[00:00:07] Speaker A: Good evening, and welcome to the local news.
Today is Tuesday, October 21st.
My name is Sigurd Bjorn, reporting for KMUT.
In tonight's news, we'll have a report shortly on a meeting on Southern Humboldt's wildfire preparedness. But we're starting with an update on the Attorney general's case against St. Joseph's Health in Eureka, because the AG recently filed a preliminary injunction in the case. As a refresher, this is a case springing from St. Joseph's denying Anna Nuzlock an emergency abortion in February last year when she started hemorrhaging in the 15th week of her pregnancy and sent her away with a bucket and a towel to receive emergency care elsewhere.
Another case similar in nature has since been filed by the California AG against the hospital involving a Jane Rowe. But for a while now, these two cases have sort of taken a backseat to a more recent development where St. Joseph claims the hospital should be exempt from carrying out emergency abortions owing to freedom of religion. Local reporter Ryan Hudson has been reporting on this case for kmat, and we have her on the line.
So, Ryan, before we get into the latest developments, remind us what happened the last time the two sides met in front of Judge Timothy Cunning in Eureka.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: So at the end of August, the California Attorney General's office was responding to a motion filed by St. Joseph Providence Health, which wanted to modify the existing stipulation and agreement, which essentially mandated that the hospital continue to comply with the California emergency services law.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: And that law says a hospital must provide emergency services to anyone experiencing a medical emergency. How did the judge rule on that order?
[00:02:05] Speaker B: That order was upheld. After that. That hearing, when the dust settled, the judge had basically said to the Attorney General's office, circle back to that motion for a preliminary injunction, get that filed, and sort of start the ball rolling all over again in terms of litigating for the first time, actually.
Where indeed St. Joe's has overstepped in terms of religious doctrine trumping California law. Or alternatively, if the Attorney General's office is incorrect in asserting that St. Joseph has neglected its duty to provide emergency services to pregnant women, particularly here in Humboldt County.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: And now that preliminary injunction has been filed by the AG and what does it say?
[00:02:58] Speaker B: They're doubling down on that request to hold the hospital accountable to California's existing emergency services law. That is still part of the request. But this time, there's another element involved in their request with this preliminary injunction specific to new language offered by St. Joe's at that previous hearing, St. Joe's had supplied pieces of information for the court to consider, one of which was a letter submitted from Reverend Robert F. Vasa, Bishop of Santa Rosa. The Bishop of Santa Rosa stated unequivocally in this letter regarding this particular case that the the hospital is only permitted to perform abortions where doing so is, quote, the only alternative to certain death of both the mother and the child, unquote. In this latest motion for a preliminary injunction, that specific language is being referenced by the Attorney General's office and is noted to be outside of the scope of the Emergency Services law. So the Attorney General's office is asking the the court to weigh in on whether or not this is an appropriate standard of care in regard to specifically emergency pregnancy care and abortion care when that is deemed necessary by a doctor.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Before we go into the hospital's take on all this, it's important to remind our listeners that that the Emergency Services law says that a medical establishment must treat an individual if their health is in serious jeopardy, in danger of suffering serious impairment to bodily functions or dysfunction of any body organ or part.
Now, this is, of course, far less restrictive than the Bishop's letter which states that the emergency abortion can only be permitted if the patient and child are both facing certain death.
So, Ryan, what we have here is essentially a church versus state debate, which one has greater authority. And St. Joseph's is saying that the dictates of the church overrule the dictates of the state.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: That's part of their claim as far as freedom of religion.
That's part of their defense against this request, that they comply with the emergency Services law. Part of their logic is that they lean on the the directives of the Catholic Church and specifically the ethical directives generated and approved by Robert Vasa, Bishop of Santa Rosa, in response to things that were said and filed at the August hearing.
Now, the Attorney General is also clarifying their stance that that the hospital cannot be and legally should not be operating under religious doctrine as as a priority in this motion for a preliminary injunction. In that section, the Attorney General writes that, and I'm quoting from the document here, St. Joseph Hospital's policy has the hospital second guess the professional judgment of treating physicians in an emergency situation, no less, and actually prohibits doctors from implementing the standard of care in many cases.
And then further explains that church autonomy does not apply here.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: You were in court in August, the last time the two sides squared off about this. Did you get any sense of what Judge Canning thought of the hospital's argument?
[00:06:59] Speaker B: It appeared to me that the judge is taking that argument seriously, of course, in regard to freedom of religion.
But but I think that he had questions. And so hopefully at this next hearing, which takes place on December 10, I think that he'll be wanting to to pin down some answers from St. Joseph Hospital in regard to that argument. I think that the judge will want some further information regarding what the Attorney General may be able to glean from further discovery. Because at the August hearing there was some discussion at the end of that hearing regarding a delay in production of discovery materials from the hospital to the Attorney General's office. And the judge seemed to be not that concerned with that delay, but sort of directed the parties to kind of get on with it and just get the ball rolling in terms of providing that additional information.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: Thank you, Ryan, for your update on this case and we will of course bring our listeners an update on what happens in Court on December 10th.
[00:08:09] Speaker B: No, thank you so much and I do hope to be there on the 10th and give you a report.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: That was Ryan Hudson, who runs the independent local news channel Humboldt Freelance Reporting.
Southern Humboldt Fire Safe Council recently hosted a meeting on wildfire preparedness.
Julian Jackson reports.
[00:08:28] Speaker C: Last Wednesday, on October 15, from approximately 7:00pm to 8:00pm, members and general local residents met over zoom to attend a presentation by Jana Valachovic hosted by the Southern Humboldt Fire Safe Council, Garberville Firewise and Benbow Firewise, the UC Forest Advisor and member of anr Community Resilience as well as Built Environment presented on local wildfire preparedness through comparison to recent large wildfires in the rest of the state. For an overview, here are some excerpts from the recording of Vala Chovik's presentation, available on the Southern Humboldt Fire Safe Council website.
[00:09:13] Speaker D: So what I've got tonight is a program of some of my research efforts where I was able to spend a couple different trips in Southern California in response to the January firestorms that hit both Altadena and Palisades. While those are urban settings, I think it really illustrates some pretty key principles. So as I mentioned earlier, I'm stationed out of Eureka, but I have a couple of different assignments that give me some statewide impact. I'm with the New Fire Network and my expertise is really in the community resiliency and built environment space. I'm also now an associate director of a new policy institute that we've developed. I'm the associate director of the Natural resources side of that policy institute and then I'm also affiliated with an organization that we call the California Fire Science Consortium.
So I think most of us try and think about these kind of urban, suburban settings and think like, well, how could wildfire connect into these places? Here I want to illustrate this kind of stochastic pattern where you see surviving and damaged homes right next to each other. And it's like, how can it be that one makes it and one does not? And what were some of the factors that were connected to that? You know, what I want to share here is not really statistical data. There's a lot of uncertainty in it. But it's reflective of kind of that rapid assessment approach, what you can learn in a quick way.
We're going to talk about how flames move to structures. We call that direct flame contact.
And the idea that there is connectivity between the wildland and our structures generally. And, you know, that connectivity enables flame to basically move through this, you know, chain of connection directly to the structure, unless we do some type of mitigation and try and interrupt those pathways for fire.
That's mitigation is typically called defensible space, which is a way to basically interrupt that pathway through fuel management. We're also going to talk about embers, which are the movement of bits of burning debris, either from the wildland or the built environment, that transfer in the air column and can land on, in or adjacent to structures. And when they land on, like in our gutters and they're filled with leaves, you can create basically flames touching the structure, which are hard for the structure to resist.
But those embers can also come into a cat door, an open window, a door that didn't close, a vent that has a screening that's too large and basically allows embers to enter. So this ember component, you know, takes both some careful attention to the design of the building and then ways to try and harden that structure in general to resist those embers. And then I'm also going to talk about radiant heat, because when you have heat adjacent to a structure, that heat can can cause a lot of damage to the structure, either through breaking annealed glass windows, or I'm going to show you some examples, vinyl windows, and how the glazing deformed and created an opportunity basically for the window pane to fall out, which made a pathway into the structure. So there's some home hardening things that we are going to talk about related to radiant heat.
[00:12:34] Speaker C: The rest of Yana Valachovic's presentation included going in depth with direct examples of retroactive analysis, home hardening and fuel prevention from her work in the aftermath of the January LA fires, laying out more specific fire prevention tips and giving explanations of the effects of fire damage as well as prevention on the local economy.
More specifically insurance. The full recording of this presentation and more information on the hosting organizations can be
[email protected] that's s o hum. Fire safe.
I've been Julian Jackson reporting for KMUD News.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: Here in California, non profit arts education groups are providing programming for schools that struggle to find and hire credentialed teachers. Suzanne Potter reports.
[00:13:36] Speaker E: The ongoing teacher shortage means schools are having a hard time hiring arts teachers even though funds are flowing in thanks to Proposition 28. Now nonprofits are stepping in to fill the gap. Schools can use up to 20% of Prop 28 funds for supplemental arts programming via community organizations. Elda Pineda is deputy director of the nonprofit PS Arts, which serves more than 33,000 students at 102 schools in southern and Central California.
[00:14:05] Speaker F: Not having the amount of credentialed teachers needed to take these jobs is an obstacle, but there are ways to think outside of the box in order to get teachers into the school so kids can get arts programming right away.
[00:14:18] Speaker E: Schools can also apply for a waiver if they can't find a credentialed art teacher. Community arts nonprofits like PS Arts train working artists to partner with schools for in class instruction during the school day or in after school programs. PS Arts uses grants to subsidize the cost in high need districts. Gilda Davidian, also with PS Arts, says in person, arts education is the antidote to social isolation in an era when kids lives are dominated by screen.
[00:14:47] Speaker F: It's not just training in drawing, it's not just training in theater. This is about being able to learn through all kinds of aspects of being a student in school and connecting and being creative within a classroom environment.
[00:15:02] Speaker E: Prop 28 sets aside roughly $1 billion per year to help schools hire more staff in dance, media arts, music, theater and visual arts. For California News Service, I'm Suzanne Potter.
[00:15:16] Speaker A: Artificial intelligence data centers are getting pushback in multiple communities across the US over energy and water consumption. Despite this, a massive facility called Project Jupiter is set to move forward in New Mexico. Ross Brown reports.
[00:15:33] Speaker E: A developer is slated to build a massive AI data center in New Mexico, Estonia, Ana county after only a few weeks notice to local residents and opponents say it's created distrust about the process. Developers behind the $165 billion project Jupiter have pledged to create 2,500 construction jobs and 750 full time positions. That may be good news for the economy, but critics worry the project could strain the region's water and power resources and cause significant pollution. Joe Cardillo is with the advocacy group Progress Now.
[00:16:08] Speaker C: New Mexico Private companies are not coming.
[00:16:10] Speaker B: Into local communities because they want to do good. They're coming to make money, and three weeks is certainly not enough time for the community to have a real transparent conversation about the costs and benefits.
[00:16:20] Speaker E: The Dania Ana county commissioners approved the project last month despite concerned and sometimes angry testimony from more than 100 local residents during a seven hour meeting days before the vote, New Mexico lawmakers had approved a grid modernization bill which expedited the project. Cardillo says the lack of transparency has led many to conclude it was a done deal before the public hearing was ever held. Only one of the five county commissioners voted against the project, arguing it came together too quickly for elected officials and residents to fully understand its implications and environmental impacts. Progress Now New Mexico's energy policy director, Lucas Herndon says as part of the deal, developers have promised to build a desalination plant, an electricity generation plant and more. Still, he says, residents concerns were not addressed.
[00:17:12] Speaker C: Even if 100% of everything that the company is claiming is true, even if they are true do not change the.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: Way that the community feels they were treated by the county.
[00:17:23] Speaker G: So I think that's a big part of the story.
[00:17:25] Speaker E: The plant would be located near Santa Teresa and Sunland park, places that have lived with low quality drinking water for decades. In addition, Cardillo says AI data centers are known to contribute to air pollution that disproportionately affects low income communities.
[00:17:40] Speaker B: I think watching and guarding against people being put into situations where they're exposed to high levels of pollution is a pretty serious issue. You go look at examples of AI data centers in other places and the level of pollution that workers could be exposed to I think is considerable.
[00:17:55] Speaker E: I'm Roz Brown, New Mexico News Connection.
[00:17:58] Speaker A: It's hi hi American Pie, as an IO author and filmmaker who has made a movie about pies, says they can not only be eaten, but used to build a community as well. Mike Moran reports.
[00:18:12] Speaker G: At 63 years of age, Iowa author and filmmaker Beth Howard is starting from scratch. As part of her effort to take her favorite dessert to the big screen, Howard has made a documentary about pie and its role in bringing Iowa communities together. Beth Howard started making and sharing pie when her husband died 16 years ago and realized that pie can be more than a dessert. She says baking is deeply woven into the Iowa culture.
[00:18:38] Speaker F: I found that making pie and sharing it helped heal my grief and so I've been spreading that message ever since. Pie heals, you know, makes people happy and something that builds community. It's meant to be shared.
[00:18:49] Speaker G: Howard filmed a documentary called Pioa at the state fair and other prominent events, its screening in select theaters around the state. Howard, also the author of nine books about pie, thought about making the film years ago but resisted. She felt a film crew might be seen as intrusive, but then realized she had more to share than just her.
[00:19:10] Speaker F: Love of dessert, using it as a way to teach teen girls business skills. Community service class at a high school made pies to give away at Thanksgiving. That's just an Iowa that's the tip of the iceberg.
[00:19:21] Speaker G: The documentary is reaching people beyond Iowa, too. Pawa won best Food Film at the San Antonio Film Festival and best Audience at the Silicon Beach Film Festival in Los Angeles last month.
This story was produced with original reporting from Brianne Sanchez at Arts Midwest.
I'm Mark Moran for Iowa News Service.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: Have you ever thought about the effects of a sedentary lifestyle on you?
Sure you have. But have you ever thought about the effects of the sedentary lifestyle on fruit flies?
Of course not. But someone has, and Crystal Blair has filed a report on it.
[00:19:59] Speaker H: A new experiment from Wayne State University School of Medicine has revealed that being sedentary for long periods can lead to weaker muscles, slower movement and even shorter lifespans. And that's not just in people, but also in fruit flies. Statistics show the average American spends more than nine hours a day sitting. Lead researcher Allison Sukalski is an assistant professor of pharmacology at Wayne State. She says fruit flies share genetic similarities with humans, so her team ethically placed them in small spaces that limited their movement.
[00:20:32] Speaker F: So we were kind of actually trying to model maybe sort of like bed rest, you know, maybe able to move about the room a little bit, but not get any kind of particular exercise. And then we looked at their muscles and we looked at how well they moved and how long they lived.
[00:20:48] Speaker H: She points out you don't need to run marathons to stay healthy. Just standing up, stretching or taking a short walk every hour can help keep your muscles strong, your heart healthier and your body moving the way it's meant to. Zukalski says the study also uses fruit flies as a model to understand the health of future generations.
She explains that although the tiny bugs have a genetic similarity to humans, they only live about 100 days.
[00:21:13] Speaker F: We can really do three or four generations of study and look at what these inherited changes are in a year. Whereas if I wanted to do the same type of study in humans, you would actually need several generations of researchers to follow the parents.
[00:21:27] Speaker H: She adds that her team is now exploring how exercise might help people who are aging or have limited mobility stay healthier, stronger and more independent as they get older, and how those benefits could extend their overall quality of life. For the Michigan News Connection, I'm Crystal Blair.
[00:21:46] Speaker A: And finally, here is Antonia Gonzalez with quick fire stories from the Native News Network.
[00:21:52] Speaker I: With fire season winding down across many parts of the US it's not unusual to find people doing deliberate burns to eliminate slash or improve habitat. Outside Eugene, Oregon, recently, a group of Native youth and state and tribal agencies conducted a cultural burn. Brian Bull of Buffalo's Fire reports.
[00:22:17] Speaker C: Five.
[00:22:18] Speaker G: Interns of the Longtown Watershed Council's Traditional Ecological Inquiry Program and a few dozen staff members, fire bosses, and agency employees gathered at the Cholomalee Reserve. The oak savannah here provided three acres for the interns to apply their knowledge of fire as a tool.
[00:22:35] Speaker E: I have learned that a small spark can start a whole field of flames.
[00:22:41] Speaker G: Kaneem Kushman, Whiteuys is with a Chinook Indian Nation and a middle schooler. He's setting fire to a meadow with a flaming pitch stick while water trucks and crews of shovels stand by to help keep it within the designated area.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: The best thing about using fire is.
[00:22:57] Speaker E: That you can learn so much about it in like a little amount of time and it can be very healthy.
[00:23:05] Speaker G: For the land nearby. Teip's program manager Rachel Cushman, helps her other son Isaac, set a few fires and keep aware of his surroundings. Fire can reduce acorn weevils or help coniferous trees reseed the area.
Cushman says. This part of the Willamette Valley has always been a fire formed landscape.
[00:23:25] Speaker H: It's been unhealthy because fire's been missing. And so we're awakening the land.
[00:23:30] Speaker F: We're building that relationship back up and.
[00:23:33] Speaker H: Healing it through this practice of cultural fire.
[00:23:36] Speaker G: A few yards away, teip's curriculum director, Joe Scott, helps a few interns extend the fire closer to a Camas meadow. Scott is a Celeste tribal member who did a training exchange with the Yurok tribe. Now he's applying all of his accumulated experience to teach the TEIP interns about good fire.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: Youth have come up seeing fire as.
[00:23:57] Speaker G: The enemy, as a destructive force, and this is a perfect example of fire.
[00:24:02] Speaker C: Being a constructive force.
[00:24:04] Speaker G: Scott says with the fall rains, ash and nutrients will replenish the soil and help the Camas prosperity. For National Native News, I'm Brian bull.
[00:24:13] Speaker I: Near Eugene, 10 women will be inducted into the Alaska Women's hall of Fame Tuesday, including Joclin Estes, a pioneering Alaska Native journalist. Estes most recently was a national correspondent for Indian Country Today and also worked as news director at kmba. Estes is Tlingit with ties to Rangel, but she's not the only Alaska Native to be honored.
[00:24:36] Speaker H: Another Alaska Native is my great grandmother, Tillie Paul Tamri. She was a civil rights leader in the early 20th cent century, Estes says.
[00:24:44] Speaker I: It's an honor to be inducted along with her great grandmother. Two other Alaska Natives are being inducted into the hall of Fame. Catherine Gottlieb, a Supiak leader in Native healthcare who served 30 years as president of South Central Foundation. The late Ada Blackjack Johnson is also being recognized. Johnson was a new and the sole survivor of a doomed Arctic expedition in the 1920s.
Tribes across the country are recognizing Domestic Violence Awareness Month and sharing resources, including the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma. The Chickasaw Nation Department of Family Services says it offers support including domestic violence prevention and intervention, with a focus on tribal cultural values. The Chickasaw Nation also operates a shelter. A candlelight vigil is planned Thursday for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Chickasaw Nation Director of Violence Prevention Janie Locke says one of the most important things they want to communicate is that victims are not alone and services are available.
I'm Antonia Gonzalez.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: That's it for today's news. Thanks to our engineer Katie Phillips, and to reporters Ryan Hudson, Julian Jackson, Suzanne Potter, Ross Brown, Marc Moran, Crystal Blair, Antonia Gonzalez and Brian Bull. My name is Sigurd Bjorn and I've thank you for listening. Kmart News is online.
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