News

We featured an interview with farming guru Joel Salatin in last week's Good Food issue as a prelude to his keynote speech at the North Coast Co-op's Sustainable Agriculture Expo. Now we bring you the speech itself, with a big thank you to the folks at KMUD and in particular reporter Kerry Reynolds, who recorded the talk.

Part 1: Why should we be interested in local foods? From "food safety" to the "sacred sacrifice."

Joel Salatin at Redwood Acres Part 1 by BobDoran

Part 2: The unseen world of bacteria... Can local food systems feed the world? Food sovereignty: "At the end of the day, it's just us."

Joel Salatin Part 2 by BobDoran

Part 3: Where's the kitchen? I don't know... You've got to be willing to pay for food... Nobody does it right the first time... Does anybody care?

Joel Salatin - Part 3 by BobDoran

More photos from the Sustainable Agriculture Expo here.

Don't let the city's name fool ya: Highway Patrol in Rapid City, South Dakota, are sticklers for speeding. And they don't like marijuana posession much, either -- at least not when you've (allegedly) got 23.5 pounds of it moving through The Mount Rushmore State in a rental car.

Kenneth Jordan, 29, of Ferndale, Scott Mitchell, 32, of Arcata, and Mark Antonio Martinez, 24, of Seattle, were pulled over last week "for allegedly going 5 mph over the speed limit, slowing down quickly and following too closely," the Rapid City Journal  reported today.

The men's "nervous" demeanors, combined with "a large amount of luggage in the rear cargo area" set the trooper's Spidey sense a-tingling. A search of the vehicle revealed the aforementioned weed, plus some Ecstacy and the attendant paraphernalia, according to court documents.

The trio has been charged with possession with intent to distribute, among other charges, and each has been released on $10,000 bail.

The news broke yesterday, but today College of the Redwoods President Jeff Marsee officially announced his impending departure to become President/CEO of San Joaquin Delta Community College in Stockton.

Here's the press release from CR:

College of the Redwoods President Jeff Marsee has accepted a new position as the President of San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, Calif.

Marsee, who has been CR's president since July 1, 2008, will begin his tenure at San Joaquin Delta College on May 1. Delta College's seven-member Board of Trustees unanimously selected Marsee to be the college's leader out of three finalist candidates during a meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 22. Delta College has approximately 19,000 full-time-equivalent students. During the 2009-2010 year, CR had more than 5,900 full-time-equivalent students.

"I am very proud of the work that the CR Board of Trustees and the employees of the CR District have accomplished during my tenure at the college," Marsee said. "I wish the CR District, its employees and the CR Board of Trustees the best in the future."

Marsee discussed some of the college's successes he is most proud of during his time at CR.

"CR has reconnected with the community in many ways," Marsee said, "including increasing access to education by opening new educational sites in the District and significantly increasing the number of night and online classes offered. We have also been free of any accreditation sanctions since January 2009 and the college is now preparing for its six-year accreditation self- study, to be completed later this year."

Since July 2008, CR has opened new instructional sites in McKinleyville and Arcata. Also, using Measure Q/B Bond funds, CR last year bought the historic Garberville School site from the Southern Humboldt Unified School District. Renovation plans were recently approved by the California Division of the State Architect. Classes are expected to be offered at the new
CR Southern Humboldt Instructional Site in Garberville sometime during the 2011-2012 school year.

"We are bringing educational access straight to the communities where people live and work," Marsee said.

He added that he is also pleased that CR has not had to lay off any employees in spite of a shaky state financial picture. During the first two years of Marsee's time at CR, the college experienced rapid, double-digit enrollment growth. The college received a significant boost in state funding following these enrollment surges.

CR has also benefited from a number of large grants it has received in the last three years which have allowed the college to develop new programs and stabilize others, Marsee said.

He pointed to the $2 million collaborative grant the County of Humboldt's Economic Development Division and CR received from the U.S. Department of Labor in 2009. The grant calls for CR to establish 12 new career technical education programs, including: water and waste water operations; solar photovoltaic installation and solar thermal installation; a new welding certificate; a paramedic certificate; and a management and supervision certificate.

CR also received $2 million for its 38-acre Sustainable Agriculture Farm in Shively from a CalTrans mitigation grant, the details of which were finalized during Marsee's first year at the college. CR has also garnered well over $500,000 in local, state and national grants for the Humboldt Bay Regional Simulation Center, which uses a high-tech "family" of patient simulators to train nursing students and professional nurses to address high-risk situations in a safe setting.

Marsee also pointed to an administrative restructuring of the college with new deans and a new academic vice president during the past two and a half years as a major success. He pointed to a new Business Training Center, which provides contract education for businesses and individuals, and the CR Plus Program of classes for those 50 and older as positive new directions for the college developed during his time at CR.

He said he also very proud of the recently developed partnership with the Hoopa Tribe at the Klamath-Trinity Instructional Site in Hoopa which has doubled the enrollment and graduation rates of an under-served population of the CR District.

CR, especially on the main Eureka campus, is undergoing a major physical transformation. A new $19 million Student Services/Administration/Performing Arts building is being constructed with a combination of local bond and state funds. Two new academic buildings, funded with $29 million in local bond and state monies, are projected to break ground in summer 2011. The CR Del Norte Education Center in Crescent City and the CR Mendocino Coast Education Center in Fort Bragg are expected to renovate new science labs within the next year.

CR still has more than $12 million remaining in local bond money from Measure Q/B funds. Marsee was the driving force behind the effort to save the current Student Union building on the main Eureka campus when he arrived in July 2008.

A new Student Union had been proposed, which would have used about $11.5 million in local bond money. When the CR Board of Trustees, at Marsee's request, abandoned that plan, $10.5 million in bond money was saved for other projects, including the possible re-use of the old library.

CR also recently received word that it will receive priority funding of $28 million in state funding for utility infrastructure replacement and seismic strengthening if the state passes a community college facilities bond measure on the state November 2012 ballot.

"My wife, Leslie, and I have made some wonderful friends on the North Coast," Marsee said. "While we are excited to be moving on to San Joaquin Delta College, are sad to leave our friends at the college and in the community." 

 

The Humboldt Folklife Society is seeking your input. Here's the letter sent out by Maggie Gainer. The link to the survey is at the end.

Dear Lovers of Music and Dance,

Folk music and dance have become one of the defining characteristics of the Humboldt Bay area.  Every week throughout the year, there are a number of local musical artists performing, and there is wide community support of the folk arts, evidenced by consistently packed houses and attendance at the many music and theatre festivals (e.g., Humboldt Folklife Festival, Mad River Festival, Blues by the Bay).  In addition, we know that Folklife events are attracting loyal attendees from out of the area, with very little marketing.

The Humboldt Folklife Society is exploring the extent of local interest in and support for regularly offered instruction in folk music and dance, both for the benefit of local musicians of all ages and potentially for promoting arts and education tourism in the region.  We want to work with and help to publicize currently existing classes as well.

Please take a few minutes to complete this survey, and help shape the future of folk music and folk culture in our community.

Protestors opposed to the widening/straightening of Hwy 101 at Richardson's Grove shifted into direct action today, unfurling a banner across the highway at the entrance to the state park and creating what was deemed by authorities, a "traffic hazard."

Here's the incident report from the California Highway Patrol:

Location:  US101 AT RICHARDSON GROVE     

Incident: 0163 Type: Traffic Hazard      

Info as of: 2/21/2011 8:26:41 PM

1:11PM - 50 PROTESTERS, 12 OF THEM ARE IN THE RDWY BLKNG TRKS FROM GOING BY

1:18PM -  AT LEGEND OF BIG FOOT, ETA OF 1

1:25PM -  IN AREA , UNIT IS NOT STOPPING, CURRENTLY PROTESTERS ON RHS , NOT IN RDWAY PER R1

1:31PM -  R1 -- 101 MM 2 , JNO SINGING TREES, STANDING ON RHS, WAVING SIGNS AT THIS TIME

1:35PM -  APPROX 50 PROTESTERS AT THIS TIME O RHS, PER R1

1:48PM  -  PER C121 -- JNO SINGING TREES -- COMING DOWN LATER TODAY -- WILL BE LARGER BANNER ACROSS ROAD

2:03PM  -  PROTESTERS CURRENTLY ON FOG LINE

2:05PM  -  1039 TO 164 SHE IS GOING TO MAKE SOME CALL ADVISE ETA FOR THEM TO BE 1097

2:18PM  -  GVILLE SIDE 30 MIN FOR SIGN AND LEGGETT SIDE HOUR AND 30 MIN ETA FOR SIGN---PLS BC TO 105-S1

4:10PM -  NUMBER OF PROTESTERS REDUCED TO 20 OR SO PER R1 // STILL ON RHS AREA 105-S1 CPZ

5:06PM -  1039 MSO-NEG UNITS AVAIL, ALL UNITS IN WILLITS

5:47PM  - CHP Unit On Scene

photos above by Kim Sallaway

below from the Forest Defender's Blog, where they have  their own account of the event.

more on all this at Kym Kemp's Redheaded Blackbelt Blog including a post on this ominous bit of YouTube-age:

Two high school seniors from Southern Humboldt spoke at a rally in Eureka Saturday to protest the U.S. Navy's plans to create a target practice range off the Humboldt County coast.
"The animals don't have voices so we have to speak for them," 17-year-old Kali Persall of Shelter Cove told the 50 activists who gathered at the foot of F Street.

"The mammals, fish and ecology of entire coast will be affected," said John McAlinn, a retired teacher and member of Humboldt Veterans for Peace. He said he is particularly alarmed at the potential use of armor piercing depleted uranium shells.

Persall and fellow student Katrina Warner, who are both taking broadcast training at South Fork High, were invited to speak after they aired a public affairs program on KMUD Radio opposing the Navy plans.

"I understand there are national security reasons (for the test range) but I am against the target practice if it happens at the expense of animals," Warner said.

Katrina Warner and Kali Persall, 17-year-old seniors at South Fork High School, have appeared on KHUM Radio to oppose the Navy's target range plans.

Although the Navy plans were the main event, protestors addressed other issues including the proposed widening of Highway 101 at Richardson Grove and the tug of war over the reuse of the Jefferson School site in Eureka.

As activists huddled against the brisk Bay wind, event organizer Jack Nounnan told them they had the spirit of a 2,000-person rally: "I can see your hearts are strong and that's what it takes to build a movement."

- Tom Abate

Here's the Caltrans traffic-cam image of Hwy. 101 north of the new bridges at Confusion Hill, at 1:45 this afternoon.

Below, Route 299 at Berry Summit around 2:30 p.m.

Needless to say, road conditions are nasty out there, and two recent road fatalities highlight the danger. First there was the death of 24-year-old Fortuna CHP officer Thomas Adams, who was involved in a head-on collision near Piercy Tuesday afternoon, when it was pouring rain.

Yesterday saw another traffic fatality. According to a release from the CHP, a woman named Lauren Sanders was killed Wednesday night at approximatedly 7:45 after drifting off the road in her 2004 Chevy Avalanche and colliding with a tree. She was ejected from the vehicle and sustained fatal injuries. Her sole passenger was uninjured.

All of which is to say, drive carefully out there, folks.

Actually, technically and professionally speaking, Dean Christensen, CEO and president of Coast Central Credit Union, is Humboldt, Trinity and Del Norte counties' man.

As for the million dollars (or almost million dollars), that's what a report last week by the Orange County Register said Christensen made in compensation -- which is more than just salary -- in 2008, while the CCCU, meanwhile, saw a $5.2 million loss that same year.

But all is not what it seems. In this week's North Coast Journal, Christensen explains the many nuances the OCR left out -- Great Recession, anyone? Widespread financial industry bonk? And much more.

Check it out, on newsstands now and online Thursday.

In a community forum down in Stockton Tuesday, College of the Redwoods President Jeff Marsee (right) sought to convince the public that he should be hired as the next president of San Joaquin Delta College, and his pitch included a dig at the North Coast Journal.

Marsee suggested that last year's cover story on the turmoil at CR, College in Revolt, was unfair.

Today's Stockton Record quotes Marsee as saying, "They [the NCJ] like to assassinate community leaders on a regular basis. That's why people pick it up."

We're not sure which part of the story qualifies as assassination. Might it be the quotes taken verbatim from an employee satisfaction survey, saying things like, "Many of us sincerely believe that the President will destroy this institution"? Those weren't our words.

Could it be that we reported on the Public Employee Relations Board ruling that CR administrators "failed and refused to bargain in good faith" with faculty? [PERB agreed to hear this matter in March 2010 but issued no ruling. The case was settled last month.] Nah, that's silly. We had nothing to do with that decision. 

Maybe he objected to the fact-checking we did to reveal that while he was provost/vice president of operations at the Katharine Gibbs School in New York the college was investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice, and 60 Minutes for allegedly defrauding students, investors and the federal government. (The DOJ declined to prosecute; the school closed in 2009.)

Or perhaps Marsee didn't like that we called him out for his, er, misleading account of being given his "walking papers" (his words!) from the Ventura Community College District in 1996.

We'd look into it further, but we're awfully busy plotting our next sales-boosting journalistic manslaughter.

It started with a Facebook invite, "Queer Kissing Flashmob,"  sent out by some HSU students:

"Come meet us on the HSU quad to kiss your partner(s) at noon on Valentine's Day! Please wait until the clock starts to strike noon to start kissing your partner(s), kiss for between 5 to 10 minutes and then go about your day as you normally would."

Marriage Equality USA (requestmarriage.com) found out about it, suggested putting it in their national newsletter. With that Queer Flashmob spread to Eureka. "We're encouraging people to make out in public wherever they are on Valentine's Day to raise awareness for diverse sexualities!"