UPDATE: An investigative team, including Fortuna and Eureka detectives, arrested a 16-year-old girl in connection with a threat made via social media that a shooting would take place at Fortuna High School Thursday afternoon and another threat made against Eel River Community School. According to the Fortuna Police Department, the team “developed information” that identified […]
Education
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Sample Ballot Contains Error on FUSD Bond
County counsel’s impartial analysis of the Ferndale Unified School District’s proposed school bond in the sample ballot recently sent to voters contains an error on the estimated yearly tax that homeowners in the district will pay if it passes. Known as Measure Q, the proposed $7.7 million bond measure to fix a wide array of […]
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Teen Arrested After Threat Locks Down Fortuna High
A 13 year old was taken into custody on suspicion of making criminal threats for allegedly sending a skull emoji with the message, “Gonna light up the school at 12:10,” to a group of Fortuna High School students, leading to a full campus lockdown Thursday afternoon. According to the Fortuna Police Department, the image was […]
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Campus Advocates Provide Key Support to Sexual Assault Survivors — but ‘Superheroes’ are in Short Supply
When Laura Swartzen saw the email from Sacramento State University’s Title IX office, it felt like her heart skipped a beat. Swartzen, the Sac State confidential campus advocate, had spent the past nine months supporting a student who reported being sexually assaulted. Swartzen had listened to the student’s wrenching account, offered to connect them with […]
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Cal State Says It Can’t Afford a Staff Wage Hike Even if Newsom OKs It
A last-minute bill that sailed through the Legislature may leave Cal State University on the hook for nearly $900 million in new costs over the next decade — possibly forcing it to raise tuition for only the second time in more than a decade. That “may” assumes lawmakers allot no new increases in university funding. […]
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Cal Poly Invites Community to Campus Plan Forums
With Cal Poly Humboldt undergoing major changes as part of its transformation into the state’s third and Northern California’s only polytechnic university, the campus is hosting a series of public forums over the next several weeks about physical plans for the campus. The transformation includes a host of new academic programs, more than $680 million […]
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Problems Plague California School Data System, Putting Local Funding at Risk
The data management system for California’s K-12 schools has been on the fritz for months after it was updated in April then rolled out with minimal testing, potentially jeopardizing school district funding. The California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System, or CALPADS, stores information for the state’s 6 million public school students. It’s how the state knows […]
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California to Give $2,500 Training Grant to Workers Who Lost Jobs During Pandemic
Living through a pandemic sucks, but for Diana McLaughlin, early 2020 was especially bad: A divorce in February 2020, societal shut-down in March, and as part of the COVID-19 economic fallout, she lost her job in April of that year, returning to full-time work only 18 months later. California lawmakers had economically distressed folks like […]
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Back to School: California Republicans Bet Big on Local Board Races
When California Republicans gathered in Anaheim this spring, attention focused on candidate speeches and endorsement battles as the party tries to win its first statewide race since 2006. But a little-noticed, hour-long session in a small conference room at the Marriott could very well be more consequential for the state GOP this election. The meeting […]
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Some COVID Orphans in California Will Get Financial Help
In a small town in California’s Central Valley, a trio of siblings lost both their parents to COVID-19 within two weeks of each other in 2021. Their deaths made the oldest son a pseudo-parent to his teenage siblings overnight and forced the brothers and sister to figure out a future without their mom and dad. […]
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Abortion Pills Will Soon be Available on California College Campuses
As California’s efforts to enshrine abortion access continue, the University of California and California State University are working to provide medication abortions on all campuses by Jan. 1. So far, none of the Cal State campuses offer medication abortions, and access within the UC system varies from campus to campus. Both university systems, however, say […]
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Senior Community Plans Detoured by Cal Poly Humboldt’s Land Purchase
A local nonprofit’s plans to build a senior community on a property in Arcata has hit a “bump in the road” after Cal Poly Humboldt purchased the 16-acre site it had been negotiating to buy. According to statement from Life Plan Humboldt — which is aiming to develop “Humboldt County’s first resident-led, life plan senior […]