Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
On Jan. 8, 2021, at about 7:40 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the 100 block of Carlson Drive in Manila for a death investigation resulting from a structure fire.
Upon arrival, deputies observed firefighters tending to a travel trailer fire on the property. Deputies learned that while fighting the fire, emergency personnel had located a deceased individual inside the burning trailer.
Due to the condition of the remains, the Humboldt County Coroner’s Office was not able to immediately confirm identification of the deceased.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. 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.
On Jan. 9, 2021, at about 6 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies assigned to the Trinity River Division were contacted by a community member in Willow Creek regarding an assault that had just occurred.
Pauly Scott Yuron. | HCSO
The male victim told deputies that just prior to contacting, the victim was performing maintenance on a building in the area of Highway 299 and Highway 96 when he was approached by a male suspect, later identified as 24-year-old Pauly Scott Yuron. According to the victim, Yuron began to verbally assault and threaten the victim without being provoked. Yuron then reportedly picked up a rock, wielding it in a threatening manner, at which point the victim fled to safety and contacted law enforcement. According to the victim, Yuron was last seen walking toward a business on the 38,900 block of Highway 299.
As deputies were enroute to the business to search for Yuron, the Sheriff’s Office received another report of a disturbance and assault at the business. Deputies arrived on scene and observed Yuron running away from the business. Deputies followed Yuron and he was quickly taken into custody.
Upon further investigation, deputies learned that following the verbal altercation with the original reporting party, Yuron entered the business on Highway 299 and began causing a disturbance. When asked to leave, Yuron vandalized property inside prior to exiting the business. Outside the business, Yuron then reportedly physically assaulted another male victim before fleeing.
Yuron was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of assault (PC 240), battery (PC 242), criminal threats (PC 422), vandalism (PC 594(b)(1)), resisting arrest (PC 69), disorderly conduct under the influence (PC 647(f)) and violation of probation (PC 1203.2(a)(2)).
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.
Humboldt’s President of Positivity wants to make sure she maintains adequate speediness going into the new year — Who knows what we’ll need to quickly flee from in the coming weeks? That’s why she’s starting this Monday with a little run with her friends from the Six Rivers Running Club (6RRC) and the Humboldt Redwoods Running Association for Youth (HRRAY). Run your fingers up this screen and click play, already!
Amid a calamitous pandemic that has strained his relationships with fellow Democrats in the Legislature and given momentum to a Republican-led effort to throw him out of office, Gov. Gavin Newsom is trying to pull off a political balancing act as he begins his third year leading California.
He wants to help the poor, but not add burdens on the rich. He wants to reopen schools, but avoid clashing with powerful teachers unions. He says universal health care is his goal, but he dropped plans to provide government-funded insurance to low-income undocumented seniors.
Even as Newsom described soaring revenues that have put the state on much stronger financial footing than officials predicted earlier in the pandemic, he seemed to follow the mantra of former Gov. Jerry Brown — paddling a little on the left, and a little on the right.
“While we are enjoying the fruits of a lot of one-time energy and a surplus… it’s not permanent,” Newsom said Friday as he introduced a record-breaking $227 billion budget proposal that will launch months of negotiations at the Capitol. “We have to be mindful of over-committing.”
Paddling right, he rebuked progressive calls for new taxes on the wealthy — those are “not part of the conversation,” the governor said — and proposed more tax credits for businesses that stay in California and create full-time jobs.
Paddling left, he said “there’s urgency to get money into people’s pockets” and laid out plans to send $600 stimulus checks to 4 million low-income workers, including undocumented immigrants.
Though Newsom stuck to policy during the two-hour long presentation, at times he appeared attuned to recent political threats, working to shore up relationships with Democratic lawmakers and thwart accusations of hypocrisy.
Supporters of a GOP-led recall attempt say they have two-thirds of the signatures needed to put the question on the ballot. Their effort gained steam after news broke that Newsom celebrated a lobbyist friend’s birthday — unmasked — at the opulent French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley, while admonishing Californians to mask up and avoid socializing for fear of spreading the coronavirus.
Newsom seemed determined not to repeat such a gaffe over the COVID-19 vaccine. Even as he announced plans to accelerate the pace at which Californians are being vaccinated, Newsom insisted he will not get the shot any sooner than other healthy people his age.
“I don’t think that will sit well with people,” the 53-year-old governor said. “And I am happy to wait my turn.”
Recall supporters are also hammering Newsom for a pandemic response that has shuddered many schools, businesses and churches. His budget rollout included extra emphasis on grants for small businesses and $2 billion in incentives to reopen schools.
But it does not require schools to reopen based on specific public health metrics, causing some superintendents to complain that labor unions, community groups or school boards could block them from reopening campuses. Newsom, who won office with the help of organized labor, said he’s committed to a “collaborative framework” that empowers unions. He hinted that a forthcoming proposal would give the state a stronger role when unions and school boards can’t agree on a reopening plan, but he did not disclose details.
Teachers immediately pushed back. “We are in the middle of a devastating COVID-19 surge, and any discussion of returning to in-person instruction is premature,” said a statement from California Federation of Teachers President Jeff Freitas.
The governor also withheld details on two other issues that have become high priorities amid the pandemic — expanding broadband service in rural and inner-city areas, and extending the amount of time tenants have to eviction if they can’t pay their full rent. Some 2 million Californians could be evicted on Feb. 1 unless the deadline is extended. Newsom said he’s working with legislative leaders on a plan and wouldn’t divulge details until they’re closer to agreement.
That displayed a different kind of balancing act Newsom is working to pull off — not between left and right, but between his own power and that of the Democratic-controlled Legislature.
“The governor is having to do a balance because the Legislature has given him feedback that we want to be part of these discussions,” said state Senate leader Toni Atkins, a San Diego Democrat.
“You’ve heard reactions in the past when members felt like that wasn’t always the case.”
Lawmakers fumed in the spring and summer when they felt the governor had left them out of the loop on the pandemic response. Things seem to be going more smoothly for now. Newsom’s staff began briefing lawmakers on key aspects of the budget last month, said Sen. Nancy Skinner, a Berkeley Democrat who chairs the budget committee.
Hearings will begin this week, and legislative leaders were optimistic they’ll be able to pass portions of the budget addressing the most pressing effects of the pandemic — school closures, small business assistance and eviction protection — long before the normal budget deadline in June.
That’s not because Newsom faces the possibility of a recall, Skinner said, but because lawmakers are hearing from constituents who want swift action on those things.
“Independent of any type of external political efforts, many of us feel good that he has responded to what we know Californians are saying to us,” she said.
Republicans lack enough seats to influence the budget process but criticized Newsom’s plans: too much spending on electric vehicle incentives, too little emphasis on ensuring people who lost their jobs get their unemployment checks, too loose on school reopenings.
The ultimate test: Back to in-person classes
“Schools must open safely regardless of the demands of the adults involved,” said a statement from GOP Sen. Jim Nielsen of Tehama. “There is no equity when private schools are open, and public schools are not.”
It appeared to be a veiled jab at Newsom, whose children attend a private school that reopened in the fall when infection rates were low, even as surrounding public school students were stuck at home on Zoom.
The inequities and the ongoing school closures — most public school students haven’t been inside a classroom in 10 months — have prompted some Democrats to push back too. Several Democratic lawmakers whose children attend public schools wrote a bill that would require schools to open when local public health authorities allow them to. (Most public schools are not allowed to open now because infection rates are so high, but many did not open when rates were lower in the fall, even though health orders allowed it.)
“The governor is moving in the direction that we would like to move in, which is trying to figure out how to reopen schools,” said Assembly member Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat.
But districts still need more direction from the state, he said.
The range of factors involved in reopening schools — curbing infection rates, getting teachers vaccinated, negotiating agreements between unions and districts that are at odds, creating a statewide standard that still respects local control — may prove to be Newsom’s most challenging balancing act of all.
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Harrison Ibach, president of the Humboldt Fishermen’s Market Association, told the Outpost Saturday that processors and fishermen settled on a price of $2.75 per pound for Dungeness crab. Fishermen had initially asked for $3.25 per pound, but processors say that the market has been severely impacted by the closure of restaurants due to COVID-19. Though the price is lower than what he’d hoped for, Ibach said he is just glad that the process is over and that the season can finally begin.
“We’re looking forward to a safe and orderly start to the season,” Ibach said, adding that the fishermen’s associations have a “gentlemen’s agreement” to start crabbing at roughly the same time. This discourages fishermen from gathering more than their fair share of crab, while also discouraging them from heading out in dangerous weather conditions to get an early start, he said.
Fishermen in the Bay Area will start setting pots on Monday and our local fisherman should start midweek, Ibach said, making crabs available to consumers by the weekend or early next week.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife opened the commercial Dungeness crab season on Dec. 23, much later than its usual start. The season was delayed in central California to protect whales from becoming entangled in the crabbing gear, and was delayed in the northern management zone — which includes Humboldt and Del Norte Counties— due to low weight in the meat quality tests.
Based on the poor quality meat tests from November, Ibach said he does not expect a large volume of crabs this year. Combined with the delay in the season and the low price, this could be bad news for the fishermen, many of whom rely on the revenue from crab season. But Ibach said he is trying to stay positive.
“I think everyone is looking forward to getting started and we have high hope that maybe we’ll have a decent season,” he said.
While the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won their playoff game against the Washington Football Team yesterday, Alex Cappa’s season is likely over.
The Bucs guard and former Humboldt State standout was visibly upset as he limped off the field and into the locker room near the end of the second quarter yesterday with an apparent leg injury.
Whatever happened to a
sense of humor? Here’s how Representative Emanuel Cleaver, D-Missouri
(who happens to be a United Methodist Church pastor) ended the
traditional prayer to open the 117th Congress last week:
Now may the God who created the world and
everything in it bless us and keep us. May the Lord make his face to
shine upon us and be gracious unto us. May the Lord lift up the light
of his countenance upon us and give us peace — peace in our
families, peace across this land and, dare I ask, oh Lord — peace
even in this chamber, now and ever more. We ask it in the name of the
monotheistic god, Brahma, and god known by many names by many
different faiths. Amen and A-Woman.
Emanuel Cleaver II.
The backlash was
immediate and sadly predictable from such worthies as Donald Trump
Jr. and Newt Gingrich. Representative Guy Reschenthaler,
R-Pennsylvania, tweeted, “The prayer to open the 117th Congress
ended with ‘amen and a-women.’ Amen is Latin for ‘so be it.’
It’s not a gendered word. Unfortunately, facts are irrelevant to
progressives. Unbelievable.”
Speaking of facts: Amen
isn’t Latin, it’s Hebrew, goes back to Deuteronomy, probably at least
3,000 years, well before Latin emerged. With the meaning “truth”
or “certainty,” used adverbially “as an expression of
agreement.” OK, it’s not gendered, but no adverb is. If you’re
into Helena Blavatsky’s mystical religion of Theosophy, you may
believe that “amen” derived from one of Egypt’s main gods, Amun.
(Amun-Ra appeared when Amun was conflated with the sun god, Ra, and
to whom the great Karnak temple is dedicated.)
Cleaver later explained
his “a-women” play on words. “I concluded with a light-hearted
pun in recognition of the record number of women who will be
representing the American people in Congress during this term.”
Indeed, we now have 144 women in the House and Senate; the previous
high was 129.
So it was a pun, a
deadpan joke. Obviously. Look, I understand deadpan humor. I’m a
Brit married to an American, I know what it’s like to say something
daft as if total earnestness and be taken seriously. My theory is
that, over in Blighty, you assume someone’s joking unless it’s
clear they’re not…vice versa over here. “It was a joke,” I’ll
say to Louisa. “It didn’t sound like a joke,” she’ll say, and
we’ll wonder yet again how we have managed to survive nearly 50 years
in each others company.
So c’mon! It wasn’t
the greatest pun in the world. Wasn’t even a pun, strictly speaking.
But Emanuel Cleaver meant no harm in his shout-out to those 144
female legislators, you know that guys. There are more important
things to worry about right now. Seriously.
Amun, one-time “King of the Gods” in Egypt, adopted by the ancient Greeks under the guise of Zeus. The word “amen” probably didn’t derive from this guy, but “ammonia” did.
