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September 20, 2001
Debt
for nature deal dead
An attempt by federal regulators
to hold Pacific Lumber Co.'s owner responsible for the failure
of a Texas savings and loan received a major setback last week.
In a decision published Sept.
13, federal administrative law Judge Arthur Shipley recommended
that the Office of Thrift Supervision drop charges against Charles
Hurwitz, whose Maxxam Corp. bought Pacific Lumber in 1996.
Hurwitz has been accused of
steering the United Savings Association of Texas into bankruptcy
in 1988, costing taxpayers $1.6 billion. According to the OTS
and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Hurwitz stripped the
savings and loan of valuable assets just before it went under,
reaping profit from the public's loss.
That allegation is unfounded,
according to Judge Shipley. He said in his statement that "not
a scintilla of evidence" supports the bank regulator's theories.
Environmental groups interpreted
the decision as a setback. Many, including the Sierra Club and
the Rose Foundation, had advocated a deal in which Maxxam's debt
would be forgiven in return for Pacific Lumber timberlands. The
recommendation to drop charges means the regulators don't have
any debt with which to bargain.
Shipley's decision could be
overturned by OTS Director Ellen Seidman.
Two cents
on transportation
Caltrans is putting together
its to-do list for the next 20 years and you're invited.
The state transportation agency
and the Humboldt County Association of Governments are sponsoring
a workshop to collect public comments prior to the drafting of
a California Transportation Plan. The plan will guide Caltrans'
approach to transportation issues over the next two decades.
Issues up for debate include highways, streets, rail, seaports,
airports, bicycles and pedestrian concerns.
The workshop will be held Sept.
24 in Eureka's Wharfinger Building. See this week's calendar
for details.
Old-growth
rules changed
The Board of Forestry approved
a change in the Forest Practice Rules Sept. 12 that requires
state permission for the harvesting of old-growth trees.
The new rule states that landowners
who want to cut down a tree sprouted before the year 1800 have
to get permission from the state.
The change did not please everyone.
A different version, recommended by Gov. Davis, would have required
permission for the harvesting of trees 200 or more years old.
The Board of Forestry unanimously rejected the idea, saying it
would have provided an incentive to cut down trees just before
they reach 200 years of age to avoid the new regulation.
The rule change did not mollify
environmental activists, who are mounting a campaign for a 2002
ballot initiative that would ban the harvest of trees in existence
before 1850.
Sierra Pacific
in Sunny Brae
Sierra Pacific Industries, which
plans on harvesting timber on land adjacent to the Arcata neighborhood
of Sunny Brae, had a productive relationship with local residents.
The company allowed neighborhood advocates unprecedented access
to the planning process and was receptive to their concerns.
But that relationship has now
soured. Local critics and the California Department of Forestry
and Fire Prevention are at odds with the timber company over
the big issues of road access and herbicide use.
CDF has asked Sierra Pacific
to use pilot cars to escort logging trucks and limit the hours
during which the trucks could be operated from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
In addition, the company was asked to forgo entirely the use
of herbicides in the timber harvest plan.
Sierra Pacific has declined
to include any of the three changes in its timber harvest plan,
said Mark Lovelace, spokesperson for the Sunny Brae-Arcata Neighborhood
Alliance.
Ironically, Sierra Pacific had
been receptive to many of neighbors' concerns, Lovelace said.
Agreements were reached on waterbar spacing, maximum road width
and other "incredibly small site-specific details,"
he said.
"To Sierra Pacific's credit,
most things were worked out through agreement."
But the big issues of road use
and herbicides "are huge issues to the community,"
Lovelace said, "and they refuse to meet us on them."
Sierra Pacific did not return
calls for this report.
Unemployment
down
Humboldt County's economy bucked
state and national trends during August as unemployment numbers
dropped to 4.9 percent, according to prelimnary data from the
state Employment Development Department.
Data show approximately 500
more people were employed during August than in July. The biggest
increases were in state and local government where 800 jobs were
added. That helped offset job losses in other sectors, including
a 100-worker loss in the sawmill industry and a 200-worker downturn
in the service sector.
The improvement means that Humboldt
County, for the first time in years, has a lower unemployemnt
rate than the state. California as a whole has a 5.2 percent
unemployment rate.
The economic picture in Humboldt
County remains gloomy (see In
the News, Sept. 13), with the lumber, tourism, and retail
sectors all experiencing downturns.
Coastal
Cleanup keeps up
In spite of the tragedies in
Washington and New York and the recent destruction of its offices,
the Northcoast Environmental Center facilitated Humboldt County's
participation in the 17th annual Coastal Cleanup Day Sept. 15.
"We had 1,300 people signed
up for the cleanup," said NEC Executive Director Tim McKay.
That's a step down from last year, when 2,400 people helped to
clear Humboldt beaches of trash and debris.
The diminished attendance was
partly due to the center's inability to mount the same campaign
as normal to get people involved, McKay said. Still operating
out of a temporary office space in the wake of a July 25 fire
at its offices, the staff was "not able to do what we normally
do," McKay said.
Memorial services were also
held on the day of the cleanup for victims of the terrorist attacks.
Nevertheless, the people who
made it out to beaches did a fantastic job, McKay said. In addition
to a "lot of Styrofoam, a tube of shoe goo, a TV, a freezer
and a book of erotic poetry," beach cleaners in south Eureka
found what looked like an abandoned mechanic's shop.
"There were 30 people down
there at the end of Hilfiker, and they pulled out several car
bodies and half of a motorcycle," McKay said.
DNA opens
leads in Bari case
New DNA evidence has surfaced
in the investigation of the 1990 bombing of Earth First activist
Judi Bari.
Using saliva samples gathered
from envelopes, DNA experts have determined that the death threat
mailed to Bari in April 1990 was sealed by a man. Likewise, the
tests show that the letter claiming responsibility was sealed
by a woman other than Bari.
[This information has been corrected. It was originally incorrect
in the first web posting and in the print edition.]
Bari herself was initially considered
the prime suspect in the bombing by Oakland police and the FBI.
She consistently denied any involvement in the May 14, 1990,
pipe bomb blast that seriously injured her and passenger Darryl
Cherney. She died in 1997 of breast cancer.
The new evidence does more than
help to clear Bari's name -- it also establishes new links in
the case. The person who sealed the letter claiming responsibility
for the attack was the same man who sealed an anonymous letter
to police in January 1989 alleging Bari was selling marijuana.
A lawsuit against the FBI that
alleges Bari and Cherney's civil rights were injured when they
became the prime suspects was delayed this week. It is now scheduled
to begin in six months.
Fred is
already taken...
When considering what to name
the Humboldt County Library's new computerized catalog system,
Library Director Carolyn Stacey looked to see what other libraries
had done.
"The New York Public Library's
catalog is CATNYP and Humboldt State's is CATALYST," she
said.
One library in Colorado gave
up on nifty acronyms altogether and just called its system Fred.
"We in Humboldt County
are at least as clever as those folks," Stacey said.
If you have a better name than
Fred, pick up an entry form for the Name the Computer Catalog
contest at a Humboldt County library. The winning entry's author
will receive a $50 gift certificate for books. Call 269-1905
for more information.
![[photo of Donvieve with tile sculpture]](news0920-donvieve.jpg)
Sculpture
at
Pacific Union
Artist Donviéve with
her new sculpture, which now graces the entrance to Arcata's
Pacific Union Elementary. Not that she can take all the credit
for it: The cement form is decorated with more than 600 tiles,
one from each member of the student body at Pacific Union last
year. It is the culmination for Donviéve of three years
as Pacific Union's Artist in Residence, a program sponsored by
the Ink People Center for the Arts and the California Arts Council.
Local coastal
heroes lauded
While the California Coastal
Commission was meeting in Humboldt County last week, members
took time out to honor six individuals for their activism in
coastal protection. The reception, held Sept. 13, honored:
Cheryl Seidner, chair of the
Table Bluff Reservation, for her work on restoring the presence
of the Wiyot people on Indian Island and throughout the tribe's
traditional Humboldt Bay region.
Lucille Vinyard, long-time supporter
of coastal issues, known for her coastal advocacy throughout
the state. (Featured on the June
14 cover of the Journal.)
Tim McKay, executive director
of the Northcoat Environmental Center, who initiated what is
now an international annual Coastal Clean Up Day held last weekend.
Carol Vander Meer, director
of Friends of the Dunes, who has provided leadership for the
appreciation of coastal dunes habitat.
Aryay Kalaki and Tim Ayres,
founders of Coastal Stewards, a citizen-based monitoring group
to help local law enforcement in carrying out the purposes of
the county's beach and dunes management ordinance.
Fire cleanup
clear to proceed
Pacific Builders got the thumbs
up last week from the county hazardous waste officials to begin
cleanup following the July 25 fire that leveled a strip of buildings
off the Arcata Plaza. (See Aug.
2, 2001 cover story)
Destroyed in the blaze were
the Northcoast Environmental Center, Marino's night club and
apartments, and the Arcata Paint store, which specialized in
auto body paints.
Building owners and Arcata Fire
Department investigators had been officially prevented from digging
through the rubble until a plan was approved for clean up. Since
the historic Marino's building had asbestos siding, demolition
and debris removal from the site must be performed by licensed
workers.
NEC Executive Director Tim McKay
admitted last week that he prematurely went "dumpster diving"
in the rubble twice following reports of vandalism at the fenced-off
site. Recovered were the NEC's mailing list, just in time to
print labels and post the September edition of EcoNews, the NEC
newsletter. (The EcoNews August edition was lost in the blaze.)
Also recovered were some minutes, McKay said, and a sizable deposit
that had been prepared for the bank the day of the fire.
AFD Fire Chief Dave White said
investigators will work alongside the demolition crew in its
search for clues of the fire's origin.
Pirates! off to Columbia
The Dell'Arte Co. of Blue Lake
has been invited to perform a theater piece at the "Africa
in America's Memory" Festival in Santa Marta, Colombia,
beginning Oct. 1. The event is presented by the International
Theatre Institute in connection with the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Dell'Arte will
present an original play, Pirates!, which was first presented
as the troupe's annual holiday show last year.
"The festival is designed
to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery
in Colombia and to explore the influence of Africa on the Americas.
It is a potent and very timely topic," said Dell'Arte managing
artistic director Michael Fields.
Pirates! is "highly physical, comic, musical, visual,
accessible-across-languages, and thematically works with the
ideas of race, survival and the will to stand up for oneself,"
Fields said.
"We're honored by the invitation,
and we're very much looking forward to the experience."
Smarter
street lights
Caltrans is fine-tuning new
street lights in Arcata on Samoa Boulevard at G and H streets
that are controlled by a computer and a video camera, the first
of its kind in Humboldt County.
The camera -- unlike those in
metropolitan areas that are used to record cars that run red
lights -- senses the presence of a car or even a bicycle and
asks a computer for a green light. It does not store information.
A standard detection system
consisting of loops of wire imbedded in the pavement is not capable
of detecting smaller vehicles such as bicycles.
COVER
STORY | HUMBOLDT RESPONDS to Terrorist Attacks | CALENDAR
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© Copyright 2001, North Coast Journal,
Inc.
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