Forty people were crammed into the Arcata House Partnership’s annex before the sun’s first light. A mulleted 20-something navigated around a few others in the kitchen, whipping up mounds of eggs. A sign on the wall read:

“Age with mischief, audacity, and a good story to tell.”

A few people chatted about how glad they were it wasn’t raining this morning like it did the last time. Everyone seemed to know someone else there. The conversation was light, but all of these people were there for an important task.

The Arcata House Partnership’s (AHP) executive director, Darlene Spoor, stepped in front of the group and spoke. We’re there this early, she said, to avoid scaring people. It’ll also make them easier to find. She had asked the Arcata Police Department not to ticket anyone for vagrancy until noon.

All around the county that day, Jan. 23, another 60 people were preparing to do the same thing we were doing: go and get a headcount of all the homeless people we see. The Point-In-Time Count is important to AHP, because it determines where the federal government allocates funding. The more homeless people an organization serves, the more funding it receives. The survey is nationwide. Volunteers count unsheltered people every other year and people living in shelters annually during the last week of January.

AHP’s procedure this year was a little different. Previously, volunteers also asked the homeless people they encountered questions some of them considered too invasive to answer, like where they slept last night, questions about their gender identity, if they did drugs or struggled with their mental health. Volunteers were directed to not ask those questions this year. “We have to be kind out there,” Spoor reminded us. “We wanted to be a little kinder, a little gentler this year.”

“It’s not getting better,” Spoor went on, referring to the increasing number of homeless people on the street. “…The need continues. More people are living on the edge. More people can’t afford groceries or rent.”

Volunteers passed out maps showing which areas each small group of volunteers was to cover, as well as goody bags with toiletries and food. My group was assigned to cover the Arcata Marsh, and we assumed we would find quite a few people there. 

The other two people on my team both declined to share their identities. Both had volunteered for the PIT count several times before, because, they said, it was simply the right thing to do. 

We stepped outside. There was now a little light in the sky. We went to the marsh and started walking around, slipping down wet deer trails and finding…no one. There were no unhoused people in the entire marsh. We searched for about an hour, combing along every trail, poking around every bush. We found a few paths leading to small clearings and a couple piles of clothing and junk, but there were no people. We asked people out on a walk if they’d seen anyone; all of them said they hadn’t. One guy said he used to see a homeless man on the same bench every morning on his walk, but hadn’t seen him for several months. 

Everyone was surprised. On South G Street, we found a pickup truck with a camper hooked up to a propane tank on the ground. Vehicles that look like someone’s living in them count for the survey, so we logged that one. We continued our search, but there were no other cars on the street. 

Eventually, we found one man who said he was homeless and we talked to him about him and his situation. The specifics are confidential, but he said he was making do as best he could. 

We finished talking after a few minutes. “It’s almost February!” he said, walking away. “Only two more months ‘til spring!”

We returned to the AHP annex. Spoor said a few other groups had returned and said that they also only saw one or two unhoused people. She was scared her funding could get slashed. 

“It will kill us,” she said. “I don’t know what other word to use.”

Preliminary data from Humboldt County’s Department of Health and Human Services suggests that there are 1,011 unhoused, unsheltered people countywide including people living in shelters, although that could rise or fall a little bit as more data is calculated. [CORRECTION: DHHS reached out to clarify that the 1,011 figure only included unhoused people living outside of shelters.]

The last PIT count two years ago counted 1,573 unhoused people countywide, including those living in shelters. During a follow-up phone call with her this week, she said that most of the volunteers had come back and shared they’d only seen a few homeless people, though there were a couple groups that counted around 20. She said she’d never seen a count before that had returned so few results.

Spoor was less nervous than she had been last week, a little more fatalistic after considering how the whims of the Trump administration had played with AHP’s funding just a few months ago. She couldn’t guess at how the low numbers would affect AHP’s funding. Spoor didn’t think the numbers were accurate; AHP serves more people than they counted, Spoor said. Increasingly, many of the people they serve are elderly people and parents with children. It angered Spoor when an 82-year-old woman had to ask for AHP’s help recently; she had never been homeless before and couldn’t afford to keep up with her rent. 

“We have to keep the faith,” Spoor told the Outpost last week. No matter the funding situation, “We’ll provide the best service we can and serve the community the best way we can. I’ve been here since 1991; we’ll still be here.”

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Jan. 29, 2026, at approximately 3:00 p.m., the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Communications Center received a report of a possible burglary in progress at an apartment located on Alpha St. in Eureka.

While deputies were en route they were advised a witness observed a male subject remove a window screen and enter the apartment.  Once on scene deputies located a screen on the ground and could hear a person inside.  Verbal Commands were issued for the subject to exit the apartment but there was no response.

Additional units were requested to respond to the scene and a perimeter was set up around the apartment.  The apartment manager responded to the scene and provided deputies with a key to the residence. Upon opening the front door, deputies heard the subject talking and observed that a refrigerator had been moved and was partially blocking the entryway. Once inside deputies issued additional verbal commands for the subject to exit the apartment, but there was no response.  

Deputies with the assistance of their K9’s searched the apartment and located the suspect, identified as, 33-year-old Michael Anthony Offutt inside and took him into custody without incident.  

Offutt was transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility and booked for:

• PC 459- Burglary.

Offutt is currently on probation in Humboldt County for arson.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the Eureka Police Department and the California Highway Patrol for their assistance with this case.

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.

UPDATE, Feb. 2

San Francisco Chronicle Publisher Bill Nagel emailed the following message to the Outpost on Friday:

We are aware of the situation and saddened by the passing of Mr. Strong.  We are looking into the implications for Chronicle print distribution in the region. At this time, future delivery of the Chronicle in Humboldt County is undetermined, but we are actively exploring solutions.

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Original post:

PREVIOUSLY

• One Killed in Traffic Collision North of Laytonville Yesterday Night

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Print copies of newspapers such as the Times-Standard, San Francisco Chronicle, Press Democrat and New York Times have been unavailable at many local convenience stores and missing from racks this week due to the sudden death of the man who distributed most of those issues to Humboldt County for years. 

Rodney Strong, the 66-year-old Eureka resident who owned and operated R&M Distributors, was killed Monday night in a traffic collision north of Laytonville, the California Highway Patrol confirmed on Thursday.

Eureka resident Janice Lee subscribes to both the Chronicle and the New York Times (only the Sunday editions in print for the latter). Earlier this week she received an email from the New York Times informing her that the company was attempting to secure a new distributor to her home address “due to unforeseen circumstances.”

In the meantime, the email said, copies of the paper will be sent via the U.S. Postal Service starting Monday.

“This does mean that papers will arrive up to 3 days after the publication date however,” the notification continued. “If you would prefer to suspend deliveries given this information, please reply back to this email and I or another agent will make the necessary adjustments.”

Lee also hasn’t received her usual Chronicle delivery since Monday and began to wonder why when she didn’t hear directly from Strong.

“He’s really nice, and usually [when there’s a delivery issue] he’ll let us know with a voicemail, but for the last three days it’s been nothing,” Lee told the Outpost in a phone interview on Thursday. She said she and her husband found out what happened after trying to buy a copy of the Chronicle at Harris and K Market.

“Yeah, we can’t get ‘em,” an employee of the market said when reached by phone yesterday. The market has not received any copies of the Times-Standard, the Chronicle or the New York Times this week, she added. (The employee declined to give her name.) 

“We don’t know when we’ll get them back,” she said. 

If you’re among the many people who’ve switched to reading the news entirely online, you might wonder how many copies of printed newspapers still get sold. 

“Quite a few,” the Harris and K employee said.

On Wednesday evening, the Times-Standard notified readers on social media that until this upcoming Sunday, copies of the paper will be unavailable on racks in Arcata, McKinleyville and Blue Lake. Racks in Rio Dell, Ferndale and Fortuna are not affected, and copies will be available at half a dozen locations across Eureka, Humboldt Hill and Fortuna. 

Times-Standard Publisher John Richmond confirmed via email that home delivery to subscribers remains unaffected, and he expects distribution to be back to normal by Sunday. [Disclosure: Richmond worked at the Outpost’s parent company, Lost Coast Communications, Inc, from 2015-2019, first as general manager and later as CEO.]

On Wednesday, an anonymous Reddit user notified locals on the Humboldt subreddit about Strong’s death, writing, “It is uncertain what will become of his newspaper business or his store at the mall.” Neither that poster nor anyone else the Outpost has managed to reach for this story had any information about whether and when local distribution will resume for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle and USA Today.

An email sent Thursday to the publisher of the Chronicle had received no reply by the time this story was published.

Are you a subscriber to any of these periodicals? Have you received any information about their future availability here in Humboldt County? If so, let us and our readers know in the comments below or email us at news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

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Press release from Cal Poly Humboldt:

Cal Poly Humboldt faculty and students are partnering with local organizations to conduct a comprehensive Economic Development Study designed to help guide McKinleyville’s future growth and community well-being. The interdisciplinary project brings together students and faculty from Business, Recreation Administration, Economics, Psychology, Environmental Resources Engineering, and Geography. Together, the team is examining economic conditions, infrastructure, community amenities, and quality-of-life factors to better understand opportunities and challenges facing McKinleyville, one of the fastest-growing communities on the North Coast.

A central component of the study is a community-wide survey and focus group sessions, and McKinleyville residents are encouraged to participate.

“This project represents a unique opportunity for McKinleyville residents to directly shape the future of their community,” said Josh Zender, the project lead and professor in the School of Business at Cal Poly Humboldt. “By working across disciplines and in close partnership with local organizations, we’re able to bring together community voices and applied research in a way that can meaningfully inform economic development efforts.”

The study’s goal is to provide data-driven insights that can support informed decision-making and long-term planning, while centering the voices and priorities of local residents. Researchers will combine community survey responses and focus group data with economic, social, and spatial analysis to develop findings and recommendations that reflect McKinleyville’s unique character and needs.

The project is being conducted in collaboration with the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee, the McKinleyville Community Services District, and the McKinleyville Chamber of Commerce. These partnerships help ensure the research is grounded in local concerns and that results can be used to support future community initiatives.

Results from the community-wide survey and study findings will be shared with community partners in the form of a five-year economic strategic plan. All recommendations arising from the study will be reviewed and formally approved by the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee once the project is complete in the Fall 2026 term. Cal Poly Humboldt researchers emphasize that broad participation will help ensure the study reflects the diverse experiences, needs, and aspirations of McKinleyville residents.

The survey is available online at: https://tinyurl.com/McK-survey

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

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When it comes to impaired driving and the state’s open container law, a rolled and ready joint is more like a can of beer in giving police cause to search a car than a few crumbs of marijuana, according to the California Supreme Court.

The court’s reasoning: You can smoke a joint and drink a beer, but loose marijuana isn’t readily consumable.

In a ruling handed down Thursday, the high court ruled that police must find marijuana in a condition that’s ready to be smoked if they are going to charge a driver with an open container violation.

“We hold that at a minimum, to constitute a violation of (the open container law), marijuana in a vehicle must be of a usable quantity, in imminently usable condition, and readily accessible to an occupant,” wrote Associate Justice Goodwin Liu in a unanimous opinion.

Loose marijuana found on a car’s floorboards is like spilled beer, the court ruled. “In assessing whether the marijuana is imminently usable or readily accessible, courts should consider whether the marijuana could be consumed with minimal effort by an occupant of the vehicle,” the court found.

The ruling reversed a magistrate judge, trial court and the California Court of Appeal, which had all agreed that the loose marijuana constituted an open container violation and gave police cause to search a vehicle.

Recreational marijuana has been legal in California since 2016 when voters passed an initiative allowing it. It remains illegal under federal law.

The case at issue was out of Sacramento, where police officers stopped a car and searched it, finding 0.36 grams of marijuana crumbs on the floorboards of the backseat, along with a tray on which to roll joints. The driver hadn’t been driving erratically, her registration and license were unblemished and she had no warrants out.

“No officer suggested he was concerned that (the driver and passenger) could have somehow, while riding in the front of the car, collected the scattered bits of marijuana from the rear floor behind (the passenger) for imminent consumption,” the court ruled. “Nor was there evidence of paraphernalia, such as matches, lighters, rolling papers, blunts, or vaporizers, that could facilitate the marijuana’s consumption.”

The Supreme Court also found that the officers did not have probable cause to search the car in the first place. The police had argued that the driver’s nervousness and possession of a rolling tray was sufficient to search the car, an argument the court rejected.

Destry was born to Tyley and Robin Girard in Arcata. He attended elementary, secondary and high schools in Eureka and Southern Humboldt after his parents divorced. As a young child, Destry had a zeal for soccer and played the cello with passionate enjoyment. Destry was invited into the GATE Program (Gifted and Talented Education) in his elementary school years. And he was given a Young Writer’s Award for his creative essay, “My Dog Rover.” An award for his basketball accomplishments can still be found in the Southfork High School Gymnasium. Like his father, Destry was charsmatic, and developed many long-lasting friendships during his school years.

Tragedy struck Destry’s life in his mid-teens. His father, Tyley, died in a freak auto accident. That event seemed to change the projectory of Destry’s life. While in his late teens, Destry moved off-grid to his father’s property in the Kings Range/Salmon Creek area. He raised pigs and maintained the property for a few years. Destry worked in the construction field for a number of years and showed a keen aptitude in that field. Destry was a man who loved to cook, work in a garden, play golf and ride Harleys.

Destry proudly and joyfully became a father at 28. He is remembered as a daddy with strong arms who taught his girls to swim in the Arcata Pool. And as a fun-loving daddy who encouraged his girls to throw frisbee at the disc golf course. And as a daddy with a sense of humor who played silly word games.

Destry had horrendous struggles throughout his life, but was able to overcome many of them. He will be greatly missed and fondly thought of by his family and friends.

Destry is survived by his daughters, Kylee Girard and Anjoliena Savoie (Junior); his grandson, Ryker Savoie; his mother, Robin Newby; his brothers, Sylus Girard and Ben Newby; his uncle, Jim State (Laurine) and various cousins, nieces and nephews, and friends. Those that passed before him were Tyley Girard, his father and his uncle, Bob State.

There will be a celebration of life on March 28 at 2 p.m. at the Eureka First Covenant Church in the Peterson House to share our rememberances of Destry.

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

Kitty Colleen McGill was born April 12, 1953 (Flint) and died January 28, 2026 (Fortuna) She was the third child born to John and Ruby (Christensen).

The family hit the road and made the move to California when Kitty was just five and that is where she planted her roots. She stayed primarily in Southern California for the first half of her life. That’s where she grew up, got married and had her two children.

The early 1980s brought a new blended family and a move to the North Coast. Kitty was a resident of the Bridgeville area for over 20 years. She spent the later years of her life here in the Eel River Valley to stay close to her family. She loved living here among the redwoods and never failed to remind us that we lived in the most beautiful place in the world.

Kitty was known for her artistic talent, quick wit and her smart mouth. She was crafty and skilled in a number of mediums. She made beautiful and fun costumes for herself and her kids. Pinafores, quilts, needlepoint and whimsical (and slightly phallic) floral watercolors. If Kitty loved you, she made you something with her whole heart.

Kitty was involved in the local art community here in Humboldt in the 1980s and 1990s. She volunteered and participated in the Kinetic Sculture Race for many years. She was on the Quagmire Queen when capsized it in the bay. She once ran for Rutabaga Queen.

Kitty liked to look for pretty rocks in the river, loved a bonfire under the stars, and was always the first person to start a sing a long. What she lacked in actual singing talent she more than made up for with enthusiasm. And she always knew all the words.

She made everything she touched more beautiful. She could not help herself.

Above all, she was a mother and grandmother.

The absolute light of her life was her only grandchild, Jesse. She was there when he came into the world, and held him even before his mom did. He has her quick wit and her silly sense of humor. She picked him up from kindergarten almost every day and they would hang out until his dad got off work. She was his very best friend, before she got sick.

Kitty was diagnosed with late stage small cell lung cancer in 2015. The prognosis was not great, and it was expected that we would lose her in those first five years. She defied all of the odds and we got 11 more years with her.

Her daughter, Leslie was by her side for every single appointment, infusion and scan taking notes and advocating for her. She kept Kitty at her home for as long as she was able. Eventually, care had to be handed over to professionals, settling her at Fortuna Rehab and Wellness.

Kitty was proceeded in death by her parents, her brothers Michael and John, her niece, Michelle, her nephew Michael Martin and every man she ever loved.

She is survived by her dedicated daughter, Leslie Mendes, her husband (and favorite child) Timothy, and of course, her sweet grandson, Jesse. She also leaves behind her nieces and nephews: Michael Joseph (Jennifer), Ronald Joseph (Dana), and Tom (Christine). She had a special thing with Michelle’s daughter, Kyli. Also, her son Louis and her sister Patty.

A special thank you from the family to Doctor Russell Hardy, for giving us so many more years with her than were predicted. To Leah Tompkins, who was always right where we needed her to be. We never would have gotten through the last eleven years without you. Thank you to Hospice of Humboldt, especially Christina. You made it all so much easier and took such excellent care of her. And to Ron McQueen, for being such a wonderful friend to her, and his wife Donna, for letting him be there for her.

Cremation is being prepared by Ayers Cremation Services. No memorial will be held per Kitty’s request. She hated funerals. Instead, remember her when you see the first spring irises pop up out of the ground. Think about her when the Talking Heads come on the radio.

As for those people who feel like they were left out of the loop, and denied their chance to say goodbye, you should have visited when you had the chance.

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