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Local News 12 18 25 · KMUD News

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign.
• 0:15
  Speaker B: Good evening and welcome to the local news. Today is Thursday, December 18th and I'm Nat Cardos reporting for KMUD. In tonight's news, keep PBS awarded $535,000 grant from public Media Bridge Fund. Humboldt budget structural deficit persists and homeless persons Memorial Day December 21st vigils planned for Arcata and Eureka. So stay tuned. Those stories and more coming up.
• 0:44
  Speaker C: Redwood Community Radio acknowledges that its transmitter.
• 0:48
  Speaker D: Sites are located on the unceded territory of the Sinkion, Wailaki, Wiat, Wilkut and Kato people.
• 0:55
  Speaker C: We honor ancestors past, present and emerging.
• 0:58
  Speaker D: And acknowledge the ongoing cultural, spiritual and.
• 1:01
  Speaker C: Physical connection these tribes have to this region.
• 1:06
  Speaker B: On December 15, Key PBS, a PBS member station that serves the Redwood coast, announced that they received a $535,000 grant from the Public Media Bridge Fund to help cover the costs of operation after public Media was defunded by the Trump administration earlier this year. KMAID also received the grant this month. The Public Media Bridge Fund was created by the Public Media Company with the goal to secure local public media services across the country, focusing on rural and underserved communities where federal funding cuts hit the hardest. In May of this year, as part of the one big beautiful Bill act, federal funding was cut for public broadcasting, which resulted in the shuttering of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Keat PBS lost half of their funding as a result of this, forcing them to scale back to be able to stay on air. Cayman News spoke to Johan Pleiter, board president for Keat, for more information about how Keat had to adjust and work around funding cuts.
• 1:54
  Speaker C: Well, we had to do some reduction in people. There were some people also that left. You have to think of, I mean, we're basically now we're down to five people. So it's a really small, very effective team. I think we came down from 12, I seem to recall. So it is, you know, but we also had retirements. We had a senior person retiring. So, you know what I mean, quite a big impact. And the thing also is we actually had to actually make changes to how many channels we broadcast because currently we have four or five channels, you know, the World Channel, the Creative PBS kids, the main Keats channel in fnx. So we had to take a look at like what people are watching the most, as far as we know. And then we realized we could only afford one and that's the main, the main key channel. So we had to really make some drastic cuts that of course we don't want. But you know, you have to, you have to take a look it's like balancing your own personal checkbook, you know, say like, we like to do this. Can we afford it?
• 2:51
  Speaker B: The grant will be used to upgrade and reinforce broadcast infrastructure like aging transmission and operational systems. Upgrading these systems will ensure reliable access to programming across the region. Pleuter elaborates further on how this grant will be used and how Keet has been adjusting to the changes in the public media landscape.
• 3:07
  Speaker C: Yeah, it is fantastic that we received that because as you know, that, you know, we had the recession of the federal funds that were promised right to start receiving in October and then we suddenly had to live without that. And that is 50% of a funding cut. So we had to do some reorganization. And then at the same time we had, you know, we had quite some old equipment and so we were offline, you know, for a little bit, get a power search and things like that. And some things didn't work. So we realized we need to figure out a bit like, you know, like what do people really want to watch? Because we can't afford to continue the way we did. We have to do some smart thinking. Can we do things smarter, maybe even cheaper, but also especially smarter with newer abilities, ways to outsource, you know what I mean? Because we've been doing everything ourselves, most of it, and. But yeah, our equipment was failing, you know, so the plan was to do some infrastructure optimization, to do some replacing aging equipment, to actually do for instance, the monitoring differently, maybe a cloud based system so we can have more sustainability because that's concerned us the most. You want to make sure that there's no disruption in the broadcasting for anyone.
• 4:19
  Speaker B: Kate isn't out of the woods financially as this grant is temporary and limited in scope. The organization is still fundraising to meet PBS obligations and to maintain the local services that viewers depend on. In rural communities like Humboldt, Public media plays a vital role by providing universal access to educational resources, trusted journalism and cultural programming, regardless of income or Internet availability.
• 4:40
  Speaker C: If, for instance, our financial future looks a little better in the future, we may add things back. But I mean, at this moment we just have to restrict it a little bit until we see what the future looks like. Because we don't know what, of course, what, what next year looks like because you know, these PBS programs to be able to broadcast and we do pay for that and we don't always know like had a reduced cost this year. PBS was very nice to us, but we do not know what that's going to look like next year. So there are quite a few others moving parts, unknown parts that we just do not know. So we're trying to stabilize ourselves, you know, financially of course, also with equipment wise operationally so that we can handle those things.
• 5:21
  Speaker B: For more information about Keat, the website is keat.org there are some positives in the Humboldt county budget, but there's also cause for concern.
• 5:32
  Speaker E: Daniel Mintz reports Humboldt County's budget is better than expected in some ways, but there's still a $12 million structural deficit and ability to cover it will last only one more year. A mixture of pluses and minuses in last year's budget and the first three months of the current fiscal year was described during a Dec. 16 Board of Supervisors presentation. The 2024-2025 fiscal year ended with a general fund balance $7 million higher than expected. But other fund balances, including the county's Roads Fund and Aviation Fund, are running deficits, as is the Department of Health and Human Services. Between one time revenues and savings, the county budget is in better shape than expected. Supervisor Natalie Arroyo nodded to that, but also flagged the persistent presence of the structural deficit.
• 6:31
  Speaker F: I appreciate that due to measures around increased austerity and frequency of conversations about budget and some efforts of all of our team to really buckle down and do what we can to improve the outlook, we are in a better position. I'm always intrigued when this gets reported as like making it seem like the county does not have a structural budget deficit, like we're just somehow like we have money to give out. I was like oh no. When I see the reporting kind of framed that way, like oh that is. That is not the picture at all.
• 7:06
  Speaker E: And a written staff report details a troublesome scenario not mentioned in the oral staff presentation. According to the written report, federal budget actions mean counties face substantially greater administrative responsibilities and costs costs for food assistance programs starting in 2026. That and Medicaid eligibility changes will be quote, impactful to community members and community service organizations and quote will affect the county's ability to deliver services primarily in the Department of Health and Human Services. The state is also affected and is expected to have a budget shortfall in 2026. The county budget's ups and downs were discussed in this exchange between Arroyo and Assistant County Administrative Officer Jessica Maceo.
• 8:00
  Speaker F: If we have a structural deficit around 12 million and we'll have a fund balance of a little over 14 and hopefully that will be better than that, then we can cover one more year of what our structural deficit is before we really are up a creek.
• 8:18
  Speaker G: Correct?
• 8:19
  Speaker H: And this is just preliminary.
• 8:20
  Speaker F: I'll at mid year I will give.
• 8:23
  Speaker H: Revenue, anticipate anticipated revenue adjustments and all.
• 8:27
  Speaker G: Of that, which will have a more.
• 8:28
  Speaker F: Detailed projection for you. Yeah, thank you. I. I recall a conversation that we'd had in the past, probably more than a year ago about how we thought we were going to run out of fund balance in the middle of 26, 27. So this is, I would say, good news, but it means we still have a structural deficit that is very concerning to me.
• 8:48
  Speaker E: Up for approval was a series of budget adjustments, including library and district attorney's office reductions. Supervisor Michelle Bushnell noted the budget's status quo condition.
• 9:01
  Speaker F: I agree with my colleagues that, you know, while it looks a little bit better, we still are in not the greatest position and we're still at a status quo budget. We're still at 10% vacancies. We're still at a hiring freeze on some. And so while it looks better, the county and the constituents in the county are still feeling that burden at times. And I want to recognize the, you know, the loss that they've had as well with county services because we are implementing all these items.
• 9:32
  Speaker E: After fielding the presentation, supervisors unanimously approved staff recommended budget adjustments. Supervisor Steve Madrone was absent with board chair Mike Wilson explaining that Madrone had to leave to take a phone call. In Eureka for KMUD News, this is Daniel Mintz.
• 9:52
  Speaker B: December 21st is National Homeless Persons Memorial Day. The first National Homeless Persons Memorial Day was commemorated in 1990 to memorialize members of the community that passed while experiencing homelessness. Tomorrow, December 19, there will be a vigil held at the arcata Plaza from 6pm to 9pm organized by Humboldt Area center for harm Reduction, Affordable homeless Housing Alternatives. Our space and nowhere to go. Humboldt. Following that, on the 21st, organizers will have another vigil at the Old Town Gazebo in Eureka from 4pm to 8pm K1 News spoke to Caroline Griffith, one of the program coordinators for OurSpace. For more about homelessness in Humboldt county and National Homeless Persons Memorial Day this.
• 10:30
  Speaker G: Year, on the list that we've gotten, there are at least 27 people in Humboldt county who passed away while unsheltered. I say at least because this list doesn't count a lot of folks if they had family who could come and claim them. So we have dozens of people in our community who die while unsheltered, which, you know, if you do the math, at least three people a month who are dying while unsheltered, which is just unforgivable in a society like ours where we have so much that we are unable to solve this basic Problem of getting people inside during the cold months, then the National Homeless Persons Day of Remembrance has been happening since in 1990, I believe was the first one. It happens all over the country in different cities and just people recognizing the folks who passed away. And I think it's really important. The words that we use are really, really important in all ways. But this is called the Homeless Person's Day of Remembrance, which that's not even like a word that we would really use anymore, right? We've kind of changed our vernacular. But I think the real problem is that when we reduce to just a word and just a word that represents their housing status, we forget all the other things about them as humans. We're leaving out the fact that these are mothers, they are brothers, they're siblings, they are writers, painters, they like hunting or fishing. They, you know, there's. There's all those complex things that make up a human being that we forget about when we reduce people to just one thing. And so it's really, really important that we recognize these folks and the complexity of them and. And recognize that shared humanity, right? That this could be any of us if we didn't have the support systems that we had.
• 12:12
  Speaker B: At both vigils, there will be candles lit, names read aloud and memories shared, as well as hot food and drinks served. At the arcade of vigil, there will also be a community weaving art project with the goal of promoting a sense of community and a metaphorical web of support. Griffith elaborates further on the project.
• 12:28
  Speaker G: Yeah, well, you know, as we were, some of the organizers of this were talking about, you know, this is a really. It is a sad thing that is bringing us all together to recognize and just thinking about, okay, what is the. What is the antidote to this problem? And it is weaving a web. It is weaving a web of community and a web of support so that people don't fall through the cracks and so that we're all taking care of each other. So this is really just a way that we can create a piece of art together symbolically. But to really think about what we are weaving together as community members to make sure that we are taking care of everyone, ourselves included, right? That we, especially in this time where there is a lot of economic uncertainty, if people lose their health care, we are going to be seeing a lot more folks on the streets because they have to make hard choices about whether they're going to pay for their medication or pay for their rent. And so, especially in a time like this, we need to be making connection and weaving that web. So this is a way that we can create something physical together and really think about that how what we all bring to the table to make this whole.
• 13:31
  Speaker B: The Eureka Vigil has been occurring yearly for close to 20 years and this year is the first year that there will also be one in Arcata. Both events will have warm clothing drives for Humble Area center for harm reductions. Anything warm drive.
• 13:42
  Speaker G: So we are looking for warm things. So we would like coats, thermals, men's pants are always really in high demand. Socks for sure, hats, gloves. We're not really as much in need of summertime clothes right now. There will be a time for that. Sleeping bags are great, tents, tarps, anything like that is really helpful. As far as what we're not accepting, I think really just summer clothes right now.
• 14:11
  Speaker B: Once again, the Arcata Vigil will be held at the Arcata plaza tomorrow from 6pm to 9pm and the Eureka Vigil will be held at the Old town Gazebo from 4pm to 8pm in national news, Trump announces blockade of Venezuela as Pentagon says will not Release video of September 2nd boat attack KPFA's Christopher Martinez.
• 14:32
  Speaker I: Reports President Donald Trump's military campaign against Venezuela escalated again Tuesday with the president's announcement of a total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela. In a truth social post, Trump wrote, venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America. It will only get bigger and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before until such time as they returned to the United States of America all of the oil, land and other assets that they previously stole from us. Trump's threat came the same day Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave senators a closed door briefing on the administration's Venezuelan boat strikes that have killed more than 80 people. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer spoke to reporters after the briefing.
• 15:22
  Speaker J: Their policies in the Caribbean are unclear. We don't know what the limits are. We don't know where they'll stop. We don't know what the ultimate goal is. The president says different things at different times and contradicts himself. That's why we need full transparency, at least to the hundred senators and much more transparency to the American people.
• 15:43
  Speaker I: Schumer, like other Democrats, is pushing for the administration to release video of the controversial September 2nd boat strike that included a second strike to kill survivors. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth nixed that idea.
• 15:57
  Speaker D: Of course we're not going to release a top secret, full, unedited video of.
• 16:02
  Speaker E: That to the general public, HASK and.
• 16:04
  Speaker D: SASC and appropriate committees will see it.
• 16:06
  Speaker I: The HASC and SASC he referred to are the House and Senate Armed Services committees. Democratic lawmakers, like some legal experts and even United nations officials, have warned that extrajudicial killings are illegal. But Trump's campaign continues. Strikes Monday on three boats killed eight more people. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina says he has no doubt the US has the legal authority to blow up the boats. His concern is whether Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will stay in power if he's.
• 16:37
  Speaker D: Still standing when this is over. This is a fatal, major mistake to our standing in the world.
• 16:44
  Speaker I: If, after all this, Maduro is still.
• 16:47
  Speaker D: In power, that's the worst possible signal you could send to Russia, China, Iran.
• 16:53
  Speaker I: Democrat Schumer sees things differently.
• 16:56
  Speaker J: We don't want another endless war. We don't want to stumble into something. And given Trump's erratic back and forth on this issue, I worry about that. So do many Americans.
• 17:08
  Speaker I: Reporting for Pacifica Radio News kpfa, I'm Christopher Martinez.
• 17:15
  Speaker B: Affordable Care act plan hikes loom as Congress unable to agree Public news services Suzanne Potter reports.
• 17:22
  Speaker A: Premiums for an estimated 1.7 million Californians are set to skyrocket on January 1st as Congress has been unable to agree on a fix. On Wednesday, four Republicans joined Democrats to force a vote on a proposal to extend Covid era subsidies, but that won't likely happen until January. Those subsidies make plans cheaper on the Affordable Care act marketplace, known as Covered California. Congressman Dave Minn, who represents Irvine, says the price hikes will force many families to drop down to a cheaper plan with fewer benefits or lose insurance altogether.
• 17:56
  Speaker D: Many Californians received those notices from Covered California just a few weeks back, announcing that they would see anywhere from 50% to 200% increases in their premiums based on the expiration of ACA tax credits. What we're talking about is thousands of dollars a month for working families in my district.
• 18:12
  Speaker A: The subsidies were eliminated last summer by the Republicans, so called one big beautiful bill in order to pay for other administration priorities, including a hike in the budget for ICE and tax credits for corporations. Democrats warned that health care costs will rise for everyone, not just people who buy insurance on the ACA exchange, because when large numbers of people lose insurance, they will seek care in emergency rooms, costs that will be passed on in the form of higher bills and insurance premiums. Wednesday night, House Republicans approved a health care plan that would let the subsidies expire but try to control costs by putting $1,000 into health savings accounts for low income families on the aca. Vaishu Jawahar is director of policy programs at the nonprofit Protect Our Care.
• 18:59
  Speaker G: Their plans are really non starters.
• 19:01
  Speaker F: We're still going to see millions of people lose their health insurance under their plans and we're going to see premiums.
• 19:06
  Speaker B: Go through the roof.
• 19:07
  Speaker G: Their plans really do nothing to address the most urgent problems we have facing us.
• 19:12
  Speaker A: The House Republican bill would also allow small businesses to link up so they could then afford to offer coverage to their employees. And it would put transparency requirements on pharmacy benefit managers. The bill, however, faces an uncertain future because a similar plan recently failed in the GOP controlled U.S. senate. For California News Service, I'm Suzanne Potter. Find our trust indicators@publicnewsservice.org.
• 19:40
  Speaker B: In National Native News, Antonia Gonzalez reads today's headlines.
• 19:43
  Speaker H: This is National Native News. I'm Antonia Gonzalez. The Lumbee tribe is celebrating the passage of the National Defense Authorization act, which includes legislation to grant the tribe federal recognition. The Senate passed the defense bill Wednesday as Lumbee citizens gathered in Pembroke, North Carolina for a watch party. Chairman John Lowry was in Washington for the vote and shared a short video message saying he's the last Lumbee chairman to go to D.C. to fight for full federal recognition.
• 20:11
  Speaker J: Now our children and our grandchildren, our great grandchildren can come up here working and fighting and promoting other things for our people.
• 20:19
  Speaker H: The tribe has sought federal status for more than a century. The effort has faced opposition, including by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina, while President Donald Trump promised the Lumbee tribe federal recognition. This December marked the 84th anniversary of the Pearl harbor bombing, a shocking attack that drew the US into World War II and unleashed a wave of anti Japanese hysteria. While the US Would join a global fight against fascism and Nazi concentration camps, it was erecting camps of its own at home, forcing tens of thousands of Japanese Americans into internment. Two of those camps were set up on tribal lands in Arizona. In the first of a five part series, KJZ's Gabriel Pietrazio examines the law that has given presidents power to imprison perceived enemies.
• 21:11
  Speaker J: December 7, 1941 no American will ever forget this Sunday morning in Hawaii.
• 21:20
  Speaker D: It all began with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. More than 2,400 souls were lost at the naval base on the island of Oahu. The US Was suddenly swept into the Pacific theater.
• 21:34
  Speaker C: And we're going to fight it with everything we've got.
• 21:39
  Speaker D: During FDR's day of infamy speech, he invoked the Alien Enemies act. It's a 1798 wartime law authorizing the President to legally detain and deport anyone suspected of engaging in acts by like espionage and sabotage.
• 21:54
  Speaker C: Not only must the shame of Japanese treachery be wiped out, but the sources of international brutality, wherever they exist, must be absolutely and finally broken.
• 22:06
  Speaker D: Weeks later, Roosevelt directed the Secretary of War to herd More than 120,000 people with Japanese ancestry into camps in Arizona, California, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and as far east as Arkansas. Two thirds of prisoners were American born citizens. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt had empathized with them, even touring a camp south of Phoenix in 1943. Barbara Perry says Eleanor was simply ahead of her time and certainly on how.
• 22:37
  Speaker A: She viewed Japanese Americans, but she couldn't convince her husband of that.
• 22:42
  Speaker D: Perry is co chair of the Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia. She also points out precedent was set a century prior when President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian removal act in 1830 Marching tribes West of the Mississippi River.
• 22:58
  Speaker H: America was pretty discriminatory.
• 23:02
  Speaker D: Despite not being at war, President Trump re invoked the Alien Enemies act on day one of his second term to.
• 23:09
  Speaker B: Eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs.
• 23:12
  Speaker C: And criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities.
• 23:22
  Speaker D: This proclamation wasn't surprising to John Woolley, co director of the American Presidency Project at UC Santa Barbara.
• 23:30
  Speaker E: This is a domestic political rallying point that is very powerful with Donald Trump's base.
• 23:39
  Speaker D: I'm Gabriel Pietrazio.
• 23:41
  Speaker H: And I'm Antonia Gonzalez.
• 23:48
  Speaker G: Native Voice 1, the Native American radio Network.
• 24:00
  Speaker B: That's all for tonight's broadcast. Thanks for listening. Thanks to our engineer Patricia Tinkler, and thanks to our Daniel Mintz, Christopher Martinez, Suzanne Potter and Antonia Gonzalez. KMA News is online and you can find us on kma.org and now streaming on most podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, where you can download our stories and newscasts for offline listening during your rural commutes. You can also follow us on social media. If you have questions or suggestions, you can give us a call at 707-923-2605 or send an email to Newsmud. Redwood Community Radio, Inc. Is funded by Press Forward, the national movement to strengthen communities by reinvigorating local news. Learn more at PressForward News. Reporting for KMUD, I'm Nat Cardez.