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DRY WEATHER and above normal daytime temperatures will continue through the next 7 days. Overnight and morning temperatures will remain chilly with patchy dense fog along the river valleys and around Humboldt Bay. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A foggy & cloudy 46F on the coast this Wednesday morning. I never saw the sun yesterday, did you ? I expect more of the same today then maybe a little clearing into the weekend ? Rain chances are wavering, down at the moment.
DID YOU CATCH THE NORTHERN LIGHT SHOW?
by Elise Cox
Early morning risers across Mendocino County who looked skyward Tuesday were treated to an unusual and colorful display as the northern lights became visible far south of their typical range. A coronal mass ejection from the sun sent charged particles toward Earth, painting the night with faint bands of purple, pink and green.
The display occurred as those particles passed through Earth’s magnetic field and collided with gases in the upper atmosphere, producing the aurora borealis. Clear skies and minimal moonlight helped make the phenomenon visible to the naked eye in Northern California, forecasters said, though the colors could be made more vivid using long-exposure photography techniques.
Auroras are normally seen at much higher latitudes, but an unusually strong geomagnetic storm created a rare spectacle for local stargazers. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned the storm could continue into Tuesday night, with potential impacts on power grids and satellites — and the chance of another light show if conditions remain favorable.
(Mendolocal.news)
STRANG UKIAH SHOOTING
On Friday, January 16, 2026 at approximately 1200 hours, the UPD received numerous calls for service regarding shots being fired in the area of 400 North State Street. Officers arrived in the area and quickly located the scene near the 300 block of North Main Street. UPD officers located expended shell casings on scene and evidence that an unoccupied vehicle had been struck by gunfire. No citizens were reported to have been injured by the shooting.
UPD detectives, MCSO patrol deputies and Mendocino County District Attorney Investigators arrived on scene to assist. UPD patrol officers were able to locate video surveillance footage from the area. This video footage clearly depicted the suspect and the shooting itself. An updated suspect description was broadcasted to all units, and a search of the area was conducted.
A UPD detective was canvassing the area of 500 South Orchard Avenue when he located a female subject walking who partially matched the description. Based on the female’s size, stature and articles of clothing worn, the detective contacted the subject and positively identified her as Alice Strang, 34, from Ukiah.
A probable cause search of Strang’s backpack revealed a loaded Glock 22 pistol and an extra magazine loaded with ammunition. Officers discovered that the type of ammunition loaded into the pistol was a match to the spent shell casings located at the scene. Officers also located other clothing items in the backpack that were originally worn by Strang at the time of the shooting.
Strang was placed under arrest without further incident. Strang was subsequently booked into the MCSO jail for Willful discharge of firearm in negligent manner, Shooting at unoccupied vehicle or dwelling, Carrying a loaded firearm in public, Vandalism and Violation of Probation.
COME CLEAN, WILLITS
A free mobile shower service has launched in Willits, offering private, heated showers to anyone without access to one. The service is available Mondays and Tuesdays at St. Francis in the Redwoods Episcopal Church. (MV)
ALL IN 1 TREE AND TIMBER Inc (Philo) is looking to put together a current list for folks that might be interested in loads of wood chips and/or wood chunks for firewood. The chips and the wood chunks would be free but there will be a minimum fuel surcharge depending on location of delivery. We are currently doing tree work in Anderson Valley and surrounding areas and hoping to assist anyone and everyone for their tree service needs. If you are interested in being put on the list for chips or wood please call or text me, "Aaron" at 707-272-7387
Thank you and have a wonderful day!!
AV Senior Center is looking for a few volunteers to help set up, clean up or work during the event. Contact Renee Lee if you’re interested and want more information. 707-895-3609 or [email protected].
Also, there’s only a week left to purchase presale tickets with a limited amount left. Don’t miss out!
Thank you!
FORT BRAGG CITY COUNCIL Delays Street Project Sign-Off Amid Bond and Road Quality Concerns
Approves $200,000 Change Order For Reservoir Project
by Elise Cox
The Fort Bragg City Council postponed formal acceptance of several recent street projects during their Jan. 12 meeting, following public complaints about road conditions, project oversight, and the release of contractor bonds.
Several residents urged the council to delay approving consent calendar items related to public works projects, citing visible defects and inadequate preparation work on streets including North Harbor Drive and Laurel Street. One major concern was that declaring the projects complete could reduce the city’s leverage to require repairs at no additional cost.
City staff recommended proceeding with notices of completion, saying inspections conducted in November found the work met contract specifications. Assistant Director of Engineering Chantell O’Neal said any defects identified later would be addressed under a one-year warranty period.
O’Neal told the council that slurry seal performance is highly weather-dependent and that known problem areas have already been placed on a “watch list” for corrective work during the summer construction season.
O’Neal also cautioned that withholding completion could unfairly restrict contractors’ ability to bid on other public projects by impacting their financial position.
Councilmembers questioned whether approving completion during winter condition was necessary, given ongoing public concerns.
Resident Jacob Patterson argued that releasing bonds could weaken protections intended for the city and argued that project management failures — not contractor workmanship alone — contributed to the problems.
”Those bonds were there to protect us,” Patterson said. “And we’re giving away our leverage — basically our insurance — once we release that obligation.”
After discussion, the council voted to pull the notice of completion for the 2025 Streets and Stop Gap Projects from the consent calendar and to hold a change order for the 2025 Pavement Preservation and Stop Gap Paving projects for further review. Council members agreed to revisit both items with additional information at a future meeting. The remainder of the consent calendar was approved.
Costs Increase for New Reservoirs
Later in the meeting, the council approved a $200,000 budget amendment to cover increased design and environmental costs for the construction of three raw water reservoirs at the end of Summers Lane. A change order from Waterworks Engineers raises the city’s total engineering contract with the firm for the project to more than $909,000.
The original design contract, approved in August 2024, totaled $705,385. O’Neal explained that additional costs had emerged as the project advanced and site conditions became better understood, including the need to redesign pipeline routes to avoid sensitive habitat and accommodate changes in reservoir placement.
“The more we’ve learned about the site and the further we’ve advanced the design, we’ve realized that revisions were needed from the original assumptions,” O’Neal said.
The reservoirs are intended to improve long-term water supply reliability.
In other action, the council approved moving forward with a 2025 application for a federal Community Development Block Grant for a project focused on sidewalk rehabilitation. They also reached a consensus on a proposed restructuring of water and sewer rates aimed at improving fairness and complying with recent court rulings.
Staff and councilmember reports included plans to reopen the CV-STARR Community Center pool later this month, upcoming meetings on the possible creation of a parks and recreation department, a proposal to invest in public works equipment and a street crew; and new community outreach efforts by the Fort Bragg Police Department, including a citizens academy and gang-awareness training.
(Mendolocal.news)
DONNA WARD HOGAN
Donna Ward Hogan died peacefully on Dec. 26, 2025 at her daughter Kelly’s home in Sequim, Washington with her kitty, Sasha, at her side. She left this earth to join many friends and family members who were waiting for her with open arms including two of her children Ellen Edith and Richard Ward Hogan, her parents Don Ward and Ellen (Ward) Vieira, all her siblings Ronald Ward, Beverly Van Pelt, Stephen Ward, high school sweetheart and former husband Donald “Hogie” Hogan, late-in-life sweetie pie Norm Williamson, very best friends Janet Martin, Evie Ryan and Mary Ellen Hovey and many more.
Donna was born on December 8, 1928 in Ukiah, California and spent her early years in Hopland where her grandfather had the general store and her father was the Justice of the Peace. The family moved to Ukiah when she was 13 where Donna attended Ukiah High School. After graduation her adventures began. First, she went to Santa Rosa Junior College and next thing you know she was in Puerto Rico with her new husband. They returned to Ukiah for Ellen and Edith’s births, and from there moved onto many entrepreneurial pursuits including Hogan the Haberdasher store in King City and projects in Oceanside, Castro Valley, Oakland and then onto Rancho Contento in Guadalajara, Mexico. Donna loved living in Mexico, became fluent in Spanish and stayed for 16 years. After her divorce from Hogie, Donna returned to Ukiah in 1981 and worked at Mendocino Community College until her retirement. With an adventuresome spirit, she traveled to Peru, China, London and Portugal. Donna was a longtime member of the Cultus Club. She is survived by her daughters Kelly Hogan and Jill Hogan de Martinez (Joaquin), grand-children Colin Eikeland (Kelly), Nicholas, Maxwell, Audrey and Issac Martinez (Jill) and Riley and Casey Hogan (Richard), 6 great grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.
Special thanks to Liz Cronk and especially Jennifer Foster Turner who helped Donna stay in her condo as long as possible and Eileen Bostwick whose many cards brightened Donna’s Sequim days. Truth be told, Donna would have rather stayed in Ukiah, but it was no longer feasible for her to stay in her two-story condo so she moved to Sequim, Washington to live with Kelly. Her ashes will be placed in the Ward family plot in Ukiah Cemetery at a later date.
CLAY ROMERO AGAIN RUNNING FOR 3RD DISTRICT SUPERVISOR
DEMOLITION ON UKIAH CITY COUNCIL AGENDA AGAIN
At its next meeting Wednesday, the Ukiah City Council is scheduled to consider the proposed demolition of two buildings on South Main Street, one of which is at the corner of East Perkins Street and used to house Dragon’s Lair.
According to the staff report prepared for the Jan. 21 meeting, the properties at 101 and 105 South Main Street are now owned by the Mendocino-Lake Community College District, which applied in November of 2025 for a permit in order to demolish the two buildings on the property that are both more than 50 years old.
Previous, staff note, when the property was owned by Redwood Credit Union, that business had applied for demolition permits in 2021, and in May of 2022, “the Ukiah City Council determined that the building at 105 S. Main St., which housed Tom’s Glass) does not possess historical significance under Ukiah City Code, and that the Demolition Permit for that structure could therefore be issued upon review and approval by the Building Official.”
However, as to building located at 101 S. Main St., which was built in 1921 and most recently housed Dragon’s Lair, the council did determine that “the structure meets the definition of a local historic resource under UCC Section 3016(e) based on two specific criteria: the building possesses a special or particular quality as the last surviving example of its type, characterized by its pressed-metal cladding; and it exemplifies or reflects special elements of the city’s cultural and economic history as the only remaining structure representing how the block functioned as a service hub for agricultural commerce following the 1917 fire reconstruction period.”
The relevant mitigation measures then restricted demolition of the building until “an approved redevelopment proposal was in place, and required salvaging and incorporating portions of the pressed-metal siding into the new project design. To assist with implementation of this mitigation, a Stamped Metal Siding Panel Evaluation was conducted on Jan. 17, 2023, (which) provided a clear basis for identifying panels appropriate for reuse in the future development project.” However, RCU “subsequently sold the property without pursuing demolition of either structure, (and) the site was acquired by the Mendocino-Lake Community College District in February 2025.”
Staff describes the new owners as “currently exploring funding, including applying for grants through the California Community College Affordable Student Housing Construction Program, which mandates that applications are evaluated based on metrics including ‘Project readiness to begin construction.’ This requirement necessitates that the site be demonstrably ‘shovel ready,’ meaning demolition must be completed before MLCCD can secure final funding and commence design/construction approval.”
The city’s Demolition Review Committee reviewed the updated request for demolition approval in November of 2025, and city staff report that the committee “affirmed the historic status of 101 S. Main St., (and) ultimately agreed to recommend the (modification) of the proposed mitigation measures,” which include incorporating an increased minimum of 850 square feet of “salvaged or visually similar new siding, and requiring the installation of a public-facing mural and durable interpretive signage that reflects the site’s historical significance, secured by a 20-year maintenance agreement recorded prior to occupancy.”
Staff also notes that “no new demolition activity beyond what was analyzed in 2022 … is proposed, and no redevelopment project is being considered at this time, (but that) due to the change in ownership and anticipated future jurisdictional review by the Division of the State Architect, that timing condition is no longer feasible as written and would not ensure enforceable mitigation over time.”
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:15 p.m. Jan 21, and can be attended both in-person at the Council Chambers at 300 Seminary Avenue, or online here: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83075964263
(Ukiah Daily Journal)
MEET KEVIN EVANS IN ANCHOR BAY ON SATURDAY
FINDING ORNBAUN SPRINGS
There seems to be a lot of interest as to where Ornbaun Springs was located.
I found the coordinates for the location on a topo map site.
You can see Ornbaun Springs in the list below the map with the coordinates to the right.
I put those coordinates into the search at Google maps. And Voila! Ornbaun Springs is located where the red "pin" is on the map.
Ornbaun Springs was on Fish Rock road not far from Hwy 128.
As a bonus I was able to find an obit for John S. Ornbaun who was the founder of Ornbaun Springs and surrounding area.
I found a couple more articles. The earliest article I could find is from 1900.
The second is announcing that John Ornbaun is building a resort hotel in 1909 at the springs. It was quite large, 80 rooms.
There were a large number of articles mentioning Ornbaun Springs. The vast majority of them were of the social variety telling who was staying at the hotel and taking advantage of the healing mineral waters. The hotel also held dances for locals and those staying at the hotel.
The Mailliard family eventually bought the Ornbaun Ranch/Springs in the 1930's.
(Deb Silva)
FORMER BOONVILLE TEACHER WITH STUDENTS AND DOGS
CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, January 20, 2026
EDUARDO ALVAREZ, 30, Ukiah. Vandalism, probation revocation.
ASCHETON CUFAUDE, 36, Clearlake/Ukiah. Suspended license for DUI, failure to install ignition interlock device.
WILLIAM MARSHALL, 46, Willits. DUI with priors, suspended license for DUI, controlled substance, smuggling controlled substance into jail.
FRANKLIN ROCKWELL, 28, Eureka/Willits. Controlled substance, under influence, paraphernalia, concealed firearm.
ADRIAN SALAS, 30, Whittier/Ukiah. Taking vehicle without owner’ consent, stolen vehicle.
DESIREE SHELLHART, 40, Ukiah. Petty theft with two or more priors, probation revocation.
MARK SILVA, 61, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, contempt of court.
JESSICA STAMNESS, 40, Willits. Trespassing, resisting.
TOBIAS WOOD, 32, Ukiah. Controlled substance with two or more priors, paraphernalia, county parole violation.
MISSING ROHNERT PARK MAN FOUND DEAD IN SUBMERGED TESLA
by Aidin Vaziri
Authorities have found the body of a 29-year-old Rohnert Park man who had been missing for more than two weeks, after his Tesla was discovered submerged off the Sonoma County coast, officials said Tuesday.
Detectives with the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety were notified Jan. 16 by Cal Fire after a Tesla vehicle part was found near Schoolhouse Beach in Bodega Bay. An aerial search conducted by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office helicopter located a blue Tesla underwater that matched the vehicle driven by Kale Gonick-Hallows.
Responders from multiple agencies, including Cal Fire, the sheriff’s office and California State Parks lifeguards, went to the scene and found a deceased individual in the driver’s seat of the vehicle. Authorities later confirmed the individual was Gonick-Hallows.
“At this time, there is no indication of foul play,” the department said.
Gonick-Hallows was last seen about 11 p.m. on Jan. 5, when he left his Rohnert Park apartment. Automated license plate readers later captured his bright blue Tesla Model Y at a charging station at the Graton Resort & Casino, then traveling west through Bodega and north along Highway 1 in Bodega Bay. His cellphone, which was later turned off, pinged twice off a tower in Cazadero — once shortly before midnight and again several hours later.
The night Gonick-Hallows disappeared coincided with the final storm in a series of winter systems that brought heavy rain to the North Coast.
His disappearance prompted a wide-ranging search involving multiple law enforcement agencies and community volunteers across coastal and wooded areas of Sonoma County.
Anyone with information related to the case is asked to contact Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety Detective Sgt. Quinn at (707) 588-3514. Officials also encouraged those experiencing a mental health crisis to seek help through the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.
(sfchronicle.com)
A CONCERT POSTER FROM LONG, LONG AGO AND NOT TOO FAR AWAY (via Marshall Newman)
NEVER ENOUGH
Editor,
Regarding the news that the billionaires tax hasn’t yet qualified for the ballot, but it’s already unleashing chaos," my heart breaks for the unfortunate billionaires who are being threatened with a new one-time tax.
I empathize because I’ve been paying taxes in California since 1970. No kids, but I paid for schools; no car until I was 35, but I paid for roads and transportation infrastructure; no need for welfare benefits, but I paid for those, too.
The list goes on. And what did I get for it?
I got a good public education, access to parks and museums and the possibility of health care, if I ever lost my insurance.
I got cleaned-up air and a protected coastline, and the chance to be surrounded by some of the best and the brightest, who all helped to improve my life.
And I got to know that I was part of a community that valued more than just wealth, so I knew I had a place.
But I understand. It just isn’t fair to billionaires. Because until you have everything, you will never have enough.
Donna DeDiemar
Berkeley
FLOCK CAMERA CONTRACT TERMINATED IN SANTA CRUZ
The KQED article explains how and why the Flock camera contract was terminated in Santa Cruz
REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS DISMAYED by Trump rolling back critical clean water and air quality protections
by Dan Bacher
In mid-January, the Trump Administration took action to roll back sections of the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, dumbfounding environmental groups in Northern California and around the nation.
The Clean Water Act, or CWA, establishes the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States and controlling quality standards for surface waters. The basis of the CWA was enacted in 1948, when it was first called the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. The act was significantly reorganized and expanded in 1972.
The Clean Air Act, CAA, is the comprehensive federal law that regulates air emissions from stationary and mobile sources. Among other things, this law authorizes EPA to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect public health and public welfare and to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants.
The local conservation group Restore the Delta issued a statement that characterized Trump’s rollbacks as “a direct assault on protections for vulnerable communities, decreasing oversight and regulation of pollutant discharges into our air and waterways,” adding that the proposed rollbacks would “essentially remove the legal tools that environmental justice communities and advocates have used to protect culturally sensitive areas and communities already burdened by high pollution levels.”…
MIKE GENIELLA:
PHOTOGRAPHER EVAN JOHNSON is still at it. His photos for years showcased Mendocino County's news for local publications, before he and his wife Gail four years ago moved to Bellingham, Wash.. Here's Evan's latest take on the current political situation, nationally and at a recent protest in Bellingham.
DIGITAL DISTRACTION
by Fred Gardner
On January 13 the media focused on the President giving the finger to a worker in Detroit who called him "a pedophile protector." Trump's response became the story, not the fact that Jeffrey Epstein's ghost had showed up to haunt him inside a Ford plant.
“Colbert Jokes That Trump Has Found ‘a New National Bird’”
Frank Bruni's essay in the NYTimes Jan 19, hedded "Donald Trump's middle finger," actually dissed the worker who dared to speak out in the President's presence. Bruni wrote:
"Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, responded to Trump’s Michigan meltdown by more or less praising it. He released a statement that said that a 'lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the president gave an appropriate and unambiguous response.'
"Unambiguous? For sure. Appropriate? Only if you believe in answering ugliness with more ugliness, bile with bile."
The worker, whose name we now know was TJ Sabula, had yelled "Pedophile protector!" as The Boss stomped by. That was not "ugliness" and "bile." It was the simple truth and it took a brave man to say it.
Trump's PR sense can be astute, and he's fast. In a microsecond he realized that the accusation would be the story of his visit to the Ford plant. Releasing the Epstein Files is a working-class demand –that's the story he trumped with a flash of his finger.
Almost totally ignored in that day's news cycle the President's practical advice to political dissidents: “Iranian Patriots, keep protesting and take over your institutions if you can."
A Fan's Notes
On MLK day there were NBA games on TV from 11 am to 10 pm. During the last game, the Warriors against the Miami Heat, Jimmy Butler suffered a torn right anterior cruciate ligament. He had gone up for a rebound, fully extended. Damian Mitchell bumped him just enough to change his landing… The following was written earlier in the day.
The Warriors have gotten boring. Acquiring Jimmy Butler last year blocked the development of Jonathan Kuminga and messed with his head. They play the same position. Butler, an established star, is going on 37. Kuminga, who just turned 24, sits on the bench, waiting to be traded. We fans, instead of watching as the future comes on, watch the elders descend.
The trade deadline is approaching and the reconfigured teams might renew our interest. The media is rife with rumors and possibilities. Fans have their own proposals. One I heard: "We need Giannis to give Steph and Draymond and Jimmy Butler a chance at winning it all. In addition to Kuminga, we can offer Podszemski, who's from Milwaukee, Santos, Moody, Post, whoever the Bucks want." Another idea: "Kuminga for Sabonis."
Whenever I suggest a personnel move, I'm told it won't work for financial reasons. There's something called an "apron" that I haven't tried to understand, and a "luxury tax" that baffles me even though I know how it's defined.
Team owners whose payroll exceeds a certain amount must pay this so-called "luxury tax" to the NBA (meaning to their fellow team owners). The media conveys the idea that paying the luxury tax is very onerous. On talk radio, knowledgable fans suggest trades that will enable the Warriors to avoid paying the luxury tax. These callers can cite the terms of each player's contract –how many millions they're owed, for how many years. It's as if they themselves were owners, or at least general managers.
(The fact that there are so many Black millionaires, and even a few Black billionaires, obscures the fact that the median wealth of White families in the US is more than five times the median wealth of Black families.)
The average net worth of an NBA team owner is $12 billion, says AI, and the highest-ever luxury tax outlay was $170 million (paid by the Warriors five years ago when Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson signed multiyear contracts).
A billion is a thousand million. In what way did Joe Lacob and his super-rich partners feel it when they shelled out that $170 million? Did they have to forego a new yacht? No. $170 million means less to them than $1,700 means to you. Say it out loud: "A billion is a thousand million."
So why do the owners and their minions in the media pretend that the luxury tax is so onerous?
Maybe because it creates an artificial ceiling on the players' salaries.
Drawing a Blank
The great documentary maker Les Blank filmed the climactic Redwood Summer rally at the Georgia-Pacific mill in Fort Bragg back in '91. Wondering what became of the footage he shot, I asked Google
Print Out
The New Yorker dated January 12 didn't have a single paid ad in what they call "the front of the book." On the inside front cover was a "house ad" for the New Yorker film festival. On page four, an ad for New Yorker anthologies of fiction and poetry. On page five, "Start your day by playing newyorker.com/shufflalo." On page six, a full-page ad for the 2026 New Yorker desk diary. "Talk of the Town" began on page seven, followed by the usual mix of articles and graphics.
The next-to-last page was paid for by a mysterious entity called "MSI United States" that did not describe itself. The inside back cover contained ads for a New Yorker watch, a New Yorker chess set, a New Yorker tote bag, the New Yorker hundredth-anniversary baseball cap and hundredth-anniversary T-shirt. The back cover was paid for (apparently) by a San Francisco art dealer named Mitchell Johnson. Online income keeps the magazine in the black (supposedly).
SUICIDES WERE FREQUENT AT THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE. NOT ANYMORE.
For decades, there had been an average of 30 each year. With a new deterrent in place, there were none in the second half of 2025.
by John Branch
The Golden Gate Bridge, the iconic span that hangs between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean, has been the site of more than 2,000 confirmed suicide leaps since its completion in 1937. The true death toll is certainly higher, since not all jumps are witnessed and not all bodies are recovered.
In 2006, at least 34 people jumped to their deaths by crossing the four-foot rail and plunging more than 200 feet into the strait below. It was also the year that Paul Muller and two others with family members who had jumped from the bridge decided to do something.
That something slowly evolved into a complicated, miles-long series of stainless-steel nets — a “suicide deterrent system” — now strung on both sides of the bridge. It is out of sight to the millions of people who cross the bridge every year, but plainly visible to anyone standing at the rail, looking down.
For decades, there had been an average of 30 suicides at the bridge each year. In 2024, as the final pieces of the net were installed and tweaks were made, there were eight.
In 2025, the first full year with the nets in place, there were four, and none between June and December.
That annual total is surely among the fewest ever recorded at the bridge, and seven months might be the longest stretch without a suicide at the bridge, though early records are sparse.
“The last seven months there were zero, so the results couldn’t be better,” Mr. Muller said.
Mr. Muller was disheartened to learn that there has been one suicide early in 2026. But the goal all along was to save lives, and to eventually undo the dark magnetism of the bridge as a place to die.
Denis Mulligan oversees the bridge operations as general manager of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. His office at the south end of the bridge overlooks the steady flow of cars, pedestrians and bikes that cross between San Francisco and Marin County.
In late 2023, as the installation of the nets was nearing completion, Mr. Mulligan said it would take a year or two of data collection to assess the impact of the nets on the death toll outside his window.
Early in 2026, Mr. Mulligan considered the results.
“The assessment is that the net is working as intended,” Mr. Mulligan said. “We’re trying to reduce the number of deaths. That’s what government should do, is protect the public. We were candid up front that nothing’s 100 percent, but that we think this is a worthwhile endeavor and good for the community. And we think a lot of people are alive today because of the project.”
Mr. Mulligan also oversees a vast electronic surveillance system and a team of on-bridge officers whose responsibilities include identifying and stopping those who are considering a leap. Last year, there were 94 successful interventions, about half as many as the average before the nets.
“Nets” is a misnomer; they are taut, marine-grade stainless steel cables about 20 feet below the public walkways on both sides of the bridge. The idea is that anyone who jumps into the net will be injured enough, or at least shaken enough, to keep them from crawling out and intentionally falling the rest of the way to the water.
Mr. Mulligan, wary of attracting copycat attempts, declined to explain how those who have died by suicide the past two years have circumvented the nets. He also declined to say how many people have jumped into them and been rescued.
But the immeasurable number might be those who came to the bridge, spotted the nets and decided that suicide there was no longer possible.
In 1937, 10 weeks after the bridge opened, a 47-year-old World War I veteran reportedly said, “This is as far as I go,” and jumped.
His was the first known suicide. Others followed. In 1939, the California Highway Patrol recommended that the four-foot rails be raised. For decades, decision makers ducked behind aesthetic concerns, costs and effectiveness. The death toll, loosely tracked, reached 500, then 1,000, and kept growing every week or two, on average.
Frustrated by the inertia, Mr. Muller, Dave Hull and Patrick Hines founded the nonprofit Bridge Rail Foundation in 2006, with the hope of raising, finally, the height of the rails.
“The overriding concept to the Golden Gate Bridge story is restricting easy access to lethal means,” Muller said. “It’s a way to reduce suicides that John and Jane Q. Public can do. You don’t need a lot of complex psychiatric training to, say, simply lock up the guns.”
Or to make leaping into the ocean more difficult.
Support grew slowly. Growing numbers of grieving families, mental health professionals, even coroners pleaded for something to be done. Eventually, the idea that took hold was borrowed from a solution used in Bern, Switzerland: nets.
Debates raged, approvals came, construction bids opened and costs rose. There were legal squabbles with contractors. Construction began in 2018, meaning it took longer to install the nets than the four-plus years it took to build the bridge itself. What was once estimated to cost $76 million ended up costing $224 million.
Critics have long wondered if steering the suicidal away from the Golden Gate Bridge merely sends them elsewhere to take their own life. Net proponents do not think so.
A 1978 study by Richard Seiden, at the University of California, Berkeley, tracked 515 people who, between 1937 and 1971, went to the Golden Gate Bridge intending to jump but had been persuaded not to. It found that 94 percent were still alive or had died of natural causes.
“Suicidal behavior is crisis-oriented and acute in nature,” Mr. Seiden concluded.
The Golden Gate Bridge has long been a unique draw for the suicidal, some even coming from other states and countries. At the edge of the ocean, on one of the world’s most famous structures, it was a way to die somewhere both beautiful and notable. Death was almost certain. (Most jumpers are killed on impact, but those who survive usually drown.)
And access was simple, with parking lots on both ends and public sidewalks along a short rail.
“The bridge has exerted a siren’s call for so long for some suicidal people that it might be hard for them to believe that it’s no longer the case,” said John Bateson, a longtime director of a suicide prevention center in the Bay Area and author of “The Final Leap: Suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge.” He writes a monthly newsletter for the Bridge Rail Foundation.
That might all explain why, while the number of suicides in 2025 were about one-seventh the pre-net average, interventions only dropped in half. People are still showing up.
“The more people who know that the barrier is in place will be discouraged for even thinking about the Golden Gate Bridge as a suicide destination,” Mr. Bateson said.
The Bridge Rail Foundation remains active, despite the successful completion of its original goal. It fields calls from officials around the world looking to reduce suicides from other bridges or high places.
That might be the incalculable legacy of the work, beyond the raw number of lives saved at the Golden Gate Bridge. If one of the world’s most famous and deadliest bridges can prevent all but a few suicides, other places can probably do the same.
“That’s certainly the hope,” Mr. Bateson said. “From the outset, all of us have recognized that whatever happens on the Golden Gate Bridge is going to serve as a model for others.”
(NY Times)
WHAT CALIFORNIANS GET WRONG ABOUT EARTHQUAKES
Earthquake myths have circulated in the state for decades. We looked into them.
by Madilynn Medina
Ideas like “earthquake weather” and fears that California could fall into the ocean have long been a part of the state’s earthquake superstitions, often resurfacing every time the ground begins to shake.
Whether they are jokes — earthquakes are in no way caused by the weather — or genuine misunderstandings, earthquake myths have circulated in California for decades, shaping how people interpret seismic activity. And as clusters of small quakes rippled through the Bay Area in recent months, particularly around San Ramon, speculation has grown over whether the region could be headed for something bigger.
SFGATE spoke with the United States Geological Survey to debunk some of these common beliefs, as some are not always grounded in science.
Myth: The recent earthquake swarms in the Bay Area are a precursor to a bigger one coming
Asking whether one earthquake leads to another is a fair question. Since November, more than 300 small quakes have rattled the San Ramon area, with some of the largest measuring at a magnitude of 4.0. But experts say that frequent shaking or an uptick in quakes aren't a guaranteed sign of a bigger temblor on the horizon.
These clustered earthquakes aren’t unusual for the area, which has experienced a dozen or so swarms in the past two decades, Roland Burgmann, a UC Berkeley seismologist, previously told SFGATE. The quakes are happening near and on the Calaveras Fault, which is the same fault that also produced a cluster of earthquakes in Gilroy in November.
Tim Clements, a research geophysicist with the USGS, told SFGATE that at least eight swarms have happened in the San Ramon area since the 1970s. A large earthquake didn’t follow any of those swarms, so it’s unlikely that a bigger earthquake would follow the most recent swarm.
In other parts of the world, though, including in Southern California, smaller earthquakes have preceded a bigger one, Clements said.
On July 4, 2019, a series of small earthquakes, including a magnitude 4.0 temblor, rattled the Mojave Desert near Ridgecrest before a magnitude 6.4 quake struck. Then on July 5, 2019, several more quakes occurred, including a magnitude 5.4 earthquake, before a magnitude 7.1 quake shook the region.
“It’s likely that those small earthquakes caused the big one, but we haven’t seen that [in the Bay Area],” Clements said.
In general, Clements said there is a one in 20 chance that a small earthquake can trigger one that is bigger than the first. One of the defining characteristics of the San Ramon swarms is that the shakes are a “fairly constant rate” of similar-sized earthquakes, he added.
“There’s been a lot of magnitude twos and threes in the same remote area in the last month or so. And so it’s a different type of seismicity than you would see after a big earthquake and then having a lot of aftershocks,” Clements said.
Researchers are still actively looking for more answers about the San Ramon earthquakes, he said.
Myth: Smaller earthquakes release tension and prevent bigger ones
At the same time, some people believe the opposite, that a bunch of small earthquakes act as a safety valve releasing tension along the fault.
Clements said this belief is only true to a certain extent. Big and small earthquakes release elastic strain, but there are not enough small earthquakes in California to prevent a more catastrophic one.
For example, a magnitude 7 earthquake is equivalent to about 10,000 magnitude 3 earthquakes, Clements said. In recent years, the Bay Area has only had about 50 earthquakes annually that were magnitude 3 or greater, he added.
“It’s true in the sense that a small earthquake does relieve a little bit of stress or strain on the fault,” Clements said. “We’d have to have a lot more earthquakes, way more per day.”
Myth: If you don’t live on the San Andreas or a major fault, you’re safe
While the San Andreas Fault is known as one of the region’s most dangerous seismic zones, experts warn that a major Bay Area earthquake would affect far more than just people who live in and along the fault line.
When the massive 1906 earthquake hit San Francisco on the San Andreas Fault, which runs more than 700 miles through the state, it shook regions outside of the Bay Area including Oregon, Los Angeles and Nevada.
There are also hundreds of smaller faults, some that scientists aren’t even aware of, so even people outside of major faults can still be in hazard zones, Burgmann previously told SFGATE.
Some of California’s biggest earthquakes have occurred on lesser-known fault areas, including both the Ridgecrest quake and the magnitude 6.7 Northridge quake in 1994. And in the Bay Area, geologists have identified the Hayward Fault in the East Bay and the Rodgers Creek Fault in Sonoma County as having the potential to produce major quakes.
Clements also pointed to the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, which had an epicenter in the Santa Cruz Mountains but caused some of the biggest damage in San Francisco and Oakland. The earthquake caused the Cypress Street Viaduct on Interstate 880 in Oakland to collapse, for example.
Part of the reason the damage can extend beyond an earthquake’s epicenter is because the type of soil or ground beneath a building can significantly affect how strongly it shakes, Clements said. That same earthquake in 1989 caused San Francisco’s Marina District to liquefy, meaning the soft soil and loose sand amplified the shaking.
“When an earthquake strikes, it’s not just the locations but it’s actually what the building is situated on,” Clements said. “So there’s a lot of artificial fill, which is just land that was reclaimed ocean. It’s very, very weak material, versus if you’re on hard rock.”
Myth: Earthquakes are only dangerous for old houses
As understanding of California’s earthquake risk has evolved, new building codes have focused on ensuring that structures are able to better withstand earthquakes.
According to the California Earthquake Authority, many houses built before 1980 are vulnerable to earthquakes. Many of these houses have a wood-framed first floor that sits on top of a concrete wall without firm bolts holding it in place. Because of this, the house’s foundation can slide or shift during a strong earthquake, according to the earthquake authority. Soft-story homes, or those with living areas built over a garage, also are vulnerable to quakes.
Though newer buildings are definitely safer, the modern codes and regulations can’t prevent all damage. Still, Clements said what’s inside your house is an equally critical hazard. Large, unsecured objects like bookshelves could fall on people if an earthquake is strong enough.
“Usually, if a building doesn’t collapse, it’s probably things like falling on people that are the main dangers,” Clements said. “One thing to worry about is windows could fail. Glass is also quite dangerous.”
There are also dangers beyond how strong a building is. Infrastructure tied to power or water could be damaged and disrupt transportation or internet services, for example.
“Even if you’re OK in terms of shaking, all these kinds of things that we depend on for life [and] systems can go down,” Clements said.
Myth: Doorways are the best place to stand during an earthquake
In the event of intense shaking, your instinct may be to stand in a doorway. Clements said USGS experts don’t recommend it. Instead, there are much safer options during strong shaking.
“To get to a doorway, you’re usually not standing under one,” he said. “You have to kind of run or walk there, and there’s been instances of people trying to do that and they actually trip and fall.”
“Drop, cover and hold on,” is the main advice from experts, Clements said, which refers to getting underneath a sturdy structure like a table or desk to protect oneself from getting hit by falling objects.
Clements also recommends that Californians have a plan before an earthquake happens, such as having a meetup spot and extra supplies. Recommendations for an earthquake emergency kit can be found on the USGS website.
“You may not all be at home at the same time, so having a place to meet up if possible. And then we really recommend having some kind of store of water and food, maybe three days’ worth of that for the family,” Clements said.
LOCAL NEWSPAPERS ARE CLOSING. LOCAL NEWS IS SURVIVING.
by Sarabeth Berman
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, one of America’s oldest newspapers, announced this month that it would cease publication. The family-owned company that operates the paper made the announcement after a court ruled against it in a dispute with unionized workers. Pittsburgh is hardly alone. Since 2005, more than 3,500 newspapers have shuttered. On average, two close every week.
The consequences of the collapse of the local newspaper business have been severe. When communities lose their local news outlets, civic engagement drops, corruption rises, government waste increases and political polarization worsens. Communities no longer know themselves. No number of headlines about goings-on in Washington can change that.
But the death of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette does not mean that Pittsburghers must go without local news. While the market failure of the newspaper business has been well documented, what is less known is how communities all over the country have responded to this crisis.
Hundreds of nonprofit local news organizations have sprung up, from Lafayette, La., to New Bedford, Mass., to Chicago. Rather than relying primarily on advertising revenue, nonprofit newsrooms are sustained by coalitions of philanthropic institutions, local businesses, individual donors and readers. Under this model, local journalism is treated as a public good, essential to civic life, akin to a museum or a food bank.
Many of these nonprofits started within the past decade. They operate where audiences can be most easily found today: online and in email inboxes. There’s less focus on print and newsstands. This new generation of local nonprofit outlets — some of which are supported by the American Journalism Project, where I work — has already distinguished itself with journalism of the highest quality. In the past three years, the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting has been awarded entirely or jointly to a nonprofit newsroom that did not exist even a decade prior.
The excellent reporting by nonprofits includes the Pulitzer-winning work of Mississippi Today, founded in 2016, which exposed tens of millions of dollars in misused Mississippi state welfare money. The Indiana-based Mirror Indy uncovered systemic abuse at a mental health facility in Lawrence, Ind. In the run-up to the 2025 election, the Boyle Heights Beat in East Los Angeles reported a shortage of in-person polling centers; officials solved the problem as a result. The City, a nonprofit based in New York City, revealed allegedly corrupt practices within then-Mayor Eric Adams’s administration after a senior adviser attempted to give cash, memorably concealed in a bag of chips, to a reporter.
The success of these newsrooms suggests the problem facing local news is not a lack of public appetite but an outdated business model. The new approach is rapidly growing: The number of local nonprofit news outlets more than doubled from 2017 to 2022, according to the Institute for Nonprofit News. In Vermont, VTDigger boasts a monthly audience of 500,000 in a state with just over 600,000 people and now has an operating budget of $3 million, supported by reader donations, advertising and individual and institutional philanthropy alike. The Baltimore Banner brought in more than $13 million in revenue in 2024, with about half from subscriptions, a third from advertising and a fifth from donations.
Many work with established media companies in partnerships that allow online-only nonprofit newsrooms to distribute some of their work in legacy newspapers. And some legacy newspapers, like The Salt Lake Tribune, have become nonprofits.
The value of independent local journalism is acknowledged across our deep partisan divide. Last year, both Republican and Democratic state lawmakers cited The Texas Tribune in the documentation and analysis behind 25 separate bills. After a recent Texas state legislative election, two competing candidates jointly voiced support for another nonprofit, The Fort Worth Report, writing, “While we disagree on many issues, we agree on this.”
Thus far, nonprofit start-ups have not expanded nearly enough to replace the full depth of coverage that vanishes when a newspaper closes. Some, like The Houston Landing, have also closed. Members of the Institute for Nonprofit News now employ over 3,000 journalists, well below the 45,000 reporting and editing jobs lost at newspapers since 2005. These gaps are not abstractions: Reporters are eyes and ears at school board meetings, city halls and statehouses, probing for wrongdoing and holding the powerful to account. The concrete value of that work does not go unnoticed; even today, Americans continue to express far higher levels of trust in local news reporting than in national media.
The collapse of the newspaper industry unfolded over decades. Rebuilding local journalism will take time, money and community support.
In Pittsburgh, there are particular reasons for optimism. The city has a robust philanthropic community with a track record of investing in institutions that anchor public life. The city has world-class museums, universities, libraries and hospitals. As The Post-Gazette has shrunk, nonprofits like Spotlight PA, Pittsburgh’s Public Source and the public radio station WESA have stepped in, as has the city’s other daily paper, The Tribune-Review. A chapter of the news-focused philanthropy group Press Forward was recently founded in the city, indicating recognition that the city has the ingredients needed to ensure local journalism still thrives.
The end of a venerable newspaper is disheartening. But it does not have to mean the end of local journalism — in Pittsburgh or anywhere else.
(NY Times)
THE APPLICANT
First, are you our sort of a person?
Do you wear
A glass eye, false teeth or a crutch,
A brace or a hook,
Rubber breasts or a rubber crotch,
Stitches to show something’s missing? No, no? Then
How can we give you a thing?
Stop crying.
Open your hand.
Empty? Empty. Here is a hand
To fill it and willing
To bring teacups and roll away headaches
And do whatever you tell it.
Will you marry it?
It is guaranteed
To thumb shut your eyes at the end
And dissolve of sorrow.
We make new stock from the salt.
I notice you are stark naked.
How about this suit——
Black and stiff, but not a bad fit.
Will you marry it?
It is waterproof, shatterproof, proof
Against fire and bombs through the roof.
Believe me, they'll bury you in it.
Now your head, excuse me, is empty.
I have the ticket for that.
Come here, sweetie, out of the closet.
Well, what do you think of that?
Naked as paper to start
But in twenty-five years she'll be silver,
In fifty, gold.
A living doll, everywhere you look.
It can sew, it can cook,
It can talk, talk, talk.
It works, there is nothing wrong with it.
You have a hole, it’s a poultice.
You have an eye, it’s an image.
My boy, it’s your last resort.
Will you marry it, marry it, marry it.
— Sylvia Plath (1962)
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #1
What we have is a lawfully elected President who doesn't mind shooting himself in the foot every day before lunch. That does not make us a banana republic. Check your definitions.
Biden was a POTUS without a brain. Unelected officials were in locum praesidis. Not sure where you'd put that on the scale of banana republics.
One hopes we could do better if we put our minds to it. Good lord, the energy smart people waste on venom…
"ALL THOSE PATHETICALLY EAGER acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours, too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped to create… a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody - or at least some force - is tending that Light at the end of the tunnel."
— Hunter S. Thompson, ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream’
HOW HUNTER S. THOMPSON TAUGHT HIS SON TO BE A MAN, A FATHER, AND TOTALLY NORMAL
An interview with Juan F. Thompson.
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/news/a41239/hunter-s-thompson-son-juan-thompson
ENDING REPUBLICAN CONTROL WILL REQUIRE OVERCOMING THE DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP
by Norman Solomon
The past year has completely discredited any claim that choosing between the Democratic and Republican parties would be merely a matter of “pick your poison” with the same end result. In countless terrible ways, the last 12 months have shown that Donald Trump’s party is bent on methodically inflicting vast cruelty and injustice while aiming to crush what’s left of democracy and the rule of law.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party’s leadership persists with the kind of elitist political approach that helped Trump win in 2024. Hidebound and unimaginative, Senate leader Chuck Schumer and House leader Hakeem Jeffries have been incapable of inspiring the people whose high-turnout votes will be essential to ending Republican control of Congress and the White House.
The Democratic establishment shuns the progressive populism that’s vital to effectively counter bogus right-wing populism. And so, the fight to defeat the fascistic GOP and the fight to overcome the power of corporate Democrats are largely the same fight.
Advocates for progressive change will remain on the defensive as long as the Trump party is in power. With the entire future at stake, social movements on the left should have a focus on organizing to oust Republicans from control of Congress in this year’s midterm elections.
The point isn’t that Democrats deserve to win – it’s that people certainly don’t deserve to live under Republican rule, and ending it is the first electoral step toward a federal government that serves the broad public instead of powerfully destructive and violent elites. Like it or not, in almost every case the only candidates in a position to defeat Republicans for the House and Senate this year will have a “D” after their name.
Democratic Party leaders have dodged coming to terms with reasons why their party lost the White House in 2024, preferring to make a protracted show of scratching their chins and puzzling over the steep falloff of support from working-class voters of all colors. The Democratic National Committee’s refusal to release its autopsy report, assessing what went wrong in the election, underscores the party’s aversion to serious introspection.
Cogent answers are readily available, but top Democrats like Schumer and Jeffries refuse to heed them. If the party wants to regain and expand support from working-class voters, it must fight for programs that they clearly want.
Extensive polling shows strong public support for major progressive reforms, such as raising taxes on big corporations and the wealthy, lifting the Social Security tax cap, boosting the federal minimum wage, and greatly expanding Medicare to include dental, vision and hearing coverage.
The multifaceted tyranny that Trump and his toady lieutenants want to impose is both abrupt and gradual. Relying on “big lie” techniques, they strive to turn this month’s shocks into next month’s old hat.
Yet counting on denunciations of Trump to win elections is a very bad strategy. It didn’t work in 2016, it barely worked in 2020, and it failed miserably in 2024.
Democrats on ballots this fall will need to be offering plausible relief to voters in economic distress. But it’s hard for Democratic leaders to come across as aligned with the working class when evidence is profuse that they aren’t.
In essence, Schumer and Jeffries – and the majority of Democratic officeholders who keep those two in the party’s top positions – represent the Biden-era status quo that was unpopular enough to return Trump to the White House. A key reason is a reality that Sen. Bernie Sanders described soon after Trump’s 2016 win: “Certainly there are some people in the Democratic Party who want to maintain the status quo. They would rather go down with the Titanic so long as they have first-class seats.”
Democratic Party leaders should be removed from seats of party power or bypassed as relics of bygone eras. Their ongoing refusals to distance from corporate power, rich elites and militarism have alienated much of the party’s base.
As I wrote in my free new book The Blue Road to Trump Hell, “The Democratic Party enabled Donald Trump to become president twice because of repetition compulsions that still plague the top echelons of the party.” To eject Republicans from power – and to advance a strong progressive agenda – true leadership must come from grassroots mobilization.
(Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. The paperback edition of his book War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine includes an afterword about the Gaza war.)
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2
The violence just seems to expand, as violence so often does. Daily, now, there are videos of tear gas and physical aggression from the foot soldiers of ICE. I watched another video of a woman trying to tell the men who are dragging her, face down, through the street that she has a brain injury and was on her way to a medical appointment. She is detained by federal agents and forced into their car, for what we do not know. Think back to April, when one of the first broken car windows in an ICE arrest made national news. It was in a town in Massachusetts. A couple sat calmly in the car, on the phone with their immigration lawyer. Think how normal it’s become now to see ICE agents shattering car windows.
IN THIS POLITICAL CLIMATE, outrage is incessantly manufactured and then swiftly displaced, replaced by the next shock before the public can assemble the fragments into a coherent political picture. Each incident appears as an isolated rupture rather than as part of an unfolding structure of power, severed from the conditions that produce it and from the larger architecture of domination it sustains. This fragmentation is not accidental. It is a calculated strategy to drain meaning from public life, exhaust critical attention, and foreclose any sustained democratic reckoning or resistance. In the age of escalating fascism and a nihilistic worship of greed and raw power, American politics has devolved into a theater of violence aligned with a ceaseless stream of spectacles severed from history and emptied of systemic meaning.
— Henry Giroux
A MINNESOTA MAN told Reuters he felt fear, shame and desperation a day after ICE officers broke down his door with guns drawn, handcuffed him and dragged him into the snow wearing shorts.
Chong Ly Thao, 56, a naturalized U.S. citizen who goes by the name Scott, was returned home without explanation or apology, he said.
Pictures of the incident showing Thao barely clothed and covered in a blanket taken by a Reuters photographer and bystanders spread on social media, further fueling concern that federal law enforcement officers were exceeding their authority as part of U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, which has seen some 3,000 officers deployed in the Minneapolis area.
LEAD STORIES, WEDNESDAY'S NYT
Trump Heads to Davos Amid Deep Worries About U.S.-European Alliance
Canada’s Prime Minister Says There Has Been a ‘Rupture’ in the World Order
Minnesota Police Leaders Criticize Federal Tactics in ICE Surge
Prosecutors Subpoena Minnesota Democrats as Part of Federal Inquiry
Cuban Immigrant Was Killed in ICE Custody, Family Says in Legal Filing
Australia Passes Tighter Gun Control Laws, Weeks After Bondi Massacre
Cursive Makes a Comeback in New Jersey Schools
FUCK YOUR LECTURE ON CRAFT, MY PEOPLE ARE DYING
Colonizers write about flowers.
I tell you about children throwing rocks at Israeli tanks
seconds before becoming daisies.
I want to be like those poets who care about the moon.
Palestinians don’t see the moon from jail cells and prisons.
It’s so beautiful, the moon.
They’re so beautiful, the flowers.
I pick flowers for my dead father when I’m sad.
He watches Al Jazeera all day.
I wish Jessica would stop texting me Happy Ramadan.
I know I’m American because when I walk into a room something dies.
Metaphors about death are for poets who think ghosts care about sound.
When I die, I promise to haunt you forever.
One day, I’ll write about the flowers like we own them.
— Noor Hindi (2020)
READ MARK CARNEY'S FULL SPEECH on middle powers navigating a rapidly changing world
Below are Prime Minister Mark Carney's remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday.
It's a pleasure — and a duty — to be with you at this turning point for Canada and for the world.
Today, I'll talk about the rupture in the world order, the end of a nice story and the beginning of a brutal reality where geopolitics among the great powers is not subject to any constraints.
But I also submit to you that other countries, particularly middle powers like Canada, are not powerless. They have the capacity to build a new order that embodies our values, like respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.
The power of the less powerful begins with honesty.
It seems that every day we're reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry. That the rules-based order is fading. That the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.
This aphorism of Thucydides is presented as inevitable — as the natural logic of international relations reasserting itself. And faced with this logic, there is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along. To accommodate. To avoid trouble. To hope that compliance will buy safety.
It won't.
So, what are our options?
In 1978, the Czech dissident Václav Havel, later president, wrote an essay called The Power of the Powerless. And in it, he asked a simple question: How did the communist system sustain itself?
And his answer began with a greengrocer. Every morning, this shopkeeper places a sign in his window: "Workers of the world, unite!" He doesn't believe it. No one does. But he places the sign anyway to avoid trouble, to signal compliance, to get along. And because every shopkeeper on every street does the same, the system persists.
Not through violence alone, but through the participation of ordinary people in rituals they privately know to be false.
Havel called this "living within a lie." The system's power comes not from its truth but from everyone's willingness to perform as if it were true. And its fragility comes from the same source: when even one person stops performing — when the greengrocer removes his sign — the illusion begins to crack.
Friends, it is time for companies and countries to take their signs down.
For decades, countries like Canada prospered under what we called the rules-based international order. We joined its institutions, we praised its principles, we benefited from its predictability. And because of that we could pursue values-based foreign policies under its protection.
We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false. That the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient. That trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.
This fiction was useful. And American hegemony, in particular, helped provide public goods: open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security and support for frameworks for resolving disputes.
So, we placed the sign in the window. We participated in the rituals. And we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality.
This bargain no longer works.
Let me be direct: We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.
Over the past two decades, a series of crises in finance, health, energy and geopolitics have laid bare the risks of extreme global integration.
But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructure as coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.
You cannot "live within the lie" of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination.
The multilateral institutions on which middle powers have relied — the WTO, the UN, the COP — the very architecture of collective problem solving, are under threat.
And as a result, many countries are drawing the same conclusions — that they must develop greater strategic autonomy: in energy, food, critical minerals, in finance and supply chains.
And this impulse is understandable. A country that cannot feed itself, fuel itself or defend itself has few options. When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself.
But let's be clear-eyed about where this leads. A world of fortresses will be poorer, more fragile and less sustainable.
And there's another truth: if great powers abandon even the pretense of rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power and interests, the gains from "transactionalism" will become harder to replicate. Hegemons cannot continually monetize their relationships.
Allies will diversify to hedge against uncertainty. They'll buy insurance, increase options in order to rebuild sovereignty — sovereignty that was once grounded in rules, but will be increasingly anchored in the ability to withstand pressure.
This room knows, this is classic risk management — risk management comes at a price. But that cost of strategic autonomy — of sovereignty — can also be shared. Collective investments in resilience are cheaper than everyone building their own fortresses. Shared standards reduce fragmentation. Complementarities are positive sum.
And the question for middle powers, like Canada, is not whether to adapt to the new reality — we must. The question is whether we adapt by simply building higher walls or whether we can do something more ambitious.
Canada was amongst the first to hear the wake-up call, leading us to fundamentally shift our strategic posture.
Canadians know that our old, comfortable assumptions — that our geography and alliance memberships automatically conferred prosperity and security — that assumption is no longer valid.
And our new approach rests on what Alexander Stubb has termed "values-based realism" — or, to put another way, we aim to be principled and pragmatic.
Principled in our commitment to fundamental values: sovereignty and territorial integrity, the prohibition of the use of force except when consistent with the UN Charter and respect for human rights.
And pragmatic in recognizing that progress is often incremental, that interests diverge, that not every partner will share our values. So we're engaging broadly, strategically, with open eyes. We actively take on the world as it is, not wait around for a world we wish to be.
We are calibrating our relationships so their depth reflects our values. And we're prioritizing broad engagement to maximize our influence, given the fluidity of the world order, the risks that this poses, and the stakes for what comes next.
And we are no longer relying on just the strength of our values, but also on the value of our strength.
We are building that strength at home.
Since my government took office, we have cut taxes on incomes, on capital gains and business investment. We have removed all federal barriers to interprovincial trade. We are fast-tracking a trillion dollars of investment in energy, AI, critical minerals, new trade corridors and beyond.
We are doubling our defence spending by the end of this decade and we're doing so in ways that build our domestic industries.
And we are rapidly diversifying abroad. We've agreed a comprehensive strategic partnership with the EU, including joining SAFE, the European defence procurement arrangements.
We have signed 12 other trade and security deals on four continents in six months.
In the past few days, we have concluded new strategic partnerships with China and Qatar.
We're negotiating free trade pacts with India, ASEAN, Thailand, Philippines and Mercosur.
We're doing something else. To help solve global problems, we are pursuing variable geometry — in other words, different coalitions for different issues based on common values and interests.
So on Ukraine, we're a core member of the coalition of the willing and one of the largest per-capita contributors to its defence and security.
On Arctic sovereignty, we stand firmly with Greenland and Denmark and fully support their unique right to determine Greenland's future.
Our commitment to Article 5 is unwavering.
So we're working with our NATO allies — including the Nordic-Baltic Eight — to further secure the alliance's northern and western flanks, including through Canada's unprecedented investments in over-the-horizon radar, in submarines, in aircraft and boots on the ground.
Canada strongly opposes tariffs over Greenland and calls for focused talks to achieve our shared objectives of security and prosperity in the Arctic.
On plurilateral trade, we're championing efforts to build a bridge between the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the European Union, which would create a new trading block of 1.5 billion people.
On critical minerals we're forming buyer's clubs anchored in the G7 so the world can diversify away from concentrated supply.
And on AI we're co-operating with like-minded democracies to ensure we won't ultimately be forced to choose between hegemons and hyperscalers.
This is not naive multilateralism. Nor is it relying on their institutions. It's building coalitions that work, issue by issue, with partners who share enough common ground to act together. In some cases, this will be the vast majority of nations.
What it's doing is creating a dense web of connections across trade, investment, culture on which we can draw for future challenges and opportunities.
Middle powers must act together because if we're not at the table, we're on the menu.
But I'd also say that great powers can afford, for now, to go it alone. They have the market size, the military capacity and the leverage to dictate terms. Middle powers do not. But when we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what's offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating.
This is not sovereignty. It's the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination.
In a world of great power rivalry, the countries in between have a choice: compete with each other for favour or to combine to create a third path with impact.
We shouldn't allow the rise of hard power to blind us to the fact that the power of legitimacy, integrity and rules will remain strong — if we choose to wield them together.
Which brings me back to Havel.
What would it mean for middle powers to "live the truth"?
First it means naming reality. Stop invoking "rules-based international order" as though it still functions as advertised. Call it what it is: a system of intensifying great power rivalry where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as a weapon of coercion.
It means acting consistently, applying the same standards to allies and rivals. When middle powers criticize economic intimidation from one direction but stay silent when it comes from another, we are keeping the sign in the window.
It means building what we claim to believe in. Rather than waiting for the old order to be restored, it means creating institutions and agreements that function as described.
And it means reducing the leverage that enables coercion. Building a strong domestic economy should always be every government's immediate priority. And diversification internationally is not just economic prudence — it is the material foundation for honest foreign policy. Because countries earn the right to principled stands by reducing their vulnerability to retaliation.
So Canada has what the world wants. We are an energy superpower. We hold vast reserves of critical minerals. We have the most educated population in the world. Our pension funds are amongst the world's largest and most sophisticated investors. In other words, we have capital, talent, we also have a government with the immense fiscal capacity to act decisively.
And we have the values to which many others aspire.
Canada is a pluralistic society that works. Our public square is loud, diverse and free. Canadians remain committed to sustainability.
We are a stable and reliable partner in a world that is anything but. A partner that builds and values relationships for the long term.
And we have something else. We have a recognition of what's happening and a determination to act accordingly.
We understand that this rupture calls for more than adaptation. It calls for honesty about the world as it is.
We are taking the sign out of the window.
We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn't mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy.
But we believe that from the fracture, we can build something better, stronger, more just.
This is the task of the middle powers. The countries that have the most to lose from a world of fortresses and the most to gain from genuine co-operation.
The powerful have their power. But we have something too — the capacity to stop pretending, to name reality, to build our strength at home and to act together.
That is Canada's path. We choose it openly and confidently.
And it is a path wide open to any country willing to take it with us.
(https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mark-carney-speech-davos-rules-based-order-9.7053350)
That picture with the three men and two dogs……I assume the fellow in the middle is reverend Jim Jones. The young guy on the right is his son Lew Jones whom I had many classes with at Ukiah High in the early 70’s. I can only assume they all died in Guyana.
Haunting photograph.
Yes, very creepy.
mk–nature’s small miracles–Nice work.
Shit, first night of insomnia in about twenty, since the flood week back in December, why? I got a call at 6:30pm and the woman, a new friend, immediately started ranting about her problems, struggles, and issues after asking if that was okay to do. She’s trying to clean up, fix up, and sell forty acres in the hills of Sohum where the last tenants left truckloads of garbage including lots of plastic weed-growing equipment, now detritus.
I can see her frustration, working five days a week with a ranting co-worker and then every two or three weeks driving fifty minutes on bad roads with her old car trying to deal with the inherited country place with no guarantee it will sell, ever. (Her land partner is MIA, she’d like to have him chip in but he’s out of town and not interested, even kept the deed and trust to the land just thrown under the bed, naked.)
It sounds like a pretty good deal for someone: one fixer house with views forever, another solidly built one down the hill, water below producing micro power seasonally and thousands of trees for $200 grand, asking $300K. I had told her I’d take a truckload of trash out of there just for the hell of it and she was calling to cancel my volunteer gig, she had just been out there and needed a break, then she was going to go back in a couple weeks and start cleaning the deeply stained windows.
I really wouldn’t mind hearing her rant, she needs someone to hear her. I remember when I went four months trying to sell a place and dealing with all the stuff, but better a call like that in the morning. Jeez, am I such a snowflake I can’t even handle a disturbing call in the evening? Next time I won’t pick up. (At least I had an excellent book to read for three hours from 12:30am to 4: “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny,” by Kiran Desai. When I read her last book “The Inheritance of Loss” I thought it was the best novel I’d ever read. So I finished it, what next?)
No good deed goes unpunished. But still, a good deed – one definitely needed by the recipient.
Good for Betsy Cawn exploring news away from the dismal tepid main media. I do check in on Chris Hayes…and Jimmy Kimmel, and, of course, Jon Stewart, but that’s it. YouTube is rich in alternative offerings like Status Coup (on the ground reporting), Secular Talk with Kyle Kulinski, Brian Tyler Cohen (catch his recent interview with physician and senate candidate from MI, Abdul El-Sayed), the Humanist Report, IHIP News, Really American, Breaking Points, Midastouch, The Majority Report, Keith Edwards…and many more. But that’s a start and these will lead you to others. And…do look for the monks on their Peace March from Texas to D.C….about 2 weeks away now. Enormous crowds line up to see them and the response in their faces and voices almost makes one imagine people could actually change….Anyway, they have a remarkable pup with them you’ll want to know!