Floods Aren’t Going Away, But There’s a Better Way to Handle Them

BY TIM PALMER

APRIL 5, 2024
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Willamette River in flood stage, Canby, Oregon. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

As the water rose during the most damaging flood in American history up to that time, I happened to be living at ground-zero of the storm. My house was narrowly spared, but neighbors suffered deeply. Stranded in an Appalachian valley of northcentral Pennsylvania, I helped in the emergency response. As soon as the water subsided enough for local roads to open, I returned to my job as county planner. I faced the challenging task of figuring out what should be done differently to not just recover from the current disaster but also to avoid the next one. In the aftermath I saw how dams had failed to contain the flood crest, how levees had ruptured when we needed them the most, and how post-flood relief was costly, inadequate, and useless in coping with the floods of the future. There had to be a better way.

After fifty years of engagement in flooding, and after writing many books about rivers and river conservation, I found that the floods of the future are going to be higher, more intense, and longer lasting. Our flood control efforts are failing and we need solutions that can truly curb the damage and also benefit rivers and the vital life they contain. My new book, Seek Higher Groundis a story of how we develop our landscape, of river health and well-being, and of the warming climate that poses ominous forecasts for increased flooding.

High-water problems have periodically floated to the top of public agendas ever since the Flood Control Act of 1936, which unleashed a fifty-year frenzy of dam building on virtually every major river in America. Seeing the futility of relying solely on dams and levees, Congress in 1973 bolstered a latent national flood insurance program with incentives for local governments to qualify their residents for subsidized flood insurance provided the communities also zone lowlands to limit new development in hazardous areas. Yet, by having taxpayers shoulder the risks of flooding, the insurance subsidy ironically provides the incentive to build and linger in the danger zone. The entire program has become a vivid illustration of the law of unintended consequences.

Billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent building dams to stop floods from occurring, constructing levees to keep floods away from homes, and insuring and subsidizing people to rebuild in the aftermath. But relatively little has been spent to protect floodplains as open space, and comparatively little has been invested to help people relocate away from deadly hazards. Analyzing the numbers, the Natural Resources Defense Council found that every $1.70 our government spends helping people move away from flood hazards has been matched with $100 helping people stay in the danger zone by paying for relief, rebuilding, and subsidized insurance. The Council’s Rob Moore succinctly summed this up: “A lot more is spent helping people stay in harm’s way than is being spent to help them move out of harm’s way.” For many who await the next rise of high water, getting out of the way is the only path to a better future.

The challenge to public policy here goes beyond pragmatic issues of spending, and into the realm of river conservation with goals of healthy streams in mind. Floods are necessary phenomena that shape streams with essential pools and riffles. Floods recharge groundwater that half our population depends upon for drinking supplies, that nourish riparian corridors as the most important habitats to wildlife, and that create conditions needed for fish to survive and spawn. Rivers need floods and nature needs floodplains.

Our approaches to flood damages have not worked, and now the floods are getting worse. High water is becoming more intense, frequent, and widespread. The US Global Change Research Program forecast that precipitation will increase up to 40 percent across much of the country. Virtually all reliable sources report that flooding will grow as the planet’s climate warms. It has to—every 1 degree rise in atmospheric temperature allows the sky to hold 4 percent more water, and it all comes back down as rain or snow.

But there is hope, and a long list of sensible approaches have succeeded in denting the armor of this problem. The metro government of Nashville has sustained a floodplain management and relocation program for decades and succeeded in halting development on high hazard floodplains while helping 400 home owners move to safer terrain. Charlotte, North Carolina, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, sponsor similar initiatives. Lycoming County, Pennsylvania succeeded in getting all fifty-two of its local municipalities to enact floodplain zoning, and then launched a buy-out program that helps people move to drier ground. Napa, California transformed a conventional proposal for higher levees to a plan that expanded acreage dedicated to flooding and that sequestered new parklands along the river. The Susquehanna Greenway Partnership strives to protect recreational greenways along hundreds of miles of the East Coast’s largest waterway.

Rivers make the news when they flood people’s homes, but that’s the bad news. The good news is that floodplains can be protected and restored. The rise of water can be beautiful provided we’re not living in the path of the greater floods to come.

Tim Palmer is the author of Seek Higher Ground: The Natural Solution to Our Urgent Flooding Crisis, published by the University of California Press, 2024, and other books about river conservation, including Field Guide to California Rivers and Endangered Rivers and the Conservation Movement. See www.timpalmer.org.

U$A

Man guilty in Black transgender woman's killing in 1st federal hate crime trial over gender identity

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina man was found guilty Friday of killing a Black transgender woman in the nation’s first federal trial over an alleged hate crime based on gender identity.

James Pollard, The Associated Press

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In this image undated selfie provided courtesy of the Dime Doe family, shows Dime Doe, a Black transgender woman. Doe's August 2019 death is now the subject of a first-of-its-kind federal hate crimes trial that began this week in Columbia, S.C. (Courtesy Dime Doe Family via AP)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina man was found guilty Friday of killing a Black transgender woman in the nation’s first federal trial over an alleged hate crime based on gender identity.

Jurors decided that Daqua Lameek Ritter fatally shot Dime Doe three times Aug. 4, 2019, because of her gender identity. Ritter was also convicted of using a firearm in connection with the crime and obstructing justice.

The four-day trial centered on the secret sexual relationship between Doe and Ritter, who had grown agitated in the weeks preceding the killing by the exposure of their affair in the small town of Allendale, South Carolina, according to witness testimony and text messages obtained by the FBI.

There have been hate crime prosecutions based on gender identity in the past, but none of them reached trial. A Mississippi man received a 49-year prison sentence in 2017 as part of a plea deal after he admitted to killing a 17-year-old transgender woman.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A Black transgender woman and the guy she was secretly dating had just been pulled over in rural South Carolina. Dime Doe, the driver, was worried. She already had points against her license and didn't want another ticket to stop her from getting behind the wheel. Daqua Lameek Ritter, whom she affectionately called “my man," frequently relied on her for rides.

Everything seemed to turn out OK: Doe sent a text message to her mother that afternoon saying she got a $72 ticket but was “alright.”

Hours later, police found her slumped over in the driver's seat of her car, parked in a driveway off a secluded road. Her death on Aug. 4, 2019, is now the subject of the nation’s first federal trial over an alleged hate crime based on gender identity, which started Tuesday.

Much of what transpired in the roughly two-and-a-half hours between the last time Doe was seen and the discovery of her body remains unclear. But as prosecutors wrap up their case this week, more details are emerging about the furtive connection between the 24-year-old Doe — remembered by friends as an outspoken party lover — and Ritter, a man whose distinctive left wrist tattoo is captured in body camera footage from the traffic stop.

Ritter has been charged with a “hate crime for the murder of a transgender woman because of her gender identity,” using a firearm in connection with the hate crime and obstructing justice.

The U.S. Department of Justice alleges that he killed Doe to prevent further exposure of their affair in a small country town where the rumor mill was already churning. Text exchanges between the pair show Ritter tried to dispel gossip of the relationship in the weeks preceding Doe's death. He also tracked the investigation of her killing while coyly answering his main girlfriend's questions in the following days, according to trial testimony.

It was no secret in Allendale, South Carolina — population 8,000 — that Doe had begun her social transition as a woman shortly after graduating high school, her close friends testified. Doe started dressing in skirts, getting her nails done and wearing extensions. She and her friends went out drinking. They discussed boys they were seeing.

One of those boys was Ritter, who traveled from New York to visit family during summertime. Doe and Ritter grew close over the course of those stays, leaving Delasia Green — Ritter's primary girlfriend in the summer of 2019 — with a “gut feeling" that something was up.

Ritter initially told Green that he and Doe were cousins, the girlfriend testified this week. But then she found messages on his phone from an unsaved number that spoke of “getting a room.” She assumed they were from Doe.

When Green confronted Ritter, he became upset and told her that she shouldn't question his sexuality, she said.

Yanna Albany, Doe's cousin, testified that she too had a relationship with Ritter that summer but ended it after about three weeks when Doe told her she was also seeing him. Albany said when she broke up with Ritter, he turned red, threatened to beat Doe for “lying on him" and used a homophobic slur.

Nonetheless, Doe's relationship with Ritter seemed to grow stronger after the entanglement, Albany said. Other friends said Doe never mentioned any drama between the two.

Still, texts obtained by the FBI suggest that Ritter sought to keep their connection under wraps as much as possible. He would remind Doe to delete their communications from her phone, and the majority of the hundreds of texts sent in the month before her death were removed

Shortly before Doe's death, the text messages started getting tense. In a July 29, 2019, message, she complained that Ritter did not reciprocate her generosity. He replied that he thought they had an understanding that she didn't need the “extra stuff.” He also told her that Green had recently insulted him with a homophobic slur. In a July 31 text, Doe said she felt used and that Ritter should never have let his girlfriend find out about them.

Ritter's defense attorneys said the sampling of messages introduced by the prosecution represented only a “snapshot” of their exchanges. They pointed to a July 18 text in which Doe encouraged Ritter, and another exchange where Ritter thanked Doe for one of her many kindnesses.

But witnesses delivered other potentially damning testimony against Ritter.

On the day Doe died, a group of friends saw the defendant ride away in a silver car with tinted windows — a vehicle that Ritter's acquaintance Kordell Jenkins testified he had seen Doe drive previously. When Ritter returned to play cards several hours later, Jenkins said he wore a new outfit and appeared “on edge.” It was a buggy summer day, and the group of four began building a fire in a barrel to smoke out the mosquitoes.

Ritter emptied his book bag into the barrel, Jenkins testified. He said he couldn't see the contents, but assumed they were items Ritter no longer wanted, possibly the clothes he'd worn earlier that day.

Jenkins said that when the two ran into each other the following day, he could see the silver handle of a small firearm sticking out from the waistline of Ritter's pants. He said Ritter asked him to “get it gone.”

Defense attorneys argued it was preposterous to think that Ritter would ask someone he barely knew to dispose of an alleged murder weapon.

But soon after Doe died, Allendale was abuzz with rumors that Ritter had killed her.

Green testified that when he showed up later that week at her cousin's house in Columbia, he was dirty, smelly and couldn't stop pacing. Her cousin’s boyfriend gave Ritter a ride to the bus stop, presumably so he could return to New York. Before he left, Green asked him if he had killed Doe.

“He dropped his head and gave me a little smirk,” Green said.

Ritter monitored the fallout from Doe's death from New York, according to FBI Special Agent Clay Trippi, citing Facebook messages between Ritter and a friend from Allendale, Xavier Pinckney. On Aug. 11, Pinckney told Ritter nobody was “really talking,” which Trippi said he took as a reference to scant cooperation with police.

But by Aug. 14, Pinckney was warning Ritter to stay away from Allendale because he'd been visited by state police. He later said that somebody was “snitching.”

Trippi testified that his sources never again saw Ritter in Allendale for the summers following Doe’s death.

Federal officials charged Pinckney with obstructing justice, saying he provided false and misleading statements.

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Pollard is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

James Pollard, The Associated Press

Video shows Oklahoma nonbinary teen after attack in school bathroom, the day before their death

KEN MILLER, PHILIP MARCELO and JAMIE STENGLE
Updated Fri, February 23, 2024 




In this image provided Malia Pila, Nex Benedict poses outside the family's home in Owasso, Okla., in December 2023. A recently released police search warrant reveals more details in the case of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary Oklahoma student who died a day after a high school bathroom fight that may have been prompted by bullying over gender identity. (Sue Benedict via AP)

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A 16-year-old Oklahoma student who died the day after a fight in a high school bathroom was conscious and alert when telling police about the attack by three girls that occurred after the teen squirted them with water, according to police video released Friday.

Nex Benedict's mother called police to come to the hospital on Feb. 7 after the teen was attacked at school in the Tulsa suburb of Owasso. Nex, who identified as nonbinary and used they/them pronouns, died the next day after their mother called emergency responders to their home, saying Nex's breathing was shallow, their eyes were rolling back and their hands were curled, according to audio also released by Owasso police.

In the video from the hospital the day of the altercation, Nex explains to an officer that the girls had been picking on them and their friends because of the way they dressed. Nex claims that in the bathroom the girls said “something like: why do they laugh like that," referring to Nex and their friends.

"And so I went up there and I poured water on them, and then all three of them came at me,” Nex tells the officer while reclining in a hospital bed.

“They came at me. They grabbed on my hair. I grabbed onto them. I threw one of them into a paper towel dispenser and then they got my legs out from under me and got me on the ground," Nex says in the video, adding that the girls then started beating Nex and they blacked out.

In the 911 call on Feb. 8, Nex's mother, Sue Benedict, expressed concern about a head injury as she described Nex's symptoms.

“I hope this ain't from her head. They were supposed to have checked her out good,” said Benedict, who remained calm during the call and said she had been to nursing school. Benedict said in a statement on a GoFundMe page set up to help cover funeral expenses that the family was still learning to use the teen’s preferred name and pronouns.

Paramedics responding to the family’s house performed CPR and rushed Nex to the hospital, where they later died.

In audio of the call Benedict made to police on Feb. 7, Benedict said she wanted an officer to come so she could file charges. The officer who responded can be heard in the hospital video explaining that Nex started the altercation by throwing the water and the court would view it as a mutual fight.

According to a police search warrant, Benedict indicated to police on Feb. 7 that she didn’t want to file charges at that time. Benedict instead asked police to speak to school officials about issues on campus among students.

The Feb. 9 search warrant, which was filed with the court on Feb. 21, also shows investigators took 137 photographs at the school, including inside the girl’s bathroom where the fight occurred. They additionally collected two swabs of stains from the bathroom and retrieved records and documents of the students involved in the altercation.

While the two-week-old warrant states that police were seeking evidence in a felony murder, the department has since said Benedict’s death was not a result of injuries suffered in the fight, based on the preliminary results of the autopsy.

The police department, which didn’t respond to multiple messages sent Friday, has said it won’t comment further on the teen’s cause of death until toxicology and other autopsy results are completed.

Video released by police from the high school on Feb. 7 shows students walking into and then out of a bathroom after stacking chairs on top of tables in a cafeteria. Six students are seen entering the bathroom before Nex, who stops at a water fountain and then enters the bathroom along with two other students. A faculty member is then seen going into the bathroom, and the students walk out.

There is no indication from the footage, which only shows the bathroom door and part of the cafeteria, of what occurred in the bathroom.

The school district has said the students were in the restroom for less than two minutes before the fight was broken up by other students and a staff member. Police and school officials have not said what provoked the fight.

The family, through their lawyer, declined to comment Friday on the search warrant. The attorney did not immediately offer any comment Friday on behalf of the family on the video and audio released. Earlier this week, they said they have launched their own independent investigation into what happened.

Vigils are planned over the weekend in Oklahoma for the teen.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday that she was “absolutely heartbroken” over Nex’s death.

“Every young person deserves to feel safe and supported at school,” Jean-Pierre said.

___

Marcelo reported from New York and Stengle reported from Dallas.

FRACKQUAKE

Oklahoma rattled by shallow 5.1 magnitude earthquake

 

FEBRUARY 3, 2024 

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A 5.1 magnitude earthquake shook an area near Oklahoma City late Friday, followed by smaller quakes during the next several hours, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

No injuries were reported and damage appeared to be minimal, mostly items overturned or shaken from shelves inside homes, according to Lincoln County Deputy Emergency Management Director Charlotte Brown.

"Nothing significant ... nothing other than lots of scared people," Brown said.

The earthquake struck at 11:24 p.m. and was centered 8 kilometers (5 miles) northwest of Prague, Oklahoma, about 57 miles (92 kilometers) east of Oklahoma City, the agency said.

Residents across the state from Lawton to Enid to Tulsa reported feeling the shaking to the U.S.G.S.

The initial earthquake was followed by at least eight smaller temblors through Saturday morning, ranging in strength from magnitude 2.5 to 3.4, according to the geological survey.

The earthquake was shallow—just 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) deep, according to the USGS—and temblors that hit close to the surface can make the shaking more intense.

At least six earthquakes, including two greater than magnitude 4, were recorded near another Oklahoma City suburb in January. In April, a magnitude 4 earthquake was among a series of six that struck the central Oklahoma town of Carney, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northeast of Oklahoma City.

A 5.7 magnitude earthquake struck Prague in 2011, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) south of the state's strongest recorded earthquake site in Pawnee, which registered a magnitude 5.8 in 2016.

Thousands of earthquakes have been recorded in Oklahoma in recent years, many linked to the underground injection of wastewater from oil and natural gas extraction, particularly in what is known as the Arbuckle formation that includes the area around Prague.

The epicenter of the Saturday earthquake was nearly the exact spot of the epicenter of the 2011 quake, according to Matt Skinner, spokesperson for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry in the state.

"That was one of the early areas where action was taken" to limit the injection of wastewater, said Skinner.

"Disposal wells within 10 miles of the quake" must stop operating temporarily, Skinner said.

The corporation commission has directed several producers to close some injection wells and reduce the volumes in others as a result of the quakes.

© 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Magnitude 6.4 earthquake shakes parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan but no damage is reported

Ancient rocks improve understanding of tectonic activity between earthquakes

by Matthew Carroll, Pennsylvania State University

Block model of a subduction zone with a section of the forearc removed, exposing the top

 of the downgoing plate. Dashed red lines are isotherms. Pink patches represent locations

 of accelerated footwall deformation by diffusive mass transfer (DMT). Strain rate in 

footwall increases on average from the top to the bottom of the seismogenic zone, where 

steady strain occurs that accommodates the plate rate. 

Credit: Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi7279

Rocks once buried deep in ancient subduction zones—where tectonic plates collide—could help scientists make better predictions of how these zones behave during the years between major earthquakes, according to a research team from Penn State and Brown University.

Clues from rock formations in Alaska and Japan allowed the scientists to develop a new model to predict the pressure solution activity in subduction zones, the researchers reported in the journal Science Advances.

Sedimentary rocks comprise grains surrounded by water-containing pores. When rocks are squeezed together under great pressure, the grains dissolve at their boundaries into the water present in pores, forming pressure solution. This allows the rocks to deform, or change shape, influencing how the tectonic plates slide past each other.

"It's like when you go ice skating—the blade on the surface ends up melting the ice, which allows you to glide along," said corresponding author Donald Fisher, professor of geosciences at Penn State. "In rocks, what happens is quartz grains dissolve at stressed contacts and the dissolved material moves to cracks where it precipitates."

The world's most powerful earthquakes happen in subduction zones, where one tectonic plate slides beneath the other. When these plates become stuck together, stress builds in the crust of the Earth—like a rubber band being stretched. When enough stress builds up to overcome the friction holding the plates together—like a rubber band snapping—an earthquake occurs.

"We've shown that pressure solution is a fundamental process during the interseismic period in subduction zones," Fisher said. "The occurrence of this pressure solution can really affect the amount of elastic strain that accumulates in different parts of the seismogenic zone."

Pressure solution is difficult to explore in the laboratory because it typically occurs very slowly over thousands to millions of years, Fisher said. Speeding up the process in the lab requires higher temperatures, which produces other changes in rocks that impact the experiments.

The scientists instead turned to rocks that once experienced these tectonic pressures and were later brought to the surface by geological processes. The rocks show microscopic shears—or breaks caused by strain—that contain textures that provide evidence for pressure solution, the scientists said.

"This work allows us to test a flow law, or model, that describes the rate of pressure solution in ancient rocks that were once down at the plate boundary and have been exhumed to the surface," Fisher said. "And we can apply this to active margins that are moving today."

A previous study by another team of scientists linked stress the rocks experienced and strain rate—or how much they deformed. In the new work, Fisher and his colleague, Greg Hirth, professor at Brown University, created a more detailed model that considers factors like the rocks' grain size and solubility, or how much of the rock material can dissolve into liquid.

"We were able to parameterize the solubility as a function of temperature and pressure, in a practical way that hadn't been done before," Fisher said. "So now we can plug in numbers—different grain sizes, different temperatures, different pressures and get the strain rate out of that."

The results can help reveal where in the seismogenic layer—the range of depths at which most earthquakes occur—that strain is occurring.

The researchers applied their model to the Cascadia Subduction Zone, an active fault that runs from northern California to Canada and by major cities such as Portland, Oregon, Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia.

The temperature along the plate boundary and the amount of strain built up is well studied there, and the results of their model match crustal movements based on satellite observations, the scientists said.

"Cascadia is a great example because it's late in the interseismic period—it's been 300 years since the last major earthquake," Fisher said. "We may experience one in our lifetime, which would be the biggest natural disaster that North America can anticipate in terms of the potential for shaking and resulting tsunami."

More information: Donald M. Fisher et al, A pressure solution flow law for the seismogenic zone: Application to Cascadia, Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi7279

Provided by Pennsylvania State University Long-dead marine organisms may influence next major earthquake

California introduces first-in-nation slavery reparations package
Lara Korte
Wed, January 31, 2024 



SACRAMENTO, California — California state lawmakers introduced a slate of reparations bills on Wednesday, including a proposal to restore property taken by “race-based” cases of eminent domain and a potentially unconstitutional measure to provide state funding for “specific groups.”

The package marks a first-in-the-nation effort to give restitution to Black Americans who have been harmed by centuries of racist policies and practices. California’s legislative push is the culmination of years of research and debate, including 111-pages of recommendations issued last year by a task force.

Other states like Colorado, New York, and Massachusetts have commissioned reparations studies or task forces, but California is the first to attempt to turn those ideas into law.


The 14 measures introduced by the Legislative Black Caucus touch on education, civil rights and criminal justice, including reviving a years-old effort to restrict solitary confinement that failed to make it out of the statehouse as recently as last year.

Not included is any type of financial compensation to descendants of Black slaves, a polarizing proposal that has received a cool response from many state Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“While many only associate direct cash payments with reparations, the true meaning of the word, to repair, involves much more,” Assemblymember Lori Wilson, chair of the caucus, said in a statement. “We need a comprehensive approach to dismantling the legacy of slavery and systemic racism.”

The package does have a provision that would give some monetary relief. The proposed bill, authored by State Sen. Steven Bradford, a Democrat from the Los Angeles area, deals with “property takings.” It would, “Restore property taken during raced-based uses of eminent domain to its original owners or provide another effective remedy where appropriate, such as restitution or compensation.”

Black lawmakers are already anticipating an uphill battle. They anticipate spending many hours to educate fellow legislators and convince them to pass the bills.

Some of the measures could also run into legal trouble.

Democratic Assemblymember Corey Jackson, who represents a district north of San Diego, is proposing asking voters to change California’s Constitution to allow the state to fund programs aimed at “increasing the life expectancy of, improving educational outcomes for, or lifting out of poverty specific groups based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin, or marginalized genders, sexes, or sexual orientations.”

That plan could face a similar constitutional challenge like the one that ultimately dismantled affirmative action.

Other proposals include protections for “natural and protective” hairstyles in all competitive sports, and a formal apology by the governor and Legislature for the state’s role in human rights violations and crimes against humanity on African slaves and their descendants.

The caucus will flesh out the package in the coming weeks.


The California Legislative Black Caucus introduced more than a dozen reparation-related bills 

Taiyler S. Mitchell

HUFF POST
Thu, February 1, 2024 

The California Legislative Black Caucus introduced more than a dozen reparation-related bills Wednesday, the day before the start of Black History Month.

The historic package of legislation follows the June 2023 release of a 500-page Reparations Task Force Report, which listed myriad recommendations to remedy generations of systemic harm against Black Californians, beginning during slavery.

None of the 14 bills includes cash payouts to Black residents across the board in the face of a projected state budget deficit of nearly $40 billion, the Los Angeles Times reported.

A 2023 poll by the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, co-sponsored by the L.A. Times, found that the majority of California residents do not support reparations in the form of cash.

“We started realizing with the budget environment we were going to have to do more systemic policy change to address systemic racism versus big budget asks because there just wasn’t the budget for it,” state Assemblywoman Lori D. Wilson (D) said, according to the L.A. Times. “Our priorities centered around policy changes or creating opportunities.”

The bills, known collectively as the 2024 CLBC Reparation Priority Bill Package, focus on improvements in education, health, business, prisons and civil rights. According to The Associated Press, several of the bills call for California’s Constitution to be changed, which will be a tough sell to some lawmakers.

The package also has its critics, who say the bills don’t go far enough.

“Not one person who is a descendant who is unhoused will be off the street from that list of proposals. Not one single mom who is struggling who is a descendant will be helped,” Chris Lodgson, an organizer with the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, said, according to The Associated Press. “Not one dime of the debt that’s owed is being repaid.”

According to a news release from the California Legislative Black Caucus, this set of bills starts off a “multi-year effort to implement the legislative recommendations in the report.”

“We will endeavor to right the wrongs committed against black communities through laws and policies designed to restrict and alienate African Americans. These atrocities are found in education, access to homeownership, and to capital for small business startups, all of which contributed to the denial of generational wealth over hundreds of years,” Assemblyman Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer Sr. said in Wednesday’s news release.

Related...

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Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Seeking Reparations For The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre


California set to become first state to introduce series of reparations bills

Sarah Fortinsky
Wed, January 31, 2024 




The California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) announced 14 reparations bills Wednesday that it plans to introduce as the first step to implement policy proposals outlined in a report released last summer by the Reparations Task Force.

In a press release, the caucus described the “2024 Reparations Priority Bill Package” as a “multi-year effort to implement the legislative recommendations in the report.”

In introducing the 14 measures, California will become the first state to implement concrete legislative proposals to enact reparations, a movement that has been growing in recent years.

“While many only associate direct cash payments with reparations the true meaning of the word, to repair, involves much more! As laid out in the report, we need a comprehensive approach to dismantling the legacy of slavery and systemic racism,” CLBC Chair Lori Wilson said in the press release.

“This year’s legislative package tackles a wide range of issues; from criminal justice reforms to property rights to education, civil rights and food justice. The Caucus is looking to make strides in the second half of this legislative session as we build towards righting the wrongs of California’s past in future sessions,” Wilson added.

Among the proposals is an amendment to the California Constitution to “allow the State to fund programs for the purpose of increasing the life expectancy of, improving educational outcomes for, or lifting out of poverty specific groups.”

Another amendment would “prohibit involuntary servitude for incarcerated persons.”

One measure addresses “property takings,” and one would allow for the restoration of “property taken during race-based uses of eminent domain to its original owners or provide another effective remedy where appropriate, such as restitution or compensation.”

The first step in laying out the package will be “a resolution that recognizes that harm and a subsequent bill that requests a formal apology by the Governor and the Legislature for the role that the State played in the human rights violation and crimes against humanity on African Slaves and their descendants.”

The 14 measures are categorized under primary topics: Education, Civil Rights, Criminal Justice Reform, Health, and Business.

Education proposals include creating grants to increase enrollment in STEM-related career and technical education programs at high school and college levels. One measure also proposes “career education financial aid for redlined communities.”

In addition to addressing property, the civil rights proposals would include, for example, extending the CROWN Act to prohibit discrimination based on certain hairstyles, explicitly in competitive sports.

Criminal justice reform proposals would eliminate the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) practice of banning books without proper oversight, restrict solitary confinement within CDCR detention facilities, and establish grants to fund community-driven solutions to decrease violence at the family, school and neighborhood levels.

Health measures would require advance notice to community stakeholders before grocery stores shut down in underserved or at-risk communities, and another would “make medically supportive food and nutrition interventions, when deemed medically necessary.”

The sole business proposal would eliminate barriers to those obtaining occupational licenses for people with criminal records.

The California secretary of state praised the announcement, writing: “I am optimistic and encouraged by the work, and look forward to amazing and ground breaking outcomes. The nation is waiting for us to lead. And as California always does, we will lead in addressing a delayed justice called Reparations.”

Assembly member and task force member Reggie Jones-Sawyer said in a statement: “We will endeavor to right the wrongs committed against black communities through laws and policies designed to restrict and alienate African Americans.”



News from the California Capitol: Reparations bill introduced

It’s official: California lawmakers will consider reparations this spring.

Andrew Sheeler
Thu, February 1, 2024 at 5:55 AM MST·3 min read




REPARATIONS PACKAGE COMES TO SACRAMENTO

The California Legislative Black Caucus on Wednesday unveiled a legislative package intended to implement reparations for Black Californians who were harmed by racist laws and policies in the state.

The package includes a resolution to formally recognize and accept responsibility “for all the harms and atrocities committed by representatives of the state who promoted,facilitated, enforced and permitted the institution of chattel slavery.”

It also includes bills to expand education opportunities and financial aid, restore property taken in race-based eminent domain cases, issue a formal apology for human rights violations and crimes against humanity on African slaves, bar the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from banning books without oversight or review, restrict the use of solitary confinement and eliminate barriers to licensure by people with criminal records.

Also included in the package are proposed constitutional amendments to fund programs aimed at increasing the life expectancy and educational outcomes of Black Californians and other groups and ban prison inmate forced labor.

It’s an ambitious package, and one that is likely to run into some pushback from California Gov. Gavin Newsom for either policy, budget or political reasons. Newsom has previously has vetoed attempts to curb the use of solitary confinement.

But it follows the recommendations of the state’s reparations task force, and caucus Chair Lori Wilson, D-Suisun City, said in a statement that “while many only associate direct cash payments with reparations, the true meaning of the word, to repair, involves much more.”

“As laid out in the report, we need a comprehensive approach to dismantling the legacy of slavery and systemic racism,” Wilson said.

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who as an assemblywoman in 2020 authored the legislation that created the reparations task force, said she was pleased to see the caucus “pick up the baton.”

“The nation is waiting for us to lead,” Weber said in a statement. “And as California always does, we will lead in addressing a delayed justice called reparations.”

BLUE ENVELOPE BILL SEEKS TO REDUCE DANGER FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

People with special needs and developmental disabilities are at heightened risk during interactions with police officers. One Republican lawmaker, Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez of Rancho Santa Margarita, has introduced a bill, AB 2002, to reduce that risk.

The bill would create a state program where participants could inform police of their special needs by presenting a blue envelope containing their license and registration and discussing specific accommodations they require during an interaction.

“These blue envelopes have successfully been used in multiple counties and other states to improve accessibility and communication between law enforcement and individuals with disabilities,” Sanchez said in a statement.

According to 2022 data from the Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board, police were more than five times more likely to use force against people with mental health disabilities and more than three times more likely to do so with people who have other disabilities.

The bill is sponsored by Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez, whose own departments have already adopted a similar program.