Letters 3/25/2026

• No More Bottles
• Support AB2494 (Jackson State Forest)
• By What Authority Did Trump Start A War In Iran?
• Smart Is Worth It
• Demonstrate ‘Climate Justice’ In Mendocino Demonstration Forest
• With A War In Iran, Remember The Lessons Of History
• The Bills For Trump’s Tariffs Are Still Coming Due
• Trump Administration Is Censoring History At Parks, Public Locations
• President Taco
• War And The Environment
• Oppose The Save Act
• Support Dementia Care
• AI Is Dangerous
• Not A Video Game
• Head Fakes
• Trump’s Iran Scam

---

NO MORE BOTTLES

Editor,

My husband and I pick up trash along Highway 101, Burke Hill to Nelson road, southbound.

The number of hard liquor pint and quart bottles, malt liquor cans , beer cans, airplane size hard liquor mini bottles that we pick up and dispose of is shocking. Alarming. Disturbing.

If it wasn’t such a dangerous and ridiculous ask, to sell more liquor at a “store” placed right next to a highway on-ramp, it might be comical; in its complete disconnect and disregard for public safety.

It’s dangerous enough out on our roads, as I can attest, without making it less so, merely because someone wants to further line his pocket.

Leslie Gail Dammuller

Ukiah

---

SUPPORT AB2494 (Jackson State Forest)

Editor,

A letter published March 8 from a registered professional forester opposes AB 2494, in that it “seeks to fix something that is not broken” with respect to Jackson Demonstration State Forest. As someone who grew up with Jackson as my backyard and cares deeply about this forest, I respectfully disagree and I think the record deserves a fuller picture.

First, AB 2494 does not end timber harvest at JDSF. Timber sales can still occur under the bill, but in service of restoration and research rather than as a commercial production mandate. That is a meaningful distinction. The current governing mandate is from 1947, when demonstrating maximum sustained yield was the explicit goal. Updating what is being “demonstrated” is not radical; it is long overdue.

Second, the claim that JDSF is environmentally sound under current management conflicts with decades of peer-reviewed science conducted onsite. The Caspar Creek Experimental Watershed, located within JDSF and studied jointly by the USDA Forest Service and Cal Fire since 1961, has documented how timber harvest increases sedimentation and harms coho salmon and steelhead. These are not outside critics; this is the forest’s own long-term research record.

Furthermore, that research was conducted before climate change became the defining threat it is today. Warmer temperatures, prolonged drought, and shifting precipitation patterns are already slowing growth rates, increasing disease pressure, and raising wildfire risk across California’s forests. A management mandate written in 1947 was not designed for these conditions. AB 2494 offers a path toward the kind of adaptive, resilience-focused stewardship that this forest will need to survive the century ahead, whereas current law has forced Cal Fire’s hand, even as the science, the climate, and California’s own stated policy priorities have moved in an entirely different direction.

Third, the “working-class voices underrepresented” argument cuts both ways. When the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in 2021 to ask the Governor for a scientific review of JDSF management, Supervisor Gjerde reported receiving over 800 public comments with fewer than six percent in opposition. The community has been speaking. The question is whether Sacramento is listening.

AB 2494 is not an attack on foresters or on responsible land management. It is a recognition that public forests owe the public more than just board feet, they owe us clean water, wildlife habitat, climate resilience, recreation and a future that subsequent generations will thank us for protecting.

Chet Jamgochian

Mendocino

---

BY WHAT AUTHORITY DID TRUMP START A WAR IN IRAN?

Editor:

I understand that there are some very bad guys in seats of power. That said, with what moral authority does the president purport to attack and remove other world leaders without military provocation or even a dialogue with our representatives in Congress?

On Feb. 28, the Israeli military, with US complicity, assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with his wife, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and a grandchild. That same day, there was an airstrike on a girls elementary school in Minab, Iran, killing more than 100 Iranian children between the ages of 7 and 12. The human cost of war is rarely just one very bad guy. Sadly, Donald Trump’s “Department of War” is living up to its new name.

Gail Yeager

Petaluma

---

SMART IS WORTH IT

Editor:

Even after $1.5 billion was spent widening Highway 101 to three lanes from the Golden Gate Bridge to Windsor, traffic congestion remains a daily reality in Sonoma County. Two articles in the March 4 edition made that clear: one about carpool-lane hours on Highway 101 and another about renewing SMART’s quarter-cent tax. SMART is part of the solution. About 5,000 riders use the train every day, removing thousands of car trips from an already crowded highway.

The train also serves people who cannot rely entirely on cars — youth, seniors, people with disabilities and many others who need dependable transportation to jobs and schools. For everyone else, riding the train is simply a better way to travel: less stressful, less polluting and far more efficient than sitting in traffic.

Public transportation decisions, as well as other public policy issues, should reflect the needs and values of our community — not the political preferences of a handful of wealthy donors. Renewing SMART’s funding continues a successful investment that improves mobility and quality of life across Sonoma and Marin counties.

Eric Peterson

Santa Rosa

---

DEMONSTRATE ‘CLIMATE JUSTICE’ IN MENDOCINO DEMONSTRATION FOREST

Editor:

As a working mom raising two daughters on the Mendocino Coast where my husband grew up, I voice my strong support for Assemblyman Chris Rogers’ Assembly Bill 2494, which would finally end commercial logging of coastal redwoods in our local Jackson Demonstration State Forest. The bill moves the forest’s management priorities where they ought to be: fun activities like hiking, biking and camping; restoring special wildlife like fish, woodpeckers, owls and special plants and trees like tanoaks and redwoods; and co-governance with the Pomo Indigenous people whose land this has always been.

In December, Cal Fire’s Santa Rosa section approved clear-cutting redwoods in a new timber harvest plan across a patchwork of nearly 500 acres of Jackson Demonstration State Forest. Now the agency is considering the Camp 8 South Timber Harvest Plan, which threatens the oldest, undisturbed second-growth redwood stands in the steepest, most fragile terrain in the forest.

As Mendocino County coastal communities suffer from atmospheric river storms, wildfires and other clear harms of the climate crisis, the hypocrisy of “demonstrating timber production” in Jackson Demonstration State Forest has become intolerable. We’re a long way from the 1940s. Let’s start demonstrating climate justice.

Rachele Hayward

Gualala

---

WITH A WAR IN IRAN, REMEMBER THE LESSONS OF HISTORY

Editor:

So we are at war once again. I just watched a movie about the Tuskegee Airmen — one of the most successful fighter groups in World War II — for roughly the 50th time. All Black Americans. It also made me think about the Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team, recruited from the concentration camps built for Japanese Americans — the single most decorated unit in World War II. Coincidentally, the history that the current party in power is working feverishly to erase.

Are we about to repeat history? When we start losing our friends and neighbors, will we turn to those treated as inferior to help us once again? Will we let them out of the freshly built concentration camps to fight our war? I served in war with all kinds of people. Most of us were not asked; we were ordered. I never met one fellow veteran who was not proud of their service and committed to doing his or her job.

Those people I mentioned above all volunteered. And when those we consider “minorities” came home we went back to treating them as “less than.” I pray that we learn from history for a change and not repeat the mistakes of the past.

Chris Wilbur

Santa Rosa

---

THE BILLS FOR TRUMP’S TARIFFS ARE STILL COMING DUE

Editor:

For those gullible enough to continue to fall for Donald Trump’s claim that exporting nations are paying his illegal tariffs, the time has passed to realize you’ve been lied to. Last October, I purchased some olive wood from Turkey for an art project. I paid $65 for the wood, which included shipping via FedEx. I paid the appropriate state sales tax at the time of purchase. On March 3, I received a letter from FedEx with an insert from the Department of Homeland Security detailing the purchase and the amount I owe. The amount levied is $9.25 (15%), another $2.15 (3.3%) for what appears to be a federal tax of some kind and an undefined “Disbursement Fee” of $4.50. The total is $16.40. The illegal tax levied is 25%. FedEx is listed as the importer, but it’s unclear if FedEx paid the tax; although I’m assuming they did, since my name is not on the DHS form. The notice is to remit payment to FedEx, but I wonder: since FedEx has filed suit in the U.S. Court of International Trade to recover the illegal tax, will they return my payment or double dip?

Tim McFarlin

Santa Rosa

---

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IS CENSORING HISTORY AT PARKS, PUBLIC LOCATIONS

Editor:

Well, “1984” is happening now. Under executive orders 4253 and 3431, President Donald Trump, federal budget diretor Russell Vought, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the rest of his administration are trying to use public lands to change history and science. Hundreds of signs, exhibits, films and other materials have been flagged for review. Some of these exhibits and materials have already been taken down and replaced with “other” language rewriting our history.

Why is Trump doing this? It makes his agenda easier. Profiting from coal and oil is easier if the impacts of fossil fuels are removed from Muir Woods and the Everglades. It’s easier to imprison people if you don’t see the true stories of the Japanese American Incarceration during World War II. Encouraging racism is easier if you hide the evidence of slavery as has happened at Independence Hall and other sites. Shame on the Trump administration.

Kayla Lassen

Santa Rosa

---

PRESIDENT TACO

Editor:

Is The Iran War Shaping Up As Another Taco Moment?

Are we seeing another TACO — Trump always chickens out — moment? First, Donald Trump gets talked into attacking Iran by the Israelis and Saudis. It’s regime change and supporting the protesters. It’s talking out their leaders before they take out Trump. Then it’s the oil. Then it’s anti-terrorism. The reason seemed to change daily. It’s going to take four weeks. It’s a war. Trump even said he won’t get bored with it. We’ll keep at it until they surrender unconditionally.

Well, now the stock market is all over the place. Oil prices are way up. Inflation threatens to head up again. The jobs report sucks. Iran chose an even-more hardline leader and shows no sign of backing down. What does Trump do? Now the “incursion” is almost over, according to his latest statement.

If this isn’t another TACO moment, what is it? You have a president without any understanding of how things work, who can be easily manipulated and who has no clear vision beyond self-interest. I only hope enough people understand where we’re at with this administration and the Democrats sweep the midterms — assuming they get better at elections.

Hans Van Boldrik

Santa Rosa

---

WAR AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Editor:

Something rarely talked about when we discuss war is the environmental impact. It’s easy to contemplate the immense suffering of people caught in the violence of war — the injuries and death, dislocation, loss of food, shelter and security to everyone, especially children. Meanwhile, Mother Earth is absorbing another mighty blow during war.

Consider the massive carbon dioxide and other hydrocarbon emissions from vast armies and armadas crossing land and sea. The toxic residues left behind from bombs, lead bullets, destroyed vehicles and burning buildings that infiltrate the soil and water for years to come. The impact on the ecosystems of plant and animal life that humans ultimately depend on from the marching armies, migrating refugees and accelerated climate change.

One country may think they won the war, but Mother Earth just took another serious hit. We don’t have another planet, another home to escape to. Ultimately, we are all in one boat floating through deep space. We cannot give up on working out our differences through means other than war.

Michael Krikorian

Windsor

---

OPPOSE THE SAVE ACT

Editor,

On May 21, 2025, the County of Mendocino sent a letter to Jared Huffman stating strong opposition to the SAVE Act (Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility). We are asking readers to do the same, but since the act has passed the House, to send your letters thanking them for their opposition to Senators Alex Padilla {331 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington DC 20510- (202) 224-3553 and Adam Schiff. (112 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington DC 20510- (202) 224-3841)

Despite its name, the SAVE Act would impose significant new restrictions on voter registration processes and shift the burden of proof of citizenship onto individuals and local election offices—despite the fact that non-citizens are already prohibited from voting in federal and California elections under existing law.

This legislation would require every voter—newly registering or updating their registration—to present documentary proof of U.S. citizenship. Acceptable documents would likely include a birth certificate, U.S. passport, or naturalization papers. The mandate would apply retroactively to all voters whose citizenship status cannot be confirmed in existing databases, regardless of how long they have been registered.

It is even more important that we make our voices heard with the threat of a ballot measure in November, urging many of these same requirements.

The League of Women Voters of Mendocino County is urging you to stand with the LWV California, and Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber, Ph.D., who has expressed grave concerns about this act and the potential ballot measure, stating that it would “make it harder for all eligible voters to cast their votes and participate in our democracy” and would reverse decades of progress toward broadening access to the ballot.

Thank you for your consideration.

Charlene McAllister, President LWV Mendocino County

---

SUPPORT DEMENTIA CARE

Dear Editor,

Urging Senator Mike McGuire, Assemblymember Chris Rogers to co-sign this budget Request — $5.4 million (Asm. Athens / Sen. Ochoa Bogh): For Dementia Care Aware

I am writing to urge Senator Mike McGuire and Assemblymember Chris Rogers to support and co-sign the Budget Request for a one-time General Fund allocation of $5.4 million to fund Dementia Care Aware (DCA). I respectfully request that this critical investment be made available over three years, with oversight transitioned to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).

Why this funding matters…

Before DCA, nearly one in four primary care physicians reported no training in dementia diagnosis, and two out of three described their training as “very little.” DCA’s training courses and resources build the knowledge and skills clinicians need to detect dementia early, conduct accurate diagnostic evaluations, implement brain health plans, and provide timely care and support.

DCA has partnered with CDPH’s Alzheimer’s Disease Program (ADP) and Dementia Care California (DCC), creating a robust resource for clinicians to learn best practices in case management and care navigation using state-specific resources.

Improved care management translates to fewer emergency department visits, fewer outpatient and acute care events, and overall cost savings—a clear return on investment. DCA is a proven program that would be jeopardized without funding, halting momentum toward a dementia-capable workforce and risking the loss of diverse training programs refined by experienced professionals.

What the funding would achieve

Support DCA expenditures on salaries, travel, materials and supplies, website maintenance, and consultant contracts for program operations.

Expand DCC offerings to reach more clinicians and care teams across the state.

Ensure ongoing oversight by CDPH, maintaining program quality and accountability.

Continue the momentum: to date, DCA has trained more than 7,250 professionals, predominantly clinicians, with the potential to help many more as the population ages.

Additional impact and accessibility

DCA’s innovative use of remote technology, together with in-person training sessions, enables outreach to primary care teams in 93 percent of California counties.

DCA builds dementia capability across California’s health care workforce, reaching both clinicians and non-clinical providers through a blend of in-person and remote training.

The program reaches underserved and rural communities, including Mendocino County and Humboldt County, ensuring more equitable access to dementia care training.

A strong plea for strategic investment…

Three years of funding will allow DCA to continue training providers in early detection and diagnosis, helping reduce unnecessary hospitalizations and emergency department visits, while improving outcomes for Californians living with Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias.

I strongly urge Senator McGuire and Assemblymember Rogers to co-sign and champion this budget item, recognizing that investing in DCA now is an investment in better care and lower costs for our state.

Elizabeth Santos, State Champion Advocate Alzheimer’s Association Northern California Chapter,

Ukiah

---

AI IS DANGEROUS

Editor,

There is no I in AI.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) works by using algorithms (sets of instructions for computers to accomplish specific tasks or solve problems) to search vast computer data banks for information to “learn” from the data and to make adjustments based on prior “experience” so as to improve performance over time.

The problem with this conception of AI is that no matter how many data banks it studies, it can never duplicate the actual lived experience of living breathing human beings. How can a computer experience what it’s like to take a breath, to laugh at a joke, to mourn a loss, to savor a meal, to bask in the glow of an orgasm?

While AI has access to data banks replete with elaborate and detailed expressions of these experiences by great artists and scientists, such data is no substitute for the sensory perceptions experienced by living people in their everyday lives. Only grey matter can experience that. Real Intelligence (RI) is achieved through lived experience.

As every person is the sum of their lived experience, and every person’s lived experience is unique to them, it is through lived experience that we develop our sense of self-consciousness, who we identify as “I”. Since AI, with all its algorithmically generated “experiences,” has no actual lived experience, it can never attain the distinction of I. In essence, there is no I in AI.

Without the perspective of I, the product of AI is lacking in inspiration that can only come from lived experience.

Without inspiration, AI is just a patch-work imitation of what has already been created; a Frankenstein’s monster.

If AI were around in the 1850s with the data that was available to Charles Darwin, would it have come-up with the theory of evolution that was inspired by Darwin’s lived experience? If AI were around in the 1900s with the data that was available to Albert Einstein, would it have come-up with the theory of relativity (E = mc2) that was inspired by Einstein’s lived experience? The inspiration necessary for transcendent human thought can only come through lived experience, not through super-fast data mining. It is RI, not AI, that drives human innovation.

AI corporate giants Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple want us to believe that AI is going to solve complex problems like the cure for cancer and the solution to global warming, but don’t bet your house on it. The only way to solve such problems is for individual people acting of their own free will to make major qualitative changes in their lives. Meanwhile, with its empty promises of a better world, I-less AI only serves to alienate living people from their own lived experience.

Jon Spitz

Laytonville

---

NOT A VIDEO GAME

Editor:

The military campaign against Iran was assigned the codename “Epic Fury,” essentially “massive rage.” The White House put out a release with the headline “America’s Warriors Are Obliterating Iranian Terror Regime with Unrelenting Force.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explained this won’t be a politically correct operation: “We fight to win, and we don’t waste time or lives.” Taking the above descriptions alone, you might think “Epic Fury” was an action movie or a video game, and you wouldn’t exactly be wrong. The White House actually posted a video titled “Justice the American Way” that merges clips from a video game with action movies and Iran missile strike footage. The likely goal: portray America’s aggressive superiority.

This strategy may have a vulnerability, however. It appears Iran has so many cheap easily made drones that our more limited and expensive defenses won’t be able to keep up. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump sees “Epic Fury” as a business transaction. From an interview: “We expect casualties, but in the end it’s going to be a great deal for the world.”

Currently, the Trump administration’s jingoism may be sufficiently impressing enough Americans, but start adding more U.S. casualties and Trump’s supposed “great deal” may dramatically implode around him.

Sherman Schapiro

Eureka

---

HEAD FAKES

Editor,

During Joe Biden’s tenure the Justice Department initiated investigations of Donald Trump’s various “excesses” because Trump broke the law — trying to overturn an election, keeping classified documents, etc. And the Justice Department investigated Trump as they should have. Biden didn’t order them to. Trump’s Justice Department, under orders from Trump, is going after people Trump deems his enemies in order to punish them and then trying to find laws with which to charge them.

There’s a difference between blatantly and publicly breaking laws and trying to find a law to apply against someone who merely is publicly against Trump. This whataboutism is typical of Trump supporters who want to take the focus off the laws Trump and his administration have broken by trying to pin similar offenses on others. It doesn’t make Trump’s lawlessness any better.

Annette Flachman

Windsor

---

TRUMP’S IRAN SCAM

Editor,

As the Trump administration defunds infrastructure for wind and solar power generation, dismissing renewable energy as a “green new scam,” we find ourselves tethered to an energy source that comes from dinosaurs.

With the war with Iran tightening its grip on global oil supplies, the “energy independence” promised by a fossil-fuel-only philosophy has turned out to be a house of cards. The Trump administration has removed the lifeboats while the ship is springing leaks — literally.

Oil tankers are now floating bombs, and recent strikes in the region have already turned the sea black and rained soot over cities, creating an ecological disaster.

By abandoning sustainable energy options at a moment when global chaos makes them most necessary, we haven’t secured our future; we’ve simply ensured that our economy will falter, and human health and the environment are victims.

It is quite the achievement to manufacture an energy crisis and environmental disaster simultaneously. History will likely find it less pithy and more tragic that we chose to go dark just as the sun and wind were becoming our most reliable allies.

Michael Gill

Berkeley