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Soon, black smoke blanketed the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>News spread quickly that day last November, but by word of mouth, says Denny Khamphanthong, a 29-year-old Richmond resident. “We don’t know the full story, but we know that you shouldn’t breathe in the air or be outside, for that matter,” Khamphanthong says now. “It would be nice to have an actual news outlet that would actually go out there and figure it out themselves.”[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\" Gayle McLaughlin, former mayor, Richmond\"]‘\u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> will never, ever print anything that is critical of Chevron, and it will never print anything that upholds the community’s victories against Chevron.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s primary local news source, \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/\">\u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, didn’t cover the flare. Nor had it reported on a 2021 Chevron refinery pipeline rupture that dumped nearly 800 gallons of diesel fuel into San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron is the city’s largest employer, largest taxpayer and largest polluter. Yet when it comes to writing about Chevron, \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> consistently toes the company line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And there’s a reason for that: Chevron owns \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you look at Chevron’s website and you look at \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em>, a lot of the information is copy and paste,” says Katt Ramos, a local climate activist. “They present a very skewed viewpoint that is bought and paid for by Chevron.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The site’s very name evokes the history of Chevron, which was created when John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil was broken up by federal trust-busters more than a century ago. \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> prides itself on being the “number one source for local, community-driven news” about the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981097\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A view of a city landscape with trees and a refinery in the background.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-2048x1362.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The city of Richmond exists in the shadow of the nearby Chevron refinery, which has been connected to poor air quality and health issues in the nearby community. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11975650,news_11856920\" hero=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/231027-CHEVRON-RICHMOND-REFINERY-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" label=\"Related Stories\"]Around town, in coffee shops, an architect’s office, at a Mexican restaurant, even at a waterside National Park Service site, the Standard is recognized as the main source of news about the city. It carries stories about \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/03/27/rich-city-rides-launches-capital-campaign-to-purchase-home-base/\">charity drives\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/09/19/emergency-rail-replacement-prompts-closure-on-s-garrard-blvd/\">street closings\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/lifestyle/entertainment-and-food/2020/07/13/the-factory-bar-sets-opening-date/\">New bars\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/09/20/art-exhibition-celebrates-latinx-heritage-month-in-richmond/\">art exhibits\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/07/17/girl-power-coming-to-soccer-field-in-richmond/\">Youth soccer events\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/05/15/point-richmond-music-announces-lineup-for-summer-concert-series/\">local concerts\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/community/2024/02/06/richmonds-ons-loves-on-at-risk-people-to-end-gun-violence/\">safety initiatives\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades ago, the city relied on the Richmond \u003cem>Independent \u003c/em>and the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> to report on the community. And then a pattern familiar across the U.S. unfolded. The \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em> pulled back. The \u003cem>Independent\u003c/em> got folded into a newspaper in nearby Berkeley, which itself shut down in 1984. Papers in other East Bay cities shriveled up. Now, the city’s news landscape is dominated by its major corporate force. Markets where news outlets shut down are often called news deserts. The Standard has created something of a news mirage: Stories are told — but with an agenda. Facts displeasing to Chevron are omitted; hard truths softened. The company is seeking to get its point of view across and to convey that it can be trusted.[aside postID=\"news_11912101\" hero=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/RS55033_019_KQED_ChevronRefineryStrike_04072022-qut.jpg\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a recent February night, a city council meeting repeatedly focused on developments involving Chevron. Other than journalists for NPR and Floodlight, not a single journalist attended in person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same San Francisco public relations firm that operates the Standard for Chevron runs a similar site about developments in the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico, where Chevron has major business interests. It also runs one of the company’s sites in Ecuador, where the energy giant has fought back decades of litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981098\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981098\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A person rides a bike through an intersection with cars waiting at a stoplight.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-2048x1362.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Richmond Standard is a local news site funded by Chevron, which runs a large refinery in town. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chevron’s bid to control the public discourse comes as efforts to combat climate change threaten the fossil fuel industry, especially in California. State regulators would effectively \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/25/california-bans-the-sale-of-new-gas-powered-cars-by-2035.html\">ban\u003c/a> the sales of gas-powered cars by 2035. They released the world’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/11/16/california-releases-worlds-first-plan-to-achieve-net-zero-carbon-pollution/\">first plan\u003c/a> to achieve net-zero carbon pollution. Other states and countries have adopted similar goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, Chevron revealed that it was \u003ca href=\"https://www.sec.gov/ixviewer/ix.html?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/93410/000009341024000013/cvx-20231231.htm#ib7903ee4cd7540d8ab5b70d4bf454edd_121\">losing about $1.8 billion \u003c/a>on assets, mainly in California, because of the state’s tougher regulatory climate. Chevron’s corporate headquarters is in San Ramon, about a 35-mile drive southeast of Richmond, though the company has moved the bulk of its workforce to Texas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The company saw a need to offer the community more news coverage of Richmond, which had been largely ignored by traditional media with the exception of crime stories,” says Braden Reddall, a manager of external affairs at Chevron. “Most people in Richmond will tell you there is a lot more to the community than what is known and reported by traditional media outlets. It’s a proud community, filled with interesting people who are doing interesting things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reddall, who earlier covered the company for the international news service \u003cem>Reuters\u003c/em>, added that other outlets more than adequately cover Chevron.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981099\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981099\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman wearing a green shirt with orange design patterns leans against the side of a building outside.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former schoolteacher Patricia Dornan says she reads The Richmond Standard but skips the stories about Chevron. “I don’t read any of the articles about how wonderful their company is,” she says. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lifelong Richmond resident Patricia Dornan says she cherry-picks which stories she reads in the Standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you understand that it’s going to have a Chevron-Standard Oil point of view, it’s fine because most of the stuff that they’re putting out has nothing to do with them,” says Dornan, a retired middle school teacher. “And so long as it doesn’t have to do with Chevron, it’s fine. I don’t read any of the articles about how wonderful their company is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dornan volunteers at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/rori/index.htm\">Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park\u003c/a>. She tells visitors about the marvels of American manufacturing in a time of war and about the women welders of Richmond who were able to turn out warships in 51 days rather than two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981121\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1444px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981121\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM.png\" alt=\"A map showing Richmond with red and blue lines outlining pipelines in the area.\" width=\"1444\" height=\"1432\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM.png 1444w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM-800x793.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM-1020x1012.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM-160x159.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1444px) 100vw, 1444px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pipeline locations are approximate. Source: Google Earth, U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, California Department of Technology, OpenStreetMap contributors \u003ccite>(Hilary Fung/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her grandmother moved to town in 1905 — just three years after the refinery first opened — and her family has been there ever since. One of the streets in town is named after her father. She says Richmond can’t function without Chevron, but a true local news outlet would help hold it accountable to the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she wants to know what Chevron is up to, Dornan says, “I usually ask my friends who are retirees from the refinery — what’s going on?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Richmond deserves more news coverage’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When the Standard launched in 2014, it proclaimed: “Richmond deserves more news coverage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For the first time in more than 30 years, Richmond will have a community-driven daily news source dedicated to shining a light on the positive things that are going on in the community,” the \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/chevron-speaks/2013/01/23/richmond-deserves-more-news-coverage/\">site announced.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron presents the Standard as an investment in the Richmond community. \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/115094/documents/HHRG-117-II15-20220914-SD007.pdf\">The public relations firm operating the Standard wrote\u003c/a>, “This site would tell the stories other outlets had lost the resources to tell.”\u003cbr>\n[aside postID=\"news_11940114\" hero=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS55021_004_KQED_ChevronRefineryStrike_04072022-qut.jpg\" label=\"Related Stories\"]But not all of the stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent review found\u003cem> The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> had published 434 stories that touch on its owner, Chevron, since the site’s inception. Eight articles refer to flaring incidents. None cite oil spills. The majority of the stories that mention Chevron focus on profiles, \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/uncategorized/2024/02/16/chevron-richmond-recognized-for-helping-red-cross-sound-the-alarm-on-fire-safety/\">awards\u003c/a> ceremonies, community projects and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/10/20/chevron-richmond-celebrates-hispanic-heritage-month-with-classic-cars-and-much-more/\">celebrations\u003c/a> it throws on such occasions as \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2024/02/26/chevron-richmond-marks-milestone-with-25th-black-history-awareness-celebration/\">Black History\u003c/a> and Hispanic Heritage months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Bay Area air pollution regulators secured landmark concessions from Chevron in February to settle a lawsuit, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11975650/bay-air-district-hails-decisive-victory-in-battle-to-cut-refinery-pollution\">they called it a “decisive victory\u003c/a>.” The \u003cem>San Jose Mercury News\u003c/em> headline cited “\u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/13/east-bay-refineries-settle-with-bay-area-air-quality-agency-agree-to-20-million-in-fines-for-hundreds-of-violations/\">$20 million in fines for hundreds of air-quality violations\u003c/a>.”[aside postID=\"news_11901875\" hero=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53159_013_Richmond_ChevronRefinery_01132022-qut.jpg\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2024/02/13/chevron-agreement-with-air-district-called-win-for-environment-and-energy/\">Richmond Standard\u003c/a> \u003c/em>was more reserved: “Chevron agreement with Air District called win for environment and energy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The article did not clearly lay out the core of the litigation. The words “fine” and “penalty” did not appear. Careful readers might have been able to piece together what transpired: The news outlet described an agreement involving $20 million that “solidifies the future of energy production at the Richmond Refinery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are a whole host of news outlets around the Bay Area that cover the refinery,” says Reddall, the Chevron spokesperson. “The Standard seeks to fill in the gaps. From where I’m sitting, I don’t think that it’s a refinery that’s not written about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981100\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981100\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A person rides a bike down a street with a mural in the background.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richmond is a working-class city of 115,000 — nearly half of whom are Latino. Most people working at the Chevron refinery live outside the city. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>A news mirage\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Boundaries blur between city and corporation in this largely working-class city of 115,000 people, almost half of whom are Latino. The tech boom of nearby Silicon Valley and the opulence of neighboring Marin County feel like universes away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The public high school’s mascot is the Oilers. Streets are named Ammonia and Petrolite and Xylene. Chevron’s network of pipes, low-lying cooling ponds and even sulfuric stench have become defining parts of the town’s character. A nature park where tufted egrets and hummingbirds frolic abuts the nearly 3,000-acre refinery itself — an expansive preserve of smokestacks, pipelines and tanks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron, which recorded $21.3 billion in profits last year, has played an outsized role in Richmond for decades. It supplies the city with jobs — yet most Chevron employees live elsewhere. It pays roughly $50 million a year to Richmond — more than a sixth of the town’s annual revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company’s relationship with Richmond turned sour rather abruptly in 2012. An explosion at the refinery injured \u003ca href=\"https://abc7news.com/chevron-refinery-fire-cal-osha-fine-calosha-fined/2247343/\">19 employees.\u003c/a> The air pollution from the resulting industrial fire could be seen from miles away. In the ensuing days, 15,000 Bay Area residents went to medical centers for respiratory complications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981101\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981101\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-scaled.jpg\" alt='A sign with red lettering on the side of a building that reads \"Richmond Oilers.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-2048x1362.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Richmond High School mascot is the Oilers. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>State and local prosecutors charged Chevron with \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/chevron-convicted-of-labor-codes-pays-2m-after-refinery-fire/1951195/\">criminal negligence\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/08/05/chevron-2m-fire/2620303/\">other crimes. T\u003c/a>he company settled by pleading no contest to six charges, paying out roughly $10 million to affected local residents, agencies and hospitals. Chevron also paid $5 million directly to the city of Richmond to settle a separate civil lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time of the incident, political sentiment in Richmond had started to swing away from the company. As the months passed, progressives threatened to take control of the city government. They promoted a future without the refinery — just as Chevron sought approval from city officials for a sweeping project to overhaul and modernize it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the 2014 election cycle dawned, Chevron took action to ensure its voice was heard. It promised a huge investment in scholarships and public health programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron also spent $3 million to help propel pro-industry candidates. They all lost. “The election became a referendum on Chevron,” says Tom Butt, at the time a city council member who won election as mayor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron also launched\u003cem> The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the outset, the company disclosed its involvement. In small letters at the top of its homepage, the site reads, “Funded by Chevron.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981102\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1703px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981102\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"An elderly white man wearing a tan jacket sits down outside.\" width=\"1703\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-scaled.jpg 1703w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-800x1203.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-1020x1533.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-160x241.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-1022x1536.jpg 1022w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-1362x2048.jpg 1362w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-1920x2886.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1703px) 100vw, 1703px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom Butt was elected mayor of Richmond in 2014. He says that election was a referendum on Chevron. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the aftermath of the election, the Standard published a 428-word statement from \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/chevron-speaks/2014/11/19/election-mattered/\">Chevron\u003c/a> in its entirety that defended the company’s actions and criticized the city’s new leaders. “The question for Richmond is: Will local leaders recognize that business is integral to the city’s success?” the Chevron statement read. “Or, will city leaders continue to oppose efforts to create growth, preferring instead to watch the business climate — and the prosperity that business helps generate — decline?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We should be outraged’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Katt Ramos, who helps lead Communities for a Better Environment’s Richmond chapter, stages tours to demonstrate what she says is Chevron’s destructive legacy. It also illustrates what happens when independent local news disappears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She stops by Peres K–8 School in the Iron Triangle, a nickname derived from the three train tracks that intersect here. Older kids play soccer on a field with a coach while younger ones cavort on a playground. Beyond the school fence, the Chevron plant stands less than a mile away. A sign next to the school’s entrance warns of a shallow hazardous liquid pipeline from the refinery, a warning to not dig there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nothing that is normalized about childhood is normalized in Richmond,” Ramos says. Adults have to tell kids they can’t play outdoors due to a high number of bad air days, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981103\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1703px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981103\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A close up image of woman with black hair and a greenish scarf outside.\" width=\"1703\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-scaled.jpg 1703w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-800x1203.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-1020x1533.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-160x241.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-1022x1536.jpg 1022w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-1362x2048.jpg 1362w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-1920x2886.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1703px) 100vw, 1703px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“Nothing that is normalized about childhood is normalized in Richmond,” says Katt Ramos, a local climate activist. She says the city’s air pollution problems and residents’ health issues are rarely covered in the news. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Perhaps the best way of gauging the seriousness of such concerns is to look at child admissions to emergency rooms for asthma, says Anne Kelsey Lamb, who oversees asthma research for the Oakland-based Public Health Institute. Children in the ZIP code of the Iron Triangle — which includes the refinery as well as the neighborhoods surrounding the Peres school — are admitted for emergency care for asthma at triple the rate for California at large. (The institute provided an analysis of the most recent available state statistics at the request of NPR and Floodlight.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parceling out responsibility for air pollution is complicated, given Richmond’s many highways and railroads, along with the refinery. The regional board that regulates air quality found that Chevron accounts for 63% of all particle pollution in Richmond and two neighboring towns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These issues rarely get covered, Ramos says. She starts to weep gently when talking about the city’s future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think, at best, we should be outraged, you know?” she says. “Everyone should be concerned about the conditions that our community has to face.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The PR firm running the Standard\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While Chevron owns the Standard, San Francisco-based Singer Associates runs it from across the bay. The consulting firm is known for handling PR crises. Founder Sam Singer is no stranger to Richmond; he grew up in Berkeley and briefly worked at the Richmond \u003cem>Independent\u003c/em> and a sister paper before moving on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singer Associates has written that the news outlet came about after Chevron developed a “fractured relationship with many stakeholders including city government leaders.” The site was part of an effort “to provide the company with greater freedom to operate by increasing awareness for the positive role it plays in Richmond,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/115094/documents/HHRG-117-II15-20220914-SD007.pdf\">according to Singer’s application for an industry award\u003c/a>, as cited in a U.S. House Natural Resources Committee staff report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981104\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981104\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A man swings a fishing pole over his head by a body of water.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A man fishes for leopard sharks in the waterways along Point Richmond that are a thoroughfare for petroleum and have been the site of several oil and chemical spills. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most Standard articles are written by Singer Associates employee Mike Aldax, a former reporter for the defunct \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> and the Bay City News Service. (Aldax did not return messages seeking comment.) The site also hired two journalists who live in Richmond to write for the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our team has worked hard to build relationships with the community, which is why people trust us, and turn to us, to cover community stories,” Singer wrote in an email for this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pace of reporting ebbs and flows. Some featured videos on the Standard’s homepage are several years old. The metabolism of fresh posts stepped up in early March, shortly after NPR and Floodlight first sent a series of queries about the Standard to Chevron and Singer for this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Chevron newsrooms begin in South America\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In launching the Standard, Chevron followed a path the fossil fuel giant had first forged thousands of miles to the south.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2009, Singer has run The Amazon Post in Ecuador at Chevron’s direction. The English-language site emerged as Chevron confronted lengthy multibillion-dollar litigation seeking to hold it liable for the pollution from oil drilling there. (Chevron had acquired Texaco in 2001, which was responsible for the oil extraction.) Chevron’s legal battle spread to other nations, including the U.S. and Brazil. The American attorney who led the suits against Chevron for Ecuadorian farmers and Indigenous peoples was a frequent target of the site. He was ultimately disbarred in New York for his actions in the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981105\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981105\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Flames flicker from a refinery surrounded by trees.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flames flicker through the thick green trees of the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest — where gas flares, oil wells and refineries darken the landscape and poison the environment — shown in Shushufindi, Ecuador, in 2023. The legacy there of Texaco, which Chevron acquired, has inspired lengthy legal battles in several countries. \u003ccite>(Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://theamazonpost.com/\">The Amazon Post\u003c/a> caters to English-speaking audiences and clearly discloses that it reflects “Chevron’s Views & Opinions on the Ecuador Lawsuit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A subsequent Spanish-language site called Juicio Crudo (an allusion to crude oil) focuses\u003ca href=\"https://www.juiciocrudo.com/\"> squarely\u003c/a> on a damning legal judgment against Chevron that a U.S. court later \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/business/federal-judge-rules-for-chevron-in-ecuadorean-pollution-case.html\">found to be fraudulent\u003c/a>. It reprints text directly from Chevron’s Spanish-language \u003ca href=\"https://www.juiciocrudo.com/documentos/f8eda1d720.pdf\">press releases\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By contrast, \u003ca href=\"https://www.eloriente.com/\">El Oriente\u003c/a>, a Spanish-language digital outlet launched in 2019, presents itself as a news site aimed at audiences who reside in the Ecuadorian Amazon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until recently, it noted at the bottom of its page that it is “sponsored by Chevron.” Days after NPR and Floodlight started posing questions about Chevron’s sites, the affiliation was moved to the top, just beneath the site’s name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sites link to one another. Chevron says those sites are managed separately, not by Singer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In at least one instance, the controversies surrounding Chevron in Ecuador inspired fodder for the Standard back in Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014, Richmond’s then-mayor, \u003ca href=\"https://ci.richmond.ca.us/directory.aspx?EID=1070\">Gayle McLaughlin\u003c/a>, traveled to see Ecuador’s environmental degradation at a time when her party was seeking to force Chevron to pay more to the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after she returned home, the Standard’s Aldax reported: “The mayor’s six-day trip to Ecuador was in support [of] the South American nation in its ongoing battle against Chevron, which it falsely blames for polluting the rain forest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2014/06/11/richmond-mayor-gayle-mclaughlins-association-with-ecuadors-u-s-pr-firm-raises-questions/\">Aldax wrote\u003c/a> that McLaughlin was late in filing $4,499 in expenses for the trip, which had been paid for by the Ecuadorian government. The article embedded a \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/ugtMBkqmXbQ\">video \u003c/a>produced by The Amazon Post.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981106\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981106\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman wearing glasses and a purple shirt with design speaks and gestures with her hands next to a Black woman with locs and glasses.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gayle McLaughlin, then Richmond’s mayor, speaks onstage during a 2014 event in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Mike Windle/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was a rare instance of the Standard producing anything other than benign community news. She had to pay a $200 fine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, McLaughlin calls her misstep minor. She tells NPR and Floodlight she believes the story was intended as a warning to Chevron’s critics that it could embarrass them or just ignore them altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> will never, ever print anything that is critical of Chevron,” McLaughlin says, “and it will never print anything that upholds the community’s victories against Chevron. And we need to spread the word about those victories.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Expanding to Texas\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Chevron launched its latest newsroom, called Permian Proud, in the Permian Basin in August 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The site posts stories about West Texas and New Mexico. They are home to the nation’s highest-producing oil fields, where Chevron has substantial drilling interests — and where \u003ca href=\"https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/projects/state-of-local-news/explore/#/state-localnewslandscape?state=TX&stateCode=48\">local news has been hard hit\u003c/a>. Permian Proud explained its mission this way: “We aim to complement the important work of existing local media by providing hyper-local news you won’t find anywhere else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike California, Texas is a deeply red state with a broader base of support for the oil and gas industry. Even so, Chevron’s future there is similarly deeply reliant on the goodwill of residents and regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Over the past year and a half, Permian Proud has put a spotlight on national spelling bee contestants, the local arts community, nonprofit organizations, community events, high school sports, industry accomplishments, and much more,” Chevron spokesperson Catie Matthews wrote in a statement for this story. “Additionally, the platform has amplified coverage of local stories by other news outlets and provided a digital arm to some of our rural communities and smaller nonprofit organizations who would otherwise not have one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Permian Proud also promotes Chevron’s perspective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the articles on the site are rewritten press releases. For example, Permian Proud’s article “\u003ca href=\"https://permianproud.com/chevrons-permian-basin-operations-to-tap-into-more-recycled-water/\">Chevron’s Permian Basin operations to tap into more recycled water\u003c/a>” is almost identical to Chevron’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.chevron.com/newsroom/2022/q3/permian-basin-operations-to-tap-into-more-recycled-water#:~:text=We%20reached%20an%20agreement%20with,by%20the%20end%20of%202023.\">press release\u003c/a>. The original text read, “By using recycled water in our fracking operations, we help preserve fresh water and groundwater in drought-prone areas.” Permian Proud swapped “Chevron helps” for “we help.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the few listed bylines: Mike Aldax of Singer and \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981107\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981107\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with black hair and a greenish scarf outside stands in front of a mural with a microphone painted.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-2048x1362.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ramos says locals share news about Chevron by word of mouth because The Richmond Standard is “giving us the opposite of the truth.” \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Relying on word of mouth\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the absence of independent local news sources, Richmond residents say they rely on each other for accurate information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A husband-and-wife team started a small news site last year. A former mayor shares his thoughts about local politics in a newsletter. When school is in session, journalism students at the nearby University of California, Berkeley cover Richmond as part of their studies. A nonprofit group has held listening sessions about plans to extend a hyperlocal site to the area. And sometimes — when the news is big enough — San Francisco TV stations cross the bay to cover it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But mostly, there’s word of mouth. Activist Katt Ramos points to the February 2021 pipeline rupture. As Chevron publicly conceded, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11931168/chevron-agrees-to-pay-200000-for-2021-bay-fuel-spill-at-richmond-refinery\">resident spotted the tainted water\u003c/a> long before Chevron or any news outlet alerted the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of our news is really from me, gathered by our local kind of independent folks that go around covering things for us,” Ramos says. “Because we have to deal with publications like \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> that are giving us the opposite of the truth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Felicia Alvarez, Maria Fernanda Bernal and Richard Tzul of the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Chevron+owns+this+city%27s+news+site.+Many+stories+aren%27t+told&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Chevron operates a major refinery in Richmond. It also owns the city's dominant news site, putting its own spin on events, and runs similar sites in Texas and Ecuador.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1711659906,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":80,"wordCount":4046},"headData":{"title":"Chevron Owns Richmond’s Main Local News Source — and Many Refinery-Related Stories Go Untold | KQED","description":"Chevron operates a major refinery in Richmond. It also owns the city's dominant news site, putting its own spin on events, and runs similar sites in Texas and Ecuador.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"sticky":false,"nprByline":"Miranda Green, David Folkenflik","nprImageAgency":"Tracy J. Lee for NPR","nprStoryId":"1239650727","nprApiLink":"http://api.npr.org/query?id=1239650727&apiKey=MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004","nprHtmlLink":"https://www.npr.org/2024/03/28/1239650727/chevron-fossil-fuel-richmond-standard-california-news?ft=nprml&f=1239650727","nprRetrievedStory":"1","nprPubDate":"Thu, 28 Mar 2024 05:58:00 -0400","nprStoryDate":"Thu, 28 Mar 2024 05:59:00 -0400","nprLastModifiedDate":"Thu, 28 Mar 2024 05:58:38 -0400","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11981095/chevron-owns-this-citys-news-site-many-stories-arent-told","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>NPR’s David Folkenflik reported this story with Miranda Green of\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.floodlightnews.org/\">\u003cem> Floodlight\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>RICHMOND, Calif. — Open flames shot upward from four smokestacks at the Chevron refinery on the western edge of Richmond, Calif. Soon, black smoke blanketed the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>News spread quickly that day last November, but by word of mouth, says Denny Khamphanthong, a 29-year-old Richmond resident. “We don’t know the full story, but we know that you shouldn’t breathe in the air or be outside, for that matter,” Khamphanthong says now. “It would be nice to have an actual news outlet that would actually go out there and figure it out themselves.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘\u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> will never, ever print anything that is critical of Chevron, and it will never print anything that upholds the community’s victories against Chevron.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":" Gayle McLaughlin, former mayor, Richmond","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s primary local news source, \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/\">\u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, didn’t cover the flare. Nor had it reported on a 2021 Chevron refinery pipeline rupture that dumped nearly 800 gallons of diesel fuel into San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron is the city’s largest employer, largest taxpayer and largest polluter. Yet when it comes to writing about Chevron, \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> consistently toes the company line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And there’s a reason for that: Chevron owns \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you look at Chevron’s website and you look at \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em>, a lot of the information is copy and paste,” says Katt Ramos, a local climate activist. “They present a very skewed viewpoint that is bought and paid for by Chevron.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The site’s very name evokes the history of Chevron, which was created when John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil was broken up by federal trust-busters more than a century ago. \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> prides itself on being the “number one source for local, community-driven news” about the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981097\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A view of a city landscape with trees and a refinery in the background.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-2048x1362.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The city of Richmond exists in the shadow of the nearby Chevron refinery, which has been connected to poor air quality and health issues in the nearby community. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11975650,news_11856920","hero":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/231027-CHEVRON-RICHMOND-REFINERY-MD-01-KQED.jpg","label":"Related Stories "},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Around town, in coffee shops, an architect’s office, at a Mexican restaurant, even at a waterside National Park Service site, the Standard is recognized as the main source of news about the city. It carries stories about \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/03/27/rich-city-rides-launches-capital-campaign-to-purchase-home-base/\">charity drives\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/09/19/emergency-rail-replacement-prompts-closure-on-s-garrard-blvd/\">street closings\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/lifestyle/entertainment-and-food/2020/07/13/the-factory-bar-sets-opening-date/\">New bars\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/09/20/art-exhibition-celebrates-latinx-heritage-month-in-richmond/\">art exhibits\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/07/17/girl-power-coming-to-soccer-field-in-richmond/\">Youth soccer events\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/05/15/point-richmond-music-announces-lineup-for-summer-concert-series/\">local concerts\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/community/2024/02/06/richmonds-ons-loves-on-at-risk-people-to-end-gun-violence/\">safety initiatives\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades ago, the city relied on the Richmond \u003cem>Independent \u003c/em>and the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> to report on the community. And then a pattern familiar across the U.S. unfolded. The \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em> pulled back. The \u003cem>Independent\u003c/em> got folded into a newspaper in nearby Berkeley, which itself shut down in 1984. Papers in other East Bay cities shriveled up. Now, the city’s news landscape is dominated by its major corporate force. Markets where news outlets shut down are often called news deserts. The Standard has created something of a news mirage: Stories are told — but with an agenda. Facts displeasing to Chevron are omitted; hard truths softened. The company is seeking to get its point of view across and to convey that it can be trusted.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11912101","hero":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/RS55033_019_KQED_ChevronRefineryStrike_04072022-qut.jpg","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a recent February night, a city council meeting repeatedly focused on developments involving Chevron. Other than journalists for NPR and Floodlight, not a single journalist attended in person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same San Francisco public relations firm that operates the Standard for Chevron runs a similar site about developments in the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico, where Chevron has major business interests. It also runs one of the company’s sites in Ecuador, where the energy giant has fought back decades of litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981098\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981098\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A person rides a bike through an intersection with cars waiting at a stoplight.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-2048x1362.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Richmond Standard is a local news site funded by Chevron, which runs a large refinery in town. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chevron’s bid to control the public discourse comes as efforts to combat climate change threaten the fossil fuel industry, especially in California. State regulators would effectively \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/25/california-bans-the-sale-of-new-gas-powered-cars-by-2035.html\">ban\u003c/a> the sales of gas-powered cars by 2035. They released the world’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/11/16/california-releases-worlds-first-plan-to-achieve-net-zero-carbon-pollution/\">first plan\u003c/a> to achieve net-zero carbon pollution. Other states and countries have adopted similar goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, Chevron revealed that it was \u003ca href=\"https://www.sec.gov/ixviewer/ix.html?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/93410/000009341024000013/cvx-20231231.htm#ib7903ee4cd7540d8ab5b70d4bf454edd_121\">losing about $1.8 billion \u003c/a>on assets, mainly in California, because of the state’s tougher regulatory climate. Chevron’s corporate headquarters is in San Ramon, about a 35-mile drive southeast of Richmond, though the company has moved the bulk of its workforce to Texas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The company saw a need to offer the community more news coverage of Richmond, which had been largely ignored by traditional media with the exception of crime stories,” says Braden Reddall, a manager of external affairs at Chevron. “Most people in Richmond will tell you there is a lot more to the community than what is known and reported by traditional media outlets. It’s a proud community, filled with interesting people who are doing interesting things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reddall, who earlier covered the company for the international news service \u003cem>Reuters\u003c/em>, added that other outlets more than adequately cover Chevron.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981099\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981099\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman wearing a green shirt with orange design patterns leans against the side of a building outside.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former schoolteacher Patricia Dornan says she reads The Richmond Standard but skips the stories about Chevron. “I don’t read any of the articles about how wonderful their company is,” she says. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lifelong Richmond resident Patricia Dornan says she cherry-picks which stories she reads in the Standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you understand that it’s going to have a Chevron-Standard Oil point of view, it’s fine because most of the stuff that they’re putting out has nothing to do with them,” says Dornan, a retired middle school teacher. “And so long as it doesn’t have to do with Chevron, it’s fine. I don’t read any of the articles about how wonderful their company is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dornan volunteers at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/rori/index.htm\">Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park\u003c/a>. She tells visitors about the marvels of American manufacturing in a time of war and about the women welders of Richmond who were able to turn out warships in 51 days rather than two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981121\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1444px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981121\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM.png\" alt=\"A map showing Richmond with red and blue lines outlining pipelines in the area.\" width=\"1444\" height=\"1432\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM.png 1444w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM-800x793.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM-1020x1012.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM-160x159.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1444px) 100vw, 1444px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pipeline locations are approximate. Source: Google Earth, U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, California Department of Technology, OpenStreetMap contributors \u003ccite>(Hilary Fung/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her grandmother moved to town in 1905 — just three years after the refinery first opened — and her family has been there ever since. One of the streets in town is named after her father. She says Richmond can’t function without Chevron, but a true local news outlet would help hold it accountable to the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she wants to know what Chevron is up to, Dornan says, “I usually ask my friends who are retirees from the refinery — what’s going on?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Richmond deserves more news coverage’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When the Standard launched in 2014, it proclaimed: “Richmond deserves more news coverage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For the first time in more than 30 years, Richmond will have a community-driven daily news source dedicated to shining a light on the positive things that are going on in the community,” the \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/chevron-speaks/2013/01/23/richmond-deserves-more-news-coverage/\">site announced.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron presents the Standard as an investment in the Richmond community. \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/115094/documents/HHRG-117-II15-20220914-SD007.pdf\">The public relations firm operating the Standard wrote\u003c/a>, “This site would tell the stories other outlets had lost the resources to tell.”\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11940114","hero":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS55021_004_KQED_ChevronRefineryStrike_04072022-qut.jpg","label":"Related Stories "},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But not all of the stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent review found\u003cem> The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> had published 434 stories that touch on its owner, Chevron, since the site’s inception. Eight articles refer to flaring incidents. None cite oil spills. The majority of the stories that mention Chevron focus on profiles, \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/uncategorized/2024/02/16/chevron-richmond-recognized-for-helping-red-cross-sound-the-alarm-on-fire-safety/\">awards\u003c/a> ceremonies, community projects and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/10/20/chevron-richmond-celebrates-hispanic-heritage-month-with-classic-cars-and-much-more/\">celebrations\u003c/a> it throws on such occasions as \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2024/02/26/chevron-richmond-marks-milestone-with-25th-black-history-awareness-celebration/\">Black History\u003c/a> and Hispanic Heritage months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Bay Area air pollution regulators secured landmark concessions from Chevron in February to settle a lawsuit, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11975650/bay-air-district-hails-decisive-victory-in-battle-to-cut-refinery-pollution\">they called it a “decisive victory\u003c/a>.” The \u003cem>San Jose Mercury News\u003c/em> headline cited “\u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/13/east-bay-refineries-settle-with-bay-area-air-quality-agency-agree-to-20-million-in-fines-for-hundreds-of-violations/\">$20 million in fines for hundreds of air-quality violations\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11901875","hero":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53159_013_Richmond_ChevronRefinery_01132022-qut.jpg","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2024/02/13/chevron-agreement-with-air-district-called-win-for-environment-and-energy/\">Richmond Standard\u003c/a> \u003c/em>was more reserved: “Chevron agreement with Air District called win for environment and energy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The article did not clearly lay out the core of the litigation. The words “fine” and “penalty” did not appear. Careful readers might have been able to piece together what transpired: The news outlet described an agreement involving $20 million that “solidifies the future of energy production at the Richmond Refinery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are a whole host of news outlets around the Bay Area that cover the refinery,” says Reddall, the Chevron spokesperson. “The Standard seeks to fill in the gaps. From where I’m sitting, I don’t think that it’s a refinery that’s not written about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981100\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981100\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A person rides a bike down a street with a mural in the background.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richmond is a working-class city of 115,000 — nearly half of whom are Latino. Most people working at the Chevron refinery live outside the city. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>A news mirage\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Boundaries blur between city and corporation in this largely working-class city of 115,000 people, almost half of whom are Latino. The tech boom of nearby Silicon Valley and the opulence of neighboring Marin County feel like universes away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The public high school’s mascot is the Oilers. Streets are named Ammonia and Petrolite and Xylene. Chevron’s network of pipes, low-lying cooling ponds and even sulfuric stench have become defining parts of the town’s character. A nature park where tufted egrets and hummingbirds frolic abuts the nearly 3,000-acre refinery itself — an expansive preserve of smokestacks, pipelines and tanks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron, which recorded $21.3 billion in profits last year, has played an outsized role in Richmond for decades. It supplies the city with jobs — yet most Chevron employees live elsewhere. It pays roughly $50 million a year to Richmond — more than a sixth of the town’s annual revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company’s relationship with Richmond turned sour rather abruptly in 2012. An explosion at the refinery injured \u003ca href=\"https://abc7news.com/chevron-refinery-fire-cal-osha-fine-calosha-fined/2247343/\">19 employees.\u003c/a> The air pollution from the resulting industrial fire could be seen from miles away. In the ensuing days, 15,000 Bay Area residents went to medical centers for respiratory complications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981101\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981101\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-scaled.jpg\" alt='A sign with red lettering on the side of a building that reads \"Richmond Oilers.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-2048x1362.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Richmond High School mascot is the Oilers. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>State and local prosecutors charged Chevron with \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/chevron-convicted-of-labor-codes-pays-2m-after-refinery-fire/1951195/\">criminal negligence\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/08/05/chevron-2m-fire/2620303/\">other crimes. T\u003c/a>he company settled by pleading no contest to six charges, paying out roughly $10 million to affected local residents, agencies and hospitals. Chevron also paid $5 million directly to the city of Richmond to settle a separate civil lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time of the incident, political sentiment in Richmond had started to swing away from the company. As the months passed, progressives threatened to take control of the city government. They promoted a future without the refinery — just as Chevron sought approval from city officials for a sweeping project to overhaul and modernize it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the 2014 election cycle dawned, Chevron took action to ensure its voice was heard. It promised a huge investment in scholarships and public health programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron also spent $3 million to help propel pro-industry candidates. They all lost. “The election became a referendum on Chevron,” says Tom Butt, at the time a city council member who won election as mayor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron also launched\u003cem> The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the outset, the company disclosed its involvement. In small letters at the top of its homepage, the site reads, “Funded by Chevron.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981102\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1703px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981102\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"An elderly white man wearing a tan jacket sits down outside.\" width=\"1703\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-scaled.jpg 1703w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-800x1203.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-1020x1533.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-160x241.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-1022x1536.jpg 1022w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-1362x2048.jpg 1362w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-1920x2886.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1703px) 100vw, 1703px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom Butt was elected mayor of Richmond in 2014. He says that election was a referendum on Chevron. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the aftermath of the election, the Standard published a 428-word statement from \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/chevron-speaks/2014/11/19/election-mattered/\">Chevron\u003c/a> in its entirety that defended the company’s actions and criticized the city’s new leaders. “The question for Richmond is: Will local leaders recognize that business is integral to the city’s success?” the Chevron statement read. “Or, will city leaders continue to oppose efforts to create growth, preferring instead to watch the business climate — and the prosperity that business helps generate — decline?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We should be outraged’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Katt Ramos, who helps lead Communities for a Better Environment’s Richmond chapter, stages tours to demonstrate what she says is Chevron’s destructive legacy. It also illustrates what happens when independent local news disappears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She stops by Peres K–8 School in the Iron Triangle, a nickname derived from the three train tracks that intersect here. Older kids play soccer on a field with a coach while younger ones cavort on a playground. Beyond the school fence, the Chevron plant stands less than a mile away. A sign next to the school’s entrance warns of a shallow hazardous liquid pipeline from the refinery, a warning to not dig there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nothing that is normalized about childhood is normalized in Richmond,” Ramos says. Adults have to tell kids they can’t play outdoors due to a high number of bad air days, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981103\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1703px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981103\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A close up image of woman with black hair and a greenish scarf outside.\" width=\"1703\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-scaled.jpg 1703w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-800x1203.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-1020x1533.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-160x241.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-1022x1536.jpg 1022w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-1362x2048.jpg 1362w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-1920x2886.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1703px) 100vw, 1703px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“Nothing that is normalized about childhood is normalized in Richmond,” says Katt Ramos, a local climate activist. She says the city’s air pollution problems and residents’ health issues are rarely covered in the news. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Perhaps the best way of gauging the seriousness of such concerns is to look at child admissions to emergency rooms for asthma, says Anne Kelsey Lamb, who oversees asthma research for the Oakland-based Public Health Institute. Children in the ZIP code of the Iron Triangle — which includes the refinery as well as the neighborhoods surrounding the Peres school — are admitted for emergency care for asthma at triple the rate for California at large. (The institute provided an analysis of the most recent available state statistics at the request of NPR and Floodlight.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parceling out responsibility for air pollution is complicated, given Richmond’s many highways and railroads, along with the refinery. The regional board that regulates air quality found that Chevron accounts for 63% of all particle pollution in Richmond and two neighboring towns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These issues rarely get covered, Ramos says. She starts to weep gently when talking about the city’s future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think, at best, we should be outraged, you know?” she says. “Everyone should be concerned about the conditions that our community has to face.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The PR firm running the Standard\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While Chevron owns the Standard, San Francisco-based Singer Associates runs it from across the bay. The consulting firm is known for handling PR crises. Founder Sam Singer is no stranger to Richmond; he grew up in Berkeley and briefly worked at the Richmond \u003cem>Independent\u003c/em> and a sister paper before moving on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singer Associates has written that the news outlet came about after Chevron developed a “fractured relationship with many stakeholders including city government leaders.” The site was part of an effort “to provide the company with greater freedom to operate by increasing awareness for the positive role it plays in Richmond,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/115094/documents/HHRG-117-II15-20220914-SD007.pdf\">according to Singer’s application for an industry award\u003c/a>, as cited in a U.S. House Natural Resources Committee staff report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981104\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981104\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A man swings a fishing pole over his head by a body of water.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A man fishes for leopard sharks in the waterways along Point Richmond that are a thoroughfare for petroleum and have been the site of several oil and chemical spills. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most Standard articles are written by Singer Associates employee Mike Aldax, a former reporter for the defunct \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> and the Bay City News Service. (Aldax did not return messages seeking comment.) The site also hired two journalists who live in Richmond to write for the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our team has worked hard to build relationships with the community, which is why people trust us, and turn to us, to cover community stories,” Singer wrote in an email for this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pace of reporting ebbs and flows. Some featured videos on the Standard’s homepage are several years old. The metabolism of fresh posts stepped up in early March, shortly after NPR and Floodlight first sent a series of queries about the Standard to Chevron and Singer for this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Chevron newsrooms begin in South America\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In launching the Standard, Chevron followed a path the fossil fuel giant had first forged thousands of miles to the south.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2009, Singer has run The Amazon Post in Ecuador at Chevron’s direction. The English-language site emerged as Chevron confronted lengthy multibillion-dollar litigation seeking to hold it liable for the pollution from oil drilling there. (Chevron had acquired Texaco in 2001, which was responsible for the oil extraction.) Chevron’s legal battle spread to other nations, including the U.S. and Brazil. The American attorney who led the suits against Chevron for Ecuadorian farmers and Indigenous peoples was a frequent target of the site. He was ultimately disbarred in New York for his actions in the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981105\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981105\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Flames flicker from a refinery surrounded by trees.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flames flicker through the thick green trees of the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest — where gas flares, oil wells and refineries darken the landscape and poison the environment — shown in Shushufindi, Ecuador, in 2023. The legacy there of Texaco, which Chevron acquired, has inspired lengthy legal battles in several countries. \u003ccite>(Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://theamazonpost.com/\">The Amazon Post\u003c/a> caters to English-speaking audiences and clearly discloses that it reflects “Chevron’s Views & Opinions on the Ecuador Lawsuit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A subsequent Spanish-language site called Juicio Crudo (an allusion to crude oil) focuses\u003ca href=\"https://www.juiciocrudo.com/\"> squarely\u003c/a> on a damning legal judgment against Chevron that a U.S. court later \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/business/federal-judge-rules-for-chevron-in-ecuadorean-pollution-case.html\">found to be fraudulent\u003c/a>. It reprints text directly from Chevron’s Spanish-language \u003ca href=\"https://www.juiciocrudo.com/documentos/f8eda1d720.pdf\">press releases\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By contrast, \u003ca href=\"https://www.eloriente.com/\">El Oriente\u003c/a>, a Spanish-language digital outlet launched in 2019, presents itself as a news site aimed at audiences who reside in the Ecuadorian Amazon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until recently, it noted at the bottom of its page that it is “sponsored by Chevron.” Days after NPR and Floodlight started posing questions about Chevron’s sites, the affiliation was moved to the top, just beneath the site’s name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sites link to one another. Chevron says those sites are managed separately, not by Singer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In at least one instance, the controversies surrounding Chevron in Ecuador inspired fodder for the Standard back in Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014, Richmond’s then-mayor, \u003ca href=\"https://ci.richmond.ca.us/directory.aspx?EID=1070\">Gayle McLaughlin\u003c/a>, traveled to see Ecuador’s environmental degradation at a time when her party was seeking to force Chevron to pay more to the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after she returned home, the Standard’s Aldax reported: “The mayor’s six-day trip to Ecuador was in support [of] the South American nation in its ongoing battle against Chevron, which it falsely blames for polluting the rain forest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2014/06/11/richmond-mayor-gayle-mclaughlins-association-with-ecuadors-u-s-pr-firm-raises-questions/\">Aldax wrote\u003c/a> that McLaughlin was late in filing $4,499 in expenses for the trip, which had been paid for by the Ecuadorian government. The article embedded a \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/ugtMBkqmXbQ\">video \u003c/a>produced by The Amazon Post.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981106\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981106\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman wearing glasses and a purple shirt with design speaks and gestures with her hands next to a Black woman with locs and glasses.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gayle McLaughlin, then Richmond’s mayor, speaks onstage during a 2014 event in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Mike Windle/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was a rare instance of the Standard producing anything other than benign community news. She had to pay a $200 fine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, McLaughlin calls her misstep minor. She tells NPR and Floodlight she believes the story was intended as a warning to Chevron’s critics that it could embarrass them or just ignore them altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> will never, ever print anything that is critical of Chevron,” McLaughlin says, “and it will never print anything that upholds the community’s victories against Chevron. And we need to spread the word about those victories.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Expanding to Texas\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Chevron launched its latest newsroom, called Permian Proud, in the Permian Basin in August 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The site posts stories about West Texas and New Mexico. They are home to the nation’s highest-producing oil fields, where Chevron has substantial drilling interests — and where \u003ca href=\"https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/projects/state-of-local-news/explore/#/state-localnewslandscape?state=TX&stateCode=48\">local news has been hard hit\u003c/a>. Permian Proud explained its mission this way: “We aim to complement the important work of existing local media by providing hyper-local news you won’t find anywhere else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike California, Texas is a deeply red state with a broader base of support for the oil and gas industry. Even so, Chevron’s future there is similarly deeply reliant on the goodwill of residents and regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Over the past year and a half, Permian Proud has put a spotlight on national spelling bee contestants, the local arts community, nonprofit organizations, community events, high school sports, industry accomplishments, and much more,” Chevron spokesperson Catie Matthews wrote in a statement for this story. “Additionally, the platform has amplified coverage of local stories by other news outlets and provided a digital arm to some of our rural communities and smaller nonprofit organizations who would otherwise not have one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Permian Proud also promotes Chevron’s perspective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the articles on the site are rewritten press releases. For example, Permian Proud’s article “\u003ca href=\"https://permianproud.com/chevrons-permian-basin-operations-to-tap-into-more-recycled-water/\">Chevron’s Permian Basin operations to tap into more recycled water\u003c/a>” is almost identical to Chevron’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.chevron.com/newsroom/2022/q3/permian-basin-operations-to-tap-into-more-recycled-water#:~:text=We%20reached%20an%20agreement%20with,by%20the%20end%20of%202023.\">press release\u003c/a>. The original text read, “By using recycled water in our fracking operations, we help preserve fresh water and groundwater in drought-prone areas.” Permian Proud swapped “Chevron helps” for “we help.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the few listed bylines: Mike Aldax of Singer and \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981107\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981107\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with black hair and a greenish scarf outside stands in front of a mural with a microphone painted.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-2048x1362.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ramos says locals share news about Chevron by word of mouth because The Richmond Standard is “giving us the opposite of the truth.” \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Relying on word of mouth\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the absence of independent local news sources, Richmond residents say they rely on each other for accurate information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A husband-and-wife team started a small news site last year. A former mayor shares his thoughts about local politics in a newsletter. When school is in session, journalism students at the nearby University of California, Berkeley cover Richmond as part of their studies. A nonprofit group has held listening sessions about plans to extend a hyperlocal site to the area. And sometimes — when the news is big enough — San Francisco TV stations cross the bay to cover it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But mostly, there’s word of mouth. Activist Katt Ramos points to the February 2021 pipeline rupture. As Chevron publicly conceded, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11931168/chevron-agrees-to-pay-200000-for-2021-bay-fuel-spill-at-richmond-refinery\">resident spotted the tainted water\u003c/a> long before Chevron or any news outlet alerted the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of our news is really from me, gathered by our local kind of independent folks that go around covering things for us,” Ramos says. “Because we have to deal with publications like \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> that are giving us the opposite of the truth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Felicia Alvarez, Maria Fernanda Bernal and Richard Tzul of the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Chevron+owns+this+city%27s+news+site.+Many+stories+aren%27t+told&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11981095/chevron-owns-this-citys-news-site-many-stories-arent-told","authors":["byline_news_11981095"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_2036","news_424","news_579"],"affiliates":["news_253"],"featImg":"news_11981096","label":"news_253"},"news_11981111":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11981111","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11981111","score":null,"sort":[1711652416000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"california-law-enforcement-agencies-have-hindered-transparency-efforts-in-use-of-force-cases","title":"How California's Local Police Departments and Unions Hinder Access to Use-of-Force Cases","publishDate":1711652416,"format":"standard","headTitle":"How California’s Local Police Departments and Unions Hinder Access to Use-of-Force Cases | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>Despite laws intended to “pierce the secrecy” protecting California police officers, law enforcement agencies have thwarted those who seek information on cases of alleged misconduct — in some instances battling requesters in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And some basic personnel records — including complaints and disciplinary action against officers — are still hidden from the public, accessible only when a California judge grants access to them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California had at least 198 non-shooting deaths from 2012 through 2021 after police used force that isn’t supposed to be deadly — the most documented in any state in the nation, an investigation by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/associated-press-investigation-deaths-police-encounters-ba08cef07a4481bfb0e455dc33b9495d\">in conjunction with The Associated Press\u003c/a>, found. The \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/associated-press-investigation-deaths-police-encounters-02881a2bd3fbeb1fc31af9208bb0e310\">investigation identified 1,036 deaths\u003c/a> across the country during that time frame, though suppression of information means the numbers are likely an undercount.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While California is widely considered one of the most progressive states in the nation, local law enforcement officers for decades have had their on-duty actions veiled by some of the strongest privacy protections in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Police officers are given enormous power,” said David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for greater government transparency. “The public has an overwhelming interest in understanding and knowing why, how and when police officers exercised that extreme power.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California passed a series of bills in recent years designed to give the public the right to records related to certain actions by law enforcement officers. And law enforcement agencies across the state have since released previously confidential documents under an avalanche of records requests. However, attempts at greater transparency surrounding claims of police misconduct continue to be stymied by police departments and their unions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has been a challenge to enforce the law as written,” Loy said in an interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not saying all officers abuse their power,” he added. “But that is precisely what the public has a right to know and verify.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A ‘landmark bill’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 2018, the California Legislature passed Senate Bill 1421, opening for the first time certain records related to police misconduct, including investigations of officers involved in sexual assault, dishonesty and use-of-force incidents, such as shootings. Assembly Bill 748, also passed in 2018, made public video and audio recordings, including body-worn camera footage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the passage of these bills, government-created documents related to alleged or real misbehavior by police were supposed to be made available to anyone on request. The laws made public reports, investigations and records produced by police agencies or external investigating agencies, such as district attorneys, including interview transcripts, autopsy reports and disciplinary actions against officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"David Loy, legal director, First Amendment Coalition\"]‘I’m not saying all officers abuse their power. But that is precisely what the public has a right to know and verify.’[/pullquote]California state Sen. Nancy Skinner, who authored Senate Bill 1421, said it was intended to “help identify and prevent unjustified use of force, make officer misconduct an even rarer occurrence, and build trust in law enforcement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, media organizations hailed it as a “landmark bill,” and the American Civil Liberties Union said it would “pierce the secrecy that shrouds” law enforcement agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, when the new law took effect on Jan. 1, 2019, law enforcement agencies across California began receiving public records requests and responded with what Loy called “a campaign of massive resistance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Carlsbad Police Officers Association, for example, was one of several police unions and agencies that sued to block the release of records created before the new law took effect, arguing it did not retroactively apply to existing cases. The ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, where Loy was the legal director then, argued that the bill applied to records regardless of when they were created.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A San Diego County Superior Court Judge ruled against the police unions, joining several other similar court decisions that established records were releasable regardless of when they were created.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March 2019, a collaboration of California news outlets, computer scientists and lawyers joined together to request, litigate for, and report on the newly available police records. The California Reporting Project began with six newsrooms, including San Francisco-based KQED and the \u003cem>Los Angeles Times\u003c/em>. The collaborative has since grown to include dozens of member newsrooms, including The Associated Press and the Howard Centers for Investigative Journalism in Arizona and Maryland.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fighting denials\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When an agency denies a request, options are limited in appealing the denial. Some municipalities have special administrative processes, but in many cases, the only way forward is to file a lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Freedom of information laws are supposed to be self-executing in that you shouldn’t need to get a lawyer,” Loy said. “Not everyone can get access to legal counsel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skinner, in a 2021 report to the state Senate Committee on Public Safety, said some cities went as far as destroying records prior to the Jan. 1 effective date “to avoid producing responsive documents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11977145,news_11979576,news_11871364\"]At the time, records retention laws gave agencies the right to destroy complaint records that were more than five years old. Among the cities named by Skinner were Downey and Morgan Hill, whose representatives told the Howard Center the records were destroyed according to the cities’ retention schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skinner introduced her second bill, which became law in 2022, to broaden the types of police transparency records available to the public and to address some of the issues and confusion resulting from her first piece of legislation. The law expanded the categories of public information to include excessive use-of-force cases, as well as unlawful searches and arrests, failures to intervene against other officers who use unreasonable force, and cases in which police officers showed discrimination against certain people based on race, religion, sex or disability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law requires agencies to maintain complaints and any related reports or findings for at least five years if the complaints are determined to be unfounded — and at least 15 years if the findings are confirmed. The law also set a 45-day deadline for agencies to produce requested police records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But current law also states that records don’t need to be released for “pending” or “active” investigations, a provision experts say some agencies use to delay disclosure continually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, state lawmakers approved a measure that added other obstacles for people seeking records related to police misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A 2023 law made California’s Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training exempt from disclosing records related to officers’ personnel files, misconduct records and other investigative materials of decertification cases. The state previously had required the commission to make those records public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, through Jan. 1, 2027, the commission is forwarding such requests back to the officer’s department, essentially giving the decision to release records back to the local agencies that the release of any negative information could hurt. Civil rights and open government advocates had opposed the measure, arguing it would “deny promised transparency into the decertification process” and “take the state backward with respect to law enforcement transparency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When records aren’t specifically made disclosable by the new laws, agencies look to other state laws to determine whether to release officers’ records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Public Records Act, California’s body of law that covers the release of government information, gives law enforcement agencies broad latitude to keep records confidential based on their judgment that releasing the information “would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The Howard Center is an initiative of the Scripps Howard Fund in honor of the late news industry executive and pioneer Roy W. Howard. Contact us at howardcenter@asu.edu or on X (formerly Twitter)@HowardCenterASU.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"While California is considered one of the most progressive states in the U.S., local law enforcement officers have, for decades, veiled their on-duty actions with some of the strongest privacy protections in the country.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1711652848,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":31,"wordCount":1378},"headData":{"title":"How California's Local Police Departments and Unions Hinder Access to Use-of-Force Cases | KQED","description":"While California is considered one of the most progressive states in the U.S., local law enforcement officers have, for decades, veiled their on-duty actions with some of the strongest privacy protections in the country.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"sticky":false,"nprByline":"Tyler Dedrick\u003cbr>Associated Press and Howard Center for Investigative Journalism","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11981111/california-law-enforcement-agencies-have-hindered-transparency-efforts-in-use-of-force-cases","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Despite laws intended to “pierce the secrecy” protecting California police officers, law enforcement agencies have thwarted those who seek information on cases of alleged misconduct — in some instances battling requesters in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And some basic personnel records — including complaints and disciplinary action against officers — are still hidden from the public, accessible only when a California judge grants access to them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California had at least 198 non-shooting deaths from 2012 through 2021 after police used force that isn’t supposed to be deadly — the most documented in any state in the nation, an investigation by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/associated-press-investigation-deaths-police-encounters-ba08cef07a4481bfb0e455dc33b9495d\">in conjunction with The Associated Press\u003c/a>, found. The \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/associated-press-investigation-deaths-police-encounters-02881a2bd3fbeb1fc31af9208bb0e310\">investigation identified 1,036 deaths\u003c/a> across the country during that time frame, though suppression of information means the numbers are likely an undercount.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While California is widely considered one of the most progressive states in the nation, local law enforcement officers for decades have had their on-duty actions veiled by some of the strongest privacy protections in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Police officers are given enormous power,” said David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for greater government transparency. “The public has an overwhelming interest in understanding and knowing why, how and when police officers exercised that extreme power.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California passed a series of bills in recent years designed to give the public the right to records related to certain actions by law enforcement officers. And law enforcement agencies across the state have since released previously confidential documents under an avalanche of records requests. However, attempts at greater transparency surrounding claims of police misconduct continue to be stymied by police departments and their unions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has been a challenge to enforce the law as written,” Loy said in an interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not saying all officers abuse their power,” he added. “But that is precisely what the public has a right to know and verify.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A ‘landmark bill’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 2018, the California Legislature passed Senate Bill 1421, opening for the first time certain records related to police misconduct, including investigations of officers involved in sexual assault, dishonesty and use-of-force incidents, such as shootings. Assembly Bill 748, also passed in 2018, made public video and audio recordings, including body-worn camera footage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the passage of these bills, government-created documents related to alleged or real misbehavior by police were supposed to be made available to anyone on request. The laws made public reports, investigations and records produced by police agencies or external investigating agencies, such as district attorneys, including interview transcripts, autopsy reports and disciplinary actions against officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘I’m not saying all officers abuse their power. But that is precisely what the public has a right to know and verify.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"align":"right","size":"medium","citation":"David Loy, legal director, First Amendment Coalition","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>California state Sen. Nancy Skinner, who authored Senate Bill 1421, said it was intended to “help identify and prevent unjustified use of force, make officer misconduct an even rarer occurrence, and build trust in law enforcement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, media organizations hailed it as a “landmark bill,” and the American Civil Liberties Union said it would “pierce the secrecy that shrouds” law enforcement agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, when the new law took effect on Jan. 1, 2019, law enforcement agencies across California began receiving public records requests and responded with what Loy called “a campaign of massive resistance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Carlsbad Police Officers Association, for example, was one of several police unions and agencies that sued to block the release of records created before the new law took effect, arguing it did not retroactively apply to existing cases. The ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, where Loy was the legal director then, argued that the bill applied to records regardless of when they were created.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A San Diego County Superior Court Judge ruled against the police unions, joining several other similar court decisions that established records were releasable regardless of when they were created.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March 2019, a collaboration of California news outlets, computer scientists and lawyers joined together to request, litigate for, and report on the newly available police records. The California Reporting Project began with six newsrooms, including San Francisco-based KQED and the \u003cem>Los Angeles Times\u003c/em>. The collaborative has since grown to include dozens of member newsrooms, including The Associated Press and the Howard Centers for Investigative Journalism in Arizona and Maryland.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fighting denials\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When an agency denies a request, options are limited in appealing the denial. Some municipalities have special administrative processes, but in many cases, the only way forward is to file a lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Freedom of information laws are supposed to be self-executing in that you shouldn’t need to get a lawyer,” Loy said. “Not everyone can get access to legal counsel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skinner, in a 2021 report to the state Senate Committee on Public Safety, said some cities went as far as destroying records prior to the Jan. 1 effective date “to avoid producing responsive documents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"Related Stories ","postid":"news_11977145,news_11979576,news_11871364"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At the time, records retention laws gave agencies the right to destroy complaint records that were more than five years old. Among the cities named by Skinner were Downey and Morgan Hill, whose representatives told the Howard Center the records were destroyed according to the cities’ retention schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skinner introduced her second bill, which became law in 2022, to broaden the types of police transparency records available to the public and to address some of the issues and confusion resulting from her first piece of legislation. The law expanded the categories of public information to include excessive use-of-force cases, as well as unlawful searches and arrests, failures to intervene against other officers who use unreasonable force, and cases in which police officers showed discrimination against certain people based on race, religion, sex or disability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law requires agencies to maintain complaints and any related reports or findings for at least five years if the complaints are determined to be unfounded — and at least 15 years if the findings are confirmed. The law also set a 45-day deadline for agencies to produce requested police records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But current law also states that records don’t need to be released for “pending” or “active” investigations, a provision experts say some agencies use to delay disclosure continually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, state lawmakers approved a measure that added other obstacles for people seeking records related to police misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A 2023 law made California’s Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training exempt from disclosing records related to officers’ personnel files, misconduct records and other investigative materials of decertification cases. The state previously had required the commission to make those records public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, through Jan. 1, 2027, the commission is forwarding such requests back to the officer’s department, essentially giving the decision to release records back to the local agencies that the release of any negative information could hurt. Civil rights and open government advocates had opposed the measure, arguing it would “deny promised transparency into the decertification process” and “take the state backward with respect to law enforcement transparency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When records aren’t specifically made disclosable by the new laws, agencies look to other state laws to determine whether to release officers’ records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Public Records Act, California’s body of law that covers the release of government information, gives law enforcement agencies broad latitude to keep records confidential based on their judgment that releasing the information “would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The Howard Center is an initiative of the Scripps Howard Fund in honor of the late news industry executive and pioneer Roy W. Howard. Contact us at howardcenter@asu.edu or on X (formerly Twitter)@HowardCenterASU.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11981111/california-law-enforcement-agencies-have-hindered-transparency-efforts-in-use-of-force-cases","authors":["byline_news_11981111"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_30069","news_33136"],"featImg":"news_11981130","label":"news"},"news_11980987":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11980987","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11980987","score":null,"sort":[1711623606000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"newsoms-efforts-to-curb-jail-deaths-in-california-fall-flat-as-fentanyl-overdoses-spike","title":"California Jail Deaths Soar Despite Decrease in Number of People Incarcerated","publishDate":1711623606,"format":"standard","headTitle":"California Jail Deaths Soar Despite Decrease in Number of People Incarcerated | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":18481,"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>People are dying in custody at record rates across California. They’re dying in big jails and small jails, in red counties and blue counties, in rural holding cells and downtown mega-complexes. They’re dying from suicide, drug overdoses and the catch-all term natural causes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of jail deaths is up even though the number of people in jail is down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is aware. Reams of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2022/02/jail-deaths-california/\">reports from oversight agencies\u003c/a> have repeatedly pointed to problems in individual jails and the state board that oversees them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged almost \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/we-investigated-the-crisis-in-californias-jails-now-the-governor-calls-for-more-oversight\">five years ago\u003c/a> that the state would take a stronger hand to prevent deaths in the 57 jail systems run by California county sheriffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In every year since, more people have died in California jails than when Newsom made that pledge — hitting a high of 215 in 2022. Tulare, San Diego, Kern, Riverside and San Bernardino counties’ jails set records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Michele Deitch, professor, University of Texas School of Law\"]‘The vast majority of these deaths are preventable.’[/pullquote]Nor was the pandemic the driving factor: California in 2022 had the smallest share of deaths due to natural causes in the past four decades. A surge in overdoses drove the trend of increasing deaths. And almost every person who died was waiting to be tried. A \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2021/03/waiting-for-justice/\">previous CalMatters investigation\u003c/a> found that three-quarters of those held in county jails had not been convicted or sentenced, with many awaiting trial for more than three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A state board was supposed to implement measures to keep inmates safer. \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/california-jail-oversight-governor-gavin-newsom-budget\">Newsom committed to working through\u003c/a> that board when he said in 2020, “I’ve got a board that’s responsibility is oversight. I want to see them step things up.”\u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/california-jail-oversight-governor-gavin-newsom-budget\"> \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the years that followed, Newsom and the Board of State and Community Corrections were unable to slow the deaths. Until recently, the board was not even notified about deaths inside the county-run lockups, and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2020-102.pdf\">2021 State Auditor’s report\u003c/a> criticized the board for failing to enforce its own rules and standards on mental health checks and in-cell wellness checks of inmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has begun to take a somewhat stronger role.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The governor appointed a formerly incarcerated person to the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2024/03/california-jail-board/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Board of State and Community Corrections\u003c/a> and also signed a bill last year that added to it a licensed health care provider and a licensed mental or behavioral health care provider.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following through on his 2021 budget proposal to increase the frequency of jail inspections and allow the board to perform them unannounced, Newsom directed an additional $3.1 million each year to the oversight board. The board reported that last year, it conducted 31 unannounced jail inspections, \u003ca href=\"https://www.bscc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/inspectionprocess.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a change from past practice\u003c/a> when it would visit jails just once every two years and told jail authorities in advance when inspectors were coming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a new law in July will add a staff position to \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB519\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">review in-custody deaths\u003c/a>, a position to be appointed by Newsom and confirmed by the Senate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But critics say those steps have been insufficient. For instance, the original bill would have put jail death monitors in every county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980990\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/022924_Newsom-Prop-1_KC_CM_21.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980990\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/022924_Newsom-Prop-1_KC_CM_21.jpg\" alt=\"A white man in a business suit with his hands up by a podium stands next to two other men.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/022924_Newsom-Prop-1_KC_CM_21.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/022924_Newsom-Prop-1_KC_CM_21-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/022924_Newsom-Prop-1_KC_CM_21-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/022924_Newsom-Prop-1_KC_CM_21-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/022924_Newsom-Prop-1_KC_CM_21-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/022924_Newsom-Prop-1_KC_CM_21-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom, along with Attorney General Rob Bonta and Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, speaks in support of Proposition 1 during a press conference at the United Domestic Workers of America building in San Diego on Feb. 29, 2024. \u003ccite>(Kristian Carreon/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>CalMatters sent nine questions to the governor about jail deaths, the effectiveness of the state board, and his own 2021 pledge to strengthen jail oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s office did not answer the questions, instead sending a list of accomplishments reflecting “the Governor’s extensive record in this space.” Those mostly applied to his policies for state prisons, such as a death penalty moratorium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11975692,news_11980642,news_11945438\" label=\"Related Stories\"]When CalMatters asked him about high statewide jail deaths at a March 1 press conference in the Inland Empire, Newsom responded by saying:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The governor,” Newsom said, “just signed legislation to actually be able to create a point person specifically responsible for overseeing what’s happening in county jails, working with (Attorney General Rob Bonta), who’s also been advancing investigations. One very close to home here in Riverside County, related to 18 in-custody deaths in 2022 with the current sheriff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The officials with the greatest influence over what happens in jails — the state’s elected county sheriffs — say additional state oversight is unnecessary. California State Sheriffs’ Association president Mike Boudreaux, who is also the sheriff of Tulare County, said he already answers to a state oversight board, the state Justice Department, county grand juries, federal courts, state courts and the media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we see is that people criticize jails, they criticize sheriffs’ offices,” Boudreaux said. “And the reality of it is, they’ve never been inside a jail. They’ve never worked side-by-side with the sheriffs’ offices. They’ve never sat in meetings that we sit in to make sure that not only are we doing things right, we’re doing things that are for the safety and security of those inmates.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://calmatters-jail-deaths.netlify.app/chart?measure=deathCount&initialWidth=780&childId=pym_0&parentTitle=Deaths%20in%20California%20jails%20increase%20despite%20decline%20in%20inmates%20-%20CalMatters&parentUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fcalmatters.org%2Fjustice%2F2024%2F03%2Fdeath-in-california-jails%2F\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2011, California — as it thinned severely overcrowded state prisons by sending tens of thousands of recently convicted offenders to county-run jails — created an oversight board for prisons and jails. This 13-member Board of State and Community Corrections is composed mainly of people with law enforcement and probation experience. The governor appoints eight, with one each appointed by the Judicial Council of California, Speaker of the Assembly and Senate Rules Committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other two current board members are the state prison system’s chief and its director of parole operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board’s initial mission was to lend independent expertise to jails and prisons and act as a “data and information clearinghouse.” The board gives out $400 million each year to jails, prisons, tribes and community organizations. It also sets standards for correctional facilities, from the hourly checks performed on inmates to the time set aside for recreation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost immediately after its formation, the board was confronted with the limits of its powers: It lacked authority to mandate that all California sheriffs report their data, including in-custody deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That will change when the state board’s new reviewer of in-custody death starts this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked by CalMatters why more people are dying in California jails despite a declining jail population, Board of State and Community Corrections representative Adam A. Lwin responded, “The BSCC is not in a position to comment on this question with respect to deaths in jails.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Until the passage of (the new law adding a detention monitor), the BSCC did not have specific responsibilities related to deaths in custody, beyond inspecting for the local agency’s policy and procedures related to reporting on any death in custody,” Lwin wrote in response to CalMatters’ questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>So why are so many dying in California jails?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The reasons people are dying at record rates in California jails are a matter of circumstance, although in interviews with more than 70 people involved in California jail systems, from sheriffs and prosecutors to inmates and nurses, some patterns emerged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Natural causes have long accounted for the biggest share of jail deaths, followed by suicides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suicide prevention should be a higher priority for jail staff, said University of Texas School of Law professor Michele Deitch, who is among the nation’s foremost authorities on deaths in prisons and jails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The vast majority of these deaths are preventable,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The causes of a significant number of deaths in recent years are still pending — meaning that the sheriff’s office hasn’t yet identified the cause or the Justice Department hasn’t updated the cause in its data collection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the recent increase in deaths came from the third largest cause overall, accidental deaths, including fentanyl overdoses. Overdoses accounted for 43 deaths in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fentanyl overdoses present a far deadlier challenge now than the previous dominant drug in jails, methamphetamine. Other factors are the same ones Newsom cited a few years ago: suicide, failures in health care or psychiatric evaluations and, less commonly, violence among inmates or by jail guards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980995\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH_CM_19.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980995\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH_CM_19.jpg\" alt='A young woman sits on steps with a sign that says \"Justice 4 Michael\" with several images of a man.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH_CM_19.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH_CM_19-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH_CM_19-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH_CM_19-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH_CM_19-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH_CM_19-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters hold signs outside the John F. Tavaglione Executive Annex/Riverside County Board of Supervisors building on Oct. 31, 2023, to protest recent jail deaths in Riverside County. \u003ccite>(Jules Hotz/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Shannon Dicus, San Bernardino County’s Sheriff and a member of the Board of State and Community Corrections said the rise in deaths in part reflects trends that are unfolding outside of jails, including an overstretched mental health system and widespread use of potentially deadly opiates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For his deputies, a persistent issue is people who know they are in violation of their probation terms hiding drugs in their bodies before they’re returned to jail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980993\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823-Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_15.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980993\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823-Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_15.jpg\" alt=\"A jail facility with two rows of doors, tables and a television.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823-Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_15.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823-Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_15-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823-Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_15-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823-Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_15-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823-Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_15-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823-Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_15-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A row of cells in an inmate housing unit at the Tulare County Adult Pre-Trial Facility on Sept. 18, 2023. Last year, Tulare County set a record of eight inmate deaths in their facility. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“So a lot of these folks are secreting opiates in their rectum,” Dicus said. “We run dogs through. We do a number of things. We’re spending $250,000 on body scanners. And what happens is some of these people, they’ll have it in their bodies, where we can’t detect it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They go into the jail; they get housed in their general housing assignment, and then all of a sudden, I have seven fentanyl overdoses. And that’s the truth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dicus said jails also find letters sent to inmates in the mail that were dipped in diluted fentanyl or methamphetamine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://calmatters-jail-deaths.netlify.app/chart?measure=rate&initialWidth=780&childId=pym_1&parentTitle=Deaths%20in%20California%20jails%20increase%20despite%20decline%20in%20inmates%20-%20CalMatters&parentUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fcalmatters.org%2Fjustice%2F2024%2F03%2Fdeath-in-california-jails%2F\" width=\"850\" height=\"420\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But sometimes, the jail-keepers themselves are responsible. During the pandemic, when jails were closed to visitors, drugs still found a way in. Jail deputies in \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-09-18/riverside-jail-deputy-suspected-of-sell-more-than-40-pounds-of-narcotics\">Riverside\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://kmph.com/news/local/juvenile-corrections-officer-arrested-for-smuggling-drugs-into-jail-in-fresno-county\">Fresno \u003c/a>counties have been charged with drug smuggling, and an \u003ca href=\"https://cao-94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/Item-7c-Grand.Jury.Report.2022.pdf\">Alameda County civil grand jury \u003c/a>found that a private jail contractor fired the medical director of the county’s \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2021/09/03/alameda-county-santa-rita-jail-medical-director-fired-wellpath-drugs-vaccination-covid/\">jails\u003c/a> for writing fake prescriptions to obtain opioids for herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980997\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/10242023_Sabrina-Weddle_AH_CM_20.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980997\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/10242023_Sabrina-Weddle_AH_CM_20.jpg\" alt='A woman walks down he street with a black sign that says \"Being Homeless is Not a Crime or a Death Sentence.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/10242023_Sabrina-Weddle_AH_CM_20.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/10242023_Sabrina-Weddle_AH_CM_20-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/10242023_Sabrina-Weddle_AH_CM_20-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/10242023_Sabrina-Weddle_AH_CM_20-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/10242023_Sabrina-Weddle_AH_CM_20-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/10242023_Sabrina-Weddle_AH_CM_20-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sabrina Weddle protests in front of the San Diego Central Jail in San Diego on Oct. 24, 2023. Waddle’s brother, Saxon Rodriguez, died in custody at the jail after overdosing on fentanyl in 2021. \u003ccite>(Adriana Heldiz/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sheriffs have sometimes resisted outside pressure to monitor their employees more closely. In San Diego County jails, where, according to Justice Department statistics, 47 people died between 2021 and 2023, Sheriff Kelly Martinez and her predecessor have \u003ca href=\"https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/dam/sdc/clerb/docs/SDSO-PR-Responses/20223/Att.X-PR%20Response-Body%20Scan%20Staff.pdf\">repeatedly refused \u003c/a>requests from the local civilian law enforcement review board to put her deputies through scanners before they start their shifts. Two jail deputies pleaded guilty to drug-related charges last year, one for burglary of medication from a jail \u003ca href=\"https://www.sdsheriff.gov/Home/Components/News/News/1729/514\">prescription medication drop-off box\u003c/a> and the other for \u003ca href=\"https://www.sdsheriff.gov/Home/Components/News/News/1796/\">possession of cocaine on jail property.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Burned-out jail medical staff\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jails could do a better job beginning at intake and reception, said Corene Kendrick, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project. She noted that people who have been arrested often are asked deeply personal questions about their substance use and history of self-harm within earshot of jail deputies and other inmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If they don’t disclose that they have drug or alcohol dependency — perhaps fearing that will lead to more charges — Kendrick said the immediate cutoff could pose an enormous health risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And for people who are on psychiatric medication but don’t like the side effects or don’t want to disclose their condition, the cessation of their medication can send their mental health into a tailspin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pandemic also badly dented jails’ ability to provide quality health care, critics contend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When jails reopened to their regular capacity, Kendrick said, the arrival of new inmates and the resignations of burned-out health care workers stressed the systems beyond their breaking points. “A lot of jails have said that they’re having problems with correctional and health care staff who quit during the pandemic,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those was Dr. Lauren Wolchok, who worked in Los Angeles County jails from 2016 to 2021. Before and during the pandemic, she said, the number of opioid-dependent patients she saw skyrocketed. But those jails strictly restricted opioid treatment, she said, confining it to a small subset of the population that needed it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was not able to offer the kind of medical care that I wanted to be able to offer, and that contributed to burnout for me,” Wolchok said. “I had long struggled with the existential crisis of, am I doing more harm than good by working in this terrible setting or am I sort of fighting against the system and getting people care that they otherwise wouldn’t have?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Especially as the quality of the care that I felt I was delivering declined, it became harder and harder for me personally to decide that I was fighting the good fight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drug overdoses, insufficient medical treatment, suicides — more stringent policies could minimize all of those causes of jail deaths. Academics, inmates and their advocates suggest scanning jail workers for drugs, providing a ready supply of the opioid-blocking naloxone nasal spray, ensuring inmates go through intake in a more private area, performing more frequent checks of inmates, and instituting local oversight boards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those decisions fall to one person: The county sheriff.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>An overdose? Or a heart attack?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some of California’s deadliest jails are in Riverside County, where 45 people have died since Jan. 1, 2021. One of them was Richard Matus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matus knew he wasn’t feeling well days before he died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In journals he kept during his incarceration, which his family provided to CalMatters along with his medical records, Matus complained of feeling ill and receiving no medical help in jail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Its hard to deal with being treated as a sick animal an feeling like im just waiting to die,” he wrote in one entry. “Iv put in medical slips to see a doctor because I felt sick, very dizzy, bad head ack, felt like I was running fever and completely lost my sense of smell witch was really weird. They never followed up I believe it was twice I put in medical slips an no response so I gave up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matus, whose family said he hadn’t used drugs besides marijuana before his incarceration, was found dead in his cell on Aug. 10, 2022, of a fentanyl overdose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980991\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1577px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/031224-Matus-Riverside-County-Coroner-CM-01.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980991\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/031224-Matus-Riverside-County-Coroner-CM-01.jpg\" alt=\"An illustration of a death record letter.\" width=\"1577\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/031224-Matus-Riverside-County-Coroner-CM-01.jpg 1577w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/031224-Matus-Riverside-County-Coroner-CM-01-800x1015.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/031224-Matus-Riverside-County-Coroner-CM-01-1020x1294.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/031224-Matus-Riverside-County-Coroner-CM-01-160x203.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/031224-Matus-Riverside-County-Coroner-CM-01-1211x1536.jpg 1211w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1577px) 100vw, 1577px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department coroner’s death record for Richard Matus Jr. \u003ccite>(Illustration by Miguel Gutierrez Jr./CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a lawsuit filed in March 2023, Matus’ family alleges that Matus was lucid and communicative on the phone with his mother, Lisa, hours before his death. They allege that his “dire need for emergency medical intervention went unnoticed by the (jail’s) custody staff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An autopsy conducted eight hours after Matus’ death found something else. His left anterior descending artery, which provides half the heart’s blood supply and is known colloquially as “the widowmaker,” was 80% to 90% blocked. A medical form filled out by Matus on Sept. 26, 2021, indicated that a doctor told him his cholesterol and blood pressure were far above normal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every time he complained to that (jail medical) office, they gave him cholesterol pills and told him to lose weight,” Matus’ mother, Lisa, told CalMatters. “They never sent him to the hospital, even though his blood pressure and cholesterol was (above normal). The whole time, he needed medical care, and they just ignored him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That contention became part of the family’s lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Due to the great delays in securing adequate emergency medical attention for Richard Matus, Jr., and the failures on behalf of the (jail’s) custody staff in performing the required safety and welfare checks,” Matus’ family wrote in the lawsuit, “Mr. Matus did not respond to medical intervention and died.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office responded to the lawsuit by denying all liability and said that Matus’ death was his own doing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980996\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH-CM-20.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980996\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH-CM-20.jpg\" alt=\"Five adults with two babies being held stand outside a building holding signs and images of a man.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH-CM-20.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH-CM-20-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH-CM-20-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH-CM-20-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH-CM-20-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH-CM-20-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The family of Richard Matus Jr. stands outside the John F. Tavaglione Executive Annex with memorial photos of Richard, who died in custody of the Riverside Sheriff’s Department in Riverside County. \u003ccite>(Jules Hotz / CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“If Plaintiffs sustained any injury or damages,” they wrote, “such injury or damages were solely caused or contributed to by the wrongful conduct of other entities or persons other than the answer Defendants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some sheriffs have changed their practices to avoid in-custody deaths. Others say they’re looking for solutions. But Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has instead taken an adversarial approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Criticism of his policy and practices, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressenterprise.com/2023/10/20/riverside-county-sheriffs-department-again-under-fire-for-jail-inmate-deaths/\">Bianco told the \u003cem>Riverside Press-Enterprise\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, are a “political publicity stunt of the far left.” He did not answer questions from CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After an inmate died in 2022, the \u003cem>Riverside Press-Enterprise\u003c/em> posted an interview with Bianco. In the comments under the story, someone who identified himself as Bianco interacted with commenters, referring to the demands of people whose family members had died in his jails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Did they demand their family members not commit suicide or consume drugs while they were in custody?” he wrote. “Did they ever demand that their family members not commit crimes in the first place? Did their parents ever demand that they take responsibility for their own actions?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ACLU sent a letter in September 2021 demanding that the state investigate Riverside County jails. In 2022, another 19 people died, including Matus. After the ACLU wrote again demanding an inquiry by the state’s jail oversight board in early 2023, Attorney General Rob Bonta launched an investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Justice Department refused to answer any questions about its investigation. Bianco did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This announcement comes as a shock but at the same time should have been expected from our California DOJ and the attorney general who cares more about politics than he does about transparency and the truth,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ttMVVLyfaQ\">Bianco said in a video\u003c/a> the day the investigation was announced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This investigation is based on nothing but false and misleading statements and straight-out lies from activists, including their attorneys. This will prove to be a complete waste of time and resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘All we’re doing is making recommendations to sheriffs’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The attorney general has two open investigations into jails, one in Riverside County and one in Santa Clara County. However, the organization charged with overseeing the day-to-day operations of California’s jails is the Board of State and Community Corrections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board can wield significant power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it \u003ca href=\"https://www.bscc.ca.gov/news/bscc-finds-la-juvenile-halls-unsuitable/\">repeatedly found the Los Angeles juvenile hall\u003c/a> was unsuitable for housing last year, it shut down the system and directed the county probation department to find new housing for about 300 young people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that was an exception.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Feb. 9, 2023, board meeting turned contentious regarding the Riverside County jail system, the 15th-largest in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Avalon Edwards, a policy associate of Riverside-based social justice organization Starting Over Inc., said the board was not enforcing its own standards of inmate care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If (Riverside County) can kill 20 people in 13 months and fail to provide any information to the families impacted, fail to report those deaths to the DOJ within the 10-day mandated reporting period, continue to lie to the public about the cause of death for all these people,” he said, “what are those minimum standards accomplishing?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Edwards urged the board to withhold funding from noncompliant departments or, if they wouldn’t, he asked every board member to resign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://calmatters-jail-deaths.netlify.app/chart?measure=medianAdpTotal&initialWidth=780&childId=pym_2&parentTitle=Deaths%20in%20California%20jails%20increase%20despite%20decline%20in%20inmates%20-%20CalMatters&parentUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fcalmatters.org%2Fjustice%2F2024%2F03%2Fdeath-in-california-jails%2F\" width=\"850\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics argue that the board cannot regulate jails effectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is not set up with the kind of enforcement power, or teeth, to be able to meaningfully hold accountable agencies that are failing to comply with standards,” recently recalled San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin told CalMatters. “So that’s one problem. And I don’t say that as a criticism of the organization or the people there so much as of the structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean, it doesn’t have the ability to actually impose remedies even when it is aware of violations,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4371\">Two independent state oversight agencies also have found fault with the board and the jail system\u003c/a>. The Legislative Analyst’s Office found in 2021 that the board’s effectiveness is hard to judge because it’s unclear what the board’s mission is. It said this “undermines the Legislature’s ability to assess whether the program is \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4371\">operating effectively and is consistent with Legislative priorities\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The State Auditor’s Office, meanwhile, \u003ca href=\"https://www.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2021-109.pdf\">zeroed in on San Diego County jails\u003c/a> in February 2022. It found that the San Diego Sheriff’s Department failed to prevent deaths in its jails and that its practices “likely contributed to in‑custody deaths.” The auditor’s office also found fault with the state corrections board, saying its jail regulations are inconsistent and its answers to the audit were “deficient or misleading.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even one member of the state corrections board feels the board’s hands are tied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All we’re doing is making recommendations to sheriffs,” said board member Norma Cumpian. “You’re like, hey, 20 people have died in your jails. We recommend that you, you know, report it quicker. Like, that’s not a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980992\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823_Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_07.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980992\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823_Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_07.jpg\" alt=\"A closeup of a patch on a person's arm that says "Tulare County Sheriff."\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823_Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_07.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823_Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_07-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823_Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_07-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823_Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_07-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823_Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_07-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823_Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_07-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Tulare County Sheriff stands guard at an inmate housing unit at the Tulare County Adult Pre-Trial Facility on Sept. 18, 2023. Last year, Tulare County set a record of eight inmate deaths in their facility. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cumpian, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/article262080442.html\">a former inmate\u003c/a> who served nearly 20 years in prison for killing her abusive partner, said she often senses indifference or complacency from her colleagues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for plans to add a detention monitor, a dubious Cumpian said, “I don’t know, this bill is supposed to release reports to the public. Like, what is that gonna do?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dicus, the San Bernardino sheriff who operates the seventh-largest jail system in the U.S., doesn’t see a problem with how the oversight board operates. He said the oversight board is doing its job in accordance with its mission: assessing the policies and procedures of the jails it oversees while ensuring facilities are up to code.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the blame for in-custody deaths extends beyond the jails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Locally, try getting some help,” Dicus said. “Our local department of behavioral health, and this is not me throwing stones at them, but they’re 9 to 5. We live in a 24/7 environment where people are in crisis. And the crisis that we’re experiencing, the cops are there 24/7, but we need some of these other service providers to have the same level of response.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the state has to rethink how it operates the social safety net at the county level, especially for mental health and substance abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just typically this is the way we’ve handled everything, and we need to break out of that,” he said. “I think we need kind of a statewide revisit of what’s working and what’s not.”\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Soon after becoming governor, Gavin Newsom pledged to address the rise in jail deaths. Since then, fentanyl overdoses and suicides have boosted those rates to historic highs.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1711652153,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":true,"iframeSrcs":["https://calmatters-jail-deaths.netlify.app/chart"],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":97,"wordCount":4053},"headData":{"title":"California Jail Deaths Soar Despite Decrease in Number of People Incarcerated | KQED","description":"Soon after becoming governor, Gavin Newsom pledged to address the rise in jail deaths. Since then, fentanyl overdoses and suicides have boosted those rates to historic highs.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"sticky":false,"nprByline":"Nigel Duara and Jeremia Kimelman","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11980987/newsoms-efforts-to-curb-jail-deaths-in-california-fall-flat-as-fentanyl-overdoses-spike","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>People are dying in custody at record rates across California. They’re dying in big jails and small jails, in red counties and blue counties, in rural holding cells and downtown mega-complexes. They’re dying from suicide, drug overdoses and the catch-all term natural causes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of jail deaths is up even though the number of people in jail is down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is aware. Reams of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2022/02/jail-deaths-california/\">reports from oversight agencies\u003c/a> have repeatedly pointed to problems in individual jails and the state board that oversees them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged almost \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/we-investigated-the-crisis-in-californias-jails-now-the-governor-calls-for-more-oversight\">five years ago\u003c/a> that the state would take a stronger hand to prevent deaths in the 57 jail systems run by California county sheriffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In every year since, more people have died in California jails than when Newsom made that pledge — hitting a high of 215 in 2022. Tulare, San Diego, Kern, Riverside and San Bernardino counties’ jails set records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘The vast majority of these deaths are preventable.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Michele Deitch, professor, University of Texas School of Law","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Nor was the pandemic the driving factor: California in 2022 had the smallest share of deaths due to natural causes in the past four decades. A surge in overdoses drove the trend of increasing deaths. And almost every person who died was waiting to be tried. A \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2021/03/waiting-for-justice/\">previous CalMatters investigation\u003c/a> found that three-quarters of those held in county jails had not been convicted or sentenced, with many awaiting trial for more than three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A state board was supposed to implement measures to keep inmates safer. \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/california-jail-oversight-governor-gavin-newsom-budget\">Newsom committed to working through\u003c/a> that board when he said in 2020, “I’ve got a board that’s responsibility is oversight. I want to see them step things up.”\u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/california-jail-oversight-governor-gavin-newsom-budget\"> \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the years that followed, Newsom and the Board of State and Community Corrections were unable to slow the deaths. Until recently, the board was not even notified about deaths inside the county-run lockups, and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2020-102.pdf\">2021 State Auditor’s report\u003c/a> criticized the board for failing to enforce its own rules and standards on mental health checks and in-cell wellness checks of inmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has begun to take a somewhat stronger role.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The governor appointed a formerly incarcerated person to the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2024/03/california-jail-board/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Board of State and Community Corrections\u003c/a> and also signed a bill last year that added to it a licensed health care provider and a licensed mental or behavioral health care provider.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following through on his 2021 budget proposal to increase the frequency of jail inspections and allow the board to perform them unannounced, Newsom directed an additional $3.1 million each year to the oversight board. The board reported that last year, it conducted 31 unannounced jail inspections, \u003ca href=\"https://www.bscc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/inspectionprocess.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a change from past practice\u003c/a> when it would visit jails just once every two years and told jail authorities in advance when inspectors were coming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a new law in July will add a staff position to \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB519\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">review in-custody deaths\u003c/a>, a position to be appointed by Newsom and confirmed by the Senate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But critics say those steps have been insufficient. For instance, the original bill would have put jail death monitors in every county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980990\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/022924_Newsom-Prop-1_KC_CM_21.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980990\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/022924_Newsom-Prop-1_KC_CM_21.jpg\" alt=\"A white man in a business suit with his hands up by a podium stands next to two other men.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/022924_Newsom-Prop-1_KC_CM_21.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/022924_Newsom-Prop-1_KC_CM_21-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/022924_Newsom-Prop-1_KC_CM_21-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/022924_Newsom-Prop-1_KC_CM_21-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/022924_Newsom-Prop-1_KC_CM_21-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/022924_Newsom-Prop-1_KC_CM_21-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom, along with Attorney General Rob Bonta and Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, speaks in support of Proposition 1 during a press conference at the United Domestic Workers of America building in San Diego on Feb. 29, 2024. \u003ccite>(Kristian Carreon/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>CalMatters sent nine questions to the governor about jail deaths, the effectiveness of the state board, and his own 2021 pledge to strengthen jail oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s office did not answer the questions, instead sending a list of accomplishments reflecting “the Governor’s extensive record in this space.” Those mostly applied to his policies for state prisons, such as a death penalty moratorium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11975692,news_11980642,news_11945438","label":"Related Stories "},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>When CalMatters asked him about high statewide jail deaths at a March 1 press conference in the Inland Empire, Newsom responded by saying:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The governor,” Newsom said, “just signed legislation to actually be able to create a point person specifically responsible for overseeing what’s happening in county jails, working with (Attorney General Rob Bonta), who’s also been advancing investigations. One very close to home here in Riverside County, related to 18 in-custody deaths in 2022 with the current sheriff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The officials with the greatest influence over what happens in jails — the state’s elected county sheriffs — say additional state oversight is unnecessary. California State Sheriffs’ Association president Mike Boudreaux, who is also the sheriff of Tulare County, said he already answers to a state oversight board, the state Justice Department, county grand juries, federal courts, state courts and the media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we see is that people criticize jails, they criticize sheriffs’ offices,” Boudreaux said. “And the reality of it is, they’ve never been inside a jail. They’ve never worked side-by-side with the sheriffs’ offices. They’ve never sat in meetings that we sit in to make sure that not only are we doing things right, we’re doing things that are for the safety and security of those inmates.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://calmatters-jail-deaths.netlify.app/chart?measure=deathCount&initialWidth=780&childId=pym_0&parentTitle=Deaths%20in%20California%20jails%20increase%20despite%20decline%20in%20inmates%20-%20CalMatters&parentUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fcalmatters.org%2Fjustice%2F2024%2F03%2Fdeath-in-california-jails%2F\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2011, California — as it thinned severely overcrowded state prisons by sending tens of thousands of recently convicted offenders to county-run jails — created an oversight board for prisons and jails. This 13-member Board of State and Community Corrections is composed mainly of people with law enforcement and probation experience. The governor appoints eight, with one each appointed by the Judicial Council of California, Speaker of the Assembly and Senate Rules Committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other two current board members are the state prison system’s chief and its director of parole operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board’s initial mission was to lend independent expertise to jails and prisons and act as a “data and information clearinghouse.” The board gives out $400 million each year to jails, prisons, tribes and community organizations. It also sets standards for correctional facilities, from the hourly checks performed on inmates to the time set aside for recreation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost immediately after its formation, the board was confronted with the limits of its powers: It lacked authority to mandate that all California sheriffs report their data, including in-custody deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That will change when the state board’s new reviewer of in-custody death starts this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked by CalMatters why more people are dying in California jails despite a declining jail population, Board of State and Community Corrections representative Adam A. Lwin responded, “The BSCC is not in a position to comment on this question with respect to deaths in jails.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Until the passage of (the new law adding a detention monitor), the BSCC did not have specific responsibilities related to deaths in custody, beyond inspecting for the local agency’s policy and procedures related to reporting on any death in custody,” Lwin wrote in response to CalMatters’ questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>So why are so many dying in California jails?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The reasons people are dying at record rates in California jails are a matter of circumstance, although in interviews with more than 70 people involved in California jail systems, from sheriffs and prosecutors to inmates and nurses, some patterns emerged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Natural causes have long accounted for the biggest share of jail deaths, followed by suicides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suicide prevention should be a higher priority for jail staff, said University of Texas School of Law professor Michele Deitch, who is among the nation’s foremost authorities on deaths in prisons and jails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The vast majority of these deaths are preventable,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The causes of a significant number of deaths in recent years are still pending — meaning that the sheriff’s office hasn’t yet identified the cause or the Justice Department hasn’t updated the cause in its data collection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the recent increase in deaths came from the third largest cause overall, accidental deaths, including fentanyl overdoses. Overdoses accounted for 43 deaths in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fentanyl overdoses present a far deadlier challenge now than the previous dominant drug in jails, methamphetamine. Other factors are the same ones Newsom cited a few years ago: suicide, failures in health care or psychiatric evaluations and, less commonly, violence among inmates or by jail guards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980995\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH_CM_19.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980995\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH_CM_19.jpg\" alt='A young woman sits on steps with a sign that says \"Justice 4 Michael\" with several images of a man.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH_CM_19.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH_CM_19-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH_CM_19-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH_CM_19-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH_CM_19-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH_CM_19-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters hold signs outside the John F. Tavaglione Executive Annex/Riverside County Board of Supervisors building on Oct. 31, 2023, to protest recent jail deaths in Riverside County. \u003ccite>(Jules Hotz/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Shannon Dicus, San Bernardino County’s Sheriff and a member of the Board of State and Community Corrections said the rise in deaths in part reflects trends that are unfolding outside of jails, including an overstretched mental health system and widespread use of potentially deadly opiates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For his deputies, a persistent issue is people who know they are in violation of their probation terms hiding drugs in their bodies before they’re returned to jail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980993\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823-Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_15.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980993\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823-Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_15.jpg\" alt=\"A jail facility with two rows of doors, tables and a television.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823-Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_15.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823-Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_15-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823-Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_15-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823-Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_15-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823-Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_15-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823-Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_15-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A row of cells in an inmate housing unit at the Tulare County Adult Pre-Trial Facility on Sept. 18, 2023. Last year, Tulare County set a record of eight inmate deaths in their facility. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“So a lot of these folks are secreting opiates in their rectum,” Dicus said. “We run dogs through. We do a number of things. We’re spending $250,000 on body scanners. And what happens is some of these people, they’ll have it in their bodies, where we can’t detect it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They go into the jail; they get housed in their general housing assignment, and then all of a sudden, I have seven fentanyl overdoses. And that’s the truth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dicus said jails also find letters sent to inmates in the mail that were dipped in diluted fentanyl or methamphetamine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://calmatters-jail-deaths.netlify.app/chart?measure=rate&initialWidth=780&childId=pym_1&parentTitle=Deaths%20in%20California%20jails%20increase%20despite%20decline%20in%20inmates%20-%20CalMatters&parentUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fcalmatters.org%2Fjustice%2F2024%2F03%2Fdeath-in-california-jails%2F\" width=\"850\" height=\"420\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But sometimes, the jail-keepers themselves are responsible. During the pandemic, when jails were closed to visitors, drugs still found a way in. Jail deputies in \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-09-18/riverside-jail-deputy-suspected-of-sell-more-than-40-pounds-of-narcotics\">Riverside\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://kmph.com/news/local/juvenile-corrections-officer-arrested-for-smuggling-drugs-into-jail-in-fresno-county\">Fresno \u003c/a>counties have been charged with drug smuggling, and an \u003ca href=\"https://cao-94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/Item-7c-Grand.Jury.Report.2022.pdf\">Alameda County civil grand jury \u003c/a>found that a private jail contractor fired the medical director of the county’s \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2021/09/03/alameda-county-santa-rita-jail-medical-director-fired-wellpath-drugs-vaccination-covid/\">jails\u003c/a> for writing fake prescriptions to obtain opioids for herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980997\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/10242023_Sabrina-Weddle_AH_CM_20.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980997\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/10242023_Sabrina-Weddle_AH_CM_20.jpg\" alt='A woman walks down he street with a black sign that says \"Being Homeless is Not a Crime or a Death Sentence.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/10242023_Sabrina-Weddle_AH_CM_20.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/10242023_Sabrina-Weddle_AH_CM_20-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/10242023_Sabrina-Weddle_AH_CM_20-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/10242023_Sabrina-Weddle_AH_CM_20-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/10242023_Sabrina-Weddle_AH_CM_20-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/10242023_Sabrina-Weddle_AH_CM_20-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sabrina Weddle protests in front of the San Diego Central Jail in San Diego on Oct. 24, 2023. Waddle’s brother, Saxon Rodriguez, died in custody at the jail after overdosing on fentanyl in 2021. \u003ccite>(Adriana Heldiz/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sheriffs have sometimes resisted outside pressure to monitor their employees more closely. In San Diego County jails, where, according to Justice Department statistics, 47 people died between 2021 and 2023, Sheriff Kelly Martinez and her predecessor have \u003ca href=\"https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/dam/sdc/clerb/docs/SDSO-PR-Responses/20223/Att.X-PR%20Response-Body%20Scan%20Staff.pdf\">repeatedly refused \u003c/a>requests from the local civilian law enforcement review board to put her deputies through scanners before they start their shifts. Two jail deputies pleaded guilty to drug-related charges last year, one for burglary of medication from a jail \u003ca href=\"https://www.sdsheriff.gov/Home/Components/News/News/1729/514\">prescription medication drop-off box\u003c/a> and the other for \u003ca href=\"https://www.sdsheriff.gov/Home/Components/News/News/1796/\">possession of cocaine on jail property.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Burned-out jail medical staff\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jails could do a better job beginning at intake and reception, said Corene Kendrick, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project. She noted that people who have been arrested often are asked deeply personal questions about their substance use and history of self-harm within earshot of jail deputies and other inmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If they don’t disclose that they have drug or alcohol dependency — perhaps fearing that will lead to more charges — Kendrick said the immediate cutoff could pose an enormous health risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And for people who are on psychiatric medication but don’t like the side effects or don’t want to disclose their condition, the cessation of their medication can send their mental health into a tailspin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pandemic also badly dented jails’ ability to provide quality health care, critics contend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When jails reopened to their regular capacity, Kendrick said, the arrival of new inmates and the resignations of burned-out health care workers stressed the systems beyond their breaking points. “A lot of jails have said that they’re having problems with correctional and health care staff who quit during the pandemic,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those was Dr. Lauren Wolchok, who worked in Los Angeles County jails from 2016 to 2021. Before and during the pandemic, she said, the number of opioid-dependent patients she saw skyrocketed. But those jails strictly restricted opioid treatment, she said, confining it to a small subset of the population that needed it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was not able to offer the kind of medical care that I wanted to be able to offer, and that contributed to burnout for me,” Wolchok said. “I had long struggled with the existential crisis of, am I doing more harm than good by working in this terrible setting or am I sort of fighting against the system and getting people care that they otherwise wouldn’t have?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Especially as the quality of the care that I felt I was delivering declined, it became harder and harder for me personally to decide that I was fighting the good fight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drug overdoses, insufficient medical treatment, suicides — more stringent policies could minimize all of those causes of jail deaths. Academics, inmates and their advocates suggest scanning jail workers for drugs, providing a ready supply of the opioid-blocking naloxone nasal spray, ensuring inmates go through intake in a more private area, performing more frequent checks of inmates, and instituting local oversight boards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those decisions fall to one person: The county sheriff.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>An overdose? Or a heart attack?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some of California’s deadliest jails are in Riverside County, where 45 people have died since Jan. 1, 2021. One of them was Richard Matus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matus knew he wasn’t feeling well days before he died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In journals he kept during his incarceration, which his family provided to CalMatters along with his medical records, Matus complained of feeling ill and receiving no medical help in jail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Its hard to deal with being treated as a sick animal an feeling like im just waiting to die,” he wrote in one entry. “Iv put in medical slips to see a doctor because I felt sick, very dizzy, bad head ack, felt like I was running fever and completely lost my sense of smell witch was really weird. They never followed up I believe it was twice I put in medical slips an no response so I gave up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matus, whose family said he hadn’t used drugs besides marijuana before his incarceration, was found dead in his cell on Aug. 10, 2022, of a fentanyl overdose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980991\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1577px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/031224-Matus-Riverside-County-Coroner-CM-01.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980991\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/031224-Matus-Riverside-County-Coroner-CM-01.jpg\" alt=\"An illustration of a death record letter.\" width=\"1577\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/031224-Matus-Riverside-County-Coroner-CM-01.jpg 1577w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/031224-Matus-Riverside-County-Coroner-CM-01-800x1015.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/031224-Matus-Riverside-County-Coroner-CM-01-1020x1294.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/031224-Matus-Riverside-County-Coroner-CM-01-160x203.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/031224-Matus-Riverside-County-Coroner-CM-01-1211x1536.jpg 1211w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1577px) 100vw, 1577px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department coroner’s death record for Richard Matus Jr. \u003ccite>(Illustration by Miguel Gutierrez Jr./CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a lawsuit filed in March 2023, Matus’ family alleges that Matus was lucid and communicative on the phone with his mother, Lisa, hours before his death. They allege that his “dire need for emergency medical intervention went unnoticed by the (jail’s) custody staff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An autopsy conducted eight hours after Matus’ death found something else. His left anterior descending artery, which provides half the heart’s blood supply and is known colloquially as “the widowmaker,” was 80% to 90% blocked. A medical form filled out by Matus on Sept. 26, 2021, indicated that a doctor told him his cholesterol and blood pressure were far above normal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every time he complained to that (jail medical) office, they gave him cholesterol pills and told him to lose weight,” Matus’ mother, Lisa, told CalMatters. “They never sent him to the hospital, even though his blood pressure and cholesterol was (above normal). The whole time, he needed medical care, and they just ignored him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That contention became part of the family’s lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Due to the great delays in securing adequate emergency medical attention for Richard Matus, Jr., and the failures on behalf of the (jail’s) custody staff in performing the required safety and welfare checks,” Matus’ family wrote in the lawsuit, “Mr. Matus did not respond to medical intervention and died.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office responded to the lawsuit by denying all liability and said that Matus’ death was his own doing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980996\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH-CM-20.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980996\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH-CM-20.jpg\" alt=\"Five adults with two babies being held stand outside a building holding signs and images of a man.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH-CM-20.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH-CM-20-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH-CM-20-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH-CM-20-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH-CM-20-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/103123-Riverside-JailDeath-JH-CM-20-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The family of Richard Matus Jr. stands outside the John F. Tavaglione Executive Annex with memorial photos of Richard, who died in custody of the Riverside Sheriff’s Department in Riverside County. \u003ccite>(Jules Hotz / CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“If Plaintiffs sustained any injury or damages,” they wrote, “such injury or damages were solely caused or contributed to by the wrongful conduct of other entities or persons other than the answer Defendants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some sheriffs have changed their practices to avoid in-custody deaths. Others say they’re looking for solutions. But Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has instead taken an adversarial approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Criticism of his policy and practices, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressenterprise.com/2023/10/20/riverside-county-sheriffs-department-again-under-fire-for-jail-inmate-deaths/\">Bianco told the \u003cem>Riverside Press-Enterprise\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, are a “political publicity stunt of the far left.” He did not answer questions from CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After an inmate died in 2022, the \u003cem>Riverside Press-Enterprise\u003c/em> posted an interview with Bianco. In the comments under the story, someone who identified himself as Bianco interacted with commenters, referring to the demands of people whose family members had died in his jails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Did they demand their family members not commit suicide or consume drugs while they were in custody?” he wrote. “Did they ever demand that their family members not commit crimes in the first place? Did their parents ever demand that they take responsibility for their own actions?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ACLU sent a letter in September 2021 demanding that the state investigate Riverside County jails. In 2022, another 19 people died, including Matus. After the ACLU wrote again demanding an inquiry by the state’s jail oversight board in early 2023, Attorney General Rob Bonta launched an investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Justice Department refused to answer any questions about its investigation. Bianco did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This announcement comes as a shock but at the same time should have been expected from our California DOJ and the attorney general who cares more about politics than he does about transparency and the truth,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ttMVVLyfaQ\">Bianco said in a video\u003c/a> the day the investigation was announced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This investigation is based on nothing but false and misleading statements and straight-out lies from activists, including their attorneys. This will prove to be a complete waste of time and resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘All we’re doing is making recommendations to sheriffs’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The attorney general has two open investigations into jails, one in Riverside County and one in Santa Clara County. However, the organization charged with overseeing the day-to-day operations of California’s jails is the Board of State and Community Corrections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board can wield significant power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it \u003ca href=\"https://www.bscc.ca.gov/news/bscc-finds-la-juvenile-halls-unsuitable/\">repeatedly found the Los Angeles juvenile hall\u003c/a> was unsuitable for housing last year, it shut down the system and directed the county probation department to find new housing for about 300 young people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that was an exception.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Feb. 9, 2023, board meeting turned contentious regarding the Riverside County jail system, the 15th-largest in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Avalon Edwards, a policy associate of Riverside-based social justice organization Starting Over Inc., said the board was not enforcing its own standards of inmate care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If (Riverside County) can kill 20 people in 13 months and fail to provide any information to the families impacted, fail to report those deaths to the DOJ within the 10-day mandated reporting period, continue to lie to the public about the cause of death for all these people,” he said, “what are those minimum standards accomplishing?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Edwards urged the board to withhold funding from noncompliant departments or, if they wouldn’t, he asked every board member to resign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://calmatters-jail-deaths.netlify.app/chart?measure=medianAdpTotal&initialWidth=780&childId=pym_2&parentTitle=Deaths%20in%20California%20jails%20increase%20despite%20decline%20in%20inmates%20-%20CalMatters&parentUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fcalmatters.org%2Fjustice%2F2024%2F03%2Fdeath-in-california-jails%2F\" width=\"850\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics argue that the board cannot regulate jails effectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is not set up with the kind of enforcement power, or teeth, to be able to meaningfully hold accountable agencies that are failing to comply with standards,” recently recalled San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin told CalMatters. “So that’s one problem. And I don’t say that as a criticism of the organization or the people there so much as of the structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean, it doesn’t have the ability to actually impose remedies even when it is aware of violations,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4371\">Two independent state oversight agencies also have found fault with the board and the jail system\u003c/a>. The Legislative Analyst’s Office found in 2021 that the board’s effectiveness is hard to judge because it’s unclear what the board’s mission is. It said this “undermines the Legislature’s ability to assess whether the program is \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4371\">operating effectively and is consistent with Legislative priorities\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The State Auditor’s Office, meanwhile, \u003ca href=\"https://www.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2021-109.pdf\">zeroed in on San Diego County jails\u003c/a> in February 2022. It found that the San Diego Sheriff’s Department failed to prevent deaths in its jails and that its practices “likely contributed to in‑custody deaths.” The auditor’s office also found fault with the state corrections board, saying its jail regulations are inconsistent and its answers to the audit were “deficient or misleading.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even one member of the state corrections board feels the board’s hands are tied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All we’re doing is making recommendations to sheriffs,” said board member Norma Cumpian. “You’re like, hey, 20 people have died in your jails. We recommend that you, you know, report it quicker. Like, that’s not a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980992\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823_Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_07.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980992\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823_Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_07.jpg\" alt=\"A closeup of a patch on a person's arm that says "Tulare County Sheriff."\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823_Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_07.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823_Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_07-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823_Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_07-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823_Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_07-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823_Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_07-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/091823_Tulare-Jail-LV_CM_07-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Tulare County Sheriff stands guard at an inmate housing unit at the Tulare County Adult Pre-Trial Facility on Sept. 18, 2023. Last year, Tulare County set a record of eight inmate deaths in their facility. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cumpian, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/article262080442.html\">a former inmate\u003c/a> who served nearly 20 years in prison for killing her abusive partner, said she often senses indifference or complacency from her colleagues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for plans to add a detention monitor, a dubious Cumpian said, “I don’t know, this bill is supposed to release reports to the public. Like, what is that gonna do?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dicus, the San Bernardino sheriff who operates the seventh-largest jail system in the U.S., doesn’t see a problem with how the oversight board operates. He said the oversight board is doing its job in accordance with its mission: assessing the policies and procedures of the jails it oversees while ensuring facilities are up to code.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the blame for in-custody deaths extends beyond the jails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Locally, try getting some help,” Dicus said. “Our local department of behavioral health, and this is not me throwing stones at them, but they’re 9 to 5. We live in a 24/7 environment where people are in crisis. And the crisis that we’re experiencing, the cops are there 24/7, but we need some of these other service providers to have the same level of response.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the state has to rethink how it operates the social safety net at the county level, especially for mental health and substance abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just typically this is the way we’ve handled everything, and we need to break out of that,” he said. “I think we need kind of a statewide revisit of what’s working and what’s not.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11980987/newsoms-efforts-to-curb-jail-deaths-in-california-fall-flat-as-fentanyl-overdoses-spike","authors":["byline_news_11980987"],"categories":["news_6188","news_8"],"tags":["news_17725","news_2587","news_2069","news_3930","news_20859"],"affiliates":["news_18481"],"featImg":"news_11980994","label":"news_18481"},"news_11980715":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11980715","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11980715","score":null,"sort":[1711620004000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"why-dont-more-bay-area-kids-ride-school-buses","title":"Why Doesn't California Have More School Buses?","publishDate":1711620004,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Why Doesn’t California Have More School Buses? | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weekday mornings are unquestionably hectic for many of us. We’re up early and out the door, headed towards some kind of commute to work. However, adding the responsibility of getting children through that morning routine and to school on time can feel like the day’s biggest accomplishment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Jules Winters first moved to the San Francisco Bay Area from the East Coast, she worried that in that morning rush, she’d get stuck behind a school bus stopping every couple of blocks to pick up kids. She knew from experience that it could make her late to work. But, soon, that concern turned to puzzlement because it never happened. Instead, she noticed a lot of traffic jams around schools at drop-off and pick-up times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now, I’m not going anywhere near [a] school because of all the parents dropping off their kids,” she says. “Why aren’t there buses taking students to and from school?” she wondered. “Why is that now the obligation of the family? And how do different families accommodate that? Is that equitable?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>It goes back to Proposition 13\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Winters isn’t wrong. California has fewer school buses than in other parts of the country. A survey conducted by the Federal Highway Administration found that nationally, almost 40% of school-aged kids ride a school bus. In California, that number is only 8%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like so many questions related to school funding and services, the answer to Winters’ question has roots in the passage of Proposition 13, a constitutional amendment that limited how much a homeowner’s property taxes could increase each year. Property taxes were the primary way school districts funded themselves back then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The restriction of those sources of revenue in 1978 caused more or less a budget crisis,” says Sam Speroni, a doctoral researcher at the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies and a researcher at San Jose State’s Mineta Transportation Institute. “So in 1982, the state froze its home-to-school transportation budget with only cost of living adjustments, and that stayed in place until 2022.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980731\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980731\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/kids-ride-school-bus.jpg\" alt=\"A line of kids boards a yellow school bus.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/kids-ride-school-bus.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/kids-ride-school-bus-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/kids-ride-school-bus-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/kids-ride-school-bus-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/kids-ride-school-bus-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Across the country, about 40% of school-aged kids ride a school bus. In California, that number is closer to 8%. \u003ccite>( Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the intervening years, California’s population has grown, including school-aged children, but the transportation budget has largely stayed the same. That has forced districts to shoulder more of the costs associated with providing school buses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That leads local districts into really difficult decisions about, ‘do we continue providing buses or do we eliminate in-school-house services that are also super important?’” Speroni says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Districts are federally mandated to provide buses to certain groups of students, like those who have transportation, as part of their Individualized Education Program (IEP). However, California does not require school districts to offer school transportation to general education students. As the demands on the school budgets have grown, many districts have chosen not to prioritize school bus funding, which is costly.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Buses to serve equity goals\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Low-income families and families of color often travel the furthest to get to school and have the least resources at their disposal. In recognition of that, some Bay Area districts fund a small number of buses to help meet their equity goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley Unified School District assigns elementary students to zones and then places them in schools with an eye toward socioeconomic diversity. The district uses census data on family income and parental education to help it do this. If the student lives further than 1 1/2 miles from their assigned school, the district offers school buses to help them get there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over 1,600 students ride the bus in Berkeley, about 18% of the school community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC4087301904&light=true\" width=\"100%\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley’s commitment to school buses stems from a legacy of bussing for integration that goes back to 1968. Berkeley was the first sizable city with a large minority population to voluntarily start a two-way bussing program to both bring white students down from the hills and to take Black students up to the hill schools as a way to racially integrate the population of all its schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco also offers some school buses to general education students. It runs 35 buses for K–8 students each day, with routes that largely start on the southeast side of the city and bring kids to schools further north and west. The district says these routes help provide crucial access to language programs and offer more choices to families living in the southeast. The routes serve 46 schools and about 2,000 kids. Families sign up for the school bus when they enroll their children in elementary school. The routes and applications for spots on the bus are assigned at the educational placement center.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Partnering with public transit agencies\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While many school districts in the San Francisco Bay Area do not provide dedicated school buses for general education students, they often partner with public transportation systems to help families get kids to school. In San Francisco, school-aged kids ride for free on Muni. SamTrans, serving schools in San Mateo County, offers free rides to low-income students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some school districts and public transportation agencies even work together to align schedules. For example, AC Transit, in the East Bay, offers Supplementary Service to School routes designed to align with school bell schedules and to cover the attendance boundaries of certain schools. AC Transit also discounts fares based on income requirements, as does Clipper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite these efforts, according to the Federal Highway Administration survey, only about 2% of California students take public buses to school. In contrast, 68% get a ride in a private vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Calls for school transportation reform\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Recently, there have been calls to reform California’s school transportation system. A 2014 Legislative Analyst’s Office report highlighted how underfunded the program had become and suggested several ways to reform it. In 2022, Newsom pledged state money to fund 60% of the cost of funding school transportation, the largest increase in years. The governor also allocated $1.5 billion in one-time funds to help districts transition to electric school buses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. Nancy Skinner proposed a bill in 2022 that would provide universal access to school transportation for TK–12 public school students in the state. She argued that reliable transportation to school could reduce chronic absenteeism and improve school performance, especially for low-income students whose families more often don’t have cars. An analysis of the Skinner bill found it would cost the state $1.4 billion, which may be why, despite support in the Senate, it didn’t advance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The high cost of providing school buses, paired with the many demands on a school district’s budget, make changes to school transportation policy a tricky proposition going forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Whenever Bay Curious listener Jules Winters thinks about her childhood growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, she thinks of her school bus driver.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jules Winters: \u003c/b>My bus driver was Ted for like, most of my life. This one time, there was a snowstorm that just hit, like out of nowhere, and it was like full-on blizzard. And I remember, like, we had been at school maybe only into like 9:00, and they were like, we got to get you out of here, like, now. And so they called all the buses. And we got on the bus with Ted, and we got stuck in a huge snowdrift on the way home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Jules doesn’t remember being scared in that moment, even though it was probably really stressful for Ted. She felt safe. She knew Ted would get her home, he always did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jules Winters: \u003c/b>I have really good memories of taking the bus. Like, I met my best friend on the bus. She had moved into town over the summer and was just starting in a new school, and it’s kind of like I was the first person that she met.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>So when she moved to California as an adult, Jules quickly noticed there weren’t many school buses moving kids around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jules Winters: \u003c/b>I think it’s ironic that initially, I was concerned about traffic, with like being stuck behind a bus, because that was what I was used to on the East Coast. Now, it’s like, I’m not going anywhere near that school because of all the parents dropping off their kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>I live a half block from a school, and trust me, some of the worst traffic jams happen around school start and end times. Since Jules has such positive memories of riding the bus as a student, it got her wondering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jules Winters: \u003c/b>Why aren’t there buses taking students to and from school?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>And that led to a whole bunch more questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jules Winters: \u003c/b>Why is that now the obligation of the family and how do different families accommodate that? Is that equitable?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Today on Bay Curious, we’re taking a closer look at how kids get to school, why it matters, and if it’s true that there aren’t as many school buses in California as there are in other places. I’m Olivia Alan Price. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>[Sponsor message]\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Today, we’re digging into why you don’t see as many school buses around the Bay area as you might in other parts of the country. And to help answer some of Jules’ questions, we have Bay curious producer and longtime education reporter Katrina Schwartz. Welcome, Katrina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Hi, Olivia. I was actually quite excited that we got an education question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Yeah, let’s get right into it. Is Jules right? Are there actually fewer school buses here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Yes, Jules is correct. She’s actually put her finger on a real discrepancy. So there’s this survey that the Federal Highway Administration does across the country. And when you look nationwide, almost 40% of school-age kids ride a school bus. And that number has been fairly consistent across many decades. But here in California, only 8% of kids ride a school bus to school, which is the lowest in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Wow. 8%. You know, I wouldn’t have thought it was that low. Although I guess if I think about it, I don’t tend to see school buses very often when I’m out on the roads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Right, because they really aren’t that common. In fact, I had a fair amount of trouble finding any kid that rode a school bus until I started asking around in Berkeley, where it is a little bit more common. So, I met Liz Christiano at her house in Berkeley. She actually volunteered to let me come over at this very stressful time in the morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Liz Christiano:\u003c/b> Good morning. Welcome, Katrina\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Getting ready time in order to meet up with her son James and his friend Eli, as they were having breakfast and getting ready to go to the school bus. They are both fourth graders at John Muir Elementary, and they remember the first time that they rode the school bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Eli: \u003c/b>It was kind of strange because, like, I didn’t know anybody, but then, like, I got used to it really quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>James: \u003c/b>It wasn’t really scary. I guess it felt weird.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>And they were not entirely positive about the experience but kind of resigned to it. I would say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Eli: \u003c/b>It was pretty loud. There’s like so many people talking at once. And then the bus driver, like, frequently stops or has to use the radio to tell people to be quiet or to stop using foul language on the bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>OK. That tracks. I remember not loving the bus all the time as a student, but I know that my mom appreciated that it meant she didn’t have to drive me to school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Yes, I think buses are really more for parents than they are for kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Liz Christiano: \u003c/b>My morning would be ridiculously stressful if I had to take him, even though we’re not that far away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Liz Christiano says she’s not even sure how she’d manage her morning without the bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Liz Christiano: \u003c/b>The getting up and going. Having to manage all of the logistics of getting everywhere and everything on time is just… it’s a lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>She has another child who’s younger, who goes to a preschool in Oakland. That school starts at the same time as James’ school. So if she was having to take them both to school, it would be this real logistical hurdle to juggle it all. And so she was just very thankful for the bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Liz Christiano: \u003c/b>Having your kid picked up and taken somewhere and then delivered home the amount of life and cognitive space that you get back, I love it. I really love it. The mornings are so much better because of the bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>James and Eli normally walk to the school bus together without their parents. It’s about a two-block walk. But this morning, because I was there, a bunch of kids met up and we all walked to the school bus together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>James: \u003c/b>We’re about to have to go to the bus. Do you want to interview Mia or Micah? they’re also on the bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz in scene: \u003c/b>So, Micah, how do you feel about the bus?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Micah: \u003c/b>I like that parents still get to work as much as they want. And it’s just fun to ride in the bus with friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz in scene: \u003c/b>What about you, Mia? How do you feel about it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mia: \u003c/b>I really like it. Because even if you’re late to the bus, all you have to do is run, and he’ll wait for you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz in scene: \u003c/b>He waits for you!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mia: \u003c/b>Yeah, and he laughs.\u003ci> (giggles)\u003c/i> This is my first year. So I was very nervous on the first day. I wasn’t expecting that my stop would be the first stop on the whole thing and that it would take like 20 minutes to get to school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz in scene: \u003c/b>Are you annoyed that it takes so long or is it OK?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mia: \u003c/b>It’s OK because then I get to talk to my friends when they get on the bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz in scene: \u003c/b>So, is this the bus stop?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Eli: \u003c/b>It’s a very sad bus stop because it has no sign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>And, pretty soon the bus pulled up. The kids all kind of gave their moms hugs and then got on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mia: \u003c/b>What we’re trying to say, is the bus is amazing!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>James: \u003c/b>No, we are not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Off they went.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>I mean, it sounds like it’s working out really well for them. Why aren’t there more buses around California if it’s helping out this family so much?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Yeah. So this all goes back to Proposition 13, which is a constitutional amendment that passed in 1978. And it really limits how much property taxes can increase for homeowners, which is a big deal for school districts because, before Prop. 13, property taxes were the main way that school districts funded themselves. Since then, that burden has shifted more to the state because of Prop. 13.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sam Speroni: \u003c/b>The restriction of those sources of revenue in 1978 caused more or less a budget crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>I talked with Sam Speroni, who is a doctoral student at UCLA studying school transportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sam Speroni: \u003c/b>So, in 1982, the state froze its home-to-school transportation budget with only cost-of-living adjustments, and that stayed in place until 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>So over the past 40-plus years, California’s population has grown, though. So there’s just this one pot of money that really hasn’t changed that much, and more kids and more need. So, if districts want to offer school buses, they have to kind of shoulder more of the burden to pay for that. And that means tradeoffs. You know, you can’t pay for everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sam Speroni: \u003c/b>That leads local districts into really difficult decisions about, do we continue providing busses or do we eliminate in school house services that are also super important?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Reading support specialist for example, or an extra social worker?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sam Speroni: \u003c/b>And politically, it’s difficult to justify the elimination of teaching staff if school buses can be reduced first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Obviously, you said it’s an expensive prospect for school districts to think about doing this, but Berkeley is making a bigger investment than others to keep buses going. Why?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>So it goes back to the history of bussing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Archival tape: \u003c/b>The method is bussing, in itself one of the most controversial issues before boards of education throughout this country. But Berkeley is out to prove that it works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>You know, in the 1960s and 70s, school buses were one of the primary ways that districts tried to integrate their schools racially. There was a lot of segregation before that, and school bussing was a way of basically moving kids around, mixing them up, taking them to different neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Archival tape: \u003c/b>And with the use of 25 buses, 3,500 elementary children began to commute to and from White and Negro neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Trish McDermott is the senior communications director for Berkeley Unified, and she told me this history is fundamental to how Berkeley operates today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Trish McDermott: \u003c/b>In 1968, we integrated our elementary schools, and that really made Berkeley the first larger city in the country with a large minority enrollment to voluntarily desegregate schools. And we did that with our buses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>And Trish says even in progressive Berkeley, bussing for integration wasn’t always popular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Trish McDermott: \u003c/b>Big, crowded school board meetings, a lot of pushback.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>They eventually got it done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Trish McDermott: \u003c/b>It’s change that we’re very proud of, and it really is the legacy of our transportation department as it exists today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Archival tape: \u003c/b>Oxford is typical of a school in Berkeley’s white middle-class neighborhood. Last year, Oxford student body had one Negro member. Today, 40% of the 325 students are black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>It’s a progressive district, and they care about creating schools that are diverse and integrated. So, what they do is assign elementary school students to a zone, and then they look at the census for income data and parental education data to assign students to different schools. And then they use school buses to help kids and families get to the school that they were assigned to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Berkeley is doing this, but how does that stack up against all the other hundreds of school districts in California?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Well, it’s important to know that there’s no law in California that requires school districts to provide buses to general education students. So every district kind of looks at its budget and their student population and decides, you know, can we afford to do this or not? Is this where we want to spend our limited resources? You always have to make tradeoffs. So in a rural district, for example, they often prioritize school transportation because the distances are longer. There maybe aren’t any public transportation options for students, and the schools are more spread out. So bussing is sort of essential to getting kids to school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I will say that every district does need to provide some school busses, because they are federally mandated to transport certain groups of students to school. So if a student has transportation as part of their Individualized Education program, for example, maybe they have a disability or something like that, then they get transportation to school, and that is federally mandated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One district that actually does provide school buses for general education kids is San Francisco, which might actually surprise some families in San Francisco because a lot of families have to drive their kids to school or walk them to school or find some other way to get there. But there are a few school buses, 35 buses that the district runs. And again, it is also for equity reasons, largely the routes start on the south side of the city where there’s often more kids. It tends to be like lower-income neighborhoods, and the routes take kids to the west side of the city, and that’s to provide access to language programs, other schools, and basically makes sure that they have access to the rest of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>There must be families who would use bussing if it came to them, and it just doesn’t. What do those people do?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Well, you know, some kids walk to school if they’re close enough, some kids bike to school. But about two-thirds of California students get a ride to school in a private vehicle. So obviously that’s not great for the environment. And it’s a big ask of families. I mean, plenty of people don’t have cars, so some districts try to help out by partnering with public transportation systems. So in San Francisco, for example, school kids can ride Muni for free. And the district says that every school is served by at least one Muni bus line or train line. In the East Bay. It’s AC transit, and they actually reach out to the school districts around them and try to align their bus schedules to the school. Will start and end times to make it easier for kids to ride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz in scene:\u003c/b> I’m here at De Anza High School in Richmond. And it’s interesting because, like, all the AC transit buses are waiting here, like school buses. They’re pulled up off the street in this little pick-up zone. And there’s a bunch of kids who came out of school who are waiting around for the buses to leave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>[Sound of fare machine beeping]\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 20 minutes after school let out…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz in scene:\u003c/b> So all the kids are, like, crowded around the door waiting to get on the bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>[Sounds of bus honking and accelerating]\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>The bus takes off. And it takes a route through the school boundary zone so that all these kids can get back home. But if there was another patron on the street who wanted to ride, they could easily get on the bus anywhere along the route.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>I mean, I imagine this, you know, really boils down to sort of a problem on the equity front, right? Because, OK, even if parents are able to take their kids to school because of their schedule, that still is going to mean they’re going to have to have a car that’s operational. That requires a certain amount of money. Be up to date on insurance. Or I mean, the other thing to consider is like, that’s going to limit the shift work that perhaps parents could do if they’re going to have to know that they need to be available to take their kid to school at a certain time. That’s a constraint that, especially if you’re living, you know, on a low-income salary, that’s just one more thing that you’re sort of juggling in an already pretty complicated life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Yeah, I think it is an equity issue, although it’s a little bit unclear how big of one it is. I mean, obviously any family that has more flexibility and more mobility is going to have more choices. And all the things that you laid out are true. But there are a lot of other factors that make schools unequal in California. So it’s hard to say how much of a difference a school bus would really make to the whole big picture. One thing that Sam Speroni says, though, is that if California as a state wants to even the playing field for families by offering choices about what schools a family might send their kid to, transportation really needs to be part of that conversation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sam Speroni: \u003c/b>Ultimately, you don’t have school choice if you don’t have transportation to those choices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>And then the other problem that Sam Speroni brought up — this is a national problem — there’s a huge school bus driver shortage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sam Speroni: \u003c/b>With the buses we already have. We’re struggling to staff them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>The school bus drivers have to have a special commercial driver’s license, which is also what you use for trucking or other types of delivery jobs. And often those jobs pay more. So in this current economy, it’s very hard to retain your school bus drivers. And we’re seeing that even in places that have much more robust bussing, they’re having a lot of trouble staffing their buses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Now, given everything you’ve learned, are there likely to be any changes to how many school buses California schools offer?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>I mean, a number of people have flagged this as a problem. It’s an equity issue, as we already talked about. So, State Sen. Nancy Skinner actually introduced a bill in 2022 that would have provided universal school transportation for California public school students. And she did that because she argued that providing dedicated funds for school transportation would actually improve attendance. It would help with chronic absenteeism, and especially for low income students, it could also improve outcomes at school, too. But this bill was estimated to cost the state $1.4 billion. And so it had some support in the state Senate, but ultimately it didn’t advance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>$1.4 billion is a lot of money. But still, you know, as someone who rode a school bus, I do have a little bit of nostalgia for those big yellow buses. And I find it a little sad that, you know, I have a 3-year-old, and he isn’t likely to ride a bus in California and have that special relationship with his bus driver.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Yeah, I mean, I definitely got the sense from our question-asker, Jules, that she finds it a bit sad. I mean, she really had a positive experience on the bus and felt like it really created community. And not having them around here in the Bay area seems like just another way that the social fabric is fraying a little bit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jules Winters: \u003c/b>I guess I’ve always imagined that buses are like a library or a firefighter station or a police station like it’s this community service that is part of the inlaid structure of what makes it a community or what makes it a school for that community. So it just boggles my mind that it’s not part of any of these communities here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Well, Katrina Schwartz, thank you so much for bringing the story to us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>You’re welcome. I’m sorry I couldn’t get more cute kids on buses. Apparently, there’s a lot of liability issues with getting on school buses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>The woes of education reporting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Yes. It’s hard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price \u003c/b>Big thanks to Jules Winters for asking this week’s question. If you’ve got a question you’d like Bay Curious to take on, head to baycurious.org and fill out our form at the top of the page. While you’re there, vote in our March voting round. Here are the options under consideration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice 1 \u003c/b>Have you noticed all the motels along Lombard Street? I have. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always wondered why. Can you find out?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice 2 \u003c/b>At the San Francisco Opera House, there’s a chandelier high above the orchestra level. How do they change the light bulbs when they burn out?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice 3 \u003c/b>San Mateo County has an official shared housing program, which helps people find housing in someone else’s home. How well is it working?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price \u003c/b>Again, that’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.baycurious.org\">baycurious.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Only about 8% of California public school students ride a school bus, as compared to almost 40% nationwide. The reason goes back to Proposition 13 and school funding reform.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1711649382,"stats":{"hasAudio":true,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":true,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":127,"wordCount":4963},"headData":{"title":"Why Doesn't California Have More School Buses? | KQED","description":"Only about 8% of California public school students ride a school bus, as compared to almost 40% nationwide. The reason goes back to Proposition 13 and school funding reform.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"source":"Bay Curious","sourceUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/baycurious/","audioUrl":"https://dcs.megaphone.fm/KQINC4087301904.mp3?key=a940237bee111ba8b944e9e9f85dc9c3&request_event_id=88eeff47-2301-4bb4-8781-4a2db771ad5e","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11980715/why-dont-more-bay-area-kids-ride-school-buses","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weekday mornings are unquestionably hectic for many of us. We’re up early and out the door, headed towards some kind of commute to work. However, adding the responsibility of getting children through that morning routine and to school on time can feel like the day’s biggest accomplishment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Jules Winters first moved to the San Francisco Bay Area from the East Coast, she worried that in that morning rush, she’d get stuck behind a school bus stopping every couple of blocks to pick up kids. She knew from experience that it could make her late to work. But, soon, that concern turned to puzzlement because it never happened. Instead, she noticed a lot of traffic jams around schools at drop-off and pick-up times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" />\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area.\n Subscribe on \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>,\n \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR One\u003c/a> or your favorite podcast platform.\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now, I’m not going anywhere near [a] school because of all the parents dropping off their kids,” she says. “Why aren’t there buses taking students to and from school?” she wondered. “Why is that now the obligation of the family? And how do different families accommodate that? Is that equitable?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>It goes back to Proposition 13\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Winters isn’t wrong. California has fewer school buses than in other parts of the country. A survey conducted by the Federal Highway Administration found that nationally, almost 40% of school-aged kids ride a school bus. In California, that number is only 8%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like so many questions related to school funding and services, the answer to Winters’ question has roots in the passage of Proposition 13, a constitutional amendment that limited how much a homeowner’s property taxes could increase each year. Property taxes were the primary way school districts funded themselves back then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The restriction of those sources of revenue in 1978 caused more or less a budget crisis,” says Sam Speroni, a doctoral researcher at the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies and a researcher at San Jose State’s Mineta Transportation Institute. “So in 1982, the state froze its home-to-school transportation budget with only cost of living adjustments, and that stayed in place until 2022.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980731\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980731\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/kids-ride-school-bus.jpg\" alt=\"A line of kids boards a yellow school bus.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/kids-ride-school-bus.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/kids-ride-school-bus-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/kids-ride-school-bus-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/kids-ride-school-bus-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/kids-ride-school-bus-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Across the country, about 40% of school-aged kids ride a school bus. In California, that number is closer to 8%. \u003ccite>( Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the intervening years, California’s population has grown, including school-aged children, but the transportation budget has largely stayed the same. That has forced districts to shoulder more of the costs associated with providing school buses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That leads local districts into really difficult decisions about, ‘do we continue providing buses or do we eliminate in-school-house services that are also super important?’” Speroni says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Districts are federally mandated to provide buses to certain groups of students, like those who have transportation, as part of their Individualized Education Program (IEP). However, California does not require school districts to offer school transportation to general education students. As the demands on the school budgets have grown, many districts have chosen not to prioritize school bus funding, which is costly.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Buses to serve equity goals\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Low-income families and families of color often travel the furthest to get to school and have the least resources at their disposal. In recognition of that, some Bay Area districts fund a small number of buses to help meet their equity goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley Unified School District assigns elementary students to zones and then places them in schools with an eye toward socioeconomic diversity. The district uses census data on family income and parental education to help it do this. If the student lives further than 1 1/2 miles from their assigned school, the district offers school buses to help them get there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over 1,600 students ride the bus in Berkeley, about 18% of the school community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC4087301904&light=true\" width=\"100%\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley’s commitment to school buses stems from a legacy of bussing for integration that goes back to 1968. Berkeley was the first sizable city with a large minority population to voluntarily start a two-way bussing program to both bring white students down from the hills and to take Black students up to the hill schools as a way to racially integrate the population of all its schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco also offers some school buses to general education students. It runs 35 buses for K–8 students each day, with routes that largely start on the southeast side of the city and bring kids to schools further north and west. The district says these routes help provide crucial access to language programs and offer more choices to families living in the southeast. The routes serve 46 schools and about 2,000 kids. Families sign up for the school bus when they enroll their children in elementary school. The routes and applications for spots on the bus are assigned at the educational placement center.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Partnering with public transit agencies\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While many school districts in the San Francisco Bay Area do not provide dedicated school buses for general education students, they often partner with public transportation systems to help families get kids to school. In San Francisco, school-aged kids ride for free on Muni. SamTrans, serving schools in San Mateo County, offers free rides to low-income students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some school districts and public transportation agencies even work together to align schedules. For example, AC Transit, in the East Bay, offers Supplementary Service to School routes designed to align with school bell schedules and to cover the attendance boundaries of certain schools. AC Transit also discounts fares based on income requirements, as does Clipper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite these efforts, according to the Federal Highway Administration survey, only about 2% of California students take public buses to school. In contrast, 68% get a ride in a private vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Calls for school transportation reform\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Recently, there have been calls to reform California’s school transportation system. A 2014 Legislative Analyst’s Office report highlighted how underfunded the program had become and suggested several ways to reform it. In 2022, Newsom pledged state money to fund 60% of the cost of funding school transportation, the largest increase in years. The governor also allocated $1.5 billion in one-time funds to help districts transition to electric school buses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. Nancy Skinner proposed a bill in 2022 that would provide universal access to school transportation for TK–12 public school students in the state. She argued that reliable transportation to school could reduce chronic absenteeism and improve school performance, especially for low-income students whose families more often don’t have cars. An analysis of the Skinner bill found it would cost the state $1.4 billion, which may be why, despite support in the Senate, it didn’t advance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The high cost of providing school buses, paired with the many demands on a school district’s budget, make changes to school transportation policy a tricky proposition going forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"baycuriousquestion","attributes":{"named":{"label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Whenever Bay Curious listener Jules Winters thinks about her childhood growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, she thinks of her school bus driver.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jules Winters: \u003c/b>My bus driver was Ted for like, most of my life. This one time, there was a snowstorm that just hit, like out of nowhere, and it was like full-on blizzard. And I remember, like, we had been at school maybe only into like 9:00, and they were like, we got to get you out of here, like, now. And so they called all the buses. And we got on the bus with Ted, and we got stuck in a huge snowdrift on the way home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Jules doesn’t remember being scared in that moment, even though it was probably really stressful for Ted. She felt safe. She knew Ted would get her home, he always did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jules Winters: \u003c/b>I have really good memories of taking the bus. Like, I met my best friend on the bus. She had moved into town over the summer and was just starting in a new school, and it’s kind of like I was the first person that she met.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>So when she moved to California as an adult, Jules quickly noticed there weren’t many school buses moving kids around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jules Winters: \u003c/b>I think it’s ironic that initially, I was concerned about traffic, with like being stuck behind a bus, because that was what I was used to on the East Coast. Now, it’s like, I’m not going anywhere near that school because of all the parents dropping off their kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>I live a half block from a school, and trust me, some of the worst traffic jams happen around school start and end times. Since Jules has such positive memories of riding the bus as a student, it got her wondering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jules Winters: \u003c/b>Why aren’t there buses taking students to and from school?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>And that led to a whole bunch more questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jules Winters: \u003c/b>Why is that now the obligation of the family and how do different families accommodate that? Is that equitable?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Today on Bay Curious, we’re taking a closer look at how kids get to school, why it matters, and if it’s true that there aren’t as many school buses in California as there are in other places. I’m Olivia Alan Price. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>[Sponsor message]\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Today, we’re digging into why you don’t see as many school buses around the Bay area as you might in other parts of the country. And to help answer some of Jules’ questions, we have Bay curious producer and longtime education reporter Katrina Schwartz. Welcome, Katrina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Hi, Olivia. I was actually quite excited that we got an education question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Yeah, let’s get right into it. Is Jules right? Are there actually fewer school buses here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Yes, Jules is correct. She’s actually put her finger on a real discrepancy. So there’s this survey that the Federal Highway Administration does across the country. And when you look nationwide, almost 40% of school-age kids ride a school bus. And that number has been fairly consistent across many decades. But here in California, only 8% of kids ride a school bus to school, which is the lowest in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Wow. 8%. You know, I wouldn’t have thought it was that low. Although I guess if I think about it, I don’t tend to see school buses very often when I’m out on the roads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Right, because they really aren’t that common. In fact, I had a fair amount of trouble finding any kid that rode a school bus until I started asking around in Berkeley, where it is a little bit more common. So, I met Liz Christiano at her house in Berkeley. She actually volunteered to let me come over at this very stressful time in the morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Liz Christiano:\u003c/b> Good morning. Welcome, Katrina\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Getting ready time in order to meet up with her son James and his friend Eli, as they were having breakfast and getting ready to go to the school bus. They are both fourth graders at John Muir Elementary, and they remember the first time that they rode the school bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Eli: \u003c/b>It was kind of strange because, like, I didn’t know anybody, but then, like, I got used to it really quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>James: \u003c/b>It wasn’t really scary. I guess it felt weird.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>And they were not entirely positive about the experience but kind of resigned to it. I would say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Eli: \u003c/b>It was pretty loud. There’s like so many people talking at once. And then the bus driver, like, frequently stops or has to use the radio to tell people to be quiet or to stop using foul language on the bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>OK. That tracks. I remember not loving the bus all the time as a student, but I know that my mom appreciated that it meant she didn’t have to drive me to school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Yes, I think buses are really more for parents than they are for kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Liz Christiano: \u003c/b>My morning would be ridiculously stressful if I had to take him, even though we’re not that far away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Liz Christiano says she’s not even sure how she’d manage her morning without the bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Liz Christiano: \u003c/b>The getting up and going. Having to manage all of the logistics of getting everywhere and everything on time is just… it’s a lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>She has another child who’s younger, who goes to a preschool in Oakland. That school starts at the same time as James’ school. So if she was having to take them both to school, it would be this real logistical hurdle to juggle it all. And so she was just very thankful for the bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Liz Christiano: \u003c/b>Having your kid picked up and taken somewhere and then delivered home the amount of life and cognitive space that you get back, I love it. I really love it. The mornings are so much better because of the bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>James and Eli normally walk to the school bus together without their parents. It’s about a two-block walk. But this morning, because I was there, a bunch of kids met up and we all walked to the school bus together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>James: \u003c/b>We’re about to have to go to the bus. Do you want to interview Mia or Micah? they’re also on the bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz in scene: \u003c/b>So, Micah, how do you feel about the bus?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Micah: \u003c/b>I like that parents still get to work as much as they want. And it’s just fun to ride in the bus with friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz in scene: \u003c/b>What about you, Mia? How do you feel about it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mia: \u003c/b>I really like it. Because even if you’re late to the bus, all you have to do is run, and he’ll wait for you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz in scene: \u003c/b>He waits for you!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mia: \u003c/b>Yeah, and he laughs.\u003ci> (giggles)\u003c/i> This is my first year. So I was very nervous on the first day. I wasn’t expecting that my stop would be the first stop on the whole thing and that it would take like 20 minutes to get to school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz in scene: \u003c/b>Are you annoyed that it takes so long or is it OK?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mia: \u003c/b>It’s OK because then I get to talk to my friends when they get on the bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz in scene: \u003c/b>So, is this the bus stop?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Eli: \u003c/b>It’s a very sad bus stop because it has no sign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>And, pretty soon the bus pulled up. The kids all kind of gave their moms hugs and then got on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mia: \u003c/b>What we’re trying to say, is the bus is amazing!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>James: \u003c/b>No, we are not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Off they went.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>I mean, it sounds like it’s working out really well for them. Why aren’t there more buses around California if it’s helping out this family so much?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Yeah. So this all goes back to Proposition 13, which is a constitutional amendment that passed in 1978. And it really limits how much property taxes can increase for homeowners, which is a big deal for school districts because, before Prop. 13, property taxes were the main way that school districts funded themselves. Since then, that burden has shifted more to the state because of Prop. 13.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sam Speroni: \u003c/b>The restriction of those sources of revenue in 1978 caused more or less a budget crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>I talked with Sam Speroni, who is a doctoral student at UCLA studying school transportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sam Speroni: \u003c/b>So, in 1982, the state froze its home-to-school transportation budget with only cost-of-living adjustments, and that stayed in place until 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>So over the past 40-plus years, California’s population has grown, though. So there’s just this one pot of money that really hasn’t changed that much, and more kids and more need. So, if districts want to offer school buses, they have to kind of shoulder more of the burden to pay for that. And that means tradeoffs. You know, you can’t pay for everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sam Speroni: \u003c/b>That leads local districts into really difficult decisions about, do we continue providing busses or do we eliminate in school house services that are also super important?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Reading support specialist for example, or an extra social worker?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sam Speroni: \u003c/b>And politically, it’s difficult to justify the elimination of teaching staff if school buses can be reduced first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Obviously, you said it’s an expensive prospect for school districts to think about doing this, but Berkeley is making a bigger investment than others to keep buses going. Why?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>So it goes back to the history of bussing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Archival tape: \u003c/b>The method is bussing, in itself one of the most controversial issues before boards of education throughout this country. But Berkeley is out to prove that it works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>You know, in the 1960s and 70s, school buses were one of the primary ways that districts tried to integrate their schools racially. There was a lot of segregation before that, and school bussing was a way of basically moving kids around, mixing them up, taking them to different neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Archival tape: \u003c/b>And with the use of 25 buses, 3,500 elementary children began to commute to and from White and Negro neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Trish McDermott is the senior communications director for Berkeley Unified, and she told me this history is fundamental to how Berkeley operates today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Trish McDermott: \u003c/b>In 1968, we integrated our elementary schools, and that really made Berkeley the first larger city in the country with a large minority enrollment to voluntarily desegregate schools. And we did that with our buses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>And Trish says even in progressive Berkeley, bussing for integration wasn’t always popular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Trish McDermott: \u003c/b>Big, crowded school board meetings, a lot of pushback.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>They eventually got it done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Trish McDermott: \u003c/b>It’s change that we’re very proud of, and it really is the legacy of our transportation department as it exists today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Archival tape: \u003c/b>Oxford is typical of a school in Berkeley’s white middle-class neighborhood. Last year, Oxford student body had one Negro member. Today, 40% of the 325 students are black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>It’s a progressive district, and they care about creating schools that are diverse and integrated. So, what they do is assign elementary school students to a zone, and then they look at the census for income data and parental education data to assign students to different schools. And then they use school buses to help kids and families get to the school that they were assigned to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Berkeley is doing this, but how does that stack up against all the other hundreds of school districts in California?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Well, it’s important to know that there’s no law in California that requires school districts to provide buses to general education students. So every district kind of looks at its budget and their student population and decides, you know, can we afford to do this or not? Is this where we want to spend our limited resources? You always have to make tradeoffs. So in a rural district, for example, they often prioritize school transportation because the distances are longer. There maybe aren’t any public transportation options for students, and the schools are more spread out. So bussing is sort of essential to getting kids to school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I will say that every district does need to provide some school busses, because they are federally mandated to transport certain groups of students to school. So if a student has transportation as part of their Individualized Education program, for example, maybe they have a disability or something like that, then they get transportation to school, and that is federally mandated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One district that actually does provide school buses for general education kids is San Francisco, which might actually surprise some families in San Francisco because a lot of families have to drive their kids to school or walk them to school or find some other way to get there. But there are a few school buses, 35 buses that the district runs. And again, it is also for equity reasons, largely the routes start on the south side of the city where there’s often more kids. It tends to be like lower-income neighborhoods, and the routes take kids to the west side of the city, and that’s to provide access to language programs, other schools, and basically makes sure that they have access to the rest of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>There must be families who would use bussing if it came to them, and it just doesn’t. What do those people do?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Well, you know, some kids walk to school if they’re close enough, some kids bike to school. But about two-thirds of California students get a ride to school in a private vehicle. So obviously that’s not great for the environment. And it’s a big ask of families. I mean, plenty of people don’t have cars, so some districts try to help out by partnering with public transportation systems. So in San Francisco, for example, school kids can ride Muni for free. And the district says that every school is served by at least one Muni bus line or train line. In the East Bay. It’s AC transit, and they actually reach out to the school districts around them and try to align their bus schedules to the school. Will start and end times to make it easier for kids to ride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz in scene:\u003c/b> I’m here at De Anza High School in Richmond. And it’s interesting because, like, all the AC transit buses are waiting here, like school buses. They’re pulled up off the street in this little pick-up zone. And there’s a bunch of kids who came out of school who are waiting around for the buses to leave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>[Sound of fare machine beeping]\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 20 minutes after school let out…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz in scene:\u003c/b> So all the kids are, like, crowded around the door waiting to get on the bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>[Sounds of bus honking and accelerating]\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>The bus takes off. And it takes a route through the school boundary zone so that all these kids can get back home. But if there was another patron on the street who wanted to ride, they could easily get on the bus anywhere along the route.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>I mean, I imagine this, you know, really boils down to sort of a problem on the equity front, right? Because, OK, even if parents are able to take their kids to school because of their schedule, that still is going to mean they’re going to have to have a car that’s operational. That requires a certain amount of money. Be up to date on insurance. Or I mean, the other thing to consider is like, that’s going to limit the shift work that perhaps parents could do if they’re going to have to know that they need to be available to take their kid to school at a certain time. That’s a constraint that, especially if you’re living, you know, on a low-income salary, that’s just one more thing that you’re sort of juggling in an already pretty complicated life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Yeah, I think it is an equity issue, although it’s a little bit unclear how big of one it is. I mean, obviously any family that has more flexibility and more mobility is going to have more choices. And all the things that you laid out are true. But there are a lot of other factors that make schools unequal in California. So it’s hard to say how much of a difference a school bus would really make to the whole big picture. One thing that Sam Speroni says, though, is that if California as a state wants to even the playing field for families by offering choices about what schools a family might send their kid to, transportation really needs to be part of that conversation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sam Speroni: \u003c/b>Ultimately, you don’t have school choice if you don’t have transportation to those choices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>And then the other problem that Sam Speroni brought up — this is a national problem — there’s a huge school bus driver shortage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sam Speroni: \u003c/b>With the buses we already have. We’re struggling to staff them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>The school bus drivers have to have a special commercial driver’s license, which is also what you use for trucking or other types of delivery jobs. And often those jobs pay more. So in this current economy, it’s very hard to retain your school bus drivers. And we’re seeing that even in places that have much more robust bussing, they’re having a lot of trouble staffing their buses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Now, given everything you’ve learned, are there likely to be any changes to how many school buses California schools offer?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>I mean, a number of people have flagged this as a problem. It’s an equity issue, as we already talked about. So, State Sen. Nancy Skinner actually introduced a bill in 2022 that would have provided universal school transportation for California public school students. And she did that because she argued that providing dedicated funds for school transportation would actually improve attendance. It would help with chronic absenteeism, and especially for low income students, it could also improve outcomes at school, too. But this bill was estimated to cost the state $1.4 billion. And so it had some support in the state Senate, but ultimately it didn’t advance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>$1.4 billion is a lot of money. But still, you know, as someone who rode a school bus, I do have a little bit of nostalgia for those big yellow buses. And I find it a little sad that, you know, I have a 3-year-old, and he isn’t likely to ride a bus in California and have that special relationship with his bus driver.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Yeah, I mean, I definitely got the sense from our question-asker, Jules, that she finds it a bit sad. I mean, she really had a positive experience on the bus and felt like it really created community. And not having them around here in the Bay area seems like just another way that the social fabric is fraying a little bit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jules Winters: \u003c/b>I guess I’ve always imagined that buses are like a library or a firefighter station or a police station like it’s this community service that is part of the inlaid structure of what makes it a community or what makes it a school for that community. So it just boggles my mind that it’s not part of any of these communities here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Well, Katrina Schwartz, thank you so much for bringing the story to us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>You’re welcome. I’m sorry I couldn’t get more cute kids on buses. Apparently, there’s a lot of liability issues with getting on school buses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>The woes of education reporting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Yes. It’s hard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price \u003c/b>Big thanks to Jules Winters for asking this week’s question. If you’ve got a question you’d like Bay Curious to take on, head to baycurious.org and fill out our form at the top of the page. While you’re there, vote in our March voting round. Here are the options under consideration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice 1 \u003c/b>Have you noticed all the motels along Lombard Street? I have. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always wondered why. Can you find out?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice 2 \u003c/b>At the San Francisco Opera House, there’s a chandelier high above the orchestra level. How do they change the light bulbs when they burn out?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice 3 \u003c/b>San Mateo County has an official shared housing program, which helps people find housing in someone else’s home. How well is it working?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price \u003c/b>Again, that’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.baycurious.org\">baycurious.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11980715/why-dont-more-bay-area-kids-ride-school-buses","authors":["234"],"programs":["news_33523"],"series":["news_17986"],"categories":["news_31795","news_18540","news_28250","news_8","news_1397"],"tags":["news_20013","news_27626","news_23484","news_3133"],"featImg":"news_11980722","label":"source_news_11980715"},"news_11981042":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11981042","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11981042","score":null,"sort":[1711585801000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"the-stakes-in-the-supreme-courts-abortion-pill-case","title":"The Stakes in the Supreme Court's Abortion Pill Case","publishDate":1711585801,"format":"audio","headTitle":"The Stakes in the Supreme Court’s Abortion Pill Case | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":33544,"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Supreme Court took up abortion access this week for the first since overturning Roe v. Wade two years ago. This time, they’re considering whether to restrict access to abortion pill mifepristone. Marisa talks with POLITICO health care reporter Alice Miranda Ollstein about what the conservative-led court might do. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":null,"status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1711580398,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":3,"wordCount":56},"headData":{"title":"The Stakes in the Supreme Court's Abortion Pill Case | KQED","description":"The Supreme Court took up abortion access this week for the first since overturning Roe v. Wade two years ago. This time, they’re considering whether to restrict access to abortion pill mifepristone. Marisa talks with POLITICO health care reporter Alice Miranda Ollstein about what the conservative-led court might do. ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"audioUrl":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/chrt.fm/track/G6C7C3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC9603780216.mp3?updated=1711579417","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11981042/the-stakes-in-the-supreme-courts-abortion-pill-case","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Supreme Court took up abortion access this week for the first since overturning Roe v. Wade two years ago. This time, they’re considering whether to restrict access to abortion pill mifepristone. Marisa talks with POLITICO health care reporter Alice Miranda Ollstein about what the conservative-led court might do. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11981042/the-stakes-in-the-supreme-courts-abortion-pill-case","authors":["3239"],"programs":["news_33544"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_23790","news_33881","news_30394","news_22235","news_17968","news_201","news_932"],"featImg":"news_11981045","label":"news_33544"},"news_11981018":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11981018","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11981018","score":null,"sort":[1711580446000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"new-police-chief-floyd-mitchell-pledges-to-work-with-the-citizens-of-oakland-to-address-citys-challenges","title":"New Police Chief Floyd Mitchell Pledges to 'Work With the Citizens of Oakland' to Address City's Challenges","publishDate":1711580446,"format":"standard","headTitle":"New Police Chief Floyd Mitchell Pledges to ‘Work With the Citizens of Oakland’ to Address City’s Challenges | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>Floyd Mitchell, Oakland’s newly appointed police chief, made his first public address on Wednesday, less than a week after Mayor Sheng Thao announced him as her pick for the position.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My approach begins with strong community engagement and collaboration. I’m here to work with the citizens of Oakland,” Mitchell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Floyd Mitchell\"]‘I think it’s important for the healing of this community to say that we can police ourselves and we can monitor ourselves.’[/pullquote]Mitchell — who is expected to start work in late April or early May — previously served for four years as police chief of Lubbock, Texas, a city with a population roughly 60% the size of Oakland’s. But in his address, he focused more on his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, where he spent most of his law enforcement career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Much like Oakland, Kansas City is a large, diverse, metropolitan city with many of the same social, economic and violent crime issues that are facing Oakland,” Mitchell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mitchell will have a lot to catch up on to address the most pressing matters facing the department. Foremost is the city’s ongoing struggle to stem a \u003ca href=\"https://cityofoakland2.app.box.com/s/sjiq7usfy27gy9dfe51hp8arz5l1ixad/file/1404598604813\">spike in violent crime\u003c/a>, prompting amplified calls from a growing number of residents for more decisive police action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981032\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981032\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240327-OPD-CHIEF-MITCHELL-MD-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240327-OPD-CHIEF-MITCHELL-MD-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240327-OPD-CHIEF-MITCHELL-MD-05-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240327-OPD-CHIEF-MITCHELL-MD-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240327-OPD-CHIEF-MITCHELL-MD-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240327-OPD-CHIEF-MITCHELL-MD-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240327-OPD-CHIEF-MITCHELL-MD-05-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao (bottom row) watches as newly appointed OPD Chief Floyd Mitchell speaks at a press conference at Oakland City Hall on March 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Frustrations over the city’s handling of crime have been focused on Thao, who is now facing a recall effort. Among the criticisms levied against her, members of the recall campaign argue that the mayor’s decision to fire former police Chief LeRonne Armstrong — and the amount of time it took to find his replacement — have hampered the city’s public safety efforts. Thao’s appointment of Mitchell holds high political stakes, and his ability — or inability — to address the city’s problems will likely reflect back on the mayor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thao fired Armstrong amid allegations that the department mishandled two officer misconduct investigations under his watch. Armstrong, who still has many supporters in the city and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11974985/former-oakland-police-chief-leronne-armstrong-sues-city-for-wrongful-termination\">recently sought to get his job back, has since sued\u003c/a> for wrongful termination, and his firing is one of the complaints cited by backers of Thao’s recall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Armstrong’s replacement, Mitchell will also be tasked with stewarding the department through the remaining court-mandated \u003ca href=\"https://cao-94612.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/documents/OPD-Sustainabililty-Report-6-121923.pdf\">civil rights reforms it must still make\u003c/a> to emerge from federal oversight, which it has now been under for more than two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11980455,news_11979891,news_11977871\"]Mitchell said he plans to sit down with Oakland’s federal monitor to discuss the path out of oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s important not only for the police department but I think it’s important for the healing of this community to say that we can police ourselves and we can monitor ourselves,” Mitchell said. “And to make sure that we continue those relationships and the internal oversights that have been initiated so that we don’t fall back into a situation where they’re looking at us again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mitchell’s tenure also comes after years of near-constant turnover in the department’s top office. Since 2005, a dozen officers have held the title of interim, acting or permanent police chief, including two who were fired and several others who \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2024/01/08/hiring-oakland-police-chief-has-always-been-messy/\">lasted only days. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mitchell said he learned from speaking with groups of local leaders and stakeholders that they were looking for a police chief who was committed to a long-term effort to fix the city’s issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once I heard that,” Mitchel said, “I was sold.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"In a press conference on Wednesday, Mitchell emphasized strong community engagement and implementing civil rights reforms to steward the OPD out of oversight.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1711585435,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":15,"wordCount":663},"headData":{"title":"New Police Chief Floyd Mitchell Pledges to 'Work With the Citizens of Oakland' to Address City's Challenges | KQED","description":"In a press conference on Wednesday, Mitchell emphasized strong community engagement and implementing civil rights reforms to steward the OPD out of oversight.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11981018/new-police-chief-floyd-mitchell-pledges-to-work-with-the-citizens-of-oakland-to-address-citys-challenges","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Floyd Mitchell, Oakland’s newly appointed police chief, made his first public address on Wednesday, less than a week after Mayor Sheng Thao announced him as her pick for the position.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My approach begins with strong community engagement and collaboration. I’m here to work with the citizens of Oakland,” Mitchell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘I think it’s important for the healing of this community to say that we can police ourselves and we can monitor ourselves.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"align":"right","size":"medium","citation":"Floyd Mitchell","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Mitchell — who is expected to start work in late April or early May — previously served for four years as police chief of Lubbock, Texas, a city with a population roughly 60% the size of Oakland’s. But in his address, he focused more on his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, where he spent most of his law enforcement career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Much like Oakland, Kansas City is a large, diverse, metropolitan city with many of the same social, economic and violent crime issues that are facing Oakland,” Mitchell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mitchell will have a lot to catch up on to address the most pressing matters facing the department. Foremost is the city’s ongoing struggle to stem a \u003ca href=\"https://cityofoakland2.app.box.com/s/sjiq7usfy27gy9dfe51hp8arz5l1ixad/file/1404598604813\">spike in violent crime\u003c/a>, prompting amplified calls from a growing number of residents for more decisive police action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981032\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981032\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240327-OPD-CHIEF-MITCHELL-MD-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240327-OPD-CHIEF-MITCHELL-MD-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240327-OPD-CHIEF-MITCHELL-MD-05-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240327-OPD-CHIEF-MITCHELL-MD-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240327-OPD-CHIEF-MITCHELL-MD-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240327-OPD-CHIEF-MITCHELL-MD-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240327-OPD-CHIEF-MITCHELL-MD-05-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao (bottom row) watches as newly appointed OPD Chief Floyd Mitchell speaks at a press conference at Oakland City Hall on March 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Frustrations over the city’s handling of crime have been focused on Thao, who is now facing a recall effort. Among the criticisms levied against her, members of the recall campaign argue that the mayor’s decision to fire former police Chief LeRonne Armstrong — and the amount of time it took to find his replacement — have hampered the city’s public safety efforts. Thao’s appointment of Mitchell holds high political stakes, and his ability — or inability — to address the city’s problems will likely reflect back on the mayor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thao fired Armstrong amid allegations that the department mishandled two officer misconduct investigations under his watch. Armstrong, who still has many supporters in the city and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11974985/former-oakland-police-chief-leronne-armstrong-sues-city-for-wrongful-termination\">recently sought to get his job back, has since sued\u003c/a> for wrongful termination, and his firing is one of the complaints cited by backers of Thao’s recall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Armstrong’s replacement, Mitchell will also be tasked with stewarding the department through the remaining court-mandated \u003ca href=\"https://cao-94612.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/documents/OPD-Sustainabililty-Report-6-121923.pdf\">civil rights reforms it must still make\u003c/a> to emerge from federal oversight, which it has now been under for more than two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"Related Stories ","postid":"news_11980455,news_11979891,news_11977871"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Mitchell said he plans to sit down with Oakland’s federal monitor to discuss the path out of oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s important not only for the police department but I think it’s important for the healing of this community to say that we can police ourselves and we can monitor ourselves,” Mitchell said. “And to make sure that we continue those relationships and the internal oversights that have been initiated so that we don’t fall back into a situation where they’re looking at us again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mitchell’s tenure also comes after years of near-constant turnover in the department’s top office. Since 2005, a dozen officers have held the title of interim, acting or permanent police chief, including two who were fired and several others who \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2024/01/08/hiring-oakland-police-chief-has-always-been-messy/\">lasted only days. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mitchell said he learned from speaking with groups of local leaders and stakeholders that they were looking for a police chief who was committed to a long-term effort to fix the city’s issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once I heard that,” Mitchel said, “I was sold.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11981018/new-police-chief-floyd-mitchell-pledges-to-work-with-the-citizens-of-oakland-to-address-citys-challenges","authors":["11761"],"categories":["news_6188","news_8"],"tags":["news_18","news_412"],"featImg":"news_11981079","label":"news"},"news_11980960":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11980960","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11980960","score":null,"sort":[1711571422000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"another-dublin-womens-prison-officer-sentenced-for-sexual-abuse","title":"Another Dublin Women's Prison Officer Sentenced for Sexual Abuse","publishDate":1711571422,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Another Dublin Women’s Prison Officer Sentenced for Sexual Abuse | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced former women’s prison correctional officer Nakie Nunley to six years in prison for sexually abusing people incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nunley is one of eight officers to be criminally charged for sexual abuse since 2021 at the low-security federal women’s prison that has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979936/judge-certifies-class-action-lawsuit-for-women-incarcerated-at-fci-dublin\">embroiled in sexual misconduct allegations for years\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You left a wake of destruction behind you. I don’t know how else to describe it,” said U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers on Wednesday to Nunley, just before announcing his sentence. “You were cruel, you were perverse, you were predatory, and you exploited them. A sentence has to reflect the reality of what you did. There are women you abused who have longer sentences than I will give you. One wonders if that is appropriate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allegations of sexual abuse at FCI Dublin go back decades, and the most recent scandals began unraveling in 2021 after an investigation by The Associated Press revealed a culture of abuse and cover-up at the facility. The former warden, chaplain and multiple other officers have been charged and sentenced, but allegations of abuse have continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FCI Dublin is currently facing 63 individual lawsuits over sexual misconduct and retaliation by officers, including 12 filed this year. A separate class-action lawsuit was filed by eight women incarcerated at FCI Dublin, alleging women at the prison were subject to rampant and ongoing sexual abuse, including rape and sexual assault, drugging, groping and being forced to take explicit photos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also claims women incarcerated at the facility were subject to abuse during medical exams and that immigrants were threatened with deportation if they did not comply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nunley, who is from Fairfield, served in the U.S. Air Force before working for the Bureau of Prisons. In July 2023, he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing five women who were serving prison sentences while he was a supervisor for inmates working at a call center called UNICOR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers\"]‘You left a wake of destruction behind you. … A sentence has to reflect the reality of what you did. There are women you abused who have longer sentences than I will give you. One wonders if that is appropriate.’[/pullquote]The call center was a desirable place to work because it paid more than other jobs at the facility and women could gain transferable work skills, Molly Priedeman, assistant United States attorney who is prosecuting the case, said in court on Wednesday. She said the guard took advantage of his position and threatened women with firing and other punishment if they didn’t comply with sex acts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He held his victims’ jobs, their livelihood within the prison walls within his hands, and he used that power to harass, degrade his numerous victims,” Priedeman said. “This is not just a case where there are implicit power dynamics at play. … A number of his victims have described nightmares, suicidal thoughts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23875698-nakie-nunley-plea-agreement\">plea deal\u003c/a>, Nunley admitted that he lied to federal investigators about sexually abusing his victims and about sending one of his victims sexually explicit notes. When confronted about his behavior, Nunley threatened to transfer one woman who was incarcerated at the prison to another facility and that she could lose her job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Wednesday’s court hearing in Oakland, women currently incarcerated at FCI Dublin testified about their experiences with Nunley. One inmate said that Nunley promoted her in the call center “because he told me he liked the way I looked” and that he repeatedly sexually assaulted her in his office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11979936,news_11972346,news_11971786\"]“I felt uncomfortable and embarrassed,” the woman testified on Wednesday over a phone call. “Mr. Nunley became more and more aggressive with me after this incident. I felt scared. I didn’t know what he would do next.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another woman who was formerly incarcerated at the prison shared that Nunley left her a dozen sexually explicit notes and raped her after a shift at the call center. When she reported the notes and behavior, she said an officer laughed to the point of tears. After Nunley admitted to the acts, she received compassionate release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several family members testified in support of Nunley in the courtroom on Wednesday. “I understand and accept the allegations made against my husband,” said Samantha Nunley, the defendant’s wife. “I do not think that these actions define him as a person.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nunley himself addressed the judge and women who had testified in person on Wednesday, sharing that he has been active in therapy and a treatment program for sexual offenders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I stand here today in a place I never thought I would be, but I know that it is my own actions that brought me to this place. I want to first and foremost apologize to the women that I violated at FCI Dublin,” he said. “I’m really sorry I didn’t fulfill that promise I wanted to fulfill for them. I’m so sorry to all of those who were affected by my actions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite several convictions already, the situation at FCI Dublin has continued to spiral, and more reports of retaliation have come forward throughout criminal proceedings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is so dire at the facility that Judge Gonzalez Rogers earlier this month approved a request to appoint a special master to oversee mandatory changes to address sexual abuse and retaliation at FCI Dublin, a first in Bureau of Prisons history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for plaintiffs and defendants have since submitted their proposals for the special master, which the judge will select in the coming weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge’s decision about the special master came less than a week after an FBI raid at the facility. The prison’s warden — the third to step in since an earlier warden was charged with sexual abuse at the prison — and three other top officials were abruptly replaced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The situation can no longer be tolerated. The facility is in dire need of immediate change,” she wrote in her order. “The court finds the Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) has proceeded sluggishly with intentional disregard of the inmates’ constitutional rights despite being fully apprised of the situation for years. The repeated installation of BOP leadership who fail to grasp and address the situation strains credulity. The court is compelled to intercede.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Nakie Nunley was sentenced to six years on Wednesday, the eighth officer since 2021 to be charged with sexual abuse at the low-security federal women’s prison.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1711579936,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":23,"wordCount":1121},"headData":{"title":"Another Dublin Women's Prison Officer Sentenced for Sexual Abuse | KQED","description":"Nakie Nunley was sentenced to six years on Wednesday, the eighth officer since 2021 to be charged with sexual abuse at the low-security federal women’s prison.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11980960/another-dublin-womens-prison-officer-sentenced-for-sexual-abuse","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced former women’s prison correctional officer Nakie Nunley to six years in prison for sexually abusing people incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nunley is one of eight officers to be criminally charged for sexual abuse since 2021 at the low-security federal women’s prison that has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979936/judge-certifies-class-action-lawsuit-for-women-incarcerated-at-fci-dublin\">embroiled in sexual misconduct allegations for years\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You left a wake of destruction behind you. I don’t know how else to describe it,” said U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers on Wednesday to Nunley, just before announcing his sentence. “You were cruel, you were perverse, you were predatory, and you exploited them. A sentence has to reflect the reality of what you did. There are women you abused who have longer sentences than I will give you. One wonders if that is appropriate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allegations of sexual abuse at FCI Dublin go back decades, and the most recent scandals began unraveling in 2021 after an investigation by The Associated Press revealed a culture of abuse and cover-up at the facility. The former warden, chaplain and multiple other officers have been charged and sentenced, but allegations of abuse have continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FCI Dublin is currently facing 63 individual lawsuits over sexual misconduct and retaliation by officers, including 12 filed this year. A separate class-action lawsuit was filed by eight women incarcerated at FCI Dublin, alleging women at the prison were subject to rampant and ongoing sexual abuse, including rape and sexual assault, drugging, groping and being forced to take explicit photos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also claims women incarcerated at the facility were subject to abuse during medical exams and that immigrants were threatened with deportation if they did not comply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nunley, who is from Fairfield, served in the U.S. Air Force before working for the Bureau of Prisons. In July 2023, he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing five women who were serving prison sentences while he was a supervisor for inmates working at a call center called UNICOR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘You left a wake of destruction behind you. … A sentence has to reflect the reality of what you did. There are women you abused who have longer sentences than I will give you. One wonders if that is appropriate.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"align":"right","size":"medium","citation":"U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The call center was a desirable place to work because it paid more than other jobs at the facility and women could gain transferable work skills, Molly Priedeman, assistant United States attorney who is prosecuting the case, said in court on Wednesday. She said the guard took advantage of his position and threatened women with firing and other punishment if they didn’t comply with sex acts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He held his victims’ jobs, their livelihood within the prison walls within his hands, and he used that power to harass, degrade his numerous victims,” Priedeman said. “This is not just a case where there are implicit power dynamics at play. … A number of his victims have described nightmares, suicidal thoughts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23875698-nakie-nunley-plea-agreement\">plea deal\u003c/a>, Nunley admitted that he lied to federal investigators about sexually abusing his victims and about sending one of his victims sexually explicit notes. When confronted about his behavior, Nunley threatened to transfer one woman who was incarcerated at the prison to another facility and that she could lose her job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Wednesday’s court hearing in Oakland, women currently incarcerated at FCI Dublin testified about their experiences with Nunley. One inmate said that Nunley promoted her in the call center “because he told me he liked the way I looked” and that he repeatedly sexually assaulted her in his office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"Related Stories ","postid":"news_11979936,news_11972346,news_11971786"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I felt uncomfortable and embarrassed,” the woman testified on Wednesday over a phone call. “Mr. Nunley became more and more aggressive with me after this incident. I felt scared. I didn’t know what he would do next.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another woman who was formerly incarcerated at the prison shared that Nunley left her a dozen sexually explicit notes and raped her after a shift at the call center. When she reported the notes and behavior, she said an officer laughed to the point of tears. After Nunley admitted to the acts, she received compassionate release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several family members testified in support of Nunley in the courtroom on Wednesday. “I understand and accept the allegations made against my husband,” said Samantha Nunley, the defendant’s wife. “I do not think that these actions define him as a person.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nunley himself addressed the judge and women who had testified in person on Wednesday, sharing that he has been active in therapy and a treatment program for sexual offenders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I stand here today in a place I never thought I would be, but I know that it is my own actions that brought me to this place. I want to first and foremost apologize to the women that I violated at FCI Dublin,” he said. “I’m really sorry I didn’t fulfill that promise I wanted to fulfill for them. I’m so sorry to all of those who were affected by my actions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite several convictions already, the situation at FCI Dublin has continued to spiral, and more reports of retaliation have come forward throughout criminal proceedings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is so dire at the facility that Judge Gonzalez Rogers earlier this month approved a request to appoint a special master to oversee mandatory changes to address sexual abuse and retaliation at FCI Dublin, a first in Bureau of Prisons history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for plaintiffs and defendants have since submitted their proposals for the special master, which the judge will select in the coming weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge’s decision about the special master came less than a week after an FBI raid at the facility. The prison’s warden — the third to step in since an earlier warden was charged with sexual abuse at the prison — and three other top officials were abruptly replaced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The situation can no longer be tolerated. The facility is in dire need of immediate change,” she wrote in her order. “The court finds the Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) has proceeded sluggishly with intentional disregard of the inmates’ constitutional rights despite being fully apprised of the situation for years. The repeated installation of BOP leadership who fail to grasp and address the situation strains credulity. The court is compelled to intercede.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11980960/another-dublin-womens-prison-officer-sentenced-for-sexual-abuse","authors":["11840"],"categories":["news_6188","news_8"],"tags":["news_33723","news_3930","news_2700"],"featImg":"news_11980965","label":"news"},"news_11980953":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11980953","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11980953","score":null,"sort":[1711562257000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"california-regulators-investigate-sutter-health-over-unreported-assault-on-psychiatry-worker","title":"California Regulators Investigate Sutter Health Over Unreported Assault on Psychiatry Worker","publishDate":1711562257,"format":"standard","headTitle":"California Regulators Investigate Sutter Health Over Unreported Assault on Psychiatry Worker | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>California regulators are reviewing Sutter Health’s handling of a violent assault on a psychiatry resident after she \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1991739/bay-area-medical-psychiatry-pushes-for-hospital-safety-after-violent-attack\">shared her story with KQED\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dani Golomb was brutally beaten and knocked unconscious by a patient on Sept. 5, 2020, while working in the inpatient unit at California Pacific Medical Center. The patient jumped her from behind, shoving Golomb to the floor.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Dani Golomb, psychiatry resident, California Pacific Medical Center\"]‘I had one of these folding metal clipboards. [The patient] grabbed it out of my hand and smashed it repeatedly on my head.’[/pullquote]“I was punched in the head, neck and shoulders,” she told KQED in an interview. “I had one of these folding metal clipboards. [The patient] grabbed it out of my hand and smashed it repeatedly on my head.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Golomb suffered a concussion and a traumatic brain injury. She missed more than a year of work as she recovered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sutter Health was legally required to file a violent incident report to state regulators within 72 hours, but the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal/OSHA, has no record of the incident, the agency confirmed in an email to KQED. Cal/OSHA said it was “looking into the matter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed statement, Sutter Health acknowledged that the hospital did not initially report Golomb’s assault or injury but said it did record the assault in an injury log filed with Cal/OSHA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think, whether intentionally unreported or not, what upsets me the most is the possibility that more safety measures could have been implemented if Cal/OSHA had been aware of the violence,” Golomb said in an interview this week with KQED. “I think it’s a relief to hear that state regulators are looking into my case. I feel angry that it wasn’t properly reported in the first place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980970\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980970\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240209-HOSPITALVIOLENCE-20-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240209-HOSPITALVIOLENCE-20-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240209-HOSPITALVIOLENCE-20-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240209-HOSPITALVIOLENCE-20-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240209-HOSPITALVIOLENCE-20-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240209-HOSPITALVIOLENCE-20-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240209-HOSPITALVIOLENCE-20-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dani Golomb, psychiatry resident at CPMC Sutter Davies Campus, poses for a portrait at her home in San Francisco on Feb. 9, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2014, California lawmakers passed what was touted as the nation’s strongest state workplace violence regulations for health care facilities. The law, SB 1299, was sponsored by the California Nurses Association. It requires hospitals to develop comprehensive workplace violence prevention plans, and it mandates strict reporting requirements for acute care settings, like the inpatient psychiatry unit where Golomb was beaten.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Carmen Comsti, lead regulatory specialist, California Nurses Association\"]‘Enforcement on a basic level has been lax. My sense is that no one at Cal/OSHA is really looking to see whether or not hospitals are reporting or not.’[/pullquote]“I authored legislation to help ensure safer working environments for the nurses and doctors who provide critical care for our communities, but it’s clear that more needs to be done to build on our efforts,” Sen. Alex Padilla, who wrote SB 1299 when he was a state lawmaker, said in a statement. “Physicians on the frontlines of our mental health crisis deserve a safe workplace.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2017, California hospitals have reported roughly 10,000 violent incidents annually to the state. Carmen Comsti, the California Nurses Association’s lead regulatory specialist, said that many hospitals are underreporting violent incidents, and regulators have not been holding facilities accountable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Enforcement on a basic level has been lax,” she said. “My sense is that no one at Cal/OSHA is really looking to see whether or not hospitals are reporting or not.”[aside label='More on Workplace Safety' tag='workplace-safety']“The violent incident reports are key to the success of implementation of workplace violence prevention plans,” Comsti continued. “[They allow] workers to know what is happening and can engage with their employer to say these things we need to improve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Golomb and her colleagues have pressed Sutter Health to increase its safety measures. Earlier this month, they delivered a petition to hospital management signed by more than 100 psychiatry residents, fellows and nurses who demanded a round-the-clock security presence in the inpatient psych unit and an intensive care unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our ability to continue to provide the highest standard of care is increasingly threatened by a growing concern for our own safety in our workplace,” the petition said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sutter claims it has spent nearly $40 million to improve security for the unit where Golomb was attacked, purchasing cameras, panic buttons, duress alarms and securing doors. A security officer is now stationed there during the day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On March 8, the day after KQED’s story on Golomb was published, Warner Thomas, Sutter Health’s president and CEO, sent an email to hospital employees titled, “Keeping you safe from harm at work.”[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Dani Golomb, psychiatry resident, California Pacific Medical Center\"]‘My goal since the beginning of all this was to work towards creating a safer environment for my peers, patients, nurses and the rest of our staff.’[/pullquote]The email noted Sutter’s plan to spend an additional $45 million to simplify workplace violence reporting, develop new signage, increase training and expand security officer patrols.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many of you have also voiced your concerns about safety at our Sutter Health worksites,” Thomas wrote. “I want to thank you for speaking up and talking about your experiences with me and other leaders.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Golomb said there have been “notable improvements” at work, with a more consistent security presence. Residents were also given panic buttons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My goal since the beginning of all this was to work towards creating a safer environment for my peers, patients, nurses and the rest of our staff,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"California regulators are probing Sutter Health's handling of a violent assault on a psychiatry resident at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Sutter Health was legally required to report the incident to Cal/OSHA within 72 hours, but the agency says it has no record.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1711644494,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":18,"wordCount":989},"headData":{"title":"California Regulators Investigate Sutter Health Over Unreported Assault on Psychiatry Worker | KQED","description":"California regulators are probing Sutter Health's handling of a violent assault on a psychiatry resident at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Sutter Health was legally required to report the incident to Cal/OSHA within 72 hours, but the agency says it has no record.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"audioUrl":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-4[…]f-aaef00f5a073/5c80cb40-b062-4ca0-beaa-b1410108bd4a/audio.mp3","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11980953/california-regulators-investigate-sutter-health-over-unreported-assault-on-psychiatry-worker","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California regulators are reviewing Sutter Health’s handling of a violent assault on a psychiatry resident after she \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1991739/bay-area-medical-psychiatry-pushes-for-hospital-safety-after-violent-attack\">shared her story with KQED\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dani Golomb was brutally beaten and knocked unconscious by a patient on Sept. 5, 2020, while working in the inpatient unit at California Pacific Medical Center. The patient jumped her from behind, shoving Golomb to the floor.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘I had one of these folding metal clipboards. [The patient] grabbed it out of my hand and smashed it repeatedly on my head.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Dani Golomb, psychiatry resident, California Pacific Medical Center","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I was punched in the head, neck and shoulders,” she told KQED in an interview. “I had one of these folding metal clipboards. [The patient] grabbed it out of my hand and smashed it repeatedly on my head.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Golomb suffered a concussion and a traumatic brain injury. She missed more than a year of work as she recovered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sutter Health was legally required to file a violent incident report to state regulators within 72 hours, but the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal/OSHA, has no record of the incident, the agency confirmed in an email to KQED. Cal/OSHA said it was “looking into the matter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed statement, Sutter Health acknowledged that the hospital did not initially report Golomb’s assault or injury but said it did record the assault in an injury log filed with Cal/OSHA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think, whether intentionally unreported or not, what upsets me the most is the possibility that more safety measures could have been implemented if Cal/OSHA had been aware of the violence,” Golomb said in an interview this week with KQED. “I think it’s a relief to hear that state regulators are looking into my case. I feel angry that it wasn’t properly reported in the first place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980970\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980970\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240209-HOSPITALVIOLENCE-20-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240209-HOSPITALVIOLENCE-20-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240209-HOSPITALVIOLENCE-20-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240209-HOSPITALVIOLENCE-20-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240209-HOSPITALVIOLENCE-20-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240209-HOSPITALVIOLENCE-20-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240209-HOSPITALVIOLENCE-20-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dani Golomb, psychiatry resident at CPMC Sutter Davies Campus, poses for a portrait at her home in San Francisco on Feb. 9, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2014, California lawmakers passed what was touted as the nation’s strongest state workplace violence regulations for health care facilities. The law, SB 1299, was sponsored by the California Nurses Association. It requires hospitals to develop comprehensive workplace violence prevention plans, and it mandates strict reporting requirements for acute care settings, like the inpatient psychiatry unit where Golomb was beaten.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘Enforcement on a basic level has been lax. My sense is that no one at Cal/OSHA is really looking to see whether or not hospitals are reporting or not.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Carmen Comsti, lead regulatory specialist, California Nurses Association","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I authored legislation to help ensure safer working environments for the nurses and doctors who provide critical care for our communities, but it’s clear that more needs to be done to build on our efforts,” Sen. Alex Padilla, who wrote SB 1299 when he was a state lawmaker, said in a statement. “Physicians on the frontlines of our mental health crisis deserve a safe workplace.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2017, California hospitals have reported roughly 10,000 violent incidents annually to the state. Carmen Comsti, the California Nurses Association’s lead regulatory specialist, said that many hospitals are underreporting violent incidents, and regulators have not been holding facilities accountable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Enforcement on a basic level has been lax,” she said. “My sense is that no one at Cal/OSHA is really looking to see whether or not hospitals are reporting or not.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"More on Workplace Safety ","tag":"workplace-safety"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The violent incident reports are key to the success of implementation of workplace violence prevention plans,” Comsti continued. “[They allow] workers to know what is happening and can engage with their employer to say these things we need to improve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Golomb and her colleagues have pressed Sutter Health to increase its safety measures. Earlier this month, they delivered a petition to hospital management signed by more than 100 psychiatry residents, fellows and nurses who demanded a round-the-clock security presence in the inpatient psych unit and an intensive care unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our ability to continue to provide the highest standard of care is increasingly threatened by a growing concern for our own safety in our workplace,” the petition said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sutter claims it has spent nearly $40 million to improve security for the unit where Golomb was attacked, purchasing cameras, panic buttons, duress alarms and securing doors. A security officer is now stationed there during the day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On March 8, the day after KQED’s story on Golomb was published, Warner Thomas, Sutter Health’s president and CEO, sent an email to hospital employees titled, “Keeping you safe from harm at work.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘My goal since the beginning of all this was to work towards creating a safer environment for my peers, patients, nurses and the rest of our staff.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Dani Golomb, psychiatry resident, California Pacific Medical Center","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The email noted Sutter’s plan to spend an additional $45 million to simplify workplace violence reporting, develop new signage, increase training and expand security officer patrols.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many of you have also voiced your concerns about safety at our Sutter Health worksites,” Thomas wrote. “I want to thank you for speaking up and talking about your experiences with me and other leaders.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Golomb said there have been “notable improvements” at work, with a more consistent security presence. Residents were also given panic buttons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My goal since the beginning of all this was to work towards creating a safer environment for my peers, patients, nurses and the rest of our staff,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11980953/california-regulators-investigate-sutter-health-over-unreported-assault-on-psychiatry-worker","authors":["11608"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_24939","news_6617","news_18093","news_23063","news_33132"],"featImg":"news_11980957","label":"news"},"news_11980776":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11980776","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11980776","score":null,"sort":[1711549838000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"when-is-tax-deadline-2024-myths-refund","title":"The 2024 Tax Deadline Approaches. From Free Filing to Refunds, Here's What to Know","publishDate":1711549838,"format":"standard","headTitle":"The 2024 Tax Deadline Approaches. From Free Filing to Refunds, Here’s What to Know | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>There are only a few weeks left before the April 15 deadline to file your 2023 taxes if you haven’t already done so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if you’re feeling stressed about how much you may have to pay after talking to friends — or if you’re left confused by \u003ca href=\"https://finance.yahoo.com/news/dangerous-and-illegal-tax-advice-on-tiktok-targets-millennials-and-gen-z-with-w-2s-161113972.html\">a surge of social media videos giving out incorrect tax advice\u003c/a> — this one’s for you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We talked to Bay Area tax experts to understand exactly what the IRS has changed for this year’s filing and what has stayed the same — and to debunk some of those tax rumors, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#taxdeadline2024\">What’s the deadline to file my taxes this year? Can I get an extension?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#freetaxfilingirs\">How could I file my taxes directly with the IRS for free?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#childtaxcredit2024\">What’s new with the Child Tax Credit in 2024?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#taxexpertnearme\">Can I get a bigger tax refund if I use a private tax preparer?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>If you’re reading this a few days before April 15 and you’re worried that you won’t find a tax expert near you to help you file before the deadline, there’s a new IRS tool available to California filers that can help you file from home for free (\u003ca href=\"#freetaxfilingirs\">scroll down for more on that\u003c/a> ). Or if you’re looking for free, in-person tax help, there are dozens of nonprofit organizations across the Bay Area offering free tax filing services. \u003ca href=\"https://uwba.org/freetaxhelp/\">Find the closest free or low-cost tax resources with the United Way Bay Area’s map.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep reading to learn what’s true — or false — about filing your 2023 taxes by April 15, 2024. And remember, everyone’s tax situation is different, so if you have questions or concerns about your individual tax filing, it’s \u003cem>always\u003c/em> best to speak with a tax expert.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"taxdeadline2024\">\u003c/a>Is the deadline this year \u003ci>really\u003c/i> April 15?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>That’s right. Unless you live or work in San Diego County (more on that below), the deadline for filing your state and federal taxes in California this year is Monday, April 15.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the past few years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11946379/tax-deadline-2023-california-bay-area-extension\">the IRS granted automatic extensions to millions of taxpayers\u003c/a> around the United States due to the pandemic and natural disasters. Last year, for example, the agency allowed millions of Californians to file and pay their taxes by Nov. 16. But this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-time-guide-2024-what-to-know-before-completing-a-tax-return\">the IRS has stuck to their regular April 15 deadline\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The IRS, however, has granted an extension this year to a specific group of Californians: People who live or own a business in San Diego County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">Tell us: What else do you need information about right now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Severe storms and floods hit San Diego County in January, and following a disaster declaration from FEMA, \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-announces-tax-relief-for-taxpayers-impacted-by-severe-storms-and-flooding-in-san-diego-california\">the IRS announced that residents now have until June 17 to file their 2023 federal taxes\u003c/a>. The State of California Tax Franchise Board has also confirmed that the same extension \u003ca href=\"https://www.ftb.ca.gov/about-ftb/newsroom/tax-news/index.html#article0\">applies to state taxes for San Diego County filers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Do you need more time to file? The IRS does have \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/extension-of-time-to-file-your-tax-return\">an option to request an extension and get more time to submit all your information\u003c/a> — but this isn’t a free pass. You will still need to estimate how much you owe Uncle Sam \u003ci>and \u003c/i>pay that amount when you request the extension.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946480\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11946480 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman sits at her kitchen table and sifts through documents, looking concerned. Next to her is her opened laptop.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This year, only people living and working in San Diego County have received an automatic filing extension on their state and federal taxes. \u003ccite>(MoMo Productions/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"freetaxfilingirs\">\u003c/a>I heard that I can now file my taxes directly to the IRS for free. How does that work?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This year, the IRS launched \u003ca href=\"https://directfile.irs.gov/\">a pilot version of a Direct File Tool\u003c/a>. This means that residents in 12 states, including California, can now file their taxes directly with the IRS through a virtual platform that walks you step-by-step through the process. Once you’re done, the IRS will have your information without you needing to leave the house or pay for an online tax service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://directfile.irs.gov/\">\u003cb>Learn more about filing for free with the IRS Direct File Tool here.\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>It’s been \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free\">a long, fraught road to bring free direct tax filing to the United States\u003c/a>. Several groups across the country pushed the IRS for years to make this tool available so that more working- and middle-class families would have access to free tax filing services and reduce their dependency on private tax filers. “We believe that the tax filing should be free, simple, easy, automatic,” says Teri Olle, with the \u003ca href=\"https://economicsecurityproject.org/\">Economic Security Project\u003c/a>, one of the organizations that successfully advocated for the Direct File Tool. “This pilot really just puts money into people’s hands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are a few things to remember about the new IRS Direct File tool:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Not everyone can use Direct File\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anyone who received a W-2 for their 2023 income \u003ca href=\"https://directfile.irs.gov/\">can use the Direct File tool\u003c/a>, regardless of income, as well as people who received Social Security income or unemployment benefits. Folks who do not have a Social Security number but do have an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number can also use the IRS Direct File Tool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, if you only worked gig industry jobs (like driving for Lyft or delivering for DoorDash) and you only received a 1099 but not a W-2, unfortunately, you cannot use the Direct File tool — at least not this time around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You can only file federal taxes with Direct File\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get started with \u003ca href=\"https://directfile.irs.gov/\">the IRS Direct File Tool\u003c/a>, you’ll need your W-2, additional documentation, as well as your government ID. But once you’re done, it’s crucial that you \u003ca href=\"https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/ways-to-file/online/calfile/index.asp\">head over to CalFile to then complete your \u003ci>state\u003c/i> taxes\u003c/a> — since the IRS Direct File Tool only takes care of your federal taxes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>I saw on social media that I could avoid paying taxes if I selected “Exempt” on my W-4. Is that true?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This is not true. In fact, tax experts say that doing this could actually put you in a \u003ci>much more\u003c/i> difficult position with the IRS in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To explain why, let’s review \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-w-4\">what a W-4 is\u003c/a>: A form that your employer should provide you with — usually when you begin working for them — that lets your employer know how much of your income they should deduct (or “withhold”) from your pay in order to pay your income taxes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you get a pay stub each month, you may see that federal and state taxes have taken a percentage of your paycheck. This happens because you are marked “Non-exempt” on your W-4. When they file, many folks see that they have already paid all or most of what they owe to the IRS for the year because they’ve been paying off their tax liability bit by bit with each paycheck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, what happens when you choose to go “Exempt” on your W-4 instead? Usually, what happens is that you’ll get a bigger paycheck each month because taxes aren’t being withheld. But this doesn’t stop Uncle Sam from eventually wanting his money. When the time comes to file, you may now owe a much bigger amount because you have to pay your whole tax bill at once — versus paying it month by month if you had chosen “Non-exempt” on your W-4.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you are a gig worker (you drive for Uber, for example), \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/manage-taxes-for-your-gig-work#:~:text=Do%20you%20work%20as%20an,give%20it%20to%20your%20employer.\">you can set up quarterly payments to the IRS\u003c/a> and, that way, avoid getting hit with a huge tax bill when filing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Gig workers are] self-employed and they have to pay taxes,” says Lindsay Rojas, tax specialist and program manager with United Way Bay Area. “They’re not withholding unless they know that they need to make those estimated payments because they’re their own employer.” \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/manage-taxes-for-your-gig-work#:~:text=Do%20you%20work%20as%20an,give%20it%20to%20your%20employer.\">Learn more about how gig workers can set up direct payments to the IRS throughout the year.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11943501\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11943501 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/pexels-emma-bauso-2253879.jpg\" alt=\"A family of four -- two adult parents or caregivers, and two children -- are photographed skipping along a wet street, holding hands.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1282\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/pexels-emma-bauso-2253879.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/pexels-emma-bauso-2253879-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/pexels-emma-bauso-2253879-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/pexels-emma-bauso-2253879-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/pexels-emma-bauso-2253879-1536x1026.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">If you’ve been claiming the child tax credit, there are updates to know for 2024. \u003ccite>(Emma Bauso/Pexels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"childtaxcredit2024\">\u003c/a>I have children but I got a smaller tax refund than my friends who also have kids. Did my tax filer do something wrong?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Something that United Way’s Rojas says she always stresses to clients: Everyone’s tax situation is different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It depends on the client,” she says, and “it’s never a cookie-cutter situation where you can say what happens with one person will happen with everybody else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rojas emphasizes, however, that families may see smaller refunds this year due to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11943464/irs-child-tax-credits-how-much-changes\">changes in the Child Tax Credit that started last year\u003c/a>. During the pandemic, the Child Tax Credit went up to $3,600 for children under 6 and to $3,000 for kids between ages 6 and 18. During that time, parents and caregivers were seeing refunds that were much bigger than what they had received before the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But starting last year, the Child Tax Credit went back down to $2,000 credit for every child 16 or younger — and kids who are 17 no longer qualify for the credit. There’s also an additional requirement to receive these rebates: Parents need to have made at least $2,500 in income last year to qualify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this means that with these changes, many parents and caregivers may see much smaller refunds in 2024. And in some cases, families may actually \u003ci>owe\u003c/i> money to the IRS when they file, depending on their situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you made less than $2,500 last year and have kids, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/personal/credits/young-child-tax-credit.html#:~:text=Overview,income%20of%20%2430%2C931%20or%20less.\">you may still qualify for California’s Young Child Tax Credit\u003c/a>. This is a rebate for families who made $30,931 or less last year and have at least one child who is younger than 6. “[Parents] don’t have to have income to claim that credit, but they do need to be the ones who are providing the support for the child — and that [support] can come in different ways,” Rojas says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep in mind that there are also many other credits you may qualify for, depending on your situation. And if you’re filing in person, regardless of whether that’s at a free community tax clinic or with a private filer, make sure that you share exactly what has changed about your life this past year, whether that is marriage, a divorce, a kid in college or \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-8936\">even if you bought an electric car\u003c/a>. And if you don’t know what you should be telling your filer, just ask them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You need to fully understand your return,” Rojas says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"taxexpertnearme\">\u003c/a>Is it true that I can get a bigger refund if I use a private tax service?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Sometimes we may believe that if something’s free, it might be lower quality. Olle from the Economic Security Project says she’s noticed that this way of thinking often motivates how and where some people file their taxes — and can push them toward paying a professional tax filer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s been this conventional wisdom that the paid options ‘do better’,” she says. “But that has not been shown to be true.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a 2014 study, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent federal agency, sent undercover officials to visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-14-467t\">19 randomly selected private tax preparers\u003c/a> and found that out of those, 17 preparers made some errors when filing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>GAO emphasized that the sample used in the study “cannot be generalized,” but after releasing its findings, this office \u003ca href=\"https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-14-467t.pdf\">recommended Congress give the IRS more power to regulate private tax preparers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you go to a free tax clinic that’s administered by the federal Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, many of the staff there have filed tax returns for years and have gone through rigorous training designed by IRS staff themselves. \u003ca href=\"https://uwba.org/freetaxhelp/\">You can find the nearest VITA site near you on United Way Bay Area’s website.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jaqueline Marcelos, who helps families file their taxes for free at San Francisco’s Mission Economic Development Agency, told KQED in 2023 that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11943464/irs-child-tax-credits-how-much-changes\">over the years, clients come to her thinking that working with a private filer instead could get them bigger returns.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So many clients say, ‘I am going to report that I donated $50, $60, or I want to put down this expense, and I am going to request an extra form in my taxes,” Marcelos says — but while a private filing company can write off what a client asks for, “that [still] might not increase the amount of money that you’re getting back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED News, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area in 2024. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID-19\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather,\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger and help us decide what to cover here on our site and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[hearken id=\"10483\" src=\"https://modules.wearehearken.com/kqed/embed/10483.js\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"With just a few weekends left to file your 2023 taxes, make sure you know what to look for this year — and which online rumors about taxes are false.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1711569561,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":true,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":45,"wordCount":2307},"headData":{"title":"The 2024 Tax Deadline Approaches. From Free Filing to Refunds, Here's What to Know | KQED","description":"With just a few weekends left to file your 2023 taxes, make sure you know what to look for this year — and which online rumors about taxes are false.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11980776/when-is-tax-deadline-2024-myths-refund","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>There are only a few weeks left before the April 15 deadline to file your 2023 taxes if you haven’t already done so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if you’re feeling stressed about how much you may have to pay after talking to friends — or if you’re left confused by \u003ca href=\"https://finance.yahoo.com/news/dangerous-and-illegal-tax-advice-on-tiktok-targets-millennials-and-gen-z-with-w-2s-161113972.html\">a surge of social media videos giving out incorrect tax advice\u003c/a> — this one’s for you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We talked to Bay Area tax experts to understand exactly what the IRS has changed for this year’s filing and what has stayed the same — and to debunk some of those tax rumors, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#taxdeadline2024\">What’s the deadline to file my taxes this year? Can I get an extension?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#freetaxfilingirs\">How could I file my taxes directly with the IRS for free?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#childtaxcredit2024\">What’s new with the Child Tax Credit in 2024?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#taxexpertnearme\">Can I get a bigger tax refund if I use a private tax preparer?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>If you’re reading this a few days before April 15 and you’re worried that you won’t find a tax expert near you to help you file before the deadline, there’s a new IRS tool available to California filers that can help you file from home for free (\u003ca href=\"#freetaxfilingirs\">scroll down for more on that\u003c/a> ). Or if you’re looking for free, in-person tax help, there are dozens of nonprofit organizations across the Bay Area offering free tax filing services. \u003ca href=\"https://uwba.org/freetaxhelp/\">Find the closest free or low-cost tax resources with the United Way Bay Area’s map.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep reading to learn what’s true — or false — about filing your 2023 taxes by April 15, 2024. And remember, everyone’s tax situation is different, so if you have questions or concerns about your individual tax filing, it’s \u003cem>always\u003c/em> best to speak with a tax expert.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"taxdeadline2024\">\u003c/a>Is the deadline this year \u003ci>really\u003c/i> April 15?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>That’s right. Unless you live or work in San Diego County (more on that below), the deadline for filing your state and federal taxes in California this year is Monday, April 15.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the past few years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11946379/tax-deadline-2023-california-bay-area-extension\">the IRS granted automatic extensions to millions of taxpayers\u003c/a> around the United States due to the pandemic and natural disasters. Last year, for example, the agency allowed millions of Californians to file and pay their taxes by Nov. 16. But this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-time-guide-2024-what-to-know-before-completing-a-tax-return\">the IRS has stuck to their regular April 15 deadline\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The IRS, however, has granted an extension this year to a specific group of Californians: People who live or own a business in San Diego County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">Tell us: What else do you need information about right now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Severe storms and floods hit San Diego County in January, and following a disaster declaration from FEMA, \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-announces-tax-relief-for-taxpayers-impacted-by-severe-storms-and-flooding-in-san-diego-california\">the IRS announced that residents now have until June 17 to file their 2023 federal taxes\u003c/a>. The State of California Tax Franchise Board has also confirmed that the same extension \u003ca href=\"https://www.ftb.ca.gov/about-ftb/newsroom/tax-news/index.html#article0\">applies to state taxes for San Diego County filers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Do you need more time to file? The IRS does have \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/extension-of-time-to-file-your-tax-return\">an option to request an extension and get more time to submit all your information\u003c/a> — but this isn’t a free pass. You will still need to estimate how much you owe Uncle Sam \u003ci>and \u003c/i>pay that amount when you request the extension.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946480\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11946480 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman sits at her kitchen table and sifts through documents, looking concerned. Next to her is her opened laptop.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This year, only people living and working in San Diego County have received an automatic filing extension on their state and federal taxes. \u003ccite>(MoMo Productions/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"freetaxfilingirs\">\u003c/a>I heard that I can now file my taxes directly to the IRS for free. How does that work?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This year, the IRS launched \u003ca href=\"https://directfile.irs.gov/\">a pilot version of a Direct File Tool\u003c/a>. This means that residents in 12 states, including California, can now file their taxes directly with the IRS through a virtual platform that walks you step-by-step through the process. Once you’re done, the IRS will have your information without you needing to leave the house or pay for an online tax service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://directfile.irs.gov/\">\u003cb>Learn more about filing for free with the IRS Direct File Tool here.\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>It’s been \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free\">a long, fraught road to bring free direct tax filing to the United States\u003c/a>. Several groups across the country pushed the IRS for years to make this tool available so that more working- and middle-class families would have access to free tax filing services and reduce their dependency on private tax filers. “We believe that the tax filing should be free, simple, easy, automatic,” says Teri Olle, with the \u003ca href=\"https://economicsecurityproject.org/\">Economic Security Project\u003c/a>, one of the organizations that successfully advocated for the Direct File Tool. “This pilot really just puts money into people’s hands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are a few things to remember about the new IRS Direct File tool:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Not everyone can use Direct File\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anyone who received a W-2 for their 2023 income \u003ca href=\"https://directfile.irs.gov/\">can use the Direct File tool\u003c/a>, regardless of income, as well as people who received Social Security income or unemployment benefits. Folks who do not have a Social Security number but do have an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number can also use the IRS Direct File Tool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, if you only worked gig industry jobs (like driving for Lyft or delivering for DoorDash) and you only received a 1099 but not a W-2, unfortunately, you cannot use the Direct File tool — at least not this time around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You can only file federal taxes with Direct File\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get started with \u003ca href=\"https://directfile.irs.gov/\">the IRS Direct File Tool\u003c/a>, you’ll need your W-2, additional documentation, as well as your government ID. But once you’re done, it’s crucial that you \u003ca href=\"https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/ways-to-file/online/calfile/index.asp\">head over to CalFile to then complete your \u003ci>state\u003c/i> taxes\u003c/a> — since the IRS Direct File Tool only takes care of your federal taxes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>I saw on social media that I could avoid paying taxes if I selected “Exempt” on my W-4. Is that true?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This is not true. In fact, tax experts say that doing this could actually put you in a \u003ci>much more\u003c/i> difficult position with the IRS in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To explain why, let’s review \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-w-4\">what a W-4 is\u003c/a>: A form that your employer should provide you with — usually when you begin working for them — that lets your employer know how much of your income they should deduct (or “withhold”) from your pay in order to pay your income taxes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you get a pay stub each month, you may see that federal and state taxes have taken a percentage of your paycheck. This happens because you are marked “Non-exempt” on your W-4. When they file, many folks see that they have already paid all or most of what they owe to the IRS for the year because they’ve been paying off their tax liability bit by bit with each paycheck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, what happens when you choose to go “Exempt” on your W-4 instead? Usually, what happens is that you’ll get a bigger paycheck each month because taxes aren’t being withheld. But this doesn’t stop Uncle Sam from eventually wanting his money. When the time comes to file, you may now owe a much bigger amount because you have to pay your whole tax bill at once — versus paying it month by month if you had chosen “Non-exempt” on your W-4.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you are a gig worker (you drive for Uber, for example), \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/manage-taxes-for-your-gig-work#:~:text=Do%20you%20work%20as%20an,give%20it%20to%20your%20employer.\">you can set up quarterly payments to the IRS\u003c/a> and, that way, avoid getting hit with a huge tax bill when filing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Gig workers are] self-employed and they have to pay taxes,” says Lindsay Rojas, tax specialist and program manager with United Way Bay Area. “They’re not withholding unless they know that they need to make those estimated payments because they’re their own employer.” \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/manage-taxes-for-your-gig-work#:~:text=Do%20you%20work%20as%20an,give%20it%20to%20your%20employer.\">Learn more about how gig workers can set up direct payments to the IRS throughout the year.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11943501\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11943501 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/pexels-emma-bauso-2253879.jpg\" alt=\"A family of four -- two adult parents or caregivers, and two children -- are photographed skipping along a wet street, holding hands.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1282\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/pexels-emma-bauso-2253879.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/pexels-emma-bauso-2253879-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/pexels-emma-bauso-2253879-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/pexels-emma-bauso-2253879-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/pexels-emma-bauso-2253879-1536x1026.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">If you’ve been claiming the child tax credit, there are updates to know for 2024. \u003ccite>(Emma Bauso/Pexels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"childtaxcredit2024\">\u003c/a>I have children but I got a smaller tax refund than my friends who also have kids. Did my tax filer do something wrong?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Something that United Way’s Rojas says she always stresses to clients: Everyone’s tax situation is different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It depends on the client,” she says, and “it’s never a cookie-cutter situation where you can say what happens with one person will happen with everybody else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rojas emphasizes, however, that families may see smaller refunds this year due to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11943464/irs-child-tax-credits-how-much-changes\">changes in the Child Tax Credit that started last year\u003c/a>. During the pandemic, the Child Tax Credit went up to $3,600 for children under 6 and to $3,000 for kids between ages 6 and 18. During that time, parents and caregivers were seeing refunds that were much bigger than what they had received before the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But starting last year, the Child Tax Credit went back down to $2,000 credit for every child 16 or younger — and kids who are 17 no longer qualify for the credit. There’s also an additional requirement to receive these rebates: Parents need to have made at least $2,500 in income last year to qualify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this means that with these changes, many parents and caregivers may see much smaller refunds in 2024. And in some cases, families may actually \u003ci>owe\u003c/i> money to the IRS when they file, depending on their situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you made less than $2,500 last year and have kids, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/personal/credits/young-child-tax-credit.html#:~:text=Overview,income%20of%20%2430%2C931%20or%20less.\">you may still qualify for California’s Young Child Tax Credit\u003c/a>. This is a rebate for families who made $30,931 or less last year and have at least one child who is younger than 6. “[Parents] don’t have to have income to claim that credit, but they do need to be the ones who are providing the support for the child — and that [support] can come in different ways,” Rojas says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep in mind that there are also many other credits you may qualify for, depending on your situation. And if you’re filing in person, regardless of whether that’s at a free community tax clinic or with a private filer, make sure that you share exactly what has changed about your life this past year, whether that is marriage, a divorce, a kid in college or \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-8936\">even if you bought an electric car\u003c/a>. And if you don’t know what you should be telling your filer, just ask them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You need to fully understand your return,” Rojas says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"taxexpertnearme\">\u003c/a>Is it true that I can get a bigger refund if I use a private tax service?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Sometimes we may believe that if something’s free, it might be lower quality. Olle from the Economic Security Project says she’s noticed that this way of thinking often motivates how and where some people file their taxes — and can push them toward paying a professional tax filer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s been this conventional wisdom that the paid options ‘do better’,” she says. “But that has not been shown to be true.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a 2014 study, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent federal agency, sent undercover officials to visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-14-467t\">19 randomly selected private tax preparers\u003c/a> and found that out of those, 17 preparers made some errors when filing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>GAO emphasized that the sample used in the study “cannot be generalized,” but after releasing its findings, this office \u003ca href=\"https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-14-467t.pdf\">recommended Congress give the IRS more power to regulate private tax preparers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you go to a free tax clinic that’s administered by the federal Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, many of the staff there have filed tax returns for years and have gone through rigorous training designed by IRS staff themselves. \u003ca href=\"https://uwba.org/freetaxhelp/\">You can find the nearest VITA site near you on United Way Bay Area’s website.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jaqueline Marcelos, who helps families file their taxes for free at San Francisco’s Mission Economic Development Agency, told KQED in 2023 that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11943464/irs-child-tax-credits-how-much-changes\">over the years, clients come to her thinking that working with a private filer instead could get them bigger returns.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So many clients say, ‘I am going to report that I donated $50, $60, or I want to put down this expense, and I am going to request an extra form in my taxes,” Marcelos says — but while a private filing company can write off what a client asks for, “that [still] might not increase the amount of money that you’re getting back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED News, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area in 2024. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID-19\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather,\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger and help us decide what to cover here on our site and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"hearken","attributes":{"named":{"id":"10483","src":"https://modules.wearehearken.com/kqed/embed/10483.js","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11980776/when-is-tax-deadline-2024-myths-refund","authors":["11708"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_32707","news_29235","news_27626","news_19333"],"featImg":"news_11980812","label":"news"}},"programsReducer":{"possible":{"id":"possible","title":"Possible","info":"Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.","airtime":"SUN 2pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/possible-5gxfizEbKOJ-pbF5ASgxrs_.1400x1400.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.possible.fm/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"Possible"},"link":"/radio/program/possible","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/possible/id1677184070","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"}},"1a":{"id":"1a","title":"1A","info":"1A is home to the national conversation. 1A brings on great guests and frames the best debate in ways that make you think, share and engage.","airtime":"MON-THU 11pm-12am","imageSrc":"https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/1a.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://the1a.org/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/1a","subscribe":{"npr":"https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/RBrW","apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=1188724250&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/1A-p947376/","rss":"https://feeds.npr.org/510316/podcast.xml"}},"all-things-considered":{"id":"all-things-considered","title":"All Things Considered","info":"Every weekday, \u003cem>All Things Considered\u003c/em> hosts Robert Siegel, Audie Cornish, Ari Shapiro, and Kelly McEvers present the program's trademark mix of news, interviews, commentaries, reviews, and offbeat features. Michel Martin hosts on the weekends.","airtime":"MON-FRI 1pm-2pm, 4:30pm-6:30pm\u003cbr />SAT-SUN 5pm-6pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ATC_1400.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.npr.org/programs/all-things-considered/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/all-things-considered"},"american-suburb-podcast":{"id":"american-suburb-podcast","title":"American Suburb: The Podcast","tagline":"The flip side of gentrification, told through one town","info":"Gentrification is changing cities across America, forcing people from neighborhoods they have long called home. Call them the displaced. Now those priced out of the Bay Area are looking for a better life in an unlikely place. American Suburb follows this migration to one California town along the Delta, 45 miles from San Francisco. But is this once sleepy suburb ready for them?","imageSrc":"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/powerpress/1440_0018_AmericanSuburb_iTunesTile_01.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"/news/series/american-suburb-podcast","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kqed","order":"13"},"link":"/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/","subscribe":{"npr":"https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/RBrW","apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?mt=2&id=1287748328","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/American-Suburb-p1086805/","rss":"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/feed/podcast","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkMzMDExODgxNjA5"}},"baycurious":{"id":"baycurious","title":"Bay Curious","tagline":"Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time","info":"KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.","imageSrc":"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/powerpress/1440_0017_BayCurious_iTunesTile_01.jpg","imageAlt":"\"KQED Bay Curious","officialWebsiteLink":"/news/series/baycurious","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kqed","order":"4"},"link":"/podcasts/baycurious","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406","npr":"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious","rss":"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/category/bay-curious-podcast/feed/podcast","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvbmV3cy9jYXRlZ29yeS9iYXktY3VyaW91cy1wb2RjYXN0L2ZlZWQvcG9kY2FzdA","stitcher":"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/bay-curious","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/6O76IdmhixfijmhTZLIJ8k"}},"bbc-world-service":{"id":"bbc-world-service","title":"BBC World Service","info":"The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.","airtime":"MON-FRI 9pm-10pm, TUE-FRI 1am-2am","imageSrc":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2021/10/BBC_1400.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_world_service","meta":{"site":"news","source":"BBC World Service"},"link":"/radio/program/bbc-world-service","subscribe":{"apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/global-news-podcast/id135067274?mt=2","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/BBC-World-Service-p455581/","rss":"https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"}},"code-switch-life-kit":{"id":"code-switch-life-kit","title":"Code Switch / Life Kit","info":"\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />","airtime":"SUN 9pm-10pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/CodeSwitchLifeKit_StationGraphics_300x300EmailGraphic.png","meta":{"site":"radio","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/code-switch-life-kit","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/1112190608?mt=2&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/3bExJ9JQpkwNhoHvaIIuyV","rss":"https://feeds.npr.org/510312/podcast.xml"}},"commonwealth-club":{"id":"commonwealth-club","title":"Commonwealth Club of California Podcast","info":"The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.","airtime":"THU 10pm, FRI 1am","imageSrc":"https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2019/07/commonwealthclub.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts","meta":{"site":"news","source":"Commonwealth Club of California"},"link":"/radio/program/commonwealth-club","subscribe":{"apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/commonwealth-club-of-california-podcast/id976334034?mt=2","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/Commonwealth-Club-of-California-p1060/"}},"considerthis":{"id":"considerthis","title":"Consider This","tagline":"Make sense of the day","info":"Make sense of the day. Every weekday afternoon, Consider This helps you consider the major stories of the day in less than 15 minutes, featuring the reporting and storytelling resources of NPR. 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