A federal grand jury has indicted the Humboldt County Fair Association’s former bookkeeper on five counts of wire fraud stemming from an alleged embezzlement scheme that prosecutors believe saw her reroute hundreds of thousands of dollars from the association and another local nonprofit to her personal accounts in 2021 and 2022. Nina Tafarella, who oversaw […]
fraud
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California’s State Auditor: ‘Speak the Truth to Power’
Gov. Gavin Newsom will soon get to make yet another appointment with far-reaching implications: Who should lead the independent agency tasked with evaluating the performance of his own administration? Elaine Howle — who has led the California State Auditor’s office for 21 years — announced last month that she plans to retire at the end […]
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Is California Blowing it on Unemployment Reform?
If not for a persistent mail carrier, Lance Hastings might not have discovered all of the fake unemployment claims. Last September, the head of the California Manufacturers & Technology Association got the first jobless claim from a worker he’d never employed. Mistakes happen, he thought, and reported the letter sent to the group’s boarded-up former […]
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Can California Protect COVID-19 Vaccine from Cheaters and Fraudsters?
What seemed like a Herculean task just months ago is now here: the COVID-19 vaccine. For the next several weeks, vaccines will be available in limited amounts in California and across the nation — and only to high-risk individuals, with supply expected to ramp up in the months to come. Experts estimate vaccines will be […]
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Sad Days in the First District
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for voters in Humboldt County’s First District. First, they watched as challenger Allen McCloskey’s campaign to unseat two-term incumbent Rex Bohn in next year’s election imploded in spectacular fashion. The Lost Coast Outpost’s Ryan Burns published an investigative report April 2 detailing an assortment of allegations of dishonesty […]
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Fisticuffs in First District Supes Race
It’s been a bare-knuckle week in the upstart campaign to become Humboldt County’s next First District supervisor. First, Tuesday afternoon, the Lost Coast Outpost’s Ryan Burns published an impressive piece of investigative journalism detailing allegations of fraud and perjury in challenger Allen McCloskey’s past and the candidate’s seeming inability to offer a clear explanation for […]
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The Grifter in Chief
History will remember 2018 as the year it became increasingly clear that a grifter — and likely a felonious one — is living in the White House. No matter what you think of tariffs, border walls and tax cuts, there should no longer be any illusions: What we’re seeing isn’t normal, or the product of […]
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Yurok Tribe Swindled of $250K in Casino Push
The Yurok Tribe is alleging that it fell victim to a conman who bilked the tribe of $250,000 as it pushed to finance the opening of its new Redwood Hotel and Casino in 2014. In a letter last month to tribal members, Tribal Chair Thomas O’Rourke Sr. explained that, in an effort to fund staffing […]