On Tuesday afternoon, Lasara Firefox Allen, executive director of the Humboldt Area Center for Harm Reduction since 2019, announced that they will be leaving their role as head of the often-controversial community health organization.
Read their statement in full below:
Lasara Firefox Allen
Dear Community,
When I joined The Center in 2019 I never could have imagined what the last year would bring for all of us here in Humboldt County and across the world. And through it all, The Center has won major victories in preserving the health, safety, and dignity of the unhoused, those who use drugs, and those who trade sex, including:
* Adding a new program to provide linkage to low-barrier medication assisted treatment, one that has successfully enrolled nearly 100 individuals and is being heralded as a model to be replicated by community groups across the state.
* Adapting human resources and direct service protocols to be COVID-19-safe for participants and community members.
* Growing our budget, and adding three new positions via the California Harm Reduction Initiative (CHRI) grant through the National Harm Reduction Coalition.
* Engaging with hundreds of local politicians, state and local civil servants, and citizens to ensure that the Center was acting as a good neighbor in its community.
* Working with public health experts across the country as well as national policy leaders to bring priceless education on evidence-based service provision to local meetings.
* Expanding our partnership with Humboldt State University in order to train Social Work students in harm reduction.
* Expanding and instigating strategic partnerships locally and nationally.
* Adding decriminalization of sex work to HACHR’s strategic plan. I am immensely grateful for the time I have spent as Executive Director at Humboldt Area Center for Harm Reduction, and am so proud of all we have accomplished together, for our participants, and for the community in which we live.
I am excited to reveal Jasmine Guerra, our Assistant Director, as the Humboldt Area Center for Harm Reduction’s new Executive Director. Jasmine has been involved with HACHR since January 2020, serving first as a volunteer, then as SSP Coordinator, and then as Assistant Director. During her time with us, Jasmine has managed HACHR’s Syringe Service Program, developed funding opportunities, mentored a team of interns, and worked to strengthen relationships with community members and stakeholders. She has over seven years of team management, administrative, and crisis intervention experience. Participants, staff members, and partner organizations all know Jasmine as timely, organized, and able to work around difficulties with ease and patience, while keeping the sense of humanity in her work with any population she is serving. This leadership choice is a strategic step in supporting the growth of the Humboldt Area Center for Harm Reduction and our vision of a community with access to healthcare, housing, opportunities, and respect for every single one of us.
I cannot thank you–our community of participants, staff, interns, supporters, allies, friends, and neighbors–enough for your partnership. I look forward to continuing to work with you all as a member of the Board of Directors, and am excited to see the organization continue to grow under Jasmine’s capable leadership.
In solidarity, and with love,
-Lasara Firefox Allen Executive Director Humboldt Area Center for Harm Reduction
Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office needs the public’s assistance to identify and locate the suspect of ongoing diesel theft from an Alton business.
A suspect was recently observed on surveillance footage unlawfully entering the property of a construction business on the 1000 block of Fowler Lane, near Alton. The surveillance footage depicts a male suspect stealing diesel from a concrete truck. According to the business, the theft is believed to have been ongoing for approximately two weeks prior to capturing the suspect on video. The suspect is believed to have stolen over 200 gallons of diesel during that time.
This case is still under investigation.
Anyone with information regarding this suspect’s identity or location 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, and reference case number 202101317.
The next step in returning triple-murder suspect Mauricio Sanchez-Johnson from Utah to Humboldt County will be California Gov. Gavin Newsom agreeing to sign a warrant.
“California has told me they’ve made a request for a governor’s warrant,” attorney Brad Schofield, representing Sanchez-Johnson, told Third District Judge Dianna Gibson this afternoon. Sanchez-Johnson has been in jail in Tooele County, Utah, since Feb. 11, the day after he allegedly shot three people to death in a home on the Bear River Rancheria.
Sanchez-Johnson.
Sanchez-Johnson appeared briefly today before Gibson, who set his next hearing for April 6. He is fighting extradition to Humboldt County.
The 19-year-old Loleta man is accused of murdering Nikki Dion Metcalf, Margarett Lee Moon and Shelly Mae Autumn Moon after Metcalf discovered him in bed with 16-year-old Shelly Moon. Sanchez-Johnson told a witness he first shot Metcalf and Margarett Moon, both 40, before also killing Shelly so she couldn’t be a witness.
Sanchez-Johnson was pulled over and arrested the next day while driving east on Interstate 80 in Utah. His passenger, 46-year-old Von Eric Keener, was also arrested but waived extradition and is in Humboldt County Correctional Facility.
Sanchez-Johnson’s local attorney, Andrea Sullivan, had told District Attorney Maggie Fleming that Sanchez-Johnson would sign extradition papers if the capital charge against him was dismissed. Fleming refused.
In addition to murder and firearms allegations, Sanchez-Johnson faces the special-circumstance charge of having multiple victims, meaning if convicted he could face the death penalty or life in prison without possibility of parole.
All three victims were shot in the head, with Metcalf and Shelly Moon dying instantly and Margarett Moon dying shortly after. They were found by Margarett Moon’s 13-year-old daughter. She and an 11-year-old boy were in the home when the shootings occurred.
An employee sanitizes shopping carts outside of the North Coast Co-op in Arcata | Stephanie McGeary
Grocery store employees have been helping customers, stocking shelves and wiping down carts on the frontlines of the pandemic for a year now, which is why the United Food and Commercial Workers union is fighting for grocery stores to pay their workers a little bit more.
At its Wednesday night meeting, the Arcata City Council will consider drafting an ordinance that would require large grocery stores to provide “hazard pay” for their employees, a request that was brought forward by the local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers, UFCW Local 5.
“We want to level the playing field for all grocery workers,” Local 5 North Coast Director John Frahm told the Outpost in a phone interview Tuesday. “Grocery workers have continued to show up for the public and put themselves and their families at risk.”
Several California cities have recently passed hazard pay ordinances, including San Francisco, Oakland, Long Beach and Los Angeles. The amount of the pay increase, duration of the ordinance and what types of businesses are subject varies a bit across the state. While some cities have based the hazard pay requirement solely on the businesses’ number of employees, Oakland’s ordinance, for example, applies to grocery stores larger than 15,000 square feet.
Locally, the UFCW has requested that the ordinance apply to “any large retailer that sells a minimum of 10 percent food,” Frahm said. Grocery stores with 15 or more employees locally or 500 or more employees nationwide would be required to pay an additional $4 per hour, and stores with more than 25 but less than 500 employees locally would pay workers an additional $3 an hour. The request is for the ordinance to last for at least 90 days, or until the county moves into the yellow tier.
If the council chooses to move forward, however, it would decide the exact parameters of the ordinance, including the duration, the amount of pay increase and how to determine which businesses would be subject.
The ordinance would not be meant to impact small businesses that may be struggling, Frahm said, but to target the large companies that have seen an increase in profits since the onset of the pandemic. Brookings Institution reported that the 13 largest retail and grocery store companies in the United States earned $17.7 billion more in the first three quarters of 2020 than they did in 2019. And though many larger grocery stores were offering “hero pay” to their employees earlier in the pandemic, most discontinued the pay last summer.
Frahm says that the UFCW hopes to ensure those stores’ profits are passed on to the employees, who are risking exposure to COVID-19 and many of whom have been continuing to show up to work while juggling family obligations.
“Employers have reaped the profits without sharing them with those who have put themselves at risk,” Frahm said. “With our jobs, you can’t work from home. We’ve been there on the frontlines.”
###
In other business, the council will receive an update on the city’s Rental Inspection Program.
“The purpose of the Residential Rental Inspection Program is to address the issue of substandard long-term rental properties, promote greater compliance with health and safety standards and preserve the quality of Arcata’s neighborhoods and available housing,” the staff report states. “The program achieves compliance of health, safety and welfare code violations in/on residential rental properties that are a threat to the occupant’s safety, structural integrity of the building, and a negative impact on the surrounding neighborhoods.”
The Arcata City Council meets over Zoom on Wednesday, March 17 at 6:00 p.m.
You can view the full agenda and directions on how to participate here.
On the other: No, Redwood News reporter, he will not answer your question.
But Hoffman does have more to say about the county’s relationship with state public health officials, youth and adult sports, vaccinating food workers and much more — OK, some more — in today’s media availability on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Video above, rough transcript below.
###
From the Redwood News: According to the weekly data that breaks down the age groups, it appears
that 52 cases that were originally assigned to the groups 0-9 and 10 to 19 combined have been
reassigned to older age groups. Specifically, there were 13 cases reassigned from the 0-9 age
group, and 39 cases reassigned from the 10- to 19-year-old age group in the last week.
Otherwise, combined the other age groups would have a total of 114 cases reported
in the last week. Can you explain this change? Is last week’s data inaccurate?
There does appear that there could be an anomaly there
and we’re looking into it. We’ll get back to you when we know more about that.
From the Redwood News: You mentioned last week that the first vaccination clinics for
food and agriculture workers will be held this week. How many local employees are included in
this group? How long does the County expect it will take to vaccinate this entire group?
How can people a part of this group go about getting a vaccination appointment? Can you
also provide some more information on the clinics being held this week for this group,
specifically the mobile clinic that will be the first of its kind in the County.
So food and agriculture, we’re estimating, is around 10,000 people in Humboldt County. So
it’s quite a large group. And just to put into perspective, this is in addition to many other
groups that are recently open by CDPH guidelines, the state guidelines. So we know that the eligible
pool of people to receive vaccine is much greater than the amount of vaccine that we have.
So we are working with groups to target higher risk folks and we’re working towards making more
availability in the future as we get more vaccine. So right now really the best way for people in
any eligible group is to get on the interest form and so we really encourage the media and
everyone to get that information out there about the interest form on the Humboldt County website.
From the Redwood News: There have been reports of more than 50 Humboldt County Superior Court
employees that were able to get a vaccine despite not meeting eligibility requirements.
Can Public Health confirm that this did happen? And if it did, can you provide any explanation as
to how this could happen? Also, what is Public Health’s stance or opinion on the situation?
There was an article last week covering this. I think that
did an adequate job and don’t really have anything else to add at this time.
From the North Coast News: A new study found 1/5 of COVID patients show
signs of heart damage in blood tests. Since there is more time to see some
long-term effects of this disease — what are some of the most disturbing long-term effects
seen in Humboldt County? We know disease affects certain age groups differently,
how are age groups impacted differently by long-term effects, if at all?
I think the studies are still ongoing and I can’t really speak to
the immediate impacts. Those studies will continue over time
and we’ll see them as they unfold in the coming months and years, really.
From the North Coast News: At the Board of Supervisors meeting last Tuesday,
you said that the county would petition the CDPH to stay in the red tier if it was announced we
moved to the purple tier later that day. Has the county always had the ability to
do this? Why is now the appropriate time to use this petition process?
We always have the ability to ask for adjudication in a tier process. There are very specific reasons
for adjudication, in this case we felt that the data that potentially could have put us
into the purple tier was inaccurate, by just a little bit and we had discussions with CDPH
leading up to that point, but it turned out that we didn’t have to go down that route
because the case counts were just below the threshold of seven on the day of the report.
From the North Coast News: It seems like the county’s attitude towards CDPH guidelines has
shifted in recent weeks, being very open about potentially disagreeing with the state’s rules.
For example, in reference to the guidance on spectator limits at youth sporting events,
Public Health Director Michelle Stevens said in a press release recently, “Humboldt County
remains fully supportive of common sense rules and regulations that prevent the spread of
COVID-19 but will not endorse a statewide approach that doesn’t truly take into account our local
conditions and further harms small businesses that are the backbone of our community.”
It sounds like public health is willing to defy CDPH guidance if necessary.
Would you agree that public health is becoming more critical of the CDPH, and if so why?
I think we’ve always had a discussion with CDPH and whenever we have new guidelines that are
coming out sometimes they’re not specific or they could be left up for interpretation and in this
case specifically the age-appropriate supervision was a big debate across the whole state - what
does that really mean? We went back and forth with CDPH, we never really landed on a number
so we just said let’s use common sense about what we know about COVID, about protecting ourselves,
about distancing and masking and trying to limit the size of gatherings. So that’s what we
discussed in those regulations. We still fully support CDPH and all of the regulations, but
sometimes we might be looking for more clarification.
From the North Coast News: In terms of “fully supporting common sense rules and regulations,”
that was mentioned previously, what do you say to business owners that may feel like some
past restrictions were not “common sense rules and regulations”
and feel that public health didn’t do enough previously to fight such restrictions?
I think that the rules that we’ve been following for the last year have been very common sense.
This is a new novel coronavirus that we knew nothing about a year ago going into this and
we’ve learned a lot along the way. I think when we first started this and people were talking about
masking and some people said ‘no’ some people said ‘yes’, but we finally figured that out.
Now that’s obviously a very common sense thing. So there’s always discussion back and forth about
what we’re going to put into place and now there’s discussion about what we can take away and what
sort of process we’re going to have to unwind this whole thing. We’re having those discussions with
people in our county, people across the state, our local elected officials, with business leaders,
leaders of the hospital and the medical community. So we’re going to continue that
and I think that’s really what we mean when we’re talking about using ‘common sense’
to move forward throughout this process.
From Reporter Daniel Mintz: During your last update to the Board of Supervisors
you said there’s been a palpable change in the course of the pandemic. But last month,
you warned that the biggest surge yet could happen. Is that warning still relevant?
Yeah I think this is about balance here - cautious optimism with a little bit of skepticism.
We definitely feel a change. We’re getting vaccine out there, we’re seeing the case counts go down
however they haven’t continued to go down we’ve plateaued. So we want to be cautious. We
definitely want to recognize that we need to get back to some semblance of normal. Youth sports,
new guidelines around live performances, every day CDPH and the local health jurisdictions
are working together to figure out ways we can open up more safely, but it’s a balanced process
so we need to be patient and we’re going to constantly watch and vigilantly watch
for any re-emergence of the disease the new variants that could also cause a surge.
From the Times-Standard: Did the county cooperate with the Humboldt-Del Norte
League on developing the rules for spectators at outdoor prep
sports events (only four members of a participant’s household may attend,
socially distance, no food in stands, etc…) or were these suggestions from the state?
The state and Humboldt County Public Health have not put any number limits,
so we are sticking with age-appropriate supervision and leaving that up to the facilities
and the teams to decide what makes sense for them.
There is also the live performance guidance that goes into effect April 1st which could be applied
to many of these youth sports situations as well. So we encourage anyone who’s in a venue like that
to use that sort of performance guidance to guide how they might have spectators at the events.
From the Times-Standard: Is the county working with adult sports organizations
(Humboldt Crabs, HSU) on possibly welcoming spectators to their outdoor stands?
Yes, the live performance guidance has been shared with those folks and I encourage them to see
what’s feasible given those guidelines and hope that we continue to improve with case counts and
get into less restrictive tiers that will allow for more reopening.
Bird (#33) poses with his old CR team and Coach Bill Treglown (left). | Photo provided by Bird.
UPDATE, March 17:
Eureka teacher Jeff Bird found some time to respond to the Outpost about the letter and wanted to give more credit to past College of the Redwoods coach Bill Treglown. Read his full statement below:
The letter was to let Klay know guys like me and my buddies think he plays a beautiful style of basketball my former coach, Bill Treglown, would have loved to have seen.
Tregs influenced me and a lot of local coaches with how we see and coach basketball, Sean Molyneaux (CR GOAT and current Ferndale coach) Bisio (CR), Robby and JImmy (EHS), Isaac (St. Bernards), Dusty (Arcata), Jason Francis (PU), Colt Matthews and many more.
I think Klay appreciated me geeking out on basketball and recognizing what he does on the court other than shoot; how he creates space for his teammates, how he conducts himself and he appreciated the love and the connection with Tregs and CR bball. The current CR team, the best I have ever seen, has a lot of guys who have been taught by Tregs’s ex-players and passed it down. Those kids can ball. A lot of the things CR is doing, the footwork, the shooting, the unselfishness, has similarities with the game Klay plays- just not quite at Klay’s level- yet.
It has been crazy that a letter got this much attention and from the dude I have long thought is coolest guy in the world. Thinking about Tregs and playing basketball 20 years ago has been a trip. Thanks for helping me remember those long gone days. Go Woods, go Klay, and keep Raining 3’s from the Trees!
Thompson gives thanks to Eureka teacher Jeff Bird.
Catherine L Zane Middle School English and physical education teacher Jeff Bird received public praise from Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompson on Sunday for a thoughtful letter he sent to the injured three-time NBA champ.
The teacher and former College of the Redwoods basketball player’s recent email to Thompson was first mentioned last week by Warriors General Manager and President of Basketball Operations Bob Myers during an interview with the Bay Area sports radio station 95.7 “The Game.” While discussing Thompson’s recovery from ACL and Achilles tendon injuries, Myers told an anecdote about an email Thompson had received and forwarded to him “out of the blue.”
“He said: ‘I got a letter from a fan that was pretty cool,’” Myers told the “Steiny, Guru, and Dibs” show before directly quoting Thompson’s email. “‘This was a very nice gesture by this dude. Sometimes you forget what you do it for and having that reach to affect so many people makes me never want to stop getting better.’”
“That’s Klay Thompson,” Myers added. “He loves this game.”
The Outpost reached out to Bird about the email, but did not receive a response. However, reporter Chris Alvarez with KGO-TV in San Francisco asked Thompson about the letter during a video chat interview on Sunday. During his question, Alvarez inaccurately attributed the email to a basketball coach from Sonoma County — a mixup initiated by Myers during his radio interview. Thompson cleared up the confusion and gladly summarized Bird’s email.
“Oh, man. It was one of the greatest things I’ve read in a long time,” Thompson said, pulling the email up on his phone. “My guy Jeff Bird. He played at the College of the Redwoods, and Coach Treglown — who was his coach — emphasized ball movement, player movement and being a team. Unfortunately, his coach passed away about 10 years ago, and Jeff emailed me saying [he] and his teammates from community college ball still talk to each other and they bonded over our style of play, starting with our 2015 championship run.”
Ray Hamill of HumoldtSports reports that Coach Treglown won more than 500 games during his 33-year career at College of the Redwoods. Bird reportedly played for the beloved coach shortly before his death in 2005.
“[Bird] said how much Coach Treglown would love to watch our team play,” Thompson continued. “He said we were the example of ball movement, player movement, great coaching [and] everybody buying in, and just to get that email from Jeff and hear how he knows how it would make his old coach feel, that made me feel real good. When you play at the community college level, you gotta love basketball and for a coach to give his time and preach the same values that [Warriors Coach Steve Kerr] did, I thought that’s really special.
Thompson went on to say that Bird’s email was also funny and supportive of the 31-year-old guard-forward, who will try to make a return to the NBA next season after a lengthy recovery process.
“That meant a lot to me because I know we have a great influence but you just never know who’s watching and that was cool,” he said.
Watch Thompson and Warriors General Manager Bob Myers’s interviews in the videos embedded at the top of this story.
The
Yurok Tribe recently celebrated a major milestone in the Yurok
Connect Broadband Project.
Yesterday
afternoon, the Yurok Connect team finished the installation of a new
150-foot tower in Wautec and linked the first customers to the
high-speed internet service. Located in the most remote part of the
Yurok Reservation, the tower is providing first-time internet access
to dozens of families and several tribal elders.
Yurok Tribal Council Member Mindy Natt and her son Andrew James Lewis V attended a grand opening celebration for the new Yurok Connect service. The Pecwan District Representative is excited about the new internet infrastructure and what it means for tribal youth and elders. Photos: Yurok Tribe.
“Access
to high-speed internet will significantly improve the everyday lives
of Yurok citizens and non-Indian reservation residents,” said
Joseph L. James, the Chairman of the Yurok Tribe. “This project
will facilitate progress in several key areas, including, education,
healthcare and economic development. When it comes to developing a
prosperous community, internet access is just as important as the
basic utilities.”
“This
project is a long time coming,” said Mindy Natt, the Pecwan
District Representative on the Yurok Tribal Council. “The Yurok
Connect service will improve the quality of life on the reservation.
It will benefit our youth, our elders and everyone in between.”
Launched
in 2013 and administered by the Yurok IT Department, Yurok Connect is
a Yurok Tribe-owned, wireless internet service provider. The
Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act-funded
Yurok Connect Broadband Project will generate numerous positive
outcomes. For example, it will greatly improve emergency
communications on the reservation during and after the COVID-19
pandemic. The Tribe will be able to spread out its workforce to keep
its staff safe. Yurok Connect customers will be able to schedule
telehealth appointments, instead of driving for two hours to the
nearest doctor’s office. Students will be able to participate in
online learning at home because of the high-speed service. Yurok
business owners, entrepreneurs and artists will be able to engage in
the global market. Parents of young children will be able to work
from home. Extended families and close friends will be able to
communicate over any number of platforms. These are just a few of
many examples of how high-speed internet will strengthen the
community.
The
Yurok Reservation, located in far Northern California, is in one of
the most technologically underserved parts of the state. The lack of
reliable internet is a major disadvantage with respect to public
health, education and economic development. That is why the Tribe
decided to become one of only a few wireless internet service
providers in Indian Country.
This Yurok Tribe completed the installation of this 150-tour on March 15, 2020.
Over
the last eight months, the Yurok Information Technology Department
and Yurok Connect Team, in partnership with EnerTribe, a Native
American and woman-owned firm, have been working on re-engineering
and building up existing Yurok tower sites and adding new towers to
accommodate better broadband speeds. Facilitating
a 200% increase in backhaul speeds, the towers were equipped with
cutting-edge, superior quality hardware, which will support the fast
service over the long term. In April, work will be
done to beautify the communications hut and the area surrounding the
base of the Wautec tower.
“We
are extremely excited to participate in the monumental project. High
speed and reliable internet are an essential component of all
successful communities. Like water, the value can be truly seen in
the way we use the resource, broadband is no different. The Wautec
tower is but one piece or a much larger infrastructure project being
carried out by the tribe. We are proud to play a role in
bringing this essential service to Yurok Country,” said
EnerTribe CEO Forest James (no relation to Chairman James).
The
paradigm-shifting Yurok Connect Broadband Project is now 75 percent
complete and is expected to conclude in the next few months. When
it’s done, nearly all of the reservation will have access to
dependably fast internet.
“We
are quickly moving to the right side of the digital divide. I would
like to thank the Yurok Team and EnerTribe for working so hard to
make this project a reality,” said Chairman James.
The
construction of the Wautec tower was funded by the CARES Act and the
Amateur Radio Digital Communications. In addition to the CARES funds,
three separate organizations contributed to the rest of the project,
including the Tribal Nations Grant Fund, US Department of Commerce’s
Economic Development Administration and the California Public
Utilities Commission.
Launched
in 2013, Yurok Connect offers inexpensive broadband internet to
individuals, Tribal offices as well as Tribally owned and private
businesses. The Yurok IT Department built the whole, wireless
internet system from the ground up. The wireless internet service
provider is a self-sustaining business administered entirely by Yurok
citizens.
