Mendocino County Today: Friday 2/27/2026

Canine Tanoak | Partly Cloudy | Patrick Campbell | FBCC Meeting | Local Events | FB/Willits Line | CPR Training | Efficient Deliberations | L&J Services | GoFundMe Discussion | Greenwood Fundraiser | Spring Thoughts | Dan Duckhorn | Variety Show | Whale Activists | Scion Exchange | Yesterday's Catch | Legal Injustice | Girl Knitting | CA Cost-of-Living | What Happened | Sigh | Automatic Writing | Henry Blankfort | Stetting Typos | Winery Closures | Phil Ochs | Chuck Wepner | Storm Windows | Kash Parties | Lead Stories | Great Debate | Blameworthy | Wants War | Waiting | Power Shapes | Hind Rajab | Death

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A MIX OF SUN AND CLOUDS is expected Friday before rain showers and possibly thunderstorms return for the weekend. Mainly dry weather is expected Monday and Tuesday with more rain possible Tuesday night or Wednesday. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A warm 48F under partly cloudy skies this Friday morning on the coast. Dueling forecasts again for showers tomorrow so I'll go with a chance of showers Saturday, then another shot Sunday night, then again Wednesday morning. Makes outdoor planning interesting.

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PATRICK WAYNE CAMPBELL

Patrick passed away February 22nd, 2026 at his home surrounded by family.

A viewing is planned for Monday, March 2, 2026 from 2 - 8pm at Anker-Lucier Mortuary, 95 W. Commercial Street, Willits Ca 95490

Funeral will be held Tuesday, March 3rd at 11am also at Anker-Pucier Mortuary. Burial will be at old Sherwood cemetery.

Following the burial a luncheon will be held at the Sherwood Valley Tribal Office, 190 Sherwood hill Dr.

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FORT BRAGG CITY COUNCIL - ROAD REPAIRS ARE A LONG WAY OFF

by Michelle Blackwell

On February 23rd, the Fort Bragg City Council focused on one of the most basic needs of any city: roads. Currently, the city does not have an official road repair crew. Fort Bragg’s small maintenance team does not have the equipment and, for the most part, the training to handle road repairs, but that’s about to change. The city is moving closer to purchasing nearly $600,000 in equipment and the necessary training to go with it so that the existing staff, plus one new hire, can adequately repair potholes.

Public works engineer Chantal O’Neal and maintenance staffers explained that the current process the city uses is to fill a hole with what is called coldpatch. Coldpatch is a temporary fix that deteriorates quickly. To do a permanent repair, you need hot paving. Today, the city has to wait until it hires a paving contractor to create permanent pothole repairs. This causes delays that can exacerbate the road conditions and create more work down the line. The broadband project has also contributed to new potholes, as it has, by necessity damaged many streets in many locations.

The work is made more difficult because hot pavement must be driven over the hill from Ukiah. The new equipment will include the apparatus needed to prep the potholes and a machine that keeps the asphalt warm for up to three days. This will allow the city paving team to schedule work seasonally as needed. To free up maintenance staff for this work, the city will also outsource some other seasonal maintenance jobs, such as landscaping.

The city previously budgeted $354,000 for the equipment and will need to use funds currently available through the California Department of Transportation Local Partnership Program to make up the difference.

The council also gave a thumbs up to hiring Lumis and Associates to engineer a 30% repair plan for needed work on Oak Street and South Harrison. The new city road crew will be working with Lumis in a hybrid capacity. City staff will do the potholing needed for the engineering study. The project on Oak Street includes determining what can be done to address a failed drainage system and an existing sinkhole. On South Harrison, the city already suspects that seven to eight blocks of road need to be completely rebuilt. Two blocks of the road have already failed, and an additional six blocks were laid at the same time, suggesting they will also fail soon, according to O’Neal. The city expects to need to remove up to eight inches of material on South Harrison to prepare the street for new pavement.

The 30% engineering design by Lumis will be used by the city to apply for grant funds to augment existing road repair funds. According to O’Neal, the more vetted a project is, the more likely it will be funded. She also pointed out that construction on South Harrison is unlikely before 2028.

Two members of the public commented and expressed support for the purchase of equipment and the development of a crew to fix potholes. One suggested that some of the funds should come from broadband network fees.

The council also held a hearing and approved an additional small business loan program. The city has been awarded a $570,000 Community Development Block Grant to develop a program that will augment the current Boost program. The monies will cover both the loans and staff time to administer the program from February 2026 through June 2028. Qualifying small businesses will not be charged loan fees; interest rates will apply and will vary from 2.5% to 5% depending on risk factors for terms that are from 5 to 30 years. The other caveat is that businesses will be required to hire staff, and 51% of the new hires will need to meet low-to-moderate-income criteria.

During public comment, one resident asked the city to install exercise equipment at the middle school that would allow the students to build upper-body strength.

City planner, Sarah McCormick, had good news all around. She announced that the broadband project is in the final punch list stage and that services are now being offered to the public. McCormick also announced that the city will not be asked to pay the 3 million in overages that she brought to the City’s attention in January. She added that the middle mile, which is the hookup to the state’s system, will be accessible in December of this year. Presumably, this will increase and enhance existing services.

Councilmember Lindy Peters asked the city staff to look into the use of e-bikes along the coastal trail, saying the riders who are using them are riding at alarming speeds. Apparently, motorized vehicles are not allowed on the coastal trail except for those needed by individuals with mobility issues.

Councilmember Tess Albin Smith took a moment to announce that Tessie Branscomb, who has provided swimming lessons to generations of Fort Bragg residents, recently turned 90. Smith would like the city to honor Branscomb for her years of dedication to the youth of the city.

Under consent, the council approved an additional $5,315 to Therma Inc. for air handler controls and start-up assistance at the CV Starr Center. It was not discussed why the controls and start-up assistance were not part of the initial bid for the project.

The City Council also recognized Los Galitos for its thirty years in business, declared March as Women’s History Month, and honored Dan Platt for a lifetime of service to the Noyo Harbor and the Commercial Fishing Community.

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

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LOCAL EVENTS (today)

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FORT BRAGG—WILLITS RAIL LINE PRESERVED - MENDOCINO RAILWAY CALLS FOR COLLABORATIVE RAIL-AND-TRAIL FUTURE

by Carole Brodsky

Recently, the Surface Transportation Board denied a request to remove the 40-mile Fort Bragg—Willits rail corridor from the national rail network, preserving the line for continued freight and passenger use.

The unanimous decision confirms that the corridor remains part of the interstate rail system and recognizes its potential for present and future rail service.

“This corridor remains a vital public asset for Mendocino County,” said Robert Jason Pinoli, President and CEO of Mendocino Railway. “We appreciate the Board’s thoughtful review. Our focus now is simple: protect the corridor, continue investing in it, and work constructively with regional partners on long-term solutions.”

According to a press release provide by Mendocino Railway, the Board’s decision does not prevent trail development. Instead, it makes clear that recreational trail use can coexist with rail service where properly planned.

Mendocino Railway is calling for renewed collaboration with the Great Redwood Trail Agency to pursue a coordinated rail-and-trail approach that serves both transportation and recreation goals.

“We respect the GRTA’s vision,” Pinoli said. “Rail corridors are uniquely valuable because they can serve multiple public purposes. We are prepared to work together on a solution that preserves freight access, maintains passenger service, and expands trail opportunities for the community.”

Mendocino Railway claims extensive experience developing and maintaining rail-with-trail projects in California, and owns specialized equipment required to build and steward trail infrastructure responsibly. According to Pinoli, the company is actively advancing federally supported infrastructure improvements designed to restore full functionality of the line between Fort Bragg and Willits. These investments are intended to strengthen freight options for local businesses, preserve tourism through excursion passenger service, and maintain long-term transportation flexibility in a rural region with limited alternatives.

“This is about keeping options open for future generations,” Pinoli said. “Once a rail corridor is lost, it is rarely recovered. Our commitment is to protect it, and to ensure it serves the people and businesses of Mendocino County in the most constructive way possible.”

Mendocino Railway has been designated a federally regulated Class III common carrier public utility railroad providing freight and passenger service in Northern California.

Since 2004, the company has operated and maintained the historic Fort Bragg—Willits line, including the Skunk Train passenger service.

For information visit www.mendocinorailway.com

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

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SAME BARREL, DIFFERENT FISH

A Mendocino County Superior Court jury returned from efficient deliberations Wednesday morning to announce it had found the trial defendant guilty as charged.

Defendant Alexander Jacob Aaron, age 46, of Covelo, was found guilty of driving a motor vehicle in Willits on February 28, 2025 while under the influence of drugs, a misdemeanor.

The law enforcement agencies that investigated and developed the evidence used at trial were the Willits Police Department and the Department of Justice Toxicology Laboratory in Sacramento.

The DA’s own Bureau of Investigations provided pretrial and trial support.

The prosecutor who presented the People’s evidence at trial was Deputy District Attorney Carla OCodhain.

Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Charlotte Scott presided over the three-day trial.

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LUIS CHAVEZ (L&J Services, Boonville):

Hope everyone has had a great start to the year! It’s about that time where everything starts to grow out of control. If there's anyone looking for regular maintenance or simply just needs to get a project done please reach out, I or my team can help you out. The services we offer at L&J Services consist of land maintenance, tree work and a variety of other things. We install signs, and even help deliver or pick up your car from a shop. Like I said there's really too many things to list so if there's anyone looking for answers please don’t hesitate to reach out. Plenty of local reliable referrals. Thanks in advance. We look forward to helping you this season! We can be reached at 707/391-6907. Email: [email protected]

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MARCO MCCLEAN:

Another perfect peaceful dead-quiet-gray-air night up Albion Ridge Road. It's 20 to 3. If you're up, go outside. See how nice. I can hear my own blood pumping. Oops. Something tiny chittered off to my left. It's allowed…

Re: GoFundMe discussion.

Regardless of how you feel about capitalism, if a GoFundMe exists for a worthy person and you click a couple of clicks to give that person money, that helps them way more than if you don't.

If you can afford it and you really will put a check in an envelope and mail it to them or find them and hand them a roll of quarters or the fenceposts or roofing supplies they need, or you really will jump through the hoops to pay their PG&E bill directly, or you have the skill and equipment to go fix their RV in the Safeway parking lot, or to meet them in the park and remove their tonsils or appendix or breast cancer, or contact their landlord and pay their rent while they're in jail for throwing half a sandwich at an ICE Brownshirt, great, do any or all of that. But if you can help them with money but step around it and move on and don't do /anything/ because you're offended that GoFundMe uses a small fraction of donations in order to keep the GoFundMe lights on and computers running, then it's more like you don't feel enough like helping them to actually help them. And that's okay, it's your money and your clicking finger, but be honest about it. Or don't. I guess there's no obligation there either. Never mind.

Here are a couple of recent GoFundMe pages for people I know who you probably know, that made their goal in a timely manner and have been helped so far (thanks, Sydelle, for setting it up for Cindy), who would still be struggling without GoFundMe (that doesn't mean you have to stop):

https://www.gofundme.com/f/aid-tracy-burns-through-health-crisis

https://www.gofundme.com/f/Cindy-Frank-and-John-Fremont

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THOUGHTS OF SPRING

March is our lovely little secret. Daffodils are popping up, and the hills have slipped back into their Kelly-green robes. There's more light each day and we are here for it.

All our March specials are underway, and we’re already dreaming ahead to apple blossoms in April and the first roses of May.

All winter, we’ve been caring for our sweet hotel and restaurant: fresh paint, beautiful new windows, and a new entrance Johnny is designing to welcome you all.

Our spring plans are taking shape— check our website for the latest news; we’ve added some new retreats to the hotel calendar.

Or simply come be here: rest, refill your cup, and let us feed you well. We hope you’ll join us.

Food, Glorious Food

Perry and Ben Are Back in the kitchen together, welcoming the new season at the Restaurant with the first bright flavors of spring—beautiful vermillion rockfish from the coast, spring lambs, artichokes, asparagus, fiddlehead ferns, fresh goat cheese, and radicchio—alongside crisp radishes, spicy greens, and potatoes from Filigreen Farms (certified organic and biodynamic).

We're serving our Prix Fixe dinners Friday through Monday evenings. We've expanded our bar menu (highly recommend Perry's burger!) served Friday through Monday evenings from 4–6 pm.

www.boonvillehotelcom

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WINEMAKER WHO FOUNDED ONE OF CALIFORNIA’S MOST RECOGNIZABLE ESTATES AND SPARKED THE MERLOT CRAZE HAS DIED

by Esther Mobley

Dan Duckhorn, who founded one of Napa Valley’s most internationally recognized wineries and sparked a craze for Merlot, died on Wednesday. He was 87.

The cause was congestive heart failure, according to his wife Nancy Andrus Duckhorn.

After founding Duckhorn Vineyards with his late ex-wife in 1976, Duckhorn “became the king of American Merlot,” Linda Murphy wrote in an article naming him the Chronicle’s 2005 Winemaker of the Year. He transformed what began as a small, homegrown operation into a major wine company, establishing other wineries including Goldeneye in Anderson Valley, Paraduxx in Napa Valley, Canvasback in Washington state and the value-oriented Decoy brand. (All of the Duckhorn-associated wineries have waterfowl-themed names.)

After experiencing enormous growth over three decades, Duckhorn Vineyards became a cautionary tale for what can happen when outside interests, especially private equity, take over a family winery. Since the Duckhorn family sold a controlling interest to a private equity firm in 2007, the business has been traded several times, including a three-year stint on the New York Stock Exchange that ended in 2024. Last year, its current owner, private equity firm Butterfly Equity, announced that it was shutting down two tasting rooms and restricting resources to its lower-performing brands.

Despite the company’s recent chaos, Dan Duckhorn’s contribution to the history and impact of California wine is significant. He was part of a wave of vintners who arrived in Napa Valley in the 1970s and changed the trajectory of the once-sleepy farming community. He and his wife at the time, Margaret Duckhorn, stood apart from many of their peers in their desire to champion not only Cabernet Sauvignon, which was quickly becoming the favorite wine of Napa vintners, but also Merlot.

While other Napa wineries tended to use Merlot as a minor component in their Cabernet blends, Duckhorn felt inspired by the great Merlots he’d tasted in Bordeaux’s Pomerol and Saint-Emilion regions. “I liked the softness, the seductiveness, the color, the fact that it went with a lot of different foods,” he told the Chronicle in 2005. “It wasn't so bold (as Cabernet) and didn't need to age so long, and it had this velvety texture to it.”

Duckhorn’s wine became a smash success and helped pave the way for a nationwide Merlot obsession in the 1980s and ’90s. (That obsession famously crashed after the 2004 film “Sideways,” though Duckhorn Merlot continued to enjoy success; Wine Spectator magazine named its 2014 vintage the Wine of the Year in 2017.)

Daniel James Duckhorn was born in San Francisco on April 7, 1938, and grew up in Santa Rosa and Sacramento. He attended college at UC Berkeley as an undergraduate and earned his MBA there in 1962. He went into the business world, working as a manager for a shipping logistics company and a computing languages company before a role with a firm called Vineyard Consulting Corporation relocated him to Napa in 1971. While on the job, he learned about wine and the latest advancements in vineyard technology.

After that fateful trip to Bordeaux, the Duckhorns decided to try their hand at making Merlot. They purchased grapes from the Three Palms Vineyard in Calistoga in 1978, making about 800 cases of the varietal. From there, the winery took off.

In 2000, Dan and Margaret Duckhorn divorced, but both remained in leadership roles at the business they’d co-founded. After selling to private equity firm GI Partners in 2007, then to TSG Consumer Partners in 2016, Dan Duckhorn stayed on as chairman of the board. He played an active role in the company’s 2021 decision to go public, making it the first California winery to do so in nearly 20 years; he rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange in March 2021.

Duckhorn is survived by his wife, Nancy Andrus Duckhorn; his children, John Duckhorn, David Duckhorn and Kellie Duckhorn; his stepdaughter, Nicole Andrus; nine grandchildren; and two siblings. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the California Waterfowl Association.

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DUCKHORN’S ANDERSON VALLEY WATER THEFT: https://theava.com/archives/30503

ANDERSON VALLEY’S MERCENARY VINEYARD: https://theava.com/archives/9999

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MENDOCINO WHALE WAR ACTIVISTS

by Carol Dominy

On March 15, 2025, the Kelley House Museum hosted four original members of the Mendocino Whale War Association: Heidi Cusick Dickerson, Barry Cusick, Sally Welty, and Lee Welty. Also present was Shana Hadley, granddaughter J.D. Mayhew, who was a founding member of the Mendocino Whale War Association. The panel discussed their experiences participating in the Whale War and organizing the first Whale Festival in 1976. The panel is available to watch on the Kelley House Museum YouTube channel. The video also includes a discussion with Katherina Audley of the Noyo Center for Marine Science. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzJCOxlgtRg

The panel began with Heidi Cusick Dickerson reading an excerpt from an article Byrd Baker wrote in 1977 for Mendocino Past and Present magazine. She says Byrd is where it all started. Byrd wrote, “Seeing the sperm whales become extinct, and then the blue whale is going to become extinct in my lifetime, makes me rot inside, because this is the largest of all God’s creatures. Why is it that at 53 years of age, I’m now pounding and yelling ‘This is wrong!’ I asked myself, ‘Byrd, why did you let this happen in your lifetime?’ I guess it was ignorance, total ignorance. Now I’m not the one by any means who originated the idea of stopping killing whales. Thousands of people have said it much better than I can, but the thing is that it came home to me that I could not conduct my life any longer like it was. I had to do what I had to do, and I had to do it right away.

“Here in Mendocino, a whole town was boycotting Japanese products. They had never done that before. I went directly to the merchants and asked how they felt about Japan and Russia killing 85% of the whales. They wanted to know how they could help. All of the merchants began to boycott Japanese products and told their wholesalers and manufactures they would no longer make purchases until the killing of the whales stopped. The whole town joined in the boycott. For many years, people fought to have a 200-mile offshore limit put into effect. Many industries, including the tuna industry, did not want one. The Mendocino Whale War received coverage in newspapers, radio, and television across the United States. We made it clear to the country that the Russians were fishing 12 miles off the United States and even closer in bad weather. We documented the fact that Russian trawlers drag 300-foot-long nets and operate 23 hours a day. We counted 35 of them in a small area, and we had their boat numbers and names. Because of the efforts of the Mendocino Whale War, along with Greenpeace and others, the 200-mile limit went into effect in 1976. So you see, you can dream and you can right a great wrong by getting involved.”

On Saturday, March 7th, the Kelley House Museum is hosting a screening of The Boy Who Talks to Whales. Barry Cusick will introduce the film, which was released in 1975 at the height of environmental activism. The film follows 15-year-old Andy and his Uncle Will as they embark on an arduous search for Gigi, a gray whale they believe communicates with humans. Uncle Will is played by local activist Byrd Baker, whose real-life crusade to “Save God’s Whales” helped spark the anti-whaling movement on the Mendocino Coast. Filmed over 50 years ago, The Boy Who Talks to Whales serves as a vivid visual archive of Mendocino, and many viewers will enjoy the “then and now” look at the town and coastline. Limited seating is available, so advanced purchase of tickets on the Kelley House website is recommended. The film begins at 4pm.

(kelleyhousemuseum.org)

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, February 26, 2026

JOSE CAMPOS-GONZALES, 25, Sun Valley, Nevada/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

CHRISTOPHER COWAN, 39, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

DENNIS HOAGLIN, 68, Willits. Controlled substance with two or more priors, paraphernalia, evasion.

KRIS JONES, 60, Redwood Valley. DUI.

SESARIO RIOS, 19, Redwood Valley. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

CHERRI ROBERTS, 49, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs. (Frequent flyer.)

RENE WINKER, 56, McKinleyville/Ukiah. DUI.

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MORALITY METRIC

Editor:

Animal advocate and rescuer Zoe Rosenberg just completed her 90-day sentence. She was convicted of a felony and multiple misdemeanors for rescuing four chickens from a Petaluma Poultry slaughter truck. Her case has been featured across the media alongside both supporters and opponents. But one narrative I don’t see discussed is the very clear message her conviction shows: In our system, legality is not a metric of morality:

• Stanford swimmer Brock Turner was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. He served 90 days in jail.
• Jack Tarpley Camp Jr., a federal judge, pleaded guilty to a felony and two misdemeanor drug charges. He was sentenced to 30 days.
• Federal Judge Mark Fuller was charged with physically assaulting his wife. He completed a pretrial diversion program and avoided jail.
• President Donald Trump: Convicted of 34 felonies. Zero days in jail.

These examples just touch the surface of the inconsistencies, and most importantly, the injustices of our legal system. In a world where an activist is facing more scrutiny and punishment than the factory farm she called attention to, we should ask ourselves: who is our system for?

Amy Bandiera

Santa Rosa

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CALIFORNIA’S HIGH COST OF LIVING POLICY

Editor:

California’s cost-of-living is the highest in the nation. But one factor for this deserves more scrutiny: governance.

Rental housing costs are 53% above the national average, and utilities are nearly 60% higher; this is not driven solely by geography or desirability. They reflect accumulated regulatory layering, infrastructure mandates and major public cost overruns.

Consider the state’s high-speed rail project. Projected costs have ballooned from $33 billion to more than $100 billion. The project, the financing, bonds and appropriations carry long-term obligations. Debt service does not disappear; it flows through taxes, fees and borrowing costs embedded in the economy.

Energy policy shows a similar pattern. Today’s utility burdens are largely reactive: deferred maintenance, wildfire mitigation after catastrophic losses, undergrounding ordered after tragedy and regulatory miscalculations corrected after the fact.

These fixes may be necessary, but they are expensive. Utilities pass costs to ratepayers. Businesses adjust prices. The premium becomes structural.

Affordability is not only a supply issue. It is also a governance issue. Cost of living is ultimately a policy outcome.

Mike Lewis

Encinitas, San Diego County

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

All I know is my sister worked her ass off every day up until 53 years old. That’s when she slipped in the restaurant kitchen and smacked her head on the concrete floor. Almost died but got Traumatic Brain Injury instead, complete disability and inability to hold a job, massive migraines and much loss of intelligence, memory and focus. She gets $1200/month which is not enough - car, rent, food, heat, etc. She’s lucky to have family. Or she’d be in one of these homeless camps. Not everybody has a family to help support them… WTH has happened to our great country?

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MEMO OF THE DAY

Dear Mr. Stehr,

Melania and I are very sorry to learn of the difficulties you are experiencing, and we will keep you in our thoughts and prayers.

Please know your courage reflects the power of the human spirit, and your tenacity is an inspiration to so many. We hope you find comfort in the love of family and friends and that you will continue to be uplifted by the abiding strength and support of all of those around you.

May God bless you and your family.

Sincerely,

Donald J. Trump, President

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BILL KIMBERLIN:

Henry Blankfort was a Hollywood screenwriter with over 40 screenplays to his credit. He was blacklisted for refusing to cooperate with the Washington witch hunt for communists. One of my film professors was Lester Cole who had famously been one of the ,”Hollywood Ten” that were more famously blacklisted. Cole like Blankfort also still wrote screenplays but under assumed names. In his later years Cole wrote, “Born Free” which was a big hit. I learned a lot from him.

On assumed names…when Fatty Arbuckle was tried for a fake rape in San Francisco, although he was later cleared he couldn’t get work anymore. Except that Charlie Chaplin hired him and gave him the assumed name…”Will B. Good”.

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HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE SURGE OF CALIFORNIA WINERY CLOSURES

by Esther Mobley

The California wine shakeout is upon us. In the month of February, celebrated boutique wineries such as Ernest and Margins announced they’d be going out of business, while wine giants, including Gallo, Foley Family and Jackson Family, shut down production facilities and laid off workers.

After nearly two years of predictions that we’d soon be seeing a wave of winery closures, we’re no longer waiting for the wave — it’s crashing into us.

The pace of these closure and layoff announcements can feel jarring. But I’ve also noted a recent shift in the tone insiders use to discuss the situation. It’s not that they’re suddenly sounding optimistic about the state of the wine market. There is, however, a new willingness to look on the bright side — or “a determination to fix this,” as Dale Stratton, managing director of Azur Associates, a mergers-and-acquisitions advisor to the wine industry, put it.

Stratton, who lives in Napa, cites as an example the arresting visual of driving up the valley’s Highway 29 and seeing so many vineyards being removed. On one hand, it’s a sign of vineyard owners giving up on selling their crop. On the other hand, many are using it as an opportunity to rethink what their vineyards look like as they contemplate an eventual replanting a few years down the line: Should there be less Cabernet Sauvignon in Napa Valley? Should the vine rows be wide enough to accommodate electric or autonomous tractors? Should the fruiting line be higher so that sheep, now a popular grazing accessory in vineyards, can’t eat the crop?

Crises like these, Stratton said, “can give you that moment to rethink how to do things better than you did before.”

It might appear that the downturn is concentrated at the two poles of the industry, the big guys and the boutiques. The reality is that medium-sized businesses are probably hurting just as much, but we may not be hearing about it. Small-scale layoffs don’t have to be reported to the state, which is how we news reporters typically learn about them, for instance. And a lot of wineries may be downsizing in subtler ways, Stratton said. Maybe you didn’t terminate any employees, but you aren’t rehiring when positions open.

Some of the wine companies that have announced layoffs or closures seem to be angling for production efficiency. Foley Family Wines & Spirits closed down the historic Chalone winery in Monterey County, laying off its staff there, but will continue to produce the Chalone label at one of its many other wineries. Similarly, Gallo and Jackson Family each shut down wineries in Napa Valley in the last two weeks, but both were production facilities, not showpiece estates with tasting rooms and in-house brands. Keeping a winery going in Napa isn’t cheap, and both companies probably seized the chance to consolidate their winemaking at fewer addresses.

This spate of announcements may also prove to be a winter-specific trend. The recently shuttered boutique wineries — Arista, Margins, Subject to Change — all said they’d opted not to make any wine in 2025, and they’re now trying to sell off their remaining inventory before winding down the businesses. For the larger players, they may have recently bottled some of the wines they harvested last fall and can now take stock of whether they want to reinvest in producing anything new in 2026.

Still, no matter how you view it, California wine faces a clear and existential problem: Consumer demand is too small, and the industry is too big. Wine sales declined about 2% by volume in 2025 compared to the previous year, according to Silicon Valley Bank. It’s hard to know whether the industry can ever expect to return to the continuous-growth trend that it enjoyed for three decades. Those years of consistent growth led to planting a lot of vineyards, constructing a bunch of wineries, hiring a lot of people. “That infrastructure was built in support of what was a continuously growing industry,” Stratton said, “and we kept building even after we saw signs that it was softening.”

No one, for the most part, is building anymore. They’re downsizing, selling, closing. And that’s likely to continue until the industry itself contracts as much as consumer demand has.

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PHIL OCHS

The folk singer who gave America one of its most powerful anti-war anthems lost his voice on a beach in Tanzania—and with it, the fragile balance holding him together.

Phil Ochs grew up in a restless household. His father, a World War II veteran diagnosed with manic depression, drifted in and out of stability. Phil learned early that certainty could vanish overnight.

Music became his refuge.

At Ohio State, he studied journalism but spent his nights performing in folk clubs. In 1962, just months before graduating, he dropped out and moved to Greenwich Village. There, surrounded by artists like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, he found his voice as a “singing journalist,” turning headlines into protest songs.

In 1965, he released I Ain’t Marching Anymore—a blistering anti-war anthem that became a rallying cry during the Vietnam era. He marched for civil rights, stood with labor movements, and sang at protests across the country. Activism wasn’t an accessory to his music. It was the point.

But 1968 shattered him.

The assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. The violence at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Ochs later marked his symbolic “death” as Chicago, 1968. Something inside him never recovered.

In 1971, he met Chilean singer Victor Jara—a kindred spirit. When Jara was tortured and murdered after the Chilean coup in 1973, the loss devastated him.

That same year, Ochs was attacked and nearly strangled on a beach in Tanzania. The assault permanently damaged his vocal cords, robbing him of key notes in his range. For a singer whose identity was bound to his voice, it was catastrophic.

His mental health declined rapidly. He developed paranoia, adopted an alter ego named “John Butler Train,” and spiraled under the weight of untreated bipolar disorder—the same illness that had haunted his father.

On April 9, 1976, at just 35 years old, Phil Ochs died by suicide.

Three months later, thousands gathered to honor him. The man who believed songs could change the world had written nearly 200 of them in just over a decade.

His life was brief. His struggle was real.

But when the world feels heavy and conscience feels scarce, his words still echo:

“I ain’t marching anymore.”

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CHUCK WEPNER

'I was born in New York, and moved later to Bayonne. It was a rough town, blue-collar, with a lot of mob influence. Each part of town had its own tough guy. Through the years, I ended up fighting three of them, and beat them all. You had to earn your way there, you might say. Nobody gave you anything. If they had a title, 'Toughest Guy In Bayonne,' it would have been me.'

The one-time heavyweight world title challenger, Chuck 'The Bayonne Bleeder' Wepner celebrates his 87th birthday today.

Wepner is best-known for his brave performance against Muhammad Ali in 1975, where despite being outclassed and eventually stopped in the 15th round, his gutsy display earned the respect of millions of boxing fans, as well as inspiring Sylvester Stallone to write the script for the first 'Rocky' movie.

Happy Birthday, Chuck. Many Happy Returns.

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STORM WINDOWS

People are putting up storm windows now,
Or were, this morning, until the heavy rain
Drove them indoors. So, coming home at noon,
I saw storm windows lying on the ground,
Frame-full of rain; through the water and glass
I saw the crushed grass, how it seemed to stream
Away in lines like seaweed on the tide
Or blades of wheat leaning under the wind.
The ripple and splash of rain on the blurred glass
Seemed that it briefly said, as I walked by,
Something I should have liked to say to you,
Something … the dry grass bent under the pane
Brimful of bouncing water … something of
A swaying clarity which blindly echoes
This lonely afternoon of memories
And missed desires, while the wintry rain
(Unspeakable, the distance in the mind!)
Runs on the standing windows and away.

— Howard Nemerov (1977)

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FBI DIRECTOR Kash Patel’s only interest is in using agency resources to fly himself to bitchin’ Olympic locker room celebrations. Did you really expect an appointee of Donald Trump to be against crime? Come on now. If Savannah Guthrie and her siblings wanted to see their mother again, they were going to have to continue to appeal directly to the kidnappers.

— Drew Magery

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“WE HAVE BECOME a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world—a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us… No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we’ll kill you.

Well, shit on that dumbness. George W. Bush does not speak for me or my son or my mother or my friends or the people I respect in this world. We didn’t vote for these cheap, greedy little killers who speak for America today—and we will not vote for them again in 2002. Or 2004. Or ever.

Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having all this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid little rich kids like George Bush?

They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character. They are the racists and hate mongers among us—they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis.

And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. Fuck them.

— Hunter S. Thompson, 2003

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LEAD STORIES, FRIDAY'S NYT

In Tense Deposition, Hillary Clinton Denies Knowing Epstein or His Crimes

Columbia Student Is Released From ICE After Mamdani-Trump Meeting

Pentagon Fires Another Laser at Drone, Prompting New Air Closure

Block Cuts 40% of Its Work Force Because of Its Embrace of A.I.

Netflix Backs Out of Bid for Warner Bros., Paving Way for an Ellison Takeover

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IF THIS COMMITTEE is serious about learning the truth about Epstein’s trafficking crimes, it would not rely on press gaggles to get answers from our current president on his involvement; it would ask him directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files.

— Hillary Clinton

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IF IRAN KILLS US TROOPS, THE BLAME RESTS SOLELY ON THE US AND ISRAEL

by Caitlin Johnstone

White House officials reportedly want Israel to provoke Iran into attacking US military bases in the region, because it will make Americans more willing to go to war.

Politico reports:

"Senior advisers to President Donald Trump would prefer Israel strike Iran before the United States launches an assault on the country, according to two people familiar with ongoing discussions.

"These Trump administration officials are privately arguing that an Israeli attack would trigger Iran to retaliate, helping muster support from American voters for a U.S. strike.

"The calculus is a political one — that more Americans would stomach a war with Iran if the United States or an ally were attacked first. Recent polling shows that Americans, and Republicans in particular, support regime change in Iran, but are unwilling to risk any U.S. casualties to achieve it. That means Trump's team is considering the optics of how an attack is conducted in addition to other justifications — such as Iran's nuclear program."

"There's thinking in and around the administration that the politics are a lot better if the Israelis go first and alone and the Iranians retaliate against us, and give us more reason to take action," an anonymous White House source told Politico.

So according this report the plan is to let Israel initiate the war, draw out an aggressive Iranian response against Israel and US military assets in the area, and then let the media saturate American airwaves with photographs of slain US soldiers so that Americans will support a new war in the middle east.

As a plan to drum up domestic support for war, it would probably work. Israel would certainly be all too happy to initiate another war. The US media would certainly be all too happy to drum up support for American retaliation. And many Americans, God bless them, would be dumb enough to swallow it.

We all saw how easily the American public can be persuaded to sign off on any US military operation after 9/11. We know the drill: Americans get killed, the imperial propaganda machine kicks into hyperdrive, and all of a sudden you've got every war plan and domestic surveillance agenda ever dreamed up by Washington's nastiest swamp monsters being advanced at breakneck pace.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is already laying the groundwork for this narrative push, literally doing the "look how close they put their country to our military bases" meme during a press conference on Wednesday.

"Iran possesses a very large number of ballistic missiles, particularly short-range ballistic missiles that threaten the United States and our bases in the region and our partners in the region, and all of our bases in the UAE, in Qatar, in Bahrain," Rubio said. "And they also possess naval assets that threaten shipping and try to threaten the U.S. Navy. So I want everybody to understand that, and beyond just the nuclear program they possess these conventional weapons that are solely designed to attack America and attack Americans, if they so choose to do so."

They're already blatantly lying to the American public about this thing. In addition to the propaganda narratives we discussed recently like Steve Witkoff claiming Iran is "probably a week away" from having the materials necessary to make a nuclear bomb and The New York Post publishing evidence-free atrocity propaganda about Iran cutting out the reproductive organs of female protesters, President Trump falsely claimed during his State of the Union address on Tuesday that Iran refuses to say it will never develop a nuclear weapon.

"We are in negotiations with them; they want to make a deal but we haven't heard those secret words: We will never have a nuclear weapon," Trump said during his speech before Congress.

As Antiwar's Dave DeCamp pointed out, Iran has been explicitly saying they will never develop a nuclear weapon this entire time, and they literally said it again on the day of Trump's speech. Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi tweeted on Tuesday that "Our fundamental convictions are crystal clear: Iran will under no circumstances ever develop a nuclear weapon."

Whether or not you believe Iran's claims that it has no intention of developing nuclear weapons, it is an indisputable fact that Trump and his speech writers brazenly lied to the American public about Iran refusing to say the words "We will never have a nuclear weapon".

The fact that they would lie so blatantly about something so significant means they'll lie about anything, and nothing these people tell us about Iran and its activities can be trusted.

Trump made other evidence-free claims in the same speech, as DeCamp explains:

"Trump also said that Iran was 'working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America,' a claim that lacks any evidence, and repeated that 32,000 people were killed in the recent protests, an inflated number that lacks real sourcing and is far beyond the 3,317 acknowledged by the Iranian government."

So let's be very clear here: if any US troops are killed by Iranian missiles, the US and Israel are solely to blame for this. If any Israelis are killed by Iranian missiles, the US and Israel are solely to blame for this. Not Iran.

Iran didn't surround itself with US military bases. Iran didn't tear up the Obama nuclear deal. Iran isn't flooding the region with a quantity of US war machinery you never see unless Washington plans on launching an attack. The US did these things.

The US is the one who bombed Iran's energy infrastructure last June. The US is the one who is openly admitting that it deliberately crushed the Iranian economy with the goal of inciting a violent uprising. The US is the one whose National Endowment for Democracy smuggled Starlink terminals into Iran to help facilitate domestic unrest.

If any foreign government had been doing these things to the United States, the US would have wiped them off the face of the earth a long time ago. Iran has been demonstrating superhuman forbearance in the midst of extremely aggressive provocations by Israel and the United States. If Tehran calculates that it can no longer sustain its policy of restraint and needs to push back to protect itself from an existential threat, then the blame for this will not rest on Iran. It will rest solely and entirely on the United States and Israel.

If any US troops die in the upcoming standoff, it will be Washington and Tel Aviv who killed them.

(caitlinjohnstone.com.au)

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WAITING FOR WAR

by Raha Nik-Andish

Usually the last days of February are filled with anticipation of the Persian New Year holiday, Nowruz. People shop for new clothes; grocery stalls brim with mounds of oranges; mothers bargain for tiny goldfish in water-filled plastic bags. Tehran used to move faster at this time of year. People spoke with more confidence and even the smog seemed less suffocating. But this year the city is on pause.

A friend who recently defended her doctoral dissertation invited a few of us to her home. When she opened the door, I said: ‘Tehran seems quiet. Shouldn’t it be busier this time of year?’

She gestured at a nearby street vendor. ‘See that woman? Every night she calls the municipality, asking them whether the Americans will attack tonight. People aren’t planning for the New Year; they are planning for the day after an attack.’

Conversations at the gathering orbited an invisible center. One person mapped an escape route. Another mentioned filling the car with petrol before it gets dark. A third discussed hoarding cash. A few days ago, withdrawing money wasn’t a problem; now ATMs are often empty, or dispense limited sums, as people are moving their savings out of banks and changing rials into dollars.

My sister calls me every day. She’s worried about the meat in her freezer going bad if the electricity is cut off. ‘Have you stocked up yet?’ she asked. She has stored enough food and water for two weeks. At her insistence, I went to the supermarket. The bottled water had vanished from the pavement outside. ‘We don’t have quotas,’ the shopkeeper told me. ‘Just one or two bottles per person.’ Candles and batteries are scarce.

On social media we are told to buy tinned fish and beans, any food that will last. But prices have risen so much I could only afford two tins of tuna. Beside the front door, next to my slippers and outside shoes, I keep a bag with my important documents. In the morning before going to work, people check their torch batteries rather than their emails.

My mother is more silent than usual. She keeps state TV on in the background but watches Instagram on her phone. The reels posted by the Iranian satellite channels in London – Iranian International, Manoto and BBC Persian – showed the fortieth-day commemorations for the people killed during the protests in January.

Many mourners in the videos are wearing white. They clap and dance by their loved ones’ graves. Instead of Islamic prayers there is traditional drumming from southern Iran, or songs by local singers or singers who were popular before the revolution. One reel shows a middle-aged man – perhaps a father – stricken by grief, barely held up by his relations, yet waving his arms in time to the music. It made my mother cry. Dancing has always been a mainstay of Persian family get-togethers; now dancing in graveyards has become a sign of defiance.

At the university where I teach part-time, undergraduate classes are again online but graduate classes are still in person. There have been more demonstrations on campuses in Tehran. Protesters have reverted to calling Sharif University of Technology ‘Aryamehr’, as it was known before the revolution, after one of the titles of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. A toy mouse dangling from a tree branch represented a scared Ayatollah Khamenei, still in hiding. The student protesters were attacked by members of the Basij militia. One clambered up the tree to free the mouse, to mocking shouts of ‘Cry, Basiji, cry!’

After the crackdown on the Green Movement demonstrations in 2009, it took two years before people dared to go out on the streets again. This time it has been only weeks.

‘We used to worry about grades,’ one student said to me, ‘now we’re worried about surviving two weeks without electricity or water.’ My 11-year-old niece called me to say: ‘Uncle, let’s agree to meet in a place, in case the phones don’t work.’

During Ramadan, after the evening call to prayer, people used to fill the restaurants and cafés. Now out driving for Snapp! I’ve noticed how empty even the grocery stores are. One evening, a passenger with two children got in. After a long silence, he said: ‘We protested for our kids’ future, now everyone negotiates only for themselves and their own interests.’

‘Are you afraid of war?’ I asked.

‘No,’ he replied. ‘I fear that life will continue the same afterwards.’

At midnight I picked up a young university lecturer. ‘Students have no hope,’ she told me. ‘War or no war won’t alter their feelings.’

I dropped her off and parked by a flower stall where a street singer, her voice strong and resonant, was performing an old song by Hayedeh that is officially banned: ‘Year after year, regret is all we have.’ None of the people who had gathered around applauded. No one filmed. They simply listened.

(London Review of Books)

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THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB: The Film They Don’t Want You to See

by Chris Hedges

NEW YORK: “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” like all great pieces of art, takes a straightforward story — the battle to save the life of a 6-year-old girl, Hind Rajab, trapped in a car in Gaza surrounded by murdered family members — and elevates it to an archetype. This story is as old as time. It lies at the heart of all religious and moral literature. It pits the cruelty and heartlessness of power against the empathy and compassion of the powerless. It asks us what kind of a life we want to live. Is it a life defined by hubris, domination and violence? Or is it a life defined by compassion, justice and self-sacrifice? These are moral, not political questions.

To nurture, preserve and protect the lives of those demonized in war is to be branded a traitor — a subversive, the enemy. It is to risk death. War, and especially genocide, is the quintessential expression of what Sigmund Freud called Thanatos, the death instinct that drives humans towards the destructions of others and themselves. Those who fight for Eros, for life, are eliminated. This schism is at the core of the film. It is the struggle between good and evil, light and dark. And, as so often happens in war, Thanatos prevails. This almost certain defeat gives unquestioned nobility to those who defy the forces of death.

Israel and its supporters do not want the outside world to see the bureaucratic machinery that perpetuates its mass slaughter, but I suspect, even more, it does not want the world to see the humanity of the Palestinians who resist.

It was hard to find a screening. I traveled for over an hour to see it at the Film Forum in New York City, which had just one showing at 4:45 in the afternoon. I understood why. Despite critical acclaim, an Oscar-nominated director and industry heavyweights like Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix behind it, the film — directed by Tunisian filmmaker, Kaouther Ben Hania —faced major difficulties in getting an American distributor — reportedly out of “fear” and disagreement “with the film’s politics,” according to a report by Deadline.

It is not only devastating, not only a cinematic masterpiece, but it rips back all the layers of rhetoric and propaganda to expose the fundamental struggle between the Israeli occupier and the occupied. The struggle is, yes, a conflict about the theft of Palestinian land. It is, as well, a conflict about a violent and lethal occupation, one that has become full-blown genocide in Gaza. But it is also the ancient struggle between the forces of life and death.

Anyone who follows Israel’s murderous rampage in Gaza knows the story of Hind Rajab. On Jan. 29, 2024, the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza. Six members of the Hamadeh family, along with their 6-year-old niece, Hind, crammed themselves into a black Kia and attempted to flee. They did not get far. An Israeli tank fired on the car, killing everyone except Hind and her 15-year-old cousin, Layan. Layan was able to contact the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) on her dead father’s phone.

“They are shooting at us. The tank is next to me,” Layan tells the PRCS dispatcher, Omar Alqam, an emergency medical worker based in Ramallah.

“Are you hiding?” asks Omar, played by Palestinian actor Motaz Malhees.

“Yes, in the car, we’re in the car, the tank is right next to us,” Layan says.

“You are inside the car?” Omar asks.

There is the sound of gunfire — 62 shots in six seconds — as Layan screams.

The line goes dead.

“Hello? Hello?” Omar says.

There is no answer.

The PRCS immediately calls back.

Hind picks up the phone. She tells Omar that Layan has been shot and everyone in the car is asleep. Hind is trapped in the vehicle surrounded by her dead relatives, who are covered in blood.

It is raining.

For the next three hours, frantic emergency workers seek permission from Israeli authorities to approve a route for an ambulance — which is eight minutes away — to rescue the girl. The film focuses on the frustrations, desperation and hopes of the rescue workers who try to move a boulder up the Sisyphean hill of Israeli occupation.

Rather than recreating the horror of a small, terrified girl trapped in a car with the blood-soaked bodies of her dead relatives, the film uses the recording of Hind’s voice — shown on the screen as a spectrogram — to tell the story.

The focus is on the Red Crescent workers who try to reassure and comfort Hind. They plead desperately with the Red Cross and later the Palestinian Ministry of Health, who act as intermediaries with a unit from the Israeli Defense Ministry known as Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), for a safe passage for the ambulance into an area designated a restricted zone. The phone line with Hind repeatedly cuts. Red Crescent workers are frantic, fearing the worst.

The frustration and trauma of the powerless rescue workers, living under the humiliating and oppressive boot of Israeli occupation, is overwhelming.

The emergency workers release audio from the calls and photographs of Hind on social media, with English subtitles, in hopes of eliciting international outrage. But, as is true for the genocide, Western governments are indifferent to the slaughter of Palestinians, including Palestinian children.

While Hind is on the line, we hear bursts of gunfire.

Rana al-Faqih, another dispatcher — played by Palestinian-Canadian actor Saja Kilani — assures Hind she will be rescued. She helps her recite verses from the Quran in an attempt to comfort the girl.

“I’m so scared,” Hind says. “Please come, come take me.”

The car where Hind is sheltering is near Fares petrol station. The sun sets. Gaza City is shrouded in darkness.

“I’m scared of the dark,” Hind tells Rana.

“Is there gunfire around you?” Rana asks.

“Yes,” Hind says. “Come get me, please.”

After three hours, the IDF gives paramedics permission to rescue Hind, with a map of a route the ambulance must take.

“Hind!” Omar announces on the phone. “In one minute, the car will reach you. It’s just moving slowly.”

The ambulance’s paramedics, Ahmed al-Madhoun and Yusuf Zeino, approach the area. They get within 162 feet of the vehicle.

“Can you see the car?” a dispatcher asks.

“I can’t see a thing here,” one paramedic responds.

“Do you have your siren and flashing lights on?” the dispatcher asks.

“Just the lights, not the siren…oh there it is — ”

There is the sudden sound of gunfire and explosions.

The paramedics can no longer be reached.

Omar asks Hind if she heard an explosion. She responds that she has.

“I’m so scared, please come,” Hind repeatedly pleads.

There is a long period of silence.

“Why aren’t you speaking?” Rana asks Hind.

“I’m not speaking because my mouth is bleeding,” Hind says.

“Wipe it with your hand and then tell me if you’re still bleeding,” Rana says.

“I don’t want to get my shirt dirty, so I don’t trouble my mom,” Hind replies.

“It’s okay, wipe your mouth and I’ll wash it, my sweetheart,” Rana tells her.

“Okay,” Hind says.

Her voice fades away for the final time.

Wissam, Hind’s mother, waits anxiously at the hospital. She desperately searches every incoming ambulance for her daughter.

The Israelis seal off Tel al-Hawa. Palestinians are unable to reach the car until 12 days later. When they finally enter the area, they find the burned-out shell of the ambulance that was sent to rescue Hind.

By that time, Israel has destroyed 80 ambulances, usually killing their crews.

Further up the street from the ambulance, they find Hind’s decomposed body in the back of the car with her relatives.

There are 335 bullet holes in the car and the windows are blown out.

The destroyed car which 6-year-old Hind Rajab and five members of her family were killed after targeted by Israeli forces in Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City (Photo by Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

What were Hind’s final thoughts? Did she see the flashing lights of the ambulance? Did she believe she would be rescued? Did she watch the tank shells rip apart the ambulance and see the paramedics die? Did she see the Israeli machine guns before they opened fire on her? Did she cry out in pain? Did she linger, bloodied and wounded, like her cousin Layan? Did she realize she would not be saved? Did she utter any final words, alone, in the darkness and horror?

“The Voice of Hind Rajab” reminds us that indifference is complicity. It mocks the rhetoric used to dehumanize Palestinians. It unmasks the petty and deadly tyranny of military occupation. It illustrates the powerlessness, indignity and savage violence of occupation. It exposes the fundamental nature of war and genocide. It is a testament to what is good and what is evil.

It asks us to make a choice.

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