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In a press release issued Wednesday evening, a coalition of local environmental groups accused city and county planners of employing a harmful and dishonest “accounting trick” in the process of developing a regional Climate Action Plan. 

The groups say Humboldt County, as lead agency in the plan’s development, has resorted to “adopting fuzzy math” to achieve state targets for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Specifically, the environmental organizations argue that the county plans to sidestep meaningful action on reducing GHG emissions by taking credit for the emission reductions already achieved over the past three decades through the closure of industrial polluters, including the local sawmills and pulp mills.

“Through clever accounting, Humboldt County is proposing a Climate Action Plan that fails to actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Matt Simmons, staff attorney at the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), says in Wednesday’s press release.

“In other words,” adds Humboldt Waterkeeper in a release of its own, “the county wants to take credit in the Climate Action Plan for plant closures over the last three decades that the county government had nothing to do with.”

Humboldt County Planning and Building Director John Ford says these descriptions are both unfair and inaccurate. 

“I strongly disagree with the characterization of that press release and I’m disappointed that it was issued without really having a conversation, particularly with me, about what we’re really trying to do,” he told the Outpost on Thursday.

Ford said that he and others who’ve been working on the plan, including staff from all seven incorporated cities in the county and outside firm Rincon Consultants, share the exact same goals being advanced by the environmental groups — namely, protecting the environment from catastrophic climate change by doing as much as possible to reduce GHG emissions.

A key step in that process, Ford said, is drafting a regional Climate Action Plan that the state will actually sign off on, or “qualify” as meeting the goals set forth in Senate Bill 32 and other legislation, and a plan can’t be qualified unless it sets realistic benchmarks and demonstrates how they’ll be achieved. 

A bit of background: The State of California has set an ambitious goal of slashing GHG emissions to 48 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Local jurisdictions across the state have been asked to develop regional Climate Action Plans that demonstrate how they intend to achieve that target.

Over the past five years, Humboldt County has been working with local cities and Rincon Consultants to draft a regional Climate Action Plan, and they came up with one that, per the longstanding requests of local environmental groups, did not factor in the region’s declines in industrial point source pollution. 

But the county hit a snag in its preparation of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for that draft plan: Rincon’s consultants were skeptical that it would be qualified by the state.

“The EIR consultant pushed back on us and said, ‘Hey, the things you’re proposing, we need to see evidence that those can be achieved,’” Ford said. “We can’t write an EIR based on promises that we’re going to get 18,000 new electric vehicles and convert 11,000 existing homes to [fully] electric [appliances]. … We came to the realization that many of the measures in the current [draft plan] are not achievable.”

Cristin Kenyon, development services director with the City of Eureka, agreed.

“For instance,” she said, “[the draft plan] said we’d get 952 housing units with all-electric [hookups] built, but we’re only averaging 20 new houses a year.”

The priority right now, Kenyon said, is getting a qualified Climate Action Plan.

“I think we’re all aligned in that we want to get the CAP done as fast as possible since it’s been five years, and we really want a qualified CAP because without that, nobody will take it seriously,” Kenyon said. “The people who wrote that press press release … we feel same way. We all want to be as ambitious as possible” in reducing emissions.

Ford argued that this was the only path forward.

“We’re dead in the water now, because the money for an EIR can only be used if it’s a qualified CAP,” he said. “We’re adrift without a rudder and without a sail. So the thing I’d like us to do is reconsider where we’re at and establish two goals: one, achieve maximum greenhouse gas reductions from a CAP that are feasible — we need to qualify what’s feasible. And, two, achieve a qualified CAP.”

That may entail using Humboldt County’s 1990 pollution levels as the baseline, complete with all those emission-spewing industrial sources, according to Ford.

“The purpose [of the plan] is to get to qualified, but we’re still intending to be as ambitious as possible [in reducing GHG emission],” he said. 

On the advice of Rincon Consultants, county staff plans to redraft the regional Climate Action Plan to better articulate GHG-reduction measures that are more precise and achievable, according to Ford. The associated Environmental Impact Report will eventually go before the Board of Supervisors for approval, at which point this debate will almost certainly resume.

Here’s the press release from the local environmental groups, including EPIC, the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities, Humboldt Baykeeper, the Northcoast Environmental Center, 350 Humboldt and the Redwood Coalition for Climate and Environmental Responsibility:

Humboldt County Undermines Climate Action Plan

Humboldt County environmental advocates are demanding that local jurisdictions take climate planning seriously. Spurred by the advocacy of local environmental groups, Humboldt County began developing a regional Climate Action Plan five years ago. In those five years, worldwide atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased by ten parts per million (from 408 to 418 ppm). Meanwhile, a draft plan released in April 2022 has languished, and now Humboldt County is proposing to weaken the Climate Action Plan by adopting fuzzy math to limit the amount of climate action necessary to meet state targets.

Humboldt County is proposing to ignore state guidance that directs jurisdictions to avoid quantifying point source emissions in their Climate Action Plans because local jurisdictions are generally preempted from regulating these kinds of emissions. By including point source emissions, Humboldt County can claim climate action without actually reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Here’s how: Climate targets are based off of 1990 emissions estimates. Since 1990, and unrelated to climate change, a number of large point sources of greenhouse gas emissions have closed, like the Samoa pulp mill in 2008. As a result, by considering point source emissions like the Samoa pulp mill, Humboldt County is proposing to claim that it has already met or almost met its greenhouse gas reduction targets without reducing current emissions at all.

Climate activists are furious at the misdirection.

“Through clever accounting, Humboldt County is proposing a Climate Action Plan that fails to actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Matt Simmons, Staff Attorney at the Environmental Protection Information Center. “We know that climate change is directly impacting the North Coast, from sea level rise to warmer waters in salmon-bearing rivers to increased fire behavior. Failure to plan for emissions reductions fails Humboldt.”

“Through this climate bait-and-switch, Humboldt County is only making attainment of future climate reduction targets more difficult,” said Colin Fiske, Executive Director of the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities. “We are obligated to reach net-zero emissions by 2045. The path to reach that target is virtually impossible without ambitious action now.” “Rising ocean temperatures are harming a wide range of marine organisms off our coast, and the Humboldt Bay area is ground zero for impacts from sea level rise, which is increasing at roughly double the rate of other areas, threatening our remaining salt marshes and other ecosystems that make the Bay so unique,” said Jen Kalt, Executive Director of Humboldt Baykeeper. “Humboldt County needs to be part of the global solution to climate change and that means actual emissions reductions.”

“We know what we need to do to reduce our emissions and fight the climate crisis—we need more walkable communities, more bike infrastructure, more public transit, and less sprawl—but apparently Humboldt County lacks the will to actually do what is necessary,” said Caroline Griffith, Executive Director of the Northcoast Environmental Center. “This is a failure of leadership, not of science.”

“Climate change is already wreaking havoc on people in this country with fires, floods, drought, and extreme heat,” said Nancy Ihara of the 350 Humboldt Steering Committee. “It is hard to imagine that an imperfect, but at least aspirational document, Humboldt County’s draft CAP is to be replaced by one that does almost nothing. Let’s pick our highest priorities and get them done!”

Climate advocates point to other areas where Humboldt County has failed to take climate change seriously. The county has yet to create a single staff position dedicated to climate action. In 2019, the Board of Supervisors moved to create a Climate Advisory Committee. Climate activists are still waiting for that committee to be formed. Environmental advocates had to threaten litigation to force the incorporation of greenhouse gas reduction measures for the North McKay Subdivision. One of the Humboldt County Planning Commissioners has expressed a belief that climate action was part of “Agenda 21” an “extremist conspiracy theory about a secret plot to impose a totalitarian world government in the name of environmentalism,” as summarized by the Lost Coast Outpost. And if the county doesn’t get its act together and adopt a serious Climate Action Plan soon, it will also be leaving money on the table - like the $4.6 billion in federal Climate Pollution Reduction Grants available to communities that have adopted a plan by March of next year.

“Environmental voters are going to be looking at what elected officials actually do to fight the climate crisis,” said Melodie Meyer, co-director of the Redwood Coalition for Climate and Environmental Responsibility. “We are tired of empty promises. We need leaders to actually lead.”

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PREVIOUSLY:

• Got Ideas About How Humboldt Can Reduce Its Carbon Footprint? City of Eureka, County Government to Hold ‘Climate Action Plan Public Workshop’ Later This Month
• As the Planet Heats Up, the County Plans to Address Rising Sea Levels With an Emissions Reduction Plan and a Slow Retreat Strategy
• TODAY in SUPES: An Apology, Some Vaccine Hesitancy, a Climate Action Plan and a Code of Ethics, Oh My!
• Supes Advance Climate Action Plan Despite Bushnell’s Skepticism About Its Compatibility With ‘Rural Living’

The death of Dianne Feinstein, California’s groundbreaking senior senator for more than three decades, was announced today, scrambling politics in both her home state and Washington, D.C.

With more a year left in Feinstein’s term, Gov. Gavin Newsom must now appoint a replacement, a possibility he dismissed only weeks ago as a hypothetical — and a fraught prospect as a race to succeed Feinstein has already been underway for months.

A spokesperson for the governor said this morning that his office had no information yet about Newsom’s plans, or a timeline for his selection. In a statement, he praised Feinstein as “a leader in times of tragedy and chaos.”

“She was a political giant, whose tenacity was matched by her grace,” Newsom said. “She broke down barriers and glass ceilings, but never lost her belief in the spirit of political cooperation.”

This will be the second appointment Newsom has made to the U.S. Senate. In December 2020, he chose longtime ally Alex Padilla to be California’s first Latino senator after then-Sen. Kamala Harris was elected vice president. Padilla won a full six-year term last year.

The decision infuriated some activists, who noted that Newsom’s choice had left the Senate once again without a Black woman. Months later, he committed on MSNBC to naming a Black woman to Feinstein’s seat if she did not finish her term.

That promise has come back to haunt Newsom this year as Feinstein’s health problems spilled into public view, including a bout of shingles that forced her to step back from the Senate for several months in the spring. Rampant speculation about an appointment has trailed Newsom, especially in interviews with national news outlets.

Earlier this month, the governor told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he would select an interim senator if he had to because he did not “want to get involved in the primary,” even as he remained committed to choosing a Black woman.

His answer infuriated Rep. Barbara Lee, an Oakland Democrat running for Feinstein’s seat who trails Reps. Adam Schiff, a Burbank Democrat, and Katie Porter, an Irvine Democrat, in public polls about the March primary. Her allies have positioned Lee as a natural pick for an opening because the longtime congresswoman is one of California’s most prominent Black female politicians.

Lee slammed Newsom, calling his caretaker plan “insulting to countless Black women.” A spokesperson for the governor pushed back that he was talking about “a hypothetical on top of a hypothetical.” In the fallout, two of Newsom’s longtime political advisers left a super PAC working to elect Lee.

That hypothetical is now real.

Feinstein’s death comes with intense pressure not just for Newsom, but also Senate Democrats, who have a bare majority in the chamber. Feinstein held a seat on the judiciary committee, which approves judicial nominations. Many Democrats now fear that Republicans will block a replacement, deadlocking the committee and preventing President Biden from appointing any more judges in his first term.

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

Dianne Feinstein, who has represented California in the United States Senate since 1992, has died at age 90.

Feinstein, who faced serious health problems and experienced rapid deterioration in recent months, decided not to run for reelection in 2024, but had brushed aside calls for her to step down from office.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has the power to appoint someone to fill out the rest of Feinstein’s term, which ends in January 2025, and will likely do so soon. 

Statement from Rep. Jared Huffman:

Dianne Feinstein leaves a profound and enduring legacy on so many big issues, from gun safety to reproductive choice, to human rights, to Lake Tahoe and the California Desert. Her contributions to California and the nation are unmatched, and I’m honored that I had a chance to serve and work with her.

Statement from Gov. Gavin Newsom:

Dianne Feinstein was many things – a powerful, trailblazing U.S. Senator; an early voice for gun control; a leader in times of tragedy and chaos. But to me, she was a dear friend, a lifelong mentor, and a role model not only for me, but to my wife and daughters for what a powerful, effective leader looks like.

She was a political giant, whose tenacity was matched by her grace. She broke down barriers and glass ceilings, but never lost her belief in the spirit of political cooperation. And she was a fighter — for the city, the state and the country she loved. Every race she won, she made history, but her story wasn’t just about being the first woman in a particular political office, it was what she did for California, and for America, with that power once she earned it. That’s what she should be remembered for.

There is simply nobody who possessed the strength, gravitas, and fierceness of Dianne Feinstein. Jennifer and I are deeply saddened by her passing, and we will mourn with her family in this difficult time.

Earning $17 an hour at a Los Angeles Jack-in-the-Box, Anneisha Williams has struggled for years to keep up with rent and bills. The Inglewood native is facing eviction, she said.

She teared up describing how Assembly Bill 1228, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in Los Angeles on Thursday, will affect her life by raising her hourly minimum wage to $20 in April.

More than half a million fast food workers will get the wage increase, most of them minorities and women, Newsom said during the signing event.

Williiams said she hopes it’ll allow her to save some money and maybe take her six children to Disneyland someday.

But not all fast food workers are as hopeful about the financial impact of the new law on their lives. Some workers said the wage hike will allow them to keep up with basic bills and rent, but no more than that.

“It’s a relief, yes, but our fight continues,” said Laura Pozos, who works in an East L.A. McDonald’s.

“Sometimes I didn’t have enough to feed my children. Honestly, it’s so sad to go through that, to be in a country that is rich in everything and to go through that.”
— Angelica Hernandez, fast food worker in Monterey Park

The average hourly wage for fast food workers in California last year was $16.21, according to a report by the Harvard Kennedy School and UC San Francisco.

The new law would raise base wages for so-called quick-serve restaurants to at least $20 an hour and create a restaurant industry council that would set future pay raises and advise on working conditions.

Minimum wage deal

The law is the product of compromise. Restaurateurs agreed to withdraw a proposed November 2024 ballot measure that would have undone a just approved, landmark law creating a fast food industry council.

In exchange, labor advocates withdrew a proposed bill that would have linked the legal liability of franchisees’ labor violations to the franchisor corporations.

Newsom said negotiating to get the restaurant industry referendum off the ballot was like moving “a tectonic plate.”

“I can assure you, this wasn’t easy,” Newsom said. “It was a profoundly consequential prospect. Tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars, would have been spent on that ballot to roll back the progress that the Assembly members had made.”

The law establishes a state-run council for five years, with business and worker representatives and a member of the public. They will set wage standards and advise on work conditions, scheduling, and health and safety standards in fast food restaurants, which labor organizers have mostly failed to unionize.

The state’s labor and commerce staff can sit in but cannot vote.

Restaurant industry officials said the newly signed law is the best outcome possible. The industry had been preparing to spend $120 million on the referendum.

Matt Haller, president of the International Franchise Association, said in a statement the new law “preserves the franchise business model.”

“Common sense has prevailed, as franchising is responsible for creating opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people to become small business owners, and this agreement eliminates the existential threats our members faced,” he said.

Working for change

Assemblymember Chris Holden, a Democrat from Pasadena who authored the original and compromise legislation, thanked franchise owners for their willingness to negotiate a deal and the workers who advocated for the law.

“I saw firsthand all of you who gave your blood, sweat and tears,” he said. “To see so many of you today who were there through the process, knocking on members’ doors, sleeping out on Capitol Park, walking out in the morning with bells and whistles to make sure all of us were paying attention. I say, to God be the glory.”

Some workers said they were proud their hard work finally paid off.

“Little old me, Anneisha Williams, mother of six, never thought I could move mountains with the help and support of so many people,” Williams said. “There were so many people against us that told us ‘No.’ They sent these people out there with this referendum and told us ‘No.’ But guess what? We told them ‘Yes we can.’”

While the wage increase was welcome, some workers said they were more excited about getting a seat at the table with the fast food council, even though the deal pared back some of the council’s power. Now the fast food council has authority over minimum wage increases, but it has an advisory role over other issues.

A living wage?

Pozos, the McDonald’s worker, said that $20 an hour is still not enough to thrive — it won’t even help her save money — but the legislation was about winning against multi-million-dollar corporations like her employer.

Pozos lives with her husband, a teenager and an adult daughter with special needs. The family struggles to pay the $3,600 rent, she said.

“This is going to help me to be able to pay the bills with my husband, to have more groceries for my daughters and, more than anything, it’s an important accomplishment since we’ve been going out on strikes, going door to door to talk to legislators, visiting Sacramento for this law to be passed,” she said. But “my life will continue as normal.”

Fast food workers chant at a press conference where Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation boosting wages to $20 an hour at SEIU Local 721 in Los Angeles on Sept. 28, 2023. Photo by Alisha Jucevic for CalMatters

In general, $20 an hour is not considered a living wage in California. For a working couple with one child, that would be $23.81 an hour and for a single adult with no children, it would be $21.24, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator.

Pozos said she still hopes her workplace, and the fast food industry in general, will one day be unionized, so workers gain power over schedules and working conditions and can fight workplace retaliation and wage theft.

Pozos added she is worried that the wage increase will motivate employers to reduce workers’ hours.

Living free

After Newsom signed the bill, Pozos celebrated with her friend Angelica Hernandez and other workers as a mariachi band played at the Service Employees International Union Local 721 office in downtown Los Angeles.

Hernandez said she was “super happy, super proud” to have supported the legislation. A fast food worker in Monterey Park, Hernandez said she has worked for McDonald’s for 19 years, earned minimum wage at times, and struggled to stay housed.

“I’ve lived with my children and husband in a car or a cheap hotel that had cockroaches,” she said. “Sometimes I didn’t have enough to feed my children. Honestly, it’s so sad to go through that, to be in a country that is rich in everything and to go through that.”

Hernandez said a raise from her current $18.18 hourly to $20 won’t be life-changing, but it’ll allow her to buy a candy bar while grocery shopping without overdrawing her account.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to save with this, but I’ll be able to live more freely,” she said.

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

This is a glimpse into the life of Shirley Hammack-Jones, quilter extraordinaire, who has left this world and will continue sharing her amazing gifts in heaven. She is currently blessing God, our creator, with her own artistry, and is certainly enjoying laying her precious, colorful quilts, at the feet of Jesus. Here on earth, if you are a friend, nurse, or animal in need, you are likely the recipient of her skill and generosity and received a quilt, from our sweet mom and grandma. She enjoyed making quilts for veterans, newborn babies, animal rescues, and kids in need, including CASA and orphanages. So many of us are warmly covered with the amazing work of her always-busy hands. 

Shirley met Marvin Jones in Myrtle Point, Oregon, where she was born and raised. She was married for 71 years to Marvin, who sadly said, “So long, honey. So long,” while he patted her arm for the final time on August 23, 2023, when she passed at their home. 

Marvin and Shirley were married in 1952 when she was 16 and he was 20. In only ten months, she became mom to her first beautiful daughter, Rhonda Ann Jones. Five more kids quickly followed: Marvin (Bub) Levi, Thomas Leroy, Susan Faye, Kaylene Louise, and Lavonne Ellen until Shirley was a young mother to six joyously, rambunctious kids under eight years old, all at the tender age of 25. How she managed to keep us all safe was a mind-boggling feat, but if anyone could do it, our capable mom could. With a husband who worked nights, and six exuberant children running wild back in the 1960s, it took an iron-will to stay strong.

We all enjoyed mom’s delicious, depression-style home cooking. Despite struggling to feed us all on a mill-worker’s wages, our young mom made meals from scratch that we devoured, because active, scrappy children are always hungry. Most of our dinners consisted of a fried meat (usually venison provided by dad), potatoes, and a can of vegetables. Some of our favorites included fried chicken, or chicken fried steak, with mashed potatoes and gravy and mom’s own version of Chinese noodles, topped with fried pork, scrambled eggs, and green onions. We also loved potato salad and potato soup, which could also be called clam-less chowder. We had beans and cornbread multiple times per week. Sometimes, we would put beans on buttered bread and make sandwiches. Dad fished and mainly came home with salmon, trout, or surf fish. Mom didn’t love preparing or cooking fish, but she did it, and it was also usually fried. 

Although she wasn’t an outdoor person, like our dad, mom did give it a few tries. She caught a sturgeon, and reeled it in on her own, even though it was over five feet long. Dad was an archery hunter, so she decided to learn how to shoot, too, and she ended up with a beautiful aqua bow. She grudgingly went to agate beach, but not surprisingly always found more of the beautiful rocks than anyone else. Cold hotdogs were the menu of the day.

Mom and dad took up bowling in the 1970s. Like everything else she set her mind to do, she became accomplished and was on a women’s team that won first place at the California State Championship level. She often got the high average award on her bowling leagues with an average that hovered around 176. She had a lot of fun coming in 2nd Place on a mixed doubles team with her son Bub, only missing first by about three pins, which certainly annoyed her. She also bowled a 289, which is only one strike away from a perfect 300 - the ultimate goal of every bowler. 

Mom’s most rewarding and loved hobbies were creating with her hands. She crocheted doilies and afghans while us kids played and fought nearby. She also sewed to save money by making us kids clothes, back when fabric was cheap, and it was embarrassing to wear homemade clothes, because it meant you were poor. 

When she had no choice, Mom often dragged some of the younger kids with her to the fabric stores where we would cause trouble by playing hide and seek among those bolts of draping cloth that were so easily knocked over. Fabric stores were boring to us, but to mom they were colorful escapes. They held promise.  

When making clothes for us was no longer a necessity, mom happily began her joyful journey into quilting and turned scraps of fabric into hand-pieced quilts. She had to learn quilting from trial and error, since her own mother died when mom was six. One of mom’s only memories of her own mom was a sugar pie she had eaten with her. Even though we searched for years to find a recipe that would duplicate the memory of the war-time era pie with minimal ingredients, we never succeeded, because Mom would taste it, and say, “Nope. Not it.”

After her mom died, Shirley, was passed from relative to relative for about three years, until her dad remarried when she was nine years old. Mom said she wasn’t an easy child: it seemed she was feisty from the start, which is what gave her grit and determination in life. 

Mom was eventually able to take an official quilting class at Eureka Adult Ed, and after that she excelled at the precision craft. It was there she learned how to piece by hand using the quarter inch seam rule, which prior to this, she didn’t know existed. She also became proficient with quilting the tops, batting and backs together, with tiny beautiful stitches. But, it wasn’t long before she tried machine piecing and quilting.

At first, Mom worried that if it wasn’t by hand, it wasn’t an authentic quilt. But, common sense convinced her that the only reason women originally quilted by hand is because there were no machines available. Any woman who quilted from necessity, would have loved to use a machine to speed up the process. And, so did mom. She eagerly and happily quilted nearly 200 quilts in one year, proudly using her long-arm quilting machine. This helped her develop an unexpected little business where she quilted for her community, and even better, she gained cherished friends like Carol, Mindy and Geri who had the same passion for quilting, and they spent many fun hours with her sewing, sharing, and giggling together.  

Shirley spent lots of time sharing her skill with all of her kids, and taught most of her daughters and granddaughters how to sew and also quilt, hopeful they would carry on her legacy. 

Distance prevented Shirley from meeting all of her 55 descendants, but she would have loved seeing all of them in a chart like this.

Shirley is survived by her husband, Marvin, Rhonda and Craig Scott from Oklahoma, Marvin Jones, Jr. from Arizona, Thomas Jones, from Eureka, Kaylen McCurry from Redding, Lavonne and Tom Cookman from Eureka, twelve grandkids, 33 great-grandkids, and four great-great grandkids. One great-granddaughter preceded her in death. Shirley also leaves behind her beloved 18-year-old dog. Max, who was more than just a pet, he was her loyal companion who never left her side, with his sweet little wagging tail and soulful eyes, he was always with mom. Whenever we see him, we are reminded that he was a constant, faithful and gentle presence in her life.

We remember mom singing “In the Garden” as special music in church. It was so beautiful. She also sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “Up On the Housetop” when she was helping put kids to sleep. These songs will always make us think of her and will help us to remember her not with tears of sorrow, but with smiles and laughter. Shirley’s sprit will live on in the stories we share, the quilts she made, and the warmth of her enduring love.

We’d like to thank Ayres’ Family Cremation for following our mom’s wishes, and for your kindness and understanding. Thank you to Hospice of Humboldt for your care and compassion. We will be honoring the life of Shirley, our mom, grandma, and friend, on October 7 at 2 p.m. at 1920 Freshwater Road, Eureka. Parking is limited, so please carpool, if possible.

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Sandra Jean Holcomb, age 65 of Eureka, passed away suddenly at St. Joseph Hospital on September 2, 2023 just after midnight. Sandra’s last day was spent doing the things she loved with her older sister. Later that evening she was taken to the hospital where the doctors found a massive brain bleed, which was Irreversible; with her sons at her side, Sandra passed away peacefully.

Sandra was born on May 24, 1958 to Corky and Billie Holcomb in the state of New Mexico. She graduated high-school in 1976. She went on to do a multitude of jobs, including working at the mill. Sandy was a Jill of all trades.

Fast forward to meeting Gary Croan, the father of her two sons, Nathan and Ethan. Sandy also cared for Gary’ eldest son, Cameron. Through Nathan’s cancer and raising three wild boys, Sandy saved both Nathan and Ethan’s lives by catching mistakes made by our health care system. She was our hero.

From painting houses to managing our properties, Sandy was also a caregiver to many people throughout her life. She felt best when helping those in need. Although small in size, she had the biggest heart, most warming smile and a great passion for whom she loved.

Sandy spent her life going to church with her family, particularly Faith Center Forsquare Church and Eureka The Pentecostal church where she could hear her niece sing. She often went to the beach at King Salmon to look for shells or to the thrift shops to search for treasures.

Sandy is survived by her son Nathan and his wife, son Ethan Croan, five grandchildren, sister Colleen and her husband Bill Maynard, sisters Kate Mcmurray, and Terry Holcomb, brother Steve and his wife Dana Holcomb and numerous nieces and nephews.

Sandra Jean will forever be in out hearts and deeply missed by every life she touched. She is with all she loved and lost in her life, smiling down and watching over us. No sorrow or no pain . Until we see you again, May you rest in peace.

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Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office needs the public’s help to locate two missing persons last known to be at a property in the Berg Road area. 

Blunt.

Bailey Faye Aralene Blunt, age 28, was reported missing on Sept. 25, 2023. Blunt was last seen on September 22 when she reportedly went to retrieve her belongings from a property on Berg Road, off State Route 299, associated with her ex-boyfriend 24-year-old Tyler Thomas Burrow.

On September 26, a family member of Burrow’s contacted the Sheriff’s Office to report him missing. According to the family member, their last phone contact with Burrow was on September 23. Repeated attempts to call him have gone unanswered. Neither Blunt nor Burrow were located at the Berg Road property when checked by friends and family.

Burrow

Blunt’s green Dodge Ram (CA License Plate Number 8T73126) was detected by a license plate reader in the Redding area on September 24. No additional detections of the vehicle have been received.

Blunt and Burrow’s whereabouts are unknown.

Bailey Blunt is described as a white female, approximately 5 feet 5 inches tall, 200 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.

Tyler Burrow is described as a white male, approximately 5 feet 11 inches tall, 220 pounds, with red/brown hair, hazel eyes and a beard.

Anyone with information for the Sheriff’s Office regarding Blunt or Burrow’s possible whereabouts is asked to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251, reference case numbers 20230449 and 202304457.

Missing Person Flyer