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Jan. 6, 2005
LOCAL SOLDIER GETS
PURPLE HEART: A teenage soldier from Willow Creek is expected
home this week after she was wounded in an attack by a suicide
bomber in Mosul, Iraq. Amanda Mohon, 19, an Arcata High graduate
in the 25th Infantry Division of the Army, received a Purple
Heart last week after she was injured Dec. 21. Mohon suffered
third and second degree burns on her hands and face and was cut
on the leg by shrapnel after a bomb tore through a dining tent
she was in. Mohon's mother, Dana, said that her daughter was
taken to a military hospital in Germany before she arrived at
Brooke Army Medical Center in Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio,
Texas. On Christmas Eve, the Mohons went to Texas to see Amanda.
Dana Mohon said Tuesday that that the second-degree burns on
Amanda's face are healing well, as are the third degree burns
on her hand, which will likely leave some scars. Amanda will
be home for a month before returning to the Brooke Army Medical
Center for more treatment. After that, she will visit the hospital
every three months. Dana Mohon said that Amanda will likely not
go back to Iraq because doctors said that her wounds must be
well-guarded from the sun with bandages and sunscreen for at
least a year. Meanwhile, Amanda's father, John, who is in the
National Guard, will be sent to Egypt on Jan. 10. Another local
soldier, U.S. Army Spc. Donald Arminio, 24, of Fortuna was also
in the mess tent when the attack occurred, but was not injured,
according to his father, John Arminio.
WAYNE ADAM FORD IN COURT:
The case of accused serial killer
Wayne Adam Ford, the Arcata long-haul trucker who in 1998 dramatically
confessed to Humboldt County sheriff `s deputies by presenting
them with the severed breast of one of his victims, continues
to wend its way through the courts. On Dec. 13, a San Bernardino
county judge rejected a public defender's plea to have the charges
against Ford dropped, according to press reports. The attorney
had argued that the grand jury that indicted Ford was not presented
adequate information concerning the suspect's psychological problems.
Ford stands accused of four counts of murder. Three of the victims
he confessed to killing were found in southern California; the
other, who has never been identified, was found floating in Humboldt
Bay. Ford is being held at West Valley Detention Center at Rancho
Cucamonga.
HUMBOLDT CHOSEN FOR STUDY:
Humboldt County is among 21 rural
areas selected for a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
study on children's health and development. The National Children's
Study, described as the largest and most comprehensive of its
kind ever conducted in the United States, will follow 100,000
children over 21 years, from before their birth to age 21. It
is designed to "better understand the link between the environments
in which children are raised and their physical and mental health
and development," the county's Health and Human Services
Department reports. In addition to the rural areas, the study
will also look at children in 75 metropolitan areas.
KEET'S NATIVE AMERICAN
HOUR : Last Sunday, public television
station KEET-TV, Channel 13, inaugurated what it hopes will become
a long-standing feature of its schedule -- programs by, for or
about Native Americans every Sunday at 7 p.m. Karen Barnes, KEET's
director of programming, said that the station has been meeting
with local tribes recently, and is excited to bring this service
to the community. One potential problem: the number of such films
that KEET can buy rights to appears to be fairly limited. Barnes
asked for viewer help in finding appropriate programming: "If
people are hearing about things, I'd love to hear and see if
I can actually get them," she said. Upcoming programs include
documentaries on Native Americans in the Vietnam War, the story
of the 20th century told through the experiences of one Lakota
family and -- a sure crowd-pleaser -- the tradition of the pow-wow.
Interested viewers can go to KEET's Web site -- www.keet.org
to find out more about the series.
CDF CHIEF RETIRING: Jim Moranda, operations chief for the local division
of the California Department of Forestry, spent the last 47 years
of his life fighting Humboldt County forest fires. Now, with
the coming of the new year, he has hung up his yellow suspenders
-- off to enjoy a well-earned retirement with his wife, Pat.
His colleagues say that Moranda's institutional knowledge of
county firefighting is unrivalled -- so much so that they're
not letting him go entirely. He's doing on-call work for the
CDF and is also helping to rewrite Humboldt County's fire plans,
which haven't been updated in some years. The biggest challenge
he sees the county facing? The urban-rural interface, that zone
where homes and homesteads have crept out into the backwoods.
"Years ago when you had a wildfire, you were strictly worried
about the wild lands," Moranda said. "Now you have
people living in the area, so you have the additional risk of
damage to life and property." There will be a retirement
party -- open to the public -- at Fortuna's River Lodge at 6
p.m. this Saturday.
PAROLEE WANTED IN EUREKA:
Eureka police are searching for
a parolee-at-large who they say may be in the Eureka area. Jody
Shawn Cook, 34, is wanted for parole violations. Anyone with
information about his whereabouts is urged to call police at
441-4060.
NEW EUREKA COMMISSION
CONTROVERSY: Just before Christmas,
the Eureka City Council rejected Mayor Peter La Vallee's first
nomination to the city's Planning Commission -- Xandra Manns,
formerly a professional planner in the Bay Area -- at least in
part because her membership in the Green Party marked her as
too radical for the city. On Tuesday night, after the Journal
went to press, the council was scheduled to approve or disapprove
La Vallee's second choice: Robert Fasic, the owner of southern
Humboldt's Heartwood Institute and a former attorney who, while
living in Chicago, had a specialty in land-use issues. But Fasic,
too, has inspired some dissent. On Monday, Eureka gadfly Leo
Sears wrote a letter to members of the City Council protesting
Fasic's appointment. Sears noted that on its Web site Heartwood
describes itself as a "holistic learning community with
core values such as: a holistic worldview, ecological balance,
planetary healing, spiritual paths, intuition and feelings and
a like minded community." Sears appeared alarmed: "While
there is absolutely nothing wrong with people holding these views,"
he wrote, "they are hardly those of the mainstream business
community that needs to be represented on the Planning Commission."
`HELP' OBJECTION REJECTED:
A state agency last week gave the
final approval to Humboldt County's housing element, a plan for
providing for housing needs in the county's unincorporated areas
over the next four years. The pro-development group Humboldt
Economic and Land Plan (HELP) had filed an objection to the county's
proposed plan earlier last month, charging that the county had
not set aside nearly enough developable land to meet the population's
likely housing needs. Mike Harvey, HELP spokesman, said that
the group would continue to monitor the ongoing efforts to update
the general plan. "There's always another recourse,"
Harvey said. "We're here for the long term." He added
that the group had only heard the news Tuesday morning and had
not decided what it would focus on next.
THOMPSON SCORES WITH ENVIROS:
An environmental protection organization
that grades the voting records of Congress members put Rep. Mike
Thompson on its A list. The League of Conservation Voters, which
has kept the annual National Environmental Scorecard since 1970,
gave Thompson (D-Napa) a 90 percent approval rating. In a press
release, the LCV credited Thompson's work on water issues in
the Klamath River Basin. Nationwide the scorecard average was
47 percent in the House and 46 percent in the Senate. In California,
eco-friendly Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein each scored
100 percent. Several California congress members received grades
of zero. Visit www.lcv.org to view the complete list.
FREE GUN LOCKS: Fortuna police announced that local residents can
pick up free gun locks, provided to police through a grant from
"Project Child Safe." The gun locks are available at
the police department headquarters in Fortuna.
One soldier's
effort to aid civilians
by JUDY
HODGSON
Vic and Carol Aubin of Arcata
are in e-mail contact with their son in Iraq regularly. Once
in a while he will call, like he did on Carol's birthday, Dec.
7.
![[Wade Aubin with arms around two Iraqi girls]](news0106-WadeAubinIraq.jpg) "Just before he hung up, Carol asked him if
there was anything he really needed," Vic Aubin recalled
earlier this week. "He hesitated at first and then said,
`As a matter of fact, yes. I need warm clothes and shoes for
kids. All sizes -- toddlers, too. It's really getting cold over
here. It's below 30 at night.'"
That conversation launched a
private effort by a single soldier -- 1st Lt. Wade Aubin -- and
his family to supply direct aid to families in one war-ravaged
neighborhood in Baghdad.
Wade Aubin graduated from Arcata
High School in 1988, served in the first Gulf War and returned
to graduate from Humboldt State University in 1997 with a degree
in geology. He was in graduate school at Washington State University
and serving in the reserves when his National Guard unit was
called up in 2003. They were deployed to Baghdad to serve in
combat and to help rebuild the city of 6 million. The unit mostly
works on infrastructure -- restoring water and power and rebuilding
schools and public buildings. Wade is the battalion's pubic affairs
officer and liaison to the impoverished neighborhood of Diyala.
He meets regularly with neighborhood councils of Iraqis, mostly
Shiites.
"These people have nothing.
They are the majority [in Baghdad], but under Saddam and the
Sunnis, they were extremely impoverished," Vic Aubin said.
Carol and Vic Aubin are collecting
new or "gently-used" clean clothes and shoes, new children's
underwear (packaged), and sewing supplies -- fabric, needles,
thread, scissors. The collection points include the Sunny Brae
Animal Clinic, where Carol works; Espresso 101 Coffee in the
Valley West Shopping Center, Arcata; and the Fieldbrook Market.
(Vic Aubin recently retired after teaching for 30 years at Fieldbrook
Elementary School.)
"We really need kids' shoes,
and sewing supplies," he said.
Shipping is a major issue --
and expensive, Aubin added.
"We have to act quickly.
The cut-off date is Friday, Jan. 14." On that day material
collected will be boxed and shipped to a APO address in New Jersey,
and the military will forward the boxes to Baghdad within 10
days, Aubin said. It has to be there before Jan. 31 because the
Guard battalion is scheduled to be moved in early February. They
do not yet know where their next assignment is.
"Besides, it's cold. These
are things that are needed now."
The Aubins have begun to collect
money to pay for shipping and to buy new underwear before the
final shipment goes out. They are asking that checks be made
payable to Carol Aubin, c/o Sunny Brae Animal Clinic, 900 Buttermilk
Lane, Arcata, 95521.
Photo above: Alia,
Wade Aubin and Rawaa. Baghdad, May 8, 2004.
HSU grad
survives tsunami
Other McKinleyville man
vacationing on Phuket dies
by
EMILY GURNON
Zachary Gibson and his girlfriend
were swimming with a small tour group near a rocky cove off the
coast of Phuket, Thailand, on Dec. 26 when their guides frantically
waved to them.
"They said, `Everybody
back in the boat!'" recalled the 27-year-old McKinleyville
resident, who graduated from Humboldt State University in 2003.
"We thought it was kind of weird. We didn't know what was
going on."
Their powerful speedboat, equipped
with three outboard motors, headed out of the cove, then became
immobilized -- and the placid turquoise waters got turgid and
dirty-looking, Gibson said.
"All of a sudden the boat
wouldn't go anywhere, and the three engines were full-throttle.
This incredible current just rushed in," he said. "The
crew started throwing life jackets at us -- they were kind of
freaking out."
Gibson and his girlfriend, Bren
Garrahan, 24, of Happy Camp and the two friends they were vacationing
with, survived the disastrous tsunami and earthquake that have
left some 150,000 people dead in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India,
Indonesia and surrounding areas.
Another local man was not so
fortunate; Brian King, 59, a salmon fisherman from McKinleyville,
died when the tsunami crashed into the seaside hut he was vacationing
in on Phuket, according to press reports.
Gibson, who works for the Forest
Service doing seasonal trail maintenance in Happy Camp, arrived
in San Jose on Tuesday, where his mother, Mary Jane Nesbitt of
Willow Glen, picked him up at the airport.
He told the Journal that
he and Garrahan, who has been teaching English in Japan, decided
to vacation in Thailand over the holidays. On their third day
on Phuket, they headed out on the speed boat toward Phi Phi Island,
where they had planned to go snorkeling.
About an hour off the coast
of Phuket, and just five or 10 minutes from Phi Phi, the group
stopped to go swimming in the cove, a rocky outcropping in the
middle of the ocean. As it turned out, it was the best possible
place to be: both Phuket and Phi Phi were devastated.
"We were real lucky because
we were on our way to the island [of Phi Phi] where hundreds
of people died," Gibson said. The boat operators did not
tell their clients what was happening; they had gotten a call
on the boat, but didn't want the others to panic, Gibson said.
It wasn't until they got back to Phuket that they began to realize
the extent of the disaster.
"There were a lot of overturned
boats, boats washed ashore," he said. The tour guides immediately
rushed the group to the center of the island, where people were
gathering.
"There were hundreds and
hundreds of people there. That's where we saw people who were
bloody and bandaged up. That's when it hit us that something
real big had gone down."
Gibson said they were able to
get a hold of their parents within a day or so -- but not before
his step-father, David Butcher, had gotten some bogus information
from a Phuket hospital, in response to an e-mail inquiry, that
Gibson had lost a leg.
The experience has left him
feeling very lucky to be alive. "I kind of feel like I might
have a karmic debt to fill," Gibson said. "I don't
think I would have been too happy if it had been my time."
He said he plans to head back
to Humboldt County in a couple of weeks. "I'm just gonna
get back to work and get on with my life. What else can you do?"
Redcrest
woman battles Palco helicopters
by
HANK SIMS
Redcrest resident Christine
Rising spent much of December holed up in her house or her barn
-- anywhere she could best hide from the thump-thump of helicopters
carrying logs from a timber harvest site near her home.
To most people, a passing helicopter
is, at worst, a noisy annoyance. But for Rising -- who has a
rare, strange medical history -- the loud machines are a source
of severe physical trauma.
"It was the most miserable
holidays I've ever had in my entire life," she said.
Now that the new year has come,
Rising, 51, wants to know why the Pacific Lumber Co. -- owner
of much of the timber land in the vicinity of her Larabee Creek
Road home -- has apparently abandoned its long-standing recognition
of her unique condition.
In the late 1970s, Rising received
an experimental treatment for loss of hearing. Doctors implanted
a tiny prosthetic metal bone in her inner ear. Her hearing was
restored, but additional complications developed; loud noises
or vibrations now can cause spells of intense dizziness, vertigo
and ruptured eardrums. She relocated to what she thought was
a tranquil corner of Humboldt County in the mid-`80s in order
to escape these side-effects.
But Rising said that tranquility
was tough to come by this year. She said that helicopters working
Palco timber harvests throughout 2004 were close enough to her
to cause a severe physical reaction. The problem reached a peak
in December, when operations were closest to her home.
In the past, Palco and its subcontractor,
Portland-based Columbia Helicopters, had altered flight paths
in their timber harvest plans in order to accommodate Rising's
condition. When that was not possible, Palco paid to have her
put up in a Eureka hotel when helicopters were working the area.
Palco spokesperson Erin Dunn
said that the company declined to comment on the issue. MAXXAM
attorney Erik A. Eriksson, with whom Rising has been in frequent
contact, also declined to comment.
On Aug. 16, Dr. Matthew Ellison,
an Arcata ear specialist, wrote a letter to Pacific Lumber testifying
to Rising's unique medical problems. He told them that the tiny
titanium prosthesis in Rising's ear is extremely sensitive to
vibration, and that at times his patient experiences vertigo
and even blackouts when the device is stimulated by loud noise.
"I am writing this letter
primarily to reinforce to Pacific Lumber Co. that this is a real
physiological and anatomical problem," Ellison wrote. "Although
certainly given the decades of this problem there is some psychological
component, the nidus and origin is that of a true physical problem."
On Aug. 23, Eriksson wrote back,
saying that it was his understanding that there was no helicopter
activity near enough to Rising's home to cause the problems she
was describing.
"As you are aware, in the
past we have defrayed your various costs to move and stay away
from your home, in conjunction with helicopter yarding much closer
to your home," he wrote. "However, these measures have
not resolved the issue."
At the beginning of December,
Eriksson again wrote Rising to notify her that Columbia would
be flying near her home, but did not offer to pay her relocation
expenses.
Throughout the summer, Rising
was in touch with Rep. Mike Thompson's office, the Department
of Forestry and the Federal Aviation Administration in an effort
to seek relief. On Dec. 10, following a telephone conversation
with her, FAA engineer Sandy Liu -- an administration policy
analyst specializing in noise issues -- asked inspectors at the
regional office in Southern California to investigate her claims.
"I just wanted to follow
up and see what our agency can do," Liu said. "The
issue of safety is of concern to us."
Liu said that while he could
not vouch for the every specific of Rising's claims, he did note
that federal regulations stipulate that helicopters must either
stay 500 feet above the surface of the ground or operate "without
hazard to persons or property on the surface."
Rising claims that helicopters
have been flying much lower than 500 feet near her home. Liu
said that if that is the case, the company would appear to be
in violation, especially since it has recognized her condition
in the past.
On Monday, Rising said that
the helicopter activity near her home had quieted down enough
to give her some peace of mind. She said that she is weighing
her options -- she might look into selling her home, or even
undergo surgery to have the prosthesis removed, even though her
doctors have said that such a procedure would run the risk of
deafening her entirely.
She said that she is now trying
to catch up on some of the chores that had been left undone during
the period when the helicopters were closest to her home, and
wondering what she will do if they come back.
"It's like being terrified
every moment, because you don't know when they're going to come,"
she said. "Fight or flight -- I don't know."
Newspaper
wars?![[Eureka Reporter newspaper front page]](news0106-EurekaReporter.jpg)
The Eureka Reporter,
an online weekly newspaper that now publishes and distributes
4,000 print copies per week, has a new publisher, Judi Pollace.
She began her career 30 years ago with the Times-Standard
as a sales representative and later became advertising director.
After leaving the Times-Standard, Pollace held a number
of top management posts as publisher, including her latest at
the helm of a group of Lake County newspapers also owned by MediaNews,
owner of the Times-Standard.
The Eureka Reporter is
owned by Eureka businessman Rob Arkley. Arkley told the Journal
Tuesday, "I have no involvement in the [day-to-day] operations
of the Reporter other than I was involved with this hire."
He said the decision about when to increase the newspaper's frequency
will be made by Pollace and Managing Editor Glenn Simmons, the
former publisher. "The decision will be made soon,"
Arkley said. Will he increase to three times per week? "I
can't say. We may go directly to seven," which will be a
direct challenge to the local daily. "The Times-Standard
needs competition. I believe competition between the Times-Standard
and the Eureka Reporter will be good for this community."
For Pollace, it will be a homecoming. Her daughter works for
Arkley's Security National Servicing Corp. in Eureka.
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