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Feb. 3, 2005
NATIVE STUDIES LAWSUIT:
Humboldt State University Native
Studies Professor Joseph Giovannetti has filed suit in federal
court in San Francisco charging that he was subject to discriminatory,
retaliatory and harassing treatment from HSU officials, as well
as California State University Chancellor Charles Reed, dating
back to the fall of 2003. Giovannetti also charges that HSU officials
and Reed failed to investigate claims of discrimination and retaliation
that he outlined in a federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
complaint in 2003. The retaliation consisted of HSU administrators
failing to appoint two American Indian scholars, Michael Lane
and Marlon Sherman, as temporary full-time Native Studies professors,
Giovannetti said. The university denied the charges. "The
claims that he makes are baseless, and almost all of the issues
raised were adjudicated [previously]," said university spokesman
Paul Mann. Giovannetti and fellow NAS instructors Kathleen Hill
and Joseph Dupris made headlines in 2001 with a separate lawsuit
against the university, a dispute over ownership of research
the three were involved in. That case was settled out of court.
RAPE REPORTED IN FORTUNA:
A 17-year-old girl told Fortuna
police that she was raped by an unknown suspect in the 1600 block
of Alder Drive around 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 26, police said. The
girl said the man pulled her off the road into an empty lot,
raped her, then let her go, police reported. She was treated
at Redwood Memorial Hospital for minor injuries. Anyone with
information is urged to call Fortuna Police at 725-7550.
ARCATA DEBATE ON KEET:
North Coast public television station
KEET Channel 13, in partnership with the League of Women Voters
of Humboldt County, will present a debate among candidates vying
for a seat on the Arcata City Council in the March 8 special
election. The televised, one-hour debate is scheduled for 7 p.m.
on Tuesday, Feb. 8, during which candidates will answer questions
called in from viewers. Candidates participating include Gregory
P. Allen, Nicholas Bravo, Andrew Fowler Lord, Mary L. Scoggin,
Mark Edward Wheetley, and Michael Louis Winkler. The election
is being held to fill the seat vacated by Elizabeth Conner, who
resigned in September.
HIT AND RUN INJURES WOMAN:
A woman pedestrian was injured
when a driver in a 1986 Toyota station wagon sped through the
McDonald's parking lot on Fourth Street in Eureka shortly before
10 a.m. on Jan. 28, apparently hitting the pedestrian and continuing
north on R Street toward the Samoa Bridge, Eureka Police reported.
The name of the victim has not been released. Wanted for questioning
are Paule Dooley Bruno, 52, and Blain Thomas Smith, 41, both
of Eureka. Anyone with information is urged to call Detective
Neil Hubbard at 441-4044.
COASTAL PROTECTION GRANT:
Two Humboldt Bay properties may
be permanently protected through $760,000 in grants awarded Jan.
27 by the California Coastal Conservancy. Pending agreement on
the price of the land, which is privately owned, The Friends
of the Dunes Land Trust will use some $505,000 from the conservancy
to buy 112 acres of dunes and wetlands on the North Spit in Manila,
restoring and protecting its natural habitat while opening the
area to the public. And the Northcoast Regional Land Trust will
use $255,000 from the conservancy to purchase a 54-acre portion
of the Freshwater Nursery property, located between Eureka and
Arcata near Three Corners. It plans to restore at least 35 acres
of the seasonally flooded property to tidal wetlands for the
benefit of salmon, steelhead and cutthroat trout populations.
STREAMING THE MIDWEST:
StreamGuys, Inc., the Arcata-based
Internet broadcaster, announced that it will add Minnesota Public
Radio (MPR) to its list of Internet streaming clients. MPR is
one of the nation's biggest public radio organizations and the
largest station-based producer of public radio programs. For
more information about streaming and StreamGuys, see the Journal's
cover story, "Streamers:
Arcata firm on the forefront of 21st century broadcasting,"
Aug. 26, 2004.
GET PREPARED FOR FIRE: Local residents can learn how to protect their
homes and families from fire at one of a series of meetings presented
this week by the Humboldt County Community Development Services
department. Meetings will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. on Feb. 3
at Fieldbrook School, Feb. 8 at Peninsula Union Elementary School
in Samoa, and Feb. 9 at Blue Lake Fire Hall. Refreshments will
be provided. Questions? Call 268-3736.
Elderly
`legislators' lobby Sacramento
by
HANK SIMS
Last month, as the tinkling
of the silverware at Ferndale Senior Lunch Club died down, guest
speaker Jim Garvey moved to the front of the room and took the
microphone. Garvey, a 65-year-old Rio Dell resident, introduced
himself calmly and softly, but soon dove into his theme with
gusto.
"Our society, across the
nation, is growing older at a tremendous rate," Garvey said.
"We are going to be a force to reckon with! The Legislature
is going to have to take us seriously!"
The medical system is a mess,
Garvey said. A friend of his from Southern California, a retired
electronics engineer, had done a little research and figured
out that the most expensive component of a hearing aid is a microchip
that costs about $12 off the shelf. Yet seniors are paying thousands
of dollars apiece for them, because although a hearing aid is
a relatively simple electronic device, it is available by prescription
only.
"People are talking about
the drug scandal -- the drug rip-off -- well, what about hearing
aids?" he asked.
Garvey wasn't just letting off
steam. The retired law enforcement officer serves as the North
Coast's representative in the California Senior Assembly, the
lower house of the California Senior Legislature.
Created in 1979, the California
Senior Legislature -- an all-volunteer organization -- is a semiofficial
arm of California government. Every year, senior representatives
from all over the state meet in the chambers of the Capitol in
Sacramento to develop a list of legislative proposals for seniors
in the coming year. The organization then lobbies members of
the Legislature to sponsor legislation based on its recommendations.
Over the years, the organization
has put together a remarkable track record. Between 1982 and
1999, the Senior Legislature made 170 proposals for new legislation.
Of those, 130 have become law -- some of them dealing with far-reaching
matters of policy ranging from Alzheimer's care and nursing home
reform to adult daycare.
This year, one of the Senior
Legislature's top proposals, sponsored by Senior Assemblymember
Austin Lucero of San Jose, would deregulate the hearing aid industry
so that the products could be sold over the counter at places
like Radio Shack. The Senior Legislature estimates that if the
proposal is enacted into law, hearing aids could be bought for
about $100.
Garvey has also actively championed
another of the Senior Legislature's current top 10 priorities
-- one put forth by his local counterpart in the Senior Senate,
82-year-old Eureka resident Mary Dennison. Dennison, who sits
on the Senior Legislature's Joint Rules Committee, sponsored
a proposal that would require denture makers to let seniors know
that their names may be engraved on dentures at no charge.
"I had it done last summer
-- that's how I came to find out that they don't ask if you want
it done," she said. "I asked them, `Can I have my name
put in it?' They said, `Sure.' I said, `How much does it cost?'
They said, `Nothing.'"
After doing a little research,
Dennison discovered that lost dentures were a surprisingly common
problem. She said that she talked to one nursing home administrator
who told her that she had some 700 pairs of misplaced false teeth
in a drawer. With the cost of dentures running upwards of $2,000,
losing a pair can be an expensive proposition for seniors on
a fixed income.
Though denture manufacturers
are required by law to impress the patient's name in new dentures
if patients request it, they do not have to tell the patient
that the service is available.
"The proposal that I have
would spell that out and make it mandatory," she said. "The
patient would have to hear about it. Right now, they're not told
about it unless they think to ask. And who would think to ask?
"It's a simple thing to
do, but it could save a lot of money in the long run."
Garvey's Ferndale appearance
was one stop on a tour of local senior centers he is making this
spring, getting the word out about the Senior Legislature and
soliciting ideas for future legislative proposals. After his
speech, he chatted with members of the Lunch Club. Most were
excited to hear that there was some hope that the cost of hearing
aids could soon be reduced.
One woman said that she had
a friend who was going deaf and could not afford a hearing aid.
"I said to myself, "My God, I'm going to have to learn
sign language,'" she said. "This is really wonderful
news." l
Senior Assemblyman Jim Garvey
will speak at the Orick Senior Center this Wednesday, Feb. 9,
at noon. If you have an idea
for practical legislation that could directly improve the lives
of seniors, you can contact him at [email protected] or 764-5118.
Supervisors
knocked for `emergency' letter
by HANK
SIMS
Local environmentalists and
residents of the Freshwater area scolded the Humboldt County
Board of Supervisors Tuesday afternoon for last week's board
decision to send a letter supporting Pacific Lumber Co. to the
North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board.
For nearly an hour and a half,
residents objected not only to the content of the letter but
the method by which it was approved. The letter did not appear
on the agenda published prior to the meeting, as usually required
by California law.
Many expressed concern that
the supervisors, at Palco's request, agreed to consider the letter
as an emergency addition to the regular agenda.
"You have had the wool
pulled over your eyes, just like the citizens of Humboldt County,"
said Eureka resident Jeanette Junger.
The supervisors' letter requested
that the Regional Water Quality Control Board review "as
soon as possible" 11 timber harvest plans in the Freshwater
and Elk River areas that are pending agency approval, and explained
that the company was facing economic hardship. The supervisors
approved the letter 3-1, with Supervisor Jill Geist voting no.
Supervisor Roger Rodoni recused himself and left the room. (Palco
is Rodoni's landlord.)
Mark Lovelace, president of
the Humboldt Watershed Council, said that it appeared that the
supervisors had chosen to put political pressure on a state agency
at a critical time.
"In voting to send this
letter, this board has stepped into the middle of an intense
and ongoing issue," he said. "You've done so at the
very last moment, and without any public discussion. The effort
of these watersheds to get relief from the serious, harmful flooding
they are experiencing goes back seven years."
Freshwater resident Attila Gyenis
presented the supervisors with a draft of an alternative letter
they could choose to send, expressing solidarity with residents
of impaired watersheds.
Palco employee Chris Manson
thanked the supervisors for sending the letter "on behalf
of Palco's 900 employees and their families" and said that
more than 600 residents and community organizations had written
similar letters of support.
"The intent of getting
your letter was to express the concern of residents of Humboldt
County about what effect a delay in getting those THPs [timber
harvest plans] passed would have had on the economy," Manson
said.
Manson said that he believed
that the issue required immediate attention by the Board of Supervisors,
as the company believed it was within the water board's power
to order its staff to make a decision on the company's THPs immediately.
At the end of the comment period,
Supervisor John Woolley said that at the time he voted for the
letter he believed it to be innocuous -- it simply asked that
the permits be looked at as soon as possible; it didn't ask for
them to be approved. Since then, he said, he realized how seriously
people were taking the issue.
"Well, the bell certainly
has rung," he said. "It certainly caused a lot more
angst than I recognized."
Woolley said that he had contacted
members of the water board and its staff in order to clarify
what the letter had intended.
"I really trust that the
water board's staff will do a good job, and weigh in correctly,"
he said.
County Counsel Tamara Falor
assured members of the public that the board did not violate
California's Brown Act, which guarantees open public meetings,
by making the decision to add the letter to the agenda at the
last minute. She said that because the board had agreed, by unanimous
vote, that immediate action was required, it had protected itself
under the law.
The supervisors' decision to
send the letter last Tuesday coincidentally came on the same
day the Los Angeles Times published a story revealing
that earlier in January, Palco and Maxxam executives had held
a then-secret meeting with members of the governor's office and
the California Environmental Protection Agency.
The Times reported that
according to material received by one of its reporters, the company
had said at the meeting that if the North Coast Regional Water
Quality Control Board did not approve its outstanding THPs soon,
the company would likely go bankrupt. The company said that it
also believed that in the event of bankruptcy, whoever ended
up with the company's assets would not be bound by the environmental
riders signed by Palco at the time of the Headwaters agreement.
Chuck Center, Palco's director
of government relations, said last week that while he did not
agree with much of what was published in the story or in the
Times' follow-up
editorial, the company had been meeting with state government
at all levels.
"We've met with several
people, including on the governor's staff, just to let them know
how severe the situation is at Palco," he said. "We've
laid off 37 people and transferred 11 already. We don't want
to lay off any more employees. We want to do everything we can
to avoid that."
Center confirmed that his company
believed that the Headwaters environmental agreements would become
null and void if the company went bankrupt.
"That's the position of
our advice from counsel," he said. "The agreement was
signed with our company, and if we should go out of business
and our company were to transfer [to our creditors] -- I don't
know how you transfer those agreements."
Woolley said that he did not
know about the Times story when the supervisors voted
to send the letter last week.
Robert Klamt, senior land and
water use analyst for the Regional Water Quality Control Board,
told the Journal Tuesday that over the next couple of
weeks his agency will be looking at whether it can approve some
or all of the THPs in advance of a March meeting designed to
place watershed-wide limits on stream discharge in Elk River
and Freshwater Creek.
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