Pekania pennanti, the fisher. Photo: Adrian Macedo, via iNaturalist. Some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Press release from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is reevaluating the status of the Northern California-Southern Oregon (NCSO) Distinct Population Segment (DPS) of fisher to determine if listing under the Endangered Species Act is warranted. The Service encourages the public to provide information about this DPS to ensure our analysis contains the best available scientific and commercial information.

Fishers are medium-sized North American mammals within the same family as weasels, mink, martens, and otters. The NCSO DPS of fisher is found in southern Oregon and northern California across multiple geographic regions representing a variety of forest types and ecological conditions.

For the status review, the Service is particularly interested in new information regarding the following effects on the NCSO DPS of fisher:

• Anticoagulant rodenticides and other toxicants.
• The threat of wildfire, including studies or information pertaining to current and future trends in wildfire frequency and severity, and information pertaining to the response of fisher to post-fire landscapes.
• Changes in low- to mid-elevation forests within the range, including the scope and extent of vegetation management on Federal and non-Federal lands.
• Climate change projections to end of century that are reasonably likely to impact the NCSO DPS.
• Any effects associated with population size and distribution.
• Conservation efforts designed to benefit fishers and their habitat within the NCSO DPS that have been planned or implemented after 2019.

In 2014, the Service proposed listing the West Coast DPS of fisher in Washington, Oregon, and California as a threatened species. Following receipt of new information, we revised the delineation of this entity into two surviving, historically native subpopulations — the Southern Sierra Nevada DPS and the NCSO DPS. The Sierra Nevada DPS was determined to be an endangered species, and the NCSO DPS was found to be not warranted for listing (85 FR 29532). In response to a legal challenge, we are reassessing the status of the NCSO DPS and will complete a new 12-month finding to determine if listing the DPS as threatened or endangered is warranted by August 21, 2025.

Although we will accept information from interested parties at any time, to ensure full consideration and incorporation of new data, the Service requests submittal of new information by close of business October 26, 2023.

Information can be submitted electronically through www.regulations.gov under docket number FWS-R1-ES-2023-0123 or sent via U.S. mail to: Public Comments Processing, Attn: FWS-R1-ES-2023-0123, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MS: PRB/3W, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041–3803. We will post all new information received on www.regulations.gov.

The Service will continue to work proactively with the timber industry on voluntary conservation efforts that protect fisher in a way that supports sustainable timber management and local communities. Conservation efforts benefiting fisher are one of several factors we consider when reviewing the status of species.

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PREVIOUSLY:

• California Bans Some Rodenticides in Response to Wildlife Deaths
• As Feds Look to Protect Pacific Fisher, Yard Signs Urge Growers to Avoid Rat Poison on Marijuana Grows
• Pacific Fisher Denied Endangered Species Act Protection; Feds Cut Deal With Timber Industry, Withdraw Proposal
• Enviro Groups to Sue U.S. Forest Service for Failing to Clean Up Toxic Waste Left by Trespass Cannabis Grows
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife to Reconsider Whether West Coast Fishers Warrant Endangered Species Act Protection

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

Zachariah Joseph Powell Booking Photo | Humboldt County Correctional Facility

On the morning of Sept. 24, 2023, Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies were contacted by two victims reporting vehicle burglaries.

One of the victims, whose vehicle was broken into in the Valley West area of Arcata, told deputies that he had tracked his stolen airpods to a location in McKinleyville. Deputies responded to the location and learned from witnesses that a teal truck had reportedly been parked in the area with unknown males looking through backpacks. The truck left prior to deputies’ arrival. While conducting their investigation, deputies were contacted by the second victim who reported the theft of two bank cards from their vehicle. The victim was alerted to the theft after receiving a notification from their bank regarding a purchase at a local gas station. Surveillance footage obtained from the gas station depicted a male suspect exit a teal pickup truck and utilize the stolen card to purchase items from the business.

Deputies patrolled the McKinleyville area and located the truck parked in front of a residence on the 1900 block of Elm Street. At the residence deputies contacted multiple people, including the suspect seen on the surveillance footage. The suspect, who initially provided deputies with a false name, was identified as 30-year-old Zachariah Joseph Powell. Powell was found to be on probation with a search clause.

During a search of Powell and his belongings in the residence, deputies located drug paraphernalia, numerous driver’s licenses, the airpods and other items from the Valley West burglary. Additionally, in the truck bed, deputies located a subwoofer that had been reported stolen to the Arcata Police Department during another recent vehicle burglary.

Powell was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of possession of stolen property (PC 496(a)), false identification to a peace officer (PC 148.9(a)), petty theft (PC 488), theft of property (PC 484(a)), possession of a controlled substance paraphernalia (HS 11364) and violation of probation (PC 1203.2(a)), in addition to warrant charges for shoplifting (PC 459.5).

Vehicle burglary is a crime of opportunity. An offender makes a decision to break into a vehicle based on a perception that there are items of value inside the vehicle, which makes the potential payoff worth the risk. A vehicle burglary can be completed in a minute or less, leaving very little investigative clues behind. Because this type of burglary is a crime of opportunity, there are steps you can take to prevent this crime from occurring.

1. Keep the interior of your vehicle “showroom” clean. Always remove valuables from inside your vehicle. The Sheriff’s Office commonly receives reports of purses, bags, briefcases and wallets being stolen from vehicles. We have even received reports of thieves breaking in to steal a pair of sunglasses. Even if you do not believe the item is of value, remove it from plain site.
2. Be cautious when storing valuables in your trunk. If your vehicle is equipped with a trunk release button on the inside, thieves can easily access your vehicle’s trunk space. While “hiding” items in your trunk may reduce the chance for your vehicle to be a target, the action will not completely protect you from theft.
3. Remove garage door openers, key cards, and house, work or car keys from your vehicle.
4. Always lock your vehicle, even if you are home. In public places, it may be tempting to leave your vehicle windows down to avoid vandalism. However, this puts you at even more risk, leaving vehicle registration and insurance information accessible to anyone nearby and increasing your chances of falling victim to identity theft, burglaries at your home and vehicle theft.

To report a vehicle burglary or related criminal activity, contact the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office non-emergency line at 707-445-7251.

UPDATE, 8:30 a.m.: The highway is open to one-way controlled traffic, per the CHP.

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Highway 101 is closed just south of the Humboldt County line this morning, according to the Caltrans Quickmap.

The closure follows report of a semi truck overturning on the highway at about 6:20 this morning. According to Highway Patrol dispatch logs, the truck was carrying dry concrete. The CHP estimates the closure will last six hours; Caltrans, usually conservative with such things, is currently estimating the closure will last until 2 p.m.

We’ll update when we know more. If there is no STOP SIGN in the center of the map above, then the roadway has been reopened.

The weekend. The eight-hour workday. Paid family leave. Those fruits of labor victories are part of everyday life in California. Now the state’s hot labor summer may have helped inspire another precedent-setting measure, if Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a bill on his desk that would allow striking workers to receive unemployment benefits.

How many workers would get help, and can the state afford to pay each of them as much as the $450 maximum per week? The answers, researchers and advocates say, likely depend on whether California’s recent wave of labor activism continues, and what action lawmakers take to shore up the state’s debt-ridden unemployment insurance system.

Senate Bill 799 would provide unemployment benefits to workers who have been on strike for at least two weeks. Legislators passed it Sept. 14, just before Hollywood writers and studios headed back to the negotiating table four months into a strike that has paralyzed the industry, and as thousands of Los Angeles hotel workers continue their union’s rolling labor stoppages in a push for higher wages.

Now more than 68,000 Kaiser Permanente workers in California are threatening a strike if they don’t reach an agreement with the hospital chain by Sept. 30. And on Friday the United Auto Workers expanded its walkout against major automakers to parts distribution centers in 20 states, including California.

So far unions representing more than 180,000 workers have staged California strikes this year that lasted at least two weeks, according to Cornell University’s Labor Action Tracker. That includes about 160,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists who walked off the job in July, and 11,500 Writers Guild of America members, who went on strike May 2 but reached a tentative deal Sunday with the major Hollywood studios.

Considering more than 1.7 million Californians have filed initial jobless claims during the same period, some supporters describe the potential unemployment benefits to strikers as a drop in the bucket.

“I think we’ll continue to see labor activism until we right-size the economy for workers,” said Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, head of the California Labor Federation, which backs the bill. “But you have to remember that long strikes are usually only sustained by people who have unions, and that is still relatively low density in California and everywhere in the private sector.”

A cost-benefit analysis

Labor leaders argue that unemployment benefits for strikers would level a playing field tilted toward employers, preventing companies from simply waiting out a strike until workers, unable to pay their bills, become desperate.

Employers, who fund unemployment benefits through payroll taxes, say the bill would force them to pay for strikes and that California’s overburdened unemployment insurance system can’t afford to take on new responsibilities.

A strike is “a game where you plan and prepare and tell the employer we can hold out longer than you,” said Robert Moutrie, policy advocate for the California Chamber of Commerce. “We view that strategic technique as profoundly different than being unemployed.”

The chamber estimates California would have paid out an extra $215 million over the last 12 months if the proposed law were in effect. But an Assembly Appropriations Committee analysis put the cost far lower, in the “low millions to tens of millions” per year.

Unite Here Local 11 and their supporters rally outside Los Angeles’ Airport on June 22, 2023. A California bill would provide strikers with unemployment benefits. Photo by Zaydee Sanchez for CalMatters

California’s unemployment benefits average $367 per week, typically replacing less than a third of unemployed workers’ wages. If 68,000 Kaiser Permanente workers were on strike in a given week, for example, and all collected the average benefit, the state would pony up $25 million. But strike action waxes and wanes, and nationally, only about a quarter of unemployed workers actually apply for benefits.

One key question: Will knowing they can draw on unemployment benefits embolden more workers to strike? It might, said Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11, which represents striking hotel workers.

“For workers who are at the lower end of pay scale, who are one paycheck away from economic disaster, knowing that there would be unemployment as a supplement would give workers more confidence that they can strike and strike for a longer period of time,” he said.

Still, he said, his union’s members would be facing off against large hotel companies that can sustain a loss at one property and make it up at others. “Will it make it a little more of a fair fight? Yes. Do employers have enormous advantages in negotiations with workers? Yes … The CEO never has to worry about paying the rent.”

Lessening the risks for workers

Going on strike is always risky for workers, because they can be permanently replaced, said Michele Evermore, a senior fellow at the left-leaning think tank The Century Foundation who studies unemployment. “They don’t have to just deal with the uncertainty of unemployment, but they also have to go out on strike lines,” she said. “It’s not a lazy person’s sport.”

Other economists said the proposed law could create a ripple effect: Companies that know their workers are more likely to strike could make more generous offers to avoid that possibility, leading to earlier contract settlements.

“There are multiple indirect effects here and it’s hard to know how big the indirect effects will be,” said Mark Duggan, director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

“Do employers have enormous advantages in negotiations with workers? Yes … The CEO never has to worry about paying the rent.”
— Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11

For Mayra Macias, the question is less abstract. A cashier and barista at Whittier College in Southern California, Macias went on strike with her coworkers earlier this year, asking for a pension. Bon Appetit Management Company, the food service contractor that employs her, already offered workers a 401k plan, but Macias — who after 18 years on the job was earning about $18 per hour — said she and most of her coworkers couldn’t afford to contribute to it.

The strike lasted 28 days. At times, Macias said, she wanted to give up. She borrowed money from her sister to pay her phone bill and from her daughter to pay her car insurance.

“At about two weeks your mind starts messing with you, making you feel like this isn’t working,” she said. “Regardless of that negativity that’s always there, you gotta get up each day and do it again.

“Your feet hurt, they’re swollen, you’re not eating properly,” she added. “And your bills keep coming in. They don’t know you’re on strike.”

Having unemployment benefits, “would’ve mentally eased my anxiety and my stress of knowing I can hold on one more day and it’s going to be ok,” Macias said. “I’m going to be able to survive. And I don’t need to go to my family for help.”

Other states paying benefits to strikers

New York and New Jersey provide unemployment benefits to striking workers. An average of about 3,000 striking workers per year received such benefits in New York over the last decade, according to the state’s labor department. Three years ago New York reduced the threshold for strikers to qualify for benefits from seven weeks out of work to two weeks; since then the state has paid less than $2 million in unemployment to strikers, compared to $21 billion in regular unemployment benefits, a department spokesperson said.

Lawmakers in Massachusetts and Connecticut also have floated proposals to extend the unemployment safety net to strikers.

Some employers argue California’s unemployment system is already too generous. Employer groups have lined up against the California bill, and a think tank affiliated with the Chamber of Commerce released a study finding that California has among the least restrictive eligibility requirements for unemployment benefits in the nation, along with relatively low penalties for fraudulent unemployment claims.

The state’s unemployment insurance fund currently owes the federal government $18 billion, after the pandemic led to widespread delays in issuing checks to frustrated applicants and an estimated $32 billion in fraud.

Unemployment taxes are experience-rated, which means businesses that lay off more workers pay more. But California’s federal debt imposes an additional charge that’s spread evenly among all employers, which makes them — and some lawmakers — wary about increasing it.

“I cannot support a bill that will add debt to employers who are completely uninvolved in the strikes,” said Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, a San Diego Republican, during a floor debate on the bill.

Much of the system’s debt stems from California’s decision to impose unemployment taxes on just $7,000 of workers’ annual income, experts say — the lowest among states, tied with Florida, Arkansas and Tennessee. (Washington, the state with the highest rate, assesses unemployment tax on the first $67,000.)

Progressive economists are quick to point out that unemployment benefits would help not just individual strikers but the broader economy. With thousands of writers and actors out of work, “that’s a lot of people who might not be going to coffee shops, and you could see them shuttering their doors,” said Alix Gould-Werth, director of family economic security policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Unemployment checks could prevent some of that hardship, she said.

Unemployment benefits’ role

The federal government designed the unemployment insurance system to help keep wages from declining overall, said Evermore of The Century Foundation. Allowing workers to engage in collective action supports that goal, she said.

“This is one of those issues where states have to decide. If they want to be a low road state with low wages and bad infrastructure they can do that,” she said. “You have to decide, do we actually want a high quality of living in the state and not just cheap labor and happy wealthy people in gated communities?”

Sen. Anthony Portantino, the Burbank Democrat who authored the proposal, has said he sees it as an opportunity to discuss ways the state could shore up the unemployment fund.

“Your feet hurt, they’re swollen, you’re not eating properly. And your bills keep coming in. They don’t know you’re on strike.”
— Mayra Macias, cashier and barista at Whittier College

Duggan, the Stanford professor, pointed out that other states — red and blue — have set the amount of wages subject to unemployment taxes to rise as overall incomes do. Connecticut recently did that after its fund weakened due to a flood of pandemic-related claims.

“It’s just good government — if you’re going to run a program like this, it shouldn’t live beyond its means,” said Duggan.

Newsom recently told Politico he was “cautious” about expanding unemployment benefits given the fund’s debt. A spokesperson for his office declined to say Friday whether he would sign the bill. The governor has until Oct. 14 to make a decision.

Macias said she hopes he’ll sign.

For the 61-year-old, going on strike was worth it: Bon Appetit agreed to put 90 cents per hour worked toward a pension fund.

“There’s a peace of mind that I know when I’m old and frail and I can no longer work for these big companies, I will have something come through my mail besides Social Security and that’ll be my union pension,” she said.

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

Rusty was called home to Heaven on August 29, 2023, at the age of 43. He was born on May 10, 1980, in Humboldt County, and he was born and raised in McKinleyville.

Rusty was known for being the nicest, sweetest, kindhearted and well-mannered person. He would do anything for anyone. He loved making people laugh and smile, and he was known for his joking and teasing. His smile and laughter would light up a room.

He loved the outdoors, especially the woods, fishing, and hunting. He also had a passion for cooking. He was a hardworking man who loved his jobs.

He was preceded in death by his mother, Carrie Ray, his grandmother, Donna Deboise, and his grandfather, Bill Ray.

He leaves behind his only daughter, Maddie Johnson; his two sisters, Josie in Texas, and Franny in Nevada; and his only brother, Josh Barry. He is also survived by his uncles and aunts: Joey and Jacie Ray in Arizone, Jeannie and John Davis, Debbie and Jerry Hardcastle, and Aunt Teri Ray. He had numerous aunts and uncles.

Rusty was very close to some of his cousins, who were like siblings to him: Johnny Davis (Family), Jenny Davis (Family), Julie Pelren (Family), Jessica Lackey (Family). He had numerous cousins, nieces and nephews.

He also left behind the love of his life, Melissa Davis.

Rusty will be truly missed and loved by the ones who knew him. His Celebration of Life will be held on October 8, 2023, at 2 p.m. at the Manila Community Center, 1611 Peninsula Drive, Manila.

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

Tony was born July 14, 1941 in Arcata and passed away September 12, 2023 in Mckinleyville after a courageous, hard-fought battle with cancer.

Tony grew up in Samoa, playing around Humboldt Bay’s sandy dunes and beaches. He attended schools in Arcata and Eureka, then he served in the U.S. Army, 101st Airborne from 1959 to 1961.

He worked for Georgia-Pacific, U.S. Plywood and Simpson Plywood/Fairhaven until the mills were shut down. He had his own groundskeeping business for five years and then worked as the groundskeeper at Mckinleyville High School for 21 years until retiring.

Tony was an accomplished gardener growing a yearly crop of fresh fruit and vegetable, as well as raising goats and chickens. He was handy with a hammer too; building and maintaining chicken houses, goat barns, sheds, decks and fences.

He was a dedicated waterfowl hunter for over 65 years, hunting with friends and his son, Neal. Some of his favorite places included Tule lake, lower Klamath, Alturas as well as our local Humboldt Bay and the Arcata Bottoms. Additionally, Tony enjoyed clamming, fishing, watching hockey games and stock car races.

Tony was preceded in death by his son Neal Branco, and his parents, Tony Branco Sr. and Lena Leonardo Branco, as well as many aunts, uncles, and cousins.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara; his daughter Janis Branco and Todd Jackson; his brothers Daniel Branco and David Branco; his brother-in-law and sister-in-law Kurt and Jo Gantenbein; his nieces, Amy Verley and Kristi Sams; his four-legged hunting buddy “Teal,” and many friends.

He was a friendly, giving, hardworking and outspoken man.

A Good man, lived a good life and will be greatly missed.

No formal services will be held.

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

“…the freakish riddles … the irresponsible phantasmagoria of an ecstatic”

— Art historian Wilhelm Fränger, writing about The Garden of Earthly Delights

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Last Monday, we spent most of the day in Spain’s “Prado” (Museo Nacional del Prado) one of the must-see attractions, not just of Madrid but of all Europe: over 100 rooms of the best of pre-20th century European art. We tried to absorb as much as we could in a single visit: the Mona Lisa (da Vinci), Naked & Clothed Mayas, and the (chilling) May 3, 1808 Executions (Goya), The Three Graces (Rubens, who loved bosoms), Las Meninas (Velazquez)…But I had to start in room 56A, where I lingered for half an hour or so, meeting face-to-face for the first time a work of art that has haunted me for decades: The Garden of Earthly Delights.

For me — who knows very little about art — this is the weirdest painting ever created. It came from the hand of an artist who lived in the Netherlands about 500 years ago, and of whom we know next to nothing. Jheronimus van Aken, c. 1450-1516, lived nearly all his life in the town of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, taking part of that name for his signature, Jheronimus Bosch. Of the two dozen works confidently ascribed to him, the one known to every student of the strange and wonderful is what we now call, in English, The Garden of Earthly Delights, dated to about 1505.

At first blush, it’s an obvious religious allegory. On the left panel, we’ve got the Garden of Eden; in the middle, a gay old time is being had by all; and finally, having pissed your life away with wine, women and song, you get your comeuppance in a hellish landscape. What’s to explain? According to the many, many art historians who’ve taken a crack at this: everything. Bosch’s visions have no clear correlation with anything that came before, it was, in its time, sui generis, a work unlike any other, with allegories that no longer make any sense.

Left-hand panel

Here we’ve got a youthful God presenting newly-minted Eve to a just awakened Adam (minus one of his ribs, presumably) in the Garden of Eden. Is Adam’s expression one of amazement? (When he went to sleep, there was just himself on Earth.) Or, foreshadowing the middle panel, is it lustful as he ogles naked Eve? Above and below, there’s a whole bestiary of exotic and fantastic animals cavorting: an elephant (monkey on its back) and a giraffe (both barely known to Europeans of the early 1500s), unicorns, assorted three-headed creatures, birds by the score. Not to mention that duck-beaked humanoid reading a book…This all seems a stoner’s view of what an Earthly Paradise looks like.

Middle panel

Art experts disagree on whether Bosch is celebrating sensuality — we’ve been given these human bodies to enjoy to the max; or he’s warning us about indulging in too much of a good thing. In this garden, almost everyone’s naked, and they all seen to be having a great time. There’s a shameless innocence about them: cavorting with each other and with the unafraid animals, splashing in the water, cuddling, eating huge berries. Fishes walk on land while birds play in the water. Black and white bodies mingle. A dolphin-tailed knight rides a winged fish. Spend time with this and you’ll see more every time.

Right panel

Night has fallen and innocence gone. Cities are on fire. Water is the color of blood. Demons are everywhere. People are being massacred, impaled, burned alive. The eroticism of the middle panel has gone — men and women now cover their breasts and genitals in shame. A bird-monster eats a human while excreting another. Then, oddly (as if everything so far isn’t sufficiently odd) a very human face looks askance — a self-portrait, according to one historian, noting the “expression of irony and the slightly sideways gaze…the signature of an artist who claimed a bizarre pictorial world for his own personal imagination.”

Having now spent a little time in the presence of the piece, I’m even more convinced of my initial reaction when I saw a reproduction many years ago: not only is it really (really) weird, but it’s also great fun to pore over and try to figure out what it’s all about. Along with this sneaking feeling: Are we trying too hard to make sense of it all? Was Bosch just messing with us, and now he’s laughing in his grave?