Root and Rebound is an Oakland-based organization that provides legal help and advice to people who were recently arrested and/or convicted of a crime get back on track. They’re going to be coming up to Humboldt and Del Norte counties for a few free, in-person clinics week after next, and they’re looking to give you a hand.

You can get the flier for their upcoming schedule in Humboldt and Del Norte at this link. The text of it is reproduced below.

From Root and Rebound:

Root & Rebound will be partnering with Hupa Family Resource Center, the Yurok Reentry Program, Humboldt State’s Project Rebound, and Jefferson Community Center to provide free legal services for people who have a conviction and/or arrest record in California.

These clinics will provide information on employment rights with a conviction, new laws that lower court ordered debt, and the expungement process. We can also provide one-on-one legal information and assist in getting a copy of your RAP sheet (the first step in getting an expungement). If you would like to get a RAP sheet, please bring a government-issued photo ID.

• Jefferson Community Center Clinic
  Tuesday, April 19, 2022, 11 am - 2 pm
  1000 B. St, Eureka, CA 95501
  
• Hupa Family Resource Center Clinic
  Tuesday April 19, 2022, 5 pm - 7 pm
  82 Willow Ln., Hoopa, CA 95546
• Klamath Clinic
  Wednesday, April 20, 2022 3 pm - 5 pm
  230 Klamath Blvd., Klamath, CA 95548
• Crescent City Clinic
  Wednesday, April 20, 2022, 10 am - 1 pm
  College of the Redwoods
  884 W. Washington Blvd., Rm 23, Crescent City, CA 95531

RSVP

To RSVP, visit this link.

You can also call Root & Rebound at (510) 279- 4662 or email shurt@rootandrebound.org. Walk-ins welcome.

Paula Cortez Medrano has worked in the agriculture industry since she arrived in the U.S. over 25 years ago.

She has labored in the heat of Fresno summers, picking onions, tomatoes, grapes, and garlic and in the freezing temperatures of local produce packing houses, where she would wear two layers of pants to stay warm while assembling frozen fruits and vegetables to be sold in grocery stores across the country.

She contracted COVID-19 during the pandemic and was sent home from work with only two weeks of paid sick leave. It took her 40 days to recover, but when she returned to her packing house job, she was turned away.

“They told me that they had no more work for me, that it was really slow,” she said in Spanish in an interview with The Bee.

The 66 year-old said she thinks she was turned away because of her age; they never called her back to work. Today, she sells tamales as a street vendor in central Fresno, earning an average of $80 a day, much less than the $15 per hour she earned in the packing house.

Because of workers like Cortez Medrano, California Democratic lawmakers want to extend unemployment benefits to undocumented workers, a proposal backed by a new report by the UC Merced Community and Labor Center which makes the case for why the California economy, workforce, and families would benefit.

Introduced last month by Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia, a Democrat from Coachella, and currently under review in the legislature, AB 2847 would create the Excluded Workers Pilot Program, a two-year program that would provide funds to undocumented workers who lose their job or have their hours reduced during the calendar year 2023. The proposal, estimated at $597 million, plus administrative costs, would allow qualifying, unemployed individuals to receive up to $300 a week for 20 weeks.

The report, released Thursday, argues that undocumented workers play a key role in California’s economy, contributing an estimated $3.7 billion in annual state and local tax revenues. Additionally, these workers hold one in 16 jobs in the state, many of whom were deemed “essential workers” during the COVID-19 pandemic because of the risks they took working in the agriculture fields, meatpacking houses, and other key industries.

An estimated 2 million undocumented individuals live in California with about 1.1 million of that population participating in the workforce.

Of the 1.6 million workers in the central San Joaquin Valley, an estimated 7% are undocumented, the report states.

Nearly 38% of noncitizen workers, and more than 61% of children living with noncitizen workers, live in households earning less than a living wage and face chronic and severe housing and food insecurity, the report states. “Unfortunately, such workers face high rates of extreme hardship and do not have access to unemployment benefits.”

The report concludes that the challenges facing undocumented workers are only likely to increase as a result of a number of environmental challenges like wildfires, earthquakes, extreme heat, and drought, piled on top of the ongoing public health crisis the state is already grappling with.

Cortez Medrano said access to unemployment benefits from a pilot program would be “la gloria,” or glory, and that she would use such funds to pay rent, bills, and buy food during her time without stable work.

“I need the help – urgently,” she said in Spanish. “It’s high time.”

Beyond access to unemployment, Cortez Medrano said what she really wants is a work permit to make her job search easier. “I can still work,” she said.

High risk, few safeguards for undocumented workforce

UC Merced researchers found a relationship between in-person work, unemployment benefits usage, and the undocumented workforce.

Workers in the industries with the highest COVID-related deaths also reported the lowest rates of unemployment insurance use.

Immigrants made up nearly 60% of coronavirus-related deaths in California’s industries with the highest rate of pandemic-related deaths. Immigrants were the majority of deaths in agriculture at 83%, landscaping, 81%, food processing, 69%, restaurants and food services, 53%, and building services deaths, 52%.

Undocumented workers in these industries were especially vulnerable because they had no source of wage replacement in the event of job loss. They are excluded from collecting benefits, even though they contribute to the unemployment insurance system.

“Lacking a safety net benefit system, many undocumented workers often felt as if they had no choice but to continue working — facing unlawful working conditions that caused serious risks to their own and others’ health — in order to meet their financial commitments,” researchers said the report.

Access to unemployment benefits could have prevented some of these deaths. “When workers don’t have access to unemployment benefits, they’re more vulnerable,” said Edward Flores, professor of Sociology and researcher at the UC Merced Community and Labor Center.

On the flip side, researchers found that workers in industries that have low rates of in-person work and higher rates of unemployment use didn’t see such high increases in pandemic-related death.

Researchers concluded that “economic aid is an important tool that safeguards the health and wellbeing of workers and their families during a public health crisis.”

California offered some support during the pandemic. Undocumented workers were eligible to receive up to $1,700 in state funds: a $500 COVID-19 Disaster Relief pre-paid card and $1,200 from the Golden State Stimulus Fund.

Still, the report calculated these benefits were 20 times less than the $36,000 in economic aid that California citizen workers received from a mix of unemployment insurance, federal pandemic unemployment compensation, and federal stimulus aid during the first year of the pandemic.

Meanwhile employers in these industries reported record profits during the pandemic. In 2021, Fresno County saw record-breaking production, while meat processing company profits soared during the pandemic.

“Low earnings and a lack of a safety net, however, pose an ongoing threat to the economic stability and wellbeing of workers who created such wealth,” said the report.

Part of the solution, according to the UC Merced researchers, is for the state to address this “policy gap” by taking advantage of the budget surplus and lessons learned from the pandemic.

“It took the Great Depression to create the New Deal and a lot of the worker protections that exist today, like unemployment (insurance) or Social Security,” said Flores of UC Merced.

“Our state is at a similar historical juncture where we experienced a once-in-a-lifetime crisis, but then have an abundance of wealth to think about how to manage,” he said.

California saw a $38 billion state budget surplus in 2021 and a $31 billion surplus in 2022.

“This is an opportunity now for policymakers to close on the policy gaps not just for now, but also for any subsequent public emergencies that happen in the future,” Flores said.

California has extended state benefits to undocumented immigrants. In 2020, the state allowed qualifying low-income undocumented immigrants to qualify for the California Earned Income Tax Credit, a state tax credit worth hundreds of dollars. Last year the state made the historic move of offering public health care to undocumented Californians 50 years and older.

But not everyone agrees with the idea of extending benefits to the undocumented.

During the initial months of the pandemic, when California announced the $125 million emergency relief fund that provided assistance to undocumented workers, The Center for American Liberty and Dhillon Law Group filed a lawsuit to try to block the aid package Newsom had already approved.

Eulalio Gomez, a spokesperson for the Fresno County Republican Party, said the proposed program is a reflection of how Sacramento is “disconnected” from middle-class California residents.

Gomez said undocumented people do “work hard,” but he thinks providing them with unemployment benefits could attract more unauthorized immigration and hurt California’s citizen workforce.

“I think there could be negative impacts on unions and union members if you continue incentivizing people to come here,” he said.

But the UC Merced researchers say there isn’t any evidence this would happen.

“It hasn’t happened when we expanded health coverage; it hasn’t happened when we removed exclusions to the CalEITC (Earned Income Tax Credit),” said Ana Padilla, executive director of the UC Merced Community and Labor Center. “There is no reason to believe it would happen in this case.”

In addition, Padilla said, many recent migrants have been moving away from California in recent decades due to the high cost of living, which is causing the state’s workforce to shrink.

‘There’s no water, there are no jobs,’ say some Valley farmworkers

An estimated 852,065 immigrants in California lost their jobs when the pandemic first hit in the spring of 2020, including 357,867 undocumented workers, according to a separate June 2020 policy report from the UC Merced Community and Labor Center.

The state’s frontline workers are facing additional threats posed by climate change phenomena, which will impact the number of jobs available to such workers, resulting in displacement and income loss, said the report.

Already an estimated 8,745 full and part-time jobs were lost last year due to the drought in the Central Valley, the Russian River Basin, and Northern Intermountain Valleys regions.

The undocumented workforce has been in decline over the past decade, according to Flores of UC Merced, and the number of people retiring is growing — developments that are causing “seismic” demographic changes in the state’s workforce.

“We need to have a workforce that’s supported by the state that can continue to (afford to) live in the state,” he said. “Otherwise, the state’s workforce is going to continue to shrink and the economy is going to have trouble growing.”

Carlos Morales left his home in Coquimatlán, Colima, a small coastal state in Mexico, to work in California’s Central Valley over 15 years ago.

The 40-year-old has worked in Fresno County’s agriculture fields, harvesting crops like peaches, nectarines, plums, and more. Now he worries about future job prospects for himself and his fellow undocumented workers. “There are many fields where the farmers have stopped growing,” Morales said in Spanish in an interview with The Bee.

Word is starting to spread among certain parts of the county workforce that “no hay agua, no hay trabajo,” said Morales. “There’s no water; there are no jobs.”If the proposed Excluded Workers Pilot Program is approved, California would join states such as New York and Colorado that have recently launched similar initiatives. New York’s Excluded Worker’s Fund has distributed $2 billion dollars to over 128,000 undocumented New Yorkers, while Colorado’s Left Behind Workers Fund distributed millions of dollars to thousands of undocumented workers.

As for Morales, he said he wants state and federal leaders to know that undocumented workers have labored constantly during the pandemic, and should be helped in return.

“Supposedly we were essential workers,” Morales said. “We’re making this country strong.”“Volteen a vernos un poquito más,” he said. “Turn around to see us a little bit more.”

Melissa Montalvo is a reporter with The Fresno Bee and a Report for America corps member. This article is part of The California Divide, a collaboration among newsrooms examining income inequity and economic survival in California.

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

Laurada was born on June 10, 1931.  She was the youngest of three beloved daughters born to Paul and Henrietta Mudgett.  Laurada’s family were founding pioneers of the Rohnerville and Fortuna communities.  She was very proud of her family history and of all the contributions they made.

Laurada’s childhood was idyllic.  Summers were spent at the family cabin at Big Lagoon enjoying the ocean air, sunshine and hunting for agates.  She worked at the family business, Bowman’s Rexall Drugs and graduated from Fortuna High School in 1949.  She attended business school at Penn Hall, returning to Fortuna in 1951. 

Laurada married Roy Curless on her 25th birthday.  In 1959, they purchased the Hazelton Ranch on the outskirts of Fortuna and made it their home for 63 years.  Son John was born in 1961, followed by daughter Mary in 1965.  Family meant everything to Laurada.

The third week of July was always spent participating in the Fortuna Rodeo and the week-long activities - an event the family has been involved with for many years.  Following Rodeo Week were the yearly camping trips to Loon Lake where the family spent the days waterskiing and making life-long friends.  Those vacations are fondly remembered for mom’s Harvey Wallbangers, taco salad and beer-berry pancakes.  Christmas was a favorite time for Laurada as the entire family gathered at the Mudgett house.  There was always lots of laughter and gin fizzes to go along with the gifts.  Laurada believed the greatest gift was being with her family.

In 2006, Laurada was diagnosed with cognitive memory disorder – a precursor to dementia.  She endured a slow decline with the loving support of her family.  Thank you to the Patmore family, the staff at 1st Choice Assisted Living, Sequoia Springs Memory Care and to Hospice of Humboldt for providing Laurada with kindness and loving care in recent years.

Laurada was pre-deceased by her parents Paul and Henrietta Mudgett, her sisters and their husbands, Elinore and Darrel Palmer and Anne and Dusty Turner and her mother and father in law, Viola and Guy Curless.  Laurada is survived by her husband of nearly 66 years, Roy Curless, son John Curless and his wife, Valerie Hipkins, daughter Mary Curless Smith and her husband Grant Smith, grandchildren Joe Curless, Kate Curless and Shannon Smith.  Laurada is also survived by her nieces and nephews and their extended families.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in memory of Laurada Mudgett Curless to Hospice of Humboldt or Miranda’s Rescue. 

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Laurada’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.

Susan Marie Strickler-Tustison passed away peacefully on February 27, 2022, after a long hospitalization with COVID. She was surrounded with love from her family and friends, and she will be missed by all who knew and loved her. She was 59 years old at the time of her passing.

Susie was born at the Mission Hospital in Huntington Park, California on Sept. 26, 1962. She lived with her parents, Sandy and Ed Strickler, and her sister Shirlie in Pico Rivera for one year. Then the family moved to Fullerton, where Susie spent her entire childhood. She attended the Fullerton schools, receiving her High School Certificate of Proficiency at the age of 16. She then attended classes at Fullerton College.

Throughout her life she was sweet, kind, friendly and cheerful. She loved animals of all kinds. Her first job was at the Tropical Fish and Bird Store in Fullerton and she later worked at a Flower Shop in Whittier. She raised prize winning Guinea Pigs with the 4-H club and raised a pig at Sunny Hills High School. She had a horse and always dogs, cats, fish and birds and later in life chickens and even peacocks.

Susie always had a passion for music. She set out with her musician sweetheart Rick Tustison in 1983 at age 20. Their plan was to leave Southern California and drive north “until it gets pretty”. They landed in Humboldt County, and spent some time living in their car at Pamplin Grove campground, and in Eureka. Susie loved the natural beauty of the area and especially the redwood forests. Eventually they moved into their new home on the outskirts of Eureka towards Freshwater.

In 1984, Susie and Rick got married and had their first daughter, Angela. They also moved into a new place closer to Freshwater, where they would live for the next 18 years. In December of 1988 they had their second daughter, Chelsea. Susie was a very loving and dedicated mother. She taught her children to respect all living things, to be kind and to see people without judgement. She always cared deeply about animals, the environment and other people.

Susie was often introverted and could be self conscious, but she was good at making friends. The people who knew her could tell that she was a good, kindhearted person. She enjoyed singing, and she and Rick would often have their friends over to sing together while Rick played his guitar. Susie especially loved songs with good lyrics, and she enjoyed these evenings of laughing and singing with her friends and family.

Susie was very artistic. She loved drawing, painting, and sculpting with fimo clay, and she would try out any type of art or craft project she could get supplies for. She would create beautiful pieces to sell each year at the holiday boutique at Freshwater Elementary School. She fostered a love of the arts and music in her children from a very young age and encouraged each of their special talents.

In July of 1999, Susie and Rick had their third child, Sullivan. Susie always did her best to make life fun for her children. She would sing silly songs around the house, come up with fun projects, and was very engaged with their interests. During the summertime each year, she would take the kids to visit her family in Southern California. Some of her favorite places to go were Disneyland and Catalina Island. She always enjoyed sharing these parts of her childhood with her kids. She also enjoyed long summer camping trips in the redwoods at Swimmer’s Delight with her family.

In 2002, Susie and her family moved to Trinidad. While she lived there she enjoyed gardening and spending time outside. She liked having kids around, and she was always happy to have Sullivan’s friends over. As the years passed, she began to struggle with her mental health. This and other issues caused tension in her relationship, and eventually she and Rick parted ways.

After leaving Trinidad, she lived in her van for about a year before moving into an apartment in Arcata with her dog, Laddie. She enjoyed visits from her children and grandchildren, as well as lots of friends. After the time spent living in her van, she had plenty of empathy for other people who didn’t have housing of their own, and she often let her friends stay with her in the apartment. This and other issues ended up with her losing the apartment.

Susie spent the last 12 years of her life homeless. She met her partner Robert Ganfield shortly after leaving the apartment, and they camped together in Mckinleyville near the Hammond Trail. She had lots of friends in the area that she visited with often, and there was never any shortage of love for her. Many aspects of homeless life were very hard for her, but she took joy in the simple things. She could often be found pedaling her tricycle down the trail or sitting in the grass, enjoying the sunshine, picking flowers or listening to music and dancing.

Susie was always thoughtful and kindhearted. She was a truly beautiful person. Her love and acceptance for the people around her, her deep caring about living creatures and the environment, and her cheerful, fun loving spirit were some of the many admirable qualities she possessed. She had a wonderful and profound influence on her children, family and friends. It’s hard to imagine a world without her.

Susan is preceded in death by her grandparents, Nelson and Lorraine Smith, her father Ed Strickler, and many animal companions. She is survived by her children Angie, Chelsea and Sullivan Tustison, her grandchildren Daymond and Daphany Brown, her mother Sandy Trusley, her sister Shirlie Jones, her partner Robert Ganfield, her lifelong friend/ sister Karen Clark, her Aunt and Uncle Sally and Ben Waldrop, her neices and nephew Penny, Jamie and Brady, and too many friends to count. Susie cared a lot about animals, the environment, and other people. If anyone would like to make a donation in her honor, donations can be made to Redwood Pals Rescue, EPIC, Arcata House Partnership, or another similar charity of choice.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Susie’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.

Robert L. McAfee passed away peacefully at his home in Eureka on March 27, 2022 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Born to Roscoe and Gladys McAfee in Brawley, California on June 14, 1952, Robert attended Mulberry school and was a graduate of Brawley Union High School, class of 1971.  Robert worked for Pinner & Sons before he moved to Eureka and married his wife Stephanie Miller on December 10, 1988. Robert worked for Eureka Redi Mix and Mercer-Fraser. Robert greatly enjoyed his travels to Mexico with Stephanie, friendships with many wonderful friends and colleagues, music, great food and wine, and collecting art. His kindness and friendship will be greatly missed, and he will always be admired for his strength and loving spirit.  

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Robert’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.

Howard Stroud Penn, age 95 of Fortuna, died on February 6, 2022, of a COVID-related illness.

Howard is survived by Gail Pelascini (daughter), Andrea Pelascini (granddaughter), his sister Sibyl Spencer, and Scott and Esther Dungan (nephew). He was preceded in death by his wife Billee, brothers Stanley, Marshall, Larry, Greg, and William.

Howard was born on March 8, 1926 in Ontario, Oregon to parents Stella and Themis. He attended school in Ontario. He served two years in the Navy from 1944 - 1946. After the Navy, he moved to Humboldt County. He worked on a dairy in Ferndale for several years before taking a position with Pacific Lumber Co. where he worked for almost forty years as a catskinner.

He married Billee Dungan in 1950. Howard Penn was a great family man and a loving father. Howard enjoyed woodworking, reading, talking with folks, people watching and old westerns featuring John Wayne. His family and friends will always remember him as a kindhearted, generous person who knew no strangers and had no enemies.

Graveside service will be held at the Hydesville I.O.O.F. Cemetery, 3630 A Street, Hydesville, CA on Sunday, May 15 at noon. A Celebration of Life will be held from 1pm-4pm following the graveside service at the Fortuna Volunteer Fire Department at 320 South Fortuna Blvd. Fortuna, CA.

In lieu of flowers, please make memorial contributions to the Fortuna Volunteer Fire Department, 320 S. Fortuna Blvd, Fortuna, CA 95540 or the Walker Bailey American Legion Post 205, PO Box 205, Fortuna, CA.

PREVIOUSLY: Supervisors Approve 320-Unit McKay Ranch Subdivision in Cutten Despite Developer’s Refusal to Make Any Project Modifications

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A coalition of environmental groups has issued a letter to the county demanding additional mitigation measures for the North McKay Ranch subdivision, a large-scale mixed-use development approved by the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors last month.

The letter was sent on behalf of six nonprofit environmental organizations: the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), Humboldt Baykeeper, the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities, the Northcoast Environmental Center, 350 Humboldt and San Francisco-based EarthJustice. 

The organizations say that by approving the project’s Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR), the county violated state environmental law by failing to adequately analyze project impacts and refusing to require the developer, Kurt Kramer, to implement feasible mitigation measures such as all-electric new construction.

Regarding that latter allegation, the letter says, “There is no legitimate basis for the County’s refusal to approve this feasible mitigation measure, which both addresses the climate emergency and allows for new construction that in most cases is more economic than mixed-fuel homes due to avoided gas line installation costs.”

The letter says that if the Board of Supervisors certifies the project’s FEIR, it will place the county “in legal jeopardy.”

At its March 22 meeting, the board directed staff to negotiate additional conditions, including one that would allow the developer to make improvements to pedestrian and bicycle connectivity rather than installing the two traffic lights.

The environmental groups note that final action on the project is currently scheduled for the board’s meeting this Tuesday, and they urge the board to act.

“We write to clearly and unequivocally demand additional feasible mitigation measures including a prohibition on gas connections to the Project’s buildings that are necessary and required to reduce the [greenhouse gas], energy, and public health impacts resulting from the Project’s current reliance on methane gas,” the letter says.

You can read the full thing via the link below:

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DOCUMENT: Comment Letter on Final EIR for the North McKay RanchProject