Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

As warmer weather draws more residents and visitors to our local rivers, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is reminding the public of the serious dangers posed by fast-moving, cold rivers, particularly the Trinity River.

Although air temperatures are rising, river conditions remain hazardous. Snowmelt and spring runoff have made the Trinity River and other local waterways swift, high, and extremely cold. These waters can be deceptively dangerous, even for experienced swimmers.

Even when it’s hot outside, the river is still very cold. The cold water can cause your muscles to seize up, making it difficult or even impossible to swim. Just a few seconds in cold, fast-moving water can lead to tragedy.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Boating Safety and Swift Water Rescue Team advises the public to take the following precautions when recreating near or on the water:

• Always wear a properly fitted U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket when boating, kayaking, paddleboarding, or swimming.
• Never leave children unattended near rivers or creeks. Always keep a close eye on kids and make sure they are wearing life jackets.
• Avoid alcohol and drugs when participating in water activities, as they impair judgment and reaction time.
• Do not underestimate the current. Even if you’re a strong swimmer, the power of moving water can knock you off your feet and carry you downstream in seconds.
• Stay informed about river conditions and obey all posted warning signs and closures.

Emergency services are often limited in remote river areas, and response times can be delayed. Taking precautions ahead of time can save lives.

We urge everyone to prioritize safety and make smart choices around our waterways. Let’s work together to prevent water-related accidents this season.

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On Friday President Trump released a budget blueprint for the next fiscal year that would take a chainsaw to social, environmental and education programs. Some of the sharpest cuts are directed at housing programs that are meant to serve the poor, housing insecure and unhoused.

In California, millions are served by these funds and state and local governments depend on them to operate affordable housing, rental assistance, homeless service, planning and legal programs.

In a letter to the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, the president’s budget director, Russel Vought, laid out $163 billion in annual spending cuts coupled with “unprecedented increases” in military and border security spending. The cuts, Vought wrote, are directed at areas of spending that the administration found to be “contrary to the needs of ordinary working Americans and tilted toward funding niche non-governmental organizations and institutions of higher education committed to radical gender and climate ideologies antithetical to the American way of life.”

That includes $33.5 billion in proposed cuts to the Housing and Urban Development department, a 44% reduction from current levels.

Presidential budget requests rarely reflect what Congress ultimately passes into law but are instead often viewed as something between an opening negotiating bid and a political vision board.

“You’d be looking at millions of people out on the street virtually overnight.”
— Matt Schwartz, president, California Housing Partnership

Even so, the budget document makes for quite a vision — one that, if realized, would upend decades of federal housing policy and affect millions of lives.

The sheer breadth of the cuts provides an odd kind of solace to some affordable housing advocates.

“By following through on such a huge level with so many proposals that are going to gut assistance to low-income people across the country, including his own party’s states, he’s putting his own members of Congress in a very difficult place,” said Matt Schwartz, president of the California Housing Partnership, a nonprofit that advocates for more affordable housing. “The level of carnage that would be involved in doing these things is probably going to send some Republican senators running for the exits.”

A handful of powerful GOP senators have, indeed, already pushed back on the president’s proposal, though much of their ire was directed at what they saw as a lack of sufficient military spending.

The largest single cut in federal housing policy would target the Housing Choice Voucher program. Better known as Section 8, it’s currently administered by the federal government and helps low-income tenants with their rental payments. The White House is proposing shifting responsibility for the administration of that program, which it calls “dysfunctional,” to states, while cutting its funding in half.

It also proposes a two-year limit on how long a single person can receive help. That change is “completely out of touch with what people are facing in the housing market,” said Alex Visotzky, senior California policy fellow at the National Alliance to End Homelessness. With soaring rents outpacing people’s incomes, low-income tenants aren’t going to be able to magically earn enough money to start paying rent in two years, he said.

Additional cuts to four other housing voucher programs are meant to save $27 billion annually.

“You’d be looking at millions of people out on the street virtually overnight,” said Schwartz. “There’s no way states could maintain the same level of assistance.”

The administration proposes to save nearly $5 billion more by eliminating funds for local economic development grants, affordable housing developments and local initiatives to reduce regulatory barriers to new housing.

That latter program, a Biden-era initiative known as Pathways to Removing Obstacle Housing, was denounced in the administration’s budget write-up as a “woke” program that has pursued “radical racial, gender, and climate goals.”

The White House pointed specifically to a $6.7 million grant made to Los Angeles County to fund infrastructure planning, public transit-oriented housing and, as described in the county’s funding proposal, rezoning that would reverse the region’s “legacy of past systemic racism.”

Radical reshuffle of homelessness policy

The budget would slash federal homelessness funding by $532 million, while also radically changing the way those funds are distributed. The Continuum of Care program – the main way the federal government distributes funds to fight homelessness – would effectively end. It would be replaced by an Emergency Solutions Grant program.

The continuum program funds long-term solutions to homelessness, including permanent supportive housing, which is housing that comes with case management, counseling and other services for people with disabilities, mental illnesses, addictions or other struggles that mean they require extra help. Emergency Solutions Grants, on the other hand, fund more short-term solutions, such as homeless shelters, or short-term rental assistance for people who don’t need extra services.

That shift in funding would mean thousands of people would lose their supportive housing and end up back on the street, said Visotzky from the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

“This would be a significant shift away from the solution to homelessness, which is housing, towards shelter,” he said. “This budget is going to take away all the pathways to get out of shelter and into housing.”

Homeless veterans fared better. The budget proposes a $1.1 billion increase “for the President’s commitment to ending veterans’ homelessness.” Those funds would go to Veterans Affairs for rental assistance, case management and support services.

The budget also calls for the elimination of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, an agency tasked with coordinating homeless policy at the federal level, which the administration had already gutted.

End of “fair housing” enforcement as we know it

The White House also proposes zeroing out a grant program that funds nonprofit legal aid organizations that enforce national fair housing laws. According to the explanatory summary of the cuts published by the administration, these organizations advocate “against single family neighborhoods and promote radical equity policies.”

That characterization is strongly disputed by Caroline Peattie, executive director of the Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California. Federally recognized nonprofit fair housing groups processed 74% of all fair housing complaints submitted across the country in 2023, according to data compiled by the National Fair Housing Alliance. The remainder go to federal and state housing regulators.

A recent example: In 2022, Peattie’s organization received a complaint that a Nevada-based appraisal company was systematically undervaluing homes owned by Black and Latino Californians. The nonprofit investigated and submitted a complaint to the state. The California Civil Rights Department reached a settlement with the appraisal company in mid-April.

If all the cuts go into effect as proposed, Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California would lose roughly 75% of its funding, said Peattie.

“It’s just appalling,” she said. “When the fair housing organizations go away, then what?”

The across-the-board cuts come after months of legal battle between fair housing organizations and the administration. In February the Department of Government Efficiency, helmed by Elon Musk, abruptly terminated a key source of congressionally authorized funding for dozens of private fair housing organizations, including Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California. The groups sued. With that lawsuit pending, the funds, appropriated for fiscal year 2024, “are still in the ether,” said Peattie.

Last month, Congress passed a bill to keep government spending at current levels from the prior year, meaning that fiscal year 2025 spending is in a holding pattern for now.

“But as for fiscal year 2026, all bets are off,” said Peattie.

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In December, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas assigned his members an “urgent” task: Make California cheaper to live in.

“Californians are deeply anxious. They are anxious about our state’s cost of living,” he told his colleagues in the wake of an election where concerns about the economy were top of mind for voters. “We must chart a new path forward and renew the California dream by focusing on affordability.”

Five months later, the state Legislature has little to show for it.

Just last week, Rivas announced four new “select committees” tasked with pitching ideas to lower the cost of housing, fuel, child care and food, but they won’t meet until June, and Rivas did not specify when he expects legislation from the committees. Some of the lawmakers assigned to chair them say they want to develop “practical” solutions but did not articulate what those would be.

Rivas, a Salinas Democrat, has also backed a slate of measures, most of which aim to ease restrictions on housing construction, but few have reached the Assembly floor for a vote.

Similarly, Senate Democrats unveiled just three legislative proposals as their “opening salvo” to affordability last week, focusing on reducing energy costs, increasing housing supplies and boosting job training.

While the Legislature is just starting to zoom in on affordability, prices are rising rapidly as a result of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff policies and groceries could get more expensive.

Economic justice advocates argue that Californians need immediate relief. Anya Svanoe, communications director for the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, said renters are still feeling the pinch.

“Putting together a committee that comes together months from now that won’t even do anything until the following year does not seem to me that (lawmakers) are treating it with real urgency,” she said.

Democratic leaders told CalMatters good policies take time to develop. They noted that lawmakers had to shift their focus earlier this year to Los Angeles wildfire victims and counter Trump’s policies, and it took time to onboard freshman lawmakers.

“I have never been one to simply do something to get clicks or make headlines. I want substance and impact,” Senate Pro Tem Mike McGuire said in an interview. “My philosophy is: Do it right, not fast.”

Rivas spokesperson Nick Miller also said the select committees — essentially working groups established to tackle niche policies — will allow lawmakers to gather more public input and drill down on specific issues during the summer recess without feeling swamped by the regular legislative schedule.

Some analysts are skeptical that any proposals could actually make California more affordable, anyway. Garry South, a longtime Democratic strategist, said affordability is a problem “too large for legislative solution,” especially when compounded by Trump’s tariff policies.

“It’s political optics to some degree,” South said. “(The bills) all sound good on the surface, but I don’t think there’s any predictability that if any of them pass, or all pass, that all of a sudden we are going to be out of the housing crisis in California.”

Tackling the ‘biggest cost drivers’

Rivas said that the select committees will tackle the “biggest cost drivers for Californians.”

The committees will focus on four areas: Lowering the cost of child care for babies to 3 year-olds; making food more affordable and enrolling more people in CalFresh, the state’s food stamp program; exploring financing options for affordable housing; and examining the effectiveness of the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, a clean energy incentive program that some argue could raise gas prices.

Assemblymember Lori Wilson, a Suisun City Democrat who chairs the Assembly Transportation Committee and will chair the select committee on fuel, said lawmakers have had a packed calendar.

“How could you even fit these types of conversations at the same time we are actively doing committees?” said Wilson, who sits on six different committees.

Lawmakers don’t need a new committee to develop solutions, because they are already introducing proposals in the current legislative session, said Mike Gatto, a former Los Angeles Democratic assemblymember who chaired the appropriations committee.

“Every single member of the Legislature has a pretty good understanding of what is causing this affordability problem in the state of California,” he said. “This information is out there.”

Select committees have traditionally been used to “give individual lawmakers who care about an issue … greater portfolio and greater exposure,” Gatto said. But he said they’re rarely effective.

“I don’t think too many veteran Capitol watchers can recall a select committee that produced significant results on an important issue,” he said.

But Miller pointed to last year’s select committee on retail theft last year, which produced laws to clamp down on organized shoplifting and toughen penalties on property thefts.

Proposals largely focused on housing

Optics or not, state Democrats’ affordability agenda appears clearer than a few months ago.

Led by Rivas, a strong ally of the YIMBY movement, Assembly Democrats are pressing for fewer regulations in exchange for quicker, more abundant new construction they argue would ultimately lower housing costs.

Lawmakers in early April approved a four-bill package to expedite building by streamlining the approval process for new housing and halting most changes to building standards for six years. One proposal would allow renters to take in people at risk of homelessness as long as their landlords agree.

Housing construction in a neighborhood in Elk Grove on July 8, 2022. Photo by Rahul Lal, CalMatters

“These bills will alter the trajectory of the housing crisis,” Rivas said in a statement.

Later that month, Rivas said he supported nine other “affordability” measures on housing, wage theft and broadband. One of them, introduced by Oakland Democrat Buffy Wicks, a major supporter of easing construction restrictions, would exempt most urban housing projects from the California Environmental Quality Act, making it all but impossible for environmentalists to sue to block developments.

Most of the housing proposals Rivas signed off on represent much more technical changes, though, such as making it easier to build farmworker housing, making agencies approve developments more quickly and standardizing the housing project application process.

It’s hard to know if any of those measures will lead to more housing construction, much less if they will make housing cheaper, said Bill Fulton, former director of planning and economic development for the city of San Diego and a fellow at the University of California-Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation.

“In spite of the fact that all those bills have passed (in past years), we have not seen overall housing production increase very much or overall housing affordability go down very much,” Fulton said.

“The Legislature passed lots and lots and lots and lots of laws … without actually doing a careful analysis of what’s working and what’s not, and they continue to pass more laws.”

Fulton said other factors discouraging building in California include the high cost of labor and building materials and high interest rates, which are not addressed by the current raft of housing bills.

Svanoe, who champions tenant protections, said state lawmakers are streamlining housing development while doing little to make rent affordable. She supports Assembly Bill 1157, a progressive proposal to lower the cap on rent increases. Faced with pressure from YIMBY-aligned Democrats, the measure is now delayed until next year.

“There’s no room to give (on) any rent increase at this point,” Svanoe said. “It’d be the difference between someone staying in their home and someone becoming homeless.”

The housing measure included in the Senate Democrats’ affordability package is much more skeptical of new construction. While Sen. Aisha Wahab’s Senate Bill 681 would streamline some development, it would also restrict landlords from charging extra fees and crack down on homeowners association fees.

“We’re reinforcing the state’s housing production goals, but not at the expense of the Californians who are barely hanging on,” Wahab, a Fremont Democrat who chairs the Senate Housing Committee, said in the legislative analysis.

A potential showdown looms between Democrats over housing policy — a clash already underway in the Senate.

An example of a Sprinter van, for reference. mark.mitchell.brown, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bill “Bud” Sargent would approve of this escapade for the summer of 2025: Traveling across the country in our Sprinter van to see games in all 30 Major League Baseball parks in 100 days. Bud was a lifelong baseball fan and a diehard San Francisco Giants fan. His dying wish was for his cremated ashes to be put into a Jack Daniels bottle and tossed into McCovey Cove near Oracle Park.

We met Bud’s granddaughter, Anna Sargent, at a Giants game during this first week of the trip. “Then with every splash home run, we can say ‘grandpa’s got it,’ ” Anna said. “We’ve done the first two things but we haven’t thrown him in McCovey Cove yet.” More from Anna later.

The purpose of the trip is to assess each MLB ballpark for LoCo faithful, focusing on game atmosphere, ballpark cuisine and club hospitality. Helpful tips will also be provided regarding parking and rules for each park. Consider it an insider’s guide to each ballpark. Rankings for the areas of game atmosphere, ballpark cuisine and club hospitality will at first be either positive, neutral or negative. After all the parks are visited, these rankings will be converted to a score on a scale of 100, making 300 a perfect score.

Game atmosphere rankings will be based on things the club does to add some sizzle to the game-day experience and how much the fans are invested. Ballpark cuisine rankings will be based on quality and diversity of food that is offered. Club hospitality rankings will be based on how well the team’s treat us. Is a correspondent for LoCo brushed off as an insignificant small market ne’er-do-well or do the team’s recognize us as a legitimate source for information?

The first week of the trip started with a flourish – four baseball games in five days, starting in West Sacramento, then traveling to San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.

Game #1: White Sox versus Athletics at Sutter Health Park, April 26

By Major League Baseball standards, Sutter Health Park is tiny with 12,000 seats and a 14,000 capacity if you count the grassy lawn area in right field. This AAA Park, home to the Sacramento River Cats, will double as home for the Athletics for at least the next three years while the A’s new stadium in Las Vegas is built.

Guest services rep John Cobb has high hopes for the Athletics stint in West Sacramento. “If we can prove to the baseball commissioner that we’re Major-League ready, we can get one of the two expansion teams that are planned for the future,” Cobb said. “If not this park, then one built near the rail yards.”

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manifred has said he would like to see the expansion process underway and the cities selected before his term as commissioner expires in January of 2029. Sacramento is listed as one of many candidates. It is expected that one expansion team will be from the eastern time zone and another from the mountain or western time zone.

Sutter Health Park has most of its seating on one level, with a second level for media and luxury suites. While it is an excellent AAA venue, the only realistic chance Sacramento has to bring in an expansion franchise would be to build a new park.

Game atmosphere: Neutral

The Athletics are under no illusion that Sutter Health Park is a Major League baseball stadium. So they pump up the volume on promotions and giveaways to help make up the difference. Athletics basketball jerseys were given away at this game. In three different innings, t-shirts were thrown and bazooka’ed into the crowd. Fireworks follow each Friday and Saturday game. Wet-nosed Wednesdays allow pet owners to bring their dogs to sit in the outfield lawn area. Between-inning action included plush baseballs tossed into the stands during the Broadcaster Ball Toss and a Big Head race featuring mascots of A’s Hall of Famers Dennis Eckersley, Rollie Fingers and Rickey Henderson.

The crowd enthusiasm at this game was dampened by a fast start by the White Sox who scored four runs in the first inning with a home run and three doubles, and a steady rain in the middle innings. There were lots of families in the outfield lawn area. And, while the listed prices for lawn tickets is $50, it’s easy to get them half off with various promotional offers. There is a kid’s play zone in the outfield with a wiffle ball field and a Tower Bridge replica.

Ballpark cuisine: Negative

There’s not a lot offered besides the typical ballpark fare of hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, sausages and chicken tenders. There was a Golden State Slider & Cider food truck that looked promising, offering generous proportions on a trio of sliders with a choice of pulled pork or brisket. Kevin and Keri Barber were our food tasters for the sliders. “The meat is okay but the slider itself is underwhelming,” Kevin Barber said. “They are lukewarm which is surprising since they prepared it while we waited for 10 minutes. The BBQ sauce is very sweet. Too sweet.” Guest services rep Cobb earlier recommended the Chicken Strips with garlic fries as the best food. It turns out he was right! Best line of the day came from a vendor wandering through the lawn area: “Churros. Beer. Free delivery.”

Club hospitality: Positive

A’s provided us with parking in the media area and visitor passes that got us into the stadium, but no actual seats.

Game details: White Sox win 10-3. Attendance 8,832. Time of game: 2:30.

Helpful tips: There are several parking lots adjacent to the stadium with costs ranging from $30 to $40. The team provides shuttle golf carts from the parking lots to the stadium. Only clear bags are allowed to bring into the stadium. Unopened soft-sided water bottles are allowed.

You don’t see that every day: Leather couches in the women’s restroom.

Game #2: Rangers versus Giants at Oracle Park, April 27

Oracle Park has gone through a few name transitions over the years, and when it opened as PacBell Park in 2000, it was a dream come true for many Giants fans. “I was waiting for Oracle to be built my entire life after suffering 40 years at the concrete circle that was Candlestick Park,” said Jeff Frediani, a lifelong Giants fan. “The views, the sight lines at Oracle are unbelievable. It was built for baseball. And you’re closer to the field than you ever were at Candlestick.”

Game atmosphere: Positive

Even though we arrived at the game 90 minutes before the first pitch, there was already a lot going on at Oracle. One reason was it was youth baseball/softball day and a lot of kids and their parents were already roaming the stands, especially the outfield area with the giant Coke bottle slides and the Mini Ballpark. It will be tough to beat this family-friendly area where kids have two choices for 360-degree slides – The Guzzler for kids at least 42” high and The Twist Off for kids at least 36” high. The Mini Ballpark is for kids under 36” high. There is also a replica of a cable car for pictures or for kids to play in. Something for kids of all sizes!

Adding to the commotion was a promotion by The Mercury News in the Fan Zone. The newspaper was giving away a choice of a Giants sweatshirt, blanket or cooler bag with every sign-up for 2-months of digital content for $15. There was a long line of takers.

Youth baseball/softball day was also celebrated in the bottom of the third when the Giants gave the public address microphone to one of the youth baseball kids who announced each batter for the Giants as they came to the plate. It’s this kind of personal touch that has endeared the Giants to its fans in the Bay Area and beyond.

“The Giants fans are among the best in baseball,” said Anna Sargent. “I may be biased because I grew up within 90 miles of Oracle, and I’ve always been within a 2-hour radius of the park as an adult. This is my team, my people.” While Anna has been hesitant to toss her grandpa’s bottle of ashes into McCovey Cove, she does have a next-step plan. “I’m going to surprise my dad on Father’s Day and put a brick with grandpa’s name using the Giants Anniversary brick program.” Fans can engrave a special message on a brick (priced at $399 or $649) along the scenic Bay Trail in China Basin Park, just steps from the ballpark.

This game was sold out and the Giants fans were raucous throughout, culminating with a crazy finish and an exhausted Heliot Ramos sprawled at home plate. (See details below under “You don’t see that every day.”)

Ballpark cuisine: Positive

Three words vault the Giants ballpark cuisine into the upper echelon: Crazy Crab’z Sandwich. It’s not cheap but it’s fantastic. “The Crazy Crab’z sandwich is 100 percent worth it,” said Sargent. “I don’t even look at the price. I get It every time I come to a game.” For those who do look at the price – it’s $25. Other notable offerings are a clam chowder sourdough bread bowl, crab Louie salad, Orlando’s Cha Cha Bowl (Jamaican jerk chicken with rice and beans), Rah-Rah Ramen, and the Ghirardelli Chocolate Hot Fudge Sundae. According to Frediani, while delicious, the problem with the Ghirardelli sundaes is there is a long line to wait to order it, then another long wait to get it.

Club hospitality: Positive

Giants provided tickets four rows from the field, halfway between third base and the left field fence. There is no parking at Oracle so parking was not provided.

Game details: Giants win 3-2. Attendance 40, 118 (sold out). Time of game: 2:37

Helpful tips: There are a couple of affordable parking options for Oracle. The one we chose was to park at the South San Francisco CalTrain station for $5.50. Tickets on the train are $3.75 each way with only a one-block walk to Oracle Park. Another option is to park for free at the Daly City BART Station and take BART to the game. This option will take long as it is about a mile walk to the game from the BART station. … Backpacks – even clear ones – are not allowed at the park.

You don’t see that every day: A walk-off little league home run. Heliot Ramos led off the bottom of the 9th inning with the score tied 2-2. He hit a dribbler toward third that the pitcher fielded, then tossed down the right field line. Ramos ran to second, then slowed down. Third-base coach Matt Williams was waving him to keep coming. After a quick glance over his shoulder, Ramos started running again toward third base. He dove safely into third and the ball ricocheted into left field. Ramos got up and stumbled toward home plate where his remaining available energy got him just to the point of collapsing on home plate for the game-winning run.

Game #3: Marlins versus Dodgers at Dodger Stadium

Dodger stadium is the third oldest stadium in Major League Baseball, behind Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. It opened in 1962 and, thanks to a great design, has held up well in the 63 years since. In 2021 the team created a Centerfield Plaza around the two outfield Pavilion seating areas. It includes almost two acres of food offerings, entertainment and kid areas, and retail locations. “The stadium has ambiance and beauty – an open view in centerfield of the greenery and the mountains,” said Richard Mathews, a lifelong Dodgers fan who has been going to games since 1963. “The Dodgers have a tradition of excellence in Los Angeles. I like what they stand for: a tradition of winning and they embrace diversity. They draw fans from across the spectrum of the city of Los Angeles.”

Game atmosphere: Positive

An hour before the game things were upbeat and high energy. It was Women’s Night and the team celebrated with a woman-led live band (Zoe Kilgren Band) performing in the Centerfield Plaza. The Dodgers kept the Women’s Night Theme going with national anthem performed by a female electric guitarist, and the first pitch thrown out by a woman. It was hard to find a fan that did not have on a Dodgers jersey or Dodger sweatshirt. Dodger fans have a reputation for leaving the game early to beat the freeway traffic but this game did not follow that pattern. Yes, some did leave in the 7th inning, but despite it being a blowout Dodger victory, the majority stayed until the last out. … The only game atmosphere criticism would be regarding the main scoreboard. Somebody tried to fit the entire Baseball Encyclopedia on one screen, making it difficult to even figure out where to look to see the score. … There are multiple play areas for the kids in both the outfield plaza and the upper reserved area. … The Dodgers comped more than 1,000 charter school students to the game. … There’s a lot of stairs to navigate between buying your Hot Chicken Mac-n-Cheese at field level and finding your seats in the Upper Reserved section.

Ballpark cuisine: Positive

The influx of star Japanese players to the Dodgers roster has had a side effect of bringing Japanese cuisine options to the Dodgers cuisine menu to satisfy the many Japanese fans that now come to the games. The star offering is Takoyaki – piping hot umami-filled octopus fritters with a variety of toppings. They are commonly referred to as Octopus Balls. Aaron Henkin said his wife tried the Octopus Balls earlier in the season when they had a giveaway promotion. She didn’t like it, but Aaron ordered them anyway because he questioned her palate. He was happy he did. “It’s really good,” he said. “The filling is good. Not too creamy. The texture of the breading is spongy and nice. The Bonito flakes add a tangy sweetness. It’s like a really moist hushpuppy. I would definitely get this again.” Two other fan favorites are the Hot Chicken Mac-n-Cheese and a Cheet-O-Lote. “The chicken on the Mac-n-Cheese is chicken breast with a hot, spicy breading, and it’s chopped into bite-size pieces,” said Ginger Gonzales, one of the stadium food workers. “It’s topped with cole slaw. The Cheet-O-Lote is a grilled street corn brushed with a cream mixture, then rolled in hot Cheeto dust.” Then it’s drizzled with Sriracha mayonnaise. Of course, the king of ballpark cuisine at Dodger Stadium is the Dodger dog. It’s offered throughout the stadium, while the specialty items are only sold on the field level in one location. But the Dodger dog is not much different from any hot dog sold in any other stadium. I asked longtime Dodger fan Richard Mathews after he took a couple of bites of his Dodger dog: “Is it as good as you remember it?” His reply: “It’s the same as I remember it. But it’s tradition.”

Club hospitality: Negative

The Dodgers supplied no tickets and no parking. When LoCo editor Hank Sims requested media parking from the Dodgers, the response was “Unfortunately, this is not something we can accommodate.” Well, they could accommodate but chose not to. Fortunately for us, Cal Poly Humboldt women’s assistant basketball coach Guillermo Blas Jr. came through with tickets in the Upper Reserved section, thanks to his sister who works with the Dodgers Foundation.

Game details: Dodgers win 15-2. Attendance: 46,502. Time of game: 2:48

Helpful tips: There is free alternative parking to the $35 to $60 that Dodger stadium charges. Take the Academy Road exit off the 110 freeway. Signs will point you toward the police academy. There is a long stretch of free street-side curb parking that ends right before the entrance to Dodger Stadium. Mostly RVs and Sprinter vans (which are charged double for parking at Dodger Stadium) use this option. It’s an extra 1000-feet of walking but the price is right. Another option is to park at Union Station downtown for $18 and take the free shuttle to the game. … Dodgers allow unopened plastic water bottles to be brought into the stadium. There is a clear-bag policy with the exception of purses. … There is no tailgating allowed in the parking lot.

You don’t see that every day: Each team used a position player instead of a pitcher to finish the game on the mound (Padres with Javier Sanoja, Dodgers with Kike Hernandez). The Dodgers were one of three teams to score 15 runs that day (Yankees and Rangers were the others). Each team’s left fielder was 9th in the batting order.

Game #4: Giants versus Padres at Petco Park

Petco Park opened in 2004 but it still seems new. The field level walkways shine. “I love watching games here,” said Michael Shoen. “The fans get pumped. It certainly helps that we’re winning, but the Padres are the only pro team left in San Diego so the fans get pumped.” Petco, like many ballparks built in the last 25 years, built a park that fits in so well with its downtown surroundings that it seems like it has always been there. There is a refreshing waterfall at the main entrance.

Game atmosphere: Positive

It was Bark at the Park Day where dog owners buy a special ticket to sit in the Gallagher Square section with their canine and participate in a pre-game dog walk along the outfield fence inside the stadium. What else would you expect from Petco? There are six Bark at the Park days in 2025 and they are all already sold out. We saw many show-worthy dogs in attendance and hundreds of dogs altogether. … Gallagher Square is a family-oriented area beyond the outfield fence where fans can still peak in the stadium through the open centerfield area. There is a fine grassy lawn area, its own concession area and a kids play area. … The Padres fans were very engaged in the action. This was the first game on our trip where there was a sizable number of fans from the opposing team (the Giants), but every time the Giants fans would start a “Let’s Go Giants” chant – it was quickly drowned out with a “Let’s Go Padres” chant. … The game-day atmosphere may have been best summed up by Padres rep Michael Weber: “Any day at the ballpark is better than a day anywhere else.” …The scoreboard features just the right amount of information, including an easy-to-find pitch count that switches over to pitch type and pitch speed after every pitch. … The park elevator has an elevator attendant in case you need help figuring out which of the two options to pick (and probably to keep the kids from turning it into a play area).

Ballpark Cuisine: Positive

The Padres are so proud of their ballpark cuisine that they hand out a Petco Park Food Guide to everyone in attendance. It lists every food offering and where you can find it in the stadium. Many of the food vendors are from area restaurants offering their specialty items. The top pick is Seaside Market Tri Tip Nachos. “You can’t go wrong with the Seaside Market Tri Tip Nachos,” said Craig Degraff. “They are super good. People will travel 25 miles to Cardiff just to get their tri tip.” The marinated burgundy pepper tri tip is laid on top of a bed of nachos covered in Diego Queso. Then it’s covered with BBQ sauce, sour cream and green onions. Another favorite is a Baja Lobster Roll by Pacific Grab & Go. It’s a long roll with lobster salad with an option of a hot link stuffed inside. “I had it the last time I was at a game,” said jose Batallia. “It was very good. But it needed a little something. So this time I’m trying it with the hot link. It’s expensive but it was worth me coming to get it again.” The lobster roll is $39 or $37 with the hot link. The Kona sliders on the fifth floor of the stadium are also very good with three options from which to choose: Bourbon Bacon Blue Sliders, Pretzel Beer Cheese Sliders or Social Sliders – all on Hawaiian rolls. Plus there are bacon-wrapped hot dogs, gyro bowls, acai bowls, boba tea, carnitas fries and Negihama sushi. Even the regular cheeseburgers are gourmet. Did I mention there are even mini donuts and a local craft beer section?

Team Hospitality: Positive

The Padres provided two field level tickets to the game and a parking pass in the tailgate parking lot.

Game details: Padres win 5-3. Attendance: 37,698. Time of Game: 2:34.

Helpful tips: Parking is from $35 to $45 in nearby parking lots. … Only extremely small purses are allowed into the park – no bigger than 5” by 7”. All other bags must be clear. … They do allow factory sealed bottled water and outside food as long as it is wrapped or bagged.

You don’t see that every day: In the bottom of the third inning, Elias Diaz led off with a line shot to left. A fan in the front row wearing a Giants t-shirt reached his glove over the fence but the ball caromed off his wrist. After a lengthy crew chief review, it was determined it wasn’t fan interference. From the crew chief: “The fan stuck his glove over the field of play. However, the ball struck him in the wrist which was beyond the field of play. It is a home run.”

Play along guessing game

Answer these five questions correctly and be eligible in August for a prize pack worth at least $19! Put your guess in the comments.

#1: How many games will the home team win?

1. Less than 15.
2. 15.
3. More than 15.

#2: Will we see at least one complete game during our 30 games?

1. Yes.
2. No.

#3: What will be the average attendance at the 30 games?

1. Under 29,000.
2. 29,000 to 31,000.
3. More than 31,000

#4: What will be the average length of each game?

1. Less than 2 hours and 35 minutes.
2. 2:35 to 2:40.
3. More than 2 hours and 40 minutes

#5: License plates: At what point in the trip will we complete the quest to see all 50 states and at least five Canadian provinces on vehicle license plates as we drive?

1. First 75 days.
2. Last 25 days.
3. It won’t happen.

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Tom Trepiak is the former sports information director at Humboldt State and a member of the Cal Poly Humboldt Athletics Hall of Fame.

Humboldt’s third major anti-Trump protest was a little more subdued than the first two — see here and here — perhaps because the weather was less nice.

But hundreds of people showed up anyway, and the enthusiasm level was still pretty high. People wandered back and forth along either side of Fifth Street between I and K, meeting old friends or making new ones. Strangers struck up conversations to a degree you don’t see in everyday life.

Some new hand-drawn signs were circulated in to keep up with the headlines. The Bandemonium brass band, or some portion of it, showed up to entertain the crowd. The Handmaids were back. There was a funeral procession for American democracy.

As in previous weeks, the percentage of cars passing by who opted to honk was very high. In our hour down there, the Outpost only witnessed one verbal confrontation between protesters and a truck stopped at a stoplight, but it even that was pretty chill. Views were exchanged, a little spicily, and then the fellow drove on. 

Police were parked at a discrete distance from the site, with the exception of one car at the intersection of Fifth and J, which is the place problems seem to break out.

Some photos below.

An unsolved murder in Eureka’s Old Town on February 6, 1885, was the pretext to rid Humboldt of all Chinese residents. But were the assumptions about who likely pulled the trigger incorrect?

As Eureka celebrates its 4th annual Chinatown Festival today – 4-9 p.m. in Old Town — the truth of Eureka’s Chinatown expulsion is gaining importance.

The murder of Eureka City Council Member David Kendall

A series of seven to 12 shots pelted the crowd at 4th and E Streets in Eureka Chinatown at 6:05 p.m., Local Mean Time, on Friday, February 6, while daylight visibility was still good. But no eyewitnesses of the shooter were identified, despite many bystanders, both Chinese and white folks.

The bullets wounded several Chinese, hit a boy in the foot, killed one Chinese man and left Eureka Council Member David Kendall dead in the midst of celebrating “Little New Year” festival, also known as the Kitchen God Festival, which occurs one week before the main Chinese New Year Festival.

One week before, a similar series of shots pelted several Chinese folks at the same location, killing one and wounding several others, also in broad daylight in a crowded place, with no reported eye witness of the shooter.

“The ceremony to the kitchen god would have fallen on February 7, 1885, which would have corresponded to February 6th on the west coast of the US,” said Andrea S. Goldman, Associate Professor at the UCLA Department of History and Interim Director of the Asia Pacific Center, in an interview.

Zhang Meng, Assistant Professor at UCLA Department of History, agreed, and added that it is likely that there were publicly visible activities at the Eureka Kitchen God Festival February 6th, 1885.

Eureka Chinatown Festival interrupted for 138 years

Modern accounts of the expulsion have no mention of the fact this expulsion occurred during the Chinese Spring Festival season. Before diving into the unsolved murder and expulsion, let’s consider the Chinatown festival that was lost for 138 years before being brought back for the fourth year this weekend.

Before the expulsion, the annual Chinese New Years Festivals captivated many people in the white community who enjoyed them, but brought complaints from others.

February 14, 1877, the West Coast Signal reported on the Chinese New Year that “The fire-cracker demonstrations yesterday were worthy of mention.”

After the next year’s celebrations the local news reported, “The City Attorney has been instructed by the Common Council to draw up an ordinance, preventing the burning of firecrackers within the city limits, except on our National holiday.”

But the law didn’t succeed.

February 5, 1881, local news reported “The Chinese celebrated their new year yesterday, discharging firecrackers with a lavish hand. The boys about town took a conspicuous part as usual.”

The “Committee of 15” was formed to expel Eureka Chinatown

As dusk set in on Chinese “Little New Year” in 1885, the white town leaders conspired in Centennial Hall, a half a block away from Chinatown, to expel hundreds of Chinese from Eureka.

They quickly nominated 15 prominent community leaders to supervise the white mob in carrying out the expulsion.

The Committee of 15 was inaugurated and supported by Mayor Walsh, presiding over the meeting, Sheriff T. M. Brown, and District Attorney Geo. Hunter.

The Committee of 15 members included the following, as published by the Humboldt Times February 7, 1885:

• H.H. Buhne, Jr, son of Captain Hans Heinrich Buhne, one of the richest men in California, who owned a local general store, and was in the process of constructing a mansion and commercial building a few blocks away.
• Frank McGowan, lawyer and active anti-Chinese politician who went on to become a state senator and key member of the Asiatic Exclusion League.
• W. J. Sweasey, populist politician, born in UK, appointed secretary of the Committee of 15.
• C.G.Taylor, general store owner who went on to be a director of First National Bank.
• E.B. Murphy, Eureka City Council Member and owner of Western Hotel.

Howard Allison Libbey, “Prominent member of Lincoln Lodge, [Knights of Pythias], and No Surrender Lodge of Orangeman” according to his obituary that ran in the Humboldt Times on 23 September 1896. At Eureka’s Loyal Orange Lodge (L.O.L.) he served as “Worshipful Master” as reported in Humboldt Times 27 September 1883. Loyal Orange Lodges are a Irish-British Unionist and fraternal organization that uses similar practices to the KKK, but predates the KKK by a few hundred years, and with a structure resembling the Masons.

White citizen council and mob violence

One report documents how one of 20 Chinese arrested that night were detained by police: “The officers, after considerable difficulty, in which the Chinaman was pretty badly used by the crowd, succeeded in getting him to the lock-up.”

This method of orderly expulsion was quickly duplicated in other cities in Humboldt, including expelling Arcata’s Chinatown, and across the Western States. It was called the Eureka Method. The innovation came during the rise of violent white mobs in the wake of the civil war.

But while the South slid into the Jim Crow era during the rise of the first Ku Klux Klan that resisted Republican efforts to uproot the institutions of slavery, in the West the Republicans were aligned with Democratic efforts to create apartheid to deny equal rights to the Chinese. (For further detail on this disturbing history, see Kevin Waite’s article in The Nation: “The Forgotten History of the Western Klan: Whereas southern Klansmen assaulted Black Americans and their white allies, California vigilantes targeted Chinese immigrants.”)

Many of the Committee of 15 were Republicans. Several went on to become judges, bankers, and successful businessmen. They oversaw the crimes of the mob carrying out unlawful eviction, harassment and death threats.

A hangman’s noose was erected in the street to threaten the Chinese with murder if they didn’t board the first boat headed to San Francisco.

The Humboldt Times, in an article entitled “The Chinese Riot,” wrote “It was resolved that the Chinese be kept in the warehouses at the wharves and … that no Chinese escape and that all leave on the steamers in the morning.”

While technically a criminal conspiracy for unlawful detention and abduction, this vigilante justice had the blessing of the Eureka mayor, district attorney and sheriff in a blatant abuse of power.

Just before the expulsion there had been an editorial in the Times-Telephone with the caption “Wipe Out the Plague-Spots,” and the second day after the expulsion, a news headline read, “The Plague-Spots Wiped Out,” applauding the work of the Committee of 15.

An Unsolved Murder

The next day after Kendall was murdered another meeting was called. As Keith Easthouse reported in the North Coast Journal from an interview with author Jean Pfaelzer: “The sheriff, Tom Brown, stood up and told the crowd, in Pfaelzer’s words, that ‘I’ve arrested a bunch of men [20 by some reports] but I can’t tell you who shot David Kendall.’”

Chris Chu, Programming Coordinator of Humboldt Asian and Pacific Islanders (HAPI) in Solidary’s Eureka Chinatown Project told me, in an interview: “It is unsolved. Yes…There isn’t any hard evidence I can point to that says it was specific members of the community…I don’t think we have any of that information because it was pretty much whipped up into a frenzy pretty quick.”

The Chinese leaders at the time told the press they did not know who the shooter was, as the press reported on the second day after Kendall died: “So far as the tragedy of Friday night was concerned, both parties disclaimed any participation in it or any knowledge as to who the chief actor in that tragedy was.”

As the press reported at the time: “The audience was tremendously excited and if any direct clue to the culprits had been known they would have inevitably swung them to the nearest lamp-post. The utter impossibility of identifying the guilty parties proved however an unsurmountable impediment to their punishment.”

But the newspapers immediately and unanimously claimed, without hard evidence, that the shooting was the result of Chinese gang fights, and that assertion has remained largely unexamined ever since.

Chu said: “We have almost nothing from the Chinese perspective themselves, unfortunately, which makes it even harder to find the real facts of the story,”

But the historical archive does have signs that the Chinese were eager to be found innocent. An article in the Weekly Times Telephone on February 7, 1885, reported: “We were besieged most of yesterday afternoon by representatives from each faction, both anxious to ‘put em in paper’ their stories concerning the affray.”

“There is a very bitter feeling existing among the Chinamen,” the paper reported.

When the expelled Chinese arrived in San Francisco they hired a lawyer and filed suit against Eureka in Wing Hing v. City of Eureka, 1886, which ultimately failed when their attorney failed to meet filing deadlines. But the lawsuit contains dozens of names of expelled Eureka Chinatown residents, the amount of estimated damages, and the story that the local newspapers refused to tell.

The lawsuit lists the names of those expelled. Each claim asserts they were residing with their family, and doing business in Eureka with “large and valuable quantities of merchandise, clothing, provisions, furniture, fixtures, personal effects and money, belonging to him.”

Each claimant alleges “said rioters, acting together and without authority of law, riotously broke into the premises of [name of injured Chinese plaintiff] and carried away therefrom and totally destroyed his goods, merchandise, furniture, fixtures, clothing, personal effects, money and provisions, and drove him and his family from their dwelling and from said city, and caused them to be removed beyond the corporate limits thereof. The said defendant had due notice of the assembling of the mob and of the riot aforesaid, but the said defendant failed and neglected to quell said riot or to disperse said mob, or to protect the property of [name of plaintiff].”

Eureka’s response was that these businesses never existed and none of the businesses’ goods existed. They claim there never was a white mob and “denies that there was then, or at any other time, any riot at all in said city.”

What the lawsuit does not deny is driving them, or their family, from their homes and removing them beyond the city limits.

No reported witnesses of shooter on the crowded downtown street during daylight

There are no known reports of witnesses seeing a gunman, or a suspect fleeing the scene, even though as many as 20 Chinese were arrested and questioned by Sheriff Brown.

The shooting took place almost exactly at civil dusk, which is good visibility, when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon, 25 to 30 minutes after sunset. That evening the sun set at 5:38 p.m. Local Mean Time, used by the Humboldt Times for local events until the early 1890s – 8 minutes ahead of Pacific Standard Time.

The shooter may have been a clandestine assassin, considering there were no known eyewitnesses of the shooter during daylight hours in a crowded place, despite a mob frantically searching for the shooter immediately afterward.

Shooter may have been clandestined

The shooter was not seen despite firing into a crowd while it was still daylight.

One possible explanation for this is that the shooter had selected a clandestine location so that they would not be seen by the crowd they were firing at.

Common strategies of clandestine gunman at the time included taking an elevated position and selecting to fire at dusk, while still daylight, for reducing risk of detection by reducing visibility of smoke from the gunshot, and muzzle flash.

There were multiple locations in the vicinity where a shooter could have taken a shot undetected such as in an elevated position, such as on a second floor, a roof, or a church tower. There were certainly plenty of elevated positions in the area that a gunman could have used within the 300 yard average limit for rifles of that era, including the Congregational Church bell tower, which was in full view of the reported victims on February 6, as well as the victims of a similar unsolved murder a week before that left one Chinese person dead and a few others injured.

Also, the number of shots, 7-12, is consistent with the number of shots in a standard rifle of that era.

Other pieces of circumstantial evidence don’t prove the shooter was clandestined, but would be made more likely if the shooter was. For example, the likelihood of hitting a child in the foot, as happened here, is greater if the shooter had chosen an elevated position.

There is precedent: The Los Angeles Chinatown Massacre in 1871, when 19 Chinese were murdered by unreported gunmen, some on rooftops firing down into crowds. There many white community leaders were involved in the brutal attacks on Chinese in broad daylight, but the prosecution struggled to get any eyewitness accounts to testify on the record. Just like Eureka, the media claimed the violence started with rival Chinese gangs shooting at each other.

Certainly the historical record is filled with many people calling to get rid of Eureka Chinatown. Chinatown massacres had already swept across the West in the previous years. The year 1885 was the second mass expulsion of Chinese from the area. The first was in the early gold rush days when an estimated one or two thousand Chinese were run off their successful gold mines near Grizzly Creek in the Trinity National Forest.

Politicians, ‘Committee of 15,’ and fraternal societies had been plotting expulsion and were members of groups with a violent racist past

The months and weeks ahead of the expulsion the newspapers were filled with people calling to get rid of Chinatown.

Chu, the from Eureka Chinatown Project said economic factors pressurized the white male workforce. Also, he said, “Humboldt had a lot of fraternities – male social and labor organizations that were tied to a lot of violence going back 25 years before the expulsion. The Wiyot Massacre was in many ways organized and carried out by these fraternity organizations.”

The ad hoc secretary for the meeting that formed the Committee of 15, W. J. Sweasey, was a populist politician, a former Republican born in Britain, and an owner of one of the steamers that transported the expelled Chinese to San Francisco.

Over five years before, Captain Sweasey was the first chairman, and elected the first president, of the Tax Payer’s Party, which issued a list of resolutions including that ‘All legal means should be used to halt the immigration of the Chinese “and other inferior races who cannot amalgamate with us.’”

Many researches have addressed the prevalence of fraternal societies and racist calls to expel the Chinese in the lead up to the expulsion, but significance of Committee of 15 member Howard Libbey’s prominence in the local Orangemen movement has received little, if any, consideration.

‘Prominent’ Orangeman was on the Committee of 15

Committee of 15 member Howard Allison Libbey was the head, “Worshipful Master”, of the Eureka Loyal Orange Lodge (LOL), located on Forth and G Streets, one block from Chinatown, as described in the Humboldt Times on September 17, 1883.

Orangemen, as they are called, are an Irish-British Unionist and fraternal organization that use similar practices to the KKK, but predate the KKK by a few hundred years, and with a structure resembling the Masons.

They were active in the US at the time of the Eureka Chinatown expulsion.

In 1871 they created one of the deadliest riots in New York City history. As the New York Irish History Roundtable reported in their sixth volume, the “Orangemen,” who are British and Irish Protestants, attacked Catholics in New York killing almost 80 people. The year before on their national day of rallying, July 12th, their riots killed eight in New York City.

The fact Orangemen were both heavily involved with the violence sweeping the country and represented in Eureka’s Chinese expulsion by a prominent local member of Orangemen on the Committee of 15 may have more significance than previous researches have explored.

Libbey’s obituary from the Humboldt Times (Sept 23, 1896) said: “Deceased was a prominent member of Lincoln Lodge, K of P, and No Surrender Lodge of Orangemen, having been secretary of the latter lodge for several years.”

The involvement on the Committee of 15 of characters like Libbey, McGowan and Sweasey, combined with the full support of the local media and politicians, raises serious doubts on the trustworthiness of their assertion that Kendall was shot by a Chinese gangster when there is no reported eyewitness of the shooter.

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Shawn Leon is a Humboldt County resident and a Cal Poly Humboldt graduate.