Paula Casillas Taizan was born in San Gabriel, California on January 25, 1927. She passed away on Wednesday, July 31 peacefully in her sleep in Eureka at age 97. She was the six child of 12 of her parents Alejandro and Trinidad Salazar.

Paula lived most her entire life in the San Gabriel Valley, where she enjoyed a large extended family of loving relatives. She had many great memories of her time in Southern California: The big family gatherings, watching her children and nieces and nephews playing sports from track and swim meets to tennis and baseball … never missing a sports competition despite her work schedule. She loved attending as many of her beloved Dodger games as possible and witnessed the pitching of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Orel Hershiser. She absolutely adored Tommy Lasorda, Vin Scully, the “penguin” Ron Cey and catcher, John Roseboro. She was a baseball fan through and through.

In her early years she had great stories of traveling north to the Gilroy/San Jose area and picking fruits and vegetables with her family. During World War II her family kept and maintained a large Victory Garden. She loved flying the U.S. flag and was very patriotic.

After high school she went to work as a house cleaner and later she worked in a plant nursery. After World War II ended, she met an Army man, Savino Casillas, who had returned home from the Battle of the Bulge in Europe. He had his own car and wore blue suede shoes. She was smitten, especially when he let her take his car on her own! They were married soon after. After the wedding, she found her true calling when she took a job as a nurse’s aide in a care home. She loved working with her patients in these homes and was often asked to become a private nurse for others that traveled. But had to decline due to her own family’s needs.

Paula and Savino had two children, Robert Paul and Martha (Marty.) Paula and Savino had a happy marriage that lasted 38 years until she lost him in 1991.

She met and married her second husband, German Taizan, on a senior casino trip. They had 20 happy years together, the last 18 of them in Eureka when they moved north to be near Marty. They were a popular pair around town and the casinos, often dressing alike.

Paula loved doing a lot of life’s important things like dancing, eating popcorn, making trays of the best cheese enchiladas, eating ice cream (and finishing other people’s ice cream). When she moved to Eureka in 2006 she was active in T.O.P.S. and really enjoyed their many social luncheons. She made friends easily and her smile always just lit up a room. She was the best mom, she worked hard and never missed birthdays, holidays or a chance to celebrate events with her family. She was a master at crocheting blankets and towels for friends and acquaintances. She constantly made blankets for the area’s care homes. She was a selfless, caring individual that immediately made you feel at ease with her genuine personality and interest in your life. She was a gift to everyone and will be sorely missed. She especially enjoyed visits from anyone, but especially her local friends Bonnie, Judy and Eloise and Virginia. And especially loved all her relatives that kept in touch with phone calls, cards and visits. It meant a lot to her.

Paula was preceded in death by her parents, Alejandro and Trinidad Salazar, her first husband, Savino Casillas, her son, Robert Paul, her siblings Jesus Salazar, Conrado Salazar, Esteban Salazar, Matilde Diaz, Catalina Martinez, Alejandro Salazar, Gilberto Salazar, Rosendo Salazar, Margarita Garcia, niece Christine Allen and nephews Gilbert Salazar Jr., and Daniel Martinez.

Paula is survived by her second husband, German Taizan, daughter Marty Casillas (Karen), brother Richard Salazar (Herminia), sister-in-law Socorro Salazar and brother Raymond Salazar. Paula also has numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and extended family. She’s also survived by German’s son, Ruben, and daughters Santana and Grisel.

She loved her life. All 97 years.

The family would like to thank the staff at Especially You for all their tender care. Prior to her stay there, she enjoyed the staff from Visiting Angels. And we’re especially thankful for the incredible team at Hospice of Humboldt. Thank you.

Services will be held on August 14 at 10 a.m. in San Gabriel at Pierce Brothers Turner and Stevens Mortuary 1136 East Las Tunas Dr., San Gabriel, CA. (626) 287 0595. She’s going home.

Cards can be sent to Marty at her home address or to P.O. Box 6732 Eureka, CA, 95502.

UPDATE, Aug. 9, 1 p.m.: 

The day after the Board of Trustees’ decision reported below, AMG Communities - Jacobs, LLC, issued a statement confirming the dissolution of the agreement, though the mysterious corporation says it was their idea to back out of the deal. Read the statement (and a response from Eureka City Manager Miles Slattery) here.

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Original post:

The Board of Directors Trustees of Eureka City Schools announced tonight that it will not agree to any further delay of the deal to sell the Jacobs Campus to a mysterious developer who promised nearly $6 million for the blighted property. 

Assistant Superintendent Paul Ziegler told the board after a closed session period that “AMG Communities - Jacobs,” the anonymous corporation that had outbid the California Highway Patrol by some $2 million for the property, had asked for yet another extension to close the deal, which was first agreed to back in December 2023.

“What I will say is the district has done everything in its power to be able to close by tomorrow’s deadline,” Ziegler said, speaking of the end of the term of the most recent escrow extension. “We are poised and ready to do so. However, AMG has indicated that it is not prepared to close and has instead asked for an additional extension.”

Ziegler went on to say that it has been “a long, interesting road to get to this point” but this particular road should end here.

“AMG has had plenty of time to perform and do what it needs to do to come to the table to close, and as I said just a minute ago, they’re not prepared to do so,” he said.

Eureka City Schools Board President Susan Johnson asked for clarification. 

“My understanding is that they’re asking for another fairly lengthy extension, and if we do not accept this extension, which is kind of what — which is the direction … that you’ve given us and that we’ve given you — that means that,” she stopped herself. “What does that mean? That means that this deal is is off and we’re done? What does that mean?”

Ziegler said that the agreement will almost certainly terminate tomorrow, and “by Monday morning, we have no further agreement with AMG.”

As the meeting wound down, Eureka City Schools District Superintendent Gary Storts said the potential sale of the Jacobs Campus will be brought back to the board at subsequent meetings to allow them to consider other options. The California Highway Patrol has remained in negotiations with the district to acquire the property, according to a Times-Standard story from last month. 

Trustee Lisa Ollivier said the board’s goal is “to benefit our students as much as possible, and that has not changed.”

The meeting concluded shortly thereafter. Ziegler told reporters that a $100,000 deposit from AMG will be returned, per the terms of the most recent escrow extension agreement. He also said that AMG had requested another extension “out past November,” which would have put the hypothetical close of escrow beyond Election Day, on Nov. 5, when the fate of the “Housing for All and Downtown Vitality Initiative” will be decided.

To briefly recount how we got here: Last December, in a move that has been roundly condemned for its lack of transparency and due diligence, the Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees unanimously agreed to enter a “land exchange” agreement with a secretive corporation called AMG Communities - Jacobs, LLC, which had been created just two days earlier.

Per the terms of the deal, the district agreed to swap 8.3 acres of the vacant Jacobs Campus site for a 0.125-acre residential property, plus $5.35 million in cash. By organizing the deal as a land exchange rather than a standard sale, the district cleverly sidestepped California Education Code requirements for the sale of surplus property.

The agreement came as a shock to the California Highway Patrol, which had been in negotiations with the district for years to purchase the Jacobs site and convert it into a new regional headquarters. But the CHP’s most recent offer, $4 million, fell a full $2 million short of what AMG was offering.

In the nearly eight months since that deal was struck, the close of escrow has been delayed again and again, and while AMG Communities - Jacobs, LLC set up a website explaining that it’s backed by “a small investment firm” and inviting people to submit questions via email, it has steadfastly refused to identify who’s behind the corporation. 

The company insists that Rob Arkley is not an owner or investor in AMG Communities, but documents turned over in response to a California Public Records Act request revealed that Arkley was involved in negotiations with Eureka City Schools in the weeks leading up to the school board’s December decision. In fact, emails exchanged prior to the deal show that district personnel, including then-Superintendent Fred Van Vleck and Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Ziegler, believed they were negotiating with Arkley’s representatives on the property exchange arrangement.

Furthermore, the few people who have been identified as working on behalf of AMG Communities have direct ties to Arkley. For example, San Diego attorney Bradley B. Johnson, who signed the Jacobs property agreement as an agent for AMG Communities and whose company, Everview Ltd., is listed in escrow documents as the purchaser of the I Street property, works extensively with Security National, the real estate mortgage servicing firm founded by Arkley.

Johnson is also the Secretary and Chief Financial Officer of Citizens for a Better Eureka, a Security National-funded political group that filed a series of lawsuits against Eureka aimed at halting affordable housing developments downtown. And Johnson is working as legal counsel for the backers of Measure F, the pro-parking ballot measure otherwise known as the “Eureka Housing for All and Downtown Vitality Initiative.”

As reported last week by Thadeus Greenson of the North Coast Journal, a woman named Sara Lee once acted as a spokesperson for AMG Communities-Jacobs LLC, and a Sacramento-based political consultant with that same name turned up on the latest “Housing for All” campaign finance disclosure forms. Security National paid her $11,192 for consulting work related to the ballot measure.

Despite these connections, Gail Rymer, a spokesperson for both Security National and Measure F, insists, “No one from Security National, the Housing for All Initiative or Citizens for a Better Eureka have any involvement with the Jacobs property swap.”

An email sent to AMG Communities - Jacobs, LLC, this morning asking about the status of the pending deal was not returned.

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NOTE: Outpost Editor Hank Sims contributed to this report.

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PREVIOUSLY:

• Who Will Get the Former Jacobs Campus? Bidders for Blighted Site in Highland Park Are the City of Eureka and the California Highway Patrol, With a Decision Coming Soon
• The CHP Would Like to Build New Headquarters on the Property Championed by People Opposing Downtown Housing Development, and There Was a Meeting About it Yesterday
• Open Letter Urging Eureka Voters Not to Sign the ‘Housing For All’ Petition Endorsed by 100+ Humboldt County Residents, Including Local Leaders in Politics, Business and Culture
• New Coalition — ‘I Like Eureka Housing!’ — Formed to Oppose Arkley-Backed Pro-Parking Lot Initiative
• Mystery Item on Tonight’s Eureka City School Agenda Suggests Imminent Action on Jacobs Campus, but the School District Won’t Share Details
• Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees Unanimously Votes for So-Called ‘Land Exchange’ With Mystery Developer
• The Eureka City Schools Board Voted on a Resolution Last Week That Was Not Published Before the Meeting. Is That Legal?
• At Town Hall Meeting, Frustrated Residents Discuss Future Development of Eureka’s Jacobs Campus; Mystery Developer Still Mysterious
• Security National Has Spent at Least $236,000 on the Pro-Parking ‘Housing for All’ Initiative So Far
• Grand Jury Slams Eureka City Schools For ‘Secretive’ Jacobs Campus Deal
• League of Women Voters Chimes in on Lack of Transparency in Eureka City Schools Property Transfer
• Rob Arkley Pursued Purchase of Jacobs Middle School Property Before Eureka City Schools Entered Land-Swap Deal With Secretive Corporation
• Eureka City Schools and AMG Communities Delay the Close of Escrow on Jacobs Campus Yet Again

Press release from Redwood National and State Parks:

On August 7th at Redwood National and State Parks, under clear skies and a canopy of coastal redwoods, 50 people raised their right hands to become the newest citizens of the United States. The applicants came from 22 countries around the world, including South Africa, the Philippines, Italy, and Laos.

The event opened with the national anthem sung by Park Ranger Paige Lebs. Several dignitaries, including North Coast Redwoods District Superintendent Victor Bjelajac and Humboldt County Supervisor Steve Madrone, offered welcoming remarks noting the symbolic connection between the support that citizens in America give one another and how redwood tree roots support each other.

The newest citizens and their family members were able to celebrate this momentous occasion in one of their new country’s most breathtaking places. For many, it was their first visit to the park, and they stood in awe beneath the 286-foot tall Big Tree.

United States Citizen and Immigration Services and the National Park Service have a signed a Memorandum of Understanding that advances the meaning and stature of citizenship by building connections between new citizens and America’s parks. Signed in 2006, and renewed in 2021, the agreement has led to special naturalization ceremonies held at many of the 430 places safeguarded by the National Park Service.

Ceremonies are held in such iconic places as Ellis Island, Yosemite National Park, Cesar Chavez National Monument, Acadia National Park, Death Valley National Park, and numerous memorial parks on the National Mall. The renewed MOU further strengthens collaborative efforts to hold ceremonies at locations that best represent the strength and spirit of the United States and supports the promotion of citizenship and naturalization. Redwood National and State Parks is honored to be a part of such an important event in the lives of those who participated in the ceremony.

FRIDAY UPDATE: 

Eureka Police Department press release:

On Thursday, August 8th at approximately 10:30 p.m., Dakota Wilkins (age 18 from Arcata) was identified in the vandalism case from 8/7/2024. The suspect admitted to conspiring and taking part in the vandalism and was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility for felony vandalism and conspiracy. If you have further information about this incident, place contact Det. Sgt. Cory Crnich at 707-441-4300.

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Original post:

Eureka Police Department press release:

On Wednesday, August 7, at approximately 9:15 pm, Eureka Police Department Officers responded to a report of a vandalism which just occurred on the 1700 block of S Street. Upon arrival, officers discovered someone had sprayed painted derogatory and racial slurs on two vehicles and on a residence. Officers later located and arrested an adult and a juvenile suspect. The juvenile was booked into Juvenile Hall for felony vandalism and conspiracy. 18 year old Blake Richardson of Eureka, was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility for felony vandalism and conspiracy. This is an active and ongoing investigation that will include determining if this incident meets the elements of a hate crime.

If you witnessed or have information about this incident, place contact Det. Sgt. Cory Crnich at 707-441-4300.

“Are you prepared to be a role model?”

That was the question posed to Phyllis Zweig Chinn when she interviewed for a position at what was then Humboldt State University 50 years ago.

“I said, ‘Well, I am a female and, by virtue of that, I am certainly going to be a role model to women students, but I don’t have a chip on my shoulder about it,’” Chinn recalled in a sit-down with the Outpost at her Sunny Brae home last week.

“Which was kind of true until I got here,” she added, laughing. 

Chinn became Humboldt’s first female math professor in fall 1975. When she started, women could be fired for getting pregnant. Workplace sexual harassment was years away from being a recognized concept. And the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which allowed women to open bank accounts or lines of credit without a male co-signer, had passed just one year prior.

Yet over the next 35 years, from a home base in Arcata, Chinn would go on to publish over 60 “highly-cited” works and collaborate with some of the most renowned mathematicians of the time. She also served as Math Department chair and the founding faculty advisor of the university juggling club.

At 82, Chinn is small in stature and quick to smile. During our interview, she wore a T-shirt for a “Feminist Connections Throughout Education” conference she helped to organize in 1982 that brought women in academia from across the country – including feminist activist Angela Davis – to HSU.

Chinn rocking a tee for a 1982 feminist conference she organized. Photo: Gillen Tener Martin.

Chinn’s affinity for the sciences began with her father, a pharmacist, who she said passed his love of the discipline on to her when he didn’t have a son. 

As an undergrad at Brandeis University, Chinn thought she’d major in chemistry.

“The first day of class, the professor said, ‘You girls better forget about getting good grades, the guys need them to avoid the draft,’” she remembered. “By the end of the semester, I was no longer chemistry.”

After making the switch to mathematics – which she said she liked in part because she was good at it – Chinn graduated as the only female math major (out of four overall) in the class of 1962.

A year later, armed with a master’s in teaching from Harvard, she took the clearest path available to women in mathematics at the time: educating children. Swiftly realizing the junior high classroom was not suited to her goals, Chinn jumped on an opportunity to teach at the university level the following year.

“I decided I wanted to teach mathematics, not children,” she recalled. “For middle school kids, those two seemed pretty incompatible.”

Over her ensuing climb in academia, through years of teaching at teachers’ colleges and working to achieve her Ph.D, she lived moments that may have turned other women away from mathematics.

In Chinn’s case, underestimation seemed to egg her on.

When a male roommate at the University of California, San Diego told her she’d never succeed, she decided “if he could get a degree, so could I.” 

When her thesis advisor told her that if she studied under him for three years, she’d understand enough that he could pick her thesis topic for her, she switched schools.

“‘Stick with me for three years and I’ll tell you,’” Chinn remembered, adding: “That was not appealing to my worldview.”

Moving from San Diego to Santa Barbara to complete her dissertation not only brought her to the field of math she’d go on to spend the majority of her career in – graph theory, which Chinn described as the study of relationships – but also to her husband Daryl, who chaired a human relations committee at the University of California, Santa Barbara. 

“I saw his name in the campus newspaper and called him up and asked, ‘Are you going to be doing sensitivity group training?’,” Chinn remembered. Daryl answered “yes,” they were focusing on interracial relationship building on campus. The year was 1967, and UCSB was still “an almost wholly white enclave” (as historian Robert Lloyd Kelley wrote).

After they married, Chinn recalled attempting to renew a credit card with her new last name and being told, “‘We don’t give credit cards to women of productive age.’”

“They meant ‘reproductive’ age,” Chinn clarified. 

As she remembers, she asked for a supervisor, threatened a lawsuit and received the card

“She’s not a radical,” Daryl chimed in, noting that Chinn didn’t burn her bra or frequent feminist demonstrations. But, he added, she would have been serious about the lawsuit if she hadn’t gotten the card. 

Chinn and her husband Daryl. Photo: Phyllis Zweig Chinn.

When Chinn arrived at Humboldt, there was only one other tenure-track female professor in the College of Sciences outside of the nursing program: biology professor Sue Lee, who’d started at what was then Humboldt State College in 1969. 

In an email to the Outpost, Lee said that while she felt generally supported and valued by colleagues in the male-dominated sciences departments, her fellow professors were “a product of their times” and she did experience instances of workplace sexual harassment. 

“But being a product of my times too, I just did the best I could to avoid circumstances where that could happen,” Lee wrote.

In the Math Department, Chinn said she felt an unspoken sentiment among male colleagues that women were unsuited for the field. Nonetheless, when a tenure-track position opened at the end of her first year – she went for it.

“When I got it, there were certainly some people who said quietly that they thought it was because I was a woman,” she said.

Women students at the time also endured sexism in the College of Sciences, according to Lee,  and “many” came to the women staff and faculty with frustrations about “inappropriate attitudes and behavior displayed by their male professors.” 

“I was dismayed to say the least,” she wrote, adding that female staff in the College of Sciences shared her concerns. In response, Lee co-founded a student group called WINS (Women in Natural Resources and Sciences) alongside Jan Turner and Melanie Johnson, both of whom were administrative assistants in the sciences, which provided opportunities for women studying math, engineering, nursing and science to learn from women working in the field. 

In a similar effort to smooth the path toward math and science for women, Chinn worked with Lori Dengler, professor of geology and resident North Coast earthquake/tsunami expert, to coordinate Expanding Your Horizons in Science and Math, which hosted annual conferences for girls grades 7-12.

During Chinn’s first semester at Humboldt, she became pregnant with her second child. Through a combination of luck and planning, both of her children were born in June – providing maternity leave in the form of summer breaks roughly 20 years before maternity leave was introduced. The next year, she said she surprised colleagues by nursing her son Wesley during meetings. 

“Some of the male professors were kind of like, ‘Whoa, that’s pretty radical,’” she remembered with a smile.

By her recollection, Chinn remained the only tenure-track woman in the Math Department for more than a decade. And over the next three, she published on graph theory and combinatorics – a subfield of math concerned with counting and arranging – with preeminent mathematicians worldwide. 

On the scale Erdős numbers, which denote the distance between mathematician Paul Erdős and another individual, as measured by academic papers, Chinn scores a one – meaning she published a paper with the distinguished Hungarian. 

And Ronald L. Graham, renowned in the field of discrete mathematics, was instrumental in teaching Chinn to juggle, a hobby she said she was drawn to specifically because it was something for which she had “no natural aptitude” and wanted to see what it would take to overcome her lack of knack.

When she organized a graph theory/combinatorics conference with Joe Buhler, another juggling mathematician, she said they invited all the other mathematical jugglers they knew.

“This was an NSF [National Science Foundation]-paid juggling conference,” she laughed. 

In the 1980s, she became the first faculty sponsor for a group of student jugglers who wanted to form a campus club. The organization lives on as the Humboldt Juggling Society today, and Chinn remained an avid juggler until she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 2015. 

Chinn juggling. Photo: Phyllis Zweig Chinn.

Outside of math, Chinn taught classes in women’s studies, education and teacher preparation, science, interdisciplinary studies and religious studies. 

“I probably taught a class in more different departments on campus than anybody before or after me,” she said, adding that her son learned to crawl in a women’s studies course she taught. He went on to become the “token male” women’s studies major in his class at Harvard. 

But teaching prospective teachers was Chinn’s passion. As a proponent of “discovery method” learning, Chinn’s style focused on having students explain their reasoning and collaboratively think through alternative ways of doing things. She shared her philosophy with the teachers she taught, many of whom went on to become educators locally.

“Phyllis showed me not to be afraid of math,” said Loretta Eckenrode, a former student of Chinn’s who taught at Garfield Elementary and now serves as chair of the Humboldt County Office of Education Board of Trustees. “There’s a lot of kids and adults who say, ‘I’m not good at math, I can’t do that,’ and that wasn’t an option with Phyllis.”

Between 1992 and 1996, Chinn co-directed Project PROMPT (Professors Rethinking Options in Mathematics for Prospective Teachers) with Cal Poly’s Dale Oliver to increase interest and skills in mathematics teaching. Chinn was also a director of the Redwood Area Math Project (an outpost of the California Math Project) which ran summer camp-style sessions for teachers already in service.

“We went to camp and had a really good time – we spent 10 days just doing math,” said Eckenrode, who participated in RAMP. By expanding the number of ways she could understand and teach a concept, Eckenrode said she gained tools to help students for whom things weren’t clicking.

“I still see teachers who will tell me how much of a difference it [RAMP] made in the way they taught,” said Chinn, who considers herself a teacher of teachers (and mathematician) before trailblazer or glass ceiling-breaker.

As women’s representation at universities and in the workforce has grown – female students made up 58 percent of total undergraduate enrollment and male students made up 42 percent in 2021, according to the National Center for Education Statistics – their representation in lucrative and growing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields has continued to lag behind. 

In fall 2023, women students made up 55 percent of Cal Poly Humboldt undergraduates. Comparatively, women will make up 34 percent of math major students (and 24 percent of overall Math Department faculty) this fall, according to Administrative Assistant Victoria Petrillo.

Chinn’s story reflects many of the factors studies find explain the gender gap in STEM, from stereotypes to “math anxiety” among teachers (the majority of whom are women).

After 35 years of teaching, Chinn retired from the university in 2010. 

Today, she volunteers with the international peace organization Servas United States and the Red Cross. She also participates in a local support group for Parkinson’s and national studies of the disease.

“I felt that if I am going to have Parkinson’s, at least I can do everything I am able to contribute to the science of understanding and treating it,” she said.

Chinn said she’s grateful for changes she’s seen over the last 50 years as the university has become – in her eyes – a place more aware of the value of diversity. To this day, describing actions taken by Cal Poly Humboldt, Chinn still uses the term “we.”

To learn more about Chinn’s life, listen to an interview with her daughter, opera singer Hai-Ting Allison Chinn, for the StoryCorps Archive here. 

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Press release from Congressman Huffman’s office:

San Rafael, CA – Today, U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) announced that tribes in Northern California have received $88 million in funding from the Department of Energy’s Grid Resilience and Innovative Partnerships (GRIP) program to transform one of the state’s least reliable electrical circuits into a highly resilient renewable energy system.
 
“The current system providing energy to the tribes in Humboldt is woefully inadequate, and these tribes deserve better,” said Rep. Huffman. “Our district and tribes are once again paving the way for rural and underserved communities. Thanks to our partnership between tribal leaders, private entities, and Cal Poly Humboldt, the energy grid is going to get a long-overdue, state-of-the-art update. This project will significantly advance tribal energy sovereignty – all while improving reliability, climate resilience, jobs equity, and clean energy innovation.”
 
The 142 mile-long “Hoopa 1101” distribution circuit provides electricity to three tribes in eastern Humboldt County – the Hoopa, Yurok, and Karuk Tribes – who jointly experience some of the most frequent and longest duration outages in California. These three tribes are collaborating with the Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe, located along the Baduwa’t River in coastal Humboldt, the Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA), Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), and the Schatz Energy Research Center at Cal Poly Humboldt, to co-develop nested microgrid solutions.
 
In July, Rep. Huffman wrote to the Department of Energy to advocate for this project to receive federal funding, saying: “This project in the rural north of my congressional district brings together four tribes and other partners to build critical infrastructure in highly vulnerable and underserved communities that need reliable and decarbonized energy systems.”
 
The Hoopa 1011 circuit serves 2,200 customers but is one of the least reliable circuits in California. It experiences 100 hours of blackout annually and has no capacity for new development. Blue Lake Rancheria, the Hoopa Valley Tribe, Karuk Tribe, Yurok Tribe, Redwood Coast Energy Authority, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, and the Schatz Energy Research Center will work together on the TERAS project to build microgrids on the circuit with 24/7/365 reliability and more than 20 MW of new renewable energy capacity. The project is cost effective compared to the $1 billion cost to underground and harden the Hoopa 1011 circuit through conventional means.
 
As Chairman Russell “Buster” Attebery of the Karuk Tribe said, “More often than not, the disadvantaged community of Panamnik (Orleans) is faced with power grid blackouts and shortage of resources due to its remote location. Microgrid energy will not only empower our tribal sovereignty, but provide the safeguards needed to survive along the river. Our people will no longer fear losing their food or vital medical resources, like vaccines, as we have in the past. TERAS is a great example of tribes working together in accomplishing good for their people; we are proud to be a part of this collaborative.”
 
Yurok Tribe Chairman Joseph L. James said, “This project dramatically improves energy resiliency on our reservation and represents a major step toward our goal of energy sovereignty. I would like to thank the DOE for the award and our fellow tribes, RCEA, and the Schatz Energy Research Center for working with us to develop a resilient network of tribally owned microgrids to power our homes, schools, government buildings, businesses, and community centers.”
 
“The Hoopa Valley Tribe is deeply honored to be a part of the Department of Energy’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program along with our esteemed project partners. The Hoopa Valley Tribe has always been a steward of our natural resources, and this award enables us to further our efforts in ensuring tribal energy sovereignty and environmental protection for our community. We look forward to leveraging this opportunity to build a resilient and sustainable energy future for our tribe and beyond,” said Linnea Jackson, General Manager of the Hoopa Valley Public Utilities District.

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Christian Figueroa isn’t jumping on the Kamala Harris bandwagon. He doesn’t need to: The San Gabriel Valley native has been on board ever since her first presidential campaign sparked his passion for politics when he was 13.

“To say it had an impact on me is definitely an understatement,” Figueroa said, recalling his trip to Los Angeles Southwest College in 2019 to hear the then-U.S. senator speak. “My life is politics. I feel like I sleep, eat and breathe politics.”

Even for young people who aren’t as politically aware, the presidential race — particularly Harris, who officially secured the Democratic nomination this week — has been front and center in the social feeds of young voters through memes and other fan edits featuring her speeches and signature laugh.

Democrats are hoping, whether it’s because of her record or the good vibes online, that young voters will turn out at higher rates and boost Democrats in competitive House races, including in California.

Besides voting for president for the first time, Figueroa, a 19-year-old Stanford student, is trying to do his part by working as an organizer with Youth Save Democracy and as one of the youngest California delegates to the Democratic National Convention later this month, when Harris formally accepts the nomination.

This week, Harris is barnstorming battleground states alongside her new running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a favorite of progressives and young voters. Walz went viral for using “weird” to describe former President Donald Trump and his vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.

Figueroa says that and other Harris memes can only help: “Whether excitement will get you across the line in November or not, certainly from my perspective, it is fueling a lot of the donations, fueling the volunteer base and fueling the grassroots efforts across the country.”

Young voters more excited by Harris than Biden

Since President Joe Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris on July 21, analysts and young people interviewed by CalMatters agree, the vibe has shifted. Renewed enthusiasm online is one measure.

Another barometer: Polling conducted in the days after Biden’s stunning withdrawal from the race found 72% of registered voters 18 to 29 said they were either “very likely” or “almost certain” to vote in the presidential election. That’s up from 64% in a poll earlier in July.

But perhaps more important, particularly for down ballot candidates, is the flood of donations. Last week, the Harris campaign announced it raised $310 million during July.

Before Biden’s withdrawal, many Democrats worried about the down ballot impacts of an unenthusiastic party base, particularly among young voters.

While the Harris campaign may be flush with cash, it is short on time to reintroduce her to Democratic and undecided voters, with less than 90 days before Nov. 5.

“I think all of the momentum and activities that we’ve been seeing can grab the attention of young people, maybe get them to give her a chance. She still has to have the goods.”
— Mindy Romero, founder and director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at USC

What’s helping is young people creating viral social content — for free. In recent weeks, coconut emojis, Brat green tinted fancams and “Veep” memes have cast the vice president as a relatable, quirky leader for voters who get their news mostly from their social feeds.

For those not as much in the know, the coconuts are a nod to a viral line from one of Harris’ speeches (“You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”), Brat green is the color of British artist Charli XCX’s viral “Brat” album and “Veep” is the HBO comedy starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

“They’re effective for what she’s trying to do, which is create some initial excitement and get some dollar donors in,” said Martin Bertao, chairperson of the California College Republicans and a 19-year-old UC Berkeley student voting in his first presidential election.

Celebrities with followings among young voters are also supporting Harris in ways they were not backing Biden. Appearances by artists like Megan Thee Stallion and Quavo at Harris’ Georgia rally last week were an attempt to portray her as young, vigorous and fun, said Mindy Romero, founder and director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at the University of Southern California.

“I think all of the momentum and activities that we’ve been seeing can grab the attention of young people, maybe get them to give her a chance,” said Romero.

But she stressed that Harris must still lay out a policy platform that young people can believe in: “She still has to have the goods.”

Why young people don’t vote

In California and across the country, those between the ages of 18 and 24, have historically voted at a far lower rate than every other age group.

In the 2020 presidential election, turnout among voters 18 to 29 spiked 11 percentage points to 50%, which was key in helping Biden defeat incumbent Donald Trump. But that was still significantly lower than the 66% turnout for all voters. In California, just 47% of eligible young voters cast ballots, compared to 67% of the entire eligible population.

Nationally, reasons for lower participation include young people’s tendency to move a lot, having class on Election Day and some states not accepting student IDs as a form of identification for voter registration.

But another cause is that young voters may not know their influence, said Andrea Hailey, CEO of Vote.org, a get-out-the-vote technology platform.

“Young people are the largest voting bloc in America when they decide to show up, and they have an incredible amount of power, and can really change power dynamics in the United States if they use their voice,” Hailey told CalMatters.

Students register to vote at Sacramento State University in Sacramento on Oct. 20, 2022. Photos by Rahul Lal, CalMatters

There are 41 million Gen Z eligible voters, including 8 million who turned 18 since the 2022 primary elections, equating to about a fifth of the electorate.

The Harris campaign is relying on young voters, who tend to lean more liberal regardless of party affiliation, to boost her campaign in swing states.

Vote.org announced that it saw the largest-ever surge in voter registration in the 10 days after Biden’s announcement. In California, there were 11,583 new Vote.org registrations — 80% of people were between 18 and 34 years of age.

Before that, the biggest spike was in September, when Taylor Swift posted a link to Vote.org on her Instagram story.

“It’s going to give us an edge in tapping into first-time voters, independents and folks that were otherwise going to stay home,” Hailey said of the shakeup at the top of the Democratic ticket.

Which issues do young voters care about?

Harris must still convince California’s young voters, many of them further left than the national party, that she can deliver a progressive agenda on issues they care about.

“One of the key things that sticks out to me is how Harris has been tough on oil and gas corporations in her career,” said Ariela Lara, 18, who lives in the Bay Area and works as an organizer with the Sunrise Movement, an advocacy group on climate action.

Lara said she wants to see Harris go further than Biden on climate issues and commit to declaring a national climate emergency, embrace a “Green New Deal” and end approvals for new oil and gas projects. As vice president, Harris largely agreed with Biden and touted the climate investments made by the Inflation Reduction Act. During her time as California attorney general, she sued automotive and gas companies for environmental violations.

“With her just like getting so much support from young people, there’s also a level where that support comes with expectations,” Lara said.

Olivia Johnson, a 19-year-old studying mass communication at Cal State LA, said that Harris’ stance on gun regulations is important to her: “Her campaign’s been teaching me a lot of things about policies and how they’ve been affecting us — especially gun laws because mass shootings are very scary.”

Johnson said she’s also energized by Harris’ stances on abortion and healthcare, and that she feels better about her first vote in a presidential election than when Biden was the nominee.

“I know a lot of people who had health issues like breast cancer, miscarriages and abortions,” she said. “Having access to health care is really important to me, especially as a lot of people I grew up around are low-income and rely on Medicare.”

“Obviously, Kamala being a younger candidate for the Democrats, it’s definitely going to energize more Gen Z of that typical liberal vote that was considering not coming out.”
— Martin Bertao, chairperson of the California College Republicans

Harris’ generally slight policy differences with Biden could help her with young voters, according to Dean Bonner, a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. The war in Gaza is one example where taking a different tone than Biden could win her support from young people passionate about seeing an end to the violence.

Harris was notably absent when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress last month. Then after urging him to pursue a ceasefire during a White House meeting, Harris said she would “not be silent” about the suffering of Palestinians.

Beyond policy, Bonner said that the history Harris could make as the first woman, Asian and woman of color to be president is likely to bring out young people.

“I do think that Harris has fundamentally changed what’s going to happen with the younger folks in this election,” he said.

Will young voters decide the House?

California is solidly Democratic in presidential elections, so Gen Z voters could have a bigger impact further down the ballot, particularly in a half-dozen key U.S. House races.

In 2022, Republicans swung three seats to help the GOP take control of the House. In the 13th District centered on Modesto, Republican John Duarte beat Democrat Adam Gray by just 564 votes — and the youth turnout was only 23%. The pair have a rematch in November, and the results could be different if more young voters show up.

“Obviously, Kamala being a younger candidate for the Democrats, it’s definitely going to energize more Gen Z of that typical liberal vote that was considering not coming out,” said Bertao, the California College Republicans chairman. His organization will be working to bring out young conservatives, particularly conservative leaning Gen Z men, to support Duarte.

Duane Dichiara, a campaign strategist for Duarte, said he isn’t concerned about the potential increase in young voters. “My guess is that in working class districts like CA-13, younger voters are going to be even more inclined to vote Republican because working class people across the board are voting more Republican,” he said.

In each of the other five battleground districts, registered Gen Z voters would have been enough to flip the races, according to data from the Center for Inclusive Democracy.

According to some recent polling, Harris is leading Trump by 18 percentage points among young voters 18-29. When Biden was the nominee, he trailed Trump by 8 percentage points among the same age group. With the top of the ticket generally driving turnout in presidential election years, if large numbers of young people come out to support Harris, it may push other Democrats across the finish line as well.

“You can do everything right, but if the top of the ticket isn’t there, the political climate isn’t there, a lot of voters will stay at home,” said Giovanni Chavez, president of California Young Democrats.

Now, he said, “a lot of these swing district candidates are filled with hope.”

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