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[DISCLOSURE: The Blue Lake Rancheria is a minority owner of the Outpost’s parent company, Lost Coast Communications, Inc.]

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Press release from the Environmental Protection Agency:

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces the selection of the Blue Lake Rancheria, located within California, for a $11,498,810 Climate Pollution Reduction Grant funded by the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda.

The Blue Lake Rancheria’s aptly named “Empowering Tribal Sovereignty: Creating Climate Resilience through Carbon Sequestration” project will combat climate change by expanding a carbon sequestration program for wetland and forest ecosystems. Funding will be used to acquire and restore coastal and forest land around Humboldt Bay that is within the Tribe’s ancestral territory and that is vulnerable to sea level rise, and to restore wetland habitat. This grant will accelerate the Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe’s goal of sustainable Tribal sovereignty, while restoring, preserving, and protecting vital ecosystems, combatting sea-level rise, and improving the air we breathe.

“The Climate Pollution Reduction Grants being unveiled today will deliver unprecedented resources to Tribes here in California for local solutions that can provide national examples for how to combat climate change,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman. “These investments, which deliver on the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative, will create jobs and reduce the emissions fueling climate change.”

“California Tribes are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, developing their own solutions to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, improve air quality, and bolster climate resilience,” said U.S. Senator Alex Padilla. “I’m grateful to the Biden-Harris Administration for providing tens of millions in direct federal funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to the Blue Lake Rancheria to support their sovereignty and locally led solutions.”

“Tribal communities are on the frontlines of climate change, which has ravaged land, water, and cultural resources. This investment from the Biden-Harris administration will give tribes the resources they need to implement their plans to create a more sustainable future and increase tribal sovereignty,” said U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (CA-2). “I’m glad the EPA selected Blue Lake Rancheria’s innovative project to receive funds I was able to secure as part of the Inflation Reduction Act so they can make their vision a reality.”

After an intensive review of 110 applications nationwide, the EPA selected Blue Lake Rancheria and 33 other highly competitive applications throughout our nation. The selectees, including 31 Tribal Nations, 2 Tribal consortia, and the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, to implement community-driven solutions to tackle the climate crisis, reduce air pollution, advance environmental justice, and accelerate the clean energy transition.

Thanks to funding from the Biden-Harris Administration’s historic Inflation Reduction Act, these grants will support the implementation of greenhouse gas reduction measures identified by Tribal and territorial communities. When estimates provided by all selected applicants nationwide are combined, the proposed projects will reduce harmful greenhouse gas pollution by over 7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2050 – equivalent to the carbon dioxide emitted from nearly 1.4 million homes’ electricity use for one year.

Today’s announcement marks the latest investment under this first-of-its-kind, nearly $5 billion Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program. In July, the EPA announced $4.3 billion for CPRG Implementation Grants General Competition selected applicants. In 2023, the EPA provided $250 million in planning grants, which served as the basis for greenhouse gas reduction measures proposed in the CPRG implementation grant applications.

The selected applications will target greenhouse gas pollution from six sectors of the economy with a particular focus on the transportation, electric power, and commercial and residential buildings sectors while spurring workforce development and job creation in Indian Country and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Today’s announcement and ongoing CPRG technical support for planning grant recipients are consistent with President Biden’s Executive Order 14112 on Reforming Federal Funding and Support for Tribal Nations to Better Embrace Our Trust Responsibilities and Promote the Next Era of Tribal Self-Determination. The Executive Order demonstrates the Biden-Harris Administration’s respect for Tribal sovereignty and its commitment to ushering in the next era of Tribal self-determination by directing agencies to reform federal programs for greater autonomy of Tribal Nations over how Tribes can invest federal funding. The Executive Order also directs agencies to make federal funding less burdensome and more accessible for Tribal Nations.

The Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program is also advancing President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which aims to ensure 40% of the overall benefits of specific climate, clean energy, and other federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. 

EPA made its Tribes and Territories Competition selections after reviewing 110 applications that requested more than $1.3 billion in funding. The agency expects to award funds under both the Tribes and Territories Competition and the General Competition later this year once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied.

See the complete list of selected applications.

Learn about the CPRG program.

Acres of Eats, the food truck-heavy, twice-monthly gathering at Redwood Acres Fairgrounds, will not be back for any of its remaining 2024 dates. Redwood Acres took to its social media accounts in advance of yesterday’s event to announce the decision. The reason for the sudden end? Not enough “Eats”ers.

“Unfortunately, low attendance has forced the difficult decision to cancel the remaining Acres of Eats events for 2024,” Redwood Acres wrote. “We appreciate your support and hope to see you soon at our fall and winter events! Thank you!”

Redwood Acres’ next big event is Autumn at the Acres, taking place Saturday, Oct. 12, which promises “a perfect fall day filled with shopping, hay rides, delicious food, kids activities, mini pumpkin patch, hot cider bar, and more!” Your attendance would be greatly appreciated. 

UPDATE, 3:26 p.m.:

Providence sent the following statement in response to the union’s press release:

Our goal as Humboldt’s leading health provider is to continue meeting our community’s most pressing needs. We are grateful to the California Legislature and specifically, our local state officials, Assemblymember Wood and Senator McGuire for their support of SB 1119 that led to its passage, and we’re hopeful that Governor Newsom will also be supportive as he considers this bill among thousands of others over the next two weeks. 

The passage of SB 1119 won’t reverse the closure of the ARU at the General Hospital Campus, but it affords Providence the necessary time to decommission the building (to reach seismic compliance) while determining an appropriate use for the space.

Although the unit is closing effective November 18, there are several construction projects that need to take place to be fully compliant with seismic regulations. That work will take us well beyond the upcoming January 1, 2025, deadline, reinforcing our requirement to suspend in-patient rehabilitations services at the General Hospital Campus. 

We have worked collaboratively with the State’s Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) over the past several months to ensure rehabilitation services are available within our community before announcing the closure of the unit.  

We are proud to have found an innovative solution to ensure rehabilitative care remains local in Humboldt through our collaboration with Rockport’s Granada Rehabilitation and Wellness Center. 

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Press release from the National Union of Healthcare Workers:

Eureka, Calif. — The National Union of Healthcare Workers is calling on Providence to keep its rehabilitation center open, citing a bill awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature that eases seismic requirements for hospitals. Providence lobbied in support of SB 1119, which would effectively waive seismic requirements for two years at the General Hospital campus in Eureka, where Providence houses its Acute Rehabilitation Unit.

The bill, which passed both the Assembly and State Senate last week, could be signed into law by Gov. Newsom later this month. Yet, despite lawmakers acting to provide more time for Providence to achieve seismic compliance so that it can maintain a critical community service in Humboldt County, the hospital chain announced last month that it would shutter the rehab center and move services to a Brius nursing home.

Providence made no mention of the bill in its recent news release announcing the impending closures: 

“Currently, acute rehabilitation services are located at the General Hospital campus in Eureka but due to the state’s mandated seismic (earthquake) structural standards, the General Hospital campus does not meet those standards and will no longer be able to provide inpatient services after 2024.”

“Providence has no reason to close its rehabilitation center, and we call on the company to immediately reverse its decision,” said Kellie Shaner, a monitor tech at St. Joseph Hospital. “Providence just successfully lobbied to buy more time to meet seismic standards only to now claim that it has no choice other than to close medical services that Humboldt County residents have depended on for decades.”

On August 20, 2024 Providence announced its intent to close its Acute Rehabilitation Unit in Eureka. The rehab center provides intensive physical, occupational, and speech therapy services — in addition to wraparound social services — in an inpatient setting and is designed for those who are recovering from critical injuries, strokes, surgeries and diseases. 

Instead of providing the service directly, Providence announced that it would partner with Brius, a nursing home company that has been repeatedly cited by state authorities for patient care violations and controls a monopoly of skilled nursing facilities in Humboldt County. Rehabilitation services would be moved to the Granada Rehabilitation and Wellness Center, which has been fined for failing to self-report abuse. 

Providence’s plan to close its rehab center comes on the heels of its decision to sell its outpatient laboratory services in Humboldt County and shutter its birthing center at Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna.

“Since taking over for St. Joseph Health, Providence has continued to cut services in Humboldt County,” said Willow Svien, an occupational therapist at St. Joseph Hospital. “As local healthcare workers, we’re determined to keep care in our communities, and we will hold Providence accountable when it puts its bottom line over the needs of our patients.”

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The National Union of Healthcare Workers represents 19,000 healthcare workers in California and Hawaii, including more than 600 Providence employees in Humboldt County at St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka and Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna.

Feel like letting the city of Eureka’s Recreation Division know how you feel about their recreational opportunities? Take their survey, open through the end of February.

Recreation division programs include drop-in pickleball, youth basketball, Friday skate nights and more. Check out all the current offerings at this link.

According to Jim Thomas, a community services supervisor, the division launched the survey to get feedback on their current programs and get ideas for new ones.

“The optimal outcome for the survey would be to get input and new ideas on what the community’s needs are from the Recreation Division so we can work towards meeting these goals,” Thomas said.

Go to this link to take the survey.

California has a wealth of data about K-12 public schools — test scores, attendance rates, who’s headed to college and more.

Finding it is another story.

Information about the state’s 5.8 million students and their schools is spread across at least five websites, each outfitted with dozens of filters, drop-down menus and color-coded graphics. That scattered approach to data transparency prevents parents from truly understanding how their children’s schools are faring — and taking action to improve them, according to a report released today.

“I have a Ph.D. in education policy and I can barely navigate these sites,” said Morgan Polikoff, a USC professor who worked on the report. “How do we expect a typical parent to access this information and make sense of it?”

The report, published by the Center for Reinventing Public Education at Arizona State University, gave California a “D” for school data transparency, compared to other states. Researchers looked at how states present test scores in math, social studies, reading and science, as well as absenteeism and graduation rates and English learner progress.

Connecticut, Michigan and Tennessee were among the states that received A’s for their easy-to-navigate data portals. California ranked alongside Arkansas, West Virginia and Arizona, among others.

Dissecting the school data dashboard

The state’s primary data source for parents is the California School Dashboard. The Department of Education consults with data experts, including the Data Quality Campaign’s “Show Me the Data” report, when it updates the information, said Elizabeth Sanders, spokesperson for the department. The state often makes adjustments based on advice from experts and parents, she said, and is continually seeking to improve its data portals.

Sanders was unaware of the methods Polikoff and his colleagues used to critique California’s data transparency, but “Show Me the Data” also dinged California for not showing year-over-year growth data. In fact, California is one of only four states nationwide that doesn’t show any growth data at all (the others are Kansas, Kentucky and Washington, D.C.).

“We always remain open to the feedback and needs of our families, and we look forward to understanding more,” Sanders said.

The education department unveiled the California School Dashboard in 2016-17 on the heels of the state’s shift to a revised funding formula that was meant to steer more money to underprivileged students. It was meant to paint a more nuanced picture of schools’ performance, beyond just test scores. The dashboard measures academic achievement alongside chronic absenteeism, graduation rates, suspension rates, college and career readiness and English learner progress, broken down by 13 student groups.

Schools are assigned colors based on their performance, but sometimes those colors can be misleading. For example, one school might rank as orange, the second-lowest color, if it’s made progress even though its scores remain very low. Another school might rank as red, the lowest color, if it’s shown little progress but has higher scores.

“I have a Ph.D. in education policy and I can barely navigate these sites. How do we expect a typical parent to access this information and make sense of it?”
— Morgan Polikoff, professor at USC

Last year, for example, Castlemont High School In Oakland earned an orange ranking in English even though its scores were 223 points below the state standard. Just a few miles away, Skyline High rated a lower color — red — even though its scores were only 123 points below the standard.

Researchers said the dashboard is unnecessarily opaque and cumbersome. While Polikoff generally supports showing a school’s performance in relation to the state standard, he also believes parents should have easy access to the test scores in a way they can understand. In addition, the dashboard should present year-over-year trends. Currently, users must collect the numbers themselves and make their own graphs.

Other organizations have also criticized California’s dashboard. EdTrust-West, an Oakland-based education research nonprofit, has said the confusing data prevents parents at low-performing schools from advocating for their children.

“The dashboard portrays performance data using colors that in many instances suggest that schools and districts are adequately supporting their students to succeed. This is not the case in far too many California schools, and it’s especially true for students of color and multilingual learners,” said Natalie Wheatfall-Lum, EdTrust-West’s director of TK-12 policy. “Families can’t be effective partners if we don’t give them a clear picture of what’s going on.”

Student data system ‘feels like a smokescreen’

California has other portals for student data, including Data Quest, an exhaustive database of the student population; the School Accountability Report Card, which shows information about specific schools such as how many teachers are credentialed, whether textbooks are current or if the school needs repairs; and the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, a breakdown of Smarter Balanced standardized test scores. The California Healthy Kids Survey looks at topics like substance use, bullying and parent involvement at the state, county and district levels.

This can be frustrating for parents trying to get a snapshot of their child’s school. Knowing where to find specific details — and putting them in context — can take hours.

“It feels like a smokescreen,” said Crystal Trull, a parent of three children in San Diego Unified. “Parents don’t understand what the data means, which makes it difficult to get a sense of a particular school.”

Adding to the confusion, Trull said, the state changes assessments every few years, making it almost impossible to gauge long-term trends.

Students are the ones ultimately harmed, she said. Parents might not have all the available information when evaluating a school, and their children risk falling behind. “By the time parents realize their children don’t actually have the skills they need, it could be too late,” she said. “And that’s the real tragedy here.”

Research backs that up. In a previous study, Polikoff and his colleagues at USC found a disconnect between parent concerns and policy analysis of the state of schools, particularly post-pandemic. An avalanche of research showed steep learning declines stemming from school closures, yet many parents seemed unfazed, Polikoff said.

“Experts raise all these alarm bells but parents don’t seem that concerned or even aware there’s a crisis,” Polikoff said. “So we decided to find out why. The lack of accessible data is likely one significant reason.”

“By the time parents realize their children don’t actually have the skills they need, it could be too late. And that’s the real tragedy here.”
— Crystal Trull, parent of three children in San Diego Unified School District

Another reason is grade inflation, researchers found. If students are mostly getting A’s and B’s, parents are less inclined to pay attention to standardized test scores or alarming reports from policy experts, Polikoff said.

“Parents tend to think schools have their kids’ best interests in mind, and kids are resilient,” Polikoff said. “That can be true, but it can also mean that parents don’t always have a realistic idea of what’s actually happening.”

Better measures of student success?

At Irvine Unified, parent Jim Leung said he’d like to see the dashboard show specific test scores, not whether students are “meeting standards,” a metric that he says is not well defined. He’d also like more information about college readiness, social-emotional growth and life skills — topics that provide a far more accurate picture of how well schools are preparing students for the future, he said.

“Most students in Irvine already meet or exceed the standards, so the dashboard isn’t really helpful,” said Leung, father of a high school sophomore. “Parents want to go beyond the minimum. We want to know how well our schools are really preparing students for college and career and life in general.”

Some of that information — such as University of California and California State University admission numbers by high school — is available elsewhere online, but can be hard to locate.

“I know the information is out there,” Leung said. “But there’s so much data, and parents are busy.”

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

On the final day of their session, California lawmakers sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a bill banning employers from forcing workers to sit through anti-union meetings — the latest attempt by Democratic politicians to support union activity amid a revived labor movement.

If Newsom signs Senate Bill 399, California would join nine other states that have recently passed laws prohibiting an employer from requiring workers to attend so-called captive audience meetings about their political or religious views.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, signed one such law last year, and has touted it on the campaign trail.

The California bill can cover discussions of employers’ views on political candidates or legislation, but it’s largely aimed at one specific kind of required workplace meeting — when bosses discuss whether workers should unionize.

California workers, following a nationwide trend, have increasingly sought unionization in recent years. Union elections have spiked in the last three years, with nearly 17,000 workers voting at more than 300 California workplaces in 2023. So far in 2024, more than 14,000 California workers have voted in a union election, according to a CalMatters analysis of National Labor Relations Board data.

The National Labor Relations Board has generally allowed “captive audience” meetings for decades — provided employers don’t threaten workers or withhold benefits for supporting a union. But the board’s general counsel under President Joe Biden has sought to crack down on them, arguing they are often used to intimidate employees.

Business groups say the bill would be much broader, and would infringe on employers’ free speech rights. State bans in Connecticut and Minnesota have been challenged in court. Wisconsin in 2009 was one of the first states to ban such meetings; when employers filed suit the following year, arguing it conflicted with federal law, the state backed down and agreed not to enforce it.

The California Chamber of Commerce made SB 399 one of their most fiercely contested bills this year. In a legislative alert on Tuesday, the chamber said the bill would “effectively chill any discussions related to legislation, regulations, or other ‘political matters.’”

In an August letter to lawmakers opposing the bill, business groups argued they already can’t coerce workers to vote for certain candidates or to vote against unionizing, and said because the bill could fine bosses for talking to employees about political views but not other matters, it’s a violation of the First Amendment.

The bill includes exemptions for “political organizations” that employ people whose job duties require them to engage in political activity, but chamber policy advocate Ashley Hoffman said in the letter that it’s too vague.

But supporters say the bill only targets intimidation in the workplace by penalizing employers who punish workers for refusing to attend a “captive audience” meeting.

“If an employer wants to share [their] beliefs at the worksite, that’s fine, but no one should be coerced to listen,” Assemblymember Eloise Gómez Reyes, a San Bernardino Democrat, said on the Assembly floor Friday before voting for the bill.

The bill’s passage last week was a win for unions amid a number of losses this year in the Legislature, especially compared to the 2023 session.

And while the state in the past two years has increased wages for fast food workers and health care workers, and boosted worker benefits such as paid sick days, labor-backed demands to make it easier to unionize or go on strike have been a tougher sell.

“If we just keep doing legislation that makes things better for workers, that’s good, but it’s not the same power that you’re giving workers in the workplace when they’re able to strike, when they’re able to organize without intimidation,” Lorena Gonzalez, leader of the California Labor Federation, told CalMatters this week.

In 2022, Newsom was reluctant to sign a bill making it easier for farmworkers to form unions by giving them an option to signal their support without employers knowing who was voting. He only gave his approval after the United Farm Workers drummed up political pressure from fellow Democrats, including Biden. That law has now been challenged by growers in court.

Last year, he vetoed a bill to allow striking workers to collect unemployment benefits, a proposal that Hollywood writers and actors said would have helped them through the “hot labor summer” of work stoppages. Unions attempted to revive the bill this year, and it passed the Senate but failed to get enough votes to clear an Assembly committee.

The captive audience meetings bill also passed the Senate last year, and then eked out of the Assembly last week with just over the minimum 41 votes needed to pass (though a handful of Democrats added “yes” votes later). It won final approval in the Senate Saturday on a 31-9 vote.

The chamber is urging Newsom to veto the bill. The governor has not taken a position, and has until the end of September to decide.

Two other bills sent to Newsom last week seek to help laborers cut out of traditional worker protections. He has rejected versions of both before.

Newsom in 2022 vetoed an expansion of unemployment insurance to undocumented immigrants, saying that the bill didn’t identify how to pay for it. The unemployment bill passed this year would require the administration to figure that out, and then report the plan back to the Legislature.

In the past three years, Newsom has twice vetoed an expansion of workplace safety regulations to include domestic workers, such as house cleaners, nannies and caretakers, citing concerns about subjecting thousands of private homes to possible workplace safety inspections. The bill passed this year exempts workers who are privately employed by a homeowner or who are sent to private homes by publicly funded programs — such as county programs that pay caretakers for the elderly and disabled.

Instead, the bill that passed this year puts the onus on house cleaning and home care agencies to ensure their employees are safe.

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

Eric William Zink, born October 24, 1940, passed away peacefully in his sleep on August 8, 2024.

Born in Brooklyn to Eric and Jeanette Zink, and raised in Queens, Eric loved to tell stories about growing up in New York and his many adventures as a young man. Eric headed to play basketball at Seattle University before entering the “saloon” business as he called it, working at and owning businesses in Las Vegas, South Lake Tahoe, San Francisco and finally Huntington Beach. It was here he became owner of a jazz club called Hungry Joe’s and met Susan Haynes. They fell in love, married and raised their son, Nathan.

Tiring of life in Orange County they followed their dream and moved to Humboldt County, where Eric found work as a Lime Kiln Operator at Louisiana Pacific Pulp Mill and as a painting contractor. Eric was a hardworking man with an amazing work ethic and always provided for his family.

After retiring, Eric and Susan spent many days in the garden, doing crossword puzzles, discussing art and science, playing scrabble and making each other laugh. Theirs was a true love story. After Susan’s passing in 2010 Eric met his traveling companion and partner Cynthia Ross, inheriting her family as well. They enjoyed listening to jazz, multiple trips to Europe, where the highlights included museums in France and Copenhagen, enjoying art and culture and making each other smile.

Eric was preceded in death by his loving wife Susan, with whom he is now reunited doing crossword puzzles in the universe and once again making each other laugh, his parents Eric and Jeanette Zink, his mother and father in law Eleanor and Orville “O.R.” Haynes and many beloved boxer dogs. Eric is survived by his loving son Nathan, his partner Cynthia Ross, his grandchildren, who he loved with all of his heart, Ashley, Alyssa, Cambria, Kelton, Kaius, and his two little guys, Griffin and Daegan, who were his loving, little helpers until the end. Eric is also survived by family and friends Nancy Haynes, and Sue Conley, Ron and Katie Elsea, Cubby Cherlin, Steven Rhodes, Jamie Marx and her extended family, Miko, Alisa and Safira, John E and his two children, Arlene and Billie, the Ashcom family, Taja, Sheri, and the many wonderful friends he made in the Al-Anon community, of which he was a proud member for 30 years. I apologize to anyone I may have forgotten but know my dad loved and valued you all.

I love you Dad, it was an honor and a privilege to have you as a Dad, mentor and friend. I will miss sitting and talking with you, sharing our amazing journey together, how much we loved each other and everything else I learned from you. You never missed a little league game, wrestling match, and were always the voice of love, compassion and reason, even in our darkest times. You were the most loving, affectionate man in the world and truly taught me what it means to be a father. Thank you for an amazing journey together and you will always be with me … your ride is here.

There will be a celebration of life on October 6, 2024, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Samoa Women’s Club. In lieu of flowers make a small donation to Hospice of Humboldt, the American Cancer Society or any other charity that resonates with you.

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