Mendocino County Today: Wednesday 11/19/2025

Showers Tonight | Thanksgiving Boxes | Ambulance Seizure | George Charles McCoy | Ridge Road | Finance Officer | JR McCutcheon | Three Burglars | Local Events | Vacant Buildings | Willits Thanksgiving | LaFever Case | Hopland Thanksgiving | RVMAC Meeting | Cloudflare Outage | Oliver KZYX | Coordinator Tipple | Holiday Season | Clare's Cafe | Boonquiz Tuesday | Street Fair | Candlelit Shopping | Captain Jim | Yesterday's Catch | Glands Disturbed | Old Drivers | Joaquin River | Alioto's | Politician Scripture | Beatniks Together | Not Right | Pro-Building Shift | Bad Doctors | Citizenship Test | Another Kiss | Epstein Circus | Tax Rates | Rotten Behavior | Little Child | Guinness Soup | Rising Sun | Go Forward | Trump Unglued | Quiet Piggy | Sad Truth | Lead Stories | Superior Men | Potato Pancakes | Enormous Mystery | Didion TG | Stairway

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A QUICK MOVING front will bring moderate rainfall and breezy southerly winds Wednesday afternoon into Thursday. Drier and cooler conditions bring chances for interior frost into the end of the week while daytime highs warm Friday and through the weekend. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 42F under clear skies this Wednesday morning on the coast. After a quick blast of rain tonight we should have dry skies until Thanksgiving. Exact timing of course can vary by then. Meanwhile we will be roofing machines !

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AT TUESDAY’S MONTHLY FFA MEETING 27 FFA members packed up the 90 Thanksgiving boxes for our local food bank. Great job!

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THE PHILO TRIPLE CROWN BIKE RACE

(Or, more specifically, the AV Ambulance support for it…)

The Anderson Valley Ambulance was able to provide paid standby service for the Triple Crown Bike Race in Philo over the weekend. This professional event is an international bicycle race consisting of very steep downhill trails with jumps and complex trail systems. Due to the complexity` and risk, Ambulance transport was required by the event. We purchased two Terra Tamers (single wheel all-terrain gurney supports), which will be added to our ambulance arsenal. During the event, the AV ambulance experienced an AC pump seizure, which ultimately snapped the serpentine fan belt and put it out of service in the outback. District Mechanic Eddie Pardini worked diligently to get it mobile and out of the backwoods. In a very generous offer, Ukiah Valley Fire Authority allowed us to borrow an extra ambulance on the remaining day of the race so that we could cover the district and also cover the event! Since we are being paid for this standby, I will be passing through the apparatus portion of our billing to Ukiah Valley Fire Authority. Also, Tina Walter worked diligently to keep the crew staffed and commuted back and forth to Ukiah to get the spare ambulance! The AV Ambulance will be out of service until repairs are completed by Lily’s Radiator of Ukiah.

— AV Fire Chief/District Executive Director Andres Avila

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GEORGE CHARLES MCCOY

Today we honor a man who spent his years showing the world what strength, sacrifice, and love truly look like.

George Charles McCoy was born on August 3, 1938, in Sonoma County to George Nichols McCoy and Marcelena “Lena Olga” Giacopazzi. He was the second of eight children. He maintained meaningful ties to Minnesota, as well as to Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino Counties, before ultimately making Ukiah, CA, his home for the remainder of his adult life.

Life was not easy for George in the beginning. Despite every challenge, he stepped into responsibility long before most children even understand it. He never complained—he simply did what needed to be done. Through hard work, grit, and determination, he built a life he was proud of. He succeeded not because anything was handed to him, but because he refused to give up. He worked hard his entire life, not for recognition, but to provide for the people he loved.

George passed away on November 12, 2025, surrounded by family who loved him deeply.

Viewing and final goodbyes for Mr. McCoy will be held at Empire Mortuary in Ukiah, CA, on Wednesday, November 19, 2025, from 1–4 PM.

He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Georgia McCoy; his children, Robert McCoy and Stephanie McCoy Clark; and his grandchildren, Mya McCoy, Megan McCoy Clark Fletes, Jayce Clark, and Colton Clark. He is also survived by his brothers James McCoy and Ira McCoy; his niece Lisa Hill; his nephews Bobby McCoy and Alan McCoy; and his lifelong friend and family member Alan Goodman.

He was preceded in death by his daughter, Toni McCoy; his brother, Bob McCoy; his parents; and many other beloved family members.

May we honor his memory by living with the same strength, loyalty, and love that he showed every day of his life.

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MICHELLE MCWHORTER: Navarro Ridge is destroying my car! I’m about to spend a ton of money fixing it. Why won’t they fix the road past the little bridge where most of us live? It’s been like this for at least five years and getting worse.

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APPLICATIONS SOUGHT FOR ANDERSON VALLEY COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT FINANCE OFFICER

The Anderson Valley Community Services District has an opening for a Part-Time Finance Officer in Boonville. Estimated 25 hours per week; $30-$36 per hour, depending on experience/qualifications. Quickbooks and bookkeeping experience required. Flexible/regular office hours. For full position description, requirements and other details visit the AVCSD website at avcsd.org, call AV Fire Department office at 707-895-2020, or email [email protected].

Submit your resume to the Anderson Valley CSD at 14281 Hwy 128, Boonville, CA, 95415 or Mail to PO Box 398, Boonville, CA 95415. Applications will be reviewed upon receipt. Open until filled.

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JR MCCUTCHEON

JR McCutcheon, beloved husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, passed away peacefully on November 14, 2025, at the age of 82. Born on April 17, 1943, in Mt. Judea, Arkansas, JR moved to California in 1951, where he built a life grounded in family, hard work, and community.

On July 22, 1961, JR married the love of his life, LaVera McCutcheon, with whom he shared 64 wonderful years. Together they raised three children: Russell McCutcheon (Sharon), Ronald McCutcheon (Roberta), and Debora McCutcheon. JR’s legacy continues through his large and loving family, including eight grandchildren and twenty-one great-grandchildren, all of whom brought him immense pride and joy.

JR dedicated much of his life to his work, his family, and coaching baseball. He spent 25 years working at Masonite (1976–2001) and later worked with Rinehart Oil from 2001 until his retirement in 2011. Beyond his professional life, JR coached baseball for several decades, positively influencing countless young athletes with his passion, knowledge, and love for the game.

Outside of work and coaching, JR enjoyed a wide range of hobbies. He found joy in hunting, fishing, metal detecting, playing guitar, and watching professional sports, but his happiest moments were always those spent surrounded by family.

A graveside service will be held on November 26, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. at the Russian River Cemetery in Ukiah, California, where family and friends will gather to honor his life and memory.

In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family kindly requests that donations be made in JR’s name to local youth sports, continuing his lifelong passion for supporting youth and athletics.

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THREE STOOGES DO BURGLARY

On Sunday, November 17, 2025 at approximately 12:08 A.M., Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to an audible alarm at the Redwood Market in Covelo located at 76220 Highway 162.

Upon arrival they located signs of forced entry consistent with a commercial burglary. Items from inside the store were determined to be missing which was confirmed through further investigative efforts, including reviewing in-store surveillance video.

Based on the information gained while processing the scene, Deputies began checking the Covelo area. Deputies located a vehicle that was believed to be involved in the burglary based on their review of the store surveillance footage. The vehicle was parked at a residence in the 100 block of Pomo Way.

Upon contact at the residence, Deputies located Doran Lincoln, William Davis, and Orion Dennis. A search warrant was authored for the residence and upon serving the warrant, evidence associated with this investigation was recovered by Deputies.

During the initial investigation, a second commercial burglary at Keith's Market in Covelo, CA was discovered by a store employee. Deputies began a secondary investigation and developed probable cause that the same three suspects were responsible for the burglary at Keith's Market.

Based upon the totality of both investigations, Deputies determined there was probable cause to arrested Doren Lincoln, 20, William Davis, 18, and Orion Dennis, 18, for two counts of Second-Degree Burglary, Conspiracy to commit a Felony, and conspiracy/Two or more subjects acting in concert to take property during the commission of a Felony.

The three suspects from this investigation were transported to the Mendocino County Jail and Deputies authored a request to set bail which was granted by a Mendocino County Superior Court Judge. All three suspects were booked and lodged at the Mendocino County Jail in lieu of $15,000 Bail.

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LOCAL EVENTS (this week)

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FORT BRAGG CREATES VACANT-BUILDING PROGRAM

Council Delays Fee Vote; Explores Vacancy Tax

by Elise Cox

The Fort Bragg City Council voted 5-0 Tuesday to introduce an ordinance creating a registry and upkeep standards for long-empty commercial properties, a step city leaders said is aimed at curbing blight and boosting the downtown business district.

Staff is directed to add Chapter 6.30, “Vacant Buildings and Lots,” to the municipal code. This requires commercial units that sit vacant or abandoned for 90 consecutive days — or show clear neglect such as broken windows, graffiti or disconnected utilities — to register with the city, maintain the premises and provide a 24-hour local contact posted on the property. Staff said enforcement will focus first on buildings in the Central Business District.

Although the ordinance text also references vacant lots, staff and council members said immediate enforcement is aimed at buildings; some well-kept lots are in active community use. A proposed “no trespassing” posting will not be part of the ordinance; required signage is limited to management and contact information and must be at least 18 by 24 inches, staff clarified after questions from the dais.

Mayor Jason Godeke and multiple council members framed the step as part of a multi-year push to revitalize Main and Franklin streets, citing recent cleanliness efforts, lighting and special events. “We spent some time, some money, and I think it’s paying off,” Councilmember Lindy Peters said. “And this is kind of the final piece.”

Public comment reflected both support and skepticism. A property manager said “the people we deal with, they like to have their properties rented.” And he referred to a vote earlier in the meeting to amend the requirements of the installation of automatic fire sprinkler systems in new buildings and in any remodel of buildings larger than 5,000 square feet.. “If somebody wants to fix up those buildings, they’re going to now have to sprinkle them,” he said, noting the additional cost was not an incentive.

The council did not adopt related fees Tuesday. On the advice of the city attorney, members directed staff to return with a properly noticed fee resolution at the next meeting.

Separately, the council authorized staff to research a vacancy tax — a long-term policy tool respondents to a summer survey ranked among preferred actions — and to bring the issue to committee in the second or third quarter of 2026. Mayor Jason Godeke noted that San Francisco’s “Empty Homes” tax has faced significant legal hurdles.

Lessons from San Francisco’s Vacancy Tax Challenge

San Francisco voters approved Proposition M in 2022, establishing a tax on residential units left vacant for more than 182 days in buildings with three or more units. The measure was intended to address the city’s housing shortage by pushing owners to rent unused apartments.

However, in October 2024, a San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled the “Empty Homes Tax” unconstitutional, agreeing with landlords and property groups who argued that the measure violated state and federal law. The plaintiffs — including the San Francisco Apartment Association, the Small Property Owners of San Francisco Institute, and the San Francisco Association of Realtors — contended that the law unlawfully compelled property owners to rent out their units, amounting to a taking of property without just compensation.

The court also found the tax preempted by California’s Ellis Act, which bars local governments from forcing landlords to rent or lease property they wish to withdraw from the rental market. Additional claims cited violations of due process, equal protection, and privacy rights, and alleged that the measure’s exemptions unfairly favored some types of property owners over others.

San Francisco has appealed the ruling, and enforcement of the tax is suspended pending the outcome. The case is expected to set precedent for other jurisdictions considering similar measures, including Fort Bragg. City staff said Fort Bragg’s review will include a detailed legal analysis of the San Francisco case to avoid potential pitfalls.

Next steps include rolling out the vacant-building registry, beginning proactive code enforcement on nuisance conditions downtown, and developing incentives and temporary-use options to help activate empty storefronts. A staff survey found 95% of respondents view vacant storefronts as a concern and want the city to act within the next 12 to 18 months.

(mendolocal.news)

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UKIAH JOURNALISM STUDENT ACCUSES TEACHER OF SENDING INAPPROPRIATE SNAPCHAT MESSAGES, SOLICITING OBSCENE VIDEOS

Mendocino Court released a redacted 33-page search warrant Wednesday

by Elise Cox

The teenager whose interview with Ukiah police led to the arrest of Ukiah High School teacher Matthew LaFever on November 3 was a student in his journalism class, according to a search warrant submitted by Detective Zhonghao Chen and approved by Superior Court Judge Patrick Pekin at 6:54 p.m. Oct. 16, 2025.

LaFever was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of knowingly annoying and/or molesting a minor. Ukiah police also said they collected evidence suggesting LaFever was reaching out to other minors in Mendocino and Sonoma counties using various social media platforms.

LaFever has not responded to repeated attempts by Mendo Local to contact him.

Dan Dougherty, communications and community engagement officer at the Ukiah Unified School District, said LaFever was working part-time and teaching three classes: work experience, journalism and advanced journalism.

The 33-page search warrant was filed in Superior Court this week and released in redacted form on Wednesday. Mendo Local reviewed the warrant at the Ukiah courthouse.

According to the warrant, the teenager told officers she created a Snapchat account under an alias and was added by LaFever, whose phone number she had saved in her contacts. During their chats, she received multiple shirtless selfies from LaFever. He also made two sexual comments quoted in the warrant: “Does your butt and thighs look sexy in them?” and “You must be the sexiest woman at your high school.”

During their exchange, the teen told LaFever multiple times that she was 17 — her actual age. The warrant does not state that she told LaFever she was a Ukiah High School student, nor does it claim that LaFever knew he was communicating with one of his own students.

The warrant describes Snapchat as a platform known for “disappearing images,” which notify senders when recipients view or attempt to screenshot the ephemeral data. “Screenshots can indeed be captured if a user does it quickly, and the sender is always notified about it right away,” the warrant states. “Despite this notification feature, there exist several methods and apps capable of covertly saving snaps and bypassing this feature.”

The warrant asserts probable cause that the items to be searched and seized (1) were used as the means of committing a felony; (2) tend to show that a felony has been committed or that a particular person committed a felony; and (3) tend to show sexual exploitation of a child or the depiction of sexual conduct involving a person under age 18.

In addition to searching LaFever’s Hopland home and seizing his electronics, the warrant authorized officers to take “photographs or videos … of LaFever’s upper body, unclothed.”

Based on the warrant, officers on Oct. 17 seized a cellphone/iPhone, an Apple Watch, three laptops, a router and an SD card.

Police also requested that Snap Inc. turn over LaFever’s “My AI” records, including all recorded interactions and stored conversations with the My AI service.

My AI is a chatbot designed to answer trivia questions, offer shopping advice or suggest dinner ideas. It is not supposed to be used for political, sexual, harassing or deceptive content; spam; malware; content promoting violence, self-harm or human trafficking; or anything violating Snapchat’s Community Guidelines.

In addition to seeking My AI conversations, police requested records of LaFever’s communications with other Snapchat users, including full message content, usernames, timestamps and any interactions involving LaFever’s account, “johnnyender25.” “Such messages shall include deleted messages, if available,” the warrant states.

It is unclear how long the student and LaFever were in contact. The warrant does not include a timeline. It says detectives were unable to review LaFever’s Snapchat account because “the victim stated she was either blocked or deleted by LaFever as she was no longer able to find him.”

As of Nov. 14, the district attorney had not filed either misdemeanor or felony charges against LaFever. The statute of limitations for felony sex crimes in California depends on the specific offense and the victim’s age, but recent laws have significantly broadened the time window. Serious sex crimes such as continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 have no statute of limitations.

The arrest warrant has not been released and Ukiah Police Chief Tom Corning has not responded to an email seeking confirmation that LaFever was arrested on a Ramey warrant. Ramey warrants enable police to bypass the more typical procedure of presenting evidence to the district attorney before an arrest.

(mendolocal.news)

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INLAND REPORTER MONICA HUETTL REPORTS for the AVA on the November 2025 Redwood Valley Municipal Advisory Council Meeting:

Highlights: The Supervisors’ Potter Valley/Decommissioning Resolution, Sheriff Kendall’s status report (“60% of inmates are addicted to drugs or alcohol…”), Marijuana growing in Mendo under today’s regulations, inland transportation issues, and much more…

https://theava.com/archives/276342

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BOB ABELES:

A primary reason that sites of every size, from the behemoth X right down to the venerable, albeit tiny, AVA use Cloudflare is to ameliorate the effects of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks.

The principle of a DDoS attack is simple: Flood the target with phony requests so that it is unable to respond to legitimate requests in a timely fashion, effectively making the target inaccessible. These attacks are distributed across a network of hijacked devices, often IoT (Internet of Things) devices like security cameras, smart TVs, automatic vacuum cleaners, wireless range extenders, etc. These devices have in common an always-on internet connection and a large attack surface. A collection of hijacked devices is known as a botnet.

The attack surface of an IoT device is the sum of the flaws that the device can be targeted by a remote attacker. Preset passwords meant to be, but never changed by the user, weak passwords, zero day security flaws that are never patched, and manufacturer installed backdoors, are examples of flaws that make up an attack surface. Attacks are automated by widely available hacking tools, lowering the barrier of entry to assembling a botnet down to simply obtaining and running a tool. Devices that have become part of a botnet usually continue to fulfill their intended purpose, so the owner is almost always unaware of the compromise.

A site like the AVA would never be able to operate without Cloudflare. Without the protection from DDoS attacks that Cloudflare offers, a single person with an agenda could keep the AVA permanently offline with only a minor effort and little technical expertise.

It appears that Cloudflare’s failure this morning was due to an internal programming error that cascaded into a widespread failure. We can expect similar problems due to internal and external causes becoming a regular feature of the internet for the foreseeable future.

Of course the problem we saw earlier today is a consequence of having a sole provider of DDoS protection. The reason that we don’t have a number of providers is one of scale. Only an entity as large as Cloudflare has the capacity to absorb large DDoS attacks that can peak at several trillion bytes per second.

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JOHN OLIVER TAKES KZYX FOR A SPIN, BIDET INCLUDED

https://kymkemp.com/2025/11/18/john-oliver-takes-kzyx-for-a-spin-bidet-included

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WILL YOU CELEBRATE THE SEASON?

by Terry Sites

Can you believe it? It is the holiday season again with all the celebratory occasions that go with it. Some of us relish the glitter, socializing and general merriment while others take a more Grinch/Scrooge-like stance. If you are one of the merry makers, the list below may help you find what you are looking for. If you are not planning to “Deck the Halls” consider the following listing outside of your purview and move on. Different Valley towns celebrate in different ways with some overlap. This is just a sampling of the many, many events offered; some are free others have fees, check the Internet for more information.

The Anderson Valley the Future Farmers of America at Anderson Valley High School are holding a holiday food drive from Nov. 17- Dec. 17 with drop off locations throughout the Valley. The Boonville Hotel is hosting a tree lighting party and fundraiser for the AV Food Bank on Dec. 4th at 5:30. The Anderson Valley Grange is hosting a Holiday Community Potluck starting at 5:30 on Dec. 7. Call 707/472-9189 for more information.

Ukiah has lots of plans beginning in November. Their Holiday Trolley will be rolling from Nov. 25 through Dec. 18. The Mendocino County Animal Shelter will hold a dog and cat food drive through Dec. 31; drop offs at the shelter 298 Plant St. Rainbow Ag, the Savings Bank of Mendocino or Radiant Yoga. “Ukiah on Ice” will offer outdoor ice-skating downtown from Dec. 4- Jan. 18. Ukiah Parade of Lights is Dec. 6, Hometown Holiday Market is Dec. 6th 11-4. “Slow Ride,” a lighted bike procession, will view decorated Ukiah houses on Dec. 15th from 6-7pm. “The Wacky Winter Dance Festival” at The Space Theater on Dec. 17th is at 2 PM; call 462-9370 for more information. Mendocino Ballet will present the Nutcracker Dec. 19-21 at Mendocino College. “Elf Jr. the Musical” will be performed at the Space Theater on Dec. 13, 14, 19, 20 and 21st. You can donate cold weather clothing at libraries Nov. through Feb. See details at www.mendocinolibrary.org.

Willits Holiday Wonderland is Dec. 3rd 1-7 including their tree lighting. The Skunk Magical Xmas Train runs Dec. 3- Dec. 23 see Skunktrain.com for schedule. The Holiday Express will have a free train ride day with Santa on Dec. 6 at 420 E. Commercial St. in Willits. Project Sanctuary will hold an “Adopt-a-Family” program throughout the holidays; call 707 462-9196 in Ukiah or 707 961-1507 in Fort Bragg for details. The Holiday Crafts Fair Dec. 13 & 14 starts at 10 AM. The Play “Believe” runs at the Willits Community Theater Dec. 14-22.

Fort Bragg’s unique presentation is the Lit Boat Parade with “Mermaids and Misfits” sailing from the South Harbor to Noyo Bridge at 7 PM. The Botanical Gardens fires up their Festival of Lights Nov. 25- Dec. 18th from 5:00 to 7:30. Cotton Auditorium will host the first annual Fosse Dance Show “Unity” on Dec. 13 and Dec. 14.

Assorted other festivities of note include the 28th Annual Cloverdale Toy Run (with motorcycles) Dec. 14th, 11:30-12:30 with a Lion’s Club BBQ to follow from 12:30-1:30 at the Citrus Fairgrounds. Point Arena has its own Hometown Holiday on Dec. 6 from 10-3:30. Mendocino Village presents “This Christmastide Chorale” at the Mendocino Community Presbyterian Church Dec. 7 & 8 at 3 PM and a sing-along Messiah on Dec. 14 at 3 PM. Gualala Arts Center hosts the Ernest Bloch Bell Ringers on Dec. 14 at 3 PM. Gualala Arts Center’s Festival of the Trees is Nov. 29 & 30. There will be a Winter Market Nov. 29th 10-3 at the Gualala Community Center.

If you’d like additional options hop online to do your own research and dig up even more fun-filled adventures. Looking further afield there are lots of Sonoma County celebrations and they won’t be checking IDs. Let your holiday spirit be your guide.

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EBAY ITEM OF LOCAL INTEREST (via Marshall Newman)

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BOONVILLE HOLIDAY QUIZ RETURNS NEXT TUESDAY

Dear Friends of The Quiz…

I imagine you are studying hard in preparation for the Special Edition of The Quiz that takes place next Tuesday, - November 25th.

It will take place in the restaurant at The Boonville Distillery and we will 'kick-off' at 7pm.

Libby's popular Mexican Fiesta menu will be available all evening (4.30-8.30) along with beer, wine, and cocktails to help get you through your brain exercises.

Looking forward to seeing you all,

Cheers,

Steve Sparks, Quizmaster.

PS. The second Holiday Quiz will be Tuesday, 23rd December - same time, same place.

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SIXTH ANNUAL STREET FAIR IN DOWNTOWN ELK

Bundle up and come out and enjoy an evening of shopping, food, drinks, and holiday cheer in downtown Elk. On Friday December 12th from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm, businesses are staying open late for a festive holiday evening.

By popular request, the free raffle will be back! Stop by the Greenwood State Beach Visitor Center/Museum, too! For more information, contact Becky Powers at Matson Mercantile [email protected]

https://www.elkweb.org/6th-annual-holiday-street-fair/

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CANDLELIT SHOPPING NIGHT DEC 13 IN MENDOCINO

From 4pm to 7pm

You're invited to our annual Candlelit Shopping Night, a festive annual tradition and a magical night of shopping small in Mendocino. Shops and galleries will be open late with assorted special offers and extras.

Rain or shine, it promises to be a lovely evening.

There are 20 businesses confirmed so far:

• Barge North
• Bebe Lapin
• Den Modern
• Fog Bottle Shop
• Folklore
• Epperson Music
• Gallery Bookshop
• Heavenly Soles
• LA Hyder Gallery
• Mendocino Country Store
• Mendocino High School
• Mendocino Jewelry Studio
• Mendocino Sandpiper Jewelry
• Nahara EcoLuxe Boutique
• The Nook
• Out of This World
• Sol de Mendocino
• Village Sock Shop
• Whistlestop
• Zintara

(If you're a shopkeeper and want to be on this list, send a message to [email protected] to say you're on board.)

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CAPTAIN JIM: The husband of Sally Tip, at their home near Covelo, in Mendocino County, California - Wailaki - 1901

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, November 18, 2025

ALANNAH BIANCARDI, 33, Ukiah. Narcotics for sale, conspiracy.

MICHAEL BROWNSEALS, 65, Ukiah. Parole violation.

DANIEL ELLIS, 39, Fort Bragg. Misrepresenting the cost of home improvements, accepting payment for more than the value of work, failure to secure payment of workers comp, damaging or destroying property worth over $50k, diversion of funds-$2350.

SADIE GRAVLEE, 27, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

JOSEPH JENSEN, 38, Upper Lake/Ukiah. Narcotics for sale, conspiracy.

MICHAEL LAMUN, 39, Ukiah. Narcotics for sale.

SHAYLYNN LOCKHART, 31, Potter Valley. County parole violation.

PABLO MARTINEZ II, 32, Covelo. More than an ounce of pot, paraphernalia, probation revocation, resisting.

DANA MULLIGAN, 52, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

ANTHONY NUZZO, 33, Redwood Valley. Probation revocation.

JONATHAN RODRIGUEZ, 27, Ukiah. Grossly negligent discharge of firearm, loaded handgun-not registered owner.

ROLANDO RUIZ, 37, Ukiah. Controlled substance with two or more priors, paraphernalia.

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A CAUTIONARY TALE

Editor:

I was recently involved in a tragic accident that could have been avoided. On Oct. 31, my dog Scout and I were waiting at a crosswalk in downtown Sebastopol. When the light turned to “walk,” we entered the intersection. A van driven by an 87-year-old woman barreled into us. Scout suffered horrific injuries. After two vets examined her, I had her put down.

Witnesses and one angel who drove us to the vet, as well as the police officer who followed us there, were compassionate and kind. I am eternally grateful. The driver offered no explanation to me.

I’m 78, and I gave up driving a year and a half ago because my vision is deteriorating. If you are an elderly driver with compromised vision or spatial awareness, I beg you to give up your pride, as I had to. Consider the consequences if you harm a person or animal. You will affect a whole circle of people in seconds. Scout was an ambassador of love, treasured by our family and the community. She did not deserve to suffer a tragic end. My heart is broken. It didn’t have to happen.

Morgan Hewitt

Sebastopol

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TO AID SALMON, PRESERVE SAN JOAQUIN WATERSHED

Editor:

Tom Philp’s Nov. 10 opinion article about the salmon in the Sacramento River was excellent, but he did not address two major areas affecting the Northcoast. First is the San Joaquin River watershed, which is just as important for salmon survival. Currently flows from the Sierra can get down to 10% of natural flows, with the rest diverted mostly to farming concerns, letting fish swelter and die in the warm water.

Why do we care what happens with water from Central Valley rivers? How often do we love to go to Bodega Bay and visit the wharves? The salmon that support our local fisherman are being decimated. The solution is higher flows. This is currently being decided in Sacramento. Look at the Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan. For more information, contact your local salmon fisherman and Yosemite Rivers Alliance.

Mark Gonzalves

Sonoma

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VERILY, VERILY

Editor,

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s attacks on President Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans can perhaps best be summed up by Ezekiel 16:49: This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.

True, MAGA is turning the U.S. into a great big Sodom.

But the Bible is a two-edged sword. Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17 — thou shalt not kill — clearly prohibit abortion, which Newsom promotes and has the state fund.

Something that Trump and Newsom prefer to ignore is Matthew 19:9: Whoever divorces his wife, here not upon fornication, and marries another, commits adultery.

Has Newsom obtained an assurance from his bishop that his union with Kimberley Guilfoyle constituted fornication within the meaning of this utterance of Jesus?

If not, how is he better than Trump? People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

John Wills

Oakland

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“MY WIFE when I met her was a guidette at the RCA building. She’d take off her uniform and go to this espresso bar where she waited tables. So she’d get out of her straight job, and I’d get out of my straight job at The News, and we’d go be beatniks together. We hung out for a while. And then we decided we’d quit our jobs and have an adventure. So we went to New Orleans. Why New Orleans? I don’t know.”

— Robert Stone

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MORE HOUSING ON THE CALIFORNIA COAST? CHANGES AT THIS AGENCY SIGNAL A PRO-BUILDING SHIFT

by Nadia Lathan

Bone-colored bluffs and jagged cliffs line the Monterey shoreline where chalky sand meets redwoods.

Its rugged coastline, including beloved destinations such as Big Sur, is well-known California iconography protected by the California Coastal Act for nearly 50 years.

In a push to address the state’s gripping housing crisis, the California Coastal Commission last week approved a rule change to make it easier to build affordable housing in Monterey and elsewhere along the hundreds of miles of the Pacific coast.

It was the latest effort by the powerful state agency to combat its poor reputation among housing advocates and Democratic leaders who see it as an obstacle to drastic housing reform in California’s coveted coastal regions. While minor and uncontroversial, the amendment was one of a few shifts the commission has made in recent months in an effort to be viewed as playing a part in addressing the state’s crippling housing crisis.

It released a report for the first time in 2024 that showed local governments were responsible for approving the vast majority of permits in coastal regions, and this year the agency worked with housing activists to make it easier to build student housing in coastal cities. Nor did the coastal commission oppose a landmark housing reform law that excludes most new developments from environmental review.

“I think it’s going to have a real-life change,” Susan Jordan, a longtime conservation activist and founder of the California Coastal Protection Network, said of the regulatory amendment at the meeting.

Reputation rehab: Steps toward more housing

Twelve people — six local elected officials and six members of the public — vote on the independent, quasi-judicial state agency tasked with conserving more than 800 miles of the California coast and keeping it open to the public. Its authority spans about 1,000 yards inland from where the land meets the water at high tide.

The commission has faced relentless scrutiny in recent years for not permitting enough affordable housing in coastal cities, or doing so too slowly, as state lawmakers have stripped numerous housing regulations to make it easier to build more apartments.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, a critic of the commission, and other top Democrats have appointed three pro-development local officials this year to help get more housing and other developments approved along the Pacific coast.

In October, Newsom appointed wealthy real estate developer Jaime Lee to replace Effie Turnbull Sanders. An attorney appointed by former Gov. Jerry Brown, Sanders was lauded by environmentalists for heralding environmental justice policies to the agency.

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Salinas Democrat, named two pro-development appointees to the commission in May: Chris Lopez, a Monterey County supervisor, and Chula Vista councilmember Jose Preciado.

Ray Jackson, a Hermosa Beach councilmember, was appointed earlier this year by Democratic Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire of Santa Rosa, and is largely a skeptic of big developers.

In a unanimous vote last week, Peciado, Lopez and Jackson each approved changing the commission’s rules to give affordable housing projects in coastal areas more time to be built, from two to five years after permits are issued. Lee was not at the Nov. 6 meeting.

Staff and commissioners hailed the change as a step in the right direction for affordable housing developments that cannot be financed quickly enough under the previous two-year deadline.

“I think next year would be a good opportunity to roll out an education campaign in the Legislature to highlight some of the movements we made toward this,” Commissioner Linda Escalante said. “I don’t know if we can have a white paper that we can walk around with and figure out some of the reputation issues that we have.”

A history of protecting the coastline

Critics of the agency point to the exorbitant coastal housing prices, some of the highest in the country, and the disproportionate number of white residents, as exacerbating the housing shortage. To some, the commission’s priorities have not matched the urgency of lawmakers and local officials to help solve the cost problem.

Two-thirds of coastal residents are white, about twice as many as in the state as a whole, according to an analysis by Nicholas Depsky at the United Nations Development Programme.

Fewer than 2.5% of California residents live in coastal cities, or “coastal zones,” which comprise less than 1% of land in the state but are home to some of the most valuable real estate in the world, from Malibu to Marin.

The Coastal Commission began as a 1972 ballot initiative in the shadow of the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, one of the worst environmental disasters in the country at the time. Amid a broader national environmental movement, there was greater concern about how to protect California’s coveted shoreline in the midst of unregulated offshore drilling and fears of relentless development that would mirror Miami’s coastline.

Four years later, the state Legislature made the commission permanent with the Coastal Act to protect its natural habitats and keep beaches open to the public.

Early tensions between then-Gov. Jerry Brown and the commission brewed when he slammed its members as “bureaucratic thugs” in 1978, just years after championing its creation. Brown would spend his final years in office, nearly 40 years later, roiled by criticism from environmentalists who accused him of appointing commissioners who were too pro-development. Those fears were heightened with the ousting of executive director Charles Lester in 2016, a strong advocate for coastal protection.

Scrutiny of the commission has accelerated in the Newsom administration, as the governor has publicly chided the agency for its broad powers. After the Los Angeles fires, he swiftly moved to suspend all of its authority over rebuilding efforts in the Pacific Palisades, which abut the coastline.

Last year, the commission rejected billionaire Elon Musk’s proposal to increase the number of SpaceX rocket launches off the Santa Barbara coast while criticizing his support of President Donald Trump. Newsom said he was “with Elon” after the company filed a lawsuit claiming political discrimination. The case is still pending.

Lee, the newest commissioner, hails from Los Angeles and has built a reputation as a prolific builder known for revitalizing Koreatown. Her real estate company, Jamison properties, has built 6,600 multifamily units and is one of the largest private landowners in Los Angeles, according to its website.

Lee did not return emails and phone calls seeking comment from CalMatters.

The new appointments have made many pro-housing advocates hopeful. “We now have three out of 12 voting members who are appointed to the commission in this period when many legislators and the governor want reform at the commission to design more affordable housing,” said Louis Mirante, a lobbyist with the business coalition Bay Area Council. “That tells me that these members will probably move that vision forward.”

Lopez, who has emphasized his support for affordable housing on the coast since joining the commission, said the optimism is warranted.

“I think that that excitement is well placed given where we’re sitting at right now and given the voice that the speaker and the governor are giving at this issue and wanting to see a remedy to it,” Lopez said. “And I do feel it’s the reason I was put here was to have that conversation at the forefront.”

Environmental advocates watch

Environmentalists have mostly been quiet about the new appointments. Instead, they are waiting to see how they vote before raising the alarm.

“While there have been concerns expressed within the environmental movement, at this point we have no idea how this commissioner (Lee) will be,” said Jennifer Savage, associate director of Surfrider Foundation, a coastal protection advocacy group. Lee was not an obvious choice for many, but Savage is optimistic that she’ll support coastal protection.

“It’s actually not that surprising that the governor would appoint someone with housing expertise,” given the political climate, she continued.

A longtime local water authority official and current administrator at San Diego State University, Preciado said part of his pitch for the role to Democratic leaders was that he wanted to see more of the coast developed to help create jobs and homes for working-class families.

“We have a keen interest in developing the California coast in such a way where underrepresented communities that live on the coast have more access,” Preciado said of himself and Lopez.

Wealthy coastal residents have long sparred with the commission over violations for blocking public access, such as Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla, who has been entangled in a slew of legal fights with regulators and coastal groups for years over access to Martins Beach near Half Moon Bay.

Many commissioners and staff view protecting public access and conservation as their primary purpose rather than housing policy.

Conservationism is out of style, even among Democrats, which has led support for the commission to dramatically shift in recent years, according to legislative director Sarah Christie.

To some commissioners, lawmakers’ push to rip away more and more of its housing authority is a misguided attempt to simplify a complex issue. They point out that about 80% of coastal cities and counties have their own coastal laws and are not subject to the commission.

“It’s creating a lot of chaos and dysfunction at the local level and is making it harder,” Christie said of the movement toward slashing housing regulations. “In the Legislature’s enthusiasm and zeal in order to effectuate housing more quickly, they’re kind of stepping on themselves.”

Jackson, a commissioner who represents the South Bay, said lawmakers need to focus more on affordable housing rather than increasing supply more broadly.

Special environmental considerations and its highly sought after nature are what make the coastal zone uniquely expensive, Preciado said. “I think that a broader view, a more objective view, is that developing on the coast is different than developing in urban areas.”

(CalMatters.org)

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TRUMP MADE THE CITIZENSHIP TEST HARDER. WHAT IF EVERY AMERICAN HAD TO TAKE IT?

by James Traub

In September the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a new, harder version of the civics test immigrants take when applying for citizenship. Sample questions include: Name five of America’s original states, which is up from three in the prior version, and explain why the Federalist Papers mattered. Even though the Trump administration no doubt wants to put new impediments on the path to citizenship, it still feels right to expect democratic knowledge from future citizens. The question this inevitably raises is: Why do we expect so much less from current citizens?

I spent a year sitting in social studies, government and history classes in public schools across the country while researching my forthcoming book, and I can say several things with confidence. First, very few of the students I met, of any age, could pass the new citizenship test. Second, very few of the schools I visited would even administer it. The requirement to commit dates, names and places to memory is at odds with the pedagogy that has become standard in education schools and among progressive teachers and school officials.

In the U.S. history test administered in 2022 by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a widely cited federal exam, only 14 percent of eighth graders attained at least a “proficient” level, while 40 percent fell below “basic.” It was the worst performance by that cohort on any subject tested by NAEP that year. (On civics, 22 percent were at least proficient and 31 percent below basic.)

The numbers have been dismal for a long time. Many older Americans believe that students learned geography and history in the golden age back when we went to school, but in 1986, a majority of 17-year-olds taking the NEAP did not understand why Jim Crow laws had been enacted and didn’t know when the Civil War was fought. And most were taking an American history class at the time.

Was there ever a golden age of American education? In the midst of World War II, the historian Allan Nevins complained that American students reached college with a pitiful stock of historical knowledge. As a standard of ignorance, he cited the fact that students could identify the Stamp Act but not the Molasses Act, Harriet Beecher Stowe but not Hinton Rowan Helper (a Southern abolitionist writer).

It’s likely that students who could identify Harriet Beecher Stowe also knew when, and why, the Civil War was fought. My research into the history of this debate leads me to think that over time our expectations, and the level of our knowledge, has fallen.

Does that matter? The United States administers citizenship tests because it assumes you need to know some history and background on how our government works in order to be an engaged citizen. Perhaps you don’t need to know about the Molasses Act or Hinton Rowan Helper. But a student ignorant of the Jim Crow laws is not going to understand why race is such a central issue in American life.

Or, as Kelly Rose, an Advanced Placement World History teacher in the Chicago suburbs, put it to me, “You’re not going to be tolerant of Muslims if you don’t know that the Abbasids” — a caliphate dating to the eighth century — “once ran the show.” She added dryly, “Inquiry-based learning is not going to help me when I’m in the voting booth.” (Proponents of inquiry-based learning believe that learning to frame good questions matters more than acquiring specific objects of knowledge.)

Of course, education for democratic citizenship is not only a matter of mastering a corpus of knowledge. You need to learn to debate respectfully, to accept legitimate differences of opinion, to be prepared to play the various roles of informed voter, activist, officeholder.

A growing number of schools offer civic exercises like Model Congress that simulate democratic life. That is a welcome development. But at many of these same schools, students receive a meager diet of factual knowledge about American history and government.

In my experience, teachers typically accommodate students’ short attention spans by assigning very brief excerpts from texts and showing videos in class. Many schools regard chronology itself as outmoded — just one thing after another. The current pedagogy holds that memorization kills the love of learning; instead, students can — and must — master generalizable cognitive skills to make sense of what would otherwise be “mere facts.”

Illinois’s high school history and civics standards take up all of three-quarters of a page and are all but devoid of dates and even proper nouns. At Ms. Rose’s school, students can take a class combining American history and literature, taught thematically rather than chronologically.

They, too, may have only the vaguest idea when the Civil War was fought. Students are expected instead to “analyze key historical events and contributions of individuals through a variety of perspectives, including those of historically underrepresented groups.” Culture warriors will, of course, seize on that last phrase, but the real point is that you can’t analyze any subject through a variety of perspectives if you don’t have a decent grasp of its details.

We need to put aside our furious debates over “American exceptionalism” and “structural racism” in order to reach a shared understanding of how best to teach whatever version of history and civics we choose to impart.

I encountered many admirable teachers during my time in American schools. Good A.P. classes like Ms. Roses’s give children skills such as critical thinking through a deep immersion in the facts. Some “classical” schools expect students to read and talk about serious works of history, literature and philosophy from an early age. Students are even called on to memorize speeches and poems. As Jason Caros, the headmaster of one such school, put it in a note to parents, “It is precisely memory that leads to knowledge, and knowledge gives birth to thinking and creativity.”

The 1795 Naturalization Act required prospective citizens to demonstrate their attachment to “the principles of the Constitution.” This stipulation spawned, first, impromptu quizzes by local judges and, much later, the oral civics test now administered by immigration officials. These tests captured an essential feature of citizenship in the United States. While the subject of an autocratic state need only submit, the citizens of a democracy can shape their country based on their understanding of its principles and history. If we think that’s true, we cannot demand ever more knowledge of newcomers — and ever less of our current citizens.

(James Traub’s forthcoming book is “The Cradle of Citizenship: How Schools Can Help Save Democracy.”)

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THE EPSTEIN CIRCUS WILL SHATTER OUR LAST DELUSIONS

Do we want to know how the world really works, or is it too disgusting to countenance?

by Matt Taibbi

From the Washington Post:

The newly released documents from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate show that the convicted sex offender texted with a Democratic member of Congress, Del. Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands, during a congressional hearing with Michael Cohen, and that those text messages may have influenced the congresswoman’s questions of Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer.

The Post story went on to describe exchanges from February 2019 in which Virgin Islands delegate Stacey Plaskett asked for guidance on questioning in the middle of the Cohen hearing. When Cohen mentioned Donald Trump's executive assistant Rhona Graff, Epstein texted the quasi-congressperson. “Cohen brought up RONA - keeper of the secrets,” he wrote, to which Plaskett replied, “RONA??” and, “Quick I’m up next is that an acronym.” YouTube is already flooded with videos, some darkly funny, like the Washington Post’s own effort at time-coding the puppetry act. Note the “Miss Rhona” dance around the unknown last name:

The list of high-ranking politicians from both parties who traveled with or took money from Epstein — Donald Trump and Bill Clinton included (what was the latter’s “humanitarian” visit to Siberia with him about?) — boggles the mind. A character like Epstein can only thrive in a world where law enforcement and intelligence are fully intertwined with financial and sexual corruption, to the point where one has to entertain the idea that significant numbers of politicians are compromised, perhaps even in a form of systemic blackmail. That isn’t an easy thing to believe. In the words of the disgraced and disgraceful writer Michael Wolff, whose ostentatious presence at the middle of this story casts doubt on all of it, Epstein represents “the kind of insiderism that is mostly just a figment in outsiders’ fantasies.”

Except, as Wolff accurately notes, “Epstein is real.” This is certainly a momentous story about something. For a long list of reasons that includes Wolff’s insistence that it’s true, I find it difficult to believe “the central issue is Trump’s relationship with this monster.” More likely, full exposure of the Epstein saga would tune the public into a generation of indefensible official bargains and power plays, which is why the Trump administration’s summer turnaround on releases has justifiably come at big political cost. Trump campaigning last year compared Epstein to the Kennedy assassination. “Kennedy’s interesting because it’s so many years ago. They do that for danger too, because it endangers certain people,” he said, adding, “But I’d be inclined to do the Epstein. I’d have no problem with it.”

With his own Director and Deputy Director of the FBI on record questioning Epstein’s cause of death, and Trump’s daughter on record calling for “more transparency,” the sudden about-face had to involve heavy leverage somewhere. That doesn’t mean the Democrats’ braying about this issue hasn’t been ridiculous and hypocritical. If the Epstein rabbit holes are as deep for other members as they are just for Plaskett, we may have to put the whole system on suicide watch. It’s that bad:

“Release all of the Epstein Files” was a siren call for the MSNOW set as recently as this weekend, but now that Trump has issued a statement calling for House Republicans to vote for their release because “we have nothing to hide,” everything is in play. The House Oversight Committee already started the avalanche with a series of releases that over the weekend had me answering TextEdit prompts like, “Are you sure you want to open 897 files?”

If you’re a Democrat, you’ve already seen the Trump lowlights: a 2011 email from Epstein saying of former Mar-a-Lago spa attendant Virginia Giuffre, “VICTIM spent hours at my house with him,” and this 2019 note to author Michael Wolff: “Of course [Trump] knew about the girls.” There are mitigating docs with both issues (Giuffre, another suicide from earlier this year, wrote Trump “couldn’t have been friendlier” in a posthumously published memoir). Still, Pam Bondi’s Epstein files pirouette earlier this year never made sense and has been driving intramural MAGA turmoil since, with Marjorie Taylor Greene now railing against the idea that “rich, powerful people should be protected.” For an administration that’s done well sending roaches scurrying in the FBI, CIA, and DHS via Russiagate and Covid investigations, Epstein stands out as an unforced error. If it’s not dirt on Trump himself, and administration sources insist it isn’t, what’s the holdup?

Democratic Party hysteria over this issue is obviously absurd because “all of the Epstein files” could have been released over the last four years. There must be reasons why the last administration didn’t take that step, and there should be scandal in MAGA-world if those reasons overlap at all with the Trump administration’s. Between Epstein’s own hysterical rants about Trump in the newly released documents (he sounds like Kathy Griffin in some of the emails) and the blue party’s seeming entanglement with Epstein from the Clintons to Larry Summers to Reid Hoffman, it’s hard to imagine where that overlap might be, unless it involves major corporate names and/or overseas relationships. Some of that is suggested in Plaskett’s story.

Plaskett was a listed recipient of campaign contributions from Epstein, and briefly also a defendant in a lawsuit filed by five alleged Jane Doe victims of Epstein. The action against Plaskett was voluntarily dismissed after her lawyers filed a motion to be removed from the suit, but the original complaint remains ugly public record. It accuses Plaskett and a long list of other figures of having “facilitated Epstein in his ongoing sex trafficking operation” by ensuring he “received preferential treatment and unfettered, unmonitored freedom” while in U.S. Virgin Islands.

Financial records of “substantial payments” to some of those defendants do appear in the exhibits of another damning lawsuit, U.S. Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, to the point where it’s clear government officials in the Virgin Islands and significant Wall Street players were deeply compromised when it came to the operation of Epstein’s empire. The depository records alone make a joke of, say, the anti-money-laundering (AML) controls that ostensibly obligate banks to press pause and investigate if any of dozens of red flags pop up in connection with an account (like “unusual transfers of funds”). One paragraph from the Chase complaint stood out:

In October 2012, the Southern Trust Company—one of the companies Epstein owned— applied for economic benefits from the Virgin Islands Economic Development Commission (“EDC”) so the company could provide “cutting edge consulting services” in the area of “biomedical and financial informatics.” Southern Trust Company received a 10-year package of economic incentives running from February 1, 2013 until January 31, 2023 that included a 90% exemption from income taxes and 100% exemptions from gross receipts, excise, and withholding taxes in the Virgin Islands.

Plaskett was the general counsel for the aforementioned Virgin Islands Economic Development Commission for five years between 2007 and 2012, listed as leaving just before the deal outlined above. She was an attorney at Kellerhals Ferguson Kroblin PLLC, the firm that handled Epstein’s taxes and helped him purchase Little St. James Island. It appears that’s where she worked during an unaccounted-for LinkedIn gap of a few years between 2012 and her election in 2015. In a 2023 deposition she was asked if she did any work for Epstein or “Epstein-related businesses” while at the firm. She answered, “I don’t recall.”

When asked what she did during a visit to Epstein’s home, she said she was raising money for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee at that time, and that the possibility that she asked for $250,000 “does not sound unreasonable.” She also suggested she’d received around $30,000 in donations from him, but that he never asked anything of her. Apparently, suggesting questions in televised hearings doesn’t count:

“YOU ASK THEM.” Stacey Plaskett on how you get people like Jeffrey Epstein to donate

Two years ago, Stacey Plaskett led a fusillade of surreal questions from Democrats when I testified in Congress for the first time about digital censorship. Epstein by then had long since been suicided, but the interrogation was both so hostile and half-assed that I wondered mid-hearing if members were being fed queries by tweet or text.

Now we learn this not only happens, but the voice spotting lines for an elected official on live TV might be the worst person in the world. Such realizations make for a wince-hard moment for the whole American population, which may have to adjust its estimation of our politicians down from totally corrupt if all these files are released. As was the case with the Russiagate documents, these releases continue an education in the rotten way things really work in this country that I suspect both parties will quickly regret voting to serve up.

Apart from the fact that there’s so much background (“It’s a lot,” is how one reporter friend put it), one of the reasons I previously hesitated to dig into Epstein is because it seemed like the kind of story where the key details would never see the light of day. Now we have a perfect storm of partisan wrangling that might change that equation. It’s always a good thing to know more, but prepare for this one to be particularly depressing if it actually pans out.

(racket.news)

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EPSTEIN, an on-line comment:

I feel that this whole "Epstein" thing is hugely blown out of proportion (compare it to the Pakistani gang rapes of underage girls, 12-16 y.o., in the UK, to see the artificial hysteria), while politicians and other public figures are compromised mostly by the Me-Me-Me-Too style theatrical performance than anything really worthy of attention.

I watched a documentary about the Epstein case a few years ago. His initial prosecution in Florida was for paying high school girls $200 for doing things while he masturbated or for bringing in friends. Young women were asked to bring their younger sisters. Some women and girls were enjoying his patronage, got invited to the NM ranch, the island and getting paid for schooling. The documentary was mostly MeToo style, looking like multiple actresses reading the same script, but some women refused to be interviewed (perhaps, they've found it stupid).

While it's pretty rotten behavior from a rich man, for the most part of the world an adult having sex with a 16-17 y.o wouldn't be a crime. For many countries even younger. It's the tail wagging the dog, girls being victims because they were in Florida where the age of consent is high, 18. If Epstein were in Canada, he could've been investigated for fooling around with one girl which was 14 y.o., but the rest would've been no story. If he were in Latin America, even this would've been legal (not to be confused with human trafficking which is by force, not consent). Sure, "caught with an underage prostitute" is classic blackmail. But how many were actually caught? For now, it's just hysterical screaming about "affiliations" and the travel list, whatever the purpose of that travel was, like discussing funding and drinking coffee. Screeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaam!!!!!!!!!! But I'm pretty much sure the Deep State didn't want to expose their relationship, that's the real scandal. Campaign contributions from the Deep State, huh.

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HOW HAPPY I was if I could forget
To remember how sad I am
Would be an easy adversity
But the recollecting of Bloom

Keeps making November difficult
Till I who was almost bold
Lose my way like a little Child
And perish of the cold.

— Emily Dickinson

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HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN

There is a house in New Orleans
You call the Rising Sun.
It's been the ruin of many a poor soul
And me, oh God, I'm one.

If I'd listened to what mama said,
I'd be at home today.
Being so young and foolish, poor girl
I let a gambler lead me astray.

My mother she's a tailor,
Sews those new blue jeans.
My sweetheart, he's a drunkard, Lord God
He drinks down in New Orleans.

He fills his glasses to the brim,
Passes them around.
The only pleasure that he gets out of life
Is a-hoboin' from town to town.

The only thing a drunkard needs
Is a suitcase and a trunk.
The only time that he's half satisfied
Is when he's on a drunk.

Go and tell my baby sister
Never do like I have done.
Shun that house down in New Orleans
That they call that Rising Sun.

It's one foot on the platform,
One foot on the train.
I'm going back down to New Orleans
To wear my ball and my chain.

My life is almost over,
My race is almost run.
Going back down to New Orleans
To that house of the Rising Sun.

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'IF YOU BREAK YOUR HAND, try not to think about it — just go forward.

I never knew how to go backward. The way I saw it, the best defense is a great offense.'

— Jake LaMotta

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JEFFREY ST. CLAIR:

As I've said several times, nothing unnerves Trump more than being confronted by an intelligent woman, who shows no fear of his bullying manner. He quickly becomes unglued. Witness Trump's absolutely demented attacks on ABC News White House Correspondent, Mary Bruce, for having the guts to ask two obvious questions of Trump and Bin Salman… One would hope that the press corps' job is to ask "insubordinate" questions, though they rarely do. Let's see if ABC stands by her.

ABC News reporter, Mary Bruce: "Is it appropriate for your family to do business with Saudi Arabia while you’re president? And to you, your royal highness, the US intelligence agencies concluded you orchestrated the murder of a journalist…"

Trump: "Who are you with?"

Bruce: "ABC News."

Trump: "ABC Fake news. I have nothing to do with the family business. You mentioned somebody extremely controversial—a lot of people didn't like that gentleman {Khashoggi}. Whether you did or didn't like him, things happen, but he [MBS] knew nothing about it. You don't have to embarrass our guest."

Then a few minutes later…

Bruce: "Mr. President, why wait for congress to release the Epstein files? Why not just do it now?"

Trump: "It's not the question that I mind. It's your attitude. I think you are a terrible reporter. It’s the way you ask these questions. You start off with a man who is highly respected, asking him about a horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question. You could even ask that question nicely. But you’re all psyched. Somebody psyched you over at ABC. You’re a terrible person and a terrible reporter… You work for a crappy company. I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake. So wrong. We have a great commissioner, a chairman who should look at that."

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QUIET, PIGGY

Donald Trump, who has a history of making extremely personal attacks on female journalists, referred to a Bloomberg News correspondent as a “piggy” during a clash onboard Air Force One on Friday.

While the remark did not initially get much attention, it picked up some traction on Tuesday and has drawn backlash from fellow journalists, including some who have previously been attacked by Trump themselves.

Catherine Lucey, Bloomberg’s White House correspondent, had taken advantage of a press opportunity with the president – known as a gaggle – to ask a question about the unfolding Jeffrey Epstein scandal and the possibility of the House voting to release all of the files related to his case, which now appears likely.

As Lucey started to ask why Trump was behaving the way he was “if there’s nothing incriminating in the files”, Trump pointed at her and said: “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.”

CBS News reporter Jennifer Jacobs first reported that Trump called a Bloomberg News reporter “piggy”, though she did not specify who it was.

“Disgusting and completely unacceptable,” CNN anchor Jake Tapper wrote on X, sharing a clip of the incident. Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson also called the remark “disgusting and degrading”.

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ROBERT GUERRA:

It is very hard to sit through Russia Gate, The Trump Trial in NY and the January 6th Committee as well as all the politicians on both sides getting rich off of insider trading and the revolving door of Universities, NGOs, MSM and political appointees and not be just completely depressed at the state of politics in our country and probably every country. The sad truth is that most people in Government simply want to stay in power and appear willing to do just about anything to stay in power and of course get rich in the process and position themselves to get rich once they exit office. From the Clinton Foundation (Hustle) to the always upset and put upon Michele Obama complaining about how she suffers all from the beauty of her $12 million, 30 acre estate in Martha's Vineyard and the Obama's reported net worth of between $70 million and $125 million. I am ok with the money grab, but please stop with the constant complaining. This country has been as good to them as it has to anyone.

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LEAD STORIES, WEDNESDAY'S NYT

Congress Overwhelmingly Approves Releasing Epstein Files

Trump Lauds Saudi Prince in Lavish Visit, Brushing Off Journalist’s Killing

Democratic Lawmakers Tell Military to Refuse Illegal Orders

Judge to Approve Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy, Releasing Billions for Opioid Plaintiffs

Recycling Lead for U.S. Car Batteries Is Poisoning People

Orthodox Church Pews Are Overflowing With Converts

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Alexis de Tocqueville nailed it when he said “I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.” That is one of the reasons why governments always grow bigger and more corrupt – sociopathic types are attracted to powerful positions and the parties become intertwined in their corruption, known as the “uni-party” – serving themselves, getting rich off the taxpayers while not serving the people.

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“I SEE this enormous empty space from which God has absented himself. I see this enormous mystery that I can’t penetrate, a mystery before which I’m silent and uncomprehending. This, in any case, is where I find myself in my sixth decade.”

— Robert Stone

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JOAN DIDION’S THANKSGIVING: DINNER FOR 75, Reams of Notes

The author’s newly unveiled papers reveal the meticulous planning and devotion to cooking that went into her big holiday meals.

by Patrick Farrell

Across six decades as a writer and cultural barometer, Joan Didion persuaded her public to face all kinds of things they might rather not: the crumbling of social norms, the failures of democracy. Boredom. Aging. Mortality.

Even Thanksgiving.

“It has always seemed like such an awful holiday,” a friend wrote her after one dinner, “but you made it something quite wonderful.”

Yes, Joan Didion, the cool-eyed minimalist who savored hard truths and looked as if she subsisted on crudités and aperçus, embraced the great American feast day of food and sentiment. And she staged it the same way she conjured her essays, novels, screenplays and memoirs, with an almost military mustering of planning and ambition.

She hosted Thanksgiving buffets for as many as 75 guests, a who’s who of notables from the shiny Venn diagram she moved in: literary circles (Philip Roth, Edna O’Brien), the New York media (Jimmy Breslin, Jann Wenner), Hollywood (Liam Neeson, Claire Bloom) and the intersection of all three (Nora Ephron). Years before Friendsgiving came along, she filled her Manhattan apartment with cronies and colleagues, including Thanksgiving skeptics like the writer Calvin Trillin, who has long campaigned to replace the turkey with spaghetti carbonara.

She typed up dozens of menus and guest lists, noting who declined, who arrived at what time, how many ate or did not, and how much food was left over. She drafted instructions for a few hired helpers — and herself — detailing the timing and placement of each course, which forks to use and which plates couldn’t go in the dishwasher.

“Set table,” reads one such drill. “Whip cream. Figure out pies. Start fires. Turkey out — 6 or 6:30.”

We know all this because those schedules, rosters, bread-and-butter notes and the contents of her recipe box were opened to the public in March by the New York Public Library, as part of a vast collection (337 boxes) of the papers of her and her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne.

It may be hard to imagine there’s much new to learn about Didion, whose life and thoughts have been deeply mined — most richly by Didion, who routinely placed herself at the center of her narratives. Last March, three years after her death at age 87, Knopf published “Notes to John,” a compilation of diary entries from the library’s collection about her often painful sessions with a psychiatrist.

Her prowess as a home cook and host has been celebrated and even fetishized. Her parsley salad recipe (serves 40) lit up the internet when her nephew, the actor and director Griffin Dunne, offered a cookbook to raise Kickstarter money for his 2017 documentary, “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold.” Her set of six well-used Le Creuset pots and pans fetched $8,000 at auction.

But a dive into the newly opened archive reveals the exacting advance work and record-keeping behind the casual entertaining style that she described here and there in her work — and that her guests saw at gatherings large and small.

“It seemed effortless,” Mr. Dunne said in an interview. “She probably applied the same discipline to making a meal as to writing a story: being thoroughly researched and in command of her subject. The preproduction for a meal was so meticulous that she could just enjoy herself.”

The items in the collection also drive home just how central the kitchen was in Didion’s life. The woman who said, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live” might have made the same claim about cooking.

A Room of Her Own

“I taught myself to cook in 1964 and 1965, in a rented and furnished house on the sea with a kitchen that appalled many people who visited it,” she wrote in an undated, unfinished draft, liberally red-penned with her own edits.

That kitchen, in the first of four successive Southern California homes, “had no dishwasher and no disposal and no eye-level oven and no toaster … but it did have a six-burner stove with very large ovens and a big old-fashioned sink and a pantry and a floor of worn and darkened terra cotta tiles and a long rack of extremely professional pots and pans, very old, very heavy, cast aluminum and iron with those flat European lids that fit everything and take up no drawer space.”

“This,” she declared, “was the home in which I was first aware that a kitchen could be a ritual, a meditation, a room and a time of my own.”

Didion often pointed out that memory is selective. Her husband challenged hers.

“No — you did not teach yourself to cook in 1964-65,” he scrawled on a notecard in the archive, “Noel taught you to cook. Don’t take that away from him, too.” Noel was her former boyfriend and mentor, the writer Noel E. Parmentel Jr., who introduced her to Mr. Dunne.

Her trove of recipes — torn from newspapers, typewritten or rendered in her tidy handwriting — is a time capsule, heavy on the showy French dishes that anchored upscale dinner parties in the 1960s and ’70s: daubes, crème caramel, soufflés. (At her memorial service in 2022, her daughter Quintana’s friend Susan Traylor recalled a birthday party where Didion served hot chocolate soufflés to a group of bewildered youngsters — then patiently showed each child how to eat them — because she didn’t know how to make a birthday cake.)

The collection shows Didion’s growth as a cook, starting with the enchiladas and albondigas she learned in California, then adding much more: risottos, tandoori, borscht, a Sichuan duck appetizer (for 50) and several recipes for gumbo.

Friends hung on her culinary judgment. “When you looked into the parched and smoking parody of scalloped potatoes I produced on Friday night and said, ‘Well, it’s potatoes Anna,’ I was struck by a fresh avalanche of love for you,” the journalist Barry Farrell wrote in a 1973 letter. “You are the kindest person I know.”

This kindness had limits. “I remember that she was irritated when people, including Ms. Ephron, asked for her recipe for Mexican Chicken,” said the novelist Susanna Moore. “She didn’t want attention drawn to that. Nor did she want to share the recipe.”

Party Politics

Didion traced her domestic pluck to the can-do spirit of pioneer ancestors who migrated to Sacramento over the Sierra Nevadas from Illinois. And several recipes seem to hark back to her upper-middle-class childhood as the daughter of an Army finance officer: salmon loaf, oyster loaf, Aunt Minna’s Chutney Mold.

But she didn’t pick up cooking at home. “If you never learn how,” she quoted her mother as saying, “you’ll simply never have to.”

After college in the 1950s, Didion worked in Manhattan for Vogue, where she sometimes proofread recipes. In California, where the Dunnes moved soon after marrying in 1964, they regularly hosted cocktail parties for a Hollywood-orbiting crowd. (Her nephew has written about one where he flirted with Janis Joplin and was accosted by the director Otto Preminger, then in the grip of a bad acid trip.)

Didion was no bohemian. In an era when many of her peers were seeking freedom from housework, she prized its rigors. In “The White Album,” she recalled how disturbed she was, on a group tour of the old California governor’s mansion, to hear that none of the other women knew what a marble tabletop was useful for. (Rolling out pastry dough.)

The big apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan where the Dunnes relocated in 1988 yielded reams of papers that attest to their dining protocols. Inventories of silverware. Datebooks peppered with reservations at their regular restaurants: Elio’s, Shun Lee Palace, Da Silvano. Typed menus for even the simplest meals.

A Holiday Spirit

Didion’s Thanksgiving menus from the 1980s and ’90s are as classic and streamlined as her wardrobe, and nearly identical from year to year. Roast turkey breast with gravy and dirty-rice dressing. Cranberry sauce and relish. Artichoke hearts in béchamel, gratinéed yams and in lieu of mashed potatoes, a vegetable purée of beet, turnip or celery root. A salad with oranges, and tarts of apple, pecan and pumpkin. Leftover turkey went into a hash she made the next day.

She paid assistants to help cook and serve for these big occasions, and didn’t sweat details that could be finessed with store-bought ingredients like frozen artichokes or canned sweet potatoes. But she made most of the dishes ahead of time; the rest of the year, she cooked alone and from scratch, with fierce concentration.

“No one went into the kitchen when she was going there,” Griffin Dunne said. “It seemed like walking into her office.”

By the time guests arrived, the obsessing was over. “People had a really good time. It was very informal,” said Sharon DeLano, an editor and literary trustee of Didion’s. “All of the structure she had created — exactly how everything would be prepared and what time — was not visible to her guests. So in a way she was the perfect hostess.”

The invitation list for her largest Thanksgiving buffet, in 1993, was a mixed salad, with the writers Susan Sontag, Bret Easton Ellis and Donna Tartt, the playwright John Guare, the painter Eric Fischl and Detective Thomas Hyland of the New York Police Department. Children scampered around. There were out-of-town friends staying in the city for work, and New Yorkers without their own holiday tradition, like Mr. Trillin and his wife, Alice.

“We were sort of wanderers at Thanksgiving,” Mr. Trillin said. (He couldn’t remember eating Didion’s turkey, but noted that “sometimes when we roamed to a friend’s house for Thanksgiving, a small dish of spaghetti carbonara was presented to me, as a symbol.” )

Ms. DeLano, who wrote the thank-you note calling the holiday “awful,” said Didion cherished Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.

“I’ve always said that Thanksgiving was about genocide and greed,” Ms. DeLano said. “And she didn’t agree with me. She was very sentimental about these things, they were important to her. And so you have someone who was so intellectually austere in ways, and yet she had this side of her where it was kind of a real conventional sentimentality.”

If the holidays called for strict control, everyday cooking was something else. For a writer who steeped herself in bad news, it could be a way to let go.

“Yesterday I made a gumbo, which is something I like to do,” Didion wrote in longhand on one undated page in the archive. “I like the thrift of it, and the ritual.”

She described making the roux, stirring slowly with a wooden spoon “until the flour turns the color of a dark pecan,” then casually adding ingredients as the day went on: bacon strips left over from breakfast, the stock from a chicken roasted the day before, “the bay leaf from the tree in front, the cilantro from the sea wall.”

She apparently never completed the essay, which seems apt. The point was not the finished dish, but the making.

“Yesterday I made a gumbo, and remembered why I love to cook,” she wrote. “Intent is everything, in cooking as in work or faith.

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