CORRECTION: This press release from True North originally misidentified it as a vice-chair candidates forum, which it is not. It also seems to have incorrectly listed the candidates. Apologies.

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Press release from True North Organizing Network:

True North Organizing Network will host a Yurok Chair Candidates Forum on Wednesday, September 17, 2025.  This forum is open to the public, and especially relevant to Yurok tribal members who will have the power to vote. However, it is important to all community members as this decision will impact the region as a whole.

Questions for the candidates are being developed by True North’s tribal leaders, informed by recent conversations with the community on key issues. This forum will be an opportunity for voters and residents to hear directly from the candidates on topics that matter most right now.

Event Details:

• What: Yurok Chair Candidates Forum
• Where: 1620 Pickett Rd, McKinleyville, CA. Azalea Hall-Hewitt Room
• When: Wednesday, September 17, 2025 | Doors open at 5:00 p.m. | Forum begins at 5:30 p.m.
• Registration: http://blox.ws/cyhkq
  • Register to attend either in-person or virtually.

• Additional details: Free childcare will be provided. Enjoy a light dinner and refreshments. Forum will begin at 5:30 pm.

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This story — by reporters Maya C. Miller, Alejandro Lazo and Jeanne Kuang — was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

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California legislative leaders in the wee hours of Wednesday morning reached an agreement with Gov. Gavin Newsom to extend the state’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction program, known as cap and trade, through 2045 — a contentious expansion that for weeks stewed in backroom discussions, held up other critical legislation and roiled insiders.

Democratic leaders in the Assembly and Senate also struck compromises on bills to increase domestic oil production in California through new drilling permits and rehabilitating a defunct offshore pipeline; establish a state fund to monitor pollution mitigation in disadvantaged communities; re-up the state’s wildfire liability fund by $18 billion; and join neighboring states’ utilities to create a shared electricity market to sell California’s excess clean power.

The mountain of deals comes after a chaotic scramble of last-minute closed-door negotiations among Newsom, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, which frustrated lobbyists and angered rank-and-file members, some of whom said they felt iced out of the conversations.

Because the agreements landed so late in the final week of the legislative session, lawmakers will have to waive rules so they can extend what was supposed to be their last day of session, Friday, to vote Saturday on the climate and energy package. California voters approved a constitutional amendment that requires legislation to be public for at least 72 hours before a vote.

Newsom even made an after-hours visit to the Capitol Tuesday night, where he, Rivas and McGuire huddled in a Senate office for close to 90 minutes.

Despite the tense, high-stakes haggling, the three leaders on Wednesday triumphantly celebrated what they declared a historic agreement that they said gives Californians the best of both worlds — stable gas and electricity prices as well as progress toward the state’s ambitious climate goals.

“We took the time to get it right because real change, reduced prices and protecting homeowners is essential,” Rivas said in the joint statement.

The governor’s desire to keep lower gas prices — a crucial headline as he courts a national audience ahead of 2028 — also dovetailed neatly with Rivas’s early commitment to make 2025 the Legislature’s “year of affordability.” Critics often parroted that lofty goal to challenge legislation that they argued would raise costs for consumers.

But while Newsom and Rivas were largely aligned on tempering the state’s ambitious climate goals amid the reality of rising costs, McGuire and his staff were wary of handing wins to polluting industries without extracting victories for environmental and social justice causes.

Bickering over cap and trade

At the heart of the negotiations was disagreement over how to renew cap and trade, which the governor’s office has rebranded as “cap and invest.” The program is a key source of revenue for the state’s environmental, climate and other priorities in the midst of a challenging budget year marked by a $12 billion budget deficit. The Trump administration has also sought to block funding for key priorities such as clean energy, high-speed rail and electric cars.

The extension seeks to align the program with the state’s aggressive push to wean itself from fossil fuels by 2045.

Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference before signing the Election Rigging Response Act at the Capitol Annex Swing Space in Sacramento on Aug. 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

First: State Sen. President Pro Tem Mike McGuire during a floor session on April 24, 2025. Last: Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas during a floor session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on May 23, 2025. Photos by Fred Greaves for CalMatters

Cap-and-trade is a policy that puts a price on carbon emissions. The government sets a hard limit on emissions and issues a fixed number of pollution permits. Companies must hold permits for every ton they emit — but if they pollute less, they can sell their spare permits for profit, turning cutting carbon into a market incentive.

Although the program wasn’t set to expire until 2030, proponents of reauthorization argued that buyers of these credits — industry polluters — needed certainty that the program would continue to exist to keep bringing in revenues needed to fund the state’s transition to clean energy. A group pushing for an extension, Clean and Prosperous California, estimated that uncertainty over the program had resulted in a loss of nearly $3 billion in auction revenues over a year.

Earlier this summer, Newsom proposed reupping the program without any substantive changes, much to the chagrin of environmental advocates. That was an early sign of his warming relationships with the state’s oil and gas industry as companies announced they would cease operations in California, and more threatened to yank operations due to high costs of doing business.

Ultimately, each chamber will carry a separate piece of the deal.

Assembly Bill 1207 reauthorizes the program and makes slight changes to how the California Air Resources Board distributes free “allowances” — or pollution permits — to various types of polluters.

Meanwhile, Senate Bill 840 provides a blueprint for how the state should spend revenues from the program, reshaping it starting in 2026 to guarantee $1 billion a year for high-speed rail and $1 billion a year for lawmakers to direct through the budget, while continuing to support housing, transit, clean-air programs, wildfire prevention and safe drinking water.

The bill also requires the air resources board to revisit its rules on “offsets” – which let companies cover their emissions by paying for pollution cuts somewhere else — with a study due in 2026.

Individual consumers will continue to reap a benefit from the program. The deal keeps a twice-yearly climate credit, tweaking it so that a break on utility bills shows up during months when bills are the highest.

Other climate bills delayed before deal

Caught up in the negotiations were several other proposals that now can also move forward.

One is a multi-pronged plan to aid oil refineries by boosting the state’s domestic crude oil production. A key part of the measure waives the state’s landmark environmental review law for new oil wells in Kern County and clears the way for drilling projects to receive permits that were tied up in nearly a decade of litigation. The plan also makes it more difficult to rehabilitate defunct oil pipelines and requires extra layers of environmental assessment.

Also part of the deal were various Democrats’ strategies for reigning in Californians’ utilities bills, including a Newsom-backed measure to create a Western regional energy market.

Proponents, including mainstream environmental groups and the powerful statewide electrical workers’ union, say such a market is important for the state to meet its carbon-free goals and lower electricity rates for consumers.

The package also contains measures for Democrats who want to further regulate utilities to lower costs.

Senate Bill 254 would set up a public financing system to fund the construction of new transmission lines, which are largely owned by the major utilities. Transmission costs are a significant factor in utility bills. Consumer advocates believe some public ownership of new transmission lines would reduce costs because developers could take advantage of low-interest bonds to pay for them. Funding would need to be approved through the budget process.

Utilities would also be barred from profiting on the first $6 billion in costs the three major investor-owned power companies incur after this year from making their infrastructure more fire-safe. This builds on a similar 2019 law excluding the first $5 billion from profit-making.

The sun sets behind a row of transmission towers as temperatures rose to a scorching 114 degrees in Fresno County on Sept. 6, 2022. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

“They were kicking and screaming on that,” Sen. Josh Becker, a Menlo Park Democrat and author of several of the energy proposals, said of the utilities.

SB 254 also includes a Newsom priority to add $18 billion to the state’s wildfire fund, which was created in 2019 to pay wildfire victims in disasters caused by utilities to avoid bankrupting utilities. The utility companies had pushed hard to replenish the fund as it was running dry from claims after the January Eaton Fire in Altadena, which sparked near Southern California Edison equipment.

Contributions to the fund would be split equally among the shareholders and ratepayers of Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric.

Do Democrats have the votes for cap and trade?

Despite the last-minute scramble, it’s unclear whether Newsom and Democrats have the necessary support to clear the two-thirds majority required in both chambers for tax-related measures like cap and trade. Lobbyists and advocates were reading the new language Wednesday and evaluating whether to support the measures.

The last time the program was reauthorized, then-Gov. Jerry Brown swayed some Republicans and won the support of both the oil and gas industry and CalChamber.

While Republicans have not outright denounced the proposals, Democrats shouldn’t necessarily count on their allyship. Sen. Shannon Grove, a Republican from Bakersfield who for years has warned against overregulating the oil and gas industry, said she was scrambling to assess the details of a plan that was completely secret until just a few hours ago.

“It’s a multibillion-dollar piece of legislation, and I don’t know what’s in it, so I can’t tell you,” Grove said when asked if she would support the bills.

The business community, including the California Chamber of Commerce and the powerful Western States Petroleum Association, strongly opposed the changes even before the final wording was released, staging an all-out lobbying effort this week as lawmakers returned to the Capitol.

“WSPA strongly opposes this rushed attempt to reauthorize the state’s Cap-and-Trade program behind closed doors in the remaining days of the legislative session,” the association said in a statement Monday night. Neither the Chamber or WSPA commented on the public cap and trade proposals Wednesday.

Assemblymembers on the Assembly floor at the state Capitol in Sacramento on June 30, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

Meanwhile, environmental justice advocates — who advocate for low-income and disadvantaged communities that often live closer to polluting industries — and other environmental advocates said the proposal doesn’t go far enough. The coalition was primarily disappointed that the bill to mandate a pollution monitoring program for disadvantaged communities did not include the specific areas and neighborhoods that they outlined in previous legislation.

The group wrote in a joint statement Wednesday that key parts of their proposals had been rejected and said the legislation continues to make “communities into sacrifice zones for the benefit of industry profit.”

“There’s a lot of money left on the table,” said Ryan Schleeter, a spokesman for the Climate Center. “There could have been more done to shore up that revenue for future years, and there’s a lot of money that’s still flowing to oil and gas corporations through the cap-and-trade program.”

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CalMatters reporters Malena Carollo and Alexei Kosoff contributed to this story.

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This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

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In a blow to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ambitions to replumb the Delta, California lawmakers once again punted on his plan to fast-track a deeply controversial $20 billion tunnel project that would funnel more water to the south.

Multiple sources in the Legislature say the clock has run out on a sweeping measure that would overhaul permitting, financing and other road blocks to the Delta tunnel project. The news comes as lawmakers and Newsom race to reach a megadeal that encompasses carbon trading, wildfire funding, energy transmission, and refinery issues. The governor’s office did not respond to CalMatters’ inquiry.

While supporters acknowledge the tunnel bill has hit a dead end for now, this isn’t the first time Newsom has tried to fast track the project. And water watchers expect that it won’t be the last.

“Even if action is delayed this year, the need for modern delta conveyance has never been greater,” said Jennifer Pierre, general manager of the State Water Contractors, a staunch supporter of the bill, in a statement. “The need is urgent, the support is broad, and the time to move forward is now.”

Lawmakers representing Delta communities called the failure to fast-track the bill a relief. They have long said that building a tunnel to reroute water around the Delta would devastate communities, fish and local farms.

“It’s going to be incredibly disruptive to my communities,” state Sen. Jerry McNerney, a Democrat from Stockton, told CalMatters. “They made a good fight, but we just were too unified for them to have any progress.”

Assemblymember Lori Wilson, a Democrat from Suisun City, said no amount of compensation for Delta communities would make up for the project’s lasting harm.

“Once a short-sighted policy, always a short-sighted policy,” she said in a statement. “We will continue to stand strong and fight for the Delta and the communities who call it home.”

‘Let’s get this built’

The proposed tunnel, more formally known as the Delta Conveyance Project, would extend 45 miles from the Sacramento River to a reservoir near Livermore, bypassing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which serves as a critical hub for California’s water supply.

It’s the latest iteration of a decades-old plan to funnel water deliveries from Northern California around, rather than through, the Delta — with the goal of shoring up water supplies for 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of agriculture largely in the central and southern parts of the state.

Planning for the project remains underway, though it is fiercely opposed by conservationists, Tribes, Delta cities and counties, and the fishing industry.

They fear the loss of water supplies, environmental degradation and years of construction that they say will make some towns uninhabitable. The state’s own analysis warned that a Delta tunnel would put salmon at risk.

Newsom introduced the streamlining bill earlier this spring as a budget add-on, a strategy he’s used before that bypasses more extensive input from lawmakers.

“We’re done with barriers — our state needs to complete this project as soon as possible, so that we can better store and manage water to prepare for a hotter, drier future,” Newsom said May. “Let’s get this built.”

Stalled, but not dead

The tunnel bill aimed to flatten roadblocks related to land acquisition, water rights decisions, funding and litigation. Delta lawmakers pushed back against it, as well as Newsom’s strategy of using the budget process to shortcut deliberations.

“Drying out the north just to water the south doesn’t make it better at all, and it doesn’t make it fair,” Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen, a Democrat from Elk Grove, said in May.

Lawmakers tabled decisions on the bills until later in the session, and the Newsom administration continued to push for both the tunnel and the streamlining effort.

Pierre, with the State Water Contractors, told CalMatters that the failure to fast track the project didn’t reflect Legislative opposition to the tunnel itself.

“We had vote cards that demonstrated the majority in both houses,” Pierre told CalMatters. “This was not a function of a lack of support for the bill.”

But McNerney said he thought the political cost for the administration became too high.

“I think the governor realized that he’s got other battles to fight,” McNerney said. “It’s just not worth taking that battle to the wall.”

Jon Rosenfield, science director with the San Francisco Baykeeper, said he hoped this was the last effort by the Newsom administration to “grease the skids” for a Delta tunnel.

But, he added, “This is the zombie offspring of the zombie project … You understand if I don’t necessarily believe that this is the end.”

Peter Derek Hults Russell, known as Derek, lived big, fun, happy, strong, and full of love. He passed away suddenly and unexpectedly from a heart attack on July 31, at the age of 37. The outpouring of support since then shows how important he was in this community.

Derek was born in New York on August 22, 1987. His family moved to Humboldt when he was two years old and he lived here for the rest of his life, attending Jacoby Creek Elementary and Arcata High. He had a creative spirit, a welcoming smile, and he leaves behind a legacy of kindness, inclusion, and heart. His generosity, his love of bringing people together, and his mission to have fun every day touched everyone who knew him.

Derek had many passions. He was a talented artist from a young age, eventually majoring in fine arts at College of the Redwoods, where he specialized in ceramics. He was a musician, totally self-taught, and played the drums in bands all through his school years. He was incredibly handy around the house and with any vehicle (including his RC cars), preferring to fix things on his own and helping others do the same. He loved having fun outside everywhere Humboldt has to offer: rivers, forests, beaches, and mountains.

Derek was an avid disc golfer and a regular fixture at the Manila, Pump Station, and Redwood Curtain courses. Everyone who crossed his path was buoyed by his jokes and encouragement and impressed by his skill. He got his last two aces less than two weeks before he passed.

But Derek’s biggest passion was skateboarding. Derek was a powerful skater, yet graceful with plenty of style — a combination that perfectly fit with the treacherous concrete parks of the Pacific Northwest. He was skilled at transition skating in pools and loved to get big air. Thrasher Magazine once featured a photo of him and his dog Tuckknee, a legend in her own right. He was a familiar face at Arcata Skatepark for decades, and his fun, easy presence was a big part of what makes Arcata’s skateboarding community so special.

Derek’s proudest accomplishment was buying Ampt Skateshop in 2018. Ampt had opened in 2002, when Derek was in high school. He immediately found a home there, hanging out and working at the shop over the years, and being a counselor at the local skate camp. After taking over, Derek poured his heart and soul into Ampt, embodying the phrase “skater owned and operated.” Anyone who stopped by the shop was treated to his knowledge, patience, and infectious smile. A team is working to ensure Ampt will remain open for the community, in honor of Derek.

Derek is survived by his mother Barbara Russell, his partner Isabel Angell and their puppy Jibbli, sister Jessica Dalton, her husband Jason, and their children Emmett and Kennedy. He also leaves behind his former partner Cecilia and their dog Cosmo, and an incredibly deep and wide network of friends made over his entire life. He was preceded by his beloved and beautiful dog Tuckknee.

His passing leaves a massive hole in the lives of everyone who knew him. We will miss him forever.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Sunday, November 9, 2025, from 1–4 p.m. at Azalea Hall and the nearby skate park in McKinleyville, California. Family, friends, and community members are warmly invited to gather, grieve, laugh, and honor Derek in the way he deserves.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to keep AMPT Skateshop alive during this transition period at this link.

Donley Brian Powell, of Blue Lake, passed away on August 31, 2025, at Mad River Hospital in Arcata. He was 52 years old.

Brian was born on September 16, 1972, in Duncan, Oklahoma, to Donley Leon Powell and Karen Kaye Montgomery Powell of Modesto. He graduated from Humboldt State University in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in geography and pursued graduate studies in natural resource planning with a focus in geographical information systems.

Brian dedicated his career to geography and technology, working as a GIS specialist, most recently with Ahtna Government Services Corporation. Outside of his work, Brian had many passions. He was a gifted musician who especially enjoyed playing his stand-up doghouse bass with friends and bandmates. He loved the outdoors and especially being near the water, whether fishing in a stream, sitting by a river, or spending time at the lake. His greatest joy, however, was found in his role as a husband and father.

Brian is survived by his wife, Jennifer Schooley Powell of Eureka; his daughter, Josephine Powell (20); his son, Samuel Powell (13); and his older brother, Billy L. Powell of Modesto. He was preceded in death by his parents, Leon and Kaye Powell.

A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, October 4, 2025, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Fieldbrook Grange, 4926 Fieldbrook Road, McKinleyville. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Food for People Food Bank for Humboldt County at this link. Please check the “dedicate this donation” box and include Brian’s name.

Brian will be remembered for his kindness, his talent, his love for the outdoors, and above all, his deep devotion to his family. He will be dearly missed by all who knew and loved him.

Our dear Reafala Julia (Loretta) Sorenson passed away on August 28, 2025 at the age of 92. She was born on the first day of spring March 20,1933 in Seattle to Genevieve (Babette) Harris-Bitonti and Batista St. John Bitonti. 

They lived as a family in Kodiak, Alaska where she shared her early childhood years with her dear sister Michelina. Later she relocated to Eureka with her mother and sister, where her mother remarried Ernest Yates and her brother Butch was born.

Loretta met the love of her life Lawrence Sorensen, whom she married in Marietta, Georgia while he was active in the military. They resided in Eureka in a home built by Lawrence and raised three wonderful children together. 

Loretta made sure all her family felt special. Her home was like a second home to many of her grandchildren. Loretta contributed much to the local community with her years working in the classroom at Jacobs Jr. High and as a kindergarten aide at Jefferson Elementary School. 

She is preceded in passing by her husband Lawrence Sr. and their son Lawrence Sorensen Jr., his son Derek Sorensen and granddaughter, Leslie Renee Woodward. She is survived by her daughters, Linnette & Brad Woodward and Leslie Nickols, her sister Mickey’s daughters Maureen, Monique, Marcy and Shelley, her brother Butch’s daughters, Jeanee Nichols-Buster, Kristiane Sapiente-Gill, Triniti Ponnay, and many grandchildren and their families: Brandy & Seth Senestraro, Paxton Woodward, Reider Woodward, Rebecca & Danny Adamson, Jeneka Hickok & Steve Viehmann, Benjamin & Lani (Rastorfer) Hickok, Shawna & Rodrigo Ibarra, Billy Nickols, Jonathan Nickols, Dustin Nickols, Crystal Craven and many great-grandchildren who brought her much delight.

A service celebrating Loretta’s life will be held at Goble’s Fortuna Mortuary in Fortuna, 560 12th Street Fortuna, CA 95540 on September 13, 2025, at 2 p.m.

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UPDATE, 1:40 p.m.: President Trump has announced Kirk has died. 

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Original Post: Charlie Kirk, a conservative influencer and the head of Turning Point USA,  one of the country’s highest-profile right-wing youth activist organizations, was shot in the neck on Wednesday while speaking at a campus event at Utah Valley University.

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