Earlier today, local family nurse practitioner Lindsey Mendez — a member of the county’s vaccine task force — took some time to answer media questions about the new Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. How does it work? Who is it for? Is it good? (Adenovirus, basically anyone and yes.)

Video above, rough transcript below.

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Thank you for joining us for the March 4th Media Availability with Family Nurse Practitioner and Humboldt County Vaccine Task Force member Lindsey Mendez. Lindsey is going to begin by explaining the characteristics of the Janssen, or Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Hello thank you, hi Humboldt County again, my name is Lindsey Mendez and I’m here to introduce the Janssen vaccine to you today, or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. In December I had the great privilege, with Diane Pacora, to introduce the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine to you and I would like to tell you a little bit about the differences between the mRNA vaccines and the new DNA vaccine that’s coming from Janssen.

Just so everybody has less confusion, Johnson & Johnson is the company and Janssen was another part of the company that supported and sponsored the vaccine and that’s why it’s named that way.

So as we know we have two vaccines that are mRNA vaccines. We have the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccine, which we’ve been giving since December. Now we are going to be very excited to start a single-dose vaccine which is a DNA vaccine and this is going to be a one shot in your arm vaccine with an efficacy rate that will build over a longer period of time as opposed to needing two shots. So this DNA vaccine, your immunity is going to be building over the course of two weeks and then a month and also I would like to review what that means for it to be an adenovirus vector DNA vaccine.

So what this is is that as opposed to having the mRNA which we talked about before where you get an injection of the mRNA for a spike protein for the COVID-19 virus and then it going into your cells and allows you to create immunity to that spike protein. Now this is a little bit different, we are going to be getting a shot that laboratory members have engineered to be using a virus — an adenovirus — which would usually just give you a common cold and then it carries the DNA for the COVID-19 spike protein and then in your own cell in the nucleus you then are creating the information from the DNA to be immune to COVID-19. 

So even though it’s a little bit different it’s pretty similar in a way that it’s going to work for us and the as I said before the good news is is that this is a one-shot vaccine, so we will be distributing it throughout the county very soon as it will most likely be appearing in the next week.

From the North Coast News: Has public health run into the situation where people are refusing to take one specific version of the vaccine? For example, someone shows up to their appointment and says they will only take the Moderna vaccine. What is the frequency with which this happens?

I’m not sure the frequency in which this happens but as a member of the task force, I do know that it has happened enough times that we are aware that people do have preferences but the great news is that every vaccine available has excellent efficacy and that any vaccine that you desire will give you a good protection against COVID-19. It is the choice of the individual if they would like Pfizer, Moderna or the Johnson & Johnson and as we’re aware many people are very excited about having all three options.

From the North Coast News: With vaccination rates increasing in Humboldt, when does the county expect to see a drop in coronavirus cases due to a large amount of people being vaccinated?

This is an excellent question and as we move forward we will be having a better understanding about the herd immunity of our county as we continue to vaccinate first and second doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine and also starting with the Johnson & Johnson. What we do know is that this is going to take months of time, throughout the spring and the summer and getting into the fall to get everybody fully vaccinated in our county and also in the state of California to end the pandemic and we would ask that everybody continues to socially distance and wash their hands and mask as we get to this safe level.

From the Redheaded Blackbelt: How helpful is it for a rural county like Humboldt to have access to this single-dose vaccine?

I think it’s extremely helpful for any place to have access to a single-dose vaccine but especially in rural areas where people have issues with transportation, sometimes they have issues with technology of not being able to use wi-fi perhaps, they can’t get to their second dose appointment this is a very important thing for people with equity in a rural area.

From the Redheaded Blackbelt: With the addition of the J&J vaccine, how will the timeline of vaccine distribution locally change, if any?

Well we do not know if it will change if any but what we can tell you is that with an extra vaccine that we’re having it tells us that we will have more vaccine of a different kind coming to the county and this will inevitably help vaccinate more people.

From the Redheaded Blackbelt: Would the J&J vaccine be better suited for any particular demographic due to its (so far) unique qualities of being not only single dose, but also considered 100% effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths, and if so, who would that be?

The CDC has made numerous suggestions about how the Johnson & Johnson vaccine can be utilized. Some of these suggestions include mobile health clinics, primary care offices and clinics that work with people who are often traveling.

From the Times-Standard: How is the county focusing its outreach to the Spanish speaking population as the vaccine continues to be rolled out? Have there been any difficulties in reaching the Latinx community?

I’m very glad that we have the time to talk about this question today and that it was brought up. Communication is a challenge for many communities especially if there’s any language barrier and we are aware that in the pandemic this has not gotten any easier. With that said the Public Health department and the EOC are actively recruiting staff and volunteers to help us with our vaccination clinics for Spanish interpreters anyone who is willing to come forward as a bilingual speaker and ranging from intake to administration to vaccinators, this would be very helpful. The Public Health department is also engaging in listening sessions with this community, it is our highest priority that we understand the needs and desires of the Latinx community at this time.

From the Times-Standard: Has the county received any Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses? If not, when will the county begin receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine?

The county has not received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the freezer or refrigerator at this time but we have been allocated vaccine from the state and we will be getting updates about when we will be receiving this.

From the Times-Standard: Considering it is a one dose formula, will the Johnson & Johnson vaccine be given priority for remote areas and people who have trouble making appointments?

At this time we do not know how the state allocation system will be prioritizing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. What we do know is that as we move with the state plan changing to Blue Shield of California taking over the allocation process they will be working hard to ensure equity and that the Johnson & Johnson is used appropriately.

From the Times-Standard: Will Humboldt County be receiving any of the vaccines allocated by the state for lower income regions?

At this time again we do not know the answer to that question and we are waiting for the state to give us more information.

From the Times-Standard: Is there any data being collected on regional vaccine efficacy?

The data that’s collected by the local public health departments is not data that will be necessarily telling us about the regional vaccine efficacy, these kinds of trials and studies are done by the pharmaceutical companies who run the drug trials themselves, and so at this time we are submitting data using our tracking through what is called VAERS and CAIR which are abbreviations for the state systems where we document vaccine and demographics.

Arcata Police Department press release: 

The Arcata Police Department is providing a new online police reporting option for the public.  This web based reporting system will allow the public to file certain incident types (minor theft, vehicle burglary, lost property, non-injury traffic collisions, crime tips, etc.) over the internet at their convenience.  The Arcata Police Department expects this internet based reporting service to be very popular among citizens who have come to expect police services to be provided immediately and conveniently online.

The service will allow the public to file a report at a time that is best for them without having to wait for an officer to respond or call them back. The public will be able to print a temporary copy of the report upon submitting the report.  The report will be reviewed by police personnel and once approved the filing person will receive an email with a copy of the report attached without cost.  The report will transfer into the Arcata Police Department’s records management system and receive the same investigation and statistical analysis ability as if the report had been filed by a police officer.

This web based reporting option will allow officers more time to address community needs while keeping pace with the public expectancy to complete services via the internet.
The Arcata Police Department will be using the Desk Officer Online Reporting System from San Ramon, California based software company Coplogic, Inc (www.Coplogic.com).

The web based crime reporting service is available at cityofarcata.org/report  

And is also available in Spanish at https://secure.coplogic.com/dors/startreport/300003936/es

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has recently received several reports of a common phone scam circulating again around the community.

As part of this scam, the caller ID appears to be from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. The scammer claims they are from the Sheriff's Office and may use several different names, with the name “Lieutenant Paul Jones and Captain Paul Jones” reportedly being used most recently. The caller tells the victim that they missed a federal court appearance for which they were subpoenaed, and now the victim has a federal warrant for their immediate arrest. The scammer tells the victim to buy up to $6,000 worth of Green Dot cards or other gift cards, then instructs the victim to read the numbers on the back of the card over the phone. The scammer then tells the victim to go to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office station to verify their identity and further “straighten out the warrant.”

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office would like the community to know that this is a scam. While law enforcement may contact you regarding a warrant or investigation, we will never demand payment in exchange for dropping a warrant or stopping an investigation. Additionally, no government agency will ask you to mail large sums of cash or pay with gift cards or pre-paid money cards.

Remember these tips to help protect yourself from fraud:

1. Spot imposters

Scammers often pretend to be someone you trust, like a government official, a family member, a charity or a company with which you do business. Don’t send money or give out personal information in response to an unexpected request – whether it comes as a text, a phone call or an email.

2. Do online searches

Type a company or product name into your favorite search engine with words like “review,” “complaint” or “scam.” Or search for a phrase that describes your situation, like “IRS call.” You can even search for phone numbers to see if other people have reported them as scams.

3. Don’t believe your caller ID

Technology makes it easy for scammers to fake caller ID information, so the name and number you see aren’t always real. If someone calls asking for money or personal information, hang up. If you think the caller might be telling the truth, call back to a number you know is genuine.

4. Talk to someone

Before you give up your money or personal information, talk to someone you trust. Con artists want you to make decisions in a hurry. They might even threaten you. Slow down, check out the story, do an online search, consult an expert — or just tell a friend.

5. Don’t rely on personal information

Living in the digital age, access to information is easier than ever. Scammers are often able to get their hands on very personal information, providing it to their victims to make their scam look more legitimate. Don’t trust a scammer who is able to provide your personal information. If you followed the above tips and still aren’t sure, call back at a publicly listed number for the organization from which the scammer claims to be or contact your loved one directly.

Sign up for the Federal Trade Commission’s scam alerts at ftc.gov/scams.

Visit https://www.usa.gov/stop-scams-frauds#item-35157 to learn how to report scams.

Visit https://humboldtgov.org/2864/Scam-Information to learn more about some of the common scams reported to the HCSO.

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Another sudden shift in state policy has triggered an array of concerns and confusion today about how California’s still-scarce COVID-19 vaccine supplies will be divvied up.

Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s top health official, announced that 40% of California’s vaccine supply, starting with 2 million doses, will go to the poorest and most diverse communitIes.

“I’m lost, honestly, it’s just confusing,” one local health officer said at a board meeting today of the California Conference of Local Health Officers.

The county and city health officers — who run the vaccine programs in their communities — said they weren’t pleased that they only heard about the major policy shift from news outlets. Community clinics in those neighborhoods also said they were not notified.

Local health officials also highlighted a more immediate concern: As Sutter Health, one of the major vaccine providers in California, cancelled tens of thousands of vaccine appointments for lack of supply, county-run vaccine clinics are starting to see “Sutter refugees” — people who are scrambling to get their second doses before a certain deadline.

The communities receiving the 40% encompass 400 of the state’s ZIP codes, largely in Los Angeles County, the Inland Empire and the Central Valley, based on their low scores on the “Healthy Places Index,” which measures criteria such as income, education, park access, air pollution and housing.

Ghaly said about 1.6 million doses already have been administered to the underserved communities that the state is now targeting. So now those communities will receive at least 400,000 doses more in the next two weeks, double the current supply.

People in those ZIP codes must still meet eligibility requirements before they can be vaccinated — at this point, people 65 and older, health care workers, educators and some other essential workers.

The communities receiving the 40% encompass 400 of the state’s ZIP codes, largely in Los Angeles County, the Inland Empire and the Central Valley

Many questions remain about how the state will ensure doses get into the arms of people in those communities. Many counties and cities, particularly Los Angeles, Oakland and Long Beach, have affluent neighborhoods right next to poor neighborhoods. And some ZIP codes, such as one in Hawthorne and Manhattan Beach, contain both types of neighborhoods.

More appointments through the vaccine registration site, MyTurn.ca.gov, will be reserved for people living in the priority ZIP codes — an attempt to keep people from wealthier communities away.

And community clinics, which serve underserved communities, will be prioritized in the new vaccine network led by Blue Shield, Ghaly said. The state will also have mobile vaccination clinics and add resources for people who are homebound, he said.

“Sending (vaccine) there is one thing, but ensuring it gets to the arms of those living in these communities is another,” Ghaly said.

The allotment of 40% to certain communities raises questions about whether other populations of Californians will be pushed lower on the priority list. In addition, another 10% of doses have been earmarked in California for teachers and child care workers.

If those groups are prioritized for 50% of the doses, it follows that other groups — particularly people outside those ZIP codes who have high-risk health conditions — will be less of a priority.

But Ghaly said he expects vaccine shipments to increase over the next couple weeks, so he thinks other groups will not lose out. He predicts that all communities soon will get at least as many doses as — or more than — they currently receive.

“Of course targeting scarce resources to certain ZIP codes, certain communities, certain eligible populations is going to mean that some communities don’t get as much of an increase as others. But we expect that all communities will get at least as much as they’re getting now,” Ghaly said.

“Sending (vaccine) there is one thing, but ensuring it gets to the arms of those living in these communities is another.”
— Mark Ghaly, Secretary of California Health and Human Services

Ghaly said a disproportionate number of people with chronic conditions or disabilities live in the prioritized ZIP codes.

Californians with cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other high-risk disorders become eligible for vaccines on March 15. Guidance on how they can verify medical conditions and access vaccinations will be released in the coming days, Ghaly said.

Advocates have criticized California’s vaccination program for failing to serve poor communities of color, which have been battered by a high rate of COVID-19 infections.

Only about 16% of total vaccines administered in the state have gone to people in the bottom quarter of the Healthy Place Index. In comparison, 34% of the state’s vaccines have been administered in communities in the highest quarter.

California has adjusted its priority system several times since vaccines became available in December. It first put out a system based on employment and medical conditions, with health care workers and nursing homes prioritized. Then the state announced seniors 65 and over would be eligible to sign up, although some counties initially only opened it up to those 75 and over, noting lack of vaccine supply. Teachers and child care workers, along with some essential workers, such as food and agriculture, are now also eligible. State officials have said that after essential workers and people with underlying medical conditions, vaccination eligibility will be based on age.

The result is a dizzying array of constantly shifting priorities that confused and worried local health officials and advocates.

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CalMatters COVID-19 coverage, translation and distribution is supported by generous grants from the Blue Shield of California Foundation, the California Wellness Foundation and the California Health Care Foundation.

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

Press release from the Eureka Police Department:

On March 4, 2021 at about 7:45 a.m., Detectives with the Eureka Police Department’s Problem Oriented Policing Team (POP), conducted a probation search of a motel room at a motel on the 100 block of 4th Street. The room was registered to 46-year-old Charles Lloyd Gay, of Eureka. Gay is on formal probation in Humboldt County for possession of heroin for sales.

During the search of the room, detectives located 71 grams of methamphetamine, 20 grams of heroin, 16.5 grams of Fentanyl, packaging material and digital scales.

The Fentanyl was tested at the scene with a TrueNarc machine. The TrueNarc machine is a device used to identify substances in a safer manner, reducing the chances of an accidental and potentially deadly exposure to the tester.

A vehicle Gay has been seen recently driving was found parked in the parking lot. The vehicle had dealership plates attached to it. A check of the VIN revealed it was reported stolen in June 2020.

Gay was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility for possession of methamphetamine for sales, possession of heroin and Fentanyl for sales, possession of a stolen vehicle and violation of probation.

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It was a Friday in late August when four jet boats made their way up the Klamath River under a cloudless blue sky. The boats carried three tribal chairs. From the Karuk Tribe, there was Russell “Buster” Attebery, who’d found pride as a boy catching salmon from the river and bringing them home to his family, and later come to believe some tribal youth’s troubles — from suicides to substance use — could be traced back to their never having had that opportunity, growing up alongside a river now choked with algae and diminishing fish populations. There was Joseph James from the Yurok Tribe, who’d come to see the river’s declining health as a “slow strangulation” of his people — “river people” — who have lived along its banks and relied on its salmon as the bedrock of their diet since time immemorial. And there was Don Gentry, recently elected to a third term as the upriver Klamath Tribes’ chair, whose people hadn’t seen salmon and steelhead swimming in their ancestral territory in a generation.

There were others on the boats, too. People like Craig Tucker, an environmentalist who promised himself in school he’d never waste his career fighting for quixotic causes, yet had now come to spend two decades working on Klamath dam removal. There was Frankie Joe Myers, who’d come of age amid the fight to undam the river and was now in the thick of it as the Yurok Tribe’s vice chair.

But the trip up the Klamath that day in August wasn’t really about any of the people who’d made undamming the river a central part of their life’s work, it was about about making a case to two men who’d never set eyes on the river before but held its future in their hands.

Weeks earlier, after a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruling had derailed a hard-fought 2016 agreement to remove the four hydroelectric dams choking the lower Klamath River, Myers and James had issued a plea. While PacifiCorp, the electric company that owns and operates the dams, was publicly musing about walking away from the agreements, Myers and James decided to appeal directly to Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company run by Warren Buffett, perhaps the world’s most successful and famous investor, which had acquired PacifiCorp for more than $5 billion back in 2005.

In a meticulously worded email to Berkshire Hathaway Energy Vice Chair Greg Abel, who’s believed by many to be the 89-year-old Buffett’s successor, Myers said he and James invited one of the world’s most powerful men to simply come see the river, sit and talk. Abel accepted and soon he and Berkshire Hathaway Energy CEO William Fehrman were sitting on a jet boat headed upriver.

It’s hard to overstate the stakes that day on the river. Activists and officials alike had long believed the best chance to fundamentally change the dam-removal conversation was to get Berkshire engaged, a step the company seemed entirely unwilling to take, a core tenet of its company ethos being not to interfere in the operations of its subsidiaries. Yet here sat Abel and Fehrman, the Klamath wind in their hair.

Tribal officials had worked hard to keep word of the visit close, concerned an ill-timed protest or demonstration could jeopardize this show of good faith. They’d mapped out the day carefully to showcase the Klamath’s beauty and potential, planning to give the executives a meandering tour of family fishing holes and camps on the river until eventually landing where Blue Creek enters the Klamath — a scenic spot filled with biological diversity and spiritual significance for the Yurok Tribe — where they’d lunch on traditional salmon cooked on sticks over an open flame. But as the boats rounded a sweeping bend in the river, it became instantly clear some had other plans. A floating blockade — a few boats and dugout canoes, with large nets stretched across the river — came into view, dotted with signs calling for the river’s undamming, some punctuated by red fists.

Myers, who said he’d personally assured Berkshire representatives they would be safe coming to Klamath, said his heart quickened a bit when he saw the blockade, unsure what was to follow.

“It was risky,” Myers said. “There were a few moments when I was like, ‘I have a couple of the richest men in the country on a jet boat and I don’t know what [the protesters] were going to do.’ … Everyone in the boats felt very vulnerable.”

The blockade, which comprised a couple dozen of the Klamath River’s most ardent activists, ordered the jet boats to stop. Then, the activists took turns addressing the representatives of one of the world’s most powerful companies.

A jar full of Microcystis cyanobacteria in the Copco Reservoir on the Klamath River. The algae produces a carcinogenic liver toxin called microcystin, which is harmful to humans and animals, including salmon. Photo: Stormy Staats.

One of them presented the men with a plastic jug of water pulled from behind one of the dams, where the water is choked with bright green algae and pressed them to open the jug and smell the toxic brew. Another noted that an entire generation of water protectors had been raised in this fight under the oppressive weight of a sick river. Jon Luke Gensaw pulled off his COVID-19 facial covering, telling the men to take a good look at his face.

“If this doesn’t end, you’re going to see more of us,” he said. “I want you to remember my face because you’ll see me again.”

Chook-Chook Hillman, who joined the effort to remove the dams when he was a teenager and whose dad would take him to the meetings with upriver irrigators and ranchers that led to the 2010 dam removal agreement that died in Congress, started by asking his son to present the executives with a gift.

“Thank you — very kind,” one of them can be heard to stammer in a recording of the exchange.

The gift, Hillman later told the men, was a small white flag affixed to a wooden stick. Hillman said he and his fellow water protectors would be waiting when the executives and tribal officials returned downriver. If they waved the flag, it would be a sign that an agreement had been restored. But if not, Hillman warned, Berkshire Hathaway should brace for protests like it had never seen.

“If you guys ain’t waiving that flag when you’re coming down the river — it’s on,” he said.

Annelia Hillman told the executives that the health of the river is their responsibility — their problem — and one that’s going to effect their children and grandchildren, their futures.

“It’s affecting you, too,” she said. “Don’t think this is an Indian problem. It’s your fucking problem, too.”

After a tense 15 or so minutes, the blockade moved to the side and the boats headed on. When they came back down again some hours later, Hillman said no one aboard would make eye contact with him or the other water protectors.

The flag was nowhere to be seen.

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About six weeks before that day on the river, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission had issued a ruling that put the groundbreaking dam removal deal — itself a resuscitation of a more ambitious deal reached in 2010 that was dependent on Congressional approval that withered on the vine — in serious jeopardy.

Under the terms of the 2016 deal, the Klamath River Renewal Corporation had asked FERC to transfer the licenses of the four dams to a newly created nonprofit, which would then oversee and assume liability for the removal process, allowing PacifiCorp to step away cleanly. The dams would then be removed using $450 million already raised for the purpose — $200 million from PacifiCorp ratepayers and $250 million in water bonds authorized by California’s Proposition 1.

But FERC ruled the company couldn’t simply walk away from the dams it built and the situation it had created, and would need to remain attached to the dams as their co-licensee until their removal.

Regina Chichizola, the policy director at Save California’s Salmon who has been involved in Klamath dam removal and other watershed restoration efforts for more than a decade, said she had mixed emotions watching the FERC hearing. On the one hand, she said, she personally understood the ruling and why a private company shouldn’t be allowed to permanently alter a river for profit and then simply walk away. She also knew it would mean trouble.

“I know how PacifiCorp is and I knew they would demand more because they always demand more,” Chichizola said.

Within days of the ruling, PacifiCorp began publicly hedging, saying it had undercut some of the main “customer protections” that had brought the company to the table for the deal. This was a foundational shift, it held, and the deal would need to be re-negotiated.

But any sizeable delay would cut sharply against the chances of reaching a new accord and seeing the dams removed, as the pot of money for the project was unlikely to grow and cost projections would escalate with every month or year that passed.

In the days that followed FERC’s ruling, pockets of dam removal stakeholders met quietly, plotting paths forward. Chook-Chook Hillman said he and a handful of longtime river advocates got together on the banks of the Klamath with a whiteboard and started brainstorming. Chichizola held conference calls with environmental groups and other stakeholders. Tucker and tribal leaders pondered their next move. And North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman readied to throw all his weight as a member of Congress at the problem.

They all settled on a single target for what would be a months-long, multi-pronged campaign the likes of which the Klamath had never seen: Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett.

Since Berkshire purchased PacifiCorp back in 2005, many dam removal advocates had felt Buffett was the key to getting the company on board. He wasn’t simply one of the world’s richest man, but the Oracle of Omaha, an almost mythical business figure famed for down-home sensibilities and philanthropy.

Advocates had long sought to turn his attention to the Klamath. For consecutive years, Tucker had bought up as many tickets as possible to Buffett’s annual shareholders’ meetings — known by some as the “Woodstock of capitalism” — schmoozy affairs more focused on symposiums and cocktail parties than balance sheets. They’d successfully bombarded question and answer periods with Buffett with inquiries on the Klamath, staged die-ins in front of black tie events and even had Native women flood a cocktail party at a diamond store wearing traditional regalia to talk to revelers about the Klamath and what it means to them.

“I have no idea how somebody like Warren Buffett thinks,” Tucker said of the rationale for the approach. “It’s hard for me to put myself in the shoes [of someone] who has more money than God. But I do know he’s 90 and I do know he has Native grandchildren. These shareholder meetings of Berkshire Hathaway are big parties. There’s not that much business but a lot of cocktail parties. And I don’t think he wants them to be dominated by talk of the plight of Native people.

But publicly anyway, none of these efforts seemed to get through to the man who’d built an empire at least on the image that he purchased good companies and let them operate as they saw fit.

This time had to be different. And the effort also had to break through amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which made mass demonstrations — and even traditional organizing strategies — dangerous and impractical.

On the banks of the river, Hillman and other Klamath Justice Coalition members decided they would use personal connections to write heartfelt letters appealing to people close to Buffett.

Chichizola and others, meanwhile, plotted a massive social media push. They found Gates scholars willing to post messages in support of dam removal, hoping to catch the ear of Bill Gates, a longtime friend of Buffett’s. And they’d work toward a large scale day of action that would feature an online event as well as on-the-ground protests.

Meanwhile, Myers and James got to work on their letter to Abel, the man many expect to succeed Buffett at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway and its quarter of a trillion dollars in annual revenue, imploring him to come see the Klamath River and its people for himself.

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Ten days prior to the blockade on the river, Huffman convened a special virtual hearing of his Water, Oceans and Wildlife Subcommittee on dam removal and Klamath River conditions. The hearing featured tribal leaders who spoke of the river’s importance to their people; environmental scientists who detailed its dire condition and the dams’ impacts on water quality and fish populations; and North Coast State Sen. Mike McGuire and State Water Resources Control Board Chair Joaquin Esquivel, both of whom indicated the state had taken a light hand with permitting PacifiCorp’s Klamath dams — a practice that would end should the company walk away from the deals.

Berkshire Hathaway sent to the forum PacifiCorp Vice President Scott Bolton, whom Huffman, an environmental lawyer prior to entering politics, seemed to relish questioning.

“Mr. Bolton, I think it’s pretty clear that you and PacifiCorp are at a crossroads,” he said. “You have a choice. The river is dying. The fishery is dying. Your dam is causing a toxic concentration of algae that’s the worst in the world. … But you’re not powerless to protect your ratepayers. We can work shoulder to shoulder, get this done on time and on budget, or you can blow this thing up.”

The comment struck back to something Huffman said in his opening statement, laying the Klamath River’s future squarely at Buffett’s feet.

“Warren Buffett has the chance to be a hero in Indian country,” he said. “Or he has the potential to be remembered as someone who perpetuated a grave injustice just to make a little more money.”

The ensuing weeks would see a bevy of action. Huffman introduced legislation that would have essentially given downriver tribes a voice in FERC’s re-licensing processes, ensuring they would be unpleasant affairs for PacifiCorp moving forward.

Meanwhile, as Chichizola and others pushed toward the day of action in October, protests began to pop up — in San Diego, where PacifiCorp was pursuing a power deal, at the company’s headquarters in Oregon and elsewhere — and Klamath hashtags began to trend.

“One of the things I like to stress when talking about the story is how every single part was in play,” said Chichizola, adding that scientists argued the scientific case for dam removal, politicians played politics, tribal leaders negotiated and coordinated, and a community of activists — many who’d grown up in this effort — organized and rallied.

When the day of action arrived, it was massive, with COVID-19 adapted protests in 11 cities — and in front of Buffett’s home — 7,000 people attending a live online forum and 10,000 signing petitions calling for dam removal. Multiple national Native rights groups joined the social media push and #undamtheklamath began trending on multiple social media platforms. Meanwhile, a coalition took out a full-page advertisement in USA Today calling for dam removal and casting it as a social justice issue.

Tucker said he’s simply never seen anything like it.

“We had protests popping up all over the place that we didn’t really organize and that’s what you want — that’s a grassroots movement right there,” he said.

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It’s hard to pinpoint the moment it happened — whether it was on the river that day, Huffman’s grilling of Bolton, the scores of heartfelt testimonials on the day of action — but something moved and Berkshire came to the table. (Berkshire Hathaway, through a spokesperson, “declined the opportunity” to be interviewed for this story.”)

But when the company did decide to take PacifiCorp’s position at the negotiating table, stakeholders say everything changed. Myers, the Yurok Tribe’s vice chair, said Fehrman, Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s CEO, stepped in as the company’s lead negotiator and took a granular approach to understanding the agreement, the dam removal process and potential liabilities involved.

Over the course of about a week, a core negotiating team formed, with Fehrman representing Berkshire, Myers representing the Yurok Tribe and Tucker there for the Karuk Tribe, as well as Oregon Department of Environmental Quality Director Richard Whitman and California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton Bonham. Because everyone’s schedules were packed, the only time they could find to meet were early mornings and weekends, but Myers said no one flinched and the group began meeting three or four times a week, with participants often joining the video conferences from their homes.

“It did bring a certain amount of closeness to these meetings,” Myers said. “The first hour of everyone’s day, people are pretty straightforward with who they are. You get to see people in their homes getting their first cups of coffee. There’s some real humility there.”

Tucker said Berkshire wanted to be walked through every aspect of the plan in fine detail, how construction would work and a detailed breakdown of the budget, the insurance plan and liability concerns.

“We’re talking about removing four large dams — this is on the scale of demolishing skyscrapers or decommissioning giant power plants,” Tucker said. “But they committed to being open-minded and said, ‘OK, you keep telling us this is buttoned up, so let’s go through it again.’ Once we went through it, they were like, ‘Wow, the Klamath River Renewal Corporation has it together.’ … We kind of watched the realization of the company that this wasn’t just some pipe dream. This was well-thought-out and well-managed.”

It was another shift. “And,” Tucker continued, “once they decided they were going to go for it, everything changed. Every interaction with the company was all of a sudden, they are clearly 100 percent committed to dam removal.”

Ultimately, the parties agreed PacifiCorp, California and Oregon would pledge another $45 million in contingency funds to account for cost overruns or liabilities and that Berkshire would agree to a three-way split of any liabilities or overruns beyond that moving forward. But a significant hurdle still remained: Berkshire wanted another entity to take over PacifiCorp’s status as co-licensee on the dams through the removal process. Oregon agreed to sign into the role. But the deal needed California to do so, too.

Myers said Bonham had done a “phenomenal job” throughout the negotiations but indicated this kind of decision was beyond him. The tribes would need to talk directly with Gov. Gavin Newsom.

When tribal representatives met with Newsom in Sacramento, Myers said he knew the stakes couldn’t be higher. His approach, he said, was not to vouch for the science or the economics of the project — others had done that for years. Instead, he said, the goal of the day was to really show Newsom what this agreement would mean to tribal people.

“It was our role to really say, ‘This is worth it,’ and to speak to the 150-plus years of pretty horrific negotiations with California,” Myers said. “When you look at the gold rush in California, when you look at the timber barons in California, the commercial fleets of California, the mission system in California, there is an atrocity built on an atrocity built on the graves of our people. This is the world’s fifth largest economy because it’s built on the resources of the Indigenous people of California. … This is our land and we’re still here.”

After the group finished making its case to the governor and the meeting was wrapping up, Myers said he offered a last push: “California has a huge debt to Indian people and dam removal does not repay that debt by a long shot. But it’s a good down payment.”

Newsom, Myers said, responded: “California is all in and we’re never going to stop until the dams come out.”

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In late October and early November, word crept into activist circles that negotiations with Berkshire were going well, that there was progress. But it was hard to believe.

“I was still tepid,” said Hillman. I’d heard there was another agreement in principle. Well, I remembered the other agreements in principle. We were hearing that there’s an agreement, that the states are involved. That sounds good. But other agreements have sounded good as well.”

It was mid-November when word began circulating that a press conference was in the works when Newsom, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, Berkshire Hathaway and the Yurok and Karuk tribes would announce a new deal had been reached. But most interviewed for this story recall a singular moment when this agreement felt not just real but substantively different than its predecessors — a draft press release began to circulate and in it was a quote from Buffett himself. And the quote didn’t talk about ratepayers. It talked about the good of Native people.

“I recognize the importance of Klamath dam removal and river restoration for tribal people in the Klamath Basin,” Buffett said. “We appreciate and respect our tribal partners for their collaboration in forging an agreement that delivers an exceptional outcome for the river, as well as future generations. Working together from this historic moment, we can complete the project and remove these dams.”

For Hillman, who once fasted for 10 days in preparation for a meeting with Buffett only to be turned away, the moment was profound.

“It hit me a lot harder than I thought it was going to, for his words not to be about ratepayers but about restorative justice,” he said. “That day did feel a lot different than it ever has. People say we’ve been here before but I’m saying, ‘Not here.’ We haven’t been here, where the states and the company and Fish and Wildlife are talking about restorative justice. Those statements are hard to walk aback. It sure does feel different.”

Last month, the KRRC filed the new agreement with FERC for approval and, this time, the consensus is it will be approved without issue, having checked all the boxes the regulatory agency laid out with its prior ruling, laying the path for dam removal to begin in 2023. Hillman said he’s heard Berkshire Hathaway representatives have been meeting with FERC staff to make sure everything is in order, noting that he and other advocates were repeatedly denied such meetings.

“That makes me happy on the one hand but just angry on the other,” he said. “We’ve always known that if the big wigs decide they want to do something as a corporation in America, they do it. They could have done this the whole time.”

But they didn’t. Repeatedly. So what, after years of pushing and angling, finally brought Buffett to the Klamath table? Everyone interviewed for this story said it’s impossible to pinpoint any one thing, as changing economics and political sentiments coupled with stalwart generational activism all created a perfect storm. But if there was a tipping point, Myers and Tucker said it was likely that moment on the Klamath when a group of Native people seeking justice for their river refused to let Berkshire Hathaway executives pass.

“At the end of the day,” Tucker recalled, “I was like, ‘I’m not sure that went the way we wanted it to.’ The tribal activists became a little confrontational and I thought in the moment, ‘Oh, no.’ But what I thought was things going off the rails and all our best laid plans starting to go awry I think was serendipitous. It created opportunities for interactions that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

“No one sells the Klamath better than the people who live there,” Tucker continued. “People’s entire adult lives have been spent fighting these dams. My child is 16 years old and that’s all he’s ever known that I do. And I think there’s a lot of Native kids who have grown up, and that’s all they know their parents do. … We are committed. And it’s generational. If something happens to me, something happens to Frankie (Myers), something happens to whoever, there’s a generation of young people who will step in to fill our shoes. I think Berkshire finally understood that.”

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Thadeus Greenson (he/him) is the Journal’s news editor. Reach him at 442-1400, extension 321, or thad@northcoastjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @thadeusgreenson.

The Community Voices Coalition is a project funded by Humboldt Area Foundation and Wild Rivers Community Foundation to support local journalism. This story was produced by the North Coast Journal newsroom with full editorial independence and control.

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Ana Bertha Ballesteros had to close her home child care in Delano for more than two weeks around Thanksgiving when COVID-19 came to her center. A child and their family were exposed and tested positive. Then Ballesteros did too.

She is terrified of it happening again.

“I’m very concerned,” Ballesteros said. “Thank God I made it for those 14 days but if we were to have another exposure what is going to happen with me and my family? It’s our only income.”

California child care sites have reported to the state 12,032 cases of COVID-19 and 30 related deaths since the pandemic began. Infections have occurred at nearly one-fifth of all centers or homes — among staff, children or their parents. None of the 30 deaths have been children.

The pandemic has led to multiple child care problems in California, including a shortage of care centers, a non-negligible risk of infection even with costly precautions in place, and hardships for child care providers themselves.

Kern County, where Ballesteros operates, has seen 425 reported coronavirus cases at child care centers. Los Angeles County leads the state with 2,702 cases. The state is not releasing the names of the child care sites where infections have been reported because the Dept. of Social Services says they are “exempt from disclosure” under state law.

Whether those numbers are good or bad is almost impossible to say at this point, said Dr. Ilan Shapiro, pediatrician with AltaMed Health Services and Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The circumstances at each center can vary widely, and there is not yet reliable comparison data from other states.

“In general, kids need to be in these types of centers because it helps their social development and health,” said Shapiro. “It also creates a safety net for the kids.”

He encourages parents to learn about what providers will do there is an exposure to the infection and question what protocols they follow to prevent them: washing hands, wearing masks, taking temperatures, using protective equipment.

“We have seen more cases. Kids are getting sick,” he said. “And we know that if at home we are taking care of each other and at school (or day care) they are wearing their masks and washing their hands and doing everything appropriately, that reduces the risk of getting COVID.”

California allowed child care sites to remain open throughout the pandemic — following cleaning and social distancing guidelines. As Scott Murray, spokesman for the Department of Social Services, wrote in an email: “Families need a safe place for their children while they work.”

An estimated 60% of Californians already lived in a child care desert before the pandemic.

Since the pandemic began, 2,160 California child care sites have closed permanently, representing a loss of 33,387 child care slots for children. Another 8,000 facilities — both large centers and family homes — have temporarily closed across the state as of October, according to a report given to a Senate budget committee last month.

That poses a growing problem: An estimated 60% of Californians already lived in a child care desert before the pandemic.

“Losing more child care providers means even less access for working parents and their children,” said Kristin Schumacher, senior policy analyst at the California Budget & Policy Center, which made the estimate. “Eventually, we will move past the pandemic and many parents will need to find care for their kids. The economy can’t fully recover until the child care infrastructure is in place to support kids, parents, and providers.”

The loss of child care also impacts children directly. They may lose stable connections, be confused or anxious and experience sadness, said Schumacher, who lost her own child care for her 4-year-old when his child care provider closed early in the pandemic.

Smaller, family child care providers have, for the most part, kept their businesses open, said Keisha Nzewi, director of public policy for the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network. But it’s been difficult, expensive and stressful for them.

“(Child care providers) have been scared the whole time and they follow the guidelines to a T even as they kept changing,” said Nzewi. “They want to do everything to keep their children and families safe, but especially themselves and their own families.”

As of Feb. 24, the more than 12,000 coronavirus cases had occurred at 5,845 day care sites, roughly a fifth of the state’s supply. Cases were reported at both large centers and family care homes where, depending on size and staff, providers can care for up to 8 or 14 children in their personal domicile.

“The economy can’t fully recover until the child care infrastructure is in place to support kids, parents, and providers.”
— Kristin Schumacher, senior policy analyst at the California Budget & Policy Center

While most of the cases connected with child care sites have been among adults, the number of COVID-19 cases among kids has risen since the beginning of the pandemic. Initially, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 2% of coronavirus cases were among children. The figure has risen to 10%. Plus, a small number of those children go on to develop a rare multi-inflammatory syndrome related to having had the virus.

“As a father I completely understand the debate on what to do with our kids and the delicate dance between science, fears and feelings,” said Shapiro, whose youngest child has been attending daycare and only took a few weeks off during the peak of the surge in January and early February. “I tell parents, ‘You need to create a system where you are taking care of everybody including the teachers, parents and kids to make sure everybody is safe.’”

A CalMatters review of the state’s data shows most of the cases at larger child care centers have occurred among staff members. Meanwhile, at family care homes, the number of cases has been fairly evenly distributed among staff, kids and their parents.

Researchers have found that child care sites are not hotbeds of the virus. During the first three months of the pandemic, staff at child care sites that remained open were no more likely to contract COVID-19 than providers who had closed, according to a Yale University study published last month in the journal Pediatrics.

The study reported that those who stayed open “reported frequent handwashing and disinfection of surfaces. They also have high rates of other infection control measures – like daily checks, physical distancing and keeping children in “cohorts.” Researchers did find that Black, Latino and Indigenous caregivers — who make up a large portion of child care providers — tested positive at higher rates than other groups.

Nzewi said that trend is a reflection of the larger impact of the virus on communities of color and not because child care sites are the cause.

Relief from the state

Child care advocates and a newly formed Child Care Providers United union have been negotiating with the state to get more protections for child care providers — including a one-time stipend to help with increased pandemic-related costs and 16 additional paid non-operational days related to the virus, boosting the total number to 40 annually.

Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a stimulus bill that included both of those benefits for caregivers of children who receive state subsidized care.

But Ballesteros, the child care provider in Delano, said her November closure already put her close to the limit of subsidized non-operational days even with additions from the stimulus bill. She worries about having to close again as the country marks the one-year anniversary of the pandemic.

These concerns — in tandem with frustration about the amount the state pays for subsidized child care and limited support around implementing COVID-19 precautions — are wearing on providers.

“We are not only risking ourselves, we are risking our families,” Ballesteros said.

She said she took all the precautions before getting sick: masks, social distancing, disinfecting her child care center and asking parents all the recommended questions about health and exposure. She waits for the kids outside so no parents has to enter her home, created a space for kids to put their belongings outside, and installed a sink outside for washing tiny hands on arrival.

“We are not only risking ourselves, we are risking our families.”
— Ana Ballesteros, child care provider

A few days before Thanksgiving, a mom called Ballesteros to say that she wasn’t feeling well and had tested positive for coronavirus. That woman’s children had been at the center that day. The state licensing office recommended she close for a couple of days, Ballesteros said. But when she, too, tested positive, the local health department advised her to close for two weeks.

During that time, Ballesteros said, five children left her center, leaving her with just nine children in her care and a significant cut in her income.

Nzewi called the stipends a Band-aid remedy will help for that month, but there are larger issues that need to be addressed, including how little child care providers get paid, especially through the state’s subsidy system. They receive on average about $12 an hour, according to their union.

Ballesteros said her costs have increased more than 50% to account for cleaning supplies, additional tables and chairs for social distancing, boosted wi-fi for virtual learning, dividers and supplies to keep the kids busy. She also pays for deep cleaning once a month.

The state did allocate $50 million early on for cleaning supplies and stipends, but those funds ran out at the end of the year.

“Hopefully we don’t get COVID again, and that’s why I’m so afraid of it,” Ballesteros said. “Right now, it’s tight but we are making it. But if this happens again I don’t know if we will be able to continue.”

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CalMatters coverage of early childhood issues is supported by grants from First 5 Los Angeles and The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation.

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