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It is time, once again, to take stock of your Humboldt County Year That Was through the lens of “The Only Metric That Matters”™ — that is, the number of clicks on the Lost Coast Outpost website. It is the secret clave to which the county danced the year away. Or maybe it is the sphygmomanometer that gives us the deepest insight into the health of the patient. You are welcome to invent your own metaphor.

Looking over the list, I’d say the main theme that emerges, here amid the natural disasters and goofball features and one-off tragedies, is this: Change.

Of course there’s big change at the federal level, which trickles down to the ground sooner or later, but there is also strictly Humboldt-level change that would likely have proceeded regardless of who took office at the beginning of the year. Institutional change at Cal Poly Humboldt. Changes in the very courses of the Eel River and the Klamath River. A promised fix to the biggest problem that has plagued our principal highway for years. A change in Eureka’s long relationship with Walmart, even.

In 2025 we experienced these changes, or we dreamed of them, or we feared them, or we protested them. The world coming is not the world we knew. We are going to have to make new maps.

Here are your top stories of 2025!

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25. (UPDATE: SHERIFF PRESS CONFERENCE) Officer-Involved Shooting Near the Bear River Recreation Center

Very strange and sad case of an apparently mentally unwell young man — later determined to be an out-of-towner named Nicholas Anderson — acting weird and threatening, eventually pulling a knife and charging at deputies.

Here’s the sheriff’s office’s state-mandated video recap of the incident. Viewer discretion advised.

24. Cal Poly Humboldt Plans to Discontinue Several Majors, a Minor, and the Economics Program for this Fall

This was a very short and sweet breaking news kind of story that ended up hitting pretty hard. Yes, Cal Poly Humboldt’s continued emergence from the chrysalis of Humboldt State was no big surprise, but what if they discontinued your old major? What if you had been an economics student?

23. A New California Law Requires Tortillas to Include an Extra Ingredient. Here’s Why

On the day after Christmas, two Calmatters stories about new laws for 2026 pop up in the feed. One is about new rules for car sales. The other is about the very sanctity of our precious bodily fluids. In MAHA Humboldt, which do you think charted?

Anyway, tortilla-makers are now required to include a vitamin essential to a successful pregnancy in their products — one that Latina women, generally, happen to be a bit more deficient in than women from other populations. So there you go. 

22. A New Invader Threatens California Water Supplies. Can the State Stop Its Spread?

These golden mussels sound like a major pain in the keister. Humboldt was primed for the story, as the local water district had sounded the alarm a month earlier. For now, Ruth Lake remains mussel-free. But that requires constant vigilance, especially from you motor boat owners.

21. Anonymous ‘Students Against Nazi Extremism’ Leave Notes Threatening to Damage Tesla Vehicles in Arcata

This story sucked. I used to belong to a Facebook group of independent news outlets across the country. It was a place for local-level reporters to talk shop. When the Outpost was trying to figure out what to do with this — whether or not we should run something about it — I sent a message to the group with my quandary. I said: We got this flyer in the mail that threatens to launch a campaign of vandalism against local Tesla owners. Police say they’re aware of it. We’re trying to figure out whether or not we should run a story about it. What do you think?

The responses from our peers fell into two categories. Both of them were idiotic.

The first category of response was: What? Why would you censor the news? This is an organized campaign of violence! Your readers will want to know about it! I bet it will get lots of clicks!

The second category of response was: Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you publish a story. Immediately notify police and turn over all your material to them! Otherwise you are party to a crime!

That is when I bid this Facebook group adieu. 

Eventually we decided that the fact that the flyers were getting police attention (without our help) made posting a story about them worthwhile, even though it was clear that the dipshit who was making them — “one idiot with a brick, a stamp and a printer,” as commenter Phyllobates terribilis would put it — was begging for our platform to amplify his would-be reign of terror.

And then, of course, every content mill in this stupid nation called us and tried to get us to give them hi-res versions of the letter, including the postmark and whatnot, so they could play true-crime and pretend to crack the case themselves. Of course we did not, and of course this wave of organized Tesla sabotage never came to pass.

20. Sequoia Park Zoo Black Bear Ishūng Has Dropped 100 Pounds and Learned to Love Green Bell Peppers (But She Still Hates Beets)

This chonker was a whirlwind sensation when she first sashayed into her enclosure back in April, but as much as you loved her then you loved her even more when she was able to crash diet herself down to a more reasonable (though still far from svelte) body-mass index.

Humboldt is pro-fitness!

19. Walmart Has Agreed to Buy the Old Eureka Kmart Property on Broadway, Emails Reveal

The (apparently) final chapter in the long drama over what to do with the big ol’ K-Mart at the south end of Eureka, which became a ghost building when Papa & Barkley — once the Great Green Hope of the local weed industry — closed its doors.

For a while a local school was looking at it. We heard a rumor that Tractor Supply Company was interested. Finally county government stepped in, with dreams of turning the spot into a customer-forward “one-stop shop” permitting center. Drive up, get your building permit and whatever else you might need, then be on your way! Easy peasy!

But those dreams were crushed when Walmart rolled up and offered more money, and so Walmart it will be. But what kind of Walmart? Not a whole lot can be said for certain at this point, but there are some indications that we’ll be getting a “Walmart Neighborhood Market” — essentially, a grocery store.

18. Four-Month Undercover Investigation Yields Two Arrests, 258 Pounds of Weed, 2 Pounds of Cocaine, 8 Firearms and a Lot of Cash, Drug Task Force Says

This one involved search warrants served at multiple locations throughout the county following a long-running undercover operation by a member of the Drug Task Force, in which the agent insinuated himself into the alleged dealer’s circle and made several illicit purchases before the Task Force brought the hammer down.

17. Attempted Rescue Underway Near Ferndale as 72-Year-Old Woman in Vehicle is Submerged to Her Neck in Flooded Field, According to Scanner Traffic

It took a village to rescue this lady last week. A village with tractors.

16. Up to 61,000 Truck Drivers in California Could Soon Lose Their Licenses. Here’s Why

The Trump administration bans refugees, asylum seekers and DACA holders from operating large vehicles. Assault on the working poor or long-overdue corrective? People had opinions. 

15. OBITUARY: Iris Elizabeth Canter, 2015-2025

Unimaginable.

14. EPD Provides Timeline Of Yesterday’s Fatal Collision on Broadway, Confirms Deceased Driver Was Female

This was the very, very horrifying crash outside Leon’s Car Care Center that involved a young Fortuna woman who was apparently having a mental health crisis.

13. ALLEGED ASSHOLE IN CUFFS! 31-Year-Old Oklahoma Resident Arrested on Multiple Felony Counts for Making ‘Terrorist Threats’ to Local Schools

The prudish among you fainted when you saw the headline — even after all these years, you still do that! — but what do you call a person who continuously calls bomb threats into schools halfway across the country, as well as threats of violence to local businesses? Lots of things, probably, but “asshole” is a pretty good place to start.

This (alleged) asshole had been (allegedly) doing that for years, wreaking special havoc at McK High in particular, and everyone rejoiced at his long-delayed arrest.

12. (PHOTOS) At Eureka’s Massive Anti-Trump/Musk Protest

This was the first of the big “No Kings” protests in downtown Eureka, and our Andrew Goff took a zillion photos of it.

The “No Kings” protests, if you haven’t been, are fun, positive community events. If you want to come to one in that spirit, you will have a good time. Meanness and lawlessness are strongly frowned upon.

11. Major Funding Secured for the Mile-Long Highway 101 Tunnel That Will One Day Bypass Last Chance Grade

That’s a long tunnel! It’ll take years and years, but it does look like California will someday solve the problem of Last Chance Grade — that section of Highway 101 just before Crescent City that is fast disappearing down the hillside— with a state-of-the-art supertunnel!

We dare you to try holding your breath through this one! For reference, the Randolph Collier Tunnel on Highway 199 is about a third as long, at 1,900 feet. The Robin Williams Tunnel, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, is only about 1,000 feet.

10. ‘I Loved My Job So Much’: Fired Federal Employees in Humboldt County Say Their Unjust Terminations Will Impact the Public

The first round of the DOGE firings hit in February, and they hit Humboldt’s natural resources sector pretty hard. Our Ryan Burns talked to several people who had been terminated from their positions at Six Rivers National Forest, the Fish and Wildlife Service, Redwood National Parks and elsewhere, all for basically no reason. It didn’t even save the federal government money, to speak of. It did cripple numerous federal institutions, so … good job?

9. Local Man Hospitalized After Trying to Help a Severely Injured Black Bear That He Struck With His Vehicle on Highway 299

It was brave of this 59-year-old man to get out of his car, on the highway, to try to render assistance to a bear who had been struck by a vehicle. Bravery is a virtue that our culture — rightly — celebrates and honors. There are other such virtues, too, but bravery is one of them.

Postscript: The Fish and Wildlife officer who Isabella Vanderheiden originally spoke to got the story jumbled. The guy who tried to help the bear was not the guy who struck the bear. He was (is) just a good Samaritan who tried to help a wounded bear jump over a retaining wall.

8. Three People Killed in Apartment Fire in Arcata’s Westwood Neighborhood Last Night

A family died in an apartment fire. Just stunning to think that such a thing can happen in this day and age.

7. Person Killed in Highway 36 Accident Yesterday Morning Identified as Former Eureka Police Sergeant Rodrigo Sanchez

Sanchez —  a former Eureka Police Department sergeant — was on a construction crew, working on that stretch of Highway 36 just east of Swimmer’s Delight in the middle of the night, when the hillside slid again.

6. Sheriff’s Office Releases Name of Woman Killed in Broadway Crash on Monday

The follow-up to #14, above. 

If you’re re-reading about all this today, you should also re-read the beautiful obituary written by her sister. We gather from the Facebook commentary that the woman who died in this terrible series of events was very much loved in the Fortuna area, and that many people were left despondent by this incident.

5. ‘A Crushing Blow’: USDA Cancels Local Food Purchasing Programs That Serve Humboldt’s Schools, Tribes, Seniors and Food Bank While Supporting Ranchers and Farmers

A federal program that buys from local farmers to feed children and the elderly? That was bad, so we got rid of it.

4. PG&E Files Its Application to Surrender its Hydropower License, Paving the Way for the Removal of the Potter Valley Dams on the Eel River

The excitement had been building in the weeks leading up to this, as local jurisdictions signed on to an agreement that would continue to send some water south in exchange for cash payment, but this was the big announcement: PG&E was officially getting itself out of the business of damming the Eel River! Humboldt County was happy. Sonoma County’s water agency was happy. Mendocino County’s water agency was happy. Environmentalists were happy. The Round Valley Tribes were happy. PG&E was happy.

Who was not happy? Lake County and a few Farm Bureau chapters. They eventually managed to get the ear of the Trump Administration, which sensed an opportunity to step in and make some headlines for itself. Now everything is uncertain.

3. TSUNAMI CANCELLED: Advisory Lifted; Exercise Caution on the Beach

A gargantuan 8.7 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Kamchatka, Russia prompted everyone in Humboldt to put their experience playing Risk to use for a night. The waves did strike Crescent City with some force, as they always do, but the tsunami had very little impact in Humboldt. No injuries, no property damage.

2. WATERWORLD: Widespread Flooding is Closing Area Roads and Prompting Emergency Rescues for Trapped Residents

Now that we have some perspective on this: Didn’t it seem like a bit much? Like: Too much flooding for the amount of rain that fell? Doesn’t it seem like we’ve had a lot more rain with a lot less flooding? Where can I file a complaint? 

1. One Year After Klamath Dam Removal, ‘There’s Just Fish Jumping All Over the Place’: Scientists Describe Improvements to Water Quality and Wildlife

A very cool Ryan Burns story about the recovery of the Klamath ecosystem. It went absolutely insanely mega-viral, but don’t hold that against it!

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[OK, since you’ve been good here’s the stupid ChatGPT image]