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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View\u003c/a>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\"> the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many state flags stick to geometric designs. Wyoming has a buffalo, Louisiana has a pelican. But the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> flag has a grizzly bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Bay Curious\u003c/em> listener Mark Karn was researching the flag one day when he found an unexpected story behind it, one that has been repeated for many years in newspapers, videos, and websites. He read that the bear on California’s flag was modeled after a famous bear named Monarch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as he looked into the history further, Karn started to have doubts. He noticed some inconsistencies in the story that made him question whether Monarch was indeed the bear on our flag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California used to have thousands of grizzlies\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Before the Gold Rush, historians estimate there were \u003ca href=\"https://nhmlac.org/california-grizzly-bear#:~:text=Some%20have%20estimated%20that%20California,skins%20and%20skeletons%20in%20existence.\">10,000 grizzly bears\u003c/a> in California, living alongside hundreds of thousands of Native Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Spanish ranchers and then gold miners who flooded into California in the 1800s portrayed the animals as brutal, bloodthirsty killers, even though grizzlies mostly minded their own business unless provoked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076801\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076801\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1339\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-04-KQED-1536x1028.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">It is often said that the bear on the modern California state flag is based on “Monarch,” one of the last grizzly bears to live in the state. But researchers now believe it was based on the drawing of another bear, Samson. \u003ccite>(Joseph Sohm/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You see the bear being really cast as this obstacle to progress, much like the wolves and much like native people,” said Devlin Gandy, tribal liaison for the California Grizzly Alliance. “As something that has to be done away with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bounties on grizzlies became common. Ranchers often put strychnine onto the carcasses of dead cows. By the late 1800s, very few grizzlies were left in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Monarch the bear’s infamous life\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 1887, after getting kicked out of Harvard for bad behavior, William Randolph Hearst landed back in his hometown of San Francisco, where his father gave him a small newspaper called the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was in his 20s and thought it would be great publicity if someone from the Examiner could capture one of the last California grizzly bears and bring it back to San Francisco alive. So, he tasked one of his reporters, Allen Kelly, with the assignment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly had never actually hunted a bear before. But he strapped on a bandolier of ammunition and struck out for the mountains of Southern California, where it was rumored there were still a few grizzlies left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076803\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076803\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-06-KQED-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-06-KQED-1536x1229.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The taxidermied form of Monarch the bear is part of an exhibit called California: State of Nature on display at the California Academy of Sciences. \u003ccite>(Gayle Laird/California Academy of Sciences)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With help from local hunters, Kelly spent months hiking around the mountains looking for bears with no luck. But eventually, a monstrous grizzly came to his camp and walked into one of the traps he had set.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least, that’s how \u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/image/460837694/?match=1&terms=monarch%20the%20bear\">Kelly reported\u003c/a> it in the \u003cem>Examiner \u003c/em>at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Gandy thinks there was no trap. “[Monarch] was actually probably captured by some of the vaqueros using lassos,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sure enough, Kelly later \u003ca href=\"https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15276/15276-h/15276-h.htm#chap02\">retold his story\u003c/a> in a book, this time saying that some Mexicans caught the bear, and he heard about it and went and bought it from them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076813\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076813\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-08-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-08-KQED.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-08-KQED-160x96.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An 1875 image of Woodward’s Gardens, an attraction that was open in the Mission District from 1866 to 189. It featured a museum, art gallery, zoo, rides and more. \u003ccite>(Public Domain)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kelly called the bear “Monarch,” as an advertisement for the \u003cem>Examiner\u003c/em>, which had the slogan: “The Monarch of the Dailies.” He brought Monarch, via sled, wagon and train, to a place called Woodward’s Garden in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the late 1800’s, \u003ca href=\"https://www.foundsf.org/Woodward%27s_Gardens,_c._1860s\">Woodward’s Garden \u003c/a>was an amusement park in the Mission, near where the Armory is now. It had an aquatic carousel, balloon rides, camel rides and an 8-foot-3-inch-tall man who was billed as a giant. It was kind of a carnival, and a sign of its times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monarch stayed there for five years, in a cage so small he could barely turn around in it. Then he was moved to the World’s Fair in Golden Gate Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fair, called the \u003ca href=\"https://www.foundsf.org/California_Midwinter_Fair_of_1894:_An_Orientalist_Exposition\">California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894\u003c/a>, took up 200 acres in Golden Gate Park. It was built like an amusement park, with large outdoor attractions. There were Inuit people on display — real people — in a village of papier-mache igloos. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/sfhistory/article/the-racist-fair-that-almost-ruined-golden-gate-16770528.php\">There was a Japanese village\u003c/a>, which is now the Japanese Tea Garden. And a \u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/image/378308351/?match=1&terms=%2749%20mining%20camp\">pretend mining camp\u003c/a>, where you could go to a saloon and see a grizzly bear — Monarch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the fair, Monarch was moved to his final home — a cage in Golden Gate Park’s menagerie — where the AIDS Memorial Grove is now. The menagerie had bison, kangaroos, elk, an aviary and now a grizzly bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You could walk up to the enclosure [and] stick your arm in if you wanted to,” said Rebekah Kim, head librarian at the California Academy of Sciences. “You could throw peanuts or whatever snacks you wanted to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076816\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076816\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-09-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A young guest inspects Monarch the bear, on view for the first time since 2012 at Cal Academy’s “California: State of Nature” exhibition. \u003ccite>(Gayle Laird/California Academy of Sciences)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And Monarch lived there for the rest of his life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can see many times he looks pretty sad behind bars,” said Kim, referencing a historic photograph of Monarch resting his head against the side of his cage, staring, it seems, at nothing. And in 1911, after over two decades in captivity, Monarch died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At that point, he was very overweight; he was paralyzed,” said Kim, “Their way of euthanasia was like a policeman coming and shooting him in the head.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monarch was one of the last of his kind. California grizzlies were classified as a distinct subspecies, and for over half a century, they had been relentlessly, systematically poisoned, hunted and trapped. By the 1920s, scientists believed them to be extinct.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How California ended up with a bear on its flag\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 1846, grizzly bears were all over California, which was still part of Mexico. That year, a group of about 30 American settlers rebelled against the Mexican government and took over the town of Sonoma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They painted a bear and a star on a sheet, raised it above town, and proclaimed themselves an independent nation: “the California Republic.” They said the grizzly \u003ca href=\"https://bearflagmuseum.blogspot.com/2009/08/william-b-ide-on-creation-of-bear-flag.html\">symbolized\u003c/a> “strength and unyielding resistance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076800\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1474px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076800\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1474\" height=\"848\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-03-KQED.jpg 1474w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-03-KQED-160x92.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1474px) 100vw, 1474px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This 1855 illustration of the grizzly bear, Samson, was made by artist Charles Nahl. \u003ccite>(Public Domain)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The bear on that flag bore little resemblance to our current flag’s bear. “[It looks like] maybe a bear or a pig or a dog, right? It’s so hard to tell,” Kim said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The independent republic didn’t last; California soon became part of the United States. The bear flag stuck around, but everybody was drawing it in a different way. Some versions had the bear standing up, on others it was perched up at the top of the flag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1911, California adopted the bear flag as its state flag, and the legislature set guidelines, saying the bear must be in the middle, walking toward the left, and dark brown. In 1953, the state decided to standardize the flag further and try to make the bear look more like a bear, rather than a wolf or a pig. A zoologist was brought in to advise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076799\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1099px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12076799 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1099\" height=\"621\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-02-KQED.jpg 1099w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-02-KQED-160x90.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1099px) 100vw, 1099px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photograph of an illustration showing the raising of the Bear Flag over Sonoma, June 14, 1846. The California Republic flag, complete with grizzly bear, star and stripe, is being raised on the pole. In the background is the home of General Vallejo, an army barracks and a church. \u003ccite>(Public Domain)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Here’s where the urban legend begins. Many sources report that since all the California grizzlies were dead by then, the flag’s artist used the taxidermied form of Monarch, which was even then on display at the California Academy of Sciences, as a reference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Kim doesn’t buy it. She studied the relevant historical documents, especially the correspondence between the zoologist and the flag’s artist. \u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/flag-correspondence.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">According to the letters\u003c/a>, the men used as their main reference a different grizzly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in the 1850s, a man named James Capen Adams, better known as Grizzly Adams, opened the Mountaineer Museum in San Francisco. It was on Clay Street, just a few blocks from where the Ferry Building is today. It had several live grizzlies chained to the floor, as well as elk, mountain lions, and a few eagles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the rear, in a very large iron cage, was a massive grizzly named Samson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A painter called Charles Nahl made illustrations for \u003ca href=\"https://archive.org/details/adventuresofjame00hittrich/page/n9/mode/2up\">a book\u003c/a> about Adams, and one of his paintings was of \u003ca href=\"https://bancroftlibrarycara.wordpress.com/nahl_grizzly_monterey_image_cropped/\">Samson\u003c/a>. It’s \u003cem>that\u003c/em> painting, of Samson, that was consistently used as a reference for the California state flag.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The California grizzly’s undeserved reputation\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Not only did Monarch’s story get distorted and manipulated, but so did the story of all the California grizzlies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The most wrong part of it was the idea that the extinction of grizzly bears in California was inevitable and the recovery of them is impossible,” said Peter Alagona, a professor in the environmental studies program at UC Santa Barbara.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Together with a team of researchers, Alagona analyzed Monarch’s bones and fur, along with those of other grizzlies. He found startling results.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076817\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076817\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-10-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-10-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-10-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-10-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fran Ritchie of the California Academy of Sciences works to restore Monarch’s fur. \u003ccite>(Gayle Laird/California Academy of Sciences)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It turns out, California grizzlies were mostly vegetarian and averaged around 500 pounds, much smaller than the monstrous sizes attributed to them. Perhaps most surprisingly, they are genetically indistinguishable from modern-day grizzlies in Yellowstone and Montana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re gone from California, but they’re not really extinct,” said Alagona. “They just kind of live in Montana right now. It’s the same bear. It’s just not here at the moment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now Alagona is working with the California Grizzly Alliance, which proposes \u003ca href=\"https://www.calgrizzly.org/\">bringing grizzlies back\u003c/a> to the state.[aside postID=news_12076077 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251212-JET-PLAYGROUND-MD-09-KQED.jpg']He’s aware that to many people this sounds like a very bad idea. But the concept is to start with just a couple of animals, very closely monitored, in a very remote area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They do a lot of amazing things,” he said. “They turn over soil and enrich the soil. They are by far the biggest seed dispersers of any animal out there in the world on a per capita basis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alagona’s research suggests that with sufficient numbers and time, grizzlies could even change the state’s vegetation and create firebreaks. But to him, the most important benefit is less tangible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re more about imagination,” Alagona said. “They’re more about this idea that yes, we can restore things that seem unrestorable. To me, that’s what the bear does for us is it enables you to see a different kind of future by showing you a little bit more about yourself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Out of the 50 states that make up the union, California is considered pretty cool. We’ve got the good weather, the stunning coastline, those laid-back vibes. And we’ve definitely got a cool state flag. If you’ve looked at other flags, many stick to geometric designs. Wyoming does have a buffalo. Louisiana’s got a pelican. But California? Our flag has a grizzly bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Bay Curious\u003c/em> listener Mark Karn was researching the flag one day,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Karn: \u003c/strong>I like to read a lot, and whenever I read, I like to, um, go off on tangents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>He found an unexpected story behind it — one that has been repeated for many years in newspapers, videos, and websites. He read that the bear on our flag was modeled after a famous bear named Monarch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monarch was one of California’s last grizzlies, captured in the mountains and then put on display in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Karn: \u003c/strong>I kind of deep dived into Monarch the bear. I was fascinated by it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Mark has always had a passion for wild animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Karn: \u003c/strong>I was born in Nigeria and grew up in South Africa. I love looking at nature in its wild state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>As a teenager, he would take a book out to a remote watering hole where he’d read and wait for animals to come and drink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Karn: \u003c/strong>And I used to see a little, uh, a duiker. A duiker is a very small antelope. I used to watch the duiker come and, and drink water at the water hole. Definitely one of my most memorable moments, and you know, my happy memories. \u003cem>(Laughs.)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>So, Mark was dismayed to learn that Monarch, this big, powerful grizzly, was kept behind bars for most of his life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Karn: \u003c/strong>I kind of cringe at animals in zoos. You know, they supposedly live longer, but to me there’s a, a beauty that they lack when they’re in a cage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>And while he was doing his own research, he noticed some inconsistencies in Monarch’s story that made him question if Monarch was indeed the bear on our flag. So he reached out to \u003cem>Bay Curious\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Karn: \u003c/strong>The bear on the California flag, is it the actual Monarch the Bear that they claim it is?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>To find out if it really was, and to sort through some of the other legends around the bear, reporter Katherine Monahan went to meet Monarch. Or rather, his taxidermied form, more than a century old, on display at the California Academy of Sciences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds of chatter and kids in an echoey space\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> It’s a weekday afternoon, and the academy is packed with kids and families, mostly checking out the aquarium or the T-rex. They don’t all head for this dimly lit corner of the California exhibit. But those who do\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Museum visitor: \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Wow. That is crazy. Man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Get to see a California grizzly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Museum visitor 2: \u003c/strong>Did you know we had grizzly bears?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Museum visitor 3: \u003c/strong>We don’t have ’em anymore, do we?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Monarch is powerful-looking, with a muscular hump above his shoulders. He’s dark and shaggy and bigger than a black bear for sure, but not nearly as big as, say, a two-ton polar bear. His claws, though\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Museum visitor 2: \u003c/strong>They look lethal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> They’re easily as long as my fingers. There’s a cast paw print where people can put their own hand in to compare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Museum visitor 4: \u003c/strong>Go put your hand in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Museum visitor 5: \u003c/strong>Oh my goodness. That’s just the palm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Monarch is standing flat on all fours with kind of a Mona Lisa smile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Museum visitor 6: \u003c/strong>Was he old?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> He looks peaceful. But then, he is taxidermied, quite literally a puppet. And we could have made him look however we wanted. Which, in many ways, is what we did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy:\u003c/strong> So much of what we know about grizzlies is a myth. It’s fictitious, it’s fear-based.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> That’s Devlin Gandy, tribal liaison for the California Grizzly Alliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says it’s estimated there were ten thousand grizzly bears in the state before the California Gold Rush. And, hundreds of thousands of Native Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy: \u003c/strong>It’s very abundantly clear that they not only existed alongside grizzlies, but they thrived with grizzlies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> But the Spanish ranchers and then the gold miners who flooded into California in the 1800s saw the bears differently. They told sensational stories that featured the animals as brutal, bloodthirsty killers — even though grizzlies mostly minded their own business unless provoked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy: \u003c/strong>You see the bear being really cast as this, um, obstacle to progress, much like the wolves and much like native people, and as something that, you know, has to be done away with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Bounties on grizzlies became common. Mostly, they were killed with poison. Ranchers put strychnine onto the carcasses of dead cows. By the late 1800s, very few grizzlies were left in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy: \u003c/strong>It’s a time of extreme ecological degradation, and you start to get this romanticism for the West, this romantic notion of Native Americans and wildlife. And Monarch falls right into that narrative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Enter William Randolph Hearst. In 1887, after getting kicked out of Harvard for bad behavior, he landed back in his hometown of San Francisco. Where his father gave him a small newspaper called the San Francisco Examiner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy: \u003c/strong>Hearst is leading this new wave of journalism that has a lot of sensationalism tied to it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> He was about 25 years old. And he thought it would be great publicity if someone from the Examiner could capture a live grizzly bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So he asked one of his reporters, Allen Kelly, to do it. Kelly clearly got right into character, as you can see in his portrait from the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy: \u003c/strong>He has these bandoliers of ammunition on both sides of his chest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it’s just like he’s trying to be Rambo. You’re like, what are you doing, dude?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Kelly had never actually hunted a bear before. So when he struck out for the mountains of Southern California, where it was rumored there were still a few grizzlies left, he hired local helpers. They were happy to oblige.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy: \u003c/strong>A man coming from San Francisco with a blank check from one of the richest men in California to go on a bear hunt? That sounds absolutely great.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> They led this city-slicker journalist around in circles, all the while camping and eating well and seeing plenty of bear sign, but not trapping any bears. Kelly eventually caught on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy: \u003c/strong>He starts to realize that all these grizzly bear tracks that he’s seeing are actually probably not being made by a grizzly bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> So he fired his crew. But by then he’d been gone for five months, and he was getting desperate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy: \u003c/strong>Like, I need a bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Just then, a monstrous grizzly came to his camp, conquered a cinnamon bear called Six-Toed Pete in an epic moonlit battle, and walked into his trap. At least, that’s how Kelly reported it in the Examiner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice over reads newspaper clipping: \u003c/strong>A great ripping and tearing was heard going on inside. The Monarch was caught at last. Upon the approach of men, the grizzly became furious and made the heavy logs tremble and shake in his efforts to get out and resent the indignity that had been put upon him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> But Gandy thinks there was no trap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy: \u003c/strong>He was actually probably captured by some of the vaqueros using lassos. And when they’re able to use four different horses to pull the bear’s arms and legs in four different directions, you have a bear that basically is stuck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> About fifteen years later, Kelly \u003ca href=\"https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15276/15276-h/15276-h.htm#chap02\">retold his story\u003c/a> in a book, this time saying that some Mexicans caught the bear, and he heard about it and went and bought it from them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regardless, he still had to transport it to San Francisco. Which he reports in swashbuckling, self-aggrandizing detail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice over reads newspaper clipping: \u003c/strong>The Monarch was now bound, gagged, and utterly helpless, but he never ceased roaring with rage at his captors and struggling to get just one swipe at them with his paw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Naming the bear “Monarch” was kind of an advertisement for the Examiner, which had the slogan “The Monarch of the Dailies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly describes how the grizzly broke his teeth trying to gnaw through his chains. How he tied Monarch to a kind of sled and hauled him down the mountain, and then built a cage and mounted it on a wagon and then a train for San Francisco … to a place called Woodward’s Garden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> In the late 1800’s, Woodward’s Garden was an amusement park in the Mission, near where the Armory is now. It had an aquatic carousel, balloon rides, camel rides, an eight foot three inch tall man who was billed as a giant . . . It was kind of a carnival. And a sign of its time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Academy of Sciences head librarian Rebekah Kim shows me a picture of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>They had, like, live bears jumping from like a diving board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/strong>Whoa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim:\u003c/strong> Oh, and then bears in captivity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> The Examiner covered Monarch’s arrival at the garden with great drama: how one of the black bears died of fright when he arrived. How he tore through his cage into the hyena enclosure and rolled up sheets of iron like they were paper. How he was the only grizzly bear in captivity (which is not true. There was another one at the Oregon Zoo). How he weighed a thousand pounds (also not true).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ambi of chatter at the Academy of Sciences\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Back at Monarch’s taxidermy display, we talk about how the fabled massiveness of grizzly bears was yet another tall tale\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> I have never seen a grizzly, and I thought they’d be a lot bigger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>No, actually, technically. Monarch is a little overweight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Kim explains that despite grizzlies’ reputation for being huge and vicious\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>They were mostly vegan. And they probably weighed close to like 500 ish pounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/strong>Why would you bother being vegan with a body like that? Look at those claws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>I don’t know. I mean, and that’s the thing, it’s like a dispelling a myth. I think California grizzlies were hunted down because they were thought to be, um, apex predators and a threat to livestock and people, but they really weren’t going after those things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> It turns out the claws, along with the muscular hump on the shoulders, are really for digging. Grizzlies are omnivores, and eat mostly vegetarian. In captivity, however,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>Monarch’s diet consisted of biscuits, sugar, peanuts, not his natural diet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> No wonder he is portly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>He is. He was like, um, I don’t know exactly, around 900 pounds. So double the normal size of a grizzly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Monarch stayed in Woodward’s Garden for five years, in a cage so small he could barely turn around in it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>And then he moved to the World’s Fair in Golden Gate Park as part of like the 49 ERs camp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Wait a second. \u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/image/457584756/?match=1&terms=monarch%20the%20bear\">As a live bear. He was in the World Fair?\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>Yeah, he was. There’s, oh, I have a picture somewhere. He’s like in a pit. It’s actually really sad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> The 1894 World’s Fair took up 200 acres in Golden Gate Park. It was built like an amusement park, with large outdoor attractions. There were Inuit people on display, real people, in a village of papier-mache igloos. There was a Japanese village, which is now the Japanese Tea Garden. And a \u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/image/378308351/?match=1&terms=%2749%20mining%20camp\">pretend mining camp\u003c/a>, where you could go to a saloon and see a grizzly bear. Here’s, once again, the San Francisco Examiner:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice over reads newspaper clipping: \u003c/strong>Monarch, the Examiner bear, is a wild and untamed beast, and has not yet been told that one of the lion tribe is likely to invade his home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Fairgoers were clamouring for a lion to be dropped into Monarch’s concrete pit so they’d fight. But the fair managers, in a rare moment of good taste, refused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the World’s Fair, Monarch was moved to his final home — a cage in Golden Gate Park’s menagerie, where the AIDS Memorial Grove is now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>You could see a bunch of different animals. It was free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> This was the late 1800s, well before the San Francisco Zoo, and really before any real understanding of how to run a zoo. The park had bison, as it still does, but also kangaroos and elk and an aviary. And a grizzly bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>You could walk up to the enclosure, stick your arm in if you wanted to. Um, and you could throw peanuts or whatever snacks you wanted to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> And Monarch lived there for the rest of his life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>There’s a lot of historic photos. You can see many times he looks pretty sad behind bars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> She shows me one of Monarch resting his head against the side of his cage, staring, it seems, into nothing. After the first decade, his keepers became concerned by his apparent depression and brought a female grizzly called Montana Babe. Over time, they had several cubs. Some of them died. And in 1911, after over two decades in captivity, Monarch died too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>At that point. He was very overweight, he was like paralyzed and not moving, and so the, I think their way of euthanasia was like a policeman coming and shooting him in the head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Monarch was one of the last of his kind. California grizzlies were classified as a distinct subspecies. And for over half a century, they had been relentlessly, systematically poisoned, hunted and trapped. By the 1920s, they were extinct … or so we believed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> When we come back, we turn to Mark’s question. \u003cem>Is Monarch\u003c/em> the bear on the California flag? Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor break\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Now we come to the question of our state flag, featuring a strong and proud-looking grizzly bear. Our question asker, Mark Karn, wanted to know if, as the legend goes, \u003cem>Monarch\u003c/em> is the bear on the flag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s Katherine Monahan again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> The history of the bear flag goes way back – to before California was even a state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1846, grizzly bears were all over California, which was still part of Mexico. That year, a group of about thirty American settlers rebelled against the Mexican government and took over the town of Sonoma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They painted a bear and a star on a sheet, raised it above town, and proclaimed themselves an independent nation. The California Republic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Academy of Sciences head librarian Rebekah Kim shows me a picture of their flag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>The first one is just like a silhouette of a. You think maybe a bear or a pig or a dog, right? It’s so hard to tell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> To the rebels, the grizzly \u003ca href=\"https://bearflagmuseum.blogspot.com/2009/08/william-b-ide-on-creation-of-bear-flag.html\">symbolized\u003c/a> “strength and unyielding resistance.” Their new republic didn’t last – California soon became part of the United States. But the bear flag stuck around. Only everybody was drawing it in a different way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>There’s another variation where the bear is up on its hind legs and kind of standing up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> In 1911, California decided to make it the state flag. And the state legislature set guidelines, saying the bear must be in the middle, walking toward the left, and it must be dark brown\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>But there are no specific specifications about what it’s supposed to look like, so then, depending on the printer, you can get a different version.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> So, in 1953, the legislature decided we needed to standardize the flag and try to make the bear look more reliably like a bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>And so there is a zoologist who is an expert on California grizzlies, who’s sort of informing the designer about how to change the image to make it less like either a wolf or like a pig.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> The problem was, all the California grizzlies were dead by then. So what could the artist look at for a reference? The taxidermied form of Monarch could have been helpful, and there is a 1953 article in the San Francisco Chronicle that suggests it was part of the process. But Kim doesn’t buy it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>No. Looking at the historical documents of the illustrator. All the back and forth is not about Monarch. The references he uses is a different illustration and some, um, images of other grizzlies in other states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> So it’s. Kind of an urban legend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>It is, and it is perpetuated by lots of sources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Kim herself was one of them, until she did this research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong> I was like, oh no, I’ve told people, like I’ve told the wrong thing to people. Cause that has been the narrative that we’ve been fed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> The real model for the California state flag, as it turns out, was Samson, another famous grizzly that spent time in San Francisco long before Monarch showed up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in the 1850s, a man named James Capen Adams, better known as Grizzly Adams, opened the Mountaineer Museum in San Francisco. It was on Clay Street, just a few blocks from where the Ferry Building is today. A newspaper reporter described a dingy basement with several live grizzlies chained to the floor. There were also elk, mountain lions, and a few eagles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice over reads newspaper clipping:\u003c/strong> At the rear, in a very large iron cage, was the monster grizzly Samson. He was an immense creature weighing some three-quarters of a ton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> A painter called Charles Nahl made a detailed portrait of Samson. And \u003cem>that\u003c/em> painting of \u003cem>that\u003c/em> bear was consistently used as a reference for the California state flag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Alagona: \u003c/strong>The entire story was, was wrong in a lot of ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Pete Alagona is a professor in the environmental studies program at UC Santa Barbara. He says not only did \u003cem>Monarch’s \u003c/em>story get distorted and manipulated, but so did the story of all the California grizzlies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Alagona: \u003c/strong>And the most wrong part of it was the idea that the extinction of grizzly bears in California was inevitable, and the recovery of them is impossible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> To get closer to the truth, Alagona analyzed Monarch’s bones and fur, along with those of other grizzlies. His team found startling results. It turns out California grizzlies are genetically indistinguishable from modern-day grizzlies in Yellowstone and Montana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Alagona: \u003c/strong>They’re gone from California, but they’re not really extinct. They just kind of live in Montana right now. It’s the same bear. It’s just not here at the moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Now, Alagona is working with the California Grizzly Alliance, which proposes \u003ca href=\"https://www.calgrizzly.org/\">bringing grizzlies back\u003c/a> to the state. The idea is to start with just a couple of animals, very closely monitored, in a very remote area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> You are aware that to a lot of people, the idea of reintroducing grizzlies sounds pretty nuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Alagona: \u003c/strong>Um, yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> What’s, what’s your response to that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Alagona: \u003c/strong>So, you know, when I started this project, it sounded nuts to me too. I wasn’t interested in that. I was just interested in learning about them. And as I went further along, I realized, it’s totally possible. Which means it’s a choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> And if it’s a choice, he figures, we should make it an informed one by learning more about grizzlies. And not, this time, from what people have said about them, but by studying the animals themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Alagona: \u003c/strong>They do a lot of amazing things. They turn over soil and enrich the soil. They are by far the biggest seed dispersers of any animal out there in the world on a per capita basis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> He says the biggest benefits that grizzlies might bring back to California, though, are not really about the ecosystem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Alagona: \u003c/strong>They’re more about. Imagination. They’re more about this idea that yes, we can restore things that seem unrestorable. Yes, there is a possibility for things that seem impossible. To me, that’s what the bear does for us is it enables you to see a different kind of future by showing you a little bit more about yourself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Maybe Monarch’s story is a kind of allegory for our present moment. On one hand, we live in a time of severe environmental loss, and many of us, to some extent, feel it and can relate to the depressed, overweight captive bear. On the other hand, this is a time of incredible possibility. When enough of our natural world still lives that it may be able to make a comeback.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Who knows if we’ll ever find grizzlies in California again? But for now, we have our flag — adorned with an image of the fierce, proud, mostly vegetarian bear — named Samson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>That was KQED’s Katherine Monahan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We are in the middle of our experiment of dropping two episodes a week, and we want to know what you think! Share your feedback with us by emailing \u003ca href=\"mailto:baycurious@kqed.org\">baycurious@kqed.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This question came from listener Mark Karn, and hey, who knows, a future episode could come from YOUR question. Our show is only possible because you keep asking them. Head to \u003ca href=\"http://baycurious.org\">BayCurious.org\u003c/a> and submit a question right at the top of the page.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Bay Curious\u003c/em> is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our show is made by Katrina Schwartz, Gabriella Glueck, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a good one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View\u003c/a>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\"> the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many state flags stick to geometric designs. Wyoming has a buffalo, Louisiana has a pelican. But the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> flag has a grizzly bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Bay Curious\u003c/em> listener Mark Karn was researching the flag one day when he found an unexpected story behind it, one that has been repeated for many years in newspapers, videos, and websites. He read that the bear on California’s flag was modeled after a famous bear named Monarch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as he looked into the history further, Karn started to have doubts. He noticed some inconsistencies in the story that made him question whether Monarch was indeed the bear on our flag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California used to have thousands of grizzlies\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Before the Gold Rush, historians estimate there were \u003ca href=\"https://nhmlac.org/california-grizzly-bear#:~:text=Some%20have%20estimated%20that%20California,skins%20and%20skeletons%20in%20existence.\">10,000 grizzly bears\u003c/a> in California, living alongside hundreds of thousands of Native Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Spanish ranchers and then gold miners who flooded into California in the 1800s portrayed the animals as brutal, bloodthirsty killers, even though grizzlies mostly minded their own business unless provoked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076801\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076801\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1339\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-04-KQED-1536x1028.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">It is often said that the bear on the modern California state flag is based on “Monarch,” one of the last grizzly bears to live in the state. But researchers now believe it was based on the drawing of another bear, Samson. \u003ccite>(Joseph Sohm/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You see the bear being really cast as this obstacle to progress, much like the wolves and much like native people,” said Devlin Gandy, tribal liaison for the California Grizzly Alliance. “As something that has to be done away with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bounties on grizzlies became common. Ranchers often put strychnine onto the carcasses of dead cows. By the late 1800s, very few grizzlies were left in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Monarch the bear’s infamous life\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 1887, after getting kicked out of Harvard for bad behavior, William Randolph Hearst landed back in his hometown of San Francisco, where his father gave him a small newspaper called the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was in his 20s and thought it would be great publicity if someone from the Examiner could capture one of the last California grizzly bears and bring it back to San Francisco alive. So, he tasked one of his reporters, Allen Kelly, with the assignment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly had never actually hunted a bear before. But he strapped on a bandolier of ammunition and struck out for the mountains of Southern California, where it was rumored there were still a few grizzlies left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076803\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076803\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-06-KQED-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-06-KQED-1536x1229.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The taxidermied form of Monarch the bear is part of an exhibit called California: State of Nature on display at the California Academy of Sciences. \u003ccite>(Gayle Laird/California Academy of Sciences)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With help from local hunters, Kelly spent months hiking around the mountains looking for bears with no luck. But eventually, a monstrous grizzly came to his camp and walked into one of the traps he had set.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least, that’s how \u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/image/460837694/?match=1&terms=monarch%20the%20bear\">Kelly reported\u003c/a> it in the \u003cem>Examiner \u003c/em>at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Gandy thinks there was no trap. “[Monarch] was actually probably captured by some of the vaqueros using lassos,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sure enough, Kelly later \u003ca href=\"https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15276/15276-h/15276-h.htm#chap02\">retold his story\u003c/a> in a book, this time saying that some Mexicans caught the bear, and he heard about it and went and bought it from them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076813\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076813\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-08-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-08-KQED.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-08-KQED-160x96.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An 1875 image of Woodward’s Gardens, an attraction that was open in the Mission District from 1866 to 189. It featured a museum, art gallery, zoo, rides and more. \u003ccite>(Public Domain)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kelly called the bear “Monarch,” as an advertisement for the \u003cem>Examiner\u003c/em>, which had the slogan: “The Monarch of the Dailies.” He brought Monarch, via sled, wagon and train, to a place called Woodward’s Garden in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the late 1800’s, \u003ca href=\"https://www.foundsf.org/Woodward%27s_Gardens,_c._1860s\">Woodward’s Garden \u003c/a>was an amusement park in the Mission, near where the Armory is now. It had an aquatic carousel, balloon rides, camel rides and an 8-foot-3-inch-tall man who was billed as a giant. It was kind of a carnival, and a sign of its times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monarch stayed there for five years, in a cage so small he could barely turn around in it. Then he was moved to the World’s Fair in Golden Gate Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fair, called the \u003ca href=\"https://www.foundsf.org/California_Midwinter_Fair_of_1894:_An_Orientalist_Exposition\">California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894\u003c/a>, took up 200 acres in Golden Gate Park. It was built like an amusement park, with large outdoor attractions. There were Inuit people on display — real people — in a village of papier-mache igloos. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/sfhistory/article/the-racist-fair-that-almost-ruined-golden-gate-16770528.php\">There was a Japanese village\u003c/a>, which is now the Japanese Tea Garden. And a \u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/image/378308351/?match=1&terms=%2749%20mining%20camp\">pretend mining camp\u003c/a>, where you could go to a saloon and see a grizzly bear — Monarch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the fair, Monarch was moved to his final home — a cage in Golden Gate Park’s menagerie — where the AIDS Memorial Grove is now. The menagerie had bison, kangaroos, elk, an aviary and now a grizzly bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You could walk up to the enclosure [and] stick your arm in if you wanted to,” said Rebekah Kim, head librarian at the California Academy of Sciences. “You could throw peanuts or whatever snacks you wanted to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076816\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076816\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-09-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A young guest inspects Monarch the bear, on view for the first time since 2012 at Cal Academy’s “California: State of Nature” exhibition. \u003ccite>(Gayle Laird/California Academy of Sciences)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And Monarch lived there for the rest of his life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can see many times he looks pretty sad behind bars,” said Kim, referencing a historic photograph of Monarch resting his head against the side of his cage, staring, it seems, at nothing. And in 1911, after over two decades in captivity, Monarch died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At that point, he was very overweight; he was paralyzed,” said Kim, “Their way of euthanasia was like a policeman coming and shooting him in the head.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monarch was one of the last of his kind. California grizzlies were classified as a distinct subspecies, and for over half a century, they had been relentlessly, systematically poisoned, hunted and trapped. By the 1920s, scientists believed them to be extinct.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How California ended up with a bear on its flag\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 1846, grizzly bears were all over California, which was still part of Mexico. That year, a group of about 30 American settlers rebelled against the Mexican government and took over the town of Sonoma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They painted a bear and a star on a sheet, raised it above town, and proclaimed themselves an independent nation: “the California Republic.” They said the grizzly \u003ca href=\"https://bearflagmuseum.blogspot.com/2009/08/william-b-ide-on-creation-of-bear-flag.html\">symbolized\u003c/a> “strength and unyielding resistance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076800\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1474px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076800\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1474\" height=\"848\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-03-KQED.jpg 1474w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-03-KQED-160x92.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1474px) 100vw, 1474px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This 1855 illustration of the grizzly bear, Samson, was made by artist Charles Nahl. \u003ccite>(Public Domain)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The bear on that flag bore little resemblance to our current flag’s bear. “[It looks like] maybe a bear or a pig or a dog, right? It’s so hard to tell,” Kim said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The independent republic didn’t last; California soon became part of the United States. The bear flag stuck around, but everybody was drawing it in a different way. Some versions had the bear standing up, on others it was perched up at the top of the flag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1911, California adopted the bear flag as its state flag, and the legislature set guidelines, saying the bear must be in the middle, walking toward the left, and dark brown. In 1953, the state decided to standardize the flag further and try to make the bear look more like a bear, rather than a wolf or a pig. A zoologist was brought in to advise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076799\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1099px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12076799 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1099\" height=\"621\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-02-KQED.jpg 1099w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-02-KQED-160x90.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1099px) 100vw, 1099px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photograph of an illustration showing the raising of the Bear Flag over Sonoma, June 14, 1846. The California Republic flag, complete with grizzly bear, star and stripe, is being raised on the pole. In the background is the home of General Vallejo, an army barracks and a church. \u003ccite>(Public Domain)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Here’s where the urban legend begins. Many sources report that since all the California grizzlies were dead by then, the flag’s artist used the taxidermied form of Monarch, which was even then on display at the California Academy of Sciences, as a reference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Kim doesn’t buy it. She studied the relevant historical documents, especially the correspondence between the zoologist and the flag’s artist. \u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/flag-correspondence.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">According to the letters\u003c/a>, the men used as their main reference a different grizzly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in the 1850s, a man named James Capen Adams, better known as Grizzly Adams, opened the Mountaineer Museum in San Francisco. It was on Clay Street, just a few blocks from where the Ferry Building is today. It had several live grizzlies chained to the floor, as well as elk, mountain lions, and a few eagles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the rear, in a very large iron cage, was a massive grizzly named Samson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A painter called Charles Nahl made illustrations for \u003ca href=\"https://archive.org/details/adventuresofjame00hittrich/page/n9/mode/2up\">a book\u003c/a> about Adams, and one of his paintings was of \u003ca href=\"https://bancroftlibrarycara.wordpress.com/nahl_grizzly_monterey_image_cropped/\">Samson\u003c/a>. It’s \u003cem>that\u003c/em> painting, of Samson, that was consistently used as a reference for the California state flag.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The California grizzly’s undeserved reputation\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Not only did Monarch’s story get distorted and manipulated, but so did the story of all the California grizzlies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The most wrong part of it was the idea that the extinction of grizzly bears in California was inevitable and the recovery of them is impossible,” said Peter Alagona, a professor in the environmental studies program at UC Santa Barbara.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Together with a team of researchers, Alagona analyzed Monarch’s bones and fur, along with those of other grizzlies. He found startling results.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076817\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076817\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-10-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-10-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-10-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-MONARCH-THE-BEAR-10-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fran Ritchie of the California Academy of Sciences works to restore Monarch’s fur. \u003ccite>(Gayle Laird/California Academy of Sciences)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It turns out, California grizzlies were mostly vegetarian and averaged around 500 pounds, much smaller than the monstrous sizes attributed to them. Perhaps most surprisingly, they are genetically indistinguishable from modern-day grizzlies in Yellowstone and Montana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re gone from California, but they’re not really extinct,” said Alagona. “They just kind of live in Montana right now. It’s the same bear. It’s just not here at the moment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now Alagona is working with the California Grizzly Alliance, which proposes \u003ca href=\"https://www.calgrizzly.org/\">bringing grizzlies back\u003c/a> to the state.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He’s aware that to many people this sounds like a very bad idea. But the concept is to start with just a couple of animals, very closely monitored, in a very remote area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They do a lot of amazing things,” he said. “They turn over soil and enrich the soil. They are by far the biggest seed dispersers of any animal out there in the world on a per capita basis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alagona’s research suggests that with sufficient numbers and time, grizzlies could even change the state’s vegetation and create firebreaks. But to him, the most important benefit is less tangible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re more about imagination,” Alagona said. “They’re more about this idea that yes, we can restore things that seem unrestorable. To me, that’s what the bear does for us is it enables you to see a different kind of future by showing you a little bit more about yourself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Out of the 50 states that make up the union, California is considered pretty cool. We’ve got the good weather, the stunning coastline, those laid-back vibes. And we’ve definitely got a cool state flag. If you’ve looked at other flags, many stick to geometric designs. Wyoming does have a buffalo. Louisiana’s got a pelican. But California? Our flag has a grizzly bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Bay Curious\u003c/em> listener Mark Karn was researching the flag one day,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Karn: \u003c/strong>I like to read a lot, and whenever I read, I like to, um, go off on tangents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>He found an unexpected story behind it — one that has been repeated for many years in newspapers, videos, and websites. He read that the bear on our flag was modeled after a famous bear named Monarch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monarch was one of California’s last grizzlies, captured in the mountains and then put on display in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Karn: \u003c/strong>I kind of deep dived into Monarch the bear. I was fascinated by it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Mark has always had a passion for wild animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Karn: \u003c/strong>I was born in Nigeria and grew up in South Africa. I love looking at nature in its wild state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>As a teenager, he would take a book out to a remote watering hole where he’d read and wait for animals to come and drink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Karn: \u003c/strong>And I used to see a little, uh, a duiker. A duiker is a very small antelope. I used to watch the duiker come and, and drink water at the water hole. Definitely one of my most memorable moments, and you know, my happy memories. \u003cem>(Laughs.)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>So, Mark was dismayed to learn that Monarch, this big, powerful grizzly, was kept behind bars for most of his life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Karn: \u003c/strong>I kind of cringe at animals in zoos. You know, they supposedly live longer, but to me there’s a, a beauty that they lack when they’re in a cage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>And while he was doing his own research, he noticed some inconsistencies in Monarch’s story that made him question if Monarch was indeed the bear on our flag. So he reached out to \u003cem>Bay Curious\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Karn: \u003c/strong>The bear on the California flag, is it the actual Monarch the Bear that they claim it is?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>To find out if it really was, and to sort through some of the other legends around the bear, reporter Katherine Monahan went to meet Monarch. Or rather, his taxidermied form, more than a century old, on display at the California Academy of Sciences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds of chatter and kids in an echoey space\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> It’s a weekday afternoon, and the academy is packed with kids and families, mostly checking out the aquarium or the T-rex. They don’t all head for this dimly lit corner of the California exhibit. But those who do\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Museum visitor: \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Wow. That is crazy. Man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Get to see a California grizzly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Museum visitor 2: \u003c/strong>Did you know we had grizzly bears?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Museum visitor 3: \u003c/strong>We don’t have ’em anymore, do we?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Monarch is powerful-looking, with a muscular hump above his shoulders. He’s dark and shaggy and bigger than a black bear for sure, but not nearly as big as, say, a two-ton polar bear. His claws, though\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Museum visitor 2: \u003c/strong>They look lethal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> They’re easily as long as my fingers. There’s a cast paw print where people can put their own hand in to compare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Museum visitor 4: \u003c/strong>Go put your hand in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Museum visitor 5: \u003c/strong>Oh my goodness. That’s just the palm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Monarch is standing flat on all fours with kind of a Mona Lisa smile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Museum visitor 6: \u003c/strong>Was he old?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> He looks peaceful. But then, he is taxidermied, quite literally a puppet. And we could have made him look however we wanted. Which, in many ways, is what we did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy:\u003c/strong> So much of what we know about grizzlies is a myth. It’s fictitious, it’s fear-based.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> That’s Devlin Gandy, tribal liaison for the California Grizzly Alliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says it’s estimated there were ten thousand grizzly bears in the state before the California Gold Rush. And, hundreds of thousands of Native Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy: \u003c/strong>It’s very abundantly clear that they not only existed alongside grizzlies, but they thrived with grizzlies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> But the Spanish ranchers and then the gold miners who flooded into California in the 1800s saw the bears differently. They told sensational stories that featured the animals as brutal, bloodthirsty killers — even though grizzlies mostly minded their own business unless provoked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy: \u003c/strong>You see the bear being really cast as this, um, obstacle to progress, much like the wolves and much like native people, and as something that, you know, has to be done away with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Bounties on grizzlies became common. Mostly, they were killed with poison. Ranchers put strychnine onto the carcasses of dead cows. By the late 1800s, very few grizzlies were left in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy: \u003c/strong>It’s a time of extreme ecological degradation, and you start to get this romanticism for the West, this romantic notion of Native Americans and wildlife. And Monarch falls right into that narrative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Enter William Randolph Hearst. In 1887, after getting kicked out of Harvard for bad behavior, he landed back in his hometown of San Francisco. Where his father gave him a small newspaper called the San Francisco Examiner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy: \u003c/strong>Hearst is leading this new wave of journalism that has a lot of sensationalism tied to it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> He was about 25 years old. And he thought it would be great publicity if someone from the Examiner could capture a live grizzly bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So he asked one of his reporters, Allen Kelly, to do it. Kelly clearly got right into character, as you can see in his portrait from the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy: \u003c/strong>He has these bandoliers of ammunition on both sides of his chest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it’s just like he’s trying to be Rambo. You’re like, what are you doing, dude?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Kelly had never actually hunted a bear before. So when he struck out for the mountains of Southern California, where it was rumored there were still a few grizzlies left, he hired local helpers. They were happy to oblige.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy: \u003c/strong>A man coming from San Francisco with a blank check from one of the richest men in California to go on a bear hunt? That sounds absolutely great.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> They led this city-slicker journalist around in circles, all the while camping and eating well and seeing plenty of bear sign, but not trapping any bears. Kelly eventually caught on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy: \u003c/strong>He starts to realize that all these grizzly bear tracks that he’s seeing are actually probably not being made by a grizzly bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> So he fired his crew. But by then he’d been gone for five months, and he was getting desperate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy: \u003c/strong>Like, I need a bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Just then, a monstrous grizzly came to his camp, conquered a cinnamon bear called Six-Toed Pete in an epic moonlit battle, and walked into his trap. At least, that’s how Kelly reported it in the Examiner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice over reads newspaper clipping: \u003c/strong>A great ripping and tearing was heard going on inside. The Monarch was caught at last. Upon the approach of men, the grizzly became furious and made the heavy logs tremble and shake in his efforts to get out and resent the indignity that had been put upon him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> But Gandy thinks there was no trap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devlin Gandy: \u003c/strong>He was actually probably captured by some of the vaqueros using lassos. And when they’re able to use four different horses to pull the bear’s arms and legs in four different directions, you have a bear that basically is stuck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> About fifteen years later, Kelly \u003ca href=\"https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15276/15276-h/15276-h.htm#chap02\">retold his story\u003c/a> in a book, this time saying that some Mexicans caught the bear, and he heard about it and went and bought it from them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regardless, he still had to transport it to San Francisco. Which he reports in swashbuckling, self-aggrandizing detail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice over reads newspaper clipping: \u003c/strong>The Monarch was now bound, gagged, and utterly helpless, but he never ceased roaring with rage at his captors and struggling to get just one swipe at them with his paw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Naming the bear “Monarch” was kind of an advertisement for the Examiner, which had the slogan “The Monarch of the Dailies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly describes how the grizzly broke his teeth trying to gnaw through his chains. How he tied Monarch to a kind of sled and hauled him down the mountain, and then built a cage and mounted it on a wagon and then a train for San Francisco … to a place called Woodward’s Garden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> In the late 1800’s, Woodward’s Garden was an amusement park in the Mission, near where the Armory is now. It had an aquatic carousel, balloon rides, camel rides, an eight foot three inch tall man who was billed as a giant . . . It was kind of a carnival. And a sign of its time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Academy of Sciences head librarian Rebekah Kim shows me a picture of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>They had, like, live bears jumping from like a diving board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/strong>Whoa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim:\u003c/strong> Oh, and then bears in captivity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> The Examiner covered Monarch’s arrival at the garden with great drama: how one of the black bears died of fright when he arrived. How he tore through his cage into the hyena enclosure and rolled up sheets of iron like they were paper. How he was the only grizzly bear in captivity (which is not true. There was another one at the Oregon Zoo). How he weighed a thousand pounds (also not true).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ambi of chatter at the Academy of Sciences\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Back at Monarch’s taxidermy display, we talk about how the fabled massiveness of grizzly bears was yet another tall tale\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> I have never seen a grizzly, and I thought they’d be a lot bigger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>No, actually, technically. Monarch is a little overweight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Kim explains that despite grizzlies’ reputation for being huge and vicious\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>They were mostly vegan. And they probably weighed close to like 500 ish pounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/strong>Why would you bother being vegan with a body like that? Look at those claws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>I don’t know. I mean, and that’s the thing, it’s like a dispelling a myth. I think California grizzlies were hunted down because they were thought to be, um, apex predators and a threat to livestock and people, but they really weren’t going after those things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> It turns out the claws, along with the muscular hump on the shoulders, are really for digging. Grizzlies are omnivores, and eat mostly vegetarian. In captivity, however,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>Monarch’s diet consisted of biscuits, sugar, peanuts, not his natural diet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> No wonder he is portly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>He is. He was like, um, I don’t know exactly, around 900 pounds. So double the normal size of a grizzly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Monarch stayed in Woodward’s Garden for five years, in a cage so small he could barely turn around in it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>And then he moved to the World’s Fair in Golden Gate Park as part of like the 49 ERs camp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Wait a second. \u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/image/457584756/?match=1&terms=monarch%20the%20bear\">As a live bear. He was in the World Fair?\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>Yeah, he was. There’s, oh, I have a picture somewhere. He’s like in a pit. It’s actually really sad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> The 1894 World’s Fair took up 200 acres in Golden Gate Park. It was built like an amusement park, with large outdoor attractions. There were Inuit people on display, real people, in a village of papier-mache igloos. There was a Japanese village, which is now the Japanese Tea Garden. And a \u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/image/378308351/?match=1&terms=%2749%20mining%20camp\">pretend mining camp\u003c/a>, where you could go to a saloon and see a grizzly bear. Here’s, once again, the San Francisco Examiner:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice over reads newspaper clipping: \u003c/strong>Monarch, the Examiner bear, is a wild and untamed beast, and has not yet been told that one of the lion tribe is likely to invade his home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Fairgoers were clamouring for a lion to be dropped into Monarch’s concrete pit so they’d fight. But the fair managers, in a rare moment of good taste, refused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the World’s Fair, Monarch was moved to his final home — a cage in Golden Gate Park’s menagerie, where the AIDS Memorial Grove is now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>You could see a bunch of different animals. It was free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> This was the late 1800s, well before the San Francisco Zoo, and really before any real understanding of how to run a zoo. The park had bison, as it still does, but also kangaroos and elk and an aviary. And a grizzly bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>You could walk up to the enclosure, stick your arm in if you wanted to. Um, and you could throw peanuts or whatever snacks you wanted to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> And Monarch lived there for the rest of his life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>There’s a lot of historic photos. You can see many times he looks pretty sad behind bars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> She shows me one of Monarch resting his head against the side of his cage, staring, it seems, into nothing. After the first decade, his keepers became concerned by his apparent depression and brought a female grizzly called Montana Babe. Over time, they had several cubs. Some of them died. And in 1911, after over two decades in captivity, Monarch died too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>At that point. He was very overweight, he was like paralyzed and not moving, and so the, I think their way of euthanasia was like a policeman coming and shooting him in the head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Monarch was one of the last of his kind. California grizzlies were classified as a distinct subspecies. And for over half a century, they had been relentlessly, systematically poisoned, hunted and trapped. By the 1920s, they were extinct … or so we believed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> When we come back, we turn to Mark’s question. \u003cem>Is Monarch\u003c/em> the bear on the California flag? Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor break\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Now we come to the question of our state flag, featuring a strong and proud-looking grizzly bear. Our question asker, Mark Karn, wanted to know if, as the legend goes, \u003cem>Monarch\u003c/em> is the bear on the flag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s Katherine Monahan again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> The history of the bear flag goes way back – to before California was even a state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1846, grizzly bears were all over California, which was still part of Mexico. That year, a group of about thirty American settlers rebelled against the Mexican government and took over the town of Sonoma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They painted a bear and a star on a sheet, raised it above town, and proclaimed themselves an independent nation. The California Republic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Academy of Sciences head librarian Rebekah Kim shows me a picture of their flag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>The first one is just like a silhouette of a. You think maybe a bear or a pig or a dog, right? It’s so hard to tell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> To the rebels, the grizzly \u003ca href=\"https://bearflagmuseum.blogspot.com/2009/08/william-b-ide-on-creation-of-bear-flag.html\">symbolized\u003c/a> “strength and unyielding resistance.” Their new republic didn’t last – California soon became part of the United States. But the bear flag stuck around. Only everybody was drawing it in a different way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>There’s another variation where the bear is up on its hind legs and kind of standing up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> In 1911, California decided to make it the state flag. And the state legislature set guidelines, saying the bear must be in the middle, walking toward the left, and it must be dark brown\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>But there are no specific specifications about what it’s supposed to look like, so then, depending on the printer, you can get a different version.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> So, in 1953, the legislature decided we needed to standardize the flag and try to make the bear look more reliably like a bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>And so there is a zoologist who is an expert on California grizzlies, who’s sort of informing the designer about how to change the image to make it less like either a wolf or like a pig.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> The problem was, all the California grizzlies were dead by then. So what could the artist look at for a reference? The taxidermied form of Monarch could have been helpful, and there is a 1953 article in the San Francisco Chronicle that suggests it was part of the process. But Kim doesn’t buy it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>No. Looking at the historical documents of the illustrator. All the back and forth is not about Monarch. The references he uses is a different illustration and some, um, images of other grizzlies in other states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> So it’s. Kind of an urban legend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong>It is, and it is perpetuated by lots of sources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Kim herself was one of them, until she did this research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rebekah Kim: \u003c/strong> I was like, oh no, I’ve told people, like I’ve told the wrong thing to people. Cause that has been the narrative that we’ve been fed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> The real model for the California state flag, as it turns out, was Samson, another famous grizzly that spent time in San Francisco long before Monarch showed up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in the 1850s, a man named James Capen Adams, better known as Grizzly Adams, opened the Mountaineer Museum in San Francisco. It was on Clay Street, just a few blocks from where the Ferry Building is today. A newspaper reporter described a dingy basement with several live grizzlies chained to the floor. There were also elk, mountain lions, and a few eagles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice over reads newspaper clipping:\u003c/strong> At the rear, in a very large iron cage, was the monster grizzly Samson. He was an immense creature weighing some three-quarters of a ton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> A painter called Charles Nahl made a detailed portrait of Samson. And \u003cem>that\u003c/em> painting of \u003cem>that\u003c/em> bear was consistently used as a reference for the California state flag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Alagona: \u003c/strong>The entire story was, was wrong in a lot of ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Pete Alagona is a professor in the environmental studies program at UC Santa Barbara. He says not only did \u003cem>Monarch’s \u003c/em>story get distorted and manipulated, but so did the story of all the California grizzlies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Alagona: \u003c/strong>And the most wrong part of it was the idea that the extinction of grizzly bears in California was inevitable, and the recovery of them is impossible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> To get closer to the truth, Alagona analyzed Monarch’s bones and fur, along with those of other grizzlies. His team found startling results. It turns out California grizzlies are genetically indistinguishable from modern-day grizzlies in Yellowstone and Montana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Alagona: \u003c/strong>They’re gone from California, but they’re not really extinct. They just kind of live in Montana right now. It’s the same bear. It’s just not here at the moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Now, Alagona is working with the California Grizzly Alliance, which proposes \u003ca href=\"https://www.calgrizzly.org/\">bringing grizzlies back\u003c/a> to the state. The idea is to start with just a couple of animals, very closely monitored, in a very remote area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> You are aware that to a lot of people, the idea of reintroducing grizzlies sounds pretty nuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Alagona: \u003c/strong>Um, yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> What’s, what’s your response to that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Alagona: \u003c/strong>So, you know, when I started this project, it sounded nuts to me too. I wasn’t interested in that. I was just interested in learning about them. And as I went further along, I realized, it’s totally possible. Which means it’s a choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> And if it’s a choice, he figures, we should make it an informed one by learning more about grizzlies. And not, this time, from what people have said about them, but by studying the animals themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Alagona: \u003c/strong>They do a lot of amazing things. They turn over soil and enrich the soil. They are by far the biggest seed dispersers of any animal out there in the world on a per capita basis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> He says the biggest benefits that grizzlies might bring back to California, though, are not really about the ecosystem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Alagona: \u003c/strong>They’re more about. Imagination. They’re more about this idea that yes, we can restore things that seem unrestorable. Yes, there is a possibility for things that seem impossible. To me, that’s what the bear does for us is it enables you to see a different kind of future by showing you a little bit more about yourself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Maybe Monarch’s story is a kind of allegory for our present moment. On one hand, we live in a time of severe environmental loss, and many of us, to some extent, feel it and can relate to the depressed, overweight captive bear. On the other hand, this is a time of incredible possibility. When enough of our natural world still lives that it may be able to make a comeback.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Who knows if we’ll ever find grizzlies in California again? But for now, we have our flag — adorned with an image of the fierce, proud, mostly vegetarian bear — named Samson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>That was KQED’s Katherine Monahan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We are in the middle of our experiment of dropping two episodes a week, and we want to know what you think! Share your feedback with us by emailing \u003ca href=\"mailto:baycurious@kqed.org\">baycurious@kqed.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This question came from listener Mark Karn, and hey, who knows, a future episode could come from YOUR question. Our show is only possible because you keep asking them. Head to \u003ca href=\"http://baycurious.org\">BayCurious.org\u003c/a> and submit a question right at the top of the page.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Bay Curious\u003c/em> is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our show is made by Katrina Schwartz, Gabriella Glueck, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a good one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077336/como-reacciono-california-a-las-acusaciones-de-supuesta-conducta-sexual-inapropiada-de-cesar-chavez\">\u003cem>Leer en español\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sexual \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12076825/unspecified-allegations-prompt-cancellation-of-cesar-chavez-celebrations\">misconduct allegations\u003c/a> against labor icon \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/cesar-chavez\">Cesar Chavez\u003c/a> this week are sending shockwaves through California, where the farmworker movement founder has been revered for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The allegations, which came to light in an investigation by \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/us/cesar-chavez-sexual-abuse-allegations-ufw.html\">\u003cem>The\u003c/em> \u003cem>New York Times\u003c/em>\u003c/a> published Wednesday, accuse Chavez of a pattern of sexual misconduct against young girls and women who worked alongside him in the Latino civil rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two women, who are both now 66, told \u003cem>The\u003c/em> \u003cem>Times\u003c/em> that they had been assaulted repeatedly by Chavez for years in the 1970s, when they were \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/us/cesar-chavez-sexual-assault-allegations-takeaways.html\">12 and 13,\u003c/a> and he was in his 40s. The investigation also detailed allegations made against Chavez by several other women, including the labor leader’s close ally and United Farm Workers co-founder \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054312/dolores-huerta-on-the-state-of-workers-rights-in-california\">Dolores Huerta\u003c/a>, who said Chavez raped her and pressured her into intercourse on two separate occasions in the 1960s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The news has already garnered wide response from labor and elected leaders across the Bay Area, where Chavez’s name is plastered on schools, streets and parks. California, where Chavez began his career as a community organizer in San José and spent years building UFW in La Paz, north of Los Angeles, was the first to recognize Cesar Chavez Day on March 31, 2000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m angry. I’m shaken. And I’m thinking about what this moment demands of us,” Rudy Gonzalez, a member of the San Francisco Labor Council’s executive committee, said in a statement on Tuesday, as whispers of the allegations began to swirl.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The day before \u003cem>The\u003c/em> \u003cem>Times\u003c/em>’ investigation was published, the UFW Foundation announced that it would cancel all activities planned in celebration of Cesar Chavez Day, on March 31, in light of “allegations about abusive behavior.” The Cesar Chavez Foundation also said it had become aware of “disturbing allegations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076934\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076934\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/CesarChavezGetty2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/CesarChavezGetty2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/CesarChavezGetty2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/CesarChavezGetty2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A statue of Cesar E. Chavez stands as members of the San Fernando Valley commemorative committee celebrate Cesar Chavez Day on March 31, 2021, in San Fernando, California. Chavez was known for employing nonviolent means to seek better working conditions for thousands of farm workers who suffered low wages and severe working conditions. In 1962, he founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW) union. \u003ccite>(Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“As a Mexican American labor leader, I was raised on the story of the farm worker movement — on sacrifice, on faith, on the belief that working people deserve dignity,” Gonzalez said in his statement. “But let me be clear: our movement has never been about one man,” he continued. “It has always been about workers — Filipino, Mexican, Black, immigrants standing together and demanding respect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, organizations have announced that they will cancel or reevaluate events planned in honor of Chavez in San José, including a legacy dinner and programming by San José State University’s Cesar E. Chavez Community Action Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Matt Mahan said the city was cancelling all planned events associated with the state holiday and would “identify ways to honor the legacy of the farmworker movement without celebrating individuals who caused such profound harm to the community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We recognize that Chavez’s ties to San José come with a responsibility to ensure we are not further traumatizing survivors,” he said in a statement.[aside postID=news_12054936 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250903_FARMLABORCRISIS_GC-18-KQED.jpg']Contra Costa County also said it was “reviewing the details” of its annual celebration planned for next month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Following the lead of the United Farm Workers, Contra Costa County remains focused on supporting farmworkers and advancing equity, safety, and opportunity in agriculture,” spokesperson Kristi Jourdan said via email. “Our goal is to ensure this event honors farmworkers, highlights urgent issues like fair wages and safe working conditions, and reflects our shared values of dignity and inclusion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Congressional Hispanic Caucus said it would honor farmworkers and their “arduous, essential work” on March 31, nationally recognized as Cesar Chavez Day, this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We cannot celebrate a man, regardless of his accomplishments, if he harmed women and children in such vile ways,” the caucus said in a statement. “While it’s heartbreaking when leaders are exposed as flawed beyond absolution, a just society has a duty to hold abusers accountable without exception.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A movement stands on its values, not the misconduct of an individual,” it continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Organizers of San Francisco’s annual Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta Day Parade and Festival said the event would be renamed solely in honor of Huerta, whose birthday is April 10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Viva La Causa! Support the [farmworker] Movement,” Eva Royale said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The investigation published Wednesday morning includes accusations from at least a dozen women who say they were either \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/us/cesar-chavez-sexual-assault-allegations-takeaways.html\">pursued, harassed or assaulted\u003c/a> by Chavez while he was at the height of his career, including Ana Murguia, who told \u003cem>The Times\u003c/em> that she was first summoned to Chavez’s office when she was 13 years old, living with her family at La Paz. She said over the next four years, she had dozens of sexual encounters with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076914\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076914\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/20250903_FarmLaborCrisis_GC-7_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/20250903_FarmLaborCrisis_GC-7_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/20250903_FarmLaborCrisis_GC-7_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/20250903_FarmLaborCrisis_GC-7_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A farmworker picks grapes at a field in Fresno on Sept. 3, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Debra Rojas told \u003cem>The\u003c/em> \u003cem>Times \u003c/em>she was 12 when Chavez first touched her inappropriately, and that when she was 15, he raped her at a motel during the United Farm Workers’ 1,000 Mile March in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huerta, Chavez’s UFW co-founder and close ally in leading the Farmworkers’ Movement, said in a \u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/@dolores_huerta/march-18-2026-e74c20430555\">statement on Wednesday\u003c/a> that she had two nonconsensual sexual encounters with Chavez in the 1960s, both resulting in pregnancies that she hid from public view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huerta said that she had not spoken out about her experiences for the last 60 years, because she “believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am telling my story because \u003cem>The New York Times\u003c/em> has indicated that I was not the only one — there were others,” she wrote in a statement on Wednesday. “The knowledge that he hurt young girls sickens me. My heart aches for everyone who suffered alone and in silence for years. There are no words strong enough to condemn those deplorable actions that he did. Cesar’s actions do not reflect the values of our community and our movement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12044395\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12044395\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1393\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty-160x111.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty-1536x1070.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Portrait of labor activist Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers group, with a union flag that reads “Viva La Causa,” ca.1970s. \u003ccite>(Cathy Murphy/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco’s Mission District Wednesday afternoon, many were still learning of the allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richard Hingel said he remembers when nearby Cesar Chavez Street was renamed in 1995, from Army Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I always thought of him as an amazing trailblazer,” he told KQED. “I’m afraid I’m a bit jaded. I’ve heard the story so many times from charismatic leaders in power and abusing women.”[aside postID=news_12054312 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/Untitled-design.jpg']“It’s sad, and I can believe it,” Sharon Garland said. “My grandfather was a farmer, and I was assaulted by him as a child … There weren’t many consequences back then and people didn’t believe women.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maria Menjibar said she remembered the good Chavez did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He is, for us, an idol, somebody who fights for all rights,” she said. “I can’t say anything against him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joshua Arce, the president of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, expressed support for Huerta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For 60 years, she carried a painful burden in silence, known only to her, so that the movement she helped build and loves deeply could continue — never knowing until now that others, too, had suffered harm,” he wrote in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/josharcesf/posts/pfbid0CkDw4vRPd989iRGqj6KrzBjjpeoofF93PAxh7setcg8d7isyMVe4htfs8JzBzqNtl\">post on Facebook\u003c/a>. “By breaking that silence, Dolores is speaking not only for herself, but for every woman and girl who was hurt and made to suffer alone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas said his first priority was to listen to survivors, adding that “the farmworker movement has never been about one man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is bigger than any one person, and its values of dignity and justice are more important now than ever,” he wrote. “To those who have found the courage to come forward, my heart is with you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034002\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034002\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Alex Padilla speaks at a press briefing in San Francisco on June 1, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sen. Alex Padilla, who last year proposed legislation to create a national park honoring Chavez across California and Arizona, called the revelations “heartbreaking, horrific accounts of abuse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There must be zero tolerance for abuse, exploitation, and the silencing of victims, no matter who is involved,” he said in a statement on Wednesday. “Confronting painful truths and ensuring accountability is essential to honoring the very values the greater farm worker movement stands for — values rooted in dignity and justice for all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Padilla’s office said he plans to rename and rework the legislation for the national park to honor farm workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chavez’s children also expressed support for survivors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our family is shocked and saddened to learn of news that our father, Cesar Chavez, engaged in sexual impropriety with women and minors nearly 50 years ago,” they wrote in a statement. “As a family steeped in the values of equity and justice, we honor the voices of those who feel unheard and who report sexual abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is deeply painful to our family. We hope these matters are approached thoughtfully and fairly,” the statement reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "“Our movement has never been about one man,” said Rudy Gonzalez, a member of the San Francisco Labor Council’s executive committee. “It has always been about workers — Filipino, Mexican, Black, immigrants standing together and demanding respect.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077336/como-reacciono-california-a-las-acusaciones-de-supuesta-conducta-sexual-inapropiada-de-cesar-chavez\">\u003cem>Leer en español\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sexual \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12076825/unspecified-allegations-prompt-cancellation-of-cesar-chavez-celebrations\">misconduct allegations\u003c/a> against labor icon \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/cesar-chavez\">Cesar Chavez\u003c/a> this week are sending shockwaves through California, where the farmworker movement founder has been revered for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The allegations, which came to light in an investigation by \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/us/cesar-chavez-sexual-abuse-allegations-ufw.html\">\u003cem>The\u003c/em> \u003cem>New York Times\u003c/em>\u003c/a> published Wednesday, accuse Chavez of a pattern of sexual misconduct against young girls and women who worked alongside him in the Latino civil rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two women, who are both now 66, told \u003cem>The\u003c/em> \u003cem>Times\u003c/em> that they had been assaulted repeatedly by Chavez for years in the 1970s, when they were \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/us/cesar-chavez-sexual-assault-allegations-takeaways.html\">12 and 13,\u003c/a> and he was in his 40s. The investigation also detailed allegations made against Chavez by several other women, including the labor leader’s close ally and United Farm Workers co-founder \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054312/dolores-huerta-on-the-state-of-workers-rights-in-california\">Dolores Huerta\u003c/a>, who said Chavez raped her and pressured her into intercourse on two separate occasions in the 1960s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The news has already garnered wide response from labor and elected leaders across the Bay Area, where Chavez’s name is plastered on schools, streets and parks. California, where Chavez began his career as a community organizer in San José and spent years building UFW in La Paz, north of Los Angeles, was the first to recognize Cesar Chavez Day on March 31, 2000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m angry. I’m shaken. And I’m thinking about what this moment demands of us,” Rudy Gonzalez, a member of the San Francisco Labor Council’s executive committee, said in a statement on Tuesday, as whispers of the allegations began to swirl.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The day before \u003cem>The\u003c/em> \u003cem>Times\u003c/em>’ investigation was published, the UFW Foundation announced that it would cancel all activities planned in celebration of Cesar Chavez Day, on March 31, in light of “allegations about abusive behavior.” The Cesar Chavez Foundation also said it had become aware of “disturbing allegations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076934\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076934\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/CesarChavezGetty2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/CesarChavezGetty2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/CesarChavezGetty2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/CesarChavezGetty2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A statue of Cesar E. Chavez stands as members of the San Fernando Valley commemorative committee celebrate Cesar Chavez Day on March 31, 2021, in San Fernando, California. Chavez was known for employing nonviolent means to seek better working conditions for thousands of farm workers who suffered low wages and severe working conditions. In 1962, he founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW) union. \u003ccite>(Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“As a Mexican American labor leader, I was raised on the story of the farm worker movement — on sacrifice, on faith, on the belief that working people deserve dignity,” Gonzalez said in his statement. “But let me be clear: our movement has never been about one man,” he continued. “It has always been about workers — Filipino, Mexican, Black, immigrants standing together and demanding respect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, organizations have announced that they will cancel or reevaluate events planned in honor of Chavez in San José, including a legacy dinner and programming by San José State University’s Cesar E. Chavez Community Action Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Matt Mahan said the city was cancelling all planned events associated with the state holiday and would “identify ways to honor the legacy of the farmworker movement without celebrating individuals who caused such profound harm to the community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We recognize that Chavez’s ties to San José come with a responsibility to ensure we are not further traumatizing survivors,” he said in a statement.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Contra Costa County also said it was “reviewing the details” of its annual celebration planned for next month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Following the lead of the United Farm Workers, Contra Costa County remains focused on supporting farmworkers and advancing equity, safety, and opportunity in agriculture,” spokesperson Kristi Jourdan said via email. “Our goal is to ensure this event honors farmworkers, highlights urgent issues like fair wages and safe working conditions, and reflects our shared values of dignity and inclusion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Congressional Hispanic Caucus said it would honor farmworkers and their “arduous, essential work” on March 31, nationally recognized as Cesar Chavez Day, this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We cannot celebrate a man, regardless of his accomplishments, if he harmed women and children in such vile ways,” the caucus said in a statement. “While it’s heartbreaking when leaders are exposed as flawed beyond absolution, a just society has a duty to hold abusers accountable without exception.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A movement stands on its values, not the misconduct of an individual,” it continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Organizers of San Francisco’s annual Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta Day Parade and Festival said the event would be renamed solely in honor of Huerta, whose birthday is April 10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Viva La Causa! Support the [farmworker] Movement,” Eva Royale said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The investigation published Wednesday morning includes accusations from at least a dozen women who say they were either \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/us/cesar-chavez-sexual-assault-allegations-takeaways.html\">pursued, harassed or assaulted\u003c/a> by Chavez while he was at the height of his career, including Ana Murguia, who told \u003cem>The Times\u003c/em> that she was first summoned to Chavez’s office when she was 13 years old, living with her family at La Paz. She said over the next four years, she had dozens of sexual encounters with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076914\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076914\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/20250903_FarmLaborCrisis_GC-7_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/20250903_FarmLaborCrisis_GC-7_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/20250903_FarmLaborCrisis_GC-7_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/20250903_FarmLaborCrisis_GC-7_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A farmworker picks grapes at a field in Fresno on Sept. 3, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Debra Rojas told \u003cem>The\u003c/em> \u003cem>Times \u003c/em>she was 12 when Chavez first touched her inappropriately, and that when she was 15, he raped her at a motel during the United Farm Workers’ 1,000 Mile March in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huerta, Chavez’s UFW co-founder and close ally in leading the Farmworkers’ Movement, said in a \u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/@dolores_huerta/march-18-2026-e74c20430555\">statement on Wednesday\u003c/a> that she had two nonconsensual sexual encounters with Chavez in the 1960s, both resulting in pregnancies that she hid from public view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huerta said that she had not spoken out about her experiences for the last 60 years, because she “believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am telling my story because \u003cem>The New York Times\u003c/em> has indicated that I was not the only one — there were others,” she wrote in a statement on Wednesday. “The knowledge that he hurt young girls sickens me. My heart aches for everyone who suffered alone and in silence for years. There are no words strong enough to condemn those deplorable actions that he did. Cesar’s actions do not reflect the values of our community and our movement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12044395\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12044395\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1393\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty-160x111.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty-1536x1070.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Portrait of labor activist Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers group, with a union flag that reads “Viva La Causa,” ca.1970s. \u003ccite>(Cathy Murphy/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco’s Mission District Wednesday afternoon, many were still learning of the allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richard Hingel said he remembers when nearby Cesar Chavez Street was renamed in 1995, from Army Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I always thought of him as an amazing trailblazer,” he told KQED. “I’m afraid I’m a bit jaded. I’ve heard the story so many times from charismatic leaders in power and abusing women.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It’s sad, and I can believe it,” Sharon Garland said. “My grandfather was a farmer, and I was assaulted by him as a child … There weren’t many consequences back then and people didn’t believe women.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maria Menjibar said she remembered the good Chavez did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He is, for us, an idol, somebody who fights for all rights,” she said. “I can’t say anything against him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joshua Arce, the president of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, expressed support for Huerta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For 60 years, she carried a painful burden in silence, known only to her, so that the movement she helped build and loves deeply could continue — never knowing until now that others, too, had suffered harm,” he wrote in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/josharcesf/posts/pfbid0CkDw4vRPd989iRGqj6KrzBjjpeoofF93PAxh7setcg8d7isyMVe4htfs8JzBzqNtl\">post on Facebook\u003c/a>. “By breaking that silence, Dolores is speaking not only for herself, but for every woman and girl who was hurt and made to suffer alone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas said his first priority was to listen to survivors, adding that “the farmworker movement has never been about one man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is bigger than any one person, and its values of dignity and justice are more important now than ever,” he wrote. “To those who have found the courage to come forward, my heart is with you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034002\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034002\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Alex Padilla speaks at a press briefing in San Francisco on June 1, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sen. Alex Padilla, who last year proposed legislation to create a national park honoring Chavez across California and Arizona, called the revelations “heartbreaking, horrific accounts of abuse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There must be zero tolerance for abuse, exploitation, and the silencing of victims, no matter who is involved,” he said in a statement on Wednesday. “Confronting painful truths and ensuring accountability is essential to honoring the very values the greater farm worker movement stands for — values rooted in dignity and justice for all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Padilla’s office said he plans to rename and rework the legislation for the national park to honor farm workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chavez’s children also expressed support for survivors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our family is shocked and saddened to learn of news that our father, Cesar Chavez, engaged in sexual impropriety with women and minors nearly 50 years ago,” they wrote in a statement. “As a family steeped in the values of equity and justice, we honor the voices of those who feel unheard and who report sexual abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is deeply painful to our family. We hope these matters are approached thoughtfully and fairly,” the statement reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The United Farm Workers union has distanced itself from annual celebrations of its founder, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/cesar-chavez\">Cesar Chavez\u003c/a>, amid what it said were troubling allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement Tuesday, the union said allegations of “abuse of young women or minors” were concerning enough to urge people around the country to participate in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/immigration\">immigration\u003c/a> justice events or acts of service instead of the typical events in March to commemorate Chavez’s legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union said it has not received any direct reports of abuse and does not have any firsthand knowledge of the allegations. Neither the union nor the Cesar Chavez Foundation responded to requests from The Associated Press for further comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of the reports are family issues, and not our story to tell or our place to comment on,” the union said in its statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several Cesar Chavez celebrations in San Francisco, Texas and Chavez’s home state of Arizona were canceled at the request of the foundation, which also said it’s become aware of disturbing allegations about Chavez during his time as president of the union. Organizers of canceled events did not immediately respond to the AP’s requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both groups said they’d be working to establish ways for anyone who might have been harmed by Chavez to share experiences confidentially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These allegations have been profoundly shocking,” the union statement said. “We need some time to get this right, including to ensure robust, trauma-informed services are available to those who may need it.”[aside postID=news_12008531 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS48095_Carrillo-2-qut.jpg']California became the first state to establish March 31, Chavez’s birthday, as a day commemorating the labor leader. Others followed. In 2014, then-President Barack Obama proclaimed March 31 as national \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13973786/cesar-chavez-day-farmworkers-california\">Cesar Chavez Day\u003c/a>, urging Americans to honor his legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Streets, schools and parks bear Chavez’s name. Born in Yuma, Arizona, Chavez grew up in a Mexican-American family that traveled around California picking lettuce, grapes, cotton and other seasonal crops. He died in California in 1993 at age 66.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chavez is known nationally for his early organizing in the fields, a hunger strike, a grape boycott and eventual victory in getting growers to negotiate with farmworkers for better wages and working conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1962, Chavez and Dolores Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which became the United Farm Workers of America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farmworkers are crucial to agribusiness in California, which grows nearly half the nation’s fruits, nuts and vegetables.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chavez protested against poor pay and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12008531/california-contractor-accused-of-firing-farmworkers-who-suffered-in-extreme-heat-is-fined\">often-miserable work conditions\u003c/a>. There were no toilets in the fields for workers, who weeded fields with short-handled hoes that forced them to bend over for hours at a time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bosses frequently ignored the health and wages of their workers, many of whom were Spanish-speakers in the country temporarily or illegally and had little political or legal clout to prevent abuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The United Farm Workers union has distanced itself from annual celebrations of its founder, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/cesar-chavez\">Cesar Chavez\u003c/a>, amid what it said were troubling allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement Tuesday, the union said allegations of “abuse of young women or minors” were concerning enough to urge people around the country to participate in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/immigration\">immigration\u003c/a> justice events or acts of service instead of the typical events in March to commemorate Chavez’s legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union said it has not received any direct reports of abuse and does not have any firsthand knowledge of the allegations. Neither the union nor the Cesar Chavez Foundation responded to requests from The Associated Press for further comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of the reports are family issues, and not our story to tell or our place to comment on,” the union said in its statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several Cesar Chavez celebrations in San Francisco, Texas and Chavez’s home state of Arizona were canceled at the request of the foundation, which also said it’s become aware of disturbing allegations about Chavez during his time as president of the union. Organizers of canceled events did not immediately respond to the AP’s requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both groups said they’d be working to establish ways for anyone who might have been harmed by Chavez to share experiences confidentially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These allegations have been profoundly shocking,” the union statement said. “We need some time to get this right, including to ensure robust, trauma-informed services are available to those who may need it.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>California became the first state to establish March 31, Chavez’s birthday, as a day commemorating the labor leader. Others followed. In 2014, then-President Barack Obama proclaimed March 31 as national \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13973786/cesar-chavez-day-farmworkers-california\">Cesar Chavez Day\u003c/a>, urging Americans to honor his legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Streets, schools and parks bear Chavez’s name. Born in Yuma, Arizona, Chavez grew up in a Mexican-American family that traveled around California picking lettuce, grapes, cotton and other seasonal crops. He died in California in 1993 at age 66.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chavez is known nationally for his early organizing in the fields, a hunger strike, a grape boycott and eventual victory in getting growers to negotiate with farmworkers for better wages and working conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1962, Chavez and Dolores Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which became the United Farm Workers of America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farmworkers are crucial to agribusiness in California, which grows nearly half the nation’s fruits, nuts and vegetables.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chavez protested against poor pay and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12008531/california-contractor-accused-of-firing-farmworkers-who-suffered-in-extreme-heat-is-fined\">often-miserable work conditions\u003c/a>. There were no toilets in the fields for workers, who weeded fields with short-handled hoes that forced them to bend over for hours at a time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bosses frequently ignored the health and wages of their workers, many of whom were Spanish-speakers in the country temporarily or illegally and had little political or legal clout to prevent abuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Education Officials Take Aim at Student Achievement Gap",
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"content": "\u003cp>As more than half of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a>’s public school students continue to fall short of grade-level standards in both math and English language arts, local legislators and education officials are proposing new legislation aimed at closing what they say is a state “accountability gap” contributing to lagging achievement outcomes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California School Board Association, which plans to campaign in Sacramento on Tuesday for a four-bill package, said the state currently lacks a coherent plan to increase student success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While school districts and county offices of education are held solely responsible for closing achievement gaps, the state controls major policy and funding decisions, and its systems remain fragmented and inconsistent,” CSBA said in a statement. “Local leaders are expected to deliver positive student outcomes, but the state is not held accountable for whether its own policies, budgets and agencies are aligned to or effective in supporting local success.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fewer than 40% of California’s public school students are proficient in math, and less than half meet English language arts standards, according to state data, which compiles annual test scores from students in grades three through eight, as well as juniors in high school. Among low-income students, foster youth and Black and Latino students, proficiency drops as low as 20%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Troy Flint, a spokesperson for CSBA, said that to close those gaps, there needs to be greater state coordination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I asked you today, what is the state plan for closing achievement gaps, you would be hard pressed to find that,” he told KQED. “The state of California has many programs and initiatives which are designed to address student achievement in some way, but they don’t have a cohesive, aligned plan that coordinates budgets, programs, implementation and support so that all agencies are rowing in the same direction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076152\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076152\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-13-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-13-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-13-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-13-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students run during gym class at Yokayo Elementary School in Ukiah on Jan. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While California has comprehensive reports of individual schools and school districts’ performance, Flint said there isn’t similar oversight of the state’s efforts to improve student outcomes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bills would create a number of accountability measures, including an annual dashboard recording the progress of state efforts aimed at closing achievement gaps and a commission that identifies and assesses where school districts and other local educational agencies are seeing gaps in state support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They would also require the State Board of Education and Department of Education to commission a plan of goals and benchmarks for the state to support local districts, and make changes to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sp/cl/\">system\u003c/a> used to track attendance and other student data quarterly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California has invested billions in education, yet families still see achievement gaps that have not meaningfully improved in decades. We have a lot of programs, but not always a clear way to see whether the state’s investments are truly helping students,” said Stockton-area Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom, who authored the \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB2514/id/3381923\">bill\u003c/a> to create the achievement gap dashboard.[aside postID=news_12076468 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-14-BL-KQED.jpg']In a statement, she said AB 2514 would bring about “transparency and alignment, so the state is working alongside our school districts, not simply asking them to solve this challenge on their own.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the COVID-19 pandemic, which shuttered schools and disrupted learning, \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2019&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=1&lstSubGroup=1&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">just over half\u003c/a> of students were considered proficient or exceeding progress standards in English language arts based on annual state testing, while about 39.7% of students met or exceeded progress standards in math. Those numbers dropped after school closures and distance learning, to about \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2022&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=1&lstSubGroup=1&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">47% and 33.4%\u003c/a> during the 2021-22 school year, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last few years, student test rates have started to rebound slightly, but still lag behind pre-pandemic levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts are also concerned about long-term, and in some cases, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/blog/recent-test-results-show-widening-gap-between-high-and-low-scoring-k-12-students/\">widening gaps\u003c/a> between the state’s highest and lowest performing students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>English language arts proficiency among Black students was \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2025&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=5&lstSubGroup=74&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">32.75%\u003c/a> last year, compared to \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2025&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=1&lstSubGroup=1&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">48.82% \u003c/a>overall. In Math, scores lagged about 17.24 percentage points behind overall scores, with 20.06% of students at or exceeding grade level standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among Latino students, English and math figures were \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2025&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=5&lstSubGroup=78&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">38.8% and 25.74%\u003c/a>, respectively, while Asian students, who performed the highest, recorded \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2025&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=5&lstSubGroup=76&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">74.36% and 70%\u003c/a> proficiency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12067251\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12067251\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/250818-SFUSDFirstDay-24_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/250818-SFUSDFirstDay-24_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/250818-SFUSDFirstDay-24_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/250818-SFUSDFirstDay-24_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students at Sanchez Elementary School in San Francisco arrive for their first day of the school year on Aug. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Socioeconomically disadvantaged students also had about \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2025&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=3&lstSubGroup=31&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">10% lower proficiency rates \u003c/a>in both subjects. Foster youth had a \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2025&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=17&lstSubGroup=240&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">larger gap\u003c/a>: just 22.46% were at or above grade level in English language arts, while 13.17% met or exceeded math standards. Slightly more than \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2025&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=4&lstSubGroup=160&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">10%\u003c/a> of English language learning students met or exceeded English and math expectations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flint said more affluent urban and suburban school districts also see higher achievement levels than rural areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The campaign to improve state oversight, Flint said, is about lifting overall student performance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The only way you’re going to do that really anywhere, but especially in a state with California’s demographics, is by targeting the achievement gap,” Flint told KQED. “We’re taking a broad perspective on this about how we can provide universally high education that reaches across all barriers and boundaries to support students … It’s about every student group that we can identify that’s struggling and uplifting them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As more than half of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a>’s public school students continue to fall short of grade-level standards in both math and English language arts, local legislators and education officials are proposing new legislation aimed at closing what they say is a state “accountability gap” contributing to lagging achievement outcomes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California School Board Association, which plans to campaign in Sacramento on Tuesday for a four-bill package, said the state currently lacks a coherent plan to increase student success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While school districts and county offices of education are held solely responsible for closing achievement gaps, the state controls major policy and funding decisions, and its systems remain fragmented and inconsistent,” CSBA said in a statement. “Local leaders are expected to deliver positive student outcomes, but the state is not held accountable for whether its own policies, budgets and agencies are aligned to or effective in supporting local success.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fewer than 40% of California’s public school students are proficient in math, and less than half meet English language arts standards, according to state data, which compiles annual test scores from students in grades three through eight, as well as juniors in high school. Among low-income students, foster youth and Black and Latino students, proficiency drops as low as 20%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Troy Flint, a spokesperson for CSBA, said that to close those gaps, there needs to be greater state coordination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I asked you today, what is the state plan for closing achievement gaps, you would be hard pressed to find that,” he told KQED. “The state of California has many programs and initiatives which are designed to address student achievement in some way, but they don’t have a cohesive, aligned plan that coordinates budgets, programs, implementation and support so that all agencies are rowing in the same direction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076152\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076152\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-13-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-13-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-13-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-13-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students run during gym class at Yokayo Elementary School in Ukiah on Jan. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While California has comprehensive reports of individual schools and school districts’ performance, Flint said there isn’t similar oversight of the state’s efforts to improve student outcomes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bills would create a number of accountability measures, including an annual dashboard recording the progress of state efforts aimed at closing achievement gaps and a commission that identifies and assesses where school districts and other local educational agencies are seeing gaps in state support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They would also require the State Board of Education and Department of Education to commission a plan of goals and benchmarks for the state to support local districts, and make changes to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sp/cl/\">system\u003c/a> used to track attendance and other student data quarterly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California has invested billions in education, yet families still see achievement gaps that have not meaningfully improved in decades. We have a lot of programs, but not always a clear way to see whether the state’s investments are truly helping students,” said Stockton-area Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom, who authored the \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB2514/id/3381923\">bill\u003c/a> to create the achievement gap dashboard.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In a statement, she said AB 2514 would bring about “transparency and alignment, so the state is working alongside our school districts, not simply asking them to solve this challenge on their own.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the COVID-19 pandemic, which shuttered schools and disrupted learning, \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2019&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=1&lstSubGroup=1&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">just over half\u003c/a> of students were considered proficient or exceeding progress standards in English language arts based on annual state testing, while about 39.7% of students met or exceeded progress standards in math. Those numbers dropped after school closures and distance learning, to about \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2022&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=1&lstSubGroup=1&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">47% and 33.4%\u003c/a> during the 2021-22 school year, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last few years, student test rates have started to rebound slightly, but still lag behind pre-pandemic levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts are also concerned about long-term, and in some cases, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/blog/recent-test-results-show-widening-gap-between-high-and-low-scoring-k-12-students/\">widening gaps\u003c/a> between the state’s highest and lowest performing students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>English language arts proficiency among Black students was \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2025&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=5&lstSubGroup=74&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">32.75%\u003c/a> last year, compared to \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2025&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=1&lstSubGroup=1&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">48.82% \u003c/a>overall. In Math, scores lagged about 17.24 percentage points behind overall scores, with 20.06% of students at or exceeding grade level standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among Latino students, English and math figures were \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2025&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=5&lstSubGroup=78&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">38.8% and 25.74%\u003c/a>, respectively, while Asian students, who performed the highest, recorded \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2025&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=5&lstSubGroup=76&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">74.36% and 70%\u003c/a> proficiency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12067251\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12067251\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/250818-SFUSDFirstDay-24_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/250818-SFUSDFirstDay-24_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/250818-SFUSDFirstDay-24_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/250818-SFUSDFirstDay-24_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students at Sanchez Elementary School in San Francisco arrive for their first day of the school year on Aug. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Socioeconomically disadvantaged students also had about \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2025&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=3&lstSubGroup=31&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">10% lower proficiency rates \u003c/a>in both subjects. Foster youth had a \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2025&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=17&lstSubGroup=240&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">larger gap\u003c/a>: just 22.46% were at or above grade level in English language arts, while 13.17% met or exceeded math standards. Slightly more than \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2025&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=4&lstSubGroup=160&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">10%\u003c/a> of English language learning students met or exceeded English and math expectations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flint said more affluent urban and suburban school districts also see higher achievement levels than rural areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The campaign to improve state oversight, Flint said, is about lifting overall student performance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The only way you’re going to do that really anywhere, but especially in a state with California’s demographics, is by targeting the achievement gap,” Flint told KQED. “We’re taking a broad perspective on this about how we can provide universally high education that reaches across all barriers and boundaries to support students … It’s about every student group that we can identify that’s struggling and uplifting them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A group of Democratic lawmakers, led by East Bay Assemblymember Mia Bonta, is rolling out a bill on Tuesday that they hope will pave the way to ensuring legal representation for every California resident \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12075670/california-officials-demand-ice-return-family-to-us-after-arrest-and-deportation\">facing deportation\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If passed, the measure would make California the second state to commit to providing counsel (subject to funding) for everyone in immigration proceedings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move comes in response to the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, which led to a \u003ca href=\"https://deportationdata.org/analysis/immigration-enforcement-first-nine-months-trump.html\">quadrupling\u003c/a> of immigration arrests nationally in the first nine months of last year. In Northern California, arrests more than doubled, even though a planned surge of federal immigration agents \u003ca href=\"http://federal\">was averted\u003c/a> at the last minute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are literally being scooped up without due process rights, being separated from their families,” Bonta said. “And we have a record number of people in detention centers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California already has relatively robust legal aid for immigrants, channeling tens of millions of dollars in public funds to legal service providers, including a one-time $25 million approved by the legislature last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That has meant that \u003ca href=\"https://tracreports.org/phptools/immigration/addressrep/\">70% of Californians\u003c/a> with pending immigration cases had an attorney as of the end of December, the highest rate of any state except Hawaii (which had 84% representation but just 1,435 cases total). Even so, more than 100,000 California immigrants fighting deportation did not have a lawyer’s help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12070623\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12070623\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/AP26020826398216-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/AP26020826398216-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/AP26020826398216-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/AP26020826398216-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A guard walks to the entrance of an immigration detention center during a visit by California Democrats Sen. Adam Schiff and Sen. Alex Padilla, on Jan. 20, 2026, in California City, California. \u003ccite>(Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bonta’s bill, AB 2600, aims to close that gap. It does not obligate a specific dollar amount to immigrant legal aid, but creates a framework to channel funds when the money is there. It builds off a state law passed last year that provides a right to counsel for children in immigration proceedings, expanding that to people of all ages, with priority for those in immigration detention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposed language reads: “Subject to the availability of state funding, the state shall provide legal counsel to every covered individual that is not otherwise being provided counsel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That pledge to provide counsel should be a prod to put the necessary funding in the budget — not only for California lawmakers, but also for other states, said Liz Kenney, associate director at the Vera Institute of Justice in New York, who advocates for universal representation around the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Given California’s leadership on funding and supporting legal representation for immigrants, it’s an incredibly significant next step,” she said. “States across the country have always looked to California for leadership on this issue, so passing a right to counsel in California would significantly impact what other states are interested in exploring.”[aside postID=news_12076370 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/HaywardFamilyDeportation1.jpg']For a decade, New York City has invested in \u003ca href=\"https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/economic-benefits-of-immigration-legal-services/\">universal representation\u003c/a> for residents in immigration detention. And several California counties are \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/02/city-immigrant-legal-defense/\">putting extra resources\u003c/a> into deportation defense. Lawmakers in both New York state and Congress have tried to pass such laws, but so far without success. In 2022, Illinois passed a law establishing a right to legal representation in immigration proceedings, but it has not yet been implemented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Constitution guarantees legal counsel for every person facing criminal charges, at government expense if necessary. However, for people fighting deportation in immigration court, federal law provides a \u003ca href=\"https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title8-section1362&num=0&edition=prelim\">right to counsel\u003c/a>, but only if they can supply their own attorney. In practice, that means more than half — 57% at the end of 2025 — did not have a lawyer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University shows that in nearly 1 million \u003ca href=\"https://tracreports.org/phptools/immigration/asylum/\">asylum cases\u003c/a> decided in the first quarter of this century, immigrants with an attorney won asylum nearly 45% of the time, while those who were unrepresented won less than 15% of the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And immigration enforcement affects not only undocumented immigrants in California, said Bruno Huizar, supervising policy manager with the California Immigrant Policy Center. It has become a broad public safety concern, as legal immigrants and U.S. citizens have been arrested and even shot by immigration agents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Legal representation is a lifeline,” Huizar said. “We have seen people based on the color of their skin, the language they speak … federal agents are taking them, no matter their immigration status. So this is an incredibly urgent political issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Huizar, who advised Bonta’s office on the bill, acknowledged that new financial obligations are a heavy lift at a time when California policymakers are contending with a budget shortfall of between $3 billion and $18 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12060144\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12060144 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/FamilySeparationGetty2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1403\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/FamilySeparationGetty2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/FamilySeparationGetty2-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/FamilySeparationGetty2-1536x1078.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters stand outside the James A. Musick Facility, a detention center that houses unauthorized immigrants, to protest President Trump’s immigration policies and demand that children be reunited with their families in Irvine on June 30, 2018. \u003ccite>(Kevin Sullivan/Orange County Register via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Given the budget deficit, [this bill] does not mandate funding,” he said. “Our hope is that we can pass this right here in the state of California, and year after year, build the political support we need to continue scaling up investments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some state budget observers say California can’t afford to add additional spending obligations, at least without finding cuts in other areas. Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow with the Pacific Research Institute, a free-market think tank, said lawmakers should look at the state budget holistically, rather than pushing individual items in isolation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“\u003c/em>Where my concern comes is not on this project per se, which in my own personal values I probably would prioritize highly,” he said. “But is this going to become another justification to further increase the tax burden here in the state, which is already excessive compared to the rest of the country, and which I think is already having a lot of deleterious impacts on our growth and our prosperity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Bonta said expanding legal defense is not only the humane thing to do, but it’s also a way to ensure prosperity in a state where a third of the workforce is foreign-born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our immigrant community is the economic lifeblood of not only the state of California, but the country,” she said. \u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>So it’s incredibly important that we preserve that economic engine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A group of Democratic lawmakers, led by East Bay Assemblymember Mia Bonta, is rolling out a bill on Tuesday that they hope will pave the way to ensuring legal representation for every California resident \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12075670/california-officials-demand-ice-return-family-to-us-after-arrest-and-deportation\">facing deportation\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If passed, the measure would make California the second state to commit to providing counsel (subject to funding) for everyone in immigration proceedings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move comes in response to the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, which led to a \u003ca href=\"https://deportationdata.org/analysis/immigration-enforcement-first-nine-months-trump.html\">quadrupling\u003c/a> of immigration arrests nationally in the first nine months of last year. In Northern California, arrests more than doubled, even though a planned surge of federal immigration agents \u003ca href=\"http://federal\">was averted\u003c/a> at the last minute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are literally being scooped up without due process rights, being separated from their families,” Bonta said. “And we have a record number of people in detention centers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California already has relatively robust legal aid for immigrants, channeling tens of millions of dollars in public funds to legal service providers, including a one-time $25 million approved by the legislature last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That has meant that \u003ca href=\"https://tracreports.org/phptools/immigration/addressrep/\">70% of Californians\u003c/a> with pending immigration cases had an attorney as of the end of December, the highest rate of any state except Hawaii (which had 84% representation but just 1,435 cases total). Even so, more than 100,000 California immigrants fighting deportation did not have a lawyer’s help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12070623\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12070623\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/AP26020826398216-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/AP26020826398216-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/AP26020826398216-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/AP26020826398216-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A guard walks to the entrance of an immigration detention center during a visit by California Democrats Sen. Adam Schiff and Sen. Alex Padilla, on Jan. 20, 2026, in California City, California. \u003ccite>(Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bonta’s bill, AB 2600, aims to close that gap. It does not obligate a specific dollar amount to immigrant legal aid, but creates a framework to channel funds when the money is there. It builds off a state law passed last year that provides a right to counsel for children in immigration proceedings, expanding that to people of all ages, with priority for those in immigration detention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposed language reads: “Subject to the availability of state funding, the state shall provide legal counsel to every covered individual that is not otherwise being provided counsel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That pledge to provide counsel should be a prod to put the necessary funding in the budget — not only for California lawmakers, but also for other states, said Liz Kenney, associate director at the Vera Institute of Justice in New York, who advocates for universal representation around the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Given California’s leadership on funding and supporting legal representation for immigrants, it’s an incredibly significant next step,” she said. “States across the country have always looked to California for leadership on this issue, so passing a right to counsel in California would significantly impact what other states are interested in exploring.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For a decade, New York City has invested in \u003ca href=\"https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/economic-benefits-of-immigration-legal-services/\">universal representation\u003c/a> for residents in immigration detention. And several California counties are \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/02/city-immigrant-legal-defense/\">putting extra resources\u003c/a> into deportation defense. Lawmakers in both New York state and Congress have tried to pass such laws, but so far without success. In 2022, Illinois passed a law establishing a right to legal representation in immigration proceedings, but it has not yet been implemented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Constitution guarantees legal counsel for every person facing criminal charges, at government expense if necessary. However, for people fighting deportation in immigration court, federal law provides a \u003ca href=\"https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title8-section1362&num=0&edition=prelim\">right to counsel\u003c/a>, but only if they can supply their own attorney. In practice, that means more than half — 57% at the end of 2025 — did not have a lawyer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University shows that in nearly 1 million \u003ca href=\"https://tracreports.org/phptools/immigration/asylum/\">asylum cases\u003c/a> decided in the first quarter of this century, immigrants with an attorney won asylum nearly 45% of the time, while those who were unrepresented won less than 15% of the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And immigration enforcement affects not only undocumented immigrants in California, said Bruno Huizar, supervising policy manager with the California Immigrant Policy Center. It has become a broad public safety concern, as legal immigrants and U.S. citizens have been arrested and even shot by immigration agents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Legal representation is a lifeline,” Huizar said. “We have seen people based on the color of their skin, the language they speak … federal agents are taking them, no matter their immigration status. So this is an incredibly urgent political issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Huizar, who advised Bonta’s office on the bill, acknowledged that new financial obligations are a heavy lift at a time when California policymakers are contending with a budget shortfall of between $3 billion and $18 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12060144\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12060144 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/FamilySeparationGetty2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1403\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/FamilySeparationGetty2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/FamilySeparationGetty2-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/FamilySeparationGetty2-1536x1078.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters stand outside the James A. Musick Facility, a detention center that houses unauthorized immigrants, to protest President Trump’s immigration policies and demand that children be reunited with their families in Irvine on June 30, 2018. \u003ccite>(Kevin Sullivan/Orange County Register via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Given the budget deficit, [this bill] does not mandate funding,” he said. “Our hope is that we can pass this right here in the state of California, and year after year, build the political support we need to continue scaling up investments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some state budget observers say California can’t afford to add additional spending obligations, at least without finding cuts in other areas. Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow with the Pacific Research Institute, a free-market think tank, said lawmakers should look at the state budget holistically, rather than pushing individual items in isolation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“\u003c/em>Where my concern comes is not on this project per se, which in my own personal values I probably would prioritize highly,” he said. “But is this going to become another justification to further increase the tax burden here in the state, which is already excessive compared to the rest of the country, and which I think is already having a lot of deleterious impacts on our growth and our prosperity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Bonta said expanding legal defense is not only the humane thing to do, but it’s also a way to ensure prosperity in a state where a third of the workforce is foreign-born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our immigrant community is the economic lifeblood of not only the state of California, but the country,” she said. \u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>So it’s incredibly important that we preserve that economic engine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The potentially record-shattering heat wave roasting \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> this week reminds Lawrence Cox of the people locked in suffocating state prison cells with no windows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Temperatures inside aging prison buildings can climb much higher than outdoors, with little to no relief, said Cox, who was formerly incarcerated at correctional facilities in Solano, Kern and Imperial counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 41-year-old used to soak a bed sheet with water and wrap it around himself to try to keep cool during triple-digit summer temperatures. The fans that he and his cellmates were provided with just “pushed hot air,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was extremely uncomfortable, headaches, feeling closed in, like you’re in a furnace,” said Cox, now an organizer with the Oakland-based nonprofit Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. “If it’s 100 degrees outside, it’s at least 115 degrees inside these cells, and there’s no air conditioner\u003cem>.\u003c/em>”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation holds nearly 90,000 incarcerated people, many of whom are required to work, and more than 58,000 employees. But the state’s largest agency has been exempted from required worker protections against dangerous heat that apply to most other job sites in California\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State workplace safety regulators are now proposing to end that carve-out. \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/doshreg/heat-illness-corrections/\">Draft regulations \u003c/a>released earlier this month would require CDCR to provide employees, including incarcerated workers, with drinking water and rest breaks in cool-down areas when indoor temperatures reach or exceed 87 degrees Fahrenheit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076614\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076614\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/230726-SAN-QUENTIN-MHN-09_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/230726-SAN-QUENTIN-MHN-09_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/230726-SAN-QUENTIN-MHN-09_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/230726-SAN-QUENTIN-MHN-09_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inmates perform yard work at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin on July 26, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The department should reduce temperatures in indoor work areas to below 87 degrees or limit workers’ exposure to heat, such as by changing their shifts. But employers could skirt the requirements, which would also cover local jails and juvenile detention facilities, if they can demonstrate that the measures are unfeasible or would imperil safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Cox, Cal/OSHA’s draft represents a much-awaited first step to kickstart the rulemaking process, which can take months or years. It’s unclear how much tens of thousands of incarcerated workers would be protected if large exemptions are allowed, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The proposal appears to protect staff way more than protecting the incarcerated population,” Cox said. “With a more refined and intentional approach, I think we could do better. Because what’s proposed now basically can delay or dilute real relief and turn this rule basically into a paper rule, leaving it largely up to discretion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mary Xjimenez, a spokesperson for CDCR, said safety is a priority and the department takes proactive steps to prevent excessive heat exposure for workers at its facilities.\u003cbr>\n“If the new indoor heat regulations are implemented, CDCR will work with the Administration to assess impacts and follow the existing state budget processes to the extent additional state resources are needed,” Xjimenez said in a statement. [aside postID=news_12071751 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/EchoesOfIsolation_01.jpg']Cal/OSHA spokesperson Denisse Gómez said feedback from stakeholders and others will inform the proposed regulation, which will be discussed next at a public meeting on May 7.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CDCR operates dozens of correctional and rehabilitation facilities, many of them \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/bph/divisions/severe-mental-health-disorder/mdo-evaluators/map-of-californias-correctional-and-rehabilitation-institutions/\">located\u003c/a> in the Central Valley, Inland Empire and other regions that often reach triple digits during the summer. Climate change is expected to exacerbate the risks of very high temperatures, which can result in heat stroke and death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A coalition of workplace safety advocates and unions representing prison staffers backs a state bill that would require CDCR to implement minimum relief measures during excessive weather events. AB 2499 would also mandate cooling systems at correctional facilities’ living quarters, work areas, and recreational spaces. The Assembly’s public safety committee plans to hear the proposed legislation on March 24.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State prison officials have estimated that it would cost \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/green/wp-content/uploads/sites/176/2025/06/Climate-and-the-Impact-on-CDCR.pdf\">about $6 billion\u003c/a> to implement effective air cooling mechanisms to protect prison workers from extreme heat. Cost concerns led policymakers \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11991314/california-board-approves-long-awaited-heat-protections-for-most-indoor-workers\">to exclude CDCR\u003c/a> from indoor heat rules issued in 2024 for restaurants, warehouses, manufacturing plants and other indoor workplaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those\u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DOSH/HeatIllnessInfo.html\"> regulations\u003c/a> have a lower temperature trigger than the current proposal for prisons and jails, as businesses are required to provide workers with drinking water and cool-down options when indoor temperatures climb to 82 degrees. If an area reaches 87 degrees, employers must lower the temperature through air conditioning, ventilation and other measures, or reduce worker exposure to the heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12007882\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1973px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12007882\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/107520204_qed.jpg\" alt=\"Imprisoned people wearing orange outfits hang out in an outdoor area of the prison, while a guard watches from a tower overhead.\" width=\"1973\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/107520204_qed.jpg 1973w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/107520204_qed-800x540.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/107520204_qed-1020x689.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/107520204_qed-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/107520204_qed-1536x1038.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/107520204_qed-1920x1297.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1973px) 100vw, 1973px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California Department of Corrections officer looks on as inmates at Chino State Prison exercise in the yard Dec. 10, 2010, in Chino, California. \u003ccite>(Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>CDCR has been working on a $38 million\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/09/california-prison-heat-death-pilot/\"> pilot program \u003c/a>to test insulation and cooling system improvements at three prisons in Madera, Kern and Los Angeles counties. Results are not expected until 2028 at the earliest. The department is also working on projects to improve cooling at housing units in five institutions, at a cost of about \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/green/wp-content/uploads/sites/176/2025/06/Climate-and-the-Impact-on-CDCR.pdf\">$246 million\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the Office of the Inspector General \u003ca href=\"https://www.oig.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Audit-of-the-California-Department-of-Corrections-and-Rehabilitations-Management-of-Temperature-Conditions-Within-Californias-Prisons.pdf\">reviewed\u003c/a> the department’s preparedness for extremely hot and cold temperatures at three prisons — High Desert State Prison, California State Prison, Corcoran and California State Prison, Los Angeles County — and found CDCR was failing to take steps to protect vulnerable incarcerated people. Old cooling and heating equipment commonly failed, as some systems were more than 30 years old, the review found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The department has long acknowledged the challenges it has with its aging infrastructure, including heating and cooling systems,” the report said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was extremely uncomfortable, headaches, feeling closed in, like you’re in a furnace,” said Cox, now an organizer with the Oakland-based nonprofit Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. “If it’s 100 degrees outside, it’s at least 115 degrees inside these cells, and there’s no air conditioner\u003cem>.\u003c/em>”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation holds nearly 90,000 incarcerated people, many of whom are required to work, and more than 58,000 employees. But the state’s largest agency has been exempted from required worker protections against dangerous heat that apply to most other job sites in California\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State workplace safety regulators are now proposing to end that carve-out. \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/doshreg/heat-illness-corrections/\">Draft regulations \u003c/a>released earlier this month would require CDCR to provide employees, including incarcerated workers, with drinking water and rest breaks in cool-down areas when indoor temperatures reach or exceed 87 degrees Fahrenheit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076614\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076614\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/230726-SAN-QUENTIN-MHN-09_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/230726-SAN-QUENTIN-MHN-09_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/230726-SAN-QUENTIN-MHN-09_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/230726-SAN-QUENTIN-MHN-09_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inmates perform yard work at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin on July 26, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The department should reduce temperatures in indoor work areas to below 87 degrees or limit workers’ exposure to heat, such as by changing their shifts. But employers could skirt the requirements, which would also cover local jails and juvenile detention facilities, if they can demonstrate that the measures are unfeasible or would imperil safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Cox, Cal/OSHA’s draft represents a much-awaited first step to kickstart the rulemaking process, which can take months or years. It’s unclear how much tens of thousands of incarcerated workers would be protected if large exemptions are allowed, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The proposal appears to protect staff way more than protecting the incarcerated population,” Cox said. “With a more refined and intentional approach, I think we could do better. Because what’s proposed now basically can delay or dilute real relief and turn this rule basically into a paper rule, leaving it largely up to discretion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mary Xjimenez, a spokesperson for CDCR, said safety is a priority and the department takes proactive steps to prevent excessive heat exposure for workers at its facilities.\u003cbr>\n“If the new indoor heat regulations are implemented, CDCR will work with the Administration to assess impacts and follow the existing state budget processes to the extent additional state resources are needed,” Xjimenez said in a statement. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Cal/OSHA spokesperson Denisse Gómez said feedback from stakeholders and others will inform the proposed regulation, which will be discussed next at a public meeting on May 7.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CDCR operates dozens of correctional and rehabilitation facilities, many of them \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/bph/divisions/severe-mental-health-disorder/mdo-evaluators/map-of-californias-correctional-and-rehabilitation-institutions/\">located\u003c/a> in the Central Valley, Inland Empire and other regions that often reach triple digits during the summer. Climate change is expected to exacerbate the risks of very high temperatures, which can result in heat stroke and death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A coalition of workplace safety advocates and unions representing prison staffers backs a state bill that would require CDCR to implement minimum relief measures during excessive weather events. AB 2499 would also mandate cooling systems at correctional facilities’ living quarters, work areas, and recreational spaces. The Assembly’s public safety committee plans to hear the proposed legislation on March 24.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State prison officials have estimated that it would cost \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/green/wp-content/uploads/sites/176/2025/06/Climate-and-the-Impact-on-CDCR.pdf\">about $6 billion\u003c/a> to implement effective air cooling mechanisms to protect prison workers from extreme heat. Cost concerns led policymakers \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11991314/california-board-approves-long-awaited-heat-protections-for-most-indoor-workers\">to exclude CDCR\u003c/a> from indoor heat rules issued in 2024 for restaurants, warehouses, manufacturing plants and other indoor workplaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those\u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DOSH/HeatIllnessInfo.html\"> regulations\u003c/a> have a lower temperature trigger than the current proposal for prisons and jails, as businesses are required to provide workers with drinking water and cool-down options when indoor temperatures climb to 82 degrees. If an area reaches 87 degrees, employers must lower the temperature through air conditioning, ventilation and other measures, or reduce worker exposure to the heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12007882\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1973px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12007882\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/107520204_qed.jpg\" alt=\"Imprisoned people wearing orange outfits hang out in an outdoor area of the prison, while a guard watches from a tower overhead.\" width=\"1973\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/107520204_qed.jpg 1973w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/107520204_qed-800x540.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/107520204_qed-1020x689.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/107520204_qed-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/107520204_qed-1536x1038.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/107520204_qed-1920x1297.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1973px) 100vw, 1973px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California Department of Corrections officer looks on as inmates at Chino State Prison exercise in the yard Dec. 10, 2010, in Chino, California. \u003ccite>(Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>CDCR has been working on a $38 million\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/09/california-prison-heat-death-pilot/\"> pilot program \u003c/a>to test insulation and cooling system improvements at three prisons in Madera, Kern and Los Angeles counties. Results are not expected until 2028 at the earliest. The department is also working on projects to improve cooling at housing units in five institutions, at a cost of about \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/green/wp-content/uploads/sites/176/2025/06/Climate-and-the-Impact-on-CDCR.pdf\">$246 million\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the Office of the Inspector General \u003ca href=\"https://www.oig.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Audit-of-the-California-Department-of-Corrections-and-Rehabilitations-Management-of-Temperature-Conditions-Within-Californias-Prisons.pdf\">reviewed\u003c/a> the department’s preparedness for extremely hot and cold temperatures at three prisons — High Desert State Prison, California State Prison, Corcoran and California State Prison, Los Angeles County — and found CDCR was failing to take steps to protect vulnerable incarcerated people. Old cooling and heating equipment commonly failed, as some systems were more than 30 years old, the review found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The department has long acknowledged the challenges it has with its aging infrastructure, including heating and cooling systems,” the report said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "california-passed-a-law-to-curb-spikes-in-gas-prices-why-isnt-it-using-those-powers-now",
"title": "California Passed a Law to Curb Spikes in Gas Prices. Why Isn’t It Using Those Powers Now?",
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"headTitle": "California Passed a Law to Curb Spikes in Gas Prices. Why Isn’t It Using Those Powers Now? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three years ago, California built a first-in-the-nation system aimed at protecting drivers when oil \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/economy\">markets turn calamitous\u003c/a>. The Legislature passed it. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it. He proclaimed “California took on Big Oil and won.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its author, then-Sen. Nancy Skinner called it a “landmark law” that “will allow us to hold oil companies accountable if they pad their profits at the expense of hard-working families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the law — which gave regulators the power to cap refinery profits and penalize oil companies for price gouging — has never been used. Instead, last year, the California Energy Commission voted to delay the rules for five years. Skinner – who wrote the law as a Senator – was absent when her own commission voted to delay it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, with gas \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/09/california-gas-prices-iran-war\">topping $5.30 a gallon\u003c/a> statewide, that decision is under a new spotlight. The Iran war has sent global oil prices soaring — but the war is only part of the story. California has a structural problem: fewer refineries, a captive market and no easy outside supply options. When prices rise nationally, they can rise even more here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944934\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11944934\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/AP23086788063121-scaled-e1770414780894.jpg\" alt=\"A sign at a gas station shows very high gas prices, approaching $6 a gallon. The Bay Bridge can be scene in the background.\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1319\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Bay Bridge rises behind the price board of a gas station in San Francisco on July 20, 2022. \u003ccite>(Jeff Chiu/AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Proponents say this is precisely the moment the 2023 law was designed for. The commissioners last year left the door open to rescind the delay — and move forward with the rule before the five years — if they change their minds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are the moments we need them, because when the price of a commodity goes through the roof — be it crude oil or refined gasoline — that’s when companies make outrageous profits,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But those who backed the delay argue it was a necessary concession — that penalizing refiners risked driving them out of the state entirely. It’s a tension that cuts to the heart of California’s energy predicament: how to protect consumers today from an industry the state can’t yet afford to lose, while still making good on its promise to leave that industry behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>California’s unused gas-price tools\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When the California Energy Commission met last August Newsom was already retreating from his confrontation with the oil industry. The question before commissioners was whether to move ahead with aggressive rules targeting refinery profits — or step back, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/08/oil-compromise-california-legislature/\">as the governor was doing\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076525\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076525\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference at the Friendship House Association of American Indians in San Francisco on Jan. 16, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was a sharp reversal. Newsom had declared \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/08/california-gas-prices-newsom-special-session/\">special legislative sessions\u003c/a> in 2022 and 2024, pushing through sweeping new powers to curb gasoline price spikes — including requirements that refiners store more fuel and replace lost supply during maintenance, and the profit-cap rules now sitting dormant. A new energy commission oversight division created by the law found an unexplained gasoline premium of about 41 cents per gallon between 2015 and 2024, costing drivers \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2025-10/CEC-900-2025-001.pdf\">an estimated $59 billion\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those are critically important laws,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity. “What that information shows is that Californians are at the mercy of a very few refiners with immense power.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s oil industry strongly opposed the measures, and some economists remain skeptical of them. UC Berkeley energy economist Severin Borenstein warned that capping refinery profits during shortages could backfire.[aside postID=news_12076523 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/GettyImages-2264208891-2000x1465.jpg']“The last thing we need is to start trying to regulate refinery margins,” he said. “As much as people don’t like high gasoline prices, they really, really hate gas lines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By last August, refinery closures were looming and warnings of $8-a-gallon gasoline circulated in Sacramento. Newsom and Democratic leaders were negotiating with the oil industry to boost production in Kern County — talks that produced a law that has since driven an uptick in drilling permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Valero said it would close its Benicia refinery, \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Newsom-Gupta-Letter-4.21.pdf\">Newsom directed Siva Gunda\u003c/a>, vice chair of the California Energy Commission, to “redouble the state’s efforts to work closely with refiners on short- and long-term planning” and ensure a “reliable supply of transportation fuels.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gunda responded with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/CEC%27s_Respone_to_Governor_Newsom%27s_Letter_June-27-2025_ada.pdf\">series of recommendations\u003c/a> that aligned largely with industry’s desires — among them a pause in the state’s profit-cap rule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Against that backdrop, energy commissioners \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/filebrowser/download/7958?fid=7958\">voted on Aug. 29\u003c/a> to delay the rules for five years. Ahead of the vote, Gunda said the delay would help boost “investor confidence” in the state’s oil refiners, “thereby ensuring a reliable in-state refining capacity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037671\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037671\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230921-VALERO-BENICIA-REFINERY-MD-02_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230921-VALERO-BENICIA-REFINERY-MD-02_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230921-VALERO-BENICIA-REFINERY-MD-02_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230921-VALERO-BENICIA-REFINERY-MD-02_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230921-VALERO-BENICIA-REFINERY-MD-02_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230921-VALERO-BENICIA-REFINERY-MD-02_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230921-VALERO-BENICIA-REFINERY-MD-02_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Valero refinery in Benicia on Sept. 21, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Oil industry representatives say the decision made sense – the profit-cap measures, they argued, miss the real problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The real problem is California is an energy island — we’re losing 17% of our refining capacity,” said Zachary Leary, a lobbyist for the Western States Petroleum Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Court, of Consumer Watchdog, said the governor “panicked,” leaving the state without the “hammer” it now needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you have this type of level of gas run up, you’re going to need those tools,” Court said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>The difficult middle of the energy transition\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California has committed to phasing out fossil fuels by 2045 — but it still depends heavily on gasoline, and it is losing the refineries that produce it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phillips 66 last year shut its Los Angeles refinery, citing concerns about the sustainability of the California market. Valero is closing its Benicia refinery next month, pointing to a challenging regulatory environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11960711\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11960711\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/239011-OIL-AIR-QUALITY-Getty-MT-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"The silhouettes of several smokestacks emit fumes into the air.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/239011-OIL-AIR-QUALITY-Getty-MT-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/239011-OIL-AIR-QUALITY-Getty-MT-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/239011-OIL-AIR-QUALITY-Getty-MT-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/239011-OIL-AIR-QUALITY-Getty-MT-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/239011-OIL-AIR-QUALITY-Getty-MT-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/239011-OIL-AIR-QUALITY-Getty-MT-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Phillips 66 Los Angeles Refinery Wilmington Plant stands beyond a residential street on November 28, 2022 in Wilmington. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“If you start losing refineries — as we are going to — and you don’t have an alternative source of supply, we’re going to start getting price spikes when there’s any sort of disruption at one of our refineries,” Borenstein said. “Or just during high demand periods.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The challenge of reducing fossil fuel use while maintaining adequate supply has created what Gunda — Newsom’s point person in negotiations with the oil industry — calls the “mid-transition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not going to be a smooth transition,” Gunda said last month in testimony to a state Senate committee. “Every time you lose a refinery, it’s going to be a double-digit percent of refined fuel lost in California. So that abrupt transition will mean an abrupt increase in imports.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A global oil shock hits California\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The recent jump in gasoline prices reflects a global oil shock tied to the war with Iran — not a policy change unique to California, experts said. But the surge highlights how exposed the state remains to global energy markets as it loses refining capacity and \u003ca href=\"https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=65704\">imports more crude\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.spglobal.com/energy/en/news-research/latest-news/crude-oil/112525-californias-gasoline-demand-met-with-increased-global-supply-as-refineries-close\">gasoline\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the conflict began, the international benchmark for crude oil has climbed more than $25 a barrel — a shift that typically translates to about 60 cents per gallon at the pump, in line with the increase in California retail prices, argues Borenstein, of UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075007\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12075007\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/022826_IRAN-BAY-AREA-RESPONSE_GH_011-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/022826_IRAN-BAY-AREA-RESPONSE_GH_011-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/022826_IRAN-BAY-AREA-RESPONSE_GH_011-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/022826_IRAN-BAY-AREA-RESPONSE_GH_011-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hundreds of demonstrators march along Market Street during a “Hands Off Iran” rally on Feb. 28, 2026, in San Francisco. Protesters took over the roadway while calling for an arms embargo and an end to U.S. participation in the strikes. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“All of the change we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks is in line with the change in crude oil prices, and therefore is not California specific,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom has made a similar argument, \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/03/10/governor-newsom-blasts-trump-for-raising-gasoline-prices-on-americans-with-no-plan-and-no-accountability/\">blaming the spike\u003c/a> on global oil markets and the war with Iran rather than California policies. But analysts note that the state’s shrinking refinery base means global shocks land harder here than elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A key concern is the Strait of Hormuz. Before the conflict, the narrow waterway carried \u003ca href=\"https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=65504#:~:text=The%20Strait%20of%20Hormuz%2C%20located,of%20global%20petroleum%20liquids%20consumption.\">more than 20 million barrels of oil a day\u003c/a> — roughly one-fifth of global supply. Traffic is now at a standstill, and crude prices topped $100 a barrel again — even after more than 30 countries \u003ca href=\"https://www.iea.org/news/iea-member-countries-to-carry-out-largest-ever-oil-stock-release-amid-market-disruptions-from-middle-east-conflict\">announced\u003c/a> releases from emergency reserves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ryan Cummings, chief of staff at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policymaking, said a prolonged closure could push crude prices above $130 or $140 per barrel — driving California prices closer to $7, with a worst-case scenario approaching $10 at some stations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076648\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076648\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/GettyImages-639787574.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/GettyImages-639787574.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/GettyImages-639787574-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/GettyImages-639787574-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The port city of Gwadar balochistan on the southwestern coast of Pakistan, just outside the Strait of Hormuz near key shipping routes in and out of the Persian Gulf. \u003ccite>(SM Rafiq Photography via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most analysts consider that outcome unlikely but no longer unthinkable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right now, this doesn’t appear likely, but it is a worst-case scenario that is growing by the day,” Cummings said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Competing ideas for what comes next\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Siegel, of the Center for Biological Diversity, said California should move forward immediately to implement the profit-cap rules and require companies to hold larger fuel inventories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our leaders shouldn’t rest until the rules are in place to prevent price gouging on top of volatility, and should not rest until people get their money back,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Economists say California’s biggest challenge may be infrastructure. Valero plans to close its Benicia refinery, which produces about 10% of the state’s gasoline, next month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12051503\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12051503\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250808-CAP-AND-TRADE-ENVIRO-JUSTICE-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250808-CAP-AND-TRADE-ENVIRO-JUSTICE-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250808-CAP-AND-TRADE-ENVIRO-JUSTICE-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250808-CAP-AND-TRADE-ENVIRO-JUSTICE-MD-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luna Angulo looks at the Chevron Refinery from the Wildcat Marsh Staging Area in Richmond on Aug. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In an \u003ca href=\"https://nealemahoney.substack.com/p/an-analysis-of-the-valero-benicia\">analysis posted last year\u003c/a>, Stanford economist Neale Mahoney and Cummings said California could offset lost refinery production with gasoline imports – if permitting allows refineries like Benicia to convert to fuel import terminals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom said in January his administration is \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/01/06/governor-newsoms-statement-on-valeros-benicia-refinery-update/\">working with the company\u003c/a> to continue importing gasoline into Northern California after its refinery operations close.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I was in the Legislature right now, all of my energies and effort would be built on, one, making sure that Benicia gets turned into an import terminal — and two, making sure whoever owns or operates that is not an incumbent,” Cummings said.[aside postID=news_12075522 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/RobBontaAP.jpg']Court, of Consumer Watchdog, pointed to \u003ca href=\"https://www.phillips66.com/newsroom/western-gateway-pipeline/\">a proposed Phillips 66 pipeline\u003c/a> that could bring refined gasoline from Midwest refineries into the state – something California has never had, relying instead on in-state refining and marine imports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dubbed the Western Gateway Pipeline, the project would build a new pipeline and reverse an existing one to move gasoline and diesel from central U.S. refineries to Arizona and California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One state lawmaker has \u003ca href=\"https://ransom.asmdc.org/press-releases/20260219-assemblymember-rhodesia-ransom-introduces-bill-gives-access-cheaper\">proposed expanding access to E85\u003c/a>, a cheaper ethanol blend. Both ideas remain proposals without clear timelines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/27873034-mpc-proposed-cap-and-invest-amendments-concerns-30926/\">some oil companies\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/27813814-asm-member-letter-carb-ci-regs-concerns-march-9/\">even some Democrats\u003c/a> are warning California’s climate policies could raise production costs enough that refineries reconsider operating in California — adding another pressure point to an already strained supply picture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The profit-cap rules that could penalize oil companies remain on hold until 2029. By then, California may have lost more refineries — and may still be grappling with the problem Newsom once promised to solve: gasoline price shocks in the country’s most unaffordable market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2026/03/california-iran-oil-profit-spike/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "California built a first-in-the-nation system to police refinery profits during price spikes. Regulators delayed it for five years.",
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"title": "California Passed a Law to Curb Spikes in Gas Prices. Why Isn’t It Using Those Powers Now? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three years ago, California built a first-in-the-nation system aimed at protecting drivers when oil \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/economy\">markets turn calamitous\u003c/a>. The Legislature passed it. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it. He proclaimed “California took on Big Oil and won.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its author, then-Sen. Nancy Skinner called it a “landmark law” that “will allow us to hold oil companies accountable if they pad their profits at the expense of hard-working families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the law — which gave regulators the power to cap refinery profits and penalize oil companies for price gouging — has never been used. Instead, last year, the California Energy Commission voted to delay the rules for five years. Skinner – who wrote the law as a Senator – was absent when her own commission voted to delay it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, with gas \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/09/california-gas-prices-iran-war\">topping $5.30 a gallon\u003c/a> statewide, that decision is under a new spotlight. The Iran war has sent global oil prices soaring — but the war is only part of the story. California has a structural problem: fewer refineries, a captive market and no easy outside supply options. When prices rise nationally, they can rise even more here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944934\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11944934\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/AP23086788063121-scaled-e1770414780894.jpg\" alt=\"A sign at a gas station shows very high gas prices, approaching $6 a gallon. The Bay Bridge can be scene in the background.\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1319\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Bay Bridge rises behind the price board of a gas station in San Francisco on July 20, 2022. \u003ccite>(Jeff Chiu/AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Proponents say this is precisely the moment the 2023 law was designed for. The commissioners last year left the door open to rescind the delay — and move forward with the rule before the five years — if they change their minds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are the moments we need them, because when the price of a commodity goes through the roof — be it crude oil or refined gasoline — that’s when companies make outrageous profits,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But those who backed the delay argue it was a necessary concession — that penalizing refiners risked driving them out of the state entirely. It’s a tension that cuts to the heart of California’s energy predicament: how to protect consumers today from an industry the state can’t yet afford to lose, while still making good on its promise to leave that industry behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>California’s unused gas-price tools\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When the California Energy Commission met last August Newsom was already retreating from his confrontation with the oil industry. The question before commissioners was whether to move ahead with aggressive rules targeting refinery profits — or step back, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/08/oil-compromise-california-legislature/\">as the governor was doing\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076525\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076525\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference at the Friendship House Association of American Indians in San Francisco on Jan. 16, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was a sharp reversal. Newsom had declared \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/08/california-gas-prices-newsom-special-session/\">special legislative sessions\u003c/a> in 2022 and 2024, pushing through sweeping new powers to curb gasoline price spikes — including requirements that refiners store more fuel and replace lost supply during maintenance, and the profit-cap rules now sitting dormant. A new energy commission oversight division created by the law found an unexplained gasoline premium of about 41 cents per gallon between 2015 and 2024, costing drivers \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2025-10/CEC-900-2025-001.pdf\">an estimated $59 billion\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those are critically important laws,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity. “What that information shows is that Californians are at the mercy of a very few refiners with immense power.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s oil industry strongly opposed the measures, and some economists remain skeptical of them. UC Berkeley energy economist Severin Borenstein warned that capping refinery profits during shortages could backfire.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The last thing we need is to start trying to regulate refinery margins,” he said. “As much as people don’t like high gasoline prices, they really, really hate gas lines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By last August, refinery closures were looming and warnings of $8-a-gallon gasoline circulated in Sacramento. Newsom and Democratic leaders were negotiating with the oil industry to boost production in Kern County — talks that produced a law that has since driven an uptick in drilling permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Valero said it would close its Benicia refinery, \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Newsom-Gupta-Letter-4.21.pdf\">Newsom directed Siva Gunda\u003c/a>, vice chair of the California Energy Commission, to “redouble the state’s efforts to work closely with refiners on short- and long-term planning” and ensure a “reliable supply of transportation fuels.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gunda responded with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/CEC%27s_Respone_to_Governor_Newsom%27s_Letter_June-27-2025_ada.pdf\">series of recommendations\u003c/a> that aligned largely with industry’s desires — among them a pause in the state’s profit-cap rule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Against that backdrop, energy commissioners \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/filebrowser/download/7958?fid=7958\">voted on Aug. 29\u003c/a> to delay the rules for five years. Ahead of the vote, Gunda said the delay would help boost “investor confidence” in the state’s oil refiners, “thereby ensuring a reliable in-state refining capacity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037671\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037671\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230921-VALERO-BENICIA-REFINERY-MD-02_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230921-VALERO-BENICIA-REFINERY-MD-02_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230921-VALERO-BENICIA-REFINERY-MD-02_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230921-VALERO-BENICIA-REFINERY-MD-02_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230921-VALERO-BENICIA-REFINERY-MD-02_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230921-VALERO-BENICIA-REFINERY-MD-02_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230921-VALERO-BENICIA-REFINERY-MD-02_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Valero refinery in Benicia on Sept. 21, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Oil industry representatives say the decision made sense – the profit-cap measures, they argued, miss the real problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The real problem is California is an energy island — we’re losing 17% of our refining capacity,” said Zachary Leary, a lobbyist for the Western States Petroleum Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Court, of Consumer Watchdog, said the governor “panicked,” leaving the state without the “hammer” it now needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you have this type of level of gas run up, you’re going to need those tools,” Court said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>The difficult middle of the energy transition\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California has committed to phasing out fossil fuels by 2045 — but it still depends heavily on gasoline, and it is losing the refineries that produce it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phillips 66 last year shut its Los Angeles refinery, citing concerns about the sustainability of the California market. Valero is closing its Benicia refinery next month, pointing to a challenging regulatory environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11960711\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11960711\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/239011-OIL-AIR-QUALITY-Getty-MT-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"The silhouettes of several smokestacks emit fumes into the air.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/239011-OIL-AIR-QUALITY-Getty-MT-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/239011-OIL-AIR-QUALITY-Getty-MT-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/239011-OIL-AIR-QUALITY-Getty-MT-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/239011-OIL-AIR-QUALITY-Getty-MT-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/239011-OIL-AIR-QUALITY-Getty-MT-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/239011-OIL-AIR-QUALITY-Getty-MT-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Phillips 66 Los Angeles Refinery Wilmington Plant stands beyond a residential street on November 28, 2022 in Wilmington. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“If you start losing refineries — as we are going to — and you don’t have an alternative source of supply, we’re going to start getting price spikes when there’s any sort of disruption at one of our refineries,” Borenstein said. “Or just during high demand periods.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The challenge of reducing fossil fuel use while maintaining adequate supply has created what Gunda — Newsom’s point person in negotiations with the oil industry — calls the “mid-transition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not going to be a smooth transition,” Gunda said last month in testimony to a state Senate committee. “Every time you lose a refinery, it’s going to be a double-digit percent of refined fuel lost in California. So that abrupt transition will mean an abrupt increase in imports.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A global oil shock hits California\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The recent jump in gasoline prices reflects a global oil shock tied to the war with Iran — not a policy change unique to California, experts said. But the surge highlights how exposed the state remains to global energy markets as it loses refining capacity and \u003ca href=\"https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=65704\">imports more crude\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.spglobal.com/energy/en/news-research/latest-news/crude-oil/112525-californias-gasoline-demand-met-with-increased-global-supply-as-refineries-close\">gasoline\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the conflict began, the international benchmark for crude oil has climbed more than $25 a barrel — a shift that typically translates to about 60 cents per gallon at the pump, in line with the increase in California retail prices, argues Borenstein, of UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075007\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12075007\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/022826_IRAN-BAY-AREA-RESPONSE_GH_011-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/022826_IRAN-BAY-AREA-RESPONSE_GH_011-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/022826_IRAN-BAY-AREA-RESPONSE_GH_011-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/022826_IRAN-BAY-AREA-RESPONSE_GH_011-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hundreds of demonstrators march along Market Street during a “Hands Off Iran” rally on Feb. 28, 2026, in San Francisco. Protesters took over the roadway while calling for an arms embargo and an end to U.S. participation in the strikes. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“All of the change we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks is in line with the change in crude oil prices, and therefore is not California specific,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom has made a similar argument, \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/03/10/governor-newsom-blasts-trump-for-raising-gasoline-prices-on-americans-with-no-plan-and-no-accountability/\">blaming the spike\u003c/a> on global oil markets and the war with Iran rather than California policies. But analysts note that the state’s shrinking refinery base means global shocks land harder here than elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A key concern is the Strait of Hormuz. Before the conflict, the narrow waterway carried \u003ca href=\"https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=65504#:~:text=The%20Strait%20of%20Hormuz%2C%20located,of%20global%20petroleum%20liquids%20consumption.\">more than 20 million barrels of oil a day\u003c/a> — roughly one-fifth of global supply. Traffic is now at a standstill, and crude prices topped $100 a barrel again — even after more than 30 countries \u003ca href=\"https://www.iea.org/news/iea-member-countries-to-carry-out-largest-ever-oil-stock-release-amid-market-disruptions-from-middle-east-conflict\">announced\u003c/a> releases from emergency reserves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ryan Cummings, chief of staff at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policymaking, said a prolonged closure could push crude prices above $130 or $140 per barrel — driving California prices closer to $7, with a worst-case scenario approaching $10 at some stations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076648\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076648\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/GettyImages-639787574.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/GettyImages-639787574.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/GettyImages-639787574-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/GettyImages-639787574-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The port city of Gwadar balochistan on the southwestern coast of Pakistan, just outside the Strait of Hormuz near key shipping routes in and out of the Persian Gulf. \u003ccite>(SM Rafiq Photography via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most analysts consider that outcome unlikely but no longer unthinkable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right now, this doesn’t appear likely, but it is a worst-case scenario that is growing by the day,” Cummings said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Competing ideas for what comes next\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Siegel, of the Center for Biological Diversity, said California should move forward immediately to implement the profit-cap rules and require companies to hold larger fuel inventories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our leaders shouldn’t rest until the rules are in place to prevent price gouging on top of volatility, and should not rest until people get their money back,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Economists say California’s biggest challenge may be infrastructure. Valero plans to close its Benicia refinery, which produces about 10% of the state’s gasoline, next month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12051503\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12051503\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250808-CAP-AND-TRADE-ENVIRO-JUSTICE-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250808-CAP-AND-TRADE-ENVIRO-JUSTICE-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250808-CAP-AND-TRADE-ENVIRO-JUSTICE-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250808-CAP-AND-TRADE-ENVIRO-JUSTICE-MD-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luna Angulo looks at the Chevron Refinery from the Wildcat Marsh Staging Area in Richmond on Aug. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In an \u003ca href=\"https://nealemahoney.substack.com/p/an-analysis-of-the-valero-benicia\">analysis posted last year\u003c/a>, Stanford economist Neale Mahoney and Cummings said California could offset lost refinery production with gasoline imports – if permitting allows refineries like Benicia to convert to fuel import terminals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom said in January his administration is \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/01/06/governor-newsoms-statement-on-valeros-benicia-refinery-update/\">working with the company\u003c/a> to continue importing gasoline into Northern California after its refinery operations close.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I was in the Legislature right now, all of my energies and effort would be built on, one, making sure that Benicia gets turned into an import terminal — and two, making sure whoever owns or operates that is not an incumbent,” Cummings said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Court, of Consumer Watchdog, pointed to \u003ca href=\"https://www.phillips66.com/newsroom/western-gateway-pipeline/\">a proposed Phillips 66 pipeline\u003c/a> that could bring refined gasoline from Midwest refineries into the state – something California has never had, relying instead on in-state refining and marine imports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dubbed the Western Gateway Pipeline, the project would build a new pipeline and reverse an existing one to move gasoline and diesel from central U.S. refineries to Arizona and California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One state lawmaker has \u003ca href=\"https://ransom.asmdc.org/press-releases/20260219-assemblymember-rhodesia-ransom-introduces-bill-gives-access-cheaper\">proposed expanding access to E85\u003c/a>, a cheaper ethanol blend. Both ideas remain proposals without clear timelines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/27873034-mpc-proposed-cap-and-invest-amendments-concerns-30926/\">some oil companies\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/27813814-asm-member-letter-carb-ci-regs-concerns-march-9/\">even some Democrats\u003c/a> are warning California’s climate policies could raise production costs enough that refineries reconsider operating in California — adding another pressure point to an already strained supply picture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The profit-cap rules that could penalize oil companies remain on hold until 2029. By then, California may have lost more refineries — and may still be grappling with the problem Newsom once promised to solve: gasoline price shocks in the country’s most unaffordable market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2026/03/california-iran-oil-profit-spike/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "california-invested-big-in-transitional-kindergarten-how-one-school-is-making-the-most-of-it",
"title": "California Invested Big in Transitional Kindergarten. How 1 School Is Making the Most of It",
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"headTitle": "California Invested Big in Transitional Kindergarten. How 1 School Is Making the Most of It | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>In Kristi Fowler’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/transitional-kindergarten\">transitional kindergarten\u003c/a> classroom, 4-year-olds learn math by counting steps as they jump and by sorting objects by shape or color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They can skip-count by 10s to get up to 100 and recognize patterns in a numerical sequence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“\u003c/em>I used to think that TK [students] were just babies, and they can’t do that kind of stuff,” Fowler said. “They can, and they love it, and they’re excited to do it, and they’re really good at it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Getting these students to learn through play is one goal at Yokayo Elementary School, where Fowler works, in the North Coast city of Ukiah. Another is to ensure the skills they gain in TK will last throughout elementary school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district is one of dozens in California hoping to maximize the benefits of transitional kindergarten, which this year became \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11989955/what-to-expect-when-enrolling-your-child-in-transitional-kindergarten\">free and available for all 4-year-olds across the state\u003c/a>. Gov. Gavin Newsom called the \u003ca href=\"https://calbudgetcenter.org/resources/how-california-is-expanding-transitional-kindergarten/\">$15 billion rollout\u003c/a> “a huge opportunity to invest in our kids and their future” and narrow the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/spotlights/2026/kindergarten-readiness-varies-widely-by-income-new-data-shows-cities-are-stepping-in-to-help/\">gap in kindergarten readiness\u003c/a> — such as the ability to socialize, pay attention and regulate emotions — between kids from lower-income and higher-income families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the enthusiasm for TK is tempered by concerns that the investment won’t pay off if the program’s benefits fade over time. Studies have shown that children who attend preschool start kindergarten with a measurable advantage over classmates who didn’t participate, but those gains seem to disappear by roughly the third grade. In Tennessee, a multi-year study found that 4-year-olds who attended a public pre-kindergarten program fared worse academically by the time they reached sixth grade than those who didn’t participate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076149\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076149\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-04-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-04-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-04-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-04-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students work on a math question in their second grade class with teacher Yadira DeLuna at Yokayo Elementary School in Ukiah on Jan. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/education/early-childhood-education-pre-k/california-legislature-newsom-transitional-kindergarten-budget-research\">doesn’t have a plan to evaluate\u003c/a> the effectiveness of universal TK. And while the California Department of Education has guidelines on \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/re/psfoundations.asp\">what students should learn, \u003c/a>there is no mandated curriculum — leaving TK programs potentially vulnerable to repeating the pitfalls in Tennessee’s program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some districts are seeking out best practices to avoid the same fate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Ukiah Unified, a high-poverty school district where a large percentage of its 5,800 students are in foster care or are English learners from Spanish-speaking households, administrators are determined to ensure the TK students are set up for success later on. They’re supporting an initiative at Yokayo Elementary, where teachers emphasize learning math skills in TK and building on what students know as they move to the next grade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school is focusing on math because more than 60% of California students \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2025/california-students-struggle-math-english/742613#:~:text=%E2%80%9CProficient%20is%20a%20pretty%20high,and%20transparency%20from%20the%20state.\">are not proficient in the subject\u003c/a>, and studies show that students’ early math skills predict their academic achievement in middle and even high school.[aside postID=news_12052609 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/240520-TKParentsDilemma-32-BL_qed.jpg']“If they don’t get that foundation, then it’s a house of cards,” said Deborah Stipek, an expert on early childhood and elementary education at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education. “And as they make an effort to learn more advanced math, it falls apart because they don’t really have that basic understanding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When students are forced to reach too high when they start a new grade, they can feel lost and frustrated. If they repeat something they already know, they can lose interest in learning, Stipek said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Yokayo, teachers from TK to third grade get together to align their curriculum and standards to ensure students make academic progress from one grade to the next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a type of collaboration that might seem intuitive, but that runs counter to the way schools are typically organized. Teachers usually talk to their colleagues from the same grade level and follow pre-designed lesson plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steven Kellner, director of district leadership and state policy for the nonprofit California Education Partners, said that creates a “herky-jerky” learning experience for students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“‘Kindergarten’s this way and first grade’s that way,’ and they have nothing to do with each other,” he said of districts’ typical approach. “Transitional kindergarten is great, but if it’s not connected to the other grades, it’s not super helpful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ed Partners, which is dedicated to improving student outcomes in under-resourced districts, is helping dozens of school districts across the state develop what it calls “preschool through third grade coherence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076152\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076152\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-13-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-13-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-13-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-13-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students run during gym class at Yokayo Elementary School in Ukiah on Jan. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The nonprofit pairs \u003ca href=\"https://centerx.gseis.ucla.edu/math-project/\">university experts\u003c/a> with teams of teachers, principals and school district leaders to share math teaching strategies that work across the early elementary school years. The teams receive ongoing coaching to improve the way they teach math, based on how much progress students make between the beginning and end of each school year. Stipek is an advisor to the nonprofit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yokayo Elementary is in the third year of implementing this strategy. In Fowler’s classroom, for example, students play a game called “How many ways?” where they’re asked to represent the number 4 and share their reasoning with classmates. Some students drew four dots or four hearts, while others wrote their names four times on the whiteboard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time they get to second grade, in teacher Yadira De Luna’s classroom, they’ll perform the same task but with increasing difficulty. One recent morning, she asked her students to show multiple ways to represent the number 175. Some drew 175 circles or bars, while others filled their sheet of paper with as many addition or subtraction formulas they could think of that end in 175.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This exercise lets students see that there is more than one way to get to the right answer. It also encourages them to articulate their reasoning in front of their peers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076151\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076151\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-10-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-10-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-10-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-10-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Principal Dana Milani speaks with second grade students about a math question in their class at Yokayo Elementary School in Ukiah on Jan. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“By allowing them to play with numbers and to look at patterns and to see what they look like in the real world, that’s where you’re going to get that love of math,” said Dana Milani, the school’s principal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Milani spent 15 years teaching fifth grade at Yokayo Elementary before switching to administration. She said having transitional kindergarten at her school has made her appreciate the opportunity to nurture young children’s love of learning, while being careful not to stifle it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not making [math lessons] too long, we’re not having them get to where they’re like, ‘Ugh, do we have to do math again?’” she said. “It’s this really fun time where they get to use problem-solving skills. When you’re 4, problem-solving is a big deal, and if they can figure out how to problem-solve socially, they can do it academically.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers say engaging in math activities early on teaches young kids cognitive skills (like memorizing and organizing) that can be applied to other areas of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076150\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076150\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-05-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-05-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-05-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-05-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students work on a math question in their second grade class with teacher Yadira DeLuna at Yokayo Elementary School in Ukiah on Jan. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Recently, \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2026/clarifying-transitional-kindergartens-curriculum-keeps-kids-playing/751419\">the state proposed redefining transitional kindergarten\u003c/a> in official documents to clarify that, instead of using a “modified kindergarten curriculum,” TK instruction should prioritize play as a form of learning. The California Department of Education also encourages school districts to align \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/gs/p3/#:~:text=Successful%20P%2D3%20alignment%20requires%20cross%2Dsector,families%2C%20and%20continuity%20of%20pathways.\">preschool to third grade\u003c/a> teachings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with no standard statewide curriculum, Stipek said she’s heard a variety of stories about what goes on in TK classrooms — from a “drill and kill” approach, where “all the kids do is sit and do worksheets” to the “incredibly wonderful, playful learning that’s going on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said one reason Tennessee’s Pre-K program failed kids was that it rigidly focused on knowing letters and numbers, instead of exploring learning through interaction and play.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An evaluation of the fully expanded program would help California state leaders and educators figure out how to fine-tune TK, Stipek said. So far, the Legislature has not committed funding for a study.[aside postID=news_11989955 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240520-TKPARENTSDILEMMA-07-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg']In the meantime, the Ukiah Unified School District plans to track its students’ progress from this first year of universal TK, and Ed Partners will evaluate the districts that implemented preschool through third grade alignment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district’s superintendent, Deborah Kubin, said so far, TK seems to be working. Ukiah Unified used its state funding to add a new building and playground just for 4-year-olds on Yokayo’s sprawling campus. Each of the two spacious classrooms has a teacher and a teacher’s aide, and classes are capped at no more than 20 students to ensure the kids get the attention that they need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students who attended the program when the district began offering it scored 7% higher on their third grade assessments last year than students who didn’t go to TK.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Launching the program “definitely has been a challenge, but as we’re seeing in our results, the students are doing better,” Kubin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parent Katie Sims said at the beginning of the school year, her son, Sawyer, had a hard time transitioning from a small day care to Fowler’s classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But once he settled in, he did have a great experience with the teachers,” Sims said. “He absolutely loves going to school now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TK wasn’t an option when her older son, who’s in seventh grade, began his educational journey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My youngest son is going to have an easier transition into kindergarten and actual academics, versus my older son, who just got kind of thrown in and didn’t know what to expect,” Sims said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "California Invested Big in Transitional Kindergarten. How 1 School Is Making the Most of It | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In Kristi Fowler’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/transitional-kindergarten\">transitional kindergarten\u003c/a> classroom, 4-year-olds learn math by counting steps as they jump and by sorting objects by shape or color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They can skip-count by 10s to get up to 100 and recognize patterns in a numerical sequence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“\u003c/em>I used to think that TK [students] were just babies, and they can’t do that kind of stuff,” Fowler said. “They can, and they love it, and they’re excited to do it, and they’re really good at it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Getting these students to learn through play is one goal at Yokayo Elementary School, where Fowler works, in the North Coast city of Ukiah. Another is to ensure the skills they gain in TK will last throughout elementary school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district is one of dozens in California hoping to maximize the benefits of transitional kindergarten, which this year became \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11989955/what-to-expect-when-enrolling-your-child-in-transitional-kindergarten\">free and available for all 4-year-olds across the state\u003c/a>. Gov. Gavin Newsom called the \u003ca href=\"https://calbudgetcenter.org/resources/how-california-is-expanding-transitional-kindergarten/\">$15 billion rollout\u003c/a> “a huge opportunity to invest in our kids and their future” and narrow the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/spotlights/2026/kindergarten-readiness-varies-widely-by-income-new-data-shows-cities-are-stepping-in-to-help/\">gap in kindergarten readiness\u003c/a> — such as the ability to socialize, pay attention and regulate emotions — between kids from lower-income and higher-income families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the enthusiasm for TK is tempered by concerns that the investment won’t pay off if the program’s benefits fade over time. Studies have shown that children who attend preschool start kindergarten with a measurable advantage over classmates who didn’t participate, but those gains seem to disappear by roughly the third grade. In Tennessee, a multi-year study found that 4-year-olds who attended a public pre-kindergarten program fared worse academically by the time they reached sixth grade than those who didn’t participate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076149\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076149\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-04-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-04-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-04-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-04-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students work on a math question in their second grade class with teacher Yadira DeLuna at Yokayo Elementary School in Ukiah on Jan. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/education/early-childhood-education-pre-k/california-legislature-newsom-transitional-kindergarten-budget-research\">doesn’t have a plan to evaluate\u003c/a> the effectiveness of universal TK. And while the California Department of Education has guidelines on \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/re/psfoundations.asp\">what students should learn, \u003c/a>there is no mandated curriculum — leaving TK programs potentially vulnerable to repeating the pitfalls in Tennessee’s program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some districts are seeking out best practices to avoid the same fate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Ukiah Unified, a high-poverty school district where a large percentage of its 5,800 students are in foster care or are English learners from Spanish-speaking households, administrators are determined to ensure the TK students are set up for success later on. They’re supporting an initiative at Yokayo Elementary, where teachers emphasize learning math skills in TK and building on what students know as they move to the next grade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school is focusing on math because more than 60% of California students \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2025/california-students-struggle-math-english/742613#:~:text=%E2%80%9CProficient%20is%20a%20pretty%20high,and%20transparency%20from%20the%20state.\">are not proficient in the subject\u003c/a>, and studies show that students’ early math skills predict their academic achievement in middle and even high school.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“If they don’t get that foundation, then it’s a house of cards,” said Deborah Stipek, an expert on early childhood and elementary education at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education. “And as they make an effort to learn more advanced math, it falls apart because they don’t really have that basic understanding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When students are forced to reach too high when they start a new grade, they can feel lost and frustrated. If they repeat something they already know, they can lose interest in learning, Stipek said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Yokayo, teachers from TK to third grade get together to align their curriculum and standards to ensure students make academic progress from one grade to the next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a type of collaboration that might seem intuitive, but that runs counter to the way schools are typically organized. Teachers usually talk to their colleagues from the same grade level and follow pre-designed lesson plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steven Kellner, director of district leadership and state policy for the nonprofit California Education Partners, said that creates a “herky-jerky” learning experience for students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“‘Kindergarten’s this way and first grade’s that way,’ and they have nothing to do with each other,” he said of districts’ typical approach. “Transitional kindergarten is great, but if it’s not connected to the other grades, it’s not super helpful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ed Partners, which is dedicated to improving student outcomes in under-resourced districts, is helping dozens of school districts across the state develop what it calls “preschool through third grade coherence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076152\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076152\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-13-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-13-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-13-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-13-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students run during gym class at Yokayo Elementary School in Ukiah on Jan. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The nonprofit pairs \u003ca href=\"https://centerx.gseis.ucla.edu/math-project/\">university experts\u003c/a> with teams of teachers, principals and school district leaders to share math teaching strategies that work across the early elementary school years. The teams receive ongoing coaching to improve the way they teach math, based on how much progress students make between the beginning and end of each school year. Stipek is an advisor to the nonprofit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yokayo Elementary is in the third year of implementing this strategy. In Fowler’s classroom, for example, students play a game called “How many ways?” where they’re asked to represent the number 4 and share their reasoning with classmates. Some students drew four dots or four hearts, while others wrote their names four times on the whiteboard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time they get to second grade, in teacher Yadira De Luna’s classroom, they’ll perform the same task but with increasing difficulty. One recent morning, she asked her students to show multiple ways to represent the number 175. Some drew 175 circles or bars, while others filled their sheet of paper with as many addition or subtraction formulas they could think of that end in 175.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This exercise lets students see that there is more than one way to get to the right answer. It also encourages them to articulate their reasoning in front of their peers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076151\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076151\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-10-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-10-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-10-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-10-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Principal Dana Milani speaks with second grade students about a math question in their class at Yokayo Elementary School in Ukiah on Jan. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“By allowing them to play with numbers and to look at patterns and to see what they look like in the real world, that’s where you’re going to get that love of math,” said Dana Milani, the school’s principal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Milani spent 15 years teaching fifth grade at Yokayo Elementary before switching to administration. She said having transitional kindergarten at her school has made her appreciate the opportunity to nurture young children’s love of learning, while being careful not to stifle it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not making [math lessons] too long, we’re not having them get to where they’re like, ‘Ugh, do we have to do math again?’” she said. “It’s this really fun time where they get to use problem-solving skills. When you’re 4, problem-solving is a big deal, and if they can figure out how to problem-solve socially, they can do it academically.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers say engaging in math activities early on teaches young kids cognitive skills (like memorizing and organizing) that can be applied to other areas of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076150\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076150\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-05-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-05-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-05-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260106-PREVENTINGPRESCHOOLFADEOUT-05-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students work on a math question in their second grade class with teacher Yadira DeLuna at Yokayo Elementary School in Ukiah on Jan. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Recently, \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2026/clarifying-transitional-kindergartens-curriculum-keeps-kids-playing/751419\">the state proposed redefining transitional kindergarten\u003c/a> in official documents to clarify that, instead of using a “modified kindergarten curriculum,” TK instruction should prioritize play as a form of learning. The California Department of Education also encourages school districts to align \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/gs/p3/#:~:text=Successful%20P%2D3%20alignment%20requires%20cross%2Dsector,families%2C%20and%20continuity%20of%20pathways.\">preschool to third grade\u003c/a> teachings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with no standard statewide curriculum, Stipek said she’s heard a variety of stories about what goes on in TK classrooms — from a “drill and kill” approach, where “all the kids do is sit and do worksheets” to the “incredibly wonderful, playful learning that’s going on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said one reason Tennessee’s Pre-K program failed kids was that it rigidly focused on knowing letters and numbers, instead of exploring learning through interaction and play.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An evaluation of the fully expanded program would help California state leaders and educators figure out how to fine-tune TK, Stipek said. So far, the Legislature has not committed funding for a study.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In the meantime, the Ukiah Unified School District plans to track its students’ progress from this first year of universal TK, and Ed Partners will evaluate the districts that implemented preschool through third grade alignment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district’s superintendent, Deborah Kubin, said so far, TK seems to be working. Ukiah Unified used its state funding to add a new building and playground just for 4-year-olds on Yokayo’s sprawling campus. Each of the two spacious classrooms has a teacher and a teacher’s aide, and classes are capped at no more than 20 students to ensure the kids get the attention that they need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students who attended the program when the district began offering it scored 7% higher on their third grade assessments last year than students who didn’t go to TK.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Launching the program “definitely has been a challenge, but as we’re seeing in our results, the students are doing better,” Kubin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parent Katie Sims said at the beginning of the school year, her son, Sawyer, had a hard time transitioning from a small day care to Fowler’s classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But once he settled in, he did have a great experience with the teachers,” Sims said. “He absolutely loves going to school now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TK wasn’t an option when her older son, who’s in seventh grade, began his educational journey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My youngest son is going to have an easier transition into kindergarten and actual academics, versus my older son, who just got kind of thrown in and didn’t know what to expect,” Sims said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Inspired by the Winter Olympics? You Can Learn to Ski in San Francisco",
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"content": "\u003cp>Kellan Hirschler is standing in a large room in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> — learning how to snowboard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hirschler, a 30-year-old nurse who lives in the Castro District, is a student at Adventurous Sports, an indoor ski school in the city’s Hayes Valley area. Here, aspiring skiers and snowboarders like her can get some turns in — snow and ice not included.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hirschler said her partner being an avid skier made her want to be able to keep up on the mountain. “So I was like, ‘You know what? It’s time,’” she said. “I need to get a little serious.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://adventurous.com/\">Adventurous Sports\u003c/a> has been in business for around two decades. But in January of 2024, the ski school moved from its Potrero Hill location to Hayes Valley with upgraded “ski decks” — carpeted treadmills that attempt to simulate skiing on a real hill — and plans to build out an area for boot fitting as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adventurous offers lessons for new and experienced ski and snowboarders alike, with an emphasis on perfecting the technique of carving: the smooth arc of the ski or snowboard that’s accomplished by slowly rolling the ankles and knees onto one edge, then the other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to: \u003ca href=\"#FacilitiesintheBayAreathatofferdrylandskitraining\">Facilities in the Bay Area that offer dry land ski training\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Owner Sarah Cooper said training indoors is not meant to fully replace learning and progressing on a real ski hill, but rather to accelerate muscle memory and confidence once a person hits the actual slopes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The setup of the facility — where teachers are positioned below the incline of the treadmill, eye to eye with their students’ hips and legs — allows them to watch and critique students’ every move, said Cooper, even at high speeds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076273\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076273\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Adventurous.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Adventurous.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Adventurous-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Adventurous-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Adventurous client works on ski drills on one of the company’s indoor decks. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Adventurous )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We can see everything on every single person’s body,” she said. “Every movement, their timing, their confidence, their comfort.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joad Stein, an instructor at Adventurous who is also an expert outdoor skier, had just returned from a ski trip to Tahoe. Getting on the deck to demonstrate, he said he found skiing on the simulator to be the much more demanding option.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have to remind myself to be more patient with my movements, which makes it harder,” he said. “If I want to have nice, graceful turns, I really have to take my sweet time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Movement matters\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>But does all this indoor work on carving actually produce results on the slopes?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There has been very little scientific research on these types of ski decks. A \u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3761755/\">2013 study \u003c/a>found the benefits of training on ski simulators to be minimal, but it only tested two types of ski simulators — neither of which was particularly similar to the type of deck used at Adventurous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cooper said many Adventurous clients have reported positive impacts of their indoor training, and that Olympic athletes, including Mikaela Shiffrin, have spoken about their experiences of using indoor decks as part of their training.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And on-hill ski instructors say any type of dry land training, especially the kind that works the same core and leg muscles as skiing and snowboarding, is going to help performance on the mountain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076274\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076274\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Adventurous-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Adventurous-2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Adventurous-2-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Adventurous-2-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Adventurous client works on a “power roll” drill on one of the company’s indoor decks. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Adventurous )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“That fitness \u003cem>will \u003c/em>translate,” said Jon Tekulve, director of ski services at Diamond Peak Ski Resort in Tahoe. “The movements are still there, and learning those can be helpful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 80% of the adults taught at Diamond Peak have never been on snow before. But Tekulve warned that beginners who start indoors may be taken aback by the role that being outside plays in skiing, because the carpet and indoor environment are so consistent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Being out in the elements is different,” he said. “Sun and shade spots on the mountain can be the difference between going really fast and really slow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, he said, who would want to miss out on the mountain views?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cooper acknowledges there is one major factor about skiing for real that she cannot prepare her students for on the Adventurous simulator: “The snow is just gonna ‘feel slippery’ — that’s what everyone says,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hirschler said she’s proud of the progress she’s made so far with her indoor lessons. She’s even able to ride on the indoor carpet without keeping her hands on the safety bar, and is working on visualizing being on a mountain instead of inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But is it gonna transition well to the mountain? I don’t know,” she mused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ll be starting with the bunny hill for sure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"FacilitiesintheBayAreathatofferdrylandskitraining\">\u003c/a>Where to learn how to ski indoors in the Bay Area\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://adventurous.com/\">\u003cstrong>Adventurous Sports\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>, San Francisco\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Located in Hayes Valley, this indoor ski school emphasizes carving and requires all first-timers to complete an hourlong intro class to get familiar with skiing on their carpeted treadmill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cost: \u003c/strong>The intro lesson costs $185 in the winter and $145 in the summer. You can then purchase packages of multiple lessons, and more experienced skiers and riders can also book cheaper conditioning sessions.[aside postID=news_12066608 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-SNOWY-TAHOE-CS-KQED.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://freeslope.com/\">\u003cstrong>Freeslope,\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong> Fremont\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Want to practice your skills on mats and dry slopes before heading to the park? The East Bay’s Freeslope offers beginner lessons and workshops most days of the week, plus drop-in sessions to practice what you’ve learned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cost: Intro lessons cost $120, and workshops range from $40-$80. You can purchase a drop-in session for $35.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://houseofair.com/san-francisco/\">\u003cstrong>House of Air,\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong> San Francisco\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This indoor trampoline park near San Francisco’s Crissy Field offers a \u003ca href=\"https://houseofair.com/san-francisco/programs/adults/\">Slopestyle Workshop\u003c/a> for free skiers to work on aerial tricks and hitting park features like boxes and rails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cost: $40 for per hour for adults and $60 for kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Clarification: The radio version of this story, which aired Feb. 18, 2026, discussed the lack of research into the impacts of indoor ski decks. The broadcast mentioned “little scientific evidence” in reference to a lack of peer-reviewed studies from universities and similar entities. In a follow-up email from Sarah Cooper, owner of Adventurous Sports, she acknowledged the well-established positive experiences of some Olympic athletes who have used indoor ski decks, and shared similar testimonials from Adventurous clients.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Kellan Hirschler is standing in a large room in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> — learning how to snowboard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hirschler, a 30-year-old nurse who lives in the Castro District, is a student at Adventurous Sports, an indoor ski school in the city’s Hayes Valley area. Here, aspiring skiers and snowboarders like her can get some turns in — snow and ice not included.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hirschler said her partner being an avid skier made her want to be able to keep up on the mountain. “So I was like, ‘You know what? It’s time,’” she said. “I need to get a little serious.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://adventurous.com/\">Adventurous Sports\u003c/a> has been in business for around two decades. But in January of 2024, the ski school moved from its Potrero Hill location to Hayes Valley with upgraded “ski decks” — carpeted treadmills that attempt to simulate skiing on a real hill — and plans to build out an area for boot fitting as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adventurous offers lessons for new and experienced ski and snowboarders alike, with an emphasis on perfecting the technique of carving: the smooth arc of the ski or snowboard that’s accomplished by slowly rolling the ankles and knees onto one edge, then the other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to: \u003ca href=\"#FacilitiesintheBayAreathatofferdrylandskitraining\">Facilities in the Bay Area that offer dry land ski training\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Owner Sarah Cooper said training indoors is not meant to fully replace learning and progressing on a real ski hill, but rather to accelerate muscle memory and confidence once a person hits the actual slopes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The setup of the facility — where teachers are positioned below the incline of the treadmill, eye to eye with their students’ hips and legs — allows them to watch and critique students’ every move, said Cooper, even at high speeds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076273\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076273\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Adventurous.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Adventurous.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Adventurous-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Adventurous-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Adventurous client works on ski drills on one of the company’s indoor decks. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Adventurous )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We can see everything on every single person’s body,” she said. “Every movement, their timing, their confidence, their comfort.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joad Stein, an instructor at Adventurous who is also an expert outdoor skier, had just returned from a ski trip to Tahoe. Getting on the deck to demonstrate, he said he found skiing on the simulator to be the much more demanding option.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have to remind myself to be more patient with my movements, which makes it harder,” he said. “If I want to have nice, graceful turns, I really have to take my sweet time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Movement matters\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>But does all this indoor work on carving actually produce results on the slopes?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There has been very little scientific research on these types of ski decks. A \u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3761755/\">2013 study \u003c/a>found the benefits of training on ski simulators to be minimal, but it only tested two types of ski simulators — neither of which was particularly similar to the type of deck used at Adventurous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cooper said many Adventurous clients have reported positive impacts of their indoor training, and that Olympic athletes, including Mikaela Shiffrin, have spoken about their experiences of using indoor decks as part of their training.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And on-hill ski instructors say any type of dry land training, especially the kind that works the same core and leg muscles as skiing and snowboarding, is going to help performance on the mountain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076274\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076274\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Adventurous-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Adventurous-2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Adventurous-2-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Adventurous-2-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Adventurous client works on a “power roll” drill on one of the company’s indoor decks. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Adventurous )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“That fitness \u003cem>will \u003c/em>translate,” said Jon Tekulve, director of ski services at Diamond Peak Ski Resort in Tahoe. “The movements are still there, and learning those can be helpful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 80% of the adults taught at Diamond Peak have never been on snow before. But Tekulve warned that beginners who start indoors may be taken aback by the role that being outside plays in skiing, because the carpet and indoor environment are so consistent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Being out in the elements is different,” he said. “Sun and shade spots on the mountain can be the difference between going really fast and really slow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, he said, who would want to miss out on the mountain views?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cooper acknowledges there is one major factor about skiing for real that she cannot prepare her students for on the Adventurous simulator: “The snow is just gonna ‘feel slippery’ — that’s what everyone says,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hirschler said she’s proud of the progress she’s made so far with her indoor lessons. She’s even able to ride on the indoor carpet without keeping her hands on the safety bar, and is working on visualizing being on a mountain instead of inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But is it gonna transition well to the mountain? I don’t know,” she mused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ll be starting with the bunny hill for sure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"FacilitiesintheBayAreathatofferdrylandskitraining\">\u003c/a>Where to learn how to ski indoors in the Bay Area\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://adventurous.com/\">\u003cstrong>Adventurous Sports\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>, San Francisco\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Located in Hayes Valley, this indoor ski school emphasizes carving and requires all first-timers to complete an hourlong intro class to get familiar with skiing on their carpeted treadmill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cost: \u003c/strong>The intro lesson costs $185 in the winter and $145 in the summer. You can then purchase packages of multiple lessons, and more experienced skiers and riders can also book cheaper conditioning sessions.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://freeslope.com/\">\u003cstrong>Freeslope,\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong> Fremont\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Want to practice your skills on mats and dry slopes before heading to the park? The East Bay’s Freeslope offers beginner lessons and workshops most days of the week, plus drop-in sessions to practice what you’ve learned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cost: Intro lessons cost $120, and workshops range from $40-$80. You can purchase a drop-in session for $35.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://houseofair.com/san-francisco/\">\u003cstrong>House of Air,\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong> San Francisco\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This indoor trampoline park near San Francisco’s Crissy Field offers a \u003ca href=\"https://houseofair.com/san-francisco/programs/adults/\">Slopestyle Workshop\u003c/a> for free skiers to work on aerial tricks and hitting park features like boxes and rails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cost: $40 for per hour for adults and $60 for kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Clarification: The radio version of this story, which aired Feb. 18, 2026, discussed the lack of research into the impacts of indoor ski decks. The broadcast mentioned “little scientific evidence” in reference to a lack of peer-reviewed studies from universities and similar entities. In a follow-up email from Sarah Cooper, owner of Adventurous Sports, she acknowledged the well-established positive experiences of some Olympic athletes who have used indoor ski decks, and shared similar testimonials from Adventurous clients.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "best-san-francisco-bay-area-weather-hikes-forests-redwoods-coast-heat-wave-forecast",
"title": "The Cool, Shaded Bay Area Hikes That Are Perfect for a Heat Wave",
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"headTitle": "The Cool, Shaded Bay Area Hikes That Are Perfect for a Heat Wave | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A heat wave is set to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/2000276/hot-in-the-city-bay-area-sierra-nevada-brace-for-unusual-march-heat-wave\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">slam the Bay Area\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> starting this weekend — but look, not all outdoorsy folk rejoice at the high temperatures.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whether you moved here for the promise of fog, adore our cool summers or just love sweater weather, you may be one of those scrambling to work out how you can still get into nature this weekend without melting.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If that’s you, then outdoor-loving heat-hater: You’re in the right place. While others \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12076391/best-beaches-near-san-francisco-bay-area-weather-heat-wave-how-to-check-tides-wind\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">hit the beach\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, we’ve got recommendations galore for shade-seeking hikers — from cool trails with crisp ocean breezes to dark redwood forests and everything in between.\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cb>Jump straight to: \u003ca href=\"#Tipsforhikingintheheat\">Tips for hiking in the heat\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>For guaranteed shade, go to the Santa Cruz Mountains\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The best way to escape the heat is to head into the forest — specifically, the dense, shady forests of regions like the Santa Cruz Mountains. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Carla Schoof, spokesperson for the San Mateo County Parks Department, said the redwood and oak forests in places like Huddart Park, Memorial Park and Sam McDonald Park create a dense, cool oasis for hikers, not to mention being near water.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12040945\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12040945\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/best-hikes-bay-area-memorial-day.png\" alt=\"A photo taken low to the ground of a wooden bridge in a deep green redwood forest\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1279\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/best-hikes-bay-area-memorial-day.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/best-hikes-bay-area-memorial-day-800x533.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/best-hikes-bay-area-memorial-day-1020x679.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/best-hikes-bay-area-memorial-day-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/best-hikes-bay-area-memorial-day-1536x1023.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bridge over Purisima Creek in Purisima Creek Redwoods Preserve, Santa Cruz Mountains \u003ccite>(Sundry Photography/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Sometimes, it just makes you feel cooler if you’re next to a creek or some running water,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Loma Mar, Schoof recommended you head to Memorial Park’s Mt. Ellen, — either for the short one-mile easy \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smcgov.org/parks/trail/mt-ellen-nature-trail\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">nature trail\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which is perfect for kids, or all the way up to the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smcgov.org/parks/trail/mt-ellen-summit-trail\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">summit\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for a bigger challenge.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Also in Memorial Park is \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.savetheredwoods.org/project/lomamar/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Loma Mar Redwoods\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: a more wild experience, where many trails aren’t as clearly marked or maintained. This remote feeling makes it feel like “a magical place,” Schoof said. “You could almost be in Jurassic Park.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Sam McDonald Park, just adjacent and closer to La Honda, the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smcgov.org/parks/trail/heritage-grove-trail\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Heritage Grove Trail\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> has old-growth redwoods, where “you’re guaranteed the shade,” Schoof said. And the 2.5-mile trailhead is right there in the parking lot, so it’s easy to find and easy to bail out if temperatures get too high or you run out of steam, she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12068408\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12068408\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/ParksCA-SanMateo-21-scaled-e1766881784540.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The San Mateo County Library system loans out backpacks and other hiking gear for free to anyone with a library card. \u003ccite>(Courtesy San Mateo County Libraries)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There’s never any shame in realizing that you only have so much gas left in the tank and you need to turn around,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For a slightly higher-temperature choice, Schoof also recommended \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smcgov.org/parks/huddart-park\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Huddart Park\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Woodside, which may be easier to access from the Peninsula and has its own immersive trails, so much so that the county parks department has a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sanmateocountyparks.stqry.app/en/1/tour/28788\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">forest bathing tour\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of the park you can access via its \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smcgov.org/parks/san-mateo-county-parks-self-guided-tour-app\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">app\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smcgov.org/parks/trail/chickadee-nature-trail\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chickadee Nature Trail\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is stroller-friendly and great for kids, and with many interconnecting trails, you can make loop hikes as long as you’d like, Schoof said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’ve got plans to roam any one of Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s properties in the Santa Cruz Mountains, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.openspace.org/preserves/purisima-creek-redwoods\">Purisima Creek Redwoods, \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.openspace.org/preserves/el-corte-de-madera-creek\">El Corte De Madera Creek\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www.openspace.org/preserves/long-ridge\">Long Ridge\u003c/a> open space preserves, their \u003ca href=\"https://mrosd.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/7cdef8e9d6084803bac8290fd519dfe2\">Trail Explorer tool\u003c/a> has a filter that allows you to find a trail that’s shady. You can also filter your hike for other elements like trail width, slope or dog friendliness.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Stay close to the coast for cooler temperatures\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The other surefire way to stay cool while hiking this weekend is to head to the coast. Schoof called out \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smcgov.org/parks/quarry-park\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Quarry Park\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in El Granada, where the dense eucalyptus trees shelter hikers away from the sun — but breaks in the tree coverage still provide stunning ocean views. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Want something less strenuous? The trek down to the park’s namesake quarry is a relatively flat and shaded adventure, and don’t forget to check out the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://labyrinthlocator.org/labyrinth/quarry-park/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">labyrinth\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076496\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076496\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/GettyImages-2260838904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/GettyImages-2260838904.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/GettyImages-2260838904-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/GettyImages-2260838904-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of Stillwater Cove on Feb. 12, 2026, in Pebble Beach, California. \u003ccite>(Tracy Wilcox via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gabe McKenna, public safety superintendent for state parks’ Santa Cruz District, recommended \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.coastsidestateparks.org/pescadero-marsh-natural-preserve\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as well as a number of beaches and hikes around Santa Cruz, like \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=549\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wilder Ranch\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’s Old Cove Landing and the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=666\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Forest of Nisene Marks\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’ Aptos Ranch Trail, where the lower elevations and proximity to coastlines will keep hikers cool. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But McKenna cautioned that there’s only so much you can truly escape the heat here. “It’s still going to be quite hot,” he stressed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">An obvious,\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12064296/san-francisco-bay-area-holiday-hikes-things-to-do-thanksgiving-where-take-guests-holidays\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> classic-for-a-reason coastal hike\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> up north is the Dipsea Trail. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pop into Muir Woods or skip it entirely to avoid crowds, then journey through the redwood and oak canopy all the way to Stinson Beach. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On a hot day like this weekend, that final reveal when the dense tree cover opens into sweeping ocean views is sure to be dramatic.[aside postID=news_12076391 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/SFBeachesGetty.jpg']\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the Sonoma County coast is anywhere near home, check out the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov/visit/find-a-park/stillwater-cove-regional-park\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Stillwater Cove Regional Park\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Its Canyon Trail is a lush oasis for hikers, where redwoods, ferns, salmon and trout all thrive. There’s also the historic Fort Ross schoolhouse, which was moved there in the 1970s for preservation. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Even on a hot day, don’t rule out the East Bay\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you don’t want to travel far from the East Bay, that’s OK, East Bay Regional Parks spokesperson Jen Vanya said. For a hot and sunny day, she recommended any of the area’s many shoreline parks — or, if you’re headed for the hills, be sure to pick somewhere with ample tree coverage.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some of the densest, most forested parks in the area are \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/parks/reinhardt-redwood\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reinhardt Redwoods\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/parks/roberts\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Roberts\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> regional parks, which guarantee shade, picnicking and cooler temperatures. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Or head to the shoreline, like Point Pinole, Point Isabel, McLaughlin Eastshore, Miller/Knox or any of the other parks along the San Francisco Bay Trail, where wind off the shore will keep you cool.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/parks/coyote-hills\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Coyote Hills Regional Park\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which is located right along the Bay, is full of marshes, gentle hills, and a breeze from the Bay that’s ”really pleasant — even when it’s a sunny day,” Vanya said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12051712\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12051712\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250808-WILDPIGS_00140_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250808-WILDPIGS_00140_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250808-WILDPIGS_00140_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250808-WILDPIGS_00140_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cows graze on the hills of Máyyan ‘Ooyákma – Coyote Ridge, a preserve owned by Open Space Authority, in Morgan Hill on Aug. 8, 2025. Wild Boars are an invasive species that endanger native plants, water sources, and agriculture. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But take note: Parking here fills up early, so get there in the morning. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The same goes for hiking anywhere in the East Bay, Vanya stressed. “Even with a heat in the 80s, you can still enjoy most of the parks if you go in the early part of the day or closer to the end of the day,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Tipsforhikingintheheat\">\u003c/a>Tips on hiking in the heat\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">McKenna said there are a few things everyone should know before embarking on a hike during a heat wave:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Plan ahead\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Know your trail\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Start early and end early, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">before \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the midday heat hits\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bring lots of water\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Schoof and Vanya also recommended dressing in layers, light-colored clothing and bringing sun protection. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And keep in mind that dogs, kids and older people may be more \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11878134/bay-area-heat-wave-how-to-stay-safe-during-dangerously-hot-weather\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sensitive to heat.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If you’re with kids or dogs, make sure you bring water for them as well,” Schoof said. “And pace yourself.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeeeKhyuk-_odJH80iw5eAlpLBF-YWJnOi_Yqs4BEN9fY1YJA/viewform?usp=publish-editor\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This version of the article corrects Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s full name.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Don’t want to get roasted this week? Stick to the coast and the shade — and don’t forget plenty of water.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A heat wave is set to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/2000276/hot-in-the-city-bay-area-sierra-nevada-brace-for-unusual-march-heat-wave\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">slam the Bay Area\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> starting this weekend — but look, not all outdoorsy folk rejoice at the high temperatures.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whether you moved here for the promise of fog, adore our cool summers or just love sweater weather, you may be one of those scrambling to work out how you can still get into nature this weekend without melting.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If that’s you, then outdoor-loving heat-hater: You’re in the right place. While others \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12076391/best-beaches-near-san-francisco-bay-area-weather-heat-wave-how-to-check-tides-wind\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">hit the beach\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, we’ve got recommendations galore for shade-seeking hikers — from cool trails with crisp ocean breezes to dark redwood forests and everything in between.\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cb>Jump straight to: \u003ca href=\"#Tipsforhikingintheheat\">Tips for hiking in the heat\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>For guaranteed shade, go to the Santa Cruz Mountains\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The best way to escape the heat is to head into the forest — specifically, the dense, shady forests of regions like the Santa Cruz Mountains. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Carla Schoof, spokesperson for the San Mateo County Parks Department, said the redwood and oak forests in places like Huddart Park, Memorial Park and Sam McDonald Park create a dense, cool oasis for hikers, not to mention being near water.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12040945\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12040945\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/best-hikes-bay-area-memorial-day.png\" alt=\"A photo taken low to the ground of a wooden bridge in a deep green redwood forest\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1279\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/best-hikes-bay-area-memorial-day.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/best-hikes-bay-area-memorial-day-800x533.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/best-hikes-bay-area-memorial-day-1020x679.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/best-hikes-bay-area-memorial-day-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/best-hikes-bay-area-memorial-day-1536x1023.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bridge over Purisima Creek in Purisima Creek Redwoods Preserve, Santa Cruz Mountains \u003ccite>(Sundry Photography/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Sometimes, it just makes you feel cooler if you’re next to a creek or some running water,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Loma Mar, Schoof recommended you head to Memorial Park’s Mt. Ellen, — either for the short one-mile easy \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smcgov.org/parks/trail/mt-ellen-nature-trail\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">nature trail\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which is perfect for kids, or all the way up to the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smcgov.org/parks/trail/mt-ellen-summit-trail\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">summit\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for a bigger challenge.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Also in Memorial Park is \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.savetheredwoods.org/project/lomamar/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Loma Mar Redwoods\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: a more wild experience, where many trails aren’t as clearly marked or maintained. This remote feeling makes it feel like “a magical place,” Schoof said. “You could almost be in Jurassic Park.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Sam McDonald Park, just adjacent and closer to La Honda, the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smcgov.org/parks/trail/heritage-grove-trail\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Heritage Grove Trail\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> has old-growth redwoods, where “you’re guaranteed the shade,” Schoof said. And the 2.5-mile trailhead is right there in the parking lot, so it’s easy to find and easy to bail out if temperatures get too high or you run out of steam, she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12068408\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12068408\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/ParksCA-SanMateo-21-scaled-e1766881784540.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The San Mateo County Library system loans out backpacks and other hiking gear for free to anyone with a library card. \u003ccite>(Courtesy San Mateo County Libraries)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There’s never any shame in realizing that you only have so much gas left in the tank and you need to turn around,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For a slightly higher-temperature choice, Schoof also recommended \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smcgov.org/parks/huddart-park\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Huddart Park\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Woodside, which may be easier to access from the Peninsula and has its own immersive trails, so much so that the county parks department has a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sanmateocountyparks.stqry.app/en/1/tour/28788\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">forest bathing tour\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of the park you can access via its \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smcgov.org/parks/san-mateo-county-parks-self-guided-tour-app\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">app\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smcgov.org/parks/trail/chickadee-nature-trail\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chickadee Nature Trail\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is stroller-friendly and great for kids, and with many interconnecting trails, you can make loop hikes as long as you’d like, Schoof said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’ve got plans to roam any one of Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s properties in the Santa Cruz Mountains, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.openspace.org/preserves/purisima-creek-redwoods\">Purisima Creek Redwoods, \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.openspace.org/preserves/el-corte-de-madera-creek\">El Corte De Madera Creek\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www.openspace.org/preserves/long-ridge\">Long Ridge\u003c/a> open space preserves, their \u003ca href=\"https://mrosd.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/7cdef8e9d6084803bac8290fd519dfe2\">Trail Explorer tool\u003c/a> has a filter that allows you to find a trail that’s shady. You can also filter your hike for other elements like trail width, slope or dog friendliness.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Stay close to the coast for cooler temperatures\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The other surefire way to stay cool while hiking this weekend is to head to the coast. Schoof called out \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smcgov.org/parks/quarry-park\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Quarry Park\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in El Granada, where the dense eucalyptus trees shelter hikers away from the sun — but breaks in the tree coverage still provide stunning ocean views. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Want something less strenuous? The trek down to the park’s namesake quarry is a relatively flat and shaded adventure, and don’t forget to check out the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://labyrinthlocator.org/labyrinth/quarry-park/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">labyrinth\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076496\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076496\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/GettyImages-2260838904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/GettyImages-2260838904.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/GettyImages-2260838904-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/GettyImages-2260838904-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of Stillwater Cove on Feb. 12, 2026, in Pebble Beach, California. \u003ccite>(Tracy Wilcox via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gabe McKenna, public safety superintendent for state parks’ Santa Cruz District, recommended \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.coastsidestateparks.org/pescadero-marsh-natural-preserve\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as well as a number of beaches and hikes around Santa Cruz, like \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=549\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wilder Ranch\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’s Old Cove Landing and the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=666\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Forest of Nisene Marks\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’ Aptos Ranch Trail, where the lower elevations and proximity to coastlines will keep hikers cool. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But McKenna cautioned that there’s only so much you can truly escape the heat here. “It’s still going to be quite hot,” he stressed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">An obvious,\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12064296/san-francisco-bay-area-holiday-hikes-things-to-do-thanksgiving-where-take-guests-holidays\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> classic-for-a-reason coastal hike\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> up north is the Dipsea Trail. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pop into Muir Woods or skip it entirely to avoid crowds, then journey through the redwood and oak canopy all the way to Stinson Beach. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On a hot day like this weekend, that final reveal when the dense tree cover opens into sweeping ocean views is sure to be dramatic.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the Sonoma County coast is anywhere near home, check out the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov/visit/find-a-park/stillwater-cove-regional-park\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Stillwater Cove Regional Park\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Its Canyon Trail is a lush oasis for hikers, where redwoods, ferns, salmon and trout all thrive. There’s also the historic Fort Ross schoolhouse, which was moved there in the 1970s for preservation. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Even on a hot day, don’t rule out the East Bay\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you don’t want to travel far from the East Bay, that’s OK, East Bay Regional Parks spokesperson Jen Vanya said. For a hot and sunny day, she recommended any of the area’s many shoreline parks — or, if you’re headed for the hills, be sure to pick somewhere with ample tree coverage.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some of the densest, most forested parks in the area are \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/parks/reinhardt-redwood\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reinhardt Redwoods\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/parks/roberts\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Roberts\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> regional parks, which guarantee shade, picnicking and cooler temperatures. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Or head to the shoreline, like Point Pinole, Point Isabel, McLaughlin Eastshore, Miller/Knox or any of the other parks along the San Francisco Bay Trail, where wind off the shore will keep you cool.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/parks/coyote-hills\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Coyote Hills Regional Park\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which is located right along the Bay, is full of marshes, gentle hills, and a breeze from the Bay that’s ”really pleasant — even when it’s a sunny day,” Vanya said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12051712\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12051712\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250808-WILDPIGS_00140_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250808-WILDPIGS_00140_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250808-WILDPIGS_00140_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250808-WILDPIGS_00140_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cows graze on the hills of Máyyan ‘Ooyákma – Coyote Ridge, a preserve owned by Open Space Authority, in Morgan Hill on Aug. 8, 2025. Wild Boars are an invasive species that endanger native plants, water sources, and agriculture. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But take note: Parking here fills up early, so get there in the morning. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The same goes for hiking anywhere in the East Bay, Vanya stressed. “Even with a heat in the 80s, you can still enjoy most of the parks if you go in the early part of the day or closer to the end of the day,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Tipsforhikingintheheat\">\u003c/a>Tips on hiking in the heat\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">McKenna said there are a few things everyone should know before embarking on a hike during a heat wave:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Plan ahead\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Know your trail\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Start early and end early, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">before \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the midday heat hits\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bring lots of water\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Schoof and Vanya also recommended dressing in layers, light-colored clothing and bringing sun protection. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And keep in mind that dogs, kids and older people may be more \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11878134/bay-area-heat-wave-how-to-stay-safe-during-dangerously-hot-weather\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sensitive to heat.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If you’re with kids or dogs, make sure you bring water for them as well,” Schoof said. “And pace yourself.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe\n src='https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeeeKhyuk-_odJH80iw5eAlpLBF-YWJnOi_Yqs4BEN9fY1YJA/viewform?usp=publish-editor?embedded=true'\n title='https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeeeKhyuk-_odJH80iw5eAlpLBF-YWJnOi_Yqs4BEN9fY1YJA/viewform?usp=publish-editor'\n width='760' height='500'\n frameborder='0'\n marginheight='0' marginwidth='0'>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This version of the article corrects Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s full name.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-california-report-magazine/id1314750545?mt=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Listen to this and more in-depth storytelling by subscribing to The California Report Magazine podcast.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12076246/the-eaton-fire-ravaged-black-altadena-a-journalist-documents-its-resilience\">\u003cb>The Eaton Fire Ravaged Black Altadena. A Journalist Documents Its Resilience\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena in 2025, reporter James Farr went live on radio station KBLA in Los Angeles. His weekly call-in show, \u003ci>Conversations Live: Altadena Rising\u003c/i>, highlights the voices of fire survivors, focusing on the people from Altadena’s historic Black neighborhoods, which the fire disproportionately ravaged. He’s given voice to the community as they have moved from processing the shock and destruction of the fire, to navigating displacement, and deciding whether to rebuild. Reporter Steven Cuevas brings us this profile of radio host James Farr, and a few of the people whose stories he’s been following over the last year. \u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003ci> \u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>AfroLA: Covering Altadena’s Black Community With a Long View\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s been more than 14 months since the deadly Eaton Fire ravaged Altadena, particularly its Black neighborhoods that were home to elders and multigenerational families. While many news outlets have pivoted away from Altadena, the nonprofit solutions journalism outlet \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://afrolanews.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">AfroLA\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, whose tag line is “Unapologetic. Black. Los Angeles” has remained committed to uplifting wildfire survivors’ stories throughout the slow process of recovery. The California Report Magazine’s host Sasha Khokha talks with AfroLA reporters Corinne Ruff and William Jenkins about what sets this kind of community-focused Black journalism apart – and Ruff and Jenkins share the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://afrolanews.org/2026/02/what-it-takes-to-feel-at-home-again-after-the-eaton-fire/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">stories of some of the residents\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> they’ve been following, including \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://afrolanews.org/2025/04/these-black-architects-are-helping-rebuild-altadena-after-l-a-wildfires/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Black architects committed to rebuilding their neighborhood\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"routes-Site-routes-Post-Title-__Title__title\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-size: 16px;font-weight: 400\">[ad fullwidth]\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "As residents grapple with rebuilding and relocating, Black-owned media in Los Angeles have committed to continue covering the recovery of the community. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-california-report-magazine/id1314750545?mt=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Listen to this and more in-depth storytelling by subscribing to The California Report Magazine podcast.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12076246/the-eaton-fire-ravaged-black-altadena-a-journalist-documents-its-resilience\">\u003cb>The Eaton Fire Ravaged Black Altadena. A Journalist Documents Its Resilience\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena in 2025, reporter James Farr went live on radio station KBLA in Los Angeles. His weekly call-in show, \u003ci>Conversations Live: Altadena Rising\u003c/i>, highlights the voices of fire survivors, focusing on the people from Altadena’s historic Black neighborhoods, which the fire disproportionately ravaged. He’s given voice to the community as they have moved from processing the shock and destruction of the fire, to navigating displacement, and deciding whether to rebuild. Reporter Steven Cuevas brings us this profile of radio host James Farr, and a few of the people whose stories he’s been following over the last year. \u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003ci> \u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>AfroLA: Covering Altadena’s Black Community With a Long View\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s been more than 14 months since the deadly Eaton Fire ravaged Altadena, particularly its Black neighborhoods that were home to elders and multigenerational families. While many news outlets have pivoted away from Altadena, the nonprofit solutions journalism outlet \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://afrolanews.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">AfroLA\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, whose tag line is “Unapologetic. Black. Los Angeles” has remained committed to uplifting wildfire survivors’ stories throughout the slow process of recovery. The California Report Magazine’s host Sasha Khokha talks with AfroLA reporters Corinne Ruff and William Jenkins about what sets this kind of community-focused Black journalism apart – and Ruff and Jenkins share the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://afrolanews.org/2026/02/what-it-takes-to-feel-at-home-again-after-the-eaton-fire/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">stories of some of the residents\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> they’ve been following, including \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://afrolanews.org/2025/04/these-black-architects-are-helping-rebuild-altadena-after-l-a-wildfires/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Black architects committed to rebuilding their neighborhood\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"routes-Site-routes-Post-Title-__Title__title\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-size: 16px;font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "The Eaton Fire Ravaged Black Altadena. A Journalist Documents Its Resilience",
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"content": "\u003cp>Sometimes, when \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/natural-disasters\">disaster strikes\u003c/a>, talk radio can be a lifeline for communities–sharing critical information, providing resources, and a place for victims to share their stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March of last year, just weeks after the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12071233/a-year-after-the-la-fires-a-journalist-looks-back-on-the-stories-from-his-neighborhood\">Eaton Fire tore through Altadena\u003c/a>, reporter James Farr launched his weekly call-in show \u003cem>Conversations Live: Altadena Rising\u003c/em> on KBLA 1580 AM in Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The show focuses on covering Altadena’s historic Black neighborhoods, which the fire disproportionately ravaged. According to a\u003ca href=\"https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/altadenas-black-community-disproportionately-affected-eaton-fire-report-shows\"> study from UCLA\u003c/a>, nearly half of Black homes were completely destroyed or sustained major damage, compared to 37% homes belonging to all other racial or ethnic groups’ homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And I think it was at that point, hearing the testimonies of some of the survivors, that we realized that there’s a much longer story in this, and being the only Black-owned talk radio station west of the Mississippi, it was a natural fit,” Farr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farr’s debut show was pretty nerve-wracking. KBLA owner and broadcast veteran Tavis Smiley was on hand overseeing production that morning, then the station suffered a temporary blackout just before airtime. But the show went on and \u003cem>Altadena Rising \u003c/em>went on the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075869\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12075869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Abounding Faith Ministries was among several West Altadena churches that burned in the Eaton Fire. The fire destroyed nearly twenty houses of worship across all of Altadena. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to be documenting the roots, the resilience, the recovery, the rebuilding, the reunion,” Farr told the audience at the show’s start. “We got a whole lot to cover in the [coming] weeks, and I’m so happy that you’ve allowed me into your homes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Altadena is Farr’s home, too. He and his family moved to Altadena nearly 20 years ago, eventually settling in North Pasadena, just below Eaton Canyon, where the deadly fire began.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of lawsuits, including two filed by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/united-states-sues-southern-california-edison-co-seeking-tens-millions-dollars-damages\">U.S. Department of Justice\u003c/a>, have blamed\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058885/investigation-sheds-new-light-on-what-may-have-sparked-eaton-fire\"> SoCal Edison’s faulty power\u003c/a> infrastructure, including the 100-foot powerlines that snake into the foothills, for igniting the Eaton Fire.[aside postID=news_12075283 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/250225-REGREENING-ALTADENA-01-KQED.jpg']Nineteen people died, 18 of them on the Westside, the heart of Black Altadena. Farr likens pre-fire West Altadena to Wakanda, the fictional African nation depicted in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/black-panther\">\u003cem>Black Panther\u003c/em>\u003c/a> film franchise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a Black utopia. Working class, all the way up to the uber [wealthy]. Eighty percent of the Black folks that live there were homeowners,” Farr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So, that’s the conversation about generational wealth, and heritage and being able to pass on a place of belonging and safety, which is so important to many Black communities because [historically], we just don’t have it like that,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ever since that first broadcast – and as the community has moved from processing the immediate shock and destruction of the fire, to navigating displacement, and grappling with painful decisions around whether to rebuild —\u003cem>Altadena Rising\u003c/em> has been a place to have those conversations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past year, Farr has grilled local and county leaders, firefighting and insurance experts and non-profits assisting displaced residents. He had a contentious interview with a Federal Emergency Management Agency representative just a few weeks after the fire tore through Altadena.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075868\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12075868\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A community mural by New York-based artist Wemok Art, painted in West Altadena shortly after the Eaton Fire \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My question to you is, when is FEMA going to step up, sit down and hear the people?” Farr asked spokesperson La-Tanga Hopes. “Stop dodging the community and listen to people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hopes explained that the agency had recently opened a temporary recovery center on the Westside to serve the large number of displaced residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Farr’s aim is to hand the mic over to the regular folks in the community, like Jarvis Emerson. He lost his house way up in the northwest corner of Altadena. When Emerson was on the show, he and his wife had just begun to rebuild.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"mceTemp\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>“Obviously, now we’re seven months since the fire, but y’all broke ground, how does that feel?” Farr asked Emerson. “It was a real good feeling, real emotional to be able to take that shovel in my hand and dig that dirt, it did give me hope that I’m ready for this new journey,” Emerson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075870\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12075870\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-07-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-07-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The sprawling grounds Altadena United Methodist Church a few weeks after the fire destroyed its church campus. It’s among several West Altadena churches that burned in the Eaton Fire. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Farr recently visited Emerson at his property, which has a breathtaking view of the San Gabriel Mountains and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory perched up in the foothills. Standing inside the framed-up house that’s still awaiting walls, flooring and a roof, Emerson was clearly pleased with the progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The neighbors came out, they were real supportive,” Emerson told him. “My pastor came out, and they blessed the ground, blessed the neighborhood so that no one would get hurt while the construction was going on and that it would just be a smooth process,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farr asked Emerson: How’d he manage to start rebuilding so fast? “And is ‘fast’ a fair assessment?” asked Farr.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some people would say fast. For me, it was like working two full-time jobs,” said Emerson, the director of Skid Row Strategies for the L.A. Mayor’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had to do a lot of walk-in visits and a whole lot of praying. I just need strength because I got to make this phone call, I need the strength to tame my tongue if I don’t get the answer that I want to hear,” Emerson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075865\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12075865\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-02-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-02-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eshele Williams, her mother and two of her sisters lost four houses in the same West Altadena neighborhood in the Eaton Fire. Williams, a mental health therapist, says she often offers counsel to traumatized friends and neighbors, including James Farr. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As they spoke, four other nearby properties were buzzing with the sound of cement mixers, power saws and hammers. They’re all familiar faces, said Emerson, neighbors coming back home to rebuild.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I say, don’t give up, don’t give in,” Emerson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It may be hard. It may look like you just can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you stay in there, trust and believe that this storm will end and watch what comes of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Emersons are among the hopeful stories of resilience in the aftermath of the disaster. But the fire created a demographic earthquake that will shake up Altadena’s racial and class complexion for the foreseeable future. Just how much is still unknown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s been this tendency among those who lived through the fire —and it’s not wrong —to put on a strong public face, even though just about everyone has struggled with trauma, depression, anxiety or anger. Farr agreed that a lot of anguish still persists beneath hopeful yard signs with slogans like “Altadena Not For Sale.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075873\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12075873\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-10-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-10-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-10-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-10-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">L.A. based muralist Robert Vargas painted “From the Ashes”, a tribute to West Altadena, on the side of Fair Oaks Burgers, in Altadena. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re building back, we’re stronger than ever, we will get through this, that kind of messaging,” Farr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But there’s also those quiet conversations where there’s hopelessness, there’s despair, there’s a sense of not belonging, there’s displacement. So, you hear all the other things show up in conversation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was evident at a packed Eaton Fire town hall event hosted by KBLA a few months ago, focusing on Southern California Edison’s Wildfire Recovery Compensation Fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Farr’s guests that night was Toni Bailey-Raines. Sixty years ago, her parents became one of the few Black families that bought “East of Lake.” Meaning, east of Lake Boulevard, the main thoroughfare that cleaves Altadena into two very distinctive halves. The fire took the house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075874\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12075874\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-11-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-11-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-11-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-11-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">On the morning of January 8, 2025, the Eaton Fire continued to burn across West Altadena neighborhoods, saturating the sky in inky blackness. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Raines said the monetary settlements that SoCal Edison was offering homeowners through the compensation plan felt like an insult given the humiliation that her accomplished parents, whose home was filled with treasures collected during their world travels, experienced during those early days on the Eastside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What my parents had to go through to buy east of Lake in 1968, to have white neighbors move away, because they moved in,” Raines said tearfully.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farr later told me he’s had his own struggles since the fire. He’d been suffering from debilitating insomnia that he ties to the stress and anxiety of covering the aftermath of the fire. He reached out to Eshele Williams, a mental health therapist and long-time friend.[aside postID=news_12075582 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/coalinga-69aaebd0175e4.jpg']“People call it secondary trauma, it is the trauma of the listener, the trauma of the seer,” explained Williams. “You don’t have to be in the situation for your body to feel that, and much as James [Farr] talks, you must be able to process this out. I mean, there are people that are still crying, and they didn’t lose a home, but it’s not about that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams, her mother, two sisters also lost their homes — all in the same neighborhood. Williams said she lived elsewhere for a time while finishing college and starting her career. But living anywhere else but Altadena was never really a question for anyone in the family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re all just very close-knit and we kind of joke and say, ‘if somebody was brave enough to move away, then maybe we’d have a place to stay now,’” laughed Williams. “But because everybody stayed, we’re all in the same situation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a sense, all of those who lived through the fire are in the same situation. Each is trying to hang onto and defend the people and the places that are still standing, and feeling a little wary of the changes that are sure to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being a reporter, Farr said, offers some advantages because of how well he knows the community. But that objective line between “journalist” and “friend,” or “journalist” and “neighbor,” gets blurry fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075866\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12075866\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Farr (right) with Altadena homeowner Jarvis Emerson inside his northwest Altadena home, currently under reconstruction. Emerson and his wife were among the first Black Altadena residents to begin rebuilding on their scorched lots. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I know over 200 families that lost everything,” Farr said. “While we want to maintain objectivity, we’re in it. This is trauma journalism full du jour. We can’t rationalize the survivor’s guilt that we may experience.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farr’s show will soon begin its second year covering the aftermath of the Eaton Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can’t find the silver lining sometimes for our friends who have lost everything,” he said, “but I spend a lot of my days, for hours, just listening to people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"headline": "The Eaton Fire Ravaged Black Altadena. A Journalist Documents Its Resilience",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Sometimes, when \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/natural-disasters\">disaster strikes\u003c/a>, talk radio can be a lifeline for communities–sharing critical information, providing resources, and a place for victims to share their stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March of last year, just weeks after the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12071233/a-year-after-the-la-fires-a-journalist-looks-back-on-the-stories-from-his-neighborhood\">Eaton Fire tore through Altadena\u003c/a>, reporter James Farr launched his weekly call-in show \u003cem>Conversations Live: Altadena Rising\u003c/em> on KBLA 1580 AM in Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The show focuses on covering Altadena’s historic Black neighborhoods, which the fire disproportionately ravaged. According to a\u003ca href=\"https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/altadenas-black-community-disproportionately-affected-eaton-fire-report-shows\"> study from UCLA\u003c/a>, nearly half of Black homes were completely destroyed or sustained major damage, compared to 37% homes belonging to all other racial or ethnic groups’ homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And I think it was at that point, hearing the testimonies of some of the survivors, that we realized that there’s a much longer story in this, and being the only Black-owned talk radio station west of the Mississippi, it was a natural fit,” Farr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farr’s debut show was pretty nerve-wracking. KBLA owner and broadcast veteran Tavis Smiley was on hand overseeing production that morning, then the station suffered a temporary blackout just before airtime. But the show went on and \u003cem>Altadena Rising \u003c/em>went on the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075869\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12075869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Abounding Faith Ministries was among several West Altadena churches that burned in the Eaton Fire. The fire destroyed nearly twenty houses of worship across all of Altadena. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to be documenting the roots, the resilience, the recovery, the rebuilding, the reunion,” Farr told the audience at the show’s start. “We got a whole lot to cover in the [coming] weeks, and I’m so happy that you’ve allowed me into your homes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Altadena is Farr’s home, too. He and his family moved to Altadena nearly 20 years ago, eventually settling in North Pasadena, just below Eaton Canyon, where the deadly fire began.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of lawsuits, including two filed by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/united-states-sues-southern-california-edison-co-seeking-tens-millions-dollars-damages\">U.S. Department of Justice\u003c/a>, have blamed\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058885/investigation-sheds-new-light-on-what-may-have-sparked-eaton-fire\"> SoCal Edison’s faulty power\u003c/a> infrastructure, including the 100-foot powerlines that snake into the foothills, for igniting the Eaton Fire.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Nineteen people died, 18 of them on the Westside, the heart of Black Altadena. Farr likens pre-fire West Altadena to Wakanda, the fictional African nation depicted in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/black-panther\">\u003cem>Black Panther\u003c/em>\u003c/a> film franchise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a Black utopia. Working class, all the way up to the uber [wealthy]. Eighty percent of the Black folks that live there were homeowners,” Farr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So, that’s the conversation about generational wealth, and heritage and being able to pass on a place of belonging and safety, which is so important to many Black communities because [historically], we just don’t have it like that,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ever since that first broadcast – and as the community has moved from processing the immediate shock and destruction of the fire, to navigating displacement, and grappling with painful decisions around whether to rebuild —\u003cem>Altadena Rising\u003c/em> has been a place to have those conversations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past year, Farr has grilled local and county leaders, firefighting and insurance experts and non-profits assisting displaced residents. He had a contentious interview with a Federal Emergency Management Agency representative just a few weeks after the fire tore through Altadena.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075868\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12075868\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A community mural by New York-based artist Wemok Art, painted in West Altadena shortly after the Eaton Fire \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My question to you is, when is FEMA going to step up, sit down and hear the people?” Farr asked spokesperson La-Tanga Hopes. “Stop dodging the community and listen to people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hopes explained that the agency had recently opened a temporary recovery center on the Westside to serve the large number of displaced residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Farr’s aim is to hand the mic over to the regular folks in the community, like Jarvis Emerson. He lost his house way up in the northwest corner of Altadena. When Emerson was on the show, he and his wife had just begun to rebuild.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"mceTemp\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>“Obviously, now we’re seven months since the fire, but y’all broke ground, how does that feel?” Farr asked Emerson. “It was a real good feeling, real emotional to be able to take that shovel in my hand and dig that dirt, it did give me hope that I’m ready for this new journey,” Emerson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075870\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12075870\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-07-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-07-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The sprawling grounds Altadena United Methodist Church a few weeks after the fire destroyed its church campus. It’s among several West Altadena churches that burned in the Eaton Fire. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Farr recently visited Emerson at his property, which has a breathtaking view of the San Gabriel Mountains and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory perched up in the foothills. Standing inside the framed-up house that’s still awaiting walls, flooring and a roof, Emerson was clearly pleased with the progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The neighbors came out, they were real supportive,” Emerson told him. “My pastor came out, and they blessed the ground, blessed the neighborhood so that no one would get hurt while the construction was going on and that it would just be a smooth process,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farr asked Emerson: How’d he manage to start rebuilding so fast? “And is ‘fast’ a fair assessment?” asked Farr.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some people would say fast. For me, it was like working two full-time jobs,” said Emerson, the director of Skid Row Strategies for the L.A. Mayor’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had to do a lot of walk-in visits and a whole lot of praying. I just need strength because I got to make this phone call, I need the strength to tame my tongue if I don’t get the answer that I want to hear,” Emerson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075865\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12075865\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-02-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-02-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eshele Williams, her mother and two of her sisters lost four houses in the same West Altadena neighborhood in the Eaton Fire. Williams, a mental health therapist, says she often offers counsel to traumatized friends and neighbors, including James Farr. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As they spoke, four other nearby properties were buzzing with the sound of cement mixers, power saws and hammers. They’re all familiar faces, said Emerson, neighbors coming back home to rebuild.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I say, don’t give up, don’t give in,” Emerson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It may be hard. It may look like you just can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you stay in there, trust and believe that this storm will end and watch what comes of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Emersons are among the hopeful stories of resilience in the aftermath of the disaster. But the fire created a demographic earthquake that will shake up Altadena’s racial and class complexion for the foreseeable future. Just how much is still unknown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s been this tendency among those who lived through the fire —and it’s not wrong —to put on a strong public face, even though just about everyone has struggled with trauma, depression, anxiety or anger. Farr agreed that a lot of anguish still persists beneath hopeful yard signs with slogans like “Altadena Not For Sale.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075873\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12075873\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-10-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-10-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-10-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-10-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">L.A. based muralist Robert Vargas painted “From the Ashes”, a tribute to West Altadena, on the side of Fair Oaks Burgers, in Altadena. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re building back, we’re stronger than ever, we will get through this, that kind of messaging,” Farr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But there’s also those quiet conversations where there’s hopelessness, there’s despair, there’s a sense of not belonging, there’s displacement. So, you hear all the other things show up in conversation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was evident at a packed Eaton Fire town hall event hosted by KBLA a few months ago, focusing on Southern California Edison’s Wildfire Recovery Compensation Fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Farr’s guests that night was Toni Bailey-Raines. Sixty years ago, her parents became one of the few Black families that bought “East of Lake.” Meaning, east of Lake Boulevard, the main thoroughfare that cleaves Altadena into two very distinctive halves. The fire took the house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075874\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12075874\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-11-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-11-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-11-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-11-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">On the morning of January 8, 2025, the Eaton Fire continued to burn across West Altadena neighborhoods, saturating the sky in inky blackness. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Raines said the monetary settlements that SoCal Edison was offering homeowners through the compensation plan felt like an insult given the humiliation that her accomplished parents, whose home was filled with treasures collected during their world travels, experienced during those early days on the Eastside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What my parents had to go through to buy east of Lake in 1968, to have white neighbors move away, because they moved in,” Raines said tearfully.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farr later told me he’s had his own struggles since the fire. He’d been suffering from debilitating insomnia that he ties to the stress and anxiety of covering the aftermath of the fire. He reached out to Eshele Williams, a mental health therapist and long-time friend.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“People call it secondary trauma, it is the trauma of the listener, the trauma of the seer,” explained Williams. “You don’t have to be in the situation for your body to feel that, and much as James [Farr] talks, you must be able to process this out. I mean, there are people that are still crying, and they didn’t lose a home, but it’s not about that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams, her mother, two sisters also lost their homes — all in the same neighborhood. Williams said she lived elsewhere for a time while finishing college and starting her career. But living anywhere else but Altadena was never really a question for anyone in the family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re all just very close-knit and we kind of joke and say, ‘if somebody was brave enough to move away, then maybe we’d have a place to stay now,’” laughed Williams. “But because everybody stayed, we’re all in the same situation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a sense, all of those who lived through the fire are in the same situation. Each is trying to hang onto and defend the people and the places that are still standing, and feeling a little wary of the changes that are sure to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being a reporter, Farr said, offers some advantages because of how well he knows the community. But that objective line between “journalist” and “friend,” or “journalist” and “neighbor,” gets blurry fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075866\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12075866\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-Altadena-Rising-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Farr (right) with Altadena homeowner Jarvis Emerson inside his northwest Altadena home, currently under reconstruction. Emerson and his wife were among the first Black Altadena residents to begin rebuilding on their scorched lots. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I know over 200 families that lost everything,” Farr said. “While we want to maintain objectivity, we’re in it. This is trauma journalism full du jour. We can’t rationalize the survivor’s guilt that we may experience.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farr’s show will soon begin its second year covering the aftermath of the Eaton Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can’t find the silver lining sometimes for our friends who have lost everything,” he said, “but I spend a lot of my days, for hours, just listening to people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"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": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 3
},
"link": "/podcasts/baycurious",
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"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious",
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}
},
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"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": {
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"source": "BBC World Service"
},
"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
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"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"
}
},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The California Report",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/26099305-72af-4542-9dde-ac1807fe36d5/kqed-s-the-california-report",
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"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcram/feed/podcast"
}
},
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"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
"meta": {
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcrmag/feed/podcast"
}
},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
"title": "Close All Tabs",
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"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/CAT_2_Tile-scaled.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"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 />",
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"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": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510312/podcast.xml"
}
},
"commonwealth-club": {
"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/commonwealth-club-of-california-podcast/id976334034?mt=2",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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}
},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/forum",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
"link": "/forum",
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"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kqeds-forum/id73329719",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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}
},
"freakonomics-radio": {
"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
}
},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 7pm-8pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Fresh-Air-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
}
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"here-and-now": {
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"title": "Here & Now",
"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Science-Podcasts/Hidden-Brain-p787503/",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0MxSpNYZKNprFLCl7eEtyx"
}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
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