STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 46F with a few high clouds this Friday morning on the coast. A mix of cloud covers thru tomorrow then rain Sunday. Rain chances for next week look light but keep changing, we'll see ?
CONDITIONS will greatly begin to moisten and cool Friday and into the weekend. Widespread wetting rain will cross the area around Sunday into next Monday. (NWS)
YESTERDAY'S HIGHS: Boonville 77°, Covelo 75°, Ukiah 75°, Laytonville 73°, Yorkville 68°, Point Arena 67°, Fort Bragg 66°
TECH NOTE: For those of you subscribed to the AVA's "New Post Notifications" — WordPress recently performed an update that broke the “Read More” button in those notices, it doesn’t link to the new post anymore. Until this bug gets fixed, ignore the “Read More” button and click on the title instead (which still works properly).
COUNTY SUPERVISORS REJECT PROPOSAL TO REMOVE SUPERVISOR MADELINE CLINE FROM WATER COMMISSION
by Sydney Fishman
The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday discussed a proposal to remove one of its supervisors from a commission after she attended an event with the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, which one board member said could be a conflict of interest.
The board did not end up taking action against Supervisor Madeline Cline, who went to a conference last month headlined by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, who has opposed the decommissioning of the Potter Valley Project. Cline represents District 1, which includes Potter Valley.
On Tuesday, supervisors discussed the possibility of unseating Cline from the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, a joint powers authority that works to protect the Russian and Eel river watersheds and ensure Mendocino County’s water sources are safeguarded. The board is working to find solutions, such as creating water storage, once PG&E shutters the Potter Valley Project.
Supervisor John Haschak raised the discussion of removing Cline from the commission after she and Supervisor Bernie Norvell attended the 107th American Farm Bureau Federation Convention in Anaheim on Jan. 12. Rollins was a featured speaker at the conference.
For more than 100 years, the Potter Valley Project, which is owned by PG&E, has diverted water from the Eel River to the Russian River Watershed, supplying water to communities throughout Mendocino and Sonoma counties. This water source has been crucial for agricultural, municipal, and environmental uses.
In 2019, PG&E opted not to relicense the project, saying it was not profitable. As soon as 2028, PG&E plans to decommission the Potter Valley Project, which could help fish restoration on the Eel River but could also decrease water availability and negatively impact local communities.
The project’s decommissioning has caused concern among residents, with farmers and ranchers anxious about losing the crucial water source. However, Native groups such as the Round Valley Indian Tribes are eager to see fish populations restored. The Round Valley Indian Tribes will also have water rights transferred to them under a formal agreement with PG&E.
As a member of the Inland Water and Power Commission, Cline attends meetings, speaks with local farmers, and researches how the community can recover from the removal of the water source.
Haschak expressed concern that Cline’s attendance at the agriculture convention could send a negative message to PG&E and the Round Valley Indian Tribes, and harm the county’s efforts to collaborate with those entities on a solution for everyone.
Rollins, who has been outspoken in her opposition to PG&E’s current plan, sent a letter to the editor to The Mendocino Voice outlining why she disagrees with the removal of the Potter Valley Project.
“Make no mistake. If the decommissioning goes through, hundreds of legacy farms and this area’s rich agricultural heritage will be lost,” Rollins wrote in the letter.
Haschak said during Tuesday’s meeting that Cline’s attendance at the conference was inappropriate.
Cline, who said she used her own funds to fly to Anaheim and attend the conference to hear Rollins’ opinions on the Potter Valley Project, said during the meeting that she did not attend the event to partner with Rollins and took offense to Haschak’s proposal.
“I don’t take lightly the way that this agenda item was brought about, it was extremely accusatory,” she said during the meeting. “I’m embarrassed that it’s a part of our public record.”
Cline said her “goal was to hear the conversation that was being had in that room,” and added, “I do not think I would be doing my job if I would have walked away and turned down that opportunity to talk about why this is important for our future.”
Supervisor Ted Williams said the dispute is essentially between people who want to keep the dam and those who are working on a solution for water storage.
“Supervisor Cline, you have constituents who want the dam left up and think there’s still a possibility. I respect your relationship with your constituents to try to further that,” Williams said.
However, he also mentioned the water rights of the local tribal groups.
“I don’t see any other party having a water right other than the tribe, and so much is riding on that relationship that if somehow even inadvertently we sour that, we don’t have a water future,” he said.
Dozens of people spoke in the public comment portion of the agenda item, many of them calling for Cline to stay on the commission and saying she represented the interests of Potter Valley residents, while some criticized her for participating in a photo with Rollins, a member of President Donald Trump’s administration.
Haschak ended up not making a motion to put his proposal to remove Cline from the commission up for a vote, acknowledging that he did not have support from his colleagues, but again questioned the politics behind the trip to Anaheim.
“It just seems a little disingenuous to say, ‘Oh, this is just a free conversation about our issue,’” he said. “No, they had an agenda they wanted to push, and it was political rhetoric.”
The next Board of Supervisors meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Feb. 24 in the board chambers at 501 Low Gap Road, Ukiah. Meetings can also be watched virtually via Zoom.
WOMAN CITED AFTER ALLEGEDLY STASHING ABALONE IN HER PANTS
by Kym Kemp
A weekend tidepool outing at Van Damme State Park south of the lovely tourist town of Mendocino took a turn for the memorable when a California wildlife officer uncovered an illegal abalone take involving what the California Department of Fish and Wildlife dryly described on their Facebook page as “an unconventional storage method, to say the least.”
According to a press release from the department, an officer using a spotting scope observed a man and woman in the intertidal zone legally “taking purple sea urchins” when the officer saw the woman “discreetly conceal what appeared to be an abalone down her pants.”
(We believe this might be called an intertidal violation with…um…distinctly inland storage.)
The officer left the observation point and contacted the pair in the parking lot before they reached their vehicle. During a license and catch inspection, the officer asked the woman what she had concealed. “She then produced a small abalone from inside her pants,” CDFW stated.
Suspecting the situation might involve more than one shellfish, the officer requested assistance from a female wildlife officer to conduct a search. According to CDFW, once the woman learned this, she “voluntarily produced a second abalone from her pants, confirming the officer’s suspicions.”
CDFW reported that “no additional abalone was found.” The woman was cited “for the illegal take of two abalone.”
The male subject, meanwhile, emerged from the encounter entirely mollusk-free. According to the department, “the male subject was found in compliance and did not possess any abalone.”
(kymkemp.com)
THE BROILER DINNERS, Part 2
by Mark Scaramella
We were premature yesterday when we said nobody asked ACTTC Chamise Cubbison for an opinion on the DA’s asset forfeiture spending for the Broiler Dinners at the Tuesday, Supervisors meeting. It turns out that later in the meeting both Cubbison and DA David Eyster chimed in on the subject.
Cubbison said she couldn’t just take the DA’s word for the legality of those particular expenses. She said she would need an independent legal review, not just the DA’s, adding that she “could incur personal liability by letting those go through.” “County Counsel needs to get in touch with me,” added Cubbison, “because I have additional requests from the District Attorney,” most of which she said seemed fine and approvable.
An indignant DA Eyster insisted that Mendo has no authority over asset forfeiture spending because it is a “field pre-emption,” meaning that the state’s rules take precedence over anything Mendo may say, and he follows those rules. “We disagree tremendously” with the State Auditor’s conclusion, said Eyster. “They were very difficult to work with. We gave them a 22-page legal brief on why we are right.” Eyster said the State Audit was “more of an ideology audit, a political audit, not a financial audit.” Eyster listed a number of local agencies and organizations that have benefited from his asset forfeiture grants of more than $1.2 million over his tenure. “I have been a very good steward,” insisted Eyster. “We have a process.” Becoming agitated, Eyster concluded: “Elected officials don’t worry about personal liability. They do the right thing. They don’t worry if it will cause them personal embarrassment. You do it for the public good and the public safety. They [the State Auditor] are inviting you to engage in litigation and you should be very cautious.”
But the issue remained unresolved with County Counsel Kit Elliott again saying she’d work with everybody and see what she could do.
LOCAL EVENTS (tomorrow)
MIKE GENIELLA:
Interim County Counsel Kit Elliott, individual members of the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, DA David Eyster, and every voter should pause and reread the state Audit conclusion about “gift of public funds.” Eyster’s practices have been going on for years, representing use of asset forfeiture funds far greater than the $3,600 cited in the special year-long state audit that cost California taxpayers $800,000.
“We believe that one expenditure we reviewed constituted a gift of public funds. In February 2025, the District Attorney’s Office used $3,600 of asset forfeiture funding to pay for room space and dinner service for an end-of-year staff gathering—which the office described as a continuing legal education and team building business meeting—at a steakhouse. The office paid based on the number of individuals in attendance, and its records indicate, and the District Attorney’s Office acknowledges, that attendees included both its office’s staff and their guests. The District Attorney’s Office shared its perspective with us that including spouses and significant others at this event fosters a more inclusive and positive work environment. It also stated that the CEO preapproved this expenditure, although we saw no independent evidence of that approval. Determinations about whether an entity’s expenditures serve public purposes must be made by a governing legislative body. None of the records we reviewed showed that the State’s Legislature or the county board approved of the expenditure of public funds for the end-of-year gathering. Because of this, we believe that it constitutes a gift of public funds. Such gifts are violations of the California Constitution’s prohibition of gifts of public funds. This use of asset forfeiture funds is another example of why Mendocino must take steps to better control and oversee this funding.”
“Documentation supporting this [Broiler dinner] expenditure does not show why it was a prudent use of public funds to hold an end-of-year gathering and dinner event at a restaurant. We conclude that this was a gift of public funds.”
PLEASE GIVE A WARM WELCOME TO LEW, our new Bookmobile Driver!
Lew and Norm bring the library to their patrons each week, making their way through the most rural areas of Mendocino County. Every two weeks they stop in Anderson Valley, Manchester, Gualala, Potter Valley, Laytonville, Caspar, Albion, and more.
If you live in a rural area, or know someone who does, let them know about the Bookmobile - Mendocino County Library. Our catalog has an incredible selection of DVDs, books, audiobooks, and our library of useful things like Chromebooks, hotspots, tool kits, cooking kits, and hiking backpacks.
Check out the Bookmobile schedule and find the closest stop to your home.
DA BROILER DAVE EYSTER CAN HELP HERE
Dear Superintendent Kubin (Ukiah Unified School District),
I’m writing to suggest that the Ukiah Unified School District begin hosting an annual dinner/training for all employees and their spouses at The Broiler, a beloved local steakhouse.
I’m guessing you would agree that UUSD personnel — everyone from support staff to the grounds crew to teachers and administrators — are among the most dedicated and hard-working professionals in the whole county who have earned the right to enjoy a tasty meal compliments of the public while they participate in a work-related training session with their spouses present.
The UUSD could take advantage of a program similar to the Burton Fund in Sacramento County, which is an asset forfeiture program used by that county to pay for “any programs involving educators, parents, community-based organizations and local businesses.”
I know what you’re thinking. How could such a fund provide dinner with appetizers and drinks at $50 a head for 400 district employees and their spouses? If everyone brings a plus-one, that’s forty grand for one training session!
I admit it sounds like a lot of money. But if the quality of the training is high, I am confident most stakeholders will approve.
I hope you will consider this proposal, and I look forward to your reply.
Respectfully,
Andrew Lutsky
Ukiah
ALL-IN-1
Beautiful day here in the Valley!! We are looking to fill a few days on our schedule next week. If you are in need of preparing your trees for the next storm or just need some defensible space around your home or property please give us a call, free evaluations and estimates. Licensed, Bonded, Workers Compensation and fully insured with great local references!
All In 1 Tree and Timber Inc.
CSLB #1012237
LTO # A012461
Aaron Peterson 707-272-7387
ED NOTE: Highly recommended by the AVA — fast, cheap, perfect!
NO VIOLENCE, PLEASE, YOU UNRULY GAFFERS
Join Us Saturday With A Clever Sign! [MCN-Announce]
Come Protest Peacefully, February 7th, 11 To 12 Noon
Main Street, sidewalk in front of Guest House Museum
343 N. Main St., Fort Bragg, CA
Bring non-perishable food donations for the FB Food Ban; we'll deliver.
This is a peaceful protest. We're gathering to say NO to the recent killing of Renee Good by ICE, erosion of civil rights and human rights and the loss of critical government functions, NO to unconstitutional deportations, NO to the destruction of social security, NO to authoritarianism, and YES! to democracy & rule of law.
Please stay on the sidewalk and avoid blocking entrances, exits, or traffic. Bring a sign, a friend, and your enthusiasm! And when you can, spend a little money at our local downtown businesses.
We will keep up this joyful resistance until the rule of law is restored and the assault on the US Constitution ends. Our home-made signs are stellar - bring 'em on - they are a hallmark of our protest.
(Susan Allen Nutter)
BOONVILLE FARM TOUR
On Sunday, February 15th, Filigreen Farm invites you to join us for a farm tour and olive oil tasting.
We’ll gather for a walk and conversation centered on biodynamic farming practices, including azolla as a soil-builder, water revitalization, and biodiversity across the farm. Our walk will visit the farm’s flow-forms, move through the fruit orchards and garden, and conclude in the vineyard with a tasting of olio nuovo from our 2025 olive harvest.
This 90-minute tour begins at 10:00 AM and will take place rain or shine. Tickets are $40 per person and are limited to 30 participants. Outdoor footwear such as boots or waterproof sneakers are recommended.
The farm stand will also be open February 14 and 15 from 11am-3pm with limited offerings including olive oil, dried fruit, fresh and dried Valentine's Day bouquets, and a limited array of vegetables and apples. We are also offering a special deal (25% off) on our 2023 and 2024 oil, perfect for everyday cooking and finishing. Order online and select pick-up from the farm stand option or visit us Valentine's Day weekend! Please email [email protected] with any questions.
WALTER CRAIG:
I graduated from High School in Boonville 1974. My girlfriend’s family are from the valley the Ledfords. Buzzy Barrett was her brother who lived in Anderson Valley for quite some time. I’m thinking you knew him, and would like to know about Buzzy’s memorial at Brad Wiley’s Vineyard on April 4th. I don’t know what time of the day yet though. I’m not very computer literate so if you want to communicate this way it’s probably hit and miss. My phone number is 707-917-0519 or Buzzy’s sister Kati’s number is 707-347-7432.
Walter Craig, [email protected]
ED NOTE: Can any readers help out with this?
CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, February 5, 2026
SHELSON CABADA, 27, Redwood Valley. Probation revocation.
JAMES CLAUSEN, 55, Ukiah. Domestic battery, probation revocation.
JENNIFER DEGROOT, 54, Ukiah. Camping in Ukiah, trespassing. (Frequent flyer.)
DANIEL FLORES, 18, Willits. Brandishing, failure to appear, probation revocation.
JESUS GONZALES, 50, Ukiah. Parole violation.
NICHOLAS HALVORSEN, 53, Fort Bragg Domestic violence court order violation, contempt of court. (Frequent flyer.)
JOHN HANOVER JR., 32, Covelo. Domestic violence court order violation, probation revocation.
SKYLAR HENDERSON, 26, Ukiah. Controlled substance with two or more priors, paraphernalia, under influence, contempt of court.
JUDY JOHNSON, 84, Willits. Domestic battery.
MICHAEL LANGLEY, 36, Ukiah. Unspecified offense. (Frequent flyer.)
ANGEL MILLER, 37, Ukiah. Transient registration update violation. (Frequent flyer.)
TASHA ORNELAS, 39, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.
DEVIN PACHECO, 38, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery, child endangerment.
FABIAN ROSALES-REYES, 36, Ukiah. Controlled substance for sale, petty theft.
KAINANI SPRINGER, 19, Crescent City/Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs, child endangerment, evasion.
FOR MANY PEOPLE, WOOD SMOKE IS A HEALTH HAZARD
Editor:
The recent hazy skies and “Spare the Air” alerts are an important reminder about the dangers of burning wood. With wintertime stagnant air, pollution from wood burning and other sources can get trapped closer to the ground and create hazardous air quality for everyone. As a respiratory therapist, I am particularly concerned about the thousands of people living with asthma, COPD and other lung diseases in the North Bay who are at greater risk.
Fortunately, there are ways to create a welcoming environment in the home without all the smoke, like using electric fireplaces or LED candles. In addition, if you’re looking for a cleaner heating option, the Clean HEET program through the Bay Area Air Quality Management District gives out grants to help residents reduce the cost of replacing their wood-burning device with an electric heat pump. We can all do our part to help keep our air clean this winter. Please think twice before burning wood.
Ricardo Guzman
Napa
FOLLOWING THE IMMIGRATION PROCESS, THEN AND NOW
Editor:
Tim Holt is super supportive of the job ICE is doing because his immigrant wife went through the process of formal immigration to the U.S. 25 years ago. It’s great that they got to go through the process unencumbered by ICE agents waiting at her court appearances to pick her up and deport her while she was “doing the necessary paperwork.” Also great that there were immigration judges still employed to listen to her case and make a determination in her favor.
I dare say that her process would not be so smooth today and that she could very well be thrown into a hellscape of a detention center before deportation to some random country not of her origin. That’s today’s reality for immigrants trying to do the right thing. What is happening with ICE is not about immigration, it’s about making America white. Plain and simple.
Martha Johnson
Santa Rosa
"PRO FOOTBALL in American is over the hump. Ten years ago it was a very hip and private kind of vice to be into. I remember going to my first 49er game in 1965 with 15 beers in a plastic cooler and a Dr. Grabow pipe full of bad hash. The 49ers were still playing in Kezar stadium then, an old grey hulk at the western end of Haight Street in Golden Gate Park. There were never any sellouts, but the 30,000 or so regulars were extremely heavy drinkers, and at least 10,000 of them were out there for no other reason except to get involved in serious violence. …By half time the place was a drunken madhouse, and anybody who couldn’t get it on anywhere else could always go underneath the stands and try to get into the long trough of a “Men’s Room” through the “Out” door; there were always a few mean drunks lurking around to punch anybody who tried that … and by the end of the third quarter of any game, regardless of the score, there were always two or three huge brawls that would require the cops to clear out whole sections of the grandstand.
But all that changed when the 49ers moved out to Candlestick Park. The prices doubled and a whole new crowd took the seats. It was the same kind of crowd I saw, last season, in the four games I went to at the Oakland Coliseum: a sort of half-rich mob of nervous doctors, lawyers and bank officers who would sit through a whole game without ever making a sound — not even when some freak with a head full of acid spilled a whole beer down the neck of their grey-plastic ski jackets. Toward the end of the season, when the Raiders were battling every week for a spot in the playoffs, some of the players got so pissed off at the stuporous nature of their “fans” that they began making public appeals for “cheering” and “noise.”
— Hunter S. Thompson, The Great Shark Hunt (1979)
THE CALIFORNIA WINERIES YOU SHOULD VISIT THAT ARE ACTUALLY NEAR SUPER BOWL LX
by Esther Mobley
It’s not every year that the Super Bowl is held in a wine region. And sure, you could drive all the way up to Wine Country. But this weekend’s Super Bowl LX, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, is nestled within the Santa Clara Valley American Viticultural Area, and just a stone’s throw from another American Viticultural Area, the Santa Cruz Mountains. So why bother when there’s a bounty of great wine to explore much closer to the stadium?
Here are five Santa Clara-adjacent wineries I recommend, all within about a half hour’s drive of Levi’s Stadium. (If you’re set on heading to Wine Country, we’ve also got recommendations for where to go in both Sonoma County and Napa Valley.)
Mount Eden Vineyards
The road to reach Mount Eden is steep and winding, but the trek is worth it. Tastings, held under a leafy gazebo, afford breathtaking views of Silicon Valley. This historic winery is one of the few that excels equally with Cabernet Sauvignon — a warmth-loving grape — and Pinot Noir, which prefers cooler climates. The fact that Mount Eden can grow both successfully is a testament to the varied microclimates of this mountain. The estate is open for tastings on weekdays only, but its sister brand, Domaine Eden (23000 Congress Springs Road, Saratoga), offers weekend tastings nearby.
22020 Mount Eden Road, Saratoga. Tastings $35. 408-867-5832 or mounteden.com
Saison Winery
You won’t find any vineyard views at this compact tasting room in downtown Los Gatos, but the quality of the wines makes up for it. Saison Winery is the brainchild of Mark Bright, a partner in San Francisco’s Michelin-starred Saison restaurant who is turning his hospitality group into something of a wine empire. Most of the winery’s fruit is sourced from the highly regarded Regan Vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains, focusing on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
346 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos. Tastings from $15. 831-331-0673 or saisonwinery.com
J. Lohr Vineyards & Winery
This is a little wine oasis in the middle of urban San Jose. J. Lohr is a large-scale producer, its wines available at supermarkets throughout the country. Its main winery is located in Paso Robles, a few hours south of Santa Clara, but founder Jerry Lohr produced his first wine, a Petite Sirah, here at the San Jose Wine Center — the site of a former brewery — in 1974. Today, visitors can try wines at bistro tables outdoors or in the farmhouse-like indoors. If it’s available, try J. Lohr’s Wildflower Valdiguie, a light (some might say chillable) red that’s one of California’s best bargains at around $10 a bottle.
1000 Lenzen Ave., San Jose. Tastings from $30. 408-918-2160 or jlohr.com
Testarossa Winery
With its moss-covered stone cellar, this bustling operation in the outskirts of Los Gatos almost feels like a castle. Jesuit priests built the structure in 1888, producing sacramental and dessert wines at what was then known as the Novitiate Winery. (Its current owners, laypeople, started in 1993.) There are charming tasting areas both indoors and outdoors, and — a rarity for Bay Area wineries — a full restaurant, open Thursday-Sunday for lunch and dinner.
300 College Ave., Los Gatos. Tastings from $30. 408-354-6150 or testarossa.com
Ridge Vineyards
The vista is striking from Ridge’s 2,300-foot perch in Cupertino, overlooking all of Silicon Valley. This is one of California’s classic wineries, producing what some connoisseurs consider to be the state’s finest Cabernet Sauvignon. That Cab, called Monte Bello, isn’t on the standard wine tasting menu because it costs $325 a bottle, but plenty of other delicious wines — almost entirely reds — are, especially the old-vine Zinfandels that are one of Ridge’s specialties.
17100 Montebello Road, Cupertino. Tastings $35. 408-868-1320 or ridgewine.com
THE PATRIOTS HAVE ARRIVED IN THE BAY AREA FOR THE SUPER BOWL, AND THEY ALREADY WENT TO IN-N-OUT
by Jess Lander
After landing in San Jose for Super Bowl LX earlier this week, some New England Patriots players immediately sought out something they can’t get in Boston — or anywhere on the East Coast.
In a video posted to Instagram on Monday by TNT Sports, a handful of Patriots players — including quarterback Drake Maye and running back TreVeyon Henderson — are seen walking through a Bay Area In-N-Out and shaking hands with fans.
Patriots kicker Andy Borregales, punter Bryce Baringer and center Garrett Bradbury were also seen in the video.
Henderson told USA Today on Tuesday that “In-N-Out is good. Every time I come out to Cali, I have to make sure I go there. What makes it even better is they have the little bible verse at the bottom of it, so I like it.”
While the video said the sighting was in San Francisco, it’s unclear which In-N-Out location the players were at. Comments on the Instagram post and Reddit suggest it could be at a number of Bay Area locations, owing to out-of-towner confusion about the geography of the region. The Super Bowl is being held at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, more than 50 miles away from San Francisco, but many player events are being held in the city’s Moscone Center throughout the week leading up to the game.
There’s likely to be a surge of celebrity sightings at Bay Area restaurants throughout the week. Sports personality and Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy has already made some stops for his popular pizza reviews, claiming that Mama’s Boy Pizza in Oakland has the best pizza in the Bay Area.
In 2022, Bad Bunny brought an entourage of 80 people to Puerto Rican restaurant Sol Food in San Rafael. Perhaps he’ll return ahead of his half-time performance.
I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO
The loveliness of Paris seems somehow sadly gay
The glory that was Rome is of another day
I've been terribly alone and forgotten in Manhattan
I'm going home to my city by the Bay
I left my heart in San Francisco
High on a hill, it calls to me
To be where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars
The morning fog may chill the air, I don't care
My love waits there in San Francisco
Above the blue and windy sea
When I come home to you, San Francisco
Your golden sun will shine for me
When I come home to you, San Francisco
Your golden sun will shine for me
— lyrics by Douglass Cross (1953), synonymously crooned by Tony Bennett after every winning Giants game
‘A SILLY IDEA’: How a Bay Area man's hack is saving Costco customers
His Instagram post on the invention has nearly a quarter million likes
by Nico Madrigal-Yankowski
Every week, Juleon Cotillon and his girlfriend Jeanette Garibay visit Costco. They shop the bulk items, but they also enjoy one of the warehouse store’s iconic meals — the $1.50 hot dog and soda combo. However, there’s a conundrum: Cotillon says it’s hard to score a table and even harder to eat a snappy link with a soda while perusing the aisles because you need both hands. So, the local pastry chef came up with a creative solution.
Cotillon, a Bay Area native who lives in Hayward, is the brains behind the Buck Fifty — a white plastic tray for both the hot dog and soda that fits neatly on the top rack of a Costco shopping cart.
“We go there once or twice a week and we usually get a hot dog or a pizza or a chicken bake,” explained Cotillon, who works as the pastry chef at El Tio Juan, Garibay’s family business. “But there’s nowhere to put our drinks or food, like if there’s no tables available. I realized that people needed this.”
Cotillon makes the Buck Fifty in his home whenever he has any free time, using ABS plastic and a 3D printer. One side is a flat panel measuring slightly longer than the Costco dog, at 9.3 inches. On the other side, there’s a partly open short cylinder reminiscent of a cup holder in a car. The back flap, which is mounted on the cart’s metal bones, keeps the creation snug. It reads “The Buck Fifty,” and it’s made in the image of Costco’s logo: Red and blue block letters with the long horizontal lines. He sells them for $19.69 on his Etsy and Shopify sites, but after going viral last week, it might become his new full-time job.
“I honestly cannot grasp how weird it’s all been,” Cotillon said. “It’s like being in the center of a tornado.”
Growing up in San Jose, the International Culinary Center grad has always been fascinated with how things are made.
“I just had this gear in my head that told me I need to take it apart,” he said of playing with remote controls as a kid. Now, he has a hobby of working on cars — refurbishing them to near mint condition, such as the Toyota Cressida he has in his garage.
A friend first introduced Cotillon to 3D printing around 2019. Together, they tinkered with the machine before his girlfriend gifted him a 3D printer for Christmas in 2021. From there, Cotillon learned AutoCAD, a digital drafting tool.
“It was a little hard to get into because it’s expensive,” Cotillon explained. “The machines, the software and the materials aren’t cheap.” For example, while it was a gift, his Bambu Lab X-1 Carbon 3D printer costs $549, and he would later end up buying two more. Plus, a subscription to AutoCAD is a whopping $2,095 per year.
He thought it was well worth it. He just couldn’t shake the idea of making his and other Costco fans’ shopping experiences easier.
About a month ago, Cotillon started working on a design. He went through two prototypes before landing on the model that he liked best. The first prototype was black with yellow lettering. The final version is white with red and blue lettering so that it mirrors Costco’s motif.
In his first batch he made only 11, thinking he might not even sell them. When he posted an Instagram Reel of the Buck Fifty in action on Jan. 26, the internet started to catch on. There are more than 243,000 likes on the post. One commenter said, “I don’t want this, I need this,” while another wrote, “bro’s boutta be a millionaire.”
“Overnight it blew up. I woke up and saw so many messages,” Cotillon said. “I was like, ‘OK, this is insane,’ because I’m not used to having 1 million customers.”
Although 1 million is hyperbole, there are currently more than 600 preorders in the queue. Cotillon is making about 800 so he has extras ready to ship when new orders come in. Because each one takes about five hours to make, Cotillon has already ordered two new 3D printers to meet demand and ramp up production.
So far, no word from Costco, save for a “like” from the official Costco Canada Instagram account. Cotillon has reached out to Costco’s corporate team in the U.S. but hasn’t heard back yet. If they are interested in doing an official collaboration, Cotillon said he would be on board.
Until then, if the orders continue, he might pivot to 3D printing Costco carriers as a full-time job. For now, though, he’s just riding the thrilling wave, encouraged by comments he gets from fans, like, “Now do the slice of pizza!”
“I just wanted to make a tray that mounted on the cart,” Cotillon said. “I still have trouble believing this is happening because it started out as just a silly idea.”
TRUMP REGIME LAUNCHES LAWSUIT AGAINST CALIFORNIA LAW PROTECTING COMMUNITIES FROM OIL DRILLING
by Dan Bacher
Sacramento — In the latest episode in the Trump regime’s attacks on climate protections across the nation, the Department of “Justice” filed a complaint against Senate Bill 1137, California’s landmark health buffer zone law.
The Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) filed the complaint in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California on Jan. 14 to stop the implementation of SB 1138, a hard-fought for law that prevents oil and gas development activities within 3,200 feet of sensitive receptors, including homes, schools, hospitals and churches.
Trump’s “Justice” Department claims SB 1137 would “knock out about one-third of all federally authorized oil and gas leases in California.” This lawsuit further alleges that federal law — the Mineral Leasing Act and the Federal Land and Policy Management Act — “preempts SB 1137.”…
‘THE DAILY SHOW’ SKEWERS GAVIN NEWSOM for Sex Scandal and Failure to Solve Homelessness and High-Speed Rail in New Segment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R7D2XvTpjM
THE HARDEST PUNCHER I ever run up against was Bob Fitzsimmons, my goodness! How that man could punch! I caught one wallop in our second match that made me think of home and mother! If Fitz had only been a little bigger he would have achieved even greater fame than he has already done. But at that, I don't think he would ever have beaten me, for to tell you the truth, it was practically impossible to really hurt me when I was in my prime.
— James J Jeffries
THE LONG GOODBYE: A California Couple Self-Deports to Mexico
Enrique Castillejos and his wife, Maria Elena Hernandez, raised a family in California. But they were undocumented immigrants, and after President Trump’s crackdown began, they decided to return to Mexico.
by Orlando Mayorquín
Enrique Castillejos and his wife stopped at a Winchell’s Donut House. It was part of their after-church routine on Friday nights.
That evening’s sermon had been about finding peace in God in turbulent times, and they felt it spoke directly to them. Enrique, 63, and his wife, Maria Elena Hernandez, 55, were undocumented immigrants. Like millions of others in Southern California, they had been looking over their shoulders as federal agents conducted immigration sweeps.
Freedom, they felt, had become impossible in the land of the free. They had made a decision: Leave America and move back to Mexico.
The process has the sterile, bureaucratic name of self-deportation. For Enrique and Maria Elena, it resembled a long, slow-motion goodbye. It took an emotional, spiritual and logistical toll on everyone around them, including their three children and two grandchildren. They had to decide what to do with their old, beloved dog and their trucking business. They had to suddenly cut ties with their church and their neighbors. Visitors bearing gifts dropped by unannounced.
Maria Elena had suggested to Enrique that he leave for Mexico first, while she waited for her broken foot to heal. “No,” she recalled Enrique telling her. “Together we came and together we go.”
Their decision to go came long before the Trump administration’s crackdown in Minneapolis, and long before federal operations intensified in their own San Bernardino County neighborhood. Returning to Mexico had always been in the cards. But they had wanted to go on their own terms, retiring there someday. The Trump administration’s crackdown had prompted them to make that “someday” now.
The couple’s departure hit the family hard. They watch the news now with conflicting emotions, as Enrique and Maria Elena start their lives over in Mexico and their adult children struggle to carry on without them. None of the couple’s friends or relatives tried to change their minds, and there were few heated debates over the decision. In their community, the federal immigration raids made such an extreme move seem entirely reasonable.
“It’s a mixture of all those feelings — being grateful for knowing that they’re safe, and at the same time, hating that this is the way it has to be,” said Lizbeth Castillejos, 29, the couple’s oldest daughter.
Back at the coffee shop, Maria Elena and Enrique could feel the clock tick. It was Aug. 8. They had just two weeks left. Their nearly 30 years in the United States were coming to an end.
“Ya casi,” Enrique told her: Almost time.
Maria Elena set down her coffee cup. “Ya casi,” she repeated.
Maria Elena had to squeeze her belongings into just a few suitcases. She insisted on taking a little piece of home with her: her curtains.
Some were thin and delicate, others thick to dampen sound. Gold, red, green — a color for every season. They had rented the house in Bloomington, an unincorporated community some 50 miles east of Los Angeles, for more than 10 years. It was semirural, with dirt sidewalks and residents on horseback. Outside, Enrique kept chickens in the backyard. Inside, Maria Elena had her curtains.
To make room in the luggage for them, Maria Elena took out all the socks. Her younger daughter, Helen, 23, a schoolteacher, told her not to worry because they could get new things in Mexico.
Eventually, Maria Elena gave up. Leaving America meant leaving her curtains, too.
It was lunchtime. Maria Elena and Enrique had just sat down at the kitchen table, plates of bistec, white rice, black beans and diced cactus spread out before them.
There was a sudden pounding at the door. For a moment, the conversation grew quiet.
For months, masked immigration agents had seemed to appear everywhere in Southern California, and fear gripped entire communities. Except for doctor’s appointments for her broken foot and strategically timed trips to the market, Maria Elena had stopped leaving the house.
One day, Enrique had called his daughter Lizbeth, who works for a local immigrant rights group. A white sedan was tailing him. He thought it might be ICE.
Nothing had come of it, but it was another sign that life as they knew it in the United States was over.
They were afraid of being picked up by agents, not so much because of the threat of deportation but because of the uncertainty of detention. One goal of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign is to effectively scare people into self-deporting while dangling financial incentives to leave. Enrique and Maria Elena had decided not to accept the administration’s offer of $1,000 and a flight home to migrants who deport themselves because they did not trust the government to honor the arrangement.
Ultimately, there had been no dramatic incident that spurred their departure; they had simply grown weary, day after day, of watching their world shrink to fit only the bounds of their home.
“He said he would go after criminals, and we don’t consider ourselves criminals,” Maria Elena said of the president, adding, “We consider ourselves working people. It turns out, for him, we’re all criminals.”
Although they were living in America illegally, the couple saw no contradiction in that: Undocumented immigrants were part of the fabric of everyday life in Southern California. Over time, it didn’t seem especially risky.
Still, they expressed regret that they had never obtained legal status. In 2006, Maria Elena and her children had joined protests in Los Angeles demanding amnesty for undocumented immigrants. The family had also discussed another pathway: If one of their children joined the military, Maria Elena and Enrique could get the right to stay. Each of their three children had seriously considered signing up when they turned 18. But the couple never wanted their children to set aside their dreams and careers for their parents.
Were immigration agents now at the front door? Responding to the pounding, Enrique and Maria Elena’s son, Joaquin, 26, bolted to open it. It was their close friend, Kiké, dropping by to say hello.
Everyone was anxious about Rex, the family’s scruffy 14-year-old dog. Maria Elena and Enrique had decided to put Rex down before they left. He was ailing, could hardly walk and was in constant pain.
Rex had seen Joaquin and Helen grow from children to adults. One day, when Joaquin was away in college, he learned his parents were giving the dog to a family friend because Rex had been killing chickens in the backyard. Joaquin raced home. He took Rex in himself.
This time, Joaquin was not stepping in to save him. Everyone had agreed that Rex was suffering. Still, saying goodbye to the dog was like saying goodbye to a member of the family. Rex was a “constant,” as Helen put it, and those constants were ending as the family prepared for self-deportation.
“It needs to be done soon,” Helen told her dad over dinner as they discussed when to put down Rex. But she didn’t want it done this soon.
“Right now, there’s too much loss,” she added. “I can’t do both.”
A nervous Enrique stood at the front of the church and clutched the microphone. He was telling the congregation, with Maria Elena standing at his side, that they were leaving for Mexico.
To Enrique, it wasn’t so much the president’s will, but God’s.
He saw self-deportation as an opportunity to spread the word of God to his family back in his hometown of Mapastepec, near the plot of land in rural Chiapas where they had decided to move. He found comfort in Psalms 37, which says that God does not forsake those who believe.
Every Sunday, Enrique carried a composition book with notes on Scripture and a Bible with his name scrawled on the side. Maria Elena brought a tambourine for the hymns. And in the house, Enrique led prayers before meals.
For Maria Elena, leaving the United States was a way for her to come clean with God. For years, the couple said, Enrique had been using another person’s identity — a common but illegal way for undocumented immigrants to get the paperwork they need to work in the country. They said that not long after arriving in the United States, a friend had helped Enrique use the identity of a Honduran who had work authorization. Last year, the Trump administration moved to end that type of work authorization, making it harder for Enrique to keep using that identity.
Guilt weighed on Maria Elena. “We got tired of living in a lie,” she said, adding, “We have to be good before God. You can’t be a child of God and lie with two names.”
She already had a name for the plot of farmland awaiting them in their native Chiapas: Rancho La Promesa de Dios. God’s Promise Ranch.
At the church, a long line formed before them. For half an hour, one by one, congregants gave them tearful hugs.
Michael, 2, bounced around the living room, his brightly colored toys scattered all over the tiled floor. Olivia, 4, was fixated on a cartoon on the television.
Maria Elena was on grandmother duty.
Grandma and Grandpa’s house was where the little ones learned Spanish, and where Enrique cut up fruit to feed them one piece at a time. It was days like these that the grandparents cherished. It was days like these that made Maria Elena cry.
“It’s only when I look at my grandchildren and say to myself, ‘Who is going to take care of them?’”
Enrique grabbed his belongings from the old turquoise Toyota. His longtime friend who had dropped by to say hello that one day, Kiké, was there to pick it up. For Enrique, it meant the old clunker was one less thing he had to get rid of.
Kiké and Enrique had much in common, including their names. Kiké is short for Enrique. The two men are from the same town in Mexico, and they ended up here in the same place in America.
Kiké was sad to see them go, but he, too, was contemplating leaving because of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
“A lot of fellow paisans are wanting to leave,” he said. “It doesn’t look like this thing is going to get resolved. It’s going from bad to worse.”
Each sibling took turns on the mic.
It was Enrique and Maria Elena’s farewell party, at a nearby property. Earlier that day, the family had said goodbye to Rex before putting him down. At the party, a mariachi belted out Christian ballads. Butterflies — a symbol of migration — decorated a towering fruit spread.
Joaquin said he would miss the little things, like stopping by on his lunch break for his mom’s beans.
Helen, the youngest, talked about how there was always mom and dad. When her older siblings had moved out, she had remained. Now, for the first time, the unit of three — Helen, Maria Elena and Enrique — would be apart.
Lizbeth tried to focus on the positive.
She said this was a fresh chapter. Their parents’ legacy in America would live on. Three college-educated children with dignified careers. And two grandchildren, one old enough to express her wish to spend every summer in Chiapas.
On the party invitation cards Lizbeth had sent out weeks earlier, there was nothing that suggested the gravity of self-deportation. The occasion was simply titled “New Beginnings.”
It was Aug. 24. Sixteen days had passed since that stop at the donut shop after church.
At the house in Bloomington, after instant coffee and pan dulce, the family huddled in the living room and bowed their heads. This was the day Maria Elena and Enrique were self-deporting.
“This morning, our father, we’re grateful to you because you have kept us here in this land, in this country for 29 years,” Enrique said. “And we thank you because you never abandoned us.”
Then they squeezed into the van and set course for the two-hour trip to the border crossing in San Diego.
In the blink of an eye, as they crossed into Mexico, 29 years reset to zero. This was the couple’s first time returning to Mexico together. It was their home country, but a sense of wonder seemed to overtake Maria Elena and Enrique. They had entered the United States nearly three decades ago, crossing that same border on foot. They had initially intended to stay for a few years, save up money and return to Mexico, but after they had children, their plans changed.
“Saliendo del sueño Americano y ahora entramos al sueño Mexicano,” Maria Elena told her family in the van: Leaving the American dream and now entering the Mexican dream.
A bright day greeted them in Tijuana as they strolled through downtown. Maria Elena ambled around on a scooter for her broken foot, feeling out of place. Joaquin put his arms around her, trying to cheer her up. They planned to stay at a relative’s house until their flight to Chiapas.
In the months to come, Maria Elena and Enrique would try to adjust to life in Mexico. They would stay with relatives, and make slow progress fixing up a small dwelling on their plot of land. They would find themselves at times overwhelmed and homesick.
But before all of that, on this first bright day in Tijuana, Enrique pulled out his Mexican I.D. and smiled. It might have felt like any other family trip. The political forces and fears that had forced them to leave went unspoken.
After the siblings had dropped off their parents in Mexico and headed back home in the van, they felt a sense of optimism as they waited in the long line at the port of entry. Vendors selling churros, chips and religious ornaments paced between cars.
Joaquin lamented that there was no time for a final Dodgers game with his dad or a family trip to the beach.
Lizbeth assured him there would plenty of memories for them to make in Chiapas.
Helen, the schoolteacher, was anxious to get home and prepare her lesson plan for the week. She read aloud a list her mom had given her. It had all of the things she had forgotten to pack but wanted from home the next time she saw them.
“No. 1,” Helen read aloud in the van, “look for my earrings.”
Hours had passed when a customs agent finally waved them into the United States. Soon, everyone except the driver slipped into a slumber, and the road home was quiet.
They slowly woke up as the car rolled up to the house in Bloomington.
Olivia, 4, realized she was at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Then, it dawned on her. Grandma and Grandpa were not there. She cried out for them.
The siblings embraced in the middle of the driveway. Their parents had once described what it felt like to leave life behind in America. They said it felt like a kind of death.
Lizbeth, surrounded that night with her loved ones on the driveway of her parents’ empty house, felt the same way, too. She called it grief.
(NY Times)
NURSES FACE HORRIFIC VIOLENCE AT WORK. WE’RE STRIKING TO CHANGE THAT.
by Sheryl Ostroff
I come from a family of nurses. At Mount Sinai Morningside, where I work as a nurse in the emergency room, my two brothers, sister, mother and uncle are my co-workers. It feels like home as much as a workplace. This is the fourth week I’ve been outside of that home as I hold the line in New York City’s largest nurse strike alongside nearly 15,000 of my colleagues. I want to be back at the bedside with my patients.
We’re striking so that nurses and patients alike can be safe. We’re fighting for adequate numbers of nurses to care for the number of patients we see. We’re also fighting for protections from workplace violence, because nurses shouldn’t fear for our lives on the job.
More than 80 percent of nurses experience workplace violence each year, according to one industry survey. The rate of violent incidents is reportedly increasing, too. Almost all of these assaults are perpetrated by patients, though patients’ family members can also threaten our safety. People don’t realize that hospitals are increasingly dangerous places to work in. Because nurses spend more time than anyone else with patients, we often get the brunt of their anger with the health care industry, lack of adequate services and long wait times.
Throughout my career, I have sustained many injuries and threats. In a recent eight-month period, I was scratched in the face (which left a scar that I cover with makeup daily), kicked in the chest so hard it left bruises, bitten multiple times and spat on. I’ve been pushed, sexually assaulted and punched. I’ve been thrown across the ambulance bay. I’ve had to hide marks of violence from my four young children so they don’t worry about me. I’m used to hearing similar experiences from colleagues. We’re asking for basic safety precautions like metal detectors, better-trained security and a stronger police presence in our hospitals.
Despite the risk of violence in the workplace, I still love my job, my patients and serving my community. In the emergency room, we see our patients at their most vulnerable. With cuts to Medicaid, patients can’t get the care they need elsewhere. They delay visits to routine screenings and pediatricians, then come to us when their health has become an emergency. We see people with substance abuse issues who can’t get into rehab programs, people without homes who don’t have shelter and people with mental health conditions who struggle to get the care they need. The emergency department has become the safety net for all of these failures within the health care system. But this system is breaking down. We need the resources to continue to uphold our nursing oath — to raise the standards of nursing and to do all we can to help those in our care.
A few years ago, I was part of a union-led fight to address short staffing within our emergency room. Nurses sometimes had as many as 16 or 17 patients at a time; when nurses have that many patients, we don’t take breaks, eat or go to the bathroom. A third-party arbitrator ruled in our favor in June 2023, ordering the hospital to pay nurses who worked understaffed shifts and to hire more nurses to fill vacancies. But management failed to fill the open positions for months, leaving us understaffed by as much as 35 percent. This led to a second ruling two years ago in which another arbitrator ordered my emergency department to pay almost $1 million in compensation to my colleagues and me. Our fight paved the way for similar orders at multiple Mount Sinai departments, ultimately amounting to over $2 million in payments to overworked nurses.
Despite the arbitrators’ orders, Mount Sinai continues to understaff units, creating unsafe conditions for nurses and patients. When you don’t have enough nurses working a shift, those who are working end up with higher caseloads, angrier patients who are upset by the lengthened wait times and less safe hospitals. This must change.
To adequately care for patients, we need to have a safe nurse-to-patient ratio. California requires there to be one nurse for every four patients in the emergency room. New York doesn’t consistently enforce its staffing requirements for intensive care units, and the New York State Nurses Association has found that some hospitals have left emergency room nurses with a staffing ratio as high as 10 to one. Our patients receive slower, less attentive care when we do not have enough nurses to support them.
The moral injury of needing to go on strike to have our concerns about staffing and workplace violence taken seriously is the hardest injury to process. We have an ethical duty to care for our patients; right now, the best way to achieve that is to fight for staffing levels and protections that will help save their lives and keep us healthy enough to keep working. It’s the guilt that eats at us when we don’t have the time to see a patient because of the lack of nurses. I’m a nurse because I love it and it gives me purpose. It’s in my DNA — and there’s nothing else I can imagine doing. We need hospitals to do their part to create safer conditions for patients and staff members, because nurses can’t take this any longer.
(Sheryl Ostroff is a nurse at Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital in New York.)
THE NANCY GUTHRIE INVESTIGATION IS A TOTAL MESS.
Police insiders finally name possible prime suspect
by Maureen Callahan
Savannah Guthrie's heartbreaking video raises more questions than it answers.
Released at the end of Day Four, it seems to indicate that the FBI is taking a ransom note demanding millions in Bitcoin for the safe return of Savannah's mother, 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, very seriously.
And the video seems to have been produced with help from the authorities. The Daily Mail reported that authorities were spotted entering the home of Savannah's sister, Annie, with a tripod and lights.
Making this development curiouser: Annie and her husband, Tommaso Cioni, are doubtless being appropriately scrutinized in the abduction of the family matriarch, who was taken from her bed sometime around 2am on Sunday morning.
In an interview for my podcast The Nerve airing on Friday, veteran crime reporter Ashleigh Banfield maintains that a highly placed law enforcement source tells her: 'Annie Guthrie's car has been towed by the police and put into evidence — and here's the most important quote, and I'm using [my] source's words exactly: "Son-in-law may be prime suspect now."'
Investigators were seen entering Annie and Cioni's house earlier on Wednesday — hours before Savannah, Annie and their brother Camron shot that video — with a Cellebrite case, likely containing equipment which is used to extract digital data from electronic devices, even if that data has been deleted.
As to why the police have since denied that there are any prime suspects, let alone persons of interest, Banfield reminds us that investigators did the exact same thing in the Bryan Kohberger investigation — and in fact pulled him over twice as they built the case against him.
'Nobody's eliminated,' Sheriff Chris Nanos said at a Thursday afternoon news conference.
Investigators say that Cioni was the last known person to see Nancy alive, driving her home on Saturday night at around 9.45pm and making sure she was safely inside.
New bits of information released at Thursday's conference seem telling.
FBI agents have now joined the bumbling, seemingly spotlight-loving Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos in addressing the media.
Nanos had previously been leading this investigation and contradicting himself wildly. On Monday, he said that homicide detectives had been called in immediately, because Nancy's home was so obviously a crime scene and he had a very bad feeling about the outcome.
On Wednesday, however, Nanos said that he was sure Nancy was alive, despite Nancy needing daily medication and offering zero evidence to prove his assertion.
Nanos also admitted to the assembled press that, if he was 'Monday morning quarterbacking', he would never have released the home back to the family just two days after Nancy was abducted — because guess what?
By Wednesday, with the FBI involved and President Donald Trump declaring that he would make federal law enforcement available to Savannah's family in whatever way requested, crime scene tape once again went up around Nancy's home.
As to whether the crime scene was now contaminated — highly likely, as NewsNation journalist Brian Entin walked right up to Nancy's front door and captured blood spatter on video — Nanos said, 'I'll let the courts worry about that.'
So no surprise that the press kept asking to address Heith Janke, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Phoenix office on Thursday.
'We're going to start today by announcing a $50,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of Nancy Guthrie and/or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance,' Janke said. Interesting that he used the word 'recovery' and not 'return'.
Quite a boost from the measly $2,500 reward previously announced by the sheriff's office — an insulting figure that would incentivize no one who knew the perpetrators.
Also confirmed at Thursday's news conference: Nancy, who had limited mobility, took an Uber to her daughter Annie's house on Saturday, where she apparently had dinner.
That Uber driver does not seem to be a person of interest.
Cioni, Nanos had previously said, was the one who drove Nancy home — though, bizarrely, on Thursday the sheriff walked back that claim, saying only that Nancy was driven home by 'family'.
At 2.28am on Sunday, Nancy's pacemaker stopped communicating with her phone.
Curiously, law enforcement has now also tightened the timeline from the moment the Guthries were first tipped off that Nancy hadn't attended church on Sunday — a scenario which itself seems problematic, given that there is reportedly no way for anyone to know who is watching the services online, as Nancy always did.
Originally, we were told that family were alerted around 11am, arrived at Nancy's shortly after, and called 911 at noon — nearly 50 minutes to search a one-story house for a woman of limited mobility.
Now we've been told that the 911 call came within minutes of family arriving.
Just as the video Savannah made with her siblings seems a bit off — her sister and brother with their emotionless affect, Savannah barely looking at either one of them — Thursday's press conference has only added to this unthinkable mystery.
The alleged ransom note set a deadline of 5pm local time Thursday for the money, amount undisclosed, to be deposited by Bitcoin.
If the money doesn't come through, the ransom note threatens that come Monday, the consequences will be more dire.
As that 5pm deadline passed on Thursday, Savannah's brother Camron shared a new video message addressing Nancy's abductor or abductors.
'Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you. We haven't heard anything directly,' he said.
When asked about what investigators plan to do next in the absence of any fresh evidence, Sheriff Nanos had the gall to say, 'Your guess is as good as mine.'
It shouldn't be. If Nancy is to be found, the FBI needs to take full control.
Perhaps they're doing so as we speak. Perhaps that's why the FBI have seemingly helped Savannah and her siblings make these videos, in Annie's house — for more than one reason.
Shooting in Annie's home, setting up the lights and camera, may have allowed agents to roam around inside without a search warrant.
Investigators insisted Thursday that they don't have any suspects. But in the same breath, when asked point-blank about Savannah's brother-in-law, Sheriff Nanos said: 'Everybody's still a suspect.'
(DailyMail.uk)
JUST IN FROM THE DAILY MAIL:
The odds of the Second Coming have risen.
A wagering pool on Polymarket called “Will Jesus Christ return before 2027?” has mysteriously doubled overnight, generating over a total of $900,000 in bets.
Polymarket, a cryptocurrency-based online prediction platform, lets users bet on real-world events, from elections to sports and even UFO sightings, turning speculation into a crowd-sourced probability measure.
The market opened in December with a 2.6 percent chance for Jesus to return, but as of Thursday, the odds have risen to four percent, doubling from the previous day.
Users can buy “Yes” or “No” positions, with current prices at 4.3 cents for “Yes” and 95.8 cents for “No.”
This marks one of Polymarket's more unusual and high-profile questions, highlighting the platform's ability to quantify public sentiment rather than rely on religious interpretation.
Historically, predictions about Jesus' return have been speculative, rooted in biblical texts and theological debate, but this market converts belief into measurable data.
Polymarket tracks probability fluctuations in real time, reflecting new trades and shifts in user confidence.
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #1
Maybe if American agribusness hadn't destroyed sustenance farming in Latin America we would't have a border crisis at all. Maybe if Reagan hadn't sent death squads to Latin America, there wouldn't be a border crisis. Maybe if Clinton hadn't pushed through NAFTA there wouldn't be a border crisis. Maybe if the US hadn't destroyed Guatemala so United Fruit Company could make more money we wouldn't be in this mess. The greed of American corporations is the root cause of all border problems. I refuse to blame all this on brown people who are just trying to survive.
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Near a Refinery for Venezuelan Oil, U.S. Residents Say: Please Buy Our Homes
Americans Are Learning Korean Because of ‘KPop Demon Hunters’
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2
Scandinavian-style socialism is all over Europe. We even have some of it in the United States - Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, work safety laws, food stamps, etc. We are the only developed country in the world without some form of what Bernie Sanders called Medicare For All. And we pay twice as much for healthcare as other similar nations. And we are the only country with bankruptcies because of medical bills. Roosevelt's New Deal was Scandinavian-style socialism. It created America's Golden Age, when working-class families were thriving.
HOW THE FBI CORRUPTED DEMOCRACY IN 2016 AND BEYOND
by James Bovard
The 2016 presidential election was so tainted that it spurred the Oxford English Dictionary to choose “post-truth” as the word of the year. But the 2016 election was actually far more corrupt than it appeared at the time. The FBI sought to cast a veto over the votes of American citizens.
Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential nomination, had used an unsecured private email server to handle top-secret documents while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. The server in a bathroom of Clinton’s Chappaqua, New York, mansion exposed emails with classified information to detection by foreign sources, household servants, and others. Clinton’s private email server was not publicly disclosed until she received a congressional subpoena in 2015. A few months later, the FBI Counterintelligence Division opened a criminal investigation examining the “potential unauthorized storage of classified information on an unauthorized system.” Attorney General Loretta Lynch swayed FBI chief James Comey to mislead the public by denying the existence of a criminal investigation; instead, it was referred to simply as a “matter.”
The private email was intended to prevent Americans from ever seeing Hillary Clinton’s emails in her four year term as secretary of state. Clinton effectively exempted herself from the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and any public scrutiny on how she used her power. The State Department ignored 17 FOIA requests for her emails prior to 2014 and insisted it required 75 years to disclose emails of Clinton’s top aides. A federal judge and the State Department inspector general slammed the FOIA stonewalling.
The FBI treated Clinton and her coterie like royalty worthy of endless deference, according to a 2018 report by the Justice Department Inspector General. The FBI agreed to destroy the laptops of top Clinton aides after a limited examination of their contents (including a promise not to examine any post-January 31, 2015, emails or content). When Clinton aides used BleachBit software and hammers to destroy email evidence under congressional subpoena, the FBI treated it as a harmless error.
The Inspector General criticized FBI investigators for relying on “rapport building” with Team Hillary instead of using subpoenas to compel the disclosure of key evidence. An unnamed FBI agent on the case responded to a fellow FBI agent who asked how an interview went with a witness who worked with the Clintons at their Chappaqua residence: “Awesome. Lied his ass off. Went from never inside the scif [sensitive compartmented information facility] at res [residence], to looked in when it was being constructed, to removed the trash twice, to troubleshot the secure fax with HRC a couple times, to everytime there was a secure fax i did it with HRC. Ridic.” When his colleague replied that “would be funny if he was the only guy charged n this deal,” he replied, “aint no one gonna do shit” as far as filing charges.
FBI investigators shrugged off every skullduggery they encountered from Hillary’s staffers. The Inspector General report revealed that key FBI agents in the investigations were raving partisans. “We’ll stop” Trump from becoming president, lead FBI investigator Peter Strzok texted his mistress/girlfriend, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, in August 2016. One FBI agent labeled Trump supporters as “retarded” and declared, “I’m with her” [Hillary Clinton]. Another FBI employee texted that “Trump’s supporters are all poor to middle class, uneducated, lazy POS.”
The FBI delayed interviewing Clinton until the end of the investigation, after she had clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, and just before the Democratic National Convention. FBI agents at that interview found Clinton’s answers “strained credulity”; one agent put her responses in the “bucket of hard to impossible to believe.” The FBI planned to absolve her “absent a confession from Clinton,” the Inspector General noted. There was no recording or transcript of that final interview. Minimizing the evidence maximized the discretion of FBI officials in a landmark political case.
Shortly after that interview, FBI chief Comey publicly announced that “no charges are appropriate” because Hillary didn’t intend to violate federal law. But that law is a strict-liability statute; “intent” is irrelevant to the criminal violation. After his actions outraged supporters of both Trump and Clinton, Comey blamed Twitter “demagoguery” for the widespread belief that the FBI was not “honest” or “competent.”
After voters made their choice in November 2016, one FBI lawyer texted that he was “devastated” by Trump’s election and declared, “Viva la Resistance!” and “I never really liked the Republic anyway.” The same person became the “primary FBI attorney assigned to [Russian election interference] investigation beginning in early 2017,” the IG noted.
In May 2023, Special Counsel John Durham issued a 316-page report with fresh documentation on how the FBI repeatedly rescued Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. The Clinton Foundation raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in squirrely foreign contributions while she was secretary of state and readying her presidential campaign. The Durham Report found that “senior FBI and Department officials placed restrictions on how [the Clinton Foundation investigation was] handled such that essentially no investigative activities occurred for months leading up to the election.” On top of that dereliction, the FBI “appears to have made no effort to investigate … the Clinton campaign’s purported acceptance of a[n illegal] campaign contribution that was made by the FBI’s own long-term [confidential human source] on behalf of Insider 1 and, ultimately, Foreign Government.”
Top FBI officials also saved Hillary Clinton by scorning the federal statute book and treating her pervasive, perpetual violations of federal laws on classified documents as a harmless, unintentional error. Shortly after FBI chief Comey announced no charges against Hillary, “Clinton allegedly approved a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to tie Trump to Russia as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server,” according to the Durham Report. CIA chief John Brennan briefed President Barack Obama and other top officials on “alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016, of a proposal … to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services.” There is no evidence that Obama and his policymakers had any objections to Hillary’s vilification proposal (referred to as the “Clinton Plan” in Durham’s report). FBI officials relied on the “Clinton Plan” to target the Trump campaign even though “[n]o FBI personnel … [took] any action to vet the Clinton Plan intelligence,” the report noted.
The Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign paid former British agent Christopher Steele to create a dossier — known as the “Steele dossier” — with lurid, unverified accusations against Trump. The FBI was willing to pay any price to defeat Trump and offered Steele $1 million in cash if he could prove the charges in the dossier before the 2016 election. Steele could not do so. Steele was already on the FBI payroll, though he was terminated in November 2016 for dishing allegations to the media. “The FBI discounted or willfully ignored material information that did not support the narrative of a collusive relationship between Trump and Russia,” the Durham Report noted. As FBI analysts recognized that the Steele dossier was a hoax, FBI bosses ordered “no more memorandums were to be written” analyzing its claims.
The FBI relied on the Steele dossier to get warrants to spy on Trump campaign officials from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Even after the Steele dossier was discredited, the FBI paid Igor Danchenko, the primary Russian source for the dossier, as a “confidential human source for more than three years until the fall of 2020 when he was terminated for lying to agents.” The Federal Election Commission fined the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign $113,000 in 2022 for their deceptive funding to cover up their role in spawning the Steele dossier.
After the 2016 election, FBI officials sought to cripple Trump’s presidency with fabricated evidence of connections to Russia. A 2019 Inspector General report concluded that FBI officials made 17 “significant inaccuracies and omissions” in its application to the FISA Court to spy on former Trump advisor Carter Page. The FBI withheld details from the court that would have crippled the credibility of its request to spy on Trump campaign officials.
Kevin Clinesmith, a top FBI lawyer, was convicted for falsifying evidence to secure a FISA warrant to target Trump campaign officials. A federal prosecutor declared that the “resulting harm is immeasurable” from Clinesmith’s action. But Federal Judge James Boasberg conducted a “pity party” at the sentencing, noting that Clinesmith “went from being an obscure government lawyer to standing in the eye of a media hurricane….. Clinesmith has lost his job in government service — what has given his life much of its meaning.” Scorning the prosecutor’s recommendation for jail time, the judge gave Clinesmith a wrist-slap — 400 hours of community service and 12 months of probation. The FISA court in late 2019 publicly condemned the FBI lies that resulted in nuclear-powered surveillance warrants targeting the Trump campaign. “The frequency with which representations made by F.B.I. personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other F.B.I. applications is reliable,” Judge Rosemary Collyer wrote.
After he was fired in May 2017, FBI chief James Comey leaked official memos with confidential information to a lawyer who delivered them to the New York Times, a disclosure that was later condemned by the Inspector General. Comey’s leak triggered the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Trump. Mueller’s investigation generated endless allegations and controversies and helped Democrats capture control of the House of Representatives in 2018. In April 2019, after two years of media frenzies, Mueller finally admitted he found no evidence to prosecute Trump or his campaign officials for colluding with Russia in the 2016 campaign.
The only lesson the FBI learned from the 2016 election was to work harder to rig results. In December 2019, FBI agents came into possession of a laptop that Hunter Biden, the drug-addicted son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, had abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop. That laptop’s hard drive was a treasure trove of crimes, including evidence that Hunter and other family members had collected millions in payments from foreign sources for providing access in Washington and other favors. That laptop provided ample warnings of how Joe Biden could be compromised by foreign powers. But FBI bosses blocked their agents from investigating its contents until after the 2020 election. Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) reported that FBI agents examining the evidence on Hunter Biden “opened an assessment which was used by an FBI headquarters team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease.”
When news finally leaked out about the Hunter Biden laptop in October 2020, 51 former intelligence officials effectively torpedoed the story by claiming that the laptop was a Russian disinformation ploy. Their letter was orchestrated by Biden presidential campaign advisor — and later his Secretary of State — Anthony Blinken. The FBI knew that the laptop was bona fide but said nothing to undercut the falsehoods made by the former spooks. Twitter and other social media outlets suppressed information on the Hunter Biden laptop until after the election.
Special Counsel John Durham asserted that the FBI’s abuses in the Clinton and Trump investigations caused the agency “severe reputational harm.” But Congress awarded the FBI a record budget regardless, and that is the only “reputation” that matters inside the Beltway.
The Washington Post fretted that the Durham Report “may fuel rather than end partisan debate about politicization within the Justice Department and FBI.” The FBI announced that it had taken “dozens of corrective actions” to prevent similar “missteps” in the future. Law professor Jonathan Turley scoffed that the FBI’s statement “is ample evidence of a lack of remorse by the FBI like a habitual offender giving a shrug in his court ‘allocution’ before a judge.”
When getting caught trying to steal an election is a mere “misstep,” it will happen again. Unless Congress and federal courts leash or slash the power of the FBI, there needs to be a change in inaugural festivities. Instead of invoking “the will of the people,” perhaps future presidents should invoke “the will of the FBI.” If that happened, much of the Washington press corps would probably stand up and cheer for their favorite agency.
(James Bovard is the author of Attention Deficit Democracy, The Bush Betrayal, and Terrorism and Tyranny. His latest book is Last Rights: the Death of American Liberty. Bovard is on the USA Today Board of Contributors. He is on Twitter at @jimbovard. His website is at www.jimbovard.com. CounterPunch.org)
THE US KEEPS OPENLY ADMITTING IT DELIBERATELY CAUSED THE IRAN PROTESTS
by Caitlin Johnstone
Speaking before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explicitly stated that the US deliberately caused a financial crisis in Iran with the goal of fomenting civil unrest in the country.
Asked by Senator Katie Britt what more the US can be doing to place pressure on the Ayatollah and Iran, Bessent explained that the Treasury Department has implemented a “strategy” designed to undermine the Iranian currency which crashed the economy and sparked the violent protests we’ve seen throughout the country.
“One thing we could do at Treasury, and what we have done, is created a dollar shortage in the country,” Bessent said. “At a speech at the Economic Club in March I outlined the strategy. It came to a swift and I would say grand culmination in December when one of the largest banks in Iran went under. There was a run on the bank, the central bank had to print money, the Iranian currency went into free fall, inflation exploded, and hence we have seen the Iranian people out on the street.”
This is not the first time Bessent has made these admissions. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, the treasury secretary said the following:
“President Trump ordered Treasury and our OFAC division, Office of Foreign Asset Control, to put maximum pressure on Iran. And it’s worked, because in December, their economy collapsed. We saw a major bank go under; the central bank has started to print money. There is dollar shortage. They are not able to get imports, and this is why the people took to the street. So, this is economic statecraft, no shots fired, and things are moving in a very positive way here.”
Following these remarks, Jeffrey Sachs and Sybil Farres wrote the following for Common Dreams:
“What Secretary Bessent describes is of course not ‘economic statecraft’ in a traditional sense. It is war conducted by economic means, all designed to produce an economic crisis and social unrest leading to a fall of the government. This is proudly hailed as ‘economic statecraft.’
“The human suffering caused by outright war and crushing economic sanctions is not so different as one might think. Economic collapse produces shortages of food, medicine, and fuel, while also destroying savings, pensions, wages, and public services. Deliberate economic collapse drives people into poverty, malnutrition, and premature death, just as outright war does.”
Bessent laid out these plans in advance at the Economic Club of New York back in March of last year, saying the following:
“Last month, the White House announced its maximum pressure campaign on Iran designed to collapse its already buckling economy. The Iranian economy is in disarray; 35% official inflation, has a currency that has depreciated 60% in the last 12 months, and an ongoing energy crisis. I know a few things about currency devaluations, and if I were an Iranian, I would get all of my money out of the Rial now.
“This precarious state exists before our Maximum Pressure campaign, designed to collapse Iranian oil exports from the current 1.5–1.6, million barrels per day, back to the trickle they were when President Trump left office.
“Iran has developed a complex shadow network of financial facilitators and black-market oil shippers via a ghost fleet to sell oil, petrochemical and other commodities to finance its exports and generate hard currency.
“As such, we have elevated a sanctions campaign against this export infrastructure, targeting all stages of Iran’s oil supply chain. We have coupled this with vigorous government engagement and private sector outreach.
“We will close off Iran’s access to the international financial system by targeting regional parties that facilitate the transfer of its revenues. Treasury is prepared to engage in frank discussions with these countries. We are going to shut down Iran’s oil sector and drone manufacturing capabilities.
“We have predetermined benchmarks and timelines. Making Iran Broke Again will mark the beginning of our updated sanctions policy. Watch this space.”
The US has been orchestrating plans to foment unrest in Iran by causing economic strife for years. In 2019 Trump’s previous secretary of state Mike Pompeo openly acknowledged that the goal of Washington’s economic warfare against Iran was to make the population so miserable that they “change the government”, cheerfully citing the “economic distress” the nation had been placed under by US sanctions.
As unrest tore through Iran last mont, Trump egged protesters on and encouraged them to escalate, saying “To all Iranian patriots, keep protesting, take over your institutions, if possible, and save the name of the killers and the abusers that are abusing you,” adding, “all I say to them is help is on its way.”
Deliberately trying to ignite a civil war in a country by immiserating its population so severely that they start attacking their own government out of sheer desperation is one of the most evil things you can possibly imagine. But under the western empire it’s just another day. They’re doing it in Iran, and they’ve also aggressively ramped up efforts to to do it in Cuba, where the government has just announced it will be rationing oil as the US moves to strangle the island nation into regime change.
A lot of attention is going into the Epstein files right now, and understandably so. But it’s worth noting that nothing in them is as depraved and abusive as what our rulers are doing right out in the open.
(caitlinjohnstone.com.au)
SHAWARMA IN GAZA CITY
by Hassan Ayman Herzallah
My friend Mahmoud called to check on me at the beginning of January. We hadn’t been in touch for a while. I told him, as always, that I missed our days at university. Then, joking, I asked if he was free to invite me over sometime. Mahmoud was making a fire, with his mother sitting beside him. ‘Do you remember the days of hunger, Hassan?’ she asked.
We took our university exams last year online. Mahmoud would call me after each one to discuss the questions. Sometimes he told me he had only drunk water with a pinch of salt to stay awake and focused. Finding flour was nearly impossible, especially where he lived in northern Gaza. My family, in the south, had managed to keep a small amount of flour. I felt helpless, unable to do much for him. I said the suffering would end soon and I would come to see him, and he would treat me to shawarma.
After asking me if I remembered those days, Mahmoud’s mother took the phone. She asked about my studies and my family. She said I was like a son to them and their home was open to me. They would be waiting for me in Gaza City in two days.
On the morning of the visit I woke up early, made mint tea, drank it with my parents, and left our tent in al-Mawasi. Before the war, the trip to the north had taken less than an hour. Now, with so many roads and buildings destroyed, it took more than three hours.
I felt like a stranger in a city I used to know by heart. In my first year at university, I had taken the bus through Gaza City every day. Now we were travelling through streets and neighborhoods that had once been familiar to me, but I barely recognized anything. I kept asking the driver if we were there yet.
When we got to the neighborhood of Saraya, Mahmoud was waiting for me. Seeing him, I felt as if we were back at university with our old friends. I asked about them. Some had lost touch, he said, some had left, and some had been killed.
We walked through the market. The mosque had been partly destroyed, but the minaret was still standing. The church was completely gone. By late afternoon, we reached his house. They had only recently returned after months of displacement. There were no doors or windows, only pieces of cloth hanging in their place, and cracks ran along the walls. Most of the houses in the alley around it were destroyed.
I stayed for a short while. When Mahmoud’s mother saw me, she smiled and said: ‘Welcome, my fourth son.’ Then we went to a place we used to go every week: Shawarma al-Hajj al-Sheikh, one of the oldest shawarma restaurants in Gaza. The building had been shelled. But next to it a large tent had been set up where they had reopened using whatever was available.
We ordered shawarma for each of us. It felt strange: the place was familiar, the faces were familiar, the food was familiar, but we had missed it for so long. The smell took me back years, to a time before all the times I had risked my life to get bread, vegetables or chicken for my family. With the first bite, I felt for a moment as if I had just returned from a lecture. Mahmoud looked at me. ‘This is the happiest day of my life,’ he said.
It was late when we finished our meal and Mahmoud insisted I stay the night. In his room, we ate fruit and talked about university. We didn’t speak about the war. Mahmoud fell asleep before me. I stared at the ceiling, trying to remember the details of my old bedroom.
In the morning we went out for hummus and falafel. I said goodbye to Mahmoud and his family and took the bus back to al-Mawasi. When I got to our tent, my mother asked about the trip. I told her it had been beautiful, but it had also revealed how even the simplest things have become luxuries. Survival, trying to live as we once did, is an act of resistance.
(London Review of Books)
The Spanish journalist Carlos Hernandez has died, you can read his final statement if you follow the link below, IMHO worth reading
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/06/reading-this-i-am-dead-how-to-live
“Make no mistake. If the decommissioning goes through, hundreds of legacy farms and this area’s rich agricultural heritage will be lost,” Rollins wrote in the letter.
“Legacy farms,”? LOL. Greedy settlers haven’t been here long enough to use terms like “legacy” to support their greedy, destructive ways of using natural resources.
Take the dams and diversions out now! Lower your population to a sustainable level for the habitat it occupies. Quit diverting water for profit. Get your backward ways repaired. Don’t pay heed to the advice of greedy kaputailists and sanctimonious morons!
DA BROILER DAVE EYSTER CAN HELP HERE
I am a distant relative of one of the UUDS employees where do I sign up for training and food, please advise