Del Norte County is joining Sacramento and San Diego counties in a public nuisance lawsuit against tech giants Meta, Google, TikTok and Snap, alleging that those companies have “knowingly targeted and profited from minors’ excessive and compulsive uses.”
County Counsel Jacqueline Roberts and several private law firms filed the suit in Del Norte County Superior Court on Monday.
In its complaint for damages and demand for a jury trial, Del Norte County is seeking an order deeming the defendants’ alleged conduct a public nuisance under California law and enjoining them from engaging in action that further contributes to the alleged public nuisance.
Students from Del Norte High hosted their peers from Takata High School this week. A student delegation of nine visited from Rikuzentakata, Japan to further the sister school relationship between the two communities. | Photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews
The relationship between Del Norte and Takata high schools entered a new chapter Monday when a delegation of students from Rikuzentakata touched down in Crescent City for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
After the plane circled the runway for more than an hour due to fog, nine students and two teachers stepped off the tarmac to an enthusiastic welcome from their host families, the Del Norte High School Japan Club and Kamome Foundation members.
Before they accompanied their host families to pick up their luggage, each student received a gift from their American counterparts, former Japan Club members who are now in college.
Thumbnail: Cain, a member of Crescent City Police Department’s volunteer K9 team, works on his human remains detection skills at the Lake Earl Wildlife Area. Above: The human members of the K9 crew, Cathy Schneider, Jenna Phillips and Gloria Bobertz pose with their canine counterparts. | Photos courtesy of Gloria Bobertz
Cathy Schneider and Gloria Bobertz began working with canines for different reasons, but they have the same philosophy in mind — a good dog never wants to stop.
They don’t have to instill this maxim in their 16-year-old colleague Jenna Phillips. Her dog, Juno, is still going despite being struck by a car last month.
“She’s starting to get up on her own,” Jenna said. “She can take a bunch of steps and she goes back down. The swelling has gone down a bunch. The bruises are gone. The infection in her belly is gone, and she’s more playful.”
Four Del Norte County supervisors on Tuesday green lit a proposal to house juvenile offenders in Mendocino County. But they urged Chief Probation Officer Lonnie Reyman to use that option as a last resort, with District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short stating that “there’s probably more gang activity prevalent” in Mendocino than in Shasta County.
Del Norte County maintains agreements with Humboldt and Shasta counties to house wards in their juvenile detention facilities. Humboldt is the first option and Shasta is currently the second, though there are times when probation officials there have declined to hold Del Norte youth as well, according to Reyman.
Two Del Norte County youth are being detained, Reyman told Redwood Voice Community News on Tuesday. One is at the Humboldt County Juvenile Hall in Eureka and the other is at the Shasta County Juvenile Rehabilitation Facility in Redding, he said.
Del Norte High School performs at the Pride of the Northwest field show in Grants Pass on Oct. 12. | Thumbnail photo courtesy of Dan Sedgwick, video courtesy of Danielle Wood.
Self-competition may be cliché in some circles — a motivational mantra personal trainers use to get clients off the couch.
But it’s why the Del Norte High School’s Band of Warriors triumphed despite coming in last in their category at the Festival of Bands field show in Eugene on Nov. 1.
“Even though we did get last place, the students didn’t feel that way because we had a massive point increase from where we were and the best score we’ve ever gotten in a competition,” DNHS Music Director Daniel Sedgwick told Redwood Voice Community News on Wednesday. “I’m talking [about] any year before this.”
Del Norte County is adding a new wing to its juvenile justice system that will offer first-time nonviolent offenders a chance to be held accountable by a true jury of their peers.
The system’s foundation will still be there. This includes the sheriff’s office, police department, Del Norte Unified School District, county probation, the District Attorney and the court itself, said Paul Dillard, chairman of the Del Norte County Juvenile Justice Delinquency and Prevention Commission. But as the John Wilson Teen Court program gains steam, Dillard sees youth serving as prosecutor, defense attorney, even the judge.
“We [will] have legal representation there to help those youth,” he told Redwood Voice Community News on Friday. “The DA’s office is going to be there for the prosecution and — not necessarily a public defender, maybe it’ll be a retired attorney or it might even be a retired judge — but they guide them. They set standards on the model that’s been created, including what they can do and what they can’t do.”
Crescent City councilors last week supported a proposed partnership with South Coast Community Aquatics in Brookings to give Del Norte County pool patrons a place to swim when the Fred Endert Municipal Pool closes for construction in December.
But on Monday, SCCA President Val Early told the Brookings City Council that discussions about how the arrangement would work are still preliminary. She floated the idea of instituting a community pass for patrons on both sides of the state line since Crescent City and SCCA would be funding the program. The details still needed to be ironed out before the agreement goes before the Brookings City Council for approval, she said.
“If we’re able to put that together and [if] you feel like that’s a worthwhile project, that would be a pilot program for us to be able to gauge what our winter activity would be,” Early said. “If we’re able to put together, this collaborative effort would start to happen in December and would go through February because those are the months the Crescent City pool is going to be closed.”
The Fred Endert Municipal Pool is expected to undergo upgrades to its HVAC system as well as its pool deck and locker room floors. As a result, the pool will be closed from December through February, City Manager Eric Wier said.
Under the proposed agreement with SCCA, the nonprofit organization that took over management of the Brookings pool in 2023 would be responsible for facility-related costs. This includes heating the outdoor pool to between 83 and 84 degrees Fahrenheit, Wier told the City Council at its Oct. 21 meeting. Crescent City would provide the lifeguards and supervisory staff needed to operate the pool, he said.
Crescent City cut the ribbon Saturday on the first amenity at Beachfront Park built using Prop 68 grant money. | Jessica C. Andrews
Wesley Phillips’ experience with pump tracks is limited — the new course at Crescent City’s Beachfront Park was his first taste.
Though the official grand opening wasn’t until last Saturday, Wesley’s dad, Tom Phillips, said his son had already been practicing. Wesley and his friends Aidan Evans and Landon and Chase Feight were demo riders — zipping over the jumps and scaling the wall ride, the wooden structure towering above the rest of the track — while Tom looked on.
“He’s blown away by it,” Tom said, watching Wesley and his buddies. “He had always ridden bikes and asked [me], ‘Can you build me a jump?’”
As the bike pump track took shape over the last two months, Wesley’s thoughts have been “nothing else but BMX,” his dad says.
Sammy! A Salmon’s Tale was a locally produced play written by Ruthie Rhodes, and was performed as the conclusion to a week-long theatre camp for aspiring youth. The play and camp were both produced in conjunction with local organizations and coordinators, such as KPN, True North, and Dirt and Glitter. Delve behind the scenes in this documentary to see how the whole event was brainstormed and put together, as well as the participants thoughts, and how the coordinators felt it positively affected the youth.
May 17, 2024 marked “‘O ME-NOK DAY” at Margaret Keating Elementary School (Now the ‘O Me-Nok Learning Center) down in Klamath, California. Redwood Voice’s Monique Camarena and Rory McCain headed down to the event, which was a culmination of several presentations by the Yurok held at the school to educate the Klamath youth on different traditions from the tribe, such as basketry, storytelling and pow-wow drumming.
Telling the untold stories of Del Norte and Tribal Lands through amplified youth voices.
