In any Humboldt County election, the main event is the League of Women Voters “candidate forum.” (Debates have been banished from all elections.)

Tonight, on KEET-TV and broadcast live on the Internet, the candidates for Fifth District Supervisor — Evan Schwartz and Mary Burke — take the stage.

If you’re interested at all in local government — and you should be, given the whole 250-year experiment in government of, by and for the people that we’ve been running over here — then you should tune in!

Press release from the League of Women Voters:

Tune in on Tuesday, May 19, 2026 at 7 p.m. for the Humboldt County Fifth District Supervisor candidate forum, hosted by the League of Women Voters of Humboldt County in partnership with KEET-TV. Candidates Evan Schwartz and Mary Burke will answer questions submitted by community members over the course of an hour.

The forum will be broadcast live on KEET-TV with a live stream available on their website (https://video.keet.org/), and archived for later viewing on Access Humboldt.

The public is welcome to submit questions, either via email to leaguehumboldt@gmail.com (until 6:45 p.m.) or via phone to 707-445-0811 (starting at 6:45 p.m.).

The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. 

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

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California’s community colleges have been battling fraudulent students for years, trying to prevent scammers from stealing financial aid money.

Recent data shows the colleges’ efforts finally may be working.

Last spring, CalMatters reported that colleges were seeing unprecedented reports of fraud, with scammers stealing millions more dollars of student aid than in any previous period, according to reports submitted by colleges to California’s Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

Now fewer scammers are bypassing colleges’ vetting systems, according to monthly reports, and school administrators say they’re better, though still not perfect, at detecting and preventing fraud.

After CalMatters reported on the rise in fraud last year, Republican U.S. Congress members called for a federal investigation, a Democratic state legislator launched a state audit and later, California’s Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office approved a new ID verification policy for students. Colleges now are more vigilant about policing fraud, said Jory Hadsell, an executive in technology initiatives for the chancellor’s office, who pointed to better filtering practices and new software to detect fraud.

Between January and March 2025, scammers stole nearly $5.6 million in federal student aid and over $900,000 in state aid. By comparison, this spring colleges have reported losing just under $1.5 million in federal student aid and about $330,000 in state aid to fraudsters.

Last spring was “really the peak,” Hadsell said. He said he anticipates the end-of-year total in 2026 to be “significantly lower” than last year.

Even in the worst months, such as last spring, the money distributed to scammers is less than 1% of the total financial aid distributed to community college students in California. Students use the money to help pay for tuition, books and the cost of daily living expenses, such as rent, transportation and food.

But any fraud, however small, is unacceptable, said Chris Ferguson, executive vice chancellor of finance and strategic initiatives. “The ultimate goal for our system is zero.”

Some anti-fraud policies have been slow to take effect. The California Community Colleges Board of Governors voted nearly a year ago to require ID verification for all students, but only about 50% of college students are doing it as of this month. Hadsell said the delays arose in part because of complications verifying information of students under 18 years old, who represent a growing demographic for the community colleges. He said ID verification, which is currently optional, will become mandatory on July 1.

The board also voted to “explore” the option of charging students an application fee of no more than $10, but with the rates of fraud declining and other solutions that seem to work, the chancellor’s office is no longer pursuing that option, Ferguson said.

After blaming California officials, the U.S. Department of Education, which shares responsibility for administering federal aid and detecting fraud, said it would implement a “screening process” for applicants. It was supposed to take effect last fall but didn’t launch until last month, according to press releases from the department and statements from the California Student Aid Commission. CalMatters reached out to the U.S. Education Department five times over the last 12 months, seeking clarification, but the department has refused to respond to questions about delays with the screening process.

When more than a third of college applicants are fake

After classes suddenly moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office saw an increase in financial aid fraud on their application portal, CCCApply, which is used by nearly every student as the first step in applying to community college.

In 2021, the chancellor’s office suspected roughly 20% of applicants were fraudulent.

The estimate was higher in January 2024, around 25%. Last spring, it was 34%, though some schools saw much higher rates.

After they apply through CCCApply, students get filtered locally at their college of choice. In the Los Rios Community College District, which represents Sacramento, college officials suspected 64% of local applications from January to March 2025 were fraudulent. And that was after the state already vetted them through its portal, said Gabe Ross, a spokesperson for the district. The San Diego and Los Angeles community college districts also reported spikes in the number of fraudulent applications around the same time.

CalMatters reached out to the five largest community college districts for an interview. The Rancho Santiago Community College District, which includes parts of Orange County, did not provide sufficient data to draw conclusions about trends in fraud. The State Center Community College District, which represents schools in Fresno and Madera counties, did not respond to CalMatters’ questions.

Monthly data reports to the chancellor’s office show that once detected, most scammers who applied to community colleges were then caught and kicked out before they could apply for financial aid, but some succeeded.

This year, both Sacramento and San Diego community colleges say they’re seeing fewer attempts at fraud and are getting better at stopping those who try. The San Diego Community College District is now manually screening for fraudulent applications twice a week and is finalizing a contract with a company to help improve its detection software.

CCCApply has improved its filtering process, which helped reduce fraud attempts at Sacramento area colleges, said Ross. “When we talked about such a complex dynamic challenge, it’s always hard to identify what’s the one thing that sort of moved the needle. The truth is that we needed support from the feds, we needed support from the (chancellor’s) office, and we needed to invest in tools locally.”

This spring, he said the district flagged about 12% of college applications as suspect.

Using AI to detect AI

Measuring fraud is, by definition, imprecise. If a scammer is truly successful, colleges have no way to identify that fraud.

For a long time, administrators assumed bots enrolling in online classes were responsible for most fraudulent attempts. Yet teachers, students and financial aid administrators say some of the scams are more sophisticated now and are coming from real people impersonating students. Many fraudulent applications to Los Angeles’ community colleges have real names, dates of birth, and addresses that are likely “leaked or stolen,” said Nicole Albo-Lopez, the deputy chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District.

In San Diego, Victor DeVore, dean of student services, said the college district only requires ID verification for students flagged as fraudulent. At that point they must prove their identity, either in person or through Zoom. Once, a potentially fraudulent student appeared on Zoom and presented a valid-looking ID that matched their face, but DeVore’s team noticed that the student’s IP address was odd. “One minute they’re logging in from Nairobi, the next minute they’ll be logging in from Virginia,” he said, adding that the use of AI, virtual private networks (VPNs) or other technology has made fraud harder to detect.

Students’ personal data is supposed to be private, but school districts and education technology companies are frequently hacked. Last week, Canvas — one of the go-to learning platforms for California’s community colleges, University of California and California State University campuses — went offline temporarily due to a major hack. Its parent company, Instructure, said last week that it reached an agreement with the hackers to relinquish students’ data.

The state has turned to AI to fight fraud. Last summer, the state chancellor’s office negotiated a multimillion dollar contract with N2N Services Inc., enabling any college in the state to access the company’s software at a discounted rate. The software uses AI to detect potentially fraudulent applicants. Colleges are not required to use it, and so far, only about two-thirds do. Some districts, such as the Los Angeles Community College District, use a different fraud detection software, known as Socure.

Colleges and the state chancellor’s office continue to face political pressure and scrutiny of their approach to fraud. Last month, the U.S. Education Department said it had prevented more than $171 million in fraud in California after implementing a new policy regarding ID verification. Hadsell, with the state chancellor’s office, said the federal policy had no impact on California’s colleges. “They issued some interim guidance last year that basically said you should at least have a Zoom call with students and have them show an ID when you’re approving their aid. And those were things that were already happening. It was not, you know, some new thing at least for most of our colleges.”

Kiran Kodithala, the CEO of N2N, which collects its own data on fraud at community colleges, said the education department’s claim makes no sense.

“I don’t see how $171 million in fraud in California can occur,” he said. “There’s no basis for those numbers. We’re not seeing anything remotely close.” Kodithala estimates that N2N has prevented over $34 million in fraud since last summer, though his platform is not yet in use by all of California’s 116 community colleges.

Collecting more precise data may take months or years. U.S. Representative Young Kim, who represents parts of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, launched the effort for a federal investigation last spring, but her office could not provide any updates or confirm that an investigation was in fact underway. At the state level, the Legislature last year approved conducting an audit of how California’s community colleges handled fraud but the findings won’t be released until this summer.

Last Thursday, Jake Combs was convicted of murder by a jury after about a day of deliberations, according to court records.

The 34-year-old man was found guilty of first degree murder of Trevor John Earley by the 12-person jury, in the second time the case has been tried in the Humboldt County Superior Court.

Combs was last convicted in 2023 for the murder of Earley whom he shot in the head following a dispute in which Combs’ dog bit Earley in the face. 

In 2023, Combs was sentenced to 50-years-to-life, and he was serving time in Calipatria State Prison when this conviction was overturned. 

An appeals court found issue with certain evidence the judge allowed to be heard during the trial, so the case was tried again. 

During a 14-day trial this month, prosecutor Deputy District Attorney Whitney Timm aimed to show the murder was premeditated.

Meanwhile, co-defense attorneys Deputy Public Defenders Ryan McClurg and Emery Welton pressed for manslaughter. According to reporting from the Eureka Times-Standard, Combs again took the stand during this case and said he feared for his dog’s life after the dog bit Earley in the face.

Court records indicate the jury sought to review a key witness’s testimony and Combs’ testimony Thursday. Still, deliberations only lasted about a day.

Combs, who was also convicted of a weapon enhancement, is set to be sentenced July 31.

The District Attorney’s Office offered a plea deal before the jury was selected, but Comb’s attorney’s did not move to accept the deal before it timed out, according to court records. He additionally faces a drug possession charge.

Woman charged with murder for 19-month-old’s death

Last week, the Eureka Police Department announced a multi-year investigation into 32-year-old Nichole Ann Thorpe, who allegedly concealed the death of her child for an extended period of time, fraudulently collected welfare for the dead 19-month-old for two years, and now faces murder charges.

Investigators found human remains in a remote area near Blue Lake on December 4, 2023, and DNA testing later confirmed the remains belonged to the missing child, according to EPD. An arrest warrant for the toddler’s mother was issued over two years later, on April 9, 2026, “Following an extensive investigation.”

According to court records, law enforcement believe the toddler was 19 months old when she died in March 2022. The child is identified as CarmenEve Faith Robinson.

Family members told police they had not seen the child for a long time and believed she could be dead, according to EPD.

Thorpe was charged April 7 in Humboldt County with murder, felony child abuse (with an enhancement for the child’s age), and two years of welfare fraud tied to the child totaling $18,636.30.

According to jail records, Thorpe has been incarcerated since April 29 at Jay County, Indiana’s jail. She is listed as a resident of Albany, Ind.

EPD worked with the U.S. Marshall’s Office and Indiana police agencies to locate and arrest Thorpe, who awaits extradition to Humboldt County. EPD asks those with information on the case to contact Detective Sergeant Cory Crnich at (707) 441- 4300.

School threats suspect Daryl Ray Jones files mental health petition

School threats suspect Daryl Ray Jones, who faces 32 felony charges for a series of heinous phone calls that targeted schools, day cares and businesses across Humboldt County, again filed a mental health petition in court last week.

His attorney, Meagan O’Connell from the Conflict Counsel’s office, previously declared a doubt to his mental competence, but last July the court found he was mentally competent based on a physician’s report and restarted proceedings, according to court records.

Jones was held to answer to the numerous charges levied against him in March. His next hearing, during which court records indicate the petition will be discussed, is scheduled for May 28.

Press release from the Eureka Police Department:

On May 18, 2026, at approximately 8:30 a.m., Detectives with the Eureka Police Department (EPD), along with Officers from the Community Safety Engagement Team (CSET), served a search warrant at an apartment in the 200 block of P Street. The search warrant was related to an ongoing sexual assault investigation being conducted by EPD.

During the service of the search warrant, Officers contacted 48-year-old Edward Neagu of Eureka. Evidence related to criminal activity was located and collected from the residence, and Neagu was taken into custody on the following charges:

• PC 286(b)(2) – Sodomy of a person under age 16
• PC 286(c)(2) – Sodomy by means of force, violence, duress
• PC 287(b)(2) – Oral copulation with a person under 16
• PC 288(c)(1) – Lewd acts with a child
• PC 288.2 – Distribution of Child pornography
• PC 288.3 – Contacting a minor for the purpose to commit lewd acts
• PC 288.4 – Meeting with a minor for the purpose of committing lewd acts
• PC 289(a)(1)(C) – Sexual penetration of a minor
• PC 236 – False Imprisonment
• PC 222 – Providing an intoxicating agent for the purpose of committing a felony

This remains an active and ongoing investigation. Anyone with information related to this incident is encouraged to contact Detective Bailey at (707) 441-4300.

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Attorneys for both St. Joseph Health Northern California, LLC, and California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office continue to pursue an out-of-court settlement to the 2024 lawsuit in which the State of California accuses St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka of refusing to provide emergency abortion care to people experiencing obstetric emergencies.

Lawyers for both parties appeared briefly via Zoom this morning in Courtroom Four of the Humboldt County Courthouse. Deputy Attorney General Martine D’Agostino asked Judge Timothy Canning to schedule another status conference in 30 days, saying the two sides are “still discussing settlement.”

Harvey Rochman, who’s part of the defense team representing St. Joseph Health (SJH), indicated that an amicable resolution might not be attainable. He said, “We are hoping to get to a place where we know whether settlement is possible in the next 30 days.”

The state’s lawsuit, which has garnered nationwide media attention, alleges that SJH violated California’s Emergency Services Law, the Unruh Civil Rights Act and the Unfair Competition Law through a religion-based policy that prohibits doctors from providing life-saving or stabilizing emergency treatment when doing so would terminate a pregnancy, even if that pregnancy is not viable. 

California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office has been seeking a preliminary injunction that would compel SJH to comply with California’s Emergency Services Law (ESL) by providing legally mandated emergency medical care. 

The lawsuit focuses in part on the case of Eureka chiropractor Anna Nusslock, who, in 2024, was allegedly denied a medically necessary abortion at St. Joseph Hospital despite an immediate threat to her life and health and the fact her pregnancy was no longer viable.

Defense attorneys have argued that Nusslock didn’t actually experience medical emergencies while in the hospital’s care. They also argue that the injunction being sought by the state would force the hospital to perform elective abortions, which are forbidden by the Catholic religion. (St. Joseph Northern California is owned by the Catholic nonprofit Providence-St. Joseph).

See the links below for more background on the case. The next status conference is scheduled for June 22 at 8:30 a.m. in Courtroom Four.

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PREVIOUSLY

• Attorney General Sues St. Joseph Hospital for Denying a Woman Emergency Abortion Care
• Providence Offers ‘Profound Apologies’ to Woman Denied Emergency Abortion Care at St. Joseph Hospital
• A Local Doctor Urged St. Joseph Hospital to Change Its Anti-Abortion Policies Long Before State Lawsuit, According to Court Declaration
• BREAKING: St. Joseph Hospital Denies Allegations in State Abortion Care Lawsuit But Agrees to Follow State Health Care Laws as the Case Proceeds
• Judge Signs Order Committing St. Joseph Hospital to Providing Emergency Abortions, At Least For the Duration of AG Lawsuit
• Citing Religious Freedom and Catholic Doctrine, St. Joseph Health Challenges State’s Emergency Abortion Care Lawsuit on a Variety of Legal Grounds
• State Responds to St. Joseph Health’s Attempt to Get Emergency Abortion Lawsuit Dismissed
• ‘Providence Must Follow the Law’: At the Humboldt Reproductive Health Care Rally Before the Latest California vs. St. Joseph Hospital Hearing
• St. Joe’s Abortion Care Lawsuit: In a Packed Courtroom, Hospital’s Attorneys Ask Judge to Dismiss the Case
• Judge Denies St. Joseph Health’s Motion to Dismiss State Lawsuit Over Emergency Abortion Care
• Attorney General Says Providence is Trying to ‘Shirk Its Duty’ to Follow the Law In Emergency Abortion Care Suit
• Providence’s Effort to Back Out of Emergency Abortion Care Agreement Would Put Humboldt Women ‘Back in Harms’ Way,’ AG’s Office Argues in Latest Court Filing
• Judge Holds Providence St. Joseph to Prior Agreement as Emergency Abortion Care Lawsuit Proceeds
• Attorney General’s Office Files New Motion for Preliminary Injunction in St. Joseph Emergency Abortion Care Case
• In the State’s Emergency Abortion Care Lawsuit Against St. Joseph Hospital, Attorneys Recount Graphic Details and Dispute the Facts
• St. Joseph Health is Attempting to Negotiate a Settlement in State’s Emergency Abortion Care Lawsuit

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

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California’s first-in-the-nation fast food council — created to give workers a voice on wages, safety and working conditions — has not met in over a year and has no chairperson.

Now the workers the council was built to protect, organized by the Service Employees International Union, are taking their concerns directly to the state, demanding that Gov. Gavin Newsom appoint a chairperson so the council can do its work, as required by law.

Luna Mondragon, who works at a Carl’s Jr. in Milpitas, told CalMatters through a translator that she started out as a cook but has done many other duties in her five years there. After she joined the fast food workers union, she said she began speaking up, especially when she started to experience aches and pains from her job. Since then, she said she has been retaliated against, including with fewer shifts.

“If we don’t have our health we can’t accomplish anything,” she said, her voice choked with emotion. “It’s so important for them to appoint a chair. We need the council.”

The council was created as part of a 2023 compromise that also set a $20 minimum wage for fast food workers. It has the power to set standards on wages, health, safety and working conditions — and to raise the minimum wage annually for hundreds of thousands of fast food workers at chains with 60 or more locations nationwide.

The council — composed of four members representing the businesses, four members representing labor and a chairperson who’s an “unaffiliated” member of the public — must, under state law, hold at least two meetings a year, though the law does not specify who should enforce this provision.

The council only held those meetings in 2024; last year it held two subcommittee meetings, the latest in February 2025. Shortly after, the council’s chairperson, Nick Hardeman, resigned when Newsom appointed him to a different state position. When reached by CalMatters, Hardeman said he did not want to speak on the record about a council he has not chaired in a while.

In 2022, the Legislature raised fast food workers’ minimum wage to $22 an hour. The industry fought back, gathering signatures to repeal the law. Workers across the state went on strike. In late 2023, the SEIU and the industry reached a last-minute compromise: Workers dropped a ballot fight in exchange for a $20 minimum wage and the establishment of the council. The SEIU-affiliated California Fast Food Workers Union launched the following year — lacking the collective bargaining rights of a traditional union, but acting as an advocacy and membership group for workers.

Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for the governor, would not answer questions about the council, instead referring CalMatters to the state’s Labor & Workforce Development Agency. Crystal Young, a spokesperson for the agency, confirmed that there is no chairperson and the council’s meetings are on hold. The council’s four-person staff continues to respond to inquiries and prepare for future meetings, she said.

On April 16, marking about two years since the council’s first meeting, workers delivered a 96-page book to the governor’s office, describing more than 100 complaints filed with CalOSHA, the state labor department and different city agencies since the council’s formation, alleging wage theft and poor working conditions. The union estimates there are about 630,000 fast food workers in the state, about 75% of whom are people of color and 20% of whom are immigrants.

“Employers feel newly empowered to threaten us with calling ICE when we ask questions about paid sick leave or (workers’ compensation), or report health and safety hazards,” Angelica Hernandez, a McDonald’s worker who is a member of the fast food council, said in the book.

Rich Reinis, a member of the council who represents employers and is a former franchise owner, said he has no knowledge of when meetings will resume, and is waiting. In his view, the council should have been discussing “fire and ICE.” The phrase refers to the effects of last year’s L.A. County fires on the fast-food industry and its workers, some of whom lost their homes, and what businesses and workers need to know about immigration enforcement.

Reinis also wants the council to order a study of the wage increase’s effects on prices and employment. Competing studies by UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz have reached opposite conclusions, and the question of affordability remains unresolved, he said.

A Los Angeles Times columnist who analyzed the competing studies concluded the debate over the wage’s effects is likely to continue. Hernandez, the council member, rejected the industry’s claims that the wage increase has hurt business. “The sky didn’t fall on the California fast food industry,” she said.

The council is also required to submit a performance review to the Legislature every three years — a deadline approaching without a single full meeting in the past year. Before he resigned, Hardeman, the former chairperson, said it was hard for the council to reach decisions.

“The staff will have to write a report without having any meetings,” Reinis said. “How the hell are we supposed to do that?”

Chris Holden, the former California assemblymember who authored the law that raised the workers’ wages and created the council, told CalMatters that the council was “groundbreaking” and “needs to address the challenges that were the genesis of the council in the first place.” He said he hopes the governor is doing his due diligence to identify a new chairperson.

“I want to tell (the governor) to finish the job he started,” Julieta Garcia, a cook at a Pizza Hut in Los Angeles, told CalMatters through a translator. “Leave a good legacy for this generation and the future generation, so you can be recognized as a leader who gave fast food workers a chance.”

Young, the Labor & Workforce Development Agency spokesperson who was speaking on the governor’s behalf, confirmed that Newsom’s office received the workers’ book.

The governor’s office has not said when — or whether — Newsom plans to appoint a chairperson to the council.