From the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Feb. 19, at 7:42 a.m., Humboldt County Sheriff deputies, assisted by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Problem Oriented Policing (POP) Team served a search warrant at a residence located in the 2300 block of Lee Ln. in Eureka.  

The warrant was the result of an ongoing investigation into the use and possession of narcotics, and suspected child endangerment involving 49-year-old suspect Gilbert Modesto Barff.

Upon service of the warrant, deputies contacted Barff inside the residence, where his 10-year-old son also resides.  Barff was found to be in possession of fentanyl and drug paraphernalia.  A subsequent search of the residence yielded additional items consistent with the possession and use of narcotics, ammunition, and numerous items containing fentanyl residue located with reach of the child.

Gilbert, who is a convicted felon, was arrested and transported the Humboldt County Correctional Facility where he was booked on the following charges:

• HS 11366: Keep place to sell/etc. narcotic/controlled substance
• PC 273a(a): Child abuse w/possible great bodily injury/death
• PC 30305(a)(1): Prohibited person own/possess/ammunition

Humboldt County Child Welfare Services was notified, and the child was released into the care of his mother.

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.

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

###

The state’s primary utility regulator is under new management. Gov. Gavin Newsom promoted commissioner John Reynolds to president of the California Public Utilities Commission this week as part of a “new phase” of Newsom’s effort to address sky-high power bills.

John Reynolds. Photo: CPUC.

Former president Alice Reynolds will be reassigned later this month to a board of governors position at the California Independent Systems Operator. The two Reynolds are not related.

“The appointment underscores a renewed focus on cutting costs and improving performance as extreme heat, wildfire risk and upgrades to the electric grid drive new demands on the system,” Newsom’s office said in a press release.

Reynolds’ focus in this position, the release said, will include lowering utility bills through oversight, making sure money spent on infrastructure does not run aground of affordability and ensuring “utilities deliver results for ratepayers–without slowing California’s clean energy progress.”

California has a mandated goal of reaching 100% carbon-free energy by 2045. At the same time, state residents pay the second-highest electric rates in the U.S. after Hawaii, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration

Reynolds was appointed by Newsom to the utility commission first in 2021 and again in 2022. Before that, he served as managing counsel for autonomous vehicle company Cruise. Reynolds faced criticism in 2023 for his time at Cruise, when safety incidents led the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to call for his resignation and regulators to revoke Cruise’s autonomous vehicle permits. The commission oversees aspects of autonomous vehicle regulation in California.

Outgoing president Reynolds was appointed the commission’s top position in late 2021 after three years as Newsom’s senior energy advisor. Newsom called her “one of my most trusted advisors on energy policy” in his release.

Newsom also this week appointed Christine Harada to the board to fill the open commissioner seat. Harada was most recently the undersecretary of the California Government Operations Agency, and served as a senior advisor in former president Joe Biden’s Office of Management and Budget.

###

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

###

For every aspect of a student’s life, there’s a tech company trying to digitize it. Inside the classroom, online tools proctor exams, create flashcards and submit assignments. Outside, technology coordinates school sports, helps bus drivers find the right route and maintains students’ health records.

California has a number of laws aimed at protecting children’s data privacy, but those laws have exceptions that allow many tech companies to continue packaging and selling students’ personal information.

This year, Assemblymember Dawn Addis, a San Luis Obispo Democrat, is carrying a high-profile state bill that would add new protections for students. She says it’s important, especially as the Trump admin is trying to collect data about California residents’ immigration status, gender identity, and their use of certain public benefits.

Historically, California has been a leader in data privacy. In 2014, California passed a landmark student privacy law that prohibited technology companies from selling students’ data, targeting students in advertising, or disclosing their personal information. Then in 2018, the state passed another unprecedented bill that required all companies give California users certain privacy rights, such as a chance to opt out of data collection and delete some of their information.

But as technology evolved and proliferated, privacy laws repeatedly fell short in protecting California’s students — at the same time that the federal government has tried to collect increasing amounts of personal information, Addis said.

Her bill would restrict how AI companies use student data and create new data protections for college students. Some of Sacramento’s most powerful players are paying close attention to the measure, including the California Labor Federation, which supports the bill, and the California Chamber of Commerce, which opposes it. Combined, these two groups spent nearly $8 million on campaign donations to state legislators or other political activities in 2024, according to the CalMatters Digital Democracy database. TechNet, a trade association that represents many of the most powerful tech companies, also opposes the bill.

The proposal, Assembly Bill 1159, would close certain loopholes in the state’s 2014 education privacy law, but experts say it may not be enough to prevent companies from selling students’ data.

A privacy expert struggles to keep her information private

Jen King is a privacy and data policy fellow at Stanford’s institute for AI, where she studies the tricks that companies use to gather users’ data and prevent them from opting out, sometimes known as “dark patterns.” In her personal life, she’s vigilant about avoiding online data tracking and maintains a landline in her Bay Area home to avoid giving out her cell phone number.

King doesn’t want her children’s information available online or for any company to sell, though sometimes it happens before she can stop it.

In the fall, King got an email about a platform called TeamSnap, which her 12-year-old son’s cross country coaches were using to manage the team’s roster. The company wanted her information, including her name, date of birth, gender, email address, and phone number. Once she logged in to the platform, she could see some of her son’s information, such as his name, email, and date of birth, were already listed. Photos and personal information from all of her son’s teammates were also available for her to see.

“I was super irritated,” she said. “You don’t need my birth date — I’m a freaking parent.” She acknowledged some personal information could be useful for a coach but said that other questions seem designed to help the platform sell information to data brokers and ultimately, to advertisers.

Her 17-year-old son’s data is also on TeamSnap, she later learned, because his robotics team uses it. This month, when King tried to show CalMatters her TeamSnap account, a pop-up appeared, asking her if the company could track her activity across other apps and websites.

Federal law requires companies to get parental consent before knowingly collecting or selling data from children 12 and under, but once a child turns 13, their data is generally treated much like an adult’s information, especially when that child is interacting with tech platforms outside of school. TeamSnap’s privacy policy says it doesn’t knowingly collect personal information about users under 13 “without express parental consent,” though it says in some cases a team or organization may provide information on behalf of the child.

The policy also says that TeamSnap has “not sold the personal information of any consumer for monetary consideration” in the last 12 months, but that its “use of cookies and other tracking technologies may be considered a sale of personal information under the CCPA (California privacy law).” Information sold to advertisers and marketers included users’ names, contact information, purchase history and geolocation, the policy says.

California privacy law specifically requires certain large for-profit companies to get consent to collect data from anyone under 16. Often, consent happens when a user first opens a website and a pop-up appears, asking if the website can sell your data or track your cookies.

If a teacher, coach, or other authority figure tells a student that they have to use a website or an app, then the student cannot realistically opt out, King said. They may be too young to understand how to opt out, she added. “Most 15-, 16-year-olds don’t have any idea what this is about.”

Even older college students may have little agency in the technology they use, especially if it’s required for class or residential life. At Stanford, for example, King said her undergraduate students are often required to create Facebook accounts for student groups.

The same is true for parents. King said she reluctantly gave TeamSnap her personal information, including her name, email, date of birth, and the landline number for her home, because it was the only way to get updates about her son’s team.

How companies get around California’s education privacy laws

In 2014, California became the first state in the country to regulate education technology companies directly, but being first comes with its drawbacks. “We didn’t have examples of what best practice was,” said Amelia Vance, the president of the Public Interest Privacy Center, a nonprofit organization. The law only applies to products that “primarily” serve K-12 schools and that are designed and marketed for students.

Many tech companies argue that their products aren’t primarily intended for students or at least that they were not designed or marketed that way. The language-learning app DuoLingo, for example, has a version for schools, but the app is also popular for adults. Apps or technologies serving extracurricular programs or sports teams can claim they weren’t designed and marketed for the classroom, or that their use isn’t mandatory, said Vance. “You have this sort of black hole where there haven’t been protections.”

Addis’ bill expands the number of education technology companies that fall under the state’s student privacy laws, but the language is murky when it comes to apps or online services used outside of class.

In the case of TeamSnap, Addis’ communications director Alexis Garcia-Arrazola said the company would “most likely” fall under the scope of the bill if its technology is marketed to schools, if schools direct students to use it, and if the sports team is sponsored by the school.

Public records show that Piedmont Unified School District in Alameda County, Tamalpais Union High School District in Marin County, and Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District all purchased versions of TeamSnap, but only the Santa Monica Malibu district responded to CalMatters questions about any privacy restriction imposed on the company. Brandyi Phillips, the chief communications officer for the Santa Monica Malibu schools, said the district has an annual subscription with TeamSnap, which is only available to sports staff and parents. She said there’s an agreement with the company “to protect District information and to prevent unauthorized access” but did not clarify if that agreement prevents the district from selling students’ information.

Berkeley Unified School District, where King’s children attend school, did not respond to CalMatters’ questions about any contracts, purchase orders or agreements with TeamSnap.

Locally, school districts and colleges have the power to negotiate the privacy terms of any contract they make with a technology company, but many websites and apps offer free versions that a teacher or coach might recommend without getting formal approval from their district.

Last year, the California State University system signed a nearly $17 million contract with Open AI, the company that operates ChatGPT, including an agreement that the company will not train its models on student data. Advocates for Addis’ bill say the same privacy restrictions should apply to any AI company with access to California student data, regardless of whether the company has an agreement with the student’s school district or college.

Are privacy laws getting stricter or looser?

Addis’ bill comes as privacy laws in California and across the country are in flux. In 2020, California voters approved a proposition to create a new state agency to enforce data privacy rules and regulate the businesses that collect data. Advocates for the proposition contributed over $6.7 million to the campaign, compared to just over $50,000 contributed by the opposition, according to state data. The state agency that the proposition formed, now known as CalPrivacy, released new rules this year, restricting the use of automated decision-making technology, such as the use of AI to make admissions or hiring decisions. Those rules were originally stricter but businesses, lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom pressured the CalPrivacy board to water them down.

In Washington D.C., Congress is considering changing federal law to limit how companies interact with children under 17. Separately, Congress is considering a bill that would require social media companies to prevent and mitigate children’s sexual exploitation, bullying, and self-harm. California Attorney General Rob Bonta is concerned that one version of the social media bill contains language that could erode existing protections in California law.

Bonta’s office is responsible for enforcing many of the state’s existing privacy laws. In November, he said the state worked with Connecticut and New York to reach $5.1 million in settlements against Illuminate, an education technology company that uses data to track and evaluate students’ progress, such as their testing scores and developmental milestones. The company had a data breach, exposing “sensitive information” from over 434,000 California students, the state attorney general’s office said in a statement.

It was the first time California successfully went after a company for violating the state’s landmark 2014 education privacy law.

To increase enforcement, Addis’ bill contains a new provision — the right for students and parents to sue tech companies in certain cases for privacy violations. Business and technology groups have opposed the bill, arguing that the new regulations and the right to sue would stifle investment in AI-powered learning tools.

King said that giving consumers the right to sue is often the only way to increase enforcement. Otherwise, the onus is on individual consumers to find concerning practices and try to opt out.

Despite being an expert in data privacy, King said that she struggled at first to figure out how to delete her TeamSnap account, only later to discover that she needed to send an email to the company. She laughed at the irony, since it’s these kinds of dark patterns in user design that fuel part of her research.

In academia, the strategy of trapping customers is sometimes called the “roach motel,” she explained, a reference to a popular television ad from the late 1970s for a cockroach trap.

“You can check in,” she said, “but you can never check out.”

###

CalMatters reporters Khari Johnson and Ryan Sabalow contributed to this story.

PREVIOUSLY

• Dell’Arte Was Excited to Bring Cannifest to Blue Lake. Then City Hall Threatened Legal Action.
• Blue Lake Cannifest Moves Forward: Organizer, Dell’Arte and City Council Agree to Plan a Scaled-Down Event

###

A scheduling conflict, miscommunications and red tape have combined to torpedo plans to relocate the annual Cannifest to Blue Lake this September. 

Stephen Gieder, organizer of the weed-themed music, art and trade gathering, told the Outpost earlier this week that he’s frustrated by bureaucratic hurdles the City of Blue Lake has placed in his path.

Specifically, he cited a requirement that he obtain a Conditional Use Permit, which requires an environmental review pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). 

“The folks in charge [at the city] are gonna make it a nightmare for us,” Gieder said. “I wouldn’t want to do something in the town at this point.” 

Blue Lake City Manager Jennie Short, meanwhile, said the main complication is that Cannifest’s targeted dates of Sept. 11-13 conflict with Mad River Enduro, a mountain bike event that had already secured permits to use Blue Lake’s Perigot Park. 

“I have inquired on alternative dates for his event [Cannifest] and have not received a response,” Short said in an email. “[Gieder] was invited to set up a meeting with the City Planner to discuss the details. To date he has not indicated that he would like to do so.”

Gieder, who organizes Cannifest and other cannabis-related events through his company Humboldt Green Events, LLC, had hoped to collaborate with Dell’Arte International, the world-renowned theater company and fine arts school founded in Blue Lake more than 50 years ago.

Dell’Arte is struggling financially, and its newly appointed leadership viewed Cannifest as a potential fundraiser, one that aligned with their community-building goals. This year’s Cannifest will not include any cannabis sales, licensed distribution or on-site consumption, and the shared hope was to host the event under Dell’Arte’s existing, open-ended Conditional Use Permit for Baduwa’t Festival.

But Gieder surprised city staffers and some residents with a February 1 Instagram post announcing the festival’s “new home in Sunny Blue Lake.”

A few locals forwarded screenshots of the post to City Hall. It was evidently the first time some employees had heard about the Cannifest plans, and it prompted Parks and Recreation Director Emily Wood to leave Gieder a voicemail threatening legal action if he persisted with his relocation plans. 

Much of the conflict appeared to get smoothed over during last week’s Blue Lake City Council meeting. Supporters of Dell’Arte showed up en masse, and the city council ultimately directed staff to move forward with planning for Cannifest. 

But Gieder said this didn’t actually feel like a meaningful step toward facilitating the event. 

“The [council] wasn’t necessarily anti-Cannifest, but they’re also seemingly new and still learning how to make tough community decisions together,” he said. “They weren’t able to give a thumb in either direction, so [they sent the matter] back to the city manager.”

It was during subsequent conversation with staff that Gieder was told he’d need to obtain his own permit and conduct environmental review. He acknowledged that he was unaware of the scheduling conflict with Mad River Enduro until last week’s City Council meeting and said he’d never want to plan Cannifest on top of someone else’s event. 

But ultimately he feels stymied by staff. 

“The city was doing everything they could to try to deter us,” he said. “There’s no way we could plan [Cannifest] and do all the things Blue Lake is requiring to even pull an event off this year. I can’t wait until after I get approval for CEQA to start booking artists. … I guess it was a bad idea to try to bring it to Blue Lake.”

Short said the city has no desire to make things more difficult for Gieder. The intention is ”just to apply the existing requirements to the project he is describing, and to follow the cost recovery protocol in place for this city.”

It might have been possible to give Gieder an exemption to the CEQA requirements if his target date for Cannifest didn’t conflict with Enduro, which is expected to attract 700-1,000 people, Short added.

Artemis Pebdani, who recently became the new chair of Dell’Arte’s board of directors, said the organization is bummed that Cannifest won’t be happening at their venue this year. 

“That said, we’re actually really hopeful about festivals like this going forward,” she told the Outpost via email. “If nothing else, this process opened the door for real conversations about hosting larger events like this in Blue Lake, and that feels like progress. Cannifest 2027, anyone??”

As for this year’s event, Gieder said he has a couple of potential alternative locations, but he’s holding off on making an announcement until he obtains “the full sign-off.”

Today the Lost Coast Outpost is proud to welcome its newest reporter – Sage Alexander, formerly of the Times-Standard! Let’s give it up for Sage, everyone!

Alexander has been a mainstay over at the T-S for the last few years, running around and writing about county government, city councils, court proceedings, economic developments, health care, higher education, mass protests, disasters, emergencies, catastrophes, small triumphs, petty squabbles, bad weather, good weather, cannabis regulation, algal blooms, zoo animals and the county fair chili cook-off.

So he has paid his Humboldt dues. Now, what’s he going to be doing for you? More of the same! But perhaps a tiny bit less of it? Many hands make light work, and we hope that a larger newsroom will allow Alexander to go a little bit deeper than the decapitated-chicken approach to content creation has permitted him to do, heretofore.

We’re expecting that pretty soon, here, Alexander is going to be bringing you more coverage from the Humboldt County Courthouse than we’ve had since the great Rhonda Parker retired. Which is cool, because we’ve been missing that. But I dunno, there’s lots of ways we can go! Maybe you have ideas.

“I’m very excited to start working at the Outpost,” Alexander tells me, his new boss. “I love reporting in Humboldt County. It’s a very interesting place, with very unique people. They’re always very hungry to learn more about the place they live, so reporting is very appreciated here.”

OK! Welcome aboard, Sage Alexander! You’ll be seeing his byline here very soon.

From the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Feb. 19, 2026, at 7:56 a.m., Humboldt County Sheriff deputies were dispatched to a residence near Davis Ct. and Williams St. in Eureka for a reported burglary in progress.

While deputies were en route, emergency dispatchers advised that the reporting party, a caretaker for the property, observed a female attempting to break into the residence via a Ring doorbell camera system.

Upon arrival, deputies located two adult females on the property. Both individuals were immediately detained pending further investigation.  Based on witness statements and physical evidence collected at the scene, 43-year-old Willow Rose Mace of Eureka was arrested. 

Mace was transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility where she was booked on the following charges:

• PC 664/459: Attempted burglary
• PC 466: Possession of burglary tools

Mace is a convicted felon.

The second female was released at the scene.

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.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office reminds residents to report suspicious activity immediately and to utilize available security measures such as surveillance camera systems to help deter and investigate criminal activity.

Humboldt County residents who are interested in forming or joining a Neighborhood Watch program are encouraged to contact the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office for more information.

PREVIOUSLY

• Arcata Mulls Grant Options for Its Low-Income Residents

###

A slightly short-staffed Arcata City Council decided last night to wait to make a decision on which projects they’d attempt to fund with state money. 

The main item on the agenda was a public brainstorming on Arcata’s Community Development Block Grants application, when members of the public and the council could pitch projects the city could try and fund using CDBG money. City staff had a few ideas of their own; two heads from the community development department presented some paths forward for the city’s application. 

City staff said they were fairly certain they could secure $500,000 for the city’s low-interest small business loan program and $200,000 to work out a redevelopment plan for the Little Lake property on South I Street. Arcata consistently earns CDBG funding for their economic development programs; community development director David Loya has said Arcata is one of the best cities in California at winning those funds. 

But the CDGB application allows asking for funding for a big project in addition to smaller ones. The big question the council dodged was deciding if they’d chase $2.9 million for fixing infrastructure at The Grove, or the same amount for replacing aging water meters.

Both are important priorities for the city, councilmembers said. Sixteen of the 60 units at The Grove are currently unusable for one reason or another, and the Arcata House Partnership doesn’t have the money to fix them. But many of the city’s water meters — about 700 of them — are slowly going out, said finance director Tabatha Miller, and it’s draining the city’s coffers. 

When the meters reach a certain point, they quit measuring water usage accurately, often undercounting by a large degree. Miller said Arcata gets paid 30% less than it should for the amount of water used. Some of that is from leaky pipes or firefighting, but there are also a number of active accounts who aren’t billed anything. “We believe there’s usage,” Miller said, “but there’s nothing that’s being measured.” 

Arcata’s replaced a few of the faulty meters since the steel waterline replacement project began. Miller said a number of customers complained when their bills went up. 

“It doubled when their meter was replaced,” Miller said. “And in talking to them, what we’re finding is that they probably weren’t paying the right amount. When we ask how many people are in the house, what kind of house it is, what their habits are, it’s clear that they were underpaying.”

If Arcata secures those CDGB funds, it wouldn’t be enough to replace all of the dead meters. The city would need an additional $4-5 million that would likely come from either the state’s water fund, or from Arcata’s water enterprise fund. 

If the city replaces the meters, they may also be able to lower the water rates, which has been a contentious issue recently. If not, Arcata may have to raise the rates again in the future to offset the meters leeching from the system.

Whichever option the council prioritizes has a solid chance of earning funding, community development director David Loya told the council. They both score equally on California’s scoring rubric, although Loya said because Arcata has more experience completing past projects similar to the water meter replacement with CDBG funds, they’d probably have a better shot of getting that funded. 

There were only three out of the five councilmembers present at the meeting, and the ones there decided they’d wait until a special meeting on Feb. 26 to deliberate with everyone present. They’ll make a recommendation then on which option city staff should apply for.

Councilmembers Stacy Atkins-Salazar and Alex Stillman both said they liked the idea of fixing the units at The Grove, though they also understood the importance of fixing the meters, which Meredith Matthews leaned towards.

“There really isn’t any money in the foreseeable future for this project for housing,” Atkins-Salazar said. “Our [federal] government just isn’t prioritizing this. So if we don’t opt to do this, then there’s a chance — a very good chance — that it just won’t get done.”

Also…

The council decided to award a $2,500 contract to Bright and Green for reusable dishware, and also extended the local declaration of emergency.