A home burns during the Palisades Fire near Pacific Coast Highway in Los Angeles, on Jan. 7, 2025. Photo by Ted Soqui for CalMatters
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Oil companies had their hackles up this year after Sen. Scott Wiener introduced a controversial bill that would allow victims of wildfires and other climate disasters to sue them for causing climate change.
Facing potentially billions of dollars in losses, Big Oil had a lot to lose.
But oil companies took a back seat last week when it came time to persuade environmentally friendly lawmakers to kill the legislation.
Instead, Big Oil’s most influential allies in California’s Democratic-controlled Legislature – the unions that represent oil industry workers – led the opposition. They successfully persuaded a committee made up of pro-labor Democrats to kill the measure, which had support from nearly every California environmental organization.
Despite California’s reputation for taking the lead on climate change, the death of Senate Bill 222 is the latest example of how environmentalists’ most aggressive policies regularly fizzle out when Big Labor works on behalf of Big Oil.
“That’s how the oil companies breach the machine in Sacramento,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, one of the groups that supported the legislation.
A spokesperson for the Western States Petroleum Association, which typically represents oil company interests in Sacramento, declined to comment on why the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California took the lead in killing the legislation.
Chris Hannan, the trades council’s president, said union members feared SB 222 would have a “chilling effect on our economy, setting gas prices through the roof, with absolutely no environmental benefits.”
“This bill’s terrible, terrible policy,” he said. “And it puts our jobs in jeopardy and puts our state in jeopardy.”
Big money turns out to oppose climate bill
At last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, argued his proposal was urgent after January’s massive wildfires tore through Los Angeles County, destroying thousands of homes and exacerbating the state’s housing and insurance crises.
“We’re not supposed to have destructive wildfires in the middle of winter,” he told the committee. “And yet that is the new normal in California. And right now, who is paying for these climate disasters? Who’s paying for them? We’re paying for them.”
Wiener’s measure would have allowed victims to sue oil companies for damages, but they would have to prove in court that climate change was specifically to blame for their losses, which is not easy. While scientists have documented the connection between climate change and fossil fuels, the evidence is less definitive linking fossil fuels to specific extreme weather events such as floods, droughts or wildfires.
State Sen. Scott Wiener on the Senate floor at the state Capitol in Sacramento on April 29, 2024. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters
Two witnesses Wiener brought to testify in support of SB 222 had lost their homes to wildfires. They argued that it’s time for the fossil fuel companies to pay their fair share.
“Disasters like this are going to keep happening, but you can make the financial burden less awful for all of us,” Moira Morel, whose home burned in the Eaton Fire, told the committee.
After they spoke, representatives of more than 20 environmental and consumer attorney groups walked up the microphone urging the committee to pass the measure.
But that paled in comparison to what its opponents have spent on politics: at least $22.7 million to members of the Legislature since 2015, according to Digital Democracy.
They included major business groups such as the California Chamber of Commerce and the Civil Justice Association of California, whose board of directors includes representatives from major corporations including Amazon, Pfizer, Apple and Meta, which didn’t didn’t directly take positions on the bill. Those two advocacy groups alone have given nearly $2 million to legislators since 2015.
Michael McDonough, a lawyer who spoke on behalf of the business groups, told the committee the bill was likely unconstitutional and “retroactively punishes the legal production of fuel for this state, which has been critical for California’s growth since its founding, and which this Legislature has supported for nearly 150 years.”
Organizations representing fossil fuel companies that opposed the bill but gave no testimony during last week’s hearing also have donated at least $1.7 million to legislators since 2015.
“SB 222 unfairly targets one industry, while ignoring the broader systematic factors that contribute to climate change,” the trade unions’ lobbyist, Keith Dunn, told the committee.
Dozens of rank-and-file union members – pipefitters, boiler makers, painters, iron workers and others – took the mic after Dunn to urge lawmakers to spike SB 222. Many of them looked fresh off the jobsite, wearing safety glasses and T-shirts emblazoned with their union logos. It was a striking contrast in the Capitol, where business wear tends to be the standard attire.
The measure needed seven votes to advance out of the Senate Judiciary Committee; it failed with just five votes in favor and eight recorded votes opposed. Yet only one Democrat on the committee actually voted “no.” The rest didn’t vote at all, which counts the same as a no vote. As CalMatters has reported, the widespread practice of dodging tough votes allows legislators to avoid accountability.
There are few groups more influential in state politics than unions in California, despite only representing one-sixth of the state’s workforce.
As CalMatters reported, labor groups regularly get their way on bills at higher rates than other prolific lobbying groups, due in part to their massive political donations. Around a quarter of the members of the current Legislature are current or former union members.
One of them is Sen. María Elena Durazo, a Democrat from Los Angeles and a member of the committee who didn’t vote on the measure. The long-time former labor activist told the committee that companies that cause climate change should be held accountable, but not at the expense of workers.
“I don’t want to let anyone off the hook, but I don’t want to let working people be on the hook for everything that happens,” Durazo told the committee.
Her office didn’t respond to an interview request to ask why, if she opposed the measure, she didn’t cast a firm “no” vote. The four other Democrats on the committee who also didn’t vote for SB 222 – Aisha Wahab, Angelique Ashby, Tom Umberg and Jesse Arreguín – declined CalMatters requests to explain in an interview why they didn’t vote.
Sen. Anna Caballero, who represents Merced, was the one Democrat who voted “no.” Like Durazo, she found the union members’ arguments persuasive. She said the costs of the measure would be too high. She urged the Legislature to focus on promoting climate-friendly technologies such as “hydrogen, carbon capture, biogas, biomass.”
“Those are the kinds of jobs that will create a livable wage and also give us the opportunity to meet our climate goals,” Caballero told the committee. “And I think we’re all interested in the same goal … but we’re not going to get that through this litigation.”
Sen. Henry Stern, a Democrat who lost his home in the 2018 Woolsey Fire, addressed the union workers directly before he voted to support the legislation.He said the bill was about making multinational corporations accountable. He said the oil companies had been threatening “their workers that they’re going to fire them” if the Legislature passed SB 222.
“This is targeting those shareholders and those boardroom folks who are making the big decisions back at some corporate headquarters out in Houston or somewhere else, but not you,” he told the committee.
Wiener said in an interview that he wasn’t surprised the trades unions “are fighting to keep those jobs.”
“But it continues to surprise me that the California Legislature doesn’t pass the oil accountability bills, with only a few exceptions,” he said. “I hope that the Legislature will start taking a much more proactive stance to hold the oil companies accountable for the huge harm that they have done and are doing to California and to the planet.”
The Campus Center of Bakersfield College on June 14, 2023. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local
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Students tap on their keyboards as a professor lectures at the front of the room. It looks like any other college course, except that it’s taking place at a high school. This year, more than 150,000 California teens are earning college credit in dual enrollment courses.
Dual enrollment offers high schoolers the chance to attend community college, typically for free, often without having to leave their campuses. By helping students tackle the college academic experience, the programs increase the likelihood that students attend college after graduating high school.
About 80% of California’s dual enrolled high school students go on to a community college or university, compared to 66% of California 12th grade students in general, the Public Policy Institute of California found. More than a third of California’s dual enrolled students go on to attend the same community college they attended while in high school after they graduate, according to the Community College Research Center.
Many college and high school administrators have pushed to increase students’ college attainment rates, and the state has invested more than $700 million in dual enrollment, leading to a significant expansion. The number of students in these courses tripled between spring 2015 and spring 2024, according to state data. The Public Policy Institute of California found that about 30% of California’s high school graduating class of 2024 took at least one dual enrollment course.
The growth of high schoolers is a bright spot in overall student totals at the state’s community colleges, which have struggled to fully rebound after enrollment tanked during the pandemic. However, some community college faculty have pushed back against widespread dual enrollment due to concerns about academic rigor and working conditions for educators.
Furthermore, data shows that some of California’s rural students, as well as males and students of color, don’t enroll in and complete these courses at the same rate as others. Some experts and administrators say they’re not just missing out on a couple of college credits, they’re not getting the same opportunities to envision themselves as future college students.
“When high schoolers complete these courses, they are able to fulfill requirements that help them access associate degrees and bachelor’s degrees,” said Daniel Payares-Montoya, a PPIC research associate. “The students benefit, but so do the community colleges, because it helps them enroll more students.”
Rural schools and colleges face dual enrollment hurdles
In Siskiyou County, at the northern tip of California, the only community college serves a sprawling region that covers mountains, forests and rural towns. Although the county has a population of just 43,000, it is the fifth largest county in California by area, meaning that often the hardest part of supporting dual enrolled students isn’t the actual teaching — it’s having the right technology and transportation to reach them in the first place.
“The personal interaction is a challenge, because we have high schools that are two hours away,” said Kim Peacemaker, a counselor and dual enrollment coordinator at College of the Siskiyous. The college currently has about 230 dual enrolled high school students and about 2,390 students total, based on state data.
Peacemaker said the college has worked to make dual enrollment accessible by allowing professors to meet virtually with students in their high school classrooms. However, she added that some students don’t have reliable internet access at home for homework or tutoring. In Siskiyou County, 13.7% of households don’t have broadband internet.
Students walk through one of the main walkways onto Bakersfield College on June 14, 2023. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local
California’s rural colleges generally lag behind urban colleges in dual enrollment. Kern Community College District in the southern Central Valley and the Compton Community College District near Los Angeles had the two highest percentages of high school students in 2024, at 41% and 36% respectively, based on state data. In comparison, 9.7% of students at College of the Siskiyous are dual enrolled high schoolers, and this drops to about 5% in some other parts of the state.
Sonya Christian, the chancellor of the California Community College system, previously led the Kern Community College District, spearheading its expansion of dual enrollment. Now, dual enrollment in the district is “one of the most successful models in the state,” Christian said in an emailed statement to CalMatters.
“I prioritized dual enrollment because I saw it as a potential pathway to increase college-going rates, accelerate degree completion and provide students — especially those in rural and low-income communities — with early exposure to college-level coursework,” Christian said in the statement.
“Everyone should do dual enrollment. It saved me time, it saved me money and it made me feel more prepared for college.” — Manuel Milke, San Diego State student
For many high school students in the small city of Blythe, which sits along California’s border with Arizona, the only people they know with bachelor’s degrees are their teachers. That’s why Clint Cowden, the vice president of instruction and student services at Palo Verde College, said the exposure to college that dual enrollment provides these students can be transformative.
“It’s really a win-win for the community,” Cowden said.
A recent alumnus of Palo Verde College’s dual enrollment program, Manuel Milke earned his high school diploma and his associate degree simultaneously, while juggling varsity soccer and football. Now Milke, who is 19, is set to graduate in the fall from San Diego State with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology. Milke said he chose to attend San Diego State to stay close to his family in Blythe, and aspires to work as a physical therapist somewhere nearby.
“Everyone should do dual enrollment,” said Milke. “It saved me time, it saved me money and it made me feel more prepared for college.”
Student gaps remain in dual enrollment
As a Latino male, Milke is in the minority for dual enrollment. Based on state data, Black and Latino students are both underrepresented in dual enrollment courses. In the spring 2024 semester, 41% of dual enrollment students were male, while 56% were female. According to Payares-Montoya, these gaps in access to dual enrollment can make it so Black, Latino and male students are less likely to see higher education as an option, compared to their dual enrolled peers.
For Jesse Medrano, an 18-year-old senior at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District, dual enrollment has provided “a good outline of what college is like.” His high school first placed him in dual enrollment in ninth grade, and since then he has taken five classes, covering topics including economics and political science.
“I didn’t have the drive to seek these courses out, so the fact that they put me in them set this standard for me, and now I’m meeting it,” said Medrano, who is Latino and plans to study accounting at Cal State Northridge. “I didn’t have the motivation, but now I do, and I’m able to succeed.”
At Compton College more than a third of the current students are still in high school, according to state data. Latino and Black students comprise 75% and 9% of dual enrollees, respectively, which are significantly higher than state averages. Keith Curry, the college’s president, said that when students of color complete dual enrollment courses, this gets them comfortable with college academics and leads to better representation at colleges and universities.
Some faculty push back against expansion
Some community college faculty have raised concerns about the process by which dual enrollment partnerships are established, the level of readiness of high school students for college courses, and who teaches these classes. In many districts across the state, some dual enrollment courses are not taught by community college faculty, but by existing high school teachers who hold the credentials required to teach at a college level. In the Kern Community College District, about 60% of dual enrollment courses held on high school campuses are taught by high school teachers who meet the college qualifications, according to district spokesperson Norma Rojas.
“Completion is important, but our primary responsibility is for students to learn something along the way.” — Tim Maxwell, College of San Mateo English professor
Tim Maxwell, an English professor at College of San Mateo, is a “conscientious objector” to California’s expansion of dual enrollment. Maxwell said he is concerned about what he sees as a focus to get as many students to graduate and earn college credits as quickly as possible, sacrificing college-level rigor and evaluation.
“Completion is important, but our primary responsibility is for students to learn something along the way,” said Maxwell, who has taught community college courses for about 30 years.
Maxwell has taught creative writing courses on his college campus with several dual enrolled students, one as young as 15 years old, and he said these students are “phenomenal.” But, he added, there’s a difference between a handful of proactive high schoolers going to a community college campus and a high school classroom that “switches to a college class during fifth period.” He said he is concerned about poor working conditions for professors, primarily adjunct faculty, who have to travel to high schools and teach without the proper background or support.
“We need to resist this, and we need lawmakers who understand something about education and not just spreadsheets,” Maxwell said.
Wendy Brill-Wynkoop, the president of the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, said dual enrollment is beneficial for students, but that she has “heard grumblings” about a need for faculty to have a more active role in setting standards and policies for dual enrollment.
Students walk near Hepner Hall at San Diego State University in San Diego on Oct. 10, 2024. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters
While in high school in Blythe, Milke said his dual enrollment courses were generally easier than the courses he takes at San Diego State. But they still challenged him and prepared him for a college-level workload, he said.
Lawmakers work to continue growth
Several state laws have been enacted in the past decade to expand dual enrollment in California. In 2015, Assembly Bill 288 established the College and Career Access Pathways program, allowing community colleges and high schools to enter into dual enrollment partnerships. These institutions bring the courses to students, as opposed to those students having to seek them out. The state streamlined the pathways program with the passage of Assembly Bill 30 in 2019, allowing students to submit fewer forms to enroll. Assembly Bill 731, which is currently in committee, would, among other changes, increase the number of units that students in the program can take.
Based on PPIC research, students in the College and Career Access Pathways program now account for about 37% of dual enrollees. This program has a higher percentage of underrepresented students compared to other dual enrollment programs, in part because it eliminates some of the restrictions that can make it hard for schools to offer broad and barrier-free dual enrollment.
As dual enrollment continues to expand, it increases costs to California beyond the more than $700 million that the state has already invested. That’s because both community colleges and high school districts are typically both able to receive state funding for dual enrolled students, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
According to the statement from Christian, state leaders are working to increase dual enrollment access by expanding partnerships between high schools and colleges.
“My vision is to make dual enrollment a standard opportunity for all California students, not just an option for a select few, increasing equitable access to higher education and workforce-aligned learning,” Christian said in the statement.
Alana Althaus-Cressman, who runs the dual enrollment program at Golden Eagle Charter School, a K-12 school in Siskiyou County, markets the program to all students, not just those who already have a record of high achievement. She studied dual enrollment access for rural students for her graduate school dissertation at Sacramento State University, and started the early college high school program at Golden Eagle Charter in 2024. Students in the program take dual enrollment courses for part of the school day, and high school courses for the rest.
“We don’t want students to think that they aren’t the type of student for this program. It’s for everybody.” — Alana Althaus-Cressman, Golden Eagle Charter School
Althaus-Cressman said that because dual enrollment offers students a glimpse of college, it’s important that the classes aren’t only filled with students who already plan to attend college. Some high schools require minimum grade point averages or have other barriers to entry for dual enrollment, which Althaus-Cressman said can perpetuate inequalities.
The early college high school program enrolls about a third of Golden Eagle Charter’s ninth graders. Althaus-Cressman attributes this level of participation to extensive outreach, which included working with school staff to call the families of every incoming high school student to invite them to a dual enrollment orientation.
“We don’t want students to think that they aren’t the type of student for this program,” Althaus-Cressman said. “It’s for everybody.”
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Delilah Brumer is a fellow with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.
The latest skirmish
over rock and gravel operations at Kernen Construction’s Glendale
yard ended with a win for the construction company this afternoon.
After a three-hour
hearing this morning – and several delays from previous meetings
over the last few months — the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors
voted 4-1 in favor of a stripped-down motion that required the
company to remediate some unpermitted berm construction at the site,
which had encroached on the coho-bearing Noisy Creek.
But in the end the
board majority seemed to side with representatives of the company,
who argued that the board had no standing to revoke or amend a
decades-old conditional use permit, which contained no language
limiting the company’s hours of operation or the noise generated by
it.
Supervisor Steve
Madrone, who represents the area on the board, was the sole “no”
vote on the the board’s compromise, and issued a strong verbal
dissent right before the vote was taken. The terms being approved by
the board would continue to allow 24/7 work at the Glendale site, and
with no mechanism for limiting noise pollution.
“I just want to be
really clear,” Madrone said. “I will be voting no, and I don’t
believe that this motion in front of us deals with the number one
reason why we’re even here today. And I find that to be just
outrageous, frankly, that we’re not dealing with this. We’re not
trying to find a way to really find a compromise for this
neighborhood, you know, to bring some peace to them, to allow them to
have their sleep and things like that.”
As was illustrated during public testimony, the dispute between Kernen and some of its nearest neighbors is a classic zoning case: How to balance the needs of the industrial company with the rights of the people who live nearby?
The original resolution brought by staff came in pretty hard in favor of a revised conditional use permit that would limit operations at the yard, which most people seem to agree leaped up abruptly in the last couple of years. Among other things, staff’s proposed “Revised Conditions of Approval” would have mandated that all operations cease nights and on Sundays. (The loudest part of the Kernen operation — rock crushing — is already so limited.)
Planning Director John Ford said that this proposed condition was prompted by the fact that Kernen had failed to negotiate with the department or neighbors on those terms.
“I don’t think staff wants to see them have to shut down at night completely but we’d ask for them to give us a proposal,” Ford said. “How can we balance this a little bit and address some of the neighbors’ concerns? We haven’t gotten a proposal, so this is our effort to come out and and have a dialogue about what can be done to realistically try to address some of the noise concerns that exist out there.”
Caltrans and other road contractors are often limited to working at night, so trips to Kernen’s materials yard will have to take place during those hours. In addition, sometimes emergency work will require that Kernen open its stockpiles of asphalt, gravel and the like during off hours.
Kernen attorney Brad Johnson, who led the case before the board, came out very strong, arguing that the board had no legal right to modify aspects of the permit issued to the company at the turn of the century. He explicitly mentioned legal action if it were to attempt to do so, and even hinted at political consequences to board members in a PowerPoint slide:
Slide from Johnson’s PowerPoint presentation.
Public testimony was mixed, with many people arguing that when you by a house in an industrial area you shouldn’t complain about the consequences.
“I live in a flight path for the airport in McKinleyville,” said John Nicholls of Nicholls Trucking, also located in Glendale. “I knew when I moved there that it was going to be noisy. Planes come over all the time. I hear them. It is what it is. That’s where I chose to live. You know, I can’t do anything about it. Ninety percent, probably 99 percent of the people who have complaints about the noise coming up from there have moved in since this operation was in place. They have no business complaining about the noise that they chose to move next to.”
But neighbors who have been lobbying the county about increased activity in recent years took exception to such sentiments, among them Cindy Trobitz-Thomas.
“The Trobitz family, contrary to what people think, that we’re all new there, has lived in Glendale for nearly 70 years, for the most part in harmony with adjacent industrial uses until the last two years,” she said. “Kernen Construction has expanded their operations without regard to the current situation for residents, the environment and laws.”
When it came time to take action, Supervisor Steve Madrone offered a resolution that asked for everything the Planning Department had proposed, in terms of hours of operation, noise and environment remediation, and added a few other items of concern — dust management, for example.
“I’m trying to find a way forward where we can continue to have this business operate, but also make it a little less impactful on the neighborhood,” Madrone said.
But this motion died for lack of a second, apparently because other supervisors took the point that amending the conditions of Kernen’s original conditional use permit — at least regarding noise impacts to the neighborhood — would not pass legal scrutiny, at this point.
Supervisor Natalie Arroyo asked the Kernen team which items from the county’s proposed list would they be comfortable with, and after a short break Johnson answered that question. The biggest concession was on the unpermitted berm the company had constructed, in an attempt to keep out flood waters. The company would agree to move that berm back 25 feet, away from Noisy Creek, and to revegetate that area. But it was a firm “no” on most items relating to sound or hours of operation.
One concession Kernen did make on the noise front: It agreed to replace the backup alarms on all its yard equipment with new, more mellow “white noise” alarms, or “quackers,” as Madrone called them. The compromise resolution passed by the board gave the company a year to do so.
The company also agreed that if it conducts vehicle maintenence at night, as it tends to do, it will do so indoors and with the doors closed.
So Ford quickly drafted a revised version of the resolution with those changes reflected, and it quickly passed with all but Madrone voting in favor.
The board is in closed session at the time of this writing. When it comes back, it will talk about the future of Project Trellis, the county-funded and -led marketing program meant to support the cannabis industry. It’ll also pass a resolution confirming that members of the board will receive no pay raises this year, in light of the budget crunch.
Fall-run Chinook salmon migrate and spawn in the Feather River near California Department of Water Resources infrastructure and the Feather River Fish Hatchery in Oroville, on Oct. 28, 2024. Photo by Xavier Mascareñas, California Department of Water Resources.
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Facing the continued collapse of Chinook salmon, officials today shut down California’s commercial salmon fishing season for an unprecedented third year in a row.
Under the decision by an interstate fisheries agency, recreational salmon fishing will be allowed in California for only brief windows of time this spring. This will be the first year that any sportfishing of Chinook has been allowed since 2022.
Today’s decision by the Pacific Fishery Management Council means that no salmon caught off California can be sold to retail consumers and restaurants for at least another year. In Oregon and Washington, commercial salmon fishing will remain open, although limited.
“From a salmon standpoint, it’s an environmental disaster. For the fishing industry, it’s a human tragedy, and it’s also an economic disaster,” said Scott Artis, executive director of the Golden State Salmon Association, an industry organization that has lobbied for river restoration and improved hatchery programs.
The decline of California’s salmon follows decades of deteriorating conditions in the waterways where the fish spawn each year, including the Sacramento and Klamath rivers. California’s salmon are an ecological icon and a valued source of food for Native American tribes.
The shutdown also has an economic toll: It has already put hundreds of commercial fishers and sportfishing boat operators out of work and affected thousands of people in communities and industries reliant on processing, selling and serving locally caught salmon.
California’s commercial fishery has never been closed for three years in a row before.
Some experts fear the conditions in California have been so poor for so long that Chinook may never rebound to fishable levels. Others remain hopeful for major recovery if the amounts of water diverted to farms and cities are reduced and wetlands kept dry by flood-control levees are restored.
This year’s recreational season includes several brief windows for fishing, including a weekend in June and another in July, or a quota of 7,000 fish.
Jared Davis, owner and operator of the Salty Lady in Sausalito, one of dozens of party boats that take paying customers fishing, thinks it’s likely that this quota will be met on the first open weekend for recreational fishing, scheduled for June 7-8.
“Obviously, the pressure is going to be intense, so everybody and their mother is going to be out on the water on those days,” he said. “When they hit that quota, it’s done.”
One member of the fishery council, Corey Ridings, voted against the proposed regulations after saying she was concerned that the first weekend would overshoot the 7,000-fish quota.
Davis said such a miniscule recreational season won’t help boat owners like him recover from past closures, though it will carry symbolic meaning.
“It might give California anglers a glimmer of hope and keep them from selling all their rods and buying golf clubs,” he said.
“It continues to be devastating. Salmon has been the cornerstone of many of our ports for a long time.” — Sarah Bates, commercial fisher based in San Francisco
Sarah Bates, a commercial fisher based at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, said the ongoing closure has stripped many boat owners of most of their income.
“It continues to be devastating,” she said. “Salmon has been the cornerstone of many of our ports for a long time.”
She said the shutdown also has trickle-down effects on a range of businesses that support the salmon fishery, such as fuel services, grocery stores and dockside ice machines.
“We’re also seeing a sort of a third wave … the general seafood market for local products has tanked,” such as rockfish and halibut. She said that many buyers are turning to farmed and wild salmon delivered from other regions instead.
Davis noted that federal emergency relief funds promised for the 2023 closure still have not arrived. “Nobody has seen a dime,” he said.
Fewer returning salmon
Before the Gold Rush, several million Chinook spawned annually in the river systems of the Central Valley and the state’s northern coast. Through much of the 20th century, California’s salmon fishery formed the economic backbone of coastal fishing ports, with fishers using hook and line pulling in millions of pounds in good years.
But in 2024, just 99,274 fall-run Chinook — the most commercially viable of the Central Valley’s four subpopulations — returned tothe Sacramento River and its tributaries, substantially lower than the numbers in 2023. In 2022, fewer than 70,000 returned, one of the lowest estimates ever.
About 40,000 returned to the San Joaquin River. Fewer than 30,000 Chinook reached their spawning grounds in the Klamath River system, where the Hoopa, Yurok and Karuk tribes rely on the fish in years of abundance.
The decline of California’s salmon stems from nearly two centuries of damage inflicted on the rivers where salmon spend the first and final stages of their lives. Gold mining, logging and dam construction devastated watersheds. Levees constrained rivers, turning them into relatively sterile channels of fast-moving water while converting floodplains and wetlands into irrigated farmland.
Today, many of these impacts persist, along with water diversions, reduced flows and elevated river temperatures that frequently spell death for fertilized eggs and juvenile fish.
The future of California salmon is murky
Peter Moyle, a UC Davis fish biologist and professor emeritus, said recovery of self-sustaining populations may be possible in some tributaries of the Sacramento River.
“There are some opportunities for at least keeping runs going in parts of the Central Valley, but getting naturally spawning fish back in large numbers, I just can’t see it happening,” he said.
Jacob Katz, a biologist with the group California Trout, holds out hope for a future of flourishing Sacramento River Chinook. “We could have vibrant fall-run populations in a decade,” he said.
That will require major habitat restoration involving dam removals, reconstruction of levee systems to revive wetlands and floodplains, and reduced water diversions for agriculture — all measures fraught with cost, regulatory constraints, and controversy.
“There are some opportunities for at least keeping (salmon) runs going in parts of the Central Valley, but getting naturally spawning fish back in large numbers, I just can’t see it happening.” — Peter Moyle, UC Davis fish biologist
State officials, recognizing the risk of extinction, have promoted salmon recovery as a policy goal for years. In early 2024, the Newsom administration released its California Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier Future, a 37-page catalogue of proposed actions to mitigate environmental impacts and restore flows and habitat, all in the face of a warming environment.
Artis of Golden State Salmon Association said the state’s salmon strategy includes some important items but leaves out equally critical ones, like protecting minimum required flows for fish — what Artis said are threatened by proposed water projects endorsed by the Newsom administration.
“It fails to include some of the upcoming salmon-killing projects that the governor is pushing like Sites Reservoir and the Delta tunnel, and it ignores the fact that the Voluntary Agreements are designed to allow massive diversions of water,” he said.
Experts agree that an important key to rebuilding salmon runs is increasing the frequency and duration of shallow flooding in riverside riparian areas, or even fallow rice paddies — a program Katz has helped develop through his career.
On such seasonal floodplains, a shallow layer of water can help trigger an explosion of photosynthesis and food production, ultimately providing nutrition for juvenile salmon as they migrate out of the river system each spring.
Through meetings with farmers, urban water agencies and government officials, Rene Henery, California science director with Trout Unlimited, has helped draft an ambitious salmon recovery plan dubbed “Reorienting to Recovery.” Featuring habitat restoration, carefully managed harvests and generously enhanced river flows — especially in dry years — this framework, Henery said, could rebuild diminished Central Valley Chinook runs to more than 1.6 million adult fish per year over a 20-year period.
He said adversaries — often farmers and environmentalists — must shift from traditional feuds over water to more collaborative programs of restoring productive watersheds while maintaining productive agriculture.
As the recovery needle for Chinook moves in the wrong direction, Katz said deliberate action is urgent.
“We’re balanced on the edge of losing these populations,” he said. “We have to go big now. We have no other option.”
On April 3, 2025, the State of California Department of State Hospitals (DSH) formally notified my office, as well as the Humboldt County District Attorney, of their intent to release Richard Stobaugh, a convicted serial rapist, found to be a sexually violent predator (SVP), back into Humboldt County.
The DSH notice follows a December 4, 2023, order by Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Kaleb Cockrum directing the conditional release of SVP Stobaugh from DSH Coalinga. Despite objections from the District Attorney’s Office, Judge Cockrum granted Stobaugh’s petition for outpatient supervision and treatment for Stobaugh following a court trial. This ruling allows the DSH to relocate Stobaugh from a locked facility to a residence in Humboldt County.
We have now been notified that 2171 Peninsula Drive in Manila is selected as Stobaugh’s proposed residence. On May 7, the court will consider whether to order this single-family home within the community of Manila as his new residence.
Richard Stobaugh
Let me be clear: I strongly oppose Judge Cockrum’s ruling and the DSH placing this sexually sadistic predator anywhere in our county. Richard Stobaugh has a long, violent, and deeply disturbing history of sexually assaulting women in Humboldt County. His actions were not only premeditated and violent, but often committed under terrifying circumstances involving weapons, home invasions, and utter disregard for human life or dignity.
Background on Richard Stobaugh:
1981 - Raped a woman at knifepoint after breaking into her dorm room in Arcata. Served 5 years.
1987 - Armed with a firearm and wearing a ski mask, raped & sexually assaulted two women at a hotel. Forced one of the women to run naked several blocks outside the hotel, then he raped her again in a residential backyard.
1987 - Broke into a woman’s home with a gun; attempted to kidnap her, before she fled
1988 - Entered a sleeping woman’s home and raped her.
1988 - Broke into the home of a pregnant woman, tied her up, and raped her at knifepoint.
Stobaugh was convicted and has been incarcerated since 1988, In 2012, he was determined to be a Sexual Violent Predator. He was then transferred to a locked Department of State Hospital Facility, where he is now awaiting his release.
A medical expert diagnosed Stobaugh as a sexual sadist, someone who derives sexual gratification
from inflicting pain and psychological suffering on his victims. His crimes involved extreme
violence far beyond what was necessary to subdue his victims, a clear indicator of the continued
threat he poses.
We cannot ignore this reality. Placing this man back into our community, in proximity to women
and children, is irresponsible, dangerous, and unacceptable.
I encourage all residents of Humboldt County to join me in voicing opposition to the proposed
relocation of Stobaugh. I urge you to speak up.
This isn’t a political issue; it’s about protecting
public safety and ensuring our community can live without fear.
Public Hearing:
Date / Time: May 7, 2025, at 10:15am
Location: Superior Court of California, Humboldt County, Courtroom One - Honorable Judge Christopher Wilson 825 5th Street Eureka, CA 95501
Contact Information to Submit Your Opposition:
SVP CONREP Community Program Director - Liberty Healthcare: LIBERTYSVPCONREP@LibertyHealth.com
Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office: HSO@co.humboldt.ca.us
Humboldt County District Attorney: districtattorney@co.humboldt.ca.us
We must stand together to protect our community from known, violent offenders. I will continue
to fight this placement and urge Governor Newsom and state officials to find safer, more
appropriate alternatives. Thank you for your support and dedication to keeping Humboldt County safe.
William Honsal Humboldt County Sheriff
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UPDATE: The Humboldt County Superior Court issued the following announcement in response to Sheriff William Honsal’s letter:
In response to the press release issued by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) dated April 15, 2025, regarding People v. Stobaugh, the Court cannot receive ex parte communication. This includes the email provided in the press release, by regular post, or any other method. Court proceedings must be conducted in courtrooms open to the public, and this case is no exception. Ex Parte communication is prohibited per the California Code of Judicial Ethics.
Sheriff Honsal also issued a follow-up statement emphasizing that all communications regarding Stobaugh’s potential relocation to Humboldt County should be directed to the Sheriff’s Office, the District Attorney’s Office and the Department of State Hospitals. He asked members of the media to remove a “confidential” email address that was previously listed in this post.
The Redwood Harley-Davidson to DMV transformation is nearly complete. | Photo: Andrew Goff
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After a five-and-a-half-year stay at the Bayshore Mall, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is relocating its Eureka office to its new home at 2500 Sixth Street — the former Redwood Harley-Davidson location at the north end of town, just off Highway 101.
According to a flyer posted at the Bayshore Mall office, the DMV will shutter its current location at 5 p.m. on Friday, May 16. The new Eureka location will open at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, June 4.
If you simply can’t put off your DMV duties during those three weeks, chances are you can get ‘em taken care of online. If not, you’ll have to drive an hour or more to a “nearby” office in Crescent City, Garberville or Weaverville.
On a gentle spring morning Dan O’Leary peacefully left the planet,
evolving into his spirit being.
After several years’ struggle with dementia he was ready to explore
new frontiers.
Born on May 27, 1951, number 5 of 11 children born to Mary Ellen
Callahan O’Leary and Robert Benjamin O’Leary. He was raised in an
Irish Catholic family on the Lazy O farm outside of Albert Lea,
Minnesota with 5 brothers and 5 sisters: Patrick, Geraldine, Joann,
John, Kathleen, Steve, Sheila, Mary, Tim and Kevin.
Always proud of being a non-conformist he set out after graduating
in 1969 on hitchhiking adventures to Boston, Mexico and Central
America. He traveled to visit his sister in Nicaragua and returned to
live an alternative life-style in California. From 1973-1977 he
served as a sonar technician in the Submarine Service. He loved
telling tales of his time “In the water.” He earned certification
as a hard-hat deep sea diver and served in both the Navy and Coast
Guard reserves.
Returning home to Minnesota in 1978 he found employment managing
Edgewater Park in Albert Lea where under the oak trees he met and
fell in love with his future wife, Peggy. In November, 1978 Dan and
Peg set out in a Buick station wagon bound for California just ahead
of the winter blizzards. The destination was Humboldt County where
Dan used his G.I. bill to attend HSU and College of the Redwoods
where he made life-long friends. They returned to Minnesota to marry
in August, 1979. This epic celebration was also an O’Leary family
re-union with siblings attending from all over the world. Over the
years the Lazy O West clan grew to include Tim, Mary, Genevieve,
Sheila and Kevin. This tie-dyed Grateful Dead family now includes
second and third generations.
Dan and Peg settled in Manila on spit of land bordered by bay and
ocean and welcomed two sons, Devon in 1983 and Brady in 1986. Dan
loved being a dad, volunteering at their pre-school, taking
wheel-barrow loads of kids to the beach, playing board games and
acting as assistant Scout leader during the boys’ cub and boy scout
years. He also served on the Manila Community Service District board
for many years. Dan was a prolific reader, everything from Sci-Fi,
military history to comics. He enjoyed making and sharing his
home-made crackers which were a staple at many potlucks. He loved
spending time every weekend with fellow Ribiero Roosters, throwing
horseshoes, playing scrabble and hanging out with the guys.
As Dan’s illness progressed Dan could be found walking miles
around Manila. He was always happy to wave to neighbors and loved his
community.
He is survived by his loving wife; Peggy, sons; Devon and Brady,
brothers; Patrick and Tim, sisters; Joann, Sheila and Mary and many
nephews and nieces and their families.
A memorial is planned on May 31, 2025 in the barn at 3446 Ribiero
Ln., Arcata, from 4 p.m on. Bring a dish, a memory, story or song. All
are welcome.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Dan O’Leary’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.
