A $1.5 billion budget shortfall, student outrage over planned annual 6% tuition hikes for at least five years, stubborn racial gaps in graduation rates and widespread distrust over how the university handles sexual assault claims.

This is the job that awaits Mildred García, who was named chancellor of the California State University today.

García will oversee the nation’s largest four-year public university system and its nearly 500,000 students at a time when public confidence in the value of a bachelor’s degree is at a nadir.She’ll begin her post October 1.

One more challenge to overcome? Persuading more students to enroll at Cal State’s 23 campuses as the system is beset by an enrollment decline that’s also upending its finances.

“I am honored, humbled and excited for this opportunity to serve the nation’s largest four-year university system and work alongside its dedicated leaders, faculty and staff, and its talented and diverse students to further student achievement, close equity gaps and continue to drive California’s economic prosperity,” she said in a statement.García, who’ll become the first Latina chancellor in the system’s 63-year history,

is no stranger to the CSU. She led Cal State Fullerton from 2012 to 2018 and Cal State Dominguez Hills from 2007 to 2012. At Dominguez Hills, she became the system’s first Latina president.

She left her post at Fullerton to lead a national association representing 350 public colleges and universities, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, where she’s remained since. Among the association’s members are all 23 Cal State campuses and one University of California campus, UC Merced.

While at Cal State Fullerton, García oversaw a rapid rise in graduation rates:

• The four-year graduation rate grew from 14% for students who started as freshmen in 2008 to 25.5% for students who began in 2014.
• The six-year graduation rate grew from 51% for students who started as freshmen in 2006 to 67.8% for students who began in 2012.

During her tenure, Cal State Fullerton’s six-year graduation rate actually surpassed the systemwide average after being nearly identical when she took over as president.

The six-year graduation rate gap between racial and ethnic groups also narrowed some while she was president. For example, between 2012 and 2018:

• The graduation rate gap between white and Black students at Cal State Fullerton decreased from about 15 percentage points to approximately 9 percentage points;
• Systemwide, the gap remained wider overall between those two groups, shrinking slightly from about 24 percentage points to around 20 percentage points.
• And while the graduation rate among Latino students was the same at Fullerton and systemwide — 44.6% — the rate jumped nearly 19 percentage points in that time period at Fullerton while climbing just under 12 percentage points across the CSU.
• Systemwide, the gap between white and Latino students narrowed slightly from 13.8 percentage points to 12.4 percentage points. At Fullerton, the trend was similar, dropping somewhat from a gap of 11.4 points to 9.8 points.

Systemwide graduation rate gaps

It’s those wide gaps across the system that will likely consume much of Garcia’s reign at the CSU. Cal State still graduates just under half of Black students within six years — 49% — who started as freshmen. That rate has been about 20 percentage points lower than that of white students for at least 16 years, as CalMatters has reported.

Cal State’s program to grow graduation rates and close gaps among identity groups, Graduation Initiative 2025, now receives $380 million a year in state and institutional support, wrote Amy Bentley-Smith, a Cal State spokesperson, in an email. Since the initiative debuted in 2015, rates for all ethnic and racial groups grew, but the gaps among specific racial and ethnic groups remain.

García will have just two years to steer the system toward reaching a key 2025 goal of doing away with any differences in graduation rates among racial groups.

Distrust over system’s handling of sexual assault claims

García will also have to contend with a Cal State rocked by allegations of sexual harassment and abuse. The fallout began when USA Today published an investigation revealing that the system’s then-chancellor, Joseph I. Castro, mishandled claims that a vice president at Fresno State sexually harassed students and staff when Castro was president of the campus. The allegations against Castro led to his resignation in February 2022.

Since then, news outlets uncovered more instances of sexual misconduct among senior officials at other CSU campuses. For example, according to EdSource, a Bakersfield campus vice president “was fired for viewing pornography on his work computer,” a Monterey Bay campus dean “harassed and demeaned female employees,” and “an administrator at Sonoma State University ‘asserted his dominance’ over a female co-worker and became violent when she rebuffed his advances.”The Los Angeles Times has produced nearly 30 articles in the past 18 months detailing campus claims of rape, assault, harrasment and intimidation. Last year the president of Sonoma State resigned after facing outcry over “her leadership amid a campus sexual harassment and retaliation scandal involving her and her husband.” The newspaper also chronicled allegations of rape and assault aboard a training ship operated by Cal Maritime.

Outside lawyers told Cal State trustees in May that students and staff don’t trust system leaders or processes for handing sexual assault claims. That firm plans to release a formal report on its findings by Monday. On Tuesday, the state auditor also plans to issue a report, requested by lawmakers, about the system’s ability to handle sexual assault claims.These reports will come with recommendations of at least $25 million annually for systemwide changes, such as more data-tracking, training investigators and hiring more staff across the campuses and central office, Cal State senior officials predict.

Funding gap and likely tuition hikes

Cal State faces a growing $1.5 billion shortfall between what it should be spending on student academics and what it actually collects from its main revenue sources — state tax dollars and tuition.

Lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom have approved more than $400 million in new, ongoing education spending for the system in the past two years, part of Newsom’s promise that, if kept, would lead to more than $1 billion in extra revenue by 2026-27.

But that’s still far too little to plug Cal State’s budget hole — and relying on state revenues alone exposes Cal State to California’s often volatile budget, which can have a $100 billion surplus one year and a $31.5 billion deficit the next.

So the system’s trustees are now eyeing annual tuition increases of 6% for all students for at least five years — a plan they’ll vote on in September. Most trustees seemed in favor of raising tuition for several years at the meeting Tuesday, but many balked at the original proposal that the hikes continue without end. Some asked to delay the vote until November. Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a trustee, said the timing of the discussion was unfair to students who are now off for the summer.

“I was right that what we would hear was that this was not the right time to do it,” interim Chancellor Jolene Koester said later in the meeting yesterday. She argued that the system cannot wait any longer to pass these hikes.

Undergraduates would see base tuition increase by $342 in the first year. However, around 60% of Cal State’s students would be unaffected by the tuition hikes because they receive non-loan financial aid. The state’s Cal Grant program that covers tuition for many students would automatically adjust to continue covering students’ full tuition, though technically the governor’s office could bill the system for the added costs to the grant.

But for the remaining 40%, annual jumps in tuition will cut deep, especially for “students on the verge of middle class who are still struggling,” said Sacramento State student and activist Michael Lee-Chang, in an interview.

The system’s student government association also opposes these hikes, but backs some kind of increase to tuition, said Dominic Treseler, president of the Cal State Student Association, in an interview with CalMatters. “We’re not opposed to multi-year increases,” he told CalMatters, but 6% is too high, and the association faults the Cal State’s senior leaders for not spelling out specifically how the new tuition revenue will be spent.

Tuition for undergraduates who pay would rise steadily, from $6,084 in the first year of the hike to $7,682 by 2028-29. However, some of that price hike will be curbed by a new state Middle Class Scholarship.

Trustees also fear sticker-price shock will chase away students, no matter how much financial aid they’ll get. Getting the word out that the cost of attendance is much less with grants and scholarships costs money too, Koester said Tuesday.The tuition plan would boost system revenues by $148 million in the first year and grow to an extra $840 million by the fifth year of the tuition spikes. System officials say they will divert 33% of that extra revenue to campus financial aid for low-income students, known as the State University Grant.

With the new revenue from tuition, Cal State wants to pour money into programs to help students graduate faster, narrow the gaps in the graduation rates among racial groups, and respond to the months-long demands of employee unions for salary increases to restore the buying power they lost due to inflation. Professors and counselors seek 12% raises.Increasing employee salaries by 1% alone would cost the system $55 million annually — and already about three-fourths of the system’s operating budget is spent on compensation.

Strikes are on the table, which would cripple Cal State’s education mission.

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

Press release from the Fortuna Police Department:

On Tuesday, July 11th 2023, at about 8:08 PM, the Fortuna Police Department was contacted by the parent of two juveniles. The parent told police that she had been told by the two juveniles that a carnival employee grabbed one of the juvenile’s arms in an alleged attempt to pull the juvenile into a vehicle, which was parked nearby.

The Fortuna Police Department is currently investigating the matter to substantiate facts surrounding this report. Further, the Fortuna Police have identified a person of interest in this matter. Coordination with management personnel associated with the carnival has also been completed.

The Fortuna Police Department is asking all members of the public and/or potential witnesses to please come forward with any known information concerning this matter. Members of the public and/or witnesses can reach the Fortuna Police Department at 707-725-7550.

Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jon Heggie wasn’t expecting much to worry about when a late summer fire erupted north of Santa Cruz, home to California’s moist and cool “asbestos forests.” This place doesn’t burn, he thought, with just three notable fires there in 70 years.

Heggie’s job was to predict for the crews where the wildfire might go and when, working through calculations based on topography, weather and fuels — the “immutable” basics. For fire behavior analysts like Heggie, predictable and familiar are manageable, while weird and unexpected are synonyms for danger.

But that 2020 fire was anything but predictable.

Around 3 a.m. on Aug. 16, ominous thunder cells formed over the region. Tens of thousands of lightning strikes rained down, creating a convulsion of fire that became the CZU Lightning Complex.

By noon there were nearly two dozen fires burning, and not nearly enough people to handle them. Flames were roaring throughout the Coast Range in deep-shaded forests and waist-high ferns in sight of the Pacific Ocean. No one had ever seen anything like it. The blaze defied predictions and ran unchecked for a month. The fire spread to San Mateo County, burned through 86,000 acres, destroyed almost 1,500 structures and killed a fleeing resident.

“It was astonishing to see that behavior and consumption of heavy fuels,” Heggie said. “Seeing the devastation was mind-boggling. Things were burning outside the norm. I hadn’t seen anything burn that intensely in my 30 years.”

Almost as troubling was what this fire didn’t do — it didn’t back off at night.

“We would have burning periods increase in the afternoon, and we saw continuous high-intensity burns in the night,” Heggie said. “That’s when we are supposed to make up ground. That didn’t happen.”

“Seeing the devastation was mind-boggling. Things were burning outside the norm. I hadn’t seen anything burn that intensely in my 30 years.”
— John Heggie, Cal Fire battalion chief

That 2020 summer of fires, the worst in California history, recalibrated what veteran firefighters understand about fire behavior: Nothing is as it was.

Intensified by climate change, especially warmer nights and longer droughts, California’s fires often morph into megafires, and even gigafires covering more than a million acres. U.S. wildfires have been four times larger and three times more frequent since 2000, according to University of Colorado researchers. And other scientists recently predicted that up to 52% more California forest acreage will burn in summertime over the next two decades because of the changing climate.

As California now heads into its peak time for wildfires, even with last year’s quiet season and the end of its three-year drought, the specter of megafires hasn’t receded. Last winter’s record winter rains, rather than tamping down fire threats, have promoted lush growth, which provides more fuel for summer fires.

Cal Fire officials warn that this year’s conditions are similar to the summer and fall of 2017 — when a rainy winter was followed by one of the state’s most destructive fire seasons, killing 47 people and destroying almost 11,000 structures.

US Forest Service teams deploy drones to capture photographs and infrared images, which are used to map fires to find areas where flames are still active and where they might spread. Photo by Andrew Avitt, US Forest Service

It’s not just the size and power of modern wildfires, but their capricious behavior that has confounded fire veterans — the feints and shifts that bedevil efforts to predict what a fire might do and then devise strategies to stop it. It’s a dangerous calculation: In the literal heat of a fire, choices are consequential. People’s lives and livelihoods are at stake.

Cal Fire crews now often find themselves outflanked. Responding to larger and more erratic and intense fires requires more personnel and equipment. And staging crews and engines where flames are expected to go has been thrown off-kilter.

“We live in this new reality,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a recent Cal Fire event, “where we can’t necessarily attach ourselves to some of the more predictive models of the past because of a world that is getting a lot hotter, a lot drier and a lot more uncertain because of climate change.”

CalFire has responded by tapping into all the new technology — such as drones, military satellites, infrared images and AI-assisted maps — that can be brought to bear during a fire. Commanders now must consider a broader range of possibilities so they can pivot when the firefront shifts in an unexpected way. The agency also has beefed up its ability to fight nighttime fires with a new fleet of Fire Hawk helicopters equipped to fly in darkness.

“We live in this new reality. ..We’re enlisting cutting-edge technology in our efforts to fight wildfires, exploring how innovations like artificial intelligence can help us identify threats quicker and deploy resources smarter.”
— Gov. Gavin Newsom

The state has thrown every possible data point at the problem with its year-old Wildfire Threat and Intelligence Integration Center, which pulls information from dozens of federal, state and private sources to create a minute-by-minute picture of conditions conducive to sparking or spreading fires.

“We’re enlisting cutting-edge technology in our efforts to fight wildfires,” Newsom said, “exploring how innovations like artificial intelligence can help us identify threats quicker and deploy resources smarter.”

An unforeseen assault on a coastal town

The 2017 Thomas Fire stands as an example of what happens when a massive fire, ignited after a rainy winter, veers and shifts in unexpected ways.

The blaze in coastal Ventura and Santa Barbara counties struck in December, when fire season normally has quieted down. Fire veterans knew fall and winter fires were tamed by a blanket of moist air and fog.

But that didn’t happen.

“We were on day five or six, and the incident commander comes to me and asks, ‘Are we going to have to evacuate Carpinteria tonight?’,” said Cal Fire Assistant Chief Tim Chavez, who was the fire behavior analyst for the Thomas Fire. “I looked at the maps and we both came to the conclusion that Carpinteria would be fine, don’t worry. Sure enough, that night it burned into Carpinteria and they had to evacuate the town.”

Based on fire and weather data and informed hunches, no one expected the fire to continue advancing overnight. And, as the winds calmed, no one predicted the blaze would move toward the small seaside community of 13,000 south of Santa Barbara. But high temperatures, low humidity and a steep, dry landscape that hadn’t felt flames in more than 30 years drew the Thomas Fire to the coast.

“I looked at the maps and we both came to the conclusion that Carpinteria would be fine, don’t worry. Sure enough, that night it burned into Carpinteria and they had to evacuate the town.”
—Tim Chavez, Cal Fire Assistant Chief

The sudden shift put the town in peril. Some 300 residents were evacuated in the middle of the night as the blaze moved into the eastern edge of Carpinteria.

In all, the fire, which was sparked by power lines downed by high winds, burned for nearly 40 days, spread across 281,000 acres, destroyed more than 1,000 homes and other buildings and killed two people, including a firefighter. At the time, it was the largest wildfire in California’s modern history; now, just six years later, it ranks at number eight.

The unforeseen assault on Carpenteria was an I-told-you-so from nature, the sort of humbling slap-down that fire behavior analysts in California are experiencing more and more.

“I’ve learned more from being wrong than from being right,” Chavez said. “You cannot do this job and not be surprised by something you see. Even the small fires will surprise you sometimes.”

Warmer nights, drought, lack of fog alter fire behavior

Scientists say the past 20 years have brought a profound — and perhaps irreversible — shift in the norms of wildfire behavior and intensity. Fires burn along the coast even when there’s no desert winds to drive them, fires refuse to lay down at night and fires pierced the so-called Redwood Curtain, burning 97% of California’s oldest state park, Big Basin Redwoods.

The changes in wildfires are driven by an array of factors: a megadrought from the driest period recorded in the Western U.S. in the past 1,200 years, the loss of fog along the California coast, and stubborn nighttime temperatures that propel flames well into the night.

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

Born August 5, 1936, in Denver and shortly after moved to Selma, Calif., Jim attended Selma High School, where he earned his letterman sweater playing football, swimming, and diving.

After high school, he joined the United States Marines Corps and then the United States Navy serving 23 years including service in the Vietnam Conflict.

After retiring from the Navy Jim became involved with church ministries in the Hanford, Calif. area. Wishing to serve the Lord, Jim moved with his wife Janice, to McKinleyville, where he pastored churches, led men’s studies, and counseled individuals for 35 years until he passed on July 1, 2023, at age 86.

Jim is preceded in death by his wife, Janice Proctor, and grandson, Brandon Van Sant. He is survived by his daughter, Michelle Proctor, sons Richard Allbritton (wife Lynda) and James Richard Proctor Jr (wife Sandra), eight grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.

Memorial Service ~ Saturday, July 15 at 0900 hrs ~ Telios Christian Fellowship, 1575 L St., Arcata.

Interment ~ Saturday, July 15 at 1200 hrs ~ Greenwood Cemetery, 1757 J St., Arcata ~ Military Honors.

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Press release from the Humboldt County Drug Task Force:

Rucker.

On July 10, 2023, Humboldt County Drug Task Force Agents and HCSO Deputies served a search warrant at the residence of Dusty Rucker (Age 42) located on 4000 block of Van Dyke Court in Arcata. After a multi-week investigation and several neighborhood complaints, the HCDTF believed Rucker was in possession of narcotics for the purpose of sales and in possession of several firearms.

Upon arrival at the Rucker’s residence, Agents located and detained a Tamerra Schumacher (Age 43) inside the residence. Rucker was not present during the service of the search warrant. As Agents were processing the scene, Schumacher became verbally aggressive and started to physically resist. Agents were able to control Schumacher, place her in handcuffs, and secure her in the back of a patrol vehicle without further incident.

Schumacher.

Once the scene was secure, Deputy McKenzie and his K9 partner Rex assisted with the search of the residence. K9 Rex alerted to several locations inside the residence indicating narcotics and/or firearms were present.

Agents searched the areas that K9 Rex had alerted to and located two semi-automatic 9mm handguns, multiple rounds of live ammunition, homemade explosives, ballistic body armor, ¼ ounce of fentanyl, 3 grams of methamphetamine, digital scales and a CA Exempt license plate belonging to a Humboldt County owned vehicle.

After locating the explosive devices inside the residence, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team responded to the scene. HCSO EOD was able to safely remove the explosives from the residence. At the conclusion of the search warrant, HCSO EOD transported the explosives to a secure location where they were rendered safe.

Schumacher was transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility where she was booked for the following charges:

• 11370.1(A): Possession of a controlled substance while armed with a loaded firearm
• PC 148(a)(1): Resisting, Delaying, Obstructing a Peace Officer

The HCDTF will be pursuing an Arrest Warrant for Rucker for the following charges:

• 29800(a)(1): PC Prohibited person in possession of a firearm
• 30305(A)(1): PC Prohibited person in possession of ammunition
• 11370.1(A)HS: Possession of a controlled substance while armed with a loaded firearm
• 11377(A) HS: Possession of a controlled substance
• 11350(A): Possession of narcotics

Anyone with information related to this investigation or other narcotics related crimes are encouraged to call the Humboldt County Drug Task Force at 707-267-9976.

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The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District — or  let’s just call it “the Harbor District” for short — will host a public “scoping meeting” Wednesday evening from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Eureka’s Wharfinger Building, located at 1 Marina Way.

What’s a scoping meeting, you ask? Well, the Harbor District recently announced that, per the rules of the California Environmental Quality Act, it is developing a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for a major renovation of the Port of Humboldt Bay.

That’s right: The district is preparing to meet the needs of the multinational, federally stimulated offshore wind industry, and tomorrow night’s meeting will give the public its first opportunity to weigh in on the “scope” of environmental issues that should be included in the report. 

The idea, as recently explained in a thorough and informative YouTube video featuring Rob Holmlund, the Harbor District’s director of development, is to transform the district’s largely vacant former industrial property on the Samoa Peninsula (home to the dilapidated remnants of the old pulp mill and Hammond Lumber Mill) into a state-of-the-art “heavy lift marine terminal,” a compound where the jaw-droppingly massive wind turbine components could be manufactured, assembled and then loaded onto ships.

(Watch that whole video if have an hour to spare and want to get a good baseline understanding of how the industry could impact our region.)

Here’s the Harbor District’s latest conceptual drawing depicting the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Marine Terminal:

The Harbor District is justifiably optimistic that our (currently rather sleepy) Humboldt Bay is perfectly positioned to become the epicenter of offshore wind energy manufacturing and distribution on the West Coast, a place that could potentially host the lion’s share of industrial production and distribution for floating wind farms from Oregon down to Morro Bay.

Holmlund says there is “a suite of new industries that all need to be created on the West Coast [and] that currently do not exist.”

With the Biden administration calling for 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy — enough to power 10 million homes — to be up and running by 2030, energy companies will need big supplies of everything from turbine blades and nacelles (the housings for the generating components) to mooring lines, towers and transmission cables.

All of these industries could — and by all sound reasoning — should be located right here on the shores of Humboldt Bay, according to the Harbor District. To that end, the district has entered into exclusive negotiations with multinational logistics firm Crowley, the company that aims to actually build the heavy-lift facility out on the peninsula.

While local conservation leaders are stoked about the carbon-emission-reducing potential of offshore wind development, they have voiced concern — right here on the pages of the Outpost, among other places — about just how green the port itself will be.

They point to the diesel-guzzling machinery — cranes, trucks, forklifts, etc. — that operate such ports, as well as the fossil-fueled tugboats and ships that could wind up hauling the massive infrastructure out to sea.

A community group called the Redwood Region Climate and Community Resilience (CORE) Hub has been closely monitoring this project and plans to have representatives at Wednesday’s meeting. In a voicemail left for the Outpost, a member of CORE Hub said representatives will be on hand to advocate for community benefits and protections for tribes and surrounding communities as well as the local fishery.

In a jointly authored opinion piece, local environmental leaders recently called on the Harbor District to commit to a zero-emissions green port by employing such emerging technologies as electrified terminal equipment, on-shore power stations for idling ships, fully electric tugboats and battery storage facilities.

“We would love to see a commitment to a green port from the get-go,” said Jennifer Savage, a 20-year resident of the Samoa Peninsula (and a friend of mine). “It only makes sense that a project designed to move us away from fossil fuels would be clean and climate-friendly itself.”

While the Harbor District has insisted that its port-development project extends only as far as the harbor entrance — which is to say it’s distinct from the offshore wind farms themselves — Savage and others argue that all aspects of the development, including support activities, should be identified and analyzed as part of the Harbor District’s environmental review process. 

Jennifer Kalt, executive director of environmental nonprofit Humboldt Baykeeper and one of the authors of the recent opinion piece, said this kind of advocacy isn’t about obstructionism.

“It’s hard to say ‘zero emissions’ without people thinking that we’re asking them to reach an unachievable bar, but that’s not at all what we’re doing,” she said. “We don’t want to make perfect the enemy of good. We just want it to be planned right from the start.”

Kalt noted that much of the technology to facilitate offshore wind energy at this scale — from the massive floating turbines to the electrical transmission infrastructure — is still years away, so the Harbor District should be willing to rely on advances in green electrification options, too.

“This is going to be a publicly funded project to a great extent, so we need to make sure that the public trust [resources] in Humboldt Bay and all the surrounding communities … will be protected,” Kalt said.

Savage also called on Crowley to enter into a Community Benefits Agreement that includes commitments to hire locally and provide job training such as internships and apprenticeships.

“I think it’s really important that the Harbor District and Crowley see the community as valuable partners and make real commitments to make sure everything is done right from the beginning,” Savage said.

The Harbor District’s Notice of Preparation of Draft Environmental Impact Report, which you can download by clicking here, will be circulated for a 30-day review and comment period. If you can’t make it to the meeting Wednesday, you can also submit comments by emailing Rob Holmlund at districtplanner@humboldtbay.org.

Remember: This project is about port development, not the offshore wind farms. Check back later this week for a report on Wednesday’s meeting. 

Below, one more image to convey the gob-smacking size of the floating platforms, atop each of which will be mounted turbines that are more than 1,000 feet tall from the ocean surface to the tip of the blades. If you were somehow able to lower one of the platforms into the heart of downtown Arcata, it would cover virtually the entire Arcata Plaza and obliterate several surrounding businesses:

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PREVIOUSLY:

• ARCATA HOMICIDE: 36-Year-Old Fortuna Man Shot and Killed; APD Seeking Suspect

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Press release from the Arcata Police Department:

On July 2, 2023, at 7:20am, the Arcata Police Department responded to the 5000 block of Boyd Road, for a man down in the roadway. Upon arrival, officers located a male subject, deceased of an apparent gunshot wound. The decedent has been identified as 36-year-old Joshua Paul Gephart, who was recently living in the Arcata area.

APD Detectives have secured an arrest warrant for PC 187(a)- Homicide, for 24-year-old Gregory Nelson Mattox, of McKinleyville in connection with the homicide.

Gregory Nelson Mattox is described as a white male adult, approximately 5 foot 11 inches tall, thin build, with dark hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and tan pants. Mattox may be in possession of a handgun and is considered armed and dangerous.

APD asks if you see Mattox, immediately call the Arcata Police at 707-822-2424 or call 9-1-1. This case is still under investigation and anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Johnson at 707-822-2424. More information will be released when available and appropriate.