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February 15, 2001
Rollin'
rollin' rollin'
The first freight train in two
years ran Tuesday on the Northwestern Pacific line from Lombard
in Napa County to Schellville in Sonoma.
It was the first section of
rail line, 40 miles in length, to reopen following the November
1998 shutdown ordered by the Federal Railroad Authority due to
unsafe track conditions.
Bob Jehn, chairman of the North
Coast Railroad Authority, told the North Coast Leadership Roundtable
Tuesday he expects the line to Windsor will be open in about
a month and Willits by summer.
"The board is developing
a strategy to get the (Eel River) canyon open by the end of the
year -- with or without FEMA," Jehn said. "We are committed
to reopening the entire line (to Humboldt Bay). That is the foundation
for a realistic transportation corridor."
The Federal Emergency Management
Authority has been withholding $8 million in disaster relief
funds from the railroad pending environmental review.
The railroad authority board,
which oversees the only publicly owned freight rail line in California,
is hoping to complete an "environmental assessment"
and avoid a full-blown environment impact report on the Eel River
canyon route.
The state has allocated $60
million to the repair and reconstruction of the line. Jehn reported
that $2.8 million has been received and dispersed to creditors
of the financially troubled line. The next payment of $6.2 million
is due within weeks.
Jehn said that even with the
entire $60 million in state funds, the board estimates it is
still "about $30 million short of complete rehabilitation"
on the line. And he made it clear the board is looking to the
federal government for help.
Larry Henderson, a Eureka planning
consultant and member of the leadership roundtable, said a railroad
support coalition of civic organization is being formed to push
for full funding to reopen and maintain the line. Among those
organizations already on record supporting the railroad are the
Humboldt County Taxpayers League, Friends of Humboldt, Citizens
for Port Development, the Sierra Club and the League of Women
Voters.
Back from
Iraq
Arcata's globe-trotting peace
activist Edilith Eckart recently returned from the Ramsey Clark-Iraq
Sanctions Challenge No. 4.
The embargo-defying mission
to Baghdad and Basrah included a delivery of $4 million worth
of medicines and hospital supplies crossing the U.S. no-_y zone
in an Iraq Airlines Boeing 747.
Eckart's personal agenda included
inspecting the repaired Labbani water purification plant south
of Basrah that was repaired by members of Veterans for Peace.
The organization sent a work party there in October to help supply
uncontaminated water to the Abul Khaseeb Valley which was getting
its water from a polluted river. Eckart also visited the Ameriyah
Bomb Shelter which was devasted 10 years ago by two bombs that
killed hundreds of women and children.
"This time I brought with
me very personal letters from local Friends (Quakers) stating
how sorry they were that the children of the neighborhood had
been killed," said Eckart in an e-mail report. "I connected
with a woman. She had lost her mother and niece in the bombing.
She was in tears as she read the letters.
"The schoolrooms still
had no supplies. Graphite in pencils is a prohibited import,
since the UN committee classifies it as a weapon material. The
children had a slate blackboard in the front of the classroom
and each child had a small piece of chalk on the desk. A local
Arcata person donated colored chalk boxes, which I presented
to the classroom," Eckart said.
Veteran for Peace will send
another work party March 12 to initiate repair of three more
water plants. Arcata Chapter 56 and Garberville Chapter 22 have
been handling the financing and arranging for the plant worktrips.
Donations may be made to Veterans for Peace Iraq Water Project
P.O. Box 532, Bayside 95524.
Eureka homes
on HGTV
When the "Old Homes Restored"
television crew came to town in January it promised a quick turnaround
on the segments shot in Eureka. The Home and Garden Television
(HGTV) programs featuring Eureka homes and artisans began airing
this week. (See the Journal
Jan. 25 cover story, "Restoring Architectural Heritage.")
"Old Homes Restored"
is shown two times on Tuesdays and again the following Sunday
afternoon on HGTV, cable channel 29. Episode 207, with a section
on Mary Beth Wolford's Old Town French apartment, airs Sunday,
Feb. 18 at 3 p.m.
Episode 208 includes three segments
shot in Eureka -- the restoration of the Zanone/Kuhnel Queen
Anne house, the Gunther Island fisherman's cottage home of Mark
Staniland and Mayor Nancy Flemming and an "In the Details"
short on Allen Van Etten's work with antique lighting. It airs
Tuesday, Feb. 20, at 4:30 and 11:30 p.m. with a repeat 3 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 25.
Episode 209, runs Tuesday, Feb.
27, and Sunday, March 4, with a "Problem Solver" segment
on earthquake restoration at the Zanone/Kuhnel House. Episode
210 airs March 6 and 11 with a visit to the Blue Ox Millworks.
For more information visit the
Eureka Heritage Society website at www.eurekaheritage.org.
Radio regs
rankle DJs
When KHSU DJ Sista Soul was
a child, she loved her shortwave radio because she could listen
to people from around the world and enjoy the full diversity
of radio. She said she sees the same potential in Internet radio,
calling it "a marvelous idea."
"But when they mess with
my show and tell me what I can do, it's like telling an artist,
`You can't use that color on your canvas.'"
KHSU, the National Public Radio
affiliate at Humboldt State University, has initiated plans to
go online, sending out its programming to anyone with an Internet
connection. But there's a hitch: The U.S. Copyright Office has
issued rules about what can be played on the Internet that would
seriously mess with radio programming like Sista Soul's. The
new regulations only apply to Internet radio, but if KHSU and
other Humboldt stations want to broadcast over the web, they
will apply.
At the heart of the new regulations
are rules stipulating how much music from a single copyrighted
source can be played per three-hour period -- no more than three
cuts from a single album or four cuts by the same artist can
be played over that period. There are other new rules as well,
prohibiting playing more than two consecutive songs from the
same album or making public a list of what you will be playing.
The rules would play hell with
shows like hers, Sista Soul said. She likes to feature artists,
focusing on one performer for a large part of her show.
"Part of my educational
process is to show the breadth of someone's work. If I only had
the opportunity to play four songs by that artist, my hands are
tied."
That's why she and at least
one other programmer are refusing to sign agreements circulated
by the management of KHSU that state they will abide by the rules.
Sista Soul and fellow DJ Jean Wellington, who have a combined
33 years of experience broadcasting for the station, have both
said they simply will not sign anything they don't agree with.
Terry Green, KHSU's station
manager, said he doesn't agree with the regulations either. But
getting onto the Internet is of vital importance to the station
because it "directly corresponds with KHSU's mission.
"Humboldt alumni who live
elsewhere want to have a connection to the community," and
an Internet broadcast could provide that link. In addition, the
novelty of Internet broadcasting makes it a perfect fit for a
university radio station.
"It's part of what we do.
We turn stuff like this on and see what happens."
The station's best chance to
fight the regulations is to appeal to its congressional representatives
and have the law changed, Green said. In the meantime, KHSU does
not have a firm policy about what will happen to people who refuse
to sign the agreement.
One other radio station in the
area knows exactly what it is going to do: nothing.
Randy Joe Blount, KHUM general
manager, said his station's strategy is to "ignore the rules."
If forced, the station might take the copyright office to court,
Blount said, because "the government has decided to go into
a place it doesn't belong."
The issue is of special importance
to KHUM because they enjoyed great success on the Internet, claiming
around 10,000 listening sessions per month.
They've gained that listenership
by providing a unique product, Blount said, and they're not about
to let someone else tell them what they can do.
"The government is trying
to mandate radio into providing an inferior product and not serve
the needs of listeners."
Flap
over Flatmo beer label
![[photo of beer bottle]](news0215-beer.jpg) Imagine you're in the grocery store
and want to buy a six-pack of beer. You're browsing past Steelhead
and Bud when something unusual catches your eye: A bottle of
stout with Jesus on the label.
That's what Rama Rawal, a Eureka
resident of Indian descent, feels like when she sees the Lost
Coast Brewery's Indica Pale Ale, which features the Hindu deity
Ganesh with a beer in his hand. Rawal isn't a practicing Hindu,
but she does place great importance on her cultural heritage,
and she said the label has offended her, her family and friends.
"If I saw a beer with Jesus
drinking on the label I just wouldn't buy the beer," said
Duane Flatmo, the artist who designed the label. Flatmo said
he is genuinely sorry if he has offended anyone -- when he was
painting the picture, he went to the effort of asking several
Hindus he knew if it would offend them and they said it would
not.
Ganesh, a multiarmed creature
with the head of an elephant, was chosen for the label because
"it looked cool," said Flatmo.
But Rawal said the idea of using
a god to sell something, especially beer, should have raised
a red flag.
"I think he should have
considered the fact he was taking something so sacred and putting
it in front of billions of people."
Flatmo, who said he believes
in God himself, said he respects her right to protest but never
meant to offend.
"If Ganesh forgives people,
I ask for his forgiveness."
News show
plug pulled
If you tried to tune in the
5:30 evening news on ABC affiliate KAEF this week you found World
News Tonight in its place. In the face of lackluster ratings,
the local news department folded its tent Tuesday, Feb. 6.
Channel 23's news director Cheryl
Broom and the show's technical director have moved to Redding
to work for KAEF's sister station. The rest of the county's smallest
TV news department is looking for other work.
In a call from Redding, Station
Manager Bob Wise said KAEF is exploring a number of options for
replacement programing.
"We wonder if there might
be interest in news coming from the San Francisco area, or news
from Chico/Redding or even news from Sacramento. We're hoping
to get some viewer input on what they'd like to see."
The station's 11 p.m. news brief
broadcast has been replaced with a Eureka weather forecast sent
over from Redding.
Certain
gun locks recalled
Gun owners who went to the trouble
of putting a lock on their firearm might be in for a nasty surprise.
More than 400,000 of the devices
have been recalled by the National Shooting Sports Foundation
because, according to a foundation report, "under certain
conditions they can open without the use of the key, giving unauthorized
access to a firearm."
The locks in question were distributed
by the foundation, sometimes through law enforcement agencies.
They have a red cable and a black padlock and are imprinted with
"PROJECT HOMESAFE" and "Made in China." To
view the recalled lock, go to www.projecthomesafe.org. Call 1-800-726-6444
for more information.
Your taxes
really at work
You probably won't be thinking
about fresh vegetables when you fill out your California tax
return this year -- but there's good reason to. On Line 57 of
your return, you can volunteer to contribute funds to the Emergency
Food Assistance Program, money that will be sent to food banks
across California.
The money is important to food
banks, said Cynthia Chason, executive director of Eureka's Food
for People, Inc. While donations of non-perishables provide the
bulk of the food they distribute, "we've found we don't
always have enough fresh fruits and vegetables," Chason
said. So far, the program has been worth $6,315, or "enough
carrots and potatoes to last six months," Chason said.
"We have a lot of low-income
families and individuals here," she said, and even a modest
contribution can make a big difference.
Chesbro
appointments, grades
State Sen. Wesley Chesbro had
a pretty good week. First, he was given an A+ for his environmental
voting record, and then he learned he's in line for a few key
committee assignments.
The California League of Conservation
Voters, the nation's largest and oldest environmental political
action committee, grades the voting records of state senators
once per legislative year. Chesbro received a perfect score for
the second year in a row.
Searching for practical solutions
helped him achieve the perfect rating, Chesbro said.
"Fewer of these bills were
polarizing like environmental proposals in the past. They are
instead reflective of the attempt to come up with economic and
environmental solutions," Chesbro said in a telephone interview
from Sacramento.
Avoiding polarizing issues can
be tough sometimes. Senate Bill 717, which would have instituted
two-year moratorium on clearcutting in California, would have
required Chesbro to choose a side in the sometimes bitter fight
over timber practices. The Senate adjourned before the bill could
be considered, and Chesbro said it would be hard to say what
he would have done.
"I am in favor of a less
polarizing approach," he said.
Chesbro was named last week
to the committee on Health and Human Services and the subcommittee
on aging and long-term care. He said he has been told by Senate
President Pro Tem John Burton (San Francisco) that he will be
appointed chair of the budget subcommittee dealing with health
care, veterans' affairs and labor.
"I'm going to be focusing
on inadequate care, HMOs in rural areas, the needs of low-income
seniors in rural areas and on rural health clinics," Chesbro
said. The budget appointment will be especially important because
"the natural order of things is that rural areas do not
get their fair share" of state health care dollars.
"This gives me the opportunity
to make sure rural areas get back their share of taxes sent to
the state."
COVER
STORY | CALENDAR
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Inc.
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