Medical insurance delays can keep someone in a hospital bed much longer than they need to be waiting for after-care services like home health care. Those delays can also block hospitals from using beds needed for new patients.

California hospitals have long complained about those delays, and in a new lawsuit, they’re suing one of the state’s largest health insurers to force it to speed its approvals of secondary treatment.

The California Hospital Association, which represents more than 400 hospitals, filed the complaint against Anthem Blue Cross in Los Angeles County Superior Court Tuesday. The complaint alleges Anthem is violating the state’s long-standing patient protection laws, which require insurers to provide health care in a timely manner, and engaging in unfair business practices. It also claims that Anthem refuses to pay for the excess hospital days caused by its delays.

“Anthem’s misconduct creates an impossible situation for patients and hospitals,” the lawsuit states.

Although the lawsuit targets Anthem, hospital association President Carmela Coyle said delayed discharges are an industry-wide problem.

“This is a long time coming,” Coyle said. “California has some of the strongest laws in the nation governing insurance protection of patients, and these laws are violated every day.”

A spokesperson for Anthem said the company did not have an immediate response and would be investigating the allegations.

Anthem is the largest health insurer in the state, excluding Kaiser Permanente which contracts almost exclusively with its own hospitals. Anthem represents approximately 6 million Californians, nearly twice as many as the next biggest insurer.

Every day, 4,500 Californians spend unnecessary time in hospital beds waiting for health insurers to approve their discharge to a secondary facility, a recent report from the California Hospital Association says. That results in 1 million days of needless hospital care annually, the report said.

Coyle said the association has raised the issue with the Department of Managed Health Care, which oversees most health insurers.

In a statement, department spokesperson Kevin Durwara said the agency has been meeting with the hospital association to address hospitals’ “concerns and challenges” with insurance delays since 2021. The meetings resulted in a letter issued to insurers in Fresno County, where hospital capacity was particularly limited, instructing them to make it easier for hospitals to discharge patients.

State law does not specify how quickly insurers must approve hospital discharges to post-acute care and that complaints about delays are addressed on a case-by-base basis, the statement said. State law does however define how quickly patients need to be able to see a doctor for appointments.

Anthem met the access standards for urgent and non-urgent appointments 66% of the time in 2022, according to the most recent state data.

How insurance delays hold back patients

In general, health insurers are required by law to arrange for and authorize post-hospitalization care for patients in a timely manner. For example, a stroke patient may no longer need to be hospitalized but may need to be sent to a skilled nursing facility to continue recovering. Hospitals are not allowed to discharge patients who need additional services without authorization from insurers.

Patients who no longer need to be hospitalized spend an average of 14 extra days in the hospital as a result of insurance delays, according to a recent point-in-time survey from the hospital association. Those who need to be transferred to a mental health facility are stuck for even longer, spending 27 unnecessary days in the hospital on average.

Medi-Cal patients fare the worst, accounting for 46% of all unwarranted hospital days, according to the survey.

“This is basically a daily occurrence,” said Vicki White, chief nursing officer at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Santa Clarita.

Across the state, the hospital association estimates delays cost hospitals an estimated $3.25 billion in unneeded hospitalization each year and contributes to overcrowded conditions in hospitals and emergency rooms.

Last winter during the seasonal respiratory virus surge, White said her emergency department had between 20-30 people waiting for a bed daily, in part, because discharge delays prevented the hospital from freeing up bed space.

“We are blocking 4,500 beds a day for people who need care,” Coyle said. “That is a serious problem.”

California doctors see long waits

The average number of days patients spend in hospitals increased by 9% in 2022 compared to 2019, partially because of discharge delays, according to a report from the California Health Care Foundation.

Dr. Sean Mairano, chief medical officer at Enloe Health in Chico, said in his experience insurance denials and delays have gotten worse over time. Frequently insurers will take days to respond to a request from a physician or won’t respond at all.

For example, the lawsuit describes a patient with “catatonic schizophrenia” that needed to be admitted to a full-time psychiatric treatment center. The lawsuit alleges that Anthem’s delays in finding an appropriate facility for the patient to be discharged to resulted in eight extra days of hospitalization.

“In extreme cases, people will be here for weeks or months on end awaiting decisions from insurance companies,” Mairano said.

What results is patients not getting the speech or physical therapy or other services they need to fully recover. Sometimes, patients get so frustrated they leave the hospital against medical advice and end up back in the emergency room days later, Mairano said.

“From the clinician’s standpoint it’s obviously frustrating (but) it’s really the patients who are stuck in the middle. It’s not their fault. They’re just trying to get well,” Mairano said.

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Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

The Calmatters Ideas Festival takes place June 5-6! Find out more and get your tickets at this link.

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

The money at Colonial Donuts was gone before dawn, again. This time, so was the cash register.

Three people had walked in just before 6 a.m on March 1. One jumped over the counter and ripped out the register. Another held up a golf club. The other used the shop’s yellow “wet floor” sign to keep the front door open.

It was the fourth time in 10 months the 24-hour donut shop — a local haunt on Lakeshore Avenue in Oakland — was robbed, enough for store owner Phing Yamamoto to tell her employees: “Do not even try to risk it or question it. Whatever they ask for, just appease.”

Hits on Yamamoto’s shop — and many other retailers big and small — are fueling a growing frustration about crime in California. While violent and property crime rates have increased statewide since 2020, they remain relatively low compared to the 1980s and 1990s, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

Recent rising crime — highlighted by tales and videos of shoplifting, robberies and “smash-and-grabs” — has reignited a policy debate among local and state elected officials, who are vowing to curtail retail crime.

Much of their focus is on whether to overhaul Proposition 47 — a voter-approved law in 2014 that lowered penalties for petty thefts and minor drug offenses.

But the proposed changes would only address a sliver of the concerns among many Californians: By primarily targeting petty crimes, they do not address robberies or other violent felonies, which some residents and business owners now confront more frequently. Without a clear answer in sight, they are considering different solutions.

Critics of Prop. 47 have long blamed it for a rise in crime, even though data on its effectiveness is far from conclusive. Statewide associations representing district attorneys, police chiefs and sheriffs — as well as mayors in San Francisco and San Jose — are backing a proposed ballot measure to roll back Prop. 47. Last week, the anti-Prop 47 campaign turned in 900,000 signatures, making it likely the measure will qualify for the November ballot.

Meanwhile, California’s top Democrats, reluctant to change Prop. 47, are instead pushing legislation that would create new crimes and toughen penalties for organized retail theft and repeat offenders. Attorney General Rob Bonta told reporters earlier this month the legislation is necessary even though data on retail theft is mixed.

“We have seen with our own eyes and our own lived experiences the unacceptable, brazen, bold organized retail crimes,” he said. “We can’t have flash mobs going into a store and stealing.”

A security guard works the front entrance of a Neiman Marcus store in downtown San Francisco on April 15, 2024. Photo by Loren Elliott for CalMatters

Those bills put legislative leaders at odds with more progressive Democrats, who argue that rehabilitation programs, not incarceration, are the solution to crime. Putting more people behind bars could send the state back to the 1980s and 1990s, when the prison population swelled so much that the California Supreme Court ordered the state to reduce it, they said. They also point to studies showing that the likelihood of getting caught, instead of the severity of punishment, is what deters people from crime.

Yamamoto, however, has not heard of Prop. 47. Nor has she followed the debate in Sacramento. The repeated robberies forced her to step up security: more lights in the store, locked gates in the back, and a service window open when employees feel unsafe at night, even though that meant less business.

What could policymakers do to help?

“I don’t know what the answer is,” Yamamoto said. “But something’s got to change. We can’t continue on this road.”

‘Infuriated and feeling defeated’

Donuts are Yamamoto’s family business. Her parents, both Chinese immigrants, bought the donut shop in the 1980s. It now has two locations — one on Lakeshore Avenue and another in the Montclair neighborhood.

In 2017, Yamamoto left a full-time job with Apple to take over the donut shop, where she started working when she was 9. “It’s second nature to me,” she said.

Being open 24 hours is a big selling point: When the Raiders and the Warriors still played in Oakland, the donut shop was bustling after night games. “Most of the fans would come out like, ‘Hey, what’s open?’ We are open,” she said.

But nighttime business isn’t what it used to be. And over the years, families Yamamoto knows have left the city for better schools or “somewhere that is safer,” she said. Some fast food chains — such as Denny’s and In-N-Out Burger — have closed stores this year in Oakland, citing crime concerns.

In Oakland, violent crime has climbed since 2018, although it’s nowhere near where it was in 1992, when the city recorded more than 10,000 cases, according to the California Department of Justice. Over the past decade, the number of reported property crimes was mostly trending downward, but after a dip during the pandemic in 2020, the number of cases steadily increased, with the biggest spike in auto thefts, data shows.

Last year, violent crime in Oakland spiked by 21%, city data shows. Robberies jumped by 38% and car thefts, 45%. In response, Gov. Gavin Newsom sent 120 California Highway Patrol officers to Oakland and the East Bay in February. Earlier this month, the agency reported making 181 arrests and recovering 414 stolen vehicles and 31 “crime-linked firearms,” the governor’s office said.

Last June, three men robbed Yamamoto’s shop. One man dragged the cashier across the bakery, pointed a gun at him and forced him to open the cash register. Six months later, the shop was robbed twice in the same week. One of the robbers grabbed a donut on the way out, Yamamoto said.

She said she never filed an insurance claim for the losses, worried it would hike her premiums. On top of the robberies, her delivery van was stolen, and someone attempted to steal her backup van, she said. The incidents scared workers, and Yamamoto is worried she won’t be able to retain staff in the future.

“(My dad) has never been more infuriated and feeling defeated at the same time,” Yamamoto said. “He’s like, ‘I work so hard, I come to this country, I own a business, and then this is what happens.’”

Why not just leave Oakland?

That would be the easy way out, Yamamoto said.

“We are such a dynamic city, and vibrant, and I want us to be in a better light,” she said. “This is a community that I want to be a part of, and I kind of want to just see it through.”

‘Every theft impacts us’

Across the Bay in San Francisco, Anthony Bernardo has been lucky. His customers tell tales of apartment break-ins. He sees people getting arrested around the corner “every other day,” he said. A liquor store down the street had been robbed a few days ago, and the employee was too terrified to speak to a CalMatters reporter.

Bernardo works at the Magic Flower Cannabis Dispensary, across the street from one of San Francisco’s busiest fire stations, in the Tenderloin District. Fire trucks whoosh by every 45 minutes or so, Bernardo said. And as if on cue, one of them raced by, the blaring sirens drowning out Bernardo as he spoke.

While the store hasn’t been robbed in the seven months Bernardo had worked there, he said his car had been broken into. The only thing missing was his lunch (chicken teriyaki), he said: “Maybe they needed the food more than me.”

Anthony Bernardo welcomes customers at a cannabis dispensary in downtown San Francisco on April 10, 2024. Photo by Laure Andrillon for CalMatters

From robberies to car thefts, crime is falling in the city this year, according to a San Francisco Standard analysis of police data this spring.

But Bernardo, a city native, said crime is receiving more attention now because word travels fast through social media. In March, San Francisco voters approved two ballot measures to subject welfare recipients to drug screening and loosening restrictions on police chases and surveillance. On Tuesday, Mayor London Breed proposed an ordinance that would require a curfew among some Tenderloin District businesses between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m.

But Bernardo is skeptical that any new laws would fix much, especially if they are not followed up.

“You don’t really see no change,” he said. “I think it has a lot to do with election years and just trying to win over voter appeal.”

For Bernardo, the solution to petty crime is more rehabilitation centers.

“Because after you get out of jail downtown, you walk right back up the street, you are in the mix of everything again,” he said, pointing in the jail’s direction. “It’s like a never-ending cycle.”

He also said that retailers should hire those who were formerly incarcerated. “It’s tough dealing with all the losses that you take as a business, but then at the same time, people are out there hungry, and they don’t have jobs and they don’t have money,” he said.

Ten minutes east of Bernardo’s business is Postscript, a gift shop a block away from the pyramid-shaped Transamerica skyscraper. After two shopliftings within the same week, shop owner Chandler Tang posted the security camera footage on TikTok, voicing her frustration. Videos showed two well-dressed women quietly picking up items and stuffing them in the bag or underneath the coat.

“We are a small business, so every theft impacts us,” Tang said on the TikTok video.

The women looked like they “come from means,” but still stole gifts, she said. “While I don’t support stealing, there’s something a bit different when someone might not be able to afford to eat or afford baby formula to feed their children,” she said.

Now, Tang only displays a set amount of merchandise, so it’s easier for staff to spot missing items. She added cameras and plans to have a video stream customers can see when they shop. She has put up “Smile, you are on camera” signs but wants to add a fun twist: “Make it like a selfie moment.”

Changing Prop. 47 isn’t top of mind for Tang, either. While she agrees the threshold for charging petty thefts as felonies should be reduced from $950 to $400, Tang wondered how a small gift shop like hers would ever reach that threshold.

What would help: Better networks where business owners share tips and tools to prevent shoplifting, or grants for small businesses to offset the cost of stolen goods, Tang said.

“I feel like we have to be the ones to take in our hands for something to actually be done,” she said.

‘Facing the consequences’

But some of those directly affected by more violent crimes have a different perspective.

“People may not understand the impact of crime unless you became the victims yourself,” said Carl Chan, president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. While Chan and the chamber support rehabilitation programs helping formerly incarcerated people, he argued prison sentences are a necessary penalty and deterrent.

In 2021, Chan was punched in the back of the head by James Ramsey, who was on parole and was arrested the same day. Chan said his attacker shouted an anti-Asian slur. In February 2022, Ramsey was sentenced to 18 months in jail, according to The Mercury News.

Ramsey was homeless and diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia when the attack occurred. A GoFundMe page raised $12,000 in 2022 for his treatment, food, clothes and housing. But last year, Ramsey was arrested again for assaulting an 88-year-old Asian woman in San Francisco. Chan argued that the incident sends a message that crime was “financially rewarded.”

“There are certain people that will not change. They should not be out,” he said.

Carl Chan, president of Oakland’s Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, near his office in Oakland on April 11, 2024. Photo by Laure Andrillon for CalMatters

Chan is applying the same philosophy to retail crimes. While he’s a critic of Prop. 47, Chan argued that enforcement under existing law is a problem. Eventually, more police presence would help prevent crimes from being committed in the first place, he said.

In Oakland, the number of funded sworn police officers held steady between 1991 and 2022 at about 710, according to data from the California Department of Justice. As of October, the department had 909 officers, with another 67 positions unfilled, according to a city staffing report last year.

Chan also blamed Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, a progressive Democrat, for seeking lower sentences and dismissing cases, so much so that some prosecutors in her office quit their jobs. Price and her supporters have stood by her restorative justice approach to crime, even though her office has not released data on her charging record, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Chan is leading the charge to recall Price from office, arguing a lack of penalties emboldened offenders to repeatedly commit crimes. “I think the law is supposed to protect the people and the victims,” he said. “But I think we are seeing the reverse. We are seeing the law actually protecting the criminals more.”

Karina Velásquez, an immigration lawyer and president of the anti-crime group Stop Crime San Francisco, agreed. A Venezuela native, she said she represents undocumented immigrants who are victims of violent crimes.

The group has volunteers watching court proceedings and grades judges on their sentencing. It has taken aim at progressive judges and mayoral candidates while supporting those tougher on sentencing, though the group’s critics say that judges should not cave to political pressure.

Velásquez — who deems herself a moderate Democrat — said that incarceration can deter crime and that repeated offenders must also face harsher penalties. “If you commit a crime, the moral responsibility is to face the consequences,” she said.

“It should be something that tries to make people think twice about committing these crimes.”
— Manny Yekutiel, owner of event venue Manny’s in San Francisco’s Mission District

For Greg Carey, chairperson of the self-organized neighborhood group Castro Community on Patrol, what’s important is not necessarily passing new laws, but enforcing those already in place and “make that as effective as we can.”

The group was born in 2006 out of street robberies and date rapes in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood, Carey said. Volunteers conduct street patrols in the historic LGBTQ district — sometimes a target of hate crimes — to deter crime and sometimes serve as witnesses, he said.

Carey, a self-described conservative Democrat, contended that social media posts about smash-and-grabs in San Francisco are part of ultra-right propaganda. “Every four years, you will see that ramped up. And at least in recent history, San Francisco has always been the worst example to put in front of middle class America as to what we don’t want,” he said.

The key, Carey said, is still for businesses to report crime to law enforcement.

But Manny Yekutiel, owner of event venue Manny’s in San Francisco’s Mission District, said there’s no silver bullet. He said his business was burglarized within a few years of opening in late 2018. Police woke him up at 3 a.m. and sped to the crime scene with him in the car after the thieves had stolen his safe and video cameras, he said.

“The status quo is not working,” Yekutiel said, and “the word on the street” is that people can get away with stealing less than $950 worth of goods without severe penalty.

Yekutiel said he wants to see more foot patrols. And while he said thefts should not mean long-term prison sentences, incarceration should be a deterrent.

“It should be something that tries to make people think twice about committing these crimes,” he said. “I think what’s really important is once you’ve served your time you should be given every opportunity to change your life.”

‘Why are we married to incarceration?’

One of those opportunities turned Julia Arroyo’s life around.

At age 15, Arroyo said, she was arrested for stealing clothes and spent 90 days in jail. She had been in foster care since she was 4 and went in and out of jail until she turned 18. “I became very good at just doing my time,” she said.

“As a young person, I needed a hug. I needed love,” she added. “But instead, I was placed in places where I was not safe.”

After aging out of foster care, Arroyo said she got her first job at a nail shop passing out hot towels, sweeping up toenails and doing airbrush tanning. With the money she made, Arroyo signed her first apartment lease. But Arroyo said the landlord raised the rent beyond what she could afford, and she was evicted.

Arroyo began staying at a shelter with a shared bathroom down the hall. There, she was propositioned for sex all the time, she said. She had a daughter in her early 20s, while she was homeless. To raise her, Arroyo stood in line for a bed at shelters, where her property was sometimes stolen. She worked three jobs cleaning homes, caring for seniors and working at a rape crisis center, to feed her daughter, she said.

Connecting with the Young Women’s Freedom Center — an advocacy group guiding women and transgender youths through the legal and foster care systems — gave Arroyo a job helping others in similar situations.

Julia Arroyo, executive director of the Young Women’s Freedom Center, in downtown San Francisco on April 10, 2024. Photo by Laure Andrillon for CalMatters

Arroyo argued that incarceration perpetuates a “punishment culture” that disproportionately affects Black and brown communities, especially if they are released from prison without basic skills to survive.

“Everytime you get out, you have to start from square one,” she said.

Data from the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office shows that of the 47 people it has represented who were charged with organized retail theft since the Legislature created the crime in 2019, 38 were Black. That’s 80%, even though Black people account for just 5% of the city population.

The office is opposing proposed legislation that would toughen penalties on retail crime.

Liz Camacho, a public defender since 2011, said the increase in retail theft is “an indictment on our own economy and how we have not been able to really help our community recover from COVID.”

While the push for tougher laws could win votes, Camacho argued the move could have lingering ripple effects for those who steal out of desperation.

“A law that further criminalizes the poor does not create more choices. It creates more restriction, more inability to get yourself out of that rut, to pull yourself up from the bootstraps,” she said.

Camacho said the state should invest in workforce development, counseling services and expungement programs to help people rehabilitate.

“Why are we married to incarceration?” she asked.

In Oakland, donut shop owner Yamamoto pondered the solutions. Could more surveillance cameras on the street help catch every culprit? And would rehabilitation programs help everyone back on their feet?

“It’s a tough question,” she said.

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The Calmatters Ideas Festival takes place June 5-6! Find out more and get your tickets at this link.

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

“Oh Lord, your ocean is so big and my ship is so small.”

Commander Calvin Marshall Weil, US Navy (retired), was born April 22, 1926 and passed away April 12, 2024 peacefully. He traveled the world with his family thanks to the Navy and after retiring in Morocco settled in San Diego, later to move to Fortuna in 2010 with his wife, Daphne, to be near his daughter, Jennifer Fairbanks, and her husband, Jim, and their three children — Kyle, Jackson and Caroline.

Calvin served in the combat zones of World War II, Korea and Vietnam. He enlisted at the age of 17, which was rare at the time. Through the Navy he graduated high school, got a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree. His specialty was telecommunications.

He is survived by his daughter, Jennifer Fairbanks, and sons Lawrence Weil and Edward Weil (Maureen); grandchildren Kyle Fairbanks, Caroline Fairbanks, Jackson Fairbanks, Douglas Weil (Claire), Lynn Weil (Brandon) and Grace Weil. In addition he is survived by his great-granddaughter Ellie.

Last but not least he is survived by his beloved pug, Sadie Mae Fairbanks. He will be dearly missed by all who knew him.

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At today’s meeting, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to scrap the county’s long-planned jail expansion and rehabilitation project due to funding constraints. 

The proposed four-story facility, known as the “Community Corrections Re-Entry Resource Center,” would have housed a 44-bed minimum-security unit and rehabilitation services for current inmates, as well as out-of-custody re-entry programming to help formerly incarcerated individuals successfully transition back into society. The center would have also provided administrative spaces for the county’s Day Reporting Center and Probation Department, the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

“The concept of the project was that there would be minimum security housing for guests that were being ready to be released, as well as training rooms and … programs to help offenders stay out of jail,” said Jake Johnson, the county’s construction manager for capital projects. “But also, to provide programs on kind of an ‘outpatient’ basis for people to come back … and learn skills and learn how to interview for jobs.”

Sheriff William “Billy” Honsal said the resource center would have helped free up space in the jail for higher-security inmates who, prior to California’s Criminal Justice Realignment legislation, AB 109 and AB 117, would have been sent to state prison.

Honsal | Screenshot

“There’s been a huge impact on our county jail,” he said. “County jails are designed for those public nuisance type issues [and] misdemeanors that were never meant to serve beyond one year in county jail. … But as we’ve seen across the state with public safety realignment is that severe, serious and violent felonies and … offenses are being sentenced to county jails for longer than a year, and our county jails are not designed to house people beyond a year.”

In 2015, the county was awarded $20 million from the Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) to build the new resource center. The county selected Chico-based architectural and engineering firm Nichols, Melberg, & Rossetto to draw up the designs for the project, which then went to various state agencies for an extensive review process. 

In February 2023, the Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to put the project – estimated at $22 million – out for bids. A few months later, the county received a base bid of $34.9 million – approximately $13 million over budget – from Woodland-based general contractor Broward Builders, Inc. 

“So given that number, we had some internal discussions with the [County Administrative Office] … and it was determined that the money for awarding that bid was just not available at the time,” Johnson said. “We talked to our designers and we tried to see if there is a way that we could reimagine the project and redesign it to get us back down into our budget.”

They looked at the possibility of scaling down the center and making it “more of a halfway house scenario,” Johnson said, but doing so would have changed the “scope” of the project and risk the $20 million funding award. “The costs were still going to be about $9 million that we would need to add to the project to make this work.”

Johnson presented several options to the board but ultimately recommended that the board reject the aforementioned bid and terminate the project.

Supervisor and Board Chair Rex Bohn asked what would happen if the board opted to redesign the project, noting that there are “other counties that are sitting on the same problem that we’re having.”

Honsal said he wrote a letter to state Senator Mike McGuire’s Office requesting additional state funding but was unsuccessful. “Unfortunately, where the state is right now, you know, we’re not going to probably get any kind of relief that way,” he said. 

Supervisor Steve Madrone thanked Honsal for making the board’s decision a little easier, but noted that “it certainly doesn’t solve the issue of reentry.”

“[S]o many people out there in our community actually respond pretty well to being in a program where there are sideboards … even if they’re incarcerated,” Madrone continued. “I absolutely believe in that concept – and I know we don’t have nearly enough of it – but I don’t see how we come up with [the funds] to make this happen. … I appreciate all the hard work to try and look at every avenue to try and do this.”

Supervisor Natalie Arroyo acknowledged that the county has already spent approximately $2.3 million on the project. “Have any of those [funds gone toward] site preparation work or anything … that can be used in the future? Or on-site studies or anything like that?” she asked. “I’m trying to find a silver lining here.”

Honsal said some of the money went toward brownfield studies and lot line adjustments. “Let’s just say, [if] money became available for mental health facility and we co-located the Day Reporting Center and a mental health facility, that could be a possibility for that location,” he said.

Arroyo made a motion to move forward with staff’s recommendation to terminate the project. The motion was seconded by Supervisor Michelle Bushnell who thanked staff for their time spent on the plans.

The motion passed 4-0, with Supervisor Mike Wilson absent.

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Check back tomorrow for more coverage of today’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

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When it comes to lowdown, scummy crimes, you’d be hard pressed to beat this: Credit card thieves being thwarted by enhanced security measures like smart chips have recently switched their marks to people who use CalFresh/CalWORKS EBT cards, meaning these lowlifes are stealing from some of the state’s neediest residents.

CalFresh, the state’s version of the program formerly known as Food Stamps, helps low-income households in California buy food with benefits distributed monthly through electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards, which work like debit cards. 

California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) functions similarly, with welfare recipients getting their benefits automatically loaded onto their EBT cards each month.

Over the last five years or so, scammers have employed a variety of tricks to steal EBT card benefits, including hidden cameras and “skimmers”: electronic devices placed over credit card terminals to steal account numbers and pins.

A local CalFresh worker who asked to remain anonymous told the Outpost via email that there has been a dramatic uptick this month in clients reporting missing benefits.

One client, for example, came into the office assuming he needed to turn in a new form or resolve some technical issue because he hadn’t received his April benefits. 

“He had,” the local worker told us, “but they had been skimmed – over $600, his monthly [CalFresh] allotment, [was stolen] on April 1st at 9 a.m., the day his benefits issued.

Monique Upshaw-Smith, social services program manager II with the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services, said that while EBT card theft is being seen across the country and the state, there has been a noticeable uptick in Humboldt County this month.

“As a county, we were seeing around 15 to 25 cases of electronic theft a month,” Upshaw-Smith said via email. “At the beginning of April there was an increase.” The local CalFresh worker said the Eureka office could be getting five to 30 reports of skimmed benefits per day.

“Another thing that made this month different was that the benefits were being stolen on the person’s issuance day,” Upshaw-Smith said.

Theresa Mier, a spokesperson for the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), said EBT skimming didn’t emerge as a serious trend until late 2021, around the time most major credit cards started employing security chip technology.

As seen in the graph below, rates of such theft (and associated reimbursement) have skyrocketed since then to more than $10 million in taxpayer money per month.

According to a recent CalMatters story, in early 2020 the CDSS planned to hire investigators to focus on EBT theft while, separately, county welfare fraud investigators asked the department to add security chips to EBT cards, but neither occurred.

Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration committed to making California the first state to issue chip-enabled EBT cards, but implementation has been delayed more than once. Asked specifically when chip cards will be issued, Mier’s statement simply says implementation is expected to commence later this year.

“Additionally,” her statement says, “the Department continues to work with local, state, and federal law enforcement authorities to mitigate the theft of EBT benefits by blocking suspicious transactions, identifying potential perpetrators, and locating where skimmers have been placed. Multiple investigations are currently ongoing and arrests have been made.”

The department also produced the following public service announcement:

Upshaw-Smith had this advice for local victims of theft:

If an individual suspects their benefits have been stolen, they can call, come into a DHHS office or use BenefitsCal.com to submit a request for replacement benefits and have their EBT card canceled and replaced. They can also call the EBT hotline number listed on the back of their card to make a report and get a new card issued but they still need to contact the county or use BenefitsCal to submit the replacement request.

People can also use the ebtEDGE website or app to view their balance and transaction history and freeze or unfreeze their card, block out-of-state usage and order replacement cards. ebtEDGE is operated by our EBT vendor and is the only officially approved app for California EBT cardholders.

The state also has an EBT Customer Service Line at (877) 328-9677, which recipients can use to cancel their EBT card and request a new one.

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On 4/23/2024 at about 9:30 a.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a residence on Shale Lane in Kneeland for a report of a robbery that had just occurred.

Deputies contacted the elderly victim and learned through their investigation that Socorro Cervantes had forced entry into his home. Cervantes then demanded money from the victim while threatening him. Cervantes stole a small amount of cash and other household items before fleeing the scene prior to deputy arrival.   

At about 10:00 a.m., the HCSO received a call regarding a female driving erratically in the 7800 block of Myrtle Avenue. The vehicle matched the description of the vehicle Cervantes had fled the Kneeland area in. When deputies arrived in the area, they learned through a witness statement that Cervantes had stolen tools from a residence in the area prior to fleeing again.

At about 10:30 a.m., a deputy in the area of Myrtle Avenue and Indianola Road observed Cervantes driving south on Myrtle Avenue. The deputy attempted to conduct a traffic enforcement stop on Cervantes, but she failed to yield. A short pursuit ensued, in which time Cervantes threw a glass bottle out the window at the pursuing deputy. Ultimately, Cervantes came to a stop in the parking lot of a business at the intersection of Myrtle Avenue and Freshwater Road. Cervantes complied with deputies and was taken into custody safely.     

Cervantes was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of 460(A) P.C.; Burglary, 211 P.C.; Robbery, 368(D)(1) P.C.; Theft from Elder, 496 P.C.; Possession of Stolen Property, 2800.1 V.C.; Evading Peace Officer, 588 PC; Throwing Items in a Roadway to Cause Damage.

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.

Cal Poly Humboldt students continue to occupy campus buildings Tuesday, following last night’s clash between pro-Palestinian protesters and numerous local law enforcement agencies. The collision of worldviews has led to the cancellation of all the day’s scheduled classes and on-campus events. 

One such event: CPH’s Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies Department (CRGS) was set to kick off its annual Hip Hop Conference today. The three-day event was supposed to be an opportunity to “create space for the Black and Brown diaspora in Humboldt to build community, and learn about the important cultural and sociopolitical history of hip hop.”

This year’s conference was to be highlighted by a Tuesday evening key note address in the Van Duzer Theatre by none other than Public Enemy frontman and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Chuck D. The events of last night, however, have made his appearance impossible. This morning, people who had registered for free tickets to the event received an email from CRGS, containing the following message:

In light of current events on Cal Poly Humboldt’s campus, we are searching for an off-campus alternative location. This event is not currently canceled and we will update everyone as soon as possible.

A few hours later, a second email announced that Chuck D’s appearance, as well as the remainder of this year’s Hip Hop Conference, have simply been canceled. “Thank you for your understanding,” the second email states.