Carl Meyers, 87, of McKinleyville, passed away peacefully in the sanctuary of his home on July 11, with his beloved wife, Rhonda, and daughter, Emily, holding his hands.

Carl was born in the Bronx in 1936, but raised in the East Bay area of Northern California. There he developed a love of nature, learning new things, playing tennis, and figuring out how to take apart and fix almost anything. In his 40’s he moved up to Arcata to study biology and botany and he found the place where he felt truly at home. Carl always had an enthusiastic joy sharing his knowledge of native plants and birds with anyone and everyone. Working at the Arcata Co-op he met the love of his life, Rhonda. They were married for 42 years. Together they experienced the joy of raising their daughter Emily and later welcoming their son in law Jerrod into the family. When granddaughters Sadie and Simone arrived, Carl was overwhelmed with love for these two precious young girls. Through his final days, he still couldn’t believe how lucky he was to be their grandpa

Community activism and volunteer work were always important to Carl. He was a docent at the Arcata Marsh, and worked for Friends of the Dunes, California Native Plant Society, Redwood Alliance, The Environmental Center, Food for People and many more fine organizations. Later in his life he discovered a talent for drawing and shared his beautiful pictures of birds on notecards and prints. Drawing gave him another connection with nature and with his many artist friends.

As well as being a beloved husband, father and grandfather, Carl was a dear brother, uncle, friend to many and a dedicated cat dad.

A memorial service and celebration of Carl’s life will take place on Wednesday, August 2, at 11 a.m., at the Humboldt Unitarian Fellowship, at 24 Fellowship Way, Bayside, CA. Reception to follow.

Carl and his family would be honored for any donations to be made in his memory to the local organization Food for People. 

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Local opponents of the City of Eureka’s plans to build housing on underutilized downtown parking lots say that they’ll be taking their fight to the voters.

Just recently, they filed a “notice of intent” to circulate a petition to put an initiative on the ballot — one that they say would amend the city’s General Plan to stop the parking lot conversions.

The notice of intent was signed by former mayoral candidate and “Take Back Eureka” leader Michelle Costantine, and by local financial planner Mike Munson. Both are also members of “Citizens for a Better Eureka,” a Security National-led coalition that has filed lawsuits against the city in an attempt to achieve the same end.

Recognizing the need — and indeed, the state-mandate — for new housing, including below-market-rate housing, within city limits, the proponents are offering a different vision: Put all the new apartments out by Winco. The ordinance’s proponents believe that the 14-acre Jacobs Campus, an abandoned school in the Highland Park neighborhood, has more than enough space to accommodate all the new development the city needs for many years.

But it’s unclear whether rezoning the Jacobs Campus for housing would actually result in new housing development there. The City of Eureka has been trying for some time to purchase the Jacobs Campus for just such a purpose, but so far the district has been unwilling to sell the land. Most recently, it rejected a bid from both city government and the California Highway Patrol, which is looking to build a new headquarters locally. The Outpost’s recent emails to school district leadership to inquire about the status of the Jacobs Campus have not been returned.

A press release from Costantine and Munson, sent by the Tennessee-based public relations consultant Gail Rymer, who has recently been representing Arkley in Eureka housing-development matters — others‘ and his own — is below.

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DOCUMENT:

• “Notice of Intent to Circulate Petition,” July 12, 2023.

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Two local citizens are spearheading a ballot initiative designed to provide badly needed housing in Eureka. The “Eureka Housing for All and Downtown Vitality” initiative is the focus of A Notice of Intent filed today with the City Clerk’s office. The petition, signed by Mike Munson and Michelle Costantine, seeks to put a measure on the City ballot amending portions of the City’s 2040 General Plan.

One of the key features of the initiative is rezoning the 14-acre site of the former Jacobs Middle School for single and multi-family housing. Located adjacent to bus lines and close to stores and services, this planned development would provide several hundred housing units, bringing badly needed funds to the local schools and fixing the poorly planned efforts by the City to build on several downtown parking lots, which would result in the loss of 640 parking spaces that are critical for downtown businesses, restaurants, and shops.

“This initiative addresses a problem in the City’s General Plan,” Munson said. “Re-zoning the school property and several other properties throughout the city will lift development restraints, paving the way for hundreds of housing units for all income levels in Eureka without impacting downtown vitality.”

The Jacobs site could accommodate almost all the City’s housing needs, including low, medium, and market- rate housing. Located adjacent to an existing bus line and close to stores and services, the development of the Jacobs site would help the City of Eureka to provide urgently needed housing that would reduce reliance on automobiles, increase the use of transit, include state-of-the-art technology to conserve energy and minimize the carbon footprint that new housing ordinarily entails.

In a recent poll conducted by FM3 Research, 57% of the 365 respondents (Eureka registered voters) said they would vote yes if such a measure were on a future Eureka ballot. Eight percent were undecided. The poll also asked how they would vote if the now vacant 14-acre Jacobs Middle School site were proposed for the several hundred units of subsidized affordable housing in place of the parking lot developments. 77% were in favor of the alternative location over the parking lots. Seven percent were undecided. The polling results can be found here. [Ed. note: Link not provided.]

The ballot measure would allow voters to determine the approach to developing low, very-low-income, medium, and market-rate housing in the City while requiring the City to maintain current levels of public parking on downtown City-owned, off-street parking lots.

According to Munson and Costantine, building housing without parking severely harms the economic vitality of small businesses downtown and ensures parking for businesses and potential residents. This initiative will require any housing built on those lots to retain the existing parking spaces and provide an appropriate amount of parking to accommodate the needs of residents in the new units.

“This is about housing for all – working, middle-income families, along with low and very-low-income households, who are finding no place to rent or buy that they can afford,” said Costantine. “This initiative is a small but important step towards addressing this problem in the City of Eureka.” The initiative can be found here.

The City has 15 days to prepare a title and summary for the ballot measure, followed by a required legal notice published in a local paper. Around August 1, the petition will begin circulating to collect registered voters’ signatures.

PREVIOUSLY: Local Weed Dispensary Humboldt Patient Resource Center Closes Suddenly Following Owner’s Death

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When the Humboldt Patient Resource Center Inc. (HPRC) announced its unexpected closure on June 1, bringing an abrupt end to 24 years in business, the statement posted to social media explained, “The untimely and unexpected passing of the owner has presented us with unavoidable challenges concerning our state cannabis license.”

What it didn’t mention is that the corporation had been accumulating tax liens over the past year, and by the time it closed the company owed $973,064.95 in state taxes, enough to earn a place in the top half of the “Top 500 Sales & Use Tax Delinquencies in California.”

Documents on file with the California Secretary of State include 11 active notices of sales tax liens levied against HPRC since February of 2022. 

The oldest active lien on record, which covered the tax period from April 1 — June 30, 2020, was filed on Feb. 18, 2022, in the amount of $105,435.96. The most recent delinquent tax bill on file is nearly $32,000 assessed this past Valentine’s Day.

The registered agent for HPRC’s business license, which has been suspended by the Franchise Tax Board, is Connor T. Hawkins, who died on February 28, three months before the business closed, at the age of 58, according to an obituary posted online. 

Mariellen Jurkovich, the longtime director of HPRC, was, for many, the face of the operation, a staunch advocate for the medicinal value of cannabis. Reached by phone on Friday, she said she retired from the business about a year to a year and a half ago, though she was aware of its accumulating tax debt.

“There just wasn’t a lot of money to pay the taxes,” she said. “They were trying to pay it off but it got out of control. I know [Hawkins] was trying to take care of it.”

Jukovich said Hawkins had put someone else in charge of the day-to-day business operations and wasn’t working in the Arcata dispensary much in the months before his death. He had been sick for some time with liver problems, she added, though she’s not sure what his cause of death was.

Launched in 1999, HPRC operated solely as a medical cannabis dispensary for most of its years in operation. In 2019 it opened a Eureka dispensary and associated wellness center, both of which closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With all the recent talk about creating more housing in Humboldt and projects like Arcata’s Gateway Area Plan, Eureka’s Waterfront Plan and the McKinleyville Town Center Plan in the works, you’ve probably heard the term “walkability” thrown around a bit, and keep hearing how these plans are being designed to prioritize bikes and pedestrians over cars and parking. 

But how exactly do we make our communities more walkable? Well, that’s where Dan Burden comes in. Burden, an internationally recognized transportation and walkability expert, has more than 45 years of experience in transportation planning/ engineering, urban design and public engagement and has hosted thousands of walkability audits and transportation studies across the country.

And Burden’s next stop just happens to be our own cozy corner of the world. On July 22 through 25, Burden will host walks in several Humboldt towns, helping city planners and members of the community with ideas on how to make our communities more pedestrian-friendly. He’d like you to walk with him. 

“Walkability is really about building communities so that people have a choice in transportation and aren’t always forced into getting into a car to make a trip,” Burden told the Outpost in a phone interview on Thursday afternoon. “For many people that’s not affordable…And it’s a huge cost to society to have to build the full systems for cars that just keep getting bigger and longer and wider.” 

Burden

Burden, who currently resides in Port Townsend, Wash., has been pursuing his field since he was a teenager who loved bicycling and realized that he wanted to help build other people’s love for bicycling too. After studying recreation sciences and interpersonal communications at the University of Montana, Burden eventually landed a job as the first State Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator for the Florida Department of Transportation. In 1996 Burden started his own organization, Walkable Communities, Inc., focused on building cities that prioritize people, rather than cars. He has since visited more than 3,500 cities around the country, helping policymakers create more walkable environments. You can view Burden’s impressive resumé here.) 

Burden was recently invited by the Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG) to bring his expertise to some of our local communities – Arcata, Eureka, Blue Lake and McKinleyville. Each town’s officials selected an area they wanted to focus on and provided Burden with background information on the various projects planned for these areas and some of the traffic and pedestrian-related issues the towns are facing. Burden will host separate walking audits in each of these areas, followed by presentations he will compile to lay out his recommendations. 

The first walk will be held in Arcata on Saturday, July 22 from 10 a.m. to noon, and will focus on the area surrounding 11th and K Streets, in the part of town that has come to be known as the Gateway Area, after the town’s ambitious Gateway Area Plan, which aims to bring rezone the area to facilitate the development of high-density housing and mixed-used developments.

Later that day, from 1 to 3 p.m., Burden will host a walk audit in McKinleyville, focusing on Central Avenue. The McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee (MMAC) has been working to develop the McKinleyville Town Center Master Plan, which aims to create a thriving town center, with retail shops, parks and that encourages bicycle and pedestrian travel. 

On Sunday, July 23, Burden will make his way to Eureka, hosting a walk from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. that will focus on the Old Town Area, and on Tuesday, July 25, Burden will guide a walk in Blue Lake from 12 to 1 p.m. 

Burden said that his expertise and outsider perspective helps him notice issues that might have been overlooked. He’s also familiar with a wide range of tools that can be used to address these challenges and often provides communities with options that had not been previously considered. 

“I teach people to see things with a new set of eyes that they walk past all the time but don’t notice,” Burden said. “Once we know what the issues are we’ll be able to start a robust public engagement process.” 

What exactly will Burden be looking for during these walks? Well, he focuses on a range of issues, including traffic flow and safety. One of Burden’s frequent approaches is what he refers to as “road diets,” which is an approach to traffic management that focuses on taking things away from the roads, rather than adding more. 

One example of a “road diet” is reducing the number of lanes on a road. Often when traffic has become congested in an area, planners will decide that the best option is to add more lanes. However, while adding more lanes does sometimes calm traffic initially, it does not usually help in the long run. Burden often recommends removing some of the lanes, making more room for bicycles and pedestrians and slowing traffic.

Burden says that when it comes to reducing traffic congestion, it is actually more effective to focus on the intersections. One approach that Burden often suggests is converting traditional four-way intersections into roundabouts, which have been shown to reduce traffic congestion. “A roundabout can carry 30 to 50 percent more traffic per lane than a signal can,” Burden said.

Another way Burden suggests improving intersections and calming traffic is through curb extensions. Expanding the size of curbs and sidewalks, Burden said, can slow down drivers when they are taking turns (making the intersection safer) and also create a shorter distance for pedestrians to cross the street. 

Burden also focuses on parking issues, something that has been a hot-button topic, especially surrounding some of Eureka’s and Arcata’s development plans. Burden said that many cities will tell him they have a “parking problem,” when what they really have is a “parking management problem.” Burden often works with cities to identify ways to better manage parking by finding spaces that can be used for parking and encouraging cities to install meters in busy areas. 

Of course, Burden supports the idea of deprioritizing parking in general, and wants to encourage people to visit areas by walking, biking or using public transportation. Encouraging people to walk in communities not only supports healthier lifestyles, but also encourages more social interaction and helps encourage patronage of local shops and other businesses. 

“When we do the wrong thing with traffic, we’re destroying businesses,” Burden said. “We’re destroying the social life of our communities.” 

Burden’s walks and presentations are free and open to the public. If you’re interested, you can view a complete schedule of Burden’s walks and presentations and contact information for each city here. 

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Big changes are coming to the Samoa Peninsula. 

The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District held a public scoping meeting at the Wharfinger Building on Wednesday evening to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art “heavy lift marine terminal” that would support offshore wind development all along the West Coast. 

Last year, the Harbor District entered into an agreement with Crowley Wind Services, a private marine solutions and logistics company, to build and operate the full-service marine terminal at the old pulp mill property in Samoa. Once it’s fully built out, the facility will have the potential to produce and ship the gigantic components needed for floating offshore wind turbines, everything from the blades and nacelles (the generator house) to mooring lines, towers and transmission cables.

If everything goes according to plan, the floating offshore wind development will bring the United States one step closer to meeting the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy – enough to power 10 million homes – by 2030, and 15 GW of floating offshore wind energy by 2035.

“It’s a very ambitious goal because it’s nearly double what the world currently has,” Harbor District Development Director Rob Holmlund said during Wednesday’s meeting.

The Port of Humboldt Bay is in an ideal position to become the epicenter of offshore wind energy manufacturing and distribution on the West Coast. In fact, our humble port is the only port on the West Coast that has the capacity to host all three of the primary port needs of the offshore wind industry: staging and integration, onsite manufacturing and operations and maintenance. 

Holmlund

“Each port has the opportunity to do component manufacturing, staging and integration and/or operations and maintenance,” Holmlund said. “The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has evaluated all these ports and found that there are really only two spots [where] staging and integration can happen – Humboldt Bay, Los Angeles and Long Beach – because you need specific parameters to be able to do that particular stage. You need to have the right channel width, depth and no vertical draft restrictions.”

Among those three ports, only Humboldt Bay has immediately available developable space to accommodate the offshore wind industry, he said. And, because of its proximity to Morro Bay and other proposed wind energy lease areas in Oregon, Humboldt Bay is the only port capable of shipping the fully assembled platforms and turbines out to sea.

“These turbines have to be manufactured in a port,” Holmlund said. “You can transport the blades of a certain size by train, but after they get too large they have to be on a truck – each blade individually. Transport logistics become more and more difficult until, at some point, it’s just too big to transport on land. … Ocean-based turbines can only be moved by large ships, so they can be much, much larger than land-based turbines.”

To give you a better idea of the sheer scale of these things, the wind turbines that will be spinning off of our shores will be taller than the Eiffel Tower. The triangular platforms the turbines will be mounted on would cover the entire Arcata Plaza.

Despite their colossal size, Holmlund said the turbines would be barely visible from shore.

“I was in Trinidad the other day with my wife and children and we were hiking on Trinidad Head. It was a particularly clear day and I could actually see the smokestack on the Samoa Peninsula,” he said. “I looked it up later – that’s 17 miles – and it was really tiny and very, very far away.”

The big takeaway from the public comment portion of the meeting was the importance of community involvement. Lonyx Landry, Humboldt County Planning Commissioner and STEM advisor at Cal Poly Humboldt, said he is “all about” the transition away from fossil fuels but expressed concern for “how that happens in our community.”

“Perhaps by going slower [we can] make sure we are taking care of the fears and concerns of our community and maybe in the long run [that will] allow us to go faster with rolling out these new technologies and abilities,” Landry said. “I want this to be happening with us, not to us. … In some respects, this is a sacrifice, and I believe it’s a sacrifice that many people are prepared to make. But we absolutely want to make sure that we’re getting something for us. I don’t believe that corporate America needs any help and fast-tracking their agenda.”

Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo urged Harbor District officials and Crowley representatives to advocate for the community’s “specific concerns” as offshore wind development efforts move ahead.

Arroyo

“I know there are things that aren’t exactly in your jurisdiction that are going to take a regional approach, and I want to really encourage you to include those and document them in your EIR,” she said, noting that her comments do not reflect that of the entire Board of Supervisors. “[That] include[s] things like housing, possible transportation impacts, visual and sound impacts, green portfolios, emergency response, etc. … That allows me – although the county has a somewhat limited role in the project – to advocate to Sacramento or D.C. and ask for these infrastructure changes to be funded in a way that allows us to really address these concerns.”

When nuclear power plants are developed, there are entire towns built around them to support the facilities, Arroyo said. “The level of investment is off the charts. I will go and ask for that, but I ask that this document is robust enough to give the framework for those big asks,” she said.

Jennifer Savage, a 20-year resident of the Samoa Peninsula, emphasized the importance of keeping the public involved throughout the planning and development process.

Savage

“If we’re going to reindustrialize the peninsula, you really need to do it right,” she said. “This proposed marine terminal project provides a unique opportunity to reduce planetary harm by assisting in the transition away from fossil fuels while providing living wage jobs – which should be local – for our struggling region. And these are really noble goals that deserve support, but the communities that live and recreate on the peninsula should not be forced to suffer unnecessary negative consequences as a part of that deal.”

Savage paused for a moment and said she was trying to think of a “respectful, delicate way” to phrase what she was about to say. “Even the most cursory Google search of Crowley will show that there is a disappointing record when it comes to environmental impacts and human rights,” she said. 

She also questioned the legality of moving ahead with a lease agreement, which is likely to be signed before the end of the year, before the completion of CEQA compliance. 

“I think it’s really concerning that we may be signing the lease agreement before the environmental review is complete,” she said. “My understanding is you’re legally required to complete CEQA prior to signing the lease. I thought that’s the way the law worked. If not, it would be great to have some clarity around that.”

A quick Google search indicates that final CEQA documents must be completed before decision-makers commit to a project and prior to leasing, selling and acquiring property. However, Holmlund says it’s “standard procedure.”

“It’s absolutely not in conflict with CEQA,” Holmlund told the Outpost during a brief phone interview on Thursday afternoon. “The normal procedure for development throughout California – and for this region – is for the property to be leased before the CEQA process is complete.”

Holmlund pointed to Nordic Aquafarms’ proposed land-based fish farm as an example. “They’ve had a lease with the Harbor District for three years. They’ve got their [final] EIR but they’re still working on various permits. They have to pay for the right to hold onto the land throughout the permitting process. … A lease is an agreement between two parties over how much they’re going to pay to use the land. CEQA is the process used to minimize environmental impacts.”

Holmlund acknowledged that there “seems to be a lot of confusion” surrounding the issue and invited community members to reach out to the Harbor District with questions. He added that there will be many more opportunities for the public to offer their two cents on the project in the coming months. 

Want to learn more about the project? Holmlund gets into the nitty gritty of the proposed development, the lease areas, shipping, logistics and manufacturing in this hour-long YouTube video.

The Harbor District’s Notice of Preparation of Draft Environmental Impact Report was released at the end of last month. The document will be circulated for a 30-day review and comment period. If you weren’t able to make it to Wednesday’s meeting you can submit comments by emailing Rob Holmlund at districtplanner@humboldtbay.org.

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PREVIOUSLY:

• Harbor District Announces Massive Offshore Wind Partnership; Project Would Lead to an 86-Acre Redevelopment of Old Pulp Mill Site
• Offshore Wind is Coming to the North Coast. What’s in it For Humboldt?
• ‘Together We Can Shape Offshore Wind for The West Coast’: Local Officials, Huffman and Others Join Harbor District Officials in Celebrating Partnership Agreement With Crowley Wind Services
• SOLD! BOEM Names California North Floating and RWE Offshore Wind Holdings as Provisional Winners of Two Offshore Wind Leases Off the Humboldt Coast
• California’s Aging Electrical Infrastructure Presents Hurdle for Offshore Wind Development on the North Coast
• Crowley — the Company That Wants to Build a Big Wind Energy Facility on the Peninsula — Will be Opening Offices in Eureka
• Harbor District to Host Public Meeting Kicking Off Environmental Review of Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Marine Terminal Project

It was a perfunctory committee hearing on a day full of them in the Legislature. The measure in question on Tuesday wasn’t novel, just another in a long list of attempts to reclassify a misdemeanor as a felony. Like most attempts before it, it met a quiet and undignified end.

The bill was new, but what it sought to do was not. Lawmakers from both parties had made numerous previous attempts to reclassify human trafficking of a minor for purposes of a commercial sex act as a “serious felony,” which would be treated as a strike under California’s Three Strikes law.

In 2007, twice in 2009, 2011, 2013, 2017 and three times in 2021, legislators tried and failed to reclassify child sex trafficking. But then something strange happened after the latest effort went down.

A backlash swiftly took shape on social media. Comments ranged from “What on earth were these Democrats thinking?” to accusations that they were siding with pedophiles — and at least one Democratic member of the Assembly Public Safety Committee that quashed the bill reported receiving death threats.

Soon the bill, which had already passed the Senate unanimously, began collecting new, high-profile allies. Gov. Gavin Newsom at a press conference expressed dismay at its failure, telling reporters that he’d reach out to the bill’s Republican author, Sen. Shannon Grove of Bakersfield. Newly seated Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Salinas Democrat, also said he was “very much engaged” in trying to move the bill forward.

So on Thursday the Assembly Public Safety Committee took it up again. And on the second go-around, it passed.

Human trafficking of a minor for purposes of commercial sex under current law incurs a sentence of up to 12 years in prison. If the crime involved force, fear, fraud, deceit, coercion, violence, duress, menace, or threat of unlawful injury to the victim or to another person, the sentence is 15 years to life. If the person is convicted of inflicting great bodily harm on the victim while trafficking them, a judge can add up to 10 years to a prison sentence.

If the child trafficking bill passes the full Assembly and Newsom signs it, people convicted of the crime would face longer prison terms and potential life sentences.

The 48 hours between Tuesday’s original vote and Thursday’s session was yet another collision of California’s goals of reducing incarceration by moving away from tough-on-crime laws, and the political reality of negative advertising.

More than a decade ago, then-Assemblymember Richard Pan tried to add five new offenses related to human trafficking and the abuse of a child to the serious felony list.

The 2011 measure never made it out of committee. Pan, a Democrat who was in both the Assembly and Senate, said he was not sure what was different this time.

“Sometimes you never know what gets the attention of the public,” Pan said. “There are these tensions (between reducing the prison population and harsher sentences).

“But we don’t start off by saying abusing children is not a serious crime.”

Some progressive lawmakers have opposed toughening penalties for sex trafficking because they were persuaded that it would contribute to the over-incarceration of Black people, and needlessly extend already-significant prison sentences — costing taxpayers more money while demonstrating little public benefit. Opponents also have contended that harsher sentences may end up being applied to people at the lowest rungs of trafficking, who may be trafficked themselves.

“There is no evidence that long prison sentences deter or prevent crime,” the advocacy group Sister Warriors Freedom Coalition wrote in opposition to the bill. “If anything, low-level individuals involved in human trafficking will be prosecuted under this legislation, many of them will be prosecuted for conduct done under duress or other pressures, and they will be easily and swiftly replaced.”

But nuance like that can be difficult, if not impossible, to persuasively convey in a political campaign — and this was an issue conservatives knew they could weaponize against Democrats. The fallout was quick and fierce after Democratic members of the Assembly Public Safety Committee abstained from voting on the bill Tuesday, effectively blocking it.

“You can choose a team, pick pedophiles or children,” Assemblymember Heath Flora, a Ripon Republican, said Thursday morning.

Insults, threats to California Democrats

“I think certainly the thousands of social media texts we got, and me personally, the two death threats I got and the death threats made against my children certainly raised a level of concern in terms of making sure we had some resolution to this bill at this moment right now,” Assemblymember Mia Bonta, an Oakland Democrat, told CalMatters.

The volume from Twitter, Republicans and some Democrats led at least one committee member to change her mind.

“On Tuesday, I made a bad decision,” Assemblymember Liz Ortega, a Hayward Democrat, wrote Thursday on Twitter. “Voting against legislation targeting really bad people who traffic children was wrong. I regret doing that and I am going to help get this important legislation passed into law.”

Ultimately Bonta and Assemblymember Isaac Bryant both abstained from voting on the bill in the Assembly Public Safety Committee hearing on Thursday. Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a Los Angeles Democrat and chair of the committee, said the vote on Thursday was so markedly different from Tuesday’s vote because questions he had about the bill were answered in the interim.

Republicans on child trafficking bill

Noting the death threats against Bonta, Jones-Sawyer said in a hallway interview that the “Trumpian hate … is just wrong.”

“You can have an honest debate, but, my god, you should not threaten a woman because of her personal feelings on an issue,” he said.

After the bill cleared the Assembly Public Safety Committee, Republican legislators celebrated the victory in a state where they rarely get to do so.

“In the end, my Democrat colleagues in the Assembly Public Safety Committee did the right thing and passed (the bill) that will make sure repeat offenders of child sex trafficking are held accountable,” said Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, a San Diego Republican. “If it were not for the extraordinary pushback from figures around the state and nation, I fear the Democrats’ one-party rule and some of their radical ideologies would have prevailed.”

The bill’s author, Grove, said in a statement that she expects the cooperation of Assembly Democrats should the bill reach the floor – its next stop is the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

“Protecting victims of child sex trafficking should not be a partisan issue,” Grove said. “Today is a victory for every survivor.”

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CalMatters newsletter writer Lynn La contributed to this report. CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

William Arthur Rush passed away peacefully on April 17, 2023 in Eureka. He was 86 years old. He was well cared for and comfortable when he died. He loved life with passion, enthusiasm, and vigor in his early life. He was brave, bold, had a strong personality, and was multi-talented.

William was born on August 25, 1936 in Hollywood. His mother, Mary Jo was an actress during the early Hollywood heyday. Arthur, his father, was a talent manager for many celebrities, including Roy Rogers, Nelson Eddy, Mario Lanza, and others. Both of his parents descended from signers of the Declaration of Independence. His genealogy connects him to knights in the old British Isles, as well!

His brother, Robert Rush, who lives currently in southern California, says, “Bill loved flying. He got his pilot’s license on his 16th birthday. He had three big auto accidents before he was twenty. He had his driver’s license suspended for six to eight months. He could not drive but he could still fly. He was a good artist. He did some medical drawings of surgeries on human bodies that were published for medical articles.”

Bill Rush explored many other skills throughout his life, such as being a leader in the ROTC and owning a bike repair business as a youth. He studied landscape design, and was a US Air Guard fighter pilot in the 1950s. He also studied architecture at University of Southern California. While he was there, he also provided the N.A.S.A. Space Medicine Program with the creative flow of ideas and answers that made such a success of this country’s manned space flights. During his work with NASA, his mentor, Dr. Patrick Meehan, encouraged Bill to pursue a career in medicine. He graduated from George Washington University with a medical degree in 1967.

William was a general surgeon, performing mostly gastrointestinal procedures. He loved his work, and wanted to share his passion for how the human body functions and heals. He excelled in his field and was famous for designing and cutting custom, artistic surgical bandages that made his patients smile. His amazing drawings intrigued all as he expertly explained the intricacies of his practice and knowledge.

In addition to his duties at the hospital and as President of the San Jose Surgical Society, he was also a volunteer first responder to several hundred car accidents on one of the most dangerous roads in California, Highway 17, in the Santa Cruz mountains. He listened to emergency radio channels on a police scanner under his pillow at night! When he heard the responder code, he was off to the rescue, no matter what the hour. He had a portable red flashing light on his car to disperse traffic in order to save lives. Paramedic, police and fire departments in the area dubbed him “The White Knight”, as his white car was often the first on the scene. (See San Jose Mercury article, written by Steve Lopez, from September 2, 1984, “A Good Man on a Wicked Road”, attached.)

He developed and coordinated disaster preparedness plans and large-scale disaster preparedness events in the Bay area. His emergency preparedness works were published in regional phone books.

He loved collecting tools, gadgets, innovative inventions, and the newest tech. His favorite slogan was, “He who dies with the most toys wins!”

Later in life, he developed many health challenges, but he was well cared for by his family and teams of caregivers.

William is survived by his wife Linda, who was his primary caregiver for many years, as well as his children, Ben and Annalisa, his younger brother, Robert, and five grandchildren, Makena, Kai, Leif, Noa, and Loren. They are grateful that he saved so many lives, including family members. They are so thankful for his ethic of service, hard work, and responsibility. They will cherish many fond memories of summer parties, family adventures, harrowing tales, survival in the mountains, his goofy side, his resourcefulness, wealth of knowledge, passion for life, healing hands, and his many talents.

Thanks from family to the many heroes with whom he partnered. The Rushes greatly appreciate all the emergency personnel who worked with him to make our Santa Cruz mountain community safer and more connected through preparedness, rescues and trauma responses. Thanks to all of his patient and wonderful caregivers in his final months. Thanks to all the Eureka Timber Ridge Assisted Living staff who helped him be as comfortable as possible in the final four months if his life. Bill’s family also extends special thanks to Hospice of Humboldt, who helped immensely; Molly, Katelyn, Dylan, and Scotty provided so much support and loving care to Bill and his family.

At one time, Bill’s original wish for his memorial service was to have an air force flyover and a 12-gun, military, formal salute, which he deserved! However, Dr. Bill (as he preferred to be addressed late in his life), eventually decided he not want any service. His family will conduct a private one in the future.

His family does not want any gifts, but suggest that donations be made in Dr. William Rush’s honor to Hospice of Humboldt, located at 3327 Timber Fall Ct, Eureka, CA 95503. Local volunteer fire departments, neighborhood emergency groups, HAM radio operators, or other first responder or disaster preparedness organizations of choice would be other worthy sources to which honorary contributions can be made.

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