Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

Robert Leroy Ellis Booking Photo | Humboldt County Correctional Facility

On May 27, 2023, at about 3:45 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a residence on the 3100 block of Patrick’s Point Drive in Trinidad for the report of a burglary in progress.

According to the homeowner, an unknown male suspect was captured on surveillance video burglarizing the residence while no one was home. Deputies arrived in the area and located items associated with the suspect identifying him as 46-year-old Robert Leroy Ellis, and items stolen from the home stashed nearby. Deputies recovered the stolen items and began searching the area for Ellis.

During their search, deputies located a stolen vehicle parked along the roadway nearby. This vehicle was later confirmed to be associated with Ellis. While continuing the investigation, a Sheriff’s deputy observed Ellis walking on the 100 block of Main Street. The deputy attempted to detain Ellis, who began to flee. Ellis was taken into custody after a short foot pursuit and struggle. During a search of Ellis and his belongings incident to arrest, deputies located the keys to the stolen vehicle and drug paraphernalia.

Ellis was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of burglary (PC 459/461(a)), grand theft (PC 487), possession of stolen property (PC 496(a)), false identification to a peace officer (PC 148.9(a)), resisting arrest (PC 148(a)(1)), possession of a controlled substance paraphernalia (HS 11364(a)), possession of a stolen vehicle (PC 496d(a)) and violation of probation (PC 1203.2(a)(2)), in addition to a warrant for violation of probation.

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.

There wasn’t an endorsement vote, or even a straw poll. But there was still plenty of politicking at the state Democratic Party convention over the weekend by the three Democrats seeking to move up to the U.S. Senate and succeed Dianne Feinstein.

U.S. Reps. Adam Schiff, Katie Porter and Barbara Lee were out in full force — courting delegates in the exhibit hall and making their sales pitches at different caucus meetings, tailoring their messages as needed.

• At the Women’s Caucus meeting on Friday, Schiff of Burbank made his appeal by reminding the crowd of his experience standing up to former President Trump, and said it was women who voted out that “orange-haired SOB” in 2020. His other key tactic: touting his endorsement from Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who was the keynote speaker of the weekend.
• Porter of Irvine pitched her willingness to ‘’shake up Washington,” telling the Women’s Caucus that she has not taken any money from Big Oil, corporations or their political action committees.
• Lee of Oakland told delegates she would bring a unique perspective to the Senate, where there are no Black women currently serving, and highlighted her record of trying to address inequality and her readiness to vote her convictions.

The courtship continued later into the evening, with Friday night gatherings hosted by Schiff and Lee. But their tones were starkly different.

Schiff hosted a comedy night, where he dropped f-bombs and joked about his relationship with his wife, Eve (“She said, ‘Adam, we’ve been married for 25 years. We’ve been having the same sex for 25 years. And I just think there’s got to be a better way.’”) and roasted Republican politicians, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Trump.

Meanwhile, Lee’s event was loud and buzzing, with state and local elected officials singing her praises. Porter greeted delegates Saturday morning while serving breakfast items at her exhibit hall booth.

Lee’s supporters were the loudest and most visible at the convention. But it’s unclear whether activists’ enthusiasm translates into Lee or Porter catching up to Schiff’s establishment support and fundraising. Schiff’s Pelosi endorsement stood out, since the convention was so Pelosi-centered — the theme “Don’t agonize, organize!” was a quote from her, and the official tote bags featured her iconic clap-back during Trump’s State of the Union speech.

A poll released last week shows Porter and Schiff ahead of Lee, but more voters undecided. But if two of them manage to prevail in March under California’s top-two primary system, it may be Republicans — not Democrats — who decide the winner in November 2024.

More than 2,500 delegates and officials gathered at the Los Angeles Convention Center for four days ending Sunday.

Here some other key takeaways:

Organizing against MAGA

Delegates united behind the convention theme: “Don’t agonize, organize!”

And there was plenty of agony after the 2022 election, in which some close losses in California congressional races helped tip the scales in favor of Republicans taking control of the U.S. House.

The party said it contacted 850,000 voters on Saturday afternoon — a priority for Democrats. A Public Policy Institute of California analysis last week found that turnout among Democrats, women and voters of color — all key Democratic constituencies — all dropped more from 2020 than among Republicans, men and white voters.

“We need to take our organizing and our righteous fight for justice all the way ’til November of next year!” implored Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

To energize the party base for the 2024 election, there’s little better than going after Democrats’ favorite bogeyman — Trump, the current frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination. So there were plenty of attacks from party leaders against Trump and his MAGA base as extremists against women’s rights and democracy.

“Republicans don’t just want to control women’s bodies,” said Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, who is already running for governor in 2026. “They want to destroy our rights to live free in every way!”

And Newsom used his favorite foils and one of his favorite phrases: “This is the free state of California! Eat your heart out, Florida and Texas!”

All hail Pelosi

Delegates also paid homage to Pelosi of San Francisco, the first female speaker of the U.S. House, who lost her position after last year’s election to another Californian, Republican Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield.

The party put together a tribute video, and speakers heaped praise on her leadership. “She reinvented that position,” Newsom said. “She reinvented that office.”

Rep. Nancy Pelosi speaks before Eleni Kounalakis is sworn in as lieutenant governor at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria on Jan. 7, 2019 in Sacramento, Calif. Photo for CalMatters by Randy Pench

In her Saturday morning speech to delegates, she went after D.C. Republicans, but also mentioned how much she’s enjoying her time as speaker-emerita: “Do you know what ‘emerita’ means? It means happiness.”

But the Pelosi love-fest didn’t go off entirely without a hitch: Reporters were not allowed to cover the Saturday dinner honoring her.

Dissension in the ranks

The state party is the nation’s largest, claiming more than 10 million members. So it’s no surprise that the party faithful don’t agree on every issue — and some of that dissension showed up at the convention.

While Newsom spoke, some delegates shouted at him for not supporting single-payer healthcare enough. In his 2018 gubernatorial campaign, he pledged to create such a system, but has backed away while in office, though he has signed bills to expand coverage. Bills for single-payer have failed in the Legislature, including last year, a very sore point for progressives.

And while Democrats control the Legislature, they don’t always see eye to eye with Newsom. That’s playing out in the budget negotiations as Assembly and Senate leaders haggle with the governor over more money for child care providers, climate change programs and public transit.

Republican counter-programming

Disagreement with a supermajority isn’t great, but it’s better than being in the superminority.

During the convention, California Republicans were left to throw brickbats and grenades from the sidelines. They tried to spoil Democrats’ party by pointing out some not-so-positive recent headlines: the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office’s report that the state budget deficit is worse than Newsom claims; the embarrassing drunken driving arrest for state Sen. Dave Min; and the big trouble facing former California labor chief Julie Su’s nomination as U.S. labor secretary.

And the GOP criticized legislative Democrats, again, for not acting aggressively enough to go after fentanyl dealers — in contrast to advancing a bill, labeled the “Skittles ban,” to outlaw certain chemicals in foods.

But California Republicans have their own issues, including a split between those supporting DeSantis for president and the grassroots activists who are still firmly behind Trump, as displayed at the state GOP convention in March.

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

On April 20, 2023 Heaven received a most precious angel, Emerald Grace Bartolotta (West). Emerald was born on May 19, 2001 to Charles and Dinah Bartolotta and raised in McKinleyville. She attended Arcata Christian School, Arcata High School, and College of the Redwoods. While attending ACS she was involved in many school productions and loved to show off her acting skills and will definitely be remembered for her red boots and red glasses. As an athlete, Emerald was involved in youth soccer and softball and played basketball and volleyball for ACS. Emerald was active in basketball, track, and ran cross country for Arcata High School and was a part of the AAI program at AHS, where it allowed her to further her artistic abilities.

Emerald grew up on the northern California coast where her appreciation, and respect for such beautiful, natural surroundings inspired a love of painting and photography. She won several awards for these gifts. She enjoyed fishing, hunting and spending time on the ocean with her Dad, her partner in crime. Emerald and her mother were very close and loved going to concerts, movies and on long hikes together. She was always looking forward to her next visit to Arizona to see her auntie. Emerald loved visiting Florida to see her grandfather “Buddy”, sitting on the Florida beaches, driving his golf cart and beating him at chess.  Her trip to Washington DC with Buddy was a highlight for Emerald.

She was involved in several youth and college groups, and attended Telios Christian Fellowship. Emerald worked at the Humboldt County Sheriff’s office as a property technician and enjoyed her work very much. She was collaborative, insightful, creative, a great team player and proud to be a part of such an important process. Emerald had a large role with certain policies in regards to the BWC, body worn camera, and helped develop procedures in the K-9 program. She had great respect for all of her coworkers in the Sheriff’s Office.

Emerald was a bright and shining light to her family and to everyone who knew her. She loved each and every one in her own special way, and possessed an immense joy for life. Emerald was a wonderful, supportive, and genuine friend, who could be silly with contagious laughter spilling over. Most importantly, she was compassionate and tender when needed and focused on always helping to lift up others. Emerald had an adventurous and loving spirit and will be remembered for her beautiful smile which touched everyone she knew. Emerald loved the Lord and His joy radiated from within her.

I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

Emerald is preceded in death by her grandfather Richard McCoy and her great-aunt Rose Bartolotta. She is survived by her parents, Charles and Dinah Bartolotta (McKinleyville); her aunt Harmony Lautzenheiser (Show Low, Ariz.); her uncle and aunt Robert and Lori McCoy (Sekiu, Wash.); grandparents Dennis and Debbie Gibson (Bakersfield), Eileen McCoy (Bakersfield), Charles Bartolotta (Kissimmee, Fla.); cousins Molly and Ryan McCoy (Sekiu, Wash.) and Tyler Lautzenheiser (Show Low, Ariz.)

Family and friends are invited to attend Emerald’s Celebration of Life on Saturday, June 10, at 1 p.m. at Trinity Baptist Church in Arcata.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Arcata Christian School where a scholarship has been created in remembrance of her.

“Precious jewel, you glow, you shine, reflecting all the good things in the world.” – Maya Angelou

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Elizabeth JoAnne Bush passed away on May 24, 2023. She was 80 years old. JoAnne was born in Ramsey, Minnesota, on September 18, 1942, to Woody and Claire Whichello. She joined her teenage brother Skip and not long after that, her beloved younger brother Dick completed the family.

JoAnne’s early life was spent in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. She attended Sibley High School and then St. Cloud State University where she made many lifelong friends. She spent her summers during college working in Yellowstone Park, along with many other college students, and those memories were some of her fondest. It was there in 1966 at the Old Faithful Lodge where she met Jim Bush, who was on leave from his Air Force base in Montana. They had a whirlwind courtship, marrying three months after they met.

Jim and JoAnne settled in Humboldt County where Jim’s family lived. There they raised two daughters, Julie and Jamie. Jim and JoAnne devoted the next 20 years to family adventures including road trips, ski trips, fishing at Lewiston Lake, and idyllic extended family time at the family’s Chezem Ranch property on Redwood Creek. In addition to organizing the adventures, JoAnne was a Bluebird and Campfire girl leader, PTO president, classroom aid, and supporter from the stands of lots of volleyball games. As her kids grew older, she found time to work at a couple of long-time Arcata businesses: Hensel’s Hardware and Arcata Stationers.

Some of JoAnne’s happiest times were spent as the beloved “Pink Gramma” to her granddaughters, Rachel and Alley. She babysat them, read to them endlessly, and generally spoiled them as only a grandmother can do. She attended school events, sporting events, dance and piano recitals, and was so proud to see them grow up into strong young women.

JoAnne was a friend to many, with a great sense of humor and a lifelong love of all things Elvis. She loved to travel and finally made it to Graceland on one of her trips. She especially liked taking cruises in the later years, including the Hawaiian Islands, Mexico, the Panama Canal, and the Mississippi River.

JoAnne is survived by her daughters Julie Perry (Ron), and Jamie Bush; and granddaughters Rachel Perry and Alley Perry. She was preceded in death by her parents Woody and Claire Whichello; brothers Skip Marsden and Dick Whichello; and her beloved husband Jim Bush.

We will miss her stories, her sense of humor, and her quest to always “have something to look forward to”.

JoAnne’s life will be celebrated at a private family gathering.

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“Instead of pursuing a career as a plant eater, carnivore or generalist, [our ancestors] tried a strange, dual strategy: some would hunt, others would gather, and they’d share whatever they acquired.”

— Herman Pontzer, evolutionary anthropologist. Scientific American January 2023

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Every now and then, I’ll stumble upon a new list of [hu]mankind’s greatest inventions. Topping the list are usually such traditional favorites as fire, toolmaking, agriculture, the wheel, ships, the printing press, not to mention flush toilets and smartphones. I’ve long held that our greatest invention, one that necessarily had to precede all these and made them all possible, was something I think all those list-makers overlooked:

Baskets.

Until around three million years ago, our ancestors got their life-giving calories by foraging individually for food, the same as the living apes do today: eating fruits and leaves straight off the trees, garnished with the occasional ant or small rodent. Except the youngsters, who depend on their mothers for the first years of life—so they’re limited to just one or two offspring at a time, since more would beyond mom’s capacity to nurse. Unlike human children, young chimps, gorillas, orangutans and other primates are independent by the time they’re three or four years old. (I know humans still dependent on their folks into their twenties and thirties!)

What changed was sharing. At some point, individual meals became group meals, as our foremothers gathered and our forefathers hunted, bringing the food back to camp and divvying up the spoils. That switch, individual to communal, happened about 100,000 generations ago, say three million years, and it preceded everything else that made us human: toolmaking, fire, language, the whole set of skills that culminated in us. (Including the next big thing, agriculture, but that had to wait until about 10,000 years ago.)

So what made the switch possible, from solitary eating right where the food was, to communal noshing back at camp? The basket. Especially for foragers. Just how many roots or pieces of fruit can you carry in your hands? Not a lot. It takes some sort of container if you’re going to bring a worthwhile amount back to where the gang is hanging. Hence baskets. Easily made, of course—a folded up leaf, a hollow log, a few reeds or sticks woven together—but a basket increases your carrying capacity what, ten times? A hundred times?

(If you don’t believe me, try shopping at Winco without a basket or cart.)

According to Herman Pontzer (quoted above), the cooperative approach to food-gathering “placed a premium on intelligence, and over millennia brain size began to increase.” So the invention of the basket led to big brains which led to everything else that big brains figured out.

There was, however, a downside. (Isn’t there always?) Big brains have a cost in terms of calories—fully 20% of the food we eat goes to powering them, not to mention our big, hungry babies who need to be fed for a decade or more. We humans figured out how to be more efficient food gatherers than other apes, but then we blew it by creating a lifestyle that needs many more calories than they do. And that goes for even the least “civilized” of our species, the few human hunter-gatherers still alive today, the Hadza people of northern Tanzania. Turns out, our closest primate relatives spend half as much energy per day acquiring food as do the Hazda.

But then apes don’t have baskets.

Look what the cat dragged in! It’s Gregg Foster, executive director of the Redwood Region Economic Development Commission, here to drink our tea!

Seriously, though: The Outpost’s John Kennedy O’Connor was delighted to welcome this SoHum boy-made-good to Humboldt Tea Time, and to hear his tales from the trenches. Foster is ideally placed to take the broad view of the Humboldt County economy, not only from his childhood during the timber years and the beginnings of the first weed boom, not only from his previous work in the development of Humboldt County air service and redundant broadband, but from his day-to-day, finger-on-pulse work with local businesses as RREDC’s lead staffer.

How well is Humboldt recovering from COVID? Are we on the brink of big new things, and will our infrastructure be able to handle those things? He has thoughts.

Full disclosure: Foster is a (blessedly) former general manager of Lost Coast Communications, the parent company of the Lost Coast Outpost, which, we learn here to our astonishment, was actually his idea.

Today’s official tea-time snack is a Bananas Foster Tartlet — coincidentally, the very nickname Gregg’s UC Davis fraternity brothers assigned him during Pledge Week. Caramelize your Cavendishes, get your PG Tips a-steepin’, then press play to join us!

For offshore wind to be successful, there will need to be considerable investment in Humboldt County — big infrastructure, like new transmission lines and substations, but also investment in housing, healthcare, childcare and other “human infrastructure.” On this week’s show, we talk about how we can draw out community benefits from offshore wind development.

Erik Peckar of Vineyard Power joins the show to provide the experience and perspective of residents of Martha’s Vineyard, a community that has already negotiated community benefit agreements related to offshore wind. Eddie Ahn of Brightline Defense talks about his experience negotiating community benefit agreements for other non-wind projects. Katerina Oskarsson of the CORE Hub at the Humboldt Area Foundation discusses her organization’s work to develop community priorities for investments. 

What do you think needs to be developed for offshore wind to be successful?