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Dr. Ian Hoffman will mark his last day as Humboldt County Public Health Officer this Friday after spending 15 months with the county.

Hoffman stepped into the position in December 2020 following the departure of Dr. Teresa Frankovich, who had taken on what was then a part-time job just a month and a half before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. He announced his resignation to the Board of Supervisors at the beginning of this year.

During a press briefing this afternoon, Public Health Director Sofia Pereira told Hoffman, “We really could not have done this without you.” 

Public Health Director Sofia Pereira | Screenshot

“He has been incredible at capturing all of the changing guidance that has been happening throughout this incident, translating it for our community, working closely with our community partners to make sure they have information that they need to make informed decisions as things were rapidly changing,” she said. “…I just want to again express our gratitude for Dr. Hoffman and wish you all the best on your next chapter.”

Pereira noted that two part-time deputy health officers, Dr. Katherine Estlin and Dr. Donald Baird, have and will continue to help public health through the transition.

Hoffman thanked his colleagues and the Humboldt County community “for all that we’ve achieved” since the onset of the pandemic.

“More than anything, I just want to thank everyone in this community for all that we’ve achieved,” he said. “It has certainly been a community-wide effort that has allowed us to maintain and achieve a low death rate here in Humboldt County due to low hospitalizations and a high vaccination rate. …I think it’s been quite successful.”

As COVID cases trend downward and the virus becomes endemic, Hoffman said the county and the state will continue to phase out pandemic-related requirements and shift toward recommendations.

“We will continue to move those recommendations along, depending on the threat of COVID-19 to our community,” he said. “…We will also update the community as the threat level decreases and move towards other recommendations or potentially remove it as a recommendation entirely when there’s less of a threat to the community.”

When asked whether he would change anything about the county’s pandemic response or if he had advice for his colleagues, Hoffman acknowledged that “we’re never going to get it perfect, but I think we got it really right.”

“[There] were tough decisions the CDC [had] to make about masking in the early days of March 2020,” he said. “Personally, I didn’t agree with them at first, but I [didn’t] know all the details of why they made those decisions … It’s all Monday morning quarterbacking and in the end, I think the response has been going really well. Especially in our county and in our state, we’ve really led the nation in the pandemic response.”

What’s next for Hoffman? He said he will return to clinical practice part-time which will enable him to spend more time with his family.

“This is the greatest job that I’ve ever had and I’m not leaving it lightly, but I really do need to return to my family duties,” he said. “I hope that someday I can return to this kind of work again when it permits in my life. Thank you all for everything, it’s been a wonderful time.”

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On March 2, 2022, deputies with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Marijuana Enforcement Team (MET) served one search warrant to investigate community complaints regarding illegal cannabis cultivation in the Hydesville area. Humboldt County Code Enforcement and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife assisted in the service of the warrant.

One parcel was investigated during the service of the warrant. The parcel did not possess the required county permit and state license to cultivate cannabis commercially.

During the service of the warrant, deputies located evidence of a large indoor cannabis cultivation and sales operation. Deputies eradicated approximately 4,232 growing cannabis plants. Deputies seized and destroyed approximately 7 pounds of cannabis bud and approximately 4 pounds of cannabis shake. Deputies also located and seized 6.8 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, an unserialized firearm (also known as a “ghost gun”) and an illegal loaded magazine. Additionally, approximately $3,400 in cash was located and seized pursuant to asset forfeiture proceedings.

No arrests were made during the service of the warrant. The case is being forwarded to the District Attorney’s Office for review and criminal prosecution. Additionally, violations with civil fines are expected to be filed by the assisting agencies.

Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.

After about three hours of deliberation, this morning a jury convicted Delano Blayze Malang of all charges, including mayhem, for biting off an Arcata police sergeant’s thumb.

Malang, 22, was found guilty of mayhem, assault likely to inflict great bodily injury, resisting an executive officer (Officer Jamal Jones) and resisting, delaying or obstructing an officer performing their duties. The jury also found true the special allegation that Malang personally inflicted great bodily injury on Sgt. Heidi Groszman, who lost the top half of her right thumb.

Sentencing is set for March 30 before Judge Gregory Elvine-Kreiss, who presided over the trial. In addition to the new conviction, Malang has a prior “strike” for robbery.

After jurors left the courtroom this morning, Elvine-Kreiss declined to jail the defense attorney, Deputy Conflict Counsel R.J. Loehner, for his performance during the trial.

“I don’t think it would change his behavior,” the judge told Deputy District Attorney Trent Timm, who had requested Loehner be jailed for repeated, continuous violations of court orders. “He would just continue to do his thing.”

The judge said, however, that he wants the State Bar to see a record of Loehner’s comments.

Midway through the trial the judge found Loehner had committed six acts of contempt of court. He was fined $1,550, and will have to pay $550 of that. He also was given a suspended six-day jail sentence and warned to quit violating court orders.

Loehner repeatedly insulted testifying officers. He would laugh and shake his head when he was stopped from asking an irrelevant or argumentative question, which occurred regularly. He mocked Officer Jones’s accent.

Jurors, who generally flee the courthouse immediately after they are excuse, stayed behind today to speak with Timm. They also agreed to speak to this reporter, though none wanted to give their names.

Jurors were in consensus about these issues: They believed officers had reasonable suspicion to detain Malang after he refused to leave the area when they were questioning a suspect. They believed officers used no excessive force during the arrest, and in fact were quite restrained.

“The officers did their duty well,” one juror said.

They also expressed admiration for Groszmann for her professional behavior before and after she was injured.

“We have high kudos for Sgt. Groszmann for the way she handled herself,” one juror said. Even after Malang bit her thumb off, Groszmann remained calm and continued to speak to him kindly.

All jurors were greatly influenced by the testimony of Malang himself, who admitted he bit off the thumb and agreed that when he got a chance to seriously hurt someone, he took it.

As for Loehner’s behavior, one juror said “childish” and another “below professional standards.”

But others said they thought Loehner was in a tough spot trying to defend Malang, and they figured his behavior was “calculated” for maximum effect.

Timm, in his argument rebutting Loehner’s closing argument, said Loehner had tossed in a lot of irrelevant information because he was trying to distract the jury from basing the verdict on facts and the law.

“Mr. Loehner is very skilled at getting you to feel sorry for his client,” Timm said. Loehner brought up Malang’s young age, and the fact that he was dirty on the day of his arrest. He had been homeless in Arcata for several months.

Loehner threw in a comment about Malang suffering a head injury, which was not mentioned once during the trial.

Loehner questioned why the jurors hadn’t seen the video camera footage from HSU Sgt. John Packer, who was brought in to try calming Malang down. He suggested evidence was being hidden.

“Everything I have, he has,” Timm said. “If that video would have helped his case he would have played it.”

Multiple times jurors viewed footage from the body-worn cameras of Jones, Groszmann and Officer Joseph Rodes.

Asked today whether they would be willing to serve on another jury, all said yes.

“I’m not in a rush,” one man added.

PREVIOUSLY: 

• Testimony Wraps in Case of Arcata Man Accused of Biting Off Cop’s Thumb; Defense Attorney Reprimanded For Mocking Officers
• ‘He Brought the APD to its Knees,’ Boasts Defense Attorney Of Client Who Bit Off Officer’s Thumb; Jury Begins Deliberations

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As she headed to her car after two hours of counting and surveying Sacramento’s homeless population, the state’s top housing official acknowledged there is a long road ahead.

“We’re building the system, building the capacity, building the data, and communities are rising to the occasion. I know people are really frustrated because they feel like they don’t see that change,” said Lourdes Castro Ramírez, secretary of the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency. “But I don’t think you can see change that is going to be long-lasting overnight.”

As she spoke, just a few blocks away, a homeless encampment was going up in flames.

No one was injured, unlike a fire earlier the same day at a San Francisco encampment that killed a woman and that Gov. Gavin Newsom called “unconscionable.” But dozens of people — who had been camping beneath the on-ramp to Highway 50 on one of the coldest nights of the year — watched as firefighters sprayed hundreds of gallons of water at the inferno they had once called home.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said John Vasquez, who said he had been living there for nearly two years. “We don’t have anything. Everything got burned. Clothes, tents, IDs.”

The 911 call came from another volunteer for Sacramento’s point-in-time count, a Census-like tally of people experiencing homelessness that took place across California last week. As those numbers trickle in over the summer, experts believe the data will help illustrate the reality Californians can no longer ignore: Homelessness has reached a tipping point.

California last tallied its homeless population in January 2020, and found at least 161,000 people without a roof over their heads on any given night, with the biggest concentration in Los Angeles. Most were single adults, about a third were chronically homeless and Black Californians were over-represented in the count nearly five-fold.

The world has changed a lot during the deadliest pandemic in a century.

The state poured billions of dollars into alleviating homelessness, creating thousands of new shelter beds and housing units. But the housing affordability crisis — to which most experts attribute homelessness — only worsened as millions lost their jobs and rents skyrocketed. Shelters also reduced bed capacity and federal officials urged local law enforcement not to disband camps like the one in Sacramento to guard against the coronavirus, making tent cities more visible than ever.

That’s why most researchers aren’t wondering whether the new homeless numbers will show an increase. The only question is, by how much.

The result of California’s tally is very likely to be an undercount, in part because the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which orders the count, excludes people who are couch-surfing or staying in cheap motels in their definition of homelessness. Researchers say that means families with children who are teetering on the edge are most likely to be overlooked.

It also relies largely on volunteers to count what they think they see, and on local agencies to calculate the population of the areas they don’t cover, estimations later verified by HUD.

“I’m counting one, two, three, four, five, six down there, seven, maybe eight tents on this side,” said Jason Pu, HUD’s regional administrator in charge of California, Arizona, Hawaii and Nevada, pointing across the dimly lit street at a string of tents and tarps beside Highway 50. “What do you think?”

Cities with a dropoff in volunteers because of the ongoing pandemic may report a drop in the homeless population, even if it actually grew, said Chris Weare, a UC Berkeley lecturer who researches homelessness. Weare believes some jurisdictions keep their count artificially low for political optics, even though a city’s share of state and federal homeless dollars is based on these numbers.

“Think of the headlines,” he said.

Is all the money making a difference?

For all its flaws, the count is still an invitation for policymakers to interact with the people affected by their decisions, Castro Ramírez said at a small kickoff event at CSU Sacramento.

“Very few people come over here and talk to us,” said Jessica Hud, who’s been homeless for five years, and had been staying in the encampment on X and 10th Street for about seven months.

But like their housed neighbors — who in recent polls have expressed despair over the government’s handling of homelessness — many also say the situation is at its worst.

“I’ve lived in Sacramento all my life and I’ve never seen it like this,” said Rocknie Simon, Hud’s partner, who has been homeless for about 10 years.

Why isn’t the state’s generous spending more visible on the state’s streets?

Officials and advocates chalk it up to decades of disinvestment. ​In 2012, for example, the state began unwinding its redevelopment agencies, which were in charge of revitalizing “blighted” areas across the state.​ With the end of redevelopment came the end of the single largest source of non-federal money for affordable housing in the state, and California lawmakers didn’t begin to plug that hole until around 2019.

“We don’t fix a problem that’s been brewing since Vietnam and exacerbated over the last two decades by tech and other things in five years,” said Jennifer Loving, chief executive officer of Destination: Home, a homelessness nonprofit in San Jose. For every two people who are housed in her community, another three become homeless.

But if tracking data on how many people are homeless is difficult, tracking the payoff from billions of dollars the state is now spending to help them is even more challenging.

“I know (the governor) is frustrated, I know the Legislature is frustrated, the public is frustrated,” Assembly Budget Chairperson Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat, said during a recent hearing. “We have appropriated billions and billions of dollars to this issue. And it’s not clear where we’ve made progress.”

The reason for the limited available data is, in part, because local entities serving people on the ground hadn’t always been required to report outcomes to the state, and no state body provided effective oversight of the myriad agencies that address homelessness, the State Auditor found. A slew of laws passed last year are supposed to change that.

This summer, using $5.6 million, the newly created Interagency Council on Homelessness is set to release a report detailing the outcomes of state spending between 2018 and 2021, to be followed by a final report in December. Newly appropriated dollars are tied to more stringent planning and reporting requirements: Cities and counties will set goals for the $2 billion they will receive over two years from the state to address homelessness, and about a fifth of that money will be set aside as bonus funds for those who meet their goals.

Newly available metrics collected by local officials still reveal some information about how they are serving the homeless population. Over the course of 2020, for example, the state reported that local agencies served more than 246,000 people, and nearly 40% of them moved into some form of housing. (That number is higher than the one-night snapshot because someone may have been homeless at the start of the year, but housed by the end.) What the data doesn’t reveal is where people went, which types of programs worked better than others, or which service providers excelled and which ones fell behind.

“We’re in this state that’s driving the data revolution and it’s just not showing up in the homelessness field,” said Weare, from UC Berkeley.

“We have appropriated billions and billions of dollars to this issue. And it’s not clear where we’ve made progress.”
— Phil Ting, chairperson of the Assembly Budget Committee

Last summer, with a historic budget windfall, state lawmakers allocated $12 billion for homeleness, most of which hasn’t hit the streets. This year, they have an even bigger surplus, but the dearth of data is making it difficult to evaluate the additional spending Newsom proposed: $1.5 billion for temporary bridge housing and $500 million to deal with encampments, building on the $50 million in grants Newsom announced last week to shelter or rehouse 1,400 people now in camps.

“We’re stuck,” said Wendy Carrillo, a Democratic Assemblymember from Los Angeles who leads the state Assembly’s budget subcommittee that deals with homelessness. “We’re releasing this funding to be able to help address the issue, but in return, the data is not coming back fast enough for the Legislature to be able to make an informed decision as to, are we going to put more dollars into something, and does it work?”

Republican lawmakers have called for a special session to address homelessness parallel to the ongoing legislative session — an idea they say hasn’t gotten any traction in the supermajority Democratic legislature.

“When you have a special session, you can put your entire focus on that. So we’re hoping that the governor will take up a special look at that perhaps that comes on the heels of the homeless count,” said state Sen. Patricia Bates, a Republican from Laguna Hills.

On the ground in Sacramento

“Counting people is different from helping people get off the streets,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said at the Feb. 23 kickoff event, before about 600 volunteers fanned out. The last point-in-time survey found at least 5,500 homeless people in the county in 2019, a number he expects will only increase this year.

“Here in the city and county of Sacramento, we are committed to making housing and shelter a human and a legal right, and mental health care and treatment as a human and legal right,” he continued. “That has to be our commitment coming out of this point-in-time count.”

Steinberg was referring to an ordinance he introduced last November that would require the city to create enough housing units or temporary shelter spaces for everyone who needs them by 2023. If a person living on the street turned down two available housing or shelter options, they would be compelled to come inside. But if those spots weren’t made available, the person could sue the city.

“Counting people is different from helping people get off the streets.”
— Sacramento mayor Darrell Steinberg

The proposal, which met fierce opposition from some advocates for favoring shelter over housing, is now undergoing a legal review. Local voters may be asked to consider two similar ballot initiatives in November. Their aim: to clear the growing number of encampments sprouting across the city, which are not only upsetting housed residents and businesses, but threatening the safety of the people living there. The city would have to dramatically increase options for people to go indoors, which it has thus far failed to do.

Sacramento fire spokesperson Keith Wade told CalMatters the department responds to fires in homeless encampments on a daily basis. Fires with the potential to damage critical infrastructure — like the one under the Highway 50 on-ramp — are more rare, he said. CalTrans had to shut down the on-ramp “for a while” to ensure it could hold up oncoming traffic. The fire remains under investigation, but Wade said it was likely arson.

“It’s not uncommon for one person experiencing homelessness who has a disagreement or some sort of issue with another to burn that person’s personal items because that’s the one thing that person has left in this world,” he said.

Vasquez, who was displaced from the camp, doesn’t know what comes next. He said he had been living in an apartment before becoming homeless, but could no longer afford rent after his roommates moved out.

“What can we do?” he asked. “Start all over again, with nothing. We had nothing, and we start with nothing.”

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

Gov. Gavin Newsom is easing mask restrictions and declaring that the pandemic is moving into a less critical phase. Yet an aggressive slate of COVID-19-related bills — to mandate vaccines for children and workers, to allow 12 to 17 year-olds to get the vaccine without parental consent and more — remain in play under the Capitol dome.

The vaccine working group of Democratic legislators behind the proposals say their aim is to increase vaccination rates across all age groups, improve the state vaccine registration database and crack down on misinformation about the virus and the vaccine.

Taken together, the adoption of these bills would make California an outlier among states — and give it the country’s strictest COVID-19 regulations. Other states are considering various mandates and legislation related to COVID-19, but none appear to have the coordination of this effort, steered by some of the most powerful legislators in Sacramento.

“These bills all attempt to bring cohesion, consistency and clarity to our overall approach and response to the pandemic,” said Democratic Sen. Josh Newman of Fullerton, a member of the group.

The bills:

• SB 871 would require all children 0 to 17 to get the COVID-19 vaccine to attend child care or school;
• SB 866 would allow kids 12 to 17 to get the COVID-19 vaccine without parental consent;
• SB 1749 would require schools to continue testing and to create testing plans;
• SB 1018 would require online platforms to be more transparent about how information is pushed out to consumers;
• SB 1464 would force law enforcement officials to enforce public health orders;
• AB 1993 would require all employees, including independent contractors, to show proof of COVID-19 vaccine to work in California;
• AB 1797 would make changes to the California Immunization Record Database;
• AB 2098 would reclassify the sharing of COVID-19 “misinformation” by doctors and surgeons as unprofessional conduct that would result in disciplinary action.

Critics said the bills infringe on the health privacy of children, interfere with how doctors work, impose a burden on businesses and workers, and rely on vaccines that do not in many cases prevent the transmission of COVID-19.

“With these types of regulations, it doesn’t matter who you are: If you work or have children in California, you will be affected by these mandates,” said Christina Hildebrand, head of A Voice for Choice, a group focused on informed consent that has fought to keep personal belief exemptions for required vaccines since 2015. “This is going on while the rest of the world is getting rid of mandates and COVID requirements. and the governor is talking about his smarter plan and that we are moving into the endemic phase.”

Ten days ago Newsom said the state was turning a page and would begin treating COVID-19 as endemic, meaning treating the disease more like a flu. Monday, Newsom said March 11 was the last day schools would be under a state mask mandate, although masking would still be required for public transit and in health care settings.

Also on Monday, Mark Ghaly, the state’s top public health official, said that while the state is moving away from masking, there could be new variants and surges of COVID-19. He referred to Newsom’s “SMARTER” plan’s advocacy of vaccines, which he said “have been a big part of the success in California.”

The legislators behind these bills seem to be pulling out ahead of Newsom on COVID-19 issues. Newsom’s administration did not comment on the pending legislation.The governor is focused on opening up the state and is keenly aware Californians are experiencing pandemic fatigue.

GOP political consultant Mike Madrid said that while it might look like the legislators and Newsom are at odds, it’s actually two sides looking toward the same goal: an answer to the crisis.

“They are legitimately trying to find a solution to the situation,” he said about the legislators. “Are they getting ahead of the governor? Yes. Are they going in a different direction? Yes. Are they trying to find a solution? Yes.”

This is part of the political process, Madrid said. Early on in the pandemic, the Legislature deferred to Newsom to set the agenda because there was little information available. Now armed with two years of data and a vaccine, the Legislature is operating with more agency.

It’s typical for the legislature to respond to current events with immediate legislation and it’s their job to push the issues, said Kristina Bas Hamilton, a political consultant at KBH Advocacy.

​​“The Legislature is an equal branch of government putting forth their priorities and assuming they get the votes to pass they are saying ‘governor, we want you to go farther’ and then that’s when discussions begin,” said Kristina Bas Hamilton, a political consultant at KBH Advocacy. “It’s the dance of state government.”

The ambitious vaccine legislation far outpaces what other states are doing.

For instance, New Hampshire is considering a bill that would mandate a federal Food and Drug Administration-approved vaccine for school children and New York is considering requiring the COVID-19 vaccine for school attendance . Other states are contemplating legislation on the opposite end of the spectrum: In Alabama, legislators are reviewing a bill that would allow employers to be sued for injury or death from the vaccine if it is mandated for workers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

It’s no surprise California’s Democratic-supermajority Legislature would be considering a stricter slate of COVID bills

“We take California’s role in the nation very seriously,” said Bas Hamilton. “It’s a state in which certain policies are able to go further than in other places. The size of the state in and of itself creates an enormous push against the rest of the country to follow.”

Sen. Richard Pan, a Sacramento Democrat and chair of the Senate Health Committee, is carrying several of the bills. Pan, a pediatrician, has been in the spotlight before for ushering controversial vaccine related bills through the Legislature, having previously eliminated personal belief exemptions for children in public schools. He also tightened the rules for physicians issuing vaccine medical exemptions.

“The virus is not going away,” said Pan. “And so, it’s not just about temporary measures but we need ongoing measures to keep this virus under control.”

The legislative working group is made up of Democratic Sens. Pan, Newman and Scott Wiener of San Francisco, and Democratic Assemblymembers Akilah Weber of San Diego, Buffy Wicks of Oakland, Cecilia Aguiar-Curry of Winters and Evan Low, of Cupertino. All of the bills are being sponsored by ProtectUS, a pro-vaccine group created by Crystal Strait, a former member of Pan’s staff.

The most contentious vaccine bills

The proposals expected to receive the most heated debate are the two that would mandate vaccines in schools and for businesses, according to supporters and critics of the bills.

“Each of these bills removes the civil rights of some group,” said Greg Glaser, general counsel for Physicians for Informed Consent, a doctor group based in Newport Beach that opposes all vaccine mandates. “California has really alienated families and this is going to take more people out of the state.”

In previous years, vaccine-related bills have been so hotly contested that police had to remove protestors from the capitol and Pan faced death threats.

“This is a virus that our kids are very resilient to,” said McKeeman, of Let Them Breathe, the San Diego-based parent coalition that opposes masks and vaccine mandates. The group successfully sued to overturn the San Diego Unified School District’s vaccine mandate. “This isn’t even a discussion we should be having. With no long-term studies and with no FDA approval for most ages (of kids) this bill should not have been introduced.”

COVID-19 is mild for children in most cases and vaccinated children still get the virus but Pan points to cases in which children get very sick, are hospitalized or even die from the diseases as a reason for the mandate. So far in California, 55 children have died from COVID-19, according to state data.

“It’s not okay for children to get disabled and die while we are waiting for the final schedule,” Pan said. “Just because we don’t know everything doesn’t mean we don’t try to stop it.”

Hildebrand, of A Voice for Choice, points to the pandemic’s quick evolution with various surges and ever-changing treatments for the disease as reasons to hold off on such a mandate.

“It’s premature and arbitrary,” Hildebrand said. “Adding the vaccine for kids, daycare through 12th grade, is too broad. The vaccine isn’t effective with transmission and there need to be more clinical trials and long-term studies. It should be left up to the parents and their doctors.”

Data reviewed by researchers and the State of New York, released this week, showed that the Pfizer vaccine for 5 to 11 year olds is significantly less effective in preventing the disease among kids than in adolescents. But it does protect from severe illness. Meanwhile, the FDA recently put off approving the vaccine for infants and toddlers under 5 until there is more data about how a three-dose regimen affects them.

“The virus is not going away. So, it’s not just about temporary measures, but we need ongoing measures to keep this virus under control.”
— State Senator Richard Pan

The vaccine mandate for workers faces strong opposition from business groups including the California chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses. Nationally, the organization successfully challenged the federal workplace mandate that was jettisoned by the Supreme Court.

The chapter’s state director John Kabateck called the bill an “absurdly unnecessary policy” especially at a time when the governor recently said he is ready to start easing restrictions and recognizing the pandemic is becoming endemic.

“Why in the world would we want to advance this kind of policy that further burdens not just small business owners but all Californians and communities?” he said. “This policy is over-reactive and over burdensome for already stretched small business owners trying to keep their doors open and their people employed.”

Wicks said vaccinating all workers in the state helps raise the overall vaccination rate and cited companies such as United Airlines that have implemented their own vaccine requirements with success.

Other bills

Wiener’s bill to allow 12 to 17 year-olds to get the COVID-19 vaccine without parental consent is also garnering a lot of push back.

“A 12-year-old can get an abortion, the HPV vaccine, the Hep B vaccine, mental health services and domestic abuse services,” he said. “We trust them to do that on their own and we should trust them (with the COVID-19 vaccine) as well.”

Critics counter that this kind of bill interferes with parental oversight.

“There are a lot of decisions we guide kids through as they are maturing, especially during this time when we have seen a lot of pressure to get vaccinated,” McKeeman said. “That’s why they can’t drive or drink alcohol or join the military until they get to a certain age. Because there is a level of maturity that goes along with decisions that are unalterable.”

The proposed changes to the state’s immunization registry raise questions for critics about the health privacy of children.

“I don’t understand why schools are being given access to all of this data that doesn’t apply to them and it’s not their role to have,” Hildebrand said. “It’s concerning that all of this data gets to be made public.”

Weber, who proposed the bill, said it would make it easier for schools to check vaccination and let them see what other vaccines their students have in case they choose to require more than the state already does. Adding race and ethnicity to the database, she said, would allow officials to target public health marketing efforts based on the data.

So far, no opposition has emerged to the bills to combat social media misinformation or require law enforcement to uphold public health orders.

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

Sandra Jean Johnson, born February 22, 1941, passed away peacefully and unexpectedly at home with her cat and dog by her side on February 19, 2022.

Mom was born in Logan, Cache County, Utah on a dairy farm in College Ward that also grew hay and beets. She helped her dad, Nick Johnson, tend the fields and shoo the cows to other pastures. She said she always struggled getting them to mind, her thin, tan arms waving in the air to get them to go this way or that. Mom’s mother, Rosalie Johnson (nee Marshall), could be found home cooking and tending house. Mom had an older brother, Wendell Johnson, and an older sister, Carol Bowen. Mom developed a deep love of animals on the farm, which carried over to her adult life.

She attended Cache Valley High before moving to California to finish her schooling. It was in California that she met our dad, Jim Lytle, 7 years her senior, jet black hair, Levi’s, white t-shirt and Elvis charm. He played records for her and took her to some of the first restaurants she’d ever been to. They married and had three children, Kelsie (Kelly) Mortensen, James (Jim) Lytle and Lisa Morehouse.

Mom and Dad were married over 20 years before their marriage ended, upon which mom met and married Ken Kilburn. They, too, were married for over 20 years, and she said he was the love of her life.

Mom worked several jobs before retiring from AAA, where she made many friends that remained friends to her final day. In fact, it was because of these friends, who were concerned she hadn’t shown up to a going away party, that they checked on her and found her passed away, looking peaceful. Thank you, Dennis Lewis. We are so grateful.

Mom made dear friends with many of her neighbors, who all kept tabs on each other and always lent a helping hand. Thank you, Gail Dominguez, for also being there that night and calling 911. You were so compassionate and respectful to her in life and death.

Mom made many dear friends from her years of volunteering at the ACS Discovery Shop. She was in charge of the children’s section and boy, you had better not put an adult item in there (the shop ladies will get that!). Almost daily, she would walk a three-mile round trip path from her house in Cutten. Along the way, she would see the same people and many felt they knew her, without ever knowing her name. She made many friends this way, too.

Her walks could have been boring, but not for mom. On her route, she rescued snakes, left notes for strangers, played pranks, looked for coins or collected apples to feed to the horses.

Mom was an avid quilter over the years and could embroider like no other. Her quilts are remarkable and sprinkled throughout the county and even the world!

Mom had a huge love of baseball, particularly the SF Giants. Her dream was to live in San Francisco and walk to every home game. For her 75th birthday, her daughters took her to a spring training game. Her only wish for her birthday was “to touch Angel Pagan.” Well, her wish came true and she also got to tell him he was “a beautiful man.” We joke that that was her first visit to Heaven.

Sandra is survived by her daughters, Kelly Mortensen and Lisa Morehouse, her son Jim Lytle, sons-in-law Wayne Mortensen and Jim Morehouse, nephews Dewey, Marshall and Nicky Bowen, her grandchildren Alexa and Maria Morehouse, Gary Lytle, Clifton, Matt, Michael, Kelsie, Alex, Thomas and Mark Mortensen and her great-grandchildren Holden, Loyal and Davis Mortensen, Grayson Mortensen, Miles and Marshall Martindale and Shiloh Lewis.

Because of Sandra’s love of animals and baseball, we ask that in lieu of flowers, please donate to the Sequoia Humane Society or your local youth baseball league.

A memorial will be held to celebrate Sandra’s life at the Eureka Woman’s Club 1531 J Street, Eureka, CA on Saturday, March 26, 2022, at 2 p.m. Thank you to all who loved her and looked out for her. Life will not be the same without her. She was smart, compassionate and made the world a better place in lots of little ways.

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Our beloved mother went home in the early morning hours of February 7, 2022, at the Vaca Valley Hospital in Vacaville. She had been diagnosed with heart issues in September and had been living with her youngest daughter, DeeAnne, and son-in-law, Doug, in Vacaville since the middle of September.

Mom was born on January 8, 1926, in her grandparents’ log house in the small town of Cokeville, Wyoming, the third of seven children born to Cleo Hoopes and William Branson. The family moved to California in 1945 and made their home on First Street in the little town of Rohnerville. Never wanting to be the center of attention, she married Gerald Abrahamson on June 11, 1948, in a private service in Reno. Mom and Dad eventually bought her parents’ home on First Street and moved there in March of 1955, where they raised their family of three girls.

Mom was a member of the Campton Heights Baptist Church, beginning her lifelong attendance when services were held in the Rohnerville Grange. She was a devote Christian and always said God saw her through the good and tough times of her life.

She went to work in the kitchen at Redwood Memorial Hospital in 1971 and worked there until she retired in 1989. Any time she had an occasion to be in the hospital, she was always warmly greeted by the employees who remembered her from her years working there.

Mom lost Dad after nearly 48 years of marriage in 1996 and lived independently in their home until September 2021. She was also preceded in death by her parents, five of her siblings and their spouses, Francis and Jeanne Branson, Rose and Lamar Thornock, Norma and Zip Gomes, Arlon Branson, Elva Ann and Glenn Gracey, and her sister-in-law, Louise Branson; her daughter, Janet; and sons-in-law, Jim Ross, Chet Craddock and Greg Griswold. She is survived by her daughters, Mary Griswold and DeeAnne (Doug) Green; her granddaughters, Andrea (Ray) Haselip and Rebecca Griswold, her great-grandchildren, Madison, Jacob, Charlotte, Theo and Henry; and a great-great-grandson, River, who arrived just 12 days after her passing; her youngest brother, Darrell (Sandi); sister-in-law, Patti Branson, and many nieces and nephews.

In keeping with Mom’s wishes, we will have an informal Celebration of Life at her graveside at the Sunrise Cemetery in Fortuna on Saturday, March 5th, at 1 p.m. All who knew and loved her are welcome to attend and share their memories. Her favorite color was blue, so please feel free to wear something blue – we will be! Due to the age and health conditions of some family members who will be in attendance, masks will be required and, if not feeling well, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers but please do not attend.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Campton Heights Baptist Church, 1655 Cecil Avenue, Fortuna 95540, or a charity of your choice.

Arrangements under the direction of Goble’s Fortuna Mortuary.

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