For decades, many California teens convicted of serious crimes — such as robbery, assault, and murder — were sent to state juvenile prisons.

This year Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the closure of these state facilities. Under a new law, California’s three remaining youth prisons will no longer accept newly convicted youth after July 2021. Instead, counties will be responsible for young offenders who’ve committed the most serious offenses.

Those counties have until July to create plans to incorporate young people into their current juvenile hall and probation systems, but it’s unclear how much funding they’ll receive from the state.

Opponents, including the California State Association of Counties, worry that counties are unprepared to adapt to the new law — and that this may drive them to send more young people to adult prisons.

Some youth advocates agree, but argue that being closer to home will help convicted youth stay connected with their community, and lower the chance that they commit crimes in the future.

The state prison closures don’t affect the 750 youth already incarcerated in state juvenile facilities. After all of them have been released or age out of the facilities at age 25, the state Division of Juvenile Justice will shut down entirely.

Keep watching CalMatters.org for more in-a-minute videos about other new laws taking effect in 2021. They make up a smaller tally than usual given that the coronavirus pandemic dominated the Legislature’s 2020 session.

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

From the Humboldt County Joint Information Center:

Effective Jan. 1, 2021, all COVID-19 compliance activities will be handled by the jurisdiction in which violations are alleged to occur. The COVID-19 Compliance Tip Line, which has been operated by the Humboldt County Emergency Operations Center’s Joint Information Center, will be shut down Jan. 1.

Examples of reportable violations include a lack of employee masking, businesses operating when they should be closed and large community gatherings.

Members of the public who wish to report a potential violation may call the appropriate county or city office directly. Those jurisdictions are:

• City of Arcata: 707-822-5953
• City of Blue Lake: 707-668-5655
• City of Eureka: 707-441-4203
• City of Fortuna: 707-725-1435
• City of Ferndale: 707-786-4224
• City of Rio Dell: 707-764-5642
• City of Trinidad: 707-677-0223
• Unincorporated county locations: 707-476-2429

For more information about current status of business operations, visit humboldtgov.org or Blueprint for a Safer Economy at covid19.ca.gov/safer-economy/.

As California has faced its most devastating wildfire season on record, nearly a third of the people on the frontlines have been state prisoners. Despite their firsthand experience, many incarcerated people couldn’t become firefighters after being released. A new California law aims to change that and make it easier to hire formerly incarcerated firefighters.

Until now, formerly incarcerated people couldn’t apply to be firefighters in many parts of California until they finished their parole — which averages about three years.

And they also had to list their criminal history on license applications.

The new law allows former prisoners who participated in fire programs to immediately apply to have their records expunged.

Depending on a court’s ruling, the offenses on their record could be erased helping pave the way toward fire certification.

Studies have shown that the barriers that make it harder for people to get job licenses or a job ultimately drives more people back to prison.

The California District Attorneys Association fought against this idea, arguing that it allows people with serious criminal sentences to have their records cleared. And inmates in fire camp already receive certain benefits, such as time off their sentences.

But supporters note that even under the new law, people convicted of crimes such as murder, kidnapping, and rape won’t be eligible to get their records expunged.

Democratic Assemblymember Eloise Reyes of San Bernardino — who penned the new law — says those who are committed to turning their lives around deserve a second chance.

Keep watching CalMatters.org for more in-a-minute videos about other new laws taking effect in 2021 — a smaller tally than usual given that the coronavirus pandemic dominated the Legislature’s 2020 session.

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

More than 4 million Africans and their descendants were enslaved throughout the United States. While California joined the Union in 1850 as a state free of slavery, the Legislature passed the California Fugitive Slave Act in 1852, which mandated that government officials and ordinary white citizens help slaveholders recapture people who escaped.

Now, 170 years later, the state is beginning to formally grapple with this lesser known history.

A new law — carried by San Diego Democratic Assemblymember Shirley Weber — establishes a nine-person committee to study California’s complicity in slavery, develop proposals on what reparations might look like for descendants of enslaved people, and determine who might get paid.

Reparations can take many forms — they could be direct cash payments or subsidized education and healthcare, or assistance for down payments on housing.

The new law won the support of a large coalition of social justice groups. But in the state legislature, support fell along party lines.

Most Republican lawmakers voted against the idea, arguing that reparations is a federal issue, and that state money should not be used to study it.

Some reparations scholars also have reservations about the new law, arguing the magnitude of what needs to be repaid can be achieved only at the federal level.

But in signing the bill, Gov. Gavin Newsom said, “This is not just about California. This is about making an impact and a dent across the rest of the country.”

Keep watching CalMatters.org for more in-a-minute videos about other new laws taking effect in 2021 — a smaller tally than usual given that the coronavirus pandemic dominated the Legislature’s 2020 session.

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

Cynthia Gail Petersen passed away peacefully on Saturday, December 26, 2020, in her home after a long and courageous battle with cancer.

A life-long resident of the Eel River Valley, Cynthia graduated from Fortuna Union High School in 1965, attended the Eureka Business College and married her high school sweetheart, Chris Petersen, in July 1968. Together they had three children and owned a family dairy in Loleta. She was a member of the Loleta School Board and was part of the group that started a girl’s softball league in Fortuna.

Cynthia worked for the County of Humboldt in both the Probation Department and the Auditor/Controller’s Office for almost 25 years before her retirement in September 2012. She was a member of the Christ Lutheran Church in Fortuna. She was also a Past Matron of the Ferndale Chapter #23, Order of the Eastern Star, for which she was a 47-year member. Cynthia loved to travel, host parties and spend time with her family. Some of her favorite trips were to Denmark to visit family. She was very artistic and enjoyed drawing and working on different craft projects.

Cynthia is preceded in death by her parents, Harold Colt (Cohen) and Bethel Curtis Kibler, and her beloved brother Bruce Cohen.

She is survived by her loving husband of 52 years David “Chris” Petersen, Children Robin Coon (Don) of Irving TX, Christian Petersen (Dannielle) of Loleta CA, and Johanna Helzer (Andy) of Loleta CA. Grandchildren JD and Jason Coon; Abbi (Justin), Isabelle, David and Maddie Petersen: step-grandson Devin Helzer. Siblings Beth Thornbrue (Harry) of Red Bluff CA, and Bill Niles (Janie) of Red Bluff CA. Also, Robert Petersen (Valerie) of Myrtle Point OR, Helene Nicholson (Larry) of Ferndale CA, and Arne Petersen (Paulina) of Ferndale CA and many nieces and nephews.

A memorial will be planned and announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made in memory of Cynthia to the Loleta Volunteer Fire Department P.O. Box 766 Loleta, CA. 95551, or the VFW in Fortuna 2420 Acacia Fortuna, CA. 95540.

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As West Coast clocks struck midnight, tipping Tuesday into Wednesday, Humboldt officially, and quite unexpectedly, became the only place in California where people are allowed to dine at restaurants indoors. 

Our neighboring counties in the Northern California region are all in the “purple” tier, indicating widespread COVID-19 transmission under the state’s framework, while the other four regions — home to more than 98 percent of California residents — have been placed under regional stay-home orders due to their overwhelmed ICU capacity. 

While a few local restaurant owners happily hauled out the flatware, dusted off their menus and welcomed patrons back inside, others reached by the Outpost on Wednesday say they’re holding back.

Some said that reopening would present big logistical challenges, requiring them to restock shelves and fridges and rehire laid-off employees — big risks when the restrictions could easily be reinstated tomorrow. Others said that with the county’s COVID-19 numbers climbing at the steepest, most alarming rate yet, they don’t understand why the state loosened restrictions. They’re waiting for conditions to improve, for the return of tourism and consumer confidence.

“I’m going to be more patient,” said Nicholas Kohl, owner of Eureka’s Oberon Grill. “I need to be very strategic about when and how I reopen.”  

Oberon has been closed altogether since last month. Kohl said he hoped to adapt to the pandemic by offering meals to-go and trying to “evolve” the business, but he quickly saw that he was expending more effort while losing more money.

Shawn Stoops, owner of The Diver Bar & Grill in Eureka’s Henderson Center, said he and his employees have switched entirely to offering food to-go, which requires just two employees working at a time. Given the state’s cap of 25 percent indoor capacity under the red tier, the expenses inherent in offering indoor service — with the lights, the heating, the extra staff — just don’t pencil out.

“It’s not worth it,” Stoops said. “This is beyond chasing pennies. It’s an immense amount of effort with zero return.”

Under the orange and yellow tiers, Humboldt restaurants were allowed to operate with up to 50 percent capacity indoors. “When they started knocking us back to 25, I said let’s just do to-go, and we’re sticking with it,” Stoops said. 

He has kept his business afloat with help from the Paycheck Protection Program and other loans. Stoops said he’s proud of his staff, and he’s trying to operate as efficiently as possible. “But we’re not changing the quality of our food,” he said. “I’m adamant. You can’t start skimping on things because it screws you [in the long run].”

Meredith Maier, co-owner of Six Rivers Brewery in McKinleyville, said she had to lay off some employees shortly before the holidays, and she’d be reticent to hire them back only to potentially lay them off again.

The brewpub’s 8,500 square feet of indoor capacity allows Six Rivers to accommodate just 30 people at a time under the current rules, Maier said. That’s roughly the same amount of diners they’re able to serve outdoors in good weather. She and her colleagues decided to open today, allowing indoor dining with their new protective measures. 

“We’ve moved away from table service,” Maier said. “It’s all counter service: People come to the bar to order … . Our interactions are minimal.” The food is placed in baskets rather than on dishes, and customers are asked to bus their own tables. “Our indoor dining is very well ventilated as we keep all doors and windows open regardless of weather,” Maier said.

She, for one, didn’t expect to be making such a decision today. When state officials announced Tuesday that Humboldt County was being downgraded to the red tier, “I felt pretty shocked,” Maier said, “only considering our daily case counts are the highest they’ve ever been.”

Aimee Hennessy, owner of Richards’ Goat Tavern and Tea Room in Arcata, said, “I don’t expect Humboldt to stay in the red tier, unfortunately.”

Sure enough, during Wednesday’s media availability Q-and-A, Humboldt County Health Officer Dr. Ian Hoffman addressed this very issue, saying, “I would strongly caution anyone with a restaurant right now who is planning to reopen that they should be concerned that this could be reversed.”

Hennessy was already leaning in that direction.

“We closed in early December, turned off as many appliances as we could to save on utility bills, and we don’t plan to reopen until it makes financial sense to do so — which means people have to feel more confident about it being safe to go out, regardless of tiers,” she said.

Other local restaurant owners couldn’t wait to reopen for indoor dining. The AA Bar and Grill in Eureka even bent the rules a bit, reopening Tuesday evening instead of waiting for Wednesday. A jubilant Facebook post went up shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday, announcing, “Christmas came a little late this year- We’re open inside! Yup, come enjoy some INDOOR dining again. We’ll have the kick ass steaks ready!!”

“I’ll be honest with you, I should have waited to today,” said owner Mike Munson, who also own The Jam in Arcata. But he reasoned that the governor’s orders may as well take effect on the day they’re announced. “I don’t see why we needed to wait a day.”

The AA has been offering outdoor seating, but Munson estimated that opening the doors last night led to a 60 percent uptick in business. The transition was relatively easy since the AA’s menu hasn’t changed and it operates with a small staff.

“The Jam is a lot more challenging,” Munson said. “We literally were calling people back last night that we had to lay off, calling ‘em back and getting geared up for today.”

He’s fully prepared for the rule-change to be reversed, he said, but even if it’s short-lived he’s happy for the increased business.

Ted Vivatson, owner of Eel River Brewing Company in Fortuna, struck a more defiant tone when reached by phone Wednesday.

“This is the first time in the history of our country that the government has arbitrarily and capriciously shut certain segments of the economy,” he said. “It’s a scary thing. … There is no data that supports what the state’s doing right now. It’s based on hospitals’ business model.”

For the record, government officials in the U.S. have issued similar restrictions in the past. For example, during the catastrophic “Spanish flu” of 1918, municipal health officials closed schools, shuttered movie theaters and pool halls and banned all public gatherings. San Francisco passed a law requiring people to wear gauze face masks. “[L]ooking back more than a century later,” reporter Dave Roos observes on history.com, “there’s evidence that the earliest and most well-organized responses slowed the spread of the disease — at least temporarily — while cities that dragged their feet or let down their guard paid a heavier price.”

Regardless, Vivatson said that a lot of people just prefer to eat inside, including patrons who are elderly and frail. And he pointed to the financial toll of the pandemic.

“It’s dire out there for a lot of segments of the business world,” he said. “I got a lot of friends in the bar and restaurant industry throughout state. I would say about 20 percent are not gonna reopen. They’ve lost everything.”

Vivatson said he remains skeptical of the state’s justifications for the restrictions. 

”Everybody wants to do the right thing for the community. I just want to see what it’s based on,” he said regarding Gov. Gavin Newsom’s regulations.

Vivatson went on to thank his employees “for their strength and fortitude, hanging in there,” and he expressed gratitude for the community, which has offered support in a variety of unexpected ways, he said.

Stoops expressed thanks, too. 

“I’m grateful for my staff,” he said. “They’re rolling with it; we’re all rolling with this.”

He said he’s got some ideas for the new year, including offering growlers of beer for sale. The Diver has been working with the City of Eureka to build a parklet out in front of the business, and Stoops said he intends to get back on social media to let the public know the business is still here.

“That’s one of the things I love about Humboldt, the way people have stepped up here,” he said, “from giving tips to staff to just showing kindness, offering kind words like ‘hang in there,’ people showing gratitude, just being grateful we’re open.”

Given the range of challenges posed by the pandemic, Stoops said he’s aware that he could go out of business, but he’s doing everything that’s within his control so he tries not to worry about it.

“I’ve got a huge investment in this thing, with real money,” he said. “Failure’s not an option. We’ll get through this. We’re gonna get beat up with it. We’ll have more debt. But I’ve put too much into this to give up without fighting to the damn end with it.”

Stoops, like several other restaurant owners we spoke with for this story, said he’s especially grateful to the community for supporting local businesses.

Today Dr. Ian Hoffman, Humboldt County’s health officer, took questions on the state’s “surprise” decision to move Humboldt County down into the COVID red tier, making it one of only four counties in the state in anything less than the highest level of concern — and the only one of those four not also subject to a regional stay-at-home order.

Video above, rough transcript below.

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From the Redwood News: “Could you please explain why you disagree with the state’s methodology to move Humboldt County back to the red tier?”

Sure, well, let me talk about the different ways that we look at data. The state CDPH has a methodology that looks at the data with a seven-day lag, plus two more days, because it takes them that long to get the data. So we’re really looking at data that’s nine days old. Here in Humboldt County we get the data directly on a nearly daily basis. So we’re looking at the data in real time and to give you an example, currently our case count is about 100 over what they have at the state.

From the Lost Coast Outpost: “If the county doesn’t agree with the state’s decision to put us in the red tier, the health officer has the authority to keep higher, purple tier restrictions in place with a local order. Why don’t you do that?”

So this is a balancing act that many health officials and health officers have had to walk, this very fine line throughout the course of this pandemic. A health order is one tool in the toolbox and it’s it’s not a delicate one, it’s a very strong one and it’s one that there isn’t much enthusiasm for right now in our community. We need buy-in if anything’s going to change. So regardless of the tier that we’re in, there are things that we can do to keep our community safe.

Businesses that can open may choose not to and they may choose to protect their customers and their staff given the uncertainty around all this and given the uncertainty that we could return to purple tier or regional stay-at-home orders. People may choose to gather but they may choose to keep their household safe by not gathering and churches may decide not to reopen indoor services. We at Public Health have never seen the numbers look worse and what we’re hearing from a lot of the people in the community is that they understand this and they continue to act as if we’re in the purple tier while we’re in the red tier.

From the Redheaded Blackbelt: “With Humboldt being in the less restrictive red tier, is there a travel restriction in place between counties which might inhibit non-essential travel and prevent people in other areas of the state from taking a winter break trip to the only county in the state with open restaurants and other venues available to the public?”

So red versus purple tier does not affect the travel restrictions. There is a statewide travel advisory that none of us should be traveling outside of our home area and that applies to all of California and then for the rest of California outside of Northern California, there is a regional Stay-at-Home order which says you shouldn’t, you shouldn’t travel out of your home except for essential work or essential needs in the community.

So currently in Northern California if you were to travel it’s recommended you stay in your county or that you drive no more than two to three hours from your home and that that should really be for essential travel or you know, getting outdoors, going on hikes going to the beaches, those sorts of things are still highly encouraged because we want to stay healthy and active during this time.

From the Redheaded Blackbelt: “As for the potential of seeing outside visitors coming to Humboldt in light of these new adjustments to the tier status do you have a concern about Airbnb rentals continuing to operate locally? In regard to visitors during the New Year holiday weekend, what oversight, if any, is there on travel into the county for recreational purposes and vacationing?”

So as I mentioned previously, statewide, county travel advisory, any region that’s in a regional Stay-at-Home order is a part of that order is to stay at home and not travel away from your home and you know, really there’s jurisdictional oversight in each of the jurisdictions that would be in charge of any enforcement of those orders.

From the Redheaded Blackbelt: “What advice would you give to restaurant owners who are questioning the reopening allowance and if it is worthwhile to reopen if only to be shut down again in the next few days considering that planning for food prep, storage, staffing, deliveries, etc. is costly and time-consuming?”

I would strongly caution anyone with a restaurant right now who is planning to to reopen that they should be concerned that this could be reversed. As I’ve mentioned we could, you know, trigger regional Stay-at-Home orders very easily and that goes into effect immediately. In addition if our numbers go up instead of going down the red tier can certainly be turned back into the purple tier, which would limit indoor dining.

From the Times-Standard: “Dr. Hoffman on Tuesday expressed strong disagreement with the state’s decision to move Humboldt County from the purple, widespread COVID risk tier to the less restrictive, red substantial tier. Is the county moving to tier adjudication?”

There is no process for tier adjudication in that direction. The tier adjudication process is for moving to more restrictive tiers.

From KMUD News: Now that Humboldt is in the red tier what can be allowed for indoor shopping and indoor dining?”

So all this can be found on the Blueprint for Safer Economy website. If you have any more questions definitely check that out. But indoor retail goes to 50 percent, indoor dining is allowed at 25 percent in the red tier.

Also from KMUD News: Do you predict Humboldt will move back into the purple tier? What would trigger re-designation?”

Very difficult to say for sure. Again: All along the numbers have looked like they have not been going down locally so we are concerned about that. The thing that would trigger going back into the purple tier would be the state’s numbers going up 15 percent over the next few weeks and I do think that’s likely.