A power line draped above I Street near Eureka High School shorted out in dramatic fashion this morning, sending sparks and smoke into the air as electricity danced across the cable.
The footage above was sent to the Outpost by Nadia Eberman, who captured the light show from her parked car. She said drivers stopped before passing under the live wire, and Humboldt Bay Fire responded to the scene.
Commenters online diagnosed the event as a phase-to-phase short, which occurs when two conductors in a three-phase system make direct contact. Such short circuits can create a massive surge of current, triggering intense arcing, bright flashes, loud bangs and significant heat.
The zapped line did cause a power outage along a block of I Street, though it only affected 14 customers, according to PG&E.
The northeast corner (Third and G streets) of the Eureka Regional Transit & Housing Center. | Rendering via the City of Eureka.
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Nearly four years after it was approved by the Eureka City Council, the EaRTH Center has finally secured the funding needed to move ahead to construction. If everything goes according to plan, the city will break ground on the four-story housing and transit development in spring 2026.
“The EaRTH Center represents the kind of integrated, community-focused development that Danco is committed to delivering,” Danco Communities Project Manager McKenze Dibble said in a press release issued this morning. “By pairing affordable housing with improved public transit, we are helping to build a more connected, equitable, and sustainable future for Eureka.”
The EaRTH Center, short for the Eureka Regional Transit & Housing Center, will replace two city-owned parking lots on Third Street between G and H streets, behind Lost Coast Brewery. The development will host the Humboldt Transit Authority’s regional transportation hub on its ground floor, plus five commercial spaces for businesses. The upper floors will feature 45 residential units designated for low- and very-low-income households, including three studios, 18 one-bedroom, 13 two-bedroom and 12 three-bedroom apartments, plus one two-bedroom unit for on-site staff.
The project, a partnership between the City of Eureka and the Humboldt Transit Authority (HTA), has changed quite a bit since it was first approved in February 2022 by the city council.
When plans for the EaRTH Center were drawn up several years ago, the development was billed as a 30-unit housing project for students and traveling medical staff. At that time, the city was working with Cal Poly Humboldt and Servitas, a student housing management company, to create housing for incoming students, but the plans eventually fell through due to expenses.
“We’ve had three different iterations of what we’ve planned on doing there,” City Manager Miles Slattery told the Outpost. “And then we reached out to Danco and [Danco President] Chris Dart, and they have been amazing partners, along with their architect, Garrett [McSorely]. They’ve brought this to reality based on their expertise, but also their desire to work with HTA to build a transit center.”
Design review is complete, but Danco still has to secure a few building permits before the city can break ground on the project. Construction is slated to begin in May of 2026 and wrap before the end of 2027.
Asked is the city is still looking into the possibility of building a parking garage across the street from the EaRTH Center — on the southwest lot at Third and G streets, where the old City Hall used to be — Slattery said the Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG) is working on a feasibility study to assess the parking need in downtown/Old Town Eureka.
More information can be found in the following press release from the Danco Group:
Eureka, CA — The Danco Group is proud to announce that the Eureka Transit
Housing Center, also known as the EaRTH Center, has officially secured its final portion of tax
credit funding, clearing the way for construction to begin on one of Eureka’s most
transformative community projects in decades.
Developed in partnership with the City of Eureka and the Humboldt Transit Authority, the
EaRTH Center will convert a city-owned parking lot between G and H Streets in Old Town
Eureka into a vibrant, mixed-use hub that integrates sustainable multimodal transportation
infrastructure, community services, and high-quality affordable housing.
“I’m thrilled to see this project advance! We are so excited to have a beautiful new Transit
Center in downtown Eureka that blends transit infrastructure with new housing and office
space. This will add to the vibrancy of the County’s seat in Eureka. Huge thanks to everyone who
has made this possible,” said Natalie Arroyo, Chairperson of the Humboldt Transit Authority
Board of Directors.
Originally conceived as student housing, the EaRTH Center has evolved over the past three
years to meet the region’s growing need for low-income and very-low-income housing. The
four-story development will include:
45 affordable housing units (3 studios, 18 one-bedrooms, 13 two-bedrooms, 12 three-
bedrooms), plus 1 two-bedroom unit for on-site staff.
A multimodal hub on the ground floor bringing together public transit, bicycle, scooter,
pedestrian, rideshare, taxi, Amtrak, and other mobility services. Six leasable commercial
spaces for local businesses
Affordable housing amenities to include a community room and fitness center, outdoor
second-floor patio playground, community laundry and study room on each residential
floor, secure indoor bicycle storage on ground floor and floors 3 & 4, on-site
management office, and lobby
Enhancing Mobility and Sustainable Infrastructure
The project also introduces key improvements to Eureka’s transportation network:
Improved bus stop infrastructure on H Street and 3rd Street for safety and accessibility.
A Class 1 bike lane on H St between 3rd and 4th streets will help connect the Bay Trail to
the H St bike trail
The transportation hub that will facilitate seamless transfers across all intercity and
intercounty routes operating in the County
Bicycle lane improvements and striping on H Street to connect with the City’s recent
projects.
New restrooms, water-filling station, and a place to stop and enjoy as part of your
commute.
The Humboldt Transit Authority is contributing over $12 million in grant funding from the
Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program, sponsored by the California State Transportation
Agency with funds from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and the SB 1 Program.
“The EaRTH Center represents the kind of integrated, community-focused development that
Danco is committed to delivering,” said McKenze Dibble, Project Manager for Danco
Communities. “By pairing affordable housing with improved public transit, we are helping to
build a more connected, equitable, and sustainable future for Eureka.”
California school districts were bracing for their mental health grants to be cut at the end of the month, but a recent court ruling could force the Trump administration to temporarily release the remaining funds used for school social workers and counselors.
A court ruling on Dec. 4 rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to stall a preliminary injunction in which a federal judge ordered the U.S. Department of Education to release millions of dollars in grants for school mental health workers.
The ruling is part of an ongoing multi-state lawsuit alleging that the administration’s sweeping cancellation of mental health grants — $168 million for California schools — in April was unlawful and jeopardized services “critical to students’ well-being, safety and academic success” in rural and underserved parts of the country.
The mental health program, which was funded by Congress after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, included grants meant to help schools hire more counselors, psychologists and social workers.
In an April discontinuation letter, the Trump administration accused grant recipients of violating “merit, fairness and excellence in education,” broadly targeting diversity, equity and inclusion in the grant program.
Amanda Mangaser Savage, an attorney at the nonprofit law firm Public Counsel, said the injunction does not issue a final ruling on the legal basis of the cancellation. It issues a temporary release of funds, she said, that is not guaranteed to be permanent or timely enough to retain all mental health worker roles before Dec. 31, the cutoff for funds listed in the cancellation notice.
“So it’s not like someone flips a switch and all of a sudden everybody gets money,” Savage said. “It’s that the Department of Education can’t rely on these unlawful considerations that it relied on to discontinue the grants.”
Injunctive relief applies only to a subset of grantees who had submitted declarations of harm to the court, including McKinleyville Union School District and Northern Humboldt Union High School District in Humboldt County. Represented by Public Counsel, McKinleyville Union also filed its own independent lawsuit in October, seeking a release of nearly $6 million in remaining mental health grant funds, Savage said.
The ruling restores roughly $3.8 million in Madera County in the Central Valley and $8 million in Marin County in the Bay Area.
Jack Bareilles, the grants and evaluation administrator with the Northern Humboldt Union High School District, said the court ruling is a step in the right direction, but that it is not enough to retain the four social workers and project staff, as well as prospective social work interns, he expects to lose, unless a final ruling guarantees restored funds for the district. Northern Humboldt is still expecting to lose more than $6.5 million in grant funds.
“We’re happy that the panel ruled the way they did, but this administration has made a habit out of continuing to appeal all the way up to the Supreme Court,” Bareilles said. “It doesn’t give us any certainty at this moment.”
Unlike in McKinleyville Union’s independent lawsuit, Northern Humboldt and other school districts are not the main plaintiffs in the multi-state lawsuit, which was filed by a coalition of 16 states in June. Bareilles said that he is also uncertain whether the injunction would release funds to all 49 grant recipients, or only those who declared support for the lawsuit,in California. If or when the district does receive its funds, Northern Humboldt would not be able to fully recover its team of school counselors and social workers, he said.
“It will be very hard to regain the momentum,” Bareilles said. “We can’t even rehire in some cases, because we’re in the middle of the school year, and people have already taken other jobs.”
Grant provided funds to hire more counselors
Before the grant, McKinleyville Union had only one school counselor per 850 students. Since then, it has been able to hire five more counselors. If the district does not receive funds in time, the school could lose these workers, as well as a mental health grants administrator.
“And, most problematically, students start to develop relationships with the mental health providers that are in their schools. If all of a sudden those positions are cut, in some ways that’s even more harmful than if you would never start them at all,” Savage said. “Because students believe that they’re going to have this care and then all of a sudden, they don’t.”
Through the grant, Northern Humboldt has provided more than 3,600 additional students with mental health services since 2023 and has helped credential and employ over 25 mental health clinicians in the county. Bareilles is hopeful that the restored funds will allow for the continued training of prospective social workers and school counselors.
“But for our students, there’s hundreds of kids this year who have not had a person to serve them because that person wasn’t there,” Bareilles said. “That’s just the sad nature of this process.”
In Humboldt County, where McKinleyville Union and Northern Humboldt Union are located, more than half of all youths have experienced traumatic events like abuse or homelessness, according to Savage. The county also has the highest number of Native American youth in California who rely on grant funds to receive services like grief intervention and suicide prevention, she said.
“What’s really going on here is the Trump administration is having an ideological disagreement with the Biden administration, and it’s basically throwing these kids under the bus,” Savage said. “It just shows how little they actually care about the mental health of these students.”
Alex Stillman, left, and Kimberley White exchanging the mayor’s gavel. By Dezmond Remington.
Arcata city councilmember Kimberley White got her flowers last night (both a bouquet and bountiful praise) when she was unanimously appointed to be Arcata’s new mayor at a special city council meeting.
“Kimberley, I’m so happy for you,” councilmember Sarah Schaefer said. “I’m so excited that you get to step into the seat and continue to do great things that we’re doing and bring your passions to the position of mayor as well.”
As the former vice mayor, Arcata’s rotational system all but guaranteed that she’d be the next mayor. In Arcata, it’s mostly a ceremonial position. They can:
Act as chair for every city council meeting;
Set agendas;
Declare special meetings;
And “facilitate discussion, gauge direction, and listen for majority support prior to calling a vote,” according to the city officials’ protocol manual.
The mayor does not possess any veto power. Mayors are allowed to make and second motions under California law, but, according to the city officials’ protocol manual, Arcata tradition discourages this.
Vice mayors step in as a replacement if the mayor is unable to attend a meeting, or if they resign the position.
As the councilmember with the most experience, Stacy Atkins-Salazar was appointed to be the vice mayor. She will (almost certainly) become Arcata’s next mayor next December, a position she last held in 2022.
White has served on the council since 2022, and is the only member on the council who hasn’t yet been mayor yet.
Councilmembers and public commenters also spent much time praising former mayor Alex Stillman, who told the Outpost several months ago 2026 would be her last year serving on the council. Stillman was the first woman to serve on the council when she was elected in 1972, and has served on-and-off since then: a total of 19 years on the council.
“I think your lifetime of service to Arcata might be unrivaled,” Atkins-Salazar said. “…And it’s through this assignment here that we got to know each other. And I appreciate you. You are such a generous and kind person, and I’m honored to be your colleague and serve with you and also to be a friend.”
After accepting the gavel and moving into the mayor’s seat, White listed off some of Stillman’s accomplishments and all of the years she was elected.
“Well, I would like to thank everyone for their kind words and for acknowledging me and my years of service,” Stillman said. “And now you can add it up and figure out how old I am.”
“Nevertheless, I really appreciate it,” she continued after the audience and the councilmembers stopped laughing. “I love Arcata. My mother always said, ‘Wherever you live, you have to give back to your community, no matter what.’ And I feel like that was a goal — my mother put that in my head, and I feel like I have done that…I really appreciate all of your kind words, and I’m not going to stop working for Arcata.”
Press release from the University Police Department:
On
Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, at approximately 6:05 am, the University
Police Department (UPD) received a report regarding an unknown male
subject who had exposed himself and masturbated in front of two
female students in the forest on Granite Avenue Extension on campus.
Officers
responded and were unable to locate the suspect. During the
investigation, UPD discovered that the same subject had been
peering into multiple windows of a residence hall on campus.
24-year-old Victor Phetsomphou, who is not a student at Cal Poly
Humboldt, was identified as a person of interest in the incident.
On
Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, UPD, with the assistance of the Arcata
Police Department, served a search warrant and an arrest warrant at
Phesomphou’s residence in Arcata. Several evidentiary items were
collected, and Phetsomphou was taken into custody without incident.
He
was transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility, where
he was booked on PC 314.1 Indecent Exposure; PC 185 Being Masked
While Committing a Crime; PC 647(a) Lewd Acts in Public; and PC 647
(J) (1) Peeping.
Phetsomphou’s
bail has been set at $85,000.
This
investigation is ongoing. If you have any information regarding this
case, please contact the University Police Department at (707)
826-5555.
Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
On Dec. 11,
2025, at approximately 12:04 a.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s
deputies were dispatched to a residence on Corbett Ranch Ln., in
Carlotta, regarding a domestic violence incident.
Miller. Photo: HCSO.
As deputies were
responding to the residence, the Humboldt Emergency Communications
Center advised the suspect, 37- year-old, Clayton Lloyd Miller, had
physically assaulted his 36- year-old girlfriend. A witness reported
the victim was able to escape from Miller and fled the residence in
her vehicle and that Miller fled the scene in a White Cadillac
Escalade.
Deputies
contacted the victim at the Kenmar Park and Ride in Fortuna and based
upon her statement and injuries, it was determined that the victim
had been violently assaulted over the previous 36 hours. Emergency
Medical Services responded to the scene and transported the victim to
a local hospital for treatment. She was treated for
non-life-threatening injuries.
Deputies
searched the surrounding area and Hwy 36 for Miller, but he and the
vehicle were not located. A county wide bulletin was issued for the
arrest of Miller.
At approximately
11:48 a.m., deputies were dispatched back to the residence after the
Humboldt County Emergency Communications Center received a report
that Miller had returned to the residence and physically assaulted
the female victim once again. Deputies were dispatched and Miller
fled the scene in the stolen white Cadillac Escalade onto Highway 36.
Deputies located
Miller driving the Cadillac on Highway 36 and attempted to conduct a
traffic stop. Miller refused to stop, and a vehicle pursuit was
initiated. Units pursued Miller east on Highway 36 until his vehicle
was unable to proceed any further within the slide construction zone
near Grizzley Creek. Deputies issued repeated commands for Miller to
exit the vehicle, but he refused to comply. He attempted to continue
to flee and rammed a patrol vehicle. A chemical agent was deployed
into the Cadillac and deputies were ultimately able to take him into
custody. He was arrested and transported the Humboldt County
Correctional Facility and booked on the following charges:
PC 273.5:
Domestic Violence
PC 245(a)(1):
Assault with a deadly weapon
PC 422(a):
Threaten crime with intent to terrorize
PC 549(b)(1):
Vandalism ($400 or more)
PC 236: False
Imprisonment
PC 1203.2 (a):
Probation Violation: rearrest/revoke
PC 243(e)(1):
Battery: spouse/ex-spouse/dating relationship
PC 646.9(a):
Stalking
PC 496(d)(a):
Possess stolen vehicle
VC 10851: Motor
Vehicle Theft
VC 2800.2(a):
Evade peace officer with wanton disregard for safety
VC 2800.4: Evade
peace officer/wrong way driver
VC 12500(a):
Drive without a license
Miller is well
known to local law enforcement and has been in numerous vehicle
pursuits and has committed many violent crimes within our community.
At the time of his arrest, Miller was on formal probation for some of
the same charges he was arrested for, along with being on CDC Parole
for more of the same charges. Due to this case being a serious
violent felony, and he is on parole for a violent offense, The
sheriff’s office has significant public concern and has elected to
release his booking photo.
The Humboldt
County Sheriff’s Office is dedicated to keeping our community safe
and will continue to prioritize public safety by taking as many
violent repeat offenders off the streets as possible.
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.
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
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At a California State Senate committee hearing this year, the director of CalTrans, Tony Tavares, showed a simple chart that might have caused the assembled lawmakers some alarm.
It was a series of black bars representing the death toll on California’s roads in each of the past 20 years.
Fatalities had been falling until 2010, when the bars started getting longer and longer. A blood-red arrow shot up over the growing lines, charting their rise, as if to make sure nobody could miss the more than 60% increase in deaths.
“We are working to reverse the overall trend,” Tavares said.
No legislators asked about the chart. No one asked the director what, exactly, his agency was doing about it.
Over the next three hours, the Senate Transportation Committee members asked instead about homeless encampments along roads, gas tax revenue, gender identity on ID’s and planning for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The chart presented by then-CalTrans Director Tony Tavares at the March 11, 2025 Senate Transportation Committee hearing.
The committee chair said it was the legislature’s first informational hearing on the state’s transportation system in more than a decade. Yet only two senators — both Republicans with little legislative power in a state controlled by Democrats — even asked about dangerous driving, one following up with questions about a deadly stretch of road in her district and the other about a small California Highway Patrol program to target egregious behavior behind the wheel.
Over the past decade, nearly 40,000 people have died and more than 2 million have been injured on California roads. As an ongoing CalMatters investigation has shown this year, time and again those crashes were caused by repeat drunk drivers, chronic speeders and motorists with well-documented histories of recklessness behind the wheel. Year after year, officials with the power to do something about it — the governor, legislators, the courts, the Department of Motor Vehicles — have failed to act.
The silence, in the face of a threat that endangers nearly every Californian, is damning.
California has some of the weakest DUI laws in the nation. Here, DUI-related deaths have been rising more than twice as fast as the rest of the country. But this fall, a state bill to strengthen DUI penalties was gutted at the last minute.
When it comes to speeding — one of the biggest causes of fatal crashes — again the legislature has done little. For two years in a row, bills that would have required the use of speed-limiting technology on vehicles have failed.
Lawmakers did pass legislation a couple years ago that allows the use of speed cameras. But it’s just a pilot project in a handful of jurisdictions.
Marc T. Vukcevich, director of state policy for advocacy group Streets For All, considers it a win — but a modest one.
“This shit is not enough to deal with the size and severity and the complexity of the problem we have when it comes to violence on our roadways,” Vukcevich said.
Erika Pringle, at right, embraces Allison Lyman, whose son died in a collision, during a candlelight vigil as part of The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims at the Capitol in Sacramento on Nov. 16, 2025. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters
Gov. Gavin Newsom declined an interview request. Last year, he vetoed a bill that would have required technology that alerts drivers when they’re speeding.
The state DMV, which is under his authority, has wide latitude to take dangerous drivers off the road. But it routinely allows drivers with extreme histories of dangerous driving to continue to operate on our roadways, where many go on to kill.
Steve Gordon, whom Newsom chose to run the agency in 2019, won’t talk about it. He has declined or ignored CalMatters requests for an interview.
The agency simply released a statement from him in March, after our first interview request, touting modernization efforts that reflect an “ongoing commitment to enhancing accountability and transparency while continually refining our processes to ensure California’s roads are safer for everyone.”
Neither Newsom nor Gordon has announced any major changes since then.
How a bill to fight DUIs fails in Sacramento
For a brief moment earlier this year, Colin Campbell thought the state might finally do something about the scourge that changed his life one night in 2019.
A repeat drunk driver slammed into his Prius on the way to the family’s new home in Joshua Tree, killing his 17-year-old daughter, Ruby, and 14-year-old son, Hart.
Campbell, a writer and director from Los Angeles, began advocating for California to join most other states and create a law requiring in-car breathalyzers for anyone convicted of a DUI.
At first he was encouraged when the bill coasted through two legislative committees. But then came the roadblocks.
The ACLU opposed the measure, calling it “a form of racialized wealth extraction,” according to a Senate Public Safety Committee report from July. In California, people forced to use the devices have to pay about $100 a month to a private company to rent them, though there’s supposed to be a sliding fee scale based on income.
Then the DMV told lawmakers that it could not “complete the necessary programming” for the law, citing possible technology delays and costs of $15 million or more.
The bill was gutted. California couldn’t do something that nearly three dozen other states could.
Campbell called the sudden reversal a shameful example of forsaking public safety for bureaucracy.
“Our lives were destroyed that night,” he said. “If these people’s children had been killed by a drunk driver, there is no way they would be objecting to this.”
Even if the law had passed, DMV data suggests that California judges would have mostly ignored it.
State law says judges have to require in-car breathalyzers for people convicted of repeat DUIs. Last month, the DMV issued a report reinforcing what a similar report laid out two years earlier. Judges across the state ordered the devices just one-third of the time for repeat offenders. In 14 counties, they ordered the devices less than 10% of the time for second-time DUI offenders. The counties are: Alameda, Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Los Angeles, Madera, Mono, Plumas, Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Sierra, Tulare and Yuba.
DMV officials did not answer questions about what, if anything, the agency was doing about it.
We reached out to all 14 counties’ courts. Only eight responded to questions.
Chris Ruhl, executive officer for the Glenn County Superior Court, said the court is looking at local changes.
“Given the light CalMatters is bringing to this issue … the Glenn Court will review its current DUI sentencing practices,” according to a statement.
Glenn was one of a number of counties — including LA, Alameda and San Luis Obispo — that also suggested it wasn’t their judges’ responsibility to issue a court order. They said they only needed to notify the DMV of the convictions.
However, the law is clear: It’s the judge’s job to order the offender to use the device, said Jerry Hill, the retired Bay Area Democrat who wrote the bill.
When he worked in the Capitol, Hill said he also saw little urgency to rein in intoxicated driving.
“If you ask any legislator, they are going to say it’s a terrible, terrible thing,” he said.
But he said committee chairs and staff members who set the tone and write analyses often shied away from increasing criminal penalties.
“That’s where we see a lack of understanding, in my view, of the devastating effect of drunk driving in California,” he said.
Lawmakers say next session could bring change
A number of lawmakers said they are aware of the carnage on our roadways and plan to do something about it this coming legislative session, maybe.
Sen. Bob Archuleta, a Democrat from Norwalk who sits on the Transportation Committee, lost his granddaughter to a drunk driver just before Christmas last year. He said he recently met with representatives from Mothers Against Drunk Driving and is considering possible bills.
“This is not a Republican issue, a Democrat issue, an independent issue — or political issue. This is a life-saving issue,” he said. “We should all take it as seriously as the family that lost a loved one.”
Democratic Assemblymember Nick Schultz of Burbank said he is considering introducing at least one measure next year to address loopholes and weaknesses in state law.
Schultz, who started his career prosecuting DUI cases in Oregon and now chairs the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee, said he is weighing several potential measures that would address issues CalMatters highlighted in its reporting this year, including lengthening license suspensions after fatal crashes, lowering the bar to charge repeat drunk drivers with a felony, strengthening breathalyzer requirements and making sure vehicular manslaughter convictions get reported to the DMV.
“People are tired of seeing the needless loss of life on our roadways,” Schultz said. “There’s no way to legislatively make someone make the right choice. But what we can do is create an incentive structure where there are consequences for bad decisions.”
In the absence of more leadership at the state level, road safety advocates — many of whom joined the cause after losing a loved one to a preventable car crash — are taking it on themselves to try to force change. They’re meeting with lawmakers and officials, holding public events, telling their stories.
First: At far right, Fumiko Torres speaks about losing Rayanna Diaz while standing alongside other family members during a candlelight vigil as part of The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims event at the Capitol in Sacramento on Nov. 16, 2025. Last: Allison Lyman stands at a table honoring her son Connor, who was killed in a traffic collision, before the start of a candlelight vigil as part of the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims at the Capitol in Sacramento on Nov. 16, 2025. Photos by Fred Greaves for CalMatters
Jennifer Levi started working with MADD after her son, Braun, was killed in May while he was out walking with friends in Manhattan Beach. She said they’d only recently relocated to the area after the family home burned down in the Palisades fire, destroying “all of Braun’s pictures, videos from when he was born.”
The driver who killed her son was allegedly intoxicated and had a prior DUI arrest.
“The worst day of my life is now my life’s work. I will not stop until California changes,” Levi said.
In the months since her son’s death, Levi said, she’s met with any officials or influential people she could — current and former lawmakers, district attorneys, local council members, a lobbyist, and members of the media. Among the changes she wants: to make it easier to charge repeat DUI offenders with murder when they kill someone, to make fatal DUIs a violent felony and to increase penalties for hit-and-run fatalities. As CalMatters reported in October, California law often treats drunken vehicular manslaughter as a nonviolent crime with minimal time behind bars.
Levi calls her push to reform the system “Braun’s Bill.”
Many grieving families share a similar goal: for those they lost to be remembered by a state and society that seem indifferent. That desire was on display last month during an event in Sacramento to mark the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.
On a cold Sunday evening in mid-November, after a break in the rain, dozens of relatives of people killed in car crashes gathered on the dark steps of the state Capitol for a candlelight vigil. They fought to keep photos on posterboards upright in the gale-force winds. Family by family, they ascended the steps, stood above a display of orange cones lit with strands of white lights and addressed the onlookers, talking about their loved ones and what was lost — children left without their mother, mothers without their children, a wife left without the love of her life.
“Every day I live and I wake up and I pretend like I’m happy. Every day I wish my stairs would make noise. I miss being called mom,” said Angel Dela Cruz, whose 17-year-old son Edward Alvidrez Jr. was hit by a truck while riding a dirt bike in Madera County in 2022.
“I hope we all get justice,” she said.
The event ended with a moment of quiet reflection and a prayer before the families put away their pictures and walked off, the Capitol behind them locked, silent.
