Press release from Humboldt County Superior Court:

The Humboldt County civil grand jury is seeking additional Alternates for the fiscal year of 2024/2025 (July1 - June 30). Alternates may be called upon to complete the term if/when a Grand Juror finds it necessary to resign during their term, usually because of unforeseen circumstances. Although the term has already begun and the members are empaneled, we encourage interested persons to apply and be considered to serve as alternates, if and when vacancies occur during the term of service.

The Humboldt Superior Court empanels 19 citizens to act as an independent body of the judicial system each year. The Court encourages applications from citizens representing a broad cross-section of the Humboldt County community.

The primary work of the civil grand jury is to investigate and review citizen complaints concerning the operations of city and county government as well as other tax supported and non-profit agencies and districts.

Based on these reviews, the grand jury publishes its findings and reports recommending constructive actions to improve the quality and effectiveness of our local government. The civil grand jury does not consider criminal indictments.

Eligibility requirements for grand jury service:

• Citizen of the United States;
• 18 years of age or older;
• Resident of Humboldt County for at least one year before selection;
• In possession of natural faculties, of ordinary intelligence, of sound judgment and fair character;
• Sufficient knowledge of the English language;
• Not currently serving as a trial juror in any court in this state;
• Have not been discharged as a grand juror in any court of this state within one year;
• Have not been convicted of malfeasance in office or other high crime;
• Not serving as an elected public officer.

For more information about the application process, please visit the Court’s web site at this link or, contact Administration at (707)269-1204 for any questions you may have.

You may also download, complete, and email a Civil Grand Jury Questionnaire to GrandJuryApps@humboldtcourt.ca.gov, or we can email you an application. Thank you for your interest in serving your local community!

Last month the Lost Coast Outpost was overwhelmed by the emotional response locals felt upon watching local farmer/songwriter Brett McFarland’s music video for his song “Humboldt.” Since its release, the clip has racked up over 50,000 views on YouTube, no small feat when you consider the population of the place the song was written as a love letter to. In sheer numbers, Humboldt loved “Humboldt.”

Well, McFarland is not resting on his “Humboldt” success. This week he’s back with a new slickly produced video for his song “When the Country’s Gone,” which features lyrics bemoaning worsening economic conditions in rural areas despite continued extraction of natural resources.

If you’d like to sing along, LoCO would like to help you with that: 

“When the Country’s Gone”

Well, I love my child, I’m a true believer, but I wonder what kind of world we’re going to leave her 

I used to think I knew but now I ain’t too clear how we’re ever going to make it out of here 

I don’t know what’s right or wrong but I’m going to cry when the country’s gone 

Well, the city man came with a big swingin’ dick singin’, “We make the problems only we can fix!”

Yeah, they dug all the gold and they cut all the trees and now they’re coming back for the ocean breeze 

Yeah, the biggest fish farm on the whole West Coast cooking GMO Salmon while the fishermen sell their boats!

I don’t know what’s right or wrong but I’m going to cry when the country’s gone 

You and me are the GDP, buying debt in the land of the free 

They say if you ain’t growin’ then you’re gonna die, but it’s a pyramid scheme and a hell of a lie

All around the country folks are getting priced out and mom and pop are rentin’ ‘cuz they can’t afford to buy a house! 

I don’t know what’s right or wrong but I’m going to cry when the country’s gone 

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And in case you thought the McFarland media blitz was about to slow down, guess again. LoCO has received word from the McFarland camp that they are planning to shoot their next video for Brett’s song “Klamath,” which will tell the story of the indigenous-led efforts to remove the Klamath dams. And, oh, by the way, if you’d like to be a part of that video shoot, you can be! Would-be participants are invited to come to the Arcata Playhouse on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. to be part of a live audience for the clip. If you’re interested, RSVP by sending an email or Instagram message. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom today called newly elected state lawmakers to work as soon as they’re sworn in on Dec. 2 for a special session to “safeguard California values” as the state prepares — again — to be a liberal antagonist to the upcoming Trump administration.

In other words: Gear up for lawsuits.

In a proclamation declaring the special session, Newsom said he wants the Legislature to approve funding for the Department of Justice and other state agencies to “immediately file affirmative litigation.”

According to a senior legislative source, the special session is intended to be narrowly focused on providing legal resources to the attorney general’s office — perhaps as much as $100 million — to fight the Trump administration. The goal is to appropriate the money before Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20, though given how many new members are joining the Legislature, they may not be ready to act until early January.

As priorities for California’s opposition, Newsom listed civil and reproductive rights, climate change, President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to withhold disaster relief dollars and the potential repeal of deportation protections for immigrants who were brought to the country without authorization as children.

“The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack — and we won’t sit idle,” Newsom said in a statement. “California has faced this challenge before, and we know how to respond.”

Both Democratic leaders in the Legislature and the Senate Budget Committee chairperson are on board, issuing statements of support alongside Newsom’s proclamation. The special session would start Dec. 2 when the new Legislature convenes, though lawmakers wouldn’t necessarily pass any bills immediately.

“Voters sent a clear message this election, and we need to lean-in and listen,” said Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Hollister Democrat. “But we also must be prepared to defend California values, no matter the challenges ahead, so it makes sense to consider the Governor’s proposal.”

Attorney General Rob Bonta said earlier this week his office is already writing legal briefs in preparation for lawsuits against possible Republican attempts to ban abortion nationwide, overturn California’s commitment to zero-emission vehicles and repeal the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for immigrants. During the last Trump administration, California sued the federal government more than 100 times over its regulations.

This is the third special session that Newsom has called since October 2022. The two previous ones focused on gas prices and the oil industry, including one that just wrapped up last month.

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

Press release from Humboldt Bay Fire:

At approximately 8:15am on Wednesday November 6th, Humboldt Bay Fire (HBF) was dispatched to a fire on the 200 block of Railroad Ave. The reporting party stated there was a trailer on fire visible from a nearby residence. HBF responded with a full first alarm assignment consisting of three fire engines, one ladder truck, and a Battalion Chief.

Engine 8112 arrived on scene first and initiated fire attack on the trailer. E8112 canceled the incoming units with the exception of E8113 and the Battalion Chief. E8113 was the next arriving unit and established a water supply and began a primary all clear. Units on scene confirmed everyone was out of the structure prior to our arrival. Fire control was achieved in approximately 10 minutes.

The trailer is considered a total loss. An investigation is currently underway, led by Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. If any members of the public have information they are encouraged to call.

Humboldt Bay Fire would like to thank the Humboldt County Sheriffs Office for their assistance. HBF would like to remind everyone that early initiation of the 9-1-1 system can be the difference between property saved and a total loss.

As debate raged this summer over whether President Joe Biden should abandon his re-election bid, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stock soared.

The California Democrat became a fixture on the national political stage as he stood behind Biden to the bitter end — a boost in profile, long cultivated by Newsom, that made him a serious prospect in conversations about who Democrats could select as a replacement nominee.

That possibility was cut short when the party quickly consolidated behind Vice President Kamala Harris after Biden dropped out of the race in July. And though her loss to former President Donald Trump this week does reopen a path for Newsom to seek the presidency in 2028, he emerges from the wreckage in a considerably weakened state.

While deeper analysis remains to be done about why the national electorate broadly shifted to the right in this election, Democrats are likely to be skeptical that another culture warrior from California represents their best chance of rebuilding the party after voters rejected Harris, who came out of the same San Francisco political circles as Newsom.

Matt Rodriguez, a Democratic consultant who worked on presidential campaigns for Barack Obama, Dick Gephardt and Bill Bradley, said a Newsom campaign would be stuck with a challenging message: “If you didn’t love the first movie, you’re gonna love the sequel.”

“Being from California is a bit of a millstone around people’s necks and that will make Democrats skittish,” Rodriguez said.

Newsom, who steadfastly denies any interest in the White House even as he appears to lay the groundwork for a future campaign, has yet to comment on the presidential election results. Neither his office nor his political team responded to inquiries.

But he won’t be leaving the spotlight anytime soon. With two years remaining in his governorship, Newsom is poised to return to the resister-in-chief that he was during Trump’s first term — a move that could boost his appeal to loyal Democrats even beyond California’s borders.

“What else is there? If you’re a Democrat today, you’re wiping your tears away,” said Democratic consultant Andrew Acosta. “They’re not going to roll over and say, ‘Well, I guess I need to give Donald Trump a chance.’”

Whether the relevance that comes with being Trump’s foil translates into votes outside of the most devoted MSNBC viewers is far less certain.

Once the fog of this election lifts, Democrats face a reckoning over the message that will carry them forward, especially as they continue to lose ground with traditionally Democratic working class and nonwhite voters. The party found itself in this position in 1988, after a third straight presidential election loss, and ascended again with Bill Clinton by co-opting conservative messaging on crime and the economy.

If the argument to pivot to the center wins out, then a staunch liberal like Newsom — whose gubernatorial record includes a moratorium on the death penalty and an executive order phasing out the sale of gas-powered cars — could be seen as too big of a risk for Democratic primary voters.

“There will be a lot of soul searching,” Acosta said. “The California baggage does become problematic.”

Republicans would be only too happy to pounce in a general election. Trump routinely made California a punching bag in his campaign, and his closing argument against Harris focused as much on painting her as too extreme on issues such as transgender rights as it did on the economic concerns that were top of mind for voters.

Jennifer Jacobs, a Republican consultant who worked across the country this year to elect Trump and GOP candidates, said voters everywhere are tired of the politics and governance that California has come to represent: high gas prices and housing costs, widespread homelessness and retail theft, mass illegal immigration.

A Los Angeles Times poll in February found that half of American adults believe California is in decline, and nearly half of Republicans said California was not American.

“We just had an entire nation say we don’t want to be like California,” said Jacobs, a San Diego native who like many other residents of the state is planning to move to Las Vegas in the coming months.

Newsom himself has struggled with declining job approval among California voters, who appeared to further repudiate the governor this week when they overwhelmingly passed a tough-on-crime measure that he vocally opposed and maneuvered to remove from the ballot.

“He is California,” Jacobs said. “I hope he runs for president. It will be the biggest trouncing you’ve ever seen.”

Of course, the next election is four years away. There’s still plenty of time for the mood to change, especially if another messy Trump administration turns off voters and pushes them back toward Democrats, further upending assumptions about their priorities.

After Mitt Romney lost in 2012, unable to dent President Obama’s multiracial coalition, Republicans concluded that the party needed to be more inclusive to minority groups and take on comprehensive immigration reform to win the White House. Trump’s success trashed that theory.

“We have to see where this plays out over the course of Trump’s presidency and what’s the space that the opposition party fills,” Rodriguez said.

For Newsom, however, destiny may be set. Completely reinventing himself over the next few years from anti-Trump hero to, say, economic populist is a tall order that would would require disappointing allies and slaughtering sacred cows of California politics.

It’s not impossible, but his chances of becoming president probably depend more on the frame of mind the electorate is in several years from now than anything Newsom says or does in the meantime.

“Voters are going to have to be open to him,” Rodriguez said. “There isn’t much he can do to change that.”

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

During the four years that Donald Trump was president the first time, California sued him about every 12 days on average.

Now that he’s returning to office, Democratic state leaders are preparing potential new lawsuits.

State Attorney General Rob Bonta has been developing plans to defend California policies since the summer, when polls showed a good chance that Trump would win the election. Bonta has said his team has preemptively written briefs on a variety of issues in preparation of what’s to come.

“During the previous Trump administration, California (Department of Justice) fought hard against Trump’s rollbacks and unlawful policies that infringed on Californians’ rights…and would do so again if need be,” the attorney general’s office said in an unsigned email response before the election.

California sued the Trump administration 123 times and scored major victories. Among them: California defended the state’s clean air rules, preserved the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) that benefits undocumented people who came to the United States as children, and protected the Affordable Care Act.

Those issues — the environment, immigration and health care — could once again be the main battle lines in the lawsuits that are expected to be waged between California’s Democratic administration and Trump’s White House.

Gov. Gavin Newsom foreshadowed potential disputes in a statement Wednesday.

“California will seek to work with the incoming president — but let there be no mistake, we intend to stand with states across our nation to defend our Constitution and uphold the rule of law,” he said. “Federalism is the cornerstone of our democracy. It’s the United STATES of America.”

This time, some experts anticipate that Trump will bring forward a more methodical approach to policy.

They point to Project 2025, a 900-page document by the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation that lays out a conservative agenda. While Trump tried to distance himself from the blueprint during his campaign, former members of his administration contributed to the report. There is also some overlap between what he’s proposed and what’s outlined in the document, such as mass deportations and overhauling the Justice Department.

Choosing battles in a second Trump term

In his victory speech, Trump signaled policy objectives that would likely conflict with California’s goals, such as expanding oil production and turning the nation’s public health agencies over to vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — although in what capacity is still unclear.

“He’s going to help make America healthy again,” Trump said about Kennedy during his speech. “I just said: ‘But, Bobby, leave the oil to me.

“‘Bobby, stay away from the liquid gold. Other than that, go have a good time.’”

While Democratic leaders vow to uphold their values, they may be more careful in choosing their battles this time around, said Matt Lesenyie, a political science professor at Cal State Long Beach.

“Some of the legal challenges are substantive, like we want to regulate greenhouse gases. Other ones may be more symbolic, and that’s not to trivialize cultural or gender identity, but one thing that has been clear, at least to me in this Trump win, is that those cultural issues are motivating his voters,” he said.

Because it is a large state, California also has power to negotiate with the federal government.

“Faced with near-total Republican control of the federal government, Sacramento may think the state does better by negotiating,” said David A. Carrillo, executive director of Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center. “That affects whether California’s strategy is to fight on all fronts, or to focus on leveraging its size and market power in making its own domestic and international agreements — call it soft secession.”

Likely disputes over abortion, health care

By most accounts, health care policies are expected to be contested again.

In his first term, Trump’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act failed, but he did slash some provisions of the landmark health law.

He also influenced the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that protected abortion rights, by appointing three conservative Supreme Court justices.

In 2019 the Trump administration also blocked clinics and providers that offer or refer patients to abortion services from receiving federal family planning dollars. California sued. The Biden administration later reversed Trump’s rule. Any similar restrictions on abortion would certainly prompt California to respond with litigation again.

Carrillo anticipates that the Trump administration might move to restrict mifepristone, one of the medications used to induce abortion, by using a 19th Century law known as the Comstock Act.

“One fight California probably can’t avoid is abortion, specifically access to mifepristone,” Carrillo said. “For example, the federal Comstock Act in general bans sending something for ‘abortion-causing purposes’ in the mail.

“Expect a major legal battle if federal prosecutors start enforcing that to prevent interstate shipping of medical abortion drugs or contraceptives,” he said.

Others say they also expect a fight from states if Trump attempts to make drastic cuts to the Medicaid program. About 14.7 million low-income Californians rely on Medicaid for health coverage. The program is also known as Medi-Cal in California.

Project 2025, for example, proposes to cap what the federal government pays for the Medicaid program, which is funded by both the feds and the states. This means that states would receive a fixed amount regardless of their costs. In the health policy world this is referred to as “block grants” or “per capita caps.”

“So that’s a big cut, a big cost shift to states, and states would have no choice but to either raise taxes substantially or far more likely, shrink their Medicaid programs to a great degree, which means more uninsured, more people go without needed care,” said Edwin Park, a research professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy.

Park says one key difference between a second Trump administration and the first is that Trump and his team could have a clearer vision of what they want to do with health care programs this time around. That includes the potential for things like imposing work requirements to qualify for Medi-Cal or slashing aid in Obamacare marketplaces, making it less affordable to sign up.

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Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

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

Christina (Christine) Louise Borges passed away on Wednesday, September 25, 2024 at the age of 89. She was a resident of Fortuna and will be long remembered as a loving wife, mother, and grandmother.

She was born July 9, 1935 in Ferndale. The daughter of Louis (“Louie”) Bucher and Laura Luis Kinzel, she grew up in Fortuna and graduated from Fortuna High School. Shortly after graduation, she married Max R. Borges and moved to Rio Dell, where they raised four children. Taught to play piano as a young girl, she loved music and passed that enthusiasm onto her family. She spent many years as head librarian at the Rio Dell Library and was active in the PTA, Boy Scouts, and as a seamstress.

As her children began to leave home, Christine became more active in the workforce. For several years, she managed the Little Ponderosa Cafe in Rio Dell, and then she and Max managed the Rio Dell Bowl and Coffee Shop. Later, she was hostess for Sanford’s Seafood restaurant in the Redwood Village Shopping Center. She will be most recently remembered for assisting Tom Renner at Ring’s Pharmacy in Ferndale where, for over a decade, she greeted customers at the pharmacy store and was responsible for staging the seasonal decorations in the store’s front windows.

Christine’s most fulfilling role however, was that of devoted wife, mother, and grandmother. Family was her priority and her proudest achievement. In her final years, she was blessed to be visited by her children and grandchildren regularly. She was passionate about cooking, sewing, and knitting, skills for which she was well known and from which her granddaughters particularly benefited. Later in life, she was devoted to her faithful pet and companion, Zoey, who was a present to her on her 72nd birthday.

Throughout her life, Christine was an active member of the Catholic Church, first at St. Patrick’s Church in Scotia where she played the church organ, and later at St. Joseph’s Parish in Fortuna where she was a devoted member of the Women’s Society and was responsible for the church’s floral arrangements for several years.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Max, her mother, Laura Kinzel, and her father, Louis Bucher, all in 1994, and her sister Arlene Banducci in 2006.

Christine is survived by her four children and their spouses, Mark Borges and Lynne Orton of Washington D.C., Lane and Karan Borges of Gold River, California, Keith and Cori Borges of Fortuna, and Rosanne and Clint Brill of Roseville, California, along with nine grandchildren and four great grandchildren. She is also survived by her brother, Louis David Bucher, and his wife, Linda, of Fortuna, and sisters, Betty Spaulding of Kennewick, Washington, and Kim Kinzel of Bakersfield, California.

Christine was interred at Ocean View St. Bernard’s Cemetery in Eureka, California, along with her husband, Max. A memorial service will be held in her honor at a future date. Contributions in her memory may be made to Hospice of Humboldt or the Alzheimer’s Association (alz.org).

The family would like to thank the wonderful staff at Ferndale Open Door Clinic, Hospice of Humboldt and Sequoia Springs for the compassionate care they provided to our mother in her final months. Your kindness, dedication, and support will never be forgotten. You truly made a difference, and we are forever grateful.

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