Roberta F. Page was born on March 5, 1931 and passed away June 25, 2023 at Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka.

She lived a very long and happy life. She attended Hydesville Elementary School, Fortuna High School and graduated from Fort Bragg High School in 1949.

She met Cecil J. Page after he completed his service in U.S. Navy during WWII. They were married July 2, 1949 and raised two children, Denise Page Seelye and Cecil Gary Page.

Mom began her career as a bookkeeper with Crocker National Bank in Scotia and ended her career as the Manager of the same bank, which was Bank of Loleta then.

During her life time she volunteered and was a member of many community organizations. Her favorites were being the Historical Commissioner for the city of Fortuna, and holding a membership with the Sequoia Bridge Club, as well as the Good Sam Club.

She is survived by her daughter Denise her and daughters, Stephanie Saunderson (Kyle) and daughter Kathleen Seelye (partner Tony Shiffman); son Gary Page and his daughters Sarah Ruff (Nic) and Nicole Page (partner Will Edgins) and Gary’s son Matthew Page; great-grandchildren, Page and Raylon Ruff, Aubree and Lillian Saunderson, Natalie Edgins and Christopher Schiffman; niece Gloria Boyer, nephews Jerry Bushnell and Richard (Bobbie) Stone and numerous great-nieces and nephews.

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

Press release from the Eureka Police Department:

On September 22, 2023 at approximately 11:20 p.m., The Eureka Police Department (EPD) received a call for Shots Fired from a residence in the 4000 block of Campton Road. The Reporting Party stated Richard Kuhnel (69 years old of Eureka) was yelling and firing multiple gunshots from the second story of the residence.

EPD officers responded to the scene and made phone contact with Kuhnel. EPD requested the assistance of the Humboldt County Crisis Negotiations Team (CNT) as Kuhnel had barricaded himself in his attic and was refusing to leave the residence. EPD Detectives were summoned to the scene and authored an arrest warrant for Kuhnel and a search warrant for the residence. CNT members negotiated with Kuhnel until 7:00 a.m. on September 23, 2023, when he exited the residence and was taken into custody without incident.

The search warrant was executed on the residence. During the investigation it was discovered that Kuhnel had fired seventeen (17) rounds during this incident. The investigation revealed rounds were fired out of the residence through the second story windows as well as into the walls inside the residence. Detectives recovered evidence that included shell casings and the handgun used during the shooting. Additional firearms and ammunition were located and seized during the investigation.

Kuhnel was transported to St. Joseph Hospital for medical clearance, for a medical issue not related to the incident, and later booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility for a violation of PC 246.3(a), Discharging a firearm in a gross and negligent manner.

The Eureka Police Department would like to thank the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, the CNT team members, and the Fortuna Police Department for their assistance with the peaceful resolution of this incident.

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Sept. 23, 2023, at about 11:52 a.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a business on the 900 block of U.S. Highway 101 near Cooks Valley for the report of a road rage incident.

Deputies contacted two victims at the business. The victims told deputies that while driving northbound on Highway 101, a pickup truck began to tailgate them. When the truck reportedly attempted to pass the victims’ vehicle, the victims made an insulting gesture at the truck’s driver. The driver of the vehicle then reportedly got behind the victims’ vehicle, tailgating it to the business where both vehicles stopped. The suspect reportedly exited his vehicle then began yelling and threatening to kill the victims. He then fled the area driving northbound on Highway 101. The victims were able to capture a photo of the vehicle and its license plate.

Deputies located the vehicle traveling on Highway 101 approximately one mile south of Benbow and conducted a traffic stop. The driver of the vehicle was identified as 61-year-old Jody Shannon Collins. Collins was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of criminal threats (PC 422(a)).

According to AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s 2019 data, nearly 80 percent of drivers expressed significant anger, aggression or road rage behind the wheel at least once in the previous 30 days. Aggressive driving includes tailgating, cutting in front of another driver and then slowing down, running red lights, weaving in and out of traffic, changing lanes without signaling, blocking cars attempting to pass or change lanes, and using headlights or brakes to “punish” other drivers. Aggressive actions such as tailgating, erratic lane changing, or illegal passing have been found to be a factor in up to 56 percent of fatal crashes. While you can’t control other’s emotional responses, you can avoid road rage incidents by managing your behavior and response.

Follow the rules of the road:

• Maintain adequate following distance.
• Use turn signals.
• Allow others to merge.
• Use your high beams responsibly.
• Tap your horn if you must (but no long blasts with accompanying hand gestures).
• Be considerate in parking lots. Park in one spot, not across multiple spaces. Be careful not to hit cars next to you with your door.
• Remain calm and courteous.

Dealing with Confrontation:

• Avoid eye contact with angry drivers.
• Don’t respond to aggression with aggression.
• If you feel you are at risk, drive to a public place such as a police station, hospital or fire station.
• When you park, allow room so you can pull out safely if someone approaches you aggressively.
• Use your horn to attract attention but remain in your locked vehicle.
• If you are confronted, stay as calm and courteous as possible.
• If you feel threatened, call 911.

Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity 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.

Pekania pennanti, the fisher. Photo: Adrian Macedo, via iNaturalist. Some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Press release from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is reevaluating the status of the Northern California-Southern Oregon (NCSO) Distinct Population Segment (DPS) of fisher to determine if listing under the Endangered Species Act is warranted. The Service encourages the public to provide information about this DPS to ensure our analysis contains the best available scientific and commercial information.

Fishers are medium-sized North American mammals within the same family as weasels, mink, martens, and otters. The NCSO DPS of fisher is found in southern Oregon and northern California across multiple geographic regions representing a variety of forest types and ecological conditions.

For the status review, the Service is particularly interested in new information regarding the following effects on the NCSO DPS of fisher:

• Anticoagulant rodenticides and other toxicants.
• The threat of wildfire, including studies or information pertaining to current and future trends in wildfire frequency and severity, and information pertaining to the response of fisher to post-fire landscapes.
• Changes in low- to mid-elevation forests within the range, including the scope and extent of vegetation management on Federal and non-Federal lands.
• Climate change projections to end of century that are reasonably likely to impact the NCSO DPS.
• Any effects associated with population size and distribution.
• Conservation efforts designed to benefit fishers and their habitat within the NCSO DPS that have been planned or implemented after 2019.

In 2014, the Service proposed listing the West Coast DPS of fisher in Washington, Oregon, and California as a threatened species. Following receipt of new information, we revised the delineation of this entity into two surviving, historically native subpopulations — the Southern Sierra Nevada DPS and the NCSO DPS. The Sierra Nevada DPS was determined to be an endangered species, and the NCSO DPS was found to be not warranted for listing (85 FR 29532). In response to a legal challenge, we are reassessing the status of the NCSO DPS and will complete a new 12-month finding to determine if listing the DPS as threatened or endangered is warranted by August 21, 2025.

Although we will accept information from interested parties at any time, to ensure full consideration and incorporation of new data, the Service requests submittal of new information by close of business October 26, 2023.

Information can be submitted electronically through www.regulations.gov under docket number FWS-R1-ES-2023-0123 or sent via U.S. mail to: Public Comments Processing, Attn: FWS-R1-ES-2023-0123, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MS: PRB/3W, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041–3803. We will post all new information received on www.regulations.gov.

The Service will continue to work proactively with the timber industry on voluntary conservation efforts that protect fisher in a way that supports sustainable timber management and local communities. Conservation efforts benefiting fisher are one of several factors we consider when reviewing the status of species.

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PREVIOUSLY:

• California Bans Some Rodenticides in Response to Wildlife Deaths
• As Feds Look to Protect Pacific Fisher, Yard Signs Urge Growers to Avoid Rat Poison on Marijuana Grows
• Pacific Fisher Denied Endangered Species Act Protection; Feds Cut Deal With Timber Industry, Withdraw Proposal
• Enviro Groups to Sue U.S. Forest Service for Failing to Clean Up Toxic Waste Left by Trespass Cannabis Grows
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife to Reconsider Whether West Coast Fishers Warrant Endangered Species Act Protection

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

Zachariah Joseph Powell Booking Photo | Humboldt County Correctional Facility

On the morning of Sept. 24, 2023, Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies were contacted by two victims reporting vehicle burglaries.

One of the victims, whose vehicle was broken into in the Valley West area of Arcata, told deputies that he had tracked his stolen airpods to a location in McKinleyville. Deputies responded to the location and learned from witnesses that a teal truck had reportedly been parked in the area with unknown males looking through backpacks. The truck left prior to deputies’ arrival. While conducting their investigation, deputies were contacted by the second victim who reported the theft of two bank cards from their vehicle. The victim was alerted to the theft after receiving a notification from their bank regarding a purchase at a local gas station. Surveillance footage obtained from the gas station depicted a male suspect exit a teal pickup truck and utilize the stolen card to purchase items from the business.

Deputies patrolled the McKinleyville area and located the truck parked in front of a residence on the 1900 block of Elm Street. At the residence deputies contacted multiple people, including the suspect seen on the surveillance footage. The suspect, who initially provided deputies with a false name, was identified as 30-year-old Zachariah Joseph Powell. Powell was found to be on probation with a search clause.

During a search of Powell and his belongings in the residence, deputies located drug paraphernalia, numerous driver’s licenses, the airpods and other items from the Valley West burglary. Additionally, in the truck bed, deputies located a subwoofer that had been reported stolen to the Arcata Police Department during another recent vehicle burglary.

Powell was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of possession of stolen property (PC 496(a)), false identification to a peace officer (PC 148.9(a)), petty theft (PC 488), theft of property (PC 484(a)), possession of a controlled substance paraphernalia (HS 11364) and violation of probation (PC 1203.2(a)), in addition to warrant charges for shoplifting (PC 459.5).

Vehicle burglary is a crime of opportunity. An offender makes a decision to break into a vehicle based on a perception that there are items of value inside the vehicle, which makes the potential payoff worth the risk. A vehicle burglary can be completed in a minute or less, leaving very little investigative clues behind. Because this type of burglary is a crime of opportunity, there are steps you can take to prevent this crime from occurring.

1. Keep the interior of your vehicle “showroom” clean. Always remove valuables from inside your vehicle. The Sheriff’s Office commonly receives reports of purses, bags, briefcases and wallets being stolen from vehicles. We have even received reports of thieves breaking in to steal a pair of sunglasses. Even if you do not believe the item is of value, remove it from plain site.
2. Be cautious when storing valuables in your trunk. If your vehicle is equipped with a trunk release button on the inside, thieves can easily access your vehicle’s trunk space. While “hiding” items in your trunk may reduce the chance for your vehicle to be a target, the action will not completely protect you from theft.
3. Remove garage door openers, key cards, and house, work or car keys from your vehicle.
4. Always lock your vehicle, even if you are home. In public places, it may be tempting to leave your vehicle windows down to avoid vandalism. However, this puts you at even more risk, leaving vehicle registration and insurance information accessible to anyone nearby and increasing your chances of falling victim to identity theft, burglaries at your home and vehicle theft.

To report a vehicle burglary or related criminal activity, contact the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office non-emergency line at 707-445-7251.

UPDATE, 8:30 a.m.: The highway is open to one-way controlled traffic, per the CHP.

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Highway 101 is closed just south of the Humboldt County line this morning, according to the Caltrans Quickmap.

The closure follows report of a semi truck overturning on the highway at about 6:20 this morning. According to Highway Patrol dispatch logs, the truck was carrying dry concrete. The CHP estimates the closure will last six hours; Caltrans, usually conservative with such things, is currently estimating the closure will last until 2 p.m.

We’ll update when we know more. If there is no STOP SIGN in the center of the map above, then the roadway has been reopened.

The weekend. The eight-hour workday. Paid family leave. Those fruits of labor victories are part of everyday life in California. Now the state’s hot labor summer may have helped inspire another precedent-setting measure, if Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a bill on his desk that would allow striking workers to receive unemployment benefits.

How many workers would get help, and can the state afford to pay each of them as much as the $450 maximum per week? The answers, researchers and advocates say, likely depend on whether California’s recent wave of labor activism continues, and what action lawmakers take to shore up the state’s debt-ridden unemployment insurance system.

Senate Bill 799 would provide unemployment benefits to workers who have been on strike for at least two weeks. Legislators passed it Sept. 14, just before Hollywood writers and studios headed back to the negotiating table four months into a strike that has paralyzed the industry, and as thousands of Los Angeles hotel workers continue their union’s rolling labor stoppages in a push for higher wages.

Now more than 68,000 Kaiser Permanente workers in California are threatening a strike if they don’t reach an agreement with the hospital chain by Sept. 30. And on Friday the United Auto Workers expanded its walkout against major automakers to parts distribution centers in 20 states, including California.

So far unions representing more than 180,000 workers have staged California strikes this year that lasted at least two weeks, according to Cornell University’s Labor Action Tracker. That includes about 160,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists who walked off the job in July, and 11,500 Writers Guild of America members, who went on strike May 2 but reached a tentative deal Sunday with the major Hollywood studios.

Considering more than 1.7 million Californians have filed initial jobless claims during the same period, some supporters describe the potential unemployment benefits to strikers as a drop in the bucket.

“I think we’ll continue to see labor activism until we right-size the economy for workers,” said Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, head of the California Labor Federation, which backs the bill. “But you have to remember that long strikes are usually only sustained by people who have unions, and that is still relatively low density in California and everywhere in the private sector.”

A cost-benefit analysis

Labor leaders argue that unemployment benefits for strikers would level a playing field tilted toward employers, preventing companies from simply waiting out a strike until workers, unable to pay their bills, become desperate.

Employers, who fund unemployment benefits through payroll taxes, say the bill would force them to pay for strikes and that California’s overburdened unemployment insurance system can’t afford to take on new responsibilities.

A strike is “a game where you plan and prepare and tell the employer we can hold out longer than you,” said Robert Moutrie, policy advocate for the California Chamber of Commerce. “We view that strategic technique as profoundly different than being unemployed.”

The chamber estimates California would have paid out an extra $215 million over the last 12 months if the proposed law were in effect. But an Assembly Appropriations Committee analysis put the cost far lower, in the “low millions to tens of millions” per year.

Unite Here Local 11 and their supporters rally outside Los Angeles’ Airport on June 22, 2023. A California bill would provide strikers with unemployment benefits. Photo by Zaydee Sanchez for CalMatters

California’s unemployment benefits average $367 per week, typically replacing less than a third of unemployed workers’ wages. If 68,000 Kaiser Permanente workers were on strike in a given week, for example, and all collected the average benefit, the state would pony up $25 million. But strike action waxes and wanes, and nationally, only about a quarter of unemployed workers actually apply for benefits.

One key question: Will knowing they can draw on unemployment benefits embolden more workers to strike? It might, said Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11, which represents striking hotel workers.

“For workers who are at the lower end of pay scale, who are one paycheck away from economic disaster, knowing that there would be unemployment as a supplement would give workers more confidence that they can strike and strike for a longer period of time,” he said.

Still, he said, his union’s members would be facing off against large hotel companies that can sustain a loss at one property and make it up at others. “Will it make it a little more of a fair fight? Yes. Do employers have enormous advantages in negotiations with workers? Yes … The CEO never has to worry about paying the rent.”

Lessening the risks for workers

Going on strike is always risky for workers, because they can be permanently replaced, said Michele Evermore, a senior fellow at the left-leaning think tank The Century Foundation who studies unemployment. “They don’t have to just deal with the uncertainty of unemployment, but they also have to go out on strike lines,” she said. “It’s not a lazy person’s sport.”

Other economists said the proposed law could create a ripple effect: Companies that know their workers are more likely to strike could make more generous offers to avoid that possibility, leading to earlier contract settlements.

“There are multiple indirect effects here and it’s hard to know how big the indirect effects will be,” said Mark Duggan, director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

“Do employers have enormous advantages in negotiations with workers? Yes … The CEO never has to worry about paying the rent.”
— Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11

For Mayra Macias, the question is less abstract. A cashier and barista at Whittier College in Southern California, Macias went on strike with her coworkers earlier this year, asking for a pension. Bon Appetit Management Company, the food service contractor that employs her, already offered workers a 401k plan, but Macias — who after 18 years on the job was earning about $18 per hour — said she and most of her coworkers couldn’t afford to contribute to it.

The strike lasted 28 days. At times, Macias said, she wanted to give up. She borrowed money from her sister to pay her phone bill and from her daughter to pay her car insurance.

“At about two weeks your mind starts messing with you, making you feel like this isn’t working,” she said. “Regardless of that negativity that’s always there, you gotta get up each day and do it again.

“Your feet hurt, they’re swollen, you’re not eating properly,” she added. “And your bills keep coming in. They don’t know you’re on strike.”

Having unemployment benefits, “would’ve mentally eased my anxiety and my stress of knowing I can hold on one more day and it’s going to be ok,” Macias said. “I’m going to be able to survive. And I don’t need to go to my family for help.”

Other states paying benefits to strikers

New York and New Jersey provide unemployment benefits to striking workers. An average of about 3,000 striking workers per year received such benefits in New York over the last decade, according to the state’s labor department. Three years ago New York reduced the threshold for strikers to qualify for benefits from seven weeks out of work to two weeks; since then the state has paid less than $2 million in unemployment to strikers, compared to $21 billion in regular unemployment benefits, a department spokesperson said.

Lawmakers in Massachusetts and Connecticut also have floated proposals to extend the unemployment safety net to strikers.

Some employers argue California’s unemployment system is already too generous. Employer groups have lined up against the California bill, and a think tank affiliated with the Chamber of Commerce released a study finding that California has among the least restrictive eligibility requirements for unemployment benefits in the nation, along with relatively low penalties for fraudulent unemployment claims.

The state’s unemployment insurance fund currently owes the federal government $18 billion, after the pandemic led to widespread delays in issuing checks to frustrated applicants and an estimated $32 billion in fraud.

Unemployment taxes are experience-rated, which means businesses that lay off more workers pay more. But California’s federal debt imposes an additional charge that’s spread evenly among all employers, which makes them — and some lawmakers — wary about increasing it.

“I cannot support a bill that will add debt to employers who are completely uninvolved in the strikes,” said Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, a San Diego Republican, during a floor debate on the bill.

Much of the system’s debt stems from California’s decision to impose unemployment taxes on just $7,000 of workers’ annual income, experts say — the lowest among states, tied with Florida, Arkansas and Tennessee. (Washington, the state with the highest rate, assesses unemployment tax on the first $67,000.)

Progressive economists are quick to point out that unemployment benefits would help not just individual strikers but the broader economy. With thousands of writers and actors out of work, “that’s a lot of people who might not be going to coffee shops, and you could see them shuttering their doors,” said Alix Gould-Werth, director of family economic security policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Unemployment checks could prevent some of that hardship, she said.

Unemployment benefits’ role

The federal government designed the unemployment insurance system to help keep wages from declining overall, said Evermore of The Century Foundation. Allowing workers to engage in collective action supports that goal, she said.

“This is one of those issues where states have to decide. If they want to be a low road state with low wages and bad infrastructure they can do that,” she said. “You have to decide, do we actually want a high quality of living in the state and not just cheap labor and happy wealthy people in gated communities?”

Sen. Anthony Portantino, the Burbank Democrat who authored the proposal, has said he sees it as an opportunity to discuss ways the state could shore up the unemployment fund.

“Your feet hurt, they’re swollen, you’re not eating properly. And your bills keep coming in. They don’t know you’re on strike.”
— Mayra Macias, cashier and barista at Whittier College

Duggan, the Stanford professor, pointed out that other states — red and blue — have set the amount of wages subject to unemployment taxes to rise as overall incomes do. Connecticut recently did that after its fund weakened due to a flood of pandemic-related claims.

“It’s just good government — if you’re going to run a program like this, it shouldn’t live beyond its means,” said Duggan.

Newsom recently told Politico he was “cautious” about expanding unemployment benefits given the fund’s debt. A spokesperson for his office declined to say Friday whether he would sign the bill. The governor has until Oct. 14 to make a decision.

Macias said she hopes he’ll sign.

For the 61-year-old, going on strike was worth it: Bon Appetit agreed to put 90 cents per hour worked toward a pension fund.

“There’s a peace of mind that I know when I’m old and frail and I can no longer work for these big companies, I will have something come through my mail besides Social Security and that’ll be my union pension,” she said.

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