(From press release) The City of Davis Police Accountability Commission invites the community to “Working Together to Protect Our Neighbors” on Thursday, September 10, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Center, 203 East 14th Street. Speakers will discuss local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement, practical family preparedness, and community safety. Live Spanish interpretation will be available.
Jones is “ashamed” of supporting Prop 50 and endorses “sunsetting” of federal programs
By Roberta Millstein
Eric Jones, former partner of the venture capital firm Dragoneer Investment Group, seems to be shifting dramatically rightward in the wake of (or in order to gain?) the endorsement of Republican Ray Riehle, his former opponent in Jones’s attempt to become the congressional representative for California’s District 4. What’s going on here? There are several aspects, so let me unpack.
First, I remind readers that Jones still has financial interests in Dragoneer and that his run for Congress is largely funded by 1) his own money, 2) by maximized direct donations from his former Dragoneer colleagues and other high tech executives, and 3) by a Super PAC that has so far funded only Jones, coming from some of the same sources as the direct donations. Each of these three categories individually amounts to millions of dollars. This is Silicon Valley, venture capitalist, AI/high tech, data-center-favoring money, not money that is looking to benefit citizens. Details can be found here.
As I noted in an earlier article, Jones has sought to present himself as a progressive, implying affiliations with Ro Khanna and Bernie Sanders and touting his endorsement from Our Revolution (removed from two Our Revolution web pages and now mysteriously reappeared). As I document in the same article, that appearance of being a progressive was always misleading, given his donation to a Republican candidate for governor — a member of the Bush family — and support of AI-driven health care, among other things. But his mask seems to be slipping further.
Generally, it is a sign of desperation when a candidate dramatically changes his stripes. Does Jones think he can woo Republican voters? Maybe so — after all, he founded an organization whose specific goal was to figure out what voters want (see previous links). And did Jones craft a new platform to gain Riehle’s endorsement? It’s hard to explain why else Jones would now say:
“I supported Prop 50 as a response to the gerrymandering effort in Texas. But after speaking with thousands of voters at their doors, I am extremely disappointed — ashamed, even — of the way this was carried out in our own state.”
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.
(more…)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.
(more…)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.
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.
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.
(more…)(From press release) In an explosive story in The Press Democrat Friday morning, it was confirmed that Eric Jones’ wealthy donors spent more than $100,000 to split the Republican vote and guarantee that Eric Jones would make the general election.
The donors in question, George Dixit (Dean) and Rishi Dixit, are a married couple from Santa Monica and were the only two donors to Mandy Gushar, John McKenzie, and Sharon Brown. Gushar, McKenzie, and Brown maintained no social media presence and hosted no publicly advertised events. Each candidate hired the same campaign treasurer and their biggest campaign expense was the filing fee to get on the ballot.
Rishi Dixit also started and funded a SuperPAC, California Leadership Fund, that raised $75,000 attacking Raymond Riehle, the leading Republican candidate, in a variety of mailers and text messages. Riehle was endorsed by six county Republican central committees and was not attacked by any other candidates – just Jones’ donors. Eric Jones defeated Raymond Riehle by just 1.5%. McKeznie, Gushar, and Brown received 10.4% of the vote combined.
“This is another example of Eric Jones and his wealthy venture capitalist donors trying to buy a seat in Congress,” said Mike Thompson for Congress Campaign Manager, Thomas Dowling “80 percent of voters rejected Eric Jones’ message and we look forward to sending Eric back home to San Francisco in November.”
Congressman Thompson was the top vote getter, beating Eric Jones by 19 points. Despite having nearly $11 million in support, Congressman Thompson goes into the general election leading Eric Jones by a 2:1 margin.
Read the full story here and below:
(more…)
By Elizabeth Coolbrith
The issue facing Davis is no longer Measure V. The issue is trust.
For months, Davis parents were told that declining enrollment posed a serious threat to our schools. School closures, boundary changes, and district restructuring were presented as looming possibilities. Families understandably worried about the future of their neighborhood schools.
At the same time, Davis Joint Unified School District leadership became deeply involved in the public discussion surrounding Measure V. District leaders repeatedly linked the Village Farms development to the future health of Davis schools, arguing that new housing would bring students and revenue. Many residents came away with a clear message: support Measure V or face the possibility of school closures.
That perception matters because California school districts are expected to follow a clear principle during election campaigns: educate, don’t advocate. Public agencies may provide information about ballot measures, but they should not use their positions or public resources to persuade voters toward a particular outcome. The distinction exists for a reason. Public institutions are entrusted with informing the public, not campaigning.
Many parents questioned whether that line remained clear during the Measure V campaign. Superintendent Matt Best conducted presentations throughout the community discussing why the district supported the project and how its approval could benefit local schools. Whether intentional or not, many residents felt these communications sounded less like neutral information and more like advocacy.
(more…)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
(more…)By Matt Williams
I just came back from the Supervisors meeting at the County Offices. One of the ceremonial items was a recognition of Juneteenth 2026. One of the public comments was delivered by Garth Lewis, Yolo County Superintendent of Schools. There were two very resonant phrases he used in his remarks:
1) dealt with the importance of monitoring that our ideals (at all levels, but especially as a community) are being realized in our practices. He went on to say that ideals lose their value if we don’t consistently put them into practice.
2) he noted that we are living in times where “accountability is being undercut in this country every day.” That isn’t just a national problem, or a Trump problem. We have seen that play out in blinking neon letters in Measure V.
Davisite 