Three years ago, advocates for reducing smoking and vaping in California won a major victory when they persuaded the state Legislature to adopt a ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products despite an intense industry lobbying campaign.

But in recent months, those same groups have been largely silent as a first-term lawmaker sought to phase out tobacco sales in the state altogether. His proposal was shelved this week without even receiving a hearing, and he will instead pursue a bill this session to strengthen enforcement of the flavored tobacco ban.

The decision by major anti-tobacco organizations to sit out another legislative fight reflects a broader disagreement among advocates about the best way to reach what they call the “endgame” of a tobacco-free future — and whether that should be their primary goal. Concerns over public backlash, political feasibility and potential cuts to programs funded by tobacco taxes are all factors.

“All these groups have the same goal,” to eliminate the deaths and disease caused by tobacco, said Chris Bostic, policy director for Action on Smoking and Health, one of only a handful of anti-tobacco groups to endorse the sales phaseout bill. “But people have varying opinions of how to get from here to there.”

Assembly Bill 935, introduced in February by Democratic Assemblymember Damon Connolly of San Rafael, would have taken the bold step of banning the sale of tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars and vaping liquid, to anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2007.

The legal smoking age in California is 21, so those who would have been affected by the measure aren’t able to buy tobacco from retailers for at least five more years anyway. But the proposal would have had the effect of creating a whole generation of Californians prohibited from ever legally purchasing tobacco products, with the goal of making it more difficult for them to start smoking or vaping.

It’s an idea that remains on the cutting edge globally. New Zealand became the first country to adopt the approach in December, banning the sale of smoked tobacco products such as cigarettes for anyone born after 2008. The Massachusetts town of Brookline passed a more expansive ban on tobacco products, including vapes, in 2020, which faced a legal challenge from retailers and was upheld in court last year.

Lawmakers in Hawaii and Nevada also introduced sales phaseout proposals this year, but neither measure has received a hearing yet either.

Bill did not gain traction

Connolly’s bill struggled to attract backing. By the end of last week, only 10 organizations, including the California chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, had sent letters of support to the Assembly Health Committee, where it was first set to be considered, according to an analysis prepared by the committee.

None of seven primary sponsors of the flavored tobacco ban — the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Common Sense, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond — took a public position on AB 935. Most declined to discuss their reasons with CalMatters.

“This is not the time to tackle this. We’re trying to do the clean-up on the flavored tobacco ban,” said Autumn Ogden-Smith, director of California state legislation for American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. “We’re having enforcement issues.”

Jason Maymon, a spokesperson for Common Sense, said that the organization’s priority had shifted to protecting kids and teens from online harms. “Tobacco remains an important issue that we care about but more of our resources are focused on fixing the internet for kids,” he wrote in an email.

Bo Smith, a spokesperson for the American Lung Association, which has a “strategic imperative” to “create a tobacco-free future,” said in an email that the organization has “nothing to add to the story at this time.”

Representatives for the American Heart Association — which has adopted a tobacco endgame strategy and received a $5.6 million grant from the California Tobacco Control Program in 2020 to help position the state to end tobacco use statewide by 2035 — did not respond to interview requests and written questions.

At the Assembly Health Committee hearing on Tuesday, Connolly accepted amendments from the committee that changed the focus of his bill. It will now authorize the California Department of Public Health and the state attorney general’s office to enforce the flavored tobacco ban, in addition to local agencies.

Assemblymember Jim Wood, the Healdsburg Democrat who leads the health committee, declined an interview request. In its analysis, the committee suggested that phasing out tobacco sales in California was less urgent because adult and youth smoking rates are only slightly higher than half the national average.

“The Legislature may want to consider whether it would be more effective to focus on enforcing the flavored tobacco ban rather than engaging on a new front,” the committee wrote, “and attempting to prevent a product that is legal in 49 other states, as well as on sovereign Tribal lands, from entering the state.”

Connolly, who was elected to the Assembly in November and previously worked on tobacco control as a Marin County supervisor, told CalMatters that he plans to revive the sales phaseout proposal next year. He said he would continue to seek the support of anti-tobacco organizations that did not come on board with this version.

“I don’t want to speak for them, but I think certainly there are shared goals around the ultimate objective,” he said. “So what I would anticipate is continuing to work with those groups, and all stakeholders, around a larger set of solutions as originally embodied in AB 935.”

Why anti-tobacco groups were reluctant

Supporters of the measure said they heard a range of objections as they tried to bring advocates into the fold, including both that the bill was too aggressive and that it did not go far enough.

Some groups worry that unintended consequences, such as pushing more tobacco sales into the black market, could set back the overall movement to end smoking. Others believe it would divert finite resources into a politically challenging fight at the Capitol and distract from a nascent local campaign to persuade cities to completely outlaw tobacco sales, which has already found success in Beverly Hills and Manhattan Beach. Some see it as unjust to create a separate group of adults who cannot buy tobacco products while most still can.

Jack Maa, a Marin County physician and anti-tobacco activist who testified in favor of AB 935 at Tuesday’s hearing, said the most convincing argument he heard was that the bill would give the tobacco industry a pass for decades as sales are slowly phased out and that the endgame should come sooner.

“There’s not going to be one single legislative solution to the enormous problem that the tobacco industry has created over 500 years,” Maa said. “I believe it will require a multi-pronged strategy.”

Then there’s the fiscal reality that taxes on tobacco sales fund programs in California — including health care for low-income residents, disease research, early childhood education and tobacco use prevention — some of which are led by the same groups that are pushing to reduce smoking.

Following a campaign by hospitals, doctors, unions and anti-tobacco groups, California voters passed a massive tobacco tax increase in 2016 that initially promised to raise more than $1 billion annually for the state budget. It provided $30 million for local tobacco control programs and $19 million for competitive grants last year, according to the Department of Public Health.

Bostic, of Action on Smoking and Health, said he viewed it as a victory that the debate over tobacco had reached a point where a statewide phaseout of sales could even be proposed in California. He said he was not surprised that mainstream anti-tobacco organizations did not jump on board with the idea, in part because of fear over how their movement might be perceived, but he pointed to a nationwide Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey conducted in 2021 that found that more than 57% of American adults support banning the sale of tobacco products

“We’ve got to get public health to catch up with the public, and then we’ve got to get decision-makers to catch up with both,” Bostic said.

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

Thousands of adult Californians without a high school diploma want to take college classes. Unfortunately, those classes aren’t free, and the lack of a high school diploma cuts off access to most financial aid.

The good news is, there’s a fix. The bad news is most students don’t know about the fix, and most college officials don’t understand the laws surrounding it.

Federal law has a special clause that allows students lacking a high school diploma to access financial aid money they would otherwise miss. Known as the Ability to Benefit, the provision opens up federal financial aid to adults without high school degrees who enroll in GED and college classes simultaneously.

California community colleges also stand to benefit financially from the law because it could allow schools to boost enrollment and the number of students on federal aid, both of which are tied to the state’s new college funding formula.

More than 4 million Californians lack a high school degree and roughly 340,000 of those adults were taking some form of adult education in 2021, according to the California Community College Chancellor’s office.

At least that many adults could be eligible for this federal aid, but in 2016, just shy of 58,000 students in California actually received federal grants or loans associated with it. The numbers have dropped every year since, and in 2021, just more than 30,000 California students participated, according to the U.S. Department of Education. That means as many as 90% of eligible adult students weren’t taking advantage of this aid.

The decline is the result of a complicated balancing act. On the one hand, the federal government has noted a history of poor oversight and “abuse” of Ability to Benefit, especially by for-profit colleges. On the other hand, more regulation has left community colleges feeling confused and uninformed.

Still, Bradley Custer, a senior policy analyst for higher education at the Center for American Progress, said use of the aid has room to grow.

“There’s no compelling reason why we couldn’t at least get back to 2016 and prior enrollment,” he said.

Locked out of loans and grants

In California, community college tuition is free for qualifying low-income students who apply, but even for those who get the fee waiver, it’s just a fraction of the many costs related to attending college. Textbooks, transportation, and food add an average of roughly $12,000 a year.

That’s why the federal government offers flexible aid for college students — and through Ability to Benefit, adults without high school degrees can access that money, too. A federal Pell grant, for instance, currently provides as much as $6,895 a year for qualifying students, money that can be spent on things like childcare or rent.

Joe Villa, 67, needs that money. He has six children from two marriages, no high school diploma, and a criminal record that makes even a simple job interview challenging. But he won’t give up.

While serving a 10-year sentence at High Desert State Prison in Susanville, Villa attempted to get his GED, but the program closed before he could finish.

Then in 2019, Villa was standing beside a prison employee when another inmate charged at the two of them. Villa intervened, saving the employee’s life. Gov. Gavin Newsom commuted Villa’s sentence, and he was released in April 2020 — just weeks after the state locked down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There was no employment because of COVID, and I’m thinking, perhaps this is the best time to re-educate myself and get my degree,” he said. Through Saddleback Community College in Mission Viejo, Villa promptly enrolled in both a GED program and a number of college classes. CalMatters found Villa through a Saddleback administrator reference.

He tried to apply for federal student aid, but didn’t get far since he doesn’t have a high school diploma and didn’t know about the Ability to Benefit provision.

Qualifying for the Ability to Benefit exception is not easy. A student must first enroll in a program to obtain their high school degree or equivalent and take six credits of college courses. Alternatively, they can pass a special exam.

Finally, students who want the federal dollars must receive certain kinds of counseling support and can only take a certain set of courses, as interpreted by their college.

Villa checks nearly every box. He is currently enrolled in both a GED class and has already taken more than six credits worth of courses at Saddleback in the hope of getting his associates degree and then transferring to four-year university to study cinematography.

But as of 2020, Saddleback College no longer offers students aid through Ability to Benefit.

Fixing a ‘scam,’ facing consequences

It’s a trend, said Judy Mortrude, senior technical advisor at the National College Transition Network of World Education, Inc., a Boston-based nonprofit that helps community colleges.

In 1991, Congress put Ability to Benefit into the law and slowly added regulations that explained how students could qualify, like through an exam or by taking six credits. In 2012, Congress cut the funding, only to restore it fully in 2016. Then Congress required that colleges offer counseling and career training to these students and that they restrict them to a certain set of classes and majors that align with the local economy.

Whereas the original rule had only been about the student’s eligibility, the 2016 regulations asked colleges to perform certain services, and colleges didn’t know how to interpret it, Mortrude said.

“The chain of communication is poor,” said Naomi Castro, a senior director with the Career Ladders Projects, a nonprofit research group founded by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors. She said that many financial aid directors at community colleges didn’t even know that Congress restarted the program in 2016.

Saddleback allowed students who enrolled prior to 2012 to get aid at any point, since they qualified through the old law, but the college never implemented the 2016 regulations, meaning students such as Villa have yet to benefit.

Saddleback College in Mission Viejo on April 11, 2023. Photo by Lauren Justice for CalMatters

The challenge, said Karima Feldhus, an academic administrator at Saddleback, is that the college lacks “an eligible list of careers” according to the 2016 regulations. As to why the college waited years to adopt the regulations , she said she didn’t know and referred CalMatters to the director of the financial aid office and the dean of enrollment. Neither person responded to requests for comment.

Nor did San Jose City College implement Ability to Benefit when it restarted in 2016, according to Takeo Kubo, the financial aid director.

San Jose City College spokesperson Daniel Garza said the 2016 law required “significant curriculum development efforts,” which he noted can be “quite an undertaking” at any school. He said he was not aware of what efforts the college made to consider making the necessary curriculum changes when the new regulations came out.

Some community colleges, including the four Sacramento-area ones in the Los Rios Community College District, did adapt to the new regulations. Those colleges currently have 42 students who receive aid through Ability to Benefit out of a total of 780 students in the system without a high school diploma.

While community colleges have increasingly shied away from Ability to Benefit over the years, for-profit colleges have leaned in.

Nationally, participation at public and private nonprofit colleges has dropped by more than half since 2016 while usage at private for-profit schools has risen, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education. The department did not respond to requests for recent statewide data.

For-profit and nonprofit use different processes, too. The department data shows public and private nonprofit colleges generally have students qualify for Ability to Benefit by taking six credits worth of classes. At for-profit colleges, nearly every student qualifies for it through an exam.

“It’s sort of a scam how they are getting bucket loads of people to hit a cut score on an exam who somehow couldn’t pass the GED test,” said Mortrude.

The department created many of the new regulations to clamp down on such “predatory behavior,” she said.

A third way

While students generally qualify for Ability to Benefit through the two national pathways, federal law also allows states to develop their own processes.

In 2019, Mortrude, Castro, and other college leaders sent a proposal to the Community College Chancellor’s Office on how California could set its own such process. Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, Washington and Wisconsin have already done it.

In Wisconsin, for example, adult students at some technical colleges can qualify for aid by participating in an orientation and by working with a tutor or academic counselor, among other criteria.

The individual community colleges are responsible for implementing the Ability to Benefit provision for students, said Paul Feist, a vice chancellor for the California Community College Chancellor’s Office, in a statement.

He said the office will explore creating a “state defined process” akin to what other states have done. The office did not provide a timeline for a new state process.

This month, a committee of Saddleback administrators came together to figure out the federal regulations with the goal of offering the Ability to Benefit aid this fall.

If they succeed, Villa has a list of expenses he hopes his aid can cover. First, he’s late on child support payments. He wants a new apartment and after putting on some weight during the COVID pandemic, he needs new clothes that fit.

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

Harvey Baird peacefully entered into rest on April 10, 2023, surrounded by his loving family, after a short illness.

Harvey was born in Rohnerville to Harvey Baird Sr. and Beryl Godfrey Baird, the third child and only son of their six children. Harvey was a lifelong resident of Humboldt County, remaining in the Rohnerville/Fortuna area his entire life. He never wanted to live anywhere else.

Harvey worked in the woods and various sawmills in his early years while raising his family, often working multiple jobs at the same time. He made lots of friends and shared plenty of laughs with his quick wit and unique sense of humor. In the early 1970s he and Sue purchased The Old West Trading Post at the junction of Highways 36 and 101 in Alton, turning it into “Harvey’s,” a jumping dance bar that served the best pizza for miles around.

Although he loved the music and social life of being a bar owner, he made the decision to change occupations. Harvey discovered he was a very creative wood worker. He made beautiful clocks, furniture and chain saw carvings. He loved using redwood and driftwood for many of his projects. That’s how Harvey’s bar became The Old West Trading Post again. He met people from all over the world, remaining friends with many until his death. Harvey never knew a stranger.

Harvey was an avid outdoorsman. There wasn’t much he enjoyed more than hunting, fishing and diving for abalone, unless it was listening to his three sons play their guitars. His best friend and hunting partner was his son Colley. They had numerous friends and hunting partners along the way and enjoyed all the trips they took together.

Harvey is survived by four children from his first marriage to Fame Thornbury — sons Jesse, Colley (Phyllis), Griff (Wanda) Baird and last but not least, daughter Tana (Jerry) Bryan. He had 15 grandchildren, 35 great grandchildren with one on the way, 18 great-great grandchildren with two on the way, sisters Jackie Winsby, Loyce Stovall and Gloria Cottrell as well as his beloved dogs Duke and Piglet.

In 1971 Harvey married Sue Oester, the love of his life. They had a wonderful 44 plus years together. Sue had two daughters, Rhonda Meehan and Debi August, and a son, Jim Oester, that preceded her in death. His marriage to Sue increased his already impressive total of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Harvey was preceded in death by his parents Harvey Sr. and Beryl, sisters Beverly and Marilyn and his precious wife Sue in 2015.

Harvey will always be remembered for his sense of humor, generosity and willingness to help others. He was truly a good Samaritan. We will all miss his infectious laughter and endless stream of jokes.

There will be a private burial for Harvey on April 13, 2023. A memorial service will be held on April 22, 2023 at 1 p.m. at the Calvary Chapel located at 914 9th St. Fortuna. All friends and family are welcome to attend and share stories and memories of Harvey. Refreshments will be served.

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HUMBOLDT TODAY: A pool in Arcata has been filled to provide better shelter to the city’s unhoused; Del Norte’s Juvenile Hall has closed and leaders are trying to figure out what to do with young offenders; plus, Redwood Acres Racing is back! Those stories and more in today’s newscast with John Kennedy O’Connor.

FURTHER READING: 

• Arcata Planning Commission Keeps Proposal to Make K and L Into One-Way Streets on the Table, Looks at Other Short-Term Options to Improve K Street
• McGuire Legislation to Speed Up Offshore Wind Development Clears Natural Resources Committee, Senator’s Office Announces

HUMBOLDT TODAY can be viewed on LoCO’s homepage each night starting at 6 p.m.

Want to LISTEN to HUMBOLDT TODAY? Subscribe to the podcast version here.

Press release from the Arcata Police Department:

On April 15, 2017, six years ago this week, Humboldt State University sophomore student David Josiah Lawson was stabbed to death while attending a house party on Spear Avenue in Arcata. The criminal investigation remains open. Investigators from the Arcata Police Department continue to actively pursue tips and leads that could ultimately lead to this case being presented again in court.

Less than half of the 100 plus people who were reportedly in attendance at the party have been identified and interviewed by investigators. Witness accounts are essential to moving this case forward either by corroborating known information or in the development of new leads. While some may be reluctant to come forward it is imperative that they contact investigators in order to be heard and in the interest of fact-finding. Witnesses who have not yet been interviewed may have information that is critical in the furtherance of this criminal investigation.

Anyone who was present at the house party or who has information regarding who was present or what occurred that led to the stabbing of Josiah is asked to call the Arcata Police Department at (707) 822-2424 or APD’s 24-hour confidential tip-line at (707) 825-2590.

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PREVIOUSLY:

• ARCATA’S GATEWAY AREA PLAN: Arcata City Council and Planning Commission Joint Study Session Tonight; Maximum Building Heights May be Set
• What’s Next for Arcata’s Gateway Area Plan? Community Development Director Offers Clarification on Results of Recent Study Session
• How’s Arcata Doing on Meeting its Housing Goals, And Should it Make K Street Traffic One-Way? Those Will be Some of the Questions Addressed at Tonight’s Planning Commission Meeting

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During its Tuesday night meeting, which focused on recommendations on Arcata’s General Plan Updates, the Arcata Planning Commission agreed that K Street is kind of a mess. It has lots of car traffic, no bike lanes, too much parking and not big enough sidewalks. But exactly how to address that mess was something the commission was a little less clear on. 

One proposed option the city has been looking at for a few years is the controversial K-L Couplet – a proposed plan to extend L Street from Alliance Road to Samoa Boulevard and convert L and K Streets to one-way traffic. City staff and the Arcata City Council are in support of the couplet plan, saying that it will be necessary to accommodate the growth that will go along with the Gateway Area Plan and the most effective way to improve bike and pedestrian safety. 

But Arcata’s Transportation and Safety Committee has made recommendations against the proposal, and some community members have voiced concerns over the couplet urging the commission and council to instead support the plan for an L Street Linear parkway – which would block L Street off from car traffic entirely, making it only accessible by bike and foot. 

One community member, Alex, told the commission that he is not in support of the two street couplet  because of the traffic and noise pollution it would cause in the neighborhood. “Everyone loves L street as it is right now, but it’s a really quiet area right now,” he said during Tuesday’s meeting. “Making it a new thoroughfare for a newly developed area is going to make it decidedly less pleasant.” 

With the mixed reception of the couplet proposal, the planning commission was asked to make a recommendation on whether the proposal should be removed from consideration, or if it is something the commission would like to keep in the City’s General Plan as a means to address traffic and safety concerns in the coming years. Though the commission members took no formal action, they took a straw poll indicating that four members would like to see the couplet kept in the plan and two members would like it to be removed. 

But even with the couplet proposal left in the city’s general plan, it will not be happening any time soon. David Loya, Arcata’s community development director, said that the couplet plan “probably won’t happen for 20 years.”  The planning commission agreed that something will need to be done to address the issues on K Street in the nearer future. 

In case you are not super-familiar with traveling through Arcata, K Street is a popular thoroughfare, connecting Alliance Road to Samoa Boulevard, and is lined with many residences and businesses. Though the street is marked as a “bike boulevard,” there are no separate bike lanes and many feel that the street is not safe for cyclists or pedestrians. City Engineer Netra Khatri showed the commission some of the alternative plans for improving K Street in the interim, including proposals to add marked bike lanes, remove one or both parking lanes and even to potentially add a two-way turning lane in the middle of the street. 

The “most viable option” Khatri said, was Option A, which would remove one parking lane on the west side of K Street and add two marked bike lanes, with one parking lane maintained on the east side of the street. Again, no formal action was taken by the commission, but the majority of the commission members did seem to support this option. Some members also supported the option to remove parking from the street entirely. It’s not clear when any of these options will be brought forward for formal action, but it was clear that city staff will continue to work toward planning for K Street improvements and that the item will be brought forward for consideration in the future. 

The commission was also slated to recommend approval of the General Plan Annual Progress Report, something that must be submitted to the state annually to show how well the jurisdiction is doing at meeting its housing goals. But city staff realized that the report contained some errors that needed to be corrected, and requested that the commission move this item to its next meeting on April 25.

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PREVIOUSLY:

• California’s Aging Electrical Infrastructure Presents Hurdle for Offshore Wind Development on the North Coast

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Press release from the office of Sen. Mike McGuire:

Senate Majority Leader Mike McGuire’s ground-breaking legislation to expedite offshore wind development to help meet the Golden State’s long-term electricity demand and extraordinary climate goals passed Tuesday with bipartisan support in the Senate Natural Resources Committee.

“If we’re serious about bringing on desperately needed new power generation facilities and meeting the state’s nation-leading climate goals and energy needs – we must move heaven and earth to deploy new green power. This bill will expedite the state-side offshore wind permitting process eliminating 3 years off of the permitting timeline all while protecting California’s coastal environment and storied fishing fleet, it will deploy resources for offshore wind infrastructure in local communities and help get folks to work through new career training programs,” Senate Majority Leader Mike McGuire said.

SB 286 – the Offshore Wind Expediting Act – will accelerate the state-side offshore wind permitting process through the State Coastal Commission and State Land Commission. At the same time, it will ensure environmental safeguards will remain in place, California’s storied fishing fleet interests are protected, and the bill will advance resources that benefit communities and develop family-sustaining careers through workforce education programs.

In addition to desperately needed streamlining, this bill also mandates state agencies and key stakeholders come together to collaborate and develop the long-term game plan to deploy offshore wind infrastructure.

SB 286 requires the Coastal Commission to bring the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the State Lands Commission, the Ocean Protection Council, representatives from the commercial fishing industry, representatives from the offshore wind industry, federal agencies, labor, Native American tribes and other stakeholders together over the next two years. This stakeholder group will create a statewide standard to ensure offshore wind development is expedited and will develop data-driven strategies to avoid and minimize impacts to ocean fisheries and to the maximum extent possible, mitigate for unavoidable impacts.

SB 286 was approved by a 9-0 vote in Senate Natural Resources Committee and will be heard next in the Senate Energy Committee.