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As the dust continues to settle following the abrupt downfall of Democratic U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, the North Coast’s own congressional representative has made his choice from among the crowded field of remaining candidates for governor of California. 

Over the weekend, Rep. Jared Huffman offered his endorsement to billionaire philanthropist and environmentalist Tom Steyer. The Steyer campaign announced this in a press release, which you’ll find below, and the Outpost confirmed the endorsement with Huffman’s office this afternoon.

Steyer, a 63-year-old Manhattan native who founded the hedge fund Farallon Capital and ran for president in 2020, has surged ahead of the Democratic field in most of the latest polls, pulling ahead all candidates except Republican Steve Hilton. (The fortunes of the only other GOP candidate, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, have dimmed after President Trump endorsed Hilton.)

Former U.S. congressmember Katie Porter, like Steyer, hoped to benefit from the sudden exit of former Democratic frontrunner Swalwell, who suspended his campaign and resigned from Congress following a series of sexual assault accusations. 

Steyer’s policy platform focuses on aggressive climate action, economic justice (including a tax on the ultra-rich) and progressive social reforms, such as a proposal to enact universal health care for Californians. 

California’s primary election will take place on June 2. Under California’s top-two system, the pair of candidates with the highest percentage of votes in the primary, regardless of party, will advance to a runoff in November.

Huffman, who serves as the ranking member of the United States House Committee on Natural Resources, highlights Steyer’s commitment to environmental action in his quotes from the Steyer press release, which we’ve reproduced below:

SAN FRANCISCO – Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer continues to build campaign momentum, securing a new endorsement today from Congressman Jared Huffman. Huffman’s backing follows a wave of support for Steyer this weekend, including endorsements from State Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas and Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva.

Congressman Huffman, who has represented California’s North Bay and North Coast since his election in 2012, brings significant environmental leadership credentials to his endorsement. He was twice appointed by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi to serve on the United States House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. In addition, he serves on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and holds a leadership role as Vice Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

“Californians need a governor who leads with reason, science, and a commitment to confronting climate change and powerful special interests,” said Congressman Jared Huffman. “Tom Steyer has spent his career advancing bold climate action and standing up to Big Oil and special interests that threaten our environment and our future. We need a leader who will take on fossil fuel companies, protect our natural resources, and build a more affordable California. This is our moment to stop the undoing of decades of environmental progress and protect our future for generations to come. Tom Steyer is the only clear choice in this race.”

“Congressman Jared Huffman has been a relentless champion for climate action and protecting California’s natural resources,” said Tom Steyer. “I’m deeply grateful for his endorsement and proud to have his support. Jared has never backed down from taking on Big Oil or defending science and our environment. Together, we’re going to hold polluters accountable, make them pay for the damage they’ve caused, and deliver real relief for California families.”

Huffman joins a long list of elected officials, grassroots organizers, and unions who stand with Steyer. See the full list of endorsers here. 

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Press release from Humboldt Sponsors:

Humboldt Sponsors, a local nonprofit charitable organization dedicated solely to raising funds to benefit Humboldt County youth, announced its 2026 grant recipients at its annual Grants Reception, held Thursday, April 9, 2026, at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka.

Humboldt Sponsors awards numerous grants in April each year to local nonprofit, youth-related programs and organizations throughout Humboldt County through a strict annual application and review process. The organization reports that last week it distributed a total of $104,437 among 91 individual grants.

“This year’s very deserving grant recipients provide invaluable services to our local youth,” stated Amy Hunt, Humboldt Sponsors president. “We are proud to be able to provide financial assistance to help them continue to support and enrich the lives of local kids.”

Since 1971, Humboldt Sponsors has awarded more than $3,144,440 in total grant funds. “Thanks to our extremely generous and loyal Humboldt supporters, we have been able to reach this level of giving back to our community over the past 55 years,” Hunt added.

The individual grants awarded by Humboldt Sponsors support many diverse local youth activities and programs, such as scholarships and camperships for educational, recreational, and cultural enrichment activities and youth leadership projects. In addition, Humboldt Sponsors’ grants assist youth-oriented programs that provide basic needs.

“Our grants reception is a wonderfully uplifting and rewarding event that we look forward to every year. It is wonderful to hear from the grantees directly about their programs and the impact the grants will have on the children they serve,” added Hunt. “This is truly the best part of our year, and it really demonstrates our motto of ‘making good things happen for local kids!’”

“We are able to support our grant requests with the proceeds from our fundraising events throughout the year,” stated Linda Dionne, 2026 grants chairperson. “We are also extremely grateful for the many generous donations we receive from our local community and business partners, along with our associate member dues that always go directly into our grant fund every year.”

To learn more about Humboldt Sponsors, email humboldtsponsors@gmail.com, or visit www.humboldtsponsors.org.

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• Here’s the Design For the Eureka South Gateway Monument

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Yesterday, we’re told, ground officially broke on the project to build a fancy “Welcome to Eureka” sign at the south end of town, by the Herrick Avenue overpass.

Time marches slowly in government-land, as we all know. As indicated by the link above, the final design for the project was finalized almost a year ago, and they’ve been talking about putting something like this up for at least a decade.

But Swan Asbury, the city’s economic development manager, tells the Outpost that the project has now commenced and should proceed pretty quickly, weather permitting. 

Below: Some work-in-progress pictures from inside Allpoints, the company building the monument.

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

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Progressive California Democrats, who have long fought and failed to raise taxes on the rich, are renewing their push this year in light of a specific threat: The seismic federal cuts to Medi-Cal, the state’s health care program for the poor.

President Donald Trump’s H.R.1, signed into law last July, is estimated to strip tens of billions a year in state Medi-Cal funding and cause 2 million low-income residents to lose coverage. It has prompted progressive lawmakers and health care advocates to call for higher taxes on corporations or billionaires to keep those at risk of losing benefits on the program.

“We know that you are not responsible for these awful cuts, but now the responsibility does lie in your hands,” Judy Mark, executive director of Disability Voices United, an advocacy group for people with disabilities and their families, told state lawmakers at a January rally. “You have the power to increase our revenue so that we don’t have to make such devastating cuts.”

Progressive lawmakers have introduced at least two proposals to tax corporations, including one that would direct funds toward Medi-Cal. Separately, health care advocates are backing a controversial ballot measure to tax billionaire wealth to replace lost federal dollars.

There’s one glaring problem: Any solution to backfill the Medi-Cal funding could add to the state’s already gigantic structural budget deficit, not reduce it.

The deficit could reach $30 billion in future years — so large that the state is already struggling just to sustain the reduced level of care under H.R.1, let alone paying the federal government’s share.

Backfilling the Medi-Cal cuts would make the gap larger, said Keely Martin Bosler, former state finance director with more than two decades of experience in state fiscal policy. To “maintain the same insured level of coverage, those costs are on top of the deficits that exist, and so that would be significant.”

California, in its fourth consecutive year projecting a deficit, will likely see bigger shortfalls in future years as spending continues to outpace revenue. Even if the state spends nothing to backfill federal cuts, the deficit could reach $22 billion in fiscal year 2027-28, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s January budget proposal.

Democratic lawmakers, who already cut certain Medi-Cal benefits and froze new undocumented adult enrollment last year to close a $12 billion budget hole, acknowledge that the state should now combine sustainable revenue increases with ongoing program cuts to address the sizable deficit as recommended by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.

Yet it’s likely that no meaningful revenue increases will materialize this year.

Newsom, in his last year as governor, has opposed any wealth tax over concerns that it would drive high-income earners out of California and dampen the tax base. Passing any tax increases would also require a two-thirds vote in each legislative chamber, a high bar even with a Democratic supermajority.

“I don’t think anything is going to happen this year,” said Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee Chair Jerry McNerney, a Stockton Democrat. “So why look at options that are doomed to fail in the first place?”

A $44 billion problem

The state is constitutionally required to direct roughly 50 cents of each dollar in excess general fund revenue toward K-14 education and reserves. That means the state would need roughly $44 billion in new revenue annually to close a $22 billion budget hole.

Existing legislative proposals don’t come close to raising that much.

Progressive Democrats are consolidating behind a pair of tax proposals, including one that would close the “water’s edge” loophole, which allows multinational corporations that opt in to only pay taxes on income made within borders of California. That allows companies to establish subsidiaries offshore to avoid paying taxes on their profits, said bill author Assemblymember Damon Connolly, a San Rafael Democrat.

Connolly told CalMatters his bill would raise $3 to $4 billion annually. But the revenue could swing, and corporations could still find new ways to reduce their California taxes, according to an LAO evaluation of different tax options.

Acknowledging that the amount wouldn’t close the entire structural deficit, Connolly said it’s “a step in the right direction.”

“It’s only one part of the equation. It’s certainly the time to look at potential revenue solutions but also obviously roll up our sleeves and take a hard look at the budget,” Connolly said. He did not specify which areas he’d consider cutting, saying only that protecting health care is where state lawmakers should “draw the line.”

Another bill by Assembly Health Committee Chair Mia Bonta, an Oakland Democrat, would require businesses whose workers rely on Medi-Cal and food stamps to contribute to a fund to “prevent loss of or to restore” health care coverage under H.R.1. There are no details yet on how much the charge would be.

And there’s the 2026 California Billionaire Tax Act proposed by the SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, which would apply a 5%, one-time tax on billionaires’ wealth and use most of the revenue to backfill federal health care cuts. The initiative would establish a special fund that would exempt the revenue from constitutionally required deposits into education and savings.

Supporters estimate it would generate $100 billion over five years. SEIU-UHW spokesperson Suzanne Jimenez told CalMatters that it would allow the state to temporarily continue providing Medi-Cal coverage at the same level while giving state leaders time to figure out how best to sustain it.

But even if voters approve the tax measure, critics say the funds could get locked up in court from lawsuits by billionaire taxpayers or by education groups, who might argue it skirts the state’s constitutional requirements to benefit schools. And it’s unclear how the state would sustain the funding after the money runs out: An LAO analysis estimates that the measure could drive away billionaires and reduce income tax revenue the state could collect in future years.

“The first step is to pass the billionaire tax so that we have five years to work on that plan. And then, right after Election Day, we will be ready to work with the next governor to figure out a long-term solution,” Jimenez said.

Taxing the rich frenzy faces an uphill battle

While they might do little to address the state’s structural deficit, proposals to tax the rich shrewdly tap into the public anxiety with “rather extraordinary disparity in the distribution of income and wealth,” said Kirk Stark, a professor of tax law and policy at UCLA.

“I think that targeting the rich is understandable, but I don’t think that it’s really the kind of policy that can be expected to durably address very long-term structural fiscal imbalance,” he said.

More than 60% of California’s likely voters support higher taxes on the state’s wealthiest to help with the state’s budget deficit, according to a February survey by the Public Policy Institute of California.

The sentiment especially speaks to progressives, who have made fighting income inequality a core belief. But even the popular idea faces an uphill climb: Some Democrats contend that raising taxes on the state’s highest earners risks driving them away, especially since the state heavily relies on their income tax.

Janitors, nurses, teachers and labor organizers rally at the state Capitol in Sacramento to launch UnRig California on March 11, 2026. The initiative is a multiyear campaign aimed at reforming the state’s economy and tax code. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

“The wealthiest Californians are also the most mobile Californians,” said former Assembly Budget Chair Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat. “They could easily decide to go domicile in some other parts of the country.”

It also could deter businesses and billionaires from moving to California. “Does it signal that California is not a friendly, accommodating jurisdiction for people who want to amass billions upon billions of dollars of wealth?” Stark said.

Other ideas to address the state’s budget needs more systemically could pose even bigger political risks, especially as the state’s revenue is booming thanks to an AI-driven economy.

Stark said the state should examine its three primary revenue sources: income tax, sales tax and property tax. Since taxing income could dampen the incentive to work, and sales tax could discourage consumption, the state’s property tax — capped at 1% of the property value by Proposition 13 in 1978 — “jumps out as a tax reform that needs to happen in California,” he said.

“Not something that’s going to be just a one-time hit on the elite, but a fundamental, structural reconsideration of how the state of California taxes the value of land and structures.”

But any proposal to reform Prop. 13 would likely ignite a fierce political battle, just like the patchwork of ballot initiatives over the past half-century to amend Prop. 13 by carving out tax breaks or loopholes to hike taxes.

It’s even harder now with affordability being top of mind for Californians, Ting said.

“People are very cost-sensitive because they feel that their groceries are going up, their gas is going up, rent is going up, it’s a very difficult time to introduce even further costs in taxes to middle-class Californians.”

Marilyn Ann Merchant Groven, aged 91, of Eureka, died on March 31, 2026.

Marilyn was born October 15, 1934, in Riverside, California, to Elmer and Mabel Merchant. She grew up in Riverside as one of seven siblings on the family’s orange grove. She was one of 127 students to attend the newly established University California, Riverside in 1954 and proudly graduated in its first class. She went on to pursue her teaching degree.

Marilyn married Blair Edward Groven and they shared 45 years together. They had five daughters.

Marilyn spent much of her career teaching elementary school. Blair and Marilyn moved to Humboldt County in 1974 and soon started Tall Trees Learning Center in a room at the First Presbyterian Church. Eventually they moved to a larger location where they served many Eureka families over the years.

In the 1980s, Blair and Marilyn traveled to Japan where they taught English and were instrumental in establishing a student exchange program between their students in Tokyo and host families in Eureka, helping to make lasting friendships between countless families.

Marilyn is survived by four daughters, nine grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren, with one great-great grandchild on the way. She was preceded in death by her husband and her youngest daughter.

A memorial will be held later in the year.

“For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.”

— Carl Sagan

What fresh hell is this? Over the weekend, the website nationaltoday.com published a story to its “Eureka Today” section called “Taco Week Returns to Humboldt With Big Time Native Gathering.”

What, you’ve never heard of the online publication “Eureka Today”? Well, click on over there and give it a look! Check out that motto: “By the people, for the People.” The heart swells with civic pride.

Trouble is, while this website may arguably be “for the People,” in the sense that someone out there hopes you’ll click on it and promptly start buying products from its many advertisers, the content is most certainly not by any people. That’s because nationaltoday.com and its rapidly multiplying collection of local bureaus (each sporting that ironic “By the people” motto) is merely an excretion of AI slop generated by Silicon Valley servers running large language models.

And what these LLMs are consuming, besides massive volumes of water, is local news content produced by real human beings in newsrooms around the country.

As a local human being yourself, you might recognize Taco Week as a recurring advertorial feature from our friends at the North Coast Journal. Indeed, this particular “Eureka Today” story has been stolen from the NCJ, rewritten by AI and then published without attribution for the financial benefit of some avaricious dickheads in Cupertino or thereabouts. (The website is owned by a generic-looking PR firm called Top Agency.)

The Lost Coast Outpost’s content has likewise been stolen and rewritten, sans credit, by these soulless algorithms and their douchebag creators. Just today, for example, the bots decided to grab our exclusive about the Humboldt-centric infrastructure rapper Moss Gross and his recent video ode to the C Street Bicycle Boulevard. (See the baffling results here.) 

But let’s quickly circle back to this weird Taco Week/Big Time post. Not only does it feature an AI-generated, dead-eyed Native American visage in the neon color palette of Taco Bell (complete with culturally inaccurate feather headdress and earrings), but it also includes a pair of entirely fabricated quotes.

The first, which describes Taco Week as “a time-honored tradition,” is attributed to a made-up person with the imagined identity of “Juana Hernandez, Local Taco Enthusiast.” Presumably the algorithms latched onto the word “taco” and spat out a generic Hispanic name.

The other quote concerns the recent California Big Time and Social Gathering, a cultural celebration organized and hosted by many very real and very dedicated local residents. But since the AI program didn’t have easy access to their identities, it made one up and named her “Mia Redfeather.”

Más gross.

PREVIOUSLY:

• DESPERATE SCAMMERS: New Online Scam Hypertargets People Who Have Applied to Serve on the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee

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From the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

The Humboldt County Planning & Building Department again recently received reports of an email scam targeting the community.

The real John Ford does not want your Target gift cards.

In this scam fraudulent emails claim to be from Humboldt County Planning & Building Director John Ford and/or the Humboldt County Planning Commission. The scammer tells the victim that they have reviewed their permit application and an “application review and approval fee” is required before “official approval” can be finalized.

The email appears to mine information from publicly accessible documents such as Board of Supervisors and/or Planning Commission meeting agendas and related permit application documents. The information includes specific details about the applicant’s project and includes a fake invoice and instructions on how to wire funds to pay the fee and settle the account.

The County of Humboldt wants the public to know that the Planning & Building Department does not charge or require an “application review and approval fee” and would like the community to know that this is a scam.

While the Planning & Building Department may contact you regarding an application or legitimate past due fees, the County of Humboldt will never ask you to:

• Mail large sums of cash

• Wire funds to a private account

• Use a credit card over the phone, or

• Pay with gift cards or pre-paid money card

If you have any questions about the status of your pending permit application or past due fees, please call 707-445-7541. 

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office encourages anyone who believes they may have been targeted or have been a victim of this type of fraudulent activity to report the incident immediately by calling 707-445-7251.

Please remember these tips to help protect yourself from fraud:

• Spot imposters. Scammers often pretend to be someone you trust, like a government official, a family member, a charity or a company with which you do business. Do not send money or give out personal information in response to an unexpected request, whether it comes as a text, a phone call or an email. Do not open attachments in emails from unknown sources.

• Do online research. Type a company or product name into your favorite search engine with words like “review,” “complaint” or “scam.” Or search for a phrase that describes your situation, like “application fee” or “IRS call.” You can even search for phone numbers and email addresses to see if other people have reported them as scams.

• Don’t believe the name in an email or your caller ID. Technology makes it easy for scammers to fake email account names and caller ID information, so the name and number you see are not always real. If someone calls asking for money or personal information, hang up. If someone emails you asking for you to take action, do not click links in the email or open attachments. If you think the person contacting you might be telling the truth, call back to a number you know is genuine.

• Talk to someone. Before you give up your money or personal information, talk to someone you trust. Con artists want you to make decisions in a hurry. They might even threaten you. Slow down, check out the story, do an online search, consult an expert or just tell a friend. If you have applied for a county permit, contact the Planning & Building Department and ask questions.

• Do not rely on personal information. Living in the digital age, access to information is easier than ever. Scammers are often able to get their hands on very personal information, providing it to their victims to make their scam look more legitimate. Do not trust a scammer who is able to provide your personal information. If you followed the above tips and still are not sure, call back at a publicly listed number for the organization from which the scammer claims to be or contact your loved one directly.

Stay Informed

Sign up for the Federal Trade Commission’s scam alerts and visit USA.gov/Where-Report-Scams to learn how to report scams.

To learn more about some of the common scams reported to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, please visit HumboldtGov.org/ScamInfo.