Maya Flores grew up in Eureka, left for UC Berkeley, and came back because the North Coast kept pulling her home. She worked in economic development for the City of Eureka before realizing she would rather write about the economy than try to steer it. At California Bud, Maya covers the full spectrum of Humboldt's economic life: the fishing industry, the remnants of timber, the growing tourism sector, commercial real estate, small business, and the ways cannabis tax revenue does and does not reach the communities that generate it. She is particularly interested in the appellation debate and whether Humboldt can become the Napa Valley of cannabis before the small farms that would make that possible disappear. Maya runs numbers so readers do not have to.