Mendo Local Weekly Roundup — July 18, 2026
County workers get a raise, an 81-year-old gets an eviction notice, and the family of a missing hunter gets closure
🏛️ Mendocino County
SEIU announces tentative deal with Mendocino County
By Roger Coryell, The Mendocino Voice · July 16
SEIU Local 1021 has reached a tentative three-year contract with Mendocino County that includes 3% raises for all positions, up to 12% for the lowest-paid workers, free health care, and Juneteenth as a holiday. The agreement still needs ratification by union members and approval by the Board of Supervisors.
Read more
Mendocino County farmers were paid to grow produce for food banks
By Roger Coryell, The Mendocino Voice · July 16
A federal program that paid Mendocino County farmers to grow produce for local food banks ended in May after the Trump administration canceled contracts. The program had distributed more than 70,000 pounds of local food annually through 39 farms.
Read more
⛰️ Covelo
Mother of Four Fatally Shot Near Covelo; Three Arrested on Cannabis Charges, Family Fundraiser Launched
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · July 12–13
Josepha Littlewolf Thunderheart Basurto, a 31-year-old mother of four, was found fatally shot with multiple gunshot wounds in a pickup truck at an illegal cannabis site near Covelo on July 10, and three people were arrested on marijuana-cultivation charges at the same location a day later — though authorities have not linked the arrests to the homicide. A GoFundMe campaign seeking $8,000 has since been launched to cover her funeral and travel for family members coming from Utah for services and future court proceedings.
Read more: homicide & arrests · Read more: fundraiser
🦴 Dos Rios
Sheriff’s Office Identifies Remains of Hunter Who Vanished Near Dos Rios in 2021
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · July 15
The remains of John Thomas Davis III, a McKinleyville hunter missing since October 2021, have been identified through DNA from a bone found by a fisherman on the Eel River in February 2026. Davis vanished during a flood while camping near Dos Rios, prompting nearly five years of search operations across Northern California.
Read more
🏠 Fort Bragg
An ICE Arrest in Cleone
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · July 17
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Juan Arenas-Cinega, 46, in Cleone on July 15 in a targeted operation; ICE says he has multiple DUI and spousal-abuse convictions and illegally re-entered the U.S. after a prior deportation.
Read more
Fort Bragg Police Told Joey Lara, “You’re Going to Jail,” Despite Breath Tests Below the Legal Limit
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · July 17
Fort Bragg police took Joey Lara, 67, into custody on suspicion of DUI after stopping him for a license-plate light, though he passed field sobriety tests. Held in the booking cell, he registered below the legal limit six times on a breathalyzer the officer called malfunctioning.
Read more
Fort Bragg Police Captain O’Neal Leaves;
By Frank Hartzell, Mendocino Coast News · July 16
Fort Bragg Police Captain Thomas O’Neal is no longer with the department. The city had no comment on his departure.
Read more
DoorDash Lauds Fort Bragg’s Fee Waiver Program
By Carole Brodsky, Fort Bragg Advocate-News · July 16
DoorDash has commended the Fort Bragg City Council for its new First-Year Fee Waiver Program, which waives certain administrative and permitting fees for independently owned businesses during their startup year. In a letter to Mayor Jason Godeke, DoorDash’s head of California public policy, Victor Ruiz-Cornejo, praised the city for reducing barriers to entrepreneurship while maintaining safety and code-compliance standards.
Read more
An 81-Year-Old Faces Eviction as Affordable Senior Housing Waitlists Stretch for Years
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · July 14
An 81-year-old Mendocino Coast woman with Stage 4 cancer faces eviction from her $300-a-month trailer as affordable senior-housing waitlists in the county stretch for years. Despite social-services intervention after MendoLocal’s inquiry, she remains without permanent housing and her landlord has refused her July rent.
Read more
First Building in 60 Years Rises on the Fort Bragg Mill Site
By Frank Hartzell, Mendocino Coast News · July 14
The Noyo Center for Marine Science is erecting the LeBONEatory, a two-story octagonal structure to display a 73-foot blue whale skeleton — the first new building on Fort Bragg’s former Georgia-Pacific mill site in six decades. Construction is paused awaiting window delivery, with a grand opening tentatively set for September 13.
Read more
🌊 Gualala
CDFW Identifies Man Who Drove Truck Into Garcia River
By Karen Elowitt, The Independent Coast Observer ·· July 16
A warden from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife identified the man who drove a truck into the Garcia River in June as Melvin Stewart King, 41, of Gualala. District Attorney David Eyster said a prosecutor has not yet been assigned, but that county courts have a track record of taking wildlife-related crimes seriously.
Read more (Subscription to The Independent Coast Observer may be required)
GCC Rebuild Moving Forward
By Kat Gleason, The Independent Coast Observer · · July 16
George Provencher, a board member of the Gualala Community Center, is heading the project to rebuild the center. Provencher has a background building nuclear facilities and other classified government buildings.
Read more (Subscription to The Independent Coast Observer required)
📞 Hopland
AT&T can now hang up on Hopland
By Roger Coryell, The Mendocino Voice · July 12
AT&T won federal permission on June 29 to end copper landline service for about 184,000 California customers, including in Hopland, with disconnections possible as early as June 1, 2027.
Read more
🚗 Little River
Car Goes Off the Highway 1 Cliff Onto Van Damme Beach
By Frank Hartzell, Mendocino Coast News · July 16
A car carrying three young men crashed through the Highway 1 guardrail at Little River late Wednesday and dropped roughly 30 feet onto Van Damme Beach. Witnesses said the vehicle had been driving erratically and crossing the center line beforehand; all three occupants were injured but were found sitting on a wall when responders arrived.
Read more
🎨 Mendocino
Mendocino Art Center adds programs, honors legacy
By Carole Brodsky, Ukiah Daily Journal · July 16
The Mendocino Art Center has launched a “Summer Cultivating Abundance” campaign expanding its programming under executive director Dav Bell, who is reframing the center around community-building, reciprocity, and skill-sharing. About two years into the role, Bell says the goal is a more diverse slate of programs where participants “can be constantly learning and growing.”
Read more
Mendocino teacher bit by shark returns to surf same spot he was attacked
By Savana Robinson, The Mendocino Voice · July 16
James Eastman, a Mendocino High School English teacher bitten by a shark on both legs in March, has returned to surfing at Big River Beach — where the attack occurred — after four months of recovery. His GoFundMe raised $13,806, with the surplus seeding a new nonprofit, The Minutes Matter Project, to place bleeding-control kits at high-traffic Mendocino Coast beaches.
Read more
🎵 Piercy
Music festival set to return to Cook’s Valley Campground in Piercy this weekend By Savana Robinson, The Mendocino Voice · July 14
The Dirtybird Campout and Northern Nights Music Festival returns to Cook’s Valley Campground in Piercy this weekend with four stages and more than 70 house, techno, bass, and dance acts. The three-day event offers camping, a silent disco, a cannabis lounge, yoga, and live art, with remaining tickets at northernnights.org.
Read more
📍 Point Arena
South Coast’s Action Network closes its doors
By Carole Brodsky, Ukiah Daily Journal · July 16
The South Coast’s Action Network, a 20-year nonprofit providing youth and family services on the Mendocino and Sonoma coasts, ceased operations June 30 after failing to secure enough funding to continue. Interim director Miles Clark attributed the closure to shifts in health-care funding that steered dollars toward larger behavioral-health providers equipped for insurance and Medi-Cal billing.
Read more
🏙️ Ukiah
Ukiah City Council to vote again on Downtown Zoning Code revisions
By Justine Frederiksen, Ukiah Daily Journal · July 15
The Ukiah City Council this week is set to adopt revisions to the city’s Downtown Zoning Code, which officials say has acted as a barrier to development rather than encouraging it since its 2012 adoption. Community Development Director Craig Schlatter said the original form-based code “is really acting as a barrier to development,” and the changes aim to add flexibility for property owners.
Read more
🚂 Willits
The Mendocino County District Attorney Will Not File Criminal Charges in the Death of Nicholas Bakewell
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · July 14
The Mendocino County District Attorney declined to file charges against law-enforcement officers in the June 2025 death of Nicholas Bakewell, concluding the use of force was “objectively reasonable” even though a medical examiner ruled the death a homicide from restraint-associated asphyxiation. Bakewell’s family has filed a federal civil suit alleging excessive force.
Read more
🐻 CALMATTERS
Republicans Hold a Cash Edge in California’s Swing Congressional Races
By Maya C. Miller, CalMatters · July 16
Republican candidates in California’s competitive congressional swing districts hold sizable cash advantages over Democrats heading into 2026, after costly Democratic primaries and a recent Supreme Court ruling allowing unlimited party spending coordinated with candidates.
Read more
California’s Secretive Jailhouse Sting Operations Draw Constitutional Challenges
By Cayla Mihalovich, CalMatters · July 15
A CalMatters investigation of more than 5,000 pages of court records found that California police routinely use undercover jailhouse stings known as “Perkins operations” — often continuing after suspects invoke their Miranda rights — with at least 10 cases now challenging the resulting convictions. Critics say the practice is coercive and disproportionately targets Black and Latino defendants.
Read more
CalPERS Posts Its Best Investment Return in Over a Decade
By Adam Ashton, CalMatters · July 13
CalPERS, the nation's largest public pension fund, earned a 14.8% investment return in 2025–26 — more than double its 6.8% target and its best year since 2014 — pushing its portfolio to $637.1 billion. The gains lift the fund's financial health, with assets now covering 85% of what it owes members, up from 68% a decade ago.
Read more