Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

Today, Dec. 23, at 9:47 a.m., the National Weather Service (NWS) issued a Coastal Hazard Message, warning of a High Surf Warning in effect until 10 p.m. tonight. This alert applies to the coastal areas of Del Norte, Humboldt, and Mendocino Counties.

Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies responded to two separate calls for service today—one at Trinidad State Beach and one at Moonstone Beach—where individuals were at risk of drowning after being swept into the water. All four individuals involved in these incidents were safely removed from the water and are in stable condition.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office urges residents to avoid beach areas, as breaking waves can sweep people off jetties and docks into dangerous seas. The NWS has warned of life-threatening surf conditions and significant beach erosion.

For more information on weather and hazard warnings, go to the National Weather Service.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Providence Plans to Drastically Reduce the Availability of Open Heart Surgery in Humboldt County Next Year, According to Employees at St. Joseph Hospital

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A couple of weeks ago, the Outpost ran a story by reporter Ryan Burns about the Heart Institute at Providence St. Joseph Hospital, and in particular about the future of cardiothoracic surgery after Dr. Joseph Arcidi, the only local surgeon who performs these surgeries, leaves the hospital, which employees had been told would happen by February.

In discussions with Providence’s public information team after this story was published, the Outpost sent the following question, a version of which we asked well before the original story was published:

Is Providence going to have an on-staff dedicated cardiothoracic surgeon available in Humboldt County 24/7 going forward, after Dr. Arcidi leaves? If not, how does the hospital plan to replace that resource?

A week after we emailed this question to Providence, the hospital sent a response to the story. Here it is:

Providence St. Joseph Hospital Eureka will continue to offer cardiac and vascular services 24/7/365 for our Humboldt County community. This includes PCI procedures to open blocked heart vessels that cause heart attacks, and other interventions to treat sudden or severe cardiac emergencies as we have done for many years. We are extremely fortunate to have a team of credentialed cardiovascular surgeons to serve patients at our hospitals and medical centers across Northern California. Providence assures our Humboldt community that we will continue to provide the safe, high quality, award-winning emergent heart care they need in alignment with national certification standards.

We were still unclear how this answered the specific question we had asked, which was about the future availability of cardiothoracic surgery in Eureka — not about PCI procedures, nor about surgery at other Northern California hospitals — so we asked again. The public information team told us that the statement above answered the question.

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Press release from the Humboldt County Drug Task Force:

On December 21st, 2024, Agents with the Humboldt County Drug Task Force (HCDTF) and Deputies with the Marijuana Enforcement Team (MET) served a search warrant on William Lavon Pree (43 years old from Antioch).

During the month of December, HCDTF received information that Pree was traveling to the Bay Area and purchasing large quantities of narcotics for the purpose of sales, and that he was in possession of firearms. Pree is a convicted felon for numerous violent offenses involving firearms including attempted homicide. 

HCDTF Agents observed Pree travel from Humboldt County, to Los Angeles, and then the Bay Area. Upon Pree’s return to Humboldt County, Agents conducted a traffic stop on his vehicle on Hwy 101 at Hookton Road in Loleta. The vehicle had four occupants, Josephine Lucy Daniels (Age 48 from Antioch), Willaim Pree, and two juveniles (ages 5 and 17). All occupants were detained without incident.

Agents searched Pree’s vehicle and located over 450 Xanax bars, a half pound of cocaine, a loaded 10MM Glock handgun, a loaded 9mm ghost pistol (privately manufactured with no serial number) equipped with a “Glock Switch” enabling the firearm to shoot fully automatic, more ammunition, high-capacity magazines, and a digital scale.

Both juveniles were transported to a safe location by law enforcement and Humboldt Child Welfare Services will receive the criminal report. Pree and Daniels were placed under arrest and transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility where they were both booked on the following charges:

• 11351 HS — Possession of narcotics for the purpose of sales 
• 11352(A) HS — Trafficking narcotics
• 11352(B) HS — Trafficking narcotics through noncontiguous counties 
• 11370.1 HS —Possession of a loaded firearm/narcotics
• 32625(A) PC — Possession of a machine gun
• 30605(A) PC — Possession of an assault weapon
• 25400(A)(1) PC — Illegally possessing a firearm inside of a vehicle
• 24610 PC — Possession on a non-detectable firearm
• 29800(a)(1) PC — Felon in possession of a handgun (Pree only)
• 30305(a)(1) PC — Felon in possession of ammunition (Pree only)
• 273A(A) PC — Felony child endangerment

Anyone with information related to this investigation or other narcotics related crimes is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Drug Task Force at 707-267-9976.

UC Berkeley professor Susan Shaheen has sent over a dozen students to the Education Symposium, a two-day conference that exposes college juniors and seniors in California to careers in transportation.

During the event, students learn about the transportation industry, get matched with a mentor, meet with practitioners in the field and participate in a competition. At the end, they’re eligible to apply for three Education Symposium scholarships to enter the industry.

The symposium is organized by the California Transportation Foundation, a non-profit started by Heinz Heckeroth, a former deputy director for the California Department of Transportation. The foundation works to make students interested in transportation careers, offering dozens of scholarships to students to enter the field, among other things.

“My perception has been that a lot of people who go to it are very inspired,” Shaheen, who is on the board for the foundation, said. “You’re hearing from people who are really senior in the field, and they’re talking to you, they’re focused on you, they’re answering your questions, and working side-by-side with you on a project for the symposium.”

As part of this year’s symposium, held in Fresno in November, students participated in a mock grant competition, designing proposals to address sustainable transportation.

“Transportation is not necessarily the sexiest career choice,” said Marnie Primmer, the executive director for the foundation. “It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that maybe some other career choices open to students, but that’s why our education symposium is such a great opportunity, because it introduces students to what it’s really like to be a transportation professional.”

Part of what makes the program successful is the type of mentors it’s able to recruit, according to Primmer and Shaheen. These include people working in both the public and private sectors and academia. They range from engineers to planners to policymakers and many of them are high-ranking in their sphere, with several former directors of Caltrans serving as mentors.

A key challenge Primmer faces with courting students is helping them understand exactly what jobs there are in the transportation industry: everything from the engineers that design highways to the policymakers that plan public transit systems to the maintenance workers who keep the systems functioning.

In the past few years, the industry has seen a dip in students interested in transportation, Primmer said. For example, engineering students have opted for careers in software engineering instead of civil engineering. However, this is changing as students seek more hands-on careers, she said.

“If you work on a highway project, or you work on a new transit system, you actually get to see the fruits of your labor and the impact that it makes on your community,” she said. “With many students who are interested in passion projects, and in connecting their purpose with their career, civil engineering becomes a much more attractive opportunity, because you’re actually seeing the results of the work you put in.”

Many of Shaheen’s students are interested in sustainable transportation, particularly since she directs the Innovative Mobility Research lab at the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at Berkeley. “With any transition, the jobs do change,” she said. “When we go from horse and carriage to car, there’s major changes. And when you make changes to electronics, to the sensing systems, or the propulsion systems and how they’re fueled, that involves education and workforce development.”

Another major shift in the industry, perhaps the biggest one, is self-driving cars, Primmer said. Google, Apple, Ford, Mercedes, Tesla, Honda, Toyota and more are all working on self-driving programs.

“I think that technology is advancing in a way that will be transformative for transportation in the next 5 to 10 years,” she said. “But I do think that opens up new opportunities for students who are tech savvy and who are willing to be the bridge between how we’ve always done things, and how we’re going to do things in the future.”

Primmer says one of the most important ways to attract students to the industry is storytelling, which helps them put it in perspective.

“It’s the foundation of everything we do,” she said. “You can’t get to your dentist appointment, you couldn’t get there if you didn’t have a good transportation network. Your access to education, your access to good paying jobs, your access to amenities in your community, is all dependent on a functioning transportation network.”

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Tenant advocates suffered a big defeat this fall when California voters decided against expanding cities’ ability to limit rent increases. But a state law set to take effect Jan. 1 will give renters facing eviction a little more breathing room.

The law doubles the time tenants have to respond after receiving an eviction notice from five business days to ten. Lawyers who work with renters say that what may seem like a minor procedural change could make a big difference in allowing people to stay in their homes.

Tenants who are served an eviction notice and don’t respond in writing within the legal timeframe can lose their case by default, potentially incurring financial penalties and a black mark on their record that affects their future ability to obtain housing. That’s true even if a tenant has a valid legal defense – for example, if their landlord increased the rent above state limits or refused to fix problems like lack of heat or broken door locks. About 40% of California tenants lose their cases this way, researchers have estimated.

“Five days has never been enough for a tenant to find legal assistance and try to decipher the complaint filed against them, find out what kind of defenses they have, fill out the paperwork and make it to court,” Lorraine López, a senior attorney with the Western Center on Law and Poverty, told CalMatters earlier this fall.

Access to legal services varies widely across California. San Francisco guarantees legal representation to any tenant facing eviction, and in other cities like Oakland and Los Angeles, robust networks of pro-bono lawyers help renters file responses. But Californians who live in so-called “legal deserts” – often in rural areas – must travel many miles to meet with an attorney.

Tenants with lawyers are less likely to get locked out of their homes, some studies have shown – though fewer than 5% of renters in eviction cases nationwide have legal help, compared with more than 80% of landlords, the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel estimates.

Authored by Assemblymember Ash Kalra, a San Jose Democrat, the new law also offers something for landlords, who generally like eviction cases to move faster. It limits the amount of time tenant lawyers can take to file certain motions alleging errors in a landlord’s complaint. Landlord representatives said lawyers would use those motions to drag out cases unnecessarily.

The change convinced the state’s largest landlord lobby, the California Apartment Association, to remain neutral on the law while legislators debated it. Some local property owner groups still opposed the law.

“The longer these things take, the more expensive it is (for landlords) and the more rent is lost,” said Daniel Bornstein, an attorney who represents property owners.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

After we drove away from the adoption agency with an emptiness and sadness bigger than we could ever imagine, we parked our car on the street in Newport Beach. The homes around us were littered with twinkling Christmas cheer, but our home remained bleak and dark against the night sky, already blanketed with salty sea-fog. I didn’t want to leave the warmth of our car to step into our small home. I didn’t want to move forward and leave Matthew behind. I felt like I was stuck in the middle of the Red Sea — unsure what the other side would look like now I was changed by becoming a mom, but knowing I couldn’t go back to who I was when I wasn’t a mom. I felt stuck in the middle. Was I a mom, still, or not? I was certainly not who I once was, but wasn’t sure who I was now.

I felt glued to the grey upholstery in my red Honda Civic, experiencing an identity crisis like I never had before. Even with my naturally positive personality and ability to see the good in all situations, I felt depleted of those resources, unable to find a silver lining. I wondered if my propensity for positivity was a lie. I began to question my purpose and existence, since my entire life goal was to be a mom. Peeling myself from the car, I wondered what life would look like after mothering Matthew. We ambled up the walkway and unlocked our front door, greeted by the darkness. Even with its small size, our bungalow felt empty and cold when we walked in without our son. Our lives had forever been changed in that past month and our home housed those reminders within its walls.

I went back to work as a server at a local restaurant within a few days, trying to disengage from the pain and distract myself with being busy. I was someone who had no career aspirations beyond mothering, so working as a server was a fine fit. What I realized later was how fulfilling this job truly was, providing customers the best form of service and hospitality. It wasn’t merely a job. Caring for people was a calling, in the form of iced tea refills and extra Ranch dressing. Just maybe not forever.

My co-workers were gracious and kind and my bosses re-hired me immediately. The structure this work provided, and the uplifting atmosphere, allowed me to slip comfortably into routine again. Unfortunately, I primarily worked lunch shifts. This forced me to serve mamas holding and rocking and nursing their babies. Every table with an infant felt like a punch of sadness and jealousy to my gut, while my womb and arms remained empty.

In those days that followed giving Matthew back, I would drive home from work to a dark and cold house. The distractions of my day — taking orders, bussing tables, and greeting guests — were left in the break room, alongside my apron. Everything around me was decorated for Christmas, from the restaurants to the lamp posts. Surfing Santa and lit-up Duffy Boats in the harbor made it difficult to avoid how unprepared I was for this season. It was hard to think about Christmas when my world had been pulled out from under me. Twinkly lights and Christmas cheer bombarded me, and I couldn’t begin to think about how to celebrate. How could I celebrate the birth of my Savior when I felt like God had abandoned me? How could I decorate for the new Christ-Child when my child was gone? I quickly began to wallow and spiral into a space of bitter sadness, feeling utterly alone and unseen.

Christmas can be hard for so many people. Underneath the shiny bows, the perfectly placed tinsel and the Christmas party smiles, there is great loss, drowning grief, overwhelming anxiety and fear. There are chairs around tables left bare and empty because of death or estrangement or illness. My pain was my own, but I was not alone in grief; grief surrounds holidays. It feels difficult to live in the pain and brokenness this life brings our way while Jingle Bells and Christmas cheer batter our senses. We are either Scrooge by seeing everything as sadness, loneliness and fear, or we are shiny, happy people without a care in the world.

I found it strenuous, living in the paradox of both. Was I allowed to feel great loss while also celebrating the great joy of Christmas? Could I embrace the beauty and light of anticipating Christmas while admitting the fear and darkness of pain and loss?

The season of Advent is truly a paradox. I can imagine those last few weeks before the birth of Christ and Mary feeling unsettled. The church tends to gift-wrap Advent with words like hope, joy, peace and love. The minute December hits we light up the sky, sing “O Come All Ye Faithful” and put baby Jesus in the manger throughout the month. But traditionally Advent wasn’t bright Target ads and sparkly Christmas parties. Advent was dark and reflective, creating rising anticipation of Christ’s birth, with every Sunday bringing a little more light through each candle lit until the brightest Christ candle declared Joy to the World.

Within the Christmas story and within all of life, we live in paradox. We are people who can see the good within the bad, who can claim the joy within the grief, who make brave choices in the midst of being scared. The Christmas story is just that. It’s a paradox. It’s God putting on skin to live with God’s creation. It’s all things holy and glorious being born out of blood and sweat and feces into the messiness of life.

It’s chaos and peace.

My husband and I came home from work a week after we placed Matthew into the social worker’s arms to find our home had been decorated for us. Instead of a dark shack, we arrived at a warm bungalow. Instead of our home blending into the background, fading from sight, it was lit with joy and comfort. My sister Annalisa, who was working at Starbucks and barely had enough to pay her own bills, had gone to Target. She purchased Christmas lights, a tree for our home, a wreath for our door, stockings to be hung. She had done something for us that we couldn’t have done for ourselves. She saw a need in our lives because she was paying attention. She didn’t try to fix our pain or tell us everything was going to be okay. She simply showed up. She became God’s love for us.

Our lives are a paradox, and it’s when we allow our hearts to be open to giving thanks, to being thankful, we can begin to see joy in the midst of grief. We live in paradox through gratitude.

So may you give thanks and claim the good even when everything seems unbearable. May you trust God is with you in your hardship, and may you know you are loved. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you.

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Bethany Cseh is a pastor at Arcata United Methodist Church and Catalyst Church. 

This last year I went to Mexico over President’s Week with my oldest daughter. A group of us went down and had the privilege of serving at a few orphanages.

One of the men we met ran transitional housing for young men in their late teens. He grew up in rural Mexico, moved to the States in his teenage years — didn’t make good choices as a young man, but eventually got married and had a successful career. While he gave us a tour of the buildings, he emphasized how he could have golfed his way through retirement in Southern California, but felt called to return to his community in Mexico to serve. I’m sure he still likes to golf; nothing wrong with that. But his life became about more than accumulation and recreation.

His story reminded me of one of the things we say at Johnson Wealth Management: we aim to help people live and leave a legacy. This is because we believe that investing is never meant to be just about yourself.

Building wealth is not a bad thing; it’s a good thing. But when it’s an end in itself it can be meaningless. Money — like life — can go poof and be gone in an instant. All of us live and leave something. Even if you never give away a dime in your lifetime, you will when you die.

Investing, financial planning, and wealth building needs a “why.” It’s too easy to get stuck on what to invest in and how to implement a strategy, but the why should guide it all.

So, what’s the why behind your wealth?

Far too often wealth-building can be used as a means to withdraw from the world. To avoid the hard things. To insulate ourselves from human suffering. Paradoxically, we become less human when we ignore or avoid human weakness. True wealth — holistic wealth — is meant to engage with needs like human poverty, suffering and brokenness.

Our trip reminded me of something else too. When you are surrounded by those with great needs — physical, relational and financial — and when you are looking to actively fill those needs with presence and service, you tend to not get so caught up with what someone said on social media about the latest daily outrage, or who might be predicting the next market crash, or whether interest rates change at the next Fed meeting, or the latest political soap opera.

The news wants to sell you more news, not make you a wiser person and investor. Some of the things we get caught up on in our dopamine-driven, attention-economy take our attention away from the things that matter most — the people and needs right in front of you.

The seventeenth-century French philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal, said it best: “Man’s sensitivity to little things and insensitivity to the greatest things are marks of a strange disorder.”¹ To put it plainly, we should spend the most time, energy, and resources on things that matter most.

This season of Christmas reminds us that giving is better than receiving. Joy is not found in money alone but in sharing wealth.

Warren Buffett himself understands some of this. In a recent shareholder letter, he wrote,

I am also lucky that my philanthropic philosophy has been enthusiastically embraced – and widened – by both of my wives. Neither I, Susie Sr. nor Astrid, who succeeded her, believed in dynastic wealth …

It also has been a particular pleasure to me that so many early Berkshire shareholders have independently arrived at a similar view. They have saved — lived well — taken good care of their families — and by extended compounding of their savings passed along large, sometimes huge, sums back into their society …

[My kids] have each spent far more time directly helping others than I have. They enjoy being comfortable financially, but they are not preoccupied with wealth.²

Preoccupation with money is poison. Get to the bottom of how to use the money and time you’ve been given as an intentional tool for the greatest things in life.

“I’m not Warren Buffett,” you might say. Few people are. The size of the gift is not what matters.

Jesus of Nazareth pointed that out a long time ago when drawing attention to the gift of a poor widow that outdid the rich: “this poor widow has put in more than all of them, for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on” (Luke 21:3-4, NRSV).

You can give a ton and it means nothing.

You can give nearly nothing and it means everything.

Poverty of pocketbook and poverty of heart are two different things.

Don’t get me wrong. Doing great things isn’t always going on a trip to serve communities affected by various kinds of poverty (though I encourage it!). Nor does it need to be writing a massive check to an institution, church, hospital or nonprofit (though I encourage that too!). Greatness can be doing seemingly small things over and over again. Sometimes those things, those needs, and those people are right in front of you.

Look.

Then give.

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Sources:

1. Pensées, Penguin Classics, p. 237.

2. November 25, 2024. Accessed online.

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Brandon Stockman has been a Wealth Advisor licensed with the Series 7 and 66 since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. He has the privilege of helping manage accounts throughout the United States and works in the Fortuna office of Johnson Wealth Management. You can sign up for his weekly newsletter on investing and financial education or subscribe to his YouTube channel. Securities and advisory services offered through Prospera Financial Services, Inc. | Member FINRA, SIPC. This should not be considered tax, legal, or investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.