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WARM AND DRY weather will persist this week. Dry northerly flow will clear out most of the coastal stratus this week, allowing for better duration of coastal sunshine. Rain chances arrive late Sunday, with increasing probability for widespread rainfall and periods of breezy winds through early next week. The opportunity for additional rainfall may continue through mid next week. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 48F under clear skies this Friday morning on the coast. Mostly sunny today, a bit more fog returns during the weekend then rain arrives late Sunday night. No really, maybe an inch total over several days.
FIREBALL REPORTED ACROSS MENDOCINO, LAKE, NAPA COUNTY SKIES
by Matt LaFever
Social media buzzed Thursday evening, September 25, 2025, with reports of a bright meteor streaking across the sky around 8 o’clock — from the Mendocino Coast and the valleys of Lake and Napa counties to as far east as the Butte County community of Paradise.
Ukiah resident Alexander Schultz shared a video with MendoFever showing what began as a single glowing object before breaking apart and leaving a vivid trail across the night sky. That glowing streak is called a meteor trail, caused when a meteoroid slams into Earth’s atmosphere, ionizing the air and producing light. Sometimes especially bright meteors—known as fireballs or bolides—leave behind vapor trails that can linger for several seconds after the main object has burned up.
According to NASA and the American Meteor Society, no major meteor showers are peaking this week. Minor showers such as the Daytime Sextantids and early South Taurids are active, but the more famous Orionids won’t reach their peak until late October.
For now, it seems Mendocino, Lake, and Napa residents simply got lucky with a stray cosmic fireball.
(mendofever.com)
UPON further examination here at the AVA morning desk, this was most likely some space junk reentering our atmosphere. A good report can be found here from KCRA 3: https://youtu.be/tayRq3wj_yc?si=o27Pq1anIYg0XDeb
MENDOCINO COUNTY DA THREATENS LAWSUIT OVER HIRING RESTRICTIONS
Says public safety is the "first responsibility" of county government
by Elise Cox
After struggling for months to close a $17 million deficit through a flexible hiring freeze and other “creative solutions,” the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors learned Tuesday that the county is still projected to be $3 million in the red by the end of the year.
The district attorney’s office warned supervisors that eliminating long-standing vacancies could jeopardize public safety and trigger litigation.
Assistant District Attorney Scott S. McMenomey called the county’s six-month cutoff for removing vacancies “completely arbitrary,” arguing that specialized posts such as chief deputy district attorney and senior deputy attorneys require years of legal education and experience and cannot be filled locally. He said the county saves money by hiring from outside the area, since it does not bear the cost of candidates’ education.
McMenomey also pointed to what he described as a “handshake agreement” with county leadership that vacant positions would remain available to fill even if unfunded. He noted the office is already short-staffed: there are 10 deputy district attorneys on staff and five vacancies, along with three “special” deputies who handle murder and asset forfeiture cases.
“Our office is already understaffed. I don’t know any other county in this state where the district attorney has fewer deputy DAs than the public defender’s office,” McMenomey said, adding that the workload threatens the physical and mental health of existing staff. He emphasized that District Attorney C. David Eyster personally tried 10 cases last year — a number he called “unheard of” for an elected DA.
Citing Government Code 25303, McMenomey said the board cannot obstruct the district attorney’s independent investigative and prosecutorial functions, though it retains budget authority. “We don’t want to go down that path, but we will if we have to,” he said, warning the office could seek help from the state attorney general or pursue reimbursement through litigation if necessary.
Supervisor Ted Williams said the board does not want conflict with the district attorney’s office but acknowledged “a fundamental lack of funds.” He presented a chart showing that expenses for the sheriff’s office and the jail are rising faster than revenues, particularly property taxes.
“The county basically spends its discretionary dollars on public safety,” Williams said, noting that about 34 percent of overall funding is allocated to public safety, with the rest going to departments that support that work, such as the assessor, tax collector and auditor. “It’s bare bones today and it’s about to get worse. And so the hope is we can have some collaboration between the board, the district attorney, the sheriff.”
(mendolocal.news)
THIS SELF-EVIDENT OBSERVATION in the recently completed Coastal Valley EMS review of the three mostly volunteer ambulance finances and operations in the unincorporated areas of the County (“Rural EMS Fiscal Assessment 2025”), correctly sums up the situation (and shows again that the Supervisors who ordered this review are out of touch with public safety operations):
“County subsidies and stipends remain critical lifelines. Without them, none of the agencies could maintain operations at current levels.” (Mark Scaramella)
GAME OF THE WEEK: Ukiah takes on San Marin in top-10 showdown
by Kienan O'Doherty
The Press Democrat’s prep football Game of the Week takes place south of the Sonoma County line on Friday night with an interleague matchup that produced one of last season’s best games.
Ukiah (2-2) heads to San Marin (4-0) in Novato for a rematch of last year’s thriller, which San Marin won 38-35 on the Wildcats’ home field in Mendocino County. It was the first time the two teams have faced off in recent history.
This season, the Mustangs have picked up right where they left off in 2024, when they were selected for the North Coast Section’s top-tier Open Division playoff bracket. They’ve scored a total of 131 points through four games, good for an average of nearly 33 a game, and sit at No. 2 in this week’s North Bay Football Poll.
Ukiah, a semifinalist in the NCS Division 4 bracket last year and No. 9 in this week’s poll, has wins over Carlmont and Fortuna as part of its .500 record. The Wildcats dropped their opener to Rancho Cotate and fell to Chico last week.
For the Mustangs, the tip of the spear in the offensive attack is senior quarterback Daniel Rolovich. The 6-foot-3 gunslinger was a second-team all-league offensive selection last year in the ultra-tough Redwood Empire Conference Adobe division. In a 45-3 win over Casa Grande last week, he was an efficient 7-of-11 for 158 yards and three touchdowns through the air, while also rushing eight times for 82 yards and a pair of scores.
“He’s probably one of the top five quarterbacks that I’ve coached against,” Ukiah head coach Paul Cronin said of Rolovich. “He’s kind of in that same breath as Jared Goff, Jimmy Clausen, Joe Southwick — the fact that he runs well and is super tough and throws a nice ball, he’s a super special kid.”
Rolovich also has plenty of weapons at his disposal. The wide receiver duo of Nico Garbarino (two catches, 42 yards, one touchdown against Casa) and Grant Means (four catches, 79 yards, two touchdowns) has become one of the most dangerous in the area, while Freddy Reier (10 rushes, 64 yards) is a great complement to Rolovich in the running game.
But the Wildcats counter with some high-caliber playmakers of their own. That starts with quarterback Beau David, who has thrown at least two touchdown passes in each of the first four games. He has also totaled over 200 yards passing in each game as well, highlighted by 287 yards in last week’s loss to Chico.
Without a clear-cut No. 1 wide receiver this season, David has been able to spread the ball around, and he’s got the perfect trio for it. Ryan Todd, Dareon Dorsey and Zach Martinez have accounted for all eight of Ukiah’s touchdowns through the air this season, and Dorsey has 419 total receiving yards.
Add dynamic running back Chris Thompson (256 yards, six touchdowns), and Cronin believes that his Ukiah team can be as good as anyone.
“As a team, I would say we’re on the right track,” Cronin said. “Our kids are working really hard and I’m having a fun time coaching this team. With who we’ve played and where we’ve played, I feel pretty good about where we’re at. I think it’s going to be one of those things where we’re going to be a pretty good team.”
Ukiah is currently averaging 34 points per game and will likely need to keep pouring on the points in order to upset San Marin in Friday’s contest. Oh, and try to shut down one of the best signal callers in Northern California.
“For us, we need to be able to get some pressure and throw off the rhythm with what they have and don’t have,” Cronin said. “It’s been a fun week to dive in and prepare for, because even if you do everything correctly, they can hurt you from anywhere.”
TERESA JEAN RAUCH
April 18, 1947 – September 20, 2025
The sun shines less bright and the world seems a little colder. Our beautiful mother was lifted into the arms of her Lord and Savior and joyfully entered the Kingdom of Heaven on the morning of Saturday, September 20, 2025.
Teresa Kott was born in Los Angeles, California to Bruce Kott and LaVerne Kester on April 18, 1947. Her life was defined by selflessness, compassion for others, love for her family and devotion to her faith. She overcame challenges and adversity with strength and grace, never giving up. A creator and an educator for over 50 years, she used her knowledge, ideas and creativity to help others succeed and flourish. Inspired by both her personal and professional experiences, she developed the board game called “Now It’s Your Turn.” She also created a series of workbooks that helped kids understand their emotions, the first being titled “Do You Know When You Are Angry?”
She was the most beautiful of people. Whether you were family, a friend or someone she’d just met, it mattered not. Her heart always had enough room for one more and her generous spirit touched many, many lives. She was an example of unconditional love and was always willing to help others, even if it meant she did without. She was truly an angel on earth.
For the last two years of her life, Teresa was lovingly cared for by her daughter-in-law, Christine. At every turn, Chris was unfailingly present and did everything with love and grace, preserving our mother’s pride and dignity. There are not enough words and not enough time to adequately express just how much she is appreciated.
Her family also wishes to acknowledge their immense gratitude for the hospice team at Howard Hospital for their compassionate and tender care: Adriana, Arie, Chris, Erwin, Jaide, Kathy, and Katie, and, for her valuable assistance and for never leaving her at home, huge thanks to her respite worker Shannon.
Teresa was predeceased by her parents, Bruce & Delores Kott and LaVerne & Butch Bender. two husbands and her nephew Kosta Pollichronakis.
She lives on in the memories and love of her son Brian (wife Christine); daughter Phaedra (husband Joseph); grandchildren Ashley, Hilarie, Bethany, Destiny, Miranda and Lex; sisters Linda, Vicki, and Dee; nephews Nikos, Isaiah, and Jack; nieces Anastasia, Ashley and Alethea; her extended family and the multitude of friends and people she inspired.
A Celebration of Life is planned for Sunday, November 2. For more information on the event as it becomes available and for further details about the life of this amazing woman, please visit the Find A Grave website and search for either her name or memorial number 287179843.
In lieu of cards or flowers, we ask that instead you perform random acts of kindness for strangers or you can make donations of time or goods or give financial support in her memory to your local hospice organization.
GEORGE ZEROTH (MendoFever comment line):
I agree with you, and I wish (again) that Matt [LaFever] would address this; it's distressing to see all these comment sections degenerating towards a MAGA consensus, when we know that that isn't Matt's ideology (or at least he denies that; I'm starting to wonder).
Just to be clear about "fascist": we are not yet living in a fascist state. Not yet. But we're clearly headed in that direction.
And to all those here who object to what you and I are writing here, can you, without name-calling or over-the-top whoop-ass condemnation, please tell us whether you don't have any reservations about what's happening here? Like that woman who got physically picked up and then intentionally dropped on the asphalt? What if it were you protesting something (like something being too "woke") and the Deep State goons did this to you?
Let me give another example: in the Jimmy Kimmel brouhaha, there has been some pushback in recent days against the statements from the FCC director against Kimmel. And not from the "left", but from Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. And you ought to pay attention to what they're saying (and they're pissed about what the FCC has said and done: read about it): what's being done here against someone from "the left" (WTHTM*) can easily be done against *them* when the shoe is on the other foot (i.e., if the next administration is Democratic). So like they say, be careful what you wish for.
LOCAL EVENTS (this weekend)
MEDI-CAL RULE CHANGES TO AFFECT THOUSANDS IN MENDOCINO COUNTY NEXT YEAR
by Sarah Stierch
The Mendocino County Department of Social Services is giving residents a heads-up about Medi-Cal eligibility requirements to go into effect on Jan. 1.
According to Rachel Ebel-Elliott, the county’s deputy director of social services, approximately 42,000 residents, or 47% of the county population, are enrolled in Medi-Cal aka Medicaid.
Eligibility Is No Longer Based Simply On Income
Starting next year, Medi-Cal will consider assets when reviewing eligibility for older adults and people with disabilities as part of the application or renewal process. That means income alone is no longer the sole tool in determining eligibility.
A single person applying for or renewing Medi-Cal can have up to $130,000 in countable assets. For each additional person in the household, the limit goes up by $65,000, up to a maximum of 10 people.
Assets include cash and money in checking and savings accounts; investments like stocks and bonds; property apart from a primary residence, such as a vacation home or rental; or owning more than one car.
An applicant’s primary residence, primary vehicle, household and personal items, and certain accounts, such as retirement 401ks or IRAs, don’t count.
Current Medi-Cal recipients will have their assets reviewed at their annual renewal.
Eligibility Has Changed For Immigrants Seeking To Enroll
Also starting Jan. 1, adults without “satisfactory immigration status” will not be allowed to newly enroll in full-scope Medi-Cal.People without “satisfactory immigration status” include people without legal immigration status and DACA recipients.
They will still be eligible for emergency Medi-Cal, which only covers emergencies or life-threatening care.
More information on Medi-Cal eligibility for immigrants is available here.
FILE – The Adventist Health Ukiah Valley Outpatient Pavilion entrance at 275 Hospital Dr. in Ukiah, Calif., on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. Adventist Health is a nonprofit health care organization with several primary care offices and clinics throughout Mendocino County, and a 50-bed hospital at its location at 275 Hospital Dr. (Sydney Fishman/Bay City News)
Immigrants Currently Enrolled Can Keep Their Coverage For Now
Individuals currently enrolled in full-scope Medi-Cal will stay covered regardless of immigration status as long as they complete their annual renewal.
People who fail to renew will not be able to sign up again and can only receive emergency Medi-Cal.
Children under 18 and pregnant women can still get full-scope Medi-Cal no matter their immigration status.
Coverage for pregnant women only lasts through the pregnancy and 12 months after the pregnancy ends.
Why Are These Changes Happening?
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation removing Medi-Cal’s asset test in 2024, making it easier for older adults and people with disabilities to qualify.
When President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” was signed into law in July it required all states to reinstate the asset test to limit eligibility to people who are considered the most in need.
For the past decade, California also allowed adult immigrants lacking permanent legal status to receive full-scope Medi-Cal.
The “Big Beautiful Bill” is requiring states to cut Medicaid spending, resulting in California, which is already suffering budget shortfalls, to freeze new enrollments.
In Mendocino County, the changes could mean some older adults and people with disabilities may lose Medi-Cal coverage if their savings exceed the new asset limits, even if their incomes remain low.
According to representatives from the county, local clinics and hospitals may also see more pressure as undocumented adults who are not already enrolled lose the ability to sign up for full-scope coverage beginning in 2026, leaving many to rely solely on emergency care.
Supporters say the return of asset limits ensures Medi-Cal resources are focused on residents most in need, while the freeze on new enrollments for undocumented adults helps the state manage ballooning healthcare costs.
For more information, contact Mendocino County Department of Social Services or call (707) 463-7700 in Ukiah and (707) 962-1000 in Fort Bragg.
(Mendocino Voice)
FOR MENDO PARKS DIRECTOR, HIS JOB IS PERSONAL
by Carole Brodsky
Upstairs in the Ford House, one of Mendocino County’s most iconic and historic buildings, the Spartan office of Sid Garza-Hillman doesn’t reveal much about his myriad talents or how his creative spirit led him to move to Mendocino County and take on the job of MendoParks executive director last year.
“Here’s all the stuff for the Coastal Cleanup. I think we’re ready,” smiles Garza-Hillman, holding up two adorable wooden treasure chests. “My daughter decorated these for the scavenger hunt. I’m really excited about that addition to the cleanup.”
After speaking with Garza-Hillman, this long-ago Los Angeles transplant recognized the SoCal twang in Garza-Hillman’s voice. Like so many people, it was the pull of the land, water, and community that drove him out of LA and up to Mendocino, about 20 years ago.
“Back in LA, I was acting and playing music,” he continues. Before that, he received his BA in Philosophy from UCLA. He landed some interesting roles, such as a “Zine-o-phobia Creep” in Ghost World, Agent Gee in Men in Black II, and played the role of Harley on eight episodes of the series on Sundays. Additionally, the guitarist, lyricist, and vocalist toured the US, Canada, and Europe with his band, the Sid Hillman Quartet- an alt-rock band that created spare, thoughtful music. His latest solo album, aptly named Oxygen, as well as his work with the Quartet, is available on all platforms.
Garza-Hillman is also an author of four books: Approaching the Natural: A Health Manifesto, Raising Healthy Parents: Small Steps, Less Stress, and a Thriving Family, and Six Truths: Live by these truths and be happy. Don’t, and you won’t, and Ultrarunning for Normal People: Life Lessons Learned On and Off the Trail. He spent a considerable amount of time on his own podcast and as a guest on many others, and is known locally for his work as the Wellness Programs Director at the Stanford Inn & Resort, as well as the Race Director of the Mendocino Coast 50K Trail Ultramarathon.
“When I escaped from LA, I discovered wellness, which led me to the job at the Stanford Inn,” he explains. An avid runner, Garza-Hillman discovered his true calling- trail running- when he ran on trails consistently after moving to Mendocino County.
“I discovered that the more time I spent in nature, the better I felt.” He saw social media’s warning signs early on and exited all platforms in 2018. “I knew it was time to quit when I was about to delete my Facebook account, and my hand began shaking as I was about to press that delete button.”
The role of the environment began to fold seamlessly into Garza-Hillman’s understanding of health and happiness. “My overall approach has been to connect to the natural, animal part of being a human.” The time he’d been spending on screens was now available for other creative ventures.
“I kept my YouTube account active, but I turned off the comments. What I realized is that back in the day, many people with Internet platforms would have been those individuals standing on street corners, waving around pamphlets. Social media was detracting from my creative drive as a father, a husband, and a human.” He understands that corporations do what’s necessary to lure people to their platforms, particularly when the public demands free content. “That part of the onus lies with us.”
Running began to take a more significant role in Garza-Hillman’s life. “I’m not a good runner or a good athlete. I’ve run 11 ultra marathons, but I don’t run with a watch. If I feel like I need to stop, I stop.” This resulted in the launch of his ultra-marathon in 2016, which takes place mainly on State Park land. “When I run, I take my phone with me for safety, but I don’t do any tracking, other than setting a timer if I need to be somewhere. I’m not data-driven. I don’t wear headphones. What I began to notice after ditching all the tech was that more creative ideas started to flow. My creativity began to blossom. I would get ideas for songs or passages for a book. So I began carrying a small dictator. I dictate the ideas and put them away, so that I’m not tempted to pull out my phone and respond to messages.”
Last year, the ultramarathon sold out in 4 minutes. “The race attracts mostly people from out of town, who are drawn to the beauty of the course, the healthy food and air, and the idea of running on trails. People love our low population, the intimate connection, and the experience.” When the job for director of MendoParks became available, Garza-Hillman felt it was a natural fit.
“I saw this job as an opportunity to be a voice for the State Parks,” he notes. MendoParks is a 501(c) (3) organization tasked with the opportunity to have a direct impact on getting people into State Parks and into nature. “We’re associated with 10 parks along the coast- Mendocino Headlands, Westport Union Landing, MacKerricher, Jughandle, Caspar Headlands, Russian Gulch, Van Damme, Manchester, Greenwood, and Navarro River Redwoods State Park. Mendocino County is an interesting place compared to other counties in California. When visitors come to the Ford House and ask where they should go, we can honestly say that any park along this coast is going to blow your mind. Our parks are easily accessible. There are no hassles with parking and no lines of cars waiting to get in.”
“One of the jobs of MendoParks is to promote the phenomenal educational programs within the State Park system.” MendoParks supports the Junior Rangers, Junior Lifeguard Program, disseminates Park brochures and other printed materials, and offers a Latino Outdoors program. Their website provides free downloads of Park Adventure Kits, a Pomo Language Tidepool Sheet, a Backyard Junior Ranger Program, and a MendoParks Whale Watching Guide. The Adventure Kits and Whale Watching Guide are available in Spanish. The website also offers “Virtual Field Trips” and In-Person student Field Guides for MacKerricher Park and Hendy Woods.
MendoParks undertakes additional projects, including the creation of an accessibility feature at the Big River Haul Road Gate. “Within two weeks of starting the project, we sank the posts so that people with walkers and wheelchairs can get on that trail.”
MendoParks is also responsible for the operational support of several State Park Visitor Centers, including VanDamme, MacKerricher, the Ford House Visitor Center, and the Elk/Greenwood Museum.
“The State Park interpretive staff are amazing. They are creating great activities for kids and adults. When you see people at one of the tide pooling programs, their hands are wet, in the ocean. You can’t do that artificially.”
As MendoParks is basically a two-person operation, volunteers are always appreciated, and there are several ways for the Innkeeper community and visiting guests to support the work of the organization.
For the past year, since accepting the job, Garza-Hillman has been focused on bolstering the agency’s finances so that MendoParks can better support the work of their State Park partners.
“I know that the more time we spend in nature, the more our creativity, health, and attention are improved. I’m building a stronger relationship between our organization, the local community, and visitors, so that everyone knows the importance of the work we’re doing.” In addition to the Ultra Marathon, Garza-Hillman supports the coast’s annual KelpFest! as a member of the event’s steering committee.
“I truly believe that organizations like MendoParks are crucial for the success of our species. If we can’t balance our reliance on technology with our human need to celebrate natural beauty and connect on a truly human level, we may not survive. This first year with MendoParks has been very rewarding. I love the direct impact we have on people who live here, and the impact we are having on preserving our environment. My goal is to reconnect people to nature. We are humans who evolved in nature, and that’s what we need to thrive,” he concludes.
For more information or to support the work of MendoParks, visit https://www.mendoparks.org or phone (707) 937-4700.
(Ukiah Daily Journal)
FROM EBAY, A PHOTOGRAPH OF SEMI-LOCAL INTEREST: Ukiah Fish Hatchery, circa 1920.
ED NOTES:
SYDNEY FISHMAN (Mendocino Voice): At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Dr. Marvin Trotter spoke about his time as a medical practitioner and the horror stories he has witnessed. For many years, he was a visiting doctor in Covelo, and he saw how heavy use of nitrous oxide negatively impacted the residents there. “Four years ago, when I was working in Covelo, three young men decided to get some whippets from the local smoke shop and had a good time in their truck,” Trotter said. “The driver hit a telephone pole, and they all were killed. The smoke shop quit selling whippets after that.”
THE WORST KEPT SECRET in Ukiah for years has been the role of then-Public Health Department MD Dr. Marvin Trotter’s son in the death of Trotter’s son’s friend. The secret became public when the parents of the boy who died filed a wrongful death suit against Dr. Trotter and his wife, both of whom are MDs. The suit was filed against Dr. Trotter, his wife, Dr. Mary Newkirk, and their son, Evan Trotter, by the mother of 16-year-old, Keith McCallum. The McCallums said that a Fentanyl patch was sold to their son by Evan Trotter who had taken it from an unsecured supply in his parents home in Redwood Valley. “During the evening of September 12, 2003, Keith McCallum applied the Fentanyl patch given to him by Evan Trotter. The following morning, Keith's mother (Vicki Nelson) discovered him lying in his bedroom, lifeless. The cause of Keith McCallum's death was acute cardiac failure due to Fentanyl toxicity,” the lawsuit states. Fentanyl is a very strong pain killer, much stronger than morphine which can also kill you if you exceed the dosage by much which is why it is illegal to possess without a prescription. Fentanyl is also abused by heroin addicts and other drug users when they can get hold of it. The Trotters, being MDs, were obviously aware of the drug's danger, but they failed to ensure the security of the potentially fatal patches, according to the suit. Reportedly other drugs were left unsecure in the Trotter household as well. Evan Trotter was ordered to enroll in a drug-rehab program as a juvenile and was placed on two years probation after being found responsible for transporting and selling the fentanyl patch to his “friend” McCallum. But when Evan Trotter was seen in Redwood Valley during his rehab period worried neighbors inquired as to why he wasn’t still in treatment. They discovered that Mendo’s then-Chief Probation Officer, Bob McAllister (since retired), a known friend of the Trotter family, had quietly re-assigned young Trotter back to Redwood Valley outside the probation system as a favor to his friends, the Trotters. Redwood Valley residents, familiar with Evan Trotter’s past drug thefts considered Evan Trotter to be a threat to other Redwood Valley teenagers, so they asked the DA to intervene and restore Evan Trotter’s formal probation outside Mendocino County. At the time it was all hush-hush because Evan Trotter was a juvenile. The late Keith MacCallum was a popular student/athlete and his death was said to have shocked his fellow students at Ukiah High School. The Nelson lawsuit claimed Dr. Trotter regularly wrote prescriptions for the fentanyl patches for use by his elderly mother in Texas and that Trotter allowed easy access to the drug in the household. The suit also claimed that Dr. Trotter became aware of missing fentanyl patches from the home supply in 2003, several weeks before McCallum's death, but that neither Dr. Trotter nor his MD wife reported the missing drugs to authorities. The lawsuit further alleges the Trotters “knew that their son, Evan, was a drug user and suspected previously that he had purloined fentanyl from the family home and/or vehicles.” Since the tragic death of young MacCallum, the Trotters have — belatedly — removed the prescription drugs from their home, a wise move, but one which Redwood Valley neighbors considered to be not only an admission of guilt, but too little, too late.
THE CASE WENT TO ARBITRATION and Dr. Trotter was ordered to pay $800,000 to Ms. Vicki Nelson of Redwood Valley. According to arbitrator E.D. Bronson, “The negligence of the defendant is obvious.” Among the facts stipulated to by both parties was that Marvin Trotter's son Evan was a known drug abuser; that Dr. Trotter knew his son was a drug abuser, that fentanyl patches Trotter kept in his home were known to have been missing when Keith McCallum died from one of them. that Dr. Trotter did nothing to find the missing patches or otherwise account for them. Arbitrator Bronson determined that the total damages that plaintiff Vicki Nelson suffered were $2 million, but he broke the fault for the damages down into percentages as follows: Dr. Trotter: 40%, the deceased, Keith McCallum: 30%, Evan Trotter: 30%. Another fact stipulated to was that empty containers of fentanyl were found in Evan Trotter's bedroom by Dr. Trotter’s wife, Dr. Mary Newkirk, the day before Keith MacCallum applied one to his hip, went to sleep and never woke up. Dr. Trotter knew of the missing patches prior to that date, “yet continued to store the medicine around the home unsecured.” Dr. Newkirk, had previously been removed from the list of defendants.
ANON: “Social media and gaming can lead to deadly psychosis.”
Mike Koepf: “So can brainwashing young men with constant accusations that Trump is Hitler and those who voted for him fascists.”
ED NOTE: If you assume young men are too stupid to think for themselves. I daresay that the spectrum of political opinion among the general pop also prevails among young men. Trump is somewhere between Idi Amin and Il Duce, but much closer to Amin in general functioning. In 1954, at the appearance of Barry Goldwater, Governor Pat Brown declared, “The stench of fascism is in the air.” He’d need a gas mask today.
RON PARKER (Mendocino County Way Back When): Tan Bark operation Peeling Bark near Briceland Humboldt Co. it was the same kind of operation we did in Mendocino County.
CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, September 25, 2025
NATASHA BABATUNDE, 38, Ukiah. False ID, parole violation.
JOSE CORNEJO-OLVERA, 26, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, parole violation.
BILLY GONZALEZ-CARVAJAL, 36, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon with great bodily injury, resisting.
RONDA HARBOR, 56, Laytonville. Under influence, property theft with prior, domestic violence court order violation.
SHIDDEWUM, MARTINEZ, 27, Redwood Valley. Domestic battery, domestic violence court order violation, contempt of court, probation revocation.
ALEXANDER POULIDES, 46, Willits. Suspended license for DUI, failure to appear.
ROGER ROTH, 54, Willits. Suspended license for DUI, conspiracy.
BRANDON SMITH, 24, Ukiah. Domestic battery, false imprisonment, cruelty to child-infliction of injury.
ALEJANDRO VEGA-BARRERA, 24, Ukiah. Domestic battery.
STEVE TALBOT:
To anyone of a certain age in the San Francisco Bay Area, Belva Davis is a local news icon, a trailblazer, and a remarkable human being. On the CBS Morning Show today, 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker gave her the national tribute she has long deserved. Belva was still alive but in failing health. This was a tribute, not an obituary.
Bill reports that he first met Belva in 1979 at the public station in San Francisco, KQED, where she anchored a nightly news show. She quickly became a mentor. I happened to show up at KQED the following year, got to know Bill who was a great, serious guy, and had the privilege of joining Belva's on-air news crew. One of the stories I did there with reporter Jonathan Dann about nuclear weapons accidents turned into the first documentary we made for KQED and PBS, “Broken Arrow,” which really launched my 40-plus career in television reporting and documentary-making.
I found Belva to be a supportive, encouraging voice. Tough, serious, hardworking, but incredibly gracious, too. I'll always be grateful to have worked alongside her.
BELVA DAVIS, BAY AREA BROADCASTING TRAILBLAZER, DIES AT 92
by Brandon Downs
Belva Davis, a Bay Area broadcasting trailblazer, died at 92 on Wednesday morning after a long illness.
Davis was the first African-American woman to become a television news reporter on the West Coast when she was hired at KPIX in 1966.
She spent three decades working as a reporter and anchor for KPIX.
Davis covered all kinds of news, politics and culture. She was not shy to place herself at the heart of the story, no matter where it took her.
"I had learned to write because I was writing for JET magazine and weekly newspapers," she said during a 2018 interview. "And I learned to speak because I was on radio stations, you know, giving the news or doing women's news or whatever I was allowed to do on radio. So, you put the two together, and so all I had to learn to do then was stand still for the camera."
She covered the likes of Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King Jr., the Hearst family, and she even traveled to Cuba and met with Fidel Castro. Davis covered countless other big stories.
Being a barrier breaker was not without its costs. Davis said she was often asked to leave news conferences because people couldn't believe that she, a Black woman, was a real reporter.
"It made for an exciting day, because I never knew whether I'd benefit by being female and black, or whether I would be ridiculed," she said.
Over the course of her TV career, Davis earned multiple Emmy Awards and became one of the most respected journalists in the country.
She went on to work at two other Bay Area television stations until her retirement.
Her family told KPIX she died Wednesday morning after a long illness, though her name and her legacy will no doubt leave their mark on journalists for decades to come.
"From the moment I met Belva Davis as a young student at Mills College, she was a steady source of inspiration, guidance, and friendship for me," Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said in a statement. "My deepest condolences go to her husband, William Moore, her children Steven and Darolyn, and to everyone whose lives were touched by her extraordinary spirit."
(cbsnews.com)
AI CAMERAS ARE SPOTTING WILDFIRES ACROSS CALIFORNIA
by Paul Rogers
For generations, fire lookout towers stood as landmarks across the American West.
Binoculars in hand, dedicated fire spotters scanned the landscape for smoke and radioed firefighters before flames grew out of control. But now, as California enters what is historically the most dangerous part of fire season — the end of summer before the first major rains — lone human sentries have largely given way to a new type of fire lookout on mountain tops: high-tech cameras.
What began as a small research project at UC San Diego 25 years ago has grown into a powerful network of 1,211 cameras constructed on peaks and hilltops across the state with millions of dollars in state funding and oversight from Cal Fire.
Built on towers, observatories and buildings, the cameras are part of a system called ALERTCalifornia. They turn 360 degrees every 2 minutes, taking 12 photos with each pass, 24 hours a day. Upgraded with artificial intelligence software two years ago, they can pan, tilt, zoom, detect smoke and alert fire dispatchers automatically — sometimes before humans call 911.
Each can see 60 miles away on a clear day, and with near-infrared technology, gaze out 120 miles on a clear night.
“Lookouts get up in the morning and work until dusk. But this is 24-7,” said Brian York, deputy chief for fire intelligence at Cal Fire.
“We measure success in all the times that we respond and put out the fires that you never hear about,” he said. “Especially in rural areas at night when most people are sleeping.”
Since 2019, the number of cameras has more than doubled.
The AI lookouts are now on top of many of California’s most prominent peaks, including Mount Hamilton, Mount Diablo and Mount Tamalpais in the Bay Area, Martis Peak at Lake Tahoe, Mammoth Mountain in the Sierra, and the slopes of Mount Shasta.
The cameras have been used to monitor atmospheric river storms, the recovery of California condors, even a tsunami warning along California’s coast in July after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake off Russia.
They can be found on Southern California peaks like Mount Wilson near Los Angeles, Cowles Mountain in San Diego, and even on Catalina Island, along with the top of the Dream Inn in Santa Cruz and the roof of the Oakland Coliseum.
Anyone can view the camera feeds live at alertcalifornia.org.
“They are here to help during emergencies,” said Caitlin Scully, UC San Diego spokeswoman. “But they are used all the time by so many different groups. Because they are available for free, people use them to watch big storms, or even check the conditions up in the Sierra when they want to go for a hike.”
The network is based at UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering, the Qualcomm Institute and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It is run and maintained by UC San Diego, with Cal Fire, large utilities like PG&E, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and other partners contributing locations and camera equipment.
From 2019 to 2024, Cal Fire contributed at least $24 million to expanding the system.
New fire departments and other agencies sign up to be partners, and their officials are given access to pan and zoom in the cameras. Last month, East Bay Regional Park District, which has 126,809 acres of parkland across 73 parks in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, signed on.
The network isn’t without its shortcomings.
To address privacy concerns, UC San Diego blurs homes, parking lots and other nearby features that could track people in real time.
The AI system, developed by a DigitalPath, a Chico company, also can’t always tell smoke from dust storms, clouds or other false positives. Its software had to be taught not to report steam from the Geysers geothermal fields in Sonoma County. And in big urban fires, like in Los Angeles in January, residents with cell phones report fires almost as soon as they begin.
“The biggest advantage with them is that we can monitor fires now as they are ongoing,” said Craig Clements, director of the Fire Weather Lab at San Jose State University. “There are limitations with detection. The cameras can see smoke and sometimes hot spots. They can’t see through mountains. And if a fire starts at the bottom of a canyon, you aren’t going to see it. AI and smoke detection are still in their infancy.”
Clements said the technology also may be overtaken in the years ahead by high-tech satellites.
But for now, he said, it is very useful for fire commanders, meteorologists and researchers to learn about fire behavior in real time as huge fires are exploding across the landscape.
“I look at it all the time,” Clements said. “You can’t get flame heights, spread rates and things like that. But I look at the plume structure, how thick the smoke plume is — things you can’t see on satellite. That shows you the state of the fire, and gives you a sense of the fire’s intensity.”
The cameras don’t dispatch fire engines, helicopters or airplanes on their own.
They send a message to dispatch centers across the state, which is then verified by humans.
Last year, there were 7,553 wildfires in Cal Fire’s jurisdiction. Of those, 1,668 were picked up by the cameras, said Cal Fire’s York. And 38%, or 636, were detected by the cameras before any person called 911 to report them.
In one such case on July 6, an AI camera posted an alert at 2:33 am of a fire near Auburn, in the foothills east of Sacramento. Nobody had called 911.
Cal Fire’s Grass Valley Emergency Command Center verified it and sent engines. Fire crews found a fire and put it out before it spread beyond a 30 x 30 foot area.
“It was a perfect example of a fire that doesn’t gain attention because it was detected early and extinguished while still small,” York said.
Fire lookout towers with human fire spotters are going the way of the phone booth and fax machine. Where there were once more than 600 in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, today there are only 217 left in California, according to Forest Fire Lookout Association. Only about 50 of the sites are regularly staffed now, mostly with volunteers.
Cell phones, automated cameras, more airplane flights and more people living in rural areas have reduced their effectiveness.
Jamey Erikson, superintendent at Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton in the hills east of San Jose, said old paper directions are still posted in offices there telling people how to report the coordinates of fires.
But the three ALERTCalifornia cameras at the observatory have made that largely obsolete, he said.
“I use the cameras religiously to look for smoke, to check the weather,” he said. “They are essential.”
(Ukiah Daily Journal/Bay Area News Group)
ARE KENNEDY’S ANTICS A DIVERSIONARY TACTIC?
Editor:
This whole brouhaha regarding Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and his ill-equipped minions is too reckless and ridiculous to be anything other than an elaborate distraction, a way to prevent American citizens from noticing what’s really going on, namely the loss of our freedoms, one by one.
Gay Sibley
Ukiah
NAVARATRI DAY 5 (Nine Nights in Worship to the Divine Mother)
Warmest spiritual greetings,
Woke up this morning feeling most excellent, after an afternoon at Washington, D.C.'s Yard House. The German beer is flowing, plus Oktoberfest additions to the menu. Watched Aerosmith videos and also sports on the big screens. Got back to the homeless shelter and checked in, followed by a hot shower and a nap. Spent the rest of the evening quietly chanting in the dorm.
Presently at the MLK Library enjoying YouTube videos from India during Navaratri. I am continuing to encourage the formation of a spiritual nomadic action group, initially active in the United States of America. Lots of creative rituals and direct action, in worship to the divine mother, and much else. What would you like to do for the rest of your life? Indeed, let us get organized and take charge. How else is the abominable dark phase of Kali Yuga going to segue into the Satya Yuga, or age of truth and light? If not us, then who? If not now, then when? We are all leaving this world at some point, and we are taking nothing here with us!
Craig Louis Stehr, [email protected]
'GREAT NEWS': SPORTS ILLUSTRATED SEAHAWKS BLOGGER CELEBRATES 49ERS' BOSA INJURY
by Gabe Fernandez
A Seattle Seahawks blogger for Sports Illustrated’s digital arm On SI called 49ers star Nick Bosa’s season-ending ACL tear “great news” for the NFC West rival.
“Seattle Seahawks get great news with Nick Bosa injury update,” the headline reads. Just underneath the headline, which drew the ire of 49ers fans on social media, was a subhead that read “San Francisco 49ers’ star pass-rusher Nick Bosa suffered a season-ending injury Sunday, perhaps paving the way for the Seattle Seahawks to win the NFC West.”
While the writer, veteran Dallas sports reporter Richie Whitt — there’s perhaps no better example of sports media’s fraught state than a Texas writer covering a football team over 2,000 miles away as one of five NFL teams he’s currently writing about — makes sure to note that neither the Seahawks, nor their fan base, are actively celebrating the injury, he describes the ACL tear as “positive news.”
It’s certainly in poor taste to make the bright side of an opposing player’s career-altering injury the central thesis of a blog, even if the logic of this conclusion is straightforward: A team losing one of its best players inherently makes the team worse, thereby making its competition better by comparison.
This is not the first time this publication has framed a Niners injury in this way. When Brock Purdy was ruled out for a few weeks with a toe injury, Whitt wrote a blog with the headline, “Seahawks might catch NFC West break with 49ers’ Brock Purdy injury news.” Just like with Bosa’s injury, the article went into how Purdy’s absence would help Seattle in the divisional race, and it included a joke about the quarterback’s injury in the kicker.
“While hoping the Niners stub their, ahem, toe and absorb a loss in the next few weeks, the Seahawks have to focus on their own business,” Whitt wrote. “That starts with Sunday’s tough road test against old friend DK Metcalf and the Pittsburgh Steelers.”
The state of Sports Illustrated is a depressing tale of a legacy publication’s downfall. Once a weekly printed central hub of quality sportswriting, reporting and analysis, the brand has been heavily diluted to include a digital content mill under the umbrella of its iconic name thanks to the efforts that former publisher TheMaven notoriously began — well before its AI authors controversy.
Sports Illustrated still puts out good work — both digitally, and even occasionally in print — through its unionized staff of reporters and editors. But when those stories are published online, they share an “SI.com” domain that also hosts its blog network, On SI, the focuses of which range from specific teams to specific sports topics, even those for leering eyes. The On SI content mill lets nonunionized sports bloggers appear as though they’re actually writing for Sports Illustrated when they’re just working for a publisher licensed to use the SI brand.
That obfuscated editorial structure results in it sure looking like Sports Illustrated, and the history attached to it, is OK with a story celebrating that an athlete needs season-ending surgery.
(SFGate.com)
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
What I’ve noticed with the HS students I tutor is that for all the time they spend in cyberspace, they have to be baby-stepped through how to do even basic research. Helping them then determine what is good/bad information is another major task. I am thankful to be in a position to help a handful of students through the process, but am appalled—but no longer surprised—that they aren’t taught this at school.
The large increase in the number of families choosing to homeschool is encouraging. Those parents who believe they couldn’t manage it would be more likely to go for it if they were aware of how much support and the various options, such as homeschooling coops, that are available.
WAKE ME UP WHEN SEPTEMBER ENDS
lyrics by Billie Joe Armstrong (2005)
Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends
Like my father's come to pass
Seven years has gone so fast
Wake me up when September ends
Here comes the rain again
Falling from the stars
Drenched in my pain again
Becoming who we are
As my memory rests
But never forgets what I lost
Wake me up when September ends
Ring out the bells again
Like we did when spring began
Wake me up when September ends
Here comes the rain again
Falling from the stars
Drenched in my pain again
Becoming who we are
Like my father's come to pass
Twenty years has gone so fast
Wake me up when September ends
ELIA KAZAN:
“We don’t grow redwoods any longer—in any field. We have diminished everything, made everything available and palatable to every base taste and have invited every base ability to participate—and with affirmation—in all the things we claim to love and which define us all. More and more we hear about judgment-free areas of experimentation: Come and act or sing or dance or write, and there will be no judgments. Well, there will also be no value. Everyone has a contribution that is of value, and no matter how ill-prepared or poorly cast or badly proportioned, your contribution can alter how I look at something. This is bullshit. We have to have values; we have to have taste. It is one thing to have a classroom atmosphere where every plain girl can be Cleopatra and every pimply little boy can be Stanley Kowalski, but we have turned our professional stages into classrooms, and everyone is acting for themselves. This, in my opinion, is where we look if we want to study artistic suicide.”
— Interview with James Grissom/Photograph by Jim Marshall/
KNOCK, KNOCK
by Bill Fried
It looked like just another time-wasting error message:
This video was removed from YouTube. Only you can see this video.
So, YouTube rejected my latest video. Hours of work, and if it’s not one thing it’s another, and which editing software betrayed me?
But it was not, apparently, a software issue. My 8 minute video of our NPR/Trump-free vacation focused on our grandchildren at Rehoboth beach, two mini golfs, water parks, and “amusement” parks, an indoor throw paint at your brother room, Yogi’s frozen yogurt shop, a driving range, glass blowing, and an Orioles home game. We were frazzled but free—temporarily relieved of our rage at What’s Going On.
Back to YouTube:
Content that shows minors in compromising positions that may lead to unwanted attention, isn’t allowed on YouTube.
So, I was a purveyor of child porn. A threat to the community.
This was devastating and amusing in the same instant.
I assumed (correctly) that only the beach shots had the slightest potential to offend. So, I quickly and haughtily appealed, pointing out that the video was done on a public, highly populated beach with many parents watching, and was in the lifeguard’s direct line of sight (we set up next to them — rip tides). I did not, therefore, see how kids in ordinary bathing suits splashing in the surf was problematic. I concluded, diplomatically, that only a badly programmed bot or an idiot could think otherwise.
A tad defensive. But after countless identical videos of the same offspring on (the same!) beach, it was shocking to be censured. I was also (quietly) convinced that no real child pornographer would demand a recount.
But by whom or by what?
YouTube’s near instant rejection of my appeal confirmed that it was a bot. Perhaps one with thin silicon skin, and certainly on a mission:
We’ve looked at your content again carefully, and have confirmed that it does violate Community Guidelines. It will not be available on YouTube. We know it may be disappointing, but it’s important that we keep the YouTube community protected.
I quickly uploaded my video of a string quartet (fully clothed), which passed through uncensored, so at least I wasn’t on the community’s No Fly list.
Then, after some half dozen edited submissions and rejections, I narrowed the “problem” to a stretch of our 8 and 10 year old grandkids playing in the water, sun bouncing off their bathing-suited bodies on the public beach. I deleted those clips, and the video was immediately accepted. As a control, I reinserted one of the clips, 8 seconds worth (AVAILABLE HERE ON VIMEO)! and the video was immediately rejected.
My original appeal was neither evaluated nor felt in any human sense. But while I didn’t feel the personal shame of someone accusing me of shooting child porn, I felt the oppressive weight—the impenetrability and judgmental rigidity of AI’s spawn—Artificial Morality. The bot’s (well-intentioned) but mechanical, machine-learned standards combined with its appeal-proof mechanical, machine-learned control over what is allowed, experienced, and learned, echoed the oppressive weight of a censuring, redacting government.
I amuse myself with snide comments to unresponsive computer voices while on hold and then realize how silly it is to feel rebellious, when I’m just talking to myself. But rage and resistance are not silly when aimed at a government which drags people off the street with anonymous, robotic brutality, and redacts library books and medical research with machine-identified forbidden words.
Nobody has the right to send child pornography to anyone, ever. But my family has the right to see an unredacted version of my little video. I “satisfied” the mechanical censor with insignificant deletions, but what will schools, libraries, news sources, and researchers redact to please their censors?
YouTube’s actions and “reactions” were a jarring, vacation-ending reminder that whether we are glued to the news or glued to the grandchildren, those in power are mechanically, ruthlessly, dragging us into an appeal-proof future.
Unless we stop them.
(Bill Fried is the co-Author of The Uses of the American Prison. He is retired from the staff of Law Enforcement Action Partnership and is on the Somerville Task Force regarding Supervised Consumption Sites. His op-eds have appeared in the Boston Globe, the Baltimore Sun and elsewhere.)
NO, THINGS AREN'T WORSE NOW ON SPEECH. IT'S NOT EVEN CLOSE
As Google becomes the latest company to admit to mass censorship, the mania over Jimmy Kimmel has morphed into a grotesque propaganda campaign
by Matt Taibbi
Google this week sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee:
Senior Biden administration officials, including White House officials, conducted, repeated and sustained outreach to Alphabet and pressed the company regarding certain user-generated content related to the COVID-19 pandemic that did not violate its policies.
While the company continued to develop and enforce its policies independently, Biden administration officials continued to press the company to remove non-violative user generated content as online platforms, including Alphabet grappled. With these decisions, the administration’s officials, including President Biden, created a political atmosphere that sought to influence the actions of platforms based on their concerns regarding misinformation.
It is unacceptable and wrong when any government, including the Biden administration, attempts to dictate how the company moderates content, and the company has consistently fought against those efforts on First Amendment grounds.
Along with the Twitter Files and Mark Zuckerberg’s admission about Biden officials who would “scream” or “curse” about removing content, the Google letter caps the trifecta of major Internet platforms who’ve admitted to partnering with the government in systematic censorship in the pre-Trump period.
YouTube removed thousands of people from its platform at the government’s behest during the pandemic. Tens of thousands more were deamplified or labeled, often incorrectly. Even before letters like the one above, this was no secret. When reporters like me called to ask YouTube, Meta, or Twitter why this or that person had been sanctioned during the pandemic, they told us flat-out they were following parameters laid out by government. Google announced this publicly, in statements like:
Prevention misinformation: We do not allow content that promotes information that contradicts health authority guidance on the prevention or transmission of specific health conditions, or on the safety, efficacy or ingredients of currently approved and administered vaccines.
Google, Facebook, and Twitter didn’t just suppress information that contradicted “health authority guidance,” information which incidentally was often true (as in the cases of people like Jay Bhattacharya, Alex Berenson, and Harvard’s Martin Kulldorff). They made conscious decisions to leave up government misinformation. While YouTube was removing critics of the vaccine, it was leaving up a CNN Town Hall featuring President Biden saying that if you get the shot, “you’re not going to die”.
Before this year there were entire federal bureaucracies devoted to policing speech, from the State Department’s Global Engagement Center to the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force to the White House Office of Digital Strategy. State agencies also partnered with “private” NGOs (often, funded by government) to create secondary bureaucracies charged with policing speech, like the now-defunct Stanford Internet Observatory, which denied making content recommendations until forced to turn over documents showing they did just that. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security were having monthly (in some cases weekly) meetings with upwards of two dozen Internet companies, funneling “guidance” on content on a range of topics, from Covid to Russia to Iran to “U.S. Elections.” Like a parolee, Facebook had to send a “bi-weekly Covid content report” to Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.
Whether you blame this on the administration of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, or the first term of Donald Trump (during which some of these bodies flourished), it’s now undeniable that federal pressure or “jawboning” to suppress dissent was systematic long before Jimmy Kimmel got a few days off.
How did politicians and the U.S. media respond to confirmation that the last administration engaged in wholesale censorship not of one jerkwad talk show host, but the entire world? They pretended it didn’t happen…
https://www.racket.news/p/no-things-arent-worse-now-on-speech
PLAYING HARDBALL: Europe’s growing anger over the war is spilling over into the arts: Broadcasters will vote next month on whether to bar Israel from the Eurovision Song Contest. (New York Times)
LEAD STORIES, FRIDAY'S NYT
Trump Gets the Retribution He Sought, and Shatters Norms in the Process
Trump Will Slap Tariffs on Imported Drugs, Trucks and Household Furnishings
Hegseth Is Said to Have Summoned U.S. Military Brass From Around the Globe
Attack on Dallas ICE Was ‘Very Definition of Terrorism,’ Prosecutor Says
Relief, Grief and Pain as Gaza’s Wounded Are Flown to Safety
Abbas Accuses Israel of ‘War Crimes’ and Says Hamas Will Not Govern Gaza After War
Amazon to Pay $2.5 Billion to Settle Claims It Tricked Prime Customers
JUST IN…
UN General Assembly Live Updates: Netanyahu Met by Walkout During Defiant Address
by Ephrat Livni
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel defended his country’s attacks on its enemies and vowed to continue its campaign to “finish the job” against Hamas in a defiant address to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday morning.
Representatives from dozens of countries walked out of the hall just before Mr. Netanyahu began his address to the General Assembly, the latest public protest of Israel from an audience of world leaders who are demanding an end to the war in Gaza. Mr. Netanyahu said Israelis “will not commit national suicide” by allowing the creation of a Palestinian state, and sharply criticized nations that have recognized such a prospect in recent days. “It will be a mark of shame on all of you,” he said.
As voices repeatedly shouted from the audience, Mr. Netanyahu began his speech by detailing his country’s attacks on opponents and Middle East neighbors, which he said had eliminated threats to Israel, and read a list of names of hostages held in Gaza. Israel positioned loudspeakers in Gaza on Thursday morning to broadcast his speech, which he used to send a message in English and Hebrew. “We have not forgotten you,” he said.
Mr. Netanyahu also turned the blame back on Israel’s critics, accusing world leaders of buckling and caving “when the going got tough” for Israel. He says Israel is fighting a seven-front war with little support.
Mr. Netanyahu, who has been accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court, faces intense pressures at home and abroad. On Friday, he denied that Israel was committing genocide, citing as proof its repeated issuance of evacuation orders for civilians in Gaza.
This week, about 10 countries, including Israel’s longtime allies France, Britain and Canada, recognized Palestinian statehood as part of an effort to advance a two-state solution to the conflict.
In response, some members of Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing governing coalition have called for the annexation of all or part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. That could put the Israeli leader at odds with his strongest ally, President Trump, who this week assured world leaders that he would not allow it.…
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09/26/world/un-general-assembly-netanyahu#heres-what-to-know
COMEY INDICTED AFTER PRESSURE FROM PRESIDENT
A federal grand jury in Virginia has indicted James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, a culmination of President Trump’s relentless effort to exact retribution for investigating his 2016 presidential campaign over possible ties to Russia, according to people familiar with the decision.
While the charges have yet to be unsealed, the people familiar with the decision said the grand jury had indicted Mr. Comey on Thursday on one count of making a false statement and one count of obstruction.
At the same time, the Justice Department has also ordered prosecutors to investigate George Soros, a billionaire Democratic donor whom Trump has targeted for financing left-wing groups.
(NY Times)
HIGHLY DISTURBING REPORT IN THE WASHINGTON POST
(via David Gurney)
Hegseth orders rare, urgent meeting of hundreds of generals, admirals
The Pentagon has summoned military officials from around the world for a gathering in Virginia. Even top generals and their staffs don’t know the reason for the meeting.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered hundreds of the U.S. military’s generals and admirals to gather on short notice — and without a stated reason — at a Marine Corps base in Virginia next week, sowing confusion and alarm after the Trump administration’s firing of numerous senior leaders this year.
The highly unusual directive was sent to virtually all of the military’s top commanders worldwide, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the matter. It was issued earlier this week, against the backdrop of a potential government shutdown, and as Hegseth’s overtly political moves have deepened a sense of distress among his opponents who fear that he is erasing the Defense Department’s status as a nonpartisan institution.
In a statement Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell affirmed that Hegseth “will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week,” but he offered no additional details. Parnell, a senior adviser to the defense secretary, voiced no security concerns about The Washington Post reporting on the meeting, scheduled for Tuesday in Quantico, Virginia.
It was not immediately clear whether the White House is involved with the meeting or if President Donald Trump also intends to be there. A spokesperson referred questions to the Pentagon. — AP
FATHER KNOWS BEST
by Mark Lilla
Anyone around and alert during the Long Sixties knows the type. The scion of a wealthy family who gives his fortune to revolutionaries and for his trouble is electrocuted while planting a bomb; the salon maven who arranges a fundraiser for sullen militants sporting sunglasses under her chandeliers; the radicalized valedictorian who inadvertently blows up a townhouse and disappears naked into the streets of Greenwich Village, only to emerge a decade later to rob an armored truck and get a Brink's guard killed.
Figures like these — Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Felicia Montealegre Bernstein, Kathy Boudin — were in no way original. Their precursors can be found in any history of the major European left-wing revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries and in the novels of writers who tried to plumb the psychology of economic class traitors. Their motives usually turn out to be a jumble of idealism, parricidal anger, boredom, and misplaced noblesse oblige.
We are not so accustomed to thinking about right-wing bourgeois radicals who turn against their class. Are their motives and actions just photographic negatives of those of their left-wing adversaries, or do different passions animate them?
Obviously such figures were extremely important in 20th-century history, whether in Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Vichy France, Falangist Spain, or Romania's Iron Guard, not to mention any number of Latin American countries. Yet only a few major novelists have made it their business to probe the psychology of reactionaries. It's puzzling that more haven't. Perhaps the assumption is that history is moving toward greater enlightenment and justice and that those who resist it are of no interest and will eventually disappear.
And so we are left with predictably cartoonish treatments of this human type, such as Bernardo Bertolucci's film ‘The Conformist’ (1970) and its many imitators.
Today, however, the right is ascendant, and in ever more places triumphant. We can no longer assume that this is an aberration, a bump on history's upward road. This could be a return to normal, and the progressive story we have told ourselves for so long may turn out to be just a provincial tale of an era we'll look back on as the Great Exception. (See Jefferson Cowie, The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (Princeton University Press, 2016).)
For nearly half a century now a unified Republican Party and its ideas have dominated the political culture of Washington and our state capitals. Anti-immigration populism has spread throughout Western and Eastern European countries and brought to power right-wing parties, which have been elected in Brazil and India as well. The only new ideas emanating from the left in this period have been synthesized in cloistered, conservative-free universities and thus far have only driven less privileged citizens into the welcoming arms of the reactionary right.
The right has also radicalized a growing number of boys and young men who spend their time in the alternative reality of the far-right manosphere. The ones I have met in recent years were drawn into this online life while still in high school and were thrilled to discover that they could so easily épater their teachers and parents (and avoid the frightening prospect of talking to girls, I should add).
Arriving at universities where conservative ideas are ignored or treated with contempt convinces them that they hold forbidden knowledge. Corners of the Internet create the sense of belonging to a secret society, which is why right-wing influencers habitually adopt Latinate pseudonyms before a Google search inevitably reveals their identities. The frisson these young people experience from blowing everyone's mind with their outrageous Substack posts is probably not all that different from the thrill of blowing up buildings in the 1970s.
And then there are the counterintellectuals of the right, who have become the most influential class traitors of our time. In the past, when class distinctions depended on capital accumulation and inherited wealth, young rebels attacked the economic system. Now that those distinctions are largely determined by levels of education, it stands to reason that the young rebels of our time would focus on the centers of that power. Moving from Capitalism must be destroyed! to The universities must be destroyed! is a small psychological leap for the radically inclined.
By "counterintellectuals" I do not speak of traditional conservatives who think that universities abandoned their essential functions of advancing knowledge and nourishing our culture and who simply want them to return to that work. I mean the right-wing coterie of credentialed operators, most the products of our top colleges and law schools, who have made a profession of attacking the intellectual class as a whole and seem incapable of speaking of anything else. They are unavoidable presences on Fox and Newsmax, they chuckle along with Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson on their podcasts, and they know how to whip into a frenzy a college club eager to be canceled, a conference of Republican apparatchiks, or a Zoom meeting of the millionaires and billionaires who make this entire ideological universe turn.
(New York Review of Books)
ARE KENNEDY’S ANTICS A DIVERSIONARY TACTIC?
Anyone with half a brain could see in an instant that Kennedy is a stuttering moron. He should be sent back to his position on the trash pile.
Senator/physician Cassidy gave Kennedy every chance to prove he was qualified. Kennedy couldn’t do it. Cassidy still voted to confirm.
…” the stench of fascism is in the air.” ? Dearest Editor, the constant cry of Hitler and fascism is driving young men to violence.
How would you know?
Western Europe, and Canada too, need to grow up. Nothing they say is relevant as long as they fail to do what is necessary to provide for their own national defense. Putin is knocking on their door, and the USA has an unsustainable federal budget deficit that can’t pay for Europe’s defense forever.
What nonsense. The so-called west has been putting weapons on Russia’s western borders for decades, and, finally, the Russians have become fed up. I don’t blame them. The west is hypocritical: it peddles peace while threatening war against Russia (who won the second war on the world in Europe), and supporting the Israeli savages. The only good result will be extermination of the rotten human species and all its imaginary gods. Give evolution another chance…
Let Our Actions Define the Finer Points of Our Philosophy
Warmest spiritual greetings,
Continuously silently chanting OM on the outbreath ensures that the Divine Absolute is what is identified with, and that the body-mind complex is its instrument. This ensures a zero margin of error insofar as engaging in revolutionary ecological action. 🕉️
At this time, the necessity is for spiritual nomadic action groups to destroy the demonic and return this world to righteousness. Simple as that. 🥷
Please know that I have acquired a Washington, D.C. driver’s license. The supplemental security income is being restarted. The District of Columbia EBT account has been approved. Continuing to take shelter at the Catholic Charities place in the industrial northeast section by the night clubs; interesting that the club across from the shelter is named Karma. 🎉
I am seeking others to intervene in history. Are we ready? 🤟
Craig Louis Stehr
2210 Adams Place NE #1
Washington, D.C. 20018
Telephone Messages: (202) 832-8317
Email: [email protected]
September 26th, 2025 Anno Domini
Speaking up for Evan Trotter.
No doubt the circumstances surrounding Keith McCallum’s tragic death are widely known. I am not questioning the details. I am concerned, however, about the spotlight returning to Evan Trotter’s role. I know Evan personally. Since this tragedy, Evan, a skilled contractor, has committed himself to a sober, drug-free life. He works with other young men, helping them stay the course. Every year, he quietly memorializes Keith McCallum’s death. This year, Evan was accompanied by his young son. I admire the life Evan has created for himself and his immediate family, and the work he does to ease the burdens of drug/alcohol abuse that others endure.
I support Evan and applaud the man he has become.
Mike Geniella
Mike I feel the same way. We see a lot of tragedy in our county and it hits even harder because often, we know people on both sides. It’s really hard when we see young people making mistakes which we can’t comprehend. Sometimes things occur which cause people to begin clawing at the scars and reopening old wounds. When people seek atonement by living the best life they can, treating others well and moving forward, I’m not certain we can ask for much more than that.
There are too few redemption stories. The community is happy to see it, and willing to forgive.
It was kind of a strange story. I think the point was to call the Dr a hypocrite, and the details make the parents look pretty bad. There was an awful lot about a minor’s actions though, facilitated by parental failures. Glad to hear that he turned it around.