A wet, daring and dumb escape attempt was easily thwarted by local law enforcement this morning when an Humboldt County Correctional Facility inmate left his work crew and attempted to swim to freedom in the frigid waters of Humboldt Bay. 

The inmate, Christian Murphy, entered the bay near the Sacco Amphitheater, according to Redheaded Blackbelt, before swimming toward Woodley Island. After successfully making his way across the channel, Murphy was met by representatives from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, the Eureka Police Department and the U.S. Coast Guard and was taken into custody without incident.

More in the following press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On March 18 around 9:30 a.m., a Humboldt County Correctional Facility Inmate, Christian Murphy, 28, of Eureka, walked away from his inmate work crew while on a work detail in Eureka. Murphy was classified as a minimum security worker serving a county sentence. After a brief pursuit, Murphy was taken into custody by officers of the Eureka Police Department (EPD), transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility, and booked for escaping a county jail (PC4532(b)(1)).  

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank EPD for their assistance with this case. 

Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.

After just-shy of five years on the job, Fortuna’s nunchuck-trained police chief is moving on to fight crime on more-affluent streets. 

Earlier today, the Fortuna Police Department announced that Chief Casey Day has landed the gig as police chief of Pacific Grove, a nice, quiet little beach community in Monterey County.

“Congratulations, Chief Day,” FPD posted on Facebook. “The City of Pacific Grove and the Pacific Grove Police Department are lucky to have you. Thank you for all that you have done for us. You will be missed.”

Day is scheduled to begin his new chiefly role on March 31 with a swearing in ceremony at Pacific Grove City Hall set for April 2. The Fortuna Police Department has yet to make any announcement about their future plans. 

A very brief local news report on Day’s new job.

‘Chuck on, Chief

This week’s weather continues to take its toll on local roadways. This from Caltrans: 

Route 254/Avenue of the Giants is FULLY CLOSED from Holmes Flat Road to Barkdull Road (PM 41 to 43.4) in Humboldt County due to a slide.

The estimated time of reopening is 5 p.m. Travelers can use U.S. 101 as a detour.

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The hole in California’s Medi-Cal budget seems to be bigger than what state officials reported just last week.

California health care officials told the Legislature on Monday that the state will need another $2.8 billion to be able to pay Medi-Cal providers through the end of the fiscal year.

That’s on top of a $3.4 billion loan that the administration told lawmakers last week it needed to make “critical” payments for Medi-Cal, the state-federal health insurance program for low-income people.

Combined, that’s $6.2 billion in spending above what was projected in the budget Gov. Gavin Newsom signed last summer. Almost 15 million Californians have health care coverage through Medi-Cal, also known as Medicaid.

“With the loan and these additional funds, the administration anticipates being able to manage expenditures for the remainder of the current year,” said Michelle Bass, director of the Department of Health Care Services, which oversees Medi-Cal.

Bass told legislators in a budget hearing that several factors are contributing to the higher-than-anticipated spending, including an increase in pharmacy costs, but also more growth in enrollment than the state projected. For one, the state underestimated the number of immigrants without legal status who would sign up to the program in the last year.

Bass said the department had about one month of data regarding new policies before it had to make projections for the budget Newsom signed.

“These changes were unprecedented, and all happened at once,” Bass said.

The developments include:

• More immigrants without legal status enrolled in the program than expected. Over the last 10 years, California has expanded Medi-Cal coverage to undocumented people in different age groups. The final group, adults ages 26 to 49, were allowed to apply for Medi-Cal starting Jan. 1, 2024. In January, Bass’ department estimated California would spending $2.7 billion beyond what it budgeted due to the cost of covering care and prescriptions for newly enrolled immigrants. According to updated estimates from the administration, it costs the state about $8.5 billion from the general fund to cover immigrants who are in the country without legal authorization.
• Also starting on Jan. 1, 2024, more seniors were able to sign up for Medi-Cal after the state stopped counting certain assets, such as cars, homes and savings when considering someone’s eligibility. Now, like everyone else, seniors’ eligibility is based on their income.

• The program has seen higher overall enrollment due to pandemic-related flexibilities. California’s overall Medi-Cal population ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic when the federal government temporarily suspended income eligibility checks to keep people insured during the national emergency. The number of people who dropped off the program after the pandemic was smaller than the department assumed.

Bass said other states are also going over budget, noting health care spending in general is increasing across the U.S.

Going over budget has vexed some state Republicans who say the governor and Democrats over-promised when they decided to expand Medi-Cal services to all low-income immigrants. Democrats have come out in defense of the expansion and the state’s efforts to keep people covered during the pandemic.

“The things that you’re talking about means that we have been successful,” Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo, a Santa Clarita Democrat, told Bass during Monday’s hearing. “We have been successful about keeping people covered, about making sure that they have access to health care.”

Schiavo added that California’s current shortfall is solvable, but less so are the potential cuts to Medicaid that Congress is currently weighing.

House Republicans recently voted to advance a proposal that could result in cuts of $880 billion to a group of programs, largely Medicaid, over the next 10 years. According to some estimates, that could translate into annual losses of $10 billion to $20 billion a year for California, an amount that state officials have said the state would not be able to backfill.

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

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After flipping three seats in the state Legislature last fall and increasing President Donald Trump’s vote share in nearly every county, California Republicans are seeking to capitalize on the momentum this year as they try to win back congressional seats and claw their way out of superminority status in the state capital.

Jubilant off their November gains, their next to-dos are clear but not undaunting:

• Seize the moment.
• Don’t blow it.

And they have precious little time to do it, especially in the U.S. House where Republicans enjoy only a slim majority, as they were reminded at the state party’s spring convention in Sacramento this weekend. The last time Trump was in office, the party suffered steep losses in California, including half its congressional seats in the 2018 midterm. The next midterm elections are in 2026.

“California is going to make the difference” in whether Republicans in Congress have the numbers to enact Trump’s agenda, Texas Rep. Tony Gonzalez told party members on Saturday.

Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher of Yuba City said Republicans could target as many as eight Assembly districts in the Central Valley and Southern California to flip next year. Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, of San Diego, proclaimed they’ll break the Democrats’ supermajority in his chamber next year.

The Republicans need to pick up seven seats in the Assembly and four in the Senate to avoid the superminority status, which gives them little say in budget and other decisions.

The road to get there? Expect a lot of the same ground game the party has played over the past six years: Showing up in communities where Republicans have traditionally neglected to grow its ranks of Latino voters; messaging that blames Democrats for crime and the state’s cost-of-living crisis; and campaigning on ballot initiatives, where voters in the deep-blue state have at times been willing to side with Republicans.

Attendees cheer during the nominating session at the CAGOP Spring 2025 Organizing Convention in downtown Sacramento on March 15, 2025. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters

In particular, the party backed Proposition 36, which raised criminal penalties for some drug and theft charges, and pushed back on Democratic lawmakers’ efforts to keep it off the ballot. Voters ultimately approved the measure overwhelmingly, while also rejecting progressive measures to raise the minimum wage, expand rent control and prohibit forced prison labor.

“Voters are clearly with the California Republican Party on the ideas,” outgoing party chair Jessica Millan Patterson said.

She said voters were shifting because they desire improvements in school performance, homelessness, housing affordability and crime.

Republican registration in California ticked back up slightly to 25% of registered voters in 2024, but is still far behind the 46% who support the Democratic Party. About 22% are registered as independents.

Newly elected party chair Corrin Rankin said Sunday that the GOP will be “going on the offense” and expanding efforts to convert voters in Democratic strongholds like Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.

A central challenge for the party remains the man in the White House. Only one in three Californians approves of the president’s job performance.

Avoid overt associations with Trump

As the national GOP increasingly remakes itself into the party of Trump, California Republicans have made their steady recent gains in large part by avoiding overt associations with him, said longtime GOP consultant Mike Madrid.

He warned that associating the California party with Trump will be even more detrimental during a period of economic uncertainty, with the president’s threat of sweeping tariffs causing stock market slides and consumer confidence to dip. (At the convention, the economic sentiment among party activists, officials and GOP lawmakers was overwhelmingly that of a shrug, and a “wait-and-see.”)

On the other hand, Patterson acknowledged the party will also need to keep Trump loyalists engaged if it wants to win any statewide seats in the future. About two million California Trump voters from 2020 stayed home during the unsuccessful Republican-backed recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom the next year, she noted.

“We need to make sure we are motivating those Trump voters and I don’t know that anyone has found that secret sauce yet,” she said.

At the convention, newly elected GOP lawmakers who have not said if they voted for the president mingled with hardliner activists pushing resolutions for the party to declare Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement “the Greatest Movement.” The measure failed on Sunday.

But Rankin brushed aside suggestions of intra-party division. She sought to distinguish the California GOP from national politics, pitching it more as a referendum on the Democratic supermajority.

“We welcome all voices,” she said. “We’re focused on California and Californians … People are desperately looking for options.”

A new California Republican chair ascends

Rankin is the party’s first Black chairperson. She was backed by much of the party establishment and many of those new faces, including several of the younger and more diverse new GOP lawmakers elected in recent years.

CAGOP chair nominee Corrin Rankin speaks during the nominating session at the CAGOP Spring 2025 Organizing Convention in downtown Sacramento on March 15, 2025. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters

She ran as a pragmatist against former state Sen. Mike Morrell, who was backed by hardline conservative party activists. Rankin boasts her own longtime conservative credentials, backing Trump since 2015, and Morrell acknowledged having little difference from her ideologically. But hardliners, frustrated with how long it’ll take to flip a blue state, have accused the party establishment of not spending enough on long-shot contenders.

Though party activists were excited about the possibility of having a competitive statewide contender in 2026, few have announced runs.

Steve Hilton, an ex-Fox News host currently on a book tour, is considering a run for governor but hasn’t made an announcement. Chad Bianco, the conservative Riverside County sheriff, on Friday urged hardliner activists to seize a “window of opportunity” to consolidate support behind his gubernatorial run after voters approved tough-on-crime policies in November.

“It’s great that we have choices in everything else, but we have to make the choice based on what’s best for the California party,” he said. “Let the nine Democrats that are out there running right now, let them all destroy themselves, and we can sit back.”

Still, some officials acknowledged it’s a long shot.

“I think we’re going to be able to make greater strides,” Gallagher said. “We know there’s still a bit of an upward climb when it comes to statewide, but we haven’t given up on it.”

Dwane E Bronson, age 87 of Carlotta, died on February 28, 2025 at home with his beloved wife and his dogs. Dwane was born on June 1, 1937 in Longview, Wash., and was the son of Jarvis and Doris Bronson.

Dwane was raised in Castle Rock, Washington and moved to Fort Bragg when he was 15, not knowing that the seven-year-old who was best friend with his sister would 14 years later become his wife. He graduated from Fort Bragg High School and went on to attend Humboldt State University, graduating with a BA and Teaching Credential. Right after graduating Dwane was invited to enroll in the Army and he served from 1962 to 1964. When returning from duty he was able to get a teaching job at Toddy Thomas for the 7th and 8th grades, then moving on to Cuddeback for a total of 18 years in teaching.

Dwane and Velma were married on Nov. 23, 1966. They had three children: Casey (deceased 1992), Kevin, and Kelli (Mike Esser). They have two grandchildren: Jacob Bronson (Casey) and Braendan Esser. Dwane is also survived by his brother Gary and sisters Rita Bell and Alice Bronson.

Dwane and Velma have lived in Carlotta for 54 years. They had a family they raised and made a family of Hydesville Community Church. If you entered the church in the last 15 years you would have shaken Dwane’s hand on the way in as he gave you a bulletin. He was dedicated to being there to welcoming people into this church and the community of family. His presence at the door will be missed by so many people.

Celebration of Life will be held on March 29 at 11 a.m. at Hydesville Community Church, 3296 Hwy 36, Hydesville,

In lieu of flowers the family asks that you donate to Hydesville Community Church P.O. Box 609, Hydesville, CA, 95547.

Lori Lynn Crook passed away peacefully on March 8, 2025, surrounded by the staff and her surrogate family at Caring Companions Care Home in Eureka.

Lori was born May 20, 1962, to Harvy and Charlsie (Vaughn) Crook. Lori was born with Cerebral Palsy and was not expected to live in to her teen years. Through the love and care of her mother Charlsie (Vaughn) Emmons and stepfather Dennis Emmons, grandparents Cletus and Mildred Vaughn, aunts and uncles, and the staff at Caring Companions Care Home (previously Hall Avenue Care Home) since 2010, Lori defied the odds and lived well beyond expectations.

Lori attended Glen Paul School in her early years, gaining many friends and enjoying the love and laughter of her classmates. She later went on to regularly attend Mad River Hospital Adult Day Healthcare Program. She had many friends and staff members who worked with her and made her laugh and maintained an unbelievable quality of life. Lori always had stories to tell about somebody at Adult Day.

Lori’s passion was being in the presence of family and friends and listening to music. Her favorite genre was country music, and she could tell you just after a few notes, who the performer was. Seeing Lori laugh could lift everyone’s spirits. Lori’s heart was pure and full of love.

Lori was preceded in death by her mother and stepfather Charlsie and Dennis Emmons, father, Harvy Crook, grandparents from the Vaughn Family and grandparents from the Crook Family.

She is survived by her brother Chris Emmons (Tara), niece Morrgin Fedinick-Emmons who Lori talked about constantly, her only Great Nephew KJ McCarty, nephew Colsen Emmons, and her Aunt Barbara (Vaughn) Adams who had a special bond with her. Her cousin Travis Wagoner always kept in touch with Lori no matter how much distance separated them. Lori would always mention Travis and Barbara in conversations because of the love they showed her. Lori is also survived by many more cousins from Coast to Coast who frequently would ask about her.

A viewing will be held Tuesday, March 25, 2025, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. with services following at 12 p.m. at Sanders Funeral Home, 1835 E Street, Eureka.

The family welcomes everyone to share their favorite stories about Lori. Lori loved life and loved people. Share what brings joy!!!

In lieu of flowers, please feel free to donate to your favorite cause in Lori’s honor.

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