UPDATE, 2:54 p.m.:

Arcata Fire Chief Chris Emmons followed up via phone and confirmed that the fire started in one of several transient encampments and “appeared to be human-caused.”

“I would say [it was] intentionally set,” Emmons said, noting that there were no campfires or electrical wiring near the flames. 

“It looked impressive initially,” he added. “You see a lot of smoke coming out of a large building and think, ‘Oh gosh, we’re doing this again.’” 

With many local residents still reeling from the devastating Jan. 2 fire that destroyed half a block of businesses and apartments, Emmons noted a specific connection with this latest blaze: The warehouse floor had a lot of fresh white paint on it — paint that splattered fire engines and APD vehicles — and law enforcement identified the buckets as stolen paint from the Ace Hardware paint center. 

“I looked, and sure enough, [the buckets] were melted and covered in soot” from the Jan. 2 fire, Emmons said. “It looks like a bunch of stolen paint was just dumped on the ground. Now we have to go scrub all of the vehicles.”

Emmons also confirmed that nobody was injured, and the fire was pretty easily extinguished. 

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Original post:

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Shortly after noon today a fire broke out amid an encampment of unhoused people living inside a graffiti-covered warehouse in Arcata.

Black smoke billowed from large garage doors in the building, located near the intersection of Samoa Boulevard and K Streets. The warehouse is the former home of Soilscape Solutions, a cannabis garden shop that has since relocated to Eureka. 

Jason Olson, who works at the nearby factory of Wing Inflatables, tells the Outpost via email that everyone had evacuated from the building by the time he walked over to check it out — everyone “except for one guy who was worried about his cats that live in there.”

Arcata Fire Department and the Arcata Police Department responded to the scene, and the fire was quickly extinguished, according to Olson. The man who was worried about his cats escaped unharmed. 

“I assume the cats made it out safely as well,” Olson said via email. “It wasn’t a very big fire.”

We’ve reached out to AFD for more information and will update this post when we hear back. Below are some more photos sent by Olson.

Does your horse have the right of way? Does the sight of the Pierson totem pole make you sob with pride? Are you a go-getter with dreams of a more perfect Central Avenue?

Then you might be a perfect candidate for the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee, which we used to call the “mick-mack” (McKMAC) in a fun sort of way that county government is apparently is trying to tamp down.

See below. From the County of Humboldt:

If you are interested in issues affecting the greater McKinleyville area, consider applying to serve on the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee (MMAC). 

The MMAC advises the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on matters related to the community in McKinleyville.

The committee is responsible for gathering community input and commenting on matters related to county services, including public works, health, safety, welfare and public financing. The committee also reviews proposed zoning and General Plan changes that affect the McKinleyville area and makes advisory recommendations to the Humboldt County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors.

The MMAC has eight voting members who either live in, own property in, or do business in the greater McKinleyville area. Since McKinleyville is in Humboldt County’s Fifth District, three members are appointed by the Fifth District Supervisor and three at-large members are appointed by a majority vote of the Board of Supervisors. Additionally, one voting member must be a McKinleyville Community Services District (MCSD) Board member, and another serves as the MCSD General Manager.

Applications are currently being accepted for one at-large member on this committee.

Application and Appointment Process

Applications must be submitted by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 25 and can be found online on the county’s McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee web page. 

It is anticipated that applications will be presented to the Board for consideration on Tuesday, March 3. The successful applicant will be appointed by a majority vote of the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors. Once appointed, members of this committee serve a four year term. Committee members must file a statement of economic interest as required by the Fair Political Practices Commission of the State of California and complete ethics training every two years.

The Humboldt County McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee meets the fourth Wednesday of each month at 6 p.m. For more information, please visit the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee web page or call 707-476-2390.

Applications for all county committees, boards and commissions with or without immediate vacancies are accepted year round and are considered current for two years. Applicants on file will be notified should a new vacancy arise.

For more information, please contact the Clerk of the Board via email at cob@co.humboldt.ca.us, by phone at 707-476-2390, or visit the office at 825 Fifth St., Suite 111, in Eureka during regular business hours.

Press release from the Humboldt Area Foundation:

HAF+WRCF’s Universal Scholarship Application opens January 15, giving students across Humboldt, Del Norte, Trinity, and Curry counties access to nearly 200 scholarship opportunities—all through one simple application. 

From now until March 2, students pursuing any form of postsecondary education, including college, trade school, or vocational training, can apply for scholarships created by local businesses, clubs, organizations, schools, and generous donors. Scholarships honor loved ones, support access to higher education, and help students achieve their diverse academic and vocational goals. Scholarships typically range from $250 to $10,000. 

Start your Universal Application and get more information by visiting ScholarshipFinder.org. 

Need help or have a question? Contact the Scholarships Team at Scholarships@hafoundation.org or call 707-442-2993. For additional financial resources and other potential scholarships available to students, visit 

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

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Two years after a wave of public benefit thefts that left low-income Californians scrambling to pay rent and afford food each month, Gov. Gavin Newsom is touting a significant decline in the reported amount stolen.

The thefts still amounted to more than $4 million a month last fall in both the CalFresh food assistance and CalWorks cash welfare benefits programs, according to a press release from Newsom’s office. That’s down from two years ago, when public benefits recipients were reporting $20 million a month stolen from their accounts. The state uses taxpayer money to reimburse victims when they report theft.

Newsom credited the reduction to the state’s rollout of anti-fraud technology such as more secure electronic benefit (EBT) cards with electronic chips.

“In California, we’re leading the way by turning innovation into action by stopping theft and ensuring benefits reach those who truly need them,” he said in a press release.

Newsom’s office announced the improved theft numbers last week after the Trump administration ramped up threats to California over allegations of fraud in public benefits. The president has used a wave of prosecutions over social services fraud in Minnesota, some of it allegedly by immigrants, as a reason to send immigration agents to conduct aggressive raids in Minneapolis.

Earlier this month the Trump administration froze some federal social services funding to five Democratic-led states, including California. A judge halted the freeze, which included funds for the CalWorks cash aid program, for now.

The kind of fraud in which Newsom was touting reductions is not traditional “welfare fraud” perpetrated by recipients of public benefits, but rather theft by a third party. Local social services officials have said fraud by recipients is relatively uncommon.

Thieves have been taking advantage of California benefits recipients by using hidden “skimming” devices to steal card numbers from EBT cards loaded withCalFresh food assistance and CalWorks cash welfare benefits. They then duplicate the cards and drain them of cash or make large purchases using CalFresh, before the recipients have a chance to spend their own benefits.

California was particularly susceptible because of the size of the state’s social safety net, with roughly 300,000 families receiving cash aid and 3 million receiving food assistance. CalMatters reported in 2023 that the state, previously focused on detecting fraud committed by recipients of the benefits, had also ignored warnings and delayed a proposal to introduce chipped EBT cards.

When the pandemic brought new benefits from the federal and state governments, such as boosted unemployment benefits and stimulus checks, thieves wielding card skimmers followed the money. EBT cards, which contained only a magnetic strip at the time, were among the most vulnerable to theft. Nearly 200 people have been charged across California in the EBT schemes, Newsom’s office said.

Since 2023 the state responded to the skimming crisis by issuing chipped EBT cards and introducing an app allowing recipients to freeze their EBT accounts to prevent withdrawals. Last year, Newsom said, the state began using a computer model to detect fraudulent withdrawals and forced resets of some CalWorks’ recipients EBT card PINs.

But local welfare fraud investigators said the Newsom’s numbers paint too rosy a picture of the theft.

Gregory Mahony, president of the California Welfare Fraud Investigators Association, said he believes the state’s reported thefts are undercounted.

The figures are based on how much the state reimburses county welfare departments each month to return victims’ benefits. But some recipients don’t bother making a report, or report months of thefts but only get some of the money reimbursed, Mahony said.

He also criticized the California Department of Social Services for dropping a requirement in 2023 that victims file police reports each time their benefits are stolen in order to get a reimbursement. That’s hurt the state’s tracking of theft and fraud, Mahony said.

“This is not a systemic victory,” he said in a statement. “It is a delayed and partial mitigation of a crisis long allowed to grow unchecked.”

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

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Democratic U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff conducted an oversight visit yesterday at the state’s newest and largest immigrant detention center, located in California City, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles.

In remarks to reporters, both highlighted what they described as inadequate medical care at the site.

“The most frequent feedback we got was the inadequacy of the medical care they are receiving,” said Schiff. He described meeting a diabetic detainee who he said has not received treatment for her condition in two months. “That’s frightening,” he said.

More than 1,400 people are currently held at the California City Detention Facility, run by the private for-profit prison company CoreCivic in the middle of the Mojave Desert. It opened in late August under a contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with a capacity to hold 2,560 detainees.

Previously, CoreCivic operated the site as a state prison. The Newsom administration ended the contract in 2024 as it closed several state prisons because of California’s declining incarcerated population.

“They’re going to have to do something very different if they’re going to meet the medical needs of the people here, let alone adding another 1,000 people,” Padilla said.

Schiff said he spoke to people who described smelly water and a detainee who described a moldy sandwich. Both Padilla and Schiff stressed that people were being held in prison-like conditions despite many not having committed any crimes and only civil immigration offenses.

“This is not a prison, despite the environment, so we have an equal concern for mental health care,” Padilla said. “You can imagine the experience of being detained, being threatened with deportation and the impact on you as an individual and the impact on your extended family can be traumatic. We found that mental health care here is also lacking.”

Schiff said many of the people he talked to inside were arrested at their immigration appointments. “So they were doing what they were supposed to do to become citizens or establish a lawful presence and at those appointments they were picked up and separated from family,” he said.

He also described meeting a man from Afghanistan who said he assisted the U.S. military there and would be killed by the Taliban if returned to his country.

“They want to deport him back to Afghanistan. He was given alternatives like Sudan and elsewhere to places where he has no ties. These are the stories that we were hearing,” said Schiff.

Before entering the facility, Schiff and Padilla said they were conducting the inspection to “respond to complaints and questions from constituents about the conditions that detainees are in” and to “see firsthand what this facility is like.”

“On this anniversary of the second Trump administration, one year in, there are a couple things we already know his term is defined by: the cruelty and over-aggressiveness of the mass deportation agenda,” said Padilla.

“This is a necessary part of our oversight,” said Schiff. “We’ve all been working with constituents who have been detained here or are detained here and have described the falling conditions.”

Democrats want to visit ICE centers

By law, members of Congress have a right to conduct unannounced inspections of immigration detention centers. But Padilla’s spokesman said the senators arranged the visit in advance.

In July, House Democrats sued the administration over a policy requiring seven days advance notice for visits, which they argued violated federal law. In December 2025, federal Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked the seven-day notice policy while the case plays out in court.

Following a deadly shooting incident involving an immigration officer in Minneapolis, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued a new memorandum on Jan. 8 re-imposing the seven-day notice requirement. On Jan. 19, Cobb did not immediately block this new, reinstated policy, concluding that the Jan. 8 directive was a “new agency action” that required a different legal challenge than the one previously decided.

When President Donald Trump took office a year ago, roughly 40,000 people were being held in immigration detention across the nation. By the start of December, that number had risen by almost 75%, with nearly 66,000 people held in immigration detention across the United States and the system reportedly capable of holding 70,000 people on any given day — the highest level in U.S. history, according to government data.

California’s oversight

Last month, the California Attorney General’s office warned of “dangerous conditions” at the California City facility. In a Dec. 19 letter to Noem, attorney Michael Newman wrote the California Department of Justice “has grave concerns about the conditions at the facility and the lack of adequate medical care,” after inspecting the facility.

Attorney General Rob Bonta said the facility had “opened prematurely and was not prepared to handle the needs of the incoming population.”

Ryan Gustin, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, previously told Calmatters that the site has robust medical and mental health care on site, including around-the-clock access to those services. He said those services adhere to “standards set forth by our government partners.”

“There are no delays in individuals getting their prescription medications,” Gustin said.

In November, detainees at the facility sued, alleging the facility is polluted by sewage leaks and insect infestations, and that detainees can’t get proper medical attention for life-threatening conditions.

Debbie (Deborah) M. Barcelles of Eureka passed away on Tuesday, Jan. 13 at the Crescent City Skilled Nursing at 6:15 p.m. with her husband at her side.

Growing up on a dairy in Elk Grove with her parents and two brothers, she moved to Eureka in her 20s, where she worked for Redwood Coast Regional Center for over 40 years as a member of support staff.

Debbie liked doing her daily afternoon walk on G Street, watching silent movies, rescuing feral cats and identifying birds. She was an avid collector of memorabilia and loved decorating her little home on Trails End Road. Always active in self-improvement, she also liked dressing up for Halloween almost every year and going on short trips to southern Oregon or the Bay Area. Her favorite day of the year was Valentine’s Day, and she collected ornamental hearts and Victorian Valentine’s cards.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Frank and Evelyn Barcelles. She is survived by her older brothers, Robert of Roseville, Calif. and Frank of Missouri and their wives; her husband Franklin Stover of Eureka with daughters Kira and Elise; several aunts and uncles in Arcata; and Kathy and Bruce Standifer, close personal friends in Geyserville, Calif.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Debbie Barcelles’s family. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

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It could have been so much worse!

An elderly woman was hospitalized Sunday afternoon after her vehicle careened through a Eureka intersection, narrowly missing the Old Town Carriage Company horse before crashing into a tree by the gazebo.

Old Town resident Colton O’Neale said he witnessed the crash, which happened at approximately 3:39 p.m. The driver was placed on a gurney and loaded into an ambulance.

“We overheard a firemen tell someone that she mixed up her gas and her brake,” O’Neale told the Outpost this morning. 

Laura Montagna, public information officer with the Eureka Police Department, said the unidentified driver (born in 1949) was headed westbound on Second Street immediately before the accident.

Consulting the call logs, Montagna said the driver narrowly missed the horse and struck a light pole, so both PG&E and the Humboldt County Public Works Department were notified.

O’Neale, who lives in an upstairs apartment near the scene, said he heard “frantic shouting” right before the incident. 

“I looked [out a window] and saw several people running out of the way as she barreled through,” he reported. “[A] neighbor and I walked up for a closer look and I don’t think she hit anyone.”