Mendocino County Today: Monday 10/13/2025

Cold Rain | Grape Harvest | California Wet | Pedestrian Killed | Early Mushrooms | Ambulance Funding | Autumn Color | DA Stats | Mercuryville | La Niña | Local Events | Caboose/Polly | Ed Notes | Resistant Fleas | Shamanic Events | Mandicating | Mendo Roundup | Yesterday's Catch | Puzzle Answer | Insurance Payout | Sweet Kid | Heavily Gerrymandered | No Concern | American Gestapo | Speedy Weeny | Kirk Quotes | 49ers Lose | Niner Jet | Feral Hogs | Gaza Aftermath | End Denial | Lead Stories | Due Process | JC Superstar | Ephebophile | Remember You | Cruel Robot | Humans Dead

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A COLDER, wet storm system is forecast to arrive today, and will bring widespread rainfall, mountain snow above 4500-5000 feet, and the slight potential for thunderstorms over the coastal waters. Light rain showers will be increasing in coverage and intensity through the day. A drying and warming trend is expected to take effect mid week into the weekend. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A partly cloudy 49F this Columbus Ohio Day on the coast. We will see some showers today before things dry out later this evening. Maybe a sprinkle tomorrow but clear rest of week. Rain Sunday, we'll see ?

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HARVEST IS BEGINNING TO WIND DOWN in Anderson Valley

As the final bins roll in, the vineyards shift from green to gold — a sure sign that another season is coming to a close.

Pictured here is the legendary Savoy Vineyard, tucked in the heart of the mid-valley in Philo. Its rows have produced some of Anderson Valley’s most acclaimed wines, and this week they stand in quiet beauty, resting after the work is done.

Soon our tired farmers, pickers, cellar crews, and winemakers will be able to rest as we settle into winter rains and the festive holiday season. Thank you for your hard work, team AV!

(AV Winegrowers Association)

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RAIN ON THE WAY

The gorgeous weather that graced much of California this weekend will soon be gone. A potent Pacific storm, the first truly statewide system of the new season, will sweep across the state Monday and Tuesday, unleashing heavy rain, thunderstorms and feet of Sierra Nevada snow.

Winter storm warnings and flood watches now cover much of the state. Upward of 0.5 to 1.5 inches of rain will fall from San Francisco to Los Angeles by Tuesday evening, with 2 to 3 inches of rain possible in coastal ranges and Sierra foothills. The higher Sierra could see up to 3 feet of snow.

— Chron

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PEDESTRIAN STRUCK AND KILLED NEAR COVELO; Suspect vehicle sought

by Matt LaFever

Authorities are investigating a reported fatal hit-and-run that claimed the life of a pedestrian tonight near Highway 162 and Poonkinney Road, south of Covelo in the Round Valley area.

The collision was first reported just before 8 p.m., when dispatchers received reports of a person lying in the roadway after being hit by a vehicle. Emergency crews from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, Round Valley Tribal Police, Cal Fire, and the California Highway Patrol are on scene.

Radio traffic indicates that medics attempted life-saving measures, but the victim died at the scene. CHP officers confirmed the crash is being investigated as a fatal hit-and-run, and the driver remains at large as of 8:30 p.m.

Dispatchers issued a be-on-the-lookout (BOLO) for a dark-colored pickup truck last seen traveling southbound on Highway 162 toward Willits. A witness also reported seeing a black Hyundai stopped near the scene, though investigators have not confirmed whether it was involved.

Both lanes of Highway 162 are currently blocked near Poonkinney Road as law enforcement and emergency responders continue their work. CHP units from the Garberville area are responding and may attempt to intercept the suspect vehicle on surrounding routes.

Anyone with information about the crash or the fleeing driver is urged to contact the California Highway Patrol Garberville Area Office at (707) 923-2155.

(mendofever.com)

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CAN MENDO FINANCE ITS VOLUNTEER AMBULANCE SERVICES?? WILL THE SUPERVISORS EVEN TRY?

by Mark Scaramella

What began at last Tuesday’s Supervisors meeting as another self-evident analysis of the shaky finances of the three volunteer ambulance service operations in the unincorporated sections of the county morphed into a larger discussion of how to adequately fund the underfunded services.

The Round Valley ambulance is reportedly in the most precarious position these days due to a limited number of qualified volunteers, resulting in having to pay EMTs from other county medical operations to travel long distances to and from Covelo to cover 24 hour on-call volunteer shifts

Supervisor Ted Williams speculated that Covelo seems to have a higher percentage of crime-related medical calls, making the recruiting of volunteers even more difficult.

Over the years multiple studies have shown that the three volunteer ambulance services in the unincorporated areas of the county — Covelo, Laytonville and Anderson Valley — are particularly underfunded despite being their minimally paid public spirited volunteers.

Santa Rosa-based Coastal Valley EMS medical service administrator Jen Banks told the supervisors on Tuesday that they are currently conducting EMS training for some Covelo volunteers, but that they will not have any new graduates until early next year.

Further complicating matters is the Board of Supervisors’ indolence and confusion on how to even approach the problem.

Should they consider a sales tax increment on top of the existing sales tax increments in the County? Should they ask the ambulance and fire districts to float their own property tax add-on ballot measures? Should a new tax cover public safety in general? Or just ambulance and fire? Or just ambulances? Should a potential ballot measure be initiated by the supervisors or the public in general? How much could be raised with a sales tax that only applies to the unincorporated areas where sales are much lower than in the cities? Or should a new tax apply county-wide like Measure B, the mental health measure from 2017? That Measure presumably generated about $8 million a year until it phased down to a 1/8 of a cent last year, almost none of which has been spent for the mental health and drug rehab services required by the measure. How would any new tax revenues be allocated? Would an emergency services sales tax take priority over a road tax that the Supervisors have also been contemplating?

After randomly bouncing the questions around for about an hour, the board directed County CEO Darcie Antle and her staff to come back on November 4 with a summary of the tax options and various funding levels that a new tax could generate.

The last time the county tried to address emergency services tax revenues, the Supervisors proposed and the public narrowly passed a quarter-cent emergency services sales tax: Measure P, which, after a couple of years of stalling and bureaucratic bumbling, is now generating about $4 million a year which is grudgingly allocated by the supervisors on a quarterly basis to the 22 fire services districts in the county according to a complicated formula based mainly on population.

Over the last decade or two the County has paid for several studies which always end up concluding that our volunteer ambulance services are stretched thin and underfunded. This combined with obscure and pennies-on-the-dollar medical billing, bureaucracy and patchwork funding, makes the fact that they operate effectively at all even more impressive.

While the State of California has imposed increasingly strict training requirements on ambulance volunteers, it has done almost nothing to help finance these essential services or their training.

If you are among those who don’t follow the Board of Supervisors much and therefore have a rosy view of county functioning, you might think that a tax measure might appear on a ballot as early as next year.

However, if you live in an unincorporated area of the County and are following Official Mendocino’s inability to get out of its own way on most issues, you should keep a close eye on your local ambulance service’s finances, staffing capabilities, contribute in whatever way you can, and look for ways to help them operate independent of county officials.

We’d like to hope that the supervisors can somehow navigate the complex financial waters associated with adequately funding volunteer ambulance services in the county. But history shows that every attempt so far has failed.

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MENDO CRIME STATS FROM THE DA'S OFFICE

When comparing prison statistics for the first three quarters of calendar year 2025 against the first three quarters of 2024, 2025 has unfortunately been a very productive year for having defendants sentenced by the Mendocino County courts to state prison, and just an average year for defendants being committed to Realignment county prison.

State Prison:

Through October 10, 2025, 98 defendants have received commitments to state prison out of the Mendocino County Superior Court, as compared to 74 defendants through October 10, 2024, a 25% increase.

Of those sentenced to state prison through October 10, 2025, 36 defendants had their prison sentence enhanced pursuant to California’s Three Strikes law, versus only 28 defendants receiving Strike-enhanced sentences during the entirety of calendar 2024, a 24% increase from 2024 to 2025 with just under three months of legal work still left in 2025.

Realignment County Prison:

Through October 10, 2025, 37 defendants have received commitments to the Realignment county prison, as compared to 41 defendants through October 10, 2024, a 10% decrease.

Jury Trials:

Twenty-four jury trials have gone to final verdict in the first three quarters of calendar year 2025. Four of those trials resulted in not guilty verdicts, while in twenty of the 24 jury trials the trial defendant was found guilty, a successful presentation percentage of 83%.

More Information Available:

Since taking office in 2011, DA Eyster has made it a priority to maintain and make available far more public information and production metrics than most, if not all of the District Attorney offices across the great State of California. To see that local information and/or the metrics, you can click on the address below:

https://www.mendocinocounty.gov/government/district-attorney

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ED NOTE: The overwhelming number of the proles processed in and out of the local jail ought to be locked up for their own safety. Pretending that this lucrative apparatus isn't a class-based justice system whose funding units are incompetent, drug dependent or nuts, is pure fantasy. And now a brand new eyesore of a County Courthouse no one wants except their majesties of our over-large Superior Court because it's convenient and comfortable for them, the ghastly structure's only beneficiaries. Only in Mendo.

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GHOST TOWN, images from Mercuryville (Annie Kalantarian)

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LA NIÑA WINTER AHEAD FOR WEST COAST

by Amie Windsor

Scientists at the nation’s top weather forecasting agency have predicted another La Niña pattern to take hold this winter along the West Coast.

For Southern California, predictive models and past experience show that means cooler temperatures and drier conditions. In Northern California, the outlook is more mixed, the forecast less certain.

It could still mean substantial rain, like the strong storm slated for the region this coming week, which National Weather Service Meteorologist Dial Hoang said could “be a very significant rain maker for Sonoma County.”

Or, the long-term weather pattern could mean milder, drier days through spring, raising some concern about what’s ahead for the period that typically delivers the bulk of the region’s yearly rainfall and runoff.

The uncertainty leaves a whole lot more guess work for many who rely on long-term forecasts, from farmers to Tahoe-bound skiers — and managers of the North Bay and state water storage and delivery systems.

Going into this winter, the North Bay is set up well to withstand some of that uncertainty.

The region, including Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake and Napa counties, draws its main supplies from local rivers and linked reservoirs, as well as groundwater. It just wrapped the 2024-25 season with higher-than-average rainfall, at 24% above the 30-year average.

The largest reservoirs, Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino, which serve more than 600,000 customers across three counties, sit at 90% and 64% of seasonal capacity, respectively.

For Lake Sonoma, that level is near the high mark for this time of year across the past nine years while Lake Mendocino has seen just two better years in the last six — a period that includes the state’s most recent, punishing 3-year drought and one of the wettest winters on record.

Atmospheric rivers, the drenching storms that deliver the region’s biggest helping of rainfall, came through again last year, including a major front around Thanksgiving that dropped at least 13 inches across most of Sonoma County over four days, saturating the soil for the rest of the winter and unleashing plentiful runoff.

“Ideally, we see another year like last year with heavy precipitation in November to really charge the watershed,” said Don Seymour, principal engineer with Sonoma Water, the region’s largest supplier. “That would really cut back our releases from the reservoirs.”

Storage also has been improved by pioneering a local forecasting effort that has fine-tuned releases by dam managers at Lake Mendocino, the smaller of the two major reservoirs for the region. With greater accuracy, they can now assess the strength of incoming storms and only release as much water as needed ahead of time to preserve storage and flood control capacity — avoiding the wholesale dumps of yesteryear that sometimes left the reservoir depleted come spring.

“Lake Mendocino is sensitive,” said Seymour. “It has to refill every year.”

A bid to raise the height of Coyote Dam, now in the study phase, may give Lake Mendocino managers even more confidence and storage capacity to play with in the years ahead. In the meantime, said Nick Malasavage, Army Corps’ chief of operations and readiness division, the current infrastructure, combined with the new forecasting technology, gives the agency “a whole lot of water space and a whole lot of air space to leverage.”

For the state system, which ties mountain snowmelt gathered in Northern California to farms in the Central Valley and Southern California’s big cities, long-term forecasting by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been less reliable, officials say.

“Simply not accurate,” is how Jeanine Jones, interstate resources manager for California’s Department of Water Resources, bluntly put it.

One commonly cited reason is that much of Northern California, including the North Bay, sits on a sort of dividing line between the Pacific Northwest and desert Southwest, where the traceable fallout from La Niña or typically warmer, wetter El Niño patterns can be blurred.

But Jones also faulted, in part, funding shortfalls in the branch of NOAA responsible for improving subseasonal to seasonal forecasting — the outlooks that extend beyond the typical 10-day window, going weeks, months or even multiple years ahead of time. Those forecasts take the observed state of the atmosphere — where weather occurs — and predict how it might interact with the environment and climate over a longer period of time.

“NOAA has never made any investment to speak of other than efforts in the mid-1990s,” when the two nicknamed patterns that can dominate West Coast weather were identified, said Jones. “We’re trying to get them to step up and start investing.”

A representative from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, which issues long-term forecasts, did not return a request for comment.

The difficulty of predicting La Niña/El Niño patterns comes down to how well predictive models perform, according to Tom Di Liberto, a former climate scientist with NOAA. While models are more accurate for El Niño, Di Liberto said, for La Niña, “They’re not great.”

The National Weather Service, which falls under NOAA, has been beset, too, by cuts. The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency significantly reduced NOAA staff, research and data-sharing capabilities, affecting weather forecast teams. The National Weather Service lost close to 600 staff at a time when 40% of national weather forecast offices already struggle with significant staff vacancies, according to a report by the New York Times. Since the initial cuts, the Trump administration approved hiring back more than 100 employees.

Hoang, the National Weather Service forecaster, noted that many of his colleagues in the Climate Prediction Center are furloughed as a result of the government shutdown.

For the North Bay, in the absence of a clearer outlook, drought remains a persistent concern. The supply now sitting in Lake Sonoma could last two years without much replenishment, providing at least some cushion for the bulk of customers that sit to the south along the Highway 101 corridor.

“We always tell people to plan for the worst and hope for the best,” Jones said during a Sonoma Water webinar in late September. “We know California has a highly variable climate and we always need to be prepared for wet or dry.”

A looming change in the way the regional water storage system is managed will also further complicate things for managers — if not downstream customers — in the years ahead.

It has to do with storage at the very top of the system, in reservoirs fed by the Eel River and linked to the Russian River further south via a tunnel through a mountain saddle and a system of canals built around a century-old powerhouse that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is abandoning.

The Eel River dams that store that supplemental water are set to come down, and a pact to manage the two interconnected river systems thereafter calls for less water to come through the mountain — and only in above-average rain years — keeping more supplies in the Eel for its imperiled steelhead trout and salmon.

Already, those supplemental flows from the Eel have dropped over the past six years. The best barometer for that supply has been Lake Pillsbury, the Lake County reservoir at the very top of the system, which is set to be drained for good once PG&E’s Scott Dam comes down sometime in the future.

As a result, Sonoma Water, has turned increasingly to its own Russian River reservoirs — Lakes Mendocino and Sonoma — to plan for future wet and dry seasons, assuming that less water will be on hand from the Eel River.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat/Ukiah Daily Journal)

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LOCAL EVENTS (upcoming)

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ASSIGNMENT: UKIAH - I CONQUER BLACK BART TRAIL

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

I plowed on.

The cautious (sane) part of me whispered, told me to turn around, go back! back! but I pressed ever east, across the dusty washboard trail, searching the skies for the Drinkin’ Gourd, wishing I’d bought new tires when I was still within a day’s drive of Costco, wishing I had a map and wishing I’d never left the warmth and safety of Taylor’s Tavern back in the bustling burg of Redwood Valley.

The rough, rugged road was not my biggest worry, not with the notorious Cliffs of Road B yawning to my right, inches from the passenger side door, urging me, taunting me to pull over onto a wide turnout / berm that didn’t exist. I hate heights and here I am driving a tightrope across foreign country, searching for the Lost Land of the Legend They Call Caboose. The road is about six feet wide, except where there’s room to pull over and vomit and swear you’ll never again renew your driver’s license.

I gritted my teeth, sank my fingernails back into the steering wheel and just in time spotted a maroon-colored Dodge pickup barreling at me at three, maybe four miles per hour. I pulled over to shake my fist, sweat and throw up again.

The good news? My wife wasn’t along because I’d have been forced to let her drive. Trophy at the wheel: forever auditioning for the Special Olympics’ Destruction Derby finals. Better I’m stabbed to death with the engine dipstick.

The event is an annual Caboose celebration in honor of an ancient yellow railroad car riding high atop the tallest mountain west of the Alleghenies, from which you could see Lake Mendocino if they’d only cut a few hundred acres of trees down.

It’s put on by Jonathan Middlebrook, Darca Nicholson and Nick the Dog. Everyone knew everyone else, but I don’t know many beyond Jonathan, Darca and Nick the Dog.

Most attendees are my age or worse; it looked like dozens of retirement home victims seated in a half-circle of folding chairs. I recognized several from the time I’d spent at Woodstock a few years ago.

The food was the best I’ve ever had at a potluck and I’ve been to scores of ‘em. Some of the dishes scored high-end restaurant comparisons, and the music was first rate, but I would have enjoyed myself a whole lot more if I hadn’t been worrying about the drive down Black Bart Trail / Road B to get back to civilization.

The sun was sinking when I set out. I checked my canteen and hardtack supply. If I’d waited another half hour I could have been among the long parade of cars heading back toward 101 trailing the taillights of the car up ahead. The odds of my following a string of vehicles careening over a cliffside edge were probably less than 50-50 but with my luck I’d have bounced and rolled right into Lake Mendocino and I don’t know how to swim.

My unanswered question is this: Why would anyone who has driven to the Caboose neighborhood and survived ever want to do it again? How and why do people commute? It would be easier for me to make the daily drive to and from Kelseyville.

If I had a house up where the Caboose is mounted I’d be homeless.

Art Grows Up

Back in the 1970s I fell in with a haphazard batch of locals who for reasons having nothing to do with reality, thought of themselves as artists. Worse yet, avant garde artists and as such were both delusional and prone to even greater excesses, like Performance Art and poetry.

They gave themselves artsy-ish names like Polyester Nation, Anna Banana and Nicky Vanzetti, led by the rather buffoonish Buster Cleveland.

Their works ranged from xerox copies of artworks cut into pieces and rearranged into xeroxed copies of bad artworks, or rubber stamps with clever slogans like “IGNORE THIS” or “DANGER: ART.” It was all rather childish and when practiced by ostensible adults (some were 40-plus years old!) it was both tiresome and stupid.

On the sidelines observing these self-indulgent amateurs but never involved with their silly pretensions, was a young woman named Polly Palecek, quietly producing art of her own.

But who knew about Polly, given the noisy accolades the Dada morons were awarding one another at the same time? So the years passed and they grew up or grew embarrassed, and their collected works wound up in the landfill east of Ukiah.

Polly carried on, and for clear evidence of her talent and dedication, not nearly enough of her works are presently on display right now at Ukiah’s downtown Corner Gallery. Polly’s paintings, and samples from other local artists, will remain until the end of October.

You already missed the grand opening. Don’t miss the whole show.

(Tom Hine has been writing under the TWK byline since the earliest ‘80s. He says if you don’t know what Dada Art is, consider yourself lucky.)

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ED NOTES

WOULDN'T ordinarily risk boring you, but for the first time in my apparently endless life, I'm dreaming vivid dreams, so vivid I remember them at wake up time. Must be the cancer meds, but two nights ago I experienced a truly terrifying nightmare. There I was looking on when Rick Stieves, Scott Simon and Drew Barrymore appeared to be arguing. I asked if I could mediate. Drew screamed, "One of these bastards stole my adderall! I can't do my show without speed!" I said I was sorry but maybe Oprah could help. Then all three sang in chorus, "Oprah Shmopra, Mr. Buttinski. You're spending eternity with us."

COLUMBUS DAY, aka Indigenous Peoples Day, the local angle: Joe Cervetto, a San Francisco businessman who spent many happy hours at his Boonville place on Redwood Ridge, was best known for his enthusiastic portrayals of Christopher Columbus in the city’s annual Columbus Day celebration.

Cervetto developed an early interest in his fellow Genoese, Christopher Columbus, becoming an authority on the life and times of “The Greatest Navigator” and, in 1958, assumed the role of portraying his idol in San Francisco's Columbus Day Parade — a role he played with gusto for the next 30 years, wading ashore at Aquatic Park in annual re-enactments of the big event. (The forces of the good and the true put an end to the annual reenactment.) Joe Cervetto died in 1998.

HOUSE OF GUINNESS, the widely watched epic on Netflix, irritated me throughout, but the acting was so good it carried me along although the history depicted is laughably off, the actors miscast — the tough guy should have been the straight Guinness heir — and gratuitous f-bombs ruined too many scenes, and I never did learn who was the father of the sister's baby. (The Potato Famine wouldn't have been a famine if the Anglo-Irish cared, and America wouldn't have had 150 years of Irish police departments.)

SO, me and the missus are nearly at the door of Joe's on Fourth Street , San Rafael, average diner age 75 — My people, my people! —, when this elderly woman in a walker stops dead in her tracks to zap me with a fish eye, demanding of the missus, "Is his name Jeff?" No, the missus replies, and I'm left to wonder who Jeff was and what he did to prompt an old woman to accost strangers with demands to identify themselves.

THE LATE GREAT SUPERVISOR, Johnny Pinches, never could get any of his four colleagues to join him on an ad hoc committee to examine the County's water exportation question, the long and the short of which is that Sonoma County sells Mendocino County water for millions of dollars but Mendocino County gets a giant mud puddle at Lake Mendocino most summers. All Pinches wanted was a few bucks for Mendocino County out of an historically skewed deal that goes back to the installation of Coyote Dam and Lake Mendocino in the 1950s. That short-sighted deal gave Sonoma County almost all the water stored behind Coyote Dam at Lake Mendocino. (SoCo put up most of the money to build the dam.) The deal was later amended to say that if Sonoma County sold any of Mendo's scant allocation, Mendo would be compensated.

NEVER HAPPENED. Sonoma County's water agency, at huge profit, has sold Mendo water downstream to Marin and its own water district customers for years; Mendocino County hasn't gotten a dime out of it.

IT WAS CLEAR then that the inland supervisors didn't want to disturb the inland morass of water districts, all of them in seeming competition for a resource they know is seriously overdrawn and, of course, dependent on a precarious early 20th century diversion at Potter Valley where a hand dug, mile long tunnel, supported by ancient redwood beams, carries water from the Eel River through Potter Valley (where that community's noble sons of the soil have enjoyed virtually free water for more than a hundred years) to Lake Mendocino where it's stored for Sonoma County. Some of the water, of course, supplies the Russian River which, before the 1950s and Lake Mendocino, was dry above Healdsburg during the summer months.

THIS PRECARIOUS water delivery “system” has fueled suburban growth from Ukiah to Sausalito, but it leaves so little for Mendo that Redwood Valley, for instance, gets maxed out occasionally, and the water districts up and down the Russian River from Redwood Valley to Hopland jealously guard their present allocations. As does the huge influx of wine grape growers. The wine people have put another large demand on the Russian River's overdrawn waters. At some point, all of these people are going to want more but, given the givens of present arrangements, there is not more to get. Lately, the wine people have experienced a well-deserved downturn, but they still get the lions share of the diverted Eel.

PINCHES was really up against an entrenched, mutually jealous, water apparatus that works for its shortsighted beneficiaries but is not viable over the long haul. Or viable only until the next big earthquake takes out the diversion tunnel at Potter Valley. And here comes Congressman Huffman's Two-Basin plan, which will end things as they are, and again to the detriment of Mendocino County.

THE VAILLANCOURT FOUNTAIN fraud-of-a-sculpture in San Francisco has been called many names and is no longer working or even being used by skateboarders.

But destroying it, deluded supporters say, would be erasing history and modern architecture, and counter, they claim, to the City’s “reputation for being weird.” (Only a weirdo would say so. Herb Cain always denounced the city's purchase of this abomination, and right there's your irrefutable statement on the thing.)

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OLIVIA ALLEN: Has anyone else had the experience of Advantage II-resistant fleas in the area? I live on the hill up Philo-Greenwood Road, and the fleas on my kitties do not die with Advantage II. I tried Cheristin and one kitty had a bad reaction to it. I am going to try Frontline next. I am worried I waited too long and am going to have an infestation. Waaaah.— feeling stressed.

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UPCOMING SHAMANIC EVENTS

Womens Journeying Circle
Saturday, October 18th
4.30pm-6.30pm
Fort Bragg
Cost $35
RSVP with payment required
small group setting - 2 spots remaining
for more info https://hearthoftheheart.org/womens-journeying-circle/ or contact Heather 707.397.0018 [email protected]

True Self Journey
Sunday, October 19th
3.30pm-5pm
Online on Zoom
Cost $18

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CHRIS SKYHAWK: Last night my Sweetheart and I decided to take a sunset drive to the north, As we approached a Parking area to a beach I wanted to check out, I wasn't sure if she knew where to turn, but she did! I assured her I wasn’t trying to “mansplain,” just trying to indicate where the turn was, thus a new English word was invented “Mandicating.” Feel free to use it, and you’re welcome!

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MENDO LOCAL WEEKLY NEWS ROUNDUP — October 12, 2025

by Elise Cox

Another week and another story about the lack of clarity around Mendocino County finances. Plus a stalled District Attorney recall effort, polling place confusion, and an LLC called “Paradisiacal Properties” purchases 47 acres outside Elk.…

https://www.mendolocal.news/p/mendo-local-weekly-news-roundup-october-4d2

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, October 12, 2025

JOSEPH BUCKINGHAM, 44, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, county parole violation.

GARRY COLSON, 56, Willits. Annoying or molesting child under 18.

MMICHAEL KUES, 46, Lucerne/Ukiah. Hit&run with property damage, loaded firearm in public.

BUFFY LYONS, 50, Ukiah. Trespassing.

JAMES MOODY, 35, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. DUI-any drug.

RENEE OLIVER, 31, Ukiah. False report of crime.

STEPHEN SERR, 30, Pasadena/Ukiah. Taking vehicle without owner’s consent, paraphernalia.

MICHELLE VOLLMER, 41, Fort Bragg. Battery, probation revocation.

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JEANNE ELIADES solved yesterday's puzzle: Green=2, Blue=4. (This one required a careful reading of the marked units on the scale.)

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CALIFORNIA ORDERS INSURERS TO PAY MORE FOR WILDFIRE VICTIMS’ LOST ITEMS

by Rukmini Callimachi

Families who lose everything in future wildfires in California will now be able to collect the bulk of their insurance payout without cataloging every item burned in the blaze under a new state law. The legislation, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday, is meant to ease one of the most punishing parts of recovery — when survivors are forced to itemize the ashes of their lives.

Starting in 2026, insurers must pay at least 60 percent of a homeowner’s personal-property coverage — up to $350,000 — without requiring a detailed inventory of every lost item. Previously, insurers were required to advance only 30 percent of the dwelling’s value with the payout capped at $250,000. The new legislation applies when a house is declared a total loss.

The law stops short of what its author and consumer advocates had sought. The original proposal — nicknamed the Eliminate the List Act — would have required insurers to pay 100 percent of the contents limit automatically without an itemized list of destroyed belongings. After receiving heavy pushback from the insurance industry, lawmakers cut the guarantee nearly in half.

“I was disappointed that it got knocked down, but it’s still a very significant step in the right direction — very significant,” said State Senator Ben Allen, a Democrat whose district includes Los Angeles’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood, and who wrote the bill.

Under most homeowner policies, families must submit exhaustive inventories — sometimes thousands of items long — before insurers will reimburse the cost of lost belongings. Adjusters frequently demand receipts or photos to prove ownership.…

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/12/realestate/california-doubles-wildfire-payouts.html

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DEMOCRATS SHOULDN’T HAVE THE ONLY VOICES

Editor:

I understand the appeal of Proposition 50. We can change the state constitution and poke Donald Trump in the eye at the same time.

This is in response to something going on in Texas. If you want Texas to do something different, go there and force change. If you pass this, the 40% of Californians who voted Republican will be disenfranchised. Is that what you want?

As far as gerrymandering goes, Illinois has been the most gerrymandered state in the country, closely followed by all of New England. California is a heavily gerrymandered state, and the ambitious French Laundry diner who kept his kids in schools with teachers while yours suffered wants to return to the old ways. He will never be satiated.

Democrats should not be the only voice in California.

Timothy Long

Petaluma

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RONDA ROSS:

Anyone surprised by Katie's Porter's interview has never experienced the CA ruling class up close and personal. Years ago retrieving my son from his private school, I pulled up to turn left at a major intersection in Northern CA. Just missing the light, I looked into the median and saw not just an omnipresent homeless person found at nearly every CA intersection, but a teenager nursing a very young baby. She had what appeared to be blankets bunched around her. Then my dog in my car growled loudly, and one moved. It was a mangey large dog, who I realized was keeping watch over 2 toddlers, also wrapped in blankets.

Shocking, even by CA standards, I tried to figure out what to do. I couldn't put them in the SUV because my large dog and hers would kill each other. I fumbled for my purse looking for cash, trying to remember my high school Spanish. There was a Catholic Church a mile or so away. If I could explain, they could help her. I pointed saying "Catholic Church" loudly, while handing her every dime I had. She obviously didn't understand a word I said, but grabbed the cash.

When I arrived at my son's nearby school, I asked the other parents waiting for practice to end, most who lived nearby, who I should call. These were nice people, of sufficient means to drop more than $250K for K-8th grade. They shrugged. She has been there a few months, a few hours a day. She will be fine. Someone drops her off and picks her up. I looked at them in disbelief. This was a teenage girl with 3 young children in a busy median. Not only did they have no answers, they had no concern.

Ms. Porter is a lifelong product of the CA ruling class. Generally speaking, not only do they not notice the homeless, even toddlers in a busy intersection, they certainly will not tolerate anyone questioning their superiority. No way on earth, any of them would they ever tolerate the suggestion they need to consider the wishes of Trump voters. Ms. Porter will likely still be elected CA Governor. She will likely remain the Party's choice, and little else matters. If not, a Dem simply better at hiding their distain for those less than, will win. It would be easier to reverse gravity, than to end their reign. They know it and act accordingly.

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ICE INSANITY MUST END

To the Editor:

As thousands of hard working immigrants are being indiscriminately rounded up for the heinous crime of supporting their families, wanting a better life, wanting the American dream, we are bearing witness to the rise of the American Gestapo aka “ICE”. The 1930’s saw Hitler’s Gestapo act as his personal militia rounding up tens of thousands of innocent people accountable only to their Feuer. Now this militia called ICE is similarly accountable only to their autocratic leader, Donald Trump. This normalization of insanity must end.

Mark Spindler

Ukiah

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NOT EVERYONE REMEMBERS THE SAME PERSON

To the Editor:

There has been a rash of recent articles portraying Charlie Kirk as a hero, and very little attention given to the full picture of what he represented.

At a Turning Point USA event in 2023, Kirk said he thinks gun deaths are “worth it” to have a Second Amendment.

“I can’t stand the word empathy, actually,” he said. “I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that does a lot of damage.”

Appearing on Jubilee’s internet show “Surrounded,” Kirk insisted Black people were “better” in the 1940s under Jim Crow laws.

On his radio show, Kirk not only said that Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Ketanji Brown Jackson are “affirmative action picks.”

“If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, ‘Boy, I hope he’s qualified.’”

Kirk repeatedly spread misinformation surrounding the death of George Floyd.

Here’s another quote: “Democrat women want to die alone without children.”

He also said certain Black women “do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.”

After Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce announced their engagement, Kirk fantasized about Kelce making Swift “more conservative” and begged the pop star to “submit to her husband.”

During this same Jubilee episode, Kirk was asked what he would want his daughter to do if she were 10 years old and pregnant following rape.

He responds, “The answer is yes. The baby would be delivered.”

In regards to consideration of people who have worked hard all their lives and aren’t millionaires like him he stated “Now, I will say that for future retirees, people under the age of 45, we should absolutely raise the retirement age. I’m going to say something very provocative. I’m not a fan of retirement. I don’t think retirement is biblical…”

The qualities of a man revealed through these statements are not those of a leader who expresses the highest values. He found a way to make controversial statements profitable, make money off the attention, and garner huge financial support from those who benefitted financially off of the promotion of these view points. Real leaders think beyond themselves and for the greater good. Promoting the disrespect of others and negating their contributions is harmful, not beneficial.

Turning Point USA has a record of dubious financial practices and top personnel who had acted as fake electors. Obscured financial connections and extravagant payments are common. During the 2020 presidential campaign, Jake Hoffman, one of the group’s primary outside consultants, recruited teenagers to spread false information online about voter fraud and the coronavirus pandemic. That led Twitter and Facebook to suspend numerous accounts, as previously reported by the Washington Post. Services sold by Kirk’s organization appeared to be vehicles to transfer money rather than actual needed and competitively priced. A get out the vote campaign was condemned by a former aide to Arizona Sen. John McCain, who said the amount of money sought by Turning Point was objectionable. “$108 million? I can’t even fathom it,” said Jon Seaton, who specializes in get-out-the vote efforts. “There’s not even enough doors to knock on.”

The job was fruitful. A $4.75 million Spanish-style estate in a gated Arizona country club that charges nearly a half-million dollars for a golf membership and several other million dollar homes. He created a fabulously lucrative lifestyle, yet finding public record of contributions to arts, culture, or the betterment of fellow citizens proved futile.

Too many people are finding that stirring up violence and confrontation are useful tools. Our job is to not go along with the program. Violence is not the answer. All of the families suffering from needlessly losing loved ones should be wrapped in love, and as a society our voices condemning violence are appropriately loud. There’s plenty of room to be louder.

In an act of targeted political violence Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman of Brooklyn Park and her husband, Mark, were assassinated. Somehow, the death of a well loved elected representative with a record of positive and inclusive contributions to her community has received little attention. It serves us well to consider what is receiving major and continued press attention and what is quickly left aside.

W. DeWitt

Ukiah

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49ERS FALL 30-19 TO BUCS WITH FRED WARNER HURT, MAC JONES INEFFECTIVE

by Noah Furtado

Fred Warner’s right foot turned sideways. San Francisco 49ers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers players alike could not bear the sight. Niners teammate CJ West shakily raised both hands to either side of his helmet. Bucs wide receiver Tez Johnson covered his entire facemask as he turned away and signaled to the visitor’s sideline for help.

With 7:38 left in the first quarter, the game had only just begun. Both sides needed to carry on. The 49ers tried. The Buccaneers were better equipped to do so as QB Baker Mayfield and company dealt the now 49ers (4-2) their second loss of the season in a 30-19 win for Tampa Bay (5-1), triggering a three-way tie atop the NFC West division.

There were late opportunities to pull out a win. With the score 27-19, quarterback Mac Jones fumbled while being sacked a fourth time but caught a break after the review showed his shin touched the grass first. Buccaneers kicker Chase McLaughlin even missed a 49-yard field goal on the ensuing drive to give the 49ers the ball back with a little less than nine minutes to go.

The 49ers did not reach midfield. A fifth and final sack on Jones set them back. A running into the kicker penalty against Bucs star defensive tackle Vita Vea handed them another lifeline. Five plays later, Jones threw another interception. He entered Sunday with just one across his three previous starts filling in for Brock Purdy (toe), but he finished with two Sunday. McLaughlin redeemed himself with a 45-yard field goal after the two-minute warning that put the Buccaneers up by two possessions and all but sealed the outcome.

Warner-less and without star defensive end Nick Bosa (ACL, out for season), the Niners held the Buccaneers to back-to-back punts immediately after Warner exited. Soon enough, the Bucs would wear down Robert Saleh’s defensive unit. Mayfield led the Bucs to three consecutive touchdown drives.

The 49ers managed just one touchdown on the day, as running back Christian McCaffrey punched in their first rushing score of the season, again eclipsing the century mark with 111 total scrimmage yards. He is the first player in the NFL to have at least 100 yards in each contest through six games since 2018.

But without Purdy, All-Pro tight end George Kittle (hamstring), standout wide receiver Ricky Pearsall (knee), and again with a half-healthy Jauan Jennings (ankle, rib) at wideout, the offense was playing short-handed. Beyond McCaffrey’s score, the Niners had to settle for placekicker Eddy Piñeiro converting all four of his field-goal attempts.

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49ERS GAME GRADES: ONE TD ON OFFENSE AND THE LOSS OF FRED WARNER SPELL DOOM

by Ann Killion

The San Francisco 49ers endured a gut punch early Sunday with the severe injury suffered by Fred Warner and the offense couldn’t pick up the slack in a 30-19 loss to the Buccaneers.

OFFENSE: C+

Late in the game, the Bucs did what they could to help the 49ers with a missed field goal and then a roughing-the-kicker penalty. But QB Mac Jones’ second interception of the game — on a 4th-and-5 that had been 4th-and-inches before an offensive line penalty — all but sealed the issue. Jones played well behind an O-line that didn’t: he was 27-for-39 for 347 yards, but was sacked six times. Kendrick Bourne (five catches, 142 yards) atoned for an early misread that resulted in Jones’ first INT, but Christian McCaffrey was kept under control again with only 88 yards of total offense on his first 23 touches (17 rushes, six catches) before a trash-time 23-yard catch and run.

DEFENSE: C

The devastating effect of the loss of Warner to a serious ankle injury in the first quarter can’t be overstated. Still, the 49ers — who already had lost DE Nick Bosa to a season-ending injury — held up for the better part of three quarters before succumbing to Baker Mayfield & Co. Mayfield completed 17 of 23 passes for 256 yards and a pair of TDs. His sack-avoiding 15-yard run on 3rd-and-14 late in the third quarter was crushing: two plays later Mayfield and Tez Johnson connected on a 45-yard TD play. One thing Mayfield didn’t do: throw an interception, as the 49ers have now gone 13 games without a pick. Credit to Tatum Bethune, who replaced Warner and finished with a game-high 10 tackles.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B+

If you’re looking for sunshine from the 49ers’ trip to Florida, here it is. Eddy Piñeiro is still perfect with the 49ers, his four field goals Sunday making him 15-for-15 with S.F. He’s not a chip-shot artist, either: his first two kicks against the Bucs were from 52 and 54 yards, respectively. Skyy Moore and Brian Robinson piled up 161 yards on a combined six kickoff returns and Thomas Morstead averaged 44.5 yards on his two punts.

COACHING: B-

Kyle Shanahan may well be the best play-caller in the game, but it’s tough to get the desired results when you don’t have the best players executing the offense. The passing workload was impressively spread — eight Niners had at least one catch and four had three or more — but none of them were named Brandon Aiyuk, George Kittle or Ricky Pearsall and that’s a problem. And still, the 49ers might have had a chance to pull out another W had Dominick Puni not committed a false start that preceded Jones’ fourth-quarter INT.

OVERALL: C+

Be honest, given the long list of injuries, a 4-2 start has to be considered surprising. Every week brings new issues. After Sunday, it’s worth pondering whether Jones’ first loss with the 49ers was his last as their starter. Brock Purdy’s return could be the start of a steady stream of regulars getting back in the offensive mix. Even then, will the offense — assuming it gets back to full strength soon — be able to do enough to offset a defense that has lost its two best players?

(SF Chronicle)

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HOW TO DEAL WITH 30 TO 50 FERAL HOGS

Once a meme, free-ranging swine have become a real problem — one that has given rise to a wide array of potential solutions.

by Emily Anthes

Pigs are not native to the Western Hemisphere. But when European settlers set out for the New World in the 15th and 16th centuries, they brought swarthy swine with them. The animals were an obvious choice as a food source: highly prolific breeders that were hardy and adaptable enough to fend for themselves on the landscape.

Before long, America’s free-ranging pig population was booming. The animals are difficult to survey, but experts estimate that the United States is now home to at least six million feral hogs, descendants of those early farm animals and Eurasian wild boars that arrived later. Although feral hogs have been reported in dozens of states, they are especially common in Texas.

“There’s a saying in Texas,” said R.A. Ortiz, who goes by Bubba, of Ortiz Game Management in New Braunfels, Texas. “There’s two kinds of property owners: One that has a feral hog problem and one that’s about to have a feral hog problem.”

There’s no easy solution. “Because they’re not native to this part of the planet, there is nowhere that we could take these animals and go release them where they ought to be,” said John Tomecek, a wildlife biologist at Texas A&M University and former chair of the National Wild Pig Task Force. “So every option that we have involves either preventing them from being born in the first place or killing the ones that are alive. That can be a distasteful thing to think about.”

Dr. Tomecek has no personal animus against the pigs, which, he noted, reproduce quickly because humans bred them to do just that. “But,” he said, “they have to go away.”

Fixing the feral pig problem will require an array of approaches, all of which have limitations and drawbacks. Here’s what some Texans are trying:

Trapping

Wild pigs, which live in social groups called sounders, are highly intelligent. Targeting just a few pigs at a time merely teaches the survivors how to avoid capture, so many trappers employ large, corral-style traps to round up an entire sounder at once.

But the approach requires patience and “a lot of hog psychology,” Mr. Ortiz said.

Trappers typically begin by creating a “bait site,” setting out corn, seeds, molasses or other delicacies to attract hungry hogs. Slowly, over the course of a week or more, trappers assemble a corral around the area: “Letting them feed for a few nights, and then adding a couple of panels the next day,” said Edward Dickey, the owner of Texas Wild Hog Control.

Then, Mr. Dickey uses cameras connected to his smartphone to remotely monitor the corral. He can remotely trigger the gate to close when the whole sounder is inside.

Mr. Dickey kills the animals quickly, with a single gunshot to the head. “A hog can’t help what he is, and no animal deserves to suffer,” he said. “So we try to be as humane as possible.”

Hog-dogging

Hunting is another common swine control method.

In an approach known as “hog-dogging,” hunters use dogs to sniff out, chase down and grab on to the hogs until human hunters arrive to kill them.

Jose Dominguez, the owner of TX Hill Country Hog Dogs, said that his dogs can help landowners hunt down problem pigs, including those that are wary of traps, and deter the pigs from roaming certain farms. “It puts so much hunting pressure on them that they would rather just go somewhere else,” he said.

But even in the already ethically fraught world of sport hunting, hog-dogging is especially contentious, with critics noting that the hunts are unnecessarily cruel for the pigs and can be dangerous for the dogs, which are sometimes injured by the boars’ tusks.

Nighttime Hunting

Some companies have turned feral swine control into entertainment, luring customers with promises of unique hunting experiences.

Jimmy Galindo, the owner of Texas Hunting Adventure, guides clients on high-tech hunts at night, when the pigs tend to be more active and less skittish. Clients use night-vision goggles, thermal scopes and guns equipped with lasers.

“It’s like running around with super powers,” Mr. Galindo said. But the expeditions also provide a real service for local farmers, he said. “It’s all fun and games until it’s your yard and your field.”

Helicopter Hunting

Other outfits offer customers the opportunity to use semiautomatic weapons to shoot at pigs from the sky.

“They want to shoot a cool machine gun out of a helicopter,” said Chris Britt, the chief executive of HeliBacon, which offers aerial shooting trips. “The fact that the target they’re shooting at happens to be a feral pig, which is an overpopulated nuisance species, is a bonus.”

Government agencies also use aerial shooting to control feral pigs, and the approach is especially effective in open areas with high hog densities. Turning it into a recreational activity means that out-of-state tourists are now paying for the opportunity to help control a major state pest, Mr. Britt said. “Texas’ attitude is: ‘Thanks for coming to kill some feral pigs. Please come back and do it again,’” he said.

But there is considerable debate over whether sport hunting is an effective control method for feral pigs. “What we’ve had is folks also catching them and intentionally moving them to new places to create hunting opportunities,” Dr. Tomecek said.

Contraception

Feral hog contraceptives are an active area of scientific research but come with practical challenges. Injectable contraceptives require capturing the pigs. Oral contraceptives distributed in the wild have to be safe for any other free-ranging animals that might ingest them.

A company called Corona Feed Additives developed HogStop, which it describes as a natural contraceptive bait. The key ingredient is cottonseed oil, which contains a compound known to impair male fertility. “As long as these boars are coming and eating this three to five days out of the month, they’re infertile for, like, the next two months,” said Daniel Loper, an owner of Corona Feed Additives, citing the company’s in-house research.

But questions remain about how well the product works in a wild setting, including whether boars would eat the bait consistently enough to remain infertile and how many male pigs would need to be infertile to have an effect on the larger population.

Sanctuary

When Chris Hinterman started Atlasta Home Sanctuary in 1995, she was focused on rescuing neglected or abandoned domestic pigs. But soon, she began getting calls about feral piglets, sometimes from hunters who had shot a big sow but couldn’t bring themselves to kill her piglets. “They feel so much remorse that they try to collect as many babies as they can, and that’s how I get them,” she said.

Over the years, Ms. Hinterman has taken in hundreds of feral pigs. She vaccinates and then spays or neuters each one and then gives them free range over 40 fenced-in acres.

Ms. Hinterman is not opposed to hunting but doesn’t like the idea of shooting the animals purely for entertainment. “They’re very personable,” she said. “They’ll lay down at your feet for tummy rubs.”

Sanctuaries are not a practical large-scale solution, but Ms. Hinterman hopes to educate the public about animals that she thinks are misunderstood — and that are being forced into closer contact with people as humans develop more of the state’s wild places.

“Where are these animals supposed to go?” she said, adding that the feral swine predicament is about more than just pigs. “People are the problem.”

(NY Times)

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Wow! The aftermath of the October 7 attacks was severe. It’s wise to consider potential consequences before picking fights. (Yeah, she really shoulda known better, but she’s real sorry about it now.)

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END THE DENIAL

Editor,

I am an Israeli-born Jewish American. According to a recent poll by the Washington Post, 61% of American Jews believe Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, so I don’t think he speaks for them either. Nor does he speak for former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who wrote, “What we are doing in Gaza now is a war of devastation: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians.” He doesn’t speak for former Israeli Attorney General Michael Ben-Yair and former Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg, who have denounced Israel’s military campaign and government policies.

All were appalled by Hamas’ grotesquely brutal attack on Israeli communities Oct. 7, 2023. We all recognize Israel’s right of self defense. We all believe that Israelis and Palestinians alike can only live in peace if Hamas disarms and is dethroned and the hostages returned. What we don’t accept is the apparent indiscriminate killing of tens of thousands of seemingly innocent Palestinian citizens.

Saperstein does not mention reports by independent authorities, including Israelis. The International Association of Genocide Scholars, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights in Israel and the Israeli rights group B’Tselem have documented and condemned crimes committed by Hamas while stating that Israel’s conduct violates conventions.

True friends of Israel must end the denial and say enough is enough.

Ruth Jaeger

Corte Madera

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LEAD STORIES, MONDAY'S NYT

Israel Says All Hostages Have Been Released in Swap: Live Updates

Some Americans Are Starting to Feel the Impact of the Government Shutdown

Asia Markets Fall After Trump Threatens New Tariffs on China

How a Las Vegas Casino Mogul Helped Bring N.B.A. Games Back to China

Beheaded and Sent to Watery Graves, Columbus Statues Get New Life

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DUE PROCESS IS STILL JUSTIFIED AT SEA

Editor:

I think every American would agree a war on drugs is justified. Recently there have been four incidents where suspected drug-trafficking boats were destroyed by U.S. forces under orders from President Donald Trump, resulting in deaths without any form of due process being served. Considering the American military has the ability to intercept, surround and board suspected drug-trafficking vessels, ultimately, due process could be served.

Richard Cardiff

Sebastopol

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FLIGHTS OF THE IMAGINATION: JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR AT TEMPELHOF AIRPORT

by David Yearsley

Founded in 1947, the third and youngest of Berlin’s great opera houses is the Komische Oper—the comic opera. In the rubble of war, it took up residence in the late-nineteenth-century Metropol-Theater, beloved for its racy revues and risqué operettas. The Nazis had closed the place down in 1933, then began to stage their own Volk-friendly entertainments there under the auspices of the party’s Kraft durch Freude initiative.

The neo-baroque building stood only a few blocks from the Brandenburg Gate and was badly bombed in the war. But the auditorium itself, with its mirrors and chandeliers and gods and goddesses of muscly and curvaceous stucco, was left virtually untouched by the destruction. The show could go on and did.

The wrecked foyer and façade were eventually redone under the socialist East Berlin regime in clean, modernist lines that worked in bracing counterpoint to the louche interior.

Since its founding, the Komische Oper has reaped admiration and condemnation in nearly equal measure for productions that are often wildly creative, convention-defying, and graphically scandalous. The house does not shy away from confronting many of the underlying currents troubling the depths of opera (viz., violence, misogyny, racism), nor does it apologize for its sometimes almost X-rated depictions of liberation and pleasure.

Nearly eighty years on since the birth of the Komische Oper, its building is now in the midst of a renovation set to cost nearly 500 million euros, an outlay decried by the likes of the rightwing tabloid Bild-Zeitung as an outrageous luxury in a time of retrenchment in the city-state of Berlin.

While the work goes on despite such grumblings, the Komische Oper has taken up provisional residence in the Schiller-Theater a couple of miles to the west, but the company launched its fall season offsite with an eye-popping earwax-cleansing production of Jesus Christ Superstar in the spectacular venue of the former Tempelhof airport. This airfield was opened in 1923 but massively expanded by the plane-crazy Nazis from 1936 to 1941 until the long curve of its bays and hangars had occupied more surface area than any other building in the world. That dubious distinction was eventually overtaken by the American Pentagon.

As the Russians closed in, in April of 1945, Hitler’s orders that the airport be blown up went unexecuted, so that the enormous building stands still. It was used by the Americans in the Cold War, most famously during the Berlin Airlift that thwarted the Russian Blockade in 1948-9. Tempelhof was closed to flight traffic in 2008 and various parts of the humongous structure now host exhibitions and spectacles put on by the likes of the Komische Oper.

The airfield itself is currently a park visited by nearly 100,000 people on non-rainy days. Kite surfers, skateboarders and cyclists wheel and wing across the wide, windswept spaces. Cricket matches take place in the shadow of the radar tower. If only all airports could be converted to democratic, carbon-sinking, low-decibel open spaces on the Tempelhof model and all the world’s concourses and hangars dedicated to theater and the other arts!

We arrived at Tempelhof on a clear, autumnal Tuesday evening. Along the access road leading into the hangar, a group of a dozen or so Catholic protestors recited the Hail Mary while holding up a banner that read “Blasphemy: Hate Against Christians.”

I wanted to ask the Catholic critics if they’d seen the show. If they had, they’d realize that this is just a trashy Passion Play, not so different in its theological underpinnings—or lack thereof —than kindred spectacles like the five-day reenactment in Oberammergau, which got going four hundred years ago and has thus had an even longer run in the Bavarian Alps than did Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera on Broadway.

Whether they liked it or not, the protestors were themselves part of the show, a pious prelude that reminded the undeterred audience that forbidden fruit is the sweetest and juiciest.

We followed the crowd in and stowed our bikes on a couple of the hundreds of stands already filling up—another happy testament to Berlin’s bike-and-arts friendliness and a reminder that the Wright brothers were into the bicycle before they became the first in flight.

The Komische Oper has real flair, whether putting on a show in an opera house or in an empty airplane bay looking out at a dusky runway. In an ad hoc bar area the size of at least two football fields, sofas had been set up with more than ample space between them. The clink of champagne glasses echoed off the trusses high up in the cantilevered dimness. A neon sign marked off this vast ad hoc opera foyer from the airfield beyond, resisting the gathering dark with its message of #allesaußergewöhnlich (everything extraordinary). That said it all—in lurid pink.

Lurking on the tarmac beyond the cordon, the silver hull of a Douglas C-47 Rosinenbomber (raisin bomber), one of the planes that supplied Berliners with food during the blockade, held the last of the twilight on its silvery skin.

The bell rang and the crowd streamed into Hangar 4. Metal grandstands rose up on three sides of the cavernous cube. At the front of the stage glowered a cross built from metal poles and struts housing headlights, looking as if it could have done service controlling plane traffic out on the runways.

The band, fronted by three guitarists, a keyboardist, and a drummer, was arrayed along the fourth wall on a higher platform with stairs leading down to the catwalk stage. The Komische Oper orchestra strings and woods spread out behind and to either side. Miraculously, given the sprawling space and ever-changing formations pushing into every corner, music director Koen Schoots maintained discipline, yet fostered feeling.

The cavernous hangar was filled to capacity—enough people to fill several 747s—and all were ready for a theater evening that, in the end, brought everyone into the show in a singalong encore of the title tune.

Throughout, Dancers and Disciples, Money Changers, Priests and Judges rushed in from entrances that seemed to lead out to the airfield itself and also scampered up the metal stairs and into the audience. The messianic mob was worthy of Cecil B. DeMille in scope and energy and rustic Levantine textiles. Andreas Homoki stage direction was devoted to excess worthy of Berlin, encouraging seething movement but also leaving space for poised prayer.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is not renowned for his musical originality, having settled at least one copyright infringement case over the years and been threatened with others. He shamelessly appropriated the theme, and much else too, from the slow movement of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto for the show’s biggest hit, the oft-excerpted ballad, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.” There is ample precedence for such plagiarism, even if done far more skillfully, in the oeuvre of Lloyd Webber’s predecessor as top dog of the London musical theater— George Frideric Handel. Luckily for Webber, Mendelssohn’s copyright expired a while back.

The dynamic choreography by Sommer Ulrickson, whether animating the unwashed masses or the serpentine apostles, shifty priests, or slinky Motown soul sisters, was exuberantly varied and inventive. Frank Wilde created the colorful, even crazy costumes, from diaphanous and billowing, to form-fitting and crotch-hugging. The enthralling Albert-Speer-at-Studio-54 lighting was conceived for maximum wow-factor by Olaf Freese and Florian Schmitt.

Jesus was not the bearded, long-locked waif of medieval carvings and Renaissance portraiture but instead close-cropped on top and muscle-bound all the way down from there. Had the engrossing and literally gripping Ryan Vona walked on water during the show, the miracle would have been all the more impressive given the body density. But he could sing, nailing (sorry! Will say 10 Hail Mary’s and buy an extra indulgence from the Editor during the current fund drive) the high notes and wringing more than the requisite emotion out of librettist Tim Rice’s embarrassing doggerel (viz. “tables, chairs and oaken chests would have suited Jesus best / He’d have caused nobody harm – no one alarm!”). In scarlet-letter red evening gown and shaved head, Ilay Bay Arslan sang the part of Mary Magdalena with an allure both sin-soaked and purified.

As the man-bunned, clog-sporting, eventually shirtless Judas, Ryan Shaw effectively and effortlessly toggled between keening falsetto and full-throated song, between anguish and affection.

If you’re going to stage a show at the Nazi Airport, the bad guy had better steal the show, and he did.

(David Yearsley is a long-time contributor to CounterPunch and the Anderson Valley Advertiser. His latest albums, “In the Cabinet of Wonders” and “Handel’s Organ Banquet” are now available from False Azure Records.)

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I REMEMBER YOU

Woke up to the sound of pouring rain
The wind would whisper and I'd think of you
And all the tears you cried, that called my name
And when you needed me I came through

I paint a picture of the days gone by
When love went blind and you would make me see
I'd stare a lifetime into your eyes
So that I knew that you were there for me
Time after time you there for me

[chorus]
Remember yesterday, walking hand in hand
Love letters in the sand, I remember you
Through the sleepless nights through every endless day
I'd want to hear you say, I remember you oh oh

We spent the summer with the top rolled down
Wished ever after would be like this
You said I love you babe, without a sound
I said I'd give my life for just one kiss
I'd live for your smile and die for your kiss

[chorus]

We've had our share of hard times
But that's the price we paid
And through it all we kept the promise that we made
I swear you'll never be lonely

Woke up to the sound of pouring rain
Washed away a dream of you
But nothing else could ever take you away
'Cause you'll always be my dream come true
Oh my darling, I love you

[chorus]

— Rachel Bolan (1989)

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ROBOTS

The distant future / The distant future / It is the distant future, the year 2000 / We are robots / The world is very different ever since the robotic uprising of the mid-nineties, / There is no more unhappiness / Affirmative / We no longer say yes, instead we say affirmative / Yes, affirmative / Unless its a more colloquial situation with a few robo friends / There is only one type of dance, the Robot / And the Robo-boogie / Oh yes, two kinds of dances.

Finally robotic beings rule the world / The humans are dead / The humans are dead / We used poisonous gases / And we poisoned their asses / The humans are dead / He's right they are dead / The humans are dead / They look like they're dead / It had to be done / I'll just confirm that they're dead / So that we can have fun / Affirmative, I poked one it was dead.

Can't we just talk to the humans? / Maybe a little understanding / could make things better? / Can't we talk to the humans / and work together now? / No. / Because they are dead.

Binary solo / Zero zero zero zero zero zero one / Zero zero zero zero zero zero one one / Zero zero zero zero zero zero one one one / Zero zero zero zero zero one one one one / Oh, oh, / Oh, one / Come on sucker, / Lick my battery

Boogie / Boogie (Robo-boogie) / Boogie / Robo-boogie (The humans are dead)

Once again without emotion the humans are / Dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead.

— Toby Laing, Bret McKenzie & Jemaine Clement (2007)