PREVIOUSLY

• Trinidad Without Water After Big Main Break on Scenic Drive Empties the City’s Tanks

###

An emergency water shortage in Trinidad is coming to an end as municipal storage tanks slowly but surely refill and lab test results came back clean, city staff announced Wednesday evening. 

Residents had been been advised to conserve water and boil any they consume after a large water main leak was discovered on Scenic Drive Saturday morning. The leak quickly and thoroughly drained the city’s 400,000-gallon storage tank, causing low pressure and outages, especially at higher elevations.

The boil-water notice was lifted after the State Water Resources Control Board determined the city’s supply is once again safe to drink.

Residents are still being asked to conserve water, report leaks and sign up for emergency alerts to stay informed.

“Water production at the Treatment Plant continues to increased due to favorable and improving weather conditions over the past 36 hours, and an incredible response from the Trinidad Public Works Department,” the city announced on its website. “After 3 days of recovery and supplemental water trucked in by a convoy of delivery vehicles, storage tanks are nearing 40% capacity (8 feet of water in two tanks that peak at 18’ when full capacity is reached), gaining nearly 1 foot each day.”

The Trinidad Chamber of Commerce was duly chuffed and issued the following press release about restaurants reopening:

Trinidad’s restaurants are welcoming residents and visitors back as local dining establishments reopen following the official cancellation of the citywide Boil Water Notice that was issued on January 3, 2026.

At 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 7, 2026, the City of Trinidad was notified by Microbac Laboratories in Arcata that a second round of water quality testing returned clean results. Five water samples taken from various locations throughout the city’s water distribution system showed no bacterial contamination. Based on these findings, the Boil Water Notice was officially cancelled effective 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 7, 2026.

With the notice lifted, affected restaurants are back open and ready to serve the public, including Trinidad Bay Eatery & Gallery, Moonstone Crossing Winery, Beachcomber Cafe, Headies Pizza & Pour, Lighthouse Grill, and Seascape Restaurant & Pier. The reopening marks a return to normal operations for businesses that are central to Trinidad’s local economy.

The Boil Water Notice was issued as a required public safety measure following a significant loss of water pressure caused by a water main leak on Scenic Drive in the early morning hours of January 3. The incident resulted in the depletion of the City’s water storage tanks and required emergency repairs, system flushing, and water quality testing in accordance with State Water Resources Control Board regulations.

City of Trinidad water staff worked continuously to repair the leak, restore service, flush the distribution system, and coordinate emergency and follow-up testing with the Humboldt County Health Department. The clean results from the second round of testing confirm that the water meets state drinking water standards.

While mandatory water conservation remains in effect as the City continues to rebuild water storage levels, restaurants have been cleared to reopen and operate.

The public is encouraged to visit Trinidad, enjoy local dining options, and support the restaurants that are central to the city’s North Coast experience. For more information, visit: https://www.trinidad.ca.gov/water/page/emergency-water-shortage-alert-01-05-2026

Press release from the Environmental Protection Information Center

Educational Forum/People’s Hearing to Support Protecting the North Coast from Proposed Offshore Oil Drilling Happening in Eureka on January 18

WHAT: Community members will unite to display their support for protecting the North Coast from new offshore oil and gas development. The U.S. Department of Interior is proposing new offshore oil and gas leasing off California, including North Coast waters, in the next federal offshore drilling plan. The threats to our community and region from offshore oil and gas development, including potential oil spills, are not worth the risk. Community members are advocating for the protection of our coastline, coastal economy and a clean energy future. 

WHO: Rep. Jared Huffman, Asm. Damon Connolly, and Asm. Chris Rogers, together with local elected officials and with experts from Humboldt Waterkeeper, Surfrider Foundation, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC). 

WHEN: January 18, 2026 at 10am

WHERE: Wharfinger Building (1 Marina Way, Eureka, CA 95501)

REGISTER: Click here.

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

The SAR team. Photo: HCSO.

On Jan. 3, 2026, at approximately 2:30 a.m., the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Communications Center received notification from the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) regarding a Garmin SOS Activation from a 19-year-old male hiker last known to be in the Bald Hills area near the Redwood Creek Trail in Orick. 

HCSO patrol deputies, the Sheriff’s Office Special Services Unit, California State Parks and the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue (SAR) team, including a search K-9 responded to the scene and conducted a coordinated ground search with the assistance of a drone. The hiker was located at 9:28 a.m. and exhibited signs consistent with Hypothermia.

Emergency medical responded to the scene and transported the hiker to a local hospital, where he was treated. 

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office extends its sincere gratitude to its volunteer SAR team.   Their quick response, coordination, professionalism and dedication were instrumental in the successful outcome of this rescue.

HCSO also wants to thank our partner agencies for their response and support in this rescue operation, including California State Parks, Orick Volunteer Fire Department, Cal Fire, Cal OES and the Arcata Mad River Ambulance. 

When a Garmin SOS is activated, the device transmits an emergency alert and GPS location via satellite to the Garmin International Emergency Response Coordination Center (IERCC), which coordinates with local and state emergency agencies to initiate a response. The hiker’s possession and activation of this device was a critical component in aiding in his rescue. 

If you are interested in joining the Sheriff’s Volunteer Search and Rescue Team, please visit HumboldtSAR.org

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Jan. 7, 2026, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Problem Oriented Policing (POP) Team served a search warrant at a residence located in the Larsen Heights area of Blue Lake.  The warrant was the result of ongoing calls for service and multiple complaints regarding suspected drug related activity at the location.

During the service of the search warrant, deputies located approximately one ounce of Methamphetamine, 11 grams of Fentanyl, drug paraphernalia, and items consistent with the sale and distribution of controlled substances.

As a result of this investigation, 43-year-old, Katherine Rominger of Blue Lake and 22-year-old, Kylie Cook of Fortuna were arrested and transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility.

Rominger was booked on the following charges:

• HS 11366.5(a)-Knowingly owning property for drug manufacture, storage or distribution

• HS 11378-Possession of a controlled substance for sale

Cook was booked on the following charges:

• PC 978.5-Bench Warrant/Failure to appear on felony charge

• HS 11365(a)-Visit where controlled substances used

• PC 1203.2(a)-Violation of probation

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office remains committed to addressing narcotic-related crimes and improving public safety through the proactive enforcement and community partnerships.

Anyone with information related to this investigation or other drug related activity or problems areas related to criminal activity are encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Tip line at (707) 268-2539.

###

Info via Caltrans District 1:

A one-day lane closure on Fernbridge is scheduled for next week on Tuesday, January 13, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This work is being done after one of the bridge’s crack sensors showed movement during recent flooding. While the bridge has been inspected and currently remains safe for travel, Caltrans survey crews will be on site to verify the sensor readings and reset control points so a full bridge scan can be done in the future if needed.

To limit impacts to travelers, the work will be completed in one longer day instead of multiple shorter closures. Work is scheduled from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., and drivers should plan for 5- to 10-minute delays.

As a reminder, if a Caltrans facility remains open, it is safe for travel. Please plan ahead and use caution through the work area.

###

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

###

In his final year in office, Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to go after large investors buying and owning California housing — in the same week that President Donald Trump also took rhetorical aim at Big Landlord.

It’s an unlikely meeting of the minds of two political foes who, in a race to head off the electorate’s concerns about affordability, have landed upon the same populist message: Blame Wall Street.

Newsom plans to say during his State of the State address to lawmakers on Thursday that he wants to work with them to regulate the practice of investors buying up large stocks of housing to rent out, forcing California residents to compete with them to afford buying a home, according to the governor’s office.

Proposals could include “enhanced state oversight and enforcement and potential changes to the state tax code,” according to the governor’s office.

“When housing is treated primarily as a corporate investment strategy, Californians feel the impact,” a source in the office said. “Prices go up, rents rise, and fewer people have a chance to buy a home.”

That sounds similar to a proposal Trump made on his social media platform Truth Social on Wednesday. The two previously closely aligned on policy related to clearing of homeless encampments.

“I am immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes,” the president wrote, sending stock prices of major publicly traded residential investment firms plummeting. He urged Congress to put the proposal into law and promised to unveil additional housing policy proposals at the World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland later this month.

Newsom is stopping short of calling for an outright ban on institutional investors’ ownership, though the source said he will seek to “curb” it with the goal of making home ownership more affordable for California residents.

He hasn’t yet proposed anything concrete. Whatever Newsom seeks to do, he’ll need the approval of the state Legislature.

Trump, for his part, did not offer any details about his proposal, such as how institutional investors would be defined under the proposed law or why he targeted single-family homes in particular. The White House’s press office did not respond to an email with those questions.

The twin announcements come after years of long-shot efforts by California progressives to address a surge in companies buying up single-family housing stock in the wake of the Great Recession. The issue has been the subject of renewed anxiety in post-fire Los Angeles, where a recent report by RedFin showed investors (loosely defined as any buyer with a name that includes “LLC,” “Inc” or “Corp”) have purchased 27 of 61 burned vacant lots that sold in Altadena — more than 40%.

Asked about that report in an interview on MS Now this week, Newsom said he had signed an executive order last year seeking to protect homeowners who find it too expensive to rebuild from falling for “predatory” lowball offers for their properties. But he acknowledged “the broader market conditions are challenging.”

The proposals mark new territory for Newsom’s housing affordability platform. The governor, now in his final year in office, has spent most of the past seven years focused on boosting construction. It’s a pivot toward populism for the governor, who is widely expected to run for president in 2028.

Blaming deep-pocketed investors for the nation’s housing woes has become an increasingly ideological-spanning exercise in recent years, with politicians as diverse as New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vice President J.D. Vance championing the cause.

Shortly after Trump’s post, Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio, an enthusiastic supporter of the president, promised to introduce legislation in his own post on X.

Is this actually a problem in California?

Many housing industry professionals, economists and policy researchers are skeptical.

“It’s really hard to buy a house right now so people are looking for someone to blame for that, but I think (institutional investors) are more of a symptom of the affordability crisis than they are a perpetuator of it,” said Caitlin Gorback, a University of Texas at Austin economist who has studied investors’ effect on local real estate markets.

Research on the topic is mixed, though most analyses have found that by taking owner-occupied homes and converting them into rentals, these companies tend to increase the supply of rentals. That puts downward pressure on rents, while taking away purchasable homes, leading to higher prices.

Fewer than 3% of all single-family homes in the state are owned by companies that own at least 10 properties.

That also takes away opportunities for would-be homeowners to buy a coveted single-family home. But even that comes with an under-appreciated upside, said Gorback: They provide more priced-out renters the opportunity to live in single-family homes — typically in wealthier, whiter and higher-resourced neighborhoods — something historically reserved for those who can afford to buy.

While apartment buildings are commonly owned and managed by large financial companies, single-family rentals weren’t seen as Wall Street-worthy money-making opportunities until the aftermath of the Great Recession. Since then, companies like Invitation Homes, Blackstone, Progress Residential and AMH Homes have typically focused on markets with relatively low prices and rapidly growing populations.

That doesn’t describe California. As a result, larger investors — however defined — make up a relatively small share of single-family landlords in the state. Fewer than 3% of all single-family homes in the state are owned by companies that own at least 10 properties, according to an analysis by the California Research Bureau, which conducts research for state lawmakers. A mere 20,066 are owned by firms with portfolios of 1,000 units or more. The largest of those owners is Invitation Homes, which owns over 11,000 homes in the state and reached a settlement with Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office last year over allegations it price-gouged tenants and illegally raised rents on more than 1,900 properties.

There are more than 16 million rental units across the state, according to Census data.

Though attacking big monied investors for the high cost of housing is a “huge distraction,” it has obvious political appeal, said Stan Oklobdzija, a UC Riverside public policy professor. “Attacking institutional investors is the latest iteration of appearing to do something without actually doing anything. …It’s just kind of archetypical cheap talk.”

For nearly a decade, Democrats in the state Legislature have proposed bills to track or ban the practice. Former Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018 vetoed a bill to create a registry of institutional investors that own 100 or more single-family homes, noting that “collecting the data would not stop the purchase of these homes by private investors.”

In 2024, lawmakers proposed banning investors that own at least 1,000 single-family homes from buying more houses and renting them out, prohibiting institutional investors from buying single-family homes for any reason and banning developers from selling entire new single-family subdivisions to investors to rent. All three bills died in committees.

Assemblymember Alex Lee, author of the first proposal, revived the bill last year. It passed the Assembly and awaits a hearing in a Senate committee.

Lee, a Democratic Socialist who has long critiqued the role of big money in the state’s real estate market, said he was “flabbergasted” to find himself on the same page with Trump, whom he described as a “far-right fascist.” Though he expressed doubts that the Trump administration would follow through with the promises the president made in his social media post, he said that “Democrats need to wake up to this populist, but righteous, position.”

“We can’t let the far-right capture the housing positions that the people care about,” Lee said.

Newsom evidently agrees.

###

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

###

The California Privacy Protection Agency kicked off 2026 by launching a tool that state residents can use to make data brokers delete and stop selling their personal information.

The system, known as the Delete Request and Opt-out Platform, or DROP, has been in the works for years, mandated by a 2023 law known as the Delete Act. Under it and previous laws, data brokers must register with the state and enable consumers to tell brokers to stop tracking them and selling their information.

Until now, those instructions had to be delivered to each data broker individually — not an easy feat, given that more than 500 brokers were registered in the state as of the end of last year. Making things even more difficult, some brokers obscured their opt-out forms from search results, as The Markup and CalMatters revealed in August.

The new system delivers privacy instructions to every registered broker at once. Launched on January 1, it is open to all California residents. By law, the hundreds of data brokers registered with the state must begin processing those requests in August.

Here’s how to take advantage of it.

Finding your advertising IDs

DROP asks you to provide some basic information — your name, email address, phone number, and zip code — so data brokers can find you in their systems. You can submit the form with just this information, but if you’d like a more thorough deletion, you can also provide your mobile advertising IDs from your phones, smart TVs, and vehicles. Including these IDs can help brokers match more of your data, but you have to take the time to collect them.

Click here to jump ahead if you want to provide basic information only, or continue reading for instructions on providing mobile advertising IDs for:

• Android phones and tablets
• Apple iPhones and iPads
• Vehicle ID numbers and smart TVs
• Personal computers

Android phones and tablets

The steps below may vary slightly depending on your device and operating system version, but the general process is the same:

• Open Settings.
• At the top of the Settings screen, select the menu option with your name, followed by “Google services and preferences.”
• Select the All services tab.
• Scroll to the Privacy & Security section, and select Ads. Scroll to the bottom of that screen to get your advertising ID, which will look like a string of random numbers and letters separated by four hyphens. Save that ID for the DROP form.

Finding the mobile advertising ID on Android. Miles Hilton / CalMatters

• On the same screen, you can find options to reset or delete your advertising ID. The CCPA suggests resetting your ID “because it breaks the persistent tracking link that advertisers, data brokers, and apps use to build long-term behavioral profiles of your device.” Alternatively, deleting the ID should prevent ID-based data tracking from happening at all.

Apple iPhones and iPads

Apple doesn’t provide a way for iOS users to see their mobile advertising ID, which it calls the Identifier for Advertisers, or IDFA. But it does provide a way for users to prevent trackers from accessing these IDs.

To turn off tracking, first, adjust your Screen Time settings:

• Open Settings.
• Scroll down and select Screen Time.
• Scroll down and select Content & Privacy Restrictions.
• Scroll down and select Allow Apps to Request to Track.
• Select Don’t Allow Changes.

Then, adjust your Tracking settings:

• Open Settings.
• Scroll down and select Privacy & Security.
• Select Tracking.
• Toggle OFF the option to Allow Apps to Request to Track.

Apple has its own ads system that doesn’t use an IDFA. To disable that:

• Open Settings.
• Scroll down and select Privacy & Security.
• Scroll down and select Apple Advertising.
• Toggle OFF the Personalized Ads option.

A quick note for our technically savvy readers: If you’ve already turned tracking off, you might be tempted to turn it back on to look up your advertising ID using a third-party app, but it’s unnecessary. Re-enabling tracking will reset the ID, limiting its usefulness to data brokers — they can’t continue tracking data or delivering personalized ads using a device ID that no longer exists.

Vehicle ID numbers and smart TVs

Vehicles can track their owners in surprisingly invasive ways, and you can provide a vehicle’s identification number, or VIN, in case data brokers have that information. Where your VIN is will depend on the vehicle, but common places include on the dash on the driver’s side, or on a sticker in the jamb of the front passenger door. Your vehicle registration documents should also have your VIN listed.

Smart TVs also use advertising IDs. Here’s a guide that provides some settings for common brands. If the guide doesn’t cover your smart TV, try checking under its privacy or advertising settings. But be aware that this is different from numbers like the model code and serial number.

Personal computers

Laptop and desktop computers use unique identifiers to share data, but these are harder to find than mobile advertising IDs. Instead, you can turn off tracking, which will delete those IDs. (Turning tracking on again will generally reset the IDs.)

• On computers running Windows, you can turn off your advertising ID by going to Settings. Depending on your OS version, select Privacy or Privacy & security. Then select General, and adjust your settings there.
• On Mac computers, navigate to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising. Then, toggle off Personalized Ads.

The California Privacy Protection Agency also provides some of its own guidance on finding advertising IDs.

Verify your identity

Go to the DROP website. You’ll be asked to accept the terms of use and be directed to a page that asks you to prove you’re a California resident. There are two ways to do so, and you can’t change methods once you’ve selected one of them.

1. The system allows you to verify your identity using personal information through a system called the California Identity Gateway. If you select this option, you’ll be asked to provide some basic personal information, like a phone number, email address, California address, or your social security number. The gateway will use this information to attempt to verify your residency directly with the state. This option should be quick if you have an email address and phone number.
2. Alternatively, you can verify your identity to DROP using login.gov, a system that some federal and state agencies in the United States have adopted to allow residents to interact with government services. To sign up for a login.gov account, you’ll be asked to provide an email address, create a password, and provide photos of government-issued identification. After signing up and verifying your identity, you should be able to move on to the next step. This option might take a little more effort than the first option, since ID is required, but might be faster if you’ve already signed up for an account for other purposes.

Fill out and submit the DROP form

After verifying your identity, you’ll get to a form where you can submit multiple versions of your name, up to three zip codes, up to three email addresses, up to three phone numbers, advertising IDs from your mobile devices and smart TVs, and VINs for your vehicles. You’ll be asked to verify your email addresses and phone numbers with single-use codes before submitting. (The agency notes there may be delays with some verification codes due to high volume.)

A form on California’s DROP website. CalMatters

Once you submit the form, you’ll get a unique DROP ID to check the status of your request.

What happens now?

Sit back and wait. While the window for making DROP requests has opened, data brokers registered with the state aren’t required to handle them just yet. On August 1, brokers will begin processing the requests.

Starting then, companies have 45 days to process requests and 90 days to report back on how they handled requests. If they fail to do so, the companies can face financial penalties.

In the meantime, you can monitor the status of your request with your DROP ID. At some point later in the year, when you log in the system should tell you whether your data was successfully deleted, whether records on you weren’t found, or whether companies believed the data was exempt from deletion under the law, which provides some limited ways for brokers to hold on to data.

If you find more information while you’re waiting for your request to be processed, like a new mobile advertising ID, you can update your request with that information, increasing the odds you’ll successfully get your data deleted.