It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Joshua Nathan Rapp.

Josh was born on July 1, 1974 in Eureka to Ray and Laurie (Polzin) Rapp and passed away on January 23, 2025 at the age of 50. He lived his entire life in Humboldt County.

Josh grew up in Arcata playing in the Pacific Manor neighborhood. He graduated from Pacific Union School, Arcata High School and College of the Redwoods Police Academy. Josh started his working career at Montgomery Ward and then as a service writer for local automotive dealerships. He was well loved by his customers for his friendly manner and personal touch.

Outside of work, Josh enjoyed hunting, fishing, camping, quad riding as well as stock car and drag racing. He was always up for an adventure especially if involved being outdoors. Josh enjoyed watching football with his furry companions by his side and was an avid fan of the Eagles. Josh would have been ecstatic over their Superbowl win!

Josh is survived by his father, Ray Rapp; stepmother, Lucy; his children, Kaylee McKay (Connor), Madison Howe (Micah), and Cody Stone; his granddaugher, Keziah; his siblings, Brian, Dylan and Bethany; and uncles, aunts, cousins as well as lifelong friends.

Josh was preceded in death by his beloved mother, Laurie; grandparents Dolly and John Polzin (maternal); Darlene and Chuck Frint (paternal); and his uncles, Barry and Charlie Frint.

A celebration is being scheduled for late June with details forthcoming.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to a local animal rescue or your favorite charity.

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

Charles Minton, 78, passed away peacefully at home in Arcata on January 15, 2025.

Charles was born in 1947 in Massachusetts to his parents, Catherine and Augustus Minton. His early life was spent moving from air force base to air force base; at the peak of his career, Augustus Minton was a Major General for the U.S. Air Force.

He spent a few years in Palm Desert building houses and eventually earned his nursing license. He then moved to Arcata, where he built a life rooted in service and adventure.

A dedicated ICU nurse, he spent his career and life helping the Humboldt community with compassion.

His life was marked by his passions — skiing, biking and backpacking. An adventurous spirit, Charles was known for his caring nature and his ability to find joy in exploration.

As much as Charles was known for his playfulness and the “seize the day” aspects of his personality, he was also deeply committed to peace and social justice. In the late 1980s, Charles was president of the small Arcata organization Citizens for Social Responsibility, organizing successful art auctions that were appreciated by many.

He participated in local political campaigns for people he believed could make a difference, as well as traveling to canvass for politicians working toward a more just democracy in which every person’s voice matters.

Charles is survived by his wife, Jessica; his son, Miles; his stepchildren, Riley and Leona; his brother, Thomas; his sister, Dixie; his nephew, William; and many who knew and cared for him. He was preceded in death by his parents, Catherine and Augustus Minton, as well as his brother, Bill.

A memorial service will be held on March 22 at 2 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Church on Jacoby Creek Road. Please attend if you knew him and would like to take part in sharing memories and honoring his life.

William Leslie Hebard, fondly known by friends and family as Burgie Bill, passed away suddenly at his home in Southern Humboldt County on January 29, 2025. Bill was born in Roseburg, Oregon on July 10, 1950 to William Leslie Hebard Sr. and Pat-Calista Hebard.

At an early age, his family moved to Eureka, where he became a fisherman and a bass player. As a teenager, he and his best friend formed a band and performed throughout Humboldt County. In the most recent years, Bill was a member of a local band called the Breakers. He was very proud to contribute his own songs, one which was titled “I’m Just a Man,” which he performed with his good-natured sense of humor.

Burgie Bill was a true mountain man and an avid outdoorsman his entire life. His professions, talents and hobbies were many, including being a trapper, a hunter, a logger, a commercial fisherman, a gardener and a gold miner, to name a few.

In the early 1970s, Bill became a member of the Shelter Cove “Mosquito Fleet,” commercial fishing for salmon, tuna and crab on his boat the Burgie, from which he got his name, Burgie Bill. He fished the Cove for over 45 years until he retired in 2022.

Bill’s life was one of profound love, adventure, laughter and freewheeling. He was kind, caring, articulate and funny. He was always willing to help out a friend or neighbor in need and wouldn’t hesitate to give a hitchhiker a ride or pull over to help someone with car trouble. Bill leaves behind a legacy of his witt, compassion, dedication and his love for music and adventure that will continue to inspire all who knew and loved him.

We will all miss you, Bill.

He is survived by his long-time companion Diane Brown; his dad, Papa Jon Mell Sr.; brother Jon Mell Jr.; sisters Wendy Starr (Hebard) and Carla Jean Hanson (Hebard); his five children, Jeff Hebard, Carrie (Hebard) McMahon, Cory Hebard, Chelsea Hebard and Billy Hebard; his six grandchildren, Lacie, Pakal, Shayla, Wyatt, Avalyn and Ellianna.

A celebration of life will be held in Shelter Cove, date and time to be announced.

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

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As cities across California crack down on homeless encampments, the City of Eureka is trying to strike a balance between compassion and effective enforcement. 

At next week’s meeting, the Eureka City Council will consider an ordinance that, if approved, would increase penalties for “unlawful camping, sitting, and lying in public spaces” from an infraction to a misdemeanor. The modified ordinance would allow the city to redirect offenders to community-based rehabilitative services instead of jail through a municipal program called Law Enforcement Alternative Diversion (LEAD).

“This adjustment aims to assist individuals … where other forms of treatment or intervention have not been accepted or proven effective,” the staff report states. “The City remains committed to a compassionate approach, prioritizing access to comprehensive support services, including shelter, housing assistance, mental health and substance use treatment, job training and other essential programs.”

The push to streamline the city’s homeless ordinances comes in response to last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of Grants Pass v. Johnson, which gave cities more power to cite, fine and arrest people for sleeping in public spaces — even when there’s nowhere else to sleep. The ruling effectively overturned the Ninth Circuit’s Martin v. Boise decision, issued in 2018, which held that local governments cannot punish someone for sleeping outside when no alternative shelter is available.

More than two dozen California cities have passed new measures restricting encampments.

It remains to be seen what Eureka will do with the newfound new enforcement powers. The Eureka Police Department and the city’s team of mental health clinicians view the proposed ordinance as a potential solution to some of the city’s most persistent issues with the unhoused community. However, critics worry that the “criminalization of homelessness” will put vulnerable people at risk.”

‘Stop the Sweeps’

The proposed ordinance was first presented to the city council during a special meeting in January. At subsequent meetings, homeless advocates, including representatives from Affordable Homeless Housing Alternatives (AHHA) and the Humboldt Area Center for Harm Reduction (HACHR), have urged the city to adopt a more compassionate approach to the city’s homelessness crisis. 

Nezzie Wade, co-founder and president of AHHA, told the Outpost she’s seen an uptick in “sweeps” at encampments behind the Bayshore Mall and in Old Town, near St. Vincent de Paul’s dining facility and the Eureka Rescue Mission. People living in their vehicles are also being targeted, she said. 

“People leave for a bit because they have to, but there really isn’t an option to camp legally or park legally for anyone who doesn’t have money or resources,” Wade said. “We do not have housing, we do not have shelter [and] we do not have adequate supportive services for everyone to have a case manager.”

Ethan Makulec, executive director of HACHR, which provides mobile outreach and syringe exchange services in Arcata and Eureka, also reported an increase in enforcement.

“In the last few weeks or months, basically every single service day, we’ve had multiple people coming up to us with a story about … a negative interaction with law enforcement,” Makulec told the Outpost. “People’s belongings are getting taken, people’s communities are being disrupted, people’s lives are being thrown into further instability, and from our end that certainly sounds like an increase [in enforcement] or at least a continuation of violence that unhoused people are constantly facing.”

EPD Commander Leonard LaFrance and Sergeant Jon Omey, who leads the department’s Community Safety Engagement Team (CSET), disputed claims that EPD has increased enforcement at local homeless encampments. “Nothing has changed with the way we approach those situations,” Omey told the Outpost.

“Before we do anything, we repeatedly contact the individual in person to let them know what resources are available,” he continued. “Then we [issue] a tag, or a ‘notice to vacate’ form, that outlines the municipal code and [provides] 24 hours for them to stop storing their belongings in the current location, or else it will be picked up by the police department. We don’t just throw stuff away.”

The 24-hour “notice to vacate” is rarely enforced because most people voluntarily comply, Omey said. 

“There’s never a hard line unless [they’re] in an area where there’s absolutely zero tolerance [for encampments], like Carson Park,” he continued. “We’re not going to tolerate them camping out next to the playground. … For the most part — especially if the individuals are out of sight — if we receive a complaint, we will still give them the notice, but depending on the size of the encampment and the person’s condition … we’ll work with them. We don’t just come back the next day and take all their stuff and arrest them.”

If the situation escalates and someone is arrested, their belongings are confiscated and stored at EPD, Omey said. If the individual isn’t there when their belongings are taken, officers will leave another form to let them know where their stuff has been taken and when they can pick it up.

When CSET was formed in 2018, the city was looking to address problematic encampments that had spread into Old Town after hundreds of people were forcibly evicted from a blighted piece of city property in the Palco Marsh, known by some as “Devil’s Playground.” 

LaFrance, who led CSET up until recently, said the program has evolved over the years, shifting from a crime-focused policing unit to more of a social services provider. For the first time in years, CSET is fully staffed with a sergeant, an officer with the county’s Mobile Intervention Services Team (MIST), an Old Town officer, two rangers, a homeless liaison and a volunteer substance abuse/mental health professional. The unit also shares two homeless outreach workers with Uplift Eureka. 

“The difference between when we started in 2018 and now is we’re bringing a lot of resources to people, whether it’s assistance with housing, employment, rehab or mental health,” LaFrance said. “Our foundation is still the same: we aim to balance accountability with compassion. We want to find the underlying causes of why people are on the street and help connect them with resources directly. Once you get them stabilized and they’re doing better in life, society is better.”

EPD hasn’t always employed the compassionate approach. There was a time not so long ago when the department would conduct “sweeps” of encampments on public property, forcibly removing everyone and everything in sight.

“I remember when I started here in 2007/2008, like, eight of us would go out there and do sweeps,” LaFrance said. “It was a different time. We would take property, cite everybody and there was very, very little outreach. That’s just how we operated back then. Now, I find the word ‘sweep’ offensive because we don’t do sweeps anymore. We do targeted enforcement.”

Asked to explain the difference between the two, LaFrance described “sweeps” as “full-on removal” of people and property where “everyone is either taken to jail or tagged.” Targeted enforcement, on the other hand, is focused on “problematic individuals” who’ve had numerous encounters with police.

“We offer resources for a couple weeks and talk to them, then we tagged their property,” LaFrance explained. “We do more outreach, and if they’re still refusing, we’ll probably tag their property again because it’s usually not a one-time go. We do more outreach, and then, if it’s just not working, we’re done. That could [apply to] one individual or one camp that is causing problems. … Full-on enforcement doesn’t work. It’s on the table still, but it’s not the main focus. We’re trying to understand why people are homeless and the underlying causes.”

People living on the street may refuse services for a variety of reasons. Some people might have safety concerns stemming from negative encounters with law enforcement or bad experiences at shelters. Others aren’t willing to abide by the rules imposed by shelters, some of which only let people in if they’re sober. 

“You can only lead people to water so much,” LaFrance said. “After a while it’s like, ‘Hey, this is not working. What’s the next step?’ We’ve tried to help, but there’s still a huge impact on society. … When an individual commits a serious crime, that’s when we work with the [district attorney’s] office and say, ‘Here’s the impact. We think the causation is drugs, mental illness, whatever it is. How do we solve this problem to stop it from occurring in the future? Does this person need to be locked away because he’s unwilling to make the decision on his own?’”

Circling back to the proposed ordinance, LaFrance emphasized that the proposed changes won’t change EPD’s enforcement strategies or the people they target. Increasing the penalty from an infraction to a misdemeanor will provide the department with a more effective tool to deal with “problematic individuals,” he said.

“I know a lot of people are worried that this is gonna be our primary strategy, but our strategy is not changing,” he said. “We look at who’s causing the problem. We have people in Old Town — like the older gentleman I often see sweeping out in front of Ramone’s — who have no impact and keep stuff clean. Are we gonna target them? Absolutely not. Why would we? It doesn’t make sense for us when we have 20 other people we need to deal with.”

Still, Makulec feared the proposed ordinance would actively harm vulnerable people by “furthering the cycle of criminalization against the unhoused community.” If someone is struggling with substance abuse and they’re taken out of the community they trust, involuntary treatment could put their lives at risk, he said. 

“One of the most common times for people to overdose is within 48 hours after having to leave a forced detox situation, whether that’s involuntary detox in a hospital, a forced treatment program that you did not choose to go to of your own free will [or] jail, those are scenarios that are much more likely to increase the risk of death for people,” he continued. “And when [encampments] are constantly being disrupted and people don’t have a place to go … there’s no one to check on them to make sure they’re okay if something goes wrong.”

Makulec also disputed the notion that a harsher punishment would motivate someone to turn their life around. People need supportive services and a safe place to live, he said. “There needs to be places where you can set up your camp, and it’s not going to be labeled as problematic by the police because it’s inconvenient to a passerby or to them.”

The proposed ordinance says the city’s LEAD program would provide “proactive, rehabilitative alternatives to criminal prosecution by connecting individuals with case management and supportive services that foster long-term personal growth and stability.” However, Wade questioned whether the city has adequate resources to support such a program. 

“What are the diversion options for housing, detention or retention ‘services’?” she asked. “In larger cities, there are generally more options for folks, but in Eureka/Humboldt, what do we have? Are they planning on sending people out of the area, much like we do or have done with youth? Who pays for the diversion programs or services since many of the folks who will be impacted are without money and resources?” 

While the ordinance doesn’t explicitly state which diversion programs participants would be sent to, consenting individuals “charged with a violation” would, in lieu of being taken to jail, be taken to a “facility providing social services related to mental health, housing, and/or substance abuse treatment.”

Eureka’s Managing Mental Health Clinician Jacob Rosen, who oversees Crisis Alternative Response Eureka (CARE), was sympathetic to concerns surrounding the ordinance but said he was “very confident” that city staff and EPD “are up to the task.”

“This is something that has to be implemented delicately. As a mental health professional, that’s something that is very important to me,” Rosen told the Outpost. “I think [EPD] has demonstrated over the last many years that they have really made shifts in department priorities and training. The goal of consolidating these ordinances is really to be able to give new tools for very select situations. This isn’t going to be for the person who’s contacted for the first time for camping. This is going to be for the person who’s contacted for the 20th time.” 

The proposed changes to the ordinance would help the city reach the “narrow demographic” of people who are resistant to services, Rosen said, many of whom aren’t willing to change their lifestyle because of substance abuse or significant mental health issues. 

“Some people may be experiencing something called anosognosia,” he said, referring to a neurological condition that affects someone’s ability to recognize their own mental illness or disability. “In those cases, we’re not so much looking at misdemeanors for camping; we’re more looking at, you know, does this person need to be detained for psychiatric treatment? Do they need to be on a 5150?”

In the Field with CSET

On a recent rainy afternoon, the Outpost joined two CSET officers out in the field to get a better understanding of how EPD conducts enforcement and interacts with the people living in encampments. 

Driving past St. Vincent de Paul’s Third Street dining facility, Officer Jayme Clark pointed out several waterlogged tents lining the sidewalk across the street. “This is a ‘no camping’ zone, but we don’t do tent enforcement when it’s raining,” she said. “We don’t have people take their tents down in the rain, we just don’t.” When it’s not raining, CSET officers usually ask people camped on the sidewalk to take down their tents and stow them against the wall or fence to provide access to the sidewalk. 

Asked about previous claims of increased enforcement at encampments, Clark emphasized that the people being arrested “have committed crimes at one point in time.” She recalled one person who, after numerous interactions with CSET officers, was arrested for theft and burglary.

“He’s been in treatment before, and I’d been trying to see if he would be willing to go back into treatment,” Clark explained. “He has a family that cares about him, and they would take him back home. … He was a suspect in a burglary and, in searching his property, we found stolen property, so he went to jail.”

After he was arrested, Clark tried to salvage what she could of his belongings. Unfortunately, there were dog feces, old food, and mold inside his tent, so it had to be thrown away. “We can’t store something that has animal or human waste on it because it’s a health and safety hazard,” she said. “We have to dispose of it. We don’t have a choice.”

As we pulled up to the city’s corp yard to pick up the side-by-side CSET uses to get to encampments in the greenbelt, Clark recalled another instance where she arrested a man for a felony warrant. At the time of his arrest, he was a ways away from his camp and asked if she would pick up his things. She had to throw out most of his food, but said she was able to salvage his sleeping bag, tarps, as well as his children’s birth certificates and social security cards.

“We really care about people; that’s why we do what we do,” she said, referring to her fellow officers. “The last thing we want to see is [unhoused people] with nothing … but there comes a certain point where we have to say, ‘This isn’t safe for anybody anymore and it has to be removed.’ But before we even get to that point of making any decision, we will exhaust every other effort first. We don’t take things to just take things, ever.”

We met up with Officer Dillon Huffman at the corp yard and piled into a side-by-side emblazoned with EPD’s logo. We stopped by a few abandoned encampments tucked in the trees along the Hikshari’ Trail, some of which were in the process of being cleaned up by the city and volunteers with the PacOut Green Team.

“This was a really large camp with a lot of criminal activity that was creating a lot of issues,” Huffman said as he looked out over the cleared area. “I found a $5,000 generator that was stolen from one of the local businesses here. We also found equipment that was stolen from the Special Olympics’ storage unit. The PacOut Green Team came out here and did a wonderful job with the cleanup. … I heard they filled multiple dumpsters with trash.”

While the greenbelt is known as a popular camping spot, we only encountered one person in their tent, though there were surely others further down the trail. Huffman could hear their dog barking and made our presence known. “Hello, hello, Eureka Police Department,” he shouted as he made his way into the trees. Eventually, a man poked his head out of the tent.

When Huffman returned to our group, I asked if he was familiar with the man in the tent. “Yeah, I’ve been working with him for a while, and I know he’s waiting on some resources,” he said. “He keeps to himself, and he just told me he’s trying to stay dry. We’ve been working with him at this spot, and he knows he can’t stay here, but that’s not something I’m going to try to address today. I don’t want him to get soaked and ruin his stuff when it can be done another time.”

As we made our way back to the corp yard, Clark pointed out another abandoned camp and said CSET spent months trying to relocate a pregnant couple that lived there. They were able to able to convince the mother to seek prenatal care, and the same day she delivered her baby, Clark said. After she gave birth, the mother returned to the encampment, and the baby went into foster care.

“It was a really difficult situation,” Clark said. 

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The Eureka City Council will discuss the proposed ordinance — linked here — at its upcoming meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 18. The full agenda can be found at this link.

UPDATE, 4 p.m.: Cal Poly Humboldt sends the following statement about the matter:

The CSU has recently learned of the investigations and will be reviewing and seeking to understand the nature of the claim and will cooperate with the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights in any investigation. The CSU continues to comply with longstanding applicable federal and state laws and CSU policies and does not discriminate or provide preferences on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. CSU remains committed to fostering an inclusive and equitable learning environment that is open to all. CSU respects the diverse opinions and viewpoints of our students, staff and faculty.

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ORIGINAL POST: 

In a press release issued this morning, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it was launching civil rights investigations into dozens of universities across the county, including Cal Poly Humboldt, for alleged racial discrimination.

In most of those cases, including the local one, the universities stand accused of working with The Ph.D Project, a nonprofit network that works to help Black, Latino and Native American students acquire their doctoral degrees.

According to the Department of Education, The Ph.D. Project limits its resources to people from those backgrounds, and therefore university participation in the program violates the Civil Rights Act.

Last month, Craig Trainor, the Department of Education’s acting assistant secretary sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to universities across the nation, warning that federal funding may be withheld from universities found to engage in any “discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin.”

That letter read, in part:

In recent years, American educational institutions have discriminated against students on the basis of race, including white and Asian students, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds and low-income families. These institutions’ embrace of pervasive and repugnant race-based preferences and other forms of racial discrimination have emanated throughout every facet of academia.

The Outpost has reached out to Cal Poly Humboldt for comment, and we’ll update when we hear back.

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Today’s ress release from the U.S. Department of Education:

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened investigations into 45 universities under Title VI following OCR’s February 14 Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) that reiterated schools’ civil rights obligations to end the use of racial preferences and stereotypes in education programs and activities. The investigations come amid allegations that these institutions have violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (1964) by partnering with “The Ph.D. Project,” an organization that purports to provide doctoral students with insights into obtaining a Ph.D. and networking opportunities, but limits eligibility based on the race of participants.

OCR is also investigating six universities for allegedly awarding impermissible race-based scholarships and one university for allegedly administering a program that segregates students on the basis of race.

“The Department is working to reorient civil rights enforcement to ensure all students are protected from illegal discrimination. The agency has already launched Title VI investigations into institutions where widespread antisemitic harassment has been reported and Title IX investigations into entities which allegedly continue to allow sex discrimination; today’s announcement expands our efforts to ensure universities are not discriminating against their students based on race and race stereotypes,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Students must be assessed according to merit and accomplishment, not prejudged by the color of their skin. We will not yield on this commitment.”

The universities now under investigation for allegedly engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs include:

• Arizona State University – Main Campus
• Boise State University
• Cal Poly Humboldt
• California State University – San Bernadino
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Clemson University
• Cornell University
• Duke University
• Emory University
• George Mason University
• Georgetown University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Montana State University-Bozeman
• New York University (NYU)
• Rice University
• Rutgers University
• The Ohio State University – Main Campus
• Towson University
• Tulane University
• University of Arkansas – Fayetteville
• University of California-Berkeley
• University of Chicago
• University of Cincinnati – Main Campus
• University of Colorado – Colorado Springs
• University of Delaware
• University of Kansas
• University of Kentucky
• University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
• University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• University of Nebraska at Omaha
• University of New Mexico – Main Campus
• University of North Dakota – Main Campus
• University of North Texas – Denton
• University of Notre Dame
• University of NV – Las Vegas
• University of Oregon
• University of Rhode Island
• University of Utah
• University of Washington-Seattle
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• University of Wyoming
• Vanderbilt University
• Washington State University
• Washington University in St. Louis
• Yale University

The schools under investigation for alleged impermissible race-based scholarships and race-based segregation are:

• Grand Valley State University
• Ithaca College
• New England College of Optometry
• University of Alabama
• University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
• University of South Florida
• University of Oklahoma, Tulsa School of Community Medicine

Background:

On February 14, OCR sent a Dear Colleague Letter to educational institutions receiving federal funding clarifying that, pursuant to federal antidiscrimination law, they must cease using race preferences and stereotypes as a factor in their admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, sanctions, discipline, and other programs and activities. On March 1, the Department released FAQs to anticipate and answer questions that may have arisen in response to the DCL.

These OCR investigations are being conducted pursuant to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (1964), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in education programs and activities receiving federal funding. Institutions’ violation of Title VI can result in loss of federal funds.

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On March 12 around 11:30 p.m., a Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputy was on patrol on Herrick Ave. in Eureka when he observed a suspicious vehicle parked along the side of the road. The deputy stopped and observed a male subject exit the vehicle. 

The male stated that the vehicle belonged to his girlfriend, “Tori,” who was not present. He further stated that the female with him was named “Crystal”. During this investigation, the deputy identified the female subject and owner of the vehicle as Tori Attebery, 33, of Hoopa, who had a warrant for her arrest. The male later admitted to providing false information due to being unsure if Attebery had a warrant. Attebery was subsequently placed under arrest without incident for the warrant.  The vehicle was searched, incident to the arrest.  The deputy located fentanyl and drug paraphernalia including a meth pipe and several hypodermic needles inside of the vehicle. 

Attebery was then transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility and booked for the arrest warrant, possessing a controlled substance (HS 11350)(a)) and possessing drug paraphernalia (HS 11364)(a)).

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.

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This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

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California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said today he will grant State Farm’s request to raise home insurance premiums by 22% on average if the company agrees to certain conditions — and wins approval at a public rate hearing next month.

Lara’s conditions are that State Farm, the state’s biggest provider of homeowners insurance, commit to pause canceling and not renewing policies through the end of this year. He also is asking that its parent company, State Farm Mutual, give or loan the California entity, State Farm General, $500 million to help boost its finances. In addition, State Farm must prove its need for the interim rate increases at a hearing April 8, where it must present updated and more detailed data.

Lara said he had to “make an unprecedented decision in the short term.”

“I expect both State Farm and its parent company to meet their responsibilities and not shift the burden entirely onto their customers,” Lara wrote. “The facts will be revealed in an open, transparent hearing.”

Lara has been trying to reform the state’s insurance market as providers like State Farm have canceled policies or paused writing new ones, saying they have been unable to charge premiums that match increased wildfire risks.

State Farm asked for “emergency” interim rate increases after fires burned through parts of Los Angeles County in January, saying it expects more than $7 billion in claims from the deadly blazes, a drastically reduced surplus and a potential cut to its credit rating, which could affect its ability to meet mortgage lenders’ insurance requirements. The company, which insures nearly 3 million property owners in the state, including more than 1 million homeowners, had been waiting for a decision on rate hikes it requested last summer, which the Insurance Department had not approved after months of discussions, so it sought special approval for interim rate increases.

Under California law, insurance companies that request rate increases of 7% or more must go through a rate hearing if there are objections by intervenors, as there are in the case of State Farm’s requests. Rate hearings are rare; the last one was in 2015 and also involved State Farm.

If State Farm is successful at proving its need for rate hikes at next month’s hearing, its interim rates will climb on June 1 an average 22% for homeowners, 15% for renters and condos, and 38% for rental dwellings. The company had asked for the rates to become effective May 1.

State Farm would still have to go through a rate hearing for its summer rate requests. Department spokesperson Michael Soller said only that that hearing would occur later this year.

An administrative law judge will preside over the hearing for the interim rate request at the department’s Oakland office, and is expected to provide a proposed decision to the commissioner within 10 days, according to Lara’s order.

Lara’s decision came about two weeks after he called an in-person meeting between his department, State Farm executives and Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group that filed a challenge against the insurer’s rate requests. The same parties also met virtually Tuesday, during which the commissioner previewed his decision.

State Farm General Chief Executive Dan Krause said at the meeting this week that State Farm General was willing to consider giving its California arm a capital infusion of at least $250 million if the interim rate requests were approved, according to the meeting transcript.

Representatives for State Farm and Consumer Watchdog did not immediately return a request for comment.