Toxic relationship

Dear @aboozybear, how (allegedly) could you? You’re breaking our collective hearts!

The SLO County District Attorney’s Office has charged former Gala Pride and Diversity Center Executive Director Dustin Colyer-Worth, whose Instagram handle is really a boozy bear, with four counts of grand theft by embezzlement for allegedly stealing from the LGBTQ-plus nonprofit. Dick move, Dusty. Dick move.

Colyer-Worth served as executive director for two years and apparently swiped $46,000—possibly more—from the now financially struggling organization. The full amount won’t be known until after a forensic audit. What’s crazy is he’s moved to Santa Cruz and is working for The Diversity Center there as manager of outreach. I sure hope they have better oversight than Gala because Dusty’s outreach may turn into enrich.

Under his bio on the Diversity Center website, he brags about approaching “life and work with a passion for building authentic and meaningful connections.” In his role as Gala executive director, he took credit for “supporting and empowering the LGBTQ-plus community.” 

Ha!

Yo, Santa Cruz Diversity Center, do you know about these allegations? Your man Dusty posted a $20,000 bond with SLO County to keep him out of jail until his Dec. 10 arraignment. 

After the embezzlement was discovered, Gala eliminated two staff positions and is struggling to stay afloat, and not just because Colyer-Worth may have sticky fingers. In 2021, the organization received contributions and grants of about $213,000, which fell to less than $66,000 in 2022. 

Way to kick an organization when it’s down, @aboozybear, whose Instagram has a lot of photos of expensive looking cocktails. Alcohol costs money!

In a letter posted to Instagram, Gala Board President Julia Thompson wrote, “We’re very happy that charges have been filed and hope that Dusty is prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Hopefully Colyer-Worth will be forced to pay restitution, though that might be difficult if he’s in jail or out of work. Meanwhile, Gala needs financial help. Any Richie Riches out there?

Speaking of toxic relationships, human beings and planet Earth are currently on the rocks. I mean, let’s face it. We’ve poisoned our environment so thoroughly that we’ve essentially poisoned ourselves. 

DDT, lead, asbestos, CFCs, mercury, phthalates, PFAS—we use these things, discover they’re harming us, ban them, replace them with alternatives, and then discover the replacements are also dangerous.

One function our government is supposed to do is regulate companies profiting from these dangerous substances, but the government frequently seems excruciatingly slow to react. It took 10 years after the publication of Rachel Carson’s 1962 science book Silent Spring to ban DDT, a legacy that continues to pollute our environment. 

Strawberry fumigant methyl bromide was banned way back in 2005, but the government allowed farmers to continue using it by special permit until 2016. Now, according to some South County residents surrounded by agriculture, its replacements—chloropicrin and 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D)—are making them sick. 

Oceano resident Karl Kempton claimed, “We started to notice the correlation between spraying and symptoms. Headaches, dizziness, lethargy. We didn’t realize until later that our daughter had two cases of pneumonia, both of which were caused by drift.”

Karl and his wife, Ruth—both in their 80s—have lived in the same house for almost 45 years. The Kemptons are among 33 Oceano residents who believed they were exposed to chloropicrin and 1,3-D drift.

Meanwhile, county and state officials say current regulations around chloropicrin and 1,3-D make these carcinogens safe to use. Um, Germany used concentrated chloropicrin as tear gas in World War I, but hey, nothing to see here!

Look, it’s natural to look for a scapegoat for ill health, but farming chemicals are clearly dangerous. According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 20,000 agricultural workers suffer from pesticide poisoning each year. The U.S. Government Accountability Office puts the number higher … much higher, at 300,000.

So, what’s the government doing about it? The California Department of Pesticide Regulation now has a statewide notification system called SprayDays that provides warnings to people within a square mile of a farm before the intended use of soil fumigants and other restricted pesticides.

“Hey, everybody, vacate your home for a few days or seal your windows and stay inside. Or just don’t breathe!”

Is that enough?

Oceano residents Robert and Melanie Sachs probably don’t think so. They didn’t know what was making them sick until they spoke to Karl.

“My eyes would begin to burn outrageously, and then 20 minutes, half an hour later, it would sort of subside,” Robert said. “The only other time I would say I noticed that is, unfortunately, driving through the agricultural fields along the 227 up to San Luis Obispo.”

Melanie said the move to their Oceano home roughly a decade ago marked a terrible bout of eczema.

“At first, I thought, ‘What am I eating differently?’ or if I’m in a garden, ‘What am I touching differently?’ It was so completely random, I couldn’t really say,” she said. “Then I started to wonder if it was actually sprays.”

She said contacting the county Ag Commissioner’s Office was no help.

“When I’ve spoken with them, they’re completely cordial and basically say, ‘We can do nothing; this is a state decision,’” she said.

Sorry, humanity, but Earth’s just not that into you anymore. Earth to humans: “You’re poison. Get off me.” ∆

The Shredder is torn between eating and saving the Earth. Explain the way to do both at shredder@newtimesslo.com.

This article appears in Dec 4-14, 2025.