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The California DMV routinely allows dangerous drivers with horrifying histories to continue to operate on our roadways. Too often they go on to kill. Many keep driving even after they kill. Some go on to kill again.

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

Court research by Robert Lewis, Lauren Hepler, Anat Rubin, Sergio Olmos, Cayla Mihalovich, Ese Olumhense, Ko Bragg, Andrew Donohue and Jenna Peterson

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Ivan Dimov was convicted of reckless driving in 2013, after fleeing police in Washington state while his passenger allegedly dumped heroin out the window. Before that, he got six DUIs in California over a six-year period. None of that would keep him off the road.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles reissued him a driver’s license in 2017. The next year, on Christmas Eve, he drove drunk again, running stop signs and a traffic light in midtown Sacramento, going more than 80 mph, court records show. He T-boned another car, killing a 28-year-old man who was going home to feed the cat before heading to his mom’s for the holiday.

Kostas Linardos had 17 tickets — including for speeding, reckless driving and street racing — and had been in four collisions. Then, in November 2022, he gunned his Ram 2500 truck as he entered a Placer County highway and slammed into the back of a disabled sedan, killing a toddler, court records show. He’s now facing felony manslaughter charges.

In December of last year, while that case was open, the DMV renewed his driver’s license.

Ervin Wyatt’s history behind the wheel spreads across two pages of a recent court filing: Fleeing police. Fleeing police again. Running a red light. Causing a traffic collision. Driving without a license, four times. A dozen speeding tickets.

Yet the DMV issued him a license in 2019. Wyatt promptly got three more speeding tickets, court records show. Prosecutors say he was speeding again in 2023 when he lost control and crashed into oncoming traffic, killing three women. He’s now facing murder charges in Stanislaus County.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles routinely allows drivers like these — with horrifying histories of dangerous driving, including DUIs, crashes and numerous tickets — to continue to operate on our roadways, a CalMatters investigation has found. Too often they go on to kill. Many keep driving even after they kill. Some go on to kill again.

With state lawmakers grappling with how to address the death toll on our roads, CalMatters wanted to understand how California handles dangerous drivers. We first asked the district attorneys for all 58 counties to provide us with a list of their vehicular manslaughter cases from 2019 through early last year. Every county but Santa Cruz provided the information.

Because California has no centralized court system and records aren’t online, we then traveled to courthouses up and down the state to read through tens of thousands of pages of files. Once we had defendants’ names and other information, we were able to get DMV driver reports for more than 2,600 of the defendants, providing details on their recent collisions, citations and license status.

The court records and driving histories reveal a state so concerned with people having access to motor vehicles for work and life that it allows deadly drivers to share our roads despite the cost. Officials may call driving a privilege, but they treat it as a right — often failing to take drivers’ licenses even after they kill someone on the road.

We found nearly 40% of the drivers charged with vehicular manslaughter since 2019 have a valid license.

That includes a driver with two separate convictions for vehicular manslaughter, for crashes that killed a 16-year-old girl in 2009 and a 25-year-old woman in 2020. In July of last year, the DMV issued him a driver’s license.

The agency gave licenses to nearly 150 people less than a year after they allegedly killed someone on the road, we found. And while the agency has since suspended some of those, often after a conviction, the majority remain valid. In Santa Clara County, a man prosecutors charged with manslaughter got his current license just a month and a half after the collision that killed a mother of three young children.

And many drivers accused of causing roadway deaths don’t appear to have stopped driving recklessly. Records show that nearly 400 got a ticket or were in another crash — or both — after their deadly collisions.

A commercial driver drove his semi truck on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic, killing a motorcyclist in Kern County in 2021. Less than a year later, he still had a valid license when he barreled his semi into slow-moving traffic, hitting four vehicles and killing a woman in Fresno County, records show. Another man, sentenced to nine years in prison for killing two women while driving drunk, got his privileges restored by the DMV after being paroled, only to drive high on meth in Riverside and weave head-on into another car, killing a woman.

“It is somewhat shocking to see how much you can get away with and still be a licensed driver in the state of California,” Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire said. “I don’t think anyone fully understands what you need to do behind the wheel to lose your driving privilege.”

Almost as interesting as the information in the drivers’ DMV records is what’s not there.

Hundreds of drivers’ DMV records simply don’t list convictions for manslaughter or another crime related to a fatal crash, we found. The apparent error means some drivers who should have their driving privileges suspended instead show up in DMV records as having a valid license.

The cases we reviewed cut across demographics and geography. Defendants include farmworkers and a farm owner. They include off-duty police officers and people with lengthy rap sheets, drivers who killed in a fit of rage and others whose recklessness took the lives of those they loved most — high school sweethearts, siblings, children. The tragedies span this vast state. From twisty two-lane mountain roads near the Oregon border to the dusty scrubland touching Mexico. From the crowded streets of San Francisco to the highways of the Inland Empire. From Gold Country, to timber country, to Silicon Valley, to the almond capital of the world. So much death. More people than are killed by guns.

Dangerous drivers are able to stay on the roads for many reasons. The state system that targets motorists who rack up tickets is designed to catch clusters of reckless behavior, not long-term patterns. And while there are laws requiring the DMV to suspend a driver’s license for certain crimes, like DUIs, there is no such requirement for many vehicular manslaughter convictions.

It’s often up to the DMV whether to act. Routinely it doesn’t.

The DMV declined to make its director, Steve Gordon — who has been in charge since Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed him in 2019 — available for an interview to discuss our findings.

Chris Orrock, a DMV spokesperson, said the agency follows the law when issuing licenses. “We use our authority as mandated and as necessary,” he said.

Even when the DMV does take away motorists’ driving privileges, state officials, law enforcement and the courts are often unable or unwilling to keep them off the road. We found cases where drivers racked up numerous tickets while driving on a suspended license and faced little more than fines before eventually causing a fatal crash, even though authorities could have sent them to jail.

Taking away someone’s driving privilege is no small decision. It can consign a family to poverty, affecting job prospects, child care and medical decisions.

Still, the stakes couldn’t be higher. More than 20,000 people died on the roads of California from 2019 to early 2024.

Kowana Strong thinks part of the problem is that lawmakers and regulators are too quick to treat fatal crashes as an unfortunate fact of life, as opposed to something they can address.

Her son Melvin Strong III — who went by his middle name, Kwaun — was finishing college and planning to start a master’s program in kinesiology when he was killed by Dimov, the driver with six prior DUI convictions. Kwaun was a bright and innocent young man, she said, just starting his life.

“It’s just another accident as far as they’re concerned,” Kowana Strong said.

Holes in the DMV’s point system

Young people think they’re invincible. It’s the old who know how unfair life is, Jerrod Tejeda said.

His daughter Cassi Tejeda was just 22. She was months from graduating from Chico State with a bachelor’s degree in history and a plan to be a teacher. Outgoing and athletic, she wanted to travel, see the world and make her own life.

She had a girlfriend who was visiting. Courtney Kendall was 24 and a student at Louisiana State University.

On a Sunday afternoon in January 2022, a Volvo SUV topping speeds of 75 mph ran a red light and smashed into their Jeep, court records show. The collision killed them both.

“The most difficult part besides the incident is every day that goes by you’re always wondering what if. What would they be doing today?” Jerrod Tejeda said. “Would they be married? Would they have developed into the career that they chose? Where would she be living?”

Tanya Kendall lamented not being there to protect her daughter, hold her hand or say goodbye.

“Instead, I was left with the unbearable task of choosing what outfit she would be buried in. Buried, Your Honor. Not the gown she would wear to her graduation from LSU — the one she will never attend,” the mother wrote in a letter to a Butte County judge, adding that she and her husband stood in their daughter’s place, accepting her diploma.

Such pain was preventable.

A scrapbook of photographs of Cassi Tejeda on the table of Jerrod Tejeda’s home in Visalia on March 6, 2025. Cassi was killed by a drunk driver with two prior DUIs in January of 2022. Photos by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

The driver of the Volvo, Matthew Moen, had a blood alcohol level more than three times the legal limit, according to court filings. And it wasn’t his first time drinking and driving. Moen was caught driving drunk in Oregon in 2016. He never completed the requirements of a diversion program and had an outstanding warrant at the time of the fatal crash, the Butte County district attorney’s office said. In January 2020, he was convicted of DUI in Nevada County for driving with a blood alcohol level more than twice the legal limit, given a couple weeks in jail and put on probation for three years.

His license was valid at the time of the fatal 2022 crash, records show.

Across the country, states grapple with how to effectively spot and punish drivers who could be a danger on the road. Often they rely on a basic point system, with drivers accruing points for various types of traffic violations and thresholds for when the state will take away a motorist’s driving privileges. But like many, California has such high limits that drivers with a pattern of reckless behavior can avoid punishment.

The state suspends a driver’s license for accumulating four points in a year, six points in two years or eight points in three years. What does it take to get that many points? Using a cellphone while driving is zero points. A speeding ticket is a point. Vehicular manslaughter is two points.

Between March 2017 and March 2022, Trevor Cook received two citations for running red lights, got two speeding tickets and was deemed responsible for two collisions, including one in which someone was injured, court records show. (A third red-light ticket was dismissed.) At-fault collisions add a point to a driver’s license, according to the DMV. But the incidents were spaced out enough that none resulted in a suspension.

Cassi Tejeda and Courtney Kendall. Photo via Butte County District Attorney

So Cook had a valid license on April 14, 2022, just a month after his last speeding ticket, when he blew through a Yolo County stop sign at more than 100 mph.

At that exact moment, Prajal Bista passed through the intersection, on his way to work after dinner and a movie with his wife, according to details of the crash that prosecutors included in court filings. Bista was driving the speed limit and on track to make it to work 30 minutes early.

The force of the collision nearly split Bista’s Honda Civic in half. Investigators determined Bista had been wearing his seat belt, but the crash tore it apart. They found his body 75 feet from the intersection.

On March 28, 2024, Cook pleaded no contest to felony vehicular manslaughter.

Just a month later, on April 30, the DMV issued Cook his current driver’s license, agency records show. Less than two weeks after that, he got a ticket for disobeying a traffic signal.

Melinda Aiello, chief deputy district attorney in Yolo County, said her office didn’t know anything about the new license or the red-light ticket until contacted by CalMatters. What’s more, the manslaughter conviction — like hundreds of others we found — isn’t listed on Cook’s driving record.

Cook’s license was still listed as valid in California DMV records as of early 2025. But for now, he’s off the roadways: Last summer, Cook started serving time in state prison.

“It’s stunning to me that eight months later his license is still showing as valid and the conviction for killing someone while driving is not reflected in his driving record,” Aiello said. “You killed somebody. I’d think there might be some license implications.”

Orrock, the DMV spokesperson, said he couldn’t speak directly to why so many convictions are missing. But, he said, “we acknowledge that the process and coordination between the judicial system and the DMV must continually evolve to address any gaps that have been identified. And we’re looking into that.”

Kill someone, get your license back

There are laws requiring the DMV to suspend a driver’s license for various convictions. A first DUI conviction, for example, is a 6-to-10-month suspension. Felony vehicular manslaughter is a three-year loss of driving privileges. The agency isn’t necessarily required to give a license back if its driver safety branch deems a motorist too dangerous to drive, agency officials said.

But CalMatters found the agency regularly gives drivers their licenses back as soon as the legally required period ends. And once crashes, tickets and suspensions fall off a driver’s record after a few years, it’s often as if the motorist’s record is wiped clean. So even if the driver gets in trouble again, the agency often treats any future crashes and traffic violations as isolated incidents, not as part of a longer pattern of reckless driving.

Perhaps that’s why Joshua Daugherty is licensed to drive in California.

In July 2020, Daugherty drifted onto the highway shoulder while driving near Mammoth Lakes, overcorrected to the left and lost control, court filings show. His Toyota Tacoma cut across the lane into oncoming traffic, where an SUV broadsided it. Daugherty’s girlfriend, 25-year-old Krystal Kazmark, died. Police noted that Daugherty’s eyes were red and watery and his speech was slurred when they arrived. He told officers that he’d smoked “a couple of bowls” of marijuana earlier in the day, according to records filed in court.

Kazmark’s mother was devastated. Like other victim relatives we spoke to for this story, Mary Kazmark tried as best she could to summarize a life into a few words — an impossible task. Her daughter liked to sing, travel, cook, draw, snow-ski, water-ski, wakeboard, hike, read, entertain friends and plan parties. She was a responsible kid, her mother said, always the designated driver with her friends. She oversaw guest reservations at one of the Mammoth Lakes lodges.

Mary Kazmark said she tracked down Daugherty on the phone a few days after the crash.

“He just said, ‘I can’t believe this happened again.’ And I was like, ‘What do you mean?’”

She eventually learned it wasn’t the first time Daugherty’s driving had killed.

In August 2009, in a strikingly similar incident, Daugherty was speeding along a Riverside County highway when his Ford Expedition drifted onto the shoulder. Witnesses told police he veered back to the left, lost control, hit a dirt embankment and went airborne, the SUV flipping onto its roof. A 16-year-old girl riding in the back died. Daugherty was convicted of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter. He was sentenced to 180 days in custody and three years’ probation, according to a summary of the case filed in court.

Because of the earlier manslaughter conviction, police recommended he be charged with murder for the death of Krystal Kazmark. But the Mono County district attorney’s office charged him with a mere misdemeanor.

Josh Daugherty and Krystal Kazmark. Photo courtesy of Mary Kazmark

Felony charges typically require a prosecutor to prove “gross negligence.” A prosecutor in another county described the difference between a felony and a misdemeanor this way: A felony is one in which you tell the average person the facts and they say, “Wow, that’s really dangerous.” A misdemeanor is one which they say, “That’s dumb but I’ve probably done it.”

The Mono County district attorney’s office refused to comment on the case, because the prosecutor and the elected DA at the time have both since retired. The office did provide a prepared statement explaining the charging decision. “It was determined that there was not a substantial likelihood of conviction at trial,” it said.

Daugherty pleaded guilty and was convicted in January 2023. He was sentenced to a year in jail. The DMV suspended his driving privileges after the fatal 2020 crash, a DMV report shows. But losing his license wasn’t enough to keep Daugherty off the road, records show.

Two months after his conviction for killing Kazmark, before he reported to jail, police caught him driving on a suspended license.

Still, the DMV reissued Daugherty a license in July 2024.

To recap: That’s two convictions for two dead young women, plus a conviction for driving on a suspended license, and the California DMV says Daugherty can still share the road with you.

“It’s so sad. You make a mistake and then you don’t learn from it and then you cause another person to lose their life,” Mary Kazmark said. “It’s unbelievable that he can continue to drive.”

Orrock said the DMV couldn’t comment on individual drivers.

When law enforcement reports a fatal crash, the agency’s driver safety branch flags all drivers who might be at fault. It then looks into the collision and decides whether the agency should suspend those motorists’ driving privileges. If the driver contests the action, there’s a hearing that could include witness testimony. Suspensions are open-ended. Drivers need to ask for their license back, and agency personnel decide whether the suspension should end or continue. These discretionary suspensions typically last for about a year.

And while officials said the DMV can continue a suspension if they think a driver poses a danger, Orrock said they need to give drivers an opportunity to get their license back. He said there’s no process in the state “to permanently revoke a license.”

Get your license back, get in trouble again

Roughly 400 drivers accused of causing a fatal crash since 2019 received a ticket, got in another collision or did both after the date they allegedly killed someone on the road. (The reports don’t show whether the drivers were found at fault, only that they were involved in an accident.) That’s about 15% of the drivers for whom we could get DMV reports.

Drivers like William Beasley.

From 2011 to 2016, Beasley collected five speeding tickets and a citation for running a red light in Sacramento County, court records show. Then around 9 a.m. on a sunny Tuesday in October 2019, he killed a man.

William and Deborah Hester were crossing the street to go to a dentist appointment at a veterans facility when Beasley’s silver pickup sped toward them. They thought they would make it across. But the truck didn’t stop. At the last minute, William Hester shoved his wife out of the way. She heard the truck smash into her husband’s body and screamed, according to court records.

Beasley still didn’t stop. He fled the area and tried to hide his truck. Investigators used nearby cameras and license plate readers to track him down days later. Beasley admitted to being in a collision.

He later pleaded no contest in Sacramento to hit-and-run and misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter. A probation report in the case revealed Beasley was nearly blind in his left eye.

From left, William Hester and Loriann Hester Page. Photo courtesy of Loriann Hester Page

“Mr. Hester is with me every moment of my life,” Beasley said in an interview. “I took away a father, a grandfather, a husband, and they consider me a murderer. That’s not who I am.”

“My accident with Mr. Hester was just that, an accident. Nothing more,” he said, adding that he worked as a courier for years and sometimes got speeding tickets because he was rushing.

In May 2020, the DMV took away his driving privileges.

In November 2022, Beasley got his license back — “because I could and I needed to,” he said, adding that people deserve second chances, particularly for accidents.

Almost immediately — less than three weeks after getting his license — he was in another collision, his DMV report shows. In early 2024, he got in yet another. His license was suspended when his car insurance was canceled, records show.

“It makes no sense to me that they would give him a license and give him the opportunity to hurt someone else,” said Loriann Hester Page, William Hester’s daughter.

Her father’s death broke the family, she said. He drove a tank in the Army, played guitar in a band, liked to ride horses.

“My dad was such a wonderful, kind man,” she said. “He would always walk in a room and wanted to make everyone smile.”

Beasley said he doesn’t plan to drive again.

“I am 75 years old,” he said. “I am blind in one eye. I have had a situation where a man was killed, he lost his life. I am not going to repeat that situation at all.”

Still on the road, license never suspended

The DMV does have the ability to act quickly. In some cases, it suspended a driver’s license shortly after a fatal crash. However, we found numerous cases in which the DMV did nothing for months or years, often not until a criminal conviction.

In July 2021, truck driver Baljit Singh drove his semi on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic, killing a motorcyclist in Kern County, court records show. There are no suspensions listed on his DMV record during that time, even though the agency has the discretion to suspend someone’s license without a conviction.

Less than a year later, as his case wound its way through the slow-moving court system, Singh plowed his semi into the back of a car in Fresno County, killing a woman, records show. He ultimately pleaded no contest to felony vehicular manslaughter in Kern County. He pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in Fresno for the second fatal crash. The DMV finally took away his driving privileges in February of last year.

Prosecutors say Jadon Mendez was speeding in December 2021 in Santa Clara County when he lost control and caused a crash that killed a mother of three young children. A few weeks later he got a speeding ticket. And yet, the DMV issued him his current driver’s license on Jan. 27, 2022 — 49 days after the fatal crash.

There were no suspensions listed on his DMV record as of early this year, even though Mendez was charged with manslaughter in May 2022. The judge in his case ordered him not to drive, as a condition of his release. But such court orders don’t necessarily show up on a driver’s DMV record.

That might be why he didn’t get in more trouble in December 2022 when he got a speeding ticket in Alameda County. Prosecutors didn’t know about that ticket until CalMatters asked about it, said Angela Bernhard, assistant DA in the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office.

Mendez’s manslaughter case is still open, and his license is still listed as valid.

When asked about the Mendez case and others, Orrock acknowledged that while there’s a DMV process for deciding when to revoke or suspend a license, “sometimes the process takes a while to happen.”

When the DMV doesn’t act at all

In many cases, the DMV doesn’t take action even after a conviction.

In May 2022, a semi driver named Ramon Pacheco made a U-turn in front of an oncoming motorcycle, killing 29-year-old Dominic Lopez-Toney, who was finishing his rotations to be a doctor.

Court records show Pacheco had gotten in trouble behind the wheel before. He had been arrested for DUI in 2009, caused a collision in 2013 and got a ticket in 2016 for making an unsafe turn. It wasn’t enough to keep him off the road.

Neither was killing a man.

Months after San Joaquin prosecutors charged Pacheco with vehicular manslaughter, he got into another collision for which he was also deemed most at fault.

As the case dragged on, Lopez-Toney’s large but tight-knit family wrote dozens of letters to the court, pleading for justice. Dorothy Toney wrote that, more than a year since her grandson’s death, she was still haunted by images of his “mangled and broken body” and the gruesome details in the police report. “Somedays,” she wrote, “I wish I had been there to gently hold his hands” and “tell him how much I loved him.”

The letters are full of shock and outrage that the driver had faced so few consequences. “Allowing this truck driver to continue driving and engaging in civilian activities with only a mere consequence of probation is appalling,” wrote Lynelle Sigona, the victim’s aunt.

Pacheco ultimately pleaded no contest to misdemeanor manslaughter and received probation. His DMV record as of Feb. 11 indicates his driving privileges were never suspended; his commercial driver’s license is valid.

Pacheco’s defense attorney, Gil Somera, said his client isn’t a reckless driver. His prior incidents are relatively minimal, he said, given the fact that “truck drivers drive thousands and thousands of miles a year.” Pacheco needed to turn around and didn’t think there was another place he could do so, since he was approaching a residential area, Somera added.

Pacheco wasn’t being “inattentive or reckless,” Somera said. “And it’s unfortunate and sad and tragic this young man died because of this decision he made to make a U-turn.”

In the wake of the tragedy, Lopez-Toney’s mother has become an advocate for truck safety.

“Road safety and truck safety is not a priority right now with our legislators, with our government,” Nora Lopez said. “Changing our mindset, our attitudes, our culture on the roads is not impossible.”

First: Nora Lopez has buried Dominic’s urn in her garden and planted a sage bush beside it. Last: Framed photos of Dominic at Nora Lopez’s home in Castro Valley on March 12, 2025. Photos by Christie Hemm Klok for CalMatters

In an interview at her Castro Valley home, she talked about her only child. He was smart and caring, liked snowboarding and animals, loved food. On vacations they would take cooking classes together, Lopez said. He studied molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley and was almost done with medical school.

She still has the dry-erase whiteboards in his old room. One is filled with his small and neat study notes; another has what appears to be a to-do list. There’s a note that says “Surgery: 600.” Lopez said that’s when he was due to start his surgical rotation in a San Joaquin hospital, just a couple of days after he died.

She said he just wanted to help people and serve the Native American community as a doctor, a future that a driver snatched away.

“It’s because of a man’s recklessness and carelessness — no regard for humanity,” she said.

While felony manslaughter is an automatic three-year loss of driving privileges, a misdemeanor typically carries no such penalty. It’s discretionary — it’s up to the DMV to decide whether to do anything. And the man who killed Lopez-Toney is far from alone in facing no apparent punishment from the DMV.

We found nearly 200 drivers with a valid license whose DMV record shows a conviction for misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter but for whom there is no suspension listed.

When shown a copy of Pacheco’s current driving report, Lopez sat in silence for several seconds.

“Does this make sense to you? It makes no sense to me,” she said. “With his record, how does he still have a license?”

‘Are we going to put that loaded gun back in their hands?’

Research on dangerous drivers appears to be thin and largely outdated.

Liza Lutzker, a researcher at UC Berkeley’s Safe Transportation Research and Education Center, said much of the focus in the traffic safety world is on creating better design and infrastructure, so people who make honest mistakes don’t end up killing someone.

“I think that the issues of these reckless drivers are a separate and complex problem,” Lutzker said. “The system we have clearly is not working. And people are paying with their lives for it.”

Jeffrey Michael, who researches roadway safety issues at Johns Hopkins University and spent three decades working at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said he understands officials might be hesitant to impose harsher penalties more broadly, “for fear of the unintended consequences.”

“We live in a society where driving is really essential,” he said. But he said the findings show the agency needs more scrutiny and analysis of who is on the roads.

“These are not unresolvable problems,” he said.

Leah Shahum, executive director of the Vision Zero Network, a nonprofit promoting safe streets, said sometimes officials prioritize preserving people’s ability to drive rather than ensuring safety.

“We don’t all have the right to drive,” Shahum said. “We have the responsibility to drive safely and ensure we don’t hurt others.” She added that many people need to drive in this car-centric state. “That does not mean there can be a license to kill.”

“If we know somebody has a history of dangerous behavior,” she said, “are we going to put that loaded gun back in their hands?”

The gun metaphor was common in the thousands of vehicular manslaughter cases we looked at across California. One prosecutor described dangerous behavior behind the wheel as akin to firing a gun into a crowd.

In letters to the court, surviving relatives and friends described the hole left behind, writing about an empty seat at a high school graduation, a photo cutout taken without fail to home baseball games.

It’s a void one young man tried to explain to authorities — the sudden, violent, blink-of-an-eye moment where life forever changes. For him, it was at 6:45 p.m. on Feb. 27, 2020, on Lone Tree Way in the Bay Area city of Antioch.

Two brothers, ages 11 and 15, were going to meet their dad at a Burger King. They crossed to the median and then waited for a break in the traffic before continuing to the other side. The older one made it across, according to court documents. His younger brother stepped into the street just as a driver gunned his car to 75 miles an hour — 30 over the speed limit.

The older boy watched as his younger brother “just disappeared.”

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This is the first piece in a series about how California lets dangerous drivers stay on the road. Sign up for CalMatters’ License to Kill newsletter to be notified when the next story comes out, and to get more behind-the-scenes information from our reporting.

Each day in the market right now feels like a set of whitewall tires, as if from another century, compared to the day before. We live in a world where sudden market movement can happen from a social media post. Time feels like it’s speeding up.

As you probably know, the President made an adjustment to some tariffs this last Wednesday after he felt like people were getting a bit yippy. Here is the quote: “They were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid.”¹

Indeed.

That’s what happens when you renegotiate the world.

Stocks went up ferociously in response, doing in one day what it can do in a whole year—around 10% depending on the index. Thursday it headed back downward. 

Not only has the stock market been volatile, the bond market has too with some significant interest rate spikes, which some believe played a pivotal role in POTUS’s decision to pause tariffs.

Back in the 1990s, Democratic strategist James Carville said it illustratively: 

I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or as a .400 baseball hitter. But now I would like to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.²

Touché.

The eyes of the leaders of our country and investment firms will likely continue to be bound to bonds. Attempting to adjust to all this information coming so fast is extremely challenging for us as individuals and as investors.

Philosopher Byung-Chul Han discusses the problem with an information society that I think has a bearing on investing and this cultural moment. He states,

Our obsession is no longer for objects, for information and data. Today we produce and consume more information than objects. We actually get high on communication…

Information puts the cognitive system itself into a state of anxiety…

And information, due to its ephemerality, makes time-consuming cognitive practices such as experience, memory or perception disappear.³

If you make investment decisions on the glut of shifting information guided by your own personal algorithm curated just for your tastes without taking a step back and engaging memory, it could be a significant mistake. 

You must remember why you started investing in the first place. Getting back to the basics is beautiful, and so easily forgotten.

• What are your financial goals?
• What is your risk tolerance?
• What kind of diversification do you need?
• How will you deal with the impact of inflation?
• Should you consult with a financial professional?
• What is your time horizon for the funds invested?

In moments like this, we don’t need to get clever or act like we know more than we do. Even acclaimed investors like Howard Marks write memos with titles like the following which he released last week: “Nobody Knows (Yet Again)”.

Watching the news—whether it’s FOX or MSNBC or CNBC or your favorite YouTuber—is not an investment strategy.

We must also engage our memory of history. Here is the difference between a short-term and long-term stock market memory.

You will feel “yippy”—if that’s what we are calling fear and anxiety now—throughout your investing journey because life hits you in the face sometimes with hard markets or heartbreaking personal events.

These kinds of negative events and their effects can last a long time. Or turn around faster than you think. 

Here is another thing to remember. Stocks can bottom way before the economic pain of something like recession is felt on Main Street and lower earnings are realized on Wall Street. Plaster this classic chart, from Data Researcher Matt Cerminaro, across your investing heart:

Therefore, do not get so caught up in the now that you lose your financial memory and your financial plan in the process.

Oddly enough, I was encouraged this week by a barista’s handwritten note on a Starbucks cup: “What if it all turns out all right?”

Yippy Ki-Yay.

–

Sources:

1. “Trump Pauses “Reciprocal’ Tariffs, but Hits China Harder” (Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2025). 
2. Quoted in “The Daily Prophet: Carville Was Right About the Bond Market” (Bloomberg, January 29, 2018). 
3. Byung-Chul Han, “I Practice Philosophy As Art” (December 2, 2021).

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

Thousands of Humboldt residents rely on the Humboldt Transit Authority to get around. And for a rural transit agency, they do a really good job. But there are gaps, both in locations (good luck getting to Ferndale) and times (sorry if you want to take the bus on a Sunday). And there are other improvements (like more frequent buses) that are needed to make the bus more convenient and attract more riders. To get better bus service, Humboldt Transit Authority needs more money.

Humboldt County voters approved Measure O last election. Among the promises of Measure O was funding for transit. The Board of Supervisors will meet in the near future to decide exactly how much will go to transit, and transit advocates are working to make sure they keep their promises. Colin Fiske of the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities joins the show to advocate for at least 20% of Measure O funds to go to support public transit.

If you’d like, you can your Supervisors to let them know that you support Measure O funds going to transit:

• Rex Bohn: rbohn@co.humboldt.ca.us
  
• Michelle Bushnell: mbushnell@co.humboldt.ca.us
• Mike Wilson: mike.wilson@co.humboldt.ca.us
  
• Natalie Arroyo: narroyo@co.humboldt.ca.us
• Steve Madrone: smadrone@co.humboldt.ca.us

Once again, Highway 36 has been closed for emergency work this morning, in roughly the same place that was affected by slides last month.

At the moment, the Caltrans information system is forecasting that is will be opened again by midnight, but these forecasts are extremely variable. If you see a stop sign on 36 in the map above, it’s still closed. Otherwise, it is open.

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For nearly 50 years the Big Four Inn was one of Humboldt County’s favorite places to dine and enjoy an evening of dancing and refreshments. Maria and Victor Evangelisti began serving homemade Italian dinners, Tuscan style, in the first Big Four at Trinidad in 1922. They later moved to more imposing quarters in a huge cream-colored Tudor style building on the northern outskirts of Arcata. In the early 1970s the Inn closed, but there are still many Humboldt County residents who can reminisce about the days when “you could dine, dance, and enjoy the refreshments and have an awfully hard time spending even $5.00.”

The story of the Big Four Inn began early in 1911 with the arrival in America of Maria Giuntoli and her father Pellegrino from the tiny Italian village of Torrichio in the northern province of Tuscany.

Mary’s first sighting of America came just a few days before her seventeenth birthday. She remembers that it was a welcome relief to see land after a week spent in cramped third class quarters tossing about in the turbulent Atlantic seas. Pellegrino and Maria had boarded the ship in the French port of Le Havre on January 4. The passage fee of $500 was paid by Adolpho Giuntoli, Pellegrino’s oldest son, a resident of California.

The ship ploughed through heavy seas for four days and on the fifth day Pellegrino carried his seasick daughter on deck into the thin sunshine so she could stretch out on a bench and smell the fresh sea air. By the time they reached New York harbor, Maria was grateful to transfer to a smaller boat and finally to lie on a cot which did not pitch and sway day and night. At first she was relieved to be inside the huge stone buildings of Ellis Island. Along with hundreds of immigrant women who could not communicate because of lack of a common language, she shared an enormous dormitory and a daily pattern began to emerge. They washed, went to meals, and some came and went with regularity as they were processed in and out by the immigration authorities. Men and women were separated upon arrival and they slept and ate in separate areas.

The days passed slowly for Maria. She regained her strength and began to wonder why she was being detained and what had become of her father.

As the days passed she began to suspect she was in prison and would never see her father again. Unable to make herself understood, she resolved she must find her father by herself. Each day she scanned the faces as the men and women filed in and out of the dining hall at mealtime, hoping to get a glimpse of her father. One day she spotted him, broke though the lines and ran to him flinging her arms around him in a joyous embrace. Although the attendants tried to separate them, Maria clung to her father and refused to let go. As their voices raised in anger and frustration, a man stepped forward and identified himself in Italian as an attorney. Acting as a go-between he learned from the authorities that Maria and Pellegrino were being detained because they had not filled out all of the required papers for entry into the country.

A telegram was dispatched to Adolpho Giuntoli in California and when the response was received by immigration officials the father and daughter were set to appear in court to testify to the validity of the papers they had signed. In spite of their affidavits, the immigration officials found it hard to believe that Maria was a farm girl headed for her brother’s ranch in Northern California. She was attractive with pale skin, dark eyes and hair, and gracefully slim, tapering fingers that looked out of place for a peasant girl.

With the testimony verified and papers in order, they boarded a ferry and then rode the streetcar through New York to the railroad station. At the station they purchased a basket of food for one dollar which was to last them the week-long 3,000 mile train ride across the country. When they had settled into their seats Maria opened the basket to prepare lunch. She was dismayed to find two loaves of bread, two sticks of rancid bologna, and two strange-looking pies. She tried one pie and found it too sweet to eat and when she cut into the second pie she says it appeared to be “full of bugs.” She threw the spoiled food away, learning in later years that what she thought were bugs were raisins.

Before leaving home, Maria had made two pounds of her favorite cookies, biscotti, a dry nut-filled confection. For several days she and her father munched the cookies and supplemented their meager meals with apples and oranges purchased from a vendor on board the train. About mid-week a friendly passenger invited them off the train for a meal at a stop for fuel and they began to learn the routine of train travel.

As the train moved westward, Maria reflected on the circumstances which had caused her and her father to leave home. A conflict had arisen between the patriarch and a son’s wife. Pellegrino had written of the problem to his son in California, who in turn urged his father to come to America. He had promised work for Maria and a place for them to reside.

Tall, with a classic profile and sweeping white moustaches and snowy white hair, Pellegrino was a tenant farmer. His wife had died when Maria, the youngest, was just six years old and he supported his seven children on the small earnings of his farm. All of the children worked in the fields with their father, Maria walking behind her brothers and sisters gleaning ripened wheat stalks when she was old enough to follow.

When they arrived at the Oakland terminal, Maria and Pellegrino boarded the San Francisco Bay Ferry. Adolpho was waiting for them at the Ferry Building and they remained in San Francisco for a week resting and purchasing new clothing before boarding the steamer for the overnight journey to Eureka harbor.

When Maria arrived at her brother’s home in Bayside she showed little sign of having suffered from the journey. At 17 years of age, she was eager to be of service to her family knowing that she would be safe in their care.

A Change in Plans

The day after her arrival, Maria’s sister-in-law Armeda led her into the yard, pointed to several large tubs of laundry, and declared “This is the way we do it in America.” Maria accepted her tasks without complaint, washing overalls and union suits until her hands were nearly raw. She worked in the family garden and waited tables and made beds in the boarding house. When it came time to receive her monthly pay, her sister-in-law handed it over to her and then took it back saying, “You don’t need it, I’m giving it to my daughter.” Since she seemed to have little use for the money, Maria acquiesced and went on about her work.

Deferring to her sister-in-law’s status and age, Maria continued to perform her chores. As she grew more at ease with the boarding house clientele, she would occasionally entertain by singing a few songs from the old country and she became quite an asset to her brother’s business. It was not until the Fall of 1912 when she met Vittorio Evangelisti that her life took an unexpected turn. Vic, as he was known, had come to Humboldt from San Francisco, where he had worked as a bricklayer during the rebuilding following the 1906 earthquake. His trade had taken him up the Delta toward Sacramento and then on to Humboldt where many Italians had gone seeking work in the lumber industry and on the railroads.

Vittorio and Maria Evangelisti, newlyweds. 1914.

When they met, Vic and Maria shook hands formally. She says she later told her brother Livio, “When our eyes met— Zing!—I know I had found a husband.” Of medium height, not much taller than Maria, Vic impressed her as a serious and dependable man. After a few months of courting under the watchful eye of her brother, Vic asked Maria if she would accept his marriage proposal. Together they went to Adolpho to ask his permission and were astonished when he angrily banished Maria from his home and threw her suitcase on the front porch. Although she was not completely aware of the arrangements of her passage it was clear that Adolpho felt she owed him a longer period of work in repayment of the debt. Pellegrino came for her and joined him and Livio and Sandy at their hotel in Blue Lake.

Maria and Vic were married on August 19, 1914, in St. Bernard’s Catholic Church in Eureka by Father Ryan. After their marriage they returned to Blue Lake, where they worked for Livio and Sandy in the Star Hotel for over a year. They carefully saved their combined salaries of $40 a month. During this time Maria formed an affectionate bond with her two sisters-in-law, Mary and Artemesia, who taught her English and involved her in the life of the small community of Italians at Blue Lake.

When they had saved enough to be financially independent, Mary and Vic moved to a tiny three-room cottage near the Bayside school on Jacoby Creek Road. On June 15, 1915, daughter Elba was born at the Arcata hospital, and Victorine was born at home on November 23,1918. Vic was working on the railroad and in addition to caring for her babies, Maria took in washing and cooked meals for seven railroad men. Shortly after Vicki’s birth in 1918 Maria was stricken with the flu and had to be hospitalized. Vic placed the children with friends and within days he yielded to the flu epidemic that was sweeping the country. After five weeks of hospitalization, their nest egg of $2,200 was wiped out and they resolved to start again.

With a steady income from Vic’s job and her boarders, the nest egg began to grow and the couple began discussing the idea of establishing a business of their own. Maria says she gradually began to see that “If I could cook for all those men, I could do it in my own restaurant.” Vic agreed and they began looking for an opportunity.

Story of the Big Four

In 1922, Maria and Vic formed a partnership with Nick Giannini of Eureka. They bought Rocco’s Place, located half a block from the Trinidad Hotel overlooking the harbor and Trinidad Head. The business florished and by 1923 Maria and Vic decided to strike out on their own. They rented a building from retired justice of the peace Tom Tighe which was located on Main Street in Trinidad next to the new three-lane Highway 101. The building was formerly the Trinidad Town Hall and had been moved from its site downtown near the Catholic Church to the highway lot.

Judge Tighe, drawing on his interest as a railroad buff, suggested the couple hang a railroad lantern on the porch and call the establishment “The Big Four” after the railroad barons of the Gilded Age — Huntington, Stanford, Crocker and Hopkins.

The Big Four became successful almost immediately, drawing its patrons from the Crannell mills and the whaling station. With energy and creativity Maria and Vic planned a hearty seven-course meal of high quality — simple food, prepared and offered at a reasonable price. The original menu varied little over the years. It began with a plate of antipasto, or appetizers. This was followed by baskets of French bread and a steaming tureen of rich broth which the customers ladled into individual bowls and sprinkled thickly with freshly grated cheese. Next came platters heaped with Maria’s specialty: homemade ravioli smothered in a delicately seasoned tomato sauce. The main course featured richly browned chicken roasted with herbs, deep fried apple fritters or zucchini and salad. For dessert, guests could try the spumoni ice cream, Maria’s homemade biscotti, and coffee and liquors.

Maria dominated her kitchen with high energy, while the two girls served in the dining room. Vic greeted the public acting as host and sometimes served homemade wine, despite prohibition.

In 1925 the family was compelled to leave Humboldt County because Vic had accumulated three violations of the Federal statutes prohibiting the sale of liquor. Although his establishment was enjoyed by the county’s leading citizens, who seemed to ignore the law, Vic was guilty and the family made plans to move to San Francisco until the matter was cleared.

Another resident of Humboldt County, Pellegrino, was preparing to leave. Pressured by a law he did not comprehend, Pellegrino sought to return home to Italy “where he could sit down at his own table and enjoy a glass of wine without feeling guilty.”

There was a period in 1925 when Vic and Mary left Humboldt County to live in San Francisco. While there, they operated the Redwood Inn.

In San Francisco Vic negotiated for a business on Grant Avenue which he named “The Redwood Inn.” Always able to adapt, Maria put the children in school in North Beach’s Italian community and the family remained there until 1928.

When they returned to Humboldt, Vic and Maria resumed the operation of the Big Four at Trinidad. As his business expanded, Vic started planning for a larger Big Four. He located property north of the Arcata city limits on Highway 101 and contacted Eureka architect Frank Georgeson with his ideas for floor plan and design. The Ed Lax Construction Company of Eureka contracted to build the 4,000-square foot English Tudor style inn, and the new Big Four opened in April of 1934. The building cost $12,500 to construct and an additional $12,000 was spent with A. Brizard’s for industrial fixtures and with Duck Brothers for additional furnishings. In addition to the large kitchen there was a central dance hall, 10 roomy booths, a large cocktail lounge, and a banquet room seating about 100. The building had an attached three-bedroom apartment for the family.

By now the restaurant was popular and attracted customers from the county. In spite of the Depression, the seven-course meal was still offered for 75 cents on weekdays and $1 on Sundays. Elba and Vicki waited on tables and helped in the kitchen as needed and niece Arminda Giuntoli and several young women from the Italian community lent a hand on busy weekends.

A few weeks after the opening of the new Big Four Maria was burned severely while lighting the gas jet in the steam table. “I felt like I was frying inside,” she said of the fiery mishap. “I think it was bad luck to move into the Big Four on a Friday.” She still uses the old country superstition to explain the misfortune. After several weeks at the hospital she was back in the kitchen, moving familiarly about in the heat and confusion of food, orders and people.

In 1948 Vic welcomed his brother Guido and wife Mary into the partnership. After 10 years of hard work and an ever-increasing clientele the couple was beginning to tire. Mary had had another accident in the kitchen, slipping on the tile floor and injuring her back, and Vic’s health was beginning to suffer from the steady grind of long days and infrequent vacations. In 1945 they decided to retire and sold their interest in the business to Guido. By this time both daughters had married: Vicki to Alfred Massagli of San Francisco and Elba to Sumner Kirby of Freshwater.

During the difficult transition from business to retired life the older couple resided with Elba and Sumner in Eureka for a few months. Maria busied herself with the household and her two granddaughters and occasionally Vic would join his son-in-law tending bar at the Club DeLuxe, which the Kirbys had opened in 1938.

Within a few months Maria and Vic began to feel restless and when Livio, Maria’s brother, proposed going into business in Garberville, they agreed. In 1946 the partnership opened the Village Inn, and as soon as Maria resumed cooking the crowds flocked to the restaurant on the main street of the small Southern Humboldt town. On a summer evening it was a common sight to see a jovial crowd waiting patiently in line in front of the Village Inn for one of Maria’s dinners. The menu remained virtually the same, although they raised prices to $1.25. By 1948 Vic’s health was again slipping and they sold the business to a Mr. Retzloff of Eureka.

When they left Garberville they decided to search for a home in the Bay Area so that Vic could obtain the medical care he required. They eventually located a large three-story residence in Kentfield in Marin County, which they planned to convert into two comfortable flats.

In the spring of 1952 Maria and Vic began planning a trip back to the old country. A few days before their scheduled departure they drove in Vic’s shiny grey Oldsmobile South across the Golden Gate Bridge to pick up their passports. Maria noticed that Vic was not looking well and later that day on the return trip home he pulled the car over to the curb, was stricken by a massive heart attack, and within several hours had died in a San Francisco hospital, Following a Catholic funeral he was interred at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in San Rafael.

Alone now, Maria began to look forward to family gatherings and it was not uncommon for 15-20 to gather for a birthday, holiday or Sunday dinner at the Kentfield home. Maria prepared for these occasions as carefully as she had ever done while in business. Now she set her tables with crisp linen, china, and carefully polished silver and crystal. For days prior to a celebration she moved with determination through shopping and cooking tasks until she had produced a feast of memorable proportions.

A year passed and in May of 1953 Maria declared that “If I don’t go now, I’ll never do it.” Passport in hand, she departed on a jet from San Francisco International Airport on her very first airplane ride, bound for Rome. She remained in Italy for five months traveling with her niece Laura, the daughter of her elder sister Gianina. She spent a month on the Italian Riviera, and traveled to the major cities of Europe, declaring her satisfaction with the comment that she had finally seen all the places she’d missed as a child. With characteristic generosity she showered her relatives with gifts and hosted large parties. When she returned home with shopping bags full of gifts and began reminiscing about the journey, she recalled with astonishment that her family in Italy had scarcely allowed her to lift a finger. As always, her modesty seemed to prevent her from placing undue significance on her own importance.

These days Maria spends her leisure tending a small garden in summer, entertaining friends and relatives, and involving herself in the activities of children, grandchildren and great- grandchildren. At 87, Maria still moves briskly about her kitchen tinkering with new recipes and gadgets and preparing old favorites. She visits Humboldt County frequently but resides permanently with Vicki and Al in a large comfortable home in rural setting in Novato.

When she looks back at the old days in Trinidad and Arcata, her busy hands pause a moment and she laughs at her own joke: “I suppose I have made enough raviolis in my lifetime to pave the highway all the way from Humboldt County to New York — well — maybe to Italy, if that’s possible!”

Epilogue

The Big Four Inn remained in the hands of Guido Evangelisti and his family. Over the years their three daughters, Dolores, Gianina, and Joanne, helped in the restaurant. Guide died in 1963 and Mary continued to operate the business with the help of Dolores and her husband Phil Citti until highway expansion in the 1970s forced closure. In 1972 the building was razed to make way for a new six-lane freeway, thus ending the history of a once-familiar landmark in Humboldt County’s social life.

In Loving Memory of Rose Marie Retzloff
July 3, 1954 – March 26, 2025

Rose Marie Retzloff passed away in Reno, Nevada on March 26, 2025, at the age of 70. Complications arose after a successful open-heart surgery, leading to the end of her vibrant life. Rose was born on July 3, 1954, in Eureka, and made front page news as the first baby born in the new wing of the General Hospital. She grew up in Eureka, attending Marshall and Franklin Elementary Schools, Winship Junior High, and Eureka High School, graduating in 1972. She went on to put herself through College of the Redwoods, earning her degree in 1974.

From a young age, Rose learned the values of hard work, organization and money management while working at her mother’s store, Handee Market. These values remained central to her life. She was preceded in death by her mother Nellie Baker Peterson, father Nels Sterling Peterson (The Land Man), mother-in-law Mitzi L. Retzloff, father-in-law Jack L. Retzloff, her beloved first son Justin Retzloff, dear friend Dorthy Davidson, and many other cherished relatives and friends. Rose leaves behind her devoted husband of 48 years, Michael Retzloff, loving children Chelsea Retzloff and Sean Retzloff, daughter-in-law Mandy Retzloff, and two beloved grandchildren, Estelle Retzloff and Isla Maria Rose Retzloff. She also leaves behind countless loving relatives and lifelong friends.

Rose was a true people person — always ready to lend a hand, plan a celebration, or take off on a travel adventure with friends. She rarely argued, always aimed for harmony, and helped others relentlessly. She had a special gift for making others feel loved and cared for. Rose was always there to volunteer her time when she saw the need arise. Helping people is one thing she did relentlessly.

Her greatest joy and focus were her family — especially her children and grandchildren. She poured her heart into their lives, ensuring they were supported, celebrated, and encouraged to pursue their own passions. When her children were growing up Rose attended to their every need, made sure they did well in school, and let them pursue interests and hobbies they wanted rather than choosing for them. Every birthday party, Christmas and holiday was a festive, well-planned affair implemented by Rose. We have hundreds of photographs that we revisit to remember those great times. We are so thankful for Rose’s decorating and organizing skills that made each of those events so thrilling and fun. Rose’s gift-giving skills were unmatched. If she found out someone wanted or needed something, she would take it upon herself to provide that gift with great thought and care.

As her children became active in sports, Rose participated willingly and grew to love those sports. The family became a unit as they attended many sporting events like martial arts, volleyball, baseball, football, basketball, and dance recitals. In addition to never missing her children’s sporting and dance events, Rose became an avid fan of the San Francisco Giants, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Golden State Warriors.

Throughout her life, Rose was an avid outdoorswoman. She was a great water skier, snow skier, camper, hiker, fisher, swimmer, rafter, catamaran sailor, paddle boarder, boater, and even kite-sailed on a trip to the Virgin Islands. She and Mike often hiked up and down remote Sierra Nevada mountains in search of mountain streams to fly fish when they were young. Rose sometimes caught bigger and more fish than Mike! She liked to gamble within reason. She was a good blackjack player and experienced craps player but she played slot machines more as she got older.

Rose was an extraordinary cook and presented all dishes like she was a chef in a restaurant, taking great care to make servings look as delicious as they were. She was also an excellent seamstress, gardener, artist, interior decorator, and collector of dishware. She was a natural businesswoman. Her bookkeeping skills were second to none and her money management skills were impeccable. She was an excellent property manager and had a knack for finding good tenants, whom she treated well, and kept all rental properties in top shape. She was an excellent investor in securities. Rose had a green thumb and was a gardener for life. Her backyards are filled with succulents, trees, flowers, ferns, and flowering plants. For many years she and the family harvested fruits and vegetables from large gardens at the family summer homes in Willow Creek and Redway. She learned how to safely can excess harvest for feeding the family beyond the peak season.

She loved to travel, especially to remote islands in the Caribbean Sea, the Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans. Rose often said those islands provided a special solace to her and she could really relax and enjoy life when she was at any of them. She loved the arts and proudly followed Chelsea’s dance performances with Shen Wei Dance Arts to New York City around the world. Rose was an avid supporter of theater and musicals, attending productions like Wicked, Waitress: The Musical, Phantom of the Opera, and Mamma Mia! multiple times.

Rose was very proud of her son Sean who is a top salesman for commercial retail properties in northern Nevada, Lake Tahoe, California and other states. Sean worked for the Carrington Company for 5 years and as a paid intern for Security National Servicing Corporation in Eureka. Her grandchildren were her pride and joy and she tried to spend as much time with them as possible. She was always buying outfits and educational toys and books for them on every holiday occasion. Playing with them, feeding them, babysitting them was always a part of her plans. Her priority was to have as much fun with them as possible.

Rose will be greatly missed. A Celebration of Life will be held on May 4, 2025, at 2 p.m. at the Eureka Elks Lodge at 445 Herrick Ave, Eureka, CA 95503. Please try to RSVP to: Retzloffstreams@gmail.com if you plan to attend the celebration of life.

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

In Loving Memory of Phillip Melford Mattz
January 29, 1936 – April 7, 2025

Phillip Mattz was born in Hoopa to Manuel and Pauline Mattz. He was a Hoopa Tribal Member and a Descendant of the Tolowa Nation and raised on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation. He graduated from High School in 1954, and went on to attend Humboldt State University for three years. Phill met the love of his life, Betty Ann, during the 1964 flood when she came to Hoopa as a nurse to help with the disaster. In March of 1966 they married in Reno, NV. Together they had two sons, Tony and Victor.

For 55 years Phill worked as a logging truck driver, until his retirement. His truck was regularly seen parked on the corner of Loop Road during the many family BBQ’s. He always had a few nieces and nephews climbing around in the truck pretending to drive.

Phill was passionate about his faith, proud to be a born again christian. He was active in the Hoopa Baptist Church, often driving the church van around the valley picking up numerous kids for Sunday school. He also enjoyed meeting up after church to share lunch with his family at the Valley Inn or Laura’s Kitchen.

The majority of his life was spent tending cattle at the family ranch on Bald Hill. For many years he drove cattle up the summit with his father Manuel to let the cattle range for the summer. Spending many nights camping at Bear Hole and Andy’s Camp, the camp his grandfather Anderson Mesket established.

He experienced no greater joy than watching his only grandson play football. Sports were a big part of Phil’s life continually attending his niece and nephews sporting events throughout the years. He played football at HSU along with a small group of other young Hoopa men. Phil was known to drive fast muscle cars in his day. The kind you could hear coming before you saw them. He was particularly proud of his Red Corvette convertible.

Salmon was one of his favorite foods. He’d eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. His wife would say “please don’t bring any more fish,” he would reply, “Betty Ann, you don’t have to eat it.”

Phill was a man of generosity, always there to share a meal, a good laugh, scripture or a prayer. He rarely made a request, but when he did, it was for a fresh apple pie, his favorite.

He is survived by his son Victor, grandson Manuel, daughter-in-law Earlene Mattz, his sisters Margaret “Maggie” Dickson and Marian Mattz, niece Leslie Jackson, niece Mary Nelson (Greg), niece Linda Blake (Warren Sr.), niece Pamela Mattz, niece Shelly Carpenter, nephew JW Mooney (Leslie), nephew James Mooney (Faith), niece Lisa Thoreson (Ron), nephew Mike Davis (Karen), special cousin Lavina Bowers, great nieces and nephews: Lila, Amee, Kim, Sarah, O’s, Sam, Margaret Mary, Harwood, Leslie, Jordonna, Warren Jr., Hannah, Jordan, Devin, Rachel, Clayton and many numerous Mattz and Hostler nieces, nephews and cousins.

He was preceded in Death by his wife Betty Ann, son Tony; brother Manuel “Skeezix” Mattz Jr., sister Lisette Davis, his parents Manuel and Pauline Mesket Mattz; his maternal grandparents Anderson Mesket and Marian Marie Hostler Charley; his paternal grandparents Manuel and Agnes Tom Mattz; brother-in-law Arthur Dickson; and nephew Joseph Moon; special cousins: Hilton “Tokes” Hostler Sr., Robert “Bob” Hostler and Raymond & Marvin Mattz.

Pallbearers:

Victor Mattz, Manuel Mattz, Harold O’s Campbell, Sam Campbell, Harwood Starritt, Leslie Starritt, Jed Morris, Sam Jones and Stevie Hostler.

Honorary Pallbearers:

Andrew Dunlap, Eric Matilton Jr., Elias Carpenter-Hess, Ralphy Peters, Lucas Garcia, Lucas Joseph Garcia, JW Mooney, Jordan Mooney, Devin Mooney, Warren Anawalt Sr., Warren Anawalt Jr., James Mooney, Harry O Campbell, Mike Hostler, Donny Mattz, Kenny Mattz, Victor Dobrec, Willie Hostler, Jasper Hostler, Aiden Mendes, Greg Nelson, George Moon, Junior Moon, Junkie Gray, Walter “Bud” Gray, Arthur Jones, Pecos Carpenter, Jason Pacheco, Jesse James, Willy Hoglan, Clarence Hostler, Michael Robertson, and Carl “Sweeny” Colegrove.

We apologize if anyone’s name was not mentioned, he enjoyed the company of many friends and family throughout his life and loved you all.

Graveside services were held in Hoopa, at the Hostler Family Cemetery at Hostler Field, on Friday, April 11, 2025 at 1 p.m. Reception followed at the Hoopa Trading Post.

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