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Local News 12 19 25 · KMUD News

• 0:05
  Speaker A: Good evening and welcome to the local news. Today is Friday, December 19th. I'm Gabriel Zucker reporting for K mode. In tonight's news, Humboldt County Board of Supervisors unanimously agree on new regional climate action plan. HCOG finalizes their seventh cycle regional housing needs allocation plan. And Ray Hamel with this week's sports report. Stay tuned. Those stories and more. Coming up.
• 0:29
  Speaker B: Redwood Community Radio acknowledges that its transmitter sites are located on the unceded territory of the Sinkhayon, Wailaki, Wiat, Wilcot and Kato people. We honor ancestors past, present and emerging.
• 0:41
  Speaker C: And acknowledge the ongoing cultural, spiritual and physical connection that these tribes have to this region.
• 0:50
  Speaker A: On Tuesday, December 16, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed on a new Regional Climate action plan, or RCAP, which which will guide Humboldt's climate policies through 2030. To understand what's in the new plan and what it will actually look like in practice, KMUD talked with John H. Ford, Director of Planning and Building for Humboldt County. Ford explained the plan is Humboldt's roadmap for doing his part environmentally while also meeting California's legal requirements.
• 1:14
  Speaker D: It's a climate action plan which seeks to do a couple things. One is to respond to the climate conditions that are occurring in the world today and in so doing, address requirements of the state of California to achieve certain milestones or thresholds. And in order to do that, the plan provides guidance for not only the county of Humboldt, but all the cities in the county. And also works with joint powers agencies such as Redwood Coast Energy Authority, Humboldt Area County Council of Government, Humboldt Waste Management Board, so that all the items that need to be addressed to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted so that we can reduce those emissions in compliance with what the state is asking, which is a 40% reduction from 1990 levels by 2030.
• 2:14
  Speaker A: Transportation is the biggest issue in reaching the 20 to 30 goals, accounting for 73% of Humboldt's total emissions. Ford explained future plans with public transportation and upgrading infrastructure to be more electric vehicle friendly.
• 2:27
  Speaker D: One of the primary measures or strategies oriented at addressing transportation emissions because 73% of Humboldt County's total emissions within the cities and county is from transportation. So obviously that's the big emitter. And so some of it focuses on trying to create a better opportunity for people to use public transportation. Some of it has to do with developing new land use patterns that would make public transportation more viable. So, you know, like people that live in typical subdivisions, you know, you can't have a bus stop on the end of every block to pick up one person. It just doesn't work. But if you could space bus stops out and have concentrated development around those, then you would have a ridership and appropriate spacing of bus stops. So it's seeking to do things like that, Seeking to continue to enhance the non fuel burning public transit system. HTA is already moving forward obviously with hydrogen buses and continuing to enhance the opportunity to have hydrogen buses and hydrogen fleets throughout the county, which would remove the need to use fossil fuels. Along those lines, some of the strategies have to do with, you know, increasing the number of electric vehicles on the county roads. And part of that has to do with making sure that the infrastructure is in place to charge those vehicles. And so it's really focusing on enabling people to feel like if they were to purchase their next vehicle, they could purchase an electric vehicle and it would be a good choice because they could get it charged wherever they go. Another one of the big emitters is methane from organic materials, largely having to do with trash. And so it has to do with focusing on trying to develop a recapture facility where the organic material is not just hauled off to a landfill, but is taken to an appropriate location here in the county. And either that methane gas is captured or that material is used to produce some other kind of fuel that is a renewable kind of fuel that is not. Does not emit the same amount of greenhouse gases as traditional fossil fuels. There is some relationship to buildings and trying to focus on within existing buildings that when people convert or sell or expand or modify their homes rather than reusing gas appliances to begin to convert to electric, and the same is true in new development, is to. To start to look at how we can reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are being emitted from our new construction.
• 6:06
  Speaker A: The regional Climate Action Plan is now in effect and will guide climate related decisions across Humboldt county through 2030. County officials say future updates will be needed as the region looks ahead to California's 2045 carbon neutral goal. Last night, the Humboldt county association of Government, or hcog, approved its Regional Housing Needs Allocation seventh Cycle, or rhna, which sets frameworks for how cities in Humboldt should plan for housing between 2027 and 2035. KMA talked with Brendan Bird, the executive director of HCOG, about what is included in this plan and how it will be implemented.
• 6:40
  Speaker C: The State of California requires that each Council of Governments, which is what HCOG is, or mpo, which are the Council of government equivalent and more in larger areas. That stands for Metropolitan planning Organization kind of immaterial. But long story short, they require that we as regions make sure that on the agency level we are planning for the appropriate number of housing units to meet the housing demand in the state of California. So with that, the state Department of Housing and Community Development, working with the department Department of Finance, generates what they call RENA allocation numbers and gives them to each COG or MPO to be distributed amongst the cities and the county within their region. So HCD furnished to HCOG on July 15th of this year, our regional housing needs determination, which is the number of housing units again that we have to at HCOG determine how to allocate across the seven incorporated cities and the county in our area.
• 7:50
  Speaker A: In the last cycle, the state set the number of units between 3,000 and 3,500 units. This cycle, the state nearly doubled the requirement to 6,000 units. Byrd explained that this is a big step up from the last cycle and will take some hard decisions and planning to match this goal.
• 8:04
  Speaker C: In a lot of agencies. It puts folks in an interesting situation where they're really having to think about their land use and their zoning policies and in order to be able to show that it supports actually developing that many units. So you can think about a place like the city of Eureka, which for all intents and purposes is built out. So they're looking at ways where they're going to have to look at ways where they can zone land for maybe denser development or promote redevelopment of urbanized areas to go into a higher density type housing, things of that nature.
• 8:39
  Speaker A: HCOG adopted an allocation methodology to decide how to spread housing numbers across Humboldt. The allocation plan includes looking at existing populations, jobs, vehicle miles traveled, and a new metric called Opportunity Score.
• 8:52
  Speaker C: We allocate units with a methodology that looks at an agency's existing population. We do that so that we can make sure that units aren't being over or underplaced in an area. As you can imagine, you know, it's more appropriate to put a larger number of units in Arcata or Eureka than in Trinidad or Ferndale. So taking into account agency size via population is an important consideration. We also take into account the number of jobs, again recognizing that housing proximity to jobs is very important. The other two indicators we took into account this year, which is HCOG has not done previously, are VMT or vehicle miles traveled. So again, really trying to highlight placing housing units and specifically lower income housing units in areas that have lower VMTs, which often are the job centers. So as you could imagine, we want to make sure those housing units are existing in places where the transportation costs are lower. And then ultimately that helps tackle a lot of the climate and greenhouse gas related issues that we are of course interested in through the Regional Climate Action Plan and through the Regional Transportation plan. And then the last factor considered is a new one for us called Opportunity Score, which is a metric that's looked at by Housing and Community Development, which measures the housing opportunity in any one agency with the hopes that again, we're providing equal and robust housing opportunities for folks of all incomes in any one of our agencies. So those are the factors that we consider when generating the total number as it comes to additional factors beyond that, which are, you know, constraints for environmental constraints or other things like that, those fall into the housing elements that each agency will take care of access. So the allocation determination that comes from HCOG to the local agency is purely just the number itself and the number of units per category and then the method used to calculate it. But outside of that, there's no other conditions that are placed by HCOG on local agencies. That's all part of the housing element development, which is a regulated process between the local agency and the state Department of Housing.
• 11:20
  Speaker A: Last night, HCOG finalized the methodology and sent it to the state Department of Housing and Community Development for review. Byrd expects the response in early 2026. If the state signs off on the document, HCOG will finalize the plan into a regional housing needs plan, which will be taken to the board for final adoption. To stay up to date with this plan, visit HCOG's website, hcaog.net and here's Ray Hamel with the Sports Report.
• 11:45
  Speaker E: This week the HTNL announced the 2025 all league teams and MVPs in football. Hello and welcome to this week's KMWOOD News Sports Report. I'm Ray Hamill with Humboldt sports.com we'll have all the details of the all league selections and MVPs in just a moment as we take a look at all of the big local sports stories of the week, including all the latest high school boys and girls basketball news, all the latest college basketball updates, and how one former McKinleyville panter joined some pretty elite company over the weekend. But first up, the all League Teams and MVPs in HDNL football have been released with a total of 40 players honored in the Big 4. Seniors Mako Lemon of Fortuna and Tyler Heinrichs of St. Bernards have been named MVPs after outstanding seasons for both players. Limone finished the year with 1,395 yards rushing on 218 carries and he also scored 17 rushing touchdowns. Heinrichs played multiple roles for the Crusaders finishing with 810 yards receiving and seven touchdowns on 57 receptions and rushing for 242 yards on 62 carries while scoring 16 total touchdowns. Brad Essick, Michael Shaw, Kavi Bolden, Will Shaw, Gavin Maybury and Tyson Evano each also were included on the All League team for Fortuna, while Karan Devlin, Josh Tinkham, Colton Hall, Trenton Hagler, Jassiri Bailey and Garrett Shanahan were all named All League for St. Bernards. Both Fortuna and St. Bernards tied for the Big Four championship. Del North's Tobias Myers, Canyon Starkey, Jason Murphy and Ricardo Borges were also included in the All League team along with Eureka's Dominic Hardcastle and Bryson Burns in the Little Four. Ferndale teammates and seniors Tanner Pidgeon and Prescott Langer were both named MVPs after leading the Wildcats to an historic season that saw them set a state record for most points scored in a regular season. The two senior standouts were joined on the All League team by teammates Ethan Weitzel and Jake Kurwitz, Roland McClurg, Garen McClurg, Luke Dixon and Angel Zaragoza. Arcata is Luke Lemke, Lincoln Newman, Skyler Kahlenberg, Rico Villalpando, Miguel Obizo and Sefo Vanuku were each also named all league along with McKinleyville's Trevor Marsh, Justin Albertson, Spain and Jeremiah Smith and Hoopa's Alan Kane, Brian Richards and Ethan Obie. And the accolades for the league players don't stop there. Eight HTNL players have also been nominated for the Prestig Calhai Sports All State teams, a group that includes Ferndale's Weitzel, Pigeon, Langer and Christian Enriquez, St. Bernard's hall and Bailey and Arcata's Lemke and Newman. The Wildcats have also been named the Calhai Sports Division 5 state team of the Year. Switching gears, it was another busy week for the HDNL basketball teams with several schools competing at various tournaments over the weekend. In girls action, the Ferndale Wildcats continued their impressive start to the new season by winning the championship at the Trinity Tournament on Saturday, defeating the host school 69 61. Tinley pigeon was named Tourney MVP while teammates Mikayla Ellsmore and Madison Gosse were named to the All Tournament team. The Cats also defeated Del Norte 4640 on Tuesday night and are now 6 1. Also in action last weekend, the Eureka Loggers won two of three games at the Windsor tournament, including a 5734 win over Encinal in the consolation game to go to 7 2. The McKinnieville Panthers, who are 6 and 3, reached the final of the Redwood Empire Invitational Basketball Tournament in Healdsburg where they fell 60 the 36 to Justin Siena. St. Bernard's lost 5644 to Pyramid Lake of Nevada in the final of the Mount Shasta tournament and dropped to 43 and the Fortuna Huskies went 21 at the Healdsburg tournament including a 6721 win over the host school in the third place game and improved to 6. 2 in boys high school basketball action. It's been an impressive start to the new season for the St. Bernard's Crusaders, who are the fourth ranked team out of 136 in the entire North coast section last weekend. The SB boys improved to 51 on the season with a statement 6346 win over McKinleyville in the championship game at the Mount Shasta tournament. The Crusaders, who are also the top ranked Division 6 program in the state, improved to 51 in the season while the Panthers dropped to 7 2. The Arcata boys reached the championship game at their own tournament where they lost 6755 to South Medford and dropped to 5 and 5 while Del Norte won the consolation game at the same tournament, defeating Red Bluff 81 48. The warriors, who also defeated Ferndale 6441 in non tournament action on Tuesday, are now 7 2. The Eureka boys were also in action at the Arcadia tournament but lost two games before closing out with a 6048 win over Fortuna. The Loggers are now 53 while the Huskies are 3 8. The Hoopa boys also were in action and reached the championship game at the Trinity tournament where they fell 6249 to the host school and dropped to 6. 5 while the Ferndale boys tipped off their season at the same tournament and went 1 2. A quick correction from last week's sports report. The South Fork Cubs are hosting their annual Gene Connor Memorial Tournament this weekend and not last week in local college basketball. Meanwhile, the College of the Redwoods men's team was in action at the 87th annual Modesto tournament last weekend and went 2 and 1 after opening with a 9075 loss to Yuba. The Corsairs responded with two straight wins, defeating Fresno 95 to 79 and Alameda 86 to 63. Former McKinleyville Panther Cody Whitmer was named to the All Tournament team for SEA or Whitmer joined some pretty elite company with the honor. The legendary Jackie Robinson was also named to the Modesto all tournament team the first year the tournament was held back in 1939. The CR men will be back in action this weekend at the Kris Kringle Tournament, which is hosted by Santa Rosa jc. Both Cal Poly Humboldt teams will also be in action this weekend as they resume conference play. The Jacks play doubleheaders at Cal State San Marcos on Friday night and at Cal State Monterey Bay on Sunday afternoon. The Humboldt men, who did not play last weekend, are 1 and 1 in conference and 3 and 5 overall, while the Humboldt women, who split a pair of non conference games last weekend, are now 20 in conference and 4. 4 overall. And that's this week's KMUD News Sports Report. Until next time. I'm Ray hamill with humboldt sports.com.
• 18:38
  Speaker A: California State Auditor Grant Parks released a sweeping report Thursday warning that Mendocino county core systems of government were vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse. Elise Cox reports for KMA News and Mendo Local News.
• 18:49
  Speaker F: The Mendocino county audit was added as a line item to a budget bill in June of 2024. Supervisor John Hascheck said the Board of Supervisors was seeking clarity on the county's financial position and requested the audit.
• 19:04
  Speaker C: Well, I think there was a lot of uncertainty. You know, we weren't getting the financial reports and we we didn't know if we were going bankrupt or if we were flush with money. You know, it just wasn't happening. So there are so many things that were uncertain, unreliable, that yeah, we weren't closing the books and we weren't getting the financial statements that we needed.
• 19:36
  Speaker F: The auditors went in with four evaluating overall financial management, assessing controls to prevent waste, determining whether significant errors had occurred during the 2024 primary election, and reviewing contracting and procurement processes. Their conclusion county oversight of staff spending has been insufficient to prevent waste, fraud and abuse. The auditor specifically cited the use of asset forfeiture funds by the sheriff's office and the district Attorney's office. Sheriff Matt Kendall said he appreciated working with auditors and he said safeguards would be put in place to prevent improper spending.
• 20:17
  Speaker G: We had a lot of really good conversations with them and you have to remember I think like a sheriff, I don't think like an auditor and therefore, you know, there's things that kind of seem odd to me, but it makes perfect sense if you look at it from their point of view. So there were a couple of things that were that were focused on in this now there was a lot of focus put on like asset forfeiture donations.
• 20:43
  Speaker F: Under California law, cash, vehicles and other property connected to criminal activity can be forfeited to the government and the funds deposited in Special accounts. State law strictly limits how the money can be spent. It must support law enforcement purposes such as drug and gang enforcement activity. And it must supplement, not replace, existing budgets.
• 21:08
  Speaker G: They pointed out a couple of things. So for years and years, the sheriff's office has donated to the arc, the Alex Rohrbach Center. And that began around, I think I was the undersherif at the time, 2017, 2018, 2019. Somewhere in there, we were experiencing a high volume of crime in and around the Ukiah area on Halloween. And so the previous sheriff worked with the ARK and said, hey, can you guys throw a Halloween party that gets the kids off the street? Because we are seeing some violent crime on the streets. And so the sheriff at that time, Sheriff Allman, made some donations to the ARC to get this ball rolling. And then every year following that, I've donated, I think, $500 to that. And it's to put on that. That thing to benefit the community, keep the kids off the street. And it was a really good thing. So I made a donation to it. And at every year right after the. Right after the previous year, you know, so October 31st, they put on this party for the kids down there, Halloween party. And then they hit us up the following week. And so I pledged funding in 2023 for the 2024. And then the laws changed, but I'd already pledged the funding, so I gave it to them.
• 22:24
  Speaker F: Kendall was written up by the auditors for that donation. He told Mendo Local News he won't make similar donations again. The days of donations to schools and to community radio stations are also over. District Attorney David Ister did not respond to request for comment. Auditors accused Eyster of making a gift of public funds when asset forfeiture funds were spent on a staff training dinner in 2025. The same allegation was used by Oister in his unsuccessful prosecution of Auditor Comptroller Shamice Kubison. Kubison's questioning of istra's use of asset forfeiture funds over time had led to conflict between the two elected officials. In a statement to the auditors, Ister said no improper payroll practices, financial irregularities, or personal enrichment by the District attorney staff was uncovered and that all transactions were supported by at least some degree of documentation. Registrar of Voters Assessor and Clerk Recorder Katrina Bartlame also did not respond to request for comment from Mendo Local News. Auditors found that voters were assigned to the wrong precincts in the 2024 primary and that the error was not corrected at the time of the audit. Auditors also cited delays in completing property tax assessments. As of December 2025, more than $30 million in taxes, penalties, interest and fees remained outstanding. In response to the auditors, the assessor's office pledged to work with it to develop better reporting tools. In its formal response, the county agreed with the auditor's recommendations, including revising the general fund reserve policy, creating a schedule to address stagnant revenue, adopting a countywide policy for asset forfeiture funds, and updating purchasing rules. Supervisor Hascheck said the media and public can also play a role.
• 24:22
  Speaker C: Well, I think bringing it, you know, bringing awareness, public awareness to these situations is really important. And let's make sure that the public knows what the state auditor was saying and what the response is to it.
• 24:42
  Speaker F: Reporting for KMUD News and Mendo Local News, I'm Elise Cox.
• 24:50
  Speaker A: In National Native News, Antonio Gonzalez reads today's headlines.
• 24:54
  Speaker H: This is National Native News. I'm Antonia Gonzalez. It's official. With the swipe of President Donald Trump's pen, North Carolina's Lumbee tribe is now the 575th federally recognized tribe in the U.S. correspondent Matt Laszlo has the story from Washington.
• 25:12
  Speaker B: Dozens of members of the Lumbee tribe traveled from North Carolina to Washington to be a part of history this week. Tears were heard in the gallery after the US Senate approved the measure granting the Lumbee federal recognition on Wednesday. And after President Donald Trump signed it into law Thursday, Lumbee Chairman John Lowery could barely contain his joy. Joy cometh in the morning and our joy is here. It's here we finally achieved what our ancestors fought so long and so hard to achieve. There are roughly 60,000 members of the Lumbee, making it the largest Native American tribe east of the Mississippi River. North Carolina officials recognized the tribe after the Civil War in 1885, but not federal officials. North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis has helped lead the fight in the Senate in recent years.
• 26:04
  Speaker D: Yeah, we're a little bit excited. After 137 years on their part, about 4 years on Senate members part, it's.
• 26:11
  Speaker E: Good to see it get done.
• 26:12
  Speaker B: Tillis is retiring at the end of his term next year, but he says the decade long battle for federal recognition for the Lumbee shows Washington isn't totally broken. Even if the tribe and North Carolina lawmakers fought an uphill battle for years now.
• 26:28
  Speaker D: A lot of educating and just prioritize.
• 26:31
  Speaker E: It's the way this works, right?
• 26:34
  Speaker D: You use leverage, you have discussions, you build a case.
• 26:38
  Speaker E: I think that's what happened.
• 26:39
  Speaker D: I really appreciate the delegation this is a well coordinated effort.
• 26:43
  Speaker B: Back in 1956, Congress partially recognized the Lumbee, but that left the tribe locked out of federal health services, and it meant the tribe couldn't operate casinos or marijuana dispensaries like other tribes. Chairman Lowry says it's a new day for the Lumbee. The 1956 act, which left us in legal limbo, is now erased. It is no more and we are now fully fairly recognized. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians fought the federal recognition of the Lumbee, which passed as a part of an annual $900 billion defense authorization bill. For National Native News Matt Laszlo in Washington.
• 27:28
  Speaker H: This week, the prairie band Potawatomi Nation in Kansas issued a statement to its tribal members about an ICE contract after the deal was met with public scrutiny. In a video statement, Chairman Joseph Repnick said the nation has fully divested from the contract.
• 27:43
  Speaker D: As a result, Pray Then LLC is no longer a direct or indirect owner.
• 27:48
  Speaker B: Or participant in or otherwise affiliated with any ICE projects, contracts or operations.
• 27:56
  Speaker D: In our next General Council meeting in.
• 27:58
  Speaker B: January, Tribal Council plans to further address.
• 28:01
  Speaker D: The steps we will take to ensure.
• 28:04
  Speaker B: That our nation's economic interests do not.
• 28:07
  Speaker D: Come into conflict with our values and the future.
• 28:11
  Speaker H: Tribal citizens from across the US have raised concerns about the Trump administration's immigration policies. Native people have also reported being confronted by ice, including actress Elaine Miles sharing her story with media outlets about her encounter in November. Meanwhile, US Senator Brian Schatz, vice chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, US Senator Patty Murray, vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and 10 of their Senate colleagues recently sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about reports of ICE encounters with tribal citizens. They're urging her to develop policies and trainings to recognize tribal IDs. They're requesting a response by January 11th. I'm Antonia Gonzalez, Native Voice 1, the.
• 28:57
  Speaker E: Native American Radio Network.
• 29:02
  Speaker A: That's all for tonight's broadcast. Thanks for listening. Thanks to Our Engineer Michael McCaskill and thanks to our reporters Ray Hamill and Antonio Gonzalez. Cave Mud News is online. You can find us on caymud.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 any questions or suggestions, you can give us a call at 707-923-2605 or send an email to newsmaker Redwood Community Radio, Inc. Is funded by Press Forward, the National Movement to Strengthen Communities by Reinvigorating local news. Learn more at PressForward News.
• 29:38
  Speaker F: Reporting for KMUD, I'm Gabriel Zuckerberg.