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The Humboldt County Office of Elections just released its second post-election report, and here’s the big news:

That’s right: Challenger Michelle Bushnell has taken a very narrow 34-vote lead over incumbent Second District Supervisor Estelle Fennell. 

There are still about 12,500 ballots yet to be counted countywide, according to Humboldt County Registrar of Voters Kelly Sanders, so this thing could conceivably flip back the other way before all is said and done. However, the trend is headed in the opposite direction. 

On Election Night, Bushnell trailed Fennell by 239 votes, out of a total of 7,171 ballots cast in the Second District race. Two days later, in the first post-election report, another 998 votes had been tallied and Fennell’s lead had shrunk to less than 200 votes:

With today’s report we got what the TV pundits call “a big dump” of new votes — 1,847 in the Second District alone — and Bushnell took about 56 percent of them. Unless the outstanding votes break back toward Fennell, then Humboldt County will have a new supervisor in the Second District.

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Elsewhere, what do we see? Up in Arcata, where three seats are up for grabs on the City Council, the top three spots remain the same, with incumbent councilmembers Michael Winkler and Paul Pitino on the outside looking in. In a wide field of candidates, Stacy Atkins-Salazar remains the top vote-getter with about 16.8 percent of the total. She’s followed by fellow newcomers Emily Grace Goldstein (14.6 percent) and Sarah Schaefer (13.96 percent). 

Oh, and Measure F, a special tax to fund the Arcata Fire Protection District, is still passing with flying colors, with more than 75 percent approval on a measure that required just a simple majority a two-thirds vote to pass. 

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Likewise in Eureka, the frontrunners remain the frontrunners. Scott Bauer still has more than double the vote tally of his closest competitor in Ward 4, so I think it’s safe to call the race for him. And in Ward 2, Kati Moulton has a quite comfortable 16.8 percent lead over her nearest competitor, Dot Jager-Wentworth. Let’s go ahead and call that one, too.

And Measure H, which would replace the city’s existing half-percent sales tax with a 1.25 percent sales tax within city limits, is going to pass. It’s leading, 66 percent to 34 percent. 

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What else is notable? Longtime Fortuna City Councilmember and far-right conspiracy theory enthusiast Dean Glaser is headed for defeat, with incumbent Tami Trent and former councilmember/challenger Mike Losey way out in front for the two available seats.

Check out a PDF with all the latest results here. 

UPDATE, Nov. 15:

On Saturday evening, Fortuna Union High School District Superintendent Glen Senestraro emailed the following press release:

The health and safety of our students and staff are our top priority.

Fortuna High School is reporting that another student has tested positive for COVID-19. We have had a total of two (2) students test positive this week. These COVID transmissions did not occur at the high school.

Following our mitigation plan, the three classes affected by the two positive cases have been moved to distance learning through the quarantine period. The students and teachers in the affected classes were contacted and are in quarantine. The school is collaborating with Humboldt County Public Health.

The principal has notified the parents of the students in the classes affected by these cases.

We would like to thank Humboldt County Public Health for their swift response and guidance to assure the safety and well-being of our community.

Glen Senestraro Superintendent

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Original post:

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An untold number of students and staff members at Fortuna High School have been told to quarantine and some classes switched to distance learning today after a student tested positive for COVID-19.

Parents of Fortuna High School students learned of the infection Thursday evening from school administrators. Many received a recorded phone message from Principal Clinton Duey, who said administrators were informed of the positive test around 6 p.m. by the Public Health Branch of the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services. 

Phone messages left for Fortuna Union High School District Superintendent Glen Senestraro had not been returned by the time this post was published. Nor had an email to the district office. 

In the voicemail left for parents, Duey says the health and safety of students and staff are the top priority at Fortuna High. The message, which you can listen to below, goes on to say,

This call is to inform you that a student at Fortuna High tested positive for COVID-19 today. … If your child was exposed, you would have already been contacted by myself or Mr. [Dustin] Rossman, dean of students. Some class periods, staff and students have been quarantined and put on distance learning.

While most schools in the county have opted for distance learning or a hybrid between remote and in-person instruction, the public schools in Fortuna and nearby Ferndale have chosen to hold classes entirely on campus, despite objections from some parents, staff members and teachers. 

According to county data, people between the ages of 10 and 19 represent nearly 12 percent of the positive COVID-19 cases in Humboldt County to date. 

Here’s the voicemail from Duey:

Voicemail

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PREVIOUSLY:

• At Emergency Meeting, Fortuna School Board Stands Firm on Decision to Open School Monday
• (AUDIO) HUMBOLDT HOLDING UP: Fortuna High School Teachers Discuss What the First Week of In-Person Classes Has Looked Like

While COVID may have altered much of Humboldt’s holiday plans, you can rest assured that there are some sounds of the season that shall not be silenced this year. Specifically, HONK HONK HONK… HONK HONK HONK… HONK HONK HONK, HUH-HOOOOONK.

At a rain-drenched Renner Station in Eureka, Humboldt County Supervisor Rex Bohn announced Friday that the 32nd annual Trucker’s Christmas Parade will in fact fill the streets of Eureka with colored lights, festive atmosphere and monotone renditions of “Jingle Bells” on Dec. 12 at 6 p.m.

“Especially in the year of COVID, there’s not going to be a lot of Christmas parties and Christmas fun as we know it normally,” Bohn said. “So we thought if we put in extra effort and made the Trucker’s Parade happen it would be a benefit for the community.” 

Bohn wanted to assure the public that he’d worked with local health officials to get the go ahead to hold the event. Donated proceeds will benefit the Boys and Girls Club of the Redwoods. 

If you and your vehicle would like to participate in this year’s parade, you can download an application here.

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From the California Department of Public Health:

Dangerous levels of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins have been detected in mussels from Humboldt County. The naturally occurring PSP toxins can cause illness or death in humans. Cooking does not destroy the toxin.

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is advising consumers not to eat sports-harvested mussels, clams, or whole scallops from Humboldt County.

This warning does not apply to commercially sold clams, mussels, scallops or oysters from approved sources. State law permits only state-certified commercial shellfish harvesters or dealers to sell these products. Shellfish sold by certified harvesters and dealers are subject to frequent mandatory testing to monitor for toxins.

PSP toxins affect the central nervous system, producing a tingling around the mouth and fingertips within a few minutes to a few hours after eating toxic shellfish. These symptoms are typically followed by loss of balance, lack of muscular coordination, slurred speech and difficulty swallowing. In severe poisonings, complete muscular paralysis and death from asphyxiation can occur.

You can get the most current information on shellfish advisories and quarantines by calling CDPH’s toll-free Shellfish Information Line at (800) 553-4133 or viewing the recreational bivalve shellfish advisory interactive map. For additional information, please visit the CDPH Marine Biotoxin Monitoring Web page.

Nora Wynne began her career as a teacher in Guatemala, and she was sometimes bestowed with massive banana bunches in appreciation of her work.

“It was a total gift, very, very much out of respect and to offer what they had,” Wynne said of the fruitful gesture. “It was just completely touching and overwhelming.”

Just a couple of weeks ago, though, Wynne — now a Spanish teacher at McKinleyville Middle School — got another honor. She was named by the California Department of Education one of only five teachers statewide to be named a “Teacher of the Year” for 2021, a rare and distinguished award that only three Humboldt County educators have received, most recently in 1996.

Nora Wynne.

Rooted in her early experiences with teaching in Guatemala, Wynne’s instinct is to embrace and value all students, which are qualities that make her a natural teacher and important role model, her students and colleagues say. Though her subject is Spanish, Wynne offers much more than language lessons to the sixth- through eighth-graders enrolled in her classes. She gently addresses bias for both students and teachers, and is open about her own life and experience in a professional way that compliments her subject and position. Wynne didn’t always know she was suited for education, and is someone who sort of unintentionally stumbled upon teaching, but Humboldt County — and now California — is thankful that she did.

Armed with an environmental biology degree from Humboldt State, Wynne set off to Guatemala as a Peace Corps volunteer in the late ‘90s to help farmers learn about organic agricultural methods. When she arrived, Wynne didn’t have her eye on education, but she ended up teaching environmental education at an elementary school, and returned to California with shifted interest.

Her short experience in Guatemala set Wynne up for decades of teaching in Humboldt.

She started teaching locally in 1999 and completed a Master’s Degree in multicultural education, with a focus on racism and homophobia in teacher preparation, in 2008.

Now, Wynne splits her expertise between Mckinleyville Middle and Humboldt State, where she’s a lecturer in the School of Education. On top of all that, Wynne is an instructional coach and immersion coordinator for the McKinleyville Union School District.

Laelia Maynor, a former student of Wynne’s who is now a freshman at McKinleyville High School enrolled in Spanish 3, took Spanish from Wynne for all three years of middle school. Maynor, who calls Wynne “profe” (short for profesora), described Wynne’s class as an immersion experience, and said that it was about Spanish-speaking cultures as much as the language. Given that language-learning is so difficult, Maynor repeatedly cited Wynne’s patience as the key to her own success learning Spanish. “It took me a year and a half to really get into learning, and she was patient with me throughout that entire span. [She was] patient with me for an entire three years, which is hard.”

Wynne’s class is more than language and culture education. Wynne aims to facilitate a learning experience where different backgrounds are valued and represented, and where students engage with each other as much as they do with her. She doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable topics.

“Profe is incredibly inclusive,” Maynor said. “If she hears any sort of negative talk about someone for something they can’t control it’s not just like, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t say that.’ It’s like, ‘Why do you think that? Why are you saying that?’ [She’s] not only condemning negativity in her space, [she’s] trying to get to the root of why there’s negativity.”

Schools pose a unique opportunity to expose students to others like and unlike themselves, and Wynne has integrated that into her teaching. “I feel like schools are a really important democratic institution and, you know, after we get out of school we’re allowed to go completely into our bubble away from people who aren’t like us,” Wynne told the Outpost recently. “And in school, we’re forced to be with everybody, and we can learn from everybody and we can bounce ideas back and forth.”

Inclusivity is a main quality Wynne is known for among her colleagues. When Wynne was named Humboldt Teacher of the Year in July, McKinleyville Union School District Superintendent Heidi Moore-Guynup commented that Wynne “has worked relentlessly to assist her colleagues and others to recognize the imperative need to lift all students up regardless of their life circumstances” in a press release from the Humboldt County Office of Education. She was praised for the same qualities more recently by McKinleyville High Principal Elwira Salata, also in a press release from HCOE in announcement of Wynne’s award. Wynne “strives to know and see each student separate and apart from the stereotypes that contextualizes their existence,” Salata said.

Wynne is a loyal advocate of representation in schools. She is open about being a member of the queer community in honor of that philosophy. “Queer people don’t really get to have role models of queer adults in their lives,” she said, adding that teachers have been historically fired for being openly queer. “I never had teachers that were openly queer. I couldn’t even be one when I started, 20 years ago.”

Wynne is trying to help break the systemic marginalization of queer people, and she believes that equal representation benefits everyone. “When we don’t represent people, they don’t feel like they can see themselves growing into being an important person in our society, and then we are robbed of their brilliance,” she said. “If we squash them, and we tell them it’s wrong and it’s bad and they should hide away, then we don’t get to have their brilliance in our world.”

Maynor said she benefited from Wynne’s openness in middle school. “Being a queer student, and seeing a queer adult, just living life and being a person — I feel like that’s really important. And that’s what profe did for me.” It was not an integral part of the experience in Wynne’s class, which “is what made it so valuable, just seeing a normal person being a queer adult and living life,” Maynor said.

Wynne is a person who cares deeply about each student, and remote teaching has enunciated that quality. In normal times, teachers assess students’ well-being in-person, but checking in can be almost impossible online. “It’s really challenging. When I feel like a student isn’t doing okay, I’m stressed out,” Wynne said. “I’m trying to call home, I’m trying to reach them through the Zoom, you know, trying to get them to turn the camera on so I can see how they look.”

Spanish is what Wynne teaches, but it’s not the reason she’s a teacher. She believes in encouraging young people via education, by making sure everyone has equal access to the curriculum and creating a safe learning environment where the personal experiences of students are valued.

“Learning is messy and loud and we shouldn’t just expect kids to come and sit and be robots and take down what we say and bring it back out to us on some standardized test,” she said. “I want my students to be active, I want them to be questioning, I want them to grow up and become important valuable people in our community, and I want them to have a deep understanding of whatever the content is. I hope they feel seen and heard and valued in my class.”

Her acceptance of the award has highlighted Wynne’s clear humility. She has said more than once that all teachers deserve recognition.

As coronavirus resurges 10 months into a devastating pandemic, many jobless Californians have exhausted their options and are hanging on to what little government support remains. Once padded by an extra $600 a week from the federal coronavirus relief bill, many of the state’s unemployed say their benefits are just enough to survive — if they can get them.

Inundated with more than 15 million claims since March, the Employment Development Department is struggling to keep up. As of late last month, the agency’s backlog of unresolved claims totaled 890,000.

In its latest blunder, EDD temporarily suspended more than 300,000 of the Bank of America debit cards it issued to claimants because of suspected fraud. But the aggressive anti-fraud measure caught thousands of innocent claimants in the crossfire, wiping out their only lifeline.

The state’s miscues and slim benefits have spelled financial ruin for thousands across the state and forced tough decisions about what bills to forego or what meals to skip. Here’s how three residents are being taken under by diminishing benefits.

Holding out in a Costco parking lot

Out of work and booted out by her landlord, Leigh Holguin used her unemployment benefits to buy a new home: a 1996 Chevrolet Swinger RV. Holguin, 50, her boyfriend Adam Rapp, 41, and their pit bull puppy have lived in their vehicle in Eureka since April.

Holguin and her 2-year-old pitbull Ares, who she named after the Greek god of war.

A self-employed caretaker, Holguin lost work as soon as the pandemic hit. So did Rapp, who had been doing lawn care and collecting and selling scrap metal for recycling.

Both filed for unemployment on the same day back in March, but Rapp has yet to see a penny.

His claim is lost somewhere in the state agency’s massive backlog. Holguin saw her monthly benefits drop to $800 when the weekly $600 from the federal relief package expired in July.

Holguin was saving up to secure a spot at a local trailer park where they could hook the RV up to power and access running water. Instead, she stood flustered when her EDD-issued debit card declined twice at the pump early last month.

Swept up by Sacramento’s aggressive anti-fraud efforts, Holguin’s bank account had been suspended. It took a week of waiting on the phone to get through to the agency. When she finally got through, a representative told her she needed to call the Bank of America. A game of hot potato ensued.

“When you call it’s, ‘Oh, it’s EDD’ or ‘Oh, it’s Bank of America,’ and you just flip flop back and forth,” Hoguin said. “It’s frustrating.”

When the state finally unfroze her card, her $800 lifeline for the month of October disappeared. Tired of investing hours on the phone, she gave up trying to recover that money.

Then their RV broke down, leaving the couple stranded in a Costco parking lot. A mechanic gave her a $3,500 quote for the repair. Money she doesn’t have.

Police badger the couple about moving the RV out of the lot. She’s worried they’ll have her home towed away.

“We’re slowly sinking,” Holguin said. “It’s like we’re in a boat with a hole and we’re using a teaspoon to bail out the water.”

Living in Los Angeles on $58 a week

Reidun Saxerud, 33, has felt the pinch since she made the solo move to Los Angeles from Minnesota eight years ago — jumping from job to job and making just enough to keep her head above water.

Saxerud was finally making headway earlier this year, then came coronavirus. The pandemic stripped the raise she had gotten three weeks prior as an administrative assistant for a talent agency.

Reidun Saxerud had finally found stable employment at a talent agency, then the pandemic hit.

Out of a job, she filed for unemployment less than a week after Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the state to shut down in March. Her weekly award totaled $58 but real support came when the federal stimulus package added a weekly $600 boost to her account in late April.

The aid filled her bank account with more money than it had seen in years and freed her up to leave a hostile living situation and move into a townhome with new housemates in May.

Backed by a PPP loan, the talent agency re-hired Saxerud in May. But as she had expected, her return was short-lived. By the end of June, she was unemployed again. She made only half of what she would have made had she remained unemployed during those six weeks.

Saxerud has since survived on $58 in weekly unemployment benefits and what unemployment money she was able to tuck away when the stimulus ended at the end of July. An artist and a writer, she’s helped by the occasional couple hundred bucks a month she’s able to pull in from art commissions.

October was the first month she was unable to pay her $550 rent in full.

Three weeks ago, she started a seasonal job as a personal assistant at a gift arrangement shop near her home. If she can’t hold her new job she’ll have to go back to surviving on $58 a week.

Having lived every week in California on a tight budget, Saxerud said she feels numb to her present situation. Except this time, she hardly feels alone in her struggle. She is looking forward to seeing what comes of a country she believes is at its tipping point.

“I’ve felt for a long time, about 10 years now, that we’ve been on the edge of a massive revolution and this might finally be the time,” Saxerud said. “So I’ll bide my time and take care of myself everyday the way I know how, because I know something big is coming.”

Back on the street after unemployment account froze

Ron Adams, 41, doesn’t sleep most nights. He’s woken up to too many missing backpacks.

Adams roams the streets of Riverside chock-full of indignation. Two months ago, he had a place to call home for the first time in nearly a year. Three weeks and a frozen bank account later, he found himself on the street again.

Ron Adams, a handyman, exhausted all of his savings last winter and has struggled to find work.

Adams became homeless one year ago when a break up with his ex-girlfriend left him without a place to stay. Shifting between hotel rooms and sleeping on the street, he quickly drained his savings as he struggled to find work as a handyman.

For Adams, the federal coronavirus relief bill represented a roof over his head. His weekly unemployment benefits were enough for him to string together consistent stays at hotels for most of the summer and repay friends who helped get him through the winter.

In September, he moved into a small Riverside home he found on Craigslist. His $1,000 monthly benefit gave him just enough to cover $900 in rent. Then EDD froze his debit card. Unable to pay October rent, his landlord asked him to leave.

One month of fruitless back and forth with EDD has sapped Adams of all hope. The latest word from the agency is that he will have to wait six weeks for his ID to be verified.

Local shelters never have room for him, he says. He relies on the generosity of his ex-girlfriend to stay fed. Some weekends, he manages to convince her to book him a hotel room. He’s repaying her soon as EDD resolves his claim.

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This article is part of California Divide, a collaboration among newsrooms examining income inequity and economic survival in California. CALmatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

James ‘Jim’ G. Widdoes passed away peacefully on Monday, November 9, 2020 at the age of 83, surrounded by his children. Jim was born May 13, 1937 in Los Angeles.

Jim was adopted when he was a year old by Earle and Florence Widdoes and was raised on a farm in Forestville, California. He graduated from Analy High School in 1956 and attended Santa Rosa Junior College as a Music Major. He is a graduate of the San Francisco College of Mortuary Science in 1961.

Jim has been active in the funeral profession since 1958. He was co-owner and manager of Goble’s Fortuna Mortuary since 1970 until Max Goble’s death in 2004, when he became partners with his son Marc and son-in-law Tom Howe until retirement and the sale of the mortuary in 2014.

Jim was a member of the Fortuna Methodist Church and a 39-year member and past president of the Fortuna Kiwanis Club. Many will remember him working at the Kiwanis and 4-H Spaghetti Feed fund raiser for over 30 years. He was active with the Cub Scouts as Scout Leader of Pack 47. He served as a board member and treasurer for the Fortuna Christmas Music Festival for 25 years and Jim sung for many organizations and events throughout Humboldt County.

Jim was also very active in the Masonic Family. He joined the Eel River Lodge #147 in 1962. Was a member of Scottish Rite, Valley of Santa Rosa and started the Valley of Northern California, Fortuna in 2004. He also belonged to the Aahmes Shrine and organized the Redwood Shrine Club ‘Joker Clown Unit’. Many may know him as “Putter the Clown”. A member of Rohnerville-Redwood Chapter #76, Fortuna Order of the Eastern Star. He also had been active with Job’s Daughter, Rainbow for Girls and DeMolay.

He is preceded in death by his beloved wife of 57 years, Elaine. He is survived by his four children — Shari Lynn Widdoes Howe (Tom Howe), Richard Walter Widdoes, Kimberly Gayle Widdoes, and Marc James Widdoes (Jaclyn). He also had 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Friends and family are invited to the viewing/visitation on Wednesday, November 18, 2020 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Goble’s Fortuna Mortuary, 560 12th St, Fortuna. Funeral service will be on Thursday, November 19, 2020 at 2:00 p.m., also at Goble’s. A private family burial will take place at Sunrise Cemetery, Fortuna. In lieu of flowers memorial contributions can be made in memory of Jim, to the Valley of Northern California Scottish Rite for the future Childhood Language Center, P.O. box 51, Fortuna, CA 95540, or to the Redwood Shrine Clube for Shriner’s Hospital Transportation Fund, 251 Bayside Road, Arcata, CA 95521 or to your favorite charity.

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