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Local News 07 28 26 · KMUD News

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  Speaker A: Foreign.
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  Speaker B: Welcome to the KMED News. I'm your news Director April Lewis and I'm glad to be with you for this broadcast. In this episode we have an in depth story on marijuana enforcement operations by the Mendocino Sheriff's Department, but first some local updates and alerts. This is KMUD News, Starting off with news on Humboldt Sheriff William Honsl. According to a public records request and reporting by Ryan Burns of the Lost Coast Outpost, Sheriff Hansel's recent lobbying trip to Virginia concerning cannabis reform may have been reimbursed by the group's smart approaches to marijuana. The group is publicly opposed to the rescheduling of marijuana from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3, which reportedly was the argument Hansel originally was set to make and later retreated from at the reschedule scheduling hearing. It is unclear if travel expenses for Sheriff Hansel have been reimbursed yet, with expenses initially costing Humboldt County $2,700. In Garberville, there was a structure fire Today on the 900 block of Knights Lane in Garberville and neighbors reported two loud booms. The source is unknown at this time, but a vehicle behind a fence that was on fire may have been responsible. Firefighters from the Garberville Fire Protection District were quickly on scene and extinguished the flames from Cal Fire and Mendocino Jackson Demonstration State Forest is closing Roads 202 and 250 for the remaining dry season. The road closures prohibit the use of all vehicles and recreation traffic, including hiking, bicycling and horseback riding. JDSF contains important habitat for threatened and endangered listed fish species within the Big river watershed, including coho, salmon and steelhead. Rootwork improves drainage of roads to reduce sediment input into nearby streams. Several non profits and agencies are working with Cal Fire to implement the restoration of a large culvert crossing Chamberlain Creek aimed at improving fish passage from the Mendocino Sheriff's Office. On July 25, at approximately 7am Mendocino County Sheriff's Office deputies were dispatched to the 29,000 block of West Highway 20 near Fort Bragg for report of a domestic disturbance. During the investigation, Sheriff's deputies contacted the victim who was in a dating relationship with and shared a child in common with 30 year old Lucas Glass of Fort Bragg. Deputies determined that the victim and Glass had been involved in an argument during the morning hours regarding their shared child. During the incident, the victim attempted to retrieve personal belongings from a vehicle when Glass kicked the vehicle door shut, causing the victim's hand to become trapped in the door jamb. The victim sustained a hand injury and was transported to a local hospital for medical treatment. Glass was arrested for domestic violence causing injury. Glass was located in the Fort Bragg area and was taken into custody without incident. He was transported to the Mendocino County Jail where he's being held in lieu of $50,000 bail. Next is news from the Cannabis trail. On Saturday, August 1, the cannabis trail will commemorate the designation of the White Thorn Valley Cultural landmark honoring Bob McKee, a land steward, rebel broker and quiet architect of Southern Humboldt's legacy cannabis culture. The ceremony will take place at 4pm during the White Thorne Volunteer Fire Department Annual fundraiser, dinner and dance at Whitethorne Construction, located at 545 Shelter Cove Road in Whitethorne. Bob McKee's vision and generosity helped shape Whitethorn Valley and the broader Southern Humboldt community by giving hundreds of back to the landers the opportunity to root their lives, dreams and farms into the soil. He helped grow a culture of land based independence, resilience, craft and community that endures today. Bob believed in people and he believed in this place, said Galen Doherty of Whitethorn Valley Farm. This landmark honors not only his legacy, but the community he helped make possible. A community still rooted in land, family, independence and care for one another. Brian Applegarth, founder and Steward of the Cannabis Trail, states, the Cannabis Trail exists to honor the people, places and communities that shape cannabis history and to create moments of celebration, remembrance and connection. Bob McKee's story is deeply rooted in the land and culture of Southern Humboldt. This landmark helps ensure that his impact and the legacy he helped make possible are remembered, respected and carried forward. The Whitethorn Valley Cultural Landmark will include an interactive storytelling component featuring an audio podcast created by members of the local community with Bob McKee and his son Robbie. It's titled Outlaw Nation Episode 1 Bob McKee offers a first person window into the people, land and values that helped shape Southern Humboldt's legacy cannabis culture. The White Thorn Valley designation joins a growing network of Cannabis Trail cultural landmarks and points of interest across Northern California, including landmarks at Huckleberry Hill Farms and the Hemp Connection. Additional Cannabis Trail cultural landmarks in Northern Humboldt honor cannabis history in Eureka and Willow Creek. The ceremony is part of a larger community gathering, supporting the Whitethorn Volunteer Fire Department and celebrating the people and places that make Whitethorn Valley extraordinary. Here are the event details. The Whitethorn Valley Cultural Landmark Ceremony will be on Saturday, August 1st at 4pm It'll be at Whitethorne Construction at 545 Shelter Cove Road in Whitethorne. It'll be hosted during the Whitethorn Volunteer Fire Department annual fundraiser, dinner and dance and the event time for that is 3pm until late from the Yurok Tribe say the Redwoods League transferred 125 acres of land in the heart of Yurok ancestral territory back to the Yurok Tribe through an agreement that prioritizes tribal land management practices, creates a new public space and permanently protects critical salmon habitat. This park, like property, features an information kiosk resembling a traditional Yurok house and interactive interpretive exhibits driven by Yurok perspective and language. In both audio and written formats, these exhibits provide opportunities to learn about the restored landscape, the tribe's culture and its reciprocal relationship with the redwood ecosystem. The freshly laid trails introduce a new segment of the California Coastal Trail and connect with Redwood national and State Parks, providing easy access to some of California's most prolific old growth coast redwood stands, including the popular Lady Bird Johnson Grove. It is now an ideal place to spend quality time with family and friends while learning about the Yurok's tribe's connection to the land. In the near future, the Yurok Tribe aims to construct a cultural center, further highlighting the distinct history and living culture of the tribe and the extraordinary natural, cultural and recreational resources of the region. The Yurok Tribe also plans to build a traditional village on the site, including plank houses and a sweat house from the Civil Liberties Defense Civil Liberties Defense center has filed a motion to suppress evidence on behalf of Cal Poly Humboldt graduate student and activist Rick Toledo, arguing that law enforcement violated his constitutional rights by arresting him without probable cause, illegally seizing his property and continuing to hold it months later. The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires law enforcement to establish probable cause before depriving someone of their liberty or property. The motion asks the court to exclude evidence obtained through Toledo's illegal arrest and the unconstitutional seizure of his personal belongings. The motion argues that police cannot sidestep constitutional protections by making an illegal arrest and then using the fruits of that unlawful conduct to prosecute a case. Toledo was arrested in the middle of the night during an aggressive law enforcement operation targeting student activists connected to protests at Cal Poly Humboldt. Although authorities released him from custody, they continued to retain his personal property despite the lack of a lawful basis for its seizure. The case also raises broader concerns about escalating law enforcement tactics directed at students and activists engaged in protected political expression and up next Our main stories this is KMUD News. Mendocino's sheriff hyped up a press release on recent marijuana enforcement efforts that was put out over the weekend, but the evidence presented leaves questions KMUD News Reports KMUD News has previously reported on Sheriff Matt Kendall and the Mendocino Sheriff Department's claims of a widespread increase in the number of illegal marijuana grow sites, criminal activity and human trafficking in Mendocino County. Recent major claims started with statements made by Sheriff Matt Kendall at last week's Mendocino Board of Supervisors meeting where he asked for additional funding and positions for his department to counter a large scale increase in illegal grow operations. While the practical side of the Sheriff's argument made sense as his department is currently down multiple personnel due to injuries, the arguments on large scale increases in illegal marijuana activity in northern Mendocino need evidence to pass muster. To be clear, illegal marijuana grows, illegal pesticides, human trafficking, illegal weapons and environmental violations have existed in the Emerald Triangle for decades alongside the cannabis industry. These are long term unfortunate issues that to our understanding have ebbed and flowed primarily due to cannabis market conditions and a boom bust cycle along with shifts in law enforcement activity. Skepticism of the Mendocino Sheriff's current argument is not one of these issues existing because all have provably existed over a long period of time. It is the claims of widespread recent increases in illegal activity that have not been proven. While the Mendocino Sheriff's Department may yet present evidence that a widespread increase in illegal cannabis related activity coinciding with human trafficking is occurring, it simply has not happened. Until then, we can only report the evidence they have provided, which is limited. After the supervisors meeting last week and our associated coverage, Sheriff Matt Kendall quickly put out a statement on social media on Thursday, July 23. The statement begins, we continue to see serious crime with violence and continued environmental degradation in illegal grow sites throughout Mendocino County. The social media statement, signed directly by Sheriff Matt Kendall goes on to detail a situation where Sheriff's deputies encountered two subjects with firearms on a marijuana farm while serving a search warrant. The statement said there were 10,000 marijuana plants on the site along with water diversions and illegal pesticides. One suspect was arrested but later released when no charges were brought. Perhaps the most intriguing part of this unusual social media statement by the Mendocino Sheriff is at the end where Sheriff Kendall stated, we will send out a press release detailing the work being done as soon as we are able. That pre hyped press release came midday on Saturday, July 25 and was titled Unlicensed Marijuana Cultivation for Commercial Sales with Environmental Crimes and makes broad claims. The press release laid out a series of cannabis related law enforcement operations dating from July 1 to July 24. Descriptions of specific operations involved are vague with terms like numerous and several used repeatedly with no clarification. The only specific data given in the release relates to overall marijuana seizures, including a claimed 173,244 plants, 10,369 pounds of processed marijuana, 26 firearms and 626 ounces, or around 4.9 gallons of illegal pesticides, according to Mendocino Sheriff Matt Kendall. Each plant is individually counted on site prior to eradication efforts. The Sheriff's Office is also claiming to have investigated over 30 grow sites during the month of July. Sheriff Kendall responded to KMUD News and confirmed over email the operations in July of 2026 were all investigated, surveilled and visited by law enforcement. Matt Kendall also stated about illegal grow sites being connected. Many of the sites From July of 2026 appear to be connected, but further investigation is needed to corroborate those beliefs. Based on the sites that were investigated, it is believed many of these operations could be associated with organized crime, which is still being investigated. Mendocino Sheriff press release from Saturday also makes allegations of human trafficking, it reads in part, at several of the sites investigated during these operations, investigators contacted victims of suspected forced labor trafficking and provided assistance and observed indicators consistent with forced labor trafficking. Those indicators included workers living on site in poor and overcrowded conditions, limited freedom of movement, deceptive recruitment, lack of identification documents, little or no meaningful pay, and exposure to hazardous chemicals and unsafe working conditions while performing cultivation or processing labor. These conditions are consistent with publicly documented patterns of labor exploitation associated with illegal marijuana grows, particularly in remote locations where vulnerable workers may be isolated, controlled or threatened, end quote. However, none of the photos provided with the press release indicate the conditions stated. Photos provided by the Sheriff's Department included a small outdoor grow cannabis flower drying outside, a photo of a trench, an assortment of firearms, and a photo of two small bottles of illegal pesticides. Nothing provided or stated gives evidence for actual human trafficking activity, although that could change if evidence released in the future corroborates these claims. Notably, despite the numerous operations cited, there are currently zero charges that have been filed against anyone involved with the cited illegal grow operations, although the press release states that reports are being forwarded to the Mendocino County District Attorney asking for formal charges to be brought. There is an already known case of a deadly shooting on July 9th of a 31 year old woman in Covelo on an illegal grow site. But it's unlikely that murder, which resulted in three recent arrests including for illegal marijuana cultivation and homicide charges, had anything to do with illegal grow operations cited by the Mendocino Sheriff's Department's broad scale investigation. Our current understanding is that the murder itself is what made the Sheriff's Department aware of the illegal grow in that location. When asked what arrests occurred during these operations, Matt Kendall provided four two arrests that resulted in release without any charges and two arrests with charges linked to the July 9th murder in Covelo. Notably, besides the photos of an illegal outdoor grow, the Mendocino Sheriff's press release provided a photo of two small bottles of illegal pesticides. The photo is titled Illegal Prohibited Pesticides Found during Marijuana Enforcement Operations and shows two small bottles of fungicide with mostly Spanish language labels. One bottle shown in the photo is labeled as carbonpro, which uses Carbendazine as its active ingredient and its usage is heavily restricted in the United States, although similar products are readily available from online merchants. The second bottle is labeled Prevacur, containing the active ingredient Propimocarb hydrochloride, which is a legally registered agricultural fungicide that is also readily available in the U.S. according to Sheriff Matt Kendall, the most commonly found pesticide on these sites is Methemidiphos, which is highly toxic and banned in the United States. To be clear, neither of the fungicides photographed are allowed by the California Department of Cannabis Control to be sprayed on cannabis plants, and these chemical fungicides certainly do not belong in our natural environment. In the Emerald Triangle, both bottles have foreign labels from other countries which automatically makes them illegal to use in the United States. It's also unclear how many of the grow sites where search warrants were served used illegal pesticides. Based on the evidence provided the end of the Mendocino Sheriff's press release thanks a large number of agencies and county partners for help with marijuana enforcement operations. The release thanks the Northern California Coalition to Safeguard Communities, or nccsc, which is funded by the Howard Buffett Foundation. Listeners may know the NCCSC from our coverage of the helicopter they fund and is often used for surveillance of cannabis farms in southern Humboldt. We contacted Summer Hansen, the Public Information Officer, or pio, for the NCCSC and also for the Humboldt Sheriff's Department. Sommer relayed via email that the NCCSC helicopter was not involved with the operations in Mendocino during July. However, she wrote, the NCCSC's public information officer was present during portions of the operation to document the work of our coalition partners. End quote when asked about contact with potential victims of human trafficking, Summer Hansen, the Public Information Officer for the nccsc, stated to protect the privacy of potential victims and the ongoing investigations we cannot discuss the specific services offered or accepted by individuals encountered during these operations. Interestingly, some of Summer Hansen's responses for the NCCSC were word for word identical to responses we received from Mendocino Sheriff Matt Kendall to the same questions. So, just like in Humboldt county, claims of the cannabis industry contributing to widespread human trafficking and environmental violations are accompanied by enforcement work and communications in Mendocino county, at least funded in part by the Northern California Coalition to Safeguard Communities. KMUD News also contacted the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for further comment. The agency simply referred us back to the Sheriff's press release. We'll have to wait and see if any fines are levied due to environmental violations at sited illegal grow sites. Reporting by Mendocino Voice indicated that at least one property with a reported 10,000 illegal marijuana plants received 47 code violations from CDFW After a July 9 search, the Mendocino Sheriff states that organized and large scale unlawful cultivation activity is occurring across multiple areas of Mendocino County. How this differs from past years in the Emerald Triangle is unclear and in depth evidence to support these claims, especially those concerning widespread increases in organized crime and human trafficking, is currently lacking. Reporting for kmud, I'm April Lewis. Gaza Civil Defense crews search rubble for 300 missing bodies despite a lack of equipment and gear for recovery, Pacifica Radio
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  Speaker C: reports Here in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, the Civil Defense Service has begun searching for the remains of members of Abu Sharia and Hussaina families. Between the two families, hundreds of relatives were killed. Using heavy equipment, crews hope to recover the remains of 300 people, including dozens of women, children and elderly people. Mahmoud Al Shobeki is Eastern Gaza chief with the Civil Defense Service in Gaza.
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  Speaker A: Here we are told that 94 people had been killed over the past five days. We have recovered 45 bodies. The greatest obstacle we face are the lack of equipment and basic safety gear for Civil Defense crews. We do not have the heavy machinery or bulldozers needed to recover bodies from beneath the rubble. The continued restrictions on the entry of equipment and spare parts place an enormous burden on our crews. As you can see, this rescue vehicle urgently needs extensive maintenance. It serves the entire Gaza government, but we cannot repair it here. We also lack fuel and engine oil because we do not have heavy equipment. Civil Defense crews are forced to carry out most of this work by hand,
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  Speaker C: Mahmoud says. Civil Defense crews can conduct these search operations properly only with help from the victims families.
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  Speaker A: Whenever Civil Defense crews begin searching a destroyed home, we coordinate with the families to make the operation faster and more effective. We asked relatives where in the home the victims were most likely to have been when it was struck and where their bodies might be found. We have only 400 hours of heavy equipment operations funded by the International Community of the Red Cross. We cannot afford to use all that limited time searching just one or two homes. Information from the families saves us time and effort, allowing us to search other homes and help other families. We appeal to international organizations, including human rights groups, to help secure the entry of heavy machinery, fuel and engine oil so that we can continue serving the people of Gaza.
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  Speaker C: The two grieving families whose relatives have remained beneath the rubble for an extended period are assisting Muhammad Abu Sharia as representing both the Abu Sharia and Hassayina families.
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  Speaker D: Frankly, the situation is extremely difficult. We have very little equipment and only one bulldozer. The victim's belongings have become scattered and mixed together in the rubble. We have recovered only a few personal items, including a ring, a watch, a wallet and a cell phone. But we have been unable to determine whom each item belonged
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  Speaker C: to. Mohammed recalled the day in October 2023 when Israeli strikes killed hundreds of members of his extended family.
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  Speaker D: The situation speaks for itself. Israeli drones struck the family's gathering hall where relatives and guests were staying. Two missiles hit the hall, causing panic and forcing everyone inside to flee toward a nearby home about two houses away. As they moved, the drones appeared to detect activity on the ground. At the time, this area was heavily covered with trees. The Drones then fired two more missiles. There were 308 people gathered at the hall. We have recovered many of their bodies, but we estimate that 154 remain beneath the rubble. They include more than 44 children, 38 women, seven elderly people and nine people with disabilities.
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  Speaker C: Local authorities in Gaza estimate that around 10,000 Palestinians remain missing during Israel's war on Gaza. Recovering bodies from beneath the rubble remains extremely difficult. Despite the US brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect in October 2025. Civil defense crews continue to face severe shortages of heavy equipment and machinery. Their work has been further complicated by the Israeli military's seizure and continued expansion of nearly 65% of the Gaza Strip within Israel's so called yellow line. For Pacifica Radio kpfa, I am Ramiel Mirari in Gaza.
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  Speaker B: That's all for our news broadcast. Thanks for listening. Thanks to our rotation of broadcast engineers Dennis Marr, Katie Phillips, Bianna Federico, Michael McCaskill, Larry Lashley and Javier Rodriguez. KMUD News is now on streaming platforms including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can download our stories and newscasts for offline listening. You can also follow us on social mediamudnews, including Facebook and Instagram. Do you have issues important to you that deserve more attention? Are there stories we're missing or that you're curious about? You can give us a call at 707-923-2605 or send an email to newsamud.org Redwood Community Radio Incorporated is funded by Press Forward, the national movement to strengthen communities by reinvigorating local news. Learn more at PressForward News. Redwood Community Radio acknowledges that its transmitter sites are located on the unceded territory of the Sikyon, Wailaki, Wiat, Wilco, and Kato people. We honor ancestors past, present and emerging, and acknowledge the ongoing cultural, spiritual and physical connection that these tribes have to the region. I'm April Lewis. Stay tuned. In.