The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: Jared Huffman

  • Huffman addresses US Capitol attack in virtual town hall

    Huffman addresses US Capitol attack in virtual town hall

    The Capitol in Washington D.C. was met with an angry mob of President Trump supporters on January 6. While Congress was in session to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory, the group stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop the electoral count.

    U.S. Representative for the 2nd Congressional District, Jared Huffman, held a live stream via his Facebook page on January 12 to address the attack and plans moving forward. Huffman is the representative for Northern California’s coastal region which spans from San Francisco to the Oregon border.

    “When that disgraceful mob stormed the Capitol and literally took it over for a few hours, where no help was coming and they had control of the place, that’s just a wake-up call for all of us. It speaks to the level of violence and insurrection that we all saw with our eyes and ears,” Huffman said.

    The mob broke into the Capitol building looting and vandalizing as a sign of defiance to the election results. Trump has repeatedly accused the election of being rigged in Biden’s favor, demanding recounts and overturns of results to no avail.

    Though the riot at the Capitol has captured the attention across the world, the FBI has warned states across the country of possible violence in the coming days.

    Huffman alluded to the idea of local and state violence in response to the days leading to Biden’s inauguration.

    “The intelligence suggests that the threats of violence are not going to be limited to the Capitol,” Huffman said.

    Danny Kelley, the Chair of the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee, commented on the vandalism that had taken place at their headquarters where a window was destroyed on the same day as the Capitol attack.

    Kelley said that though they could not confirm who was responsible for the vandalism, they can assume it was an action in the spur of the moment.

    “It is clear that the vandalism at our headquarters was random and unplanned, but it is also clear that it was spurned by an intense personal belief based on the lie that the election was stolen,” Kelley said.

    The Democratic committee was able to repair their window the same day with the help of a local business. The vandalism that occurred is not deterring the local office from reaching out in the community to help cultivate a space for the Democratic party.

    “Destruction like this has happened to the local Republican headquarters many more times than it has happened to us. Thoughtless acts like this can’t stop us,” Kelley said.

    In plans of moving forward and protecting democracy on a local level here in Humboldt, there are many groups and organizations to get involved with across the political spectrum. As for the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee, Kelley encouraged students to get involved in local politics.

    “We need students to get involved with the Humboldt Young Democrats and to step up and become members of our Central Committee,” Kelley said. “There is so much work to be done and so many opportunities for grassroot leadership to really make a difference.”

  • Environment Takes Center Stage at Huffman Town Hall

    Environment Takes Center Stage at Huffman Town Hall

    Huffman talks greenhouse gases, sea level rise, salmon and more

    Jared Huffman, representative to California’s Second District, held a town hall at Eureka High School on Feb. 21 to engage his Humboldt constituents. After touting the progressive platform he’s pushing in Washington, D.C., Huffman answered questions spanning from immigration reform to the 2020 election—but the prevailing concerns surrounded the climate crisis.

    “You got about a decade—less than a decade—to dramatically transform the global economy to put us on a path of decarbonization that gets us to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050,” Huffman said.

    Huffman sits on the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis along with 14 other representatives. Authorized in January of last year, the committee is set to release policy recommendations on March 31. The report will steer the current and upcoming Congress on legislation regarding the changing climate.

    “Sea level rise and resiliency in coastal communities like this are just a huge part of the climate crisis. We are gonna have to do a lot of planning and prioritization for critical infrastructure.”

    Jared Huffman

    Several Humboldt residents questioned Huffman about protecting infrastructure from rising sea levels. Much of the county would be at risk if the sea rose. Low bridges and roadways are at risk as well as economic infrastructure like fisheries and farmland.

    “Sea level rise and resiliency in coastal communities like this are just a huge part of the climate crisis,” Huffman said. “We are gonna have to do a lot of planning and prioritization for critical infrastructure.”

    Huffman also sits on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Huffman aims to focus some of the funding for infrastructure on coastal communities that would be impacted by rising seas.

    Some audience members expressed concern about Pacific Gas and Electric’s role in California’s power supply. After months of sporadic power outages, many Californians are looking at the possibility of de-privatizing the utility company.

    “I’d be fine if [PG&E] were reinvented into some type of not-for-profit entity as well,” Huffman said. “It would be nice to take that profit motive out of the situation to convert it from an investor-owned utility, where they gotta meet Wall Street’s expectations, to something that was publicly-owned or possibly a cooperative.”

    Huffman then shifted his focus to the diversion of water from the tributaries that feed into the Trinity River to farmland in the San Joaquin Valley. The Trump administration is working to release a new biological opinion that will allow for significantly more water to be diverted from flowing down the Trinity. This would override the previous finding that diversion of water would drastically impact the salmon population.

    A similar decision was made by the Bush administration in 2001. Restrictions on the natural flow of water down the Klamath River led to the mass salmon kill in 2002.

    Huffman is hoping to hold the previous finding up long enough for a new administration and Congress that would prioritize protecting native species.

    “You get the picture, right?” Huffman said. “The deck is pretty stacked right now against protecting our rivers and fisheries here on the North Coast. And it’s a fight I will continue to fight.”

  • Jared Huffman and Jim Wood visit Eureka

    Jared Huffman and Jim Wood visit Eureka

    Government representatives hold town hall meeting to discuss issues that affect both sides of the political divide

    Congressman Jared Huffman and California State Representative Jim Wood held a town hall meeting at St. Bernard’s Academy to talk about subjects like veterans, the Green New Deal and healthcare, among others.

    “It isn’t very often you get a state representative and a congressman in the same room together,” Huffman said. “It’s valuable, so many issues have a federal and state element.”

    There was a lot of ground to cover but only a couple hours to talk. Huffman and Wood began the event by updating the crowd on some of the things going on with State and Federal politics. The event was somewhat political but Huffman made it clear he wanted to have a civil conversation with people who have different ideas than him.

    IMG_3439.jpg Many community members attended the town hall to listen to congressman Jarred Huffman and state representative Jim Wood speak and answer questions. | Photo by Amanda Schultz

    U.S. army veteran Jeremy Campbell, a student at College of the Redwoods, asked a serious question to Huffman and Wood. Campbell asked the representatives for more support for veterans. The United States has a knack for asking a lot from their soldiers but providing little for their veterans. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs there were 20.4 million veterans in the country. Our veterans need support in the face of a number of challenges including homelessness, substance abuse and PTSD.

    Huffman said he would try to support veterans. The spending on the border wall is being realized through an emergency declaration by the president, allowing him to reallocate money from the U.S. defense budget towards the construction of the border wall.

    “We are going to stop Trump from clawing away money from veterans,” Huffman said.

    A number of people brought up the issue of healthcare in Northern Calif. A serious understaffing problem is plaguing Humboldt County according to the National Union of Healthcare Workers. Citizens in the county are feeling the pressure. In light of the failure of the Calif. high speed rail, one of the people said they would like to see the funds put into better hospital infrastructure.

    “I have to drive for hours to get anything more than a CT scan,” a community member said. “We need a better hospital up here.”

    The Green New Deal was another hot topic. A couple of Humboldt State students had the opportunity to ask questions about the subject. David Grover, an ESM student on campus, had prepared a question for Huffman before he arrived at the event. Grover was excited for the opportunity to address his congressman directly. Grover intended to get Huffman’s opinion on whether he supported Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposed Green New Deal, currently being reviewed by House subcommittees, or if he supported the Green Party’s Green New Deal.

    IMG_7135.JPG Kelsey Reedy asking state representative Jim Wood and congressman Jared Huffman a question during the event. | Photo by Amanda Schultz

    Lily Price, an HSU junior studying botany, represented the Sunrise Movement at the town hall. Price asked Huffman to address the U.S. Speaker of the House on the subject.

    “I think we can bring the smartest minds to the conversation and move the needle,” Huffman said. “I think we’re going to do good stuff with this subcommittee.”

    Updated 03/05/19: A previous version of this article misquoted Jeremy Campbell.