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DRYING AND WARMING WEATHER today and Tuesday. A series of large swell will bring dangerous breaking waves along the west and northwest facing beaches this week. Confidence continues to increase for a moderate Atmospheric River (AR) impacting Northern California Friday into the weekend, bringing periods of heavy rainfall, high-elevation heavy snow, and strong south winds. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 44F under clear skies this Monday morning on the coast. Sunny today, then mostly sunny thru Thursday before rain returns for Friday & the weekend. Rain amounts look moderate so far.
JDSF DRAFT 2026 FOREST MANAGEMENT PLAN IS VISIONLESS
by Mendocino Trail Stewards
A mercurial and undated, seemingly complete Draft Forest Management Plan for Jackson Demonstration State Forest (JDSF) has been unveiled - a scant 33 pages plus introduction. Sadly, the new plan looks less like the “New Vision” promised by Cal Fire, and more like an old blind spot with a splash of greenwashing.
It is particularly unsettling to see an erroneous account of management history put forward in this document. While CalFire claims that the forest has always been managed in a “sustainable” fashion and that it was “cut over” when they acquired it, it is well-documented that nearly half of the forest (approximately 20,000 acres in the eastern portion) was clear-cut by the State after taking ownership.
Looking forward, among the many aspects of this plan that concern us are the Land Management Allocations (LMAs). LMAs are “treatment” zones within the forest created by Cal Fire and the Jackson Advisory Group (JAG). They are divided into areas such as “Old Growth” (left alone) and “Matrix” (anything goes). The LMAs were created in 2011. With climate change and loss of biodiversity bearing down on us, and with the update of the Forest Management Plan (FMP) underway, now would be the perfect time to make changes to the LMAs to better protect the older parts of the forest, fish, and other species, as many environmental and indigenous groups have called for. In a forest of 48,652 acres, the Land Management Allocations take a hands-off approach to only 1364 acres: 461 acres of remaining old growth redwoods and 903 acres of Pygmy/Cypress groups. That’s only 2.8% of the forest! The remaining acres are still actively managed for timber and are therefore NOT protected.
That industrial forest management practices compound rather than alleviate fire risk is also conveniently ignored in the “new” plan, posing risks not only to the forest itself but also to scores of neighboring properties that are likely unaware of the hazards Cal Fire is creating.
Earlier this year, when Cal Fire began updating the FMP for Jackson, the Mendocino Trail Stewards made a reasonable request: raise the percentage of the forest allocated for late seral development (LSD) from 22% to 50%. The parts of the forest that are zoned “late seral development” are supposedly “managed to accelerate the development of larger trees/other older forest structure with fewer future harvests”, while more logging still occurs. Unfortunately, Cal Fire apparently saw no need to increase the percentage of LSD zones in the new FMP. Land Management Allocations remain exactly the same as when they were created in 2011.
Another big concern is the conspicuous lack of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for this plan, which is typically conducted under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The last comprehensive EIR for JDSF was completed back in 2007, and since then, environmental conditions and regulatory requirements have changed significantly, and we have vastly more scientific insight and data about how redwood forests function. A new CEQA review is critical to ensure public transparency, updated analysis of environmental impacts, and proper mitigation measures, including those required under AB 52 for tribal cultural resources.
Cal Fire has received appeals from many, including State Senator Mike McGuire and Assemblymember Chris Rogers, to complete an EIR for their updated FMP; however, in this plan, Cal Fire excuses itself from completing an Environmental Impact Report. The rationale given is that exemptions are awarded for activities such as "basic data collection, research, experimental management, and resource evaluation activities which do not result in a serious or major disturbance to an environmental resource…" Well, the effort to exploit this loophole is quite a stretch given that an average 13 million board feet of timber are extracted from the forest each year, generating over $6 million in revenues.
If Cal Fire were to write an Environmental Impact Report, they would be required, under CEQA rules, to respond to written public comments regarding environmental issues. Since there is no EIR, don’t hold your breath for a response to your comments. Nonetheless, it is still helpful that stakeholders voice their concerns.
You can informally comment on this draft plan in writing from now until December 5th. To comment online, click this link: FMP Public Comment Form | CAL FIRE.
A series of upcoming meetings also offer opportunities to express your views, or simply to be counted as an observer. To register for an upcoming meeting, click here: Jackson State Forest Plan Meeting Registration.
You can make a larger impact by writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper or contacting your state representatives. Let them know that this draft forest management plan is out of touch with California’s climate goals!
Public Meeting Schedule:
Monday, October 20, 2025 - 5:00-7:00 PM
Virtual (Zoom)
Monday, October 27, 2025 - 5:00-7:00 PM
Caspar Community Center - North Room
15051 Caspar Road, Caspar, CA
Monday, November 3, 2025 - 5:00-7:00 PM
Saturday Afternoon Clubhouse
107 S. Oak Street, Ukiah, CA
THOMAS PAUL MCGUIRE (1959-2025)
Thomas (“Tom”) Paul McGuire was born May 16, 1959, in Fort Bragg, California to James and Barbara McGuire, eighth of nine children. Our beloved Tom passed away on Sept. 9, 2025, surrounded by many loved ones that day, including the love of his life, Maria, and his 100-year-old mother, Barbara.
Tom and Maria raised four beautiful children. Tom is survived by his wife, Maria; son, Ryan (Kimberly); son, David (Kim); daughter, Maria (Elo); son, Dominic and girlfriend, Dani; grandchildren, Nevaeh, Sila, Calvin, Keely and Vivian; his mother, Barbara; many nieces and nephews as well as siblings, Jeff (Keenan), Ann (Richard), Michael (Yvette), Kathy, Joanie (Mark), Wendy (Jimmy), and Monica (Tony). Tom is preceded in death by his brother, Peter (Lynn), and his father, Jim (Barbara).
Tom grew up on a cattle ranch in Fort Bragg where creativity was encouraged, allowing him to engage in many projects. On his own, Tom raised money and built a hovercraft and a dark room for photography. Throughout his life, Tom used his mind to evaluate situations clearly and thoughtfully, similar to his own father. After Tom’s father passed, he became trustee of the family ranch, a place Tom cherished.
At fourteen, Tom worked his way through Boy Scouts to become an Eagle Scout. His brother-in-law taught him to play guitar as a teenager, discovering Tom had a nice voice, in particular a gift for harmonizing. At sixteen, he became an AFS exchange student, spending a year in Australia with the Boyce family, who became like a second family to him.
After high school, Tom attended College of the Redwoods, transferring 2 years later to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he was consistently on the Dean’s List. He graduated in 1982 with a degree in Ag Business Management. Tom and Maria met at their first dorm meeting in Muir Hall, sharing a playful moment that sparked the beginning of a forty-five year relationship. Three years after that first meeting, they married in Montecito, California.
After graduation, Tom worked as an Ag Lender, a career spanning forty-two years with Farm Credit West (subsequently Ag West). In his first job, Tom supported the fishing, timber, and dairy industries in Eureka, California, before moving to Paso Robles, planting roots until retiring as a Senior Vice President in April 2025. According to Ag West management, Tom was instrumental in developing and growing the fledgling wine industry in Paso Robles as it began to flourish along with supporting many other agricultural businesses.
Tom shared his time, effort, and talents with numerous organizations, including Boy Scouts for many years, Hospice of San Luis Obispo, and many other fundraisers, building connections with his employer, Ag West, and many community and industry efforts. He was actively involved in the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance.
Tom and Maria helped start the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) at Saint Rose Church, leading and supporting the RCIA team for many years. Tom also served on the Liturgy Committee, as a Eucharistic Minister, and assisted the Bishop with confirmations in the Diocese.
For ten years, Tom, Maria, and their young family visited the Paso Robles Senior Home every Sunday, spending time with residents. More recently, Tom was actively involved in Nativity Church in various capacities.
God blessed Tom and Maria with four children, two of whom they were fortunate to adopt. Family remembers Tom as a kind-hearted, loving teacher. He embodied the actions and lived the teachings of Jesus. He was humble, never seeking attention. He decided ahead of time what the right thing to do was, then did it.
A life-long learner and very loving father and grandfather, Tom always helped out without expecting recognition. He wanted people to feel comfortable and focused his attention when listening to someone speak, responding thoughtfully. Tom loved people for who they are and was always welcoming. He was fair-minded, leaving room for other opinions. He was reliable, selfless, dependable and always ready to help when needed. Hard-working, Tom took initiative to get things done without being asked, and enjoyed fixing things.
Tom gave generously to others until the end of his life. When he learned of his illness, he wanted to give his death away by giving of himself to everyone, making family and friends feel okay, even though he felt weakened. Despite the discomfort in his final hours, Tom smiled and said, “I’m looking at my beautiful granddaughter.” Many people loved him deeply, feeling his love in the midst of all he faced. Friends and family surrounded Tom with love during his final days, just the way he wanted.
Tom looked to make the world better, and life excited him. He was inquisitive and adventurous, enjoying the outdoors and hiking. He represented pure love with a happy and helpful nature, even as a young child. His integrity and compassion came with a sense of humor and easy smile. Tom’s mother remembered how he loved abundantly and did so much in his life.
As the anchor holding his family together in love, faith, and understanding without judgment, Tom offered a steady hand to hold. He had a deep love and commitment to God, his wife Maria, and his family. Tom’s children felt his passionate love throughout their lives. Thoughtful with a steadiness and sense of calm, a family member reflected, “Tommy is one of the finest humans I have ever known.”
Tom’s celebration of life service will be held on Oct. 17, 2025, at 11 a.m. at Nativity of Our Lady Catholic Church in San Luis Obispo, with a reception to follow at Castoro Cellars at 1 p.m. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Restorative Partners of San Luis Obispo, ECHO Homeless Shelter, or sharing an act of kindness.
MALCOLM MACDONALD: My new book! The true story of the longest manhunt in 19th century California. At center stage, the Mendocino doctor who faced off with Bigfoot.
Available at one of the finest independent bookstores, Gallery Bookshop, of Mendocino. To order online, use the gallerybookshop.com website. Click the arrow to the "local books" category then type in Mendocino Outlaws. Ordering is simpler than with the corporate giants, and you'll feel good about supporting independent booksellers. Or simply call Gallery Bookshop at 707-937-2665.
MENDOCINO COUNTY SCENIC VIEWS QUESTIONNAIRE
Mendocino County is updating its Local Coastal Program (LCP). This is the plan that guides how land along the coast can be used and developed.
The County wants to hear your thoughts about scenic views—the special places and sights that make the coast beautiful and unique. These might include:
- Rocky promontories and headlands
- Rocky shorelines
- Sandy beaches
- Coastal bluffs
- Coastal lagoons and marshlands
- Rural farmlands and pasturelands
- Open or forested slopes, hillsides, ridgelines and mountaintops
- Harbors, marinas and waterfront areas
These views are important to all Californians. They make Mendocino a special place to live and visit, and the Coastal Act says coastal scenery must be protected for everyone to enjoy. Many of these views are also part of the California Coastal National Monument.
This survey is your chance to share what you think are the most important views along the coast, and how they should be protected.
It should take about 10 minutes to finish the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QP2V2SN
MENDO LOCAL WEEKLY NEWS ROUNDUP — October 19, 2025
"No Kings", a mobile sauna brouhaha, and a naked man in a cave
by Elise Cox
In Mendocino County and across the country, “No Kings” protests are growing. In Ukiah, a new courthouse rises; in Fort Bragg, the Skunk Train and the city strike a procedural agreement; and in Willits, a timber company wins a zoning amendment.…
https://www.mendolocal.news/p/mendo-local-weekly-news-roundup-october-993
HALLOWEEN MADNESS AT ANDERSON VALLEY BREWING!
The air is turning crisp, the nights are getting longer, and we’re carving up some crazy times here at the Brewery. All Halloween week long, swing by for pumpkin carving, good beer, and bad ideas with great people.
Then on Halloween night, things get wild:
Costume & Carving Contest at 8 PM
Pizza from Noon-10 PM
DJ 8-AAA spinning 7-11 PM
A new beer (the Beer Formerly Known As…) makes its debut.
And we'll be pouring it all week long!
Prizes, music, and mayhem.
Bring your craziest costume and the energy we expect. The Valley doesn’t do quiet nights (well, not until it gets to be too late).
And the fun keeps rolling into November 1. Details soon.
NC TO CA: DROP DEAD.
by Tommy Wayne Kramer
(NOTE: Upon learning we live part-time in North Carolina, friends have requested information about relocating. They receive responses like this.)
Dear California Resident:
Thank you on behalf of the North Carolina Visitors and Relocation Bureau! We appreciate your interest in traveling to, or living in, the Tarheel State, home of the fastest growing economy in the nation, and the friendliest folks in the land!
Regarding your recent inquiries about resources available to potential retirees, we regret to inform you that we no longer accept applications originating in California for those wishing permanent residence in our state.
In explaining this difficult decision, we provide the following details:
1) We believe we have a sufficient number of homeless individuals.
2) North Carolina rehab clinics are currently at full capacity.
3) State housing costs are presently beyond reasonable levels for local citizens. We perceive little benefit in promoting an increase of real estate prices, despite the delight they bring to California newcomers.
4) North Carolina citizens expressing confusion about gender issues are presently at a tolerable level.
5) North Carolina’s political landscape has no need for newcomers demanding to “turn the state purple.”
6) Per recent polling data, fewer than one percent of North Carolinians are familiar with the word “fentanyl.” We strive to keep it so.
7) Ridiculing southern wardrobes and fashion styles has no place in our culture. Please be aware we are in possession of photos and videos of Walmart shoppers in Ukiah, CA.
8) Rude and/or snide comments with regard to dining experiences in North Carolina, while amusing to the editorial staffs at the San Francisco Chronicle and Bon Appetit Magazine, are hurtful and mean-spirited to chefs and cooks in the south. As Californians, you are aware of the pain caused by judgmental words. Thank you.
9) Many California residents embrace novel approaches to crime prevention. Some suggest those arrested for shoplifting and organized thievery are deserving of cooperation from aggrieved merchants via “holistic” approaches to criminal justice. North Carolina business owners indicate little support for such theories.
10) And, finally, please be aware two of the most popular attractions in North Carolina are museums, one dedicated to the Reverend Billy Graham, and another celebrating the history and glory of NASCAR automobile racing.
Question: Are you sure this is where you want to live?
PEACEMAKER
Donald Trump has been in office just a few months but already stone-cold settled four international wars, and three others if you squint a little and aren’t too picky.
But the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize went to Maria Machado in Venezuela who immediately shouted out a big Thank You to Trump and suggested the prize ought to have gone to him.
Also, the only president in U.S. history whose entire eight years were spent with America at war, Barack Obama, was presented with a Nobel Peace Prize after being office a few weeks.
More history: For 60-plus years liberal intellectuals have been on a nonstop quest for peace. For decades they have marched in Chicago, rioted in LA, stood at the corner of State and Perkins Streets in Ukiah, and all they were saying was Give Peace a Chance.
“No Blood for Oil” and “End the War Now!” were the heartfelt, deeply principled pleas that echoed through wars in Vietnam, the Falklands and in the Middle East, finally to the point of bumperstickers reading “I’m Already Against the Next War.”
Trump blew right past all the decayed, traditional international negotiating tactics and bargaining ploys forever practiced by State Department bureaucrats, and in short order hammered out agreements.
Next: Peace dawns, wars are over, and the oldest and most steadfast American anti-war pacifists respond by scowling and grumbling and folding their arms. No applause, no high-fives.
And in its own way it’s perfect. Peace breaks out, and at last we see what high-minded principles look like when practiced by leftists: Better we are at war under Democrats than we should suffer tranquility brokered by Republicans.
Liberalism, thy name is Hypocrisy!
Tom Hine, a registered Democrat, along with his invisible friend, TWK, live in Ukiah except when they camp out in North Carolina
CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, October 19, 2025
JESSICA CRAFT, 35, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery.
JERED EAGLESMITH, 27, Willits. Elder abuse with great bodily harm or death, assault.
VERONICA HERMOSILLO, 31, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, controlled substance, paraphernalia, concealed dirk-dagger.
GREG HOLMES, 67, Ukiah. Trespassing.
NATHANIEL KUGLER, 22, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.
ANTHONY LOPES SR., 55, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, disobeying court order, probation violation.
MICHAEL MARTIN, 56, Ukiah. Parole violation.
ARIESTO PACHECO, 40, Covelo. DUI, failure to appear.
CESAR RUIZ, 42, Ukiah. Operation of commercial vehicle without registration.
GERALD SIMPSON, 55, Willits. Parole violation.
GREGORY THOMPKINS, 56, Ukiah. Controlled substance with two or more priors, paraphernalia, parole violation.
RAUL VARGAS-ENRIQUEZ, 51, Ukiah. DUI.
DOREEN WRIGHT-HOAGLIN, 68, Covelo. Domestic abuse, probation revocation.
HONORING 49ERS’ CULTURE has become a big asset. ‘We showed it tonight’
by Ann Killion
There’s a lot broken on the San Francisco 49ers. Fred Warner’s ankle. Nick Bosa’s knee ligament. The health of Brock Purdy’s big toe.
But it’s clear that one thing isn’t broken. The 49ers’ culture.
The 49ers won another grinder of a game on Sunday night, beating Atlanta 20-10 in primetime and improving their record to 5-2. With Warner in the building in sweats, getting around on a knee scooter, and Bosa on crutches somewhere, the 49ers’ young defense was expected to be overmatched by Atlanta’s prolific running game.
It wasn’t. The young players know there’s an expectation when they take the field wearing a 49ers uniform. And they are striving to meet it.
“I wanted to make sure I played to the standard,” said Tatum Bethune, who took Warner’s place on the field. “Violent football. Run and hit. In games like this, on Sunday Night Football, we show out. I wanted to make sure we had that same energy that Fred would be bringing. I guess we showed it tonight.”
They did.
The new faces made an impact on defense. Bryce Huff had a huge quarterback sack and strip late in the first half. Rookie Alfred Collins recovered the ball. In the fourth quarter, with Atlanta threatening to take the lead, backup cornerback Chase Lucas — seeing action because Upton Stout was not available due to an ankle injury — broke up a fourth-down pass intended for Falcons receiver Drake London.
“Huff’s strip sack was huge, and Chase’s stop on fourth down, that was a hell of a job,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said. “Huff has been doing it all year. Chase did it all offseason … I’m proud of all the guys overcoming a lot of stuff.”
Lucas broke up the pass to London in front of the 49ers’ bench.
“I’m just mad I missed the opportunity to pick it off,” said the fourth-year player. “This is really my first time being able to play in the regular season on defense. There are a lot of dudes that are second string, third string that (would be) starters on other teams. It tells you a lot about this team. We have talent across the board and whenever we need somebody to step up, we’re going to step up.”
They have stepped up. And that speaks to a culture that’s been set over the years. Having Robert Saleh back as defensive coordinator — George Kittle calls him the best free agent signing of the offseason — only solidifies the defensive mindset. So far, the 49ers’ culture has been able to withstand all the losses.
“We’ve taken a lot of gut punches and a lot of blows; it would’ve been easy to fold and I think a lot of people would’ve understood,” tackle Trent Williams said. “You lose not only two of your best players but two of the best to ever play the game in Nick and Fred. And then not having Brock and just getting George back.
“I’m super proud of the team, because we could have given up. Could’ve tucked our tails and just looked forward to next year. But these guys keep fighting. There’s a lot of resilience in this group.”
With the win, the 49ers stay on pace with the Rams, who demolished Jacksonville early Sunday in London. The Seahawks play the Texans on Monday night, a game the 49ers will view with interest: they travel to Houston next weekend.
As they have all year — aside from their two losses — the 49ers overcame all the absences and did enough to win. The defense held Bijan Robinson — who had 170 yards and an average of 8.9 yards a carry last week in a victory over Buffalo — to just 40 yards on 14 attempts.
“The defense was so much fun to watch today, because they were just flying around,” said Kittle, who was back on the field for the first time since the first quarter of the season opener. “I think the standard that we’ve set as a 49ers organization, from Fred Warner to Nick Bosa, you go back to ‘19 with DeForest Buckner and Arik Armstead, K’Wuan Williams, Richard Sherman, those guys have set the standard of how you play defense here. If you don’t you stand out like a sore thumb. The young guys have seen how we’re supposed to play.
“You can’t replace Fred Warner. You can’t replace Nick Bosa … but if you can go out there with the same energy and effort and fly around and hit someone in the face, then you’ve got a good defense.”
The “next man up” mentality doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The next player up has seen how the men before him have done their job, understands how the job is done, what the expectations are and how to meet them. They’ve been coached, they’ve been prepared and they’ve watched the players they’re trying to replace.
“I think it’s a testament to leadership,” Christian McCaffrey said. “It’s coaching, it’s leadership and that doesn’t happen everywhere. I can promise you that.
“So it’s fun. It’s fun knowing that every week is going to be a fight.”
Once again, it was a fight. A grind. And another victory. And with each of these hard-fought wins, the 49ers’ culture only gets stronger.
49ERS GAME GRADES: McCaffrey and the defense are a winning formula
by Sporting Green Staff
A relentless Christian McCaffrey-led offense and a smothering defense propelled the San Francisco 49ers to a 20-10 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday night.
OFFENSE: B+
Is George Kittle the 49ers’ MVP? The All-Pro tight end didn’t have a catch in his first game since Week 1, but his remarkable impact on the running game was evident from the start. McCaffrey didn’t reach 70 rushing yards in his first six games, but topped that in the first half and finished with 129 rushing yards and 201 of total offense (seven catches for 72 yards). The 49ers ran for 174 yards and 12 of their 23 first downs came via the ground game. Dare we call QB Mac Jones a game manager? He completed 17-of-26 for 152 yards and the interception he threw was on a deflection that should have been caught by Jauan Jennings.
DEFENSE: A
Atlanta’s Bijan Robinson came to the Bay Area averaging an NFL-leading 164.4 yards of total offense and walked off the field Sunday having gained only 92 — including just 40 rushing on 14 carries (2.9 average). Tatum Bethune, forced into action with Fred Warner out for the year, had another 10-tackle game and the 49ers — who for much of the season appeared to be allergic to touching opposing quarterbacks — had a pair of sacks and five QB hits. Bryce Huff had one of the sacks, two of the hits, five tackles and forced a fumble. Just wondering: Do the 49ers know that interceptions are not illegal? Their NFL-record INT-free streak is now at 14 games.
SPECIAL TEAMS: B+
Eddy Piñeiro is the closest thing the 49ers have to a Mr. Automatic. Home, away, East Coast, West Coast, day, night, it doesn’t seem to matter to Piñeiro, who nailed field goals of 55 and 43 yards and both of his extra points. Since replacing Jake Moody, Piñeiro has made all 17 of his field goal tries with the Niners. Not-so-reliable is San Francisco’s kickoff coverage, which allowed a 45-yard return following Piñeiro’s second field goal. Given a short field, Atlanta needed only six plays to cover 48 yards and score its only touchdown.
COACHING: A-
Kyle Shanahan deftly guided the offense away from the strength of Atlanta’s defense — a strong pass rush and sturdy secondary — and instead mauled the Falcons on the ground. The 49ers piled up 324 yards, converted 9 of 15 third downs and despite Atlanta having the ball for more than 10 minutes in the opening quarter, finished with a 32:10-27:50 advantage in time of possession advantage. Perhaps more impressive was the work of Robert Saleh’s banged-up, young defense. In the previous two weeks, the Falcons had rolled up 435 and 443 yards, respectively. On Sunday, they had 292.
OVERALL: A-
Injury-riddled, experience-challenged and facing a smash-mouth team looking to make its own statement on a national TV game, the 49ers turned in one of their most surprising wins in recent memory. With their next four opponents a combined 10-16, the Niners head into what is arguably the softer part of their schedule with a 5-2 record and a share of first place in the NFC West.
(sfchronicle.com)
IN THE GOLD RUSH ERA — 20 men to one woman — the prostitutes in San Francisco were quick to appear on the scene from New Orleans, Chile and Nukahiva, and an elegant lot they were, by all accounts. Mme. Belle Cora arrived in 1849, mothering a herd of talented demoiselles imported from her parlor house on the corner of Dauphine and Burgundy in New Orleans' Vieux Carré. By 1851, Frenchwomen dominated Commercial, Dupont and Pike Streets, and their clothes were the dernier cri, copied not only by second-class courtesans but eventually by actresses like Lola Montez and Lotta Crabtree, and then “respectable” matrons.
They wore daintly British boots, crinoline petticoats… Russailh wrote at the time: “Il y a aussi des honnêtes femmes dans San Francisco mais pas de trop” (There are honest women in San Francisco, but not too many.”) — and the only way to distinguish “honest” women from the others was by the absence of paint on the faces of the former.
The myth of San Francisco fashion — or shall we be kind and say legend? — began with Mme. Cora's soirées and the Sunday promenade of her girls down Kearny Street. Whether our women are particularly well dressed today is a matter of opinion, although some pretty Tenderloin tarts and cocktail-hour secretaries on Montgomery Street exert themselves to uphold Mme. Belle's tradition.
A pity they never make the published lists of best-dressed women.
— Herb Caen, 1976
FAILING THE COST-BENEFIT TEST: 100 BILLION REASONS TO REJECT THE DELTA CONVEYANCE PROJECT
by Dan Bacher
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) claims that the embattled Delta Conveyance Project, AKA Delta Tunnel, would cost $20.1 billion, but expert testimony before the State Water Board last week reveals that the cost would actually amount to $60 to $100 billion.…
CALIFORNIA'S LOVE FOR ONE FLOWER IS POISONING THE STATE'S LAST WILD RIVER
by Matt LaFever
Tucked into California’s remote northwest corner, the Smith River winds through Del Norte County, a sparsely populated stretch of redwood country near the Oregon border. Celebrated by conservationists as the state’s wildest river, 25 miles of undammed, crystalline water cut through ancient forests and rugged coastal mountains before meeting the Pacific near Crescent City.
Down on the river’s lower plain, though, the wilderness gives way to farmland. Here, a handful of growers produce nearly all of America’s Easter lily bulbs, which are then shipped off to greenhouses across the country. The iconic plant is the most famous export from Del Norte County — yet state scientists say decades of pesticide use by these growers have contaminated the tributaries that flow through those fields, threatening fish, wildlife and nearby residents.
The plant has a long history in the area. Before World War II, nearly all Lilium longiflorum — better known as the Easter lily — plants were imported from Japan. When trade with the island nation was cut off during the war, growers along a 15-mile stretch between Brookings, Oregon, and the unincorporated area of Smith River began cultivating their own. The area’s valleys, sheltered from cold north winds and moderated by the Pacific, proved ideal: Long, cool summers, warm earth and mild air produced bulbs of exceptional size and quality.
As the industry shrank, its footprint concentrated. Today, the Easter lily industry covers just 197 acres on the Smith River Plain, Del Norte County Agricultural Commissioner Justin Riggs told SFGATE in an email. In 2025, the crop generated about $7 million in gross sales, making it the county’s third-most valuable agricultural product.
But prosperity came with a hidden cost. The same mild climate that made the lilies thrive also allowed decades of pesticide-intensive farming to seep into the surrounding watershed. At an Oct. 8 meeting of the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, state regulators and scientists presented findings showing that the tributaries running through the Smith River Plain are contaminated with agricultural runoff from the lily fields — pollution linked to harm in both wildlife and human health.
Carcinogens and Neurotoxins
A staff report presented by the North Coast Region Water Board at the Oct. 8 meeting said runoff from the lily fields carries a chemical mixture through the Smith River Plain: diuron, imidacloprid, ethoprop and copper.
All four are toxic to aquatic life. Diuron is a probable carcinogen that kills algae and invertebrates, which make up the base of the river’s food web. Imidacloprid, a neurotoxic insecticide, threatens aquatic insects and the fish that feed on them. Ethoprop is another carcinogen, highly toxic to fish, and copper, detected in about 40 percent of downstream samples, can poison salmon even at trace levels.
During the meeting, California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Katie Rian called the Smith River “a stronghold for salmon and steelhead,” home to 39 fish species.
NOAA Fisheries scientist Marisa Parish Hanson told the board that the small tributaries winding through the lily fields are “highly productive” for coho salmon and “really important for the physiological changes” young fish undergo as they mature, with more than half of the river’s juveniles passing through those waters.
Rian explained that dissolved copper harms fish by “impairing or destroying neurons” in the olfactory system and lateral line, disrupting how salmon sense and navigate their surroundings. The damage, she said, happens within minutes and can linger for weeks — or even permanently.
Rian called diuron the “most commonly detected synthetic pesticide,” which she said can “impede or impair primary productivity and impact riparian habitat.” Ethoprop and imidacloprid overlap with copper, dulling fish reflexes and escape responses. The combination of these chemicals, Rian warned, results in “synergistic toxicity,” meaning harmful effects “far greater than what you would expect if you had a simple solution of just one chemical.”
The staff report also noted that in April 2025, the Water Board tested nine private wells within the lily-growing area. Pesticides were found in six, almost all used on lilies. About three-quarters of those detections were trace amounts, and none exceeded state or federal drinking-water standards.
Still, one woman who spoke during public comment on Oct. 8 described how she said chemical releases from the lily industry had affected her family’s health. Kyla Castagnaro, a Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation citizen, told the board she and her 3-month-old son have lived since 2022 in the Dat-naa-svt Village Project, a Tolowa housing community located near the banks of the Smith River and Delilah Creek — one of the tributaries where state scientists detected measurable contamination.
“Since moving here, my health has rapidly collapsed,” Castagnaro said. “Within a year, I needed surgery for endometriosis.”
She described living in constant pain: “Every morning I wake up in pain,” she said. “My body’s stiff, inflamed and burning. My skin itches constantly, my sinuses are swollen shut and I can barely think or breathe.”
Castagnaro said she has also suffered cognitive decline: “My memory has declined to the point that I’ve paid rent and bills twice because I forgot that I already did it.”
Outside her home, she continued, “The dust from the lily fields coats everything — our cars, our porches, our children’s toys.” When she hoses it down, the “sticky, reddish-brown film … foams up,” leaving an “oily residue in the street.”
Before her son can play outside, she said, everything must be cleaned, or he risks breaking out in “painful rashes that cover his whole body. His cheeks flush red, his eyes glaze over, and he becomes hot, feverish and completely dysregulated.” On particularly “heavy spray days,” she added, “he is not even himself. He’s unreachable.”
She recalled trying to start a garden, but, “Within a week, my hands were covered in blistering, oozing, bleeding hives that burned. I had to abandon it.”
Castagnaro concluded, “I should not have to leave my homeland to protect my child. I should not have to choose between our heritage and our health.”
“Eye problems occur 5 times more frequently after moving to Smith River,” the report stated. “Other conditions with higher frequencies include skin rashes, chronic cough, infections, headaches, neurological disorders, cancer, and many other conditions.”
Researchers found elevated reports of “itchy, swollen” eyes, “recurrent rashes, chronic coughing,” and “frequent headaches or migraines,” among other problems.
While the report stopped short of linking pesticide exposure to illnesses of residents, it concluded that “the results raise significant concerns and require attention and action from public agencies.”
SFGATE reached out to Del Norte County Public Health officials in an attempt to corroborate these findings but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
‘The Center Of Our World’
For the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, whose ancestral homeland centers on the Smith River, the lily fields are not just farmland. They represent a barrier between the people and a sacred river.
Tribal Council Treasurer Jaytuk Steinruck described his tribe as “Salmon people” for whom the Smith River is “the center of our world.” He said at the meeting that since the lily industry’s effects on the waters of the estuary, “We don’t really swim in that water.”
Sheryl Suudaachu Steinruck said working in the lily fields was once a family rite of passage. “I started working at lily bulbs when I was 12 years old … my mom did it, her sisters did it.” She connected her family’s cancer diagnoses to those years: “When they sprayed those lily bulb fields, we got to breathe it all.”
Marva Sii~xuutesna Jones, the Nation’s culture and language division manager, told the board, “Without water, we don’t have life.” For the Tolowa Dee-ni’, she said, the Smith River sustains far more than the body — it anchors ceremony and identity. “It represents renewal, purification, it represents ceremony, it represents spirituality … It’s our training grounds for our people.”
The hearing laid bare a deeper divide. One side spoke of ceremony and stewardship; the other, of payroll and survival. Both trace their lives to the same river.
Rob Miller has been growing Easter lilies in the Smith River Plains since 1966, when his father bought into an existing farm. Over those decades Miller watched as the industry shrank. “Many people worked in the lilies when they were younger,” he said. Today, during the height of harvest, his farm employs about 120 people. “We have significant payrolls.”
In a county that was projected to gain only about 200 new jobs through 2028 — and where casinos like Elk Valley and Lucky 7 employ roughly the same number — that seasonal surge makes Miller’s operation one of Del Norte’s larger private employers, according to data from the California Department of Transportation’s 2023 County-Level Economic Forecast.
Despite that legacy, Miller said the recent Water Board meetings made clear that the community has turned its back on the farms. “Not a single solitary soul in that room cares whether anybody works in the lily industry,” he told SFGATE.
He rejected the perception of growers as polluters. “From 2015 until today, there have been significant changes in the cultural practices [in the way] that we plant lilies,” he said. “We’ve changed the setbacks. We’ve increased vegetative barriers. We’ve changed row angles. We’ve changed runoff.” Those changes, he said, affected his business’s bottom line.
During the Water Board hearings, Miller chose not to speak. “You’d have been booed out of the room,” he told SFGATE later. He dismissed much of what he’d heard that night. “Personal testimony is not science,” he said. Then, he doubled down: “Hysteria is not science.”
‘Don’t you think it’s time to change?’
The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board is now drafting new rules to reduce chemical runoff from the lily farms and protect the Smith River. The plan would require growers to expand existing practices — planting buffer vegetation, rotating crops and building small basins to catch runoff — while also monitoring groundwater and testing nearby wells for pesticides and nitrates.
Riggs credited local producers for the steps already taken. “The County encourages all mitigation measures taken by the bulb growers,” he said. “Some of the measures they have taken include filter strips, riparian buffer zones, modifying row orientation, rotational planting, and other methods.”
Miller said the industry is trying to adapt. “We’re not interested in sending stuff down the creeks and creating problems,” he told SFGATE. “From the time we began to learn there was an issue, we’ve changed. We’ve made improvements.”
Greg King of the Siskiyou Land Conservancy said the time for reform has come. “We support farmers,” he told SFGATE. “We don’t want to crush them.” But he also posed a challenge to the industry: “Don’t you want to protect your neighbors? Don’t you think it’s time to change your practices?”
(SFGate.com)
AFTER AN OVER 100 YEAR ABSENCE, KLAMATH RIVER SALMON ARE BACK IN OREGON'S WILLIAMSON RIVER
by Dan Bacher
The naysayers said it couldn’t be done.
For many years, the very vocal opponents of dam removal said that the salmon couldn’t return to the Klamath River and its tributaries to spawn as they had done since time immemorial.
Some even claimed the salmon couldn't make it up the river because of “impassible” waterfalls on the river — and that Chinook salmon, coho salmon and steelhead had never historically spawned in the Upper Klamath, despite a plethora of photographs and historical accounts documenting the return of the salmon to the Upper Basin.
Well, the salmon have proven the naysayers wrong. The salmon are currently spawning in the Upper Klamath Basin after over 100 years of absence since the four PacifiCorp dams were built.
As I write this, Klamath salmon are spawning in the Williamson River for the first time since the early 1900s. Salmon have been also observed in the Sprague River and tributaries on the west side of Upper Klamath Lake.…
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
Sitting here in Red California, it's not about "getting the message out," it's about having something to say to rural and rust-belt people in the first place. Love or hate Trump, he was elected as the nominee by a strong base. Kamala wasn't selected through any kind of nomination process. She went right from the Naval Observatory to Beyonce without having to take questions from random people in Iowa. "Democracy is on the ballot." Yes, and people voted for what they knew, and not someone who promised to be just like Biden only totally different.
TRUMP CLAIMS ‘UNQUESTIONED POWER’ TO DEPLOY TROOPS TO SAN FRANCISCO UNDER INSURRECTION ACT
by Aidin Vaziri
President Donald Trump said he has “unquestioned power” to deploy the National Guard and reaffirmed that San Francisco will be the next city to face federal intervention.
In an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Trump floated invoking the Insurrection Act — a centuries-old law that allows presidents to deploy troops on U.S. soil.
“Don’t forget I can use the Insurrection Act,” he said. “Fifty percent of the presidents almost have used that. And that’s unquestioned power. I choose not to, but I’m met constantly by fake politicians, politicians that think that they — you know, it’s not a part of the radical left movement to have safety. … These cities have to be safe.” Only about one-fourth of presidents have invoked the act.
Trump told host Maria Bartiromo that San Francisco is “next,” setting up another potential showdown with Democratic leaders over presidential authority and local control.
“The difference is, I think they want us in San Francisco,” he said. “San Francisco was truly one of the great cities of the world. And then, 15 years ago, it went wrong. It went woke.”
Trump has already deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles, Memphis, Chicago and Washington, D.C. After a trial in federal court, a judge ruled that the Los Angeles deployment violated the law because troops acted as police, a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. Federal judges have also blocked his attempt to send troops to Portland, Ore.
Gov. Gavin Newsom was quick to fire back on Sunday.
“Fact check: Nobody wants you here,” he wrote on X. “You will ruin one of America’s greatest cities.”
Trump’s comments came amid a separate legal battle over his administration’s attempt to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago. A federal judge temporarily blocked that move, ruling there was no evidence of a “danger of rebellion.”
The White House has appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the decision “impinges on the president’s authority.”
In San Francisco, local officials have already made clear they don’t want federal troops in the city. Mayor Daniel Lurie said last week that the city’s police department is seeing progress in both recruitment and crime reduction.
“We have a lot of work to do, but I trust our local law enforcement,” Lurie said at a police academy news conference on Wednesday. “We in San Francisco are doing the work each and every day.”
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said city leaders “have this issue under control” and criticized the idea of federal troops as “resources being imposed upon our communities.”
Prominent tech figures have urged federal intervention in San Francisco. Elon Musk and investor David Sacks backed sending in federal forces, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff initially echoed the idea before walking it back and pledging $1 million to support larger hiring bonuses for new police officers.
The Posse Comitatus Act bars using federally controlled troops — including a federalized National Guard — as local police. Only a formal Insurrection Act declaration creates a narrow exception for domestic law enforcement in extraordinary circumstances.
Trump’s remarks follow a series of actions directed at Democratic-led cities.
On Friday, the White House announced it would pause $11 billion in infrastructure projects in places such as San Francisco, New York and Baltimore, citing budget constraints. Critics called the move an act of political retaliation.
Meanwhile, No Kings protests drew millions nationwide Saturday.
In response, Trump shared an AI-generated video depicting himself as “King Trump” flying a jet that dumps brown sludge resembling feces over demonstrators.
Newsom wrote in a separate post: “7 million Americans turned out yesterday to peacefully protest a monarchy. It was the biggest protest the country has ever seen. And despite the GOP’s best efforts to sow hatred and chaos, you stood firm in peace and unity. That’s what real patriotism looks like.”
Asked about the ongoing demonstrations by NPR, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson responded: “Who cares?”
(SF Chronicle)
DOONESBURY by Garry Trudeau
BRAZIL DOES IT RIGHT
Editor,
After losing Brazil’s presidential race in 2022, Jair Bolsonaro was convicted of plotting a coup, undermining democratic institutions and planning violence to overthrow the results of an election. Last month, Brazil’s Supreme Court sentenced him to 27 years and three months in prison.
In the U.S., our Supreme Court invented a new doctrine of presidential immunity, which is not in the Constitution. This non-originalist and non-textulist decision gave Donald Trump a get-out-of-jail-free card to escape potential prosecution for attempting to overthrow a free election in 2020.
Now, Trump is using his immunity to expand his powers and to use the U.S. Department of Justice to go after those who tried to hold him accountable.
It’s an embarrassment to have a president in power who has no regard for the rule of law, a Supreme Court that allows him to disregard the law and an electorate with many people who don’t care if their president follows the law.
Adam Michels
San Francisco
BEFORE she became the mother of Barack Obama at just 18, Ann Dunham was already described by her classmates as “the original feminist” — intellectually mature, independent, and ahead of her time.
By the age of 23, she had been married twice, but her personal life never stopped her from pursuing her true calling: anthropology. In 1967, she moved from Honolulu to Jakarta with her six-year-old son, Barack, beginning a lifelong journey of research into rural blacksmithing traditions across Indonesia.
Her groundbreaking work challenged the prevailing belief that rural poverty in developing countries was due to cultural shortcomings. Instead, Ann showed that the real issue was lack of resources and opportunities — a vision that reshaped global understanding.
Even more remarkably, she pioneered a microfinance program that gave rural women access to savings and small loans. That initiative grew into the largest system of its kind in the world, empowering countless families and communities.
Ann Dunham’s legacy is more than being the mother of a U.S. President — it’s the story of a woman who believed in dignity, opportunity, and the power of change from the ground up.
THE ARKANSAS PRISON SYSTEM
Is like a lyric poem
with seven basic themes
first the cottonpicker
dragging behind it a wagon of testicles
a pair of pliers which can fill in
for a cross in a pinch
then there is the warm pond
between the maiden’s thighs
next we have some friends
of yours and mine
who shall be with us always
Pablo the artist
the pubis of the moon
Pablo the cellist
panther of silence
Pablo the poet
the point of no return
and in case of emergency
the seventh and final theme
of this systematic poem
is the systematic way
death undresses in front of you
— Frank Stanford (1963)
THE CASE AGAINST JOHN BOLTON
by Greg Collard
John Bolton launched a plan to document and transmit classified information before he even started his job as President Trump’s national security advisor, according to the federal indictment against him.
Two weeks later, he made his first transmission using the encrypted messaging app to two people, a 25-page document “which described information” that Bolton learned in his first few days on the job, the indictment says. The indictment doesn’t identify those people, but the New York Times reports they were his wife and daughter.
For the next 17 months, Bolton regularly sent “diary-like” entries to them about what he saw and heard that included classified information. From the indictment:
BOLTON wrote many of these diary-like entries by transcribing his handwritten notes from his day’s activities into word processing documents, which he then electronically sent to Individuals 1 and 2 through a commercial non-governmental messaging application. On other occasions, BOLTON used his personal non-governmental email accounts, such as email accounts hosted by AOL and Google, to email information classified up to TOP SECRET/SCI level to Individuals 1 and/or 2 at their personal email accounts."
Some examples of that classified information, which was also found in his home:
Revelations of a “liaison partner sharing sensitive information with the U.S. intelligence Community
A foreign adversary’s plans for a missile launch and the sources and methods used to gain the intelligence.
Covert action planned by the U.S. and a covert action that was conducted by the U.S. and another country.
A foreign country’s intelligence describing an adversary’s planned attack on a facility
Why would Bolton do this? To write a book. The indictment includes excerpts of a letter from his agent stating that it was “with enthusiasm” that they were “again exploring a book” with Bolton while he was still National Security Advisor.
About three months after leaving the White House (Trump says he fired him, Bolton says he resigned), Bolton sent a manuscript to the National Security Council for review as required. He was told to remove “significant amounts of highly classified information,” the indictment says.
The book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” was published in June 2020. The indictment says none of the classified information cited in the indictment was included in the book.
Bolton pleaded not guilty on Friday, a day after his indictment. His attorney, Abbe Lowell, said the accusations were previously resolved.
Like many public officials throughout history, Amb. Bolton kept diaries — that is not a crime. We look forward to proving once again that Amb. Bolton did not unlawfully share or store any information.”
Lowell is also the attorney for New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was indicted this month on charges of mortgage fraud. He was also Hunter Biden’s defense attorney and is representing Fed Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
June 16, 2020
The first Trump administration sues Bolton to stop the June 23 release of his book, arguing that he is violating non-disclosure agreements and that he abandoned an ongoing government review of the manuscript. That review resulted in revisions, but the administration, as of June 11, contended that the latest version it was reviewing still had classified information (as noted above, the Justice Department says none of the classified information cited in the indictment was disclosed in the book).
A federal judge ruled against the administration because so many copies were already distributed, but expressed concern that the book was published before the government’s review cleared it.
In an interview with ABC News, Bolton says the book would have been 500 pages longer if it contained classified information, and that he wrote the book to “reveal a picture of the president that people can draw their own conclusions from.”
“My conclusion is clear. I don’t think he should be president. But I didn’t wanna write a book that was argumentation or that was being an amateur psychoanalyst or coming up with pigeon holes or categories or put the president in. I wanted people to see him as he operated. Now, there’re people who say that somehow, this is a breach of trust. I don’t see it that way at all. I think there’s an obligation to let the American people know what it’s like in the White House and what their leader is doing. I’m prepared to take the grief that this book will cause because I think the greater loyalty should be to the Constitution and the country.”
September 23, 2020
An attorney for the White House staffer in charge of reviewing Bolton’s manuscript writes a letter to the court that says the Trump administration exerted political pressure on her to keep it from being cleared for publication. From the Associated Press:
“[Ellen] Knight said that when she advised NSC lawyers on April 28 that she was prepared to clear the manuscript for publication, she was told to take no action. Knight said NSC lawyers told her to tell Bolton that the process was “ongoing.” She says she was once told that COVID-19 issues were delaying the process.”
A Trump spokesperson said the letter confirms that Bolton never received the required approval.
June 16, 2021
The Biden administration drops the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Bolton, exactly one year after the Trump administration filed it. The Associated Press reports that the Justice Department also dropped a grand jury investigation.
July 6, 2021
The indictment reveals that Bolton’s emails were hacked. A representative for Bolton notified the FBI and said that it was believed a representative of Iran was responsible.
July 28, 2021
A representative for Bolton informs the FBI that both of them received an email from someone “associated with the hack of Bolton’s account,” according to the indictment. Another message was received on August 5, 2021
January 20, 2025
On his first day in office, Trump signs an executive order that revokes the security clearance of Bolton and 50 other former intelligence officials who signed a letter in 2020 that said Hunter Biden’s laptop “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
The executive order singles out Bolton and his book.
January 21, 2025
Trump cancels the Secret Service security detail that had been assigned to Bolton since late 2021 when the Justice Department learned that someone from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard tried to hire someone to kill him.
In charging the Revolutionary Guard official (who remains at large), the Justice Department said it believes Bolton was targeted in retaliation for the Trump-ordered killing of Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Qods Force. That occurred in January 2020, nearly four months after Bolton left the White House.
Later that day, Trump says he wasn’t told that the searches would take place before calling Bolton a “low-life.”
August 25, 2025
Bolton makes his first comment about the searches in an op-ed in the Washington Examiner. He uses the searches as an analogy to describe Trump’s Ukraine policy:
October 10, 2025
Several media outlets report that Bolton is expected to be charged the following week.
Bolton is indicted on 10 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information (NDI) and eight counts of transmission of NDI. In the video above, Trump is informed by a reporter that Bolton was indicted.
“I didn’t know that, you’re telling me for the first time, but I think he’s, you know, a bad person. I think he’s a bad guy. Yeah, he’s a bad guy, it’s too bad, but that’s the way it goes,” Trump says.
October 17, 2025
Bolton pleads not guilty. He makes no comment as he leaves the federal courthouse in Greenbelt, Md.
(Racket News)
ISRAEL STRIKES GAZA AND TEMPORARILY HALTS AID, SAYING HAMAS BROKE TRUCE
Israel launched a wave of attacks on Gaza after accusing Palestinian militants of attacking its forces across cease-fire lines. Both sides say they are still committed to the truce.
by Isabel Kershner
Israel on Sunday launched its heaviest wave of attacks on Gaza since a fragile cease-fire took hold a week ago and said it had temporarily suspended humanitarian aid after accusing Hamas of violating the truce by firing on its soldiers, killing two.
After nightfall, the Israeli military said in a statement that it had “begun the renewed enforcement of the cease-fire” after carrying out a series of significant strikes against Hamas targets and in accordance with a directive from the government.
The deadly flare-up of violence on Sunday and the temporary suspension of aid were the most serious tests yet of the cease-fire, which was negotiated under heavy pressure by the Trump administration and signed with great fanfare by President Trump himself.
The aid was halted because of the intensity of the Israeli strikes, and was expected to resume once the bombing was over, according to an Israeli official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. Israeli officials had initially said that humanitarian aid would be suspended until further notice but later appeared to step back from that decision.
(NY Times)
LEAD STORIES, MONDAY'S NYT
Clashes in Gaza Reveal Cease-Fire’s Fragility, With Rougher Road Ahead
‘No More Trump!’: Protesters Denouncing the President Unite Across the Country
George Santos Is Back on TV Two Days After His Release From Prison
Colombia’s Leader Accuses U.S. of Murder, Prompting Trump to Halt Aid
Wealthy Americans Are Spending. People With Less Are Struggling
In Just 7 Brazen Minutes, Thieves Grab ‘Priceless’ Jewels From Louvre
CHARLES WEMYSS JR.:
As Inspector “Dirty Harry” Callahan opined at the end of the movie “Magnum Force” “A good man always knows his limitations.” As example I started single sculling/rowing at age 14 (55 years ago, you can do the math!) and still rowing most every day still today. BUT! I don’t row as hard, as long and mindful of weather and water conditions where once I might think nothing of poor conditons now, prudence is a watch word. Having handled my own greatest generation parents into their departures from their mortal coils, the best you can do is listen, be helpful, be silent when you want to scream WTF is the matter with you! Help them navigate their dotage with without them knowing you’re doing it. Don’t hector them. That just pisses them off and they shut you out. Dignity counts if when we are feeling undignified. Suggest kindly don’t order, a good leader of Marines suggests often and issues orders infrequently. The worst is when you take the car keys away. Be very mindful of that effort and the outcomes. Good luck, don’t give up. Remember they wanted to shoot you when you were 16 and a half…but didn’t!
THE SMALL HOURS of Sunday morning find me in the middle of a page that has taken me all day and is still far from finished. I am putting it aside to write to you, and in fact it may perhaps take me into tomorrow evening, since I often spend several hours looking for a single word, and since I have several to find, it is quite likely that you would still be waiting all next week if I were to wait until I had finished. However, it has not been going too badly over the past few days, except for today, which has caused me great problems. If you knew what I throw away, what a hodgepodge my manuscripts are. There's 120 pages finished; I have written at least 500. Do you know how I spent my entire afternoon the day before yesterday? Looking at the landscape through pieces of colored glass. I needed it for a page of my Bovary, one which I believe will be rather good.
— Gustave Flaubert, letter to Louise Colet, translated by Geoffrey Wall, May 15-16, 1852
BEGIN THE BEGUINE
When they begin the beguine
It brings back the sound of music so tender
It brings back a night of tropical splendor
It brings back a memory ever green
I'm with you once more under the stars
And down by the shore an orchestra's playing
And even the palms seem to be swaying
When they begin the beguine
To live it again is past all endeavor
Except when that tune clutches my heart
And there we are, swearing to love forever
And promising never, never to part
What moments divine, what rapture serene
The clouds came along to disperse the joys we had tasted
And now when I hear people curse the chance that was wasted
I know but too well what they mean
So don't let them begin the beguine
Let the love that was once a fire remain an ember
Let it sleep like the dead desire I only remember
When they begin the beguine
O yes, let them begin the beguine, make them play
Till the stars that were there before return above you
Till you whisper to me once more: "Darling, I love you!"
And we suddenly know what heaven we're in
When they begin the beguine
— Cole Porter (1935)
THE HUNCHBACK TROUT
The creek was made narrow by little green trees that grew too close together. The creek was like 12,845 telephone booths in a row with high Victorian ceilings and all the doors taken off and all the backs of the booths knocked out.
Sometimes when I went fishing in there, I felt just like a telephone repairman, even though I did not look like one. I was only a kid covered with fishing tackle, but in some strange way by going in there and catching a few trout, I kept the telephones in service. I was an asset to society.
It was pleasant work, but at times it made me uneasy. It could grow dark in there instantly when there were some clouds in the sky and they worked their way onto the sun. Then you almost needed candles to fish by, and foxfire in your reflexes.
Once I was in there when it started raining. It was dark and hot and steamy. I was of course on overtime. I had that going in my favor. I caught seven trout in fifteen minutes.
The trout in those telephone booths were good fellows. There were a lot of young cutthroat trout six to nine inches long, perfect pan size for local calls. Sometimes there were a few fellows, eleven inches or so—for the long distance calls.
I've always liked cutthroat trout. They put up a good fight, running against the bottom and then broad jumping. Under their throats they fly the orange banner of Jack the Ripper.
Also in the creek were a few stubborn rainbow trout, seldom heard from, but there all the same, like certified public accountants. I'd catch one every once in a while. They were fat and chunky, almost as wide as they were long. I've heard those trout called "squire" trout.
It used to take me about an hour to hitchhike to that creek. There was a river nearby. The river wasn't much. The creek was where I punched in. Leaving my card above the clock, I I'd punch out again when it was time to go home.
I remember the afternoon I caught the hunchback trout.
A farmer gave me a ride in a truck. He picked me up at a traffic signal beside a bean field and he never said a word to me.
His stopping and picking me up and driving me down the road was as automatic a thing to him as closing the barn door, nothing need be said about it, but still I was in motion traveling thirty-five miles an hour down the road, watching houses and groves of trees go by, watching chickens and mailboxes enter and pass through my vision.
Then I did not see any houses for a while. "This is where I get out," I said.
The farmer nodded his head. The truck stopped.
"Thanks a lot," I said.
The farmer did not ruin his audition for the Metropolitan Opera by making a sound. He just nodded his head again. The truck started up. He was the original silent old farmer.
A little while later I was punching in at the creek. I put my card above the clock and went into that long tunnel of telephone booths.
I waded about seventy-three telephone booths in. I caught two trout in a little hole that was like a wagon wheel. It was one of my favorite holes, and always good for a trout or two.
I always like to think of that hole as a kind of pencil sharpener. I put my reflexes in and they came back out with, a good point on them. Over a period of a couple of years, I must have caught fifty trout in that hole, though it was as big as a wagon wheel.
I was fishing with salmon eggs and using a size 14 single egg hook on a pound and a quarter test tippet. The two trout lay in my creel covered entirely by green ferns, ferns made gentle and fragile by the damp walls of telephone booths.
The next good place was forty-five telephone booths in. The place was at the end of a run of gravel, brown and slippery with algae. The run of gravel dropped off and disappeared at a little shelf where there were some white rock.
One of the rocks was kind of strange. It was a flat white rock. Off by itself from the other rocks, it reminded me of a white cat I had seen in my childhood.
The cat had fallen or been thrown off a high wooden sidewalk that went along the side of a hill in Tacoma, Washington. The cat was lying in a parking lot below.
The fall had not appreciably helped the thickness of the cat and then a few people had parked their cars on the cat. Of course, that was a long time ago and the cars looked different from the way they look now.
You hardly see those cars any more. They are the old cars. They have to get off the highway because they can't keep up.
That flat white rock off by itself from the other rocks reminded me of that dead cat come to lie there in the creek, among 12,845 telephone booths.
I threw out a salmon egg and let it drift down over that rock and WHAM! a good hit! and I had the fish on and it ran hard downstream, cutting at an angle and staying deep and really coming on hard, solid and uncompromising, and then the fish jumped and for a second I thought it was a frog. I'd never seen a fish like that before.
God-damn! What the hell!
The fish ran deep again and I could feel its life energy screaming back up the line to my hand. The line felt like sound. It was like an ambulance siren coming straight at me, red light flashing, and then going away again and then taking to the air and becoming an air-raid siren.
The fish jumped a few more times and it still looked like a frog, but it didn't have any legs. Then the fish grew tired and sloppy, and I swung and splashed it up the surface of the creek and into my net.
The fish was a twelve-inch rainbow trout with a huge hump on its back. A hunchback trout. The first I'd ever seen. The hump was probably due to an injury that occurred when the trout was young. Maybe a horse stepped on it or a tree fell over in a storm or its mother spawned where they were building a bridge.
There was a fine thing about that trout. I only wish I could have made a death mask of him. Not of his body though, but of his energy. I don't know if anyone would have understood his body. I put it in my creel.
Later in the afternoon when the telephone booths began to grow dark at the edges, I punched out of the creek and went home. I had that hunchback trout for dinner. Wrapped in cornmeal and fried in butter, its hump tasted sweet as the kisses of Esmeralda.
— Richard Brautigan (1961)
Coho spawn in Nefus gulch this year after culvert replacement and pond removed last year.
Anecdotal information indicates there has been a large increase in Coho Salmon returns in all Coho streams in Northern California. Coho have been seen spawning where they have not been seen in a life time. Let’s see what happens this year.
Yep, and the coyotes are running amok on Appian way. What a beautiful place we live in….
Edward Abbey called the Coyote, “God’s Dog”.
“BRAZIL DOES IT RIGHT”
There it is, bluntly put. Thank you, Adam Michels.
paul modic mite appreciate frank stanfords line:
then there is the warm pond
between the maidens thighs