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One of Keanna Torres’s main goals when she joined the Army was that she’d never have to find a new owner for her beloved Nolyn, a handsome and spirited mutt she’d rescued in 2013 after he was found eating from a dumpster in Nevada.

Her nightmare scenario almost came to pass earlier this year. Just weeks before her scheduled deployment, the arrangements she’d made for Nolyn’s care collapsed. 

“Multiple people fell through on me,” she said. “I was frantically calling all kinds of shelters and rescues, being like, ‘What’s the cost to house my dog for a few months?’ But they were all — everything was out of my price range. I was very afraid that I was gonna have to give him up to a shelter.”

Eventually, an employee at one of the shelters recommended calling Miranda’s Rescue in Fortuna. Owner Shannon Miranda agreed to board Nolyn for free, a service he has offered to active military personnel for the past six or seven years.

“This dog is a little bit of a handful,” Miranda said when reached by phone this afternoon. “He’s one of those dogs where if he doesn’t know you he wants to eat you.”

Neither he nor Torres knew what to expect when she arrived at the shelter on Wednesday following a six-month deployment. Would Nolyn remember her?

Miranda caught the reunion on video, which you can watch below. As Torres approaches, Nolyn initially shows no signs of recognition. But then he sniffs her — first one hand and then the other — and his demeanor begins to melt. Before long he’s wiggling in his mom’s arms, his excitement uncontrollable.

“Oh my gosh, I’m gonna cry!” Miranda exclaims. “Look at him!”

Torres now lives in Texas, and she’d driven all the way to Fortuna to pick Nolyn up. “I was so excited, the whole drive up,” she said. There was apprehension, too, about how he’d respond to seeing her again. When the moment came, Nolyn wasn’t the only giddy one.

“So many emotions,” Torres said. “It was amazing.”

We caught her via phone in New Mexico, driving back to Texas with Nolyn in tow. He’s doing great on the drive, she said. In fact, before dropping him off at Miranda’s Rescue, Nolyn had trust issues with strangers — men in particular. But since picking him up Torres hasn’t seen any signs of that behavior.

“I’m super grateful for Shannon,” she said, grateful that her life with Nolyn can continue. “Shannon made that possible for me.” 

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Some of the Willow Creek-area residents who have been without power since the weekend snowstorms got a bit of a shock, recently, when they looked at PG&E’s outage map and saw that the utility wasn’t planning to have power back up to their homes until … Jan. 14?!?

A quick exchange of emails with PG&E spokesperson Deanna Contreras confirmed that they don’t actually expect it to take that long. They were recently able to get a helicopter up to fly the transmission line that serves the area, and they’re expecting to start bringing customers back online “in batches” soon.

Full situation reprt from Contreras below:

Crews were able to complete damage repairs and restore power to thousands of customers Wednesday night in Garberville, Bridgeville, Petrolia and areas in Willow Creek after Sunday nights severe winter storm. The heavy snowpack and the large number of trees that have fallen on power lines and electrical equipment caused thousands of customers to lose power along the North Coast. We have not seen this many fallen trees, causing power outages in more than 15 years. The last time Northern California had storms of this magnitude was back in 2016, our last relatively wet water year in recent years. Snowfall totals associated with this storm have in some cases broken snow accumulation records for the month of December.

Crews are still working safely and as quickly as possible to restore power to the remaining customers in Willow Creek, Hoopa and some in Laytonville, as well as Trinity County. Now that conditions have cleared and we have been able to fly a helicopter to inspect our lines for damage for the first time, we have made assessments on Cahto Peak and Bell Springs Road. That means the remaining customers in the Laytonville area are expected to receive power tonight.

Same with Willow Creek and Hoopa. We were able to inpsect that transmission line that serves those customers today for the first time with a helicopter and found multiple instances of damage that we can’t see from the ground. We will begin restoring the remaining customers in Willow Creek in small batches, as repairs are made. All customers will be restored when there are zero locations of damages on the entire transmission line.

Also going into Trinity County, there are hundreds of customers who are without power and we have been contacting them to let them know they may be without power at least through the weekend. Those are the areas (as well as Willow Creek) where the ETOR [estimated time of restoral] says January 10 or even January 14, and that is based on earlier data. PG&E has been sending initial estimated times of restoration to impacted customers to help them plan and prepare. These dates are based on initial assessments and the dates are likely to change as we gain access, survey damage and continue the restoration progress. We have scores of crews working alongside other first responders and we will not stop until every customer is restored from the powerful holiday winter storm.

Again, we DO expect those dates to change as we have been able to gain access to more areas, are able to use additional resources (such as helicopters and more snowcats) and the hazardous conditions have dissipated.

Dangers associated with this system have included trees still falling, high avalanche danger, cold temperatures, travel risks over mountain passes and highways. Strong storm conditions were resulting in inaccessibility to reach damaged equipment due to snow, downed trees and other hazards.

Out of the approx. 3,000 customers without power in Humboldt and Trinity Counties, here’s a look at the number of customers currently impacted in the hardest hit areas:

• Blue Lake – 96 customers
• Bridgeville – 186 customers; ETOR by Friday night
• Burnt Ranch – 454
• Hoopa – 185 customers
• Mad River – 24 customers impacted; ETOR by Sunday night
• Orleans – 27 customers; ETOR by Sunday night
• Salyer – 452 customers
• Willow Creek – currently 930 customers impacted
• Zenia – 68 customers by tomorrow night

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Dec. 30, 2021, at about 1:06 a.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies on patrol in the McKinleyville area conducted a routine traffic stop for a vehicle code violation on Central Avenue.

Photo: HCSO.

Deputies contacted two individuals inside the vehicle. The driver of the vehicle, 44-year-old Joseph George Birnie, was found to have a restraining order against him prohibiting contact between Birnie and the adult female passenger of the vehicle.

Birnie was taken into custody for violating the restraining order. During a search of Birnie and his vehicle incident to arrest, deputies located over 5 grams of methamphetamine, over six pounds of processed cannabis, a loaded firearm, ammunition and materials consistent with the sale of controlled substances.

Birnie was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of felon in possession of a firearm (PC 29800(a)(1)), possession of a controlled substance while armed (HS 11370.1(a)), transportation/sale of a controlled substance (HS 11379(a)), possession of a controlled substance for sales (HS 11378), violating a court order (PC 273.6(a)) and possession of cannabis (HS 11357(a)).

The female passenger 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.

Well, that was that! Two thousand twenty-one (2021) is just about in the rear-view.

Was it a bad year? It wasn’t the worst year. The vaccine flowed, miraculously, and if things didn’t return exactly to normal, then they returned to more normal, with a promise of yet more normality on the horizon. More Humboldt County people were killed by COVID in the last six months of the pandemic than the entire first year, but kids went back to school. Plus, it rained.

But now it’s time to skip the light fandango back through the year that was in traditional LoCO fashion — through the most-clicked posts of 2021! This annual exercise always illustrates the prejudice of the readership toward raw emotion in one form or another — anger or fear, often enough, but also, in beautiful sunny moments, pure glee. We are a species that likes to feel.

This year, though, we’re introducing a new metric, and a separate list. These are the posts that the readers spent the most time on. While it may not be a perfect measure, we like to think that this is a rough sketch of the stories that most engaged the readership’s higher faculties — those regions of the self that exist somewhere other than the limbic system. These are stories that we put a lot of work into because we felt it was important to do so, and they’re the stories that you put a lot of work into for the same reason.

Either that, or they’re stories that had good video.

Two lists, then! OK, let’s go. Countdown!

MOST CLICKED POSTS

25. PG&E Illegally Clear-Cut Grove of Redwoods Near Redwood Acres, County Says

PG&E cut down some redwoods near Redwood Acres without county permits. The county didn’t care for that.

24. Highway 101 Fully Closed in Northern Mendocino due to Snow Conditions; Chain Controls on 299 and 36

Everyone loves a snow day. This one didn’t quite reach the snug factor we’ve achieved in previous years, when 101 and 299 and 36 all closed simultaneously and Humboldt could just cuddle under the blankets for as long as the hot chocolate held out, but it came close.

23. Bear River Rancheria Homicide Victims Named by Sheriff’s Office; Person of Interest ID’d; No Arrests

The day after the most horrible crime of the year — a senseless and stupid triple murder committed by a teenager, who promptly went on the lam with the help of some adults — the Sheriff’s Office released the names of the victims and a few details about the crime.

The suspect was later caught in Utah, and a couple of months later he pleaded guilty. 

22. MASKS BACK UP: Humboldt Public Health Joins 25 Other Counties to Recommend Masking Indoors, Regardless of Vaccination Status

Remember that very brief moment, back in the summer, before Delta, when vaccinated people were welcome to cruise into the store or restaurant or coffee shop maskless and everyone was cool with it and it was like 2019 all over again?

This was the end of that.

21. Yes, Hillary Clinton Was in Humboldt Over the Weekend — and, Who Knows, Maybe She Still Is — For Reasons No One Cares to Talk About

The North Coast Journal finally found someone who dared talk about it. Sheriff Billy Honsal told the NCJ on the record that Team Hillary was here to film an interview with Yurok Tribal Court Judge Abby Abinanti for an upcoming documentary TV series.

But then, later, the Sheriff’s Office would not repeat that information to the Times-Standard, and the food truck that posted the Clinton crew’s lunch order to their Instagram page took down the post. All very weird!

20. THE REMASKENING: Humboldt County Facilities Will Again Require Masks Starting Friday

A little more than a week after the county started recommending masks indoors again, it started requiring masks in county facilities.

19. FLY TO L.A. FOR $20? Brand New Budget Airline Launches with Humboldt to Hollywood as Inaugural Route

Holy moly — so much cool airport news in 2021! Hello, Phoenix! Hello, Las Vegas! Hello, Reno! 

But the announcement y’all loved the most was the announcement of cheap direct service to Lipstick City on a brand-new airline. Bonus: This airline flies in and out of the Los Angeles area’s least-worst airport!

18. Myers Flat Woman Has Foot Amputated After Surviving a Vicious Dog Attack

Just an absolutely ghastly story of two pitbulls attacking and nearly killing a woman. The dogs were later euthanized, and their owner was prohibited from owning any other dogs for the next three years.

17. New Evacuation Orders Issued for the Knob Fire Burning South of Willow Creek

For the second year in a row, a very, very bad California wildfire season touched Humboldt County only around the edges. This was as scary as it got in Humboldt County in 2021 — a lucky blessing. It won’t hold up forever.

16. “Scanner Traffic Indicates,” Feb. 10.

This was the day of the triple murder at Bear River.

15. County Halts Giving 90 Percent of Vaccines On Hand Due to ‘Severe Adverse Reactions’ Reported Out of San Diego

This was a pretty scary post back in January, when the vaccines were first started rolling out, but it turned out to be nothing and those paused doses eventually went into arms.

14. Sac Bee Investigation Details Vile Group Chat Among Members of One EPD Squad

The Sacramento Bee’s explosive investigation into the vile group chat between one squad of Eureka Police Department brought back the bad old days of the EPD, when the force was famous for behaving as an occupying army among the citizens it served. We thought that era was behind us, but it wasn’t … or not completely so.

An internal investigation, conducted by a third-party firm, has been completed, but because of the frankly astounding amount of privilege and confidentiality afforded to this class of public servant through the laws of the state of California, the results of that investigation are not yet known.

13. Humboldt Rises Up Against Weepy Instagram Traveler Who Called Arcata and Eureka ‘Horrible Disgusting Towns’

An ever-popular genre: Z-list influencer comes through town, talks trash, gets blasted! 

This is generally followed by the backlash to the backlash — a Delta wave of miserable locals who wish to register that IT REALLY DOES SUCK HERE THOUGH.

12. Beloved McKinleyville Peacock, a ‘Neighborhood Mascot,’ Found Dead After a Craigslist Ad Ordered the Hit

This was just an amazing story of someone — a particular neighbor, perhaps? — using Craigslist to find a hitman who would take down a beloved-to-some, annoying-to-others feral bird that habituated a particular block of McKinleyville. Which happened!

It seems like every media outlet in the world picked up this story. A week later a suspect had been identified and a search warrant served, but all has been quiet since then.

11. Real Estate Giant Reportedly Agrees to Foreclose on Bayshore Mall

This one struck some sort of chord. Was it a story about the decline of the brick-and-mortal retail sector, accelerated by the pandemic? Or was it a story about the Mall getting what was coming to it, for decimating downtown businesses decades ago? You choose. Anyway, the mall is still open. 

10. Child Dies Following Reported Medical Emergency at the Carson Mansion Pool

We phrased this cautiously at the time, but it was later determined that the nine-year-old boy did, in fact, drown.

9. Officer-Involved Shooting in the Arcata Bottoms: Sheriff’s Office, Other First Responders Investigating

Weirdly, this was unrelated to the alert sent out earlier in the day about a sketchy person in roughly the same area.

This sketchy person was marching through the Bottoms with a firearm, apparently on his way to McKinleyville over the foot bridge. Officers repeated ordered the man — 35-year-old Eureka resident Charles Chivrell — to stop and speak with them. He refused, and told cops that he was headed up to McKinleyville to “clear out the Mexicans.” They fired pepper balls at him, and he turned around and fired back with his weapon. The police shot him dead.

Body cam footage of the entire incident was released a couple of weeks later.

8. HOLY MOLY: 6.2 Quake Rocks and Rattles Humboldt

Biggest Second-biggest quake since 2010! That one, which included photogenic damage in Old Town, earned us a visit from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. This time the only structure seriously hit was the old Creamery building in Loleta. (Thanks for the correction, @lurkylurker.)

7. NOAA Predicts 70 Percent Chance of Rainy La Niña Weather Across the Pacific Northwest This Fall, Winter

Did we call it or what?

6. Escaping Outreach: Former Members of Eureka Church Say It’s a Cult With a History of Hiding Sexual Abuse

The only article to make both lists is Ryan Burns’ long story on young people who have escaped from the orbit of the Eureka-based Gospel Outreach church, a formerly up-from-hippie outfit (though one with odd ties to a genocidal Latin American regime) that seems to have taken a very dark turn.

5. Two Arrested Today After Months-Long Fentanyl Trafficking Investigation, Drug Task Force Says

This was not the biggest of the year’s many fentanyl busts. Why was it the clickiest? We do not know. Is it because the fentanyl was orange?

4. COVID REPORT: One Death, Three Hospitalizations, 71 New Cases Since Friday; Those New Quarantine Orders

Again: Very far from the most devastating daily COVID update. Why was it far and away the most read? Perhaps because of those new quarantine orders — which were actually a relaxation of the orders that were previously in effect.

3. COVID Hospitalizations Break Records in Six California Counties

Humboldt was one of the counties that our friends at Calmatters identified in August as having suddenly reached peak hospitalization, over a year after the beginning of the pandemic. Others included Del Norte, Mendocino and Lake counties. 

2. The City of Eureka Has Removed the Mysterious Dildo Atop the Old Town Gazebo

What a wonderful day this was, this day when a large phallus suddenly appeared atop the Old Town Gazebo! Or was it only the day when we first noticed it? How long had the phallus been there? Who knows! Whoever put it there put it there in such a way that it seemed to be an integral part of the design, and so perhaps the public’s eyes had simply passed over it for days, or weeks.

It seemed to belong there. But other people disagreed, and we were very delighted to document the city’s removal of the object, which was nearly as silly as the thing itself. It was really screwed on there good! It didn’t want to come off!

But come off it did, and Dan Savage delivered the eulogy. Goodbye, Old Town Dildo. We will always have this memory.

1. Aggressive Dog Allegedly Owned by Chris Brown Found Loose in Humboldt County, Euthanized on Christmas Eve After Serious Biting Incident at Singer’s LA Home

Usually the very clickiest post of the year is one that transcends Humboldt’s humble boundaries. TMZ originally broke the story of Chris Brown’s prized Caucasian shepherd and its weird journey to a Humboldt County hideout after viciously attacking the singer’s domestic help, but the Outpost’s John Ferrara filled in some of the gaps in the story on the local front — how the dog came to reoffend while hiding in Miranda, and why the Sheriff’s Office put it down.

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OK, now on to the stories that readers spent the most time reading, on average. You want to feel good about yourself in 2022? Read the ones you missed when they came out.

LONGEST READ POSTS

1. County Employees Threaten Legal Action Over ‘Failures’ of Auditor-Controller; Workforce Board Pursues ‘No Confidence’ Vote

2. Humboldt Unsolved Cases Database Includes HCSO’s Backlog of Missing Persons and Suspected Homicides

3. ‘IT STARTS TO HURT YOUR SOUL’: Two St. Joe’s Nurses Talk About Life Inside the ICU During COVID

4. Escaping Outreach: Former Members of Eureka Church Say It’s a Cult With a History of Hiding Sexual Abuse

5. Inside the Turmoil at Peninsula Union School, Where Staff Say That a Much-Lauded Administrator Governs Through Intimidation

6. As County’s Fiscal Fiascoes Mount, Feds Impose Tax Liens, Contractors Plead for Their Money and Department Heads Sound the Alarm

7. ‘Something is Broken’: County Staff, Supervisors and Department Heads Confront Auditor-Controller in Collective Airing of Grievances

8. THE CANNABIS CONVERSATION: Right Now, the Economic Outlook for Humboldt County Seems Pretty Bleak

9. The Ocean is Scary Right Now: Humboldt Locals Share Their King Tide, Monster Wave Footage

10. County Employees Threaten Legal Action Over ‘Failures’ of Auditor-Controller; Workforce Board Pursues ‘No Confidence’ Vote

From the Eureka Police Department:

Chief Todd Jarvis, via his Twitter account.

The Eureka City Council will confirm the City Manager’s appointment of Todd Jarvis as Interim Police Chief at the January 4, 2022 Regular Council meeting. Chief Jarvis will begin employment with the City of Eureka effective January 3 rd and comes to EPD with 35 years of law enforcement experience. Chief Jarvis will serve as Interim Police Chief throughout the City’s recruitment process for a permanent Chief of Police.

Interim Police Chief Jarvis started his career as a Community Service Officer and retired in November of 2019 as Executive Assistant Chief of Police for San Diego Police Department. Chief Jarvis was second in command at SDPD, an agency consisting of 2043 sworn, 562 civilian budget positions and over 300 volunteers. Interim Police Chief Jarvis is a graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

Other educational credits include Advance Training School on Counterterrorism, Western State Counterterrorism Seminar, Tel-Aviv, Israel; Center for Creative Leadership; Drug Unit Commander’s Academy; and the Sherman Block Supervisory Leadership Institute Class. Chief Jarvis also holds Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Supervisory and Management California Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Certificates.

Interim Chief Jarvis stated “I look forward to the opportunity to work with the men and women of Eureka Police Department and help the lead the department through the transition to a permanent Chief”.

“Chief Jarvis has a solid background in Police operations and I look forward to his leadership at EPD and as part of the City’s management team”, said City Manager Miles Slattery. “I would also like to thank Acting Chief Brian Stephens for his steadfast leadership at EPD during the last several weeks leading up to the arrival of Chief Jarvis.”

Press release from the California Highway Patrol:

As we head into the new year, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) is educating the public on traffic safety laws that were passed during this year’s legislative season and signed by Governor Gavin Newsom. The laws take effect January 1, 2022, unless otherwise noted.

Sideshow Definition and Penalties (Assembly Bill (AB) 3, Fong)

This new law strengthens penalties for those convicted of exhibition of speed if the violation occurred as part of a sideshow.

Beginning July 1, 2025, a court will be permitted to suspend a person’s driver’s license between 90 days and six months if the person is convicted of exhibition of speed and if the violation occurred as part of a “sideshow.” Section 23109(c) of the California Vehicle Code (CVC) (exhibition of speed) will define sideshow as an event in which two or more persons block or impede traffic on a highway for the purpose of performing motor vehicle stunts, motor vehicle speed contests, motor vehicle exhibitions of speed, or reckless driving for spectators.

The courts will be required to consider a defendant’s medical, personal, or family hardship that requires a person to have a driver’s license before determining whether to suspend a person’s driver’s license.

Equestrian Safety Gear (AB 974, L. Rivas) 

Requires a person under the age of 18 to wear a properly fitted and fastened helmet when riding an equestrian animal, such as a horse, mule, or donkey on a paved highway. This bill also requires all riders or their equines to wear reflective gear or a lamp when riding after sundown.

A person riding an equestrian animal in a parade or festival, or crossing a paved highway from an unpaved highway, is exempt from all helmet, lighting, or reflective gear requirements.

Tribal Emergency Vehicles (AB 798, Ramos)

This bill provides that any vehicle owned or operated by a federally recognized Indian tribe is considered an authorized emergency vehicle as defined by Section 165 CVC when responding to an emergency, fire, ambulance, or lifesaving calls.

Class C Drivers Allowed to Tow Trailer (Senate Bill 287, Grove) 

Effective January 1, 2027, drivers with a class C driver’s license may operate a vehicle towing a trailer between 10,001 pounds and 15,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating, or gross vehicle weight with a fifth-wheel and kingpin or bed mounted gooseneck connection, provided that the trailer is used exclusively for recreational purposes for the transportation of property, living space, or both.

The driver will be required to pass a specialized written examination demonstrating the knowledge of the CVC and other safety aspects relating to the towing of recreational vehicles on the highway and possess an endorsement on their class C driver’s license.

Currently, this exemption is in place for drivers towing a fifth-wheel travel trailer provided the driver passes a specialized written exam and obtains a recreational trailer endorsement.

As a reminder, the following law took effect on July 1, 2021:

License Points for Distracted Driving (AB 47, Daly; 2019) 

Using a handheld cell phone while driving is currently punishable by a fine. As of July 1, 2021, violating the hands-free law for a second time within 36 months of a prior conviction for the same offense will result in a point being added to a driver’s record. This applies to the violations of talking or texting while driving (except for hands-free use) and to any use of these devices while driving by a person under 18 years of age.

Charles Lorn Shank Jr. passed away on November 1, 2021 at his long-time home on Walnut Drive in Eureka.

Charlie was born August 27, 1944 to Charles and Dorothy Shank and was a life-long resident of Eureka, graduating from Eureka High School Class of 1962.

Charlie enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and shipped out for a tour of duty in Vietnam and received an honorable discharge.

Upon returning to civilian life he became a commercial fisherman and highliner for many years. Eventually Charlie got married and had a son, bought his house on Walnut Drive and settled into a shore job with the county of Humboldt for 20 years until his retirement.

Charlie was an expert razor clammer, an avid deer hunter and an all-around sportsman. His best times were spent on Clam Beach and the hills of Ruth Lake and South Fork mountain.

Charlie was preceded in death by his parents and his sister Carolyn Shank Scheffler. He is survived by his son Joe Shank, daughter-in-law Jessica Shank and three grandchildren. He is also survived by Lee Ann Flowers, his partner of 12 years.

Charlie will be sorely missed by all his lifelong friends in Eureka.

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