Humboldt’s Regional Climate Action Plan (RCAP) cleared another bureaucratic hurdle on Tuesday, securing unanimous approval from the Eureka City Council.
The ambitious environmental document — developed in collaboration with the County of Humboldt, local cities and other government agencies — outlines an array of strategies and measures aimed at reducing regional greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Most of these strategies focus on transportation, which accounts for 73 percent of the county’s total GHG inventory, and prioritize expanding access to public transit, electric vehicle charging stations and walking/biking trails.
Pie chart depicting the region’s 2022 greenhouse gas emission inventory. | Image: RCAP.
The RCAP, adopted by the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors in December, aligns with the state’s goal of reducing GHG emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels over the next four years and achieving carbon neutrality by 2045.
“The RCAP includes over two dozen measures, which are further broken down into well over 100 individual action items,” senior planner Chris Lohoefener explained at last night’s meeting. “Those action items are not mandates. … The city still has local flexibility for moving forward on priorities we’re already working on, and would gain a long-term menu of strategies to draw from as opportunities arise.”
Lohoefener added that the city has “discretion over implementation strategies” and can tailor them to existing policies, including Eureka’s 2040 General Plan. “The RCAP is also designed to be implemented over time with regional progress tracking and periodic updates as conditions, funding and capacities change,” he said.
Once the document gets the rubber stamp from the county’s seven city councils, the Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG) and other regional partners will assemble a Regional Climate Committee and select a Regional Climate Manager to oversee and support RCAP implementation.
“[City] staff would also continue participating in regional discussions to help finalize the recommended placement and structure of the committee and program manager,” Lohoefener said. “Any future steps — whether related to staffing, funding, policy updates or a city-specific work plan — would come back to council for consideration and direction.”
After some discussion among the council, Councilmember Scott Bauer made a motion to approve staff’s recommendation, approving the RCAP and its associated environmental documents. Councilmember Kati Moulton seconded the action.
“This is a huge endeavor,” Bauer said. “We don’t have a lot of time to make pretty significant changes to how we live, and this is the first step, right? This is simply laying the groundwork for us to take real action. … It’s been a long time, and I’m grateful that the staff have put together a great document.”
Councilmember Leslie Castellano echoed his sentiment, adding that she looks forward to “creating a guidebook for how the city is going to [enact] these measures once it goes back to the county and we are further along in the process.”
The motion passed in a 5-0 vote.
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What else happened at last night’s meeting?
Staff provided a glowing update on the Eureka Visitor Center, which received its official state designation as a California Welcome Center in 2024. In 2025, Old Town Eureka had a total of 1.2 million visitors (not including residents or employees) and 24,000-plus visitors to the welcome center, according to data staff members had sourced from Placer.ai.
The council accepted the report but did not take any formal action on the item.
Press release from the Greater Trinidad Chamber of Commerce:
The Trinidad to Clam Beach Run returns this Saturday, February 7, 2026, marking the 60th annual running of one of Trinidad’s most beloved community traditions. Participants can run, sprint, or walk the scenic 5¾-mile course beginning at Saunders Park, crossing Little River at Moonstone Beach, and finishing with a celebration at Clam Beach. To register for the event, visit exploretrinidadca.com/tcbr.
GTCC Honors Past Participants
In honor of the race’s milestone, the Greater Trinidad Chamber of Commerce will recognize individuals with ties to the earliest days of the event, including two individuals who ran in the inaugural 1966 race, and one who helped turn a legendary training route into the race known today. Honorees include Bill Ferlatte, Tom Beck, and Darren Walton.
Bill Ferlatte, 5th place finisher in the inaugural Trinidad to Clam Beach Run, helped shape the original course after training runs in the Trinidad area with the Humboldt State team. Ferlatte later built a career as a biologist and was inducted into the Dipsea Hall of Fame in June 2025, joining a small group of Humboldt alumni honored there, including former Clam Beach winners Don Makela (1973 winner) and Ron Elijah (1976 winner).
Tom Beck, former Humboldt State College cross country and track athlete, worked with Ferlatte in 1965 to propose adding the course to the AAU schedule, after being inspired by classic Bay Area races like the Dipsea and Bay to Breakers. Beck later returned to run the Trinidad to Clam Beach Run in 1972, earning a third-place finish. He’ll be traveling from Sonora to attend this weekend’s celebration.
Darren Walton placed 7th in the 1966 race. At the time, he was a sophomore at Novato High School. Sixty years later, he’s returning to run again, after traveling from the Bay Area for the event several times throughout the decades.
Community members and runners are invited to meet the honorees at the Jogg’n Shoppe on Friday, February 6, at 2:30 p.m. Honorees will also attend the annual Pasta Feed on Friday, February 6, at 5:30 p.m. at the Dow’s Prairie Grange (3995 Dows Prairie Rd, McKinleyville). Runners and supporters are encouraged to attend and “carb up” before race day. Plates are just $15, and you can place an advance order at pasta-bar.cheddarup.com. This event benefits the Dows Prairie Grange #505 restoration project. Honorees will also be at the start line on Saturday to cheer on runners.
On Feb. 3, 2026, at 8:47 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff deputies responded to a residence located in the 900 block of Lewis Rd., in Weitchpec to a reported possible murder- suicide.
Upon arrival, deputies located two individuals deceased inside the residence. Based on the preliminary investigation, the incident appears to be consistent with a murder-suicide. The identities of the deceased are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Division is actively investigating the incident and is working closely with the Yurok Tribal Police.
No additional information will be released at this time. Updates will be released as the investigation continues and as appropriate.
Anyone with information about this case is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.
Well, lookie there! The historic U.S. Coast Guard Station Humboldt Bay has emerged from its chrysalis with a brand-new set of historically accurate windows and doors.
Just over a year ago, the exterior of the building, which is also called the Humboldt Bay Life-Saving Station, was almost entirely wrapped in white plastic, giving the structure a circus tent vibe while sparking curiosity among passersby.
The reason for the wrap, it turned out, was lead paint remediation. The handsome edifice, located on the North Spit near the entrance to Humboldt Bay, was built way back in 1936 (replacing the original 1878 structure), and the old paint still adhered to the siding.
As we reported back in December 2024, the Coast Guard hired local contractors to complete an extensive renovation project, which involved remodeling the bathrooms and replacing all the siding, windows and doors.
The work was supposed to be completed by last summer, but Lieutenant Junior Grade Nathan O’Brien, public affairs officer with USCG Sector Humboldt Bay, tells the Outpost that the project wasn’t completed until late last week.
“The primary cause for the delay was an unforeseen challenge in procuring windows and doors that met the stringent historical requirements of the building,” O’Brien explained in an email.
Why such stringent requirements? Well, the three-story structure has been recognized as the best example of a New Deal-era “Roosevelt Style” Coast Guard station in the western U.S., and in 1979 (or perhaps 1977) it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
As such, history buffs care very much about this building. In 2020, in a story about the planned removal of the station’s defunct marine railway, the Outpost cited historian Ralph Shanks’ description of the building as “the apex of Coast Guard architecture.” The Coast Guard itself swooned in an official report that the detailing, “such as the period exterior door and window moldings, classical columns, balustrades, gable brackets and ironwork, is especially fine.”
(There are some nice photos of the building at this website. The shots were taken after completion of a roof-replacement project that also required strict historical accuracy.)
O’Brien explained that the California State Historic Preservation Office demanded historical accuracy with the renovation project.
“The station, a landmark in the region, required specialized materials to maintain its unique architectural profile,” he explained in an email. “The prime contractor faced difficulties in sourcing a supplier capable of meeting these exacting standards.”
Custom-built windows and doors were expected to arrive in March but not delivered to the site until October.
“Despite this setback, the contractor has done excellent work on the project,” O’Brien said. “The renovation has been comprehensive, ensuring the building is fully restored to serve the needs of the Coast Guard while honoring its storied past.”
The Coast Guard Air Station located at the Humboldt County Airport in McKinleyville was commissioned in 1977. However, the Life-Saving Station on the peninsula remains an active part of the agency’s search-and-rescue infrastructure, housing a 47-foot lifeboat, among other resources.
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
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Just months after lawmakers enacted major reforms to speed up home and apartment building, a new proposal seeks to force even more cities to allow housing near major transit hubs. It has reignited divisions among Democratic lawmakers who are wary of the state telling cities how and where to build.
San Francisco Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener’s Senate Bill 677 seeks to close a loophole that backers of the bill say some cities are using to get out of last year’s reforms intended to allow more apartments to be built near major bus and train stations.
A small group of Democrats who opposed last year’s law refused to support Wiener’s new bill seeking to force cities to comply with the new transit-related building requirements. The bill widens the definition of what a passenger rail is. It passed and advanced to the Assembly despite their objections.
The pocket of Democratic resistance contrasts with the Democratic-controlled Legislature’s appetite for sweeping housing reform it embraced last year. Last summer, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation that repealed longstanding environmental protections allowing many developments to bypass environmental reviews, which can result in long delays and costly litigation.
Legislators last year also enacted the transit-oriented housing reforms, but some cities such as Solano Beach have been trying to find a way out of the new requirements by claiming they don’t have a major transit station, even though critics maintain they do. Wiener’s bill seeks to expand the definition of what counts as a transit station and close the loophole.
That didn’t sit well with some Senate Democrats.
Last week, seven of them joined Republicans to oppose Weiner’s proposal, including Catherine Blakespear and Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, of Los Angeles. The pair voted ‘no’ in a rare and forceful show of public opposition toward a fellow Democrat’s bill.
“I come from local government, and it’s hard for me to support that,” Blakespear said in an interview. She represents the San Diego County beach town of Encinitas, where she used to be mayor.
Local officials worry that building more apartments around transit centers could change the character of their communities with the potential for more traffic and less parking, she said.
“A community like Solano Beach is a low-density community with residents who have chosen it for that reason,” Blakespear said, referring to a city in her district that opposes the legislation.
Los Angeles and suburban cities in San Diego County have said the new transit-focused building requirements are vague and confusing, and they need clarity about which cities it applies to.
“We just worry that the definition change could be an expansion of where SB 79 applies,” League of California Cities lobbyist Brady Guertin said at a January committee hearing, referring to the bill Newsom signed into law last year.
Wiener, who also authored last year’s bill, said he plans to introduce more follow-up legislation to address how cities should implement the far-reaching statute, which will affect parts of Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco counties.
Wiener’s office did not return CalMatters’ interview requests.
A reversal of typical voting patterns
Blakespear’s decision to vote ‘no’ goes against her normal voting behavior.
Her votes have historically aligned with pro-housing group California YIMBY on bills 96% of the time from 2023 to 2025, according to the CalMatters Digital Democracy database.
California YIMBY is one of the bill’s sponsors, and the city of Encinitas, which has previously been sued by the state for ignoring state housing laws, opposes it. Many residents also still attribute the city’s biggest issues such as homelessness to Blakespear’s tenure as mayor more than four years ago.
s against the bills pushed by the Legislature’s supermajority.
Out of 2,161 opportunities last year, Blakespear voted “no” just 14 times — less than 1% of the time.
Smallwood-Cuevas also did not support last year’s transit-focused housing bill. Smallwood-Cuevas also did not support last year’s transit-focused housing bill. She represents Los Angeles, where Mayor Karen Bass has expressed concerns about the state dictating housing policy.
“We must streamline the production of housing for all Angelenos. However, we must do so in a way that does not erode local control,” Bass said in a letter urging Newsom to veto last year’s measure.
A spokesperson for Smallwood-Cuevas said she was not available for an interview.
Five Democratic senators also declined to vote on Weiner’s latest housing measure last week. Not voting counts the same as voting “no,” and is a tactic lawmakers regularly use to avoid angering colleagues or influential lobbying groups.
The tensions over this latest proposal come as lawmakers continue to debate measures this year to tackle the state’s housing crisis.
Meanwhile, one other housing-related bill faced even stronger resistance from Democrats. Democrats on the Assembly Judiciary Committee spiked a proposal to cap rent increases last month amid opposition from landlord groups and lawmakers who were leery of interfering with the rental-housing market.
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Digital Democracy’s Foaad Khosmood, Forbes professor of computer engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, contributed to this story.
John Lennord McGee III September 15, 1953 -
February 2, 2026
It is with great
sadness that I announce the passing of my dad, John
Lennord McGee III, age 72. Dad passed away peacefully on
February 2, 2026, at Fortuna Rehabilitation and Wellness Center. Born
in Littleton, New Hampshire, to John McGee II and Jessica
McKinney, Dad lived a life of strong will and encouraging love.
Dad spent his
childhood in New Hampshire until age 10. Facing neglect and feeling
unaccepted, he left home to find his way in life alone. Not even a
teenager, he began hitchhiking across the USA. On his journey, he
stopped in Idaho and Oregon and eventually settled in California.
When finally settled
in California, Dad found his happy place and felt a connection to
Humboldt County, calling it his home for the rest of his life. Dad
made friends everywhere he went. He was a talker, a storyteller, a
jokester. Sometimes, his stories were so absurd we wondered if they
were really true. Deep down, though, Dad was a lover, and he loved
with all his heart because he knew what it felt like to not be wanted
or loved.
Dad worked for
Louisiana Pacific for 25 years as a resaw and lumber millwright in
Samoa. He was well respected at his job and was very proud of his
work. I will say he was one of the hardest workers. In fact, anyone
you would talk to would say the same thing. Dad met two of his
lifelong friends at Louisiana Pacific: Chuck Lewis and Lee Coffman.
Both men provided Dad with joy to his heart and, for once, made him
feel like he belonged.
Living out in
Fairhaven, my dad met my mom, Sandra Nelson. After dating for some
time, they married, and soon, a family of their own was started. Dad
had three children with my mom and two other children from previous
relationships. My dad had a total of five kids, each one providing
love and support he cherished up until the end.
Dad is survived by
his children and their spouses, Anthony McGee, Timothy McGee,
April Luke, Lisa Diaz, and Paul Diaz, and after 40 years of missed
time, Cassie Lilyblad Bumgardner.
Dad is also survived
by his grandchildren, Brianna McGee, Brian Luke Jr., Ophelia
Warren, Sawyer Warren, and Caspian Diaz.
I want to thank the
following friends for being with Dad after his fall and cancer
diagnosis: Johnathan Newell and Aleia Torres. You two meant the world
to Dad and I can’t thank you enough for always lending a hand at a
moment’s notice.
To Pastor Chuck
Clark: Thank you a million times over for your prayers and sitting
with Dad. He was like your brother, and the instant connection you
two had will forever be in my heart.
To Paul Diaz, Dad
always said you were the best son-in-law he could ever ask for. Thank
you for holding his hand with me in the end, the weekly “John”
visits and grocery runs, and remember his last words of “I
love you” were meant for both of us.
Dad will have a
direct cremation. No services will be planned.
If you were ever
part of my dad’s life, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I
know he felt the love from everyone, and you made him feel like the
wonderful person he was.
Thanks for being my
dad and living life to the fullest. You did a great job.
Rest easy, daddy,
you’re home now.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of John McGee III’s family. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.
Edward
“Ed” Earnest Albert Kukkonen, age 81, of Arcata, passed away
peacefully on January 28, 2026, surrounded by family.
Ed was born on July 3, 1944, in Hancock,
Michigan, to Edward and Irene Kukkonen. After graduating high
school, he proudly served in the United States Navy. Following his
service, Ed made his way to Northern California, eventually settling
in Eureka, where he built a life grounded in hard work and family.
Ed took great pride in his work as a forklift
operator, beginning at Cal Pacific and later at Louisiana Pacific and
Britt Lumber. It was while working at Cal Pacific that he met the
love of his life, Charlene Petersen (Wright). They were married in
September of 1977 and shared many years together filled with
dedication, partnership and love.
Ed found happiness in simple, meaningful things
like spending time with friends and family, and working around his
property in Willow Creek. Above all, he cherished time with his
grandchildren. Whether it was hunting, cutting firewood, attending
baseball games and gymnastics meets, or at the drag strip. Ed was
happiest when surrounded by his grandkids and being part of their
lives.
Ed is survived by his beloved wife,
Charlene Kukkonen; his children Kenneth Petersen, Karen (Troy)
Clower, and Kim (Ken) Keasey; his sister Peggy (John) Pulkkinen;
brothers Richard Kukkonen and Robert (Barbara) Kukkonen;
his sister-in-law Vida (Mike) Lorenzen; his grandchildren Kenneth
Petersen Jr., Austin (Shawna Estes) Petersen, Lane Clower, Garrett
Clower, Chet Keasey, and Shelby Keasey; and his great-grandchildren
Aubrey Petersen and Daytona Petersen, along with numerous nieces and
nephews.
He was preceded in death by his infant son
Edward Richard Kukkonen; his parents Edward and Irene Kukkonen;
his sisters Esther (Alfred) Nanerville and Sandra Aittama; his
father-in-law Charles “Les” Wright; mother-in-law Evelyne
Wright; brother-in-law Chuck Wright; and his loyal dog, Peaches.
Our family would like to extend heartfelt
thanks to Joe and Crystal at Eureka Rehabilitation, the compassionate
staff at Sequoia Springs, Redwood Memorial Hospital and Larry Keasey
for their kindness, care, and support during Dad’s final days.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to
the Alzheimer’s Association, P.O. Box 2542, McKinleyville, CA
95519.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Ed Kukkonen’s family. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.
