Mendocino County Today: Tuesday 7/29/2025

Cumulonimbus | Near Normal | Covelo Fire | Roses | Ukiah Expansion | Local Events | Mo's Baby | BBQ Fundraiser | Brush Clearing | Missing Duane | Ukiah Water | Eel Water | Museum Friday | Yesterday's Catch | White Ball | Nelshon Hamilton | Pigeon Flavor | Be Careful | Dead Expensive | Tax Them | Giants Lose | Fish Vase | All Right | Summer Reading | Jailhouse Blues | Dog Cart | Very Explicable | Lead Stories | Look Around | x= | Committing Genocide | Mono Bank | Genocidal Partnership | Sailing | My Strength | Dying Light | Apache Women

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SLIGHT thunderstorm chances continue each afternoon for interior areas around the Klamath Mountains. Near normal to slightly below normal temperatures expected into early this week. Another upper low could bring increased chances for thunderstorms by mid week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A clear 48F this Tuesday morning on the coast. Looking at the satellite shot you can see the fog has mostly moved south hence our forecast is for mostly clear skies. Although the NWS is mentioning clouds more today than yesterday. We all know how quickly the fog can re-build, don't we?

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SUNDAY'S COVELO FIRE:

The current suspicion for the cause of Covelo’s Medicine Fire on Sunday was morons burning garbage. This has happened before, same location, same incident cause, five years ago with a different moron roasting oysters on an open flame on a hot day with the wind blowing. This is an abandoned grow site, accessible from a dirt road near the transfer station, and this place is a magnet for broken down cars, garbage, and low life characters. It’s private property, in violation of just about every land use ordinance one can imagine, county code enforcement has been there and wrote a letter. That’s it, wrote a letter. Put it in the file. We could definitely use some serious abatement action out here.

— Lew Chichester (Covelo)

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A CALIFORNIA CITY TRIED TO TRIPLE IN SIZE. THEN CAME THE REBELLION.

As Ukiah eyes expansion, a battle over land use ignites in small-town Northern California

by Matt LaFever

On June 3, more than 100 people packed into the Ukiah Valley Conference Center downtown, a third of them gripping red-and-white signs that read “No Ukiah Annexation.” Near the front doors, a cluster of sign-holders huddled like a football team, whispering strategy and rehearsing zingers for when the mic would finally be theirs. They came ready to blast city officials over a sweeping proposal to triple the size of Ukiah, swallowing swaths of unincorporated land into city limits.

The atmosphere was electric — a mix of tension, anticipation and quiet defiance. City officials, police officers, firefighters and curious onlookers lined the walls, watching as the two sides of a simmering land-use fight faced off.

Phil Williams, the city’s attorney guiding the annexation process, stepped up to the mic. The crowd quieted. He assured them: Nothing was set in stone. The city was still collecting feedback. Then came the curveball.

There would be no Q&A. No speeches. No microphone for the sign-holders to grill officials in front of a crowd. Instead, Williams announced, attendees could visit a series of breakout stations scattered around the room — one for code enforcement, another for police, another for city management — to share their concerns one-on-one with city officials.

The air went out of the room. The “No Ukiah Annexation” crowd had come for a showdown, not quiet chats. Within five minutes of the format reveal, nearly half the crowd had left, signs tucked under arms, their big moment evaporated.

The city may have defused the tension that afternoon, but the fight was far from over.

The Battle For The Valley

Just two and a half hours north of San Francisco, Ukiah is the largest city in Mendocino County, the region’s government and agricultural hub. For nearly 30 years, city leaders have been laying the groundwork to push beyond city limits. In 1995, Ukiah began mapping land-use plans for surrounding areas, arguing that what was then scattered development needed a more coordinated approach. By 2006, the city had drawn an ambitious “sphere of influence” — a state-mandated planning boundary that marks where a city expects to grow and provide services in the future. Since 2020, Ukiah has moved aggressively within that zone, consolidating control over key utilities like water, sewer and fire protection.

Outside the city, those services have long been fragmented. Many neighborhoods rely on privately run water and sanitation districts. Law enforcement falls to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, which is responsible for a sprawling county bigger than Rhode Island and often stretched thin. Fire protection is handled by a patchwork of local and state agencies. Through annexation, city officials say they can bring order to the chaos, unifying services under one umbrella.

The city’s ultimate annexation plan, outlined in early public drafts, aims to triple Ukiah’s size by pulling in sprawling neighborhoods that now sit just outside city limits. It doesn’t stop at housing and business centers — the proposal also sweeps in vast stretches of vineyards and farmland and a major stretch of the Russian River, extending Ukiah’s reach from the shores of Lake Mendocino all the way to the base of the Hopland Grade.

This past April, Ukiah city staff went before the council with a clear message: The path to annexation is paved. With the city council’s green light, they could bypass the usual red tape — like environmental checks and zoning approvals — and seal the deal before year’s end. But just as momentum picked up, they hit a wall: a growing, galvanized resistance that had no intention of letting the city’s plan steamroll forward.

A well-funded “No Ukiah Annexation” campaign, backed by influential business owners and rural landholders, has kept pressure on city officials. While city leaders argue they can deliver better roads, policing and municipal services than the county can, these critics call annexation a top-down land grab that sidelines public input and concentrates power at City Hall.

Ross Liberty, the owner of Factory Pipe — a high-performance exhaust manufacturer located just outside city limits — has emerged as one of annexation’s most vocal opponents. He now serves on the steering committee of “No Ukiah Annexation,” whose tagline is “Stop Ukiah’s Power Grab.”

“Those the City plans to annex have not voted directly or indirectly on the massive debt the City has taken on,” Liberty wrote to SFGATE. “But through annexation the City plans to impose that debt upon us. Classic taxation without representation.”

City officials insist their intentions are pure. Ukiah Deputy City Manager Shannon Riley told SFGATE in an email that the goal is to “unify the urbanized areas in and around the City of Ukiah and streamline the provision of municipal services.”

She pointed to the odd realities that come with the current patchwork of city and county oversight: “There are urban neighborhoods—city streets if you will—where one side of the street calls the police department for assistance and one calls the Sheriff’s department… where one side of the street has plenty of water, even in a drought, while the other side is rationing and letting their garden die.”

Councilmember Mari Rodin framed annexation as both practical and overdue. In an email to SFGATE, she called it “an essential step in unifying the urbanized portions of the Valley,” saying it would “improve the quality of the roads,” “improve police protection,” “stop the urban sprawl,” and “promote economic development.”

Part of the city’s argument rests on what the county’s up against. Mendocino County Department of Transportation is responsible for more than 1,000 miles of roads. The county Planning and Building Department has to stretch across a patchwork of rural, urban and suburban areas, often juggling competing priorities. All the while, the county is facing a multimillion-dollar deficit that’s straining its ability to deliver services. City leaders say they’re better positioned to provide faster, more consistent service for annexed neighborhoods.

Yet dissenters still feel overruled.

Estelle Clifton, president of the Mendocino County Farm Bureau, has been blunt about where her organization stands: “Our membership does not want agricultural land within the city limits,” she told SFGATE over the phone.

For Clifton, the fight is about more than farms — it’s about protecting the soul of the valley. “It’s inappropriate for a municipality to have agricultural zoning in their boundary,” she told SFGATE, warning that annexation could swap vineyards and orchards for sidewalks and subdivisions.

Clifton sees her group as a collection of “open space” advocates working to “limit paving” and urban sprawl. She argues that the bureau’s resistance to annexation helps protect watersheds and wildlife corridors.

Liberty, the owner of Factory Pipe, told SFGATE that his company generates “80 living-wage jobs in our community.” Because it operates outside city limits, Factory Pipe avoids business taxes. Annexation would put it on the hook for a gross receipts tax, which Liberty takes exception to.

“When the city sees me,” he said, “they see me as a burden that needs to be mitigated with tax.”

“The City in no way ever sought input from those they decided to annex,” he later wrote to SFGATE in a text message. “When I found out they planned to annex me I made my opposition clear to which they said I have no choice and, ‘You’re in the map to be annexed’.”

Rodin, the city councilmember, fired back, telling SFGATE that Liberty’s opposition has less to do with civic concern and more to do with protecting a “cozy relationship” he enjoys with county officials. “He would like to maintain the relationship he currently enjoys with the County’s Planning and Building Department because it allows his projects to avoid the scrutiny that everyone else is subject to,” she said, pointing to Liberty’s proposed Amazon warehouse at a former Masonite manufacturing plant as a prime example.

When SFGATE asked Liberty about Rodin’s characterization, he didn’t dispute having a good rapport with Mendocino County staff. But he pushed back hard on Rodin’s conclusion.

“I do enjoy a good relationship with the County in general,” he told SFGATE. “To say my relationship allows ‘my projects to avoid the scrutiny that everyone else is subject to’ is untrue and libelous. Council member Rodin ought to consider her words carefully before making such claims.”

Broken Promises

At the city of Ukiah’s second annexation workshop on June 19, officials promised dialogue. Instead, they laid down rules: no comments, no speeches, only questions. The message landed poorly, and tensions in the room quickly rose, exposing a growing divide between city leadership and the residents — both from Ukiah and the surrounding areas — who oppose the annexation plan.

Resident Kerri Vau took the microphone and suggested city staff “get a pulse of what the community feels” by asking attendees in the room to raise their hands to signal if they oppose annexation. A city official responded by simply asking Vau whether she’d actually asked a question. Once it was cleared up that she had no question but had only made a statement, the city quickly shifted to the next speaker.

Ken McCormick, a Ukiah resident, stepped up to the mic and sidestepped the city’s rule by making Vau’s same request but in interrogatory form: “Can everyone in the room, except at the head table, who’s in favor of the annexation from what you see now, raise your hand?”

No hands went up.

He turned to face city officials. “I’m going to ask the people at the front table to ask yourself a question,” he said. “Why would you want to move forward with this?”

Another coordinated effort to stop annexation has come from Mendo Matters, a newly formed coalition of Mendocino County residents who describe their mission as ensuring that “entrepreneurs, small business owners, and working individuals have a seat at the table.” Vau is the chair of the group, whose leadership includes real estate agents, a prominent gym owner and a major landholder in the Ukiah Valley.

In a July 1 letter to city leaders, the group demanded that Ukiah “immediately halt all annexation activities and initiate a fundamentally new process — one that is slower, more transparent, and community-driven.” Vau told SFGATE the city has yet to respond. In a follow-up email, she wrote in all caps: “SILENCE IS NOT TRANSPARENCY. THE COMMUNITY DESERVES ANSWERS, AND OUR CONCERNS CANNOT BE IGNORED. WE ARE CALLING ON THE CITY OF UKIAH TO RESPOND PUBLICLY AND CLEARLY. YOUR SILENCE SPEAKS VOLUMES, IT’S TIME TO SPEAK UP!”

As backlash mounted, the city of Ukiah hit pause. On June 23 — just days after a packed room of residents refused to raise their hands in support of annexation, and two days before a key Planning Commission vote — officials abruptly pulled the item, citing a need for “more time” to engage the community.

In a news release, Mayor Doug Crane tried to strike a conciliatory tone, promising the process would now be “open, transparent, and inclusive” and thanking the public for their interest.

Councilmember Heather Criss tried to strike a diplomatic tone. “I 100% believe in democracy,” she told SFGATE over the phone. “And if it gets to the point where we put forth an application and the threshold of people in those areas say they don’t want it, that’s democracy at work.”

In a July 25 news release, the city of Ukiah said it will scale back the annexation area and won’t submit a proposal this summer as planned. “We recognize the need for deeper discussion about how and where services will be responsibly delivered to the community, which is really what this is all about,” Rodin said in the release.

County residents would argue there’s no need for “deeper discussion” as they’ve already been rather clear. Just take a drive down Oak Knoll Road, a winding stretch outside the main area of Ukiah. There, south of city limits, the message is clear. Yard after yard, block after block, the signs scream back at City Hall in bold letters: “No Ukiah Annexation.”

(SFGate.com)

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LOCAL EVENTS (this week)

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WE WERE DISAPPOINTED to see that MendoFever’s Matt LaFever didn’t mention the County of Mendocino in his recent rundown of Ukiah’s unpopular Annexation plans for SFGate. The door to Ukiah’s original ambitious annexation plan was opened wide by an ill-considered tax sharing agreement engineered in secret last year by Supervisor Maureen Mulheren and some top Ukiah officials and approved in a hurry-up job by the Supervisors on a 5-0 vote without any County staff or public review. A few months into 2025, newly elected Supervisors Madeline Cline (large portions of whose district would have been included in Ukiah’s proposal) and former Fort Bragg City Councilman Bernie Norvell expressed disapproval of the tax sharing agreement and Ukiah’s annexation plan. Norvell said that Mulheren’s tax sharing agreement was good for the cities but bad for the County, and Cline invited several senior County officials and the public to describe how difficult and costly Mulheren’s tax sharing agreement would be to implement. County Sheriff Matt Kendall called Ukiah’s oversized annexation proposal “bait and switch,” saying that it was larger than the County had been lead to believe last year and that there would be no compensating reduction in his staff if the unincorporated annexed areas were policed by Ukiah instead of the Sheriff. There are still lingering questions about how much tax revenue the County would give up under Mulheren’s agreement — the amount of which depends on which parcels might be annexed. Cline and Norvell are part of an ad hoc committee which is supposed to be reviewing the tax sharing agreement. But now that Ukiah has withdrawn their overlarge initial proposal, the tax sharing agreement and the annexation are up in the air and the discussions are still being held in secret. There are some areas on the edges of Ukiah that may make sense for annexation. But now that the tax sharing agreement, and the annexation proposal are in limbo, along with the vocal opposition stirred up by Ukiah’s original proposal, the whole subject of tax sharing and annexation are on indefinite hold. As we have said before, any future tax sharing agreement should include a “no County tax revenue reduction” provision and the entire process should be handled in a public standing committee, not in secret which would only fuel more opposition from the annexees when Ukiah’s next, presumably smaller, annexation proposal appears. To us, much of the blame for this entire compound blunder lies at the feet of Supervisor Mulheren who should have conducted her tax sharing discussions in public and who should have called for a formal staff review of it before she presented to the Board as a fait accompli.

(Mark Scaramella)

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NEWEST NEIGHBORHOOD FIRE SAFE COUNCIL GETS RIGHT TO WORK

by Sarah Reith

With insurance rates skyrocketing and many residents aging, rural mobile home parks are especially vulnerable to being devastated by fire.

Mendocino County’s newest neighborhood Fire Safe Council is in one of the north county’s most iconic and fire-prone neighborhoods. The Golden Rule Mobile Village is within Ridgewood Ranch, which is about midway between Ukiah and Willits. It is known for its native and exotic wildlife, a famous racehorse, and a slow-moving miniature donkey. Insurers know it as a neighborhood to avoid, leaving residents of the mobile and manufactured home park on the property, who are all over 55, to mostly fend for themselves with the FAIR plan, California’s pricey home insurance of last resort.

Now a few of those residents have organized to start protecting their community from fire with improved defensible space, education, and a few home hardening measures. Homeowner Kate Carter went to a two-day CAL FIRE training, and knew exactly what she wanted to do.

“In March, I attended the defensible space assessor training put on by CAL FIRE,” she recalled. “I became acutely aware of how my present location and the mobile home park in which I live is susceptible to wildfire. Following that training, I was gung ho to conduct defensible space assessments for all my neighbors in the Golden Rule Mobile Village,” which is just under a hundred units with one or two residents each. “What I appreciated the most about that training,” Carter continued, “was the importance of preventing fire starts from embers. Those embers will come through the air a mile or more. They are like matches dropping from the sky, falling into dead vegetation or gutters that are clogged. My big focus for this village is, if everybody can just look around their property and think, if a match fell into that pile of dry grass or leaves, would it start a fire? In this mobile home park, we are all in close proximity to each other. So we’re all dependent on one another to do the minimal amount of cleanup to protect our homes as well as our neighbors.”

By late May, a half-dozen neighbors had formed the Fire Safe Council, in hopes of preventing fires altogether or keeping the damage to a minimum if a fire does start. Forming a neighborhood Fire Safe Council gives small organizations access to assistance with fire resiliency projects. That can include help organizing as well as grants for things like emergency water systems, prescribed burns, and communication systems. Sometimes, it’s as simple as having a professional crew come out and pitch in on a few hours of vegetation management on a steep hillside.

By mid-July, Carter and her neighbor Bill Pearce were relaxing in her living room as the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council crew did just that. Mendocino County Fire Safe Council staff had been asked to help reduce the fuel load on a steep slope just between temporary mobile home parking and the more permanently rooted park community above, helping provide a fuel break between the two locations. The crew had just finished weed whacking and thinning trees and brush on the steep hillside, and were feeding the limbs into a chipper. Carter and Pearce had pitched in as volunteers, though Pearce had not had an action-packed day. “I just had a knee replacement,” he explained. “But I thought, I gotta participate as long as I can. I gave my cane up about a week ago, so I’m still relearning how to walk.” They are more able-bodied than many of their more elderly neighbors, but they were still pleased to leave the heavy lifting to younger people with strong backs, good knees, and well-oiled chainsaws.

Almost half of California’s mobile homes are located in high to extreme fire severity zones, where about half of the residents are very low-income. The housing is high-density, and many of the manufactured homes do not meet modern fire safety standards. “We have vinyl windows,” Carter noted. Though the residents are unlikely to take on extensive home hardening measures, they hope to encourage a trend of ember-resistant vents and clean gutters on the roofs. Water is also a major consideration in drought-prone California, which is something to take into account when landscaping. At the Golden Rule, water is limited during the summer. Plants that are already close to homes on small lots die and dry into kindling.

The Golden Rule Mobile Village is located on property that is owned by Ridgewood Ranch. The most famous former resident is the racehorse Seabiscuit, who is also the namesake of the Seabiscuit Therapeutic Riding Center. One beloved resident of the Riding Center is the miniature donkey Muffin, a fire refugee who joined the program after losing his home in Potter Valley during the 2017 wildfire. According to Pearce, “Muffin is famous. People want to be the donkey-walker. There will be people with disabilities who come in and just walk with Muffin as a therapeutic event. It’s become very popular. Muffin is part of the deal here.”

The property is protected by conservation easements and provides habitat to wildlife, sheep, and a few cattle. The deer are especially bold. “Every morning when I get up, I’m looking at the deer,” Carter reported. “They actually live under my decking, and they birth under there, so I get to see those fawns right out the womb. If a wildfire came through here, it would be such a loss of wildlife. It would be so sad.”

It would also be impossible to rebuild. Like many rural Californians, Carter lost her private insurance and is now on the California FAIR plan. She estimates it’s about triple what she was paying with her former company. Pearce added that it’s also not enough to cover the disasters that have become all too common. “Most of us don’t have enough insurance that would actually replace the structure,” he explained. “They’ll basically pay for what we paid for it, but prices have gone up. You’re not going to be able to replace this. If the park burns, it’s a big tragedy. Nobody’s coming back. So it makes sense right now to protect it.”

The Mendocino County Fire Safe Council will be right there to help the community with its efforts. Asked what it took to start her neighborhood Fire Safe Council, Carter said simply, “A desire. That’s all. I thought it was going to be a bureaucratic endeavor, but we just needed guidance and support.” And not everyone needs to scale a steep slope with power tools. She’s planning to offer defensible space demonstrations to her neighbors, along with a few refreshments.

Chainsaws and lemonade? “Or in this case, probably loppers, clippers, and weed whackers,” she amended. “The very tiny ones with batteries. I have two.”

(Photos by Eva King, of the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council, taken on July 16.)

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SINCE 2019…

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UKIAH VALLEY WATER AUTHORITY CONSIDERS GRANT APPLICATION TO SUPPORT REGIONAL WATER SYSTEM INTEGRATION

The newly formed Ukiah Valley Water Authority (UVWA) is taking a major step toward building a unified and drought-resilient water system for the Greater Ukiah Valley. At a special meeting this week, UVWA staff presented the Executive Committee with a draft application for a state planning grant through California's SAFER (Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience Program.

https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/grants_loans/sustainable_water_solutions/safer.html

If awarded, the $13,620,452 million grant would cover the full scope of planning and design costs that UVWA member agencies would otherwise need to pay with local funds.

As a state grant, the $13.6 million in funding does not need to be repaid, providing substantial cost savings for the region. The grant would fund engineering, design, and planning activities needed to consolidate infrastructure across the UVWA member agencies, laying the groundwork for a coordinated, efficient water system capable of moving water throughout the region - from the southern to the northern end of the Ukiah Valley. This critical effort will improve water availability, reliability, and equity for residents within UVWA boundaries.

"This is a significant step toward creation of a unified water system for our region," said Sean White, Director of Water Resources for the City of Ukiah. "The actions by the City of Ukiah and member agencies of the Ukiah Valley Water Authority have put us in a strong position to apply for state funds. With this grant, we can begin the real planning and engineering work needed to connect our systems and ensure we have a flexible, reliable water supply - not just for today, but for the future."

UVWA plans to pursue SAFER grant funding in two phases: first, by seeking funding for planning, engineering, and design; and second, by applying for construction funding once project plans are complete. The Authority has retained Carollo Engineers to assist with the planning, engineering and technical design work.

"This effort is about building a smarter, more resilient system for the entire Ukiah Valley," said Jared Walker, Deputy Director of Water Resources for UVWA. "By connecting our infrastructure, we will be better prepared for droughts, able to move water where it's needed most, and ensure long-term sustainability for our communities."

The UVWA Executive Committee will now review the draft grant application, provide feedback, and determine the next steps for submitting the application to the State Water Resources Control Board.

The SAFER Program, administered by the State, offers ongoing funding opportunities to help local water agencies improve system reliability and support consolidation efforts.

For more information about the Ukiah Valley Water Authority and ongoing regional water efforts, visit cityofukiah.com/uvwa.

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WILL DISMANTLING A DAM FOR ONE CALIFORNIA RIVER DOOM ANOTHER?

PG&E's Potter Valley plan fuels clash between Eel River restoration and Russian River crisis

by Matt LaFever

In the past week, Northern California’s century-old Potter Valley Project crossed a major threshold toward dismantling. On July 25, PG&E submitted its formal plan to federal regulators to tear down the two-dam system that has rerouted Eel River water into the Russian River for over a century. Just days earlier, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors became one of seven required signatories to a water diversion agreement, paving the way for a replacement system called the New Eel-Russian Facility, or NERF.

Together, the two developments mark a historic shift: The original infrastructure is on its way out, and the future of interbasin water sharing is up for grabs.

For more than 100 years, the Potter Valley Project has diverted Eel River water through a milelong tunnel blasted through a Mendocino County mountain, supporting agriculture, drinking water and firefighting from Potter Valley to Marin. Scott Dam, completed in 1922, created Lake Pillsbury to store the diverted water.

PG&E now says the project is outdated, seismically vulnerable and economically unsustainable. Its decommissioning plan calls for removing both Scott and Cape Horn dams, eliminating the hydroelectric plant and draining Lake Pillsbury — triggering sharp debate across both river basins.

NERF, the proposed replacement, would divert water only during high winter and early spring flows, a major shift from the summer diversions that Russian River communities have long relied on. Eel River advocates say the timing is designed to protect salmon and restore ecological balance, but in the Russian River watershed, where steady summer water is critical for farming, tourism and recreating, concerns are mounting.

At the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors meeting in Eureka, Eel River advocates voiced support for the new deal. Brian Johnson, senior policy adviser for Trout Unlimited, called the agreement “affirmatively good for the Eel River,” noting it’s packed with scientific safeguards.

“The agreement can only be renewed if it’s doing what it’s intended to do,” he said, meaning diversions could be scaled back even further if they harm conditions on the Eel River. In essence, the agreement prioritizes the health of the Eel River’s flows over guaranteed water deliveries to the Russian.

Charlie Schneider, California Trout’s Lost Coast Project manager, framed NERF as a major ecological win. The proposed system is “supportive of volitional fish passage,” he said, and would ensure salmon and steelhead have clean, connected habitat after the dams come down.

“Fish need a place to live. They need a healthy ecosystem. They need food resources,” he said.

Alicia Hamann, executive director of Friends of the Eel River, said the moment was deeply personal.

“Friends of the Eel River was founded for this very purpose,” she told the board, “so this is a really exciting time for us.”

Though her organization isn’t a signatory, she strongly supports the agreement, calling it a turning point: “This agreement is really important because it commits those former opponents of dam removal to supporting dam removal, and in exchange, Eel River stakeholders are supporting an ecologically appropriate diversion.”

Hamann warned, however, that some Russian River stakeholders have shown signs of backpedaling. “We have continued to hear some rhetoric from some of those signatories in the Russian River indicating a lack of support for dam removal,” she said, urging the board and other parties to “hold those parties to this agreement … to support dam removal.”

In a follow-up interview with SFGATE, Hamann clarified her meaning. “I don’t think it’s unreasonable that people are upset, afraid even, of big changes coming,” she said, but she cautioned that open skepticism from signatories could compromise “timely dam removal.”

Meanwhile, PG&E’s own documents submitted last week to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission make clear just how disruptive dam removal will be for the Russian River watershed. The utility’s decommissioning plan warns of “unavoidable adverse effects” that would follow the end of water diversions. “Flows would return to natural flow conditions,” PG&E writes, meaning less water for farmers, ranchers and rural communities in the Russian River Valley, especially in summer.

Wildlife would feel the impact, too, PG&E outlines: The disappearance of Lake Pillsbury would erase a key hunting ground for ospreys and bald eagles. Tule elk might become stranded in sediment. Northern spotted owls could abandon nesting sites near the construction zone.

In its decommissioning application, PG&E acknowledges that life in the Scott Dam region will never be the same. The utility says the area will shift “from a lacustrine to riverine environment” — in other words, the calm lake will vanish, replaced by a raw, re-formed river. That transformation could have “unavoidable effects on recreation value, community way of life, and population and housing in the Scott Dam area,” PG&E writes.

Lake County Treasurer Patrick Sullivan warned that dam removal could carry serious economic consequences for the region. Sullivan estimated the resulting loss in property tax revenue alone could top $1 million annually. “That can hardly be characterized as a negligible impact to Lake County,” he wrote in a statement to SFGATE.

The divide between the two watersheds isn’t just bureaucratic — it’s personal for the communities who live there. During public comment, Humboldt County resident Kent Sawatzky gave voice to those tensions, warning that the “negative karma incurred by the people in the Russian River Basin is something they may regret having to deal with.” In his view, the decadeslong manipulation of the Eel River has provoked something elemental.

“Mother Nature bats last,” he said. “When you try and push Mother Nature around, she usually has ways of responding — whether it be for fires, floods, earthquakes.”

(sfgate.com)

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GRACE HUDSON MUSEUM WILL BE OPEN FOR FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK from 5 to 8 p.m. on August 1st. This evening will feature a pop-up exhibition of the nature paintings of veteran Willits artist Linda MacDonald. Linda helped jury submissions to "The Art of Wonder," the Museum's current exhibit, featuring 15 artists whose work illustrates the spiritual, the fantastical, and the miracles hidden in everyday life. Also present will be singer and songwriter Clay Hawkins, accompanied by Andrew Robertson on upright bass.

Visitors can also discover or get reacquainted with the Museum's core galleries, featuring Grace Hudson’s artwork, exquisite Pomo basketry, and Carpenter-Hudson family history. They can also enjoy summer wildflowers in the Wild Gardens. Light refreshments will be available.

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

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, July 28, 2025

RYAN FERTADO, 39, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

TIMOTHY GITCHEL, 40, Ukiah. Theft by forged access card, getting credit with someone else’s ID.

CATHRINE HINTERMANN, 47, Ukiah. DUI.

WESLEY LEWIS, 24, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

SERGIO LOPEZ, 35, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

RONALD MAPLE, 61, Covelo. Controlled substance with two or more priors, paraphernalia, more than an ounce of pot, marijuana sales, probation violation.

ERIC WRIGHT, 29, Ukiah. Controlled substance, probation revocation.

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MAN WHO DROWNED IN RUSSIAN RIVER WAS CELEBRATING BIRTHDAY, BROTHER SAYS

On Sunday, Nelshon Hamilton would have turned 35 years old, his brother Kenneth Walker said.

by Madison Smalstig

Authorities on Sunday morning recovered the body of a man who drowned Saturday in the Russian River near Forestville.

A Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office dive team and marine units from Sonoma and Napa counties located the body around 11:20 a.m. in the water near the Hacienda Bridge, Sgt. Juan Valencia said.

The remains of Richmond resident Nelshon Hamilton were found near where he used a rope swing Saturday to jump into the water and never resurfaced. The Sonoma County Coroner’s Bureau confirmed his identity Monday.

Officials began searching for Hamilton just after 5:30 p.m. Saturday, using a drone, helicopter and personnel from multiple fire and law enforcement agencies. They paused the recovery operation overnight and resumed early Sunday.

Early Sunday afternoon, dozens of family members and friends of the missing man stood on the north bank of the river and watched as officials pulled their gear out of the water and carried the covered body up the beach to a Sheriff’s Office vehicle. Some onlookers cried and held each other.

Kenneth Walker was at the site Sunday and identified the man who drowned as his younger brother.

On Sunday, Hamilton would have turned 35 years old, Walker said. Hamilton is from the East Bay and had never visited Forestville before Saturday, but drove up with his girlfriend to celebrate his birthday.

“Something just went left,” Walker said.

Hamilton was family oriented and loved to play basketball and video games, Walker said. He had a twin brother who died in 2014 due to gun violence.

“He was a good father. He was a brother. He was an uncle,” he said. “He was somebody’s kid, somebody’s son.”

Hamilton’s family members expressed safety concerns for the portion of the river and the rope swing, which is an unsanctioned attraction tied under the west side of the bridge.

This is the third drowning death recorded this month on the Russian River.

On July 13, a 17-year-old and 31-year-old — both visiting from the Bay Area — drowned in separate incidents on the river near Forestville and in Monte Rio. The victims both fell from floating devices and were not wearing life jackets.

In light of recent drownings, Valencia said, authorities are urging swimmers and boaters to wear life jackets anytime they are in the Russian River.

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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM CRAIG

Am presently at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in Washington, D.C. ignoring an insane individual sitting nearby, who is cursing irrationally, and is thus adding more evidence for a need to allow law enforcement to forcibly take such individuals into custody and deliver them to local hospital psychiatric departments for observation. It was announced in The Washington Post that the Trump Administration is working on legislation to make this happen, in order to ensure public safety. The situation in America's national capitol is a disaster insofar as homelessness, mental illness, and poverty is concerned. It is dangerous here! Tourism is still encouraged, but be careful when going outside of your hotel.

Craig Louis Stehr, [email protected]

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DEADHEADS BOYCOTTING SF’S ANNIVERSARY SHOWS

“I can’t do it; it’s a straight-up mockery of the original magic to me,” said one fan.

by Carly Schwartz

I was 12,000th in the Dead & Company Ticketmaster queue when I texted my father to see if he wanted to fly to San Francisco from the East Coast for the 60th anniversary shows Aug. 1-3 in Golden Gate Park.

My dad is one of the biggest Deadheads I’ve ever known. In the earliest days of the internet, envelopes stuffed with cassette tapes of Dead shows would arrive on our doorstep, sent from fans all over the country whom my dad had met online. The music was the soundtrack to my childhood, and father-daughter jam-band outings became one of our favorite ways to spend time together. What better way to continue our cherished family tradition than in the city where it all began?

That’s why I was shocked when he replied, “No, I’m good. I really have no interest.”

It was a moot point: By the time I’d advanced to the front of the Ticketmaster queue, three-day passes had sold out. I asked my dad to elaborate on his stance.

“This whole thing is just a big money grab, a real ‘fuck you’ to the fans,” he said. “It totally goes against what the Grateful Dead was all about. Jerry is rolling over in his grave.”

San Francisco is turning into Deadhead Disneyland. Muni buses are shrouded in neon Summer of Love regalia, City Hall will light up in Technicolor tie-dye, and dozens of parties and tribute bands will hold court all over town. Officials expect up to 60,000 fans to make the pilgrimage to Golden Gate Park each day, with thousands more swarming the venue’s outskirts. Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, named for the Grateful Dead’s original concert promoter, will (fittingly) transform into a pop-up merch store.

Tickets cost $635 for three-day general admission; VIP options range from $1,800 to a staggering $6,300 “Golden Road” pass, with which the Champagne crowd can enjoy unlimited dining, expedited entry, and a private viewing deck. All for concerts in a field featuring two out of the six original Grateful Dead members.

Is my father a curmudgeon, or does he have a point?

It turns out, many die-hard Deadheads agree with him. “I’ve seen Dead & Co a few times and mostly enjoyed their interpretation of the music,” said John Zirinsky, 41. “But the high ticket prices, John Mayer stans, and integration into the Ticketmaster monopoly ecosystem have really changed what type of person attends their concerts and, in my opinion, killed the vibe.”

Zirinsky still plans to drive to the city from his Mammoth Lakes home for Dead festivities during the shows. But he’s skipping the main event, opting to attend The Heart of Town at Pier 48, a smaller festival hosted by Grahame Lesh, son of the band’s beloved founding bassist, Phil Lesh, who died last fall.

Others are sidestepping San Francisco entirely. “There’s no more Grateful Dead family — this is a business, through and through,” said Aaron Suttschenko, 47, who’s based in Cincinnati and runs a popular Instagram account that curates his favorite Dead concert moments and sells T-shirts. “Capitalism has no moral base, so why not make as much money as you can if there’s enough rich people to support this thing? But I can’t do it; it’s a straight-up mockery of the original magic to me.”

Gavin Kelty, 63, said that while he appreciates Dead & Company, the cost outweighs the benefit. “The prices are too high to listen for three hours in a sea of people,” he said. “It’s obviously for a percentage of people who can afford it.”

Kelty saw the Grateful Dead’s original incarnation dozens of times in the 1980s and ’90s and has made multi-hour trips to see Dead & Company in recent years. He fondly recalls the days when the original band organized a mail-order lottery ticket system, encouraging fans to decorate their self-addressed, stamped envelopes in colorful, creative ways.

“Tickets were 25 or 30 bucks, and their shows always sold out,” he said. “My friends and I figured out that SFO had the first mail pickup in the area, so we collected our envelopes and drove to the airport to make sure we had the best chance.”

Other Deadheads also called out the band’s history of affordable shows, including several free events in Golden Gate Park in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Before Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995, the Grateful Dead never charged more than $35 for a concert ticket, or around $63 when adjusted for inflation. (This does not take into account what fans would pay secondhand for tickets from scalpers, which cost much more.)

Brenna, 29, a Michigan-based fan who declined to give a last name, said she dropped out of high school to follow Grateful Dead spinoff bands in the 2010s. She described the 60th anniversary shows as a “hype gimmick” and pointed to the fact that Dead & Company advertised their 2023 concerts as a “final tour,” then booked a several-week run at the Las Vegas Sphere less than a year later.

“Now you have to let the money talk and dictate whether or not you make it into a show,” she said. “It’s not necessarily fair for a culture and crowd that’s not supposed to be known for possessions or money. Who gets to go to these shows? How much is enough?”

A self-described “broke Midwestern girl,” Brenna said she was fortunate to score “Miracle” tickets when following the Dead. (A Miracle is when a fan gifts another a ticket right before a show begins; folks usually hold up a single finger when praying for a Miracle outside the venue.)

Representatives of Golden Gate Park Concerts, the branch of Another Planet Entertainment that organized this week’s Dead & Company shows, did not respond to questions about ticket prices or the estimated cost to produce the event. Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office has touted the potential financial boon for the city, noting that hotel demand July 31 to Aug. 3 is high and that the 2023 Dead & Company concerts in Oracle Park generated an estimated $31 million for San Francisco’s economy.

Despite the soaring costs, some Deadheads are biting the bullet and making the trek to Golden Gate Park — but not without mixed feelings.

“It’s an anniversary thing — they should have made it accessible,” said Michelle Rajotte, 58, who’s been following the Dead since the early ’80s. “There were rumors among the fanbase that it would be free, but it’s a cash grab again.”

Rajotte plans to attend the shows because of her personal connection to the band. Her father was the program director for a major radio station during the Summer of Love and helped organize one of the first modern music festivals, Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain in 1967 at Mount Tamalpais. She says the Grateful Dead was a huge part of her childhood and has remained equally important throughout her life.

“I’ve spent my retirement fund following around this band,” she joked. “I can’t not go. Life is short, and it’s one of the things that makes me the happiest.”

Others are taking out Ticketmaster or Klarna payment plans to cover the cost of tickets. Eric, a San Francisco resident who has followed the Dead for 25 years, said he wouldn’t consider missing the shows but couldn’t afford to pay the full price all at once.

“It would be one thing if the band was giving all that money to charity,” he said. “But I don’t think that’s what’s happening.”

As for me, I decided to say yes to the anniversary shows because I genuinely love Dead & Company frontman Mayer and multi-instrumentalist Oteil Burbridge, and I can’t imagine sitting at home three miles away while Bobby Weir plays “New Speedway Boogie” in the holiest of settings. I was also lucky enough to find a friend with an extra ticket.

But I don’t think I’ll be able to convince my dad to join me. That, as the Deadheads say, would take a Miracle.

(sfstandard.com)

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IMAGINING THE GOOD I COULD DO IF I HAD A BILLION DOLLARS

Editor:

If I had a billion dollars, here’s how I’d spend it:

First, I’d invest $600 million with a goal of earning 2% annually — about $1 million a month. Then, I’d buy five houses at $10 million each. Add furnishings at $2 million each, $10 million for cars, boats and planes, $6 million for taxes and $24 million for a contingency fund. That leaves $300 million for donations to fight hunger, homelessness and other needs.

According to Forbes, the United States has 813 billionaires with a combined net worth of $6.72 trillion — averaging about $8 billion each. If the “average” billionaire followed this plan, each would own 40 homes valued at $10 million, have income of $8 million per month and $2.4 billion left for charity. If all 813 did this, we’d see $2 trillion going to urgently needed social programs. (To grasp what a trillion is, consider: a million seconds is 11 days; a trillion seconds is 31,700 years.)

However, these morally bankrupt billionaires demanded tax cuts for themselves, debt and health care cuts for the rest of us — and Republicans gave it to them. Regardless of political persuasion or social standing, we all need to come together, have mercy on these poor misguided souls and save them from eternal damnation by taxing the hell out of them.

Eric Peterson

Santa Rosa

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NEW FACE, BUT SAME RESULT as Giants fall to NL Central-worst Pirates

by Shayna Rubin

Carson Whisenhunt didn’t know what to think when he was scratched from his Triple-A start on Saturday. With few answers from the San Francisco Giants’ brass, his mind started to race and nerves began to build.

Thurday’s trade deadline first popped into his head; the team’s 2022 draft pick briefly considered that he might be on the move. He also knew that the big league team was in desperate need of a fresh arm, and the organization’s top pitching prospect was surely at the top of the list.

But it wasn’t until 11:30 a.m. Sunday, when he arrived at Oracle Park as part of the taxi squad, that his next stop became crystal clear. The 24-year-old lefty would make his big-league debut on Monday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Whisenhunt frantically called his mom, Mandi, with the news, but couldn’t get ahold of his dad, Dennis, as he was on a work trip in the Philippines. Dennis made the 13-hour flight to San Francisco just in time, joining his family to watch the debut. Whisenhunt’s heightened nerves carried all the way into his first career start. He came out throwing plenty of changeups, the pitch that lofted him to top prospect, but the Pirates were all over it. He gave up four runs early in a game the Giants would lose 6-5.

“It’s an honor just to get a chance to play in the big leagues. It’s every kid’s dream,” Whisenhunt said. “I just have to go out there and compete. Tonight was a little adrenaline, over-thinking things a little bit and trying to do a little too much.”

The way Pittsburgh was swinging, Whisenhunt realized he’d have to throw more sinkers after he conferred with catcher Patrick Bailey and pitching coach J.P. Martinez mid-game, and it worked. He threw 46 sinkers among his 85 total pitches to keep Pittsburgh scoreless through the next three innings, making it possible for the offense to stay well in reach of a win.

“(He) used his fastball better and gave us five innings which was huge tonight,” manager Bob Melvin said.

Whisenhunt went five innings, gave up four runs, struck out three and walked two. But his debut survival wasn’t enough.

Whisenhunt’s promotion wasn’t just about what he’d earned, but a result of the team’s desperation. A depleted rotation without Hayden Birdsong and Landen Roupp meant the Giants turned to two rookies to handle a last-place Pirates team with one of the worst offenses in baseball after getting swept by the New York Mets over the weekend.

The loss is the Giants’ 10th in ther past 12 games and drops them to just a game over .500 and four games back of the San Diego Padres — with two teams between them — for the third wild-card spot. It’s a significant drop for a team that sees itself in position to add to the roster, not necessarily sell, before the trade deadline.

At least the bats came back to life. Brett Wisely’s ground-rule RBI double in the second inning snapped an 0-for-24 stretch in which the Giants did not have a hit with runners in scoring position. In all, they went 4-for-13 with runners in scoring position, but didn’t have enough big hits to keep up.

The hottest hitters kept up the heat, hinting that, perhaps, there is a light at the end of this skid. Matt Chapman sliced an RBI triple the other way, scoring Heliot Ramos from first base to tie the game in the first inning. Since July 20, Chapman is batting .366 with 11 RBI, four home runs and two triples.

Willy Adames had a three-hit game, collecting RBI singles in the second and fourth innings to tie the game at 4-4 — he’s now collected 20 RBIs in July, which is tied for fifth most in MLB over that span.

Carson Seymour, the other pitching prospect named Carson in the house, relieved Whisenhunt and surrendered the lead in the seventh inning when veteran Andrew McCutchen launched a hanging slider 383 feet into left field for a two-run homer.

Adames’ third hit of the game ignited a ninth-inning comeback attempt. His double bounced off the right field line and Jung Hoo Lee worked a seven-pitch at-bat to score him on an RBI single. Wilmer Flores singled to advance Lee into scoring position, representing the tying run. But neither Mike Yastrzemski nor Bailey couldn’t get Lee home.

“I thought in the ninth we had one of those feelings where we’d come back and win the game. I really did,” Melvin said. “We’ve had that feeling for the better part of the season.”

(sfchronicle.com)

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END OF THE LINE

by George Harrison & The Traveling Wilburys (1988)

Well it's all right, riding around in the breeze
Well it's all right, if you live the life you please
Well it's all right, doing the best you can
Well it's all right, as long as you lend a hand

You can sit around and wait for the phone to ring (End of the Line)
Waiting for someone to tell you everything (End of the Line)
Sit around and wonder what tomorrow will bring (End of the Line)
Maybe a diamond ring

Well it's all right, even if they say you're wrong
Well it's all right, sometimes you gotta be strong
Well it's all right, As long as you got somewhere to lay
Well it's all right, everyday is Judgment Day

Maybe somewhere down the road aways (End of the Line)
You'll think of me, wonder where I am these days (End of the Line)
Maybe somewhere down the road when somebody plays (End of the Line)
Purple haze

Well it's all right, even when push comes to shove
Well it's all right, if you got someone to love
Well it's all right, everything'll work out fine
Well it's all right, we're going to the end of the line

Don't have to be ashamed of the car I drive (End of the Line)
I'm just glad to be here, happy to be alive (End of the Line)
It don't matter if you're by my side (End of the Line)
I'm satisfied

Well it's all right, even if you're old and gray
Well it's all right, you still got something to say
Well it's all right, remember to live and let live
Well it's all right, the best you can do is forgive

Well it's all right, riding around in the breeze
Well it's all right, if you live the life you please
Well it's all right, even if the sun don't shine
Well it's all right, we're going to the end of the line

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JAILHOUSE BLUES

by James Kunstler

Tulsi Gabbard didn’t assume the role of Director of National Intelligence to play ceremonial dress-up." —Toresays.com on "X"

You must suspect there’s some game afoot in this Epstein business. Only days ago, it was “fuggeddabowdit … nuthin’ there … get over it.” But then, only days later, the second-in-command at DOJ, Todd Blanche, formerly the president’s personal lawyer, was down in Tallahassee deposing Jeffrey Epstein’s second-in-command, Ghislaine Maxwell. (Note: a deposition is testimony outside of court, recorded under oath.) The Deputy Attorney General deposed her for two days, Friday and Saturday, a total of nine hours. You can do a lot of talking in nine hours.

And were you shocked to learn — as has been broadly reported — that through all these years of EpsteinEpsteinEpstein, Ms. Maxwell has never been interviewed by any state or federal law enforcement official or government lawyer? How was that possible? By the way, no government official has interviewed billionaire Les Wexner, Epstein’s chief benefactor, over all these years, either? How is that possible? (Follow the money, as they say.)

Meanwhile, down in Florida, as reported by Brian O’Shea of The Daily Clout, it turns out that the federal district judge, Robin Rosenberg, who just ruled against Mr. Trump’s request to unseal the 2005 — 2007 Florida Epstein grand jury transcripts, is married to one Michael McCauliffe, former Palm Beach County State’s Attorney (equivalent of district attorney, DA), who helped negotiate the special 2008 “sweetheart” plea deal that allowed Epstein significant freedoms, such as frequent travel, including to his Little St. James Island, despite being under house arrest. Are you going, “Hmmmmmm. . . ? Any conflict of interest in that ruling? (Note: Current US AG Pam Bondi did not become Florida AG until 2011.)

So, it appears that there will now be two sets of “Epstein files” to sort out: 1) the DOJ’s file curated under AG Merrick Garland, and 2) whatever follows from never-before asked questions put to Ghislaine Maxwell in late July 2025. One thing you might infer: if the Merrick Garland files contained any defamatory “kompromat” about Donald Trump, wouldn’t it have been used during the election of 2024? Mr. Garland went along with every other ploy used to defame and convict Mr. Trump under color of law. But not that? Ergo, fuggeddabowdit.

Where the Epstein business goes now is anybody’s guess, but you have to doubt that it will go nowhere. Ms. Maxwell’s attorney, David O. Markus, stated to reporters that she “answered every single question asked of her” over the two days, emphasizing that she responded “honestly, truthfully, and to the best of her ability” without invoking any privileges or declining to answer. There is chatter on the Internet that Ms. Maxwell’s testimony affords an opportunity for the FBI / DOJ to open an entirely fresh Epstein investigation, untainted by whatever Merrick Garland was sitting on.

Okay, I reckon that’s enough for you to chew on about EpsteinEpsteinEpstein for today. Let’s turn to the other giant stinking dead carp wafting its miasma over Washington DC: RussiaRussiaRussia. CIA chief John Ratcliffe promised on Sunday to disclose the so-called “annex” files to John Durham’s special counsel report. Mr. Ratcliffe implied that the material is rather serious. He also emphasized that the statute of limitations will not apply in any forthcoming RussiaGate cases because the matter represents an ongoing (until even now) conspiracy. Mr. Ratcliffe, you may recall, before getting elected to Congress, was a US Attorney for the eastern district of Texas (as Chief of Anti-Terrorism and National Security), so he knows quite a bit about prosecuting federal cases.

Dunno about you, but I would like to know a little bit more about Christopher Wray’s activities regarding both Epstein and RussiaGate during his long tenure, seven years and five months (2017 – 2025) as FBI Director. In previous testimony before various committees of Congress, Mr. Wray, uniformly invoked “ongoing investigations” as the reason for not answering any germane questions about, well, anything and everything. Does he not deserve a session or two of interrogation, with Kash Patel’s FBI agents, or depositions under oath with lawyers from the DOJ now, without the shield of protecting investigations of an agency he no longer runs? He has a lot to answer for, including the J-6 business and associated pipe-bomb matter — both of which might be construed as part of an ongoing conspiracy against a sitting president (and three-time candidate).

Is all this some “conspiracy theory”? No, an actual conspiracy as spelled out in the federal statutes: Conspiracy under Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, Conspiracy to defraud the United States…18 U.S. Code § 241, Conspiracy against rights… and 18 U.S. Code § 242, Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law.

Add to that: perjury under oath, obstruction of justice, lying to the FBI. It’s a pretty rich menu. Someone, maybe more than a few someones, will be going to jail.

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ROGER HOLBERG:

What do you mean that Hillary "inexplicably" used a private computer and server for her electronic communications instead of the State Department system? It was very explicable. She didn't want anyone at State seeing her communications or have them be accessible through FOIA or subpoena. I worked for a federal government agency for forty years. To sign on to a government system, (which was essential to doing your work) you first had to acknowledge that you were waiving any Fourth or Fifth Amendment or other privacy rights you may have to anything on the system and acknowledge that system administrators and agency investigators can access without warrant anything you put on the system. Now, I was just a lowly GS'er but if I had done anything like Madam Clinton had done I'd have been fired on the spot. And I didn't work for an intelligence or law enforcement agency.

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LEAD STORIES, TUESDAY'S NYT

Gunman Fatally Shoots Officer and 3 Others in Midtown Office Tower

For Trump, Starvation in Gaza Tests His Foreign Policy Approach

Tariffs on Medicines From Europe Stand to Cost Drugmakers Billions

Harvard Is Said to Be Open to Spending Up to $500 Million to Resolve Trump Dispute

Tehran Is at Risk of Running Out of Water Within Weeks

How an M&M Sparked the Search for the Next Perfect Peanut

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“IF, THEN, I WERE ASKED for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.”

— Leo Tolstoy, ‘Essays, Letters & Miscellanies”

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IN A FIRST, LEADING ISRAELI RIGHTS GROUPS ACCUSE ISRAEL OF GAZA GENOCIDE

Israel says it is fighting against Hamas, not Palestinians as a group. But two of Israel’s best-known rights groups — long critical of Israeli policy — now say they disagree.

by Aaron Boxerman

Two of the best-known Israeli human rights groups said Monday that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, adding fuel to a passionately fought international debate over whether the death and destruction there have crossed a moral red line.

The two groups were B’Tselem, a rights monitor that documents the effects of Israeli policies on Palestinians, and Physicians for Human Rights — Israel. Their announcement was the first time major Israeli rights groups have publicly concluded that the Gaza war is a genocide, an assessment previously reached by some organizations like Amnesty International.

In a report titled “Our Genocide,” B’Tselem cited the devastating effects of Israel’s war on ordinary Palestinians to support their claim: the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza; the razing of huge areas of Palestinian cities; the forced displacement of nearly all of Gaza’s two million people; the restriction of food and other vital supplies.

All together, the Israeli campaign has amounted to “coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip,” the organization wrote. “In other words: Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

Israel rejected the accusations as “baseless.” David Mencer, an Israeli government spokesman, said that Israeli troops were targeting Palestinian militants, not civilians. If Israel truly intended to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, the country would not have facilitated nearly two million tons of aid to the territory, he said.

The debate over whether the war in Gaza constitutes genocide has also played out at the International Court of Justice, where South Africa has brought a genocide case against Israel. The court has yet to rule on the matter.

Speaking at the International Court of Justice in January 2024, Tal Becker, a member of Israel’s legal defense, said that Israel was fighting Hamas, not targeting Palestinians wholesale.

“What Israel seeks by operating in Gaza is not to destroy a people, but to protect a people, its people, who are under attack on multiple fronts, and to do so in accordance with the law,” Mr. Becker told the court.

Genocide has a specific definition in international law: particular acts carried out with intent to destroy a group in whole or in part. The accusation hits a painful nerve for Israel, a state founded after Nazi Germany’s attempt to exterminate European Jewry.

Israel vigorously denies that its war against Hamas in Gaza amounts to genocide, countering that Hamas seeks to destroy the Jewish state. Israeli officials have also pointed to the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians, which prompted the devastating Israeli response.

The subsequent Israeli bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza have killed more than 59,000 people, including thousands of children, according to the Gazan health ministry. That toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants; at one point, the Israeli military said nearly 20,000 Hamas fighters had been killed in the conflict, without providing evidence.

Yuli Novak, the director of B’Tselem, said that she was not seeking to minimize the “horrific attack” that Hamas had perpetrated on Oct. 7. But the assault had prompted an Israeli assault on Palestinian life in Gaza that had spiraled into genocide, she said.

“The report we are publishing today is one we never imagined we would have to write,” Ms. Novak said at a news conference in Jerusalem. “But in recent months, we have been witnessing a reality that has left us no choice but to acknowledge the truth.”

As part of the case for genocide, international law requires that there be proof of intent. In the report on Monday, B’Tselem cited a string of dehumanizing remarks by Israeli government officials, such as a statement by Yoav Gallant, a former defense minister, that Israel was fighting “human animals” in Gaza. Some Israeli politicians have also said that their goal is to drive the remaining Palestinians out of Gaza.

Israeli leaders argue that the country has adhered to humanitarian law, that generals work closely with legal advisers who ensure compliance with standards, and that Israel has gone above and beyond what other Western countries have done in similar situations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has at times distanced himself from the most extreme statements made by his political allies.

But for the vast majority of Gazan civilians, the past 22 months have been a desperate attempt to survive constant Israeli bombardment, find enough food and clean water for their families, and flee amid Israeli warnings to immediately evacuate or risk being killed. The growing number of Gazans now starving has contributed to rising criticism of Israel by some of its longtime allies.

Israeli military officials often attributed the deadly impact of the war on Palestinians to Hamas’s strategy of fighting its insurgency by hiding among civilians. The Israeli rights groups said that alone could not explain the rampant death and destruction in Gaza.

“Israel’s claim that Hamas fighters or members of other armed Palestinian groups were present in medical or civilian facilities, frequently without providing any evidence, cannot justify or explain such widespread, systematic destruction,” B’Tselem wrote.

(NY Times)

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THE GENOCIDAL PARTNERSHIP OF ISRAEL AND THE UNITED STATES

by Norman Solomon

For decades, countless U.S. officials have proclaimed that the bonds between the United States and Israel are unbreakable. Now, the ties that bind are laced with genocide. The two countries function as accomplices while methodical killing continues in Gaza, with both societies directly – and differently – making it all possible.

The policies of Israel’s government are aligned with the attitudes of most Jewish Israelis. In a recent survey, three-quarters of them (and 64 percent of all Israelis) said they largely agreed with the statement that “there are no innocent people in Gaza” – nearly half of whom are children.

“There is no more ‘permitted’ and ‘forbidden’ with regard to Israel's evilness toward the Palestinians,” dissident columnist Gideon Levy wrote three months ago in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. “It is permitted to kill dozens of captive detainees and to starve to death an entire people.” The biggest Israeli media outlets echo and amplify sociopathic voices. “Genocide talk has spread into all TV studios as legitimate talk. Former colonels, past members of the defense establishment, sit on panels and call for genocide without batting an eye.”

Last week, Levy provided an update: “The weapon of deliberate starvation is working. The Gaza ‘Humanitarian’ Foundation, in turn, has become a tragic success. Not only have hundreds of Gazans been shot to death while waiting in line for packages distributed by the GHF, but there are others who don't manage to reach the distribution points, dying of hunger. Most of these are children and babies…. They lie on hospital floors, on bare beds, or carried on donkey carts. These are pictures from hell. In Israel, many people reject these photos, doubting their veracity. Others express their joy and pride on seeing starving babies.”

Unimpeded, a daily process continues to exterminate more and more of the 2.1 million Palestinian people who remain in Gaza – bombing and shooting civilians while blocking all but a pittance of the food and medicine needed to sustain life. After destroying Gaza’s hospitals, Israel is still targeting healthcare workers (killing at least 70 in May and June), as well as first responders and journalists.

The barbarism is in sync with the belief that “no innocent people” are in Gaza. A relevant observation came from Aldous Huxley in 1936, the same year that the swastika went onto Germany’s flag: “The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.” Kristallnacht happened two years later.

Renowned genocide scholar Omer Bartov explained during an interview on Democracy Now! in mid-July that genocide is “the attempt to destroy not simply people in large numbers, but to destroy them as members of a group. The intent is to destroy the group itself. And it doesn’t mean that you have to kill everyone. It means that the group will be destroyed and that it will not be able to reconstitute itself as a group. And to my mind, this is precisely what Israel is trying to do.”

Bartov, who is Jewish and spent the first half of his life in Israel, said:

“What I see in the Israeli public is an extraordinary indifference by large parts of the public to what Israel is doing and what it’s done in the name of Israeli citizens in Gaza. In part, it has to do with the fact that the Israeli media has decided not to report on the horrors that the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] is perpetrating in Gaza. You simply will not see it on Israeli television. If some pictures happen to come in, they are presented only as material that might be used by foreign propaganda against Israel. Now, Israeli citizens can, of course, use other media resources. We can all do that. But most of them prefer not to. And I would say that while about 30 percent of the population in Israel is completely in favor of what is happening, and, in fact, is egging the government and the army on, I think the vast majority of the population simply does not want to know about it.”

In Israel, “compassion for Palestinians is taboo except among a fringe of radical activists,” Adam Shatz wrote last month in the London Review of Books. At the same time, “the catastrophe of the last two years far exceeds that of the Nakba.” The consequences “are already being felt well beyond Gaza: in the West Bank, where Israeli soldiers and settlers have presided over an accelerated campaign of displacement and killing (more than a thousand West Bank Palestinians have been killed since 7 October); inside Israel, where Palestinian citizens are subject to increasing levels of ostracism and intimidation; in the wider region, where Israel has established itself as a new Sparta; and in the rest of the world, where the inability of Western powers to condemn Israel’s conduct – much less bring it to an end – has made a mockery of the rules-based order that they claim to uphold.”

The loudest preaching for a “rules-based order” has come from the U.S. government, which makes and breaks international rules at will. During this century, in the Middle East, the U.S.-Israel duo has vastly outdone all other entities combined in the categories of killing, maiming, and terrorizing. In addition to the joint project of genocide in Gaza, and the USA’s long war on Iraq, the United States and Israel have often exercised an assumed prerogative to attack Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran, along with encore U.S. missile strikes on Iraq as recently as last year.

Israel’s grisly performance as “a new Sparta” in the region is coproduced by the Pentagon, with the military and intelligence operations of the two nations intricately entangled. The Israeli military has been able to turn Gaza into a genocide zone with at least 70 percent of its arsenal coming from the United States.

While writing an afterword about the war on Gaza for the paperback edition of War Made Invisible, I mulled over the relevance of my book’s subtitle: “How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine.” As the carnage in Gaza worsened, the reality became clearer that the Orwellian-named Israel Defense Forces and U.S. Defense Department are essentially part of the same military machine. Their command structures are different, but they are part of the same geopolitical Goliath.

“The new era in which Israel, backed by the U.S., dominates the Middle East is likely to see even more violence and instability than in the past,” longtime war correspondent Patrick Cockburn wrote this month. The lethal violence from Israeli-American teamwork is of such magnitude that it epitomizes international state terrorism. The genocide in Gaza shows the lengths to which the alliance is willing and able to go.

While public opinion is very different in Israel and the United States, the genocidal results of the governments’ policies are indistinguishable.

American public opinion about arming Israel is measurable. As early as June 2024, a CBS News poll found that 61 percent of the public said that the U.S. should not “send weapons and supplies to Israel.” Since then, support for Israel has continued to erode.

In sharp contrast, on Capitol Hill, the support for arming Israel is measurably high. When Bernie Sanders’s bills to cut off some military aid to Israel came to a vote last November, just 19 out of 100 senators voted yes. Very few of his colleagues voice anywhere near the extent of Sanders’s moral outrage as he keeps speaking out on the Senate floor.

In the House, only 26 out of 435 members have chosen to become cosponsors of H.R.3565, a bill introduced more than two months ago by Rep. Delia Ramirez that would prevent the U.S. government from sending certain bombs to Israel.

“Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II,” the Congressional Research Service reports. During just the first 12 months after the war on Gaza began in October 2023, Brown University’s Costs of War project found, the “U.S. spending on Israel’s military operations and related U.S operations in the region” added up to $23 billion.

The resulting profit bonanza for U.S. military contractors is notable. So is the fact that the U.S.-Israel partnership exerts great American leverage in the Middle East – where two-thirds of the world’s oil reserves are located.

The politics of genocide in the United States involves papering over the big gap between the opinions of the electorate and the actions of the U.S. government. While the partnership between the governments of Israel and the United States has never been stronger, the partnership between the people of Israel and the United States has never been weaker. But in the USA, consent of the governed has not been necessary to continue the axis of genocide.

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

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MY PRACTICALITY consists in this, in the knowledge that if you beat your head against the wall it is your head which breaks and not the wall — that is my strength, my only strength.

— Antonio Gramsci

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DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT

by Dylan Thomas (1947)

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

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BOB ABELES TO THE REALITY DESK, PLEASE. ARE THESE LADIES APACHES?