The California Report Magazine

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Uncovering Abuse in a CA Disability Group Home Dec 09, 2023

Show notes

Katrina Turner lives in Fair Oaks, outside of Sacramento. She’s 43, nonverbal and developmentally disabled. Katrina lives in a special kind of group home for people who need a lot of support day to day. She has a history of self-injury, so the group home is required to monitor her 24/7. But Katrina’s family was alarmed when a staff member reported finding bruises and marks on her body. They suspected something was seriously wrong.

This week, we’re bringing you the results of a year and a half long investigation into allegations of abuse at one of California’s most tightly regulated group homes, the “Illinois Home” in Sacramento County. Reporter Chris Egusa spent months collecting stories from parents, testimony from employees, and documentation from state agencies. And what he uncovered suggests that Sevita Health, a national health care company, may have allowed, and even contributed to the abuse of the very people it was supposed to protect.

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Towns Along Pacific Coast Trail Struggle After Dixie Fire Dec 02, 2023

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Two Years After the Dixie Fire, Towns That Relied on Pacific Crest Trail Hikers Are Still Struggling

Two years ago, the Dixie Fire nearly wiped the Pacific Crest Trail off the map. With a lot of work, the trail has mostly been repaired. But sections of the PCT remain inaccessible, and for the first time in history, doing a continuous hike of the trail from beginning to end is almost impossible. It's a huge blow to rural towns along the trail, which rely on the hikers and trail tourism to survive. Reporter Dana Cronin ventured out into a tiny town called Belden, to see how people are doing after the fire.

Fresno’s New Gordita Shop is an Homage to Mom’s Cooking

Americans may be more familiar with tacos, but in the northern regions of Mexico, gorditas are a more popular kind of street food. And for Lizett Lopez, a Fresno native who recently moved back to the Central Valley during the pandemic, gorditas are closely tied to her identity, her culture and heritage – and now, her mother. As part of our Flavor Profile series, Reporter Olivia Zhao brings us the bittersweet story behind Lucy's Gorditas, the latest addition to Fresno's Mexican food scene.

The Coolest Place on Earth: The Public Library

We're sharing an excerpt of the latest episode of KQED's Rightnowish featuring Fairfield’s Mychal Threets. Threets is a superstar librarian, who readily professes the importance of childhood literacy, library access, and mental health. Because of that, he’s amassed a social media following that rivals your favorite artists and entertainers.

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Stories of California History Through Food and Family Nov 25, 2023

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On this week's show we're revisiting two stories about family, food and farming.

We start in the Central Valley where David “Mas” Masumoto says he farms with ghosts. On his family’s organic peach, nectarine and grape farm south of Fresno, California, Mas says the labor and lessons of his ancestors are in the soil and he’s passing these on to the next generations. Reporter Lisa Morehouse has visited Masumoto Farm for years, picking luscious peaches and nectarines in summer. For her series California Foodways, she returned to hear about a family secret at the center of Mas’ recent book, Secret Harvests.

Next we meet chef Crystal Wahpepah. She says she wanted to be a chef since she was 7 years old. Like her grandfather and mother, Wahpepah is a registered member of the Kickapoo tribe of Oklahoma. She remembers learning to make fry bread with her aunty and grandmother — and picking berries with her grandfather on the Hoopa Reservation where she spent time as a child. But while growing up on Ohlone land in Oakland, Wahpepah was struck by the Bay Area’s lack of Native restaurants, despite the region’s large Indigenous population and palette for diverse cuisine. So she decided to change that. It wasn’t just a matter of culinary representation, it was a matter of reclaiming Native food sovereignty. KQED’s Bianca Taylor brrought us her story as part of our series Flavor Profile, which features folks who started successful food businesses during the pandemic.

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The Aftermath of an LA City Council Scandal Nov 18, 2023

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It’s been a year since one of the biggest political scandals in its history rocked the Los Angeles City Council. In October 2022, a secret audio recording of three Latino council members and a labor leader was leaked to the public. Their conversation about redrawing council district maps included racist comments about fellow council members, their families, the Black community and indigenous Mexicans. Council president Nury Martinez’s comments were some of the most shocking and led to her resignation. Martinez seemed to have disappeared until recently, when she agreed to an exclusive interview with LAist's Antonia Cerejido. That interview, as well the perspectives of other Angelenos close to the scandal, are featured on the podcast Imperfect Paradise. The California Report Magazine’s Sasha Khokha sits down with Cerejido, the host of the series "Nury and the Secret Tapes," to find out what's changed a year after the scandal broke.

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Searching For Home On Higher Ground Nov 11, 2023

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This week, we’re featuring an episode from our friends at the KQED podcast SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing In America. This season they're focusing on how climate change is affecting where and how we live. Climate change is intensifying wet periods across California, turning waterways that humans corralled with dirt and concrete into wild torrents. When the river comes for your town, what do you do, how do you adapt? Is abandoning life in the floodplain the only real option? Ezra David Romero visits the Monterey County town of Parajo where he meets the Escutia family. He learns how a flood swallowed their hometown, and follows them for months afterward, as they searched for an affordable home on higher ground.

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How a California Tribe Fought to Get Their Ancestral Land Back in Eureka Nov 03, 2023

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In the winter of 1860, white settlers massacred dozens of Wiyot people as they slept. Most were women, children and elders. Settlers then stole the Wiyot people’s land, including an island the tribe considers the spiritual center of the universe. Cheryl Seidner’s great-grandfather was an infant during the attack and one of only a handful of survivors. Generations later, Seidner would lead her tribe to successfully get the island back. Reporter Izzy Bloom takes us to Tuluwat Island, off the coast of Eureka, where a land back effort succeeded long before the current movement began.

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Did I Actually Contact a Dead Person? A Science Editor In Search of His Mother’s Ghost Oct 27, 2023

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This Halloween weekend, we enter the realm of the unknown, and bring you a ghost story produced in collaboration with the Bay Curious podcast. Jon Brooks is a reporter and former KQED science editor who lives in the world of evidence, facts and data. But many years ago, Jon witnessed something inexplicable, something that just couldn’t be squared with reality. A recent personal tragedy has prompted him to run that story over and over again in his mind. We join Jon on a journey to make sense of it all.

This episode originally aired on Oct. 28, 2022.

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Resilient Family Farmers Making It Work Oct 20, 2023

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From Laos to California: The Remarkable Journey of Ia Moua

When the Vietnam War ended, thousands of Hmong people who had fought with American troops were no longer safe in their homelands. Many relocated to the U.S, like Ia Moua. She, along with her husband and her eight children, arrived in Fresno in 1993.

Unable to speak or read English when she arrived, Ia felt adrift in California at first. But she found some stability after finding a small plot of land where she could grow Hmong rice, a variety unlike anything found in grocery stores. Now, Ia’s field is much more than a livelihood – it’s become a gathering place for the Hmong community and a reminder of home.

California author Lisa Hamilton traces Ia’s journey from a tiny village in Laos to the Central Valley in her new book, The Hungry Season: A Journey of War, Love, and Survival. She joins guest host Lesley McClurg to share Ia’s story and talk about the surprising process of reporting the book, most of which took place while working alongside Ia in a rice field.

Hidden Gem: One of San José’s Last Working Orchards Has Been Family Run Since 1945

Before San Jose became synonymous with tech companies, it was known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight because of the luscious fruit orchards that proliferated there. Many of those orchards have been paved over to make room for homes and tech campuses, leaving only 5% of Santa Clara County’s original farmland. For our Hidden Gems series, Reporter Daphne Young takes us to one of the last working orchards in San Jose. It’s been run by the same family for almost 80 years.

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California Prisons Fail to Uphold Transgender Rights Despite State Law Oct 13, 2023

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California’s Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act was meant to protect transgender people, reducing the trauma of physical and sexual assault experienced by many transgender women in particular when housed in men’s prison. But the culture at state prisons and rising anti-trans fervor throughout the country have exposed some transgender women to new traumas. Like Syiaah Skylit, who is currently in solitary confinement at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla. She’s experienced harassment, taunting, and attacks from other incarcerated women because of her gender identity. Reporter Lee Romney, who covered criminal justice at the LA Times, and Jenny Johnson, a former public defender, spent a year interviewing Syiaah and other transgender incarcerated people to gauge how the law – meant to protect gender-expansive people in prison– may not actually be working out the way it was intended.

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All-Female Mariachi Band Shatters Stereotypes Oct 06, 2023

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This All-Women Mariachi Group From Sacramento Is Redefining the Genre

One hundred years ago, all-female mariachi bands didn’t exist. Even 50 years ago, women playing mariachi was rare. Today, though, women like Dinorah Klingler are rewriting the story of mariachi culture. Her band, Mariachi Bonitas, is an all-female, woman-led, multi-generational mariachi band based in Sacramento that’s carving out a new space for women in the traditionally male-dominated genre. Bianca Taylor explores the history of women in mariachi and what makes this the right time to innovate the art form.

Welcome to Bumpass Hell, a Bubbling, Stinky Sliver of 'California's Yellowstone'

At Lassen Volcanic National Park, sometimes called “California’s Yellowstone,” there’s a hike that takes visitors to a place that looks like Mars. It’s called Bumpass Hell, known for its bubbling mud pots and steaming vents. Katherine Monahan brings us this story as part of our Hidden Gems series, where we take you to out-of-the-way spots in the Golden State.

Beyond Bánh Mì: This San José Pop-Up Plays With Classics of Vietnamese Cuisine

Hieu Le and DuyAn are Vietnamese immigrants who grew up eating the food of the Mekong Delta, the “rice basket of Vietnam.” With their San Jose-based pop up, Hết Sẩy, Hieu and DuyAn are representing their moms’ cooking, but also refreshing the traditions to reflect their California palates. Rachael Myrow brings us this story as part of our ongoing series Flavor Profile, which features folks who pivoted to start successful food businesses during the pandemic.

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