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KQED. Good

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morning. This is the California Report.

0:37

I'm Madi Bolaños in San Francisco,

0:39

and here are your state headlines.

0:41

Over the weekend, Cal Poly

0:44

Humble officials announced a hard

0:46

campus closure through May 10th

0:48

following continued pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Dozens

0:51

of students remained on campus

0:53

as police presence increased. Here's

0:55

president of Students for a

0:57

Democratic Society, Rick Toledo, speaking with

0:59

KRCR News. The

1:01

current demands from the

1:03

students are, one, to

1:06

disclose any ties with

1:08

Israel and to

1:10

divest from those ties, whether they be

1:13

academic or financial. Another

1:15

is to call for a ceasefire

1:18

with the current genocide in

1:21

Gaza. And another is to

1:23

ensure that these students who

1:25

have been involved in this

1:27

protest don't face any serious

1:29

academic charges. In

1:31

addition to those demands, the Humble

1:34

chapter of the California Faculty Association

1:36

is calling for the university president,

1:38

Tom Jackson, to resign over his

1:40

handling of the protests. Worker

1:43

advocates are applauding a new federal

1:45

rule that will make millions more

1:48

people eligible for overtime pay. But

1:50

in California, those protections

1:53

are already stronger, as

1:55

KQED's labor correspondent Farida

1:57

Chavalaromero reports. The

2:00

U.S. Department of Labor says

2:02

it's unacceptable that some lower-paid salaried

2:04

employees don't get additional pay when

2:06

they work long hours, so

2:09

they're raising the annual paid threshold

2:11

under which an employer has to

2:13

pay time and a half. In

2:16

July, it'll be about $44,000 a

2:18

year for administrative, executive, or

2:20

professional work, and in January,

2:22

nearly $59,000. Jessica

2:25

Luhmann is the wage and hour administrator

2:27

for the U.S. Department of Labor. We

2:30

want to make sure that they are getting all of

2:32

the protections that they should be getting. Business

2:34

groups fought the rule change, as they

2:37

did when the Obama administration tried something

2:39

similar. They sued, and some expect they

2:41

may do so again. But

2:43

California's threshold has been higher than

2:46

the federal one for years. It's

2:48

now about $66,000 per year. For

2:52

the California report, I'm Farida de

2:54

Valaromeo. As the climate

2:56

crisis changes California's landscape, the ecosystems

2:59

in the state parks up and

3:01

down California are threatened. At

3:03

one point, the people in charge of those

3:06

parks were just preserving the land. But

3:08

now, they're trying to save the land

3:10

from climate-driven collapse. KCRW's

3:12

Kaylee Wells reports. Claire

3:15

Schlauterbeck reveres Chino Hills State

3:17

Park. Cares for it like a

3:20

child, she says. As she slowly drives

3:22

us into the valley, she recalls one hot

3:24

August night here 20 years ago.

3:27

That thing just called me to the park. That's

3:29

the only way I can describe it. She

3:31

sat at an overlook off the main road. Then

3:34

a really big great horned

3:36

owl came and flew.

3:40

And he stayed about 15 feet above

3:43

me on the right and just

3:45

hovered there. And

3:48

then this stream of owls came

3:50

up and over the crest

3:52

of the overlook. 75

3:55

owls. I mean,

3:57

just, they just kept coming. I

4:00

had no idea that

4:02

they even did that. It

4:04

was amazing. It was a moment of

4:07

grace that was given to

4:09

me by the park. She has

4:11

given 40 years of her life

4:13

to this place. She's the executive director

4:15

of Hills for Everyone, which is devoted

4:17

to preserving the Puente Chino Hills. A

4:20

lot has changed since she helped establish Chino

4:23

Hills State Park in 1981. Now

4:25

there's 18 million people on the

4:27

other side of the original Hines.

4:29

Plus noisy freeways, a couple of airports.

4:32

But inside the park, right where

4:34

LA, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside

4:37

counties all meet, you

4:39

can't see or hear any of

4:41

those people, just rolling green grassy

4:43

hills. It's the kind of quiet

4:45

that makes your ears ring. This

4:48

is just one of California's 280 state parks. As

4:51

the climate changes, some of them are threatened

4:53

by sea level rise and coastal erosion. Others

4:56

face unprecedented flooding and deepening drought

4:58

and more severe heat. The

5:01

problems are almost as diverse as

5:03

the 2100 unique plants

5:05

and animals that you can find

5:07

only in California. Talk about

5:09

high stakes. The climate threat here? Wildfire.

5:13

In 2008, 95

5:15

percent of the state park burned then. And

5:18

then again in 2020. Nearly

5:20

two-thirds of the park burned again. The

5:23

fires used to be decades apart. Now

5:25

they're coming too fast. It's

5:28

burning so frequently that a lot

5:30

of the native plants don't

5:32

have an opportunity to mature enough

5:35

to grow seeds. So now

5:38

protecting the state park isn't just

5:40

about buying up more land. It's

5:42

fixing the climate-driven problems inside its

5:44

borders. The state park system knows

5:46

climate change is a problem. They've

5:48

even got a job now called

5:50

climate resilience program manager. The person

5:52

doing it is Emily Doyle. The

5:54

expertise is there and it really is time

5:57

now to just switch from planning to implementation.

6:00

not there to make that switch.

6:02

Rachel Norton is executive director of

6:04

the California State Parks Foundation. For

6:06

example there is an estimate of

6:08

a 1.2 billion

6:11

dollar backlog in just maintaining

6:14

current resources. Meaning there's money to

6:16

say repair a flooded road the

6:18

old-fashioned way but not the money

6:21

to study a new way to

6:23

stop the road from flooding as

6:25

sea levels rise. The problem is

6:27

overwhelming and yet despite

6:29

all that they're trying anyway.

6:32

Norton says she knows the stakes of her

6:34

work. You know I was born and raised

6:36

in California and I have

6:38

incredible memories about what this

6:41

place was. It has

6:44

changed, it is different than it

6:46

was when I was a child

6:49

but it's still offering you know

6:51

amazing experiences in the outdoors. The

6:53

climate crisis has irreversibly changed so

6:56

much of California's landscape but

6:58

a visit to one of our state

7:00

parks offers plenty of proof that there

7:02

is so much land and life left to

7:04

save. For the California Report I'm

7:06

Kaylee Wells in Chino Hills. And

7:13

that is the California Report for

7:15

Monday April 29th for production of

7:17

KQED Public Radio. I'm Mabibo

7:20

Lagnos, thanks for listening and have a great

7:22

day. Support

7:24

for the California Report comes from the William

7:27

and Flora Hewlett Foundation investing in

7:29

creative thinkers and problem solvers who

7:31

are working to ensure that people,

7:33

communities and the planet can flourish.

7:37

The James Irvine Foundation now accepting

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nominations for the 2025 James Irvine

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Foundation Leadership

7:44

Awards at irvineawards.org

7:48

and Eric and Wendy Schmidt

7:50

whose philanthropy works to create a

7:52

healthy, resilient, secure world for all

7:55

on the web at the schmidt.org. Take

7:57

your Wi-Fi further with wall-to-wall Wi-Fi

7:59

from Xfinity. With fast speeds

8:01

and reliable coverage, home just got

8:04

even sweeter with the Xfinity 10G

8:06

network. Restrictions apply, not available in

8:08

all areas. Actual speeds vary.