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Dec. 30, 2004
ALLEGED OWNER OF
DEADLY TRAILER NAMED: There may
soon be charges filed in the fatal accident caused by an abandoned
boat trailer on Eureka Myrtle Avenue earlier this month. Officer
Stefanie Barnwell of the California Highway Patrol said Tuesday
that her agency will soon forward files to the District Attorney's
Office for possible prosecution in the case. Barnwell said she
could not divulge any names associated with the investigation,
but court records released Monday showed that the CHP searched
the home of Eureka resident Richard Knife in connection with
the incident two weeks ago. Speaking about the search, Barnwell
said that it did not find any evidence that would point to who
may have pushed the trailer in the street. However, it did find
evidence that the person indicated in the search -- Knife --
owned or was otherwise responsible for the trailer. "There
are certain things that we located that will tie him the trailer,
but there's still some follow-up that we have to do to put that
together," she said. The Dec. 4 crash killed two Eureka
residents: Timothy Robertson, 21, and Cody Wertz, 19.
TENET OFFERS TO SETTLE: The former
owner of Redding Medical Center, Tenet Healthcare Corp., last
week offered heart patients who received unnecessary surgery
at the hospital $395 million to settle fraud and malpractice
lawsuits against the company. On Tuesday, Eureka resident Patrick
Williams -- one of several local plaintiffs in the case --was
preparing to head to Redding for a meeting with his attorney
and some of his 768 co-litigants to discuss whether they should
take the offer. "I'm inclined to accept it, and I have the
feeling that most will be feeling the same as me," he said.
Williams ended up at Redding Medical after his doctor advised
him to get some tests done -- he sometimes felt short of breath.
The cardiologist there gave him what turned out to be a false
diagnosis of angina, and urged him to undergo a triple bypass
operation the next day. To his regret, he accepted the doctor's
advice. Last year, Tenet paid the U.S. Department of Justice
$54 million to settle charges that Medicare was billed for unnecessary
surgery similar to Williams'. For more background on the story,
see "In Their Hands," the Journal's Nov. 20,
2003 cover story.
HOLDING PATTERN AT THE
PULP MILL: The end of the year finds employees and owners
of the Stockton Pacific pulp mill uncertain about the future
of the plant -- the last of the two big Samoa pulp mills that
dominated the Eureka skyline (and the odor of its air) for decades.
Threatened by financial insolvency and the possibility of criminal
charges, some at the mill nevertheless felt they had reason to
be optimistic. "Everyone is sitting here in anticipation
of something good happening," said Alan Lindgren, Stockton
Pacific's vice president of logistics. It appears that the mill's
last hope lies with Lee & Man, a Chinese company that is
in talks with the Chicago bank that owns the mill's $30 million
debt. Last week, a management-led plan to buy out the mill was
withdrawn after union representatives declined to take permanent
pay cuts. Meanwhile, Deputy District Attorney Paul Hagen said
that he is waiting for chemical, documentary and electronic materials
seized at the mill on Dec. 7 to make its way back to his desk
from the various local, state and federal agencies examining
them; until then, the office does not know if accusations of
environmental crimes made by a company whistleblower earlier
this year will result in charges being pressed. "The District
Attorney's Office is very pleased with the execution of the search
warrant, and we anticipate getting all the evidence so we can
conduct a thorough review of it," he said. But there is
simply no telling when that will be.
NEW CHARGES AGAINST SAMOA
RAPE SUSPECT: The Humboldt County
District Attorney's Office announced last week that it had filed
additional charges against Donald Erskine Lilly. Lilly, who is
being held in the Humboldt County Jail, was arrested and accused
of rape earlier this month. Like the original case, the new charges
stem from incidents that took place on the Samoa Peninsula between
March and December of this year, according to Deputy District
Attorney Worth Dikeman. Lilly is charged with raping or assaulting
six women after they got into a car driven by the suspect. Investigators
believe it may be possible that Lilly victimized other local
women in cases that went unreported. They are asking that any
such victim call Sheriff's Detective Tom Cook at 445-7251. Lilly
is alleged to have used at least two different cars -- a white
1987 Volvo station wagon and a blue 1989 Toyota sedan.
MORE FLU VACCINE: The rationing of flu shots that went into effect
earlier this year has been loosened somewhat, after the county
received an additional shipment of the scarce vaccine. The Humboldt
County Department of Health and Human Services announced earlier
this month that all people over age 50 and caregivers for high-risk
patients can now receive the vaccine from their regular doctors.
COUNTY PASSING BAD CHECKS?:
At least one of the 439 local residents
who put in a day's labor as a Humboldt County poll worker on
Nov. 2 got a lump of coal in her stocking this Christmas -- a
bad check from the county for her efforts. According to Humboldt
County Auditor Mike Giacone, the poll worker -- one of the army
of citizen-volunteers who staff polling stations on Election
Day -- came into the office last week to say a bank would not
cash the paycheck the county had sent in the mail the week before.
The problem wasn't that the county didn't have enough cash to
cover the payment; it was that the check had been misprinted
in a way that left off the county's account number. Giacone said
that he couldn't tell if any other checks in the same run were
likewise deficient, but said that any poll workers who ran into
problems at their bank may call his office at 476-2452 to arrange
for a replacement.
Treading
lightly
Bouldering among the sacred stones
of the Yurok
story and photos by BENNETT BARTHELEMY
Lost Rocks is not a name found
on any official maps. Climbers, boulderers in particular, have
come to call this Del Norte County coast area Lost Rocks due
to the shifting sands that swallow and expose huge boulders from
visit to visit.
Lost Rocks sits in Redwood National
Park, a half-mile south of Klamath River, and continues down
the coastline to Split Rock seven miles north of the Humboldt
County line.
Ten years ago I stood at the
base of the massive Flinthead Rock as the surf surged around
it, and felt something bordering on the sublime. Every day I
return there this feeling rushes back, as do the words of Jack
Norton, a retired Native American studies professor. He told
me and other students in the early 1990s that this area and many
of the stone monoliths are considered the sacred and part of
a complex Yurok cosmology.
Just about every climbing area
across the country has a time-tested ethic concerning environmental
impact, cultural sensitivity and local style. Jason Keith, tireless
lawyer for the climber advocacy group, Access Fund based out
of Boulder, Colo., said it this way: "Know where you are
-- know what the rules are, as ignorance is not a valid excuse.
Land managers are often not well informed about climbing and
uninformed decisions will continue to be made affecting climbers
if we are not involved."
The dialogue has barely begun
here at Lost Rocks and given the influx of climbers over the
last few years, it is the time to work on the relationships with
the Yurok as well as Redwood National Park. On weekends, the
roadside and parking lot swells with the cars of Northcoast and
out of state climbers. There are an estimated 1 million active
climbers in the country and that number is growing -- the pursuit
of bouldering is bringing in the bulk of the newcomers. This
huge jump in traffic has not gone unnoticed by park officials
or the Yurok tribe. Many local climbers fear that a lack of communication
might bring into reality another meaning for the name Lost Rocks
by closing to climbers altogether.
Other controversies between
climbers and Native Americans have ended in expensive court fights.
Devil's Tower in Wyoming is a classic example of what happens
when there is not enough communication early on between climbers,
land agencies and Native Americans. A group of climbing guides,
not supported by the majority of the climbing community, sued
to fight a climbing ban that had been instituted in deference
to spiritual use by Native American groups. The case went all
the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in 2000 against the
plaintiffs.
Cave Rock in Nevada, and popular
Southern California climbing areas have also ended up or are
headed for major litigation.
It has become common knowledge
among local climbers to stay off of Split Rock out of what we
have felt is respect to the Yurok. Through conversations with
park officials we know to get to the boulders via the Flinthead
Ridge Trail and not through the Yurok ceremonial dance ground.
The challenges arise when climbers from elsewhere visit the area.
There are no signs to indicate which trails to use and which
rocks to climb -- invariably trails and rocks that should not
be climbed are, and not out of disrespect but because there is
no indication that it is not OK. Local climbers thought it could
be beneficial to show that we understand that Lost Rocks is sacred
to the Yurok and that we want to climb in an informed and respectful
way.
[Photo above right:
Paul Humphrey tackles a boulder problem, called the Yogi, with
Adam Wanden spotting him. The climb is maybe 10 moves long and
does not go to the top, probably no more than 12 feet high.]
So I visited Tom Gates, the
Yurok Cultural Preservation officer at the tribal offices last
year in Klamath. I was hoping for definitive answers as to what
the tribe thought about climbing in general, and what specific
rocks the tribe would like climbers to avoid. I said that while
climbers wish to respect their concerns, climbers hope to keep
access as open as possible to the Lost Rocks area.
To paraphrase Gates, he said
that all rocks are sacred on the beach, and you can't really
put a value system on them and say that one rock is more sacred
than another. I got the impression that he did not want to say
anything finite about climbing until the proper channels were
gone through. We were added to the roster so that we could address
the elders at a Yurok Cultural Committee meeting the following
month.
At the meeting, the elders said
that they would take a serious look at climbing. They also said
that they would like to be involved in a Climbing Management
Plan with the park and the climbing community.
In addition, they wanted to
have a say in what things are named in any forthcoming guides.
The original self-published guide had called Flinthead Rock "The
Crack House" because of its several challenging crack climbs,
yet the analogy was lost on the elders as they inferred it was
a drug reference. I realize that this was one example of an issue
that can be easily addressed with open dialogue -- open communication
can easily fortify cultural bridges rather than challenge them.
[photo above: Adam Wander
boulders at Flinthead Rock]
More than a year has passed
and area climbers are organizing into the Bigfoot Country Climbers
Association. We continue to work through the channels of bureaucracy
with the tribe and the park. Each entity has a litany of its
own challenges, and it is easy to get the feeling that climbing
is another Pandora's box of issues that the tribe and the park
are leery to open.
When I have doubts I remind
myself that dialogue and negotiations take time. Like a good
boulder problem, if it is worth unlocking the sequence of moves
to climb it, then the time it takes to realize it becomes much
less important.
Bennett Barthelemy works
as a freelance writer, photographer and
outdoor education instructor. When not traveling, he calls Arcata home.
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