Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Dec. 5 at about 2:45 a.m., a Humboldt County Sheriff’s Deputy conducted a traffic stop near Fern St. and Vista Dr. in Eureka on a 1998 Toyota 4-Runner that had a license plate belonging to a 2009 BMW attached to the vehicle.

Deputies contacted the driver, Zachary Osborne, age 27, of Eureka, and inquired about the false plate on the vehicle. By running the VIN, deputies confirmed that the vehicle had not been registered with the DMV for the past 2 years. Upon contact, deputies observed that Osborne was displaying symptoms of drug intoxication such as erratic movements, inability to speak coherently, and rapid speech. This caused the deputies concern that Osborne was operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs.

Osborne was asked to exit the vehicle to conduct a sobriety check. When he exited, Osborne was asked if he had any weapons in his vehicle. Osborne replied, “No, but there is one on me.” Osborne was detained and searched. Deputies then located a loaded glock-style handgun in his waistband. Osborne was then arrested for carrying a concealed loaded firearm in public (PC25850(a)). A search incident to arrest was conducted — drug paraphernalia and a glass tube containing fentanyl were found in his possession. The vehicle was then searched and deputies also located small baggies used for storing illicit substances and a glass methamphetamine pipe.

Osborne was transported and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility for the following charges:

• Possession of a controlled substance while armed—HS 11370.1(a)

• False evidence of vehicle registration—VC 4463

• Possession of a controlled substance—HS 11350

• Possession of a controlled substance paraphernalia—HS 11364

• Carrying a loaded firearm in a public place—PC25850(a)

• Carrying a firearm capable of being concealed—PC 25400(a)(2)

• Felon in possession of a firearm—PC 29800(a)(1)

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.

Press release from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing protection for one of the nation’s most beloved species — the monarch butterfly — and is encouraging the public to be part of its recovery. The Service is seeking public input on a proposal to list the species as threatened with species-specific protections and flexibilities to encourage conservation under section 4(d) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Public comments will be accepted on the proposal until March 12, 2025. The Service will then evaluate the comments and any additional information on the species and determine whether to list the monarch butterfly.

“The iconic monarch butterfly is cherished across North America, captivating children and adults throughout its fascinating lifecycle. Despite its fragility, it is remarkably resilient, like many things in nature when we just give them a chance,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams. “Science shows that the monarch needs that chance, and this proposed listing invites and builds on unprecedented public participation in shaping monarch conservation efforts. Providing monarchs with enough milkweed and nectar plants, even in small areas, can help put them on the road to recovery. Working together, we can help make this extraordinary species a legacy for our children and generations to come.”

For more than 50 years, the ESA has been an effective catalyst for on-the-ground collaborative conservation, promoting the recovery of wildlife and conserving the habitats upon which they depend. This proposed rule will help build on and enhance monarch conservation efforts while balancing activities in support of economic growth.

With its notable orange and black markings, the monarch butterfly is one of the most recognizable insects in the world. In North America, monarchs are grouped into two long-distance migratory populations. The eastern migratory population is the largest and overwinters in the mountains of central Mexico. The western migratory population primarily overwinters in coastal California. In the 1980s, over 4.5 million western monarchs flocked to overwintering grounds in coastal California. In the mid-1990s, an estimated 380 million eastern monarchs made the long-distance journey to overwintering grounds in Mexico, completing one of the longest insect migrations in the world.

Today, the eastern migratory population is estimated to have declined by approximately 80%. The western migratory population has declined by more than 95% since the 1980s, putting the western populations at greater than 99% chance of extinction by 2080. During this same period, the probability of extinction for eastern monarchs ranges from 56 to 74%, according to the Service’s most recent species status assessment.

Threats to monarchs include loss and degradation of breeding, migratory and overwintering habitat; exposure to insecticides; and the effects of climate change. Although many people have already helped conserve the butterfly, additional habitat and protections are needed to ensure the species is conserved for future generations.

To assist with monarch conservation efforts, the Service is also proposing critical habitat for the species at a portion of its overwintering sites in coastal California. Overwintering habitat provides an essential resting place for monarchs during the cold winter months and helps them prepare for breeding in the early spring. In total, the Service is proposing 4,395 acres of critical habitat for the western migratory monarch population across Alameda, Marin, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and Ventura counties in California. A critical habitat designation imposes no requirements on state or private land unless the action involves federal funding, permits or approvals.

The Service collaborates closely with Tribes, federal and state agencies, academic institutions and non-government organizations to carry out conservation efforts for the monarch butterfly. Many partners across the monarch’s range are involved in surveys, monitoring and habitat improvements. Much of this work takes place on private lands with the support of local landowners.

The proposal to list the monarch butterfly, and designate critical habitat, will publish in the Federal Register on December 12, 2024. A 90-day comment period will open on December 12, 2024, and will close on March 12, 2025. Information about how to submit comments can be found on regulations.gov by searching for docket number FWS-R3-ES-2024-0137. This docket also includes information about how to attend two virtual public information meetings, and associated public hearings, about this listing proposal.

Everyone can play a role in saving the monarch butterfly. Because of the species’ general habitat use and wide distribution, all sectors of society have an opportunity to participate in a broad range of conservation efforts throughout the butterfly’s range. For more information about the monarch listing proposal, and how to help conserve monarch butterflies, please visit: this link.

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service works with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. For more information, visit www.fws.gov and connect with us on social media:  Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, Flickr, and YouTube.

California’s card rooms lost a costly legislative fight this year as they sought to kill a bill that would allow their competitors, tribal casinos, to sue them.

But that didn’t stop the gambling halls from punishing a handful of lawmakers for their votes after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the gambling bill into law.

In an extraordinary display of political retribution, California’s card room industry spent more than $3 million in the lead up to the November election to oppose four lawmakers who played key roles in the bill’s passage. Three of the candidates targeted by the card rooms ended up losing, including the rare defeat of an incumbent Democratic senator.

“We really don’t want to be the sort of, you know, the Rodney Dangerfield of industries. We want to be respected,” said Keith Sharp, a lawyer for the Hawaiian Gardens Casino, a card room in Los Angeles County. “We (will) work hard to continue to gain respect and protect our employees, protect our cities, protect our businesses.”

To the card rooms, the three defeats were a sign their money was well spent, even if the cash went to purely punitive purposes. Case in point: Two of the lawmakers who lost their races were vacating their Assembly seats and were running in non-legislative races. Had they won, it’s unlikely they’d deal very often with card room related issues.

Tribes have long outspent card rooms in state politics. Tribes have given candidates for state office more than $23.5 million since 2014. That’s more than double what oil companies have given the state’s politicians during the same years. Card rooms have spent only a fraction as much.

More recently, tribes have contributed $6.3 million to candidates since January 2023 while card rooms have donated at least $1.3 million. Those funds don’t include the $3 million the card rooms spent targeting the four candidates this fall.

The cash the card rooms poured into the four races sends a message to lawmakers that they’re also capable of spending big, including on political vengeance, said former Democratic Assemblymember Mike Gatto.

“Any time you have a group essentially announcing to the world that they are going to do vengeance spending, it does cause lawmakers to pay attention,” he said.

Card rooms vs tribal casinos explained

The bill Newsom signed, Senate Bill 549, gives tribes the ability to ask a judge to decide whether card rooms are allowed to operate table games such as black jack and pai gow poker. The tribes, which will be able to sue beginning Jan. 1, say California voters gave them exclusive rights to host those games, but they’ve been unable to sue the state’s 80 or so card rooms because tribes are sovereign governments.

The stakes are high since some cities receive nearly half of their budgets from taxes on card rooms, meaning a tribal victory in court could jeopardize money for police, firefighters and other local services. The card rooms insist their games are legal, but they also worry the cost of court fights could force them out of business.

Facing what they saw as an existential threat, card rooms responded to the bill’s introduction last year with a massive lobbying blitz. Hawaiian Gardens Casino alone spent $9.1 million on lobbying\, the second highest amount reported to state regulators last year. Only the international oil giant, Chevron Corp., spent more.

Despite losing the legislative battle, card rooms spent more than $3 million on attack ads, text messages, mailers and other outreach to voters targeting the four candidates. The card rooms also bought ads supporting candidates running against them.

The ads came from independent expenditure committees funded by the card rooms. Under state and federal election rules, organizations not affiliated with a candidate can spend unlimited amounts of money supporting or opposing candidates through advertisements and other tactics as long as the actions are not coordinated with the candidate’s campaign.

Card rooms blast candidates with attack ads

Only one candidate, Laurie Davies, a Republican from Oceanside, won her race for reelection despite the card room’s cash onslaught. And just barely. Only 3,870 out of 230,546 total votes separated her from her Democratic challenger, Chris Duncan.

The card rooms spent at least $1.3 million on outreach boosting Duncan and slamming Davies, according to state campaign finance reports. One mailer said she was aligned with “anti-choice radicals,” “MAGA extremists” and “Big Oil.”

Davies infuriated card rooms when she cast a vote that let the gambling bill advance out of a committee this summer, despite having a cardroom in her district.

Outgoing Democratic Assemblymember Evan Low of Cupertino faced similar attacks in his failed congressional bid. Low sat on the same Assembly committee as Davies and voted this summer for the gambling bill. Low also had a major cardroom in his Assembly district. Low’s campaign didn’t return a message seeking comment.

The card rooms spent at least $500,000 on ads attacking Low, according to the card rooms.

The card rooms also went after termed-out Democratic Assemblymember Brian Maienschein in his failed bid for San Diego city attorney. The card rooms spent at least $443,000 opposing Maienschein.

He got on the card rooms’ bad side when he cast a key vote that let the bill advance from the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which Maienschein chaired. Sharp, the lawyer for Hawaiian Gardens, said Maienschein also refused to meet with him and other card room representatives before the vote. Maienschein didn’t return messages.A TV ad from the card rooms attacked Maienschein for his voting record before he switched his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat in 2019.

Fullerton Democratic Sen. Josh Newman, the lead author of the gambling bill, wasn’t spared even though he represented a competitive district that was important to the Democratic Party.

The card rooms spent nearly $900,000 in that race on ads and mailers opposing Newman and supporting his Republican opponent, Steven Choi, according to the card rooms and campaign finance reports.

Newman, the state’s most vulnerable senator who’d been recalled from office once before, ended up losing to Choi by 6,075 votes out of the 458,615 cast in the race. It was the first time since 1980 that a Republican flipped a Democratic senate seat in a presidential election. Newman had a $6 million fundraising advantage over Choi. Choi raised just $856,000.

In one card-room funded TV ad, Newman was portrayed as being soft on crime, and it attacked him for voting to give benefits to “illegal immigrants”

In an interview with CalMatters, Newman said he didn’t think the card room ads made as much of an impact on the race as another independent expenditure committee that opposed him with more than $1 million from a prominent public employee union.

But Newman acknowledged the card rooms probably did send at least some voters to Choi.

“The margins probably matter in a race as close as mine,” Newman said.

Still, Newman told CalMatters he has no regrets about introducing the bill despite the blowback and the possible impact the card rooms had in his senate race. Newman said he believes the tribes deserve their day in court.

But he said he doesn’t see the logic in the card rooms spending so much money on races after they already lost their fight in the Legislature.

“The question really is: If you shut the barn door after the horse is out, who are you really punishing?” he said.

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CalMatters data reporter Jeremia Kimelman contributed to this story.

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

At 85 years old, William Smith Jackson III, known as Bill, passed away peacefully in Garberville on November 1, 2024. He was born February 26, 1939 in San Francisco with a love for adventure and curiosity about the world around him.

Bill joined the Navy when he was just 16 years old. His deployment sailed to Japan. With his first wife, Rosie, they had a son, Bill Jackson IV.

Still living in San Francisco, he met his second wife, Catherine. As if the wild sixties in San Francisco weren’t wild enough for them, in 1968 they moved together to Southern Humbold as part of the back to the land movement. With some friends from the University, they started the hippie commune in “Gopherville.”

This is where he became close acquaintances with the Redwoods Monastery. Soon after their son Knute was born, they left to New Zealand and worked for a year in senior care.

Back in California they had a second child, John.

Bill wrote regular articles for the Redwood Record, wrote a book and was active in the theater community.

After he sobered up from alcoholism, he was a very engaged member in the AA community.

Bill became a hypnotherapist and worked part-time in Sausalito in his private hypnosis practice.

Meditation became an important part of his sobriety and general wellbeing. This led him to meet his third wife Flurina Niggli in Germany in 2003 at a meditation retreat. She relocated to Redway in 2006 to live with Bill, and they had Julian together a year later.

Bill is survived by his four sons, Bill Jackson IV, Knute Jackson (wife Heather), John Jackson (wife Jessica) and Julian Jackson; grandchildren Billy V (wife Tracie), Owyn, Lucas, Aidan and Madelyn; and his great-grandson, Oliver.

The family is deeply grateful to the staff of the skilled nursing unit of SoHum Health for caring so lovingly for Bill in his last year.

There will be a celebration of Bill’s life February 22, 2025 at Beginnings in Briceland at 1 p.m.

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

Ronald “Ron” Richard Straight, 87, passed away on November 27, 2024 in Eureka, surrounded by his family. He was born in 1936 to his parents Leslie and Grace Straight. He worked as a heavy equipment operator for Lp Loading Trucks and later the Local Union 3.

He often drove cross country traveling to visit family both near and far. Before his passing he made one such trip where he visited with his son Mark Laursen taking in the football games in Indiana. Later he visited with two of his sisters Mary Hill and Patty Bennett in Mississippi. He was accompanied on this journey by two of his daughters, Terri Moore and Shelly Kitchen, who made the journey a reality for him.

Ron enjoyed spending his free time with family, where he worked in the yard or garage, crafted custom Redwood burl tables, he often collected custom built heavy equipment truck models and various other sports items. He could be found around town or at the casino with his friends Gregg and Jim. He took great pride in hard work.

He will be missed and remembered by surviving family and friends. Those left to honor his memory are his brothers: Leslie Straight and Allen Straight; sisters: Patty Bennett, Mary Hill, Janet McDonald, and Barbara Remington; daughters; Terri (Randy) Moore, Shelly (Leonard) Kitchen, and Ronda Henderson; seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his mother and father: Grace and Leslie Straight; sister: Betty Taylor; brother: Jack Taylor; mother of his children: Pearl Straight; son: Mark Laursen; and great-granddaughter Lily Smith.

Services honoring his life and memory will be held at Wesleyan Church of the Redwoods at 1645 Fischer Ave in McKinleyville on December 28, 2024 at 1 p.m. Reception will follow in the activity center. May he forever rest in peace and live on in our hearts.

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PREVIOUSLY

• UPDATE: Sheriff’s Office Names Deputy Who Shot and Killed Suspect in Cutten Incident Last Month
• The Cutten Man Shot by Deputies in Critical Incident Nearly Two Weeks Ago Died on Friday, Sheriff’s Office Says
• Sheriff’s Office Issues Statement on Today’s Shootings in Cutten
• (UPDATING) Deputies Shoot Man Believed to Have Shot Elderly Woman in Cutten This Morning; Fern and Cedar Streets Closed

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The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office today released footage from the body-worn cameras of two deputies who were involved in April’s fatal shooting of 32-year-old Kevin Burks. 

Burks had shot a 75-year-old Cutten woman multiple times as she stood in front of her home, according to subsequent press releases from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, and in the video released today a deputy can be heard confronting him and yelling, “Show me your hands!” before telling his fellow deputy, “He’s got a gun” and then opening fire.

The deputy who fatally shot Burks was later identified as Lieutenant Conan Moore.

In the video released today, Sheriff William Honsal offers an overview of the events leading up to the confrontation. The video includes an audio recording of the elderly shooting victim’s 911 phone call.

The body camera footage picks up right before the deputies confront Burks on the 2400 block of Fern Street.

Honsal says, “The suspect refused commands, and he pointed the firearm at the deputies.”

Burks died in the hospital two days after being shot.

Toward the end of the video Honsal says, “The CIRT [Critical Incident Response Team] investigation has been completed and submitted to the District Attorney’s Office for review.”

The footage is graphic, and since it’s age-restricted it can only be viewed on YouTube. Click this link to watch the video.

Video: Tex Kelly

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PREVIOUSLY

• (VIDEO) The Arcata High Tigers Win North Coast Section Football Championship for the First Time Ever

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If you’ve been following Arcata High School’s remarkable football season in even the most casual of ways then this will come as old news, but we at the Outpost would be remiss if we didn’t congratulate the Tigers for capturing the school’s first-ever CIF North Regional Division 6-AA championship on Saturday by a score of 35-14.

Ray Hamill of HumboldtSports.com traveled to Winters for the game and reported on the victory. Next, the team will travel all the way down to Fullerton for next week’s state championship game against the Portola High Bulldogs.

Go Tigers!