Mendocino County Today: Sunday 3/22/2026

YESTERDAY'S HIGHS: Ukiah 82°, Laytonville 79°, Covelo 79°, Boonville 77°, Yorkville 75°, Fort Bragg 57°, Point Arena 55°

DRY WEATHER and above average inland temperatures will persist into next week. A weakening front will bring a quick chance for rainfall and a period of increased southerly winds. Otherwise, dry and warm weather will persist, with periods of breezy northerly winds. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 42F under clear skies this Sunday morning on the coast. Mostly sunny to start the week, a hint of a sprinkle & cooler temps mid week, then more cloudy later in the week. No really.

MARCH 21ST FORT BRAGG DEMONSTRATION PHOTOS

With a warm sunny day and the town hopping due to the Whale Festival, 239 people joined the Indivisible demonstration today.

Thanks to everyone who came out, here they are in action: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCNNnN

— Robert Dominy

COUNTY FAIR WITHDRAWS FROM BOONVILLE WATER PROJECT. But is it final?

by Mark Scaramella

At their Wednesday monthly meeting, the AV Community Services District Board discussed a letter they received from Philo resident Morgan Baynham, a long-time member of the Boonville Fair Board. The letter bluntly declared that the County Fair has elected not to participate in the District’s long-planned water system for Boonville. The letter didn’t seem particularly official; it had no signatures from the Fair Board and offered no reasons.

All five CSD Board members seemed surprised by the Fair/Baynham announcement and wondered what precipitated it. CSD Board member and lead-advocate for both the Boonville Water project and the Boonville Sewer project Valerie Hanelt had drafted a letter in response, basically asking the Fair Board to meet with the District Board to discuss the Fair’s apparent decision and the reasons for it. Hanelt hoped to include the consulting project engineer in the meeting to make sure that all Fair Board members were fully informed about the Boonville Water Project before making any final decision. Board members also wanted to be sure that all Fair Board members understood the impact that the State Water Board’s increasing regulation of local water systems might have on the Fair’s existing water system for the future. They also wanted to discuss the costs of project as it would apply to the Fairgrounds since the CSD Board assumed that the cost of the Fairground’s connection to the Boonville Water Project was a factor in whatever decision making the Fair Board’s position.

After a brief discussion and a few suggested edits the Board decided to ask Hanelt and Director Sash Williams, an avowed fan of the County Fair who happens to live across the street from the Fairgrounds, to finalize the letter and send it to the Fair Board in hopes that they might reconsider before making any final decision. The project engineers have prepared detailed cost summaries of the proposed systems in anticipation of the official “rate letters” which are expected to be sent to all parcel owners in the water and sewer districts (the proposed water district is larger than the sewer district) later this year. Each parcel owner in the respective district will then have an opportunity to vote for or object to each project. If the water system is approved, each parcel owner can then choose to hook up or not. If the sewer system is approved, however, all parcels in the district will be required to hook up per state law,

The Board also approved the distribution of the below Fact Sheets for each of the proposed Boonville municipal projects which have been in the planning and engineering process for more than ten years now:

Fact Sheet for the Proposed Boonville Sewer System

March 12, 2026

The approximate cost of the Boonville Sewer System project is $32 million (Feb 2026) and would be funded by a grant from the State Water Resources Control board (State Water Board) and Division of Financial Assistance (DFA).

The Sewer Service Area boundary would encompass the main Highway 128 artery and all the side streets from Highway 253/Hutsell Rd. to Mt. View, the High School and Anderson Valley Health Clinic (AVHC). There would be approximately 159 parcels within the boundary. (Map posted outside of Fire House).

The Sewer System would be administered by the AVCSD. Technicians would monitor the system, including on-site facilities, with telemetry and ensure each grinder pump is operating. Technicians would maintain and service the collection system, as required. The parcel owner would not be responsible for maintenance or operation of the grinder pump, except for paying for electrical costs.

The State Water Board grant would pay for the collection system, treatment plant and disposal system located on a 20-acre site within the Service Area boundary.

Based on existing parcel uses, the grant would also pay for an appropriately sized grinder pump system including wet well, grinder pump including electrical appurtenances, and sewer lateral on each parcel within the Service Area, to move waste from the buildings to the collection system. Infrastructure provided for larger users such as non-profits and public buildings would be designed with larger grinder pump systems to accommodate existing facilities in the most efficient manner possible.

The wet wells and grinder pumps would typically be located near the existing septic tank. The parcel owner would be able to consult with the construction company to assist in determining the path of their service lateral.

The grinder pump/wet well would be sized to provide emergency storage during power outages. The grinder pump would be powered by each parcel’s electrical service (30 amp). The contractor will assess whether the electrical panel of a residence or non-profit requires grant-eligible upgrading. In the event of a power outage lasting more than a day, technicians could operate the grinder pumps and empty wet wells by connecting a portable generator. The Fairgrounds would have permanent standby generators in case of a power outage during an event. Telemetry would allow technicians to monitor wet well and pump status remotely and maintenance prioritized accordingly.

Septic tanks would be decommissioned per County requirements as part of the grant-funded project, but existing leach fields would be abandoned in place.

Sewage would be pumped from each parcel through a low-pressure collection system to the treatment plantThe treatment system would be a Membrane Bioreactor (MBR), located within a building, and would produce highly treated effluent (“secondary plus”).

Solids removed during treatment would be “dewatered” which produces a greatly reduced volume of material to be taken off site.

The treated liquid effluent would be piped into a leach field. The treated water would be clean enough to be used for many purposes, and reuse may be a future benefit.

The 20-acre treatment plant site would include the treatment plant and disposal leach fields. The only above-ground visible feature would be the approximately 50’x100’ building housing the treatment system and a separate smaller generator building.

The rate structure would be developed with a rate study once the final engineering report is approved by DFA and the Regional Waterboard, currently in that process as of August 2025. The next steps include environmental review (CEQA) and the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) which approves the new sewer service area.

The mechanism for the parcel owners to approve the project is the “Proposition 218 Letter” which follows CEQA/LAFCo. This step will likely be taken by the end of 2026. The parcel owners would receive a letter with rate information for their parcel and can consent by doing nothing or object by sending a “protest” response. If 50% plus 1 parcel owners protest, then the project would fail. If the community approves the project (less than 50% protest), all parcels within the service area would be connected to the sewer system during construction. Due to the health and safety concerns the system is intended to correct, there is no option to not participate if the parcel is in the service area.

The next public meeting will be scheduled – most likely before Summer 2026.

Fact Sheet For The Proposed Boonville Municipal Drinking Water System

March 12, 2026

The approximate cost of the Drinking Water project is $26 million (Feb 2026) and would be funded by a grant from the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) and Division of Financial Assistance (DFA).

The Drinking Water Service Area boundary would encompass the main Highway 128 artery and all the side streets from Highway 253/Hutsell to Mt. View, the High School, Anderson Valley Health Clinic (AVHC), Meadow Estates housing development, and residences along Anderson Valley Way to the Elementary School and museum. There would be approximately 270 parcels within the boundary. (Map posted outside of Fire House). The Water Service Area is larger than the Sewer Service Area because it is connecting other existing public water systems in the valley.

The Municipal Drinking Water system would be administered by the AVCSD. Licensed water system operators would be contracted to monitor, service, and maintain the system on-site and with telemetry.

The State Water Board grant would fund the installation of the infrastructure (storage tanks, water mains, wells, treatment plants) including the service laterals from the water meter boxes to private residences and non-profits/public buildings (Fairgrounds, AVHC, Churches, Fire Station, Elementary School, Jr/Sr High School, Veterans’ Bldg., etc.).

The infrastructure provided to residences, non-profits, churches, Fairgrounds, AVHC, and schools would be free if the owner signs up before construction.

Water meter boxes would be provided at the edge of a parcel where it joins the public road. The grant would cover the expense of a meter and a lateral to ONE residence. Connecting additional residences would be at the owner’s expense.

To benefit from the provision of free infrastructure that does not have an existing residence, the parcel owner would sign a contract for the lowest monthly rate and receive a meter box on the edge of the parcel for future use.

Commercial buildings that have a residence on the parcel MAY be able to use the same meter box (this is an issue that has not been resolved yet). Commercial parcels with no residence would have to pay the expense of the meter box and the lateral into the building.

Free infrastructure provided to non-profits and public buildings would not necessarily be limited to a single lateral. In these instances, the infrastructure would be designed to accommodate existing connections with adequate service in the most efficient manner possible.

The water system storage tanks and distribution system would be sized to provide fire protection. A fire service connection would be supplied to the Fairgrounds.

CLARENCE RAY HOLMES (May 4, 1948 - February 25, 2026)

Clarence R. Holmes of Laytonville, passed away at the age of 77. Clarence was with his two favorite people, wife of 59 years Sharon, and daughter Kimberly.

Clarence lived a life devoted to service, hard work, and a deep love of family, community, country, and the U.S Constitution.

Clarence proudly and honorably served four years in the U.S. Navy, including three tours of duty in Vietnam. His service on the U.S.S. Carpenter included participating in the post-splashdown recovery of the Apollo 11 astronauts, the first men to set foot on the moon.

After his honorable discharge from the Navy, Clarence continued his public service as an officer in the California Highway Patrol. He served 28 years in the CHP, with assignments in Banning, Marin, and Laytonville. Clarence was very proud to end his CHP career at home as Resident Post Officer for the Laytonville area. Known for his professionalism and fairness, he earned the respect of colleagues and members of the community throughout his career.

Clarence continued doing what he loved after retirement — driving the open road. He became proprietor of Holmes Trucking, hauling hay and timber throughout Northern California. Clarence loved being behind the wheel with a can of Tab (later Diet Coke) while chatting with one of his many friends or family, spotting wildlife, or listening to the radio.

Clarence had a natural gift for storytelling and anyone lucky enough to know him could expect to be regaled with his many tales. He seemed to find himself in the middle of many people’s funny stories, and he loved hearing them over again. Please remember your “Clarence stories” and write them down so we can share them at Clarence’s memorial service. But you may want to bring a cushion for your chair— hearing loving stories about Clarence from family and friends could take a long time.

Clarence loved his community, and he took pride in being a “local boy.” He was born and raised in Willits and lived in Laytonville for nearly 45 years. He sponsored many local teams and events throughout the years, and he was a founding member of the Laytonville MAC.

Clarence was happiest when he was with his family. He is survived by the loves of his life, wife, Sharon, and daughter, Kim, and by his grandchildren, Connor and Raina Robson, who were his pride and joy. Other survivors include his sister Jenny Senter (Chuck), many nieces and nephews, and all those friends who became family.

Clarence will be remembered as the grizzly bear with a teddy bear heart. A memorial service will be held May 23 at a location TBD.

PETS OF THE WEEK

These six incredible dogs have been waiting far too long for their chance at a real home. To help them finally find the families they deserve, we’re offering a $50 adoption fee for each of them! This on-going special adoption fee includes spay/neuter, vaccines, microchip, heartworm test, AND a Mendocino County dog license--an amazing value for an amazing dog.

To see all of our canine and feline, guests visit: mendoanimalshelter.com

We're on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/mendoanimalshelter

For information about adoptions please call 707-467-6453. Making a difference for homeless pets in Mendocino County, one day at a time!

ANDERSON VALLEY VILLAGE List of Events

VERNLYN FARNSWORTH (9/8/1942-2/22/2026)

Vernlyn was born in Willits on September 8th, 1942 to James Harvey and Muriel Sawyers and her siblings, Douglas and Warren. She died peacefully in her sleep at Holy Sprit Residential Care Home Willits on February 22, 2026, ending an eight year struggle with progressive vascular dementia. The following week, daffodils and plum trees around the Little Lake Valley bloomed forth as if on cue. After meeting Kenneth “Mike” Farnsworth at a social event in Ukiah, Vernlyn continued to see him while she attended Heald Business College in Marin. Soon, she was put to task as navigator in Mike’s sky blue MGA during sports car rallies and watching numerous races at Sears Point. After marriage in 1962, Vernlyn moved to Ukiah and got a job as clerk in the Probation Department while Mike was hired at the County Ag/Weights and Measures office. After their starter home, one house up the street from Mike’s parents, was paid for, they started a family, first with Ken in 1969 and then Kathryn in 1974. Vernlyn became a stay-at-home Mom, with an art business on the side, concentrating on local barns and landscapes using watercolors and oils. She especially enjoyed an annual two week summer rental cabin in South Lake Tahoe starting in 1975 through 2009 which allowed her hiking and wildflower viewing and enjoying time with her family and friends. Vern went back to work in 1990 as a Clerk/Office Assistant at Social Services and retired in June 2006 after her husband’s passing in January. In retirement, she enjoyed spending time with friends and family and also organizing the Feb- ruary Colonial Tea at the 1st Presbyterian Church in Ukiah and volunteering for the AMCRE as secretary. She is survived by her son, Kenneth Farnsworth, III, daughter Kathryn Dias, and grandchildren Kaylee and Piper Harmon. The family invites you to a Celebration of Life for Vernlyn on Saturday, April 11th at 2PM at the Calvary Chapel River Fellowship, 195 Windsor River Road, Windsor, CA followed by a reception

CHARLES (CHUCK) GREENBERG (1945-2026)

Ask his family and friends, and all would tell you Charles was one of a kind. He was a scholar, a builder, a lover, a father, an advisor and a confidant. He made the world around him better and had a good time doing it. Those who knew him will always remember his smile. Charles was born in Greensboro, North Carolina on January 23, 1945. He attended Dartmouth College and later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania where he received his Master’s Degree in English. He was teaching at Oak Lane Day School in Blue Bell, Penna. when he met and fell in love with the Director of Admissions at the school, Claire Ellis. With children from earlier marriages, they formed a combined family and enjoyed a wonderful life in a suburban area outside of Philadelphia. Their days centered around nurturing their children, the land, and the animals. In 1986, with their children raised, they followed their hearts and moved to an ocean bluff in Little River, California. Combining Chuck’s building skills and Claire’s design intuition, they conceived and built Pine Bluff, a unique house that was built in harmony with the land above the Pacific Ocean. They also formed a large circle of friends and became embedded in the life of the community. Chuck’s legacy is felt in the lives he changed through his volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity, the Albion-Little River Fire Department, and the Community Foundation of Mendocino County. He leaves us and will always hold a place in the hearts of wife Claire and their children, Tracy, Jessica, Jamie, Noah, their grandchildren, Jacob, Ezra, Benicio, Neve, Talia, Arlo, and great- grandchildren, Olivia and Elaine. Picture him now as he would want to be remembered, greeting the day in his kayak on Big River, or ending his day with Claire as they looked out their window to watch the sun set over the ocean, and know he found his heaven on earth.

GARY TAYLOR

It is with heavy hearts and great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved father, grandfather and husband Gary Taylor at age 75. Surrounded by his family, Gary passed away on March 15, 2026, in Petaluma Valley Hospital. Gary was born in San Fransico on October 29,1950, to parents Olen and Violet Taylor of Santa Rosa, he was part of the first graduating class of Piner High School in 1968. He spent most of his younger years deeply involved in sports, where he excelled in baseball and football. Gary next went on to Santa Rosa JC where he developed his lifelong love of horticulture and a passion for landscape and nature. It was at this time that he met the love of his life June (Crudo) Taylor; they married on June 20, 1970. In 1973 they left Sonoma County and made a life in Ukiah CA. They had two daughters Rachael and Jennifer that meant the world to Gary. Unfortunately, in 1985 Gary had a life altering accident while cutting firewood that left him paralyzed, however nothing could stop him from always living life to the best of his capabilities. His family would often marvel at his perseverance, strength, and determination. After his accident he even went on to join a Santa Rosa wheelchair basketball team and trained often for many wheelchair racing events. With the help and encouragement of our wonderful community, Gary eventually started his own landscape maintenance business called TaylorMade Landscape and Maintenance which he ran for over twenty years. In their retirement years, Gary and June spent most of their free time designing, planting, and relaxing in their cherished yards at home. Family meant absolutely everything to both June and Gary, and they got most of their happiness from a simple BBQ, a grandchild’s sporting event, or the many family holiday celebrations together. Gary is preceded in death by his father Olen Taylor and is survived by his mother, Violet Taylor of Santa Rosa, his sister Carolyn Dawson of Oregon, his wife of 55 years June, daughters Rachael Peaslee (Lucas Peaslee) and Jennifer Lopez (Shokie Lopez). He leaves behind his precious five grandchildren, Kelsi and Jacob Fowler, Ethan, Tehna, and Beau Lopez.

A private graveside service will take place with a celebration of life to be held at a later date. He will be greatly missed but will remain in our hearts forever.

ANNA AVERY ROSONE: Hello, I'm Anna and something to know about me is my parents, Sam and Marguerite Avery, operated The Floodgate Store from approximately 1953-1983.

ON A SUNDAY NIGHT AND EARLY MONDAY MORNING, I HEARD THREE BAD CRASHES COME OVER THE SCANNER — and CHP confirmed every one was suspected DUI

by Frank Hartzell (MendocinoCoast.news)

Editor Hartzell Notes: Editor’s Note — Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Truly. Any one of these individuals could be found innocent. An arrest is not a conviction; it isn’t even a charge. It’s simply a suspicion that must be tested and proven in court.

On Sunday, March 8, while gathering news for the Monday KOZT report, I kept an ear on the scanner. Five serious crashes came through in just a few hours. One was a high‑speed chase down Highway 20. Another was a wrong‑way driver at a spot where it’s far too easy to enter the freeway incorrectly. The last one shut down 101 in both directions — it happened while I was in the studio across from Dred Scott.

With help from CHP information officer Olegario Marin — honestly, mostly him — we tracked down all four major crashes, including a multi‑injury wreck in Lake County. To my astonishment, every single one resulted in a DUI arrest. All four.

I’ve never stopped being stunned by how destructive alcohol is in this culture, especially after the close‑up view I’ve had at the hospital. I never knew the scale until I started hearing it night after night on the scanner.

I decided to see how these cases would be handled after the arrests. It took several days to pull everything together — and so far the DA hasn’t filed a single one. So I’m putting out the story now, and I’ll keep following every case as it moves, or doesn’t move, through the system.

Crash #1 — A high‑speed chase ended with a suspected‑DUI driver ejected from his wrecked car. On March 8, officers were led on a pursuit down Highway 20 until the driver lost control, rolled down an embankment, and was thrown from the vehicle. He was unconscious but alive when deputies and first responders reached him.

Here is the report on that incident from officer Marin. CHP provided info in bold.

Officers from the California Highway Patrol Ukiah Area responded to a traffic collision on 03/08/2026 @ 3:04AM on State Route 20 at Marina Drive after the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office requested to conduct a traffic collision investigation and driver evaluation. The request followed a pursuit by deputies in which the suspect vehicle left the roadway and traveled approximately 50 feet down an embankment. The driver sustained major injuries and was transported to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for treatment. Following further investigation, the driver (Diego Vallejo of Ukiah) was released to the hospital for medical care. A complaint will be filed for 23152(a) VC (Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol), 23152(b) VC (Driving With a Blood Alcohol Content of 0.08% or Greater), and 148(a) PC (Resisting/Obstructing a Peace Officer) with the Mendocino County District attorney’s office.

As of March 17, we found no DA filing on the above case. The man may still be in the hospital. Court files are essentially private now, as the image shows. In this instance, a Diego Vallejo of Ukiah had a pending case for disorderly conduct and being under the influence of controlled substances at the time of the crash. It’s possible there are two men with the same name, but the details match — and we did additional research at our own expense to be sure.

The traditional means of verifying facts are gone in this era of digital everything, where access is restricted and the public record is treated like a privilege instead of a right. Why should you even know about a man leading officers on an early‑morning high‑speed chase? Because if people understood how much damage one alcohol‑addicted person can do, they might be more inclined to support real investment in treatment — including mandatory long‑term rehab instead of a quick jail sentence.

And because our public servants — the officers in blue, the paramedics, the helicopter crews, the ER staff — pour themselves into these cases in the middle of the night, mostly unseen now. Their work deserves daylight.

Most of all, we need to know about public business and public records. Without that, we’re left with rumor, press releases, and whatever the system chooses to show us. That’s not transparency. That’s managed information. And a community that can’t see its own reality can’t fix it.

When we got the facts for this next one, I felt a little sheepish. I’ve preached plenty about road safety, and I’ve long believed this exit is a problem. Think back to the northbound 101 exit at Redwood Valley: if you’re not turning left toward The Broiler (yum) and instead heading right toward the Coyote Valley Casino, it is very easy to turn too early and end up going the wrong way into oncoming freeway traffic. The whole intersection is misaligned and confusing — an accident waiting to happen. And on that Sunday night, it did: a head‑on collision.

But it turns out a drunk driver was involved.

Crash #2 — A two‑vehicle, non‑injury collision occurred on March 8 at 8:01 p.m. on the northbound 101 off‑ramp to West Road. Investigators determined that Kercee Andrews of Ukiah was driving a 2005 GMC Yukon the wrong way on the off‑ramp when she collided with a 2016 Toyota Highlander driven by Wendy Oliver of Redwood Valley. Officers observed signs that Andrews was under the influence, and after further investigation she was arrested on suspicion of violating 23152(a) VC (Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol) and 23152(b) VC (Driving With a Blood Alcohol Content of 0.08% or Greater). No injuries were reported.

A wrong way crash, in a place where that is easy to happen, brought these charges.

Again, there is no sign of a case filed beyond the booking log. Nothing in the courts. We’ve had long‑term concerns about inequitable prosecution in Mendocino County — and in every county we’ve worked in — but there is something particularly odd about DUI prosecutions here. We were researching this pattern when the courts cut off access. Now it’s hopeless.

The young journalist who comes along after I’m gone will never even be able to imagine finding out things like this, or imagine a time when public records were actually public. And that’s everybody’s loss — everyone who ever encounters the court system, everyone who cares about actual justice, everyone who believes openness in the courts is more than a slogan.

It is Justice that is supposed to be blind. Not the people watching her.

With the tirade about restricted court files now over, we do want to thank CHP Officer Olegario Marin for getting all of this information for us. Education is part of his job, and we got one. We assumed these crashes were routine. They weren’t. Every single one was a DUI.

Crash #3 — This third crash seemed the least likely to be a DUI. It happened during the Monday‑morning commute, on a day we’d already warned would be darker than usual because of the time change. The collision snapped a power pole, briefly shut down 101 in both directions, and created traffic headaches for the rest of the day. But despite the timing and the circumstances, this one also turned out to be a DUI. up being a DUI.

According to the initial investigation, a Willits woman collided with a power pole, knocking down power lines. US‑101 and North State Street were closed from 4:36 to 5:07 a.m., and traffic was disrupted on and off throughout the day while PG&E made repairs. During the on‑scene investigation, officers observed signs that the woman was under the influence, and after further investigation, she was arrested on suspicion of violating 23152(f) VC. We were unable to find any booking or other court information for her so we omitted her name.

Three crashes. Three suspected DUIs. Three cases that may or may not ever see the inside of a courtroom — and we won’t know, because the public can no longer see what the public pays for. That’s the part that lingers. Not just the wreckage on the highway, but the wreckage of a system that once let us follow a case from the sirens to the sentencing.

We’re grateful to CHP Officer Olegario Marin for helping us piece together what we could. Without him, even this much would have stayed in the dark. But the larger truth is harder to ignore: alcohol is tearing through this county, through families, through budgets, through the backs of first responders who show up at 4 a.m. while the rest of us sleep. And the public record — the tool that once let us understand the scale of the problem — is shrinking to a sliver.

So we’ll keep doing what we can. We’ll keep listening to the scanner. We’ll keep calling CHP. We’ll keep tracking the cases the courts no longer let us see. Because if we stop paying attention, the damage doesn’t stop — it just stops being counted.

And a community that can’t see what’s happening on its own roads is a community already drifting across the center line.

DAVID EYSTER:

The first margarita reward (of hopefully many) for Spring activities to "get the pool and backyard back in shape" before Summer.

Started with weed pulling, cleaning winter debris off the back lawn, pruning the dead off of the citrus and bushes, shocking the pool and asking the Polaris to do a better cleanup job, spraying weeds in cement cracks, moving soil out to planter boxes and beginning to replenish where (everywhere) needed.

Still many weekend days worth of work to go! Slow and steady gets the job done.

TWO UKIAH MEN ARRESTED WITH LOADED WEAPONS AT SANTA ROSA MOTEL

Two Ukiah men were arrested in Santa Rosa on Friday after each was allegedly found with a concealed firearm.

Santa Rosa police were on patrol at the Quality Inn at 3000 Santa Rosa Ave. at about 7:30 p.m. when they allegedly came across 23-year-old Brian Pankey and 19-year-old James Webber.

The two were allegedly smoking marijuana and drinking in the parking lot, which police said warranted a pat down search, according to a statement from the Santa Rosa Police Department.

Pankey was allegedly found to have a loaded, concealed .45 caliber 1911 handgun, while Webber was accused of having a loaded, concealed .40 caliber Polymer 80 pistol.

Both men were booked into Sonoma County Jail on allegations of carrying a loaded firearm in a public place and carrying a concealed weapon.

(Bay City News Service)

RONALD IRVIN HARRISON (March 5, 1935 - February 28, 2026)

Ronald Irvin Harrison was born on March 5, 1935 to Leonard “Bo” and Geraldine Harrison at Redwood Coast Hospital in Fort Bragg, CA, and grew up in Pudding Creek. He skipped the third grade, for which he gave credit to his being an avid reader. After graduating from FBHS in 1953, he attended San Francisco State University (the first in the family to attend college). During a couple of summers, he worked for Fort Bragg’s radio station KDAC as DJ “Ranch House Ron.” After graduation, he worked at KIEM-TV (Channel 3) in Eureka, CA when television was “live.” In 1956, he married Janice Bibby (FBHS Class of 1955), with whom he raised Julie, Eric, and Christian. In 1965, he graduated from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, followed by employment as a trial attorney for the State of California. One of his first “loves” was a Harley Davidson he owned at age 18. He also enjoyed a variety of cars, variously owning a 1953 MGTD roadster, 1957 Chevrolet, MGB, Datsun 206Z, and Mini-Cooper. He took his family on long road trips with a tent trailer, visiting Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia. He also co-managed and coached Little League with his brother Steve. Ron hiked the Pacific Trail, and played tennis and golf (into his 80s). He also played in a city basketball league, and for a Cal Trans softball team. In 1977, he married Jenette Dingman, with whom he helped raise Shawn, Tracy, and Rachel. He visited England, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Germany, Lichtenstein, Spain, France, Monaco, Austria, Morocco, Tahiti, Bora Bora, Morea, Italy, Belize, Canada, Mexico, Lithuania, and the Caribbean. History and geography were his two favorite interests, so he loved learning about their local history. In 2000, Ron retired from the State of California as Assistant Chief Counsel, Tort Liability Law. He taught tort liability seminars for University Cal Berkeley throughout California, as well as the University of Hawaii, and University of Washington throughout the state of Washington. He often served as Master of Ceremonies at conferences for all state offices. Ron was a storyteller, nature enthusiast, loved current music and traditional country-and-western, had a goofy sense of humor, and was always there when we needed him. He passed away in Sacramento on February 28, 2026, just days short of his 91st birthday. He is already missed. He is survived by his wife Jenette, brother Lynn Harrison (Judy), children Julie Hoyt, Eric Harrison, Christian Harrison (Kelly), Tracy Neville (Jim), Shawn Harrison (Amber), Rachel Harrison; grandchildren Heather Stocks (Benjamin), Brent Harrison (Gabriela), Cambron Neville, Sonia Neville, Ava Harrison, Jenevah Harrison; and great- grandchildren Fern Stocks, and Glenn Stocks.

LISA NUNES (Boonville): Ernie [Pardini’s] Dad has so much history of the Coast and Anderson Valley. Here is a picture of downtown Pt Arena before the Earthquake. Looking up the hill from our old house.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Saturday, March 21, 2026

AUGUSTIN AMADOR, 60, Willits. Controlled substance for sale.

CARMEN ARENS, 41, Ukiah. Under influence.

ARNOLD ARIANA, 22, Hopland. Probation revocation.

JOSEPH CARRILLO, 32, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

DEREK EASTEP, 40, Ukiah. Petty theft with two or more priors, probation revocation.

ANDHRA FIMBRES, 42, Ukiah. Contempt of court.

AUDRA HRUSKA, 54, Ukiah. Controlled substance for sale with two or more priors, contempt of court.

ALEXANDER JOHNSON, 49, Fort Bragg. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, controlled substance with two or more priors, paraphernalia, failure to appear.

JAMES ROSADO, 50, Willits. Domestic battery.

PATRICK WILLIS, 32, Ukiah. Under influence.

HAPPY SPRING EQUINOX

Warmest spiritual greetings, Sitting here quietly at the main public library in Washington, D.C. enjoying the Spring Equinox. No place to go, nothing to do. Will amble out shortly into a sunny warm afternoon, to find a seafood based breakfast, and then it's on to celebrate this special day.

Go here: e.e. cummings "In Just"

Craig Stehr

MEMO OF THE AIR: Thank you, sir, may I have another.

Marco here. Here's the recording of Friday night's (9pm PST, 2026-03-20) eight-hour-long Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on KNYO.org, on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg (CA) and also, for the first three hours, on 89.3fm KAKX Mendocino, ready for you to re-enjoy in whole or in part: https://memo-of-the-air.s3.amazonaws.com/KNYO_0688_MOTA_2026-03-20.mp3

Coming shows can feature your own story or dream or poem or essay or kvetch or announcement. Just email it to me. Or send me a link to your writing project and I'll take it from there and read it on the air. That's all I'm here for.

Besides all that, at https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find a fresh batch of dozens of links to not-necessarily radio-useful but worthwhile items I set aside for you while gathering the show together, such as:

Tornadoes on the sun. (Scroll down, boggle in awe.) https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/article/solar-phenomena-photo-gallery

Jacob Collier improvises. In difficult times like lately it's important to remember that the world is made significantly of people like these musicians and this audience, so we're not entirely and irrevocably fucked yet as a species. It's gonna be close, but we might be okay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFul90BFjGc

Speaking of which. Tufts Blackout Step Team. Stomping and clapping. It makes you want to do it. Try, right now. You can do it anywhere. It pumps the lymph, elevates the spirit. It's beneficial for bone density, hand-eye and foot-eye coordination, conflict resolution. Many more applications. https://myonebeautifulthing.com/2026/03/20/blackout-step-team/

And I hope it's still there when you read this but, as I write, you can watch Tim Burton's /Big Fish/ for free. (Full film, 125 min.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak2-mNdJkwQ

Marco McClean, [email protected], https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

THE KLAMATH TRIBES DOCUMENT FIRST SALMON HATCH IN UPPER KLAMATH LAKE TRIBUTARIES

by Dan Bacher

Hey, it’s been a long week. Record heat spurred by climate change is burning up the nation, President Trump has sent ground troops to the Persian Gulf to devastate Iran and ICE’s reign of terror continues. And the terrible truth about Cesar Chavez, who I worked with from 1973 to 1978, has finally been exposed by women who had the courage to reveal that they were abused and raped by him.

But we have some hopeful news amidst all of the terrible news.

The Klamath Tribes' Ambodat Department (Fisheries Department, meaning “from the water”) Thursday announced the first documented observation of naturally reproduced c’iyaal’s (Chinook salmon) in tributaries of Upper Klamath Lake in over a century!

Chinook salmon documented by the Klamath Tribes Ambodat department/ Mark Martin, Klamath Tribes Ambodat

This historic event, recorded by the Klamath Tribes' Ambodat Department on March 18, 2026, is a major milestone in post-dam-removal restoration and monitoring efforts in the Upper Klamath Basin, according to a statement from the Tribe.

“I see this as the Creator's will of the unwritten natural laws which are allowed to be part of us again,” said Chairman William E. Ray Jr.…

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/21/2374044/-Klamath-Tribes-Document-First-Salmon-Hatch-in-Upper-Klamath-Lake-Tributaries-in-100-Years

HOW TO BE A DRUNK NDN

At the drive-thru line
at Taco Bell
in a parking lot
in Shiprock
I look out
from the backseat
and see like six
drunk ndns
all sitting together.

They are waving
their arms all at
each other and
I sort of want
to see a fight
happen because
I am desperate
for cheap action.

I look out the
window on
the right and
see another one
lying in the bushes
who then gets up
and turns around
to take a piss.

My mother
my auntie
and I judge
them from
inside the car.

Have they no shame?
Don’t they have a family?
Surely they could be at home.
I’m pretty sure some of them are
fathers.

We pull up and begin ordering
while I look back and see the
pissing ndn join the other ndns
and suddenly one of the drunks
punches the pisser and he falls
over on the pavement and I start
to laugh from the car only for the
two to get up and hug it out.

We pull around the Taco Bell
and then we are blocked from
their view much to our annoyance.

I wonder aloud what some of these
white people passing through think
when they see us like that all drunk.

My auntie tells me
that a lot of them
think that we just
drink and are drunk
all the time.

Well they can think
that we’re drunks all
they want while I think
some of them are trashy.

Because how are you
white and poor on land
you stole and claimed
to have conquered?

Anyone can say
anything about
anyone and still
have it all wrong.

We get our food
and my auntie
tells my mom
to do a drive-by
real slow by the
drunk ndns this
time.

One of the ndns
waves at us and
I am bewildered
by this palm action
as my auntie waves
back and my mother
with the windows
rolled down tells
them to be safe.

I mumble
quietly to
no one to
maybe stop
drinking.

— Cheyenne Dakota Williams (2025)

*Red Rock Variation* (1986) by George Morrison

I TRIED LIVING THE PARK RANGER FANTASY AND SPENT MOST OF IT PICKING UP GARBAGE

A new video game simulates park ranger life — and its unglamorous reality

by Sam Hill

The road curves gently through a valley, running alongside a fast-moving river, and a granite monolith resembling Yosemite’s El Capitan lords it above the forest in the distance.

From the seat of my pickup truck, I refocus on my immediate surroundings: a national park trailhead sign leans off-center, a fire ring sits full of debris and an overused picnic table looks ready to collapse. In the corner of my eye, I notice something dashing through the trees. A bear? Or maybe just a hiker trying to keep me from seeing their expired permit. Before I can pull over and investigate, my radio crackles. There’s trash to pick up, and everything else will have to wait.

But this isn’t Yosemite. It’s Faremont National Park — a fictional landscape in Ranger’s Path: National Park Simulator, a video game built to simulate the day-to-day work of a park ranger.

It’s my first day on the job, and I haven’t stopped moving since I arrived. There’s always something: a campsite to clean, a sign to fix, a trail to clear. The radio crackles at regular intervals with new instructions. My supervisor, Effy Morales, is a steady, disembodied guide, pointing me toward my next task. We’ve never met. I’m not sure we ever will.

But something she said to me on my way into the park stuck with me throughout my time pretending to be a park ranger: “This park is big, beautiful, and mostly held together with duct tape and goodwill.” I’m not sure if that introduction to the job has been run through the proper channels at the Department of the Interior, but I appreciate her honesty.

The mix of beauty and barely contained disorder isn’t accidental.

The developers behind Ranger’s Path set out to capture not just the scenery of a national park, but the rhythm of the job itself — the constant shuffle between maintenance, visitor interaction and the occasional moment of stillness in between.

The idea, according to Fabian Boulegue, senior producer at Astragon Entertainment, had been sitting with the team for years. The company specializes in simulation games, giving gamers a chance to get a sneak peek at career paths like being a bus driver, a police officer or a construction entrepreneur.

“Many of us are big fans of the outdoors, nature and wildlife,” Boulegue told SFGATE in an email. “… Creating a game set in a national park felt like a natural fit for us.”

Unlike the company’s other simulation games, there weren’t many games out there about being a public servant in the wilderness for them to look to for inspiration. So the development team started asking people who actually do the job. Several real-life park rangers were brought into the process as testers and informal advisors, offering feedback on the daily routines of rangers and the tasks that are not as appealing. You can whip out your camera to document wildlife and fauna throughout the park in your downtime, but mostly, you’re doing maintenance.

“The job isn’t only about exciting moments like rescues or wildlife encounters. There is also the less glamorous side, such as picking up trash or repairing things around the park,” Boulegue said.

That’s exactly what my supervisor told me after I cleaned up my first campsite: “This is what protecting the park looks like. Might not be glamorous, but it’s important work.”

Curious how real-life rangers felt about all this, I tried reaching out to current and former employees of the National Park Service. None was permitted to speak on the record, but plenty shared their opinions across social media. I found rangers swapping impressions — and jokes — that made it clear they were regarding Ranger’s Path with a mix of skepticism, amusement and recognition.

One Reddit thread underscored just how much real-life park rangers are juggling these days. “Damn, so this ranger is LE, SAR, Natural Resources, and Fees?!” one user wrote.

The conversation quickly turned to the dark reality behind the humor: “It’s not like they’re going to hire a second guy now is it? Get out there and do more with less!”

A user who identified themselves as a volunteer ranger put it like this: “We the unwilling lead by the unknowing have been doing so much with so little for so long that we are now qualified to anything with nothing forever.”

With staff reductions and budget cuts hitting national parks over the past year, the game’s depiction of a single ranger wearing every hat feels eerily relevant. Boulegue told us that the game has been in development for years, so it isn’t a direct response to ongoing attacks on public lands in the U.S. But raising awareness of the importance of protecting national parks was always a goal, he said.

In a private Facebook group for park rangers shared with SFGATE, one user quipped about having to tell people where the bathroom is “900 times a day.”

Another commenter chimed in: “Bonus points for making it sound like it’s the first time you’ve been asked that every time.”

Across the board, people were intrigued by the idea of a video game about park rangers, but many felt the game’s unglamorous portrayal of the job didn’t go far enough. One commenter joked that “50% of the game is spent on USAJobs applications,” while another wondered if they’d at least get to contract norovirus firsthand.

“Ranger’s Path” is currently in Early Access, which means the game is still growing and evolving. The developers plan to release regular updates that expand missions, refine mechanics and introduce new wildlife and activities. The game might not be racking up awards for graphics or cutting-edge gameplay, but it’s a charming, cozy simulator that will delight park lovers and anyone willing to spend a little time living the ranger fantasy.

Driving toward a more remote trailhead, I let myself take a moment to think about everything being a ranger entails — the constant balancing of tasks, the unexpected challenges and the small victories. I’m so absorbed in the thought that I accidentally veer off the road and into the river.

Stuck, I grab the radio and call back to park HQ for help (in other words, holding down a key until my truck magically slides back onto the road, undamaged). Back in my pickup, the radio crackles again. Someone has reported a filthy campsite, and unfortunately, I’m the only one around who knows how to pick up those abandoned cans.

LET-IT-RIP JEREMY VS. SNEAKY SAM

by Maureen Dowd

For the star-struck podcaster Scott Galloway, the Vanity Fair Oscar party on Sunday conjured “the most aspirational environment I’ve ever been in in my life.”

I certainly felt aspirational. I aspired to have fun in the beautiful, curvaceous new wing of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art — before my high heels began to hurt. Compared with the boring Oscars ceremony, the party shimmered. Even stars like Al Pacino and Larry David, who often dart away early, were grinning and lingering. And who doesn’t like to see Mick Jagger devilishly dancing around with Jon Batiste?

In one dimly lit spot, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos were acting as passionate as a couple of teenagers; in another, Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner were holding court across the bar from Kendall Jenner and Jacob Elordi. A gorgeous Jane Fonda was, naturally, literally getting her feelings off her chest, sporting a “BLOCK THE MERGER” button on her deep-brown sequin gown — referring to the depressing marriage of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery.

The party had a euphoric vibe. So I was startled when two famous guests had a bristling smackdown.

On one side of this black-tie duel was Jeremy O. Harris, the 36-year-old playwright who shot to fame when he wrote the Tony-nominated “Slave Play” while still a student at Yale’s drama school. He is not one to bite his tongue. On the other was Sam Altman, the sly C.E.O. of OpenAI.

I was standing nearby as Harris animatedly lit into Altman for 10 or 15 minutes. The 40-year-old tech mogul seemed taken aback but responded calmly, holding his ground. Harris was upset about Altman’s new deal with the Pentagon to provide A.I. for classified use.

Some online hailed Harris as a hero.

I called him after the party to hear the whole drama — a classic story of art rebuking commerce.

“I knew that people around us at the party were taking notice, but I didn’t know that it would become a thing,” he told me. Harris said he realized long ago, seeing “what OpenAI was already doing to the brains of kids,” seeing kids killing themselves, that “this technology is dangerous. I think willfully allowing dangerous technology to be onboarded by society is, in and of itself, evil.” Even though it was a celebration, he said he could not ignore Altman “willfully allowing his technology to be an agent in global violences.”

He said he told the powerful A.I. executive, “I don’t know how you can comfortably look at yourself in the mirror, knowing you just gave your technology over to a department that called themselves the Department of War, and which just killed 175.”

Last month, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei refused to buckle when Frat Boy Pete Hegseth had a hissy fit and threatened bogusly to declare Anthropic a “supply-chain risk” if Amodei didn’t allow the Pentagon to use his A.I. in any way it wanted, as long as it was “lawful.” (“Lawful” has lost all meaning in the Trump administration.) Amodei did not want his A.I. to be used to surveil Americans or run autonomous weapons without human oversight. Now Anthropic is suing the government over its designation as a national security risk — including a new brief filed in California Friday night — and the case could very well end up in the Supreme Court.

Sam Altman swooped into Hegseth and Anthropic’s fight, offering to help smooth things over. But somehow Sneaky Sam simply got the contract by engaging in safety theater while bending to the Pentagon’s demands. In a leaked memo to his staff, Amodei fumed that Altman was spinning, gaslighting and undercutting Anthropic.

It may not be such a triumph for Altman, though, because his desire to appease the Pentagon drove some of OpenAI’s scientific talent and many users toward Anthropic.

Harris said he told Altman, “You came out into the world, used our tax dollars in a nonprofit that espoused its goal to save humanity, to be this bright beacon for the future and hope.” Now, he told him, he is in bed with bad guys.

Page Six ran a story on Tuesday saying that Harris accused Altman of being the “Goebbels of the Trump administration.”

But Harris rebutted to The Post: “It was late and I had a few too many martinis so I misspoke when I said Goebbels … I should’ve said Friedrich Flick.” Flick was the anti-Schindler, a German industrialist who made a fortune working with the Nazis. He was found guilty of war crimes at Nuremberg and sent to prison.

Altman did not want to comment to me, but his allies were stunned that Harris would compare a prominent Jewish businessman to a Nazi collaborator, and they said they considered it antisemitic.

Harris told me that he rejected that charge, saying that it deadened the meaning of the word to claim that comparing any Jewish person to a Nazi collaborator is antisemitic.

Harris wants more people to rattle the cages of the Silicon Valley overlords who, in his view, are warping society and hurting democracy. When the “scary nerds” show up in Prada and Dior, he said, and want to swan around with the fashionable crowd, they should be shown the exit, not allowed to get “cozy in places of culture.”

“I don’t think any of them should feel comfortable in that room,” he said. “I think they should all be really aware of the fact that this is not a room that wants them.”

He was disappointed that more people weren’t challenging Altman and Bezos at the party.

“I’m left thinking, ‘Is this my Eartha Kitt-Lady Bird Johnson moment?’” Harris said, referring to the 1968 women’s luncheon at the White House when Kitt denounced the Vietnam War to the first lady. Kitt was investigated by the C.I.A. afterward and blacklisted in show business.

“I have no idea,” Harris said about the ripple effect of his “J’accuse” defiance. “There’s not too much that any of us can try to protect right now because these people are eroding the foundation upon which we stand.”

CHARLES HARRELSON

On March 15, 2007, a man whose life had been steeped in violence, rumor, and notoriety drew his final breath inside a federal prison cell. That man was Charles Harrelson, a convicted hitman whose name had become permanently etched into American criminal history after the assassination of John H. Wood Jr., the first federal judge murdered in the United States during the twentieth century. Yet the story of Charles Harrelson was never simply about one killing or one conviction. It was the long, winding chronicle of a man who drifted through the American underworld for decades, leaving behind a trail of violence, fractured families, and unanswered questions that continued to echo long after the gunshots faded.

Harrelson had come into the world far from the national spotlight, born Charles Voyde Harrelson on July 23, 1938, in the quiet rural town of Lovelady, Texas. His parents, Alma Lee Sparks and Voyde Harrelson, raised him in a place where dusty roads, small-town routines, and modest expectations defined everyday life. Nothing in that modest beginning hinted at the dark reputation he would eventually carry. Yet somewhere between boyhood and adulthood, Harrelson’s life veered sharply away from the path most men in Lovelady followed. The drift began slowly, almost quietly, and then accelerated with the kind of momentum that becomes impossible to reverse.

By the time he reached adulthood, Harrelson had begun living a life that straddled the line between hustler and outlaw. He moved through different jobs and different cities, at times presenting himself as an encyclopedia salesman in California, knocking on doors and selling knowledge volume by volume. At other times he reinvented himself as a professional gambler, drifting through card rooms and smoky back tables where fortunes could change with the turn of a single hand. The surface image of a traveling salesman or card player masked something far darker developing beneath it.

In 1960, the law caught up with him for the first time in a serious way when he was convicted of armed robbery. It was a turning point that marked the moment when Harrelson fully crossed into the criminal world. The conviction did not end his criminal ambitions; if anything, it seemed to deepen them. Years later he would claim that his descent into contract killing began not long after, quietly telling investigators that he had been involved in dozens of murders stretching back to the early 1960s. Whether those boasts were exaggeration or grim truth remains a matter of debate, but the reputation stuck. In the shadows of the American underworld, Harrelson came to be known as a man who could be hired to make problems disappear permanently.

While his life spiraled through crime and violence, the personal side of his world was equally unstable. Harrelson married multiple times, forming and breaking families in a restless cycle that mirrored his unpredictable existence. His wives included Nancy Hillman Harrelson, Diane Lou Oswald, Jo Ann Harrelson, and Gina Adelle Foster. Each relationship came and went as he drifted through different phases of his life, rarely settling anywhere long enough to build something lasting.

Among the children born during those turbulent years was a boy named Woody Harrelson, whose full name was Woodrow Tracy Harrelson. He entered the world on July 23, 1961, ironically sharing the same birthday as his father. For a brief moment, it might have seemed like the beginning of an ordinary family story. But by 1968, Charles Harrelson simply vanished from the household in Houston, leaving Diane Oswald to raise Woody and his two brothers alone. For the young boy, his father became more myth than memory, a figure who disappeared into the haze of unanswered questions.

For years Woody Harrelson had little idea where his father had gone or what kind of life he was leading. That silence lasted until 1981, when the news suddenly exploded across television screens and newspaper headlines. Charles Harrelson had been arrested in connection with the murder of Judge John H. Wood Jr., a federal jurist known for handing down tough sentences in drug trafficking cases. The killing shocked the nation. A federal judge had been executed outside his own home in San Antonio, Texas, shot by a sniper’s rifle in what authorities believed was a contract killing tied to organized crime and drug trafficking interests.

The revelation was devastating for the young actor who was just beginning to find his footing in Hollywood. The father he barely knew had not simply been living a quiet life somewhere far away. He had been moving through the darkest corners of the American criminal world. Years later, in a 1988 interview, Woody Harrelson spoke with striking honesty about the complicated emotions he felt toward the man who had abandoned him and then reappeared as one of the most notorious criminals in the country. He described his father as intelligent, articulate, and even charming, yet he admitted that he still struggled to determine whether the man deserved loyalty or friendship. To Woody, Charles Harrelson seemed less like a father and more like a stranger whose life story he was still trying to understand.

Despite those complicated feelings, Woody visited his father regularly while Charles Harrelson served his life sentence in federal prison. Those meetings created an unusual bond, part curiosity, part reluctant connection, between a rising Hollywood star and a convicted contract killer whose life had unfolded in an entirely different universe.

Even decades later, the strange and tangled legacy of Charles Harrelson continued to produce unexpected twists. In April 2023, longtime friends Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson revealed a surprising family rumor that had been quietly circulating between them. McConaughey suggested that there was a possibility the two men might actually be half-brothers. According to him, his mother had once hinted that she knew Charles Harrelson around the time Matthew was conceived. The idea, half shocking and half surreal, led the two actors to consider taking a DNA test to see whether the connection might be more than just an old story told at family gatherings.

If the claim ever proves true, it would add yet another improbable chapter to the life of Charles Harrelson, a man who moved from small-town Texas to the violent world of contract killings, whose crimes shook the federal judiciary, and whose legacy somehow stretched from prison cells and courtrooms all the way into the bright lights of Hollywood. Even in death, the shadow of his life continues to reach into unexpected places, reminding the world that some stories never truly end.

ED NOTE: And former AVA subscriber.

FRANK JAMES

He had spent a lifetime in the saddle… but in the end, it was quiet that took him. On February 18, 1915, Frank James—older brother of Jesse James—died at the family farm in Clay County at the age of 72. Once a Confederate soldier who rode with William Clarke Quantrill, Frank had lived through years of violence, raids, and relentless pursuit as part of the James-Younger Gang. Yet his final moment came not in gunfire, but in stillness, brought on by a stroke after decades of survival.

But long before that quiet ending, there was a turning point. Five months after Jesse fell to Robert Ford, Frank made a choice few expected. He walked into the presence of Thomas Theodore Crittenden in Jefferson City and handed over his revolver, ending years on the run with words that carried the weight of a life lived in constant tension. Arrested, jailed, and tried, he was ultimately acquitted—walking free into a world that no longer resembled the one he had once ridden through.

The years that followed were far from the legend people imagined. He worked ordinary jobs—selling shoes, operating telegraphs, even taking tickets—before returning to his family farm, where he spent his final days giving tours to curious visitors for a small fee. The outlaw became a storyteller, the hunted man a figure of memory. And it leaves a question that lingers long after his passing—when a man spends his life outrunning the world, what does it mean when he finally chooses to stand still… and be remembered instead?

JOAN MULHOLLAND

She was born into a world defined by segregation.

In 1941, in Arlington, Virginia, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland grew up in a completely white environment. Segregation was not debated or questioned. It was simply the way things were.

That began to change when she was ten years old. A friend challenged her to walk through a Black neighborhood. Just walk through it. So she did.

What she saw unsettled her. There was fear, distance, and tension between communities. She returned home with a thought she could not shake: Something is terribly wrong.

At eighteen, she enrolled at Duke University. But sitting quietly while in.justice surrounded her became impossible. She joined sit-ins and noticed a contradiction: many defended segregation all week while speaking of love on Sundays.

Eventually, she made a decision. She left Duke.

In 1961, at nineteen, Joan joined the Freedom Rides, a movement challenging segregated interstate travel across the American South. When one of the buses was firebombed in Alabama, many riders were forced to stop.

Joan volunteered to continue.

In Jackson, Mississippi, she was a/rrested for refusing to leave a "whites-only" waiting room. Authorities sent her to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. The prison had cleared out death row cells to hold the Freedom Riders.

She was nineteen years old.

She refused to post bail and chose to serve the full sentence. While imprisoned, she endured strip searches and harsh treatment meant to frighten and silence the riders. But she did not leave the movement. Instead, she enrolled at Tougaloo College, becoming the first white woman to attend the historically Black institution.

The risks were immediate. Crosses were burned on campus. She received constant death threats.

She stayed.

She worked alongside leaders such as Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King Jr. In 1963, during a sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter, a mob surrounded the protesters. They shouted “race traitor,” burned her with cig. rettes, and cut her with broken glass while police watched without intervening.

For a moment, she believed she might not survive. Just weeks later, Medgar Evers was assassinated. At another point, members of the K.K.K. surrounded her car with the intention of killing her. She survived that encounter as well.

By the age of twenty-three, Joan had been arrested multiple times, imprisoned, beaten, and repeatedly threatened. Yet she continued to stand.

Today, she still speaks to young people with a simple piece of advice: Pick the problem that troubles you the most. Then begin. Because if a nineteen-year-old woman could stand up to hatred and endure it, others can find the courage to stand for what they believe in too.

AMARILLO BY MORNING

Up from San Antone
Everything that I got
Is just what I've got on

When that sun is high in that Texas sky
I'll be buckin' at the county fair
Amarillo by morning
Amarillo, I'll be there

They took my saddle in Houston
Broke my leg in Santa Fe
Lost my wife and a girlfriend
Somewhere along the way

Well, I'll be looking for eight when they pull that gate
And I hope that judge ain't blind
Amarillo by morning
Amarillo's on my mind

Amarillo by morning
Up from San Antone
Everything that I got
Is just what I've got on

I ain't got a dime, but what I got is mine
I ain't rich, but Lord, I'm free
Amarillo by morning
Amarillo's where I'll be

Amarillo by morning
Amarillo's where I'll be

— Paul Fraser & Terry Stafford (1973)

TUCKER CARLSON:

So the other day, I found out that the CIA is preparing some kind of criminal referral against me. A crime report to the Department of Justice on the basis of a supposed crime I committed. What's that crime? Well, talking to people in Iran before the war. They read my texts. So the crime under consideration, apparently, would be the foreign agent act or something like that, acting as an agent of a foreign power.

And I don't expect this to go anywhere. I'm not too worried about an actual criminal case against me for a bunch of reasons.

One, I'm not an agent of a foreign power. Unlike a lot of people commenting on US politics and global affairs, I have only one loyalty, and that's the United States and have never acted against it. Its interests are the only interests I care about because I'm from here and I have a lot of kids, so that's not a concern. I've also never taken money from anybody, don't need it, don't want it. And that's provable. And moreover, it's my job to talk to everybody all the time and try to figure out what's happening around the world. That's literally what I do for a living. And I'm not going to stop doing that. Nor should I. I'm also an American. I can talk to anybody. I have no secrets to divulge. So legally, I think the case is ludicrous and I doubt it will even become a case. I'm bringing this up for a couple of reasons, though, and they're pretty obvious.

One is that countries tend to become more authoritarian in wartime. It's just the nature of war. People are dying. The stakes are high. People's emotions have risen to a very high point, to a crescendo. And so there's much less tolerance for any kind of dissent in the homeland. The irony, of course, is the United States fights wars on behalf of freedom, but there's always less of it here in our country during war.

So that's a widely recognized phenomenon. And it's likely to happen now. To make another point that is worth knowing is that the US IC, the intelligence agencies, spy on Americans. Now, you probably knew that. And it's been revealed a lot, including by Julian Assange and Ed Snowden, both of whom were threatened with death for revealing it. But everyone knows.

But it's probably a little more widespread than most people understand, and it's outrageous. There's no justification for your government, which you own, you're a shareholder in it, you pay for it, to be violating your privacy like this. But it happens all the time. And in fact, one of the reasons that CIA or people within CIA, just to be clear, it's a huge, sprawling, disconnected agency, what it does in a specific case doesn't represent what everybody in the building thinks. But there are some people who are mad at me for my views about Israel. And they have some latitude. And one of the reasons they pass on criminal complaints, in effect, to law enforcement, is to justify warrants for spying on Americans.

So that is an absolutely real thing. But the main reason they do it is to leak the existence of the investigation, such as it is to the media, and then humiliate and terrify the subjects of the op. And that's, of course, happened to me repeatedly, many times, including in, famously, 2021, when I was still at Fox News and trying to set up an interview with Vladimir Putin and the NSA. I heard from someone there that they had grabbed my text messages with an American citizen and had leaked them to news outlets. Those texts were basically my attempts to set up an interview with the foreign head of state, and they leaked them to the New York Times in order to stop the interview, which they successfully did, by the way, and they admitted that they were spying.

I mean, this is not a fantasy. It actually happened. They did it again two years later. My second attempt to get a Putin interview. I managed to get it anyway. And they've done it since. And so when you get a call from a reporter who knows the contents of your texts, it's pretty clear something's going on. None of this, in my judgment, as of right now, is a huge threat to me. So I'm not making this video to complain about it or whine or ask you to send me money because I'm under attack. I'm saying it because it's true. And you should know what your own government is doing. And you should know what the stakes are. And you should know that a lot of what happens in this country that affects outcomes happens behind the scenes.

Some of it is legal, some of it is not, including what I'm describing now, but it has an effect. And the intel agencies, again, not everyone, because there are decent, hardworking Americans who work in the intel agencies. They are Americans. Just like there are decent, hardworking Americans who work at the DMV.

But there are also people with agendas and grudges and no sense of restraint who are happy to misuse the power they have been granted to them by our elaborate secrecy laws to hurt fellow Americans for ideological reasons. That is entirely real. That's the story of Russiagate, and it's likely that things like that will begin to happen at greater scale now. So you should just know that going forward.

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

There is no "majority" in this country. It's just a polyglot boarding house of squabbling third-worlders, obese tattooed freaks, crazy women, drug and gambling addicts, etc., with a small minority of actual Americans.

ANYONE WHO PAYS ATTENTION knows that Iran wasn’t attacked because it has nuclear weapons. It was attacked because it doesn’t have nuclear weapons, and was therefore viewed by Israel and the U.S. as being a state that could be overcome militarily. But what really is, I think, most telling about this is the hypocrisy of the claims, because the only party in the region that has stockpiles of nuclear weapons (which are entirely undeclared and unsupervised) is the Israeli regime, not the Iranian. And the Israeli regime was joined in attacking Iran by another nuclear power—the United States.

— Craig Mokhiber

ISRAEL’S FOREIGN MINISTRY has posted a statement on Twitter which reads, “The Iranian regime devastated Arad and Dimona by deliberately striking civilians with missiles. Over 100 people were injured, including children. A blatant war crime. Pure terrorism.”

I don’t want to be one of those people who wastes their time criticizing “hypocrisy” in foreign policy, but holy fucking shit, dude. Jesus Christ. My God.

I will never, ever express sympathy for Israelis. Ever. Under any circumstances. To do so would be irresponsible, because Israel always weaponizes sympathy and then uses that weapon to commit mass atrocities. If the world gives Israel sympathy for civilians injured by an Iranian airstrike over the weekend in a war Israel started, by Friday they’ll be using that sympathy to justify nuking Tehran.

I don’t enjoy holding this position. It goes against every natural human impulse inside me. But Israel, by its nature, has made it the only responsible position to hold.

History has clearly established that the world was wrong to give Israel sympathy for October 7. The correct and moral thing to have done would have been for everyone to say “That’s what you get for being a murderous apartheid state,” and then sanction Israel into the Stone Age until they dismantled their abusive ethnonationalist regime. That would have been the right position for the world to take.

And that’s how we need to be with Israel going forward. No sympathy. No support. We’ve got to treat them the same way you’d treat a malignant narcissist who solicits sympathy and then weaponizes it at every opportunity. To do otherwise would be irresponsible. It’s just not safe.

— Caitlin Johnstone

*Landscape with the Flight into Egypt* (1563) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

PRESIDENT BLUSTER TODAY: President Trump on Saturday issued a blistering ultimatum to Iran, warning that it has 48 hours to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face US strikes that would “obliterate” its vital energy infrastructure. “If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!” the president fumed on Truth Social.

LEAD STORIES, SUNDAY'S NYT

Trump Is Eyeing an Exit From Iran. Will He Take It?

Iranian Missiles Evade Israel’s Formidable Defenses, Hitting 2 Cities

The Strait of Hormuz Was Supposed to Be Too Big to Fail

High Gas Prices, Driven Up by the Iran War, Loom Over the Midterms

Robert Mueller, Who Investigated the Trump Campaign’s Ties to Russia, Dies at 81

CONSEQUENCES: The longer the war, the greater the costs to the US across multiple dimensions. Moreover, the longer the war, the more likely Iran will ‘win’.

Iran is approaching the war strategically, while the US is doing so tactically. Trump thinks bombing Iran’s infrastructure will force Iranian capitulation. Iran believes if it can keep the Hormuz Strait shut long enough, it can create enough damage to the US and Western economies that Trump will have to ‘declare victory’ regardless of the facts and discontinue the conflict.

Trump started the war in the expectation he could repeat the outcome of Venezuela. His US deep state neocons, US oligarch Zionist campaign contributors, and his friend Netanyahu no doubt convinced him that it was possible—even as senior US military advisors forewarned him it wasn’t.

So now he has a wildcat in a bag and he can’t decide whether to let the cat out or drop the bag and run.

Meanwhile, the US and world economies steadily deteriorate and the November 2026 US elections grow closer and with it, a potential political disaster for his war plans—unless, of course, his plan to somehow overturn or negate the elections proves successful.

— Jack Rasmus

*Self portrait* (1888) by Vincent van Gogh

TEHRAN IS DEFIANT AFTER TRUMP THREATENS POWER PLANTS

Iran and the United States traded threats over critical energy infrastructure in the Middle East, with Tehran vowing on Sunday to retaliate if President Trump followed through on a warning that he could target Iranian power plants.

Mr. Trump said late Saturday that the United States would “obliterate” the power plants — which millions of Iranians depend on — if Tehran did not fully open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. The strait, a key oil shipping route, has been choked off by Iranian strikes.

Iran dismissed the ultimatum as it launched a new round of attacks on Israel and issued its own warning. Ebrahim Zolfeqari, an Iranian military spokesman, vowed on Sunday that if Iranian energy sites were attacked, it would strike more infrastructure in the region used by Israel, the United States and American allies, such as fuel depots and desalination plants.

Iranian missiles hit Dimona, a city eight miles away from Israel’s nuclear facility, and the nearby city of Arad on Saturday night. More than 10 people were seriously injured and dozens more sustained minor injuries, underscoring Tehran’s ability to inflict damage despite three weeks of devastating airstrikes by the United States and Israel. More than 2,000 people have been killed across the region, mostly in Iran.

Still, Mr. Trump’s objectives in the conflict and his plans for next steps remained unclear. On Friday, he said that the U.S. did not want a cease-fire with Iran, but later wrote on social media that the U.S. was considering “winding down” its operations.

Israeli officials have told the public to expect a protracted campaign. On Saturday, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the military chief of staff, told Israelis that they were “midway through” the war with Iran and that they would still be fighting during the Passover holiday next week.

A long war of attrition could strain even Israel’s sophisticated antimissile arrays, which have faced multiple daily barrages by Iran, like the missiles that struck Saturday night.…

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/22/world/iran-war-oil-trump

IRAN TODAY, AFRICA TOMORROW

What is being done to Iran today could be done to Africa tomorrow. Africa must reject this illegal war.

by Tafi Mhaka

Men watch from a hillside as a plume of smoke rises after an explosion on March 2, 2026 in Tehran, Iran [Majid Saeedi/Getty Images]

Israel and America’s war on Iran has killed more than 1,500 people in a matter of weeks, and the toll continues to rise.

In Tehran on March 7, mourners gathered around the coffin of Zainab Sahebi, a two-year-old girl killed in an Israeli air strike. A small doll lay beside her coffin as relatives and neighbours crowded the funeral, grappling with the loss of a child taken in an instant.

Zainab’s funeral was only one of many.

On March 3, thousands gathered in Minab, in Hormozgan province, for a mass funeral after the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ primary school was destroyed during the opening day of the bombing campaign. Rows of coffins were carried through the city as families laid to rest at least 175 students and staff, most of them children, killed in one of the deadliest incidents of the conflict.

Violence like this has a long and familiar history.

From Gaza to Lebanon and now Iran, civilians continue to bear the price of imperialism.

This escalation has not been limited to civilians. Israeli strikes also killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with senior military officials.

For Africa, the crisis unfolding thousands of kilometres away is not a distant geopolitical calamity.

Instability in the Gulf has historically translated into sharp fuel price increases across the continent, with imported petroleum underpinning transport, electricity generation and food supply chains from Lagos and Nairobi to Johannesburg and Dakar.

The result is rising inflation and higher food prices.

Still, Africa’s stake in this conflict is not only economic.

It is also a legal and political question.

The issue confronting African governments is not whether they admire the Islamic Republic of Iran or the United States.

The real question is whether the rules governing the use of force between states still apply at all.

Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter prohibits states from using military force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another state, except in self-defence or with UN Security Council authorisation, a principle long understood as central to international order.

None of these legal thresholds were met in the case of the strikes on Iran.

Instead, both Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have presented the strikes on Iran as acts of “preemptive” self-defence against Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities.

Africans have seen before how quickly Western military campaigns, launched in the name of democracy, human rights or humanitarian protection, can expand far beyond their stated purpose.

Libya is a case in point.

In March 2011, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1973, authorising “all necessary measures” to protect civilians during Libya’s uprising against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

Within months, NATO aircraft were conducting an extensive bombing campaign across Libya, striking military installations and government infrastructure, while also killing civilians.

For many Africans, it was no cause for celebration.

The moment symbolised something deeper: a Western air war that culminated in the violent overthrow of an African government and the death of its leader.

More than a decade later, Libya remains politically fractured, governed by rival administrations in Tripoli and eastern Libya, while armed militias continue to dominate large parts of the country.

Libya’s collapse also destabilised the wider Sahel, where looted Libyan weapons and returning fighters helped ignite the 2012 rebellion in Mali, and contributed to coups and insurgencies that continue to shake Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

Libya, like Iraq and Afghanistan, stands as a warning of what can follow when outside powers remake a state through force.

Indeed, the pattern across Iran, Libya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo is clear. In each case, leaders sought to assert national control over strategic resources — oil in Iran and Libya, minerals in the DRC — only to face confrontation with Western dominance.

In September 1960, Congo’s independence leader Patrice Lumumba was deposed in a Western-backed coup and executed four months later after attempting to secure sovereignty over the country’s vast mineral wealth.

Half a century later, the same fate befell Gaddafi.

Today, Iran’s leader has been killed in a military operation justified as a security necessity.

Africa and the wider Global South stand at a crossroads.

The United Nations and the UN Charter remain among the few barriers standing between the present and a return to an era when powerful Western nations openly reserved the right to pillage Africa and other continents at any cost.

At the turn of the 20th century in the Congo Free State, in present-day DRC, the regime of King Leopold II of Belgium presided over a system of forced labour so brutal that historians estimate around 10 million Congolese died from violence, disease and starvation.

American troops occupied Cuba after the Spanish–American War of 1898 and forced the island to accept the Platt Amendment, which gave Washington the right to intervene in its affairs. The United States also seized Puerto Rico in the same war and, in April 1914, landed forces in Veracruz, Mexico, during the Mexican Revolution.

These actions reflected a time when powerful states acted with impunity and reshaped governments at will.

African leaders must respond to the present violations with clarity and resolve.

They should demand an immediate cessation of hostilities and unequivocally condemn the leaders responsible for this escalation: Israeli strongman Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump.

They must defend Iran’s sovereignty and Iranian lives.

They must stand up to the many faces of imperial power, including through coordinated action at the African Union and the United Nations General Assembly.

When African states founded the Organisation of African Unity in Addis Ababa on May 25, 1963, one of its core principles was respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, a response to centuries of external intervention on the continent.

On that occasion, Ghana’s founding president Kwame Nkrumah warned fellow African leaders that “independence is only the prelude to a new and more involved struggle for the right to conduct our own economic and social affairs unhampered by crushing and humiliating neo-colonialist controls and interference”.

More than 60 years later, that warning still stands.

It is time to defend the principles of the United Nations Charter.

History shows how quickly precedents travel.

Today it is Iran.

Tomorrow it may be Africa.

(aljazeera.com)

*Fine Wind, Clear Morning* (1831) woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai

14 Comments

Harvey Reading March 22, 2026

Well, well, we humans are one day closer to extinction…of ourselves.

Chuck Dunbar March 22, 2026

TRUMP IS A SOCIOPATH

Trump’s crude cruelty at Robert Mueller’s death is a small part of a continuing pattern of mental illness-based pathology. The several new war efforts—with more promised— are a larger part of it all. The longer he’s in office, the more craziness we see. He is clearly more than a malignant narcissist. That was once the thought, but it’s more serious than that. See below, per Mayo Clinic information. He’s clearly a pretty close fit:

“Antisocial personality disorder, sometimes called sociopathy, is a mental health condition in which a person consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others. People with antisocial personality disorder tend to purposely make others angry or upset and manipulate or treat others harshly or with cruel indifference. They lack remorse or do not regret their behavior.

Symptoms of antisocial personality disorder include repeatedly:

Ignoring right and wrong.
Telling lies to take advantage of others.
Not being sensitive to or respectful of others.
Using charm or wit to manipulate others for personal gain or pleasure.
Having a sense of superiority and being extremely opinionated.
Having problems with the law, including criminal behavior.
Being hostile, aggressive, violent or threatening to others.
Feeling no guilt about harming others.
Doing dangerous things with no regard for the safety of self or others.
Being irresponsible and failing to fulfill work or financial responsibilities.”

As Ralph Nader repeatedly argues, Trump is unfit for office— he is cruel, heedless of the law, mentally ill, lacks the judgment and reason necessary for leadership— needs to be impeached and banished from office.

- Norm Thurston March 22, 2026
  
  Thank-you for sharing your research, Chuck. Trump is also the leader of one of the largest cults in the USA. The same cult that currently controls the House and the Senate.
  
Me March 22, 2026

If Iran’s capabilities were obliterated, then how are they still launching attacks on everyone around them?
lies all lies.

Paul Modic March 22, 2026

stoned Spring garden howls
oozing dawn pleasures pulsate
dreamy coffee smiles

Teresa Warmke Skarr March 22, 2026

I was surprised to see the Irish yoga graphic in today’s MCT. Please do better.

- Steve Heilig March 22, 2026
  
  I kinda thought that might offend somebody, but I never heard more Irish drunk jokes than when I traveled all over Ireland.
  
Katherine Houston March 22, 2026

How come we don’t get photos any more–just blank spots where they are described but not shown? No art, no dogs from Animal Control, no historic photos, not even any R Crumbs.

- AVA News Service Post author | March 22, 2026
  
  No idea why that is happening for you.
  Anybody else experiencing this?
  
  - Bob Abeles March 22, 2026
    
    No problem here. There are so many ways this could happen, but without more information re: the failing browser version, OS, device, and so on, it’s impossible to say.
    
  - Jeff Fox March 22, 2026
    
    Not frequent at all, but It happens to me when I’m experiencing slow bandwidth. I think the web software gives up trying if it can’t load a picture within a specified timeout. When this happens I’ll just right-click the blank space where the picture would have appeared and select “reload image” and it then will load and display the image. So far that works every time.
    
  - Dave in PA March 22, 2026
    
    Only once, an obituary photo, but when I touched the blank space the photo appeared.
    
Jim Lutticken March 22, 2026

Mark Scaramella’s report on the the community services district (CSD) meeting of 18 March includes facts presented by the CSD on both the proposed water system and proposed sewer system.

The facts presented gloss over much of the financial impact to the community. For example, although the installation of the sewer system will be paid for by the grant, the yearly maintenance and operation of the sewer system will be paid for by the parcel owners forever. Those yearly costs will most likely be passed on to any tenants living on those properties.

It is also not mentioned that parcel owners within the sewer district could have liens placed against their property if they cannot or will not pay the yearly cost of maintenance and operation of the sewer system, a system which many within the sewer district do not want nor need.

Another fact that is not mentioned about the water system is that in addition to the yearly cost of maintenance and operation, each parcel owner will be responsible for the yearly inspection and maintenance of the required backflow device. This is a device required to stop the flow of well water from any of the parcels to the drinking water system.

It is obvious to me, based on looking into both systems and on Mark‘s reporting about them, that there is much serious discussion needed about these issues before we move on.

Dave in PA March 22, 2026

Here in Philadelphia the backflow preventers were recently required for commercial accounts including churches. We have two for which I must choose licenced plumber from a city provided list, including one that I know and trust. He tests the preventers annually and sends results to city. These are to prevent germs from entering the fresh water system by backflow. Not yet required for residential here. Cost is $150. Of course there was also a charge for initial installation.

14 Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply