Floyd Lucas Sharp passed away peacefully on Saturday, March 6, 2021. He was born to Sylvia and Florentine (Tino) Lucero, on June 17, 1942, in Crested Butte, Colorado.

When Floyd was growing up, he loved to dance and learned many styles, including the Rumba, Cha Cha Cha, East Coast and West Coast Swing. Floyd attended Eureka City Schools graduating from Eureka Senior High School in 1960. Floyd continued his education with a degree in business from San Jose State University. He had a successful career with businesses including United Aircraft, Blue Cross of Northern California, and IBM before saying goodbye to the corporate world and burning his business suits. Floyd joined family in a traveling carnival where he was known for his kindness and friendships to fellow travelers.

Floyd was a man of faith. He loved the teachings of Jesus and conducted his life with the principles of Jesus’s teachings. He was a very patient man and focused on the good in people. Floyd worked at the Mexican Outreach Missions in San Bruno, California. One of the many things that he did was obtain his Class A Bus Driver’s license so he could transport building materials, food, clothing, and other supplies to the Mexican orphanages and churches.

Floyd loved to raise goats. When he was a baby he was raised on goats milk. Floyd claimed that it saved his life and vowed to raise goats after he retired. Floyd and his friend Eric, raised over 30 goats. Out of the goat milk, Floyd learned to make yogurt and several types of cheeses. He considered himself a Masters Goat Cheese Maker and was also President of the Humboldt Dairy Goats Club.

Floyd loved nature, walking through the woods, especially his childhood stomping grounds in Cutten and Ridgewood and swimming the local rivers. He stayed updated on local politics and would call members of the Board of Supervisors and City Council to express his opinions.

He is preceded in death by his mother Sylvia Areson-Boal, his fathers, Florentine Lucero and Orie Sharp, nieces Vicki Paulson-Reich, Jennifer Gifford, Amy Gifford-Brewer.

Floyd is survived by his sisters and brother, Wilma Paulson, Lee Gallaway, Carol Sharp, Jimmy Sharp, Glenda Grabow and Ardi Areson. His nephews and nieces, Robby Paulson, Phil Leazer, Terri Wagner, Troy Gallaway, Jason Williamson, Rebecca Moore, Tanya Sharp, Heather Grabow and Sarah Massaro.

He is also survived by a large extended family of cousins, great nephews and nieces. Floyd had a few close friends that he considered family including Patty Unseld, Byron Wrigley, Eric Naslund, and Richard Franks.

“Don’t shed anymore tears for me for God has called me home. Even as a businessman, a carney, a roaming hippie and a farmer, God loved each of me the same. He opened up those Pearly Gates and welcomed me home, no matter the name. I’ll be seeing each of you again someday. Remember our memories good and bad. This was God’s Book One of me to help comfort you and get you through. Keep writing your story, until God calls you home. I will be waiting at the Gates of Heaven to see you again someday when your book is through. Don’t think of this as the end. When we are together again, we’ll write a book together in Heaven and call it Book Two.” An excerpt by Jason Williamson.

Due to COVID Restrictions there was a private family viewing held on March 17, 2021. A private family memorial will be held at a later date at the family home in Eureka.

A Recology Humboldt County garbage truck cut electricity to 201 PG&E customers in Eureka at approximately 9:35 a.m. today after the driver reportedly hit a power pole near the intersection of Harrison Avenue and Lucas Street.

California Highway Patrol spokesperson Paul Craft told the Outpost that the back of the truck snagged the pole’s guide wire as it drove away from a curb, pulling the pole and additional power lines down.

No injuries were reported and no arrests were made as a result of the crash. A second unoccupied vehicle was damaged by the falling power lines and CHP is still assessing damages in the area.

PG&E’s outage map states that electricity has since been restored to all but 14 customers, who are expected to regain power by 7 a.m. tomorrow.

A bit of news in today’s media questions for Dr. Ian Hoffman, Humboldt County’s health officer — in response to a question from the Times-Standard, Hoffman says that the county has decided that it will expand age-based vaccine eligibility along with the rest of the state — 50 and over will be eligible on Thursday, and everyone over 16 starting April 15.

In the past, Humboldt has been slower to expand eligibility than other areas of the state, while at the same time — as Hoffman acknowledges elsewhere today — local vaccine providers have often had their own ideas about who should be vaccinated first, often at odds with the guidelines Public Health has announced.

Expect delays, Hoffman warned — with expanded eligibility there will likely be a rush on vaccine appointments.

All that, plus: A mini-surge in cases elsewhere, those pesky variants, vaccinating the homeless and … people from out of county? Plus: A meta-question on the Media Availabilities themselves, and much more.

Video above, rough transcript below.

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We’re here with Humboldt County Health Officer Dr. Ian Hoffman for the Tuesday, March 30th media availability. Thank you for being here with us.

You’re welcome.

From Redwood News: Some places across the country have had issues with anti-vaxxers trying to sabotage Covid-19 vaccination clinics, specifically by scheduling appointments then not showing up and leaving large numbers of vaccine doses unused or wasted. Are there any concerns about an anti-vax movement locally? If there is, what is Public Health doing to combat that? Has Public Health witnessed any sort of incidents like this at local clinics? If so, what’s being done to prevent that from happening?

So far we have not seen anything like this locally. I think all of our clinics have gone really smoothly, they have a lot of broad support in the community. So we’re hopeful going forward we won’t have to deal with any issues like that. Thank you.

From Redwood News: Has any more information been released about the person in their 30’s that died from Covid-19 in October of 2020? The youngest death on the county dashboard is in the 50’s. Why was the individual taken off the list and nothing said? Why was the person not included in the most recent audit?

That person was actually found to be an out-of-state resident and so it was removed awhile back and I don’t know anything else on that case.

From Redwood News: In Monday’s weekly roundup of Covid-19 data, a number of cases were removed from the county dashboard. Specifically, 3 cases were removed from the 50-year-old age group, and 2 cases were removed from the 80+ age group. Are these removed cases a part of last week’s audit?

We’re constantly going through the data and looking for duplicates finding cases that were actually not Humboldt County residents they were from a different jurisdiction and so that happens on a daily basis and sometimes more are found than others. Those updates happen every single day so that’s what you were seeing with those and it wasn’t anything related to anything we don’t do on a regular basis.

From Redwood News: With the deaths that have been reported in the last few weeks, is there any concern about the recent increase in deaths per cases? Is there a concern that the mortality rate of the virus has increased rapidly recently?

So yes. I think there are concerns around the recent deaths and hospitalizations that we’ve been seeing with our lower caserates. I don’t think it’s related to a variant of concern that might be more deadly. More than likely what we’re seeing is just that our case rates are actually lower because people aren’t getting tested and so if we’re testing more, we’d probably be picking up a lot more cases. So I think that’s really what we’re seeing with this over the last couple weeks is the drop in testing reflecting a lower case rate, but yet there’s still virus circulating out there in the community.

From North Coast News: A joint World Health Organization-China study on the origins of COVID-19 says that transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario and that a lab leak is “extremely unlikely,” according to a draft copy obtained by The Associated Press. What is your position on this information? Thank you in advance for your response.

Yeah it’s not really a local public health issue. So local public health doesn’t have an official response to that, but I do think the science is sound behind that study and don’t think there’s any reason to be speculative that something else was going on.

From North Coast News: When will we get back to normal interviews with public health instead of media availability? We understand that, due to the sheer number of media requests and necessary safety precautions, this may not be possible again anytime soon. But when will you consider doing live press conferences (on Zoom, for example), so reporters may actively ask questions? Thank you in advance for your response.

Yes we have done a few of the live pressers. Certainly we’d like to do more. It is a busy day today. I think there are plans to move towards another live press conference sometime in the month of April, but right now we’re just really focused on getting vaccines out there, getting people vaccinated and continuing to slowly unfurl all of the the regulations that we’ve had in place to keep us safe over the course of the pandemic as we get more vaccinations and we see case counts coming down. So look forward to that in the next month.

From North Coast News: Does the county have any plans to work with businesses to communicate to the public that employees have been vaccinated against COVID-19, perhaps similarly to the “covid compliant” signs in business windows now? Is it a priority for public health to communicate this information to the public?

We wouldn’t be looking to share anyone’s private health information, but we do share this information at a community-wide level just like we do for things like testing or positive cases. And that goes for all communicable diseases that we track in public health. So we’ll continue to publish vaccination rates as they apply to our whole county and also show the vaccines by zip code and broken down by race and ethnicity, age all those things. But we would never be looking to publish it by a specific location or a business because that’s really a privacy issue.

From North Coast News: Would you encourage businesses to create incentives for employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19?

It’s an interesting question and definitely have heard of places incentivizing with gift cards or using other things like trying to create a culture where it’s more acceptable to get a vaccine. I mean I think that what it comes down to is that yes we want as many people to get vaccinated as are comfortable getting the vaccine. We definitely don’t want anyone to feel coerced or forced into getting a vaccine. And so some people might see some of those tactics as coercive, offering money or offering gift cards. I think that the bottom line is that we really want to make sure that our residents of Humboldt County who want to get vaccinated have an opportunity to do so. So one of the probably the biggest incentives that a business could give to their employees to get vaccinated is when they’re offered an appointment for a vaccine is to make sure that they get paid time off to go to that vaccine appointment because for a lot of these workers it is really difficult for them to find time. The clinics are often during the week they’re during work hours. We encourage any employer who wants their employees to get vaccinated to support them and give them that time off and not make any barriers to getting to a vaccine appointment. 

From North Coast News: How concerned are you about the health safety risks that may be posed by employees at businesses opting not to get vaccinated when offered, but continuing to interact with the public? Do you anticipate vaccine hesitancy in workplaces getting in the way of restrictions loosening?

So there wouldn’t be any restrictions on a particular workplace based on vaccination rates, but we are looking at statewide vaccination rates being tied to loosening restrictions. So I think that’s something that we’ll see coming down the line later on. We already saw it with the move to the 2 million mark in the lowest quartile HPI moving where the cutoff was for purple. The next goal is to get to 4 million vaccines in the lowest quartile HPI which will move the the mark for all the rest of the tiers. I think we’ll see more of that kind of policy in the future, but again it’s going to be tied to general populations vaccination rates and not necessarily to individuals vaccination.

From Reporter Daniel Mintz: The CDC director has talked of her “recurring feeling of impending doom” related to loosening restrictions as variants and numbers of U.S. cases ramp up. But you have recently expressed some optimism, do you still believe the pandemic is at a turning point?

I think we’re at a really important point in the pandemic and I think we have to be cautiously optimistic. We all have seen the power of these vaccines and we are also seeing the overwhelming desire to get back to normal life. We’re sort of at that precipice between those two things we need to get more vaccine out and we need to reopen slowly.

So I think the best thing that all of us can do right now is take caution and to be happy with a lot of the things that have changed in the last month in terms of the reopening and to slow down and not push too hard for even more reopening. I think what we’re seeing across the country and lots of states is worrisome. California has not taken that approach obviously and so we feel strongly that these measures that will be protective, will continue to protect us.

I think the other thing just to mention in regards to this is travel. CDC and CDPH still recommend that we do not travel for any non-essential reasons. We know that there are planes that are packed with folks going on spring break and these are personal choices obviously, but these are the kinds of things that could lead us to lose ground. So just want to encourage everyone to consider your travel plans in the coming weeks and really consider staying close to home while we continue the vaccination effort and get closer to being able to really open up because it would be - I think the sentiment right now in in public health is that we are concerned that we might be losing ground by things going too fast with just not enough vaccine out there yet, not enough people vaccinated and just people going back to loosening the restrictions too fast.

From Reporter Daniel Mintz: The variant with the L452R mutation is now categorized as a Variant of Concern. How concerned should we be about this and is there an update on its detection rate in Humboldt?

The L452r was moved to a variant of concern just over a week ago and the reason for that had entirely to do with the lack of efficacy and some of the medications to treat COVID-19 with that particular variant. So it does not appear to be that much more transmissible or deadly and those are not the reasons like they are for the other variants of concern like the UK variant, South African variant and the Brazilian variant. So it really is just that one specific thing that moved it.

So I think overall like the sentiment in public health and the statewide sentiment is that it wasn’t really a major shock to us. It doesn’t change very much for most people with regard to this variant and it is the variant that we’re seeing predominantly across the state. We still have only seen 18 of those here in Humboldt County. We continue to get a few of those each time we get sequencing samples back from Biohub. So far there haven’t been any other major variants of concern found here in Humboldt County.

From KMUD News: Is it unethical for a vaccine provider to open up their vaccine eligibility to anyone 16 years or older before the expansion statewide of eligibility?

So when we’ve talked about this many times throughout this that opening up eligibility is really a balancing act between wanting to make sure that we get everyone through who’s in the line, but also make sure that we don’t have appointments go unfilled because any appointment that day is a shot that didn’t get into an arm that day. We also know that different areas around the country and around the state or even within our own county are going to have different acceptance rates of vaccines. So to expect that every place across the state or even across our county are going to be at the same place at the same time, I think it’s becoming much more evident that that’s not the case.

We work really closely with providers to try to make sure we’re meeting the needs of the community and moving the line through while balancing keeping appointments filled. We also have changing goals that might change how we act in different parts of the state and the county. So this drive to vaccinate in the lowest quartile HPI means that in those zip codes - in those areas across the county, across the state - we might need to relax some of the qualifications for getting a vaccine to make sure that we get more vaccines into that community. So all of these things are taken into account and balance when we’re making these decisions about opening up or being more restrictive with the vaccination tiers.

From KMUD News: How are providers being held accountable with vaccine distribution? Are there repercussions for those not following guidelines?

We work really closely with all of our providers here in Humboldt County. We meet with them often daily through our team. If we ever have any concerns, we let them know about them and work with them and really it’s a collaborative effort. So if we ever had an issue where we had to, we could stop giving vaccine to a certain provider, but of course we want to keep these relationships going. We want to have all of our providers getting vaccine and getting it out to the residents of Humboldt County and I think that’s really the goal is for all of us to work together collaboratively to make sure that we get the vaccine out there as quickly as possible and as safely as possible.

From KMUD News: Will the county/state be allotted more weekly doses to meet the need as criteria expands, and how will the public be able to make an appointment? Will the county’s portal still be effective?

We have seen small increases over the last couple of weeks in the number of vaccines coming into Humboldt County. We still haven’t seen really big increases. There are projections at the state and federal level that that will be coming sometime in April or early part of May. We continue to use the interest form on Humboldt County Public Health or Humboldt County’s website and we are beginning the transition to MyTurn through public health. So some of those appointments should be coming up in the next few weeks that people could book through MyTurn as well. And then we continue to work with all the providers, the pharmacies, the local offices and practices that are vaccinating to design the clinics to get to the right populations.

From KMUD News: National media outlets claim that the roll out of vaccines in California has been the slowest in the country. Why is that and will that change?

I can’t really speak to why that would be at the state level. I think that would be really a question for the state leadership. What I can say is in Humboldt County we’ve not really struggled to get the vaccine out that we’ve been given. I think that all throughout the process we talked about how we’re building the ship as we sail it and we’re going to build capacity as we got more vaccine. And that’s exactly how it has gone throughout the last four months. We started off with the small vaccination clinics in the hospitals in the clinics. We grew those out as the eligibility expanded and as we got more vaccine throughout the month of January and February. And now we’re poised to really double these efforts if needed in the coming month if we do get a lot more vaccine. So, we’ve done really well with the vaccine we’ve been given here in Humboldt County.

From the Times-Standard: Butte County announced yesterday it is opening up all residents 16+ to receive a vaccine well ahead of the state deadline. Humboldt County has been delaying opening up vaccine eligibility to groups the state has said are eligible, a move primarily attributed to the availability of the vaccines. Is there any chance Humboldt County will open up vaccine eligibility before April 15 to age 16 and up, or will it be delayed past that date?

I don’t foresee it coming up sooner than April 15th, but we have decided to open up with the rest of the state. So April 1st will be 50+. April 15th will be 16+. I think what we’re going to see is the same as what we’ve seen all along, which is that whenever we open up a new eligibility tier there is unlikely to be enough vaccine for everyone in that tier to get vaccinated right away. So it’ll be a process of moving through. And just going back to Butte County and other places that might be opening up sooner, different populations in different places. We’ve had this all along where we had a very large - for being a rural county, we had a large health care population and so it took us longer to get through that than some other counties that had a very small healthcare population. We had a very large education population and it took a while to get through that. So the population sizes of each of the groups differ in each county and also vaccine uptake differs. So we’ve had great responses to the vaccine in Humboldt County. The demand is much higher here than it might be in some other counties. So all of those factors go into why a county might be opening up their eligibility at different times.

From the Times-Standard: Is there any timeline that Humboldt County could move into orange and yellow tiers if things continue with current trends?

I think we’re still looking at weeks before potential move to the orange tier and I think we also have to keep a close eye on the national trends. What we’re seeing nationally right now is a 15% increase over the past week of cases. We’ve seen some of that happening locally too with uptick in cases in Del Norte County, uptick in cases in Southern Oregon. So we’re keeping a close eye on things but for now it looks like we’re going to be pretty solid in the red for the next few weeks.

From the Times-Standard: Can Dr. Hoffman provide any updates on the presence of COVID-19 variants in Humboldt County? What percentage of cases contain variants? Can you provide exact numbers of cases found with different variants?

I think we covered that pretty well in the last question, thank you.

From the Times-Standard: How is Humboldt County addressing the vaccine needs of people who are homebound?

This is a great question and something we’re working really hard to try to find a solution for. Right now, again we’re still trying to work through the populations that we have, but we are working with organizations and providers who work with homebound patients to try to get those vaccines out there. We have been hoping to get more Johnson and Johnson which will make it a lot easier and that it’s a single shot and there won’t have to be two visits made to a homebound patient. Those are some of the factors that go into it and so we’re hopeful as Johnson and Johnson expands and we can expand the network of providers who might be able to go to a homebound patient to give a shot that we can start to get some of those folks vaccinated.

From the Redheaded Blackbelt: With the vaccine distribution about to be opened to out-of-county residents who are eligible, does county Public Health expect any level of vaccine tourism?

We’re being told by the folks at MyTurn that we will be able to restrict it to our geographic area. So I think that issue that was a concern early on in the days of MyTurn has not been as much of an issue in the past few weeks. We’re going to be adopting MyTurn over the coming weeks. They’re putting in the necessary safeguards to make sure that we can vaccinate people who are in our general area. It doesn’t have to necessarily be all Humboldt County. Obviously there might be people from Northern Mendocino or from Trinity County or Del Norte County who need to travel to one of our sites to get it. So we don’t want to be too restrictive, but we want it to be for our general area and we don’t want people coming up from San Francisco or Los Angeles just to get a vaccine, but there’s a balance. We also recognize there might be people here who work here who live in Los Angeles who would be eligible and should get their vaccine here. So there’s a balance there, but we’re confident that some of those things have been worked out and that won’t be a problem going forward.

From the Redheaded Blackbelt: Is the vaccination level factored into the tier designations for counties or regions? If so, how? Is there a level of community vaccination as a percentage that would move Humboldt into the next less-restrictive tier?

That is not currently part of the blueprint. There are discussions about how maybe we could move that into the blueprint metric, but nothing else to share on that right now.

From the Redheaded Blackbelt: Are law enforcement officers able to get the vaccine in the same tier as first responders/ frontline medical workers? Have any LEO declined to receive the shot so far?

Law enforcement has been open along with all the first responders since January. So any law enforcement officers who have not been vaccinated at this point, we’d definitely encourage you to reach out and get a vaccine. And I can’t speak to individual choices for someone to decide not to get vaccinated.

From the North Coast Journal: In calling for additional volunteers to help with vaccination clinics this week, the county indicated it expects supply allocations to ramp up in the coming weeks. Can you elaborate on how quickly you expect allocations to increase and by how much?

Statewide or the federal government is projecting that the vaccine supply will double in the next four to six weeks. That’s a pretty huge increase. We have been hearing this for a little while though, so we’ve been preparing for this and we hopefully will be prepared if and when that does come. I think that is really a major part of why the state and federal governments are pushing for this open eligibility for everyone, just expecting that we will have a lot more vaccine in the coming month. We’re hopeful and we’re ready when that does arrive.

And then our last question: From the North Coast Journal: With so many new people becoming eligible in the coming weeks, what direction has Public Health given local providers to ensure residents at the greatest risk of critical disease outcomes or infection are moved to the front of the line?

So we’ve sent out communications to all the providers that we really want to make sure the focus is on the age-based populations and the 16-64 population with high-risk medical conditions - those are really most appropriately taken care of in clinics. We’re focusing public health on the work sector, workforce sector and also some of the age sector for our vaccination clinics.

We’ll keep working through those and when we get to April 15th, depending on how far we’ve made it through some of those lines, I think that the focus is still always going to be to try to fill clinics with people who are higher risk and higher tiers before you fill it with younger folks who have lower risk. So that message has been out there from the beginning. When there’s very scarce resources we’re in 75 plus age groups, but we might only be focusing on people with high risk conditions in that 75 plus. And then as there was more vaccine, we would expand that to everyone. So that’s still always going to be the sort of way that we move through this is that you always keep focus on those high-risk folks first and then open it up to lower if we can’t fill the clinics with those people.

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

Darlene Petrie

On March 30, 2021, deputies with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Marijuana Enforcement Team (MET) served one search warrant to investigate illegal cannabis distribution at a residence on the 2800 block of I Street in Eureka.

During the service of the warrant, deputies located and seized over 99 pounds of packaged cannabis bud, over 9 pounds of cannabis keef, approximately 317 pounds of cannabis extract, over 684 pounds of cannabis shake and approximately 14 pounds of psilocybin mushrooms. Deputies also located and seized $21,000 pursuant to asset forfeiture proceedings. While serving the warrant, deputies also located an active ethanol extraction lab.

Darlene Dawn Petrie, age 45 of Eureka, was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of possession of cannabis for sales (HS 11359(B)), possession of a controlled substance for sales (HS 11378), manufacturing a controlled substance by chemical extraction (HS 11379.6(A)) and renting a residence for the purpose of unlawfully manufacturing, storing, or distributing a controlled substance for sale or distribution (HS 11366).

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.

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We say “sort of expected” in the headline because, as we reported back in August of 2019, Humboldt State University administrators have been exploring this partnership for quite some time. But HSU has been playing its cards close to the vest.

The Outpost sent an email on March 17 asking for confirmation of this very agreement, about which we’d caught wind. Yet the Marketing and Communications Office replied, “We have nothing to share at this point.” This despite the fact that, as we learn in the press release below, the programming agreement had been finalized more than two weeks prior.

Anyway, for more on the tempestuous KHSU saga, explore the links at the bottom of this post.

Here’s the press release from Humboldt State University:

Humboldt State University has signed a Management and Programming Agreement with Capital Public Radio (CapRadio) to manage KHSU and the other non-commercial NPR member stations licensed to the University.

The collaborative agreement is effective April 1.

It was formally approved in late February after months of study and discussion.

The new agreement ensures that high-quality national and state programming for the North Coast will continue and that donations from the region will be used to support the KHSU stations. Once the agreement is underway, Humboldt State will work with station management to provide student internships in various facets of radio operations, as requested by faculty and students.

A renewal of local underwriting is planned, once core operations are in place. The agreement also includes an option, in the future, for campus-produced programming.

With the cost-sharing for programming, management, and other efficiencies, HSU expects to continue to realize annual savings of more than $250,000 that previously subsidized the stations, as well as significant savings from reduced space use and other soft costs.
Programming on Radio Bilingue will remain on 103.3 FM and 89.7 FM, which are not part of this agreement and will continue to be managed by the University. Also not included is KHSQ 107.7 FM, which will continue to air BBC and which is available for other possible uses in the future.

CapRadio entered into a similar agreement with North State Public Radio (NSPR) in October 2020. Under the new agreement with HSU, the FCC-issued broadcast licenses for the KHSU stations will be retained by the University, while CapRadio and Chico-based NSPR will be responsible for daily operations and programming in service to North Coast audiences.

Like KHSU, all of the stations that are part of this agreement are affiliated with a campus of the California State University.

“In an expanding world with a shrinking number of reliable sources, a strengthened KHSU will continue to be a conduit for North Coast listeners to learn about and connect to a rapidly changing and interconnected planet,” NSPR’s General Manager Phil Wilke said. “The partnership will also offer the ability to respond to critical and breaking news for the North Coast audience, making KHSU even more relevant and connected locally.”

CapRadio and NSPR will conduct market research and community listening sessions to determine the needs of the local audience. “With the results of the research as our guide,” CapRadio GM Jun Reina said, “we will evolve KHSU’s on-air and digital programming and will be able to ensure stronger resources to improve audience service. This includes uninterrupted access to national programming from NPR, BBC, and APM.”

As the license holder for KHSU, the University will maintain overall responsibility for the stations and a strong relationship with CapRadio and NSPR as the agreement unfolds.

“This is a promising new partnership that achieves our goals and opens up new possibilities for the future,” Frank Whitlatch, HSU’s Vice President for University Advancement, said. Whitlatch has overseen KHSU since the summer of 2019, and, along with former KHSU General Manager Ed Subkis, helped negotiate the agreement on behalf of HSU. “HSU students will continue to have internship opportunities at KHSU, with the added benefit of the expertise at CapRadio, and our North Coast communities will have a connection to state and national public radio programming.”

About KHSU

KHSU is a community-supported, non-commercial NPR member station, licensed to and located on the campus of Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. Its history traces to 1960, when KHSC became the first licensed, non-commercial FM station in the California State University. The station broadcasts a diverse mix of national and state public radio programs to a population of about 135,000 people throughout Northwest California and Southwest Oregon. Listen to KHSU online at khsu.org.

About CapRadio

CapRadio serves California’s Capital region, Central Valley and Sierra Nevada as the public-supported alternative to for-profit media. As the NPR-member station based in Sacramento, CapRadio connects with communities through seven broadcast stations, live streaming, podcasts, digital communities, live experiences and more. Known for its award-winning newsroom, CapRadio is recognized as a leader in community-engaged journalism and state government reporting, and CapRadio Music is the exclusive broadcast source of classical and jazz in the region. With more than 500,000 weekly listeners on-air and online, CapRadio provides a trusted and indispensable source of information, music and events. Listen to CapRadio online at capradio.org.

About NSPR

North State Public Radio is a national award-winning, non-commercial NPR member station featuring the best programs from national and international sources, as well as locally produced news, music and information shows. In partnership with CapRadio since October 2020, NSPR has been serving the communities of Northern California for more than 50 years and can be heard on KCHO 91.7 FM Chico, KFPR 88.9 FM Redding and smaller translators in Burney, Chester, Dunsmuir, Mount Shasta, Greenville, Hayfork, Oroville, Weaverville and Westwood. Listen to NSPR online at mynspr.org.

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You’ve heard about that big, new, fat fiber optic pipe they’re going to lay down between Singapore and Eureka? (If you haven’t, check the links below.) The plan is that it’ll descend down into the deep from one of the world’s major financial capitals and make its way eastward, with stopovers in Indonesia and Guam, before crawling up to shore via the old Samoa pulp mill’s outfall pipe, which extends about a mile out to sea.

This is an exciting prospect! Already a big, international datacenter company has laid down plans for a new facility in Arcata, and it’s everyone’s dearest hope that even more tech dolla will rain down upon our shores once our slick new line is in place.

From the Humboldt County Drug Task Force:

Sloan,

Colegrove.

On March 5th of 2021 the Humboldt County Drug Task Force (HCDTF) was advised by a Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) Deputy working the Trinity River Division of a potential overdose death in the Hoopa Valley related to suspected pressed pills containing fentanyl. The reported pills were being referred to on the streets as “perc30”. The deputy reported that three Hoopa males, Warren “Pops” Sloan 23 years old, Christian “Punky” Colegrove 23 years old, and a 17-year-old juvenile were alleged to be selling the “perc30” pills in Hoopa. The HCDTF initiated an investigation into the source of suspected fentanyl pills that potentially led to the overdose.

On March 10th of 2021 the HCDTF was contacted by the Hoopa Valley Tribal Police Department (HVTPD) in regard to an overdose of a 13-year-old child. Officers were able to use Narcan to save this child’s life. The HVTPD reported this child also took a “perc30” pill and it was alleged that he got the pill from Christian “Punky” Colegrove as well.

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Medina.

Morales.

The HCDTF Investigation led to the identity of the source of “perc30” fentanyl pills into the Hoopa Valley as Anthony Dion Medina (24 years old from Eureka). Agents learned that Medina was picking up large quantities of pills in the San Jose area, transporting them back to Humboldt County, and selling them to multiple customers.

On Monday March 29th, 2021 HCDTF agents conducted surveillance on Medina as he returned from a trip to San Jose. Agents observed Medina enter Humboldt County on Highway 299 before he stopped in the parking lot of a business in the 39000 block of Highway 299 in Willow Creek. When Medina parked, he was approached on foot by Colegrove and Sloan. HCDTF agents detained all three males as well as a female passenger in Medina’s vehicle, Veronica Morales-Rangel (22 years old from Chico). Morales-Rangel is Medina’s girlfriend and their 6-week-old baby was in a car seat in the back of the vehicle.

Agents served a search warrant on Medina, Morales-Rangel, and their vehicle. Morales-Rangel was found to be wearing a fanny pack that was on her waist. Inside the fanny pack agents located 1,002 suspected “perc30” fentanyl pills. On the back seat of the car agents located a large Kool-Aid container. The top 1/3 of the container was legitimate and contained Kool-Aid powder. The bottom 2/3 of the container was found to contain a false compartment with a lid that unscrewed from the bottom. Inside the hidden compartment agents located 4,000 “perc30” fentanyl pills packaged in 4 separate bags containing 1,000 pills each. The fentanyl pills were found within a short distance of the 6-week old child on the backseat of the car. In total agents seized 5,002 fentanyl pills.

HCDTF agents contacted Child Welfare Services (CWS) and reported the potential danger to the child. CWS employees responded to the traffic stop, conducted an investigation, and took the child into their custody for safety reasons.

Sloan was found to be in possession of approx. $1800 and admitted he was there to purchase pills from Medina. Sloan was issued a misdemeanor citation and released for the following charge:

• HS 11532(a) Loitering with intent to purchase drugs

Colegrove was found to have two active felony warrants and one active misdemeanor warrant for his arrest. Colegrove was booked at the Humboldt County Jail for his three warrants.

Medina and Morales-Rangel were transported to the Humboldt County Jail where they were booked for the following charges:

• H&S 11351(a) Possession of controlled substance for sale

• H&S 11352(a) Transportation of controlled substances for sale

• H&S 11352(b) Transportation of controlled substances across non-contiguous counties

• PC 273a(a) Child endangerment

• PC 182 Conspiracy by two or more people to commit a crime

• PC 1203.2 Probation Violation

HCDTF agents responded to the 2400 block of 7th St. in Eureka and served a search warrant on Medina’s residence. Inside the residence agents located a 9mm “ghost gun” with a 30 round magazine drum. Agents also located an FN 57 handgun and a Glock 19 9mm handgun. Agents found 4 packages of cocaine totaling 8.7 grams.

Once agents returned to their office, they used a TruNarc Analyzer machine to test samples of the 5,002 pills seized. The pills returned positive for fentanyl.

HCDTF agents are continuing their investigation into the overdoses in the Hoopa Valley and hope to be able to forward charges to the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office soon. We would like to thank the HCSO and HVTPD for their assistance with this investigation.

Anyone with information related to this investigation or other narcotics related crimes are encouraged to call the Humboldt County Drug Task Force at 707-267-9976.

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(UPDATE, 3:30 p.m.) Hoopa Valley Tribal Police Department:

On March 16, at approximately 3 p.m., Hoopa Valley Tribal Police assisted the California Highway Patrol on a traffic stop in the area of Highway 96 and Hostler Field. During the investigation the suspect, Terrance “Chiefy” McCovey provided a false name to officers. However, McCovey was quickly identified and detained for an active Felony warrant. During a search of McCovey’s person, two light colored pills with identifying marks of “A215” were located. McCovey was arrested and transported the Humboldt County Correctional Facility for booking.

These pills were similar to the deadly pills being dispersed throughout the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation and surrounding areas. The pills that were located are shown below.

We would like to thank the California Highway Patrol for the dedication and commitment to the community.