California’s efforts to fight destructive fires across the state were hampered this year by an unexpected circumstance.  Coronavirus precautions made inmate crews a less reliable source of labor.   This system has long been criticized as their pay typically tops out at a few dollars per hour. Some describe it as “slave labor.”  Nor Cal Public Assistant News […]         

KRCB-FM: North Bay Report

Crew Shortage Reveals California’s Reliance on Incarcerated Firefighters (Aired: August 27, 2020)

The North Bay Report is a daily in-depth look at an issue, event, person or activity in our region, prepared by KRCB News Director Bruce Robinson, a veteran journalist who has been covering Sonoma County since 1985. These reports provide another view of news and events in our area, a way to look beyond the headlines and hear directly from the people who are shaping the present and future of Sonoma County and northern California. Topics recently covered on The North Bay Report include the regional real estate market, offshore oil drilling on the Sonoma Coast, school testing, local theater projects, homelessness, affordable health care, women’s history, protecting the Tiger Salamander, and interviews with foreign exchange students, combating invasive weeds, the proposed Living Wage ordinance in Petaluma, grade school gardening projects, quarrels over gravel quarries in the west county, and election season political issues. The North Bay Report is heard Monday through Friday at 6:18 am and 8:18 am, repeating at 5:30 pm, on KRCB FM, 91.1 & 90.9 FM, and radio.krcb.org. 

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KRCB-FM: North Bay Report