| Education Matters | HCOE recognizes work of county educators – Times-Standard |
| May is fast approaching and we like to dub it “Awards Season” at the Humboldt County Office of Education (HCOE). We have just wrapped up nine county student events that recognize excellence among our youth. Behind each successful student event, from the GATE Academy to Career and Technical Education recognition, are adults who work hard to inspire and motivate our young people. Since 1986, HCOE has recognized 448 educators from across the county. Awarded by the Humboldt County Superintendent of Schools and the County Board of Education, the Excellence in Teaching and Jean Olson Career Achievement awards recognize and appreciate credentialed educators who have earned the respect and admiration of their peers and colleagues for their dedication, enthusiasm, and professional standards and who, through their exemplary careers, have served as role models to students and teachers.
The awards ceremony is held in May when our state and nation host “Day of the Teacher” events. Local students provide the music, the floral arrangements, create the awards, and provide the catering. Short videos are created that offer a glimpse into the professional life of each educator. The room is filled with the awardees’ loved ones, colleagues, and peers. The keynote speaker is the Humboldt County Teacher of the Year from the previous cohort of awardees and inspires listeners with anecdotes of the importance of teaching. In California, the Day of the Teacher is May 14. We encourage you to let a favorite teacher know you appreciate them!
In 2019, HCOE began the County Classified Employees of the Year to recognize the tireless efforts of our county’s outstanding classified school employees. From school bus drivers and cafeteria workers to instructional aides and technology specialists, these employees are the unsung heroes who play key roles in creating a school environment that contributes to the whole child by promoting student achievement, safety, and health. [Article] |
| by , . 2025-04-24 |
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| AI cameras led to nearly 10,000 more citations for cars parked in LA bus lanes | LAist |
| In the second month of enforcement, automated cameras on two Metro bus routes in the city of Los Angeles helped issue more than 9,700 tickets to cars parked in a bus lane or at a bus stop, according to data from L.A. Department of Transportation. [Article] |
| by , . 2025-04-24 |
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| Opinion: Restoring our coastal canyons and wetlands is crucial – San Diego Union-Tribune |
| The bobcat that frequents the western end of San Diego’s Tecolote Canyon Natural Park, a 600-acre coastal watershed haven that is a major tributary of Mission Bay, is enough of a wildlife celebrity that city of San Diego park rangers like to show visitors to their Nature Center a photo of it stealthily crossing Tecolote Creek on a narrow footbridge. Tecolote, like many other other nature reserves in San Diego County, is an example of community-based restoration and rewilding that has helped to bring back many of our region’s urban wildlife, wetlands, watersheds and canyons from their degraded and often endangered states decades ago.
The three of us have a combined 100 years protecting and restoring these crown jewels of Southern California that provide havens for native plants and threatened and endangered wildlife, but also help to store carbon, and protect against floods and wildfires when properly managed. The science that guides our ecosystem restoration and rewilding projects in Batiquitos Lagoon, Rose Canyon and Tecolote Canyon helps us create natural pathways for bringing back wildlife as well as keeping our communities safer from the threat of wildfire and flooding [Article] |
| by , San Diego Union-Tribune. 2025-04-24 |
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| Traffic at the Port of Los Angeles already dropping amid tariffs - Los Angeles Times |
| Imports at the Port of Los Angeles are expected to plunge in the next two weeks, even as negotiations over the final tariffs that China and other countries must pay are still being negotiated by President Trump.
That was the sobering message that port Executive Director Gene Seroka had Thursday for the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners during an update on port activity.
“It’s my prediction that in two weeks’ time, arrivals will drop by 35% as essentially all shipments out of China for major retailers and manufacturers have ceased, and cargo coming out of Southeast Asia locations is much softer than normal,” Seroka told the board.
Figures from Wabtec Corp., which tracks port cargo, predict the slowdown in container volume hitting as soon as next week. That’s when 17 vessels are scheduled to arrive with 85,486 20-foot-equivalents (TEUs) of goods, down 28.6% from this week and 10.5% from last year. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-04-24 |
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| Supervisors support state human trafficking bill, nix voter ID proposal | The Coast News Group |
| The San Diego County Board of Supervisors is supporting proposed state legislation aimed at protecting teenage sex trafficking victims that is headed to the Assembly next week.
Supervisor Jim Desmond proposed the motion to back Assembly Bill 379, co-authored by Assemblywoman Maggy Krell, D-Sacramento. [Article] |
| by , . 2025-04-24 |
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| Newsom welcomes additions to state’s firefighting air fleet – Daily News |
| Citing a fire season that “never went away” this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom officially welcomed expansion of the state’s aerial firefighting force on Thursday in an airplane hangar at McClellan Park near Sacramento. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-04-24 |
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| Ad campaign will target Trump allies for looming Medicaid cuts - Los Angeles Times |
| With the Trump administration slashing budgets and threatening to revoke tax-exempt status for nonprofits, some Southern California social justice organizations have gone into a defensive crouch, hoping to wait out the passing storm.
They are not openly fighting President Trump’s program cuts. Some have scrubbed their websites of terms such as “equity,” “inclusion” and “transgender.” Others have been told they should drop land acknowledgments — proclamations paying tribute to the Indigenous peoples who were this region’s first human inhabitants.
But other local nonprofits intend to fight. They have slammed Trump’s policies. They declined suggestions to alter their mission statements. They have gone to court. And one, giant St. John’s Community Health — which has provided care for the region’s working class and immigrants for 60 years — is launching a campaign to call out congressional Republicans it believes are enabling Trump budget cuts that they believe will cripple healthcare for the poor.
The venerable system of health clinics, based in South Los Angeles, on Thursday joined about 10 other nonprofits in launching a media campaign that will focus on half a dozen U.S. House districts where Republican lawmakers have supported the president’s initial budget plan. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-04-24 |
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| 111 apartments proposed at 11516 S. Vermont Ave. |
| An empty lot and surface parking next to the I-105 Freeway and Metro's Vermont/Athens Station is slated for redevelopment with housing, per a recent application to the Los Angeles Department of City Planning.
The proposed development at 11516 S. Vermont Avenue, pitched by project applicant Aria Shafiee of 10361 Foster Road, LLC, calls for the construction of a new six-story building featuring 111 one- and two-bedroom apartments atop parking for 85 vehicles. [Article] |
| by , . 2025-04-24 |
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| Public workers may get more pension benefits under new bill – Daily News |
| There was nary a peep of dissent when a bill that would let cities offer more pension benefits to public workers sailed through a committee hearing Wednesday.
“Local governments need to be able to offer benefits workers value,” said Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, D-San Francisco. “It’s an option, not an obligation. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-04-24 |
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| Opinion: Homeless crisis shows need for government accountability – San Diego Union-Tribune |
| With 187,000 residents homeless, California leads the nation — not in solutions, but in expensive failures. This year, major cities like Oakland saw a 9% increase in homelessness. If the state’s goal was to increase homelessness, its policies are a resounding success.
The state isn’t short on resources. California has some of the nation’s highest taxpayers and receives $322 billion in annual revenue. But it burned through $24 billion of that on homelessness over the past five years — and it’s still failed to halt the bleeding.
In large part, this failure is due to incompetence. The crisis keeps spiraling because no one has bothered to track where the money is going. A state audit confirmed that the government had no idea what it was doing. [Article] |
| by , San Diego Union-Tribune. 2025-04-24 |
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| Orange County Opposes Proposed Regional Gas-Powered Water Heater Crackdown |
| More officials across Orange County are joining the increasing push back in Southern California against a regional air quality board’s plan that initially proposed to ban the sale of new gas-powered water heaters and furnaces. [Article] |
| by , Voice of OC. 2025-04-24 |
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| Advocates urge San Diego Sheriff to reconsider stance against county sanctuary policy | KPBS Public Media |
| As the Trump administration’s harsh immigration enforcement tactics ramp up, advocates are urging San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez to follow a sanctuary policy the County Board of Supervisors approved late last year. [Article] |
| by , KPBS - San Diego. 2025-04-24 |
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| Early win in OC 'whistleblower' case over COVID-19 testing sites | LAist |
| A whistleblower lawsuit alleging fraud by the company that ran Orange County’s COVID-era testing “super sites” could get a public airing after a judge’s ruling today. [Article] |
| by , . 2025-04-24 |
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| LA Mayor Karen Bass’ proposed budget would ax a landmark climate action office | LAist |
| Facing a nearly $1 billion budget shortfall, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass is calling for major cuts to city resources that focus exclusively on addressing the local effects of climate change. [Article] |
| by , . 2025-04-24 |
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| OC supervisors call on Department of Justice to reassess Andrew Do plea deal and sentencing – Orange County Register |
| Former Supervisor Andrew Do pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge last October. [Article] |
| by , Orange County Register. 2025-04-24 |
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| Just 15% of San Diego households can afford a median-priced home in county: Study – NBC 7 San Diego |
| Less than 18% of all Californians earned enough income to support the purchase of an $865,440 median-priced home in 2024, down from 19% the previous year, the California Association of Realtors announced Thursday. [Article] |
| by , KNSD NBC San Diego. 2025-04-24 |
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| California overtakes Japan to become world's fourth-largest economy. But tariffs pose threat - Los Angeles Times |
| If California were its own country, its economy would now rank as the fourth-largest of any nation across the globe, Gov. Gavin Newsom said, a new milestone that comes at a time of major economic turbulence.
California has long been a global powerhouse, fueled by a variety of sectors including technology, agriculture, tourism and entertainment. The new ranking comes as the state is facing challenges from a trade war with China and other nations that are key California trading partners.
Newsom announced the state’s new economic ranking Wednesday after recently released data from the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis indicated that California’s nominal gross domestic product now exceeds Japan’s.
According to the data, California’s nominal GDP reached $4.1 trillion, surpassing Japan’s $4.02 trillion. That places the Golden State behind only the United States at $29.18 trillion, China at $18.74 trillion and Germany at $4.65 trillion.
“California isn’t just keeping pace with the world — we’re setting the pace,” Newsom said in a statement. “Our economy is thriving because we invest in people, prioritize sustainability, and believe in the power of innovation.” [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-04-24 |
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| Seaport San Diego developer asks state lawmakers to expedite environmental review process – San Diego Union-Tribune |
| SB 675 would require the Coastal Commission to review the mega project proposed for San Diego's waterfront at a faster pace and limit the agency's ability to block the project. [Article] |
| by , San Diego Union-Tribune. 2025-04-24 |
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| San Clemente Beach Trail Restoration on Hold as Orange County Transit Authority Begins Rail Repairs | Eye on SC | picketfencemedia.com |
| The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) has been granted approval to begin emergency work stabilizing the coastal rail line in San Clemente, though not all aspects of the project received clearance from the California Coastal Commission. [Article] |
| by , . 2025-04-24 |
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| Should California drivers get charged by the mile? – San Diego Union-Tribune |
| California's Department of Transportation is studying data to potential create a per-mile road charge [Article] |
| by , San Diego Union-Tribune. 2025-04-24 |
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