Next Monday, two county supervisors will call into question the 12 principles that have been guiding the county’s general plan update since March 2004. In an email to Planning Director Kevin Hamblin sent yesterday evening, 2nd District Supervisor Estelle Fennell offered a draft of 11 rewritten guiding principles. She explained that she’s “been hearing from several people” about the existing principles and that both she and 5th 1st District Supervisor Rex Bohn would like to see her alternative versions discussed.
How do Fennell’s guiding principles differ from the existing ones? They put a stronger emphasis on property rights and rural development and deemphasize environmental protections.
Redwood National Park is closing two unpaved roads, starting on Monday, June 3, saying it doesn't have the money to maintain them properly. Hikers and cyclists will still be able to use the roads to reach their favorite trails, but driving to those trailheads is out.
San Francisco Chronicle outdoors writer Tom Stienstra has a note or two about options for hikers here. And the park's press release is here.
I suppose this is what you end up with when you rename an airport by committee — an unwieldy 13-syllable Franken-name that no one will ever use in conversation. Ever.
Today the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted five-zip to change the name of the Arcata-Eureka Airport to (deep breath) "California Redwood Coast — Humboldt County Airport." What, no mention of oysters? Can't we fit the Kinetic Sculpture Race in there? And Bigfoot! Where is Bigfoot?!
The top vote-getter on a list of suggestions compiled by county staff was the much more elegant "Humboldt Redwoods Regional Airport." But instead the board went with a suggestion offered by the 15-syllable Humboldt County Aviation Advisory Committee.
On the bright side, the new name will give people something to read while waiting for delayed flights.
The Journal's own Heidi Walters has been named a national finalist for beat reporting by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia. We entered just a few of her wonderful and diverse pieces of environmental reporting: Bright Bird, about research into bird intelligence; The World is Yours, Oyster Farmer, about aquaculture in Humboldt Bay, and A Place in the Woods, about threatened closures of state parks.
Winners will be announced on July 13 at the association's annual conference in Miami.
Two men are safe after their boat capsized just off the South Jetty on May 23. The crew of a rescue boat from the Humboldt Bay Coast Guard rushed to pull the two fishermen out of the water, according to a Coast Guard press release.
A bystander saw the 16-foot boat flip over and contacted the Coast Guard.
The crew threw a lifeline into the water for the two men to grab onto, but one of the men was so cold he could not move to grab it. His fellow survivor had to help him grab the rope. Back on shore, one of the men was treated for hypothermia.
The Eureka Police Department today issued a press release saying that Bodhi Tree, the 28-year-old suspect in last weekend's double murder in Arcata, is now considered a "person of interest" in a May 15 shooting in Eureka.
Read the press release below.
In the midst of grief over the death of their 18-year-old daughter Christina, Stewart and Tina Schwarz of Eureka are trying to find solace and inspiration from her memory. Despite the sudden and tragic loss, her mom said, “Her light will always shine.”
Tina Schwarz said her daughter embraced life and encouraged others to do the same. “That’s one thing we can carry with us — to live life to the fullest,” Tina Schwarz said this morning.
Early Saturday morning, Eureka High School senior Christina Schwarz and 27-year-old Alan “Sunshine” Marcet were murdered inside the house at 2457 Eye Street in Arcata. Later that day, following a brief but intense manhunt, officers arrested Bodhi Tree, a 28-year-old with a criminal history, and booked him into the Humboldt County Jail on two counts of murder.
Update 5/19: Bob was moved out of the intensive care unit on Sunday, and his family has been told that in the next few days he'll be moved to a rehabilitation unit at Santa Rosa Memorial.
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North Coast Journal Arts and Culture Editor Bob Doran had a stroke at HSU today while photographing graduation. Travis Turner was there, recognized the signs of stroke and called 911 for an ambulance. Travis also called Amy, Bob's wife, who met them at St. Joseph Hospital. After preliminary tests, Bob was transported by air to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.
Amy drove down and is with him tonight. His family has been notified. He is conscious and receiving care but we'll all know more tomorrow, after an additional CT scan and further evaluation, about the extent of his injuries.
You may have heard that the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution urging local businesses to stop selling rodenticides. (The poisonous chemicals, which are often used in outdoor marijuana grows, have been killing Pacific Fishers and poisoning dozens of other wildlife species locally.)
But did you see this? A man by the name of Hal Ambuter, who represents multinational pharmaceutical company Reckitt Benckiser LLC, makers of d-CON rodent poisons, wrote a letter to the board expressing his deep, heartfelt and not-at-all self-serving concerns about the resolution.
Update: Kai has been arrested, the Associated Press reports.
The "homefree" hitchhiker known as Kai (real name Caleb Lawrence McGillvary) is reportedly wanted for murder in New Jersey. According to news reports McGillvary is being sought in connection with the death of 73-year-old New Jersey attorney Joseph Galfy Jr.
McGillvary, who lists his home as Eureka on Facebook, shot to fame in February after giving an amusingly manic TV interview describing how he'd used a hatchet to save three people from a driver with a Christ complex.
He described his childhood as abusive in a recent Facebook post, and on Tuesday, the same day Galfy's body was discovered, McGillvary suggested in another post that he had been drugged and sexually assaulted the previous night.
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