Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Good evening and welcome to the local news. Today is Tuesday, April 1st. I'm Lisa Music reporting for KMUD. In tonight's news, Explosion at Scotia Biomass power plant leaves one worker injured PGE sees a path to decrease rates and concerned citizens intervene, likely saving two lives in Mendocino County. Stay tuned. News on those stories and more coming right up.
What was reported as an explosion at the Scotia Biomass power plant on 108 Main street yesterday morning left one worker injured. The incident was reported at approximately 9:40am Emergency personnel were dispatched to the biomass plant at the Humboldt Sawmill Company for the report of an injury following an explosion. The injured worker, a 43 year old man, sustained burns to his face and suffered an injury to his left hand. According to scanner traffic, the victim was engulfed in flames for approximately 20 seconds before leaping from a balcony about 10ft down to escape the fire he classified as a flare up. The victim reported holding his breath before jumping to avoid inhaling the flames.
Emergency responders later determined he had first and second degree burns covering roughly 10% of his body. Emergency crews responded code three arriving with lights and siren. The cause and exact nature of the explosion as well as any damage to the facility has not yet been disclosed. Cayman News has reached out to the Humboldt Sawmill Company for comment, but as of press time we have not received a reply. Updates will be provided as more information becomes available.
Pacific Gas and Electric, companies of regional managers, have pledged to control future rate increases. Daniel Mintz reports.
[00:02:31] Speaker C: Pacific Gas and Electric rates went up again on March 1, but at a smaller scale than previous increases, and the company's management has acknowledged that rates must stabilize.
Wildfire Safety was the main topic at a March 27 PGE online town hall meeting, but questions were focused on how it relates to rates and PGE's use of revenues.
Brian Gerving, PGE's regional senior manager, said affordability is a huge issue for many of our customers. He announced that credits will be applied to the company's bills in April. The credit will be $125 for customers paying for both electric and gas.
He said. Almost all the company's earnings were reinvested back into our business and energy system in 2023.
Dave Canney, PGE's regional vice president, also talked about what will happen in the future.
[00:03:31] Speaker D: I want to zoom out a little bit and speak to our our very intense focus on this. We've committed to raising rates no more than 2 to 4% in the coming years and we've saved hundreds of millions of dollars through focused efforts to eliminate waste in the business while delivering the same or more value safely. And so just know that we as a as a utility company are very focused on that, and we in the region as well are focused on how we can better serve customers and do that more efficiently. It's something that our coworkers take very seriously and it's something that we know that all of our neighbors are concerned about and just know that you have our ongoing commitment to manage rates Recognizing that recent increases have not been sustainable.
[00:04:19] Speaker C: But rates went up again on March 1st. Gervin gave the details on that and on the company's rate stabilization plans.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: Electric rates changed on March 1, 2025. For a typical customer using 500 kilowatt hours per month, there will be a 1.6% or $3.38 increase for residential bundled electric and gas non care customers and a 1.8% or $2.26 increase for residential bundled care customers.
Even with this small rate increase, assuming the same usage, average electric rates and bills on March 1, 2025 were lower than they were a year ago.
Electric rates and bills are currently 3% lower than they were in January 2024.
This is in part due to wildfire prevention costs, completing recovery and being removed from rates over the past year, including this March 2025 rate change.
Based on current information, electric rates are expected to decrease slightly in this fall as additional wildfire prevention costs are removed from rates.
We know our customers are frustrated with higher cost of living, including energy bills. To address these growing concerns, we are committed to stabilizing customer bills. We are taking actions to limit average annual increases to no more than 2 to 4% through 2026 without sacrificing safety.
[00:05:51] Speaker C: Risk reduction work is likely to scale up in the future. Gerving noted that California is facing more extreme weather risks such as drought, fires and major storms, and the company seeks to build the infrastructure to withstand these risks.
During a written question and answer session, the managers were asked if higher rates are related to PGE's wildfire liabilities and desire for profit and can.
[00:06:21] Speaker D: He answered, There's a couple couple questions about rates. I'll start with the one that you asked and then touch on a couple of other items related to how we're planning to stabilize rates with the goal of maintaining minimal increases in the coming years. And eventually we see a path to decreased rates through what we refer to as beneficial load growth. But to start with, relative to past fires, we've gotten this question before.
Our rates do not go to paying for pacifiers and liabilities associated with them full stop. The rates that customers pay today are squarely focused on investing in the system and making it hardened and capable of withstanding the changing climate we're all experiencing. And in fact, I think you touched on this, Brian. More than 95% of our authorized return last year was reinvested back into the system. So that's additional benefit to the, to the system and to and to customers, shareholders or others do not, do not benefit from that. That's invested back into the system.
And then I think just in closing with respect to rates, we have a comment around, you know, rate increases in 2024. They were significant. They were not sustainable, as I mentioned earlier. Fully acknowledge that. And in fact, electric rates have been stable or even gone down a little bit this year relative to last year as an initial IND of the trajectory we anticipate.
[00:07:47] Speaker C: Earlier Gerving said electricity demand is growing for the first time in 10 years. And from 2015 to 2018, PGE invested about $1.3 billion in electric transmission and distribution capacity expansions.
He said another 12 billion will be invested in the next six years. And the focus for the north coast region is southern Humboldt and northern Mendocino County. With customers already connecting to our grid and additional significant projects underway, the company is also doing more outreach. It's holding Coffee Connect meetings in the region's coffee shops where customers can meet and talk with staffers.
The next one is set for the morning of April 16th at Cafe Brio in Arcata.
For KMUD News, this is Daniel Mintz.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: Turning to Mendocino. Two separate incidents resulted in law enforcement intervention and attempted murder charges being filed thanks to the actions of concerned citizens that likely saved the lives of two women in dire circumstances. On March 27, a concerned neighbor alerted the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office that gunshots were heard in a neighborhood in Little river leading to the discovery of an alleged elder abuse situation. We turn now to our partners at the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
[00:09:14] Speaker E: My name is Quincy Cromer. I'm a captain with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office. We had an incident that occurred on Thursday, March 27, at about 10:50 in the evening, the sheriff's office deputies were dispatched to the residence in the 41,000 block of Little River Airport Road, which is in Little River, California, for a welfare check. So the caller to our dispatch reported hearing possible gunshots at a neighboring residence. And the caller became concerned, concerned for their elderly neighbor. After calling that resident and then the phone line became Disconnected. So upon the arrival of deputy sheriffs at the scene, they contacted a subject identified as Ignacio Andrade Zamora, who allowed them to enter the residence and check on the female occupant. As the deputies entered the home, they observed evidence of a firearm recently being discharged inside the residence. So they detained Andrade Zamora and continued to investigate. And they located the female resident and requested medical personnel respond to the location to provide medical aid to the female. The female was checked by medical personnel at the scene and was determined to be uninjured during the assault. So a search warrant was obtained from a superior court judge in the county of Mendocino, and detectives from the sheriff's office responded to assist with this investigation. They located additional evidence there at the scene to establish that probable cause of a violent assault with a firearm occurred, and Andrade Zamora was responsible for that assault. There were numerous firearms and firearm accessories that were seized by deputies, investigators serving the search warrant. And Andrade Zamora was ultimately placed under arrest for attempted murder, elder abuse, and using a firearm during the commission of a felony. And Andrade Zamora was booked into the Mendocino County Jail, where he's being held in lieu of $500,000 bill.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: According to Captain Cromer, evidence at the scene indicated that the suspect was shooting at the door of a room where the victim was located.
[00:11:06] Speaker E: Yeah. So the, the scenario and the scene that existed would be that the female elderly resident was in an upstairs bedroom. And my understanding is that the suspect, Andrade Zamora, was firing rounds at the door that was closed to where the female was located. So it was in such a manner that we think there was intent and an effort, a deliberate, intentional effort to commit murder. And that's why he was charged with attempted murder on this.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: Elder abuse, Cromer said, is often under.
[00:11:36] Speaker E: Reported, more often than not with elder abuse, it's a very under reported situation. So a lot of times when we learn of situations involving elders and then potentially being financially, physically, or emotionally abused, it comes from a witness. It could be a delivery driver, it could be a witness in public. It could be a family member, which happens frequently when they report and say, hey, I think my loved one, my elderly, whoever is being taken advantage of. And that sort of sparks involvement from law enforcement, obviously, and then adult protective services.
So there are mandated reporting laws, just like child abuse, that exist for elder abuse. So whenever there's, you know, a situation that we learn about that could constitute elder abuse, we are mandated to investigate it and refer it to adult protective services for support and other services that could be offered to them, but it is often under reported. But at the end of the day, I just say if you see something, say something. If there's something that doesn't seem right with a situation involving a juvenile or an elder, report it. Because law enforcement, enforcement, teachers and other people in those professions are mandated reporters, I would like to think that the general public should be mandated to report things too. If they see something they think that doesn't add up or seems weird or strange.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: If you have any information on this case, MCSO would like to hear from you.
[00:12:55] Speaker E: So we are still actively investigating the situation and are requesting anyone with information to contact the sheriff's office Dispatch center at 707-462.
You can press option one at any time to skip to dispatch and anyone that wants to provide information anonymously can do so by calling the non emergency tip line at 707-234-2100.
[00:13:17] Speaker B: The following day, a call from a concerned friend of a Fort Bragg woman sent officers to the aid of a woman allegedly being assaulted in a domestic violence incident.
[00:13:27] Speaker F: Hello, I'm Neil Cervenka, Fort Bragg Chief of Police. On March 28, 2025, at about 4:00pm our officers received a call from a concerned friend that they believed their friend was the victim of an assault in the hundred block of Ebbing Way here in Fort Bragg.
Officers went to that location and when they knocked on the door and announced themselves as police officers, they heard a woman screaming for help inside and to come in. And then they heard a male trying to quiet her.
One officer looked through the window and saw a male trying to push the female away from the door up the stairs.
And at that point, our officers felt her life was in imminent danger and forced entry into the house by kicking the door in. When they entered the house, the male male was on the stairs and refusing to comply with orders.
And he was between the officers and the female who was now at the top of the stairs who was still asking for help. He refused to obey commands to come down and retreated upstairs into a room and officers followed him. They entered into that room and after a very brief struggle with no use of force, he was taken into custody without any injury to anyone. As officers began to investigate, the bruising on the female's face was visible immediately, and she reported that she had been hit and slapped and strangled repeatedly for the past day.
At one point, the suspect had strangled her with an electrical cord and there was bruising consistent with that action on her neck. While he was doing this, he was threatening to kill her and said that he would kill her if she called the police.
[00:15:35] Speaker B: Gruer was booked into the Mendocino County Jail on charges of attempted homicide, domestic violence, false imprisonment, and violation of a court order. Officers sought and obtained an emergency protective order for the victim and a bail enhancement for Gruer, raising his bail to $500,000. Chief Cervenka said that there are often reasons why victims of domestic violence don't report the abuse to authorities.
[00:16:02] Speaker F: So domestic violence goes unreported very often for embarrassment or fear of loss of income.
There's a variety of reasons why it goes unreported. Sometimes they believe people, that police officers won't believe them.
In this case, the female victim was threatened with death if she called the police. So that is not uncommon, and we encounter that more often than. Than we would like.
[00:16:37] Speaker B: Friends and family may also be wary of calling law enforcement. However, that call could save a person's life.
[00:16:45] Speaker F: If you have a gut feeling something is wrong, call us.
This started as a welfare check because her friend wasn't sure. She just had a bad feeling. So, you know, a welfare check check is generally quick and unobtrusive. If the person was wrong in their gut feeling, we don't say who called.
We're just checking on the welfare, making sure everyone's okay. And oftentimes these domestic violence incidents, that's how we find out about them, is because a concerned friend, a family member, a neighbor, hears something, hears screaming, something's not right, and they call us. We go do a welfare check, and then that leads to the discovery of violence and injury, and then we can stop it right there.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: There are resources for those experiencing domestic violence in Mendocino County.
[00:17:43] Speaker F: There's lots of organizations in our area. Project Sanctuary is an excellent organization that you can reach out to if you're the victim of domestic violence.
If you're hesitant to go to law enforcement, you can always go to Project Sanctuary. They can help get you out of a situation. They can help move you. They can help with legal, they can help with restraining orders.
So reach out to those organizations, and it's only going to get worse. We think. See the repetitive cycle over and over in domestic violence, where there's an assault and then there's apology and then they make up and they promise they'll never do it again, and then they do it again, and it just continually gets worse and worse and worse. I don't know specifically if there's one, but all of the fatal incidents of domestic violence all began with lesser assaults with slaves and hits and usually with emotional abuse of name calling and jealousy. So it is an escalating crime that needs to be dealt with as soon as possible.
[00:18:57] Speaker B: Resources nationwide can be found online@the hotline.org or by calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE. That's 1-800-799-7233.
Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr joins West Virginia governor to call for work requirements for SNAP and cut sodas from SNAP food items. Pacifica Radio's Christopher Martinez brings you the details.
[00:19:33] Speaker C: West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrissey says he wants to make West Virginia healthy again and he's joining with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Ken Kennedy, Jr. To do it.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: I have asked Secretary Kennedy to be my personal trainer and he hasn't said yet.
[00:19:55] Speaker E: Yes, yet.
[00:19:57] Speaker A: But I think he's sizing me up as a major renovation project.
[00:20:01] Speaker C: Secretary Kennedy seemed ready for the task.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: I'm very happy that he's invited me to be his personal trainer and I am going to put him, I'm going to put him on a really rigorous regimen and we're going to put him on a carnivore diet.
[00:20:21] Speaker C: Of course, the two men had bigger fish to fry. The state legislature had just passed legislation to ban certain food dyes. Following the lead of many other states, Morrissey announced a four part plan that includes the ban on dyes and an exercise movement to get people walking a mile a day. Another of the four pillars is called Find Purpose, Find Health. And it seems to mean making people work to qualify for the Supplemental Food and Nutrition Program, or snap, also known as food stamps.
[00:20:52] Speaker A: I think we can all agree work is good, work is moral, and it helps us to be stronger in the mind and the body.
[00:21:00] Speaker D: And we need more of that right.
[00:21:01] Speaker A: Here in West Virginia.
[00:21:03] Speaker C: The final part of Morrissey's plan is don't let people on SNAP use it to pay for sodas because they're not nutritious.
[00:21:10] Speaker A: Taxpayer dollars should be targeted toward nutritious foods.
That is why today I'm also intending to request a SNAP waiver from the federal government to no longer have taxpayer subsidized soda as an entitlement under snap.
[00:21:34] Speaker C: He introduced Secretary Kennedy as one of the most talked about, most vilified men in America. Kennedy praised the actions in West Virginia and he put the issues in a more Trump era kind of perspective.
[00:21:46] Speaker A: President Trump said that he wants to make America healthy again, but he wants to make it strong again.
We cannot have a strong country if we have sick citizens President Trump says that he wants to restore the American dream.
But a person who is healthy has a thousand dreams. A person who is sick has only one. And there is 60% of our country now that has only one dream, which is to get better.
And we need to give them a pathway to doing that. And the pathway is through food. Food is medicine.
[00:22:26] Speaker C: That food is medicine thing can be a little tricky. Kennedy has suggested using vitamin A to treat measles, but that putative remedy has no real scientific support. And as for how many dreams sick people can have, that is open for debate. Reporting for Pacifica Radio News kpfa, I'm Christopher Martinez.
[00:22:47] Speaker B: Prison based programs in California aims to interrupt the cycle of violence Suzanne Potter reports.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: A program designed to break the cycle of violence helps people in prison develop empathy both for their victims and for themselves. People who join the Victim Offender Education Group at the California Institution for Men in Chino spend about two years meeting two hours a week in small groups with a trained facilitator. Reverend Nora Jacob is a minister at Covina Community Church and is program lead in restorative justice at the prison.
[00:23:20] Speaker E: There's a lot of shame that comes.
[00:23:22] Speaker A: Welling up and there's a lot of.
[00:23:24] Speaker E: Deferred anger, then sadness and insights about how the lives they've already lived affected them to the point that they made.
[00:23:35] Speaker A: The choice to do the harm they did. Participants are men convicted of serious, often violent offenses such as murder, attempted murder, great bodily injury, robbery, rape or child molestation. As people open up about the abuse and harm they suffered as a child, they begin to reflect on the decisions and circumstances that led to their incarceration. Jacob notes that many people come out of the program changed, determined to break their old patterns.
[00:24:01] Speaker E: Far fewer people come back to prison.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: When they've done this deep dive into.
[00:24:06] Speaker E: A program like Victim Offender Education Group.
[00:24:09] Speaker A: The recidivism rates are significantly lower, like.
[00:24:13] Speaker E: In the 2 to 5% range.
[00:24:15] Speaker A: At the end of the program, the men meet with a victim of domestic violence who fills the role of a surrogate survivor who can explain how it felt to be the victim in hopes of generating feelings of empathy and remorse. This story was produced with original reporting by Ricky Rodas for yes magazine. For California News Service, I'm Suzanne Potter.
[00:24:36] Speaker B: Activists rallied to protest ICE detention of Palestinian activists and call for court hearing in New Jersey. KPFA's Eileen Alfanderi reports.
[00:24:46] Speaker A: We want justice. You say hell, we want justice.
[00:24:49] Speaker C: You say hell.
[00:24:51] Speaker A: Free my world right now. Hundreds rallied outside the federal courthouse in Newark, New Jersey, as a judge heard arguments on the detention of Palestinian graduate student Mahmoud Khalil. One of his attorneys, Bahar Azmi of the center for Constitutional Rights, told reporters that Khalil was spirited away to a Louisiana ICE detention center to avoid the jurisdiction of the courts in New York and New Jersey.
[00:25:17] Speaker D: We were here to insist that the court take jurisdiction of this case, bring him back to New Jersey and then immediately thereafter rule on his request for release, request for bail, and rule on his broader petition that his detention is unconstitutional.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: Osmi said. The US Government has created a policy targeting Palestinian activists for arrest, detention and potential deportation because of their constitutionally protected right to dissent from US Foreign policy. An attorney for the Justice Department countered the case should be moved to Louisiana, where Khalil is currently being held in an immigration detention center for what he called jurisdictional certainty. The judge declined to rule from the bench, but said he'll have a decision as soon as possible.
Attorney Amhal Sinha with the ACLU of New Jersey said that regardless of where people fall on the ideological spectrum, they should be outraged by the government's attempt to silence critical voices.
[00:26:23] Speaker D: It is anti democratic, un American, illegal.
[00:26:27] Speaker C: And unconstitutional to suppress speech, censor somebody.
[00:26:33] Speaker A: Detain them and attempt to deport them.
[00:26:35] Speaker C: And revoke their green card for speaking their mind.
[00:26:39] Speaker A: Khalil served as a negotiator for pro Palestinian students as they bargained with Columbia University officials over an end to their campus tent encampment last spring. Kahlil was not among the people arrested in the Columbia protests and he has not been accused of any crime. The Trump administration has cited a seldom invoked statute authorizing the secretary of State to deport non citizens whose presence in the country threatens U.S. foreign policy in interests. Khalil is a green card holder. The administration says Khalil's actions amounted to anti Semitism and support for Hamas in Gaza. People involved in the student led protests deny that it's anti Semitic to criticize Israel or what human rights groups have called the genocide in Gaza. Kahlil's wife, who is a US Citizen and is due to give birth next month, sat in the front row of the courtroom surrounded by supporters. Ramzi Qasem, another of Khalil's lawyers, said that no matter what happens in court.
[00:27:43] Speaker D: What'S most important is for all of us to keep up the pressure to let this government know that it cannot.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: Suppress speech, any form of speech, including.
[00:27:51] Speaker D: Pro Palestinian speech, and that what happens.
[00:27:54] Speaker A: Outside of court is oftentimes much more important than whatever takes place in court. Other university students and faculty across the country have been arrested by immigration officials, had their visas revoked or been prevented from entering the US because they attended demonstrations or publicly expressed support for Palestinians. They include a Gambian student at Cornell, an Indian scholar at Georgetown, a Lebanese doctor at Brown University's medical school, a Turkish student at Tufts, and a Korean student at Columbia who has lived in the US since she was seven. A University of Alabama PhD student, Alireza Durudy, studying metallurgical engineering, was detained by ICE on Tuesday. It's not clear if he was detained for any reason other than his nationality. I'm Eileen Alphanderi for KPFA News.
[00:28:48] Speaker B: That's all for tonight's broadcast. Thank you for listening. Thanks to our engineer and thanks to our reporters Daniel Mintz, Christopher Martinez, Eileen Alfanderi and Suzanne Potter. Kim News is online. You can find us on kmud.org where our stories are also in print. We are also on social media platforms. Just follow AMANews 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 commute. Reporting for KMA News, I'm Lisa Music SA.
