The home at 16380 Bluejay Lane, where human trafficking victims were allegedly held, in Willits on May 12, 2016. (Andrew Burton/The Center for Investigative Reporting)
This story was part of a special edition of KQED's The California Report Magazine, produced in collaboration with Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn more atrevealnews.org and subscribe to the Reveal podcast, produced with PRX, atrevealnews.org/podcast.
The trees towered above them, limbs etched in black against the night sky. He steered his pickup down a narrow path of mud and rocks and parked in front of a trailer. He tried to kiss her. She froze.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I have to get up early,” she said.
He began groping her body.
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“Don’t you have a wife?” she asked.
The woods seemed to crawl with creatures; the ground was slick with rain. As wilderness pulsed around them, she ran through the possibilities.
If she fled, would she find her way out? If she fought back, would he hurt her?
Would anyone hear her if she screamed?
Listen to the special edition of The California Report Magazine, produced in collaboration with Reveal from The Center for Investigation Reporting:
In the Emerald Triangle, trees are ever present. They peek over small towns and dip into valleys, sheathing this cluster of remote Northern California counties in silence.
For decades, the ancient forests here have provided cover for the nation’s largest marijuana-growing industry, shielding pot farmers from convention, outsiders and law enforcement.
But the forests also hide secrets, among them young women with stories of sexual abuse and exploitation. Some have spoken out; a handful have pressed charges. Most have confided only in private.
Students from the nearest college, Humboldt State University, return from a summer of trimming marijuana buds with tales of being forced to give their boss a blow job to get paid. Other “trimmigrants,” who typically work during the June-to-November harvest, recount offers of higher wages to trim topless.
During one harvest season, two growers began having sex with their teenage trimmer. When they feared she would run away, they locked her inside an oversized toolbox with breathing holes.
Contact with law enforcement is rare and, female trimmigrants say, rarely satisfying.
Verifying their stories is as difficult as finding your way through the forest at night, down twisty dirt roads, to one of the backwoods marijuana farms. During months of reporting in the region, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting unearthed dozens of accounts of sexual exploitation, abuse and trafficking. Victims’ advocates say the problem is far larger and, with every harvest, continues to grow.
“Women believe they are getting hired for trimming work, and then they’re drugged and raped,” said Maryann Hayes Mariani, a coordinator for the North Coast Rape Crisis Team. “Everybody looks at (the region) like it’s the Land of Oz. I’m just so tired of pretending like it’s not happening here.”
Yet law enforcement repeatedly has failed to investigate abuse and sexual violence in the industry. Instead, officers mostly focus on what they view as the root cause of the problem: the drug trade.
In the rural counties of Northern California, marijuana is still a largely underground industry, worth billions. Last year, legal California sales alone were valued at $2.7 billion, according to The ArcView Group, a marijuana market research firm. Sales are projected to balloon to $6.4 billion by 2020 if marijuana is legalized for recreational use. It’s big business, drawing busloads of job seekers.
The number of trimmigrants who go missing alone is overwhelming for law enforcement, fueling an epidemic of the lost. In 2015, Humboldt County reported 352 missing people, more per capita than any other county in the state.
When an artist from San Francisco disappeared in the Humboldt County town of Garberville last harvest season, her mother and roommate filed a missing persons report. Months later, she resurfaced to tell her family she had been held against her will on a marijuana farm, drugged and sexually abused. She never formally reported her abuse.
But at the time of her disappearance, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Officehad labeled her a “voluntary missing adult.” They flagged the case as a low priority.
“Many people come to Humboldt each year to work on the marijuana farms,” the deputy who took the report told her roommate in an email. “So far she is falling into the same category as many others have.”
In addition to women and girls who come of their own volition to trim, others are brought in specifically to provide sex services. Come harvest season, escorts flood these rural areas, drawn to the large population of male growers and laborers who spend months at a time alone on isolated mountain farms.
Ron Prose, an investigator for the Eureka Police Department, said sex traffickers know law enforcement agencies have little interest in cracking down on them. None of the county agencies surveyed by Reveal have investigators assigned to human trafficking. Prose himself is semi-retired; he investigates trafficking cases when he has time.
For women, the dangers are due in part to the gender dynamics in the industry. Growing is a male-dominated field, and many growers prefer to hire female trimmers. Several told Reveal that they believe women are more dexterous, making them more efficient workers. Others are looking for company.
“Some of these younger guys don’t have regular relationships because they’re out in the hills growing weed, but they still want a girl,” Prose said. “It sounds kind of crude, but they seek female companionship.”
Of course, many marijuana farms are responsible operations. Most workers describe good experiences, including excellent pay, food and shelter. Many also welcome the unusual working conditions of an industry long at odds with mainstream culture and the law. Drug use on the job, for instance, is common.
In November, California voters will decide whether to fully legalize recreational marijuana. But such use remains illegal under federal and most state laws, and the culture of silence is so embedded in the state’s industry – the nation’s top black market supplier – it seems unlikely that legalization alone will dramatically alter the landscape for women toiling deep in the Emerald Triangle.
“There’s a lot of wilderness here, and dirt roads and acres of forest,” said Amy Benitez, a victims’ advocate in Humboldt County. “There’s a lot of nooks and crannies you can hide in. You add this criminal element to it, where there’s money, and there’s just more ways that you can abuse power and control.”
Saturday, Oct. 18, 2014
That power imbalance is what ensnared a 22-year-old environmentalist and musician who arrived in one of the mountain towns in the middle of the 2014 harvest season looking for trimming work. In Petrolia, Terri – not her real name – found a world apart from her hometown in the Los Angeles Basin.
Petrolia sits beneath the King Range mountains at the edge of Humboldt County, hidden behind a curtain of redwoods and Douglas fir trees. With a population of about 400, it has one general store, one bar, no cellphone service and no police. It’s about two hours down crumbling cliffside roads to the nearest highway. Most locals live in the surrounding mountains, overlooking the forested valley and black sand beaches of the last undeveloped stretch of California known as the Lost Coast.
“I like to think of Petrolia as this little town hanging off the edge of the world,” said Jenoa Briar-Bonpane, a former resident who became Terri’s therapist. “At night, you’ve never seen so many stars.”
Nearly everyone in Petrolia knows each other. Most are involved in marijuana growing to some degree. But like other small towns dotting the Emerald Triangle, in the past decade, more and more people have moved in. Greenhouses have sprung up, enabling industrial-scale marijuana growing. Larger farms have drawn more workers from outside the area.
At first, Terri did not have a job. An acquaintance introduced her to Cedar McCulloch-Clow and Emily Herman, a married couple with two children, a horde of chickens and goats, and a bicycle-strewn junkyard. Terri set up a tent in the couple’s yard, plunked down her violin and camping gear and began looking for work.
She also set about working her way into the community. She went to the weekly farmers market at the community center and ran and biked in the annual Rye and Tide, a 7 1/2-mile race that begins with a swig of whiskey outside the town bar.
Terri found a couple of trimming jobs, including for Sam Epperson and his partner, Rachel Adair. Their operation was far smaller than the region’s newer marijuana fields – known as grows – and had a vegetable garden and turkey coop.
Terri and three other trimmers sat in a row of swivel office chairs in a wood-paneled trimming shack. They wore aprons to keep from tracking loose leaves into the house and carefully tallied the weight of their work – they would be paid $200 a pound – with pencil and paper.
Epperson, quiet and bespectacled with a mop of graying curls, prepared fresh food and drinks for the workers. Every day, he offered them an organic chocolate bar.
One night, on the concrete patio of the town bar – the Yellow Rose – Terri met a grower named Kailan Meserve. He was twice her age, tan and muscular, with a swagger and salt-and-pepper hair. Meserve mentioned he needed trimmers and bought her a beer. A friend of Terri’s, Katie Finnegan, went inside to buy another drink. When Finnegan returned, Terri had disappeared.
Inside, the bar is a bright, airy space with pristine off-white walls and a polished beige floor – a contrast with its often grungy clientele. One side of the bar is lined with light metal cafe tables, the other with pool tables and arcade games. The darkest part of the bar is to the left of the dartboard, a long dim hallway to the single-stall women’s restroom.
About 45 minutes after Finnegan lost track of Terri, court records show she found her unconscious in that bathroom, her pants around her ankles. Terri appeared to have fallen and hit the sink on her way down.
Terri remembered almost nothing about the night. She was concerned something had happened with Meserve. But back on the grow, Epperson and Adair put her at ease: Meserve was a captain of the volunteer fire department, the son of a prominent local environmental activist and politician. Meserve, they said, was married with toddler twins.
“He’s a good guy,” Epperson recalled telling her.
The couple still had work for Terri, but on their small-scale grow, the harvest wouldn’t last long. They encouraged her to take up Meserve on his offer of a trimming job.
That was advice Epperson now says he deeply regrets.
Conservative ranchers and loggers dominated the small population of the Emerald Triangle when hippies began arriving en masse in the late 1960s. They were a diverse bunch, from tree-sitting activists to disillusioned Vietnam veterans.
Kailan Meserve’s father came to Humboldt County as part of the “back to the land” movement. His first home was a teepee on the Mattole River. Later, he built a house in Petrolia, where he, his wife and children lived on wind and solar power, grew produce and raised their own goats, cows and chickens.
At first, marijuana was a recreational drug, grown mostly for personal use. It didn’t stay that way for long. Growers realized they could better support themselves and their families by selling pot on the black market. The climate was ideal, the woods and mountains isolated enough to conceal the illicit crop. The American-grown marijuana industry was born.
From the outset, the children of these growers had more difficulties than their parents. The Summer of Love was over. Across the community, alcohol and drug abuse was rampant. So was law enforcement.
The threat of raids constantly loomed over the Meserve household, threatening to pull the family apart. According to Meserve’s sister, Amy, their parents began using cocaine and alcohol and exploded into constant fights.
“It just got really crazy,” she recalled. “Kailan pretty much raised us.”
When federal Operation Green Sweep touched down in Petrolia in 1990, soldiers flew helicopters overhead and officers confronted families in their homes with M16 rifles. Children learned to lie about the reality of their lives.
“I still have PTSD,” said Sam Epperson, who grew up on a marijuana farm in eastern Humboldt County. “I can hear choppers flying from miles away.”
With law enforcement crackdowns came higher black market prices and greater risks. To protect their crops from theft, many farmers began to carry guns and booby-trap their properties. Residents dealt with crime themselves, avoiding law enforcement whenever possible.
In 1996, California became the first state in the country to legalize medical marijuana. But the law failed to limit the amount of marijuana that could be grown, and law enforcement had no way to determine which plants were cultivated for medical purposes or for profit. Crime and black market growing in the Emerald Triangle soared, including by growers with connections to organized crime, vastly eclipsing local law enforcement’s efforts to stop it.
Lt. Wayne Hanson of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office put it simply: “We lost the drug war many years ago.”
The turmoil prompted some of the children to leave. Kailan Meserve was among the many who stayed. He became a stonemason, specializing in fireplaces, and grew pot on the side.
The “green rush” hit Petrolia in 2010. With California voters considering full legalization, new growers poured into town hoping to get rich. The hippie haven was about to go mainstream.
The law did not pass, but according to friends, Meserve decided that if anyone was going to make money peddling pot, it was going to be him.
“He viewed himself as having that hometown advantage,” Cedar McCulloch-Clow said.
Locals noticed the change. At a party a few years ago, therapist Jenoa Briar-Bonpane recalls looking over the edge of a mountain ridge and spotting two new grow operations below. “Where did those come from?” she wondered. Someone said they belonged to Meserve, and he became the talk of the party.
“There was a sense of, ‘Wow, he’s really blowing things up,’ ” Briar-Bonpane said.
As a big employer in town, and a local, Meserve enjoyed a trust not afforded to outsiders, including a freedom from consequences, according to friends. He’d always had a brash demeanor and a reputation for hitting on women – even after he married in 2001. Over time, those who knew him said he seemed to sink deeper into drugs and alcohol. He was convicted three times for driving under the influence, according to court records, and got into a car crash that seriously injured him and his wife.
He “got a little big for his britches,” Amy Meserve said, “and lost his filter completely.”
None of it seemed to slow down Meserve. His business expanded, and the trimmigrants who showed up in Petrolia looking for work were thankful for it.
Sunday, Nov. 9, 2014
Terri saw Kailan Meserve again at a pingpong tournament. He was one of the few entrusted with a key to the community center and had set up the tables.
Meserve offered to buy Terri drinks several times, according to investigators – and each time, she declined. Around 10 p.m., he asked if she had to time to talk, she recalled, “to clear things up.” He offered to give her a ride home. It was rainy, and without sidewalks and streetlights, a walk home in Petrolia could be treacherous. She agreed. She figured she might also ask him about a job.
Terri was staying about 2 miles from the community center. But Meserve went the opposite direction, turning right toward a dark mass of trees.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“I just want to show you where my property is,” she remembers him saying.
Terri started to get a “weird feeling,” according to court records. She told him she had to get up early. He ignored her and continued down the road, turning right again at a metal gate and entering a narrow dirt path into a thicket of towering eucalyptus. Finally, they came to a trailer and stopped. He tried to kiss her. She froze.
“What are you doing?” she asked. “Don’t you have a wife?”
Her mind spun through the possibilities. Could she find her way back if she ran? Would he chase her? Hurt her? Would anyone hear her if she screamed?
It was happening so fast and she could hardly see. Everything outside the beam of the headlights was flooded in black.
Terri declined to be interviewed for this story, but she encouraged friends and community members to open up and gave permission for her therapist, Briar-Bonpane, to speak as well.
“Taking her to a place that was dark, forested, unknown to her,” Briar-Bonpane said, “it’s the most terrifying situation for a woman who’s with a scary man.”
Meserve asked her to go inside. Terri climbed out of the truck and walked into the trailer. She remembers a small kitchen and a bedroom with a bare mattress. Over the next few hours, according to records, Meserve repeatedly penetrated her and forced her to perform oral sex until she gagged.
He held down her arms and at one point throttled her neck. When she began gasping for air, he told her she was “weak and couldn’t take it.” She didn’t scream. The more violent he was, she’d later tell the investigators, the more excited he seemed to become.
“I’m going to make you my bitch,” she recalls him saying, according to court records. He threatened to kill her, freeze her body and throw her to the animals if he ever found out she had slept with anyone else.
Many trimmigrants begin their journey about two hours southeast of Petrolia, in a small strip of a town at the hub of California’s outdoor growing economy. Garberville is surrounded on all sides by mountains of towering redwoods and lined with the kinds of businesses sustained by disposable income, including a spa and a motorcycle dealership. Next door, in Redway, there’s even a pet salon.
Come harvest season, trimmigrants arrive from all over the country and world – college students and artists, working professionals and tourists, homeless hippies and other wanderers. Without connections, they crowd the sidewalks as though on the floor of an auction house, jockeying for jobs with homemade signs. Others camp along the river or in the woods until they find work or try to meet potential employers by frequenting local bars or volunteering at one of the area’s many marijuana-funded nonprofits.
With marijuana fetching black market prices, they expect wages far higher than typical migrant farmworkers – as much as $300 a day, depending on how fast they work. A successful season can fund months of travel, and the experience itself can be an adventure, harkening back to the drug-infused journeys of Grateful Dead fans.
“A lot of cocaine, a lot of Ecstasy, a lot of meth, a lot of heroin,” said Terri’s former employer Rachel Adair. “It’s like a big party.”
But trimmigrants also stumble into a treacherous landscape, both on and off the job. Many locals despise their presence, the trash, the carousing on sidewalks – and the negative impact on tourism. Members of a Garberville group called Locals on Patrol take photographs, check identification and tell people to move on. Anti-trimmigrant bumper stickers have proliferated. “No Work Here, Keep Moving,” they read.
Trimmigrants also serve at the mercy of their bosses, who are themselves vulnerable to the risks of operating in the black market – ranging from robberies to law enforcement stings. As a result, some growers prefer to keep trimmers in the dark about where they are working. Workers and advocates say growers sometimes blindfold trimmers before driving to plots deep in the mountains, locations so remote that they often lack cell service and public transportation.
When conflicts arise, trimmigrants may find themselves fired without pay. Even those who complete the job might never get paid.
At 38 years old, Amy Jarose is among the most experienced trimmigrants. One time, she was working on a farm in the mountains when, she said, the grower began to pressure her for blow jobs and sex. She immediately left on foot, without pay.
“You hitchhike,” Jarose said. “You pack up your bags and hit the road and hope to God a really good person will pick you up.”
Growers often target women for trimming jobs; male trimmers told Reveal they repeatedly were passed up or let go to make room for female workers.
Some women exploit the demand. On Craigslist during the last harvest season, aspiring trimmers posted photos of themselves in bikinis or low-cut tops, accompanied by winking emoticons. One advertisement, offering “Oriental female trimmers,” included the phone number of a sensual massage parlor in Los Angeles. On a community bulletin board in downtown Garberville, a pink lace garter belt adorned one ad, while another read, “We love to cook … and much more.”
Deanna Hirschi once worked as a trimmer but said she soon realized she could earn more by offering sex for pay. She met growers at motels in Garberville or sometimes hours into the mountains.
“The guys on the hills pay $500 an hour,” she said, three or four times the amount she might get in a city. “They’re stuck up on a hill and they come down from the hill for one day, and they’ve got hundreds of thousands of dollars in their pocket.”
The demand for female companionship has contributed to sex trafficking in these rural areas from all over the country and world, including from Mexico and Eastern Europe, according to social service providers and victims.
One local trafficking survivor, who goes by the name Elle Snow, started a nonprofit organization to spread awareness in Humboldt County calledGame Over. To measure the demand, she posted fake escort advertisements on the classified ad website Backpage.
Within two months, Snow said, she had accumulated calls and text messages from 437 phone numbers. Many came from southern Humboldt – where Garberville and Petrolia are located – an indication to Snow that many of the potential clients were involved in the marijuana industry.
“Traffickers call Humboldt County not just green for the weed, but green for the bitches,” she said, referring to the money traffickers can make selling women and sex.
Many trimmers welcome the attention, but others do not. Women pair up, even form trimming collectives, counting on safety in numbers.
Paige Radcliff and Emma Less came last season for trimming work, hoping to make enough to fund their own future harvest. During nearly 14-hour days, the two listened to Israeli folk music and bent over plastic tubs in their laps, rotating the buds with the tips of their fingers as they clipped off the stems and curly bits of leaf. “Give it a little haircut,” Radcliff said again and again, until they had piled up 6 pounds of smooth round nuggets and their fingers were coated in potent, sticky brown resin.
“If a girl comes here on her own, I wouldn’t recommend it,” Less said. Prior to finding this job, they encountered growers who hit on them – and they simply walked away.
Radcliff agreed. “Unless you can super defend yourself, or you just give off a super-intimidating vibe where dudes are scared of you.”
“Like a truck driver.”
Or a pirate.
“Exactly, just come across as, like, super peg leg.”
“Think about it,” Less said, over the steady snip of her scissors. “None of this is monitored. No one knows you’re here, not here. It’s easy for people to go missing. It’s easy for people to take advantage.”
Monday, Nov. 10, 2014
Terri showed up for work in a daze the morning after she was assaulted in the forest. Bruises covered her chest and the back of her head. As she picked up her clippers, her boss remembers, she began to cry. She told Rachel Adair that “something inappropriate” had happened with Kailan Meserve and that she was scared.
Adair – an emergency room nurse and midwife – sent Terri to Jenoa Briar-Bonpane, a therapist and friend. Terri told the therapist the rest of the story.
“This is a predator,” Briar-Bonpane recalls thinking. She had treated child sex abuse and rape victims for years, but she was especially struck by how calculating Meserve sounded. “He must be stopped.”
A week later, some of Terri’s former employers called for a meeting, inviting town elders, the local doctor and friends. On a crisp November morning, about a dozen people joined Terri in the home near where she had pitched her tent. They gathered in a somber circle around a heavy oak dining table.
Cedar McCulloch-Clow, 38, with perpetual dirt under his fingernails and a baseball cap on his head, recalls feeling conflicted about the meeting. He had become friends with Terri during her many nights camping on their property. But he also had known Meserve since he was 15.
The room was tense and quiet, except for the sounds of children playing down the hall. Adair remembers wanting to ensure, first and foremost, that Terri was safe. Dr. Dick Scheinman was adamant that they call the police. Most others wanted to find an alternate solution.
Greg Smith, whose family has long grown marijuana, was among the town elders there. “There’s a lot of people who grow pot, and they have a resistance to calling the law,” he said later. “It’s kind of the Wild West in some ways.”
The ideas came in quick succession and were rejected just as quickly. Bring Meserve before a community tribunal. Send a large contingent of men to his doorstep. Gather Petrolia’s population of elderly women and have them chase after him with their shoes.
Smith decided to pay Meserve a visit at home. He urged him to admit he had a problem, show remorse and enroll in therapy and drug and alcohol treatment. Meserve refused, he said, describing the night in the trailer as consensual. Next, Smith approached Fire Chief Travis Howe about kicking Meserve out of the volunteer fire department.
That’s when the group learned this wasn’t the first time Meserve had been accused of rape. A year earlier, a young woman was visiting a friend of Meserve’s. After a night of partying at the Yellow Rose bar, the 31-year-old woman said, Meserve came into her room while she was sleeping and forced himself on her. When he couldn’t maintain an erection, he left, but soon came back and tried again.
The woman never filed a police report, and only a few people in town knew. Howe was one of them.
Howe said he had confronted Meserve, who told him it was consensual. “He messed up terribly, cheating on his wife,” Howe said. “He needed to get spanked.” When Meserve promised to do better, Howe kept him on as a fire captain.
Now the group realized Terri’s experience was not an isolated incident. It was a pattern of behavior.
One week had passed since Terri’s assault. She had expressed little interest in contacting law enforcement. But the group thought something had to be done for the safety of other women.
They asked her to take a step many rape victims dread: Would she call the police?
For victims of sexual assault, the answer often lies beneath layers of fear and shame. Rape usually goes unreported, but trimmigrants face particular pressure to avoid law enforcement. Calling police may rule out future jobs in the industry, especially if that contact alerts police to an illegal grow.
“Hell no, you don’t call the cops on anybody for anything if you want to work in Humboldt,” said Karen Bejcek, a trimmigrant who usually lives in a teepee in Siskiyou County when she’s not trimming.
Other conditions in pot country prevent victims from seeking any kind of help. Trimmigrants often lack the local connections or even the know-how to successfully navigate their way out of the wild, wooded terrain.
Because many work on illegal grows, they suspect law enforcement won’t do anything anyway. And because the industry attracts a young and transient workforce, victims – who may come with their own troubled histories – do not always recognize they are being abused.
One teen from Humboldt County said she started working for a local grower when she was 12. He gave her methamphetamine to speed up her trimming work, she said, and passed her around to pay off his debts.
“If you’re tweaking, you’re good,” she said, touting her trimming prowess. “I did, like, a couple pounds in like one night.”
The girl eventually ran away, reaching a youth homeless shelter in the county seat of Eureka, only to discover that pimps were using it as a hunting ground. At 14, she said, she became their recruiter.
She wasn’t the only one. At least two other shelter residents said men used them to recruit other teens, according to a report later submitted to the state Department of Social Services. The shelter’s executive director, Patt Sweeney, said he was aware teens in the program had been trafficked for sex.
“We’ve made reports to law enforcement,” he said. “It’s just very hard to prosecute.”
In exchange for alcohol and marijuana, the girl brought other teens to parties at local motels, where they were given drugs and alcohol and had sex, sometimes by force. She said the parties drew growers and gang members involved in marijuana distribution. Because she brought girls, she said she was never assaulted – and the music and dancing could be fun. But she doesn’t remember much.
“I was always drunk,” she said with a shrug. “And then we’d just go buy more drugs.”
Many of the girls she met at the shelter and parties also traveled south to trim on marijuana farms. Once there, she said, some found they were expected to do more than trim.
The sales pitch to young girls is common in pot country, according to Leah Gee, the director of a group home in Eureka that housed the girl. “They’ll give you weed, alcohol and food, and all you have to do is trim.”
In 2013, federal prosecutors said two growers picked up a 15-year-old runaway in Hollywood and took her to their farm in Lake County, near Humboldt. They directed her to trim marijuana and have sex with them, sometimes while chained to a metal rack.
In interviews with police after a raid of the farm, the girl described the sex with one of the men as consensual. Sex with the other grower was “not as consensual.”
But she was not free to leave: To keep her from fleeing, the men put her inside an oversized metal toolbox with breathing holes for several days, according to court records, using a garden hose to clean out her waste. The men also shocked the girl with a cattle prod and told her she would be shot by neighbors if she attempted to leave, an employee later told police.
Local prosecutors charged the men with human trafficking, the first case of its kind in the county. But when federal authorities took over the case, the trafficking charge was dropped. The men are expected to plead guilty later this year on charges of illegal marijuana cultivation and employing a minor in a drug operation.
Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014
A deputy sheriff from Humboldt County, Michael Hass, had Terri recount the entire story of her assault over the phone before telling her she had to come in person to make a report – a nearly two-hour drive. The community group that had encouraged her to report made the arrangements. Jenoa Briar-Bonpane went along.
When they arrived at the county sheriff’s office in Eureka, they walked through the metal detector, down a beige cinder-block hallway to a dimly lit window in the waiting room, Briar-Bonpane recalls. They told the receptionist they were there to see Hass.
After several minutes passed, Hass swung open the door, barely making eye contact with Terri. He told her to follow him, but barred Briar-Bonpane from joining her. She told him it was common practice for an advocate to accompany a sexual assault victim to make a report. According to Briar-Bonpane, Hass refused.
Asked about the account, Hass said he did not know that Briar-Bonpane was an advocate and he objected to the many complaints the sheriff’s office later received about his work.
“There were the same complaints that we weren’t taking it seriously and the investigation wasn’t up to the people of Petrolia’s standards,” he said. “From my standpoint, it got handled very seriously.”
Terri agreed to make the report anyway. Hass took her into an empty room and pushed a typed statement based on her telephone account in front of her, Briar-Bonpane said. Terri signed it, and five minutes later, they returned to the waiting room.
“Can you tell us when you’re going to pick him up?” Briar-Bonpane remembers asking, referring to Kailan Meserve.
To file her report, Terri was told she had to come in person. It turned out the same trip was not required of Meserve, Briar-Bonpane said. To her surprise, Hass told her deputies already had interviewed Meserve in Petrolia. Meserve had told them the same story he had told others: The night in the trailer was consensual.
Reveal could not find any record that the deputies ever searched the trailer, and Meserve’s sister, Amy, confirmed that they never did.
“No one in town seems concerned about him,” Hass said, according to Briar-Bonpane. “We’re not going to arrest him. There’s no evidence.”
The news left the group back in Petrolia shocked – and Terri terrified. While she moved from home to home and finally to a motel outside of town, the group began to deluge the sheriff’s office with emails and phone calls. Terri’s friend Katie Finnegan took a day off work to file a complaint with the office about its handling of the case. Residents sent letters to the district attorney, complaining about Hass and urging that Meserve be prosecuted.
“Please do not let this go without a thorough investigation and arrest,” Dick Scheinman, the town doctor, wrote to then-District Attorney Paul Gallegos in December 2014.
A month passed, and he emailed again: “i am not a legal beagle and am not trying to tell you how to do your job, but i feel it is most important for you to try your hardest to find out what happened.”
Meanwhile, Meserve remained in Petrolia. “I am very concerned about the safety of women in the Mattole Valley while he is present there,” Briar-Bonpane wrote to newly elected District Attorney Maggie Fleming in March 2015. “Young boys/men in the valley are watching and learning about whether or not you can sexually assault women without consequences.”
Word of Terri’s allegations reached the woman who had said Meserve raped her the year before. She felt nauseous, then angry. She blamed herself for not reporting it, “because maybe she could have prevented it from happening to the other girl,” an investigator later wrote. About a month after Terri visited Hass, the second victim decided to report her rape. Records show Hass told her to call the district attorney’s office.
The case landed on the desk of Kyla Baxley, the district attorney’s investigator responsible for child abuse and sexual assault cases. She has a reputation for being thorough, going beyond the case information filed by local law enforcement. In 2014, Baxley gathered evidence that allowed the district attorney’s office to prosecute its first human trafficking case.
Time and again, Baxley had seen victims in Humboldt County “not met with the respect they deserve,” she told Reveal. In the Petrolia case, she said, both victims felt blown off by the sheriff’s office.
“It was already a big step for her to take, for her to report it,” she said of Terri. “I was really frustrated, honestly. I felt awful for the poor thing.”
Baxley immediately launched her investigation, making plans to meet Terri in person. She brought in community advocates to support Terri as she shared her story yet again.
“I tried to show her there were a lot of people who supported her and wanted to hear her truth,” Baxley said.
On April 14, 2015, prosecutors filed charges against Meserve for raping both women. Two weeks later, he surrendered.
As the marijuana industry has grown and the trimmigrant population with it, service providers have encountered increasing numbers of human trafficking victims. Humboldt Domestic Violence Services answered more than 2,000 crisis calls last year, an increase of about 80 percent in four years. Executive Director Brenda Bishop attributed the increase to a surge in sexual abuse and trafficking on marijuana grows.
Other organizations have noticed a problem, too, including the Eureka Police Department. In a survey of about 200 local homeless people, Police Chief Andrew Mills said his department discovered many were former trimmigrants who had been forced to work on marijuana farms without pay, including women who reported being required to perform sex acts.
Despite evidence of a growing problem, law enforcement has put few resources into investigations of trafficking and sexual exploitation. Instead, police have conducted stings targeting prostitutes and sometimes their pimps. And the Eureka police chief recently posed as a grower online to attract trimmers, only to warn them not to come.
One reason is that, in this spread-out rural region, there are not enough detectives to go around. In Humboldt County, the sheriff’s office is so overtaxed that many deputies are responsible for investigating crimes – a job typically left to detectives – in addition to responding to 911 calls.
“We have a detective bureau to handle the bad of the bad crimes, and they can’t even keep up with that. So our deputies are more like detectives,” Lt. Wayne Hanson said. “It’s triage.”
A Humboldt native with a bushy gray mustache, Hanson has raided marijuana farms for more than two decades. On the walls of his office are framed photographs and news clips, including one from the day after voters legalized medical marijuana in 1996. In the photograph, Hanson – with a dark brown mustache – stands next to towering piles of marijuana plants.
“This was a warehouse in downtown Eureka, where people were growing marijuana for money. That’s why marijuana is grown – for money, not for medical reasons,” Hanson said. “People are greedy.”
Hanson and other local law enforcement officials see the greed that has amplified California’s marijuana industry as a common denominator in violent and organized crimes. Hanson said many grows also cause environmental damage. As a result, marijuana has remained a high priority for them, even as federal and state authorities have pulled back.
Marijuana raids also have become a large source of revenue for local law enforcement agencies. During raids, officers have confiscated not just harvests, but also money, guns and even farming equipment.
Humboldt County law enforcement agencies made 100 seizures of property and funds last year, including from farmers who had legal permission to grow. The value of the assets totaled more than $2 million – more per capita than was pulled from the state’s 15 most populous counties combined, state data shows. Mendocino County’s marijuana eradication team receives a finder’s fee from a pool of seized funds for every case it initiates, in addition to a nearly 50 percent cut of any confiscated funds.
The result is tantamount to tunnel vision, said Kyla Baxley, the district attorney’s office investigator. “They’re going in to eradicate marijuana, and they would probably tell you nothing else is happening but the drugs.”
That perspective seems to pervade law enforcement agencies across the Emerald Triangle.
In 2014, the year Terri arrived in Petrolia, a young Mexican woman arrived in nearby Mendocino County, ready to start the restaurant job she was promised. Instead, a grower – Baldemar Alvarez – put her to work on several marijuana farms, she said, and forced her to cook, clean his house and have sex with him.
The woman said Alvarez, twice her age, called her a prostitute and said she belonged to him until she reimbursed him for hiring a coyote to bring her into the country illegally. He stoked her fear, telling her she’d get lost in the woods and a bear would feast on her body if she fled.
“All the time, I had fear,” said Carmen (not her real name). “Fear, thinking, ‘If the police catch me, they’re going to arrest me. They’re not going to let me explain, they’re not going to believe me.’ ”
Eventually, Carmen persuaded Alvarez to take her to the doctor for stomach pains, she said. Once there, a nurse-midwife told her she was pregnant, and Carmen shared her story of abuse. When she returned to Alvarez, she left her address behind.
Mendocino County sheriff’s deputies picked up Carmen and the grower a few days later. Carmen was relieved. But at the station, things changed. A detective asked her whether she had made the claims just to get immigration documents, she said. Victims of sexual assault are eligible for a special kind of visa, known as a U-visa. Trafficking victims are eligible for a T-visa.
Carmen’s abuse allegations are documented in police dispatch records, a restraining order and other documents, but the full extent of the investigation is unclear. The detective involved did not respond to interview requests, and the sheriff’s office declined to provide a copy of its investigation, saying it was not yet complete.
Underscoring the he-said, she-said obstacles for law enforcement, Alvarez told Reveal that Carmen fabricated the story to get immigration papers. He told detectives he had planned to marry her. Even though she hasn’t paid him back for her illegal border crossing, he said, he has sent her money on a couple of occasions for the baby.
“This was a big misunderstanding; she’s a backstabber is what I call it,” he said, denying he had abused her or anyone else.
But another woman who had a relationship with the grower and gave birth to one of his children said he repeatedly has brought women, including herself, into the United States from Mexico and abused them. Investigators never contacted her, she said.
As the sun began to rise the morning after deputies took Carmen into custody, she said the detective told her that he had one last request. He put her in a room with Alvarez and had her confront him, to get him to confess. It didn’t work.
“Unfortunately, at this time, we do not have any evidence to detain him,” she recalled the detective saying. “Everything you say, he denies.”
The case against Kailan Meserve was unprecedented – the first time a marijuana grower in Humboldt County had been charged with raping a trimmigrant. In Petrolia, it had created a rift, causing many to question the trust they had placed in the community. Yet outside Petrolia, it captured little attention.
Aside from a local blog, no media outlets covered Meserve’s arrest.
He remained in jail briefly while the prosecutor’s office argued against allowing him to post his $2 million bail. Investigator Kyla Baxley had seen large greenhouses on several of Meserve’s properties and argued that his income had been derived illegally from the cultivation of marijuana. In the end, Meserve’s family and friends pooled funds, and he was released.
Over the next year, he enrolled in treatment for alcohol abuse, according to court records. Facebook photos show he and his family also enjoyed a Disney vacation.
Sam Epperson fell into a deep depression. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was responsible for Terri climbing into Meserve’s truck that night. With harvest season over, Terri had left Petrolia.
Finally, on April 4, 2016, the trial date arrived. Meserve sat next to his lawyer in a courtroom in downtown Eureka, dressed in a button-down shirt and slacks. Terri had returned to take the stand.
“Is this your first time testifying in court? How do you feel about being here?” prosecutor Brie Bennett asked.
“OK,” Terri replied.
She described the night in detail. The feeling of panic, the sexual acts, the violence. She answered questions from the defense attorney about her sex life in Petrolia and a shoplifting conviction from years ago. At one point, her voice began to crack, and she wiped tears from behind her black-framed glasses. Her voice grew faint.
The judge leaned over. “Please speak up,” he said.
The other victim described waking up the morning after the assault, crying and sore. She told her friend she had to go, according to court records, and began the long drive back to San Francisco, making stops to throw up along the way.
On the stand, Meserve denied having a drug problem and called his encounters with Terri and the other woman consensual. Everyone was drunk, he said. No one ever told him to stop.
“Did she say she wanted to go to the trailer?” the prosecutor asked about Terri.
“She never said she didn’t,” Meserve responded.
From her seat in the courtroom, Meserve’s sister, Amy, remembers watching an image take shape that she did not recognize.
“He’s being portrayed like some monster,” she said later. “Obviously, he did not think he was raping anyone. I just don’t think he did. That’s not who he is, that’s not what he’s capable of. I just know if they would have said no or stop or anything, he would have stopped.”
While Meserve’s family attended the trial, most of the group that had supported Terri remained behind in Petrolia. It was a far distance to travel, but it also was painful to watch. Many believed it had been a mistake to contact law enforcement.
“I am friends with his sister and his dad and his mom,” said longtime local grower Greg Smith. “It feels like we’re carrying a big weight on our chest.”
The community of Petrolia was changing, but residents weren’t sure it was for the better. California Gov. Jerry Brown had signed a package of laws that would further regulate the medical marijuana industry, beginning with state-issued licenses in 2018. Many Humboldt County growers have refused to participate. They would not sign up for county permits, the first step toward legal compliance.
To complicate matters, under the new regulations, counties can ban growing altogether, and many have, preserving a highly profitable black market. Competition is increasing, and prices are likely to drop.
In this new future, it seemed, small farmers would struggle financially. Success would mean going big or continuing to sell on the black market. Before his arrest, Meserve had found that success growing marijuana, accruing land, money and power. But some wondered, at what cost?
On April 19, a jury found Meserve guilty of 15 felony counts, including rape and false imprisonment. His wife began to cry as deputies handcuffed him and took him into custody.
When the news reached Petrolia, many in the group that had supported Terri felt deflated instead of relieved. They knew the conviction meant Meserve could end up spending the rest of his life in prison. Smith and Epperson agreed to write letters to the judge urging a lenient sentence.
“I would rather have rehabilitation than punishment,” Smith said. “Some people think it’s impossible with him, but I don’t know. I just have hope that people can change.”
On July 28, the Meserve family and their supporters filed into the courtroom. Meserve’s mother, sister and wife cried as he stood motionless, awaiting the judge’s sentence. Each read from a prepared statement.
“These charges are extreme and overboard,” said his father, David. “These charges are from an enthusiasm for prosecuting people in the marijuana industry.”
“Kailan wants to start an AA group in Petrolia,” said Monica, his wife. “He wants to give back.”
Terri was not there. An advocate read a statement from the second victim.
“Every morsel of self-confidence has left me,” she read. “Humboldt is my home, and I cannot bring myself to visit my friends or family there.”
The judge sentenced Meserve to 23 years in prison.
He did not make a statement in court that day. Through his family, he declined to comment for this story. Terri has since moved out of state.
And, as the harvest season swings into full gear, a new crop of trimmigrants is streaming north, thumbs out, pointing toward the thickly forested mountains of the Emerald Triangle.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly characterized the pingpong tournament held at Petrolia’s community center. Only Meserve was involved with the setup.
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Her other passions are crafts (now done in collaboration with her daughter) and the Brazilian martial art of capoeira.","avatar":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/95001c30374b0d3878007af9cf1e120a?s=600&d=blank&r=g","twitter":"pbartolone","facebook":null,"instagram":null,"linkedin":null,"sites":[{"site":"news","roles":["editor"]},{"site":"podcasts","roles":["subscriber"]}],"headData":{"title":"Pauline Bartolone | KQED","description":"KQED Contributor","ogImgSrc":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/95001c30374b0d3878007af9cf1e120a?s=600&d=blank&r=g","twImgSrc":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/95001c30374b0d3878007af9cf1e120a?s=600&d=blank&r=g"},"isLoading":false,"link":"/author/pbartolone"},"mbolanos":{"type":"authors","id":"11895","meta":{"index":"authors_1591205172","id":"11895","found":true},"name":"Madi Bolaños","firstName":"Madi","lastName":"Bolaños","slug":"mbolanos","email":"mbolanos@kqed.org","display_author_email":false,"staff_mastheads":[],"title":"KQED Contributor","bio":null,"avatar":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e6df5601c1f2d951e46a3fb42764330f?s=600&d=blank&r=g","twitter":null,"facebook":null,"instagram":null,"linkedin":null,"sites":[{"site":"news","roles":["author"]}],"headData":{"title":"Madi Bolaños | KQED","description":"KQED Contributor","ogImgSrc":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e6df5601c1f2d951e46a3fb42764330f?s=600&d=blank&r=g","twImgSrc":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e6df5601c1f2d951e46a3fb42764330f?s=600&d=blank&r=g"},"isLoading":false,"link":"/author/mbolanos"},"byline_news_11129842":{"type":"authors","id":"byline_news_11129842","meta":{"override":true},"slug":"byline_news_11129842","name":"\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.revealnews.org/author/shoshana-walter/\">Shoshana Walter\u003c/a> \u003cbr> \u003ca href=\"https://www.revealnews.org/\">Reveal\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>","isLoading":false}},"breakingNewsReducer":{},"campaignFinanceReducer":{},"firebase":{"requesting":{},"requested":{},"timestamps":{},"data":{},"ordered":{},"auth":{"isLoaded":false,"isEmpty":true},"authError":null,"profile":{"isLoaded":false,"isEmpty":true},"listeners":{"byId":{},"allIds":[]},"isInitializing":false,"errors":[]},"navBarReducer":{"navBarId":"news","fullView":true,"showPlayer":false},"navMenuReducer":{"menus":[{"key":"menu1","items":[{"name":"News","link":"/","type":"title"},{"name":"Politics","link":"/politics"},{"name":"Science","link":"/science"},{"name":"Education","link":"/educationnews"},{"name":"Housing","link":"/housing"},{"name":"Immigration","link":"/immigration"},{"name":"Criminal Justice","link":"/criminaljustice"},{"name":"Silicon Valley","link":"/siliconvalley"},{"name":"Forum","link":"/forum"},{"name":"The California Report","link":"/californiareport"}]},{"key":"menu2","items":[{"name":"Arts & Culture","link":"/arts","type":"title"},{"name":"Critics’ Picks","link":"/thedolist"},{"name":"Cultural Commentary","link":"/artscommentary"},{"name":"Food & Drink","link":"/food"},{"name":"Bay Area Hip-Hop","link":"/bayareahiphop"},{"name":"Rebel Girls","link":"/rebelgirls"},{"name":"Arts Video","link":"/artsvideos"}]},{"key":"menu3","items":[{"name":"Podcasts","link":"/podcasts","type":"title"},{"name":"Bay Curious","link":"/podcasts/baycurious"},{"name":"Rightnowish","link":"/podcasts/rightnowish"},{"name":"The Bay","link":"/podcasts/thebay"},{"name":"On Our Watch","link":"/podcasts/onourwatch"},{"name":"Mindshift","link":"/podcasts/mindshift"},{"name":"Consider This","link":"/podcasts/considerthis"},{"name":"Political Breakdown","link":"/podcasts/politicalbreakdown"}]},{"key":"menu4","items":[{"name":"Live Radio","link":"/radio","type":"title"},{"name":"TV","link":"/tv","type":"title"},{"name":"Events","link":"/events","type":"title"},{"name":"For Educators","link":"/education","type":"title"},{"name":"Support KQED","link":"/support","type":"title"},{"name":"About","link":"/about","type":"title"},{"name":"Help Center","link":"https://kqed-helpcenter.kqed.org/s","type":"title"}]}]},"pagesReducer":{},"postsReducer":{"stream_live":{"type":"live","id":"stream_live","audioUrl":"https://streams.kqed.org/kqedradio","title":"Live Stream","excerpt":"Live Stream information currently unavailable.","link":"/radio","featImg":"","label":{"name":"KQED Live","link":"/"}},"stream_kqedNewscast":{"type":"posts","id":"stream_kqedNewscast","audioUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/RDnews/newscast.mp3?_=1","title":"KQED Newscast","featImg":"","label":{"name":"88.5 FM","link":"/"}},"news_11984016":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11984016","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11984016","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"judge-rules-california-split-lot-housing-law-unconstitutional","title":"California Law Letting Property Owners Split Lots to Build New Homes Is 'Unconstitutional,' Judge Rules","publishDate":1714079477,"format":"standard","headTitle":"California Law Letting Property Owners Split Lots to Build New Homes Is ‘Unconstitutional,’ Judge Rules | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11860308/why-just-allowing-fourplexes-wont-solve-californias-housing-affordability-crisis\">controversial 2021 law\u003c/a> that allows property owners in California to split their lots and build up to two new homes is unconstitutional, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ruling striking down \u003ca href=\"https://focus.senate.ca.gov/sb9\">Senate Bill 9\u003c/a> only applies to the five Southern California charter cities that were parties to the case: Redondo Beach, Whittier, Carson, Del Mar and Torrance. However, if the case is appealed, the appellate court’s ruling will apply to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cacities.org/UploadedFiles/LeagueInternet/6b/6bbb4ee3-88f9-4d8f-93ad-0075a7b486c4.pdf\">charter cities\u003c/a> statewide, including San Francisco, Oakland and San José.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decision, issued on Monday, is a blow to key state leaders, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/09/16/governor-newsom-signs-historic-legislation-to-boost-californias-housing-supply-and-fight-the-housing-crisis/\">hailed the law\u003c/a> as a way to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11840548/the-racist-history-of-single-family-home-zoning\">open single-family neighborhoods\u003c/a> to desperately needed housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it’s an endorsement of an opposing idea: that suburban neighborhoods should be reserved for single-family homes, said Chris Elmendorf, a law professor at UC Davis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an indication of unease or discomfort with housing laws that are trying to transform single-family-home neighborhoods,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for state Attorney General Rob Bonta, the named defendant in the case, said his office is reviewing the case and would “consider all options in defense of SB 9.” The office of Gov. Gavin Newsom, a supporter of the law, did not respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pam Lee, an attorney with Aleshire & Wynder, who represented the plaintiffs in the case, said the ruling came as a surprise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We knew that the stakes were high, but we also knew that it was an uphill battle,” Lee said. “So many of the [housing] laws that have been challenged — in particular, cases against charter cities — have just not been met with a favorable fate.”[aside label=\"more housing coverage\" tag=\"affordable-housing\"]Charter cities have special privileges under the state Constitution, Lee said, including the right to enact their own laws. When the state Legislature wants its laws to apply to those charter cities, Lee said lawmakers have to demonstrate the law addresses a statewide concern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his decision, Judge Curtis Kin said the Legislature didn’t do that in this case. Specifically, SB 9 says its purpose is to “ensure access to affordable housing.” Lee and her colleagues argued that “affordable housing” means something very specific: below-market-rate, deed-restricted housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the law doesn’t specifically require property owners to develop that kind of housing, the law is unconstitutional, Kin ruled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elmendorf called that interpretation “kind of silly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By allowing property owners to split their lots and build up to two homes on each new one, the law promotes the construction of homes that are smaller and therefore relatively more affordable, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Legislature is not a house full of idiots,” Elmendorf said, adding the law itself clearly states the Legislature’s intent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, state Sen. Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), who authored SB 9, called the judge’s ruling “sadly misguided” and vowed to “remedy any loopholes biased city governments might utilize” to block new housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The assertion by NIMBY city governments that SB 9 is only about subsidized housing is a stretch at best,” said Atkins, who recently stepped down as Senate President Pro Tempore. “The goal of SB 9 has always been to increase equity and accessibility in our neighborhoods while growing our housing supply and production across the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since it went into effect in 2022, however, the law has produced little in the way of new lots or housing. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11980785/these-california-companies-want-to-buy-your-backyard-and-build-a-house\">KQED survey\u003c/a> of 16 cities of varying sizes found that between 2022 and 2023, the cities collectively approved 75 lot-split applications and 112 applications for new units under the law. That’s compared to more than 8,800 accessory dwelling units, or in-law apartments, the cities permitted during the same time frame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Developers have generally supported the bill but have criticized anti-speculation provisions in the law that require a property owner requesting a lot split to agree to live in the house for at least three years. They have also argued that fees and other barriers cities have imposed have prevented the law from working as intended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Atkins authored a second bill, SB 450, to address some of those issues, but it is currently on hold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elmendorf said the Legislature’s unwillingness to address those issues demonstrates a certain unease with the law’s intent to open single-family neighborhoods to more housing — even among lawmakers who voted to approve it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That unease is reflected in SB 9 itself,” he said. “SB 9 is written with loopholes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state could easily fix those loopholes, Elmendorf said, just as it can easily remedy the error Kin identified in his ruling. How swiftly it does so will demonstrate how serious lawmakers are about dismantling barriers to housing in single-family neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s worth watching the legislative response to this case,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doing so will better answer the question underlying SB 9, Elmendorf added. “Do we really want these traditional single-family home neighborhoods to be transformed into something that’s a little bit different?”\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"A Los Angeles Superior Court judge this week struck down SB 9, a 2021 California law allowing property owners to split their lots and build up to two new homes.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1714083996,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":25,"wordCount":896},"headData":{"title":"California Law Letting Property Owners Split Lots to Build New Homes Is 'Unconstitutional,' Judge Rules | KQED","description":"A Los Angeles Superior Court judge this week struck down SB 9, a 2021 California law allowing property owners to split their lots and build up to two new homes.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"California Law Letting Property Owners Split Lots to Build New Homes Is 'Unconstitutional,' Judge Rules","datePublished":"2024-04-25T21:11:17.000Z","dateModified":"2024-04-25T22:26:36.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11984016/judge-rules-california-split-lot-housing-law-unconstitutional","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11860308/why-just-allowing-fourplexes-wont-solve-californias-housing-affordability-crisis\">controversial 2021 law\u003c/a> that allows property owners in California to split their lots and build up to two new homes is unconstitutional, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ruling striking down \u003ca href=\"https://focus.senate.ca.gov/sb9\">Senate Bill 9\u003c/a> only applies to the five Southern California charter cities that were parties to the case: Redondo Beach, Whittier, Carson, Del Mar and Torrance. However, if the case is appealed, the appellate court’s ruling will apply to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cacities.org/UploadedFiles/LeagueInternet/6b/6bbb4ee3-88f9-4d8f-93ad-0075a7b486c4.pdf\">charter cities\u003c/a> statewide, including San Francisco, Oakland and San José.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decision, issued on Monday, is a blow to key state leaders, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/09/16/governor-newsom-signs-historic-legislation-to-boost-californias-housing-supply-and-fight-the-housing-crisis/\">hailed the law\u003c/a> as a way to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11840548/the-racist-history-of-single-family-home-zoning\">open single-family neighborhoods\u003c/a> to desperately needed housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it’s an endorsement of an opposing idea: that suburban neighborhoods should be reserved for single-family homes, said Chris Elmendorf, a law professor at UC Davis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an indication of unease or discomfort with housing laws that are trying to transform single-family-home neighborhoods,” he said.\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>A spokesperson for state Attorney General Rob Bonta, the named defendant in the case, said his office is reviewing the case and would “consider all options in defense of SB 9.” The office of Gov. Gavin Newsom, a supporter of the law, did not respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pam Lee, an attorney with Aleshire & Wynder, who represented the plaintiffs in the case, said the ruling came as a surprise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We knew that the stakes were high, but we also knew that it was an uphill battle,” Lee said. “So many of the [housing] laws that have been challenged — in particular, cases against charter cities — have just not been met with a favorable fate.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"more housing coverage ","tag":"affordable-housing"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Charter cities have special privileges under the state Constitution, Lee said, including the right to enact their own laws. When the state Legislature wants its laws to apply to those charter cities, Lee said lawmakers have to demonstrate the law addresses a statewide concern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his decision, Judge Curtis Kin said the Legislature didn’t do that in this case. Specifically, SB 9 says its purpose is to “ensure access to affordable housing.” Lee and her colleagues argued that “affordable housing” means something very specific: below-market-rate, deed-restricted housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the law doesn’t specifically require property owners to develop that kind of housing, the law is unconstitutional, Kin ruled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elmendorf called that interpretation “kind of silly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By allowing property owners to split their lots and build up to two homes on each new one, the law promotes the construction of homes that are smaller and therefore relatively more affordable, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Legislature is not a house full of idiots,” Elmendorf said, adding the law itself clearly states the Legislature’s intent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, state Sen. Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), who authored SB 9, called the judge’s ruling “sadly misguided” and vowed to “remedy any loopholes biased city governments might utilize” to block new housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The assertion by NIMBY city governments that SB 9 is only about subsidized housing is a stretch at best,” said Atkins, who recently stepped down as Senate President Pro Tempore. “The goal of SB 9 has always been to increase equity and accessibility in our neighborhoods while growing our housing supply and production across the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since it went into effect in 2022, however, the law has produced little in the way of new lots or housing. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11980785/these-california-companies-want-to-buy-your-backyard-and-build-a-house\">KQED survey\u003c/a> of 16 cities of varying sizes found that between 2022 and 2023, the cities collectively approved 75 lot-split applications and 112 applications for new units under the law. That’s compared to more than 8,800 accessory dwelling units, or in-law apartments, the cities permitted during the same time frame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Developers have generally supported the bill but have criticized anti-speculation provisions in the law that require a property owner requesting a lot split to agree to live in the house for at least three years. They have also argued that fees and other barriers cities have imposed have prevented the law from working as intended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Atkins authored a second bill, SB 450, to address some of those issues, but it is currently on hold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elmendorf said the Legislature’s unwillingness to address those issues demonstrates a certain unease with the law’s intent to open single-family neighborhoods to more housing — even among lawmakers who voted to approve it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That unease is reflected in SB 9 itself,” he said. “SB 9 is written with loopholes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state could easily fix those loopholes, Elmendorf said, just as it can easily remedy the error Kin identified in his ruling. How swiftly it does so will demonstrate how serious lawmakers are about dismantling barriers to housing in single-family neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s worth watching the legislative response to this case,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doing so will better answer the question underlying SB 9, Elmendorf added. “Do we really want these traditional single-family home neighborhoods to be transformed into something that’s a little bit different?”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11984016/judge-rules-california-split-lot-housing-law-unconstitutional","authors":["11652"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_3921","news_24805","news_1775","news_22804"],"featImg":"news_11984069","label":"news"},"news_11983858":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11983858","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11983858","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"alameda-the-island-that-almost-wasnt","title":"Alameda: The Island That Almost Wasn’t","publishDate":1714039234,"format":"image","headTitle":"Alameda: The Island That Almost Wasn’t | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city of Alameda has all the sure signs of an island. To get there, you have to use a bridge, a tunnel or a boat. Locals talk about going “on and off island.” And residents, like Nate Puckett, wear Alameda-themed T-shirts that say “Islander.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t leave the island for, like, weeks,” says Puckett, who lives, works and raises two kids in the Bay Area city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But recently, Puckett’s sense of place was thrown off-kilter. He was enjoying an ice cream at a favorite local spot — Tucker’s — when he looked up at a historical map on the wall. It showed Alameda connected to the mainland. That must be wrong, he thought; Alameda is an island.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the map was not wrong — it was just old. In fact, Alameda is not a natural island. And it almost never became an island at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It kind of felt like we’ve been living a lie,” Puckett says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Puckett asked Bay Curious to find out more about Alameda’s island origin story. The project took nearly 30 years to complete and had enough twists and turns to make anyone dizzy.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>When it all began\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11983868\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 999px\">\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandlibrary.org/ohc/\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11983868 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Alameda1877-tweaked.jpg\" alt=\"An old map shows what is now Alameda Island as connected to the mainland.\" width=\"999\" height=\"752\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Alameda1877-tweaked.jpg 999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Alameda1877-tweaked-800x602.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Alameda1877-tweaked-160x120.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 999px) 100vw, 999px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A map of Alameda from 1877 shows it as a connected peninsula, not an island. \u003ccite>(Oakland Public Library, Oakland History Center)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the 1870s, Alameda was a big peninsula that jutted out from what is now Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood like an outstretched arm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back then, things were pretty quiet in that part of the East Bay (it wasn’t Oakland until later). The marshy region was not very populated; the landscape was mostly wide open fields and the estates of a few wealthy families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Oakland’s inner harbor was nearby, and it was quickly becoming a bustling center for maritime commerce. Once the Gold Rush started, more and more ships arrived, bringing in all sorts of goods. And Oakland itself was growing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But navigation to the budding port was tricky. Boats had to traverse a wild waterway that hadn’t seen much development yet. Sediment on the harbor’s bottom would shift with the tides, causing sandbars to move in unpredictable patterns that caused problems for navigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[The sandbars] were there on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, [and then] they’d be over here on Tuesday and Thursday,” Alameda historian Dennis Evanosky says. “It impeded the shipping traffic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11983870\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11983870\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Evanosky-Puckett.jpg\" alt=\"Older man in blue sweater stands next to a younger one in brown.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1276\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Evanosky-Puckett.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Evanosky-Puckett-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Evanosky-Puckett-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Evanosky-Puckett-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Evanosky-Puckett-1536x1021.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dennis Evanosky (left) with Nate Puckett next to the Alameda canal. The Park Street bridge looms in the background. \u003ccite>(Pauline Bartolone/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Oakland was never going to become the shipping destination it wanted to be if the waterways remained so unpredictable and the port so difficult to reach. And Oakland had big development ambitions, says Richard Walker, a \u003ca href=\"https://geography.berkeley.edu/professor-emeritus-richard-walker\">professor emeritus in geography at UC Berkeley\u003c/a> and author of several books about California history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The sense of competition with San Francisco [was] intense,” Walker says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the late 1800s, Oakland was coming into its own politically and economically, developing its own banks, businesses and shipping companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That grows and grows so that Oakland, by the early 20th century, is really thumbing its nose at San Francisco,” Walker says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to local lobbying, Congressmen worked to bring in millions of federal dollars to pay the Army Corps of Engineers to improve the harbor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since shifting sandbars on the bottom was the biggest problem, \u003ca href=\"https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/pnp/habshaer/ca/ca2600/ca2606/data/ca2606data.pdf\">the initial plan\u003c/a> was to cut through the marshy area of the Alameda peninsula, where it was connected to the mainland, to create a canal. Engineers thought if they built a dam at one end, they could release powerful torrents of water through the canal to flush out built-up sediment in the harbor. That would clear the way for bigger ships to come and go more easily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project got the green light in the early 1870s, but over the next three decades, it hit roadblock after roadblock.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Resistance to the project\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://alamedamuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/AMQ_MAR_2019.pdf\">Eleven families owned land where the government wanted to dredge the canal\u003c/a>. Oakland officials offered families $40,000 at the time, more than $1.2 million today. But one person refused — \u003ca href=\"https://www.cohenbrayhouse.org/about-6\">A.A. Cohen, a railroad industry baron and attorney\u003c/a> who owned an estate with a 70-room mansion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were screwing with his kingdom,” says Patty Donald, Cohen’s great-great-granddaughter and manager of the\u003ca href=\"https://www.cohenbrayhouse.org/history\"> Cohen Bray house\u003c/a>, a historic Victorian building in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood. The Cohen family challenged the canal project more than once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was one of the most powerful people in Alameda at that time because he had bought a failing rail system,” Donald says. “He built it up in two years and created another one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the canal project progressed despite Cohen’s legal challenge, and by 1889 the excavation was underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>The setbacks pile up\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Quickly, the canal project suffered another setback — flooding. The winter of 1889 was one of the wettest on record. More than 45 inches of rain fell that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Disaster struck on a stormy night in January when Sausal Creek overflowed its banks at Fruitvale Avenue and flooded the ditch and equipment,” \u003ca href=\"https://alamedamuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/AMQ_MAR_2019.pdf\">wrote historian Woody Minor in the Alameda Museum newslette\u003c/a>r. “It took two months to pump out the water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next, the project’s proponents had to deal with public opinion and perhaps the very first complaints from Alamedans about commuting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People complain, ‘Well if you’re gonna have this canal here, how are we going to get home?’” Evanosky says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dredged canal cut across one of the main thoroughfares, leading to the Alameda peninsula, disrupting traffic \u003ca href=\"https://alamedamuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/AMQ_MAR_2019.pdf\">for two years\u003c/a>. The Park Street bridge opened in 1891, and Alameda’s two other bridges, at High Street and Fruitvale Avenue, were built the following decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If legal battles, payouts and flooding weren’t enough, there was an economic depression in the 1890s. Funding for the canal project dried up. And then, the project’s long-time champion at the Army Corp of Engineers, \u003ca href=\"https://www.spn.usace.army.mil/Portals/68/docs/History/Engineers%20at%20the%20Golden%20Gate.pdf?ver=2019-10-24-161149-027\">Major George Mendell\u003c/a>, retired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the nail in the coffin for the dam/canal combo plan came from \u003ca href=\"https://alamedamuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/AMQ_MAR_2019.pdf\">new research suggesting that dredging deeper in Oakland’s harbor would be more effective for boat passage\u003c/a> than this idea of flushing sediment away using a dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While government officials debated the next steps, a partially dug, unfinished giant trench was left.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>‘Fetid water awash with dead fish’\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At this point, 20 years after the project began, raw sewage in the area’s waterways had become a real problem. In the late 1800s, people in Oakland and Alameda started installing residential sewer systems, and the waste flowed right into Lake Merritt and the Oakland Harbor. The unfinished canal became a cesspool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fetid water awash with dead fish lapped against the dam and seeped into the ditch, emitting a pervasive stench,” \u003ca href=\"https://alamedamuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/AMQ_MAR_2019.pdf\">wrote Minor in his history of the island\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alameda’s health officer at the time, Dr. John T. McClean, became the biggest crusader for completing the canal. In a letter to Washington, published by the Oakland Enquirer in 1897, McLean argued that the stench from the incomplete trench had not only become offensive, but the foul water was killing fish and crabs and posed a health hazard. Better water circulation through the canal would help flush away foul substances, he argued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, government officials soon found the money to put a massive steam shovel to work ripping through the marsh between Alameda and modern-day Oakland. They finished dredging the canal in 1902, nearly 30 years after the plan was first hatched. Alameda was officially an island.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was no dam. … but residents celebrated anyway — through days of fireworks, carnival acts and a procession of two hundred lighted boats.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>A failed idea? \u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The scale and ambition of the Alameda Island project don’t impress geographer Richard Walker. In the grand scheme of things, he says, the project was actually pretty small. There are very few parts of the San Francisco Bay that humans haven’t somehow altered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is California,” Walker says. “California [is] one of the most monumentally re-engineered landscapes on Earth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than a century after the project was completed, the water in the neatly engineered tidal canal that separates Alameda from Oakland is relatively still, looking like a moat around a castle. People mostly use it for recreation now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nate Puckett says it doesn’t bother him that Alameda isn’t naturally an island. Residents here still bond over bridge and tunnel delays and over a beer at Alameda Island Brewing Company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\nOlivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>One of the best parts about a deep and long-running friendship is you can poke a little fun at each other for your quirks. Like how you’re a diehard fan for a chronically losing sports team or how you put ketchup on everything – gross. For Nate Puckett, his friends rib him about how he never leaves the city of Alameda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nate Puckett:\u003c/b> So I work here, I live here, my kids go to school here. I have a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old. So I don’t leave the island for like weeks. And people make fun of me for that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Alameda is an island, in case you didn’t know, and that fact is pretty wrapped up in the identity of some people who live there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nate Puckett:\u003c/b> I have a T-shirt that says Islander. That’s, like, Alameda themed. There’s Alameda Island Brewing. Like, you talk about whether, you know, you’re on the island or not on the island.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>But recently, Nate’s sense of place was thrown off-kilter. He was eating ice cream at a local spot – Tuckers. He glanced up at a historical map hanging on the wall. And there, he saw something that shook him to the core. Alameda was connected to what is now mainland Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nate Puckett:\u003c/b> It kind of felt like we’ve been all living a lie. It kind of felt like, no, that’s wrong. Alameda is an island.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>But no. The map was not wrong. It was just \u003ci>old\u003c/i>. Alameda is not a natural island. And it almost never became an island at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Bay Curious theme music starts\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>On this episode of Bay Curious, we’re going to find out how and \u003ci>why \u003c/i>Alameda was sliced off the mainland. It’s a story with enough twists and turns to make your head spin. I’m Olivia Allen Price. We’ll dive in just after this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sponsor break\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Making Alameda into an island took nearly 30 years. And in the end, the original idea for the massive excavation, didn’t quite pan out as planned. KQED Producer Pauline Bartolone tells us all about the bumpy journey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Flooding, legal battles, an economic slump and raw sewage. They’re all part of Alameda’s island origin story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Music starts\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It all starts back in the 1870s, Alameda was a big peninsula, jutting out like an outstretched arm from what is now Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back then, things were pretty quiet where Alameda connected with the mainland. Not many people lived in this marshy region. Think open fields and maybe just a few estates of wealthy families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just to the west was a waterway, the Oakland harbor, that opened up to the San Francisco Bay. And it was becoming a bustling center for maritime commerce. More and more ships were arriving since the Gold Rush, bringing all sorts of goods. But navigation in this waterway was tricky. Sediment on its floor would shift — a lot! — causing all sorts of problems for boats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Music ends. We hear the sounds of street traffic and outside noises.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> The trouble is, there were sandbars. And there were all kinds of impediments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Alameda historian Dennis Evanosky took me and our question-asker, Nate Puckett, on a tour along Alameda’s waterfront. He says around what is now the Port of Oakland, the waterway was wild and untouched, with sandbars that would ebb and flow with the tide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> They were there on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, then they’d be over here on Tuesday and Thursday, this place else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nate Puckett:\u003c/b> Oh, yeah, haha.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> And it impeded the shipping traffic!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>The unpredictable nature of the waterway didn’t work for the shipping industry, which wanted to get more boats into the port. Oakland had big development ambitions, says Richard Walker, a professor emeritus in geography at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Richard Walker: \u003c/b>Then, the sense of competition with San Francisco is intense, even though there’s a lot of San Francisco investment in Oakland. But you start to create Oakland having its own capitalist class, its own leadership who have banks in Oakland, have businesses, you know, have shipping companies, and they actually have a local interest. And that grows and grows so that Oakland, you know, by the early 20th century, is really thumbing its nose at San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Local Congressmen made deals to bring in millions of federal dollars to improve the harbor. Evanosky says the big idea was to dredge a canal all the way across the north side of Alameda, turning the peninsula into an island.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>We hear sounds of traffic near the canal\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> They planned to build this tidal canal as a scouring channel. What they planned to do was build a dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/b> The dam would be built on the far east side of Alameda. And then during ebb tide, when the water is naturally flowing out to the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> They are going to open that dam, and we’re going to have the water to, I say, “whoosh” through the scouring channel here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/b> Engineers thought this would harness the natural power of tides to flush sediment out of the Oakland estuary and toward the Bay, learning the passage for boats coming in and out of the narrow waterway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> And these aren’t necessarily big, huge ships. These could be smaller ships, but they need a place to navigate and turn around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/b> So, that was the plan. … in the beginning. The project got the green light in the early 1870s but had a slow start. And over the next three decades, it hit roadblock after roadblock. Early on, the government had to buy out 11 families who would lose part of their estates to the canal. They were offered $40,000 at the time, what is more than $1.2 million today. But one family refused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Patty Donald:\u003c/b> They were screwing with his kingdom. If you put it that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Patty Donald is the great-great-granddaughter of A.A. Cohen, a railroad industry baron and attorney who owned an estate with a 70-room mansion on Alameda. A.A. Cohen’s family challenged the canal project more than once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Patty Donald:\u003c/b> He was one of the most powerful people in Alameda at that time because he had started, he had bought a failing rail system in 1876, I think.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>He sued to stop the canal project and lost. And it went forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Music starts\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/i>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>By 1889, the excavation was underway. But quickly suffered another setback. A deluge, literally. The winter that started in 1889 was one of the wettest on record. More than 45 inches of rain fell that year. That’s according to a history written by Woody Minor of the Alameda Museum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sound effect of typewriter under voice-over\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ci>Voice actor reading:\u003c/i>\u003c/b> Disaster struck on a stormy night in January when Sausal Creek overflowed its banks at Fruitvale Avenue and flooded the ditch and equipment. It took two months to pump out the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Then, they had to deal with public opinion. And perhaps the very first complaints from Alameda residents about commuting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> They are digging this canal. And there’s a problem. People complain, well, if you’re gonna have this canal here, how are we going to get home?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>The canal dredging was disrupting traffic to one of Alameda’s main entrances, Evanosky says. So, the Park Street Bridge was built first, and then two other bridges came.. in the decade that followed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Music starts\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>As if legal battles, payouts and flooding weren’t enough, the canal project suffered more roadblocks in the 1890s. According to the Alameda Museum’s Woody Minor, funding dried up during an economic depression. Then, the project’s long-time champion at the Army Corps of Engineers retired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then — this one’s big — new research suggested that dredging deeper in Oakland’s harbor would be more effective for boat passage than this idea of flushing sediment out using a dam. While government officials debated next steps, a partially dug unfinished canal was left. A big giant trench.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> So they had to stop. And this is all done, and they had to stop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Now, this is where the raw sewage comes into the picture. Right around this time, people in Oakland and Alameda started installing residential sewer systems. And the waste was flowing right into Lake Merritt and the Oakland Harbor. By the Alameda Museum’s account, the waterway became a cesspool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sound effect of typewriter under voice-over\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice Actor:\u003c/b> Fetid water awash with dead fish lapped against the dam and seeped into the ditch, emitting a pervasive stench.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Alameda’s health officer became the biggest crusader for completing the canal. In 1897, he argued that the stench from the incomplete trench had not only become offensive, but the foul water was killing fish and crabs and posing a health hazard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So government officials soon found the money to put a massive steam shovel to work and finish that canal excavation once and for good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sound of a big machine starting up\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>In case you’re wondering if, during this era, anyone ever chimed in about the ecological impacts of ripping through this marshy area?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Richard Walker:\u003c/b> No, no, no, no, no, it’s nothing like that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Richard Walker says there wasn’t really an environmental movement at this time. Maybe an oysterman was concerned about declining catches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Richard Walker:\u003c/b> The conservationists at that time would be, I think, entirely obsessed with creating the first state parks. Saving the redwoods. They’re worried about mine debris in the Central Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>By 1902, the dredging was done. And 30 years after the plan was first hatched, the canal filled with water. Alameda was officially an island.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents in the city of Alameda were ready to celebrate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sounds of a marching band, crowd noise and fireworks\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>In September of 1902, there were days of fireworks, parades, brass bands, carnival acts, fancy diving and a procession of two hundred lighted boats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Things were different from what was originally envisioned, of course. For one, there was no dam to help flush water out of the estuary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> In my view, they didn’t build the dam because they were just tired of this whole thing, and a lot of people didn’t think the dam was going to work anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Now, more than a century later, as I walk along the canal with Alameda historian Dennis Evanosky near the Park Street Bridge, the canal water is relatively still. A few boats are docked, but none sail by. This neatly engineered waterway looks like a moat around a castle. It’s mostly used for recreation now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nate Puckett:\u003c/b> This wasn’t natural. It looks very not natural.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> Right? Right? Right, right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Our question asker, Nate Puckett, has been walking with us, listening to Evanosky this whole time. He looks slightly unsettled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nate Puckett:\u003c/b> So it sounds like the reason it’s an island was a failed idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I would say, “The island city, sort of.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nate Puckett:\u003c/b> Yeah, yeah, the island city by accident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> Right, right. Right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Nate clarified later that he found Alameda’s island origin story “surprising.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nate Puckett:\u003c/b> You kind of always assume big projects like this are for a very clear and thought-out purpose. And to find that it was kind of an accident or the plan changed so many times is definitely surprising. Especially just, you know, because Alameda is so into being an island.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>The fact that Alameda isn’t naturally an island doesn’t bother Nate Puckett too much now. After all, it’s been that way for a while, and residents here still bond over bridge and tunnel delays. And over a beer at Alameda Island Brewing Co.\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003ci>Island-themed music starts\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>That story was produced by Pauline Bartolone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Big shout out and thanks to Liam O’Donoghue of the \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayyesterday.com/\">East Bay Yesterday podcast \u003c/a>and UC Davis geographer Javier Arbona for their help on this story. Facts in this story came from Woody Minor of the Alameda Museum and historical documents from the Army Corp of Engineers and the National Park Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s still time to vote in our April voting round. Here are your choices:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice 1:\u003c/b> I was recently at the Morcom Rose Garden in Oakland and saw three different official Oakland signs that read, “No glitter.” I would love to know what happened at the rose garden to warrant so many signs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice 2:\u003c/b> Yesterday, I walked with a fellow science teacher on the Great Hwy. We commented on the blackish sand, made of iron filings. Where does the iron come from?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice 3:\u003c/b> Who are the de Youngs? I think they have some crazy stories!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Vote for which question you think we should tackle next at baycurious.org. While you’re there, sign up for our monthly newsletter, ask your own question or get lost listening through the Bay Curious archive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Our show is made by:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Katrina Schwartz\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christopher Beale: \u003c/b>Christopher Beale\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/b> Katherine Monahan\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>and me, Olivia Allen Price. Additional support from:\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>Jen Chien: \u003c/b>Jen Chien\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katie Springer: \u003c/b>Katie Springer\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Cesar Saldana: \u003c/b>Cesar Saldana\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maha Sanad: \u003c/b>Maha Sanad\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Holly Kernan:\u003c/b> Holly Kernan\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Crowd:\u003c/b> And the whole KQED family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. We’ll be back next week.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Alameda residents fully own their island identity, but many don't know that it used to be connected to mainland Oakland.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1714062860,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":true,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":136,"wordCount":3910},"headData":{"title":"Alameda: The Island That Almost Wasn’t | KQED","description":"Alameda residents fully own their island identity, but many don't know that it used to be connected to mainland Oakland.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Alameda: The Island That Almost Wasn’t","datePublished":"2024-04-25T10:00:34.000Z","dateModified":"2024-04-25T16:34:20.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"source":"Bay Curious","sourceUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/baycurious/","audioUrl":"https://dcs.megaphone.fm/KQINC3081122282.mp3?key=fc075dc0e32f001c439745b9697d7766&request_event_id=3ff129a1-c582-463c-8902-bc37d989ad55","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11983858/alameda-the-island-that-almost-wasnt","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>The city of Alameda has all the sure signs of an island. To get there, you have to use a bridge, a tunnel or a boat. Locals talk about going “on and off island.” And residents, like Nate Puckett, wear Alameda-themed T-shirts that say “Islander.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t leave the island for, like, weeks,” says Puckett, who lives, works and raises two kids in the Bay Area city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But recently, Puckett’s sense of place was thrown off-kilter. He was enjoying an ice cream at a favorite local spot — Tucker’s — when he looked up at a historical map on the wall. It showed Alameda connected to the mainland. That must be wrong, he thought; Alameda is an island.\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>But the map was not wrong — it was just old. In fact, Alameda is not a natural island. And it almost never became an island at all.\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>“It kind of felt like we’ve been living a lie,” Puckett says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Puckett asked Bay Curious to find out more about Alameda’s island origin story. The project took nearly 30 years to complete and had enough twists and turns to make anyone dizzy.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>When it all began\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11983868\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 999px\">\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandlibrary.org/ohc/\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11983868 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Alameda1877-tweaked.jpg\" alt=\"An old map shows what is now Alameda Island as connected to the mainland.\" width=\"999\" height=\"752\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Alameda1877-tweaked.jpg 999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Alameda1877-tweaked-800x602.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Alameda1877-tweaked-160x120.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 999px) 100vw, 999px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A map of Alameda from 1877 shows it as a connected peninsula, not an island. \u003ccite>(Oakland Public Library, Oakland History Center)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the 1870s, Alameda was a big peninsula that jutted out from what is now Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood like an outstretched arm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back then, things were pretty quiet in that part of the East Bay (it wasn’t Oakland until later). The marshy region was not very populated; the landscape was mostly wide open fields and the estates of a few wealthy families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Oakland’s inner harbor was nearby, and it was quickly becoming a bustling center for maritime commerce. Once the Gold Rush started, more and more ships arrived, bringing in all sorts of goods. And Oakland itself was growing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But navigation to the budding port was tricky. Boats had to traverse a wild waterway that hadn’t seen much development yet. Sediment on the harbor’s bottom would shift with the tides, causing sandbars to move in unpredictable patterns that caused problems for navigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[The sandbars] were there on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, [and then] they’d be over here on Tuesday and Thursday,” Alameda historian Dennis Evanosky says. “It impeded the shipping traffic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11983870\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11983870\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Evanosky-Puckett.jpg\" alt=\"Older man in blue sweater stands next to a younger one in brown.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1276\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Evanosky-Puckett.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Evanosky-Puckett-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Evanosky-Puckett-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Evanosky-Puckett-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/Evanosky-Puckett-1536x1021.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dennis Evanosky (left) with Nate Puckett next to the Alameda canal. The Park Street bridge looms in the background. \u003ccite>(Pauline Bartolone/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Oakland was never going to become the shipping destination it wanted to be if the waterways remained so unpredictable and the port so difficult to reach. And Oakland had big development ambitions, says Richard Walker, a \u003ca href=\"https://geography.berkeley.edu/professor-emeritus-richard-walker\">professor emeritus in geography at UC Berkeley\u003c/a> and author of several books about California history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The sense of competition with San Francisco [was] intense,” Walker says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the late 1800s, Oakland was coming into its own politically and economically, developing its own banks, businesses and shipping companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That grows and grows so that Oakland, by the early 20th century, is really thumbing its nose at San Francisco,” Walker says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to local lobbying, Congressmen worked to bring in millions of federal dollars to pay the Army Corps of Engineers to improve the harbor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since shifting sandbars on the bottom was the biggest problem, \u003ca href=\"https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/pnp/habshaer/ca/ca2600/ca2606/data/ca2606data.pdf\">the initial plan\u003c/a> was to cut through the marshy area of the Alameda peninsula, where it was connected to the mainland, to create a canal. Engineers thought if they built a dam at one end, they could release powerful torrents of water through the canal to flush out built-up sediment in the harbor. That would clear the way for bigger ships to come and go more easily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project got the green light in the early 1870s, but over the next three decades, it hit roadblock after roadblock.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Resistance to the project\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://alamedamuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/AMQ_MAR_2019.pdf\">Eleven families owned land where the government wanted to dredge the canal\u003c/a>. Oakland officials offered families $40,000 at the time, more than $1.2 million today. But one person refused — \u003ca href=\"https://www.cohenbrayhouse.org/about-6\">A.A. Cohen, a railroad industry baron and attorney\u003c/a> who owned an estate with a 70-room mansion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were screwing with his kingdom,” says Patty Donald, Cohen’s great-great-granddaughter and manager of the\u003ca href=\"https://www.cohenbrayhouse.org/history\"> Cohen Bray house\u003c/a>, a historic Victorian building in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood. The Cohen family challenged the canal project more than once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was one of the most powerful people in Alameda at that time because he had bought a failing rail system,” Donald says. “He built it up in two years and created another one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the canal project progressed despite Cohen’s legal challenge, and by 1889 the excavation was underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>The setbacks pile up\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Quickly, the canal project suffered another setback — flooding. The winter of 1889 was one of the wettest on record. More than 45 inches of rain fell that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Disaster struck on a stormy night in January when Sausal Creek overflowed its banks at Fruitvale Avenue and flooded the ditch and equipment,” \u003ca href=\"https://alamedamuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/AMQ_MAR_2019.pdf\">wrote historian Woody Minor in the Alameda Museum newslette\u003c/a>r. “It took two months to pump out the water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next, the project’s proponents had to deal with public opinion and perhaps the very first complaints from Alamedans about commuting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People complain, ‘Well if you’re gonna have this canal here, how are we going to get home?’” Evanosky says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dredged canal cut across one of the main thoroughfares, leading to the Alameda peninsula, disrupting traffic \u003ca href=\"https://alamedamuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/AMQ_MAR_2019.pdf\">for two years\u003c/a>. The Park Street bridge opened in 1891, and Alameda’s two other bridges, at High Street and Fruitvale Avenue, were built the following decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If legal battles, payouts and flooding weren’t enough, there was an economic depression in the 1890s. Funding for the canal project dried up. And then, the project’s long-time champion at the Army Corp of Engineers, \u003ca href=\"https://www.spn.usace.army.mil/Portals/68/docs/History/Engineers%20at%20the%20Golden%20Gate.pdf?ver=2019-10-24-161149-027\">Major George Mendell\u003c/a>, retired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the nail in the coffin for the dam/canal combo plan came from \u003ca href=\"https://alamedamuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/AMQ_MAR_2019.pdf\">new research suggesting that dredging deeper in Oakland’s harbor would be more effective for boat passage\u003c/a> than this idea of flushing sediment away using a dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While government officials debated the next steps, a partially dug, unfinished giant trench was left.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>‘Fetid water awash with dead fish’\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At this point, 20 years after the project began, raw sewage in the area’s waterways had become a real problem. In the late 1800s, people in Oakland and Alameda started installing residential sewer systems, and the waste flowed right into Lake Merritt and the Oakland Harbor. The unfinished canal became a cesspool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fetid water awash with dead fish lapped against the dam and seeped into the ditch, emitting a pervasive stench,” \u003ca href=\"https://alamedamuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/AMQ_MAR_2019.pdf\">wrote Minor in his history of the island\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alameda’s health officer at the time, Dr. John T. McClean, became the biggest crusader for completing the canal. In a letter to Washington, published by the Oakland Enquirer in 1897, McLean argued that the stench from the incomplete trench had not only become offensive, but the foul water was killing fish and crabs and posed a health hazard. Better water circulation through the canal would help flush away foul substances, he argued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, government officials soon found the money to put a massive steam shovel to work ripping through the marsh between Alameda and modern-day Oakland. They finished dredging the canal in 1902, nearly 30 years after the plan was first hatched. Alameda was officially an island.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was no dam. … but residents celebrated anyway — through days of fireworks, carnival acts and a procession of two hundred lighted boats.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>A failed idea? \u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The scale and ambition of the Alameda Island project don’t impress geographer Richard Walker. In the grand scheme of things, he says, the project was actually pretty small. There are very few parts of the San Francisco Bay that humans haven’t somehow altered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is California,” Walker says. “California [is] one of the most monumentally re-engineered landscapes on Earth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than a century after the project was completed, the water in the neatly engineered tidal canal that separates Alameda from Oakland is relatively still, looking like a moat around a castle. People mostly use it for recreation now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nate Puckett says it doesn’t bother him that Alameda isn’t naturally an island. Residents here still bond over bridge and tunnel delays and over a beer at Alameda Island Brewing Company.\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>\u003cbr>\nOlivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>One of the best parts about a deep and long-running friendship is you can poke a little fun at each other for your quirks. Like how you’re a diehard fan for a chronically losing sports team or how you put ketchup on everything – gross. For Nate Puckett, his friends rib him about how he never leaves the city of Alameda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nate Puckett:\u003c/b> So I work here, I live here, my kids go to school here. I have a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old. So I don’t leave the island for like weeks. And people make fun of me for that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Alameda is an island, in case you didn’t know, and that fact is pretty wrapped up in the identity of some people who live there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nate Puckett:\u003c/b> I have a T-shirt that says Islander. That’s, like, Alameda themed. There’s Alameda Island Brewing. Like, you talk about whether, you know, you’re on the island or not on the island.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>But recently, Nate’s sense of place was thrown off-kilter. He was eating ice cream at a local spot – Tuckers. He glanced up at a historical map hanging on the wall. And there, he saw something that shook him to the core. Alameda was connected to what is now mainland Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nate Puckett:\u003c/b> It kind of felt like we’ve been all living a lie. It kind of felt like, no, that’s wrong. Alameda is an island.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>But no. The map was not wrong. It was just \u003ci>old\u003c/i>. Alameda is not a natural island. And it almost never became an island at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Bay Curious theme music starts\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>On this episode of Bay Curious, we’re going to find out how and \u003ci>why \u003c/i>Alameda was sliced off the mainland. It’s a story with enough twists and turns to make your head spin. I’m Olivia Allen Price. We’ll dive in just after this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sponsor break\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Making Alameda into an island took nearly 30 years. And in the end, the original idea for the massive excavation, didn’t quite pan out as planned. KQED Producer Pauline Bartolone tells us all about the bumpy journey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Flooding, legal battles, an economic slump and raw sewage. They’re all part of Alameda’s island origin story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Music starts\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It all starts back in the 1870s, Alameda was a big peninsula, jutting out like an outstretched arm from what is now Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back then, things were pretty quiet where Alameda connected with the mainland. Not many people lived in this marshy region. Think open fields and maybe just a few estates of wealthy families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just to the west was a waterway, the Oakland harbor, that opened up to the San Francisco Bay. And it was becoming a bustling center for maritime commerce. More and more ships were arriving since the Gold Rush, bringing all sorts of goods. But navigation in this waterway was tricky. Sediment on its floor would shift — a lot! — causing all sorts of problems for boats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Music ends. We hear the sounds of street traffic and outside noises.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> The trouble is, there were sandbars. And there were all kinds of impediments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Alameda historian Dennis Evanosky took me and our question-asker, Nate Puckett, on a tour along Alameda’s waterfront. He says around what is now the Port of Oakland, the waterway was wild and untouched, with sandbars that would ebb and flow with the tide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> They were there on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, then they’d be over here on Tuesday and Thursday, this place else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nate Puckett:\u003c/b> Oh, yeah, haha.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> And it impeded the shipping traffic!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>The unpredictable nature of the waterway didn’t work for the shipping industry, which wanted to get more boats into the port. Oakland had big development ambitions, says Richard Walker, a professor emeritus in geography at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Richard Walker: \u003c/b>Then, the sense of competition with San Francisco is intense, even though there’s a lot of San Francisco investment in Oakland. But you start to create Oakland having its own capitalist class, its own leadership who have banks in Oakland, have businesses, you know, have shipping companies, and they actually have a local interest. And that grows and grows so that Oakland, you know, by the early 20th century, is really thumbing its nose at San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Local Congressmen made deals to bring in millions of federal dollars to improve the harbor. Evanosky says the big idea was to dredge a canal all the way across the north side of Alameda, turning the peninsula into an island.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>We hear sounds of traffic near the canal\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> They planned to build this tidal canal as a scouring channel. What they planned to do was build a dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/b> The dam would be built on the far east side of Alameda. And then during ebb tide, when the water is naturally flowing out to the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> They are going to open that dam, and we’re going to have the water to, I say, “whoosh” through the scouring channel here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/b> Engineers thought this would harness the natural power of tides to flush sediment out of the Oakland estuary and toward the Bay, learning the passage for boats coming in and out of the narrow waterway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> And these aren’t necessarily big, huge ships. These could be smaller ships, but they need a place to navigate and turn around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/b> So, that was the plan. … in the beginning. The project got the green light in the early 1870s but had a slow start. And over the next three decades, it hit roadblock after roadblock. Early on, the government had to buy out 11 families who would lose part of their estates to the canal. They were offered $40,000 at the time, what is more than $1.2 million today. But one family refused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Patty Donald:\u003c/b> They were screwing with his kingdom. If you put it that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Patty Donald is the great-great-granddaughter of A.A. Cohen, a railroad industry baron and attorney who owned an estate with a 70-room mansion on Alameda. A.A. Cohen’s family challenged the canal project more than once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Patty Donald:\u003c/b> He was one of the most powerful people in Alameda at that time because he had started, he had bought a failing rail system in 1876, I think.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>He sued to stop the canal project and lost. And it went forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Music starts\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/i>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>By 1889, the excavation was underway. But quickly suffered another setback. A deluge, literally. The winter that started in 1889 was one of the wettest on record. More than 45 inches of rain fell that year. That’s according to a history written by Woody Minor of the Alameda Museum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sound effect of typewriter under voice-over\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ci>Voice actor reading:\u003c/i>\u003c/b> Disaster struck on a stormy night in January when Sausal Creek overflowed its banks at Fruitvale Avenue and flooded the ditch and equipment. It took two months to pump out the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Then, they had to deal with public opinion. And perhaps the very first complaints from Alameda residents about commuting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> They are digging this canal. And there’s a problem. People complain, well, if you’re gonna have this canal here, how are we going to get home?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>The canal dredging was disrupting traffic to one of Alameda’s main entrances, Evanosky says. So, the Park Street Bridge was built first, and then two other bridges came.. in the decade that followed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Music starts\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>As if legal battles, payouts and flooding weren’t enough, the canal project suffered more roadblocks in the 1890s. According to the Alameda Museum’s Woody Minor, funding dried up during an economic depression. Then, the project’s long-time champion at the Army Corps of Engineers retired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then — this one’s big — new research suggested that dredging deeper in Oakland’s harbor would be more effective for boat passage than this idea of flushing sediment out using a dam. While government officials debated next steps, a partially dug unfinished canal was left. A big giant trench.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> So they had to stop. And this is all done, and they had to stop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Now, this is where the raw sewage comes into the picture. Right around this time, people in Oakland and Alameda started installing residential sewer systems. And the waste was flowing right into Lake Merritt and the Oakland Harbor. By the Alameda Museum’s account, the waterway became a cesspool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sound effect of typewriter under voice-over\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice Actor:\u003c/b> Fetid water awash with dead fish lapped against the dam and seeped into the ditch, emitting a pervasive stench.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Alameda’s health officer became the biggest crusader for completing the canal. In 1897, he argued that the stench from the incomplete trench had not only become offensive, but the foul water was killing fish and crabs and posing a health hazard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So government officials soon found the money to put a massive steam shovel to work and finish that canal excavation once and for good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sound of a big machine starting up\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>In case you’re wondering if, during this era, anyone ever chimed in about the ecological impacts of ripping through this marshy area?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Richard Walker:\u003c/b> No, no, no, no, no, it’s nothing like that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Richard Walker says there wasn’t really an environmental movement at this time. Maybe an oysterman was concerned about declining catches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Richard Walker:\u003c/b> The conservationists at that time would be, I think, entirely obsessed with creating the first state parks. Saving the redwoods. They’re worried about mine debris in the Central Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>By 1902, the dredging was done. And 30 years after the plan was first hatched, the canal filled with water. Alameda was officially an island.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents in the city of Alameda were ready to celebrate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sounds of a marching band, crowd noise and fireworks\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>In September of 1902, there were days of fireworks, parades, brass bands, carnival acts, fancy diving and a procession of two hundred lighted boats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Things were different from what was originally envisioned, of course. For one, there was no dam to help flush water out of the estuary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> In my view, they didn’t build the dam because they were just tired of this whole thing, and a lot of people didn’t think the dam was going to work anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Now, more than a century later, as I walk along the canal with Alameda historian Dennis Evanosky near the Park Street Bridge, the canal water is relatively still. A few boats are docked, but none sail by. This neatly engineered waterway looks like a moat around a castle. It’s mostly used for recreation now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nate Puckett:\u003c/b> This wasn’t natural. It looks very not natural.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> Right? Right? Right, right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Our question asker, Nate Puckett, has been walking with us, listening to Evanosky this whole time. He looks slightly unsettled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nate Puckett:\u003c/b> So it sounds like the reason it’s an island was a failed idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I would say, “The island city, sort of.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nate Puckett:\u003c/b> Yeah, yeah, the island city by accident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky:\u003c/b> Right, right. Right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>Nate clarified later that he found Alameda’s island origin story “surprising.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nate Puckett:\u003c/b> You kind of always assume big projects like this are for a very clear and thought-out purpose. And to find that it was kind of an accident or the plan changed so many times is definitely surprising. Especially just, you know, because Alameda is so into being an island.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>The fact that Alameda isn’t naturally an island doesn’t bother Nate Puckett too much now. After all, it’s been that way for a while, and residents here still bond over bridge and tunnel delays. And over a beer at Alameda Island Brewing Co.\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003ci>Island-themed music starts\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>That story was produced by Pauline Bartolone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Big shout out and thanks to Liam O’Donoghue of the \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayyesterday.com/\">East Bay Yesterday podcast \u003c/a>and UC Davis geographer Javier Arbona for their help on this story. Facts in this story came from Woody Minor of the Alameda Museum and historical documents from the Army Corp of Engineers and the National Park Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s still time to vote in our April voting round. Here are your choices:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice 1:\u003c/b> I was recently at the Morcom Rose Garden in Oakland and saw three different official Oakland signs that read, “No glitter.” I would love to know what happened at the rose garden to warrant so many signs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice 2:\u003c/b> Yesterday, I walked with a fellow science teacher on the Great Hwy. We commented on the blackish sand, made of iron filings. Where does the iron come from?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice 3:\u003c/b> Who are the de Youngs? I think they have some crazy stories!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Vote for which question you think we should tackle next at baycurious.org. While you’re there, sign up for our monthly newsletter, ask your own question or get lost listening through the Bay Curious archive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Our show is made by:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>Katrina Schwartz\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christopher Beale: \u003c/b>Christopher Beale\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/b> Katherine Monahan\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>and me, Olivia Allen Price. Additional support from:\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>Jen Chien: \u003c/b>Jen Chien\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katie Springer: \u003c/b>Katie Springer\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Cesar Saldana: \u003c/b>Cesar Saldana\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maha Sanad: \u003c/b>Maha Sanad\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Holly Kernan:\u003c/b> Holly Kernan\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Crowd:\u003c/b> And the whole KQED family.\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>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. We’ll be back next week.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11983858/alameda-the-island-that-almost-wasnt","authors":["11879"],"programs":["news_33523"],"series":["news_17986"],"categories":["news_31795","news_28250","news_8"],"tags":["news_3631","news_32459","news_28262","news_22761"],"featImg":"news_11983865","label":"source_news_11983858"},"news_11976218":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11976218","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11976218","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"california-will-help-fund-the-down-payment-for-your-first-house-heres-how-to-apply","title":"Just Days Left to Apply for California Program That Helps Pay for Your First House","publishDate":1714071347,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Just Days Left to Apply for California Program That Helps Pay for Your First House | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11981458/ayuda-a-comprar-su-primera-casa-california-2023\">\u003cem>Leer en español\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it rolled out last year, the California Dream for All program — a loan application for first-time home buyers — exhausted its approximately $300 million of funding within 11 days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That prompted some changes this year for when the down payment assistance program opened again to California residents on April 3. The state has about $250 million on the table, which is expected to assist between 1,600–2,000 new applicants, said Eric Johnson, a spokesperson for the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/dream/\">The program — officially called the California Dream for All Shared Appreciation Loan\u003c/a> — is designed to have the state step into the role of a parent or grandparent in assisting their offspring buy a home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The program is designed to help those who may not have had the benefit of generational wealth in buying their first home,” Johnson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re hoping to \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/dream/\">apply for the California Dream for All program\u003c/a> in 2024, keep reading to see who is eligible, how the program has changed this year, and what you need to do. But hurry: \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/dream/\">Applications for the program\u003c/a> officially close at 5 p.m. Pacific Time on Monday, April 29.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#californiadream\">How does the California Dream for All program work?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#eligible\">Who is eligible to apply in 2024?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>Who got the money in 2023?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While wildly popular, the California Dream for All program didn’t have the geographic reach its designers had hoped for — nor did it reach its intended demographic target, said Adam Briones, the CEO of California Community Builders, a nonprofit housing research and advocacy organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Briones and his team did the research that helped design the program to close the racial homeownership gap in the state. In California, nearly 37% of Black households own their homes compared to 63% of white households, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/blog/californias-housing-divide/\">according to the Public Policy Institute of California\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The original hope of the program had been that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952984/reparations-commentary\">formerly redlined communities\u003c/a>, low-wealth communities … [would] be disproportionately supported by this program,” Briones said, “because they’ve been disproportionately held back by inequalities, both in terms of public policy and the way that our economic system works.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Eric Johnson, California Housing Finance Agency\"]‘The program is designed to help those who may not have had the benefit of generational wealth in buying their first home.’[/pullquote]“And we didn’t see that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first round of California Dream For All funding helped nearly 2,200 new homeowners purchase homes. But of those, only 3% of the grantees were Black, \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/dream/images/dfa-phase-I-outcomes.png\">according to CalHFA\u003c/a>. That’s compared to 35% of white recipients, 33% Latino and 19% Asian American and Pacific Islander.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nor were the California Dream for All funds distributed equally on a geographic basis, Briones said. A disproportionate share went to Sacramento residents, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of that had to do with informal knowledge access and understanding of a large program that was going to be rolled out,” Briones said. But he cautioned, “If Californians throughout the state don’t benefit from the program, it’s going to be really hard to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11917267/california-legislators-propose-helping-people-buy-homes-in-exchange-for-partial-ownership\">make the argument to voters that they should continue investing in these types of things\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This time around, changes to the 2024 California Dream for All program are meant to address those disparities, Johnson said. Here’s what you need to know to apply.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"californiadream\">\u003c/a>What is the California Dream For All program, and how does it work?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Under the California Dream For All program, the state will put down up to 20% of the cost of the home, or up to $150,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That money does have to be repaid, just not right away. It gets repaid — without interest — when you sell the home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, there’s a catch. You also have to pay back 20% of any appreciation on the home’s value (which is why the program is called a Shared Appreciation Loan). So, if you buy a $600,000 home and then sell it 10 years later for $700,000, you would have to pay back the initial $120,000 down payment, along with an additional $20,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11917267,news_11946353 label='California Dream for All']In December, the median price of homes in California was nearly $820,000, \u003ca href=\"https://www.car.org/en/marketdata/data/countysalesactivity\">according to the California Association of Realtors\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Basically, in return for an investment from the state into your down payment, when you sell the home, you should share that appreciation with the state,” Briones said, adding that the money homebuyers repay will go toward funding future California Dream for All loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As an organization working to close the racial wealth gap we thought that trade-off is fair, to ensure that we can support families now and in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Applicants can \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/dream/\">apply for the California Dream for All program before it closes at 5 p.m. on Monday, April 29 at calhfa.ca.gov/dream\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"eligible\">\u003c/a>Who is eligible to apply for California Dream for All?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“Who’s eligible” is where some of the program’s changes this year come into play.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like last year, California Dream for All applicants must be California residents — who are either citizens, permanent residents or \u003ca href=\"https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=(title:8%20section:1641%20edition:prelim)\">otherwise defined as a “Qualified Alien”\u003c/a> — and first-time home buyers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But unlike last year, at least one person on the application must also be a first-generation home buyer — meaning their parents do not currently own a home in the United States. Applicants who have ever been in foster care also qualify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Briones said he was skeptical at first about this requirement that applicants be first-generation home buyers. But, given how quickly the money flew out the door last year, he’s now in favor of the idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I do think that this is probably a needed additional step to make sure that this program truly is targeted to people that really do need the funds,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, residents making up to 150% of the area’s median income could apply. But this year, that threshold has been reduced to 120% of the area median income. Those income limits now range from $287,000 in Santa Clara County to $132,000 in some of the more rural or agricultural parts of the state, such as Humboldt and Fresno counties. \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/homeownership/limits/income/income-cadfa.pdf\">Check out the full list of county income limits here (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson said that CalHFA (California Housing Finance Agency) relies on \u003ca href=\"https://ami-lookup-tool.fanniemae.com/\">the income the lender uses to qualify the homebuyers\u003c/a>. So, if, for example, a married couple applies, then the lender uses their combined income. If a single person applies to the program, the lender only uses one income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Applicants must also have a credit score of 680 and a debt-to-income ratio of no more than 45%. \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/homeownership/programs/loans-cadfa.pdf\">Read the full list of eligibility requirements for California Dream for All (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>I think I qualify for the California Dream for All program. What’s next?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Don’t start picking out your dream home just yet. Johnson said the first thing to do is to find \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/homebuyer/lenders.htm\">a CalHFA-approved lender\u003c/a> who is offering the California Dream for All program and can get you pre-approved. This is because you’ll need that \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/homeownership/forms/pre-approval-letter-cadfa.pdf\">pre-approval letter (PDF)\u003c/a> from them to register for the program in April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Figure out how much home you can qualify for,” Johnson said. “Then work with a loan officer to make sure your application is ready.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/dream/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">online California Dream for All application \u003c/a>portal will open at 8 a.m. on April 3 and will remain open until 5 p.m. on April 29.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After that, you’ll need to take a five- to six-hour home-buyer education course and a second one-hour course about how a shared appreciation mortgage works. You can register at \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfadreamforall.com/\">calhfadreamforall.com\u003c/a>, and the classes are online and free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you do end up getting selected for a loan under the program, then you have 90 days to find that dream house, enter into a contract to purchase a home and have the lender reserve the loan through CalHFA’s Mortgage Access System.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you aren’t quite ready to talk to a loan officer yet, Johnson said you can also \u003ca href=\"https://www.hud.gov/states/california/homeownership/hsgcounseling\">talk to a free HUD-approved housing counselor\u003c/a>, who can dig into your finances and figure out what you need to do to get ready to buy a home.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What happens after I apply for California Dream for All?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This is another way the 2024 application differs from last year’s: Unlike 2023’s first round of funding, when loans were given on a first-come, first-served basis, this year, there will be a lottery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This means you don’t need to worry about getting your application in right when the program opens up. Johnson confirmed that you will have until the end of April to submit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\"]How to apply\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Find \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/homebuyer/lenders.htm\">an approved loan officer\u003c/a> or talk with \u003ca href=\"https://www.hud.gov/states/california/homeownership/hsgcounseling\">a HUD-approved housing counselor\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Get a pre-approval letter\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Register before \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/dream/\">the program lottery deadline on April 29\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>[/pullquote]After that, Johnson said CalHFA has separated the state into nine geographic zones. The number of applicants selected for the California Dream for All loans will be based on the number of households in each zone. “We really wanted to make sure these funds were distributed equitably,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some people didn’t have time to get their paperwork together [last year],” Johnson said. “We wanted to make sure we had done everything we possibly could and for people to get their finances in order, to make sure they could be successful this year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson said it’s OK if the applicant makes an honest mistake or there’s an error on the application: They won’t be rejected outright. CalHFA will work with the applicant to correct any mistakes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a very robust customer service platform in place,” he said. “We help people get through the process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he also said starting early to prepare for the application process is important. So, if you haven’t already, \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/homebuyer/lenders.htm\">find a loan officer\u003c/a> who can help assist you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, if it doesn’t happen this year, Johnson said you might also qualify for some of the state’s other home-buyer-assistance programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\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, helpful explainers and guides about issues like 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>\u003cem>The original version of this story published on Feb. 19, 2024.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Applications for the state’s high-demand loan program for first-time home buyers will close on Monday, April 29 at 5 p.m.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1714071452,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":true,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":51,"wordCount":1939},"headData":{"title":"Just Days Left to Apply for California Program That Helps Pay for Your First House | KQED","description":"Applications for the state’s high-demand loan program for first-time home buyers will close on Monday, April 29 at 5 p.m.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Just Days Left to Apply for California Program That Helps Pay for Your First House","datePublished":"2024-04-25T18:55:47.000Z","dateModified":"2024-04-25T18:57:32.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11976218/california-will-help-fund-the-down-payment-for-your-first-house-heres-how-to-apply","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11981458/ayuda-a-comprar-su-primera-casa-california-2023\">\u003cem>Leer en español\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it rolled out last year, the California Dream for All program — a loan application for first-time home buyers — exhausted its approximately $300 million of funding within 11 days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That prompted some changes this year for when the down payment assistance program opened again to California residents on April 3. The state has about $250 million on the table, which is expected to assist between 1,600–2,000 new applicants, said Eric Johnson, a spokesperson for the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/dream/\">The program — officially called the California Dream for All Shared Appreciation Loan\u003c/a> — is designed to have the state step into the role of a parent or grandparent in assisting their offspring buy a home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The program is designed to help those who may not have had the benefit of generational wealth in buying their first home,” Johnson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re hoping to \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/dream/\">apply for the California Dream for All program\u003c/a> in 2024, keep reading to see who is eligible, how the program has changed this year, and what you need to do. But hurry: \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/dream/\">Applications for the program\u003c/a> officially close at 5 p.m. Pacific Time on Monday, April 29.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#californiadream\">How does the California Dream for All program work?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#eligible\">Who is eligible to apply in 2024?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>Who got the money in 2023?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While wildly popular, the California Dream for All program didn’t have the geographic reach its designers had hoped for — nor did it reach its intended demographic target, said Adam Briones, the CEO of California Community Builders, a nonprofit housing research and advocacy organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Briones and his team did the research that helped design the program to close the racial homeownership gap in the state. In California, nearly 37% of Black households own their homes compared to 63% of white households, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/blog/californias-housing-divide/\">according to the Public Policy Institute of California\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The original hope of the program had been that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952984/reparations-commentary\">formerly redlined communities\u003c/a>, low-wealth communities … [would] be disproportionately supported by this program,” Briones said, “because they’ve been disproportionately held back by inequalities, both in terms of public policy and the way that our economic system works.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘The program is designed to help those who may not have had the benefit of generational wealth in buying their first home.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Eric Johnson, California Housing Finance Agency","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“And we didn’t see that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first round of California Dream For All funding helped nearly 2,200 new homeowners purchase homes. But of those, only 3% of the grantees were Black, \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/dream/images/dfa-phase-I-outcomes.png\">according to CalHFA\u003c/a>. That’s compared to 35% of white recipients, 33% Latino and 19% Asian American and Pacific Islander.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nor were the California Dream for All funds distributed equally on a geographic basis, Briones said. A disproportionate share went to Sacramento residents, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of that had to do with informal knowledge access and understanding of a large program that was going to be rolled out,” Briones said. But he cautioned, “If Californians throughout the state don’t benefit from the program, it’s going to be really hard to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11917267/california-legislators-propose-helping-people-buy-homes-in-exchange-for-partial-ownership\">make the argument to voters that they should continue investing in these types of things\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This time around, changes to the 2024 California Dream for All program are meant to address those disparities, Johnson said. Here’s what you need to know to apply.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"californiadream\">\u003c/a>What is the California Dream For All program, and how does it work?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Under the California Dream For All program, the state will put down up to 20% of the cost of the home, or up to $150,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That money does have to be repaid, just not right away. It gets repaid — without interest — when you sell the home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, there’s a catch. You also have to pay back 20% of any appreciation on the home’s value (which is why the program is called a Shared Appreciation Loan). So, if you buy a $600,000 home and then sell it 10 years later for $700,000, you would have to pay back the initial $120,000 down payment, along with an additional $20,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11917267,news_11946353","label":"California Dream for All "},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In December, the median price of homes in California was nearly $820,000, \u003ca href=\"https://www.car.org/en/marketdata/data/countysalesactivity\">according to the California Association of Realtors\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Basically, in return for an investment from the state into your down payment, when you sell the home, you should share that appreciation with the state,” Briones said, adding that the money homebuyers repay will go toward funding future California Dream for All loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As an organization working to close the racial wealth gap we thought that trade-off is fair, to ensure that we can support families now and in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Applicants can \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/dream/\">apply for the California Dream for All program before it closes at 5 p.m. on Monday, April 29 at calhfa.ca.gov/dream\u003c/a>.\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>\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"eligible\">\u003c/a>Who is eligible to apply for California Dream for All?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“Who’s eligible” is where some of the program’s changes this year come into play.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like last year, California Dream for All applicants must be California residents — who are either citizens, permanent residents or \u003ca href=\"https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=(title:8%20section:1641%20edition:prelim)\">otherwise defined as a “Qualified Alien”\u003c/a> — and first-time home buyers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But unlike last year, at least one person on the application must also be a first-generation home buyer — meaning their parents do not currently own a home in the United States. Applicants who have ever been in foster care also qualify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Briones said he was skeptical at first about this requirement that applicants be first-generation home buyers. But, given how quickly the money flew out the door last year, he’s now in favor of the idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I do think that this is probably a needed additional step to make sure that this program truly is targeted to people that really do need the funds,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, residents making up to 150% of the area’s median income could apply. But this year, that threshold has been reduced to 120% of the area median income. Those income limits now range from $287,000 in Santa Clara County to $132,000 in some of the more rural or agricultural parts of the state, such as Humboldt and Fresno counties. \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/homeownership/limits/income/income-cadfa.pdf\">Check out the full list of county income limits here (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson said that CalHFA (California Housing Finance Agency) relies on \u003ca href=\"https://ami-lookup-tool.fanniemae.com/\">the income the lender uses to qualify the homebuyers\u003c/a>. So, if, for example, a married couple applies, then the lender uses their combined income. If a single person applies to the program, the lender only uses one income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Applicants must also have a credit score of 680 and a debt-to-income ratio of no more than 45%. \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/homeownership/programs/loans-cadfa.pdf\">Read the full list of eligibility requirements for California Dream for All (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>I think I qualify for the California Dream for All program. What’s next?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Don’t start picking out your dream home just yet. Johnson said the first thing to do is to find \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/homebuyer/lenders.htm\">a CalHFA-approved lender\u003c/a> who is offering the California Dream for All program and can get you pre-approved. This is because you’ll need that \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/homeownership/forms/pre-approval-letter-cadfa.pdf\">pre-approval letter (PDF)\u003c/a> from them to register for the program in April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Figure out how much home you can qualify for,” Johnson said. “Then work with a loan officer to make sure your application is ready.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/dream/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">online California Dream for All application \u003c/a>portal will open at 8 a.m. on April 3 and will remain open until 5 p.m. on April 29.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After that, you’ll need to take a five- to six-hour home-buyer education course and a second one-hour course about how a shared appreciation mortgage works. You can register at \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfadreamforall.com/\">calhfadreamforall.com\u003c/a>, and the classes are online and free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you do end up getting selected for a loan under the program, then you have 90 days to find that dream house, enter into a contract to purchase a home and have the lender reserve the loan through CalHFA’s Mortgage Access System.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you aren’t quite ready to talk to a loan officer yet, Johnson said you can also \u003ca href=\"https://www.hud.gov/states/california/homeownership/hsgcounseling\">talk to a free HUD-approved housing counselor\u003c/a>, who can dig into your finances and figure out what you need to do to get ready to buy a home.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What happens after I apply for California Dream for All?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This is another way the 2024 application differs from last year’s: Unlike 2023’s first round of funding, when loans were given on a first-come, first-served basis, this year, there will be a lottery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This means you don’t need to worry about getting your application in right when the program opens up. Johnson confirmed that you will have until the end of April to submit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"How to apply\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Find \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/homebuyer/lenders.htm\">an approved loan officer\u003c/a> or talk with \u003ca href=\"https://www.hud.gov/states/california/homeownership/hsgcounseling\">a HUD-approved housing counselor\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Get a pre-approval letter\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Register before \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/dream/\">the program lottery deadline on April 29\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>After that, Johnson said CalHFA has separated the state into nine geographic zones. The number of applicants selected for the California Dream for All loans will be based on the number of households in each zone. “We really wanted to make sure these funds were distributed equitably,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some people didn’t have time to get their paperwork together [last year],” Johnson said. “We wanted to make sure we had done everything we possibly could and for people to get their finances in order, to make sure they could be successful this year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson said it’s OK if the applicant makes an honest mistake or there’s an error on the application: They won’t be rejected outright. CalHFA will work with the applicant to correct any mistakes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a very robust customer service platform in place,” he said. “We help people get through the process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he also said starting early to prepare for the application process is important. So, if you haven’t already, \u003ca href=\"https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/homebuyer/lenders.htm\">find a loan officer\u003c/a> who can help assist you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, if it doesn’t happen this year, Johnson said you might also qualify for some of the state’s other home-buyer-assistance programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\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, helpful explainers and guides about issues like 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>\u003cem>The original version of this story published on Feb. 19, 2024.\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/11976218/california-will-help-fund-the-down-payment-for-your-first-house-heres-how-to-apply","authors":["11652"],"categories":["news_6266","news_8"],"tags":["news_32707","news_27626","news_31235","news_1775"],"featImg":"news_11976223","label":"news"},"news_11983907":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11983907","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11983907","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"in-fresnos-chinatown-high-speed-rail-sparks-hope-and-debate-within-residents","title":"In Fresno’s Chinatown, High-Speed Rail Sparks Hope and Debate Within Residents","publishDate":1714042842,"format":"image","headTitle":"In Fresno’s Chinatown, High-Speed Rail Sparks Hope and Debate Within Residents | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":72,"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>On a recent weekday in Fresno’s Chinatown, a steady stream of customers flow into the Central Fish Company. The Japanese grocery store doubles as a modest restaurant, where owner Morgan Doizaki serves up catfish nuggets and fish and chips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This business is bustling, but around the shop, there’s not a lot of activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When my great uncle opened the store, this was the downtown for communities of color,” Doizaki said. “Then, it became a ghost town.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because, in the 1960s, Fresno’s Chinatown was hit hard by \u003ca href=\"https://www.urbandisplacement.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Fresno.pdf\">urban renewal\u003c/a>. A major highway cut through the once-vibrant neighborhood, resulting in demolished buildings and shuttered stores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the California High-Speed Rail Authority promises to bring economic prosperity back to this area by constructing a new station — one of the first to be built along the line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while some Chinatown residents said this station will be a boon to the local economy, others worry it will be a catalyst for gentrification, ultimately pushing out the very people and businesses the new station aims to benefit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Margaret Cederoth, the director of planning and sustainability at the California High-Speed Rail Authority, said that after decades of segregation, she hopes the new station — with entrances on both the Chinatown and downtown sides of the tracks — will be a bridge to reknit the two neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s actually a fantastic opportunity for reconnecting downtown and Chinatown,” Cederoth said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11983935\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11983935\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-Crossing-Path-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-Crossing-Path-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-Crossing-Path-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-Crossing-Path-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-Crossing-Path-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-Crossing-Path.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 2024 rendering of the high-speed rail station in Fresno. \u003ccite>(Courtesy California High-Speed Rail Authority)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To jumpstart economic activity, the authority secured a \u003ca href=\"https://hsr.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/RAISE-2023-Factsheet-Revised-A11Y.pdf\">$20 million grant\u003c/a> from the federal government to build a plaza in front of the new station that will host food trucks and street vendors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plaza, which will sit on the downtown side of the tracks, is slated to open in 2026, a full four years before trains are expected to start running. On the Chinatown side, the authority plans to build an electric vehicle charging station for residents. The funding will also help restore the historic train depot, which will be incorporated into the new station’s design and is believed to be one of Fresno’s oldest buildings, according to the High-Speed Rail Authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Fresno] was a city that was really born out of the railway, and having that historic station next to the future high-speed rail station creates this real chemistry between old and new,” Cederoth said. “We want these to be places that are enjoyed by the public, even in advance of high-speed rail service.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The history of Fresno’s Chinatown\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Chinese immigrants were among the first to settle in Fresno after they helped build the transcontinental railroad in the 1860s. When white landlords in the city agreed not to sell or lease homes east of the railroad to Chinese residents, they were forced to relocate to the west side of the tracks, where Chinatown is now, separating downtown Fresno from Chinese residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These residents created a bustling neighborhood filled with shops, restaurants and civic organizations. But, Jan Minami, director of the Chinatown Fresno Foundation Project, said it was also a locus of illicit activity, which took place inside a warren of underground tunnels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At one point, Chinatown was a red light district,” Minami said. “Many of the underground tunnels and basements were created to escape the heat, but they were also used to essentially hide gambling and prostitution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chinese immigrants continued to move to the neighborhood and began working at nearby farms, picking figs, grapes, cotton and wheat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, in the 1880s, the Chinese Exclusion Act diminished the Chinese workforce. Japanese immigrants, including Doizaki’s family, moved in with many replacing Chinese workers in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11983937\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11983937\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/8A450199-F2F2-4509-AAE8-C6ED1F7A34D1_1_105_c_qut-800x601.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"601\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/8A450199-F2F2-4509-AAE8-C6ED1F7A34D1_1_105_c_qut-800x601.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/8A450199-F2F2-4509-AAE8-C6ED1F7A34D1_1_105_c_qut-1020x766.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/8A450199-F2F2-4509-AAE8-C6ED1F7A34D1_1_105_c_qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/8A450199-F2F2-4509-AAE8-C6ED1F7A34D1_1_105_c_qut.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Morgan Doizaki stands outside his family business, Central Fish Company, in Fresno’s Chinatown on March 26, 2024. Doizaki’s family has run the shop since 1950. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Morgan Doizaki)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Doizaki’s great-grandpa first moved from Japan to Fowler, a small rural town south of Fresno, in 1898. He and his family relocated to Fresno’s Chinatown years later and began creating a life there — until World War II when Japanese immigrants were forced into internment camps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doizaki’s family was one of the few that was able to rebuild and maintain a business in the area. Over time, Fresno’s Chinatown would become home to 11 different cultures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve had our ups and downs, but we’re starting to see improvements,” Doizaki said of his neighborhood. ” High-speed rail definitely has helped put a lot of focus into Chinatown.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Chinatown revitalization\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The High-Speed Rail Authority estimates it will spend more than \u003ca href=\"https://hsr.ca.gov/2023/06/28/news-release-high-speed-rail-authority-receives-20-million-from-federal-government-to-revitalize-historic-fresno-train-depot/#:~:text=NEWS%20RELEASE%3A%E2%80%8B%20High%2DSpeed,Revitalize%20Historic%20Fresno%20Train%20Depot&text=FRESNO%2C%20Calif.\">$33 million\u003c/a> on the plaza and other early work near the new station — an investment that’s also prompting city officials to get in on the revitalization effort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fresno City Council members recently approved a $10 million contract, with funding from the \u003ca href=\"https://sgc.ca.gov/grant-programs/tcc/\">Transforming Climate Communities Program\u003c/a>, to construct median islands with greenery and new sidewalks, as well as install street lights with Chinese lanterns to honor the neighborhood’s culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11983940\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11983940\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 2024 rendering of the high-speed rail station in Fresno. \u003ccite>(Courtesy California High-Speed Rail Authority)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the last year, the city has opened an apartment building with \u003ca href=\"https://fresnohousing.org/properties/the-monarch-chinatown/\">57 affordable units\u003c/a> just three blocks from the Chinatown station. Councilmember Miguel Arias, who represents the district, said the city has also acquired old motels and historic buildings that will eventually be converted into market-rate and affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a responsibility to these communities to not allow the next modern transit system to continue that historical redlining because the freeway system, the train system fundamentally killed Chinatown,” Arias said. “Our goal is to have about half a dozen housing projects be opened or in the final stages of construction by 2026.” [aside label='Related Coverage' tag='central-valley']But housing advocates said building more is just one piece of a much larger puzzle. Marisa Moraza, a campaign director with Power California, said the city needs to ensure that all this new development does not price out tenants and business owners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For that, she’s advocating for the city to impose a rent cap, increase tenant protections and institute a new oversight board to oversee these efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s Department of Housing and Community Development has mandated that Fresno build nearly \u003ca href=\"https://fresnocog.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/FCOG_RHNP_Public_Review_Final_November_2022_Compiled.pdf\">37,000 new homes and apartments\u003c/a> by 2031 as part of California’s broader goal to construct \u003ca href=\"https://statewide-housing-plan-cahcd.hub.arcgis.com/\">2.5 million homes\u003c/a> in that time. And in a \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eZOB6B6RPRgSnWfKu27p8iYwbPij2vaU/view?usp=sharing\">letter to the city\u003c/a> (PDF), the department recommended it listen and incorporate comments from community groups, such as Power California, as it plans for its share of that new housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to continue to see the city of Fresno grow,” Moraza said. “However, we want to ensure that we are not increasing displacement in downtown and in southwest Fresno as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Doizaki, whose family business has been in Chinatown since 1950, he hopes the city and businesses can work together to provide enough housing for residents with a healthy range of incomes and backgrounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of the plans that I’m seeing right now is to fill Chinatown with affordable housing. That’s not how you build a thriving community,” he said. “It’s 2024; we should be able to foresee that this is not how you treat a cultural minority district that was born through racism.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"California High-Speed Rail Authorities are promising to revitalize Fresno’s Chinatown years before the first trains leave the station, intending to spur economic growth for the struggling neighborhood.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1714003621,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":30,"wordCount":1296},"headData":{"title":"In Fresno’s Chinatown, High-Speed Rail Sparks Hope and Debate Within Residents | KQED","description":"California High-Speed Rail Authorities are promising to revitalize Fresno’s Chinatown years before the first trains leave the station, intending to spur economic growth for the struggling neighborhood.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"In Fresno’s Chinatown, High-Speed Rail Sparks Hope and Debate Within Residents","datePublished":"2024-04-25T11:00:42.000Z","dateModified":"2024-04-25T00:07:01.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"audioUrl":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-41c5-bcaf-aaef00f5a073/5fe27eaf-26a1-4ef5-bdf2-b15c00f545df/audio.mp3","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11983907/in-fresnos-chinatown-high-speed-rail-sparks-hope-and-debate-within-residents","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On a recent weekday in Fresno’s Chinatown, a steady stream of customers flow into the Central Fish Company. The Japanese grocery store doubles as a modest restaurant, where owner Morgan Doizaki serves up catfish nuggets and fish and chips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This business is bustling, but around the shop, there’s not a lot of activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When my great uncle opened the store, this was the downtown for communities of color,” Doizaki said. “Then, it became a ghost town.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because, in the 1960s, Fresno’s Chinatown was hit hard by \u003ca href=\"https://www.urbandisplacement.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Fresno.pdf\">urban renewal\u003c/a>. A major highway cut through the once-vibrant neighborhood, resulting in demolished buildings and shuttered stores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the California High-Speed Rail Authority promises to bring economic prosperity back to this area by constructing a new station — one of the first to be built along the 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>But while some Chinatown residents said this station will be a boon to the local economy, others worry it will be a catalyst for gentrification, ultimately pushing out the very people and businesses the new station aims to benefit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Margaret Cederoth, the director of planning and sustainability at the California High-Speed Rail Authority, said that after decades of segregation, she hopes the new station — with entrances on both the Chinatown and downtown sides of the tracks — will be a bridge to reknit the two neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s actually a fantastic opportunity for reconnecting downtown and Chinatown,” Cederoth said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11983935\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11983935\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-Crossing-Path-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-Crossing-Path-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-Crossing-Path-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-Crossing-Path-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-Crossing-Path-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-Crossing-Path.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 2024 rendering of the high-speed rail station in Fresno. \u003ccite>(Courtesy California High-Speed Rail Authority)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To jumpstart economic activity, the authority secured a \u003ca href=\"https://hsr.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/RAISE-2023-Factsheet-Revised-A11Y.pdf\">$20 million grant\u003c/a> from the federal government to build a plaza in front of the new station that will host food trucks and street vendors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plaza, which will sit on the downtown side of the tracks, is slated to open in 2026, a full four years before trains are expected to start running. On the Chinatown side, the authority plans to build an electric vehicle charging station for residents. The funding will also help restore the historic train depot, which will be incorporated into the new station’s design and is believed to be one of Fresno’s oldest buildings, according to the High-Speed Rail Authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Fresno] was a city that was really born out of the railway, and having that historic station next to the future high-speed rail station creates this real chemistry between old and new,” Cederoth said. “We want these to be places that are enjoyed by the public, even in advance of high-speed rail service.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The history of Fresno’s Chinatown\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Chinese immigrants were among the first to settle in Fresno after they helped build the transcontinental railroad in the 1860s. When white landlords in the city agreed not to sell or lease homes east of the railroad to Chinese residents, they were forced to relocate to the west side of the tracks, where Chinatown is now, separating downtown Fresno from Chinese residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These residents created a bustling neighborhood filled with shops, restaurants and civic organizations. But, Jan Minami, director of the Chinatown Fresno Foundation Project, said it was also a locus of illicit activity, which took place inside a warren of underground tunnels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At one point, Chinatown was a red light district,” Minami said. “Many of the underground tunnels and basements were created to escape the heat, but they were also used to essentially hide gambling and prostitution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chinese immigrants continued to move to the neighborhood and began working at nearby farms, picking figs, grapes, cotton and wheat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, in the 1880s, the Chinese Exclusion Act diminished the Chinese workforce. Japanese immigrants, including Doizaki’s family, moved in with many replacing Chinese workers in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11983937\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11983937\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/8A450199-F2F2-4509-AAE8-C6ED1F7A34D1_1_105_c_qut-800x601.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"601\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/8A450199-F2F2-4509-AAE8-C6ED1F7A34D1_1_105_c_qut-800x601.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/8A450199-F2F2-4509-AAE8-C6ED1F7A34D1_1_105_c_qut-1020x766.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/8A450199-F2F2-4509-AAE8-C6ED1F7A34D1_1_105_c_qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/8A450199-F2F2-4509-AAE8-C6ED1F7A34D1_1_105_c_qut.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Morgan Doizaki stands outside his family business, Central Fish Company, in Fresno’s Chinatown on March 26, 2024. Doizaki’s family has run the shop since 1950. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Morgan Doizaki)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Doizaki’s great-grandpa first moved from Japan to Fowler, a small rural town south of Fresno, in 1898. He and his family relocated to Fresno’s Chinatown years later and began creating a life there — until World War II when Japanese immigrants were forced into internment camps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doizaki’s family was one of the few that was able to rebuild and maintain a business in the area. Over time, Fresno’s Chinatown would become home to 11 different cultures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve had our ups and downs, but we’re starting to see improvements,” Doizaki said of his neighborhood. ” High-speed rail definitely has helped put a lot of focus into Chinatown.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Chinatown revitalization\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The High-Speed Rail Authority estimates it will spend more than \u003ca href=\"https://hsr.ca.gov/2023/06/28/news-release-high-speed-rail-authority-receives-20-million-from-federal-government-to-revitalize-historic-fresno-train-depot/#:~:text=NEWS%20RELEASE%3A%E2%80%8B%20High%2DSpeed,Revitalize%20Historic%20Fresno%20Train%20Depot&text=FRESNO%2C%20Calif.\">$33 million\u003c/a> on the plaza and other early work near the new station — an investment that’s also prompting city officials to get in on the revitalization effort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fresno City Council members recently approved a $10 million contract, with funding from the \u003ca href=\"https://sgc.ca.gov/grant-programs/tcc/\">Transforming Climate Communities Program\u003c/a>, to construct median islands with greenery and new sidewalks, as well as install street lights with Chinese lanterns to honor the neighborhood’s culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11983940\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11983940\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/2024_01-Fresno.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 2024 rendering of the high-speed rail station in Fresno. \u003ccite>(Courtesy California High-Speed Rail Authority)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the last year, the city has opened an apartment building with \u003ca href=\"https://fresnohousing.org/properties/the-monarch-chinatown/\">57 affordable units\u003c/a> just three blocks from the Chinatown station. Councilmember Miguel Arias, who represents the district, said the city has also acquired old motels and historic buildings that will eventually be converted into market-rate and affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a responsibility to these communities to not allow the next modern transit system to continue that historical redlining because the freeway system, the train system fundamentally killed Chinatown,” Arias said. “Our goal is to have about half a dozen housing projects be opened or in the final stages of construction by 2026.” \u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"Related Coverage ","tag":"central-valley"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But housing advocates said building more is just one piece of a much larger puzzle. Marisa Moraza, a campaign director with Power California, said the city needs to ensure that all this new development does not price out tenants and business owners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For that, she’s advocating for the city to impose a rent cap, increase tenant protections and institute a new oversight board to oversee these efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s Department of Housing and Community Development has mandated that Fresno build nearly \u003ca href=\"https://fresnocog.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/FCOG_RHNP_Public_Review_Final_November_2022_Compiled.pdf\">37,000 new homes and apartments\u003c/a> by 2031 as part of California’s broader goal to construct \u003ca href=\"https://statewide-housing-plan-cahcd.hub.arcgis.com/\">2.5 million homes\u003c/a> in that time. And in a \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eZOB6B6RPRgSnWfKu27p8iYwbPij2vaU/view?usp=sharing\">letter to the city\u003c/a> (PDF), the department recommended it listen and incorporate comments from community groups, such as Power California, as it plans for its share of that new housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to continue to see the city of Fresno grow,” Moraza said. “However, we want to ensure that we are not increasing displacement in downtown and in southwest Fresno as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Doizaki, whose family business has been in Chinatown since 1950, he hopes the city and businesses can work together to provide enough housing for residents with a healthy range of incomes and backgrounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of the plans that I’m seeing right now is to fill Chinatown with affordable housing. That’s not how you build a thriving community,” he said. “It’s 2024; we should be able to foresee that this is not how you treat a cultural minority district that was born through racism.”\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/11983907/in-fresnos-chinatown-high-speed-rail-sparks-hope-and-debate-within-residents","authors":["11895"],"programs":["news_72"],"categories":["news_1169","news_8"],"tags":["news_307","news_20290","news_311","news_23152","news_27626","news_37","news_309","news_1775","news_20202","news_20517"],"featImg":"news_11983945","label":"news_72"},"news_11983878":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11983878","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11983878","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"fresnos-chinatown-neighborhood-to-see-big-changes-from-high-speed-rail","title":"Fresno's Chinatown Neighborhood To See Big Changes From High Speed Rail","publishDate":1713969364,"format":"audio","headTitle":"Fresno’s Chinatown Neighborhood To See Big Changes From High Speed Rail | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>High Speed Rail Offers Hope, Concerns For One Fresno Neighborhood\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many Californians, the idea of High Speed Rail becoming a reality, is well just an idea. But in Fresno, where one of the first stations will be built, some residents see the rail system as a lifeline.\u003c/span>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Reporter: Madi Bolanos, The California Report\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Protests Over War In Gaza Grow At College Campuses\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Cal Poly Humboldt has shut down its campus, after students occupied a building on campus. And a protest encampment continues to grow at UC Berkeley, as students voice their concerns about the war in Gaza, and universities investing in companies that benefit Israel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":null,"status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1713969364,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":4,"wordCount":109},"headData":{"title":"Fresno's Chinatown Neighborhood To See Big Changes From High Speed Rail | KQED","description":"High Speed Rail Offers Hope, Concerns For One Fresno Neighborhood For many Californians, the idea of High Speed Rail becoming a reality, is well just an idea. But in Fresno, where one of the first stations will be built, some residents see the rail system as a lifeline. Reporter: Madi Bolanos, The California Report Protests Over War In Gaza Grow At College Campuses Cal Poly Humboldt has shut down its campus, after students occupied a building on campus. And a protest encampment continues to grow at UC Berkeley, as students voice their concerns about the war in Gaza, and universities","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Fresno's Chinatown Neighborhood To See Big Changes From High Speed Rail","datePublished":"2024-04-24T14:36:04.000Z","dateModified":"2024-04-24T14:36:04.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"source":"Morning Report","sourceUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/tcrarchive/","audioUrl":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/chrt.fm/track/G6C7C3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC6905300993.mp3?updated=1713969415","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11983878/fresnos-chinatown-neighborhood-to-see-big-changes-from-high-speed-rail","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>High Speed Rail Offers Hope, Concerns For One Fresno Neighborhood\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many Californians, the idea of High Speed Rail becoming a reality, is well just an idea. But in Fresno, where one of the first stations will be built, some residents see the rail system as a lifeline.\u003c/span>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Reporter: Madi Bolanos, The California Report\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Protests Over War In Gaza Grow At College Campuses\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Cal Poly Humboldt has shut down its campus, after students occupied a building on campus. And a protest encampment continues to grow at UC Berkeley, as students voice their concerns about the war in Gaza, and universities investing in companies that benefit Israel.\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/11983878/fresnos-chinatown-neighborhood-to-see-big-changes-from-high-speed-rail","authors":["236"],"programs":["news_72"],"categories":["news_21291"],"tags":["news_21998","news_21268"],"featImg":"news_11983879","label":"source_news_11983878"},"forum_2010101905488":{"type":"posts","id":"forum_2010101905488","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"forum","id":"2010101905488","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"rainn-wilson-from-the-office-on-why-we-need-a-spiritual-revolution","title":"Rainn Wilson from ‘The Office’ on Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution","publishDate":1713993655,"format":"audio","headTitle":"Rainn Wilson from ‘The Office’ on Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"forum"},"content":"\u003cp>You’d be forgiven for associating Rainn Wilson primarily with Dwight Schrute, the overbearing, mansplaining geek on “The Office.” And in his bestselling book “Soul Boom” the three-time Emmy Award-nominated actor acknowledges the connection: “Why is the beet-farming, paper-selling, tangentially Amish man-baby with the giant forehead and short-sleeved mustard shirts writing about the meaning of life?” But then again, why wouldn’t he be curious? Wilson joins us to talk about his own journey with faith, why big philosophical questions make life worth living and why we need what he calls a “spiritual revolution.” And we’ll also hear why he thinks “The Office” is such a cultural mainstay, informing TV mockumentary trends, cringe humor and Gen Z artists like Billie Eilish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":null,"status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1714079986,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":3,"wordCount":143},"headData":{"title":"Rainn Wilson from ‘The Office’ on Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution | KQED","description":"You’d be forgiven for associating Rainn Wilson primarily with Dwight Schrute, the overbearing, mansplaining geek on “The Office.” And in his bestselling book “Soul Boom” the three-time Emmy Award-nominated actor acknowledges the connection: “Why is the beet-farming, paper-selling, tangentially Amish man-baby with the giant forehead and short-sleeved mustard shirts writing about the meaning of life?” But then again, why wouldn’t he be curious? Wilson joins us to talk about his own journey with faith, why big philosophical questions make life worth living and why we need what he calls a “spiritual revolution.” And we’ll also hear why he thinks “The","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"Rainn Wilson from ‘The Office’ on Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution","datePublished":"2024-04-24T21:20:55.000Z","dateModified":"2024-04-25T21:19:46.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"audioUrl":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/chrt.fm/track/G6C7C3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC2486412883.mp3?updated=1714078871","airdate":1714064400,"forumGuests":[{"name":"Rainn Wilson","bio":"actor who played Dwight Schrute on the TV show, \"The Office.\" His most recent book is \"Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution.\""}],"sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/forum/2010101905488/rainn-wilson-from-the-office-on-why-we-need-a-spiritual-revolution","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>You’d be forgiven for associating Rainn Wilson primarily with Dwight Schrute, the overbearing, mansplaining geek on “The Office.” And in his bestselling book “Soul Boom” the three-time Emmy Award-nominated actor acknowledges the connection: “Why is the beet-farming, paper-selling, tangentially Amish man-baby with the giant forehead and short-sleeved mustard shirts writing about the meaning of life?” But then again, why wouldn’t he be curious? Wilson joins us to talk about his own journey with faith, why big philosophical questions make life worth living and why we need what he calls a “spiritual revolution.” And we’ll also hear why he thinks “The Office” is such a cultural mainstay, informing TV mockumentary trends, cringe humor and Gen Z artists like Billie Eilish.\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":"/forum/2010101905488/rainn-wilson-from-the-office-on-why-we-need-a-spiritual-revolution","authors":["243"],"categories":["forum_165"],"featImg":"forum_2010101905489","label":"forum"},"news_11983995":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11983995","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11983995","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"is-california-headed-for-another-tax-revolt","title":"Is California Headed For Another Tax Revolt?","publishDate":1714054687,"format":"audio","headTitle":"Is California Headed For Another Tax Revolt? | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Tax Fight A Battle In Sacramento\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Battle lines are being drawn in what could be a huge fight over taxes in California this November. Those fights are playing out on the ballot and in court. The state could be headed for another “tax revolt” like the one that ushered in Proposition 13.\u003c/span>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reporter: Nicole Nixon, CapRadio\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Bill Would Give Striking Workers Unemployment Benefits\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California lawmakers have reintroduced a bill that would make workers on strike for more than two weeks eligible for unemployment insurance benefits. \u003c/span>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED \u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":null,"status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1714054687,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":4,"wordCount":97},"headData":{"title":"Is California Headed For Another Tax Revolt? | KQED","description":"Tax Fight A Battle In Sacramento Battle lines are being drawn in what could be a huge fight over taxes in California this November. Those fights are playing out on the ballot and in court. The state could be headed for another “tax revolt” like the one that ushered in Proposition 13. Reporter: Nicole Nixon, CapRadio Bill Would Give Striking Workers Unemployment Benefits California lawmakers have reintroduced a bill that would make workers on strike for more than two weeks eligible for unemployment insurance benefits. Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Is California Headed For Another Tax Revolt?","datePublished":"2024-04-25T14:18:07.000Z","dateModified":"2024-04-25T14:18:07.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"source":"Morning Report","sourceUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/tcrarchive/","audioUrl":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/chrt.fm/track/G6C7C3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC7738356060.mp3?updated=1714054753","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11983995/is-california-headed-for-another-tax-revolt","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Tax Fight A Battle In Sacramento\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Battle lines are being drawn in what could be a huge fight over taxes in California this November. Those fights are playing out on the ballot and in court. The state could be headed for another “tax revolt” like the one that ushered in Proposition 13.\u003c/span>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reporter: Nicole Nixon, CapRadio\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Bill Would Give Striking Workers Unemployment Benefits\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California lawmakers have reintroduced a bill that would make workers on strike for more than two weeks eligible for unemployment insurance benefits. \u003c/span>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED \u003c/span>\u003c/em>\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/11983995/is-california-headed-for-another-tax-revolt","authors":["236"],"programs":["news_72"],"categories":["news_21291"],"tags":["news_21998","news_21268"],"featImg":"news_11983996","label":"source_news_11983995"},"news_11983850":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11983850","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11983850","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"will-less-homework-stress-make-california-students-happier","title":"Will Less Homework Stress Make California Students Happier?","publishDate":1713956456,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Will Less Homework Stress Make California Students Happier? | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":18481,"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>Some bills before California’s Legislature don’t come from passionate policy advocates or powerful interest groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes, the inspiration comes from a family car ride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While campaigning two years ago, Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/pilar-schiavo-5510\">Pilar Schiavo\u003c/a>’s daughter, then 9, asked from the backseat what her mother could do if she won.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schiavo answered that she’d be able to make laws. Then, her daughter Sofia asked if she could make a law banning homework.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a kind of a joke,” the Santa Clarita Valley Democrat said in an interview, “though I’m sure she’d be happy if homework were banned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the conversation got Schiavo thinking, she said. And while \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240ab2999?slug=CA_202320240AB2999\">Assembly Bill 2999\u003c/a> — which faces its first big test on Wednesday — is far from a ban on homework, it would require school districts, county offices of education and charter schools to develop guidelines for K–12 students. It would urge schools to be more intentional about “good” or meaningful homework.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among other things, the guidelines should consider students’ physical health, how long assignments take, and how effective they are. However, the bill’s main concern is mental health and when homework adds stress to students’ daily lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homework’s impact on happiness is partly why Schiavo brought up the proposal last month during \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/03/happiness-california-legislature/\">the first meeting of the Legislature’s select committee on happiness\u003c/a>, led by former Assembly Speaker \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/anthony-rendon-120?_gl=1*186p1dm*_ga*MTM0NTExODk4NS4xNjkwMzA5NjYy*_ga_5TKXNLE5NK*MTcxMzg1MzY3OS45MzYuMS4xNzEzODU2ODUzLjU4LjAuMA..*_ga_GNY4L81DZE*MTcxMzg1Njg1MS4xMDAzLjAuMTcxMzg1Njg1MS4wLjAuMA..\">Anthony Rendon\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"mindshift_62400,mindshift_63052\" label=\"Related Stories\"]“This feeling of loneliness and disconnection — I know when my kid is not feeling connected,” Schiavo, a member of the happiness committee, told CalMatters. “It’s when she’s alone in her room (doing homework), not playing with her cousin, not having dinner with her family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill analysis cites a survey of 15,000 California high schoolers from Challenge Success, a nonprofit affiliated with the Stanford Graduate School of Education. It found that 45% said homework was a major source of stress and that 52% considered most assignments to be busywork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://challengesuccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Challenge-Success-Homework-White-Paper-2020.pdf\">organization also reported in 2020\u003c/a> that students with higher workloads reported “symptoms of exhaustion and lower rates of sleep” but that spending more time on homework did not necessarily lead to higher test scores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homework’s potential to also widen inequities is why Casey Cuny supports the measure. Cuny, an English and mythology teacher at Valencia High School and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr23/yr23rel81.asp\">2024’s California Teacher of the Year\u003c/a>, said language barriers, unreliable home internet, family responsibilities or other outside factors may contribute to a student falling behind on homework.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I never want a kid’s grade to be low because they have divorced parents, and their book was at their dad’s house when they were spending the weekend at mom’s house,” said Cuny, who plans to attend a press conference Wednesday to promote the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, as technology makes it easier for students to cheat — using artificial technology or chat threads to lift answers, for example — Schiavo said that the educators she has spoken to indicate they’re moving towards more in-class assignments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cuny agrees that an emphasis on classwork does help to rein in cheating and allows him to give students immediate feedback. “I feel that I should teach them what I need to teach them when I’m with them in the room,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11983855\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/031224-Happiness-Committee-FG-CM-2-.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11983855\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/031224-Happiness-Committee-FG-CM-2-.jpg\" alt=\"A woman sits at a table facing a woman and man seated at a larger table with microphones attached.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/031224-Happiness-Committee-FG-CM-2-.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/031224-Happiness-Committee-FG-CM-2--800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/031224-Happiness-Committee-FG-CM-2--1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/031224-Happiness-Committee-FG-CM-2--160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/031224-Happiness-Committee-FG-CM-2--1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/031224-Happiness-Committee-FG-CM-2--1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the Select Committee On Happiness And Public Policy Outcomes listen to speakers during an informational hearing at the California Capitol in Sacramento on March 12, 2024. \u003ccite>(Fred Greaves/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The bill said the local homework policies should have input from teachers, parents, school counselors, social workers and students; be distributed at the beginning of every school year; and be reevaluated every five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Assembly Committee on Education is expected to hear the bill Wednesday. Schiavo said she has received bipartisan support, and so far, no official opposition or support has been listed in the bill analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she acknowledges that, if passed, the measure’s provision for parental input may lead to disagreements given the recent \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletter/culture-wars-california-schools/\">culture war disputes\u003c/a> between Democratic officials and parental rights groups backed by some Republican lawmakers. “I’m sure there will be lively (school) board meetings,” Schiavo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nevertheless, she hopes the proposal will overhaul the discussion around homework and mental health. The bill is especially pertinent now that the state is also poised to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/mental-health/2023/06/mental-health-funding-2/\">cut spending on mental health services for children\u003c/a> with the passage of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-voter-guide-2024/prop-1-mental-health/\">Proposition 1\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schiavo said the mother of a student with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder told her that the child’s struggle to finish homework had raised issues inside the house, as well as with the school’s principal and teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And I’m just like, it’s sixth grade!” Schaivo said. “What’s going on?”\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"A bill from a member of the Legislature’s happiness committee would require schools to develop homework policies that consider the mental and physical strain on students.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1713912168,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":23,"wordCount":848},"headData":{"title":"Will Less Homework Stress Make California Students Happier? | KQED","description":"A bill from a member of the Legislature’s happiness committee would require schools to develop homework policies that consider the mental and physical strain on students.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Will Less Homework Stress Make California Students Happier?","datePublished":"2024-04-24T11:00:56.000Z","dateModified":"2024-04-23T22:42:48.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"sticky":false,"nprByline":"Lynn La\u003cbr>CalMatters\u003c/br>","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11983850/will-less-homework-stress-make-california-students-happier","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Some bills before California’s Legislature don’t come from passionate policy advocates or powerful interest groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes, the inspiration comes from a family car ride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While campaigning two years ago, Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/pilar-schiavo-5510\">Pilar Schiavo\u003c/a>’s daughter, then 9, asked from the backseat what her mother could do if she won.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schiavo answered that she’d be able to make laws. Then, her daughter Sofia asked if she could make a law banning homework.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a kind of a joke,” the Santa Clarita Valley Democrat said in an interview, “though I’m sure she’d be happy if homework were banned.”\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>Still, the conversation got Schiavo thinking, she said. And while \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240ab2999?slug=CA_202320240AB2999\">Assembly Bill 2999\u003c/a> — which faces its first big test on Wednesday — is far from a ban on homework, it would require school districts, county offices of education and charter schools to develop guidelines for K–12 students. It would urge schools to be more intentional about “good” or meaningful homework.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among other things, the guidelines should consider students’ physical health, how long assignments take, and how effective they are. However, the bill’s main concern is mental health and when homework adds stress to students’ daily lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homework’s impact on happiness is partly why Schiavo brought up the proposal last month during \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/03/happiness-california-legislature/\">the first meeting of the Legislature’s select committee on happiness\u003c/a>, led by former Assembly Speaker \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/anthony-rendon-120?_gl=1*186p1dm*_ga*MTM0NTExODk4NS4xNjkwMzA5NjYy*_ga_5TKXNLE5NK*MTcxMzg1MzY3OS45MzYuMS4xNzEzODU2ODUzLjU4LjAuMA..*_ga_GNY4L81DZE*MTcxMzg1Njg1MS4xMDAzLjAuMTcxMzg1Njg1MS4wLjAuMA..\">Anthony Rendon\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"mindshift_62400,mindshift_63052","label":"Related Stories "},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“This feeling of loneliness and disconnection — I know when my kid is not feeling connected,” Schiavo, a member of the happiness committee, told CalMatters. “It’s when she’s alone in her room (doing homework), not playing with her cousin, not having dinner with her family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill analysis cites a survey of 15,000 California high schoolers from Challenge Success, a nonprofit affiliated with the Stanford Graduate School of Education. It found that 45% said homework was a major source of stress and that 52% considered most assignments to be busywork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://challengesuccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Challenge-Success-Homework-White-Paper-2020.pdf\">organization also reported in 2020\u003c/a> that students with higher workloads reported “symptoms of exhaustion and lower rates of sleep” but that spending more time on homework did not necessarily lead to higher test scores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homework’s potential to also widen inequities is why Casey Cuny supports the measure. Cuny, an English and mythology teacher at Valencia High School and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr23/yr23rel81.asp\">2024’s California Teacher of the Year\u003c/a>, said language barriers, unreliable home internet, family responsibilities or other outside factors may contribute to a student falling behind on homework.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I never want a kid’s grade to be low because they have divorced parents, and their book was at their dad’s house when they were spending the weekend at mom’s house,” said Cuny, who plans to attend a press conference Wednesday to promote the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, as technology makes it easier for students to cheat — using artificial technology or chat threads to lift answers, for example — Schiavo said that the educators she has spoken to indicate they’re moving towards more in-class assignments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cuny agrees that an emphasis on classwork does help to rein in cheating and allows him to give students immediate feedback. “I feel that I should teach them what I need to teach them when I’m with them in the room,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11983855\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/031224-Happiness-Committee-FG-CM-2-.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11983855\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/031224-Happiness-Committee-FG-CM-2-.jpg\" alt=\"A woman sits at a table facing a woman and man seated at a larger table with microphones attached.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/031224-Happiness-Committee-FG-CM-2-.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/031224-Happiness-Committee-FG-CM-2--800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/031224-Happiness-Committee-FG-CM-2--1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/031224-Happiness-Committee-FG-CM-2--160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/031224-Happiness-Committee-FG-CM-2--1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/031224-Happiness-Committee-FG-CM-2--1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the Select Committee On Happiness And Public Policy Outcomes listen to speakers during an informational hearing at the California Capitol in Sacramento on March 12, 2024. \u003ccite>(Fred Greaves/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The bill said the local homework policies should have input from teachers, parents, school counselors, social workers and students; be distributed at the beginning of every school year; and be reevaluated every five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Assembly Committee on Education is expected to hear the bill Wednesday. Schiavo said she has received bipartisan support, and so far, no official opposition or support has been listed in the bill analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she acknowledges that, if passed, the measure’s provision for parental input may lead to disagreements given the recent \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletter/culture-wars-california-schools/\">culture war disputes\u003c/a> between Democratic officials and parental rights groups backed by some Republican lawmakers. “I’m sure there will be lively (school) board meetings,” Schiavo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nevertheless, she hopes the proposal will overhaul the discussion around homework and mental health. The bill is especially pertinent now that the state is also poised to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/mental-health/2023/06/mental-health-funding-2/\">cut spending on mental health services for children\u003c/a> with the passage of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-voter-guide-2024/prop-1-mental-health/\">Proposition 1\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schiavo said the mother of a student with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder told her that the child’s struggle to finish homework had raised issues inside the house, as well as with the school’s principal and teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And I’m just like, it’s sixth grade!” Schaivo said. “What’s going on?”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11983850/will-less-homework-stress-make-california-students-happier","authors":["byline_news_11983850"],"categories":["news_18540","news_8"],"tags":["news_32580","news_27626","news_28683","news_2998","news_3457","news_6387"],"affiliates":["news_18481"],"featImg":"news_11983856","label":"news_18481"},"forum_2010101905521":{"type":"posts","id":"forum_2010101905521","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"forum","id":"2010101905521","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"nprs-sarah-mccammon-on-leaving-the-evangelical-church","title":"NPR's Sarah McCammon on Leaving the Evangelical Church","publishDate":1714073701,"format":"audio","headTitle":"NPR’s Sarah McCammon on Leaving the Evangelical Church | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"forum"},"content":"\u003cp>While covering Trump’s 2016 campaign, NPR political correspondent Sarah McCammon understood the white evangelical movement behind his political rise, because she grew up in that world. McCammon left the church troubled by the misogyny, homophobia and racism she witnessed. That experience is at the center of her book “The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church.” We speak to McCammon and hear from you: Have you left organized religion? Why?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"We speak to McCammon and hear from you: Have you left organized religion? Why?","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1714073768,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":3,"wordCount":78},"headData":{"title":"NPR's Sarah McCammon on Leaving the Evangelical Church | KQED","description":"We speak to McCammon and hear from you: Have you left organized religion? Why?","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"NPR's Sarah McCammon on Leaving the Evangelical Church","datePublished":"2024-04-25T19:35:01.000Z","dateModified":"2024-04-25T19:36:08.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"airdate":1714150800,"forumGuests":[{"name":"Sarah McCammon","bio":"National Political Correspondent, NPR; co-host, NPR Politics Podcast; author, \"The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church\""}],"sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/forum/2010101905521/nprs-sarah-mccammon-on-leaving-the-evangelical-church","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>While covering Trump’s 2016 campaign, NPR political correspondent Sarah McCammon understood the white evangelical movement behind his political rise, because she grew up in that world. McCammon left the church troubled by the misogyny, homophobia and racism she witnessed. That experience is at the center of her book “The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church.” We speak to McCammon and hear from you: Have you left organized religion? Why?\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":"/forum/2010101905521/nprs-sarah-mccammon-on-leaving-the-evangelical-church","authors":["11685"],"categories":["forum_165"],"featImg":"forum_2010101905523","label":"forum"},"news_11983846":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11983846","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11983846","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"state-prisons-offset-new-inmate-wage-hikes-by-cutting-hours-for-some-workers","title":"State Prisons Offset New Inmate Wage Hikes by Cutting Hours for Some Workers","publishDate":1713909559,"format":"standard","headTitle":"State Prisons Offset New Inmate Wage Hikes by Cutting Hours for Some Workers | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>California prison officials recently boosted wages for tens of thousands of incarcerated workers. Most, however, will still make less than $1 per hour, and many may not see an increase in total earnings because their hours will be cut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pay rates now generally range from $0.16 to $0.74 per hour, depending on skill levels, double the previous decades-old rate, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/regulations/wp-content/uploads/sites/171/2024/04/Inmate-Pay_Approval.pdf\">new regulations\u003c/a> that went into effect on April 16.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The increase is intended to incentivize incarcerated people to take jobs for their own rehabilitation, said the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which also eliminated all unpaid job assignments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“New wages will also help workers meet restitution payments for crime victims and save more money in preparation for release,” Tessa Outhyse, a CDCR spokesperson, said in a statement. “In addition to a paycheck, work assignments build technical and social skills, instill accountability and responsibility, and prepare incarcerated people for careers after release.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly 39,000 incarcerated people have job assignments in state prisons, doing everything from construction and maintenance to custodial and food services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 1,200 incarcerated firefighters, who are on a separate pay scale, will also now make anywhere from $5.80 to $10.24 a day, a significant increase over the previous daily range of $2.90 to $5.13. Cal Fire also pays an additional $1 per hour for crews battling active fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"more on California prisons\" tag=\"cdcr\"]However, an overall pay increase may not materialize for many incarcerated workers. Outhyse confirmed that as CDCR boosts wages, it also plans to reduce up to three-quarters of its full-time job offerings to half-time — although it said it is “not conducting a wholesale reduction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“CDCR is exploring the introduction of some flexibility in this area to accommodate institution budget requirements as well as the possibility of increasing inmates’ flexibility to participate in rehabilitative program assignments,” the agency wrote in response to public comment concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prisoner rights advocates \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967728/california-prison-officials-aim-to-raise-hourly-minimum-wage-to-at-least-16-cents\">pushed for a much higher pay increase\u003c/a>, one closer to California’s minimum wage of $16 an hour, without reductions in full-time jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jacob Hutt, an attorney with the Prison Law Office, said the new wages are not setting up people in custody to succeed when released.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By paying people a slave wage right now, they are all but ensuring that people are going to end up in poverty once they leave custody,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, CDCR often \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/family-resources/send-money/\">deducts up to 55%\u003c/a> of an incarcerated workers’ wages for administrative costs and restitution fees for crime victims, Hutt added, further reducing their net pay and ability to purchase canteen items.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even when you don’t consider the fact that so many of these workers are actually not going to receive any pay increase because they’re being forced from full-time to half-time, the minimum pay raise is just so ridiculously low,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Starting this month, pay rates will now generally range from $0.16 to $0.74 per hour, double the previous decades-old rate. But many full-time jobs will be cut to half-time.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1713910120,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":15,"wordCount":503},"headData":{"title":"State Prisons Offset New Inmate Wage Hikes by Cutting Hours for Some Workers | KQED","description":"Starting this month, pay rates will now generally range from $0.16 to $0.74 per hour, double the previous decades-old rate. But many full-time jobs will be cut to half-time.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"State Prisons Offset New Inmate Wage Hikes by Cutting Hours for Some Workers","datePublished":"2024-04-23T21:59:19.000Z","dateModified":"2024-04-23T22:08:40.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"sticky":false,"WpOldSlug":"state-prisons-offset-new-inmate-wage-hikes-by-cutting-hours-for-workers","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11983846/state-prisons-offset-new-inmate-wage-hikes-by-cutting-hours-for-some-workers","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California prison officials recently boosted wages for tens of thousands of incarcerated workers. Most, however, will still make less than $1 per hour, and many may not see an increase in total earnings because their hours will be cut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pay rates now generally range from $0.16 to $0.74 per hour, depending on skill levels, double the previous decades-old rate, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/regulations/wp-content/uploads/sites/171/2024/04/Inmate-Pay_Approval.pdf\">new regulations\u003c/a> that went into effect on April 16.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The increase is intended to incentivize incarcerated people to take jobs for their own rehabilitation, said the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which also eliminated all unpaid job assignments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“New wages will also help workers meet restitution payments for crime victims and save more money in preparation for release,” Tessa Outhyse, a CDCR spokesperson, said in a statement. “In addition to a paycheck, work assignments build technical and social skills, instill accountability and responsibility, and prepare incarcerated people for careers after release.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly 39,000 incarcerated people have job assignments in state prisons, doing everything from construction and maintenance to custodial and food services.\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>About 1,200 incarcerated firefighters, who are on a separate pay scale, will also now make anywhere from $5.80 to $10.24 a day, a significant increase over the previous daily range of $2.90 to $5.13. Cal Fire also pays an additional $1 per hour for crews battling active fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"more on California prisons ","tag":"cdcr"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>However, an overall pay increase may not materialize for many incarcerated workers. Outhyse confirmed that as CDCR boosts wages, it also plans to reduce up to three-quarters of its full-time job offerings to half-time — although it said it is “not conducting a wholesale reduction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“CDCR is exploring the introduction of some flexibility in this area to accommodate institution budget requirements as well as the possibility of increasing inmates’ flexibility to participate in rehabilitative program assignments,” the agency wrote in response to public comment concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prisoner rights advocates \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967728/california-prison-officials-aim-to-raise-hourly-minimum-wage-to-at-least-16-cents\">pushed for a much higher pay increase\u003c/a>, one closer to California’s minimum wage of $16 an hour, without reductions in full-time jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jacob Hutt, an attorney with the Prison Law Office, said the new wages are not setting up people in custody to succeed when released.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By paying people a slave wage right now, they are all but ensuring that people are going to end up in poverty once they leave custody,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, CDCR often \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/family-resources/send-money/\">deducts up to 55%\u003c/a> of an incarcerated workers’ wages for administrative costs and restitution fees for crime victims, Hutt added, further reducing their net pay and ability to purchase canteen items.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even when you don’t consider the fact that so many of these workers are actually not going to receive any pay increase because they’re being forced from full-time to half-time, the minimum pay raise is just so ridiculously low,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11983846/state-prisons-offset-new-inmate-wage-hikes-by-cutting-hours-for-some-workers","authors":["8659"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_26658","news_616","news_1629","news_17725","news_27626"],"featImg":"news_11983401","label":"news"},"news_11129842":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11129842","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11129842","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"in-secretive-marijuana-industry-whispers-of-abuse-and-trafficking","title":"In Secretive Marijuana Industry, Whispers of Abuse and Trafficking","publishDate":1476486715,"format":"image","headTitle":"Election 2016 | The California Report | KQED News","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was part of a special edition of KQED's The California Report Magazine, produced in collaboration with Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn more at\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"http://revealnews.org/\">\u003cem>revealnews.org\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and subscribe to the Reveal podcast, produced with PRX, at\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"http://revealnews.org/podcast\">\u003cem>revealnews.org/podcast\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>he trees towered above them, limbs etched in black against the night sky. He steered his pickup down a narrow path of mud and rocks and parked in front of a trailer. He tried to kiss her. She froze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What are you doing?” she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have to get up early,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He began groping her body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Don’t you have a wife?” she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The woods seemed to crawl with creatures; the ground was slick with rain. As wilderness pulsed around them, she ran through the possibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If she fled, would she find her way out? If she fought back, would he hurt her?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Would anyone hear her if she screamed?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Listen to the special edition of The California Report Magazine, produced in collaboration with Reveal from The Center for Investigation Reporting:\u003c/em>[soundcloud url=\"https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/287778617\" params=\"auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\" iframe=\"true\" /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Emerald Triangle, trees are ever present. They peek over small towns and dip into valleys, sheathing this cluster of remote Northern California counties in silence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, the ancient forests here have provided cover for the nation’s largest marijuana-growing industry, shielding pot farmers from convention, outsiders and law enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the forests also hide secrets, among them young women with stories of sexual abuse and exploitation. Some have spoken out; a handful have pressed charges. Most have confided only in private.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students from the nearest college, Humboldt State University, return from a summer of trimming marijuana buds with tales of being forced to give their boss a blow job to get paid. Other “trimmigrants,” who typically work during the June-to-November harvest, recount offers of higher wages to trim topless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During one harvest season, two growers began having sex with their teenage trimmer. When they feared she would run away, they locked her inside an oversized toolbox with breathing holes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contact with law enforcement is rare and, female trimmigrants say, rarely satisfying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130062\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130062\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/EmilyRothmanTrimmigrant-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Emily Rothman of Florida throws her pack into a truck that will take her to a friend’s pot farm in Garberville. She said all the women she knows have been warned of things to watch out for when coming to the area for work.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/EmilyRothmanTrimmigrant-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/EmilyRothmanTrimmigrant-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/EmilyRothmanTrimmigrant.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/EmilyRothmanTrimmigrant-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/EmilyRothmanTrimmigrant-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Emily Rothman of Florida throws her pack into a truck that will take her to a friend’s pot farm in Garberville. She said all the women she knows have been warned of things to watch out for when coming to the area for work. \u003ccite>(Sarah Rice/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Verifying their stories is as difficult as finding your way through the forest at night, down twisty dirt roads, to one of the backwoods marijuana farms. During months of reporting in the region, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting unearthed dozens of accounts of sexual exploitation, abuse and trafficking. Victims’ advocates say the problem is far larger and, with every harvest, continues to grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Women believe they are getting hired for trimming work, and then they’re drugged and raped,” said Maryann Hayes Mariani, a coordinator for the North Coast Rape Crisis Team. “Everybody looks at (the region) like it’s the Land of Oz. I’m just so tired of pretending like it’s not happening here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet law enforcement repeatedly has failed to investigate abuse and sexual violence in the industry. Instead, officers mostly focus on what they view as the root cause of the problem: the drug trade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the rural counties of Northern California, marijuana is still a largely underground industry, worth billions. Last year, legal California sales alone were valued at $2.7 billion, according to \u003ca href=\"https://frontierfinancials.com/product/california/?ref=AMR\">The ArcView Group\u003c/a>, a marijuana market research firm. Sales are projected to balloon to $6.4 billion by 2020 if marijuana is legalized for recreational use. It’s big business, drawing busloads of job seekers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130068\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130068\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmigrantScissorPost-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Ads for trimmers are tacked to a bulletin board in Garberville, Calif. Female trimmers often pair up, even form trimming collectives, counting on safety in numbers.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmigrantScissorPost-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmigrantScissorPost-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmigrantScissorPost.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmigrantScissorPost-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmigrantScissorPost-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ads for trimmers are tacked to a bulletin board in Garberville, Calif. Female trimmers often pair up, even form trimming collectives, counting on safety in numbers. \u003ccite>(Sarah Rice/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The number of trimmigrants who go missing alone is overwhelming for law enforcement, fueling an epidemic of the lost. In 2015, Humboldt County reported 352 missing people, more per capita than any other county in \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/missing/stats\">the state\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When an artist from San Francisco disappeared in the Humboldt County town of Garberville last harvest season, her mother and roommate filed a missing persons report. Months later, she resurfaced to tell her family she had been held against her will on a marijuana farm, drugged and sexually abused. She never formally reported her abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at the time of her disappearance, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.humboldtgov.org/187/Sheriffs-Office\">Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office\u003c/a>had labeled her a “voluntary missing adult.” They flagged the case as a low priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many people come to Humboldt each year to work on the marijuana farms,” the deputy who took the report told her roommate \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3035995-Screen-Shot-2016-08-29-at-3-47-56-PM.html\">in an email\u003c/a>. “So far she is falling into the same category as many others have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to women and girls who come of their own volition to trim, others are brought in specifically to provide sex services. Come harvest season, escorts flood these rural areas, drawn to the large population of male growers and laborers who spend months at a time alone on isolated mountain farms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ron Prose, an investigator for the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ci.eureka.ca.gov/depts/police/\">Eureka Police Departmen\u003c/a>t, said sex traffickers know law enforcement agencies have little interest in cracking down on them. None of the county agencies surveyed by Reveal have investigators assigned to human trafficking. Prose himself is semi-retired; he investigates trafficking cases when he has time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130072\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130072\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmedLeaves-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Some growers prefer to keep trimmers in the dark about where they are working, blindfolding workers before driving to remote plots deep in the mountains.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmedLeaves-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmedLeaves-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmedLeaves.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmedLeaves-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmedLeaves-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some growers prefer to keep trimmers in the dark about where they are working, blindfolding workers before driving to remote plots deep in the mountains. \u003ccite>(Sarah Rice/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For women, the dangers are due in part to the gender dynamics in the industry. Growing is a male-dominated field, and many growers prefer to hire female trimmers. Several told Reveal that they believe women are more dexterous, making them more efficient workers. Others are looking for company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of these younger guys don’t have regular relationships because they’re out in the hills growing weed, but they still want a girl,” Prose said. “It sounds kind of crude, but they seek female companionship.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, many marijuana farms are responsible operations. Most workers describe good experiences, including excellent pay, food and shelter. Many also welcome the unusual working conditions of an industry long at odds with mainstream culture and the law. Drug use on the job, for instance, is common.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In November, California voters will decide whether to fully \u003ca href=\"http://vig.cdn.sos.ca.gov/2016/general/en/pdf/complete-vig.pdf\">legalize recreational marijuana\u003c/a>. But such use remains illegal under federal and most state laws, and the culture of silence is so embedded in the state’s industry – the nation’s top black market supplier – it seems unlikely that legalization alone will dramatically alter the landscape for women toiling deep in the Emerald Triangle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a lot of wilderness here, and dirt roads and acres of forest,” said Amy Benitez, a victims’ advocate in Humboldt County. “There’s a lot of nooks and crannies you can hide in. You add this criminal element to it, where there’s money, and there’s just more ways that you can abuse power and control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Saturday, Oct. 18, 2014\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>hat power imbalance is what ensnared a 22-year-old environmentalist and musician who arrived in one of the mountain towns in the middle of the 2014 harvest season looking for trimming work. In Petrolia, Terri – not her real name – found a world apart from her hometown in the Los Angeles Basin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Petrolia sits beneath the King Range mountains at the edge of Humboldt County, hidden behind a curtain of redwoods and Douglas fir trees. With a population of about 400, it has one general store, one bar, no cellphone service and no police. It’s about two hours down crumbling cliffside roads to the nearest highway. Most locals live in the surrounding mountains, overlooking the forested valley and black sand beaches of the last undeveloped stretch of California known as the Lost Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130076\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130076\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaCA-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"The town of Petrolia sits beneath the King Range mountains at the edge of Humboldt County. With a population of about 400, it has one general store, one bar, no cellphone service and no police.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaCA-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaCA-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaCA.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaCA-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaCA-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The town of Petrolia sits beneath the King Range mountains at the edge of Humboldt County. With a population of about 400, it has one general store, one bar, no cellphone service and no police. \u003ccite>(Andrew Burton/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I like to think of Petrolia as this little town hanging off the edge of the world,” said Jenoa Briar-Bonpane, a former resident who became Terri’s therapist. “At night, you’ve never seen so many stars.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly everyone in Petrolia knows each other. Most are involved in marijuana growing to some degree. But like other small towns dotting the Emerald Triangle, in the past decade, more and more people have moved in. Greenhouses have sprung up, enabling industrial-scale marijuana growing. Larger farms have drawn more workers from outside the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, Terri did not have a job. An acquaintance introduced her to Cedar McCulloch-Clow and Emily Herman, a married couple with two children, a horde of chickens and goats, and a bicycle-strewn junkyard. Terri set up a tent in the couple’s yard, plunked down her violin and camping gear and began looking for work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130079\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130079\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Cedar-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Cedar McCulloch-Clow, a goat farmer and volunteer firefighter, owns the property where Terri pitched her tent while doing trim work in Petrolia.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Cedar-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Cedar-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Cedar.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Cedar-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Cedar-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cedar McCulloch-Clow, a goat farmer and volunteer firefighter, owns the property where Terri pitched her tent while doing trim work in Petrolia. \u003ccite>(Andrew Burton/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She also set about working her way into the community. She went to the weekly farmers market at the community center and ran and biked in the annual Rye and Tide, a 7 1/2-mile race that begins with a swig of whiskey outside the town bar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Terri found a couple of trimming jobs, including for Sam Epperson and his partner, Rachel Adair. Their operation was far smaller than the region’s newer marijuana fields – known as grows – and had a vegetable garden and turkey coop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Terri and three other trimmers sat in a row of swivel office chairs in a wood-paneled trimming shack. They wore aprons to keep from tracking loose leaves into the house and carefully tallied the weight of their work – they would be paid $200 a pound – with pencil and paper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130081\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130081\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmingStation-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Terri sat in an office chair in this cramped shack, trimming marijuana buds. She and three other trimmers were paid $200 for every pound. They wore aprons and tracked their work with paper and pencil.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmingStation-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmingStation-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmingStation.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmingStation-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmingStation-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Terri sat in an office chair in this cramped shack, trimming marijuana buds. She and three other trimmers were paid $200 for every pound. They wore aprons and tracked their work with paper and pencil. \u003ccite>(Andrew Burton/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Epperson, quiet and bespectacled with a mop of graying curls, prepared fresh food and drinks for the workers. Every day, he offered them an organic chocolate bar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One night, on the concrete patio of the town bar – \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/yellowrosepetrolia/\">the Yellow Rose\u003c/a> – Terri met a grower named Kailan Meserve. He was twice her age, tan and muscular, with a swagger and salt-and-pepper hair. Meserve mentioned he needed trimmers and bought her a beer. A friend of Terri’s, Katie Finnegan, went inside to buy another drink. When Finnegan returned, Terri had disappeared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130082\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130082\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/YellowRoseBar-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Marijuana trimmer Terri met local grower Kailan Meserve one night at the Yellow Rose bar in Petrolia, Calif., in 2014.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/YellowRoseBar-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/YellowRoseBar-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/YellowRoseBar.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/YellowRoseBar-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/YellowRoseBar-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marijuana trimmer Terri met local grower Kailan Meserve one night at the Yellow Rose bar in Petrolia, Calif., in 2014. \u003ccite>(Andrew Burton/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Inside, the bar is a bright, airy space with pristine off-white walls and a polished beige floor – a contrast with its often grungy clientele. One side of the bar is lined with light metal cafe tables, the other with pool tables and arcade games. The darkest part of the bar is to the left of the dartboard, a long dim hallway to the single-stall women’s restroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 45 minutes after Finnegan lost track of Terri, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036002-Yellow-Rose-excerpt.html\">court records show\u003c/a> she found her unconscious in that bathroom, her pants around her ankles. Terri appeared to have fallen and hit the sink on her way down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Terri remembered almost nothing about the night. She was concerned something had happened with Meserve. But back on the grow, Epperson and Adair put her at ease: Meserve was \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036003-Humboldt-County-Supervisorial-District-1-PDF.html\">a captain\u003c/a> of the volunteer fire department, the son of a \u003ca href=\"http://www.northcoastjournal.com/091803/cover0918.html\">prominent\u003c/a> local environmental activist and politician. Meserve, they said, was married with toddler twins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s a good guy,” Epperson recalled telling her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The couple still had work for Terri, but on their small-scale grow, the harvest wouldn’t last long. They encouraged her to take up Meserve on his offer of a trimming job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was advice Epperson now says he deeply regrets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">C\u003c/span>onservative ranchers and loggers dominated the small population of the Emerald Triangle when hippies began arriving en masse in the late 1960s. They were a diverse bunch, from tree-sitting activists to disillusioned Vietnam veterans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kailan Meserve’s father came to Humboldt County as part of the “back to the land” movement. His first home was a teepee on the Mattole River. Later, he built a house in Petrolia, where he, his wife and children lived on wind and solar power, grew produce and raised their own goats, cows and chickens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, marijuana was a recreational drug, grown mostly for personal use. It didn’t stay that way for long. Growers realized they could better support themselves and their families by selling pot on the black market. The climate was ideal, the woods and mountains isolated enough to conceal the illicit crop. The American-grown marijuana industry was born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130085\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130085\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/SunshineTends-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Sunshine Johnston tends to cannabis plants at her farm in Redcrest, Calif., in the Emerald Triangle.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/SunshineTends-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/SunshineTends-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/SunshineTends.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/SunshineTends-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/SunshineTends-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sunshine Johnston tends to cannabis plants at her farm in Redcrest, Calif., in the Emerald Triangle. \u003ccite>(Sarah Rice/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From the outset, the children of these growers had more difficulties than their parents. The Summer of Love was over. Across the community, alcohol and drug abuse was rampant. So was law enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The threat of raids constantly loomed over the Meserve household, threatening to pull the family apart. According to Meserve’s sister, Amy, their parents began using cocaine and alcohol and exploded into constant fights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just got really crazy,” she recalled. “Kailan pretty much raised us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When federal \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/10/us/military-takes-part-in-drug-sweep-and-reaps-criticism-and-a-lawsuit.html?pagewanted=all\">Operation Green Sweep\u003c/a> touched down in Petrolia in 1990, soldiers flew helicopters overhead and officers confronted families in their homes with M16 rifles. Children learned to lie about the reality of their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I still have PTSD,” said Sam Epperson, who grew up on a marijuana farm in eastern Humboldt County. “I can hear choppers flying from miles away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With law enforcement crackdowns came higher black market prices and greater risks. To protect their crops from theft, many farmers began to carry guns and booby-trap their properties. Residents dealt with crime themselves, avoiding law enforcement whenever possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1996, California became the first state in the country to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/MMP/Pages/CompassionateUseact.aspx\">legalize medical marijuana\u003c/a>. But the law failed to limit the amount of marijuana that could be grown, and law enforcement had no way to determine which plants were cultivated for medical purposes or for profit. Crime and black market growing in the Emerald Triangle soared, including by growers with connections to organized crime, vastly eclipsing local law enforcement’s efforts to stop it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lt. Wayne Hanson of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office put it simply: “We lost the drug war many years ago.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The turmoil prompted some of the children to leave. Kailan Meserve was among the many who stayed. He became a stonemason, specializing in fireplaces, and grew pot on the side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “green rush” hit Petrolia in 2010. With California voters \u003ca href=\"http://www.lao.ca.gov/ballot/2010/19_11_2010.pdf\">considering full legalization\u003c/a>, new growers poured into town hoping to get rich. The hippie haven was about to go mainstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law did not pass, but according to friends, Meserve decided that if anyone was going to make money peddling pot, it was going to be him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He viewed himself as having that hometown advantage,” Cedar McCulloch-Clow said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Locals noticed the change. At a party a few years ago, therapist Jenoa Briar-Bonpane recalls looking over the edge of a mountain ridge and spotting two new grow operations below. “Where did those come from?” she wondered. Someone said they belonged to Meserve, and he became the talk of the party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a sense of, ‘Wow, he’s really blowing things up,’ ” Briar-Bonpane said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a big employer in town, and a local, Meserve enjoyed a trust not afforded to outsiders, including a freedom from consequences, according to friends. He’d always had a brash demeanor and a reputation for hitting on women – even after he married in 2001. Over time, those who knew him said he seemed to sink deeper into drugs and alcohol. He was convicted three times for driving under the influence, according to court records, and got into a car crash that \u003ca href=\"http://www.times-standard.com/general-news/20080921/two-injured-in-petrolia-crash\">seriously injured\u003c/a> him and his wife.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He “got a little big for his britches,” Amy Meserve said, “and lost his filter completely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of it seemed to slow down Meserve. His business expanded, and the trimmigrants who showed up in Petrolia looking for work were thankful for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Sunday, Nov. 9, 2014\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>erri saw Kailan Meserve again at a pingpong tournament. He was one of the few entrusted with a key to the community center and had set up the tables.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meserve offered to buy Terri drinks several times, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036005-Meserve-Warrant.html\">according to investigators\u003c/a> – and each time, she declined. Around 10 p.m., he asked if she had to time to talk, she recalled, “to clear things up.” He offered to give her a ride home. It was rainy, and without sidewalks and streetlights, a walk home in Petrolia could be treacherous. She agreed. She figured she might also ask him about a job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130089\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130089\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/MattoleCommunityCenter-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"One night after a pingpong tournament at the Mattole Valley Community Center in Petrolia, Calif., 22-year-old trimmer Terri got a ride home from local grower Kailan Meserve. But home isn’t where he took her.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/MattoleCommunityCenter-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/MattoleCommunityCenter-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/MattoleCommunityCenter.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/MattoleCommunityCenter-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/MattoleCommunityCenter-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One night after a pingpong tournament at the Mattole Valley Community Center in Petrolia, Calif., 22-year-old trimmer Terri got a ride home from local grower Kailan Meserve. But home isn’t where he took her. \u003ccite>(Andrew Burton/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Terri was staying about 2 miles from the community center. But Meserve went the opposite direction, turning right toward a dark mass of trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where are we going?” she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just want to show you where my property is,” she remembers him saying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Terri started to get a “weird feeling,” according to court records. She told him she had to get up early. He ignored her and continued down the road, turning right again at a metal gate and entering a narrow dirt path into a thicket of towering eucalyptus. Finally, they came to a trailer and stopped. He tried to kiss her. She froze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130092\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130092\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/WoodedPath-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"This is the entrance to the isolated property in Petrolia where local grower Kailan Meserve took Terri after a pingpong tournament.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/WoodedPath-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/WoodedPath-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/WoodedPath.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/WoodedPath-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/WoodedPath-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This is the entrance to the isolated property in Petrolia where local grower Kailan Meserve took Terri after a pingpong tournament. \u003ccite>(Andrew Burton/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“What are you doing?” she asked. “Don’t you have a wife?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her mind spun through the possibilities. Could she find her way back if she ran? Would he chase her? Hurt her? Would anyone hear her if she screamed?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was happening so fast and she could hardly see. Everything outside the beam of the headlights was flooded in black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Terri declined to be interviewed for this story, but she encouraged friends and community members to open up and gave permission for her therapist, Briar-Bonpane, to speak as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Taking her to a place that was dark, forested, unknown to her,” Briar-Bonpane said, “it’s the most terrifying situation for a woman who’s with a scary man.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meserve asked her to go inside. Terri climbed out of the truck and walked into the trailer. She remembers a small kitchen and a bedroom with a bare mattress. Over the next few hours, according to records, Meserve repeatedly penetrated her and forced her to perform oral sex until she gagged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He held down her arms and at one point throttled her neck. When she began gasping for air, he told her she was “weak and couldn’t take it.” She didn’t scream. The more violent he was, she’d later tell the investigators, the more excited he seemed to become.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m going to make you my bitch,” she recalls him saying, according to court records. He threatened to kill her, freeze her body and throw her to the animals if he ever found out she had slept with anyone else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">M\u003c/span>any trimmigrants begin their journey about two hours southeast of Petrolia, in a small strip of a town at the hub of California’s outdoor growing economy. Garberville is surrounded on all sides by mountains of towering redwoods and lined with the kinds of businesses sustained by disposable income, including a \u003ca href=\"http://www.humboldt-hunnies-eminence-day-spa.com/\">spa\u003c/a> and a motorcycle \u003ca href=\"http://www.dazeysmotorsports.com/\">dealership\u003c/a>. Next door, in Redway, there’s even a \u003ca href=\"http://www.thegroomroompetsalon.com/\">pet salon\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Come harvest season, trimmigrants arrive from all over the country and world – college students and artists, working professionals and tourists, homeless hippies and other wanderers. Without connections, they crowd the sidewalks as though on the floor of an auction house, jockeying for jobs with homemade signs. Others camp along the river or in the woods until they find work or try to meet potential employers by frequenting local bars or volunteering at one of the area’s many marijuana-funded nonprofits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130093\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130093\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CarstenMaya-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"Carsten (L) and girlfriend Maya (R), both of Germany, and Beaver (back) of London head out after a free lunch at the Mateel Community Center in Redway, Calif. They were looking for trimming jobs to fund their travels but hadn’t gotten any work yet.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CarstenMaya-800x532.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CarstenMaya-400x266.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CarstenMaya.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CarstenMaya-1180x785.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CarstenMaya-960x639.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carsten (L) and girlfriend Maya (R), both of Germany, and Beaver (back) of London head out after a free lunch at the Mateel Community Center in Redway, Calif. They were looking for trimming jobs to fund their travels but hadn’t gotten any work yet. \u003ccite>(Sarah Rice/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With marijuana fetching black market prices, they expect wages far higher than typical migrant farmworkers – as much as $300 a day, depending on how fast they work. A successful season can fund months of travel, and the experience itself can be an adventure, harkening back to the drug-infused journeys of Grateful Dead fans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of cocaine, a lot of Ecstasy, a lot of meth, a lot of heroin,” said Terri’s former employer Rachel Adair. “It’s like a big party.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But trimmigrants also stumble into a treacherous landscape, both on and off the job. Many locals despise their presence, the trash, the carousing on sidewalks – and the negative impact on tourism. Members of a Garberville group called Locals on Patrol take photographs, check identification and tell people to move on. Anti-trimmigrant bumper stickers have proliferated. “No Work Here, Keep Moving,” they read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trimmigrants also serve at the mercy of their bosses, who are themselves vulnerable to the risks of operating in the black market – ranging from robberies to law enforcement stings. As a result, some growers prefer to keep trimmers in the dark about where they are working. Workers and advocates say growers sometimes blindfold trimmers before driving to plots deep in the mountains, locations so remote that they often lack cell service and public transportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When conflicts arise, trimmigrants may find themselves fired without pay. Even those who complete the job might never get paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130094\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130094\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CraigslistTrimmers1-800x1422.jpg\" alt=\"In Craigslist ads, aspiring female trimmers sometimes include photos of themselves in bikinis or low-cut tops, exploiting the demand for female workers.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1422\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CraigslistTrimmers1.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CraigslistTrimmers1-400x711.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In Craigslist ads, aspiring female trimmers sometimes include photos of themselves in bikinis or low-cut tops, exploiting the demand for female workers. \u003ccite>(Shoshana Walter/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At 38 years old, Amy Jarose is among the most experienced trimmigrants. One time, she was working on a farm in the mountains when, she said, the grower began to pressure her for blow jobs and sex. She immediately left on foot, without pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You hitchhike,” Jarose said. “You pack up your bags and hit the road and hope to God a really good person will pick you up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Growers often target women for trimming jobs; male trimmers told Reveal they repeatedly were passed up or let go to make room for female workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some women exploit the demand. On \u003ca href=\"https://humboldt.craigslist.org/search/fgs\">Craigslist\u003c/a> during the last harvest season, aspiring trimmers posted photos of themselves in bikinis or low-cut tops, accompanied by winking emoticons. One advertisement, offering “Oriental female trimmers,” included the phone number of a sensual massage parlor in Los Angeles. On a community bulletin board in downtown Garberville, a pink lace garter belt adorned one ad, while another read, “We love to cook … and much more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deanna Hirschi once worked as a trimmer but said she soon realized she could earn more by offering sex for pay. She met growers at motels in Garberville or sometimes hours into the mountains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The guys on the hills pay $500 an hour,” she said, three or four times the amount she might get in a city. “They’re stuck up on a hill and they come down from the hill for one day, and they’ve got hundreds of thousands of dollars in their pocket.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The demand for female companionship has contributed to sex trafficking in these rural areas from all over the country and world, including from Mexico and Eastern Europe, according to social service providers and victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One local trafficking survivor, who goes by the name Elle Snow, started a nonprofit organization to spread awareness in Humboldt County called\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/itsgameover101/\">Game Over\u003c/a>. To measure the demand, she posted fake escort advertisements on the classified ad website \u003ca href=\"http://humboldt.backpage.com/FemaleEscorts/classifieds/Disclaimer?category=517483\">Backpage\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130096\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130096\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/BackpageAd-800x443.jpg\" alt=\"A Backpage ad offers escort services in Humboldt County. To measure demand for such services, local trafficking survivor Elle Snow, who now runs a nonprofit, posted a fake Backpage ad. Within two months, she said, she had accumulated calls and text messages from 437 phone numbers.\" width=\"800\" height=\"443\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/BackpageAd-800x443.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/BackpageAd-400x221.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/BackpageAd.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/BackpageAd-1180x653.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/BackpageAd-960x532.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/BackpageAd-672x372.jpg 672w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/BackpageAd-1038x576.jpg 1038w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Backpage ad offers escort services in Humboldt County. To measure demand for such services, local trafficking survivor Elle Snow, who now runs a nonprofit, posted a fake Backpage ad. Within two months, she said, she had accumulated calls and text messages from 437 phone numbers. \u003ccite>(Shoshana Walter/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Within two months, Snow said, she had accumulated calls and text messages from 437 phone numbers. Many came from southern Humboldt – where Garberville and Petrolia are located – an indication to Snow that many of the potential clients were involved in the marijuana industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Traffickers call Humboldt County not just green for the weed, but green for the bitches,” she said, referring to the money traffickers can make selling women and sex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many trimmers welcome the attention, but others do not. Women pair up, even form trimming collectives, counting on safety in numbers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130097\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130097\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CListOrientalTrimmers-800x1223.jpg\" alt=\"A Craigslist ad offers “Oriental female trimmers” in Humboldt County.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1223\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CListOrientalTrimmers.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CListOrientalTrimmers-400x612.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Craigslist ad offers “Oriental female trimmers” in Humboldt County. \u003ccite>(Shoshana Walter/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Paige Radcliff and Emma Less came last season for trimming work, hoping to make enough to fund their own future harvest. During nearly 14-hour days, the two listened to Israeli folk music and bent over plastic tubs in their laps, rotating the buds with the tips of their fingers as they clipped off the stems and curly bits of leaf. “Give it a little haircut,” Radcliff said again and again, until they had piled up 6 pounds of smooth round nuggets and their fingers were coated in potent, sticky brown resin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If a girl comes here on her own, I wouldn’t recommend it,” Less said. Prior to finding this job, they encountered growers who hit on them – and they simply walked away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Radcliff agreed. “Unless you can super defend yourself, or you just give off a super-intimidating vibe where dudes are scared of you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Like a truck driver.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or a pirate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Exactly, just come across as, like, super peg leg.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Think about it,” Less said, over the steady snip of her scissors. “None of this is monitored. No one knows you’re here, not here. It’s easy for people to go missing. It’s easy for people to take advantage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Monday, Nov. 10, 2014\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>erri showed up for work in a daze the morning after she was assaulted in the forest. Bruises covered her chest and the back of her head. As she picked up her clippers, her boss remembers, she began to cry. She told Rachel Adair that “something inappropriate” had happened with Kailan Meserve and that she was scared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adair – an emergency room nurse and midwife – sent Terri to Jenoa Briar-Bonpane, a therapist and friend. Terri told the therapist the rest of the story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a predator,” Briar-Bonpane recalls thinking. She had treated child sex abuse and rape victims for years, but she was especially struck by how calculating Meserve sounded. “He must be stopped.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A week later, some of Terri’s former employers called for a meeting, inviting town elders, the local doctor and friends. On a crisp November morning, about a dozen people joined Terri in the home near where she had pitched her tent. They gathered in a somber circle around a heavy oak dining table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cedar McCulloch-Clow, 38, with perpetual dirt under his fingernails and a baseball cap on his head, recalls feeling conflicted about the meeting. He had become friends with Terri during her many nights camping on their property. But he also had known Meserve since he was 15.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The room was tense and quiet, except for the sounds of children playing down the hall. Adair remembers wanting to ensure, first and foremost, that Terri was safe. Dr. Dick Scheinman was adamant that they call the police. Most others wanted to find an alternate solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130098\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130098\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LivingRoom-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"A week after Terri’s rape, community members gathered around this table in Cedar McCulloch-Clow’s home, trying to decide what should be done about her assault.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LivingRoom-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LivingRoom-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LivingRoom.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LivingRoom-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LivingRoom-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A week after Terri’s rape, community members gathered around this table in Cedar McCulloch-Clow’s home, trying to decide what should be done about her assault. \u003ccite>(Andrew Burton/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Greg Smith, whose family has long grown marijuana, was among the town elders there. “There’s a lot of people who grow pot, and they have a resistance to calling the law,” he said later. “It’s kind of the Wild West in some ways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ideas came in quick succession and were rejected just as quickly. Bring Meserve before a community tribunal. Send a large contingent of men to his doorstep. Gather Petrolia’s population of elderly women and have them chase after him with their shoes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith decided to pay Meserve a visit at home. He urged him to admit he had a problem, show remorse and enroll in therapy and drug and alcohol treatment. Meserve refused, he said, describing the night in the trailer as consensual. Next, Smith approached Fire Chief Travis Howe about kicking Meserve out of the volunteer fire department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s when the group learned this wasn’t the first time Meserve had been accused of rape. A year earlier, a young woman was visiting a friend of Meserve’s. After a night of partying at the Yellow Rose bar, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036005-Meserve-Warrant.html\">31-year-old woman said\u003c/a>, Meserve came into her room while she was sleeping and forced himself on her. When he couldn’t maintain an erection, he left, but soon came back and tried again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The woman never filed a police report, and only a few people in town knew. Howe was one of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Howe said he had confronted Meserve, who told him it was consensual. “He messed up terribly, cheating on his wife,” Howe said. “He needed to get spanked.” When Meserve promised to do better, Howe kept him on as a fire captain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now the group realized Terri’s experience was not an isolated incident. It was a pattern of behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One week had passed since Terri’s assault. She had expressed little interest in contacting law enforcement. But the group thought something had to be done for the safety of other women.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They asked her to take a step many rape victims dread: Would she call the police?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">F\u003c/span>or victims of sexual assault, the answer often lies beneath layers of fear and shame. Rape\u003ca href=\"http://www.nij.gov/topics/crime/rape-sexual-violence/pages/rape-notification.aspx\"> usually goes unreported\u003c/a>, but trimmigrants face particular pressure to avoid law enforcement. Calling police may rule out future jobs in the industry, especially if that contact alerts police to an illegal grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hell no, you don’t call the cops on anybody for anything if you want to work in Humboldt,” said Karen Bejcek, a trimmigrant who usually lives in a teepee in Siskiyou County when she’s not trimming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other conditions in pot country prevent victims from seeking any kind of help. Trimmigrants often lack the local connections or even the know-how to successfully navigate their way out of the wild, wooded terrain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because many work on illegal grows, they suspect law enforcement won’t do anything anyway. And because the industry attracts a young and transient workforce, victims – who may come with their own troubled histories – do not always recognize they are being abused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130099\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130099\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Khaled-800x536.jpg\" alt=\"Khaled Mourra (L) of Mexico and Mayssan Charafeddine of Montreal try to hitch a ride in Garberville, Calif. During harvest season, “trimmigrants” crowd the town’s sidewalks jockeying for jobs with homemade signs or try to meet potential employers by frequenting local bars.\" width=\"800\" height=\"536\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Khaled-800x536.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Khaled-400x268.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Khaled.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Khaled-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Khaled-960x643.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Khaled Mourra (L) of Mexico and Mayssan Charafeddine of Montreal try to hitch a ride in Garberville, Calif. During harvest season, “trimmigrants” crowd the town’s sidewalks jockeying for jobs with homemade signs or try to meet potential employers by frequenting local bars. \u003ccite>(Sarah Rice/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One teen from Humboldt County said she started working for a local grower when she was 12. He gave her methamphetamine to speed up her trimming work, she said, and passed her around to pay off his debts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’re tweaking, you’re good,” she said, touting her trimming prowess. “I did, like, a couple pounds in like one night.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The girl eventually ran away, reaching a youth homeless shelter in the county seat of Eureka, only to discover that pimps were using it as a hunting ground. At 14, she said, she became their recruiter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She wasn’t the only one. At least two other shelter residents said men used them to recruit other teens, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036021-AC-Disclosure-101414-1.html\">according to a report\u003c/a> later submitted to the state Department of Social Services. The shelter’s executive director, Patt Sweeney, said he was aware teens in the program had been trafficked for sex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve made reports to law enforcement,” he said. “It’s just very hard to prosecute.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In exchange for alcohol and marijuana, the girl brought other teens to parties at local motels, where they were given drugs and alcohol and had sex, sometimes by force. She said the parties drew growers and gang members involved in marijuana distribution. Because she brought girls, she said she was never assaulted – and the music and dancing could be fun. But she doesn’t remember much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was always drunk,” she said with a shrug. “And then we’d just go buy more drugs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the girls she met at the shelter and parties also traveled south to trim on marijuana farms. Once there, she said, some found they were expected to do more than trim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sales pitch to young girls is common in pot country, according to Leah Gee, the director of a group home in Eureka that housed the girl. “They’ll give you weed, alcohol and food, and all you have to do is trim.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130101\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130101\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LeahGee-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"“They’ll give you weed, alcohol and food, and all you have to do is trim,” Leah Gee says of the sales pitch to underage girls looking for work on pot farms. But Gee, the director of a group home in Eureka, Calif., says they sometimes find they’re expected to do more than trim.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LeahGee-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LeahGee-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LeahGee.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LeahGee-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LeahGee-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“They’ll give you weed, alcohol and food, and all you have to do is trim,” Leah Gee says of the sales pitch to underage girls looking for work on pot farms. But Gee, the director of a group home in Eureka, Calif., says they sometimes find they’re expected to do more than trim. \u003ccite>(Andrew Burton/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2013, federal prosecutors said two growers picked up a 15-year-old runaway in Hollywood and took her to their farm in Lake County, near Humboldt. They directed her to trim marijuana and have sex with them, sometimes while chained to a metal rack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In interviews with police after a raid of the farm, the girl described the sex with one of the men as consensual. Sex with the other grower was “\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3035371-Balletto-Complaint.html\">not as consensual\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she was not free to leave: To keep her from fleeing\u003cstrong>, \u003c/strong>the men put her inside an oversized metal toolbox with breathing holes for several days, according to court records, using a garden hose to clean out her waste. The men also shocked the girl with a cattle prod and told her she would be shot by neighbors if she attempted to leave, an employee later told police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local prosecutors charged the men with human trafficking, the first case of its kind in the county. But when federal authorities took over the case, the trafficking charge was dropped. The men are expected to plead guilty later this year on charges of illegal marijuana cultivation and employing a minor in a drug operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">A\u003c/span> deputy sheriff from Humboldt County, Michael Hass, had Terri recount the entire story of her assault over the phone before telling her she had to come in person to make a report – a nearly two-hour drive. The community group that had encouraged her to report made the arrangements. Jenoa Briar-Bonpane went along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they arrived at the county sheriff’s office in Eureka, they walked through the metal detector, down a beige cinder-block hallway to a dimly lit window in the waiting room, Briar-Bonpane recalls. They told the receptionist they were there to see Hass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After several minutes passed, Hass swung open the door, barely making eye contact with Terri. He told her to follow him, but barred Briar-Bonpane from joining her. She told him it was common practice for an advocate to accompany a sexual assault victim to make a report. According to Briar-Bonpane, Hass refused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked about the account, Hass said he did not know that Briar-Bonpane was an advocate and he objected to the many complaints the sheriff’s office later received about his work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were the same complaints that we weren’t taking it seriously and the investigation wasn’t up to the people of Petrolia’s standards,” he said. “From my standpoint, it got handled very seriously.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Terri agreed to make the report anyway. Hass took her into an empty room and pushed a typed statement based on her telephone account in front of her, Briar-Bonpane said. Terri signed it, and five minutes later, they returned to the waiting room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Can you tell us when you’re going to pick him up?” Briar-Bonpane remembers asking, referring to Kailan Meserve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To file her report, Terri was told she had to come in person. It turned out the same trip was not required of Meserve, Briar-Bonpane said. To her surprise, Hass told her deputies already had interviewed Meserve in Petrolia. Meserve had told them the same story he had told others: The night in the trailer was consensual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reveal could not find any record that the deputies ever searched the trailer, and Meserve’s sister, Amy, confirmed that they never did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No one in town seems concerned about him,” Hass said, according to Briar-Bonpane. “We’re not going to arrest him. There’s no evidence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The news left the group back in Petrolia shocked – and Terri terrified. While she moved from home to home and finally to a motel outside of town, the group began to deluge the sheriff’s office with emails and phone calls. Terri’s friend Katie Finnegan took a day off work to file a complaint with the office about its handling of the case. Residents sent \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036023-Petrolia-DA-Emails.html\">letters to the district attorney\u003c/a>, complaining about Hass and urging that Meserve be prosecuted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Please do not let this go without a thorough investigation and arrest,” Dick Scheinman, the town doctor, wrote to then-District Attorney Paul Gallegos in December 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A month passed, and he emailed again: “i am not a legal beagle and am not trying to tell you how to do your job, but i feel it is most important for you to try your hardest to find out what happened.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Meserve remained in Petrolia. “I am very concerned about the safety of women in the Mattole Valley while he is present there,” Briar-Bonpane wrote to newly elected District Attorney Maggie Fleming in March 2015. “Young boys/men in the valley are watching and learning about whether or not you can sexually assault women without consequences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Word of Terri’s allegations reached the woman who had said Meserve raped her the year before. She felt nauseous, then angry. She blamed herself for not reporting it, “because maybe she could have prevented it from happening to the other girl,” an investigator later wrote. About a month after Terri visited Hass, the second victim decided to report her rape. \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036005-Meserve-Warrant.html\">Records show\u003c/a> Hass told her to call the district attorney’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case landed on the desk of Kyla Baxley, the district attorney’s investigator responsible for child abuse and sexual assault cases. She has a reputation for being thorough, going beyond the case information filed by local law enforcement. In 2014, Baxley gathered evidence that allowed the district attorney’s office to prosecute its first human trafficking case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Time and again, Baxley had seen victims in Humboldt County “not met with the respect they deserve,” she told Reveal. In the Petrolia case, she said, both victims felt blown off by the sheriff’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was already a big step for her to take, for her to report it,” she said of Terri. “I was really frustrated, honestly. I felt awful for the poor thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baxley immediately launched her investigation, making plans to meet Terri in person. She brought in community advocates to support Terri as she shared her story yet again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I tried to show her there were a lot of people who supported her and wanted to hear her truth,” Baxley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On April 14, 2015, prosecutors filed charges against Meserve for raping both women. Two weeks later, he surrendered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">A\u003c/span>s the marijuana industry has grown and the trimmigrant population with it, service providers have encountered increasing numbers of human trafficking victims. Humboldt Domestic Violence Services answered more than 2,000 crisis calls last year, an increase of about 80 percent in four years. Executive Director Brenda Bishop attributed the increase to a surge in sexual abuse and trafficking on marijuana grows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130103\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130103\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/DryingBuds-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Trimmed marijuana buds dry at a farm. Trimmers serve at the mercy of their bosses, who are themselves vulnerable to the risks of operating in the black market. When conflicts arise, trimmigrants may find themselves fired without pay.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/DryingBuds-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/DryingBuds-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/DryingBuds.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/DryingBuds-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/DryingBuds-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Trimmed marijuana buds dry at a farm. Trimmers serve at the mercy of their bosses, who are themselves vulnerable to the risks of operating in the black market. When conflicts arise, trimmigrants may find themselves fired without pay. \u003ccite>(Sarah Rice/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Other organizations have noticed a problem, too, including the Eureka Police Department. In a survey of about 200 local homeless people, Police Chief Andrew Mills said his department discovered many were former trimmigrants who had been forced to work on marijuana farms without pay, including women who reported being required to perform sex acts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite evidence of a growing problem, law enforcement has put few resources into investigations of trafficking and sexual exploitation. Instead, police have conducted stings targeting prostitutes and sometimes their pimps. And the Eureka police chief recently posed as a grower online to attract trimmers, only to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036273-Trimmigrant-EPD-letter.html\">warn them\u003c/a> not to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One reason is that, in this spread-out rural region, there are not enough detectives to go around. In Humboldt County, the sheriff’s office is so overtaxed that many deputies are responsible for investigating crimes – a job typically left to detectives – in addition to responding to 911 calls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a detective bureau to handle the bad of the bad crimes, and they can’t even keep up with that. So our deputies are more like detectives,” Lt. Wayne Hanson said. “It’s triage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Humboldt native with a bushy gray mustache, Hanson has raided marijuana farms for more than two decades. On the walls of his office are framed photographs and news clips, including one from the day after voters legalized medical marijuana in 1996. In the photograph, Hanson – with a dark brown mustache – stands next to towering piles of marijuana plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was a warehouse in downtown Eureka, where people were growing marijuana for money. That’s why marijuana is grown – for money, not for medical reasons,” Hanson said. “People are greedy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hanson and other local law enforcement officials see the greed that has amplified California’s marijuana industry as a common denominator in violent and organized crimes. Hanson said many grows also cause environmental damage. As a result, marijuana has remained a high priority for them, even as federal and state authorities have pulled back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130104\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130104\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CannaTrimming-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Richard Mansfield trims cannabis on his daughter’s farm in Redcrest, Calif. Workers rotate the buds with the tips of their fingers as they clip off the stems and curly bits of leaf.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CannaTrimming-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CannaTrimming-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CannaTrimming.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CannaTrimming-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CannaTrimming-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richard Mansfield trims cannabis on his daughter’s farm in Redcrest, Calif. Workers rotate the buds with the tips of their fingers as they clip off the stems and curly bits of leaf. \u003ccite>(Sarah Rice/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Marijuana raids also have become a large source of revenue for local law enforcement agencies. During raids, officers have confiscated not just harvests, but also money, guns and even farming equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humboldt County law enforcement agencies made 100 seizures of property and funds last year, including from farmers who had legal permission to grow. The value of the assets totaled more than $2 million – more per capita than was pulled from the state’s 15 most populous counties combined, \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/publications/asset_forf/2015-af/2015-af.pdf?\">state data shows\u003c/a>. Mendocino County’s marijuana eradication team receives a finder’s fee from a pool of seized funds for every case it initiates, in addition to a nearly 50 percent cut of any \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036024-Mendocino-Asset-Forfeiture-MOU.html\">confiscated funds\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result is tantamount to tunnel vision, said Kyla Baxley, the district attorney’s office investigator. “They’re going in to eradicate marijuana, and they would probably tell you nothing else is happening but the drugs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That perspective seems to pervade law enforcement agencies across the Emerald Triangle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014, the year Terri arrived in Petrolia, a young Mexican woman arrived in nearby Mendocino County, ready to start the restaurant job she was promised. Instead, a grower – Baldemar Alvarez – put her to work on several marijuana farms, she said, and forced her to cook, clean his house and have sex with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The woman said Alvarez, twice her age, called her a prostitute and said she belonged to him until she reimbursed him for hiring a coyote to bring her into the country illegally. He stoked her fear, telling her she’d get lost in the woods and a bear would feast on her body if she fled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the time, I had fear,” said Carmen (not her real name). “Fear, thinking, ‘If the police catch me, they’re going to arrest me. They’re not going to let me explain, they’re not going to believe me.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually, Carmen persuaded Alvarez to take her to the doctor for stomach pains, she said. Once there, a nurse-midwife told her she was pregnant, and Carmen shared her story of abuse. When she returned to Alvarez, she left her address behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mendocino County sheriff’s deputies \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036030-Redacted-Report.html\">picked up Carmen and the grower\u003c/a> a few days later. Carmen was relieved. But at the station, things changed. A detective asked her whether she had made the claims just to get immigration documents, she said. Victims of sexual assault are eligible for a special kind of visa, known as a U-visa. Trafficking victims are eligible for a T-visa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carmen’s abuse allegations are documented in police \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036027-Incident-Report-2014-00023144-Redacted-2.html\">dispatch records\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036275-20160830103623931.html\">a restraining order\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036276-20160830103613365.html\">other documents\u003c/a>, but the full extent of the investigation is unclear. The detective involved did not respond to interview requests, and the sheriff’s office declined to provide a copy of its investigation, saying it was not yet complete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Underscoring the he-said, she-said obstacles for law enforcement, Alvarez told Reveal that Carmen fabricated the story to get immigration papers. He told detectives he had planned to marry her. Even though she hasn’t paid him back for her illegal border crossing, he said, he has sent her money on a couple of occasions for the baby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was a big misunderstanding; she’s a backstabber is what I call it,” he said, denying he had abused her or anyone else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But another woman who had a relationship with the grower and gave birth to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036291-20160830111656824.html\">one of his children\u003c/a> said he repeatedly has brought women, including herself, into the United States from Mexico and abused them. Investigators never contacted her, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the sun began to rise the morning after deputies took Carmen into custody, she said the detective told her that he had one last request. He put her in a room with Alvarez and had her confront him, to get him to confess. It didn’t work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, at this time, we do not have any evidence to detain him,” she recalled the detective saying. “Everything you say, he denies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deputies charged Alvarez with \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036030-Redacted-Report.html\">felony marijuana cultivation\u003c/a> in August 2014, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036026-Docs-Produced-1.html\">his third\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036025-Reveal-Media-14-15437.html\">arrest\u003c/a> for the offense in three years. \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036274-20160830103632255.html\">Jail records\u003c/a> show he bailed out within 20 minutes. The prosecutor never took the case to court.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Thursday, April 30, 2015\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>he case against Kailan Meserve was unprecedented – the first time a marijuana grower in Humboldt County had been charged with raping a trimmigrant. In Petrolia, it had created a rift, causing many to question the trust they had placed in the community. Yet outside Petrolia, it captured little attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aside from a local blog, no media outlets covered Meserve’s arrest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He remained in jail briefly while the prosecutor’s office argued against allowing him to post his \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036032-Bail-Motion.html\">$2 million bail\u003c/a>. Investigator Kyla Baxley had seen large greenhouses on several of Meserve’s properties and argued that his income had been \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036005-Meserve-Warrant.html\">derived illegally\u003c/a> from the cultivation of marijuana. In the end, Meserve’s family and friends pooled funds, and he was released.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130105\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11130105\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/KailanMugshot.jpg\" alt=\"Kailan Meserve of Petrolia, shown in his mugshot. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison.\" width=\"500\" height=\"593\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/KailanMugshot.jpg 500w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/KailanMugshot-400x474.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kailan Meserve of Petrolia, shown in his mugshot. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the next year, he enrolled in treatment for alcohol abuse, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036032-Bail-Motion.html\">court records\u003c/a>. Facebook photos show he and his family also enjoyed a Disney vacation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sam Epperson fell into a deep depression. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was responsible for Terri climbing into Meserve’s truck that night. With harvest season over, Terri had left Petrolia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, on April 4, 2016, the trial date arrived. Meserve sat next to his lawyer in a courtroom in downtown Eureka, dressed in a button-down shirt and slacks. Terri had returned to take the stand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is this your first time testifying in court? How do you feel about being here?” prosecutor Brie Bennett asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“OK,” Terri replied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She described the night in detail. The feeling of panic, the sexual acts, the violence. She answered questions from the defense attorney about her sex life in Petrolia and a shoplifting conviction from years ago. At one point, her voice began to crack, and she wiped tears from behind her black-framed glasses. Her voice grew faint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge leaned over. “Please speak up,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other victim described waking up the morning after the assault, crying and sore. She told her friend she had to go, according to court records, and began the long drive back to San Francisco, making stops to throw up along the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the stand, Meserve denied having a drug problem and called his encounters with Terri and the other woman consensual. Everyone was drunk, he said. No one ever told him to stop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Did she say she wanted to go to the trailer?” the prosecutor asked about Terri.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She never said she didn’t,” Meserve responded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From her seat in the courtroom, Meserve’s sister, Amy, remembers watching an image take shape that she did not recognize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s being portrayed like some monster,” she said later. “Obviously, he did not think he was raping anyone. I just don’t think he did. That’s not who he is, that’s not what he’s capable of. I just know if they would have said no or stop or anything, he would have stopped.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Meserve’s family attended the trial, most of the group that had supported Terri remained behind in Petrolia. It was a far distance to travel, but it also was painful to watch. Many believed it had been a mistake to contact law enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am friends with his sister and his dad and his mom,” said longtime local grower Greg Smith. “It feels like we’re carrying a big weight on our chest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130106\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130106\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaSunset-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Nearly everyone in the tiny town of Petrolia knows each other. Most are involved in marijuana growing to some degree. It’s where Terri, a 22-year-old environmentalist and musician, arrived in the middle of the 2014 harvest season looking for trimming work.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaSunset-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaSunset-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaSunset.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaSunset-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaSunset-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nearly everyone in the tiny town of Petrolia knows each other. Most are involved in marijuana growing to some degree. It’s where Terri, a 22-year-old environmentalist and musician, arrived in the middle of the 2014 harvest season looking for trimming work. \u003ccite>(Andrew Burton/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The community of Petrolia was changing, but residents weren’t sure it was for the better. California Gov. Jerry Brown had signed a package of laws that would further regulate the medical marijuana industry, beginning with state-issued licenses in 2018. Many Humboldt County growers have refused to participate. They would not sign up for county permits, the first step toward legal compliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To complicate matters, under the new regulations, counties can ban growing altogether, and many have, preserving a highly profitable black market. Competition is increasing, and prices are likely to drop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this new future, it seemed, small farmers would struggle financially. Success would mean going big or continuing to sell on the black market. Before his arrest, Meserve had found that success growing marijuana, accruing land, money and power. But some wondered, at what cost?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On April 19, a jury found Meserve guilty of 15 felony counts, including rape and false imprisonment. His wife began to cry as deputies handcuffed him and took him into custody.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the news reached Petrolia, many in the group that had supported Terri felt deflated instead of relieved. They knew the conviction meant Meserve could end up spending the rest of his life in prison. Smith and Epperson agreed to write letters to the judge urging a lenient sentence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would rather have rehabilitation than punishment,” Smith said. “Some people think it’s impossible with him, but I don’t know. I just have hope that people can change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On July 28, the Meserve family and their supporters filed into the courtroom. Meserve’s mother, sister and wife cried as he stood motionless, awaiting the judge’s sentence. Each read from a prepared statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These charges are extreme and overboard,” said his father, David. “These charges are from an enthusiasm for prosecuting people in the marijuana industry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Kailan wants to start an AA group in Petrolia,” said Monica, his wife. “He wants to give back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Terri was not there. An advocate read a statement from the second victim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every morsel of self-confidence has left me,” she read. “Humboldt is my home, and I cannot bring myself to visit my friends or family there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge sentenced Meserve to 23 years in prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130107\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130107\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/AdSolicitsWork-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"A handwritten ad solicits work in downtown Garberville. Male trimmers told Reveal they repeatedly were passed up or let go to make room for female workers.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/AdSolicitsWork-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/AdSolicitsWork-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/AdSolicitsWork.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/AdSolicitsWork-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/AdSolicitsWork-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A handwritten ad solicits work in downtown Garberville. Male trimmers told Reveal they repeatedly were passed up or let go to make room for female workers. \u003ccite>(Sarah Rice/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He did not make a statement in court that day. Through his family, he declined to comment for this story. Terri has since moved out of state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, as the harvest season swings into full gear, a new crop of trimmigrants is streaming north, thumbs out, pointing toward the thickly forested mountains of the Emerald Triangle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Correction:\u003c/strong> An earlier version of this story incorrectly characterized the pingpong tournament held at Petrolia’s community center. Only Meserve was involved with the setup.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"For decades, the Emerald Triangle has provided cover for the nation’s largest marijuana-growing industry. But its forests also hide secrets, among them young women with stories of sexual abuse and exploitation.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1476813679,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":218,"wordCount":9526},"headData":{"title":"In Secretive Marijuana Industry, Whispers of Abuse and Trafficking | KQED","description":"For decades, the Emerald Triangle has provided cover for the nation’s largest marijuana-growing industry. But its forests also hide secrets, among them young women with stories of sexual abuse and exploitation.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"In Secretive Marijuana Industry, Whispers of Abuse and Trafficking","datePublished":"2016-10-14T23:11:55.000Z","dateModified":"2016-10-18T18:01:19.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"authorsData":[{"type":"authors","id":"byline_news_11129842","meta":{"override":true},"slug":"byline_news_11129842","name":"\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.revealnews.org/author/shoshana-walter/\">Shoshana Walter\u003c/a> \u003cbr> \u003ca href=\"https://www.revealnews.org/\">Reveal\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>","isLoading":false}],"imageData":{"ogImageSize":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PotFarmMainCIR-1920x1198.jpg","width":1920,"height":1198,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"twImageSize":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PotFarmMainCIR-1920x1198.jpg","width":1920,"height":1198,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"twitterCard":"summary_large_image"},"tagData":{"tags":["featured","human trafficking","marijuana","marijuana farms","sexual assault","tcr","the-california-report-featured"]}},"disqusIdentifier":"11129842 http://ww2.kqed.org/news/?p=11129842","disqusUrl":"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/10/14/in-secretive-marijuana-industry-whispers-of-abuse-and-trafficking/","disqusTitle":"In Secretive Marijuana Industry, Whispers of Abuse and Trafficking","source":"Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting","sourceUrl":"https://www.revealnews.org/","nprByline":"\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.revealnews.org/author/shoshana-walter/\">Shoshana Walter\u003c/a> \u003cbr> \u003ca href=\"https://www.revealnews.org/\">Reveal\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>","path":"/news/11129842/in-secretive-marijuana-industry-whispers-of-abuse-and-trafficking","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was part of a special edition of KQED's The California Report Magazine, produced in collaboration with Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn more at\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"http://revealnews.org/\">\u003cem>revealnews.org\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and subscribe to the Reveal podcast, produced with PRX, at\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"http://revealnews.org/podcast\">\u003cem>revealnews.org/podcast\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>he trees towered above them, limbs etched in black against the night sky. He steered his pickup down a narrow path of mud and rocks and parked in front of a trailer. He tried to kiss her. She froze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What are you doing?” she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have to get up early,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He began groping her body.\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>“Don’t you have a wife?” she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The woods seemed to crawl with creatures; the ground was slick with rain. As wilderness pulsed around them, she ran through the possibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If she fled, would she find her way out? If she fought back, would he hurt her?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Would anyone hear her if she screamed?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Listen to the special edition of The California Report Magazine, produced in collaboration with Reveal from The Center for Investigation Reporting:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='100%' height='400'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/287778617&visual=true&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true'\n title='https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/287778617'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Emerald Triangle, trees are ever present. They peek over small towns and dip into valleys, sheathing this cluster of remote Northern California counties in silence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, the ancient forests here have provided cover for the nation’s largest marijuana-growing industry, shielding pot farmers from convention, outsiders and law enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the forests also hide secrets, among them young women with stories of sexual abuse and exploitation. Some have spoken out; a handful have pressed charges. Most have confided only in private.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students from the nearest college, Humboldt State University, return from a summer of trimming marijuana buds with tales of being forced to give their boss a blow job to get paid. Other “trimmigrants,” who typically work during the June-to-November harvest, recount offers of higher wages to trim topless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During one harvest season, two growers began having sex with their teenage trimmer. When they feared she would run away, they locked her inside an oversized toolbox with breathing holes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contact with law enforcement is rare and, female trimmigrants say, rarely satisfying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130062\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130062\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/EmilyRothmanTrimmigrant-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Emily Rothman of Florida throws her pack into a truck that will take her to a friend’s pot farm in Garberville. She said all the women she knows have been warned of things to watch out for when coming to the area for work.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/EmilyRothmanTrimmigrant-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/EmilyRothmanTrimmigrant-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/EmilyRothmanTrimmigrant.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/EmilyRothmanTrimmigrant-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/EmilyRothmanTrimmigrant-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Emily Rothman of Florida throws her pack into a truck that will take her to a friend’s pot farm in Garberville. She said all the women she knows have been warned of things to watch out for when coming to the area for work. \u003ccite>(Sarah Rice/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Verifying their stories is as difficult as finding your way through the forest at night, down twisty dirt roads, to one of the backwoods marijuana farms. During months of reporting in the region, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting unearthed dozens of accounts of sexual exploitation, abuse and trafficking. Victims’ advocates say the problem is far larger and, with every harvest, continues to grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Women believe they are getting hired for trimming work, and then they’re drugged and raped,” said Maryann Hayes Mariani, a coordinator for the North Coast Rape Crisis Team. “Everybody looks at (the region) like it’s the Land of Oz. I’m just so tired of pretending like it’s not happening here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet law enforcement repeatedly has failed to investigate abuse and sexual violence in the industry. Instead, officers mostly focus on what they view as the root cause of the problem: the drug trade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the rural counties of Northern California, marijuana is still a largely underground industry, worth billions. Last year, legal California sales alone were valued at $2.7 billion, according to \u003ca href=\"https://frontierfinancials.com/product/california/?ref=AMR\">The ArcView Group\u003c/a>, a marijuana market research firm. Sales are projected to balloon to $6.4 billion by 2020 if marijuana is legalized for recreational use. It’s big business, drawing busloads of job seekers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130068\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130068\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmigrantScissorPost-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Ads for trimmers are tacked to a bulletin board in Garberville, Calif. Female trimmers often pair up, even form trimming collectives, counting on safety in numbers.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmigrantScissorPost-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmigrantScissorPost-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmigrantScissorPost.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmigrantScissorPost-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmigrantScissorPost-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ads for trimmers are tacked to a bulletin board in Garberville, Calif. Female trimmers often pair up, even form trimming collectives, counting on safety in numbers. \u003ccite>(Sarah Rice/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The number of trimmigrants who go missing alone is overwhelming for law enforcement, fueling an epidemic of the lost. In 2015, Humboldt County reported 352 missing people, more per capita than any other county in \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/missing/stats\">the state\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When an artist from San Francisco disappeared in the Humboldt County town of Garberville last harvest season, her mother and roommate filed a missing persons report. Months later, she resurfaced to tell her family she had been held against her will on a marijuana farm, drugged and sexually abused. She never formally reported her abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at the time of her disappearance, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.humboldtgov.org/187/Sheriffs-Office\">Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office\u003c/a>had labeled her a “voluntary missing adult.” They flagged the case as a low priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many people come to Humboldt each year to work on the marijuana farms,” the deputy who took the report told her roommate \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3035995-Screen-Shot-2016-08-29-at-3-47-56-PM.html\">in an email\u003c/a>. “So far she is falling into the same category as many others have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to women and girls who come of their own volition to trim, others are brought in specifically to provide sex services. Come harvest season, escorts flood these rural areas, drawn to the large population of male growers and laborers who spend months at a time alone on isolated mountain farms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ron Prose, an investigator for the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ci.eureka.ca.gov/depts/police/\">Eureka Police Departmen\u003c/a>t, said sex traffickers know law enforcement agencies have little interest in cracking down on them. None of the county agencies surveyed by Reveal have investigators assigned to human trafficking. Prose himself is semi-retired; he investigates trafficking cases when he has time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130072\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130072\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmedLeaves-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Some growers prefer to keep trimmers in the dark about where they are working, blindfolding workers before driving to remote plots deep in the mountains.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmedLeaves-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmedLeaves-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmedLeaves.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmedLeaves-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmedLeaves-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some growers prefer to keep trimmers in the dark about where they are working, blindfolding workers before driving to remote plots deep in the mountains. \u003ccite>(Sarah Rice/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For women, the dangers are due in part to the gender dynamics in the industry. Growing is a male-dominated field, and many growers prefer to hire female trimmers. Several told Reveal that they believe women are more dexterous, making them more efficient workers. Others are looking for company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of these younger guys don’t have regular relationships because they’re out in the hills growing weed, but they still want a girl,” Prose said. “It sounds kind of crude, but they seek female companionship.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, many marijuana farms are responsible operations. Most workers describe good experiences, including excellent pay, food and shelter. Many also welcome the unusual working conditions of an industry long at odds with mainstream culture and the law. Drug use on the job, for instance, is common.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In November, California voters will decide whether to fully \u003ca href=\"http://vig.cdn.sos.ca.gov/2016/general/en/pdf/complete-vig.pdf\">legalize recreational marijuana\u003c/a>. But such use remains illegal under federal and most state laws, and the culture of silence is so embedded in the state’s industry – the nation’s top black market supplier – it seems unlikely that legalization alone will dramatically alter the landscape for women toiling deep in the Emerald Triangle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a lot of wilderness here, and dirt roads and acres of forest,” said Amy Benitez, a victims’ advocate in Humboldt County. “There’s a lot of nooks and crannies you can hide in. You add this criminal element to it, where there’s money, and there’s just more ways that you can abuse power and control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Saturday, Oct. 18, 2014\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>hat power imbalance is what ensnared a 22-year-old environmentalist and musician who arrived in one of the mountain towns in the middle of the 2014 harvest season looking for trimming work. In Petrolia, Terri – not her real name – found a world apart from her hometown in the Los Angeles Basin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Petrolia sits beneath the King Range mountains at the edge of Humboldt County, hidden behind a curtain of redwoods and Douglas fir trees. With a population of about 400, it has one general store, one bar, no cellphone service and no police. It’s about two hours down crumbling cliffside roads to the nearest highway. Most locals live in the surrounding mountains, overlooking the forested valley and black sand beaches of the last undeveloped stretch of California known as the Lost Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130076\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130076\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaCA-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"The town of Petrolia sits beneath the King Range mountains at the edge of Humboldt County. With a population of about 400, it has one general store, one bar, no cellphone service and no police.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaCA-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaCA-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaCA.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaCA-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaCA-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The town of Petrolia sits beneath the King Range mountains at the edge of Humboldt County. With a population of about 400, it has one general store, one bar, no cellphone service and no police. \u003ccite>(Andrew Burton/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I like to think of Petrolia as this little town hanging off the edge of the world,” said Jenoa Briar-Bonpane, a former resident who became Terri’s therapist. “At night, you’ve never seen so many stars.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly everyone in Petrolia knows each other. Most are involved in marijuana growing to some degree. But like other small towns dotting the Emerald Triangle, in the past decade, more and more people have moved in. Greenhouses have sprung up, enabling industrial-scale marijuana growing. Larger farms have drawn more workers from outside the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, Terri did not have a job. An acquaintance introduced her to Cedar McCulloch-Clow and Emily Herman, a married couple with two children, a horde of chickens and goats, and a bicycle-strewn junkyard. Terri set up a tent in the couple’s yard, plunked down her violin and camping gear and began looking for work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130079\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130079\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Cedar-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Cedar McCulloch-Clow, a goat farmer and volunteer firefighter, owns the property where Terri pitched her tent while doing trim work in Petrolia.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Cedar-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Cedar-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Cedar.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Cedar-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Cedar-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cedar McCulloch-Clow, a goat farmer and volunteer firefighter, owns the property where Terri pitched her tent while doing trim work in Petrolia. \u003ccite>(Andrew Burton/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She also set about working her way into the community. She went to the weekly farmers market at the community center and ran and biked in the annual Rye and Tide, a 7 1/2-mile race that begins with a swig of whiskey outside the town bar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Terri found a couple of trimming jobs, including for Sam Epperson and his partner, Rachel Adair. Their operation was far smaller than the region’s newer marijuana fields – known as grows – and had a vegetable garden and turkey coop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Terri and three other trimmers sat in a row of swivel office chairs in a wood-paneled trimming shack. They wore aprons to keep from tracking loose leaves into the house and carefully tallied the weight of their work – they would be paid $200 a pound – with pencil and paper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130081\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130081\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmingStation-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Terri sat in an office chair in this cramped shack, trimming marijuana buds. She and three other trimmers were paid $200 for every pound. They wore aprons and tracked their work with paper and pencil.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmingStation-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmingStation-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmingStation.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmingStation-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/TrimmingStation-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Terri sat in an office chair in this cramped shack, trimming marijuana buds. She and three other trimmers were paid $200 for every pound. They wore aprons and tracked their work with paper and pencil. \u003ccite>(Andrew Burton/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Epperson, quiet and bespectacled with a mop of graying curls, prepared fresh food and drinks for the workers. Every day, he offered them an organic chocolate bar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One night, on the concrete patio of the town bar – \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/yellowrosepetrolia/\">the Yellow Rose\u003c/a> – Terri met a grower named Kailan Meserve. He was twice her age, tan and muscular, with a swagger and salt-and-pepper hair. Meserve mentioned he needed trimmers and bought her a beer. A friend of Terri’s, Katie Finnegan, went inside to buy another drink. When Finnegan returned, Terri had disappeared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130082\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130082\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/YellowRoseBar-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Marijuana trimmer Terri met local grower Kailan Meserve one night at the Yellow Rose bar in Petrolia, Calif., in 2014.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/YellowRoseBar-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/YellowRoseBar-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/YellowRoseBar.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/YellowRoseBar-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/YellowRoseBar-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marijuana trimmer Terri met local grower Kailan Meserve one night at the Yellow Rose bar in Petrolia, Calif., in 2014. \u003ccite>(Andrew Burton/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Inside, the bar is a bright, airy space with pristine off-white walls and a polished beige floor – a contrast with its often grungy clientele. One side of the bar is lined with light metal cafe tables, the other with pool tables and arcade games. The darkest part of the bar is to the left of the dartboard, a long dim hallway to the single-stall women’s restroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 45 minutes after Finnegan lost track of Terri, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036002-Yellow-Rose-excerpt.html\">court records show\u003c/a> she found her unconscious in that bathroom, her pants around her ankles. Terri appeared to have fallen and hit the sink on her way down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Terri remembered almost nothing about the night. She was concerned something had happened with Meserve. But back on the grow, Epperson and Adair put her at ease: Meserve was \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036003-Humboldt-County-Supervisorial-District-1-PDF.html\">a captain\u003c/a> of the volunteer fire department, the son of a \u003ca href=\"http://www.northcoastjournal.com/091803/cover0918.html\">prominent\u003c/a> local environmental activist and politician. Meserve, they said, was married with toddler twins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s a good guy,” Epperson recalled telling her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The couple still had work for Terri, but on their small-scale grow, the harvest wouldn’t last long. They encouraged her to take up Meserve on his offer of a trimming job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was advice Epperson now says he deeply regrets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">C\u003c/span>onservative ranchers and loggers dominated the small population of the Emerald Triangle when hippies began arriving en masse in the late 1960s. They were a diverse bunch, from tree-sitting activists to disillusioned Vietnam veterans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kailan Meserve’s father came to Humboldt County as part of the “back to the land” movement. His first home was a teepee on the Mattole River. Later, he built a house in Petrolia, where he, his wife and children lived on wind and solar power, grew produce and raised their own goats, cows and chickens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, marijuana was a recreational drug, grown mostly for personal use. It didn’t stay that way for long. Growers realized they could better support themselves and their families by selling pot on the black market. The climate was ideal, the woods and mountains isolated enough to conceal the illicit crop. The American-grown marijuana industry was born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130085\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130085\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/SunshineTends-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Sunshine Johnston tends to cannabis plants at her farm in Redcrest, Calif., in the Emerald Triangle.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/SunshineTends-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/SunshineTends-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/SunshineTends.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/SunshineTends-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/SunshineTends-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sunshine Johnston tends to cannabis plants at her farm in Redcrest, Calif., in the Emerald Triangle. \u003ccite>(Sarah Rice/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From the outset, the children of these growers had more difficulties than their parents. The Summer of Love was over. Across the community, alcohol and drug abuse was rampant. So was law enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The threat of raids constantly loomed over the Meserve household, threatening to pull the family apart. According to Meserve’s sister, Amy, their parents began using cocaine and alcohol and exploded into constant fights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just got really crazy,” she recalled. “Kailan pretty much raised us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When federal \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/10/us/military-takes-part-in-drug-sweep-and-reaps-criticism-and-a-lawsuit.html?pagewanted=all\">Operation Green Sweep\u003c/a> touched down in Petrolia in 1990, soldiers flew helicopters overhead and officers confronted families in their homes with M16 rifles. Children learned to lie about the reality of their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I still have PTSD,” said Sam Epperson, who grew up on a marijuana farm in eastern Humboldt County. “I can hear choppers flying from miles away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With law enforcement crackdowns came higher black market prices and greater risks. To protect their crops from theft, many farmers began to carry guns and booby-trap their properties. Residents dealt with crime themselves, avoiding law enforcement whenever possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1996, California became the first state in the country to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/MMP/Pages/CompassionateUseact.aspx\">legalize medical marijuana\u003c/a>. But the law failed to limit the amount of marijuana that could be grown, and law enforcement had no way to determine which plants were cultivated for medical purposes or for profit. Crime and black market growing in the Emerald Triangle soared, including by growers with connections to organized crime, vastly eclipsing local law enforcement’s efforts to stop it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lt. Wayne Hanson of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office put it simply: “We lost the drug war many years ago.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The turmoil prompted some of the children to leave. Kailan Meserve was among the many who stayed. He became a stonemason, specializing in fireplaces, and grew pot on the side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “green rush” hit Petrolia in 2010. With California voters \u003ca href=\"http://www.lao.ca.gov/ballot/2010/19_11_2010.pdf\">considering full legalization\u003c/a>, new growers poured into town hoping to get rich. The hippie haven was about to go mainstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law did not pass, but according to friends, Meserve decided that if anyone was going to make money peddling pot, it was going to be him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He viewed himself as having that hometown advantage,” Cedar McCulloch-Clow said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Locals noticed the change. At a party a few years ago, therapist Jenoa Briar-Bonpane recalls looking over the edge of a mountain ridge and spotting two new grow operations below. “Where did those come from?” she wondered. Someone said they belonged to Meserve, and he became the talk of the party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a sense of, ‘Wow, he’s really blowing things up,’ ” Briar-Bonpane said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a big employer in town, and a local, Meserve enjoyed a trust not afforded to outsiders, including a freedom from consequences, according to friends. He’d always had a brash demeanor and a reputation for hitting on women – even after he married in 2001. Over time, those who knew him said he seemed to sink deeper into drugs and alcohol. He was convicted three times for driving under the influence, according to court records, and got into a car crash that \u003ca href=\"http://www.times-standard.com/general-news/20080921/two-injured-in-petrolia-crash\">seriously injured\u003c/a> him and his wife.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He “got a little big for his britches,” Amy Meserve said, “and lost his filter completely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of it seemed to slow down Meserve. His business expanded, and the trimmigrants who showed up in Petrolia looking for work were thankful for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Sunday, Nov. 9, 2014\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>erri saw Kailan Meserve again at a pingpong tournament. He was one of the few entrusted with a key to the community center and had set up the tables.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meserve offered to buy Terri drinks several times, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036005-Meserve-Warrant.html\">according to investigators\u003c/a> – and each time, she declined. Around 10 p.m., he asked if she had to time to talk, she recalled, “to clear things up.” He offered to give her a ride home. It was rainy, and without sidewalks and streetlights, a walk home in Petrolia could be treacherous. She agreed. She figured she might also ask him about a job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130089\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130089\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/MattoleCommunityCenter-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"One night after a pingpong tournament at the Mattole Valley Community Center in Petrolia, Calif., 22-year-old trimmer Terri got a ride home from local grower Kailan Meserve. But home isn’t where he took her.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/MattoleCommunityCenter-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/MattoleCommunityCenter-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/MattoleCommunityCenter.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/MattoleCommunityCenter-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/MattoleCommunityCenter-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One night after a pingpong tournament at the Mattole Valley Community Center in Petrolia, Calif., 22-year-old trimmer Terri got a ride home from local grower Kailan Meserve. But home isn’t where he took her. \u003ccite>(Andrew Burton/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Terri was staying about 2 miles from the community center. But Meserve went the opposite direction, turning right toward a dark mass of trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where are we going?” she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just want to show you where my property is,” she remembers him saying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Terri started to get a “weird feeling,” according to court records. She told him she had to get up early. He ignored her and continued down the road, turning right again at a metal gate and entering a narrow dirt path into a thicket of towering eucalyptus. Finally, they came to a trailer and stopped. He tried to kiss her. She froze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130092\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130092\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/WoodedPath-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"This is the entrance to the isolated property in Petrolia where local grower Kailan Meserve took Terri after a pingpong tournament.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/WoodedPath-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/WoodedPath-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/WoodedPath.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/WoodedPath-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/WoodedPath-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This is the entrance to the isolated property in Petrolia where local grower Kailan Meserve took Terri after a pingpong tournament. \u003ccite>(Andrew Burton/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“What are you doing?” she asked. “Don’t you have a wife?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her mind spun through the possibilities. Could she find her way back if she ran? Would he chase her? Hurt her? Would anyone hear her if she screamed?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was happening so fast and she could hardly see. Everything outside the beam of the headlights was flooded in black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Terri declined to be interviewed for this story, but she encouraged friends and community members to open up and gave permission for her therapist, Briar-Bonpane, to speak as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Taking her to a place that was dark, forested, unknown to her,” Briar-Bonpane said, “it’s the most terrifying situation for a woman who’s with a scary man.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meserve asked her to go inside. Terri climbed out of the truck and walked into the trailer. She remembers a small kitchen and a bedroom with a bare mattress. Over the next few hours, according to records, Meserve repeatedly penetrated her and forced her to perform oral sex until she gagged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He held down her arms and at one point throttled her neck. When she began gasping for air, he told her she was “weak and couldn’t take it.” She didn’t scream. The more violent he was, she’d later tell the investigators, the more excited he seemed to become.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m going to make you my bitch,” she recalls him saying, according to court records. He threatened to kill her, freeze her body and throw her to the animals if he ever found out she had slept with anyone else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">M\u003c/span>any trimmigrants begin their journey about two hours southeast of Petrolia, in a small strip of a town at the hub of California’s outdoor growing economy. Garberville is surrounded on all sides by mountains of towering redwoods and lined with the kinds of businesses sustained by disposable income, including a \u003ca href=\"http://www.humboldt-hunnies-eminence-day-spa.com/\">spa\u003c/a> and a motorcycle \u003ca href=\"http://www.dazeysmotorsports.com/\">dealership\u003c/a>. Next door, in Redway, there’s even a \u003ca href=\"http://www.thegroomroompetsalon.com/\">pet salon\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Come harvest season, trimmigrants arrive from all over the country and world – college students and artists, working professionals and tourists, homeless hippies and other wanderers. Without connections, they crowd the sidewalks as though on the floor of an auction house, jockeying for jobs with homemade signs. Others camp along the river or in the woods until they find work or try to meet potential employers by frequenting local bars or volunteering at one of the area’s many marijuana-funded nonprofits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130093\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130093\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CarstenMaya-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"Carsten (L) and girlfriend Maya (R), both of Germany, and Beaver (back) of London head out after a free lunch at the Mateel Community Center in Redway, Calif. They were looking for trimming jobs to fund their travels but hadn’t gotten any work yet.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CarstenMaya-800x532.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CarstenMaya-400x266.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CarstenMaya.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CarstenMaya-1180x785.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CarstenMaya-960x639.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carsten (L) and girlfriend Maya (R), both of Germany, and Beaver (back) of London head out after a free lunch at the Mateel Community Center in Redway, Calif. They were looking for trimming jobs to fund their travels but hadn’t gotten any work yet. \u003ccite>(Sarah Rice/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With marijuana fetching black market prices, they expect wages far higher than typical migrant farmworkers – as much as $300 a day, depending on how fast they work. A successful season can fund months of travel, and the experience itself can be an adventure, harkening back to the drug-infused journeys of Grateful Dead fans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of cocaine, a lot of Ecstasy, a lot of meth, a lot of heroin,” said Terri’s former employer Rachel Adair. “It’s like a big party.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But trimmigrants also stumble into a treacherous landscape, both on and off the job. Many locals despise their presence, the trash, the carousing on sidewalks – and the negative impact on tourism. Members of a Garberville group called Locals on Patrol take photographs, check identification and tell people to move on. Anti-trimmigrant bumper stickers have proliferated. “No Work Here, Keep Moving,” they read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trimmigrants also serve at the mercy of their bosses, who are themselves vulnerable to the risks of operating in the black market – ranging from robberies to law enforcement stings. As a result, some growers prefer to keep trimmers in the dark about where they are working. Workers and advocates say growers sometimes blindfold trimmers before driving to plots deep in the mountains, locations so remote that they often lack cell service and public transportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When conflicts arise, trimmigrants may find themselves fired without pay. Even those who complete the job might never get paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130094\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130094\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CraigslistTrimmers1-800x1422.jpg\" alt=\"In Craigslist ads, aspiring female trimmers sometimes include photos of themselves in bikinis or low-cut tops, exploiting the demand for female workers.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1422\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CraigslistTrimmers1.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CraigslistTrimmers1-400x711.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In Craigslist ads, aspiring female trimmers sometimes include photos of themselves in bikinis or low-cut tops, exploiting the demand for female workers. \u003ccite>(Shoshana Walter/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At 38 years old, Amy Jarose is among the most experienced trimmigrants. One time, she was working on a farm in the mountains when, she said, the grower began to pressure her for blow jobs and sex. She immediately left on foot, without pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You hitchhike,” Jarose said. “You pack up your bags and hit the road and hope to God a really good person will pick you up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Growers often target women for trimming jobs; male trimmers told Reveal they repeatedly were passed up or let go to make room for female workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some women exploit the demand. On \u003ca href=\"https://humboldt.craigslist.org/search/fgs\">Craigslist\u003c/a> during the last harvest season, aspiring trimmers posted photos of themselves in bikinis or low-cut tops, accompanied by winking emoticons. One advertisement, offering “Oriental female trimmers,” included the phone number of a sensual massage parlor in Los Angeles. On a community bulletin board in downtown Garberville, a pink lace garter belt adorned one ad, while another read, “We love to cook … and much more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deanna Hirschi once worked as a trimmer but said she soon realized she could earn more by offering sex for pay. She met growers at motels in Garberville or sometimes hours into the mountains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The guys on the hills pay $500 an hour,” she said, three or four times the amount she might get in a city. “They’re stuck up on a hill and they come down from the hill for one day, and they’ve got hundreds of thousands of dollars in their pocket.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The demand for female companionship has contributed to sex trafficking in these rural areas from all over the country and world, including from Mexico and Eastern Europe, according to social service providers and victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One local trafficking survivor, who goes by the name Elle Snow, started a nonprofit organization to spread awareness in Humboldt County called\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/itsgameover101/\">Game Over\u003c/a>. To measure the demand, she posted fake escort advertisements on the classified ad website \u003ca href=\"http://humboldt.backpage.com/FemaleEscorts/classifieds/Disclaimer?category=517483\">Backpage\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130096\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130096\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/BackpageAd-800x443.jpg\" alt=\"A Backpage ad offers escort services in Humboldt County. To measure demand for such services, local trafficking survivor Elle Snow, who now runs a nonprofit, posted a fake Backpage ad. Within two months, she said, she had accumulated calls and text messages from 437 phone numbers.\" width=\"800\" height=\"443\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/BackpageAd-800x443.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/BackpageAd-400x221.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/BackpageAd.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/BackpageAd-1180x653.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/BackpageAd-960x532.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/BackpageAd-672x372.jpg 672w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/BackpageAd-1038x576.jpg 1038w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Backpage ad offers escort services in Humboldt County. To measure demand for such services, local trafficking survivor Elle Snow, who now runs a nonprofit, posted a fake Backpage ad. Within two months, she said, she had accumulated calls and text messages from 437 phone numbers. \u003ccite>(Shoshana Walter/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Within two months, Snow said, she had accumulated calls and text messages from 437 phone numbers. Many came from southern Humboldt – where Garberville and Petrolia are located – an indication to Snow that many of the potential clients were involved in the marijuana industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Traffickers call Humboldt County not just green for the weed, but green for the bitches,” she said, referring to the money traffickers can make selling women and sex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many trimmers welcome the attention, but others do not. Women pair up, even form trimming collectives, counting on safety in numbers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130097\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130097\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CListOrientalTrimmers-800x1223.jpg\" alt=\"A Craigslist ad offers “Oriental female trimmers” in Humboldt County.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1223\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CListOrientalTrimmers.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CListOrientalTrimmers-400x612.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Craigslist ad offers “Oriental female trimmers” in Humboldt County. \u003ccite>(Shoshana Walter/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Paige Radcliff and Emma Less came last season for trimming work, hoping to make enough to fund their own future harvest. During nearly 14-hour days, the two listened to Israeli folk music and bent over plastic tubs in their laps, rotating the buds with the tips of their fingers as they clipped off the stems and curly bits of leaf. “Give it a little haircut,” Radcliff said again and again, until they had piled up 6 pounds of smooth round nuggets and their fingers were coated in potent, sticky brown resin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If a girl comes here on her own, I wouldn’t recommend it,” Less said. Prior to finding this job, they encountered growers who hit on them – and they simply walked away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Radcliff agreed. “Unless you can super defend yourself, or you just give off a super-intimidating vibe where dudes are scared of you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Like a truck driver.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or a pirate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Exactly, just come across as, like, super peg leg.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Think about it,” Less said, over the steady snip of her scissors. “None of this is monitored. No one knows you’re here, not here. It’s easy for people to go missing. It’s easy for people to take advantage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Monday, Nov. 10, 2014\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>erri showed up for work in a daze the morning after she was assaulted in the forest. Bruises covered her chest and the back of her head. As she picked up her clippers, her boss remembers, she began to cry. She told Rachel Adair that “something inappropriate” had happened with Kailan Meserve and that she was scared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adair – an emergency room nurse and midwife – sent Terri to Jenoa Briar-Bonpane, a therapist and friend. Terri told the therapist the rest of the story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a predator,” Briar-Bonpane recalls thinking. She had treated child sex abuse and rape victims for years, but she was especially struck by how calculating Meserve sounded. “He must be stopped.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A week later, some of Terri’s former employers called for a meeting, inviting town elders, the local doctor and friends. On a crisp November morning, about a dozen people joined Terri in the home near where she had pitched her tent. They gathered in a somber circle around a heavy oak dining table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cedar McCulloch-Clow, 38, with perpetual dirt under his fingernails and a baseball cap on his head, recalls feeling conflicted about the meeting. He had become friends with Terri during her many nights camping on their property. But he also had known Meserve since he was 15.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The room was tense and quiet, except for the sounds of children playing down the hall. Adair remembers wanting to ensure, first and foremost, that Terri was safe. Dr. Dick Scheinman was adamant that they call the police. Most others wanted to find an alternate solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130098\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130098\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LivingRoom-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"A week after Terri’s rape, community members gathered around this table in Cedar McCulloch-Clow’s home, trying to decide what should be done about her assault.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LivingRoom-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LivingRoom-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LivingRoom.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LivingRoom-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LivingRoom-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A week after Terri’s rape, community members gathered around this table in Cedar McCulloch-Clow’s home, trying to decide what should be done about her assault. \u003ccite>(Andrew Burton/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Greg Smith, whose family has long grown marijuana, was among the town elders there. “There’s a lot of people who grow pot, and they have a resistance to calling the law,” he said later. “It’s kind of the Wild West in some ways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ideas came in quick succession and were rejected just as quickly. Bring Meserve before a community tribunal. Send a large contingent of men to his doorstep. Gather Petrolia’s population of elderly women and have them chase after him with their shoes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith decided to pay Meserve a visit at home. He urged him to admit he had a problem, show remorse and enroll in therapy and drug and alcohol treatment. Meserve refused, he said, describing the night in the trailer as consensual. Next, Smith approached Fire Chief Travis Howe about kicking Meserve out of the volunteer fire department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s when the group learned this wasn’t the first time Meserve had been accused of rape. A year earlier, a young woman was visiting a friend of Meserve’s. After a night of partying at the Yellow Rose bar, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036005-Meserve-Warrant.html\">31-year-old woman said\u003c/a>, Meserve came into her room while she was sleeping and forced himself on her. When he couldn’t maintain an erection, he left, but soon came back and tried again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The woman never filed a police report, and only a few people in town knew. Howe was one of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Howe said he had confronted Meserve, who told him it was consensual. “He messed up terribly, cheating on his wife,” Howe said. “He needed to get spanked.” When Meserve promised to do better, Howe kept him on as a fire captain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now the group realized Terri’s experience was not an isolated incident. It was a pattern of behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One week had passed since Terri’s assault. She had expressed little interest in contacting law enforcement. But the group thought something had to be done for the safety of other women.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They asked her to take a step many rape victims dread: Would she call the police?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">F\u003c/span>or victims of sexual assault, the answer often lies beneath layers of fear and shame. Rape\u003ca href=\"http://www.nij.gov/topics/crime/rape-sexual-violence/pages/rape-notification.aspx\"> usually goes unreported\u003c/a>, but trimmigrants face particular pressure to avoid law enforcement. Calling police may rule out future jobs in the industry, especially if that contact alerts police to an illegal grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hell no, you don’t call the cops on anybody for anything if you want to work in Humboldt,” said Karen Bejcek, a trimmigrant who usually lives in a teepee in Siskiyou County when she’s not trimming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other conditions in pot country prevent victims from seeking any kind of help. Trimmigrants often lack the local connections or even the know-how to successfully navigate their way out of the wild, wooded terrain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because many work on illegal grows, they suspect law enforcement won’t do anything anyway. And because the industry attracts a young and transient workforce, victims – who may come with their own troubled histories – do not always recognize they are being abused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130099\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130099\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Khaled-800x536.jpg\" alt=\"Khaled Mourra (L) of Mexico and Mayssan Charafeddine of Montreal try to hitch a ride in Garberville, Calif. During harvest season, “trimmigrants” crowd the town’s sidewalks jockeying for jobs with homemade signs or try to meet potential employers by frequenting local bars.\" width=\"800\" height=\"536\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Khaled-800x536.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Khaled-400x268.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Khaled.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Khaled-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Khaled-960x643.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Khaled Mourra (L) of Mexico and Mayssan Charafeddine of Montreal try to hitch a ride in Garberville, Calif. During harvest season, “trimmigrants” crowd the town’s sidewalks jockeying for jobs with homemade signs or try to meet potential employers by frequenting local bars. \u003ccite>(Sarah Rice/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One teen from Humboldt County said she started working for a local grower when she was 12. He gave her methamphetamine to speed up her trimming work, she said, and passed her around to pay off his debts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’re tweaking, you’re good,” she said, touting her trimming prowess. “I did, like, a couple pounds in like one night.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The girl eventually ran away, reaching a youth homeless shelter in the county seat of Eureka, only to discover that pimps were using it as a hunting ground. At 14, she said, she became their recruiter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She wasn’t the only one. At least two other shelter residents said men used them to recruit other teens, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036021-AC-Disclosure-101414-1.html\">according to a report\u003c/a> later submitted to the state Department of Social Services. The shelter’s executive director, Patt Sweeney, said he was aware teens in the program had been trafficked for sex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve made reports to law enforcement,” he said. “It’s just very hard to prosecute.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In exchange for alcohol and marijuana, the girl brought other teens to parties at local motels, where they were given drugs and alcohol and had sex, sometimes by force. She said the parties drew growers and gang members involved in marijuana distribution. Because she brought girls, she said she was never assaulted – and the music and dancing could be fun. But she doesn’t remember much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was always drunk,” she said with a shrug. “And then we’d just go buy more drugs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the girls she met at the shelter and parties also traveled south to trim on marijuana farms. Once there, she said, some found they were expected to do more than trim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sales pitch to young girls is common in pot country, according to Leah Gee, the director of a group home in Eureka that housed the girl. “They’ll give you weed, alcohol and food, and all you have to do is trim.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130101\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130101\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LeahGee-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"“They’ll give you weed, alcohol and food, and all you have to do is trim,” Leah Gee says of the sales pitch to underage girls looking for work on pot farms. But Gee, the director of a group home in Eureka, Calif., says they sometimes find they’re expected to do more than trim.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LeahGee-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LeahGee-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LeahGee.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LeahGee-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/LeahGee-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“They’ll give you weed, alcohol and food, and all you have to do is trim,” Leah Gee says of the sales pitch to underage girls looking for work on pot farms. But Gee, the director of a group home in Eureka, Calif., says they sometimes find they’re expected to do more than trim. \u003ccite>(Andrew Burton/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2013, federal prosecutors said two growers picked up a 15-year-old runaway in Hollywood and took her to their farm in Lake County, near Humboldt. They directed her to trim marijuana and have sex with them, sometimes while chained to a metal rack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In interviews with police after a raid of the farm, the girl described the sex with one of the men as consensual. Sex with the other grower was “\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3035371-Balletto-Complaint.html\">not as consensual\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she was not free to leave: To keep her from fleeing\u003cstrong>, \u003c/strong>the men put her inside an oversized metal toolbox with breathing holes for several days, according to court records, using a garden hose to clean out her waste. The men also shocked the girl with a cattle prod and told her she would be shot by neighbors if she attempted to leave, an employee later told police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local prosecutors charged the men with human trafficking, the first case of its kind in the county. But when federal authorities took over the case, the trafficking charge was dropped. The men are expected to plead guilty later this year on charges of illegal marijuana cultivation and employing a minor in a drug operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">A\u003c/span> deputy sheriff from Humboldt County, Michael Hass, had Terri recount the entire story of her assault over the phone before telling her she had to come in person to make a report – a nearly two-hour drive. The community group that had encouraged her to report made the arrangements. Jenoa Briar-Bonpane went along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they arrived at the county sheriff’s office in Eureka, they walked through the metal detector, down a beige cinder-block hallway to a dimly lit window in the waiting room, Briar-Bonpane recalls. They told the receptionist they were there to see Hass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After several minutes passed, Hass swung open the door, barely making eye contact with Terri. He told her to follow him, but barred Briar-Bonpane from joining her. She told him it was common practice for an advocate to accompany a sexual assault victim to make a report. According to Briar-Bonpane, Hass refused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked about the account, Hass said he did not know that Briar-Bonpane was an advocate and he objected to the many complaints the sheriff’s office later received about his work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were the same complaints that we weren’t taking it seriously and the investigation wasn’t up to the people of Petrolia’s standards,” he said. “From my standpoint, it got handled very seriously.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Terri agreed to make the report anyway. Hass took her into an empty room and pushed a typed statement based on her telephone account in front of her, Briar-Bonpane said. Terri signed it, and five minutes later, they returned to the waiting room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Can you tell us when you’re going to pick him up?” Briar-Bonpane remembers asking, referring to Kailan Meserve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To file her report, Terri was told she had to come in person. It turned out the same trip was not required of Meserve, Briar-Bonpane said. To her surprise, Hass told her deputies already had interviewed Meserve in Petrolia. Meserve had told them the same story he had told others: The night in the trailer was consensual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reveal could not find any record that the deputies ever searched the trailer, and Meserve’s sister, Amy, confirmed that they never did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No one in town seems concerned about him,” Hass said, according to Briar-Bonpane. “We’re not going to arrest him. There’s no evidence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The news left the group back in Petrolia shocked – and Terri terrified. While she moved from home to home and finally to a motel outside of town, the group began to deluge the sheriff’s office with emails and phone calls. Terri’s friend Katie Finnegan took a day off work to file a complaint with the office about its handling of the case. Residents sent \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036023-Petrolia-DA-Emails.html\">letters to the district attorney\u003c/a>, complaining about Hass and urging that Meserve be prosecuted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Please do not let this go without a thorough investigation and arrest,” Dick Scheinman, the town doctor, wrote to then-District Attorney Paul Gallegos in December 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A month passed, and he emailed again: “i am not a legal beagle and am not trying to tell you how to do your job, but i feel it is most important for you to try your hardest to find out what happened.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Meserve remained in Petrolia. “I am very concerned about the safety of women in the Mattole Valley while he is present there,” Briar-Bonpane wrote to newly elected District Attorney Maggie Fleming in March 2015. “Young boys/men in the valley are watching and learning about whether or not you can sexually assault women without consequences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Word of Terri’s allegations reached the woman who had said Meserve raped her the year before. She felt nauseous, then angry. She blamed herself for not reporting it, “because maybe she could have prevented it from happening to the other girl,” an investigator later wrote. About a month after Terri visited Hass, the second victim decided to report her rape. \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036005-Meserve-Warrant.html\">Records show\u003c/a> Hass told her to call the district attorney’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case landed on the desk of Kyla Baxley, the district attorney’s investigator responsible for child abuse and sexual assault cases. She has a reputation for being thorough, going beyond the case information filed by local law enforcement. In 2014, Baxley gathered evidence that allowed the district attorney’s office to prosecute its first human trafficking case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Time and again, Baxley had seen victims in Humboldt County “not met with the respect they deserve,” she told Reveal. In the Petrolia case, she said, both victims felt blown off by the sheriff’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was already a big step for her to take, for her to report it,” she said of Terri. “I was really frustrated, honestly. I felt awful for the poor thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baxley immediately launched her investigation, making plans to meet Terri in person. She brought in community advocates to support Terri as she shared her story yet again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I tried to show her there were a lot of people who supported her and wanted to hear her truth,” Baxley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On April 14, 2015, prosecutors filed charges against Meserve for raping both women. Two weeks later, he surrendered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">A\u003c/span>s the marijuana industry has grown and the trimmigrant population with it, service providers have encountered increasing numbers of human trafficking victims. Humboldt Domestic Violence Services answered more than 2,000 crisis calls last year, an increase of about 80 percent in four years. Executive Director Brenda Bishop attributed the increase to a surge in sexual abuse and trafficking on marijuana grows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130103\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130103\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/DryingBuds-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Trimmed marijuana buds dry at a farm. Trimmers serve at the mercy of their bosses, who are themselves vulnerable to the risks of operating in the black market. When conflicts arise, trimmigrants may find themselves fired without pay.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/DryingBuds-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/DryingBuds-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/DryingBuds.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/DryingBuds-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/DryingBuds-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Trimmed marijuana buds dry at a farm. Trimmers serve at the mercy of their bosses, who are themselves vulnerable to the risks of operating in the black market. When conflicts arise, trimmigrants may find themselves fired without pay. \u003ccite>(Sarah Rice/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Other organizations have noticed a problem, too, including the Eureka Police Department. In a survey of about 200 local homeless people, Police Chief Andrew Mills said his department discovered many were former trimmigrants who had been forced to work on marijuana farms without pay, including women who reported being required to perform sex acts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite evidence of a growing problem, law enforcement has put few resources into investigations of trafficking and sexual exploitation. Instead, police have conducted stings targeting prostitutes and sometimes their pimps. And the Eureka police chief recently posed as a grower online to attract trimmers, only to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036273-Trimmigrant-EPD-letter.html\">warn them\u003c/a> not to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One reason is that, in this spread-out rural region, there are not enough detectives to go around. In Humboldt County, the sheriff’s office is so overtaxed that many deputies are responsible for investigating crimes – a job typically left to detectives – in addition to responding to 911 calls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a detective bureau to handle the bad of the bad crimes, and they can’t even keep up with that. So our deputies are more like detectives,” Lt. Wayne Hanson said. “It’s triage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Humboldt native with a bushy gray mustache, Hanson has raided marijuana farms for more than two decades. On the walls of his office are framed photographs and news clips, including one from the day after voters legalized medical marijuana in 1996. In the photograph, Hanson – with a dark brown mustache – stands next to towering piles of marijuana plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was a warehouse in downtown Eureka, where people were growing marijuana for money. That’s why marijuana is grown – for money, not for medical reasons,” Hanson said. “People are greedy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hanson and other local law enforcement officials see the greed that has amplified California’s marijuana industry as a common denominator in violent and organized crimes. Hanson said many grows also cause environmental damage. As a result, marijuana has remained a high priority for them, even as federal and state authorities have pulled back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130104\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130104\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CannaTrimming-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Richard Mansfield trims cannabis on his daughter’s farm in Redcrest, Calif. Workers rotate the buds with the tips of their fingers as they clip off the stems and curly bits of leaf.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CannaTrimming-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CannaTrimming-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CannaTrimming.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CannaTrimming-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/CannaTrimming-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richard Mansfield trims cannabis on his daughter’s farm in Redcrest, Calif. Workers rotate the buds with the tips of their fingers as they clip off the stems and curly bits of leaf. \u003ccite>(Sarah Rice/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Marijuana raids also have become a large source of revenue for local law enforcement agencies. During raids, officers have confiscated not just harvests, but also money, guns and even farming equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humboldt County law enforcement agencies made 100 seizures of property and funds last year, including from farmers who had legal permission to grow. The value of the assets totaled more than $2 million – more per capita than was pulled from the state’s 15 most populous counties combined, \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/publications/asset_forf/2015-af/2015-af.pdf?\">state data shows\u003c/a>. Mendocino County’s marijuana eradication team receives a finder’s fee from a pool of seized funds for every case it initiates, in addition to a nearly 50 percent cut of any \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036024-Mendocino-Asset-Forfeiture-MOU.html\">confiscated funds\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result is tantamount to tunnel vision, said Kyla Baxley, the district attorney’s office investigator. “They’re going in to eradicate marijuana, and they would probably tell you nothing else is happening but the drugs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That perspective seems to pervade law enforcement agencies across the Emerald Triangle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014, the year Terri arrived in Petrolia, a young Mexican woman arrived in nearby Mendocino County, ready to start the restaurant job she was promised. Instead, a grower – Baldemar Alvarez – put her to work on several marijuana farms, she said, and forced her to cook, clean his house and have sex with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The woman said Alvarez, twice her age, called her a prostitute and said she belonged to him until she reimbursed him for hiring a coyote to bring her into the country illegally. He stoked her fear, telling her she’d get lost in the woods and a bear would feast on her body if she fled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the time, I had fear,” said Carmen (not her real name). “Fear, thinking, ‘If the police catch me, they’re going to arrest me. They’re not going to let me explain, they’re not going to believe me.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually, Carmen persuaded Alvarez to take her to the doctor for stomach pains, she said. Once there, a nurse-midwife told her she was pregnant, and Carmen shared her story of abuse. When she returned to Alvarez, she left her address behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mendocino County sheriff’s deputies \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036030-Redacted-Report.html\">picked up Carmen and the grower\u003c/a> a few days later. Carmen was relieved. But at the station, things changed. A detective asked her whether she had made the claims just to get immigration documents, she said. Victims of sexual assault are eligible for a special kind of visa, known as a U-visa. Trafficking victims are eligible for a T-visa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carmen’s abuse allegations are documented in police \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036027-Incident-Report-2014-00023144-Redacted-2.html\">dispatch records\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036275-20160830103623931.html\">a restraining order\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036276-20160830103613365.html\">other documents\u003c/a>, but the full extent of the investigation is unclear. The detective involved did not respond to interview requests, and the sheriff’s office declined to provide a copy of its investigation, saying it was not yet complete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Underscoring the he-said, she-said obstacles for law enforcement, Alvarez told Reveal that Carmen fabricated the story to get immigration papers. He told detectives he had planned to marry her. Even though she hasn’t paid him back for her illegal border crossing, he said, he has sent her money on a couple of occasions for the baby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was a big misunderstanding; she’s a backstabber is what I call it,” he said, denying he had abused her or anyone else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But another woman who had a relationship with the grower and gave birth to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036291-20160830111656824.html\">one of his children\u003c/a> said he repeatedly has brought women, including herself, into the United States from Mexico and abused them. Investigators never contacted her, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the sun began to rise the morning after deputies took Carmen into custody, she said the detective told her that he had one last request. He put her in a room with Alvarez and had her confront him, to get him to confess. It didn’t work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, at this time, we do not have any evidence to detain him,” she recalled the detective saying. “Everything you say, he denies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deputies charged Alvarez with \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036030-Redacted-Report.html\">felony marijuana cultivation\u003c/a> in August 2014, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036026-Docs-Produced-1.html\">his third\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036025-Reveal-Media-14-15437.html\">arrest\u003c/a> for the offense in three years. \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036274-20160830103632255.html\">Jail records\u003c/a> show he bailed out within 20 minutes. The prosecutor never took the case to court.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Thursday, April 30, 2015\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>he case against Kailan Meserve was unprecedented – the first time a marijuana grower in Humboldt County had been charged with raping a trimmigrant. In Petrolia, it had created a rift, causing many to question the trust they had placed in the community. Yet outside Petrolia, it captured little attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aside from a local blog, no media outlets covered Meserve’s arrest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He remained in jail briefly while the prosecutor’s office argued against allowing him to post his \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036032-Bail-Motion.html\">$2 million bail\u003c/a>. Investigator Kyla Baxley had seen large greenhouses on several of Meserve’s properties and argued that his income had been \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036005-Meserve-Warrant.html\">derived illegally\u003c/a> from the cultivation of marijuana. In the end, Meserve’s family and friends pooled funds, and he was released.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130105\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11130105\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/KailanMugshot.jpg\" alt=\"Kailan Meserve of Petrolia, shown in his mugshot. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison.\" width=\"500\" height=\"593\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/KailanMugshot.jpg 500w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/KailanMugshot-400x474.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kailan Meserve of Petrolia, shown in his mugshot. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the next year, he enrolled in treatment for alcohol abuse, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3036032-Bail-Motion.html\">court records\u003c/a>. Facebook photos show he and his family also enjoyed a Disney vacation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sam Epperson fell into a deep depression. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was responsible for Terri climbing into Meserve’s truck that night. With harvest season over, Terri had left Petrolia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, on April 4, 2016, the trial date arrived. Meserve sat next to his lawyer in a courtroom in downtown Eureka, dressed in a button-down shirt and slacks. Terri had returned to take the stand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is this your first time testifying in court? How do you feel about being here?” prosecutor Brie Bennett asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“OK,” Terri replied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She described the night in detail. The feeling of panic, the sexual acts, the violence. She answered questions from the defense attorney about her sex life in Petrolia and a shoplifting conviction from years ago. At one point, her voice began to crack, and she wiped tears from behind her black-framed glasses. Her voice grew faint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge leaned over. “Please speak up,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other victim described waking up the morning after the assault, crying and sore. She told her friend she had to go, according to court records, and began the long drive back to San Francisco, making stops to throw up along the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the stand, Meserve denied having a drug problem and called his encounters with Terri and the other woman consensual. Everyone was drunk, he said. No one ever told him to stop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Did she say she wanted to go to the trailer?” the prosecutor asked about Terri.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She never said she didn’t,” Meserve responded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From her seat in the courtroom, Meserve’s sister, Amy, remembers watching an image take shape that she did not recognize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s being portrayed like some monster,” she said later. “Obviously, he did not think he was raping anyone. I just don’t think he did. That’s not who he is, that’s not what he’s capable of. I just know if they would have said no or stop or anything, he would have stopped.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Meserve’s family attended the trial, most of the group that had supported Terri remained behind in Petrolia. It was a far distance to travel, but it also was painful to watch. Many believed it had been a mistake to contact law enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am friends with his sister and his dad and his mom,” said longtime local grower Greg Smith. “It feels like we’re carrying a big weight on our chest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130106\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130106\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaSunset-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Nearly everyone in the tiny town of Petrolia knows each other. Most are involved in marijuana growing to some degree. It’s where Terri, a 22-year-old environmentalist and musician, arrived in the middle of the 2014 harvest season looking for trimming work.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaSunset-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaSunset-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaSunset.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaSunset-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/PetroliaSunset-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nearly everyone in the tiny town of Petrolia knows each other. Most are involved in marijuana growing to some degree. It’s where Terri, a 22-year-old environmentalist and musician, arrived in the middle of the 2014 harvest season looking for trimming work. \u003ccite>(Andrew Burton/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The community of Petrolia was changing, but residents weren’t sure it was for the better. California Gov. Jerry Brown had signed a package of laws that would further regulate the medical marijuana industry, beginning with state-issued licenses in 2018. Many Humboldt County growers have refused to participate. They would not sign up for county permits, the first step toward legal compliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To complicate matters, under the new regulations, counties can ban growing altogether, and many have, preserving a highly profitable black market. Competition is increasing, and prices are likely to drop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this new future, it seemed, small farmers would struggle financially. Success would mean going big or continuing to sell on the black market. Before his arrest, Meserve had found that success growing marijuana, accruing land, money and power. But some wondered, at what cost?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On April 19, a jury found Meserve guilty of 15 felony counts, including rape and false imprisonment. His wife began to cry as deputies handcuffed him and took him into custody.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the news reached Petrolia, many in the group that had supported Terri felt deflated instead of relieved. They knew the conviction meant Meserve could end up spending the rest of his life in prison. Smith and Epperson agreed to write letters to the judge urging a lenient sentence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would rather have rehabilitation than punishment,” Smith said. “Some people think it’s impossible with him, but I don’t know. I just have hope that people can change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On July 28, the Meserve family and their supporters filed into the courtroom. Meserve’s mother, sister and wife cried as he stood motionless, awaiting the judge’s sentence. Each read from a prepared statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These charges are extreme and overboard,” said his father, David. “These charges are from an enthusiasm for prosecuting people in the marijuana industry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Kailan wants to start an AA group in Petrolia,” said Monica, his wife. “He wants to give back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Terri was not there. An advocate read a statement from the second victim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every morsel of self-confidence has left me,” she read. “Humboldt is my home, and I cannot bring myself to visit my friends or family there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge sentenced Meserve to 23 years in prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11130107\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11130107\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/AdSolicitsWork-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"A handwritten ad solicits work in downtown Garberville. Male trimmers told Reveal they repeatedly were passed up or let go to make room for female workers.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/AdSolicitsWork-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/AdSolicitsWork-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/AdSolicitsWork.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/AdSolicitsWork-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/AdSolicitsWork-960x641.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A handwritten ad solicits work in downtown Garberville. Male trimmers told Reveal they repeatedly were passed up or let go to make room for female workers. \u003ccite>(Sarah Rice/Reveal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He did not make a statement in court that day. Through his family, he declined to comment for this story. Terri has since moved out of state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, as the harvest season swings into full gear, a new crop of trimmigrants is streaming north, thumbs out, pointing toward the thickly forested mountains of the Emerald Triangle.\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>\u003cstrong>Correction:\u003c/strong> An earlier version of this story incorrectly characterized the pingpong tournament held at Petrolia’s community center. Only Meserve was involved with the setup.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11129842/in-secretive-marijuana-industry-whispers-of-abuse-and-trafficking","authors":["byline_news_11129842"],"programs":["news_6944","news_72"],"series":["news_19101"],"categories":["news_6188","news_8"],"tags":["news_19542","news_685","news_102","news_19907","news_1527","news_17286","news_17041"],"affiliates":["news_1667"],"featImg":"news_11129845","label":"source_news_11129842","isLoading":false,"hasAllInfo":true}},"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/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.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/2024/04/All-Things-Considered-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.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://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/American-Suburb-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.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://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bay-Curious-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.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://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.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/2024/04/Code-Switch-Life-Kit-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","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. 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On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. 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For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us","airtime":"SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am","imageSrc":"https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm","meta":{"site":"news","source":"wnyc"},"link":"/radio/program/on-the-media","subscribe":{"apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/","rss":"http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"}},"our-body-politic":{"id":"our-body-politic","title":"Our Body Politic","info":"Presented by KQED, KCRW and KPCC, and created and hosted by award-winning journalist Farai Chideya, Our Body Politic is unapologetically centered on reporting on not just how women of color experience the major political events of today, but how they’re impacting those very issues.","airtime":"SAT 6pm-7pm, SUN 1am-2am","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Our-Body-Politic-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://our-body-politic.simplecast.com/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kcrw"},"link":"/radio/program/our-body-politic","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/our-body-politic/id1533069868","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9feGFQaHMxcw","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/4ApAiLT1kV153TttWAmqmc","rss":"https://feeds.simplecast.com/_xaPhs1s","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/Our-Body-Politic-p1369211/"}},"pbs-newshour":{"id":"pbs-newshour","title":"PBS NewsHour","info":"Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.","airtime":"MON-FRI 3pm-4pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"pbs"},"link":"/radio/program/pbs-newshour","subscribe":{"apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/","rss":"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"}},"perspectives":{"id":"perspectives","title":"Perspectives","tagline":"KQED's series of of daily listener commentaries since 1991","info":"KQED's series of of daily listener commentaries since 1991.","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Perspectives-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"/perspectives/","meta":{"site":"radio","source":"kqed","order":"15"},"link":"/perspectives","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135","npr":"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives","rss":"https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"}},"planet-money":{"id":"planet-money","title":"Planet Money","info":"The economy explained. 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The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.","airtime":"SAT 4pm-5pm","imageSrc":"https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/reveal300px.png","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/reveal","subscribe":{"apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/reveal/id886009669","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/Reveal-p679597/","rss":"http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"}},"says-you":{"id":"says-you","title":"Says You!","info":"Public radio's game show of bluff and bluster, words and whimsy. 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