COVER
STORY | STAGE DOOR
| THE HUM | CALENDAR
March 17, 2005
YOU-REEK-A: It's a blast
from the past, a glorious opportunity for old-timers to show
youngsters and newcomers how things were in the good old days.
Yes, Eureka stinks again. Lawrence Odle, director of the North
Coast Unified Air Quality Management District, said Tuesday that
his office received a large number complaints last week, after
Evergreen Pulp began operations at the old Stockton Pacific pulp
mill in Samoa, which Evergreen's parent company -- the Hong Kong-based
Lee & Man -- acquired in late January. And if the company
gets its way, there could be more stench on the way. Evergreen
has asked the district to relax its regulations on the mill until
the end of December. According to Odle, the company would like
to be able to pump an additional 18 tons of particulate matter,
above and beyond what is currently permitted, into the air around
Humboldt Bay between now and then. The Air Quality District's
hearing board will hold a public meeting on the issue at 10 a.m.
Wednesday, March 23, in the Eureka City Council Chambers, 5th
and K streets.
WHEETLEY WINS IN ARCATA: Mark Wheetley,
46, a planner with the state Department of Fish and Game, is
the newest member of the Arcata City Council, having won in a
landslide with 49.9 percent of the vote among six candidates.
His closest challenger, energy research engineer Michael Winkler,
garnered 30 percent of the vote in the special election, which
was held to replace Councilmember Elizabeth Conner, who resigned
mid-way through her term. Wheetley will take his seat as soon
as the election is certified by the county, no more than 30 days
since the March 8 contest. Wheetley said that he has stacked
his campaign signs in his garage, awaiting his re-election drive
-- just 18 months away.
MULTIPLE ASSISTANCE CENTER
TO OPEN: The county's new homeless shelter and services
facility, the Multiple Assistance Center, opens its doors with
a two-day celebration this weekend. On Friday, a who's-who collection
of notables from local, state and federal government will descend
on the MAC's recently completed building at 139 Y St., Eureka,
for a tour and ribbon-cutting. On Saturday, the public is invited
to tour the facilities between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. After months
of construction delays, Simone Taylor of the Redwood Community
Action Agency was ecstatic Monday: "It's finally happening!"
Taylor said that the MAC would begin accepting its first occupants
in the next few weeks. The center is a joint project of RCAA,
the county of Humboldt and the city of Eureka.
ARCATA ENDEAVOR INSPECTED: A team composed
of employees of the city of Arcata and the county health department
conducted two spot inspections at the Arcata Endeavor -- the
city's homeless services center -- in the last month. With tensions
over the city's homeless population running high, some Endeavor
employees feel that the organization is being targeted. The Endeavor's
lease of a city building near the Arcata Plaza comes up for renewal
in June, and at least one employee fears that someone in the
city seeks to give the organization a bad name in advance of
the new lease. City Manager Dan Hauser said Tuesday that yearly
inspections of the facility were part of the city's contract
with the Endeavor, and that county health came along this time
because it had received some complaints about food safety in
the kitchen. The health department did record several violations,
he said. But Hauser said that a second, follow-up inspection
showed that all the health violations noted on the first visit
had been remedied.
TEEN ANGER SPURS CRASH: A Eureka woman suffered moderate injuries, including
a possible broken arm, after her 16-year-old daughter attempted
to interfere with the family's car Monday afternoon, the California
Highway Patrol said. Kjersti Mary Peters, 35, was driving a 1983
Cadillac Cimarron northbound at 65 mph on Highway 101 south of
Big Lagoon Park toward central Oregon shortly before 5 p.m.,
the CHP said. Her daughter, who did not want to go to Oregon,
reached over from the front passenger's seat, turned off the
ignition, and pulled the emergency brake -- putting the car into
a rear-wheel locked skid, the CHP said. Peters then overreacted,
and, in cop-language, "added steering input," causing
her to lose control of the car, which then overturned and hit
a stand of trees, officials said. Peters was taken to a hospital
for treatment, and arrested on suspicion of driving under the
influence. Her son Lucas peters, 12, was treated for minor injuries.
Police were considering filing charges against the 16-year-old
girl, whom they did not identify, on suspicion of interfering
with a driver.
ANGELIDES ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY: State Treasurer
Phil Angelides announced his candidacy for governor of California
this week, and included in his 19-city tour was an appearance
in Humboldt County at 8 a.m. Thursday, March 17, at the Eureka
Women's Club, 1531 J St. The 51-year-old native of Sacramento,
who has snagged the endorsements of U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), believes that "people
can both do well and do right at the same time," meaning
business success and social responsibility can and should co-exist,
said Angelides' spokesman, Dan Newman. Angelides vowed to lead
California on the "high road to prosperity -- where we have
the most livable cities, the cleanest environment and the best-educated
workers -- so we can compete for and win the high-wage jobs of
the future," and criticized Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for
his "massive deficit borrowing" and cuts to education.
Before being elected state treasurer in 1998, Angelides worked
elsewhere in state government and formed his own business, which
planned and built the "environmentally sustainable"
community of Laguna West near Sacramento, according to his Web
site.
LUNSFORD GUILTY: On Friday, Douglas Lunsford was convicted of the
2002 murder of his former son-in-law Nathan Dannemiller in Eureka,
the District Attorney's Office said. The decision came after
two days of jury deliberations following a six-week trial. Lunsford
was convicted of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit
murder. His wife, Marcella Lunsford, and her son Charles Lunsford,
also stand accused of conspiring to kill Dannemiller, who was
the husband of Chastity Dannemiller, Marcella's daughter. Douglas
Lunsford is scheduled to be sentenced on April 7, one week before
Marcella Lunsford's April 14 trial confirmation hearing. Last
year, Charles Lunsford was found incompetent to stand trial.
District Attorney Paul Gallegos prosecuted the case and will
handle Marcella Lunsford's trial as well.
MARCH TO LAUNCH AMBASSADOR: The organizers of the Peace March, scheduled for
Saturday, March 19, in Eureka, have announced that they will
send an "ambassador" to Washington, D.C., to meet with
officials and discuss peace and the ongoing war in Iraq. Different
people will rotate through the position for two weeks at a time,
said Communities of Peace member Ellen Taylor, and the first
person will be symbolically "launched" from the waterfront
on the day of the march. See "Calendar" for march details.
ATTACK DOG OWNER SNIFFED
OUT: The
owner of a dog that severely bit a 2-year-old girl last week
was arrested by Eureka Police days after the owner left the scene
of the mauling. Melanie Dawn Engebretson, 25, of Bayside was
helping a landlord clean the residence where the attack took
place in the 3200 block of Albee Street, in Eureka, according
to the Eureka Police Department. The child was walking down the
back porch steps when she lost her footing and grabbed a hold
of the chow and wolf-hybrid mix that was not chained up, EPD
Animal Control Officer Maia Levin said. The dog then severely
bit the toddler in the face and around the lips. Engebretson,
who was known only by her first name at the time, told the child's
family that she would get the dog's rabies paperwork and come
back later. She never returned. Over the weekend police received
a tip that led them to Engebretson's mother's Bayside home. She
was arrested there on Monday on an unrelated warrant for a probation
violation regarding drunk driving charges, according to police.
Detective Curt Honeycutt said that Engebretson who lied about
her name when police arrived said that she fled the scene because
she was scared her dog would be euthanized. The dog is currently
being held at the Humboldt County Animal Shelter in McKinleyville.
A hearing will be held to decide whether or not the dog should
be killed. Engebretson was taken to the Humboldt County Jail,
police said. The child was hospitalized and has undergone surgery,
and must have more reconstructive treatment for her wounds, according
to police.
THOSE ADORABLE SEAL PUPS: March is the start
of pupping season for the county's harbor seals, which means
that it's not too uncommon these days for beachgoers to come
across an adorable, big-eyed seal puppy looking lost, lonely
and abandoned on the shore. What to do? "Don't pick it up,
don't carry it around, don't pour water on it, don't put it into
the water," says Tristen Joy, the North Coast Marine Mammal
Center's Humboldt County rescue coordinator. The pups' incomparable
cuteness often inspires unwise actions such as these, Joy says;
in fact, it is almost certain that the mommy seal is simply out
fishing and will return to her precious forthwith. Joy recommends
that people instead take a quick, loving gander and then give
the pup some space. State law requires people to stay 50 feet
away from the little fellows. The same goes for molting adult
elephant seals, which are also beginning to appear on local beaches
about now. And any time you see a seal or any other marine mammal
on a Humboldt County beach, please let Joy know. Her number is
839-1664.
STILL WORKING ON THE RAILROAD: There's been a rash
of good news for the North Coast Railroad Authority, the little
state agency that thinks it can. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena)
announced last week that the House of Representatives has reintroduced
the Transportation Equity Act, a bill that includes forgiveness
of $12 million in NCRA debt to the federal government and throws
in another $8.6 million in grants for good measure. The Senate
scotched the bill last year, but in a press release Thompson
promised to keep up the fight. Not wishing to be outdone, state
Sen. Wes Chesbro (D-Arcata) introduced a bill that would free
up some $5.5 million held in trust for the authority so that
it may fund environmental studies. It's been 15 years since the
state Legislature bought the old, decrepit Humboldt County-Bay
Area Northwestern Pacific line and created the NCRA to run it,
and around eight years since any trains have made it to Humboldt
County.
EUREKA REPORTER RAMPS
UP PRODUCTION: The Eureka newspaper
war is one step closer to going thermonuclear this week, as the
Eureka Reporter moves to a thrice-weekly publishing schedule.
"It's very exciting," said Publisher Judi Pollace,
late of the Times-Standard's sister paper in Clear Lake,
of her new paper's ongoing transition to a daily paper. The Reporter
will publish on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Local developer
and business magnate Rob Arkley, who has long expressed dissatisfaction
with the Times-Standard's coverage, founded the Reporter
a year and half ago, and his company, Security National, continues
to own it. Monday found Times-Standard Editor Charles
Winkler in a generous mood, vis à vis the competition.
"Good luck, and the more the merrier," he said.
POTAWOT VILLAGE HONORED: Congratulations to United Indian Health Services,
which was named as a winner of the American Psychiatric Foundation's
second annual Awards for Advancing Minority Mental Health last
week. Steve Rubloff, the APF's executive director, said Tuesday
that competition for the award was very tough this year, but
UIHS stood out. "Their work is exemplary," he said.
"We feel honored and privileged to recognize an organization
that is doing very innovative work, especially with young people."
Tene Kremling, a supervisor in UIHS' Potawot Heath Village Child
and Family Services department, said that the award recognized
innovative youth peer programs, some of which deal with mental
health and substance abuse issues. UIHS will receive a $5,000
check from the foundation at a ceremony in May.
Cockburn
calls for optimism despite war, political floundering
by CAT
SIEH
IN JUST TWO HOURS FRIDAY, ALEXANDER
COCKBURN, progressive political columnist and all around rabble-rouser,
described Democrats as the enemy of social change and Greens
as a joke.
An older crowd of more than
50 people filled the Westhaven Center for the Arts nearly to
capacity on March 11 to hear Cockburn's lecture, "The Shape
of Things to Come." The lecture, part of the center's series,
"West Coast Authors Explore Current Affairs," addressed
the downfalls of the left, the anti-war movement, the homogeny
of the press and why politics has become the practice of ignoring
the big issues.
Above all, the self-proclaimed
optimist emphasized a positive political outlook.
"Pessimism is all very
well, but you can't run just on pessimism," Cockburn said.
"However, it has to be said that the horizon doesn't look
too good."
Cockburn has been called one
of the foremost reporters and commentators of the left, a warrior
freethinker and the most gifted polemicist now writing in English.
He co-founded the nationally recognized muckraking newsletter,
CounterPunch, writes a bi-weekly column for The Nation
magazine and has authored an armful of books.
He pointed to a lack of sound
political leadership as a frustration and a barrier for progressive
voters. "Political leadership is as bad and as feeble as
in the 32 years I've been in this country," said the native
of Ireland. "And now is when we need it -- someone pointing
the way."
Taking an occasional sip of
red wine, Cockburn stressed that the Democratic Party mishandled
the presidential election, leading to an overall weakening of
the left. "How did the Democrats blow it?" he asked
the audience. "How did they manage it?" He said John
Kerry's indecisive stance on the Iraq war was a key factor in
losing progressive voters, and criticized the party for its steady
drift to the right, saying the party is now almost wholly controlled
by Washington strategists.
Cockburn, 63, was born and raised
in Ireland and graduated with honors from Oxford University in
1963. He has lived in Petrolia for nearly 15 years and occasionally
writes about issues of social justice and the environment affecting
Mendocino, Humboldt and surrounding counties. Cockburn and co-editor
Jeffrey St. Clair launched CounterPunch about 10 years ago. Its
Web site, counterpunch.org,
now receives 250,000 page views a day. The newsletter is also
available in print.
Emphasizing the unpopularity
of the war and of President Bush, Cockburn dismissed the idea
that a majority of Americans just aren't interested in progressive,
systematic change. "I think in many ways the country is
profoundly radical," he said. "It's not that people
don't want radical ideas, it's not that people aren't receptive
to radical ideas." Cockburn pointed again to a lack of effective
political representation and organizing in the left.
If Cockburn is pessimistic about
one thing, it is the Green Party. "I'm fairly gloomy about
the long-term perspectives of Greens," he said. "The
Green Party is just a joke at the moment. There's no national
presence at all," he added in a later phone conversation.
"I think they're pretty impossible."
Still, Cockburn advocated building
bridges among progressives, despite setbacks and differences
of opinion. For instance, he said, Greens should recognize that
they have much in common with Libertarians on social issues.
"The left is much too wary of coalition building,"
he said.
Cockburn said stronger leftist
coalitions could build a larger, cohesive anti-war movement.
"The anti-war movement seems to have died on the vine,"
he said, adding that he does not foresee U.S. troops leaving
Iraq anytime soon. "They're holding on by their fingernails,"
he said. "But the fact of the matter is they're not going
to [leave]. The war will drag on, and it will be here when we
come around to the next electoral contest."
Cockburn said current politicians
neglect the issues that most Americans are concerned about, "Most
of our politics are agreements, essentially, of what not to talk
about," he said. "We can't talk about the drug war,
we can't talk about NAFTA or the role of the Federal Reserve.
We can't talk about the imbalance between rich and poor countries
or military spending," he added.
He also called for responsibility
in the mainstream press, saying it has become so uniform in disseminating
Bush's dominant line that Americans cannot count on media to
keep the government in check. "Newspapers, by and large,
have stopped covering their beats," Cockburn said. "The
mainstream press, overall, is in very bad shape."
In closing, Cockburn again encouraged
political optimism. "Things can change and things can be
done," he said. "People, in essence, have creative
ideas and you have to hope that something good will come of that."
Cockburn travels extensively
and speaks locally once or twice a year. The Westhaven Center
for the Arts lecture series will continue April 22 with Derrick
Jensen, Crescent City resident and author of The Culture of
Make Believe.
Cat Sieh is a journalism
student at Humboldt State University.
Trouble
at Muddy Waters
Northtown coffeehouse
shifts gears in response to noise complaints
by BOB
DORAN
The subject line on the e-mail
shouted in capital letters, "MUDDY MUSIC SHUT DOWN!!"
The coffeehouse's music booker, Brian Loose, wrote to explain
that "all music has been put on hold" until an agreement
could be reached with the Arcata Police Department regarding
sound levels.
That agreement was reached Monday,
but the story began several weeks ago.
Loose's announcement came after
the Northtown establishment received a letter from the police
denying a request for a dance permit for March, which followed
on the heels of a written warning from the state Alcoholic Beverage
Control (ABC) officer threatening a loss of the establishment's
liquor license if they were not in compliance with city laws.
The heart of the trouble: a series of noise complaints.
"The neighbors living in
the surrounding area -- not all of them, but some of them --
have problems with the noise level, so I guess we'll have to
change our [music] format or come up with some sort of plan to
make them happy," said Loose, contacted at Muddy Waters
Friday.
"It's a residential neighborhood,"
said Arcata Police Chief Randy Mendosa, who met on Friday and
again on Monday with Muddy Waters' general manager Chris Nichols
to discuss the issue. "The ABC license requires that any
music there not extend beyond the premises. Any music they have
there cannot be booming out into the street." According
to Mendosa three or four neighbors have called "on quite
a few occasions. It had become a problem, and we did not renew
the dance permit."
"We can't afford to lose
our ABC license," said Nichols, pointing out that the complaints
are usually in connection with electric rock `n' roll shows and
"DJ music with lots of bass," which "brings the
police for sure."
Said one of the complaining
neighbors, a teenager's mother who asked to remain anonymous,
"I don't know what bands are there or who's playing music.
All I know is my walls are thumping and bumping, and it goes
on three nights a week `til midnight. They're interfering with
my sleep and my daughter's sleep; the [other] neighbors feel
the same way.
"I've called them [directly]
numerous times asking them to turn it down. I get different responses
like, 'Oh, we'll work on it,' then nothing happens, or `It's
our last song,' and it goes on for another half hour. Or I get,
`We don't have any control over it, it's the DJs,' or `We have
a dance permit, so it's OK.'"
Arcata's municipal code requires
that anyone providing music for dancing apply for a permit. "The
way we use it is to give us an opportunity to meet with organizations
and venues to try to work out events that don't cause problems
like what we're talking about now," said Mendosa.
Mendosa noted that the police
had been called to Muddy Waters repeatedly in recent weeks, including
three times on March 5, when a group of DJs called Deep Groove
Society was spinning a form of electronica known as "house
music." The police were called again on March 8, when Moontribe
played.
Joe Schoenfield from the Moontribe
Collective, a group of DJs that originated in Los Angeles, has
been playing music at Muddy Waters for what was known as "$2
Tuesdays" ($2 for admission; $2 for a pint of beer) since
December, spinning what he calls "deep electronica."
"It's everything from breakbeat
to tech house, house music, techno, downtempo, a full variety
of deep cutting-edges styles," he explained.
"I supply the sound system
people have been complaining about," he conceded. "I
have a very large concert sound system; I only bring a small
part of it on Tuesdays. It's presenting electronic music the
only way it should be, on a full-range sound system. That's why
people enjoy it; that's what we were pulling in so many people.
We have an amazing following."
For the neighbor, calling the
police was the only recourse. "I called over there many
times when the music was loud and nobody would answer the phone.
When I spoke with Chris, the manager, one of his comments was,
`Maybe they can't hear the phone.' Well, duh."
After Loose and Nichols met
with Mendosa on Monday to present a new music plan, Muddy Waters
was once again awarded a dance permit.
The compromise agreement allows
for acoustic music three nights a week. "We'll have jazz
on Thursday nights and acoustic music Fridays and Saturdays,"
said Loose. "No more rock 'n' roll, no more DJs -- pretty
much just acoustic-based folky kind of stuff, bluegrass and jazz.
We're hoping there will be interest in this type of music. We're
stoked that we will be able to have music. The worst case scenario
was having nothing at all."
The coffeehouse management also
promised to end the music every night by 11:30, and to provide
more supervision so that patrons will not create problems outside.
"We're in a neighborhood and we have to respect the neighbors,"
said Loose. "We have to find a balance."
Pete Ciotti, drummer for the
rock band Nucleus, said that the police have never been called
when he was playing music at Muddy Waters.
Ciotti was scheduled to perform
at Muddy Waters with an electric trio this weekend. The show
has been canceled and as of press time there is no replacement.
On Monday, after hearing of the revised plans for music at the
coffeehouse, basically excluding electric bands like Nucleus
along with all DJ music, Ciotti began making plans for a musical
protest march to be held this Friday, March 18, departing from
Muddy Waters at noon and heading for city hall. "We're gonna
make some noise," he said.
COVER
STORY |
STAGE DOOR | THE HUM | CALENDAR
Comments? Write a
letter!
© Copyright 2005, North Coast Journal,
Inc.
|