- Farm Bureau Asks Ukiah To Officially Rescind & Restart Unpopular Annexation Plan
- Arrest ’Em
- Crime Is Not Down
- Misdemeanor Non-Fiction
- Frustrating 4th
- Mary O’Brien: The End Of An Era
- President Hater
- Disappearances
- A Tax On You And Me
- White Liberals With Trump Anxiety, Welcome To The World Outside Your Bubble
- KZYX’s Annual Report
FARM BUREAU ASKS UKIAH TO OFFICIALLY RESCIND & RESTART UNPOPULAR ANNEXATION PLAN
Dear Mayor Douglas Crane and City of Ukiah Council Members,
(July 21, 2025)
We appreciate the mayor reaching out to us and wanting to meet to talk about our concerns regarding the City of Ukiah’s annexation plans. Before scheduling a meeting, we would appreciate it if the Ukiah City Council responded to our letter of July 2, 2025. In that letter, we encouraged the City Council to terminate and rescind the current version of the plan by vote of the Council. We also want to see the pre-application that was submitted to LAFCO withdrawn. Once that vote is taken and passed, we would like to see a fresh, new process to develop a plan that includes public input, involvement and transparency. Until the full Council publicly commits to a new process, we believe meeting would be premature.
Cordially,
Estelle Clifton
Board President, Mendocino County Farm Bureau
ARREST ’EM
Editor:
I’m all in on Nate Voge’s call for California law enforcement to pledge to abide by state law and arrest those masked unidentified people who are disappearing community members without a warrant or any semblance of due process. We all know how far and wide the federal government is overreaching. Volunteer rapid response people can only document. Local law enforcement can and must stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement terrorism.
Ellen Obstler
Petaluma
CRIME IS NOT DOWN
Editor,
Regarding “California says crime is down. But officials know the data is flawed” (Crime, SFChronicle.com, July 3): The story confirms what many Bay Area business owners have known for years: The numbers don’t reflect reality.
As a business owner, I am no stranger to break-ins, vandalism and theft. Business owners have long known that drops in crime aren’t actually happening.
In reality, people have just stopped reporting because only about 9% property crimes reported in California lead to a prosecution. The lack of accountability discourages reporting, especially when a security system trigger can lead to hefty false alarm fees if no suspect is apprehended.
What Californians need is a system that prevents crime before it happens. We need accurate and transparent data so that lawmakers can make informed decisions.
Until then, please stop telling the people who are sweeping up broken glass and repairing broken cameras that things are improving.
Mark Fernwood
Danville
MISDEMEANOR NON-FICTION
To the Editor:
I adored fiction as a younger man: short stories and novels. They spoke to me about the human condition. I even wrote my own stories for those closest to me.
But I’ve moved on. As I’ve aged, I’ve increasingly found fiction too precious, too self-involved and too contrived. These days, I read nonfiction about a variety of topics, trying to learn more about our complex world.
I didn’t know this was an offense to the self-important world of book publishing. But I guess I was wrong.
Jonathan Carey
Chatham, New Jersey
FRUSTRATING 4TH
Editor,
New resolve after being frustrated by the Fourth.
For many Americans, the Fourth of July has become a holiday of habit: barbecue smoke in the air, coolers packed with beer and lawn chairs staked out for fireworks. There’s nothing wrong with celebration, but this year, I was struck by how few seemed to reflect on what we were actually celebrating.
As I heard people trading tips on steak deals and fireworks shows, I felt a sense of dissonance — like we were celebrating something we no longer understand, or worse, take entirely for granted.
Because the truth is: The liberty and justice this holiday commemorates — once seen as permanent — could now be in real danger. For the first time in many of our lives, it appears the foundation of our democracy is eroding in plain sight. Checks and balances are strained. It seems the rule of law is treated as optional. And the presidency, once rooted in public service, has become a tool for division, self-protection and power.
The original Fourth of July wasn’t just a celebration — it was an act of defiance and a declaration against tyranny and unaccountable leadership. The fireworks we light are meant to echo revolution, not just dazzle the kids. The cookouts are meant to bring us together, not distract us from the work of citizenship.
Today, that same courage — to resist autocracy, defend democracy and call out injustice — is needed again. This isn’t about partisanship. It’s about principle. And principles — not parties, nor personalities — are what hold a nation together.
So, let’s talk to our children about what the Fourth truly means. Let’s ask hard questions of our leaders and ourselves. Let’s speak up when truth is distorted and freedom is threatened.
Because if we don’t reclaim the meaning of the Fourth, we may lose what it stands for entirely.
Joseph Keon
Greenbrae
MARY O’BRIEN: THE END OF AN ERA
Fifty years ago in June, our family moved from San Francisco to the tiny town of Philo in this 1954 Dodge mail truck. Yesterday, WT Johnson expertly removed it from its parking spot under a redwood to take it off to the wrecking yard in the sky. Safe travels, friend.
PRESIDENT HATER
Editor:
On July 3, Donald Trump gave a speech at a celebration of our country in Des Moines, Iowa. The event was supposed to be nonpolitical and unifying. Instead, during his talk, he actually said he hates Democrats; he said Democrats hate our country, so he hates them. He’s referring to almost half the people in our country. This type of rhetoric is unacceptable for the leader of any country. Is he trying to foment a civil war? How much worse is this administration going to get? It’s terrifying to think of 3 and a half more years of this caustic disregard for the American people he is supposed to represent.
Holly Orlando
Sonoma
DISAPPEARANCES
Editor:
Very few actual Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests — mass or otherwise — have been reported in The Press Democrat. Likewise, the website — North Bay Rapid Response Network — has reported very few instances of actual ICE presence. This seems at odds with stories we hear from the “paperless” people we know and the decreasing number of Latino people we see in local stores. There seems to be widespread fear of going out in public, even going to work. Can the paper do more of a public service and collect information from people who witness likely ICE activity? I’m sure there are many unfounded rumors going around, but it certainly seems that there is more ICE presence than we read about.
Robert Hausen
Freestone
A TAX ON YOU AND ME
Editor:
Who’s kidding who? Tariffs are not a tax on China, the European Union, Canada or Mexico. They are a tax on you and me. If you buy something or parts of something that is made in tariff-targeted countries, the tariff (tax) is paid by the importer. That tariff (tax) is passed on as higher prices. The tariff (tax) money goes directly into the U.S. treasury. Maybe this is a way to get back some of the money given away in the Big Beautiful Bill.
Bill Bolster
Santa Rosa
WHITE LIBERALS WITH TRUMP ANXIETY, WELCOME TO THE WORLD OUTSIDE YOUR BUBBLE
Editor,
Regarding “Suffering from Trump anxiety? I’m a psychotherapist, and here’s the advice I give my patients” (Open Forum, SFChronicle.com, July 15): When I finished reading the op-ed and looked at the accompanying photo of a white family holding cute “Dump Trump” signs, I thought it needed a different headline: “Now that it affects me: a beginner’s guide to activism.”
The author’s message is potent. Community, action and care will be essential in the years ahead. But these ideas aren’t new — they’re just new to many white, middle-class liberals. That framing erases how BIPOC communities have long practiced these principles for survival.
The fear President Donald Trump evokes isn’t new. State violence, government neglect and rights violations didn’t begin in 2016 — they’ve long persisted across presidential administrations.
When immigration agents terrorized neighborhoods, Latino communities organized watches and mutual aid — because no one else would. Grassroots organizations already had legal support, childcare and language access ready to deploy.
In the 1960s, Black communities built church-based mutual aid and neighborhood safety networks. During the AIDS crisis, queer communities created underground caregiving and health networks when the government turned its back.
So welcome, fellow liberals. Let’s honor those who’ve done this work — not as inspiration to extract, but as leaders to learn from, with humility and grace
Russell Cowan
Oakland
KZYX’S ANNUAL REPORT
Editor,
Re: Irresponsible Nonprofits.
With austerity on the way, it’s time for everyone to reconsider public support for Mendocino County’s irresponsible nonprofits. At the top of this list is Mendocino County Public Broadcasting, Inc., also known as KZYX & Z.
In spite of taking millions of taxpayer dollars over the past four decades, KZYX’s Governing Board has enabled its General Managers to run roughshod over the democratic process. For a seven-year period between 2010 and 2017, KZYX’s General Manager was allowed to hide up-to-date annual reports from the Governing Board. When called to account for that, KZYX’s President was encouraged to gaslight anyone who brought the matter to the Governing Board’s attention.
KZYX’s recently filed financial statements for 2024 are a joke. The annual report — filed under penalty of perjury — contradicts the so-called audit by $46,035. While both reports were reportedly generated by the same CPA, it’s impossible to see both as accurate.
Those financial statements are on public display at the California State Registry of Charitable Trusts online, where every major donor can see them. Is it any wonder that major donors like the David and Lucile Packard Foundation have vanished from Mendocino County?
Before fueling irresponsible nonprofits like KZYX, please consider the long term harm you’d be bringing to Mendocino County in doing so.
Sincerely,
Scott M. Peterson
Mendocino
Be First to Comment