[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: Good evening and welcome to the local news. Today is Thursday, March 19th and I'm Nat Cardos reporting for KMUD. In tonight's news, Eureka Council takes aim at AI chemical spill in Doris Siskiyou county and commercial salmon fisheries may reopen on the north coast, so stay tuned. Those stories and more coming up.
[00:00:40] Speaker C: Redwood Community Radio acknowledges that its transmitter sites are located on the unceded territory of the Sinkon, Wailaki, Wiat, Wilkut and Kato people. We honor ancestors past, present and emerging, and acknowledge the ongoing cultural, spiritual and physical connection these tribes have to this region.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Use of AI is becoming more common in the workplace and the Eureka City Council is concerned about it. Daniel Mintz reports.
[00:01:09] Speaker D: Wary of increased use of artificial intelligence, the Eureka City Council is advancing rules to bring it under control.
At its March 17 meeting, the council approved a new policy to define the scope in which artificial intelligence may be used by city employees.
But it's just a first step.
Some council members described AI as dangerous to the environment and to society.
In a presentation, Finance Director Lane Millar said the heart of the Policy is generative AI, which is used for tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini.
The policy's fundamental rules prohibit submitting confidential information to AI platforms, require double checking of AI generated content, and mandate transparency on when AI has been used for research or to create content.
A public comment period only had one taker, a caller who described AI as an industry, a field that is absolutely captured by a class of psychopaths with a dystopian future intended for all of us.
That opinion got some degree of backup from council members.
Councilmember Katie Moulton warned against using AI at all.
[00:02:30] Speaker E: I want to start by saying that because of the environmental, cultural and intellectual degradation caused by the use of AI, I don't think we should be using it at all. I don't think that the city should use it. I don't think that people should use it, at least not in its current form. But that boat has long since sailed.
Students who use AI lose the ability to think critically, and it stands to reason that employees who use AI lose the ability to lose practice on those skills that they have earned and that they were hired for. I think our use of AI should be extremely limited, basically to really controlled analysis. Our employees need to read and write their own emails. There is a strong potential for a brain drain.
[00:03:22] Speaker D: Council Member Leslie Castellano was less condemning, saying, AI can be a tool, but having policy on it is important.
Council Member Rene Contreras Deloj said her opinions are Quote, a little bit closer to Councilmember Moulton's and our public commenter, and she described AI as a consumptive industry that makes communication generic.
[00:03:46] Speaker F: I have a lot of concerns about AI. I think it is the latest toy, so to speak, but it's not. It's infrastructure for other things and it like other types of industries that kind of just hoover up resources and create environmental degradation in its path that is that is occurring. And I think and for my and I and I can tell too, because I have to read so many different things. I can tell when it's landing in front of me and I can see it in reports and I can see it in emails. I can spot it pretty fast, which means that I am still hearing the tone of that well enough for me to spot sometimes in documents that I'm looking at.
So it hasn't been changed enough to mute that machine voice. I can still detect it and I'm not the only one. And so I think it's a, a big problem.
[00:04:44] Speaker D: Sensing concern, Millar suggested control of AI is limited.
[00:04:49] Speaker G: Our ability to monitor what staff is doing sometimes, I mean, we're limited.
So as much as you as we restrict through this policy, it might look good on paper, but our ability to actually keep employees from using these tools could be difficult. And then in addition to that, a lot of the software programs we have already do have some pretty sophisticated AI tools. So I think it would be important to really define when a tool is okay versus not okay, because currently multiple programs that we have can go as far as they can read your emails and look at an attachment. And if that attachment is an invoice, it can actually pull out details from that invoice and get it ready for payment processing.
So the technology is pretty advanced and that's why it's hard to put into policy, because it's really like talking about 20 things at once sometimes.
[00:05:51] Speaker D: Millar suggested having a study session or creating a small working group on the policy.
With council member Mario Fernandez absent. The council voted to approve the policy for now, but to revisit it no later than than the second meeting in April.
In the meantime, an ad hoc committee made up of Moulton and Castellano will work with staff on amending the policy in line with the issues that had been discussed during his presentation. Millar said AI is very good at producing a lot of content very quickly and gave the example of a poem about eureka produced by ChatGPT literally in seconds.
The poem mentions the city's Victorian Queens, the Carson Mansion, Fog redwoods and the waterfront fishing industry and ends by saying the city stands in moss draped grace, a wild salt dusted timeless place in Eureka. For KMUD News, this is Daniel Mintz.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: An update on the ongoing murder investigation in Hoopa. According to a press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office, HCSO's Major Crimes Division obtained arrest warrants for two male juveniles from Hoopa yesterday at approximately 3:55pm the two juveniles, ages 13 and 15, were surrendered by a parent to deputies at HCSO Willow Creek Station on outstanding arrest warrants. Both juveniles were taken into custody without incident and transported to Juvenile hall where where they were booked on a charge of PC 186.22 a participation in a criminal street gang. The case is still under investigation and anyone with any information on the case is urged by HCSO to contact the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office Major crimes division at 707-445-7251 or their tip line at 707-268-2539.
Two days ago on March 17, a shelter in place order was set by the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office following a chemical spill that occurred in downtown Doris on Highway 97. A commercial vehicle was driving paraquat dichloride, a highly toxic herbicide, when a drum fell off the truck while making a turn. KMUN News spoke with Sage Milestone, the public information officer for the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office for more information on the incident.
[00:08:16] Speaker H: Around 8am on Tuesday morning, a commercial vehicle from the area was driving paraquat through downtown Doris on Highway 97 and it took a corner rather fast. A 120 gallon drum of paraguat fell off the back of the truck and then about half of that spilled across the roadway and roughly 60 gallons of the paraquat wound up on the road. Vehicles behind this truck then spread the paraquat down 97 basically through the entirety of town. And the concern with paraquat is that it can be lethal if inhaled or ingested. It has a lot of long term effects too. So it was, it was an emergency. We needed to shut down the area. There was about 600 people in the affected area of Doris and we put them under a shelter in place for the entire day that included a high school and an elementary school that were also shut down while the crew that had dumped the paraquat and then state assistance came in and helped clean up that downtown area. So that took until about 8pm So 12 hours basically from when the spill happened to contain it, clean it up and make sure it was safe for Highway 97 to reopen. And Highway 97 is a pretty large commercial corridor. So it was a pretty significant shutdown. We had CHP put up roadblocks and it completely shut down that area for quite a while.
[00:09:41] Speaker B: Paraquat dichloride is an herbicide commonly used for weed control and is highly toxic to humans. Roughly the whole town of Doris was shut down throughout the day during the shelter in place order. And the Siskiyou County Office of emergency services additionally sent out an advisory to wash their cars for community members that may have driven through the area.
[00:10:00] Speaker H: So the area we shut down during the shelter in place was roughly the entire town of Doris, at least on the southwest side of Doris. That was the main affected area that we were concerned about. It's a rather small town, and 97 is a common road everybody uses to get around town. So it was basically like shutting down main Street. And we had a light wind. We were worried about this stuff getting in the air and blowing over to people who were outside. And so that's why we instituted the shelter in place. And it affected about 600 people in the area who are residents, you know, not to mention the cars driving through. We also sent out an advisory to the vehicles driving through that if they drove through the paraquat before we shut down the road to go wash their cars, to decontaminate it. Because we learned that detergent soap can help neutralize it. And so we sent out precautions like that earlier in the day. And then the cleaning crews came in with a clay substance that they covered the paraquat with and then cleaned it up once it was considered neutralized.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: The shelter in place order was eventually lifted at approximately 9:30pm when the chemical was neutralized and the area was deemed safe. Paraquat dichloride can be fatal if inhaled or ingested. Symptoms of exposure include burning pain in the mouth and throat, nausea and vomiting, difficulty swallowing, skin irritation, blurred vision, shortness of breath, chest tightness, lung inflammation, and
[00:11:27] Speaker H: more, say, advice to anybody who finds themselves unfortunately in this situation. We encourage them to be upwind of the incident. Always try to get out of the wind direction so it doesn't blow on to you if you think you've been exposed, if you've touched it, if you have any sort of medical reaction like call 911 immediately, contact poison control. It's a very toxic substance. It's extremely dangerous. There are long term health consequences from being routinely exposed to it. And it's a. It's a poison to the body. So we encourage anyone who operates with paraquat or to who might be exposed to it some way to be extremely diligent about signs and symptoms they might have and to always seek medical attention if they even suspect they might have come into contact with it. We had a couple people who checked themselves into some of the regional medical facilities after the incident to get evaluated for potential exposure because, you know, it's such a toxic substance.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: Commercial salmon trawlers may be able to harvest salmon again for the first time in three years, pending a decision set to be made by the Pacific Fishery Management Council pfmc In early April, the PFMC recommended closing California's commercial salmon fishery back in 2023 due to drop offs in the salmon stock, and the national oceanic and Atmospheric Administration heeded their advice.
Over the past three years, there has been progress steadily being made in salmon recovery, though regulators repeatedly have determined that the species needed more time to recover. Cayman News spoke with Angela Forrestal, salmon staff officer for the pfmc, for more information about what they do.
[00:13:04] Speaker I: So the council does, you know, beyond salmon, they kind of look at management for ground fish fisheries, those kind of the fish that rockfish and other fish that kind of stay more close to the bottom. There's highly migratory species, so tunas and sharks, and there's also coastal pelagic species. So you think of the like little small fish that you get in cans, sardines and anchovies. So they also set fishing levels for all of those fisheries and the ocean waters off Washington, Oregon and California. And then a lot of it is just as kind of new issues come to light or the industry comes to the council with the problem. The council will take on special projects and figure out ways to address those and work with National Marine Fishery Service to either implement new regulations, remove regulations that are no longer needed, or make modifications to kind of the rules for ocean fisheries management to make sure that we're protecting the fish species that need to be protected, but also maximizing all of the fishing opportunities that are available.
[00:14:05] Speaker B: Due to increased forecasts set for this year, particularly in the Klamath and Sacramento river fall chinook, the PFMC is considering a limited reopening.
[00:14:14] Speaker I: So it's been three years that the commercial fisheries enclosed. Last year, California had some very limited ocean recreational fishering opportunities. But this year there's been some encouraging signs in forecasted returns, particularly for two stocks that have been pretty constraining in the past, one of them being Klamath river fall chinook, and then also Sacramento River Fall Chinook. So we're seeing increased forecast for both of those large stocks that return to large river systems and that's allowed for some increased opportunities both on the recreational and the commercial side this year.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: The announcement was released earlier this month on March 9th. And PFMC additionally released the options it's considering for how To Manage Limited 2026 West Coast Commercial Salm seasons. The first option consists of intermittent openers in Monterey running May through August, open periods in San Francisco in September, and openers in Fort Bragg in August as well. The second option allows commercial fishing in San Francisco and Monterey in May, June and August and September openers just north of San Francisco.
Lastly, the third and most limited option would open fishing in the California Klamath Management Zone May through August. But the fishery would close anytime a monthly quota is exceeded.
[00:15:34] Speaker I: Yeah, so the council still has three options under consideration.
There definitely would be limited. There are some other salmon of concern. So there's some salmon that are listed under the Endangered Species act and there are also some winter run fish that return to the Sacramento. So the options that the council has crafted so far for the public to weigh in on are really trying to target those salmons that are doing well while also making sure that folks aren't on the water and fishing on top of those salmon fish that we're needing to be more conservative around.
[00:16:11] Speaker B: One of the factors contributing to the larger forecast for salmon was the undamming of the Klamath river, which had its final dam removed back in August of 2024. Since then, salmon populations have been able to steadily make a comeback.
[00:16:24] Speaker I: Yeah, we're definitely in the early stages of being able to really fully understand, you know, what those long term benefits are going to be. The environment. Still definite stabilizing fish are kind of trying to figure out their way back to their major rivers and the smaller tributaries to spawn in. But reports from the Klamath Basin are just essentially that the fish are everywhere. You know, they're in river, they're going off river there. But yes, the returns have been very encouraging and definitely in line with what was expected and the hopes that dam removal would have. And it seems like it's really kind of starting to. The benefits are starting to show.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Forecasts are made by the PFMC by collecting data from ocean fisheries and river returns from different states and applying that information to different models. Forrestal elaborates further on how these forecasts are made.
[00:17:14] Speaker I: In the beginning of the year in January, all of the various states come together and they bring together all of the data from the ocean fisheries that happened last year and the in river returns. And there's a bunch of different models that are used. So there's some forecast models specific to the Klamath and some specific to the Sacramento that pull this information in and then kind of using methods that have been reviewed by the Council Scientific committee, plug those into our models, update them from the next year and those kind of forecast out what we expect, kind of based on what we've seen in the most recent years. And then, you know, at the end of the following year, we kind of go back and see, okay, well that's what we expected to happen. And did that pan out just to kind of make sure that, you know, our estimates are, you know, just checking the work essentially to see if the forecast models that we're still using are representative of what we expect to see in the future.
[00:18:13] Speaker B: The PFMC is expected to make a final decision on the California commercial salmon fishing season during their meeting from April 8th to the 12th in Portland, Oregon. A recommendation will be issued no later than May 16th of this year. There will additionally be a public hearing hosted in Santa Rosa next week on Monday the 23rd.
[00:18:31] Speaker I: Yeah, they can contact us directly. We will be hosting a public hearing in Santa Rosa, California next Monday night.
The information for that is on our website. It's at 7pm at the hotel in Santa Rosa on Monday the 23rd. So that's one option. And then another option is our April council meeting. Folks can either submit written public comment online or they can sign up to give oral public comment either in person. The meeting will be in Portland, Oregon, or they can give verbal public comment remotely at that meeting as well. And that meeting will be spanning from April 8th through the 12th. So folks have a number of opportunities every one of those days for more
[00:19:15] Speaker B: information about the potential reopening of the California commercial salmon fishing season. The website is pcouncil.org in national news, national intelligence Director Gabbard grilled by Dems over advice to Trump before Iran strikes.
KPFA's Christopher Martinez reports.
[00:19:34] Speaker J: Back in 2019, Tulsi Gabbard was a Democrat selling T shirts with the message no war with Iran.
Now serving as President Donald Trump's Director of National Intelligence, she's defending Trump's war. She testified at a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee, giving the opinions of the Intelligence community, or ic.
[00:19:54] Speaker K: The IC assesses the regime in Iran appears to be intact but largely degraded due to attacks on its leadership and military capabilities.
Its conventional military power projection capabilities have largely been destroyed, leaving limited options.
Iran's strategic position has been significantly degraded.
[00:20:14] Speaker J: Gabbard was joined at the hearing by the directors of the CIA and the FBI. Independent Senator Angus King of Vermont questioned CIA Director John Ratcliffe about what King called an apparent discrepancy between what the intelligence community reports and what Trump has said about the war.
[00:20:31] Speaker L: Senator Wyden read the report from a year ago that strikes against neighboring states and action to close the Strait of Hormuz was predicted by the intelligence community.
And yet the President says nobody knew. And my question is, did you tell him?
Anybody want to answer that question?
[00:20:54] Speaker A: Senator? I'll answer the question.
So, with regard to briefings, the President gets briefings constantly about intelligence. Now, the comments that you talked about, I had not heard.
[00:21:07] Speaker J: FBI Director Keshe Patel also testified at the hearing, but most of the questioning focused on Ratcliffe and especially Gabbard. Democrats wanted to know what intelligence officials told Trump about the aftermath of attacking Iran. Democrat Mark Warner is the committee's vice chair.
[00:21:23] Speaker M: Did you brief the president, if he starts a war of choice, that the likely result would be that Iran would strike adjacent Gulf nations and close the Strait of Hormuz. Did you brief him on those two facts that I think have been consistently the assumptions of the intelligence community?
[00:21:46] Speaker K: I have not and won't divulge internal conversations. I will say that those of us within the intelligence community continue to provide the President with all of the best objective intelligence available to inform his decisions.
[00:21:58] Speaker J: Democrat Jon Ossoff of Georgia questioned Gabbard about the justifications for going to war, in particular, whether Iran posed a nuclear threat to the U.S. was it the
[00:22:08] Speaker N: assessment of the intelligence community that there was a imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime? Yes or no, Senator?
[00:22:15] Speaker K: The only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the President.
[00:22:20] Speaker H: False.
[00:22:20] Speaker N: This is the worldwide. This is the Worldwide Threats hearing, where you present to Congress national intelligence. Timely, objective, and independent of political considerations.
[00:22:29] Speaker J: After repeated attempts to get an answer about the IC's assessment, Ossoff told Gabbard, you won't answer the question.
[00:22:36] Speaker N: You're here to be timely, objective, and independent of political considerations.
[00:22:41] Speaker K: Exactly what I'm doing.
[00:22:42] Speaker N: No, you're evading a question because to provide a candid response to the committee would contradict a statement from the White House.
[00:22:51] Speaker J: The grilling comes at a fraught time for Gabbard, coming after the sudden resignation of Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism center, who said in his resignation letter he cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war In Iran, conservative commentator Laura Loomer wrote on social media. I predict that Tulsi Gabbard will resign next. Over at the White House, a reporter asked White House spokesperson Carolyn Levitt whether Gabbard's job is in jeopardy. Leavitt's answer was less than a vote of confidence.
[00:23:22] Speaker O: Not to my knowledge. I haven't heard the president say that, nor have I heard him say that. So obviously that's a question for him, but I haven't heard him say that at all.
[00:23:31] Speaker J: Reporting for Pacifica Radio News kpfa, I'm Christopher Martinez.
[00:23:37] Speaker B: In National Native News, Antonia Gonzalez reads today's headlines.
[00:23:41] Speaker P: This is National Native News. I'm Antonia Gonzalez. U.S. senator and citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Mark Wayne Mullen's nomination to become the next Homeland Security Secretary hit a rough patch Wednesday as correspondent Matt Laszlo reports from Washington.
[00:23:56] Speaker Q: Homeland Security Secretary Krissi Noem lost the faith of President Donald Trump, but the picture replacer Oklahoma Senator Mullen lost the faith of Senate Homeland Security Committee Chair Rand Paul for mocking him for being attacked by his neighbor. Nine years ago.
[00:24:12] Speaker R: You told the media that I was a freaking snake and that you completely understood why I had been assaulted.
I was shocked that you would justify and celebrate this violent assault that caused me so much pain in my family, family, so much pain.
I, I just wonder if someone who applauds violence against their political opponents is the right person to lead an agency that has struggled to accept limits to the proper use of force.
[00:24:38] Speaker Q: Mullen's a former MMA fighter and wasn't backing down.
[00:24:41] Speaker S: I have to address the remarks the chairman made calling me a liar. Sir, I think there's. Everybody in this room knows that I'm very blunt and direct to the point. And if I have something to say, I'll say it directly to your face.
[00:24:53] Speaker Q: While the heated exchange made national headlines, most Republican US Senators shrugged it off.
[00:25:00] Speaker D: There's no, no ambiguity on that.
[00:25:02] Speaker H: I'm not, I'm not going to involve in that.
[00:25:05] Speaker T: Reminding what my mom would say is, you don't have something good to say about somebody, don't say it. And those rules we learn in kindergarten still apply up here as well.
[00:25:13] Speaker Q: Those Republican U.S. senators are Roger Marshall of Kansas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Ted Cruz of Texas.
Even Mullen's home state colleague, Oklahoma Republican Congressman Frank Lucas, was taken aback by the barbs.
[00:25:28] Speaker A: I never impugned the opinions of my colleagues, so maybe there was a little bit of truth in what they both had to say.
[00:25:34] Speaker Q: For national and Native News, I'm Matt Laszlo in Washington.
[00:25:38] Speaker P: California Native American Assembly Member James Ramos is urging for the establishment of California Native American Day as an official paid state holiday.
A bill introduced by Ramos would designate the fourth Friday of September as a paid holiday for state employees. Ramos, along with tribal leaders, legislators and labor leaders, held a press conference Wednesday in Sacramento. Ramos says the state should honor California's first people with the paid holiday.
[00:26:05] Speaker U: It's true and just that this has to happen.
It's time that the voices, the voices continue to move forward and to make sure that we're calling out for respect and honor for California's first people and tribal elders, ramos says.
[00:26:22] Speaker P: They have many worthy holidays, but the bill creates justice for past atrocities toward California Indian people who've lived through colonization, including the mission and gold rush eras. Several tribes are working to bring back bison to their lands, as the Mountain West News Barrel's Rachel Cohen reports.
One source helping them is in Denver, where the local government manages a herd.
[00:26:44] Speaker V: Snow was falling fast and hard at a mountain park west of the city earlier this month when 34 bison were gifted to four tribes or nonprofits. Denver has managed two small herds since the early 1900s and started giving some animals to tribes six years ago. Lewis Talbol is with the Talbol Memorial Council, which has members from various tribes. This year, the organization is taking one bison back to a property it manages near death.
[00:27:11] Speaker W: Denver the bison represent so much. They represent the water and the fire and the thunder and the clouds and the snow. They represent all that, but at the same time they represent us as indigenous people.
[00:27:23] Speaker V: Tribal leaders said the animals would add genetic diversity to the growing herds and help feed tribal members with a historic food source. The Navajo Nation got 11 bison in the transfer, and Northern Cheyenne In Montana received 10. I'm Rachel Cohen.
[00:27:38] Speaker P: And I'm Antonia Gonzalez.
[00:27:51] Speaker X: National Native News is produced by Kahwanic Broadcast Corporation with funding by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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[00:28:17] Speaker Y: Hear that Tribal College faculty do so much. One can't say it all here. Nothing but respect.
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[00:28:36] Speaker X: Native voice one, the native american radio network.
[00:28:44] Speaker B: That's all for tonight's broadcast. Thanks for listening. Thanks to our engineer, Dennis Marr, and thanks to our reporters Daniel Mintz, Christopher Martinez and Antonio Gonzalez. KMA News is online and you can find us on cayman.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 questions or suggestions, you can give us a call at 707-923-2605 or send an email to newsmud.org Redwood Community Radio, Inc. Is funded by Press Forward, the national movement to strengthen communities by reinvigorating local news. Learn more at PressForward News. Reporting for KMUD, I'm Nat Carden.
