Mendocino County Today: Friday 2/12/2026

Cloudy | Coach Removed | Teeter Taxes | Carol Brown | Sex Crimes | LaFever Commentary | Local Events | Storing Water | Homeless Ukiah | Berle & Tim | Short-Term Rentals | Jazz Club | Green Presentation | Hauling Logs | Yesterday's Catch | Poem I | Nixon Catch | Wine Shorts | One-Party State | Cotton Picker | Poem II | FBI Story | Alcatraz Dining | Master Game | Woods Book | Hard Rain | HST on JFK | Vultures Circling | Paranoid | FBI Fishing | Help Others | Yellow Chicken | Airport Closure | Half Breed | Minneapolis Report | Government Abuses | Bluebird Nothingness | Science Wrong | Lead Stories | Friday 13 | Corrupt Degenerates | Meeting Ourselves | Rain | Weatherside

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STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A partly cloudy 44F this Friday morning on the coast. A mix of cloud covers until later tomorrow when the rain arrives. We've got sneaker waves on the coast so heads up along the shore. I noticed overnight lows will be quite brisk next week even with the cloud cover, I'm keeping an eye on that ? Rain is forecast daily into next weekend, there could be a few breaks along the way I suspect.

AN EXTENDED PERIOD of wet and colder weather that will span through next week will begin over the weekend. Significant mountain travel impacts begin from these systems by early next week and continue through much of the week. (NWS)

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ODD and dramatic occurrence at Boonville High School a week or two ago when Luis Espinoza was peremptorily removed as coach mid-game by school authorities. Espinoza, a native of the Anderson Valley and a graduate of the school where he has coached for many years, is also a deputy with the Sheriff's Department but has been on paid leave for some time. Neither superintendent Larson nor Sheriff Kendall have answered requests for clarification, despite Espinoza's sudden and public removal from his coaching responsibilities.

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TEETERING ON THE BRINK

by Mark Scaramella

A few weeks ago we reported on the County’s Tax Collection Mess, highlighted by the December 2025 State audit report which concluded that “The county estimated that as of December 2025 it had $30.6 million in uncollected taxes, penalties, interest, and fees related to defaulted properties.”

Uncollected taxes fall into two categories: Delinquent taxes (the above $30.6 million where tax bills are not paid, or paid late), and “escapes” (after-the-fact discoveries over and above the $30.6 million that stem from tax bills that were incorrect or unbilled due to mistakes, overlooked ownership changes, development, etc.).

In the last few years, Mendo’s unpaid taxes rate has been creeping steadily up, leading to concern that millions of dollars worth of taxes due may never be paid and that more millions of taxes due may never even be billed.

At their Tuesday, February 3, 2026 Board meeting the Supervisors discussed the problem with County Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector (ACTTC) Chamise Cubbison.

Cubbison began by telling the Supervisors that the amount of unpaid taxes fluctuates over the year. As of January 29, 2026 the amount was calculated to be about $29.4 million, $9.8 million of which is penalty and interest on unpaid taxes. Cubbison added that of that $29.4 million, about $10 million is old enough to be “eligible” for collection via tax auction because the unpaid debt (penalty and interest) is at least four years old. And, of that $10 million, a whopping $6 million is penalties and interest which have built up over time on a base of about $3.7 million in delinquent taxes.

But a property being “eligible” for tax auction is far from actual collection. Some properties (particularly in the northern inland area of the County where marijuana cultivation artificially raised the value of rural properties, some of which have been abandoned) aren’t worth the current assessed value, much less the penalties and interest which have accumulated to be more than the taxes due. In addition, putting a tax-defaulted property on the market is a labor intensive process requiring tediously accurate information.

Last fall, Ms. Cubbison told the Supervisors that about $4.1 million of unbudgeted revenue had been received as part of the end-of-year close-out carry-over which she guessed was largely due to “escapes” that were discovered and processed late, primarily associated with County staff getting around to assessing and billing for properties that had changed ownership creating increased assessments and associated taxes. Escape bills do not have penalties and interest added.

Ms. Cubbison also told the Supervisors that there are now hundreds of property owners who received delayed “escape” bills sometimes for taxes accumulated over several years that have opted for “payment plans” because they can’t pay the full catch-up amount in one year. This in turn has created a substantial additional workload for the tax collection office staff, causing them to spend time managing lots of extra payment plans rather than actually collecting delinquent taxes.

However, Ms. Cubbison pointed out that despite the millions of uncollected taxes, neither the County nor the schools and special districts that rely on those revenues have suffered from declining revenue so far because the County participates in a state-authorized funding scheme known as the “Teeter Plan.”

The basic concept of the Teeter Plan is that the County distributes 100% of the value of property taxes billed while the County assumes the debt owed plus penalties and interest. Then, in theory, when the delinquent taxes are (hopefully) paid, the County is reimbursed for what they distributed and keeps the penalties and interest.

But that theoretical benefit is only realized if the taxes, penalties and interest are paid, or if the defaulted property is sold at a tax auction for at least the value of the taxes, penalties and interest due.

So far, the distributions to County departments, schools and special districts have continued despite the unpaid taxes deficit because the County maintains a “Tax Loss Reserve Fund,” also known as the Teeter Fund, which is drawn down to cover delinquent taxes and replenished when (or if) payments are made (with interest and penalties).

If taxes, penalties and interest are paid, the Teeter Fund accumulates the money until the amount exceeds 25% of the delinquent tax value at which point the excess can be added to the General Fund.

But if the taxes, penalties and interest are not paid the Teeter (reserve) Fund is continually depleted.

Unfortunately, the State Auditor did not address the Teeter Fund status in their report, despite charging the State some $800k for the audit. So Ms. Cubbison and the Board have not been required to address it in their response to the State Auditor.

For now we have to trust that Ms. Cubbison and her overworked accounting staff can somehow stay on top of all these moving parts and hope that someday — now said to be maybe in 2027 — they will catch up with tax collections and replace the Teeter Fund payouts with a surplus that can be used to reduce some of the County’s General Fund budget deficit.

These accounting and collection processes alone sound like a very fragile and tricky arrangement to base County (and schools and special districts) operations on. When you add on the County administration’s poor management record, the pending financial office reorganization, management turnover, bureaucratic infighting, unworkable software, understaffing and the Board’s failure to stay on top of this basic function of local government, you have to wonder if the Good Ship Mendo can stay afloat.

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CAROL BROWN

Carol A. Brown passed away peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, on February 6, 2026, in Santa Rosa, California, at the age of 79. She was born November 19, 1946, to Frank “Bud” and Josephine “Dodie” (Dumais) Mathews. Her story began in International Falls, Minnesota, where she was born and raised. In 1965, the day after graduating high school, Carol boarded a train to California with her mom to meet the love of her life from the age of 14 in International Falls, and married Donald V. Brown one week later. This was the beginning of a lifelong love story and partnership lasting 53 years.

A woman of many seasons, Carol devoted most of her life to caring for her husband, children, and grandchildren. She embraced her role as a homemaker with pride, grace, and deep love for her family. In later years, she joined the workforce, bringing warmth and dedication to her work at the County of Mendocino. She cherished the friendships she built with colleagues and found great fulfillment in serving her community. After retirement, Carol enjoyed spending time at Coyote Valley Casino, where her friendly spirit and easy smile had a way of turning strangers into instant friends.

Carol was preceded in death by her parents, her three brothers, Earl, Gerald, and Larry, and her beloved husband, Donald V. Brown. She is survived by her daughter, Carmen Harris (Dana), of Ukiah, California; her son, Cory Brown of Redwood Valley, California; and her cherished grandchildren: Kati Harris-Bond (Chantelle), Brooke Warner (James), Tristin Hunt (Xavier), Paige Brown (Jesse), and Eris Brown. She also leaves behind six adored great grandchildren, Mateo, Adara, Payton, Dimitri, Bennett, and Aurellio, all of whom brought her immense pride and joy. She will be missed by her niece and cousin who she talked to every night and so many family and friends.

A celebration of life will be held at a later date. Details will be shared with family and friends once arrangements are finalized.

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ELISE COX [yesterday]: Today we published stories about two men accused of sex crimes. One had his due process rights respected and was found guilty as charged. The other had his personal information leaked to a influencer who made it clear he believed the accused had no rights. The first defendant was convicted by a jury of his peers. The second case is stalled. No charges have been filed. The court docket was hidden from view for weeks. Mendo Local intervened to get the file opened, and we learned that the so-called agreement between the prosecution and defense we previously reported on has not yet led to an order for the judge to sign. At least, nothing is filed in the court docket.

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THE JOURNALIST AS PERV

"Two Fired Cops," Trent James and Chris Awad, commenting on the arrest of Matt LaFever back on November 3, 2025…

https://youtu.be/MjWqaVivC1U?si=eDS6PCCDlNjK7MKn

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LOCAL EVENTS

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POTTER VALLEY WATER STORAGE OPTIONS ON AGENDA

by Justine Frederiksen

Potential options for storing water if and when the dams serving the Potter Valley Project are eventually removed will be discussed Thursday by the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, the board which First District Mendocino County Supervisor Madeline Cline still sits on despite reservations expressed last week by a fellow supervisor.

“In November, the (Mendocino County Board of Supervisors) passed a resolution in support of the IWPC, the board working to secure water supply for the region after the planned removal of the Potter Valley Project and its dams,” said Third District Supervisor John Haschak Feb. 3 when introducing an agenda item that he sponsored, which called for reconsidering having Cline represent her fellow supervisors on the IWPC board.

Since Supervisor Cline voted against the resolution along with Fourth District Supervisor Bernie Norvell, Haschak said at the time he “questioned whether Supervisor Cline should continue on as the county’s representative on the IWPC,” but she remained in that role “after she said she supported the goals of the IWPC.”

However, soon after that meeting Haschak said he received communication from multiple sources that showed Cline had met with U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in Anaheim along with residents of Potter Valley and Lake County “who were fighting against the IWPC plan,” and that later “Secretary Rollins came out strongly against the work of the IWPC.”

“When you align with people trying to undermine the work done locally, and the county’s position, this is serious, and that is why I am calling for reconsideration (of the vote confirming her as representative),” continued Haschak, describing the IWPC as having “worked very hard to build a coalition that represents reality and a path to meeting our water goals … so unless the discussion with Secretary Rollins was that the board supports the work done by IWPC to secure water for both (the Russian River and Eel River) basins, recognize Tribal rights, seek funding for storage, and educate the public about the reality of PG&E decommissioning the Potter Valley Project, Supervisor Cline did not represent the county… (since) the board’s representative on the IWPC should represent the entire county and it’s longterm success.”

Second District Supervisor Maureen Mulheren then said she did not support reconsidering Cline as the IWPC representative, and wanted to hear from Cline.

“To have certain members of this board continually characterize my vote as something against the work of IWPC is very disheartening,” said Cline, explaining that in November she was pushing to add language to the resolution that addressed the critical need for alternative water storage to replace what is currently provided by the dams. “Trust me: it would be a lot easier to sit back and say ‘I don’t want to work on this issue, it’s too controversial,’ and just tell my constituents what they want to hear. But that’s not leadership, and that’s not honest.”

Cline said she was happy to talk about the meeting in Anaheim that Haschak referred to, describing it as “a private meeting that I attended (which was) hosted by the Secretary of the USDA, (and) my goal was to hear the conversation and speak to what the PVP provides for our community,” which she said was both water supply and storage.

“I paid for the trip myself, and paid to go and be in a room where the federal government was talking about the most important issue facing this community,” Cline continued. “And quite frankly, I don’t think I would be doing my job if I had walked away and turned down that opportunity to talk about why this is important for our future.”

Several speakers then addressed the board.

“I am baffled by this agenda item,” said Matthew Delbar of Potter Valley. “Supervisor Cline is the only one on this board who listed anything about water as a priority just three weeks ago, (while) every other supervisor has failed to mention the lifeblood of our county. This reconsideration is asinine and ought to be rejected.”

Former First District Supervisor Glenn McGourty also expressed support for Cline remaining as the IWPC representative, especially given her continually advocating for more water storage.

Instead of the Two-Basin Solution that many describe the proposed new diversions supported by the IWPC as providing, McGourty said “at the moment we have what I call a one-and-a-half-basin solution until we discover how we can store water so that agriculture and the way of life in Potter Valley can continue. (So) it’s great that (Cline) made that connection with the Secretary of Agriculture, because (that is the person who) controls programs that could benefit us” as new storage options are explored.

After public comment, Haschak said it appeared he did not have enough votes from his fellow supervisors to pass the proposed reconsideration, so he ultimately declined to make a motion.

Supervisor Mulheren then thanked the public for its engagement and urged everyone to attend the next meeting of the IWPC on Thursday, Feb. 12, “where they will be discussing what the (water storage) options are for Potter Valley. I think its really important that the engagement that occurs at Board of Supervisors’ meetings then continue on to the meetings where the actual decisions are made.”

“I want to thank everyone who came here and spoke today, regardless of whether you agree with me or not,” said Cline, noting that those who disagree with her but “didn’t make an effort to reach out to me, I welcome a conversation at any time. Please don’t feel that you have to make a Public Records Act request just to find out information about what I am doing, because I am a open book, and I will tell you at any point in time.”

The next meeting of the IWPC was scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 12, at 5 p.m. in Conference Room A of the Mendocino County Administration building located at 501 Low Gap Road. The public can attend in-person or on Zoom at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81498551897 Meeting ID: 814 9855 1897 Dial in by phone: 669 900-6833

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

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JOHN JOHNS:

Why do you think we have a homeless issue in Ukiah, and what do you think we can do about it?

Ukiah, California, faces an acute housing shortage and a tight rental market, with vacancy rates as low as 2.8% and a high demand for available units. While categorized as a balanced market in some 2025 reports, there is still intense demand, with a median home price of $560,000 as of December 2025 and a long history of housing shortages.

Key details regarding the housing situation in Ukiah include:

Rental Shortage: Rental vacancy rates are extremely low, creating a crisis for renters.

Housing Stock: A large majority of housing (over 90%) was built before 1989, and about 75% of units are single-family homes, indicating a lack of diverse, newer options.

Rising Costs: High demand and limited supply have caused home prices and rents to increase.

Production Efforts: The city has implemented programs to increase housing production, resulting in the creation of new units between 2014 and 2018, but the shortage persists.

Homelessness: The shortage is directly linked to an "atrocious" situation with homelessness, with community leaders acknowledging the need for more affordable housing.

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FORMER UNDERSHERIFF BERLE MURRAY WITH FORMER SHERIFF TIM SHEA (via Ron Parker)

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A READER WRITES: SHORT TERM RENTALS (STRs): 823 Homes Removed From Mendocino Housing Market

I pulled current Airbnb listings for 15 Mendocino County communities using AirRoi to scrape market data (January 2026):

Fort Bragg: 226; Mendocino: 131; Little River: 69; Caspar: 42; Albion: 100; Elk: 27; Point Arena: 40; Gualala: 109; Ukiah: 69; Willits: 25; Hopland: 25; Westport: 9; Laytonville: 16; Philo: 38; Boonville: 31.

Total: 957 active listings

Entire homes: 823 (86%)

Private rooms: 134 (14%)

The data: 86% are entire homes removed from residential use.

This isn’t about “Grandpa” renting a room to pay the bills (14%).

This is profit driven extraction making 823 homes unavailable for teachers, firefighters, nurses, service workers, and washed up hippies.

A good percentage operate with no permits and pay $0 in TOT (bed tax) for many years, with a county too lax to enforce.

Add to that, when fire departments face increased demand from STR activity, they raise parcel taxes. YOU pay that increase.

You’re subsidizing emergency response for your neighbor’s licensed/unlicensed commercial operation.

Do the math: 957 listings at conservative 50% weekend occupancy = ~1,400 unfamiliar visitors every weekend. That’s 1,400 people driving roads they don’t know, in properties they’re unfamiliar with, calling emergency services for situations local residents handle themselves. Fire departments and paramedics get hit with surge demand every Friday and Saturday night… Then YOU pay the parcel tax increase to cover it.

The grow era conditioned this region into extraction cycles: find a resource, fly under the radar, pocket untaxed cash, don’t invest in productive capacity. The county got comfortable being a passive tax collector while looking away.

Now it’s STRs instead of cannabis due to the failure of leadership in developing anything economically beneficial other than low hanging fruit (tourism). Supervisors campaign on “affordable housing” and “economic development” to collect their paychecks, then approve policy yanking 823 homes from residential use. Operators claim they “care about the community” while lining their pockets and expecting someone else to house the teachers, nurses, and workers who make their “community” function.

It’s not community, it’s greed.

I sourced this data over a pint, a keyboard, and skepticism as my motivator – all within 30 minutes.

I’m not even a compensated county employee.

It’s not governance. It’s managed decline. If Mendocino County’s STR policy were a stock representing long-term regional prosperity, I’d short it to scrap value and sleep well doing it.

Time for a haircut.

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MARDI GRAS GIG for OGJC (Old Growth Jazz Club)

Sunday February 15 at Tall Guy Brewery in Fort Bragg. 6 to 9. Free beads (maybe). Good Band. Fun Time. (via Elise Cox)

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PIONEERS OF ANDERSON VALLEY WINE

by Terry Sites

Allan Green, founder and long time owner of Greenwood Ridge Winery and Tasting Room, has recently published a book titled, “Pioneers of Anderson Valley Wine.” Anyone with an interest in the early days of the wine industry in Mendocino County can take advantage of an in-person presentation by the author on February 22nd at 2:00 in the Anderson Valley Historical Museum Rose Room 12340 Highway 128 in Boonville. Admission is free and all are welcome.

Having worked for Allan at his tasting room in Philo for 10 years, I can vouch for his effectiveness as a public speaker. Originator and former host of “Straight Ahead Rock N Roll” on KZYX, his vocal style is professional, smooth and upbeat — very listenable.

When interviewed Allan explained that his reason for putting together this book came from watching a video presented by the Anderson Valley Winegrowers Association highlighting the people who were in the Valley in the beginnings of commercial winegrowing including Deborah Cahn, Ted Bennett, Brad Wiley, Allan and second generation winemakers like Lulu Handley, Zac Robinson and Norman Kobler. It occurred to him that soon those with knowledge of those early days would be gone taking their history with them. He resolved to put together a documentary book before it was too late.

Using his existing knowledge of winery history, he contacted everyone he could think of who night contribute. Eileen and Angelo Pronsolino had memories, writings and photos. Robert Pinoli had early family photos. The cover of the book shows a rustic out building complete with an early destemmer on the Lazy Creek Ranch. The Pronsolinos’ grapevines circa 1930 appear on the back cover. The title page shows an early Zeni Ranch harvest crew. There are many other good photos illustrating the text. Allan compiled memories from the following, Neill Bell, Brad Wiley, Lucie Marshall, Jed Steele, Zac Robinson,  Theo Carrel, Ted Bennett, Deborah Cahn, John Scharffenberger, Carolyn Bowen, Thom Elkjer, Jeff Burroughs, Norman Kobler, Lulu Handley, and Dan Berger. Having many voices tell the story is interesting as each sees a different piece of the bigger winery and vineyard picture.

This book is coming out at a poignant moment as the “Golden Age of Anderson Valley Wineries” is receding. The boom that saw the first three tasting rooms in 1985 grow to 30 in 2020 is over. Alan points out that wine has always been a boom and bust business. 2026 finds the industry in a downswing. The immigrant era gave way to the small passion project wineries, then moved toward corporate ownership, and now in some cases is downsizing.

In the earliest days the largely Italian immigrants brought a wine drinking culture with them. They knew how to grow grapes and how to make wine. The second wave of boomers from the “Back to the land” generation liked wine but did not have agricultural backgrounds. Allan shared, “It was amazing how helpful and collaborative we were at that time. We were all in the same boat, not knowing and using trial and error. We shared equipment and whatever we could. We had to rely on each other because we were so ill equipped.”

It seems at one point Allan was standing at a crossroads in his life. He had a job offer from Sunset magazine to become an assistant art director. Instead he took the “road less traveled” and moved to Philo. When asked why he made that choice he simply said, “I just loved being here.”

That choice was a lucky one for Anderson valley as he brought a solid business and local jobs to a good number of people over many years.

Come and hear Allan share his new book and personal experiences on the 22nd. You are bound to learn something you never knew about wine growing in Anderson Valley.

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FROM E-BAY, A POSTCARD OF LOCAL INTEREST (Circa early 1950s?, via Marshall Newman)

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, February 12, 2026

DANIEL CONSTANCIO JR., 37, Willits. Sexual penetration by threat of retaliation, oral copulation in a correctional facility, intimate touching against the will of the victim.

JAMES DOGGETT, 20, Ukiah. Battery with serious injury.

BRUCE EDWARDS, 38, Willits. Assault with intent to commit mayhem, rape, sodomy, oral copulation, etc., sexual battery by restraint, anal or genital penetration by foreign object by force, violence duress, menace, etc., possession of obscene matter of minor in sexual act, disorderly conduct with concealed camcorder.

CHRISTOPHER GARCIA, 44, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

SARA KLEIN, 52, Redway/Ukiah. Under influence, paraphernalia.

TRINIDAD MAGDALENO-PULIDO, 20, Ukiah. Domestic violence court order violation, probation revocation.

WILLIAM POWELL, II, 50, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

FRANKLIN WHIPPLE, 51, Covelo. Controlled substance while armed with loaded firearm, ammo possession by prohibited person, felon/addict with firearm.

LEWIS WILLIAMS, 26, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, failure to appear.

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SUPER BOWL POEM I

Opening Super Bowl
ceremonies a series
of obscene images:
the Stars and Stripes,
platooned soldiers
in uniform,
jets overhead
and the
fucking
national anthem.

Nobody owns football.
Nobody owns the game,
Nobody own
the players and
the fans,
not the
National Football League,
the colleges and
the coaches.

We’re forever free!

— Jonah Raskin

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ESTHER MOBLEY: What I'm Reading

Wine Spectator’s MaryAnn Worobiec reports that Crimson Wine Group, the conglomerate that owns wineries including Pine Ridge, Seghesio and Chamisal, has acquired another California winery: Raeburn, in the Russian River Valley, for $35 million. Formerly owned by Purple Brands, Raeburn produces about 250,000 cases of $15-$25 wines, mostly Chardonnay. 

Combining red and wine wines — whether during fermentation or afterward — has become a major trend in recent years, and the Economist reports that one Alsatian winemaker has apparently coined a new term for it: “blouge,” a portmanteau of blanc and rouge. 

Uncle Nearest, the whiskey brand that only recently was “held up as an emblem for the rapid changes coursing through the American whiskey industry,” is in a state of financial disrepair, Clay Risen reports in the New York Times.

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ONE PARTY STATE

Editor: As a third generation Californian and independent centrist, I’ve backed pragmatic policies across party lines, but our state’s record under single-party rule screams for scrutiny before the midterms. It’s a glaring red flag about the perils of unchecked dominance.

Our state languishes dead last in housing affordability. In Los Angeles and the Bay Area, six-figure earners qualify as low-income under crushing costs. Cost-adjusted, California’s poverty rate ties Louisiana’s, trapping 1 in 6 residents. We host nearly half the nation’s chronically homeless, and since 2020, over 1.3 million have bolted.

Worse yet: The high-speed rail debacle tops $128 billion with endless delays, squandering $4 billion in federal funds. A year after the Los Angeles wildfires, only 14% of homes have rebuilding permits. Rampant fraud bleeds taxpayer dollars — $20 billion-$32 billion from pandemic unemployment, $23 million from homelessness grants, $16 million in sham hospice schemes and $10 billion in federal child care funds frozen over misuse concerns.

This isn’t partisan sniping; it’s fiscal folly handing opponents ammunition. Insist on reforms: Diversify taxes, cap spending, deliver outcomes. Centrists demand competence that unites us all. Isn’t this rooted in single-party rule dominating our state?

— Gary Jones, Santa Rosa

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SUPER BOWL POEM II

Are women’s
bodies
still bound
and sold?
Yeah, they are.

Bad Bunny’s
body didn’t
breach a spec of skin.

Two steps forward
and one step backward.
Viva Puerto Rico.
Viva Las
Americas
siempre!
Free las mujeres
ahora.
Y gracias Bad Bunny.

No shit, man!

— Jonah Raskin

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RONDA ROSS:

No matter how corrupt citizens imagine DC to be, the truth is always worse. There, literally, is no bottom.

The stories of FBI agents sitting in school parking lots threatening parents their employers would be notified of pending FBI investigations, if they did not stop speaking at school board meetings, sounded too horrific, to be true. Now we know it was simply the tip of the investigation iceberg.

What kind of FBI threatens parents begging schools to reopen after an 18 month Covid break or to keep their daughters safe from sexual assault in the bathroom, in the middle of the school day?

Now it is known the problem was much more broad than just a Merrick Garland, so consumed with revenge, he was willing to to burn the Constitution to find it. This administration should name names, so the entire country understands what transpired.

Not a McConnell fan per se, but he realized seating Garland on SCOTUS would have been an irrevocable mistake for Americans. Bravo, Mitch.

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ALCATRAZ was known for having some of the best prison food in the United States. Strategy: good meals reduced tension, discouraged riots, and eliminated one of the most common sources of unrest in prisons.

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THE MASTER GAME

"I live in a quiet place, where any sound at night means something is about to happen: You come awake fast – thinking, what does that mean?

Usually nothing. But sometimes … it’s hard to adjust to a city gig where the night is full of sounds, all of them comfortably routine. Cars, horns, footsteps … no way to relax; so drown it all out with the fine white drone of a cross-eyed TV set. Jam the bugger between channels and doze off nicely. …

Ignore that nightmare in the bathroom. Just another ugly refugee from the Love Generation, some doom-struck gimp who couldn’t handle the pressure. My attorney is not a candidate for the Master Game.*

And neither am I, for that matter. I once lived down the hill from Dr. Robert DeRopp on Sonoma Mountain Road, and one fine afternoon in the first rising curl of what would soon become the Great San Francisco Acid Wave I stopped by the Good Doctor’s house with the idea of asking him (since he was even then a known drug authority) what sort of advice he might have for a neighbor with a healthy curiosity about LSD.

I parked on the road and lumbered up his gravel driveway, pausing enroute to wave pleasantly at his wife, who was working in the garden under the brim of a huge seeding hat … a good scene, I thought: The old man is inside brewing up one of his fantastic drug-stews, and here we see his woman out in the garden, pruning carrots, or whatever … humming while she works, some tune I failed to recognize.

Humming. Yes … but it would be nearly ten years before I would recognize that sound for what it was: Like Ginsberg far gone in the Om, DeRopp was trying to humm me off. He was playing the Master Game.* That was no old lady out there in that garden; it was the good doctor himself – and his humming was a frantic attempt to block me out of his higher consciousness. But he hadn’t written The Master Game yet, so I had no way of knowing. …

I made several attempts to make myself clear – just a neighbor come to call and ask the doctor’s advice about gobbling some LSD in my shack just down the hill from his house. I did, after all, have weapons. And I liked to shoot them – especially at night, when the great blue flame would leap out, along with all that noise … and, yes, the bullets, too. We couldn’t ignore that. Big balls of lead/alloy flying around the valley at speeds up to 3700 ft. per second. …

But I always fired into the nearest hill or, failing that, into blackness. I meant no harm; I just liked the explosions. And I was careful never to kill more than I could eat.

“Kill?” I realized I could never properly explain that word to this creature in DeRopp’s garden. Had it ever eaten meat? Could it conjugate the verb “hunt?” Did it understand hunger? Or grasp the awful fact that my income averaged around $32 a week that year?

No … no hope of communication in this place. I recognized that – but not soon enough to keep the drug doctor from humming me all the way down his driveway and into my car and down the mountain road. Forget LSD, I thought. Look what it’s done to that poor bastard.

So I stuck with hash and rum for another six months or so, until I moved into San Francisco and found myself one night in a place called “The Fillmore Auditorium.” And that was that. One grey lump of sugar and Boom. In my mind I was right back there in DeRopp’s garden. Not on the surface, but underneath – poking up through that finely cultivated earth like some kind of mutant mushroom. A victim of the Drug Explosion. A natural street freak, just eating whatever came by. I recall one night in the Matrix, when a road-person came in with a big pack on his back, shouting: “Anybody want some L … S … D …? I got all the makin’s right here. All I need is a place to cook.”

Ray Anderson was on him at once, mumbling, “Cool it, cool it, come on back to the office.” I never saw him after that night, but before he was taken away, the road-person distributed his samples. Huge white spansules. I went into the men’s room to eat mine. But only half at first, I thought. Good thinking, but a hard thing to accomplish under the circumstances. I ate the first half, but spilled the rest on the sleeve of my red Pendleton shirt … And then, wondering what to do with it, I saw the bartender come in. “What’s the trouble,” he said.

"Well,” I said. “All this white stuff on my sleeve is LSD.”

He said nothing: Merely grabbed my arm and began sucking on it. A very gross tableau. I wondered what would happen if some Kingston Trio/young stockbroker type might wander in and catch us in the act. Fuck him, I thought. With a bit of luck, it’ll ruin his life – forever thinking that just behind some narrow door in all his favorite bars, men in red Pendleton shirts are getting incredible kicks from things he’ll never know. Would he dare to suck a sleeve? Probably not. Play it safe. Pretend you never saw it. …"

— Hunter S. Thompson

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THE REINVENTION OF A FAMED AMERICAN BOOKSTORE & ITS FOUNDER

by Jonah Raskin

Gioia Woods — a professor at Northern Arizona University and the author of a new enlightening book about City Lights (City Lights: Lawrence Ferlinghetti and the Biography of a Bookstore), the famed San Francisco Bookstore— first encountered and read a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti in 1979 when she was a high school student in LA. The poem wasn’t from Ferlinghetti’s first book, Pictures of the Gone World, nor from his second book, A Coney Island of the Mind, which has sold over one million copies since it was first published by New Directions in 1957. Nor was it Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, which Ferlinghetti published in 1956 that made the publisher, the poet, the shop and the company globally famous.

The poem Woods read was titled “The Old Italians Dying” and it was published as a broadside. Woods experienced a “shock of recognition,” the phrase that Herman Melville used to describe how he felt when he first read Nathaniel Hawthorne. Later, Edmund Wilson used Melville’s phrase as the title for his book The Shock of Recognition about the “development of American Literature.”

When Woods read Ferlinghetti’s poem, she says that she was “shocked to see people I recognized. In a poem! There they were, “the old Italians in faded felt hats…the old Italians in their black high button shoes…the old ones with gnarled hands / and wild eyebrows / the ones with the baggy pants with both belt & suspenders… the ones who loved Mussolini / the old fascists.”

Not surprisingly, Woods emphasizes Ferlinghetti’s identity as an Italian, which became more and more pronounced as he aged. She also emphasizes the decisive role of three women at City Lights—Elaine Katzenberger, Nancy Peters and Amy Scholder—who together initiated and buttressed what she calls “the change in City Lights’ culture and mystique from a mostly male institution to a largely female-run business.” That change reflected the transformations that have taken place in the counterculture at large from the end of the 20th century to the present day in the 21st.

In eight packed chapters, which provide a hefty chunk of American intellectual and cultural history, Woods shows that, along with Peters who became an editor and then a part owner in 1980, and also with Scholder who brought gay and lesbian writers to the press, Katzenberger— the current executive director of the bookstore and the publishing company—expanded the publication of books by and about women, children and the Third World.

The trio also clamped down on the theft of books and rescued the store from a failing economic model that had brought it to the edge of “near insolvency.”

With Ferlinghetti absent more and more and “the day to day management” in the hands of others, Katzenberger and Co. made City Lights into the sustainable business that it is today. It even sells merch — T-shirts, bandanas and gift cards — not part of Ferlinghetti’s original game plan that brings the store into alignment with other shops that offer stuff for customers to buy.

For years, Ferlinghetti would say, “Someone has to stay home and mind the store.”

His writers traveled. He didn’t. But as he aged, he traveled more and more to Italy, performed his own work there and published Italian writers such as Pier Paolo Pasolini. On his 93rd birthday, when he was awarded the “2013 Cultural Ambassador for the Year of Italian Culture,” he called himself “il poeta anarchico de la citta’ di San Francisco.” His attachment to anarchism and San Francisco was as deep as his love for poetry, from Walt Whitman to T. S. Eliot and Allen Ginsberg.

The boy who was born Lawrence Monsanto Ferling in 1919 — to an Italian father and a Jewish mother and who grew up as an orphan after they died — had come a long way. He had served in the US military, visited Hiroshima after the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city, attended college, became a journalist, fell in love with Paris, and came to San Francisco, which he called “the last frontier with its island mentality” and “pioneer attitude.” Mayor Willie Brown named him the city’s first poet laureate in 1998 at the age of 79.

Make no mistake. Woods is no flame thrower. She honors and respects City Lights and Ferlinghetti, as much if not more than any other fan or citizen of the world or fan. But she offers a new and radical perspective on Ferlinghetti and on the bookstore he co-founded in 1953 with Peter Martin, another Italian, who sold his share in the store in 1955 and returned to New York, where he opened his own bookstore.

Perhaps the word “revolutionary” is too strong to describe the transformations that have taken place at City Lights over the past 60 years. “Evolution” might not be apt, either. The phrase “Sea change” could work nicely. The store that exists today at 261 Columbus Avenue in North Beach bears little resemblance to the store that Ferlinghetti and Martin opened and turned into the first all-paperback bookstore in the US at the beginning of the paperback revolution. For one thing, it’s much larger. Of course, City Lights still sells books, but they are hardbacks as well as paperbacks and they also stock the latest bestsellers. If the store doesn’t have it in stock, you probably don’t really want it.

Woods shows that Ferlinghetti was not only a capable editor and publisher, but that he curated many of the books he published, including the work of Anselm Hollo, a Finnish poet living in London. He also carried on an extensive correspondence with the French-born American Trappist monk, poet and activist, Thomas Merton, who expanded Ferlinghetti’s ideas about censorship, publication, resistance and more.

“In their correspondence,“ Woods writes, “Merton challenges Ferlinghetti to broaden his understanding of political engagement by reminding him of the literature of social justice, its enduring power, and its broad engagement with the public sphere.” Merton’s way was not Ferlinghetti’s. He preferred to be published anonymously and not to be connected to any political agenda or protest group. Still, after months of negotiation, City Lights published Merton’s “Chant to Be Used in Processions around a Site with Furnaces” in The Journal for the Protection of All Beings.

Woods’ book is not the first about Ferlinghetti and City Lights. Nor will it be the last. Fordham Professor John Bugg is writing a book that will presumably cover some of the same ground, but from other angles. Documentary filmmaker Starr Sutherland has been making a movie about City Lights for nearly a decade. He has interviewed almost everyone who has had any connections with the store. I have watched bits and pieces of Starr’s film and know that when it finally arrives on movie screens, it will be a testament to the creative ferment that has informed and that still informs San Francisco.

There’s no one way to view Ferlinghetti. Woods portrays him as perhaps he would want to be portrayed: as a lifelong foe of censorship and government authority and authorities who continued to grow intellectually and emotionally, and who knew when it was time to up and go and to leave City Lights to Katzenberger, Peters, Scholder and others to run the store, publish books and create an authentic community of love and resistance that Merton might want to join.

Gioia Woods will be at City Lights, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, on Wednesday, February 18, 2026, at 7 p.m. Free and open to the public.

(Jonah Raskin is the author of Beat Blues, San Francisco, 1955.)

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A HARD RAIN’S A-GONNA FALL

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways
I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’
Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I met a young woman whose body was burning
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded with hatred
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one?
I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’
I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’
But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

— Bob Dylan

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Matthew Hawn: Clinton had wanted to be JFK. That's who he talked about in his campaigns.

Hunter S. Thompson: You tell Mr. Bill there's a reason that Jack Kennedy was shot, and he hasn't been. There's a very good reason that Jack Kennedy was shot, and Clinton hasn't been.

MH: What's that?

HST: There's no reason to shoot Clinton. They didn't hesitate when Kennedy seemed to be going against them. They shot him. And they shot Bobby.

MH: They?

HST: They. If you are going to shoot the President of the United States, plan it and do it, you must be extremely well-connected and smart and organized. Anybody who can organize a three-position, triangulated shooting at the President of the United States is very good.

MH: Your theory on the JFK assassination is what?

HST: That it was carried out by the Mob but organized and effectuated by J. Edgar Hoover.

— from a 1997 interview in The Atlantic

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VULTURES ARE CIRCLING SAVANNAH GUTHRIE'S ANCHOR SEAT

by Maureen Callahan

The worst thing to ever happen to Savannah Guthrie, it seems, is the best thing to ever happen to her colleagues at NBC.

Whispers already abound among these morning show vipers — who may be seeding an outcome they'd welcome — that Savannah may never come back to the Today show. On-air talent is already taking meetings with execs, jockeying for Savannah's chair, to take over her position as star of the show.

'I'll be surprised if she returns anytime soon,' one source told the Daily Mail exclusively. 'It's an indefinite leave… she left and hasn't turned back.'

Left and hasn't turned back? Her sickly, 84-year-old mother was ripped from her bed less than 2 weeks ago, in the dead of night, and despite the FBI's involvement, no one knows where her mother is, let alone if she's still alive.

And it seems Savannah's colleagues weren't even willing to adopt an air of concern, let alone selflessness, after this unthinkable crime broke on Sunday, February 1.

Nope: Upon realizing that there was no way Savannah would be covering the winter Olympics in Milan, our source says 'people [were] jockeying to get a piece of [Savannah's absence]… I personally know of two people who had meetings to say they were ready to go to Milan in her place.'

Welcome to the cynical world of morning television, insecure celebrities, and a dying infotainment industrial complex looking for a hit of oxygen.…

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/vertical-galleries/article-15554395/Insiders-Vultures-circling-Savannah-Guthries-anchor-seat.html

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EXCLUSIVE: FBI GATHERED INTEL ON 1,000 JOURNALISTS, POLITICIANS, RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS ON FLIMSY GROUNDS

'The FBI can gather a dossier on anyone they choose'

by Ryan Lovelace

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first story in a series on FBI assessments.

The FBI examined more than 1,000 religious organizations, members of the press, public officials, and political candidates in so-called “assessments” that require no evidence of a crime, according to a confidential and closely guarded report exclusively obtained by Racket News.

The January 2026 government report — which directs recipients to destroy its contents when no longer needed — spells out new details of the FBI’s private digging into the personal lives of Americans not accused of any criminal wrongdoing.

The report by the Government Accountability Office, an independent watchdog that aides in congressional oversight of the executive branch, examined the bureau’s use of assessments — investigative tools that allow for warrantless surveillance, confidential informants, and other methods.

Critics say FBI assessments amount to fishing expeditions.

The GAO discovered that dozens of news media organizations and members, more than 100 religious organizations and leaders, and more than 500 public officials had been subjected to the FBI’s special scrutiny from 2018 through 2024.…

https://substack.com/home/post/p-187677951

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WE ARE ALL HERE on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know.

― W. H. Auden

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SINISTER TRUTH OF THE EL PASO AIRPORT CLOSURE IS FAR DARKER THAN AMERICANS REALIZE

by Mark Halperin

It was only a matter of time before something like this happened. Expect it a lot more.

Late Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration abruptly ordered El Paso International Airport to close for ten days.

El Paso is America's 23rd largest city. And, in a country that treats canceled flights as human rights violations and where delayed or rerouted commercial and cargo flights can cost domestic businesses millions of dollars in direct and indirect losses, ten days sounds like an eternity.

What manner of foreign or domestic (or interstellar?) threat could cause such disruption?

Mexican 'cartel drones,' announced Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Wednesday morning. Cue the ominous music, the low-angle camera shot of a blinking red light in the desert sky, the uneasy feeling that the future arrived early and forgot to ask permission.

Surely, the US commercial aviation system can't be halted by a children's toy bought at Walmart. Think again.

The marriage of artificial intelligence and unmanned aircraft means we are living in a brave new world, one that feels less like The Jetsons and more like The Twilight Zone. The kind where Rod Serling steps out, cigarette in hand, and tells us we are about to witness a story about power, speed, advanced technology and the fragility of modern life.

The official story is that the urgent shutdown was sparked by Pentagon tests of a laser-based counter-drone system that reportedly downed a suspected foreign unmanned aerial vehicle earlier this week.

That airborne intruder apparently turned out to be a party balloon.

By early Wednesday morning, the closure was lifted. But the point is made. Loudly. The mere threat of drone incursion is now enough to cause extraordinary disruption. No explosions. No casualties. No smoking wreckage. Just uncertainty.

Indeed, the Trump administration was left looking a bit foolish. But recall the Chinese spy balloon that drifted lazily across North America during the Biden administration, from Alaska to Myrtle Beach, like a wandering parade float of geopolitical embarrassment. We watched, took pictures and joked. But that intrusion was seemingly permitted. Not anymore, apparently.

For most of America's history, with the traumatic exception of 9/11, the US has felt like an impregnable fortress. Oceans as moats. Expertise as armor. Wealth as a bulwark. Distance as destiny. We were the castle on the hill.

Now it is easy—too easy—to imagine a dozen scenarios in which someone, a government, a terrorist group, a gang, or a lone wolf, launches drones from outside or inside the country to cause havoc. Airports, power grids, stadiums, parades, ports and military installations are all at risk.

And Mexican cartels are not bumbling amateurs. They're sophisticated multibillion dollar transnational organizations that employ soldiers, engineers, scouts, and, increasingly, aerial eyes.

Almost immediately after his second inauguration President Trump designated certain cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Shortly thereafter, the Pentagon was given control of federal land on the southern border – partly to stop illegal border crossings and partly for this.

Inside Mexico, the cartels use drones to wage war against their rivals. On the border, they use them to surveil and harass US border security in furtherance of their smuggling operations. Some cartel operatives, according to Ammon Blair, a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, have been spent abroad to learn about advanced drone tactics in active warzones.

It's not like America hasn't been warned. In March 2025, NORAD and NORTHCOM commander General Gregory Guillot said on 60 Minutes that hundreds of mysterious, undetected drone incursions over US military bases constitute a major, fast-evolving threat.

Thankfully, someone has been listening.

Beyond the technical capabilities of the cartels lies the geopolitical question. How does the Trump administration plan to exercise its much-discussed Western Hemisphere hegemony—the so-called Donroe Doctrine—if hostile actors can fly drones willy-nilly across the border?

Rick de la Torre, a retired CIA operations officer and founder and CEO of Tower Strategy, puts it bluntly. 'Neutralizing a single incident is a tactical success. Building layered, integrated deterrence is strategic competence.' De la Torre reminds us, 'A $1,500 drone can shut down a commercial airport if the response system is not seamless.' This is the balance sheet of modern security.

Ammon Blair adds, 'This is about securing the border and protecting military installations. This foreshadows the US finally taking border security seriously.'

'Seriously,' not just an immigration issue, but as national security threat.

Here's the gee-whiz paradox of our time. We have phones that recognize our faces and cars that drive themselves. We can summon groceries with a tap. We can observe Mars in high definition. And yet our greatest vulnerability may be something bought online, flown with a joystick and guided by artificial intelligence.

What happened in El Paso appears to have been a collision of military testing, a very real threat environment and a fair amount of bureaucratic bungling.

But the Pentagon, understandably, wants access to the latest tools to secure the border and defend its military installations. If that means experimenting with advanced systems to take down drones, so be it, even if the family in economy row 22 is inconvenienced.

This episode was brief. No lasting damage. No long-term closure. Life resumed. Flights departed. Suitcases rolled. But it was a rehearsal. A preview. A trailer for a movie none of us want to see.

In the coming years, the question will not be whether drones will be used to disrupt American life. The question is whether we can build systems smart enough, coordinated enough, and fast enough to stop them without shutting down the country in the process.

We once fretted about missiles over Cuba. Then we feared hijackers with box cutters and water bottles. Now we worry about buzzing shadows in the sky.

Look up, it's the future of national security.

(dailymail.co.uk)

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ACTIVISM, UNCENSORED: A RETURN TO MINNEAPOLIS

Chaos continued, but local and state police assistance made a notable difference

by Ford Fischer

A note from Racket News Managing Editor Greg Collard:

Ford Fischer has made Minneapolis his reporting home base in 2026. He’s spent 16 days there this year documenting federal immigration enforcement and the escalation in opposition from activists after the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Border czar Tom Homan announced Thursday that the immigration crackdown there, Operation Metro Surge, would wind down. Agents will be withdrawing through next week. Homan took over the operation from Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on Jan. 26 after the fatal shooting of Pretti.

Ford’s latest trip was Feb. 2-8. Ford said there were notable differences from an earlier trip from Jan. 12-17. The number of federal agents present at protests declined, with local and state police involved in making arrests, which Ford said reduced the need for federal agents to rely on riot munitions to push protesters back.

“In my previous trip, federal agents would do the majority of front line policing against people protesting them. This would lead to street skirmishes involving tear gas, pepper spray, and sting balls, which would in turn tend to have an escalating effect.…

https://youtu.be/O3_9n83jciw

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The government does so much that is wrong, not to mention unconstitutional, and yet the MSM, their democrat co-conspirators, celebrities (including Dumb Bunny, or whoever it is), Olympic athletes, and these dim-witted protesters are obsessed with ICE enforcing laws passed by Congress, and with the support of most Americans. Please keep shining a light on these government abuses. No one else will, what with a lady missing in Arizona, and the Epstein saga now entering its third decade.

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SCIENCE WRONG

The E.P.A. yesterday officially rejected the scientific consensus that greenhouse gases threaten human health and the environment. That means, legally speaking, the agency is no longer allowed to regulate them.

The danger of climate change has been accepted as fact by politicians, including many Republicans, for decades. But President Trump has dismissed it as a “hoax,” and his administration is now effectively saying that the vast majority of scientists around the world are wrong.

Trump’s E.P.A. administrator called yesterday’s announcement “the single largest deregulatory action in the history of the United States.” The administration claimed it would save auto manufacturers and other businesses an estimated $1 trillion, although it has declined to explain how it arrived at that estimate.

(nytimes.com)

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LEAD STORIES, FRIDAY'S NYT

5 Takeaways From Trump’s Immigration Crackdown in Minnesota

Hundreds of Children Are in ICE Detention

The Homeland Security Shutdown Could Affect ICE, Travelers and the Coast Guard

Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change

N.Y.C. Officials Reinstate Pride Flag at Stonewall After Federal Removal

Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses

2 to 3 Cups of Coffee a Day May Reduce Dementia Risk. But Not if It’s Decaf.

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CORRUPT, FILTHY, DEGENERATES

Trump is mentioned 38,000 times in the Epstein Files, yet FBI Agents have redacted millions of documents.

George Galloway interviews Chris Hedges…

https://youtu.be/t_gKAcuBCHs

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EVERY LIFE is in many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love, but always meeting ourselves.

— James Joyce

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RAIN

Woke up this morning with
a terrific urge to lie in bed all day
and read. Fought against it for a minute.

Then looked out the window at the rain.
And gave over. Put myself entirely
in the keep of this rainy morning.

Would I live my life over again?
Make the same unforgiveable mistakes?
Yes, given half a chance. Yes.

— Raymond Carver

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