The public, fellow councilmembers and city staff unanimously called upon Arcata City Councilmember Brett Watson to do just one thing – resign – during a remarkable two-hour special meeting last night.

But he would not resign, and he says he won’t resign. He will stay on the council until his term ends at the end of this year. There will be an election in November, and if he chooses to run for reelection he will lose by an astounding margin.

“There’s absolutely zero chance I’m going to resign,” Watson said. “Just to be totally clear. Crystal clear.”

Watson would not allow himself to feel shame. He never expressed remorse for hurting the female staff member who he repeatedly described as his “best friend” or “big sister.” He denied that he had expressed romantic feelings for her, as she had testified to the city’s investigator and which other witnesses confirmed, but the record at least shows unambiguously that he made extensive, greedy demands on her time; that he was possessive of her and jealous of her other relationships with other people; and that he crossed innumerable professional boundaries in his communications with her.

On the contrary, Watson said: “If the staff member involved wants to take responsibility for her role in the relationship, I’ll consider it.”

No one who spoke last night in the council chambers or via Zoom spoke in support of Watson. He was all alone. Some speakers expressed some sympathy for his plight – for his past drug problem, for his apparent psychiatric collapse following the death of his father a couple of years ago – but they tried to appeal to him, with sympathy, to stand down.

“I would like to appeal to you personally, because I sympathize with the details I have heard,” said Timothy Overturf, owner of the Arcata Theatre Lounge. “You lost a family member. I lost my brother to suicide last year. You have ADHD, as you’ve said. I’ve been diagnosed as well. And when I’m put in situations that I cannot handle and am not effective, I try to give that responsibility to other people. With everything that’s transpired, I think you’re ineffective to effect the will of the residents of Arcata, and you have a responsibility to resign.”

But that tack had no effect, and neither did the more direct attempts to force Watson to acknowledge the pain he has caused. Woman after woman, many of them former colleagues, tried.

“After I read your defense yesterday, as a victim of sexualized violence, I was totally retriggered and felt reabused, and I don’t want to hear any more of it from you,” said former councilmember Elizabeth Conner. “And nor do the other women in this town who had that reaction. I’m not the only one.”

Sofia Pereira, who sat on the council with Watson for a time, said that she felt she had to be present in solidarity with city staff and the remainder of the city council, who she said are “navigating a sickening situation.”

“What I read in this report … I think it really reinforces that [sexual harassment] is fundamentally about power and control over another,” she said. “And this report reveals a pattern of abusing power, from sexual harassment — including threatening this employee’s job, repeatedly — to flaunting how the Brown Act does not apply to him.”

Pereira urged the rest of the council to take whatever action it could to limit the harm another six months of Watson on the council would cause, not least because this issue takes so much away from the city’s normal business. 

“We also must consider the very real possibility that he doesn’t have the humility to resign, and that he’s up on this dais until his term ends in December,” she said. “It takes incredible courage and reflection to acknowledge one’s actions and seek to repair harm that has been done. And I’m not so sure we’ll see that here, based on his response so far, which means that the suffering could continue — for all of you, and for this community.”

In addition to the numerous speakers who spoke in much the same vein, probing and prodding in whatever fashion they could think of to convince Watson to resign, a number of city staff members spoke, saying they wholeheartedly approved of the goal of a harassment-free workplace. David Loya, the city’s director of community development, read a letter jointly composed and signed by all the city’s department heads to that effect.

But since Watson is an elected official, normal disciplinary procedures — such as termination — cannot be followed in this case. It also makes it all but impossible to cut his access to the microphone. When public testimony was done, Mayor Stacy Atkins-Salazer and councilmembers Meredith Mathews and Sarah Schaefer each read short statements lamenting how Watson’s conduct has come to swallow up so much city business in the last several months, and once again urging Watson to resign.

At that point, Watson read from a prepared statement for almost half an hour. He charged, once again, that the female staff member he allegedly harassed once baked him cookies and sent him photos from her vacation. He said that their relationship was “100 percent consensual.” He said, again, that the city’s investigator “refused” to interview him, despite the fact that the interviewer reached out several times to the series of three different attorneys who each briefly represented Watson over a period of a couple of months. Watson sent the entire statement to us after the meeting. You can read it here, if you like.

At the end of the meeting, the three other members of the council, in a series of motions, voted to strip Watson of all his committee assignments, to seek a restraining order against him from the courts, to restrict his use of city staff time and prohibit physical contact with staff members, and to limit his access to City Hall. Watson voted against them each time.

The council decided not to pursue censuring Watson, as it would have no tangible effect and would take up yet more city time.

It’s not clear what Watson hopes to accomplish by staying on the council, unless he takes it as some sort of personal vindication. He has said he wants to continue to serve the city, but it is very clear that the city does not want that service — not the council, not the staff, not the public. 

It’s not clear what the next couple of months are going to be like in the city, but it can’t be going anywhere well for Watson or for anyone who retains any concern for him personally. It’s not hard to think of political figures in the recent past who seem to have profited by simply denying everything, by suppressing the human responsibility to apologize and atone. But Arcata is a small town, and there are only so many bridges to burn.

Humboldt has been wienered.

As you have likely already heard, the automotive oddity that is the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile made its way into the Cream City where it enjoyed a night’s rest parked in front of the Victorian Inn. We are truly a blessed people.

To celebrate this rare, meaty occasion, LoCO invites you to turn up your sound and sing aloud the song that, statistically, you are not actually old enough to have a first hand connection to but somehow learned somewhere along the way anyway. Crank it! Whistle it!

An eyewitness to the fatal knifing of Roger Yale testified yesterday she watched suspect Gearold Sotolongo make stabbing motions as the two men scuffled, then saw a puncture wound in Yale’s upper left chest.

“Right where his heart would be,” Lila Van Pelt said under questioning by Deputy District Attorney Roger Rees during the first day of Sotolongo’s murder trial.

Sotolongo.

It’s been more than six years since Sotolongo allegedly stabbed Yale in the heart during an altercation outside the Hoopa Mini-mart. It was about 8:30 in the morning on Feb. 13, 2016. Van Pelt, her kids and her boyfriend were on the way to Yreka for a basketball tournament when they stopped at the mini-mart and saw a fight.

“It’s a common occurrence” at the market, Van Pelt said. But this fight was uncommon enough that while testifying, Van Pelt broke down crying. She didn’t know Yale, she said, but she knew Sotolongo as “Roldo Pratt.” She identified Sotolongo in the courtroom as the man she saw fighting with Yale.

What Van Pelt first noticed was a group of people across the street. A group of five, males and females, was having some sort of argument with Yale, who kept trying to get away from them by hiding behind a tree as someone swung a stick at him. When Yale crossed the street toward the mini-mart, the group followed him.

As Van Pelt recalled, some of the group members were taunting Yale, telling him to meet them behind the mini-mart. Yale’s response was “I don’t want to fight.”

Van Pelt said Yale kept weaving around trying to avoid his pursuers, walking around her mini-van and the gas pumps. Finally everyone but Sotolongo tired of the activity and left the area.

Yale then sat down on a curb in front of the mini-mart. Sotolongo approached him, Van Pelt said, and the two began scuffling. She said Yale “was trying to get away.”

Then the stabbing. Yale fell down, got up and walked to the mini-mart door to call for help. Sotolongo left.

The entire episode was captured by video surveillance cameras at the mini-mart and the nearby Hoopa Valley Tribal Police Department. Rees played the video several times during testimony.

Trinity County Sheriff’s Deputy Seth Ruiz was an officer with the Hoopa police when he stopped by the mini-mart that day six years ago. He was off duty and can’t recall now why he stopped. But he ended up viewing the surveillance video and identified both Yale and Sotolongo, though he knew Sotolongo as Roldo Pratt.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Zack Curtis, Ruiz tried to remember the details of a long-ago arrest of Yale. He recalled having to use his Taser and pepper spray before Yale was finally taken into custody.

Also testifying yesterday was Police Chief Gregory O’Rourke of the Yurok Tribal Police Department. Back in 2016 he was a Humboldt County sheriff’s deputy who was dispatched to the call about the stabbing. He didn’t see Yale until Yale was in the back of an ambulance at the air strip in Willow Creek. The plan had been to transport him by helicopter to a hospital, but he died first.

O’Rourke had been informed Yale was violent and combative with paramedics. When O’Rourke arrived Yale seemed to recognize him, the chief said. He asked Yale to stop fighting with the medical personnel.

“His head slumped to the side and the paramedic said ‘I think he died,’ “ O’Rourke recalled.

The paramedic on the scene that day was Cameron Smith, who testified Yale was unresponsive when he and an assistant picked him up at the mini-mart. But a few minutes later he woke up. He seemed to think Smith was someone else, and he kept calling him by a name that Smith doesn’t remember anymore.

“He attacked me,” Smith said under questioning by Deputy District Attorney Jessica Watson, co-prosecutor in the case. He said Yale bit him and tried to gouge out his eye. When the EMT came back to help, Smith said, “he grabbed her by the hair and kicked her.” The kick was hard enough that the woman was knocked to the ground.

Smith said Yale told him to tell his father he was sorry. He also challenged Smith to kill him.

“Did it feel like he was fighting for his life?” Watson asked.

“It did.”

Testimony was expected to continue this morning before Judge Larry Killoran.

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Patricia (Pat) Ann Moe of Eureka, passed away at her home on May 1, 2022 at the age of 84.

Pat was born in San Francisco in 1937 and resided in San Bruno with her parents Abele and Inez. She relocated to Eureka when she was young to be closer to family and for her dad’s work.

Pat had a happy childhood and made many lifelong friends growing up. She met her husband, Merv, at the Municipal Auditorium during roller skating night. She fell while skating and Merv helped her up. She thought what a handsome and polite young man and that was it, as they say. They married a few years later and raised two busy boys, Tom and Steve. Both Pat and Merv were very supportive of the boys in their band and sports endeavors.

Pat was very hardworking and held various jobs to help support the family. She worked for many years in food service for Eureka City School. She served EHS students in the snack bar while her sons were in high school and was affectionately known as “Mrs. Moe.” After retirement, Pat and Merv traveled to various casinos to gamble and have fun. They especially enjoyed going to South Shore Tahoe on trips. Her husband passed away in 2011, but she continued to travel with friends to the Napa area.

She loved and cherished all of her card-playing friends, her T.O.P.S group and her church. She spent many hours each week with her friends and she was loved by all that knew her. She especially loved her grandkids and great-grandkids. She spent many hours with them after school and, of course, made them delicious meals.

Patricia was preceded in death by her loving husband, Mervin, and she is survived by her sons Thomas (Kimberly) Moe ,Steven Moe, her grandchildren Nicolette (Patrick) Kapus, Travis Moe, Kristi (Kevin) Skelton, Katie (Frank) Dore , Bridger Moe, great-grandchildren Mason and Gunner Kapus, Avery and Amelia Dore, and Veda Skelton.

Pat was a strong and independent person and requested a private family service and for those who knew her to remember her fondly and with love. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to First United Methodist Church in Eureka.

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In a few minutes, the Arcata City Council will decide what sort of disciplinary measures to impose on former mayor Brett Watson, whom a city investigation found committed sustained acts of sexual harassment against a female city employee. Watson continues to serve on the Arcata City Council.

Watson.

According to a staff report published in advance of tonight’s special meeting on the topic, it seems that at minimum the city will seek a restraining order against Watson, limiting his access to City Hall and to staff. But the city cannot fire Watson, as he is an elected member of the council.

In advance of tonight’s meeting, over 50 local women, many of them in leadership positions around the county, are calling upon Watson to resign. They have signed the following letter, which they have shared with the Outpost.

The Arcata City Council meets at 6 p.m. tonight at Arcata City Hall. You can view the meeting via the meeting page on the City of Arcata’s website. To participate via Zoom, click this link. 

Here is a summary of the city’s investigation into Watson’s behavior. Here is his defense. Here is a rundown of possible actions the city may take tonight.

Here is the open letter:

May 17, 2022

Brett Watson,

We are women leaders who live in, work in, care about, and/or frequent Arcata. We are daughters, mothers, business owners, elected officials, and so much more. We have read the report and have been talking in private circles about the report and the responses to it. We are here to share. 

Most of us have known a “Brett Watson” in our lives – a man who took liberties while passing the blame on to the victims of his harassment. Most of us have experienced or witnessed the victim of harassment being left to defend themselves, or only supported by whisper networks. We are done accepting men like you that treat this behavior as the norm.

We know that leadership is not just about power for ourselves. We have responsibilities to ourselves, each other, and the community to use our platforms for the greater good. As such, we stand together in this letter to make a demand:

You must resign. 

We know you probably will ignore this and the countless other calls for your resignation. But this moment isn’t just about you. We want the young people in our community to see that we expect more from leadership. We want them to know that we will stand with them when they meet a “Brett Watson” in their lives – and hopefully they will know who among us to come to for help. 

Local youth have bravely spoken out this year about sexual assault, harrassment, and other forms of sexualized violence. They know the world is often tolerant of abuses of power from people with platforms, and worry the adults of the world will not do enough to make it safer for the next generation of leaders. The youth of Arcata and the surrounding communities deserve leadership that values the safety and belonging of everyone in our community, regardless of power. 

For the safety of current and future colleagues—especially women and girls– and to model for others what taking responsibility for your actions looks like, we demand that you resign from your position on City Council. 

With love for our community,

• Amanda Peçanha Hickey
• Andrea Alstone, Arcata resident
• Angelica Lua, Child Abuse and Neglect Coordinator;IFECMH, McKinleyville Family Resource Center
• Aristea Saulsbury, Clerk, Northern Humboldt Union High School District Board; Co-Director of Stepping Stone Consulting; Prevention and Community Outreach Project Manager, McKinleyville Family Resource Center
• Beth Herrmann, Purchasing Manager Open Door Community Health Centers
• Bonnie Oliver, Chair, McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee
• Brittany Erez
• Carla Osborn
• Caroline Griffith, Executive Director, Northcoast Environmental Center
• Cassandra Crawford, Youth Program Operator, McKinleyville Family Resource Center
• Cat Koshkin
• Catherine Holloway
• Chloe Eicher, Speech Language Pathologist, Arcata Citizen
• Cindy Vickers, Director of Fiscal Services, Northern Humboldt Union High School District
• Cori Jara, Program Manager, McKinleyville Family Resource Center
• Cybelle Immitt, Humboldt County resident, daughter, sister, mother, friend
• Dana Silvernale, Trustee, Northern Humboldt Union High School District Board
• Desiree Davenport, former Director, Humboldt Community Services District; former board member, Redwood Regional Economic Development Commission
• Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy, Arcata resident
• Esther Hutton, Mother and Director of the Manila Community Resource Center
• Gayle Conway, Director of Student Services, Northern Humboldt Union High School District
• Heather Equinoss
• Hillarie Beyer, Executive Director, McKinleyville Family Resource Center
• Jacqueline Dandeneau Mother, Community Member, Feminist, Artist
• Jen Rice
• Jennifer Black
• Julie Ryan, Humboldt County resident
• Heidi Moore-Guynup, Humboldt County Educator, CalPoly Humboldt Lecturer
• Kara Simpson
• Katie Koscielak, Humboldt County resident
• Kelly Nord, Humboldt County Resident
• Lisa Dugan, McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee
• Lori Biondini, Humboldt County resident
• Martha Spencer, Former Director of Humboldt County Planning and Building Department
• Mary Burke, Former Director, McKinleyville Community Services District
• Maya Conrad, McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee
• Melissa Meiris, Co-Director, Stepping Stone Consulting
• Michelle Fuller
• Nani Villa, Lead case manager, McKinleyville Family Resource Center
• Natalie Arroyo
• Natalie Giannini, Trustee Northern Humboldt Union High School District Board; Lecturer at Cal Poly Humboldt
• Rachel Watson, McKinleyville Educator
• Robin Baker, Program Manager, McKinleyville Family Resource Center, former Arcata Planning Commissioner
• Sandi Byrd, Hospitality and Volunteer Program Manager, McKinleyville Family Resource Center
• Sheri Woo, Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District President, Redwood Coast Energy Authority Board Member
• Sofia Pereira, Former Arcata Mayor and Councilmember
• Stephanie Lumsden, Board member of the Native Women’s Collective, Adjunct faculty at Cal Poly Humboldt
• Taffy Stockton
• Terra Tolley, Newborn Foundation
• Theresa Grosjean, President, Northern Humboldt Union High School District Board of Trustees
• Tiffany Maher, Morris Elementary School Principal

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A proposal to eliminate California’s cannabis cultivation tax could be a saving grace for the state’s cannabis industry, but is it too late for small farmers who have struggled to stay afloat amid a market collapse? Humboldt is holding out hope.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed $141.8 billion state budget for Fiscal Year 2022-23 includes a tax reform initiative that seeks to permanently eliminate the state’s cannabis cultivation tax – which increased from $154.40 per flower per dry-weight pound to $161.28 earlier this year – beginning in July. The proposal also aims to simplify the overall tax structure by removing the role of distributors in tax remittance and “unnecessary administrative burdens and costs,” according to the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC).

“We have heard from many of you who have said that the current cannabis tax framework is overly complex,” DCC director Nicole Elliott wrote in a prepared statement. “We know that current tax policies disproportionately burden cannabis farmers and small businesses and create instability throughout the supply chain, ultimately undermining the societal benefits of a taxed and regulated market.”

Local officials applauded the proposal, adding that it would bring “much-needed relief to small and independent cannabis farmers in Humboldt County” while also strengthening enforcement efforts.

“Cannabis farmers serve a vital role in the cannabis industry, and all the revenues and services that are supported as a result,” Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell said in a prepared statement. “They are facing an extinction-level event right now due to plummeting wholesale prices, over-taxation and overregulation. Families are struggling to make ends meet and businesses are closing, many of them for good. …I urge the legislature to include cannabis tax relief in their final budget so the industry can become healthy once again.”

But to make up for those lost funds, the state plans to raise the excise tax imposed on retail cannabis purchases to 19%, up from the current 15%.

“Eliminating the cultivation tax is a huge improvement, but since the original budget announcement, more details have been released that suggest that the proposal would raise the excise tax to 19% by 2025,” Ross Gordon, policy director at the Humboldt County Growers Alliance (HCGA) and policy chair at the Origins Council, told the Outpost this week. “…The industry as a whole is struggling to compete with the illicit market, and a tax increase, even a delayed one, is only going to make us less competitive.”

If that provision stays, it would result in “a significant net tax increase on the industry and consumers,” even with the elimination of the cultivation tax, he said.

The proposal itself emphasized that the regulatory changes “may actually increase the state’s cannabis tax revenues” while simultaneously “reducing unnecessary burdens imposed by the state’s legal cannabis businesses.”

“The transition to a new cannabis tax structure may be accompanied by short-term volatility, even if that transition is successful in the long term,” the proposal continued.

While it is difficult to predict how things will play out over the coming months, Gordon maintained that it is not too late for meaningful tax reform, “but we need actual, meaningful tax reform.”

“We’ll be looking closely at this proposal over the next week and discussing it among our membership before taking a formal position, but it’s not clear that this proposal on balance would be helpful,” he said. “…The good news is that I think almost everyone recognizes that the cultivation tax is a bad policy and needs to be addressed as part of a larger tax reform effort. But we need to find a way to put all of the puzzle pieces together to benefit consumers, equity businesses, and the industry as a whole.”

The proposal will move forward to the Legislature, where it could be modified. More information can be found here.

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DOCUMENT:

• “Surface Transportation Board Decision, North Coast Railroad Abandoment Exemption,” May 17. 2022.

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In a ruling this morning, the Surface Transportation Board – the federal body hearing the state of California’s case to railbank the defunct Northwestern Pacific Railroad line between Humboldt and the Bay Area – has seriously set back community efforts to complete the Annie & Mary Trail, the long-dreamed-of pedestrian and bike path between Arcata and Blue Lake.

The ruling – which you can find at this link – determines that the private companies that ran train service before the state-owned North Coast Railroad Authority took over had legally abandoned the line as long ago as 1985, meaning that the easements over the land have reverted back to the land owners.

“The Board … determines that the abandonment of the Arcata & Mad River subsidiary was consummated decades ago,” the Surface Transportation Board writes, in its unanimous decision. “Thus, this rail segment has already been removed from the interstate rail network and the Board’s jurisdiction over it has terminated … As a result, the Arcata & Mad River subsidiary is no longer part of this exemption proceeding and the Board cannot consider requests for its interim trail use/rail banking.”

A related ruling also declares that a stretch of track on the Samoa Peninsula is outside the board’s ability to railbank, given that it is “ancillary” track – not part of the main trunk of the line — and therefore not subject to Surface Transportation Board regulations.

As far as that main trunk goes – the stretch from roughly Arcata down to Novato – the STB’s ruling holds that the state’s Great Redwood Trail plan must be paused while two outside parties who say they want to revive the railroad line are allowed to make their case.

One of those parties is Mendocino Railway, which says it would like to run trains to and from some point in the Eel River Canyon north of Dos Rios. Mendocino Railway is the company that owns the Skunk Train, which used to run from Willits to Fort Bragg but has been crippled by slides and closures for many years. It also recently seized a large swath of acreage within the Fort Bragg city limits under an obscure provision of eminent domain law.

The other party is a new limited liability corporation called the “North Coast Railroad Company.” The exact ownership of the corporation is obscure, but it’s been documented – here and elsewhere – that several groups with interest in the export of coal, including the Montana-based, coal-producing Crow Tribe, are involved.

Attorneys representing California’s Great Redwood Trail Authority – the state agency that took over management of the line from the North Coast Railroad Authority – had argued that the Surface Transportation Board should bypass these “offers of financial assistance,” given the lack of documentation available about these parties’ plans and resources, but the board, in its ruling, disagreed, saying that such issues should be addressed in a full hearing. 

“[A]rguments questioning the legitimacy of potential offerors and the continued need for rail service in this proceeding are more appropriately addressed during an [offer of financial assistance] process that considers, among other things, the financial responsibility of offerors, a demonstrable commercial need for service, and the operational feasibility of continued rail service,” the board writes.

In a congressional hearing last week, Rep. Jared Huffman pressed Martin Oberman, chair of the Surface Transportation Board, about what sort of factors might be considered during such a process. Oberman assured Huffman that financial viability, community input and even the government’s carbon goals would be taken into consideration when determining whether or not another company should be allowed to take the rail line away from the state. 

I’m heartened to hear from @STBopagac today in @TransportDems that community input and climate goals are crucial factors when considering rail lines. These are important elements when it comes to decisions like Great Redwood Trail and the disastrous coal train in my district. pic.twitter.com/31TlPG9ET4

— Rep. Jared Huffman (@RepHuffman) May 12, 2022

Nevertheless, Scott Greacen, conservation director at Friends of the Eel, said that the public should be aware that it’ll be an uphill battle, in any case. “The bottom line is that the STB’s regulations are a playing field that are tilted decisively toward rail use,” Greacen told the Outpost earlier today.

So the Great Redwood Trail railbanking project has been prolonged, and it’s uncertain whether or not it will be allowed to proceed. If it’s not, that would affect not only the centerpiece of the vision that state Sen. Mike McGuire has been promoting since he authored the Great Redwood Trail Act — the unbroken hiking trail between Humboldt Bay and the San Francisco Bay Area — but dozens of regional trail planning efforts in the counties containing the North Coast Railroad tracks, including the extension of Eureka’s waterfront trail to the north and the south.

But the more immediate news — that after decades of planning, the Annie and Mary Trail has been effectively upended — took local trail planners by surprise.

Speaking to the Outpost this afternoon, Emily Sinkhorn, the city of Arcata’s environmental services director whose trail work extends back to her time working for the Redwood Community Action Agency, said that the city is confident it can move forward with its own section of the Annie and Mary Trail, which currently has some funding behind it. The Annie and Mary section of the line doesn’t begin until the tracks reach the Alder Grove Industrial Park, near the city’s northern edge, and so building the trail alongside the tracks up to that point shouldn’t be a problem. Beyond that, she said, the city is working with landowners adjacent to the rails — including the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District — to secure right-of-way as far as Pump Station #1 on the Mad River.

The larger vision of the Annie and Mary Trail — Arcata to Blue Lake — has been set back, Sinkhorn allowed. All of a sudden, trail planners will have to work with a patchwork of land owners who may or may not be open to the idea of a trail running through their land. Easements could be costly and difficult to acquire.

But Sinkhorn isn’t ready to throw in the towel yet. “There’s been 25-plus years of support for connecting Arcata to Blue Lake, so look for more creativity to make that happen,” she said.

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PREVIOUSLY:

• ‘A Transformational Day’: McGuire Announces That $16.5 Million for the Great Redwood Trail Has Been Added to the State Budget
• Federal Judge Rules For Caltrans in Lawsuit Over Road-Widening Project Through Richardson Grove
• Aiming to Ship Coal Out of Humboldt Bay, Shadowy Corporation Makes Bid to Take Over NCRA Line
• Consultant in NCRA Rail Takeover Bid Says Project Has Been Misrepresented, But Document Reveals Coal Connections and Wiyot Tribe Involvement
• Huffman, Thompson Pen Letter to Buttigieg Opposing Federal Loans for ‘Disastrous’ Coal Train Project
• Supervisors Pass Resolution Opposing Potential Coal Exports Through Humboldt Bay