Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is seeking information regarding the whereabouts of Corey James MOORE. An outstanding Felony warrant for the arrest of MOORE has been issued in the charge of:

PC 311.11(a): Possess/etc obscene matter of minor in sexual act.

MOORE is believed to be transient in the Arcata area. If you see Corey James MOORE, do not approach him, but call 911 immediately.

Suspect Description: White male adult, approximately 6 feet 3 inches tall, 200 pounds, with short brown hair, hazel eyes, and a beard.

Attached photo was taken from his California ID Card in 2021.

If you see Corey James MOORE, please call 911. Reference case number: 20230521

Eureka Police Department release: 

Pursuant to California Government Code 7923.625, video and /or audio recordings depicting the discharge of a firearm at a person by a peace officer or custodial officer shall be made public within 45 days of the event by the agency provided the release would not significantly interfere with a criminal or administrative investigation.

The Eureka Police Department has released the body worn camera recording depicting the discharge of a firearm during the November 26, 2023 officer involved shooting. The video can be seen below: 

The department is also releasing the radio transmissions between the officers on scene and our Communications Center that encompass the time from the traffic stop to the officer involved shooting. The audio can be found below:

While both officers involved in the incident were wearing their body worn cameras, the second officer’s camera had a failure. This camera was sent back to the manufacturer to be examined. The examination of the camera by the manufacturer revealed, “The camera experienced an internal processing error preventing the camera from capturing video from the particular time. The error displayed is 100/ ‘Init Failure’.” The camera has been replaced by the manufacturer.

The Humboldt County Multi-Agency Critical Incident Team (CIRT) is continuing to investigate. This is an active investigation and additional information will be released in accordance to the law.

PREVIOUSLY:

• BREAKING: Eureka Police Department Investigating Officer-Involved Shooting Near the Library
• Eureka Police Issue Statement on Today’s Officer-Involved Shooting Near the Library
• Eureka Police Department Identifies Man Shot and Killed by Officers in Old Town on Sunday, Releases Details on Altercation That Preceded Deadly Response
• Eureka Police Department Release the Names of Officers Involved in Old Town Shooting Death

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PREVIOUSLY

• Ground Has Been Broken on Klamath River Restoration, the World’s Largest-Ever Dam-Removal Project
• (PHOTOS) Removal of Copco No. 2 Dam Complete, Restoring Klamath River Flows to Ward’s Canyon for the First Time in 98 Years

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Press release from the Klamath River Renewal Corporation:

Hornbrook, CA – Yesterday, the Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC), initiated the drawdown process by opening the low-level outlet tunnel in the Iron Gate Dam. Drawdown refers to the slow draining of the water in the reservoirs, which will be lowered in a controlled manner through tunnels located at the base of the dams. Drawdown of the JC Boyle and Copco Reservoirs will begin later this month, and all reservoirs are expected to be drained by the end of February. 

“Witnessing the beginning of drawdown at Iron Gate dam was both celebration of an important moment in the story of Klamath dam removal, and a source of pride for the exceptional work done by so many people to arrive at this day.” Said Mark Bransom, CEO of KRRC. 

Communities downstream of the dams will start to see changes in the river in the coming days, as sediment that has accumulated behind the dams is evacuated downstream. There is an estimated 17-20 million cubic yards of sediment behind Iron Gate, JC Boyle, and Copco No. 1, the three remaining Klamath dams slated for removal. During the drawdown process 5-7 million cubic yards is expected to go downstream during the initial phase of drawdown in January and February. Extensive testing done by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and KRRC consultants has determined the sediment to be non-toxic, mostly consisting of dead algae, gravels, and fine clay particulates.  

“Iron Gate’s drawdown strategy is different than what people may have seen in the past with other dam removals,” noted Bransom. “There was no blast at this dam, instead we had the opportunity to use existing infrastructure, which allows us to precisely control the volume of water going down river, limiting downstream impacts.” 

The initial drawdown period was carefully selected KRRC’s Aquatic Resources Working Group, which is comprised of Tribes, and state and federal agencies. January and February are the ideal months for this process, as there are the fewest threated and endangered species in the mainstem, and winter flows will assist with sediment evacuation.  

While the initial phase of drawdown is expected to be completed sometime in February, because the reservoirs will be drained so slowly, they may refill a bit with spring run-off, and then need to drain again. Water quality is expected to improve in March, after the initial phase of drawdown is complete, but it will likely take up to 24 months for water to return to usual clarity, following the successful establishment of vegetation in the former reservoir footprint areas. Work on the deconstruction of the dams is expected to commence sometime in May or June of 2024 depending on the weather, and be complete by Fall, 2024.  

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The Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC) is a private, independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization formed in 2016 by 23 signatories of the amended Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement, or KHSA. KRRC is part of a cooperative effort to re-establish the natural vitality of the Klamath River so that it can support all communities in the Klamath Basin. Signatories, which include the States of California and Oregon, local governments, Tribal nations, dam owner PacifiCorp, irrigators, and several conservation and fishing groups, appointed KRRC to take ownership and oversee removal of four hydroelectric dams on the river. 

The U.S. Supreme Court will weigh in on whether cities can legally ban or limit unhoused people camping in public spaces — a case that could grant California officials more power to sweep homeless camps.

The case, originating from the Oregon city of Grants Pass, could overturn or narrow a five-year-old precedent from a federal appeals court that limited how much cities in Western states could criminalize those who sleep on the streets when there aren’t enough shelter spaces available.

In the older case — Martin v. Boise — the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2018 that it’s cruel and unusual punishment to criminalize camping on public property when the people in question have nowhere else they can legally sleep. The ruling was binding on West Coast cities, where rising rates of unsheltered homelessness that later spiked during the pandemic were driving local politicians to pass public camping prohibitions. In 2019 the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of that case.

Since then, California cities have often been subject to federal lawsuits after passing restrictions on when and where the unhoused can set up camps. Relying on the ruling in the Boise case, judges have delayed or outright halted camping bans from being enforced in cities including San Francisco, Sacramento, Chico and San Rafael, finding that the cities had failed to provide adequate alternate shelter options for the residents they were about to sweep from their encampments.

The situation has led city officials — and Gov. Gavin Newsom — have complained that the Boise ruling has tied their hands from addressing the state’s sprawling encampments, arguing they need to sweep camps both for health and safety reasons and for the well-being of encampment residents. It’s led liberal officials into the unusual position of asking a majority-conservative court for more power to penalize the homeless for sleeping outside. In a high-profile case that has particularly drawn Newsom’s ire, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this month backed a judge’s 2022 ruling restricting San Francisco’s enforcement of certain bans on sleeping on sidewalks and in parks, because the city hadn’t shown there were other locations that were “realistically available” to unhoused residents before a city sweep.

“California’s elected officials who seek in good faith to improve what often appears to be an intractable crisis have found themselves without options, forced to abandon efforts to make the spaces occupied by unhoused people safer for those within and near them,” Newsom’s administration wrote to the Supreme Court in September.

The case is being closely watched by officials across California and could widely affect how they respond to encampments. Newsom’s statement was part of an amicus curiae brief the administration filed in the case. Amicus briefs are legal briefs submitted by parties not directly involved in a given case, but who typically take one side or the other in a case. The majority of the amicus briefs filed in the case were from California entities and, though more than a dozen mostly-Republican-led state governments also filed a brief, Newsom was the only governor to weigh in.

In addition to Newsom’s, other filings include the California State Association of Counties, the California State Sheriffs’ Association, district attorneys for Sacramento and San Diego counties, the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Bay Area Council, and even the Brentwood Community Council.

But advocates for the unhoused say the Boise ruling is clear. They point out that most cities have hardly enough shelter beds to accommodate their homeless populations and that shelters are often near-full on any given night, and say banning public camping or restricting it does more harm than good by pushing homeless people from location to location.

“All you need to do to be compliant with (the Boise case) is stop using our criminal system as the stick here to solve this problem,” said Will Knight, decriminalization director at the National Homelessness Law Center, last year.

In particular, the court rulings have led to a patchwork of interpretations across the state on what qualifies as the “adequate shelter” cities must provide before sweeping homeless camps. The Oregon case that the Supreme Court agreed to hear could provide some clarity — or so California officials hope.

While the Boise ruling said the government can’t broadly ban any public camping without giving people alternative places to stay, Newsom and city officials across California said in briefs filed before the Supreme Court that they want to know whether they can set restrictions on times or locations where camping is allowed.

“All you need to do to be compliant with (the Boise case) is stop using our criminal system as the stick here to solve this problem.”
— Will Knight, Decriminalization director, National Homelessness Law Center

Other questions include whether cities can criminalize public camping for those whom they call “voluntarily” homeless — people who refuse offers of shelter. And California cities have asked the court to rule on whether, in order to ban camping, they need to have a suitable shelter space available for every individual unhoused person no matter their circumstances, or simply have general shelter beds open the day they sweep a camp.

But U.C. Berkeley law professor Jeffrey Selbin, who has studied statewide responses to homelessness, said claims from both sides are overblown.

Selbin said the existing cases neither fully tie cities’ hands, as some politicians say, nor provide a broad right to sleep outside, as some advocates say. He defended the status quo in which cities sometimes must seek guidance from federal judges to know whether their local rules are constitutional under the Boise decision.

In Chico, for example, a federal district judge in 2021 ruled that sending unhoused residents to camp on an unshaded airport tarmac on the outskirts of town was not “adequate” enough shelter to justify banning encampments in town. In response, the city settled the case by setting up a site of tiny homes where it can offer encampment residents a room before proceeding to sweep their camp.

That case, Selbin said, provided direction to other cities, showing that the court cases have “required local jurisdictions to take seriously what it means to provide basic shelter and options.”

The Supreme Court is unlikely to provide that kind of “micromanaging,” Selbin said, predicting instead that the justices will simply overturn the 2018 precedent set by the Boise case and allow cities to broadly criminalize encampments.

“It’s just going to return California to the whack-a-mole of prioritizing punishment over services,” he said.

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

PREVIOUSLY: Harbor District Board to Consider Adopting ‘Green Terminal Strategy’ for Offshore Wind Infrastructure Development

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Joint press release from the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), Humboldt Waterkeeper and the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities:

EUREKA, Calif. — On January 11th, 2024 the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District committed to developing a green terminal strategy for the new offshorevwind terminal. This is a significant win for the climate and Humboldt Bay.

Traditional port operations rely heavily on diesel fuel, a known contributor to the climate crisis which pollutes the air and ruins the quality of life in port communities. A green terminal would use electricity instead of diesel wherever possible by purchasing state of the art electric equipment, constructing on-site solar panels, and providing shore power for vessels that would otherwise need to run their engines while docked.

Local environmental advocacy organizations have advocated for a green terminal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants associated with offshore wind turbine assembly in Humboldt Bay. This would protect workers, local communities, and the planet. 

“Green terminal development not only means fewer greenhouse gas emissions while building our renewable energy future. It also means quieter port operations for neighbors and a healthier work environment for terminal employees,” said Matthew Simmons, an attorney with the Environmental Protection Information Center.

“Electrifying the offshore wind terminal is critical to protecting our air and water quality,” said Jennifer Kalt, Executive Director of Humboldt Waterkeeper. “Since the pulp mills closed, we have some of the cleanest air in the country, and we’re thrilled that the Harbor District agrees we need to keep it that way.”

At the meeting, the Harbor District passed a resolution committing to a “green terminal” and directed staff to develop a green terminal strategy and roadmap no later than March 2025. This will include appointing an advisory committee from members of the public to help guide the development of the strategy and roadmap. The environmental community applauds the Commissioners for embracing the green energy future and encourages the public to participate in this opportunity.

Redding Police Chief Brian Barner has long thought it was odd that community service officers are allowed to interview witnesses to crimes, but state law prohibits them from testifying about what they were told.

Instead, gun-carrying officers with arrest powers, he said, have to get pulled off their beats to reinterview each witness and then go to court to recount what the witnesses said.

“It just takes that officer off the street and from doing proactive enforcement and responding to emergency calls,” Barner said in an interview with CalMatters.

So last year Barner and his colleagues around the state turned to Barner’s state senator, Republican Brian Dahle, who challenged Gov. Gavin Newsom in the 2021 recall election, running on a platform that included slamming Newsom on crime.

Barner asked Dahle to ease the burden on the state’s shrinking police forces by allowing community service officers — uniformed police department civilian employees who don’t have arrest powers — to testify at preliminary hearings.

On Tuesday, the Senate’s Public Safety Committee grudgingly passed Dahle’s second attempt at a bill, over opposition from the ACLU, police-reform advocates and criminal defense attorneys. The opponents expressed fears that it would lead to shoddy testimony used to keep innocent people behind bars.

“We’ve gotten it wrong way too many times,” said Ignacio Hernandez, a lobbyist for California Attorneys for Criminal Justice. “This bill moves us in the wrong direction.”

Bill would change ballot initiative

Dahle’s bill, SB 804, would amend Proposition 115, the “Crime Victims Justice Reform Act, passed by voters in 1990. The proposition included a provision that allows for changes with a two-thirds vote of both the Senate and the Assembly, according to a legislative analysis.

Among other things, the proposition allowed sworn police officers to testify about witness statements in preliminary hearings. Previously, witnesses were required to appear in court for preliminary hearings because police testimony about their statements was considered non-admissible “hearsay.”

“Prelims,” as they’re often called, are mini trials in felony cases at which authorities present evidence to a judge who decides whether to move ahead with a full trial. Witnesses or victims are still required to testify in a trial.

Supporters of the proposition wanted to speed up the pre-trial process and prevent victims and witnesses from having to show up multiple times to court. Now, proponents of the legislation, including the California Police Chiefs Association, hope they can relieve police officers of the court appearance as well.

In 1990, when the initiative was passed, it wasn’t as much of an issue for an officer to get pulled off the beat to testify at a preliminary hearing, given that staffing levels of the state’s police departments and sheriff’s offices were higher.

But since 1990, the state’s population has grown by nearly 10 million people, yet the numbers of California’s sworn patrol officers have dropped to below where they were in 1991, according to a recent report from the Public Policy Institute of California.

Sworn officer staffing shortages are particularly prevalent in rural areas such as those in Dahle’s sprawling senate district in northeastern California. There, police chiefs and sheriffs say they struggle to compete with big cities that offer higher salaries to new officers. Regularly, entire communities don’t have an officer on the clock for parts of the day.

At the same time, in the wake of high-profile cases of unjustified police violence against people of color, including the 2020 murder of George Floyd, social justice advocates have been urging California lawmakers and local governments to scale back the numbers of armed police patrolling communities of color. Instead, some communities are deploying unarmed social or mental-health workers trained to defuse confrontations in situations where armed officers used to be the sole respondents.

Two abstain in committee vote

Dahle testified Tuesday that his bill would help ease the burden on understaffed police departments and ensure that community service officers taking witness statements are held to the same standards police officers are. His legislation mandates that non-sworn officers who testify at prelims are required to undergo the same hearsay testimony training as a sworn officer or have at least five years of experience in their role. To address concerns about shoddy testimony, he said he amended the bill to place community service officers who are caught lying on the same “Brady List” that’s used to prevent sworn officers who lie or who have integrity issues from testifying in court.

“This change helps hold the witnesses accountable and ensures that only the best, most reliable testimony is admissible in court,” Dahle said.

The bill passed the five-member Senate Public Safety Committee without a single “no” vote, despite more than 20 defense attorneys and social-justice and police-reform activists – influential groups among the Democratic supermajority – speaking out against it.

Oakland Democrat Sen. Nancy Skinner and the committee’s chair, Sen. Aisha Wahab of Fremont, abstained from actually voting, however.

After opposing the bill last year, they said that they were beginning to see the benefits of having community service officers take witness statements, instead of armed police officers.

“I can see a role for these individuals,” Skinner said. “And the thing that gives me a little more comfort is the requirement of these people having been in such a role for at least five years or having had the equivalent training. This is still tricky, but I don’t have the same opposition.”

Dahle’s bill now moves to the Senate floor and then, if it passes, to the Assembly.

Any Republican-authored bill faces a troubled future in the Democrat-controlled Legislature.

In the last full legislative session, only 23% of Republican-authored bills were signed into law, according to a CalMatters analysis. Democrat-authored bills, by contrast, had a 43% success rate.

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

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Get ready, all you reggae fans! Humboldt’s long-running music festival Reggae on the River is returning from its dormancy to once again bring three days of camping, dancing and other festival things to SoHum for the first time since 2018. 

On Wednesday, the Mateel Community Center announced this year’s return of the festival, which will take place, as is tradition, on the first weekend in August. 

“It’s back! @reggaeontheriver 2024 Will be held on August 2, 3, & 4!!,” the Mateel posted to its Facebook page. “There have been some obstacles along the way but we, the volunteers, staff, and Board of Directors of the Mateel Community Center, in conjunction with Hot Milk Entertainment, are so excited to announce that Reggae on the River will be returning again this year.  So please come join us in celebrating this gift of music and togetherness!”

From the Mateel’s Facebook page

Reached by the Outpost on Thursday afternoon, Elena Worley, office manager for the Mateel Community Center, said this is the first time the Mateel is working with Hot Milk Entertainment, a production company based out of Mendocino County. 

“We’re keeping it local this year,” Worley said, adding that she is very excited to work with a smaller, local partner, rather than some of the bigger, non-local companies the Mateel has tried to work with in the past. 

Folks might remember the huge conflicts between the Mateel and previous event partner People’s Productions in the early 2000s – often referred to as “the Reggae Wars” – that eventually led to People’s Productions taking over the event under the name “Reggae Rising.”  

The most recent partnership was penned in 2018 between the Mateel and High Times Magazine’s production company, which had agreed to assume all responsibility for the festival’s artist lineup, marketing and monetization efforts. But High Times canceled the event in 2019, due to “the extraordinary expenses of trying to put on an event in such a remote location.” The company said it would focus on bringing back the festival in 2020, but we all know what happened that year, and Reggae has not happened since. 

Now, after the county approved a five-year permit extension for the festival earlier this year, the 2024 event will take place on Dimmick Ranch (also known as County Line Ranch) near Garberville. 

As far as details of the festival, Worley couldn’t provide much (she suggested we reach out to the Mateel’s media manager, who didn’t get back to us before publication). As far as we can tell, no entertainers have been announced yet, but the poster promises multiple stages at the event. Tickets go on sale on Jan. 17, with “rude boy special pricing” starting at $249. 

There is also an opportunity to win two free VIP tickets on the festival’s website and it looks like all you have to do to enter is send in your own “dream lineup for Reggae on the River.” Fun!