General Lee
Can Oaksterdam weed magnate Richard Lee push legalization over the top?
Cover Story
General Lee
One day last month, Richard Lee was able to snatch a few minutes of freedom from the chaos of his daily life at his Oaksterdam University, the centerpiece of Oakland’s marijuana district. In the previous 15 minutes he had checked the enrollment figures for a growing workshop he was scheduled to teach that weekend, made…
Pennisi Resigns From Planning Committee
Trinidad Planning Commissioner Sam Pennisi has submitted his resignation to that body in the wake of controversy and outrage that followed the illegal tree and brush clearing of sensitive tribal land that blocked the view from his property. The succinct letter reads as follows: Dear Councilmembers; Please accept this letter as my resignation from the…
Prop 8 Overturned, Rally Planned
Federal Judge Vaughn Walker today overturned the narrowly voter-approved Proposition 8, finding that the anti-gay marriage ballot measure was unconstitutional under both the due process and equal protection clauses. The ruling is expected to be appealed and will likely end up in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court. The local chapter of PFLAG, Parents,…
![PETA Asks Eureka to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages [Updated]](https://i0.wp.com/www.northcoastjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/kristen-johnston-nude-peta.webp?resize=400%2C300&ssl=1)
PETA Asks Eureka to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages [Updated]
Responding to last weekend’s carriage ride accident in Old Town Eureka, the activist group PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, this morning sent an “urgent letter” to Eureka Mayor Virginia Bass and the Eureka City Council calling on them to ban horse-drawn carriages in the city. “Forcing horses to pull heavy loads…
HSU Student Helping With BP Disaster Cleanup
The Huffington Post has this story about “bird triage units” on the Louisiana coastline, where volunteers, including 20-year-old Humboldt State University student Stephany Helbig (pictured at right), are rescuing, washing and exporting birds who’ve been drenched in oil after British Petrolium’s Deepwater Horizon disaster. Downsides to the work? Hot, humid, 12-hour workdays clad in a…
Carriage Driver’s Wife: ‘Marty’s Fine’
Marty L’Herault, the carriage driver who was injured after his horse Cinnamon was spooked by skateboarders Saturday evening, is doing fine according to family members. He was transfered to Mercy Medical in Redding Sunday as a precautionary measure, but his wife Michelle said he’s doing “really well.” “Marty is fine; he’s just super sore,” she…
Horse-drawn Carriage Accident in Old Town
A horse-drawn carriage and its owner-operator were involved in a serious accident in Old Town Eureka tonight after the horse was reportedly spooked by skateboarders on the boardwalk. The carriage driver, Marty L’Herault, was seriously injured and transported to St. Joseph Hospital. The horse was also injured, though able to walk, according to an eyewitness.…
Oh Yeah
Editor: In our world where we so often question what’s right, what’s wrong, who’s right and who’s wrong, it was nice to stop and read Paul Mann’s poem that you printed last week, “Reclusion, Early Summer” (July 22). It was a pleasant reminder of what many of us love about our beautiful Humboldt County. Thank…
Poet’s Bulletin Board On Peninsula Road
POETRY THRILLA HERE IN MANILA! Be brave, shout…
Hoovered Hornets
Editor: “The Hornet Whisperer” (July 15) reminded me of my 2007 encounter with a yellowjacket colony. The first exterminator couldn’t find them. The second said the only option was putting poison dust on their entry hole and hoping the workers tracked in a lethal dose. With our vegetable garden downwind? Not. Friends said wait until…
To Kill A Mockingbird
This is the 50th anniversary year for one of the most beloved and enduring American novels. The success of To Kill A Mockingbird was immediate, winning the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it remains among the top 10 best selling novels of these 50 years. It is also one of the five most assigned…
The Sunny Side of Eureka Budget Cuts
Cartoon by Joel Mielke.
The Way Out
It began with a dinner invitation. Based in North Adams, Mass., the experimental duo The Books was formed in New York City in 1999, when cellist Paul de Jong invited guitarist and vocalist Nick Zammuto, who lived in the same building, over for dinner. After de Jong played Zammuto some of his collection of audio…
August 1-15, 2010
Aug. 1: This is how gardeners in Anchorage grow pumpkins: Submerge a seedling heat mat just underground, plug it into an outdoor electrical outlet, and plant a pumpkin next to it. Cover the plant with a plastic hoophouse frame and drape it with floating row cover, which must be anchored down with bricks. To avoid…
The Fisherman’s Terminal Map
The problem facing the designer of the new northern hemisphere map at Eureka’s Fishermen’s Terminal was no different from the one that ancient Egyptian mapmaker Ptolemy faced: How can you accurately transfer the curved surface of a sphere onto a flat surface? In 2,000 years the answer hasn’t changed: You can’t. No flat map can…
Designing Grandparents
North Coast Repertory Theatre seems intent on recapitulating my life this season. First they disinterred the Sisters of Charity from my grade school in Doubt, although the sight of a forelock peeking out from a stage nun’s bonnet was surprisingly scandalous. We used to wonder whether nuns even had hair. It seemed possible the Sisters…
Golden
A 45-rpm record called “The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)” was the first single from the 1967 self-titled debut album by a band called The Grateful Dead. It did not exactly make waves and it never cracked the Billboard Top 100, but the song proved somewhat prescient. The band and its late/great guitar player Jerry…
Passionate Mimes
The words “San Francisco Mime Troupe” circle the big red star on the side of the collective’s bio-diesel truck. Below that it says, “No, NOT that kind of mime…” “No, we do not do silent mime,” said troupe member Michael Gene Sullivan with a laugh. For 51 years, the SF Mime Troupe has been crafting…
Très Jolie
Previews DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS. Director Jay Roach (Austin Powers, Meet the Parents) starts with the premise from the French comedy Le Diner de Cons: Upscale businessmen compete to bring the most mock-worthy schmuck to dinner. Tim (Paul Rudd) joins the game to curry favor and finds wacky Barry (Steve Carell from The Office), who uses…
This Year’s Model
“I was born in the swamp, down in a ditch that goes down to the swamp,” says James Lewis Carter “T-Model” Ford. The swamp was near Forrest, Miss. Exactly when he was born is in dispute. His driver’s license has one date, his passport another. He claims he’s 90, but his relations say he’s younger.…
Poor Reception
“Ideally, this type of legislation would not be something that local government would pass,” said Councilmember Shane Brinton during the Arcata City Council’s regular meeting last Tuesday, as he pushed his fellow members to consider an ordinance that would require cell phone merchants to label the radiation output of their product. “This sort of labeling…
Going Global
A ship is coming! Sometime next week, or maybe the week following (depending on customs paperwork and such), a 550-foot vessel will enter Humboldt Bay and dock at the Fairhaven Terminal on the Samoa Peninsula. Longshoremen, operating the ship’s own cranes, will then hoist aboard as many as five million board feet of timber –…
Meditation Champion
Editor: Thank you for printing Barry Evans’ excellent description of Humboldt’s jail meditation group (“A Room Without a View,” July 22). Evans mentions Karen Keasey, the jail’s Correction Program Coordinator. The decade-long existence of this program is a tribute to Ms. Keasey’s commitment to helping those of us who find ourselves in jail. She is…
Busting Our Balls
Editor: I’m replying to the Town Dandy “Top O’ The World” article by Hank Sims printed in the July 22 issue of your paper. This article is just another example of poor journalism — really just a Hank Sims opinion piece, aimed at dividing people. What really upset me was the reference he made twice…
