[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: Good evening and welcome to the local news. Today is Tuesday, June 3rd. I'm Jordan Pangelinan reporting for KMUD. In tonight's news, Eureka Police Department makes it easier for community members to file specific police reports by using online technology.
North Edge Financial empowers local entrepreneurs with business loans to jumpstart new ventures and healthcare and Humboldt unpacking the community impact of access and quality challenges. Stay tuned. News on those stories and more coming right up.
Yesterday, the Eureka Police Department launched technology that encourages community members to file online police reports. This is an effort to help the police department work better to allocate resources and personnel while while working with the community. This online service will increase efficiencies within the department and enhance the service to the community members. Laura Montana, the public Information Officer for epd, said this in a statement.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: This service provides a fast and efficient way for community members to report a variety of lower priority incidents such as non injury traffic collisions, abandoned vehicles, identity theft, vandalism, graffiti, et cetera. The there are 17 incident types to choose from.
Rather than visit the department in person or have an officer dispatched to you, community members can now report minor incidents online.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: KMUD reached out for comment. Although EPD declined to make a comment, they sent this statement via email.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: Online community reporting allows officers to stay focused on the immediate needs of the community, said Police Chief Brian Stevens.
The ability for community members to submit police reports online enables law enforcement agencies with limited resources to concentrate on critical public safety priorities such as crime prevention and investigation.
This system also provides the convenience of allowing residents to file reports at any time, which can reduce wait times and improve overall service levels. Chief Stevens emphasized. If you would prefer to have a police officer or community service officer respond in person to take your report, we are absolutely committed to providing that option.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: You can access information via the City Eureka website mygovernment Police Department.
You can also access a step by step instruction on how to complete a report along with the types of reports that can be submitted. This can be submitted at HTTPs for North Edge Financial is a business loan and community development organization serving Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Trinity and Siskiyou Counties. Last week we spoke to Susan Seaman at North Edge about Redwood Region Rise, a Northern California job creation program that recently handed out $9 million in grants benefiting several local companies and initiatives.
In the second part of the interview, Seaman talks about how local entrepreneurs can use North Edge's business loans to get their ideas off the ground.
Sicker Bjorn reports.
[00:04:06] Speaker C: New businesses and startups are inherently risky and traditional lenders Shy away from backing them. But new businesses are essential for economic growth. Innovative ideas are necessary for a local economy to not only survive, but thrive.
Which is where North Edge Financial, a Humboldt based non profit business lender serving the north coast comes in.
If you are an entrepreneur with a business idea, Northedge has both advice and options when it comes to starting a new business.
Here is Susan Seaman, program director at Northedge.
[00:04:43] Speaker D: We're a non profit organization, we are an economic development corporation and our mission really is to get money into the community so that we can improve the community. And so we fund businesses that may not get funded otherwise.
Things like startups that don't have a track record so a bank is hesitant or can't loan to them.
Expansions where you have to, you know, sort of project what you're, you're going to be able to make. Those are also not beloved by traditional lenders because our goal is to stimulate the economy. We want new businesses and we want businesses to grow and so we take on those slightly riskier loans and so we can make that happen.
One of the things that we do too with at North Edge is we do small business loans.
Those are not really, it takes as long to do a $20,000 loan as it does to take a $200,000 loan.
So a lot of times traditional lenders just, there's not enough money for the effort to do it because loans are, are long and difficult. But we can do them for any size, pretty much any size at all.
[00:06:03] Speaker C: However, if you have an idea for a new business, Northedge is not your first stop.
The north coast sbdc, it stands for Small business development center, offers multiple no cost tools for local business owners on how to start, build and grow their business.
Among them are workshops and learning programs covering everything from marketing to management and financing.
[00:06:30] Speaker D: And they provide all kinds of business technical assistance to help build a business plan.
So by the time you come to us, you should have everything pretty much ready.
[00:06:41] Speaker C: Once their preparation is done, the actual application process starts, which requires time and patience.
[00:06:49] Speaker D: I encourage anybody though at any stage to look at our website, which is northedgefinancing.org and on that we have an FAQ and it talks about the whole loan process, all the steps along the way, what to expect.
I think it's one of the most thorough ones I've ever seen. And so if you're just like, what is it like to get a business loan? How long does it take? What, what, you know, what do they need from me? You can get all of that information up front.
[00:07:19] Speaker C: Siemens stresses though that if you have a business idea and are ready to apply for a loan, you should try the banks first.
[00:07:28] Speaker D: Some businesses are ready for a bank, which is really the goal is to try to get to a traditional lender, the terms are a little bit better and then we are the next route. If you just don't, don't follow that again.
[00:07:42] Speaker C: One of the inevitable challenges in business, in life really, is to deal with rejection, which can be hard to take if you have a project you really believe in and are convinced of its merits.
[00:07:54] Speaker D: If your lender doesn't give you a loan, it, it hurts.
There's that whole it's business, it's not personal.
But when somebody's coming to you with their basically their dreams, their like this, these are my dreams. And then you're like, nah, that's not going to work. That is very, very personal.
But I always like to tell people we love to give loans. That's how we make our money. So if we say no, it is not because we're necessarily trying to be hard on you. It's because we have lots of experience seeing what works and doesn't work. Have conversations with your lender and say, where is my plan week?
Where can I strengthen it? Come back and do it another time.
[00:08:39] Speaker C: Starting a business or expanding it is risky sometimes. Despite the best efforts and intentions, planning and preparation, things can turn for the worse. But even then, there are options.
[00:08:51] Speaker D: Once you have a loan, when things start going bad, the first person you should call is your lender and the last person you want to talk to is your lender. So you kind of have to mentally get over that because there are things they could do. They could help defer some payments or do interest only for a while. Our choice is always to do whatever we can to make you successful. So call first and we'll see what we can do for that.
[00:09:17] Speaker C: This was the second of our two part interview with Susan Seaman at North Edge Financial, a nonprofit business loan and community development organization serving Del north and both Mendocino, Lake, Trinity and Siskiyou counties. The first part of the interview focused on the community development aspect of North Edge's work and can be found on kmat.org or your favorite podcast platform.
My name is Segur Bjorn, reporting for kmat.
[00:09:51] Speaker B: On Thursday, June 5 from 10am to 3pm at Dell' Arte 11, located at 131 H Street in Blue Lake. The county of Humboldt's Human Resources Department, in partnership with the Humboldt Health foundation and Humboldt Area foundation and Wild Rivers Community foundation, invites the Community to an important public event, Healthcare and Humboldt, exploring the downstream effects and community impacts of health care access and quality challenges. It will explore how limited access to healthcare affects Humboldt County's economy, workforce and overall community well being. Humboldt county is designated as a health provider shortage area by the U.S. department of Health and Human Services with the entire Redwood coast region also classified as a mental health provider shortage area.
Dr. Jeremy Michael Clark, the diversity, Equity and inclusion and Organizational development Manager, speaks on why the event was created in.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: Terms of what inspired this event. I was going through our exit survey data, so in other words, analyzing why employees leave county employment and one of the themes that really jumped out in that process was this lack of healthcare access and quality.
And so because of that we have been unable to retain some pretty key contributors and some pretty key roles organizationally and that obviously has some service delivery implications and just generally is not good for the community when public service can't retain can attract and retain talent.
So it's so then I started thinking because I also have the pleasure of serving on the community board for Providence and St. Joseph's and so that is an issue that the team there really and the issue being health care recruitment and retention take very seriously and have deployed a number of strategies to increase recruitment and retention. And so I sort of looked at that and felt like between my dual roles, my county responsibilities and also the work that I do at Providence that I sort of was able to view this issue through multiple perspectives. And I felt like an event like this would probably be a good way to go.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: This event will offer an in depth, data informed look at how healthcare shortages create ripple effects throughout the community affecting everyday residents.
The program will feature two panel discussions. Panel one being the downstream community impacts from 10 to 12pm and panel two the disparate health outcomes from 1 to 3pm this will be moderated by Humboldt County Human Resources Diversity, Equity and inclusion and organizational development manager, Dr. Jeremy Michael Clark, Catherine Lorenzo, county of Humboldt's Human Resources Program Manager and Rosam Ruiz Cortez, the County of Humboldt's organization development and effectiveness administrative analysis has more to say.
[00:13:01] Speaker E: Our intent, right, was to inform the audience about this very complex issue, right? The limited healthcare access, but also to center the human experience, right?
Because we are human resources, we want the conversation to be founded, owned or.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: Cemented on data, but we want to humanize it in person. Attendance is limited due to venue capacity. Registration is required for all in person attendees, including members of the press. To register, Please go to kmud.org to find information on how to register for the event there. You will also be able to access panel livestream links. This event will be live streamed by Axishumble and will provide opportunities for virtual audience engagement. To watch the livestream, visit YouTube.com accesshumbolt or tune in to Optimum Channel 8 from home. No registration is required to view the live stream or broadcast. A recording will be available after the event on Access Humboldt's YouTube page.
Turning to Mendocino Details of Potter Valley agreement include leasing water rights from Round Valley Indian tribes KZYX's Elise Cox reports.
[00:14:35] Speaker F: For Mendocino County Public Broadcasting. This is the KZYX News. I'm Elise Cox.
Residents of Potter Valley are confronting a difficult choice as they consider the future of farming in their hometown water that costs at least $200 an acre, foot a year, or no water at all. Their dilemma stems from the planned decommissioning of the Potter Valley Project and the removal of the Scott Dam, which forms Lake Pillsbury, and the Cape Horn Dam, which forms the Van Arsdale Reservoir.
Because that's one of the longtime residents of Potter Valley speaking Thursday night at a special meeting of the Board of Supervisors of Mendocino county and the Board of Directors of the Inland Water and Power Corporation. The meeting detailed the complex legal and logistical steps now underway to secure a future water supply. The Inland Water and Power Corporation is a joint powers authority formed in 1996.
It is working with the newly formed El Russian Project Authority to build and operate a new diversion facility on the Eel River.
That facility, basically a pumping station, would deliver water to the East Fork Russian river under a lease agreement with the Round Valley Indian Tribes, which hold the senior rights to the water.
Scott Shapiro, legal counsel to the Inland Water and Power Corporation, explains the Round.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: Valley Indian Tribe has what's known as an unquantified Winters claim. There's federal law called the Winters doctrine, and the Winters doctrine says that when the federal government reserves land out of public ownership for a particular purpose, it is implied that that land comes with the water rights needed in order to operate that land for the reserve purpose. And so the Indian tribe Round Valley in this case can make a claim that it has a senior water right.
[00:16:31] Speaker F: Even to PGE's right under state policy. PGE is also required to offer its rights to the tribes before any other party.
As a result, the Eel River Power Authority has agreed to lease the rights from the tribe for an initial 30 year term with an option to renew for another 20 years.
Shapiro emphasized that the deal includes a waiver of sovereign immunity, allowing both sides to enforce the lease in court if necessary.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: If we don't pay, if we divert the wrong amount like any other lease, they can sue us. If they don't make water available to us, we can sue them.
[00:17:06] Speaker F: The pumping facility is expected to cost at least $40 million to build and another $10 million a year to operate.
In addition to diverting water from the eel during the rainy season, the community will need somewhere to store that water during drier periods of the year.
Local officials are exploring options for long term water storage, including doubling the storage capacity at Lake Mendocino by raising the Coyote Valley Dam.
A feasibility study by the US Army Corps of Engineers is expected to cost $6.5 million.
So far, $1.3 million in funding has been secured.
The actual project could cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
According to an estimate dating back to the early aughts. Raising the dam could cost between 350 and 400 million dollars.
It's unclear where this money will come from the federal government, the state.
Before that question can be answered, there are interim costs for consulting, financing, groundwater assessment and more. Some of these will need to be borne to some extent by local taxpayers and so the water rights agreement with the Round Valley Indian Tribes is merely the first milestone.
Some residents fear the economic consequences will be severe.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: It's going to cost the farmers around here. There won't be any more grapes growing here. 20 years from now they all be gone.
They're gone because you're paying 100, 200, $300 an acre foot for water.
We can't make any money doing that, can't make any money on any part of it.
[00:18:45] Speaker F: Rose Scahill, a longtime Potter Valley farmer, said the changes threaten her livelihood.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: For me personally, I've been a small farmer for most of this past 20 years. I have raised my children being a self sufficient farmer, growing most of our own food as well as supplying for local farmer markets locally. I need to educate myself on dry farming and what it's going to take to evolve from flood irrigating to being more mindful of our water consumption and how we use it and how our water tables are going to shift and change once this happens. I also have two wells on my property, but those are going to be dependent on our water tables as well.
[00:19:23] Speaker F: Others worry about losing Lake Pillsbury.
[00:19:26] Speaker A: The lake has created a whole new ecosystem that is thriving, not to mention all the people that recreate there and the fire mitigation arguments. Those are all good.
[00:19:40] Speaker F: John Evans Questions Claims that the removal of the Scott dam will benefit the salmon.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: But to me, the argument about the fish is it's kind of like trying to think that you take the dam out and all of a sudden everything's going to be like it was 100 years ago.
[00:20:04] Speaker F: But Sky Lewa Evans, business partner and a member of the Manchester Band of Pomo Indians, supports the dam's removal.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: I am for the removal of the Scotts Valley dam because it would allow the salmon to get back to their nesting grounds and it would return a lot of the tribal lands back to the people.
And on the other hand, my partner is for it.
So we have very good conversations and debates about it.
[00:20:34] Speaker F: And so as federal, state, tribal and local stakeholders move forward with the water deal, residents of Potter Valley are left weighing the high cost of staying on the land against the consequences of walking away.
For KZYX News on Elise Cox. For all our local stories, visit kzyx.org.
[00:21:00] Speaker B: In state news Oakland Congressmember Latifah Simon blessed Trump's spending bill cuts in town hall meeting KPFA's David Hummel reports.
[00:21:11] Speaker A: California Representative Latifah Simon denounced Trump's massive spending bill, which could slash trillions in federal health and food programs. Officially called the One Big Beautiful Bill act, the bill is currently under consideration in the Senate. Simon spoke at a town hall meeting Thursday.
Elon Musk came in and fired federal workers again, including workers at the VA hospital. He fired those people literally in cold blood. The big beautiful, cruel, horrible, sadistic bill. The bill, which promises $5 trillion in tax cuts to individuals and businesses, would slash Medicaid by about $700 billion. And SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, would be cut by roughly $300 billion. The measure would push millions of people people off of Medicaid and SNAP by extending work requirements for able bodied individuals by 10 years from age 54 to 64. Estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office say more than seven and a half million people could lose health care coverage.
Simon says the proposed Medicaid cuts threaten Alameda's health care infrastructure, which is already struggling. Medicaid cuts are not just, just singularly about health care. It's about again, the cacophony of services that are provided. You know, we have been talking about mental health, we have been talking about disabled folks, we've been talking about seniors. Our homeless population is not only homeless, they're struggling with mental health issues. If you had to sleep on the streets every single night, you would be too. You can't tell me that we have a homeless strategy. Throughout the seven cities and throughout this county and you go to John George and there are soiled mattresses in the hallway. The small infrastructure that we do have, it can't take a pinch more of a cut. Speakers at the Emeryville Town hall included Emeryville Mayor David Mora, California State Assemblymember Mia Bonta and other local elected officials as part of Congresswoman Simon's town hall tour of all seven Congressional District 12 cities. Reporting for KPFA News, I'm David Hummel.
[00:23:23] Speaker B: In national news, French President Macron warns Europe US credibility at risk in Ukraine as UN diplomats trade barbs, KPFA's Christopher Martinez reports.
[00:23:37] Speaker E: The war in Ukraine continues to grind on, Russia is ramping up its attacks and peace talks are somewhat in limbo right now. A lot is at stake for Ukraine, the region and beyond, according to French President Emmanuel Macron. That includes the credibility of Ukraine's key allies, Europe and and the United States.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: But as for the credibility of the Europeans and perhaps more broadly, I would.
[00:24:02] Speaker B: Be very honest with you.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: If both the United States of America and the Europeans are unable to fix on the short run of the Ukrainian situation, I think the credibility of both the US and the Europeans to pretend.
[00:24:17] Speaker E: To fix any crisis in these regions.
[00:24:20] Speaker D: Will be very low.
[00:24:21] Speaker E: Macron was speaking at a gathering of Indo Pacific nations Friday where he warned that abandoning Ukraine would erode US Credibility in, for example, deterring a conflict with China over Taiwan. Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council held its second day of meetings on Ukraine Friday. Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzia had some diplomatically positive things to say about the current US Administration which but about Europe, not so much. He spoke to a translator.
[00:24:49] Speaker B: Despite their own resources running low, EU states continue to try find ways of increasing military support to the neo Nazi regime in Kyiv.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: This only serves to further foment tensions on the European continent.
[00:25:06] Speaker E: Nepenzia blasted European support for Ukraine, including the recent German announcement that it would lift range restrictions on long range weapons delivered to Ukraine.
Navenzia said the European leaders are trying to thwart peace and whip up tensions in what he calls a European led proxy war against Russia. But the US Representative, Anton Yongenil, talked about Russia's reliance on Chinese supplies and North Korean troops.
[00:25:31] Speaker A: The Russian Federation called today's meeting to advance the claim that European countries by providing assistance to Ukraine are undermining efforts to restore peace.
That is not the case.
[00:25:43] Speaker E: Ukraine as a sovereign country has the right to defend itself from aggression.
[00:25:48] Speaker A: Ukraine's fellow UN member states have a.
[00:25:51] Speaker C: Right to provide Ukraine with the means.
[00:25:52] Speaker E: To do so, he says. Ukraine is not the obstacle to a ceasefire, and he says it's not too late for both Russia and Ukraine to stop the fighting. Whether that happens remains to be seen. A Ukraine presidential adviser has said Ukraine is ready to resume direct peace talks with Russia in Istanbul Monday, but it insists that the Kremlin provide a promised memorandum setting out its position on ending the war. The foreign ministers of Ukraine and Turkey meeting in Kyiv also suggested the possibility of a future meeting between Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin, possibly also including the U.S. president Trump.
Reporting for Pacifica Radio News KPFA, I'm Christopher Martinez.
[00:26:41] Speaker B: That's all for tonight's broadcast. Thanks for listening. Thanks to our engineer, Katie Phillips, and thanks to our reporters, Sigurd Bjorn, Elise Cox, David Hummel. Christopher Martinez, KMUD is online. You can find us on kmud.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 find us on social media.
If you have questions or suggestions, you can give us a call at 707-923-2605. Again, that is 707-92326 or you can send us an
[email protected] Reporting for KMUD, I'm Jordan Panjalian.
