Press release from the Eureka Police Department:

The Eureka Police Department (EPD) will conduct a Driving Under the Influence (DUI) and Driver’s License checkpoint on Tuesday, March 17th, from 6:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m., at a location within the city limits of Eureka. The specific location will not be disclosed in advance.

The primary purpose of the checkpoint is to promote public safety by deterring impaired driving, raising awareness, and removing suspected impaired drivers from the roadway. Officers will be looking for drivers impaired by alcohol, cannabis, illicit drugs, or prescription medications that may affect their ability to safely operate a vehicle.

What Drivers Can Expect

• Vehicles will be stopped in a neutral, predetermined sequence
• Drivers will be briefly contacted by officers trained in DUI detection
• Field sobriety tests may be conducted when appropriate
• Delays to motorists are expected to be minimal

Safety Reminders

• Plan ahead: designate a sober driver, use public transportation, a rideshare service, or call a taxi
• If you see a driver you suspect to be impaired, call 9-1-1
• Medications, including some over-the-counter and prescription drugs, can impair driving ability, always read warning labels and consult your doctor or pharmacist

Driving while impaired is not worth the risk. A DUI arrest can result in jail time, license suspension, and significant fines and fees.

This operation is funded by a grant from the California Highway Patrol through the Cannabis Tax Fund Grant Program.

Two Hoopa teenagers are facing six felony charges for a shooting last week that left a 17-year-old dead.

Codefendants Tse-Lin Lincoln, 19, and William Randolph Billy Warren, 18, each pleaded not guilty to the charges filed by the District Attorney’s office Friday at their arraignment, according to court records.

A third defendant who was arrested on a no-bail warrant and identified by Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office as a suspect, 15-year-old Preston Ruiz II, was previously booked into Juvenile Hall on suspicion of similar charges.

The criminal complaint charges the adult pair with attempted murder, along with four counts of assault with firearms, with a total of five victims noted. Two victims identified in the complaint appear to be students at Hoopa Valley High.

Each charge has a gang-related violence enhancement, alleging the crimes were for a criminal street gang.

The pair are accused of causing brain injury to the victim resulting in coma and paralysis. The complaint alleges the codefendants shot an occupied vehicle, with the victim inside, using a handgun.

Investigators are now seeking an additional murder charge for the three suspects, according to HCSO. The defendants were initially charged hours before the victim died from his injuries Friday.

We reached out to the District Attorney’s office and will update this post when we learn more.

HCSO responded to the shooting in Hoopa March 10 on Moon Lane, near Highway 96, “in which an individual had been shot in the head,” a spokesperson told the Outpost. The victim was flown out of the area for treatment.

The victim was just over a week away from his 18th birthday when he died. The Hoopa Valley Tribe identified him as a tribal member, and a public Facebook post from a family member identified him as Dylan Andrew Moon.

A GoFundme for Moon’s medical expenses had raised just under $5,000 as of Monday.

Both adult defendants are being held without bail, according to court records. Lincoln is represented by the Public Defender’s office, while Warren is being represented by Conflict Counsel.

The three codefendants were located in the days following the shooting that shuttered local schools and shocked the community.

Ruiz was found in a residence located off State Highway 169 near Wautec. Billy Warren was located at a hotel in the 1900 block of 4th St. in Eureka. Lincoln turned himself into deputies at the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office.

The preliminary examination for the adult codefendants is scheduled for April 28, with their next hearing in the case to be held tomorrow.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office urges anyone with information on this case to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip Line at (707) 268-2539. The Hoopa Valley Tribe has previously offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects.

PREVIOUSLY

• One Person Hospitalized With ‘Life-Threatening’ Injuries Following Yesterday’s Shooting in Hoopa; Suspect Remains At-Large, Says HCSO
• Hoopa Valley Tribe Offers $10K Reward for Information Leading to Arrest of Suspect in Tuesday’s Shooting; Emergency Community Meeting in Council Chambers Tonight
• 15-Year-Old Arrested in Connection With Hoopa Shooting, Sheriff’s Office Says; Two Other Teenage Suspects Still at Large
• Another Suspect in Monday’s Shooting in Hoopa Taken Into Custody
• Third Suspect in Hoopa Shooting Surrenders at the Sheriff’s Office
• The Victim in the Hoopa Shooting Has Died

UPDATE, 2:33 p.m.:

All clear.

Eureka City Schools administrators posted the following statement to social media this afternoon:

Dear EHS and ZOE Families,

Just after 1:00 PM today, both the Eureka High School and ZOE campuses were placed into lockdown after a threat was received. Out of an abundance of caution, administration and staff immediately implemented safety protocols while the situation was assessed. The lockdown was lifted at approximately 1:50 PM after law enforcement determined it was safe to do so, and normal learning activities resumed shortly thereafter. We would like to thank the Eureka Police Department (EPD) for their swift response and partnership in ensuring the safety of our learners and staff. As always, the safety of our learners remains our highest priority.

Thank you for your continued support.

Eureka City Schools

College of the Redwoods administrators also gave the all-clear.

CR campus was on lockdown this afternoon due to a threat to campus; we are now in the clear.

Thank you to campus security and local police for investigating swiftly.

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UPDATE, 2:07 p.m.:

The threat appears to lack credibility, at least at the two Eureka high schools, according to law enforcement.

“We are on scene [at EHS] investigating and can confirm no credible threat,” said Eureka Police Department spokesperson Rachel Sollom.

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Original post:

At least three local school campuses — Eureka High, Zoe Barnum High and CR’s main campus — have been placed on lockdown over concerns about a possible active shooter, though there has been no shooting, according to law enforcement officials. 

“There’s no school shooter,” Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Erin Inskip said. “Deputies are responding out to Tompkins Hill Road but there is no shooting. There was a threat that somebody was being bullied and that someone would start shooting but the threat hasn’t been confirmed. CR is on a lockdown. Deputies are responding.”

CR students are on spring break this week, but they received an alert on their phones: “CR main campus lockdown - threat of a school shooter. If on campus, stay inside. If off campus, avoid the area.”

Del Norte High School has also been placed on lockdown, Redwood Voice reports. Students are currently secured inside their classrooms while law enforcement investigate a threat that had been called into the school, Del Norte Unified School District spokesman Michael Hawkins told Redwood Voice.

This story is breaking. We’ll update as more information becomes available. 

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Humboldt County won Best Picture!

Or at least that’s how the audience at the Eureka Theater last night clearly felt about the big Oscar win for “One Battle After Another.”

Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterful action-comedy-thriller, big portions of which were filmed right here in Humboldt County, racked up dozens upon dozens of awards over the past few months, but this was the big one. 

In addition to Best Picture, Anderson took home Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (his first Oscars after receiving 11 prior nominations); Sean Penn won Best Supporting Actor (though he was not in attendance); Andy Jugensen won for Best Editing; and Cassandra Kulukundis won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Casting.

Here in Eureka, another Cassandra — Humboldt-Del Norte County Film Commissioner Cassandra Hesseltine — basked in the glow of victory alongside many of the other local folks who were involved with the production. The Red Carpet Gala at the Eureka Theater has become an annual tradition, but never before has Humboldt had this much skin in the game.

It wasn’t quite a clean sweep for “OBAA.” Leonardo DiCaprio lost the Best Actor race to Michael B. Jordan, who won for his twin roles in director Ryan Coogler’s blues-infused vampire film “Sinners,” while Benicio del Toro and Teyana Taylor lost their supporting actor/actress bids to Penn and Amy Madigan (“Weapons”), respectively.

But it was all about that Best Picture award, and the film’s crowning achievement appeared to inspire as much joy in Eureka as it did in Hollywood. 

Relive highlights from the production’s 11-day stint here in Humboldt via the links you’ll find below this gif of Leonardo DiCaprio running through Arcata.

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This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

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When a package arrives at your door, it has likely traveled through a chain of ports, railyards and warehouses throughout the state. All those ships, trains and trucks leave behind a trail of diesel exhaust as they go, driving some of the highest asthma rates in communities.

For decades, state and federal regulators have tried to clean that up. Now much of their authority is in doubt: the Trump administration revoked California’s authority to mandate electric vehicles and pulled back federal power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions — undermining California’s most effective tools.

A bill moving through the Legislature would try to fill that gap. Assembly bill 1777, authored by Democrat Robert Garcia, who represents parts of San Bernardino County, would give California air regulators authority to hold ports, warehouses and railyards accountable for the pollution they draw to nearby communities — using a regulatory tool called the indirect source rule.

The proposal “reflects this changing environment and aims to add more tools for California to combat the drastic rollback by the Trump administration’s desire to jeopardize Californians health and safety,” Garcia said in an email.

Indirect source rules essentially hold operational sites responsible for the pollution they attract, not the trucks and trains themselves. But the tool is controversial because state authority to use it isn’t clearly settled law. Even locally, where authority is more established, the indirect source rules have drawn litigation. And experts say these rules alone likely can’t make up for all the emissions reductions that California is losing out on.

Legal battles give the state pause

The ports, warehouses and railyards don’t own the trucks and trains that serve them. Why, business groups ask, should they be responsible for the pollution those vehicles leave behind?

For decades, they’ve been fighting that battle in court.

In 2005, the San Joaquin Valley Air District was the first to adopt an indirect source rule, requiring developers to reduce emissions from the construction of large industrial, commercial or residential buildings. The National Association of Home Builders sued, arguing the rule amounted to a vehicular emission standard, which is preempted by federal law.

In 2023, after the South Coast Air Quality Management District developed an indirect source rule for warehouses, the California Trucking Association sued the air district over the regulation, making similar arguments as the National Home Builders Association did two decades prior. In both cases, courts sided with air regulators.

Semi-trucks exit Yusen Terminals at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro on Feb. 11, 2025. Photo by Joel Angel Juarez for CalMatters.

The key legal distinction, courts have found, is that indirect source rules target facilities rather than vehicles. That makes them more like regulation of stationary sources — such as refineries — than vehicle emissions standards.

“Every court that’s ever seen a challenge to it has rejected the challenge,” said Brennon Mendez, an environmental law and policy fellow at the UCLA School of Law. “There’s been precedent that’s going to defend them against the challenges.”

Chris Shimoda, a lobbyist for the California Trucking Association, said the matter is far from settled.

“The Clean Air Act is pretty clear that mobile source emission standards are the exclusive providence of the federal EPA,” he said. “Just one court case that didn’t get beyond the district court is not a settled matter by any means.”

Shimoda also questioned whether the tool was ever necessary. “We’ve been extremely successful in reducing tailpipe emissions from what I call the traditional regulatory regime,” he said. “The need for indirect source review really has never been there, and it kind of laid dormant for many decades.”

State air board leaders, despite the favorable court record, have been cautious about moving forward without clearer legal authority — which is what Garcia’s proposal would provide.

Ahead of the air board’s report to the governor last year, former chair Liane Randolph said the board was weighing indirect source rules as just one piece of a broader response to federal rollbacks.

“There’s no one strategy that’s going to work,” she said. “It’s really going to need to be a suite of different things.”

A test case in Southern California

The South Coast Air Quality Management District’s warehouse indirect source rule — called the Warehouse Actions and Investments to Reduce Emissions, or WAIRE, program — offers an early look at how these rules work in practice.

Warehouses of 100,000 square feet or larger must earn points by taking actions to reduce pollution: doing business with companies that use electric trucks, installing charging infrastructure, or paying a fee that goes toward mitigating their pollution’s impact on nearby communities.

According to the South Coast air district, the results have been significant. Warehouses in the region have bought more than 1,400 zero-emission trucks and yard tractors. On average, warehouses are earning 3.5 times more points than they’re required to and mitigation fees account for just 5% of the total points earned. The fees collected total $56 million so far.

Business groups say the air district’s data doesn’t tell the whole story. Brooke Armour, executive vice president of the California Business Roundtable, said the data don’t capture how many warehouse developments were delayed or abandoned because of high operating costs. The warehouse rule, she said, is one cost layered on top of many.

“It’s not a cost in isolation; it’s a cost on top of an ever-cascading series of costs,” she said.

Independent data offer some context. Michael McCarthy, a researcher who tracks California warehouse trends, said the warehouse industry has been growing at about the same pace as the national economy over the last two decades.

“We’re currently in a warehouse construction slowdown, but it is because of broader national market forces,” he said, not necessarily regulatory forces. “Five million square feet of warehouses are currently under construction in the Inland Empire this quarter, and that is the slowest it has been” in more than a decade.

According to the South Coast air district, about 100 million square feet of warehouse space has been added to the Southern California region since the rule went into effect.

Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, warned that AB 1777 would give state regulators sweeping new economic authority.

“This bill represents essentially providing (the California Air Resources Board) and the other regulatory agencies with the greatest ability to control California’s economy of any of the bills that we have seen, especially since cap-and-trade.” he said.

Supporters of the bill say that framing ignores a different set of costs entirely.

“When families have to choose between buying their inhaler from their diesel‑induced asthma and putting food on their table, that’s a cost of living issue,” said Ada Waelder, a policy advocate with environmental group Earthjustice.

A step toward electrification

The stakes are significant. The California Air Resources Board projects that the loss of state programs, including its mandate to electrify cars and heavy duty trucks, will lead to 14,500 more deaths, 5,000 more hospitalizations and 6,700 more emergency room visits from respiratory and cardiovascular problems by 2037.

“The gap that exists in California’s clean air progress because of those federal actions is significant. It is deadly,” said Will Barrett with the American Lung Association.

Indirect source rules won’t close the gap on their own. But Sam Wilson, senior vehicles analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said such rules would help lay the groundwork for wide-scale electrification — and that other states are taking notice. In Illinois, a measure inspired by the South Coast WAIRE program, called the Warehouse Pollution Reduction Act, is making its way through the legislative process.

“One thing that the states can do while we’re in the current political landscape is to help to build those foundations for future freight electrification through indirect source rules.”

In California, Wilson added, “It is literally the worst time to throw our hands up and say we can’t do anything about it.”

Have a broken lamp that is too sentimental to toss? Is your favorite knife too dull? Is your laptop running slow? Come to the Repair Cafe! By fixing your items, instead of tossing them and buying new, you are not only saving money, you are saving carbon too. Do-gooder and cafe organizer Wendy Ring joins the show to discuss.

The next repair cafe is Sunday, March 15 from 10-2pm at the Adorni Center. Check out future repair dates on Facebook.

Are you a fixer and want to help at a future cafe? Click here! 

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The Humboldt Standard claimed the Hollywood press described her as “the screen’s most beautiful blonde.” The Standard, in the Monday, February 17, 1930 issue, went on to report:

Gladys Laverty, former Eureka girl who is known to the screen world as Jean Bary, has a prominent role in The Cock-Eyed World, which began a five-day showing at the Rialto Theater this afternoon … she portrays Fanny, the Coney Island girl over which Sergeants Flagg and Quirt have one of their many quarrels. For several years, Miss Laverty played small roles in several productions. Recently, she was signed by the Fox Film Corporation and now seems to be climbing to the top in the film world. At the present time, she is working in “Bright Lights” and “Lilies of the Field.” She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry J. Laverty of this city and is a graduate of Eureka High.

For several days, during the run of “The Cock-Eyed World” at the Rialto, the Standard published eye-popping photographs of Gladys, along with articles detailing her exotic adventures (such as her trip to Hawaii to appear in a Harold Lloyd production), and advertisements shouting “Eureka Girl Makes Hit,” and “Eureka’s Own Star, Gladys Laverty.”

“Miss Laverty has an excellent talkie voice and her performance in ‘The Cock-Eyed World’ will doubtless bring her more prominent roles in future Fox productions,” gushed the February 18, 1930 issue of the Standard.

Gladys Laverty was born in Blue Lake on April 3, 1904, the granddaughter of Blue Lake pioneers Francis (Francois) and Helene Douarin, who had moved to Humboldt from Brittany, France, in 1856.

Gladys’s father, Henry James Laverty, born in New Brunswick, Canada, was the son of an Irish immigrant who moved his family to Arcata when Henry was very young. The Laverty family were mainly woodworkers, but Henry instead learned the trade of barbering. In 1892, he moved from Arcata to Blue Lake, opened a barbershop, and met and married (in 1897) Francois and Helene Douarin’s daughter, Helen. Until 1912, Henry and Helen Laverty lived in Blue Lake with their children, Gladys, Henry (born in 1906 and died May 4, 1989 at the age of 83), Clyde, and Margaret (Peg Billings). Peg was born on December 11, 1911, six days after her father’s barbershop was destroyed in the disastrous downtown Blue Lake fire. (The Ferndale Enterprise reported that although Laverty didn’t own the burned building, he was uninsured for the $200 loss of his equipment and supplies). After a year at a new Blue Lake location, Henry moved his family to a house on Hillsdale Street in Eureka, where he had rented the new barber shop in the Hotel Barnum on 2nd Street, which he operated until he was over 80.

Blue Lake was the lasting influence on Gladys, however, partly due to the nature of the community (a story in the Blue Lake Advocate published at the turn of the nineteenth century said, “Blue Lake is second to none in the county for dancing events, good music, good supper, and a good time”).

And Gladys was certainly guided by talented family members. Her aunt, Ida Douarin Harvey, played and taught piano in Blue Lake. According to Gladys’s niece, Loreen Laverty Eliason, Ida learned her lively style of piano playing by sneaking outside and sitting on the curb to listen to the piano music in the saloons. Ida was also a frequent performer in plays produced by the Wha-Nika club, of which she was a member.

Gladys’s older cousin, Helen Smith St. Louis, who was also born in Blue Lake, taught in local schools where she produced graduation plays, programs, and musicals “(for which she will be long remembered by her students,” according to her March 2, 1961 obituary in the Blue Lake Advocate.

By the time Gladys was eight years old, she, too, was in the Advocate. The April 20, 1912 issue reports that she sang at a program of the Woodmen of the World, and the June 8, 1912 issue tells about her performance at an eighth grade graduation: “Gladys Laverty … sang a couple of sweet songs in her childish voice which pleased everyone.” On October 26, 1912, Gladys was also tapped to sing “I’m the Guy” between acts of a play in which her Aunt Ida acted, put on by the Wha-Nika Club.

Gladys attended Blue Lake and Eureka schools, at some point sharing the same class year (1922) as her younger brother, Henry “Hank” Laverty. (Her other brother, Clyde, died as a youth.) Interestingly, at Eureka High School, it was Hank, and not Gladys, who was the performer. Editions of the yearbook, Sequoia, picture Hank in several productions that appeared as soon as public gatherings were declared safe from the influenza epidemic.

Of Gladys’s high school career, we know little, except that perhaps she was seen as a dizzy blonde, as this exchange in the 1919 Sequoia would indicate: “After explaining for the third time a problem to G. Laverty, Miss Fitzell said — Well, Gladys, is that clear now? Yes, it’s clear enough, said Gladys, only I don’t understand it.” (Miss Fitzell taught French, mathematics, and English.)

Gladys is mentioned again in a fictionalized review of the year’s events in the 1920 Sequoia. ‘Oh yes, the girls!,’ repeated President Rew dreamily, ‘and don’t you remember the next reception given the Freshmen—how the girls danced so artistically the Spanish dance?’ ‘How well I remember,’ meditated Mr. Laverty, ‘it was the Spanish Draw which inspired my sister to become the leading lady in the Ziegfeld Follies.’”

The 1922 Sequoia tells us that Gladys was a member of glee club (1, 2, 4), and track (4). She cannot be identified in the photographs and although the ‘22 yearbook lists her as a candidate for June graduation, there is no senior photo. While the Ziegfeld Follies was a literary conceit, Hank’s riposte wasn’t far from the mark.

Expressly forbidden by her father, Gladys nonetheless left Eureka for Hollywood — either before or shortly after her graduation — with a troupe of actors who had been performing in the county. (Traveling troupes, with such colorful names as “Follies and the Honey Maids,” often played at Loew’s State Theatre.)

According to Eliason, Gladys went with the troupe to San Francisco where she performed “for a short while.” The “short while,” we believe, was perhaps as long as three or four years. At this point, the chronology is confused. Although one online film site (IMDb.com) dates her first film from 1921, all evidence places her in Eureka in 1921. Further, her movie career appears to have begun in 1927, and we find it unlikely that considering her good looks and her youth, she would have had a six-year hiatus between films. Therefore, we are assuming the website dates of 1921 for her first two silents are incorrect, possibly distortions of a “7” for a “1;” we are dating her film career from 1927-1936. [Ed. note from 2026: IMDb seems to have since cleaned up its chronology, casting the above reasoning into some doubt.]

At some point between Eureka and Hollywood, she decided that Gladys was too old-fashioned for a performer and changed her name to Jean. In the confusion of her filmography, her first films are credited to Jean “Lefferty,” and the constant variety of misspellings of “Laverty” in the newspapers annoyed Gladys to the point of changing her name.

Gladys had already had another bit of good luck. While her first film, “What Happened to Father?” (1927), was a silent film and she played in several silents thereafter, she easily made the transition to talkies and was said to have a “great” talking voice.

A Jean Laverty scene in “The Cock-Eyed World.”

During her nine-year career, Gladys was in at least twenty-five movies, including a Mack Sennett silent film (“The Good-bye Kiss,” 1928). She acted with such stars as Theda Bara, Clara Bow, Bela Lugosi, Cesar Romero, Flobelle Fairbanks, William Demarest, Corinne Griffith, Carole Lombard, and Jean Harlow. In “Fugitives,” (1929), Gladys had a substantial supporting role, while Jean Harlow had only a bit part. Loreen Eliason remembers that Gladys loved to tell the story of Jean Harlow’s ermine toilet seats, an implication that she was close friends with Harlow. Given that Gladys knew Harlow before Harlow became a star, this is likely true.

Less likely is another family legend that claims Gladys was responsible for Carole Lombard and Clark Gable meeting and falling in love. In reviewing Gladys” filmography, we found one movie. “His Unlucky Night” (1928) that Gladys (uncredited) shared with Carole Lombard. Gladys was in no movie with Gable. Nevertheless, who’s to know what happened off the set? There was a busy Hollywood night life in those days of flappers and prohibition, and Gladys was a looker. In a review of “Domestic Trouble” (1928), another unidentified clipping (Gladys regularly sent clippings and photographs to her mother, Helen, who saved them, but alas, didn’t annotate them) says: “Miss Laverty … was impressive enough to send sections of the house into heavy sighs every time she moved.”

Loreen Eliason and Aleezz Laiclen say that Gladys gave up her career when she fell in love and married William Muir. We do not know how, where, or even when Gladys met her husband, but we do know that by 1936, when Gladys was making the last of her films, she was 31, an “old maid” by the vernacular of the culture at that time, and. in her last three films, she was listed as “uncredited barmaid,” “uncredited Viole.” and “uncredited chorus girl.” A career based heavily on beauty was fading with her youth.

Bill Muir was a slot machine mechanic for the Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas. Bill and Gladys, who had no children, lived in Las Vegas until Bill retired and they moved to Pismo Beach. There, on September 28, 1973, Gladys died of throat cancer, the sad result of having been a lifelong heavy smoker. Gladys Laverty/Jean Lefferty/Laverty/Bary is buried at Los Osos Memorial Park in San Luis Obispo County under the sole name of Gladys Muir.

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