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Two years after a wave of public benefit thefts that left low-income Californians scrambling to pay rent and afford food each month, Gov. Gavin Newsom is touting a significant decline in the reported amount stolen.

The thefts still amounted to more than $4 million a month last fall in both the CalFresh food assistance and CalWorks cash welfare benefits programs, according to a press release from Newsom’s office. That’s down from two years ago, when public benefits recipients were reporting $20 million a month stolen from their accounts. The state uses taxpayer money to reimburse victims when they report theft.

Newsom credited the reduction to the state’s rollout of anti-fraud technology such as more secure electronic benefit (EBT) cards with electronic chips.

“In California, we’re leading the way by turning innovation into action by stopping theft and ensuring benefits reach those who truly need them,” he said in a press release.

Newsom’s office announced the improved theft numbers last week after the Trump administration ramped up threats to California over allegations of fraud in public benefits. The president has used a wave of prosecutions over social services fraud in Minnesota, some of it allegedly by immigrants, as a reason to send immigration agents to conduct aggressive raids in Minneapolis.

Earlier this month the Trump administration froze some federal social services funding to five Democratic-led states, including California. A judge halted the freeze, which included funds for the CalWorks cash aid program, for now.

The kind of fraud in which Newsom was touting reductions is not traditional “welfare fraud” perpetrated by recipients of public benefits, but rather theft by a third party. Local social services officials have said fraud by recipients is relatively uncommon.

Thieves have been taking advantage of California benefits recipients by using hidden “skimming” devices to steal card numbers from EBT cards loaded withCalFresh food assistance and CalWorks cash welfare benefits. They then duplicate the cards and drain them of cash or make large purchases using CalFresh, before the recipients have a chance to spend their own benefits.

California was particularly susceptible because of the size of the state’s social safety net, with roughly 300,000 families receiving cash aid and 3 million receiving food assistance. CalMatters reported in 2023 that the state, previously focused on detecting fraud committed by recipients of the benefits, had also ignored warnings and delayed a proposal to introduce chipped EBT cards.

When the pandemic brought new benefits from the federal and state governments, such as boosted unemployment benefits and stimulus checks, thieves wielding card skimmers followed the money. EBT cards, which contained only a magnetic strip at the time, were among the most vulnerable to theft. Nearly 200 people have been charged across California in the EBT schemes, Newsom’s office said.

Since 2023 the state responded to the skimming crisis by issuing chipped EBT cards and introducing an app allowing recipients to freeze their EBT accounts to prevent withdrawals. Last year, Newsom said, the state began using a computer model to detect fraudulent withdrawals and forced resets of some CalWorks’ recipients EBT card PINs.

But local welfare fraud investigators said the Newsom’s numbers paint too rosy a picture of the theft.

Gregory Mahony, president of the California Welfare Fraud Investigators Association, said he believes the state’s reported thefts are undercounted.

The figures are based on how much the state reimburses county welfare departments each month to return victims’ benefits. But some recipients don’t bother making a report, or report months of thefts but only get some of the money reimbursed, Mahony said.

He also criticized the California Department of Social Services for dropping a requirement in 2023 that victims file police reports each time their benefits are stolen in order to get a reimbursement. That’s hurt the state’s tracking of theft and fraud, Mahony said.

“This is not a systemic victory,” he said in a statement. “It is a delayed and partial mitigation of a crisis long allowed to grow unchecked.”

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Democratic U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff conducted an oversight visit yesterday at the state’s newest and largest immigrant detention center, located in California City, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles.

In remarks to reporters, both highlighted what they described as inadequate medical care at the site.

“The most frequent feedback we got was the inadequacy of the medical care they are receiving,” said Schiff. He described meeting a diabetic detainee who he said has not received treatment for her condition in two months. “That’s frightening,” he said.

More than 1,400 people are currently held at the California City Detention Facility, run by the private for-profit prison company CoreCivic in the middle of the Mojave Desert. It opened in late August under a contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with a capacity to hold 2,560 detainees.

Previously, CoreCivic operated the site as a state prison. The Newsom administration ended the contract in 2024 as it closed several state prisons because of California’s declining incarcerated population.

“They’re going to have to do something very different if they’re going to meet the medical needs of the people here, let alone adding another 1,000 people,” Padilla said.

Schiff said he spoke to people who described smelly water and a detainee who described a moldy sandwich. Both Padilla and Schiff stressed that people were being held in prison-like conditions despite many not having committed any crimes and only civil immigration offenses.

“This is not a prison, despite the environment, so we have an equal concern for mental health care,” Padilla said. “You can imagine the experience of being detained, being threatened with deportation and the impact on you as an individual and the impact on your extended family can be traumatic. We found that mental health care here is also lacking.”

Schiff said many of the people he talked to inside were arrested at their immigration appointments. “So they were doing what they were supposed to do to become citizens or establish a lawful presence and at those appointments they were picked up and separated from family,” he said.

He also described meeting a man from Afghanistan who said he assisted the U.S. military there and would be killed by the Taliban if returned to his country.

“They want to deport him back to Afghanistan. He was given alternatives like Sudan and elsewhere to places where he has no ties. These are the stories that we were hearing,” said Schiff.

Before entering the facility, Schiff and Padilla said they were conducting the inspection to “respond to complaints and questions from constituents about the conditions that detainees are in” and to “see firsthand what this facility is like.”

“On this anniversary of the second Trump administration, one year in, there are a couple things we already know his term is defined by: the cruelty and over-aggressiveness of the mass deportation agenda,” said Padilla.

“This is a necessary part of our oversight,” said Schiff. “We’ve all been working with constituents who have been detained here or are detained here and have described the falling conditions.”

Democrats want to visit ICE centers

By law, members of Congress have a right to conduct unannounced inspections of immigration detention centers. But Padilla’s spokesman said the senators arranged the visit in advance.

In July, House Democrats sued the administration over a policy requiring seven days advance notice for visits, which they argued violated federal law. In December 2025, federal Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked the seven-day notice policy while the case plays out in court.

Following a deadly shooting incident involving an immigration officer in Minneapolis, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued a new memorandum on Jan. 8 re-imposing the seven-day notice requirement. On Jan. 19, Cobb did not immediately block this new, reinstated policy, concluding that the Jan. 8 directive was a “new agency action” that required a different legal challenge than the one previously decided.

When President Donald Trump took office a year ago, roughly 40,000 people were being held in immigration detention across the nation. By the start of December, that number had risen by almost 75%, with nearly 66,000 people held in immigration detention across the United States and the system reportedly capable of holding 70,000 people on any given day — the highest level in U.S. history, according to government data.

California’s oversight

Last month, the California Attorney General’s office warned of “dangerous conditions” at the California City facility. In a Dec. 19 letter to Noem, attorney Michael Newman wrote the California Department of Justice “has grave concerns about the conditions at the facility and the lack of adequate medical care,” after inspecting the facility.

Attorney General Rob Bonta said the facility had “opened prematurely and was not prepared to handle the needs of the incoming population.”

Ryan Gustin, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, previously told Calmatters that the site has robust medical and mental health care on site, including around-the-clock access to those services. He said those services adhere to “standards set forth by our government partners.”

“There are no delays in individuals getting their prescription medications,” Gustin said.

In November, detainees at the facility sued, alleging the facility is polluted by sewage leaks and insect infestations, and that detainees can’t get proper medical attention for life-threatening conditions.

Debbie (Deborah) M. Barcelles of Eureka passed away on Tuesday, Jan. 13 at the Crescent City Skilled Nursing at 6:15 p.m. with her husband at her side.

Growing up on a dairy in Elk Grove with her parents and two brothers, she moved to Eureka in her 20s, where she worked for Redwood Coast Regional Center for over 40 years as a member of support staff.

Debbie liked doing her daily afternoon walk on G Street, watching silent movies, rescuing feral cats and identifying birds. She was an avid collector of memorabilia and loved decorating her little home on Trails End Road. Always active in self-improvement, she also liked dressing up for Halloween almost every year and going on short trips to southern Oregon or the Bay Area. Her favorite day of the year was Valentine’s Day, and she collected ornamental hearts and Victorian Valentine’s cards.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Frank and Evelyn Barcelles. She is survived by her older brothers, Robert of Roseville, Calif. and Frank of Missouri and their wives; her husband Franklin Stover of Eureka with daughters Kira and Elise; several aunts and uncles in Arcata; and Kathy and Bruce Standifer, close personal friends in Geyserville, Calif.

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

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It could have been so much worse!

An elderly woman was hospitalized Sunday afternoon after her vehicle careened through a Eureka intersection, narrowly missing the Old Town Carriage Company horse before crashing into a tree by the gazebo.

Old Town resident Colton O’Neale said he witnessed the crash, which happened at approximately 3:39 p.m. The driver was placed on a gurney and loaded into an ambulance.

“We overheard a firemen tell someone that she mixed up her gas and her brake,” O’Neale told the Outpost this morning. 

Laura Montagna, public information officer with the Eureka Police Department, said the unidentified driver (born in 1949) was headed westbound on Second Street immediately before the accident.

Consulting the call logs, Montagna said the driver narrowly missed the horse and struck a light pole, so both PG&E and the Humboldt County Public Works Department were notified.

O’Neale, who lives in an upstairs apartment near the scene, said he heard “frantic shouting” right before the incident. 

“I looked [out a window] and saw several people running out of the way as she barreled through,” he reported. “[A] neighbor and I walked up for a closer look and I don’t think she hit anyone.”

Coffee Clay Winans passed away on the evening of Tuesday, January 6, after years of a complicated battle with addiction. He was born on Friday, December 13, 1991, in Arcata, and lived his entire life amongst our community. His passing is a profound loss for his family and friends that cherished him for the amazing person that he was and for who he was becoming.

Coffee was a man whose heart was even bigger than his genuine and beaming smile, and whose laughter was contagious. He had a deep love for all living things — especially plants and animals. He even grafted and grew his own apple tree. He always had pets and cared for any animal he could. Coffee was known for nurturing life in all its forms. Coffee carried a rare tenderness and respect for the living world around him, no matter how it challenged him.

Known for his great sense of humor and iconic laugh, Coffee had a gift for making people feel at ease. He never failed to tell you exactly what was on his mind- which was always something fun or positive. He loved trading bling with his dad, and gifting beautiful jewelry to his mom. Coffee was known for always doing whatever he felt was the right thing to do. His kindness was sincere, his compassion toward others unwavering, and his presence an overall beacon of warmth to all who knew him.

Coffee’s legacy lives on in the countless lives he touched, the love he shared with us, and the simple bliss he spread so effortlessly. He will be deeply missed and forever remembered.

May we remember him for the true person he was — and not the tragedy that occurred. May his memory continue to grow and bloom in the hearts of all who loved him.

He is survived by a huge family and so many friends! His father, Charles Clay Winans, mother, Chelsea Tuck, brother Isaac Winans and his cat Ewok. Grandparents, Carl and Susan Tuck, Norman and Sharon Crockett, Uncles & Aunts Tom Baker and Kim Olsen , Michele and Mike Marshall, Camille McNeil, Alan and Carlotta Clark, Columbine Donald, Cynthia Tuck and Mikka Kohler, and too many cousins and other extended family to list!

He will be reunited in heaven with his paternal grandparents, Charles Francis Winans and Carolyn Kelly, his little brother Marble Ace Winans (missing since 2011) and many other ancestors and loved ones to guide him. May they all be shining upon us today!

A memorial open to all who care will be held on Friday, January 23, 2026. Graveside service at 2 p.m. in Blue Lake Cemetery, followed by a celebration of his life at Mad River Grange, ending at 5 p.m.

Please consider donating or sharing to others who may be wanting to help:  Coffee’s Memorial Funds (Gofundme account).

William Marshall Sellman, “Bill,” beloved father, grandfather, husband, brother and friend, passed away peacefully on January 8, 2026, at the age of 75.

Bill was born on March 25, 1950, in Las Vegas, New Mexico, to John and Pauline Sellman. The family moved to Onyx (Lake Isabella area), California in 1960 where he grew up and married his high school sweetheart in 1971. Together, they started a family and moved to Northern California, where they raised their three children.

Bill spent most of his life in Mad River, Willow Creek and Fortuna, where he built a home filled with love, laughter, and steady guidance. After settling in Fortuna, he met his forever soul mate in 2011, who remained by his side until his passing. He was a proud and devoted father who never missed an opportunity to support his children in all they pursued.

Bill worked for over 35 years for the Contel/Verizon phone company and was known for his strong work ethic, integrity, and willingness to help others. Outside of work, he enjoyed fishing, hunting, traveling the U.S. in his travel trailer, and spending time with his family. He especially loved fishing and crabbing in the ocean with his friends and loved ones. Bill was always quick to strike up a conversation and made many friends wherever he went.

He is survived by his children, Shan (Fred) Grundman, Robert Sellman (Adriano), and Ryan (Heather) Sellman; his step daughter Angela Martin; his grandchildren, Saige and Kyle Grundman, Mason and Cole Sellman; his sister, Sharon (Gary) Alexander; his brother, John Sellman; his wife, Kimberly Songer; and many extended family members and friends who will miss him deeply. He was preceded in death by his parents and his stepson, Tony Brown.

Bill will be remembered for his kindness, quiet strength, sense of humor, and unwavering love for his family and friends. His legacy lives on through the lives he touched and the values he passed down. Bill loved his AA family of 38 years and found lasting meaning through service to others. He remained devoted to giving back what was so freely given to him.

We would like to extend our sincere appreciation and gratitude to Kimberly for caring for our dad in her home, to Kimberly’s children for their help and support, and to Bill’s friends who lent a hand and checked in on him.

A celebration of Bill’s life will be held on January 25 at 12 p.m. in the Fortuna Seventh-day Adventist Dining Room (2301 Rohnerville Road, Fortuna).

California politicians and local activists heavily criticized the Trump administration’s plan to lease coastal waters for offshore drilling today at a standing-room only community meeting. 

Held at the Wharfinger Building Sunday morning, over 100 people attended. It was hosted by the Surfrider Foundation, the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), and Humboldt Waterkeeper. Attendees were encouraged to fill out postcards pre-addressed to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum with their hostility to offshore oil drilling.

Politicians from every level of government spoke for an hour, all of them to voice their opposition to the scheme: in attendance was Representative Jared Huffman, state assemblymembers Chris Rogers and Damon Connelly, Humboldt County Supervisor Mike Wilson, Eureka city councilmembers Kati Moulton and Leslie Castellano, and a smattering of other local bigwigs and activists. Huffman, Rogers and Connelly have attended several similar meetings along the California coast in the last few days.

They highlighted the negative environmental impacts of Trump’s plan, who said in November he wants to open up millions of acres along the West Coast and Florida to oil companies. Trump claims that drilling will bolster the economy, creating more jobs and lowering gas prices. Speakers focused on the potentially drastic, negative effects drilling has on the environment, as well as the devastation overusing fossil fuels is already causing to the climate and coastal communities. Many of them mentioned past oil spills that killed untold amounts of marine life and polluted waterways for years, like the 1989 Exxon Valdez, 1969 Santa Barbara, and 2015 Refugio spills.

“Thousands of pounds of toxic sludge are released due to routine operations of these facilities,” said EPIC climate attorney Matt Simmons. “I look out at Humboldt Bay, and I shudder to think about what a similar disaster would be for our community, for the jobs, the livelihoods, the cultures that all depend on the bay.”

Economic activities, like seafood harvesting and tourism, related to California’s coast brings in $1.7 trillion a year annually, Huffman claimed. Allowing offshore drilling would only increase that by a fraction while endangering other, more profitable activities.

“First, on the off chance that there’s someone in the Trump administration that still gives a damn about people and communities, we want them to hear loud and clear from us,” Huffman said. “We want them to know that support for offshore drilling is in the single digits, by which I mean the middle digit. I want to put it in terms that maybe Donald Trump can understand…I just want to tell the Trump Administration what part of the California coast they should open for new drilling: none of it.”

The speakers didn’t dive too deep into the specifics of their plans to combat Trump’s proclivity for fossil fuels. Huffman called for legislation that would permanently ban offshore drilling on the West Coast. Connelly mentioned Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2020 30x30 executive order, which would set aside 30% of California’s land and water for conservation by 2030. Assemblymember Rogers said he was co-authoring a bill with Assemblymember Dawn Addis to block offshore drilling on California’s coast. Supervisor Wilson (who also sits on the California Coastal Commission) brought up the Save My Coast Coalition, of which Humboldt County is a part, that aims to stop offshore drilling. 

Eureka city councilmember Kati Moulton spoke about growing up on the Gulf Coast in Texas, kicking at wads of sargassum algae held together by “blobs” of crude oil on the beach, the horizon dotted with oil rigs. 

“If you ask the people around there what those are, they say they smell like money. That smells like our local economy,” Moulton said. “Even at their best, they’re a disaster…And then I came up here as a young adult, and Humboldt County really touched me, and I fell in love with this place.”

“I just wanted to point out that there are few communities that could get together and really fight against something, and this is one of them,” Moulton continued. “And I just wanted to echo some of the optimism that I’m hearing, some of the deep-rooted defense of this beautiful place where we are, because if anybody can help make this not happen, it is Humboldt County.”