LOWER LAKE
Guided Nature Walk at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park
The next in the series of monthly “Second Saturday” Guided Nature Walks at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park will be held on Saturday, April 9, beginning at 8:30 a.m.
Each in the series of Guided Nature Walks is led by a volunteer State Parks docent. The hike will cover parts of the Cache Creek Nature Trail, the Marsh Trail and the Ridge Trail. The hike is over mostly level terrain and will cover about 3 miles at a leisurely pace. The hike should last between one and a half and two hours.
Bring binoculars and meet in the parking lot at 8:15 a.m. for time to experience the early morning wildlife that can be found in the Ranch House and Barn complex yard – the walk will begin at 8:30 a.m.
There is no charge for the guided nature walk and parking is free for those attending.
Anderson Marsh State Historic Park is located on Hwy 53, between Lower Lake and Clearlake. For more information about the guided walk, email info@andersonmarsh.org or call (707) 995-2658.
—Submitted
LAKEPORT
Lakeport Citywide sidewalk sale April 30
Calling all Lakeport residents. Have you been decluttering and organizing during the past two years and thinking about doing a yard sale? Well, the Lakeport Main Street Association is organizing a City-Wide Yard Sale and Sidewalk Sale for Saturday, April 30, 2022. It’s free to register and be included on the map. The only requirement is that the sale be at a Lakeport address (either business or residential). To sign up, go to our website at www.lakeportmainstreet.com and look under “Events”. During the week preceding April 30, a Google Map with all of the participants will be available on the website for you to download. We’re turning Lakeport Inside Out!
—Submitted
SACRAMENTO
California moves to limit slavery reparations after key vote
Because I can’t resist working Russian literature titles into the newsletter: Tuesday was a day of war and peace in Sacramento, with some political battles heating up and others fizzling out.
After more than six hours of intense debate, California’s first-in-the-nation reparations task force voted 5-4 to recommend limiting eligibility for potential state benefits to Black Californians who can prove they’re directly descended from an enslaved person or from a free Black person living in the U.S. before the end of the 19th century, CalMatters’ Lil Kalish reports.
- That means only some of the 2.6 million African Americans living in California will be eligible for reparations, which would have to be approved by the state Legislature and could include cash payments as a form of compensation for slavery’s enduring legacy.
- Task force member Cheryl Grills, a clinical psychologist at Loyola Marymount University, said excluding some Black Californians was tantamount to “another win for white supremacy.” But Kamilah Moore, the committee chairperson, said that foregoing a lineage-based approach would “aggrieve the victims of slavery,” Lil reports.
Also contentious: a legislative hearing about protecting kids online, CalMatters’ Grace Gedye reports. Republican Assemblymember Jordan Cunningham of San Luis Obispo, who’s co-authoring a bill that would allow California parents to sue social media companies for harms caused by hooking their kids on addictive algorithms, slammed the tech industry for its “bordering on disingenuous” argument that it can’t verify internet users’ age.
- Hany Farid, a UC Berkeley computer science professor: “I don’t think it’s disingenuous for the companies to say they can’t do it, I think it’s just a lie.”
- Dylan Hoffman, California and Southwest executive director for TechNet, an advocacy group representing tech companies: “I’m not saying that it is impossible. … What I am saying though, right now, is that there are trade-offs and there are challenges” in collecting more data on kids to verify their age.
But other fights cooled down, or were avoided altogether.
On Tuesday at press time, a key committee had been set to consider a controversial bill that would have forced companies to require workers and independent contractors to be vaccinated against COVID-19. But the bill’s author, Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks of Oakland, announced Tuesday she’s putting it on pause for now: “We’re now in a new & welcome chapter in this pandemic, w/the virus receding for the moment,” she tweeted. “This provides for us the opportunity to work more collaboratively with labor and employers to address concerns raised by the bill.”
Also Tuesday, another committee had been slated to consider Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco’s proposal to mandate health plans and insurers undergo “evidence-based cultural competency training for the purpose of providing trans(gender)-inclusive health care.” Critics had been gearing up to fight it — the conservative California Family Council warned it “seeks to punish and shame medical workers who don’t affirm the gender confusion of their parents or give them treatments that will permanently sterilize them” — but the committee postponed consideration of the bill until April 6.
And finally, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration signed a memorandum of understanding — which the Sacramento Bee called a “$2.6 billion environmental peace treaty” — with federal and local water leaders to leave billions of gallons more water in Central Valley rivers to protect endangered fish habitat. But, as the Bee notes, some key water users haven’t signed on — and environmentalists say the additional water is less than half of what’s needed.
—Emily Hoeven, CALMatters
