Help is on the way as we tread through great tribulation. Press release from the County of Humboldt:

Supplied graphic.

The County of Humboldt’s Economic Development Division will partner with global engineering and advisory consultancy, Xodus Group, to work on a critical project to assess and map the local and regional workforce, supply chain needs and upcoming opportunities within the emerging offshore wind industry.

Xodus will undertake a sector gap analysis and opportunity assessment at a local and regional level, actively engaging interested parties to set out capabilities, analyze the broader offshore wind landscape and inform understanding.

By assessing relevant groups across the local, regional and national offshore wind sector, a comprehensive database of interested parties will be developed, paving the way for engagement through a combination of in person and virtual interviews and surveys. These learning sessions will inform key areas of interest in the study, highlighting needs as well as opportunities and actively engaging key contributors to describe local and regional capabilities.

“We need to gain a fuller understanding of the workforce and business resources our region has to offer the offshore wind sector and the opportunities this new industry presents. We hope to identify where we can meet those needs and opportunities, and where the gaps are,” said Humboldt County Economic Development Director Scott Adair. “This project will help ensure that Humboldt County workers and businesses can fully participate in this emerging industry. We are really looking forward to beginning this work with Xodus and our local partners.”

“The ultimate goal of this project is to develop a roadmap of strategic actions that prioritizes initiatives for supply chain and workforce development in the region, driven by in-depth community engagement, ” said Hillary Bright, US, VP of Renewables at Xodus. “By drawing on lessons from existing programs, the roadmap will identify and examine key parameters for effective and equitable implementation in Humboldt County and the greater Redwood Coast region.”

This collaborative effort between County of Humboldt and Xodus highlights a shared commitment to responsible offshore wind development that centers on community and input from those with vested interest. By leveraging the expertise of both parties, this partnership will drive economic growth and foster a resilient future for Humboldt County.

This project is being funded through a Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act grant under the preview of the Humboldt County Workforce Development Board.

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Trinidad resident Angie Harder was left with bruises, a sore back, an eye injury and a nasty headache following a violent attack Wednesday evening when she tried to save a teenager from getting pummeled by a group of bullies, she told the Outpost in a phone interview.

Harder, 53, and her husband, 55, were playing pickleball at Arcata’s Larson Park when they saw a group of six or eight loud teenagers gathered in a tight circle on a nearby knoll.

“Some kid’s getting beat up in the circle,” she said. “He was on the ground with another kid on top of him, just belting him in the head and body – punching and punching and punching.”

None of the other adults on the pickleball courts immediately responded, she said, but Harder said she didn’t hesitate.

“I run over there – this poor kid’s being beat to death,” she said.

Followed by her husband, an off-duty state law enforcement officer, Harder yelled at the teens to stop or else she’d call the cops. Based on her own experience as a kid in the 1980s, she expected that the young assailants would disperse once adults intervened. Instead, the juveniles stood their ground and yelled at them, shouting things like, “Get out of here! This is the way this is gonna get handled! We don’t need the cops!”

Several of the teen onlookers were filming the beating with their phones. Harder was shaken by the brutality, seeing the lone victim lying listless on the ground as his attacker continued his assault.

“The abject terror that was in this kid’s eyes, I’ll never forget it as long as I live,” she said. “He couldn’t even move. He was not trying to defend himself as this kid straddled him, just punching and punching.”

She said her husband moved in and grabbed the assailant, which set off a melee. A teen girl grabbed Harder by the bun in her hair, snapping her neck backwards. Her husband then tried to pull the girl off his wife. “Then it was on,” Harder said.

She described three more teen girls “jumping” her and knocking her to the ground, where they proceeded to kick and punch her body and head. Then one of the girls bashed Harder in the head with a bottle of Gatorade, according to her account. When we interviewed her Thursday morning, she’d just gotten out of her doctor’s office, where she was informed that she’d suffered damage to one eye, among other injuries.

During the attack, she managed to stagger to her feet. “I was out of my mind – total fight or flight,” she said. 

The altercation wasn’t over. The teens turned their antagonism toward Harder and her husband, surrounding them and yelling, she said. Some of them taunted her husband, saying he couldn’t hit them because they’re underage. She said he wondered how true that was, whether he’d lose his job if he was trying to defend himself or his wife. 

“We’re staggering around. And they didn’t leave! They were screaming, ‘We fucking told you guys this is what would happen.’ I’ve never been in a fight in my 53 years, but I thought we were going again. … I said, ‘I’m calling the cops,’ and they said, ‘Go ahead! I’ll fucking kick your ass again!’” 

She managed to retreat to a nearby parking lot to call 9-1-1. While she was on the phone she noticed that the original victim had managed to get away, which she considers a silver lining. 

By the time officers from the Arcata Police Department showed up, most of the teens had dispersed, but three or so returned to the scene, she said, one of whom, a teen girl, was detained.

“She was belligerent and screaming,” she said. “They had to put her in the vehicle to detain her. She tried to kick the window out.”

Reached by phone Thursday, Arcata Police Detective Sgt. Keith Altizer said officers were dispatched to the scene at approximately 5:22 p.m., and while they did not locate an active fight, they spoke with the witnesses who tried to intervene and were assaulted in turn. 

Sgt. Altizer would not confirm whether this was Harder and her husband, nor did he provide any further information what happened except to say that people were detained but no arrests were made.

“All I can say right now is that it’s currently being investigated,” he said. “We understand that there was a video – or multiple [videos] – that we would love to see.”

Sgt. Altizer asked for anyone who sees the videos, perhaps posted to social media, to forward it to the Arcata Police Department. Anyone with further information about the incident is also asked to report it via phone (707-822-2428) or online.

Harder hopes that witnesses may have more information.

”Of the 30 people standing in the pickleball courts, did anybody take a video? Did anyone know any of the kids involved? Who’s the kid, the original victim?” she asked, sounding frustrated. “Also, for the pickleball community: Hello! What are you doing?”

She wonders why none of them called the cops or tried to help intervene. And she hopes that someone – parents or a teacher, maybe – notices the underage victim’s injuries or sees footage of the attack and asks questions so that the assailants can be held accountable.

[CORRECTION: This post originally misspelled Angie Harder’s name. The Outpost regrets the error.]

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Get ready to forage for free art, Humboldt!

On Saturday, mushroom-themed works of art will sprout up in about a dozen locations between McKinleyville and Garberville as a part of the global art scavenger hunt, the Game of Shrooms. The international event, started by artist Daniel “Attaboy” Seifert in 2019, draws thousands of participants every year. 

Photo: Same Sunset Design

How does it work? Starting just after midnight, contributing artists will hide their original, mushroom-themed creations in secret spots all around the world and leave a clue on social media for fungi hunters. If you’re lucky enough to find one of these mushrooms, take a picture and tag or message the artist on social media so they know their piece has been found. Participants are kindly asked to limit themselves to one work per artist.

McKinleyville-based jeweler Alicia Smith, the artist behind Same Sunset Design, will hide a pair of mushroom earrings somewhere on the Arcata Plaza. 

“This is my first year doing Game of Shrooms,” Smith told the Outpost. “I heard about the game through Instagram. It seems like a really fun worldwide event so I’m excited to be a part of it this year … and hopefully for years to come!”

Check out the map above to find hiding spots near you. If you click on the mushroom, it will take you to the artist’s Instagram account where they will post their clue.

Happy hunting!

Press release from Cal Poly Humboldt:

A new international partnership was formalized earlier this week among Charles Darwin University in Australia and three organizations on the North Coast — Blue Lake Rancheria, Cal Poly Humboldt, and College of the Redwoods.

The new Memorandum of Understanding is the result of multiple years of discussion. It was signed Tuesday during a week-long visit to the area by a delegation from Charles Darwin University.

Full Signed MOU (pdf)

The agreement calls for ongoing cooperation and projects that support a variety of goals, including opportunities for students and staff to study, research, and work internationally; exchange of academic materials or information; exchange of information and ideas among First Nations communities; joint research and researcher exchange; cooperation in conferences, workshops, and symposiums; commerce exchange opportunities; and other agreed-upon opportunities.

Charles Darwin University is a remote institution in the Northern Territory of Australia, and it also has campuses throughout the country. The Northern Territory makes up about one-sixth of Australia. It is home to just 1% of the population, of whom 30% are First Nations Peoples.

CDU and the North Coast organizations initially began discussing a potential partnership related to development of the new undersea cable that will connect the areas with high-speed internet. After more focused discussions, and a visit to CDU by a North Coast delegation, it became clear that there was a shared interest and expertise in multiple areas. These include traditional indigenous knowledge, tribal governance and economic development, wildfire management, environmental sustainability, renewable energy, rural healthcare, and rural education at all levels.

The delegation from CDU is meeting with experts and visiting sites throughout the region this week, with a focus on identifying specific initial projects to pursue as part of the partnership. They are being hosted by Blue Lake Rancheria.

UPDATE: APD Provides Details on a Pair of Serious Traffic Incidents From the Past 24 Hours

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As first reported on the Mad River Union’s Facebook page, this morning, just after 2 a.m., a driver lost control of their vehicle in the Bayside area, plowing through fences and power poles before driving straight into the Bayside Grange.

The Union reports that the driver was killed in the crash. Scanner traffic from the time indicates that rescuers on scene shortly after the crash attempted to resuscitate the driver, but gave up the effort.

The extent of the structural damage to the Grange is still unknown, but the building has been deemed unsafe for the time being.

Arcata police are at the scene, and the building has been taped off.

The calls first came into the dispatch center at around 2:15 a.m., with several people in the neighborhood reporting a loud “boom,” or explosion. 

The crash took out power to the Bayside and Sunny Brae areas. It’s still off as of this writing.

One year after Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed changing the U.S. Constitution to place new restrictions on gun ownership, no other states have joined his campaign for a 28th amendment.

Even as Newsom continues to tout the effort — largely through social media advertisements that encourage people to sign a “petition” and donate to his political action committee — it appears to have gained little traction outside of California. Legislative leaders in several other large states controlled by Democrats told CalMatters that calling for a constitutional convention to adopt the amendment has not come up for discussion among their caucuses.

Newsom spokesperson Nathan Click said the governor’s team focused this past year on laying the groundwork for the campaign, which they plan to reinvigorate in 2025, when most states will begin new legislative sessions. That has primarily involved getting the public invested through the online petition, which is effectively a way to expand the political action committee’s mailing list, and by training volunteers.

“We’re under no illusions of how hard it is to pass a constitutional amendment, so that’s why we’ve focused on building this grassroots army to help these legislators,” Click said. “It’s not just a bill introduction. It’s a bill introduction, and people on the ground who are willing to fight.”

But the lack of progress so far raises questions about whether Newsom is seriously pursuing the constitutional amendment, which he has acknowledged faces overwhelming hurdles to becoming law, or whether it’s merely savvy political messaging.

As California’s extensive gun control framework is increasingly dismantled in the courts following a key ruling two years ago, critics say the proposed amendment is Newsom’s attempt to refashion a losing issue into something supporters can rally behind while also keeping him on the national stage in case he runs for president one day.

“They’ve come out of the closet. They’ve showed their true intent. They want to eradicate the 2nd Amendment, period,” said Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, which has repeatedly sued to overturn gun restrictions in California. “He’s staking out this territory for Democratic primaries for running for the White House in the future. He’s trying to take that mantle so that other candidates can’t claim to be the most anti-gun candidate.”

Putting gun control back ‘on the map’

California’s firearms laws are among the most stringent in the country and they’ve only gotten stricter under Newsom, a longtime champion of gun control policies who has signed dozens of bills regulating the sale, ownership and manufacturing of weapons since taking office in 2019.

But the Bruen decision by the Supreme Court in 2022, which overturned New York’s tough standard for who could carry a concealed gun in public and established a new historical basis for reviewing firearms laws, upended that entire system.

Following a barrage of litigation from gun rights groups, judges in the past two years have ruled unconstitutional California laws that require safety features on handguns sold in the state, limit the number of bullets in magazines, ban assault weapons, prohibit guns in certain sensitive places, allow lawsuits against manufacturers of “abnormally dangerous” guns and prohibit buying more than one gun every 30 days. Most of those decisions, some of which reversed previous rulings upholding the same laws, are being appealed by the state.

So on June 8, 2023, Newsom announced a plan to work around the courts. His idea was to get the states to call a convention to add to the U.S. Constitution four firearms restrictions that are broadly popular in public polling: universal background checks for gun purchases, raising the federal minimum age for all buyers to 21, requiring an unspecified minimum waiting period between purchasing and taking possession of a gun, and banning the sale of assault weapons.

“Governor Newsom isn’t sitting idly by while rightwing judges dismantle our gun safety laws,” Click said in a statement. “He’s taking aggressive actions — defending our state’s first-in-class gun safety laws from judicial attacks while simultaneously fighting to pass a constitutional amendment to enshrine gun safety nationwide.”

It’s a route that might be even more challenging than getting a bill through Congress these days. Two-thirds of state legislatures — 34 out of 50 — must agree to convene the constitutional convention and then whatever text is proposed must be ratified by at least three-fourths of states, or 38, either through legislation or conventions. The last successful constitutional amendment was decades ago.

Despite concerns even from some Democratic allies of the governor that calling a constitutional convention could open the door for Republican-led states to propose amendments with unrelated conservative priorities, the California Legislature dutifully got the ball rolling with a resolution at the end of session last year.

“This was supposed to put it on the map and keep it on the map,” said Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a Los Angeles Democrat who shepherded the resolution through the Assembly.

Democratic states not rushing to join California

Yet no other states have followed suit in the year since, including 19 where Democrats control both houses of the legislature.

Click noted that many of those states have part-time legislatures that will not reconvene until next year, after this November’s election. He said Newsom’s team has been working with legislators in other states to introduce resolutions in 2025, though he declined to provide any specifics.

“Given the nature, we’re not trying to tip off the opposition,” he said.

Democratic-controlled states such as New York, Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts and Hawaii did have sessions this year, however, without calling for a constitutional convention on gun control.

CalMatters contacted the offices of legislative leaders in those five states to ask whether their caucuses had considered Newsom’s plan. Many did not respond to numerous inquiries, but representatives for New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, Illinois House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch and Michigan House Speaker Joe Tate said it had not come up for discussion and they were not aware of any outreach from Newsom’s team.

Recent developments in New York and Pennsylvania also illustrate the political challenges of pursuing the constitutional convention strategy — from both the left, where there is a longstanding distrust of the system, and the right, where most gun control policies are anathema to Republicans.

In March, the New York Legislature actually voted to rescind several historic resolutions calling for constitutional conventions, going back as far as 1789, reflecting fears from progressive activists that such a process could be used by conservatives to undermine democratic rights. Dozens of Republican-led states have previously passed resolutions seeking a constitutional convention to adopt a balanced budget amendment.

In Pennsylvania, the only state with divided partisan control of its legislature, a spokesperson for Democratic House Speaker Joanna McClinton said their caucus has prioritized gun safety legislation.

“Unfortunately, our efforts have been blocked by the Republican-led state Senate, where two bipartisan gun safety bills have been stalled for over a year,” Nicole Reigelman wrote in an email, “so any consideration of a constitutional convention here would likely face a similar opposition from the Senate Republican majority.”

Newsom continues to advertise his plan

National gun control advocacy groups have not jumped in to boost Newsom’s effort and appear to be maintaining their distance from the idea.

Despite often cheering the governor’s support for new gun control legislation and attending his signing ceremonies, none was quoted in a press release touting praise for the proposal, published by his office days after the campaign launched last year. Everytown for Gun Safety and Brady: United Against Gun Violence declined or did not respond to interview requests about how it fits into their strategy.

Newsom has nevertheless continued to encourage his followers to get involved with the campaign.

“If Congress and the courts will not take action to help make our communities safer from gun violence, then we — the people — must do it ourselves,” he said in one recent social media advertisement directing people to sign his petition. “It’s a small gesture that can have a big impact when lots and lots of us do it together.”

More than a million people have signed up in the past year, Click said, and the campaign has trained more than 1,500 of them on how they can help in their states. They plan to train 10,000 volunteers by early 2025 when resolution introductions begin.

Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation said Newsom’s proposal has accomplished more for opponents, who have used its a fundraising tool to mobilize gun owners, than it has for gun safety.

He was unsurprised that the call for a constitutional convention has not gained traction outside of California, especially in an election year, arguing that gun control is not as popular as other Democratic priorities such as abortion rights, particularly in rural areas and battleground states.

“I don’t think the gun control issue plays well for Democrats, but they just can’t let go of it,” he said. “They’re like a dog with a bone in their mouth.”

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

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• McKinleyville Man Arrested on Suspicion of Murder After Shooting, Killing Former Partner, Sheriff’s Office Says

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Press release from the District Attorney’s Office:

Today, a Humboldt County jury found Daniel Forrest Rena-Dozier, age 42, guilty of voluntary manslaughter for killing Mia Felder, age 30, as well as guilty for felony assault with a semiautomatic firearm, felony possession of a silencer, and misdemeanor possession of a weapon with the serial number removed. The jury also found that Mr. Rena-Dozier personally used a firearm, causing Ms. Felder’s death.

Rena Dozier.

The homicide occurred on April 8, 2023, on Windy Road in McKinleyville.

Deputy District Attorney Roger Rees prosecuted the case at trial, with assistance from District Attorney Investigator Gregory Hill and Victim Advocate Caitlyn LaHaie. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case, led by Detective Daniel Vickman with assistance from Det. Jennifer Taylor, among others in the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. Mr. Rena-Dozier was represented by local attorney Andrea Sullivan. The Honorable Steven Steward, Judge, presided over the three-week jury trial.

Mr. Rena-Dozier, who faces a maximum sentence of 21 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter with use of a firearm, is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Steward on July 8 at 8:30 in the morning.

District Attorney Stacey Eads commented “Thank you to the jurors for their time and thoughtful evaluation in reaching a just verdict in this tragic case. My deepest condolences go out to all of the affected family and other loved ones.”