(Ed. Note: The following editorial was written by Theresa Grosjean, President of the Northern Humboldt Union High School District Board of Trustees)

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McKinleyville High was on lockdown for an hour yesterday. There was no active shooter. There was no specific threat made. Someone saw someone walking near the school with a holstered gun on them (or at least what they thought was) and called the police.

Because in the America we live in today, school violence is all too real a threat.

I have read so many accounts of the trauma our staff and students experienced during that hour. Barricaded in whatever room they were in, as police lights reflected on their walls, as alerts blared through the school speakers, as police went room to room rattling door knobs to make sure they were locked. Not knowing if the threat was real, they waited in locked classrooms. Not knowing if the threat was real, they texted their friends and family. Not knowing if the threat was real, they saw police out of their windows carrying guns.

When the “All Clear” came and they could leave their rooms, they went about their day. Additional counseling was brought in to help those in need deal with their fear and trauma. The threat didn’t need to be real for it to have been traumatic.

Because in the America we live in today, we value gun rights more than people.

Because in the America we live in today, lobbyists have more say than we the people.

Because in the America we live in today, we say we care about mental health, we just don’t care to fund the resources needed to deal with it.

In the America we live in today, people are so busy, working hard banning books, banishing lived history, banning the word gay … all to protect the children.

In the America we live in today, our elected officials expect us to hope that thoughts and prayers will fix our problems.

Our schools should be a place where our kids and teachers and staffs are safe and free from fear. We know why they don’t feel that way. We know what the threats are.

In the America we live in today, there is just not enough will to deal with it.

Our problems are complex and require complex solutions. There is no easy fix. But the desire to make things better should be enough to put our politics aside, roll up our sleeves and get to work actually doing something that will protect people.

In the America we live in today, it’s time for action.

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The Arcata Marsh has long been a favorite spot for bird watchers, with hundreds of species of birds making their home in the damp fields and ponds. Migratory birds have also been known to stop by the marsh for a visit, and our latest bird traveler – a Purple Gallinule – made its first-ever known appearance in Humboldt last weekend. 

“It’s unmistakably a Purple Gallinule, and the northernmost record for California,” Rob Fowler, a local bird expert and birding guide, said in an email to the Outpost. “And the first for Humboldt County.” 

Local birder Greg Chapman said that bird was first spotted by Arcata resident Yana Valachovic and Nicole King of Berkeley, who noticed the visitor at the Arcata Marsh on Friday, Nov. 24.

Generally found in the wetlands of South America, Central America and the southeastern United States, the Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio martinica) is a smallish bird, distinguished by purple, blue and green feathers, a bright red and yellow beak with a blue shield, and very long legs and toes. Juveniles are a pale brown and don’t get their brightly colored plumage until later in life, so the bird spotted in the marsh is definitely an adult, Fowler said. 

The Purple Gallinule on Nov. 26 | Photo: Laura Cutler

Though they tend to hang out in warmer climates, Purple Gallinules are migratory birds and are very strong fliers, known to appear far outside of their normal range. Observations posted on eBird show that they have been spotted in western Europe, Canada and have even appeared in Iceland a couple of times. There have also been recorded sightings in California, but previously only in Southern California and the Bay Area. So, it’s pretty exciting to catch a glimpse of the brightly colored bird in our own backyard.

Last we heard, our purple friend was hanging out on Brackish Pond, where its image was captured by local wildlife photographer Laura Cutler at around 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 26. Fowler also caught a good closeup of the bird on Sunday afternoon. 

How long the Purple Gallinule will stick around, it’s hard to say. But Fowler did say that the bird seems to be pretty happy where it is for now, so it might decide to stay put for a while. 

“It does seem to be doing well at the location where it’s at here,” Fowler said. “So who knows? Maybe it will winter!” 

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UPDATE: This article has been changed from its original version to include the first local sighting of the bird, made by Yana Valachovic and Nicole King. 

For the second morning in a row, McKinleyville High School was placed on lockdown due to a report of a person on or near campus with a weapon. And just like yesterday, law enforcement searched the campus and determined that there was no threat.

The Northern Humboldt Union High School District sent out a text message to the campus community at 9:16 a.m., saying, “MHS campus is on lockdown due to law enforcement calling to report a person on campus with a weapon. We will let you know we have further information.”

Three minutes later, another message: “We rec’d update from law enforcement, they did not see a threat on campus. Received a report from a comm. member. LE working to clear campus. Update to follow.”

At 9:36 a.m. the district reported that law enforcement had determined there was no threat and lifted the lockdown. More information will be released via email, the district said.

The world’s oceans may be vast, but they are getting crowded. Coastal areas are congested with cargo ships, international commercial fishing fleets, naval vessels, oil rigs and, soon, floating platforms for deep-sea mining.

But the Pacific Ocean is going to get even busier: Nearly 600 square miles of ocean off California have been leased for floating wind farms, with more expected. Now the state is considering hosting another renewable energy technology in the sea: Blue power, electricity created from waves and tides.

A new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October instructs state agencies to study the feasibility and impacts of capturing ocean movement to create power and report back to the Legislature by January 2025.

The goal is to jumpstart an industry that could fill in the power gaps as California tries to achieve its goal of transitioning to an all-renewable electric grid by 2045.

But for all the interest in renewable energy — and the government subsidies — public investment in ocean energy has lagged. And the technology that would make the projects more efficient, cost effective and able to withstand a punishing sea environment is still under development.

So far, a handful of small demonstration projects have been launched off the West Coast, although none has produced commercial power for the grid. Through 2045, the California Energy Commission’s new projections for future power do not include any wave and tidal power. Yet energy experts say there is great potential along the Pacific coast.

“Of all the energies out there, marine energy has been the slowest to develop. We are kind of where land-based wind was 20 or 30 years ago,” said Tim Ramsey, marine energy program manager at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office.

Energy from waves and tides is generated by an action that the ocean almost always provides — movement. Although wave and tidal devices take different forms, most capture the ocean’s kinetic motion as seawater flows through cylinders or when floating devices move up and down or sideways. In some cases, that movement creates hydraulic pressure that spins a turbine or generator.

As with all developing energy technologies, Ramsey said, the cost to produce wave and tidal power is expected to be quite high in the early years.

Although there have been advances in technology, getting ocean-based projects from the pilot stage to providing commercial power to the grid is the next hurdle for the industry — and it’s a substantial one.

“It’s very expensive right now, and really hard to do. Working out in the water is very complex, in some cases in the harshest places on Earth…Then being able to build something that can last 20 to 30 years. We’ve made progress, but we’re a decade away,” Ramsey said.

“Of all the energies out there, marine energy has been the slowest to develop. We are kind of where land-based wind was 20 or 30 years ago.”
— Tim Ramsey, U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office

State Sen. Steve Padilla, a Democrat from Chula Vista and the author of the wave energy bill, said ocean power has “great potential” but it has been agonizingly slow.

“Folks have been busy focusing on other things,” he said, citing the state’s current push for floating offshore wind development. “There has been a combination of a lack of knowledge and awareness of the infrastructure and impacts. We know the state’s energy portfolio has to be as broad as possible.”

A spokesperson for the California Energy Commission, which is taking the lead on the new state study, declined to comment about waves power, saying its work has not yet begun.

The potential is enticing: The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimated that the total wave and tide energy resources that are available in the U.S. with current technology are equivalent to 57% of 2019’s domestic energy production. While the report noted that the technologies are in early stages of development, “even if only a small portion of the technical resource potential is captured, marine energy technologies would make significant contributions to our nation’s energy needs.”

The U.S. Department of Energy’s “Powering the Blue Economy” initiative, among others, provides grants and sponsors competitions to explore new and better technology. The fiscal year 2023 federal budget for ocean waves energy is $123 million, Ramsey said.

One program is funding research led by national labs, including designs to improve wave-driven turbines and building better motor drives for wave-energy converters.

Motion in the ocean

The idea of harnessing wave power has been kicking around California for decades. So has the state policy of ordering research into its potential: A 2008 study prepared for the Energy Commission and the Ocean Protection Council concluded that much more research was needed to better assess the potential impacts of wave and tidal energy.

At the time that study was released, one of the technology’s most ardent proponents was a young politician named Gavin Newsom. While mayor of San Francisco in 2007, Newsom proposed a tidal energy project near the Golden Gate Bridge. That idea was scrapped because it was prohibitively expensive.

Not long after, as lieutenant governor, Newsom backed a pilot wave energy project he hoped would be up and running by 2012 or 2013. It wasn’t.

But the dream has not died. California is already hosting wave energy projects, including one being assembled at AltaSea, a public-private research center that supports marine scientists focusing on the so-called Blue Economy. It operates out of a 35-acre campus at the Port of Los Angeles.

Its CEO is Terry Tamminen, a former California environmental secretary, who had a hand in writing the new wave and tidal energy law. Tamminen said wave energy has been ignored by some state and federal officials in the face of “irrational exuberance” for offshore wind.

He said the smaller, cheaper wave energy development would help the state meet its clean energy goal and could produce power well before massive floating offshore wind projects.

“These machines can only be developed toward commercial viability by putting them in the water and assessing their performance. .. It’s a long slog to build and deploy and make money.”
— Jason Busch, Pacific Ocean Energy Trust

One of AltaSea’s tenants, Eco Wave Power, is designed to deploy near shore, in breakwaters and jetties that roil with moving water. Its floating, paddle-like arms bob up and down in waves, triggering hydraulic pistons that power a motor.

Tamminen said the system is “ready to deploy. Within two years we could have a commercial installation of Eco Wave technology.” The demonstration project will be installed at a wharf in L.A.’s harbor and will not generate any significant power, he said.

California is not likely to see much electricity from tidal energy, said Jason Busch, executive director of Pacific Ocean Energy Trust, an Oregon-based nonprofit fostering research into marine energy. He said the state of Washington is more conducive to this new energy, for example, because it has deep bays and estuaries for funneling water through turbine equipment.

“A little bit of homework would have told you there isn’t much of a tidal opportunity in California,” he said.

A small number of companies are preparing to launch pilot wave projects in other states. The Navy operates a wave energy test site in Hawaii; three developers are preparing to launch new projects in the water there.

PacWave, which operates two test sites off Newport, Oregon, is another demonstration project. A California-based company, CalWave, which concluded a 10-month demonstration off the Scripps Institute of Oceanography’s research pier in San Diego, will deploy its wave energy devices in a grid-connected, pre-permitted open-water test. The demonstration at the Oregon site is scheduled to begin next year.

This type of wave-energy device is moored in the open ocean, where it is submerged. Units like this from CalWave will be used in a project off the coast of Oregon that will provide power to the grid. Photo courtesy of CalWave

Much is riding on the success of the project, which took 11 years to acquire permits. Some testing has been conducted with small-scale versions of the final device, but not in harsh open water conditions and with no expectation of supplying power to the grid.

“It’s the first-of-its-kind full-scale deployment. Not in ‘nursery’ conditions. It’s the real world, off you go,” said Bryson Robertson, director of the Pacific Marine Energy Center at Oregon State University, which is constructing the two testing sites. “We want to prove that we can deliver power.”

Robertson, an engineer who studies wave dynamics, said one of the technologies being tested places large, buoyant squares in the water just below the surface, attached by lines to the sea floor. Kinetic energy is created as the floats bob and pitch with the action of the waves.

Some companies’ technology sits atop the waves and others are fully submerged. Another is deployed on the surface and moves like a snake, with each segment creating energy from its movement. Each bespoke device is expensive, and some of the one-of-a-kind devices can cost $10 million to design and build.

The industry “hasn’t narrowed in on a winning archetype,” Ramsey said. Some smaller designs can be picked up and thrown off a boat, he said, while others are large enough to need a boat to tow them into position.

“It’s the first-of-its-kind full-scale deployment…We want to prove that we can deliver power.”
— Bryson Robertson, Pacific Marine Energy Center at Oregon State University

To Busch, it’s a critical moment for ocean energy, with small companies requiring years to raise enough funding to continue testing. And with attention on the industry, they cannot afford to stumble.

“Early companies that got full-scale machines in the water committed the mortal sin of overpromising and under-delivering to shareholders. One by one they went into bankruptcy,” he said.

“This is the second generation. These machines can only be developed toward commercial viability by putting them in the water and assessing their performance. That process is very long. Companies receive only limited private capital. The venture capital model does not fit marine energy. It’s a long slog to build and deploy and make money.”

In the near future, wave and tidal energy may not provide huge amounts of power in the clean-energy mosaic that will form the grid, but the technology may prove to be one of the most versatile. Experts say marine power doesn’t have to be transported to shore to be useful — it could charge oceangoing vessels, research devices, navigation equipment and aquaculture operations.

Closer to shore, modest wave-powered projects could support small, remote so-called “extension cord communities” at the end of the power supply. Federal researchers also foresee ocean power being used for desalination plants.

Wave-powered generators and other renewables are already supplying all of the needs of the Orkney Islands in Scotland, with the surplus energy used to create hydrogen to run ferries to the mainland.

Lots of unknowns

New technology often comes cloaked in questions: How will the wave devices impact marine animals, shipping and other ocean users? What about transmission lines and possible floating power stations?

“Blue energy synergy’ is a future possibility, with wave projects sited alongside floating offshore wind projects, allowing the power producers to share transmission lines and other infrastructure.

The state report due next year is meant to answer those questions and more.

“We still don’t fully understand all of the interactions of the device in the marine environment,” Ramsey said. “Until you can put devices in the water and get long-term data collection, we don’t know. We do try to extrapolate from other industries and activities in the ocean — oil and gas, offshore wind — but that only gets you so far.

“I think the potential is so enormous. If we can figure out how to do it cost-effectively, I know it will get solved. I hope the U.S. is at the forefront of solving that. If we lose a big industry to overseas, that is a lost opportunity.”

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

UPDATE, Nov. 30, 9:42 a.m.:

Coriell reports this morning that the local title companies are fully up and running once again. 

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UPDATE, Nov. 29, 1 p.m.:

Bryn Coriell called the Outpost a few minutes ago to report that a few employees at the two local title companies have had their access to Fidelity National Title’s online systems restored, which he took to mean that the rest of the staff will soon be up and running as well.

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Original post:

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Virtually all local real estate transactions have been indefinitely delayed since last Tuesday thanks to a failed cyberattack on Fidelity National Title, a Fortune 500 company that owns the only two title companies left in Humboldt County: Humboldt Land Title and Fidelity National Title Humboldt.

The unexpected shutdown could wreak havoc with pending escrow closures and cause major financial impacts to borrowers, according to Bryn Coriell, president of the Humboldt Association of Realtors and broker-owner of Coldwell Banker Sellers Realty in Arcata (DRE# 01997964).

“At this point, Humboldt County is in total gridlock,” Coriell said. “We can’t close a single escrow or facilitate the signing of settlement statements.”

Speaking only about the incident’s impact in his own office, which employs 20 agents, Coriell said, “We have at least three deals that are supposed to close this week and we had one or two last week that are not going anywhere.”

After being targeted with a ransomware attack last Tuesday, Fidelity National Title responded by shutting down some of its systems, which is impacting mortgage transaction services nationwide, as the company explained in a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 

In an emailed message to fellow members of the Humboldt Association of Realtors this morning, Coriell explained that as a result of Fidelity’s ongoing internal review, the company is having to reboot each employee’s system access one by one, which is time-consuming. “This process involves authenticating each unique user and ensuring compliance with the SEC,” his message explained.

Nearly a week after the attack, local employees of the two Fidelity-owned title companies still don’t have access to the systems required to complete home loan transactions, he said.

A woman who answered a phone call to Humboldt Land Title told the Outpost that all inquiries must be sent to Fidelity’s national marketing team. We sent an email but aren’t holding our breath for a response since other news outlets have been trying to get answers for more than a week, to no avail.

Meanwhile, the local real estate market has come to a screeching halt. One local lending professional, who asked to remain anonymous so as not to burn any business-related bridges, said the cyberattack is hitting Humboldt County especially hard because there are no alternatives to Fidelity here.

“It’s kind of scary because we used to have multiple companies doing the same thing, and Humboldt Land Title used to be employee-owned,” he said. “Fidelity bought them out. Since then, [Humboldt Land Title and Fidelity National] operate under two different names, but really it’s one company. Each transaction is typically going through them, so if they go down, we all go down.”

The lender explained that interest payments on home loans are paid in arrears. So, for example, a December loan payment covers the necessary principle amount plus November’s accumulated rent. 

“When we fund a loan, [the borrowers] start paying interest from the day we fund, which is normally fine and dandy,” he said. “But last week we funded a loan and it hasn’t recorded, so our borrower is paying interest on a loan that hasn’t been recorded because Fidelity/Humboldt Land is unable to trace the funds for the loan and get into their system to verify everything.”

He’s hoping that the title company will cover any excess interest amount that his clients have to pay but he doesn’t know if that will happen.

Another employee of that lending company said borrowers could wind up losing their down payment as a result of their loan following through, costing them $15,000 or more. “I don’t necessarily trust banks to recognize that this is an extenuating circumstance,” he said.

Last week, one worried realtor told Coriell that clients were pulling into Humboldt County in a 40-foot moving truck and had no idea what would happen if their loan didn’t close.

Coriell wanted to make it clear that local employees of the two Fidelity-owned title companies have always been top-notch, and they’ve done their best to help during this incident, reaching out to corporate higher-ups by phone, delivering checks for earnest money deposits and so forth. But for the most part they’ve been locked out of the systems required to do their jobs.

In most cases, the delayed home sale closures aren’t a huge deal, Coriell said, because a delay of a day or two — or even a week — won’t make a big difference in the long run, though of course people might get upset about having to cancel reservations for cleaning companies, moving vans or other services.

“The real trouble,” Coriell said, “is when people who are loan-funded lose their rate lock.” Banks and other mortgage lenders often pre-approve home loans at a guaranteed interest rate, but if the deal fails to close within a set timeframe, that guaranteed rate can be lost.

When the borrower applies again, Coriell said, “the rates might be a lot different. They [the borrowers] might not qualify for that loan and so they can’t buy that house. That’s the real kicker.”

According to a story on techcrunch.com, a ransomware gang known as ALPHV (aka BlackCat) claimed responsibility for the cyberattack in a message posted to the gang’s dark web site.

In his message to fellow realtors, Coriell said leadership at Fidelity was hopeful that its systems could be back online as soon as today, though there’s no way to know how long it will actually take.

With people waiting to close what may be the largest financial transactions of their lifetimes, the stakes of this shutdown are getting larger every day.

“We tend to run on pretty strict schedules,” Coriell said. “These are people’s lives.”

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The Humboldt County Department of Finance is a no-go, for now at least.

The Board of Supervisors today voted 4-1, with Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson dissenting, to nix a proposed ballot measure that sought to consolidate the county’s Treasurer-Tax Collector’s office and Auditor-Controller’s office into a unified Department of Finance, whose director would have been appointed by the board rather than elected by the public. 

[CORRECTION: The Outpost originally reported that Wilson abstained from the vote. However, county staff recorded his vote as a “no.”]

A similar proposal was presented to Humboldt County voters in 2016 through Measures Q and R, but the pair of ballot measures did not pass. But after the tumultuous tenure of former Auditor-Controller Karen Paz Dominguez, the Board of Supervisors last year decided to revisit the consolidation concept and directed staff to draw up a new version of the measure.

Speaking during this morning’s meeting, County Administrative Officer Elishia Hayes noted that the Treasurer-Tax Collector Amy Christensen and Auditor-Controller Cheryl Dillingham “have both indicated opposition to the measure.” 

“Furthermore, your board is not in it’s not unanimous in support around placing this on the ballot,” Hayes continued, noting that Fifth District Supervisor and Board Chair Steve Madrone had voted against the item during the board’s Nov. 7 meeting. “[That] is a little non-typical when placing a ballot measure before the voters [because] it reduces the confidence level around the success of such a measure. That is something for your board to consider as you provide final direction to move forward with this.”

First District Supervisor Rex Bohn, who was absent during the board’s last discussion on the matter, acknowledged that “there was a time that this [would have been] the greatest thing since butter and popcorn.” However, he didn’t feel consolidation was necessary, as the current leaders of both departments have successfully steered the county back on track.

“I don’t know the amount of vendors we lost in the previous four years,” Bohn said. “It was trying times … but those are issues that are under the bridge. … I think we’re digging ourselves out and we will soon be whole again.”

Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell took a more neutral stance. “I do think that the current electeds are doing a fabulous job,” she said. “I really am happy with whatever the board chooses.”

Similarly, Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo said, “I don’t think that it’s imperative that we move forward with this right now.” 

Wilson spoke in favor of putting the matter to voters, noting that “there are cogent arguments in both directions.” 

“Mostly, this is a risk calculation,” he said. “What we would be asking the public is, ‘Is there a risk of fraud and abuse by consolidating [and] having the auditor-controller be hired [by] this board?’ … And then on the other side of that is the risk of the politicization of the office itself through a democratic process.”

Wilson criticized the notion that the matter should be set aside because there are “good people” currently leading the departments who are likely to be re-elected. 

“That is an assumption of political succession, which I think is also something that is not as democratic as one might imagine,” he said. “I do actually believe that the people we have working in these offices right now are very competent, doing a very good job, and from that perspective … that risk factor is quite a bit lower now, but … the future is unknown.”

Speaking during the public comment portion of today’s meeting, Christensen urged the board to keep the two departments separate “to maintain the strict internal controls currently in place.”

Christensen | Screenshot

“It is critical that the offices of the auditor-controller and the treasurer-tax collector remain independent and elected by the people of Humboldt County,” she said. “Cross-training between those two departments cannot happen. Operations between the Treasurer-Tax Collector and the Auditor-Controller are running efficiently, and I am confident that I see that continuing for the long term.”

Following public comment, Bushnell asked whether the checks and balances would remain in place if the two departments were combined. Hayes said each department “would still have their [own] processes in place,” but they would answer to a single department head.

After a bit of additional discussion among board members, Madrone made a motion to quash the proposal for the time being. Bohn seconded the action.

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Check back on Wednesday for more coverage of this week’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

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Press release from the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services:

A dashboard that tells the story of the health of the Humboldt County community was launched this week after years in the works. Thanks to Live Well Humboldt (LWH), a group of community partners working together to improve health equity in the county, the free dashboard can be used to learn more about community health data and other health resources, like funding opportunities, promising practices and reports.

Made up of county departments and divisions, local medical providers, Tribal partners, cities, Cal Poly Humboldt and other government agencies, LWH partners previously worked together to create the Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP), gathering and reviewing community health data and deciding on which health topics the community will focus on for the next three to five years. The group will also be working together on the Community Health Assessment (CHA) in the coming year.

Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) Public Health Director Sofia Pereira said, “Public Health staff has been working with Live Well Humboldt partners to create the dashboard to share community health data more broadly with partners and community members. The dashboard makes it easier to keep data up-to-date and improves public availability of information about the health of our county, including how our community is doing with pressing issues like education, housing, access to food and health care.”       

The Live Well Humboldt Community Health Dashboard will also be used to follow progress on the CHIP and help community partners continue to work together to improve health outcomes for everyone in the county. 

DHHS Public Health Program Coordinator Ashley Gephart said the Live Well Humboldt dashboard has been a long time in the making and it will be updated regularly. “Publishing this dashboard is exciting. It paints a picture of our community, where we are making positive impact and the opportunities we have to improve health outcomes. The dashboard will continue to provide information that tells the story of health in Humboldt County.” 

Interested in joining the LWH mailing list? Email livewellhumboldt@co.humboldt.ca.us to be added.

To view the dashboard, visit livewellhumboldt.org.