Joseph William Oberti November
14, 1940 – June 15, 2025
Joseph William Oberti was born in
Napa on November 14, 1940. Though a recent resident of Willow Creek,
he spent most of his life in Eureka. He passed away peacefully on
June 15, 2025, at the age of 84.
He was preceded in death by his
daughter, Nancy Pinerola (Dino), and is survived by four daughters:
Stacey Reimche (Guy), Alissa Alcala (Robert), Evangeline Brown
(Roger), and Amanda Hutchinson (Dan); 10 grandchildren; six
great-grandchildren; and his partner, Geraldine Harris.
Joseph graduated from Eureka High
School and attended Humboldt State University. He proudly served in
the U.S. Army. As a skilled meat cutter, he owned a grocery store in
Hoopa, and later worked at Safeway until retirement.
A lifelong outdoorsman, Joseph spent
his younger years hunting South Fork Mountain, fishing the Trinity
River, and crabbing and salmon fishing in Humboldt Bay. In later
years, he enjoyed time at his favorite dragon slot machine at the
Blue Lake Casino, where he formed lasting friendships and celebrated
many wins. The family extends heartfelt thanks to his casino partner
and friend, Verla Jackson-Robbins — his “chauffeur” — for her
devoted friendship, care, and making the weekly casino trips
possible.
Joseph will be deeply missed by his
family, friends and all who knew him.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Joseph Oberti’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.
The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) on Thursday narrowly rejected a last-ditch effort by the Humboldt County Fair Association (HCFA) to keep horse racing alive in Ferndale, voting 4-3 to deny a proposal for three consecutive race weekends this October, citing concerns over limited resources and the financial viability of horse racing in Northern California.
The decision comes one month after the board turned down the HCFA’s request to hold races at the Humboldt County Fair in August, ending a 128-year tradition of horse racing at the fair.
The CHRB also rejected a proposal from the Fresno County Fair to host seven days of horse racing between Sept. 19 and Oct. 1.
California’s horse racing industry has struggled to stay afloat in recent years amid significant financial losses, dwindling attendance, competition from online sports gambling and increasing concern over animal welfare. Earlier this year, the California Exposition and State Fair Board announced that there would be no horse racing at the California State Fair in 2025. Severalother Northern California counties and cities have followed suit.
At Thursday’s meeting, the CHRB expressed concern about HCFA’s partnership with Bernal Racing Park, LLC, a newly founded entity financed by racehorse owner George Schmitt and owner/breeder John Harris to replace the California Authority of Racing Fairs (CARF), which folded late last year.
George Schmitt, managing partner for Bernal Park Racing, LLC, acknowledged the board’s concerns about “proper management,” but offered assurance that the outfit “has the financial support to take care of all the requirements up front.”
“If the [Ferndale and Fresno] fairs don’t make enough money to pay us back what we [gave] them to run their fairs, then we’ll take a loss,” he continued. “The state of California is no longer on the hook for any losses.”
A letter from HCFA Chief Executive Officer Moira Kenny attempted to reassure the board that the Humboldt County Fair can “self-sustain,” noting that the 2024 meet generated $900,000 in commissions.
“The Humboldt meet generated enough purse money to wipe out the overpayment from other fair venues,” Kenny wrote. “In 2025, that established record will enable Humboldt to offer even higher purses and entice additional horses to participate in its three-week meet.”
HCFA Vice-President Greg Gomes emphasized the significance of horse racing in Ferndale, adding that the organization has the support of the greater Humboldt County community and the horse racing industry.
“We’re just asking for a chance to run, to build upon something for 2026,” Gomes said. “We’re just asking for a chance.”
Speaking during the public comment porting of yesterday’s meeting, Humboldt County First District Supervisor Rex Bohn read a portion of the CHRB’s mission statement, which aims to “ensure the integrity, viability, and safety of the California horse racing industry by … promoting horse racing, breeding, and wagering opportunities, and fostering safe racing through the development and enforcement of track safety standards and regulations for the health and welfare of all participants.”
“Cutting these opportunities doesn’t fill the bill on any of those,” Bohn said. “I know you have a tough deal, but it says you’re supposed to promote horse racing for the whole state. We’re up in the north. We’re forgotten. … I hear all the reasons why we can’t do this … but there isn’t any reason not to do this.”
The board maintained that it had not forgotten about Northern California, with CHRB member Thomas Hudnut noting that the problem stretches across the state. “We, at the moment, have a problem with the viability of horse racing in this state, regardless of where it is,” he said. “In the final analysis, it’s not about horses. Unfortunately, it’s about money.”
The board ultimately voted 4-3 to reject both proposals.
Reached for additional comment this morning, Kenny told the Outpost that the CHRB vote presents “a lot of uncertainties” for the future of the Humboldt County Fair.
“With no horse racing, there are a lot of concerns around whether our sponsors are going to be willing to support us in the same way that they have in the past,” she continued. “Our sponsors are amazing, and they do everything that they can to help make this an amazing event, but there is still a lot of uncertainty. … I’m typically a very optimistic person, but I am absolutely concerned about what this year is going to look like.”
The HCFA has been looking for other attractions and events to replace horse racing at this year’s fair. A couple of weeks back, they held a town hall meeting to gather ideas, which ranged from tractor pulls to “grand-scale” concerts to kinetic sculpture races.
“There were so many great ideas that came out of that discussion,” Kenny said. “On the last Sunday of the fair, we’re going to produce a tractor pull. We’re also in conversation with a Mexican bull-riding event, which was already in the works before the meeting. We also have a live music lineup featuring Brett McFarland and the Freedom Riders and plans to extend Kids Day at the fair. We are doing our very best to provide activities to fill up the grandstands.”
The HCFA is also looking for volunteers. If you’re interested in donating your time, check out the Humboldt County Fair website — linked here — or give ‘em a call at 707-786-9511.
Efforts are ongoing to stabilize and clear a large landslide that has fully closed Route 36 east of Swimmer’s Delight near Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park.
Following geotechnical analysis and strategic planning, as well as equipment and crew mobilization, our current goal is to remove hazards within the active slide zone. After that, we’ll focus on building a catchment area and a temporary traffic lane slightly shifted away from the hillside.
Currently, we’re cautiously optimistic that traffic will resume by the end of next week. Safely resuming traffic, especially for emergency services, remains our top priority. In the coming days, once we’re deeper into the nitty-gritty of this work, we’ll provide more detailed information and a clearer timeline.
Also, high-quality topographic data is being gathered to support long-term stabilization. This slide is large and steep. It extends roughly 800 feet up the slope, and due to its steepness and complexity, we’re looking at utilizing helicopter operations soon. Drone-based LiDAR has helped assess the site, but due to difficult terrain and the need for precision, helicopter-mounted LiDAR will be used soon. That data will inform a more permanent slope fix later this summer.
The long-vacant Jacobs Middle School campus at 674 Allard Avenue. | File photo.
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More than six years after Eureka City Schools decided to sell off its vacated and deteriorating Jacobs Middle School campus, the district’s board of trustees may soon consummate a deal giving the State of California the exclusive right to purchase the property for $4 million.
The state has long sought the eight-acre property for the purpose of designing and building a new Humboldt-area headquarters for the California Highway Patrol. At next Wednesday’s meeting, the ECS Board of Trustees will consider approving a two-year irrevocable option agreement that could allow the state to do just that.
Per the terms of the deal, the state would make up to two annual, nonrefundable payments to Eureka City Schools of $253,100 (for a total of $506,200) while conducting the environmental and feasibility studies necessary for the CHP project.
If the state chooses to exercise its option, it would purchase the property for $4 million minus whatever payments it has made to the district by that point.
If the State decides not to exercise its option, then Eureka City Schools could keep whatever option payments it has received and again pursue other suitors for the Jacobs property.
California’s education code gives charter schools and other public agencies priority on purchasing or leasing any real estate that has been declared “surplus” by a school district.
Discussions about a deal with the state have been going on for years, though they were temporarily sidelined by a $6 million offer from a secretive corporation that turned out to have extensive ties to semi-local real estate servicing company magnate Robin P. Arkley II, who was simultaneously bankrolling a ballot initiative aimed at thwarting the City of Eureka’s plans to convert downtown parking lots into affordable housing developments. (Arkley denied any involvement with the corporation that made the offer.)
The Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees and administrators were widely lambasted for the secrecy of negotiations with the mysterious corporation, called AMG Communities - Jacobs, LLC. A report from the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury said, “In selling the Jacobs property, there was no effective opportunity for the public to know about, consider, and participate in an important decision regarding selling a valuable public asset, even if the result of the decision is perceived to be in the near-term best interests of students.”
When that deal fell apart last August, negotiations with the CHP resumed. (Technically, the talks were with California’s Department of General Services, which handles property negotiations for all manner of state agencies.)
Click below to download a draft copy of the option agreement, which the Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees will consider at its June 25 meeting, which is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at the district office at 2100 J Street.
Demonstrators protest against recent ICE immigration raids as National Guard officers stand guard in front of a federal building in Los Angeles on June 9, 2025. Photo by Ted Soqui for CalMatters
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This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
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Donald Trump can continue to control the National Guard in California for the time being after a panel of judges from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals determined he followed the law in deploying troops to Los Angeles.
The order is the latest in a fast-moving legal saga playing out over Trump’s decision to call up the National Guard and U.S. Marines to the Los Angeles area in response to protests after federal immigration law enforcement agents began worksite raids and arrests two weeks ago. California’s Democratic leadership, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, has called the deployment unnecessary and illegal.
Their order in a lawsuit filed by Newsom contesting the deployment isn’t surprising; the panel signaled an openness to the Trump administration’s legal arguments during a legal hearing on Tuesday.
In court earlier this week, attorneys from the Trump administration argued the president’s deployment was “unreviewable” by courts.
The appeals court judges disagreed that the decision was beyond the reach of the judicial branch, but found the president had a legitimate interest in protecting federal employees when he called up the troops.
“The undisputed facts demonstrate that before the deployment of the National Guard, protesters ‘pinned down’ several federal officers and threw ‘concrete chunks, bottles of liquid and other objects’ at the officers.”
Two of those judges were appointed by President Trump in his previous term.
What happens next could take one of several turns. On Friday a lower court judge, Charles Breyer, will hold a hearing on whether to again return the troops to Newsom through a preliminary injunction.
Trump deployed the troops through a presidential memo on June 7 and cited a rarely used federal statute permitting a president to deploy the National Guard in times of invasion, domestic rebellion or the inability for the federal government to carry out its laws. Trump’s order was for 60 days and technically applied to all of the state Nation Guards in the U.S.
Basically, the battle over whether federal troops can remain in Los Angeles is operating on three parallel tracks — the temporary restraining order from last week, Friday’s hearing and the full merits of the case through a prolonged trial. Technically, the government lawyers for Trump and Newsom can ask for appeals on all three tracks.
For Newsom’s legal team to prevail in Friday’s hearing, they’ll have to clear a higher threshold of scrutiny than they did when they initially won back the National Guard last week, albeit for a few hours. That’s because anyone seeking a preliminary injunction must demonstrate that the merits of their arguments will likely prevail in the full trial.
The appeals court’s decision could influence Breyer’s thinking, legal thinkers said, even if he initially signalled support for the Newsom administration’s arguments.
“It’s kind of hard to disentangle the two processes when we think about how judge Breyer will be weighing” the preliminary injunction hearing,” because a lot of that’s going to be informed by what these higher level courts decide,” said Christopher Mirasola, an assistant law professor at the University of Houston Law Center.
No matter what Breyer does after Friday, it’ll likely quickly go back to the appeals court. And if the appeals court keeps halting the lower court’s orders, Trump keeps the National Guard for the duration of the lower court’s full trial.
Would the Newsom team try to appeal the injunction with the Supreme Court?
On one hand, “why not shoot your shot when you got the opportunity, right?” asked Mirasola rhetorically. But there’s a chance the high court comes back with such a strong opinion favoring the Trump administration that it could “substantively affect how judge Breyer treats the merits of the case.”
Ron Johnson passed away peacefully after five years of health struggles.
Ron grew up and lived his entire life in Blue Lake. He was a logging truck driver for 53 years, known to all local truckers as “Rabbit Ears.” He worked most of his career for Sierra Pacific and retired after 46 years.
He is preceded in death by his wife, Ilene Johnson; son Wayne Johnson; and his parents Tip and Elsie Johnson. He is survived by his sons David Johnson, Jeff (Leanne) Johnson and Greg (Kristie) Johnson; grandson Dane (Mary) Johnson and granddaughter Kaci Johnson.
We would like to thank Dolores, Emerly, Paula and all others who cared for him with so much compassion and love. Thank you Hospice and Hospice volunteers for their time and compassionate care.
At Ron’s request there will be no celebration of life. Donations can be made to Hospice of Humboldt.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Ron Johnson’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.
On June 18, 2025, at approximately 5:36pm, EPD Patrol Officers responded to the report of
sexual assault which just occurred. The survivor stated a food service delivery driver arrived at
their residence with an order, forced his way into their residence, and made unwanted sexual
contact with them. During the investigation, officers located the suspect, 27-year-old Arda
Kizilay, who was taken into custody for PC 243.3(a) – Sexual Battery and PC 459 – Burglary.
Kizilay was booked into the Humboldt County Correction Facility.
