On Wednesday, September 14, 2022, Carolyn Louise Podratz passed away at the age of 80. Born to Milton and Lillian Ragsdale, she graduated from Eureka High School and attended Humboldt State College.

Carolyn was very involved in Scouting in Santa Clara County and received the Silver Beaver award for her many contributions. She was a den mother, helped to set up new Cub Scout Packs throughout the council, a member of the Women’s Reserve, and participated in training events such as Brownsea at Camp High Sierra. As a member of the Redwood Empire Golf & Country Club in Fortuna, she was an active golfer for 30 years. Other passions were stamp collecting and playing card games with friends and family. Scrabble was a favorite game with her mother.

Carolyn is survived by children: Alan, Andy, and Laura; her grandchildren: Katie & Nick, Andrew, Alexander & William.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, October 23rd from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Eureka Elks Lodge at 445 Herrick Avenue.

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PREVIOUSLY: 

• Nordic Aquafarms Lays out Next Steps After Planning Commission Gives the Thumbs-Up to Their Samoa Fish Farm Plans
• Fishermen and Conservation Groups Appeal Nordic Aquafarms’ Environmental Report Certification to Humboldt County Supervisors

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The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors will hold a special public hearing on Wednesday to consider an appeal concerning Nordic Aquafarms’ big land-based fish farm project.

The Norway-based company plans to demolish a dilapidated pulp mill site on the Samoa Peninsula and in its place build a 766,530-square-foot, land-based recirculating aquaculture facility. The latest estimates put the project’s total cost around $650 million, with a stated end goal of producing 25,000 metric tons of Atlantic salmon per year for distribution up and down the West Coast.

The appeal was filed by three groups: the Redwood Region chapter of the Audubon Society, the climate action nonprofit 350 Humboldt and the Humboldt Fisherman’s Marketing Association, Inc. Their appeal argues that the Humboldt County Planning Commission erred on August 4 when it voted unanimously to approve a Coastal Development Permit and Special Permit and to certify the project’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR).

The appeal argues more specifically that the project’s EIR — prepared by engineering firm GHD on behalf of the county — does not accurately evaluate a range of project impacts, including its energy use, the greenhouse gas emissions associated with fish feed production and truck traffic, and the biological impacts of the project’s saltwater intake and effluent outfall systems, among other matters.

The appellants also say the county should have given more consideration to project alternatives — either a smaller project or no project at all — and that the county didn’t properly follow the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process because the project’s various elements were considered in a “piecemeal” fashion, rather than cumulatively. 

In a report prepared for Wednesday’s meeting, county staff pushes back against those arguments, saying the project’s EIR does, in fact, evaluate and assess all components of the project, with “numerous technical reports executed by subject matter experts within their respective fields, consistent with CEQA Guidelines.”

Project plans call for the use of about 2.5 million gallons of domestic and industrial freshwater per day provided by the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District. That may sound like a lot, but as HBMWD General Manager John Friedenbach has pointed out, the district used to provide more than 25 times that much (65 million gallons per day) of untreated water from the Mad River to the two pulp mills that used to operate on the peninsula.

The project would also require approximately 10 million daily gallons of saltwater, provided via a modernized seawater intake system known as a “sea chest,” operated by the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District. About 12.5 million gallons of treated wastewater would be discharged daily via an existing ocean outfall pipe that extends a mile and a half offshore. 

The project’s estimated daily electricity usage would be 21.4 megawatts, with an annual usage at full build-out of 195 gigawatt hours (GWh). That’s roughly equivalent to the energy use of the cities of Eureka and Fortuna combined, though a portion would be offset by a 3-5 megawatt solar installation covering roughly 657,000 square feet of the facility’s rooftops.

Nordic has committed to purchasing 100 percent non-carbon, renewable energy, per the goals of the Redwood Coast Energy Authority, though it’s not yet clear how the project’s massive energy needs will impact the county’s electrical grid, large portions of which are now operating at the outer limits of current transmission capacity, according to PG&E.

Proponents of the project have noted that Nordic Aquafarms plans to spend $10 million on environmental mitigation, continuing cleanup of the heavily polluted old pulp mill site. The company also expects to create several hundred jobs in the building trades during its two-phase, multi-year construction and about 150 permanent, full-time positions once the facility is fully built out.

Critics, meanwhile, have raised concerns over the project’s energy use, the impacts of its intake and discharge facilities and the relatively untested technology at this scale. 

At the Planning Commission’s August 4 hearing, under pressure from local environmental groups, the applicant agreed to begin monitoring discharge from the outfall line as soon as the project becomes operational.

The appellants filed their appeal on August 18. Wednesday’s hearing, which will be held in board chambers and streamed online via Zoom, is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.

Press release from the Yurok Tribe:

On Tuesday, October 4, the Yurok Tribe will host the first-ever statewide policy summit on Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP). The 1st Annual Northern California Tribal Summit on MMIP will bring together tribal leaders, law enforcement officials and MMIP survivors as well as state and federal lawmakers, academic researchers and victim advocates to identify solutions to stop the crisis. Starting at 8:30 a.m., the summit will take place at the Arcata Community Center in Arcata, California.

“The crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people has touched every tribal citizen in California and throughout the United States. This has gone on long enough. The time for action is now,” said Yurok Chairman Joseph L. James. “The purpose of this summit is to develop a series of mutually agreeable actions that tribal, federal and state stakeholders can take in the short- and long-term to protect Indigenous Californians.”

“The epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous people is a national humanitarian crisis, with California ranking fifth in the nation for incidents of MMIP, and the far north of the state accounting for most cases,” said Yurok Tribal Court Director Jessica Carter. “This extremely complex issue requires cooperative solutions that transcend political boundaries. We also need to amend antiquated state and federal policies, which limit tribes’ abilities to respond to the crisis.”

At the summit, tribal leaders and other subject matter experts from all parts of the state will discuss the historical and present-day root causes of the MMIP crisis in conjunction with remedies to reduce risks to Indigenous people. U.S. Representative Jared Huffman, State Senate Majority Leader Mike McGuire and Assmeblymember Jim Wood will inform tribes about what the federal and state governments are doing to stem this indelible issue.

“While the epidemic of missing indigenous people spans the country, tribal members in Northern California are particularly affected by a status quo of inequity, complicated and ineffective policy, and a lack of focus by government agencies charged with protecting them,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, CA-02. “This tribally ledsummit should be a catalyst for change at every level and help begin to comprehensively address this pervasive problem.”

“Every missing or murdered indigenous person deserves our full attention and compassion and their families deserve our action,” said Assemblymember Jim Wood who represents five counties in Northern California. “For too long, these tragic cases have not received our focus and require significantly improved coordination and transparency by law enforcement and the judicial system with the Tribes. The final report published by the To’ Kee Skuy’ Soo Ney-Wo-Chek’ Project provides an important roadmap for moving forward to address the cases of missing and murdered indigenous people as well as the many underlying causes. I am grateful for the leadership of the Yurok Tribe, and for the support of Humboldt Sheriff Honsal and others as we look for actionable ways that will allow all stakeholders to work together to maximize their capabilities while respecting Tribal ways.”

“This crisis has been hidden for far too long. It’s unacceptable. I’m grateful for the tireless leadership of the Yurok Tribe along with local tribal leaders for advancing strategies that will save indigenous lives,” Senate Majority Leader Mike McGuire added. “This first annual summit will ensure a bright light is shown on this dark issue. I’m ready to get to work and look forward to partnering with North Coast tribes to make the MMIW crisis a priority across the state.”

Tribes throughout the US are contending with MMIP crises. Homicide is the third leading cause of death for Indigenous women and girls. In some Tribal communities, Indigenous women face murder rates that are more than 10 times the national average. California has the fifth largest quantity of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases in the US. A majority of cases occur in Northern California. More often than not, the perpetrators are non-native. In December of 2021, the Yurok Tribe declared an MMIP emergency. The 1st Annual Northern California Tribal Summit originated from a pivotal July 12 tribal briefing convened by Yurok Chairman Joseph L. James to lay the groundwork for a unified response to the MMIP crisis in the state. More than two dozen tribal leaders, representing tribes in every corner of California, joined the strategic dialogue. The Tribal leaders are considering a series of state and federal policy amendments to remove systemic inequities and empower tribes to confront the crisis.

In large part, the policy summit will be informed by three years of research and reporting on the topic through the Yurok Tribal Court’s To’ Kee Skuy’ Soo Ney-Wo-Chek’ project. Supported by the Humboldt Area Foundation and Wild Rivers Community Foundation, the tribe-centered summit is an extension of the work that has been led for many years by Tribal Nations and Indigenous organizations, leaders, advocates, researchers, and communities.

“We are committed to partnering to end the humanitarian crisis of MMIP. This tragedy has plagued the North Coast of California, and stolen women, children, two-spirit, and other Indigenous people from our communities for decades. Perpetuating this agony, Native American families experience added suffering due to underfunded justice and healing systems for these crimes. We support and will follow the leadership of Tribal Nations and Indigenous leaders to take responsibility for these lost lives in our community,” said Bryna Lipper, CEO Humboldt Area Foundation and Wild Rivers Community Foundation.

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Sept. 22, 2022, at about 8:28 a.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies received information regarding the location of 20-year-old Luke Anthony Reece. Reece was wanted on numerous felony charges resulting from multiple incidents in the Hoopa and Orleans areas this month, including shooting at an inhabited dwelling on September 16, evading a Sheriff’s deputy on September 9, and a domestic violence investigation.

Reece was taken into custody without incident in the Arcata area. Meanwhile, deputies served a search warrant at Reece’s residence in Orleans. During a search of the residence, deputies located a firearm and ammunition.

Reece was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of felon in possession of a firearm (PC 29800(a)(1)), assault with a deadly weapon (PC 245(a)(1)), shooting at an inhabited dwelling (PC 246), child endangerment (PC 273a(b)), evading a peace officer (VC 2800.2), reckless driving (VC 23103(a)), failure to stop at a stop sign (VC 22450(a)), inflicting corporal injury on a spouse (PC 273.5(a)) and vandalism (PC 594(b)(1)).

This case is still under investigation.

Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.

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In solitary confinement, a former California inmate recalled, there were two kinds of people: One kind would read books in their cells, exercise and do and re-do crossword puzzles. The other kind would scream and curse, refuse to dress and throw their feces at the walls.

The goal in solitary confinement, he said, was to avoid becoming the second kind of inmate.

“There’s one that’s resilient and one that’s not so resilient,” said the man, a former member of the Mexican Mafia who asked CalMatters not to use his name for fear of retaliation. “I’ve seen people go over the edge.”

The former inmate spent several consecutive years in solitary confinement at a California prison — a circumstance some lawmakers want to change. A bill before Gov. Gavin Newsom would limit solitary confinement in California to 15 consecutive days, and no more than 45 days out of 180.

Assembly Bill 2632, named the “California Mandela Act” after former political prisoner Nelson Mandela, would be the most wide-ranging change to solitary confinement of any state, limiting the practice in all California prisons, jails and immigration detention facilities. Its contentious passage through the Legislature ended largely on party-line votes, with Republicans continuing to raise an alarm about the bill’s potential costs.

Proponents of limiting or doing away with solitary confinement have long argued it is inhumane, ineffective and tantamount to torture. Law enforcement groups have asked Newsom to veto the bill, arguing that prison and jail officials, not legislators, should determine when and where to use solitary confinement.

The former inmate – who spent decades alone in 8-by-10 cells at multiple California prisons, much of it in solitary – has a surprising outlook.

He thinks eliminating solitary confinement is a bad idea.

“That’s crazy,” he said. “I don’t think there’s much thought put into it. I believe they think it’s detrimental to the psyche of the individuals who are being housed there.

“But without some kind of deterrent, I mean, you go whack a guy and you get 15 days in the hole and you’re back in a regular general population yard.”

Solitary confinement in California takes many forms. There are few regulations and no universal definition, but generally, solitary confinement means spending 22 to 23 hours per day in a single cell, usually about the size of an elevator.

The bill before Newsom also bans solitary confinement entirely for anyone younger than 26 or older than 59; people who are pregnant, recently had a baby or suffered a miscarriage; and people who suffer from a physical or mental disability.

“Without some kind of deterrent, I mean, you go whack a guy and you get 15 days in the hole and you’re back in a regular general population yard.”
— Former Mexican Mafia member

The bill would make California the first state to ban solitary confinement in immigration detention. Last year, New York legislators enacted a similar 15-day limit on solitary confinement in prisons and jails.

“It creates the culture of deprivation and violence itself,” said Margo Mendelson, legal director of the Prison Law Office, which co-sponsored the bill. “People do get better, places are more peaceful, re-entry is more successful when we bring programming and relationships and social contacts back to these spaces.”

Solitary confinement in and out of favor

Research conducted in the last 20 years has shown solitary confinement to be harmful to the people incarcerated, as well as expensive and ineffective in rehabilitating prisoners. The health effects cited include depression and anxiety, but also hallucinations and hypersensitivity to sounds and smells. Suicidal ideation and attempts are far higher for inmates in solitary confinement than the general population, some of the same research shows.

In 2015, the United Nations defined any period of isolation beyond 15 days as torture. In a 2016 editorial, former President Barack Obama called solitary confinement “an affront to our common humanity.”

But it’s become one of the most regularly-used tools by prison and jail administrators to punish violent inmates, sequester disruptive ones and, sometimes, as a protective measure for former police officers or other inmates who would be obvious targets inside.

“The practice is incredibly resilient,” said Keramet Reiter, a University of California, Irvine, criminologist who has done extensive research on solitary confinement.

“This isn’t the first time that people have looked around and said, ‘Wow, this seems like a really damaging practice, let’s get rid of it.’ We’ve been looking around and saying that since the 1800s.”

“This isn’t the first time that people have looked around and said, ‘Wow, this seems like a really damaging practice, let’s get rid of it.’”
— Keramet Reiter, criminologist, University of California, Irvine

The U.S. experiment with solitary confinement began as early as the 1780s, waned in the 1800s and was largely abandoned in the early 1900s.

But beginning in the 1980s, prisons brought back solitary confinement, and its use exploded: By 1997, nearly every state had a supermax prison. In a snapshot of prison populations in 2021, Yale Law School researchers said there were between 41,000 and 48,000 people in solitary confinement in the U.S.

For California, it has remained a contentious issue.

After a series of hunger strikes for two months in the summer of 2011 across California prisons, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reached a settlement in federal court with Pelican Bay State Prison inmates held in solitary confinement for decades based on their perceived gang affiliations.

The 2015 settlement ended the department’s practice of indefinite detention in solitary confinement. But a federal judge ruled in February that the department continues to violate the terms of the agreement by fabricating or exaggerating reports from confidential informants that put inmates back in solitary.

The view from inside

Solitary confinement in California prisons isn’t what’s sometimes portrayed on television: A pitch-black cell with a hole in the floor. That, Reiter said, was indeed the practice in some Southern states in the 1970s and 1980s but isn’t the case here, where prison and jail officials have some leeway in defining the practice.

Inside the solitary cell blocks of one California prison, the walls were yellowing, according to the former inmate and member of the Mexican Mafia. Instead of bars, inmates peered out through perforated steel. Everything was concrete, even the bed frames.

Inmates were close enough to hear each other, but calling out to others earned inmates a “115,” California prison code for a disciplinary report. The former inmate said he was still able to give commands to other Mexican Mafia gang members, either from his cell or in meetings at the prison law library. “I used to run a whole crew from the SHU (Special Housing Unit).”

The varying definitions of solitary confinement in California make tracking the number of people difficult.

“We know that there are other units around the state under different names that are called step-down units or other things like that, where in practice, people are still spending 22, 23, 24 hours a day in solitary confinement,” Reiter said.

And that’s one of her concerns about the bill: If prison and jail officials can simply call solitary confinement another name, then they probably will.

The ‘Wild West’ of solitary confinement

The state prison system is one version of solitary confinement, but the 58 counties each have their own jails with their own definitions of the practice.

Mendelson, of the Prison Law Office, described the county incarceration system in California as “the Wild West for solitary confinement.”

“There is nothing limiting the totally unprincipled and excessive use of solitary confinement in county jail,” said Mendelson, who has regular contact with inmates at jails in Northern California.

In those county jails, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said he’s faced with a changing inmate population, and he needs solitary confinement to deal with it.

Prison realignment, mandated by Assembly Bill 109 in 2011, reduced prison populations in part by housing more inmates at county jails. Honea, who is also the president of the California State Sheriffs’ Association, said that led to a “more criminally sophisticated inmate.”

“You’re dealing with people who have long criminal histories and prior experience in state prison,” Honea said.

“Then those prison politics which used to not be so prevalent in county jails now are far more prevalent,” he said. “The last 12 years, there are increased assaults on staff. Our facilities generally were not designed to meet the needs of these individuals.”

Honea said he and other sheriffs also need to be able to use long-term solitary confinement for disruptive inmates suffering from mental health disorders that put themselves and others in danger.

“I’m not suggesting solitary is a solution to mental health, the impact that solitary confinement and administrative segregation can have on mental health is out there,” Honea said. “But we can deal with that without simply mandating something that would apply across the state.”

The sheriffs’ association wrote in opposition to the bill that the Board of State and Community Corrections, rather than the Legislature, should regulate the use of solitary confinement. The board sets standards for prisons and jails and conducts inspections.

Costs disputed

The projected cost to the California prison system is $1.3 billion up front, with another $200 million per year to pay for more staff. The costs to county jails would vary by location. Honea said he did not yet know the potential cost to the Butte County Jail should Newsom approve the measure.

But the bill’s supporters argue the measure would actually save the state money. In a report published in July, the nonprofit Immigration Defense Advocates argued that solitary units “require more custody staff.” Closing down solitary confinement facilities and repurposing them for other uses would be “covered by the massive savings generated by this transition,” the report found.

Solitary confinement is usually reserved for disruptive or violent inmates, or validated gang members. But at least one former California inmate, author Kenneth E. Hartman, wrote in 2020 on the website Solitary Watch that he was put in solitary confinement for political reasons.

Hartman was convicted of murder and sentenced to life without parole in 1980, but former Gov. Jerry Brown commuted his sentence in 2017.

Hartman contends the reasons he was placed in solitary confinement included testifying against the prison system in federal court, organizing a letter-writing campaign to legislators and encouraging fellow prisoners to sign political petitions.

The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did not respond to a request for comment on Hartman’s allegations.

“When you look at solitary, what you see is people who are challenging the system in some way,” Reiter said. “Challenging its categories, challenging its rules, and that makes it harder to reform, right? Because these are the people that the system is struggling to deal with.”

Mendelson of the Prison Law Office said limiting solitary confinement doesn’t mean the prison or jail is unable to take any disciplinary measures at all.

For instance, she said, a facility would still be permitted to house a problem inmate in a single cell. But the additional burdens of solitary confinement – 22 or 23 hours per day in a cell, with no opportunity for education or socialization – would end.

“That doesn’t mean there can’t be a significant set of consequences,” Mendelson said. “Those consequences just can’t be torture, which is what solitary confinement is.”

The former member of the Mexican Mafia doubts that approach.

“Look, is it a bad place? Sure,” he said. “But they have to have bad places for bad people.”

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

California’s task force on reparations has begun putting dollar figures to potential compensation for the various forms of racial discrimination, generational pain and suffering Black Americans experienced in the state.

The rough estimates by economic consultants may mean that hundreds of thousands of dollars could be due to Black Californians who are descendants of enslaved ancestors. However some politicians on the task force indicated the reparations would be a difficult case to make.

Task force member and state Sen. Steven Bradford, a Democrat representing South Los Angeles, told an audience at public meetings in Los Angeles over the weekend it would be a “major hurdle” to pass any reparations plan in the Legislature.

“For a state that didn’t have slavery, don’t think they’re going to be quick to vote on this final product of this task force,” he said. “We need to stay unified, we need to be together. We aren’t always going to agree, but we have to put forth a unified front.”

Meeting in the California Science Center Friday and Saturday, the nine-member state-appointed group invited a team of economic experts to describe reparation ideas in financial terms. It was the group’s first gathering since June, when the task force released a 500-page report on the state’s history of slavery and racism.

In March the task force voted to recommend to state leaders that if California makes some form of reparations available, they should go to Black Californians who can establish lineage to enslaved ancestors, rather than to those who are more recent immigrants, or descendants of recent immigrants. The reparations could be in the form of cash, grants, tuition assistance, loans or other financial programs, the task force said.

At this meeting, the task force described several scenarios for which Black Californians could receive monetary compensation.

Reparations calculations

For instance, the task force considered redlining, a practice of denying mortgages to Black homeowners and of devaluing residential property in primarily minority neighborhoods.

The four economic consultants calculated that each Black Californian who lived in the state between 1933 and 1977 experienced a “housing wealth gap” of $223,239, or $5,074 for each year in the period. The experts said that number — which is the difference between the average value of all homes in California and the value of Black-owned homes — could be considered for reparations.

Such calculations are far from final, the consultants said, and there is no total estimate, though it is based on all 2.5 million Black California residents today, they said. The consultants said they haven’t calculated how many people would qualify for each type of reparation.

The consultants are William Darity, an economics professor, and A. Kirsten Mullen, a researcher, both at Duke University in Durham, N.C.; Kaycea Campbell, an economics professor at Pierce College in Los Angeles; and William Spriggs, chief economist for the AFL-CIO and a Howard University professor.

For another example of injustice, mass incarceration, the consultants calculated potential income lost by incarcerated Black Californians from 1971, the beginning of then-President Richard Nixon’s announced “War on Drugs,” until today. The economists pointed to many studies showing Black people were incarcerated far beyond their numbers in the general population.

Without discussing guilt or innocence, the economic consultants estimated that incarcerated Black residents were out $124,678, or $2,494 a year, for unpaid prison labor and years of lost income. The consultants mixed into the calculations the average salaries of California state workers and the $15,000 that some Japanese Americans received in reparations after their internment during World War II, from 1942 to 1945.

A ‘rough’ analysis

One of the most pervasive forms of racial injustices Black Californians faced is disproportionate health outcomes. The economic consultants noted that Black Californians have the shortest life expectancy of any racial group at 71 years, which is 7.6 years shorter than whites. Black Californians also faced higher death rates from cancer than other racial groups, and Black mothers were four times more likely to die in childbirth than any other group.

Although there is no actual price tag on a year of life, for statistical purposes some economists use a $10 million valuation for a person’s entire life. This group of economic consultants calculated the dollar amount of the gap in life expectancy for Black Californians to be worth $127,226 per year.

The consultants’ dollar estimates are “rough,” Campbell said Friday.

“We’re not the Supreme Court. We’re only commissioners, and we serve at the will of the deployment agent.”
— Assemblyman Reginald Jones-Sawyer, a member of the California Reparations Task Force

Task force Chairperson Kamilah Moore noted that the list of injustices and “harms” the task force is considering was much longer and has been narrowed down from a dozen last spring to five.

The economic consultants disclosed numerous pages of data analysis they have yet to complete, and they have a November deadline to request more racial and financial data from the state’s Department of Justice to make more accurate calculations.

“After this process is over, we need to get you all a Nobel Peace Prize in economics,” Moore joked.

The task force also has to narrow down how many people would be eligible for payments, the time frame for reparations, and decide how recipients would establish residency in California.

An extra year?

The discussion about reparations hasn’t been just about money. In June, the task force issued a preliminary report that recommended a public, formal apology — in addition to cash payments, free college tuition, and zero-interest housing loans.

Cash payments were the most popular form of reparations suggested during 17 community listening sessions and in 46 testimonies uploaded to a website hosted by UCLA’s Bunche Center think tank, researchers told the task force Friday.

Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom is considering a bill that would extend the life of the task force. Introduced by Assemblymember and task force member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, Assembly Bill 2296 would let the task force deliberate a third year, to 2024, instead of ending in 2023.

“We’ve been waiting for 400 years. We do not need an extension.”
— Tiffany Quarles, audience member at Reparations Task Force meeting

The task force is required to submit its final recommendations to the Legislature in June 2023.

Jones-Sawyer, a Democrat who represents South Los Angeles, told CalMatters he hopes to keep the task force together another year after delivering its report, to leave room for additional hearings and to allow for input from members of the task force who are not legislators.

“This is just so that we as a body can stay united,” he said. “It’s really difficult to get things to the Legislature … so we’re going to need everybody involved to make sure it gets done. The best experts are those people in the room right now. There’s nobody else on the planet right now that knows more about reparations than the nine members of the task force.”

Some audience members, however, said they worried that the bill would delay reparations.

“AB 2296 is a betrayal of Black Americans,” said Tiffany Quarles, a member of the audience. “We’ve been waiting for 400 years. We do not need an extension.”

Jones-Sawyer said that the bill would not slow reparations.

A removal clause

Another controversial provision in the bill would allow legislators to remove and replace task force members. Many audience members argued against that.

Chris Lodgson, with the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, which push to create the task force, told CalMatters the removal clause is dangerous.

“It politicizes this,” he said. “If some of the politicians don’t like the fact that we’re getting cash reparations, they could simply remove people on the task force who support them.”

Jones-Sawyer says the removal clause would hold task members accountable for “malfeasance” or sexual or racial harassment.

“We’re not the Supreme Court,” he said. “We’re only commissioners, and we serve at the will of the deployment agent.”

Newsom appointed five task force members. Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon each picked two.

Lodgson said he believes Jones-Sawyer wants the composition of the task force to change so eligibility for reparations could be voted on again. Jones-Sawyer was among four task force members who voted against limiting reparations to those who could trace their ancestry to enslaved relatives.

Jones-Sawyer responded that he cannot predict what will happen to task force members.

Other public commenters urged the task force to keep its word and limit reparations to those who descended from an enslaved or freed ancestor.

In other discussions, Amos Brown, a civil rights leader and task force member, asked that every member of the Legislature receive a copy of the task force’s first report, to ensure they can’t ignore it. And the task force heard from experts on international models of reparations from Chile, South Africa, and Germany, and discussed the United Nations’ standards for remedying human rights violations.

The task force plans to meet again in Oakland on Dec. 14 and 15.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

“Consciousness is a much smaller part of our mental life than we are conscious of, because we cannot be conscious of what we are not conscious of…It is like asking a flashlight in a dark room to search around for something that does not have any light shining upon it. The flashlight, since there is light in whatever direction it turns, would have to conclude that there is light everywhere. And so consciousness can seem to pervade all mentality when actually it does not.”

This flashlight analogy from the late, great Julian Jaynes, illustrates the problem of “mind investigating mind” — thinking about thinking, if you will — better than any technical explanation I’ve seen. Jaynes, who was psychological researcher at Yale and Princeton for decades, wrote, IMHO, the best-ever book on consciousness, perhaps the best that will ever be written. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind nominally purports to set out Jaynes’ wacky-but-intriguing theory of how we used to have, essentially, two brains (a theory that can never be proved or disproved). But it’s really his clear and down-to-earth discussion of consciousness as we actually experience ourselves (nothing woo-woo or overly scientific) that makes TOOCITBOTBM one of my Desert Island books.

Take this, for instance, as he compares consciousness to, “A secret theater of speechless monologue and prevenient counsel, an invisible mansion of all moods, musings, and mysteries, an infinite resort of disappointments and discoveries. A whole kingdom where each of us reigns reclusively alone, questioning what we will, commanding what we can.” Has anyone — from Plato to Decartes to William James to Dan Dennett — ever expressed what it means to be conscious in so few words with such exactitude? For me, this nails it.

(I had to look up “prevenient.” Here it means “anticipatory.”)

Another useful analogy for how we experience consciousness — I forget where I first heard it—relates to “the little man in the fridge.” If you’re as ancient as I am, you may recall a song from childhood about the little man living in the fridge who turns the light on when you open the door. (“…Funny little man with a nightie on/When I asked him what he did/He said, ‘I put the lightie on.’”) Or does he? Maybe he leaves it on when the door is closed. Or maybe there is no little man! How can we know?

Similarly when I ask the question, “Am I conscious now?” the answer is always, “Yes.” What about when I’m not introspecting? Am I conscious then? How can I know? I can’t. Whenever I check, sure enough I am conscious, so I’m stuck with the persistent illusion that I’m conscious all the time. Hence the notion of “stream of consciousness.” This is Willam James’ (Henry’s brother, by the way) idealized picture of how our brains work, that our waking lives are imbued with continuous awareness. Again, we cannot be conscious of what we are not conscious of. Or, in Jaynes analogy, the flashlight thinks it’s on all the time.

I’m pretty sure I’m as deluded as the flashlight. There is no all-aware self that is having a continuous experience. To put it bluntly, I’m a temporary fiction.