RBH #10 Local: Newsome Halts Reparations, California Fentanyl, Frisco Needs a Batman

Hello, this is Ash Teeter with Lost Coast Populist News hosting the Reading Between the Headlines Podcast. The sheer amount of news thrown at us these days can be overwhelming, this show is a news review looking at select local headlines from the past couple weeks. Awake not woke, opinions are not facts, make up your own mind. Source Links for all the headlines covered in this episode can be found in the credits at the end of the video presentation of this section.

Traffic incidents 

Traffic stop leads to two arrests, 15 month old baby shot while riding in car in Oakland, ex-Raider Henry Ruggs pleads guilty to driving drunk which caused a fatal accident. 

For this section the 15 month old baby getting shot in Oakland seems to be the most tragic. As one local shop owner said, “it’s a dangerous area.” Still tragic nonetheless, video footage displayed a black male at the intersection opening fire at an unknown vehicle with a stray bullet striking the child. This is only one of many shootings in Oakland during the same week. 

Drugs 

Once poster boys for legal weed in Humboldt, Emerald Family Farms is being sold for parts, how news Media covers cannabis, Newsome sending National Guard to San Francisco to disrupt fentanyl trafficking, no signs of California National Guard in San Francisco to tackle fentanyl crisis. 

So, is everyone aware fentanyl is a major issue in our local communities, states, and nation as a whole? Locally, in Humboldt County, it seems like many in leadership positions are unaware – or uneducated – as to where fentanyl actually comes from, many thinking that San Francisco is the source.

This could not be further from the truth. I can understand the small-town mentality thinking: all our problems come from the big city of San Francisco, but San Francisco’s problems come from somewhere, too. The fentanyl problem, as we see it, is in large part due to the aptly named Open Border Policy we’re seeing under the Biden regime, making it easy for China to produce and distribute through the various cartels. 

California, being a sanctuary state, unfortunately results in creating a safe haven – or, sanctuary, if you will – for people bringing fentanyl into the country. As we see with the two stories in this section, Governor Gavin Newsom was allegedly sending National Guard troops into San Francisco to disrupt fentanyl trafficking, but, just days later, it was reported that no sign of the National Guard was to be found in San Francisco working on this issue …

Violent Crime 

Three pit bulls attack two Fort Bragg women, CHP capture suspect and murderer of 20 year old, cleaver style knife used in stabbing on BART train, boy in “scream mask” allegedly stabs girl in throat, father kills son, dog, and finally self, LA tech CEO remains found after vanishing from Uber ride, 15 year old and 18 year old arrested for possessing handgun, body of Garberville woman recovered from Eel River, sheriff’s Lieutenant arrested after allegedly pulling gun during domestic disturbance, Eureka police find two people dead during welfare check, man attacked over a parking spot, one dead and four wounded outside North Beach strip club, man convicted of murdering two men and decapitating them. 

While only being a sample of what happens around our state, it is disturbing, to say the least, to look at these many violent incidents. The one that sticks out as most disturbing to me is the murder case with the decapitations. The way the story reads is that it was a gross scene and the two victims were illegal or undocumented immigrants – depending on your definition. The story is also coupled with reports of animal abuse, with a number of roosters found in a burn pile with the dead bodies. The heads of the bodies were never located. 

I went through the comments and some people are wondering if the death penalty may have been more appropriate in this case instead of the “life without parole” sentence that was reached, as the ultimate verdict, in this case. In cases like this, I tend to agree with this notion: when there doesn’t seem like there is any path to rehabilitation, what is the point to burdening the system with keeping such a criminal alive and cared for for the rest of their life?

Happenings 

Campground restaurant fire causes $100K damage, Mike Rowe makes chocolate with Dick Taylor, Coast Guard rescues lost hikers on trail, people visit Eureka on cruise ship, experts warn big earthquake expected to strike Bay Area by 2030, College of the Redwoods hires new Director of Institutional Effectiveness, CHP at forefront of studying potential tick borne diseases, Body Cam Video captures a sheriff’s deputy saving infant, Eureka business owner files claim against City of Eureka and calls out council member Leslie Castellano. 

In this section I appreciate the story about the sheriff’s deputy saving the infant by administering CPR. It was also interesting that Mike Rowe made his way to town via Dick Taylor chocolates. I heard someone I know comment on meeting Mr Rowe in-person one time and that he was a “super nice guy and after moments talking with him you kind of forget he’s a celebrity because he’s just that down to earth.”

Another interesting story in this segment is that of Roy Gomez suing the city of Eureka over Leslie Castellano’s alleged emails hurting his business. Roy spoke at one of the recent City Council meetings and I think he did a excellent job illustrating some of the problems local businesses face with local government overstepping their roles. 

We’ll go to that clip now 

Infrastructure 

A group of citizens protecting Humboldt Bay say the proposed fish farm is a threat, sewer rate increase may hit Del Norte county, underground transformer catches fire knocking out power for thousands in San Francisco, five injured after e-bike battery catches fire in San Francisco apartment, Smith River CSD general manager says drinking water is it is safe adjacent to mines, Crowley Wind Services opens up Eureka office furthering work on Humboldt offshore wind project, California passes first-in-nation emission rules for trains. 

This segment has a few things going on, one story highlights the ongoing safety concerns of electric vehicles vis-a-vis the fire risk they present, being that something as small as a bike battery can lead to a structure fire. Just like California put a future ban on the sale of gasoline powered cars, followed by a ban on petroleum powered big rig trucks, the bureaucracy now seems to have its sight set on trains. 

Setting all these mandates in place well before anyone really crunched the numbers on how much power all this will consume, before any work has even begun on retrofitting our electrical infrastructure to take on this burden. At least we have the untested power generation plan of offshore winds it was only had a small demo back east before being rolled out across the nation.

Is this really more feasible than land based wind power, to me the idea seems kind of ridiculous having to go out into the ocean to maintain these floating windmill behemoths. Logically it just does not seem that it could be cheaper by any means to do something in the middle of the ocean than it would be to accomplish the same thing on land. 

Local politics 

Arkley affiliated group, Citizens for abetter Eureka filed a second lawsuit against city development, Dave Chappelle angers San Francisco reporter by telling truth about the city, calls come in for Feinstein to step down, California works towards releasing convicts from death row after 20 years, how will California protect Humboldt Bay from worst sea level rise on the West Coast, California reparations task force to recommend down payments for slavery and racism, governor Newsom declines black reparations checks says slavery legacy is more than a cash payment. 

So yeah, one story in this segment touches on something we mentioned earlier about convicts who are on death row for like years and years and years and they’re just being supported in their prison life by the taxpayers of California. While releasing these inmates from prison will reduce the financial burden on the taxpayer from the cost of their incarceration, the social cost of having these violent criminals on the streets and likely reoffending will also be an undue burden on all citizens of California.

The article notes that San Francisco has been greatly impacted by this revolving door style of justice, something Dave Chappelle was not shy about discussing in a recent and impromptu stand-up segment. It was refreshing to see governor Gavin Newsome go against the grain with the reparations for slavery being pushed in California, perhaps it has to do with a reality check on the financials state of California. As noted in an article on the Cal Poly Humboldt housing expansion, “there is still money in the governor’s proposed budget, but Sacramento is going to borrow money to get it.”

California has long been Part of a vibrant economy that rivals other nations, unfortunately over regulation taxation in general mismanagement has driven many businesses out of state or just forced them to close their doors altogether, hopefully California can vote its way out of this mess sooner rather than later. 

Local pulse 

Intolerant homophobic California mother claims special needs teenager was targeted for not embracing LGBT lessons, RBH 10.1 CR all age dragged denies entry to press, fake hateful signature triggers B.O.S. resolution smear job 101, hate narrative pushed by local media government. 

A mother claims that her special needs daughter is under attack by her own high school teachers calling her a bigot after she mistakenly forgot to use someone’s fake gender pronouns. She also objected to participating in lessons about lesbian sex which involved a lecture on scissoring and refused to get undressed near male teachers. How crazy is that huh? It’s kind of like the world has gone nuts. 

Just like locally here in Humboldt County where the LCP news team went and tried to film a follow up on the all-age drag phenomenon and was denied entry on a public college campus at College of the Redwoods. Little did we know that the day prior to this a significant story had broke involving a comment that was automatically sent to the Board of Supervisors in a petition featured on our website aiming to stop all age drag shows in humble county. 

The troll commenter on the petition said some blatantly hateful things, even going as far as to suggest violent acts. This message was followed by another message acknowledging that it was all a ruse aimed at gauging the timeliness of LCP taking down said hateful comment. 

While this hateful comment had only spread to a limited number of county staff members they in their ultimate wisdom somehow found it beneficial to spread this admittedly manufactured fake hate comment to local media to spread throughout the county and create fear and panic. So much so that an officer at the CR campus when we were there to film the event was aware of us through that very story, admittedly knowing very little details about it just that it was hateful and that our News Group was somehow attached to it. 

This led to myself and Donnie participating in many of the following weeks public participation sections, first at the Board of Supervisors to address their regurgitated hate resolution and later at the Human Rights Commission to ask why there’s never any proclamations or rapid responses issued on behalf of hateful language or messaging directed at conservative or Christian groups or individuals within the community. 

The chair of the Human Rights Commission, Jim Glover, also spoke at the Board of Supervisors meeting supporting the hate resolution and describing himself as a member of the other community. Later at the opening of the Human Rights Commission meeting Jim stated that he attended the College of the Redwoods all-age drag show, noting that myself and Donnie were not allowed in to the event to film the show itself.

Describing us as “haters” and insinuating that us being blocked from doing so was a victory. Here is the clip of myself and Donnie speaking at the Human Rights Commission Right after a little clip on LCP products. If you are interested in viewing these segments in their entirety go to our YouTube channel and look for RBH 10.1 and 10.2.