It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Leon Freitas on Oct 16, 2024.

Leon was born June 12, 1953 on the Island of Flores, Azores where he was the eldest son of Pedro and Maria Freitas.

He migrated to America with his family in 1966 but never forgot his Portuguese roots, learning from a young age about hard work, dedication and love of family. He had a lot to overcome being deaf, moving to a new country, learning a new language, all the while working in the fields and dairies helping provide for his family, which he always did without complaint.

In 1970 he and his family moved to Eureka for work and he attended Eureka High school, graduating in 1972. After high school Leon went to work for Arcata Redwood, performing many different jobs within the mill. No matter what job he held you could always count on Leon to put 100% effort into his work. If he had work in front of him he was relentless until it was completed to his satisfaction. After he left employment with the company as a cleanup person it took two individuals to complete the work Leon did by himself, which is a testament to his upbringing, dedication and pride in his work.

In his later years Leon had a lot of various health issues that eventually led to him being placed in the care of the Carol Sund Butler Valley Home and Eureka Rehabilitation and Wellness center. Special thanks go out to the Redwood Coast Regional Center for helping the family throughout this period. The family wants to express their gratitude to everyone who helped Leon with compassionate care they all provided during his stays was very appreciated!

Leon came from a large family. Father Pedro is deceased, Mother Maria, Sisters Maria Owsley, Cecilia Ricci, Fatima Wright, Connie Smeal, Brothers Joe, Pedro, Danny, Tony, Manuel, Frank. Leon had one Son Kenneth Charles Freitas (KC) who currently resides in Washington State. And numerous nephews and nieces.

A celebration of life will be held at the home of Maria Freitas, located at 870 Allard Ave in Eureka on Oct. 26 at 2 p.m.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Leon Freitas’ loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

UPDATE, 4:44 p.m.:

After this post was published, Eureka City Hall received the latest campaign fundraising form from the “Yes on F” campaign, and it showed yet another six-figure donation tally from Security National, the real estate servicing firm founded by semi-local tycoon Robin P. Arkley, II.

This latest Form 460 reports three donations for the reporting period, which covered the dates of Sept. 22 through Oct. 21. One, which we already reported, was a donation of $363,517.11 made on Oct. 7. Since then, on Oct. 15, Security National dropped another $30,738.76. And back on Nov. 27 the company chipped in $90,333.

What does that bring the company’s total spending on Measure F to? Well, add the $314,415.27 from last year to the $1,303,777.51 it has donated this year, then subtract the $600 that came from other donors and you get $1,617,592.78. That’s how much Arkley’s company has spent trying to pass Measure F.

You want a graph of the “Yes on F” versus “No on F” fundraising? Okay, here:

(Tap each bar or hover over it with your cursor for dollar amounts.)

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Original post:

Holy smokes, folks: We’re just 11 days from Election Day 2024. While many of us may be painfully preoccupied with the (somehow) deadlocked race for president, let’s not take our eyes completely off of the local elections.

Here in the Humboldt County seat of Eureka, the final pre-election campaign finance reports were due yesterday, and the numbers in the city council race reveal a clear fundraising frontrunner: Ward 2 challenger Kenny Carswell has brought in more than double the amount of any of the other four candidates running for the two available seats.

The money race in Ward 4 is tighter, though that’s only because challenger Thavisak “Lucky” Syphanthong has loaned his own campaign nearly $3,000. (He has only raised $100.)

Below, we examine those numbers in a bit more detail and take a look at how that money is being spent.

Ward 2

Carswell

Carswell is a project manager for Security National, the real estate servicing firm that has dumped more than $1.6 million into the Measure F campaign (see below).

Through Oct. 19 (the cutoff date for the latest reporting period), Carwell’s campaign had raised $9,160.35, including a $1,253.35 loan from himself.

The campaign contribution limit in City of Eureka races is $500 per donor, and in this latest period Carswell obtained max donations from Eureka-based Wahlund Construction, ACGC Construction owner Will Adams, property managers Larry & Lisa DeBeni and Kramer Investment Corp.

Through Oct. 19 his campaign had spent $6,576.24 of that tally, leaving more than $2,500 still in the bank. The expenditures were largely for campaign literature and other materials, including more than $1,000 spent with Eureka-based Times Printing and $1,263.13 spent with Arcata’s Visual Concepts.

Click here to read the Outpost’s interview with Carswell.

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Moulton

Moulton, artistic director of the nonprofit Ink People Center for the Arts who runs a nonprofit creative reuse center in Old Town, brought in $2,473 through Oct. 19, most of it coming via donations of $100 or less. 

During this latest reporting period, she landed max, $500 donations from Operating Engineers 3 District #40 PAC, AFSCME (presumably the Local #1684 PAC) and Eureka property manager David Bruce Mulhern. She also got a $100 donation from the Chris Rogers for Assembly 2024 campaign.

Moulton’s campaign had nearly tapped out its bank account, spending all but $82 through the reporting deadline. Expenditures included $1,000 on radio ads, nearly $500 for a DJ and snacks at a candidate block party and $234 on yard signs.

Click here to read the Outpost’s interview with Moulton.

Ward 4

Syphanthong

As noted above, Syphanthong, owner of Lucky Star Realty, loaned his campaign all but $100 of its $3,082.35 total thus far. That $100 came back in September from Chuck Ellsworth, the retired former owner of AllPoints Signs.

Syphanthong loaned his campaign $1,672.68 during the previous campaign reporting period and dropped in $1,309.67 this time around. 

The campaign spent all but $547.15 of his mostly self-loaned war chest, with about $440 going toward a campaign kickoff event and $1,139.09 spent at Staples for yard signs.

Click here to read the Outpost’s interview with Syphanthong.

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Bauer

Bauer, a senior environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish & Wildlife, raised $4,213 through the latest deadline.

That includes max, $500 donations from five labor unions:

• Central Labor Council of Humboldt, and Del Norte Counties AFL-CIO,
• Operating Engineers 3 District #40 PAC,
• United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5,
• AFSCME Local #1684 PAC and
• Building and Construction Trades Council of Humboldt and Del Norte Counties.

Somewhat strangely, Bauer’s campaign had spent only $415.92 through Oct. 19, leaving almost all of that fundraising amount — $3,847.08 — yet to be spent. 

Click here to read the Outpost’s interview with Bauer.

Measure F

Why didn’t we make a graph for the Measure F pro/con fundraising? Well, because the “Yes on F” campaign had yet to file its latest Form 460 by the time this post was published.

Does that mean the campaign blew the deadline? Not necessarily. If the paperwork was sent in the mail and postmarked by yesterday’s date, it will still be considered “on time.” Eureka City Clerk/Assistant City Manager Pam Powell said that’s exactly how the “Yes on F” folks did it in the last reporting period. If we hear back from anyone at the city before the end of business hours Friday, we’ll update this post.

In the meantime, we can report that on Oct. 15, Measure F sponsor Security National Master Holding Company tossed another $30,738.76 into the campaign, bringing its total up to a whopping $1,618,192.78, with all but $600 of that coming directly from Security National.

Obviously, there are no campaign contribution limits on ballot measures, and as previously reported, Security National’s spending has made this the most expensive ballot measure in Eureka history.

If we did make a “Measure F” graph, that sucker would be laughably lopsided. The latest campaign finance report from the “No on F” campaign brings its total raised to $22,140.38, or 1.37 percent of the “Yes on F” campaign.

The top donations this reporting period include $1,000 from SEIU Local 2015 Issues PAC and $500 from Eureka retiree George Ellinwood.

The “No on F” campaign also received a non-monetary campaign donation from self-employed artist Jennifer Catsos valued at $250 during this latest period. She has donated $900 worth of services to the campaign this year.

This campaign still had $7,360.63 in the bank as of Oct. 19, though it also reported having $4,350.01 in outstanding debts. Most of the money the campaign has spent ($4,350.01) went to Times Printing for campaign literature.

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[CORRECTION: This post has been corrected from an earlier version to reflect that Syphanthong is running against Bauer in Ward 4.]

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With 11 days to go before Election Day, voters of Humboldt County are already turning out as if American democracy is on the line. And hey, maybe it is!

As of 1 p.m. Friday, the Humboldt County Elections Office had received 18,018 ballots, according to Registrar of Voters Juan Pablo Cervantes. For comparison, 11 days before the March primary the office had received just over half that many: 9,245 ballots.

“Our total registered voter count is approximately 82,000, meaning about 22% of voters have already cast their ballots,” Cervantes said.

Asked what he attributes this trend to, Cervantes said it’s hard to say for sure, though he suspects it has to do with at least two factors: outreach from his office and the potentially massive stakes of this year’s presidential election.

“We’ve put a lot of thought and energy into encouraging turnout through outreach efforts, earned media, radio ads, social media, tabling, and our approach of meeting people where they are,” Cervantes said in an email. “Even so, this level of engagement is beyond our expectations. It’s clear that folks feel this is a big election — though, of course, we think they all are!”

If you still like voting in person, there will be 13 vote centers operating across the county, including some that have been open since Oct. 7. They’re open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on early voting days and from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 5.

Click here for more information on all of your voting options, and for contact information for the Humboldt County Elections Office.

Alana Hackman made a TikTok. 

Almost 5 million people liked it. 

Hackman was surprised — but not too surprised. 

“I feel like I’ve always wanted [social media] fame in some way, just because I’ve done so much work there in social media,” Hackman said. “So I feel like it was bound to happen.”

Hackman, 22, is a journalism major at Cal Poly Humboldt and a bona fide TikTok sensation, and has been for a couple weeks — and maybe for a couple more. 

The video, posted Oct. 2 and scored to the song “Laterals” by Fat Coda Studios, shows Hackman making her roommate’s boyfriend perform an interpretive dance as trade for letting him stay the night. 

Over 27 million people have watched it, and it’s spawned thousands of videos of people shimmying as payment; everything from husbands getting funky to watch football to people dancing for dinner to a woman asking her husband to boogie while she’s in labor.

Social media is second nature to Hackman. She’s worked six or seven social media jobs for a variety of organizations, such as Peer Health or KRFH student radio. Her thumb is constantly on the pulse of what’s popular. She figured the video would be popular because it had some things that many obscenely popular TikToks do: Women making men do something in a light-hearted way and a funny, novel concept. She does admit that it wasn’t all just her though. 

“I can’t take all the credit,” Hackman said. “His dance moves are really good. That was all him.”

The video only shows a fraction of the dancing. Hackman said the boyfriend danced for around five minutes. He was indeed allowed to stay, though Hackman made it clear that he always would have been able to stay over and they were just having fun. 

As with everything on the internet, it has its critics. She’s not letting it get her down. 

“At first it was a little ‘Um, OK,’’ Hackman said. “But then I also thought, ‘Oh, it’s the internet.’ People just say anything. But it was funny. I feel kind of bad in the same sense, because [Hackman’s roommate and her boyfriend] aren’t really on social media, and I’m the social media freak. So I felt bad. I feel like I’m exploiting them, and people keep asking me to remake stuff and ask him questions and other things. I’m, like, no! It was a one-hit thing. You just gotta let it be.”

Though Hackman and the people in the video have been getting recognized out on the street or in the Co-Op, she doesn’t plan to let the success go to her head.

“I’m still Alana,” she said. “Trends come and go so fast … [you should] make people dance more though. That’s a fun barter. Barter more and make people dance as a result of that. It brings joy to life and a light-heartedness to demands.  I would have never known he could dance like that if I didn’t make him.”

PREVIOUSLY: 

• Conflicted Board of Redwood Coast Energy Authority Declines to Accept ‘Free’ Nuclear Power From Diablo Canyon
• Redwood Coast Energy Authority to Reconsider Its Decision to Decline ‘Free’ Nuclear Power

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Given the opportunity for a do-over thanks to a process error last month, the board of directors for Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA) reversed course and decided to accept an allocation of nuclear energy into the mix of power it purchases on behalf of local ratepayers.

Unlike last time around, when the board expressed a lot of internal conflict over the decision, yesterday’s hearing at Eureka’s Wharfinger Building proved almost unanimous, with only Board Chair and Arcata representative Sarah Schaefer voting to reject the allocation. However, the board opted to accept the nuclear energy for only one year, while using the proceeds to invest in its renewable energy portfolio.

The vote required the RCEA board to make an exception to the agency’s Energy Risk Management Policy, which bans long-term nuclear energy procurement.

Diablo Canyon was supposed to be shut down by the end of 2025, but with California’s renewable energy development lagging behind schedule, the state legislature approved a $1.4 billion loan to PG&E to keep it operating through 2030. As part of that deal, all jurisdictional entities under the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) are paying a share of the costs, and they all have the option of receiving an allocation of the power generated by Diablo Canyon.

RCEA Community Strategies Manager Brytann Busick told the Outpost via email that the board deliberately chose to make this a short-term agreement.

“This opportunity to accept or reject the Diablo Canyon allocation will be brought before the Community Advisory Committee and Board of Directors each subsequent year until 2030,” Busisk said. “Community input would be sought again. Based on the acceptance of the allocation, there will be no impact on customer electricity bills.”

Reached by phone, RCEA Eureka representative Scott Bauer, who previously voted against taking the allocation, said the decision to keep Diablo Canyon operating was made by Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state government, so the only decision left to community choice aggregators like RCEA was whether to accept the “free” nuclear energy or stand on principle given the environmental implications, including the challenges of long-term nuclear waste storage.

This time around, the board chose to take the power that ratepayers are paying for.

“The end result was we’ll accept it but review [that decision] yearly, with hopes that maybe in a year or two we have so much renewables in our portfolio we can say we don’t want [nuclear] in our power mix,” Bauer said.

Specific allocation amounts have not yet been published, but according to an RCEA staff report, the local agency’s allocation would likely only meet about 2% of its 2025 power portfolio. 

Bauer said the savings won’t be enough to dramatically slash ratepayer bills.

“I did the math,” he said. “As a ratepayer the rebate would be 60 to 70 cents per month, which is pretty much insignificant.”

Instead, he said, RCEA plans to invest the savings in the development of more renewable energy sources.

Press release from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife:

The recreational Dungeness crab season will open statewide beginning Nov. 2, 2024. The use of traps will be temporarily prohibited between the Sonoma/Mendocino County line and Lopez Point, Monterey County (Fishing Zones 3 and 4) when the season opens due to presence of humpback whales and potential for entanglement from trap gear. Recreational take of Dungeness crab by other methods, including hoop nets and crab snares, is not affected by the temporary trap restriction in these areas.

The use of recreational crab traps will be allowed when the season opens in Fishing Zones 1, 2, and 5. As a reminder, crab traps cannot be used south of Point Arguello. In addition, a Fleet Advisory has been issued for all Fishing Zones for the recreational fishery.

The commercial Dungeness crab fishery south of the Sonoma/Mendocino County line was scheduled to open on Nov. 15, 2024, in Fishing Zones 3, 4, 5 and 6. However, the season opener has been delayed in those zones due to the high abundance of humpback whales and large number of recent entanglements.

CDFW reminds anglers that the deployment and use of crab traps in any recreational crab fishery (including rock crab) is temporarily restricted in Fishing Zones 3 and 4 until lifted by the CDFW Director. Recreational crabbers should also implement best practices when fishing with hoop nets or crab traps in open Fishing Zones, as described in the Best Practices Guide.

CDFW anticipates the next risk assessment will take place on or around Nov. 15, 2024, at which time the Director will re-evaluate risk for the Dungeness crab fisheries. That risk assessment is expected to inform the potential for a statewide commercial fishery opener on Dec. 1, 2024, and the potential to modify the recreational trap restriction.

For more information related to the risk assessment process, please visit CDFW’s Whale Safe Fisheries page or more information on the Dungeness crab fishery, please visit www.wildlife.ca.gov/crab

PREVIOUSLY: 

• MAYORVENGERS ASSEMBLE! Former Eureka Mayors Unite to Light Up Old Town This Holiday Season

Press release from Eureka Main Street:

In a show of community spirit, five former Mayors of Eureka have come together to light up Old Town for the holiday season. Nancy Flemming (1990-2002), Peter LaVallee (2002-2006), Virginia Bass (2006-2010), Frank Jager (2010-2018) and Susan Seaman (2018-2022) launched the Former Mayors’ Holiday Lighting Project in September with an initial fundraising goal of $20,000. Thanks to generous contributions from local businesses and residents, the campaign has raised $22,937 to date! These funds will be used exclusively for the display including decorations, lighting, and the necessary infrastructure to support it all.

This project is a collaboration between former Mayors, the City of Eureka, and Eureka Main Street, aligning with the City’s lighting plan. Both the City of Eureka and Eureka Main Street are providing logistical and administrative support to ensure the project’s success.

Building on the decorations already used by local businesses—such as red velvet ribbons, warm white twinkle lights, and garlands – the project will feature twinkle lights, garlands, wreaths, and lighted balls around the Gazebo area, along with a light display over F and 2nd Streets. Installation will begin in November to be ready for Small Business Saturday.

Sponsors for the project include: PG&E, Vineyard Offshore, Coast Central Credit Union, Redwood Capital Bank, RWE, Eureka Natural Foods, Building and Construction Trades Council of Humboldt and Del Norte Counties, Pierson’s Building Center, Jitterbean, Express Pros, and the Knights of Columbus and many wonderful individual donors.

PG&E was an early supporter of the project and is one of the two anchor, or “Santa,” sponsors. “The spirit of cooperation embodied by the former Mayors group is a powerful example of how our community can and does work together,” said Alison Talbott, local Government Relations Representative for PG&E. “PG&E is proud to play a role in their efforts.”

Erik Peckar, Vineyard Offshore Director of External Affairs for the West Coast, represents the other anchor sponsor. He said, “As a business with our office in downtown Eureka, Vineyard Offshore is proud to work with our neighbors and the former Mayors of Eureka in sponsoring the Holiday Lighting Project, that will inspire support for our local business neighbors during this holiday season. We are grateful for the collaboration amongst the city’s leaders and look forward to continued support and partnership with the City of Eureka”.

“We’ve been so grateful for the support of the community for this project,” said Seaman. “This has been our first effort as a team, but we hope to continue into future years to build really celebratory and eye-catching displays that celebrate our downtown businesses, reminding us all that we should be supporting them as much as possible during the holiday season.”

If you’re interested in supporting the Eureka Former Mayors Holiday Lighting Project, they will continue to accepting donations through their Go Fund Me link here.