Mendocino County Today: Wednesday 9/24/2025

Cooling | FFA Leadership | Scary Road | Devin Visits | Whippets Progress | Elsie Allen | Strategic Firing | New Judge | Hansen PA | Local Events | Boontworks Meeting | Gerrymander Map | Shields Memorial | Pioneer Walk | Yesterday's Catch | Xpress 1997 | Kirk Implosion | Radical Don | Giants Lose | Oracle Dusk | Fall Boys | Fat Clubs | Appropriate F-Bombs | Riprap | Aha | Mind Prison | Minding Business | Never | Last Meal | Blocking ICE | Gorge | Recognize Berenson | Airport Motel | Fall | Lazy Autumn | Lead Stories | Not Nice | Hate Them | Gaza Contribution | Horrible Feeling

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YESTERDAY'S HIGHS: Boonville 100°, Ukiah 100°, Yorkville 98°, Covelo 98°, Laytonville 93°, Fort Bragg 76°

ISOLATED light showers will be possible for southern Lake and southern Mendocino Counties Wednesday. Otherwise, dry and stable weather with an increase in coastal fog and stratus is expected for the rest of this week. Additional troughs may yield some rain late in the weekend, with increasing chances through early next week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): An overcast 53F this Humpday morning on the coast. That area of residual moisture south of the bay area will head our way today bringing some clouds. The usual mix of clouds & sun thru the weekend. We now have a good chance of real rain early next week although computer models are not in agreement yet on how much. I'll be watching of course.

HOT! Temperature peaked at 103 about 12:20 Tuesday. Now it's cooling off, down to a pleasant 101. This is three miles inland on Little River Airport Road. (Nick Wilson)

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AV FFA/BETH SWEHLA: On Friday and Saturday the AV FFA officer team participated in the North Coast Region FFA Chapter Officer Leadership Conference at Santa Rosa Junior College's Shone Farm.

Jenni who is also a North Coast Regional FFA officer lead workshops for those attending.

It was awesome to meet officers from our region. It was really awesome to see Jenni growing her own leadership skills.

Thank you to the North coast Region officers and Shone Farm.

We are now Rooted to Rise!

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FIX LITTLE RIVER AIRPORT ROAD

Dear Mendocino Co. Board of Supervisors,

The treacherous Little River Airport Road is a scary drive, with narrow blind curves, no shoulders and deep ditches on either side.

If the road itself wasn’t bad enough, the road surface makes it ten times worse. There are huge, dangerous potholes and washouts, badly painted lines, no shoulders, no turnouts, and deep drainage ditches on both sides. At minimum, this county needs to do basic road repair and resurfacing.

People have been complaining to you for months. They have formed committees, printed signs, made a website (fixlrairportrd.org) and come to your meetings - still nothing gets done.

On Sept. 1 of this month, there was a horrific mass casualty event two miles up Little River Airport Road, along the very stretch we’re talking about - the three miles of road from Highway 1 to the Airport.

From news stories:

“A horrific solo-car crash on Little River Airport Road left four people injured, three in critical condition, after their vehicle left the roadway and struck a tree. Emergency workers declared a mass-casualty event as it overwhelmed medical resources due to the number of patients and the severity of their injuries.”

Three people were in critical condition and medevacked to hospital. The road was shut down for hours, while they extracted mangled bodies from the wreckage. The poor condition of the road was likely the major cause of this single-car accident. Some who are hyper-critical of this Board might even say, that since you were warned, you have blood on your hands.

That road is a throughfare and evacuation route that serves both the Airport and a major Fire Station. About two and a half miles up, just yards from where the accident occurred, there’s a retirement community called The Woods, with 109 households and over 150 elderly residents. I know people in their 80’s and 90’s who drive that horrendous stretch of road several times a week.

It’s not a matter of time, it’s inevitable that another horrible crash or collision, that ends or ruins the lives of more victims, will occur on Little River Airport Road. You need to fix that road and fix it NOW, as in RIGHT NOW.

We can’t necessarily repair the broken bones and bodies or the ruined lives of victims from earlier this month, but we can repair that road to prevent it from happening again.

Supervisor Williams, this is on your desk. That road is in your district. You, and the rest of you, need to drive slowly from Highway One to the Airport, to observe conditions and then get it fixed. You need to do it now. This can’t be put off any longer, especially not till after the rain begins and risks go up exponentially.

Please, no more blood on your hands.

Get the Little River Airport Road fixed and do it now, as in a month ago.

Fix Little River Airport Road!

Sincerely,

David Gurney

Fort Bragg

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NORM CLOW:

Devin made his first trip to our hometown in California with Ruth and Uncle Austin, along with one of Austin’s teachers at The Clowvazar Academy and her son, neither of whom had ever been to the Golden State. He embarked on his first plane ride from San Antonio Friday morning, and alit in San Francisco. First stop was Alamo Square in the Upper Haight to see the famous Full House exterior, then the 100 miles on up to Anderson Valley on the North Coast to take in the County Fair and see where the Clows made their stand 150 years ago as one of the first pioneer ranching families. First stop was Hendy Woods State Park right across the Navarro River from our old homestead, containing some of the biggest redwood trees in the state (or world). Devin loved it, as did Lois and her son, spending a couple of hours. The whole contingent stayed in Fort Bragg up the coast, where he and the other two native Texans on the trip saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time. In the morning they drove back down to Anderson Valley and took in the Fair, where Devin excelled at the bumper cars, and dinner with his Aunt Jackie, who had never met him. Saturday afternoon they traveled back down to The City where they visited Chinatown and the downtown area around Union Square, spent the night, and flew home Sunday morning. The first thing Devin did when he got back to our home in Spring was sit down at the digital piano and start playing. (The photo of Devin in the driveway in front of the red house, is where I grew up on the homestead. The Philo Market with Devin on the porch was owned by Ruth's parents for a few years while she was in high school.)

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NITROUS OXIDE PROGRESS

Great news! After Marvin and I presented the problem at the Redwood Valley Municipal Advisory Council a few months ago our 1st District Supervisor Madeline Cline is making it happen. Today at 3:00 the Board of Supervisors is presenting a resolution against selling whippets (nitrous oxide) in rural communities.

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ERIC ENRIQUEZ: Yesterday was the Equinox as well as the birthday of our late great-grandmother Elsie Allen. Elsie was a mentor to many. She continues to serve as a primary role model for me. Her era of notability occurred beyond the age of 50. Prior to that, she prioritized family and the building of a strong foundation with husband Arthur. I also have a grand personal vision for life beyond 50. Pruning and gathering, dreaming and creating. Mastery precedes excellence. Thank you, Elsie.

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STRATEGIC FIRING PROCESS

by Mark Scaramella

To the surprise of no one but the Board of Supervisors, CEO Darcie Antle told the Supervisor Tuesday that they were falling well short of the hoped for $6 million savings so far this fiscal year (July 2025-June 2026).

Antle mumbled, “At this time two months into the fiscal year we are only trending at a $3 million savings. As part of the Strategic Hiring Process, departments requesting to hire should be prepared to consider and explain how they are going to cover that 6% reduction, how the department will fund the position say if it’s from non-general fund, what work is currently being done to —uh, due to the —not being done due to the vacancy, why can’t current staff absorb the duties, what efficiencies is the department working on, prepare metrics to support the hiring needs, and explain a new updated org chart and how many positions do they have in active recruitment at this time.”

Supervisor/Board Chair John Haschak’s first response was procedural:

Haschak: “I guess I’m at a— I’m a little confused. I thought we were still on Item 4a [departmental reports]. But it looks like we have jumped to Item 4b [Strategic Hiring Process]. I think that’s what’s happened. So let me introduce 4b: Discussion and possible action including approval or denial of requests from department heads and elected officials concerning the funding and recruitment of vacant or new positions following the Strategic Hiring Process.”

Supervisor Ted Williams as usual pulled out his nerf gun and shot from the hip: “Just to be blunt. If we hire we are going to either have staff reductions or salary reductions. The basic math here is we are $16 million in the hole.” Any item on the agenda— I understand some positions are critical, but there needs to be a net savings. If you are adding one, you need to remove two or three. I hear— I think the message is for the Board, Is the board going to hold the line? So far, we are not seeing the savings that we anticipated. If we keep going the way we are going we will get to the end of the fiscal year and we will not be able to make payroll the last month. I wonder if it’s premature to be even entertaining hiring? Why would a county hire when it is putting itself in a position to have to layoff as a result?”

Fortunately, thanks to CEO Angelo’s $400k remodel a couple of years ago, the Supervisors chambers are made of bullet proof glass so no one was injured by Williams’ nerf balls.

Supervisor Bernie Norvell: “I hear you. You are correct. There is opportunity here. If a department head can show up and show no impact to the general fund I think that’s the opportunity that I’m looking for.”

Hashack: “I read in the CEO Report about that we weren’t on target to get that $6 million. We are only looking at getting to the $3 million. So that would— If we continue with the plan we have and the Strategic Hiring Process, we are still going to be $3 million short at the end of the fiscal year. Is that correct? Because our budget was predicated on a $6 million savings.”

We read the CEO Report too and there’s nothing in there about the County being “on target to get that $6 million.”

Antle: “Yes. It was predicated—. Right. It was predicated on reductions and additions in the departments. But they have the opportunity to explain to you too if they are making that 6% savings, whether it be in contracts, or office expense. So it may mean that they need x position, they can’t move forward without it, but where will they find that savings? Is it going to be in a contract reduction for [shrugs, throws up hands] janitorial.”

There’s so much Mendo mumbo jumbo here that we are at risk of being swamped by it.

First, the Board has yet to demand an ordinary departmental budget versus actual report from their CEO, so they are always in the dark, forced to throw out unsubstantiated and unverified numbers without any concept of where they stand.

Last May CEO Antle promised that she and the Human Resources Department would provide the Board with monthly reports on the status of the Strategic Hiring Process (formerly known as a hiring freeze). Antle has yet to provide any monthly reports. Not even this month to accompany the item that was supposed to address it. No supervisor has ever even reminded CEO Antle of this failure.

Last Spring the Board appointed Supervisors Ted Williams and Madeline Cline to a special budget ad hoc committee that was supposed to make budget balancing recommendations to the Board. Instead of providing any recommendations, at the last Board meeting Supervisor Williams just said that everything they considered “would be opposed,” so he didn’t have any. Chair Haschak told Williams to bring some recommendations forward to Tuesday’s meeting anyway. But this Tuesday, all Williams provided was sixth-grade commentary about not having enough money.

Instead of complaining to the CEO that every meeting results in no useful information and no action at all, the Supervisors agreed that it would be nice to have some “documentation” on the subject at the next Board meeting. Nobody asked CEO Antle to make a commitment to provide it, despite the fact that they are going deeper into the hole every day and the CEO obviously has some undisclosed early numbers showing that they are “trending” at about 50% of the savings the budget is based on.

Responding to the Board’s observation that it would be better if they had some “documentation,” CEO Antle replied, “This is the first time we’re bringing this forward. Obviously, there are some lessons learned here.”

PS. CEO Antle’s final off-hand remark casually suggesting that the departments could close their budget gaps by reductions in “janitorial,” shows how pathetically out of touch the CEO is.

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JUSTICE AND FIREPOWER: MENDOCINO’S NEW JUDGE AND THE EMERGENCY RESPONSE YOU ARE NOT HEARING ABOUT

by Frank Hartzell

Governor Gavin Newsom announced a new appointment to the Mendocino County Superior Court last week. Here comes the judge! We scored an interview with his about to be your honor.

FredRicco McCurry, 56, is set to don the black robes as Mendocino County’s newest Superior Court judge, stepping into the seat vacated by retiring Judge Jeannie Nadel. A seasoned legal professional, McCurry began the year serving as a Deputy in the Mendocino County Alternate Public Defender’s Office, following a three-year tenure as a Deputy Public Defender. The Alternate Public Defender’s Office typically represents indigent clients in cases where the Public Defender’s Office faces a conflict of interest.

Had McCurry always wanted to be a judge?

“Like many attorneys, I’d considered becoming a judge at various points in my career,” McCurry shared in an email interview with Mendocinocoast.news. “But I got serious about the idea about a year or so after arriving in Mendocino County. The timing felt right, and I was ready to take on the challenge.” McCurry has been practicing law since 1995.…

https://mendocinocoast.news/justice-and-firepower-mendocinos-new-judge-and-the-emergency-response-you-are-not-hearing-about/

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MENDOCINO TOWN OF POINT ARENA BEING ROCKED BY CITY COUNCILMEMBER BUYING UP PROPERTIES With LLCs

by Joe Kukura

A sort of “California Forever” type situation has been brewing in the small Mendocino County town of Point Arena, where a sitting member of city council has bought up about 20 properties through a web of LLCs and chased out long-term tenants.

The Mendocino County city of Point Arena, some 150 miles north of San Francisco, has a population of less than 500 people. And it’s gone through a few boom-and-bust cycles. Once a port town that was leveled by the 1906 earthquake, destroyed by a fire some 20 years later, it rebounded with the 1970s-era popularity of a hippie commune-retreat place known as Oz Farm, and a very bustling illegal marijuana trade for a few decades after that. That marijuana trade has collapsed with legalization, and now Point Arena is best known for the Point Arena Lighthouse seen below, which continues to be a tourist attraction.

But now Point Arena is making some news again, as the Chronicle reports on a series of LLCs that are on a buying spree of Point Arena properties, in a story not unlike the billionaires buying up land for their “California Forever” project, or the mystery buyer who bought up a bunch of Upper Fillmore buildings and was identified by the Chronicle as being tech investor Neil Mehta. In this case, the differently named but affiliated LLCs “gained ownership, control or established an affiliation with” about 20 properties in a town of less than two square miles that doesn’t have many properties in the first place.

The Chron’s reporting identifies the buyer using these LLCs as Point Arena City Councilmember Jeff Hansen, and cites a number of examples of Hansen raising rents by the maximum allowable 10% per year, and displacing many tenants. Hansen reportedly also bought buildings containing an apparel shop, a salon, a diner, a cannabis dispensary, and a general store — all of which shut down after Hansen bought them.

“The whole town’s being bought up and there’s no dialogue about it,” one local business owner told the Chronicle, declining to identify themselves for fear of retribution. “A lot of us have no frigging clue what’s happening.”

Hansen was originally quite well-liked for buying Point Arena’s defunct and dilapidated Sea Shell Inn and renovating it into the very nice and functional Wildflower Hotel. But the Chronicle reports that many locals have grown distrustful as the businesses in his purchased properties seem to always not get their lease renewed, and close down. They report on one former apparel boutique that is now “a ‘pop-up estate sale’ with sporadic hours, owned by the family of one of Hansen’s associates,” plus other properties where Hansen is not the owner on paper, but somehow is still the one collecting rent.

And there were certainly waves made when a restaurant called Amber’s Diner closed earlier this year, and the owner excoriated Hansen in a Facebook post. “We closed because of Jeff,” the post declares. “Dictating hours, Forcing certain conditions on us, bad decisions, and business practices. That was the entire reason. I know he will try and paint a different picture and us as bad people but the rumors are simply not true.”

That owner happened to live in one of Hansen’s rental properties, and Hansen allegedly showed up at another restaurant where that owner worked to publicly announce he was evicting that owner, doing this in front of tables full of diners.

And it’s apparently hurting Point Arena’s bottom line to have so many properties sit vacant. The Chron says that Point Arena’s sales tax revenue went down by 37% last year, forcing the city to pass a sales tax increase this past November.

​​“I know that Jeff Hansen is a controversial figure,” Point Arena City Manager Peggy Ducey told the Chronicle. “But his purchasing of properties, there’s nothing the city can do about that. I’ve had some very frank conversations with Jeff, and we’re gonna continue to have those — but I cannot infringe on his legal rights."

There are certainly conflict-of-interest factors at play with a sitting city councilmember being one of the largest property owners in town. But that arrangement appears likely to continue in Point Arena, as Hansen ran unopposed for reelection this past November. He only received 58 votes.

(sfist.com)

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LOCAL EVENTS (this weekend)

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DONNA PIERSON-PUGH/BOONTWORKS:

We invite you to the Community Information Meeting next Monday, September 29, at 5:30 p.m. at the AV Senior Center to learn about the project and share your ideas.

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A READER SENDS IN THIS PROP 50 MAP LINK, noting, “Too weird for words.”

https://aelc.assembly.ca.gov/proposed-congressional-map

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ANDERSON VALLEY PIONEER WALK

Valerie Hanelt

The Anderson Valley Historical Society is hosting a cemetery program featuring the oldest section of the Evergreen Cemetery (originally Greenmound Cemetery) in Boonville. The program will be held October 19 from 1-3 PM. Please see the attached flyer.

We are looking for descendants of the families listed below. Sources we are using to locate those folks include Findagrave membership information, reaching out to local folks who are descendants and social media posts..

If you are a descendant or can suggest someone who is a descendant and might be interested in participating, Please contact me at [email protected]. Or you may send Sheri Hansen a message via Facebook messenger, which she will forward to me.

A little more about the day.

If you could join us at the cemetery that would be ideal, but if that isn’t possible, perhaps you could share your stories/family information via email and I could share it on your behalf. I will lead the group from grave to grave, but my intention is for a descendant to say a few words or share a personalizing anecdote, story etc. We look forward to an afternoon of local history as told through the stories and family information of those early settlers by their descendants..

A little about myself. I have been working on the AV Cemetery database for many years. All information I have uncovered has been uploaded to Findagrave.com. I know many of you have created entries for your ancestors as well as edited the entries I manage on Findagrave.

These are names of families buried in B section through 1950: Brown (first burial in 1860), Smalley, Witherell, McGimsey, Prather, Rawles, Clow, Murray & Stubblefield, Burger, Kendall, Rose, Ray, Ingram, Ornbaun, Gowan, Reilly, Lawson, McAbee, Gschwend, Main, Van Zandt, Jeans, Farrer, Blevins, Duff, Wightman, McCarty, Frye, Irish, Dillingham, Hiatt, Heryford, Obarr, Boyd, Chipman, Musgrave, Long, Jones, Tritchler, Dell Aqua, Windom, Rose, Fry, Donnelly, St John, Clay, Hartly, Estill, Hutsell, Long, Singley, Wallach, Gerchens, Rector, DeYoung and Harrison, Walker, Crispin.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, September 23, 2025

AARON BLACK, 33, Covelo. Disobeying court order.

RICHARD CHRISTENSEN, 78, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

RICARDO HOAGLIN SR., 73, Covelo Failure to appear.

LISA HODGES, 59, Ukiah. Controlled substance with two or more priors, narcotics for sale.

JAY JACKSON, 52, Willits. Controlled substance with two or more priors, paraphernalia, unspecified offense.

KENDALL JENSEN, 39, Ukiah. Domestic violence court order violation, paraphernalia, resisting.

SARINA MCDOW, 42, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

ALEXANDER MENDOZA, 21, Clearlake/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

DARIN MOFFETT, 55, Comptche. Domestic abuse.

JUAN RODEA, 48, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

DESIREE VIGIL, 52, Boonville. DUI.

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LAKE COUNTY'S CHARLIE KIRK IMPLOSION

by Betsy Cawn

On the evening of September 17, an estimated crowd of 500 or more attended a vigil for Charlie Kirk held at Lakeport’s Library Park.

The entirely peaceful event was followed by countless social media messages advocating for civility and consolation for his family, which were rapidly overshadowed by an eruption of violence targeting a local business owner for an unsympathetic post described in our “newspaper of record,” which rues the loss of a popular business, and tantalizes the reader with the menu for an upcoming community event.

Hundreds of Facebook posts revelled in the closure of a unique and popular county restaurant and the destruction of a respected workplace as a deserved consequence of the owner’s comments (I still haven’t found the originals, but they are described as celebratory of Charlie Kirk’s assassination).

It’s deeply disheartening to see how effectively this small number of sadistic “influencers” brought swift “justice” to the author of a freely-expressed personal opinion they found offensive.

At all levels, from the county's official news publication to free-form social media, evidence of our county's intellectual deficits is easy to find.

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TRUMP ENFLAMES AN ALREADY VOLATILE SITUATION

Editor:

What do leaders do in a time of crisis? Using the example of Winston Churchill and FDR, they exert a calming influence and attempt to unite people. In the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting, Donald Trump predictably seized the incident to urge his base to seek revenge against the “radical left” even before he knew who was responsible.

When asked about violence from the right, he conveniently ignored the assassination of Melissa Horstman and her husband in Minnesota, the arson attempt on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home, the attempted kidnapping of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi. He justified such activity as motivated by a desire to reduce crime. Similarly, he pardoned the criminals who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

Political violence by either side is wrong and should be condemned. Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize, and yet he renames the Defense Department the War Department. What does that tell you?

Leland Davis

Santa Rosa

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GIANTS OFFICIALLY ELIMINATED after blowing five-run lead against Cards

by Shayna Rubin

The San Francisco Giants were officially eliminated from postseason contention on Tuesday. Much like their 2025 season, it took an epic collapse to plummet to a bitter end.

Logan Webb was solid through six innings, but a bullpen that’s been ripped to shreds and sewn together again over the course of the year slowly leaked a five-run lead, culminating in closer Ryan Walker blowing the save and surrendering the lead in the ninth. The Giants lost, 9-8, to the St. Louis Cardinals.

With the New York Mets’ win earlier in the evening, all it took was one more Giants loss for elimination.

“It’s frustrating,” Webb said. “I think you have a better group than what we’ve shown in here. It’s not the way we want the season to end.”

“It is what it is. We knew going in we had to win tonight. So it’s something we have to deal with,” manager Bob Melvin said. “The way I’ve been describing it for a while now is it’s pretty frustrating and everybody is not too happy about it. This is a day we’re not looking forward to and it’s here. So it’s disappointing.”

The official moment felt inevitable over the last several losing weeks, but the finality provides space for retrospection.

This team was flying high not long ago, sitting tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers for first place in the National League West when Buster Posey swung a blockbuster trade for Rafael Devers on June 15. The Giants were 41-31 with a 64.4% chance to make the playoffs, and with one of baseball’s best hitters in tow for a majority of the season, surely those odds would rise.

Instead, all went south.

The Giants fell to .500 by Aug. 1 and have compiled a 36-51 record since the big trade. Few signs of life flashed before the end. After Patrick Bailey’s walk-off grand slam against the Dodgers two Fridays ago saw them tie the Mets for the third wild-card spot, the Giants lost nine of 11.

Webb says he’s partly to blame. The day after Bailey’s walk-off, he strayed too far from his bread-and-butter pitch mix — sinker, changeup, slider — and squandered a four-run lead with a six-run outing against the Dodgers, the beginning of the end.

It isn’t surprising to see Webb, a leader in the clubhouse, take a share of responsibility despite his Cy Young-worthy year. With six innings pitched Tuesday he crossed the 200-inning mark for a third consecutive season, becoming the first Giant to notch at least 200 innings and 200 strikeouts since Madison Bumgarner did it with 207⅔ innings and 203 strikeouts in 2019. Webb is also the first since Bumgarner (who did so from 2011-16) to record at least 200 innings in three consecutive seasons.

Webb plans to start Sunday’s season finale against the Colorado Rockies. Though he says it isn’t stat related, he just wants to “be there for the guys,” the outing will pump up his final numbers.

Webb was frustrated, which has become a familiar feeling. In every one of his 200-inning seasons — and in 2022 when he finished with 192⅔ — Webb has witnessed his team suffer second-half collapses. This one hurt a bit more given the team that surrounds him.

“Every year is different. This year is probably the most frustrating,” Webb said. “No offense to the teams we’ve had before, but this is the most talented team I’ve been on. I think there’s a lot of expectations and it sucks. Looking back at (June), that first game in LA. … We trade for a guy like Devers and we were excited. It’s kind of hard to pinpoint when things go wrong, but unfortunately it seems like we’ve let it stay wrong for a long time. That’s not a very good recipe for success. Unfortunately it seems like this is four straight years where it’s been that exact same thing.”

The Devers addition was supposed to jolt a roster that had already made significant investments in Willy Adames, Matt Chapman and Jung Hoo Lee. When the season was trending up, Webb was part of a pitching staff that was one of the best in baseball. Despite the latest September surge, this isn’t the same team that put itself on the postseason map early on. When the team was a game under .500 at the deadline, Posey sold valuable bullpen parts Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval at the deadline. Then Erik Miller and Randy Rodriguez got hurt.

The bullpen had a completely different look and never fully recovered.

“You go around the league and that’s a lot of teams — you lose guys and you have to find a way to go through it,” Webb said. “Unfortunately we just didn’t. That’s not something you can dwell on, just kind of happened. We just have to hold our heads high and all those guys will be back next year. Try to finish the season strong and come back next year.”

Frustration has been the word of the year. Fitting, given the Giants were once challenging the Dodgers for a division title and then barely hanging onto relevance for the rest of the summer. Webb has felt this cadence many times before. He’s frustrated, but not hopeless.

“I think the talent is incredible,” Webb said. “I think there’s real potential here and I don’t know what’s going to happen with (Justin Verlander), but you get me, Robbie (Ray) and (Landen) Roupp back next year. And some exciting young arms. I’m excited. If there’s one thing about Buster Posey it’s that he’s not OK with losing. I don’t think he’s OK with even being .500. He wants to win and I’m not going to play his job. It’s not my job. But I don’t think he’s OK with this. I don’t think there are a lot of people OK with this.”

Briefly: Ray will not make his scheduled start on Wednesday; JT Brubaker will start in his place.

(sfchronicle.com)

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ORACLE PARK AT DUSK

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THE BOYS OF FALL

lyrics by Dave Turnbull and Casey Beathard (2010)

When I feel that chill, smell that fresh cut grass
I'm back in my helmet, cleats, and shoulder pads
Standing in the huddle, listening to the call
Fans going crazy for the boys of fall

They didn't let just anybody in that club
Took every ounce of heart and sweat and blood
To get to wear those game-day jerseys down the hall
The kings of the school, man, we're the boys of fall

Well it's turn to face the stars and stripes
It's fighting back them butterflies
It's call it in the air, alright
Yes sir, we want the ball
And it's knocking heads and talking trash
It's slinging mud and dirt and grass
It's I got your number, I got your back
When your back's against the wall
You mess with one man, you got us all
The boys of fall

In little towns like mine, that's all they've got
Newspaper clippings fill the coffee shops
The old men will always think they know it all
Young girls will dream about the boys of fall

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THE FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF FAT MEN'S CLUBS

By Tanya Basu

In 1903, in a cheery local tavern tucked away in Wells River, Vt., one of America's most successful fat men's clubs was launched.

"We're fat and we're making the most of it!" was their mantra. "I've got to be good-natured; I can't fight and I can't run," was their motto. Members had to be at least 200 pounds, pay a $1 fee to enter and learn a secret handshake and password. Twice a year, members gathered, with meetings announced in advance to allow the men to stuff up in order to meet the minimum weight requirement. A 1904 Boston Globe article described the biannual meetings colorfully:

"This village is full of bulbous and overhanging abdomens and double chins tonight, for the New England Fat Men's Club is in session at Hale's Tavern. The natives, who are mostly bony and angular, have stared with envy at the portly forms and rubicund faces which have arrived on every train."

The fat men's clubs of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were spectacular celebrations of the wealth and chubbiness of a bygone era. At once sociological curiosity and anthropological artifact, these clubs were a vestige of perhaps the last time society found corpulence to be worthy of celebration.

Weigh-ins were a competitive event. A New York Times article from 1885 describes the crestfallen reaction of a member of a Connecticut fat men's club upon stepping on the scale. "I must weigh over 300 pounds now," George Kapp boasted. Alas, he came in at a disappointing 243. As the Times reported, "His friends thought he shrank at least 20 pounds more from grief before evening."…

https://www.ctpublic.org/2016-03-10/the-forgotten-history-of-fat-mens-clubs

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I try to curb my use of profanity. Especially the use of the F--- word that so many Americans today will use multiple times in one sentence formulated to describe a bowl of their favorite jello. I reserve use of the word to appropriately communicate total disgust in a person or in a person's action.

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RIPRAP

by Gary Snyder (1959)

Lay down these words
Before your mind like rocks.
placed solid, by hands
In choice of place, set
Before the body of the mind
in space and time:
Solidity of bark, leaf, or wall
riprap of things:
Cobble of milky way,
straying planets,
These poems, people,
lost ponies with
Dragging saddles—
and rocky sure-foot trails.
The worlds like an endless
four-dimensional
Game of Go.
ants and pebbles
In the thin loam, each rock a word
a creek-washed stone
Granite: ingrained
with torment of fire and weight
Crystal and sediment linked hot
all change, in thoughts,
As well as things.

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TRUMAN VERDUN:

Yes, the social fabric is badly frayed, from a number of causes--family drift, geographical dislocation, distraction, preoccupation with self, top down propaganda delivered through the smart phone, etc.

Because people are increasingly unable to conduct civil and rational conversations, the more uptight and inarticulate party storms off red-faced when his or her belief system is challenged.

The lingering fealty of the old lefties and hippies to the political parties of the 60s and 70s is largely due to lazy thinking and misplaced loyalties. Like sports fans who tattoo team logos all over their bodies and faces--indelibly marring themselves while the owners and players laugh it up and chase the almighty dollar--so too do people remain blindly loyal to old brands that stand for the exact opposite of what they used to. But the herd lows and grazes with the comfortably numb mind of the browsing mass.

Another way of describing the mind-prison is this: most people fear rejection from the herd more than they value being right on the facts. They just want to belong--at whatever cost. As the philosopher said, "Some part of us never leaves junior high school."

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“A MAN IS LIKELY to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business. This minding of other people's business expresses itself in gossip, snooping, and meddling, and also in feverish interest in communal, national, and racial affairs. In running away from ourselves, we either fall on our neighbor's shoulder or fly at his throat."

— Eric Hoffer

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"I TALK ABOUT these mysterious forces all the time with my chef cronies. Nothing illustrates them more than the Last Meal Game. You're getting into the electric chair tomorrow morning. They're gonna strap you down, turn up the juice and fry your ass until your eyes sizzle and pop like McNuggets. You've got one meal left. What are you having for dinner?"

— Anthony Bourdain

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BLOCKING ICE

Confrontations escalate outside a facility in suburban Chicago

by Ford Fischer

A note from Managing Editor Greg Collard:

Ford Fischer of News2Share was in the Chicago area Thursday night when he gave me a heads-up that a protest was planned at a nearby ICE facility for the next morning. He wasn’t sure it would be a big deal, but would stop by to check it out and leave late morning to catch a flight home.

Things didn’t work out as planned. Ford changed his flight and ended up filming all day outside the facility in Broadview, Ill. Protesters attempted to block government vehicles throughout the day, prompting ICE officers to fire riot munitions and make 16 arrests on Friday and Saturday. There was also the butt-bouncing throwdown of a protester who is running for Congress, which was widely cheered by the right and condemned by the left.

Ford made it home a day late, and then got to work producing this edition of “Activism, Uncensored”:

https://youtu.be/4zTeKiBaCVs?si=Wspx9BQoVJ31EUF6

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AS JIMMY KIMMEL BECOMES A SPEECH ICON, ALEX BERENSON FIGHTS ON ALONE

An imperious talk show host won the love of Hollywood and the ACLU, but to stop government pressure on companies, speech defenders need to recognize Alex Berenson

by Matt Taibbi

Last week, after ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel infuriated conservatives with a monologue decrying the “MAGA gang” for “trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr railed against Disney on a podcast with Benny Johnson. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr seethed. “These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

Kimmel was fired by Disney, leading to an outpouring of support for the First Amendment that was heartening on one level, infuriating on another. Lame-duck comic Stephen Colbert unironically announced “We are all Jimmy Kimmel,” and 400+ Hollywood celebrities signed an ACLU letter in Kimmel’s defense, with Senators like Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal citing an “unprecedented act of government censorship.”

It wasn’t unprecedented. A close analog to the Kimmel situation was already moving through courts in a high-profile First Amendment case called Berenson v. Biden. Just like Jimmy Kimmel, former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson was “jawboned” off a public platform. He was identified by a combination of White House officials and pharmaceutical executives as a voice they wanted to remove from Twitter for criticism of Covid-19 vaccine. Also just like Kimmel, Berenson was actioned just after a high-profile government official made a televised complaint, in this case a July 16, 2021 appearance by Joe Biden.

Berenson was locked out of his account for the first time hours after Biden’s appearance. Weeks later, he was suspended for good. Not that it matters, but while Kimmel was threatened for inaccuracy, Berenson’s problems stemmed from being too accurate about the mRNA Covid vaccines, about everything from studies showing surprising inefficacy to potential links to myocarditis that even Biden’s CDC eventually acknowledged. Critics have gone after other Berenson statements, but the ones that got him in trouble were exactly what the Founders had in mind when they thought about speech: true statements made in opposition to an official propaganda campaign. The last straw was this accurate tweet from August 28, 2021:

It doesn’t stop infection. Or transmission. Don’t think of it as a vaccine. Think of it—at best—as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS. And we want to mandate it? Insanity.

Berenson’s removal marked the end of a five-month campaign that involved current and former high-level officials from Pfizer and multiple government agencies. Onetime Biden official Andy Slavitt commemorated Berenson’s silencing by posting a screenshot of Berenson’s locked account. That tweet is still live.

What does this have to do with Kimmel, who’s been reinstated by Disney and returns to the air tonight in what will be hyped as the greatest First Amendment comeback since the Pentagon Papers? A lot.

First, Google just made a remarkable admission in a letter to House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, admitting it was censored during Covid. “Biden administration officials, including White House officials,” the firm wrote, “conducted repeated and sustained outreach” regarding “user-generated content related to the COVID-19 pandemic that did not violate its policies.” The firm added it was “unacceptable and wrong” when “any government” attempts to dictate content decisions.

There were additional complaints about the “onerous obligations” of European laws like the Digital Services Act (Racket will have more on this soon).

Even though Berenson’s case is built around Twitter and not YouTube, Google’s admissions leave no doubt about the “repeated and sustained” censorship of that era, which everyone seems to be forgetting. While people like Kimmel and Colbert were swimming in bucks pumping out grotesque vaccine propaganda, the primary victims were people like Berenson.

“It’s just more evidence,” Berenson says of the Google news. “The companies can say they acted independently, but they’re acknowledging they felt pressure.”

More importantly, this case is alive and in the hands of the Trump administration. If new speech converts want to pressure this White House, this is one place to do it.

Just a few months before Brendan Carr’s outburst, Biden-appointed Judge Jessica G. L. Clarke of the Southern District of New York handed down a ruling in Berenson’s case that should have shocked speech advocates. On July 14th, Clarke dismissed the private defendants, writing:

Plaintiff lacks standing to assert a First Amendment claim against Slavitt because Berenson cannot obtain equitable relief or Bivens monetary damages against him.

This seeming throwaway line packed a wallop, as a frustrated Berenson wrote on his Substack in July.

“Clarke found that my core First Amendment claims are barred not because I couldn’t prove the White House censored me or I was injured as a result,” he said, “but because the Supreme Court has not allowed for money damages against the federal government for First Amendment violations.”

He was referring to so-called Bivens actions, which allow citizens to sue for federal rights violations only in certain circumstances (until now, not on First Amendment grounds). Paired with the problem of ordering injunctive relief in a speech case — the analogous action for Kimmel would be forcing Disney to re-hire him, which would create a new speech violation — Clarke essentially ruled that since people censored via third parties aren’t entitled to relief, his case has to be dismissed.

It was bad enough that everyone in media missed this ruling when it happened, including me, but now? Berenson has been hopping mad since the Kimmel brouhaha kicked off, and has a right to be, since his case speaks directly to the Kimmel issue, and former colleagues still won’t shine a light.

“It’s a flaw in the law and it doesn’t just apply to me. It’s wrong philosophically that you can’t get damages from the federal government for a violation of your First Amendment rights,” Berenson says. “And it would have been the same thing for Jimmy Kimmel.”

When he won last year’s election, Trump took over for the Biden defendants in Berenson’s case. After Clarke’s decision, Trump defendants are the only ones left in the case. It wouldn’t help with the gaping loophole that now appears to exist with third party censorship, but it would set a cost for violating speech rights. The administration’s hesitancy to make good with Berenson is at best curious, and Judge Clarke’s own mysterious failure to dismiss with regard to the Trump administration opens the door for a message to be sent.

For administration critics who’ll cheer their next-gen Lenny Bruce on ABC tonight, why not also push Trump to make a meaningful gesture toward the First Amendment by settling with someone he doesn’t even hate?

If the ACLU can get Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Ben Stiller and 400 other stars for Kimmel, they really can’t organize twenty signatures for a case right down the fairway of their historical mission? Sadly, it’s obvious why it won’t happen…

https://www.racket.news/p/as-jimmy-kimmel-becomes-a-speech

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FALL

by Edward Hirsch (1986)

Fall, falling, fallen. That’s the way the season
Changes its tense in the long-haired maples
That dot the road; the veiny hand-shaped leaves
Redden on their branches (in a fiery competition
With the final remaining cardinals) and then
Begin to sidle and float through the air, at last
Settling into colorful layers carpeting the ground.
At twilight the light, too, is layered in the trees
In a season of odd, dusky congruences—a scarlet tanager
And the odor of burning leaves, a golden retriever
Loping down the center of a wide street and the sun
Setting behind smoke-filled trees in the distance,
A gap opening up in the treetops and a bruised cloud
Blamelessly filling the space with purples. Everything
Changes and moves in the split second between summer’s
Sprawling past and winter’s hard revision, one moment
Pulling out of the station according to schedule,
Another moment arriving on the next platform. It
Happens almost like clockwork: the leaves drift away
From their branches and gather slowly at our feet,
Sliding over our ankles, and the season begins moving
Around us even as its colorful weather moves us,
Even as it pulls us into its dusty, twilit pockets.
And every year there is a brief, startling moment
When we pause in the middle of a long walk home and
Suddenly feel something invisible and weightless
Touching our shoulders, sweeping down from the air:
It is the autumn wind pressing against our bodies;
It is the changing light of fall falling on us.

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LEAD STORIES, WEDNESDAY'S NYT

Trump Cancels Meeting With Democrats as Shutdown Nears

‘Your Countries Are Going to Hell’: Trump Airs His Grievances at the U.N.

In a Sudden Shift, Trump Says Ukraine Can Win the War With Russia

Jimmy Kimmel, Somber but Defiant, Defends Free Speech in Return to ABC

Man Found Guilty of Trying to Assassinate Trump in Florida

‘Peak SF’ on a Friday Night Is a Robot Fight

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‘I HATE MY OPPONENT’: TRUMP’S REMARKS AT KIRK MEMORIAL DISTILL HIS POLITICS

President Trump has been fueled by grievance and animosity over the course of his political and public life.

by Tyler Pager

As tens of thousands of people mourned the conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Sunday, President Trump made a seemingly unscripted remark that summed up the retribution campaign that has come to define his second term.

“I hate my opponent,” Mr. Trump told the crowd at the memorial in Arizona, “and I don’t want the best for them.”

Mr. Trump has used the full might of his political and executive power to express that mind-set in myriad ways, sparing no facet of American life. He has attacked law firms, universities, political leaders, government agencies, late-night TV hosts, news organizations and cultural institutions, and Mr. Kirk’s killing has only accelerated that campaign. Mr. Trump and his top advisers have signaled a broad crackdown on liberal groups, making the baseless argument that they are part of a violent conspiracy.

The president’s comment on Sunday was in keeping with his pugilistic style of politics, although the context was striking: He spoke just minutes after Mr. Kirk’s widow, Erika, said she forgave her husband’s killer.

“I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and it is what Charlie would do,” she said. “The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the Gospel is love and always love.”

Mr. Trump could not feign forgiveness. “I am sorry, Erika,” he said before contradicting her.

“He did not hate his opponents,” the president said of Mr. Kirk. “He wanted the best for them. That’s where I disagreed with Charlie.”

Mr. Trump has been fueled by grievance and animosity over the course of his political career, and even in the years before, when he was a public figure in New York. After five teenagers were accused of assaulting and raping a young female jogger in New York City in 1989, Mr. Trump called for New York State to bring back the death penalty and told reporters, “I want society to hate them,” according to a book on the president by Maggie Haberman, a New York Times reporter. (The men were later exonerated.)

When asked about the divergent messages from the president and Mrs. Kirk, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said on Monday that the president was “authentically himself.”

“I think that’s why millions of Americans across the country love him and support him, including Erika Kirk, who you saw so beautifully, was onstage with the president in an unthinkable moment, in the midst of an unthinkable tragedy, and was leaning on the president for support during that time, and he was there to give it to her,” she said.

The president’s critics pointed to the rising political violence that has affected both Democrats and Republicans to argue that Mr. Trump should seek to heal the country’s political divides.

“At a time where the nation desperately needs to be bringing down the temperature, you’re saying he authentically doesn’t want to bring it down, or you’re saying that he authentically hates half of America,” said Sarah Matthews, who was Mr. Trump’s deputy press secretary in the first term until breaking with him over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. “It just goes to show that’s what his mantra has always been. It’s just all about division and feeling like a victim and wanting to hate his opponents and get retribution.”

Some conservatives on Monday expressed support for the seemingly conflicting messages from Mrs. Kirk and government officials like the president.

“It is our job to forgive, not the government’s,” Allie Beth Stuckey, a conservative commentator, wrote on social media. “Christians give grace; the government wields the sword (Romans 13). We turn the other cheek; the government punishes evil.”

Almost immediately after Mr. Kirk was killed, Mr. Trump promised vengeance. Even before the suspect was caught, the president said that language from the “radical left” had contributed to Mr. Kirk’s killing and vowed to find those responsible for the violence, as well as “organizations that fund it and support it.”

“We have radical-left lunatics out there, and we just have to beat the hell out of them,” he said.

The suspect, Tyler Robinson, 22, had a “leftist ideology” that was “very different” from that of his conservative family, according to Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah.

Although the authorities have said Mr. Robinson is believed to have acted alone, the White House has signaled a broad crackdown on liberal groups, with Mr. Trump using Mr. Kirk’s death as justification for measures to stifle his political opposition.

ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel off his late-night television show after the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission criticized Mr. Kimmel’s remarks about Kirk and said his agency was “going to have remedies that we can look at.” (On Monday afternoon, Disney announced that Mr. Kimmel would return to his show on Tuesday.)

Even as Mr. Trump suggests that he allows his hatred to drive his agenda, at times he has shown some awareness of potential celestial consequences.

“I want to try and get to heaven, if possible,” he said on Fox News last month.

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GAZA'S CONTRIBUTION TO CIVILIZATION

by Mazin Qumsiyeh

The Gaza littoral — a narrow coastal corridor between Asqalan (Ashkelon) in the north and Rafah at the Egyptian border — occupies a strategic position on the coastal axis linking Africa and Western Asia (the Levant) and is often referred to historically as the Via Maris. Its geography made it a repeated meeting place for goods, peoples, and ideas and explains why archaeological and textual records show continuous human activity from the Chalcolithic/Early Bronze periods onward (de Miroschedji et al.; Tell es-Sakan excavations).

This study synthesizes major published finds and contemporary reporting to outline Gaza’s long-term contributions to Mediterranean and Near Eastern civilization. In the 1947 UN Partition plan, the strip was much larger than it is now (and being demolished). Estimates of 200,000 to as many as half a million perished in the past two years of Israeli onslaught on that land (3/4 women and children, and most of the residents are refugees from the Nakba of 1948-1950).

Recent archaeological work has shown that the Gaza littoral hosted urban settlements as early as 8,000 years ago. Excavations at Tell es-Sakan (discovered during construction work in 1998 and excavated by teams including de Miroschedji) reveal mud-brick urban deposits, storage contexts and evidence for a mixed agricultural-maritime economy during the Early Bronze Age. Such evidence indicates that Gaza’s coastal settlements were part of the emergent urban economies of southern Levant and were in contact with contemporaneous Egyptian administrative and economic activities. The Tell es-Sakan sequence places Gaza within the first waves of coastal urbanization in the eastern Mediterranean.

During the 2nd millennium BCE the Gaza littoral was integrated into the Canaanite network and repeatedly intersected with Egyptian imperial interests. Archaeological assemblages (imported pottery, architecture and small finds) and Egyptian texts show that southern Levantine coastal sites functioned as waystations and focal points for goods moving between the Nile, the Levantine interior and the Mediterranean. Excavation reports and regional syntheses emphasize Gaza’s position as part of coastal exchange networks during this period.

The Iron Age coastal transformation included the arrival (or intensification) of Aegean-influenced material culture in the southern Levant — the so-called Philistine phenomenon — of which Gaza was one of the principal polities in the Philistine pentapolis (Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath). Philistine pottery styles, new craft traditions and evidence for specialized workshops and maritime activities attest to cultural fusion between local Canaanite traditions and incoming Aegean elements. Although modern development has limited large-scale excavation directly inside some parts of Gaza City, comparative work from neighboring coastal sites and site surveys indicates Gaza’s role within this dynamic maritime and craft network.

From the Persian through the Hellenistic and Roman periods Gaza sustained major port facilities and urban morphology demonstrating integration into Mediterranean trade networks. Archaeologists have identified the ancient port installations often called Anthedon (sometimes identified with the Balakhiyya/Blakhiya/ Tell Iblakhiyya area north of Gaza) and Maiuma (the port quarter associated with Gaza) among the principal maritime facilities. Excavations and rescue archaeology, including Franco-Palestinian missions at Anthedon, and the 2023 discovery of a substantial Roman-era cemetery (with lead sarcophagi) near Jabaliya, testify to a complex, economically engaged society with elite burial practices and broad Mediterranean connections.

Byzantine churches (recorded on medieval maps such as the Madaba mosaic) and early Islamic administrative records show continuity of urban life and the adaptation of port and land networks and continued fluporsihing economy as well as peaceful coexistence of Christians and Muslims from 6th to 20th century AD. During the Mamluk periods coastal fortifications and administrative structures continued to emphasize the strategic importance of Gaza. Under Ottoman administration and into modernity Gaza functioned as a regional market center and waypoint for caravan and coastal traffic; travelers’ accounts and administrative records document a long continuity of agricultural production, market exchange, and civic life. Throughout its history this heroic strip of territory defeated mighty armies and inspired legendary victories while continuing to prosper [that is until this recent genocide which is not only unprecedented in the region but globally).

Recent decades have seen important archaeological discoveries (e.g., Tell es-Sakan publications, Anthedon excavations, the Roman-era Jabaliya cemetery) alongside increasing concern about threats to sites. Scholarly analyses and investigative reports emphasize the twin pressures of conflict, urban development, coastal erosion and inadequate heritage management on Gaza’s archaeological record. International teams and local scholars have collaborated in rescue excavations, but wartime destruction and damage to heritage structures have been reported (notably during the conflicts of 2023—2024), raising urgent ethical questions about documentation, local stewardship, and international responsibility for preservation and reconstruction.

Our own environmental studies in the area some using detailed satellite images/remote sensing show 1) rich biodiversity, 2) decimation of the tree cover and habitats (see Yin et al. 2025). Thus, there is devastation for both natural and cultural heritage of this rich area.

Gaza also enriched is with thousands of scholars and contributors to human civilization. Here are just a random selection:

Silvanus of Gaza (d. ~311-CE) — Early Christian bishop of Gaza who was martyred during the Diocletian persecution. He is remembered as one of the earliest Christian leaders in the region.

Aeneas of Gaza (~5th century) — Neo-Platonic philosopher and Christian convert, associated with the Rhetorical School of Gaza. He wrote philosophical works that merged classical philosophy with Christian thought.

Dorotheus of Gaza (~500—560/580) — Monk and ascetic teacher near Gaza, author of spiritual discourses that influenced early Christian monasticism and ethical thought.

Sulayman al-Ghazzi (c. 940—1027) — A Christian bishop and poet in Fatimid Palestine, Sulayman al-Ghazzi was the first known Arab Christian poet to write religious verse in Arabic. His diwan (poetic anthology) offers insights into Christian life during the era of caliph al-Hakim.

Ibn Qudama (1147—1223) — A prominent Hanbali jurist and theologian, Ibn Qudama was born in Gaza and is renowned for his works on Islamic jurisprudence, including al-Mughni, a comprehensive legal encyclopedia.

Abu Bakr al-Nabulsi — A 17th-century Islamic scholar from Gaza, al-Nabulsi was known for his contributions to Islamic jurisprudence and theology, particularly within the Shafi’i school of thought.

Shady Alsuleiman — A contemporary Islamic scholar and imam, Alsuleiman is recognized for his work in Islamic education and community leadership, focusing on promoting understanding of Islamic teachings in modern contexts.

Ayman Hassouna — A Palestinian archaeologist and university lecturer, Hassouna has worked extensively on excavations in Gaza, including the Byzantine Church of Jabalia, contributing significantly to the understanding of Gaza’s ancient history.

Sufian Tayeh (1971—2023) — A physicist and educator, Tayeh served as the president of the Islamic University of Gaza. He was known for his work in physics and applied mathematics and was tragically killed in an Israeli airstrike in December 2023.

Mohammad Assaf (b. 1992) — Singer from the Gaza Strip who gained fame by winning Arab Idol, becoming a symbol of hope and cultural pride for Palestinians.

Dr. Refaat Alareer (1979—2023) — A Renaissance scholar from Gaza, Alareer was a professor and writer who contributed to academic and cultural discourse. He was killed during the 2023 conflict, leaving a legacy of intellectual engagement.

Conclusion: Early urbanization and administrative activities in Gaza contributed to the regional network of production, storage, and exchange that underpinned complex societies in the Near East. Acting as a coastal conduit, Gaza facilitated the transmission of commodities and material culture between Egypt and the broader Levantine-Mediterranean economy. Port infrastructure, long-distance maritime commerce, specialized fisheries and the movement of Mediterranean goods and ideas through Gaza contributed directly to the economic vitality and cultural pluralism of the region. Technological and stylistic exchange (ceramics, metallurgy, textile production, and ship-related crafts) that flowed through the Gaza littoral influenced craft traditions across the southern Levant and beyond.

The Gaza littoral’s long-term contributions to civilization are best understood as a combination of (1) geographical advantage (coastal route and hinterland productivity), (2) sustained maritime and land exchange networks that carried goods and ideas, (3) local craft and agricultural production that fed regional markets, and (4) repeated cultural contact zones that produced hybrid forms of material culture and religious life.

Gaza’s sustained role as a market, agricultural supplier, and transport hub helped to link inland and coastal economies for centuries, transmitting crops, commodities and cultural practices. This was an essential contribution to circum-Mediterranean coastal communities and over 30 countries have direct connections to Gaza. Gaza’s archaeological record informs broader historical narratives of Mediterranean connectivity. Preserving that record is necessary for reconstructing local histories that feed into global understandings of ancient economies, religions, and technologies and is an essential component of knowledge to shape a peaceful future that is not repeatedly marred by genocides and holocausts (due to colonialism, imperialism).

(transcend.org)

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