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June 23, 2005
WAITING FOR GALLEGOS: There was
no word last week whether the District Attorney's office would
appeal last week's ruling, issued by Lake County Judge Richard
L. Freeborn, that dismissed the massive fraud suit filed by DA
Paul Gallegos against the Pacific Lumber Co. shortly after he
took office in early 2002. Deputy District Attorney Tim Stoen
said Tuesday that any decision to appeal would be made by Gallegos
alone, and that the DA was currently out of town due to a family
emergency. Stoen was unabashed in the face of defeat: "Our
case is a good case, a solid case, and it deserves to be heard.
I wouldn't change one thing about filing it." For its part,
Palco was exultant: "We are elated with this decision,"
stated company CEO Robert Manne in a press release. "We
now look forward to moving ahead, and we will do our part to
bring this community back together." But not everyone is
in the mood for reconciliation. On Tuesday, an anonymous e-mail
sent to local media announced that a challenger to Gallegos would
officially announce his or her candidacy at a press conference
Wednesday, after the Journal went to press. The Journal
made several fruitless phone calls in an attempt to learn
the name of the new candidate, who enters the race a full year
before Gallegos comes up for reelection, but many have speculated
that attorney Allison Jackson -- a former prosecutor fired by
Gallegos last year -- would seek the office.
REDEVELOPMENT SUIT
DROPPED, FOR NOW: The Humboldt Taxpayers League has dropped its conflict
of interest lawsuit against the Eureka Redevelopment Agency and
two private developers -- for the time being. Last week, the
city of Eureka said that it would not sit down with the league
to discuss disputed issues unless the lawsuit was dropped. According
to Jerry Partain, a league board member, that's exactly what
the league decided to do -- all the while reserving the right
to re-file the suit if it so chooses. Partain said that the legal
maneuver has paid off; he said that City Manager David Tyson
was scheduled to discuss the matter with the Eureka City Council
at its meeting Tuesday night, and that he and Tyson made tentative
plans to get together for talks on July 19. (Tyson could not
be reached for comment.) The lawsuit alleges that developers
Glenn Goldan and Dolores Vellutini, who have both served on the
city's Redevelopment Advisory Board, had impermissible conflicts
of interest when they entered into contracts with the city's
redevelopment agency for projects on two separate waterfront
lots.
OYSTER FEST WASHOUT: Summer officially
began this week -- but with all the rain it looked more like
winter, and Arcata Main Street felt the bitter sting of the unusually
wet weather over the weekend when it was forced to postpone the
15th Annual Arcata Bay Oyster Festival until this Saturday. Its
website apology reads, "While we can function safely with
fog, mist or even a light rain, we cannot for safety reasons
operate in heavy rain." More than 2 inches of rainfall was
recorded last weekend -- almost four times the average for the
entire month. Arcata Main Street Director Michael Behney said
Tuesday that 75 percent of the oyster vendors have told him they
will be there Saturday, as well as 90 percent of the arts and
crafts booths. Everything else -- music, kids' stuff and wine
and beer sales -- will be out in full force, as previously scheduled,
Behney said. Many shellfish-laden restaurants had oyster special
deals last Saturday night and Folie Douce, an Arcata restaurant
and previous Oyster Fest winner that has not yet rescheduled
for this Saturday, opted to push their oysters last weekend at
the Arcata Farmers' Market along with Aqua-Rodeo Farms. As of
Tuesday there was a 30 percent chance of rain predicted for Saturday.
Arcata Main Street will post updates about the fest's scheduling
status on its website, www.arcatamainstreet.com.
BIG CPB CUTBACK
PROPOSED: The Sesame Street gang has been given a tentative
eviction notice from a Congressional subcommittee, which recently
voted to significantly curb federal funding for public broadcasting
and to yank all federal funds from the Corporation of Public
Broadcasting over the next two years. For KEET-TV and KHSU-FM,
North Coast public broadcasting stations that are among the smallest
in the nation, such drastic cuts could be devastating, but KEET
Executive Director Ron Schoenherr is remaining optimistic. "[The
cuts] will not likely happen," Schoenherr said, explaining
that when the vote goes to the Senate, the proposed funding cut
will likely be put back in public broadcasting's coffers, as
it has after past attempts to slash funding. Although Schoenherr
is hopeful, he has considered the worst-case scenario -- 46 percent
of KEET's annual $1.4 million budget, or $644,000, could be wiped
out. Elizabeth Hans McCrone, program manager for KHSU-FM, said
that the federal cuts would erase about a third of her station's
budget. Unlike Schoenherr, McCrone isn't looking on the bright
side. "This is a serious threat to public broadcasting,"
she said. "The changes in leadership at the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting show a lack of support from our current
administration for public broadcasting as we have known it. Eliminating
funding is one way to chip away from a source of information
for people that's free from commercial concerns."
METH MESSAGE: In the meantime,
students from Zoe Barnum High School in Eureka recently worked
with KEET to create three public service announcements warning
young people about the dangers of methamphetamine use. Two of
the 30-second spots will air Thursday, June 30 on KEET, channel
13, at 7:27 p.m., following the BBC World News and on other TV
stations later in the summer. Ten to 15 students starred in,
wrote, directed, filmed and edited the PSAs with the help of
KEET staff. The public broadcasting station received grant funding
last year for the drug prevention and awareness campaign.
NO OWL BLOODBATH: Last week,
newspapers across the country ran variations of a story by Associated
Press reporter Jeff Barnard, in which Barnard wrote that federal
scientists "are planning an experiment that involves shooting
a small population of barred owls that are threatening smaller
northern spotted owls" in the Klamath National Forest. Non-native
barred owls have been encroaching on the endangered spotted owl's
territory throughout the West. Barnard continued: "If the
experiment shows removing barred owls allows spotted owls to
reclaim lost territory and is duplicated on a larger scale, it
could lead to shotgunning thousands of barred owls in Washington,
Oregon and California." That last bit generated a storm
of scary headlines: "Common owls will be shot to save endangered
ones" (Houston Chronicle). "Barred owls to be
shot to save group of smaller spotted owls" (Marin Independent-Journal).
"Scientists plan to save owls by killing owls" (Chicago
Sun-Times). But the feds aren't exactly planning wide-scale
carnage against barred owls just yet, if at all, says Joan Jewett,
a spokesperson with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Nobody
is getting ready to go out there and start blasting away at them,"
Jewett says. "I actually called Jeff [Barnard], and he said,
`OK, it's unlikely. But it could happen.' I think that
Jeff's story had quite a bit of hyperbole in it." The plan
to remove barred owls is the California Academy of Sciences',
which is interested in the barred owl's expansion into spotted
owl territory. The academy had applied for, and received, a permit
from the F&WS to collect up to 20 barred owl specimens. F&WS
scientist Brian Woodbridge, quoted in the AP story, heard about
the collection plan and decided he could use the opportunity
to monitor what the spotted owls do once the barred owls are
removed, says Jewett. But she adds that "it isn't a rigorous
scientific `experiment' for the feds." Scientists met last
week in Arcata to talk about the overall barred owl/spotted owl
dilemma. Jewett says they need to gather more information before
they'll know how to proceed.
DON'T BE SURFIN'
IN THE RAIN: To the two surfers happily paddling in the surf
at Trinidad Beach on Sunday: What were you thinking? Rained a
bunch last week. Rained loads on Saturday. Rained some more on
Sunday. Sure, that might make for nice swells, but dudes, that's
also when the beaches get sullied. Rain saturates lawns and pastures,
floating pet and stock waste, pesticides, fertilizers and other
yuck into the streets to join with the iridescent, oily puddles.
It all then gets whooshed off to sea through drains and creeks.
Sometimes septic tanks overflow and join the party. So things
get murky -- but the message is clear: "Stay out of the
water, especially near creek mouths," says Harriet Hill,
registered environmental health specialist with Humboldt County's
environmental health division. "People should not be swimming
during a storm event or within three days of a storm event. I
would not suggest surfing in the rain." The county monitors
beach quality year-round, by wading into the surf and collecting
samples to test for coliforms, and posts the data on its website
and at the Clam Beach and Moonstone kiosks. The nonprofit group
Heal the Bay uses the data, and that from other counties, to
produce "report cards" for every beach in the state.
During dry weather, Humboldt County's beaches are nearly pristine,
receiving mostly As and A-pluses. Wet-weather grades are another
story -- especially this year (April 2004 to March 2005), when
local beaches' grades plummeted because of the extra rainfall.
Clam Beach got a D, Luffenholtz Beach got a B, Trinidad Beach
at Mill Creek got a B and Moonstone (Little River) Beach flunked.
To see the report cards, go to www.healthebay.org.
BODY IDENTIFIED,
AUTOPSIED: Forty-five-year-old Roger John Pelletier's name
was etched into a partial denture he wore. That is how Humboldt
County Deputy Coroner Charles Van Buskirk identified Pelletier,
a Fortuna man whose body was found washed upon the Trinidad shore
last Thursday. On Monday an autopsy revealed that Pelletier,
who was said to have been visiting friends in Trinidad, died
from drowning and had been in the water between two and four
days. Buskirk said that Pelletier's bruises were consistent with
injuries that would happen to a body adrift in the sea, and that
it is not known how the man -- who was wearing jeans and cowboy
boots -- wound up in the water. In Pelletier's pocket was an
empty pill bottle with no label. A toxicology screening is scheduled
for later this week. An investigation is continuing.
EUREKA INN SOLD:
The Redding-based company Americor
finalized its purchase of the Eureka Inn last week, a year and
a half after the historic hotel was foreclosed upon and shuttered.
A company spokesperson said he could not comment on the sale,
but that company president Gary Anthis would soon hold a press
conference in Eureka to describe Americor's plans.
JENKEL'S REBELLION: Motorists
passing through Arcata Monday might have thought that the large
laminated sign on the 14th Street overpass that read "Boycott
Arcata" was a conservative-conceived affront directed at
the city for its notoriously liberal stances on national politics.
Almost the opposite is true. The sign-toting out-of-towners are
anti-war activists who think that the Arcata City Council was
right on the money when, months ago, they considered a resolution
"in support of troops who refuse to serve in illegal wars"
and that the Green council acceded too easily to the fears of
the "morally corrupt" Arcata Chamber of Commerce, which
worried that the city's meddling would cause a boycott against
the town's shops. Now Arcata is being boycotted for not meddling.
"This really means, `Wake up Chamber of Commerce,'"
said Elizabeth Neylon, of Santa Rosa, who is fronting the boycott
effort that she called a "theatrical stunt." The self-professed
follower of Gandhi stood on the overpass with three houseless
Arcatans who held the sign so it overlooked the southbound lanes
of Highway 101, garnering a few horn honks from the travelers
below. "The ones who beep are probably right-wing,"
said Neylon, adding that she is in Humboldt County to get people
of all political persuasions talking about "unconstitutional
wars." Neylon said she is working on behalf of John Jenkel,
a Sonoma County gadfly who recently caused a stir in Lake County
after demanding that the Board of Supervisors let him speak for
an unlimited amount of time to enumerate reasons for a cease-fire
in Iraq. "Mr. Jenkel chooses the words," she said.
"I just spread the message." Jenkel will make an Arcata
appearance at the July 6 city council meeting, Neylon said. Until
then, she will brandish the boycott poster.
Logging
haulted in Freshwater, Elk River
story & photos by JUDY HODGSON
SACRAMENTO -- At 9 a.m.
June 16, the hearing room was teaming with people, sorting themselves
into groups as they chose their seats. On the right side of the
room, second and third rows, were the corporate suits of Pacific
Lumber Co., among them, Palco CEO Robert Manne. On the left side
was a small, eclectic bunch easily identifiable as being from
Humboldt County: shaggy haircuts, sensible shoes and comfort
clothing in a roomful of silk neckties and high heels.
Above right: Sacramento
hearing: Palco CEO Robert Manne, second from right in second
row.
The Humboldt contingent of citizen/activists
had risen at 2 a.m. to make the long drive to the state capital
for item No. 11 before the State Water Resources Control Board.
They had reason to be cautiously optimistic, just as the PL executives
had reason to be glum. They all had read the staff report to
the board and the draft order proposing to halt all logging this
year in the Freshwater Creek and Elk Creek watersheds.
Officially, item No. 11 was
a petition by the Humboldt Watershed Council, the Environmental
Protection Information Center in Garberville and the Sierra Club
to overrule the regional water board, which had given its consent
for the timber company to continue logging.
For the most part, the testimony
was like watching a re-run of a re-run: Residents of the impaired
watersheds told how historic and current logging upstream fouls
their drinking water and floods and devalues their property.
Palco officials argued they already had California Department
of Forestry-approved timber harvest plans on those two watersheds
that previously addressed environmental review. The water board
has no right to block those valid THPs -- only CDF does, they
claimed.
In the end, there was little
discussion from the five members of the board. The vote was unanimous:
Not one more tree would be cut -- this year anyway. A smattering
of applause broke out from the left side of the room.
"It's a small, small victory,"
said Kristi Wrigley, whose family has lived on the north fork
of Elk River since the turn of the last century and whose apple
orchard is no longer economically viable due to persistent flooding.
"It's just a slower rate of harm, really."
Catherine Kuhlman, executive
officer of the regional water board, strongly took issue with
the state board's decision."
Below left: celebrating
what they call "a small victory," left to right: Mark
Lovelace, Jesse Noell, Kristi Wrigley, Ken Miller and Marianne
de Sobrino. Lovelace and Miller are with the Humboldt Watershed
Council. The others are residents of Elk River.
"I believe what
our [regional] board did was justified," Kuhlman said. "By
intense inspection and by reducing [harvesting] by 25 percent,
that was sufficient to begin recovery in those watersheds."
Palco President Manne, who had
been chatting with the media prior to the hearing, declined comment,
leaving Chuck Center, Palco's government liaison officer, behind
to answer questions.
"Obviously, we're disappointed,"
Center kept repeating. Tuesday, by telephone, Center said no
discussion had been held yet on Palco's next step -- whether
to appeal to the state Superior Court. Palco has 30 days to file
such an appeal.
Remarkably absent from last
week's hearing testimony was any mention of the precarious financial
situation of Palco and Scotia Pacific, which owns the timberlands
that feed Palco's mill.
ScoPac does not have the funds
to pay a $27.9 million bond-interest payment due July 20, according
to a Tuesday report on the website, Debtwire.com. This week bondholders
are being presented with a restructuring proposal by Maxxam Corp.,
the Houston-based parent company of both Palco and ScoPac owned
by Charles Hurwitz.
ScoPac reported that it has
a $22.2 million line of credit available, but it lacks liquidity
to pay the debt interest. If bondholders agree to restructure
the debt, Palco's short-term line of credit could be used to
buy ScoPac another six months until its next debt payment is
due. If they do not, bankruptcy is still an option for ScoPac.
In the meantime, the long-awaited
watershedwide waste discharge requirements -- called WWDRs --
for Elk and Freshwater are in final review by the regional board
and will be released later this week, according to Kuhlman.
This
may be your only warning
by HEIDI
WALTERS
When the ground started shaking
the night of June 14, Humboldt County Supervisor John Woolley
and his family were at their home in Manila. His wife was rehearsing
with her Irish band, Good Company. Their two boys were watching
TV. They all felt the earthquake, and they gathered around the
TV to read the warning band moving across the screen. And then
they acted: "We took the prudent option to go into town
[Arcata]," John Woolley says. They didn't phone 911. They
didn't call their neighbors or go pounding on doors. They just
made for higher ground, and waited for more information.
Turns out the Woolleys acted
like model citizens -- unlike the hordes of doubting Thomases
who started phoning around to see if the warning was "for
real." The 911 line was overloaded, says Sheriff's Office
Public Information Officer Brenda Gainey, and those doubters
wasted valuable time they should have used to get to safety.
"On Tuesday night's event,
we had a `near-source' warning," Gainey says. "Had
an actual tsunami been generated, we on the North Coast of California
would have been the initial point of contact. We would have had
about 15 to 20 minutes to clear out." But, she says, "there
was apparently some confusion. On the West Coast, we're not used
to warnings. So people were saying, `What should I do?' Well,
in a near-source event, we're `it.'" That means emergency
personnel won't have time to coordinate an evacuation -- and
would merely be endangering themselves if they went to the low-lying
areas to roust people -- and the alerts on your TV and radio
might be the only warnings you get before the first wave hits.
Or, if you're away from a news source, the shaking ground may
be your only warning to flee to at least 100 feet in elevation.
Last Tuesday's warning was generated
automatically by the National Weather Service, which activates
warnings for quakes 7.0 or higher. Tuesday's was a 7.2, although
initial reports had it at 7.4. Local tsunami expert Lori Dengler
says it would have taken a larger local quake to generate a tsunami.
And if it had been a bigger local quake, say a 9.0, "you
would have had less than 10 minutes to get yourself to safety,"
she says. A distance-source quake, on the other hand, might allow
an hour or so for emergency personnel to stage an evacuation.
The 1964 tsunami that devastated Crescent City, for instance,
was triggered by a quake near Alaska. It flooded parts of Humboldt
County, also, but there was time to evacuate 3,000 people from
the Samoa Peninsula, says Dengler.
Gainey says the biggest lesson
the county has learned from last Tuesday's event was that people
living in low-lying coastal areas need to be better educated
about tsunamis and floods in general. First, they need to know
not to wait for an official warning to escape to higher ground.
Second, they need to trust the automated warnings if they do
see them, and not waste time and clog phone lines seeking a second
and third opinion.
One place to learn more about
local risks and how to deal with them is at HSU's
earthquake and tsunami website. It includes hazard
maps that show low-lying areas most likely to be flooded
by a Cascadia tsunami -- generated by a quake from our local
subduction zone. For instance, the maps show that the highest
dunes -- at around 75 feet -- on the Samoa peninsula have never
been overtopped by water.
The county is working on a tsunami
education plan for the public. It also hopes to have evacuation
route signs, and perhaps a special tsunami siren system (like
they have in Crescent City), in place in Humboldt County by next
year.
"Once there's a universal
warning system in place, people would feel more comfortable trusting
the system," says Woolley.
Dengler adds that everyone on
the coast should have a NOAA weather radio. You can get the $20
one, or spring for the $100 version that turns itself on when
there's a warning -- so even if you're snoozing when the big
one comes, you'll be alerted. People also need to adopt what
Dengler calls a "cultural acceptance" of our area's
tsunami risk.
"I was recently in Indonesia,"
says Dengler. "In some areas, people had developed a whole
tradition of tsunamis. All those people lived (during the Dec.
26 tsunami)" because they fled to higher ground. "Others,
who stayed on the coast, died. I think that, when you feel a
strong earthquake, you definitely get off the beach -- it should
be a regular exercise."
A musical
cornucopia
Local libraries, school
districts receive hundreds of free CDs
by
LUKE T. JOHNSON
In September 2002, a nationwide
class action lawsuit against five of the nation's top record
labels and three major retail chains reached a settlement. Last
week, Humboldt County began to reap the rewards.
The lawsuit alleged that the
record labels (including Atlantic, Capitol, and Universal Records)
conspired with retailers (including Tower Records and Musicland
Stores) to illegally raise the prices of CDs and other music
products by implementing Minimum Advertised Price policies, which
violate state and federal antitrust laws. The defendants denied
all allegations of wrongdoing.
The ensuing settlement required
the defendants to pay a total of $67.4 million in cash to the
victims, which included anyone who bought a music product from
one of the retailers between January 1, 1995, and December 22,
2000. In addition, defendants agreed to provide $75.7 million
worth of prerecorded music CDs, to be distributed to not-for-profit,
charitable, governmental or public entities for music-related
purposes or programs.
Local music aficionado Matthew
Frink signed up for the lawsuit after he read about it in Rolling
Stone a few years ago. He received his check for $13.86 like
the rest of the plaintiffs in the country a little over a year
ago. He is pleased that the outcome was so positive for the consumer.
"The money is inconsequential,"
he said from his Arcata home. "There needs to be some sort
of repercussions for all the price gouging. This was a step in
the right direction."
On April 25 of this year California
began distributing the 665,000 CDs the state was allotted (roughly
$8.9 million worth). The Attorney General's office allocated
the total so that 55 percent would go to public library districts,
40 percent to K-12 school districts and 5 percent to public colleges
and universities. K-12 schools were given such a large portion
because consumers under the age of 25 represent a significant
percentage of the music purchases made, according to the Attorney
General's website.
Humboldt is among the last counties
in the state to receive its bounty. The County Library in Eureka
received "about seven or eight boxes," said Audio/Video
cataloguer Michael Logan. "We haven't even finished unpacking
them yet."
For institutions as perennially
underfunded as libraries, these CDs are especially appreciated,
Logan said. "It provides for a huge influx of new material
and we didn't even have to pay for it," he said.
The titles are as varied as
they are numerous, ranging from operas like Madame Butterfly
to Outcast's Stankonia.
"I was pleasantly surprised,"
said Cindy Benbow, manager of the branch libraries throughout
Humboldt. "I had heard horror stories about them dumping
like 112 copies of Jessica Simpson and Barry White -- and nothing
against those artists, I just don't think we need 112."
"There are some fun CDs
and some seriously good ones," Benbow said, referring to
titles such as Voices of the Shoah: Remembrances of the Holocaust
and a box set of vintage doo-wop tracks, one she's particularly
excited about.
Local school districts, it seems,
did not receive an assortment as exciting as the county's. Arcata
High School librarian Mary Anne Harlan said she "wasn't
impressed" and felt like they "received everybody's
remainders." She said many California school librarians
felt the same way.
"I just don't think Martha
Stewart's Sounds of Halloween is a particularly valuable
resource," she said. She is not sure what she will do with
the CDs because there are not enough to start a viable lending
collection. She may donate some to art and music programs, or
maybe to the county. For a few of the titles, she is considering
supplementing some of the library's books with a CD sleeve in
the back. One of the library's hottest books, for example, is
The Wu-Tang Manual, which could be easily supplemented
with the hip-hop group's album The W.
Benbow said she plans on cataloguing
all of the CDs at the main library because it has more space.
Titles of which there are multiple copies will be dispersed throughout
the county to libraries with already established CD collections.
For a list of all the titles
the libraries received, visit the Attorney
General's website.
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