Redwood Region RISE Receives $14 Million in State Funding to Bring More Sustainable Jobs to Humboldt and Beyond
Stephanie McGeary / Monday, March 25 @ 12:35 p.m. / Economy
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After receiving $14 million in funding through the California Jobs First initiative, Redwood Region Resilient Inclusive Sustainable Economy (RISE) – a relatively new community coalition – is developing a vision to bring more good, sustainable jobs to our region.
Leoni Fohr, a communications associate for the California Center for Rural Policy (CCRP) at Cal Poly Humboldt, told the Outpost that RISE was formed in 2021 after the California Jobs First initiative (SB 162, formerly known as the Community Economic Resilience Fund) was signed into law with the intent of supporting statewide economic recovery from the distress of COVID-19. It took a while for things to really get going, Fohr said, and the coalition started meeting regularly in February 2023.
“This past year has been a lot of building up the program, conducting outreach and education and getting folks involved,” Fohr said in a recent phone interview. “We have close to 1,000 members in our community and a lot of representatives from community-based organizations.”
Those members are made up of representatives from local tribes, education, environmental justice groups, labor unions and government bodies, collaborating to create a 10-year vision to create more jobs and foster a sustainable economy in Humboldt, Del Norte, Lake and Mendocino counties and tribal lands. The California Center for Rural Policy acts as part of the coalition’s “convening team,” which is in charge of bringing together the various groups and organizations, and also includes representatives from the Arcata Economic Development Corporation, North Coast Opportunities and True North Organizing Network.
Currently RISE’s vision is still in the planning phase, Fohr said, and it’s working to identify which projects and programs the coalition wants to support. RISE has been accepting project proposals, and Fohr said that the $14 million funding will go toward continuing the selection process and prepping the chosen projects to ready them for additional grant funding. Though the $14 million will not go far enough to actually launch the selected proposals, Fohr said, it will allow RISE to get the projects “shovel-ready,” so that they are eligible for competitive grants to keep the projects going.
“It takes a lot for a project to move from planning to implementation,” Fohr said. “That’s where a lot of projects get stuck – there is funding for the planning, but not enough funding to keep them running. At the end of August 2024, there’s $26 $260 million becoming available in competitive funding. We’re hoping to get the projects ready to apply for that funding.”
RISE is selecting a wide range of proposals, Fohr said, that would support job creation or workforce development, including developing youth job-training centers, healthcare training and scholarship programs for training firefighters. RISE is particularly interested in supporting programs that offer creative solutions to more than one economic problem, Fohr said. For example, one project RISE is looking to support would work with local healthcare partners to establish an art therapy program and train local artists to lead the classes. This would address our area’s lack of mental healthcare, while also creating jobs for out-of-work artists.
If you have a great idea for a project or program that will stimulate our regional economic development, RISE is still accepting proposals via its Project Inventory Intake Form. RISE will continue accepting submissions on an ongoing basis, but the deadline to be considered for implementation funding is March 28.
And if you don’t have a proposal to submit, but are still interested in being involved in RISE’s decisions or just want to learn more about the coalition, you can attend one of RISE’s monthly Collaborative Meetings, held over Zoom on the last Thursday of each month. That means the next meeting is coming right up – Thursday, March 28, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. You can join by following this link.
RISE is meant to be a community-led coalition, so Fohr encourages everyone to get involved in whatever way they can to help RISE hear directly from members of the community on their needs.
“It’s a fairly new approach to really working with communities…to hear from them what they need,” Fohr said. “This is so valuable on a state level, because it’s hard to picture what it’s like living in a rural area. If RISE does a good job we can show our area’s unique difficulties, but also show our resilience.”
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CORRECTION: This article has been changed from its original version to reflect that $260 million, not $26 million, will be available in competitive funding. That’s a big difference! It has also be changed to reflect that CCRP is a part of Cal Poly Humboldt.
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California Jails Are Holding Thousands Fewer People, but Far More Are Dying in Them
Nigel Duara and Jeremia Kimelman / Monday, March 25 @ 7 a.m. / Sacramento
People are dying in custody at record rates across California. They’re dying in big jails and small jails, in red counties and blue counties, in rural holding cells and downtown mega-complexes. They’re dying from suicide, drug overdoses and the catch-all term natural causes.
The number of jail deaths is up even though the number of people in jail is down.
The state is aware. Reams of reports from oversight agencies have repeatedly pointed to problems in individual jails and the state board that oversees them.
Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged almost five years ago that the state would take a stronger hand to prevent deaths in the 57 jail systems run by California county sheriffs.
In every year since, more people have died in California jails than when Newsom made that pledge — hitting a high of 215 in 2022. Tulare, San Diego, Kern, Riverside and San Bernardino counties’ jails set records.
Nor was the pandemic the driving factor: California in 2022 had the smallest share of deaths due to natural causes in the past four decades. A surge in overdoses drove the trend of increasing deaths. And almost every person who died was waiting to be tried. A previous CalMatters investigation found that three-quarters of those held in county jails had not been convicted or sentenced, with many awaiting trial more than three years.
A state board was supposed to put in place measures that would keep inmates safer. Newsom committed to working through that board when he said in 2020, “I’ve got a board that’s responsibility is oversight. I want to see them step things up.”
But since then, Newsom and the Board of State and Community Corrections have been unable to slow the deaths. Until recently, the board was not even notified about deaths inside the county-run lockups, and a 2021 State Auditor’s report criticized the board for failing to enforce its own rules and standards on mental health checks and in-cell wellness checks of inmates.
The state has begun to take a somewhat stronger role.
The governor appointed a formerly incarcerated person to the Board of State and Community Corrections, and also signed a bill last year that added to it a licensed health care provider and a licensed mental or behavioral health care provider.
Following through on his 2021 budget proposal to increase the frequency of jail inspections and allow the board to perform them unannounced, Newsom directed an additional $3.1 million each year to the oversight board. The board reported that last year it conducted 31 unannounced jail inspections, a change from past practice when it would visit jails just once every two years, and told jail authorities in advance when inspectors were coming.
And a new law in July will add a staff position to review in-custody deaths, a position to be appointed by Newsom and confirmed by the Senate.
But critics say those steps have been insufficient. For instance, the original bill would have put jail death monitors in every county.
CalMatters sent nine questions to the governor about jail deaths, the effectiveness of the state board, and his own 2021 pledge to strengthen jail oversight.
Newsom’s office did not answer the questions, instead sending a list of accomplishments to reflect “the Governor’s extensive record in this space.” Those mostly applied to his policies for state prisons, such as a death penalty moratorium.
When CalMatters asked him about high statewide jail deaths at a March 1 press conference in the Inland Empire, Newsom responded by saying:
“The governor,” Newsom said, “just signed legislation to actually be able to create a point person specifically responsible for overseeing what’s happening in county jails, working with (Attorney General Rob Bonta), who’s also been advancing investigations. One very close to home here in Riverside County, related to 18 in-custody deaths in 2022 with the current sheriff.”
The officials with the greatest influence over what happens in jails — the state’s elected county sheriffs — say additional state oversight is unnecessary. California State Sheriffs’ Association president Mike Boudreaux, who is also the sheriff of Tulare County, said he already answers to a state oversight board, the state Justice Department, county grand juries, federal courts, state courts and the media.
“What we see is that people criticize jails, they criticize sheriffs’ offices,” Boudreaux said. “And the reality of it is, they’ve never been inside a jail. They’ve never worked side-by-side with the sheriffs’ offices. They’ve never sat in meetings that we sit in to make sure that not only are we doing things right, we’re doing things that are for the safety and security of those inmates.”
In 2011 California — as it thinned severely overcrowded state prisons by sending tens of thousands of recently convicted offenders to county-run jails — created an oversight board for prisons and jails. This 13-member Board of State and Community Corrections is composed mostly of people with law enforcement and probation experience. The governor appoints eight, with one each appointed by the Judicial Council of California, Speaker of the Assembly and Senate Rules Committee.
The other two current board members are the state prison system’s chief and its director of parole operations.
The board’s initial mission was to lend independent expertise to jails and prisons and act as a “data and information clearinghouse.” The board gives out $400 million each year to jails, prisons, tribes and community organizations. It also sets standards for correctional facilities, from the hourly checks performed on inmates to the time set aside for recreation.
Almost immediately after its formation, the board was confronted with the limits of its powers: It lacked authority to mandate that all California sheriffs report their data – including in-custody deaths.
That will change when the state board’s new reviewer of in-custody death starts this summer.
When asked by CalMatters why more people are dying in California jails, despite a declining jail population, Board of State and Community Corrections representative Adam A. Lwin responded, “The BSCC is not in a position to comment on this question with respect to deaths in jails.”
“Until the passage of (the new law adding a detention monitor), the BSCC did not have specific responsibilities related to deaths in custody, beyond inspecting for the local agency’s policy and procedures related to reporting on any death in custody,” Lwin wrote in response to CalMatters’ questions.
So why are so many dying in California jails?
The reasons people are dying at record rates in California jails are a matter of circumstance, although in interviews with more than 70 people involved in California jails systems, from sheriffs and prosecutors to inmates and nurses, some patterns emerged.
Natural causes have long accounted for the biggest share of jail deaths, followed by suicides.
Suicide prevention should be a higher priority for jail staff, said University of Texas School of Law professor Michele Deitch, among the nation’s foremost authorities on deaths in prisons and jails.
“The vast majority of these deaths are preventable,” she said.
The causes of a significant number of deaths for recent years are still pending – meaning that the sheriff’s office hasn’t yet identified the cause or the Justice Department hasn’t updated the cause in its data collection.
But the recent increase in deaths came from the third largest cause overall, accidental deaths including fentanyl overdoses. Overdoses accounted for 43 deaths in 2022.
Fentanyl overdoses present a far deadlier challenge now than the previous dominant drug in jails, methamphetamine. Other factors are the same ones Newsom cited a few years ago: suicide; failures in health care or psychiatric evaluations; and less commonly, violence among inmates or by jail guards.
Shannon Dicus, San Bernardino County’s Sheriff and a member of the Board of State and Community Corrections, said the rise in deaths in part reflects trends that are unfolding outside of jails, including an overstretched mental health system and widespread use of potentially deadly opiates.
For his deputies, a persistent issue is people who know they are in violation of their probation terms hiding drugs in their bodies before they’re returned to jail.
“So a lot of these folks are secreting opiates in their rectum,” Dicus said. “We run dogs through. We do a number of things. We’re spending $250,000 on body scanners. And what happens is some of these people, they’ll have it in their bodies where we can’t detect it.
“They go into the jail, they get housed in their general housing assignment, and then all of a sudden I have seven fentanyl overdoses. And that’s the truth.”
Dicus said jails also find letters sent to inmates in the mail that were dipped in diluted fentanyl or methamphetamine.
But sometimes the jail-keepers themselves are responsible. During the pandemic, when jails were closed to visitors, drugs still found a way in. Jail deputies in Riverside and Fresno counties have been charged with drug smuggling, and an Alameda County civil grand jury found that a private jail contractor fired the medical director of the county’s jails for writing fake prescriptions to obtain opioids for herself.
Sheriffs have sometimes resisted outside pressure to more closely monitor their employees. In San Diego County jails, where according to Justice Department statistics 47 people died between 2021 and 2023, Sheriff Kelly Martinez and her predecessor have repeatedly refused requests from the local civilian law enforcement review board to put her deputies through scanners before they start their shifts. Two jail deputies pleaded guilty to drug-related charges last year, one for burglary of medication from a jail prescription medication drop-off box and the other for possession of cocaine on jail property.
Burned out jail medical staff
Jails could do a better job beginning at intake and reception, said Corene Kendrick, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project. She noted that people who have been arrested often are asked deeply personal questions about their substance use and history of self-harm, within earshot of jail deputies and other inmates.
If they don’t disclose that they have drug or alcohol dependency – perhaps fearing that will lead to more charges – Kendrick said the immediate cutoff can pose an enormous health risk.
And for people who are on psychiatric medication but don’t like the side-effects or don’t want to disclose their condition, the cessation of their medication can send their mental health into a tailspin.
The pandemic also badly dented jails’ ability to provide quality health care, critics contend.
When jails reopened to their regular capacity, Kendrick said, the arrival of new inmates and the resignations of burned-out health care workers stressed the systems beyond their breaking points. “A lot of jails have said that they’re having problems with correctional and health care staff who quit during the pandemic,” she said.
“I was not able to offer the kind of medical care that I wanted to be able to offer and that contributed to burnout for me.”
— Dr. Lauren Wolchok
One of those was Dr. Lauren Wolchok, who worked in Los Angeles County jails from 2016 to 2021. Before and during the pandemic, she said, the number of opioid-dependent patients she saw skyrocketed. But those jails strictly restricted opioid treatment, she said, confining it to a small subset of the population that needed it.
“I was not able to offer the kind of medical care that I wanted to be able to offer and that contributed to burnout for me,” Wolchok said. “I had long struggled with the existential crisis of, am I doing more harm than good by working in this terrible setting or am I sort of fighting against the system and getting people care that they otherwise wouldn’t have?
“Especially as the quality of the care that I felt I was delivering declined, it became harder and harder for me personally to decide that I was fighting the good fight.”
Drug overdoses, insufficient medical treatment, suicides — all of those causes of jail deaths could be minimized by more stringent policies. Academics, inmates and their advocates suggest scanning jail workers for drugs, providing a ready supply of the opioid-blocking naloxone nasal spray, ensuring inmates go through intake in a more private area, performing more frequent checks of inmates, and instituting local oversight boards.
Those decisions fall to one person: The county sheriff.
An overdose? Or a heart attack?
Some of California’s deadliest jails are in Riverside County, where 45 people have died since Jan. 1, 2021. One of them was Richard Matus.
Matus knew he wasn’t feeling well days before he died.
In journals he kept during his incarceration, which his family provided to CalMatters along with his medical records, Matus complained of feeling ill and receiving no medical help in jail.
“Its hard to deal with being treated as a sick animal an feeling like im just waiting to die,” he wrote in one entry. “Iv put in medical slips to see a doctor because I felt sick, very dizzy, bad head ack, felt like I was running fever and completely lost my sense of smell witch was really weird. They never followed up I believe it was twice I put in medical slips an no response so I gave up.”
Matus, whose family said he hadn’t used drugs besides marijuana before his incarceration, was found dead in his cell on Aug. 10, 2022, of a fentanyl overdose.
In a lawsuit filed in March 2023, Matus’ family alleges that Matus was lucid and communicative on the phone with his mother, Lisa, hours before his death. They allege that his “dire need for emergency medical intervention went unnoticed by the (jail’s) custody staff.”
An autopsy conducted eight hours after Matus’ death found something else. His left anterior descending artery, which provides half the heart’s blood supply and is known colloquially as “the widowmaker,” was 80% to 90% blocked. A medical form filled out by Matus on Sept. 26, 2021, indicated that a doctor told him his cholesterol and blood pressure were far above normal.
“Every time he complained to that (jail medical) office, they gave him cholesterol pills and told him to lose weight,” Matus’ mother, Lisa, told CalMatters. “They never sent him to the hospital, even though his blood pressure and cholesterol was (above normal). The whole time, he needed medical care and they just ignored him.”
That contention became part of the family’s lawsuit.
“Due to the great delays in securing adequate emergency medical attention for Richard Matus, Jr., and the failures on behalf of the (jail’s) custody staff in performing the required safety and welfare checks,” Matus’ family wrote in the lawsuit, “Mr. Matus did not respond to medical intervention and died.”
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office responded to the lawsuit by denying all liability and said that Matus’ death was his own doing.
“If Plaintiffs sustained any injury or damages,” they wrote, “such injury or damages were solely caused or contributed to by the wrongful conduct of other entities or persons other than the answer Defendants.”
Some sheriffs have changed their practices to avoid in-custody deaths. Others say they’re looking for solutions. But Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has instead taken an adversarial approach.
Criticism of his policy and practices, Bianco told the Riverside Press-Enterprise, are a “political publicity stunt of the far left.” He did not answer questions from CalMatters.
After an inmate died in 2022, the Riverside Press-Enterprise posted an interview with Bianco. In the comments under the story, someone who identified himself as Bianco interacted with commenters, referring to the demands of people whose family members had died in his jails.
“Did they demand their family members not commit suicide or consume drugs while they were in custody?” he wrote. “Did they ever demand that their family members not commit crimes in the first place? Did their parents ever demand that they take responsibility for their own actions?”
The ACLU sent a letter in September 2021 demanding that the state investigate Riverside County jails. In 2022, another 19 people died, including Matus. After the ACLU wrote again demanding an inquiry by the state’s jail oversight board in early 2023, Attorney General Rob Bonta launched an investigation.
The Justice Department refused to answer any questions about its investigation. Bianco did.
“This announcement comes as a shock but at the same time should have been expected from our California DOJ and the attorney general who cares more about politics than he does about transparency and the truth,” Bianco said in a video the day the investigation was announced.
“This investigation is based on nothing but false and misleading statements and straight out lies from activists, including their attorneys. This will prove to be a complete waste of time and resources.”
‘All we’re doing is making recommendations to sheriffs’
The attorney general has two open investigations into jails, one in Riverside County and one in Santa Clara County. But the organization charged with overseeing day-to-day operations of California’s jails is the Board of State and Community Corrections.
The board can wield significant power.
When it repeatedly found the Los Angeles juvenile hall were unsuitable for housing last year, it shut down the system and directed the county probation department to find new housing for about 300 young people.
But that was an exception.
A Feb. 9, 2023 board meeting turned contentious when it came to the Riverside County jail system, the 15th-largest in the U.S.
Avalon Edwards, a policy associate of Riverside-based social justice organization Starting Over Inc., said the board was not enforcing its own standards of inmate care.
“If (Riverside County) can kill 20 people in 13 months and fail to provide any information to the families impacted, fail to report those deaths to the DOJ within the 10-day mandated reporting period, continue to lie to the public about the cause of death for all these people,” he said, “what are those minimum standards accomplishing?”
Edwards urged the board to withhold funding from noncompliant departments or, if they wouldn’t, he asked every board member to resign.
Critics argue that the board lacks the ability to effectively regulate jails.
“It is not set up with the kind of enforcement power, or teeth, to be able to meaningfully hold accountable agencies that are failing to comply with standards,” recently recalled San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin told CalMatters. “So that’s one problem. And I don’t say that as a criticism of the organization or the people there so much as of the structure.
“I mean, it doesn’t have the ability to actually impose remedies even when it is aware of violations,” he said.
Two independent state oversight agencies also have found fault with the board and the jail system. The Legislative Analyst’s Office found in 2021 that the board’s effectiveness is hard to judge because it’s unclear what the board’s mission is. It said this “undermines the Legislature’s ability to assess whether the program is operating effectively and is consistent with Legislative priorities.”
The State Auditor’s Office, meanwhile, zeroed in on San Diego County jails in February 2022. It found that the San Diego Sheriff’s Department failed to prevent deaths in its jails and that its practices “likely contributed to in‑custody deaths.” The auditor’s office also found fault with the state corrections board, saying its jail regulations are inconsistent and its answers to the audit were “deficient or misleading.”
Even one member of the state corrections board feels the board’s hands are tied.
“All we’re doing is making recommendations to sheriffs,” said board member Norma Cumpian. “You’re like, hey, 20 people have died in your jails. We recommend that you, you know, report it quicker. Like, that’s not a lot.”
Cumpian, a former inmate who served nearly 20 years in prison for killing her abusive partner, said she often senses indifference or complacency from her colleagues.
As for plans to add a detention monitor, a dubious Cumpian said “I don’t know, this bill is supposed to release reports to the public. Like, what is that gonna do?”
Dicus, the San Bernardino sheriff who operates the seventh-largest jail system in the U.S., doesn’t see a problem with the way the oversight board operates. He said the oversight board is doing its job in accordance with its mission: assessing the policies and procedures of the jails it oversees while ensuring facilities are up to code.
He said the blame for in-custody deaths extends beyond the jails.
“Locally, try getting some help,” Dicus said. “Our local department of behavioral health, and this is not me throwing stones at them, but they’re 9 to 5. We live in a 24/7 environment where people are in crisis. And the crisis that we’re experiencing, the cops are there 24/7, but we need some of these other service providers to have the same level of response.”
He said the state has to rethink how it operates the social safety net at the county level, especially for mental health and substance abuse.
“It’s just typically this is the way we’ve handled everything, and we need to break out of that,” he said. “I think we need kind of a statewide revisit of what’s working and what’s not.”
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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
California Insurance Market ‘In Chaos,’ Says Former Insurance Chief. Can the New Chief Fix It?
Levi Sumagaysay / Monday, March 25 @ 7 a.m. / Sacramento
With more California homeowners just discovering their insurance policies are getting canceled — and hundreds of thousands of others stuck with a pricey option of last resort — state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s efforts to fix the home insurance market can’t come quickly enough.
Lara has introduced two main regulations, with more to come. The first, unveiled last month, aims to streamline rate reviews. State law gives the Insurance Department the power to approve or deny insurers’ requests to raise premiums. Insurance companies complain the process has been holding up the increases they seek as a result of what they say are increased costs due to rising climate-change risks and inflation.
The second regulation will let insurers use catastrophe modeling — which combines historical data with projected risk and losses — along with other factors when setting their premiums. California is the last state to allow for catastrophe modeling.
“We’re undertaking the state’s largest insurance reform,” Lara said during a press conference earlier this month. “We can no longer look solely to the past to guide us to the future.”
He said catastrophe modeling will lead to “more reliable rates,” “greater insurance availability” and “safer communities,” because he said it would further encourage and reward wildfire mitigation by homeowners and communities. Insurance Department spokesperson Michael Soller said success will mean fewer homeowners needing to turn to the FAIR Plan, the state-mandated insurer of last resort.
Insurance trade groups, which stand to benefit most from the new regulations, agree with Lara’s support for catastrophe modeling and support his so-called sustainable insurance strategy. So do fire chiefs, to an extent. But almost everyone else — homeowners, consumer groups and former insurance commissioners — has lingering concerns.
U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, a Democrat representing parts of Solano and Contra Costa counties, had two stints as state insurance commissioner in the mid-1990s and early 2000s. He says the insurance market is “in chaos” — and that Lara should be holding public hearings and demanding insurance company executives testify to explain to Californians why their premiums are rising.
“One of the critical things a commissioner does is to analyze the market and provide the public with information,” Garamendi said in an interview with CalMatters. “(Lara) didn’t use his power to control the industry and second, to inform Californians.”
The criticism drew a retort from Soller: “Commissioner Lara is fixing decades-long neglected issues that have led to this crisis. He is focused on safeguarding the integrity of the state’s insurance market, not second-guessing from predecessors who had their chance and failed to act.”
Dave Winnacker, chief of the East Bay’s Moraga-Orinda Fire District, said the upsides of catastrophe modeling include being able to credit what homeowners, communities and governments do to lessen wildfire risk. That includes being able to account for the numbers and proximity of firefighters in certain areas, Winnacker said.
“Depending on where you are in a state, and that’s tied to population density, the number of firefighters available could affect the outcome (of a wildfire),” he said, adding that catastrophe models should reflect that.
He also said he and other fire chiefs are working to make sure the interests of consumers, fire professionals, insurers and the state are aligned. Insurers may not know what homeowners, communities and local fire departments are doing to reduce wildfire risk. One idea: a database to share that information.
“There is no future in which we can price our way out of this crisis with just premiums,” Winnacker said, adding that everyone needs to work together.
Dave Jones, the state insurance commissioner for eight years before Lara took over in 2019, said he is “trying to avoid looking over the shoulder of my successor.”
Jones is now director of the Climate Risk Initiative Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at UC Berkeley School of Law. He said it is good for consumers that the catastrophe-modeling regulation could take forest management into consideration. But he said he’s not sure Lara’s actions will be sufficient.
Before the end of the year, Lara is also expected to issue a regulation that will allow insurers to factor reinsurance costs into their rates. Reinsurance is insurance for insurance companies in the event of large payouts. That plus the other new regulations may “help in the short to mid term,” giving insurance companies the ability to raise premiums, Jones told CalMatters.
But he said those actions may “ultimately be overwhelmed by our failure to stop the fossil-fuel industry, which is contributing to rising temperatures” and therefore insurance losses.
Jones also pointed out that Florida has long allowed insurers to use catastrophe modeling and has let them factor in reinsurance costs in their rates — yet its insurance market is in worse shape than California’s.
“Florida has done what insurers are asking for,” Jones said. Yet “Florida’s rates are three or four times the national average.”
Mark Friedlander, spokesperson for the Insurance Information Institute, an industry group, confirmed that the group estimates that Florida’s average home insurance premium was $6,000, or three-and-a-half times the national average, in 2023.
In addition, Jones said Florida’s version of California’s last-resort FAIR Plan — called the Citizens Property Insurance Corp. because it’s funded with a surcharge on policyholders — has more than 1 million policies. California’s growing FAIR Plan, run by a pool of insurers, has 373,000 policies, its president told state lawmakers recently.
“That raises the question,” Jones said. “Giving insurers (higher rates) and shifting the burden to all Californians… whether that’s going to be enough in the face of growing background risk associated with climate change.”
“There is no future in which we can price our way out of this crisis with just premiums.”
— Dave Winnacker, chief of the East Bay’s Moraga-Orinda Fire District
Meanwhile, last week State Farm said that it is not renewing policies for 30,000 California homeowners, as well as refusing to cover all commercial apartments by not renewing 42,000 of those policies.
This is happening despite California approving State Farm’s requests to levy double-digit premium increases last year.
“One of our roles as the insurance regulator is to hold insurance companies accountable for their words and deeds,” said Soller, the Insurance Department spokesperson. “State Farm General’s decision… raises serious questions about its financial situation — questions the company must answer to regulators.”
State Farm spokesperson Sevag Sarkissian would not comment beyond the statement the company put on its website last week, which read in part: “This decision was not made lightly and only after careful analysis of State Farm General’s financial health, which continues to be impacted by inflation, catastrophe exposure, reinsurance costs, and the limitations of working within decades-old insurance regulations.”
Sarkissian also referred CalMatters to the Personal Insurance Federation of California, which counts State Farm as a member. The industry group’s spokesperson, Rex Frazier, said in an email last week that allowing insurers to use catastrophe modeling would help with insurance availability. Yet in its statement, State Farm acknowledged the actions Lara is taking to try to fix the insurance availability and affordability crisis in California, even as it announced its decision not to renew tens of thousands of homeowners.
“If a big chunk of your insurance rate is behind a ‘black box,’ then that’s not what the voters passed.”
— Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog
Joyce Kaufman, a retiree in June Lake in Mono County, recently got a notice of non-renewal for her homeowners insurance with Farmers, which she said she and her husband were dreading but expecting.
“I’m not really sure what the state’s trying to do, both at the commissioner and legislative level,” Kaufman said. And losing the ability to renew her policy is affecting her other insurance needs, she said. As her broker helps look for an alternative, her auto premium is now going up about $300 a year because it will no longer be bundled with home insurance.
As the new regulations give insurance companies what they had asked for, one part of Lara’s strategy — which he first laid out last year after an executive order by the governor — is conspicuously missing. Lara had said insurance companies would be required “to commit to writing at least 85 percent of their statewide market share in wildfire-distressed underserved areas.”
That provision is nowhere in the text of Lara’s unveiled regulations so far — an omission not lost on consumer groups or former commissioner Jones.
“Where is that 85 percent?” asked Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog. Soller, the Insurance Department’s spokesperson, said that part of the commissioner’s strategy is coming.
Balber also said she is concerned that the catastrophe-modeling regulation “appears to not comply with the transparency requirements of Prop. 103,” the voter-approved law that regulates the insurance industry.
According to the text of the regulation on catastrophe modeling, the public will be able to take part in reviewing catastrophe models before they’re deemed acceptable. But anyone who helps review the models will be required to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
“If a big chunk of your insurance rate is behind a ‘black box,’ then that’s not what the voters passed,” when they passed Proposition 103 in 1988, Balber said. “At the end of the day, if the commissioner passes something that hides something behind closed doors, we’ll have to consider challenging it.”
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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
OBITUARY: Donald Eugene Cloney, 1921-2024
LoCO Staff / Monday, March 25 @ 6:56 a.m. / Obits
Donald Eugene Cloney was born December 11, 1921 in
Eureka and died March 10, 2024 at the age of 102 in
Eureka. He was the son of Eugene Showers and Matilda (Johnson) Cloney
of Eureka. He was the second of four sons.
He graduated from Nazareth Academy (St Bernard School), Eureka High School, and UC Berkeley. He was a veteran of WWII, serving as a medic in the 89th Infantry, Third Army in Europe. He started working after school as a boy of 14 in the family drug store, The Red Cross Pharmacy, and after WWII came back and became a business partner with his father, then brother, and then son.
He was an active member of St. Bernard Catholic Parish, an original sponsor and promoter of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a 4th degree Knights of Columbus, member of the Native Sons of the Golden West, and a member of the Elks Lodge.
He was preceded in death by his brother Gerald R. Cloney, parents Eugene S. and Matilda J. Cloney, Patricia Mary (Brogan) Cloney: his wife of 56 years, son Joseph T. Cloney, and his brother William J. Cloney. He is survived by his sister-in-law Adella Cloney, brother Stanley E. Cloney (wife Carlotta), son Patrick E. Cloney (wife Renee), daughter Janice M. Johns (husband Bruce), 3 grandchildren: Rhiannon Johns, Gavin Johns, and Aeryn Johns, and so very many cousins, nieces, and nephews.
Rosary will be held 5 p.m. Friday, April 26 at Sanders Funeral Home with the Funeral Mass 11 a.m. on Saturday April 27 at St. Bernard Church. Reception following the Funeral Mass at the Parish Hall. Interment will be at a later date.
Memorial remembrances can be sent to St. Vincent de Paul Society, St. Bernard Church, or the charity of your choice.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Donald Cloney’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.
OBITUARY: John Credico, 1926-2024
LoCO Staff / Monday, March 25 @ 6:56 a.m. / Obits
John
Credico, a Veteran of WWII, passed away on March 21, 2024 at age 97.
John was born April 29, 1926 in Cleveland, Ohio to Anthony and
Virginia Credico. At a young age, he worked with his father
delivering 25-pound
blocks of ice, keeping the iceboxes filled for homes and businesses.
He attended Collinwood High School before enlisting in the U.S. Navy
at the age of 17. John was on the Landing Ship Tank LST 137 and
participated in the Amphibious forces on D-Day. He was a gunner on
the Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel LCVP, carrying troops to Gold
Beach on Normandy. And carried wounded soldiers off the beaches to
Navy hospital ships. While serving in the Navy, John sent incredible
letters home to his future wife, Josephine Apruzzese, expressing his
feelings for her and shared entertaining stories of his shipmates.
After the war, John returned home and married Josephine on August 23, 1947 and together they raised four children. They remained married for 69 years until Josephine passed away in 2016. John was a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather and uncle and a friend to everyone he met. He was generous, kind, thoughtful and positive. He truly was a glass-half-full person. He checked in on everyone and was sincere in his interest in what others had to say. He was the best listener. He loved his family and he loved people.
John and Josephine enjoyed traveling outside of the country. His favorite pastime was camping and together they traveled in their camper throughout the states. John was an avid runner and ran in races through his 60s and into his 70s. He was self educated, loved to read, and for years he read a book a week. He became an executive in sales until retiring in 1998. After retirement John and Josephine relocated to Humboldt County to live near their daughters. John enjoyed golfing and loved the ocean, enjoying walks on the beach with Josephine. They loved watching their grandchildren and great-grandchildren play sports and they were always seen holding hands.
In retirement John volunteered at Pacific Union Elementary School, helping in the classrooms and lunchroom. He eventually accepted a position as the school crossing guard, a job he cherished for several years. He loved the children and became good friends with many of the parents. At Halloween he was known for handing out large-size candy bars, and it was obvious that their home was the most popular home on the block. John eventually left Pacific Union School and began working at Sunny Brae Animal Clinic, welcoming and assisting clients at the door. He officially retired from employment at the age of 93.
Our hearts are broken, but we are comforted in our belief that our dad and mom are once again holding hands. Dad’s words, a few days before he passed, “I was lucky. I had a good life.”
John was preceded in death by his wife Josephine and his siblings. He is survived by his children: daughter and son–in-law, Diana and Jay Hight, son John Credico, son and daughter–in-law, Tony and Robyn Credico, daughter Vincetta Borges; grandchildren, Jason and Ally Hight, Jocelyn and Adam Figas, Stacie and Pedro Valdez, Taylor Borges, Justin Credico, Jason and Sharon Credico, Jeena and Scott Koenig and Drew Credico; his many great grandchildren, Luci, Jaron, Cadence, Calahan, Hayden, Taya, Sophie, Sophia, Cameron and Beckham and his loving nieces and nephews.
Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, March 30 at 4 p.m. at Baywood Country Club in Bayside, Ca. Donations can be made to the following Veteran’s organizations, Fisher House Foundation and Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund or a veteran organization of your choice.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of John Credico’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.
OBITUARY: Teresa Beverly Iversen, 1960-2024
LoCO Staff / Monday, March 25 @ 6:56 a.m. / Obits
Our dearest Teresa died Feb. 29 after a brave fight against cancer. Her battle ended with pulmonary embolism, a blood clot in her lungs. She was born in Cebu, Philippines on May 5, 1960 to Catalino and Sarah Mabatid. She was the fifth of six children. Teresa was raised by her grandparents and a loving aunt, enjoying a happy healthy childhood. Poverty forced Teresa to leave high school early to seek work. She found employment at Benedict Brothers, sewing handbags, backpacks and accessories.
In 2012 Teresa was introduced to a recently widowed man named Terry. Their mutual friend, Carmelita, was a former workmate of Teresa who married a man in Fortuna. She thought Teresa and Terry would be a good match. She was right! Terry first visited Teresa in 2012. He later returned to marry her in February 2014. The couple continued to communicate. Finally, Teresa arrived in San Francisco and on to Fortuna at the end of May 2015.
Teresa loved her new home and the people of Humboldt. She exclaimed, “everyone is so nice and friendly!” Terry always believed it was a natural response to her radiant smile.
Teresa enjoyed fishing at Centerville and Table Bluff beaches, walks in Rohner Park and the Gene Lucan recreation center. She was a familiar face at the local thrift shops, usually in the company of two or three other pinay.
She worked at College of the Redwoods cafeteria. She loved Anthony and the cafeteria staff and students. Teresa loved people. She liked to hear their stories. She had special fondness of Millie, Lou, Linda and Paul and Mary from Rohner Park.
Teresa was a woman of faith, a devout Catholic constantly in prayer. She truly believes in Jesus’ resurrection.
Teresa was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Catalino, Jr. and her sister Edith.
She is survived by her siblings Dina, Allen and Ging, and her devoted and loving husband Terry. Teresa is also survived by Jocelyn and David, Lyn and Chris, Bebeth and Doug, Carmelita, Perlita, Armella and many nieces, nephews and cousins in Philippines.
Thank you to the staff at Redwood Memorial and St. Joseph hospitals. A special thanks to the staff in the oncology/chemo center. Teresa loved you all.
Arrangements by Gobles Fortuna Mortuary, including shipment of cremains to Cebu, Philippines where services will be held at a later time.
Always remember, sweetheart, “Our love has no expiration.”
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Teresa Iversen’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.
GROWING OLD UNGRACEFULLY: West Side Story
Barry Evans / Sunday, March 24 @ 7 a.m. / Growing Old Ungracefully
We thrilled last week to a rousing medley of numbers from West Side Story played by a professional brass band, bringing back, for me, memories of my first year as an engineering student in London. I’d taken the tube down to the West End, where the musical had been playing for the previous two years to sell-out crowds. For four shillings, I snagged a standing-room-only spot at the back of the stalls where, for nearly three glorious hours, I was transported to Manhattan’s Upper West Side of the mid-1950s.
The magic came about via: Leonard Bernstein’s music, blending “jazz, Latin rhythms, symphonic sweep and musical-comedy conventions in groundbreaking ways for Broadway,” according to Misha Berson in the Seattle Times; Jerome Robbin’s fast-paced choreography (with probably the most dancing ever seen at the time in a musical); and Stephen Sondheim’s brilliant lyrics—astonishingly sophisticated from someone in his mid-20s. It didn’t hurt that he’d been mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II.
The basic plot was hardly original, based on Shakespeare’s tragic love story Romeo and Juliet, which itself goes back—through several iterations—at least 2000 years, to Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe, the story of two young Babylonian lovers whose parents, motivated by family rivalry, forbid them to wed. Thisbe arrives for their tryst, but flees on seeing a lioness. She loses her cloak as she leaves, so when Pyramus arrives a little later, he finds it, now torn and bloodied by the lioness. Thinking Thisbe’s dead, he falls on his sword—only to be found by Thisbe, who stabs herself. Sound familiar? Shakespeare ran with a later version of this: Romeo and Juliet came from warring families, the Montagues and the Capulets, and you know the rest.
In 1949, West Side Story was originally conceived by dancer, choreographer and director Jerome Robbins, but as East Side Story, with Romeo a member of an Irish Catholic gang, the Jets; and Juliet a Jewish girl who survived the Holocaust. Years later, after several false starts and changes of personnel, the Bernstein-Robbins-Sondheim team, working from a book by Arthur Laurents, created their groundbreaking Latin-themed musical/dance spectacular/Shakespearean tragedy. Instead of Montagues and the Capulets, it has a Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks, battling the home-turf Irish-Polish gang, the Jets. West Side Story opened to rave reviews on Broadway in 1957. The London version which I saw opened the following year with (heart be still) the late Chita Rivera as Anita.
Have you seen the movie? That is, the movies? The 1961 version was the highest-grossing film of that year, winning ten Oscars. Sixty years later, Steven Spielberg made a second adaptation of the original stage show. The divine Puerto Rican dancer and actress Rita Moreno, who played Anita in the 1961 movie (“Best Supporting Actress”), returned as Doc’s widow to sing (I’m moistening up) Somewhere There’s a Place for Us.
I can’t recommend West Side Story enough, in any of its many, many incarnations. There’s been nothing quite like it, before or since.