Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign Good evening and welcome to the local news. Today is Friday, October 24th and I'm Nat Cardos reporting for KMED. In tonight's news, Death investigation underway in Eureka Eureka moves towards nitrous oxide ban Tobacco Licensing Redway elementary School hosts Fun Fair October 25th and Ray Hamel with the Sports Report, so stay tuned. Those stories and more coming up.
Redwood Community Radio acknowledges that its transmitter sites are located on the unceded territory of the Sinkyon, Wailaki, Wiat, Wilkut and Kato people. We honor ancestors past, present and emerging, and acknowledge the ongoing cultural, spiritual and physical connection these tribes have to this region.
At approximately 6pm on October 21, detectives with the Eureka Police Department responded to a call at a residence for a suspicious death of an elderly decedent. Cayman News spoke with Laura Mentanya for more information on the incident. On October 21, 2025, at approximately 6:00pm detectives with the Eureka Police Department responded to a residence in the 800 block of L Street for suspicious death of an elderly person. Detectives and evidence technicians processed the home looking for evidence that would help identify the cause of death. The incident remains under investigation, however, there has been no evidence to indicate the death was a result of foul play.
This is an active investigation by the Eureka Police Department and in conjunction with the Humboldt County Sheriff Coroner's Office.
This is still an active investigation and anyone with information is asked to contact the Eureka Police Department Criminal Investigations Unit at 707-441-4300.
Bans on nitrous oxide and licensing of tobacco retailers is incrementally becoming countywide, with Eureka being the latest city to support doing so. Daniel Mintz reports.
Working in tandem with other Humboldt county governments, the Eureka City Council has introduced laws banning sales of nitrous oxide and licensing tobacco sales.
The actions taken at the council's October 21 meeting are described as being protective of public health and safety.
The nitrous ban seeks to boost the city's enforcement ability by establishing what City Manager Miles Slattery described as prosecutorial authority of offenses that are already illegal on a state level.
The county and the city of Arcata have already adopted nitrous bans and other cities are considering it. A speaker during a public comment period acknowledged the potential harm from nitrous but expressed some doubt about the prohibition approach.
I'm of two minds on this as somebody who works with youth and sees the real harm and detriment that this causes.
It's really neurodegenerative. It just can literally destroy brains and then like from A harm reductionist viewpoint. If you want access to something, you're gonna get access to something.
And so you know the literature on banning things, it introduces stigmatization.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: It like, creates an underground kind of.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: Pathway for these things, and it takes away agency from individuals.
She recommended education and outreach to people to help them.
Eureka's ban defines violation as a misdemeanor crime. It doesn't apply to sales for medical purposes or prepackaged products like whipped cream.
Much of the council's discussion focused on making an additional carve out for nitrous oxide sales to restaurants and coffee shops that used the gas for culinary and drink making purposes.
Support for the ban, with sales to restaurants and coffee shops exempted, was unanimous.
After the unanimous approval vote, Mayor Kim Burgell described the ban as helpful to the community.
I think that this is really going to be something that's beneficial to some of our parents out there whose children are addicted to whippets and to the people that have lost their children, fathers, friends, to nitrous through oding.
And I'm sure as you wander around our community, you're going to find a lot of them. The council also introduced an ordinance establishing a system for licensing tobacco retailers. It's related to the nitrous ban in that it gives the city the power to suspend or revoke the licenses of tobacco retail sellers who also sell nitrous. Slattery said its intent is to, quote, reduce miners access to tobacco, encourage compliance with enforcement tools that we can use here locally and to enhance enforcement by our code enforcement staff, and then also to meet public health goals.
During a public comment period, a participant in a recent surveying effort talked about the findings and vouched for the ban.
About two years ago, I helped conduct undercover decoy purchase surveys at 30 stores in Eureka. And just on my perspective, I think there's a few more of them now.
According to the Healthy kids survey, at that time, 70% of high school students in Eureka felt that it was easy to obtain tobacco. And early that Monday morning, nearly 17% of stores sold tobacco to our underage youth decoys. More than half the stores still offered flavored tobacco products that appeal to young people, even though flavored tobacco had been made illegal by state law.
The beginning of 2023, there are drug and tobacco prevention programs in our schools and free quit smoking programs available to students and adults. Tobacco retail licensing is another important component to prevent nicotine addiction in the first place. A motion to introduce the ordinance included the addition of a clause barring issuance of new licenses to retailers within 600ft of schools or community centers and within a quarter mile of another tobacco retailer.
The introduction was unanimously approved.
Once adopted, the ordinance will give businesses 90 days to comply with its regulations and the expected effective date is January 1, 2026.
In Eureka for KMUD News, this is Daniel Mintz.
On Oct. 25, Redway Elementary School will be hosting their annual fun fair to raise money for students and teachers. Gabriel Zucker reports.
Redway elementary School's PTA is hosting their annual fun fair on Saturday, October 25th at the Redway Elementary School. There they will host games, food, a raffle and more to help raise money for the school. A. Laurel Davis is the head of the pta. She explained the different events being held. The main thing is the games and the classrooms. We have food, we have a raffle. We sell raffle tickets here also for a variety of prizes. We're also doing a new thing called Tape a teacher to the wall with duct tape. We have three teachers doing that.
The event is being hosted to raise money for the school and will be going to teachers, students and anywhere else the money is needed. We fundraise to raise money for the teachers and students. We do assemblies.
We raise money for the teachers to use in their classrooms, sometimes funds field trips. Notice anything extra that teachers may need?
Everyone is welcome and the PTA is making sure everyone will be comfortable during the rainy day. If everyone's looking for something to do during a rainy day, kids from all over town are welcome. It's not just for Redway School. Everyone is welcome to come. This is Gabriel Zucker reporting from kmud.
[00:08:11] Speaker B: The Ferndale Wildcats continue their incredible season on the football fields with another huge win on Saturday. Horses While three more league champions were crowned in other sports this week. Hello and welcome to this week's KMUD News Sports Report. I'm Ray hamill with humble sports.com we'll have much more on the record setting Wildcats and their pursuit of perfection in just a moment as we take a look at all of the big local sports stories of the week, including all the latest high school and college football news, some youth football news, some high school and college soccer, some volleyball and why it was a particularly historic week for one HDNL team. But first up, the Ferndale Wildcats continued their remarkable season in football with a 72.0win over Arcata on Saturday.
With the victory, The Cats improved to 7. 0 on the season and they have now incredibly outscored their opponents 450 0. In those seven games, Prescott Langer and Tanner Pigeon each scored five touchdowns in the win, which leaves Ferndale all alone ATOP of the Little Four standings. Halfway Conference play With three games remaining against Hoopa, McKinleyville and Arcata, three teams that they have beaten by at least 72 points each, the Wildcats are now closing in on an historic season of all shutouts. This weekend they will welcome Hoopa to coach Carlson Wildcat Field in Ferndale as they look to secure a conference sweep over the warriors.
Also in the Little Four. Last weekend, Hoopa edged McKinleyville 3429 in an entertaining showdown at Mac High, giving the warriors their first conference win. Arcada remains second in the Little 4 standings with a record of 2. 1 and the Tigers are now 3 and 4 overall while Hoopa is 1 and 2 in the Little 4 and 2 and 5 overall and McKinleyville is 0 3, 2 and 5. A win for Ferndale this weekend coupled with an Arcada loss to Mckinleyville would see the Wildcats claim at least a share of this year's conference championship. St. Bernards could also clinch at least a share of the Big Four title with a win this weekend and a Fortuna loss at Del Norte last week. The crusade ended a long eight game losing streak to Del Norte that had dated back to 2017 with a 160 win in Crescent City to keep their unbeaten season going. With the win, St. Bernard's improved to3.0 in the Big 4 and 7 overall while Del Norte dropped to 12 and 4 3. Fortuna also was in action and beat Eureka 5215 at the Redwood bowl to keep their conference championship hopes alive. The Huskies improved to 2. 1 in the Big 4 and 3 and 4 overall while Eureka Eureka, which has now lost six straight games, dropped to 0316. Fortuna travels to Del Norte on Friday night while Saint Bernards plays Eureka at the Redwood bowl on Saturday night. The South Fork Cubs were also in action last week and fell 56 to 34 at Tamales. The loss ended a three game winning streak for the Cubs who dropped to 2. 1 in the NCL 3 and 4. 2 overall. South Fork will try to bounce back at Calistoga on Friday night in Mendocino county.
Meanwhile, Willets won 4228 at Kelseyville last week and improved to 6. 1 overall and 4. 1 in the NCL 1 while Fort Bragg fell 388 to Middletown and is now 3. 5 overall and 3 and 3 in the NCL 1. The Ukiah Wildcats also were in action and beat Santa Rosa 50 to 24, improving to 4 and 3 on the season. This weekend Willits plays at Cloverdale on Friday. Ukiah plays at St. Vincent de Paul on Saturday and Fort Bragg has a In local college football news, it was a good week for College of the Redwoods. The Corsairs traveled to Shasta and trailed by 18 points late in the third quarter, but they would rally for a 1918 win with the game winning touchdown coming on a quarterback sneak with just 23 seconds remaining in the game. SEA or, which is now 1:1 in conference and 1:6 on the season, will play a home game this Saturday for the first time in a month when Santa Rosa travels to the Redwood Bowl. Kickoff is set for 1pm in local youth football, the Six Rivers Conference kicks off three weekends of playoff action on Sunday with the three championship games set for November 9th at Ferndale High School. In local high school soccer, meanwhile, the Ferndale Wildcats won the Little four title with three games to spare on Saturday, the impressive Ferndale girls traveled to south fork and won 50 to officially clinch just the program's second ever league title and first since 2009. The Cats also beat Saint Bernards 32 on Tuesday to stretch their unbeaten run to 16 straight games, a run that includes 15 wins. Ferndale, which is the top ranked girls fall soccer team in the entire north coast section, has not lost since a season opening defeat at Kelseyville all the way back in August. Also in girls soccer action on Tuesday, Del Norte and South Fork tied 0 0, Arcata defeated Eureka 30 and Fortuna defeated McKinleyville 6 0. In boys action on Wednesday, Del Norte tied Arcata 2 2, Eureka got the better of South Fork 32 and McKinleyville beat Saint Bernards 11 0. In college soccer, the Cal Poly Humboldt women saw a program record run of six straight shutouts come to an end in a 32 loss to Cal State San Bernardino on Sunday. The Lumberjacks dropped to 312 in conference and 544 overall, but remain in the chase for this year's conference championship. In local high school volleyball. Meanwhile, an exciting three horse race for this year's Big Five championship ended on Tuesday. The Eureka Loggers traveled to Crescent City to play Del Norte and won in five sets to capture their first conference championship since 2018.
The Lagers edged Arcata and Del Norte for the championship, with their only conference loss coming at Arcata in five sets.
Saint Bernards was crowned Little four champion last week and capped a dominating run through conference play with a straight sets win against Hoopa on Tuesday, a victory that lifted them to 90 in the little four. And rounding out another busy fall week of local sports on Monday, the Del Norte warriors captured a first ever HDNL championship in girls golf. The Del Norte Girls had an impressive three golfers place in the top six in the final league standings, including runaway champion Bria Larson and her teammate Jaylee Keeling, who finished second. And that's this week's KMUD News sports report. Until next time, I'm Ray hamill with humboldt sports.com.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: In state news.
Trump calls off San Francisco deployment. Questions remain about whether Oakland is targeted. KPFA's Patricia Werbianska reports.
Peaceful protesters marched and sang at the entrance to the Coast Guard facility in Alameda Thursday morning.
The interfaith vigil began before dawn, organized by local faith leaders after federal officials announced the base would serve as an operations center for ICE raids expected to be begin this week in the Bay Area.
Two protesters were injured by flashbang grenades and pepper bombs during the early morning hours after allegedly blocking Customs and Border protection vehicles from entering the island along Denison Street. Brownhart, a local activist, was part of that pre dawn group. So this morning before CBP showed up, people were just walking, using the crosswalk, no weapons, not touching police officers, not yelling at them, not interacting with them.
About an hour, maybe two hours after that, it was around 8am the first border Patrol truck showed up. It was a white SUV with the green stripe. That's how you can identify it. And when they showed up, people were still walking. They were not blocking the intersection. They were walking.
And this whole morning, police officers or Coast Guard, whoever they are, they're all collaborating, were waving them forward to drive through the crosswalk as people were walking on it. Protesters continued to march throughout the morning. Rabbi Kat Zavis from Beit Tikkun offered a prayer. As Trump and ICE insist on disrupting our communities and threatening people, I just want to offer a brief prayer. May we find ourselves there was if you were here earlier when the pepper bomb went off, it was very unsettling for our bodies. So it feels good to be walking and feeling our feet on the ground, to feel connected to the sacred land.
And so we stand here in solidarity with our neighbors, with our friends, with our community members.
And we commit to pray with our feet, as Abraham Joshua Heschel said, to actually bring our prayer movement, our liturgical movement, into the street.
Prayer actually doesn't really stop ice, but our bodies and our actions can.
Around noon Thursday, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced that the planned immigration surge in his city had been called off. Late last night, I received a phone call from the president of the United States.
I told him the same thing that I have told our residents.
San Francisco is on the rise.
Visitors are coming back, buildings are getting leased and purchased and workers are coming back to the office.
We have work to do and we would welcome the continued partnership with FBI, DEA, ATF and U.S. attorneys to get drugs and drug dealers off of our streets.
But having the military and militarized immigration enforcement in our city will hinder our recovery.
Lurie did not say whether other Bay Area cities would still be targeted. In Oakland, Mayor Barbara Lee urged residents to stay alert and be ready to protect their community from aggressive immigration enforcement.
Now, recent news reports, and I think you all have seen that in San Francisco, Mayor Lurie received received a call from Donald Trump indicating that San Francisco was no longer on his list. That does not mean we are not prepared. We have no idea. This is very fluid and so there's no information we can bring to you today to bring you up to date on what plans they have in place. But we are moving forward with our plans and we are prepared. Assistant Police Chief James Beer in Oakland said local police will not participate in federal immigration operations.
He pointed to the new state law, the no Vigilantes act, Senate Bill 805, which requires all law enforcement officers, including federal agents, to display their name and badge number during operations. The law also prohibits bounty hunters from taking part in any immigration enforcement. Meanwhile, Congresswoman Latifah Simon, back in her East Bay district as the federal government shutdown continues, said Oakland has a strong infrastructure to protect its law abiding residents.
In this moment of fear and speaking to folks in our community, I want you to know what my job is. My job one is to go to work. Unfortunately, unfortunately. As we speak right now in the dome in the Capitol, the doors of the House floor are closed for over four weeks.
The speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, has closed all business of the United States Congress. So a majority of that four weeks, I along with Democratic colleagues have been inside of that dome ready and willing to negotiate to open this government back up. But they refuse to come to the table. So I get to be here in my town. Oakland, CA as of Thursday afternoon, CHP officers in riot gear arrived the Coast Guard base to clear access to the island.
CHP helicopters were seen circling overhead. There are reports of one arrest so far today. As the story develops, Michelle, a Berkeley based activist who describes herself as an auntie, says protesters are committed to stopping ICE operations and will remain cautious and vigilant. We're here to take care of each other just like we're here to take care of everyone in our communities.
Right?
So we're gonna stay together. We're gonna do our best to keep each other safe, because that's how we roll, right?
Who keeps us safe?
Who keeps us safe? For Pacifica Radio kpfa, I'm Teresa Werzba.
In national news, federal Shutdown enters day 23 as Republicans blast Marxists and Dems blame Republicans for not negotiating. KPFA's Christopher Martinez reports.
Thursday marked day 23 of what Democrats call the Trump shutdown and what Republicans call the Schumer shutdown. And that should give you a good picture of the state of negotiations. There are no negotiations and the fiery rhetoric shows no sign of waning. Republican Mike Johnson of Louisiana is the speaker of the House. And they refuse to admit that this intention entire shutdown is one big political game to satisfy the radical Marxist base of their party. But that is exactly what is going on on the other side of the aisle. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer laid blame on the Trump administration. Right now on day 23 of the longest total government shutdown in American history, millions of American families are wondering how they'll make rent, pay their bills, or put food on the table.
And what's the Republican response to hand Donald Trump and his right hand man, Russ Vogt, the originator of the Evil, Awful Project 2025, to hand Russell Vogt even more power to decide who gets paid and who gets punished. He blasted President Donald Trump for jetting off to another country instead of negotiating an end to the shutdown. And he also blamed Trump for demolishing the east wing of the White House to build a new ballroom. During his remarks, Schumer showed photographs of the demolition. It's not just the desecration of the White House. It shows that Donald Trump is not focused on fixing health care, but rather on vanity projects like this one that don't do anything to benefit the American people. They only benefit Trump and his ego.
Donald Trump is telling the American people, no Medicaid for you, the ballroom for me. Republican lawmakers have proposed measures to pay troops during the shutdown or other specific groups of federal workers. Democrats have opposed those measures. Schumer calls the Republican proposals a ruse and a way to keep the shutdown going. Democrats are offering two solutions that actually include all of our federal employees, not just the ones the president picks and chooses. Oh, I'll lay you off. I'll furlough you. I won't do you. I like you. I don't like you. That's not the way you govern but that's how Trump seems to govern.
Our bill is an antidote to that awful way that Trump uses when he picks and chooses winners and losers that he likes and hates. Opinion polls have shown public support for the health care subsidies that Democrats want to restore as part of reopening government.
Some Republican objects have voiced support for some kind of changes to protect health care programs. But with no negotiations taking place, so far, it's all posturing and no action.
Reporting for Pacifica Radio News kpfa, I'm Christopher Martinez.
And in National Native News, Antonia Gonzalez reads today's headlines.
This is National Native News. I'm Antonia Gonzalez.
The city and borough of Wrangell in southeast Alaska is pausing work at a housing project after archaeologists confirmed artifacts at the site. KSTK's Colette Czarnicki has more.
While excavating a subdivision development site on Wrangell island, construction crews uncovered a shell midden. Middens are ancient sites made up of shells and other remains.
They help tell the story of who lived there and how they lived. The borough government owns the property and is pausing work near the midden until a state approved mitigation plan is complete. Wrangleboro manager Mason Volarma says development will continue carefully. It's been a 30 year pursuit in some cases. We are, you know, into a $4 million investment and this is an opportunity for 20 housing lots. But being cognizant of any culturally significant artifacts is top of mind. Currently, the Office of History and Archaeolog and the state Historic Preservation Office are working on a treatment plan for recovery of the site that will involve further investigation and excavation. The property has a complicated history. It was once the site of the Wrangell Institute, an Alaska Native boarding school known for punishing students for speaking their language and other abuses. Albert Reinhardt, the administrator for the local tribal government, Ringel Cooperative association, says the site carries deep meaning. There's a long history colonialization that includes the Wrangell Institute, what we prefer now to call the Alaska Native boarding school. A lot of families got separated in that time, and even my own family there was a lot of trauma. In August, excavators found remnants of the old boarding school, a footbridge, concrete and utility lines. Construction was paused until the state historic office determined last month that the infrastructure would not be on the National Register of historic place.
The 134 acre Aldertop village site will eventually include 20 home lots. The public land sale auction is continuing and closes on December 1st. In Wrangle, I'm Colette Czarnicki, a new bull riding champ, was recently crowned at the Indian National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. As KJZ's Gabriel Pietrazio reports, he now has an automatic chance to go pro with the PBR professional bull riders. Unlike other tribal athletes before him, Cole Brewer has it won by one point.
[00:27:25] Speaker B: He's got a gold buckle to take.
[00:27:27] Speaker A: Home, but he is not here to take it by default. His victory qualified the Cheyenne River Sioux from South Dakota. The tryout at the New York Mavericks training camp. It's a change the PBR made last year. Our relationship with the INFR is really opening up a lot of doors for these K. Chris Pantani is the team's gm. Let's give them that extra shot. But those five days of competition are daunting. It's grueling. Five big bowls to the championship. Past INFR champs have a presence in the PBR today. Window Rock's Cody Jesus won it in 2016. It's a straight path to where you want to go. And in 2023, fellow Arizona Navajo Jaquy Hale from Ganado grabbed gold. He's happy Brewer's getting a shot in the pbr.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: It's a good opportunity.
[00:28:13] Speaker A: Wish I had that when I wanted. The Mavericks are looking to bring back last year's champ, Tegan Gray, who is also Cheyenne river sue from South Dakota. If Tegan accepts, you'll have the reigning champion coming down. You're going to have the past champion coming down fighting for a spot on the team.
For National Native News, I'm Gabriel Pietrazio. And I'm Antonia Gonzalez.
Native Voice 1, the Native American Radio Network.
That's all for tonight's broadcast. Thanks for listening. Thanks to our engineer, Julian Jackson, and thanks to our reporters Daniel Mintz, Gabriel Zuckert, Ray Hamel, Patricia Werbianska, Christopher Martinez and Antonio Gonzales. KMA News is online and you can find us on kmo.org and now streaming on most podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, where you can download our stories and newscasts for offline listening during your rural commutes. You can also follow us on social media.
If you have questions or suggestions, you can give us a call at 707-923-2605 or send an email to newsema.org Redwood Community Radio, Inc. Is funded by PressForward, the National Movement to strengthen communities by reinvigorating local news. Learn more at PressForward News. Reporting for KMUD, I'm Matt Card.
