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Category: Ethics

  • Why an Unubstructed Delta Breeze Is Critical for California

    And how the proposed California Forever project threatens livability in Davis and other parts of the Central Valley

    By Dr. Glen Holstein

    Covering 18,000 square miles, California’s Central Valley is the largest nearly flat valley on earth.  It is almost entirely surrounded by mountains and consequently prone to very high temperatures since winds blowing downhill from mountains compress and heat air.  That is why Death Valley, completely surrounded by mountains, has average July temperatures higher than those of any month anywhere else on earth.  Its mean July temperature is 100.9 degrees F while the mean July temperature of Aswan deep in the Sahara Desert but not surrounded by mountains is 91.8 degrees F.  Death Valley even set the all-time scientifically accepted high temperature record of 134 degrees F in 1913.

    But the Central Valley is not entirely surrounded by mountains.  They open up at the Golden Gate to permit a cooling air flow from the Pacific Ocean called the Delta Breeze to significantly lower summer temperatures in the center of the Central Valley but much less so in its northern part called the Sacramento Valley and its southern part called the San Joaquin Valley. 

    The Delta Breeze’s origin is the cold California Current flowing southward from Alaska.  Disturbance where it encounters obstructions like Point Reyes and the Monterey Peninsula causes upwelling from depths that cool coastal water even more.  

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  • Senior Citizens Commission Bites the Dust

    By Elaine Roberts Musser 

    In checking over the Senior Citizens Commission agenda, it was incredibly sad to see that it is “concluding its work”. In other words, it’s disbanding. What is particularly disheartening, is knowing that my successful fight, many years ago, to save this commission (when the City Council was attempting to eliminate commissions at the time), was ultimately unsuccessful so many years later.  Does anyone honestly think that senior citizen issues will be addressed, when their concerns are split between three different commissions not designed to handle senior issues? The upshot will be that seniors will no longer have a meaningful voice in Davis.  

    Because of Councilmembers Vaitla and Chapman and their plan to defang commissions, they have single-handedly destroyed the Senior Citizens Commission, the Tree Commission, and the Utilities Commission. Along with that, they have eviscerated the power of the other commissions – by insisting that no new items be placed on commission agendas without City Council permission.  And the rest of the City Council, to their shame, have gone along with this nefarious plot. That controversial commission agenda policy was to be reviewed after a year, but no such assessment ever took place.In other words, we were lied to. 

    It has become patently clear the current City Council is hostile to public input. They are not interested in independent review or advice from commissions composed of ordinary citizens. We have entered a more authoritarian form of city government, much like what is going on at the federal level, a revolting development.

    Elaine Roberts Musser is Former Chair, Senior Citizens Commission and Former Chair, Utilities Commission

  • Our Revolution seems to have quietly rescinded its endorsement of Eric Jones

    They should state their un-endorsement explicitly and explain their reasons for it

    By Roberta Millstein

    As I documented in a past article, Eric Jones is not a progressive.  Now it seems that Our Revolution, which Wikipedia calls “an American progressive political action organization founded as a continuation of Senator Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign,” has finally figured out the same thing.  Having previously endorsed Eric Jones in his run to unseat Mike Thompson in CA-04, Our Revolution seems to have quietly withdrawn that endorsement.

    I want to be clear: this is not a critique of Our Revolution. I consider myself to be a progressive and I generally support their mission. I contributed to Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaigns, voted for him twice, displayed the swag. But organizations can make mistakes.  So it is no surprise to me that they would withdraw their endorsement once that they had the complete picture of who Jones is.

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  • Eric Jones, Red-Boxing, & the AI Money Nobody’s Talking About

    And update to the series on the race for congress in California CD04 (Links below)

    By Judy Tipple

    [Reposted with permission of the author. See original at https://rosietheboomer.substack.com/p/eric-jones-red-boxing-and-the-ai]

    OK, I admit it… I’m a political nerd. Many years of campaigns, more FEC filings read than I’d like to admit. And I had never heard of “red-boxing” until a friend flagged it to me last week. Wait till you hear what it means — because once you see it, you can’t unsee it on every campaign website you visit.

    Before I get to that: credit where it’s due. Roberta Millstein at Davisite already dug up the core of Jones’s Dragoneer ties and his Super PAC connections. Read her full series here: Who is Eric Jones? A summary of the series. This piece adds a few new pieces to her picture.

    1. Red-Boxing: The website is talking to PACs, not to you

    Jones’s campaign site has a page — not in the main menu, you have to know where to look — that reads less like a pitch to voters and more like a memo to an ad-buyer. It tells you what you “need to see,” what you “need to hear,” on what timeline. That’s a known, legal-but-gray tactic called red-boxing: campaigns aren’t allowed to privately hand a Super PAC their ad copy, so instead they post it publicly and let the PAC “discover” it — no phone call required, no coordination on paper. It’s used by both parties nationwide, so it’s not unique to Jones. What is fair to point out: he’s built his brand on refusing PAC money, while his own site is doing PAC-facing work in plain sight. That is red-boxing.

    2. Follow the money, follow the name, follow the family

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  • Sierra Club and Tuleyome summer potluck & presentation on Wed, July 22, 7 PM

    The Future of Cache Creek Gravel Mining Restoration – A New Pathway Forward

    (From press release) What-When-Where – The Sierra Club Yolano Group and Tuleyome are sponsoring an in-person potluck dinner and conversation on Wednesday, July 22 from 7 to 9 pm in the Blanchard Room at the Yolo County Library, 314 E. 14th Street in Davis. (Doors open at 6:45 pm). Unfortunately, a Zoom option will not be available.

    Cache Creek looking west into the Capay Valley in the 1970s
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  • Eileen’s Update

    No on Measure V Campaign Gratitude

    The No on Measure V campaign would like to express our sincere gratitude to the many Davis voters who voted to reject the Village Farms proposal for the many reasons we explained in our articles, literature, and online at our NoOnMeasureV.org website.

    It is unfortunate that this project divided the community, but ultimately, the majority of voters understood that the project was unacceptable due to its many impacts, including toxics, flooding potential, massive traffic, enormous infrastructure costs, habitat destruction along Channel A, as well as endangerment of the vernal pools and the endangered species of Vernal Pool Tadpole Shrimp, and especially due to the unaffordable market-rate housing and the seriously inadequate affordable housing plan. The housing proposed would have been unaffordable to parents of young kids and would not have yielded hundreds of kids, and the and the long timeline of at least 15+ years did not coincide with the School District timeline, so it would not have helped the schools.

    This issue is now behind us, and hopefully we can come together as a community and work on solutions instead of school closures. This process needs to start now, and the School Board needs to move forward and approve the formation of a parent-based subcommittee, as recommended by California Best Practices, to work on solutions with the School District to avoid school closures without delay.

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  • Award-Winning Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) Presented July 7th

    By Scott Steward

    Kristen Wraithwall is the Manager of the Sustainability Division. The Sustainability Division operates within the Health and Safety Department of our Yolo County. Kristen will present the Update on Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) Implementation Progress at this Tuesday’s (July 7th) Yolo County Board of Supervisors Meeting at 9:00 AM.

     Zoom meeting: By PC: https://yolocounty.zoom.us/j/84359964086

    Kristen, her staff, the Climate Action Commission, and the County have made consistently strong progress in climate action despite very difficult budget circumstances. This Sustainability work continues to provide our county with grant-funded programs that Yolo County cities and other California counties look to as models for what can be accomplished in their own jurisdictions. Yolo County’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan received the Sacramento Valley Section APA Award of Excellence in Resilience and Sustainability (May 2025) and the Beacon Award from the Institute for Local Government (November 2025). 

    Vehicle use remains the #1 source of greenhouse gas emissions in Yolo County, so it is no surprise that 2026-2027 CAAP priorities emphasize transportation, including the implementation of countywide Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) programs. Transportation is followed by building energy efficiency in coordination with Valley Clean Energy, Natural & Working Lands water conservation and carbon soil enhancement, recycling, and public cooling infrastructure.

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  • HEART of Davis Celebrates First Anniversary of Safe Heart Safe Parking Program

    Program marks one year of providing safety, stability, and pathways to housing for neighbors living in their vehicles

    (From press release) HEART of Davis is celebrating the first anniversary of its Safe Heart Safe Parking Program, the first and only program in Yolo County to provide a safe, legal place for people living in their vehicles to park overnight while accessing supportive services and working toward permanent housing.

    Launched on July 1, 2025, Safe Heart was created to address a critical gap in services for people experiencing vehicular homelessness. In the City of Davis, where sleeping in vehicles is prohibited under the City’s anti-camping ordinance, the program offers a lawful alternative that combines overnight parking with case management, community support, and connections to essential resources.

    “What began as a small pilot has become a proven model of compassionate, practical assistance,” said Shoshana Zatz, President of HEART of Davis. “Safe Heart demonstrates that when people are treated with dignity and offered stability, they are better able to take the next steps toward housing, employment, healthcare, and renewed independence.”

    During its first year, Safe Heart:

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  • How Yolo County Staff Blundered Review of Illegal Fireworks Businesses on Agricultural Land

    By David L. Johnson

    Introduction

    The focus of this article is how top level Yolo County administrators, including the Office of the County Counsel, ignored illegal fireworks businesses on property owned by Sam and Tammy Machado in Esparto.

    Based on a Public Records Act request, this author received a large collection of emails that document a series of negligent mistakes made by county employees. These emails are limited in number because of legal privilege and an ongoing investigation into the explosion and fatalities. However, of the numerous emails received by this author, not one county employee stated in writing to a representative of Sam Machado, or among themselves, that Yolo County passed an ordinance in 2001 banning the possession, storing or selling of dangerous fireworks – even when county employees knew there were fireworks stored at the site. More important, if the county had taken code enforcement action, the explosion, fire and fatalities would have never occurred.

    The lack of action for code enforcement in regard to the Machado property also includes the Chief of the Esparto Fire Protection District, as documented in the March 26, 2026, report entitled “Yolo County Civil Grand Jury 2025-2026 Esparto Fireworks Explosion: Officials Knew, None Acted.”

    As stated in the Grand Jury report:

    “In the evening of July 1, 2025, massive explosions obliterated a family farm located at the northwest corner of County Roads 23 and 86A in Esparto. This incident, commonly known as the Esparto Fireworks Explosion, claimed the lives of seven workers….The explosion leveled the site and ignited what was named the Oakdale Fire, which expanded to 78 acres including nearby properties….Seven employees of a company called Devastating Pyrotechnics were killed instantly….”

    The county’s lack of action ultimately led to the tragic deaths of:

    Name             Age

    Jesus Manaces Ramos – 18

    Angel Mathew Voller – 18

    Jhony Ernesto Ramos – 22

    Joel “Junior” Jeremias Melendez – 28

    Neil Justin Li – 41

    Carlos Javier Rodriguez-Mora – 43

    Christopher Goltiao Bocog – 45

    The victims included three brothers – Jesus Ramos, Jhony Ramos, and their eldest stepbrother Joel Melendez.

    The First Red Flags

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  • Living Water, Living Knowledge: Youth Explore Indigenous Stewardship in the Yolo Basin

    (From press release) For thousands of years, Patwin-Wintun peoples cared for the wetlands and waterways of the Yolo Basin using stewardship practices that enhanced biodiversity and sustained one of California’s richest delta ecosystems. This summer, Native, BIPOC, and ally youth are invited to experience these teachings firsthand through the Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) Youth Program.

    Led by Wintun/Maidu educator, naturalist, Fire Boss, and cultural practitioner Diana Almendariz, participants will explore how Indigenous communities lived in relationship with the land, plants, animals, and living water. Through hands-on activities, youth will learn about tule gathering, cultural burning, wetland ecology, wildlife, traditional foods, and Indigenous approaches to environmental stewardship.

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