In response to his daughter receiving a swastika on social media, a California Jewish lawmaker is pushing for a bill that would give school administrators authority to suspend or expel students if they cyberbully fellow students away from school and outside of school hours.
Government
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
State Bill Aims to Address Cyberbullying Off Campus
Posted By Ryan Sabalow/CalMatters on Tue, Apr 16, 2024 at 1:12 PM
But Long Beach Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal’s Assembly Bill 2351 is coming into conflict with California’s recent reforms intended to prevent students of color from being expelled and suspended at disproportionate rates.
The ACLU and other social justice organizations oppose Lowenthal’s bill. The bill’s critics told the Assembly Education Committee earlier this month at the bill’s first hearing that giving school administrators authority to punish students for behavior that occurs off campus could result in the return of “racially biased and disparate” punishment that puts students on a “school-to-prison pipeline.”
Lowenthal told the committee that as a socially-conscious Democrat, he previously couldn’t “imagine a scenario where I’m on a different side” from the ACLU, but he said his daughter’s experience highlighted why the law needs to change.
“Only a decade ago, school bullying ended once you got home and were safe,” he said. “Today, many of these activities are now taking place online, off campus, in the digital ether, and outside regular school hours, and there is nowhere and no time that our kids are truly safe.”
Monday, April 15, 2024
California Salmon Fishing Banned for Second Year in Row
Posted By Rachel Becker/CalMatters on Mon, Apr 15, 2024 at 11:27 AM
In a devastating blow to California’s fishing industry, federal fishery managers unanimously voted to cancel all commercial and recreational salmon fishing off the coast of California for the second year in a row.
The April 10 decision is designed to protect California’s dwindling salmon populations after drought and water diversions left river flows too warm and sluggish for the state’s iconic Chinook salmon to thrive.
Salmon abundance forecasts for the year “are just too low,” Marci Yaremko, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s appointee to the Pacific Fishery Management Council, said last week. “While the rainfall and the snowpacks have improved, the stocks and their habitats just need another year to recover.”
State and federal agencies are now expected to implement the closures for ocean fishing. Had the season not been in question again this year, recreational boats would likely already be fishing off the coast of California, while the commercial season typically runs from May through October.
In addition, the California Fish and Game Commission will decide next month whether to cancel inland salmon fishing in California rivers this summer and fall.
The closure means that California restaurants and consumers will have to look elsewhere for salmon, in a major blow to an industry estimated in previous years to be worth roughly half a billion dollars.
“It’s catastrophic,” said Tommy “TF” Graham, a commercial fisherman based in Bodega Bay who now drives a truck delivering frozen and farmed salmon and other fish. “It means another summer of being forced to do something you don’t want to do, instead of doing something you love.
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
County Preps Measure S Enforcement Action on Hundreds of Cannabis Farms
Posted By Thadeus Greenson on Tue, Apr 9, 2024 at 6:49 PM
The Humboldt County Planning Department will soon be suspending the permits of hundreds of cannabis farmers who failed to enter into a payment agreement for owed Measure S taxes by the March 31 deadline, Planning Director John Ford told the Journal.
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted in October to give cannabis farmers until March 31 to enter into payment plans for a total of $14.1 million in unpaid excise taxes, and until March 31, 2025 to pay their bills in full. Ford said his department is awaiting a list from the Humboldt County Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office of farmers who have owed taxes but failed to enter into a payment plan.
According to Whitney Morgan, the county’s revenue and tax manager, 318 cannabis farmers have agreed to payment plans with the county that, if paid in full, would make good on a combined $4.2 million in taxes owed. But Morgan says farmers associated with another 401 accounts with balances due totaling $6.1 million failed to reach payment plans with the county by the deadline.
The numbers Morgan provided total $10.3 million — $3.8 million less than the amount staff said was owed in Measure S taxes back in October. Morgan says $2.8 million of that was deemed “uncollectable” by planning staff due to permits being “approved or withdrawn before cultivation,” while it was also discovered some accounts had been over billed due to misclassifications. Some accounts were also simply paid in full, she said.
Those who failed to enter a payment plan will have their permits suspended for 90 days, Ford said. Farmers can then use those 90 days to enter into a payment plan and pay “what should have been paid within the first 90 days,” in which case the suspension will be lifted, Ford said. Those who fail to enter a payment plan and come current on it within 90 days will see their permits scheduled for revocation, he said.
Ford said he expected the notices of suspension to be mailed out by the end of this week.
Passed by voters in 2016, Measure S imposes taxes on farms of up to between $1 and $3 per square foot of cultivation space, depending on whether its outdoor, mixed light or indoor. Supervisors voted to suspend the tax entirely for two years in 2022 but opted to reimpose it at a 90-percent reduced rate beginning for the 2024 cultivation year, with payments due in Spring of 2025. At the same time, they voted to begin cracking down on farms with unpaid tax bills.
It's uncertain of how much of the $10.3 million owed the county will be able to collect, as some have estimated the bulk of the $6.1 million owed by those who have not reached payment plans is for farms that have gone out of business, with their owners having left town and the properties involved having changed hands.
The bills coming due is also a point of anxiety for the local cannabis industry, which is already struggling amid statewide oversupply, low wholesale prices and what farmers deem excessive regulatory and compliance costs. The Humboldt County Grower’s Alliance (HCGA) has warned that the county’s effort to collect on owed Measure S taxes, coupled with the state no longer granting provision licenses beginning next year, could result in a “deck clearing” in 2024, with many farms going out of business.
“I’m hearing from a number of farmers who don’t have the money, who just still don’t have the money,” HCGA Executive Director Natalynne DeLapp said.
Editor's note: This story was updated from a previous version to correct the date by which owed Measure S taxes need to be paid in full. The Journal regrets the error.
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted in October to give cannabis farmers until March 31 to enter into payment plans for a total of $14.1 million in unpaid excise taxes, and until March 31, 2025 to pay their bills in full. Ford said his department is awaiting a list from the Humboldt County Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office of farmers who have owed taxes but failed to enter into a payment plan.
According to Whitney Morgan, the county’s revenue and tax manager, 318 cannabis farmers have agreed to payment plans with the county that, if paid in full, would make good on a combined $4.2 million in taxes owed. But Morgan says farmers associated with another 401 accounts with balances due totaling $6.1 million failed to reach payment plans with the county by the deadline.
The numbers Morgan provided total $10.3 million — $3.8 million less than the amount staff said was owed in Measure S taxes back in October. Morgan says $2.8 million of that was deemed “uncollectable” by planning staff due to permits being “approved or withdrawn before cultivation,” while it was also discovered some accounts had been over billed due to misclassifications. Some accounts were also simply paid in full, she said.
Those who failed to enter a payment plan will have their permits suspended for 90 days, Ford said. Farmers can then use those 90 days to enter into a payment plan and pay “what should have been paid within the first 90 days,” in which case the suspension will be lifted, Ford said. Those who fail to enter a payment plan and come current on it within 90 days will see their permits scheduled for revocation, he said.
Ford said he expected the notices of suspension to be mailed out by the end of this week.
Passed by voters in 2016, Measure S imposes taxes on farms of up to between $1 and $3 per square foot of cultivation space, depending on whether its outdoor, mixed light or indoor. Supervisors voted to suspend the tax entirely for two years in 2022 but opted to reimpose it at a 90-percent reduced rate beginning for the 2024 cultivation year, with payments due in Spring of 2025. At the same time, they voted to begin cracking down on farms with unpaid tax bills.
It's uncertain of how much of the $10.3 million owed the county will be able to collect, as some have estimated the bulk of the $6.1 million owed by those who have not reached payment plans is for farms that have gone out of business, with their owners having left town and the properties involved having changed hands.
The bills coming due is also a point of anxiety for the local cannabis industry, which is already struggling amid statewide oversupply, low wholesale prices and what farmers deem excessive regulatory and compliance costs. The Humboldt County Grower’s Alliance (HCGA) has warned that the county’s effort to collect on owed Measure S taxes, coupled with the state no longer granting provision licenses beginning next year, could result in a “deck clearing” in 2024, with many farms going out of business.
“I’m hearing from a number of farmers who don’t have the money, who just still don’t have the money,” HCGA Executive Director Natalynne DeLapp said.
Editor's note: This story was updated from a previous version to correct the date by which owed Measure S taxes need to be paid in full. The Journal regrets the error.
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Records Document Another Eureka City Schools Brown Act Violation
Posted By Thadeus Greenson on Tue, Apr 2, 2024 at 3:02 PM
Eureka City Schools appears to have violated more open meeting and public records laws in its handling of the former Jacobs middle school property exchange than previously known, the Journal has learned via a new batch of public records disclosed in response to the paper’s request.
While the Journal already reported that the district erred in not listing on its meeting agenda the specific address of the property the district would be acquiring through the agreement — which has the district giving 8.3 acres of its long-shuttered middle school campus to AMG Communities-Jacobs LLC, a newly formed corporation, in exchange for two small residential units on I Street and $5.35 million in cash — recently released records document another violation of state sunshine laws.
In putting together the agenda for the Dec. 14 ECS board meeting, district staff included two separate items regarding the property exchange. The first was a closed session discussion that listed negotiating parties as AMG and the California Highway Patrol, which had long sought the site and reportedly had a $4 million purchase offer on the table for the property. That item was to allow the board to discuss the “price and terms of payment” behind closed doors before an open session item would allow the district to formally approve a resolution authorizing the property exchange with AMG.
While the Journal already reported that the district erred in not listing on its meeting agenda the specific address of the property the district would be acquiring through the agreement — which has the district giving 8.3 acres of its long-shuttered middle school campus to AMG Communities-Jacobs LLC, a newly formed corporation, in exchange for two small residential units on I Street and $5.35 million in cash — recently released records document another violation of state sunshine laws.
In putting together the agenda for the Dec. 14 ECS board meeting, district staff included two separate items regarding the property exchange. The first was a closed session discussion that listed negotiating parties as AMG and the California Highway Patrol, which had long sought the site and reportedly had a $4 million purchase offer on the table for the property. That item was to allow the board to discuss the “price and terms of payment” behind closed doors before an open session item would allow the district to formally approve a resolution authorizing the property exchange with AMG.
New Plan Could Help Humboldt Foster Kids Afford Extracurriculars
Posted By Ana B. Ibarra/Calmatters on Tue, Apr 2, 2024 at 2:48 PM
Foster kids often miss out on Little League or music lessons. That’s one of the consequences of changing homes, or living with a family on a tight budget.
Now California has a new plan to give them opportunities for the kinds of extracurricular activities that can build character and community.
It’s included in a proposed revision to how the state pays for foster care that’s intended to make more money available to high-needs kids. Youth advocates are especially enthusiastic about the funding for extracurricular activities, which would come in the form of a monthly stipend of at least $500.
“These kids are always underfunded,” said Brian Blalock, senior directing attorney at the Youth Law Center. “And especially when the kids are with grandma and the kids are with relatives, often on fixed income. It’s where we most want these young people as a system, and as a consequence, grandma’s maxing out credit cards to keep the grandbaby in basketball and dance and tutoring.”
The California Department of Social Services put forward the proposal last month, as part of a restructuring to the state’s foster care payment system that was prompted by a 2015 law. Lawmakers are expected to consider it in budget deliberations this spring. By law, the state must adopt updated foster care pay rates by Jan. 1, although the changes would not roll out until 2026.
If implemented, the restructuring could have an outsized impact in Humboldt County, which has some the highest rates of children in foster care in California, with 13.8 children in foster care per 1,000 in 2018, per the nonprofit kidsdata.org. And while the number of children entering foster care had declined steadily statewide between 2000 and 2018, it almost doubled in Humboldt County over that timeframe, reaching more than 400 youth aged zero to 20 living in foster care in 2018, the last year for which data is available on the site. According to the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services, though, the local foster youth population peaked in 2019 at 432, the highest point in 23 years, but had decreased 35 percent by July of 2023.
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Huffman, Haaland to Visit Humboldt Bay Amid Growing Tribal Offshore Wind Opposition
Posted By Thadeus Greenson on Tue, Mar 26, 2024 at 1:21 PM
Amid an upwelling of Native opposition to plans to build offshore wind farms, including one off the coast of Eureka, United States Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and North Coast Congressmember Jared Huffman will be visiting Humboldt Bay later this week, in part to meet with local tribes and hear their concerns.
Reached this morning to ask about growing tribal opposition to federal plans to build a floating, deep water wind farm 21 miles west of Humboldt Bay — the latest of which came from the Trinidad Rancheria — Huffman said he remains committed to both pushing offshore wind forward but addressing tribal concerns, believing the two are not mutually exclusive.
“I don’t support a project that runs roughshod over tribes, the environment or any of our other values,” Huffman told the Journal. “The reason I support this offshore wind project is because it can be done in a way that I think supports those values and, really, enhances them. I think this is more a conversation about how to do this project rather than whether to do this project.”
Huffman’s comments came a day after the Trinidad Rancheria issued a press release announcing its tribal council had approved a resolution officially opposing offshore wind, making it the third local tribe to do so, along with the Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria and the Yurok Tribe. In the release, the Trinidad Rancheria also expressed support for the resolution passed by the National Congress of American Indians in February calling on the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt all scoping and permitting activities for offshore wind until completion of a transparent process “adequately protecting tribal environments and sovereign interests” is developed and implemented.
Reached this morning to ask about growing tribal opposition to federal plans to build a floating, deep water wind farm 21 miles west of Humboldt Bay — the latest of which came from the Trinidad Rancheria — Huffman said he remains committed to both pushing offshore wind forward but addressing tribal concerns, believing the two are not mutually exclusive.
“I don’t support a project that runs roughshod over tribes, the environment or any of our other values,” Huffman told the Journal. “The reason I support this offshore wind project is because it can be done in a way that I think supports those values and, really, enhances them. I think this is more a conversation about how to do this project rather than whether to do this project.”
Huffman’s comments came a day after the Trinidad Rancheria issued a press release announcing its tribal council had approved a resolution officially opposing offshore wind, making it the third local tribe to do so, along with the Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria and the Yurok Tribe. In the release, the Trinidad Rancheria also expressed support for the resolution passed by the National Congress of American Indians in February calling on the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt all scoping and permitting activities for offshore wind until completion of a transparent process “adequately protecting tribal environments and sovereign interests” is developed and implemented.
Thursday, March 21, 2024
UPDATE: Humboldt Community Services District Lifts Boil Advisory
Posted By Thadeus Greenson on Thu, Mar 21, 2024 at 4:43 PM
UPDATE:
The Humboldt Community Services District has lifted the boil advisory issued yesterday in several local areas due to a burst main.
“The Humboldt Community Services District Public Water System in conjunction with the State Water Resources Control Board has determined that, through abatement of the health hazard and comprehensive testing of the water, your water is safe to drink,” reads an cancellation notice sent this afternoon. “It is no longer necessary to boil your tap water or for you to consume bottled water.”
See the full notice at the bottom of our original post.
PREVIOUSLY:
The Humboldt Community Services District is advising customers in the areas of Mitchell Road, Myrtletown, Ryan Slough and Freshwater that they should use boiled or bottled water for drinking and cooking until further notice.
The problem stems from a transmission main break near Indianola and Old Arcata roads in the city of Eureka’s system, which supplies some water to the community services district, on the evening of March 20. After the transmission line failure, the district was notified around 1 p.m. today that “some cloud water” may have been delivered into its system and that it could possibly contain mineral deposits and soil from the area where the breakage occurred.
As a result, the community services district has issued a boil advisory “out of an abundance of caution” to ensure the “health and wellbeing” of the community, according to its notice.
“We have been testing our water quality and flushing the affected areas,” the district’s notice states. “We have found no evidence of contaminated water within our system. We will continue to monitor and test our water quality for the next three days. If we discover any contamination, we will be reaching out to notify you. If we do not encounter any contaminated water, we will be reaching out to lift the Boil Water Advisory.”
Until further notice, residents in affected areas are advised that before drinking water from the system or using it for cooking they should first bring it to a rolling boil, let it boil for one minute, then let it cool before use. Alternatively, they can use bottled water.
The district anticipates the issue to be resolved within three days.
The Humboldt Community Services District has lifted the boil advisory issued yesterday in several local areas due to a burst main.
“The Humboldt Community Services District Public Water System in conjunction with the State Water Resources Control Board has determined that, through abatement of the health hazard and comprehensive testing of the water, your water is safe to drink,” reads an cancellation notice sent this afternoon. “It is no longer necessary to boil your tap water or for you to consume bottled water.”
See the full notice at the bottom of our original post.
PREVIOUSLY:
The Humboldt Community Services District is advising customers in the areas of Mitchell Road, Myrtletown, Ryan Slough and Freshwater that they should use boiled or bottled water for drinking and cooking until further notice.
The problem stems from a transmission main break near Indianola and Old Arcata roads in the city of Eureka’s system, which supplies some water to the community services district, on the evening of March 20. After the transmission line failure, the district was notified around 1 p.m. today that “some cloud water” may have been delivered into its system and that it could possibly contain mineral deposits and soil from the area where the breakage occurred.
As a result, the community services district has issued a boil advisory “out of an abundance of caution” to ensure the “health and wellbeing” of the community, according to its notice.
“We have been testing our water quality and flushing the affected areas,” the district’s notice states. “We have found no evidence of contaminated water within our system. We will continue to monitor and test our water quality for the next three days. If we discover any contamination, we will be reaching out to notify you. If we do not encounter any contaminated water, we will be reaching out to lift the Boil Water Advisory.”
Until further notice, residents in affected areas are advised that before drinking water from the system or using it for cooking they should first bring it to a rolling boil, let it boil for one minute, then let it cool before use. Alternatively, they can use bottled water.
The district anticipates the issue to be resolved within three days.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
California is not Close to Meeting its Climate Change Mandates
Posted By Alejandro Lazo/CalMatters on Tue, Mar 19, 2024 at 10:05 AM
California will fail to meet its ambitious mandates for combating climate change unless the state almost triples its rate of reducing greenhouse gases through 2030, according to a new analysis released last week.
After dropping during the pandemic, California’s emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other climate-warming gases increased 3.4 percent in 2021, when the economy rebounded.
The increase puts California further away from reaching a target mandated under state law: emitting 40 percent less in 2030 than in 1990 — a feat that will become more expensive and more difficult as time passes, the report’s authors told CalMatters.
“The fact that they need to increase the speed of reduction at about three times faster than they’re actually doing — that does not bode well,” said Stafford Nichols, a researcher at Beacon Economics, a Los Angeles-based economics research firm, and a co-author of the annual California Green Innovation Index released today.
“As we get closer to that 2030 goal, the fact that we’re further off just means that we have to decrease faster each year.”
Monday, February 26, 2024
NCJ's Greenson Wins Free Speech and Open Government Award
Posted By Jennifer Fumiko Cahill on Mon, Feb 26, 2024 at 3:16 PM
The First Amendment Coalition has announced its Free Speech and Open Government Award winners for 2023, honoring the work of the Journal's own News Editor Thadeus Greenson alongside journalists at The New York Times, Bloomberg and MuckRock. The annual award recognizes "outstanding contributions to the advancement of free expression or the people’s right to know about their government."
"Following a single tip, Thadeus Greenson of the North Coast Journal obtained, through several public records requests, more than 2,000 pages of internal police reports and court filings to write 'The Soeth Files,' which details years of 'questionable decisions and uses of force' by law enforcement officer Maxwell Soeth," states the FAC press release. It also notes Greenson's pursuit of video footage, eyewitness accounts and other records as part of a small, local newsroom.
Read the full release below:
"Following a single tip, Thadeus Greenson of the North Coast Journal obtained, through several public records requests, more than 2,000 pages of internal police reports and court filings to write 'The Soeth Files,' which details years of 'questionable decisions and uses of force' by law enforcement officer Maxwell Soeth," states the FAC press release. It also notes Greenson's pursuit of video footage, eyewitness accounts and other records as part of a small, local newsroom.
Read the full release below:
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Experts: Eureka City Schools Violated Open Meeting Law with Jacobs Property Swap
Posted By Thadeus Greenson on Tue, Feb 20, 2024 at 1:53 PM
When the Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees convened the Dec. 14 meeting at which it would vote unanimously to enter into a secretive property exchange in hopes of unloading its former Jacobs Middle School campus, it violated state open meeting laws, according to two experts interviewed by the Journal.
Immediately following the board’s vote to forego the California Highway Patrol’s $4 million offer for the Allard Avenue property and instead enter into an agreement to give the property to a mystery LLC in exchange for $5.35 million in cash and a small residential property on I Street, much of the discussion focused on whether the district violated the Ralph M. Brown Act by failing to publicly release a draft resolution authorizing the agreement in advance of the meeting. A subsequent Eureka City Schools press release insisting the district had adhered to the act and is “committed to transparency” similarly focused on whether the district was justified in withholding the resolution until after its closed session meeting.
But experts recently interviewed by the Journal say the district failed to meet a basic provision of the act when it put together the public agenda for the meeting by neglecting to specify the properties that would be under negotiation.
Immediately following the board’s vote to forego the California Highway Patrol’s $4 million offer for the Allard Avenue property and instead enter into an agreement to give the property to a mystery LLC in exchange for $5.35 million in cash and a small residential property on I Street, much of the discussion focused on whether the district violated the Ralph M. Brown Act by failing to publicly release a draft resolution authorizing the agreement in advance of the meeting. A subsequent Eureka City Schools press release insisting the district had adhered to the act and is “committed to transparency” similarly focused on whether the district was justified in withholding the resolution until after its closed session meeting.
But experts recently interviewed by the Journal say the district failed to meet a basic provision of the act when it put together the public agenda for the meeting by neglecting to specify the properties that would be under negotiation.
Recent Comments
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Re: Kreis Files Answer to Ethics Charges, Denying Most Allegations
Wow greg, Thats a lot of denying, everything can be explained away, where you did…
- on April 15, 2024
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Re: NCJ's Greenson Takes Second Freedom of Information Award
Mr. Greenson well deserves the recognition he has earned.
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Re: Huffman, Haaland to Visit Humboldt Bay Amid Growing Tribal Offshore Wind Opposition
Now it’s 5,000 jobs? For how long? Sure.
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on March 28, 2024
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Re: Turmoil Continues in SoHum School District
End of an era makes me sad
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on March 23, 2024
