News

management.

The Journal 's Andrew Goff reports:

At 2:15 a group of about 50 protesters led by Verbena and made up mostly of teens marched to the gazebo for "Days of Action Against Police Brutality". They will be landing at several Eureka sites today ending at Eureka City Hall for a candlelit vigil for Chris Burgess at 7 p.m.

Some of the chants:

"Hey, hey. Ho Ho. Police brutality has got to go"

"No rest, no peace. Til police are off our streets"

More pics follow.

Alliance.Dr. Rudi Becking, 1923-2009: Groundbreaking HSU forestry professor Rudolph Becking has died, according to the campus news service. In the 1970s, Becking was a minority voice for ecological responsibility in forestry

HSU Prof M. Wayne Knight Dies from H1N1 Complications: The Lumberjack reports that M. Wayne Knight, an associate professor in HSU's Art Department, died earlier today from swine flu. Knight had been teaching graphic design since 2002; he also did graphic work for local businesses and nonprofits, including designing the logo for the Redwood Jazz

Listen on KHSU (90.5 FM) or watch it on KEET (Channel 13).

From the Humbodlt County Office of Public Health, which adds only that the man died at Arcata's Mad River Hospital:

Local man's death believed to be related to H1N1

A man who tested positive for H1N1 Influenza died Wednesday in a Humboldt County hospital. Officials report he had underlying health conditions, and the precise cause of his death is unknown.

"Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time," said Humboldt County Health Officer Dr. Ann Lindsay. To protect the man's privacy, no additional information about his case would be released.

This death is the second in Humboldt County believed to be related to H1N1. As of October 10, more than 3,000 Californians have been hospitalized with H1N1-related illnesses, and 219 have died.

Although most people with H1N1 influenza experience only mild illness, certain groups are at high risk for complications from flu. These include pregnant women, children under 5 years old, adults over 65, and people of all ages with underlying health disorders.

Public health efforts continue to focus on prevention measures, including a local vaccination plan for schoolchildren and other high-risk groups which will roll out as soon as sufficient quantities of H1N1 vaccine have been received.

"Until the vaccine arrives, common-sense prevention measures are the best defense," said Susan Buckley, director of the Public Health Branch of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Buckley reminded residents to cover coughs and wash hands frequently. Additionally, she said, anyone suffering from respiratory or other flu-like symptoms is encouraged to stay home and away from other people to avoid transmission.

Dan Savage on 'Pot City': Savage, managing editor and sex columnist extraordinaire for Seattle independent weekly the Stranger weighs in on A&E's profile of Arcata, or, more specifically, its narrator, whom he honors with the title, "Stupid Fucking Credulous Hack of the Day." (Oh snap! He owned you, Vieira!) He goes on to assert, "the only way to end illegal grow-ops is to allow legal ones" -- a perspective notably absent in the Arts and Entertainment programme. Check the comments string, too. Some choice nugs: #4: "If [Arcata] is what a den of iniquity looks like, I say let's grow weed in 20 percent of homes in every town. ... We would move there tomorrow if there were any jobs... ." #15: "I only wish I'd seen this program before coming here. ... I can't begin to relate to you the undercurrent of aggro attitude in the community." # 17 responds with this lukewarm endorsement: "[Arcata] is an incredibly pleasant town, if a bit boring sometimes." Do I hear a new Chamber of Commerce

Well, the pulp mill's officially dead.

Now the work begins in earnest to find another use for the raw -- meaning untreated -- surface water from the Mad River for which the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District has a state permit to deliver for industrial uses.

We're not talking about our drinking water folks -- that's a separate supply, and spoken for by 80,000 of us, so it's not up for grabs.

But the industrial water, that amounts to 60 million gallons a day idling its way into the ocean. And the state doesn't like idling (water, that is) -- it could yank the district's water rights if the water isn't put to use.

For perspective, San Diego County is building a 50 mgd desalination plant that will serve about 300,000 people.

Or, HBMWD board member Aldaron Laird has another way to wrap yer soggy head around it:

To put it in perspective, there's 1,525 breweries in the United States. If you took all of the breweries and all the beer that they can make in one year, it's about 6 billion gallons of beer. The surface system that we have, if we ran it for a hundred days, we would produce as much water as all of the beer produced in the United States in one year. That's how much water that system can deliver.

Beer me.

For more on the HBMWD's waterlogged dilemma, check out this week's cover story -- on stands tomorrow and online Thursday!

We haven't yet seen Pot City USA , the new documentary on Arcata that A&E debuted last night, but boy oh boy is this YouTube excerpt ever thrilling! This thing looks AWESOME!

And hey, what's this we see 24 seconds in?

Seriously, though -- " Disorientation Week ”? That was two years ago! We suspect some sort of A&E stagecraft flummery. Unless the dude really prefers to keep his six-shooter stashed in that particular issue, to remind him of its purpose.

Most creative recycling suggestion ever!

Failure to garner federal stimulus funding means the Samoa pulp mill will close forever, according to a just-issued press release:

Green Manufacturing Mill Unable to Obtain Federal Stimulus Funds, Closes Permanently

Freshwater Tissue would have created nearly 3,000 green jobs for economically devastated Northern California

Humboldt County, CA- Freshwater Tissue, California's last pulp mill and the only chlorine-free/dioxin-free mill in the United States plans to permanently close. The current owners of the Samoa, CA pulp mill were unable to obtain federal stimulus funds to convert the Samoa mill into an integrated tissue plant. The plant would have served as an exemplary model of responsible and environmentally sound American manufacturing.

In spite of the Samoa mill's status as the only chlorine-free/dioxin-free pulp mill in the United States, the mill has struggled since the mid 1990's to compete with foreign competition. When the new owners acquired the Samoa mill in February of 2009, their vision was to make the mill competitive by manufacturing consumer-ready, eco-friendly, chlorine-free toilet tissue. The vision included consuming by-products of the Redwood forest, such as tanoak trees, which are a valueless, disease-stricken hardwood tree species that at present is an extreme fire hazard to the Redwood region. The company's vision had broad support from environmental advocacy groups, educators, foresters, community leaders and labor unions. Unfortunately, the banking industry collapsed, and both federal and state lawmakers, including Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA), were unable to help fund a shovel ready, job creating, and renewable stimulus project. As a result, 425 direct and 2,500 indirect green jobs have been lost permanently for California's North Coast region.

Rick Hind, Legislative Director of Greenpeace said of the closure, "It's outrageous that the federal government, which just offered $55 million for experimental ‘clean coal' technologies, could not find a penny for a proven chlorine-free pulp mill and the green jobs it would support."

Labor union leaders have also expressed their profound disappointment. Greg Pallesen, Vice President of The Association of Western Pulp & Paper Workers remarked that, "The closure of the Samoa, California mill is a prime example of failed U.S. financial and trade policies, which continue to be the main cause of massive job losses in the U.S.  At the same time as the "green" Samoa manufacturing site is closed forever, large polluting mills in China and elsewhere are being brought online in order to supply U.S. consumers.  The end result destroys working families here at home while increasing pollution worldwide.  Shame on our politicians who do nothing but talk about "green" job creation. This facility is closed forever, and the families and communities in Northern California will suffer for years to come."

Gregg Gold, Sierra Chapter President, spoke on behalf of the North Group and Redwood chapters representing over 10,000 members. "Of local importance is the fact that the Samoa mill would have provided a viable market for Tanoak trees, which the timber industry treats as an undesirable weed. At present, Tanoak trees are eradicated by spraying them with chemicals to halt their growth or kill them. This process tends to make Tanoak quite flammable, which endangers the entire forest including the Redwoods where Tanoak is most prevalent. In sum, we believe Mr. Simpson's vision had the potential to transform an entire industry, and are sorry to see his vision disappear."

"I left Samoa in 1996 after eliminating the use of chlorine at the pulp mill," said Bob Simpson, President of Freshwater Tissue Company. "I returned to Samoa in 2009 with a vision of converting the Nation's only chlorine-free pulp mill into an integrated tissue mill, and providing sustainable jobs for a green economy. In a normal economic climate, such a plant would have easily found funding by green tech investors. The current financial crisis made this nearly impossible so we turned to President Obama's green stimulus plan for support. We had hoped that our Federal and State lawmakers would help us obtain Federal stimulus funding which was designed precisely for green manufacturing projects that are sustainable and create living-wage American jobs. I am extremely disappointed and saddened by the lack of support we received from our Congressional representatives. Humboldt County needed these jobs and America needed this green technology."

As an update to this week's "Town Dandy" column: It turns out that Security National has recently -- perhaps very recently -- promised to pay any legal costs that could arise out of lawsuits stemming from the final Marina Center Environmental Impact Report, which the city is set to consider sometime in the very near future.

Councilmember Larry Glass just heard about the indemnification agreement today. When I spoke with Councilmember Frank Jager earlier this morning, he had heard nothing about it at all.

It is to be presumed that indemnification will smooth the EIR certification process considerably. Councilmembers who may have been leaning toward Marina Center anyway now have no reason to fear that such a vote might come back to bite.

Reminder: The city is hosting a town hall-style thing on Marina Center tonight, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Eureka City Council Chambers. That's 531 K St.

UPDATE: See City Councilmember Jeff Leonard's comment on the column here.