PREVIOUSLY

• Indigenous Kids Are Kayaking the Entire Length of the Klamath River For the First Time Ever

Press release from Rios to Rivers:

Klamath River, CA - This week, Ruby Williams, Keeya Wiki, and Kiahna Allen, participants from the Rios to Rivers Paddle Tribal Waters first descent of the Klamath River, head to Brazil to participate in COP30, the largest global United Nations event for discussions and negotiations on climate change. There, they will join scientists, world leaders, and activists to share the Klamath River Accord, a landmark declaration to protect free-flowing rivers and recognize dam removal as a powerful solution for climate resilience and environmental justice.

“The way our communities came together to undam the Klamath River can be done elsewhere,” said Ruby Williams, a Karuk person enrolled with Quartz Valley Indian Reservation. “I look forward to sharing our story, and helping others advocate for their home rivers”

Signed in July after the completion of the First Descent of the Klamath River, the Klamath River Accord is a call to action for global leaders and commits its signatories to protect free-flowing rivers, oppose construction of new dams, support dam removal as a climate solution, support river restoration, and uphold Indigenous rights. Inspired by the successful movement to remove four dams from the Klamath River. It was co-written by the Rivers for Climate Coalition, Native youth and staff from Ríos to Rivers, and river defenders and experts from around the world.

“Hydropower is often touted as a source of clean energy, but in reality, dams cause considerable harm to rivers, ecosystems, and communities.” Said Kiahna Allen, who is from the Confederated Tribes Of Warm Springs and San Carlos Apache Nation. “Putting a dam on a river is an act of theft. It denies the entire ecosystem—from the fish and wildlife to future generations—the right to clean, flowing water.”

Dams and their reservoirs drown landscapes, warm rivers, block fish passage, and create considerable amounts of Carbon Dioxide and Methane, both significant drivers in climate change. Although emissions from dams and their reservoirs are not yet fully understood, researchers estimate that they represent the 4th largest human-caused source of methane emissions globally.

“Undamming the Klamath River was a decades-long intergenerational fight,” Said Keeya Wiki, Yurok Tribal member “My greatest hope is that we can spare other communities from that fight.”

PREVIOUSLY: 

• ‘Treat Them With Dignity’: Humboldt Residents, Businesses Step Up to Help Local People at Risk of Losing SNAP Benefits
• Federal Court Orders Trump Administration to Pay SNAP Benefits During Ongoing Government Shutdown

###

Press release from Food for People:

EUREKA- In response to the prolonged delay of SNAP (CalFresh) benefits and the economic strain caused by the federal government shutdown, Food for People, the Food Bank for Humboldt County, partnered with College of the Redwoods and Hoopa Valley Food Distribution to hold two large-scale emergency food distributions on Thursday, November 13 to help families recover.

The distribution for central Humboldt County took place at the College of the Redwoods campus, with a drive-thru event in the main parking lot. A second emergency distribution was held the same day at the Hoopa Valley Food Distribution parking lot. More than 800 households received food assistance through the two events.

Food for People organized the events to help households facing sudden gaps in food support as CalFresh benefit delays impacted families throughout Humboldt County. “Families are under tremendous pressure right now,” said Carly Robbins, Executive Director of Food for People. “Delays in CalFresh benefits and the financial uncertainty impacting federal employees mean many households have been struggling to keep food on the table. We’re committed to showing up for our community however we can.”

Food for People would like to thank College of the Redwoods, the team at Hoopa Valley Food Distribution, the Hupa Family Resource Center, Hoopa OES, CERT, UpLift Eureka, CSET, Humboldt Amateur Radio Club, Humboldt Neuro Health, United Rentals, Gosselin Transportation and the dozens of volunteers who helped make the distribution possible.

Food for People will continue monitoring community needs. For updates on ongoing food distributions or ways to support local hunger relief, please visit FoodforPeople.org.

Press release from the Eureka Police Department:

On November 13, 2025, at approximately 4:54 a.m., Eureka Police Department Patrol Officers responded to the 2900 block of G Street for a report of an attempted vehicle theft involving a Kia. The suspect fled in a separate vehicle after being confronted by the reporting party. While responding, officers observed two Kia vehicles speeding away from the vicinity and attempted a traffic stop on one of them.

During the stop, occupants began switching seats, and the vehicle fled from officers, leading to a pursuit through several residential streets. At two separate dead ends, the driver turned the vehicle toward officers, nearly striking them and damaging a patrol car to the point it was taken out of service. Due to increasingly dangerous driving, the pursuit was ultimately terminated.

Shortly afterward, the suspect vehicle, later confirmed to be stolen out of Eureka, was found abandoned on the 700 block of N Street. A tracking K9 was deployed but was unable to locate the suspects. Around the same time, a separate victim reported interrupting another attempted theft of their Kia.

Due to the integrity of this investigation, additional specific details are not being released at this time. If you have information, please contact EPD’s Criminal Investigation Unit (CIU) at 707- 441-4300.

As noted in a previous press release from March, 2025, Kia and Hyundai models continue to be heavily targeted in vehicle thefts nationwide. Owners are encouraged to contact their dealership to determine whether their vehicle qualifies for a software update, ignition cylinder protector, or a steering-wheel lock.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recommends the following steps to reduce the risk of theft:

• Always remove keys from the vehicle.
• Keep windows closed and doors locked.
• Park in well-lit, visible areas.
• Avoid leaving valuables in plain sight.
• Use audible or visible alarm systems.
• Consider immobilizing devices that prevent ignition bypass.
• Install a vehicle-recovery system to help locate the car if stolen.

Taking these precautions can significantly reduce the likelihood of becoming a victim of vehicle theft.

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On November 13, 2025, detectives from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Division, and officers from the Hoopa Valley Tribal Police, assisted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in executing a federal search warrant in the Big Hill Road area of Hoopa, California.

At approximately 3:00 p.m., FBI agents conducted a traffic stop of the target subject on State Route 96, just south of Big Hill Road. The adult male subject was detained without incident. FBI agents subsequently searched the subject’s person, vehicle, and residence. The subject was later released at the scene.

The execution of the search warrant marked the culmination of an extensive suspected child pornography investigation led by the FBI. Due to the nature of the evidence collected and the substantial time required for its processing, no physical arrest was made at the time of the warrant service. The investigation remains active, with the FBI serving as the lead agency.

Any inquiries regarding the investigation should be referred to the FBI at media.sf@fbi.gov.

Press release from the McKinleyville Community Services District:

The McKinleyville Community Services District (MCSD) today announced it has been awarded $1 million in Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS), secured through the strong advocacy of U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman (CA-02), to implement its comprehensive Forest Management Plan for the McKinleyville Community Forest.

This critical federal funding will be directed toward executing the core priorities of the newly established community forest, including habitat restoration, wildfire risk reduction, and the development of sustainable, accessible public recreation infrastructure.

The 599-acre Community Forest is managed by the MCSD for multiple objectives, including public recreation, timber production, fish and wildlife habitat, and carbon sequestration. The federal funding will specifically enable the district to purchase specialized equipment, fund restoration work along sensitive stream corridors, and begin initial phases of planned trail construction to ensure safe and managed public access.

Congressman Huffman, a steadfast champion of North Coast natural resources, emphasized the strategic importance of the funding. “The McKinleyville Community Forest is a gem for local residents of this growing community,” said Rep. Jared Huffman. “I’m glad I could get these funds to help the McKinleyville Community Services District put its broadly supported plans for recreation, fire protection, and restoration into place to the benefit of the people and wildlife of the North Coast.”

The McKinleyville Community Services District is grateful for Congressman Huffman’s invaluable support and looks forward to the immediate positive impacts this funding will have on the health and accessibility of the Community Forest.

Press release from the Humboldt County Office of Education:

On November 8, 2025, the Humboldt County Office of Education (HCOE) hosted Carrying Our Stories Forward: Celebrating the Launch of the Native American Studies Model Curriculum (NASMC), a landmark event honoring California’s first state-sponsored curriculum designed to center and uplift Native American voices, histories, and perspectives in public education. The event brought together Tribal leaders, educators, youth, and community members for a day of celebration, dialogue, traditional foods, and professional learning — made possible by $30,000 in community donations supporting this historic milestone.

The event’s keynote speaker, Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy (Hupa, Yurok, Karuk), a Guiding Leader of the NASMC development, spoke from the heart, encouraging educators to embrace the curriculum even when the content feels new or challenging. She reminded participants that learning Native American Studies is an ongoing process and that the NASMC was intentionally designed to support that journey. “You don’t have to redesign your entire curriculum overnight,” she shared. “Start small by integrating one lesson, one unit, or one Indigenous author—and build over time. Use this curriculum as an opportunity to model what learning looks like for students: enthusiasm, reflection, and growth.”

“The NASMC represents far more than a new curriculum, it’s a movement toward truth, healing, and educational justice,” said Michael Davies-Hughes, Superintendent of the Humboldt County Office of Education. “We are honored to stand with California’s Tribes, educators, and students to ensure Native voices are not only represented but centered in our classrooms.”

Developed by the Humboldt County Office of Education in partnership with the San Diego County Office of Education and California Tribal partners, the NASMC is one of four new Model Curricula funded by the state under Education Code §51226.9 and available on the We Are California website hosted by UC Davis. The NASMC includes hundreds of standards-aligned lesson plans and primary source materials, commissioned and licensed Native art, poetry, and oral histories, as well as planning guides and culturally grounded professional development resources.

Created by and with Native educators, youth-serving organizations, and cultural knowledge keepers, the NASMC ensures accuracy, respect, and authenticity. By reflecting Native students’ cultures and worldviews in the classroom, the curriculum supports positive identity development, mental health, and belonging and guides all students to build empathy, awareness, and a deeper understanding of our shared environment.

Humboldt County’s participation in the project reflects its deep commitment to educational equity and community partnership. With 8.8% of Humboldt County students identifying as Native American or Alaska Native and with chronic absenteeism among Native students more than double the countywide rate, HCOE recognized an urgent need to create learning environments that affirm Native identity and strengthen school engagement.

HCOE’s Native American Studies Model Curriculum Learning Specialist, Maggie Peters, continues to expand this work by leading monthly professional development sessions for educators across the state. These sessions offer lesson deep dives, collaborative learning spaces, and Cal Poly Humboldt course credit to deepen teacher capacity in implementing the NASMC.

“This moment is an affirmation of truth, resilience, and shared commitment to the future,” said Peters. “The NASMC shows what’s possible when Tribes, educators, and communities work together to restore balance through education.”

“I was astounded at the breadth of the NASMC project,” shared educator and curriculum writer Cheryl Tuttle (Yurok/Karuk), who was honored for her contributions to the NASMC at the event. “It really hit me at the event—the variety, the age differences, the different mediums, and the complexity involved!”

As the NASMC takes root statewide, organizers invite the public to carry this work forward by honoring Indigenous communities and strengthening relationships with Tribes and Indigenous-led networks to uphold culture, tradition, and sovereignty. Supporting the First Peoples of Humboldt County and California means affirming Native identities through accountability, curiosity, and respect for community and place.

This effort also calls for integrating Native perspectives into education and policy by moving from consultation to true collaboration with Tribes and Indigenous-led networks to ensure accurate representation and co-created approaches. Most importantly, advocates are encouraged to ensure this first step becomes a foundation, not a finish line, by supporting continued funding so that the NASMC grows into a comprehensive curriculum representing all Tribes and reaching every school in California.

We all share the responsibility and have the opportunity to grow, unlearn, and reimagine how we understand history, place, and belonging. This event marked not only a celebration of what has been achieved, but also a call to sustain and expand this work. Together, we can ensure that Native American Studies remains a living, evolving part of California’s classrooms for generations to come.

For more information, please visit this link or contact HCOE’s Native American Learning Specialist, Maggie Peters mpeters@hcoe.org or 707-441-4503.

###

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

###

Bone-colored bluffs and jagged cliffs line the Monterey shoreline where chalky sand meets redwoods.

Its rugged coastline, including beloved destinations such as Big Sur, is well-known California iconography protected by the California Coastal Act for nearly 50 years.

In a push to address the state’s gripping housing crisis, the California Coastal Commission last week approved a rule change to make it easier to build affordable housing in Monterey and elsewhere along the hundreds of miles of the Pacific coast.

It was the latest effort by the powerful state agency to combat its poor reputation among housing advocates and Democratic leaders who see it as an obstacle to drastic housing reform in California’s coveted coastal regions. While minor and uncontroversial, the amendment was one of a few shifts the commission has made in recent months in an effort to be viewed as playing a part in addressing the state’s crippling housing crisis.

It released a report for the first time in 2024 that showed local governments were responsible for approving the vast majority of permits in coastal regions, and this year the agency worked with housing activists to make it easier to build student housing in coastal cities. Nor did the coastal commission oppose the landmark housing reform law that excludes most new developments from environmental review.

“I think it’s going to have a real-life change,” Susan Jordan, a longtime conservation activist and founder of the California Coastal Protection Network, said of the regulatory amendment at the meeting.

Reputation rehab: Steps toward more housing

Twelve people — six local elected officials and six members of the public — vote on the independent, quasi-judicial state agency tasked with conserving more than 800 miles of the California coast and keeping it open to the public. Its authority spans about 1,000 yards inland from where the land meets the water at high tide.

The commission has faced relentless scrutiny in recent years for not permitting enough affordable housing in coastal cities, or doing so too slowly, as state lawmakers have stripped numerous housing regulations to make it easier to build more apartments.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, a critic of the commission, and other Democratic leaders have appointed three pro-development local officials this year to help get more housing and other developments approved along the Pacific coast.

In October, Newsom appointed wealthy real estate developer Jaime Lee to replace Effie Turnbull Sanders. An attorney appointed by former Gov. Jerry Brown, Sanders was lauded by environmentalists for heralding environmental justice policies to the agency.

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Salinas Democrat, named two pro-development appointees to the commission in May: Chris Lopez, a Monterey County supervisor, and Chula Vista councilmember Jose Preciado.

Ray Jackson, a Hermosa Beach councilmember, was appointed earlier this year by Democratic Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire of Santa Rosa, and is largely a skeptic of big developers.

In a unanimous vote last week, Peciado, Lopez and Jackson each approved changing the commission’s rules to give affordable housing projects in coastal areas more time to be built, from two to five years after permits are issued. Lee was not at the Nov. 6 meeting.

Staff and commissioners hailed the change as a step in the right direction for affordable housing developments that cannot be financed quickly enough under the previous two-year deadline.

“I think next year would be a good opportunity to roll out an education campaign in the Legislature to highlight some of the movements we made toward this,” Commissioner Linda Escalante said. “I don’t know if we can have a white paper that we can walk around with and figure out some of the reputation issues that we have.”

A history of protecting the coastline

Critics of the commission point to the exorbitant coastal housing prices, some of the highest in the country, and the disproportionate number of white residents, as exacerbating the housing shortage. To some, the commission’s priorities have not matched the urgency of lawmakers and local officials to help solve the cost problem.

Two-thirds of coastal residents are white, about twice as many as in the state as a whole, according to an analysis by Nicholas Depsky at the United Nations Development Programme.

Fewer than 2.5% of California residents live in coastal cities, or “coastal zones,” which comprise less than 1% of land in the state but are home to some of the most valuable real estate in the world, from Malibu to Marin.

The Coastal Commission began as a 1972 ballot initiative in the shadow of the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, one of the worst environmental disasters in the country at the time. Amid a broader national environmental movement, there was greater concern about how to protect California’s coveted shoreline in the midst of unregulated offshore drilling and fears of relentless development that would mirror Miami’s coastline.

Four years later, the state Legislature made the commission permanent with the Coastal Act to protect its natural habitats and keep beaches open to the public.

Early tensions between then-Gov. Jerry Brown and the commission brewed when he slammed its members as “bureaucratic thugs” in 1978, just years after championing its creation. Brown would spend his final years in office, nearly 40 years later, roiled by criticism from environmentalists who accused him of appointing commissioners who were too pro-development. Those fears were heightened with the ousting of executive director Charles Lester in 2016, a strong advocate for coastal protection.

Scrutiny of the commission has accelerated in the Newsom administration, as the governor has publicly chided the agency for its broad powers. After the Los Angeles fires, he swiftly moved to suspend all of its authority over rebuilding efforts in the Pacific Palisades, which abut the coastline.

Last year, the commission rejected billionaire Elon Musk’s proposal to increase the number of SpaceX rocket launches off the Santa Barbara coast while criticizing his support of President Donald Trump. Newsom said he was “with Elon” after the company filed a lawsuit for political discrimination. The case is still pending.

Lee, the newest commissioner, hails from Los Angeles and has built a reputation as a prolific builder known for revitalizing Koreatown. Her real estate company, Jamison properties, has built 6,600 multifamily units and is one of the largest private landowners in Los Angeles, according to its website.

Lee did not return emails and phone calls seeking comment from CalMatters.

The new appointments have made many pro-housing advocates hopeful. “We now have three out of 12 voting members who are appointed to the commission in this period when many legislators and the governor want reform at the commission to design more affordable housing,” said Louis Mirante, a lobbyist with the business coalition Bay Area Council. “That tells me that these members will probably move that vision forward.”

Lopez, who has emphasized his support for affordable housing on the coast since joining the commission, said the optimism is warranted.

“I think that that excitement is well placed given where we’re sitting at right now and given the voice that the speaker and the governor are giving at this issue and wanting to see a remedy to it,” Lopez said. “And I do feel it’s the reason I was put here was to have that conversation at the forefront.”

Environmental advocates watch

Environmentalists have mostly been quiet about the new appointments. Instead, they are waiting to see how they vote before raising the alarm.

“While there have been concerns expressed within the environmental movement, at this point we have no idea how this commissioner (Lee) will be,” said Jennifer Savage, associate director of Surfrider Foundation, a coastal protection advocacy group. Lee was not an obvious choice for many, but Savage is optimistic that she’ll support coastal protection.

“It’s actually not that surprising that the governor would appoint someone with housing expertise,” given the political climate, she continued.

A longtime local water authority official and current administrator at San Diego State University, Preciado said part of his pitch for the role to top Democratic leaders was that he wanted to see more of the coast developed to help create jobs and homes for working-class families.

“We have a keen interest in developing the California coast in such a way where underrepresented communities that live on the coast have more access,” Preciado said of himself and Lopez.

Wealthy coastal residents have long sparred with the commission over violations for blocking public access, such as Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla, who has been entangled in a slew of legal fights with regulators and coastal groups for years over access to Martins Beach near Half Moon Bay.

Many commissioners and staff view protecting public access and conservation as their primary purpose rather than housing policy.

Conservationism is out of style, even among Democrats, which has led support for the commission to dramatically shift in recent years, according to legislative director Sarah Christie.

To some commissioners, lawmakers’ push to rip away more and more of its housing authority is a misguided attempt to simplify a complex issue. They point out that 80% of coastal cities and counties have their own coastal laws and are not subject to the commission.

“It’s creating a lot of chaos and dysfunction at the local level and is making it harder,” Christie said of the movement toward slashing housing regulations. “In the Legislature’s enthusiasm and zeal in order to effectuate housing more quickly, they’re kind of stepping on themselves.”

Jackson, a commissioner who represents the South Bay, said lawmakers need to focus more on affordable housing rather than increasing supply more broadly.

Special environmental considerations and its highly sought after nature are what make the coastal zone uniquely expensive, Preciado said. “I think that a broader view, a more objective view, is that developing on the coast is different than developing in urban areas.”