Susan peacefully left this life to be with her Lord and Savior on
June 21, 2023 at the age of 71, in Eureka.
She was born Susan Ann Thompson on June 14, 1952 to Kenneth
Owen Thompson and Francis Jane (Carter) Thompson in
Bloomington, Illinois. She married Charles Shoemaker and moved
to California. Then they began their family with the birth of their
first son, Christopher. Three years later, they had their second son,
Kyle.
When she and Charlie divorced, she raised her sons with selfless
dedication, making sure they were loved, clean, fed, educated and
well taken care of. She was very proud of both her sons. They
were the love of her life and considers having raised them the most
successful thing she did in this earthly life.
She is thankful to Kyle and Kendra for giving her a granddaughter,
Aria. The depths of her love in being Aria’s grandmother cannot
be described.
Susan accepted the Lord as her Savior and her close relationship
with Jesus was evident throughout her life. Susan was a member of
First Covenant Church-Eureka.
She especially enjoyed helping in the kitchen with church events, attending Bible Study Classes and the Weekend Women’s Retreat
each year. Susan loved the beach and enjoyed going on picnics
whenever possible.
Susan was very giving of her time and was happiest when she
could make a meal or bake for anyone in need! She was a great
cook and many people enjoyed her Chocolate Chip Cookies and
her Pumpkin Bread as well as her many other baked goods!
Susan was a compassionate caregiver and spent many hours taking
care of others. She especially enjoyed spending time with Betty
Shoemaker before she passed.
She dearly loved her family, friends and her cat, Mowgli.
Susan was preceded in death by her father Kenneth Owen
Thompson, mother Francis Jane Marshall, step-father Paul
Marshall; her infant daughter, Sonya Lynn, nephews: Ronald
Salvator Jr, James Christian Salvator and niece Heather
Shoemaker.
She leaves behind her sons Christopher Shoemaker, Kyle (Kendra)
Shoemaker, granddaughter Aria Mae Shoemaker. Sisters: Margaret
Pascoe and her children Theresa and Bobby, Betty Powell and her
son Kenneth Paul, Frances (Michael) Shoemaker and their son
Paul (Katie) Shoemaker and Paul’s children Noah, Hania, Gideon.
And many other extended nieces and nephews.
There will be a celebration of life Saturday, August 12, 2023 at
First Covenant Church, 2526 “J” St. Eureka at noon.
Reception to follow.
Isaiah 40:31
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Susan Hannon’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.
Arcata Theatre Lounge, a performance and events venue in a 1938 Art Deco movie house. | File photo.
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The National Labor Relations Board has ordered Arcata Theatre Lounge to offer a bartender her job back, plus back wages and interest, for violating federal labor law by firing her for complaining about the company’s tipping policy.
According to the decision, which was enforced by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month, former ATL employee Rebecca Maynard was engaged in legally protected activity when she complained to her coworkers and bosses about the company’s “tightly controlled tipping policy.”
From her very first day on the job, in late August 2021, Maynard objected to the fact that bartenders’ cash tips got pulled out of a communal tip jar at the end of each shift to be tallied up and distributed later via employee paychecks. She talked to her coworkers and bosses and eventually consulted with an attorney about the practice, and when word got back to her bosses they promptly terminated her.
A section of the company handbook addressing the tipping policy says, “All employees have the right to be present when tips are counted.”
By firing her for “insubordination,” the business committed an unfair labor practice, interfering with Maynard’s right to unionize/organize with coworkers, the Labor Board’s ruling says.
The case was tried this past November before an administrative law judge, who interviewed Maynard and others, including Arcata Theatre Lounge owner Timothy Overturf and several of his employees.
According to the testimony given at this hearing, Maynard was roommates with another ATL employee, a security guard who was promoted to a supervisory position shortly before Maynard was fired. This roommate testified that he overheard Maynard talking to an attorney about the ATL’s tipping policy and reported that fact to his bosses.
When Overturf fired Maynard on October 7, 2021, he told her it was for insubordination.
“He also told Maynard that her talking about wages brought down morale and that amounted to insubordination,” the Labor Board ruling says, citing Maynard’s own “uncontradicted testimony.”
Later that night, Maynard texted General Manager Monica Munoz:
I guess I really feel bummed that I was terminated for questioning the tip pooling policy. I don’t think I was being cruel or malicious. I was just trying to figure it all out as the tip pooling at Arcata Theatre Lounge didn’t make sense … to me. That’s all. Best to you. Anyhow, I can accept your decision.
Four days later, Munoz texted Maynard back, telling her that she was actually fired for other reasons, such as “saying inappropriate things in the workplace,” repeatedly calling coworkers “explicit names,” painting while on the clock and often showing up late for shifts.
However, Munoz then offered a defense of the company’s “voluntary tip pools” and told Maynard, “You had every chance to come to me and talk to me about any questions you had about pay or tips and did not make any effort for clarification yet went to multiple workers to complain.”
During the administrative law hearing, Overturf and several of his employees testified that Maynard was fired for reasons beyond the tipping policy complaints, but Judge Gerald Etchingham didn’t buy it.
“Some of the allegations were vague and others lacked substance,” he ruled. Nothing in the record supported the allegation that Maynard showed up late for shifts. Etchingham found the testimony of the ATL’s head of security “unreliable” and described him as “quite flippant” and “not serious about providing reliable testimony.”
In the end, Etchingham concluded that these other “supposed improprieties” were mere pretexts for firing Maynard.
“The important thing about all of these alleged improprieties is this: Monica [Munoz] admitted that she, who was the General Manager … and the official in charge of issuing written warnings, never issued any written warnings to Maynard about these alleged improprieties,” the ruling says.
The evidence “overwhelmingly supports” the conclusions that Maynard was fired for complaining about the tipping policy, he adds.
“By discharging employee Rebecca Maynard on October 7, 2021, because of her protected concerted activities, [the Arcata Theatre Lounge] violated Section 8(a)(1) of the [National Labor Relations] Act and committed an unfair labor practice within the meaning of the Act,” the ruling concludes.
As a remedy, the ATL has been ordered to perform multiple tasks, including:
offer Maynard her former job or a “substantially equivalent position,”
make Maynard whole for any loss of earnings and other benefits she suffered as a result of being fired,
compensate Maynard for any adverse tax consequences of receiving a “lump-sum backpay award,” and
post a notice to employees informing them that the business violated Federal labor law, giving them the facts of the case and advising them of their own labor rights.
The Outpost was unable to track down Maynard for comment, so we don’t know if she plans to take her old job back. We tried to reach Overturf but the number for the business listed on line was not functioning earlier today, and he did not immediately respond to an email and Facebook message.
During the month of July 2023, Agents with the Humboldt County Drug Task Force received information that Riley Wilson Bean (Age 29) was selling narcotics in the Eureka area of Humboldt County. Bean was on felony probation for selling narcotics and had a felony warrant for his arrest.
On July 25th, 2023, Agents with the HCDTF were able to locate Bean in a public area. Bean was accompanied by another individual who was identified as Matthew Robert Williams (Age 31). HCDTF Agents were able to identify Williams from previous contacts and investigations. Williams was also on felony probation for trafficking narcotics and was currently out on bail from a recent arrest.
Mr. Williams | HCDTF
HCDTF Agents surveilled Bean and Williams as they traveled through the Broadway area of Eureka. Agents observed that Williams and Bean appeared to be making “hand to hand” drug sales with the people they encountered.
Bean and Williams responded to a large parking lot of a business located in the 600 Block of Harris St. in Eureka. Upon their arrival, Bean entered a vehicle that was occupied by two additional subjects, while Williams stayed on foot in the area. At this time HCDTF Agents and Officers with the Eureka Police Department moved in and surrounded the vehicle that Bean was inside of. Bean was detained without incident.
As Bean was being detained, Williams fled on foot eastbound towards Spring Street. HCDTF Agents pursued Williams on foot where they eventually caught up to him in the 3000 block of Albee Street. Williams physically resisted as the Agents attempted to place him under arrest. After a short struggle, Williams was placed in handcuffs and secured in the back of an EPD patrol vehicle.
Once the scene was secure, EPD Sergeant Nantz and his K9 partner Bohdi conducted an “open air sniff” where Bean was located inside of the vehicle. K9 Bohdi alerted to the back seat of the vehicle where Bean was sitting, indicating drugs and/or firearms were present. HCDTF Agents searched the area that Bean was seated in the vehicle and located ¼ pound of fentanyl, 550 Xanax bars, 10 grams of heroin, 10 grams of methamphetamine, packaging materials, and a digital scale.
EPD Officer Jones and his K9 partner Bolo conducted an “open air sniff” on Williams’ vehicle. K9 Bolo alerted near the front of Williams’ vehicle indicating that drugs and/or firearms were present. HCDTF Agents searched the vehicle and located an additional 10 grams of heroin.
Bean was arrested and transported to the Humboldt County Jail where he was booked for the following charges:
11375(B)(1) HS - Possession of a designated controlled substance fore sales
1203.2 (A) - PRCS Violation
Felony Warrant
Williams was arrested and transported to the Humboldt County Jail where he was booked for the following charges:
11350 HS - Possession of narcotics
148(a)(1) PC - Resisting/Obstructing a Peace Officer
1203.2 PC - Probation violation
466 PC - Possession of burglary tools
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.
The City of Eureka will be performing sewer evaluation work on Myrtle Avenue, starting Wednesday, July 26th
through Friday, July 28th, WEATHER PERMITTING.
On Wednesday, eastbound Myrtle Avenue will have one
lane closed at West Avenue, southbound West Avenue will have one left-hand turn lane closed at Myrtle
Avenue and all southbound traffic onto West Avenue will be closed. Detours will be in effect, and lane
closures may impact traffic.
Evaluations in Myrtle between West and Harrison Avenues are expected to last
the remainder of the week, with lane shifts but no detours.
There will be controlled traffic and detours at these locations, and motorists should expect short delays.
The patience and cooperation of motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians in the vicinity of the work zone is
greatly appreciated.
The City of Eureka realizes that this disruption is an inconvenience, but repairing and maintaining our sewer
collection systems is vital to the health and safety of our residents.
Buh-bye, rusty railroad tracks | Photos and video: Andrew Goff
Patience! Your much-safer bayside Eureka/Arcata bike commute is coming, people!
Roughly two months after a “ribbon-tying” ceremony marked the beginning of construction on Humboldt Bay Trail South — a long-envisioned, paved multi-use trail connecting Arcata and Eureka mere feet from the shores of shimmery Humboldt Bay — work crews could be seen Tuesday morning pulling up old railroad ties and tracks.
LoCO safely pulled off the safety corridor and gathered a bit of imagery of the historic work which officials hope will wrap before the end of 2024. Read our previous coverage here and/or scroll down for track demolition.
Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
On July 24, 2023, at about 4:16 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a licensed cannabis farm on the 2800 block of French Road in Miranda for the report of an armed robbery.
Harwood.
Deputies contacted an adult male victim with minor injuries as they were responding to the property. The victim told deputies that a former manager of the farm, 49-year-old Thomas Vernon Harwood Jr., arrived at the property unannounced with approximately 10 masked suspects. While there, Harwood reportedly assaulted the victim and detained him in a vehicle on the property. Meanwhile, the masked suspects reportedly stole a large amount of cannabis upon Harwood’s instruction. The victim was able to escape in the vehicle and meet deputies further down the road.
While investigating this incident, law enforcement officers located and detained Harwood nearby. According to witnesses on scene, the masked suspects fled the property in a white Ford pickup truck with concealed license plates. The suspects are described as Hispanic male adults, wearing dark clothing and body armor, possibly in possession of firearms. These suspects are still outstanding at this time.
Harwood was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of robbery (PC 211), first degree burglary (PC 459/461(a)), false imprisonment (PC 236) and conspiracy to commit a crime (PC 182(a)(1)).
This case is still under investigation. 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.
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the California Highway Patrol for their assistance during this incident.
West Los Angeles College in Culver City on July 17, 2023. Photo by Julie A Hotz for CalMatters
The community college system is falling short of one of its most important benchmarks: the number of students who transfer to a four-year college or university. It remains well below the system’s own goal, and lawmakers have taken notice.
“Although most students intend to transfer to a four-year university, few do,” wrote a group of state legislators this year as they asked the state to audit community college performance.
Set in 2017, the goal was to increase the annual number of community college students who transfer to the University of California and California State University from nearly 89,000 to more than 120,000 by 2022. In the 2020-21 academic year, the most recent data available, nearly 99,000 community college students transferred to a UC or Cal State.
The Community College Chancellor’s Office responded to questions regarding the transfer goal by forwarding a letter that former interim Chancellor Daisy Gonzales wrote to legislators in March as part of an internal negotiation regarding the audit. In it, she wrote that the goal “has not been fully achieved.”
She wrote that the UC and Cal State system rejected nearly 30,000 eligible community college applicants in fall 2020 — more than enough transfers to meet the community colleges system’s goal. She wrote there was “insufficient capacity” at the UC and Cal State campuses and asked the auditors to include equal scrutiny of those systems, since everyone is mutually responsible for coordinating successful transfers.
However, there are many ways to measure transfer. To get a clearer picture, CalMatters looked beyond the chancellor’s office goal and analyzed the raw number of students who transferred every year, which includes but is not limited to those who transfer to a UC or Cal State. Those numbers are reported by four-year institutions across the country and analyzed by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office. Undocumented students are not counted because they lack a Social Security number.
CalMatters then compared those numbers to the total number of students who, upon starting community college, said they eventually wanted to get an associate degree or transfer. It’s the methodology that most closely aligns with the state’s funding formula, which pegs the transfer numbers to the amount of money a college receives.
Of the students enrolled in a community college in California who said they wanted to transfer to a four-year university, an average of 9.9% went on to enroll at a four-year institution in 2021, the most recent data available.
There are many reasons why students never transfer. The state’s roughly 1.8 million community college students are predominantly low-income, first-generation students of color. Many students, especially older students, must juggle work, children, and for some, even homelessness while attending school.
But certain populations and colleges have a harder time with transfer than others. CalMatters found:
Students at rural community colleges are less likely to transfer to a four-year university than students who attend school in affluent parts of Ventura County, Orange County, the San Fernando Valley, and Bay Area suburbs like San Bruno, Pleasant Hill, and Redwood City.
Colleges separated by only a few miles show stark contrasts in transfer rates. In 2021, the most recent year available, the transfer rate at Irvine Valley College was 16.7%, but just 10 miles away, at Santa Ana College, the rate was 5.4%.
Younger community college students were most likely to transfer, and the rates drop off the older a student gets. In 2021, students over the age of 50 were more than four times less likely to transfer than their peers between ages 20 and 24.
Rural, unprepared students face biggest hurdles
Lassen College has one of the lowest transfer rates in the state — 4.5% in 2021. It’s more than 10 percentage points below the highest performer, Irvine Valley College.
The reason is easy to see, said Roxanna Hayes, the vice president of student services at Lassen College in Susanville: The nearest four-year institution is over 80 miles away at the University of Nevada in Reno.
“It feels like we’re 2 hours from anything…when you come up to Susanville and you look around, there’s no other educational institution besides us.”
“We don’t have the sort of income that other counties have,” Hayes said. “It’s not just getting accepted to school: I’ve also got to live there and afford it.”
Among the community colleges with the lowest transfer rates, 60 percent are rural, and some are hours away from the nearest four-year institution.
Because of its proximity to numerous four-year institutions like UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton, students at Irvine Valley College come to school already familiar with their transfer options, and most students don’t have to move if they want to pursue a bachelor’s degree, said Loris Fagioli, the director of research at Irvine Valley College.
The rural-urban divide is part of the problem, but it can’t explain everything, said Darla Cooper, the executive director of the Research and Planning Group of the California Community Colleges, a separate nonprofit organization that is funded in part by the chancellor’s office. The income of the student body, the focus and “culture” of the school, and even the economics of the surrounding town or city impact the transfer rate at any community college.
In the 2014-15 academic year, Los Angeles community colleges had some of the lowest transfer rates in the state, but that’s because many of its students were coming to community college unprepared, said Maury Peal, the community college district’s associate vice chancellor for institutional effectiveness.
The colleges enrolled those students in remedial courses, which can take years to complete and can reduce the likelihood of graduation. Backed by research that shows remedial classes to be ineffective, a law passed in 2017 and another in 2022 asked colleges to start placing students directly in college-level courses. Pearl said these reforms, plus other efforts like special degrees that guarantee a transfer to a Cal State or UC, have led to an uptick in transfer rates across the L.A. colleges.
West Los Angeles College, for instance, had a 5.4% transfer rate in 2015, among the lowest in the state. But by 2021, it was up to 12.3%, well above the statewide average.
“The fact that it’s improved is something we’re proud of, but it’s still not where we want to get to,” said Jeff Archibald, vice president of academic affairs for West Los Angeles College.
‘Swirl,’ prisons, and ‘transfer-oriented culture’ set schools on different paths
Unlike four-year institutions, which are often singularly focused on bachelor’s degrees for young adults, community colleges offer a range of educational opportunities depending on the demographics in the surrounding towns or cities, which can make it hard to compare one community college to another.
Located in Blythe, a rural town near the Arizona border, Palo Verde College has consistently had the lowest transfer rate of any community college. In 2021, just 1.1% of Palo Verde College students who indicated they wanted to transfer succeeded in doing so — but roughly half of the college’s students are in prison. Other rural colleges with low transfer rates, including Lassen College and Feather River College, also enroll a high percentage of incarcerated students relative to other schools.
Rural areas also come with different job opportunities, especially compared to the state’s highly educated coastal cities, Cooper said.
“Do the jobs where you’re located require a bachelor’s degree?” she said. “Because if they don’t, you’re probably not going to have a lot of transfer.”
In dense urban areas like Los Angeles, students tend to take classes at multiple community colleges, creating a “swirl” in the data that can mask some long-term outcomes, Archibald said.
But disparities still persist, even within the same city. Los Angeles Pierce College and Los Angeles Valley College, which are located in the San Fernando Valley, consistently outperform other Los Angeles community colleges.
The Technology Learning Center building at West Los Angeles College in Culver City on on July 17, 2023. Photo by Julie A Hotz for CalMatters
Pearl said Pierce and Valley College have developed a reputation for preparing students for four-year colleges or universities. He pointed to other Los Angeles community colleges, such as Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, which are geared towards career and technical training.
A 2008 Research and Planning Group report found that a “transfer-oriented culture” was a recurring reason why certain community colleges had higher-than-expected transfer rates. The report also said those colleges had close relationships with local high schools and four-year institutions, along with support services for students.
Although the report was done 15 years ago, the transfer rate patterns have persisted. Many of those schools profiled by the Research and Planning Group in 2008, such as Irvine Valley College, continue to outperform their peers today, according to the CalMatters analysis of recent data.
Community colleges in wealthy areas or those with high-performing high schools have higher transfer rates, too. “We know this with almost all educational outcomes, there is an economic or socio-economic driver behind it,” Faglioli said.
Pearl said Los Angeles Pierce and Valley colleges benefit from “high-performing” charter schools nearby, which can boost transfer rates if community college students start school better prepared.
Why transfer still matters
To encourage colleges to meet the system’s goal of increasing transfers to a UC and Cal State, community college officials put forward a new formula that pegged a portion of a community college’s funding to its outcomes. One of those outcomes is the number of people who transfer to a four-year institution.
But Lizette Navarette, interim deputy chancellor of the community college system, said that community colleges with low transfer rates are not getting penalized.
That’s because the new funding formula also takes into account the percentage of low-income students who meet certain benchmarks for success and the number of students who complete career-oriented programs. Navarette said rural colleges and other schools with low transfer rates have the opportunity to make up any potential gaps in state funding.
Lassen College, for example, received nearly $3 million more dollars last year than it would have under the previous funding formula, despite having some of the lowest transfer rates in the system.
However, the greatest impact of low transfer rates is not on the community college but on the student, Cooper said.
“For most people of color, most people who are low-income, community college is their only way into higher ed,” she said. “Even if what they want to pursue requires a bachelor’s degree, not everyone can go straight to a university.”
Four-year colleges and universities are selective and can be expensive, she said. While some community college students can earn more with a certificate or an associate degree than those with a bachelor’s degree, she said those students are the exception, not the norm.
Airplanes and helicopters in the Aviation Technology building at West Los Angeles College Campus in Culver City on July 17, 2023. Photo by Julie A Hotz for CalMatters
“Everybody wants to bring out Bill Gates,” Cooper said. “He didn’t graduate college….If you can be that, awesome, great, fantastic. But for most people, it’s beneficial for life.”
In the internal letter to the state auditors, former interim Chancellor Gonzales pointed to areas where the community college system has seen significant gains toward its 2017 goals. More students are completing their courses and gaining degrees, for instance.
In general, more students are transferring to a four-year college, according to the CalMatters analysis, which includes upticks in the number of students transferring to a UC or Cal State. But the progress remains less than third of the goal that the chancellor’s office set out to accomplish by 2022.
A spokesperson for the Community College Chancellor’s Office said the system will deliver a new transfer goal “in the coming weeks.”
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Data reporter Jeremia Kimelman contributed to the reporting for this story.
Adam Echelman covers California’s community colleges in partnership with Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on higher education.
CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
