Honsal. | File photo.

Well, if the anti-weed states of Nebraska, Idaho and Indiana thought they’d found an ally in Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal, they may have been disappointed by the testimony he offered during last week’s DEA rescheduling hearing in Virginia.

As previously reported, that trio of red states called Honsal as a key expert witness in a federal administrative hearing concerning whether cannabis/marijuana should be reclassified from Schedule I to the less-restrictive Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. 

We’re working on getting our hands on an official transcript of the proceedings, but people who were in attendance report that while Honsal did lament the continued existence of an illicit weed industry  — one that’s replete with organized crime, trespass grows, human trafficking and nasty pesticide use — he ultimately described California’s regulated, legal market as a good thing.

Under cross-examination from attorneys with the U.S. Department of Justice, Honsal testified that most of the California cannabis being shipped out-of-state comes from unlicensed operators, rather than the legal market. That’s according to attorneys with the law firm Vicente LLP, who were in the room. 

A correspondent for the advising and consulting firm Cannabis Wise Guys who also attended the hearing offered a lengthy recap of Honsal’s testimony on Instagram. He said Honsal testified that about one-third of the roughly 1,500 grows that remain in Humboldt County are illegal and credited Prop. 64 with allowing the state to have “real regulation.”

High Times magazine reports that Honsal’s testimony “undercut a central implication of [those states’] crime argument, that the regulated market itself was the engine of the crime they described.”

The reporter from Cannabis Wise Guys quoted Honsal as saying , “Legal growers would come talk about their past, how happy they are to be legal and not have to fear law enforcement anymore.”

There may be some truth to that, though as we reported last week, local licensed farmers have been complaining in recent weeks about low-altitude helicopter flights being conducted by the Northern California Coalition to Safeguard Communities, a multi-county law enforcement group funded by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.

It remains unclear why Honsal agreed to testify for Nebraska, Idaho and Indiana. A spokesperson for his office declined to answer any questions about his testimony, his trip to Virginia or any related matters.

A pre-hearing statement filed by those three states said, “Based on his experience, [Honsal] believes that legalization and changes in marijuana laws contributed to a significant expansion of the illicit marijuana market rather than its elimination.”

If the reports from inside the courtroom are correct, Honsal wound up saying something quite contrary to that.

Both parties in these proceedings now have nearly a month to submit optional post-hearing briefs. Chief Administrative Law Judge Derek Julius, who presided over the hearing, will decide whether to recommend for or against rescheduling. DEA Administrator Terry Cole will make the agency’s final determination.

A shark may have bit a surfer over the weekend at Moonstone Beach, though authorities said it went officially unreported. 

It nibbled a wedge out of a foam board yesterday at around 10 a.m., a surfer who was nearby told the Outpost, its bite barely punching through the man’s wetsuit. The victim was rattled but uninjured. The other surfers in the lineup, somewhere around a half dozen of them, paddled back to shore and told other surfers getting ready on the beach to stay there. 

The victim said it was a 10-foot long juvenile great white, the surfer who spoke with us claimed, and he said the victim “fought” the shark, putting his board between him and it before paddling to shore.  

Incidents like these shouldn’t be called an “attack,” per the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Shark bites are an extraordinarily rare event, and it’s almost never because they’re hunting us; it’s usually because they’re “investigating unusual objects in their environment,” says the CDFW. (Like a surfboard.)

CDFW spokesman Peter Tira told the Outpost that no one reported the incident to the sheriff’s office or to CDFW. Skipping that step is a mistake, he said; the agency keeps bite incident data going back to the ‘50s, and keeping the record complete helps other beach-goers be aware of any potential dangers. They also could have determined what kind of shark it was by scraping some DNA off of the board. 

“But we don’t have that opportunity if it’s not reported to us,” Tira said, “or another public safety entity like the police or sheriff’s office.”

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment. The victim couldn’t be reached. (If that’s you, would you please consider contacting Dezmond Remington at dezmond@lostcoastoutpost.com?)

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PREVIOUSLY

• (VIDEO) Eureka Man Detained by ICE in Wyoming; Daughter Describes Him as a Loving Family Man Who’s Been in the U.S. for Over 30 Years

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Gilberto “Rudy” Jimenez Gonzalez with his family. | Photo courtesy Alina Kahoalii-Williamson.

Gilberto “Rudy” Jimenez Gonzalez, the 52-year-old Eureka man who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Wyoming last week, has been transferred to a privately operated immigration detention facility in Aurora, Colo.

The Aurora ICE Processing Center, or AIPC, is operated by The GEO Group, Inc., a multi-billion-dollar private prison corporation that has faced numerous lawsuits over the “inhumane” conditions in its facilities, where detainees are allegedly brutalized, subjected to sleep deprivation and denied medical care. 

The GEO Group is currently blocking public health officials from investigating the possible spread of tuberculosis at AIPC. A detainee tested positive for the highly contagious disease last month.

The Adams County Health Department launched its legally mandated investigation in response to the positive test result, but public health investigators say they were “met with a lack of cooperation from federal immigration authorities and representatives of the GEO Group,” the Colorado Sun reported late last week.

At least 21 people have died in ICE custody so far this year.

Meanwhile, a GEO Group employee is facing charges of assault and attempted second-degree murder after allegedly shooting an ICE protester outside the Aurora detention facility on Thursday.

Last night, Jimenez Gonzalez was allowed to speak with his family over the phone. He reported feeling scared and tired, according to his adult daughter, Alina Kahoalii-Williamson. A bond hearing before a federal judge has been scheduled for July 27, she told the Outpost in a phone interview this morning. 

“That’s what we’re working with our attorney on right now, is to try and gather all of the documents needed to be prepared for his hearing on the 27th,” she said. “So I’m gathering letters of support, proof of residency, marriage certificates, birth certificates of all his children, pay stubs, tax documents.”

Jimenez Gonzalez has been living in Eureka for nearly 40 years. It’s where he met his wife, started a family that includes five kids and two grandkids and launched a painting business with his wife.

“My dad’s actually, you know, he pays taxes every year with his ITIN [individual tax identification number], so [we gathered] proof of that. Hopefully they’ll accept the bond. But what our attorney told us is they can really deny him for any reason, especially because a lot of these federal judges are being replaced by our current administration.”

The Trump administration has fired more than 100 immigration judges, prompting a wave of lawsuits and triggering international concern. A panel of independent experts appointed by ‌the United Nations Human Rights Council recently called on the administration to to stop “the mass arbitrary ​removal” of immigration judges and the continued politicization of immigration courts.

Regarding the tuberculosis risk, Kahoalii-Williamson said she’s very scared about her dad getting infected, in part because he’s already been losing weight.

“He’s just not really eating and doesn’t like the food there,” she said.

While Jimenez Gonzalez has been in federal custody, his elderly mom has arrived in Eureka from Mexico after obtaining a travel visa. 

“But she’s in really bad shape,” Kahoalii-Williamson said. “She’s been in the hospital for the last five days, and she’s got some dementia. But she has still asked for my dad.”

Jimenez Gonzalez and his wife were on their way to a family reunion when he was detained last week.

“Before he left, he knew [his mom] was coming up here,” Kahoalii-Williamson said. “When he came back, he was going to come see her. He hasn’t seen her in years. … We were all together as a family when he called.”

She added that her grandmother’s health has improved since she’s been at St. Joseph Hospital.

A GoFundMe campaign that Kahoalii-Williamson launched to help cover her dad’s legal fees is close to reaching the initial $25,000 goal.

In a Facebook post, she said her dad was in disbelief when his family told him about the support being shown through this crowdfunding campaign.

“I hope that this is a reminder to him to continue to fight and that he is so loved by many,” Kahoalii-Williamson wrote in the post. “People that I don’t even know have reached out to me and my family sharing beautiful stories and memories that they share with my dad.”

Still, his family remains nervous about what could happen next, including the possibility that Jimenez Gonzalez might be denied bond.

Kahoalii-Williamson said she believes the mistreatment of detainees is a deliberate component of the Trump administration’s anti-immigration strategy, which also includes a nearly $1 billion “self-deportation” incentive program.

“That’s the goal, you know, is to round everybody up and hopefully get them to a point where they’re not being treated well; [their captors] are not complying with health officials; they’re breaking the constitution and all this stuff. People are getting frustrated. People are getting anxious,” Kahoalii-Williamson said. “And so the goal is to just have these people self-deport, so they, you know, aren’t an issue anymore. … But the attorney says once he’s in Mexico, it’s going to be impossible to get him back.”

Press release from the Eureka Police Department:

On July 19, 2026, at approximately 9:00 a.m., officers with the Eureka Police Department (EPD) responded to the 300 block of E Street for a report of a female in crisis who was on the roof of a building. Upon arrival, officers located the female sitting on the edge of the roof with her legs dangling over the side. Officers immediately secured the area and requested additional resources.

Due to the nature and complexity of the incident, personnel from the City of Eureka’s mobile crisis team (CARE), the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Crisis Negotiation Team, a Mental Health Officer (MIST) from the Community Safety Engagement Team (CSET), Humboldt Bay Fire, and City Ambulance responded to assist. After approximately four hours of negotiations, the female voluntarily came down from the roof. She was medically evaluated at the scene and was transported to a local medical facility for further care.

If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, help is available. Contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 9-8-8, the local crisis line at (707) 445-7715, or call 9-1-1 if there is an immediate threat to life or safety. You may also seek assistance through Humboldt County Behavioral Health, located at 720 Wood Street in Eureka, or by visiting your nearest emergency department. The Eureka Police Department encourages anyone experiencing a mental health crisis to seek assistance as early as possible.

The Eureka Police Department would like to thank Crisis Alternative Response of Eureka (CARE), Humboldt Bay Fire, City Ambulance, and the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office for their assistance and collaboration during this incident.

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

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It’s not quite the “Mississippi Miracle,” but California’s reading scores have been inching upwards since the state poured billions into changing the way students learn to read. A shortage of literacy coaches, however, may be preventing students from improving even more.

In 2013, before California overhauled its literacy program in K-12 schools, the state ranked 47th nationally for fourth grade reading skills on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card. Only 27% of students scored “proficient” or “advanced” on the reading test, given every two years to students across the country.

The following year California released a new English language arts framework that encourages schools to focus on phonics, vocabulary and other nuts-and-bolts methods when teaching children to read. Phonics-based instruction won’t become mandatory until next year, but most schools have been gradually adopting the method.

Next came new curriculum materials, a dyslexia screener and updates to teacher credential programs. The state also expanded transitional kindergarten and implemented new guidelines for English learners.

But perhaps the biggest literacy investment came in 2023 with $500 million in grants set aside for schools to hire literacy coaches and take other steps to boost reading skills. The coaches – typically, former classroom teachers with extra training in reading – work directly with teachers to help them effectively teach children to read. Last year the state added $215 million, and the most recent budget includes an additional $350 million for literacy coaches.

Mississippi, whose reading scores went from 49th in the country in 2013 to 9th in 2024, partially credits the turnaround to literacy coaches and other teacher training tactics. Mississippi’s reading framework is similar to California’s, but Mississippi invested heavily in training teachers to implement it, while California rolled out its training program over several years.

Reading scores inch up

California’s reading scores have improved gradually – but significantly – since 2013. Last year, California ranked around the middle of the pack nationwide, with 13 states scoring higher and the rest scoring the same or lower. This happened at the same time that national scores began falling.

On statewide tests, the number of fourth graders reading at grade level jumped from 40% in 2014 to 46% last year. Before the pandemic, the percentage was close to 50%, dropped a few points when schools switched to remote learning, but has been inching back up since then.

Fourth grade is a key benchmark for literacy because by fifth grade, students need reading skills sufficient to understand other subjects such as history and science. Students who aren’t proficient readers by fourth grade are more likely to lag academically in other subjects. Studies have found that adults with low literacy skills are more likely to be unemployed, incarcerated or face other challenges.

Sarah Novicoff, a researcher at the Public Policy Institute of California, conducted a study that found that California’s literacy investments have paid off – with a caveat.

“They’ve absolutely had a positive impact,” Novicoff said. “But we have an opportunity to do an even better job.”

Novicoff found that nearly 60% of school districts used their grant money to hire literacy coaches to work with teachers, reading specialists to work directly with students, or otherwise arranged for teacher training related to literacy.

School districts that made those investments saw significant improvements in reading scores, including among English learners, she found. Results varied by district, but in general students scored 6 points higher on state tests within two years of the investments, she found. She expects the scores to rise further over time.

Some districts struggle to hire literacy coaches

But plenty of school districts hired no literacy coaches. Not because they didn’t want to, but because there were none to hire. In fact, 42% of districts said they had trouble hiring coaches.

“I’d love to hire a literacy coach,” said Patricia Gunderson, superintendent of the Lassen County Office of Education. “It’s great the state is offering the money, but we just can’t do it. We don’t have the capacity.”

In remote and rural parts of the state, finding literacy coaches has proved to be nearly impossible – and has hindered improvement, Novicoff found. For example, Lassen County, along the northern Nevada border, can barely find enough credentialed teachers, let alone education professionals with advanced specialty degrees. And even if schools could hire literacy coaches, they couldn’t find enough substitutes to fill in for teachers undergoing training.

But Lassen has been creative in finding ways to boost literacy. In 2023, for example, it held a weeklong summer training course for teachers, where teachers were paid to learn the new curriculum and the course didn’t interrupt the school year. Gunderson said it was a big success; state reading test scores jumped more than 7 percentage points, although still lag behind the state average.

In Siskiyou County, along the Oregon border, county superintendent Allan Carver said he welcomes the state’s investment in literacy coaches, but it’s created another problem: Teachers are opting to become literacy coaches, possibly because it’s less stressful or pays a bit more, leaving vacancies in the classroom.

“We work to solve one issue and further exacerbate the teacher shortage,” Carver said. “We have to develop the literacy coach pipeline before we simply allocate funds and expectations for training.”

In Baldwin Park, in the San Gabriel Valley, principal Laura Rodriguez said literacy coaches have been instrumental in turning around her school’s reading scores. Using state grant money, Tracy Elementary has added a literacy coach who works closely with the school’s teachers, aides and reading specialist.

The literacy coach, Claudia Barba, holds workshops for teachers and parents, trains the aides, assesses the students, analyzes data, and gives feedback to teachers. She’s also devised a literacy plan that looks closely at the causes for the low scores and specifically addresses the reasons.

“She is amazing,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve seen such a difference since we started this. It has changed our campus.”

Tracy Elementary, a Spanish-English dual immersion school, is mostly low-income. More than 30% of students are English learners. The literacy plan teaches children to read in Spanish first, then English, by focusing on vocabulary and phonics in both languages. By third grade, when the state first tests students’ reading skills, students are fairly fluent readers in both languages.

In just two years, after hiring the literacy coach, Tracy’s reading scores jumped more than 10 percentage points. Even English learners saw their scores significantly increase. Other metrics also improved: Chronic absenteeism dropped from 44% just after the pandemic to 11% last year. Math scores are increasing, too.

“Literacy is the key to everything. If a child can read, they can access knowledge. They start to enjoy school,” Rodriguez said. “They can get a better education.”

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

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Mavericks are hard to find in the California Legislature.

It’s exceedingly rare for lawmakers to vote against the majority of their party.

A CalMatters Digital Democracy analysis of current legislators’ voting records found that, on average since 2023, they broke from the majority of their colleagues less than 1% of the time.

But a few are more willing to stray from the herd. Some represent the few competitive swing districts in California.The top maverick voter is Assemblymember Greg Wallis, a Republican representing the Rancho Mirage area. He broke from his party 8% of the time. It’s a reflection of how competitive his district is. Wallis won his first election against a Democrat in 2022 by a mere 85 votes. It was one of the smallest margins in state history.

This year, Wallis was the only Republican to vote for a bill that seeks to prevent arrests of abortion providers or providers of gender-affirming care. He was the lone Republican to vote for a measure prohibiting tech companies from turning over data if law enforcement is targeting protesters or others protected by the First Amendment. And Wallis was the only Republican to vote for an LGBTQ Caucus priority bill that seeks to protect insurance coverage for gay and transgender people.

“Republicans, Democrats, independents, nobody has a monopoly on good ideas,” Wallis said. “I was elected to represent all 500,000 constituents in the 47th Assembly District, and so our approach has always been to evaluate every bill based on its merit, not solely on which party supports or opposes it.”

Already rare, maverick voting may become even rarer in California and around the country as voters become increasingly polarized. If a moderate politician casts a vote that bucks the party line, a hard-liner from their party could use it as ammunition against them in a primary election.This year’s primary elections show what’s at stake for moderates. President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement has all but consumed the Republican Party. Trump’s hard-line MAGA loyalists almost unanimously scored primary victories over more moderate Republican incumbents. Meanwhile, democratic socialists and far-left progressives had their own string of primary victories, defeating moderate Democrats across the country.

California lawmakers also have strong incentives to vote with their party leadership. The party controls lucrative committee assignments, leadership positions and campaign resources that individual lawmakers depend on for reelection.

A moderate faces a reckoning

Voting against her party may have contributed to a June primary loss for Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains. She’s a moderate Democratic family physician representing the Bakersfield area. She ran for Congress this year and lost to progressive college professor Randy Villegas.

She has Digital Democracy’s second-highest maverick ranking among Democrats, voting against the majority of her party just under 2% of the time since she was elected to the Legislature in 2022.

Her moderate, nuanced views and votes, particularly on fossil fuels and healthcare, gave Villegas lines of attack that appealed to more left-leaning voters.

Villegas now faces moderate Republican U.S. Rep. David Valadao, who also prevailed in the top-two primary, in November.

In an interview, Bains said she always voted for what she felt was best for her constituents, even if it angered her fellow Democrats. She has no regrets.“It wasn’t for a party,” she said. “It was for them; it was for my community.”

Most famously, Bains was the lone Democrat to vote against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2023 bill that sought to crack down on oil company profits. She felt the law would harm the oil industry that’s important to Kern County’s economy.

Her vote led to a public rebuke from the governor’s now-indicted former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, who wrote on social media, “Alone and confused you shall likely remain.”

Then-Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon also punished Bains by temporarily removing her from a committee.

Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains during a floor session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Aug. 29, 2025. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters

Wallis said Republicans are more understanding when he breaks ranks to vote for a Democratic bill, but they do give him a good-natured hard time.

He said his favorite candy bar is Twix. After he casts a vote for a Democratic bill, he said he’ll sometimes find only the left Twix bar in its wrapper on his desk.

Modesto Republican Assemblymember Juan Alanis is right behind Wallis in Digital Democracy’s maverick rankings. He’s broken with the majority of his Republican colleagues 7% of the time.

Alanis said his colleagues know he represents a district with only slightly more Republican voters than Democrats, so his fellow Republican lawmakers understand when he casts a vote that bucks the party line.

But he is mindful that conservative Republican primary challengers might someday use his votes for Democratic bills against him.Still, he said he’s going to keep voting for his district and his conscience. If a right-wing challenger wants to make an issue of that, “then so be it,” he said.

Voting ‘no’ leads to outliers

Others buck their party merely because they’re more willing to vote “no” more often than their colleagues.

Not voting is a common tactic California lawmakers use to express discomfort with a bill while avoiding a firm “no” that could anger powerful interest groups or legislative colleagues.

As CalMatters has reported, Democrats vote “no” less than 1% of the time. Republicans vote “no” more often, typically around 20% of the time, but they also abstain from voting on bills more than Democrats do.San Diego Republican Assemblymember Carl DeMaio doesn’t skip many votes. He just votes “no.” Last year, he had the most “noes” of any member of the Legislature.

DeMaio, who has often bucked his party publicly, also isn’t shy about voting “no” even when Republicans are voting “aye.” He ranked third in the maverick rankings, breaking with the majority of his party 5.5% of the time.

Notably, DeMaio broke with the majority of his party this year by voting “no” on legislation that seeks to give state public safety workers pay raises and pension increases.DeMaio said he votes against bills he thinks will raise costs for California taxpayers, and he doesn’t care if it angers wealthy and powerful groups such as the unions pushing for the pay and pension legislation.

“I’m simply not going to be swayed by how powerful a group is,” DeMaio said. “If they’re backing a bill that is bad policy, I’m going to vote ‘no.’”It also helps that DeMaio runs a massive grassroots conservative fundraising machine that insulates him from needing campaign donations from wealthy special interests.

On the Democratic side, Assemblymember Anamarie Ávila Farías, representing the Concord area, also votes “no” on bills more than her Democratic colleagues. Last year, she cast more “no” votes than any member of the Democratic caucus.

She also leads the Democratic caucus in voting against her party, thanks to her occasional “no” votes. She’s voted against her party 2.16% of the time.

This year, she was the only Democrat to vote against a measure that seeks to give Californians the right to sue companies for forming harmful monopolies.

Several of her moderate Democratic colleagues expressed concerns that the bill could be used by predatory law firms to shake down businesses already struggling in a high-cost state. Unlike Ávila Farías, those worried Democrats just didn’t vote.

Ávila Farías said her constituents sent her to Sacramento to make hard decisions, so she’s comfortable voting “no” when she thinks a proposal isn’t in their best interest or it could raise costs for Californians, even when her colleagues won’t.

“It’s much harder to undo something than stand firm and raise the flag,” she said. “I’m more governed by, you know, the facts and the data and the execution and the unintended consequences than really party ideology.”

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Our methodology: To determine how often lawmakers voted against their party, we analyzed each lawmaker’s votes since 2023 and compared them with their party’s majority position. When the majority voted yes, we noted if a lawmaker voted no. When members of the majority voted no or abstained, we noted if they voted yes. We averaged how often each lawmaker voted against their party across all years since 2023.

Digital Democracy’s Foaad Khosmood, Forbes professor of computer engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, contributed to this story.

It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Jeanette Lynn Erickson, who left us peacefully on June 8, 2026, at the age of 68.

Jeanette was born on November 17, 1957, in San Jose, California, to William and Alice Matuzek. She lived a life filled with love, compassion, and devotion to her family and friends.

She was a loving wife to Randy Lee Erickson Sr., a devoted mother to John Matuzek, Laynette Aisetewa-Snyder, and Randy Lee Erickson Jr., and a cherished grandmother to Joseph Erickson. Her kindness, strength, and unwavering support touched the lives of everyone who knew her.

She grew up alongside her five siblings in San Jose, California. She married the true love of her life and moved to Orick in 1985, where she and Randy raised their children. She and Randy Sr. ran A & P Towing in Orick, and you would often see them riding in the tow trucks together holding hands. She was known for her playful behavior, and laughter always came quickly whenever anyone was around her. Jeanette loved the outdoors, gardening, fishing, hunting, and capturing cherished memories on camera or in her paintings.

She is survived by her son John Matuzek, daughter Laynette Aisetewa-Snyder, son Randy Lee Erickson Jr., grandson Joseph Erickson, and son-in-law Michael Snyder. She was preceded in death by her father William Matuzek, mother Alice Rose, husband Randy Erickson Sr., Antonio Avelar, and father-in-law Richard Erickson.

A celebration of life will be held on August 2, 2026, from 12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Orick Community Hall. Family and friends are invited to attend and celebrate her life.

The family would like to thank Providence St. Joseph Hospital Eureka for their care and support.

Though she is no longer with us, her love, strength, wisdom, and memories will remain in our hearts forever.

“Always loved, never forgotten, forever missed.”

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