Thursday, April 25

Del Norte County supervisors signed off on a strategic plan, though they still harbored concerns about implementing some of the recommendations.

Along with the 62-page document Assistant CAO Randy Hooper presented to the Board, the county’s online ClearGov platform went live on Tuesday. That online portal will allow residents to track the county’s progress on some of the items the strategic plan aims to implement, Hooper told supervisors. The plan addresses employee recruitment and retention, homelessness and law enforcement, infrastructure needs and general government. It calls for the creation of a stand-alone Human Resources Department as well as a compensation study.

Renovating Pyke’s Field, rehabilitating the Del Norte County Jail and using a $10 million Encampment Resolution Funding grant to address homelessness are also mentioned in the plan.

Del Norte Unified School District trustees on Thursday will consider a request to rename Margaret Keating Elementary School. This request comes from the Yurok Tribal Council, community members and other district staff. The Board will consider directing the superintendent to form a citizens advisory committee to begin exploring possible names.

The Board of Trustees will hold a closed session meeting at 3:30 p.m. and will resume open session at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the district office, 301 W. Washington Boulevard. Agendas and a link to the Zoom version of the meeting is available at www.dnusd.org.

Cal Poly Humboldt will remain closed through the weekend as students and others protesting Israel’s war in Gaza continue to occupy Siemens Hall. Protest signs, dome tents and graffiti had proliferated across campus on Wednesday, the Lost Coast Outpost reported. Hand-painted signs and chalk slogans on concrete called for a free Palestine, an immediate ceasefire and an end to the Israeli occupation of Gaza.

Siemens Hall was the site of a violent confrontation with police Monday evening. Three protesters were arrested.

Del Norte County’s representative in the State Senate the passage of a Civil War-era in law in Arizona outlawing abortion in most cases. State Sen. Mike McGuire lauded the introduction of Senate Bill 233, which would allow licensed healthcare providers in Arizona to perform abortions in California to Arizona patients without fear of retribution.

SB 233 was introduced in the California senate by the California Legislative Women’s Caucus, which is led by Berkeley representative Nancy Skinner.

Arizona’s anti-abortion law makes it a felony punishable by two to five years in prison for anyone who performs an abortion or helps a woman obtain one. On Wednesday, the Arizona state House narrowly approved a bill that would repeal the ban.

Regional News

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Doctors, hospitals and health insurance companies in California will be limited to annual price increases of 3% starting in 2029 under a new rule state regulators approved Wednesday in the latest attempt to corral the ever-increasing costs of medical care in the United States.

The money Californians spent on health care went up about 5.4% each year for the past two decades. Democrats who control California’s government say that’s too much, especially since most people’s income increased just 3% each year over that same time period.

The 3% cap, approved Wednesday by the Health Care Affordability Board, would be phased in over five years, starting with 3.5% in 2025. Board members said the cap likely won’t be enforced until the end of the decade.

(OPB) A logging company has canceled a proposed road within a Bureau of Land Management project in Josephine County. Activists had claimed that construction of the route threatened old-growth trees.

Protesters had been staying at the location of a proposed road within the BLM’s Salmon Run timber sale, which they claim threatened old-growth trees, for the last three weeks. The activists included a “tree sitter” camped on a platform attached to a Ponderosa pine over 100 feet above the ground.

The timber sale area is part of the BLM’s Poor Windy Forest Management Project which includes around 11,000 acres slated for commercial timber harvest as well as forest thinning to prevent large wildfires.

On Monday the BLM and Boise Cascade Wood Products changed their plan for the Salmon Run area to remove the proposed 440-foot access road at the center of protesters’ concerns. The update also specified that construction of another road will not disturb large-diameter trees.