all write poems in response to the phrase “spirit of place”. In this way the book represents a gathering of voices celebrating the meaning of place through time and space, through story and dreams, through myth and the attachment one cultivates with a particular environment.
Mary Rose Kaczorowski
Fort Bragg
THE COWBOY
I’ve wanted to be a cowboy
Since I was only three
While watching Marshall Dillon
On a black and white TV
I wore a faded Levi jacket
And strapped on my toy six guns
With boots and hat and ten cent badge
I kept the bad guys on the run
Born with a love of horses
I was riding by the age of five
On the day of my tenth birthday
My very first horse arrived
My dad gave me his saddle
From his working cowboy years
It must have brought back memories
His eyes filled up with tears
He showed me how to saddle up
And how to cinch it down
He taught me how to climb aboard
And the right way to get down
He slapped my horse across the ass
It began to pitch and buck
Then he turned and walked away
And left the rest to luck
Well, luck was mighty scarce that day
I had to turn that luck around
But first I had to clear my head
And get up off the ground
My mouth and nose were filled with dust
My lips were dripping blood
I cussed and swore that I’d get even
As I spit out gobs of mud
I wiped the mud out of my eyes
Just enough that I could see
And there he stood ten feet away
Staring smugly back at me
I could swear that he was grinning
With a challenge in his eyes
But I was up to the challenge
He was in for a big surprise
In three quick strides I had the reins
And quickly climbed aboard
He crow hopped across the corral
Then over the fence he soared
He bucked and kicked and sunfished
Like no horse I’d ever known
Then he stopped and blew and shuddered
Slowly turned and walked back home
My father sat on his back porch
Having watched the entire show
There were no words of praise
But his face was all aglow
— Ernie Pardini
CATCH OF THE DAY, Wednesday, June 18, 2025
ALEX CORTINAS, 40, Willits. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, conspiracy, probation revocation.
TIANA GARCIA, 31, Sacramento/Ukiah. Obtaining utility services without paying, probation revocation.
BRYAN LOCKWOOD, 34, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, parole violation.
EDHER LOZANO-URENA, 20, Ukiah. Felony murder, attempted murder, use of weapon during crime.
HEATHER MICHAEL, 43, Ukiah. Failure to appear.
KAILEE POZZI, 34, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Mandatory supervision violation.
GET OUTTA TOXIC WASHINGTON, D.C., AND ESTABLISH AN AUTOMATIC WRITING GROUP
Dropped by Washington, D.C.’s Yard House yesterday for two pints of Seattle’s Elysian Brewery’s Space Dust IPA, plus a well deserved shot of Glenlivet’s 14 year old. My situation in America isn’t worth a pitcher of warm spit. I am Self realized, which otherwise makes this insane experience in America’s national capital doable. Some day, I am leaving this world forever, and I am taking nothing here with me. I never unpack at the homeless shelter…can be outta there in 20 minutes. Would be good to find others to realize an “automatic writing group” immediately.
Craig Louis Stehr, [email protected]
YESTERDAY'S PUZZLE WAS TRICKY
The first three lines were fairly straightforward: pair shoes=10; kid=5; pair cones=4. But the last line is where all the trickery lurks. First: one shoe (not two)=5; kid with cones and shoes=19; and one cone=2. Second: the final operation was multiply (not add). So the last line goes: 5 + 19 x 2 = ? and this brings into play "order of operations" which says multiplication should be done before addition. Thus, 19 x 2 = 38 and then 5 + 38 = 43.
For more on order of operations: https://mathmonks.com/order-of-operations-pemdas
JOHN SAKOWICZ
The go-broke dates for Medicare and Social Security‘s trust funds have moved up as rising health care costs and new legislation affecting Social Security benefits have contributed to earlier projected depletion dates, according to an annual report released today, Wednesday, June 18, by the Congressional Budget Office.
The go-broke date — or the date at which the programs will no longer have enough funds to pay full benefits — was pushed up to 2033 for Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund, according to the new report from the programs’ trustees. Last year’s report put the go-broke date in 2036.
Meanwhile, Social Security’s trust funds — which cover old age and disability recipients — will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2034, instead of last year’s estimate of 2035. After that point, Social Security would only be able to pay 81% of benefits.
The trustees say the latest findings show the urgency of needed changes to the programs, which have faced dire financial projections for decades. But making changes to the programs has long been politically unpopular, and lawmakers have repeatedly kicked Social Security and Medicare’s troubling math to the next generation.
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
Long before these mass roundups started, any thoughtful person, regardless of political preference, could see the obvious coming. How do you determine that a person is undocumented? You have to demand to see their documents, naturally. BUT (behold the underlying truth), any citizen can be stopped or their house or business raided and demanded to produce their documentation that they are a citizen. No warrant need be produced, as clearly demonstrated by the recent detention of Brad Lander. You can be stopped on the street and demanded to show your papers. Just like 1930’s Germany.
TRUMP IN FORT BRAGG
Editor:
I want to know who handpicked the soldiers who sat and cheered behind Donald Trump’s disrespectful speech at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. (“Trump declares he will liberate Los Angeles,” June 11). Soldiers took an oath to the Constitution of the United States of America, not to a wannabe dictator. Who were the officers and senior NCOs who vetted them, and what was the criteria they had to meet? Are these the same soldiers we will depend on to defend our constitutional rights when we express different opinions?
Larry Finigan
Arcata
SPOILER ALERT
Editor:
Life these days appears to me as Season One of a mystery series that is well crafted, suspenseful and complex, yet one in which I have guessed the plot, and each episode confirms my suspicion. The daily news is like episodes in a familiar mystery plot of good vs. evil. Every day, we wonder with at least a touch of fear: “What’s going to happen now? Can’t someone do something about this?” We are mesmerized by the reality show produced courtesy of the White House. And when the director decides “this show needs more action,” that’s when we the people suffer.
We know, without acknowledging it, that Donald Trump is hitting many key pillars that support the rule of law. That moral, civil, constitutional and human rights are being denied. That we are being driven into poverty and ignorance for the benefit of the rich.
Spoiler alert: The endgame is to dictate what people should think and say or be punished for disobeying. Can’t wait for Season Two: People revolt against dictatorship.
Francisco H. Vázquez
Windsor
FEDS’ IMMIGRATION RAIDS AND DETENTIONS HAVE ONE DISTURBING SIMILARITY
Editor,
Regarding “Feds detain two Palestinian visitors at SFO who arrived for humanitarian mission” (Bay Area, SFChronicle.com, June 12): The visit by two Palestinians was intended to foster understanding by sharing their lived experiences in the occupied West Bank with Bay Area faith communities.
Instead, they were detained and turned back, an injustice that raises troubling questions about the principles of openness and dialogue. Immigration attorney Phillip Weintraub, who sponsored the visit, confirmed their paperwork was in order.
The actions by federal immigration agencies highlight an alarming trend: detentions of those deemed “the other,” whether they are undocumented workers, who feed and clean up after us, or Palestinians here to bear witness about the unspeakable cruelty of the Israeli occupation.
These predatory detentions must stop.
Jim Marks
San Francisco
WHAT ABOUT THE OWNERS?
Editor,
Regarding “Fear of ICE raids spreads among California’s farmworkers” (California, SFChronicle.com, June 13): I do not see Immigration and Customs Enforcement arresting the owners of all the farms and ranches that hire undocumented immigrants.
Some owners probably like to hire undocumented immigrants so they can be worked harder with no breaks and not be paid a fair wage, and the workers have no recourse.
Punish the farmers and ranchers.
Mary Piowaty
Susanville, Lassen County
CONSTRUCTION WORKERS
by Fred Gardner
“The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called nation-builders, neocons or liberal nonprofits like those who spent trillions and trillions of dollars failing to develop Kabul, Baghdad, so many other cities.
The birth of a modern Middle East has been brought by the people of the region themselves, the people that are right here. Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought by the people of the region themselves, the people that are right here, the people that have lived here all their lives — developing your own sovereign countries, pursuing your own unique visions, and charting your own destinies in your own way. It’s really incredible what you’ve done. –Donald Trump in Riyadh, May 15
Who built the seven gates of Thebes?
The books are filled with names of kings.
Was it the kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone?
And Babylon, so many times destroyed.
Who built the city up each time? In which of Lima’s houses,
That city glittering with gold, lived those who built it?
In the evening when the Chinese wall was finished
Where did the masons go? Imperial Rome
Is full of arcs of triumph. Who reared them up? Over whom
Did the Caesars triumph? Byzantium lives in song.
Were all her dwellings palaces? And even in Atlantis of the legend
The night the seas rushed in,
The drowning men still bellowed for their slaves.
—Bertolt Brecht in exile, 1935
“The gleaming towers of Riyadh, such as the Kingdom Centre Tower and the Public Investment Fund Tower, were built through collaborations between international and local architectural firms and construction companies. For example, the Kingdom Centre Tower was designed by Foster and Partners in collaboration with Omrania and Associates, according to [arabic]. The Public Investment Fund Tower (previously known as the Capital Market Authority Tower) was designed by HOK and Omrania, according to Wikipedia.” –Google’s AI Overview
The modern buildings in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates were built by indentured servants imported from Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, The Philippines, and Nepal. These people had and have no civil rights or legal protection. Many were worked to death.
– Your Correspondent
GIANTS’ SKID REACHES 4 as Justin Verlander remains without an S.F. win
by Shayna Rubin
A month off rehabbing a strained pectoral did nothing to change Justin Verlander’s familiar fate.
A pair of miscues on defense and one regrettable fastball were enough to ensure the San Francisco Giants’ 4-2 loss to the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday night. It’s the Giants’ fourth straight loss and is the 11th straight start for Verlander without a win.
Counting pitcher wins matters to Verlander, who is striving to reach 300 and is 38 shy — the same as when the 42-year-old came to San Francisco. Yet, he’s now become one of four pitchers in franchise history not to earn a win in any of his first 11 starts, joining recent openers Ryan Walker (2023) and John Brebbia (2022), Ross Tripling in 2023 and Slick Castleman of the New York Giants in 1936.
Verlander’s career win count has to be put on the back burner considering where the Giants stand upon his return from the IL. A consistent Verlander could kick their rotation to another level as they position themselves for a real push to play October baseball.
The injury on May 18 interrupted Verlander as he was hitting his stride; he’d put together a 2.79 ERA over his previous six starts until he felt concerning pains.
He took extra care to return when he felt the injury wouldn’t recur and it’ll take time to find that rhythm again. He opted out of making rehab starts with Triple-A Sacramento and, instead, pitched in simulated games to re-create game intensity before his return.
But no simulation can replicate the real deal, and Verlander was shaking off rust in his 4 2/3 innings against Cleveland. His slider and curveball were sharp, but he couldn’t take advantage of numerous two-strike opportunities and allowed four runs (three earned) with six strikeouts and a walk for his fourth loss of the year.
“All the pitches I showed flashes of where I’d like them to be,” Verlander said. “It’s just a matter of being consistent with them and that’s a matter of time on the mound and consistency and being out there and your mechanics finding game speed.”
The worst fastball he threw of the night was an 0-2 four-seamer he hurled to lefty Daniel Schneemann. Wanting to locate the pitch up and in, the fastball landed middle-middle and Scneemann launched it into left field for what was ultimately a game-deciding three-run home run. Verlander, an expert at navigating jams, had set himself up for a quick strikeout by getting Schneemann to swing through a changeup and then stab at a biting curveball that bounced at his feet to get ahead.
“That’s kind of the one time I was inconsistent and it’s one of the worst fastballs I threw all day,” Verlander said. “It was flat and just came off of it. All the things you don’t want to do. Wasn’t a great pitch.”
Added catcher Patrick Bailey: “He made some mistakes and they put some good swings on it. I think it kind of ballooned the line more than it should be. He threw a lot of strikes and got ahead, which is huge.”
The home run wasn’t all on Verlander. Second baseman Tyler Fitzgerald’s error bobbling Carlos Santana’s ground ball in the previous at bat, allowing the slow-ish runner to reach, and Lane Thomas’ single up the middle added to the mess.
An unlucky defensive play by Mike Yastrzemski in right field got Verlander off on the wrong foot in the first inning. With the evening sun beaming into the outfield, Yastrzemski couldn’t track Kyle Manzardo’s line drive and what looked like a single snuck by the right fielder for a double. He’d score on Jose Ramirez’s RBI single.
Heliot Ramos got the Giants back into it with a two-run home run in the fifth inning off lefty starter Logan Allen’s 2-2 slider at the bottom of the zone. But the Giants offense, again, couldn’t pick up the slack and went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. They’re 1-for-19 over their last two games and move to 8-14 in games when a left-hander starts for the opposing team. Rafael Devers, in his second game as a Giant, went 0-for-3 with a walk.
“We got to do a little better job with the starter,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Heliot hits the two-run homer, but we have to put more pressure on the game. We didn’t have nearly as many opportunities as yesterday, but still. When it’s a low scoring game, those opportunities come up, it’s something we’re better about earlier in the season and haven’t been recently.”
(sfchronicle.com)
RED SOX LEGENDS START WAR OF WORDS OVER NEW SF GIANTS STAR’S BOSTON EXIT
by Alex Simon
There has already been a lot of chatter about the San Francisco Giants‘ newly acquired star, Rafael Devers, and not just in San Francisco. This week, three Boston Red Sox legends have entered the chat.
For anyone not up to speed: Devers had been Boston’s third baseman for the vast majority of his career until this season, when the Red Sox signed Alex Bregman as a free agent. The team didn’t communicate the Bregman deal to Devers and then asked Devers to move to designated hitter at the start of spring training. Devers was upset at first but eventually relented and became the Red Sox DH.
But in the middle of May, when first baseman Triston Casas suffered a season-ending injury, the Red Sox asked Devers if he’d be willing to move to first base. Devers refused and was intensely critical of Boston Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow to the media. Just as it seemed like things were improving, Devers was sent to San Francisco in a blockbuster trade on Sunday night.
Since then, Hall of Fame Red Sox slugger David Ortiz has gone on a bilingual media tour, criticizing Devers for how he handled his side of a crumbling relationship with the Red Sox. Ortiz — who is a special assistant to Red Sox ownership — has gone live on Instagram on his own page and has spoken with the Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and with renowned Dominican baseball insider Hector Gomez about the trade and Devers specifically, with Big Papi sharply criticizing the ex-Red Sox star.
“I played for the Red Sox a long time,” Ortiz told Rosenthal on Monday. “You think everything with me and the Red Sox was roses and flowers? I went through some tough times also. But I was mature enough to understand and keep things internal. Even in the best families, between the best brothers, s—t happens. You need to have the maturity to resolve the problems and move on.”
In speaking with Gomez, Ortiz made a similar point: “This is a business, it’s not your house, it’s not about what you want or don’t want, this is a business that people have to put their clothes on to fight for and respect. Devers could have been the face of the Red Sox franchise.”
According to Gomez, Ortiz also said Devers has “communication problems” and said he made numerous attempts to talk with Devers but that Devers “almost never returned my messages.”
But not all of the Red Sox stars of the past have blamed Devers for the way the relationship between the Red Sox and their now-former star crumbled. Manny Ramirez made an appearance on MLB Network on Tuesday and seemingly blamed the team over the player.
“Come on, Boston. Why you did my guy like that? You don’t treat the face of the team like that,” Ramirez said. “You’re not only disrespecting Devers. You’re disrespecting the whole fan base. I don’t care if you’re paying me $300 or $400 million. You need to communicate with me.”
On the TBS pregame show on Tuesday night, Pedro Martinez said he was “shocked” by the trade. He also called out those framing Devers negatively since the deal went down — including, in effect, his former Red Sox teammate in Ortiz.
“If you try to sell to me, knowing Raffy Devers, that Raffy is a bad teammate or he’s not a team player, you’re lying,” Martinez said. “If you’re trying to tell me he’s a bad influence in the clubhouse, he’s not.”
Martinez said the situation “was mishandled from the get-go” and said he thinks “baseball people” needed to step in to resolve the tension from the Red Sox — specifically naming Dustin Pedroia and Big Papi. So clearly, there’s no direct beef between the 2004 World Series champions. But the Devers deal will surely continue to be talked about in Boston for years to come. Sox fans won’t have to wait long to see their former star, either: The Red Sox are coming to San Francisco for a three-game series starting Friday at Oracle Park.
CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS APPROVE $325 BILLION BUDGET ‘PASSED ON HOPE’
by Alexei Koseff
The California Legislature passed a state budget today that relies more on borrowing than spending cuts to close a projected $12 billion deficit, aiming to push off difficult decisions about priorities even as that gap is only expected to grow in future years.
The $325 billion legislative spending plan, which was approved by the Democratic majority along largely partisan lines, is something of a formality, because lawmakers are constitutionally required to pass a balanced budget by June 15 or forgo their pay.
Having rejected many of the cuts to social services that Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed last month to stabilize California’s finances long-term, they must now negotiate a compromise in the coming weeks, with the July 1 start of the fiscal year looming.
The two sides remain billions of dollars apart, particularly on Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for the poor, as well as home health services, public transit, higher education and raises for state workers.
Democratic leaders said they want to delay painful cuts by a few years to give themselves more time to find another solution that doesn’t “balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable” — and perhaps, as one lawmaker put it this week, wait for a “miracle” turnaround in California’s economy.
“The worst outcome here, though, would be to make cuts that we ultimately realize we didn’t need to make — to throw people off safety net programs and then come back and realize, you know what, the projections were off, that wasn’t something that was necessary,” Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, the Encino Democrat who chairs the Assembly budget committee, told reporters after the vote. “We could be in a totally different world six months from now.”
A major point of contention is Medi-Cal, which is driving a large portion of the deficit. The state expanded services significantly in recent years and costs are now rising faster than anticipated after more new patients enrolled than projected. Lawmakers allocated billions of dollars in additional funding to the program this spring to keep it solvent.
Newsom proposed major changes to address those structural issues, including freezing enrollment for adults living in the country illegally, who became newly eligible last year, as well as adding a $100 monthly premium and cutting long-term care and dental benefits for those who maintain their coverage. The governor also wants to eliminate coverage for weight loss drugs like Ozempic and reinstate a strict asset test for seniors, which was recently eliminated.
The Legislature has accepted some of those proposals, such as the enrollment freeze and stopping coverage of weight loss drugs, and scaled back others, including the asset test. Lawmakers want to lower the monthly premium for undocumented immigrants to $30, give those who lose their Medi-Cal coverage because they cannot pay it a chance to re-enroll, delay cutting their dental benefits and maintain their long-term care benefits.
Even that potential compromise has been anathema to some Democrats, who spoke out against what they deemed a “two-tiered health care system” during the floor debate, urging a no vote or asking the Legislature to instead consider raising taxes on billionaires.
“We cannot contribute to the fear and suffering of communities across our state, and I implore us to consider alternatives,” said Assemblymember Celeste Rodriguez, an Arleta Democrat, who was nearly in tears as she told her colleagues that she was offended by the budget bill.
The legislative plan also rejects a Newsom proposal to cap overtime hours for in-home supportive service providers and eliminate those benefits for adults living in the country illegally.
It restores funding the governor had sought to eliminate for family planning clinics; the University of California, California State University and student financial aid; and public transit. It moves forward with $767 million in raises for state employees that Newsom asked to pause and introduces funding for other legislative priorities, including more than $900 million for affordable housing construction and mortgage assistance for first-time homebuyers. It proposes lending up to $1.75 billion from the state for local governments in Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area transit agencies dealing with their own budget crunches.
All of that would add billions of dollars in spending, next year and ongoing, above Newsom’s plan — which already relies on shifting money meant to pay for climate projects and Medi-Cal provider reimbursements, and pulling $7.1 billion out of a rainy-day reserve fund to close the revenue gap. To pay for it, the Legislature seeks to borrow even more from state special funds.
Their approach could be difficult to maintain given the state’s grim fiscal outlook, with an annual budget shortfall projected to grow to $30 billion within the next three years. Turmoil in the stock market and key California industries caused by Trump’s sweeping new tariffs, as well as anticipated federal funding cuts, could deepen that hole.
“This budget was really passed on a hope,” state Sen. Roger Niello, a Roseville Republican who serves as vice chair of the Senate budget committee, told reporters. “A budget that is passed on hope is a budget that is destined for trouble.”
Out of touch with Californians on spending?
And it increasingly does not reflect the will of California voters.
The Public Policy Institute of California has been surveying residents since 2003 on whether they prefer having higher taxes and a state government that provides more services or lower taxes and a state government that provides fewer services.
While Californians narrowly expressed a preference for higher taxes and more services for more than 20 years, that has recently flipped. PPIC’s latest survey released this week found that 55% of Californians now would rather have lower taxes and fewer services — although that is only true of about a third of Democrats.
The survey also found that 56% of California adults think it’s a bad idea to dip into the rainy-day fund to help balance the budget, even as an equal number support some combination of spending cuts, revenue increases and borrowing. And 58% now oppose providing health care coverage for undocumented immigrants, a complete reversal from when the question was last asked two years ago.
Mark Baldassare, director of the PPIC survey, told CalMatters the shifting political landscape tracks with an increasing number of respondents in recent years who believe the state is headed in the wrong direction and that there are bad economic times ahead.
“There’s so much pessimism about what the year ahead might look like, both in California and the nation, that there’s really a desire to shrink down the size of government and expectations that we had previously,” he said. “Voters are just not convinced that we’re not going to be in times where we can afford all the things that we want from government.”
State Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat who chairs the Senate budget committee, dismissed the results of one poll. He contends that most Californians, asked if they want to cut specific programs such as funding for community health clinics or kick people off their health care, would say no.
“Yes, Californians want to have government that is run well and efficiently. I want that, too,” Wiener told reporters following the budget vote. “But Californians have shown over and over again that they care deeply about making sure that we have these basic services.”
A few Democrats agreed during the floor debate today that California needed to “right-size” its spending, especially with heavy cuts to federal funding likely coming later this year.
But most defended their plan as striking the right balance between fiscal responsibility and upholding California’s values, generating intense criticism from Republicans.
“Let’s be practical. We can’t be all things to all people, but we can be responsible to the critical issues that make California a great state,” said Assemblymember Diane Dixon, a Newport Beach Republican, who cited wildfire management and home health services as priorities that the Legislature should focus on funding. “We can’t be perfect, which means we can’t do everything.”
(CalMatters.org)
SUPREME COURT OKS TENNESSEE BAN ON GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE FOR KIDS, A SETBACK FOR TRANSGENDER RIGHTS
by Mark Sherman
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors, a jolting setback to transgender rights.
The justices’ 6-3 decision in a case from Tennessee effectively protects from legal challenges many efforts by President Donald Trump’s Republican administration and state governments to roll back protections for transgender people. Another 26 states have laws similar to Tennessee’s.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for a conservative majority that the law banning puberty blockers and hormone treatments for trans minors doesn’t violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause, which requires the government to treat similarly situated people the same.
“This case carries with it the weight of fierce scientific and policy debates about the safety, efficacy, and propriety of medical treatments in an evolving field. The voices in these debates raise sincere concerns; the implications for all are profound,” Roberts wrote. “The Equal Protection Clause does not resolve these disagreements. Nor does it afford us license to decide them as we see best.”
In a dissent for the court’s three liberal justices that she summarized aloud in the courtroom, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “By retreating from meaningful judicial review exactly where it matters most, the court abandons transgender children and their families to political whims. In sadness, I dissent.”
The law also limits parents’ decision-making ability for their children’s health care, she wrote.
Efforts to regulate transgender people’s lives
The decision comes amid other federal and state efforts to regulate the lives of transgender people, including which sports competitions they can join and which bathrooms they can use. In April, Trump’s administration sued Maine for not complying with the government’s push to ban transgender athletes in girls sports.
The Republican president also has sought to block federal spending on gender-affirming medical care for those under age 19 — instead promoting talk therapy only to treat young transgender people. And the Supreme Court has allowed him to kick transgender service members out of the military, even as court fights continue. The president signed another order to define the sexes as only male and female.
The debate even spilled into Congress when Delaware elected Democrat Sarah McBride as the first transgender member of the House. Her election prompted immediate opposition among Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, over which bathroom McBride could use.
Some providers have stopped treatment already
Several states where gender-affirming care remains in place have adopted laws or state executive orders seeking to protect it. But since Trump’s executive order, some providers have ceased some treatments. For instance, Penn Medicine in Philadelphia announced last month it wouldn’t provide surgeries for patients under 19.
The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Susan Kressly, said the organization is “unwavering” in its support of gender-affirming care and “stands with pediatricians and families making health care decisions together and free from political interference.”
Five years ago, the Supreme Court ruled LGBTQ people are protected by a landmark federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace. That decision is unaffected by Wednesday’s ruling.
But the justices declined to apply the same sort of analysis the court used in 2020 when it found “sex plays an unmistakable role” in employers’ decisions to punish transgender people for traits and behavior they otherwise tolerate. Roberts joined that opinion written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was part of Wednesday’s majority.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett also fully joined the majority but wrote separately to emphasize that laws classifying people based on transgender status should not receive any special review by courts. Barrett, also writing for justice Clarence Thomas, wrote that “courts must give legislatures flexibility to make policy in this area.”
‘A devastating loss’ or a ‘Landmark Victory’
Chase Strangio, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who argued the case for transgender minors and their families, called the ruling “a devastating loss for transgender people, our families, and everyone who cares about the Constitution.”
Mo Jenkins, a 26-year-old trans woman who began taking hormone therapy at 16, said she was disheartened but not surprised by the ruling. “Trans people are not going to disappear, said Jenkins, a Texas native and legislative staffer at the state capitol in Austin. Texas outlawed puberty blockers and hormone treatment for minors in 2023.
Tennessee’s leading Republican elected officials all praised the outcome. Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti on social media called the ruling a “Landmark VICTORY for Tennessee at SCOTUS in defense of America’s children!”
There are about 300,000 people between the ages of 13 and 17 and 1.3 million adults who identify as transgender in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute, a think tank at the UCLA School of Law that researches sexual orientation and gender identity demographics.
When the case was argued in December, then-President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration and families of transgender adolescents called on the high court to strike down the Tennessee ban as unlawful sex discrimination and to protect the constitutional rights of vulnerable Americans.
They argued the law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment in part because the same treatments that the law prohibits for transgender minors can be used for other purposes.
Soon after Trump took office, the Justice Department told the court its position had changed.
A major issue in the case was the appropriate level of scrutiny courts should apply to such laws.
The lowest level is known as rational basis review, and almost every law looked at that way is upheld. Indeed, the federal appeals court in Cincinnati that allowed the Tennessee law to be enforced held that lawmakers acted rationally to regulate medical procedures.
The appeals court reversed a trial court that employed a higher level of review, heightened scrutiny, which applies in cases of sex discrimination. Under this more searching examination, the state must identify an important objective and show the law helps accomplish it.
Roberts’ 24-page majority opinion was devoted almost entirely to explaining why the Tennessee law, called SB1, should be evaluated under the lower standard of review. The law’s restrictions on treating minors for gender dysphoria turn on age and medical use, not sex, Roberts wrote.
Doctors may prescribe puberty blockers and hormone therapy to minors of any sex to treat some disorders, but not those relating to transgender status, he wrote.
But in her courtroom statement, Sotomayor asserted that similar arguments were made to defend the Virginia law prohibiting interracial marriage that the Supreme Court struck down in 1967.
“A ban on interracial marriage could be described in the same way as the majority described SB1,” she said.
Roberts rejected the comparison.
(AP)
OPTIMISM, THE LAST TABOO
Only in America can positivity be a thoughtcrime.
by Matt Taibbi
I clicked an advertorial by mistake this morning. It all makes sense now:
Friendship is meant to be a safe space—where we feel seen, supported, and accepted. But what happens when that support starts to feel a little… performative? When every vent session is met with “Look on the bright side!” or “At least it’s not worse!”—instead of real empathy?
“That’s where toxic positivity comes in… the belief that no matter how difficult a situation is, people should maintain a positive mindset. While optimism has its benefits, constant insistence on “looking on the bright side” can invalidate genuine emotional experiences…
I laughed, but it turns out there’s a whole literature of “toxic positivity.” The Los Angeles Times after winter wildfires warned against “the dark side of brightsiding,” Fast Company offered instruction on “How to Stay Optimistic But Avoid Toxic Positivity,” and Health hinted that needle needs threading because excess upbeatitude might be a cancelable offense. An anonymous employee at Wayfarer Studios took actor/director Justin Baldoni to task in the Los Angeles Times, knocking his workplace demeanor: “It was constant positivity all the time. I would say toxic positivity.”
If you’re like me and feel more alienated from American society every day, this might be the reason. In a world where nothing is just a problem, everyone is Hitler, and the dumbest controversies are framed as ultimate showdowns of Good and Evil, optimism makes sense as the last taboo:
“Toxic positivity” sounds like a goofball leftist concoction because it was, originally. The term apparently first appeared in professor Jack (née Judith) Halberstam‘s The Queer Art of Failure, which imagined disappointment and despair as correctives to heteronormative myths (I can hear the reader reaching for a power drill to jam in a temple) about the “power of positive thinking”! Psychology Today meanwhile found “toxic positivity” in the statement, “She’s family. You should love her no matter what,” and a 2022 study on the subject suggested the toxically positive comment “may come across as paternalistic or dismissive.” The gist of almost any academic essay on Toxic Optimism is that the world is too rife with injustice and incipient disaster to indulge hoping for the best. The person who shrugs off social horror (or worse, jokes about it) instead of running into the nearest cement wall is definitionally a member of Team Problematic.
I’m an absurdist by nature, which means I see life as horrible, repellent, tragic, and intolerable, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. To paraphrase Woody Allen, the food is terrible — and such small portions! Once I’d have thought it impossible that this gentle form of optimism could upset anyone. Now, the notion that things might not be so bad is an anathema everywhere, even among well-fed, heavily accessorized Americans who’d fall to pieces if they had to use a Bangladeshi toilet even once. On the left, happiness-phobia has been obvious and hilarious for a while. Comedy is long dead (at a time like this, nothing can be “just funny”!), Hollywood still seems afraid to show people enjoying sex unless it’s appropriately transgressive, and even a Getty search for “optimism” suggests algorithmic terror of images of apolitical contentment.
Trumpworld Politics, though, have lately also become apocalyptic, relying on some of the same narratives of existential doom Democrats used (only Trump uses “won’t have a country anymore” instead of the e-word). The administration is full of people who rightly laughed at campus catastrophizing over the idea that “words are violence.” Now they’re deporting foreign bloggers (a hapless Australian, most recently) for the same reasons, in addition to throwing around maximalist terms like “insurrection” to fit policy directives, just as Democrats did. As Jeff Maurer notes, seeing these overnight switches is as cringe-inducing as watching white lefties who cried about Cultural Appropriation on Halloween suddenly appearing on TV everywhere with kaffiyehs sutured to their necks. The Trump administration will never reach the same level of crazy on this subject as their opponents, who spent years denouncing admirers of the I Have a Dream speech because aspirations to racial harmony are bad (or something). Still, they’re starting to develop some of the same bad habits.
Optimism has been a target of satirists forever, from Swift’s Modest Proposal (don’t let overpopulation and hunger get you down, when a little baby-eating solves both!) to Voltaire’s Dr. Pangloss, who proved under torture that we live in the best of all possible worlds. That character is sometimes annoying and often mockable, but toxic? The person who doesn’t want to consign anyone to hell for a voting choice, believes problems are fixable, and thinks a handful of happy moments still makes life worthwhile — we need more of those folks in America, not fewer. Why villainize them?
(racket.news)
THE AMERICAN WAY
by Gregory Corso
1
I am a great American
I am almost nationalistic about it!
I love America like a madness!
But I am afraid to return to America
I’m even afraid to go into the American Express—
2
They are frankensteining Christ in America
in their Sunday campaigns
They are putting the fear of Christ in America
under their tents in their Sunday campaigns
They are driving old ladies mad with Christ in America
They are televising the gift of healing and the fear of hell
in America under their tents in their Sunday campaigns
They are leaving their tents and are bringing their Christ
to the stadiums of America in their Sunday campaigns
They are asking for a full house an all get out
for their Christ in the stadiums of America
They are getting them in their Sunday and Saturday campaigns
They are asking them to come forward and fall on their knees
because they are all guilty and they are coming forward
in guilt and are falling on their knees weeping their guilt
begging to be saved O Lord O Lord in their Monday
Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
and Sunday campaigns…
https://www.poeticous.com/gregory-corso/the-american-way-i-am-a-great-american
MIKE HUCKABEE IS A DERANGED ARMAGEDDON CULTIST
by Caitlin Johnson
President Trump has shared a text message that was sent to him by Mike Huckabee, the deranged Christian Zionist who serves as the current US ambassador to Israel, and it is one of the creepiest things I have ever seen in my life.
The text reads as follows:
Mr President,
God spared you in Butler, PA to be the most consequential President in a century — maybe ever. The decisions on your shoulders I would not want to be made by anyone else.
You have many voices speaking to you Sir, but there is only ONE voice that matters. HIS voice.
I am your appointed servant in this land and am available for you but I do not try to get in your presence often because I trust your instincts.
No President in my lifetime has been in a position like yours. Not since Truman in 1945. I don’t reach out to persuade you. Only to encourage you.
I believe you will hear from heaven and that voice is far more important than mine or ANYONE else’s.
You sent me to Israel to be your eyes, ears and voice and to make sure our flag flies above our embassy. My job is to be the last one to leave.
I will not abandon this post. Our flag will NOT come down! You did not seek this moment. This moment sought YOU!
It is my honor to serve you!
Mike Huckabee
There are so many weird, creepy things about this message. The intensity. The religious fanaticism. The groveling, self-debasing obsequiousness, clearly designed to appeal to Trump’s enormous ego. But by far the most disturbing part was the reference to Truman in 1945 — a nod to the last and only time a national leader used nuclear weapons against an enemy state.
Trump claims to have experienced a religious transformation after surviving an assassination attempt last year. Nuclear weapons and doomsday cultism are poor bedfellows. I really hope this is just some bizarre madman diplomacy and not an accurate reflection of something that is actually occurring inside the president’s mind as he pushes toward direct confrontation with Iran.
The US and Israel don’t oppose Iran getting nukes because they fear a nuclear attack by irrational tyrants, nor because they worry about Iran giving nukes to terrorist factions. They oppose Iran getting nukes because then all their regime change agendas go right out the window.
This isn’t actually about nukes. It’s about toppling Tehran so that the US and Israel can dominate the middle east. It’s about regional hegemony and geostrategic control, and nothing else.
They’d be pushing for regime change in Iran whether they believed Iran was seeking a nuke or not.
How fucking stupid do you have to believe the lies about Iran? It’s just a much dumber, much more obvious version of the Iraq war narratives, pushed by a much dumber, much more obvious US president. With the benefit of having watched it all happen before.
At least with the Iraq invasion Bush had a year and a half of soaring approval where he got to posture as the Good Guy protecting Americans from the Bad Guys. This time it’s been a year and a half of the US backing history’s first live-streamed genocide, with Israel essentially telling the world “WE’RE HITLER, WE’RE THE NEW NAZIS, WE KILL KIDS” for 20 months, and now they’re getting ready to say that THIS is what US soldiers need to go fight and die for?
Come ON people. It’s the same movie. They barely even changed the name, they just switched the Q to an N. There is no excuse for failing to see what’s happening here.
A new Economist/YouGov poll found that only 19 percent of Americans currently support a US war with Iran. Most Americans oppose such a war, including a majority of Trump supporters.
People advocating regime change interventionism in Iran are arguing that the US needs to ignore the will of its own electorate in the name of spreading democracy.
There are no anti-war Trump supporters; if you’re still supporting Trump, you’re not anti-war. There are no anti-war Republicans; if you’re still a member of the Republican Party, you’re not anti-war. If you got scammed by Trump’s anti-war schtick that’s one thing, but it’s another thing entirely if you’re still buying into the scam after being taken by the hand and carefully shown that it’s a scam in excruciating detail throughout Trump’s second term.
If you supported Trump because you thought he was anti-war, the time is now to completely wash your hands of him and firmly take your stand against him. If you stood with the Republicans because you thought they were less warmongering than the Democrats, it’s time to leave the party and join the actual anti-war movement. If you’re not willing to do either of these things, it’s time to stop pretending you don’t love war.
I don’t feel the same disdain toward people who got scammed by Trump’s fake antiwar schtick that I see others expressing. I understand it, but I don’t feel it. We live in an information ecosystem teeming with propaganda and deception, and people are going to get confused.
There’s no shame in being deceived. There IS shame in deceiving. There IS shame in continuing to support a warmonger after you discover that you were deceived about him. But BEING deceived in and of itself is no crime. That’s why the perpetrator goes to jail in fraud cases and not the victims.
Mark Twain said “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled,” and it’s SO true. As social animals, humans are so dominated by the need to conform to our tribal loyalties that we’ve got psychological barriers to admitting that our tribe/faction got things wrong. And as social animals, shame is a powerful driving force in our psychological lives, because we’re afraid of being seen as deficient by other humans.
But it’s irrational for us to view those who are deceived as deficient, and it’s irrational to feel shame about having gotten something wrong. I’ve gotten lots of things wrong over the years. I’m sure there are some things I’m still getting wrong. Being willing to see you got it wrong is the essential first step to getting it right. Always being open to the possibility that you could be wrong is necessary to forming a truth-based relationship with reality.
If you were duped by the MAGA scam, that’s okay. Just take what you learned and start working on re-orienting yourself toward truth. You know what’s false, so now you can start working on finding out what’s true. And you can start constructing a new worldview accordingly.
SOLO IN TOM TOMS
by Dan Jameson
Gene Fowler, the young newspaperman, covering an auto race, in which there were loving cups awarded, had just given a young lady an “extra’ cup not sponsored by the newspaper …. He was upbraided by the editor in the following manner:
“Mr. Ward looked at the birds on the windowsill for a long moment, and then he said: “I want to tell you what a newspaper means. It’s a serious, sacred business. The least smell of corruption, fear, or favoritism must not creep into its news columns. What you did last night was only a little thing, when judged by rule of thumb, but it really goes deeper than that. To some persons it will seem as though we owed a favor to the important and wealthy family of your young lady…..and a newspaper, like Caesar’s wife, must be above suspicion. Never do anyone a favor which might compromise the newspaper you are connected with. To get the news, you may kill, steal, burn, cheat, lie; but never sell out your paper in thought or deed. A newspaper doesn’t belong to the men who run it or to those who own the plant. The press belongs to the public, to the people. It is their voice, their shield, their champion. And to keep it free, we ourselves must stay free, sincere, honest. What you do in private with your own life is nobody’s business, if you don’t get caught. What you do as a newspaperman is everybody’s business and everybody’s concern. So go back to your desk, and decide not to make another mistake - and for christ’s sake, spell names correctly!”
from ‘A Solo In Tom-Toms’ by Gene Fowler: NY, the Viking Press, 1946
LEAD STORIES, THURSDAY'S NYT
Israel Says Iranian Missile Strikes Hospital and Vows to Intensify Attacks
Trump’s Base in Uproar Over His Openness to Joining Iran Fight
The Court Upheld a State Ban on Transgender Care for Minors. Here’s What We Know
What Has Medical Research Found on Gender Treatments for Trans Youth?
Trump Administration Will End L.G.B.T.Q. Suicide Prevention Service
Justice Dept. to Cut Two-Thirds of Inspectors Monitoring Gun Sales
Austria Moves to Tighten Gun Laws After Deadly School Shooting
David Lynch’s Director’s Chair Sells for $70,000 at Los Angeles Auction
URSULA VON DER LEYEN’S SHOCKING SPEECH on Ukraine War at G7 Summit!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsEd6tuYVQM
(via Bruce McEwen)
ISRAEL VOWS TO INTENSIFY ATTACKS After Iranian Missile Hits Hospital
Israel’s defense minister warned on Thursday that the Israeli military would intensify its strikes on “strategic targets” in Iran, after a barrage of Iranian missiles hit several locations, including a major hospital complex in southern Israel.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed that Iran had targeted Israeli military facilities near a hospital, according to the Fars news agency, an Iranian outlet affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, though it offered no evidence to support that. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the claim.
The hospital, the Soroka Medical Center in the city of Beersheba, said it had sustained widespread damage and asked people to stay away. The hospital said the building that was hit had been largely evacuated in recent days, and that it was treating several patients with mild injuries. It is the first Israeli hospital to be hit directly since the war with Iran began last Friday, the Israeli military said.
The threat from Defense Minister Israel Katz came after the Israeli military launched a wave of strikes against targets in Iran, including a nuclear complex. Stepping up Israel’s attacks, Mr. Katz said, would “remove the threats to the state of Israel and destabilize the ayatollahs’ regime” in Iran.
Iran has been under a near-total internet blackout since Wednesday night, and it was not immediately possible to get further comment from the Iranian authorities.
As rescuers searched for people trapped at the medical facility, the Israeli military said it was conducting strikes on a number of targets in Iran — including an inactive reactor at Arak, to prevent the site from producing material for nuclear weapons, and a nuclear production facility in the Natanz region.
Iranian state media reported that Israeli warplanes struck the nuclear facility at Arak and said that there was no serious damage. The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said that a “heavy water research reactor, under construction, was hit” at Arak but that it was “not operational and contained no nuclear material, so no radiological effects” were recorded.
The latest exchange of attacks came as uncertainty hung over the Middle East about whether or not President Trump would send American forces to join Israel’s sweeping campaign against Iran’s nuclear program and military.
“I have ideas as to what to do,” Mr. Trump said during an Oval Office event on Wednesday. He added, “I like to make a final decision one second before it’s due, you know, because things change.”
(nytimes.com)
SUPREME COURT OKS TENNESSEE BAN ON GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE FOR KIDS, A SETBACK FOR TRANSGENDER RIGHTS
What is the big effen’ deal about gender? I don’t give a real damn about a person’s sexuality. The human genome contains lots of combinations, and that genome is very important in determining what we are. Not to mention a great potential for mutation. Different combinations of genes happen with noticeable frequency. Screw sports, too. All they are is practice for wars based on lies. Get real, people, and mind your own effen business without imposing your damned religious and moral beliefs onto others..
Look in the mirror, take your own advice. It seems you post everyday spewing your effen beliefs. Blah, blah and blah.?That’s what comes to mind when I see you posted something. Get a life.
So sorry, but a comments section is where one offers opinions. You don’t like it, then don’t read them. Learn that others have different ideas and conclusions than yours and have as much right as you to express them.
Then why are you telling people to mind their own effen business, glass house.
You babble like a genuine MAGAt,. In answer to your words, people like those to whom I refer first attempted to force me to be one of them (your kind), and they are getting worse with time.
Exactly, Harvey.
And there’s Chuckie. Still waiting for the usuals suspects to chime in. Happy Hour must start early at the Horn of Zees on Thursday.
Keep it up boys.
half the time I log in just to watch you fellas go at each other.
Better than pay per view.
And I love the fact there still seems to be some gentlemanly warfare expressed absent the politically correctness we all seem to be hampered by these days.
Key boards at the ready, 10 paces, turn and fire.
Just got a text message from a number that begins with +63 (the Philippines)
advising the California DMV will be prosecuting me if I don’t send them credit card information…
Wrong nation and way too efficient to be the California DMV!
You’ve joined the club Sheriff. I got one of those first of the week.
Be well,
Laz
Well then I’m blessed to be in with the in crowd!
“in crowd”
MK
Sheriff, I appreciate the props.
However, I am not now, or have I ever been, a member of any “in crowd” here…
Ask around,
Laz
In crowd or not I feel like I know you from the last few years in here. I have enjoyed your perspectives on many topics as well. We have some characters in this county and the AVA is the best way to find them.
Thank you, Sheriff. I appreciate the perspective you bring to any discussion that comes up here.
Stay safe and be well,
Laz
BTW, Call, the other day you complained that the kids weren’t learning to read. Well, it being a slow news day with President Bone Spurs delaying his announcement that he’ll gift the Israeli fascists with American tax-funded bombers and bunker busters, we grouped on YOUR grasp of YOUR native tongue, concluding that YOUR reading comprehension is about the level of the edu-deficient children you complained about, as you blamed those deficiencies, natch, on Democrats, Biden in particular. Sorry to break it to you in public like this…..
Wow, what a response! Late night at the bar, huh. Did you leave your little mini me, McEwen to fend for himself.
Schools have failed since liberal takeover. I’m just reporting the facts that the State of California released. You twist it any way you want. For being the esteemed editor you print some stupid shit.
The troll speaks late at night
Words of anger—not a bit of light
He scurries here and there
Shouting “ danger and beware!”
Alas he’s just a guy with no filter
Lost his way, got off-kilter.
The Cowboy by — Ernie Pardini
Well done, by one of our better local writers.