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Batten down the hatches, Humboldt. We’re about to get soggy.

The trusty meteorologists over at the National Weather Service are warning of “strong mid-level troughing over the Northeast Pacific.” Translation: A big ol’ atmospheric river is likely heading our way, bringing the potential for heavy rain, high winds and copious snow starting late next week and into the following one.

As shown in the map above, Humboldt County finds itself square in the crosshairs of this thing, with a “high risk” of both heavy rain across the county and heavy snow in the hills.

Expect the lowlands to flood, and avoid travel if you can. For the kids’ sake, let’s hope this thing passes by Halloween.

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As Halloween draws near, the Community Access Project for Eureka (CAPE) is doing its darndest to make sure all local kids have the opportunity to trick-or-treat in their outfit of choice with its annual costume drive.

CAPE is accepting monetary donations and new costumes for kids of all ages until Friday, Oct. 24. There are a few specific costume requests: a large-sized Jack Skellington, a toddler-sized Bingo from Bluey and a L. Clawdeen Wolf from Monster High.

If you wanna make someone’s spooky dream come true, you can deliver your donations to the Adorni Center (1011 Waterfront Drive) and the Uplift Eureka Resource Center (1111 E Street). More information can be found below:

Spooky season is right around the corner, but with your help it can be a little less scary and a lot more fun!

The Community Access Project for Eureka (C.A.P.E.) is putting on our annual Halloween Costume Drive to benefit local children in need. Halloween costume donations will be accepted until October 24th at the Adorni Center and Uplift Eureka Community Resource Center. Monetary donations are also welcome and will be used to purchase children’s preferred costumes.

We are looking for new costumes for children ages 0 to 17 that are appropriate in nature. Information on specific costumes needed can be found at eurekaheroes.org or by calling 707-672-2253.

Thanks for your help in making Halloween fun for everyone!

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

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Women in California today have fewer places to give birth than they did a decade ago. Legislation signed this week by Gov. Gavin Newsom aims to create more options for them by making it easier for birth centers to operate outside of hospitals.

The “Freedom to Birth Act” by Assemblymember Mia Bonta, a Democrat from Oakland, streamlines burdensome licensure requirements that have prevented birth centers from receiving state approval. Without licensure, birth centers frequently can’t contract with health insurers or Medi-Cal. That leaves patients who can’t pay cash unable to use midwives or birth centers.

The legislation was introduced and signed following reporting by Cal Matters over the past two years revealing that vast areas of California have no hospitals or birth centers following dozens of closures. In some areas, pregnant people may have to drive two hours to give birth at a hospital.

“The fact that (CalMatters is) quoted in every letter of support that was sent to the Legislature and to the governor’s office asking for his signature says a lot,” said Sandra Poole, a lobbyist with the Western Center on Law and Poverty, which co-sponsored the legislation. “The information you provided was foundational in the work that we did in this area.”

Birth centers, which are most commonly owned and operated by midwives, specialize in low-risk, out-of-hospital births. Research shows that midwife-led deliveries at birth centers are safe and lead to fewer interventions like cesarean sections.

Over the past three years, at least 20 birth centers have closed in California, according to CalMatters reporting and the California chapter of the American Association of Birth Centers. Of the roughly 30 facilities left, only four are licensed by the state public health department.

The birth center closures come at the same time that hospitals have closed dozens of labor and delivery wards. Nearly 60 maternity wards have closed since 2012, according to a CalMatters database.

The new law removes a mandate that birth centers operate within 30-minutes of a hospital with labor and delivery services and removes duplicative Medi-Cal requirements. The measure passed unanimously in the Assembly and the Senate.

“Red tape should never stand in the way of proven solutions to deliver affordable and accessible healthcare for Californians. By signing (the law), our state has taken a much-needed step to address the maternal health crisis,” Bonta said in a statement.

Survey: More than half of women consider midwives for birth

The new law is a crucial step toward making birth centers and out-of-hospital births more accessible, advocates say.

“When we first started looking at this issue there were 10 licensed birth centers on the state website. Then you start calling folks and it became six, and now we’re down to four,” Poole said. “It’s going in the wrong direction for sure.”

Poole said she’s hopeful the relaxed regulations will encourage more birth centers to open and allow those that have given up on licensure to try again. Doing so would also make the services more accessible for low-income families. Medi-Cal, the state insurance program for people with disabilities and low-income people, pays for half of all births in the state.

Most births happen in hospitals, but midwives deliver a growing number of babies in the state. Planned out-of-hospital births increased by 30% over the past decade even as birth rates overall declined, according to data from the Medical Board of California.

A 2018 survey by the California Health Care Foundation found that more than one-third of pregnant patients would be interested in having a midwife for a future birth. That interest was highest among Black women. More than 50% of women who wanted a midwife at birth said they didn’t use one because insurance wouldn’t pay for it.

Cindy Haag, a licensed midwife, has operated Pacifica Family Maternity Center in Berkeley for 13 years. In the beginning she tried to get licensed thinking it would be easy. Instead, Haag said the process was onerous and confusing. The health department didn’t even know what a birth center license was when she applied, Haag said, a story that multiple midwives who have attempted licensure have told CalMatters. The application was denied.

Without licensure she couldn’t take Medi-Cal patients.

“It’s really sad because it changes the diversity and the accessibility,” Haag said.

In recent years, Haag has come to an agreement with a local Medi-Cal plan to take some of their patients who want to give birth with a midwife outside of the hospital. Still, without full licensure, the birth center is limited on how much it gets reimbursed for Medi-Cal patients.

“We are doing the right thing because we care about accessibility, but it’s not for our financial gain,” Haag said.

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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.

Rosalia Marie Mott was born March 31, 1938 in Eureka, to Winnifred Marie Baldy and Elmer Gray George. She passed away October 13, 2025 at home in Hoopa. She was the eldest of three siblings, Mervin George Sr. and Reva Grant. She grew up in Eureka for a time, and returned to the family ranch in Hoopa in her teens. 

Rosie was a lifelong resident of Hoopa, went to school in the valley and graduated in the class of 1956. She played in the school band, tenor saxophone and piano. She also played in the family band with her Uncle Ray and Auntie Edith, and later played accompaniment now and then for her brother’s band, Merv George Band. She shared her love of music with her daughter and granddaughter, who both played saxophone. 

She began work at the United States Postal Service as a clerk out of high school, working under Postmaster Ernie Marshall and Rosalind Marshall, and stayed with the Post Office her entire career, finishing in the late 1990s, due to injury, as Hoopa Post Office Postmaster. 

Every summer she would spend weekends (and more) at Trinity Lake at Trinity Center, Cedar Stock, Estrallita Marinas. She was an avid water skier, and enjoyed her fair share of parties out on friends’ and family’s house boats. Once in a while she would also play piano for drinks out at the Cedar Stock bar. 

Rosie married Frank Reckord in 1958, and had one daughter, June Reckord. She later remarried to Francis Mott in 1968, staying married until his death in 2000. 

She assisted her family in Hupa tribal world renewal ceremonies, starting up the dances again when Rudolph Socktish brought them back. She worked in the Socktish Camp assisting her mother, Winnifred George, who was our Medicine Woman.

Rosie served her tribal government in later years on committees at TERO, EDA, and Hoopa Tribal Credit. 

She helped raised her granddaughter Brittany Britton, who was her riding partner on trips to town, shopping and more. Her daughter June was a dedicated caretaker for her mother for the past years, and the family is grateful for her work and love. 

Raise a glass for Rosie – a lot of you probably have fond memories of her at Club Hoopa, out at the lake or behind the counter at the Post Office. 

Rosie did not suffer fools gladly, but she had a heart big enough for everyone, as seen by the sheer number of people who called her grandma, auntie and mom. 

The family would like to thank Doctor Krall, CMA Evette Lewis at Kim:aw Medical Center, and all of the medical staff who have assisted with her care over the years. Thank you to past care from Doctors Eva Smith and Emmett Chase.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Elmer and Winnifred George, her aunt Edith, Uncles Valin, Ferrel, Ray, Milton, Newton, her brother Merv George Sr., Andrew Andreoli. Her husband Francis Mott Sr., stepson Daniel Mott. Brother-in-law Wayne Grant, Nephew George Grant. 

She is survived by her daughter June Reckord, and granddaughter Brittany Britton, and Ana Kolpin. Her sister Reva Grant, sister-in-law Laura Lee George. Nieces Brenda Grant, Melodie Moore, Jennifer George, Nephew Mervin George Jr. Numerous cousins, nieces and nephews, too many to mention here. Stepson Francie Mott jr., Stepdaughter Susan Rowe, step-grandchildren, Shannon Mott Michael, Coty Mott, Daniel “Duffy” Mott, and Special family Evette Lewis and her daughter Andee Lewis.

We apologize if we missed listing anyone, we know a lot of people loved Rosie and had her in their lives and hearts. 

Pallbearers are Daniel “Duffy” Mott, Curtis Kane, Robert Kane Sr., Robert Kane Jr., Cole Kane, Jamie Lewis. Honorary Pallbearers are Emmett Chase, Steve Baldy, Harold “O’s” Campbell, Sam Campbell, Joseph Lemieux, Heath “Bubbs” Jackson, and Kevin Britton.

Graveside services will be held at the Baldy Family Cemetery Sunday, October 19, 2025 at 1 p.m., with a reception to follow at the Hoopa Tribal Firehall at 2 p.m. Join us in celebrating her life with memories and stories. 

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Michelle Flynn has been a nurse in Providence St. Joseph Hospital’s emergency department for almost a decade. The environment inside, amid the often desperate patients and hustling staff, can be described as “so much chaos,” she said in an interview earlier today.

In recent months, though, Flynn has been able to spend a lot more time with each patient, answering their questions, explaining their labs, even helping them make appointments or arrange family visits.

Ironically, perhaps, this increased level of personal engagement has been facilitated through cutting-edge technology that takes her out of the hospital entirely — physically, anyway. Working from home, Flynn appears in patient rooms virtually, her face popping up on a wall-mounted TV screen while she interacts with patients via secure, two-way audio and visual, enabled through a remote-controlled high-resolution camera.

Here’s what that looks like:

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Back in July, St. Joseph Hospital became the first Providence-owned medical facility to launch a virtual nursing model and hybrid approach in its Emergency Department. This pilot program combines telehealth with traditional bedside care, an approach that’s part of a broader tech-forward strategy that includes adoption of A.I.-empowered documentation and a “Physician in Triage” model that is streamlining workflows while enabling more patient-centered care, according to staff.

Hansen

Kristen Hansen, director of nursing for St. Joseph’s emergency department, told a group of reporters this morning that the virtual nursing program has been a hit with both patients and staff. Participating nurses do their rounds virtually, beaming into patient rooms to handle documentation, assess their pain levels, answer questions, facilitate language interpreter services when necessary — in short, handling tasks that help to free up in-person medical staffers for direct care.

“They can help with isolation patients, so the [other] nurses don’t have to go into the rooms as often, or violent patients with behavioral health [issues],” Hansen said.

The program is also helping Providence to retain some of its most experienced nurses in Humboldt County. Working in the Emergency Department can be very physically and emotionally demanding, Hansen said. “So this [virtual nursing program] gives an opportunity for us to keep those really high-performing nurses who are highly experienced involved in emergency care even when it’s difficult for them, physically or emotionally, to keep doing that work.”

Technology is allowing these nurses to reconnect with the most meaningful aspects of their work, Hansen said.

“Everyone gets into nursing because they want to take care of patients, and then you find that so much of your time is a checklist of things. You have to document; you have to complete [administrative] tasks; you don’t get to spend that time connecting with patients as much,” she explained. “The virtual nurses all express how much they love the opportunity to connect with their patients and actually spend the time doing the work that they got into nursing to do.”

Patients have been much happier, too.

“Our patient experience metrics have gone through the roof — some of the highest they’ve been in years,” Hansen said. 

Nurses in the program work from home on special Providence-issued computers built to comply with all HIPAA privacy regulations. The in-room cameras are all turned off and aimed away from patients until a virtual nurse beams in and “knocks,” then asks permission to “enter,” meaning turn the camera around and engage. 

“Usually, for the most part, they say, ‘I guess so,’” Flynn told reporters from her position on one of the wall-mounted TVs. Referring back to her description of the pandemonium that often overtakes the Emergency Department, Flynn said, “Being a virtual nurse? We’re like the calm in the chaos. … I’m able to go in and, like, talk with them for as long as they’d like.”

Predictably, some patients are a bit taken aback during their initial interactions with a virtual nurse. 

“They’re very, like, ‘Oh, this is weird,’” Flynn said. “But then, by the end of it, they’re like, ‘This is amazing.’”

Flynn was likewise a bit hesitant about the new approach at first. She wasn’t sure she’d like appearing remotely, but she said serving in this new role allows her to spend 20 or 30 minutes talking to individual patients.

“By doing this, I’m able to go on their chart and reassure them,” she said. “I’ve made appointments for patients that needed [them]; I have called family members. It’s very personal and it’s very, I don’t know, it’s meaningful. I actually really do enjoy doing this, and I feel like patients do as well.”

Meanwhile, St. Joseph Hospital has started using A.I. assistants to help with documentation, which saves medical staff even more time. 

Below is a press release from Providence with more information:

Providence St. Joseph Hospital Eureka enhances care delivery and reduces wait times with new innovations in the Emergency Department

Eureka, Calif. — Patients arriving at the Emergency Department at Providence St. Joseph Hospital Eureka, a Level III Trauma Center, are now being seen on average in less than ten minutes of their arrival, thanks to a series of groundbreaking innovations designed to enhance the care experience, improve efficiency, and support bedside teams.

On July 17, St. Joseph Hospital Eureka became Providence’s first Emergency Department to launch a virtual nursing model and hybrid approach that blends telehealth support with traditional bedside care. This pilot program is part of a broader strategy that also includes adoption of AI technology by physicians and utilization of the Physician in Triage model to streamline workflows and enable more patient-centered care. “

These innovations are transforming how we deliver emergency care,” said Kristen Hansen, director of nursing, Emergency. “Patients are being seen faster, receiving more personalized attention, and our caregivers are feeling more supported than ever.”

Virtual nurses support ED teams

Each Emergency Department room is equipped with a mounted TV and camera, allowing virtual nurses to assist patients remotely via secure two-way audio and video. With a patient’s consent, family members or advocates can also join calls from outside the hospital. 

Virtual nurses do not replace bedside nurses, they provide supplemental support handling key tasks such as admissions, discharge preparation, medication reconciliation, and patient education, freeing up bedside teams to focus on direct care. 

One virtual nurse, Matthew Stevens, shared how the model is reshaping the patient experience:

“Virtual nursing allows us to return to the fundamentals of nursing, like being present, listening, educating, and advocating. In our fast-paced environment, virtual nurses can help patients feel seen and supported, while also relieving bedside caregivers of tasks like coordinating with outside facilities or facilitating interpreter-supported video calls. It’s a collaborative approach that truly enhances care.”

Patients are already noticing the difference. Vanessa Anderson, who recently visited the ED, shared her experience:

“The virtual nurse made sure I had everything I needed because they were busy; the emergency room was packed! The bedside nurse isn’t having to run around from room to room, making life easier. I was happy with my overall experience.”

Artificial Intelligence and Physician in Triage streamlines workflows 

St. Joseph Hospital Eureka also utilizes an AI assistant that securely captures patient-physician conversations and automatically converts them into notes for delivery within Providence’s electronic health record in real-time. Since implementation, the ambient tool has significantly reduced administrative burdens, allowing providers to spend more of their time focused on their patients at the bedside.

In addition, the hospital now utilizes a Physician in Triage model, placing a physician at the front of the emergency department workflow, allowing patients to be assessed and treated more quickly upon arrival. 

Together, these innovations are helping St. Joseph Hospital Eureka deliver faster, smarter, and more compassionate emergency care.

“We’re building this together,” Hansen said. “The response from our caregivers and patients has been overwhelmingly positive. This is a rare and exciting opportunity to shape the future of health care delivery.”

St. Joseph Hospital Eureka is proud to help lead these efforts for the broader Providence health system and welcomes feedback from the community as the pilot continues to evolve. 

Big night at Arcata’s city council meeting yesterday, so no ado.

State hands down new RHNA numbers

Every so often, the state of California sends every jurisdiction in the state a number of housing units by income level that must be planned for.  Called the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), the process repeats every eight years. If they’re not planned for, the state can pull funding, developers can ignore zoning laws, huge fines are leveled — it’s a burden. California released the requirements for the 2027-2035 cycle in July, and Humboldt County and the city governments have now started planning how best to distribute and construct all 5,692 of the new units by 2035. Arcata’s deputy director of the community development department, Jennifer Dart, updated the council last night on how they’re trying to accomplish the task. 

Dart said Arcata was willing to take 1,042 of them. It’s a big increase from the last cycle; Arcata only had to build 610 units then. Much of the increase is coming from new housing for those making 80% or less of Humboldt’s median income. California added two new categories for this cycle: “Acutely low” (0-15% of Humboldt’s median income) and “extremely low” (15-30%), totalling 225 more units. Above moderate housing for residents who make over 120% of the median income also increased 151 units. 

It’ll be a tough challenge to meet, Dart said. It’ll be hard to come up with a way to fund so much housing for people who might not be able to pay for it — especially when state and federal funding for affordable housing is being reduced, and homeless shelters don’t count for RHNA.  

Additionally, although Cal Poly Humboldt’s new Hinarr Hu Moulik dorms house almost 1,000 people, they can’t count them towards any income level — plus, it filled up a large site that could have made a great infill project, which is Arcata’s main strategy to keep up with the state’s mandate along with accessory dwelling units and deconstruction and remodeling. There’s not a lot of vacant land left in Arcata, Dart said, and the city has no desire to start sprawling out. 

“What can we do?” Dart asked. “We’re going to get creative, because we are creative. I think Arcata continues to be a forward-thinking community.”

But long-term, Dart and a few of the city council members agreed that Humboldt needs to push for reform to the RHNA system, which doesn’t consider that many rural populations are declining in number and may not need to build more housing. 

“We’re very pro-housing, and we want to provide more housing,” councilmember Stacy Atkins-Salazar said. “But it also needs to be done in a way that is achievable…it’ll be a long journey and we’re just starting to make noise about it.”

Water bills

Long story short: they’re going up. When that happens will be up to the city council next month. They’re either going to jack them up immediately and keep the price the same for a few years before doing it again, or it’ll happen a little more evenly. 

Why? Well, Arcata’s water fund is drying up, and needs more revenue. Arcata is going to sink about $36 million into various improvement projects in the next five years. Much of that money will be borrowed, but the finance department would like to minimize that as much as possible. 

Either the rates will go up 44% in February, followed by a few years of 10% increases for a total balance of $8.5 million in 2030, or they will be increased by 23% and followed by several increases between 10-18%, winding up around $6.9 million in 2030. 

Customers’ fixed charges will either rise from $12.23 monthly to $23.58 or $24.65, depending on which way the council decides to swing. The price per hundred cubic feet will go up to either $13.50 or $14.12 from the current $7.15. 

In 2028, single-family residences will be charged a flat rate for their sewer bill and on average will save about $2 a month. Commercial accounts will still be charged for their total usage. 

Right now the average single-family household in Arcata pays $136.93 monthly for all of their water usage. By 2030, they’ll pay either $155.94 if the city council decides they want more money upfront, or $145.81 if they decide to be a little more patient. 

There will be a public hearing on the subject Jan. 7.

Roger’s Garage project

The city council unanimously decided to award a $155,000 contract to environmental reviewer Helix to do an environmental impact report on the Roger’s Garage site, where a proposed low-income apartment complex could be built. Quite a few Bayside residents came to complain about the review, which they didn’t think was general enough for a contaminated site near an elementary school. Director of Community Development David Loya disagreed. 

“We make decisions we think is necessary for levels of public disclosure,” Loya said. “We asked for a focused EIR because that’s where we’re going to land. The community does not determine that…I have some experience in this field, and based on that experience, I think we’ll be fine with a focused EIR.”

Other stuff

Humboldt Made got $5,000 for an ad campaign and City Manager Merritt Perry, in a brief aside, said there a Cal Poly Humboldt student was interested in drafting guidelines for a sister city project with a city around the same size as Arcata and Camoapa, Arcata’s sister city in Nicaragua. 

Here’s what we originally thought would be a fun map to make — median household income in various Humboldt County neighborhoods, compared with one another, and as estimated by the Census Bureau’s most recent five-year averages from the American Community Survey.

Check it out below. Go ahead and scroll around and zoom in and such. Hover over or click a census track to get the numbers for that region.  

… and then, probably, you can go ahead and forget you ever saw it, because the data is kind of crap.

Why? Well, when you were hovering and clicking a second ago, did you see the figures for the margin of error in these estimates? Some are better than others, but overall they are not great.

Take the Hoopa square, for example — estimated median household income of $54,306, but with a 36.6% margin of error, meaning that the actual median household income in that area could be anywhere between $34,430 and $74,182. Pretty wide target!

And that’s not even taking into account the American Community Survey’s usual 90 percent confidence interval — meaning the Census Bureau is only 90 percent certain that Hoopa’s median household income is in that range.

These wide margins of error are always a problem the more you break up a dataset into smaller and smaller subsets, and it appears that census tract-level data is small enough to make it all but useless, here in Humboldt County.

Oh well. Maybe some community planner type out there, or someone generally more versed in statistical analysis than I am, can tell me why all this fun tract-level data in the ACS isn’t a total bust for local purposes. Until then, I am declaring it so.