Nobody’s Fault
The anatomy of a suicide in the Humboldt County Jail
Cover Story
Nobody’s Fault
In January, journalism students from HSU, as part of an investigative reporting class taught by Assistant Professor Marcy Burstiner, set out to understand the intersection of the mental health and criminal justice systems in Humboldt County by investigating the death of one man: James Lee Peters, a Hoopa resident who committed suicide in the Humboldt…
Loaded for bear
We like to kill bears in Humboldt County. The Daily Triplicate tells us that Humboldt ranks fifth among California counties for bear kills (117 were 86’d by hunters last year), while noting that its own county — Del Norte — has felt a diminishing appetite for bear over the years (just 29 killed last year, down…
Dirty birds
Dear old Clam Beach has made the list that no self-respecting body of sand and surf would want to be on: The Top Ten Beach Bummers. Heal the Bay, a nonprofit environmental group, puts this list together each year as part of an annual water quality report card issued for more than 500 California beaches…
A Reader Writes
Last week we received the following letter from a reader — or Googler, more likely — in Waipawa, New Zealand. Editor: I have about 20 redwoods about 70 yr old and have just felled one to use the timber, but I am a bit ignorant of its qualities and how it should be milled, stored…
Mall Shame?
Local conservative radio blogger Tom Fredriksen of Old Glory Radio gave the Journal a ring today to inform us of the filth being hocked in the hallways of the Bayshore Mall in Eureka. In particular, he noticed a shirt in front of Spencer’s facing out towards passersby that read — close your eyes if you’re…
Van Eck Forest
NPR’s Weekend Edition has a story about the carbon credit industry in California that focuses on the Van Eck Forest in Humboldt County. Tamara Keith of the California Report reports. Listen here . Also, read this December, 2007 Journal story about the forest if you haven’t already.
Humboldt Auction Yard, Fortuna
From his rustic lectern, Lee Mora, auctioneer and owner of the Humboldt Auction Yard, presides over his cowboy-hat-and-cowboy-boot-clad flock of local ranchers. Ascending prices cascade off his tongue. Cows low and spin in the central corral. The cool air in the windowless interior of the auction yard is a fragrant mix of cow shit and…
Dystopia
Album by Dystopia Life is Abuse Records Dystopia’s reign over the 1990s hardcore crust scene, particularly here on the West Coast, is one of legend, with its tattered remnants still clinging to the fading black denim of scenesters new and old alike. It’s not that their brand of acrid and crushing doom-ridden punk was groundbreaking…
The Evangelist
Album by Robert Forster. Yep Roc Records The story of The Go-Betweens is, to paraphrase a Jean Luc-Godard film, one of a "band of outsiders," one of travelling along the fringes of contemporary pop music, without ever breaking into the mainstream. When The Go-Betweens first started, they developed in the mid-1970s alongside more "rogue" Australian…
Parsons Dance
Performance May 10 at the Van Duzer Theater. "That was cool," my 9-year-old exclaimed as the light went out after Hand Dance,performed by Parsons Dance, choreographed by artistic director David Parsons, a former principal dancer of The Paul Taylor Dance Company. Five pairs of hands were all that appeared, moving clever and playfully in the…
No Confidence
As the academic year draws to a close this week and droves of parents flood to town to collect their scholars, some of these visitors, leafing through a copy of Humboldt State University’s newspaper, theLumberjack, or, perhaps, this newspaper, might be troubled by a certain full-page ad. The ad, which first appeared in last week’s…
Acid Jazz at the Fox
They call it the "Red Fox Acid Jazz Experiment" with B. Swizlo and his Funky Friends, promising a "new line-up every week," on Monday nights at the Red Fox Tavern. This coming Monday they’re up to Vol. 3, and the plan, says keyboard whiz Brian "B" Swizlo (aka just plain Swiz), is to keep it…
Spring Scribe
Before this breeze brings the fog, already carrying…
Of Cubs and Men
Last week a reader came into the Journal office with what sounded like a really juicy story tip. It involved a death, a government agency and a cover-up. And it wasn’t an isolated incident. The agency responsible for protecting the victim, it was alleged, had a hidden agenda and a history of past offenses. For…
… and Poets and Writers
Last April I was invited to read one of the poems I had submitted to the 2008 Poets and Writers Celebration. This celebration, a performance celebrating original compositions by community members, students, staff and faculty of College of the Redwoods, is held each year at CR’s Eureka campus. A prize is awarded for the best…
The Schizophrenic Second
As expected, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week appointed Stafford resident Johanna Rodoni to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors. Rodoni takes the seat formerly occupied by her husband, the late Roger Rodoni, whose tragic and sudden death in an automobile accident late last month shot a hole through the county’s heart (see "Roger Rodoni, 1940-2008,"…
Leeks Two Ways
I am glad the Arcata Farmers’ Market has started its 2008 season. My Saturday mornings are once again convivial and exciting. I have already tried two kinds of previously untasted greens (purslane and amaranth greens) as well as the hulled barley I mentioned in a previous “Table Talk” article. A round of culinary explorations is…
Fossils Alive
Living fossils" are living species that resemble ancient fossils. In some cases, an organism was thought to be extinct until a modern specimen was discovered. The lobe-finned coelacanth is an example. Thousands of free copies of a lavishly illustrated book by Harun Yahya have been distributed to many schools in Europe. Their purpose is to…
Speed Racer: Not So Bad!
Note: Okay, so Portland is not much of a movie paradise. When you see that phrase "opening in selected cities," Portland gets to play that famous position "left out." Mostly, I saw a few films that opened there before they came here (some are yet to come). No matter, Portland has other Edenic qualities involving…
This Season in Ashland
Even before Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom made his name on Broadway, playwright August Wilson was intent on avoiding the all-too-common fate of a one-play career. For that crucial second play he also gave himself a specific challenge: to follow the eccentric structure and multiple focus of Ma Rainey with a more conventional narrative centered on…
Straw Report
A couple weeks ago, I wrote about my new experiment in vegetable gardening. The idea was to build raised beds out of rice straw bales, creating a no-dig bed that would basically turn into one giant compost pile at the end of the season. I heard from several people who were interested in trying the…
