COOLER and cloudier conditions start to ease today, with sunny, dry, and slightly warmer weather forecast through Saturday. A quick moving chance of rain is possible again Sunday. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A partly cloudy & cool 44F this Thursday morning on the coast. Our forecast is for mostly sunny thru the weekend into next week. Let's get some roofing done, eh' ?
COAST COMMUNITY, do you know this woman?
I'll call her Ms. Thief. Saturday Oct.11, Barb from AB Market, caught her red-handed taking my small table from behind my studio. Suspiously, Saturday Oct. 4th, my wooden chairs disappeared. (That were with the table) She denied taking the chairs, but alas Ms. Thief, you were caught on video loading them into your Mazda, that's seen in the photos…… so Ms. Thief, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. You bring back my chairs before this Saturday or I will call the Sheriff, with video and photos, and an eye witness, It's your choice. Do the easy way Ms. Thief!
NO KINGS DAY, FORT BRAGG
Gilly Gilly: Can someone tell me why the No Kings is now on the FB bridge? Is it accessible to people with disabilities ? Is it accessible for the elderly? Can they get there easily as there is NO parking there? Where will we all park?
WELCOME NEW UKIAH CHP OFFICERS!
CHP Ukiah is proud to welcome three new officers who recently graduated from the CHP Academy in West Sacramento. After 26 weeks of rigorous training at the Academy, they will now put their skills to the test as they begin field training for another 3 months.
Join us in welcoming these new officers as they embark on this new chapter in their lives. Congratulations and welcome to the California Highway Patrol!
If you aspire to be a part of something greater, we encourage you to consider applying for a career with CHP. Discover the satisfaction of safeguarding your community and making a meaningful impact.
(Ed note: The starting salary for CHP officers is about $123k per year plus “comprehensive” benefits, not counting overtime. The starting salary for a Mendocino County deputy is about $83k per year plus comparable benefits. But most experienced deputies make around $100k per year or so, not counting overtime.)
RIVERSIDE SAUNAS ARE TEARING A CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY APART
A mobile sauna business on Big River ignites debate in Mendocino over ecology, access and commercialization
by Matt LaFever
Roughly 150 miles north of San Francisco, Big River meets the Pacific Ocean just south of Mendocino, a coastal town famed for its Victorian architecture perched atop bluffs that plunge into the sea. Flowing more than 40 miles from its headwaters in the redwood-covered Coast Range, Big River contains the longest undeveloped estuary in Northern California. In this primordial waterway, coho and Chinook salmon swim, harbor seals bark, and river otters play.
Yet for the past month, the waterfront peace has been roiled by a dispute over a local business. In an established parking area not far from the river’s mouth, Paul Snowdy and Elika Freeman have operated a business since mid-September called MendoSauna, offering customers a rustic, wood-fired sweat lodge experience followed by an instant plunge into Big River’s cool waters.
In an emailed statement to SFGATE, Snowdy and Freeman described themselves as Mendocino Coast locals and environmentally conscious entrepreneurs who began their “mobile sauna in 2020 for ourselves to enjoy with friends and family.” Their vision, they wrote, was “to build an environmentally minded local sauna service at the beach,” adding that they “wanted to build it so that it blends in and wouldn’t distract from the natural beauty.”
However, longtime locals have pushed back against MendoSauna, alleging the saunas have polluted their beloved riverside with smoke from the wood stoves that heat their interiors. Resident John Lawrence told SFGATE that he has recreated at Big River for decades, but recently, “I was kind of taken aback when all of a sudden out of nowhere, I’m paddling up the river and the smoke hits me in the face.” He said the stoves’ smoke goes “right through where the seals congregate.”
The Big River Estuary is part of Mendocino Headlands State Park, a protected stretch of coastline managed by California State Parks. MendoSauna’s operation near the river was approved under a special-event permit meant to “evaluate public interest, environmental effects, and overall compatibility with the area,” State Parks spokesperson Adeline Yee told SFGATE.
Snowdy and Freeman told SFGATE that Wednesday, Oct. 15, was their “last day of operation at Big River for the foreseeable future.”
State Parks now has a public comment period open through Oct. 30 at 5 p.m. Yee said all input will help determine whether MendoSauna — or any similar business — should be allowed to operate on Big River Beach in the future.
Robert Jamgochian, a former biology teacher who has long fought for Big River’s ecological health, summed up the tension in Mendocino right now: “The community, I’ll tell you right now, is pretty fired up about this.”
Where there’s smoke, there’s backlash
In addition to being part of Mendocino Headlands State Park, the Big River Estuary is also a State Marine Conservation Area, one of dozens created across California to safeguard ocean wildlife and habitat. Established in 1999 as part of a statewide network of marine preserves, Big River remains one of the coast’s most biodiverse places — home to redwoods, bishop pine, pygmy cypress, northern spotted owls, bald eagles and brown pelicans.
Robert Jamgochian called the waterway “a very spectacular, extraordinary estuary with all kinds of sea life” where one can find “pipefish, sea otters, coho and steelhead, [and] large bird populations.”
His wife, Ann Jamgochian, described how the woodsmoke settles into the estuary’s still air, carried inland by the prevailing winds. “You can smell the smoke like a half a mile away because of the way the winds are blowing,” Ann Jamgochian said. “It just hurts your lungs.” She added that some locals “aren’t recreating on the beach on the days when the saunas are burning because they can’t breathe. They have to use their inhalers, and they don’t want to do that.”
Dennak Murphy, a member of the GrassRoots Institute, an environmental justice group on the North Coast, wrote to SFGATE that “the Mendocino community fought hard to prevent commercial development of the Mendocino headlands and Big River Beach and surrounding forests over many decades.”
Snowdy and Freeman do have some defenders, however. Mendocino Coast resident Lauren Waswo wrote to SFGATE that the business represents “a thoughtful, low-impact way to connect and experience the river.”
In an emailed statement to SFGATE, Snowdy and Freeman addressed residents’ environmental concerns, saying they’ve worked to minimize “environmental impacts” by “using a Kuuma sauna stove,” a model designed to reduce smoke output, as well as by “burning Madrone firewood,” which when properly cured “produces less smoke,” and by “using locally sourced and reclaimed wood.” Beyond operating their sauna business, they added, they “regularly pick up other people’s trash and help keep the area clean.”
Time-lapses sent to SFGATE by Snowdy and Freeman show their mobile saunas giving off only thin wisps of smoke, but photographs shared by concerned residents tell a different story, showing the units shrouded in haze.
‘There’s been no transparency’
For many locals, the problem isn’t just the smoke; it’s the process. Several said their frustration is aimed less at Snowdy and Freeman than at State Parks, the agency that approved the operation.
“It was after us discovering one morning, showing up at the beach with two of these saunas burning and little signs pointing down the beach saying ‘sauna, sauna, sauna,’ that we’re like, what’s going on?” wrote Ann Jamgochian. She said State Parks “did not publicly post that this was going to be a proposed concession anywhere.”
She added: “There’s been no transparency.”
In a statement, State Parks spokesperson Yee said MendoSauna is operating only as part of a short-term trial run, not a full concession. The sauna trailer, according to Yee, sits in the upland parking lot “adjacent to—but outside of—the mapped boundary of the Big River Estuary SMCA.” She described it as a “non-permanent structure on a trailer” that is meant to be easily removed once the trial ends.
Yee said that during the test period, State Parks staff have been monitoring smoke and coordinating with the Mendocino County Air Quality Management District to ensure the operation meets local standards. If a sauna were to become permanent, she added, it would require both Coastal Commission approval and an environmental review under CEQA.
Murphy, of the GrassRoots Institute, called the sauna trial more than a local dispute; he sees it as a warning sign. “The sauna operation is the foot in the door,” he wrote, arguing that “residents along the coast understands that private equity firms, corporations and other businesses would love to ‘monetize’ public assets along the northern coast.”
Murphy also questioned whether the project fits the mission of State Parks. “The California State Parks and Recreation has important priorities and mandates including equity and inclusion, meaning access to public state parks is for everyone, not just well-to-do tourists,” he wrote. “Private saunas on the beach would appear to be aimed at a particular demographic.”
“Resiliency and conservation are also important priorities for state parks as is climate change and carbon sequestration,” Murphy continued. “It is hard to imagine that portable wood fired saunas contribute to any of these priorities. In fact ‘wood burning saunas’ are a carbon emissions business.”
Waswo, meanwhile, sees the business as benign — even beneficial. She said MendoSauna offers “a safe, healthy, outdoor environment where we can gather, relax, and enjoy nature without freezing our asses off.” She pointed out that “there are already plenty of homes and businesses close enough to Big River using wood heat that the smoke could drift over, and no one is coming after them.” From her vantage point, “the pushback here feels less about actual environmental impact … and more about resistance to change.”
‘It’s the Instagram moment’
Across California, mobile saunas are suddenly everywhere. From floating wood-fired spas in Sausalito to pop-ups parked in Richmond and along Marin’s backroads, the Bay Area has embraced the Nordic ritual as part of a growing outdoor wellness movement. Many of these new saunas tout sustainability and community, inviting guests to sweat, plunge and socialize in natural settings.
On the Mendocino Coast, though, some locals see that trend as a warning. “Mobile saunas are now kind of the new thing,” said Robert Jamgochian. “It’s the Instagram moment — a gorgeous place, set up your sauna, snap your pictures, you’re on your way.” He fears that what’s unfolding at Big River is only the beginning. “Even if we shut down this concession,” he said, “it’s going to be a statewide issue.”
For now, Snowdy and Freeman’s permit has lapsed, so the saunas will go cold. It remains to be seen what State Parks will glean from public comment.
In the end, everyone says they’re fighting for the same thing: to protect Big River. The divide is about what that protection should look like. For some, that means keeping commerce off the sand. “We are not anti-business,” said Robert Jamgochian, “but this shouldn’t happen in a state park.”
Others say protecting Big River means supporting those trying to live and work beside it. Autumn Faber, a resident of the Mendocino Coast, said Snowdy and Freeman “are beloved members of the community” who have “worked diligently to source materials that will have low impact.” She added, “I’m exhausted and embarrassed by the lack of support that some members of the community show for young families trying to make it in this economy.”
(sfgate.com)
PUBLIC NOTICE – REQUEST FOR COMMENTS: PROPOSED MOBILE SAUNA CONCESSION AT BIG RIVER BEACH (Mendocino Headlands State Park)
Comment Period: September 30 – October 30, 2025 (closes 5:00 p.m. Pacific)
California State Parks, Sonoma–Mendocino Coast District, invites public comment on a proposal to authorize a mobile sauna concession operating within a designated footprint at Big River Beach in Mendocino Headlands State Park. The concession would provide scheduled sauna sessions to park visitors under a District-administered contract with operating conditions to protect park resources and visitor experience.
Why We’re Seeking Comment
For concession agreements and certain special use proposals, State Parks often opens a public comment window to gather written feedback that can inform the District’s recommendation. This notice is issued consistent with Public Resources Code §§ 5080.03–5080.23 (State Parks concessions).
How to Comment (choose one)
Email: [email protected] (Subject: “Big River Sauna – Public Comment”)
Mail: CA State Parks – Sonoma–Mendocino Coast District, Attn: Public Comment – Big River Sauna, 12301 N HWY 1, Box 1, Mendocino, CA 95460
In Person (drop off): District Office, 12301 N Hwy 1, Mendocino CA 95460, during regular business hours
Deadline: Comments must be received by 5:00 p.m. PT on October 30, 2025.
What Happens Next
District staff will review all timely comments, summarize key themes, and incorporate them into the staff recommendation and decision file for consideration.
Unlike formal processes under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) individual responses to each comment are not required; however, all public concerns will be documented and weighed in decision-making.
If a separate CEQA review is required for this proposal, State Parks will provide additional public notice specific to that process.
CHRISTINA ARANGUREN:
This just in:
The word on the beach is that today is the sauna company’s last day on Big River and that Cal State Parks has pulled their concession permit. We’ve not received definitive confirmation from Cal State Parks as yet, nor have they have acknowledged receiving our comments and questions submitted yesterday.
Thanks to all who contributed in protecting our priceless coastal resources,
Christina Aranguren
President, The Institute for Conservation, Advocacy, Research and Education
LOCAL EVENTS
UKIAH OFFICIALS MEET WITH GROUPS TO GATHER FEEDBACK ON ANNEXATION PLANS
by Sydney Fishman
After pausing plans over the summer to annex unincorporated lands into Ukiah city limits, the city announced last week a meeting with some local organizations who opposed the initial proposal to discuss a way to move forward.
The discussion follows a pause on the topic initiated by the city in July, when the Ukiah City Council decided to scale back the amount of land it plans to include in a future proposal.
In a press release, the city of Ukiah said its officials met Wednesday with three community organizations that have been particularly active in the annexation discussion. The organizations are the Mendocino County Farm Bureau, a member organization of the California Farm Bureau Association, Mendo Matters, a group that informs the community on local government policies, and the No Ukiah Annexation group created in opposition to the annexation plans.
The city stated in its press release, “The meeting provided a valuable opportunity to exchange information, address misconceptions, and gather feedback on specific ideas that could inform revisions to the city’s potential annexation maps.”
Adam Gaska, executive director of the Mendocino County Farm Bureau, said in an interview that while the bureau would like to see the annexation plan canceled, he is glad the city is revising its proposal to better fit the community’s needs.
“We would have preferred if they had done a little bit more in terms of officially pulling back the plan,” Gaska said. “We do feel comfortable that they are going back to the drawing board and they are going to come back with something else, but we are not sure when.”
But according to Gaska, annexations generally do not benefit farmland areas. Overall, he said the bureau is not supportive of the city’s attempt to acquire unincorporated land.
“I don’t know that there’s anything the city can really do for the farm bureau to be in favor of annexation. The best that they could achieve is us being neutral,” Gaska added. “We don’t see what the benefit to farmers would be.”
The city of Ukiah’s annexation discussion has sparked months of heated debates among community members.
In the city’s previous annexation proposal, the city would have taken over several unincorporated areas surrounding Ukiah.
No Ukiah Annexation, a local group that has been strongly opposed to the city’s annexation plans, said in a statement to The Mendocino Voice that it still hasn’t received answers to critical questions posed to the city.
“We are committed to collaboration and transparency in addressing the city of Ukiah’s proposed annexation plans. Our role is to represent the community, ask hard questions, and ensure transparency,” the statement said. “Yet when we asked what feedback the city has received and how it shaped their plans, we got no answers. Public engagement should never be treated as a burden or an afterthought.”
If the city does get an annexation plan approved by the Ukiah City Council and the Mendocino Local Agency Formation Commission in the future, the city would gradually receive a large amount of revenue from property, sales and transient occupancy taxes from those areas, while the county’s tax revenue would decrease. This is due to a master tax sharing agreement signed by the county in partnership with the cities of Ukiah, Willits, Fort Bragg and Point Arena to coordinate tax revenues when cities annex unincorporated land.
The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors has expressed concern over the gradual loss of tax money if an annexation occurs. Shannon Riley, the Ukiah deputy city manager, said the county would actually save money as services are eventually transferred to the city’s jurisdiction.
“The services like police, streets, parks and code enforcement. Those services would immediately shift to the responsibility of the city,” Riley said in an interview. “The county would be immediately relieved of up to $18 million in street improvement in the areas around the city limits, immediately relieved of law enforcement services to some of the highest call volume areas in the county. That’s why we can’t take this decision lightly; we have to be confident that we can provide those services.”
Riley noted that while the city has not set a date to present a revised annexation proposal, it will continue meeting with local groups and concerned community members to understand which changes to make in the next annexation draft.
“There will be plenty more public meetings and conversations about this,” Riley added. “We have literally met with every person that has requested a meeting and will continue to do that.”
(Mendocino Voice)
THINGS ARE LOOKING UP AT NEW KZYX HQ
Much progress is being made on the new KZYX headquarters in Ukiah — the foundation of a secure future for Mendocino County Public Broadcasting. Every project milestone gets us closer to bringing the 390 West Clay Street site on line and enabling KZYX to move into its new home.
Recently, the land adjacent to the new broadcast studios was prepped for the all-important 90-foot tower that will soon be raised. A team poured its concrete pad, and trenches were dug to carry cables to the tower. And step by step, the broadcast building (the one closer to Pine Street) is being transformed into three studios, offices, equipment storage areas, and a staff kitchen and bathroom. Now that the walls have insulation, low-voltage wiring can be installed and the walls and floors completed. Then the broadcast equipment, furniture, and kitchen and bathroom equipment that have already been purchased can be installed.
The admin building on the east side is nearly ready for use and already equipped with telephone and internet connections. As more funds are raised, other major milestones that lie ahead include purchase and installation of a generator and development of the land around the buildings into walkways, landscaping, and a parking area for cars and bicycles.
As soon as weather conditions and construction-site safety make public visits possible, there will be opportunities to visit the site so everyone can see the progress and more easily imagine KZYX in its new home.
Our successful KZYX 174 Campaign filled the gap left by the clawing-back of CPB funds and provided room to breathe and continue regular operations in the short term. At the same time, the campaign to raise funds and complete our new Ukiah home continues because moving into the new Ukiah home is the single most important way to ensure that KZYX survives and thrives over the long term.
So when KZYX recently received an unexpected and very welcome donation of $175,000, the Board allocated this new gift to the Building Fund. This amazing show of support came from an anonymous donor or group of donors whose aim is to ensure that rural public radio stations like ours can continue to broadcast and serve their communities. On the mid-July day of the rescission, Andre de Channes, KZYX General Manager and Director of Operations, was interviewed on KQED and CalMatters about how the loss of CPB funding would impact KZYX. He described how devastating the cuts were to the station's ability to operate, not to mention to our ability to complete the move to the new headquarters. Afterwards, a fund manager who had heard the interview reached out to Andre and asked if he had time to chat. “We spoke for nearly an hour,” he reported, “and she asked me detailed questions about the station, our demographics, the types of programs we air, our infrastructure, etc. At the end of the conversation, she told me she represents people who want to make sure public radio continues to exist, and she would be in touch about a possible donation.”
A few weeks later, she reached out again to say that her client(s) would donate $175,000 to KZYX. “I never would have dared to hope for such a significant amount,” said Andre. “This represents a meaningful dent in the $1.4 million dollars needed to complete the Ukiah headquarters project. Thanks to this extraordinary gift, combined with the generous 174 Campaign donations, we are able to keep forward momentum on our building project while also continuing our daily operations.”
The entire KZYX community is deeply grateful for these generous gifts and the confidence they express in our community radio station and its future.
KZYX&Z Mendocino County Public Broadcasting . PO Box 1 . 9300 Highway 128. Philo, CA 95466
MARK SCARAMELLA NOTES: With this anonymous largesse did KZYX hire back their news director whom they had fired citing funding cuts? No.
RENEE LEE, FREE LUNCH, FREE MEDICARE INFO: Reminder! Presentation about upcoming changes to Medicare and Disability at AV Senior Center on TODAY, this Thursday, October 16 at 1 pm. Come for lunch and stay for the presentation to get your next lunch at the AV Senior Center for FREE!
MENDOCINO COUNTY FIRE SAFE COUNCIL
Upcoming Events & Activities
- Coyote Valley Community Work Party
- County Seeks Input on Hazard Mitigation Plan
- Contractors & Handypersons — Get on Our List!
- North County Needs Prescribed Burn Volunteers
- Meet the New Brooktrails Fire Chief Thurs Oct 16
- Fire & Safety Expo at Pumpkinfest Sat Oct 18
- Anderson Valley Fire Dept 70th Anniversary Event Oct 18
- Piercy Volunteer Fire Dept Fall Celebration Oct 18
- McNab Ranch—Feliz Creek Firewise BBQ Sun Oct 19
- Two More Resilient Gardening Webinars Oct 21 & 28
- Join our NFSC Meeting, Online 10 am Wed Oct 22
- Mendocino County Homebrew Festival Sat Nov 15
- Read & Learn: Home-Hardening Halves Wildfire Damage
- Watch & Learn: Home-Hardening in 7 Saturdays
firesafemendocino.org
AV FIRE & AMBULANCE 70TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION THIS SATURDAY AFTERNOON
The Anderson Valley Fire Department is celebrating its 70th anniversary with a fundraising event on Saturday, October 18, from 1–4 pm at the Anderson Valley Brewing Company in Boonville at the corner of Highways 128 and 253. Entertainment includes The Real Sarahs, kid games, a bounce house, and a cornhole tournament. Food and drinks including beer will also be available with wristband.
EVERY SEASON HAS ITS REASON
by Terry Sites
This year it felt like summer was going to last forever. In Anderson Valley’s Yorkville those high 80s and low 90s days just rolled on and on. Close the windows in the morning to keep the cool in and keep the hot out, then open them at night to let the cool in and force the hot out. Repeat. Keep those oscillating fans rolling: hot air feels so much cooler when it’s moving.
Suddenly in the second week of October something shifts, it drizzles and the air feels damp. The nights get chilly. Then it really rains and just like that fire season is over. But the overcast skies are kind of oppressive after the endless summer sun. We’ve been wishing for a break from the heat but we kind of liked the cheerfulness of those soft yellow days.
Like it or not the season has changed.
Time to get the winter clothes and shoes out of the garage and put away the lightweight summer stuff. Now, instead of shedding clothes to cool down we will be adding layers to warm up.
As compensation for the uncomfortable chill nature provides a beauty bonus. Every day a new crop of foliage turns color. Driving Highway 253 to Ukiah a “burning bush” pops up before me. A tree so brilliantly orange that it literally glows.
A visit to Gowan’s Apple Farm reveals their apples at their very peak. A tree with apples decking it out looks like so many Christmas ornaments in red, gold, and pink. Set off against a clear blue sky with scudding pillow clouds so white and clean the apple-laden branch is one of God’s most beautiful works. Sniff the apple and you can almost taste it. This year a new one for me was the “Winter Banana” variety, which is very pale yellow with a pink blush. Close your eyes and take a bite. The texture is crisp, but the taste definitely whispers banana. A new apple on the market just the last couple of years is called “Cosmic Crisp” — crisp, juicy and sweet but not in a sickly sugary way. Just tart enough to be interesting. Eating a Cosmic Crisp is a pleasure, pure and simple. Remember those old mealy delicious apples that looked so red and promising but tasted like mush? There are lots of new apples in town and most of them are much better although they may not look as pretty.
This year was the great for home grown produce. Everywhere you turn a neighbor or friend is pressing some just freshly grown fruit or vegetable at you. What a luxury it is to see the kitchen counter full of bowls with fresh picked offerings when deciding what to cook for dinner. Fresh tomatoes eaten “straight up” with just a sprinkling of salt are hard to beat. Great in salads, they are really good thrown as chunks into pasta sauce to brighten the mix.
This year I saw a magazine picture with zucchini cut into long, thin curls with a carrot peeler. I think they’re called zoodles. Ooh! Oodles of Zoodles! The texture is entirely different when trimmed so thin. Sautéed quickly with just a little olive oil — mmm, mmm good.
Harvest is waning these late October days which is sad but the holidays are coming which is happy news. A time when friends and family come together to fight off the mid-winter blues and blahs is almost upon us. It’s a great time to reconnect with people we lost track of during the busy summer. Time to sit down with a drink, some munchies and a friend to catch up.
In the autumn and winter home and hearth are no longer upstaged by the lure of outdoor beauty. There is time to cozy up to a fireplace or a glowing wood stove. The smell of wood smoke, the warmth of hot cider, the feel of a fat cat on your lap… All these are compensations during “Baby it’s cold outside” weather.
And remember just when the novelty of indoor pleasures is wearing thin, spring will be just around the corner with all its activity and rebirth. But for the time being try to appreciate this time of dormancy. We rest and rejuvenate, restore and rebuild to be ready for the next big season of activity. For every season there is a reason.
THE MYSTERY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE & the Mendocino Coast ‘Discovery’
by Bob Lorentzen
Was Francis Drake the first tourist to "Discover" the Mendocino Coast, only to have history lose the record?
In 1579 Captain Drake and crew, midway through their piratical circumnavigation of the globe, steered their Golden Hind into a foggy North Pacific cove surrounded by buff cliffs that reminded them of the White Cliffs of Dover. They stayed five weeks at the place they dubbed Nova Albion, repairing and supplying the ship and getting along famously with the natives.
Speculation on where Drake put ashore hinges on four known factors: his reading the latitude as 38 degrees, 30 minutes, the white cliffs, a rough wooden fort they built, and the native people they described.
The stated latitude lies on the Sonoma Coast where Russians built Fort Ross 230 years later.
The light cliffs and natives there fit the descriptions, but extensive archaeological digs have found no sixteenth century structure.
By allowing Drake an error of 1.5 degrees in his latitude calculations, his harbor could be anywhere from Santa Cruz to the northern Mendocino Coast.
Theories that the landing was at Drake's Bay near Point Reyes hinged on a brass plate found there in 1933 bearing Drake's name, but the relic eventually proved false. Another find at Bolinas supported Drake's landing in that spot. Light cliffs occur throughout the north coast, keeping the potential sites numerous.
While anthropologist Alfred Kroeber identified the natives Drake met as Coast Miwok, the presumed Marin site in Kroeber's day was Miwok turf.
Kroeber further analyzed the people described as being like the Pomo.
At least one amateur archaeologist argues that Drake's "fit harbour" was at Albion, that remnants of the fort lie beneath a mound atop the high cliffs north of the Albion River's mouth. The native people fit the reports perfectly. The "stinking fogges" described by Drake could fit all the locations at low tide in summer and certainly don't exclude Albion. Is it possible that Englishman William Richardson, who received a land grant at Albion, was privy to some secret record of Drake's landing point?
The controversy rages on.
(The Glove Box Guide to the Mendocino Coast, 1995)
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
A hug that lasts 15 seconds or more is something that shouldn’t happen anywhere but in a cage match.
CATCH OF THE DAY, Wednesday, October 15, 2025
JERAT DIAZ-GUERRERO, 23, Clearlake/Ukiah. DUI-any drug, controlled substance, reckless evasion/wrong way driving.
GUADALUPE GUTIERREZ, 36, Ukiah. Under influence, paraphernalia.
KIMBERLY JONES, 54, Ukiah. County parole violation.
RICARDO MANZO, 24, Redwood Valley. Loaded concealed firearm in public, large capacity magazine, alteration of firearm ID marks.
MATTHEW WELLS, 39, Covelo. Paraphernalia, parole violation.
CESLEY WILLIAMS, 33, Ukiah. Failure to appear.
JULIAN WILLIAMS, 39, Redwood Valley. Assault on school grounds, cruelty to child-infliction of injury.
SURE GOT COLD AFTER THE RAIN FELL
Rain fell this mornin', make me feel so bad
on account of my baby walked off with another man.
Like takin' eyesight from the blind man and money from the poor
that woman took my lovin' and walked on out that door.
And it sure got cold after the rain fell,
not from the sky, from my eye.
Somebody, can you tell me just what make a man feel this way?
Like river without its water, like night without a day.
And it sure 'nuff got cold after the rain fell,
not from the sky but from my eye.
If you're home early in the mornin' you hear that rain to fall,
with thunderbolts and lightning the wind begins to call.
Your worry's superficial 'cause you slept on through the night
but stormy weather keep you wond'rin' if ev'rything's all right.
And it sure 'nuff got cold after the rain fell,
not from the sky but from my eye,
not from the sky, from my eye.
— Billy Gibbons (1972)
A REVOLUTIONARY IN POLITICS AND PHOTOGRAPHY
by David Bacon
Jeannette Ferrary, a fine photographer whose work has a rare and brilliant sense of humor, drew my attention to the obituary for Tina Modotti in the New York Times. I'm glad that the NYT series of obits on women who were ignored when they died chose to do one for Modotti. The author, Grace Linden, deserves credit for getting acknowledgement in the Times for this radical hero, 83 years after her death. Linden gives a good account of the work she did as a photographer in Mexico in the 1920s, where she is regarded as a founder of Mexican socially radical photojournalism and documentary work.
Modotti was brought by her working-class parents to San Francisco’s North Beach around the turn of the century, from Udine, in northern Italy. Growing up, she began acting in local theater and moved to Hollywood, where she met Edward Weston. Linden pays a lot of attention to her relationship with Weston, a founder of modernism in photography. As Modotti, at 27, was searching for her way as a photographer and woman, the two went to Mexico together.…
https://rosalux.nyc/a-revolutionary-in-politics-and-photography
FREEDOM IS A CONSTANT STRUGGLE
by Jonah Raskin
I’d read and heard loads about One Battle After Another and invited a friend who came through the long Sixties to see it with me. She has studied the kind of white nationalism that fuels Trump and that fueled Charlie Kirk and his followers. I figured two pairs of eyes and two heads were better than one and I was right.
My movie companion heard some of the same complaints that I heard: that the movie directed by Paul Thomas Anderson was trash and one best avoid it. That was not her stance. She was gratified by the portrayal of the white male nationalists who are obsessed with racial purity as though it really exists and who hire assassins to carry out their dirty work. She thought that Leonardo DiCaprio deserved an Oscar for his performance. Yes!
In an email, one friend urged me to boycott the film as though that would send a message to the director and to Warner Brothers who distributes it. But tell me not to see a movie and I am sure to see it. As a boy my dad would not allow me to see The Desert Fox about the famed WWII German general. His argument: the film glorified a Nazi. I did not leave the theater in awe of Rommel or eager to wear a swastika.
I can understand why some Sixties friends are queasy about One Battle After Another. The violence comes on fast and furious and from all sides. Some scenes seem to glorify gratuitous violence. One of the major characters, a Black woman known as Perfidia Beverly Hills, becomes “a rat” and betrays her comrades.
I can hear friends say, why couldn’t the film feature a character like the real life Assata Shakur, a member of the Black Liberation Army who escaped jail and with help from white comrades escaped to and lived in Cuba, protected by the Cuba government until she died on September 25, 2025. Viva Assata.
In his defense, I’d say that Anderson wasn’t making a documentary; he seems to be saying that even icons of the revolution can be corrupted and collaborate with the state. But that’s not the end of the story he tells. Right before the credits roll, Perfidia’s daughter Chase goes to Oakland to join the revolution. The battle goes on. It’s a never-ending story.
The scenes in which Chase is hunted down go on far too long and Anderson milks the suspense for all its worth and more. But to urge movie goers not to see his tour de force seems self-defeating. Tell people not to do something and they’re likely to do it if only because they’re motivated by spite if nothing else.
Anderson’s film is about a group of failed American revolutionaries who belong to a group called the French 75. I don’t imagine anyone who sees the movie would want to get guns, learn to use them and emulate the characters in the film, played by Leonardo DICaprio, Benicio del Toro, Chase Infinity and others. The acting is superb, especially DiCaprio’s depiction of a radical turned pothead and paranoid schizophrenic.
When I first heard the name of Anderson’s revolutionary group, French 75, I thought of Rachel Kushner’s 2024 novel of ideas, Creation Lake, about a group of modern day French revolutionaries and the American secret agent who infiltrates their ranks and aims to destroy their organization.
According to the publicity for One Battle, the film was inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, which is about Sixties hippies and lefties marooned in the 1980s. To tie Anderson’s movie to Pynchon’s novel is a stretch. Of course, no writer or filmmaker can own the Sixties, or copyright radicals, hippies and the kinds of rightwing extremists in the film who pull the strings of their puppets.
There are more clichés in One Battle than I could count, but put them together and you have an original work of art that melds the personal and the political and that cuts across racial and generational lines. My movie goer friend describes it as a testament to the zeitgeist.
The title of Anderson’s film put me in mind of the Sixties battle cry, “Freedom is a Constant Struggle.” If there’s a message here, that might be it. But why, one might ask, didn’t Anderson make a movie about pacifists and liberal peace-loving reformers in the ruling class. Nice people, not crazies? After all, they exist. But a movie with those kinds of characters would preclude the scenes with gunplay, firefights, blood and guts; the visuals that viewers expect from an action-packed Hollywood picture.
After all, this is a Hollywood film. Isn’t that what Anderson is saying when he named the radical turned rat, Perfidia Beverly Hills. She’s a Beverly Hills revolutionary. For a time, they thrived in Hollywood. Perfidia, in case you were wondering, means treachery and betrayal. The road to revolution is littered with the bodies of rats and informers. But also with fathers like Bob who is played by DiCaprio and daughters like Willa who is played by Chase Infiniti and who remain true to one another and to the cause they serve.
(Jonah Raskin is the author of Beat Blues, San Francisco, 1955.)
NEWSOM SIGNS BILLS TO EASE BARRIERS TO RURAL MATERNITY CARE
Licensed midwives and birthing centers could support a more flexible, on-call system
by Elise Cox
Gov. Gavin Newsom last week signed two bills aimed at removing regulatory barriers to lower-cost, community-based maternity care — a move providers say is especially critical in rural areas where access has dwindled.
Across California, 11 counties have no hospital or birth center, meeting the definition of a “maternity care desert.” Nationally, 36% of U.S. counties fall into that category, according to a 2022 March of Dimes report.
Mendocino County appears relatively better off, with more than two hospitals or birth centers. But for residents on the coast, in Covelo or other remote areas, the nearest hospital with a licensed labor and delivery unit is Adventist Health Ukiah Valley — often more than a hour drive. In neighboring Humboldt County, the situation is much the same. St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka is the only facility offering delivery services.
Bethany Sasaki, a nurse practitioner and midwife in Sacramento, said Assembly Bill 55, authored by Assembly member Mia Bonta and co-sponsored by Sen. Mike McGuire, will make it easier to open new birth centers in rural areas. The bill passed the Assembly without opposition and cleared the Senate with only one dissenting vote.
Sasaki said the law eliminates arbitrary rules that made rural centers impossible to license. Previously, birth centers were required to be within 30 minutes of a hospital with an obstetric unit. “That was completely arbitrary,” she said. “It wasn’t based in any science.” The bill replaces the rule with a written hospital transfer agreement.
AB 55 also removes what Sasaki called a “de facto ban” on licensed midwives owning and operating birth centers. Under previous regulations, centers had to meet Medi-Cal’s definition for comprehensive perinatal services — a requirement that excluded many licensed midwives.
Licensing is key for insurance coverage, said Laura Doyle, owner of Moonstone Midwives Birth Center in Arcata. “In California they said you need to be licensed,” Doyle said, “but they have not given out licenses for years. And then insurance companies were saying they’re not going to reimburse you if you’re not licensed.”
Since 2012 more than 50 hospital maternity wards have shut down in California. Since 2020 19 licensed birth centers have closed, according to CalMatters.
The second measure, Senate Bill 669, authored by McGuire, establishes a five-year pilot project to test a more flexible model for rural hospitals that can’t sustain full delivery units. The program allows “standby perinatal medical services,” ensuring emergency readiness and hospital oversight while relaxing rigid staffing requirements.
Senate Bill 669 passed the Senate and Assembly unanimously with no abstentions.
The model was pioneered by Plumas District Hospital, after the hospital suspended labor and delivery services in 2022 due to low birth volume, finances, and staffing shortages. The new approach allows critical-access hospitals, birth centers, and rural health clinics to collaborate on coverage and patient transfers.
Lisa Rawson, a licensed midwife who has attended hundreds of births in Mendocino County, said Adventist Health Ukiah Valley already uses a version of that model. Like the Plumas District Hospital, Adventist Health in Ukiah has a low birth volume. Countywide there were just 769 births in 2023. Adventist Health Ukiah Valley currently maintains a Level II neonatal intensive care unit — the unit can care for moderately ill newborns born after 32 weeks of gestation. Higher-risk infants need to be transferred to Santa Rosa’s Sutter Hospital.
Rawson said both bills make long-needed changes and acknowledge the central role of licensed midwives in rural maternity care.
Doyle agreed, noting Humboldt County’s collaborative system between midwives and OB-GYNs as a model. “We have all these systems in place so we have really great, safe outcomes,” she said.
(Mendo Local Public Media)
“IT'S DEPRESSING TO THINK that we'll have to endure Obamaspeak for months, if not years to come: a pulp of boosterism about the American dream, interspersed with homilies about putting factionalism and party divisions behind us and moving on. I used to think Senator Joe Lieberman was the man whose words I'd least like to be force fed at top volume if I was chained next to a loudspeaker in Camp Gitmo, but I think Obama is worse. I've never heard a politician so careful not to offend conventional elite opinion while pretending to be fearless and forthright.”
— Alexander Cockburn (2009)
MY CENTRAL MEMORY of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights—or very early mornings—when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder's jacket . . . booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I fumbled for change) . . . but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that…
— Hunter Thompson
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PAUL EDWARDS:In a sane country, which we have never experienced, there would be no such monster as the Fed. That system was a Capitalist contrivance organized so that a quasi-private entity could actually loan money to its own government which is absurd on its face. Sanity would put the creation of money exclusively in the hands of the Treasury and cut out all the ludicrous and criminal chicanery of the various bloodleeching Capitalist devices for fucking the public. This, of course, will never be as Capitalism forbids any concern for people from obstructing its larceny and theft. It is the bane of the world and has given us the sickening goat's nest we have today in The Empire and across the world.
WHY NOT SWEAR IN GRIJALVA?
Can't the Speaker do
What's right and not out of fear
He'll piss Donald off ???
— Jim Luther
LEAD STORIES, THURSDAY'S NYT
Trump Administration Authorizes Covert C.I.A. Action in Venezuela
Trump Considers Overhaul of Refugee System That Would Favor White People
How the Pentagon Is Blocking Out News Organizations
Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump From Firing Government Workers During Shutdown
Hamas Says It Has Returned All Hostage Remains It Can Recover
With Truce in Place, Hamas Pursues Bloody Crackdown on Rivals in Gaza
The Penny’s Demise Is Leaving Some Businesses Shortchanged
HOW REAL ESTATE-ISM GOT THE DEAL DONE IN GAZA
by Niall Ferguson
It has been a tough week for the professional Donald Trump haters. Only the most unhinged of them could not share in the joy of the families of the surviving Israeli hostages as they were reunited on Monday. But there must always be liberal ghosts at any feast of which Trump is the host.
“Everyone should be glad that the hostages have been freed” and hope “that this peace process succeeds,” acknowledged the editor of The New Republic, Michael Tomasky. But? Well, “he’s still the Donald Trump who is destroying democracy and ruining lives here in America.”
“We may grimace in doing so,” wrote Kenneth Roth in The Guardian, “but Donald Trump deserves credit for finally ending the U.S. government’s funding and arming of the genocide, and arm-twisting Benjamin Netanyahu into accepting his 20-point plan for Gaza.”
This was more than Guardian columnist Owen Jones was prepared to concede. His commentary yesterday carefully avoided giving Trump any credit for the ceasefire and the return of the hostages, ranting instead that “Israel’s Western-facilitated genocide… will boomerang back to the West from the killing fields of Gaza.”
Will Trump End the War in Ukraine Next?
PALESTINIANS’ FATE: VICTIMS OF GENOCIDE WHILE ALIVE, VASTLY UNCOUNTED BY THE MEDIA WHEN THEY ARE KILLED
by Ralph Nader
Ben Hubbard, the long-time Middle East correspondent for the New York Times, is known for his high standards. So too is Karen DeYoung, the long-time reporter and foreign affairs editor for the Washington Post.
Yet they, and their editors, share a common, recurring failure by misleading their readers about the serious undercount of Palestinian deaths during the Israeli regime’s genocidal destruction of Gaza.
How so? By repeating in article after article the Hamas claim of 67,000 deaths since October 2023. The real death toll estimate is probably around 600,000. Unlike Israeli and American cultures, which do not under-estimate their fatalities in conflicts, Hamas sees the awful death toll as a reflection of their not protecting their people and a measure of Israeli military might against Hamas’ limited small arms and weapons. Both Hubbard and DeYoung, of course, know better. They know the daily bombardment of tiny Gaza, the geographical size of Philadelphia, with 2.3 million humans, is without precedent in Israel’s targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure. The blockade of “food, water, medicine, fuel, and electricity,” along with the concentrated destruction of health care facilities have been condemned by human rights groups in Israel and International humanitarian organizations.
Reporters and editors are quite aware of more accurate casualty estimates appearing in The Lancet, the prestigious British medical journal, and estimates provided by other academic and prominent international relief organizations like Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, UN World Food Programme and others experienced in assessing the human toll of military devastations.
Journalists know the estimate last April by Professor Emeritus Paul Rogers of the University of Bradford in the UK, an expert in the power of aerial bombs and missiles, who wrote that the TNT equivalent of six Hiroshima atomic bombs has been delivered to these totally defenseless Palestinians, almost all of whom are without housing or air raid shelters.
Netanyahu’s American-made missiles and bombs continue to produce deadly bloodshed. The waves of death from starvation, untreated, weaponry-caused infectious diseases, the cutoff of medicines treating cancer, respiratory ailments, and diabetes are still mounting.
What readers do not know is how much of the use of Hamas’s undercount is mandated by news editors, and why. Because intense Netanyahu propaganda has declared the estimates of Hamas, based on real names (excluding many thousands under the rubble and the collateral damage to civilians that in such conflicts exceed direct fatalities from the bombing by 3 to 13-fold), are an exaggeration, the mainstream media is wary of being accused of even worse fabrications than those of Hamas.
Speaking to many reporters and editors about this huge undercount phenomenon, not prevalent in other violent arenas of war, they all agree that the real count is much higher, but they do not have a number to use that is deemed credible. But they do have casualty experts who can be interviewed, such as the chair of the Global Health Department at Edinburgh University or a foremost missile technology specialist, MIT Professor Emeritus Theodore Postol, who said on our radio/podcast recently, “I would say that 200, 300, or 400,000 people [Palestinian] are dead easily.”
The least the journalists could do is say “the real count may be much higher.” The other alternative is to do their own investigation, piecing together the empirical and clinical evidence (See, Gaza Healthcare Letter to President Trump, October 1, 2025) and citing prominent Israelis who have said that the IDF has always targeted Palestinian civilians from 1948 on. (See my column March 28, 2025 – The Vast Gaza Death Undercount – Undermines Civic, Diplomatic and Political Pressures.)
The other alternative is to do a “news analysis,” which allows for evaluations, short of editorializing. For instance, a “news analysis” could point out that conveying the impression that the Hamas figures are the true count means that 97 out of 100 Palestinians in Gaza are still living. This is not remotely credible. Yet that is essentially what Ben Hubbard’s October 7th Times article stated, “with more than 67,000 killed, or one in every 34 Gazans, according to local health officials.” It is more like one in every four Gazans killed.
Nor is it true that the “local health officials” are confirming this, because on further inquiry, they admit their definition of the fatality toll excludes those under the rubble and those who die from the massive collateral casualty toll. This reality is well known to scores of American physicians back from Gaza who say that a majority of those killed are children and women and that the survivors are almost all injured, sick, or dying.
There are esteemed reporters like Gideon Levy of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, who claim that the Hamas figures are horrible enough that they meet the test of genocide, implying that a higher count would not make any more of a moral or political difference.
I disagree. “Horror” does not have finite limits. It makes a difference in driving the greater intensity of political, diplomatic, and civic pressures to have a count of 600,000 rather than 67,000 or 200,000 children rather than 20,000 children murdered. Do we need to refer to other genocides in the 20th century to show how much a difference it would have made if the official count were one tenth of the real count?
The editors of the Post, especially, and of the Times are not keeping up with the reporting of DeYoung and Hubbard et al., about the scenes of death, dying, and horrendous agony in Gaza. The editorial management of reporters and the editorials fail to hold Netanyahu and his terroristic mass-slaughtering cabinet accountable. They allow the publication of realistic reports, features, and sometimes even give voice to Palestinians, as the Times did with several pages and pictures recently. But the long-time omnipresent shadow of AIPAC et al. darkens the editorial and opinion pages more than do the illuminations of their own reporters.
INVITATION
Oh do you have time
to linger
for just a little while
out of your busy
and very important day
for the goldfinches
that have gathered
in a field of thistles
for a musical battle,
to see who can sing
the highest note,
or the lowest,
or the most expressive of mirth,
or the most tender?
Their strong, blunt beaks
drink the air
as they strive
melodiously
not for your sake
and not for mine
and not for the sake of winning
but for sheer delight and gratitude –
believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing
just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
I beg of you,
do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.
It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.
— Mary Oliver
Tina Modotti seems to be having a moment. She also was friends with a young Frida Kahlo and a no-longer-young Diego Rivera in Mexico.
I hope this doesn’t offend anyone, or maybe I hope it does… if you are offended by following comments, don’t get mad, let’s sit down over a beer and talk about it, I’ll buy.
About all this controversy over the sauna at Big River Beach I CALL BULLSHIT!
Just so you know, I have used Big River Beach to hike, SUP, bike, kayak, smoke weed, and trip plus I have also built and enjoyed a driftwood fire on the beach. Are you going to ban fires on the beach too? The amount of smoke produced by the sauna is nothing like that of a beach fire and for that matter as long as humans have been hanging out on the Coast (long before white people called in Mendocino) there have been fires! It absolutely kills me that it seems that no matter what little thing someone does, someone else has to come along and criticize it, or try to ban it, don’t you have anything better to do?
Thank you for reading my rant
agree