PREVIOUSLY:

• Wanted Felon Shot Dead Near Blue Lake in Standoff With Humboldt County Sheriff’s Deputies, Agency Reports
• Sheriff’s Office Identifies Man Shot by Deputies in Glendale Saturday

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Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office provides the following update regarding the officer-involved shooting that occurred on July 26, 2025, in the 1300 block of Glendale Drive.

The deputies involved in the incident have been identified as:

• Deputy Jonathan Eckert, with nine years of law enforcement experience
• Deputy Cole Kane, with six years of law enforcement experience
• Deputy Russell Hurley, with nine years of law enforcement experience

All three deputies remain on paid administrative leave, per standard protocol. The forensic autopsy for the decedent, Jared Randell Nelson, is still pending.

This investigation remains active and is being conducted by the Humboldt County Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT). Additional details will be released in compliance with California State Law as the investigation progresses.

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

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

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The California Supreme Court on Thursday sided with environmental groups in a case seen as pivotal for the proliferation of rooftop solar power in California.

In a unanimous vote, justices told a lower court to revisit a ruling that upheld reduced payments to solar panel owners for selling excess power back to utility companies. Justices did not rule on whether the changes to the solar program were legal, requiring the court of appeals to determine this.

“They basically said the lower court kind of punted on the whole substance of the [solar payments] decision,” Bernadette Del Chiaro, vice president for California at the Environmental Working Group, said. “I do think they’re clearly stating this needs to be reviewed.”

At issue is a 2022 decision by state regulators to reduce by about 75% payments to solar panel owners for excess power. The change was intended to help make bills affordable for all customers while still encouraging the adoption of renewable energy sources. Three environmental groups that brought the lawsuit — the Center for Biological Diversity, The Protect our Communities Foundation, and the Environmental Working Group — argued in the case that the state utilities commission’s decision left out crucial considerations around benefits to customers and disadvantaged communities.

“We don’t need [to be in] an affordability crisis if we have more local generation,” Roger Lin, senior attorney fro the Center for Biological Diversity, said.

Utilities pay solar panel owners for their excess power under a program known as “net energy metering.” In previous iterations of the program – “NEM 1.0” and “NEM 2.0” – utilities paid solar customers a retail rate for their extra energy, which is the same price the utilities charge other customers when they resell that energy.

This was changed under the current iteration of the program – “NEM 3.0” – which instead gives customers the “avoided cost,” which is how much utilities save by not buying that power on the wholesale market.

Customers who joined the program after mid-April 2023 receive the new rate, while customers under the prior two versions will continue to receive the old rate for the duration of their contracts, which is typically about 20 years.

Utility commissioners ruled in favor of power companies, which argued that older versions of the program created an unfair cost burden on customers. Those without rooftop solar, utilities said, have to pay more than their peers for routine maintenance to the grid. The groups bringing the lawsuit said this idea is overblown. A court of appeals upheld regulators’ decision, relying on a legal standard that gives significant deference to decisions made by the California Public Utilities Commission.

Thursday’s decision said the court of appeals “erred” by using this standard.

Whether or not the change in how solar panel owners are paid is legal will be left to the lower courts. But the decision this week could have farther-reaching implications for state utility regulators.

“We appreciate the Court’s careful attention to the appropriate standard of deference for reviewing CPUC decisions,” Terrie Prosper, utility commission spokesperson, said. “We are pleased that the CPUC’s decision will remain in effect as an important part of controlling electricity bills.”

Advocates said the decision reinforces that the utilities commission must ensure that its decisions fit squarely within the law.

“For too long, they really have operated in a black box behind a shroud of complexity,” Del Chiaro said. “Consumers and the planet have consistently lost out as a result of that.”

The fallout from the utilities commission’s 2022 net metering decision included an 82% drop in customers requesting connections for rooftop solar installations, and industry groups expected a loss of about 17,000 jobs during the first year of the change.

It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of Ronald Titus Jr, beloved father, husband, brother, grandpa and cherished friend who left us on Saturday, August 2, 2025. He was 73 years old. Ron was born in Longview, Washington on April 15, 1952 but lived his whole life in Eureka.

From an early age Ron wanted to be a soldier. In 1971 that dream became a reality as he enlisted in the United States Army and served overseas working in a Pershing Missile Silo in Germany for three years. He was very proud to have served his country.

As a young man he had a passion for motorcycles and muscle cars. He owned a Harley (chopper) and a Ford Mustang. Later he had several other motorcycles and went on many motorcycle adventures with one of his best friends, Mark Fiegal.

Ron had a great deal of skill and talent as well as many passions in his life. He was an amazing woodworker and builder. He built furniture, outdoor decks, planter boxes, functional toy tractors and trucks out of Redwood for his children. He built an addition onto the family home in 1991. He built an underground fort and a two-story fort with a swinging airplane for his children.

Ron loved working with metals and built his own foundry to melt aluminum and brass mostly. From the melted metals he made a golf club, and fully functioning miniature civil-war era and Spanish warship style cannons. After Ron retired from the Shipping and Receiving Department at Humboldt State University he realized he loved to paint. Starting with a children’s box of watercolors he began teaching himself how to paint. As he progressed as a painter he took community classes. Ron has hundreds of gorgeous paintings his family has enjoyed on the walls in our home. Ron generously gave his paintings away to friends and loved ones never selling them. He painted just for the pleasure of it.

Ron was also a whole-hearted sports fan. He loved the San Francisco 49ers and San Francisco Giants. He coached his two sons’ and two nephews’ football and baseball teams. He not only taught them how to play the games but touched many families by coaching their children and being a positive role model. He was a stern and compassionate coach and always encouraged his players. He was competitive but for him it was all about the love of the game and passing that on to young people.

Family came first to Ron. He loved camping and backpacking with his family. He loved to travel in later years. He and Chris were blessed to travel to Alaska, Mexico, Australia to meet and visit the Greek cousins in Perth, visit Italy with Chris’ two best friends Val Arizzi and Isa Arizzi-Pritting and finally they went to Greece with Chris’ brother Jerry, his wife, and the Australia cousins, Arthur and Pauline. Ron loved history and to see these countries was extra special and he spent all his time seeing the historic sites. Ron loved old Western movies and John Wayne was his favorite.

Ron is survived by his wife, Chris, sons Joseph and Kyle, grandchildren Collin, Chloe, and Harmony. He also leaves behind sisters Julie Titus and Jodie Perez. Ron had two best friends — Chuck Koval, who met as infants, and Mark Feigal since junior high school.

The family would like to thank Robert Martinez, who visited Ron weekly over the last months of his life and made him laugh. Thanks to all the staff at Seaview Rehabilitation and Wellness Center for their loving care and all the medical professionals who took care of Ron along with Hospice.

There will be a gathering at the Titus family home to celebrate Ron’s life for family and friends on Saturday, August 30 at 2 p.m.. You will be sorely missed and always be in our hearts, Ron / Dad / Grandpa / Friend.

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Press release from Humboldt Bay Fire:

On August 7, 2025, at approximately 0701 hours, Humboldt Bay Fire responded to a reported residential structure fire with possible occupants trapped in the 1900 block of Ridgewood Drive in Cutten. The response included four fire engines, two chief officers, and an ambulance.

Engine 8112 was first on scene and reported a single-wide mobile home with heavy fire showing from the rear, with flames potentially threatening nearby structures. Chief 8100 arrived shortly thereafter, assumed Incident Command, and directed Engine 8112 to begin fire attack and conduct a primary search for any trapped occupants. Engine 8113 arrived and was assigned to support fire attack operations. Engine 8115 secured a water supply from a nearby hydrant, while Engine 8114 was tasked with protecting adjacent structures.

The fire was brought under control within 20 minutes. A thorough search confirmed that no occupants were inside the residence at the time of the fire. Humboldt Bay Fire crews remained on scene for approximately three hours to fully extinguish the fire and complete a cause and origin investigation.

The fire was determined to be electrical in nature. The mobile home was a total loss, with damages estimated at $25,000. No damage was reported to any surrounding structures.

Humboldt Bay Fire would like to thank the following agencies for their assistance during this incident: City Ambulance, California Highway Patrol, Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, PG&E, Arcata Fire District, and the American Red Cross, who provided temporary shelter for the displaced occupant.

We remind the public to drive cautiously near emergency scenes for the safety of both responders and the community.

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UPDATE, 4:50 p.m.

Blue Lake Mayor John Sawatzky emailed the following statement:

I’m excited to get this recall off my plate and move on to getting work done for this city. This recall was based on false narratives. We knew this recall was coming before we parted ways with our City Manager, based on statements made by Safety Commissioner [Alex] Ricca and ex-Mayor [Adelene] Jones. Ex-Mayor Jones stated she wasn’t happy with the 5-page evaluation we had provided to City Manager Magger [sic] and told us, “Don’t you even think about it.”

As for Elise, she has been steadfast during her tenure, has always asked the hard-hitting questions, and brought things to light that others didn’t see. She is the kind of person you want in an oversight position.

[NOTE: After emailing this statement, Sawatzky asked the Outpost to redact the sentence that has been stricken-through, above, saying it lacked sufficient context.]

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Original post:

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The citizen-led effort to recall three Blue Lake city councilmembers has fallen short for all but one of the targets: Mayor Pro-Tem Elise Scafani, who will soon be the subject of a special election to consider her removal from office.

A signature-gathering effort that wrapped up Saturday fell five valid signatures shy of the 250-voter threshold necessary to trigger a recall election for Mayor John Sawatzky; a parallel effort for Councilmember Kat Napier fell just four signatures shy of the mark, leaving both of them secure in their seats.

In Sawatzky’s case, recall proponents had gathered 267 signatures, but three were found to be duplicates and 19 others were deemed insufficient by the Humboldt County Elections Office. Similarly, the petition for Napier had 269 signatures with three duplicates and 20 others deemed insufficient.

Petition signatures can be rejected for a variety of reasons, such as when they’re illegible, when they don’t match what’s on file with the Elections Office or when they come from people who live outside city limits.

The petition for Scafani likewise had 22 signatures rejected, but with 276 collected, that left four to spare.

The recall effort was launched in response to community uproar over the departure of longtime City Manager Amanda “Mandy” Mager, with many residents concluding that she’d been forced out. Recall proponents were also upset about the council’s delays in adopting an updated housing element despite threats of fines and other legal consequences from the state. (That document has since been adopted.)

There had been some concern and confusion about what would result should all three recall efforts succeed. The prospect of simultaneous removal of a majority of a governing body was virtually without precedent in California. That conundrum won’t have to be solved in Blue Lake. 

Someone from the county Elections Office dropped off the official signature verification certificates this morning at City Hall. In a phone conversation, Blue Lake Acting Interim City Manager Jill Duffy explained what comes next. 

At the next city council meeting, scheduled for Aug. 26, the council will consider those certificates, she said. Per California Election Code, the council then has 14 days to issue an order calling for a special election. Staff will then present the council with an array of potential dates for that election, though it must fall somewhere between 88 and 125 days after the day the council issued its order. 

Could the council simply decline to accept the certificates? Or perhaps refuse to call a special election? Duffy said no. Per state law, those actions are now mandatory.

Having checked the calendar, Duffy said the earliest possible date for Blue Lake’s recall election would be Nov. 25, which is just two days before Thanksgiving and thus a poor option. The last possible date is Dec. 23, so Blue Lake residents should expect the election to take place on the first, second or third Tuesday in December.

The location of this time window of opportunity on the calendar means that Blue Lake’s special recall election can’t possibly be consolidated with the statewide special election being cooked up by Governor Gavin Newsom in a bid to counteract blatant partisan gerrymandering in Texas. 

Duffy said it’s impossible to know exactly how much this special election will wind up costing the City of Blue Lake, but it’ll likely be in the neighborhood of $10,000. That estimate is based on the cost of a 2023 special election in Garberville, which cost about $8,800. 

A voicemail left for Scafani seeking comment was not immediately returned. Sawatzky declined to immediately comment on the record. An email to Napier had not been returned by the time this post was published.

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Dozens of activists swarmed the Arcata City Council meeting, demanding everything from Arcata becoming a sister city with Gaza to divesting from CalPers to reforming Arcata’s relationship with its homeless population. About two hours and 15 minutes of the two-and-a-half-hour-long meeting was taken up by public comment. 

City staff were ready for disruption after protests at a special meeting of the city council meeting last week forced it to end prematurely. The only substantive items on the agenda were a proclamation supporting Two-Spirit and intersex people and the consent calendar; a report from the Energy Committee was postponed. An area in the back of the chambers was reserved for people with signs, of which there were plenty. Posters around the chambers reminded people to not disrupt the meeting by clapping or insulting council members and told them that if they did, the mayor has the power to eject them. City Manager Merritt Perry also asked the crowd to be calm at the beginning of the meeting.

“Let us now be sweet to each other and nice,” Mayor Alex Stillman said, “and not clap and make each other feel odd.”

The city council had trouble passing even their abbreviated agenda. Half an hour into the meeting, after seven public speakers addressed the council, the council attempted to move the meeting along and accept the consent calendar but was overwhelmed by jeering and chanting. They left the chambers, and Perry attempted to convince the crowd to let them at least get through the consent calendar. 

“All I would ask is that we would be ready to go through the consent calendar,” Perry said. “It’ll be two minutes, and we can spend as much time as we need to hear from everybody in this meeting.”

The council did end up accepting the consent calendar.

Despite the requests, the protesters didn’t go easy on the council, mostly blasting them for not passing a resolution to become a sister city with Gaza and for supposed sweeps of homeless encampments and perceived Brown Act violations. (Perry denied last week that Arcata was destroying homeless encampments.) Dozens of protestors spoke in a row, interrupted only by occasional moments of screaming, yelling, and clapping, and transitions from one to the next.

“Alex Stillman, you have been a politician as long as I have known your name, and I can’t name a single fucking thing you’ve done for this community,” said one speaker. “You are incompetent, senile, and jaded. Just quit your job.”

“Why not spend your money on shit the Arcata people actually want?” another asked. “Fuck you. You guys can’t even do a cease-fire? That’s the bare minimum! Those are words on paper, and you can’t do it! You would allow the Nazis to come and kill my ancestors. I will never forgive you.”

Most of the public commenters on Zoom slammed the idea of an Arcata-Gaza sister city and were roundly mocked by the in-person commenters.

Two hours after the start of the meeting, most of the demonstrators had left. Public comment went for another half hour or so, and the meeting ended. 

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BELOW: Some moments from last night’s meeting. Full meeting here.

UPDATE, 4:30 p.m.: In a message to customers just now, Vero says it is aiming to have service back up by 10 p.m.

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UPDATE, as of 1:45 p.m.: Vero says…

We are currently experiencing a network outage in the Eureka, CA area. Our Engineering and Field Services teams are working diligently to resolve this issue. Field crews are on site and have found fiber has been damaged from the Pond Fire. An assessment of the damage is currently underway, and repairs will begin shortly. We do not have an ETR at this time but will update as soon as we have more information.  

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UPDATE, 10 a.m.: A communication from Vero to its customers a few moments ago confirms that the fiber break was due to last night’s Pond Fire outside Laytonville. It says crews are currently repairing the line.

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ORIGINAL POST:

Eureka Vero customers woke this morning to Day Two of their internet being down, as well as a note from Vero customer service fixing blame for the outage: A fire, they say, has cut the line, and they are waiting for Calfire to allow crews to enter the area to repair the line.

Says Vero:

We want to update you on the service outage currently affecting the Eureka area. The disruption is due to a fire in the region, and repair crews are currently awaiting access approval from CalFire to begin restoration work.

At this time, we do not have an estimated time of resolution. However, please know that we are actively working to restore service as quickly and safely as possible.

We appreciate your patience and understanding, and we will continue to provide updates as progress is made.

Which raises the question: Which fire was this?  We’ll try to get hold of Vero today for further details. To the company’s credit, it seems willing to be transparent with the public.

Until we get hold of them, we will advance a pure hypothesis: That this outage was caused by this fire in the Laytonville area last night. The time time stamps roughly align.

But wait a sec, you say: If that’s the case, doesn’t it mean that Vero is renting its bandwidth on the old north-south AT&T cable — the one that used to get cut, like, every other day, back in the bad old days of non-redundant fiber? That it doesn’t have any deal in place for backup on the newer east-west cable to the Central Valley? That it is thus at the mercy of this historically problematic cable along 101, for the time being — at least until its own main line along Highway 299 is completed?

That is the hypothesis, and it’s bolstered somewhat by a report from Ferndale, last night underneath our previous post on this outage, that Frontier internet is also down in the Victorian Village. Such was the case during the old AT&T outages of yore.

But it’s only a hypothesis. We’ll try to find out more today. One thing is clear: Vero wasn’t quite ready for the North Coast’s historical need for more than one way to move the bits and bytes out of town.