When Sophie Szew first downloaded Instagram at her 10th birthday party, she was exposed to a flurry of information that “promoted eating disorders,” she told California lawmakers. By 15, she said, she was following “every starvation regimen recommended” by Instagram’s “explore” page. Szew, now 20, spoke in Sacramento at a Senate hearing in April in […]
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California’s Next Housing Crackdown Could Force Cities to Plan More Homeless Shelters
All over California, cities are falling far short when it comes to providing enough shelter for their homeless communities. More than 69,000 homeless residents live in Los Angeles County, for instance, but that county has just over 21,000 beds in shelters and temporary housing programs. It’s a similar story in Sacramento County, which counted nearly […]
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State Parks, Trinidad Rancheria Sign Agreement on Tribal Access to Ancestral Lands
The Trinidad Rancheria and California State Parks signed an agreement this week that allows tribal members to access and gather on their ancestral lands and “recognizes that a collaborative approach will better facilitate managing and preserving cultural and natural resources in the North Coast Redwoods District,” according to a joint announcement. The five-year memorandum of […]
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Proponents Stand by Cannabis Reform Initiative, Warn County to Correct ‘Distortions’
Proponents of the Humboldt Cannabis Reform Initiative are standing by their proposal that would overhaul the county’s cultivation regulations if passed by voters next year, saying the county’s analysis of the measure is “packed with factual errors, untruths and distortions.” A county staff report on the 38-page initiative presented to the Humboldt County Board of […]
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Legislators Step in As Trust Erodes Between Community Colleges, California State University Systems
As two California higher education systems continue to feud, lawmakers have entered the equation using a route usually reserved for irate retirees: A strongly worded letter. The matter at hand — the 1,300-student Feather River College in rural Plumas County offering a bachelor’s degree in applied fire management — has become a lightning rod issue, […]
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California Bills to Expand State Tax Credits Could send $1 Billion to Low-income Families
When Reyna Bonilla lost her job cleaning hotel rooms in 2020 at the start of the pandemic, she used tax credits and other pandemic relief to chip away at past-due rent so she and her two children could stay in their Koreatown apartment in Los Angeles. This year things are different. Bonilla cleans homes a […]
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Lawmakers Want to Know Why Billions in Spending isn’t Reducing Homelessness
The state has spent billions of dollars on homelessness in recent years. So why is the crisis getting worse instead of better? That’s what a bipartisan group of California legislators is trying to get to the bottom of by calling for a first-of-its kind, large-scale audit of the state’s homelessness spending. The state has stepped […]
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Developer Agrees to Tear Down Controversial Home, Faces Daily $40K Fines
Local developer Travis Schneider has agreed to remove his partially constructed 20,000-square-foot home on Walker Point Road in an effort to resolve a litany of permit violations that resulted in a county-issued stop-work order on the project in December of 2021. In an April 5 letter to Humboldt County Planning Director John Ford, an attorney […]
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Looming DEA Rule Change Brings Concerns of Limited Rx Access
The DEA plans to reinstate federal requirements that patients see a doctor in person before receiving prescriptions for Schedule III drugs. During the declared COVID-19 public health emergency, the DEA had waived the requirement, but with the Biden Administration announcing it will end the public health emergency May 11, the DEA plans to end the […]
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The California Mask Mandate is Gone. Now Some Patients Fear for Their Health.
For months California disability and labor advocates have been attempting to preserve statewide masking requirements in health care settings. But with the sunset of one of the last remaining COVID-19 mandates, they say people who are the most vulnerable to severe illness now have to make an “impossible choice” — risk getting the virus at […]
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What Can California Do About Abortion Pill Ruling? Not Much
California’s Democratic lawmakers have spent the past year enacting legislation to protect abortion rights in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s reversal, but an April 7 ruling by a Texas federal judge is one thing they can’t touch. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk suspended the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone more than […]
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Bushnell Quiet on Possible Cannabis Conflict
With Humboldt County’s cannabis cultivation industry on edge after an initiative to overhaul local cannabis regulations qualified for next year’s ballot, an ad hoc committee is attempting to negotiate with the initiative’s proponents to see if they’ll withdraw it. But questions have abounded about whether it’s appropriate for one of the Humboldt County supervisors who […]