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PREVIOUSLY: Local Residents Seek Details About How Eureka Police Will Respond if ICE Agents Show Up Here

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Letter to the community from Eureka Police Chief Brian Stephens:

Eureka Residents, Community Members, and Local Businesses,

As your Police Chief, I have always believed that this role is not one of political motivation, nor is there room for political grandstanding. My responsibility, and the reason I sought and accepted this position, is to provide the highest level of service to everyone who calls Eureka home, as well as those who visit to enjoy all that our city has to offer.

My role is to protect both our community and the members of the Eureka Police Department. EPD responds to all calls for service and requests for assistance. When we arrive, we assess each situation carefully and act in accordance with the law. This work includes keeping the peace, investigating crimes, preparing reports, and submitting those reports to the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office for review and potential prosecution.

With respect to immigration enforcement, it is important for our community to understand EPD’s role. The Eureka Police Department does not enforce civil immigration laws. We do not ask about a person’s immigration status during contacts or enforcement actions, do not participate in immigration detainers or holds, and do not transfer individuals in our custody to immigration authorities unless required by a judicial warrant or judicial probable cause determination. EPD does not collaborate with or share immigration-related information with federal immigration authorities unless required by state or federal law, nor do we assist federal agencies with immigration enforcement activities. Our actions are guided by California law, including SB 54- the California Values Act, EPD Policy 428 (Immigration Violations), and the City of Eureka’s Sanctuary City resolution. In March of 2024, all EPD personnel received training on these laws and policies and formally acknowledged their understanding and responsibility to follow them. This is ongoing training that will occur annually.

As a veteran of the United States Army, having served to protect our country and the rights we all enjoy, I strongly believe in the First Amendment. I fully support community members who choose to express themselves through peaceful protests and gatherings. For more than a year, EPD has been present at nearly all such events, monitoring, engaging, and ensuring a safe environment for everyone involved. We do not take sides on the issues being expressed. Our role is to ensure that all individuals have equal and safe opportunities to peacefully exercise their rights.

That said, EPD does not support violence, vandalism, rioting, or any criminal or reckless behavior that places community members or officers at risk. We are grateful for the positive engagement we have experienced at recent events and for the overwhelmingly peaceful manner in which community voices have been shared. These gatherings demonstrate that it is possible to stand together, speak out, and be heard without resorting to actions that cause harm or division.

I encourage our community to continue setting this example, showing that you can have a voice, stand in solidarity, and advocate for change while keeping one another safe.

Transparency and accountability are essential to maintaining public trust. The Eureka Police Department operates within clearly defined legal boundaries, and our authority is guided by state law, department policy, and the Constitution. We will continue to follow California law as written, including those laws that define and limit our role in immigration enforcement, regardless of external pressure or public debate.

Our primary responsibility, always, is public safety. That means protecting life, preserving peace, and responding to calls for service without bias, favoritism, or consideration of political viewpoints. We do not choose sides, and we do not make decisions based on ideology. We act based on the law, the facts before us, and our duty to this community.

It is also important to be clear about the limits of our authority. The Eureka Police Department cannot and will not act outside the scope of our legal responsibilities. When matters fall beyond our jurisdiction or authority, we defer to the appropriate legal processes and agencies, as required by law.

EPD remains committed to serving all members of our community with professionalism, respect, and fairness. Our focus will remain on lawful policing, community safety, and maintaining the trust placed in us by those we serve. We will continue to listen, engage, and act with transparency, guided not by politics, but by the law and our obligation to the people of Eureka.

Godspeed,

Brian Stephens

Language Access: To ensure broad access, this letter is available in Spanish and Hmong on the City of Eureka website.

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Almost time to pull out your bibs, cover your table with absorbent newsprint and melt a stick of garlic butter: Dungeness crab will soon return to markets and docks near you.

This morning, the Humboldt Fishermen’s Marketing Association, which represents local, independent boat captains, agreed to a negotiated price of $4.75 per pound for the succulent crustaceans, association President Harrison Ibach told the Outpost on Friday. 

“We finally got some resolution here,” Ibach said. 

Following months of uncertainty, the opening of the local commercial crabbing season was delayed due to elevated levels of domoic acid. (The rest of the state got the green light earlier this month.) A week ago, the California Department of Fish & Wildlife announced that the North Coast season could finally open today, Jan. 30, preceded by a 64-hour gear setting period starting Tuesday morning. 

However, Ibach said local crabbers “weren’t entirely pleased” with the price being offered by Pacific Choice Seafood, which negotiates on behalf of itself and other major seafood buyers/processors.

These annual negotiations — which typically establish the price along the West Coast from San Francisco to Washington state — sometimes result in strikes. This year, the haggling only postponed the season opener by a few days.

“Right before it was time to set the gear, we decided [to keep negotiating} since we knew we were the last opener,” Ibach said. “We were hoping to achieve a slightly higher price — closer to last year’s.”

They didn’t quite get there. Last year’s mark for Dungeness was $5.75 per pound. The initial offer this year was $4.50, and the marketing association convinced buyers to increase that by a quarter per pound — “enough to inspire a start in hopes of it going up shortly after starting,” Ibach said.

There are currently about 18 crabbing vessels in Crescent City, plus plenty more in Eureka and Trinidad Harbor, along with some out-of-state boats waiting to participate in the last section of coast to open. 

“We’re gonna set gear tomorrow at 7 a.m.,” Ibach said. “Even though the season technically opened already, we have a gentlemen’s agreement to start running the gear Sunday night.”

That means crabs will probably start being hauled ashore on Monday and available dockside and in local markets by Monday or Tuesday.

Ibach said everyone’s relieved that the domoic acid levels are no longer a health concern and that the coast is clear of whales, another factor that can cause delays. 

“These guys are very excited to get to work and start selling some product,” he said.

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CORRECTION: This story initially understated the number of crabbing vessels awaiting the season’s opening in North Coast ports.

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PREVIOUSLY

• Humboldt’s Crabbing Fleet Faces New Regulations, Decreased Funding and the Rise of Whale-Safe Pop-Up Gear
• ‘Unhealthy Levels’ of Domoic Acid Delay Start of Recreational Dungeness Crab Season in Northern California; Commercial Season Slated to Begin ‘Around the New Year’
• Commercial Crabbing Can’t Start Locally Until at Least Jan. 15, Says California Department of Fish and Wildlife
• Recreational Dungeness Crab Fishing Now Open to Entire Humboldt Coast; Commercial Season Set to Open Jan. 15, Pending Domoic Acid Test Results
• CRAB ON! Humboldt’s Commercial Crab Fishery is Finally Set to Open Next Week

Forty people were crammed into the Arcata House Partnership’s annex before the sun’s first light. A mulleted 20-something navigated around a few others in the kitchen, whipping up mounds of eggs. A sign on the wall read:

“Age with mischief, audacity, and a good story to tell.”

A few people chatted about how glad they were it wasn’t raining this morning like it did the last time. Everyone seemed to know someone else there. The conversation was light, but all of these people were there for an important task.

The Arcata House Partnership’s (AHP) executive director, Darlene Spoor, stepped in front of the group and spoke. We’re there this early, she said, to avoid scaring people. It’ll also make them easier to find. She had asked the Arcata Police Department not to ticket anyone for vagrancy until noon.

All around the county that day, Jan. 23, another 60 people were preparing to do the same thing we were doing: go and get a headcount of all the homeless people we see. The Point-In-Time Count is important to AHP, because it determines where the federal government allocates funding. The more homeless people an organization serves, the more funding it receives. The survey is nationwide. Volunteers count unsheltered people every other year and people living in shelters annually during the last week of January.

AHP’s procedure this year was a little different. Previously, volunteers also asked the homeless people they encountered questions some of them considered too invasive to answer, like where they slept last night, questions about their gender identity, if they did drugs or struggled with their mental health. Volunteers were directed to not ask those questions this year. “We have to be kind out there,” Spoor reminded us. “We wanted to be a little kinder, a little gentler this year.”

“It’s not getting better,” Spoor went on, referring to the increasing number of homeless people on the street. “…The need continues. More people are living on the edge. More people can’t afford groceries or rent.”

Volunteers passed out maps showing which areas each small group of volunteers was to cover, as well as goody bags with toiletries and food. My group was assigned to cover the Arcata Marsh, and we assumed we would find quite a few people there. 

The other two people on my team both declined to share their identities. Both had volunteered for the PIT count several times before, because, they said, it was simply the right thing to do. 

We stepped outside. There was now a little light in the sky. We went to the marsh and started walking around, slipping down wet deer trails and finding…no one. There were no unhoused people in the entire marsh. We searched for about an hour, combing along every trail, poking around every bush. We found a few paths leading to small clearings and a couple piles of clothing and junk, but there were no people. We asked people out on a walk if they’d seen anyone; all of them said they hadn’t. One guy said he used to see a homeless man on the same bench every morning on his walk, but hadn’t seen him for several months. 

Everyone was surprised. On South G Street, we found a pickup truck with a camper hooked up to a propane tank on the ground. Vehicles that look like someone’s living in them count for the survey, so we logged that one. We continued our search, but there were no other cars on the street. 

Eventually, we found one man who said he was homeless and we talked to him about him and his situation. The specifics are confidential, but he said he was making do as best he could. 

We finished talking after a few minutes. “It’s almost February!” he said, walking away. “Only two more months ‘til spring!”

We returned to the AHP annex. Spoor said a few other groups had returned and said that they also only saw one or two unhoused people. She was scared her funding could get slashed. 

“It will kill us,” she said. “I don’t know what other word to use.”

Preliminary data from Humboldt County’s Department of Health and Human Services suggests that there are 1,011 unhoused, unsheltered people countywide including people living in shelters, although that could rise or fall a little bit as more data is calculated. [CORRECTION: DHHS reached out to clarify that the 1,011 figure only included unhoused people living outside of shelters.]

The last PIT count two years ago counted 1,573 unhoused people countywide, including those living in shelters. During a follow-up phone call with her this week, she said that most of the volunteers had come back and shared they’d only seen a few homeless people, though there were a couple groups that counted around 20. She said she’d never seen a count before that had returned so few results.

Spoor was less nervous than she had been last week, a little more fatalistic after considering how the whims of the Trump administration had played with AHP’s funding just a few months ago. She couldn’t guess at how the low numbers would affect AHP’s funding. Spoor didn’t think the numbers were accurate; AHP serves more people than they counted, Spoor said. Increasingly, many of the people they serve are elderly people and parents with children. It angered Spoor when an 82-year-old woman had to ask for AHP’s help recently; she had never been homeless before and couldn’t afford to keep up with her rent. 

“We have to keep the faith,” Spoor told the Outpost last week. No matter the funding situation, “We’ll provide the best service we can and serve the community the best way we can. I’ve been here since 1991; we’ll still be here.”

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Jan. 29, 2026, at approximately 3:00 p.m., the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Communications Center received a report of a possible burglary in progress at an apartment located on Alpha St. in Eureka.

While deputies were en route they were advised a witness observed a male subject remove a window screen and enter the apartment.  Once on scene deputies located a screen on the ground and could hear a person inside.  Verbal Commands were issued for the subject to exit the apartment but there was no response.

Additional units were requested to respond to the scene and a perimeter was set up around the apartment.  The apartment manager responded to the scene and provided deputies with a key to the residence. Upon opening the front door, deputies heard the subject talking and observed that a refrigerator had been moved and was partially blocking the entryway. Once inside deputies issued additional verbal commands for the subject to exit the apartment, but there was no response.  

Deputies with the assistance of their K9’s searched the apartment and located the suspect, identified as, 33-year-old Michael Anthony Offutt inside and took him into custody without incident.  

Offutt was transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility and booked for:

• PC 459- Burglary.

Offutt is currently on probation in Humboldt County for arson.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the Eureka Police Department and the California Highway Patrol for their assistance with this case.

Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.

PREVIOUSLY

• One Killed in Traffic Collision North of Laytonville Yesterday Night

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Print copies of newspapers such as the Times-Standard, San Francisco Chronicle, Press Democrat and New York Times have been unavailable at many local convenience stores and missing from racks this week due to the sudden death of the man who distributed most of those issues to Humboldt County for years. 

Rodney Strong, the 66-year-old Eureka resident who owned and operated R&M Distributors, was killed Monday night in a traffic collision north of Laytonville, the California Highway Patrol confirmed on Thursday.

Eureka resident Janice Lee subscribes to both the Chronicle and the New York Times (only the Sunday editions in print for the latter). Earlier this week she received an email from the New York Times informing her that the company was attempting to secure a new distributor to her home address “due to unforeseen circumstances.”

In the meantime, the email said, copies of the paper will be sent via the U.S. Postal Service starting Monday.

“This does mean that papers will arrive up to 3 days after the publication date however,” the notification continued. “If you would prefer to suspend deliveries given this information, please reply back to this email and I or another agent will make the necessary adjustments.”

Lee also hasn’t received her usual Chronicle delivery since Monday and began to wonder why when she didn’t hear directly from Strong.

“He’s really nice, and usually [when there’s a delivery issue] he’ll let us know with a voicemail, but for the last three days it’s been nothing,” Lee told the Outpost in a phone interview on Thursday. She said she and her husband found out what happened after trying to buy a copy of the Chronicle at Harris and K Market.

“Yeah, we can’t get ‘em,” an employee of the market said when reached by phone yesterday. The market has not received any copies of the Times-Standard, the Chronicle or the New York Times this week, she added. (The employee declined to give her name.) 

“We don’t know when we’ll get them back,” she said. 

If you’re among the many people who’ve switched to reading the news entirely online, you might wonder how many copies of printed newspapers still get sold. 

“Quite a few,” the Harris and K employee said.

On Wednesday evening, the Times-Standard notified readers on social media that until this upcoming Sunday, copies of the paper will be unavailable on racks in Arcata, McKinleyville and Blue Lake. Racks in Rio Dell, Ferndale and Fortuna are not affected, and copies will be available at half a dozen locations across Eureka, Humboldt Hill and Fortuna. 

Times-Standard Publisher John Richmond confirmed via email that home delivery to subscribers remains unaffected, and he expects distribution to be back to normal by Sunday. [Disclosure: Richmond worked at the Outpost’s parent company, Lost Coast Communications, Inc, from 2015-2019, first as general manager and later as CEO.]

On Wednesday, an anonymous Reddit user notified locals on the Humboldt subreddit about Strong’s death, writing, “It is uncertain what will become of his newspaper business or his store at the mall.” Neither that poster nor anyone else the Outpost has managed to reach for this story had any information about whether and when local distribution will resume for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle and USA Today.

An email sent Thursday to the publisher of the Chronicle had received no reply by the time this story was published.

Are you a subscriber to any of these periodicals? Have you received any information about their future availability here in Humboldt County? If so, let us and our readers know in the comments below or email us at news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

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Press release from Cal Poly Humboldt:

Cal Poly Humboldt faculty and students are partnering with local organizations to conduct a comprehensive Economic Development Study designed to help guide McKinleyville’s future growth and community well-being. The interdisciplinary project brings together students and faculty from Business, Recreation Administration, Economics, Psychology, Environmental Resources Engineering, and Geography. Together, the team is examining economic conditions, infrastructure, community amenities, and quality-of-life factors to better understand opportunities and challenges facing McKinleyville, one of the fastest-growing communities on the North Coast.

A central component of the study is a community-wide survey and focus group sessions, and McKinleyville residents are encouraged to participate.

“This project represents a unique opportunity for McKinleyville residents to directly shape the future of their community,” said Josh Zender, the project lead and professor in the School of Business at Cal Poly Humboldt. “By working across disciplines and in close partnership with local organizations, we’re able to bring together community voices and applied research in a way that can meaningfully inform economic development efforts.”

The study’s goal is to provide data-driven insights that can support informed decision-making and long-term planning, while centering the voices and priorities of local residents. Researchers will combine community survey responses and focus group data with economic, social, and spatial analysis to develop findings and recommendations that reflect McKinleyville’s unique character and needs.

The project is being conducted in collaboration with the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee, the McKinleyville Community Services District, and the McKinleyville Chamber of Commerce. These partnerships help ensure the research is grounded in local concerns and that results can be used to support future community initiatives.

Results from the community-wide survey and study findings will be shared with community partners in the form of a five-year economic strategic plan. All recommendations arising from the study will be reviewed and formally approved by the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee once the project is complete in the Fall 2026 term. Cal Poly Humboldt researchers emphasize that broad participation will help ensure the study reflects the diverse experiences, needs, and aspirations of McKinleyville residents.

The survey is available online at: https://tinyurl.com/McK-survey

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

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When it comes to impaired driving and the state’s open container law, a rolled and ready joint is more like a can of beer in giving police cause to search a car than a few crumbs of marijuana, according to the California Supreme Court.

The court’s reasoning: You can smoke a joint and drink a beer, but loose marijuana isn’t readily consumable.

In a ruling handed down Thursday, the high court ruled that police must find marijuana in a condition that’s ready to be smoked if they are going to charge a driver with an open container violation.

“We hold that at a minimum, to constitute a violation of (the open container law), marijuana in a vehicle must be of a usable quantity, in imminently usable condition, and readily accessible to an occupant,” wrote Associate Justice Goodwin Liu in a unanimous opinion.

Loose marijuana found on a car’s floorboards is like spilled beer, the court ruled. “In assessing whether the marijuana is imminently usable or readily accessible, courts should consider whether the marijuana could be consumed with minimal effort by an occupant of the vehicle,” the court found.

The ruling reversed a magistrate judge, trial court and the California Court of Appeal, which had all agreed that the loose marijuana constituted an open container violation and gave police cause to search a vehicle.

Recreational marijuana has been legal in California since 2016 when voters passed an initiative allowing it. It remains illegal under federal law.

The case at issue was out of Sacramento, where police officers stopped a car and searched it, finding 0.36 grams of marijuana crumbs on the floorboards of the backseat, along with a tray on which to roll joints. The driver hadn’t been driving erratically, her registration and license were unblemished and she had no warrants out.

“No officer suggested he was concerned that (the driver and passenger) could have somehow, while riding in the front of the car, collected the scattered bits of marijuana from the rear floor behind (the passenger) for imminent consumption,” the court ruled. “Nor was there evidence of paraphernalia, such as matches, lighters, rolling papers, blunts, or vaporizers, that could facilitate the marijuana’s consumption.”

The Supreme Court also found that the officers did not have probable cause to search the car in the first place. The police had argued that the driver’s nervousness and possession of a rolling tray was sufficient to search the car, an argument the court rejected.