Edward James Ramos (Hawaiian Jimmy) was born January 26, 1939 in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. He passed away peacefully at his home surrounded by his family on September 6, 2021 at the age of 82. He is survived by his partner of 28 years, Nici Filteau, his children Jamie Ramos, Edward Ramos II, Dena Cedeno, and Angela Ramos-Lecue. nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his siblings Vincent Ortiz, Gary Ortiz, Clifford Ortiz, and Antonia Ortiz. He is predeceased by his parents Edward Ramos and Julia Veles, daughter Selena Ramos-Thomas, and brother Pedro Gordon Ramos (Shorty).

He had a very active and happy life growing up in Hawaii. He joined the Navy in Hawaii in 1956, and was honorably discharged in 1957, where he then joined the Coast Guard in 1958. He and his wife Betty Ramos had their two oldest daughters Selena and Jamie, in Hawaii before they moved permanently to the mainland to San Francisco in 1960. They then had Jimbo, Dena, and Angel.

In 1960 Jimmy started a car club in San Francisco called Sons of Hawaii. Jimmy became founder/President of Sons of Hawaii MC, San Francisco Chapter in 1960 to when he disbanded the club in 1970.

He continued to live the Sons of Hawaii and Hawaiian lifestyle, while raising his family in San Francisco. He also mentoring many neighborhood children teaching them, taking them on camping trips, and riding minibikes until he moved to McKinleyville in 1983 after his divorce from Betty Ramos.

He continued to live out his life in McKinleyville as a motorcycle enthusiast, a special construction motorcycle mechanic, and a mentor to many with his vast knowledge of all things mechanical.

“Going down the highway
O’ so fast, thinking about nothing but my past.
Thinking about all my old friends,
Some have made it, some have not,
Some have ended up in a graveyard slot.
With all my will and not a care,
Nothing but the wind blowing in my hair.
Going O’ so fast doing one-hundred and ten,
Knowing one wrong move and life can end.

-Love, Jimbo

Rest easy and ride free, forever in the wind.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Edward Ramos’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.

PREVIOUSLY: 

• This Year’s U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree Will Come From the Six Rivers National Forest
• Now They Need Us to Make 15,000 Ornaments to Decorate the Six Rivers National Forest-Sourced Congressional Christmas Trees
• Congress’s Demand for Tribute From Our Local Life-Giving Forests Has Been Fulfilled: ‘Sugar Bear’ the 84-Foot White Fir Will Serve as the 2021 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree

If you or someone you know is a) a fifth grader in Humboldt, Trinity of Del Norte counties, b) can write convincing essays when given vague prompts and c) have always dreamed of being an official U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree lighter — well then! — the following Six Rivers National Forest release is for you!:

For more than 50 years, the Speaker of the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., has asked the USDA Forest Service to provide a tree to adorn the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol for the holiday season. This year, the Six Rivers National Forest will proudly provide the tree and select a local 5th grader to be named as the official youth tree lighter in a three-county-wide essay contest.

The youth tree lighter may have the opportunity to participate in the tree harvest ceremony, tree lighting ceremony and other local events. Events may be virtual or in-person, and any in-person events will occur in accordance with CDC guidelines.

The youth will be selected by a panel consisting of personnel from the USDA Forest Service, County Offices of Education and the Board of Supervisors from Del Norte, Humboldt, and Trinity counties, and by office of Representative Jared Huffman, based on the criteria below.

The competition is open to 5th grade students in Del Norte, Humboldt, and Trinity counties. Students are asked to compose an essay about the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree with the prompt, “What does the theme ‘Six Rivers, Many Peoples, One Tree’ mean to you?”

In addition to the essay, applicants may choose to include a one-page supporting attachment relating the theme to an aspect of science, technology, engineering, arts, and/or mathematics (STEAM) for an interdisciplinary approach.

Submissions will be evaluated on mechanics of grammar, spelling and construct, content, and STEAM integration. The submission should not exceed a 500-word essay with one additional page of illustration/supporting data – all electronic.

Students should submit their essays electronically to their respective County Office of Education (COE) office by Sept. 24.

• Del Norte COE: Jeff Harris- jharris@delnorte.k12.ca.gov
• Humboldt COE: Stacy Young- syoung@HCOE.org
• Trinity COE: Tim Nordstrom- tnordstrom@tcoek.k12.org
  

Each Office of Education will submit their top five (5) entries to the U.S. Forest Service, and the winning submission will be selected and notified in mid-October.

All submissions must be accompanied by the consent form from a parent or guardian for use of the product as well as consent to appear in media. All participants may be recognized by the U.S. Forest Service.

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Press release from the Humboldt County Association of Governments:

Participate in the Regional Transportation Plan Update and Help Move Transportation Priorities Forward

The way we choose to move ourselves through the community can have major impacts on the local economy, public health and our environment. That is why the Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG), our Regional Transportation Planning Agency, is seeking input from residents on the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) update currently underway. The purpose of the RTP is to establish regional goals, identify present and future transportation needs and understand local deficiencies and constraints so that transportation investments can be proposed and fulfilled.

HCAOG encourages all the public to participate in the RTP update, especially those who have traditionally been underserved by the transportation system that serves our region. By providing input on this important policy document, you will help prioritize spending on local transportation projects and programs. HCAOG’s goal is to create strategies to increase mobility and accessibility for all modes of transportation, with safer and healthier outcomes for the whole community, especially the most vulnerable users: seniors, all pedestrians, youth, people with disabilities, bicyclists, and transit users.

HCAOG invites the public to participate in several ways. There is a virtual Community Dialogue & Workshop on Monday, Sept. 13, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. (with Spanish translation available). (LINK HERE). This is an opportunity for residents to share transportation viewpoints and visions, and to discuss how we can best plan and meet short-term and long-term priorities. The public may also provide input by completing an online survey in English or Spanish.

Whether you are most passionate about creating a robust public transit system, improving the state of our roads and bridges, increasing opportunities for active transportation, or delivering goods to local stores efficiently and reliably, your participation in this project will help influence Humboldt County’s transportation system to improve quality-of-life standards for all. To access the project survey or online meeting link, or to learn more, please visit the project website at this link.

UPDATE, Sept. 14:

Humboldt Bay Fire announced this morning that Old Town’s defaced Fallen Firefighter Memorial has been restored.

“Thank you so much for all the community support and for everyone who helped restore the Fallen Firefighters Memorial to its original glory,” HBF wrote.

Read the original story below.

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Sigh. Sometime between Humboldt Bay Fire’s 9/11 tribute event on Saturday and Monday morning, someone vandalized the recently installed Fallen Firefighter Memorial in Old Town Eureka’s Clarke Plaza.

Currently, black spray paint covers the monument’s central helmet (above) and can also be found on some of the plaza’s brickwork (below). 

“We are disheartened and disappointed that someone would deface this important memorial and [we are] working to restore the space to its original honor,” Humboldt Bay Fire said in a statement. 

HBF release below: 

On the morning of September 13, 2021, just two days after concluding a September 11 tribute at the Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Eureka, Humboldt Bay Firefighters discovered the site had been vandalized.

Black spray paint now covers the helmet of the statue, dripping down toward the turnout bottoms and boots of the sculpture. Illegible words and figures in the same black paint mar the beautiful brick work surrounding the memorial.

This is the fourth transgression of which we are aware directed toward a local fire department in the last month. On August 15, the Rio Dell Volunteer Fire Department was broken into and a 4-wheeler was stolen. On September 9, Samoa Peninsula Fire District was broken into and several tools were stolen. On September 12, Telegraph Ridge Volunteer Department was broken into, resulting in broken windows, damaged property, and stolen cash.

We are discouraged, disheartened, and disappointed that someone would deface this important memorial, especially right after the 20th anniversary of 9/11, a date that is held so dearly in the hearts of the fire community and American public. We are even more alarmed at this recent swell of crime that seems to be targeting local fire agencies. Please, if anyone has any information on the above crimes, contact your local law enforcement agency. If anyone has information or camera footage related to the vandalism of the Fallen Firefighter Memorial in Eureka, CA, please contact the Eureka Police Department to update the open case.

Humboldt Bay Fire and City of Eureka crews will be at the memorial site this afternoon to clean and restore the site to its former glory. We want to thank the City of Eureka and the Eureka Police Department for their assistance and partnership.

PREVIOUSLY: Eureka’s Fallen Firefighter Memorial Officially Unveiled at Dedication Ceremony in Clarke Plaza

A morning fire update from Calfire and the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office.

A new wildfire that ignited in the Calpella area of Mendocino County yesterday afternoon caused mandatory evacuation and destroyed an uncounted number of structures and after it quickly grew by more than 275 acres.

Despite reports on the Calfire website that the fire, which is being referred to as the “Hopkins Fire,” is 20 percent contained, Calfire Mendocino Unit Chief George Gonzalez said minutes ago in a morning fire briefing that the fire is 10 percent contained.

“It started out as a small, less than 1-acre fire, and rapidly grew to where it is today,” Gonzalez said.

#HopkinsFire. We have numerous air and ground resources at scene. We have slowed the fire growth, so far no injuries reported. Please stay out of the area. Be safe! pic.twitter.com/hjN1wyvrGx

— George Gonzalez (@meuchief1100) September 13, 2021

A damage inspection team has been requested to determine how many structures have been damaged or destroyed by the fire. Evacuation orders remain in effect today as at least 200 structures are still threatened in the area.

While firefighters reportedly made good progress on the fire last night, Gonzalez said that the area remains unsafe.

“We are not out of the woods quite yet,” he said.

A team of 262 firefighters is actively working on the fire, including 22 engines, six water tenders, two helicopters, seven dozers and six hand crews.

Video of the fire recorded yesterday afternoon. | Local journalist Terri Klemetson.

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The panic started to set in for California Democrats in the last week of July.

First, there was a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll on July 27, which showed that likely voters were just about evenly split on whether or not Gov. Gavin Newsom deserves to keep his job.

A few days later came an even more alarming set of figures from SurveyUSA: A majority of likely voters, 51%, wanted to fire Newsom, compared to a mere 40% who did not. It came at a pivotal moment in the chaotic recall, just hours before the first televised debate. And it showed the power of polls — not just to offer a snapshot of the race, but to shape it.

This one poll upended the conventional wisdom that pundits and political consultants had been spouting for months: The Democratic governor of the reliably Democratic state had little reason to fear the Sept. 14 recall. “Shock poll shows Gavin Newsom losing recall vote by double digits,” read one headline. The widely monitored poll average at FiveThirtyEight snapped from the “no” on recall campaign leading by 7 percentage points to a tie. With a relative scarcity of large statewide polls, that single survey “kind of swung the numbers a lot,” polling guru Nate Silver said in a podcast last week.

For California Democrats, the prospect of Newsom succumbing to a conservative-led recall campaign was the stuff of nightmares.

But it was also exactly what Newsom and the “no” campaign needed to rouse liberal-leaning voters. They immediately blasted out the bad news like a statistical bat signal for apathetic Democrats.

“This recall is close,” read the fundraising email to supporters on Aug. 5, the day after the SurveyUSA poll was released. “Close enough to start thinking about what it’d be like if we had a Republican Governor in California. Sorry to put the thought in your head, but it’s true.”

Only maybe it wasn’t.

In its next poll, released at the end of August, SurveyUSA issued a mea culpa in a memo addendum that said the prior poll may have misworded a question and inadvertently inflated the “yes” on recall numbers.

The Democratic panic of early August has since subsided. A UC Berkeley poll out Friday shows the recall failing by 22 percentage points. The latest from SurveyUSA gave Newsom a solid 13-point lead. Now a new conventional wisdom has taken hold: The recall faces long odds because Newsom’s Democratic base of voters has woken up.

SurveyUSA CEO Jay Leve admits that their earlier poll could have acted as an alarm clock. “It was not our intention to cause Democrats to suddenly sit bolt upright in their chairs,” he told CalMatters. And yet, “that, I think, happened.”

There are other factors that likely snapped complacent anti-recall voters to attention: A $70 million get-out-the-vote campaign from Team Newsom, the decision by every major GOP hopeful to vocally oppose popular vaccine mandates, a surprise U.S. Supreme Court decision restricting abortion rights, the arrival of ballots in the mail to every active registered voter and an increase in media coverage as Tuesday’s election approached.

And then there was the emergence of right-wing provocateur Larry Elder as the leading replacement candidate, at 38% in the latest poll. The conservative radio host secured a place on the ballot at the last minute, and only thanks to a judge’s ruling that wiped out a requirement that candidates disclose tax returns. He became a useful foil for Newsom, especially after Elder’s ex-fiancée alleged that he waved a gun at her while high on marijuana — which Elder denied — and reporters began digging through his long history of controversial comments on women, race and other issues.

“There are two ways in which the polls, potentially, not only reflected but shaped the campaign: One was through this creation of crisis, which motivated Gavin Newsom’s donors, his political allies and his base,” said UC San Diego political scientist Thad Kousser.

“The second and perhaps more important thing was the polls over the past month have made it clear that Larry Elder would be the next governor, if the recall is successful. Since then Gavin Newsom seems to be gaining ground. Those two facts are not unrelated.”

‘A contrarian story’

UCLA political scientist and public opinion researcher Matt Barreto is happy to knock other pollsters for their work on the recall (“It was conducted by drunk clowns,” he said of an August Emerson College survey that showed a close race).

But he also said the media deserves some blame for mischaracterizing the state of the race earlier in the summer.

“People in your industry don’t put any effort into it,” he told CalMatters. “A really poor quality poll comes out…and you think, ‘This is a contrarian story, let’s start repeating this!’ Instead, people should have looked at it and laughed it out of their news feed.”

But in early August, there were plenty of data points to support the contrarian narrative that Newsom could be in trouble. And that trouble had a name: the “enthusiasm gap.”

The July Berkeley poll showed that though Newsom maintained a healthy lead among all registered voters, “likely voters” — those the pollster assumed would actually return their ballots — were evenly divided.

To find likely voters for its early August poll, SurveyUSA asked each respondent if they planned to cast a ballot “in the recall election to remove the Governor.” That phrasing, the pollster’s later memo noted, could have been interpreted not as an inquiry about the respondent’s general voting plans, but about whether they intended to specifically vote “yes.” That would have weeded recall opponents out of the pool of likely voters.

“It was not our intention to cause Democrats to suddenly sit bolt upright in their chairs.”
— SurveyUSA CEO Jay Leve

The poll put its thumb on the scales in another way. Rather than list all 46 replacement candidates, the survey included only seven, along with “other” and “undecided” as choices. Only one of the listed candidates, YouTube real estate advice personality Kevin Paffrath, was a Democrat. That led some Democratic respondents to choose him, whether or not they knew who he was, making Paffrath the top replacement candidate with 27% support.

“The balloon that SurveyUSA had initially shown for Paffrath was just — what’s the right word?” Leve said, pausing. “Indefensible.”

Still, that surprise number earned the candidate a series of national media profiles — and more coverage in California, including in CalMatters. He later qualified for a televised debate, and still hit 10% in the latest poll.

Contrary to popular belief, polling has not gotten more inaccurate over the years. But as Trump-supporting Republicans in particular have grown more distrustful of the news media, they are often undercounted in surveys.

Sorting out who is, and isn’t, likely to vote is among the messiest tasks facing pollsters. They generally start by asking respondents about their voting plans. The Berkeley poll also takes into account a voter’s reported interest in the race and their past history of participation. The Public Policy Institute of California, another prominent pollster, also factors in whether someone has been following the news, their education, their interest in politics and when they last moved.

Anticipating who is actually going to cast a ballot is especially difficult for the Newsom recall. California typically doesn’t hold a statewide election in an odd-numbered year, and certainly not in September. The last time we had a statewide recall was 2003.

“People are just less reliable in assessing their own likelihood of voting” in such an odd election, said Will Jordan, director of research at Global Strategy Group, a national Democratic pollster.

What enthusiasm gap?

The focus on “enthusiasm” as an indicator of a likely voter may have been misguided, said Dean Bonner, associate survey director at the Public Policy Institute of California.

He pointed to the institute’s survey released Sept. 1, which found that only 40% of Democrats reported being more “enthusiastic” than usual about voting in the Newsom recall, compared to 54% of Republicans. But Democrats were more likely to say the outcome of the race was “very important.”

Given that many Democrats see the entire recall as an unjustifiable waste of time and money, it’s no surprise even committed voters don’t report feeling enthusiastic, he said.

But “with all the discussion about how Larry Elder is going to replace (Sen. Dianne) Feinstein with a Republican…you might look at the outcome as very important.”

“The polls over the past month have made it clear that Larry Elder would be the next governor, if the recall is successful. Since then Gavin Newsom seems to be gaining ground. Those two facts are not unrelated.”
— UC San Diego political scientist Thad Kousser

Garry South, a Democratic political consultant who managed Gov. Gray Davis’ unsuccessful effort to avoid a recall in 2003, said it was always predictable that Democrats would show up, no matter how checked out some may have seemed in July.

“You get a ballot mailed to your house, you fill out ‘no,’ you put it back in the envelope and you put it in the mail — postage paid. This doesn’t require enthusiasm, folks.”

True or not, the narrative of listless Democrats may have acted like a self-reversing prophecy. As Democratic pundits and elected leaders began freaking out, Newsom’s defenders kicked into gear.

In late July, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren hit the airwaves with an ad not only imploring Californians to vote no, but giving detailed instructions how to do so. That same week, the California Teachers Association, the governor’s biggest financial backer in his 2018 election victory, launched a get-out-the-vote campaign and invited the governor to give the keynote address at its summer convention.

The two days after the release of the Berkeley poll in July were among the top five biggest fundraising days for the “Stop the Republican Recall” committee. Between Aug. 1 and 28, the campaign pulled in another $19 million.

Progressive advocacy groups also began a full-court press. Ludovic Blain, the California Donor Roundtable’s executive director, went on a media tour urging Democrats to take the mobilization of voters of color seriously. And on Aug. 12, a constellation of progressive groups, including Courage California, the California League of Conservation Voters and NARAL Pro-Choice held an online get-out-the-vote rally. Some of the speakers were enthusiastically pro-Newsom. But the prevailing sentiment was anti-recall.

“Whatever problem you have with Gavin Newsom, unfortunately this recall is a binary choice,” said Assemblymember Alex Lee, a San Jose Democrat and a frequent critic from Newsom’s left. “Do you want Gavin or do you want something objectively worse than Gavin?”

The new UC Berkeley poll, which found the recall trailing by double digits, looked like a return to “normal” California politics, pollster Mark DiCamillo said in a panel discussion on Friday.

As of Friday, 33% of registered voters had already turned in their ballots, according to Political Data Inc., which is tracking the voting. Of those 7.3 million ballots, 53% came from registered Democrats.

Though Republicans, and therefore “yes” voters, are more likely to vote in person on Tuesday, as they did in November 2020, “the recall needs a big red shift,” said Political Data vice president Paul Mitchell. “At some point this becomes a math problem….A high-turnout election ensures that Newsom beats this.”

Not that the Newsom campaign is taking anything for granted. The California Democratic Party tweeted Friday: “Ignore the polls.” After all, it knows as well as anyone what happens when voters begin to take the polls seriously.

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CALmatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Sept. 11, 2021, at about 3:39 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies on patrol in the area of Camp Creek Road and Placer Drive in Orleans observed a stolen vehicle parked in front of a residence.

While investigating, deputies located 58-year-old Robert Charles McCovey and 40-year-old Donald Lewis Olson nearby. Both men were wanted on outstanding warrants for their arrest and were taken into custody on scene without incident.

During a search of the stolen vehicle, deputies located ammunition and personal belongings of Olson.

Olson was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on fresh charges of possession of a stolen vehicle (PC 496d(a)), person prohibited in possession of ammunition (PC 30305(a)) and violation of probation (PC 1203.2(a)(2)), in addition to warrant charges of fleeing a peace officer (VC 2800.4), evading a peace officer (VC 2800.2), criminal threats (PC 422), felon in possession of a firearm (PC 12021(a)(1)) and resisting arrest (PC 148(A)(1)).

McCovey was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of violation of probation.

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.