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HOT AND DRY weather will persist through Wednesday with gusty nearshore winds. Cooler weather, scattered showers, and a slight chance for thunderstorms will return Thursday into the weekend. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A foggy 56F this Wednesday morning on the coast. See that system off the coast of Baja?, it's headed our direction & will bring us a chance of rain & drizzle for the next couple days. The forecast keeps changing but small rain chances are possible. The weekend is looking the typical fog - sun routine.
TWO ARRESTED AFTER HIGH-SPEED PURSUIT OF STOLEN FIREARMS SUSPECTS ENDS IN MENDOCINO COUNTY
On Saturday, September 14, 2025, at approximately 5:12 PM, officers with the Ukiah Police Department (UPD) assisted in the conclusion of a high-risk vehicle pursuit that began in Humboldt County and spanned multiple jurisdictions, ultimately resulting in the arrest of two individuals in connection with stolen firearms and multiple felony offenses.
The incident began when UPD was notified of an ongoing Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) investigation into the theft of firearms. HCSO issued a BOLO (Be On the Lookout) for two adult male suspects traveling in a gray Toyota Matrix, reportedly heading southbound on Highway 101.
The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) and California Highway Patrol (CHP) located the suspect vehicle in the Willits area and attempted a traffic stop. The suspects failed to yield, initiating a pursuit. During the chase, the suspects drove recklessly at high speeds—often in the wrong direction of traffic—posing significant danger to the public. Due to these hazardous conditions, CHP and MCSO discontinued their pursuit. Shortly afterward, UPD officers positioned themselves along southbound Highway 101 at North State Street to assist. UPD deployed the newly acquired stop sticks, which successfully deflated the vehicle’s front tires. Despite the damage, the suspects continued fleeing southbound on Highway 101.
The pursuit continued southbound on Highway 101 through the Ukiah area. Both front tires eventually detached from the vehicle, yet the suspects continued to flee on bare wheels.
The pursuit ended just north of the green bridge south of Hopland, where the suspects stopped and were taken into custody without further incident.
The suspects were identified as:
- Elie Raphael JeanBaptiste
- Dominique Jason Gulick
During the investigation, it was determined that Gulick had thrown a backpack containing an assault weapon from the vehicle near the Cal Fire Station north of Hopland. JeanBaptiste was found to be on Post Release Community Supervision (PRCS) out of Solano County for Felon in Possession of a Firearm.
Both suspects were booked on multiple felony charges:
Elie Raphael JeanBaptiste
- 29800(a)(1) PC – Felon in Possession of a Firearm
- 30305(a)(1) PC – Prohibited Person in Possession of Ammunition
- 3455(a) PC – PRCS Violation
- 30605(a) PC – Possession of Assault Weapon
- 2800.2(a) CVC – Felony Evading
- 2800.4 CVC – Evading Opposite Direction of Traffic
- 496(a) PC – Possession of Stolen Property
- 182(a)(1) PC – Criminal Conspiracy
Dominique Jason Gulick
- 496(a) PC – Possession of Stolen Property
- 135 PC – Destruction of Evidence
- 30605(a) PC – Possession of Assault Weapon
- 182(a)(1) PC – Criminal Conspiracy
The Ukiah Police Department commends the coordination and response efforts of our allied agencies, including HCSO, MCSO, and CHP, which led to the safe resolution of this dangerous incident.
Both subjects were booked into the Mendocino County Jail. UPD Officers obtained a bail enhancement for Gulick in the amount of $300k. JeanBaptiste was held on NO BAIL.
As always, our mission at UPD is to make Ukiah as safe a place as possible. If you would like to know more about crime in your neighborhood, you can sign up for telephone, cell phone, and email notifications by clicking the Nixle button on our website; www.ukiahpolice.com
ELIZABETH KNIGHT: Reporting from the DeepEnd; Times are changing in good ol’ Navarro. A usually very calm and quiet town is now robust with the sounds of change, chainsaws, and excavators moving dirt. The Amphitheatre is getting torn down, a place where people from all over gathered to enjoy great concerts from the likes of Johnny Winter and Charlie Musselwhite, Pink Floyd tribute bands with laser shows, to Guitar Shorty and Willie G, to John Lee Hooker Jr and Subdudes to the Black Horse Blues Band. Beautiful memories were made. People around town say that it will be made into a flower garden, which should be nice and bring life back to the Amphitheatre site and make beautiful memories once again. Nothing stays the same. Change can be scary for us small town folk, but it also can be exciting and bring in new life to a quiet little town.
CATHY AYERS STANLEY: It is with deep regret that I inform all of you that my Aunt Rita Ayers Skillman passed away on her birthday. At this time there will be no service or burial. I will let you know if that changes. I should add that Uncle Richard is dealing with the loss as well as can be. I loved her greatly and will miss her so much. Love you Aunt Rita
NORM CLOW: Wonderful people. Rita’s dad, George, married my older cousin and next-door neighbor Jean Clow Humphreys later in life. Always enjoyed seeing them when they were in the Valley.
BUHL K. HOOVER (1933–2025)
Buhl K. Hoover, 92, passed away peacefully at his home on September 11, 2025.
He was born on February 1, 1933, in Pontiac, Michigan, to Mary Alice and Harold Hoover. Buhl moved to Ukiah at age 14, graduated from Ukiah High School, and later served in the U.S. Army. He married Lorraine on February 18, 1956, and together they raised two children, Randy and Sandy, in Calpella.
Buhl worked at Masonite for 27 years, owned Calpella Service Station, and ran the Calpella Superette with Lorraine until his retirement in 2012. He enjoyed socializing with friends, Monday night dinners with his grandkids, and was active with the Elks and Sons of Italy.
He was preceded in death by his parents, siblings, wife Lorraine, and children Randy and Sandy. Buhl is survived by his children’s spouses, Nancy Hoover and Guy Pronsolino; grandchildren Jake Hoover (Holley), Russell Pronsolino (Katie), Marchella Norris (Bobby), Megan Kosonen (Will), and Laura Hoover; and five great-grandchildren: Laylla Hoover, Harrison Norris, Shawnee Norris, Hunter Norris, and Finnegan Pronsolino.
A graveside service will be held on Thursday, September 18, 2025, 10 am at Russian River Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hospice of Ukiah.
BALD EAGLE SIGHTING! (Coast Chatline)
E.Pippin: While I was riding my bike on the Headland trail yesterday morning I saw a beautiful bald Eagle sitting majestically on a rock outcropping in front of the Crow’s Nest! WOW, what a lovely gift. I’m hoping he’s here to check out the ravin situation in Fort Bragg. I hope he eats one of the obnoxious birds, finds his meal delicious and brings in all of his friends and family to devour them all!!! Aww, to wake up in the mornings and not hear the ear splitting squawking of those creepy birds!!
Christina Aranguren: It’s been six or more months now, but a pair of bald eagles were spotted in the tall conifers west of the restrooms on the Headlands loop in Mendo. I’ve been searching for them ever since without success. Bald eagles are also carrions. Some refer to them as “ravens in a tuxedo.”
AV PANTHER SOCCER takes the win in Tech 4-1.
PD PREPS: UKIAH, POTTER VALLEY JOIN WEEKEND’S BIG NORCAL FOOTBALL WINNERS
by Gus Morris
Ukiah 26, Fortuna 12: The Wildcats scored 20 unanswered points in the third quarter to rally from a halftime deficit in a win over the visiting Huskies on Saturday night.
Ukiah (2-1) trailed Fortuna (0-2) 12-6 at the break but scored three touchdowns in a seven-minute span to pull away and avoid the upset.
Quarterback Beau David passed for two touchdowns and rushed for two more on the night. He had two short rushing scores in the third and completed touchdown passes of seven and 30 yards to Darion Dorsey and Zach Martinez, respectively. Dorsey also had an interception and a fumble recovery in the first half and Martinez’s 30-yard touchdown reception with four minutes left in the third put the Wildcats ahead 19-12.
Dante Giacomini added an interception in the fourth to help Ukiah close out the win.
Ukiah welcomes undefeated Chico (3-0) to town next Saturday.
Potter Valley 26, Roseland University Prep 6: The Knights fell to 0-3 on the season with Saturday’s home loss to the Potter Valley Bearcats. Potter Valley opened up a 14-0 lead by halftime and led 20-0 after three quarters. The teams traded touchdowns in the final frame, but the hole was too deep for RUP. Roseland will look to bounce back in Thursday’s game at Calistoga. The Wildcats defeated John Swett 32-20 this weekend.
(Santa Rosa Press Democrat High School Sports)
UKIAH CITY COUNCIL TO CONSIDER CHANGES TO HOMELESS ENCAMPMENT RULES ON WEDNESDAY
by Sydney Fishman
The Ukiah City Council on Wednesday will consider altering an ordinance to follow state guidance on public camping in cities, including removing a requirement that encampments can only be cleared if shelter space is available.
The proposed changes stem from the 2024 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, which stated that criminal punishment of people camping in public spaces is not considered “cruel and unusual” under the Eighth Amendment.
Earlier this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom released a “model ordinance“ that provides guidance to jurisdictions on addressing homeless encampments, including providing advance notice and partnering with service providers and shelters.
One proposed change to the city ordinance removes the requirement that authorities can only intervene in homeless encampments if shelter space is available or if a person refuses to use it. This means local authorities can take action even when no shelter beds are available.
The change also states that the Ukiah Police Department and other city officials must make efforts to help individuals in violation of the ordinance find shelter. Another proposed alteration would allow the chief of the Ukiah Police Department to delegate enforcement authority to other city officials.
The proposal also explicitly prohibits camping in the public right of way in a manner that blocks a pathway, in accordance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
The council is expected to introduce the ordinance at Wednesday’s meeting and would need to give final approval of it at a later date.
The City Council meeting is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. Wednesday at the Ukiah Civic Center at 300 Seminary Ave. Residents can also participate virtually via a Zoom link at the top of the agenda. Public comments can be emailed to [email protected] or called in at (707) 463-6217.
(Mendocino Voice)
RECALL DISTRICT ATTORNEY EYSTER
A committee has formed to recall District Attorney David Eyster. They need help with gathering petition signatures and raising funds. If you wish to help, please contact [email protected].
Mr. Eyster has stated to the Anderson Valley Advertiser that “It is difficult to support an office that is wasting resources by prosecuting the wrong people and cases.” Here are some published responses from Mendocino County residents.
“Eyster has single-handedly plunged the County, or more precisely her taxpaying citizens, into a legal and financial mess he designed and implemented.” — Tom Hine, Ukiah Daily Journal
“So far, the county has authorized payments of more than $250,000 to resist the Cubbison civil case and pursue a failed bid to criminally prosecute her.” — Mike Geniella, Ukiah Daily Journal
“Eyster, the mastermind behind the plotting and conniving that resulted in criminal charges being brought against Cubbison, should be sanctioned if not disbarred by the California Bar Association.” — Jim Shields, Publisher, Mendocino County Observer
“Eyster continues to host steak house banquets for employees and their guests, violating county policies.” — Ft. Bragg Advocate News
“The ACLU filed a civil lawsuit against DA Eyster for his office’s refusal to respond to their public records requests.” — Matt LaFever, Editor, MendoFever
“Dirty cops get ‘extreme leeway and special treatment’ [by Eyster].” — Trent James, Mendocino Voice
“We have witnessed a continuous pattern of actions that amount to an unjust administration of the law by our District Attorney.” — Change.org Recall Petition
— James Holden, [email protected]
MARK SCARAMELLA NOTES: The above quote attributed to Eyster was not “stated to the Anderson Valley Advertiser.” It was a remark to the Supervisors, specifically referring to Supervisor Ted Williams (an elected official), when Eyster was defending his budget presentation to the Board and disagreeing with something Williams said.
OBSCENE PAY INCREASES AND UNJUSTIFIED SPENDING
Editor,
URGENT: Hopland Public Utility Rate Increase Analysis – we still need to protest the HPUD rate increases even if Governor Newsom signs AB 830 to pay for the construction. I will present my findings at the Hopland MAC meeting Wednesday, Sept 17th at 5:30 at the Hopland Fire Hall (for sure in the one minute public comment).
I am a professional financial analyst with years of experience with financial modeling. After hours of analysis, I have concluded that the Highway 101 construction costs and the loans are just a SMOKE SCREEN for obscene pay increases for the HPUD staff and unjustified spending on projects. I estimate that this spending adds at least $300,000 a year to HPUD spending in the 2031 to 2032 time period. Below, I have pasted an email that I sent to Jared Walker, – I have tried to contact the HPUD Board but the Secretary for the Board has not responded.
It is no wonder that the Willow Water District staff want to move to the City of Ukiah. Ukiah has implemented a stepped pay increase schedule. Some City of Ukiah staff are paid more than California State Legislators – even after benefits. My research says that Jared Walker now makes about $180,000 a year!
In addition, my read of the presentation says that HPUD plans to increase spending for Repairs and Rehabilitation from $20,000 a year for Water to $40,000 a year this coming year and to $100,000 a year in 2031 or 2032. They plan to increase spending for Waste Water from $30,000 a year to $40,000 a year this year or next year and to $100,000 a year in 2031 or 2032. We have to fight. No publications will respond – not even MendoFever nor the The Mendocino Voice.
Email to HPUD
Jared:
Julie Golden from the Hopland Municipal Advisory Council asked me to send you my questions about the proposed rate increases for the Hopland Public Utility District (HPUD). I sent an inquiry to [email protected] but I have received no response.
My name is Vernon Budinger, I am a Hopland resident (13300 A Spring Street), and I provide Fractional Chief Financial Officer services to small and medium-sized businesses. I loaded the past HPUD financial statements into a spreadsheet and built a financial model of HPUD operations and tested my model with AI-generated simulations from ChatGPT, Grok, and Google Gemini. My models differ significantly from Hildebrand Consulting’s presentation in several areas.
I have years of experience forecasting cash flows. My questions are based on my training (MBA in Finance, New York University, and Chartered Financial Analyst). I was trained in Machine Learning when I received my MBA. Additionally, I have several AI certifications from Stanford University, and I am experienced with using AI to accurately forecast cash flows (without hallucinations).
I have several questions about the analysis provided by Hildebrand Consulting.
While my models and the AI models match the projected revenues for the rate hikes, my models are calculating much higher debt-to-service ratios – meaning more cash available to handle the outlays, which indicates that the steep rate increases are not necessary.
The Debt Service Coverage Ratios are 1.39 to 1.54 from 2031 to 2034 in Hildebrand’s presentation, while mine are above 2.0 for the same periods.
This suggests that there is a difference in our calculations for the Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR) or our projections for expenses differ.
My formula comes from the California Public Utilities Commission: DSCR = (Net Operating Income before Interest and Taxes + Depreciation)/(Interest + Principal + Fees) – can Hildebrand provide his calculation and an example from one year?
The graph on page 16 shows an approximate jump of almost 100% in operating expenses from 2023-2024 to 2024-2025.
Please explain this jump.
Does the FY2024 Expense graphic (first bar) say that there were a total of $200,000 in expenses for Water in 2024 and that roughly 50% came from Operating Expenses and 50% came from Debt Service?
The FY2024 Income statement downloaded from your website shows Total Operating Expenses for Water as $269,458.
Debt Service = Interest of $40,766 and $50,000 in Principal
Please explain the differences.
Why haven’t the financial statements for 2024-2025 been posted on the HPUD website?
The biggest difference in our expense calculations is the nearly 300% increase in Operating Expense over the next 10 years shown on slide 16.
What explains the increase to roughly $250,000 (estimated by measuring the bars) in 2034 (this growth rate is much higher than the 7% forecast in the presentation).
Can you explain the difference between Direct Administration and Ukiah Administration?
How does Repair and Rehabilitation (R&R – Repair and Replacement for Wastewater) in the presentation compare to Repair and Maintenance on the Income Statement? Will this be expensed or will some be capitalized with added depreciation?
What was the breakout for the Direct Administration and Ukiah Administration in the presentation compared to the attached Statement of Activities and Changes in Net Position in the attached financial statements for FY Ended June 30, 2024?
How is the Debt Service being calculated and distributed between Water and Wastewater?
It seems that the debt service for Water is about $280,000 a year – which I calculate as the new total debt service for the new loan ($170,000 a year) and the debt service for the current water loan ($91,000 a year).
Waste Water is showing an additional $100,000 in debt service starting in 2030 – where is that coming from? Is it right to conclude that total debt service for HPUD will be nearly $400,000?
Can Hildebrand consulting send spreadsheets with the breakdown and mapping for his projections since they do not match the categories on the Statements of Activities and Changes in Net Position for 2025.
Please ask Hildebrand Consulting to provide their calculation for Depreciation for each year.
Please provide the same information for the Waste Water projections on Slide 25.
Please send Hildebrand’s calculations for his detailed cash projections (In addition to Income Statement information requested above).
Please explain the logic behind increasing the annual R&R to $100,000 a year for Water and $100,000 a year for Waste Water (for a total of $200,000 a year) from the past average of $20,000 a year for Water and $10,000 a Year for Waste Water.
What are the projects and cost estimates associated with R&R?
How is this broken out in the projections – what line item?
Regarding depreciation:
Why has depreciation been increasing when there has been so little investment in capital infrastructure?
What are the assumptions for depreciation in the future?
I have some questions for the auditor (Michael A. Celentano):
- Is it possible to capitalize interest payments when Highway 101 Construction is finished?
- Has the auditor reviewed Hildebrand’s presentation?
- Can we talk to the auditor about the assumptions for depreciation?
— Vernon Budinger
SHERIFF MATT KENDALL:
Hold your nose and vote yes in 50?
That’s what is wrong with our country and our state. Justifying bad actions by comparing them to the actions of others is a form of rationalization, and diffusion of responsibility. Anyone who does this is wrong.
I don’t care what they do in Texas, I don’t live in Texas. We elect our representatives to serve our communities. They do so by having shared goals which are often based on shared experiences and needs for the communities. What does Marin County share with the residents of Modoc County. What if the governor focused on fixing the mountain of problems in our state instead of pointing the finger elsewhere to get the heat off of him.
Every single advertisement in support of this legislation clearly says it’s wrong, but… look what they are doing…
Very sad times for sure.
A MOST RIDICULOUS COMPARISON
Editor,
I Am Charlie Kirk!
And Frank Hertzell is Tyler Robinson.
I was banned from the MCN Listserv by Frank Hertzell, the “moderator” of the Listserv because what I posted went against the accepted PC Party line. Frank told me I was banned for “threatening people”. At least 6 requests to state what threats I made and to who have gone unanswered. So much for the “openness” that was promised when these “moderators” volunteered to decide who was to be heard and who not.
Someone else I know is getting warnings for being banned because the Listserv is a “happy place” and his views that state Facts, Data and Evidence make some “unhappy” it appears. These people call themselves “Dreamers” and exist outside a Universe that does not adhere to the laws of biology, physics and economics or historical precedent. I guess my views really made these Dreamers “unhappy”.
As R.C. Rowlings said, “If you believe free speech is for you but not your political opponents, you’re a liberal”.
I also posted Facts and Data showing the farce and folly of renewables and was spurned and ridiculed by the true believers of “saving The Environment”, the new religion..
To quote R.C. Rawlings, “ If no contrary evidence can change your beliefs, you’re a fundamentalist.”
I was also threatened on the Listserv to having my throat slit.
As R.C. Rowlings also said, “ If you believe political opponents should be punished with violence or death, you’re a terrorist.”
At least I got away with only being banned by these Leftist terrorists. I wasn’t shot and a “progressive” member of the List hasn’t sent out his Navy SEAL team buddies to slice my throat to date.
Michael Zuchowicz
FRANK HARTZELL REPLIES:
The MCN Listserv group including me did. We don’t normally say who we moderated out, but yes I voted for that. We have standards of community discussion that we imposed. The school district was going to shut the whole thing down because 3-4 people were threatening each other and such. Since doing this, the listserv has grown. Those banned were from across the political spectrum, it was just about acting with civility. Any of the comments that got people banned would have also resulted in being banned from any other social media platforms, such as Facebook.
KELPFEST! & POP-UP SHOP
Word of Mouth is just one of the awesome local organizations behind this year’s North Coast KelpFest!, happening October 3 - 6. The weekend is packed with kelp-centric events in both Mendocino and Fort Bragg, and since it is so early in the month, we wanted to highlight it now to give you time to plan. You can read a story about the fest by Sarah Reith in our fall issue, and check below for a full list of events.
Also, as of today, the Word of Mouth pop-up shop is open on our website. We’ve designed a limited collection of merch (check out a few faves below), with each item carefully selected for its excellent quality, functionality, and design. The shop closes on November 14th, and all orders will ship sometime during the second week of December. It’s an easy way to show your support for the magazine and also get a head start on your holiday gift giving (or just pick up a little something for yourself).
Hope to see you at KelpFest!, and thanks for checking out the pop-up shop ~
Torrey & the team at Word of Mouth Magazine
www.wordofmouthmendo.com
OPEN MIC MENDOCINO
Dear Poets and Lovers of Poetry:
Please note there is no scheduled open mic in September.
The next open poetry mic in Mendocino will be October 25th, 4-6 pm, Mendocino Art Center, Main Gallery
Featured poets are Alyson Sagala and Joan Stanford. (Photos attached from Spirit of Place Book Launch)
I will send another announcement about the October reading out in October with poet bio’s.
Other October poetry events include:
October 2nd, Spirit of Place Anthology Reading: Point Arena, at ”The Record”, 6 pm, 265 Main Street
Poets reading from the Anthology, open mic to follow
October 11th, Devreaux Baker reading: Willits Community Theater, 7 pm, 37 West Van Lane
Open Mic to follow
See you in October!
— Devreaux Baker, [email protected], www.devreauxbaker.org
CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, September 16, 2025
BRER BENTON, 45, Willits. More than six marijuana plants.
JOSE DIAZ-MENDOZA, 37, Ukiah. Domestic battery.
JASON HERZ, 57, San Diego/Laytonville. DUI.
LANDON IZAULA, 18, Ukiah. Grand theft-auto, taking vehicle without owner’s consent, attempted stolen property.
MICHAEL JENKINS, 38, Ukiah. Under influence, paraphernalia, false ID.
MICHAEL KUBAS, 46, Willits. Controlled substance with two or more priors, disorderly conduct-alcohol, concealed dirk-dagger, failure to appear, probation revocation.
ALEXIS LOPEZ, 24, Fort Bragg. False imprisonment.
DAVID MANUBENS-BOZA, 27, Barcelona, Spain/Ukiah. DUI-any drug, more than an ounce of pot.
JAVIER MEDINA, 54, Willits. Domestic violence court order violation, disturbing the peace of another by loud and unreasonable noise.
JOSE PANAMENO, 63, Fort Bragg. Re-entry of deported alien.
STEPHANIE REESE, 18, Red Bluff/Ukiah. Stolen property.
PETER SAARI, 62, Ukiah. Petty theft, vandalism, parole violation.
THEODORE SCHREINER, 41, Ukiah. Domestic battery.
MATTHEW STURGES, 39, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, getting credit with someone else’s ID.
CESLEY WILLIAMS, 33, Ukiah. Domestic battery.
MASSIVE STURGEON WASHES ASHORE ON CLEAR LAKE, LEAVING ANGLERS STUNNED
by Matt LaFever
A massive white sturgeon, an ancient fish species rarely seen outside of river systems, stunned locals after washing up dead on the shores of Clear Lake on Monday, Sept. 15.
The seven-foot fish, which can live more than a century, was discovered across from the home of local angler Matt Boyce near an area referred to as Horseshoe Bay. Neighbors quickly called him over, knowing he wouldn’t want to miss the sight. Boyce said the fish was cut open to check its stomach for anything unusual, but instead of crabs or shrimp, it was found to be empty and full of eggs. A local biologist later collected samples and confirmed the fish had never lived in salt water.
“I know the fish is a transplant, and sure I’m skeptical,” Boyce said, “but for someone to drag a seven-foot fish and dump it into the lake while there’s a fish die-off seems far-fetched.”
White sturgeon are native to California’s rivers and estuaries, with known populations in Lake Shasta. Experts say spotting one in a landlocked body of water like Clear Lake is virtually unheard of.
Steve Johnson, a veteran fisherman who calls Clear Lake his “office,” said he had never seen anything like it in his decades on the water. He believes the fish died during the lake’s recent die-off and may have been transplanted long ago by a local fisherman who caught it in a nearby river. Johnson estimated the sturgeon could have been more than 100 years old.
“It made it through lots of die-offs and droughts,” Johnson said. “Sad to see, but we probably would have never known.” He added that over the years, he had heard stories of anglers hooking into something massive that would snap their lines. “Some I believed because of poor gear on big cats, but this is a true unicorn.”
(MendoFever.com)
THE FOX NEWS SOLUTION
Editor,
Last week on “Fox and Friends,” co-host Lawrence Jones suggested that homeless people who refuse voluntary services should be thrown in jail; co-host Brian Kilmeade went further, calling for them to be killed by lethal injection.
This comes after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in July that authorized “shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings.”
The Trump administration has made cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the recently passed federal budget reduced Medicaid spending by billions.
So what type of institutions and what type of treatment does Trump have in mind?
Follow the money — Immigration and Customs Enforcement is flush with cash and is procuring sites for detention camps free from the kind of oversight that ensures humane treatment.
Or the administration could take the advice of our friend over at Fox and “Just kill ‘em.”
Having a mental illness is not a crime. Kilmeade should be fired by Fox News.
Patricia Fontana
Berkeley
UC RATS OUT…
UC Berkeley Sends 160 Names To Feds During Antisemitism Investigation
by Gillian Mohney
Officials at UC Berkeley have sent over a hundred names of students and staff to federal officials, who are looking into allegations of antisemitism as part of an ongoing federal investigation.
The names of 160 students, faculty and staff were sent to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights after the office demanded documents related to complaints of antisemitism and discrimination at the university.
“The UC systemwide Office of the General Counsel (OGC), in compliance with its legal obligations to cooperate with the agency, directed UC Berkeley to provide those documents to the federal agency,” Janet Gilmore, the senior director of strategic communications at UC Berkeley, said in an emailed statement. “Numerous documents were provided over recent months to OCR, including the names of individuals in those reports.”
(SF Chronicle)
THE DELTA STRIKES BACK: Newsom’s plan to exempt controversial tunnel from environmental review process dies in statehouse.
by Dan Bacher
A broad coalition of tribes, environmental groups, fishing organizations and family farmers joined elected officials across six counties last week to celebrate a victory against Governor Gavin Newsom’s trailer bills to fast-track the Delta Tunnel. Critics say the embattled project, which California’s public is not being allowed to vote on, would destroy the imperiled Sacramento-San Joaquin River ecosystem, along with the economies and livability of most Delta communities.
At midnight of Sept. 10, Newsom’s trailer bills died after no legislator stepped up to carry them forward because of the massive opposition to the bills.…
GIANTS SQUANDER EARLY LEAD in loss at Arizona as postseason hopes dim
by Shayna Rubin
PHOENIX — The chance to keep pace in the wild-card race looked bleak heading into Tuesday’s game in Arizona.
The San Francisco Giants had lost three straight, the New York Mets beat the San Diego Padres to stay one step ahead and the Diamondbacks had a tough left-handed starter on the mound — which has often been the Giants’ undoing this year.
Their strongest downward trend, though, has been from the pitching staff, who couldn’t survive a bullpen game as the Diamondbacks walked off to hand them a 6-5 loss, their fourth straight.
With 11 games remaining in the regular season, the Giants are now tied with Cincinnati three games out of the third and final wild-card spot, and 1½ games behind the Mets, who hold the tiebreaker with San Francisco.
A dejected clubhouse after this loss may be coming to terms with reality: Despite a spirited revival in the postseason race, it will now take something of a miracle to close the three-game gap. There’s hope to prevent a sweep with Justin Verlander, pitching his best ball of the year, taking the mound on Wednesday. But a challenge awaits with four games to play against the Dodgers in Los Angeles over the weekend.
“It’s frustrating. Frustrating,” manager Bob Melvin said. “All these games we lose like that are frustrating.”
What may haunt the Giants is that this game was winnable and, early on, it appeared the offense had finally vanquished a lefty.
Eduardo Rodriguez had held the Giants scoreless over 6⅓ innings last week in San Francisco, but the Giants changed their approach. Shortening up with two strikes, the Giants scored four early runs on Rodriguez shooting the ball the other way, including RBI hits from Wilmer Flores and Jerar Encarnacion.
“After that, it didn’t feel like we could get a base runner,” Melvin said.
Following the long first inning — and save for a Flores home run — the Giants barely threatened again. They turned in brief at-bats and helped Arizona’s bullpen through abbreviated frames. After Rodriguez departed, they didn’t get a single hit off any of the four relievers the Diamondbacks threw out there.
A few more runs were needed for a taxed pitching staff, who has now allowed 37 runs on 57 hits over their last four losses. To put that in perspective, this same staff had held opponents to 39 runs over the 10 games prior to this losing streak.
Trevor McDonald — a pitching prospect with three big league innings in 2024 under his belt — was recalled prior to the game and Keaton Winn sent back to Sacramento to get a fresh arm in the bullpen behind starter Tristan Beck.
Beck, making his first start of the year went three innings, but had trouble in the second inning when he hung a 3-1 sweeper to Adrian Del Castillo, who smashed it for a two-run home run in what turned out to be a three-run inning.
“Honestly that inning got away from me a little bit,” Beck said. “I was behind in the count going to the heart of some of those hitters.”
McDonald, in his 2025 debut, surrendered the lead in the fifth on RBI hits from Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll.
The bullpen, staving off collapse until the ninth, managed to keep the game tied after a stressful eighth. Jose Butto put two runners on, Marte and Carroll, but got a sharp lineout and nearly the inning-ending double play on a groundout to first base. Flores, though, didn’t touch first base as he threw the ball home to get the go-ahead runner. Then, a break: Blaze Alexander, the runner at first, got in Flores’ way as he fielded a grounder and was called for runner’s interference to end the inning.
The levees broke in the ninth. Closer Ryan Walker gave up a leadoff single and a walk. Then Arizona loaded the bases with Alexander reaching on an attempted sacrifice bunt as Casey Schmitt missed the throw to first. Jordan Lawlar’s soft ground ball escaped got under Walker’s glove and into Flores' hands, but his throw home was far too late as speedy Carroll slid for the game-winner.
(sfchronicle.com)
HEARTH & HOME
by Marilyn Davin
I wish I hadn’t been so young when my mother died. Like many Baby Boomers, I was so wrapped up in outside things, the day-to-dayness of working fulltime, trying (and often failing) to keep up with my kids and their gazillion activities, along with all the usual domestic crises. I really didn’t know her, and at the time she seemed more like a relic of the past than a modern role model. It’s only been upon reflection over many decades that I have come to a more nuanced view of her life, from her own perspective. We may have lived parallel lives through the 60s, but our choices and life experiences could not have been more different.
My mother, Lois Mae, was born the youngest of six in 1928 in the tiny town of Canby, in Oregon’s rural Clackamas County. In her early years her Norwegian-immigrant family lived on a small farm in a tiny wooden house with one bathroom. She and her sibs lived free-wheeling, unsupervised childhoods that would cause social workers to call the cops today: as a toddler being pulled to safety out of the road by her diaper by her alert collie, as a kid holding onto the fenders of logging trucks to pull her up the hill on her bike from the river where she swam with her friends, and generally roaming fearless and free every day till dark when it was time to go home for dinner, where she was the only one allowed to sit in her father’s lap and always got the chicken wing because she was the youngest. She remembered her childhood fondly and scoffed at the notion that her family was poor. “Everybody was poor,” she said, “and we were happier than the kids I see today.”
But this isn’t a clichéd tale of the good ol’ days before television, computers, smart phones, and clicks sapped the life out of us and buried us in an avalanche of useless consumer stuff. It’s instead a snapshot of the seismic societal changes my mom faced as a woman, whose lifetime spanned WWII and the rest of the tumultuous twentieth century.
Mom and Dad were very progressive for their time. When I was a kid Dad was on the school board and Mom was president of the PTA. The new public high school I attended reflected their (and most of their neighbors’) beliefs at the time: FDR libs, each and every one. Members of the Black Panthers came to talk with us one day in the library of our white, suburban, East Bay high school, and for one field trip the school bus dropped us off in San Francisco’s Fillmore District so we could see racist urban poverty, firsthand. My parents vehemently opposed the Vietnam War and took me to anti-war rallies. Before his career as a drug addict and dealer took off, my brother had a hip, young, pony-tailed attorney who saved him from the clutches of the draft, courtesy of Dad. They supported abortion on demand and my mom, an RN trained during WWII, worked as a volunteer at Planned Parenthood. They had long, boozy, smokey dinner parties with like-minded friends and gossiped endlessly and passionately about the politics of their day. One such discussion concluded that First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy had to be frigid: Why else would her husband screw anything that moved? Different times.
And yet…in some ways mom’s marriage looked more 1940s than 1960s, a fact that occasionally chafed as she watched the ‘60s pass her by. “Why didn’t anyone ever tell me I could be a doctor?” she once mused sadly. Her and my dad’s duties were rigidly defined, as befit an American couple married in the late ‘40s ─ so rigid that, when my mom came to West Virginia after my daughter was born, my dad soon called to ask how to operate the washing machine, the dishwasher, and the Mr. Coffee. In fairness, this was probably the result of overlaying their respective upbringings during the Great Depression over their own marriage, an uncomfortable fit for many women of her era by the time the ‘60s rolled around. My mom felt stifled by the cultural norms of her youth, about living under their embedded strictures; but she couldn’t quite leave them behind, either. In candid moments she said that she was as responsible as my father for this dilemma; it was just something they both fell into when they were young newlyweds.
In a 1969 photo taken at LAX, where my parents waited with me before I flew off to yet another adventure at an art institute in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, Mom looked glum. However much she struggled to wish otherwise, she couldn’t help envying my freedom and the openness of the world to me. At 19, I didn’t see this, of course, though Mom was wise enough to recognize and understand the dynamic. She frequently said that young people are naturally too wrapped up in their own hormonal newness and the excitement of their lives to think much about the old folks (or the “parental units,” as they were called at the time.) My beloved mother-in-law used to caution me against expecting too much from my children. “It’s not an equal relationship,” she explained. “Parents always love their children more than their children love them. They love them so that they will love their own children.”
Though my mom never wavered in her love and support for me, small cracks in that support appeared after my kids were born. Having a professional career was all well and good, she thought, but wasn’t I gone too much? If I was going to work so much, why did I bother having kids in the first place? (I was a reporter who had to drop everything every time a plane crashed or some other newsworthy event happened.) She just couldn’t intellectually shake the embedded belief of her youth that mothers should hang up their educations and professions on their way out the maternity ward door.
In times of reflective sentimentalism, some women apparently look back nostalgically on those pre-feminist times. Today, when the great majority of American mothers work outside their homes, a vocal, politically conservative backlash heavy on blame asserts that fulltime motherhood (preferably with lots of babies) is every woman’s true destiny. Some women espousing this belief even wear long cotton dresses and bonnets that would not have been out of place during the days of the American Revolution, a baby on one hip and a toddler clutching her skirt. Go figure.
Several days before my mother died, I apologized to her for not making more of an effort to understand her struggles, for not being a better daughter. “Don’t give it a second thought,” she said, looking up from her wheelchair with a smile. “Kids are always like that. But they also give you the most love.”
A FLOW OF SEMITIC RELIGIONS CONSIDERED
by Michael Nolan
What strikes me about the endless conflict between the Jews and Arabs is that they are the same people - Thomas Friedman wrote a book called "Tribes With Flags" about them.
I'm in a shared taxi going over the Tiz'n Tishka Pass in Morocco and the news is on - in Arabic - I keep hearing "Izz rye ay lees" and "Feelisteens". I get Israel but it takes a me while to realize that the "Pheelisteens" are the Palestinians. Bible time - the world's longest conflict.
I go to a restaurant in Los Angeles advertising Israeli food - it turns out to be baba ganoush, falafel and pita. Both religions prohibit eating pork, they have similar dietary rules called "Kosher" by the Jews and "Halal" by the Muslims, their writing looks the same, they both rock back and forth when praying, one group wears white beanies the other wears black beanies. Oi.
Lately I've been thinking that Islam could be seen as a further development of Judaism. The Muslims call themselves "People of the Book" - the book they mean is what Christians call the "Old Testament". They acknowledge they are descended from Abraham. Mohamed isn't God - he is a prophet like many prophets before him. They both insist in the strongest terms that there is only One God. And they both see Christianity as a heresy from that fundamental truth.
I think, what they think, is that a young radical Jewish prophet preached a revision to Judaism which wasn't liked by the established clergy or by the Roman government, and after a heroic attempt and a tragic end he disappears from history. His hero story gets hijacked by a gentile named Saul who passes it through Greece on it's way to the Roman Empire and along the way the story picks up the god aspects of the pagan world. Male god comes down and impregnates a human woman and their son is a god-man. Right out of Greek mythology and Roman religion with it's many gods and the soap opera of the heavens. Miracles right and left, of course. But the real problem is the three gods. God, the father, has a son and a third spirit god hovers over all. God says, "This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased". Jesus, the son, says, "Father, why hast thou forsaken me?" That's two gods. Oh, and Mary. Neither Judaism nor Islam has a Holy Mary, mother of god. But the Greeks and Romans do - have wives and mothers in the heavenly play. So all the Semites see Christianity as a western Greek/Roman aberration of the real Truth.
But they are the Semites - a people energized by grievance - and don't see each other as participants in a long tradition but, endlessly, as antagonists. Whereas the Christians do manage to accept each other as co-religionists even after 2,000 years of revisions, revolutions and bloody conflicts within.
NEW BOOK UNCOVERS THE STORY BEHIND INFAMOUS NORTH BAY CULT
by Clark Mason
Decades before Charles Manson’s followers spread terror in Los Angeles and Jim Jones orchestrated mass suicide in Guyana, a bearded mystic named Thomas Lake Harris preached salvation in the hills above Santa Rosa.
He claimed to speak with spirits, rewrote the Bible and battled demons in trances. His followers gave him their money — sometimes a great deal more. What began as a utopian experiment called Fountaingrove ended in scandal and headlines about “spiritual harems” and mind control.
In a new book, “Unholy Sensations: A Story of Sex, Scandal and California’s First Cult Scare“ (Oxford University Press, 2025), historian Joshua Paddison revisits Harris’ rise and fall. It is a sensational tale of faith, fraud and forbidden desire that captivated 19th-century America, with themes that still resonate today.
From England to Sonoma County
Paddison, a history instructor at Texas State University, situates Harris within the context of a 19th-century spiritual awakening, an era marked by a search for meaning beyond the industrial age, during which utopian communities emerged across the country.
Born in 1823 in the village of Fenny Stratford, Buckinghamshire, England, Harris came to the United States when he was five years old. His solidly middle-class family settled in Utica, New York, where his father was a grocer and devout Calvinistic Baptist. His mother died when he was nine.
Harris said he experienced an “overflowing” love of Christ at 15, when he attended a revival meeting. He began his public life as a Unitarian minister in New York around 1845. But his path soon veered into the realm of spiritualism. Claiming the ability to serve as a medium, he drew inspiration from the teachings of the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, whose writings sparked a lifelong fascination with the spirit world.
Harris spent four years in Britain, where he founded the Brotherhood of the New Life, a utopian group dedicated to spiritual purity, manual labor and retreat from what they viewed as the corrupting forces of urban society.
During the Civil War, Harris returned to the United States, where he established three colonies in New York. A decade later, he felt moved by the spirits to relocate once again; this time, 2,600 miles west to Sonoma County.
A vision of Santa Rosa
Led by visions and attracted by cheap land and a mild climate, Harris and a few trusting acolytes took the railroad to Santa Rosa, then a town of about 3,000, in 1875. They bought a tract of land at the northern end of town to build “a fine residence in the style of an English Park” and named the colony Fountaingrove in a nod to the springs and streams on the property.
With his flowing beard and magnetic presence, Harris embodied the modern cult leader. At Fountaingrove, he taught “divine respiration,” a breathing method he claimed allowed contact with spirits, angels and demons. He said his revelations came from Jesus, and rewrote parts of the Bible accordingly.
Harris believed that each person had an opposite soul, often the spirit of the dead, which was accessible through trance. His counterpart, Lily Queen, was a celestial being with whom he claimed a spiritual union, depicted in an erotic manner in his poetry.
For over 15 years, Harris and about 30 followers lived quietly at Fountaingrove, which grew into a 2,000-acre colony in the hills north of Santa Rosa.
The commune initially sustained itself through dairy and poultry farming. Later, it planted vineyards and built a winery that exported Burgundies, Clarets and sparkling wines across the U.S. and abroad, helping to build Sonoma County’s reputation for world-class wines.
Then came the scandal.
“A den of sensuality”
In 1891, Alzire Chevaillier — a suffragist, reformer and former admirer of Harris — launched a public crusade against him. Once a guest at Fountaingrove, she turned on Harris and accused him of exploiting followers through occult manipulation, claiming he used hypnotic powers to extract money and sexual favors.
In contrast to Harris’ professed celibacy, Chevaillier alleged he presided over a “den of sensuality.” She said he commanded men and women to bathe together and practice “free love,” luring unsuspecting women into his so-called “spiritual harem.”
Chevallier claimed to have affidavits supporting her allegations, though they were never made public. She delivered scathing lectures in San Francisco and at the Athenaeum opera house in Santa Rosa.
News coverage soon exploded with lurid details: forced marriages, secret abortions, voyeurism and intergenerational sex – all fodder for the rising era of yellow journalism.
“No one on two continents is more talked of by mouth and pen than Thomas Lake Harris,” one writer for The Boston Globe remarked.
The Sonoma Democrat (now The Press Democrat), along with local merchants and bankers — some of whom were fellow Knights Templar — defended Harris. Editor Thomas Larkin Thompson argued that Fountaingrove’s economic contributions to the city outweighed concerns about its private affairs.
Still, the national press had a field day.
Unanswered questions
Were the sex accusations true? That remains, in Paddison’s words, “excruciatingly difficult to answer, even for historians with access to primary sources that newspaper readers in the 1890s lacked.”
Paddison spent over a decade researching Harris, examining thousands of primary documents and newspaper archives. He shows how Harris’ story helped define the very term “cult,” a word, he notes, that is often weaponized to marginalize groups seen as threatening or strange.
“I think Harris was a devout believer that he was a prophet,” Paddison said in an interview. “I think he absolutely believed everything he was teaching.”
Still, like many charismatic leaders, Harris misused his power for personal gain, lied and issued threats when his authority was challenged.
While Paddison believes authoritarian, abusive and violent cults should be denounced, he argues that no religion or spiritual group should be dismissed outright as a “cult.”
“When we label a group a cult,” he said, “it’s always used against groups that we don’t like.” And that perception can change over time.
According to Paddison, cults continue to fascinate because they evoke controversial topics, such as power, faith and sex, that provoke strong emotional responses.
Forgotten legacy
Under a ceaseless barrage of negative media reports, Harris left Santa Rosa in February 1892 after a hastily convened marriage to a longtime companion and disciple. He evaded the press for years, traveling through Florida, Canada and Britain, before dying in a luxurious New York City apartment in 1906 at age 82.
But his influence lingered. One of the most complex chapters in his legacy involves Kanaye Nagasawa, a Japanese immigrant from a samurai family and Harris’ informally adopted son.
Known as the “Baron of Fountaingrove,” Nagasawa took over the estate and hosted dignitaries, including Jack London, Thomas Edison and Luther Burbank. In 1899, he constructed a large, round barn to house the vineyard’s horses. It remained a prominent landmark until it burned in the 2017 Tubbs Fire.
However, when Nagasawa attempted to pass the land to his heirs, state laws prohibiting Japanese residents from owning property hindered the transfer. The family lost the estate.
Though Nagasawa now has a city park named in his honor, Paddison argues that racism played a central role in eroding his legacy.
Today, most Santa Rosans are unaware of Harris or the scandal that once made the town notorious. Some streets, businesses and a country club keep the Fountaingrove name, but the story is mostly forgotten.
Paddison credits The Press Democrat columnist Gaye LeBaron with preserving the history in her writings, including her 2019 book “The Wonder Seekers of Fountaingrove.” Still, he says, the darker chapters, including sexual coercion, media hysteria and racial injustice, are often overlooked. His book not only revives a long-buried story but also explores how the Harris saga reflected the moral, religious and cultural anxieties of its era.
Even now, Paddison concludes, cult stories endure because they force us to confront uncomfortable truths — not only about those who lead or join them but about the societies that create them.
(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)
BRANDY at Magnolia Musings: When a woman has been abused by a pedo like I was from age 3 to 4, you quickly learn to identify one. I can feel them at birthday parties, at bars, everywhere. I warn people to keep their kids away from certain people. That’s the instinct I have because of the horror. I’m sorry this is the new thing people like to say with no proof whatsoever beyond conjecture, but Donald Trump is not a pedo. He’s many other things, but not that.
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
I recently had the opportunity to stay at Appalachian Mountain Club huts up in the White Mountains. Beautiful huts in remote locations full of well off white progressives up from Boston. All run by AMC, a wonderfully woke tax exempt headquartered in the hyper wealthy enclave of Boston’s Beacon Hill.
Every single thing in the huts is airlifted in by helicopter (like Al Gore’s jet, it’s the good kind of CO2) or lugged up on the backs of the summer help.
So what does this have to do with Massholes and Tim Walz? Each men’s room featured a carefully curated shrine to feminine hygiene products. Tampons, pads, and who knows what else laid out on a nice little tray and free for the taking. But oddly untouched.
Nothing says the great outdoors like the sight of tampons in the morning!
JERRY SILBERMAN:
The history of our country is full of tremendous accomplishments and tremendous failures. Duh. It is composed of human beings, all of whom have strengths and weaknesses, shining moments of courage and dedication, acute understandings of complex situations alongside emotional blindspots and fear driven irrationalities. It will ever be thus, and the problem with life moderated by machines, as ours is fast becoming, is that all ability to tolerate ambiguity, compromise, and withhold judgments when we disagree is anathema to the machine.
The two extreme sets of values, between America is always perfect, our leaders can do no wrong, and America is the worst villain in human history don’t solve any problems except to provide false relief and confidence between those holding one or the other of the extreme views. The majority of us feeling powerless in the middle, unwilling to jump to either extreme but then constantly on our guard.
ON MY FIRST DAY as a Walmart greeter, a rude woman walked in with her two kids, yelling at them. I just smiled and said, ‘Good morning, welcome to Walmart. Nice kids, are they twins?’ She snapped, ‘No! One’s 9 and the other’s 7. Are you blind or stupid?’ I replied, ‘I am not blind or stupid, just surprised someone slept with you twice.’ Later, my supervisor told me I might not be the best fit for the job.
DENNIS O’BRIEN:
The Natural is the greatest sports movie ever. Along with Bull Durham, both movies explore the greatness of The Great Game. But The Natural goes deeper, and that’s because of Redford. Few others, if any, could have pulled it off. I thought I had it figured out until the final scene, when he breaks his magic bat on a foul ball. The bat the bat boy chose to replace it was the one that Roy Hobbes had helped him make earlier in the movie; it was his willingness to be kind to youngsters that ultimately saved him. This movie had everything: Wilford Brimley as the old manager who gave his heart and soul to the game, the Judge and his cronies who represented the worst of sport, Glenn Close as the Woman in White who saved him after he had squandered everything. But it was Robert Redford who embodied the essence of the game, and of life.
Adios, RR. You taught us, you inspired us. You were, indeed, The Natural.
ACTIVISM, UNCENSORED: CHARLIE KIRK
Reactions from supporters and counter-protesters in four cities.
A note from Managing Editor Greg Collard:
That assassination of Charlie Kirk has ignited a lot of debates. What should be done about social media? Who is more responsible for radicalization, the left or the right? What should the government do?
Attorney General Pam Bondi managed to outrage and unify large segments of the right and the left by saying:
There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society…We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.
She reversed course today, saying, “Freedom of speech is sacred in our country, and we will never impede upon that right.”
Then there’s the debate over the legacy of Kirk himself, which you can see for yourself in this installment of “Activism, Uncensored,” by Ford Fisher of News2Share. Ford and his crew filmed rallies, vigils, and counter-protesters in response to Kirk’s murder.
THE POWER OF AGGREGATING TRUMP’S MISDEEDS
by Ralph Nader
The huge Labor Day banner outside the Labor Department building with Trump’s picture and the words “American Workers First” depicts one of Donald’s most disgusting lies.
With multiple factual examples, Steve Greenhouse, former labor reporter for the New York Times, provides proof that Trump is the most brazenly “anti-worker” president in U.S. history. With his Big Vicious and Ugly Bill, barely passed by his fawning GOP in Congress, and dozens of illegal Executive Orders, he is smashing the American Worker beyond the avarice of the cruelest Plutocrat.
Quoting liberally from his Labor Day article in The Guardian, I urge labor union leaders and rank-and-file union members to absorb its contents. This article could make American labor angry enough to mount an unstoppable movement to tell Trump, “You’re Fired,” and fire up enough convinced or electorally scared lawmakers in Congress to impeach and remove Trump from office.
The aggregated madness from this failed gambling czar, wholly devoid of empathy, compassion, truth, while betraying his own voters and his oath of office, follows:
- Trump put corporate interests first by “often cutting [workers’] pay or making their jobs more dangerous.” This includes gutting regulations that protect miners from a debilitating, often deadly lung disease. He fired the chair of the top labor watchdog – The National Labor Relations Board, whose now stalled mission is to “protect workers from corporations’ illegal anti-union tactics.” Then “Trump stripped one million federal workers of their right to bargain collectively and tore up their union contracts.”
- “Trump has hurt construction workers by shutting down major wind turbine projects and ending Biden-era subsidies that encourage construction of factories that make renewable-energy products.”
- Trump is pressing to end “minimum wage and overtime protections for 3.7 million home-care and domestic workers,” and has already ended a “Biden plan to prevent employers from paying disabled workers less than the $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage.” Trump adamantly opposes raising this frozen minimum wage for 25 million workers who would benefit from a $15 federal minimum wage. He ended a “requirement that federal contractors pay their workers at least $17.75 an hour.”
- Tariffs and reckless, wholesale deportations are “pushing up prices and slowing economic growth.” His big tax cut for the super-rich is being paid for by “millions of working families by cutting food assistance and causing many to lose health coverage” (from Medicaid). As for deportation, it is “undermining their employers’ businesses,” and I might add closing down some of them and impairing farmers from harvesting their crops.
- “In her annual State of the Unions address, AFL-CIO president [Liz] Schuler said: ‘We want cheaper groceries, and we get tanks on our streets. We want more affordable healthcare, and we get 16 million Americans about to be kicked off their coverage.’”
- Trump is swinging an axe to end worker safety protections, cutting OSHA staff and pushing those still working at OSHA to weaken all kinds of essential safety and health protections, ranging from coal miners to workers under extreme heat, to reducing fines for violating safety rules, and much more. He “froze enforcement of a Biden-era regulation that protects miners from silicosis, a serious lung disease.” “…a major killer among coal miners.”
- The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) “forecasts that Trump’s effort to deport 1 million immigrants a year will result in 5.9 million lost jobs after four years: 3.3 million fewer employed immigrants and 2.6 million fewer employed US-born workers. ‘If you don’t have immigrant roofers and framers, you’re not building houses, and that means electricians and plumbers lose their jobs.’ ‘Plus, you lose the consumer spending from those workers,’” and tens of billions of withheld tax revenues annually, one might add.
The list of anti-worker cruelty goes on. Tyrant Trump always says, “This is only the beginning.” He acts like an imperious dictator because that is what he is, imposing burdens and pain on the American people – in red and blue states alike. The six rogue Supreme Court Injustices, who thus far know no limits, are enabling the madman in the White House. Before his sleazy conversion, JD Vance called Trump “America’s Hitler.” Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come, much worse!
The flip side of Trump’s feverish repression of worker rights, remedies, and existing protections is that there is no chance of reforming anti-union laws, such as the notorious Taft-Hartley Law of 1947, with Trump and his congressional cronies in power.
Readers may well ask why all these attacks on workers didn’t lead unions and their allies to launch a Compact For American Workers and insist that the feeble, corporate-conflicted Democratic Party adopt it authentically and replace their stagnant leadership with new, vigorous leaders. That is what they should have done right after their disastrous loss to Trump, the serial law violator, abuser of women, corrupter, daily, delusionary falsehood teller, shredder of the Constitution, greedy, egomaniacal, and seriously dangerous personality.
There is still one Labor Day before the 2026 midterm elections. Can Unions and the Democratic Party save our Republic from the rampaging daily Trump outlawry and viciousness (he is now invading American cities while wrecking our country)? It should be easy, just based on his failed record. (See my letter of August 27, 2024, to Liz Shuler).
As the economy worsens amidst the chaos, consumer prices rise, unemployment rises, and Trump behaves more like Captain Queeg (the fictional, cruel, and crazy skipper in the film, ‘The Caine Mutiny’), voters for Trump are starting to ask, “Did We Vote for This?” Non-voters, in turn, should resolve to head for the polls and reject what Trump is doing. The people who are the sovereign in our Constitution must start acting like they have power.
“I BELIEVE that there is one story in the world, and only one… Humans are caught—in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too—in a net of good and evil… There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well—or ill?”
― John Steinbeck, ’East of Eden‘
LEAD STORIES, WEDNESDAY'S NYT
Kirk Killing Suspect Faces Aggravated Murder Charge, and Death Penalty
Trump Invokes Kirk’s Killing in Justifying Measures to Silence Opponents
Patel Plays the Familiar Role of Pugilist at a Senate Hearing
Trump Delays TikTok Ban Again as a Deal Takes Shape
What to Know About Trump’s Second State Visit to the U.K.
Israeli Ground Forces Move Into Gaza City, Sowing Chaos
Robert Redford, Screen Idol Turned Director and Activist, Dies at 89
Robert Redford: 15 Memorable Movies to Stream
ICE ISN’T JUST ABOUT IMMIGRATION. It’s about normalizing secret police in our society that violate people’s fourth and sixth amendment rights and are able to essentially kidnap anyone who is a resident in the U.S. and take them to de facto concentration camps. And the budget, Trump’s big, beautiful bill, has put these secret police on hyperdrive. The kidnapping of Latinos who are suspected of being undocumented migrants is a pilot program for a larger agenda.
— Max Blumenthal
LETTERS FROM NY TIMES READERS
Threats by Trump administration officials to bring the weight of the federal government in a crackdown on anti-conservative thought and speech are a monumentally chilling moment for America.
That Charlie Kirk’s assassination was tragic and horrific is without question. Those who celebrated or condoned his death online or elsewhere in the public square should perhaps search their souls for human decency and empathy.
But his murder should not serve as the green light for a wave of autocratic intimidation, bullying and punishment that could end up eroding many of our precious, fundamental rights — including speech.
Leaders from both parties should stand up to this kind of talk from the White House, as it is nothing short of menacing.
Cody Lyon
Brooklyn
To the Editor:
The action being pursued by the administration, according to the White House official Stephen Miller, to “identify, disrupt, eliminate and destroy” left-leaning organizations or groups is eerily reminiscent of the dark days of the Red Scare.
Back then blacklists were created to intimidate and financially punish those suspected of belonging to the Communist Party or of taking direction from the Soviet Union. The hearings spearheaded by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s were intended to exploit those fears among Americans and even purge federal government employees who might supposedly seek to undermine America.
Haven’t we learned anything from our past mistakes about protected speech and fundamental freedoms in our country? To exploit a tragic murder for partisan purposes to boost one party’s electoral prospects seems more than shameful.
Instead of dividing the nation at a time of almost unparalleled division stoked by the commander in chief and his allies, we should be finding ways for all Americans to do their part to heal the nation, uphold and protect democratic norms and institutions and reject the actual un-American attempts to crush dissent and freedom of thought.
Anthony Arnaud
Laguna Niguel, Calif.
To the Editor:
Even before a suspect was identified, President Trump, without a shred of proof, blamed a nonexistent, coordinated movement fomenting violence for Charlie Kirk’s murder.
Waking up to Mr. Trump’s daily fire hose of hokum used to be just exhausting. Now his plan to use this murder as a pretext to crush dissent treats the First Amendment as a doormat and is downright terrifying.
Bob Salzman
New York
To the Editor:
Isn’t President Trump the radical pot calling the radical kettle black? The failed attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was a coordinated violent attempt to keep him in power even though he lost the election. He pardoned those convicted and sought revenge against those doing their job in prosecuting the participants.
Mr. Trump is not going to be the president who lowers the temperature on violence. It does not benefit him politically. Under his rule, the threat of political violence will only grow.
Thomas Bonito
Essex Fells, N.J.
To the Editor:
On Sunday I watched the morning programs on CBS, NBC and ABC. What I heard was the hand-wringing by both Democrats and Republicans over the death of Charlie Kirk. Now the White House tells us about its plans to crack down on liberal groups.
I have heard nothing about what would have a definite effect on violence in this country. We all know what that is: gun legislation.
This is a sad commentary on our elected officials.
John A. Viteritti
Laurel, N.Y.
To the Editor:
It is deeply ironic that in the rush to celebrate Charlie Kirk as a defender of free speech, his death is being used as an excuse by the Trump administration to vilify, threaten and fire those who exercise that freedom to discuss his legacy in anything less than laudatory terms.
Deborah Lyons
Oxford, Ohio
TO AUTUMN
by John Keats (1819)
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
A FLOW OF SEMITIC RELIGIONS CONSIDERED
A spot on piece by Mike Nolan that should be food for thought for those believing there can be peace in the Middle East. While Mike mentions Jews and Muslims, it is really tribes of all colors there that embrace conflict as a part of their shared Bedouin heritage that goes back thousands of years before Mohammad, Jesus, and Abraham.
One can hope–we can hope–that they will see the light–all of them. And change their ways, what a great idea! It’s really about good and evil, always is. For now, at the very least, we should not be complicit in their brutality. No more offensive weaponry for Israel, used against a defenseless civilian population to commit genocide.
And it is different times, and the stakes for the entire world are high. A nuclear war that begins in the ME–easy to imagine, isn’t it– could well lead to a global war affecting all of man and womankind. They need to grow up and change their ways.
Does it go back to the “times” of the Jewish creation myth that appears in the Torah (Old Testament for you Christos)? Your “argument” is pure hogwash in my estimation. Seems to me the Middle East populations were behaving in the same manner as other members of the human species around the planet. Even us “moderns” are tolerant of genocide, as long as it is committed by us, or our dear friends…
The Old Testament was written during the time, and in the context of what we refer to as classical mythology. In classic mythology there are facts, allegories, metaphors, and embellished heroes. What was first written likely had an oral tradition going back longer than we know. The actions of Gods, or God are explanations for events that occur with no obvious explanation. The religions of the tribes of the Americas fit in the same mold. The power of Gods, or God is the power of the unknown. In spite of our advances in science, we have done little more than step on the toes of our God because the unknown is infinitely larger than the known. We also have new Gods like Mother Nature.
War is in our nature, yes. But how we order relations between cultures varies. The European, and Western order is focused on the sanctity of sovereign nations. There are defined borders. This is done to avoid war. None of this applies to the Middle East where tribes and families who embrace conflict is the order. The constant mistake we make is assuming everyone thinks and does things just like we do.
Just more BS from an old BS-er. You know about as much about history as you do about science. Humans DO think the same around the world. We are ONE species. The constant mistake made is in believing BS peddlers like you. You sound like some old Southern Baptist preacher peddling his nonsense at a revival, like what I heard as a child, and dropped into the toilet at adulthood. I have been listening to your nonsense here for too long. It’s boring nonsense, which you peddle, with your typical condescension. And then you have the utter audacity to justify it with more BS. Just because you live on a mountain in Comptche does NOT mean you are a great possessor of knowledge. You are definitely NOT.
I can be condescending, and arrogant too. Sometimes it’s just too easy.
Rerun: This Land Is Mine. Written, directed, designed, animated, etc. by Nina Paley.
Good Morning AVA’ers 🙃🤯
Re; CofU meeting to change Encampment codes
This ordinance is being framed like it’s just following a model from the Governor, but the truth is no one is forcing Ukiah to take this step. The state outlined an option it does not require it. What’s really happening here is pressure from a handful of groups and business voices, amplified by public-shaming pages like Ukiah Caught on Camera and Ukiah Vagrant Watch. That fear and anger is now being carried straight into City Hall.
But there are no open beds. Taking away the “shelter available” safeguard doesn’t create housing or treatment it just means people will be swept from one place to another, or funneled into jail or the behavioral health wing when completed. That is not care, or safety. It’s punishment for existing.
If we want to make the situation of homelessness better, we must use logic not anger, disgust & fear! We can begin with housing, treatment, and real support not with policies built on fear and bullshit narratives.
mm💕
The section they want to change…from Ukiah city code chapter one, article 8, sections 6080 thru 6085:
” No person shall be in violation of the general prohibition on camping on public property contained in subsection D of this section unless:
The person is informed of the location of homeless shelters currently in operation in the City or outside of but within one mile of the City limits;
Such shelter is actually available to the person; and
The person voluntarily refuses to utilize or sleep in such shelter.
I. Even if the prohibition on camping does not apply, because the requirements set forth in subsection H of this section are not met, establishment, maintenance, operation or occupation of camp facilities is prohibited between the hours of seven o’clock (7:00) A.M. and ten o’clock (10:00) P.M. and constitutes a violation of this section, except as otherwise permitted herein.
J. Even if the prohibition on camping does not apply, because the requirements set forth in subsection H of this section are not met, establishment, maintenance, operation or occupation of a camp site, camp facilities, or use of camp paraphernalia within an area larger than sixty-four (64) square feet per person is prohibited and constitutes a violation of this section, except as otherwise permitted herein.”
$500 fine, 3 months jail time for each offense.
In case city council members read the above, I add my vote in support of Mazie’s points above.
(“Ukiah Caught on Camera”?!?….I’ve eliminated facebook for many months now ….sorry to see additional nonsense magnifying the negative Vagrant watch group.)
Thanks Mike, 🤗
if you want to email in your own comments about it, and have it on the public record, here are the email addresses!
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
mm💕
Will do. Probably should suggest not only rejecting this revived criminalizing option but adding the idea of designating safe car and outdoor sleeping areas with porta potties, water, security and safe storage. Doing so would better allow delivery of mental and substance abuse treatment services, and social services to those homeless due to lack of funds for rent.
Yes, Mike, safe car and outdoor spaces with services are steps toward stability. Sweeps only shift the problem and make things much worse for everyone!
mm💕
+1 to these comments on humane, reasonable choices in these matters.
Thanks Mr. Dunbar!🤗
mm💕
The truth: “Sweeps only shift the problem and make things much worse for everyone!”
Absolutely!! 👮🚓
mm💕
Housing
San Jose is offering citizens $2,000 to release their vehicles to the City, if sleeping in them on the street. A success say all parties involved.
Ukiah pays cash to campers to find shelter inside.
“Change can be scary for us small town folk, but it also can be exciting and bring in new life to a quiet little town.”
It can also bring pure hell to a small town…especially if it is driven by greedy kaputalists.
“Donald Trump is not a pedo.” If that were the case then why is there a video of Jeffrey Epstein and Trump watching a very young underage girl with Epstein saying, “She’s not for you”, to Donald very firmly, suggesting “This one’s mine, you get your own.” Apparently, Epstein knew Donald very well. Not a child molester per se but by definition a rapist never the less.
Big Don is not a Pedo, since that term refers to molesting children.
But 17 year-old girls are minors, and Big D for sure enjoyed their company as an old-man pervert.
Please add an attribution to your lead photo today, which I took at the fair.
Pretty sure the DA snapped that one, but…
I know my photos.
Prop 50
I agree, Sheriff. Sad times for sure. Two wrongs do not make a right.
If Proposition 50 passes, it will further dilute the rural vote and rural voices. The State Legislature should not be drawing new maps (for their own benefit), the people of California are fortunate to have an independent redistricting commission and it should stay that way. Such little information about these new maps and how they were developed should be alarming to all.
Whether Prop. 50 passes or fails, we can all take some solace that it was decided by the voters, not the politicians.
Haven’t we learned anything from our past mistakes about protected speech and fundamental freedoms in our country?
NO! We are the dumbest bunch of “freedom lovers” ever! Our voting record proves it. Giving a POS like trump a plurality of votes, thus “electing” him for a second term proves it. Continuing to support genocide by the “chosen” ones only substantiates my stance.
hahaha Lily , 🙃
I will have to look that up because that makes no sense, give up your only means of shelter for $2,000 to find shelter somewhere else? Then what do they do with the cars? Here in Ukiah there is only the BB shelter, not enough space, a lot of people would much rather sleep in their car. Say the city of Ukiah adopted that where would they take the two grand out of measure B and when they sell vehicles and put the money back into solutions or would they crush them???
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Me again, 🤪
As a side note after reading the agenda packet yesterday, I noticed the language is so broad it could let the city target people as criminals just for carrying a sleeping bag!
mm💕
Thank you, Marilyn Davin, for your piece today on your mom, and on cultural changes as to women’s roles as generations passed. Made me think of my mother, in a very similar circumstance as your mom, I think. Women of that generation were indeed forced/pushed into giving-up opportunities they yearned for. I saw that in my mother, wife to a military officer—a good man– and mother to two boys–both not perfect in their care, understanding and love. The imperfect love of children for their moms… sure fits for me also.
You end nicely:
“Several days before my mother died, I apologized to her for not making more of an effort to understand her struggles, for not being a better daughter. ‘Don’t give it a second thought,” she said, looking up from her wheelchair with a smile. “Kids are always like that. But they also give you the most love.’ ”
I’m glad you had the courage to apologize to her–wish I’d done the same. And bless your mom for her wise, smiling, forgiving, response..
Insightful piece, lots to think about. Thanks for writing and sharing with us.
Re: The Natural. Two lines from that movie come back to me again and again. 1. Near the end, the soda shop man, happy that Roy and Laura Dern have finally got together after everything, says, “Whaddaya think we got here, jiffy service?” And 2. Closer to the start, Roy’s father says to him, “You’ve got a gift, Son, but you have to develop yourself. You rely on your gift, you’ll fail.” An image: a creepy-wise man’s face, who I remember as Milton Berle but he probably wasn’t; my focus is on his one wide-open weird eye, as he guesses how much money is in Roy’s pocket. And of course where the lunatic shoots Roy. I have got a feeling about people sometimes that they’re like that woman, not in control of themselves. I think a big problem miserable people have is they don’t read. I mean, they read and listen to and watch things to reinforce their own life story but they don’t read widely to get lots of other stories to think about, so they think their life and story and religion and whatnot are important, and that they’re the only way a person can live. There are millions of other ways to be, and other things to care about, and they give you perspective, so you can stand outside of yourself and see that you might be wrong. The crazy woman’s story was that Roy would fall in love with her and that would solve everything, but no, so she couldn’t stand it. And later, after he’s recovered and he’s back in the world in a more realistic way, when he’s about to strike out, Glen Close silently stands up in the bleachers and the sun shines through her hat and clothes and makes her an angel. He doesn’t see her, but there’s magic because she /hopes/ for him, and next pitch, he belts it out of the park so it smashes the clock on the scoreboard! I’ll find that. Hold on. You know, that’s a true story… Okay, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0lof7tFKtE
Hello, 😢
I have painstakingly listened to the city Council meeting since 5 PM that just ended I am flabbergasted, disgusted, and ashamed they adopted the ordinance for encampments. Please understand that they sold BS not solutions and the city council members are so completely out of touch with the realities of these issues! The worst part was hearing oh it’s another tool in our toolbox, the ordinance is the last resort our (UPD) preference is to collaborate into services!! 🤣😢😭😤!!!!!
I am appalled not surprised no service providers attended to address the issue, oh of course not cause they all collaborate!! 🤯🤘🕊️
Also my letter to the city council for the record!!!
Dear Mayor and Councilmembers,
I am writing in strong opposition to the proposed changes to Ukiah’s encampment ordinance.
This ordinance does not solve homelessness. By removing the safeguard that requires shelter to be available before enforcement, it simply turns displacement into policy. There are no beds available and taking away that protection does not create housing, it only creates punishment, discrimination & stigma.
By these new definitions, simply having a sleeping bag in public could result in enforcement or arrest. That means the ordinance doesn’t target “encampments” it targets people. These definitions are so expansive that anyone with minimal gear in a public area could be categorized as “occupying” or “operating” a camp. That turns necessary survival into a punishable offense.
Pushing people from sidewalks into jail, or into another sidewalk, is not care and not safety. Real solutions come from housing, treatment, and support, not criminalization.
I urge you to reject these changes and focus on policies that address the real causes of homelessness, rather than punishing those who are already vulnerable.
Sincerely,
Mazie Malone
Kind Hearts Initiative
Care Without Conditions
mm💕
I know what the problem was…wearing Nike.
White Sturgeon
Mendocino, you’re rich!
(Never thought the day would come).
Caviar!
Moon-lit nights,
No more struggling,
No more toothless mouths,
No more Homeless in the streets…
So, I wrote a song…copied my old friend Jed
Come listen to a story ’bout a man
A poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed
Then one day,
On the shores of the lake,
There she was.
Well, the first thing you know
Mendocino is a millionaire…
Everyone’s happy, now
Amen.
(The Ballad of Sturgeon in Mendocino 25)