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Local News 08 19 25 · KMUD News

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign.
• 0:10
  Speaker B: And welcome to the local news. Today is Tuesday, August 19th. I'm Jordan Pangelinan reporting for KMUD. In tonight's news, a southern Humboldt new acupuncturist brings in a new practice. So stay tuned. News on that story and more coming right up. Redwood Community Radio acknowledges that its transmitter sites are located on the unceded territory of the Sinkion, Hui, Wiat, Wilkat and Kato people. We honor ancestors past, present and emerging, and acknowledge the ongoing cultural, spiritual and physical connection these tribes have to this region. A new acupuncturist has joined the southern Humboldt community, bringing with him an integrative approach to care. Kevin Kraft, a licensed acupuncturist, combines traditional Chinese medicine with western orthopedic practices. While TCM emphasizes the body's energetic systems and holistic balance, Kraft also draws from his background in sports medicine to address physical injuries and issues, bridging traditional and modern clinical techniques.
• 1:15
  Speaker A: My training is in what we call tcm, which is kind of the energetic side of Chinese medicine. But then I did some further training in sports medicine and orthopedics, which is a lot of biomechanical movements and special tests and things to assess injuries and to help with pain management. So, yeah, that's kind of the crux of what I do.
• 1:42
  Speaker B: Before becoming an acupuncturist, Kraft experienced a collapsed lung, a medical condition known as a pneumothorax. Like many navigating the healthcare system, he sometimes found the experience limiting. He recalls feeling unheard during parts of his treatment journey, which ultimately influenced his path towards practicing acupuncture. This experience helped shape his interest in a more holistic and patient centered approaches to his care.
• 2:06
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's, it's, it's a strange story. It's. I had a pneumothorax, which is a collapsed lung. And when I was in the hospital, I actually had a dream. And the dream was a stethoscope and a lab coat and a voice that said, when you get out of the hospital, you need to go back to school and become a doctor. And, and that piqued my interest at first. And before then I was a journalist. I was a writer for Surfer magazine, Skateboarder magazine. I grew up surfing and skateboarding and. Yeah, and then after that was around 2006, and a lot of magazines kind of tanked in that, in that situation. So I was, okay, this is the time to go back. And he. That voice that I heard back when I had my pneumothorax and my mom and My girlfriend at the time, my mom had a seizure disorder and my girlfriend had a gastroenteritis. And the only help that they were getting was through acupuncture. So that kind of opened me to looking at that type of medicine. And also when I was in the hospital, the rapport that I had with the doctor was very limiting. Like, he kind of didn't really look at me, just looked at my chart and kind of kept it moving. And I knew if I was ever going to be in the medical profession, I wanted to be. Have more rapport with my patients. So that kind of pushed me more towards the Eastern side or traditional side of medicine.
• 3:39
  Speaker B: Allopathic medicine, commonly practiced and taught in the United States, focuses on treating systems and diseases primarily through pharmaceuticals, surgery, and radiation. In contrast, traditional medicine offers alternative approaches that emphasize balance prevention and individualized care. Kraft explains how his work integrates both systems, drawing from the strengths of each to create a more holistic and responsive approach to healing.
• 4:03
  Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, Western medicine, most of it is what we call allopathic medicine and allopathic. The most basic way to translate that is against pathology, which is. So a lot of times in allopathic medicine, they have. Their approach is to go against whatever the pathology is. So it's like anti inflammatories, the anticoagulants. It's like everything is against what the condition is a lot of times. And a lot of the tools that they have are pharmaceuticals and surgery, which is really necessary for a lot of cases, but not, you know, but I feel like traditional medicine has some tools that are not just for surgery or medication. So it's, it's hard to, to compare them. I think they're more, it's more complementary, like with each other. One works with one, works with the other. It's not one against the other, really. Traditional medicine, at least Chinese medicine, is more focused on a holistic approach, like just kind of seeing what, what you eat, you know, your lifestyle. And you're looking at things like tongue and pulse and how that it relates to the energetics of your body and then treating what you find through your tongue and pulse diagnosis, and then mixing that with Western orthopedic diagnosis is what I do. And yeah, so it's, it's an integrative approach.
• 5:46
  Speaker B: Kraft's approach to patient care centers on making sure individuals feel genuinely heard and supported in finding the answers they need. This commitment is at the heart of his mission and guides his work as a practitioner.
• 5:58
  Speaker A: You know, it's a very, like I said, it's like a very integrative approach. Like, I definitely really want people to feel heard. Like, that was one of the reasons why I went into medicine is just to, just to give people a positive experience. I want to make sure that they realize that their input is super important. Like no one. I always tell patients that no one has lived in your body more than you have. So it's important that you watch or you tell the doctors what is wrong with you or what you feel is wrong. Your, your opinion is very important. In Chinese medicine, there's a saying that says if you listen to the patient for 15 minutes, you'll get a diagnosis. If you listen for 30 minutes, you will get a treatment. So it's really important that patients feel heard and that they feel respected. And yeah, they'll just come in, we'll do a, an initial intake and just talk to them and find out what's going on. Then I'll take, you know, then I'll do the approach where we're checking tongue and pulse and then maybe some orthopedic tests and then, yeah, just go from there and give them some, some good care.
• 7:10
  Speaker B: Kraft has also expanded his medical practice internationally, spending time in countries such as China and Korea. These experiences have played a significant role in shaping his medical journey and deepening his understanding of traditional healing systems.
• 7:25
  Speaker A: So firstly, it was kind of my experience with Western medicine when I was in the hospital. And then also it was I wanted to find something that was integrative between Western and Eastern medicine. And so I searched for that when I was going to school. And I found a school in Santa Cruz which was five branches. And I didn't realize that in order to get licensed, every school has to have at least 30% Western medicine. They do. Every acupuncture school has a pre med program. But I didn't realize that, so I thought, oh cool, I found an integrative school. So that's what leaned me towards going to this school in particular. So I spent time in Zhejiang, at a university in Hangzhou, China. And yeah, so it was really cool because everything is very integrative between Western medicine or allopathic medicine and traditional medicine. And so, yeah, acupuncturist work in the hospitals and that was really fun to work in the hospital there. And I also traveled to Daejeon, Korea and studied there.
• 8:37
  Speaker B: Curious about what acupuncture can offer. Craft shares insights into the potential benefits of this practice and how it may support a range of health needs.
• 8:47
  Speaker A: It pretty much can treat a lot of things. Basically, we treat Any imbalance that appears in the body. So that could range from. From anything. Though I would say for any internal medical problem, whether it be some kind of gut problem or migraines or anything like that, I would say acupuncture is really good. It's also really good. If you're having any type of pain or any type of inflammation anywhere in the body, it's going to be really helpful for that. If you are having a fracture or a compound fracture or something like that, I probably wouldn't go to the acupuncturist, but for most anything else, I would say you can go to acupuncturist.
• 9:36
  Speaker B: Craft encourages anyone considering acupuncture to explore it, whether with him or another qualified practitioner in the area. His message is simple. If it feels like the right path, it's worth pursuing.
• 9:48
  Speaker A: Acupuncture is such a powerful modality, and I feel like there are some really good acupuncturists in this area. You know, we have Ginny Hammett, who works in Fortuna, and of course, Dr. Peter Stern, who's an incredible practitioner. And I want to urge people to go seek out the acupuncturists and find out how powerful it is. Because I think a lot of times, a lot of times when people come see us, it's like the last resort. They're like, yeah, I've tried everything. And then they come to us, and then they're like, wow, I wish I would have came to you way before. And, you know, people are skeptical. And my teachers would always say, or people often say to me, I believe in acupuncture and stuff. I'm like, well, it's cool. You don't have to believe in it. You know, it's like, do you believe in gravity? You don't have to believe you can jump out a window. It's gonna happen whether you believe in it or not. So you don't. It doesn't need to be incumbent on your belief in order to have relief from acupuncture. It works. So. And it's. I also would like to say it's not a. Always just an energetic form of medicine. It does take into account energy of your body, but it also is very. There is a very material approach you can use too, which is like trigger point therapy and what we call prolo therapy, which is a whole longer conversation. But it's. It's very visceral. You could. You can feel it. Like, it's not like, oh, you just do needles. And it kind of, you know, you fill it on where the point is and then you go home. You actually will feel your muscle react to the trigger point therapy and also like to say it doesn't really hurt. A lot of people are worried about needles and feeling that it's going to be painful. We can do very painless treatments to ease people in, but and sometimes it can be a little uncomfortable depending on what modality you're doing. Yeah. And I think the last thing I would probably say is that sometimes times our approach is functional, so meaning that we are aiming to improve your function, but sometimes that does not automatically decrease your pain. So you might have a rotator cuff injury and you might not be able to lift your arm over your head. And then after our treatment it still might be a little achy in that shoulder, but you're able to lift your arm and move your arm. So so your function is increasing, but your pain might be slower to decrease. So that's our goal, is to increase your function and improve your quality of life.
• 12:32
  Speaker B: Kevin Kraft is now accepting new patients. To make an appointment. You can call 707-923-2783 or for more information on location and services. The website for Redwood rural health is RR or by visiting kmud.org under this story in State News Stop Billionaire Summer movement blocks BlackRock investment headquarters in San Francisco over fossil fuel pollution KPFA's Sophia Rice Elfany reports.
• 13:06
  Speaker C: In what the Stop Billionaire Summer organizers are calling a corporate tour of shame, protesters rallied in front of BlackRock's San Francisco headquarters on Monday to shut down business as usual. Fourteen protesters staged a demonstration inside the lobby of BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, overseeing more than $11.5 trillion as of 2024. By 1pm Only a few demonstrators remained after San Francisco police arrested more than half of them. The Bay Area Stop Billionaire Summer is a multiracial, multi generational and cross class movement to demand an end to the billionaire class's control over communities, the economy and planet. It takes shape in eight weeks of sustained nonviolent direct action. A delegation of Gulf south residents, a region on the front lines of climate disaster, were invited by the movement to emphasize the connection between the climate crisis, capitalism and exploitation. Many of the fossil fuel projects that have hit their communities the hardest are supported by financial and insurance institutions that call the San Francisco Financial District home. Armin Alex, co founder of the Gulf of Mexico Climate Summit, made the trip out from Texas.
• 14:45
  Speaker D: Y' all got headquarters of Chase, JP Morgan Chase. You've got headquarters here of Chubb and blackrock, we're talking about financiers of these fossil fuel projects we have in our backyards. So they're miles and miles away from the problems that they are causing. We also know that these folks are some of the largest financiers since the Paris climate agreement as it relates to mitigating carbon emissions. And they've continued to finance fossil fuel projects. And it not only has an impact, of course, in our backyards, but on a global scale.
• 15:25
  Speaker C: From the Gulf south to the Bay Area, climate change activists have been sounding the alarm to demand that fossil fuel financers stop the status quo and business as usual.
• 15:40
  Speaker D: It is not worth it. What they're getting is a couple more bucks in their pocket. They don't realize what we're doing out here is also for them because we know that the ultimate thing that is at the destruction of all of humanity is this climate crisis that they are causing.
• 15:55
  Speaker C: KPFA reached out to BlackRock's media team for comment, but they declined to go on record about the demonstration inside their office, which left employees locked out during their lunch break when the building was shut down by the direct action. Jeffrey Jacoby, co director of the Gulf South Fossil Finance Hub and the co executive director of Texas Campaign for the environment, came with 30 people from Texas and Louisiana to send a strong message.
• 16:40
  Speaker E: That's why we have people who are.
• 16:42
  Speaker D: Inside right now who are actually coming out of this building who have been arrested for blockading the entrance to blackrock so that they can tell blackrock, this isn't. We're not playing around here. We're not, you know, we're not just here to do chants. We're not here to sing songs. We're also here to disrupt business as usual because you disrupt our lives, you disrupt our ability to survive and thrive, and so we're going to disrupt your ability to continue to make money by sacrificing our communities.
• 17:15
  Speaker C: Last Friday, stop Billionaire summer activists shut down Wells Fargo's San Francisco headquarters for the fourth time this summer. Community leaders from Texas and Louisiana took to the stage to call out the bank's leading role in funding the massive buildout of fossil fuels poisoning their backyards. This Friday, August 22nd, protesters will rally in front of Palantir Technologies, a software company that builds platforms to help organizations manage complex data sets for the third time this summer. But they say the fight against fossil fuel related financiers is far from over. Leaders like Crista Mancias from the Carrizo Como Crudo tribe of Texas hope that the effort by Gulf south protesters in traveling to the Bay Area will lead to continued reciprocity and solidarity from Bay Area activists.
• 18:19
  Speaker A: The best thing when we stand up for solidarity, you gotta show reciprocity, is you coming back, coming to Texas, coming to see where we live, why we're.
• 18:27
  Speaker C: Impacted, what is happening to our communities.
• 18:30
  Speaker A: Across the Gulf Coast.
• 18:32
  Speaker C: For Pacifica Evening News, this is Sophia Raisa Fenny.
• 18:37
  Speaker B: California and 20 other states sued the Trump administration for linking crime victims aid to sanctuary policies. KPFA's Lauren Schmidt reports.
• 18:50
  Speaker E: 21 states led by the attorneys general of California, New Jersey and Rhode island are suing the Trump Admin over more than a billion dollars in federal aid for crime victims. They say the Justice Department is unlawfully tying those funds to immigration enforcement, putting states in the position of choosing between supporting victims or enforcing deportations. California Attorney General Rob Bonta says the Trump administration is holding victims hostage to advance its immigration agenda.
• 19:25
  Speaker A: The Victims of Crime act has absolutely nothing to do with immigration enforcement, nor should it.
• 19:32
  Speaker E: VOCA was created in 1984 after a national task force under President Ronald Reagan called the neglect of crime victims a national disgrace. The law set up the Crime Victims Fund to help states provide services like shelter, advocacy and compensation for victims, punishing.
• 19:53
  Speaker A: States for prioritizing public safety, forcing us to choose between forfeiting funding for survivors and victims and surrendering to unlawful immigration conditions. The Trump administration is trying to leverage.
• 20:04
  Speaker F: Vulnerable people to force states to capitulate.
• 20:08
  Speaker A: With its immigration agenda.
• 20:11
  Speaker F: Pulling funding from victims of crime isn't just immoral.
• 20:14
  Speaker D: Yes, it's illegal, which is why our.
• 20:16
  Speaker A: Coalition is taking Trump and Bondi to court again.
• 20:22
  Speaker E: Nearly 10 million victims rely on these grants nationwide annually, and California was set to receive more than $165 million in the upcoming fiscal year. But Attorney General Rob Bonta says the Trump administration is attempting to withhold those funds, tying them to the state's sanctuary policies. New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin echoed Bonta's concerns, saying the victim's assistance funds have always had bipartisan support.
• 20:56
  Speaker D: Just about every law enforcement agency in the country relies on these funds. They have never before been subject to the political whims of a president. Until now.
• 21:08
  Speaker E: The 50 page complaint lays out six legal claims, including violations of the Constitution's separation of powers.
• 21:17
  Speaker C: And.
• 21:19
  Speaker E: The states argued the new funding rules would strip critical aid from millions of victims while forcing states to redirect resources to federal immigration enforcement.
• 21:29
  Speaker D: The political pawns that they're using are victims of gun violence, victims of domestic violence, survivors of sexual assault, children who have been sexually abused, people who have been armed victims of armed robberies, and I could go on the list, people that all of us on this call have dealt with, have fought for. We know their families. We've seen the impacts of these funds.
• 21:53
  Speaker E: They're asking the court to block the policy, declare it unlawful, and preserve access to VOCA funds without immigration strings attached. For KPFA News, I'm Lauren Schmidt.
• 22:06
  Speaker B: In national news, data center on the federal land in Idaho could have major environmental impacts Eric Tigethoff reports.
• 22:16
  Speaker D: President Federal land in Idaho could be used to build a data center that powers artificial intelligence. The project comes with potential costs for the region. The Department of Energy has selected four sites for AI data centers and energy projects. Among them is the Idaho National Laboratory in eastern Idaho. The Trump administration says the move will strengthen the country's global leadership in AI and will lower energy costs. Quentin Good is a policy analyst for the nonprofit organization Frontier Group, which studied the impact of data centers and found they will be a major source of electricity demand for the country over the next decade. He says construction of these server farms is delaying the closure of fossil fuel plants because the centers sometimes need as much energy as a small city. Even some of these sites that they're putting on federal land will still end up hooking up to the grid and impacting reliability and increasing costs for other residents. The Frontier Group's analysis found the closure of at least 17 fossil fuel generating units has been delayed or is at risk of being delayed because of increasing electricity demand. With data centers among the main concerns, however, Good notes, there are ways to make data centers more efficient and use less energy. The Department of Energy says it aims to select partners for its projects at the four sites by the end of the year. The initiative is part of President Donald Trump's executive orders on accelerating federal permitting on data center infrastructure, deploying advanced nuclear reactor technologies for national security, and unleashing American energy. The Idaho National Laboratory develops nuclear technology, but Good is wary of the pairing of data centers with nuclear energy that has a long history of overblown budgets and timelines. There's no reason to think that that wouldn't be the case if we started to seek out a new build out of nuclear energy. It may be a feasible solution in the long run, but it'll take a long time. It'll be very expensive, good says. The largest data centers also consume large amounts of water, as much as 5 million gallons a day. That could make a data center an especially bad match for the semi arid climate of eastern Idaho. They've also been found to use more water in water scarce regions. So in places where it's hotter and drier, they actually have a larger water footprint. And of course, those are the places that are also more water scarce. For Northern Rockies News Service, I'm Eric Teged off. Find our trust indicators@publicnewsservice.org in National Native.
• 24:33
  Speaker B: News, Antonia Gonzalez reads today's headlines.
• 24:38
  Speaker E: This is National Native News. I'm Antonia Gonzalez. On Friday, a federal judge in Phoenix seemingly cleared the way for a massive copper mining project until the Ninth Circuit suddenly stepped in. As KJZ's Gabriel Pietrazio reports, the latest court order came less than 24 hours before oak Flat inside the Tonto National Forest would have turned into private property.
• 25:00
  Speaker F: That pending land exchange between the US Forest Service and Resolution Copper has been put on hold once more with a temporary administrative injunction issued Monday by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The new order comes after Judge Dominic Lanza denied requests to delay the congressionally authorized land transfer. These pleas came from plaintiffs including the San Carlos Apache Tribe. The tribe called it a last minute victory. But while Resolution Copper is confident the court will ultimately affirm Judge Lanza's quote, well reasoned orders, the three judge panel would not comment on the merits, but noted these appeals will undergo an expedited briefing schedule starting next month. For National Native News, I'm Gabriel Pietrazio.
• 25:43
  Speaker E: State lawmakers are holding a joint hearing Tuesday in Sacramento about the University of California holding Native American human remains and cultural items. Three state audits over the past five years show UC fails to return the remains. University officials are expected to respond. Summer is a prime time for gathering and baking camas across the Pacific Northwest, Rockies and Plains regions. Brian Bull of Buffalo's Fire reports on a Bake off recently held outside Eugene, Oregon.
• 26:12
  Speaker F: Sylloc tribal member Joe Scott heads the traditional ecological inquiry program under the Long Tom Watershed Council. He described how he'd layer his packets of leaf wrapped camas bulbs.
• 26:23
  Speaker D: Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna throw the wet sword ferns on top of this bunch of water, like a couple of buckets of water after the maple leaves and then a layer of these skunk cabbage leaves. Put the packets on top of that and then the alder and the ferns and all this stuff right here.
• 26:40
  Speaker F: Oh, and there's mugwort, hazel and bracken ferns in Scott's recipe, too. The whole oven hissed with steam once the water hit the hot rocks nearby. The Tip senior intern and my kid, Samuel Bull of the Nez Perce Tribe assembled the second oven with Mom's help. This was mostly ferns, maple leaves and camas bumbled and skunk cabbage leaves with some carrots and potatoes thrown in for experimentation's sake. All under canvas and four buckets of water.
• 27:15
  Speaker D: Yes, I would put the camas closer to the middle. Right there is great.
• 27:22
  Speaker C: Is it cooking?
• 27:23
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 27:28
  Speaker F: Flash forward to a day later. Bola decided to do a camas bake for 24 hours. The group peeled back the canvas to reveal glistening and translucent camas.
• 27:38
  Speaker D: Bowl looks good. Look at those beauties.
• 27:46
  Speaker A: Really good.
• 27:47
  Speaker F: Give me some flavor notes.
• 27:48
  Speaker D: Really soft, sweet, starchy.
• 27:51
  Speaker A: I'm so happy.
• 27:52
  Speaker E: Wow.
• 27:53
  Speaker F: And yes, bull's potatoes and carrots came out well, too. Scott's batch baked for nearly 26 hours and had a small fire burning atop his oven for part of that time. At first there was a little concern as some bulbs were hardened and dark, but then when the rest were unearthed, they're perfect.
• 28:14
  Speaker D: They're like a sweet gumdrop.
• 28:17
  Speaker F: The longer bake meant Scott's camas were more caramelized and sweeter. But at the end of the day, Scott said the real success of the event was creating community for national Native News. I'm Brian bull, near Eugene, Oregon.
• 28:30
  Speaker E: And I'm Antonia Gonzalez.
• 28:35
  Speaker D: Native Voice 1, the Native American Radio Network.
• 28:44
  Speaker B: That's all for tonight's broadcast. Thanks for listening. Thanks to our engineer, Katie Phillips, and thanks to our reporters, Sophia Rice, Elfiny, Lauren Schmidt, Eric Tageoff and Antonia Gonzalez. KMUD News is online and you can find us on kmud.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 newsmed.org Ludwig Community Radio Incorporated 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 Jordan Pangelini.