Last year California lawmakers agreed to expand the Cal Grant, financial aid for low-income students next spring, but only if there’s enough money in the state budget.

If dollars are scarce, some advocates say the state should pull money from a new scholarship partly for middle class students to pay for more aid to students of lesser means. But key figures in the Legislature and Newsom’s administration disagree with that approach.

“I would not pull and redirect funds that are currently serving 300,000 students,” said Marlene Garcia, executive director of the California Student Aid Commission, the state agency that handles college financial aid.

“Let me just be really clear: No,” added Chris Woods, budget director for the Senate’s top lawmaker, Sen. Toni Atkins, a Democrat from San Diego.

Both made those comments at a Tuesday forum hosted by CalMatters about the state’s efforts to provide debt-free college to public college and university students. Among the forum’s themes was whether California lawmakers should prioritize fully funding the Cal Grant, which benefits low-income students, while pulling some funding from the Middle Class Scholarship.

“I would not pull and redirect funds that are currently serving 300,000 students.”
Marlene Garcia, executive director of the California Student Aid Commission

Such a decision would have to be approved through the state’s annual budget process that requires agreement between the Legislature and the governor. The debate over what to fund and by how much will be key financial aid sticking points during budget negotiations next spring.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s top education advisor, Ben Chida, was also skeptical of shifting money from one program to another, but didn’t fully rule it out. “Probably not,” he said Tuesday. He cautioned that the answer ultimately depends on addressing the “myopic interests” of advocates, lawmakers and administrators and then “when it’s time, make sure the governor makes the decision that is maximizing the good for people who are hurting.”

How we got here

The middle class award debuted last year for roughly 300,000 University of California and California State University students. It provided nearly $3,000 to students with family incomes above $100,000, while students with household incomes below $50,000 got about $1,500 each on average.

But the scholarship excludes all community college students. Meanwhile, at least 100,0000 low-income California college students aren’t eligible for the Cal Grant, which waives tuition to the University of California and California State University while also providing about $1,650 in cash to community college students. A Cal Grant expansion would apply to community college students who don’t currently meet minimum GPAs and to university students who took more than a year between graduating high school and pursuing higher education. It would also waive age restrictions for university students. However, under the proposed expansion, some middle class students would no longer be eligible because of lower income ceilings.

Nearly 400,000 California students received the grant in 2021-22.

A budget deal reached between the Legislature and Newsom last year said the state would put up the cash to expand the Cal Grant program if budget forecasts show the money is there. This was after lawmakers expanded the grant in 2021 to include more community college students. The student aid commission last April calculated that expanding the grant to include all those people excluded would cost about $370 million a year.

“I believe that the state made a promise and the state needs to follow up on that promise and fund Cal Grant reform.”
Jessica Thompson, vice president of The Institute for College Access and Success

This year lawmakers increased the Middle Class Scholarship from $630 million to about $850 million. The Cal Grant is expected to cost $2.2 billion in 2023-24. Overall, California commits far more college grant aid than any other state in the nation, according to 2020-21 data.

The Middle Class Scholarship to date isn’t fully funded. How much it needs is a moving target, but 2022 projections suggested the state would need to pour $2.5 billion into the program.

Where the money would come from to expand the Cal Grant in 2024 is a big unknown. The Legislature’s nonpartisan budget scorekeeper, the Legislative Analyst’s Office, wrote in February that because of the state’s shaky fiscal outlook, “Cal Grant reform is very unlikely to be triggered in 2024‑25.”

One leading advocate who supports Cal Grant expansion said if funding is tight, the state should pull money from the middle class award to fully fund Cal Grant. “I believe that the state made a promise and the state needs to follow up on that promise and fund Cal Grant reform,” said Jessica Thompson, vice president of The Institute for College Access and Success, at Tuesday’s forum. She also pressed the state to increase the amount of cash support students get from Cal Grant.

Program trade-offs

Complicating the idea of pulling money from the Middle Class Scholarship to fully expand Cal Grant is the fact that many lower-income students who got the grant also received the middle class award — about 157,000 out of nearly 300,000, according to 2022-23 data that the student aid commission provided CalMatters.

Nor does the student aid commission want to tell students that the middle class award they expected would decrease.

”You face the student and tell them you’re now going to get less,” Garcia said at the Tuesday forum.

There are also key differences between how Cal Grant and Middle Class Scholarship funds reach students. The grant is a fixed, upfront amount. Students who are promised an award know exactly how much they’ll get. The middle class program is based on a complicated formula that first takes the total amount a student needs to pay for college — including tuition, housing and other costs — and subtracts all the grant aid and scholarships the student will get. The middle class award also assumes students will work enough to earn about $8,000 a year that they can use to pay for college costs. Families with incomes above $100,000 also pitch in more as part of the state’s debt-free promise.

Federal data that CalMatters analyzed show that while California public university students with low and moderate incomes pay among the lowest amounts for the total cost of college, families with incomes above $110,000 pay above the national average.

Still, another analysis shows that low-income families pay a far greater share of their incomes than those with higher incomes to support students enrolled at California’s public universities — or take out loans.

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

Kayla Grace Mack, 26, of Arcata, passed away on October 10, 2023. Born on April 18, 1997, in St. Louis, Missouri, Kayla was a vibrant, beautiful, and loving soul with a heart filled with love and generosity. Kayla’s smile brilliantly filled every space she entered and she was deeply adored.

Kayla was a beloved daughter of Kiana Kelly (Mack). She was also a cherished sister to Jalen Kelly and Aaron Kelly. Kayla was a loving godmother to her only godson, Aiden Files. She was also survived by her tribe of loving aunts: Pamela Dennis (Ferguson), Kristina Newland, Rheiya Florance (Saunders), Shalonda Ingram, Keba Bell (Pace); great-great aunt Martha James; grandmother Janice Wortham; great-aunt Helen Harmon (Archer); great-uncle Lewis Archer; great-uncle Clifford Archer; great-uncle Joe Mack, and great-aunt Thelma Mack; cousins Jourdan Archer-Sizemore, Gamal Mack, Imani Mack, Tahir Mack along with an abundance of family and friends.

In her educational journey, Kayla attended Holman Elementary in St Louis, Missouri, where she began her relationship with instrumentation. Kayla was a talented musician playing seven instruments and excelling in the viola. In addition to instruments, Kayla was a beautiful songstress with a melodic range.

Kayla attended Webster Groves High School in St. Louis and was the only black female wrestler on her team. She was affectionately nicknamed the “Headlock Queen” for her ability to subdue her opponents. Kayla continued the family tradition of track & field, and thrived in volleyball, tennis and chess. Kayla later graduated from South Fork High School in South Florida. She went on to pursue higher education at Santa Fe College in Gainesville.

Kayla worked a variety of jobs throughout her life, but had no dream job, because “she did not dream of working.” Kayla’s true passion lay in being an incredible daughter, big sister, friend, and a godmother. She inspired and lent counsel to everyone she knew. She was known as the Thrift Queen, always on the lookout for unique finds. Kayla had a keen sense of fashion, loved makeup, enjoyed line dancing, camping, decorating and nature.

Services for Kayla will be held privately.

Kayla Grace Mack will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved her. Her vibrant spirit and loving nature will forever be remembered and cherished. May she rest in peace.

If you or anyone you love struggles with suicidal thoughts, please call 988. Please know that you are valuable and the world needs you.

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Katherine “Kathy” Holland, age 77 of Loleta, passed away on Wednesday, October 11 at home with her beloved dogs Charlie and Missy by her side.

Kathy was born in 1946 in Scotia. She graduated from Grizzly Bluff Elementary in 1960 and Ferndale High School in 1964. She enjoyed gardening, fishing and riding horses.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Jake and Babe Hawkins; husband Darrell Wyman; and husband James Holland.

She left behind her sister, Linda Anderson (Ted Anderson); three children, James Holland, Jody Holland (Christine Holland) and Pamela Thorpe (Matt Thorpe); as well as six grandchildren — Allen and Katie Holland, Justin and Austin Thorpe and Josiah and Xxander Holland; and many nieces and nephews.

She was surrounded by loving family and friends and will be missed dearly.

Spreading of ashes and celebration of life will be held at a later date for immediate family and close friends.

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Donald Forrest, a beloved local actor and core member of Dell’Arte International’s original ensemble of performance artists, died at his home on Wednesday due to complications from COVID-19. He was 73 years old.

“He lived a very full life,” Michael Fields, a dear friend and colleague of Forrest’s, told the Outpost in a recent phone interview. “We were roommates in the early years of Dell’Arte and we ended up doing all kinds of stuff together all over the world. He was outgoing and incredibly generous. He was a brilliant actor. I mean, just absolutely brilliant. I’ve worked with some good ones but he was at the top because he just had an innate, uncompromising ability to focus on the work.”

Photo contributed by Fields.

Forrest was born and raised in Michigan. Before making his way to Humboldt County to join Dell’Arte, he performed on Broadway and was involved in “the super alternative, Lower-East Side theater scene” in New York City “where he worked with some of the greats,” Fields said. He was also involved in the San Francisco Mime Troupe, Pickle Family Circus and Make*A*Circus.

“He was part of a lot of the movement,” Fields said. “He brought physical theater to new heights.”

Shortly after moving to Humboldt County in the mid-1970s, Forrest joined Dell’Arte, where he eventually would join Fields and Joan Schirle in sharing artistic director duties for the theater company and school.  

Eventually, he met Nancy Stephenson and the couple had a son, James Forrest. He also became a stepfather to Stephenson’s daughter, Amelia Rudnicki.

“When his son was in grade school, [Forrest] started a theater program at Blue Lake School because he had always wanted to do something with kids,” Fields said. “I would say that changed Dell’Arte’s relationship with the town. He got the eighth graders to do a play every year that he would direct and it was put on in the Carlo Theatre, you know, a full production with lights, sets, sound, everything. They felt like they were on Broadway. … A lot of those kids remember Donald to this day because of those plays.”

Forrest, along with several other locals, had a cameo in the 1995 thriller Outbreak, in which he played Mark Mauldin, according to IMDB.

Most recently, Forrest took on the title role of Terry “King” Lear in “The Logger Lear,” an original production written by Fields loosely based on “King Lear” by William Shakespeare. The play, which ran at the Logger Bar in Blue Lake just a couple of weeks ago, explored the idea of legacy and what we leave behind when we die.

“There’s a line in there about regret, and the way you lift yourself out of regret is to do the things you love,” Fields said. “And for him, acting was the love of his life. We had talked about him doing this for a while and, as we get older, we start thinking of different things – different things become important. … It’s like the last role, and it’s about the end of life.”

Fields will host a wake for Forrest at the Logger Bar in the next month or so, likely in early December. 

Press release from the Eureka Police Department:

On October 23, 2023, at about 11:55 a.m., Humboldt Bay Fire (HBF) responded to the report of smoke in the greenbelt north of the Bayshore Mall. Upon arrival, HBF located a smoldering fire at an encampment. During fire suppression efforts, HBF personnel located human remains. Eureka Police Department (EPD) Criminal Investigations Unit (CIU) Detectives and the Humboldt County Coroner’s Office responded and processed the scene.

This is an active investigation and EPD is asking if anyone has any information surrounding this incident to please contact EPD Detective Donald Bailey at 707-441-4215.

Press release from 350 Humboldt:

On October 26 a group of local activists from 350 Humboldt will be seen once again along California-Highway 101 carrying alarming messages about looming climate-change-driven sea level rise. “With climate change, sea level rises. Within 30 years, this road will be underwater” messages read. Like the Burma-Shave advertisements many people will remember from days past, activists will stand one-by-one down the highway, about 100 feet apart, each carrying a few words of the message that could be read sign-by-sign as drivers passed. This will be their third action in the past 2 months. Each action has been on a different roadway to attract attention to the widespread nature of projected sea level rise impacts to come.

Although many people are peripherally aware of sea level rise threats, activists believe that the public is not yet aware of how quickly it will come and how drastically it will impact their everyday lives. “The public generally acknowledges the reality of climate change,” local activist Jamie Blatter shares. “But they don’t all believe that climate change will impact them significantly in their lifetimes. We are trying to show them that this couldn’t be further from the truth.”

For many motorists in the area, portions of the road they rely upon will become impassable within a few decades. This is true of many other areas in the region, including Highway 101 south of Bracut Road, Bayside cutoff, G street south of 1st street in Arcata, Highway 255 between Arcata and Samoa, a large swath of King Salmon, and other locations. Fields Landing could flood from emerging groundwater. An additional present concern is the 41 miles of dikes on Humboldt Bay that were not designed with sea level rise in mind. If these dikes fail, which could happen at any time rather than decades from now, thousands of acres would flood on a daily basis, putting critical utility and transportation infrastructure at risk immediately. These projections are based on existing and moderate levels of emissions, which scientists agree is virtually certain to occur. In fact, sea level rise is occurring at a significantly more rapid pace than predicted, which is also true of many other disasters caused by climate change. Because climate change impacts become “locked” into the climate system and are not quickly or easily reversed, a damaging amount of sea level rise is unavoidable regardless of actions taken today.However, swift and bold action is still urgent, as unchecked emissions will only make projected sea level rise worse. If we take bold climate action now, catastrophic levels of sea level rise will still occur but we can reduce the amount of loss and damages that we and our children will face.

“I am standing out here today because 30 years is not that far from now,” says local climate activist Gail Coonen. “My youngest grandchild will be just 30. Wherever he goes in the world, he will experience the impacts of catastrophic climate change.”

Activists plan to continue holding similar demonstrations throughout the region to alert motorists to the mounting climate impacts that are well underway. “People slow to read the signs, and it is obvious that some people were impacted, and even shocked, by what they were seeing” says local activist Kasia Tomkiel.

To get involved in local climate action, visit 350 Humboldt at https://world.350.org/humboldt/

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Press release from the Yurok Tribe:

Earlier this month, Yurok condor A6 (Me-new-kwek’, “I am bashful or shy”), along with several other condors in the new population, fed on a poacher-killed elk within Redwood National Park in the Bald Hills of Humboldt County. In a routine autumn health check conducted a few days later, five out of eight birds were found to have concerning levels of lead in their blood. For seven of these birds, this event was likely their first time accessing food not provided by the Northern California Condor Restoration Program (NCCRP), based on the intensive daily monitoring. Due to the timing, visual observations and other factors, the illegally killed elk is believed to be the source of the toxin uncovered during the birds’ health assessment.
 
Of the five birds, Me-new-kwek’ (Condor Recovery Program Studbook 1101: wing tag designation A6) was the only one whose lead level came back higher than the identified treatment threshold, warranting immediate medical intervention for lead poisoning.
 
While in hand, lead chelation therapy was initiated on Me-new-kwek’ at the NCCRP’s Condor Release and Management Facility in Northern California. The condor was transported the following day to Sequoia Park Zoo (SPZ) and received a series of x-rays to determine if there were lead fragments still in his digestive tract. The scan came back clear, indicating that what he ingested would have been dust-like in composition. After completing one round of chelation therapy at SPZ (5 days of injections and fluids), his blood lead level had decreased to below the treatment threshold, and Me-new-kwek’ was returned to the NCCRP flight pen. He will remain in the pen to improve his health before release, and to serve as a mentor for incoming birds. The chelation drugs (Calcium EDTA) are designed to bind to the lead in the condor’s system while extra fluids dilute the high levels of lead subsequently passing through liver and kidneys to minimize organ damage. This therapy is hard on the birds, tiring them considerably, but it has been used to reduce lead levels over the decades of the recovery efforts.
 
Foraging on opportunistically found food is part of becoming a wild condor, but unfortunately feeding on animals harvested with lead ammunition comes with a big risk for this recovering species.

Lead poisoning from ingestion of lead ammunition is the single largest threat to free-flying condors. Lead exposure has hindered recovery efforts throughout the condor’s current range in the US, including California, Arizona, and Utah. Many hunters and poachers shoot large game through the vitals (the heart and lungs) to quickly dispatch their quarry.  These parts often comprise a portion of the gut piles left behind, and frequently contain high quantities of lead if lead bullets are used to dispatch the animal. A very small piece of the soft metal is enough to make a scavenging animal ill, and can even kill a condor, eagle, or most any other scavenging bird. Lead ammunition mushrooms and fragments upon impact with an animal, scattering countless particles within the tissues. As obligate scavengers which rely solely on carrion, condors (prey-go-neesh in Yurok) will feed on these remains. Gut piles from non-lead shot game provide a clean source of sustenance for condors and other wildlife. In 2019, California banned the use of lead bullets for hunting in the state.  
 
The return of the condor to Yurok ancestral territory and the cultural and ecological restoration of the landscape requires a transition to non-lead ammunition. The Yurok Tribe has worked for over a decade on non-lead outreach prior to the arrival of the prey-go-neesh, with growing investment by local partners such as Green Diamond Resource Company who last year joined the North American Non-lead Partnership which includes over 40 organizations committing “to collaborating with hunters to improve ecosystem health for scavenging wildlife.” Hunter involvement is invaluable in decreasing the amount of lead on the landscape. A similar educational approach has been successfully employed, through the hard work of the Peregrine Fund and the Arizona Game and Fish Department, in Arizona to reduce lead poisonings among their condor populations. Efforts to reach out to ever more hunters and land managers who use ammunition in hunting or as a management tool continue. Less than a month ago, another condor safely consumed her first wild meal. A7 (He-we-chek’, “I am healthy”) fed on bear and deer carcasses harvested on the Yurok Reservation by tribal members with non-lead ammunition provided by the Yurok Tribe’s Hunters as Stewards Program, demonstrating success in building relationships with hunters. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s California Condor Recovery Program and the partners including the NCCRP have been working diligently to educate the public about the dangers of lead ammunition to condors and other wildlife and reduce this threat since it was identified. This poaching incident remains under investigation by law enforcement staff with Redwood National & State Parks and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. 

Poachers are harvesting game illegally and are difficult to reach. Many likely harvest game to feed themselves and families, and are encouraged to consider that lead is not only toxic to scavenging wildlife, but also to humans. It is especially detrimental to developing children and through pregnant and nursing mothers to their babies and unborn fetuses.
 
Given it is likely that the poached elk was Me-new-kwek’s first wild meal, this emphasizes the harsh reality that condors face as wild birds. Fortunately, Me-new-kwek’ survived and is doing well, but this incident serves as a reminder that lead ammunition is a huge obstacle to condor recovery. This is no longer about merely working toward a lead-free landscape for future condors. Me-new-kwek’, one of only eight free-flying condors in this region, has already been negatively impacted by lead and five of the eight Yurok condors have been exposed to the toxin. Please help us encourage the use of non-lead ammunition – tell your friends, family members, and neighbors, or talk to your local outdoor or outfitters store. If you want resources to help communicate the dangers of lead ammunition, please visit our Hunters as Stewards page or huntingwithnonlead.org. For help finding non-lead ammunition, please check out Ventana Wildlife Society’s RimfireRoundup.com.
 
The NNCRP is a partnership between the Yurok Tribe and Redwood National and State Parks. Last year, NCCRP released the first condors to flyer over far Northern California in more than a century. The NCCRP is the newest release site in the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service-led California Condor Recovery Program. Together the partners in the recovery program have grown the free-flying population from a low of 22 birds in 1982 back to over 300 today.
 
NCCRP staff would like to express our gratitude to Sequoia Park Zoo for their dedicated care of Me-new-kwek’, Oakland Zoo for their knowledge and support in beginning his treatment, and all of our supporters for their wholehearted advocacy in returning condors to Yurok Homeland.
 
If you would like to learn more about the NCCRP, please visit our website or Facebook page.

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