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Richard C. Blum is Dead, but not (yet) Forgotten

Peter Byrne

Mar 2, 2022

Richard C. Blum is Dead, but not (yet) Forgotten

Every day in the fog-caressed city of San Francisco, a half dozen souls are overwhelmed by the Big Sleep. But on Feb. 28, 2022 only one of the previous day’s dearly departed was granted a headline in the San Francisco Chronicle.

While middle class dead were remembered rosily in paid obituaries, wealthy investment banker Richard Charles Blum, 86, got a freebie hagiography. Education beat reporter Nanette Asimov breathlessly lauded the deceased financier as a “self made millionaire,” a “philanthropist,” a reform-minded University of California Regent, and, oh, yes, the husband of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein.

According to Asimov, and similarly flattering obits in rich and powerful-fawning media, Blum was a brilliant businessman with no flaws as a human being; he was, in fact, a morally pure saint who brightened a world shared by rich and poor alike.

Please allow us to set the record straight.

Beginning in 2000, this reporter published numerous stories in SF Weekly, Bohemian, and other California newspapers exposing the many ethically corrupted money deals engineered by Blum as he manufactured for himself a lucrative career by leveraging his wife’s political power to profit from billions of dollars in government contracts awarded to companies controlled by himself.

My investigative stories on Blum have been lauded through the years with journalism awards from organizations such as Project Censored, Society of Professional Journalists, Investigative Reporters & Editors, California Newspaper Publishers Association. The scandalous findings detailing Blum-Feinstein conflicts of interest have been echoed in other media news columns for decades. Some of the reports have inspired government investigations of Blum’s operations, and feeble efforts by Feinstein to disassociate herself from her partner’s scores of interlocking businesses by claiming that she only has ownership of a small “blind trust.”

In fact, Feinstein has always owned exactly one half of Blum’s assets under California community property laws, period. And she has many times intervened in Congressional oversight of projects that have benefited her family. But such is the reverence in which corporate-enslaved politicians and the press that depends upon their favor holds the politically neoliberal, closet-neoconservative Feinstein, that Blum was allowed to continue his grifts in broad daylight until his San Francisco-based bank, Blum Capital Partners, busted flat a few years ago, taking down with it many millions of dollars in public funds.

Feinstein’s reputation has long been protected by political Teflon and willfully blind reporters in the face of decades of documented havoc caused to the public interest by her family businesses. And, horribly, as she continues to sink into a widely-recognized zombie state of piteous dementia, she remains a powerfully influential Senator wielding life and death responsibilities in an out-moded, obstructionist branch of government run by obvious psychopaths and narcissistic, geriatric basket cases. But I digress.

In addition to his not-so-mysterious way of attracting billions of dollars in government construction and real estate and military supply contracts, Blum’s other business ventures were based on “private equity,” which is a piratical method of investing which coldly destroys businesses, like PetSmart, for one example of a Blum takeover. The private equity way practiced by Blum Capital Partners is to buy cash flow-healthy companies by assuming massive bank debt to finance the aggressive, normally unwanted take-over. The new owner’s acquisition loans are off-loaded onto the books of the just-acquired firm. Typically, the private equity banditos loot the firm by selling off its productive assets to pay back the acquisition debt and to generate surplus cash which they siphon off for themselves. The asset-crippled firm goes bankrupt, the workers are fired, and people like Blum walk away with largely untaxed profits, casually stepping on the company’s corpse as they sniff out the next victim.

Here is a compendium of the Blum-Feinstein family deals which I exposed to public light during more than two decades of factually robust and unchallenged reporting.

“San Francisco International Airpork” (2000) revealed that construction companies partnered with Blum caused the budget for renovating the airport to unnecessarily balloon by a billion dollars which generated excess profits for Blum and his partners.

“Hawk Tale” (2005) The firm of Feinstein, Condoleeza Rice, Blum, & Bush—war made easy and profitable.

“MIG Attack” (2005) How Feinstein interfered in Indian casino siting legislation, while her husband builds Indian casinos.

“Senator Warbucks” (2007) A national journalism award-winning expose of how Feinstein used her chairpersonship of the Senate Military Construction subcommittee (MILCON) to steer billions of Iraq & Afghanistan war dollars to firms controlled by her husband.

“Feinstein Resigns” (2007) Sen. Feinstein suddenly resigns from MILCON in public blow back from the Bohemian’s revelation that Blum sells prosthetic limbs at huge mark-ups to Iraq and Afghanistan war wounded troops.

“Daddy Kleinbucks” (2007) Founder of the nonprofit investigative Sunlight Foundation, lawyer-investor Michael R. Klein has made curious investment choices with his business partner, Richard C. Blum. Klein was Feinstein’s closest legal and ethical advisor.

“Blum’s Plums” (2007) The first story about how Blum finagled University of California endowment funds to profit himself while he was a university Regent in charge of investments.

“The Investor’s Club” (2011) How the University of California Regents Spin Public Money into Private Profit and into the Pocket of Regent Richard C. Blum. An 8-month investigation crowd-funded by Spot.us and published in multiple newspapers revealed how Blum steered University of California funds into private equity investments, often controlled by him, and how the university lost vast sums of money that would have otherwise gone toward education.

“Going Postal” (2013) The husband of US Senator Dianne Feinstein has been selling post offices to his friends, cheap. The investigation resulted in an damning Inspector General investigation of Blum’s firm, and Blum resigning from the company involved. It is also a “best selling” book.

And the final report, “Blum and Doom” (2017) Feinstein’s hubby, and California pension system, take a hit in the downfall of ITT Educational Services as Blum goes broke.

Last June, according to the Securities & Exchange Commission, Blum Capital Partners was officially terminated after losing most of its capital on bad investments promoting for-profit colleges which it controlled. Unfortunately, Blum had lured tens of millions of dollars from California Public Employees Retirement Fund into these bad investments, while he was a highly paid investment manager for the public fund. Remarkably, Blum steered public investments into his failing for-profit educational company, ITT Educational, trying to prop up the value of his own investments. ITT Educational profited mightily by making federally guaranteed student loans for providing certifiably substandard educations. The company was forcibly liquidated by the US government for fraud and Blum’s investment bank went down, at the same time.

Let us now leave insincere plaudits for the dead aside by reversing the standard sanctimonious obituary tropes made by obsequious reporters to the rich and powerful whom they envy and bootlick.

The world is a better place without Mr. Blum.

Support investigative journalism at www.paypal.com/paypalme/PByrne735

Huichica Music Festival revives summer dates, shares full lineup

Charlie Swanson

Mar 2, 2022

Huichica Music Festival revives summer dates, shares full lineup

For more than a decade, Northern California event curator (((FolkYEAH!))) and the state’s oldest family-owned winery joined forces each summer to present the Huichica Music Festival on the pictorial grounds of Gundlach Bundschu in Sonoma Valley.

Huichica made it’s name (pronounced wah-chee-ka) by delivering intimate access to great indie-rock bands and artists, local food purveyors and estate-grown wines. Yet, the festival suffered the same fate as all social gatherings in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic canceled the event. Last year, Huichica changed it’s summertime schedule to a fall offering, taking place in October 2021.

This year, with health restrictions lifting on gatherings, Huichica Music Festival returns to Gun Bun Winery for its typical summer dates, June 10–11, 2022, and will feature a dynamic array of rock and folk acts and artists such as Allah-Las, ESG, Turnover, Damien Jurado, La Luz, Woods and others.

“Over ten years ago, we created Huichica because we believe that music and wine is best shared in intimate and epic settings with our community, family, friends,” Jeff Bundschu, President of Gundlach Bundschu and co-founder of Huichica Music Festival, says in a statement. “My family has farmed and lived on this property since 1858, and it’s an honor to share it with these amazing artists and our community every summer at Huichica Music Festival.”

The all-ages, family-friendly music festival takes place throughout Gundlach Bundschu’s winery estate in Sonoma, including a historic barn and outdoor amphitheater that offers vineyard views. Musically, the self-described ‘micro-music festival’ highlights both established and emerging artists from the Bay Area and beyond.

The festival’s 2022 full lineup includes Allah-Las, ESG, Turnover, W.I.T.C.H., Woods, La Luz, Damien Jurado, Midlake, Tamaryn, Avey Tare, Isobel Campbell, Bobby Oroza, Wand, Lilys, The Altons, Mega Bog, Mary Lattimore, Tropa Magica, Mystic Chords Of Memory, Dummy, Starcrawler, Tapers Choice, Spaceface, Jess Williamson, Oog Bogo, Brigid Dawson, Frank Locrasto, Thumpasuraus, Light Fantastic, Oliver Ray, Sylvie, Uni Boys, Madeline Kenney, The Shacks, Nico Georis, Matt Baldwin and Companion (Lineup subject to change).

To ensure the health of staff and all guests, Huichica Music Festival will comply with any laws and mandates recommended by the county and CDC. All Covid-19 safety policies are subject to change anytime.

“After a couple of tough years for live events and the music industry, it means the world to us to present this fun and diverse music experience at the oldest family-owned winery in California—it’s always one of my favorite music and family weekends of the year,” Britt Govea, founder of (((folkYEAH!))), says in a statement. “Huichica is smaller in size, but resonates big in the hearts of music and wine lovers looking for something more intimate and relaxing than the typical show. It is a treat to spend two glorious days at Gundlach Bundschu with some of the best artists of our time.”

Huichica Music Festival happens June 10-11, at Gundlach Bundschu (2000 Denmark Street, Sonoma). Two-day general admission passes ($295) to Huichica go on sale Friday, March 4 at 10am, with single-day tickets to follow. Children under 12 are free. To purchase, please visit huichica.com.

What Is Sausalito? Take a Closer Look

Peter Laufer

Mar 2, 2022

The glorious photograph illustrating the delightful “Spotlight on Sausalito” article in the Feb. 16 Pacific Sun sure ain’t the Sausalito waterfront, despite the caption’s claim. That’s a picture of the gorgeous view from Fort Baker. I know because I’m a lucky guy: I grew up in Sausalito.

And a different Sausalito it was when I moved to Spencer Avenue in 1960 and enrolled in the fourth grade at Bayside School. Tourists packed the town only on the weekends. A stroll for a block along Bridgeway north from Princess would take a flâneur such as me past Ole’s Bakery, the Purity Market, the Gate Theater, the hardware store, the five & ten and the Rexall with the soda fountain. Tourists came for our village atmosphere and waterfront, not T-shirts, ice cream and glitzy galleries.

In fifth grade a couple of classmates and I decided to start a newspaper, The Sausalito Sun—a few years later, when the Pacific Sun launched, we always figured the founders stole our name. We prowled the streets looking for news and selling ads, two bucks for a full page. Sally Stanford advertised her Valhalla restaurant with us; I played Little League for the Giants she sponsored and the madam’s Rolls-Royce was our team’s car for opening day parades. The old Kingston Trio-owned Trident always took a full page—after high school I was employed for a brief stint as a member of the overnight kitchen cleanup crew. The mayor called our Sun the best newspaper in town, an easy call since at that time we were the only paper.

When I moved back to town after a short interlude studying at Berkeley—of course I dropped out for a spell, it was the ’60s!—I moved into the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Pullman business car parked at Tiki Junction. The Big G was our grocery store, before it became Mollie Stone’s, and across the street was the pungent distillery after which the Whiskey Springs housing development is named. Just before Bridgeway ends, Juanita held forth at her Galley on the Charles Van Damme, grounded at Gate Six.

So, with as much modesty as an adopted son can muster, I cover the Sausalito waterfront and can say with historical certainty that we don’t need our picturesque Fort Baker neighbor to play our double.

Peter Laufer lives in Sausalito.

Grand Delusion — Main Stage West Goes Classic

Harry Duke

Mar 2, 2022

Grand Delusion — Main Stage West Goes Classic

A “classic” is defined as something judged over a period of time to be of the highest quality and outstanding of its kind.

In theater, it can be a mark of a quality script that is at the mercy of the artists producing it. I’ve seen plenty of non-classic productions of classic plays. The Glass Menagerie, running at Sebastopol’s Main Stage West through March 5, is not one of those.

The Tennessee Williams memory play about the Wingfield family was written more than 75 years ago. While it may be draped in the trappings of its time, its look at the illusions we create to get through life, and the pain and regret that comes with the shattering of those illusions, still resonates today.

The type of run-down apartment where the fire escape is the means of entering and exiting is the home of faded Southern belle Amanda Wingfield (Sheri Lee Miller), her son Tom (Keith Baker) and her daughter Laura (Ivy Rose Miller). Tom spends his days toiling at a warehouse and his nights at the “movies” dreaming of getting out and living an adventurous life. Laura, a fragile girl, lives an isolated life spent playing records on the Victrola and maintaining her collection of glass figurines. Amanda is worried about Laura’s future and harangues Tom about bringing “gentlemen callers” in from his work. Tom acquiesces and invites his co-worker Jim (Damion Lee Matthews) over for dinner. What seems like a promising possibility quickly fades into harsh reality.

Williams’ characters are bucket-list roles for actors, and director Elizabeth Craven has four actors, including a newcomer to the area, at the top of their game. Mother and daughter are played by mother and daughter Sheri Lee and Ivy Rose Miller, which can’t help but add a deeper dimension to the characterizations. Baker channels Philip Seymour Hoffman in physical demeanor, vocal intonation and stage presence while newcomer Matthews expertly threads the needle with Jim, a character who has illusions of his own.

I’m always impressed by the sets placed on the tiny Sebastopol stage, and David Lear and director Craven’s design manages to make the space feel larger and yet claustrophobic at the same time. The period costume design—especially Amanda’s “gown,” by Adrianna Gutierrez—provided strong support to the characters and the story.

A sense of regret runs thick through The Glass Menagerie. It is not a sense I felt after attending this production.

‘The Glass Menagerie’ runs Thursday to Saturday through March 5 at Main Stage West, 104 N. Main St., Sebastopol. 8pm; $20–$32. Proof of vaccination with ID and masks required. 707.823.0177. mainstagewest.com

Tiny Homes — Housing the Homeless

Features

Michael Giotis

Mar 2, 2022

On Feb. 22, the City of Petaluma held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a strip of tiny houses.

The dwellings, the result of a partnership of COTS and the County of Sonoma, are temporary living spaces intended to help transition people into permanent housing and are called the People’s Village.

COTS shelters 190 people, according to its website. Some of them will be among the first to have access to the soon-to-be 30 little structures lined up next to the Mary Isaak Center.

Still, the 30 residents who will be housed in the tiny homes are a small slice of the nearly 300 residents officially experiencing homelessness in Petaluma. At a Steamer Landing encampment the day of the ceremony, I came across a man eagerly unpacking a brand-new tent, a donation he had received, he said, “from the County, I think.” That turned out to be incorrect.

I asked Mark—a pseudonym—about the People’s Village and, like the others I spoke with, he had heard of it, but not by name. He expressed worry about the ability of the government to address homelessness. I asked him what a solution might look like.

“It’s gotta be somewhat like what they’re doing through tiny houses; I think maybe it’s just a space that sticks longer than just, like, 6 weeks and then you gotta get out of here. Then you are just playing whack-a-mole,” Mark said.

Later, a couple arrived carrying two more of the brand-new tents. Former residents of “the Park,” as the people here call Steamer Landing, Reily and Nok will soon be moving into an apartment in Santa Rosa. They had organized the donation of the tents and were delivering them. “… We’re going to continue helping,” Nok said.

When I asked about the People’s Village, they were not happy.

“They are only, like, human-height [inside]. Really?” Reily said with a defiant tone.

“They look that tiny,” Nok added.

“You don’t have a bathroom or sink in there, or kitchen. That’s not fair,” Reily said. Noting that the most vulnerable members of our community are often experiencing physical or mental health issues, he added, “Everybody out here who has a disability should be treated a lot better than they are.”

Across midtown, hidden away along the river, is a very different encampment. Unlike the ragged temporary shelters of Steamer Landing, this camp, known to its residents as the Field, or the Little Field, has stood for perhaps five years. No simple tents here, but walled structures of plywood and tarps filled with furniture and personal items.

The two men I found there invited me into the camp. We sat together on a couch in what they called the “community center.” One of the men, Josh, apologized as he cleared loose items, saying, “All artists’ rooms are messy.”

When I asked about the People’s Village, the other man, Jordan, said he had just heard about it that morning.

“What are the stipulations on living there?” he asked, before thinking aloud. “I’m sure you have to be somewhat getting your shit together, doing something productive, so it’s gonna benefit yourself. [O]bviously they can’t give everybody a tiny home, so, I mean, you [must] have to give some incentive or do some sort of work or something, I feel like, to get that.”

“So you guys are feeling good about that being an option?” I asked.

“Yeah. As long as the City wants to help out homeless people,” Josh said.

“It’s cool they’re doing something besides just kicking people out of homeless spots. That doesn’t solve the problem,” Jordan said, “[which is] just passing the buck, homeless people are going to still be [somewhere].”

“It’s a small step,” he added. “Maybe it might be a piss in the ocean, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.”

Petaluma-Based Group Responsible for Distributing Antisemitic Flyers

Nikki Silverstein

Mar 1, 2022

Petaluma-Based Group Responsible for Distributing Antisemitic Flyers

Marin residents awoke to discover antisemitic flyers on their lawns, driveways and streets last week. Now, local law enforcement is struggling to determine whether any crimes have been committed.

The leaflets were distributed in Tiburon, Novato and Marin City under the cover of darkness in the early morning hours on Sunday, Feb. 20. The hate-filled materials were folded into clear plastic bags with rice, presumably added to prevent the packets from blowing away. Napa and other cities across the Bay Area and Southern California received similar flyers, making California one of at least eight states targeted within the last three months.

The propaganda blamed Jewish people for “the Covid agenda.” Some Marin neighborhoods received a second page, which stated, “Every single aspect of the Biden administration is Jewish.” Both flyers contained the website address of a small hate group based in Petaluma.

The Anti-Defamation League, a worldwide organization that fights antisemitism and discrimination, says the group behind the flyers is a loose network of individuals. While primarily directing its vitriol towards Jewish people, the group has also focused on the LGBTQ+ community and others.

“This stunt is the cowardly work of a group espousing white supremacist themes and Holocaust denial,” Teresa Drenick, the ADL deputy regional director of the Central Pacific Region, said. “It’s a fringe group with the aim to intimidate and sow fear in the Jewish community.”

The group’s leader, a failed actor and writer who lives in Petaluma, co-founded an antisemitic website that allows users to upload vile videos. His girlfriend was recently fired from her job as a yoga instructor, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Tuesday, because the yoga studio owner said the woman seems to share the beliefs of her boyfriend and “assisted him in his business of hate.” The woman has denied sharing his ideology and said the couple has sought legal advice.

Hate speech is protected under the First Amendment, provided it does not incite criminal acts or contain violent threats. “Hate itself is not a crime,” according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

However, hate crimes, which have been on the rise over the last 12 years, are not protected. More than 8,200 hate crimes were reported to the FBI in 2020, although the agency said experts estimate the number is higher because data submission by local law enforcement is voluntary. The FBI defines a hate crime as a bias-motivated offense against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity.

In 2020, the ADL received more than 2,000 reports of antisemitic incidents throughout the United States, which ranks as the third-highest year on record since the organization began compiling the data in 1979.

The Petaluma-based hate group that disseminated the flyers around the country was responsible for at least 74 antisemitic propaganda incidents in 2021, according to the ADL. Stunts and schemes by the group, including hanging antisemitic banners from overpasses on busy freeways, are designed to draw attention.

“This group craves publicity,” Drenick said. “They have not, to our knowledge, resorted to violence.”

In Tiburon, 90 residents called police to report finding a plastic bag with an antisemitic flyer in their yard or driveway on Feb. 20. Rather than targeting specific addresses, the materials were randomly distributed at homes on Stewart Drive and Paradise Drive.

A resident who received the flyer has a camera pointed toward the street and captured video footage of a vehicle passing by during the 3am hour. Although the license plate cannot be seen, Tiburon police believe the antisemitic handbills were tossed from that car. With the time frame narrowed, license plate-reading cameras mounted at the town’s entry and exit points may assist police in identifying the suspect, especially with the light traffic early on a Sunday morning.

“We have some good possible leads here,” Laurie Nilsen, Tiburon police spokesperson, said. “Numerous officers are working on this around the clock. We’re investigating to see what crime may have occurred and talking to the district attorney’s office to see what, if any charges, could be filed. It’s tough. Where does freedom of speech end and a hate crime begin?”

In Novato, the leaflet distribution occurred in the unincorporated Wildhorse Valley neighborhood. The Marin County Sheriff’s Office is still investigating the incident, according to spokesperson Sgt. Brenton Schneider.

A Marin City resident posted on Nextdoor that he found his street littered with the plastic bags and antisemitic materials when he went outside on Feb. 20. The Sheriff’s Office has not received reports of the flyer drop in Marin City and encourages anyone with information to contact them.

A joint statement issued by the Marin County Police Chiefs’ Association and Marin County District Attorney’s Office on Feb. 24 said they are tracking the incidents. Unfortunately, Marin District Attorney Lori Frugoli doesn’t appear optimistic about filing charges against the people responsible for dispersing the propaganda on private and public property in Marin.

“This is infuriating and repugnant, and we reject this hateful behavior,” Frugoli said in the statement. “Such as they are, the messages in these flyers were intentionally designed and distributed in a manner that is protected as free speech under the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The hate group’s organizer is counting on Frugoli’s legal interpretation. He recently sent a message to followers that he is proud their flyer distribution was “completely SAFE & LEGAL,” according to J., the Jewish News of Northern California.

Marin’s Jewish community has been working with the district attorney and local law enforcement to ensure that they are aware of and take all reports of antisemitism seriously, according to Rabbi-Cantor Elana Rosen-Brown, of Congregation Rodef Sholom in San Rafael.

Antisemitic incidents in the county have become all too frequent, with the ADL recording several in Marin on an annual basis. In addition to the flyers delivered to homes last week, other Marin cases have been covered by the media during the last 18 months.

A Nazi supporter slapped swastika stickers on property in downtown Fairfax. Jewish students at Redwood High School in Larkspur were threatened on social media by a person displaying a photo of a young male holding a bullet and wearing a helmet with a swastika.

Rosen-Brown said many people and organizations in Marin have joined the Jewish community to bring attention, awareness and education to the issue of antisemitism. They are committed to showing up for one another whenever instances of hate speech and hate crime occur.

“To be Jewish, sadly, has always meant to grapple with the understanding that there are people in the world who hate you,” Rosen-Brown said. “We internalize this in different ways. For me, I love Judaism, and encounters with hatred only enhance my love of Judaism and being Jewish.”

Reporter’s Note: After much debate, the Bohemian deliberately omitted the names of the antisemitic group and its leader. It is my belief that when the media identifies them, it helps fuel their mission by providing the publicity they desperately desire. As a Jewish person, I am opposed to leading lost souls to the doorsteps of hate.