Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On July 16, 2023, at about 6:17 a.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies on patrol in the Cutten area observed a vehicle, reported stolen to the Eureka Police Department the day prior, traveling in the 4000 block of Cedar Street.

Deputies conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle and contacted one occupant, 43-year-old William Lee Nicholson. Nicholson was taken into custody without incident and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of vehicle theft (VC 10851(a)) and possession of a stolen vehicle (PC 496D(a)).

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.

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On July 14, 2023, at about 8:44 a.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a residence on the 1900 block of Simmons Road in Cutten for the report of a theft from a vehicle.

The victim told deputies that at about 5:38 a.m., a male suspect gained access into the victim’s parked vehicle and stole a purse containing the victim’s credit cards and keys. One of the victim’s stolen cards was found to be used at a local business soon after the theft.

While conducting this investigation, deputies learned of a vehicle theft occurring at a residence nearby on Simmons Road that morning and an attempted theft at a residence on Primrose Avenue. Victims and neighbors in the affected area were able to provide surveillance footage depicting a male suspect, who deputies identified as 34-year-old Vincent Charles McKenney.

On July 16, investigating deputies received information that a vehicle associated with McKenney had been observed in the Blue Lake area. Deputies located the vehicle parked outside a residence on the 200 block of Maple Creek Road. While on scene, deputies observed McKenney through the window of a residence on the property. McKenney refused deputies’ commands to exit the residence. Deputies then entered the residence and located McKenney hiding in a closet. He was arrested without further incident.

During the search of McKenney’s vehicle and the residence, deputies located a large amount of stolen property from multiple recent theft-related investigations.

Also, while at the property, deputies contacted 36-year-old Christopher James Diven, who was found to have an outstanding warrant for his arrest. Diven was taken into custody and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on his warrant for charges of petty theft (PC 488).

McKenney was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of theft by forged/invalid access (PC 484g), petty theft (PC 488), possession of stolen property (PC 496(a)), resisting arrest (PC 148(a)), violation of probation (PC 1203.2(a)(2)) and two additional warrants for violation of probation.

The stolen vehicle has not been located at this time. It is described as a 2002 dark blue Chevy Tahoe, CA license plate number 5MHZ582. Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of this vehicle is encouraged to contact the California Highway Patrol.  

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.

Learn more about how you can protect your home and vehicle from theft at: https://humboldtgov.org/2102/Neighborhood-Watch

Receive HCSO news straight to your phone or email. Subscribe to news alerts at: humboldtsheriff.org/subscribe.

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Sky looks odd, right? 

You’re not imagining it. Smoke from the Flat Fire, which our colleague Jessica Cejnar Andrews wrote about this morning on our sister site, Wild Rivers Outpost, is, somewhat strangely, blowing due south as of this writing, obscuring the sun over coastal Del Norte and Humboldt counties.

See below:

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There appears to be another layer of smoke coming from Canada, which is having its worst fire season in memory, covering much of the United States with nasty air quality. Thankfully, air quality here in Humboldt County remains in the “good” zone, despite the slight darkening of our precious, light-and-heat giving gas orb.

The Flat Fire began Saturday on U.S. Forest Service land near the southern Oregon community of Agness, where the Illinois River meets the Rogue River, and per the latest update, around 10:30 a.m., the blaze has grown to roughly 5,477 acres.

The National Weather Service has predicted a red flag warning starting at 11 p.m. this evening through 8 a.m. Tuesday for the Western Siskiyou National Forest, the Western Rogue Basin and the Illinois Valley.

Head on over to the Wild Rivers Outpost for more info on suppression efforts.

A major proposal from Gov. Gavin Newsom to overhaul the state’s behavioral and mental health system is likely to take nearly $720 million away from services provided by county governments annually, according to a new analysis from the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

Although that money would be reallocated within the system, in part to house homeless individuals with severe mental illness and addiction disorders, the report authors note that Newsom and key legislators supporting the proposal have neither provided a complete justification for the changes nor have they published an analysis on how the changes may “negatively impact current services.”

“Consequently, as the Legislature considers the proposal, we recommend asking the administration certain questions to assess whether the proposal is warranted,” the report states.

Newsom wants the Legislature to put his proposal before voters next year in tandem with a $4.68 billion bond measure to add psychiatric treatment beds. It would change how the state allocates money under the Mental Health Services Act, which levies a 1% tax on income above $1 million to fund behavioral health services.

“What’s more upsetting is watching people continue to suffer on the streets with ineffective interventions and inability to access much needed treatment.”
— Brandon Richards, Gov. Newsom’s Deputy Communications Director

Homelessness has become one of the most high-profile challenges plaguing California, increasing 32% in the past four years. Newsom, who promised to reduce homelessness, announced his intent during his State of the State tour to divert nearly one-third of the state’s Mental Health Services Act money to help address homelessness.

Since that time, local behavioral health providers and county officials have criticized the proposal because of its potential to cut services and pit mental health programs against homeless services. The state has spent more than $20 billion on housing and homelessness since 2018.

Supporters, meanwhile, say reprioritizing how the money is spent is long overdue in light of the growing needs of the state’s homeless population as well as the addition of new funding sources for mental health programs.

In a statement, Newsom’s Deputy Communications Director Brandon Richards said “upsetting the status quo” was necessary in light of California’s changing health care needs.

Mental health needs among California homeless

A recent study from UC San Francisco found that two-thirds of homeless individuals experience mental health conditions, although income loss is the driving force behind the state’s homelessness crisis.

“What’s more upsetting is watching people continue to suffer on the streets with ineffective interventions and inability to access much needed treatment,” Richards said. “A California behavioral health system of care that is more focused, more transparent, and more accountable for results is what all Californians deserve and what this historic reform aims to achieve.”

Roughly one-third of the county mental health infrastructure in the state is supported by the Mental Health Services Act, which was approved by voters in 2004 as a ballot initiative. Substantial changes to the act, like the ones Newsom proposed, require voter approval. Last year the tax generated about $3.8 billion.

Critics of Newsom’s proposal say the new analysis bolsters their argument that the changes will result in significant cuts to current programs, particularly those that support children.

Newsom’s office has so far “danced around” how much money would be cut, said Adrienne Shilton, a lobbyist for the California Alliance of Children and Family Services, which represents behavioral health providers in every county. The report is the first to quantify how the proposal would impact programs statewide.

“We’re seeing in real dollars what the impact would be,” Shilton said.

The analysis estimates spending on current programs would be reduced from $1.34 billion to $621 million under the plan.

Housing money in Gavin Newsom’s plan

The report identified a number of key changes and unanswered questions for the Legislature to consider in Newsom’s plan:

• Reduced flexibility: Counties would have less flexibility to determine how money is spent. Based on current expenditures, counties would be required to increase spending on housing by $493 million and on “full-service partnerships” by $121 million. “Full-service partnerships” include intensive wraparound services like case management, housing and employment support as well as clinical care.
• Program cuts likely: In order to meet spending targets and caps, counties would likely need to reduce spending on current programs including “outpatient services, crisis response, prevention services, and outreach.”
• Less independent oversight: The proposed restructuring moves much of the program implementation and oversight authority to the Department of Health Care Services. The change “significantly limits” the independent oversight of the current Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who helped author the original law and who has been a key supporter of the changes, said the law was always meant to prioritize “the plight of people living with serious mental illness on our streets.”

“It’s appropriate, in fact, it’s necessary to set priority status,” Steinberg said.

Steinberg and Newsom’s office also contend that the state has invested heavily in the mental health safety net in other ways, including changes to the Medi-Cal system and a $4.4 billion one-time infusion into the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative.

“It’s no longer a funding source that stands alone,” Steinberg said. “(Now), the opportunity is to weave all these pieces together so that everyone has access to care, and nobody is left out or left behind.”

Still, advocates say it is premature to assume those investments have had a positive impact and that many have not yet been implemented. In an opposition letter, Lishaun Francis, senior director for behavioral health at Children Now said the state “has yet to demonstrate that it has delivered” on its promises and that the proposal deprioritizes children and youth.

“The opportunity is to weave all these pieces together so that everyone has access to care, and nobody is left out or left behind.”
— Darrell Steinberg, Mayor of Sacramento

Advocates also say those funding sources, particularly Medi-Cal, won’t reimburse for the non-clinical programs like classroom interventions and family resource centers that have historically been supported by the Mental Health Services Act. Medi-Cal is the state’s health insurance program for extremely low-income Californians.

“Families need flexibility,” said Christine Stoner-Mertz, chief executive officer of the California Alliance of Child and Family Services. “We need community-designed practices, and we haven’t been successful in doing that with just Medi-Cal.”

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

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

“O, what a world of unseen visions and heard silences, the insubstantial country of the mind! …And the privacy of it all! A secret theater of speechless monologue and prevenient counsel…”

— Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

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I don’t trust my brain for a moment. Why should I? It lies to me, falsifies memories, gives me the illusion of acting freely, of having a separate “self” apart from the rest of the world. On top of all that, it convinces me that I’m conscious.

Believing in my own consciousness, or awareness, is, to the best of my understanding, my brain’s attempt at staying sane. If I just said, “Oh, this is just my data-processing brain constructing its own awareness because this pseudo-consciousness works, having got me here through countless generations who all believed the same thing,” I’d go nuts. Easier to believe the lie than to accept the reality.

Thing is, the stuff that makes up brains — neuronal matter — is just like the rest of the body, functionally organized to serve survival and reproduction. Nothing magic about it, any more than my liver is magic.

Here’s how neurologist Michael Graziano explains the illusion of self and consciousness: “When an information processing device [the brain] introspects, and on that basis arrives at the conclusion that it has a magical, non-physically-explainable property, the most straightforward scientific question is not: How did it produce magic? But instead: How, and for what use, does it construct that description of itself.”

I think we’re pretty close to building computers that will construct their own awareness, just as the brain does, complete with the same illusions about “self” as we have

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“No one is truly free until they realize that free will is an illusion.”

— Baruch Spinoza

Free will is — of course! — a non-starter, despite my brain’s acting as if it were free. Samuel Johnson foreshadowed the science of neurology by a few hundred years, writing, “All theory is against the freedom of the will; all experience is for it.” (The usual test offered for free will is to answer the question, “Could I have acted differently?” in the positive. The problem being, duh, there’s no way of knowing.)

From a physics POV, each of us is made up of some ten to the thirtieth elementary particles, all of which obey deterministic laws of physics (with the very odd random, and therefore unpredictable, quantum “jump”), meaning we’re essentially deterministic: given complete information about us at any one moment, an imaginary computer could calculate what we’re going to say and do the next moment … and the next…

Our brains are machines — complex machines, true — but machines nonetheless. Mostly they’re filters: every second, some 10 million bits of information enter it, yet the output can be estimated in just a few dozen bits per second, the rest of the input having been dumped as inessential or confusing. The rest of it is all about making a consistent view of the world, which is essential to survival. That’s why I think psychedelics can be so overwhelming, removing (some of) the filters — information then floods in — seemingly so much more real than William James’ “rational waking consciousness.” (That flood, as I and, probably you, know, can lead both to ecstasies and bad trips.)

I could go on. And on. Better to remind myself, as Stuart Sutherland wrote in The International Dictionary of Psychology, “Consciousness is a fascinating but elusive phenomenon … Nothing worth reading has been written about it.”

It’s that time again, folks! Organizers of the sixth annual Eureka Street Art Festival are gearing up to bring a much-needed dose of color to the drab walls of Broadway.

There are 20 murals planned for this year’s festival. Where is all the art happening, you ask? Keep scrolling for a map of the mural locations along the southern Highway 101 corridor and more information about the painters who will be spreading art and color throughout our fair city.

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Press release from the Eureka Street Art Festival:

This July 31st - August 5th, the Eureka Street Art Festival will be bringing 20 new murals to South Broadway and the 101!

2023 Mural Artists

This year we are welcoming artists from around the corner and around the world. The 2023 Artists include: 

• Laci Dane - Weott, CA
• Blake Reagan - Loleta, CA
• CALANGOSS (Eder Muniz) - Rochester, NY
• Ripe Mind (Tony Diaz) - Arcata, CA
• ORLUarts - Oakland, CA
• Fasm - Modesto, CA
• REBOUND - Arcata, CA
• Caitlin McDonagh - Victoria, BC, Canada
• Ekosaurio - Santurce, Puerto Rico
• Josh Overington - Arcata, CA
• Edin + Ben Goulart - Bayside, CA
• Ladi Ladines - Humboldt County, CA
• Tamzen Fox - Humboldt County, CA
• Aerosol Kingdom - Rochester, NY
• Miles Toland - Nevada City, CA
• LEHO - Tainan City, Taiwan
• Kay Lopez - Eureka, CA
• Mark Worst - Los Angeles, CA
• Zoë Gelfant - Montreal, QC, Canada

For the week of the Festival, these artists will be painting murals along the 101 and South Broadway, from D Street all the way to the Herrick Overpass. As always, we are featuring a strong group of local artists, including a number of painters who participated in the ESAF Mural Apprentice Program in past years. And this year we are excited to be welcoming international artists again, with muralists coming from as far as Canada, Puerto Rico, and Taiwan to spread some color in Eureka.
You can find examples of all of the artists work on our social media (@EurekaStreetArtFestival) and our website (www.EurekaStreetArtFestival.com).

How to Enjoy the Festival

• Drive + walk around the Festival area during the week – Grab a map from our website, the Eureka Visitor Center, Humboldt Cider Company or Festival HQ (located at Papa + Barkley).
• Daily Art Talks – at 5:30pm This year we will be organizing more in-depth Art Talks each day. Check our website and social media for the schedule and locations.
• Support the Broadway businesses while you’re out! – Let’s show some love to our local businesses throughout the week.
• Attend the Block Party on Saturday, August 5th from 12-6, under the Samoa Bridge – Enjoy the huge beer garden, listen to live music, eat tons of good food, watch artists work, shop from local vendors, and meet the mural artists!

The Eureka Street Art Festival’s mission is to create intentional, accessible art that enlivens public spaces, stimulates community revitalization, and attracts visitors to Eureka. ESAF is a Dreammaker Project of the Ink People Center for the Arts. 

Offshore wind energy can be thought of as three distinct projects: the construction of offshore wind turbines, the actual operation and generation of electricity, and the transmission of that electricity across California. The Humboldt Harbor District is poised to play a major role in offshore wind turbine construction and is planning improvements to create a port designed specifically to build these large floating turbines.

The Harbor District has released a “Notice of Preparation”—the initial step in the CEQA process for analyzing environmental impacts from the port redevelopment. Luis Neuner of EPIC, Jen Kalt of Humboldt Baykeeper, and Caroline Griffith of the Northcoast Environmental Center join the show to discuss their thoughts on the initial designs.